Dreaming Of Electric Sheep?

Blackberry Bold

The latest smartphone from RIM, with a 3.2-MP camera and LED flash.

The Good: Great optical scroll button, 3G, Wi-fi and GPS, high-res screen makes video-watching a pleasure.

The Bad: Same bulky form factor, too expensive.

Price: Rs 32,000

Our Verdict:

***

HTC Tatoo

Android, touchscreen phone.

The Good: Good-looking, well-defined application icons, effortless touchscreen performance, Android widgets and customised apps add to the flavour.
The Bad: Small screen size, virtual keyboard functioning a bit stretched and, at 320 x 240, low-res compared to the peer group.
Price: Rs 17,500
Our Verdict: * * *

***

Intex IN 5030

In a race of dual-SIM phones, this one sticks out by offering one more. It can take in two GSM and one CDMA SIMs, i.e. three phones in one.

The Good: Neat design in metal and plastic. Has an LED torch, ships with a spare battery. Works on all SIMs without hiccups, even in low-signal zones.

• The Bad: Software a little primitive, 1.3-MP camera way below in resolution compared to its peers. Audio could be better.

Price: Rs 5,500

Our Verdict: * * *

***

Motorola Milestone

While we haven’t set our hands on one, watch out for this fully loaded Android phone. Its best-in-line features include 3G, a side-slide QWERTY keypad, a multimedia player with one of the widest acceptable formats, and a Capacitive touchscreen with a resolution higher than the iPhone.

Price: N.A.

Yet to be launched.

***

Samsung Corby

Touchscreen phone with slider QWERTY keyboard and 2 MP camera.

The Good: Great resolution on 2.6-inch screen, excellent keyboard and sound, up to 8 GB memory.
The Bad: Lack of a four-way jog button a serious shortcoming, no Wi-fi connectivity.
Price: Rs 7,000 onwards
Our Verdict:  * * *

***

Nokia 5233

Touchscreen phone with  virtual QWERTY keyboard and 2 MP camera.

The Good: Large touch-screen, great sound, maps, Ovi and Internet, great value for money.

The Bad: No Wi-fi, or pre-loaded maps, stylus looks brittle and can scratch screen.

Price: Rs 8,250

Our Verdict: * * * *

***

LG New Chocolate

One of the few phones with full-touch HD wide screen.

The Good: Extra large 4 inch 21:9 screen, thin and light, bold icons,  5 MP camera, virtual QWERTY keypad works like a dream.

The Bad: Huge size compared to today’s compact feature phones, touch buttons for even basic functions could be a challenge for users, steep price.

Price: Rs 30,000

Our Verdict:

***

Expert Pick

Our panel of experts list their pick of the best in mobile phones

Amit Agarwal
Tech Blogger,
Digital Inspiration
www.labnol.org
 

Nexus One from Google: I am really looking forward to this. The Android phone has all Google apps pre-installed. That means I can run the Goggle app that lets you search the web through images instead of having to type anything.

The BlackBerry Curve (for business) offers great value for money.

Nimish Dubey
Tech commentator


 

iPhone 3GS: The best phone in the world. Period. Does everything superbly—calls, messages, mails, takes photos, shows you the way, does video, lets you read   e-books and do so much more. Nothing comes close to that wonderful touchscreen and the several apps out there.

Motorola Droid: There are many who consider this to be the first real contender to the iPhone and from what I have seen of it, the Moto Droid is an awesome device.

Prasanto K. Roy
President & chief
editor, Cybermedia

 

Nexus One from Google: It’s not the best ever, nor even an outstanding touch phone—there’s no multi-touch, and it would have been better off with a keypad—but it’s a preview of the mobile as an open, widely supported app platform rapidly filling up with thousands of apps.

Nokia 5230: An all-touch phone with GPS and free maps, for the best price (Rs 8k) ever.

LG 3G Watch Phone GD910: This wristwatch lookalike is actually a loaded GSM mobile phone (with 3G video telephony and an MP3 player to boot). Calling via your wrist will set you back a cool Rs 49,999.

Pico Freeloader Solar Charger: On a single ten-hour charge, this compact solar charger provides 35 hours of life for mobile phones or 14 hours for the iPod. If there's no sunshine, charge it via your computer's USB port.

Sikker Wireless Baby Monitor: This new-gen baby monitor comes with two wirelessly synched wristbands, one each for the baby and the parent.  Monitor the baby's temperature, or remotely play music via the radio.

TigerText: This new iPhone app—allowing users to send text messages that get automatically deleted from both the sender's and the receipent's iPhones—is quite the rage. As Tiger Woods would testify, there's business potential here.

Philips SoundBar HD home theater HTS8160

Single speaker panel home theatre system with integrated Blu-Ray player and touchscreen controls.

The Good: High-definition home theatre surround sound, no fixed listening position, friendly Blu-Ray player interface, USB connectivity and optional iPod dock.

The Bad: Price is prohibitive, simulated surround sound doesn’t make the grade.

Price: Rs 79,990

Our Verdict: * * *

***

Philips 56-inch Full HD 21:9 LCD Cinema TV

First of its kind 21:9 aspect ratio LCD TV.

The Good: Gives complete cinema experience in a TV—almost 180 degree viewing angle without distortions, great sound at 12 RMS per channel and two subwoofer output. Comes with universal remote, HDMI, USB and Wi-fi inputs and Philips’ patented Ambilight backlighting.

The Bad: Cumbersome controls, poor picture adjustment for non-21:9/analog TV signals, far too expensive

Price: Rs 4.5 lakh

Our Verdict: * * * *

***

Expert Pick

Our panel of experts list their pick of the best in audio-video

Amit Agarwal

Boxee TV: A device that streams  content from a computer to the HDTV. It’s like a media centre that brings all your favorite TV shows and movies from the Internet or your hard drive onto your TV without the PC.
 

Nimish Dubey

• PS 3 slim: Yes, I know some people are going to scream bloody murder at my including a gaming console in the audio-video category, but gosh, a terrific Blu-Ray player at around Rs 19,000 is very hard to beat. The games are an ENORMOUS bonus, of course.
• iPod Nano: I am amazed at how so much has been packed into it. Music quality is awesome, with one of the best video recorders at less than Rs 10,000.

Prasanto K. Roy

• Samsung’s LED TV: They’re thin, snazzy, have stunning contrast and image quality, pack all the ports and connectors you’d need, have smart wall-mounts that don’t take away from the slimness, and save power. It’s still way too expensive, but is a great preview of tomorrow’s TV set.
• Philips SoundBar HD: Includes a Blu-Ray player in a compact package with great sound.

Sony Vaio X

Sony’s new ultra thin netbook.

The Good: Compact size, ultra thin at just 0.55 inches and extremely lightweight at less than 750 grams. Has great screen resolution, good speed and memory.
The Bad: More expensive than anything else on the horizon, even full feature big laptops, but performance is average.
Price: Rs 64,990
Verdict: * * *

***

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t

Touchscreen PCs become affordable. This is probably the first netbook with a 180-degree swivel that converts it into a fully functional tablet. Comes with a 250 GB hard drive and can give the hugely popular iPad strong competition.

The Good: First low-priced touchscreen tablet in the netbook space, has great sound and tools like face recognition.
The Bad: Windows 7 on a netbook could be a tad difficult to handle. The touch advantage is fine, but is expensive for a netbook.
Price: Rs 30,740
Our Verdict: * * *

 ***

HP Mini

Compact laptop with Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1 GB of RAM.

The Good: Compact size and comfortable keyboard. A neat touch is loading common apps on start-up even as the rest of the PC is still booting.

The Bad: Thick and heavy for a netbook, screen resolution a tad lower than others in the category, also a little cumbersome while surfing the net. Scrolling function has hiccups.

Price: Rs 16,000 onwards.

Our Verdict: 

***

Nokia Booklet 3G

Nokia’s first step in IT—a loaded netbook with 120 GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM

The Good: Nice size with 10.1 inch high-res screen, and lightweight. Intel Atom processor has 3G and swappable SIM card facility, an extra long 12-hour battery life, the usual Wi-fi, GPS and Nokia’s OVI and Maps. Good, nicely spaced out keyboard and touchpad.

The Bad: Windows 7 on a netbook could be a challenge, a little slow on internet surfing and video streaming.

Our Verdict:   

Yet to be launched

***
 

Expert Pick

Amit Agarwal

iPad: I would go with the Apple iPad. Yes, there are some shortcomings (like it won’t do Flash and you can only instal apps that are approved by Apple), but otherwise iPad looks like a beautiful and very capable device. You can even use it as a picture frame.

Nimish Dubey

• iPad: The ultimate portable multimedia monster, doing everything from games to presentations.
• Asus eeePC 1201 T: Quite simply the best netbook money can buy. It looks gorgeous, is lightweight, has a lovely keyboard and lots of battery life. This is the closest a netbook can come to slaughtering a proper notebook.

Prasanto K. Roy

• iPad: A cross between an iPhone, a tablet, a netbook. With Apple’s snazzy ecosystem backing it.
• Lenovo ThinkPad X100e: A pro-grade netbook with dual-core AMD (not Atom) chips, 11.6” screen, red TrackPoint plus trackpad, all in the 40k price range (estimated; not yet launched in India).

***

Internet Data Cards

MTS MBlaze Pre-paid

Set-up time under 3 minutes, simple connect interface. Has very high and consistent download speed. Coverage in 31 cities. “Free” use of websites like Yahoo, Wikipedia and Makemytrip. Memory card slot an added feature.

Price: Rs 3,499

Our Verdict:  * * * *

***

Tata Photon+

Set-up time less than 3 minutes, simple connect interface, steady download speed. Coverage in over 50 cities.

Price: Rs 2,499 onwards

Our Verdict:

***

Reliance Netconnect Broadband+

Set-up time about 5 minutes, software integration with PC takes time, lengthy interface and activation, high download speed but inconsistent. Coverage in 40 cities.
Price: Rs 3,500
Verdict: * * *

Canon Powershot sX20 IS

12.1-MP digital camera with high 20X zoom, face detect and HD movie recording.

The Good: Good resolution, SLR looks, zoom one of the highest in this category, swivel  screen great for acute angle and self-shots, good live view, reasonable flash performance.

The Bad: Electronic viewfinder is a serious limiting factor, as is the steep price which is closer to some of Canon’s SLR cameras.

Price: Rs 29,995

Our Verdict: * *

***

Samsung ST550

Compact digital camera with front LCD panel.

The Good: Extra large back LCD screen with good touch controls, good resolution at 12.1-MP, easy operation good for novices.
The Bad: Front LCD more of a novelty, average zoom performance.
Price: Rs 24,995
Our Verdict: * * 

***

Expert Pick

Our panel of experts list their pick of the best in cameras

Amit Agarwal

• Eye-Fi memory cards: These can turn any regular camera into a wireless device so you can transfer photos wirelessly without the USB cable.
• Flip HD camera: Most smartphones can record video but the quality is often poor. That's why I love the Flip HD camera - it's compact but shoots quality video like a real camcorder.

Nimish Dubey

• Canon Powershot SX20 IS: It has been a long time since we humble point-and-shooters had something that made DSLR owners go green with envy.
• Sony Ericsson Satio: This is supposed to be a phone with a camera, but I look at it as a 12.1-MP camera with a phone and a 3.5-inch touchscreen.

Prasanto K. Roy

• Canon EOS 500D: Kudos to Canon for raising the stakes in the affordable DSLR game. At just under Rs 42k (with 18-55 mm kit lens) you get not only a full-fledged SLR with the works, you also get full-HD video recording (though at a lower frame rate).

* * * * *  Top of the hill
* * * * Must have
* * * Good to have
* * Well, maybe
* Avoidable

Compiled by Arindam Mukherjee