Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

So, another year of new students are getting ready to head to university; they’ve got the cookbook telling them how to make a £4 bag of pasta last two terms, an inflatable armchair with at least one puncture and a tube full of carefully chosen film posters. At some stage they’re going to have to get around to doing some work, and these days that usually means that if they don’t want to join a long queue to use the computers in the college library, they’ll need one of their own. Thankfully for those already watching meagre summer job savings dwindle or preparing to test the limits of parental generosity, this doesn’t necessarily involve a vast amount of money.

Netbooks, the slimmed down cousins of laptops, will handle essay writing and web access (strictly for research purposes, naturally) & are perfect for lugging around campus in a book-bag. They’ve actually scored higher with our reviewers than laptops on design (8.8 vs 8.4), portability (9.1 vs 8.1) and battery life (8.2 vs 6.8). Student shoppers who’ve reviewed them for Reevoo have written about how they’re “light enough to carry around the university campus”, the “right size for taking to lectures” and are equipped with “amazing battery life”. Unfortunately they will still tend to break if you pour enough beer into them.

What is a netbook, anyway?

There’s no universally agreed definition but as a rule of thumb it’s anything that looks like a laptop, but:

- Costs under £400
- Has a screen under 13 inches in size
- Weighs under 1.5kg
- Doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive
- Has a single core processor

The Top 10 Netbooks (According To Reevoo’s Consumer Reviewers)

1. Asus Eee PC 10005HA SeaShell (9.1/10, from £250)
2. Samsung NC10 (9.1/10, from £250)
3. Asus Eee PC 901 (8.9/10, from £300)
4. Asus Eee PC 1000H (8.9/10, from £280)
5. Samsung N110 (8.9/10, from £330)
6. Asus Eee PC 1000HE (8.9/10, from £321)
7. Toshiba NB100-12A (8.8/10, from £250)
8. Asus Eee PC 904HD (8.7/10, from £190)
9. Samsung N310 (8.7/10, from £298)
10. Samsung NC20 (8.7/10, from £350)

There are a couple of things to be aware of when making your choice. The first is that whilst many netbooks come with Windows XP, a few come with an alternative Linux-based operating system. It’ll do the same sort of things but may take a little more getting used to. The second is that netbooks don’t have a CD/DVD drive so installing new software can be fiddly. Thankfully Microsoft offer a few solutions for a student essential, Office:

- Some netbooks come with trial version of Microsoft Office Home & Student which you can then pay to unlock.

- If you buy a boxed copy, Microsoft will let you use your product key to install it onto your netbook from their website.

- Or you can buy it straight from their online store.

Alternatively you can try a free equivalent called OpenOffice; as with the alternative operating system mentioned above it’ll do roughly the same things but may not be as familiar.

Nokia have announced the full specifications of the Booklet 3G, their entrant into the thriving netbook market, at the annual Nokia World conference. With an Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and 120GB of disc space it isn’t going to set the netbook world alight on the basis of computing power; the main areas of interest are the built-in 3G mobile internet access and promise of a 12 hour battery life. They’ve also thrown in an HDMI port, assisted-GPS, and Windows 7.

There’s no release date yet, but it will be available in black, white & blue and will cost around £500 (although it’s likely to be available for less if purchased with a 3G data plan).

Recently Reevoo’s been hearing rumours of a gentleman who’s developed a rather unusual way of catching his laptop.

This YouTube video, portraying a group of acrobats in tights throwing and catching a laptop with their behinds, has just reached 100,000 views. The laptop in question is a 3-pound, under an 1 inch thick, MSi X-Slim. We shudder to think what would have happened had it been a chunky Dell model.

The jury is out on whether the video is a fake or if it’s just a few people prepared to do anything to win a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and a new laptop in - surprise, surprise - a contest organised by MSi. Our bet is on the former. At the moment there are only 21 contest videos on the MSi web site, with the most popular one reaching just 1,200 views. Whatever its origins, this ‘butt-catching’ video is sure to get this number up.

Kudos to MSi for a great marketing campaign. We eagerly await teeth, chin & toe-catching imitators.

It can be frustratingly confusing when shopping online as manufacturers like to use fancy words where it might be better to just say ‘portable’. The word ‘Qosmio’ sounds cool but it doesn’t tell you that Qosmio machines are the most powerful in Toshiba’s range of laptops.

So, here’s a breakdown of the Toshiba laptop ranges which should make it easier for you to identify the kind of laptop you’re looking for.

Equium
The Equium range offers laptops for everyday use around the house and out and about such as internet browsing and word processing.
Equium laptops are only available from PC World and Currys.
The U series come with small 13.3 inch screens and Vista Home Premium.
The A series come with a 15.4 inch screen but it is only the same resolution as the U series.
The P series machines have a larger chassis and screen at 17 inches and 1440×900.

View Toshiba Equium customer reviews on Reevoo.com

Portégé
The Portégé range is designed with portability in mind. The Portégés are lightweight, starting at only 1kg, and extremely thin. Some models come with solid state storage which means there are less moving parts and therefore less heat and less power being consumed. This helps to increase battery life, extending the machine’s portability even further. They are also the most stylish of the Toshiba laptops, and I dare say they were influenced by Apple’s Macbook Air. Because some Portégés come with Solid State hard drives, just like the Macbook Air, there’s less chance of damaging your data should you accidentally drop the machine.

View Toshiba Portégé customer reviews on Reevoo.com

Qosmio
These machines are for pure brute power gaming and media use. The top Qosmios come with 18.4 inch, HD ready screens, extremely fast quad core processors and dedicated nVidia graphics cards. Unsurprisingly they are considerably more expensive than other ranges. If you need an element of portability but can tolerate 4.4kg on your lap, then Qosmio is for you.

View Toshiba Qosmio customer reviews on Reevoo.com

Satellite
The Satellite series of laptops are mid-range machines, all equipped with either Intel or AMD Dual Core processors. For most every day, extended use, the Satellite range is perfectly suitable. The machines run Windows Vista Premium and come in a variety of sizes ranging from 13.3 inches to 17.1. As there are a wide variety of laptops in the Satellite range it is easy for you to pick which suits you best.

Optional features include:

A variety of graphics chip solutions – If you play any games consider the ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 equipped models.

Harman Kardon stereo speakers – Most people have MP3 players which means their laptops are used to store music. If this applies to you then Harman Kardon equipped speakers will give you the best sound quality.

Face Recognition – Some Satellite models come with a 0.3 or 1.3 megapixel built in webcam. Not only is this good for making Youtube videos or communicating online but you can also use them for security. If your face isn’t recognised you will get locked out of the system. Just be sure not to set it up just before shaving off a well established beard.

View Toshiba Satellite customer reviews on Reevoo.com

Mini Laptops
The Mini Laptop range are best described as ‘netbooks’. Tiny, with an 8.9 inch display, and only 1kg in weight, they’re built to travel with. They have a 3.5 hour battery life so are ideal if your needs are maximum portability internet access and document editing.
Everything in a Mini Laptop is designed around size so their processor, hard disk space and memory sizes are lower than in other Toshiba ranges. As with certain Portégé models, the Mini’s come equipped with solid state storage and are therefore reasonably durable.

Operating System - As with other manufacturers’ netbook laptops the Toshiba Mini series comes with either Windows XP or Linux. Windows XP is the version of Windows prior to Vista and most people should be familiar with it. Linux is a separate operating system and will not be compatible with your usual Windows software so make sure you take this into consideration when deciding what to buy.

View Toshiba Mini Laptop customer reviews on Reevoo.com

From the best MP3 players of 2008 to the best laptops of 2008. We look at the most popular in the run-up to Christmas and the most highly rated to help you decide what to buy.

So let’s take a look at the lists:

TOP FIVE MOST POPULAR LAPTOPS OF 2008:

1.    Advent 4211

2.    Acer Aspire ONE A110A

3.    Toshiba L300-13S

4.    Toshiba U400-145 T2390

5.    Dell Inspiron 1525 T5750

TOP FIVE HIGHEST RATED LAPTOPS OF 2008:

1.    Samsung NP-NC10 KA

2.    Apple MacBook Pro MB166

3.    Apple MacBook MB402

4.    Asus Eee PC 1000H

5.    Apple MacBook MB403

There’s no surprise to see that MacBooks dominated the highest rated list. People are very impressed with their speed, design and reliability but they don’t escape negative comments completely - owners say that they’re pricey, could do with better battery life and that they scratch easily.

What may surprise some people is that the 10″ Samsung NP-NC10 KA pips the MacBooks to the post. It has a fantastic score for battery life and owners love its size and weight. It has a 160Gb hard drive, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, integrated webcam, WiFi and it weighs only 1.3kg.

Check out some of the reviews:

“it has almost everything that a standard entry level laptop has, but it is smaller and lighter. it is a good looking notebook, the wi fi and bluetooth also go along way to make the laptop a true portable work tool”

“battery life really good, as is speed for size. Brilliant to carry around. keyboard good”

“it would been better if it came with 2gb of ram, now i need to upgrade the ram”

Also flying the flag for the small guys was the Advent 4211. It’s the laptop most people are checking out at the moment. Also coming in at 10″ and a little lighter at 1.12kg, it has an 80GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi and integrated webcam.

There’s a lot of love for this laptop:

“This little PC is an absolutely top notch system.”

“It’s just fantastic. The best money I ever spent. You can use it anywhere. I wouldn’t be without it.”

“No CD/DVD drive is the only downfall but not really a problem as I bought an external CD/DVD drive and the problem is solved.”

There are loads more laptops to look through. Just read the reviews before you purchase anything to make sure you get the best one for you.

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.

And here are the results:

Home Entertainment:
1. Toshiba 46XF355D (television)
2. Samsung LE37A656 (television)
3. Toshiba 40XF355D (television)
4. Samsung LE37A436T (television)
5. Samsung YP-K3JAB 4GB (MP3 player)
6. Samsung YP-P2JCB 8GB (MP3 player)
7. LG 32LG5010 (television)
8. Sony Bravia KDL32W4000U (television)
9. Pioneer Kuro PDP5080XD (television)
10. Samsung PS50Q97HD (television)

Mobile Phones:
1. Samsung F480 Tocco
2. Apple iPhone 8/16GB
3. Nokia 8600
4. Motorola PEBL U6
5. Samsung P520 Armani
6. Motorola W375
7. Sony Ericsson W890i
8. Sony Ericsson T650i
9. Motorola ROKR U9
10. Nokia 7500

White Goods:
1. Bosch KTR18P20GB (fridge)
2. Miele GT 316 ES (freezer)
3. AEG-Electrolux Santo 75348KG (fridge-freezer)
4. Baumatic BF207SLM (fridge-freezer)
5. Kenwood GT/AL17 (microwave)
6. Samsung RSA1DHMH (fridge-freezer)
7. Daewoo ERF336MB (fridge-freezer)
8. Samsung RSH1DTMH (fridge-freezer)
9. Miele KFN 8762 SDed (fridge-freezer)
10. Samsung RSH1DBBP (fridge-freezer)

Computing:
1. Apple MacBook MB403
2. SONY Vaio VGN CR31Z
3. HP DV9646EM RECON
4. ACER M1100
5. Dell Inspiron 1525
6. HP DV9702EA
7. Compaq Presario V6642EM
8. HP V6630EM
9. HP DV9705
10. Toshiba Equium P200-1ED

Home & DIY:
1. Numatic Hetty (vacuum cleaner)
2. Neff B1442NO (oven)
3. Neff B1442S0 (oven)
4. Neff U1322N1GB (oven)
5. Electrolux Insight EKT6045X (oven)
6. Bosch HBN1315 (oven)
7. Prestige 47433 (steam cooker)
8. Bosch HBN131251 (oven)
9. Aeg B41014 (oven)
10. Neff B1422 (oven)

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.

Other items to complete the perfect bachelor pad include the Philips HD7810/60 coffee machine, the Blackberry Curve 8310, and the Miele G1222SC
dishwasher, so that you don’t have to get involved in any of that mucky washing up.

So girls, next time you get an earful off him indoors, direct him to this handy bit of research before you head for the shops.

Here’s a full list for those who want to create the perfect pad:

Panasonic
TH50PZ70B 50 inch HD ready plasma screen TV £1,351.00

Xbox 360 Elite
games console £250.00

Panasonic FZ50 digital
camera £306.00

Sony DCR-SR 32E handycam
camcorder with 30GB hard drive £259.00

Blackberry Curve
8310 mobile phone £274.99

Denon D-m 35 DAB hi-fi
mini system £150.00

Apple iPod touch 16GB black
£229.00

Wharfedale
Diamond 9.1 bookshelf speakers £129.00

Hewlett Packard Pavilion
DV9605 laptop £699.99

Pure Talksport DAB
radio £40.00

Proline TTR 65 P mini
fridge £69.99

Philips HD7810/60
Coffee Machine £50

Miele G1222SC
dishwasher £493.00

Philips HQ8150 electric
shaver £78.00

Sony RDR-HX510 DVD
Recorder £299.00