Sexy Gadgets, Cool Gadgets and Concept Gadgets

DELL’S XPS 15z (£1199 inc. VAT) is the successor to the excellent XPS 15, and the stakes have been upped with a surprisingly slender chassis that packs in amazing performance With virtually no flaws to speak of, this is one of the most impressive laptops we have had the pleasure of reviewing.

Just a quick, glance at the gorgeous design and it’s obvious that the Dell XPS 15z is something special. A sleek bmshod-mci.il design has been used throughout, with a darker tint to the interior. Gone is the jutting rear of the XPS IS, to be replaced by a sexy, slimline derriere. Read the rest of this entry »

The Samsung RV510-A08UK (£299 inc. VAT) isn’t the most exciting laptop in this group test, and performance is limited compared to some of the others. However, this is still a solid and reasonably portable machine that will suit users with basic needs.

An understated design tins been used with a plain black lid and similarly bland brushed-metal interior. It doesn’t look bad by any means, but you can tell quite easily-that this is a budget machine. However, we can’t fault the durability which is where it counts. The chunky body is firm in all areas, with an especially tough lid. We’re not sure if it would survive a drop from a desk, but it should survive a regular pi pummeling from younger users. Read the rest of this entry »

Like the Acer, the Asus X52F-EX894V (£350 inc. VAT) is powered by an Intel Core i3 processor, which provides strong performance for those on a light budget. It’s not just performance that impresses though, with plenty of other surprising highlights and few flaws.

Despite using lite same processor range as the Acer, the Asus has only-half the available memory, with 2GB installed instead of 4GB. This laptop therefore produced weaker results in our benchmark tests. However, you still get incredible performance given the cut-down price. And retailer saveonlaptops.co.uk is offering a free upgrade to 4GB at the time of writing. Read the rest of this entry »

Following the announcement that Nokia will be using Windows Phone 7 within a year, the E7 should be among its last Symbian-powered phones. Don’t get too emotional, now…

This handset combines all of Nokia’s current strengths and weaknesses. Made from anodized aluminum, it’s a well-constructed, chunky slider with a full QWERTY. Those elements have a reassuringly old-fashioned feel to them. Read the rest of this entry »

Announced at CES 2011, the Motorola Droid Bionic sports a 4.3-inch 540-by-960-pixel qHD (Quarter High Definition) display and a dual-core CPU. Like the HTC ThunderBolt, the Droid Bionic is a 4G phone. Its processor may be more powerful than the ThunderBolt’s, but it has less RAM (512MB versus 768MB). The phone also offers a front-facing video camera, videoconferencing capabilities, HD video capture, and a slew of business-friendly features (data security, encryption, and Quick Office for document editing) that make it ideal for enterprise users. The Bionic is due later this year, but Verizon has not yet announced pricing.

The smartphone world is eagerly anticipating the release of the next iPhone. And after a slew of strongly competitive releases from the likes of Samsung and Motorola, speculation is mounting mat the nest iPhone will be announced at the same time as iOS 5, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. That’s slated for release in the autumn. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite being the cheapest laptop here, we were stunned to discover that the HP G62-b32SA (£400 inc. VAI) packed a powerful Intel Core i5 processor. This gives incredible value for money in terms of performance, although the G62 also has us flaws. Read the rest of this entry »

THE MSI U270 (£344 inc. VAT) looks and leek like a netbook, but its sharp screen and graphically capable processor push it more into the realm of an ultraportable laptop. While it isn’t as capable as the other machines here, it’s better suited to regular travellers who need a basic machine for running simple office applications. Read the rest of this entry »

THE Optimus 2X P990 (£371 inc. VAT) from LG was the first smartphone to feature NVidia’s Tegra 2 processor, so we were interested to see what it hail to offer. We weren’t disappointed when it came to performance, as the 1GHz CPU keeps apps and web browsing fast and smooth. Interestingly, it was only when making phone calls that we found the Optimus 2X lacking. The sculpted shape of the LG sits very nicely in your hand and the added texturing on die back is very noticeable. Although it has the same sized screen as the Optimus Black the overall handset is a fraction longer at 122.1mm and certainly thicker at 9.9mm. The 4-inch touchscreen is capacitive and bright – although darker than the Optimus Black. The phone has a MicroUSB connect ion at the base of the handset, located between two speakers. The speakers themselves are poor and produced very tinny sounding audio. Best to invest in a good pair of headphones or speakers if you plan on using the Optimus 2X for listening to music. Read the rest of this entry »

The Samsung Infuse 4G (set to run on AT&T’s HSPA+ network) tests the smartphones tablet boundary. Due out this summer, it has a 4.5-inch screen that uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus technology, a super thin display that produces gorgeous colors and high visibility indoors and out. The display will have 50 percent more sub pixels for better clarity and readability outdoors, Samsung says. The Infuse 4G runs Android 2.2 on a 1.2GHz processor. Other enticing specs include an 8-megapixel camera with HD video recording, and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced.

THE HP TouchPad (£399 inc. VAT) promised to be an exciting new competitor in the tablet market. Powered by WebOS, it’s a refreshing change from the army of Android tablets, but sluggish performance in a market dominated in the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab hobble what should have been a market-leading tablet. It doesn’t stray far from the mould set by the iPad and adopted by the rest of the tablet world. At all-black glass front houses the 9.7-inch multi-touch screen, which has a resolution of 1024 x 768. Above it (in portrait mode) is a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Sadly, there is no rear camera on the TouchPad. Read the rest of this entry »

TOSHIBA’S Satellite C660-15z (£300 inc. VAT) offers users with simple needs ii comfortable and affordable experience, thanks to its excellent usability. However there are more powerful and portable machines to be had in this group.

Performance relies on a single-core Intel Celeron processor, backed up by just 2GB of memory. Unfortunately, the C660 scored well behind oilier laptops in our benchmark tests, and can only handle basic tasks such as word processing and web browsing. We noticed a lot of slowdown when doing two or more things at once, such as copying files while updating a spreadsheet. Read the rest of this entry »

The master of all-in-one desktop PCs is HP. In addition to its more innovative (and expensive) TouchSmart models, the HP 100B All-in-One PC shows that HP can produce a business desktop that is both full-featured and economical. With its AMD Fusion APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), the 100B has enough power for day-to-day tasks, light multimedia creation work, and even some video.

The 100B is a standard-looking all-in-one desktop with the components built into the screen. With a whole lot of effort, you can remove the back panel in order to get into the desktop for component replacement. It’s capable of holding a larger hard drive and up to 8GB of memory (it ships with 2GB), though you’d have to remove the existing components to replace them with larger chips or hard drive. Read the rest of this entry »

To block out much of today’s unwanted noise, noise cancelling headphones are probably the most effective manner in which to do this. There are actually two different types of Noise Cancelling Headphones. These include passive noise cancelling headphones and active noise cancelling headphones. Each type has their own qualities and work best for certain situations. Knowing these differences can help you determine which type is the best for you. Read the rest of this entry »

HP iPAQ 610c is the device that is really worth getting. Thus you will enjoy its design and technical specifications. The price is reasonable enough, so you can easily afford getting it for yourself or any member of your family!

HP iPAQ 610c has the camera with autofocus. You will make photos of your vacation easily. Besides you can relax using the games or listening to the music (the device has MP3 player). The battery is good enough and thus you will enjoy communication and entertainment for at least 4 hours. There’s Bluetooth so you will connect the device with any other in your home.