Best Computer Printers
Its Full HD Movie Print feature takes a frame from an HD movie recorded on a compatible EOS, PowerShot, or VIXIA camera or camcorder and prints it as a photo, ensuring you never miss a photo opportunity while shooting video. Built-In Auto Duplex Printing: Automatically print on both sides of the page without the hassle of turning it over manually.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is my first review on any product on Amazon, this review will be on the Canon PIXMA MX922 Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax. First to the complaints on the wireless air-print from Ios or Android, if you setup the printer using WPS your phone will never pick up the printer or will appear offline. Also the printer by default will print even all Black and White documents in the color setting because it brings a better quality this can simply be changed in your printer settings in your control panel to Black and White so most regular text documents will use the XXL cartridge which lasts for ever. With this setting changed if the page has color it stills prints in color.Compared to other printers when one cartridge runs out the printer will not continue to print until the ink cartridge is changed. One of the few downfalls of this printer is the size it really is a rather large printer compared to other all in one printers in it's class so take that into consideration."
"My printing needs have diminished over the years as I have become increasingly more digital in document storage, online financial transactions, etc. I never turn it off as it has a low-power state (automatic after a few minutes of inactivity) where everything powers down with only one small, blue light glowing. If I send something to the printer it immediately comes to life, takes a few moments to warm up and (this is cool) the paper output tray *automatically* opens and the extension support flips out! :-) Also, if I place one or more documents in the scanner slot (while in low power mode) then it instantly springs to life and takes a few moments to warm up. :-) Now I don't FAX much these days, but it's nice to know that it is hooked into the "clone" line through my PhonePower VOIP adapter (2 ports) and therefore is available upon demand. Final analysis: This machine's capabilities pleasantly exceeded my expectations, even after reading the specs and reviews. It has proven to be fairly equal in functionality to the Xerox multi-function machine at work, but at a fraction of the cost. UPDATE, 11-24-13: I had occasion to send my sister a letter today (she hates email) so I typed one up and hit the print button. Apart from a slight smudge at the top (probably due to inactivity for several months) the letter printed out flawlessly, including the photo. UPDATE, 08-24-15: Earlier in the year I decided to start creating my own greeting cards (using CorelDraw) and printing out 5x7 photos for b-day gifts to relatives and friends (from PhotoShop). For those wanting to find them, do a search on Amazon for "MX922 compatible ink cartridges" and look for Blake Printing Supply."
"The best wireless support I've ever seen in a printer. I worked with Canon technical support, and they say that the printer has to be serviced or replaced."
The HL-L2340DW Compact Laser Printer can expedite all of your printing needs via an adjustable paper tray that handles letter or legal-size paper and a manual feed slot for printing envelopes and letterheads. A manual feed slot with rear paper exit provides a straight-through path—ensuring all printed materials are top quality. Print from your mobile device via: Air print, Google cloud Print, Brother iPrint & Scan, cortado workplace, Wi-Fi Direct.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The printer immediately appeared in Mac OS X 10.9's "Nearby Printers" list, and drivers were automatically downloaded and configured the first time I attempted to print to it. One word of warning: when the printer decides that it's time to replace the toner, it will simply stop printing, even if there's still adequate toner remaining. It's easy to set on the printer itself (General Setup -> Replace Toner -> Continue), or via the web interface."
"It will connect wireless to the router, which is fine for most people."
"I went to install it like every other printer I've ever used by plugging it into power and my PC.. wrong! I downloaded the software at http://www.brother-usa.com/support/ModelInfo.aspx?R3ModelID=HLL2340DW#.VF0y6fldXch and installed it using the Wireless method (you have to be plugged in so you can easily setup WiFi on it via your computer, this option in the install is just telling the installation how you plan to use it so it can take the next steps accordingly). This was a very, very, easy to install wireless printer. My main purpose for this printer was wireless, random printing of documents. You are paying a bit more initially for the printer, but between the volume of prints it is capable of yielding on a single toner cartridge and the efficiency, it'll more than pay for itself! Think about it, up to 2600 prints for $50 (if you choose to buy the main brand toner replacement, or go ahead and buy the knock off brand for $17 and save money, or heck, look up on youtube "how to refill toner for Brother HL-L2340 printer" and you're sure to see some great tutorials and save even more money!). or you can go out and buy a $30 inkjet printer that gets 200-300 prints per cartridge, but how often do you end up replacing that cartridge? Multiply that by 5 (how many of those you'd go through to achieve the print volume of one toner cartridge for a laser printer) and that's about $175 depending on the inkjet/cartridges."
Connect via wireless networking or USB. Wireless and wired networking,Standalone copying,Print Technology : B/W Laser Technology.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have been tinkering with and building computers since the mid 90's, and this one threw me for a loop for a few hours. You could not pull toner levels from it, load it's browser-based interface, or send print jobs. Upgrading the firmware seemed to fix a lot of people's' problems but it did not fix my problem. To cut to the chase, these are the 3 settings I changed to fix this problem. Once you're at the web-interface, these are the settings that I changed: General Tab> Status> Automatic Refresh: On. 1) Network Tab> Wireless Sub-Tab> TCP/IP (Wireless)> Boot Method: STATIC. 2) Network Tab> Wireless Sub-Tab> TCP/IP (Wireless)> Enable APIPA: UN-CHECKED. 3) Network Tab> Wireless Sub-Tab> TCP/IP (Wireless)> IPv6 Sub-Menu> IPv6: Enabled. All other settings left stock."
"Good for light to moderate black and white printing, copying, and scanning. * GENERAL INFORMATION and SET UP. This Brother DCPL2540DW Monochrome Laser Multi Function Printer / Copier / Scanner has a small footprint, and comes with a 35 page automatic document feeder (ADF), adjustable 250 page capacity paper tray, starter toner cartridge, but not a USB cable (most printers these days don't ship with USB / printer cables anymore). Once that software suite has been installed, if you bring up the Devices and Printers view from the Windows Control Panel and right-click on the icon for this printer, you'll see that the context menu that pops up has separate Printing Preferences and Printer Properties menu items. After some initial testing of the printing and scanning functionalities (discussed more below), I went back to the MFL-Pro Software Suite mentioned above to set the device up for wireless operations, which required some software to be installed, detection of your network, and providing the appropriate password for your wireless network. To save money, if the documents you're printing are not that important, you can enable 'Toner Save' option, and / or print multiple document pages per output page. You can use different sized paper, including legal and envelopes, by just adjusting the paper guides. * SCANNING. You can scan by putting your documents through the automatic document feeder or placing them one at a time onto the scanner glass. There is an on-device SCAN button that you can press, but I find it easier to control scanning using the software installed on my Windows computer. In my testing, I can confirm that saving results into JPEG, PDF, and Searchable PDFs did work without a problem at all (I did not attempt to save the results into the other possible formats)."
"Most Brother printers have a secret sequence of buttons that you can press to bypass the low toner warning, but this one does not, and it completely stops printing until you give it a brand new cartridge. Based on what I can find on messageboard forums with other users having identical issues, this seems to be a reasonably widespread problem, and it happened to mine."
Best Dot Matrix Computer Printers
Features lightweight samarium cobalt magnet and powerful, spring-activated pins to deliver a stronger punch?right to the last page of a 6-part form! Dot matrix printer features a narrow carriage, 435 cps print speed and 128 kB RAM.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The Oki Microline 320 worked perfectly, although I did have some unexpected issues with my win 7 computer halfway through and ended up finishing on a win10."
"Got this one to replace the older 25-pin version connection."
"This is a great printer, and is fairly easy to get working, although cycling through the menu system to turn off certain functions can be a bother. It will print labels just fine and pound through multi part forms quite nicely."
"I currently have 6 of these, and two of them are over 7 years old."
"Old type still required for some forms, it was a must have."
"Periodic maintenance (compressed air to blow out paper) is about the only thing you need to do."
"Will this last as long as my older unit that finally died I can't say."
Best Inkjet Computer Printers
Its Full HD Movie Print feature takes a frame from an HD movie recorded on a compatible EOS, PowerShot, or VIXIA camera or camcorder and prints it as a photo, ensuring you never miss a photo opportunity while shooting video. Built-In Auto Duplex Printing: Automatically print on both sides of the page without the hassle of turning it over manually.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is my first review on any product on Amazon, this review will be on the Canon PIXMA MX922 Wireless Color Photo Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax. First to the complaints on the wireless air-print from Ios or Android, if you setup the printer using WPS your phone will never pick up the printer or will appear offline. Also the printer by default will print even all Black and White documents in the color setting because it brings a better quality this can simply be changed in your printer settings in your control panel to Black and White so most regular text documents will use the XXL cartridge which lasts for ever. With this setting changed if the page has color it stills prints in color.Compared to other printers when one cartridge runs out the printer will not continue to print until the ink cartridge is changed. One of the few downfalls of this printer is the size it really is a rather large printer compared to other all in one printers in it's class so take that into consideration."
"My printing needs have diminished over the years as I have become increasingly more digital in document storage, online financial transactions, etc. I never turn it off as it has a low-power state (automatic after a few minutes of inactivity) where everything powers down with only one small, blue light glowing. If I send something to the printer it immediately comes to life, takes a few moments to warm up and (this is cool) the paper output tray *automatically* opens and the extension support flips out! :-) Also, if I place one or more documents in the scanner slot (while in low power mode) then it instantly springs to life and takes a few moments to warm up. :-) Now I don't FAX much these days, but it's nice to know that it is hooked into the "clone" line through my PhonePower VOIP adapter (2 ports) and therefore is available upon demand. Final analysis: This machine's capabilities pleasantly exceeded my expectations, even after reading the specs and reviews. It has proven to be fairly equal in functionality to the Xerox multi-function machine at work, but at a fraction of the cost. UPDATE, 11-24-13: I had occasion to send my sister a letter today (she hates email) so I typed one up and hit the print button. Apart from a slight smudge at the top (probably due to inactivity for several months) the letter printed out flawlessly, including the photo. UPDATE, 08-24-15: Earlier in the year I decided to start creating my own greeting cards (using CorelDraw) and printing out 5x7 photos for b-day gifts to relatives and friends (from PhotoShop). For those wanting to find them, do a search on Amazon for "MX922 compatible ink cartridges" and look for Blake Printing Supply."
"The best wireless support I've ever seen in a printer. I worked with Canon technical support, and they say that the printer has to be serviced or replaced."
Best Desktop Label Printers
Type text quickly on the computer-style QWERTY keyboard, edit with one-touch fast-formatting keys and print for perfect, professional labels every time. Next, press the power button repeatedly twenty times to reset the unit back to factory settings. Single Unit Includes: LabelManager 160 Label Maker, D1 Starter Label Cassette Black on White, 1/2" x 10', Quick Start Guide, 1-Year Limited Warranty.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"in them). ****************************************************************************************. *** The truth about actual label costs (Pictures will be attached to this review) ***. ****************************************************************************************. I printed out labels using a Brother P-Touch PT-2030 and the DYMO LabelManager 160 and these were the results of my findings: As of the time of this writing, the DYMO 1/2" D-1 label roll is selling for $14 and includes 23 feet (276 inches) of label. As of the time of this writing, the Brother 1/2" P-Touch label roll is selling for $11 and includes 26.2 feet (314 inches) of label. I printed two labels that had this text in 24pt BOLD "TEST-XX-01". The DYMO label that was printed including wasted space on both sides was 2.75" in length which would allow 100 labels to be printed on a $14 roll. *** $0.14 per label. The Brother label that was printed including wasted space on both sides was 4" in length which would allow 78 labels to be printed on the $11 roll. *** $0.14 per label. *** TIE ***. I printed two labels that had this text in 24pt BOLD "255.255.255.255". The DYMO label that was printed including wasted space on both sides was 3.375" (3 3/8") in length which would allow 81 labels on $14 roll. *** $0.17 per label. The Brother label that was printed including wasted space on both sides was 4.5" in length which would allow 69 labels on a $11 roll. *** $0.16 per label. *** BROTHER WINS ***. The DYMO would win with smaller labels, it seems that my first label tested is about the tie breaker in size. Bottom line: If you print SMALL labels, you will get more for your money using a DYMO label printer with less waste per label. If you print larger labels, you will get more for your money using a BROTHER label printer even though it waste more per label. The DYMO generally prints more labels per roll than the brother, even though there is less label per cart, however the Brother label is cheaper at this time."
"It's the perfect size. It prints super clear. It has a button for clip art designs and pictures! It can write multiple lines on a single strip! Just grab this and a 2 pack of 23 foot long rolls and you'll love the thing! The tape cutter is very smooth and comes out from the top instead of the sides like other label makers!"
"I love labeling things and was so happy to receive this label maker."
"This is the only new Dymo labeler I could find that used that same cartridge, so I bought it and it's actually pretty cool! And you print right from the computer!"
"It does the job, and as an added bonus, it's actually easy to peel the backing off. The labeler is fun to use and comes with a rechargeable battery."
"Why did no one mention it requires a power adapter sold separately (mentioned in a blip) or a bunch of AAA batteries?"
Best Laser Computer Printers
Thanks to its lightning-quick printing speed of up to 27 ppm and automatic duplex printing, it's ideal for producing business documents including multi-page reports, spreadsheets, invoices, and more. For those with multiple devices, the wireless connectivity feature permits employees or visitors to your office to print documents directly from their mobile devices. Print from your mobile device via: Air print, Google cloud Print, Brother iPrint & Scan, cortado workplace, Wi-Fi Direct.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The printer immediately appeared in Mac OS X 10.9's "Nearby Printers" list, and drivers were automatically downloaded and configured the first time I attempted to print to it. One word of warning: when the printer decides that it's time to replace the toner, it will simply stop printing, even if there's still adequate toner remaining. It's easy to set on the printer itself (General Setup -> Replace Toner -> Continue), or via the web interface."
"It will connect wireless to the router, which is fine for most people."
"I went to install it like every other printer I've ever used by plugging it into power and my PC.. wrong! I downloaded the software at http://www.brother-usa.com/support/ModelInfo.aspx?R3ModelID=HLL2340DW#.VF0y6fldXch and installed it using the Wireless method (you have to be plugged in so you can easily setup WiFi on it via your computer, this option in the install is just telling the installation how you plan to use it so it can take the next steps accordingly). This was a very, very, easy to install wireless printer. My main purpose for this printer was wireless, random printing of documents. You are paying a bit more initially for the printer, but between the volume of prints it is capable of yielding on a single toner cartridge and the efficiency, it'll more than pay for itself! Think about it, up to 2600 prints for $50 (if you choose to buy the main brand toner replacement, or go ahead and buy the knock off brand for $17 and save money, or heck, look up on youtube "how to refill toner for Brother HL-L2340 printer" and you're sure to see some great tutorials and save even more money!). or you can go out and buy a $30 inkjet printer that gets 200-300 prints per cartridge, but how often do you end up replacing that cartridge? Multiply that by 5 (how many of those you'd go through to achieve the print volume of one toner cartridge for a laser printer) and that's about $175 depending on the inkjet/cartridges."
Best Multi-Function Printers
Epson Expression ET-2750 EcoTank Wireless Color All-in-One Supertank Printer with Scanner and Copier
That’s an incredible amount of ink — enough to print up to 5,200 pages (2), and equivalent to about 30 ink cartridge sets (3). Actual ink yields will vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer maintenance, and all colors must be available for printing. Equivalent cartridge sets estimate based on print yields of the included Black and color ink bottles as compared to Epson standard-capacity ink cartridge sets for similarly featured cartridge printers as of March 2017. Savings comparison based on the purchase cost of replacement ink bottles and the cost of enough cartridges to achieve the total page yields of the bottles using the manufacturers’ online prices and yields for the highest-capacity cartridges for the best-selling, similarly featured consumer inkjet printers priced at $499 or less per NPD, July 2016. Actual ink yields will vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer maintenance, and all colors must be available for printing. Easy wireless — easily print from iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and smartphones (5); includes Wi-Fi Direct (6).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I will update this section over time , also check out my maintenance section below to keep your printer healthy and prevent the ink from drying. ECOTANK & ITS COST EFFECTIVENESS. - Inkjet printers have long been sold on the razor-blade model - Sell printers for cheap/at-loss and make money off the refills. But it also kind of makes sense for the manufacturer as well because (thanks to ink refills & remanufactured cartridges) the use of their original replacements isn't always guaranteed (which they count on to make profit). - Without getting into too much specifics, but considering the high upfront cost of this printer you can expect to break even in terms of costs after you've gone through the first ink bottle set and printed thousands of pages. PRINT QUALITY. - The overall print quality of the printer is very good , comparable to other standard inkjet printers with sharp inky-black text without banding and bright colors. I've included several pictures of text and color printouts at various quality settings and paper types. - One thing I would like to stress on is that while the print quality is good, it is not as good as speciality photo printer and is comparable to other standard inkjet printers. The 'Standard-Vivid' profile is better for graphic intensive prints. - Considering that its an inkjet (where speed is inverse to quality) , the printer still prints at a good speed even at the 'Best' print quality. It sucks back up the page after it prints the first side and flips it internally to print the other side without any issues. - It also supports borderless prints. - Works with Google Cloud print, Apple AirPrint and has its own cloud printing service/mobile app called Epson Connect. - I did not find the printer too noisy. SCANNER QUALITY. - The scanner on this printer is actually very good and does not seem like an afterthought . It scans documents with crisp text and pictures with sharp colors. - See my sample scanned image of a brochure. REPLACEMENT INK & YIELDS. - This printer uses a new replacement ink model : T502. - The black ink bottle currently costs $19.99 and the tri-color (C,Y,M) combo pack costs $41.99 or $13.99 for individual colors on Epson.com. - Based on the price history of the replacement inks for the previous generation printers , they tend to be very stable and only go down a dollar or two occasionally. - The claim of 'prints upto 7000 pages or 2 years' is only for a very specific test pattern called "ISO/IEC 24712" you can google it for its images. This does not affect two sided printing either. - The scanner makes a squeaky sound while scanning , no biggie though. MAINTENANCE & PREVENTING INK DRYING. - One of the biggest enemy for inkjet printers is the issue of ink drying and clogs if they are not used frequently enough ... - This is an even more important factor for this printer - because Epson printers use what is known as a 'Piezoelectric Printhead' which is a type of a permanent mechanical printhead which allows more finer control of ink droplet size than HP/Canon. and that "Turn printer off if not in use for long periods of time and print a few pages at least once a month to maintain good print quality". - So I decided I am not taking any chances with it and created a small Windows task to print a test page once every week & and a reminder on my phone to turn on the printer that day . If you have any questions on the above steps I'll be happy to answer them. FINAL THOUGHTS. Overall I really like the ET-2750 it is has very good print quality which is good enough for Business use , has tons of ink that really does work out cheaper in the long run than conventional printers or ink plans."
"I think I will be printing more photos now, especially since I can now print from my other devices. The printer will complain if you change the settings in google cloud, so you do need to then tell the printer it is OK to print with say, photo paper. When printing on photo paper, with the highest settings the images are excellent. Not quite as good as a commercial printed photo, but indistinguishable when viewed from about 6 inches way. I will say that it did not do well with printing astrophotography, the black ink is not as black as that from commercially printed photos. Cons: The ink does not appear as bright in the printer as it does in the photo here. When you are aligning the printer, it will print a page numbered from top to bottom along the left and with squares from right to left. Photo on the left was printed by the printer using "copy" with normal resolution setting on photo paper, photo on right is original."
"HP solved this problem for me by monitoring my ink levels and letting me sign up for ink delivery from them - for a lot less than the ink cartridges themselves were costing me. Epson has taken care of this by eliminating the cartridges altogether, and shipping this printer with about two years worth of ink, all still in the bottles. I will say that the ink level indicators on the front of the printer do NOT look like they do in the picture, but it's still easy to tell when you need to add in to the tank."
Best Computer Routers
Style: 3-Pack. A simple app gets you set up quickly and allows you to see what’s connected, prioritize devices, and pause the Wi-Fi on kids’ devices.Family controls allow you to pause the WiFi on kids' devices, like during.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"On WiFi using the 5 Ghz band, which Google WiFi chooses automatically (it chooses between 2.4 Ghz or 5 Ghz band, whichever signal is better, providing you have BOTH bands available), I get full speed (speedtest.net shows 110 Mbps down, 6 mbps up) as if I was on a wired connection. I thought I would have to get a crazy expensive gaming router with 20 antennas that looks like Sauron's helmet from Lord of the Rings to get those speeds, but Google WiFi does that for $170 less and it has cool sci-fi-ish looks. To get full WiFi speed, make sure your device (PC, laptop, tablet, phone, etc.). The Google WiFi router only has two ethernet ports, one of which is used to connect to the modem."
"You will notice the difference in internet speeds in my picture once I switched over to google wifi (June 14). People have complained about loss of flexibity and tweaking since they have to use their phone to configure the google network. I can view network traffic, turn off internet for the kids and see how many devices are connected at the click of a button on my phone."
"I've tried Wi-Fi extenders, Wireless Access Points, and Powerline adapters with little to no success...and then Google Wi-Fi walked into my life. Adding the wifi points to the OnHub router allows you to create a mesh network that covers your entire house while allowing your laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other devices to seamlessly switch between the closest access point with the best signal. Behind the scenes, Network Assist automatically helps to avoid Wi-Fi congestion, and transitions devices to the closest Wifi point for the best signal."
Best Computer Servers
HP ProLiant DL380 2U 64-bit Server with 2xQuad-Core E5540 Xeon 2.53GHz 16GB RAM 8x146GB 10K SAS HDD, RAID, NO OS. 4 x HP NC382i Multifunction Gigabit Network Adapter, TCP/IP Offload Engine, support for iSCSI.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"HP ProLiant DL380 G6 2U 64-bit Server with 2xQuad-Core E5540 Xeon 2.53GHz + 16GB RAM + 8x146GB 10K SAS HDD, RAID, NO OS. Received this on time and in pristine condition, the packing job was such a good one that I had a little trouble getting the server out of the EPS foam packing; which was fantastic as there was a dent on one of the long edges that never made it anywhere near the servers chassis... I did order myself a couple of new 750w replacements as these cannot be replaced using mixed wattages, although a single 460w power supply should be sufficient to run the server reliably; just not any fault tolerance to bad power supplies. This system came with 4 x 4GB DDR3 1066/1333MHz ECC RAM installed, I ordered an extra 32GB of the same type of RAM installing it per the memory configurators tables to bring me up to 48GB installed RAM; the system recognized this without any issues and also ran it at the higher speeds (1333MHz vs 1066MHz) available to genuine HP RAM. This came with a 256MB cache card installed instead of the 512MB advertised, upon contacting the customer service via email they said they would send out a replacement 512MB cache card as well as a backup 512MB card and an extra backup battery as well; more than generous and much appreciated as I'll probably be getting another HP server or two when budgets allow and extra parts are always needed."
"Works fantastic."
"Great server for the money."
"Excellent, fast and reliable."
"You bet your ass I'm going to be ordering from this place again, as I'm currently building my home lab for school and can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment."
"Having worked in backoffice IT for quite some time, I'm very familiar with this model and the entire DL380 series. After removing it from the box, I had to laugh at myself for needing to take a moment to determine how to release the server from it's foam encasement. Simple, just force your fingers into the narrow gap and pull the two halves apart HARD."
Best Computer Scanners
Style: iX500 ScanSnap (PA03656-B305). Intelligent scan correction performs a quick quality check on your scans - features include auto color detection, auto rotation for upside down documents, and blank page removal.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It didn't eat any pages (of really soft paper, not regular paper), it didn't skip any pages, and the auto-detect for black-and-white versus color and blank-pages is ridiculously helpful. It even had no problem sucking in very hard paper (like a cover) and then right back to soft paper of a different size! It needs another flip-up lip to catch the paper as it comes out, otherwise it starts to pop off and dump on the desk."
"They cut down on paper considerably, as we scan documents brought in by clients and hand them back to the clients. These scanners save on filing time, which saves money and tedium for my employees, and they save money on file cabinets and floor space. The documents scan to pdf and are then easily stored in electronic files (backed up in a dual core hard drive onsite and in cloud storage offsite)."
"When you scan as much as we do, little annoyances become a big deal. I like how the one-touch scan button understands when I want to begin a scan and resume a scan. The eject button and fold out top is designed well enough that it's easy to gently blow out particles and carefully clean the top and bottom scan heads. Scanning to searchable PDF works incredibly well. The OCR module does a pretty admirable job of scanning text and making it searchable in a PDF. Pro tip: if you're on Windows and you want to use Windows Search to look for text in PDF you need to go download Adobe's PDF iFilter app and install it on every computer that needs to search the PDFs, not just the server or workstation where the PDFs reside. Software installation is clumsy and requires a bunch of updates. The ONE THING this scanner needs to do right is to scan to searchable PDF. In order to do this, I had to turn off all the "quick button" features and change the app to scan to application: save to a folder. I demo'd it before some scanning/archiving company tried to bid us $10,000 to do our scanning work for us and their demo system did far worse than this little scanner."
"I have used at least 5 different scanners trying to find one that would handle years of old paperwork. I have thousands of tiny fuel receipts on crumpled carbon paper that no scanner would scan without jamming."
"It's super fast and it's made my life easier by improving my productivity both at our office and at home."
Best Computer Monitors
Clear Out the Chaos Featuring a 144Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time, the 24-inch VG248QE LED Full HD monitor delivers the best performance for fluid gaming and movie playback. Key Features 24-inch Full HD LED-backlit 144Hz display 1920x1080 for brilliant HD-quality visuals in both 2D and 3D GamePlus displays a crosshair overlay and in-game timers to enhance your gaming experience 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms Trace Free II Technology for smooth motion playback for movies and games 80,000,000:1 ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio delivers the darkest blacks and brightest whites for true-to-life images Full height, tilt, and swivel adjustments for the most versatile 3D monitor to provide the most comfort DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI-D, and HDMI ports for multi device connectivity. Play as fast as you can The ASUS VG248QE monitor shortens the time it takes for rendered frames to display on the screen. The response time is also reduced to 1ms to eliminate tracers by controlling voltage levels when driving liquid crystals thus ensuring fluid and clear video playback—more than twice the frame rates of standard LCDs. ASUS GamePlus—get the edge in your game The VG248QE monitor features the exclusive GamePlus hotkey with crosshair overlay and timer functions. Expand your visual horizons The VG248QE monitor features extensive connectivity options including DisplayPort, HDMI, and Dual-link DVI. An ergonomically-designed stand with tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustments make the VG248QE an ideal choice for a multi-display gaming set-up. True Resolution 1920x1080 Full HD 1080P Yes Pixel Pitch 0.2768mm Brightness(Max) 350 cd/㎡ ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) 80,000,000:1. Chassis Colors Black Tilt +15°~ -5° Swivel Yes Pivot Yes Height Adjustment Yes VESA Wall Mounting 100x100mm Security Kensington lock Yes Phys. A comfortable viewing experience with ergonomic tilt, swivel pivot, and height adjustment.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you have spent a lot of time researching this (or other) monitors, you may have heard a few people talking about the colors being washed out because it's a tn panel.. Well, in my experience, this is far from the truth! I primarily play Overwatch and I may dabble in Guild Wars 2 or Aion from time to time and I have to say, these games look fantastic on this monitor."
"Please keep in mind that out of the box it does not come with a display port/DVI-dual link cable, so you will need to buy those as well if you want to reach 144 refresh rate."
"Make sure you use the DVI-D cord to connect it if you want to use the 144Hz option tho, HDMI doesn't offer it."
"This is probably one of THE most popular gaming monitors right now, as it has been referenced time and time again on the PC forums. BUY IF: If you want to step up your gaming beyond 60 FPS. Your needs support 1080p vs 1440p vs 4k. Your space supports 24" > monitor size only. You want to dabble with 3D Gaming now or later. Skip IF: Your GPU Can not processes > 60 FPS. Your wanting to go into 1440P or 4k gaming soon. You NEVER have the intentions of using Nvidia 3D. You use AMD GPUs. Currently, I am running three of these monitors with Nvidia surround technology loaded, as well as Nvidia 3D running on certain games. Black Ops III ~ 110 fps with all settings on Medium to high. Witcher 3 ~ 60 fps on High preset (extremely demanding). Battlefield 4 ~ 120 fps locked all settings ultra. Diablo 3 ~ 120 FPS locked max settings. The downsides mentioned."
"EDIT: I'm very appreciative of the quick response by Asus support, and it seems that after going to bed and letting the monitor sit for a while the pixel has become unstuck."
Best Computer Tablets
The next generation of our best-reviewed Fire tablet, with up to 12 hours of battery life, a vibrant 8" HD display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and Dolby Audio.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It has about 12 hours battery life, it has many settings that you can use to save your battery by going off Wifi if you don't need it. It is an 8 inch HD display, it has a quad core processor, 1.3 gigahertz. You can enjoy hundreds of movies, TV shows, songs, Kindle ebooks you can even have a text- to-speech narrator, who will read the book to you! It seems to have brought us into a different venue. The case that comes with your Kindle Fire is just the back side of the case it does not cover the front."
"All right so I was scrolling through the reviews and read some pretty ridiculous reasons to not give this tablet five stars. For 80 dollars this is a good buy and the complaints on the wieght and the ads are ridiculous reasons to give this tablet a shabby review. Buy this tablet if you want a cheap e-reader that can also sure the web, watch movies and shows, check Facebook or Twitter, or read books on. It is an 80 dollar tablet and it will freeze if you try and treat it like something that has an insanely powerful processor and RAM."
"I paid full price for this product and am not being compensated in any manner to post this review. Pro's: ~Fast. ~Amazing Screen resolution. ~Great sound. ~Responsive. ~Alexa is kind of awesome. ~Battery life. I've charged it once so far, I've watched YouTube videos on it, streamed a movie and a few TV shows and I use it for Facebook and I'm not even half way down on the battery after 3 days."
Best Computer Components
Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Then restored user accounts, apps, etc, from the HD just removed from the Mac, attached with this cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (rather than using time machine backup). Will be interesting to see if there is any noticeable improvement in battery life and how the drive performs after a year or so (given TRIM is not permitted by Apple on third-party SSDs). I realize the case is superfluous and rather irrelevant in an internal SSD (it will never be seen again after re-inserting the back cover), but once installed amid the tidy MacBook innards, the drive looks perfectly at home, actually matching the other components in terms of aesthetics."
"Once done, I powered off and removed the back case of the Macbook- removed the four screws that retained the HHD and slipped the SATA connector off. I connected the new SSD via the SATA connector and replaced all retaining screws (after removing the hex screws from the HHD, I placed them on the new SSD)."
"I searched the web and there were many complaints that some systems will not recognize this device and suggest some far-out-there solutions whereas I found a simple, effective and without downloading anything. That is until I saw a Reddit article with a simple solution (I have Windows 7 HP 64Bit): 1. Reboot your computer and go into the boot manager, usually F12 and select DVD Drive as the first bootable device instead of your SSD. Reboot again and a program will load from the DVD where you will select "Startup Repair". Allow "startup repair" to fix the problem and reboot your PC. I really hope this works for some of you who have this irritating problem."
Best Computer Networking
Enjoy tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills with access to over 500,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and more. Watch the best of live TV and sports from AMC, HGTV, ESPN, FOX, and others with a subscription to DIRECTV NOW, Sling TV, or top-rated primetime shows with CBS All Access. Prime membership unlocks thousands of movies and TV episodes, including Thursday Night Football, Amazon Original Series, Amazon Channels, and ad-free listening to millions of songs with Prime Music.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After doing some research, I bought 3 Amazon Fire Sticks with the voice remote, cancelled Dish, upgraded to 30Mbps internet, added Sling 25 channels, added standard Hulu, and CBS All Access. Guess who still gets 96+% of the channels watched, added Prime Music and several hundred shows (that networks don't play) to all the TVs in the house, and saved over $700 per year compared to what I paid this past year?"
"And I even bought a TV sound bar to improve my watching experience,TV Sound Bar, Meidong Bluetooth Soundbar with Built-in Subwoofer, 36 inch 2.0 Channel Home Theater Speakers, Wireless and Wired Bluetooth Audio for TV/PC/ Phones/Tablets/ Echo dot (2017 Model) it is a really good partner with my old TVs,also recommend. I found that the included power adapter isn't really necessary as long as you have a powered USB Port on your TV to plug it in to.I did notice that if you are using the 2.4GHZ wireless on your Wireless Network it does affect the speed especially if you have COMCAST/XFinity-, or other Cable provider as they are throttling the 2.4GHZ bandwidth to 25Gbps. If you don't know for sure run a SpeedTest and find out what your download speed is- upload is not at Full Duplex so it will be slower on both bands. It comes pre-loaded with your Amazon account details, so the only setup you need is to plug it in and enter your WiFi password, using a simple on-screen prompt. A short HDMI extension cable is included, which is handy if your TV has awkwardly-positioned ports. As with the previous-gen Stick, the extension cable also seems to boost WiFi reception a bit. It has the usual 4-way navigation pad and media controls, but no volume buttons - you’ll need to keep your TV remote handy for that."
"The AFS is a device that provides you with both the hardware and software needed to watch such shows and it bundles everything together nicely so it is extremely easy to use. Some apps (channels) are free and they offer limited programming on demand from shows they aired in the past. PlayStation Vue (the one I signed up with) offers bundled packages of channels just like cable or satellite services and they are live broadcasts! The amazing thing with Vue is you can go into the guide, pick a show that was aired, say, two hours ago that you missed and watch it in its entirety! Another sweet thing about using the AFS for television viewing is no installer has to come to your house to set up your equipment and when you’re finished with their service nothing has to be returned."
Best Laptop Computers
Acer Aspire E5-575-33BM comes with these high level specs: 7th Generation Intel Core i3-7100U Processor (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache), Windows 10 Home, 15.6" Full HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display, Intel HD Graphics 620, 4GB DDR4 Memory, 1TB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM), 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive (M-DISC enabled), Secure Digital (SD) card reader, High Definition Audio Support, 802.11ac Wi-Fi featuring MU-MIMO technology (Dual-Band 2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, Gigabit Ethernet, Built-In HD Webcam (1280 x 720) supporting High Dynamic Range (HDR), 1 - USB 3.1 (Type C) port, 2 - USB 3.0 Ports (One with Power-off Charging), 1 - USB 2.0 Port, 1 - HDMI Port with HDCP support, 6-cell Li-ion Battery (2800 mAh), Up to 12-hours Battery Life, 5.27 lbs. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"With that said, I spent about 20 working hours comparing over 400 laptops (nerd) from all major brands, and looked at over 300 deals(super nerd) offered on laptops by all major retailers on both black friday and cyber monday. 2) DDR4 ram, again the latest and greatest, also happens to be the cheapest ram available. Most things cost more when new, but because PC components become obsolete so quickly, when ram is first introduced this is the product being currently manufactured, which in turn means supply can easily exceed demand, which means lower prices. Also ram can EASILY be added to this laptop, takes less than 5 minutes and costs exactly $24.99 for the best available, here is the link to the 4GB stick I added: https://www.amazon.com/Ballistix-16GBx2-PC4-19200-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B01DGOF6GE?th=1. ***Additional note about ram, I chose to purchase an additional stick of 4gb rather than a 8gb or 16gb. There is a phenomenon known as "dual channel" with regards to ram, the concept is that if you have 2 like sticks of ram (they need to match in a few tech specs), in the exact same size, ie: 2 sticks of 4gb of ram, your pc will be able to access both sticks of ram at the same time. Therefore after talking to a computer genius friend of mine and doing about an hours research on this specific application, my best guess is that the extra money on the 8gb stick of ram would be a waste, two 4gb sticks of dual channel ram will out perform a 4gb and 8gb stick together for most applications. If you do want to have more than 8gb of ram total, I would recommend purchasing 2 identical sticks of 8gb or 16gb ram to utilize dual channel. You can either purchase a traditional sata SSD and replace the existing hard drive, or purchase a m.2 SSD and have 2 hard drives. ***If you decide to pull the stock hard drive, you can purchase a usb case for it and turn it into an external hard drive that connects via usb cable. This laptop is a unicorn in the fact that it has ALL SOLID FEATURES, with 2 potentially weak spots for some users (ram and hard drive). But these are easily upgraded, and the truth is (regardless of what tech nerds might argue), 4gb of ram, and the included hard drive are more than adequate for the majority of users."
"It's a Great Laptop: Even Novices Like Myself Can Upgrade it (Explained). I came into this laptop for the same reason most of you probably are; my budget is "as cheap as I can make it" while still having a functional Windows operating system (not a chromebook) for school related reasons. It seems like a silly thing to talk about but you'd be surprised, especially with lower-end laptops, how problematic that can be when it isn't L shaped (for that reason, I recommend staying away from Dell Inspirons and any other laptop like that). Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 8GB 2133MHz DDR4 CL13 SODIMM Laptop Memory HX421S13IB/8 is the RAM I used to upgrade with. If you were so inclined, you could pay for 8 gigs of ram to bring you to twelve, or buy two sticks of 4/8/16 and replace the stick they give you as the laptop can theoretically be taken up to 32. If you move windows and programs onto the ssd, and you upgrade your ram, you'll have a real real nice laptop and it shouldn't cost you more than 500 total. This laptop's integrated graphics will limit it when it comes to playing modern, intensive games but the 7th generation i3 hold up strong and upgrading ram/ssd will improve that. The only real downside to this laptop, which is to be expected in the pricerange, is the integrated graphics card which limits its gaming possibilities but in reality, it makes much more sense to have a basic laptop and a dedicated gaming pc at home as you'll get much more bang for your buck that way. I strongly urge you to purchase this unit, even if you're not going to screw around with upgrades, over spending the $1,500 Apple wants for their worst 13 inch laptop (they want 2,400 for their low-end 15 inch laptop.). Buying expensive laptops is a luxury with minimal value and you'd be better off spending it on other luxuries instead, as this is a new golden standard for laptops."
Best Desktop Computers
Style: Desktop. Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 4GB Video Card | 1 x HDMI | 1 x DisplayPort.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I decided to write a review because the ad doesn't have all the information that I would like to have, such as which manufacturer the motherboard and graphics card comes from, as well as the power supply. Specs on the one I received are as follows: CPU: Intel core i5 7400. Motherboard: ASUS Prime B250M-A (MSI B250M bazooka is the one pictured as far as I can tell). GPU: MSI RX 580 4GB ARMOR (pictured in ad as far as I can tell). RAM: 2x4GB sticks of ADATA 2400. PSU: ATNG POWER CO., LTD MODEL: ATM-500FB (not specified in ad and I couldnt find any specs or reviews online). HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM. Case fans: Apevia branded. Case: Aluminum (I believe) with acrylic front and side panels. Plenty of room to expand if you wanted to add an SSD or more ram, MB also supports intel Optane and has 2 m.2 slots. The case is beautiful in my opinion and the acrylic panels are slightly tinted, which I like very much because the light isn't too bright from the fans, and it looks almost solid black when the pc is turned off. The lack of any information at all online leads me to believe this is probably not a very good power supply, I would atleast like to know what temp it is rated for as well as if it has any protections such as OVP, OCP, UVP, OPP, SCP. My biggest complaint is the missing MB screw, it just really bothers me that it isn't completely mounted. When I wrote this review Cyberpower left a comment which is the reason I contacted them about the missing screw in the first place. 14 days after that I still didn't have a package, but I did receive an email from someone else in their tech support department with a survey about their customer service. I suppose I'll never know, but the 3rd package arrived in less than a week and contained a packet with a few screws and standoffs and a Cyberpower mouse pad as well."
"None of my current systems work with it.. A bit of research and I was about to buy another Dell when I checked Amazon to see what they have to offer and I found this system. This system has a good amount of expandability and it has a 7th gen processor the I5 is very good and as time passes you could put in an I7 as the price drops. The graphic card is a very good card to play all games to what degree I will update once I have some of my games installed. Over all I love the system so far and again I will update the review as a install and use several programs. Should you buy this system I would say yes and do it soon as the supply of 7th gen chips run out the price may go higher or the system may be sold out. so far very good job. VR Update Well the Fall creator update is out and I applied it to my system and ran the Microsoft Mixed Reality Test program. If you are looking for a system to handle VR this system does it hands down with room to grow Also for Christmas I got Titanfall 2 which is installed and ready for me to give it a try."
"The Cyberpowerpc Gamer Xtreme pc has a lovely case, and they were very generous with the amount of case fans included. This may sound odd, but the thing that impressed me the most was how amazing they did with cable management. Its not just thrown together recklessly, someone actually took the time to feed the cables through back and made it look fabulous. Since its using a Kaby Lake chip, and they use a decent mobo, it makes it a lot easier to just add a newer processor and gpu without having to worry about replacing the mobo."
Best Computer Warranties & Services
The Most Reviewed Protection Plan on Amazon SquareTrade customers love sharing stories about how we've saved their day—and they've made us the most reviewed protection plan on Amazon. Protection from Common Malfunctions Repairing your average mechanical or electrical failure can cost as much as buying a new item. SquareTrade covers you beyond the manufacturer's warranty, including parts and labor. Transferring your protection plan is free and can be done online or over the phone. Electronic Delivery We'll email your protection plan to you within two hours of purchase. Things to know: SquareTrade Protection Plans are only valid for new products purchased at Amazon within the last 30 days. Your plan begins on the date you purchased your item and is inclusive of the manufacturer's warranty period. If your item arrives late, call SquareTrade and your plan can be extended to the shipping date. Cancel anytime, full refund in the first 30 days.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After looking through the other reviews though, I found that there was some serious distortion of the results because many of the positive reviews came from people who had never had to file a claim. First, here are the overall results: **Definitely Filed a Claim**. Positive: 23. Neutral: 1. Negative: 11. **Definitely Did Not File a Claim**. Positive: 35. Neutral: 7. Negative: 11. **Unclear**. Positive: 33. Neutral: 2. Negative: 4. Quantitative analysis: _Of the people who actually used the service, about 2/3 were happy. _Only 25% of positive reviews came from people who definitely filed a claim, compared to 42% of negative reviews coming from people who definitely filed a claim, suggesting that the current starred rating is significantly too high. Qualitative analysis: _In all fairness, a few of the negative reviews from people who filed a claim came from people who were dissatisfied for reasons that related at least partly to their own misunderstanding of the product."
"I am a behavioral biology/computer science student at Johns Hopkins University, I run art/garden camp in the summer for children. More specifically, when I asked whether or not I would be able to be compensated in any way for having my laptop in transit back and forth from square trade for four months, the answer was no (this is slightly understandable but it gets worse). The third time they sent back my device, they replaced the hardrive, yet the computer still turned off within an hour of having received it. They happened to install the wrong hardrive the second time they send back the device--they gave me a similar i7 processor but one without a turbo drive. Awesome so great of you squaretrade what good customer service ("we'll just wait them out!!"). In the end they promised me 800$ for my laptop and the amount that they had made me wait, they had also violated a little something known as the Lemon law (look it up), and yes I was quite happy for a brief moment. I can only imagine how horrible this would be for a family with a real claim that does not have the time for this bureaucratic maze. I have no reason to try and steal a hardrive from squaretrade, I simply wanted a working laptop. It is obviously in squaretrades best interest to set up a mechanism that prevents them from being predated upon by people looking to make a quick buck. There is no accountability on their part and because of this I am stuck with a laptop with the wrong hardrive, that shuts off periodically, and the cherry on top was that I was accused of criminal activity."
"Do not buy a plan here, I just got my laptop from repair and it looks like they beat the shit out of it."
Best Computer Accessories & Peripherals
Built to perform in extreme conditions, SanDisk Ultra micro SDXC cards are water proof, temperature proof, shock proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof. Water proof, temperature proof, shock proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this for my Nintendo Switch and it's great."
"The 4K speeds are fairly slow at 5MB/s and the sequential write is 15.8 MB/s which should suffice for most applications."
"Since the card comes with an SD Card adaptor, I can easily copy the videos using my Mac's SD slot and then insert the microSD card into the slot of the tablet."
"He felt left out and I told him he wasn't getting a new phone yet, but offered to get him a new card so he could keep loading more music instead."
"Sandisk is known brand in the industry and there is no question on the quality of their products just remember they have different types of memories target at different consumers and different applications and devices."
"Writes quickly enough for taking photos and video on my DJI Mavic drone in 4k."
"Plugged in effortlessly, Was pre-formatted and was able to use it immediately to offload some of my fixed internal memory camera video and photo storage to free up the phone for more apps."
"The other three work fine in both the GoPro and the Laptop: they haven't melted yet, but now I'm concerned."
Best External Components
The Dell External USB Slim DVD R/W Optical Drive is a plug and play disc burning and disc playing solution that you can use with a USB port. Simply plug the low profile (14mm), lightweight (200g) drive into your Ultrabook or notebook's USB port and you'll be ready to play or burn your favorite DVD or CD.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Review Updated 19 Dec. 2016. I like the Dell DW316 External USB DVD+-RW drive. It is perfect for laptops or any computer without a working internal optical drive. It is a nicer than average USB 2.0 DVD+-RW drive in an above average package.The DW316 comes with Cyber Link Media Suite to facilitate reading/burning CD/DVD media and playing DVD movies on PC's (A nice add-on). As an optical drive for ultrabooks or tablets it's not a lot more to carry wither in weight or bulk. My use of the DW316 is mostly with servers or desktop computers that have no optical drives like the Intel NUC."
"My middle school age kids were able to get it to work right out of the box with no problems."
"My new Lenovo laptop has no internal disk drive, so I needed this to install my old software (i.e., MS Office and Photoshop)."
"Great product and cost competitive."
"Light weight and compact."
"Tried reading a CD that failed on a previously purchased product (Version Tech) and it worked great."
"This is a great addition to my laptop as my new one doesn’t have an internal optical drive."
"Just what I needed for my computer."
Best Laptop Accessories
12-plug power strip with 8-foot cord, ideal for home or office use.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have no idea how well the RJ45 phone plugs or the cable protectors work as I don't use them, but the outlets work and Belkin products have not let me down for surge protection in the past."
"They are designed well in the idea that it gives you plenty of space for you small plug ins as well as your larger plug ins, which your typical surge protectors don't have."
"I'm not a huge review writer, but this product and the support provided by Belkin warrants some comments. The product failed within the first 30 days while being hooked up to my computer and a TV. No fuses tripped within my home... something apparently just shorted out inside the unit. They have a process similar to Amazon which allows them to ship you the new product, then you return the defective one to them once the new one is received. This is obviously a huge part of the equation for a $25.00 product and I assume it will be covered eventually once they provide some actual dollar figures about what I will be charged if I don't return the bad one. So I contact CitiBank (my credit card) to notify them of a probable dispute at this point... and they tell me the actual charge was $80.30. Anyway, short version: product failed twice (which to me warrants the one star review alone), Belkin customer service then provides the trifecta of failure. Five days later I received a response that appeared to be written by an actual person (versus an automated reply) that stated. "Thank you for contacting Belkin Technical Support. Please call our customer support department during business hours". So that was great. I never received anything and tracking shows it was returned to their docks almost a month ago, yet they charge me."
"Disappointed that this offers little to no protection...only plus is 8 outlets on a switch."
"It caught on fire and burned my carpet, but it didn't burn the whole house down since I was sitting right next to it."
"The real news: none of Belkin's products, or other similar surge protectors, can protect electronic equipment during a catastrophic surge, such as that caused by a close lightning strike. Such a protector, properly connected by an electrician, will dissipate 85-90% of the initial surge from a lightning strike, and allow a Belkin-type protector, if good enough, to do its intended job. And now, the kicker: they reserve the right to have you mail them all of the equipment you are claiming is damaged--at YOUR expense and with ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE that either you'll get it back or that they'll give you one red cent even after they receive your damaged equipment. And if they do deny your claim after all of this, your only resort is to sue them, and the amount of damages claimed may exceed the limits for small claims court in your state (meaning you'll have to hire a lawyer--have you priced one lately?). First, get yourself a whole-house surge protector, and then, protect all of your electronic equipment (including appliances) with appropriately scaled surge protectors from Monoprice."
Best Tablet Accessories
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Not All Batteries Are Created Equal. ***NOTE***. This review contains technical observations which I have reported to Anker. The battery I opened was verified to contain a high quality Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650BF Lithium Ion cell, which is one of the finest cells available on the market today. - 9.99USD at Time of Review for PowerCore+ Mini in Black. Nay: - Inconsistent Fulfillment, Frequent Product Updates/Changes May Result in Order Errors and Old Product. - Inconsistent Performance of Internal DC Boost Converter Between Batteries, Affects Output Current and Capacity, Actual Available Capacity Varies Between 8.5Wh and 9.5Wh. - Possible Inconsistent Quality Control - Based on my numbers Anker deemed 2 out of 4 batteries to be possibly defective and shipped replacements (not arrived at time of this writing). In order to minimize power loss in the USB cable during whole product testing I custom-built an extra-short USB cable using 22AWG conductors, meaning that all of my numbers will be best-case scenarios for each of the batteries I tested. This was the case for me when I ordered two PowerCore+ Mini's in Black last week, and two Astro Mini's in Black showed up, although they were so close to the PowerCore+ in appearance (in fact, they are identical in appearance) that I didn't even notice the error until a couple of days later when during testing I noticed that the tail cap of the battery had "Astro Mini" written on it. At time of this writing both the Astro Mini and the PowerCore+ Mini are listed as separate products on Anker's website, and share the same capacity ratings, but have some minor published differences. During testing of the Astro Mini's I observed some troubling discrepancies that prompted me to order additional batteries. Anker's packaging has always been efficient, easy-to open, and well-thought, and these batteries were no exception. Each battery came with a short Anker USB Micro cable, a tasteful carrying case, and a short and sweet support pamphlet that tells you how to get questions answered or stuff fixed. Each battery's USB port is also covered with a sticker to remind you that the battery automatically cuts power to the port to conserve energy when not in use, and that a quick tap of the small button in the corner is all you need to get the juice flowing. Well, just do a quick search for "Lithium Ion Fire" on YouTube sometime and you'll see quickly why the FAA restricts how much lithium you can carry on an aircraft in the form of batteries, and why most major couriers won't allow you to ship Lithium batteries via Air Mail unless you have a hazmat contract with them. Serial numbers on devices this cheap are the hallmark of a manufacturer that cares because while you are unlikely to file a police report for a stolen ten dollar battery, Anker certainly wants to know which manufacturing batches are having problems, if any. ***WARNING***. I don't pull punches with batteries or battery vendors, and I didn't intend to judge this battery by its casing alone. Eventually I was able to saw off the rest of the casing without putting a scratch on the battery cell itself, and was able to reveal a Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650BF cell soldered to a small DC boost converter PCB and USB ports. The NCR18650BF cell is a beauty of a battery cell, and represents one of the highest capacity and quality cells available on the market today. Every battery cell has two capacities. What this means is that "12.06Wh" capacity that you see on the product is only true for a couple of weeks right after Panasonic made the battery cells. By the time those cells are stored, sold to Anker, then stored again, used in manufacturing, stored again, shipped to Amazon, stored again, and then eventually shipped to you, these cells have a usable capacity of around 11.52Wh to 11.70Wh, which is actually what is reflected in the official datasheet for the NCR18650BF. I ran the NCR18650BF cell just by itself against a load of .2C or .67A and a cut-off voltage of 2.50V, the same test that Panasonic uses to get their original rating, and got a capacity of 11.4834Wh, which is just slightly under the "Minimum" rating for the cell, but it's close enough that I can't fault Anker for it. This is the real-world, best-case, available capacity of the cell before it goes through any other losses, such as those introduced by the DC/DC conversion up to 5V, before the voltage drop in your USB cable, and before the conversion losses in your device as it charges the internal battery. The harder you run the battery, the lower the available capacity of the cell is. To determine how hard the USB circuit runs the battery and look for efficiency losses, I removed the battery and connected the circuit to the monitored output on the lab power supply. Using the electronic load I applied a 5V 1A load to the USB port and monitored current draw from the power supply: USB Load Battery Load DC Boost Efficiency. 5.000V @ 1A = 5.00W 1.349A @ 4.2V = 5.67W 88.2%. 4.991V @ 1A = 4.99W 1.637A @ 3.6V = 5.89W 84.7%. 4.988V @ 1A = 4.99W 1.825A @ 3.2V = 6.06W 82.3%. Anker claims 90% efficiency with their DC converters, but since they do not publish their testing process or procedure it is impossible to know under what ideal conditions they performed their tests. Based on conversations with Anker, they are constantly updating and making changes to their designs, which is great, but because these changes aren't publicly tracked and because the batteries are sealed, there is no simple way to know what the characteristics of your battery are. It bears noting that so far all of the tests that we have discussed were performed on a battery that was labeled as "Astro Mini" and it is possible that my battery was manufactured during the early stages of the production shift. That capacity will be lower when drained faster and as you can see above, in order to charge your device at 5V @ 1A, the drain on the battery cell is more than twice that. Since modern lithium cells have a stated nominal voltage of 3.6V, I used the current draw of 1.637A and cut-off voltage of 2.50V to re-assess the capacity of the bare NCR18650BF cell to determine the actual available capacity at the higher drain rate. At the end of the day, what really matters is how the customer will use the battery, so let's get to... [Real-World Capacity and Performance]. These tests were all performed with the batteries fully sealed, assembled, and as they came directly from Amazon. In total, I tested four batteries, two of which were marked as "Astro Mini", and two of which were marked "PowerCore+ Mini", all of which were marked 3350mAh/12.06Wh. They were all designated Units A through D. For the testing procedure, I charged each battery through the USB Micro port per the instructions from Anker until they were full. I then connected each battery to the electronic load and programmed the load for a constant current draw of 1.000A, and measured the output voltage ten times per second until the battery died. Item Received Item Model Available Capacity. Astro Mini (Black) (Unit A) A1105 8.769Wh. Astro Mini (Black) (Unit B) A1105 9.345Wh. PowerCore+ Mini (Silver) (Unit C) A1104 8.607Wh. PowerCore+ Mini (Black) (Unit D) A1104 9.578Wh. The difference in capacity between the best-performing battery and the worst-performing battery was over 11%!!! My notes regarding each unit tested are as follows: Astro Mini (Black) (Unit A): Discharge remained flat and stable until the battery was approximately 75% depleted, at which point the voltage became unstable and dropped significantly. Based on the erratic behavior of the drop I believe the boost circuit began to overheat as it tried to cope with the lower input voltage of the battery cell. Based on conversations with Anker this is likely due to Anker's "Voltage Boost" feature which provides a slightly higher output voltage in order to compensate for the loss in the USB cable. While this does provide a slightly faster charge, it also results in a slightly lower available battery capacity, although this small discrepancy alone does not account for the near 1Wh difference between Units C and D. PowerCore+ Mini (Black) (Unit D): Out of all four batteries, Unit D exhibited the best performance. The output was not only super-flat through the discharge cycle, the available capacity tipped the scales at 9.578Wh @ 1A draw, which was better than any other of the batteries that I tested. I would also like to make clear that charge rate and battery capacity are completely independent of each other. I ordered four of the same battery, and ended up with four batteries that performed completely differently, which brings me to... [Anker's Response]. On 11/23/2015 I forwarded my results to Anker Support along with relevant purchase dates, serial numbers, and other information they requested. It means you're potentially throwing away vast amounts of battery capacity in your external battery pack by using an inadequate cable."
"Friends, We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of our Anker PowerCore+. I noticed my phone was near dead and so I hooked up my trusty Anker and went about my day. #sadface. Anker is survived by his older brother (also a PowerCore+), who was purchased in September and is still going strong."
"Fully charged this will bring my HTC EVO 4G LTE up from grave to full pretty close to twice. It will charge a iempire 5s grave to full twice with a bit left over."
"I was thinking of ideas to protect these from water and debris in my pocket or backpack."
"See my images). - Comes with a nice little bag that can hold the battery as well as a cable. (Note that it comes with a USB > Micro USB cable to charge the battery but you need to use your USB > X cable where X is the type of connector your phone or electronic device uses. The competitor (Jackery® Mini Premium) has 4 lights to show the amount of battery left, but on the other hand it's square so it's harder to carry in your pocket and that's the reason I got the Anker®. See my images for more details:"
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Find Best Price at Amazon"Then restored user accounts, apps, etc, from the HD just removed from the Mac, attached with this cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (rather than using time machine backup). Will be interesting to see if there is any noticeable improvement in battery life and how the drive performs after a year or so (given TRIM is not permitted by Apple on third-party SSDs). I realize the case is superfluous and rather irrelevant in an internal SSD (it will never be seen again after re-inserting the back cover), but once installed amid the tidy MacBook innards, the drive looks perfectly at home, actually matching the other components in terms of aesthetics."
"Once done, I powered off and removed the back case of the Macbook- removed the four screws that retained the HHD and slipped the SATA connector off. I connected the new SSD via the SATA connector and replaced all retaining screws (after removing the hex screws from the HHD, I placed them on the new SSD)."
"EDIT: Gohanrocs12 comment provided where to find the migration software on Samsung website: [...]. I also bought an external case from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H98AXOE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I then ran the Magician software and asked to optimize disk for Performance and enabled the RAPID feature. UPDATE 19-mar-2015: There were some questions about ability of the migration software to copy the factory recovery partition to the SSD. OEM recoverypartitions, generated at the factory by computer manufacturers, cannot be replicated". As another customer noted in the comments, it may be a good idea to keep the original HDD around just in case you need to recover from disaster."