Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM

Pros Wide f/2.8 aperture throughout zoom range. Impressive telephoto reach. Very sharp. Minimal distortion. Excellent build quality. Compatible with USB dock.

Cons Expensive. Very large and heavy. Huge front element increases filter costs. Bottom Line Sigma's 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM is the lens to get if a 70-200mm f/2.8 just isn't long enough, but you'll need a strong back to lug it.

By Jim Fisher

The Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM ($3,599 direct) isn't a lens for the faint of heart. The zoom, which is compatible with full-frame and APS-C camera bodies and is available in Canon, Nikon, and Sigma mounts, brings new meanings to the words big and heavy. But that's the price you pay if you're shooting sports or wildlife and you want the versatility of a zoom and the light-gathering capabilities of an f/2.8 lens. Most event shooters and weekend warriors will be happy with the reach that a comparatively small 70-200mm f/2.8 lens provides, but if you need the extra reach, the image quality that this zoom captures will not disappoint you. It's unique in that it's the only zoom on the market that reaches 300mm at f/2.8. More importantly, it's an impressive performer in terms of sharpness, which earns it our Editors' Choice award.

It measures 11.5 by 4.8 inches (HD) and weighs 7.5 pounds. If you add the included reversible hood the height increases to 16 inches. Despite the added size, we recommend using the hood for a couple of reasons. It will reduce the chance of lens flares and give a slight boost to image contrast, but more importantly it will go a long way in protecting the huge front element. The hood is made of metal and can take some abuse, and it's certain to prevent stray fingerprints from hitting the lens element. Buying a good multicoated UV filter to protect the lens is a daunting prospect; at 105mm, even the bargain-basement filters can run $50, and a good one will set you back $180. There's no drop-in filter option, so if you're someone who still uses glass filters (the most useful of which are polarizing filters on digital bodies), you'll want to budget for one that fits the lens. You'll also have to reverse or remove the hood if you opt for a polarizing filter; you won't be changing its position very easily with the hood attached.

A tripod collar is included, and that's a good thing. You don't want to put this lens on the front of your SLR and for your mount to bear the brunt of the weight. There are three tripod sockets on the collar, so you can attach a quick release plate and an attachment for a BlackRapid or similar strap system. If you need to move about with this lens, we really recommend that you add a good monopod like the excellent Manfrotto 694CX Carbon Fiber 4-Section Monopod to your kit. Your arms will thank you at the end of a long day of shooting, and you'll be able to get sharp photos at longer shutter speeds. The lens does have built-in optical stabilization, and I was quite happy with its performance in conjunction with a monopod. I managed to get sharp photos at 300mm f/2.8 at shutter speeds as low as 1/60-second when shooting subjects that were relatively still. Obviously you'll want a shorter shutter speed to capture action when the light allows for it.

There are a few control switches on the lens, near the mount. You get a standard autofocus/manual focus toggle swtich, and three-position focus limiter that lets you seek focus over the full range, from 10 meters to infinity, or from the minimum focus distance to 10 meters. The minimum focus distance changes depending on focal length; at 120mm it is 1.5 meters, and at 300mm it is 2.5 meters. There's also a switch to set the stabilization mode, or to disable stabilization, and a custom settings switch. This has an off position and two separate custom settings; you can change custom settings by connecting the lens to your PC via Sigma's USB Dock accessory.

I used Imatest to check the sharpness and distortion of the lens when paired with the full-frame Canon EOS 6D. We consider a lens sharp if it exceeds 1,800 lines per picture height using a center-weighted testing method. The 120-300mm exceeds that mark at eevery tested focal length, even at its maximum f/2.8 aperture. At 120mm f/2.8 it notches 2,415 lines; stopping down progressively increases sharpness, which peaks at 2,657 lines at f/5.6. Edge sharpness is impressive as well. At f/2.8 edges are a little softer than the center, notching 2,143 lines, but are still very impressive. But setting the lens at f/4, f/5.6, or f/8 gives you an image that is evenly sharp from edge to edge. Distortion is completely negligible, just 0.1 percent.

Performance at 200mm is equally impressive. The lens notches 2,351 lines at f/2.8 lines, with edges that are just shy of 1,900 lines. You don't get the even edge-to-edge performance at this focal length that you do at 120mm when you stop down, but the already sharp lens improves steadily as you narrow its aperture, peaking at 2,609 lines at f/8. There's about 0.9 percent pincushion distortion, which is essentially irrelevant in field conditions.

The lens is at its weakest at 300mm, but even there it's pretty darned good. It manages 2,054 lines at f/2.8, with edges that top 1,800 lines. Performance increases as you stop down, peaking at 2,304 lines at f/8; edges top 2,000 lines there. We weren't able to measure distortion at this setting; the bars in our test chart that are used to analyze that weren't able to fit into the frame, but an eyeball inspection shows that it's nothing to be concerned about.

If a 70-200mm isn't long enough, and you need a lens that opens up to f/2.8, the Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM is a tough one to beat. It's impressively sharp throughout its zoom range, gathers a heck of a lot of light, is compatible with Sigma's USB Dock, and is built like a tank. It's also as big and heavy as a tank, so you'll be a happier photographer if you pair it with a monopod or tripod; thankfully the included tripod collar has three tripod threads so you can move it from a BlackRapid strap to a monopod or tripod with ease. It's not an inexpensive lens, and if you prefer to use a filter to protect your lenses you'll be greeted with some sticker shock when you see the price of a good 105mm filter. Most event shooters will be content with a 70-200mm, but if you're a sports shooter, wildlife photographer, or just someone who really loves telephoto photography you won't be disappointed with the sharpness delivered by this 120-300mm. Its performance earns it our Editors' Choice award, but if you hurt your back schlepping it around, please don't send us your chiropractic bills.

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Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DC HSM

Pros Wide aperture. Excellent center sharpness. Includes soft case and lens hood. Internal focus motor.

Cons Weak edge performance, even when stopped down. No optical stabilization. Some barrel distortion. Bottom Line The Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DC HSM captures a lot of light, but it doesn't offer the edge-to-edge sharpness of more recent Sigma lenses.

By Jim Fisher

Sigma has been on quite a run lately, producing camera lenses with ambitious apertures and impressive edge-to-edge sharpness. The 50mm F1.4 EX DC HSM ($499 direct) is an older design, and not quite up to the company's recent standards. It's sharp in the center, but edges are a bit soft, even when the aperture is narrowed. The lens is available for Sigma, Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Sony cameras, and it doesn't offer a significant price advantage over its competition. Our Editors' Choice 50mm lens is still the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G, and is the clear choice if you're considering this lens for a Nikon system; but if you shoot with another camera system, you may want to consider this Sigma lens.

The lens measures 2.7 by 3.3 inches (HD) and weighs about 1.1 pound. It's got an internal focus motor and a big 77mm front element. The lens can focus as close as 17.7 inches, which is in line with the other 50mm f/1.4 lenses that we've tested. A reversible petal-style lens hood and a soft carrying case are included. There's no optical stabilization system, which is also typical for this type of lens; Sony and Pentax owners will benefit from the in-camera stabilization that those cameras provide. Alpha shooters will want to consider this as an alternative to the Sony 50mm f/1.4, which uses a screw-drive focus system that is noticeably noisier than the Sigma's internal focus motor. Sony cameras that use full-time Live View for fast video autofocus will benefit from this, and if you have an APS-C body like the Alpha 77, the lack of edge sharpness that we saw on a full-frame camera isn't a concern.

I used Imatest to check sharpness when paired with the full-frame Canon EOS 6D. At f/1.4 it delivers impressive sharpness at the center areas of the frame, but edges are very soft. Our evaluation looks at a center-weighted score that considers the entirety of the frame; the cutoff for an acceptably sharp photo is 1,800 lines per picture height. The lens does better that, notching 1,959 lines on the test, but outer row of test squares is downright blurry at 838 lines. It's a disappointing result, especially when you consider that the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM managed a comparable 1,874 lines at f/1.4, with an edge score of 1,341 lines using the same test camera.

Stopping the lens down improves the score marginally; at f/2 the overall score is 2,140 lines, and at f/2.8 it improves to 2,173 lines; edges are around 1,000 lines at both of these settings. Narrowing the aperture to f/4 improves sharpness to 2,317 lines with edges that land just shy of 1,200 lines. Edge performance finally gets to an acceptable level at f/5.6; the overall score is 2,472 lines there, with edges that hover around 1,650 lines. At f/8 the lens sings; the overall score is 2,600 lines and edges top 2,100 lines. But the Canon lens gets sharper faster. It hits 2,466 lines at f/4 with edges that resolve 1,750 lines; at f/5.6 its sharpness is rated at 2,739 lines with ultra-sharp edges that resolve 2,321 lines. Our Editors' Choice Nikon lens is even better; its sharpness is 1,955 lines at f/1.4, with edges that are just shy of 1,800 lines. The Sigma shows 1.5 percent barrel distortion, which is just enough to mention—straight lines are going to show a bit of an outward curve in your photos, but it's easily corrected in software. Both the Nikon and Canon 50mm f/1.4 lenses show 1.6 percent.

On a full-frame camera, the Sigma 50mm F1.4 EX DC HSM is a bit of a disappointment. Imatest shows that it's quite sharp in the center, but the edges just can't keep up. How often this affects real-world performance will depend on your photographic style. If you like to frame in-focus subjects towards the center of the frame, the shallow depth of field that you'll get when shooting at wider apertures perfectly disguises this shortcoming. And if you've got an APS-C camera, the unsharp edges are going to be cropped out of your photos due to the smaller image sensor size. Sony shooters, especially those with APS-C cameras, should take a close look at this one as it offers an internal focus motor, and Pentax shooters who don't want to drop $800 on the weather-sealed DA* 55mm f/1.4 should also consider this as a less-costly alternative. But Canon shooters are better off with the 50mm f/1.4 USM, and if you're rocking a Nikon D-SLR you'll be happy to know that the AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G is an excellent performer. It impressed us enough to earn our Editors' Choice award.

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Sigma USB Dock

Pros Easy lens customization and firmware updates. Inexpensive. Mac and Windows compatibility.

Cons Requires some expertise to use. Only compatible with recent lenses. Bottom Line The Sigma USB Dock makes it easy to perform microfocus adjustments and customize some behaviors of recent Sigma lenses.

By Jim Fisher

The Sigma USB Dock ($59 direct) is an inexpensive accessory that allows you to take full control over the performance of your Sigma lenses. It's compatible with recent glass that's part of the company's Global Vision Line; you'll know that your lens is part of this generation by its Contemporary, Art, or Sports designation. It's available for lenses that use Canon, Nikon, or Sigma mounts. At this time that only includes five lenses; and only one of them, the 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM is compatible with the full breadth of customization options.

Other currently compatible lenses include the 35mm F1.4DG HSM, 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM, 30mm F1.4 DC HSM, and 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM. The software is compatible with OS X and Windows. All of the lenses support firmware updates and focus adjustment. Firmware updates are pretty self-explanatory, but focus adjustments take some understanding of how a camera's autofocus system works.

Essentially, light is bounced from the mirror to a dedicated autofocus sensor. In an ideal world, every camera from a specific manufacturer would be perfectly calibrated, but the world isn't ideal. Users who demand critical performance from lenses often encounter back-focus or front-focus, where a lens is focusing slightly in front of or behind the subject. If you've got a focus issue with your lens and body combination you can adjust the lens to correct it. Some higher-end bodies support in-camera focus adjustments, but they don't go as far as the software that works with the dock. It can adjust at different focal lengths and focus distances.

The rest of the functions are currently only compatible with the 120-300mm at this time. There's an OS setting that lets you adjust the way the lens stabilization system works. There are three modes: Dynamic View, Standard, and Moderate View. Dynamic View shows the effects of the stabilization system in the viewfinder, moving elements around as quickly as possible to capture fast action. Moderate View slows down the stabilization system, and is less jarring when you're taking your time to compose a scene. The Standard mode is somewhere in the middle, and represents the lens's default behavior.

From the AF Speed menu you'll be able to prioritize speed over accuracy, accuracy over speed, or revert to the default setting, which is somewhere in the middle. Finally there's a Focus Limiter setting that lets you limit the focus range over any distance. If you know that you're going to shoot a sporting event and you know that you're only going to be shooting action from a distance you can set the limit from 50 feet to infinity and speed the autofocus system. This function will only be enabled on lenses that have a toggle switch to enable or disable the focus limitation system, so setting this in the software can't prevent you from focusing across the entire range of the lens when in the field.

The Sigma USB Dock isn't an accessory that every photographer needs or will use. Its functionality is limited based on the lens you're using. If you've got a lens that's not quite focusing correctly, it's an inexpensive way to calibrate it for use with your camera. The more advanced features are most useful with the 120-300mm telephoto zoom, and future long telephoto and macro lenses are sure to benefit from the focus limiter and autofocus speed settings. It's easy to use, though some care should be taken when adjusting focus calibration. At $60, it's not an expensive accessory in the camera world, and it's a good tool to have if you own a compatible Sigma lens.

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Simplenote (Web)

Pros Simple online note-taking app. Unique collaboration and sharing feature that turns notes into Web pages. Includes tags and decent search.

Cons No notebooks or folders for organizing notes. Unusual selection of third-party apps; missing key players. Free versus paid account benefits unclear. Bottom Line Online note-taking and -syncing app Simplenote offers an unusual list of features and even more unusual list of third-party with which it integrates. It could be a good note-taking app if you aren't in the market for something more standard.

By Jill Duffy Simplenote (free to $1.99 per month) is a note-taking app available online as well as in an iOS app (see my review of the Simplenote iPad app). It reminds me of Writebox in many ways. Both have iPad apps that sync with a Web app, all used for typing notes in a fairly distraction-free environment. They're both rather plain without a lot of fluff, but Writebox syncs via Dropbox, whereas Simplenote provides its own storage.

What's unusual is that Simplenote doesn't give you the option to use Dropbox—or Box or any other major storage service for that matter. The list of services that Simplenote does support is an eclectic little group, including Click.to, Scrivener, Tinderbox, and a few other apps that slightly favor Macs over Windows PCs.

As its name suggests, it's simple, at least in its design and what it attempts to do, which is provide you with a place to take notes and sync them in the cloud so that you can access them via a Web app or supported third-party app. Simplenote is also rather unusual, though, in that it has one or two unique features—and yet lacks some fairly standard features.

The most powerful note-taking and syncing app in my experience remains Evernote (an Editors' Choice), which blows Simplenote out of the water in terms of capabilities and features. Evernote does have a relatively clean and clutter-free view for typing new notes and editing existing ones. But it also has a voice memo recorder, photo upload functionality, and OCR for searching any text that might appear in your images.

In terms of note organization, Simplenote relies entirely on search. You can add tags, although it's a little wonky because you can only add single-word tags. Evernote, meanwhile, lets you organize notes into notebooks, and you can even organize your notebooks into "stacks," which function more like projects or sections of your life. Simplenote's search is pretty good, but considering its only looking at text and tags, it's nothing to write home about.

There are two unique features in Simplenote that I found both quirky and endearing. The first is how it handles collaboration. You "share" any note by pressing a button that turns it into a Web page. You can send a link to that page to anyone you want, and if the recipient signs up for Simplenote as well, she or he can edit the very same note. Then, all the parties working on the note can see it any time via the URL. It's a strange strategy, although I could imagine situation when it would be very useful.

The second oddball feature is a revisions history button, which works via a slider bar. Open a note, and you can revert it to an earlier draft by simply sliding your finger along a line and seeing the note change to its earlier state. Keeping a change history isn't a wildly innovative feature in note-taking apps, but using a slider bar to move backward and forward through time isn't something I've seen before.

Simplenote might be a good note-taking app for you if use the apps that it connects with, or if these unique features seem like they'd come in handy, and you don't need some of the stock features you might expect. It's also not available on Android (yet), so mobile users will need to have an iOS device. If you want the whole kit and caboodle in a note-taking and syncing app, go for Evernote. And if you need an app that supports handwriting and lets you markup PDFs, you'll need something like the Noteshelf iPad app or better, Note Taker HD, our Editors' Choice in that category. 

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Skullcandy Crusher

Pros Powerful audio output, with slider to adjust bass response. Works in passive mode, without a battery. Inline remote control and microphone for mobile devices.

Cons Bass boost goes to ridiculously high levels. AA battery required for the bass slider to work. Bottom Line Skullcandy's Crusher headphones let you adjust the bass level, and the resulting sound signatures range from thin to well-balanced to hilariously bass-heavy.

By Tim Gideon

As deep bass becomes increasingly easier to produce in relatively affordable headphones, companies are adding new tricks to the equation to win your interest. Beyerdynamic and Skullcandy both recently released headphones with adjustable bass sliders—but Skullcandy's Crusher, at $99.95 (direct), is both much more affordable and far more brazen in its approach, allowing you to raise the bass to insane levels. Used with a subtle touch, the bass slider still brings plenty of deep bass—and a nice balance in the high-mids and highs. Combine that with the removable cable, which has an inline remote and microphone for mobile devices, and the Crusher is a winner. But make no mistake, it's very easy to make these headphones sound horrifyingly bass-heavy and very bad—it's up to you to find the right balance.

Design
The Crusher's glossy plastic contour comes in three color options—white, red, or black. The earcups are well-padded with plush black pads, and the underside of the headband has a sufficient amount of cushion, though it's not quite as plush as the ear pads. Because of the massive amount of bass response the Crusher is capable of producing, the headphones require ports on either ear cup to help the drivers operate with ease.

Behind the right ear cushion is a battery compartment for one AA battery, which is included. I found it a bit annoying to remove a battery from the compartment, but you'll only have to do that roughly every 40 hours of playback time, according to Skullcandy—and that rating is based on playback with the bass at the maximum, ridiculously pumped-up level.

The bass slider on the right ear cup effectively acts as an on/off switch, as well. When you see the red dot on the slider appear, you're no longer pulling power from the battery. It's a bit disconcerting, because there's no reassuring click you feel or hear with a typical power switch, but it turns the internal amp off nonetheless. If music is paused or the headphones are disconnected from an audio source, this also shuts off the internal amp and saves battery life.

You can listen to music passively (with the slider in the off position) or without any battery in the compartment whatsoever—you just lose the ability to adjust the bass.

The included cable is removable and features an inline remote control and microphone for mobile devices. This increases the value of the Crusher, as it's far less expensive to buy a new cable than it is to replace the whole headphone pair if the cable malfunctions over time. The remote is of the single button variety, which means no volume controls, but it has greater compatibility across most of the popular mobile device platforms.

A black nylon drawstring pouch is also included with the Crusher, which the headphones easily fold down into.

Performance
With the bass slider in the off position, the Crusher already produces a substantial amount of bass response. Tracks with intense sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout," are delivered with a respectable thump. At top volumes, with the slider off, tracks like this sound like they are teetering on the edge of distortion, but never quite give in. With the slider up all the way...whoa. We have some actual driver distortion, combined with serious vibration of the headphone frame itself, which also sounds a bit like distortion, but isn't. The headphones feel like they're one of those massage chairs at the airport, but burrowing into your skull—it doesn't hurt, but it's not exactly a relaxing feeling. Good thing no sane person will be using these headphones with both the volume and the bass slider maxed out!

Once we put the slider at mid-way, and lower the volume from our sound source (in this case, an iPhone 4S), things get a little less intense, though a track with this much deep bass is still going to be a distortion threat until you dip well below the halfway point for the bass slider. This track hardly needs more bass response to begin with, so we'll take the intense vibrations and distorted lows with a grain of salt.

At a mid-level bass setting on Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the Crusher blends the low frequencies in nicely with what is a fairly crisp response. There's no distortion at top-bass volume, but even though this track has less in-your-face sub-bass in the mix, the Crusher still sounds ridiculous. Oddly, the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the drum loop only catch the power of the bass slider when the synth hits the higher notes in its short progression—the lowest note, which it hits most often, gets lost in the mix and the other slightly higher notes boom with gusto. So even with this much boosted bass, it doesn't reach all the way down into the lowest depths of subwoofer thunder.

I found that, at about 25-percent bass level, this track sounded intense in the lows and still crisp and clear in the highs. And with the slider off, the track sounds a lot thinner, and seems to have almost no low-end presence. For me, the sweet spot is at about one-quarter bass level.

This bass level seemed to work pretty well with other genres, too—Bill Callahan's "Drover" gets the right amount of crisp high-mid presence so that his voice can handle the extra richness it gets from the low-end. At maximum or even mid-bass level, the balance is tipped way off and the song sounds comically bass-heavy. Even classical tracks can sound ridiculously bass-heavy, which is not really desirable, so your best bet is to keep the slider at very moderate settings.

It seems silly to knock a pair of headphones that has the capability of sounding quite balanced and powerful just because it allows the user to adjust things so far out of whack that it sounds awful or the drivers could (perhaps) blow. So, we're not knocking the Crusher, because used normally, it sounds great. It does seem odd that the bass slider allows for such a whopping, unnecessarily high bass level, but just because a Ferrari can cruise at 110MPH doesn't mean you can't enjoy a leisurely 50MPH drive.

If you love the idea of adjustable sound signatures, and have a bit more money available, the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro is an excellent, refined version of the boom-tastic Crusher. Perhaps solid bass response is appealing to you, but not so much the user adjustable controls—if so, consider the Sennheiser HD 429s, which offers a nice balance, but still plenty of low-end. And if all of the options listed here are too much for your budget, the affordable Skullcandy Hesh 2 and Jays v-Jays both offer reasonable bass response without going over the top. For $100, however, the Crusher is a well-designed, user-customizable curiosity, capable of bringing out the beauty and fury of your favorite music, or making it sound like the bass is starting a war against all other frequencies ranges, and that war is taking place inside your skull.

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TiVo Roamio Pro

Pros Supports streaming and download to iOS devices. Integrated Wi-Fi and MoCA. Six tuners. 450-hour HD recording capacity. Online content from Netflix, Blockbuster, Hulu Plus, Pandora, YouTube, and Amazon Video On Demand.

Cons Digital Cable only (requires CableCARD). Requires paid subscription. Currently no Android support for streaming. Out-of-home streaming requires Wi-Fi, and is not ready yet. No support for Amazon Prime streaming, HBO Go, or Watch ESPN yet. Bottom Line The six-tuner, 3TB Roamio Pro finally gives the TiVo faithful all the features they've wanted for years. No more add-ons, the TiVo Roamio, the company's best DVR yet, has it all built in.

By Joel Santo Domingo

The TiVo Roamio Pro is the new top-of-the-line digital video recorder and media hub from the company that pretty much invented the DVR. The new Roamio Pro leapfrogs the competition, adding built-in live-streaming capabilities to a mature user interface. It's got six tuners and provides 450 hours of HD storage space, so there's virtually no excuse to miss those new and repeat shows when they float by on the rivers of live programming. Think of it as the best DVR on the market, with the addition of online features and the promise of place-shifting in the future. This is the set-top box to buy if you can't live without cable or phone company TV service, so it's our latest Editors' Choice for DVRs alongside the Dish Network Hopper With Sling for satellite users.

Design and Features
The TiVo Roamio Pro looks like you'd expect a TiVo DVR to look like: It's not nearly as pretty as the 2006-vintage TiVo Series3 HD, which featured an OLED info panel and physical controls on the front panel, but it's a natural evolution of the TiVo Premiere Elite (now the XL4). The Roamio Pro measures 2.4 by 16.5 by 10 inches (HWD), and has a white and black two-tone front panel with indicator lights for power, recording, and so on. Hookup is as easy as any other cable company DVR: There's a CableCard slot in the back, along with HDMI, component, and composite A/V ports, two USB 2.0 ports (for accessories like the receiver for the TiVo Slide remote), eSATA for DVR storage expansion, and a digital audio port for connecting external speakers or a speaker bar.

You get a 3TB internal drive, good for 450 hours of HD content or an insane 3,500 hours of SD content. And you can add up to another 1TB via an eSATA DVR expander, good for another 150 hours of HD video. This, along with the six tuners, means that you'll rarely encounter a situation where you can't record what you want. This outguns the previous TiVo Premiere XL4's four tuners and 300 hours of HD, and way outpaces most cable and phone company DVRs, which typically offer two tuners and less than 50 hours of HD recording space. It even edges out the Dish Network Hopper's three tuners and 2TB of storage.

The peanut-shaped remote is both familiar to TiVo veterans and more compact than the original Series 1-3 remotes, and it supports both IR and RF, which makes it easier to use if you have the box hidden away in a home theater cabinet or closet. It also means that you can use the amber Find Remote button on the TiVo Roamio Pro (and Roamio Plus) DVRs to make the remote chirp the TiVo jingle. Like the TiVo Premiere remote, the Roamio Pro remote includes extra function buttons for cable systems that support On Demand programming.

The user interface hasn't changed too much from the TiVo Premiere UI: You can still search by actors, directors, titles, and keywords. There's access to services like YouTube, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, MLB.TV, Spotify, and Pandora direct from the TiVo Roamio Pro's menus. Netflix has been updated to deliver the same interface seen on other set top boxes like the Wii U and Apple TV, but Amazon Instant Video still doesn't support Amazon Prime streaming yet. Hopefully TiVo will add services like HBO Go in the future and has plans for an HTML5-based app store down the line.

The speed of the menu system still has the occasional hiccup, as with any set-top box with a multi-pane UI, but overall the interface is starting to approach the responsiveness of the older Series 2 and 3 TiVo flat menus. Searching for programs that aren't on TV in the next couple of weeks will bring up opportunities to buy them on Amazon or open them in Netflix. This is annoying if you don't subscribe, but convenient if you already have access.

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Tylt Energi Sliding Power Case (for iPhone 5)

Pros Convertible design. Adds hours of battery life. Includes two slim cases.

Cons Hard to remove battery pack. Bulbous design. Bottom Line The Tylt Energi Sliding Power Case for the iPhone 5 is a battery case when you need it and a slim protective case when you don't.

By Eugene Kim

A battery case when you need it, a simple protective case when you don't—that's the theory behind the Tylt Energi Sliding Power Case ($99.99 direct). It's similar to the Unu Ecopak, but with a built-in Lightning connector making it far more useful. It's a bit bulbous in design, though, and removing the battery pack is trickier than it should be. Still, it offers superb battery life and at least gives you some more options for use. If you're looking for just an extended battery, a more traditional case like the Unu DX, which is our Editors' Choice, is the better option. It's less expensive, offers comparable battery life, and it's easy enough to find a slim protective case to swap on when you don't need the extra juice.

Design and Setup
The Energi is fairly unique in the world of battery cases—it's really just a slim protective case with grooves that let you slide on a battery pack with integrated Lightning connector. The slim case provides protection for the sides and back, and the lip is raised above the screen so it'll provide some protection should you put your iPhone face down on flat surfaces. There are cutouts for the buttons and switch along the side, while the top and bottom have large openings for easy access to the rest of the ports and buttons. It's a minimal case that provides just enough protection without adding any bulk. Tylt also includes two slim cases with each Energi; a black case and your choice of blue, red, or green cases. The battery pack itself is only available in black.

The battery pack slides easily onto slim case, lining up seamlessly with the grooves along the side. With the pack installed, the Energi measures 5.5 by 2.6 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.2 ounces. It's only slightly bigger and heavier than the Unu DX (5.5 by 2.5 by 0.6 inches, 2.9 ounces) and the Mophie Juice Pack Helium (5.5 by 2.5 by 0.6 inches, 2.44 ounces), but the bulbous design makes it feel bulkier than it is.  There's a button around back that activates the power flow, while an embedded LED glows green or red to indicate battery life. Like all iPhone 5 battery cases, the headphone jack is recessed and requires an included adapter for bulkier plugs.

Removing the battery pack can be a bit of a chore and requires some breaking-in. It holds very securely in place, which is a plus, but it took a good deal of effort to release the pack the first few times I tried. It got a little smoother over time, but still required a bit too much force than I'd like to apply to the screen of the iPhone. Tylt suggest a few methods, but I found the best way was pressing your palm against the screen and using the friction between your skin and the glass to force the phone out. It's much easier to take off the Helium or DX and just snap on a standard protective case, which sort of defeats the advantage of the Energi's design.

Performance and Conclusions
The Energi features a 2,500mAh battery pack, which is pretty sizeable as far as iPhone 5 batteries go. The Unu DX uses a 2,300mAh pack, while the Helium uses a much smaller 1,500mAh battery. In my tests, making a continuous call with LTE enabled with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched off, the Energi added 8 hours, 7 minutes of talk time to my completely drained AT&T iPhone 5. That's actually the best result we've seen, but not by much—the DX lasted 7 hours, 52 minutes and the Juice Pack Plus lasted 7 hours, 23 minutes.

Though the Tylt Energi Sliding Power Case offers about as much extra battery life as you'll find, it's not the best value and its bulbous, hard-to-remove design is a bit of a bummer. The Unu DX is $20 less and offers virtually equal battery life and a design that feels slicker. If you're looking for the thinnest and lightest, the Helium still offers substantial battery life and costs less than the Energi. The convertible design might appeal to those who don't always need the extra juice, but the convenience is negated by how tricky it can be to remove the battery pack. I recommend the DX and an inexpensive standard case instead, which would let you swap out cases more easily than with the Tylt. 

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Xbox Music (for Android)

Pros Good sound quality. Lots of tracks. Clean interface. Easy Collection and Playlist construction.

Cons No free version. You can't browse by genre or create stations. Lacks lyrics. Bottom Line Xbox Music brings over 30 million songs to your Android device, but a few missing features keep it from competing with the mobile streaming music service top dogs.

By Jeffrey L. Wilson

The already plump mobile streaming music space has just gotten a wee bit fatter with Xbox Music's Android and iOS debuts. Xbox Music lets Xbox Music Pass subscribers stream their favorite music (ad-free!) to smartphones and tablets, and also Xbox home video game consoles starting at $9.99 per month (you can, however, listen to Xbox Music for free on the desktop via a Web browser). Xbox Music for Android has a streamlined, easy-to-navigate interface and good sound quality, but it's missing several features found in rival services. I tested Xbox Music on a Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Getting the Band Started
The first thing that you'll probably notice about Xbox Music is that it demands that you pull out a credit card before listening—something that always irks me as a music fan who just wants to leap into the app's library. Xbox Music requires an Xbox Music Pass subscription ($9.99 per month or $99.99 per year); there's no free mobile version. That said, you can test-run the service for 30 days, but that still requires removing plastic from your wallet for the trial.

Xbox Music has the most streamlined interface of all the high-profile streaming music services. After logging into the app, you're taken to the Playlist section where you can dive into previously created playlists or create new ones from scratch. I liked that it immediately took me to music that I like—it is my playlist, after all—but I prefer Slacker Radio's paneled approach that offers several points of entry designed to drive you deeper into its catalog.

My "The Dirtbombs" query returned several thumbnail images that, when clicked, let me check out the band's bio page, individual albums, and related groups such as The Gories. Oddly, some related artist listings lack thumbnail images, which gives the interface an incomplete look.

Rivals such as Spotify and Slacker specialize in recreating the radio experience by focusing on recommendations and channel building, but Xbox Music for Android does not (it should be noted that the Xbox Music tablet app does). It's designed with playlists and collections in mind, which may require you to change how you consume audio.

Xbox Music doesn't list genres/categories/channels so you must actively search for content until you build Collection and Playlists, which I found mildly annoying. Once again, the Xbox Music tablet app one ups the Android version—it features over a dozen music categories. Why this is omitted from the Android build is a headscratcher. It also lacks Google Music's digital locker features.

You build Collections and Playlists by tapping and holding the screen to open the "Add To" prompt. Likewise, tapping and holding a track opens an option to remove a song from a Collection or Playlist.

Content and Sound Quality
Xbox Music, like its rivals, doesn't have any egregious holes in its 30-million-song-strong music library, so I had no problem finding Arcade Fire, Led Zeppelin, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Minnie Ripperton content. I discovered that a comedy album or two were M.I.A. (such as Joe Rogan's "I'm Gonna Be Dead Someday..."), but I was pleased with the catalog. Slacker Radio still outclasses Xbox Music with its ESPN live radio, lifestyles offerings, The Weather Channel content, and themed channels (such as the "33 Greatest All-American Divas").

The sound quality of Xbox Music, on the other hand, is quite good. I thoroughly enjoyed my Midnight Marauders listening session due to Xbox Music's loud, crisp audio. As I listened, however, I discovered that the service lacked song lyrics. That may not be a very big deal for some listeners, but I occasionally like to study the words that ride the music.

Radio Days
Xbox Music has the potential to be a strong contender in the mobile streaming space, with its audio quality, library, and easy-to-navigate interface, but some of the missing elements may deter hardcore music fans. That said, apps evolve over time, so here's hoping that Microsoft will flesh out Xbox Music so that it'll put Slacker and Spotify's Android apps on notice.

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ZTE Open (Unlocked)

Pros Very inexpensive for an unlocked smartphone. Robust Web browser.

Cons Unfinished software. Dim screen. Poor camera and GPS. Bottom Line We're giving the unlocked ZTE Open with the Firefox OS huge points for its very reasonable price, but the software needs more polish before it's consumer-ready.

By Sascha Segan

"Remember who this phone is for," a nervous Mozilla rep told me when he sent me the ZTE Open, the first Firefox OS phone and one of the cheapest unlocked smartphones you'll find. At $79 (exclusively through eBay, where it's currently sold out), the Open isn't designed to compete with even entry-level, subsidized major-carrier smartphones. It's aimed at countries where phones never get subsidized and most people make less than $100 a week. By selling a thousand units on eBay, Mozilla wants to make the phone available to U.S. developers so they can write apps for what the organization hopes will be a growing platform.

But there could be a lot of demand for a $79, practically throwaway smartphone here in the states. It could make for a great first phone for a kid, or, say, a backup phone for international travel. So it's worth looking at this phone (and the Firefox OS) to see if it can open up a whole new category for American smartphones.

Why Unlocked?
Before I get to the real review, I should probably address why it's important that this smartphone is unlocked. After all, many smartphones are available in the U.S. for $79 with contract, or $79 plus a two-year installment plan. But owning an unlocked phone lets you use the cheapest possible prepaid services, or none at all. The Open is compatible with AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, so you can dip into virtual carriers who use those networks, like GoSmart, Consumer Cellular, MetroPCS, ReadySIM, and Simple Mobile. (Check out the Best Prepaid SIM Cards, for an idea of some of your options.) If you're willing to put up with often-shaky customer service, you can save huge amounts of money.

Unlocked phones are also perfect for traveling, because you can pop in an international prepaid SIM like one from Telestial Passport, OneSimCard, or Maxroam, or single-country SIMs like Rebelfone sells. That way, you save huge sums over U.S. carriers' roaming charges.

Physical Features, Networking, and Call Quality
The U.S. model of the ZTE Open is made mostly of soft-touch plastic, in a striking Firefox orange color, which gives the phone some personality. I've also seen the gray international version, which looks a lot more generic. The phone is comfortable to hold at 4.5 by 2.44 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and 3.84 ounces. The volume rocker on the side and the Power button on top are small and made of slick plastic, but they're solid enough.

The phone's screen is downright depressing. It's not the low 320-by-480-pixel resolution, which is understandable at this price and size; it's that the screen is dim. It appears to be submerged a foot beneath the surrounding plastic, and has inconsistent touch response.

I was deeply disappointed by the Open's GPS, which is the oldest, slowest, and most basic kind available. There's no Wi-Fi location assistance or tower triangulation, so location services don't work at all unless you have a clear view of the sky, and the GPS chip takes a considerable time to lock in. That means that no location-based apps, including maps and Yelp, can tell where you are when you're indoors. Bummer.

The 1200mAh battery in the Open carried the phone for 6 hours, 18 minutes of talk time. That's not great, but it's not a big battery.

There are two models of the Open right now, both of which offer quad-band GSM voice calling: The orange one has 3G on U.S. and Canadian bands, but not global bands, while the gray, global one has 3G on foreign bands, but not U.S. bands. Running DSLReports' JavaScript speed test, I got around 2Mbps down on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. On our much faster office Wi-Fi network, I saw 2.7Mbps down, so the apparent speed limitations are in the phone and browser, not the network.

Voice calling is adequate. RF reception was pretty good in my tests, and call quality was perfectly decent from quiet locations. Noise cancellation turned voice quality thin and tinny through the earpiece. Volume in both the earpiece and speakerphone are acceptable for indoor and outdoor locations.

Multimedia and Photography
According to the specs, the Open has a 3-megapixel camera. But the camera only takes 2-megapixel photos "to help current users maximize their data plans," according to Mozilla. The camera app has no apparent settings or modes at all, although there's an after-the-fact photo editor that lets you crop and apply filters. The phone records 352-by-288 videos.

Do not expect quality images here. I saw about a one-second camera delay, and soft images with color noise and lens flare all over the place. There's no front camera. You can share images directly to email, SMS, or Twitter from the gallery app.

The music player is very attractive, showing a grid of album covers and substituting brightly colored, abstract art if you don't have album art. You can sort by the typical parameters and create playlists. The phone played AAC, MP3, and OGG files without a problem, but not WMA. As for video, MP4 and H.264 video up to 640-by-480 was solid—no other formats or larger sizes, please, and certainly no DRM. There's also an FM radio, with custom preset options.

That restriction—no DRM (and no plugins)—creates some problems for Web video. The Firefox OS has a working YouTube app, but sites like Netflix and MTV.com failed to stream video because the browser couldn't handle their proprietary video plug-ins.

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Lomography Belairgon 90mm f/8

Pros Excellent build quality. Very sharp. Moderate wide-angle field of view.

Cons Scale focus only. Limited to two apertures. Bottom Line If you're unhappy with the image quality from the bundled plastic Lomography Belair lenses, the Belairgon 90mm f/8 is worth a close look.

By Jim Fisher

The Lomography Belairgon 90mm f/8 ($199 direct) is one of the first two glass lenses available for use with the Belair X 6-12 panoramic medium format film camera. That body ships with two plastic lenses, both of which are small and light, but neither of which offers the tack-sharp imagery that medium format film is capable of capturing. The Belairgon series of lenses, glass designs with metal barrels, are manufactured in Russia and are much more serious photographic tools than the plastic lenses that Lomo bundles with the Belair.

The Belairgon 90mm f/8 is a hefty lens. It measures 2.8 by 2.2 inches (HD) and at 12 ounces is heavy for its size. I was a bit concerned about its weight when first picking up the lens; I wasn't sure the rails supporting the Belair's lensboard would support it. Thankfully the camera held the lens without issue, although I did make sure to collapse it when not in use. You only have the option of shooting at f/8 or f/16. The Belair has a very simple ambient light meter, and a physical switch that matches the meter settings to the current aperture. There are no physical shutter controls on the Belair; you're limited to automatic speeds, or you can turn the meter off and shoot the camera in bulb mode.

There's no accessory viewfinder included; the lens matches the field of view of the 90mm included with the Belair, so you can just use that one. The field of view that the lens delivers is roughly equivalent to a 32mm lens on a full-frame camera, but that will vary a bit depending on how wide you're shooting. The Belair can capture 6-by-6, 6-by-9, or 6- by-12-centimeter images. If you want a lens that isn't as wide, consider the Belairgon 114mm f/8.

Focusing with any scale focus camera can be tricky. Even with the aperture set to f/16, you'll have to be reasonably close on estimating the difference between the film plane and your subject in order to get an in-focus image. I'm not great at estimating distances, so I bought an accessory rangefinder on eBay to clip onto the Belair's hot shoe. It lets you peer through a tiny finder and line up a double image to determine your distance from the your subject. These rangefinders sell for anywhere from $20 to $50 and are readily available. The only challenge you may face is finding one that presents distances in meters rather than feet, and to ensure that the rangefinder is properly calibrated. The markings on the Belairgon's lens barrel that show the current focus distance are only shown in meters, so I had to do some quick math in my head when focusing. As for calibration, most of these devices can be adjusted using a simple screwdriver and a yardstick. The one I was using is in definitely in need of some adjustment; the shots I took matching the lens scale distance with a Leica rangefinder camera were tack sharp, but those where I relied solely on my eBay add-on rangefinder were just a bit off.

I shot a couple rolls with the 90mm Belairgon; one using Ilford Delta 100 and another using Fujifilm Pro 400H. I was happy with the sharpness that the black-and-white images delivered, and impressed with the colors that the lens captured on a bright August afternoon. Negatives were scanned on an Epson 4490 flatbed using a Better Scanning glass negative holder and VueScan software, and processed in Lightroom. When focus was on point the images were quite sharp, noticeably more so than the plastic lens that ships with the Belair.

If you're happy with the 90mm field of view on the Belair, but disappointed with the quality of the images that the bundled plastic lens captures, the Belairgon 90mm f/8 is a worthy upgrade. It's a bit bigger and heavier, but there's no getting around the fact that metal and glass weigh more than plastic. The build quality is excellent, and the distance scale is accurate. I wouldn't recommend buying both the 90mm and 114mm Belairgons; they're a bit too close in focal length to justify having both in the bag. But you'll be happy with either lens. Fans of ultra-wide angles are still limited to the plastic 58mm lens that ships with the Belair; Lomo hasn't announced a Belairgon version yet.

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Motorola Surfboard SBG6782-AC Gateway by ARRIS

Pros 802.11ac wireless router and cable modem in one. Supports MoCA. Feature-rich. Dual-band. Perked up upload speed and download speed a bit.

Cons Below average 802.11ac throughput. Runs warm. Lack of help and user manual. Non user-friendly QoS settings. Bottom Line Cable service subscribers looking for a device that's both a modem and wireless router with less than high-demand throughput needs will find the Surfboard worth a look. A bonus is its support for MoCA devices.

By Samara Lynn

The Motorola Surfboard SBG6782-AC Gateway by ARRIS is more than a cable modem. The device functions as an 802.11ac Wi-Fi router (it's the first cable modem on the market to support 11ac) and also supports a technology called MoCA (Multimedia over Coaxial) that lets users extend Wi-Fi over existing coaxial cable. This is an ambitious device with robust hardware, yet its integrated wireless router capability is not as speedy as other dedicated dual-band 802.11ac routers we've tested—and the interface is in need of a refresh. There is also a troubling lack of detailed help and guidance available for this device, helpful for fully understanding its advanced capabilities.

Specs
The first thing you will notice about the Surfboard is that it's a big device. It measures 8.8 by 2.1 by 10.1 inches (HWD) and weighs a fairly hefty 10.5 pounds. The Netgear High Speed Cable Modem (CMD31t) is miniscule in comparison, at 6.9 by 4.5 by 1.2 inches (HWD) and weighing 0.68 of a pound.

Of course, the Netgear cable modem is only a cable modem. The Surfboard is larger because it has wireless router components as well as modem hardware. The device uses a Broadcom chipset and has 3x3 MIMO internal antennas.  The router portion is dual-band, supporting up to a theoretical 450 Mbps at the 2.4GHz band and 1300 Mbps at 5GHz.  The Surfboard is also DOCSIS 3.0-compliant. DOCSIS is a standard for transferring high-speed data over coaxial cable. Most ISPs providing cable Internet should be using DOCSIS 3. It's important to find out and make sure you buy the right cable modem.

There are seven LEDs on the front panel that represent, power, downstream channel, upstream channel, online status, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi activity, 5 GHz, and to show when a MoCA-enabled device is connected.

The rear panel has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, a coaxial connector (female, "Y"), and power. There's also a tiny reset button to reset back to factory settings.

On the top of the device is a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button for connecting WPS- supported devices to the wireless network.

The Surfboard has vent holes all over the sides and the top, but it still ran warm after just three hours of operation.  You are going to want to place it in a well-ventilated area with good air circulation.  One feature the hardware lacks is a USB port for connecting storage and printers (although the Surfboard does support wireless printing).

Setup
The Surfboard ships with a quick start user guide. This guide has a diagram for connecting ports. First, connect the coaxial. Next, you need to connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN ports to a computer's Ethernet port. Finally, you connect power.

You can configure the modem once when the Power, Online, Send, and Receive lights are solid. At this point, I had to contact my ISP to activate the cable modem. When I fired up a browser, I could see I still was not online until they activated. Activation took all of ten minutes.

One setup aspect I preferred with the Netgear modem was when I fired up the browser before activating it with my ISP, I received a splash page which showed my ISP's name and also the MAC address of the Netgear CMD31t. This is handy for two reasons: You need to give the ISP the MAC address so they can activate, and it lets users know what to do next to get the modem online.

With the Surfboard, all I saw was what looked like a regular "Page Not Found" error in Internet Explorer. An inexperienced user may be confused about whether the device is working or not upon seeing this; when what he needs to do is call his provider for activation. The Quick Start guide hints at this only by stating that if all the LEDs do not light up call your ISP for assistance—a bit vague.

I also prefer when setting up the Netgear device I saw the MAC address on-screen. With the Surfboard the MAC address is printed on the bottom of the device and also is included with the startup guide. If it's not convenient to get to the bottom of the Surfboard to take a look when you are on the phone with the ISP or if you lose the guide, it can be hassle to get the MAC address if you need it again and can't get into the Surfboard's management interface.

You will also want to take note that by default the Surfboard's wireless radios are on, something you want to be aware of if you already have a wireless router running on your network. You don't want to have two devices performing routing as that can cause performance issues.

What I did not like about the setup process was the lack of a detailed user manual. The device only shipped with a Quick Start guide. When I wanted to go into the management interface, the quick start guide instructed me to consult the user manual to get the username and password to get into the Surfboard's interface. However, I could not find a user manual online and there was not one included in the packaging! I managed to get the password and username from a search on the Internet. There are a lot of features and functionality in this device and no detailed user manual readily available to customers is a huge oversight.

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Noctua NH-L9i

Pros Offers substantially better performance than an Intel stock cooler. Comes with all the incidentals needed for installation. Includes step-by-step guides for installation on both Intel and AMD hardware.

Cons High temperatures under heavy load may still make some users uneasy. Bottom Line The Noctua NH-L9i is a great low-profile cooler for an HTPC and offers far better performance than Intel's stock cooler.

By Joel Hruska

In the enthusiast CPU cooler industry, "high-end" is virtually synonymous with "girnormous six-pound monstronsity." While such heatsinks are often extremely good at their jobs, they also often require ATX towers to function properly and can be difficult to ship while mounted to the motherboard. The NH-L9i cooler is tiny by comparison, but still outperforms a standard CPU cooler.

This low-profile cooler is just 37mm tall—small enough to fit into the mini-ITX system we built from a Rosewill RS-MI-01 BK mini-ITX case. It's narrow enough to fit under even the heatsink in the tiny case we tested—it actually fits slightly better than the default Intel stock cooler on the Intel Core i7-3770K.

Noctua doesn't have the brand-recognition of Coolermaster or Thermaltake, but there are some product features that we particularly like. For starters, Noctua does its best to guarantee future socket compatibility. In many cases, the company will send you a free socket conversion kit to allow an older cooler to mount to a newer socket, with proof of motherboard purchase. This isn't always possible, but the company lists nine previous coolers that can be upgraded with a free conversion kit to support Intel's new LGA1150 socket, one Xeon conversion kit that isn't covered under the free offer but is available for purchase, and one AMD cooler that's physically incompatible.

This is a particularly useful feature when you consider that CPU TDPs haven't really changed in years. The first desktop chips with a 115W TDP came to market over ten years ago, and neither AMD nor Intel has pushed the thermal envelope much since. AMD has released a handful of CPUs with a 125W TDP and Intel has done a few 130W chips, but both companies have emphasized lower-power parts for the last five years. There's no reason a five-year-old cooler from the first Core i7 launch can't handle a modern CPU, and Noctua's upgrade policy reflects that reality.

The other reason we like Noctua's work is that the company pays attention to every last detail. Noctua's heatsinks come with color illustrations and step-by-step guides for installation on both Intel and AMD hardware. A screwdriver, thermal paste, and multiple fan headers are always included. Everything you might need to assemble the final product, including the incidentals, comes in the box.

Noctua's website actually takes note of two motherboards where the cooler may not fit if rotated in certain directions and gives information on how to properly mount the heatsink when using the GA-H77N-Wi-Fi. The company notes while the heatsink may make very slight contact with a coil close to the socket, "As the coil is protected by a plastic housing and the pressure on the housing is minimal, there is no risk of short circuits or other damage." Photo documentation is also included. This is the sort of information enthusiasts need, and it's great to see the manufacturer explaining and documenting the situation.

We tested the Noctua against an Intel stock cooler using the Gigabyte GA-H77N-WiFi and the Rosewill RS-MI-01. The power supply hangs directly over the CPU fan, with an exhaust fan pointed directly at it, thus creating a less-than optimal cooling environment. Short of stuffing the case with dust, this is a fairly worst-case scenario. We tested our Core i7-3770K at idle, at load (after looping Cinebench 3x) and after 10 minutes of running Prime 95 for peak temperatures.

At idle, with the case closed, both coolers hit 33C. That's not surprising; Intel's stock cooler is more than capable of handling the chip's minimal power output. Under load, a significant differential opened up between the two, with the stock cooler hitting 89C and the Noctua DH-9i topping out at 72'C. The gap is similar after 10 minutes in Prime 95. The Intel Core i7-3770K with a stock cooler actually hits 104'C, a hair under its automatic throttle temperature. The Noctua, in contrast, keeps the chip under 90 degrees Celsius.

Now, 90 degrees Celsius is still hot enough to make a body uncomfortable, especially if you've been an enthusiast long enough to remember when that kind of CPU temperature meant a melted socket was coming in your future. Today, these problems just aren't as big a deal as they used to be. We've discussed this with Intel on several occasions and been told that a CPU can run at 90' to 95'C for years without ill effect. Also, remember that this is a thermal stress test running in a worst-case scenario with no additional fans and using what was, until just recently, Intel's highest-end mainstream CPU.

If you need a low-profile cooler, the Noctua NH-L9i is a great one. If you have a bit more room to spare, Noctua has a full line of hardware that'll fit in a wide range of cases. This makes it our Editors' choice for CPU coolers.

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OKI C331dn

Pros Fast. Duplexer (for two-sided printing). Ample paper capacity for a small office or workgroup. Ethernet.

Cons Although text and graphics quality is typical for a color laser-class printer, photo quality is well below par. Bottom Line The OKI C331dn laser delivers the right balance of speed, paper handling and output quality to serve as a workhorse color printer in a small to medium-size office or workgroup.

By M. David Stone

The OKI C331dn is the sort of workhorse color office printer that earns most of its points for speed and paper handling, much like the Brother HL-3170CDW. However, it holds it's own for output quality as well. It's not a match on that score for, say, the Editors' Choice Dell 2150cdn, but its output is easily good enough for most business use, and it prints that output faster. For a lot of offices, that's enough to make the OKI printer a good fit.

Note that the C331dn is an LED printer, a nearly identical technology to laser printers, except that it uses LEDs instead of lasers to draw the image of each page on a photosensitive drum. Just as you would expect from a laser in this price range, it's meant primarily as a shared printer for a small to medium-size office or workgroup. If you have any doubts about that, you only have to look at the printer's paper handling.

The C331dn comes with a duplexer (for two-sided printing), a 250-sheet drawer, and a 100-sheet multi-purpose tray standard. That should easily be enough for most small offices. If you need more, however, you can add a 530-sheet optional tray ($199 list) for a maximum of 880 sheets. As a point of comparison, the 2150cdn comes with a 250-sheet drawer and duplexer, but only a 1-sheet manual bypass tray standard, and its maximum capacity is only 500 sheets.

As is typical for its level of paper handling, the C331dn is a little too big to share a desk with comfortably, at 9.5 by 16.1 by 19.8 inches (HWD), but small enough so it shouldn't be too hard to find a spot for in a small office. You might want some help moving it, however, since it weighs 48.5 pounds. Once in place, setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network, and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

Speed and Output Quality
OKI rates the C331dn at 25 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome printing and 23 ppm for color, which should be close the speeds you'll see when you're printing text pages or other material that needs little to no processing. Beyond that, the printer scored reasonably well on our business applications suite for both its price and speed rating. I clocked it (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 6.1 ppm. That makes it a little slower than the Brother HL-3170CDW, at 6.8 ppm, but faster than the Dell 2150cdn, at 5.5 ppm.

The C331dn also fell between the Dell and Brother printers for output quality. In this case, however, it does better than the HL-3170CDW but not as well as the 2150cdn. More generally, the output was par for a color laser-class printer for text and graphics, but below par for photos.

That translates to text that's suitable for virtually any business use short of high-quality desktop publishing. Graphics output, similarly, is good enough for most business needs, including PowerPoint handouts and the like. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider the graphics good enough for material going to an important client or customer when you need to convey a sense of professionalism.

The photo output is best described as newspaper quality, which is more typical of mono-laser, rather than color-laser, output. It's easily good enough to show recognizable images, but with obvious flaws. Consider it suitable for printing Web pages or similar material with photos, but nothing more demanding than that.

The OKI C331dn offers a balance of paper handling, speed, and output quality that can be a good fit in a small office with medium to heavy-duty print needs. If your primary concern is speed, the Brother HL-3170CDW may be your preferred choice. If you care most about output quality, the Dell 2150cdn is the obvious choice. But the OKI C331dn offers better speed than the Dell printer, better output quality than the Brother printer, and better paper handling than either, making it a potentially compelling pick for a color workhorse printer in a small office.

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OKI C531dn

Pros Speed and paper handling designed for heavy-duty printing in a small office or workgroup. Duplexer (for two-sided printing).

Cons Although text and graphics quality is typical for a color laser-class printer, photo quality is well below par. Bottom Line The OKI C531dn delivers a balance of speed, paper handling and output quality suitable for a heavy-duty color workhorse printer by small to medium-size office standards.

By M. David Stone

A close cousin to the OKI C331dn that I recently reviewed, the OKI C531dn offers the same impressively capable paper handling, along with faster speed and essentially identical output quality. What turns it into more than just a faster version of the same printer, however, is a lower running cost. If you print enough pages, the savings can make it even more attractive as a workhorse color printer.

The lower running cost for the C531dn comes from the option to use higher-capacity cartridges that the C331dn can't use. Based on claimed yields and prices, the cost per page with the high-yield cartridges works out to 2.4 cents for a mono page and 12.3 cents for color. The savings compared with the standard cartridges is 0.4 cents per page for monochrome and 1.6 cents for color. Print just one color page for every ten pages you print, and the savings adds up to 5.2 cents for 10 pages, $52 for 10,000 pages, and $102 for 20,000 pages.

Put another way: if you expect to print 20,000 pages over the life of the printer, you'll save enough money in running costs with the C531dn to cover the $100 difference in initial price. That works out to a little less than 27 pages per day every workday for three years. If that doesn't sound like a lot for your print needs, you can get faster printing with the C531dn and pay less for it in the long run.

Basics
Like the OKI C331dn, the C531dn is an LED printer, which means it's essentially identical to a laser printer, except that it uses LEDs instead of lasers to draw the image of each page on a photosensitive drum. As with the C331dn, it's meant primarily for shared use and it delivers ample paper handling for heavy-duty use in a small office or workgroup.

The C531dn offers a 350-sheet capacity, divided into a 250-sheet drawer and a 100-sheet multi-purpose tray, plus a duplexer (for two-sided printing) as standard. In addition, if you need more capacity, you can add a 530-sheet optional tray ($199 list) for a maximum of 880 sheets. Other color printers in this price range typically offer lower capacities.

Along with the same paper handling features as the OKI C331dn, the C531dn shares the same size, at 9.5 by 16.1 by 19.8 inches (HWD) without the optional tray. That makes it a little bigger than you would probably want to share a desk with, but still small enough so it shouldn't be hard to find room for in a small office. Given the 48.5 pound weight, however, you might want some help moving it. Once you in place, setup is absolutely typical for the breed. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network, and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

Speed and Output Quality
OKI rates the C531dn at 31 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome and 27 ppm for color, which should be close to the speeds you'll see when you print text pages or other material that doesn't need significant processing time. On our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) it managed a respectable 6.8 ppm. That makes it a little faster than the OKI C331dn, at 6.1 ppm, and significantly faster than the Editors' Choice Dell 2150cdn, which came in at 5.5 ppm.

Output quality is less impressive than either the paper handling or speed, primarily because of subpar photos. As long as you don't need particularly good photo quality, however, you shouldn't have any complaints. Text and graphics are both within the typical range for the breed.

The text in my tests was suitable for most business needs, although I'd hesitate to use it for high-quality desktop publishing. Graphics output, similarly, is easily good enough for any internal business need or even for PowerPoint handouts and the like. If you're not too much of a perfectionist, you may even consider the graphics suitable for output going to an important client when you want to the material to look fully professional.

The photo output is closer to the level I expect to see from mono lasers rather than from color printers: basically newspaper quality, with obvious flaws. That makes it suitable for printing Web pages or similar material with photos and still have recognizable images, but don't expect to use the photo output for anything more demanding than that.

If you need better output quality than the OKI C531dn delivers, you should take a look at the Dell 2150cdn. However, if what you need is a workhorse printer, both the OKI C331dn and OKI C531dn deliver faster speed and better paper handling, which can easily make them your preferred choice. Between those two, the more heavy-duty your print needs are, the stronger the argument for the OKI C531dn.

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OKI MC562w

As you might guess from the price, the OKI MC562w is meant as a workhorse color multifunction printer (MFP) for a small to medium-size office or workgroup. An obvious competitor to the Ricoh Aficio SP C242SF, it offers a similar mix of features. It also offers a similar relationship to a lower cost model in OKI's line as the C242SF has to the Ricoh Aficio SP C240SF. In both cases, the more expensive model to buy costs less to run, making it the less expensive choice if you print enough pages over the lifetime of the printer.

The lower-cost model in this case is the OKI MC362w ($549 direct), which we expect to review shortly. There are, of course, other difference between the two models besides price, including a faster rated speed for the MC562w and a miniature QWERTY keyboard on its front panel to let you easily enter email addresses and even messages for direct email. If you can justify getting the MC562w on the basis of the lower running cost, however, those extras are effectively free.

The difference in running cost between the two models comes from high-capacity cartridges that the MC562w can use but the OKI MC362w can't. Based on claimed yields and prices, the cost per page for the MC562w with the high-yield cartridges is 2.4 cents per page for mono and 12.3 cents for color. That works out to a savings of 0.4 cents per mono page and 1.6 cents per color page compared with the OKI MC362w.

Print only one color page out of every ten pages you print, and the savings comes to 5.2 cents for 10 pages or $52 for 10,000 pages. That adds up to not needing to print all that many pages by SMB standards over the lifetime of the printer to make up the difference in initial price.

The Aficio SP C242SF has even an lower claimed running cost than the MC562w. For that matter, the Editors' Choice HP Officejet Pro X576dw Multifunction Printer, a laser-class inkjet, offers a still lower claimed cost per page. But, of course, running cost is far from the only reason to choose one printer over another.

One other issue worth mention, though just barely, is that both OKI models are LED rather than laser  printers, which is to say, they draw the image of each page on photosensitive material with LEDs rather than with a laser. The two technologies are essentially identical otherwise.

The Basics
Core features for the MC562w include printing and faxing from, as well as scanning to, a PC, including over a network; working as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender, and being able to scan to and print from a USB memory key.

Other key features include a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF), which complements the letter-size flatbed to let you scan up to legal-size pages. The ADF can also duplex, by scanning one side of a page, turning it over, and then scanning the other side.

In addition to letting you scan, fax, and copy duplex documents, the ADF works with the duplex print feature to let you copy single- or double-sided documents to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. The menu even has choices for turning simplex originals into duplex copies meant for flipping pages along either the long edge or short edge of the page. It also offers choices for turning documents in either duplex format into simplex copies, so that, with either kind, you don't have to go through the stack of copies turning pages around.

Another plus is ample paper handling for printing, with a 250-sheet drawer and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with the duplexer. If you need a higher input capacity, you can add a 530-sheet optional tray ($199 list) for a maximum of 880 sheets.

Going beyond the basics, the MC562w supports mobile printing over a Wi-Fi connection from iOS devices. For Android, Blackberry, or Windows phones and tablets, OKI recommends using Cortado or ePrint by Micro Tech. Note that you need a Wi-Fi access point on your network for easy printing over Wi-Fi, however, since the printer doesn't offer Wi-Fi Direct.

Setup and Speed
As is typical for color MFPs aimed at small to mid-size offices, the MC562w is a little too big for sharing a desk with, at 17.5 by 16.8 by 20 inches. It's also heavy enough, at 63 pounds, that most people will want some help moving it into place. Setup is typical for the category as well. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network and installed the drivers and other software on a Windows Vista system.

The engine rating, at 31 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome and 27 ppm for color, is the speed you should see on text files with little to no formatting. On our tests (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), the printer managed a respectable 6.6 ppm. That makes it significantly faster than the C242SF, at 3.2 ppm, but slower than the X576dw, at 9.5 ppm.

Output Quality
Output quality is a little below par overall, primarily because of well below-par photos. Text quality is at the low end of what counts as typical for a color laser-class MFP. Graphics are dead on par.

The good news is that lasers (and LED) printers set the bar high enough for text quality, that even being at the low end of par isn't much of an issue. For anything short of high-end desktop publishing applications, you shouldn't have any complaints.

Graphics output, similarly, is easily good enough for almost any business need, including PowerPoint handouts and the like. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may also consider it good enough for material going to an important client or customer when you need to convey a sense of professionalism. Photo output, unfortunately, is roughly what you might think of as newspaper quality, which is typical of mono lasers. Most color lasers do a lot better.

The low-quality photos make the OKI MC562w a poor choice if you're looking to, say, print your own marketing materials complete with photos. But if you need a printer primarily for text and graphics, and possibly an occasional photo from a Web page or the like, the photo quality should be acceptable.

Much more important for most offices is the balance of capable paper handling for both printing and scanning; the core set of MFP features, including direct email; and the useful extras, like Wi-Fi and mobile printing support. The combination adds up to a capable workhorse color printer and a more than reasonable choice if your small office or workgroup needs a relatively heavy-duty color MFP.

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OmniPage Ultimate

Pros Powerful OCR software with fine-tuned automation for high-volume corporate OCR tasks. Interface includes direct input from Dropbox, SharePoint, and other cloud services. Excellent text-to-speech module.

Cons Confusing and inconsistent interface. Bottom Line Exceptionally high-powered OCR, with a seemingly unlimited range of features, but with a flawed interface.

By Edward Mendelson

A few years ago, OmniPage was in the doldrums, burdened with an interface that still had traces of its origins in the late 1980s, and built on an OCR engine that couldn't match the power and accuracy of the talented newcomer, our consistent Editor's Choice OCR app, ABBYY FineReader Professional. Well, times have changed, and OmniPage Ultimate, the latest version, is a worthy challenger to FineReader Professional, and a close contender for sharing honors as Editors' Choice. I was surprised and impressed to see the way OmniPage has developed. It still suffers from some ancient and awkward features, and like other apps that have been around for decades (think Microsoft Office) it's cluttered with a mix of creaky older features and sleek new ones. But the sleek new features include some impressively convenient ways of automating OCR tasks, especially in a corporate setting.

Omni-Collection
OmniPage Ultimate combines multiple apps and services, with different interfaces for each. The heart of the package is the OmniPage Ultimate app that actually performs OCR tasks. It's now in version 19, and is the direct heir to the long line of OCR apps that used to be called OmniPage Pro. Next is OmniPage LaunchPad, an app for creating automated workflows that use the OmniPage Ultimate engine to perform OCR tasks and then saves the output; more about OmniPage LaunchPad in a moment. Third is the Nuance Cloud Connector, a cloud-storage service a bit like Microsoft SkyDrive or Apple's iCloud or Adobe Creative Cloud. Fourth is Nuance PDF Create, a simple interface for converting document and other files into PDF format, but not a full WYSIWYG PDF editor like Nuance PDF Converter or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

As in most packages that were put together from apps originally written by different vendors at different times, this collection suffers from a confusingly inconsistent visual style, ranging from the simple and up-to-date Windows 8-style drag-and-drop boxes used in OmniPage Launchpad, to the old-style, high-powered, feature-rich toolbar-and-dropdown interface in the main OmniPage Ultimate OCR app. Fortunately, you'll probably do most of your work in only one of these interfaces, and won't need to sort out the different ways they operate.

Getting Started
OmniPage Launchpad is designed to make things simple. At the top of the window, the app asks "What do you want to do?" Below that are three columns headed "Convert," "To," and "Save." Each column contains large colored boxes that let you choose whether you want to convert (for example) a magazine or a legal document, whether you want to convert it to (for example) Word, WordPerfect, HTML, or Excel, and whether you want to save the result as (for example) a file on disk or on Dropbox, an e-mail attachment, or an item in Evernote. You click on one box from each column to a blank set of boxes on the right to create what the program calls a "Go-flow," meaning an automated task that you can perform with a single click.

At the foot of this interface is another set of boxes that act as toggles that fine-tune the current Go-flow. For example, you can click on a box that toggles between saving the output as a single file including all pages or as separate files for each page. When you're done, you simply double-click on a Go-flow to get the process started. Unfortunately, you can't specify that a Go-flow should always start with (for example) an image imported from a scanner or from an existing file, so when you start a Go-flow you get prompted to choose an input source, which can be frustrating if you expected the LaunchPad to create fully-automated workflows instead of almost fully-automated ones.

Workflow
When you work inside the large-scale OmniPage Ultimate app itself, instead of the LaunchPad, you can create fully automated workflows with a dazzling variety of options, just as you can with ABBYY FineReader Professional. The main difference is that ABBYY lets you add your own workflows to its startup interface, so that you can select a workflow with a single click, while OmniPage Ultimate hides your choice of workflows under a dropdown menu on its toolbar.

It may take you a while to figure out that the same options have different names in OmniPage Launchpad and OmniPage Ultimate. For example, in OmniPage Launchpad you select "Magazine" as the input for the kind of input that OmniPage Ultimate calls "Multiple columns, no table." Also, the "Legal" input option in OmniPage Launchpad corresponds to the option to load a legal dictionary in addition to the standard dictionary in OmniPage Ultimate. I see the point of making these options easy to choose, but it would be good to have some clear indication of how the options in OmniPage Launchpad map to the ones in OmniPage Ultimate.

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Optoma S303

Pros Inexpensive. 3D compatible. Portable. Reasonably loud audio. Good port selection.

Cons Sub-par video. Rainbow effect. Bottom Line The Optoma S303 provides solid data image quality, portability, and a good set of connection ports for a budget data projector.

By Tony Hoffman

The Optoma S303 provides solid performance as a budget projector for business and classroom use. It's easily portable, has a good selection of ports, and is 3D compatible.

The S303 is a DLP-based data projector with SVGA (800 by 600) native resolution, a 4:3 aspect ratio common among data projectors. It's rated at 3,000 lumens, bright enough to stand up to considerable ambient light.

This all-black projector measures 4.6 by 12.4 by 8.8 inches and weighs 4.9 pounds, making it reasonably compact and portable. It also includes a soft carrying case, which isn't always the case with budget projectors. Focus and zoom (1.1:1) wheels lie near the lens.

It has a good selection of ports for a low-priced projector, including 2 VGA-in (which double as component video; monitor-out; serial; 1 RCA jack for composite video; 2 audio-in; audio-out; S-video; and HDMI, plus a USB type B port for remote mouse control. One port that it lacks is USB type A, for running presentations laptop-free from a USB thumb drive.

Image Quality
From about eight feet away, the projector filled our test screen with an image about 60 inches diagonal. The image stood up well when ambient light was introduced.

In data image testing using the DisplayMate suite, the S303 provided image quality suitable for typical business and classroom presentations. Text was a strong point. Type was readable, although a bit blurred, down to our smallest size in both black-on-white and white-on-black. Some images showed a trace of yellow tinting, and in general yellows and reds looked somewhat dull.

When I viewed the tests over a VGA connection, pixel jitter was evident in images designed to bring it out, and some hatched patterns showed green tinting. These effects disappeared when I switched to an HDMI connection. Several data images showed the rainbow effect, a common phenomenon in single-chip DLP projectors in which little red-green-blue flashes may appear, usually in bright areas against dark backgrounds. Though the rainbow artifacts were slightly more evident than is typical in data images, they're less of an issue in data presentations than with video, so even people sensitive to the effect are unlikely to be bothered by it.

Video and Audio
The S303's video quality is suitable for short clips to accompany a presentation. Rainbow artifacts were more apparent than usual in a DLP projector, and there the effect is likely to be distracting to those sensitive to it. Some scenes showed a slight reddish tint.

Audio from the projector's two-watt speaker is of decent quality, and loud enough to fill a smallish conference room or classroom.

The S303 faces stiff competition in the budget data projector arena. Two notable SVGA projectors we've recently reviewed are the NEC NP-VE281 and the Editors' Choice Epson EX3212 SVGA 3LCD Projector. The S303 couldn't match their data or video image quality; the Epson' image quality was particularly good on both counts. Being an LCD projector, the EX3212 is also free of the rainbow artifacts seen in the S303 and other DLP projectors.

At 3,000 lumens, the S303 has a modestly higher rated brightness than either the EX3212 or the NP-VE281, which are both rated at 2,800 lumens. But as perception of brightness is logarithmic, the difference is probably imperceptible. What's more, LCD projectors tend to offer the same color brightness as white brightness, while that's generally not the case with DLP projectors.

For a little more money than you'd pay for the S303, the Optoma X303 is essentially the same projector but at higher (XGA) resolution. That should give the X303 an edge in displaying smaller detail. In our testing, however, the S303 did very well in showing small text while the X303 was average for its (higher) resolution, so in data image quality it's pretty much a wash between them.

As a DLP projector, the S303 does have one advantage over the Epson EX3212 and other LCD projectors: it can project 3D content, providing 3D support for DLP-Link active-shutter glasses. The projector does not include any 3D glasses, and their cost can quickly add up. Still, it's a nice extra to a projector that provides solid performance at a budget price.

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Optoma W303

Pros Good text quality. 3D compatible. Portable. Good port selection. Low price.

Cons Sub-par video. Rainbow effect. Very soft audio. Bottom Line The Optoma W303 provides good text quality, a good set of connectivity choices, portability, and 3D capability in a WXGA data projector.

By Tony Hoffman

As the highest-resolution model of three recently released budget projectors for business or classroom use, the Optoma W303 provides a well-rounded package that includes good text quality, a nice range of connectivity choices, portability, and 3D readiness.

The W303, a DLP-based data projector, sports WXGA (1,280 by 800) native resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio. It's rated at 3,000 lumens, bright enough to stand up to considerable ambient light. This projector is reasonably compact and portable at 4.6 by 12.4 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and a weight of 4.9 pounds. It includes a soft carrying case. It has a modest 1.1 optical zoom.

It has a solid selection of ports for a WXGA projector, including two VGA-in, which double as component video; monitor-out; serial; a single RCA jack for composite video; 2 audio-in; 1 audio-out; S-video; HDMI; and a USB type B port for remote mouse control. One port that it lacks is USB type A, for running presentations laptop-free from a USB thumb drive.

Image Quality
From about nine feet away, the projector filled our test screen with an image about 65 inches on a diagonal. The image stood up well when ambient light was introduced.

In data image testing using the DisplayMate suite, the W303 provided image quality suitable for typical business and classroom presentations. Text was a strong point. Type was readable, although a bit blurred, down to our smallest size in both black-on-white and white-on-black. Some images showed a trace of yellow tinting, and in general yellows and reds looked somewhat dull.

When I viewed the tests over a VGA connection, pixel jitter was evident in images designed to bring it out, and some hatched patterns showed green tinting. These effects disappeared when I switched to an HDMI connection. Several data images showed the rainbow effect, a common phenomenon in single-chip DLP projectors in which little red-green-blue flashes may appear, usually in bright areas against dark backgrounds. Though the rainbow artifacts were slightly more evident than is typical in data images, they're less of an issue in data presentations than with video, so even people sensitive to the effect are unlikely to be bothered by it.

Video and Audio
Video quality for the W303 is okay for shorter clips to accompany a presentation. There were significant rainbow artifacts, and the effect is likely to be distracting even to people mildly sensitive to it. Some scenes showed too much red, particularly in flesh tones.

Audio from the projector's two-watt speaker was very soft, hard to hear from even a short distance away. Fortunately, the projector has an audio-out port, so you can connect to powered external speakers if need be.

The W303 is 3D capable, but to use that feature requires that you invest in active-shutter 3D glasses. It provides higher resolution at a slightly higher price than the otherwise identical Optoma X303.The sharper text that the W303 provides may be worth the premium.

The Editors' Choice NEC NP-M311W provides near-excellent data image quality and very good video quality for a data projector. As an LCD projector, it's free of rainbow artifacts, though it also lacks the W303's 3D capabilities. The BenQ MW663 also has very good video quality; although it's a DLP projector its rainbow artifacts are minimal, and it is 3D capable.

Although the Optoma W303 doesn't rise above the NEC NP-M311W or BenQ MW663 in either features or performance, it is a very well-rounded package. It provides video and audio suitable for workaday use, highlighted by good text quality. It's portable and is 3D capable. It also provides a good set of connectivity choices. And it does it all at a budget price, which should be enough for many schools and businesses.

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Optoma W304M

Pros Highly portable. Bright, with a 3,100-lumen rating. Near-excellent data image quality. Long lamp life.

Cons Tendency to show rainbow artifacts makes video suitable for short clips only. Underpowered audio. Bottom Line Only a small step up from 500-lumen LED-based portable projectors in price and weight, the 3100-lumen Optoma W304M delivers a much brighter image.

By M. David Stone

Even more than the Optoma X304M that I recently reviewed, the Optoma W304M invites comparisons to sub-three-pound, WXGA (1,280 by 800), LED-projectors like the InFocus IN1144. Less than a pound heavier than the LED models, and not much more expensive, the W304M offers a far brighter image (with a 3100-lumen rating rather than 500 lumens), the same WXGA resolution, and only a small step up in weight and price. If you need a WXGA portable projector, that alone is enough to make it worth a look.

In addition to offering a brighter image than lighter, less expensive projectors, the W304M competes with more expensive WXGA projectors as well. Compared with the Editors' Choice NEC NP-M311W in particular, it weighs only half as much, at 3 pounds 5 ounces, while offering the same 3,100-lumen brightness rating.

The lower weight is an obvious advantage. Keep in mind, however that any brightness comparison is complicated by the fact that the NEC NP-M311W is LCD based while the W304M is DLP based. With DLP projectors, there's typically a difference between white brightness and color brightness, which makes simple comparisons of brightness ratings potentially misleading. (For a discussion of color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, and Why You Should Care.)

The Basics
Not surprisingly, the W304M offers a compact size, at 2.8 by 8.7 by 7.0 inches (HWD), to go along with the low weight. As with most portable projectors, it comes with a soft carrying case complete with a handle and a pouch for cables.

Setup is standard. Plug in the power cord and cables, turn the projector on, adjust the manual 1.15x zoom, and focus. As with the X304M, the connectors for image sources are limited to HDMI, VGA, and composite video ports. Somewhat surprisingly, there's no USB A port for reading files directly from a USB memory key, an option that can enhance portability by letting you carry just the projector and a USB key.

The HDMI port supports all of the HDMI 1.4a mandatory 3D formats. That means you can connect directly to a Blu-ray player, other video source, or computer by HDMI for 3D. If you're upgrading from another projector and already have 120Hz DLP-Link glasses, be forewarned that you need 144Hz glasses to work with Blu-ray 3D at 24 frames per second. For games, however, both 144Hz glasses and 120Hz glasses worked in my tests without problems.

One other basic that demands mention is the W304M's longer than typical lamp life, at 4,000 hours in Bright mode and 5,000 hours in Eco mode. The long life, combined with the lower than usual $230 (street) replacement cost, translates to a low running cost.

Image Quality and Other Issues
The W304M sailed through our standard suite of DisplayMate tests, with near-excellent data image quality. It delivered suitably neutral grays at all levels from black to white in every preset mode, and also delivered saturated, pleasing color, despite yellow being a little mustard colored in all modes, and red a little dark.

The projector also handled fine detail well, with both black text on white and white text on black readable even at 6.8 points, although white text on black was a little less crisp at that size. I saw a hint of pixel jitter on screens that tend to cause that problem. However, it was so slight that there was no obvious improvement when I switched from an analog to a digital connection.

Video image quality is better than you'll get with some data projectors, but it's not suitable for long sessions. The native resolution can accept 720p HD without scaling, which helps a little. Also on the plus side is that it handles shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas) better than many data projectors, and it shows only minimal noise. However, in scenes that tend to cause the problem, I saw more posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually) than with most data projectors.

The far more serious issue for video is that the W304M shows rainbow artifacts easily, with bright areas breaking up into flashes of red, green, and blue. With data images, I saw the artifacts only occasionally. With video, however, they were both frequent and obvious enough that anyone in your audience who sees them easily is likely to find them annoying. That makes this the wrong projector if you need to show much video, although it's useable for short clips.

As with most portable projectors, the audio system in the W304M is basically useless. Even at top volume, the one-watt speaker is hard to hear from two feet away. If you need audio, count on getting an external sound system.

Clearly, if you need to show much video, the Optoma W304M is a poor choice. You'll be much better off in that case with the NP-M311W. Not only does it offer good video quality by data projector standards, but as an LCD projector it's also guaranteed not to show rainbow artifacts. If you're primarily interested in showing data images at WXGA resolution, however, with video limited to short clips at most, and you also need a highly portable, bright projector, the Optoma W304M may be exactly the model you want.

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