1. Gadget storage – Grippy Pad
Price: $10.5
Supplier: www.firebox.com
Manufacturer: www.gizzys.com
The Grippy Padis an incredibly simple idea;
it’s a tacky (in a good way) silicon pad to which you can stick just about any
item, according to the manufacturer. We’ll admit we had our doubts, but it
works brilliantly. It stuck fast to nearly every surface we could find, and
even firmly held a heavy iPad 2 in place. The one caveat is that the item
you’re sticking to the pad needs to have a flat back – most phones and tablets
work, but our HTC Desire HD didn’t, due to its curved shape. The most difficult
part, however, is learning to trust the Grippy Pad. It’s unsettling to see your
$450 tablet suspended 5ft in the air by nothing more than a$10.5 gadget, but it
never failed us once.
2. 15in Laptop Bag – Booq Mamba Courier
Price: $120
Supplier: www.booquk.com
Manufacturer: www.booquk.com
Yes, we know - $120 is a lot of cash for a
laptop bag. In Booq’s defence, the Mamba is beautifully made. The exterior is
fashioned from a waterproof, dyed natural-fibre mix that Booq developed
especially. It’s slightly rough to touch, but feels reassuringly thick and
hard-wearing. The interior also feels satisfyingly rugged, with thick padding
that keeps your precious laptop safe, and helps the bag to keep its shape. Usefully,
Booq also brands each bag with a unique Terraling serial code, which can be
registered online to help reunite you with your bag if you lose it. It may be
an extravagance, but we want one.
3. Mobile speaker – Edifier sound to go plus
Price: $90
Supplier: www.play.com
Manufacturer: www.edifler-international.com
Mobile speakers generally suffer from a
lack of bass, and the Sound To Go Plus is no different, despite sporting a
built in 30mm x 90mm “bass radiator” and a class D amplifier. For a device
that’s around the size of a relay race baton, however, it makes a decent fist
of hitting the low notes, and it’s only when you raise the volume that the
absence is really telling.
The unit looks gorgeous. The one-piece
brushed aluminium shell is both a blessing and a curse, though. It must make up
a large chunk of the $90 asking price, which is frankly too much money for the
sound on offer, unless you simply must have a speaker that matches your
brushed-aluminium laptop.
4. On-ear headphones – Arctic P402
Price: $34
Supplier: www.morecomputers.com
Manufacturer: www.arctic.ac
The P402 is a lightweight set of headphones
the headband is simply a pair of plastic bars, and the on ear earcups are so
light that they almost feel hollow. This isn’t necessarily bad though. The P402
is very comfortable to wear, thanks to its lack of mass, and it stays in place
for exactly the same reason. It also kicks out a surprising amount if noise for
such an insubstantial feeling set, with bass and treble relatively well
balanced up to about 60 percent volume. Approach full volume, though and the
bass takes over, meaning that everything else loses definition. We’ll file
these under cheap and cheerful.
5. 7in tablet – Amazon kindle fire HD 16GB
Price: $240
Supplier: www..com
Manufacturer: www..com
Amazon’ s Kindle Fire launched in the USA a
year ago, but it’s only just made it to the UK. Fortunately, its successor, the
Kindle Fire HD, has arrived in a more timely fashion, and at a relatively
wallet-friendly price of $249 too.
Based on a heavily modified Android 4
build, the Fire HD is primarily content consumption device, and lacks some
usual Android features, such as the Google Play store. This has been replaced
by Amazon’s own App store, which is an annoyance if you’ve already sunk a bunch
of cash into Google’s ecosystem.
The aforementioned content is presented
front and centre, with the home screen dominated by carousel menus showing your
books, music and Love Film movies. Amazon isn’t bashful about encouraging you
to buy more content either; play any music you’ve dragged onto the device and
it will ask if you’d like to buy more by the same artist; the lock screen shows
advert from Amazon partners too.
Hardware-wise, the Fire HD packs a
dual-core 1.2GHz processor and a PowerVR graphics chip, which just about keeps
the pin-sharp and amazingly bright 1,280 x 800 IPS screen ticking along a
decent frame rate. Lag is noticeable when scrolling through websites and
on-board content, however. Also notable is the lack of hardware GPS features,
which are present on the Google Nexus 7.
If you regularly purchase music and eBooks
from Amazon, and have a Love Film account, the Fire HD is a smart travelling
companion, and you certainly can’t complain about the price. However, we favor
the Google Nexus 7, as it has a more open platform (you can always download the
Kindle app from the Google Play store), and its superior hardware makes for a
smother experience.
