• Website: www.beatsbydrdre.com
• Price: R5799

This iPod docking station is made by Monster Audio in collaboration with famous Hip Hop artist Dr. Dre, and the sound it puts out is nothing short of incredible, especially considering the price. With its two dedicated 5.25-inch long-throw bass drivers and two 2-inch optimised high-frequency drivers, the Beatbox puts out amazingly detailed and textured sound, regardless of the genre of music being played. The bundled IR remote controls the docked iPod from a distance and the stylish body will look at home in any sophisticated home or office environment. If you don’t own an iPod, it even has an auxiliary connector that accepts input from any music player equipped with a 3.5mm jack. This is definitely one for aspiring audiophiles, and an amazing gift for music lovers.

• Website: www.sonyericsson.co.za
• Price: R4699

The Xperia Play is Sony Ericsson’s latest Android phone, but with a twist: it combines the beauty and power of the Xperia Smartphone range, with the controls of Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld gaming console. It’s quite a chunky phone, but that’s because it slides open to reveal familiar-looking Sony PlayStation game controls beneath the main screen. When it’s opened, the phone launches an app that takes you to your installed games, and gives you the option to browse Sony’s online store for more. 3D graphics are incredible for such a small device, and games are silky smooth to play. The Xperia Play achieves a very difficult feat – it’s both a competent phone and a very good handheld gaming console, and is able to please both phone-lovers and gamers alike.

• Website: www.samsung.co.za
• Price: From R9999

Apple has the MacBook Air, and now Windows users have their own ultra-thin and lightweight notebook courtesy of Samsung. The company’s Series 9 13” notebook weighs in at a very pleasant 1.3kg and is only 15.7mm thick at its thinnest point. Despite such diminutive dimensions, it still manages to pack quite a punch on the hardware front with Intel’s Core i5-2537M processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB ultra-fast solid-state hard drive. It’s very fast, and easily able to keep up with chunkier notebooks, all the while conserving battery power. Samsung claims the Series 9’s 6-cell battery can last for up to 7 hours on a single charge, which is almost a full work day, so no skimping there, either. It might lack an optical drive, but the Series 9 is still a fantastic machine that will easily satisfy Windows fans looking for power and portability in their next work notebook.

• Website: www.amazon.com
• Price: R2499

Book lovers the world over have been drawn to Amazon’s excellent Kindle eReader because of its amazing screen, superb battery life and the ease and convenience that it affords them when it comes to getting their next book fix. Now available in South Africa, it’s our local bookworms who get to experience the scintillating services offered by Amazon’s smash-hit gadget. This particular version has both Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities, so readers can connect to Amazon’s online bookstore and buy and download books from anywhere that has cellular coverage. If you know any avid readers, this device, even more so than the iPad 2, will bring a smile to their faces come Christmas morning.

• Website: www.microsoft.com/hardware
• Price: R599

Apple’s Magic Mouse is a touch-sensitive mouse designed to work seamlessly with Mac OS X using multi-finger gestures that interact with the operating system. Microsoft has finally brought out its own touch-sensitive mouse, designed for use exclusively with Windows 7, imaginatively called the Microsoft Touch Mouse. Using finger motions across the mouse’s surface, it’s possible to maximise and minimise windows, snap them to the left or right of the screen, and a swipe of the thumb translates to Forward and Back commands. All of these, once the user has grown accustomed to their use, make navigating Windows 7 even easier than it was before. The only caveat is that there is no physical separation between the buttons, which makes clicking the left and right side of the mouse feel a bit odd. Still, once you’re used to it, you’ll wonder how you managed without gesture control before the Touch Mouse.

• Website: www.tomtom.com
• Price: R2499

If you are a fan of personal navigation devices and you’ve always wanted to be guided to your destination by Jeremy Clarkson, today is your lucky day: TomTom has teamed up with the guys at Top Gear to bring you a GPS device that will do just that. No Top Gear affiliation would be complete without the obligatory insults, of course, so prepare for Jezza to mock your driving, your sense of direction and your car while he gets you to where you’re going. There is also a “Stig Mode” that makes the GPS completely silent in case Clarkson gets a bit much, and all manner of Top Gear branding is found throughout the interface. All of this is included on top of TomTom’s excellent maps, HD Traffic, very robust build quality and a 4.3” LCD screen. For fans of Top Gear, there is no other GPS to get.

Playing music on your smartphone through speakers has traditionally required a cable connection between speakers and phone. Not anymore, thanks to Logitech’s new Wireless Speaker Adapter, a small black box that connects your phone to any set of speakers over Bluetooth. Once the speakers are connected to the box using a 3.5mm jack or RCA connectors, all you need to do is pair your phone with the device and hit Play. The range is excellent – music won’t stop playing when there is a wall between your phone and the adapter, and the signal doesn’t drop when the phone is moved around a bit either. It’s a novel idea, and very well-executed. It’s also impressively affordable, and is thus a good solution for anyone who favours their phone as their music playback device of choice.

• Website: www.motorola.com
• Price: RTBA

Motorola’s new Razr smartphone has raised the bar in terms of what a smartphone can be. It’s almost impossibly thin at 7.1mm, splash-resistant, shoots 1080p video clips, has a quarter-HD (qHD) touch-sensitive screen, a dual-core processor clocked at a very impressive 1.2GHz and Corning Gorilla Glass covering its 4.3” Super AMOLED screen. It’s an incredible piece of engineering designed to withstand the bumps and scrapes of everyday life while also looking supermodel-hot. Android 2.3.5 is the OS behind the glass, and it’s as responsive as ever. Motorola insists users sign up for Motoblur, a social media and message aggregator service, but the payoff is all e-mails, messages, status updates and more are grouped in a central, easily-reached location on the phone. The Razr is an incredible phone, multimedia device and a brilliant way to stay in touch with friends using popular social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Logitech Performance Mouse MX

• Website: www.logitech.com
• RRP: R799

Wireless mice have, in the past, been unable to keep up with the speed and responsiveness of their wired cousins due to a slight lag introduced by inefficient wireless communication technology. Mice in general have battled to track on certain reflective surfaces, too, but both of these problems are nowhere to be found in Logitech’s Performance Mouse MX. Ultra-fast wireless technology ensures zero lag between mouse input and cursor movement, and Logitech’s Darkfield surface-tracking technology means the mouse works even on reflective surfaces like glass and granite. High sensor sensitivity, four customisable thumb buttons and a shape sculpted to fit right hands give users accurate and supremely comfortable control over their PC or Mac cursors.

TomTom GO Live 125

• Website: www.tomtom.co.za
• RRP: R2299

GPS devices no longer just show interactive maps of where you are. Now, thanks to TomTom’s LIVE traffic services, it’s possible for your GPS to know the traffic conditions of your chosen route, and suggest alternatives. TomTom uses its extensive data-rich network to communicate traffic density and how much of a time delay users can expect if they follow their chosen routes. The GO Live 125 is TomTom’s mid-range GPS model, and it includes all of this and more – search your area with Google, control the device with voice commands and make hands-free calls when it’s paired with your phone over Bluetooth. It has a generous 4” screen, and it’s pleasantly responsive to touches. Purchase includes a 1-year subscription to TomTom’s map updates, HD traffic services and speed camera information.

Corsair Graphite Series 600T Mid-Tower Case

• Website: www.corsair.com
• RRP: R1 699

Discerning gamers need look no further than this sleek and streamlined mid-tower case from Corsair to show off their good taste and commitment to their gaming rigs. The 600T has rubberised holes inside that help to neatly guide the PC’s many cables, assembly is completely tool-free and the drive bays feature slide-out holders that clip onto the sides of hard drives for incredibly easy, simplified access. The case’s side panels have clips, not screws, and all screws used to secure expansion cards are bulky enough to be turned with fingers. Corsair keeps things inside cool with a selection of variable-speed fans. In all, this is one of the most attractive, intelligently-designed and functional mid-tower cases available today.

Motorola P793 microUSB Universal Portable Power Pack

• Website: www.motorola.com
• RRP: R199

Having a mobile device run out of power at the worst possible time with absolutely no way to recharge it is an experience many have shared. To help avoid this, Motorola has a very useful accessory no mobile gadget-lover should be without – a small, compact portable power pack that stores enough of a charge to recharge most phones at least once. It has a rubberised microUSB cable that wraps neatly around the edges of the device, which is used to recharge any mobile device that charges over a microUSB connection. It means carrying an extra device with you, but it’s at least compact and lightweight, and beats being completely without power when you need it most.

• Website: www.logitech.com
• RRP: R1599

Gamers will love this keyboard – it’s not only a high-quality product, but it’s designed specifically for gamers. It has a collection of macro keys (up to 36) that can be programmed to make in-game actions, particularly those pesky, multi-clickfests MMOs are so fond of for things like crafting, that much easier to pull off quickly. There is also a large colour LCD screen atop the keyboard that can display useful items like CPU usage, in-game information and even YouTube videos that can entertain you while your avatar endures a long gryphon ride. It’s comfortable to type on and keys can be backlit in a wide range of colours, which makes typing in the dark much easier.

• Website: www.sandisk.com
• RRP: R1199

Alternatives to Apple’s iPods are in demand due to their more affordable prices, and SanDisk has brought out a number of these over the years. The Fuze+ is one of SanDisk’s better efforts, as its screen is a vast improvement over the original Fuze’s, and it is operated by a capacitive touchpad. It plays music and video reasonably well, and while the interface isn’t as responsive as that of an iPod, you’re also not paying the price premium associated with Apple’s brand. As a bonus, the Fuze+ has a microSD card slot that can be used to expand the built-in storage (8GB) to a more convenient amount.

• Website: www.samsung.co.za
• RRP: R5499

With 3D making a big splash in the tech world of late, it’s no surprise that Samsung has brought out a range of computer monitors that do 3D. This one, a pleasantly-large 27” behemoth, is ideal for gamers interested in gaming in 3D. Buyer beware, however – you’ll need an AMD Radeon graphics card (and a powerful one at that) as the screen doesn’t support nVidia’s 3D Vision technology, plus gaming in 3D is very demanding. It ships with a copy of TriDef 3D, a 3rd-party 3D solution that enables supported games to be played in 3D. While frame rates drop significantly when 3D is active, the resulting depth is simply amazing, and worth the performance hit. Even without using the 3D function, the screen’s overall image quality is very impressive, making it well worth a closer look.

• Website: www.symantec.com
• RRP: R399

The Internet is not a safe place, and with the rise in popularity of smartphones and tablets that run Google’s Android operating system, it is only a matter of time before the platforms are targeted by malware purveyors. Symantec’s excellent track record (in recent times, anyway) of making fast, effective and unobtrusive security software is once again shown in this mobile-specific security suite for Android 2.x and above. Just navigate to the URL provided in the box with your device, download the software and enter the serial number and minutes later, you’re protected. System performance is not impacted significantly, and you can rest easy knowing that if the worst happens, you can remotely disable your device and receive location information by text if the phone’s GPS is switched on.

• Website: www.samsung.co.za
• RRP: R6699

The slim and lightweight build of the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone belies the incredible power that resides within its ultra-thin chassis. A dual-core processor, a gorgeous 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus screen and a camera that can take everyday snaps that rival those of an entry-level digital camera are just a few of the features that set it apart. Performance-wise, the Galaxy S II is as nippy as an iPhone, and it could even be argued that its amazing new screen looks even sharper and brighter than Apple’s Retina display. It’s an Android device, and thus boasts the usual Google services integration that gives Android much of its appeal (Gtalk, Google Maps, Gmail etc.). It’s a fantastic effort from Samsung, and while battery life isn’t superb (expect a day’s worth of up-time even with moderate usage), the Galaxy S II is still a fantastic smartphone and well worth the purchase price.

• Website: www.logitech.com
• RRP: R999

This ergonomically-sculpted wireless mouse from Logitech is made for gaming. It enjoys a massive 5700dpi resolution so it’s very sensitive to hand movements; this can be adjusted if you prefer more hand motion and less cursor speed. The sensor makes use of Logitech’s Darkfield technology, which allows it to track on most surfaces including granite and glass (just not mirrors, but who uses mice on mirrors anyway). There are no cables, either, a boon to gamers everywhere who are tired of wires cluttering their desks. The G700 is as fast and responsive as any wired mouse, but has the added benefits of wirelessness, amazing responsiveness and superb comfort. The G700 has a ton of customisable buttons that are easily identifiable by feel; these can and will offer the discerning gamer a serious edge over G700-less opponents.

• Website: www.apacer.com
• RRP: R299

The iPod may be the best-known audio player in the world, but it’s certainly not the only one. This little guy from Apacer offers everything of what you need, and nothing of what you don’t. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t come with a convoluted control application, but it sure does play great audio, and the included headphones are actually pretty good. Controlling it is simple using the navigation buttons and the tiny screen, and 4GB of storage is a lot more than it sounds. If the average album is 100MB, then 4GB can store in the region of 40 full-length albums – more than enough to keep you going at gym for a week without getting bored. If you value function over form and like the idea of an inexpensive audio player, Apacer’s AU221 might be for you.

• Website: www.leapster.com
• RRP: R699

The Leapster Explorer was recently awarded the “Educational Toy of the Year” award because of its design, capabilities, and the wide range of educational yet engaging software it runs. Aimed specifically at kids, this handheld device has a 3.2” colour Touchscreen, it is capable of displaying e-books, and has a nice range of learning games that target specific skills (maths, language, science etc.). Many of these games feature popular characters kids can relate to (Ben 10, the Toy Story 3 crowd, the penguins from Madagascar and many more), which helps to really draw them in and impart the lessons that much more effectively. There is even a camera kids can use to shoot both photographs and video if they so wish, and a marketplace where additional apps can be downloaded. For tech-savvy parents, the Leapster Explorer is an excellent 21st century learning tool and a great way to introduce young ones to technology early on.

• Website: www.sonyericsson.com
• RRP: R6899

The Xperia Arc is the latest phone in Sony Ericsson’s excellent Xperia series of smartphones. It’s a fairly large phone, but it’s very sleek and has one of the nicest-looking and responsive touchscreens we’ve ever seen. It runs Android 2.3.3, so it’s not a Honeycomb (Android 3.0) device, but that doesn’t really matter –Sony Ericsson’s engineers have done a fantastic job of making the phone feel very much a part of the Sony Ericsson stable, so much so that Android’s underpinnings are hardly noticeable. It’s also incredibly responsive, making daily use an absolute pleasure. Fans of SE’s previous Xperia phones should really check out the Arc – it’s the best Xperia yet!

• Website: www.epson.eu
• RRP: R6999

Epson’s EH-DM3 projector projects images from various video sources onto a surface of your choosing for a screen that’s up to 7.6m across, and it comes with a built-in DVD player that plays DVD and DivX movies. It boasts several inputs including HDMI and VGA and includes a pair of 10W speakers for basic sound. It’s not a great business projector, though – its native resolution is only 940 x 540 – and it’s thus better for movie night than presentations. It uses Epson’s 3LCD projection technology, which results in bright, punchy colours and decent performance even in moderately-lit rooms. In all, the EH-DM3 is a great starter projector for budding home cinema enthusiasts.

• Website: www.sandisk.com
• RRP: R299

A fast memory card for a D-SLR camera is often the last thing on anyone’s mind, but the reality is that the faster a memory card is, the faster the camera can save the pictures and video it captures. That speed is measured in the number of megabytes that can be written to the card per second; since high-resolution images and videos are large, it can take a long time for them to save to the camera’s memory card. SanDisk’s 4GB Ultra CompactFlash card is rated at a decent 30MB per second; while there are faster and bigger cards, this one represents the best compromise between speed, price and capacity. If you’ve been finding your D-SLR a little slow of late, perhaps consider trying a faster memory card.

• Website: www.htc.com
• RRP: R6360

The Flyer is HTC’s first tablet, and it’s slightly bigger than a smart phone, but smaller than an iPad. It’s quite portable, if you have a big enough pocket, and it has a 7” touchscreen that responds well to touch and looks really good to boot. It runs Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), but HTC has hinted that an upgrade to version 3.0 (Honeycomb) is on the cards for later this year. Using the Flyer is a breeze, and the interface is very responsive and stuffed with widgets, games, applications and more, with access to the Android Marketplace promising even more where those came from. It’s not quite an iPad, but it’s a solid device from HTC and one fans of the tablet form factor should definitely check out.

• Website: www.wdc.com
• Price: R1 999.95

This excellent media player from Western Digital is everything a modern cinema enthusiast needs to store their digital movies, music and photos, and play them back on SD and HD TVs. Its dark brushed metal finish fits in to even the most modern lounge décor and it can plug directly into an AV receiver or HDTV via HDMI. The menu system is attractive and easy to navigate, and the remote control works beautifully and feels pleasant to hold. It comes with 1TB of storage space, and even reads content off USB storage devices. Full 1080p output is standard, and using it for music and movie playback as well as showing off photos is as easy as it can be. In all, a fantastic product.

• Website: www.lge.com
• Price: R2 499.95

As technology advances, it’s only natural for products to become slimmer and more attractive. LG’s latest LED monitor, the E2290, is one such product – at less than 8mm thick, it’s thinness approaches ‘ridiculous’, but in a really, really good way! It’s a 22″ LED-backlit screen that is as thin as we’ve ever seen, with a polished chrome finish that really sets it apart. It doesn’t slack on the performance side, either, as it has a 2ms response time and its LED backlighting makes for pleasantly bright images with punchy colours. The accompanying power brick is smaller than the average cell phone, and the screen’s cables are thin and unobtrusive. LG has really done a great job keeping this screen thin and attractive, making it well worth the asking price.

• Website: www.tomtom.com
• Price: R1 999.95

TomTom’s new Via GPS range is made up of beautifully-constructed devices with tons of useful functionality and great-looking screens that are very responsive to touch. This one, the Via LIVE 120, comes with TomTom’s excellent Live traffic tracking system that tells motorists what sort of delays they can expect on their selected route. During testing, the unit gave projected arrival times that we initially scoffed at as totally improbable, but our attitude quickly changed as the device’s estimations were proven correct time and time again. If you’re often stuck in traffic, wondering if you’re still using the best route, this is definitely the device for you.

• Website: www.amd.com
• Price: R7 499.95

AMD’s Radeon HD6990 is the fastest single graphics card on the planet right now. It’s also one of the most expensive, but that’s because it’s essentially two HD6970s sandwiched together and permanently joined in CrossFire. It’s a monstrously powerful card and requires a lot of power – a maximum of 450W under load, 37W when idle – so you’ll need a highly-rated power supply (we recommend at least 700W). On the plus side, you won’t need to upgrade your graphics card for years – the HD6990 does DirectX9, 10 and 11 smoothly at ridiculous resolutions, which is great for multi-monitor EyeFinity setups. If you’ve got the cash and the right power supply, there is no better graphics card around at the moment.

• Website: www.htc.co.za
• RRP: R2999.95

Smartphones have a reputation for being quite a bit more expensive than the average cell phone, and it’s for this reason that HTC has developed the Wildfire. It’s a complete smartphone solution that runs Google’s excellent Android 2.1 mobile operating system, but at a fraction of the cost of other smartphones. It’s still not what the average South African will call ‘cheap’, but it offers interested parties a solid “first smartphone” experience. It’s got excellent integration with Google services as well as push e-mail, a touch-sensitive screen and access to the Android Marketplace. The screen’s resolution isn’t amazing and performance is a wee big sluggish, but as an introduction to the world of smartphones it’s a good buy.

• Website: www.xbox.com
• R449.95

Xbox gamers the world over know the irritation presented by the need to type out usernames, passwords and text-based chat messages using an on-screen keyboard and the Xbox controller. This is why Microsoft brought out the “Chatpad”, a full QWERTY keyboard that clips onto the Xbox controller, allowing gamers to type quickly and easily with their thumbs. It adds a bit of weight to the controller, but pleasantly so, and keys are very responsive without allowing for easy accidental presses. Best of all, Microsoft has bundled a headset with a microphone in this pack, covering all available options when it comes to communicating with friends online over Xbox Live.

• Website: www.lexmark.co.za
• RRP: R2999.95

Instead of adding a scanner to a printer as an afterthought as often happens with MFPs, Lexmark has built a printer, copier and fax machine around an awesome new way to scan documents. The X815 is a new breed of multi-function device, as indicated by its somewhat alien look, but this is a good thing. Scanning is incredibly fast, as instead of moving documents slowly across an imaging unit, an image of the document is captured by a high-resolution 10MP sensor. The preview process is virtually instantaneous, resulting in a total scan time of around 3 seconds. With this new technique, annoying waits are a thing of the past. Impressively, the S815 is also a full-colour printer with individual ink cartridges, and is operated with an intuitive and responsive touch-screen interface.

• Website: www.wdc.com
• RRP R899.95

Since some devices cannot be wirelessly networked and running network cables all over your home is messy, a Power over Ethernet solution like this one from Western Digital is the way forward. All you need to do is plug one of these adapters into an available wall socket near your router, run a network cable to it, and then plug the other adapter in close to your device. Run a network cable from the second adapter to the device, and voila, it’s connected to your network using your home’s electrical wiring. It’s an elegant solution, made even better by the fact that each adapter has four Ethernet ports so you can connect more than one network-enabled device up at a time.

• Website: www.ihomeaudio.com
• Recommended Retail Price: R499.95

When evaluating speakers, it’s wise not to make assumptions about their looks, a lesson these speakers from iHome demonstrated. They produce pretty good bass thanks to their collapsible design that allows for enhanced low-frequency response, with solid mid-range sounds and good-if-not-brilliant highs. They’re perfectly-suited to travelling – they are small and they fit snugly together using magnets in their bases, for very easy storage. They’re also louder than speakers found in most notebooks and definitely louder than an iPad’s speakers, and as such they turn watching movies or TV series on these mobile devices into a far more immersive experience. While they’re not at the same level as a dedicated set of desktop speakers, for a very reasonable price you’re getting portability and far better sound than the average mobile device can produce.

• Website: www.nokia.com
• Recommended Retail Price: R3 499.95

Nokia’s C7 smartphone brings a very solid plastic chassis with a metal backplate, a capacitive Touchscreen and Sybian^3 to the mix. Sybian^3 is the latest version of Nokia’s venerable smartphone operating system, and it tries very hard to keep up with the big lads like Android, Apple’s iOS and Windows Phone 7 but somehow feels lacking in the presentation department. If you’re a fan of the older versions you’ll no doubt enjoy the tweaks and polish Nokia has worked into this iteration, but it’s clear that a new direction is needed to take the company back to the top of the smartphone rankings. Still, the C7 is a nifty business phone, with easy-to-use push e-mail, Wi-Fi, a decent calendar and a no-nonsense approach to making calls and sending messages. If it’s subtle sophistication you’re after, the C7 is a good option but you may be better off waiting for the new Windows Phone 7 Nokia phones that will probably hit the market sometime later this year.

• Website: www.cellc.co.za
• Recommended Retail Price: Depends on the package you choose

If you’re interested in obtaining a USB device that connects you to the Internet wherever you have cellular network coverage and you want a decent amount of data each month for a very competitive amount of cash, look no further than Cell C’s new USB Speed Sticks. They are available in two flavours – a 7.2mbps dongle with 2GB of data for R149 per month (or R1499pa if you prefer to pay up front) and a 21.6mbps option that comes with 5GB of data per month for R299pm (or R2999pa on a prepaid contract). Are they always as fast as their theoretical maximum? Not all the time, but their average speeds are either on par with, or a bit faster than a 4mb ADSL line, which is plenty for most South Africans. Best of all they work wherever there is Cell C network coverage, which is most parts of the country. If ADSL sometimes lets you down, having one of these babies around will definitely save your bacon.