Striving to bring recognition to manufacturers of high-technology equipment, the iXBT.com editorial team decided to institute three awards:

Reviewed by iXBT.com

The Reviewed by iXBT.com award recognizes the products, which have gone through the iXBT.com lab tests. This award is presented to a manufacturer, whose products were tested in our lab, got reviewed, and their reviews are published on the iXBT.com web site, in the iXBT.com magazine, or on the Digit-Life.com web site.

Original Design

Modern IT market is flooded with clones. Life-cycle of a product became shorter, so most manufacturers do not spend their time and resources on their own designs. Instead, they often follow the so called "reference design", changing only the name of the product and the package appearance. That's why in order to encourage efforts of the manufacturers who create innovative products different from reference designs, the editorial team of iXBT.com institutes the Original Design award.

This award can be honored to a product with an original design, which is essentially different from the reference design. The product must be tested in the iXBT.com lab and then have a review (concerning the test results) published on the iXBT.com web site, in the iXBT.com magazine, or on the Digit-Life.com web site.

The Original Design award can be selected only once a month and must provide links to the reviews of the awarded products.

Notebook Awards

A notebook can be awarded with Original Design, in case it:

• Has an original design^*
• Has non-standard dimensions and/or features^*
• Just looks good
• Other things that are not listed here

^* these properties should not have a negative effect on its usability

November 2006 Awards

Toshiba Qosmio G30 Notebook with a HD DVD Drive

Peripheral Devices Awards (Pointing Devices)

A pointing device – keyboard, mouse, joystick, or any other similar device or a set of devices can be honored with the Original Design award, in case it:

• Possesses unique functionality for these days
• Comes shipped with an outstanding software package
• Either contributes something revolutionary new to the market, or is an absolutely new device on the market
• Possesses outstanding ergonomic characteristics, which do not damage its functionality
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

Oklick 580S Keyboard

Oklick 380M Keyboard

3D Video Cards Awards

A video card can be awarded with Original Design, if the tests revealed the following features distinguishing it from the reference design:

• Original cooling system, which is more effective at the least possible level of noise
• Support for extra features, such as Video-In (if it is not provided by the reference design)
• Other things that are not listed here

It goes without saying that, for example, a PCB color different from the reference design cannot be considered an innovation.

November 2006 Awards

NVIDIA for the excellent GeForce 8800 GTX

Galaxy GeForce 7900 GS 256MB PCI-E

NVIDIA for the very good GeForce 8800 GTS

Projectors Awards

A projector can be honored with the Original Design award, if it features:

• Original exterior^*
  • Catchy construction of the projector case (form, elements, material, colors, etc), which attracts attention and distinguishes this projector against typical devices, as well as associates this projector with things having nothing to do with projectors.

• Functional design^*
  • Special design of the projector, which considerably facilitates operations with this device (configuration, transporting, managing modes, etc), and/or introduces functions, which are not typical of common projectors (quick start, direct power control, mechanical colour filters); the use of original technologies allowing qualitative improvements of the product characteristics (micro mirrors to increase brightness, light-refracting element to smooth the edges between pixels, etc).

^* It also concerns accessories, e.g. remote control, leveling foot, etc.

The awarded projector may possess both original design and functional construction, or only one of the features. The more features of the projector fall under the listed-above categories, the higher its chances are to get the Original Design award. Even a single but pronounced feature, which distinguishes the product against the others, may yield this award. The award is deserved by the first models appearing on the market, possessing some distinctive feature. Copies of the existing solutions, clones, sequels in the series, etc are of less value.

November 2006 Awards

Toshiba TLP-X2000 LCD Projector

Cooling Systems Awards

A cooling system (cooler) - air, water, based on heat pipes, or any other similar device or a set of devices can be awarded with Original Design in case it...

• Efficiently copes with its main task — cooling
• Has an original design
• Possesses unique functionality for these days
• Possesses outstanding ergonomic characteristics (including a noise level), which do not damage its functionality
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

Zalman CNPS9700 LED

TV Tuner and Multimedia Video Card Awards

TV tuner or a multimedia video card can be honored with the Original Design award, if it demonstrates the following distinctive features:

• Original hardware solutions aimed to improve the sound and image quality
• Hardware implementation of extra unique features, which are not directly connected with audio and video
• Original design
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

Behold TV 609 RDS TV and FM Tuner

Optical Drives Awards

An optical drive (external or internal drive with various interfaces, including a replication device and a data storage device) can get the Original Design award, in case it:

• Possesses a unique set of features for burning and/or replicating discs
• Offers something principally new on the market
• Is convenient to install, configure, and use
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

Dacal CD Library II — PC-Controllable Optical Disc Storage

Hard Disks Awards

A hard disk can be awarded with Original Design, in case it:

• Possesses unique characteristics for these days (spindle rotational speed, data density, etc)
• Features original technical solutions, which cannot be found in other models
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

Samsung SpinPoint M80 — 2.5" Hard Drive based on perpendicular magnetic recording.

ProAudio Accessories Awards

A product can be awarded with Original Design, in case:

• It features technical innovations that contribute to significant improvements in performance and usability during audio mastering and subsequent audio processing
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

E-MU 0404 USB - Top-Class External Audio Interface

Excellent Package

It's always pleasant to buy a product and find out that the package includes additional equipment, software, games, souvenirs, etc. It's nice to think that the product you bought is well worth its price, and it's twice as nice to buy a well-bundled product at a moderate price. In practice, some manufacturers tend to save on every item, even if the inclusion of this item into the product package raises the price by less than 10%. Thus, the editorial team of iXBT.com institutes the Excellent Package award to bring recognition to those manufacturers, who offer nice boxes with excellent package content (the product plus useful accessories) instead of featureless boxes with minimal package content (CD with drivers).

This award can be presented to a product with an original box and unique package content. The product must be tested in the iXBT.com lab, and the results of these tests must be published in a review on the iXBT.com web site, the iXBT.com magazine, or the Digit-Life.com web site.

The Excellent Package award can be selected only once a month and must refer to the awarded product reviews.

Notebook Awards

A notebook can be awarded with Excellent Package, in case it:

• Is bundled with localized software, sufficient for its intended usage model
• Is bundled with proprietary software with unique functionality
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

Toshiba Qosmio G30 Notebook with a HD DVD Drive

3D Video Cards Awards

A video card can be awarded with Excellent Package, if the tests demonstrated the following features distinguishing it from the other products on the market at that moment:

• Original package (retail)
• Rich software set, utilities and other homeware
• Various bonuses: souvenirs or useful/nice knick-knacks
• Other things that are not listed here

November 2006 Awards

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB PCI-E

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB PCI-E

Motherboards Awards

A motherboard merits the Excellent Package award, if it features some of the following bundle elements:

• Original attractive package
• Colorful and detailed User's Guides
• A full set of necessary cables, preferably gathered in a tight bunch (for multi-cored cables)
• Various brackets to expand functionality (for additional and/or missing FireWire/USB/COM/LPT ports; for audio features of the motherboard, including optical and coaxial digital inputs and outputs; etc)
• Additional original accessories (USB drives, wireless adapters, etc)
• A rich set of third-party software (free of charge), proprietary utilities for monitoring, BIOS management, etc
• Other things

November 2006 Awards

ECS KA3 MVP — a Motherboard on ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 (Socket AM2)

Music CD Awards

Excellent Package is given to music editions on CD/DVD/DVD-A and SACD with the following peculiarities:

• A stylish package, for example digipack or a "book". It must not be a standard jewel-case (aka glass).
• It should be convenient to use — a disc should be easily extractable from a box without any risk of damaging it. That's why envelopes are out of the question — discs are worn out real fast in them.
• There should be an informative and well-illustrated booklet. The booklet must be printed on enamel-paper with high quality.
• On the whole, a product must produce a good impression with its appearance and should stand out against its like.

November 2006 Awards

Depeche Mode / Some Great Reward: Collector’s Edition (SACD+DVD)

Depeche Mode / Songs Of Faith And Devotion: Collector’s Edition (SACD+DVD)

Placebo: Anniversary Edition (CD+DVD)

Additional information

The same award cannot be given to a product more than once.

A product can get several different awards.

Printed award certificates can be provided by written request via e-mail: pr@ixbt.com