Hardware

Fans of the classic ThinkPad won't be disappointed with the X230. It's the X series ultraportable laptop you love with the same rugged styling and construction, eraserhead cursor control, and comfortable keyboard--with a few innovations. The X230 will never be an avatar for thin and sexy, however. If that's what you seek, look elsewhere (toward Lenovo's U-series, for example).

Finding a stable surface at the right height for comfortable work is always a challenge. Uncaged Ergonomics' WorkEZ line of portable, adjustable laptop (and tablet and reading) stands provides a solid range of flexibility with a few tradeoffs. And if you've ever wanted to try a standing-desk setup without spending the money on a new desk, the company offers relatively inexpensive packages for modifying your current desk for standing use. These flexible packages also let you switch easily between standing and sitting without adjusting a tabletop.

Though the Sony VAIO L24 is by no means a powerhouse machine, it succeeds as a reasonably priced media center PC.

Monitoring services from Boundary, Circonus, and Librato combine simple setup and richly different capabilities

Laptops and tablets seem to get most of the attention these days--after all, they're great for working on the run. But once you settle down at your desk, it's nice to stretch out with the generous real estate that only a widescreen monitor can provide. And now is the perfect time to buy a monitor: They're cheaper, thinner, and less power-hungry than ever before.

If you're looking for a low-priced color laser printer for your small office, look again: For a mere $150 (as of May 1, 2012), you can obtain high-speed, good-quality color printing with HP's Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinter. This classily-styled color inkjet printer has Wi-Fi, USB, and ethernet, and it can handle up to 1250 pages of printing per month. Most important, its inks are cheaper per page than the toner supplies from any comparably priced color laser.

Razor-thin laptops are nothing new, thanks to the influx of Ultrabooks in the market. But Samsung's latest Series 9 laptop isn't quite an Ultrabook--it's better. The 2012 Series 9, which comes in two flavors (13.3-inch and 15-inch) is thinner, more powerful, and simpler than both its predecessor and the average Ultrabook.

Here comes Ivy Bridge. The Asus Essentio CM6870 is one of the first budget desktops hitting the PCWorld Labs to run one of Intel’s brand-new Ivy Bridge processors and receive testing under the brand-new WorldBench 7 benchmarking suite.

Dell EqualLogic SSD and SAS hybrids highlight no-muss, no-fuss, fast storage tiering across multiple arrays

The 10.1-inch Asus Transformer Pad TF300 aims to reshape the tablet market by delivering top-tier performance at a value price. It largely succeeds in this mission, delivering performance that's on a par with its pricier Transformer Prime sibling. However, the Transformer Pad had to make some compromises in components and display to achieve its goal. And more worrying than those compromises--which include a slightly heavier weight and different build materials than what's found on the premium Prime--were the frequent glitches I seemed to encounter, with no rhyme or reason, while using this Android 4.0 tablet.

The new Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) tablet is a good tablet at an excellent price, but how much better is it than Samsung's previous models?