Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 pros:
+ 5x optical zoom
+ Rotatable lens allows to shoot at unusual angles
+ Good sharpness
+ Several video resolution options
+ Simple interface
+ Portable design

Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 cons:
- Too much artifacting
- No manual controls
- Small LCD

Design:

Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 measures 1.75 x 2.5 x 4.25’’ and weighs 1.3 pounds. The camcorder is available is three different colors and thanks to its rotatable lens and unusual colors it stands out from the crowd. The front of the camcorder features the swivel lens, mono microphone, and wrist lanyard eyelet. The right side houses the power button along with the menu button and one more button controlling the image quality. The left side of the camcorder houses the playback speaker and connectivity port hidden under a door. The back of the Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 houses the 1.8 inch LCD, indicator light and all the controls such as photo shutter, playback, record on/off, zoom and joystick. The bottom houses only the tripod mount and the MemoryStick Pro Duo card slot.

Performance:

Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 records in the maximum resolution of 1440 x 1080 using the MPEG-4 compression. He fils are recorder only to Memory Stick PRO Duo cards and so on a 16 GB memory card you can record up to 340 minuted of video in the highest quality.
As neither the Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 nor Sony Webbie HD MHS-CM1 have manual controls you have to shoot in the auto mode. The only thing you can change is the scene mode and zoom level.

Image quality:

Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 has very good color accuracy and saturation for this class of device. Similarly, automatic white balance and noise levels in good sunlight are very good in this class and a bit better than in the Kodak Zx1. The Sony camcorder has a selection of resolutions to choose from, including 1440 x 1080, 1280 x 720, or 640 x 480. Unfortunately, the motion tends to be choppy and with quite a large amount of artifacting. The overall sharpness of videos is very good and all the images are recorder at 30 fps.
In low light the camcorder does not disappoint. The color performance is accurate and the noise levels are good. The weakest point in low light seems to be the poor low light sensitivity.

Still features:

The Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 and Sony Webbie HD MHS-CM1 can also take still photographs in up to 5 megapixel. The color is usually terrible, not to mention that the sharpness and noise are below average even for this class of devices.

Menus/ease of use:

As the Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 has almost no manual settings it is really easy to use although the included software may be a bit more troublesome. Since it is so compact it is very pocketable, yet it also has its drawbacks. All the buttons have to be proportionally small so people with bigger hands may find them uncomfortable. Thanks to the rotatable lens you can shoot various angles easily. All in all the Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 is a camcorder worth looking at especially considering its price and specs.
Selected Sony Webbie HD MHS-PM1 features and specifications:

• Digital Video Format:

H.264

• Digital Zoom:

4 x

• Camcorder Effective Still Resolution:

5.038 Mpix

• Camcorder Sensor Resolution:

5.0 Mpix

• Exposure Modes:

Program, automatic

• Optical Sensor Size:

1/2.5″

• Still Image Format:

JPEG

• Optical Sensor Type:

CMOS

• White Balance:

Automatic

• Max Shutter Speed:

1/4000 sec

• Min Shutter Speed:

1/30 sec

• Widescreen Video Capture:

Yes

• Media Type:

Flash card

• Shooting Programs:

Landscape, back light, low light, sports mode

• Enclosure Color:

Violet

• Additional Features

• Digital Still Camera Function:

Yes

• Low Lux / Night Mode:

Yes

• Battery

• Supported Battery Details:

1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery – 980 mAh ( included )

• Supported Battery:

Sony NP-BK1

• System Requirements for PC Connection

• Operating System Support:

MS Windows XP, MS Windows Vista

• Peripheral Devices:

USB port, CD-ROM drive

• Miscellaneous

• Included Accessories:

Wrist strap

• Cables Included:

USB cable ¦ A/V cable ¦ Component video / audio cable

• Display
• Type:

LCD display – TFT active matrix – 1.8″ – color

• Microphone Type:

Microphone – built-in

• Microphone Operation Mode:

Stereo

• Microphone Technology:

Electret condenser
Environmental Parameters

• Min Operating Temperature:

32 °F

• Max Operating Temperature:

104 °F

• Additional Specifications

• Digital Zoom:

20 x

• Optical Zoom:

5 x

Other recently reviewed camcorders:

Kodak Zx1, JVC Everio GZ-HD300, Canon Vixia HF S100, Sony HDR-XR520V, Panasonic HDC-HS300, Panasonic HDC-SD20

BlackBerry Curve 8520 pros:
+ 256MB Flash Memory
+ 512MHz processor with 128MB RAM
+ Excellent keyboard
+ Good size and feel
+ Optical trackpad is good once you get used to it

BlackBerry Curve 8520 cons:
- In-call sound quality disappoints
- Plastic parts seem not durable enough
- no GPS

Design:

The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 measures 109mm x 60 mm x 13.90 mm (4.29 x 2.36 x 0.54 inches) and weighs 106 grams with battery. The front of the BlackBerry phone is dominated by the 3.4-inch display and the very comfy keyboard. While at the first glance the phone does not look much different from any other BlackBerry phone you can see that it features an optical trackball which is also quite comfortable when you get used to it. The keyboard layout is as usual, but what can you expect from a full QWERTY phone. The top of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 houses media control buttons along with the standard 3.5 mm audio jack and microUSB charging/data port. Both sides of the BlackBerry phone have convenience keys, but the right side houses also the volume rocker. The back of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 features only the 2 megapixel camera lens without flash.

Performance:

The screen displays 320 x 240 pixels and is bright, vivid and has good direct sunlight legibility. The battery performance is, as usual in BlackBerry, also above average in this class of cell phones.
The phonebook has practically unlimited capabilities and so you can store hundreds of contacts with multiple fields for custom ringtone, photo, address, email and plenty of other information.
As most modern phones the BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with a very good organizer in which you can find several very useful applications such as calendar, memo and tasks apps, calculator and voice note recorder.

Multimedia:

The 2 megapixel built in camera in BlackBerry Curve 8520 preforms quite well producing good quality photos with sharp images and nice color. However, due to a relatively small image size the photos cannot be used for anything other than emails, or business meetings.
The music player in BlackBerry Curve 8520 supports a bunch of file types and has good sound quality. The included headphones are of rather poor quality, yet as the BlackBerry Curve 8520 features the standard 3.5 mm audio jack you can use a much better headphone set. As usual, you can sort your music library by artist, genre, album and so on. The album art is, of course, displayed.

Menus / ease of use:

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 runs the latest version of BlackBerry proprietary software and so the user interface has modern icons and very good look overall. The menu structure is quite straightforward so new users should have no difficulties using it. Thanks to the fast procession and a lot of memory everything works very smoothly. Moreover, the OS is highly customizable and you can find plenty of additional programs on the Internet.

• Memory

256MB Flash Memory

• Expandable Memory

Hot swappable Micro SD (located behind battery-cover). SDHC
supported

• Display

High resolution 320×240 pixel color display
Transmissive TFT LCD
Supports over 65,536 colours
2.46″ (diagonally measured)

• Camera

2 MP camera with Fixed focus, no Flash, 5x digital zoom

• Video Camera Format

Normal Mode: 320 x 240 pixel; MMS Mode: 176 x 144 pixel

• Keyboard

35 key backlit QWERTY keyboard

• Ringtones

32 Polyphonic – MIDI, MP3, SP-MIDI, WAV

• Wi-Fi

802.11b/g enabled

• Bluetooth

Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR

• Media Player

BlackBerry Media Player

• Ports

Micro USB port allows charging and data synchronization of the device with a USB “A” to micro-USB “B” cable

• Network

Quad-Band: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
Quad-Band: 850/ 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz EDGE networks

Other recently reviewed Cell phones:
HTC Touch Diamond 2, HTC Touch Pro 2, Nokia 6303 classic, Samsung M7600 Beat, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s pros:
+ Solid design
+ Fast solid state drive
+ Excellent keyboard
+ Very light and thin
+ Outstanding performance

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s cons:
- Poor viewing angles
- Below average graphocs performance
- Unusual memory card reader

Design:

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s measures 13.27 x 9.49 x 0.83″ and weighs 3lbs 14.3oz. Some elements of the laptop’s design resemble the usual Lenovo laptop, yet such features as carbon-glas fiber lid and slim lines suggest that the laptop is state-of-the-art. The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s make an impression of an extremely solid and durable laptop despite is inconspicuous look perhaps because of its magnesium alloy keyboard bezel, or the metal hinges.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s has all the ports necessary for business use and a few more. For example, it has VGA and DisplayPort for video, two USB ports, one eSATA/USB port, Ethernet and a combined audio-out/microphone port. As an option you might also add a 5-in-1 memory card reader.
The full size keyboard is very comfortable and almost identical with any other Lenovo laptop keyboard, but this time the delete and escape buttons are a bit larger than in other computers which makes writing even faster and more error-free.
The trackpoint is very accurate, but if you dislike using it you can make use of the wide and textured touchpad. Following Apple’s MacBook Pro the Lenovo laptop supports multitouch gestures.

Performance:

The 14.1-inch laptop displays 1440 x 900 image which is just perfect for such a screen. The displayed image is bright, vivid and sharp as long as you look straight at it. The viewing angles in the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s slightly disappoint. When displaying fast motion, for example when watching a film, some pixelation may be visible, but for business use the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s should be just fine.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s comes with an integrated fingerprint reader so you can bypass the Windows login screen and/or protect your data more safely. The fingerprint reader works very well so you will not have to try several times to perform the desired action.
The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s comes with a built-in 2 megapixel webcam above its display so it is much better than on the Samsung N120 and Toshiba mini NB205. The image recorder with the camera is sharp and clear, just as you might expect.
What’s important is that the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s does not overheat even after prolonged use and when you do a lot of intensive work.

When it comes to its processing power the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s with its 2.53 GHz processor, Solid State Drive and 2 GB of RAM is a lot faster than an average lightweight laptop. The PCMark Vantage test score of almost 6000 should tell you all you need. However, the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s scores poorly in graphics tests with results below the category average. So the Lenovo laptop is clearly business oriented and not aimed at movie watchers and players.

Selected Lenovo ThinkPad T400s features and specifications:

• Processors Options – Intel® Core™2 Duo SP9400 (2.4GHz, 6MB Cache, 25 watt) or  Intel® Core™2 Duo SP9600 (2.53GHz, 6MB Cache, 25 watt)

• Operating Systems choices – XP Professional 32 downgrade – Windows Vista® Home Basic – Windows Vista® Home Premium – Windows Vista® Business – Windows Vista® Business 64

• Chipset/CPU – Intel® 4500MHD/Core™2, SV Small FF, 25W

• Displays – 14.1″ wide LED WXGA+ (1440×900) Graphics – Integrated Intel® GMA 4500 MHD

• Memory – 1GB/2GB/4GB DDR3 1067 MHz Hard Drives from 80GB SSD to 120GB SSD with 250GB SSD available at a later stage – 120GB to 250 GB 5400rpm SATA

• Supported WLAN Cards Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5300 (3×3) – Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100 (1×2) – • Intel® WiMax WiFi Link 5150 (1×2) –  Realtek Wireless B, G, N Card

• Integrated Communications – WWAN, WiMAX, WLAN Bluetooth®, UWB Constant Connect Support – 34mm card (US and Canada Only) – Constant Secure Support (US and Canada Only)

• Ports and Slots – 1 Standard USB 2.0, 1 Powered USB 2.0, 1 USB/eSATA –  VGA, DisplayPort, Mic/Headphone, RJ45 –  Optional 34mm Express Card or 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader – Combo Microphone in /Audio out

• Additional Features – Integrated 2MP Camera –  Multi-Touch TouchPad Optical Drive options –  DVD ROM –  CD-RW/DVD Combo drive – DVD recordable multiburner or Blu-ray™ DVD

• Security – Integrated Fingerprint Reader with LED ‘Smart Indicators’ –  Trusted Platform Module –  ConstantSecure (WWAN models)

• Battery – 6 cell Li Ion Prismatic Battery for up to up to 5.5 hrs or 3 cell Ultra Bay battery: up to 8.5 hrs with 6 cell battery

Other recently reviewed laptops:

Toshiba mini NB205, Samsung N120, MacBook Pro

Toshiba mini NB205 pros:
+ Unique design
+ Long battery life
+ Comfortable keyboard
+ Large touchpad
+ Hard drive protection
+ USB port charges device when system is off

Toshiba mini NB205 cons:
- Longish boot time
- Too large display bezel

Design:

Toshiba mini NB205 measures 264/193/33 mm and weighs 179 grams. The netbook is available in 4 different colors so you can choose the perfect one for you. The Toshiba mini NB205 has some raised horizontal lines and shiny hinges and silvery finish on the bottom deck to stand out from the crowd of netbooks. The keyboard is responsive and almost full size and although it may take some time to get used to it after some time it feels very comfortable. The touchpad is also of very high quality and as it measures 3.1 x 1.6-inch it is relatively big for a netbook. The right side of the Toshiba mini NB205 features a Keningston lock and two USB port, whereas the left side houses the third USB port, Ethernet, VGA-out and audio in/out.

Performance:

The Toshiba mini NB205 features a 10.1-inch screen working in 1024 x 600 resolution. The image is bright and colors look very natural. The viewing angles are quite good and much better than in the Samsung N120. Above the display you can see the 0.3 megapixel camera which works just fine. Unfortunately the Toshiba mini NB205 has quite poor speakers so on some occasions you might have to use headphones. The recently reviewed Samsung N120 has better camera and speakers so if the viewing angle is not your priority you might be more interested in the latter netbook.
When it comes to the Toshiba mini NB205’s processing power it seems that the netbook is a winner. With its 1.66-GHz Atom processor it can run a few applications at a time and show a high quality movie without any glitches. The PCMark05 test results also confirm that with the score of almost 1500. The graphics chip in the Toshiba mini NB205 is powerful enough to enable you to watch a 720p movie and although you will not be able to play the latest 3D games it seems that for other tasks the Toshiba mini NB205 will be just perfect.

The Toshiba mini NB205 comes equipped with a 160GB hard disk working at the standard 5,400 rpm. The startup time is a bit below netbook average but this might be due to the trial software installed on the netbook. In any other test the Toshiba mini NB205 scores above netbook average. If you do not overuse the netbook too much and use it mainly for browsing the Internet it might run for even eight hours so its battery life is outstanding.
Although Toshiba does not plan to offer upgrade options for the netbook you can easily upgrade its RAM to 2 GB on your own to improve its performance even more.
All in all, the Toshiba mini NB205 is an extremely powerful netbook and it is surely worth considering, especially if you look at its price and specs.

Selected Toshiba mini NB205 features and specifications:

• Manufacturer

Toshiba

• Model name

Mini NB205

• CPU type

Intel Atom

• CPU speed

1600 Mhz

• Graphics

Intel GMA 950

• OS

Windows XP Home

• Display Size

10.1″ 1024 X 600

• RAM

1024 MB

• Hard Disk

160 GB

• Keyboard

YES

• Mouse Pointer

YES

• Physical Interfaces

Ethernet 10/100
Line-out / Headphone (3.5mm)
MIC-in
VGA
USB2.0 (x3)

• Wireless Interfaces

802.11b/g
BT 2.0 (On some models)
No Wireless WAN (e.g. 3G cellular)

• Additional Specs and Accessories (can vary)

WebCam

• Pirce: below $400

Other recently reviewed laptops:
Samsung N120, MacBook Pro, SONY VAIO VGN-SZ71XN/C

HTC Touch Diamond 2 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM support
+ Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver
+ 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
+ 5 MP auto focus camera with excellent image quality
+ 3.2″ 65K-color WVGA display
+ Latest TouchFLO 3D
+ Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz CPU and 288 MB RAM
+ Dedicated graphics chip
+ Stereo FM radio with RDS
+ Touch-sensitive zoom bar
+ MS Office Mobile document editor
+ Opera 9.5 web browser
+ microSD card slot

HTC Touch Diamond 2 cons:
- No standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Fingerprint magnet
- Not so good sunlight legibility
- Questionable build quality
- No TV out port
- No magnetic stylus

Design:

HTC Touch Diamond 2 measures 107.85 X 53.1 X 13.7 mm (4.25 X 2.09 X 0.54 inches) and weighs 117.5 grams (4.15 ounces) with battery. When compared with the HTC Touch Diamond you can clearly see that the front panel was changed a bit. The hard button are now smaller in order to accommodate a larger screen. The gem patterns disappeared so the new HTC phone does not resemble a diamond so much. So, now the front panel in the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is dominated by the 3.2-inch screen displaying XVGA resolution. Above the display there is the earpiece, the secondary video-call camera and the ambient light sensor. Below the screen you can see the touch sensitive zoom bar along with the four hardware keys. The top of the HTC Touch Diamond 2 houses the power key, whereas on the bottom you can find the stylus compartment along with the miniUSB port. The left side of the HTC Touch Diamond 2 features the volume rocker and the right side the loudspeaker grill. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated camera key. The back has no diamond-like finishing and the only thing you can see there is the 5 megapixel camera lens.

Performance:

The screen on the HTC Touch Diamond 2 shows very bright and vivid image, yet in direct sunlight it disappoints as you can hardly see anything. The battery performance in the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is quite satisfactory. The menus look very well and the transitions and effects are smooth. The built-in accelerometer allows the HTC Touch Diamond 2 to rotate given menus automatically. Moreover, the HTC cell phone has an interesting feature thanks to which you can mute the phone by turning it face down. There are no problems with signal reception or in-call sound quality.

Multimedia:

The HTC Touch Diamond 2 comes with a music player which strongly resembles the Apple iPod so it is visually attractive. As there is no standard 3.5mm audio jack on the HTC cell phone you are stuck with the headphones you get in the box. Fortunately, the sound quality is more than decent and you can really complain here. The stereo crosstalk, dynamic range and noise levels are very good and so the overall sound quality is very good.
The video player in the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is the standard Windows Media Player which is simply poor. You can of course find something else on the web and you will even have to if you want to watch DivX/XviD videos. When you run the videos you can notice that they look very well on the bright and large screen.
The HTC Touch Diamond 2 can also take 5 megapixel photos in up to 2592 x 1944 pixels. The camera has very simple interface and so taking pictures is really easy. In bright light the image quality is very good with plenty of detail and natural colors. As the HTC Touch Diamond 2 has no flash photos in darker light will not look so good. You can also record videos with the HTC cell phone but only in VGA resolution at 15fps.
Browsing the Internet with the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is a real pleasure as you get the Opera 9.5. The browser is fast and has a bunch of useful features, such as find on page. Zooming, panning and scrolling are smooth and thanks to the high resolution of the scene even the most elaborate pages look really good.

Menus/ease of use:

The HTC Touch Diamond 2 comes with the updated ToouchFLO 3D interface. It works really well and looks equally good and although it misses the capacitive touchscreen you can hardly see it. The home screen in the HTC phone features a clock and a few tabs which have different purposes. So there is one called home which is responsible for call logs, People tab shows you your contacts, whereas the messages tab allows you to write SMSs, MMSs. Emails have a separate tabs, as does the Internet. There is also one for photos and videos and one for music so generally operating the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is very easy and pleasant even though it runs Windows Mobile. All in all, the HTC Touch Diamond 2 is a very decent phone considering its price and specs.
Selected HTC Touch Diamond 2 features and specifications:

• Processor

Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz

• Operating System

Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional

• Memory

ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288 MB

• Display

3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution

• Network

HSDPA/WCDMA:
Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency, HSUPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)

• Device Control

TouchFLO™ 3D
Zoom bar

• GPS

Internal GPS antenna

• Connectivity

Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

• Camera

Main camera: 5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera

• Audio supported formats

AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
Video supported formats
WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI

• Battery

Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1100 mAh

• Talk time:

Up to 300 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 340 minutes for GSM

• Standby time:

Up to 500 hours for WCDMA
Up to 360 hours for GSM

• Video call time: Up to 150 minutes

(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

• Expansion Slot

microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

• AC Adapter

Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

• Special Features

FM Radio, G-Sensor

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

HTC Touch Pro2, Nokia 6303 classic, Samsung M7600 Beat, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75

Samsung N120 pros:
+ Very good resolution and overall screen quality
+ Excellent battery life
+ Comfortable and responsive, full size keyboard
+ Windows XP

Samsung N120 cons:
- Smallish touchpad
- Poor viewing angles
- no optical drive

Design:

Samsung N120 measures 10.7 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches and weighs 2.8 pounds. The netbook is available in black or white and its body resembles some older Samsung netbooks. However, in order to accommodate a larger keyboard it is a bit larger than its predecessors. As the netbook is still very small and comfortable to hold and carry around I don’t think it is a big issue. This also affected the bezel around the screen which now accommodates speakers making the sound quality commendable.
The Samsung N120 features the standard set of ports sufficient for the normal, day to day work. And so it has to USB ports and an Ethernet port on the left, whereas the right side features the VGA-out, Kensington lock, audio in/out, and a third USB port. You can also find the 3-in-1 memory card reader hidden under the front lip.
Samsung claims that the N120’s keyboard is full size, yet it is not quite so. All the key are slightly smaller than on a standard, full size keyboards, but you can hardly notice it and for suet it does not have a negative impact on writing. All the keys in the Samsung N120 are well placed and provide nice feedback. The trackpad is a bit smallish, but very responsive and pleasant to use also its buttons are responsive and behave as expected.
The Samsung netbook’s 10.1-inch screen works in 1024 x 600 resolution and shows bright colors. However, the viewing angles are quite poor not only horizontally, but also vertically. The Samsung N120 also comes with a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam which works pretty well.

Performance:

Samsung N120 features 1.6-GHz Intel processor which achieved a good result in PCMark05 test (1,515) so the overall performance is commendable. The Samsung netbook features the Intel 945GSE graphics chip which also does its job quite well and although you will most probably not be able to play the latest 3D games you can seamlessly watch a 720P HD video. Samsung N120 has a 160 GB working at 5,400 rpm so you can’t expect it will save and open files as fast as the latest MacBook Pro, but it will should be okay for browsing the net and for basic work with multimedia.
The wireless performance of Samsung N120 is in line with the netbook average, yet its battery life test performance might be surprising. The Samsung N120 has strong enough battery to allow you to browse the Internet wirelessly of up to 7 hours.

Conclusion:

All in all the Samsung N120 is a very powerful netbook for a reasonable price (about $420) which will not disappoint. With its very good battery it is prefect for long travels and as it can run HD movies effortlessly it is also very good for fun.

Selected Samsung N120 features and specifications:

• CPU

1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270

• RAM Included

1GB

• RAM Upgradable

2GB

• Hard Drive Size

160GB

• Hard Drive Speed

5,400rpm

• Hard Drive Type

SATA Hard Drive

• Display Size

10.1

• Native Resolution

1024×600

• Graphics Card

Intel 945GSE

• Video Memory

128MB

• Wi-Fi

802.11b/g

• Bluetooth

Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
Mobile Broadband

• Operating System

MS Windows XP (SP3)

• Ports (excluding USB)

Ethernet; Headphone; Kensington Lock; Microphone; VGA

• USB Ports

3

• Card Slots / Readers

3-1 card reader

• Warranty/Support

One-year standard parts and labor/24/7 toll-free phone

Other recently reviewed laptops:

SONY VAIO VGN-SZ71XN, MacBook Pro

Overview:

HTC Touch Pro2 is a very powerful cell phone featuring a fast processor and a dedicated graphics chip to make working with it a real pleasure. Additionally, the HTC Touch Pro2 has great connectivity, built in GPS receiver with A-GPS, excellent web browser and Office document viewer and editor right out of the box. Of course, the HTC phone features also a music player and a built-in camera.

HTC Touch Pro2 pros:
+ Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and HSDPA 7.2Mbps
+ 3.15 MP auto focus camera
+ 3.6″ 65K-color touchscreen WVGA display
+ Revamped TouchFLO 3D Home screen and gesture controls
+ Dedicated graphics chip (64MB RAM reserved for graphics)
+ Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS
+ Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz CPU and 288 MB DDR SDRAM
+ Standard miniUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
+ Five row full QWERTY side-sliding keyboard of brilliant ergonomics
+ TV out
+ Excellent video playback
+ MS Office Mobile document editor
+ Opera 9.5 web browser

HTC Touch Pro2 cons:
- Poor camera performance
- Considerable size and weight
- Lack of standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Average sunlight legibility
- No flash for the camera

Design:

HTC Touch Pro 2 measures 116 X 59.2 X 16.65 mm (4.57 X 2.33 X 0.66 inches) and weighs 178.5 grams (6.3 ounces) with battery. Although is might seems that touchscreen devices have quite limited design options somehow the HTC Touch Pro2 is able to stand out from the crowd. The front panel is dominated by the 3.6” touchscreen, whereas the back houses the 3 megapixel camera lens and a second microphone used for improving sound quality during phone calls by muting background noise. The right side of the HTC Touch Pro2 features the hot swappable memory card slot. The left side houses only the volume rocker. On the bottom you can see the miniUSB port and the stylus compartment whereas on the top of the HTC cell phone the power key.

Performance:

Unfortunately, the HTC Touch Pro 2 has troubles displaying nice image in bright daylight. It’s really quite surprising considering that the HTC phone is a high end smartphone. The battery performance in the HTC Touch Pro2 is more than satisfactory with 50 hours of standby and over 8 hours of talk time. When you slide the phone open you will see the comfortable full QWERTY keyboard which provides good feedback and has excellent ergonomics.

Multimedia:

The HTC Touch Pro2 comes with a very good music player which resembles iPod Touch a bit as it has something similar to the Cover Flow. You can sort your music library by artist, genre, compose, or make your own playlists. As there is no 3.5m standard audio jack you will have to use the headphones that come with the HTC cell phone. The general audio quality is commendable, with good frequency response, acceptable noise level and dynamic range.
The HTC Touch Pro2 also comes with a video player supporting mp4 and 3gp files so you will have to install additional software to run DIvX and XviD. The videos look very good on the bright and large display.
The HTC Touch Pro2 also features a 3 megapixel camera capable of taking 2048 x 1536 photos. As the camera has no flash you will be unable to take photos in darker areas and with no dedicated camera key you have to start it from the menu. Although there are several features for the camera the overall image quality disappoints. The photos might have good amount of detail but the colors look unreal. Moreover, the camera tends to oversharpen and produce too much noise.
As the HTC Touch Pro2 features Opera 9.5 web browser and good connectivity browsing the internet with the HTC Touch Pro2 is a real pleasure. The web sites are rendered just like on your computer and with features such as find on page and a virtual pointer it is easy to find desired information quickly.

Menus/Ease of use:

HTC Touch Pro2 runs on Windows Mobile with the HTC’s TouchFLO interface. The entire user interface is touch optimized and has 3D home screen with multiple tabs. Each tab has a different purpose and so you get one for your favorite contacts, one for text massages, one for music player, Internet, calendar, photos and videos and settings. Such a menu division makes it really easy to operate the phone with a single swipe of a finger. Of course you can customize your tabs so suit your needs more. As the operating system in the HTC Touch Pro2 is Windows Mobile i think everyone knows what to expect from it.

Selected HTC Touch Pro2 features and specifications:

• Processor

Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz

• Operating System

Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional

• Memory

ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288 MB

• Display

3.6-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution
Adjustable tilt screen

• Network

HSPA/WCDMA:
Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency, HSPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)

• Device Control

TouchFLO™ 3D
Zoom bar

• Keyboard

Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard

• GPS

Internal GPS antenna

• Connectivity

Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)

• Camera

Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera

• Audio supported formats

AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
Video supported formats
WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI

• Battery

Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1500 mAh

• Talk time:

Up to 390 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 510 minutes for GSM

• Standby time:

Up to 750 hours for WCDMA
Up to 500 hours for GSM
Video call time: Up to 160 minutes
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.)

• Expansion Slot

microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

• AC Adapter

Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
DC output: 5V and 1A

• Special Features

G-Sensor
Straight Talk™
Noise-cancelling dual microphones and speakers

Other recently reviewed cell phones:

Nokia 6303 classic, Samsung M7600 Beat, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte

Overview:

Nokia 6303 classic features 2.2-inch screen, stereo radio with RDS and standard 3.5mm audio jack. Nokia 6303 classic is a genuine classic with plenty upgrades to make it more modern, yet it lacks a dedicated shutter release button, 3G, multi tasking and an office document viewer. Still, depending on your priorities the Nokia 6303 classic might be just the right phone for you.

Nokia 6303 classic pros:
+ Good battery life
+ 2.2″ 16M-color QVGA display with excellent sunlight legibility
+ S40 user interface, 6th edition
+ microSD card slot (4 GB supported, 1GB included)
+ 3 megapixel camera, autofocus and LED flash
+ VGA video recording at 15fps
+ Stereo FM radio with RDS
+ Bluetooth (with A2DP) and microUSB port
+ Standard 3.5mm audio jack
+ Plenty of preinstalled applications

Nokia 6303 classic cons:
- No 3G
- No smart dialing
- No office document viewer
- Memory card slot under the back cover
- No dedicated shutter key
- Poor image quality
- No multi-tasking

The design:

Nokia 6303 classic measures 108.8 x 46.2 x 11.7 mm and weighs 96 grams. On the front of the Nokia phone you can see the 2.2-inch screen and above it the ambient light sensor together with the earpiece. Below the display you will see the D-pad, and some knobs on its both sides. The top of the Nokia 6303 classic houses only the power button, whereas the slightly curved bottom is home to the standard 3.5 mm audio jack, microUSB port, the charger plug and the lanyard eyelet. The left side of the Nokia 6303 classic has no interesting features, whereas the right side houses the volume rocker. The back do the Nokia cell phone features the loudspeaker grill, 3-megapixel camera lens and the LED flash.

Performance:

Nokia 6303 classic has pretty and responsive menus. Moreover, the phone can store up to 2000 contacts with multiple fields not only for the phone number, but for additional information such as birth date, email, image, custom ringtone and so on. The signal reception and in-call voice clarity are excellent as always in Nokia cell phones. The call log stores up to 20 last dialed, received and missed calls. The messaging is comfy and trouble-free.
Nokia 6303 classic has no office document viewer which is a pity as I think most of its potential buyers would welcome that feature. The cell phone also does not have any multi tasking support which might make using some of its applications quite time consuming and not so user friendly.

Multimedia:

Nokia 6303 classic comes with a traditional music player supporting all the most common music files. There is only one there of the music player, but the more important thing is the equalizer and the Nokia 6303 classic has 5 equalizer presents which is just fine. The general audio quality is commendable, with good frequency response and outstanding intermodulation distortion test results.
The 3.2 megapixel camera in the Nokia 6303 classic can take photos in up to 2048 x 1536 pixels. Although there are plenty of manual settings and scene modes the general image quality disappoints. Additionally, the flash is quite poor and as the lens has no cover it might get scratched easily. The Nokia phone can also record movies in VGA resolution at 15 fps so the movies are hardly useable.
The Internet browsers, on the other hand, is a very good application in the Nokia 6303 classic. The web pages are rendered just like on your computer, however flash is not supported.

Menus/Ease of use:

The menu structure in the Nokia 6303 classic is quite usual so you should not expect any novelties. The menu is well designed and very responsive which makes it fun to work with. There are six ringing profiles and the flight mode which does not requite SIM card to be in the phone. The menus are customizable and as the phone comes with five different themes everyone will something suitable.

Selected Nokia 6303 classic features and specifications:

• Screen

2.2 Inch 16.7 Million Colour TFT QVGA Screen (320 x 240 Pixels)

• Imaging

3.2 Megapixel Camera
8 x Digital Zoom
Dual LED Flash
Flash (On, Off & Automatic)
Auto Focus
Full Screen Viewfinder
Capture (Still, Sequence, Self Timer & Video)
Colour Tone Mode (Normal, Sepia, Greyscale & Negative)
Video Recording (15 FPS)
4 x Digital Zoom
Video Player
Video Colour Tone (Normal, Sepia, Greyscale & Negative)
Wallpapers
Animated Screensaver

• Messaging

SMS (Text Messaging)
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
Email (IMAP, POP & SMTP)
Email with Attachments
Predictive Text

• Sound

Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, H263 & H264)
FM Radio RDS
MP3, AAC & Polyphonic Ringtones
Video Ringtones
3.5mm Stereo Headphone
Audio Recording

• Entertainment

Java™ Games
Downloadable Games
Organiser
Phonebook
Contacts with Images
Calendar
Alarm Clock
Call Waiting, Call Hold & Call Divert
Missed, Received & Dialled Call Log
Handsfree Speaker
Conference Calling (6 Contacts)
Vibrating Alert
GPS Receiver
Nokia Maps Application

• Connectivity

Bluetooth®
Micro USB
EDGE
GPRS

Network
Tri Band (GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900)

• Internet

Opera Mini Browser
Nokia Mobile Search
HTML, XHTML & WML Browsing

• Memory & Talk Time

64 Mbytes Memory with 1 Gbyte MicroSD™ Memory Card supports 4 Gbytes
7 Hours Talk Time
450 Hours Standby

Other recently reviewed Cell phones:

Samsung M7600 Beat dj, LG KM900 Arena, Samsung S7350 Ultra s, Samsung S7220 Ultra b, Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia E75, Nokia 8800 Gold Arte, Sony Ericsson W508

Overview:

Kodak Zx1 is not only small and powerful but also totally weatherproof which sounds really interesting considering its price ($149.95). The camcorder has a bunch of ports so it has great connectivity and an SD/SDHC memory card slot. The camcorder is available is a few colors so you can choose the best one for you and if you don’t fancy the design you can also have a look at Kodak Zi6 which offers very similar performance in slightly different body

Kodak Zx1 pros:
+ Responsive automatic exposure
+ Easy to use and comfortable
+ Nice playback options
+ Good connectivity
+ Very good motion
+ Good low light performance

Kodak Zx1 cons:
poor still features
- sharpness worse than competition
- ambiguous buttons
- poor microphone

The design:

Kodak Zx1 measures 2 x 0.8 x 4.2 inches and weighs 3.2 oz. The Kodak camcorder is available in five colors including black, red, blue, yellow and pink. The Kodak Zx1 and not only interesting design, but it is also made of good materials and so it feels good in hand. The front of the camcorder houses the lens, infrared sensor, record tally lamp, mono microphone and a battery container hidden under a door. The left side houses the power button, and the camcorder’s ports, whereas the right side houses the memory card slot along with the lanyard eyelet. The back of the Kodak Zx1 shows the 2-inch LCD screen and all the camcorder buttons and controls. The top is almost bare and it houses only the playback speaker while on the bottom there’s only the tripod mount.

Performance:

The Kodak Zx1 uses the H.264 codec and records the movies in MOV files so most users should not have any problems with copying the video files. There are numerous recording options including the standard definition VGA mode. The editing software that comes with the camcorder is very user friendly, yet not too powerful. To make your life easier all image adjustments are made automatically and quite accurately, except for white balance which fails to impress. Also, if you like to use manual controls you may be disappointed with the Kodak Zx1 as it has no manual controls for exposure, gain, shutter speed and so on.

Image quality:

The Kodak Zx1 performs quite poorly in bright light. The colors are much worse rendered than in the camcorders made by the competition. Also the noise levels in bright light are higher than in the competition. The 60p motion is very smooth, yet the 30p is only acceptable and looks a bit slower. The overall sharpness of videos taken with the Kodak Zx1 is fine for this class of camcorders. Surprisingly, the Kodak Zx1 does a lot better job in low light than in bright light. The Kodak Camcorder has outstanding low light sensitivity and the colors are all rendered very well. Also, the noise levels are very good and a bit better than the competition.
Kodak Zx1 is also capable of shooting still photos but with limited features. The noise seems too high and the color accuracy is quite bad and when you add to it that the Kodak camcorder can shoot only 3 megapixel photos you can’t expect too much.

Menus/Ease of use:

The Kodak Zx1 is quite easy to use because of its lack of manual controls. However, the button design is ambiguous which may get on your nerves. The menu is easy to use once you manage to find it and the overall impression of the Kodak Zx1 is quite positive.
Selected Kodak Zx1 features and specifications:
Product Type 
Camcorder
Enclosure Color
 Black
Digital Zoom
2 x
Optical Sensor Size
1/4.5″
Optical Sensor Type
 CMOS
Digital Video Format
 H.264
Shooting Modes
 Digital photo mode
Widescreen Video Capture 
Yes

• Main Features

Camcorder Sensor Resolution
 1.6 megapixels
Camcorder Interpolated Still Resolution 
3 megapixels
Color Support
 Color
Still Image Format
 JPEG
TV Tuner
None

• Memory / Storage

Supported Flash Memory 
SD Memory Card
Integrated Memory 
128 MB
Media Type
 Flash card

• Lens System

Type
Lens – 4.1 mm – F/2.8
Focal Length
 4.1 mm
Lens Aperture
 F/2.8
Lens system type
 Lens
Max focal length
 4.1 mm
Focus Adjustment 
Focus free
Min Focus Range 
27.6 in

• Additional Features

Digital Still Camera Function
 Yes
Additional Features
 Weatherproof, 
Built-in speaker, 
YouTube capture mode, 
USB 2.0 compatibility
Software
Drivers & Utilities , ArcSoft MediaImpression
Included Accessories
Wrist strap , Carrying pouch

• Viewfinder

Viewfinder Type: 
None

• Display

Type
: LCD display – TFT active matrix – 2 in – Color

• Digital Player (Recorder)

Type
None

• Microphone

Type
Microphone – Built-in

• Connections

Connector Type 
1 x USB , 1 x HDMI output , 1 x Composite video/audio output , 1 x DC power input
Expansion Slot(s)
1 x SD Memory Card

• Audio Input

Audio input type
 Microphone
Microphone type
 Built-in
Microphone Operation Mode 
Mono

• System Requirements for PC Connection

Operating System Support 
MS Windows Vista , MS Windows XP SP2 , Apple Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Peripheral Devices
 USB port , XGA monitor , CD-ROM drive
System Requirements Details
- 1 GB – 300 MB

• Miscellaneous

Cables Included
 A/V cable , HDMI cable , USB cable

• Power

Power Device
Battery charger – External

• Battery

Supported Battery 
AA
Supported Battery
 2 x AA NiMH rechargeable battery ( Included ) , 1 x Kodak KLIC 8000 Li-ion rechargeable battery ( Optional ) , 1 x Kodak CRV3 Lithium battery ( Optional ) , 2 x AA Alkaline battery ( Optional )

• Manufacturer Warranty

Service & Support 
1 year warranty
Service & Support Details
 Limited warranty – 1 year

• Viewfinder / Display

Display Form Factor
Built-in

Other recently reviewed camcorders:

JVC Everio GZ-HD300, Canon Vixia HF S100, Sony HDR-XR520V, Panasonic HDC-HS300, Panasonic HDC-SD20

Overview:

The SLR comes with a lens in the box and the Canon Rebel T1i features a large 3-inch LCS screen, very good ISO range, abundance of shooting modes and very clear menu structure. Moreover, the Canon Rebel T1i records very sharp videos in 1920 x 1080 and has accurate colors.

Canon Rebel T1i pros:
+ Accurate colors
+ Well balanced and easy to carry
+ Very good 3-inch LCS screen
+ Video recording in 1920 x 1080
+ Plenty of shooting modes

Canon Rebel T1i cons:
- Little flash controls
- Poor manual
- Few in-camera editing tools
- Poor white balance

The design:

Canon Rebel T1i measures 3.8 x 5.1 x 2.4″ (98 x 129 x 62mm) and weighs 16.9oz (480 grams) without lens. As the Canon Rebel T1i is a quite compact digital SLR it has only a few buttons on its body and most of them have to serve different functions. The front of the camera is dominated by the lens, but you can also see the remote control sensor there, the red eye reduction and self timer lamp and the lens release button. At the back of the Canon Rebel T1i you will mainly see the LCS screen and plenty of buttons such as the menu, display, exposure compensation, playback, delete D-pad and a few more (see photo below). The left side of the Canon camera features the ports hidden under a cover and the flash button, whereas the right side houses only the memory card cover. At the bottom you can see the tripod mount and the battery compartment. The top of the Canon Rebel T1i features the mode dial, hot shoe for external flash, the built-in flash shutter button, power switch, control dial and the ISO button.

Performance:

Canon Rebel T1i is quite a fast digital camera so it is ready to take photos in no time. However, the image stabilization system is very unpredictable and may work very well on certain occasions, and totally disappoint at others. The playback mode in the Canon Rebel T1i is very good and you get several playback controls, however there are hardly any in camera editing tools. The LCD in the Canon Rebel T1i works very well, it is bright and thanks to its high resolution fun to use.

Image quality:

The Canon Rebel T1i has a very good color accuracy and almost equally good customization of its Picture Styles. When it comes to overall color performance only the long exposure performance may slightly disappoint. The Canon camera has an impressive ISO range of 100 to 12800 which is very uncommon in this range of digital cameras. The Canon Rebel T1i has awkwardly low sharpness, yet quite good levels of chromatic aberration and distortion. The canon camera has below average white balance performance and no matter if you try to adjust it manually it is very hard to achieve acceptable results.

Menus/ease of use:

The Canon Rebel T1i has a clear and very straightforward menu structure so it should not be too hard to use. Because of its small size its hard buttons server different purposes so you might have to get used to that. The manual is quite poor so it would be best to discover what particular buttons do just by trying them. All in all, the Canon Rebel T1i is a very good digital camera in this price range.
Selected Canon Rebel T1i features and specifications:
Resolution

• Effective: 15.5MP, Recorded: 15.1MP

Sensor

• 22.3 x 14.9mm CMOS

File Formats

• RAW, JPEG, QuickTime

Color Spaces

• sRGB, Adobe RGB

Image Stabilization

• Body: No, Lens: Yes

Crop Factor

• 1.6x

Lens

• 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (35mm film equivalent: 29-88mm)

Zoom

• Manual Two-Touch

Lens Mount

• Canon EF/EF-S mount

Focus Type

• Auto and Manual Focus

Focus Range

• 9.8″ (25cm) – infinity

Accessory Lens/Filter Mount

• 58mm

Sensitivity

• ISO: 100-3200 (expandable to 6400 and 12800)

Shutter Speeds

• 1/4000 – 30 sec, bulb

Metering

• Evaluative, Partial, Spot, Center-weighted Average

Exposure Modes

• Manual, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, Program, Auto, Creative Auto, Scene

White Balance

• Auto, Day Light, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Flash, Custom

Mirror Lock-Up

• Yes

Burst Capability

• 3.4fps Continuous Shooting

Self Timer

• 10 seconds or 2 seconds

Remote Control

• Yes: RS-60E3 Remote, RC-5 Wirless Remote, RC-1 Wireless Remote

Built-in Flash

• Yes

Effective Flash Range

• Up to 43′ (13 m)

Dedicated Flash System

• Canon Speedlite EX-series

Max Sync Speed

• 1/200 sec.

Memory Card Type

• SD/SDHC

Still Images per GB

• RAW: 50

JPEG: High Res:204 – Low Res:1,137

• A/V Recording

Video Recording

• Video with Audio, NTSC & PAL Output

Video Resolution

• 1920×1080 @ 20fps, 1280 x 720 @ 30fps, 640×480 @ 30fps

Video Clip Length

• 12 min. HD / 24 min. SD or 4GB

Audio Recording

• Mono audio with video only

Viewfinder Type

• Eye-level Pentamirror

Viewfinder Coverage

• 95%

Display

• 3″ LCD

Connectivity

• USB 2.0 (mini-B), A/V Out, HDMI (Type C)

System & Software Requirements

• Windows XP, Vista

• Mac OS OS X (10.2 or later)

Battery Type

• LP-E5 Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery

Power Adapter

• CA-PS700 Compact Power Adapter (optional)

Other recently reviewed digital cameras:

Olympus E-620, Pentax K2000, Olympus E-30, Sony A900, Panasonic Lumix ZS3