HTC Hero is both phone and PC
Mobile phones. 2009 was the year when the iPhone was seriously challenged – by the Google system Android. Similar to the iPhone, the Android phones have a touch screen, which allows you to navigate using your fingertips. But unlike the iPhone, Android is an open system that anyone can develop.
HTC was one of the first manufacturers to jump on the Android bandwagon, and when we tested their second model, the HTC Hero, we were blown away. The phone is fast, stylish and flexible. It also has many good programs for, for example, emailing, listening to music, tweeting and using Facebook.
The angled shape is odd but surprisingly flexible.
Product: HTC Hero
Award: SEK 4,400
Tested in: Number 10/09
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Epson prints without a thread
Printer. The days of cords are over, even when it comes to printers. The new generation wireless printer has a built-in network card and communicates via the router.
When we tested wireless printers, the winner was the Epson Stylus Photo PX700W. It’s an all-in-one model, which means it also includes a scanner. The point is that you can turn paper images into digital files and use it like a normal copier. The fact that Epson took home the victory was due, among other things, to the image quality. “Despite not being a professional-quality photo printer, it delivers astonishingly good-looking images,” wrote our tester Bengt Hjord, who also appreciated the fast prints.
Product: Epson Stylus Photo PX700W
Award: SEK 1,800
Tested in: Number 4/09
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Collect all files on one server
Storage. Servers are no longer just for businesses. With the help of a home server, it becomes easier to keep digital images, mp3 music, movies and other files organized. It will also be easy to make backup copies. Qnap TS-219 is the best home server our big test showed. Although it lacks many advanced features and functions, it is relatively cheap, fast and stable.
Product: Qnap TS-219
Award: SEK 3,200
Tested in: Number 9/09
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The make-believe world of The Sims still reigns supreme
Game. The Sims is one of the world’s biggest gaming successes, and when version 3 came out this summer, many asked themselves if it’s worth upgrading. “The answer is undoubtedly yes,” declared PC for All tester Jan Sandbladh, and without hesitation took out the award Good choice!
The Sims is not an ordinary game but a kind of virtual world where the player creates different characters that can interact with each other. The new version of The Sims 3 above all has much greater possibilities for customizing its characters.
Product: The Sims 3
Award: SEK 380
Tested in: Number 7/09
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Warning for lousy Linux computer!
The flops. Not everything tested in PC for All is good, and some things are so bad that we have to bring out our warning sign. We do this when the products receive a rating of 1 or 2, and during the year we have issued four warnings.
Linutop 2 is one of this year’s top picks. This is a desktop computer in the same genre as the Acer Revo (see page 49), but while the Acer Revo is a high-end product, the Linutop is mediocre. It is extremely slow, not least because it uses a solid flash drive instead of a hard drive. It is also difficult to get the network working and the screen does not work properly.
The fact that the computer runs Linux instead of Windows should make it cheap, but it was actually the second most expensive in our test.
Product: Linutop 2
Award: SEK 3,700
Tested in: Number 9/09
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Read the first part of the article here!