We’ve been talking about saving money and budget buys recently so we had to share the ultimate triple-use product. Save even more money by buying one product that works as three - like this HDTV which houses a Blu-ray player and a PC!
Named Allio, it has just launched in the US and comes in 32 and 42 inch models. The PC doesn’t have a bad spec at all - Intel Core Duo E8400 processor, 1TB hard drive and 4GB of RAM. It also comes with Windows Vista Home Premium and there are plenty of USB ports and wired / wireless network options.
The HDTV isn’t terrible either. It’s a 1080p panel with 2,000:1 contrast ratio, 400 cd/m2 brightness and twin 12-watt speakers. You can even watch your Blu-ray content as Picture-in-Picture or split-screen.
It’s not available in the UK yet but we’ll keep you posted. In the US, the current prices are:
32″ - £950
42″ - £1800
Low-cost versions are also on the way - even better!
In light of the credit crunch, you would have thought that we’d all be being a little more careful over our spending but new research from Reevoo has found that we not only still spend a fortune on electrical devices but we are also still shopping for middle of the range brands, rather than cheaper ones. But it must be said that we are at least reading more reviews so that we can be sure we’re spending our money on worthy goods.
The poll of 3,000 households revealed that 77% of Brits are now opting to read customer reviews before selecting items such as televisions, washing machines and dishwashers. And 69% of people are taking more time over choosing electrical products.” – very wise.
The research also showed that over our working lives, we will spend a massive £48,940 on electrical devices alone. And what is the item we’ll have to replace the most? The humble kettle. We will buy one every three years, costing us £1000 over our lifetime.
But that’s small fry compared to the amount we’ll spend on PCs, TVs and ovens over the years. The table below shows how often we’ll replace items and how much they’re likely to cost us.
Replaced every ? years
Average Cost (£)
Number bought over 60 years
Total Cost (£)
Kettle
3
50
20
1000
DVD Player
4
70
15
1050
Straighteners
4
50
15
750
Games Console
4
230
15
3450
Toaster
4
40
15
600
Computer
4
500
15
7500
TV
5
500
12
6000
Hairdryer
5
30
12
360
Electric Shaver
5
100
12
1200
Curling Tongs
5
20
12
240
Washing Machine
5
400
12
4800
Microwave
5
70
12
840
Oven
6
545
10
5450
Dishwasher
6
370
10
3700
Speakers
6
100
10
1000
Food processor
6
70
10
700
Fridge
6
420
10
4200
Freezer
6
420
10
4200
Hi Fi
6
100
10
1000
Radio
6
50
10
500
Alarm Clock
6
40
10
400
Spending patterns differ in different regions. Click on the map below to see how much you’re likely to spend in your area:
We?ve been looking into design here at Reevoo. Good product design is becoming more and more important and clever and innovative designs are what consumers look for to save time and make their lives a little easier.
So we looked into which brands were coming up with the best designs. When a shopper buys something from one of Reevoo?s 55 retail partners, they are sent an email asking them to rate it. One of the categories they rate is the design of the product.
Looking at 22,000 products, with over 15 reviews, we took these design scores and ranked all of the products in terms of their score for design ? the product with the highest score at the top.
What we found was pretty impressive for one brand in particular. In the top 100 products for design, a whopping 51 of them are from Samsung! It?s a real result for the brand that has put a strong focus on design in recent years.
LG in second place and Sony and Apple in joint third made up the top 3.
If you?re a regular reader of Decide What to Buy, I?m sure you can guess at which product Numatic had in the top 100? Hetty! She?s had a stonking 2008, already topping the best vacuum cleaner list back in June and in March.
But we wanted to look deeper into the data so we split the products up into categories. We looked at Home Entertainment, Mobile Phones, White Goods, Computing and Home and DIY in more detail to see which brand?s products performed the best for design in each category.
It seems us Brits are baffled by modern technology that was sent to help us. According to a poll of 2000 people (by the folks over at Reevoo), mobile phones, SatNavs and even TV remotes send us into panic and rage when we can’t figure out how to use them. In fact, a whopping 32% of people admitted to throwing a complicated gadget across the room when they couldn’t work out what to do with it.
Digital cameras were voted the most complicated with SatNavs and mobile phones close behind. Interestingly though, people are obviously happy to live in confusion with their SatNavs, as only 6% actually read the manuals!
More alarming is that the same numbers of us are as baffled by our laptops as our ovens (the nation’s health crisis suddenly makes sense now…). And people are more inclined to read their TV manual over their oven’s. Hmmmm.
And even when a device goes wrong, more than a quarter will try to fix it themselves, or even buy a new one, instead of turning to the instructions.
Here’s the full list of things we find complicated:
1. Digital Camera - 26% 2. GPS navigation - 21% 3. Mobile phone - 19% 4. Washing machine - 18% 5. Camcorder - 17% 6. DVD player - 15% 7. Games console - 13% 8. TV remote control - 13% 9. MP3 player - 13% 10. Microwave - 12% 11. Computer - 12% 12. Digital photo frame - 12% 13. Scanner - 11% 14. Laptop - 10% 15. Television - 10% 16. Modem - 10% 17. Oven - 9% 18. Printer - 9% 19. Answer machine - 9% 20. Freeview box - 8% 21. Broadband - 8% 22. Sky - 8% 23. Dishwasher - 7% 24. Digital TV - 7% 25. Hi Fi system - 7% 26. Tumble dryer - 6% 27. Iron - 6% 28. Telephone - 6% 29. Clock Radio - 5% 30. Smoke alarm - 5% 31. Electric timer - 5% 32. Smoothie maker - 5% 33. Alarm clock - 4% 34. Blender - 4%
…and how many people bother to read the manuals for these items:
1. I don’t read manuals - 46% 2. Mobile phone - 19% 3. Washing machine - 17% 4. Television - 16% 5. Digital Camera - 14% 6. Microwave - 11% 7. Oven - 10% 8. DVD player - 10% 9. MP3 player - 9% 10. Laptop - 9% 11. Computer - 8% 12. Printer - 8% 13. TV remote control - 8% 14. Broadband - 8% 15. Telephone - 7% 16. Tumble dryer - 6% 17. Iron - 6% 18. GPS navigation - 6% 19. Camcorder - 6% 20. Dishwasher - 6% 21. Hi Fi system - 6% 22. Scanner - 5% 23. Freeview box - 5% 24. Answer machine - 5% 25. Alarm clock - 5% 26. Modem - 5% 27. Smoke alarm - 5% 28. Clock Radio - 5% 29. Games console - 5% 30. Sky - 4% 31. Digital TV - 4% 32. Digital photo frame - 3% 33. Electric timer - 2%
In today’s what to buy, we’re looking at home offices. Whether you work from home or you just need an office at home, there’s no need to spend a fortune on some decent kit.
We’ve looked at laptops and desktop computers, shredders and fax machines and a lot more to help you furnish your office.
Let’s start off with computers. For those of you who prefer laptops, we’ve picked out the 15 inch Hewlett Packard 530. It’s got an 80GB hard drive, an Intel Celeron M 520 1.6 GHz processor and a DVD re-writer. You can pick one up for £267.97 with an increased 120GB hard drive. A bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree.
If you’re more of a desktop computer fan, you can try the Compaq SR5219. This has a 250GB hard drive, a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor and a DVD rewriter. It also comes with a 17inch Tft monitor and is around £360. It has some good reveiws too. Comments in the reviews include “Everything is spot on” and “very easy to set up, nice touch sensitive keyboard, looks smart”.
You’ll be needing a desk to house your bargains. Why not try the Dakota Workstation. It’s simple but stylish and most importantly, it’ll only set you back £20.
For a printer, we’ve gone for the £75 Epson Stylus DX8400. It doubles up as a scanner/copier so you can save some more money there. We’ve also gone for an Epson because you tend to get cheaper ink cartridges, so there’s the potential for long-term money saving. One shopper left this review “the product give me exactly what I was wanting at the right price”.
You can’t do much without the net these days so if you’ve been unfortunate enough to get an internet provider who doesn’t supply you with a router, you can get the 54 Mbps Belkin F5D7231UK4 for £44. It’s got a stonking 200 meter wireless range so you can work in the house or even in the garden (unless you live in a mansion/palace, in which case, I’d checkout your distances before you embark on any ’off-piste’ activities).
They’re not used much these days but if you do need a fax machine, the Brother T104 is £67.
So there we go, under £500 if you go with a laptop and just over £500 if you chose a desktop computer, although there may be other elements there that you don’t need.
Reviews for all of the items can be found on Reevoo, along with lots of other reviews from shoppers.
In today’s what to buy, we’re looking at home offices. Whether you work from home or you just need an office at home, there’s no need to spend a fortune on some decent kit.
We’ve looked at laptops and desktop computers, shredders and fax machines and a lot more to help you furnish your office.
Let’s start off with computers. For those of you who prefer laptops, we’ve picked out the 15 inch Hewlett Packard 530. It’s got an 80GB hard drive, an Intel Celeron M 520 1.6 GHz processor and a DVD re-writer. You can pick one up for £267.97 with an increased 120GB hard drive. A bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree.
If you’re more of a desktop computer fan, you can try the Compaq SR5219. This has a 250GB hard drive, a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor and a DVD rewriter. It also comes with a 17inch Tft monitor and is around £360. It has some good reveiws too. Comments in the reviews include "Everything is spot on" and "very easy to set up, nice touch sensitive keyboard, looks smart".
You’ll be needing a desk to house your bargains. Why not try the Dakota Workstation. It’s simple but stylish and most importantly, it’ll only set you back £20.
For a printer, we’ve gone for the £75 Epson Stylus DX8400. It doubles up as a scanner/copier so you can save some more money there. We’ve also gone for an Epson because you tend to get cheaper ink cartridges, so there’s the potential for long-term money saving. One shopper left this review "the product give me exactly what I was wanting at the right price".
You can’t do much without the net these days so if you’ve been unfortunate enough to get an internet provider who doesn’t supply you with a router, you can get the 54 Mbps Belkin F5D7231UK4 for £44. It’s got a stonking 200 meter wireless range so you can work in the house or even in the garden (unless you live in a mansion/palace, in which case, I’d checkout your distances before you embark on any ’off-piste’ activities).
They’re not used much these days but if you do need a fax machine, the Brother T104 is £67.
So there we go, under £500 if you go with a laptop and just over £500 if you chose a desktop computer, although there may be other elements there that you don’t need.
Reviews for all of the items can be found on Reevoo, along with lots of other reviews from shoppers.
We’ve got some great products in this week’s Green Piece. The first one will save you money on your water and electricity and it will help to save the planet too. It’s a shower head with a difference. The Oxygenics BodySpa Water Saving Shower Head, as well as saving water, also works as a mini spa treatment in your own home. It uses a narrow channel in the shower head to squeeze all of the water out. This squeezing causes negative pressure which sucks air into the shower head. Then the air mixes with the water and creates a lovely invigorating shower.
You save on water because less is allowed through the narrow channel. You also don’t have to worry that you’ll have a rubbish shower because the air and the extra pressure makes it seem more powerful than your ordinary shower. Less water also means less heat to warm it up so you save on heating too. Bonus. There’s also no need to worry if you’re in a hard-water area as the inside of the shower head are made of high-tech, corrosion-resistant plastic with an extremely smooth surface that prevents the build-up of lime scale. Did they think of everything or what?
The only thing to note is that it won’t work with low pressure water systems e.g. Electric or Venturi Showers. If you’re up on your shower speak, you’ll need minimum water pressure of 20psi (that’s pound per square inch). You can pick one up for £39.95 from Green Warehouse.
The next handy device is called an Ecobutton and it attaches to your computer with a USB cable. Every time you have a break to make tea, pop to the loo or answer the phone, you just press the Ecobutton and it will power-down your computer for you.
According to the guys over at Nigel’s Eco Store, when your average computer goes on standby automatically, it’s programmed to use a ‘level 1’ standby which means that it still uses 50 per cent of the energy. Apparently the Ecobutton saves even more energy by using a ‘level 3’ standby. They estimate it’ll save you around £50 and 135kg of carbon a year.
Last but not least is the Eco Stapler. This is a stapler…without staples. This neat little device will perform some cutting and folding magic in the same time as it takes you to operate a normal stapler. Waste online say that “If everyone in UK offices saved just one staple a day, we’d save 72 tonnes of metal a year”. Not bad for a £4.99 product. You can only staple three pages at a time, mind. So if you’re planning on producing a document that will easily take out a few trees, I’d suggest using a proper stapler or more importantly, ask yourself if you really need to use that much paper.
It’s official. Women may like to spend money on expensive handbags and shoes but when it comes to the living room, boys shell out the most cash.
According to the latest research from Reevoo, kitting out a bachelor pad with huge plasma TVs, top of the range laptops, games consoles, high-end stereos and other gadgets puts the bill up to £4,678.97.
Reevoo looked at the highest rated products with over 30 reviews to compile the research. According to shoppers, the best wide screen plasma HD ready TV is the Panasonic TH50PZ70B which can be nicely accompanied by the top DVD recorder, the Sony RDR-HX510. Just these two cost over £1,500.
Every man’s need and desire to put as little effort into living as possible has been accounted for. There’s the Proline TTR 65 P mini beer fridge which can be plugged in right next to your sofa so that cold beer is only a short stretch away, the Hewlett Packard Pavilion DV9605 laptop, so you can check up on your stocks and shares while you’re watching the footie and an Xbox 360 Elite for when you run out of DVDs.
Like Stephen Fry, I’m a big fan of the Asus Eee PC. In fact, I’m using one right now to write this! Sure, the screen’s a bit small, and the keyboard’s not for the fattest-fingered typist, but the price, size and resilience are what make it really useful. It’s small and light enough to take anywhere, and the solid state disk has no moving parts to break, which means that you can throw the Eee PC in your bag without the normal laptop paranoia. Reviewers agree that it’s excellent value for money.
Tiny computers have been available for a long time, with Sony and Toshiba in particular making some very small but full-featured devices. However, they’ve typically been expensive, and some of the best ones that they sell in Japan haven’t been available for sale over here. The success of the Eee PC shows that there’s a market for a cheap ultra-portable computer, and it looks like Sony are feeling threatened by it.
According to UMPC Portal, Asus, T-Mobile, and Microsoft are going to make an announcement about the Eee PC and mobile internet access at the CeBIT trade show next month. They surmise that this will be the introduction of an Eee PC model running Windows with an internal 3G data adaptor.
3G internet access would be a natural addition to the Eee. It already has WiFi, but there are plenty of places where WiFi’s not available (or, worse, available only at exorbitant prices). With 3G and a sensible pricing plan, an Eee PC would be ideal for nomadic working. As someone who’s happily running a customised version of Ubuntu Linux on my Eee PC, I’d be aggrieved to pay extra for a copy of Windows, but I know that it will make a lot of people happy.
Earlier this week, a woman in Seoul, South Korea, received an unpleasant surprise when her Samsung laptop computer spontaneously combusted.
A Samsung Electronics Co. official confirmed the accident, saying that
it might be caused by overheating, because the laptop computer was used
for a long time on a pillow, which apparently blocked ventilation of
the machine.
"Since the woman used the computer on a pillow for
hours, it could block a ventilating hole below the model," said the
company official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There’s been a spate of burning battery stories in the news over the last few years. Sony, Dell, Apple, LG and others have had to recall faulty batches of lithium ion batteries. There was even a report last month that a South Korean man was killed by an exploding mobile phone battery.
Here’s a great video showing what actually happens when a laptop’s lithium ion battery catches fire:
Luckily, catastrophic failure doesn’t actually happen all that often, when you consider just how many of these batteries are around the place: there must be a hundred or more lithium ion batteries in the Reevoo offices alone, and none of them have blown up so far — touch wood.
Still, you’d be hard pressed to find any manufacturer referring to their portable computer as a ‘laptop’ these days. Sure, we
the buying public call them laptops — we even use them on our laps —
but the makers are afraid of the liability of encouraging this
behaviour, selling ‘notebook’ or ‘portable’ computers instead.
It’s
perhaps not particularly surprising, given the high energy density of lithium ion cells and their tendency to burst, burn,
or even blow up when overheated. Blocking your computer’s air vents
with bedding is one way to make it overheat, as is placing it on a soft surface that restricts its ability to dissipate heat — trousered legs, for example.
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