Sexy Gadgets, Cool Gadgets and Concept Gadgets

Samsung’s monitors have often had the upper hand when it comes to looks, and the PX2370 is no exception: it’s gorgeous. The screen sprouts from a slender see-through stand, it measures barely 18mm thick, and the clear plastic trim that clings to the bezel helps it melt subtly into its surroundings. If aesthetics alone were enough to guarantee a monitor’s success, the PX2370 would sell in droves. Read the rest of this entry »

Packing a 2.1GHzi3 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, this Vaio laptop will effortlessly handle most student tasks, while the 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5470 graphics and bright, 14-inch display with 1,600×900 resolution make it a viable multimedia option as well.
The Vaio comes with Windows Home Premium and packs three USB ports and eSATA. Perfect for long hours of use, the isolated keyboard is one of the best on test, though the three-hour battery life, high price and hideous green styling are neither gifted nor talented.

This is higher up the Hotness Index than arch-rival Nintendo’s 3DS because it bypasses gimmicks such as 3D and goes all out for heavyweight specs. The dual joy pads finally allow proper control in games, while a touchscreen and gyroscope give game developers plenty of other options. The quad core processor allows for, at the very least, PS2-quality games, while the five-inch, 960×544 widescreen should serve as a crystal-clear window onto virtual worlds. Of course it’s also higher up the Hot 100 because it won’t be out till Christmas. Remember the immutable law of the tech world: perceived hotness is in inverse proportion to the amount of time spent actually using stuff.

Sony’s totally redesigned its Bravia TV line-up this year, but there’s no fancy LED backlight or 3D capability on this middle-of-the-road set from what Sony terms its Essential Range. The fattest TV here it may be, but it’s a lot cheaper than its Samsung and Sharp rivals, and carrying plenty of features: an Frccview HD tuner giving free HD channels, for starters. Read the rest of this entry »

Unlike many of its competitors, Archos has past form. As far back as 2007, the company was installing browsers on its large-format Wi-Fi media players, and 2009 updates came with Android 1.5. This should give Archos an advantage; it’s had time to get used to the ways of Google’s mobile OS, and the opportunity to learn from past mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Tine Dell Streak is a class apart from most tablets. Not only because of its size, but also its finish: it looks great, feels great, and is the best implementation of Android we’ve seen. That was already the case with Android 1.6, which you may find your Streak is shipped with. Check the system update screen, however, and you should find version 2.2 just a click and download away. Read the rest of this entry »

Even if the iPad hasn’t quite changed the world, it has created an industry: the Android imitators. This tablet has nothing to do with clothes retailer Next other than the logo stamped on its rear and on the Quick Start Guide. And that guide is probably the best thing about this tablet. It explains in clear detail how to use the home screen, set the date and time, and connect to a wireless network. There’s only one statement we disagree with: “Your new tablet is a great new way to experience the web”. Read the rest of this entry »

We know it’s unfair to compare the Galaxy Tab to the iPad – just look at their relative sizes – but compare them we must. Samsung takes much of the blame by trying to go head to head with Apple for price: £529 inc VAT for the 16GB version with 3G; £599 for 32GB with 3G However, since launch it’s dropped to a far more reasonable £469 inc VAT. Read the rest of this entry »

The ViewPad 10 not only runs Google Android but also Windows 7 Home Premium. ViewSonic sells this vision as “the best of both worlds”, and occasionally you get glimpses of just how good this idea could be. Android screams along, and this responsiveness extends to web browsing: the BBC homepage took a mere five seconds to appear, half the time of the Apple iPad. Extra flexibility comes via two USB ports, so you can plug in a keyboard and mouse. Read the rest of this entry »

The Intel Core i7 980X is the finest CPU money can buy. You’ll need a lot of the latter, but what a processor you get in return. The Core 17 980X is a six-core beast with two threads per core and a dozen of those little green graphs when you fire up task manager. That’s unparalleled in a PC processor.
In that context, even AMD’s Phenom IIX6 1090T Black Edition looks rather ordinary. It may have six cores. But each is single-threaded only. Moreover. AMD’s underlying CPU architecture is pretty ancient while the Intel Core i7 980X is literally the latest thing, right down to is impossibly tiny 32nm underpinnings. What it isn’t however is unique. The recently released Core i7 970 is largely the same six-core, 12-thread processor at a slightly less prohibitive price. Read the rest of this entry »

Available from Toys R Us and Asda, the eTouch seems designed to lure shoppers into thinking they’re getting something like an IPad for much less. Only once you get hands-on does the truth sink in. Silver plastic is no substitute for brushed aluminum, and there’s a worrying give on the corners of the front panel. At £1 BO inc VAT, this should be expected. Read the rest of this entry »

Six cores, 12 threads, one billion transistors and a whole lot of processing power. That’s the Intel Core i7 970. It’s a fabulous technological achievement, but is it worth nearly £700? Admittedly, it is a bit cheaper than Intel’s top six-core chip, the Core i7 980X, but it’s still a tough ask, given that AMD will sell you its six-core Phenom IIX61055T CPU for around one third of the price. What the AMD chip doesn’t give you is the latest technology. The Core i7 970 sports the most advanced PC processor die on the planet. Read the rest of this entry »

The key to Creative’s Zii0 7in and 10in devices, which will ship with Android 2.1 with the promise of an upgrade to 2.2 “early in 2011″, is that they play to the company’s strengths. The Pure Android audio app is nicely put together, with a Bluetooth device manager directly within for linking to external speakers. For even greater control head to Creative’s X-Fi Crystallizer and Expand enhancements. Read the rest of this entry »

Sapphire’s Flex Edition entry into the 5770 fray is as solid and competent as you’d expect from one of the key historical ATI (Sapphire) partnerships. It’s as roundly well-featured as any other 5770 out there, boasting HDMI, DisplayPort and two DVI-out ports, and the aftermarket cooler is reassuring in its girth. It’s USP, however, is that it supports four output monitors via EyeFinity, while most other 5770s only enable you to use three. You’ll also be pleased to discover that a DVI-HDMI cable is included in the bundle.
If you’re after a massive piece of four-monitor real-estate to run your apps, or to spread video output around multiple screens throughout the house, then it’s an interesting prospect. That versatility doesn’t stretch to multiple-screen gaming, however. Sapphire’s HD 5770 is a decent mid-ranger that offers all the benefits the 5000-series family has to offer. As well as exploiting the DX11 effects-suite, it also makes ATI’s EyeFinity multi-screen technology a possibility, with the option to attach more screens than the average card. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not so long ago that the first graphics card touting NVidia’s GTS 450, the Asus GTS 450 TOP, passed through the TechRadar labs. When first checking it out, we were impressed but hoped for a price tag a little closer to the £100 mark. Well, someone was listening, because MSI’s overclocked GTS 450 Cyclone is almost bang on our proposed target. Read the rest of this entry »

When Intel unleashed the six-cored Core i7-980 Extreme, a few mobo makers took the chance to go away and refresh some of their X58-based motherboards, adding in technologies, such as SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 in the process. Read the rest of this entry »

The Republic of Gamers (ROG) motherboards from Asus have always been the performance kings of its product catalogue, and as such have always had a fairly hefty price premium. The ROG mobos are the money’s-no-object parts you throw in your machine. At £330. the oversized X58-based Rampage III Extreme (R3E) definitely fits, but it’s not a board you just slot into a PC to make it faster. Read the rest of this entry »

Toshiba has put a lot of investment into the Android operating system to make it easier to use as a tablet, with touches including a polished file manager, onscreen shortcuts to switch off the 802.1 In WLAN radio, and Toshiba’s own Media Player. Read the rest of this entry »

The Dell Inspiron duo is a convertible netbook with a twist. Normally, to convert a laptop into a tablet, you rotate the whole screen on a central hinge before folding it over the keyboard. The duo’s screen flips smoothly and near-magically inside the lid. Read the rest of this entry »

With IT directors eking out every scrap of value from their budget in the coming months, we can expect to see a slew of cheap business laptops. Lenovo’s is an ll.6in ultraportable -albeit barely scraping into this category – that prioritizes battery life and power over sleekness.
For this is no MacBook Air 11 in. Weighing 1.53kg and measuring 31 mm at the rear, it looks and feels distinctly podgy. In fact, it’s almost the same chassis as the ThinkPad x100e. Read the rest of this entry »