Welcome back!
In Part 2 of our 2012 gift guide, our three lovely models (Ashley, Hannah, and Vanessa) are set to help us sort through some of the peripherals, notebooks, gaming desktops, and appliances you can anticipate wrapping your arms around this season.
First up, this tantalizing triptych of AOC’s 27” LED monitor flagship, the I2757Fh, which you can find for as little as $270. What do lace-clad legs and monitors have in common? Not much, save for both being impressively trim. The IPS panel is only 10.6 mm slim and, best of all, the bezel is a mere 5.8 mm, making it a phenomenal fit for AMD's Eyefinity and Nvidia's Surround multi-display technologies.
Energy-friendly and armed with a pair of 4 W integrated speakers, the I2757Fh specifies a 5 ms response time, 250 cd/m2 typical brightness, and a 1920x1080 native resolution. Dual HDMI and one VGA input make this a screen for all occasions. Of course, we'd love it if these screens gave us 2560x1440 each, but we're using them in a tripe-display array as an affordable way to run 5760x1080 for just over $800. Don’t be surprised to see our pursuit of value pop up again throughout our guide.
Any system builder will tell you that they’d rather spend a week in the snow wearing high-heels, no pants, and a funny hat than face off against the likes of Dell and HP when it comes to pricing. But a few boutique outfits have been able to carve out niches for themselves by excelling in exceptional balance, style, high-end hardware, energy savings, compact design, or customer service. Falcon Northwest covers all of the above, especially with its magnificent Tiki.
Picture a sleek, four-inch-wide chassis standing vertically with switches, I/O, and a slot-loading optical drive facing up. The interior fits up to three storage drives (1 x 3.5”, 2 x 2.5”), 16 GB of DDR3 memory, and a 450 W 80 PLUS Bronze PSU. Falcon sells Core i5 and i7 processors that drop into its P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard, as well as a range of GeForce GTX 600-series and, yes, even Quadro graphics cards. To top—err, bottom the whole thing off, Falcon provides a polished granite base to keep the system stable. With a three-year warranty, the Tiki is one of the most awesome desktop designs we’ve seen in a long while...and that’s before considering a custom paint job from the factory.
Available for $143 on Newegg, the Logitech G710+ is meant to take a pounding. Each Cherry MX brown key’s mechanical durability is rated at 50 million press cycles and features a sound-dampening ring to help reduce clickety-clack distractions.
Given that this is Logitech's first mechanical offering, it cites an actuation distance of 4 mm and a required pressure of only 45 grams.
The entire keyboard offers four levels of white LED backlighting. Plus, the WASD and arrow keys can be illuminated independently for greater emphasis. We like having a USB pass-through port and removable palm rest, and a one-touch mode for disabling Windows/context keys is a welcome addition to help avoid dropping to the Windows desktop after an accidental key press. When it’s time to play, put your hands on this one.
You can’t have a high-end keyboard like the G710+ without a suitable mouse to pair with it. If you caught Tt eSports Level 10 M Mouse Review: A BMW For Your Hands, then you probably know our answer already: Tt’s Level 10 M, which sells for about $96.
It has the endless driver tweaks you’d expect in a 5000 DPI gaming mouse, and the insane industrial ID, courtesy of BMW subsidiary Dreamworks USA, is already legendary. Igor demonstrated that, yes, in long gaming sessions, the 10 M's heatsink-like top shell and its claw-style grip really do help keep temperatures lower so your hand won't sweat as much.
Weighing 185 g, you’ll build up some finger muscles for prolonged play, but the ability to adjust the mouse’s tilt and height with a hex screw makes amends. By far, this is the best gaming mouse of the year.
Every gamer wants to cultivate a unique style and persona. For some people, the Logitech and Thermaltake products might not have that je ne sais quoi, that particular look and feel that perfectly completes a gaming rig.
For a delicious alternative, consider Razer’s latest BlackWidow Ultimate, which sells for $122, and Naga, which you can get for as little as $60. With an actuation distance of only 2 mm and a 50 g actuation force, the BlackWidow has a light touch that’s as easy on the joints as the all-black, green-backlit appearance is on the eyes. Armed with 10-key roll-over, 1000 Hz ultrapolling, USB pass-through, and five dedicated macro keys, this keyboard leaves no gaming feature ignored.
The Naga might be a more controversial choice due to Razer's decision to impose its Synapse software. However, we're including it for the MMO gamers out there able to benefit from its 12-button thumb grid. We get it; some of us were competitive into WoW's end-game, where macros are very necessary. A 5600 DPI laser sensor and 1 ms response time make it easy to dial in your desired sensitivity. Moreover, you can choose from three interchangeable side panels to suit your hand size. Enjoy the matching interior green LED glow!
Sometimes, you don’t need big, bad gaming accessories. When you’re on the road and traveling light, you can still get a leg up on your productivity with better peripherals.
Unlike similar devices in prior years, Microsoft has squarely designed this Bluetooth keyboard for tablets, and you can probably guess which particular one it prefers. With any ARM-based device, the keyboard delivers basic functionality, but the drivers actually come alive under Windows 7 and 8. Sure, the typing is slightly cramped, but that’s what you get on mobile keyboards, including those without Microsoft’s rubberization or a keyboard cover that converts into a tablet stand. Genius!
The 2.56” x 3.76” Sculpt Touch is compact, symmetrical, and simple, notable for few things besides its BlueTrack optics, nine-month battery life, and four-way, haptic feedback-driven touch strip. If you don’t want the hassle of a USB dongle, as on the excellent Arc Touch Mouse, these two new Microsoft peripherals will have you traveling in style.
With Ultrabook prices now starting under $600, Intel’s evolution of the mobile PC seems to be finally hitting its stride. The X1 Carbon meets Ultrabook specs by weighing in at 3.0 pounds and beating size requirements by a pinch, featuring a Z-height of just 18 mm.
Under the TrackPoint-toting, backlit keyboard Lenovo's top model conceals an Intel Core i5-3427U (1.8-2.8 GHz, dual-core, HD Graphics 4000, 17 W TDP) processor, 8 GB of DDR3, and a 128 GB SSD. The 14” HD+ (1600x900) screen offers an impressively bright 300 nits, and the 2x2 802.11a/g/n wireless support via Intel’s Centrino Advanced-N 62055 controllercomplements Ericsson’s optional 3G WWAN add-on. Throw in Dolby audio, a fingerprint reader, and a 35-minute/80% recharge capability, and you can see why this roughly $1350 (on Lenovo's site) ultraportable is worth losing your shirt over.
We recently spent a couple of weeks with a 13.3” Zenbook, Asus' spin on the Ultrabook design. It was a good first experience with touch-based navigation in Microsoft's Windows 8 UI, but it left us wanting a more direct, tablet-type experience much of the time.
Convertible designs are nothing new, but the Yoga is the first one to capitalize on the Ultrabook and Windows 8 foundations. Pricing starts at $999, weight lands at 3.4 lbs., and all models integrate a 13.3”, 1600x900, IPS, 10-point multi-touch display.
Options include three different Ivy Bridge-generation processors (Core i3-3217U, i5-3317U, or i7-3617U), 4 or 8 GB of memory, and (soon) up to 256 GB of solid-state storage. Bonus points to Lenovo for also making the 720p webcam into a gesture-based input device.
Not everyone needs the latest ultramobile touchscreen fantasy. Sometimes, you just want a budget-oriented workhorse. Enter Samsung’s five-pound, 14” (1366x768) notebook for the rest of us. The most impressive part of this unit is its AMD A10-4600M (2.3 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache) processor and the Radeon HD 7660G graphics buried inside it. We’ll take the latest Radeon GPU over Intel’s HD Graphics 4000 engine any day. Also check out the twin USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and VGA out, gigabit Ethernet, and 1x1 802.11n. With a 750 GB hard drive (5400 RPM), Super Multi DVD, and 6 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3, the NP355V4C won’t dazzle with novelty, but it will cover most end-user needs. The caveat? We're having a hard time finding this one for sale yet. Hear that, Samsung? The clock is ticking for the holiday shopping season!
Most Tom’s Hardware readers will appreciate our desire to travel with fast external storage. The trick is to have a drive that’s affordable, high-capacity, not bottlenecked at the interface, and compact enough to slip into any pocket or laptop bag. Adata's HE720 satisfies all of the above.
A USB 3.0 interface guarantees you'll be limited by the internal drive's maximum transfer rate, and not the USB port. The brushed stainless steel enclosure, both tough and impressively attractive, measures only 8.9 mm thick, making it one of the thinnest externals on the market. Bonus perks include a free utility (HDDtoGO) for keeping personal data private and secure while working on public machines, as well as a one-touch backup button. The $80 price on Newegg seems plenty fair for such convenience.
Ready to blow and make a wish? For $55 on respected sites like Adorama, this top-end Lexar flash card is clearly aimed at photo and video enthusiasts who demand the fastest capture speeds.
UHS-I cards are based on the SD Version 3.01 spec. This is important to note because the card is shown with a Class 10 symbol, which, in traditional SD nomenclature, meant a 10 MB/s transfer rate. However, speed classes only went up to 10, and, like a Spinal Tap scale, 10 just isn’t high enough anymore. With a 200x rating, that translates to 29.2 MB/s. That's read speed; writes are going to be slower.
The SDXC name refers to SD "extended capacity," which officially tops out at 256 GB. This is only a 64 GB card, but it’s the highest-end model in Lexar’s 200x line. For some truly insane speeds, check out the 600x 128 GB Lexar Professional card, which lists for a mere $280.
We know that the Thunderbolt interface is receiving a less-than-warm reception amongst value-oriented power users for its exorbitant pricing. But if you talk to any professional digital cinematographer, you'll hear that it's the must-have interface for editing today's 4K and/or 12-bit video formats, never mind 5K, HDR, and future formats that'll prove even more demanding.
The throughput rates necessary for editing such streams in real-time from an external storage device are simply too much for legacy data connections. By combining Thunderbolt’s massive throughput with four hot-swappable disk drives, we were able to record write speeds in excess of 600 MB/s, earning Promise's Pegasus R4 a rare 2012 Recommended Buy award in Nine External Thunderbolt Storage Devices, Rounded Up.
Pricing for a 4 x 1 TB configuration starts around $1100, but Thunderbolt lets users daisy chain up to six enclosures, and RAID can be configured in levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10. If you need maximum throughput and blazing backup speeds, don’t let this Pegasus fly away.
When you're more interested in network connectivity than a direct-attached device, check out Thecus' N5550, which lists for $600, but can be found for less than $500 online without any installed disks.
Equipped with dual gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as USB 2.0 and eSATA, the five-drive N5550 can be configured for NAS, DAS, or iSCSI environments. Despite the enterprise-class flexibility and fault tolerance (dual connectivity, dual DOMs for fail-over, support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, and JBOD), Thecus manages to keep its integrated Web-based controls simple and efficient.
The N5550 supports load balancing and link aggregation with other enclosures via 802.3ad, along with enclosure fail-over. So while this may not be able to match a Thunderbolt-based solution, Thecus puts the emphasis on data security and connectivity, making sure its N5550 can stream files to SMB users using a wide variety of protocols.
We have an 802.11ac round-up coming soon that will feature the EA6500 router, so we don’t want spill the beans on performance just yet. Suffice it to say for now that 5 GHz 802.11ac is wicked fast, reputedly three times faster than 2.4 GHz 802.11n. Alright. Quick spoiler. Our data sometimes shows an even greater gap.
Linksys makes the 11ac conversion easy with its $200 EA6500 router and $160 11ac bridge (WUMC710). The bridge features four gigabit Ethernet ports and a WPS button for one-touch association with the router. The router also features four GbE ports and two USB ports for sharing storage and a printer. There are six internal antennas—3x3 for both 2.4 GHz 11b/g/n and 5.0 GHz 11a/ac.
Linksys’s router option menus are among the most intuitive we’ve seen, there are a decent number of security and QoS features, and you can set the device into access point, bridge, or repeater modes. The EA6500 is not the fastest 11ac option around, but it’s one of the best overall values for performance, ease of setup, features, and support.
What better to dial into a new router than a wireless multi-function printer? For the discounted price of $530 straight from the manufacturer, HP has just the ticket for small business and power users.
The LaserJet Pro 300 color MFP M375nw offers 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n, and USB 2.0 connectivity. As a color laser system, HP claims that per-page black texts print costs are on par with conventional mono LaserJets. Print speeds for both black and color top out at 19 ppm, and the MFP supports printing, copying, scanning (600x600 dpi), and faxing.
All of that is fairly common. HP sweetens the deal with a 30 000-page per month duty cycle, 3.5” touchscreen LCD control pad, and cloud-based print capabilities via HP’s ePrint. Workers can print from or to flash drives as, well as perform scan-to-email functions. No one expects business printers to create frame-worthy photographic output, but for an impressive array of color business tasks, the M375nw may belong in the middle of your most critical operations.
With so much great tech gear piling up, don’t you want to let people watch you enjoy it in high-def? Logitech’s C920 HD Pro ($89 at Newegg) can serve nicely. Logitech has long been known as a top name in webcams, and the C920 is one of the company’s most versatile options yet. The camera is tripod-compatible and can easily mount onto laptops, LCD monitors, or even CRTs. Integrated stereo mics leverage noise cancellation, and the 20-step autofocusing Carl Zeiss lens can capture full 1920x1080 at 30 FPS using H.264 compression. We’re less interested in the camera's 3 MP sensor interpolating 15 MP still images; Logitech’s two-year warranty is more satisfying. This time of year in particular, communicating with loved ones matters, so do it with the best webcam possible.
Finally, it wouldn’t be the holidays without a really special toy. With help from the element 14 engineering community, the Raspberry Pi Model B is finally here and available for $35. Remember how computing enthusiasts in the 1970s used to make circuit boards from kits? Raspberry Pi is 2012’s evolution of this idea. The credit card-sized PCB sports a Broadcom BCM8235 SoC, including GPU and 700 MHz ARM1176JZ-F core. The Model B also features 512 MB of shared system memory, 10/100 Ethernet, and two USB 2.0 ports. The Pi uses a Debian-spawned OS called Raspbian and draws a measly 3.5 W.
The 955 Starter Pack, which includes an AC adapter, Pi enclosure, SD card and reader, a breadboard, and more, runs another $70.
What do you do with a Pi? Well, appropriate to the name, the possibilities are endless. Paw through the RaspberryPi.org blog for ideas, or be blown away by some of the winning entries in the recent U.K.-based Raspberry Pi contest for kids. Want to give a budding young geek a real present? Try a computing kit with unlimited creative, yet entirely practical potential. Suck on that, Minecraft.
Thanks for tuning in! Check back next week for our third and final gift guide installment. We guarantee you won’t want to miss it!