GCN LAB REVIEWS

The top 10 products of 2010

The GCN Lab picks the best of the best from about 300 products reviewed this year

• By John Breeden II, Greg Crowe
• Dec 03, 2010

Each year, the GCN Lab reviews about 300 technology products designed to be useful for government workers.

This year, we haven’t ordered the list in any special way. Every product deserves its slot, and it had to beat stiff competition to do it. It wouldn’t really be fair to further compare a printer to a laptop or an office suite to a wireless router. The truth is that any of these superstar products would serve well in any office, and they would do it better than other products in their class. This is the best tech that 2010 has to offer.

	MacBook Pro shines in dual environments Apple’s MacBook line has always offered some powerful and ergonomically pleasant laptops, and the MacBook Pro 15-inch is no exception.
	Hollywood inspires most accurate LCD we’ve ever seen At first glance, it might seem as though the HP DreamColor LP2480zx is bucking the trend of offering top-notch technology at a relatively inexpensive price. But the DreamColor fills a vital need for some users that has never been accomplished before.
	Dell Latitude E6400 XFR is as tough as they come It’s not easy breaking into the rugged market. But Dell proved it could be done with the creation of the Latitude E6400 XFR, a rugged laptop that could really shake things up.
	A printer that speaks the language of better images You can get an accurate image from almost any printer by manipulating the print driver, but doing so usually requires a skill akin to alchemy. That’s not the case with the Xerox Phaser 7500DN.

 

	Samsung Captivate makes good use of its Android OS The Samsung Captivate is a perfect example how a little bit of innovation can go a long way toward helping a product stand above the rest of the pack. And that type of innovation doesn’t have to raise the price by even a dime.
	WordPerfect X5 lives up to its name  When a new version of an office suite comes out, we're never certain what to expect. Sometimes, there are major changes that don’t make sense, and other times, there are barely any recognizable changes. Neither was the case with WordPerfect Office X5.
	Toughbook 31 combines powerhouse performance with long battery life When most people think of Panasonic, TVs come to mind. But those in the government market know it is also the king of rugged gear, like the Toughbook 31.
	HP TouchSmart’s touch screen a delight to work with When a network administrator needs to replace both a desktop and monitor, one possible solution is to get an all-in-one computer. The TouchSmart 9100 from Hewlett-Packard could be just the ticket.
	ProSafe Wireless-N VPN Firewall router big on features, capacity When the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ratified the 802.11n wireless standard late last year, we knew there would be an influx of new wireless routers on the market. But the one that was best overall in our tests was the Netgear ProSafe Wireless-N VPN Firewall.
	With SoloPro, backup data is safe at home It’s all well and good to back up data, but if there is a flood or fire, it won’t matter how many on-site copies you’ve made. The ioSafe SoloPro USB 3.0 makes sure that your data will survive such disasters.