TrustedReviews Awards 2007

You may be wondering why a 4:3 19in monitor has made it to second place in the Best Innovation category, but rest assured, we haven't made a mistake here. You see the innovation doesn't have anything to do with the LCD panel, rather the connectivity offered by this screen. Like most monitors, the 940UX can connect to a computer via D-SUB or DVI, but unlike any other display we've seen, it can also connect via USB. This means that even computers without a DVI or HDMI port (like an ultra-portable notebook) can still connect to the 940UX digitally. Not only does the 940UX connect using a bog standard USB port, but you can also daisy chain up to six displays, all using USB. You don't even need a driver disc to get the 940UX working, since the monitor itself has the driver embedded - simply plug into a USB port and the driver and software automatically install. Even better news is that Samsung will be releasing larger USB enabled screens in 2008.

Given the choice, most of us would prefer a notebook to a desktop PC, but usually there's a cost issue involved. Asus managed to address this problem by creating an amazingly affordable notebook, with flash memory for storage and an OS and software suite made up entirely of open source material. The screen on the Eee PC may only be 7in, but that's more than adequate for word processing and email duties. The 4GB of storage and 512MB of RAM may also seem pitiful, but without a bloated Windows OS to accommodate, everything ticks along nicely. The Eee PC is also light, has a deceptively good keyboard and boots from cold far faster than a traditional notebook. But best of all is the fact that you can pick up an Eee PC for a smidgeon over £200, which really does bring mobile computing to the masses.

You may be wondering what's so innovative about a 42in plasma screen, after all they've been around for years right? The simple answer is that this Panasonic is the first 42in plasma display to sport a Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. Creating a 1080p 42in plasma screen is no mean feat, since it requires a significant reduction is the size of the plasma chambers. The problem with reducing the size of the plasma chambers - besides the engineering challenge of achieving the reduction - is that it will also reduce the overall brightness of the display. Amazingly Panasonic managed to reduce the chamber size enough to squeeze all those pixels into the screen while maintaining an impressive brightness level. The result was the TH-42PZ700B, which proved to be one of the best 42in plasma TVs we'd ever seen.

The inclusion of the Toshiba Portégé R500 ultra-portable notebook may come as a surprise to many regular readers, since we weren't that enamoured with the machine when we reviewed it back in September. It's true that the build quality is questionable, the battery life poor and the screen quality disappointing, but none of this changes the fact that the R500 is the lightest notebook we've ever tested. Despite the problems with the R500, Toshiba has to be congratulated on building a notebook computer weighing only 755g! We can but hope that the second generation R500 will address the shortcomings without adding to the svelte dimensions and feather-light weight. If so, expect Toshiba to be riding high in the Best Notebook category next year.