Tony Hoffman

My Experience

Since 2004, I have worked on PCMag’s hardware team, covering at various times printers, scanners, projectors, storage, and monitors. I currently focus my testing efforts on 3D printers, pro and productivity displays, and drives and SSDs of all sorts.

Over the years, I have reviewed iPad and iPhone science apps, plus the occasional camera, laptop, keyboard, and mouse. I've also written a host of articles about astronomy, space science, travel photography, and astrophotography for PCMag and its past and present sibling publications (among them, Mashable and ExtremeTech), as well as for the PCMag Digital Edition.

My Areas of Expertise

• PC monitors, big and small, from productivity models to content-pro panels

• 3D printers for consumers, professionals, schools, and small businesses

• SSDs and hard drives of all kinds

• Business and consumer printers and scanners

• Business and home projectors

The Technology I Use

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T490 laptop that's my work daily driver, and an HP Pavilion Aero 13 as my primary personal laptop. (I also have an older Dell XPS 13, which now stays at home full-time.) I pair these variously with a Lenovo ThinkVision portable monitor that I rely on as a handy second screen. For storage testing, I rely on our two custom-built Windows testbeds in PC Labs, as well as a 2016 MacBook Pro.

My primary home monitor is a BenQ EX2780Q, a gaming monitor with a great sound system and excellent image quality. I use that panel for writing, watching videos, and working with photos. I also have an HP 27 Curved Display—one of the first general-purpose curved monitors—which I have paired with an Acer Aspire desktop computer. My multifunction printer is an Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 Small-in-One. I also own a Canon CanoScan LiDE 220 scanner, a classic flatbed I use for photos and short documents, and a Canon Selphy CP1300 small-format photo printer for turning out snapshots.

My first cell phone, in 2006, was a Motorola RAZR; since then, it’s been all iPhones—I currently have an iPhone 11 Pro. I use my iPhone a lot for casual photography, though I also use a Canon G5 X Mark II for everyday shooting. For much of my travel photography and astrophotography, I use a Sony A7r, often with a Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS zoom lens. I also pair the A7r with a RedCat 51 for deep-sky star shooting.