Rob's Gadget Reviews

Sony Ericsson K850i Mobile Phone
(4 out of 5)

Good points:  Full email client, fast internet, 5 megapixel camera, great media player, RDS FM Radio, 3 touch-sensitive buttons at bottom of screen work well, screen brightness adjusts for ambient light, 

Bad Points:  Plasticky, tricky to use, small fiddly buttons, smudgy case (unless you wear velvet gloves the whole time!), looks less professional than its excellent predecessors (The K750i and K800i).  I can't wait to get rid of the awful Vodafone branding - DaVinci Team here I come...  Would Apple let them change all the icons and menus and even what some buttons do?  I don't think so!  Come on Sony Ericsson - don't let them mess with your carefully designed interface designs any more!

Sony CDX-A360 car stereo
(5 out of 5)

I bought this for my Ford Puma mostly because it was silver to match the dash, but also because it had a nice interface that wasn't all tiny wee buttons.  Car stereos should ALWAYS be simple to use - by touch where possible - but so many nowadays are just smothered with gimmicky stuff to appeal to teenage boys for some reason.

Good Points: Great sound quality, relatively easy to use for an aftermarket tuner, looks good.  Buttons can be green or red.

Bad Points: Difficult to turn on!, RDS tuner and channel surfing has a mind of its own sometimes.  Screen too bright, even when dimmed.

REVO DAB in-Car unit
(3 out of 5)

I couldn't find an integrated DAB CD-tuner that I liked, so I ended up buying this.  I got it for £70, I believe a few years ago that it was £300.  Its designed and engineered in Britain and is fitted 'permanently' to your car, but can be removed again in 30 minutes or so.

It has a stick-on internal antenna, that works surprisingly well.  It can either connect to rear inputs on your stereo, or it has an in-line FM modulator that fits between the aerial socket of your stereo, and the aerial plug of your car's FM antenna.  This works VERY well.  It cuts off the antenna altogether when you're using the REVO, and gives crystal clear digital-quality sound quality - no hiss at all.  It actually sounds BETTER than listening to an Audio CD, which is impressive!  You need to splice its power wires into your car's stereo's harness (I did this without damaging the car's own harness, by fitting it onto the stereo's harness).  You then simply mount the unit on the dashboard, and run the DAB antenna wire to its mounting base.

My problem in my car (Ford Puma) is that there was nowhere suitable to put it!  My dash is very curvy.  It ended up in my glovebox which is a less than optimal solution :(

Reception - If FM reception is fair to good, it will work well.  If FM reception is patchy, it won't work at all.

Good points: Excellent sound quality, very well made, works well when reception is available.

Bad points:  Not enough presets.  Buttons on the unit itself need pushed too hard, quite large - where do you put it!?  Mounting remains on view.  Too difficult & slow to rapidly channel surf.

TomTom GO 700 GPS Navigation Unit
(5 out of 5)

I never wanted a SatNav unit.  I never really thought I'd need it much.  Then my boss at work was selling his old one, and lent me his overnight.  It took me about an hour, but I was hooked.  Simple things like being able to see what way the road was about to turn, what thee names of side-streets I was passing were called etc. - was all utterly amazing.

I bought it, too it home, ran all the updates on it, subscribed to Traffic and speed camera updates and bought the latest maps for UK and France.

Times when it has proved most useful have been when finding parcel depots in the middle of nowhere, friends houses that I'd not been to before and finding a fast way home from somewhere new.  The main benefit is that it makes driving much safer when you're somewhere unfamiliar.  You can give your full attention to the traffic/driving, even if you take a wrong turn it leads you back.

Pros:  Works well.
Cons:  Screen not terribly big or bright.  Fairly big heavy unit (sorted on newer versions).  if you unplug the car-charger, it powers off which is annoying, since it has a 4 hour battery.

Tefal Quickcup (4 out of 5)

Bought August 2007

This radical gadget has replaced my electric kettle - an item found in every home in Britain.  People are commenting that the water isn't close to boiling but I think if you give it a chance to 'get going' it gets hotter.  I've had no complaints making tea, coffee and cup-soups.  Overall its wonderful and is saving me time and money every day and partly responsible for me getting to work on time recently!

Pros:  Instant hot water (not boiling).  Time and money saving.  Filtered.

Cons:  Very noisy indeed.  Water could be slightly hotter.  Buttons are a bit uncomfortable to use needing a very firm push.

Sony Ericsson CLA-60 Mobile Phone Car Charger (0 out of 5)

Bought March 2007, Failed August 2007

Brief review - this is not a quality item.  It fell apart.  Neat design with its little map light and clips, but i wouldn't recommend it at all.

Top Up TV Anytime hard disk recorder - Thomson DTI 6300-16 (2 out of 5)

Bought May 2007 - Could be good if they made it work.

I love this - IF IT KEPT WORKING!  Series link scheduled recording is brilliant - I now have things to watch when i sit down on my sofa!  I like the very fast forward (64x) and I like being able to pause live TV.

I wish the USB socket did something, and allowed you to move recorded .mpg files to a PC for burning to a DVD - that would be superb.

Bad points : guzzles power, all the time... it can't be switched off or it would not be able to download the TopUp channels overnight.  It has crashed completely at least 15 times and has frequent corruptions and other glitches.  Buggy as anything.   It has no indicators or display, except to show you if its on or off, and if its recording something.

Overall - It would be brilliant, IF IT WORKED.

Creative Zen Vision:M 30gb (3 out of 5)

Bought April 2007.  A superb little player, let down by the rubbish supporting software.

UPDATE AFTER 5 months of use - I would not recommend this player, unless you only want to take your CD collection with you - which synchronises easily with Windows Media Player 11 and is a smooth, easy process. 
For everything else, you have to use the Creative software which is appalling.  The podcast facilities are simply an embarrassment compared to the equivalent functionality in an iPod + iTunes.

Absolutely fabulous little iPod Clone which, by all accounts is superior - better battery life, better screen, better sound quality and a wider variety of supported formats.
If you DO NOT use any of the supplied software and stick with Windows Media Player 11, its a solution at least the equal of the iPod and iTunes.

Had to set the touchpad to the lowest sensitive, but it still takes quite some getting used to.  Tap & Stroke is the best way to describe it.  The firmware update added some crucial functionality to the DJ option.  Headphones are OK but aren't great.

Good points:  It just works!, looks great.

Bad points: Supplied software makes things confusing and is utterly unncessary for music library/transfer.  It would be better for everyone if they just didn't put any disks in the box.

Netgear SC101 - Network Storage device~ (1 out of 5)

I thought this was the answer to my prayers, but it wasn't, and i took it back to the shop, very disappointed.

What I was expecting was a standard network device, with its own ip address and web configuration etc.

What I got was a proprietary file system, software that has to be installed on each client PC and SCSI drivers.  It "tricks" Windows into thinking its a normal physical drive.  Why???

It comes with no disks in it, you add 1 or 2 bog standard IDE disks yourself, and just slide them in - no screws or setup required.  If you add 2 160gb disks, for instance, you can either have 320gb of total storage, or 160gb of mirrored storage (keeping your data safe if one disk fails).

But in the end, how safe is it?  if the SC101 develops a fault, you have your data locked in its own file format that nothing else can read.

A great idea, poorly implemented.

Bad points:-

• It gets very hot earning it the nickname "the toaster" - it also looks a bit like one.
• You have to install software on every PC that needs to access it.
• It uses a proprietary file format, so you can't just remove a disk and shove it in a PC.  Makes things interesting if the SC101 itself fails completely.
• Its not very fast, especially in mirrored mode.
• On my media-center PC, the software installation failed due to an incompatibility with a system driver.  I found the answer through googling, but the answer is not logged on Netgear's site, even though its a common problem.

Good points:-

• Cheap
• Ability to choose your own hard disks
• Its quite a sexy little unit - sturdy and well made.

Philips X51 "freevents" Notebook PC (4 out of 5)

Bought June 2006.  Still working fine November 2007 despite hefty daily use.

I'd been looking for a small, light but still fully functional XP PC but all the ones I saw were well over £1000 which was just too much.  Finally, though, I found this neat little notebook in PC World and snapped it right up for £750.

I've not had a notebook for years, and then they were just for work.  This one is a little bit sexy while still being business-like.  It has a modern glossy screen which makes movie-watching from the integrated DVD-RW drive a pleasure.  It has a clasp-less lid which is neat, you just open and close it like a book.  It has none of the old-fashioned ports (PS/2, serial, parallel etc) and has 3 USB2 ports plus firewire.  Battery life seems very good at 3.5 hours plus.  It also stays silent most of the time which is nice.

The wireless connection worked perfectly straight out of the box and maintains a steady strong connection.

Update 5 months on - still working perfectly!  Had to get the DVD-RW drive replaced, because it wouldn't burn DVDs.  Frequently used keys and the touchpad have got a bit shiny and there's the odd small scratch but sill working very well. 
It refuses to run Vista though... installing Vista just stuffs the boot sector and I have to sort it myself.  (bios firmware update available via TwinHead's German website...)

The only negative thing I can say about it is that there's zero online support from Philips.  If you rummage about on Google for F12DT you discover its a rebadged Twinhead.

• Intel Pentium M 740 Processor 1.73GHz with 533 MHz FSB and 2 MB Cache
• 1024 MB RAM and a 60 GB Hard Drive
• Double Layer DVD RW MultiDrive
• 12.1" Brite Display
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• 128MB Intel shared graphics

Fujifilm E900 9 mega pixel digital camera (3 out of 5)

I bought this in haste after my trusty Kodak broke when i dropped it on holiday. 

First, the bad.  The user-interface is terrible.  Its like an advert for Kodak.  There are numerous features that you'd never figure out without the instruction book, and i still need the instructions with me if i'm trying to do anything remotely clever.

And now the good.  Its fast.  Very fast.  The pictures are great if a little less 'jolly' than the Kodak used to do.  The 9mp photos are wonderful - i can crop a photo to make another photo, still with enough detail to print.

Logitech MX 1000 Laser Cordless Mouse (2 out of 5)

I got this simply because it was the only comparable mouse that PC World had to replace my faulty Microsoft one (below).

I *much* prefer the Microsoft Mouse.  It felt more substantial, especially the scrolling wheel and I also prefer to not have a recharging base (yet another power pack under the desk).  The Microsoft one just used two AAs which lasted for a year or something.

The software also doesn't seem to work right... I have to turn the software OFF to make the buttons work properly - and yes I DID uninstall the Microsoft Mouse software first!

Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 (0 out of 5)

My previous mouse was the first Microsoft optical mouse and it lasted a very long time until I accidentally broke it... I was very happy with it until then.  I particularly liked the back and forward buttons at the thumb.  There's a principal in car design that the contact points are very important (steering wheel, gearknob, door handles etc.) and its the same with computers.  So I got the best mouse in the range.  It should also last a long time...

• Good points - the scroll wheel is a delight to use.  Very tactile.  It also scrolls horizontally - clever.  The high resolution is impressive - things are easier once you're used to it - especially tricky things like graphics work.  The cordless facility works perfectly and the laser means it needs no mouse mat.

• Bad points - the click resistance on the scroll wheel is a bit too strong.  Mouse failed after 6 months.  Replaced with a Logitech unit under warranty.

Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000 (4 out of 5)

This is a neat wee thing.  Wee being the operative word here...  A single AA battery powers it, and the USB transmitter is housed in the bottom of the mouse until needed.  No cables are required.  When the transmitter is stored in the bottom of the mouse, it fully powers off the mouse so that the battery should last a long time.

It also has  neat wee magnify button on the side which works well on my laptop.

Part of the reason I bought this was as a partner to the full size version, so its a shame that it broke!

Recommended!

Sony Ericsson K800i Mobile Phone (2 out of 5)

I bought this to replace my K750i  Overall its been a disappointment, although technically superior in every way.  I find it too fiddly, and too bulky.  I do like the camera though.

• Good Points - 3mp camera, big bright screen.  Robust.
   
• Bad Points - Annoying small keys which run together, Vodafone customisations which go a long way to ruining the phone, camera cover opens and turns on all the time, random crashes and reboots, smaller memory card available than for the older k750i.

Sony Ericcson K750i Mobile Phone (4 out of 5)

This wee phone is great.  It lets me do my email on the move, surf the net (opera mini recommended!), play games, listen to MP3 music and podcasts and take 2mp photos.

• Good points - lovely screen, great functionality, good battery life (if you stop playing with it!), Memory Sticks up to 8gb, popular so lots of accessories & software etc.  Frequent firmware updates.  Great media player (good for MP3s and podcasts).  Has survived huge amounts of physical abuse.
   
• Bad points - joystick intermittently plays up, ringer doesn't go quiet enough, photos are disappointing (despite their claims that its as good as a camera).

Epson D88+ Durabrite Ultra Inkjet printer

I bought this despite my near identical printer failing due to a simple paper jam.  This was because I'd been happy with every other aspect of the printer.  It seems slower and slightly less good photo quality than the earlier model which is a shame, but still an excellent wee printer.

• Good points - Excellent resin inks.  Good printing on all paper types.
• Bad points - slow.  wasted ink due to head cleaning.

Epson C84 Durabrite Inkjet Printer (same as C86 model) (4/5)

I knew the pros and cons of this printer when I got it.  Great quality prints in waterproof, fadeproof inks on any paper.  Its also very fast on "normal" mode.  Recommended.

• Good points - very long life, waterproof ink that prints on any printer.  Fast (once its on).  Easy availablity of high capacity genuine epson ink on eBay!
   
• Bad points - head cleaning and wasted ink if you don't use it often.  Printer broke following a printer jam caused by forgetting to open the 'front door'

Dell 2001FP Flat panel 20" TFT Monitor (5/5)

I absolutely love this!  Its transformed my PC and made everything I do on it easier and more enjoyable.  Highly Recommended!

• Good Points - EXCELLENT big heavy stand that allows you to move the panel in any direction with no difficulties including to a great height and rotating through 90 degrees.  Beautifully clear display.  Superb 1600x1200 resolution.  4xUSB 2.0 ports which are very useful.
   
• Bad points - 1 dead pixel (out of 1,920,000!).  Black isn't black on TV/DVD (although I believe this to be a limitation of all TFT panels due to the backlight).

Kodak DX7440 4 Megapixel, 4xOptical zoom Digital Camera (4/5)

This fantastic wee camera, got cheaply on Amazon, has given me a new found interest in photography.  It is perfect for someone wanting to learn what all the various settings do.

• Good Points - Excellent, easy to use full manual controls - great for learning.  Great scene modes.  HUGE LCD display.  Screw on lens availability (e.g. 2xtelefoto making 8xOptical).  Very fast response.
   
• Bad Points - Original battery was inadequate (replaced cheaply with a better one).  4MP starting to look a bit mean.  Camera broke after being dropped onto a tile floor.