What to buy and what not to

What to buy...

In this series we review recently launched products and services to help you sort the best buys from those that do not offer value for money.

Good deal
The first Android phone from Motorola has a 3.7-inch touchscreen display and one of the thinnest Qwerty keypads. It also has a 5 MP camera and an 8 GB memory card. The winning edge: the voice-guided GPS navigation service with maps of 401 Indian cities and towns.

 

Product: Western Digital My Passport Studio
Price: Rs 9,600 (500 GB)

Good deal
Mac lovers have a new accessory to covet—the My Passport Studio external hard disk drive. Along with a USB 2.0 port, it has FireWire 800, which means faster transfer of data. What makes it stand out in the crowd is its e-ink display, which acts as a volume label and capacity gauge.

Good deal
Though nearly all mobile phones offer FM radio connectivity and music players, their utility is undermined by the tinny sound of earphones. Now, Bose, the leader in acoustics, promises to enhance audio comfort with its first in-ear mobile phone headset that includes three sizes of silicone-tipped earphones. The answer/end button at the back of the microphone lets you take your phone calls with one-touch ease and you can switch back to music as quickly. Moreover, the headphones come with three 2.5-mm adapters to ensure compatibility with a wide range of mobiles. By all means, a sound offering!

Product: Sony KDL-32EX700
Price: Rs 65,900

Good deal
How about an LCD TV that turns off the picture when you leave the room? Imagine the savings on your electricity bill. Sony's latest offering has a presence sensor that can be set for 5-60 minutes. If the sensor doesn't detect any physical movement, the picture turns off while the audio remains on. If after 30 minutes, there is still no motion, the TV shuts off completely. The greater advantage is its Internet capability—a rear ethernet port and the BRAVIA Internet Video technology allow you to access online content such as YouTube.

...And what not to

Bad deal
Despite having one of the biggest screens (5 inch) and an 800x400 resolution, this 16 GB video player's display doesn't impress. Also, its bulky size makes it a tight fit in your pocket. The VPD supports various video formats, such as AVI, RM, RMVB, FLV and MOV, but not the MKV format. So its claim of being high-definition ready is pretty much empty. Its interface seems inspired by Sony's PlayStation, which makes you wonder if buying the PSP, which also lets you play games, isn't a better idea.

Bad deal
The Asus is powered by an i7 core processor and NVIDIA 3D Vision technology. However, the 15.6-inch screen is a tad small for a gaming laptop and the battery lasts for barely an hour while playing 3D games. Instead, the Acer 3D laptop, which has fewer features but comes for half the price, would be a better bargain.

Bad deal
For a so-called high-speed USB modem, this one is slow to impress. The company claims download speeds of up to 3.1 mbps, but the maximum that we could coax from it was 1.5 mbps. The upload speed too was abysmal at 373 kbps. The VFlash has an 8 GB storage capacity, VFlash TV, which lets you watch 40 television channels, and an 'on demand service' option, through which users can pay to download movie, music, wallpaper and ringtones. Unfortunately, there are no lucrative tariff plans. The basic plan starts at Rs 250, with no free usage. In comparison, Reliance NetConnect and Tata Photon Plus fare much better on all counts.

Bad deal
This all-weather camera comes with an attractive price tag, but it seems to have been at the cost of image quality. Also, the external controls are too small, so handling them under water or with gloves could be problematic. On the plus side, it has a 12 MP sensor, 3.6x wide angle zoom, is waterproof up to 3m and freezeproof to -10(0)C. Despite these, a better option would be the Pentax Optio WS80, which has a bigger zoom (5x) and costs Rs 11,500.