myOurReview

The term ‘workstation’ is an often-abused label for computers that are marginally better than run-of-the-mill desktop solutions. Historically those considered critical workers often got given Workstation class systems, the logic being that they had a high hourly rate, so anything to speed these people up was a solid investment. Where this strategy failed was that much of this hardware didn’t deserve a Workstation description in the classic Sun Microsystems ‘Pizza box’ Unix Workstations origins. They were merely high specification PCs, but with a few more expansion options and a correspondingly hefty price tag. Conversely, the Supermicro AS-5014A-TT Workstation by Boston Labs in this review earns the label of Workstation. We’re talking all a guns-blazing Workstation built with parts explicitly designed for high-performance systems that aren’t generally found in standard computers. And, yes, it costs plenty, but the performance on offer here dwarfs most desktop PCs by orders of magn...

That companies still print so much is indicative of a strata of senior managers who pre-date the internet and never adapted to the changes that wrought. That said, for numerous good reasons on occasion trees need to be sacrificed to the gods of distributed paperwork, and the Xerox C235 is built to perform that ceremony. Costing only £291.60, this is one of the cheapest all-in-one colour lasers in the market place, and is bound to attract any small business wanting better quality output to replace an existing inkjet solution. If this the multi-functional workhorse that could occupy the central position in your office, or is it a money pit that doesn’t deserve a decent toner budget? These are the best all in one printers around today (Image credit: Xerox Corporation) Design and build Xerox has two versions of this machine, the pure printer-only C230 and the multifunction variant reviewed here, the C235. Given a choice between them, we’d go for the C235, as it doesn’t c...

Colour laser printing was always something that most offices wanted, but never at the high price that the printer makers offered it. With the move towards printing less now fully underway, the cost of colour lasers has plummeted to make them as cheap as mono designs only a few years ago. Xerox makes expensive colour lasers for office use, but the C230 is firmly at the other end of the spectrum. An entry-level design that still manages to offer all the control functionality that office IT likes with the simplicity that users can embrace. And, at just £196.89 Inc. VAT in the UK or $299.99 in the US, this device is affordable enough for the smallest business to consider buying without much consideration. To be clear, this isn’t a high-volume office printer. Xerox suggests and an average monthly output of 3,000 pages, with a maximum of 30,000 pages over that period. Included with the price is starter toner that should get you through 500 pages, and official replacements that offer e...

Notebook designers are often caught between a metaphorical rock and a hard place when creating their systems. Customers want machines that last a long time on their internal batteries, yet they also want them to be lightweight and easy to transport. Batteries make computers heavy so extending battery life increases the mass of the system, inevitably. Part of the answer is to design systems where power efficiency allows them to be smaller and lighter, allowing for larger batteries without increasing the weight substantially. Solve that chicken-and-egg conundrum, and customers will be beating a path to your door. Considering how many laptops we see, you’d be amazed how few of them achieve that critical balance point between excellent performance and impressive battery life. In some machines, you can tell that the engineers who designed it gave up with this ambition early in development, deciding either to go with battery life or performance, but not both. HP thinks it might have t...

We recently covered the XDO Tech Pantera Pico PC, and alongside that intriguing device, its makers are also promoting another tiny product, the Pico Projector. An exercise in miniaturisation, its designers distilled the critical functionality of an LED DLP projector into an object small enough to put in your pocket. The marketing promise is to project up to 100-inch images for two hours from an HDMI source or a mobile device. Making any complex device at this scale is bound to involve some compromises. Do these in the Pico Projector make it impractical, or has XDO navigated all of the challenges of delivering workable projection in a box this small? Price and availability Those that visit the XDO website will be disappointed to discover that the Pico Projector is currently out of stock, but you can still get it if you are prepared to enter a Kickstarter for the associated Pantera Pico PC in an All-Star-Pack . Those that agree to support the Kickstarter with HK$ 4,034 (about £3...

According to the bio, XDO Tech is the collaboration between engineers, programmers and industrial designers, all of which love computing devices. It doesn’t mention if they’re any good as this passion or what they’ve made before, but the sample they provided for review shows that they have some skills in designing and assembling complex devices. We’ve seen the Intel NUC designs and were impressed how a PC can be compressed into something that small, but these are gargantuan when compared to the Pantera Pico PC that XDO has created. But is this micro sizing merely a gimmick, or is the Pico PC ringing the bell on the era of a floor sitting PC? Price and availability This product isn’t released through the usual model of retail availability. Instead, it is being distributed using a Kickstarter campaign. And, as Kickstarters usually involve, you can invest in this project and depending on the level of investment, you get a better Pico PC should the campaign be successful. We should...