All Review Feeds

Sigma DP1

1210417587

Few cameras are announced a full two years before they hit the shelves in your local camera shop. But the Sigma DP1 was destined for a long and difficult birth.

Very few compact cameras, apart from Leica's M8 and Epson's R-D1, have taken a large image sensor and squeezed it into a compact body.

The most eagerly anticipated compact camera

Heat, battery and miniaturisation issue are only half the problem; the other stumbling block is the perceived lack of demand for a high-end compact camera that's priced on a par with a DSLR.

Perhaps the low potential sales of such a concept have reduced the amount of R&D dollars companies are willing to invest in such a camera. These problems, along with the use of an innovative image sensor, in part explain the reason for the DP1's delay.

Sigma has gone out on a bit of a limb to produce the DP1 because it could be an expensive flop. For starters, it uses the quirky Foveon X3 sensor, a Direct Image chip that uses red, green and blue photosites rather than the conventional monochrome type overlaid with a bayer filter of coloured dyes.

The Foveon offers stunning colour reproduction without any of the guesswork required with traditional sensors where colour is guesstimated. The absence of a bayer filter does make the images look sharp and the dynamic range produced by the chip is awesome.

Impressive pixel count

Strictly speaking, the megapixel count of the DP1 is an unimpressive 4.6MP, but multiply that by the three colours and you arrive at a figure of around 14MP.

There's no way that the DP1 offers a resolution of a conventional 14MP sensor but it's plenty good enough for A3 prints or A4 with plenty of cropping - and you'll probably need to crop because the DP1 has a fixed 28mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/4.

Add in a fairly basic set of functions and you have a camera that's been designed to appeal to the budding Henri Cartier-Bressons of this world who want DSLR image quality but in a very compact form.

Naturally you'd expect a camera that costs almost £600 to be well built -and it is. All the DP1's switchgear is of high quality but the body could definitely benefit from a rubber grip for a more ergonomic hold.

Also, the screen can be very difficult to see properly in bright daylight situations, so it's just as well that a clip-on viewfinder is available.

Sleek and solid

Because the DP1 uses a fixed wide-angle lens, it's not especially good for portraiture or macro photography and is perhaps more suited to landscape work, reportage and interior shots.

The autofocus isn't as snappy as the type of mechanisms used in DSLRs, but once the shutter's been depressed halfway, the response of the camera is acceptable, although you may miss some critical action shots.

On the DP1's top-plate is a power switch, a shutter release button and a mode dial that offers P, A, S, M modes as well as video, sound recording and a fully automatic setting. A small and rather underpowered flash pops up stylishly from the top-plate and smacks a little of Leica.

To the back of the DP1 there's a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels, and next to that a small navipad is used to navigate around the menus. Apart from this Spartan collection of controls, the DP1 is clean, sleek and solid.

In addition to the basic bundle of the DP1 and the hotshoe-mounted optical viewfinder, Sigma is also selling a lens hood and filter holder kit and a TTL mini flashgun to replace the rather puny built-in unit.

For gadget and function freaks, there's no image stabilisation or face detection, but for serious photographers that's probably not a drawback.

Hit and miss performance

So how does the DP1 perform? Well, to be honest there's a noticeable shutter lag that can really get in the way when you're taking quick-action shots.

Not only that, but the metering can be a bit hit-or-miss - you may well end up getting frustrated and switching over to manual metering for more consistent results.

As far as image quality goes, there's something very special about the Foveon X3 sensor... so long as you shoot in RAW mode and use Sigma's own Photo Pro RAW converter. The DP1's images have an analogue quality that really does seem to bring colour to life.

Even the noise levels are good. In our tests we were very happy with noise at ISO 400 and even ISO 800 was more than acceptable. We did find that the dynamic range was excellent and there was no sign of chromatic aberration, thanks to the fixed 28mm lens.

As good as a DSLR?

Perhaps the one thing most potential buyers will want to know is: "Will the DP1 take pictures that are as good as the ones from my DSLR?"

Well, yes... and no. The resolution of the sensor, although not up to 14MP standards, could easily match a decent 8MP DSLR without any trouble. And if you only print up to A4 you wouldn't notice a lack of resolution compared with a higher resolution camera.

However, you couldn't really replace your trusty DSLR with the DP1 because of its handling and the limited angle of view. However, DP1's images are an important indicator of where the high-end compact market is heading and shows the improvements we can expect to see in the future.

Excellent lens

The next question we ought to deal with is whether the DP1 could replace other high-end compact cameras such as Nikon's Coolpix P5100 or Canon's PowerShot G9. Sadly the answer is no.

Now, although the DP1 is capable of beating both those cameras in terms of pure image quality and glorious colour, the lack of functions, zoom range and other features just make it too limited for most compact users.

The 28mm lens, although excellent, is simply too limiting for a generation of photographers spoiled by the flexibility of zoom lenses.

Worth the wait?

So there you have it. At last the Sigma DP1, with its Foveon X3 sensor, limited feature set and the beguiling colour has made it to market.

Sadly, it's not the perfect replacement for a DSLR but it is perhaps a tantalising glimpse into the future of high-end compacts and a pretty good indicator of where technology may be heading over the next couple of years or so.

We liked the DP1 enormously but the slightly sluggish shutter and fixed lens did become a little frustrating after a while.

But apart from those two issues, this is one seriously good camera that well and truly opened our eyes to the potential of what a well-designed deluxe compact could be able to deliver if only more manufacturers took risks.

KEF XQ20

1210328760

Founded back in the 1960s, KEF (an acronym for Kent Engineering Foundries) has long operated at the leading edge of hi-fi loudspeaker design.

Even though the company has undergone numerous changes, its approach to design and technology has remained remarkably consistent throughout.

High-quality manufacturer

A good example of this impressive track record is the XQ20, a compact standmount which forms part of a new mid-price XQ range of speakers. There are five models in total - two standmounts, two floorstanders and a centre speaker.

All are based around KEF's proprietary co-axial Uni-Q driver array and cunningly curved cabinetwork, beautifully lacquered in real wood veneer finish.

The variations depend upon enclosure volumes, driver diameters, and the addition of extra bass-only drivers in the floorstanders.

Inside KEF's latest speakers

This £1,000 per pair is the larger of the two standmounts. It's a two-way design based on the very latest version of a 165mm Uni-Q drive unit, loaded by a front port and an enclosure of approximately 16 litres (the curved tapering renders exactitude difficult here and KEF doesn't supply the relevant data).

This solitary drive unit has an interesting history. Taking advantage of the development of ultra-compact and powerful rare-earth magnets containing neodymium, iron and boron, the Uni-Q driver made its debut back in 1988.

It's a variation on the co-axial theme, placing a tiny tweeter on the end of the pole-piece in the centre of the bass/mid cone, so that it actually sits at the latter's effective acoustic centre, creating a 'coincident' variation on the co-axial theme.

Hit and miss construction

This construction has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it makes crossover integration between midrange and tweeter relatively simple from an acoustic point of view.

It also ensures that output is entirely consistent and symmetrical at any given measurement axis (the formal term is 'axi-symmetric'). It's therefore also free from the vertical axis 'lobing' that is invariably created in the crossover region where the two sources are spaced apart, as in conventional two-way systems.

However, it can also be pointed out that placing a tweeter so that it's recessed down in the neck of a cone is not an ideal way to create wide dispersion, while the additional complication is that said cone is moving to and fro in response to the music signal.

Tweeter design

Twenty years of development have steadily refined the Uni-Q. More powerful rare-earth magnets have improved tweeter sensitivity and recent versions have drilled pole-pieces to avoiding creating back-pressure behind the diaphragm. The shape of the tweeter's dome diaphragm has also been modified and now has an elliptical profile.

The very latest tweak to be applied to the tweeter - too late indeed for inclusion in the new Reference series that was introduced only last year - is a so-called 'tangerine waveguide', which is making its debut in this most recent XQ-series.

Viewed from the front, this waveguide does indeed look a little like a small citrus fruit, though it actually consists of eight small vanes extending inwards from the tweeter dome periphery, dividing its output into seven segments.

The intention is to compensate for the fact that, when a tweeter dome is driven at its periphery by a voice coil, its fore'n'aft motion falls short of the ideal of a pulsating sphere. The loading on the diaphragm provided by the vanes increases relative output from the outer parts of the dome, more closely mimicking the pulsating sphere.

Solid build

The XQ's Uni-Q also benefits from the new cone profile that was recently introduced with the Reference series.

This too is based on waveguide theory: the profile of the cone is shaped into a specific curve so that no interference patterns occurs between the direct wave and reflections of that wavefront off the cone.

This is done by ensuring that the expanding wavefront always remains perpendicular to the cone, so that no reflections can be created. This Uni-Q has a flared 118mm shiny plastic cone and unusually flat surround, while the tweeter uses a 19mm titanium dome.

The whole thing feels very solid, weighing a substantial 9.2kg. The curved top, base and sides all help increase the stiffness and avoid concentrating and focusing the internal standing waves. Two pairs of terminals fit directly through the enclosure and wire links are supplied.

The curved base requires special stand-coupling arrangements and two alternatives are supplied: a curved hard rubber pad can support the enclosure itself, or a tripod of hard feet may be used (albeit without lock-nuts, though these shouldn't be necessary if the feet are screwed in tightly).

Smooth response

Our measurements comfortably confirm KEF's 88dB sensitivity rating and also show a rather easier load (which only drops significantly below 6ohms above 8kHz) than the company's claimed 3.2 ohm minimum suggests. Pair matching was adequate.

In-room far-field measurements indicate that the XQ20 is probably best kept clear of walls. Without any wall assistance the bass region is quite smooth and even, well- extended for the size of the enclosure, but also a little dry.

Close-to-wall siting tends to supply too much midbass (around the 45Hz port tuning frequency), somewhat at the expense of upper bass output. However, some of the extra bass that is supplied by close proximity to the wall might well be found preferable in order to balance out the rather strong top end.

The far-field in-room averaged response is quite smooth and also remarkably flat overall - but probably a little too flat through the treble region.

Experience across a wide range of models has shown that the 'ideal' (not to mention the average) response under these conditions shows some down-tilting in the presence and treble regions, whereas the XQ20 stays almost ruler-flat to the limits of audibility.

Balance issues

The brightness seen in these measurements was immediately and obviously audible, the more so because the low frequency end is both dry and notably clean.

While there's no denying that this speaker is significantly brighter than average and the top end does immediately draw attention to itself, happily the top end is also pretty clean and well integrated.

Although there is a mild tendency to emphasise sibilants, the bonus is that it does ensure speech sounds open, clear and intelligible even at the very lowest of listening levels. The corresponding disadvantage being a tendency to become aggressive if the volume is turned up high.

The bass alignment might not have been ideal under our room conditions, but the strength and shape of the enclosure are very effective at avoiding any boxiness or thickening coloration. Indeed, the bottom end here is unusually crisp and clean, with good drive and purpose, albeit with a rather dry and cool character.

Some midband coloration is audible, with slight thickening and pinched voice reproduction, but neither are excessive. The point source coherence supplied by the co-axial driver delivers fine stable stereo imaging across a generous listening zone, assisted by the low box coloration and the advantage of a quality 'head-size' standmount

Sharp LC46XL2E

1210243319

Usually we like 100Hz processing on LCD TVs.

Yet somehow the 100Hz system Sharp employed on its previous models just didn’t cut it, making pictures look artificial and glitchy.

So let’s hope Sharp has improved things considerably with the great looking LC46LX2E, complete with the brand’s second generation of 100Hz.

Connect to your Xbox 360

Superb connections get the ball rolling nicely, with three v1.3, Deep Colour-compatible HDMIs leading the way.

What’s more, these HDMIs are clever types: they can detect whatever source is attached – PS3, Xbox 360, set top box and so on – and automatically update the input’s onscreen ‘label’ accordingly.

There’s also an RS-232 port for system integration alongside all the usual stalwarts such as component video input and a D-Sub PC port.

Great with Blu-ray

In terms of features, aside from the 100Hz processing, the key players are a claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 10,000:1 (2,000:1 native), a Full HD resolution, digital noise reduction, and a specialised Game mode.

And so to the moment of truth: does the LC46XL2E know its 100Hz onions? Yes, it does – with one slight limitation.

On the up side, action-packed scenes on our test Blu-ray disc of Blade Runner show absolutely no sign of the motion glitching and rather nauseating ‘over-smoothness’ that made Sharp’s previous 100Hz sets so dislikeable. Excellent.

Motion issues

But, on the downside, motion doesn’t look quite as clear as it did on those 100Hz predecessors. Clearly Sharp has massively ramped down the 100Hz engine’s activities – arguably a step too far.

But, overall the 100Hz balance is much more natural and enjoyable than before. Similarly, when watching cricket, the ball doesn’t suddenly develop ‘ghost balls’ around it as was the case with its 100Hz predecessors – a significant improvement.

There’s a big improvement, too, in the LC46LX2E’s black level response. Dark scenes like those in replicant engineer Sebastian’s freaky apartment avoid much of LCD’s customary greying over, helping them look immediate, engaging, and full of depth.

Video noise is well suppressed during HD viewing too, but without denying HD images that lovely clarity and ‘snap’ we always look for on the best big LCD screens.

Vibrant pictures

Finally in the plus column, colours are vibrant and bright. But, it also has to be said that occasionally colours aren’t completely natural in tone: some skin tones end up looking a bit over-ripe.

The fact that colour saturations drop off a little if you view the screen from too much of an angle also doesn’t help in this regard.

Standard definition pictures aren’t always scaled to fit the Full HD resolution as successfully as we’d like either, with colour tones again sometimes looking slightly off, leaving the picture looking a tad soft, especially over skin tones.

An impressive comeback

Audio also doesn’t have us leaping around the test labs with joy: the fantastic soundtrack of Blade Runner sounds rather compressed and tinny to these ears.

Although the LC46LX2E might not be quite the irresistible all-rounder we were hoping for, it certainly is a mighty fine HD monitor.

Best of all, its 100Hz engine has gone from being one of the worst around to one of the best in a single generation. It’s the biggest comeback since Lazarus.

Sony VAIO TP2

James Stables — 1210156655

Media centres and living room PCs are set to become one of the rising technologies of the next twelve months, and Sony is hoping that its brand new VAIO TP2 media PC will set the standard for the rest of the competition.

Its timing couldn't be better either, because in 2008 more people than ever are waking up to the dream of building a digital home.

The popularity of HD TVs is now firmly established.

And what with faster broadband speeds enabling us to download HD video content for the first time, and with the introduction of video-on-demand services such as BBC iPlayer, media centre PCs are no longer reserved for hardcore enthusiasts who spend most of their hard earned cash on expensive kit.

Powerful innards

The Sony VAIO TP2 may look like a biscuit tin, but under that smooth round exterior lays a veritable computing powerhouse. It has been granted a major upgrade from its iPod styled predecessor the TP1, with faster clock speeds and most importantly the introduction of a Blu-ray drive, bringing Sony's high definition format into the living room.

Sony has included one of the new 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors in the VAIO TP2. This revised Penryn version of Intel’s dual core processor has been lauded for improvements in video processing and decoding, making it perfect for the inclusion in media based PCs.

Inside the case you’ll find 2GB of RAM and also a laptop-style Nvidia 8400M graphics card which gives it enough power to drive video playback, Windows Vista's demanding Aero interface on HDTVs and even some low-end games if you have the desire. There’s also a 500GB hard drive in there for good measure.

HDMI connectivity

Behind a sliding panel in the front of the VAIO TP2 are all the connections and sockets you would expect to find on any PC, with Firewire, SD card, multiple USB, DVI and HDMI ports.

Disappointingly, we were given an early preview model which had no Blu-ray drive fitted. All retail models will have Blu-ray included, and while all the signs look good for quality, there have been reports that Sony has limited the capacity of the HDMI 1.3 ports. That means the TP2 will downgrade fully lossless audio such as Dolby TruHD to Standard or Dolby 5.1 to lower standards.

This will anger some audiophiles, but the truth is that most HDMI 1.3 devices are having issues with lossless audio.

Quiet as a mouse

When building media centre and living room PCs, the cardinal sin is making it so noisy that enjoyment of music and movies is spoiled by the sound of a light aircraft taxiing across the room. Sony has not made this mistake with the VAIO TP2, and it maintains a dignified silence during the most demanding tasks.

So if the TP2 is such a well rounded (excuse the pun) and superbly capable media PC, why shouldn't you just go out and buy one now and spend the rest of you life decaying in front of its mighty entertainment aura?

The price, at a staggering £899, will most likely put off most average home user and stop this from becoming a hit.

The problem with media centre PCs is that they will forever be used as a second PC. Few people would want to have their main PC marching from the office, and invading the sanctuary of the living room. If Sony is to reach outside the existing media PC ownership or rich enthusiasts, they may have missed the mark with the TP2.

Too expensive

For most living room activities such as watching movies and surfing the web, the TP2 is grossly over powered. It's a mighty machine, but media streamers have successfully been freeing music and movies from the office for years, and they don't cost £900. While media PCs are great, you don't need a powerhouse like this to watch and record TV and playback movies.

If you want a Blu-ray device and the ability to listen to music and watch videos from your PC from the comfort of your living room then the obvious answer is to invest in a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360.

At £280 a PS3 will save you £615 over the cost of a VAIO TP2, and lets you stream your media from your main PC over your network, surf the net and play Blu-ray discs.

While the TP2 is a work of computing genius, there are few people out there who would spend that much to bring the benefits of a PC into the living room. If you're in the market to replace your main PC with a living room alternative you can't fail with the TP2, otherwise there are plenty of alternatives.

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.5GHz

1210152009

This month, Apple rolled out updates to both the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Of the two, the new MacBook Pro offers more talking points; the chips have been replaced, not just sped up, and the trackpad now includes all those lovely Multi-touch gesture controls we first saw on the iPhone and, more recently, the MacBook Air.

Latest processor technology

The processors in the MacBook Pro represent the latest mobile version of the Intel Core 2 Duo range. Gone are Intel's Merom chips, which were the first mobile C2D chips when launched back in 2006.

Replacing them are the smaller, faster Penryn chips, which drop energy consumption down to 35W from the Merom's 44W. While the clock speed has not been bumped up all that much, advances to the circuitry bring better battery life and overall performance.

Meanwhile, the price has stayed the same, though admittedly the Apple Remote is now an optional extra (£15), whereas before it was bundled for free.

Inside the latest Macbook Pro

Compared to the slinky MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro seems like quite a chunky laptop, though it's still less than an inch thick and this 15-inch model weighs just 2.5 kilos.

Three MacBook Pros are available: 15-inch 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 15-inch 2.5GHz and a 17-inch 2.5GHz. Plenty of upgrade options are available at the point of sale, and chief among these options is an upgrade to 2.6GHz chips on either the 15-inch or 17-inch models, and of course more memory, some screen options and bigger drives.

The only hardware upgrade you can make after purchase that doesn't void your warranty is to install more RAM.

All MacBook Pros ship with 2GB of memory (667MHz DDR2) and can expand to 4GB. The entry-level 2.4GHz MacBook Pro, still a very fine workhorse, ships with a 200GB hard drive, up from 120GB, and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors with 256MB of video memory.

The 2.5GHz 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros ship with 512MB of video memory and the same NVIDIA graphics cards.

The Penryn chips can carry a larger L2 cache, circuitry that speeds access to commonly used data, and this has changed. It has dropped to 3MB (from 4MB) on the entry-level 2.4GHz MacBook Pro, while being raised to 6MB on the other two models.

Why the drop occurred is a mystery to us, but the usual benchmark tester in the Mac community seems sure that the drop hasn't affected performance too badly. We didn't review the 2.4GHz MacBook Pro.

Stunning display

The brushed-aluminium finish, optical drive, port allocation, wireless standard (802.11n), and most other specs remain the same. The display options, in contrast, are wider than they have been before. Glossy screens are optional on all the MacBook Pros at no extra cost.

The reflectiveness of these screens is less of an issue than it is on the iMac range, because the glare is easier to reposition with a laptop. We think the colour range is better with the glossies, but we recommend that you visit a store to see both display in action before buying.

The 15-inch MacBook Pros have been available with the more eco-friendly, lower-powered LED backlit screen since the last MacBook Pro update eight months ago, but now the 17-inch models get this option too, though you need to pay extra for it.

Replacing the standard LCD backlit screens (1,680x1,050 pixels) with the 17-inch LED screen (1,920x1,200 pixels)will cost you £60, which seems reasonable to us.

Considering the low price, we recommend getting the LED option if you go for a 17-inch model. The battery life you'll save is the deal-maker, while you can feel warm and fuzzy about having a screen that's also mercury and arsenic-free. LED screens also dim and light very quickly.

Multi-touch magic

The other hardware upgrade of note is the trackpad. Since the advent of Multi-touch gesture commands on the iPhone and iPod touch, it was only a matter of time before the same level of natural command arrived in the Mac laptops.

The MacBook Air was the first Mac to bring in pinch, swipe and rotate gesture commands in addition to the drag and two-finger scroll commands from early pads. Five minutes after firing up iPhoto and playing around with photos, you'll be a natural. The two-finger expand zoom function is incredibly useful.

During web browsing you can use finger gestures to shift a page and move forward between pages, to scroll up and down, to zoom in and out, and to drag elements around. Fantastic. We know that other manufacturers have experimented with this technology, but none has nailed it as well as Apple.

Leopard was launched between this and the last MacBook Pro update. As with the new Apple Keyboard, the Macbook Pro's offering has changed to better serve the new OS.

This beautiful sprung keyboard, which is a work of art in itself, now comes with Exposé, Dashboard, and media-browsing shortcut keys overlaying some of the function keys. All very welcome additions.

Performance boost

The jump up in speed is fantastic. You can feel the greater L2 cache and faster chips kick in right out of the gate, and the MacBook Pro sprints through video and graphics work, thanks to that doubling of video RAM.

We experienced a near 20% increase in our Photoshop radial blur test over last year's 2.2GHz MacBook Pro. Our multiple CPU Cinebench 10 rendering test returned a 5,444 score compared to 4,931 for last year. These are jumps in performance that you can really feel.

Xbench, a benchmarking application that takes a snapshot of general system specs, averaged a score of 122.5. This figure is more than twice the performance of the MacBook Air (49.68), and approaching the latest 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac (146).

These results are not bad at all for a mobile workstation.

Should you wait for updates?

The MacBook Pro feels very responsive in day-to-day use. With a medium-sized photo library imported in, iPhoto opens and browses practically without a pause. Selecting, pinching and rotating images is near-instant, too.

The same is true across all of the iLife apps, and Photoshop is also beautifully swift. Battery life during normal use was 4 hours 34 minutes, and 3 hours 2 minutes during a flat-out DVD playback burn.

A question we often get asked is whether now is the right time to buy a Mac, or whether it's worth waiting for more power down the line. It took eight months for this update to arrive.

The Penryn chips started shipping in January 2008 and at the time of writing had yet to be updated with faster Front Side Bus, the next logical step that would prompt an upgrade.

Considering that Apple typically updates its Macs three months after better chips become available, and given that the old excuse of waiting for Leopard is no longer relevant, we recommend buying now.

The fact of the matter is, the sooner you are able to start enjoying your Apple laptop the better.

Parrot DS1120 Bluetooth Speakers

James Rivington — 1210074894

It’s sometimes very hard to review a pair of low-end speakers. Weighing functionality against audio fidelity is an almost impossible task. And yet that’s what we’re having to do with the Parrot DS1120s.

On the one hand you’ve got a pair of speakers that barely scrape together 30W of power between them. On the other, you’ve got the convenience of being able to synchronize them with any Bluetooth media player in order to playback music. It’s a hard call to make.

So let’s get this out of the way right off the bat - the Parrot DS1120 speakers don’t sound great. If you’re used to a 500W hi-fi set-up in your living room, these are going to sound absolutely terrible. However, it’s all relative. And so if you’re more used to the small speakers on your digital radio or the stereo in the kitchen, these will sound pretty cool.

Swings and roundabouts

So now we’ve got that cleared up, we can move on to the DS1120’s main functionality – Bluetooth streaming. You can pair them with your phone, or your PC or even your MP3 player as long as it’s got built-in Bluetooth connectivity.

And as you’d expect from a Parrot product, it works pretty well, too. To test we used a Sony Ericsson K850i mobile phone. We tapped the Bluetooth button on the side of one of the speakers, and then ran a search on the phone, and the Parrot speakers appeared immediately. A quick tap of the ‘pair’ button later and the devices were all synched up and ready to go.

From then on, any music played on the phone is streamed directly to the speakers. And considering the small size and the low-power of the speakers, they don’t sound too bad. It’s all squashed into the midrange, there’s not much bass and the high-range cymbals are severely blunted, but in general the audio is clear and undistorted at low volumes.

Freedom of movement

One of the cool things about these speakers is that they aren’t tied together. You can plug them into different power sockets at different ends of the room and yet they’ll still synch up with each other and your device. That way you can create a bigger soundstage than your radio ever could.

The set also has a 3.5mm line-in port so you can plug a device directly into them (like your TV for instance) if your audio device doesn’t have Bluetooth.

So we’ve covered quality. And we’ve done functionality. So what about price? The price is where it all comes tumbling down, unfortunately. Because while these speakers are pretty cool, the £160 asking price seems rather steep.

Very expensive

For instance, you could buy a set of the brilliant Acoustic Energy Aego-M 2.1 speakers for £120. Those speakers leave the Parrots trailing far behind in the dust in terms of audio fidelity, and also have a total output (including subwoofer) of 90W – that’s three times the power of the Parrot DS1120.

So really, these speakers are only for you if Bluetooth compatibility is what you need as a primary concern. If you’ve got loads of music on your phone and you’d like to be able to listen in the kitchen without plugging anything in, these are for you.

However, if you’ve got a good ear and can tell when music is sounding a bit rubbish, and if Bluetooth isn’t the main concern, you should navigate a wide berth and go for something else (those Aego-M’s are highly recommended).

All in all then, not a bad product. But the price will keep these speakers from going mass market. Especially considering the fact that as audio devices, they’re pretty poor.

Sony A350

1210071285

On the face of it, this new Digital SLR from Sony is positively groaning with extra features and some very clever functions.

But just like a bargain car that comes with electric windows, alloy wheels, CD player and air-conditioning, those extras don't necessarily make it enjoyable to use or even good value.

A camera is so much more than mere specifications; if it feels clumsy and cheap to use, then it won't be a pleasure to own. And it's this 'pile-'em-high' trap that the company is in danger of falling into with the Sony A350.

Appealing price from Sony

Compared with its nearest competitor - the Pentax K20D - the A350 seems like a bit of a bargain at almost half the price.

However, where the Pentax is an extremely well-built camera with large quantities of metal and excellent environmental seals from dust and moisture, the A350 is more of a low-budget, plastic-feeling affair.

The switchgear and quality of the materials just don't match what the Pentax has to offer, although when it comes to sheer number of features and functions, the A350 can hold its own.

A multitude of features

For starters there's a new breed of Live View and a tilting 2.7-inch LCD screen. The A350's Live View boasts an autofocus speed that's every bit as fast and snappy as when it's not in Live View mode.

The secret to this innovation is a secondary sensor in the pentamirror that's used to feed the Live View image to the A350's screen. It's for this reason that the colours look slightly 'off' in Live View and why the live image only shows 90% of what the camera is recording. Still, the ultra-fast Live View autofocus is so quick you'll soon forgive the slightly dodgy live image and framing.

Moving on to the image sensor, the A350 has a 14.2MP CCD chip that also incorporates Sony's Super SteadyShot image stabilisation technology. This means that any Sony Alpha-mount or Konica Minolta A-bayonet lens will benefit from image stabilisation.

The technology works well and enables up to 2.5 to 3.5 extra steps of exposure without blur. The sensor also has a special anti-static, indium-tin coating and a sensor shift dust-busting mechanism to keep the sensor free of dust.

The image processing is carried out by Sony's oddly named Bionz processor and includes a very effective D-Range Optimiser function. This handy setting boosts shadow details without burning out an image's highlights.

Nikon pioneered a similar system, called D-Lighting, which is much the same. Once you've used this setting you'll wonder how you managed without it. It's perfect for high-contrast conditions, such as keeping the detail in skies while bringing out more detail in the shadow areas of an image.

Confusing to handle

At the rear there are switches all over. The Power switch is an unpleasant slider on the left that feels like it should be on the right, near the shutter button for those 'decisive moment' shots.

There are four buttons beneath the On switch for playback controls. To the right of the screen is a rather cheap-feeling navipad and a function button that offers quick access to flash mode, metering, focus, AF area, white balance and the D-Range Optimiser settings.

It's not quite as fast as using dedicated buttons, but it works well enough. Above the navipad sits an EV compensation button, AEL lock and a frame expansion button. Beneath the navipad is another sliding switch to turn the image stabilisation on and off.

On the A350's top plate is a large exposure mode dial, a sliding Live View switch, a drive button and an ISO selector. In total, there are nearly 20 switches, knobs, dials and sliders, which can make you wish you were an octopus in order to keep on top of this feature-laden beast.

Overall, though, the usability of the camera is a bit confusing and it takes a while to get used to the layout.

Tilt without swivel

Finally, at the back of the A350 is a 2.7-inch LCD screen that tilts upwards and 20-degrees downwards for when you're using Live View. It's not as good as a proper tilt-and-swivel screen but it's handy for candid or low-level shots.

The anti-glare coating of the screen does seem prone to smearing and clouding whenever a smidgen of nose grease gets deposited on it. Above the screen is the slightly dim optical viewfinder; its dark and pokey nature may be to do with the incorporation of the Live View sensor.

Two small detectors located under the viewfinder can sense when you're looking through the viewfinder and will then wake things up and turn the autofocus system on. It's nice but you can turn it off if you don't want to use it.

In use, the A350's shutter sounds a bit tinny and suffers from a slight recoil. The mirror needs more damping to make it sound more expensive and little less like a cheap car door shutting. Thankfully, the shutter noise can't detract from the quality of the A350's images, which are extremely good.

Poor lens performance

Okay, so maybe there's a tendency for the A350 to underexpose by up to half a stop, and the auto white balance can, occasionally, veer slightly towards yellow, but in terms of image resolution it's an extremely good performer.

The ISO noise levels are very low and the amount of sharpening applied to JPEGs is on the conservative side, which is fine as you can always add your own sharpening during post processing.

However, we do have one major complaint with the A350, and that's the performance of the 18-70mmm Sony kit lens. It simply isn't good enough for the sensor it's working with.

The cheap-feeling lens is no match for Sony's excellent 14.2MP chip and you'd be well advised to shell out some extra cash for one of Sony's superb Carl Zeiss zooms.

However, If you do choose to do that, then the good value offered by the A350 begins to melt away as the cost starts to creep up or even exceed the far-better-built Pentax K20D - so it might be an idea to think very carefully before you go down that route.

A clumsy Digital SLR

With the A350, Sony has managed to produce a camera that's relatively inexpensive and yet capable of producing some truly excellent quality images.

However, the downsides are the rather clumsy controls and a cheap level of build quality with low-grade plastic, which means it feels, well... a little bit cheap.

But if you can find it within yourself to live with the plasticky body, the flapping shutter noise and the slightly cack-handed controls, then you're likely to be rewarded with a camera that, in the right hands, can shoot some great images.

Asus EAH3870 X2

1209978101

It's refreshing to see AMD finally releasing a top-end, 8800GTX beating card - okay, so it might be in trouble when the 9800s rock up, but then that's progress.

Until then we've got the even more monolithic revision of the 3870 X2 from Asus.

A big and beautiful card

This big, black and beautiful card has a proprietary cooling solution seating two large fans above each GPU to keep it cool. It also makes it a little quieter than the reference design.

The big kicker for Asus' version is the addition of multiple outputs: the backplate has four separate DVI ports as well as the standard S-Video.

The twin-GPUs are perfectly suited to happily run a multi-monitor setup and so the additional ports are a definite bonus.

Things are heating up...

You'll need to have a fairly capacious chassis, though, to accommodate the EAH3870 X2, and not just because of the extreme length and breadth of the unit.

With the changed cooling system it doesn't blow the exhaust air out of the back of the case, instead it simply pushed it out into the case, thus raising the ambient temperature.

You're going to need to make sure there's enough space in the case to swing a midget or your mobo and CPU are going to get a bit more hot and bothered.

Still, it's a brilliantly performing and fairly elegant bit of technology. Yet - as we said of the reference design - it all depends on the driver support in the future and whether AMD can make sure the big titles get patched early on, to take advantage of the extra GPU.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-Y7

1209898129

Panasonic hasn't made too many cosmetic changes to its latest generation of Toughbook, with the bulk of the improvements being made to how effectively the system handles the components and the heat generated.

While the CF-Y7 (£1679 inc. VAT) falls under the Toughbook brand of machines, it's aimed at corporate users, or individuals who may have to use their laptop in a variety of locations, but need battery life and portability over a fully ruggedised design.

Low on power, big on portability

The big change to this version is the use of dual-core processing, with this chassis now being able to sport an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, albeit it the low-voltage variant running at 1.6GHz.

While this isn't the fastest of machines, we found it could handle most processing tasks with ease.

Panasonic has opted to ship this model with Windows XP Professional, but it can be preloaded with any version of Windows at time of purchase. XP is less power intensive and is still the preferred operating system for many businesses.

The entire body of the laptop is made from magnesium alloy, which helps to keep the weight down to a more than portable 1.6kg, while at the same time adding plenty of protection.

It's not fully-ruggedised as there are vents on the side connected to a fan and the USB ports are uncovered, but this is as robust a machine as the average user is likely to need.

Palm rest rewriter

A neat design that you'll only find on Panasonic laptops is the placement of the DVD rewriter in the palm rest, which you open with a small latch. This drive, as with the Wi-Fi connection, can be physically switched off to save on battery life.

In real terms, all this technology comes together to offer the CF-Y7 one of the longest battery times you'll currently find in a laptop.

Rubber strips on either side of the keyboard and small rubber feet on the screen prevent screen rub, so the 14.1-inch screen should stay sharp.

The keyboard spreads the full width of the main body and is incredibly comfortable to use. The touchpad and mouse buttons are in a circular design, which takes time to get accustomed to but they are responsive and well built.

Rugged and fully-featured

The Panasonic Toughbook CF-Y7 is an amazing laptop for any user looking for a lightweight, fully-featured machine for more than simply writing documents.

The semi-rugged design means it can be used in a wide variety of locations and the long-life battery makes it ideal for anyone who needs to work on the move for long periods of the day.

Overall, this is a winning ultraportable.

Pioneer VSX-1017

1209830966

This Pioneer AVR seems to have more to offer than many of its rivals.

It's big, the heavy, powerful and packs a great range of features. It's also boastS THX Select2 certification. Already the VSX-1017 is the odds on favourite.

Impressive conectivity

All key boxes are ticked, with two HDMI v1.3 inputs, 1080p switching, vanilla-flavoured Dolby and DTS decoding plus the ability to pass through multichannel PCM via HDMI; and if that's not enough, It has luxuries like an MCACC auto setup mic and 'Made for iPod' compatibility.

It also offerS a USB interface in the front panel, allowing you to access your stored JPEGs, MP3s and Windows Media files via the OSD.

A feature called 'Sound Retriever' is offered to make compressed MP3s sound rather more fullsome.

Sharp pictures

Operation is a bit more complicated than the competition. The auto setup takes care of the calibration, and then it's a case of wading through the onscreen menu system to assign your inputs using the hefty remote control.

The OSD will only travel down the s-video and composite cables, but all other sources can be converted (but not upscaled) to HDMI.

Picturewise, the Pioneer has no problem keeping 1080p images from a PlayStation 3 clean and sharp. The audio is handled with even greater care. The PS3 takes a Dolby True HD feed and outputs its as lossless PCM.

Choose the Dolby mix option on Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Blu-ray), and you'll hear a tweaked and uncompressed version that blows the DVD platter away. In Chapter Four, for instance, the Pioneer makes sure the UFO encounter resonates through every speaker.

Packs a punch

With over 100W per channel available, there are sizable reserves of power on tap to ensure the rumbling bass and surround effects are delivered effortlessly. If you are lucky enough to have a 7.1 THX speaker package you're in for a treat. Just crank the volume up to reference level and enjoy.

That reservoir of power and the ability to bi-wire the front pair of speakers comes in handy for playing CDs. The VSX-1017 can make even the most stubborn high-resistance hi-fi speakers sing in stereo. It sounds even better with DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD.

Although the GUI interface is perhaps overly complex, perseverance is rewarded many times over with this high-value AVR. Hunt one down for an audition.