I reviewed a lot of consumer electronics technology products and gadgets in 2010 but the ones which impressed me most were not the flagship high end premium products but 5 products all priced under $AUS200 which offered tremendous value for money.
$199 Sony BDP-S370: Bluray DVD Player, Internet Video, Plays Network Shared Files DLNA
I was quite surprised When I found out the new Sony BDP-S370 player could play Bluray and DVD disks, photos/music/video files from a USB drive or shared home network and a wide range of internet video sources including Youtube, ABC iView, SBS TV and Channel 7 – all for less than $200 retail. So I purchased one and have found it very useful.
The reason I was so surprised is because the Sony BDP-S370 bluray player offers a lot of value for money. I would have expected Sony to price an innovative product like this at more like $300 considering all the useful integrated features and the slimline design (less than the height of 3 DVD’s).
$149-$199 Huawei IDEOS U8150 android mobile phone
During 2010 I must have tested and reviewed 20 or 30 mobile phones of all kinds of shapes, prices and sizes. Compared to the rest the Huawei IDEOS U8150 was not as fast and has a smaller screen.
However thanks to the colourful cute hardware design and lots of Google Android 2.2 features packed into it for such a low price it was the standout phone of the year.
It’s so affordable and enables prepaid phone buyers to get a real taste of what a proper smartphone can do at a mere $149 from Crazy Johns (locked to the Vodafone network) or $199 from Dick Smith Electronics unlocked and usable on Vodafone or Optus.
$139-$189 Amazon Kindle and Kobo ebook readers
I’ve tried a *lot* of gadgets and devices recently which can be used to read Ebooks. The good news is that several decent basic ebook readers can be bought in Australia for less than $200.
Amazon’s Kindle and the Borders/Angus Robertson Kobo eInk ebook readers have strengths accompanied with flaws.
Which ebook reader device you buy depends on the flaws you can live with but the important thing is that they’re now affordable so you can buy them and read thousands of free classic ebooks by famous authors like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens without spending any more money.
I wrote an extensive feature article about ebooks and the publishing industry for issue #64 of GEARE magazine which is available at Australian newsagents right now.
Plug-in Power Meter
I tested different power meters and how you can address rising electricity prices in issue #63 of GEARE magazine.
A power meter plugs into your power socket. You plug your electronic gadgets and whitegoods into it and it displays how much electricity they consume so you can figure out which power hungry appliances to replace or use less so you can reduce your electricity bill.
Not all cheap plugin power meters are accurate so I suggest you buy yours from Steplight who sells them for $35+postage.
After you become aware of their electricity use if you make changes to your ceiling lighting, standby settings on home theatre devices and do sensible things like turning your TV or Sound system off when you leave the room you’ll save more on your electricity bill then the plugin power meter cost you in the first place. I cut my bill by 10%!
Leave a Reply