Iomega eGo

External hard drives are not all about storage and performance, they also add to your personality if you do carry one along with you everywhere. Iomega reiterated the fact with their Iomega eGo Portable hard drive that not only promises to deliver strong performance but also act as a fasion accessory!

Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive specifications :

• Dimensions : 3.5″ x 5.2″ x 0.7″
• Exterior color : Red, Silver
• Capacity : 160GB
• External data transfer rate : 480 Mbps
• Drive speed : 5400rpm
• Cache : 8MB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OS X, Windows 2000 or later
• Warranty : 1 year
• Approx. price : $110

The drive is extremely thin at just 0.7″ and the red color gives it a flashy look, although there is also a more subdued silver color. The build quality of the drive is impressive and feels solid and sturdy. The drive is made of anodized aluminum and polished steel which is mainly responsible for its looks. The drive is priced extremely competitively priced at just $110.

The hard drive is powered by a USB-port itself instead of those bulky adapters. Iomega has surprisingly placed the activity LED at the rear of the drive, which is quite inexplicable. The drive is light weight also making for a great companion. The drive has DropGuard feature which protects the drive from shocks when not in use as the drive has extra padding inside the case to protect it from shocks.

The drive comes preformatted with FAT32 partition which can be read by both Mac and Windows and for that matter even Linux. If you intend to use it with OS X primarily then format it with Disk Utility to HFS file format. The drive bundles the EMC’s Restrospect Express 6.1 software to carry out the various tasks. The updated version compatible with OS X Leopard is available on their site. The software can be used to make partial/full backups, duplicate images, create bootable recovery CD but sadly can’t do encryption of data.

The drive has impressive performance. Writing assorted data to drive yielded an average write speed of 20MBps, one of the best in its category. The read speed from the drive is even better at 22Mbps. Surely, the Iomega eGO Portable Hard Drive manages to pull in good read/write speeds along with great looks!

Pros :

• Slim and small dimensions
• Attractive look
• USB Powered
• Good performance
• Backup software included

Cons :

• Backup software not Mac compatible
• No encryption of data utility

Final Thoughts

The Iomega eGO Portable Hard Drive is an excellent drive from Iomega and manages to put everything in place perfectly. The only flaws that you van find are with the bundled software. So, there is no doubt that if you are looking for a portable drive, grab this one.

My Rating : 4.25/5

Cowon A3

Portable music players with huge storage space are always on one’s hit list. But finding the right one has never been an easy task as the market has seen a big revolution and iPod Touch. It has now set new benchmarks for future generation PMPs through it excellent interface and by integrating various other features although it still needs improvement on the sound quality. Cowon players are though known for their sound quality and Cowon A3 is no exception.

Cowon A3 specifications :

• Dimensions : 5.2″ x 0.9″ x 3.1″
• Display : 4″ TFT screen
• Hard Disk capacity : 60GB
• PDF Viewer, Text Viewer
• Image formats supported : BMP,GIF,PNG,RAW,JPEG,TIFF
• Audio formats supported : AAC,MP3,WAV,WMA,FLAC etc.
• Video formats supported : AVI,VOB,MPEG,XviD,DivX etc.
• Rechargeable Lithium battery
• Approx. Price : $360

The Cowon A3 is the successor of Cowon A2 which had gained a lot of reputation for itself. The Cowon A3 comes in two hard disk capacities, a 30GB model and a 60GB one. The Cowon A3 scores high due to its big screen but loses out on its thickness which stands at 0.9″ which is not slim by any means.

The design of the Cowon A3 is pretty simple and it is a rectangle with screen occupying most of the space and the buttons occupying the rest of it on the right side of it. There isn’t any fancy or eye-catching about it and also the screen is not touchscreen which is a bit of disappointment.

The display is a big 4″ display which evens beats the iPod Touch screen size. The display is clarity is amazing and it is a pleasure to watch videos on it. But on the downside the screen is very prone to fingerprints and scratches.The buttons on the right side of the screen are mainly for navigation and controlling various media player controls. The joystick isn’t very friendly to use though.

The player supports a huge range of formats which is really good. Having wide range of format support is never bad but you should stick to a couple of them which offer you better battery backup and offer good quality without taking up too much space. The audio file sorting mechanism in Cowon A3 is certainly not quite what we see in today’s latest generation devices as it has limited sorting options.

The performance is the forte of the player. It offers exceptionally good video playback and equally good audio sound quality through in the earphones. The external stereo speakers ain’t bad either and do the job quite well.

Some of the drawbacks of the player include no WiFi support, no touchscreen and the display is highly reflective. Also the player looses out on looks. But apart from that the player simply rocks!

Pros :

• Excellent video playback
• Amazing audio sound quality
• Big and great display clarity
• Wide range of formats supported

Cons :

• Screen prone to fingerprints and scratches
• No WiFi support
• Joystick is not friendly
• No touchscreen

Final Thoughts

The Cowon A3 has superb audio and video quality that will leave you spellbound. It manages to get almost everything right except for a few features which off-late have made their entry to PMPs like WiFi. If you do not care about the cool interface of iPhone or don’t need anything more than a great PMP then go ahead with Cowon A3!

My Rating : 4/5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300

Sony has been making a name for itself in the point and shoot camera market with their stylish small cameras. We’ve reviewed the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W90 which was a solid camera. Today we’re going to review a camera that is even smaller than the DSC-W90.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300 is smaller than most of its predeccessors, but incorporates a much larger LCD than before (3.5″!). This camera features a 10MP ccd sensor, optical image stabilization, 3.5″ LCD screen and a number of other great features.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Cyber-shot DSC-T300:

• Street price: $449.99 approx.
• 10.3MP
• 3.5″ LCD
• 5x optical zoom
• ISO Sensitivity: 80 / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200
• Shutter Speed: 1sec - 1/1000
• Image Stabilization

Things I like
I think the thing I like most about this camear is it’s large 3.5″ LCD touch screen. Most cameras get rid of the optical viewfinder and put in a sub-par LCD screen. This becomes a problem when there’s direct sunlight on the screen because it becomes very hard to view the pictures you’re about to take (or have already taken). The LCD screen on the DSC-T300 is very large and very bright. You control almost every aspect of the camera via the 3.5-inch touch-screen LCD, leaving just a power button, a playback button, a shutter release, and a zoom rocker as its only physical controls.

This camera has an extremely good set of features including image stabilization, a touch screen, face detection software, smile shutter (makes sure everyone is smiling before taking a photo), macro photography and much more. I’m impressed that Sony has managed to pack all of this into such a small case.

I also like the fact that this camera is very small. It allows you to take it everywhere without worrying about its size or weight.

Things I don’t like
If you have large thumbs you’re going to have a hard time holding this camera without resting your fingers against the LCD screen. Because there’s less than half an inch around the LCD it can be rather annoying holding this camera.

The picture quality isn’t as great as its sibling, the T200, but the quality is still fairly good. At the higher ISO however, the photos become extremely noisy and unusable.

Pros:

• Large touch screen LCD
• Small size
• High resolution
• Lots of on-board functionality
• Back isn’t crowded with buttons

Cons:

• Awkward if you have big fingers
• Noisy at high ISO levels

Final Thoughts
A great design, fast shooting, and lots of features can’t overcome the fact that the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T300 simply doesn’t take very good pictures at high ISO levels.

Rating: 4 / 5

Thermaltake BlacX SE

Storage space is a precious commodity in the computing world. A computer case only has space for so many hard drives before it gets full, so what should you do when you need more space. One option is buying external enclosures for extra hard drives, but this can get expensive rather quickly. The other option is to buy this product.

The Thermaltake BlacX SE is a device that allows you to hot-swap SATA hard drives quickly and effortlessly, allowing you to increase the amount of storage. The BlacX SE basically allows you to plug in all of your internal SATA drives (either 2.5″ or 3.5″) and store information on them without having to put them into your computer case. The SE also gives you four extra USB 2.0 ports for you to plug other devices into it.

Technical specifications for the Thermaltake BlacX SE:

• Street price: $49.99 approx.
• Supports All 2.5” & 3.5” SATA HDDs up to 1TB
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• Windows & Mac OS Compatible
• Heat dissapation
• Works with Vista

Things I like
The BlacX SE is a great device if you need extra storage but have run out of room in your computer case. The average cost of an external hard drive enclosure is around $30, so if you have multiple drives it quickly becomes more expensive than buying a single BlacX SE device.

The four included USB 2.0 ports are a very nice addition as well because you get the added value of having a USB hub that generally costs $10+. This device works extremely well. I plugged it in via a free USB port, and then connected a free SATA drive to it. Windows recognized the drive and I was able to read and write to the drive. While the speeds are as quick as connecting it internally they are rather quick. I was getting 30-34MB/s read and write speeds.

Drives generally create a lot of heat when they run but the Thermaltake BlacX SE dissipates the heat rather well, preserving the drive and hopefully making it last longer.

Things I don’t like
The only problem with this is that you can easily destroy a drive by pulling it out two quickly. If you want to make sure your drives last for as long as possible wait until the drive stops spinning before pulling it out. If you don’t wait its possible to damage the platters inside the drive and render it useless. Other than ruining drives due to improper use, this is an excellent device.

Pros:

• Hot-swap hard drives
• Cheaper alternative to hard drive enclosures
• 4 USB ports
• Dissipates heat away from the hard drive

Cons:

• Improper use could lead to your hard drive being ruined

Final Thoughts
If you’re like me and constantly need more storage the Thermaltake BlacX SE is definitely for you. It provides a cheaper way of adding more space than buying external enclosures and it even comes with four USB 2.0 ports.

Rating: 4.75/5

Nikon CoolPix S700

One of the problems with small compact cameras is that you generally lose either picture quality or performance when you make them smaller. Luckily most of the large camera makers have realized that consumers aren’t going to take these performance and quality hits, but are still going to demand small cameras. Nikon is leading the pack with the small, stylish and quick compact camera.

The Nikon CoolPix S700 is both stylish and quick. As a top-of-the-line compact model in Nikon’s Style series, the S700 certainly has the specs to compete against all challengers: 12.1 megapixels, Nikon’s VR image stabilization, sensitivity to ISO 3200, a 2.7-inch screen, and a brushed metal body. In spite of its feature-rich approach, the S700 has an air of simplicity – both stylistically and functionally – about it that has undeniable appeal.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Cyber-shot DSC-T300:

• Street price: $269.99 approx.
• A 3x Nikkor zoom lens with a 35mm equivalent range of 37 to 111mm
• A 1/1.72-inch CCD, producing images at up to 4000×3000 pixels
• Sensitivity up to ISO 3200
• A shutter speed range from 1/2000 to 4 seconds
• AF options including automatic and manually selected 9-point, center, and face priority

Things I like
The slightly rounded edges and blocky shape make the S700 easy to grip firmly and operate with one hand, and the camera has a nice balance in hand. The controls have a solid feel for the most part, and the AutoFocus is amazing.

With AF mode, you can focus on up to 12 faces to make sure that they’re all in the picture. The S700 has a number of great built in features that were done extremely well. In terms of performance, Nikon’s sensor shifting Vibration Reduction (or VR) image stabilization system may be consistently the best on the market, and implementation in the S700 is no exception.

Things I don’t like
The combined scroll whee on several of the current-generation Nikon compacts feels cheap and insubstantial. The thin plastic battery door doesn’t have a nice feeling either – not a big deal, but given that this is the flagship S-series Nikon, a little more might be expected.

Like most other cameras at high ISO (1600 and above), the shots become so noisy that they’re essentially useless. I’d like to see cameras where you can actually shoot at such high ISO.

Pros:

• Very nice grip
• Small size
• High resolution
• Image Stabilization works really well
• Lots of great manual modes

Cons:

• No manual view finder
• Noisy at high ISO levels

Final Thoughts
While the Coolpix S700 is certainly not perfect, there’s a lot to like about this camera. Image sharpness and overall quality are truly impressive, the camera exposes and renders colors well, and ease of use is very good.

Rating: 4.3 / 5

Freecom Hard Drive PRO

External hard drives have been used as a secondary hard drive for a while now. They offer extra capacity to your small laptop battery or a portable option to your desktop.

Freecom brings the latest in high-speed connectivity to the portable storage market with its new 500GB Hard Drive PRO. Sporting lightning fast 3,000Mbps eSata as standard, you have a choice of USB 2.0 or Firewire 400/800 as an accompaniment. ESata is still gathering pace in the mainstream market, but with speeds over six times faster than USB 2.0 it’s likely to be a big hit.

The Hard Drive PRO looks great and works like a charm for transporting your files wherever you want.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the Hard Drive PRO:

• Street Price: $350
• FireWire & USB 2.0 HD
• Unique SYNC button for One Button Data Synchronization
• Dimensions: 15×18x5 cm / 5.9×7.1×2 inch
• Windows 2000/XP, MAC OS X v. 10.1 or higher

Things I like
First of all, the Hard Drive PRO looks really good. When it was sitting on my desk I had three different people come up to me and comment on how nice it looked. Freecom really takes care when it comes to the little details such as looks and performance. Another thing I really like about the Hard Drive PRO is the software that is included. Freecom’s backup software gives you slightly more control by allowing you to select specific documents, folders or file types to copy across. Freecom’s Personal Media Suite is slightly more problematic, as here you have the option to backup and encrypt files to a secure folder. In addition, Freecom Sync allows you to choose certain files or folders that will be synchronised with existing copies on your external drive whenever they are changed or appended to.

Things I don’t like
I used this device for a number of days and never really came across any problems with it. I did notice that it runs a little hot if you leave it on over night but this happens to a number of external hard drives. The Hard Drive PRO software isn’t quite so nice to use because you’re not given any real indication of progress during this backup or synchronisation process, and very little reassurance that your files have been successfully saved. The interface is also particularly poor and often very confusing, so you might end up resorting to alternative methods to keep things in order.

Pros:

• Very nice design
• Three different options for connectivity
• A lot of different software tools included

Cons:

• Pricey
• Runs a little hot
• Included software is a little chunky
• No indiciation of progress during backup or synchronisation

Final Thoughts
Freecom’s Hard Drive Pro is a solid enough offering from a hardware point of view. I’ve been storing videos and music and, well, basically anything I could think of on it and it has performed nicely. The software isn’t great but Freecom has said that they’re going to be updating the software. If you’re in need of a great hard drive the Hard Drive PRO is for you. It offers a number of ways to connect it to your computer and a number of different software tools.

Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB

External hard disks for network usage are beginning to become mainstream. Devices based on such solutions are also cropping up much frequently than before. Lacie introduced their high capacity 500GB Ethernet based hard disk which is a network-attached-storage(NAS) drive and can serve files to various entertainment attached to it.

Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB Specifications :

• Dimensions : 1.7″ x 6.8″ x 6.3″
• Processor installed : 400Mhz
• RAM installed : 64MB DRAM
• Capacity : 500GB
• Spindle speed : 7200 rpm
• Buffer size : 16GB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OS X 10.3 or later, Windows 2000,Xp,Vista
• Approx. price : $150

The device is very attractively priced which is one of its biggest attractions. The Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB can serve files to your PC, Xbox, your music system and of course your PC. And this all can be done without the need to power on your PC. If that was not enough, it can be configured to deliver files remotely ie. via Internet.

Talking about the build quality of the hard drive, the Disk Mini has a good strong build. Lacie has preferred to use metal for the external casing as against with other manufacturers using plastic for external hard drives. It has a big power button which gives you option to manually power off the drive. At the back, you will find the standard set of ports and also vents for heat to escape. It certainly looks quite a beauty sitting upright on your desk!

Lacie has bundled Hipserv software for categorizing your files in sets and also assign permissions for their access, always a handy feature to have. The best part about the software is its ease of use, it has lots of options but all can be easily accessed. But the backup software is just the opposite. It has fewer features, lots of restrictions and not very easy to use.

iTunes users have more reason to smile. They can use the hard disk as an iTunes server and hence make your favorite music files accessible. It also features uPnP support which makes it compatible with other music players such as Windows Media Player, nice way to keep Windows users interested.

Accessing files remotely can be a bit of pain due to slow speeds and also it can hang sometimes. Local access is smooth though with no hiccups whatsoever. The fast processor ensures that you have skip files without lag. The write speed is around 4.5 MB/s and read speed of 4MB/s. Those numbers are good enough for a NAS drive.

Pros :

• High capacity
• Good design and build
• Can be set up as iTunes server
• uPnP support
• Good performance
• Remotely accessible
• Great file sharing software

Cons :

• Unreliable remote accessibility
• Bit noisy
• Back software not upto mark

Final Thoughts

The Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini 500GB is the perfect solution for all your media streaming needs for your house. The attractive price makes it a much better buy. So if you want such a drive then go ahead and purchase it.

My Rating : 4.25/5

Lenovo 3000 N200

A lot of people are making a shift from desktops to laptops and hence are in a lookout for a cheap and reliable notebook PC that also has good enough performance for day-to-day needs. Lenovo 3000 N200 is one such laptop that does everything mentioned above. There are not many similar laptops sub $900 that would deliver the same performance.

Lenovo 3000 N200 specifications:

• Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T7300
• Dimensions : 14.2″ x 10.5″ x 1.5″
• Display : 15.4″ WXGA TFT 1280 x 800
• Graphics : Intel GMA x3100
• RAM : 1GB DDR II
• Hard Disk : 160GB
• DVD±RW Drive
• 5-in-1 card reader
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 6-cell battery
• Approx. price : $900

The Lenovo 3000 N200 is an inexpensive laptop but has a very good configuration for the price tag. This one gives a strong competition to the Compaq series and the Dell Vostro series which are targeted at low-end users.

The N200 has no great looks but certainly fairs better than its Acer counterparts! The case is silver on the outside and has a dark gray color on the inside. The overall build quality is quite good but its weight is a bit on higher side.

The display is a 15.4″ TFT display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 which is good enough to view HD movies also.The display is no where as good as compared to either Dell or HP but it is certainly not bad. It does it job well. Lenovo is known for its great keyboards and N200 is no exception. It features a comfortable keyboard that makes it a breeze to type. The touchpad isn’t the same as the keyboard and moving the cursor with it is not an easy task. You better buy a mouse! There aren’t any media keys to play around with though.

The speakers built-into the laptop aren’t very good and movie watching experience will be subdued due to this. The speaker have a very soft sound and the volume isn’t high which will dissapoint you. The built-in webcam though is pretty good and video conferencing is quite smooth.

The performance of N200 is very good to set it straight. The T7300 processor is fast enough for day-to-day tasks and can play HD movies smoothly. 1GB RAM is good for multi-tasking and can also handle memory intensive applications like Photoshop etc. Gaming performance is not much to talk about as the onboard graphics are average but they can run Vista to its full effects.

The battery is a strong point of the laptop and it has a good backup time of 3 hours while watching movie which is very good. It is certainly one of the best backup times on a 6-cell battery.

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Good performance
• Excellent keyboard
• Great battery backup

Cons:

• Average looks,bit bulky
• Average display
• Bad touchpad
• Lousy speakers
• No dedicated graphics card

Final Thoughts

The Lenovo 3000 N200 is a good laptop for people looking to make a shift from desktop to laptop and need a budget laptop. Strong performance is its biggest positive point followed a great battery backup which are two things that are hard to find together. Although it is not a good multimedia laptop due to its display and speakers.

My Rating : 3.75/5

Canon PowerShot SD1100

One of the best selling 35mm point and shoot cameras was the Canon Elph. It was an instant hit with its small size, numerous functions and great picture quality. I got one of the first Elph’s when it came out and have been using it ever since (yes, I still use 35mm cameras). It out performs all of my other point and shoot cameras, and that’s why I’m excited for today’s review.

The Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS is essentially the Canon Elph, but digitized. The SD1100 features a 8.1MP sensor, 3x optical and a number of features like face detection and motion detection.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the PowerShot SD1100 IS:

• Street price: $249.99 approx.
• 8MP
• 2.5″ LCD
• ISO Sensitivity: 80 /100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600
• Shutter Speed: 15 sec to 1/1500 sec
• Image Stabilization

Things I like
Before I get into everything I like about this camera I need to say that I love Canon cameras. For some reason, most other companies are removing the optical viewfinder from their point and shoot cameras and in my opinion, this is crippling the functionality of the camera. Canon has included an optical viewfinder in the SD1100 IS and its really nice because it means I don’t have to rely on the LCD screen to view the shot I’m about to take.

There are a number of things I like about this camera. The menus and user interface is brilliant. All of the controls are intuitive and it didn’t take me long at all to learn a new interface. Often times cameras have very complex menus and it’s hard to navigate around them but this is not the case with the SD1100 IS.

I also like the image stabilization and the motion detection sensor. Basically this tries to reduce the blur that you get when you’re camera shakes or you move it to try to capture a moving subject. Its not perfect, but it does greatly reduce the blur from camera shake.

Things I don’t like
With the LCD screen on, the battery life isn’t the best. With stabilization and the LCD screen on, I only got approximately 230 shots before I needed to charge the battery. This is on the low end of most point and shoots now.

I also don’t like the flash that’s included with this camera. To me, it feels a little underpowered, but that’s probably because I’m used to my Digital Rebel flash.

The only other thing I don’t like about the SD1100 IS is the manual controls, or lack thereof. This camera really isn’t meant for the photographer who wants total control over their shots.

Pros:

• Excellent menus
• Optical Viewfinder
• Image stabilization
• Inexpensive

Cons:

• A little sluggish
• Underpowered Flash
• Lacking manual controls

Final Thoughts
The SD1100 IS is a good camera. The optical viewfinder, good picture quality and intuitive menus make up for the lack of manual controls and a lacking flash. Overall, its a great buy.

Rating: 3.8 / 5