PC World's Top 100

If you've spent a lifetime shooting slides, or you've inherited your family's collection of slides and negatives, you may wonder whether you should use a slide scanner to bring them into the digital age. We looked at five models designed to scan slides, negatives, and other transparent film--three flatbeds with transparency adapters and two slide-and-film scanners.

Dedicated slide-and-film scanners have traditionally been considered too expensive for anyone but professional photographers and designers; now, however, a range of choices under $1000 is available. And flatbeds' transparency-scanning capabilities have been steadily improving. The models evaluated here are in the midrange in features and price--neither the most nor the least expensive. We tested them side by side to see whether slide scanners or flatbeds had an edge. In comparing their performance and features, we found some surprising results.(Read "Put Your Film Into Your PC.")

Photograph: Marc Simon

• Slide Scanners
• Desktop PCs
• Notebook PCs
• Photo Printers
• Audio Players
• Digital Cameras

Your Guide to the Top 100

Each month, we test a large number of PCs, printers, monitors, and other products. Only the best products land on the charts, which are refreshed monthly.

Configurations are shown as tested. The overall rating for each product is calculated on a 100-point scale and reflects results from our hands-on evaluations and performance tests. A 90-point score is exceptional, while one in the 70s is above average.

For desktops and notebooks, the PC WorldBench 4 score is a measure of how fast a PC can run a mix of common business applications as compared with our baseline machine, a Gateway Select 1200 with a 1.2-GHz Athlon processor, 128MB of PC133 SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive. For example, a PC that scores 120 is 20 percent faster than the baseline system. The support policies score is based on vendor support policies (not shown on charts). Click here for additional details on how we compile charts for the Top 100.

Freelance writers Dan Littman, Mick Lockey, and Carla Thornton and PC World editors Richard Baguley, Laura Blackwell, Eric Butterfield, Tracey Capen, Seán Captain, Rebecca Freed, Kalpana Ettenson, Alexandra Krasne, and Alan Stafford contributed to the Top 100 section. Ulrike Diehlmann, Julio Giannobile, Elliott Kirschling, Jeff Kuta, Tony K. Leung, and Thomas Luong of the PC World Test Center performed testing on the products reviewed in this section, with logistical support provided by Julian Weatherby.