Products of the Year
In addition to our reader- voted awards, we asked our own panel of experts to pick their standout products from the past 12 months
Business Hardware of the Year Broadberry CyberServe R272-Z31
““Busi nesses fretting about thet rising cost of core-based virtualisation virtualis and softwa softwarere licensing can rest easy with Broadberr y on their side,” explai ns Dave
Mitchell, whose reviews of high-end busi ness hardware have kept PC
Pro’s The Network section powering throu gh 2020.
“Powered by AMD’s mighty
24- core, high-performanc e EPYC 7F72 CPU, the R272- Z31 keeps licence costs down and presents a high storage capacity and great expansion potenti al.”
Business Laptop of the Year HP Elite Dragonfly
““The Dragonfly is that rare gem,” write s Expe rt Revi ews’ ’ head hea of f reviews Jonathan Bray. “It “It’s a business laptop that not on only inclu des all the neces sary corporate featur es – full serviceability , easy fleet depl oyment and smart
BIOS features – yet is also a pleasure to use and carry a around.
It’s among the light lightestest con convertible
2-in-1 1 laptops around, at under 1kg, has a keyboard that you can type on for hours on end and speakers that sound better than laptop speakers have any right to.”
Workstation of the Year Scan 3XS GWP-ME Q132R
There could only be one winner of our Workstation of the Year prize, and it was the system that won our Labs in issue 307. Workstatio n exper t
James Morris explains all: “This system harnesses the awesome price-performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor, delivering 16 CPU cores and a huge amount of workstation power for under £2,500 exc VAT. With Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 graphi cs, there ’s great potenti al for 3D modelli ng, and a 2TB NVMe drive provides superfast storage. You’re getting amazing capabilities for professional content-creation applications at a keen price.”
Business Software of the Year 3CX Phone System
3CX remains a firm favourite for both
Dave Mit chell and our Real Worl d
Computing columni sts, with none more forthco ming in his prai se than Jon Honeyb all. “I’ve used 3CX for well over a decade, starting with on- premise and now as an in- cloud service ,” he explai ns. “It just works. I use a fraction of the feat ures, but am reassu red that there is a huge depth of capability should I need that. It’s been reliable, strai ghtf orward and essenti ally fit and forget .”
Security Product of the Year WatchGuard Firebox T70
We’ll leave it to Dave
Mitchell to explain why the Fire box T70 is so deserving of this accol ade.
“WatchGuard delivers the perfect perime ter security to SMBs with a powerful appl iance packed to the gills with an incredible range of featu res. The affor dable Firebox T70 is remarkably easy to depl oy and manage, while its Intel CPU has the horse power to handle HTTPS inspection and a high user demand. Be red or dead.”
Desktop PC of the Year Chillblast Captain Flight Sim PC
“I’ve reviewed some stunning desktop PCs in the past 12 months,” says PC Pro’ s edit or-in-chief
Tim Danton, “and they’ve mainly been based aroun d the combination of
Ryzen processors and Nvidia
RTX graphi cs. So it was brave of Chill blast to build this system, squarely targeted at people who wanted to run
Microsoft Flight Simulator, using an Intel Core i7-10700K instead.
With an RTX 2080 Super for company, Flight Simulator looked suitably amazing even at 4K, but what I really loved was how quiet and well-built it was.”
Laptop of the Year
Apple MacBook Pro 16in
Barry Collins clearly has an eye for quality. He bought two of 2020’s Products of the Year, although this first was rather more expensive than the other one. “While every one waits to see what Apple does with ARM chips in its laptops, let’s not forget that it made an exemplary Intel-based based machine with th the MacBoo k Pro 16in, ” he writes.
“The return of the MacBook’s much- loved keyboard, speakers that are vast ly superior to anything I’ve ever heard in a laptop and workstation- like performanc e add up to a phenomenal pro- grade machi ne.”
Phone of the Year
Samsung Galaxy M31
A surprise winner? Perhaps. When it comes to featur es and performance, this phon e can’t hol d a candela to the flagship phon es. But, as Barry Colli ns explai ns, somet i mes value is king. “While Samsung’s flip phones and the flagship S20 drew all the headlines in 2020, it was a little-heralded mid- range phone that stood out for me this year. Astonishing three- day batt ery life, a superb 6.4in scre en and perfo rmance that – while not benchmark-rocking – can cert ainly keep Android running smoothly is all yours for less than £250.” If, that is, you can find it on Amazon, where it’s sold exclusively and, for once , supply can’t match demand .
Tablet of the Year
Apple iPad Pro 12.9in
As if Apple doesn’t win enough awards in PC Pro, Jon Honeyball insisted there could only be one winner in the Tablet of the Year category. Indeed, he goes even ven further: “The new iPad
Pro 12.9in with the Magic Keyboard is a tipping point product. produc t. Exceptionally good performance, excellent battery life, excellent keyboard and screen… and it actually does all you really need, unless you’re tied to Win32 legacy application s. If not, it’s the computer for the modern era.”
Software of the Year
Zoom
“Heav en help me,” wrote Dick Pountain when we asked for nominations, “but Software of the Year can only be Zoom.” His view was rapidly echoed by Davey Winder, although Steve Cassidy argue d for the “less buggy Microsoft Teams” , but in the end there could only be one winner for 2020. We’ll let Dick have the final word: “Zoom has captured the entire non-techie middle class, in much the same way that Apple did once upon a time. time.”” If anyone disagrees, we’re sure the Real World Computing team would be up for a group chat.
Technology Innovation of the Year
AMD Ryzen 3000 Series
Why do AMD’s Ryzen 3000 Series of desktop and mobile processors deserve this accolade? After all, the Ryzen 4000 Series has already been released. For Lee Grant, who co- runs a repair shop and sells computers for a living ( see p116), it’s the 3000 chips that have really revolutionised the laptop and PC market.
“Why buy a lapto p with a creaking Intel Cele ron when the same money will get you a Ryzen 3 with Radeon Vega graphic s?” he asks. “And, as a system builder, the Ryzen 3000 desktop range gives us tremendous fl exibility. The low-mid range chips come with Radeon Vega Graphics, which are quite capable of deli veri ng a superb gamin g experien ce, but when more punch is needed, drop a 16-core Ryzen 9 into the same motherboard and use a PCIe 4 graphics card to create a potent workstation.”
Then there are the extra benefits that Ryzen offers. “Cool chips are efficient chips, and AMD’s Wraith coolers are the most effective and attractive stock coolers I’ ve ever seen. The RGB-li t Wraith Prism cooler integrates with other lighting infrastruct ures, which demonstrates AMD’s extra step to appeal to the gaming, modding and enthusiast communities.”