Best Computer Servers
HP ProLiant DL380 2U 64-bit Server with 2xQuad-Core E5540 Xeon 2.53GHz 16GB RAM 8x146GB 10K SAS HDD, RAID, NO OS. 4 x HP NC382i Multifunction Gigabit Network Adapter, TCP/IP Offload Engine, support for iSCSI.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"HP ProLiant DL380 G6 2U 64-bit Server with 2xQuad-Core E5540 Xeon 2.53GHz + 16GB RAM + 8x146GB 10K SAS HDD, RAID, NO OS. Received this on time and in pristine condition, the packing job was such a good one that I had a little trouble getting the server out of the EPS foam packing; which was fantastic as there was a dent on one of the long edges that never made it anywhere near the servers chassis... I did order myself a couple of new 750w replacements as these cannot be replaced using mixed wattages, although a single 460w power supply should be sufficient to run the server reliably; just not any fault tolerance to bad power supplies. This system came with 4 x 4GB DDR3 1066/1333MHz ECC RAM installed, I ordered an extra 32GB of the same type of RAM installing it per the memory configurators tables to bring me up to 48GB installed RAM; the system recognized this without any issues and also ran it at the higher speeds (1333MHz vs 1066MHz) available to genuine HP RAM. This came with a 256MB cache card installed instead of the 512MB advertised, upon contacting the customer service via email they said they would send out a replacement 512MB cache card as well as a backup 512MB card and an extra backup battery as well; more than generous and much appreciated as I'll probably be getting another HP server or two when budgets allow and extra parts are always needed."
"Works fantastic."
"Great server for the money."
"Excellent, fast and reliable."
"You bet your ass I'm going to be ordering from this place again, as I'm currently building my home lab for school and can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment."
"Having worked in backoffice IT for quite some time, I'm very familiar with this model and the entire DL380 series. After removing it from the box, I had to laugh at myself for needing to take a moment to determine how to release the server from it's foam encasement. Simple, just force your fingers into the narrow gap and pull the two halves apart HARD."
LEN SV TS440 70AQ0009UX TowerE3-1225 4G NO Raid 1c1p. Hard Drive Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM, 4 GB DDR3 RAM.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"You will need both drives and the caddies that are necessary to slot them into the backplane."
"Very nice server, although it was a bare bones server that needed almost everything you could imagine."
"The price I bought this was cheap enough that I bought a spare."
"Great server, fairly quite and can be used in a home no problem."
"Excellent build quality for a budget server with plenty of room for expansion."
"price right and very quiet compare what I have before (other brand)."
"great little low-cost server, works perfectly with our small business!"
"Great server!"
Dell responds with an expanding portfolio of enterprise servers, storage technologies, and services with a single goal: to help you simplify IT. Featuring embedded hypervisors, large memory capacity with 18 DIMM slots, and 4 integrated network connections, the Dell PowerEdge R710 delivers better overall system performance and greater virtual machine-per-server capacity. Dell PowerEdge R710 6B Server 2x E5540 2.53GHz 8-Cores Total 72GB RAM 6x 1TB 3.5" Hard Drives PERC 6/I. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Great deal."
"72GB RAM, 6T hard disks, raid card...are all working."
"Good price for a good performance system."
"Purchased from ServerPlus 365, will purchase from again."
"Very good service."
"I had problem for configuration the RAID."
"DELL PowerEdge R710 2 x 2.53Ghz E5540 Quad Core 72GB 6x 1TB 6i 2PS."
"Great support."
Best Computer Scanners
Intelligent scan correction performs a quick quality check on your scans - features include auto color detection, auto rotation for upside down documents, and blank page removal.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It didn't eat any pages (of really soft paper, not regular paper), it didn't skip any pages, and the auto-detect for black-and-white versus color and blank-pages is ridiculously helpful. It even had no problem sucking in very hard paper (like a cover) and then right back to soft paper of a different size! It needs another flip-up lip to catch the paper as it comes out, otherwise it starts to pop off and dump on the desk."
"They cut down on paper considerably, as we scan documents brought in by clients and hand them back to the clients. These scanners save on filing time, which saves money and tedium for my employees, and they save money on file cabinets and floor space. The documents scan to pdf and are then easily stored in electronic files (backed up in a dual core hard drive onsite and in cloud storage offsite)."
"When you scan as much as we do, little annoyances become a big deal. I like how the one-touch scan button understands when I want to begin a scan and resume a scan. The eject button and fold out top is designed well enough that it's easy to gently blow out particles and carefully clean the top and bottom scan heads. Scanning to searchable PDF works incredibly well. The OCR module does a pretty admirable job of scanning text and making it searchable in a PDF. Pro tip: if you're on Windows and you want to use Windows Search to look for text in PDF you need to go download Adobe's PDF iFilter app and install it on every computer that needs to search the PDFs, not just the server or workstation where the PDFs reside. Software installation is clumsy and requires a bunch of updates. The ONE THING this scanner needs to do right is to scan to searchable PDF. In order to do this, I had to turn off all the "quick button" features and change the app to scan to application: save to a folder. I demo'd it before some scanning/archiving company tried to bid us $10,000 to do our scanning work for us and their demo system did far worse than this little scanner."
"I have used at least 5 different scanners trying to find one that would handle years of old paperwork. I have thousands of tiny fuel receipts on crumpled carbon paper that no scanner would scan without jamming."
"It's super fast and it's made my life easier by improving my productivity both at our office and at home."
Best Computer Printers
Thanks to its lightning-quick printing speed of up to 27 ppm and automatic duplex printing, it's ideal for producing business documents including multi-page reports, spreadsheets, invoices, and more. For those with multiple devices, the wireless connectivity feature permits employees or visitors to your office to print documents directly from their mobile devices. Print from your mobile device via: Air print, Google cloud Print, Brother iPrint & Scan, cortado workplace, Wi-Fi Direct.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The printer immediately appeared in Mac OS X 10.9's "Nearby Printers" list, and drivers were automatically downloaded and configured the first time I attempted to print to it. One word of warning: when the printer decides that it's time to replace the toner, it will simply stop printing, even if there's still adequate toner remaining. It's easy to set on the printer itself (General Setup -> Replace Toner -> Continue), or via the web interface."
"It will connect wireless to the router, which is fine for most people."
"I went to install it like every other printer I've ever used by plugging it into power and my PC.. wrong! I downloaded the software at http://www.brother-usa.com/support/ModelInfo.aspx?R3ModelID=HLL2340DW#.VF0y6fldXch and installed it using the Wireless method (you have to be plugged in so you can easily setup WiFi on it via your computer, this option in the install is just telling the installation how you plan to use it so it can take the next steps accordingly). This was a very, very, easy to install wireless printer. My main purpose for this printer was wireless, random printing of documents. You are paying a bit more initially for the printer, but between the volume of prints it is capable of yielding on a single toner cartridge and the efficiency, it'll more than pay for itself! Think about it, up to 2600 prints for $50 (if you choose to buy the main brand toner replacement, or go ahead and buy the knock off brand for $17 and save money, or heck, look up on youtube "how to refill toner for Brother HL-L2340 printer" and you're sure to see some great tutorials and save even more money!). or you can go out and buy a $30 inkjet printer that gets 200-300 prints per cartridge, but how often do you end up replacing that cartridge? Multiply that by 5 (how many of those you'd go through to achieve the print volume of one toner cartridge for a laser printer) and that's about $175 depending on the inkjet/cartridges."
Best Computer Monitors
Clear Out the Chaos Featuring a 144Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time, the 24-inch VG248QE LED Full HD monitor delivers the best performance for fluid gaming and movie playback. Key Features 24-inch Full HD LED-backlit 144Hz display 1920x1080 for brilliant HD-quality visuals in both 2D and 3D GamePlus displays a crosshair overlay and in-game timers to enhance your gaming experience 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms Trace Free II Technology for smooth motion playback for movies and games 80,000,000:1 ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio delivers the darkest blacks and brightest whites for true-to-life images Full height, tilt, and swivel adjustments for the most versatile 3D monitor to provide the most comfort DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI-D, and HDMI ports for multi device connectivity. Play as fast as you can The ASUS VG248QE monitor shortens the time it takes for rendered frames to display on the screen. The response time is also reduced to 1ms to eliminate tracers by controlling voltage levels when driving liquid crystals thus ensuring fluid and clear video playback—more than twice the frame rates of standard LCDs. ASUS GamePlus—get the edge in your game The VG248QE monitor features the exclusive GamePlus hotkey with crosshair overlay and timer functions. Expand your visual horizons The VG248QE monitor features extensive connectivity options including DisplayPort, HDMI, and Dual-link DVI. An ergonomically-designed stand with tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustments make the VG248QE an ideal choice for a multi-display gaming set-up. True Resolution 1920x1080 Full HD 1080P Yes Pixel Pitch 0.2768mm Brightness(Max) 350 cd/㎡ ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) 80,000,000:1. Chassis Colors Black Tilt +15°~ -5° Swivel Yes Pivot Yes Height Adjustment Yes VESA Wall Mounting 100x100mm Security Kensington lock Yes Phys. A comfortable viewing experience with ergonomic tilt, swivel pivot, and height adjustment.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you have spent a lot of time researching this (or other) monitors, you may have heard a few people talking about the colors being washed out because it's a tn panel.. Well, in my experience, this is far from the truth! I primarily play Overwatch and I may dabble in Guild Wars 2 or Aion from time to time and I have to say, these games look fantastic on this monitor."
"This is probably one of THE most popular gaming monitors right now, as it has been referenced time and time again on the PC forums. BUY IF: If you want to step up your gaming beyond 60 FPS. Your needs support 1080p vs 1440p vs 4k. Your space supports 24" > monitor size only. You want to dabble with 3D Gaming now or later. Skip IF: Your GPU Can not processes > 60 FPS. Your wanting to go into 1440P or 4k gaming soon. You NEVER have the intentions of using Nvidia 3D. You use AMD GPUs. Currently, I am running three of these monitors with Nvidia surround technology loaded, as well as Nvidia 3D running on certain games. Black Ops III ~ 110 fps with all settings on Medium to high. Witcher 3 ~ 60 fps on High preset (extremely demanding). Battlefield 4 ~ 120 fps locked all settings ultra. Diablo 3 ~ 120 FPS locked max settings. The downsides mentioned."
"I use this monitor primarily for browsing and gaming and it is a significant improvement over the HP LCD monitor that it replaced, especially when playing fast paced games."
"* I might of had a defective monitor, this was my experience* At times the colors were off ( even after tons of adjusting) You could see grailny, staticky images around the bow especially noticeable with a black screen."
"This is an excellent monitor."
"Edit: I discovered a defect where the monitor will make a buzzing noise when playing games."
"My dad, when building his system with me, saw the monitor and fell in love so quickly he bought one the next morning."
"First time I ever purchased a monitor and I love it."
Best Computer Components
Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Then restored user accounts, apps, etc, from the HD just removed from the Mac, attached with this cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (rather than using time machine backup). Will be interesting to see if there is any noticeable improvement in battery life and how the drive performs after a year or so (given TRIM is not permitted by Apple on third-party SSDs). I realize the case is superfluous and rather irrelevant in an internal SSD (it will never be seen again after re-inserting the back cover), but once installed amid the tidy MacBook innards, the drive looks perfectly at home, actually matching the other components in terms of aesthetics."
"Once done, I powered off and removed the back case of the Macbook- removed the four screws that retained the HHD and slipped the SATA connector off. I connected the new SSD via the SATA connector and replaced all retaining screws (after removing the hex screws from the HHD, I placed them on the new SSD)."
"EDIT: Gohanrocs12 comment provided where to find the migration software on Samsung website: [...]. I also bought an external case from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H98AXOE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I then ran the Magician software and asked to optimize disk for Performance and enabled the RAPID feature. UPDATE 19-mar-2015: There were some questions about ability of the migration software to copy the factory recovery partition to the SSD. OEM recoverypartitions, generated at the factory by computer manufacturers, cannot be replicated". As another customer noted in the comments, it may be a good idea to keep the original HDD around just in case you need to recover from disaster."
Best Computer Networking
Enjoy tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills with access to over 500,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and more. Enjoy tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills with access to over 500,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and more. Find the best way to watch with universal search results from over 190 channels and apps including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After doing some research, I bought 3 Amazon Fire Sticks with the voice remote, cancelled Dish, upgraded to 30Mbps internet, added Sling 25 channels, added standard Hulu, and CBS All Access. Guess who still gets 96+% of the channels watched, added Prime Music and several hundred shows (that networks don't play) to all the TVs in the house, and saved over $700 per year compared to what I paid this past year?"
"And I even bought a TV sound bar to improve my watching experience,TV Sound Bar, Meidong Bluetooth Soundbar with Built-in Subwoofer, 36 inch 2.0 Channel Home Theater Speakers, Wireless and Wired Bluetooth Audio for TV/PC/ Phones/Tablets/ Echo dot (2017 Model) it is a really good partner with my old TVs,also recommend. I found that the included power adapter isn't really necessary as long as you have a powered USB Port on your TV to plug it in to.I did notice that if you are using the 2.4GHZ wireless on your Wireless Network it does affect the speed especially if you have COMCAST/XFinity-, or other Cable provider as they are throttling the 2.4GHZ bandwidth to 25Gbps. If you don't know for sure run a SpeedTest and find out what your download speed is- upload is not at Full Duplex so it will be slower on both bands. It comes pre-loaded with your Amazon account details, so the only setup you need is to plug it in and enter your WiFi password, using a simple on-screen prompt. A short HDMI extension cable is included, which is handy if your TV has awkwardly-positioned ports. As with the previous-gen Stick, the extension cable also seems to boost WiFi reception a bit. It has the usual 4-way navigation pad and media controls, but no volume buttons - you’ll need to keep your TV remote handy for that."
"The AFS is a device that provides you with both the hardware and software needed to watch such shows and it bundles everything together nicely so it is extremely easy to use. Some apps (channels) are free and they offer limited programming on demand from shows they aired in the past. PlayStation Vue (the one I signed up with) offers bundled packages of channels just like cable or satellite services and they are live broadcasts! The amazing thing with Vue is you can go into the guide, pick a show that was aired, say, two hours ago that you missed and watch it in its entirety! Another sweet thing about using the AFS for television viewing is no installer has to come to your house to set up your equipment and when you’re finished with their service nothing has to be returned."
Best Computers & Tablets
The next generation of our best-reviewed Fire tablet, with up to 12 hours of battery life, a vibrant 8" HD display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and Dolby Audio.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It has about 12 hours battery life, it has many settings that you can use to save your battery by going off Wifi if you don't need it. It is an 8 inch HD display, it has a quad core processor, 1.3 gigahertz. You can enjoy hundreds of movies, TV shows, songs, Kindle ebooks you can even have a text- to-speech narrator, who will read the book to you! It seems to have brought us into a different venue. The case that comes with your Kindle Fire is just the back side of the case it does not cover the front."
"All right so I was scrolling through the reviews and read some pretty ridiculous reasons to not give this tablet five stars. For 80 dollars this is a good buy and the complaints on the wieght and the ads are ridiculous reasons to give this tablet a shabby review. Buy this tablet if you want a cheap e-reader that can also sure the web, watch movies and shows, check Facebook or Twitter, or read books on. It is an 80 dollar tablet and it will freeze if you try and treat it like something that has an insanely powerful processor and RAM."
"I paid full price for this product and am not being compensated in any manner to post this review. Pro's: ~Fast. ~Amazing Screen resolution. ~Great sound. ~Responsive. ~Alexa is kind of awesome. ~Battery life. I've charged it once so far, I've watched YouTube videos on it, streamed a movie and a few TV shows and I use it for Facebook and I'm not even half way down on the battery after 3 days."
Best Computer Warranties & Services
The Most Reviewed Protection Plan on Amazon SquareTrade customers love sharing stories about how we've saved their day—and they've made us the most reviewed protection plan on Amazon. Protection from Common Malfunctions Repairing your average mechanical or electrical failure can cost as much as buying a new item. SquareTrade covers you beyond the manufacturer's warranty, including parts and labor. Transferring your protection plan is free and can be done online or over the phone. Electronic Delivery We'll email your protection plan to you within two hours of purchase. Things to know: SquareTrade Protection Plans are only valid for new products purchased at Amazon within the last 30 days. Your plan begins on the date you purchased your item and is inclusive of the manufacturer's warranty period. If your item arrives late, call SquareTrade and your plan can be extended to the shipping date. Cancel anytime, full refund in the first 30 days.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After looking through the other reviews though, I found that there was some serious distortion of the results because many of the positive reviews came from people who had never had to file a claim. First, here are the overall results: **Definitely Filed a Claim**. Positive: 23. Neutral: 1. Negative: 11. **Definitely Did Not File a Claim**. Positive: 35. Neutral: 7. Negative: 11. **Unclear**. Positive: 33. Neutral: 2. Negative: 4. Quantitative analysis: _Of the people who actually used the service, about 2/3 were happy. _Only 25% of positive reviews came from people who definitely filed a claim, compared to 42% of negative reviews coming from people who definitely filed a claim, suggesting that the current starred rating is significantly too high. Qualitative analysis: _In all fairness, a few of the negative reviews from people who filed a claim came from people who were dissatisfied for reasons that related at least partly to their own misunderstanding of the product."
"I am a behavioral biology/computer science student at Johns Hopkins University, I run art/garden camp in the summer for children. More specifically, when I asked whether or not I would be able to be compensated in any way for having my laptop in transit back and forth from square trade for four months, the answer was no (this is slightly understandable but it gets worse). The third time they sent back my device, they replaced the hardrive, yet the computer still turned off within an hour of having received it. They happened to install the wrong hardrive the second time they send back the device--they gave me a similar i7 processor but one without a turbo drive. Awesome so great of you squaretrade what good customer service ("we'll just wait them out!!"). In the end they promised me 800$ for my laptop and the amount that they had made me wait, they had also violated a little something known as the Lemon law (look it up), and yes I was quite happy for a brief moment. I can only imagine how horrible this would be for a family with a real claim that does not have the time for this bureaucratic maze. I have no reason to try and steal a hardrive from squaretrade, I simply wanted a working laptop. It is obviously in squaretrades best interest to set up a mechanism that prevents them from being predated upon by people looking to make a quick buck. There is no accountability on their part and because of this I am stuck with a laptop with the wrong hardrive, that shuts off periodically, and the cherry on top was that I was accused of criminal activity."
"Do not buy a plan here, I just got my laptop from repair and it looks like they beat the shit out of it."
Best External Components
Color: Black. Max 8x DVDR Write Speed.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"[Update 12/1/16] I can verify this works with the Surface Pro 4, and Windows 10 with no problems."
"I opened the box, plugged it into a USB 3.0 port (and no, this drive is USB 2.0, but DVD/CD drives just aren't fast enough to ever need USB 3.0) on my MacBook Pro, and I was good to go."
"I am not very computer savvy and I needed an external DVD because the new laptop did not come with one - my fault - I thought all laptops came with a DVD player."
"VLC media player works great and it's free open source software that plays DVD movies from the external player. I was tempted to rate player 4 stars because LG's customer service isn't conducive to folks on the West Coast and the Quick Set-up Guide doesn't seem to acknowledge that the user may need to install more software than the writer software that's included."
"It fits in nicely beside the drive in the carry case that I purchased to protect the drive when not in use."
"As many new PCs do not come with a DVD writer, but yet still need backup and rescue disks made, this is good insurance."
"This is a great working product, at first I had trouble and blamed it on the DDVR and was going to return but after talking to a friend it was my Video Player program."
"still working 8 months later with regular use - added to a desktop that the disc reader died - the case could be sturdier - use caution handling."
Best Data Storage
The 850 EVO reads, writes and multi-tasks at incredible speeds, enhancing boot-up speed, application loading and multi-tasking performance. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Then restored user accounts, apps, etc, from the HD just removed from the Mac, attached with this cable: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJZJI84/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (rather than using time machine backup). Will be interesting to see if there is any noticeable improvement in battery life and how the drive performs after a year or so (given TRIM is not permitted by Apple on third-party SSDs). I realize the case is superfluous and rather irrelevant in an internal SSD (it will never be seen again after re-inserting the back cover), but once installed amid the tidy MacBook innards, the drive looks perfectly at home, actually matching the other components in terms of aesthetics."
"I searched the web and there were many complaints that some systems will not recognize this device and suggest some far-out-there solutions whereas I found a simple, effective and without downloading anything. That is until I saw a Reddit article with a simple solution (I have Windows 7 HP 64Bit): 1. Reboot your computer and go into the boot manager, usually F12 and select DVD Drive as the first bootable device instead of your SSD. Reboot again and a program will load from the DVD where you will select "Startup Repair". Allow "startup repair" to fix the problem and reboot your PC. I really hope this works for some of you who have this irritating problem."
"Once done, I powered off and removed the back case of the Macbook- removed the four screws that retained the HHD and slipped the SATA connector off. I connected the new SSD via the SATA connector and replaced all retaining screws (after removing the hex screws from the HHD, I placed them on the new SSD)."
Best Laptop Accessories
Protect your devices from power surges with the Belkin 12-Plug Power Strip Surge Protector. 12-plug power strip with 8-foot cord, ideal for home or office use.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Misshapen because whoever put it together decided that the on/off switch didn't need to sit straight on the plastic casing, and then just tried to screw it together anyway, bending the plastic casing and leaving the switch "sorta" on there. It functions as an on/off switch, but I wouldn't trust it to do anything else."
"Mine came with an angled plug which is visible in one but not all of the product photos."
"I'm not a huge review writer, but this product and the support provided by Belkin warrants some comments. The product failed within the first 30 days while being hooked up to my computer and a TV. No fuses tripped within my home... something apparently just shorted out inside the unit. They have a process similar to Amazon which allows them to ship you the new product, then you return the defective one to them once the new one is received. This is obviously a huge part of the equation for a $25.00 product and I assume it will be covered eventually once they provide some actual dollar figures about what I will be charged if I don't return the bad one. So I contact CitiBank (my credit card) to notify them of a probable dispute at this point... and they tell me the actual charge was $80.30. Anyway, short version: product failed twice (which to me warrants the one star review alone), Belkin customer service then provides the trifecta of failure. Five days later I received a response that appeared to be written by an actual person (versus an automated reply) that stated. "Thank you for contacting Belkin Technical Support. Please call our customer support department during business hours". So that was great. I never received anything and tracking shows it was returned to their docks almost a month ago, yet they charge me."
"Disappointed that this offers little to no protection...only plus is 8 outlets on a switch."
"It caught on fire and burned my carpet, but it didn't burn the whole house down since I was sitting right next to it."
"The real news: none of Belkin's products, or other similar surge protectors, can protect electronic equipment during a catastrophic surge, such as that caused by a close lightning strike. Such a protector, properly connected by an electrician, will dissipate 85-90% of the initial surge from a lightning strike, and allow a Belkin-type protector, if good enough, to do its intended job. And now, the kicker: they reserve the right to have you mail them all of the equipment you are claiming is damaged--at YOUR expense and with ABSOLUTELY NO GUARANTEE that either you'll get it back or that they'll give you one red cent even after they receive your damaged equipment. And if they do deny your claim after all of this, your only resort is to sue them, and the amount of damages claimed may exceed the limits for small claims court in your state (meaning you'll have to hire a lawyer--have you priced one lately?). First, get yourself a whole-house surge protector, and then, protect all of your electronic equipment (including appliances) with appropriately scaled surge protectors from Monoprice."
Best Tablet Accessories
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Not All Batteries Are Created Equal. ***NOTE***. This review contains technical observations which I have reported to Anker. The battery I opened was verified to contain a high quality Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650BF Lithium Ion cell, which is one of the finest cells available on the market today. - 9.99USD at Time of Review for PowerCore+ Mini in Black. Nay: - Inconsistent Fulfillment, Frequent Product Updates/Changes May Result in Order Errors and Old Product. - Inconsistent Performance of Internal DC Boost Converter Between Batteries, Affects Output Current and Capacity, Actual Available Capacity Varies Between 8.5Wh and 9.5Wh. - Possible Inconsistent Quality Control - Based on my numbers Anker deemed 2 out of 4 batteries to be possibly defective and shipped replacements (not arrived at time of this writing). In order to minimize power loss in the USB cable during whole product testing I custom-built an extra-short USB cable using 22AWG conductors, meaning that all of my numbers will be best-case scenarios for each of the batteries I tested. This was the case for me when I ordered two PowerCore+ Mini's in Black last week, and two Astro Mini's in Black showed up, although they were so close to the PowerCore+ in appearance (in fact, they are identical in appearance) that I didn't even notice the error until a couple of days later when during testing I noticed that the tail cap of the battery had "Astro Mini" written on it. At time of this writing both the Astro Mini and the PowerCore+ Mini are listed as separate products on Anker's website, and share the same capacity ratings, but have some minor published differences. During testing of the Astro Mini's I observed some troubling discrepancies that prompted me to order additional batteries. Anker's packaging has always been efficient, easy-to open, and well-thought, and these batteries were no exception. Each battery came with a short Anker USB Micro cable, a tasteful carrying case, and a short and sweet support pamphlet that tells you how to get questions answered or stuff fixed. Each battery's USB port is also covered with a sticker to remind you that the battery automatically cuts power to the port to conserve energy when not in use, and that a quick tap of the small button in the corner is all you need to get the juice flowing. Well, just do a quick search for "Lithium Ion Fire" on YouTube sometime and you'll see quickly why the FAA restricts how much lithium you can carry on an aircraft in the form of batteries, and why most major couriers won't allow you to ship Lithium batteries via Air Mail unless you have a hazmat contract with them. Serial numbers on devices this cheap are the hallmark of a manufacturer that cares because while you are unlikely to file a police report for a stolen ten dollar battery, Anker certainly wants to know which manufacturing batches are having problems, if any. ***WARNING***. I don't pull punches with batteries or battery vendors, and I didn't intend to judge this battery by its casing alone. Eventually I was able to saw off the rest of the casing without putting a scratch on the battery cell itself, and was able to reveal a Panasonic-Sanyo NCR18650BF cell soldered to a small DC boost converter PCB and USB ports. The NCR18650BF cell is a beauty of a battery cell, and represents one of the highest capacity and quality cells available on the market today. Every battery cell has two capacities. What this means is that "12.06Wh" capacity that you see on the product is only true for a couple of weeks right after Panasonic made the battery cells. By the time those cells are stored, sold to Anker, then stored again, used in manufacturing, stored again, shipped to Amazon, stored again, and then eventually shipped to you, these cells have a usable capacity of around 11.52Wh to 11.70Wh, which is actually what is reflected in the official datasheet for the NCR18650BF. I ran the NCR18650BF cell just by itself against a load of .2C or .67A and a cut-off voltage of 2.50V, the same test that Panasonic uses to get their original rating, and got a capacity of 11.4834Wh, which is just slightly under the "Minimum" rating for the cell, but it's close enough that I can't fault Anker for it. This is the real-world, best-case, available capacity of the cell before it goes through any other losses, such as those introduced by the DC/DC conversion up to 5V, before the voltage drop in your USB cable, and before the conversion losses in your device as it charges the internal battery. The harder you run the battery, the lower the available capacity of the cell is. To determine how hard the USB circuit runs the battery and look for efficiency losses, I removed the battery and connected the circuit to the monitored output on the lab power supply. Using the electronic load I applied a 5V 1A load to the USB port and monitored current draw from the power supply: USB Load Battery Load DC Boost Efficiency. 5.000V @ 1A = 5.00W 1.349A @ 4.2V = 5.67W 88.2%. 4.991V @ 1A = 4.99W 1.637A @ 3.6V = 5.89W 84.7%. 4.988V @ 1A = 4.99W 1.825A @ 3.2V = 6.06W 82.3%. Anker claims 90% efficiency with their DC converters, but since they do not publish their testing process or procedure it is impossible to know under what ideal conditions they performed their tests. Based on conversations with Anker, they are constantly updating and making changes to their designs, which is great, but because these changes aren't publicly tracked and because the batteries are sealed, there is no simple way to know what the characteristics of your battery are. It bears noting that so far all of the tests that we have discussed were performed on a battery that was labeled as "Astro Mini" and it is possible that my battery was manufactured during the early stages of the production shift. That capacity will be lower when drained faster and as you can see above, in order to charge your device at 5V @ 1A, the drain on the battery cell is more than twice that. Since modern lithium cells have a stated nominal voltage of 3.6V, I used the current draw of 1.637A and cut-off voltage of 2.50V to re-assess the capacity of the bare NCR18650BF cell to determine the actual available capacity at the higher drain rate. At the end of the day, what really matters is how the customer will use the battery, so let's get to... [Real-World Capacity and Performance]. These tests were all performed with the batteries fully sealed, assembled, and as they came directly from Amazon. In total, I tested four batteries, two of which were marked as "Astro Mini", and two of which were marked "PowerCore+ Mini", all of which were marked 3350mAh/12.06Wh. They were all designated Units A through D. For the testing procedure, I charged each battery through the USB Micro port per the instructions from Anker until they were full. I then connected each battery to the electronic load and programmed the load for a constant current draw of 1.000A, and measured the output voltage ten times per second until the battery died. Item Received Item Model Available Capacity. Astro Mini (Black) (Unit A) A1105 8.769Wh. Astro Mini (Black) (Unit B) A1105 9.345Wh. PowerCore+ Mini (Silver) (Unit C) A1104 8.607Wh. PowerCore+ Mini (Black) (Unit D) A1104 9.578Wh. The difference in capacity between the best-performing battery and the worst-performing battery was over 11%!!! My notes regarding each unit tested are as follows: Astro Mini (Black) (Unit A): Discharge remained flat and stable until the battery was approximately 75% depleted, at which point the voltage became unstable and dropped significantly. Based on the erratic behavior of the drop I believe the boost circuit began to overheat as it tried to cope with the lower input voltage of the battery cell. Based on conversations with Anker this is likely due to Anker's "Voltage Boost" feature which provides a slightly higher output voltage in order to compensate for the loss in the USB cable. While this does provide a slightly faster charge, it also results in a slightly lower available battery capacity, although this small discrepancy alone does not account for the near 1Wh difference between Units C and D. PowerCore+ Mini (Black) (Unit D): Out of all four batteries, Unit D exhibited the best performance. The output was not only super-flat through the discharge cycle, the available capacity tipped the scales at 9.578Wh @ 1A draw, which was better than any other of the batteries that I tested. I would also like to make clear that charge rate and battery capacity are completely independent of each other. I ordered four of the same battery, and ended up with four batteries that performed completely differently, which brings me to... [Anker's Response]. On 11/23/2015 I forwarded my results to Anker Support along with relevant purchase dates, serial numbers, and other information they requested. It means you're potentially throwing away vast amounts of battery capacity in your external battery pack by using an inadequate cable."
"Friends, We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of our Anker PowerCore+. I noticed my phone was near dead and so I hooked up my trusty Anker and went about my day. #sadface. Anker is survived by his older brother (also a PowerCore+), who was purchased in September and is still going strong."
"Fully charged this will bring my HTC EVO 4G LTE up from grave to full pretty close to twice. It will charge a iempire 5s grave to full twice with a bit left over."
"I was thinking of ideas to protect these from water and debris in my pocket or backpack."
"See my images). - Comes with a nice little bag that can hold the battery as well as a cable. (Note that it comes with a USB > Micro USB cable to charge the battery but you need to use your USB > X cable where X is the type of connector your phone or electronic device uses. The competitor (Jackery® Mini Premium) has 4 lights to show the amount of battery left, but on the other hand it's square so it's harder to carry in your pocket and that's the reason I got the Anker®. See my images for more details:"
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Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I had read a few comments (not necessarily for this product) that complained about opening a damaged product, but being unable to prove it was damaged in transit, they were out the money. I knew from the description that it would not come with instructions, and I was confident I could figure it out using resources online. Here are my suggestions: It takes several minutes to heat the adhesive enough to remove it quickly using a hairdryer. Watch the video a few times so you know what order to put it all back together. Tap all the corners, try out the keyboard, make sure the home screen works."
"Just seeing vertical lines along the left quarter of the picture now... As for the new digitizer, I haven't removed the plastic covering and put it through all its paces but it responded to my swiping just fine in the brief on/off I did a few times."
"the thin metal tool that comes in the kit is especially good at getting under shattered glass fragments."
"And make sure to push it completely together when testing it, not just lay it on top. I had to remove it (secured on by adhesive), remove some adhesive from the plastic, lay it on top of the camera and lower the digitizer on top of it to reapply."
"As for the adhesive I had amazing luck using Permatex Sensor Safe. https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-80022-Sensor-Safe-Silicone-Gasket/dp/B0002UEOKK. Just a bit around the edges where the glass sits and 24 hours later it had no give."
"The reason why I gave it only four stars is because it doesn't tell you TO REMOVE THE FILM FROM THE ADHESIVE and the home button is kinda weak."
"I ordered this to replace the shattered screen on my iPad mini."
"This is a task that involves tiny parts that are hard to hold but a little patience and the job is done."