AOC has always provided some of the more budget options in the monitor space and its products have been hit and miss. Unfortunately, its latest 22in widescreen, the 2219P2, is one of the latter. Although it performed relatively well in some of our tests, it exhibited some truly horrible ghosting and some pretty serious backlight bleeding that made the overall user experience quite poor.
Akai is not exactly a familiar brand around our offices. Despite offering mid-range AV products for many years, we’ve never looked at an Akai TV before. However that has changed with the L842DDFD, which is Akai’s latest foray into the flat panel TV market. Featuring a native 1080p resolution and HDMI connectivity it appears to be targeted at entry-level buyers. Unfortunately the image quality is less than stellar and there are better value options out there.
It has a simple design, but BenQ's G2400W is nonetheless a fairly impressive LCD monitor. It has a few cool presets, good image quality with only a few minor glitches, and a built-in speaker running along the base.
With a similar design and features to the w2448hc, HP's w2228h is another solid multimedia monitor. It offers moderately better image quality than its larger compatriot and has some of the same bells and whistles, such as HDMI connectivity and USB ports, making it a solid choice for media enthusiasts.
It's not every day we get a product through the offices that genuinely makes us go "Wow that's pretty cool!" In fact when you see as much tech as we do, even slightly interesting developments begin to become mundane. However ASUS' latest 22in display, the VW223b, which you can run via a USB connection, was certainly enough to elicit some excitement.
Sitting at a price point that is quite low considering its size, Viewsonic's VP2650 is a monitor that is fairly good value for money. It provides impressive image quality, particularly with regards to colour reproduction, and offers a high resolution (1920x1080). It also gives you 26in of screen real estate and a few extras such as USB ports, making it an attractive package.
Ever since the CRT gave way to LCD panels, the world of monitors has been a little quiet. Sure there have been faster panels produced with better bit rates and high contrast ratios, but incremental increases aside, not much has really changed.
Offering a host of calibration options and a few nifty features LG's entry-level 22in unit is a fairly attractive all-purpose monitor. It does have a few image quality issues but they are far from serious and overall it performed well across a variety of tests.
Typically computer mice feature a standard design. Every so often, somebody will try something a little new, usually with mixed success. Logitech, however, is one company that tends to stick to its guns. So we were surprised when we unwrapped its latest high-end offering, the G9, and found a completely redesigned mouse.
Another of Plantronics' latest Bluetooth hands-free kits, the Discovery 655 is a great device for those who are regularly on the road. It's similar to the 665 but offers increased battery life. The fact that it can be charged by using its extremely handy AAA battery adapter makes it the ultimate solution for the mobile professional.
The slim InFocus IN36 is InFocus' latest entry into the business projector market. With a 3000 ANSI lumens brightness rating and a 1000:1 contrast ratio, it's clearly targeted at the professional market, as these specifications make it ideal for presentations. However, in practice we found a few image quality issues that detracted from the overall quality of this unit.
HP is well known for producing classy, yet utilitarian notebooks that offer strong performance and value. Their high-end business model, the Compaq nc8430, lives up to these expectations in all regards, offering great performance both in our desktop and gaming tests and backing it up with a robust set of features.
External hard drives aren't exactly sexy, but the Western Digital Passport (160GB) with its glossy black finish gives it an appearance more akin to a desk ornament. Eye candy aside, the Passport is available in 80GB and 160GB sizes, using a relatively speedy 5400rpm platter. We tested the 160GB version. As far as hard drives of this capacity go, the Passport is a featherweight, only weighing in at 104.8g. A compact footprint makes it small enough to slip into a back pocket.
When the Logitech G15 gaming keyboard first appeared in the office, we thought it might end up being a one trick pony. The big selling point of the G15 is its LCD monitor, which can receive and correlate information from games and display it on the backlit screen for easy viewing.
Wireless peripherals are all the rage these days. The last few generations of mice have been released in both wired and wireless versions, helping to foster the growing wireless consumer base for the time the shift to complete wireless technology is eventually completed. Logitech have been at the forefront of this change, and their MX5000 Bluetooth keyboard is the latest in their wireless keyboard range.
