Tech Infection Best Buy

Best Buys 2011

Along with meeting friends and family, eating tons of sweets and bursting a megaton of firecrackers, Diwali is a time when you will probably want to buy a new gadget (for yourself or as a gift). While you may be in the mood to shop, we know that you want every purchase you make during the festive season to be completely worth your money and time.

Over the year Tech Infection review hundreds of gadgets from the most high-end gaming laptops to the most basic 2GB USB drives. Every so often we come across products that impress us with their looks, features, performance and with their overall value-for-money quotient. These are the products that we think are worth your money and this is us doing what we are best at- giving you technology advice you can trust. Read more after the jump.

Here are the 15 products across 5 categories and 12 sub-categories that make up the 2011 Tech Infection Best Buy list:

Mobile Phones

High-End Phones

If you aren't particularly shy of spending the big bucks on the best smartphone in the market, then these are the best choices for you:

Samsung Galaxy S II: Undoubtedly, the best smartphone in the market, the Galaxy S II combines a massive screen, ultra-speedy processor and fantastic usability in a single device. If you're also looking for excellent multimedia performance in terms of audio and video playback and imaging, then the Samsung Galaxy S II won't disappoint you.

Killer Features:
- Very fast performance
- Beautiful massive 4.3-in display
- Probably the slimmest & lightest phone in the market
- 8MP Camera doesn't disappoint
- Impressive battery life

Best Price: Rs. 27,790

Apple iPhone 4S/iPhone 4: With the new iPhone 4S hitting stores in the U.S. and other countries, it is clearly the best iPhone to buy. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer universal warranty on iPhones which means that buying an iPhone 4S from abroad is a risk without warranty cover in India. However, the iPhone 4 is officially available in the country and is still a damn good phone to own.

Killer Features:
- Unmatched usability
- Probably the best looking display on a smartphone
- Access to the Apple App Store and thousands of quality apps
- iOS 5 unlocks great new features in the iPhone 4
- Excellent battery

Price: iPhone 4 (16GB)- Rs. 34,500, iPhone 4 (32GB)- Rs. 40,900; iPhone 4S (16GB Unlocked)- USD 649, iPhone 4S (32GB Unlocked)- USD 749, iPhone 4S (64GB Unlocked)- USD 849

Mid-Range Phones

The mid-range segment of smartphones gives you the perfect mix of performance and value. That's why we think the best phone in this segment should be reasonably priced without compromising on performance. Here's our choice:

Samsung i9003 Galaxy SLCD: The more tempered version of the original Samsung Galaxy S, the Galaxy SLCD represents superb value for money for features, specs and performance that belong on a phone much more expensive than it. The Galaxy SLCD has everything going for it including a great display, a powerful processor and a price-tag that's not going overboard.

Killer Features:
- 4-in SLCD display
- Very Slim
- 1GHz processor gives great performance
- Very capable video playback
- Good battery life

Best Price: Rs. 16,790


Budget Phones

The primary objective of budget phones is to make you feel the least possible pinch when buying a new phone. These phones may not offer you the best performance in the market, but they certainly give you excellent value for money. This phone is a perfect example:

LG Optimus One P500: At one point the Optimus One was just a good mid-range smartphone but now with a new anorexic price-tag, we can't help but recommend this phone. The Optimus One is a great example of how Android can work on inexpensive phones without taking a massive chunk out of usability. 

Killer Features:
- GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G support
- UI looks good and has decent usability
- Good camera
- Build quality is solid

Best Price: Rs. 9,700

 

Tablets

Last year, around this time, there were just two tablets around that were worth buying. Now, with the advent of Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), tablets other than ones made by Apple can be considered as serious alternatives. A good tablet should provide you with a sharp large screen and shouldn't be too heavy or bulky. It should also let you browse the Web or watch hi-res videos without freezing up or stuttering. Only then will it be worth the premium that you are going to pay for it. We think this tablet is worth that premium:

Apple iPad 2: Were you seriously expecting anything else? The iPad 2 is by far the best tablet in the market today and although it definitely commands a hefty price, it gives you the optimum tablet experience. And if you want, you can improve that experience by buying some cool accessories, including the neat smart covers and the keyboard dock.

Killer Features
- The most usable tablet in the market
- Powerful graphics performance
- Large, great looking screen
- Battery life is best in class
- Plenty of apps optimized for large screen

Price: 16GB (Wi-Fi)- Rs. 27,000, 16GB (Wi-Fi + 3G)- Rs. 36,900; 32GB (Wi-Fi)- Rs. 34,500, 32GB (Wi-Fi + 3G)- Rs. 41,900; 64GB (Wi-Fi)- Rs. 39,500, 64GB (Wi-Fi + 3G)- Rs. 46,900

There are also a number of inexpensive tablets in the market but there's not really any single product that we can recommend whole-heartedly. There are a couple of good products in the mix (the Reliance 3G Tab comes to mind) but nothing really spectacular.

Cameras

Point-and-shoot

Point-and-shoot cameras are the most selling compact digital cameras because they can be picked off the shelves and you can start shooting with them in an instant. 

Canon IXUS 220HS: Canon makes some of the best point-and-shoot cameras available in the market today. And the Canon IXUS 220HS with its slim form-factor and the features it packs into this frame makes it to the top of the Tech Infection India’s best buy in this segment.

Killer features
- Slim design
- Great ISO test results
- Great for capturing photos in low light situations
- A plethora of shooting modes
- Can capture 1080p HD videos

Best Price: Rs. 10,665

Micro Four Thirds

The micro four-third category of cameras has quietly evolved amidst the already established camera categories like the point-and-shoot, compact zoom and DSLR. The last two years has seen an influx of cameras from Olympus and Panasonic, the two manufacturers who make dedicated micro four thirds cameras. Not all of them are available in India. However, out of those available, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 emerges as our best buy micro four third camera this Diwali.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1: With a point-and-shoot like design, interchangeable micro four thirds lenses, 720p HD video recording and at the low price that doesn’t compare the features, the Lumix DMC-GF1 is the camera you should be buying this Diwali.

Killer Features:
- Slim design
- Affordable Price
- Faster autofocus and AF subject tracking
- High resolution screen

Best Price: Rs. 25,300

Compact Zoom
If you travel a lot and in the course of your journey capture moments and scenes that make for that perfect memory, then the compact zoom category of cameras is your perfect bet. These cameras have an extra edge over the point-and-shoot variety with their zoom lens.

Sony HX100V: The three cameras that were in the race were the Canon Powershot SX230 IS, Sony HX100V and Nikon Coolpix P500.
However, the Sony HX100V wins the race with the Coolpix P500 coming very close.

Killer features
- Great 1080p captured videos.
- GPS
- Easy-to-use UI
- Some really good scene modes you can play around with like the Background Defocus mode.

Best Price: Rs. 21,950

Laptops

The Diwali festive season is almost upon us and many folks, who would have saved up on their finances, will be looking to spend it on buying some device that they might really need/want. So for all those folks looking to buy a laptop this season, we have made a list of the best buys in the laptops, in both the mainstream and budget categories.

Mainstream Laptops

If you're looking for a good mix of performance and price, we have narrowed down your choices to the following:

Acer Aspire 5755G: Acer has, for quite some time, been one of those laptop manufactures who you can expect to provide very good configuration at very reasonable rates. And with the 5755G, Acer provides such a versatile product. It comes with a 2nd Gen Core i5 processor, 15.6 glossy screen - which can tilt back almost 160 degrees backward, 4GB RAM as well as featuring a 2GB NVidia GeForce GT540M graphics card and some handy USB3.0 and HDMI ports. For gaming on the native screen at 1366x768 resolution, the 1 GB of graphics memory would suffice. However, say you were to connect the Acer 5755G to an external monitor source through HDMI, and watch a video or play a game at a resolution that is much higher than the screens native resolution, then the 2GB graphics memory will factor in and enable you to do so more effectively. Moreover it features a very responsive full-sized keyboard - with a dedicated numpad, good audio and viewing 720p or 1080p videos won't be an issue. The Acer Aspire 5755G hits just about all the right spots for users looking to buy a very good multimedia laptop.

Killer Features:
- Good performance
- You will more than get your money's worth
- USB 3.0, HDMI and other handy ports
- 2GB discrete graphics
- Very responsive keyboard and touchpad

Best price: Rs. 42,572

Acer Aspire TimeLineX 5830TG: We have yet another Acer unit in the listing and this is because, well, it provides a good combination of features for users, like students, who might want a good performing laptop, but one that can also be used on the move as well, for a comfortable enough period of time - without having to resort to plugging the laptop to a nearby power outlet. Its futuristic design, along with the black-blue-silver colour tone, makes it stand out from the rest of the mainstream laptop crowd. It also features a very good audio, and if you want to finely balance performance and battery life, relative to what you normally find for a mainstream laptop, then this unit is a very good choice for you to opt for.

Killer features:
- Good performance
- Good battery life
- Sleek, Futuristic design
- Very good audio
- Very responsive keyboard and touchpad

Best price: Rs. 36,446

Budget Laptops

For folks looking to maximise their laptops performance at the lowest possible price range, we have narrowed the list to one laptop.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Z570: Coming for a price of Rs. 29,605, this unit has all what a budget user will need for getting through his/her daily chores - a second generation core i3 processor, 3GB RAM, 640GB Hard Disk and Intel HD 3000 graphics. I have tested a Lenovo Z570 unit, which save for the GT520M graphics card, had the exact same hardware configuration as this model mentioned here. The unit has a good build quality, and as far as performance goes, it should perform well enough to get through most chores except the more intensive activities such as gaming - which given that it only has Intel HD 3000 graphics is understandable. So if you're in the market for getting the right bang for the buck, you should definitely check out this unit.

Killer Features:
- Attractive pricing
- Good build quality
- Ease of upgradability
- Very Responsive Keyboard

Best Price: Rs. 29,605

Ultraportable Laptops
These are the laptops that find a good balance between performance and true portability, and consequently have a premium price tag attached to them.

Apple MacBook Air (2011): This is one truly elegant machine that packs quite a performance punch. If there was one unit which would embody what an ideal ultraportable should be, that would be the MacBook Air. From looks to portability to performance, the MacBook Air is a niche product that is worth buying.

Killer Features:
- Impressive performance
- Solid build quality
- Highly portable
- Very responsive backlit-keyboard and trackpad.

Price: Rs.67,900

Storage

Flash Drives

This humble storage device can show its relevance in those sticky moments, when trouble-shooting or quickly copying a fair quantity of data. The best choice presently is:

Transcend Jet Flash 700 USB 3.0 16 GB: Owning a good pendrive can have unexpected benefits, such as the time when you use it on a USB 3.0 enabled laptop or when copying large number of files onto it. The 16GB capacity of this drive, and an affordable price means that you will feel glad about your purchase for quite a while to come. Don't let its looks fool you, the JetFlash 700 is not any normal pendrive, it offers great read speeds when used on a USB 3.0 port. On older computers with USB 2.0 ports, it will still be one of the fastest around.

Killer Features:
- USB 3.0 support for great read speeds
- Looks better than the standard pendrive
- Plenty of data storage capacity for most purposes
- Surprisingly affordable

Best Price: Rs. 1,068

External Hard Drives

No, you are not alone in wanting to cart around Gigabytes (or even Terabytes) of data in your bag, and you know that. With increasing laptop presence, external/portable hard drives are not only about backups anymore. You can store a backup copy, and also perhaps your entire movie/TV/music/software collection on a single drive. The good news is that HDD brands have extremely appealing deals now compared to last year. Featured below are the best choices for desktop-style external drives and for laptop-style ultra-portable drives.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2TB: Having extra storage space never hurt, did it? When looking at a desktop-style external hard-disk, we suggest getting plenty of space from the get-go. The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2TB is priced at the same level as other brands, but offers a bunch of extra benefits of its own. One such GoFlex benefit is the ability to switch data interface - to USB 3.0, eSATA or FireWire. If you own a desktop, we can't understate the merits of being able to unplug the USB adapter and connecting it directly as an internal SATA hard drive for superfast file copying. You can enjoy all the benefits of an internal HDD, and yet be able to cart it around as a portable HDD when required.

Killer Features:
- 2 Terabytes of storage space is plenty
- Software for encryption and automatic backup
- Storage capacity gauge
- "GoFlex" inter-changeable data interfaces

Best Price: Rs. 4,630

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-portable 1TB (USB 3.0): This drive is our suggestion if you want a physically smaller form factor that can fit in your shirt pocket. The GoFlex Ultra-portable does not need a separate power adapter, so that helps reduce clutter for laptop users. A whole Terabyte is still plenty, in addition to the flexibilty of usage that GoFlex drives offer. You'll find the extra Rs. 500 pricing to upgrade from the USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 variant of this product, to be well worth it.

Killer Features:
- 1 Terabyte of storage space
- Backup software included
- Speedy USB 3.0 connectivity (backward compatible with USB 2.0)
- "GoFlex" inter-changeable data interfaces

Best Price: Rs. 4,750