The top 10 products of 2010
Connecting state and local government leaders
The GCN Lab picks the best of the best from the products it reviewed this year. Any of these superstar products will serve well in the office, and do it better than other products in its class.
The criteria are fairly simple. First, they have to earn that Reviewer’s Choice designation, which is no small feat. Then, they must shine above and beyond even that elite group. This year, only 10 products hit that very high mark.
It’s been a challenging year for most companies — and most people for that matter. The economy has been sluggish, and that seems to have stifled innovation somewhat, at least in the traditional sense. We didn’t see many companies adding big, expensive features to their products unless they offered a huge amount back in terms of usability.
However, there was a lot of innovation in another sense. Companies learned to do more with less. The best products on the list this year were less expensive than comparable products that earned this award even a few years ago. Although it might be a necessity in this economy to advance computing power with fewer resources and then pass those savings on to users, it’s also very impressive. In that regard, these are some of the most impressive best-of-the-best winners that we’ve seen in years.
Each year, the GCN Lab reviews about 300 technology products designed to be useful for government workers.
This year, we haven’t ordered the list in any special way. Every product deserves its slot, and it had to beat stiff competition to do it. It wouldn’t really be fair to further compare a printer to a laptop or an office suite to a wireless router. The truth is that any of these superstar products would serve well in any office, and they would do it better than other products in their class. This is the best tech that 2010 has to offer.
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MacBook Pro shines in dual environments Apple’s MacBook line has always offered some powerful and ergonomically pleasant laptops, and the MacBook Pro 15-inch is no exception. |
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Hollywood inspires most accurate LCD we’ve ever seen At first glance, it might seem as though the HP DreamColor LP2480zx is bucking the trend of offering top-notch technology at a relatively inexpensive price. But the DreamColor fills a vital need for some users that has never been accomplished before. |
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Dell Latitude E6400 XFR is as tough as they come |
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A printer that speaks the language of better images You can get an accurate image from almost any printer by manipulating the print driver, but doing so usually requires a skill akin to alchemy. That’s not the case with the Xerox Phaser 7500DN. |
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Samsung Captivate makes good use of its Android OS The Samsung Captivate is a perfect example how a little bit of innovation can go a long way toward helping a product stand above the rest of the pack. And that type of innovation doesn’t have to raise the price by even a dime. |
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WordPerfect X5 lives up to its name When a new version of an office suite comes out, we're never certain what to expect. Sometimes, there are major changes that don’t make sense, and other times, there are barely any recognizable changes. Neither was the case with WordPerfect Office X5. |
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Toughbook 31 combines powerhouse performance with long battery life When most people think of Panasonic, TVs come to mind. But those in the government market know it is also the king of rugged gear, like the Toughbook 31. |
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HP TouchSmart’s touch screen a delight to work with When a network administrator needs to replace both a desktop and monitor, one possible solution is to get an all-in-one computer. The TouchSmart 9100 from Hewlett-Packard could be just the ticket. |
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ProSafe Wireless-N VPN Firewall router big on features, capacity When the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ratified the 802.11n wireless standard late last year, we knew there would be an influx of new wireless routers on the market. But the one that was best overall in our tests was the Netgear ProSafe Wireless-N VPN Firewall. |
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With SoloPro, backup data is safe at home It’s all well and good to back up data, but if there is a flood or fire, it won’t matter how many on-site copies you’ve made. The ioSafe SoloPro USB 3.0 makes sure that your data will survive such disasters. |