PC World's 20th World Class Awards

Our gala celebration of 2002's best computers, hardware, software, and sites--plus a few of the all-time greats.

Forget the stretch limos, outrageous duds, and teary-eyed speeches. Hey, this awards ceremony doesn't even have a smarmy host. But we do have 61 winners that you'll want to know about--everything from LCD monitors to backup software. And if there's a special excitement in the air, it's because this is the 20th edition of PC World's World Class Awards.

This year, our editors once again met to debate the merits of the hundreds of products we've evaluated in the past 12 months. Our choices embody the best mix of performance, value, consistency, and innovation--from perennial favorites like Dell's Dimension line to upstarts like Lavasoft's Ad-aware. We also looked farther backward and hammered out a list of All-Time World Class Awards--the five most significant PC products in history. So take your seats, and enjoy our salute to the best of the best.

Best Computers

Computer Product of the Year

AMD Athlon XP: With the October 2001 launch of Athlon XP, a revved-up version of its original Athlon processor, AMD has once again offered PC buyers a powerful, economical alternative to Intel's Pentium franchise.

Athlon XP-based systems have proved the chip's mettle in PC World's PC World Bench 4 tests, consistently outperforming Pentium 4-based PCs that run at higher clock speeds. And despite Intel's aggressive price cuts on P4, systems based on Athlon XP continue to sell for less.

The Athlon XP builds on the success of its predecessors via some notable architectural improvements. By ratcheting down the chip's power requirements, AMD cleared the way for speed increases to boost performance. And the chip's new 3DNow Professional instruction set means better performance in optimized applications and compatibility with Intel's SSE multimedia and 3D instructions.

Despite significant improvements and strong reviews, Athlon XP's ride hasn't been entirely smooth. You can't buy Athlon systems from top vendors like Dell and Gateway, and AMD's use of "performance ratings" (benchmark numbers that suggest performance in comparison to nonexistent versions of the older Athlon) rankles some critics, who oppose labeling a 1.53-GHz chip as an 1800+.

That said, AMD plans to introduce even faster chips. By the time you read this, AMD expects to be shipping a new Athlon XP processor based on a.13-micron manufacturing process (current chips are based on a.18-micron process).

The new process will lead to smaller CPUs, speeding performance inside the chip and further reducing power consumption to permit even higher clock speeds. And Intel, too, will roll out more-potent chips. But for now, the Athlon XP delivers today's most compelling blend of value and performance.

Best Small-Business PC, Best Home PC

Dell Dimension 8200: Dell's bread-and-butter Dimension lines are still among the best PCs around. Members of the 8200 series feature easy-open cases and enough processor and equipment options to let you assemble anything from a sub-$1000 budget machine to a powerful multimedia workhorse. Sure, you can find cheaper PCs, but the Dimensions' record of consistently placing near the zenith of our Top 15 Office and Home PC charts is unmatched. Throw Dell's first-rate service and support into the equation, and you've got yourself a winner.

Best Ultralight Notebook

Fujitsu LifeBook: P-2000 The 1.6-inch-thick, 2.8-pound Fujitsu LifeBook P-2000 costs between $1499 and $1799 and packs a wealth of features, making it our pick for the best ultralight notebook. It has an IEEE 1394 port, an S-Video port, and a modular bay that can accommodate a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive. Extra-long battery life (3.5 hours on one charge), helped by a power-saving Transmeta Crusoe processor, should easily satisfy any business traveler who needs to get work done on the go. An easy-to-use keyboard and a bright 10.6-inch screen also help make this slim, silver marvel tantalizing even for die-hard desktop users.

Best PDA

Sony Clié PNG PEG-NR70V: Packing a keyboard, a big and vibrant screen, an MP3 player, and a digital camera into a package the size of a conventional palmtop, the Clié PNG PEG-NR70V is the best new PDA we've seen this year. The screen is particularly impressive: It's bright and readable in all lighting conditions, and it flips over and twists like a camcorder screen. At $599 this cutting-edge device is the most expensive Palm-based PDA we've seen. But you get plenty of features for your money--and it looks damn cool.

Best Corporate PC

Dell OptiPlex GX240: Dell's OpenManage software and compact, tool-less cases yield an attractive package for business buyers. Solid reliability and service ratings don't hurt either.

Best Notebook

IBM ThinkPad A31P: This stellar notebook line includes options for everything from wireless networking to speedy Mobile Pentium 4 processors and Radeon 7800 graphics chips.

Best Hardware

Hardware Product of the Year, Best Networking Product

Linksys BEFW11S4: Wireless networks came into their own this year, dropping in price and growing more reliable as vendors ironed out Wi-Fi compatibility issues. Meanwhile, more computers and broadband connections reached our homes and home offices, making easy-setup networks more attractive than ever.

Fittingly, our hardware product of the year is our favorite wireless net centerpiece, Linksys's BEFW11S4. Last year, this versatile $180 gateway won our Best Home Networking award (back then it cost $289). But with a Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless access point, a cable/DSL router, and a four-port switch included, this gateway can support a broadband connection for a small-office network. Good printed manuals walk you through the process of setting up the BEFW11S4 and getting all your connected PCs talking.

Wi-Fi's top speed of 11 mbps is enough for sharing a broadband connection and running a small network, though larger companies may want to consider more-expensive Wi-Fi5 (802.11a) networks, which promise 54-mbps speed.

The future's bright for wireless networks in homes and small offices. Non-PC products such as MP3 stereo components connect to networks. At work, products like Linksys's Wireless Presentation Gateway link an array of devices. Later this year, 802.11g networks will unite the speed of Wi-Fi5 with Wi-Fi compatibility; but for now, Wi-Fi networks are a great way to share a home or office broadband connection, and the BEFW11S4 is a good place to start.

Best Recordable-DVD Drive

Pioneer DVR-AO4: Rewritable-DVD drives stand poised to supplant CD-RW models, and they may replace your VCR as well, offering more-durable media and higher-quality video. Pioneer's DVR-A04 DVD-RW/R drive is a prime example: Its media can store up to 4.7GB of data--far more than a standard 650MB CD holds and enough for 2 hours of video. At $499, the drive debuts at about half the initial cost of its well-liked DVR-A03 forerunner, with improved DVD-ROM and CD-ROM read speeds and the same write speeds. Moreover, its write-once DVD-R discs, cheaper than ever at about $2 a pop, have proved highly compatible with legacy DVD-ROM drives and DVD movie players. The only caveat: Rewritable-DVD standards are not firm, and one of the major contenders, the DVD+RW Alliance, has slightly faster drives and its own write-once DVD+R media.

Best Graphics Board

VisionTek Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4400: A year ago we named Microsoft's DirectX 8 our Most Promising Software Newcomer, but so far we haven't seen much more than promise. That's about to change with the release of stunning new games like Unreal Tournament 2003 that will push graphics cards and gaming rigs to their limits. Our graphics board pick is ready for the challenge, with 128MB of 550-MHz DDR memory and one the fastest graphics chips available, NVidia's GeForce4 Ti 4400. This $265 board has most of the speed of pricier GeForce4 Ti 4600 boards that go for upward of $100 more.

Best Digital Camera--$500 or More

Canon PowerShot G2: Canon's $799 PowerShot G2 packs loads of manual and semiautomatic adjustments and focusing control into a reasonably priced package. This 4-megapixel camera takes superb snapshots with sharp detail and realistic colors. The boxy G2 sports a 3X optical zoom (with a focal range of 35mm to 102mm, in 35mm equivalent) and a swiveling LCD that lets you point the screen up, down, or in the same direction as the lens--handy when you take self-portraits or when you use the included remote control. It offers long battery life, too: On one charge of its lithium ion battery, the G2 took 348 photos.

Best Digital Camera--Under $500

Toshiba PDR-M71: Good battery life, a sub-$400 price, and 3.2 megapixels of resolution make the PDR-M71 an outstanding value.

Best Digital Audio Player

IRiver America SlimX: There are lots of great contenders here, from Apple's IPod to Sonicblue's RioVolt SP250. But while the hard-drive-based IPod is pretty slick, its software support on PCs isn't. CD-based MP3 players like the RioVolt SP250 don't have that problem, but they can get pretty bulky. Enter IRiver's $199 SlimX, which includes a high-quality FM tuner and cuts back on the bulk by moving its four-line LCD screen onto a handy in-line remote. Only slightly wider than a CD and a scant 16.7mm thick, the SlimX leaves you plenty of room to stow extra MP3 CDs.

Best Gadget

Sonicblue ReplayTV 4000: Personal video recorders aren't new, but they're changing the way we watch TV. Sonicblue's ReplayTV 4000 represents a natural evolution of PVR technology to capitalize on broadband connectivity. Available in 40GB, 80GB, 160GB, and 320GB capacities, this networked hard-disk-based recorder uses a broadband ethernet connection to download channel guide information, and to enable users of 4000-series recorders to send shows to one another via the Internet, albeit in a lengthy process. The ReplayTV 4000's main drawback is its price, which starts at a steep $699 for the 40GB model. But unlike with TiVo, its better-known competitor, you don't have to pay additional fees to access the program guide.

Best Wireless Communication Device

Samsung I300: PDA/cell phone combos took steps in the right direction this year, from Handspring's Treo (integrated keyboard) to Kyocera's QCP 6035 Smartphone (sleeker design). For our money, the Palm-based Samsung I300 is the best of the new bunch. This $500 hybrid uses its crisp color screen as a keypad, keeping the unit's size and weight down--the 6-ounce I300 isn't much larger than some Pocket PCs.

Best Input Device

Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical: Total PC control, sans wires, courtesy of this $100 keyboard-and-mouse's many customizable buttons.

Best Hard Drive

Maxtor DiamondMax D540X: Combining good speed and great value, Maxtor's D540X line of drives tops out at a staggering 160GB.

Best CD-RW Drive

Plextor PlexWriter 40/12/40A: New 40X drives let you burn a CD in about 3 minutes. Our pick, from always-reliable Plextor, goes for $189.

Best CRT Monitor

ViewSonic GS790: With a depth of only 16.2 inches and a price of $289, our top selection is short on everything but image quality. This 19-inch CRT is a great choice if you have a reasonable amount of desk space.

Best Flat-Panel Display

ViewSonic VG171: For more-cramped quarters--or just for the elegant look--our LCD monitor winner, the 17-inch VG171 (priced at $769), has outstanding all-around image quality and is only 6.6 inches deep.

Best Scanner

Epson Perfection 1650 Photo: For photo or film scanning, Epson's $249 Perfection 1650 Photo captures beautiful images at resolutions up to 1600 by 3200 dpi and in 48-bit color.

Best Sound Card

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum: Creative Labs ratcheted up PC sound quality with its Audigy line. The included IEEE 1394 port is icing on the cake.

Best PC Speaker System

Logitech Z-560: At $200, the Z-560 system is one of the best values in PC sound. This THX-certified four-speaker setup produces sound that rivals that of systems costing $100 more.

Best Projection System

InFocus LS110: Our best-projector choice will cost you: InFocus's $5000 LS110 uses DLP technology to produce a stunningly crisp and bright image.

Best Monochrome Workgroup Printer

HP LaserJet 4100n: The second-fastest printer we've tested took top honors in print quality--a combination that more than justifies the 4100n's $1550 price tag.

Best Ink Jet Printer

Epson Stylus C80: The $179 Stylus C80 features low ink costs, vivid photo prints, and fast printing speeds (6.9 ppm text and 1.5 ppm graphics).

Best Personal Laser Printer

Brother HL-1440: Its $300 price tag makes the HL-1440 as affordable as some high-quality ink jets--and a great choice for high-quality monochrome text output in your home office.

Best Color Laser Printer

Lexmark C720: Our color laser pick can cover all your workgroup's needs, from beautiful color prints to enough speed to churn out plain text.

Best Software

Software Product of the Year, Best Freeware

Lavasoft Ad-aware: Ad-supported software (like the sponsored mode of Eudora) has been around for years, but as software companies struggled to survive last year, many took ad support to new heights. That's how adware--software that downloads advertising while you use the associated application or at random--was born. This insidious trade, in which adware skulks onto your hard drive and can invade your privacy online, has proliferated, frustrating more than a few Internet users. Some people call such programs spyware, because in some cases they permit advertisers to continuously monitor your online activities.

There wasn't much anyone could do about adware until Lavasoft created Ad-aware, a simple, free program that scans your computer for the telltale files that adware plants on your system--and deletes them. Ad-aware regularly offers users fresh reference files that enable the program to find the latest spyware to invade their system, much as virus definition files help antivirus software clean up Windows. A one-of-a-kind utility, Ad-aware does its job quickly and efficiently (much to the chagrin of spyware makers), and it has become an indispensable tool in the fight for online privacy.

Best Operating System

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (home), Windows 2000 Professional (business): For home users familiar with the Blue Screen of Death in Windows 98 or Me, Windows XP ($199, $99 upgrade) is a revelation--an operating system that can go for weeks without crashing. Of course, Windows 2000 Professional ($319, $219 upgrade), built on the same core, has offered similar stability for over two years. Windows 2000 makes sense for most businesses, since Microsoft has had more time to work out the kinks in the software. But home users will like XP's compatibility with games and other home apps, and its ability to handle images and audio.

Best Web Browser

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6: Despite serious competition from Netscape and Mozilla, Internet Explorer remains Web developers' primary target in compatibility tests. That helps IE 6 pull up almost any Web site without a hiccup, and it's a big part of the reason we name it Best Web Browser.

Best Application Suite

Microsoft Office XP: Indispensable--enough said.

Best Utility Suite

Symantec Norton SystemWorks 2002: This $70 suite meets your utility needs, including file recovery, disk scanning, and antivirus.

Best Backup Utility

Stomp BackUp MyPC: Let's face it: Backing up your data is no fun. That's why our Best Backup Utility selection is a $79 program that makes the process as painless as possible.

Best Stand-Alone Utility

PowerQuest PartitionMagic: Okay, so you don't repartition your hard drive every day. Still, it's hard to find a utility that handles a complex task better than the $70 PartitionMagic.

Best Firewall

Tie: Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5, Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Pro 3: Broadband users need a good firewall, and these products--priced at $40 and $50, respectively--excelled in our tests (see " Protect Your PC").

Best Antivirus

Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2002: Also tops in our tests was Symantec's $50 Norton AntiVirus 2002, a fine choice for PC virus protection.

Best E-Mail

Pegasus Mail 4: Powerful and intuitive mail-filtering rules, a new Outlook-style three-pane interface, and fewer worm threats than the big boys face make the free Pegasus our pick.

Best Remote Access

Netopia Timbuktu Pro: Simple and reliable, the $160 Timbuktu Pro offers plenty of options for remotely controlling your PCs.

Best Instant Messaging

Cerulean Studios Trillian: Tired of keeping three instant messaging clients on your machine? Trillian lets you talk to AIM, ICQ, or MSN members, and it's free.

Best Image Editing

Adobe Photoshop 7: The gold standard in image editing software. For $609, this year's version adds new painting tools and a helpful "healing brush" for touching up scans and photos.

Best Desktop Publishing

Adobe InDesign 2: QuarkXPress has been the standard in publishing for years; but Adobe's $699 InDesign has more-powerful features.

Best Drawing

Corel CorelDraw 10: Its easy interface and capable Photo-Paint image editor give Corel's $549 application the edge over Adobe's Illustrator.

Best Presentation

Serious Magic Visual Communicator: PowerPoint remains the standard for, well, PowerPoint-style presentations, but this $150 video presentation package is simply amazing.

Best Video Editing

Pinnacle Systems Studio 7: The $99 Studio 7 provides versatile editing options without Adobe Premiere-like complexity.

Best Web Design

Macromedia Dreamweaver 4: Macromedia's $399 Web editor boasts stellar layout tools and application development features; the new Dreamweaver MX, due in mid-June, integrates with Macromedia's other Web tools.

Best Personal Finance

Intuit Quicken 2002: Improved online-banking and portfolio management tools cover your personal finances even better than last year's version.

Best Business Accounting

Intuit QuickBooks 2002: An enhanced find feature makes locating transactions easier, and new support for third-party filters increases QuickBooks' appeal for various businesses.

Best CD Burning

Stomp Click'N Burn: With a powerful and intuitive interface, the $50 Click'N Burn covers all your CD-burning bases.

Best Game

Infogrames Civilization III: Spend $50 and conquer the world with this latest installment in Sid Meier's classic Civilization series.

Best PDA Software

Blue Nomad WordSmith: Rich formatting options, high-res fonts on color displays, and a dictionary and thesaurus give this $30 word processor for Palms Word-like power.

Best Web Sites

Internet Product of the Year, Best Search Engine

Google: "God created the world," an anonymous sage once mused, "but it's held together with duct tape." Call Google the Internet equivalent of duct tape: a universal tool that stretches our perceptions of what a search engine can do. Which is why it's not just our Internet Product of the Year but also our overall Product of the Year.

Granted, the Web continues to endure Darwinian hard times. Most surviving sites are hunkering down, larding up with increasingly grating ads, and scrambling to convert freebie-loving surfers into paying customers. Even Yahoo, our perennial pick as Best Portal, has alienated some longtime users. But Google remains, well, Google. Though it does sport more ads these days, it preserves its lean, mean, and highly functional personality. And yup, it's still free.

Google has always pinpointed ordinary Web pages with eerie precision, but it now ups the ante by capably capturing a wide range of online content. For example, Google indexes the contents of millions of files in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format, and it lets you view these documents in your browser--no plug-in or download required.

Meanwhile, specialized Googles track specific types of information. Google News Search lets you browse reports from an array of sources moments after they hit the Web. The massive newsgroup archive maintained at Google Groups lets you get user reviews of a cool new digital camera or go back in time to glimpse how pioneering posters reacted to the first Space Shuttle launch in 1981. You can even rummage through digital replicas of dead-tree catalogs from companies like PC Connection and J. Crew, courtesy of Google Catalogs.

How good is this site? If you're too impatient to read our search-engine report " The Straight Story on Search Engines," remember this simple three-word mantra: Try Google first. It's that accurate, that versatile, that indispensable.

Best News and Information

NYTimes.com: A Web site that served up a daily electronic version of "All the News That's Fit to Print" would be admirable in itself. But last year, when the most important news story in decades changed our lives overnight, nothing mattered more than expert reporting and analysis--and NYTimes.com continues to deliver exactly that. The site (free with registration) also capitalizes on the Internet's outstanding ability to combine text, audio, video, and graphics in new and innovative ways. A recent retrospective on the movie The Shining, for instance, included high-quality video of scenes that were discussed in the article, along with a link to the Times' original review of the film. Streaming audio clips feature music critics discussing new albums, interspersed with snippets from the albums. And the site's free e-mail newsletters can be custom-crafted to fit your specific interests.

Best Portal

Yahoo: Our favorite site that still does a bit of everything, from e-mail to searches to auctions, continues to do them all well. Some of its once-free features now carry a fee, but Yahoo remains the Net's best one-stop destination.

Best Recreation/Entertainment

Fark.com: Irreverent, addictive, and more than a little cheeky, Fark.com has earned its place as the primo source of "Hey, check this out" links.

Best Web Shopping

Amazon.com: Quick, where do you look first when you're shopping online? Okay, who said Kozmo? Amazon's huge selection and active community of user reviewers make it our favorite shopping site, and one of the most useful resources on the Web. No wonder it's still going strong.

World Class: Product of the Year

Google

A fast chip. A slick wireless gateway. A potent spyware zapper. An indispensable search engine. Four outstanding finalists competed to become our 2002 Product of the Year. And the winner--may we have the envelope, please?--is Google. The leading search engine keeps getting more accurate and versatile while retaining its clean, efficient look; as Contributing Editor Stephen Manes says, "It's gotten to the point where you don't even think twice about typing a company's name into Google rather than the address bar, and when you need a quick answer, you Google." Small wonder, then, that many of our editor-judges call on it three, four, or more times a day.

World Class: Most Promising Newcomer

HomePlug

A Wi-Fi gateway took home our Hardware Product of the Year award, so we might as well admit it: We're hooked on networking. And anything that makes it faster and easier is a welcome change. Slow speeds and outlets the network wouldn't reach hampered early attempts at power-line networking, so we were skeptical when the first HomePlug network adapters arrived in our office. But solid transfer rates of 5.5 mbps in our tests (the standard is rated at 14 mbps) with nary a nonworking outlet banished our doubts quickly. Once the prices drop from their current vicinity of $200 per adapter and a better selection of gateways becomes available, HomePlug products promise to make networking PCs as simple as finding and plugging into the nearest power outlet.

World Class: Losers of the Year

MusicNet, PressPlay

We understand why the music industry might worry about MP3s and file-sharing networks like Morpheus and BearShare. We can even see how reasonable people might think that copy-protecting CDs makes good business sense. So let's get this straight: The recording industry wants to kill digital music as we know it; and as an alternative, it's offering a service where you can download a limited selection of digital music files, but you can play them only as long as you're a subscriber. Right. Until they're done well, services like MusicNet and PressPlay just add insult to injury. One suggestion to the labels driving these services: Ask the movie industry about a DVD distribution experiment called Divx.

The All-Time World Class Awards

For our 20th awards, we gave ourselves a daunting task: to review the hundreds of World Class Award winners and name the top five winners of all time. After careful study, we present our roster of a quintet of products whose excellence, innovation, or influence--or a combination of all three--earn them special places of honor in the annals of PC history:

Hayes SmartModem 1200 Early PC telecommunications trickled along at 300 bits per second--which meant that you could read faster than text appeared on screen. Then our 1984 winner for Best Modem, the $700 Hayes SmartModem 1200, came along and quadrupled the speed of online access and downloads. The following year, the $549 Hayes SmartModem 2400 would leave the 1200 in its dust, but together with CompuServe (selected as the Best Online Service in 1984), the SmartModem 1200 set the standard for online computing years before the Web came along.

Compaq Deskpro 386/40 The 1987 World Class winner for Best Desktop Computer, the $4500 Compaq Deskpro 386/40, was the first PC powered by Intel's 80386 processor, the first 32-bit chip in the 8088 series. The 386 chip permitted multitasking--making Microsoft's then-unpopular Windows newly practical--and it still ran must-have DOS applications such as WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and Harvard Graphics. The fact that Compaq was the first to market with a 386 system was revolutionary as well, because it meant someone had beaten IBM at its own game for the first time.

NEC MultiSpin 84 We didn't have a World Class award category for CD-ROM drives until 1993, but from then on they changed the way PCs were used, helping them become more versatile, opening them to a wide array of multimedia and other applications not previously possible, and eventually becoming the preferred method of software distribution. This first winner, a 2X drive that cost $500 and up, signaled a new chapter in sound- and vision-enhanced computing that affects all of us to this day.

Windows 3.11 Many versions of Windows--from 3.0 to XP--got more hype, but the better products have always been the low-key, debugged versions that arrive between the biggies. The 1994 Best Operating System, Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, was that kind of release--a stable, quick, compatible OS that introduced built-in networking to the Windows environment. It's hardly surprising that a lot of folks continued to contentedly run Windows 3.11 even after Microsoft rolled out Windows 95 a year later.

Netscape 2.0 Netscape 1.0 won a World Class award for Best Internet Interface/Utility in 1995, but 1996's more full-featured and robust version 2.0--with new and improved support for tables and images--first gave the Web a friendly, professional sheen and signaled the beginning of the browser wars.

--Michael S. Lasky

Looking Back at 20 Years of Winners

In 1983, during PC World's first year of publication, we began awarding World Class honors to hardware and software products for enhancing personal computing.

From 1983 to 1993, a readers poll selected the winners. That first year, just 14 "PC-compatible" products won awards. That number grew to a high of 220 in 1991 and now stands at a more manageable 66.

Here's a look at some milestones along the way.

1983 What's this? The first World Class Awards, and there's no PC winner? That's because IBM is still the sole PC manufacturer. Its top-of-the-line model is a dual-floppy unit with 64KB of memory.

1984 The $5000 Compaq Plus Personal Computer wins in a new category, Best Compatible Computer. Keyboard-command-based WordStar ($350) tops a crowded field of word processor competitors. The Microsoft Mouse is Best Input Device; it costs $200.

1985 The IBM PC AT is tapped as Best Desktop Computer. Priced at $4090, the system comes loaded with 512KB of RAM. Years before the first Zip drive appears, Iomega's $3995 Bernoulli Box is hailed for its 20MB storage capacity.

1986 WordPerfect topples WordStar from the word processor summit. Microsoft Windows 1.0--a DOS add-on, not an operating system--wins for Best Application Integrator.

1987 Compaq's Deskpro 386 rules the desktops.

1988 The Compaq Portable 386 Transportable PC, a desktop PC with handles, weighs in at 19 pounds while Toshiba's $2987 T3100/20 Laptop tips the scale at "a scant 20 lbs." Microsoft Excel is voted Most Promising Software Newcomer.

1989 Compaq sweeps the Desktop, Laptop, and Transportable PC categories; Dell debuts in third with its System 325 desktop.

1992 DOS-platform programs fade as Windows gains appeal: Excel ousts Borland's DOS-based Quattro Pro as Best Spreadsheet.

1993 Multimedia hits the World Class Awards, as Creative Labs' 8-bit Sound Blaster Pro wins our first sound card award. Another newcomer: the best CD-ROM drive, NEC's 2X MultiSpin 84.

1994 Intel's Pentium wins PC World's first Product of the Year award. Windows 3.11 for Workgroups takes OS honors, while Microsoft Word begins its reign as Best Word Processor.

1995 IBM OS2/Warp 3.0 is the surprise Product of the Year. The first 32-bit OS beat Microsoft's Windows 95 to market and was hailed for its technological advance.

1996 Windows 95 is named both Best Operating System and Loser of the Year, reflecting the love-hate relationship it engendered. Users applaud the OS's technological advances but note that it's dogged by bugs. Meanwhile, Netscape 2.0 captures Product of the Year honors.

1997 The PalmPilot, at $400 for a 1MB system, wins Best PDA. Its rousing success helps wake up the moribund PDA market.

1998 Intel's Pentium II earns Product of the Year honors, but the sub-$1000 PC offered by multiple vendors--featuring lowly Pentium MMX CPUs--is named Most Promising Hardware Newcomer.

1999 The Cheap PC (now available for as little as $300) weighs in as Product of the Year. After a difficult 12 months, privacy is labeled Loser of the Year; everything from nosy Web sites to Intel's serial-numbered Pentium II intrudes on PC users' anonymity.

2000 AMD's Athlon ends Intel's long run of chip supremacy and becomes Product of the Year.

2001 The Plextor PlexWriter 16/10/40A, a $247 CD-RW drive, is Product of the Year. Pioneer's $995 DVR-A03 is the first winner in the new DVD-R drive category.

--Michael S. Lasky