• Rapidly prints graphical and text documents
• Includes Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
• Attractive design despite its bulk
• Easy to set up

• Slow to print photos
• Large footprint
• Lacks automatic duplexer

The Epson Stylus Office TX610FW has a versatile mix of features such as an auto-document feeder on top of the printer for hands-free copying, scanning or faxing of up to 30 sheets of paper, wireless and wired networking, and a comprehensive control panel that offers one-touch access to some of the printer's most popular features. While we continue to applaud Epson for its consistently fast-paced output speeds and easy printer set up, we are disappointed that the TX610FW lacks an auto-duplexer, an extra hardware add-on that can print on both sides of a sheet of paper. The omission surely isn't a deal breaker, but it's something we expect to come included with an AU$250 printer.

Auto-duplexing aside, business and home offices alike can count on the Epson Stylus Office TX610FW to churn out high-quality black-and-white and colour documents thanks to a robust four-ink cartridge bay. The TX610FW earns our endorsement by making work life easier with plenty of customisable buttons to control, a convenient on-board memory card reader, and optional creative software to close the loop between work and play.

Design and features

A slightly mirrored finish surrounds the main control panel and wraps around to the side of the printer, while the rest of the unit flaunts a professional matte black. Space-savers beware: the 8.3kg Stylus Office TX610FW isn't for offices with limited space. It measures 23cm high by 46cm wide by 34cm deep, mostly because of the auto-document feeder that stands tall on top of the scanner. You'll also lose additional desk space once you extend the front-loading input tray.

The TX610FW has a 2.5-inch full colour LCD that shows print information, graphic representations of remaining ink levels, cartridge and wireless installation instructions, and more. Much of this information is replicated on-screen thanks to the Epson printer driver, but we're sure wireless users will appreciate the autonomy in seeing it displayed on the unit. The TX610FW's entire control panel also rotates to provide multiple viewing angles.

Panning from left to right on the control panel, you'll find a power button, a four-way shortcut pad, help and zoom buttons, a standard directional pad, and a collection of number keys and telephonic functions for the fax machine. We found the controls comprehensive and easy to use, although we hoped it would support user-customisable hot keys. The only other notable feature on the front panel is a media card reader that offers inputs for Compact Flash, MS, xD and SD memory cards. There's also a PictBridge USB port underneath for printing and save images directly from a PictBridge-compatible USB thumbdrive.

Just above the control panel, you'll find two hinged bays that expose the 1200x2400-dpi scanner glass and ink cartridge repository. Its scanning functions let you save an image in three ways: to a specific file folder, as a PDF document in a folder, or as an attachment in an outgoing email message. The included NewSoft Presto Page Manager software helps to organise your scanned images, but its Optical Character Recognition left us with numerous spelling mistakes and character confusions.

The Stylus Office TX610FW also benefits from a 30-sheet automatic document feeder on its top that automatically picks up individual sheets from a stack in the tray. Any multifunction or all-in-one printer for business use should include an ADF, but keep in mind that feeders always add significant bulk to the printer. When you're not copying or faxing stacks of paper, you can store up to 100 sheets of plain 20-pound white paper or 10 envelopes in the input tray that folds out of a rear panel. Finally, an extendable lip on the bottom of the printer corrals all outbound prints.

The Stylus Office TX610FW features a built-in 802.11 b/g wireless print server that took about five minutes for us to set up and start printing. Unlike other printers that require the user to set up a proxy network, the TX610FW prompts you to establish a direct wireless connection right out of the box, without the help of a USB or Ethernet cables to muck it up. There's also an Ethernet port on the side of the device for a wired connection to an office network.

The TX610FW printer ships with four separate ink cartridges for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. To factor the most cost-efficient price per page, we're using Epson's XL black and colour cartridges that cost approximately AU$28 and AU$20, respectively. Based on Epson's posted ink cartridge yields, we determine the cost of printing to be an affordable 3.5 cents per page of black ink and 3.7 cents per colour.

Performance

Although we're pleased with the components and the build of the TX610FW, we're even bigger fans of Epson's capability to inject a boost of speed into its inkjet printers. The Stylus Office TX610FW registered an impressive 7.31 pages of text per minute, but the TX610FW pushes even further with 13.24 pages per minute of plain black text. The graphics and presentation speed tests netted similar results, but we noticed a significant drop in photo output speed. However, when printing photos, its speed dipped to less than a page per minute, and the TX610FW barely makes it out of last place, edging out the HP Officejet J6480 by just 0.06 page per minute. Since the TX610FW falls under Epson's Office Stylus line, it isn't meant to produce lightning quick photo speeds; however, it's something you should know if your business happens to be printing photos.

Printing speed test (in pages per minute)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Presentation speed	Photo speed (1 sheet)	Colour graphics speed	Text speed

Epson Stylus Office TX610FW

5.55 

0.89 

4.83 

13.24 

Lexmark Impact S305

4 

1.3 

4.49 

7.31 

Canon Pixma MP560

2.93 

1.45 

2.2 

6.74 

HP Officejet J6480

2.36 

0.83 

2.17 

5.54 

Kodak ESP 5

2.21 

1.37 

2.13 

4.39 

Though we weren't as thrilled with the TX610FW's overall print quality, it's certainly better than what you'd get from a public photo kiosk. The internal driver settings let you choose between Photo or Best Photo mode, but keep in mind that you'll wait significantly longer for the finished product with Best Photo. Text quality offers a similar choice between simple Text and a more complex Text and Image mode. We noticed subtle differences between the two, but not nearly enough in our snapshot photos and graphics documents to warrant the use of extra ink.

We're satisfied with the printer's capability to reproduce colours and fine text lines, but many of the colour blends in our snapshots obviously suffer from colour blocks and an under-saturated haze. Bright colours in prints don't seem to pop as much as they should, which is usually the case with business-oriented printers.

Service and support

Epson backs the Stylus Office TX610FW with a limited one-year warranty.

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• Simple set-up
• Works well
• Supports up to five clients
• microSDHC storage

• Comparatively expensive
• One button approach limits on-the-fly tinkering

Design

Internode's entry into the personal Wi-Fi-enabled 3G modem category carries about the least catchy name possible, as it's labelled simply as the "MiFi", a title used often for this entire category of devices. Then again, if you can own an entire category by name alone, it's probably not a bad marketing strategy. The MiFi device itself is small (62x98x15.3mm) and light (81g) and slips into the pocket in much the same way a mobile phone does. That's both a plus and a minus, as while it's highly portable, it also means it's pretty easy to mistake it for your actual mobile when digging through your pockets. Internode sell the MiFi in white or black. Unsurprisingly, those options give you a modem router in white or ... (you guessed it) black.

The MiFi does have the advantage of simplicity. It features a single button that glows when you switch it on. From there, the MiFi handles connection to the wireless carrier and setting up a WEP-protected Wi-Fi network for you. There's no other buttons to push or settings to tweak, at least in theory.

Features

Internode's an ISP, not a hardware manufacturer, so the MiFi isn't a unique design. It's actually a Novatel MiFi 2352. That's an HSDPA/HSUPA capable modem with a top speed of 7.2Mbps down and 5.76Mbps up. On the wireless front, the MiFi is 802.11b/g capable only. It's a compromise not having wireless-N, but then this is really a personal modem router rather than something you could reasonably expect to run an entire home on. The internal battery is a 1530mAh Lithium-ion that sits above the SIM holder. A microSDHC slot also makes this a tiny storage router for any connected client. You're not going to be able to serve data to absolutely everybody, however, as the MiFi has a hard limit of only five clients.

Performance

Internode supplied us with a presumably standard set-up sheet for the MiFi modem/router, which includes simple directions on setting up wireless security. It goes without saying that this is a good idea, unless you like giving away free (to others, but valuable to you) data. The web configuration interface isn't all that friendly, but beyond initial set-up you're unlikely to need to consult it much at all. With only one button you certainly can't tinker with having Wi-Fi on or off as you can on the Virgin MiFi product. It's either all on or all off, and that's all you get.

As with the recently reviewed Virgin Mobile Wi-Fi modem, it's only when you're using the MiFi that you appreciate the flexibility that it offers you over a standard USB or ExpressCard modem. It's easy to start-up thanks to the single button design, and the ability to add Wi-Fi to things like iPhones opens up a number of possibilities such as on-the-go Skype and larger App updates. Come mid-year, you could pair it up with a Wi=Fi iPad to turn it into a virtual 3G iPad, at least in theory.

Internode's wireless carrier of choice for the MiFi is Optus, and that brings with it a number of challenges. To put it politely, Optus' 3G network performance in some areas hasn't exactly been what customers have hoped for, with plenty of anecdotal reports of outages, terrible slowdowns and what appears to be cell overcrowding in specific areas. The MiFi has to contend with all of that on exactly the same network, so if you know already that Optus reception is woeful where you are, then the MiFi's not for you.

Reception is always going to make any kind of bandwidth test very subjective. We weren't surprised to never hit the 7.2Mbps maximum anywhere we tested, but then these theoretical maximums are never really pushed by any modem. Testing across various venues in Sydney we managed between 2-3Mbps down and 1-1.5Mbps up on average, which tallies at least with Internode's own claims of 0.5-2Mbps likely speed.

For what it's worth, Internode sells the MiFi unlocked, so you could take it to other carriers, although it's only rated for 850MHz operation under EDGE/GPRS, so you'd still need to be in a good 2100MHz reception area. Pricing is at AU$349 as an introductory offer, AU$399 thereafter or AU$299 on a 24-month contract. That's a little pricey compared to the competition; Virgin's MiFi offering is only AU$199 outright.

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• Compact touchscreen handset
• Great web browser
• Cheap as chips

• No 3.5mm headphone socket
• No bundled memory card
• Poor 2MP camera

Design

The Corby may not be the sharpest looking tool in the shed, but don't forget its low price tag. For your AU$180 you get a solidly built plastic handset with a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen. The screen has a QVGA resolution, meaning it will look a little duller to those who are used to the higher-res screens found on the Samsung Icon family of phones, but it doesn't mean it's any less responsive. The Corby delivers a very usable system all round, with thanks to the screen and adequate processing power.

Samsung seems so confident of this little touchscreen that it's kept the rest of its mechanical input to a minimum, with only calling keys and a single-purpose "back" button available under the display. While we love the minimalism we do dislike the absence of a 3.5mm headphone socket; the Corby instead uses a dual-purpose proprietary input that is shared for charging the phone. We know Samsung would want to keep the Corby as cheap as possible, but surely a 3.5mm socket wouldn't blow the budget on this one.

Features

Running on Samsung's proprietary platform, the Corby has a surprisingly deep suite of apps to mess around with. Sifting through the menus we discovered Facebook, MySpace and Twitter apps, a dictionary, stopwatch, calendar, FM radio and voice recorder. There are also 10 Java games pre-installed, although only trial versions; the full games require an authentication code to play.

Corby lacks 3G data speeds, supporting only the four GSM network frequencies (850/900/1800/1900MHz). Ordinarily we wouldn't be too phased by this in a sub-AU$200 handset, but when we started to use this phone's excellent web browser we felt the absence keenly. The browser is a Webkit-based Dolfin browser (Webkit is the technology behind the iPhone's Safari browser) and it's far better than we expect in a handset in this price range. The zooming function is smooth and easy to access, landscape mode is activated with a simple key press, and, most importantly, the web pages we tested rendered nicely. Scrolling over long pages may lag a little, but cheap phones tend to require a little patience.

The Corby's camera is what you'd expect from a budget handset. This 2-megapixel shooter takes average photos, and surprised us by not having a shutter sound effect when we took a shot (isn't that illegal in this country?). Better than the camera itself is the built-in photo editing software which lets you take a photo and add some simple corrections and filters. This is by no means Adobe Photoshop, but it is easy to use and the effects will improve some pics quite a lot.

Performance

We've been quite impressed by the Corby during our tests. Samsung's TouchWiz interface runs smoothly as does the phone's main menu and applications. We think this is the right approach from Samsung; just because a phone is cheap doesn't mean it should run painfully slowly. Its battery charge cycles were between two and three days, which isn't spectacular for a 2G phone, but should be sufficient for most users.

Overall

When you consider the handset's features versus its minuscule AU$179 price tag, the S3650 is stunningly good value. It covers off basic phone functions well and expands on these with an excellent range of useful tools and a decent web browser. There are also plenty of options for adding more games and apps to this phone for an extra cost, thanks to Australia's exclusive seller Boost Mobile, so parents might want to keep an eye on tweens and their itchy app-purchasing digits.

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• Exchangeable, intelligent covers
• Wi-Fi
• HSDPA
• GPS

• Keypad could be more defined

If you're a fan of exchangeable covers, the Nokia N79 might just be the phone for you. Boasting similar features to the Nokia N95, the N79 uses an intelligent-casing system that adds a little extra to an otherwise mundane accessory.

Design

At first sight, there's nothing particularly shocking or innovative about the N79's design. Open its box and you'll find a candybar phone that looks similar to many of Nokia's other phones, but the N79 has a few features that did catch our attention.

There's a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the N79 so that you can plug in a standard pair of headphones. Next to that there's a toggle switch for easily locking or unlocking the N79. The lens cover that protects the N79's 5-megapixel camera is easy to slide open, but won't move in your pocket.

Lens cover aside, it's the N79's battery cover that we were most intrigued by. In the N79's box, you get three differently coloured battery covers. Depending on which cover you choose, the N79 recognises it via a set of metal contacts and changes its theme accordingly. If you put on the blue cover, for example, a blue theme is displayed on the screen. It's not a particularly complicated feature, but it works and it does look good. We would, however, like to be able to change the front cover too.

We would also like to see more metal cases on Nokia phones. The N79 doesn't feel flimsy, but it doesn't boast the metal finish of the E71, for example, which feels and looks like a higher-quality product. The N79's keypad could also do with some attention, because it's a little too flat and ill-defined for our liking, but you get used to it after a while. That said, the size and shape of the phone works well — it feels right against the side of your face and fits easily in a pocket.

Features

Having fiddled around with the battery covers for a few minutes, we were glad to find out that there's much more going on in the N79 than an intelligent-casing system.

The phone runs on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, and it runs quickly — there's little or no lag when going into menus or apps.

The navigation keys on the N79 are large and easy to press, making navigating the N79's easy-to-understand menu even easier. Should you wish, you can use the four-way navigation key as an iPod-like click wheel, but we preferred to just click it.

Depending on which way you hold the N79, its display will automatically change to portrait or landscape. We found the motion sensor to be a little over-sensitive at times and ended up turning the feature off, but it is useful when viewing pictures.

On the subject of pictures, the N79's 5-megapixel camera allows you to take still pictures and video. Pictures in daylight came out well, but in low light, its meagre dual-LED photo lights meant pictures weren't illuminated as well as is possible with a Xenon flash.

The N79's camera interface keeps things fairly straightforward. You can set it to various modes, such as night mode or sports mode, adjust the flash and set a timer, among other options, but there aren't any extras such as face detection or panorama mode.

Using the GPS, you can geotag your pictures so you can see exactly where you've taken them, but this will only work outside. Once you've taken a picture, you can send it to friends via MMS or email, or use services such as ShoZu to upload it to Flickr or Facebook.

Because the N79 runs on S60 3rd Edition, there are tonnes of cool software you can download for it, including third-party maps, as we've already mentioned, and apps such as Opera Mini. Quickoffice, which comes pre-installed, lets you view Microsoft documents, although you have to buy an additional licence if you want to edit documents.

As we mentioned earlier, the N79 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, and, as a media player, it performs very well. The music player is straightforward, allowing you to create playlists, search artists and albums, and shuffle tracks, among other options.

The N79 supports a variety of music and video formats, which you can check in the specs section of this review. There's also an FM radio, and you can watch YouTube. Nokia has included an FM transmitter in the N79, so you can use your car radio to listen to music from your phone.

If you like playing games on your mobile, you'll be glad to hear that the N79 supports Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform, which gives you access to a variety of fun games. That said, the N79 doesn't come with the same kind of gaming keys you get on the N96, for example, so you have to use the standard navigation keys to play all the games. The N96 has keys on either side of the phone, as you would on a games-console controller, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

Performance

Audio quality during calls was loud and clear, as was the loudspeaker, but if you want to make hands-free calls, you're best off using a Bluetooth headset or hands-free kit. Battery life is quoted at 3.5 hours talk time using 3G, and 17 days on standby. We found that, with moderate use, the battery lasted for over a day, but this will vary depending on your usage of HSDPA, Wi-Fi and other battery-intensive features.

Conclusion

The Nokia N79 isn't a ground-breaking phone, but we do like the intelligent-casing system and, as far as features go, we were satisfied with what was on offer, particularly the 3.5mm headphone jack and access to HSDPA and Wi-Fi.

Overall, the N79 is a solid phone with a casing concept that we hope gets taken much further in future models. We think that being able to customise a handset is a great idea and one that should come back with a bang.

If you prefer something with a little more oomph, we recommend the Nokia N82 — if you can find it that is — for some reason, few vendors stock it these days.

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• Impressive 3D mode
• Attractive design
• Decent built-in speakers

• Light on features
• No USB port
• No height-adjustment option
• Pricey

Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision Kit allows full-colour, stereoscopic, three-dimensional gaming and video playback on your PC. ViewSonic's 22-inch VX2268wm is currently one of very few monitors capable of operating in 3D mode. It's available for around AU$425.

3D thrills

Most of the time, the VX2268wm looks and acts just like a standard 22-inch PC monitor. It has a 16:10 aspect ratio, 1680x1050-pixel display based on a standard TN panel. It comes with a basic tilting stand, built-in stereo speakers and very few other distinguishing features.

What sets it apart from the pack is its 120Hz refresh rate, which makes it compatible with Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision Kit. This kit requires the ability to send a different 60Hz video stream to each of your eyes simultaneously, hence the need for a 120Hz refresh rate on the display.

The Vision Kit comprises a pair of rechargeable LCD glasses, an infrared transmitter for your PC and a CD containing driver software. The goal is to have all 3D games working seamlessly and automatically with the Vision Kit, but, in practice, it's something of a hit and miss affair. Sometimes, slight tweaking of the in-game settings is all that's required to get a satisfactory result, and Nvidia helps you with this by providing a reasonably up-to-date database of games that the company's already tested and tweaked.

When starting up a game for the first time, a message is overlaid on the screen telling you whether or not it's compatible with 3D mode, and informing you of any settings you may need to change. You can then dismiss the message with a pre-defined keystroke.

When it works well, the 3D effect can be pretty mind-blowing. First-person shooters take on a new lease of life, and you may find, as we did, that you'll want to load up old games you haven't played in years just to enjoy them again in 3D. Games set outdoors work really well when there's plenty of distance between you and the horizon. Racing games can be particularly dramatic, with the 3D effect conveying an increased sense of speed and adding plenty of realism to collisions.

All this excitement comes at a price, though. The Vision Kit will set you back around AU$300, and the VX2268wm costs around AU$150 more than you might expect to pay for a similar, 60Hz model.

Clunky menus

ViewSonic's on-screen menus haven't been updated for many years, and are now starting to look rather clunky and unfriendly. They can be rather tricky to use, but the saving grace in the VX2268wm's case is that they offer relatively few options to choose from.

The VX2268wm doesn't come with many premium features, such as an ambient-light sensor or multiple image presents. Although many would find such features superfluous, we can't help but think that a monitor at this price should offer more. You do get a set of reasonably good built-in speakers, with SRS WOW processing for boosting the dynamics, though.

In terms of image quality, the VX2268wm is responsive, and delivers very good contrast and accurate colour, although we think it looks better with the dynamic-contrast option disabled.

Conclusion

Without its 120Hz refresh rate and 3D capability, the ViewSonic VX2268wm would be very overpriced, and you could get much more for your money. A 16:9-format, 1080p version would be better too. Ultimately, though, if you're buying this monitor, you'll be buying it for its 3D performance, which is very good.

Via CNET UK

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• Great performance
• Fantastic colour reproduction
• High brightness
• Wide viewing angle
• You can rotate and adjust the height of the screen

• High price tag
• No video-adjustment options besides brightness

The biggest selling point of the 30-inch HP LP3065 is its super-high 2560x1600-pixel resolution. Gamers with sufficiently powerful video cards to run at that resolution won't be disappointed. With its great colour reproduction and wide viewing angles, movies also look great on the large display. Professional graphic artists will first have to make peace with the monitor's severe lack of adjustment options, though. Everyone else will have to make peace with its AU$2799 price — although it can be found cheaper online for around AU$2000.

Lack of adjustment options

The LP3065 has a dark-grey chassis with a matte finish and slightly rounded corners. The bezel measures 23mm wide on the left and right sides, and 25mm tall on the top and bottom. The panel is 46mm deep, but the back of the display, which houses the backlight, connection options and ventilation system, extends another 32mm, bringing the monitor's full depth to about 78mm. The smooth matte surface of the screen itself is slightly frosted.

There's a groove in the back of the panel for carrying the monitor, but it feels too shallow and we couldn't fit our hands comfortably inside. Given the LP3065's hefty, 13.6kg weight, you probably won't be moving it around much anyway. Wobbling was minimal when we knocked the monitor from the sides, even when the monitor's height was at its maximum.

The panel swivels 70 degrees left and right, and tilts back about 25 degrees. Also, the panel can be unscrewed from the stand and then mounted (VESA-style) on the wall. The monitor doesn't include a pivoting feature for portrait mode, however.

HP includes three DVI ports as the only video-connection options. There's no HDMI connection, which is a mainstay on most monitors, but its exclusion on this 30-inch model isn't too surprising. Of the five 30-inch monitors we've seen, only one has an HDMI port. Still, this monitor could easily carry out most functions that a normal high-definition TV can. Hopefully, HP will consider adding an HDMI port to its next 30-inch model. Accessing the connections is fairly easy, as they rest mostly to the right of the stand.

There's no on-screen display (OSD) included with the LP3065. The only video-adjustment option provided by HP is the brightness control. As such, even with fantastic viewing angles and colour reproduction (more on this later), we can't recommend this monitor to professional graphic artists, who usually need precise control over colour, contrast and brightness.

Stellar performance

We tested the 16:10, 2560x1600-pixel LP3065 with its DVI connection. The display posted a composite score of 97 in CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests. The LP3065 scored excellently in nearly all of our colour and uniformity tests. In particular, the LP3065 showed no signs of compression at the dark and light ends of the colour-scale tests. In our black-screen test, we noticed only minimal backlight bleeding along the middle of the top edge of the screen.

The LP3065 achieved a brightness score of 302cd/m² — lower than HP's claimed 370 max. The monitor's brightness was lower than we expected, yet you'd never know with the brightness adjusted to its maximum setting. You'll definitely want to dial the brightness down if you plan to do much work with Excel, Word or any white-screen program.

We looked at Kill Bill: Vol 1 on DVD and a number of 1080p movie files from Microsoft's WMV HD Content Showcase. Movies on the LP3065 looked great, thanks to the display's deep blacks, but we've seen better contrast on some other monitors.

Unreal Tournament 3 looked good running at 2560x1600 pixels, and showed no signs of ghosting or input lag. Vibrant and deep colour, along with high brightness, gave the game an eye-poppingly pleasant look. There's really nothing like gaming at 2560x1600 pixels. We also looked at some high-resolution photos and found the colours accurate and vibrant, proving that the two aren't mutually exclusive.

The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colours and gamma correction as they were intended. Most monitors are made to be viewed only at that angle. Depending on the panel type, picture quality at non-optimal angles varies. The LP3065 was made with an S-IPS panel, which usually shows only minimal colour shifts with angle changes. Indeed, we noticed that the LP3065's screen hardly shifted colours at all when viewed from the sides, top or bottom.

Conclusion

If you can look past the price tag and don't require many video-adjustment options, the HP LP3065 is one of the best-performing monitors that money can buy.

Via CNET.com

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• Matte screen eliminates annoying reflections
• Long battery life

• Cramped keyboard
• Relatively small hard drive

Samsung, buoyed by the success of its first wave of netbooks, has wasted no time in releasing a second-generation device. The N150, rather excitingly, ditches the stalwart Intel Atom N270 CPU for a newer, faster, more efficient processor known as the Atom N450.

Chip ahoy

The N150's biggest selling point is its Atom N450 CPU — a next-generation Intel chip that promises to breathe new life into netbooks by draining their batteries less. On the surface, it's not too dissimilar to the current Atom N280 — it's a single-core part, it runs at 1.66GHz, and it has a 667MHz front-side bus and 512KB of L2 cache. Unlike previous Atoms, however, it comes with a memory controller and graphics processor integrated directly onto the chip.

Integrating the aforementioned items onto the CPU eliminates the need for a separate, power-hungry chip housing these elements. Instead, they're taken care of by the N450 itself, with everything else handled by Intel's new NM10 Express chipset. This architecture leads to a total power draw of just 7.6W. This is approximately a 40 per cent reduction in power consumption over the previous Atom architecture, which drew around 11.8W.

What else is new?

Not much, really. The N150's innards are interesting and original, but its chassis isn't particularly ground-breaking. The glossy black lid and its off-centre Samsung logo are pleasant enough — provided you don't mind having to clean fingerprint smudges off regularly — and the anodised red stripe around the sides adds charm.

Lift the lid up, though, and there's absolutely nothing to distinguish this machine from the thousands of other netbooks on the market. We'd wager Samsung got a cheap deal on a massive shipment of dull black plastic, and it's obviously not afraid to use it.

Key failing

The N150's keyboard is a real disappointment. Its keys are too small and tightly packed for our liking, so typing without mistakes requires real precision. This is a shame, as rivals, like the machines in the Eee PC Seashell series, have far better keyboards, despite having a smaller chassis.

Thankfully, the N150's trackpad is a joy to use. It has a smooth surface, tracks accurately and is compatible with multi-touch gestures, so you can pinch and stretch your fingers to zoom in and out of photos, or use a three-fingered horizontal swiping motion to navigate back and forth between documents.

Hook up, line in and sync her

The N150's connectivity is pretty standard. Physical connectors include three USB ports, whose whereabouts are denoted by icons along the edge of the keyboard. You also get mic and headphone jacks, an Ethernet port, a VGA video output and a Kensington lock for tethering the machine to a desk. Also present are 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, although integrated 3G is conspicuous by its absence.

As seen on screen

The N150's 10-inch display isn't vastly different to those on other machines in its class, save for the fact that its coating is non-glossy. This means it can be used outdoors without becoming too reflective, so it's ideal for road barbarians. It has a pretty standard, 1024x600-pixel resolution. That's fine in most cases, but users may need to dock the Windows taskbar to the far right or enable the "auto hide" feature when using applications that are too tall to fit within the 600-pixel screen height.

What performance boost?

Despite Intel claiming a performance improvement, users will notice very little difference between the N450 chip and its N270 predecessor in day-to-day use. In other words, it's not very powerful and is best suited to simple tasks such as checking emails, watching standard-definition video or stalking people on Facebook. It scored 1355 in the PCMark05 benchmark test and 155 in 3DMark06. Both results are in line with those of older models.

The most impressive aspect of the N150's performance is its battery life. The device lasted for five hours and two minutes in the intensive Battery Eater Classic test, which is impressive, considering its battery is a relatively modest, 4400mAh unit. Older netbooks can last this length of time too, but, generally speaking, they require much larger, heavier batteries to do so. The Eee PC 1000HE, for example, lasted five hours and 48 minutes in the same test, but had an 8700mAh battery pack. This speaks volumes about Intel's work with the Atom N450 CPU.

Conclusion

The Samsung N150 will appeal to anyone who puts battery life at the top of their list of priorities, but it's not massively different to previous-generation machines and its keyboard isn't quite as good as those on rivals such as the Eee PC 1000HE.

Via CNET UK

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• Thin and unique, all-white design
• Virtually no backlight bleed through
• Comprehensive on-screen display
• Built-in headphone jack

• Shallow viewing angle
• Lacks a DVI connection
• Doesn't include an HDMI to DVI cord or HDMI cord

Design and features

The 23-inch BenQ V2400 Eco has a completely white chassis, including a white power cord and a white VGA cord. The bezel is 20.32mm wide all around, while the screen itself is only 19mm thick.

The screen has a matte finish, yet despite the wide foot stand it wobbles considerably when pushed.

Unfortunately, you can't adjust the screen height, and there isn't a screen rotation or pivot option for portrait mode. The capability to tilt the screen back 20 degrees is the only included ergonomic feature. Above the foot stand is a small round pocket that looks almost like a cup holder. In it, BenQ has placed a removable small white cup and in that, plastic green grass. According to BenQ, the spot is perfect for "small keepsakes or mini plant pot"; however, we don't advise planting anything that would require pouring water into your AU$399 monitor.

Video connection options are limited to VGA and HDMI, and unfortunately, BenQ only includes a VGA cable for connections. Both connections are on the back of the monitor on its right side, and are easy to access since they're not obstructed by the foot stand's neck. The monitor includes a headphone jack on the left side of the panel.

The on-screen display (OSD) button array is located along the right edge of the panel and consists of five buttons aligned vertically: a Menu button, an up and down button, an Enter button, and an Auto button. Each button has a small knot on it so that you can easily distinguish them by touch. The menu consists of the usual brightness, contrast and colour options. The latter allowing you change its red, green and blue values individually as well as adjust its colour temperature. The OSD includes six presets: Movie, Game, Standard, Photo, sRGB and Eco. The Eco preset caps the brightness at 43/100. Navigating the interface is not as intuitive as Dell's recent offerings or even the Samsung SyncMaster Xl2370.

The BenQ V2400 Eco's 16:9 aspect ratio supports a "Full HD" 1920x1080-pixel native resolution. This continues the trend of more and more monitor vendors moving toward 16:9 from 16:10 — while this is passed off as being better suited for movies, the primary reason is 16:9 panels are simply cheaper to produce.

Performance

We tested the BenQ V2400 Eco with its HDMI connection, using an HDMI to DVI cable (not included with the monitor). The display posted a composite score of 93 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests, lower than the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370's 96 score and higher than the Dell SP2309W's 90 score. In our dark screen test, the V2400 Eco showed only a small amount of backlight bleed through, less than the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370.

The XL2370 achieved a brightness score of 228 candelas per square metre (cd/m²) — much lower than the Xl2370's 344cd/m² and the Dell SP2309W's 297cd/m². The difference between the monitors is readily apparent as the V2400 Eco's screen looks dim in comparison. When we set the brightness of the V2400 Eco and XL2370 to 100 and 75 respectively, we found that when looking at the same image, the XL's whites were noticeably brighter without compromising the dark detail and deep blacks of the image. The V2400 Eco displayed whites that looked almost blue in comparison.

We used the V2400 Eco's Movie preset to check out Kill Bill: Vol. 1 on DVD and a number of 1080p movie files from Microsoft's WMV HD Showcase. We noticed the same bluish-white problem we mentioned, and as a result, other colours didn't have the same pop as they did on the XL2370.

We looked at World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament 3 and noticed no signs of input lag or any streaking or ghosting during fast movement. We found that the Standard preset was the best all-around setting for games. The Game preset's picture is over-tuned to the point that polygonal models show more aliasing than when in standard mode. Again, like in movies, colours in games didn't have the same pop as the XL2370, thanks to the V2400 Eco's relatively low brightness.

Most monitors use cold cathode fluorescent lamp-based backlights — several fluorescent tubes stretched horizontally across the screen. The BenQ relies on individual LEDs all over the back of the screen that turn off or on independently, giving the display more precise control over the amount of light that comes through. The purported advantages of an LED backlight are better energy efficiency, more accurate colour reproduction, a conceivably thinner panel design and a higher potential brightness level. Unfortunately, BenQ doesn't use these features as well as Samsung did with the XL2370.

The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colours and gamma correction as they were intended. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on its panel type, picture quality at non-optimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels, which get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when viewed from non-optimal angles. The BenQ V2400 Eco uses a TN panel, and when it is viewed from the sides or bottom, we perceived the screen to darken about 101mm off from centre and we noticed that from the left, right and top, the display darkened and colours shifted quicker than the SyncMaster XL2370. Of course, when viewed from the optimal angle, we had no problems.

Via CNET.com

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• Good productivity and graphics performance
• Slot loading drive
• Good keyboard

• Ordinary battery life

Design

Samsung's not a brand that you'd naturally associate with notebooks, and its efforts to date have been a bit mixed. The Q320 is a basic enough looking notebook of moderate size (326.0x228.5x33.2mm) and weight (2.2kg), making it semi portable with a bag. Not something you'd jauntily heft around, but not something that'll tear out your rotator cuff either. The left-hand side of the Q320 is very busy with ports that run the full length of the bezel, while the right-hand side houses a slot loading DVD writer. There's nothing wrong with basic designs, and the Q320 looks exactly like you might imagine a generic notebook could look. Scratch off the Samsung logo on the back, and it could be anybody's notebook. Well, anybody's notebook with a horribly scarred back, anyway.

Features

The Q320 we tested sported an Intel Core 2 duo P7550 2.26GHz processor, 4GB of installed memory and a dedicated 256MB Nvidia GeForce G 105M graphics processor. It's Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n capable, bearing with it a Centrino 2 sticker, as well as a standard Ethernet port. You also get standard audio ports, HDMI output, eSATA/USB combo port, standard USB 2.0 ports and VGA out, all down the left-hand side. If for some curious reason you were to use most of those, you'd run out of space, as they all sit on the left-hand side. Then again, we're struggling to come up with a scenario where you'd use both the VGA and HDMI output at the same time, so perhaps the point is moot.

Performance

At a physical level, the Q320's a nice notebook to use for basic tasks. The keyboard is responsive and nicely spaced out, and while it's not an ultraportable, or priced like one, it's light enough for basic portability purposes.

On a benchmark front, the inclusion of dedicated graphics in notebooks usually makes a significant difference to 3DMark06 scores, and the Q320 was no exception, with a very solid score of 2605. The only caveat there is that 3DMark06 is aging disgracefully. If you buy the Q320 to run mid-range games, you should do just fine. Buy it expecting to output full range 60fps Modern Warfare 2, and you're much less likely to be all that happy. On the productivity front, its score of 5094 in PCMarko5 is likewise solid, pointing to this being a good working system.

We were recently highly disappointed with the battery life on Samsung's R519 laptop, and it's seemingly a problem that Samsung's ported over to the Q320. We ran our standard and quite intensive DVD playback test on the Q320 with all battery-saving measures disabled and screen brightness at full. The results weren't quite as poor as the R519's pathetic one hour 35 minutes, but they weren't much better. The Q320 conked out after two and half hours of playback time, not quite enough to get you through a movie. With a less intensive activity and screen brightness down you might stretch that to three hours, but that's still not impressive in a modern laptop context.

Without the slightly shaky battery life, the Q320 would be an easy recommendation at the price. Considering it, however, we'd look elsewhere for an equally powerful system that can crack more than a couple of hours of working life.

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• Decent keyboard
• Low asking price
• Simple style

• Ordinary style
• Heavy
• Poor battery life

Design

The rush for the latest, greatest, thinnest, most powerful laptop — sometimes with optional attachment for opening horses' hooves — often leaves more ordinary fare by the wayside. In pretty much every respect, Samsung's R519 is that kind of laptop. The latter ordinary fare laptop, that is, before you go getting all excited.

Measuring in at 376.0x255.5x30.4mm with a carrying weight of 2.5kg, this isn't an ultraportable, ultralight model. The basic trim is exactly that — basic. Or, as the sticker on the base of the R519 wishes to inform us, it's "Minimalism Design", if you prefer marketing terms. Either way, this is a plain looking notebook with a silver trim around the basic keyboard, and a black bezel around the 15.6-inch TFT screen.

Features

Likewise, the features list for the R519 reads like a what's hot list for a notebook a couple of years ago. The sole differentiator there is that it ships with Windows 7. According to Samsung's website, the R519 should come with Windows 7 Basic, but our review system shipped with Windows 7 Home Premium. Either way, that's enough to tax the R519's very basic Pentium dual core T4300 2.1GHz processor. The inclusion of that processor is enough for Samsung to go fully retro on us and slap a "Pentium Inside" sticker on the case, which was something of a shock to us. Our review sample came with 4GB of on-board memory, a 15.6-inch (1366x768) TFT display screen, three USB 2.0 ports and a three-in-one card reader. Otherwise, it is as the price suggests, an exceptionally ordinary system.

Performance

There's still a place for ordinary laptop systems in the marketplace. Not everyone wants or needs a high speed video editing or gaming rig, after all. If all you wanted was a basic office tasks-style machine with portability, then the R519 might just fit the bill. In informal use the keyboard had reasonable travel, the trackpad worked well and Windows 7 delivered pretty much everything you'd want out of a modern operating system. That's backed up by the R519's benchmark scores. Its score of 4054 in PCMark05 denotes it as a reasonable workhorse, although its 3DMark06 score of only 869 means it's certainly not a gaming workhorse. Blame the integrated Intel GL40 chipset for that score.

So, the R519's reasonably priced and can perform basic office tasks, as long as they're not too graphics intensive. What's the catch?

The catch, it turns out, is battery life. We ran our standard and quite intensive DVD playback test on the R519 with all battery-saving measures disabled and screen brightness at full, and the R519 lasted a very poor one hour and 35 minutes before hibernating. Certainly, you could eke out more with less intensive use, but given we're seeing more and more systems with six or more hour battery lives, giving up just north of an hour and a half is rather woeful.

The R519 is a genuine trade-off machine. If you just want the form factor of a notebook, without the genuine battery life that marks out a portable machine, or for that matter the weight, it's a fair buy at its asking price. If you do want portability, you'll have to look elsewhere.

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The Proliant DL785. A blank faceplate under the DVD ROM hides a 5.25-inch drive bay.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)

The extra height is accounted for by the fact that this is an eight-CPU machine. Each processor is contained within a removable "cell" underneath the machine and paired with DDR2-6400 RAM. Our review machine contained eight six-core Opteron 8439 SE processors at 2.8GHz, each paired with 32GB RAM for a total of 256GB available system memory and 48 cores of processing power. You can fit in up to 512GB RAM if you find that's not enough. All of this is pumped through Broadcomm's Serverworks HT-2100 (PDF) Northbridge and HT-1000 Southbridge chipsets.

While the cells are removable, don't get excited: they're not hot-swappable. Yank one, and the whole system will go down just as you'd expect any other server to.

Our review sample came with five 146GB 15K RPM SAS drives, with room for another 11 if need be. You can spot the CPU cells under the drives.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)

These cells dominate the front of the machine, leaving the storage, activity/warning lights and two USB ports situated at the top to pale in comparison. This is a machine intended for pure processing grunt, positioning itself for consolidation and virtualisation.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

The back is relatively sparse, with just a VGA and serial port, two USB ports, twin gigabit Ethernet controllers (courtesy of the on-board, Broadcomm powered HP NC371i) and an RJ45 jack for iLO. HP handily includes a T-15 torx tool on the back too, since it tends to use these rather than your standard Philips head.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

There are three 120mm high-powered removable fan units at the rear, which can be pulled out on a sled and replaced; another three are inside the machine itself. All of them contain dual fans, protecting against mechanical failure. Next to this are six hot-swappable 1200W power supplies, three of which are required to power the machine, the other three redundant in case of failure.

That's a great whack of power (Credit: CBS Interactive)

The mainboard is relatively sparse, allowing for expansion — most of the action is on the daughterboard and controller cards. (Credit: CBS Interactive)

Opening up inside reveals a spacious interior and a fairly uncomplicated mainboard, built purely for expansion. The motherboard features three PCI-E x16 and x8 slots, and five PCI-E x4 slots — everything else is pretty much confined to a daughterboard and the processor memory cells.

You can have an optional backplane installed which contains two HTx x16 slots, one PCI-E x16 slot and PCI-E x8 slot and five PCI-E x4 slots; however, this is not supported under VMware.

Controller cards, with plenty of expansion for more. (Credit: CBS Interactive)

Our particular configuration came with an additional dual-gigabit Ethernet card, the Intel-based HP NC360T; as well as dual Qlogic QLE2460 4Gb FC cards, appearing under the HPAE311A name.

The main daughterboard (Credit: CBS Interactive)

The daughterboard pictured above contains most of the chipsets. The embedded ATI ES1000 video chip offers resolutions up to 1280x1024 at 32-bit (an optional Nvidia Quadro FX5600 1.5GB card is available); you can also spot HP's iLO for remote admin and the dual Broadcomm chips powering the integrated dual-GbE, while to the right is the internal USB port. Although not pictured, the top right of the board features an LSI SAS1078 controller and 512MB RAM — the heart of the HP Smart Array P400 that manages the storage.

The CPU and RAM cells can be removed in a similar way to removable hard drive trays — simply pop the lever and pull. (Credit: CBS Interactive)

Removing the plastic cover reveals the internals, the heatsink-covered Opteron and 32GB of associated RAM. (Credit: CBS Interactive)

One of the Qlogic FC controllers (Credit: CBS Interactive)

The initial screen from HP's SmartStart boot DVD. You can run a number of configuration and testing tools from here, as well as install operating systems. (Credit: CBS Interactive)

HP includes a "SmartStart", Linux-based boot DVD, which allows you to configure the storage array, run hardware diagnostics and tests. You can also install operating systems from here, in both HP branded and non-branded forms. Apart from the OS installation, these tools are available under Windows too, accessible remotely or locally.

Configuring the Smart Array P400 card from within SmartStart. (Credit: CBS Interactive)

Supported operating systems are Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008R2; Oracle Enterprise Linux; Redhat Enterprise Linux 4/5; SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10/11; and Sun Solaris. HP supports VMware, Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer for virtualisation.

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• Amazingly powerful for a 15-inch laptop
• Highly configurable
• Adds 16:9 display

• Configuration options can get expensive
• Far from portable

Keeping the same look and feel as the recent 17-inch M17x version, the Alienware M15x is an imposing black slab of computing power that's thicker and heavier than most 17-inch laptops.

We love having high-end options such as Intel's uber-powerful Core i7-920XM CPU, and it's a plus that Alienware has finally gotten on-board the 16:9 display bandwagon; but if you want serious gamer options such as dual video cards or two hard drives, you'll have to trade up the bigger 17-inch model.

While it starts at a deceptively promising AU$2399, our review unit clocked in at AU$4113.90, which is a steep premium for a system with a single GPU and hard drive (not even a solid state one, at that). Still, the Alienware mystique counts for something, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better built, or faster, 15-inch laptop.

Dell continues to push the DisplayPort standard as an alternative to HDMI, and having only three USB ports may be a bit limiting for a gaming machine, but other than that, the M15x is well-equipped for networking, expansion and accessories.

As expected from Dell and Alienware, there are enough configuration options to create some very different final products (as well as easily doubling the price). The most notable is the new Intel Core i7-920XM CPU. It's a whopping AU$1590.60 upgrade over the default Core i7 720QM (itself nothing to sneeze at), and includes a requirement that you also choose the larger nine-cell battery option.

With that super-powerful processor, we saw some of our best performance numbers to date, even beating a hybrid laptop built with desktop quad-core components. Make no mistake, you're paying a lot for the privilege, but at least for right now, no one will have a faster laptop if you go for the most expensive processor upgrade.

Actually using the Alienware M15x was a smooth, pleasing experience — windows snapped open and shut instantly, annoying pauses were virtually non-existent. Gaming was likewise excellent, even with only a single video card. Running Unreal Tournament 3 at a whopping 1920x1080 resolution, we got 99 frames per second. A few SLI dual-card laptops, such as the Asus W90, could beat that, but not by much, and even those systems fell behind at lower resolutions. The combo of a killer CPU and a good single GPU was a powerful one, and we can only imagine what we'll get from the first system we test with a Core i7-920XM plus dual Nvidia GeForce 260M or 280M video cards.

As one would expect, the Alienware M15x won't run very long away from a wall socket. Even with the extended nine-cell battery, the system ran for one hour and 46 minutes on our video playback battery drain test. That's alright for a high-powered desktop replacement, but very low for a 15-inch system with at least pretensions of portability.

Via CNET.com

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• Fast wireless 5GHz throughput
• Fantastic NAS performance
• Storage included
• Easy to use
• True dual-band
• Guest networking
• Works with Apple Time Machine software
• Good-looking design

• Expensive; limited networking and network storage features
• No bundled backup software for Windows
• Hard drive is not user-serviceable
• No media or iTunes server
• Picky support for USB printers
• Only three Ethernet ports
• No web interface
• No remote access for Windows users
• Set-up, administration and storage sharing require OS X 10.4 or later
• Runs hot

The Apple Time Capsule is one of very few Wireless N routers with built-in storage, making it a rare and simple all-in-one router-and-backup option for your home. Unfortunately, it's still too expensive. The newly revved versions of Time Capsule cost AU$399 for the 1TB version and AU$649 for the 2TB version, and although its NAS performance is much improved over the previous revision, it still suffers from some key shortcomings, such as a lack of many NAS and networking features, a non-user serviceable hard drive, no iTunes or media server support, and no web interface management. For about AU$350, you can get the Linksys WRT610N plus a 2TB Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition external hard drive, which would give you all the basic functions of the Time Capsule as well as the aforementioned missing features.

However, Apple's Time Capsule is the only combined wireless-router-and-network-storage solution to come in a very good-looking box.

Design and ease of use

Out of the box, the Apple Time Capsule could pass as the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station's big brother. They share a look, but the Time Capsule is about 30 per cent larger. Functionality-wise, the Time Capsule is basically an AirPort Extreme Base Station with a hard drive built in.

(Because the two devices share the same set-up, administration process, networking and storage features, functionality, and system requirements, consider this review an enhanced version of our earlier AirPort Extreme Base Station review.)

For a wireless router, the Apple Time Capsule is bulky, but relatively compact compared with competing NAS servers. It has a clean, square design and is classically Apple in white. There are no external antennas, buttons or switches, aside from the tiny reset hole on the back of the device. Stick a pin in this hole and the router will reset to its default manufacturer settings. Also on the back are three gigabit Ethernet ports — which is one fewer than most competing routers offer — for use with wired clients and a USB port. The USB port can be used to host another external hard drive or a printer.

On the front, the device has only one status light that changes colour according to the working condition of the device. The light flashes amber to indicate a problem or stays solid green to show that everything is in good, working condition.

Like the Base Station, the Apple Time Capsule doesn't offer a web interface, which means you'll need to install the included AirPort Utility software to set it up. The software comes in both Mac and Windows versions. The Windows version installs a number of services, such as Apple's networking service Bonjour and the AirPort Base Station Agent, which runs whenever your computer boots up. Installing any new software may adversely affect your computer's performance (we didn't test for system degradation), but without Bonjour, Windows won't be able to connect to the device. The AirPort Base Station Agent helps by automatically detecting shared folders from the Time Capsule.

Generally, we prefer devices that you can access and manage via a web interface, letting you get the job done conveniently from virtually any computer that's connected to the device over the network. Apple is the only networking vendor that doesn't offer this type of interface. Some vendors, such as Linksys, also offer a desktop software application to help those who aren't comfortable using the browser for the task.

To its credit, the AirPort Utility does make setting up the Time Capsule easy for novices. Its wizard mode walks you through the configuring process step by step. To customise the router beyond the recommended settings, the utility offers a manual mode that includes access to more advanced functions.

The Apple Time Capsule requires a restart to apply any changes made to its settings — a nuisance, because doing so interrupts the connections of all users and makes setting up take longer than we're accustomed to having to wait. Other high-end routers can apply most minor changes without restarting. Nonetheless, there were no gaffes when setting up the Time Capsule, and we were able to get it up and running within 10 minutes or so.

Like the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Time Capsule supports a maximum of only 50 clients at a time, according to Apple's documentation. We didn't test this claim, but if true, that is a lot fewer than the 200 clients that other vendors claim their routers support.

Wireless networking

Along with the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Apple Time Capsule is one of the few routers that offers very little in terms of networking features. Other high-end routers, such as the D-Link 825 or Linksys WRT610N include a website-and-service filter (that lets you block websites or web services based on certain criteria), Port triggering, Wi-Fi Protected Set-up (allows you to hook up clients to the network at the press of a button) and Dynamic DNS. The Time Capsule offers none of these.

Though easy to use at its most basic configuration, the Apple Time Capsule can be frustrating when you want to use more advanced functions. For example, if you want to add a client to a DHCP Reservation or the Media Access Control (MAC) address list, you will have to go to the "Log and Logistics" window to view the list of the connected clients, copy the MAC address of the client in question and then go back to the list to enter it. Many other routers, such as those from D-Link, Linksys and Netgear, display this information more conveniently and allow you to complete the same task with a few mouse clicks.

Some service providers, especially in college dorms, require users to register a client's MAC address to get connected to the internet. The Apple Time Capsule doesn't feature this ability to replicate a client's MAC address. Most competing routers can take a client's MAC address as its own.

The Apple Time Capsule offers true dual-band Wireless-N, which means it can provide a Wireless-N signal in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies simultaneously, making it support virtually any existing wireless-networking client. However, we found out that it offers users less control over the wireless aspect than most routers.

Apple recommends using the same service set identifier (SSID — the name for a wireless network) for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, under the pretext that the client will intelligently detect the band by itself and, if it supports both bands, it will pick the 5GHz over the 2.4GHz. In our tests, this worked with a MacBook Pro; indeed, the laptop immediately picked the 5GHz band every time.

Using a Windows-based system was a different story. Our Windows laptop, which supports both 5GHz and 2.4GHz Wireless-N, picked the 2.4GHz every time. We couldn't figure out why this happened, and the router wouldn't let us manually set the machines to use the 5GHz band to take advantage of the higher throughput speeds.

For this reason, we would recommend always having a separate wireless-network name for each band so you can have more control over which band you connect a client to. The Wireless Option button in the AirPort Utility allows you to do this. Unfortunately, although you can choose to turn off the wireless function of the router altogether, you can't turn off either of the bands separately. This means getting the router to work as a 2.4GHz- or 5GHz-only wireless network is not possible. All other true dual-band routers we've reviewed allow users to have more control over the router's wireless functionality. In many situations, you'll want to use only the 5GHz band and turn the 2.4GHz band off to save power or keep the spectrum cleaner for other devices. You simply can't do this with the Time Capsule.

You have even less control over the Time Capsule's Guest Networking feature, which lets you create a separate wireless network that has access to the internet, but not to local resources, such as your computer or printer. The feature worked fine in our trials, but we found its functionality somewhat limited. All you can do is turn on or off the Guest network, change the network's name, apply encryptions to it, and give guest clients the ability to interact with one another. The Time Capsule doesn't let you choose which band you want the Guest network to operate in, nor does it allow you to make a separate guest network for each band.

Printing and storage

We tested two USB printers with the Apple Time Capsule, the Samsung SCX-4100 and the Brother HL-1850.

You'll need to install Bonjour on any Windows-based machines you want to share either the printer or the storage on Time Capsule, which is a bit of a hassle. You'll also want to check ahead of time to make sure your printer supports Mac. Set-up with some printers didn't go smoothly in our tests.

When we plugged the Brother in using the USB connection, the Time Capsule did not react at all. The Samsung was recognised by the router, but there is no Mac version of the printer's software driver. Nonetheless, we figured it would have been easy to install if there had been a driver, as the printer did appear in our MacBook Pro's "Print & Fact" utility.

Other routers we've reviewed, when applicable, generally had much better support for printers. For example, the D-Link DIR-825 worked with virtually every USB printer we tried it with. We didn't try the D-Link with these two printers, however, as they weren't available at the time of our review.

The Time Capsule's support for USB external hard drives is much better than for USB printers, and better than the AirPort Extreme Base Station's support, as well. Still, it's far from perfect.

The Time Capsule doesn't read drives formatted in the NTFS file system — only files formatted as FAT32 and Mac OS Extended. In general, it's more difficult to format a drive larger than 32GB using FAT32 than using NTFS. This means that because the majority of external hard drives nowadays are much larger than 32GB, Windows users can't simply plug most of their USB external hard drives into the router and expect to share the data contained on it. If you are willing to reformat your hard drive, you'll need to use a computer to do so, as Time Capsule doesn't include a formatting function.

Unlike the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Time Capsule quickly recognised our external hard drive formatted using FAT32, and it worked as well as when it was formatted in the Mac OS Extended file system. Once the drive was plugged in, the Time Capsule instantly recognised the drives and started sharing them. Sharing worked well in Windows, too.

The hard drives can be shared only as one shared folder, however. You can't make multiple folders and share them separately with different access privileges, which is a common NAS feature. Though you can use the AirPort Utility to create user accounts that each has a private folder of its own.

The Time Capsule's internal hard drive allows you to erase its content or manually archive it to an external hard drive. You can also change the default share name to whatever you like. Unfortunately, you can't physically access or replace the hard drive by yourself. Most of the NAS servers we've reviewed, and even some external hard drives, allow users to replace the internal hard drives.

Other than file sharing, the Time Capsule offers none of the more popular NAS features. You cannot use the device as an iTunes or Media server to stream digital content from the device to computers, set-top boxes or game consoles — ironic, given that most other NAS servers we've tested feature a server for Apple's own iTunes software. In addition, the Time Capsule can't download files by itself or work as an FTP or an HTTP server — both features normally found in NAS servers.

Remote access

The Time Capsule lets Mac users access the shared folder remotely via the internet using a MobileMe account — AU$119 a year, after a 60-day free trial. In our tests, everything worked just as it would if the computer were connected to the device directly via its wireless or wired connection. The share folder appeared the same as when we accessed it via the local network, but it took a little longer because of the internet connection. We could also access the Time Capsule's settings this way using the AirPort Utility. Sadly, remote access is not available for Windows users, even if you use a MobileMe account.

It's important to note that the remote access might not work at all if you access the internet via a corporate network, where, according to Apple, certain services of the Base Station could be blocked for security reasons. Though it's true that corporations tend to have tight control over their networks, other NAS servers' remote access features, such as those of the WD My Book World Edition, worked fine with our corporate network. The Apple Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme Base Station didn't.

How the Time Capsule shares files with remote users is disappointing. While other NAS servers, like the Synology DS-107+ or the WD My Book World Edition, allow users to share files with multiple users or share photo albums, Time Capsule only works with one MobileMe account at a time.

Note that unlike the Time Capsule, most other routers support DDNS, which lets you set up remote access without having to pay anything at all. You do, however, need some networking know-how to make that work.

Backup

If you have Mac OS 10.5 or higher installed, the Time Capsule works very well with Time Machine, Apple's fancy backup software. All you need to do is run the Time Machine utility and choose the Time Capsule as the backup destination. The actual time to do a backup job, though, could be very long, depending on the amount of data you have on the computer's hard drive. Generally, you will want to connect the computer to the Time Capsule via one of its three wired connections for the first backup job. If you have a large hard drive with a lot of data, be prepared to leave it running overnight for the initial backup.

For Windows users that want to use Time Capsule as a robust backup solution, you'll need to invest in a backup software application such as Acronis. Though the built-in backup utilities of both Windows XP and Windows Vista work with Time Capsule (as they would with any external storage device), they — especially that of Windows XP — are far from comprehensive. Most network storage devices we've reviewed come bundled with backup software and don't require additional utilities to work comprehensively in Windows.

The Time Capsule doesn't incorporate a way to automatically back up the content of its internal hard drive onto an external drive, so to preserve your important files and data, you'll have to do it manually.

Security

Just like the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Apple Time Capsule features a built-in firewall and supports WPA, WPA2 and 128-bit WEP for wireless encryption. It also supports RADIUS access control, so you can manage wireless clients from a centralised location.

Time Capsule doesn't allow parents to filter specific websites, but it will let them set time limits for kids' access, provided they follow the steps to get the MAC address for their kids' computers.

Performance

Let us be clear. We tested Time Capsule in the uncontrolled environment of CNET's San Francisco office building. You may see better or worse performance depending on the wireless environment you use it in.

We tested Time Capsule's throughput speeds the same way we tested the Airport Extreme Base Station's: by copying data from one computer to another using its wireless connection. This means the scores — while much lower than the theoretical maximum throughput speed of the Wireless-N specification — are the actual sustained data rates, taking all possible overhead and interference into account.

We tested both the new version of Time Capsule and the previous revision on the same day, within an hour of each other. In our 5GHz throughput test, the new Time Capsule edged out the old, scoring 60.4Mbps and 57.8Mbps, respectively. We saw a similar difference in the 2.4GHz band, with the old and new versions of Time Capsule scoring 24.9Mbps and 29.7Mbps, respectively.

In our range test, where the client was 30m away, the new Time Capsule scored 33.8Mbps at 2.4GHz — faster than the 20.3Mbps of the older Time Capsule. At 5GHz, the new Time Capsule scored 51.5Mbps. The older Time Capsule couldn't hold a 5GHz connection at that range long enough to complete the test.

In our mixed mode test, where Time Capsule was set to work with both Wireless-N and Wireless-G clients simultaneously, it scored 31.8Mbps — compared to the 20Mbps of the older Time Capsule and slightly above average for routers we tested this year. In our testing facility — an office building not optimised for wireless range — we were able to hold a steady connection to the new Time Capsule from about 60m in the 2.4GHz band and about 71m for 5GHz.The older Time Capsule's range was about 3m less in each band.

Our NAS test consists of copying data between the router and a computer using a gigabit wired connection. We used a 7GB file and timed how long it took for the system to write the file to the Time Capsule's hard drive and read it back. This is where we saw the most improvement over the previous version of Time Capsule. While the previous version had some of the lowest score we'd seen this year, achieving only 81.2Mbps for the write test and 114.2Mbps for the read test, the newly revved Time Capsule achieved some of the fastest scores we've ever seen. The new version achieved 200.4 in the write test and 204.7 in the read test.

The router ran hot throughout our testing, which made us concerned about the device's lifespan. We recommend you leave it in an open, well-ventilated location when in use. There have been numerous claims from consumers of Time Capsules malfunctioning after about 18 months of use. Obviously, having only used it for a few days, we can't say whether Apple has alleviated this problem.

Service and support

Like with the AirPort Extreme Base Station, Apple backs the new Time Capsule with one year of standard support, which is short, considering it has a non-removable, built-in hard drive and runs hot. You can and should purchase an extended AppleCare coverage plan. Also, if your Apple computer or Apple TV is covered under AppleCare, Time Capsule is also covered. The device comes with 90 days of complimentary, toll-free phone support. At Apple's site, you can view FAQs, troubleshooting articles, user forums and download manuals and software.

Via CNET.com

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• Fast throughput
• Easy to use
• True dual-band
• Guest networking
• Printer and network storage support
• Aesthetically pleasing design

• Limited networking features
• Picky support for USB external hard drive
• Only three Ethernet ports
• No web interface
• No remote access for Windows users
• Supports only 50 clients
• Only OS X 10.4 or later can access storage feature

At AU$229, the new AirPort Extreme is on the pricey side among high-end routers and unfortunately, it offers a relatively skimpy amount of networking features, especially for Windows users. It does, however, have high throughput speeds and the ease of use found in most Apple products. This new AirPort Extreme Base Station wireless router is the update to Apple's previous model with the same name and sleek design. The router offers two big improvements, including true dual-band Wireless-N and guest networking. These make it comparable to other true dual-band Wireless-N routers such as the D-Link Xtreme DIR-825 or the Linksys WRT610N. If you are a Mac user or in need of something simple, the new AirPort Extreme Base Station is definitely worth the investment. On the other hand, if you want more networking features and more control over your networking and remote access, there are better options available to you.

Design and ease of use

Like its predecessor, the AirPort Extreme Base Station is one of the best-looking routers we've reviewed. Though it doesn't have the smallest design, the router's square shape and internal antenna create a compact illusion.

On the front is a status light that changes colour according to the working condition of the device. For example, solid green means everything is in order, while flashing amber indicates a possible problem. On the back are three gigabit Ethernet ports and one USB port. There is one Ethernet port fewer than most other USB Wireless-N routers we've reviewed, which means you can connect only three wired clients to the router before necessitating a hub or a switch. The USB port can be used to host either a printer or an external hard drive to share among network users.

As the Base Station doesn't offer a web interface, setting up the AirPort Extreme Base Station requires the installation of the AirPort Utility software, which comes in both Mac and Windows versions. The Windows version of the software installs quite a few services, such as Bonjour and AirPort Base Station Agent, that run whenever the computer starts. AirPort Base Station Agent helps automatically detect shared folders from a USB drive connected to the router.

With other routers that support a web interface, you can configure them via a web browser without the need to install any software. It's also convenient, as you can immediately access the router's settings from virtually any computer connected to it. Some vendors, such as Linksys, offer both the desktop software and web interface for their routers.

To make up for this, the AirPort Utility makes setting up the router very easy for novice users, taking only a few minutes to get up and running. It has a wizard mode that walks you through the configuring process step by step. To customise the router beyond the recommended settings, you can use the manual mode, which has access to more advanced features.

The Base Station required a restart to apply any changes made to its settings, which is a nuisance because it interrupts the connections of all users. Other high-end routers can apply most minor changes without restarting.

According to Apple's website, the AirPort Extreme Base Station supports a maximum of 50 clients at a time. While 50 is quite a large number, this is only suitable for home or small office environments. We've never tested this, but generally if you have a cafe or a restaurant, look for other routers that support more clients at a time.

Features

Other high-end routers include a breadth of features, including website filters, port triggering, Wi-Fi-protected push-button set-up (allowing users to hook up new clients to the network with the push of a button), or Dynamic DNS. The Base Station doesn't offer any of these.

The Base Station also lacks some other basic functions, including MAC replication — the ability to take a client's MAC address as its own. This is important, as some service providers require users, especially at college dorms, to register their computers' MAC addresses to ensure that only those particular computers can connect to the network. The Base Station doesn't make client control easy either. For example, if you want to add a client to the DHCP Reservations or the MAC Address Access Control list, you'll have to go to "Logs and Logistics", which is at a different part of the AirPort Utility, copy the MAC address of the client in question, then go back to the list to enter it. Many other routers show the list right where you need it, making it much more convenient to get the job done.

On the bright side, the Base Station is one of a few routers that offers print serving, storage capabilities and full support for IPv6 (the new version of the IP protocol). It is also the only router that's tied to Apple's MobileMe service for remote access and administration, which is a plus for Mac users who already have a MobileMe account.

The two biggest features of the new AirPort Extreme are true dual-band and guest networking. We found both to work well, though a little differently from what we're used to seeing.

Out of the box, Apple recommends using the same SSID (the name for a wireless network) for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. According to an Apple representative, the client would detect the band by itself and if it supports both bands, it would pick the 5GHz over the 2.4GHz. In our test, this indeed worked with a MacBook Pro. The laptop immediately picked the 5GHz band every time.

It was a different story, however, when we tried it with a Windows system. Our Windows laptop, which supports both 5GHz and 2.4GHz Wireless-N, picked the 2.4GHz every time. The reasons for this are inconclusive and we were also unable to manually set the machines to use the 5GHz band to take advantage of the higher throughput speeds.

For this reason, we would recommend having a separate wireless network name for each band to allow more control of which band a client wants to use. Fortunately, the Wireless Option button in the AirPort Utility allows you to do this.

You can't turn off either of the bands separately. You can choose to turn off the wireless function of the router altogether, but once it's on, both bands are on. This means using the router to work as a 2.4GHz-only or a 5GHz-only wireless network is not possible. All other true dual-band routers we've reviewed allow people to have more control over the router's wireless functionality.

The Base Station's guest networking feature worked well in our trial. Guest networking allows for creating a separate wireless network that has access to the internet but not local resources, such as your computer or printer. The router allows you to create an additional network, the options to apply encryption to it, and make guest clients interact with one another. Again, unlike other routers that offer guest networking, the Base Station doesn't allow you to pick what band you want the guest network to operate in, nor can you make a separate guest network for each band.

We didn't get to try the print-serving feature, but we found that the router's support for USB external hard drives was rather limited. It doesn't read drives formatted in the NTFS file system, but only FAT32 and Mac OS Extended. Generally it's more difficult to format a drive larger than 32GB using FAT32. This means Windows users can't simply plug most of their USB external hard drives into the router and expect to share the data contained on it. If you are willing to reformat your hard drive, you'll need to use a computer to do so, as the router doesn't include the formatting feature.

We tried the router with two of our USB external hard drives, the G-Drive and the Seagate FreeAgent Go. Neither of them — when formatted using FAT32 and tested with a MacBook — worked with the AirPort Extreme Base Station. The router kept showing a "Disk needs repair" error without revealing any details or how to repair it.

Nonetheless, the drives worked when we formatted them using Mac OS Extended. Once plugged in, the router took about 30 seconds to see the hard drives. After that, the default share folder appeared in the Finder of any Mac in the network running OS X 10.4 or later. For Windows, the AirPort Base Station Agent software will make the network drive for you or you can browse for it using the network browser, as long as you have Bonjour installed on the machine.

If you are a Mac and MobileMe user, you can access the hard drive the same way when you are on the go, via the internet. You just need to register the router to your MobileMe account and it works similarly to the "Back to My Mac" feature. You can also change the router's settings this way, using the AirPort Utility. It's important to note that the remote access might not work at all if you access the internet via a corporate network, where certain services of the Base Station are blocked for security reasons.

Unfortunately, the remote access feature is not available for Windows users, even when they have a MobileMe account. MobileMe is free to use for 60 days; after that it costs AU$119 per year.

You can only share the hard drive as one shared folder, but you can't make multiple folders and share them separately with different access privileges. You can also use the AirPort Utility to create user accounts so each user has a private folder of his or her own. For example, if you log in as User1, you will see the default share folder and a folder called "User1", but you won't see the folders of User2 or User3. If you log in as User2, you will see the default share folder and a folder called "User2", and so on. These features make for a simple network storage solution that works well in an environment where you don't need a sophisticated way of sharing resources.

The router is also able to power the external hard drive via its USB port, which is very important, as a lot of new pocket-size external hard drives don't come with separate power cords.

Security

For security, the AirPort Extreme Base Station features a built-in firewall and supports WPA, WPA2 and 128-bit WEP for wireless encryption. It also supports RADIUS access control, with which you can manage wireless clients from a centralised location.

Although parents aren't able to filter websites, they can restrict their kids' access based on time, provided they know how to get the MAC address off the kids' computers, which is a rather daunting task as mentioned earlier.

Performance

Let us be clear. We tested the AirPort Extreme in the uncontrolled environment of CNET's San Francisco office building. You may see better or worse performance depending on the wireless environment you use it in.

We tested the AirPort Extreme's throughput speeds by copying data from one computer to another using its wireless connection. This means the scores — while much lower than the theoretical maximum throughput speed of the Wireless-N specification — are the actual sustained-data rates, taking all overhead and interference into account.

We tested both the new version of the AirPort Extreme and the previous revision on the same day, within an hour of each other. In our 5GHz throughput test, the new AirPort Extreme edged out the old, scoring 66.6Mbps and 54.2Mbps, respectively. We saw a much smaller difference in the 2.4GHz band, with the old and new versions of the AirPort Extreme scoring 36.8Mbps and 35.5Mbps, respectively.

In our range test, where the client was 100 feet away, the new AirPort Extreme scored 31Mbps at 2.4GHz — virtually the same as the 30.5Mbps of the older AirPort Extreme. At 5GHz, neither version of the AirPort Extreme could hold a connection to complete the test at that range.

In our mixed-mode test, where the new AirPort Extreme was set to work with both Wireless-N and Wireless-G clients simultaneously, it scored 35.9Mbps — compared with the 35.2Mbps of the older AirPort Extreme. In our testing facility — an office building not optimised for wireless range — using a PC, we were able to hold a steady connection to the new and old AirPort Extreme from about 60m in the 2.4GHz band and about 72m for 5GHz. When we used a Mac, the connection range was slightly longer, by 1.0 - 1.5m.

The router ran warm throughout our testing, and we recommend you leave it in an open, well-ventilated location.

Service and support

As with the previous model, Apple backs the new AirPort Extreme Base Station with one year of support, which, albeit short, is standard for wireless routers. You can, however, purchase an extended AppleCare coverage plan. Also, if your Apple computer or Apple TV is covered under AppleCare, the AirPort Base Station is also covered. The router comes with 90 days of complimentary, toll-free phone support. At Apple's site, you can view FAQs, troubleshooting articles, user forums and download the manual as well as software.

Via CNET.com

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• Integrated ADSL2+
• USB 3G compatibility
• Integrated VoIP

• Design is ugly and dated
• Serious stability issues

Design

When we first unpacked the Billion BiPAC 7404VNPX, we were struck with an immense feeling of deja vu. We couldn't shake the idea that surely, we'd reviewed this router before. That's basically because visually, it's a dead ringer for the Billion BiPAC 7800N 802.11n dual-WAN ADSL2+ firewall router. We noted that router as being particularly ugly, and exactly the same criticism is due of the 7404VNPX. It's functional to look at, and nothing else at all. If you want a router you could proudly display on the coffee table, this isn't it, despite the same somewhat unusual antennas-poking-out-each-side design the 7800N uses.

Features

As with the 7800N, looking pretty isn't the 7404VNPX's core mission. It's a router packed with features. On the wireless side, 802.11n, but then everything has that. On the internet connectivity side, ADSL2+ or 3G wireless via USB socket with fail-over to keep your connection running. It's VoIP capable, with sockets for multiple handsets. Its four Ethernet ports are all gigabit capable. In short, if you only want to have a single network box for all your current possible network needs, the 7404VNPX is it.

Performance

Installation of the 7404VNPX was, to put it mildly, a challenging affair. Billion's web interfaces aren't the most novice-friendly affairs, but they're usually functional enough. Sadly, the same couldn't be said for the 7404VNPX's hardware. Out of the box, our review sample insisted on rebooting itself every sixty seconds or so. We tried firmware updates, but 60 seconds of uptime, even connected via Ethernet, wasn't quite enough.

We eventually got it to stabilise enough by removing every cable but a single Ethernet one, at which point we could upgrade to the 5.53.s6.b1 firmware. That did settle the rebooting issue, but didn't fix our next challenge, which was getting the router to remember settings for VoIP and 3G wireless. We spent several hours battling the 7404VNPX's obtuse update policy, which requires hitting apply, then saving the configuration to flash, then restarting the router and hoping it would remember everything we'd told it to remember.

After a while we got it to accept the fallback 3G modem, but it took a lot of tweaking to get a MyNetFone VoIP account working to a satisfactory level. Even after far more exhaustive battling with the 7404VNPX than we'd like, we still hit minor stability issues while testing.

We also ran the 7404VNPX through our standard set of signal strength and throughput tests to see how well its base 802.11n networking performed. It's a 2.4GHz only product, putting it square in the sights of a lot of potential interference issues.

Signal strength: 2.4GHz

Signal strength was solid by comparison with most routers, although we did find it interesting that the 7404VNPX's longer range performance wasn't the equal of the similarly equipped Billion 7800N.

Throughput: 2.4GHz

In throughput, however, the 7404VNPX outclassed the 7800N, but fell short of claiming the 802.11n speed crown. As with all of our wireless tests, results are indicative in our test location only, and depending on where you deploy a router, as well as competing signals, your results may differ.

Undoubtedly, our issues with configuration and stability could be theoretically fixed with another firmware upgrade. Undeniably, the first firmware upgrade we applied fixed issues that rendered the 7404VNPX an annoying plastic brick. All we can do is evaluate products as they stand, though. At the time of writing, while the appeal of an all-in-one box decked out as heavily as the 7404VNPX is undeniable, and its speed is fair, we can't recommend it for purchase based on critical stability issues.

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• Dual-WAN approach
• Great signal strength

• Complex web interface
• Ugly router design
• 2.4GHz only
• Poor throughput

Design

We've complained previously about router design being a boring topic, simply because routers themselves are usually pretty boring to look at. With the 7800N, Billion has reached the zenith of this kind of router design. It's white. It's covered in vents. Frankly, it looks like a Dr Who prop. A 1970's Jon Pertwee era Dr Who prop, to be precise, rather than a more CGI-style David Tennant one. The decision to stick the antennas around the body of the router is a mildly interesting one, but when we're stating that where the antennas go is the most interesting thing you can say about a router, it's safe to say we're stretching for things to say at all.

Features

Still, the look of a router doesn't need to matter at all if it can deliver the goods. From a specification point of view, the 7800N is a pretty attractive critter. It's ADSL2/2+ compatible, or alternately uses a specific Ethernet port on the rear to connect to other network resources, so cable users (or NBN users in the theoretical future) aren't left out. The other four ports at the back are gigabit capable. WPS set-up is supported, as are features we're practically considering as "standard" across any router worth mentioning, including UPnP, QoS and an integrated firewall.

Performance

The 7800N's web interface isn't terribly attractive, but it does suffice for set-up. While this technically breaks into basic and advanced modes, in order to get the most out of the interface you'll need to be moderately networking savvy, as most of the interfaces and descriptions aren't particularly novice friendly.

Once we'd installed the 7800N, we ran it through our standard suite of signal and throughput tests. The 7800N offers only a single 2.4GHz radio, so those looking for dual-band will need to shop elsewhere.

Signal strength: 2.4GHz

At least on the signal front, the 7800N performed well. Very well, in fact, with the best figures we've seen for an 802.11n product.

Throughput, however, was a vastly different story. The 7800N's figures weren't the worst we've seen, but they're very much off the pace against newer 802.11n products, and far below the whole 300Mbps hype that 802.11n attracts. As with all of our wireless tests, results are indicative in our test location only, and depending on where you deploy a router, as well as competing signals, your results may differ.

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• Above average speakers
• Excellent battery life
• SU7300 processor should cover most needs
• Multi-touch touchpad

• No gigabit Ethernet
• Some of the bundled software isn't as slick as it could be

Design and features

Asus' UL30A follows in the footsteps of the U80V, with a piano black exterior, chiclet-styled keys and a minimalist but attractive design. One mark of difference though is the lid, in a subtle black brushed aluminium, bringing the standard up a small notch more.

As a 13.3-inch laptop with a native resolution of 1366x768, the UL30A occupies the new sweet spot for laptops, taking over from the standard 15-inch — although its positioning is even tighter than this.

While companies have rushed to fill the gap between netbook and full powered laptop by expanding their thin and light portfolio, we think the UL30A has cracked it courtesy of its Core 2 Duo ULV processor and eight-cell battery. The Dell Inspiron 13z comes similarly specced, spookily so, but we prefer the build quality of the Asus. Its official price may be AU$1399, but a quick search online will find you much cheaper prices.

The dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor clocked at 1.3GHz was in our review sample, although an SU9400 at 1.4GHz is available. ULV chips typically mean less performance than a fully fledged Core 2 Duo or Core i5/i7 system, but come with the bonus of higher battery life and lower heat output. Paired with 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD, 802.11n and Bluetooth, the UL30A is fully featured.

On the right are two USB ports, a 10/100Mb Ethernet port, headphone and microphone jacks, and an SD/MS/MMC card reader. The left is a little more sparse, with a USB port, HDMI and VGA ports. There's a hot air vent here as well, which means that left-handed external mouse users will likely end up with warmed digits when using their laptop.

On the rear is nothing but the battery, although considering the svelte nature of the UL30A this isn't a surprise, coming in at a maximum height of 24.6mm. While it starts at 1.5kg with the four-cell battery, we'd recommend putting up with the extra weight an eight-cell brings, as the bonus battery time is entirely worth it.

The UL30A features the same Elantech multi-touch touchpad as the U80V, which means horizontal and vertical scrolling can be achieved conveniently by swiping two fingers a la the MacBook Pro, right-clicking by tapping three fingers simultaneously and middle-clicking by tapping two (although this can be easily switched around if you desire). There are no pinch to zoom or rotate functions included in the software this time around.

Software

Our review sample came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed, allowing it to access the full 4GB of RAM present in the machine.

Asus also includes a 61-day Trend Micro Internet Security trial (in which amusingly if you click on Help/Support, the top solution is "How do I remove a Trend Micro product from my computer?"), CyberLink's Blu-ray disc suite (despite the lack of optical drive), a collection of trial games from Oberon Media, and Microsoft's Office 2007 Home and Student trial — so far, nothing of real value.

Things improve with Asus' own tools. Power4Gear (a battery management application) works well, although we found it conflicted with Windows 7's own power management application — if settings were changed here, Power4Gear would reset them, leading to frustration.

A newer addition to the Asus stable is FastBoot, which allows the user to delay loading applications until after the PC has finished booting, resulting in a shorter wait time until your system becomes useful. Also included is SRS' Premium Sound application, which really does make quite a difference in the quality of sound output from the laptop; FancyStart, which allows you to customise your boot image and sound; and Splendid, which lets you adjust the colour profile of your monitor, a rarity on laptop screens. While we'd avoid the bundled presets, the custom settings found under the "My Profile" section are most welcome.

Another new addition to the software bundle, ControlDeck, tends to frustrate. Its aim is to expose all the laptop configuration tools and settings in one seamless interface, presenting them stacked up on a faux-3D plane that can be cycled through to each option. While the concept is sound, it's laggy and slow to load, making it significantly more frustrating to use than simply hitting a keyboard shortcut.

Performance

As a ULV laptop with integrated Intel graphics, performance expectations should be modest — its 3DMark06 score of 814 shows this isn't a gaming machine, while its PCMark05 score of 3056 means it should be perfectly fine for office use, web browsing and basic productivity tasks. The UL30A will beyond doubt give a significantly smoother internet experience than any netbook, the SU7300 being perfectly capable of playing back our test 720p YouTube video.

Battery life is where the UL30A really shone; with all power-saving functions turned off, brightness and volume set to maximum and an XviD file played back, the UL30A stayed on for five hours, 19 minutes and 7 seconds. That's netbook battery life right there, but with more power and capability, during quite a taxing test.

If you've got modest needs, the value presented by the UL30A is hard to ignore, especially in light of its amazing battery life. Recommended.

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DPM is specifically designed to protect Microsoft workloads: Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, AD and Hyper-V. It also follows the paradigm shift for data protection sweeping through the IT industry: rely on hard disks for backup and recovery; only use tape for long-term archiving.

DPM 2010 runs only on Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 and requires the x64 version; 4GB of memory is recommended. A free version of SQL 2008 comes with DPM, but a full version of a local or remote SQL 2008 database can be used instead.

Define where DPM is going to keep its own data.
(Screenshot by Paul Schnackenburg/ZDNet.com.au)

Fire and forget

Under the hood there are several improvements in DPM 2010 designed to make it more efficient, robust, reliable, and easier to design and deploy. One improvement is data co-location. In DPM 2007, each data source needed one replica volume and one recovery point volume; in DPM 2010, multiple data sources can live on the same volume, enabling more efficient data storage. If a particular file can't be backed up for whatever reason, DPM 2007 will fail the entire job; DPM 2010 will continue backing up and provide a list at the end of files that weren't protected.

A common occurrence in DPM 2007 was inconsistent replicas (where the data on the DPM server doesn't match the data on the production server), requiring manual involvement to run a consistency check. In DPM 2010, this will automatically happen. Another issue that could occur in DPM 2007 was that the data source grew unexpectedly, leaving the replica volume to be too small; DPM 2010 will auto-grow volumes by 25 per cent to avoid backups failing due to lack of disk space.

DPM 2010 has also received significant scalability enhancements. Preliminary figures indicate a fan-in rate (the number of servers that can talk to a single DPM server) of 100 production servers for each DPM server, or 1000 workstations or 2000 SQL Server databases and about 80TB of data on one server (early adopters have brought this figure to 200TB). When a large number of databases is going to be backed up, you can designate which databases to back up in parallel, thus making sure disk traffic is spread across disk spindles efficiently.

Various data sources can be added to a protection group; for instance, protecting the legal department's files, databases and mailboxes according to a particular schedule.
(Screenshot by Paul Schnackenburg/ZDNet.com.au)

Another interesting feature in DPM 2010 is the concept of end user recovery for databases. Given the right permissions, a DBA can use a separate application to recover an SQL database from any recovery point to either an administrator specified alternate instance of SQL, or to a network share.

Client computers anyone?

Whilst DPM 2007 could protect client computers, the assumption was that these were permanently connected desktops. Trying to back up laptops, for instance, generated numerous errors if the data source was "on the road". DPM 2010 fundamentally improves on this model by providing comprehensive protection for both desktops and laptops running Windows XP and above. Policies for client backups are defined centrally, but users can optionally be allowed to change items to be included in backups, as well as manage their own backups.

Various folders can be included or excluded on client computers.
(Screenshot by Paul Schnackenburg/ZDNet.com.au)

DPM can synchronise backups from client computers whilst they're remotely connected to the corporate network via VPN connections (PPTP, SSTP or L2TP); 1Mbps is a suggested minimum bandwidth. Direct Access (a type of VPN only offered in Windows Server 2008 R2 with Windows 7 clients) will not be supported at the release of DPM 2010. Restores of protected files are integrated with the Previous Versions function in Windows, so users don't need to learn a different method of retrieving files.

End users can easily see how the backups of their machines are going.
(Screenshot by Paul Schnackenburg/ZDNet.com.au)

DPM virtualisation

The recent release of Windows Server 2008 R2, and the included Hyper-V virtualisation platform, brought many important improvements, not the least of which is Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV), essentially a way to store the files for multiple VMs in the same area in a Storage Area Network (SAN). This is required for scalability of Hyper-V implementations, but has caused issues for backup vendors as they struggle to make sure their solutions know how to "talk to" a CSV volume.

DPM 2010 fully supports CSV; DPM 2007 doesn't, and won't in the future. Be aware that although DPM supports both software and hardware snapshot providers for backing up VMs on CSV, the latter will be significantly faster and impact VM performance less. A VM can be recovered to the original host, to an alternate host or to a network folder. There's a PowerShell script (like all System Center products, DPM is totally built on PowerShell) to automatically protect new VMs that are created on a host.

In DPM 2007, the choice was either putting a DPM agent on just the virtualisation host, or putting an agent on each VM. The host-based agent essentially allowed you to roll back a whole VM to a particular point in time, but not recover individual files inside the VM, whereas an agent inside a VM could recover individual files or Exchange/SQL data. The problem is, of course, cost: multiple DPM agent costs more money. DPM 2010 allows item-level recovery (ILR) inside a VM with only a host-based backup, and although this is limited to files (not Exchange/SQL databases), it's a fantastic addition, providing more flexibility in backup design. To make this work, the Hyper-V role has to be installed on the DPM server.

New kids on the block

As is to be expected, DPM 2010 protects SharePoint 2010 and Exchange 2010. For the latter, protection of Data Availability Groups (DAGs) is comprehensive, and different types of backups can be organised for different database copies. Restores of databases can be made to the original location, to an alternative server, to an Exchange Recovery database, or to a network share.

Recovery is as easy as pie in DPM. (Screenshot by Paul Schnackenburg/ZDNet.com.au)

The biggest addition in SharePoint 2010 is that a recovery farm is no longer necessary for restoring documents or lists. New content databases in a given farm are also automatically protected by DPM 2010, without having to be manually configured.

You're the strongest link in the chain

Many businesses have a mandate to "keep the tapes offsite" to provide disaster recovery (DR) in case of a major disaster, but the required infrastructure involving couriers and safe tape handling can be onerous. DPM offers a better solution.

DPM 2007 allowed one DPM server to protect another, primarily as a DR feature. In your primary datacentre one or more primary DPM servers protected production servers and these DPM servers were then backed up to an offsite DPM server. For minor disasters, recovery could be done from local DPM servers; in the case of a major datacentre disaster, recovery was provided from the offsite DPM server.

DPM 2010 provides considerably more flexibility, where two DPM servers can protect each other. This is excellent for scenarios with two datacentres that are both in use, perhaps serving different geographical areas. Chaining is another scenario, where a primary DPM server is protected by a secondary server, which in turn is protected by a third DPM server. In DPM 2007, switching a secondary DPM server to be the primary backup target required a PowerShell script; in DPM 2010, this can be done with a right-click in the management console.

The boss always likes colourful reports to know how things are going. (Screenshot by Paul Schnackenburg/ZDNet.com.au)

An option for storage of backups, other than disk or tape is backing up to the cloud through a company called Iron Mountain. DPM 2010 can also be bought as a preconfigured backup appliance from i365 which extends the capability of DPM with software to backup non Windows platforms.

My network, my domain

In our opinion, possibly the biggest change in DPM 2010 barely makes a single bullet point in the new features list: support for workgroup/non domain joined computers. In enterprise environments, this makes it possible to protect servers in a perimeter/DMZ network by manually configuring them to talk to the DPM server.

More importantly, this feature makes another scenario possible in the SMB market space: your IT service provider can now remotely back up your server, as well as maintain your environment. A DPM 2010 server is located at the IT service provider, and an agent is manually configured at the small business to back up to the DPM server over the internet.

A good solution just got better

DPM 2007 was a very comprehensive product for protecting Microsoft workloads; DPM 2010 takes this foundation and makes a good product even better, even more reliable and smarter, as well as more flexible. If you have a mostly Microsoft environment, DPM is a logical choice. In heterogeneous environments, DPM also fits well by protecting what it is best at and then letting the enterprise backup solution back up DPM.

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• Multi-touch screen
• Full-sized keyboard
• Sturdy build

• No trackpad
• SimpleTap software is laggy and slow

Design and features

The X200 Tablet keeps to the ThinkPad philosophy of style, meaning it's devoid of any. But despite this, its compact size makes it attractive to those going for the austere business look.

Like the previous model, the X200 eschews the trackpad but now comes with a multi-touch screen to take advantage of Windows 7's better touch support. This plus the TrackPoint helps it to overcome the lack of a trackpad, making this a much more viable option for those who need a laptop while on the move.

The screen is 12.1 inches in size and has a widescreen native resolution of 1280x800. It comes in a matte finish, helping to ward off the bright lights of office environments and the inevitable finger smudges left across its touchscreen. As this is a tablet PC, the screen can be rotated and laid flat like a notebook. The hinge can be rotated both ways and feels sturdy, while the screen can be locked down to the base when being used in tablet form to prevent accidental openings. Placed along edge of the screen are a series of buttons that include power, logout and orientate screen, though the latter can be temperamental at times with some orientations not working.

Lenovo includes SimpleTap, a program that takes advantage of the touchscreen by overlaying the screen with customisable control icons, such as changing the screen brightness or adjusting the sound volume, invoked by double tapping with two fingers. While useful, it does tend to lag horribly and would be more useful if it loaded quicker.

The company also encourages the use of fingers when interacting with the touchscreen, but doing so can lead to a lot of frustration as it's not entirely accurate. Accessing the edges of the screen can be difficult too where the X200's bezel gets in the way, so we'd stick to using the included stylus pen.

As is usual with ThinkPads, the chassis feels sturdy but it isn't as thin as its previous iteration by virtue of the multi-touch screen. Additionally, you'll also get some extra bulk if you choose to go with the eight-cell battery, making the compact laptop not quite so compact. The X200 also features a near full-sized keyboard making typing a breeze.

A generous three USB ports are included, as is gigabit Ethernet, an ExpressCard slot and a VGA output plug. Due to Lenovo's high customisability, you can also optionally select a five-in-one or three-in-one memory card reader, in-built modem and WAN, fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth and webcam, though no optical drive can be added. It also comes with Windows 7 Pro 32-bit as standard, though the 64-bit version is available for no extra charge.

Performance

Our review build came equipped with an Intel SL9400 1.86GHz low voltage processor, 2GB of RAM and an integrated Intel GMA X4500 graphics chip. It managed to score 841 points in 3DMark06, which is a respectable result, but don't expect to play games very well. It also scored a nice 4037 in PCMark05, so it'll have more than enough processing power to handle any office applications you throw at it.

The eight-cell battery managed to last three hours and 14 minutes during our power test, which isn't nearly as long as the normal X200, probably due to the power demands of the touchscreen. While you can probably squeeze more out of the battery while on the move, it still is a little disappointing when compared to the standard X200.

Overall, switching to a tablet format has solved the X200's navigation woes caused by the lack of a trackpad, but at the expense of a little size and a lot of battery life. If you're looking for a tablet PC, it's hard to look past. But if you're just looking for a good portable laptop, then it's hard to justify the extra cost of the touchscreen.

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• Apple's industry leading design

• Poor performance for its price
• Not as living-room-friendly as its Windows-based competition

Apple's newest iMacs, especially the 27-inch model, offer strong value thanks to their fast performance, good looks and large, attractive displays. The new Mac Mini is not quite as compelling. We're looking at only the AU$1099 2.53GHz model in this review, and with its particular combination of size and features, it competes in a strange middle ground. It's mostly fast enough to stand side by side with Windows-based PCs in its price range, but despite its size it doesn't offer the same flexibility as other small desktops. The AU$1099 Mac Mini retains the appeal Mac Minis have always had for those who want a small not-quite-budget Mac for day-to-day productivity. For any other purpose, you'd be much better off with a system from one of the Mac Mini's Windows-based competitors.

The new Mac Mini, introduced by Apple back in October, received no changes to its physical design or external features compared with the last revision this past March. The case is still made from a combination of aluminium and plastic, and the size remains a svelte 50.8mm tall by 165.1mm wide and deep. Ports appear on the back of the Mac Mini only, and include five USB 2.0 ports, analog audio jacks, a gigabit Ethernet output, a FireWire 800 port, and both Mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort outputs for video. Unlike the new 27-inch iMac, the Mini DisplayPort on the new Mac Mini does not double as a video input. A Mini DVI-to-DVI adapter comes in the box. You'll need to pay extra for adapters in other formats.

The changes to the new AU$1099 Mac Mini include a 2.0GHz to 2.53GHz clock speed bump to the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4GB of RAM, up from 2GB last time. With more system memory, the Mac Mini can also allocate more RAM to the GeForce 9400M video chip, which goes from 128MB to 256MB. While it still has a standard-definition DVD burner, the Mac Mini is capable enough to play 1080p HD video files with no noticeable stutter.

The Gateway SX2800-01 might be the best comparison for the Mac Mini among desktops we've reviewed, but Dell's new Inspiron Zino HD is an equally appropriate match-up because of its small, boxy design — we should have the Zino review up soon. The Gateway above is also not the most up-to-date version of that system. It has been replaced by new models with new features and Windows 7.

Sticking to what we've seen, however, even the older Gateway SX2800-01 shows a few of the Mac Mini's shortcomings. The Gateway doesn't have wireless networking like the Mac Mini, but that's really its only flaw. Since Wi-Fi is easy and cheap to add either via a USB stick or an internal card, it's also an easy enough thing to fix in the Gateway. The Gateway offers twice as much hard-drive space, and, more importantly, you can output video via its HDMI port. That makes the Gateway living-room-ready out of the box. Apple, in sticking to Mini-DisplayPort and Mini DVI, requires you to jump through a few adapter hoops before you can easily connect the Mac Mini to a television.

We've updated our OS X benchmarks to accommodate recent versions of iTunes and QuickTime, so although we've been able to double-test some older Windows PCs, the Gateway SX2800-01 went back to Gateway before we were able to retest. Thus, we can only compare the Gateway with the Mac Mini on two of our four application tests.

You'll see Gateway edge out the Mac Mini on Photoshop and our multithreaded Cinebench test. Our hunch is that the Gateway would fall behind the Mac Mini on iTunes and our multitasking test. The reason is the Mac's faster core CPU clock speed and the general memory efficiency of OS X versus that of Windows 7, which typically helps Macs achieve excellent multitasking performance. The Asus desktop also has a faster Core 2 Quad chip than the Gateway, and it falls behind the Mac Mini on both of those tests.

Even if we don't speculate about the Gateway's performance, we would expect the more expensive Mac Mini to distance itself across the board. That the Mac Mini falters on any of our tests next to the Gateway suggests a weak price-performance ratio. Yes, the Mac Mini is fast enough so that performing common tasks won't seem like a chore, but relative to its price, and with few other features to recommend it, this AU$1099 Mac is a poor deal.

For the fun of it, we also went to configure a Dell Inspiron Zino HD to try to match the Mac Mini. The Dell's CPU selection skews lower than the Mac Mini, which suggests that Dell has only the living room in mind for its new small form factor PC. But after choosing the best AMD CPU available for the Zino, we bumped the RAM up to 4GB, the hard drive up to 320GB, added 802.11n wireless networking, and the price came out to AU$817.90. With the Blu-ray drive and graphics card options, the price is AU$1130.30. Granted, this Dell would likely fall behind the Mac Mini on our benchmarks, but with Blu-ray and the included HDMI video output, the AU$817.90 Inspiron Zino HD seems to be a far more versatile living room system.

Perhaps it's small consolation since we don't really recommend buying this desktop, but like Apple's other systems, the Mac Mini's power efficiency is nothing short of amazing given its specs. We've seen full-fledged net tops that consume more power. Whatever Apple's secret, it works consistently.

Finally, Apple's service and support policies remain out of step with the rest of the industry because of its all-or-considerably-less approach. The default plan covers parts and labour for a year, but you only get phone support for 90 days post-purchase. To extend the service you have only the AU$229 AppleCare option, which nets you three years of warranty and phone coverage. With only 90 days of phone protection otherwise, Apple falls about 270 days short of every other major desktop vendor.

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