Gadgets and gizmos put through their paces
Consumer Choice is a monthly magazine published by the Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI) and the product reviews in the latest edition are based on independent laboratory tests.
CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell said they purposely looked at the products because of their extraordinary and increasing popularity.
And, despite the economic slump he was sure all of the products would still be high on people’s wish list this Christmas.
“We wanted to focus on the choice buys for the Irish consumer because there are so many to choose from and it is a difficult task at the best of times,” said Mr Jewell.
Consumer Choice tested 20 phones from the five manufacturers dominating the market and found the Sony Ericsson W890i, with a score of 71% came out tops, closely followed by the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music and the Samsung SGH-F480 Tocco with a score of 70%.
The Apple iPhone 3G was also labelled a “choice buy” with a score of 69% and the test results were described as generally quite good.
Consumer Choice tested the 16GB version and found that while the browsing speed is roughly twice as fast as the “old” iphone, a personal computer is still faster.
The phone was relatively easy to use and the sound quality was good as was the battery life for talking. And while the 2 mega pixel camera is of average quality, displaying the photos is easy.
Consumer Choice liked that consumers can easily check how much data they have used and calls made but is unhappy that the battery cannot be removed.
Satnavs are becoming more competitively priced and Consumer Choice found that those on offer worked well in their durability tests. Manuals were easy to follow in the models tested.
Scores ranged between 75% and 62%.
While most TVs performed satisfactorily in tests, the overall scores ranged between 61% and 48%.
Tests also showed that there was no general advantage to having a higher resolution television because other factors, such as contrast, brightness, colour reproduction and digital artifacts or noise have a much higher impact on picture quality.
The laboratory tests found that when comparing television, the resolution only became important if every other factor is the same between the televisions.
Consumer Choice also urged people not to panic over the switchover from analogue to digital television as there will be no need to purchase a new television.
* consumerassociation.ie/choice.html
1. Sony Ericsson W890i: €289 on prepay and from free on bill pay. Good quality sound and battery life and stood up well to durability tests.
Downside: Unprotected display is scratch sensitive.
2. Nokia 5310 Xpress Music: €149 on prepay and from free on bill-pay. Good music player and received a good rating for making calls and text messages.
Downside: The camera has no direct access keys.
3. Samsung SGH-480 Tocco: €379 on prepay and from €39 on bill pay. All ratings for the phone are above average.
Downside: Does not have a full keyboard or handwriting recognition, despite having a touch-screen so numbers have to be used in the normal way for texting.
1. TomTom One XL Europe €300: The GPS receiver worked very well and the Satnav performed suitably in challenging situations, giving an excellent overall performance. Instructions easy to us and the directions clear and easy to follow.
2. Navigon 7110 Europe €150: Device performed very well and has an extra large touch screen making it easy to view a route and make corrections. Excellent instruction manual makes the device easy to use and the battery life is impressive.
3. Navigation 5110 Europe €140: Overall performance was good for this device with the GPS receiver working well and battery life good.
1. Sony KDL-32W4000 (32” screen) €1,100: Sony KDL-40W4000 (40” screen), two full high definition LCD televisions showed same results in the laboratory. These models are easy to use with high ratings for the remote control, user manual and general operation of the television.
2. Sony KDL-32P3020 €570 (32” screen): The LCD model is one of the best televisions tested offering the consumer good picture quality and also has a good convenience rating. It has a good sound quality and no negative points.
3. LG 32LG3000 €600: Mainly average or good results but manual difficult.
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