APPLE ITUNES 4.1
With the release of version 4.1, Windows users finally get a look at Apple's iTunes software on home ground. From the brushed aluminium and ice blue of the Mac OS branding, to the organisation of the interface, it feels almost alien in a Windows environment.
BEYOND Avrora
It's not big, but it's brave - powered by the Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz processor, the classy looking Beyond Avrora was not afraid to show its muscles, scoring very well in office related tasks.
Canon imageCLASS MP370
Narrowly missing out on an award, much effort has gone into the aesthetics of this unit as it has into the feature set.
Canon imageCLASS MP730
Large form factored and decked out in buttons, this unit features the incredibly easy to use Canon Toolbox 4.1 software
Dell AIO A940
It's tough to find a point to begin describing this MFD, its plus qualities are numerous and evenly spread across the unit, making for an impressive product.
Emagen Lightspeed FX
The Athlon64 has only been out a short while, and although it's an excellent processor, from all accounts it's not selling as well as it should be.
Epson Stylus CX3100
Finishing just below average overall, this unit scored highly in the performance department
Epson Stylus CX5300
Surprising us with its below average results in all categories of testing, the Epson CX5300 lacked any form of removable media input.
Handspring Treo 600
The past two years have been littered with attempts at combining a phone with a PDA. The first was O2 with its XDA (January 2003, page 41) - an excellent first try, and one that will be revised this month.
HP Pavilion T380a (DN038A)
While the epithet 'multimedia PC' used to be bandied about to over-hype any PC in the mid-'90's that was capable of playing music, rudimentary video, and games, the descriptive was overused so much on sub-par PCs that the impact of any real multimedia capabilities was diminished in the wash of pretenders.
HP PHOTOSMART 7960
The Photosmart 7960 is HP's flagship photo inkjet and comes with the new Photoret Pro engine. It's a development of Photoret IV, and a fourth cartridge containing three grey inks has been added too. The 7960 can print 4,097 shades of grey - ideal for black-and-white photographs.
HP PSC 2410 Photosmart all-in-one
Another contender for an award this month, this model narrowly missed out, with a marginally below average value rating
HP PSC 2510 Photosmart all-in-one
The absolute epitome of 'feature-packed', the number of inclusions on this unit floored us. Its whopping 162 point feature score is over one-and-a-half times the average point score and comes on the back of its big feature line up.
JBL Invader
Ever since we sighted the alien-like JBL Creature speakers, we've been waiting for a second coming. We didn't have to wait long - the JBL Invader 4.1 system has just landed. The silence of our quiet earth is about to be shattered.
Labs roundup: MFDs: Introduction
Every office, whether it is a small, medium or large corporate environment, needs a printer for its day-to-day operations - this is a given. Despite the cliché that is the paperless office, streamlined electronic information exchange and the continued sales of inkjet and laser printers would suggest this is still not a reality and we think it may not be for some time.
Labs roundup: MFDs: Performance Analysis
When evaluating multi-function devices there are four determining factors for ascertaining who has really got the goods. These are speed, quality, features and price.
Lexmark P3150
The second-cheapest model submitted for the roundup, the $249 price tag is very attractive
Lexmark X6150
Scoring phenomenally in every element of testing criteria we could dish out at it, Lexmark’s X6150 came through with flying colours - high resolution flying colours at that, with the third best colour scale image overall.
MODTECH Civic Diamond 1600DW
Powered by an Intel Pentium-M 1.6GHz, the Modtech Civic Diamond 1600W Centrino notebook has a decent core specification, including a useful 512MB DDR RAM, 40GB of disk space and an ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 card offering 64MB of non-shared memory.
PIONEER POWER 470
If laptops were cars, then the Pioneer Power 470 would be a caravan - a quick scan of the specs reveals that it has almost everything. The 470 model we tested was a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 unit with a large 60GB of drive space and 256MB of DDR.