Low Prices Products UK

SanDisk 8GB SDHC Secure Digital Card
From SanDisk

Sony Wireless Headset (PS3)
From Sony

Customer Reviews

Best bluetooth mic so far
I went to America recently and picked up a few items for almost half the price there, Sony’s Official Bluetooth Headset being one of them.

I have owned a few headsets, a logitech vantage USB headset which has been, and still is my favourite mic for online gaming. It is a bit bulky and the long wire isnt pretty but sound quality is good, mic picks up your voice nice and loud, big mute button, and it fits your head just right (can be adjusted too).

The other one i had was the wireless bluetooth version of the vantage USB, called the logitech cordless vantage funnily enough. It had a behind the ear design, boasted a good battery life and easy controls. This was a dissapointment, the controls were a single button which were fidgety, the size wasnt adjustable and it was really loose for me and the quality of sound was average. And recharging was frequent too.

For that reason, i was reluctant buying a bluetooth headset. When i found out about this official one from sony with socom i knew i had to try it. Overall its my best bluetooth mic, and 2nd overall compared to logitech usb. The docking bay is excellent to recharge it when not in use, it fits snugly in your ear with a extra ring if you need it tighter, it can be worn on left/right ear, mute button is big and its a comfy mic. Also, its the only one with a screen status on the ps3 (because its the official one) telling you if your mic is muted or disconnected etc which is helpful.

The only bad thing i had experience with it was even at volume 5, it did have trouble picking up my voice. Probably because the mic has noise reduction from outside sounds, but its just killing itself with it. So i had to speak a little louder than usual to be heard which can be annoying. If Sony could fix this it would be the perfect mic.

Solid 9/10 - would recommend regardless.

P.S IIf you buy the socom bundle, you get the mic and socom game cheaper

Brilliant!
This item has been receiving a bit of stick, not sure why. I have bought 2 of these, one from America and one from Britain to compare. It seems this version has some updates, and comes in a nice box with updated instructions.

Now to the product. I use mine for CoD 5 and the sound, both being sent and received is crystal clear, and must be the best from any bluetooth headset. It also has nice little features like an on-screen display for battery life and whether mic-mute is on or off.

The headset is light, fits easily over the ear and the hook is adjustable for extra comfort and stability. Although in my experience it doesn’t seem to fit in the ear that well, however, it has never fallen off or out.

Battery life is about the same as the controllers (about 6 hours talk time), but re-charging is quick through the supplied stand, which also doubles up as a desktop microphone. I warn you though, in this mode the mic is very sensitive. It heard me talking to my bro about 15 meters away, make sure it is switched off when in the stand.

All in all it looks great and performs amazingly. No regrets buying, and not a bad price. So where’s yours?

Convenient Gaming Headset

Attractive design and convenient application. Audio is clearly reproduced in both directions. This is further evident when using the exclusive PS3 feature of the headset; High Quality mode.

Other Features: Mute button to silent the mic and volume buttons for the ear, on screen display for battery and volume info, charging cradle for open mic usage while charging the device and auto PS3 pairing that requires no Bluetooth USB connector. The headset is universal in the sense that it can be paired with other Bluetooth appliances

Negatives: Not very comfortable; others may have less of a problem with, what would seem like, an oversized ear plug.

The PS3’s Audio Device Settings gives the impression that this mic is very quiet; no matter what audio level you pick (1-5) your voice volume seems the same. It’s, therefore, hard to tell if it’s possible to make your voice louder/quieter. HQ mode also introduces input-voice lag.

The power button is awkward to use while wearing the headset and when the mute button is used, the headset sequentially emits an in-ear beep.

Usage: Make sure to charge the device in the cradle until it’s fully charged (blinking red light eventually turns into a solid one). Connect the headset directly to the activated PS3, using a wired USB connection, without the cradle. The green light should flash, thus, indicating successful pairing.

If pairing fails (long red blink), go into Accessory Settings / Manage Bluetooth Devices to delete the PS3 Headset, should it be there, then try to pair again. Mine failed to pair due to it already being listed as a Bluetooth device, until I deleted it.

Feelings Gone Featuring Sam Sparro (Rusko’s Stadium Rock Remix)
From XL

Product Details

• Released on: 2009-09-20
• Running time: 315 seconds

Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful
Paloma Faith

Customer Reviews

Something Soulful and Beautiful
Let’s ignore all Ami Winehouse references from the start because though the voice is similar that is where the comparison should end. Paloma Faith deserves to be considered on her own merits. With a background in dance and theatre Miss Faith is clearly a woman very aware of performance and composition in her music. At 25 years old she steps into a music scene which is primed for original female performers like her.

Opening track `Stone Cold Sober’ feels like the swirling party that it depicts with soaring vocals, energetic horn sections and dynamic orchestration. The vocals have a confidence and swagger to them which makes Paloma stand out from the surrounding confusion which is entirely appropriate for a song about being the “sober” one at a party. It is a perfectly aimed opening track. It is followed by `Smoke and Mirrors’ which demonstrates Paloma’s theatrical awareness. It builds quickly between verse and chorus which is lead strongly by a good string section. Paloma’s voice soars through the chorus. It sounds like she could fill any concert hall in the world effortlessly. Then rather than pushing on with another strong soulful chorus lead song the volume drops down to the lovely `Broken Doll’ which rolls in with gentle drums and a soft flowing string section. It is the sound of a writer with a mature and considered approach, and the beautiful note she holds towards the end of the song sounds simply effortless and really adds an extra element of character.

The title track of the album is a strong song backed by relatively simple music composing a gentle piano part, well placed guitar and minimal strings. The result is to focus you on Paloma Faith’s voice which is used to great effect throughout the track. It exhibits both soulful verses and strong swooping highs in the chorus. The strings subtly build through the track without ever over powering the effortless vocals. `Upside Down’ is really good fun track with a bouncy drums section and a call and response chorus. The production makes it sound slightly like an old record but there is also a speak easy feel to it. `Romance is Dead’ then twinkles and swirls with layered piano parts and swooping backing vocals.

Second single `New York’ is a strong and slightly bitter track about betrayal by a lover. The actual story behind it is that Paloma Faith’s boyfriend went on holiday to New York city once and then told her that he was never coming back because he had fallen with the city. The metaphor used in the writing of this song of depicting New York as a woman who seduced him works perfectly. Musically it is a fantastic song with a huge chorus in which Paloma is backed by a gospel choir that echoes her cry of “It was New York”. Following track `Stargazer’ starts with a twinkling piano part like the entrance to a dream. It is a broken hearted song with such strength of character that it will appeal to anyone who has ever loved someone without being loved in return, and the string section and chorus are a real highlight of the album.

The album finally closes out with `My Legs are Weak’ and `Play On’. These two tracks play off eachother brilliantly with a simple piano part and dramatic orchestration in the first being followed by a mournful string section in the second which is like something crackling out of an early 20th Century radio. It is a strong finish to a very strong album.

Paloma Faith is a very talented woman and this has translated brilliantly into her debut album which is varied and intriguing with a good spread of pop songs that don’t stick to conventions. Rather they are filled with her own soulful personality. This is a phenomenal debut.

Paloma Faith - Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?
I bought this album and It’s brilliant! Her two singles Stone Cold Sober and New York sold it for me! If you like Amy Winehouse then you’ll love Paloma Faith. She’s got a voice slightly similar to Amy but a lot more smooth and clear. far better than Amy Whinehouse. She’s a cross between Amy W and Noisettes. It’s one of my fave albums of 2009 and is a large hitter to all those dancers. Move over amy cause here comes Paloma. Excellent album! 5 stars all round.

Magical, Energetic and Unique
Paloma Faith’s album, do you want the truth or something beautiful is simply wonderful.
I have been waiting for the album release for ages, and wanted it even more after watching her live…it certainly lives up to expectations.

The track, stone cold sober is just brilliant. Very energetic and lively but with good meaning and lyrical content.
New York is also very very good, its a song I can relate to anyway and its a good listen. My favourite track on the album is “upside down” it puts an instant smile on my face, its very retro and swing. Just makes you want to dance.

I think this album is great because its suitable for everyone, young and older. My mum is now a paloma faith fan after I took her to the gig! Worth getting if you like new, fresh and talented artists with something different to offer!

Asus EeePC 1005HA Seashell 10-inch Black Netbook (Intel Atom N280 1.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, Windows XP, up to 10 Hours Battery Life)
From ASUS

Good product
I saw that Amazon had reduced the price of this slightly higher-spec version of the 1005HA to £309, so grabbed one quick. It comes with the with the Atom N280 processor instead of the N270, a 1.3Mp webcam instead of 0.3Mp, has draft-n WiFi and Bluetooth. Delivered very quickly, but the keyboard was faulty - one key didn’t work when pressed, but nevertheless occasionally sent an unending string of characters to the screen. Amazon replaced the PC without hassle, and the second one arrived a couple of days later. Been using it for a week so far, with no problems whatsoever. Very neat, good build quality. You can change the screen to 1024 x 768 to see more on web pages, but with slight distortion. The trackpad is usable, but I’ve never liked them so may invest in a mouse.

I’ve shared my desktop PC’s DVD drive over the home network, so I can see it from the Asus - this partially gets me over the usual netbook problem of no optical drive.

The Asus comes with a 60-day subscription to Norton Internet Security 2009, which was handy. Also a 60-day trial version of MS Office 2007, which I deleted, since I’m still content using Office 97…. The battery seems to last forever with light use.

You don’t get much in the box - just a slightly padded, tight-fitting neoprene zipped case, which is adequate for carrying it about as long as you’re careful. The charger is very small and light, which is a handy, but it does seem to take a while to recharge the battery. There’s also a support DVD and a small get-you-going manual.

Conclusion: Very handy product for occasional use out and about - for email, web surfing, and backing up & viewing photos from camera etc. Not intended to be a substitute for a main PC, though.

Toshiba Satellite L350-21Q Laptop (17″ TFT WXGA+ TruBrite Screen, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel Celeron Processor T3000, Integrated 0.3MP Web Camera)
From Toshiba

Customer Reviews

Good laptop on a budget, however…
This laptop has been designed for someone seeking a well priced laptop and is ideal in replacing a desktop PC due to its large screen. Although previously, i have never thought much of a Celeron processor, this 1.8Ghz Celeron T3000 processor begs to be different. My primary laptop contains a Core 2 Duo processor but i must admit, there is hardly a difference the standard user would see between the two. This processor is highly capable of allowing you to work at your optimum level without the laptop heating up too much and without lag. You can work on loads of stuff simultaneously without observing any intrusion or noise during processing as Toshiba L350-21Q is very smooth and quite during operation.

The laptop comes with Bluetooth and WiFi features built in so you can get connected effortlessly to the internet and transfer data from your mobile phones and other bluetooth devices directly on to the laptop. Bluetooth is not a feature usually seen on the lower end laptops and also makes this laptop a very good purchase even for office use as bluetooth maybe used to sync files to a PDA.

However, this laptop also has its disadvantages. The 3.2kg weight of this laptop is generally slightly higher than other 17″ laptops and therefore isnt the most portable of laptops. The graphics card is also a basic Intel GMA 4500M, which also limits what this laptop may be capable of.

Overall, i would say this laptop is ideal for the standard everyday home user. However, do consider the poor graphics card as you would see this when using the laptop for multimedia i.e playing games and DVD’s.

Very good laptop for the price from a reliable manufacturer.
I bought this laptop to replace my desktop computer, but never got a chance to use it.
My daughter homed in on it straight away, and has decided that she will use it to replace her desktop instead.
It is quite a bulky laptop, which didn’t surprise me, as my last laptop was also a Toshiba Satellite and that was quite a bit bigger than others around at the time.
It is very smart, though, and the finish is impeccable. One reason I bought it was to use it to present to potential clients, and the quality of the finish and styling was a big factor in my choice.
It starts up very quickly, running Windows Vista, and so far I have had no problems with crashing or other disruptions.
It will happily run my larger applications (Photoshop and Illustrator) and is quite capable of running 4OD and BBC iPlayer without the stopping and starting I have seen on slower machines.
It is average for sound reproduction - it is a laptop after all - and has a nice bright screen.
On balance I think it is a well thought out computer with a well set up system and with 2Gb of RAM and a 160Gb hard drive it will be fine for most users. If you are a heavy graphics, film or game user then you might need to look elsewhere for the best quality, but otherwise I would recommend it.
All I have to do now is buy another one for me - as I don’t see my daughter handing this one back anytime soon!

Disapointed
I purchased my Toshiba new and it has been nothing but a nightmare. In the 7 months I have had it it has been in for repairs 4 times, me being without my computer for a total of 7 weeks. I have writen letters to Toshiba Europe in a attempt to solve, but all has been a great disapointment.I can only say that this is the first and last time I buy Toshiba, as thier customer care is extremly poor.

Olympus WS-321M Digital Voice Recorder
From Olympus

Customer Reviews

Olympus WS-321M
This tiny gadget will revolutionise your recordings. Up and running in minutes, its familiar menu and scrolling arrangement is easy to use and no cable is required to connect it to your USB port to download files.A lock facility prevents files from being accidentally erased (my fear!) and it gives you 35 hours of recording time - enough for most purposes.

Recording telephone interviews or other sources can be achieved with a simple standard microphone to jack plug arrangement, and there’s a built in microphone for external recordings. The files are in easy WMA format and, most importantly, the sound quality is great and can be adjusted at playback to eliminate any background noise.

Useful for conferences
Amazon had an excellent price on this (the 512mb model costs more in some places). I used it for a conference, recording 28 talks in 2 days. The battery gave up on talk 29 but as meatloaf never said 28/29 ain’t bad. I was sitting three rows from the front and used the built in mic to record in stereo HQ. Overall the recordings were pretty good, the major determining factor for quality was the diction of the speakers. Some had loud clear voices that made for great recordings whereas others mumbled and background noise became intrusive. An external mike would increase the quality of the recordings. Overall, very satisfied but the instructions that came with the recorder were laughable. You can download a full manual in English from the US Olympus site, but I can’t see why this could not have been included in the first place.

Olympus digital voice recorder WS 321M
I purchased this to record a meeting of about 20 people sitting around a large oval boardroom table. I set up the Olympus DVR, fitted with ME51S stereo microphone, in the centre of this huge table. As each participant was at least 6-feet from the recorder seated in a circle, I was anxious it wouldn’t pick up everyone’s voices. It recorded the meeting perfectly and the background noise reducer function works brilliantly when playing back. I am very impressed!

HTC Hero 3g Android Sim-Free Mobile Phone
From HTC

Customer Reviews

It is as good as people say!
I have had my Hero for about two weeks now and I can honestly say that it is the best phone I have ever had! I should temper this statement with the fact that I have been a regular Nokia N series user, but this has ended forever now that I have come to terms with the android operating system and fallen in love with the crisp and vibrant screen that comes with the Hero.

If your a little worried about on-screen keyboards, don’t be. They are particularly good on this phone. Even the full qwerty in portrait mode is useable as there is a very active predictive text type of thing going on as you type, so half the time you only need type half the word and select the suggestion. There are 2 other keyboards other than the full qwerty, including a t9 phone keypad type thing (that I don’t bother with) and a cut down qwerty, that has two letters per key (don’t bother with that one either). The full qwerty in landscape mode is a dream and I can type fast with it.

Internet browsing is fast. Sadly I have an Orange branded phone (which essentially means that Orange UK has put their own settings on and as usual made a pigs ear of it). Wifi connection is good and fast too. The standard browser in the phone is all you need (though there was some talk of firefox coming over to android in some form).

I use the HTC Peep twitter client a lot, I have tried other twitter clients from the android market, but HTC have done a nice job with the built in program. Accessing the android market could not be easier. There is no guarantee of quality of programs on the android market, but there are plenty, and I am sure others will give you long lists of their favourites, but I wont bore you with that.

HTC Sense is very very good, there is very little lag, the graphics are smoothe and choices wide and varied. You might think (for example) that 12 different clock types would be enough for anyone, but I would love them to come out with more as I am a little fussy that way! Pity that the music player does not immediately grab cover art, but there are programs on the android market that will!

If you are thinking about getting this phone, but are a little hesitant, don’t be! It is worth every penny. I have not found anything I do not like about the phone. Email integration, web browsing, twittering, updating photo’s to flickr - its all good and all easy thanks to this phone. Get it, you wont regret it!

HTC Hero - Initial Thoughts
Picked the HTC up at Orange’s store last Saturday - 25th July.
I’ve been eagerly anticipating this handset and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it…..
So, first things first, the Orange one is in the Graphite colour, which is my personal preference to white. The Orange logo is not too intrusive, as there is just 1 small (0.5 cm2) logo on the battery cover.
Boot up takes approx 1 - 1 1/2 minutes, this is understandable with such a technically impressive phone.
After that, you are greeted with the best interface I have ever used. Very intuitive and infinitely configurable.
The size and weight are great, the touchscreen is great, it’s a beautiful device, the Android Market of Applications is very comprehensive, I downloaded one which had a timer and then produced a flatulence noise yesterday, which was fun (for about a minute).
Another big plus point is that you can crop a section of the MP3 file you wish to use as your ringtone, great idea as most songs have an intro of some sort.
The downsides I have noticed so far are: -
Battery life - I am a minimal user and i’m charging it daily.
Camera - no stabilization whatsoever, so you need to keep a steady hand.
PC Sync - Did not connect to my XP Desktop, but worked first time with my Vista Laptop!!
I think it’s a great idea to have the Sync Installation file on the Phone’s card, as I have about 10 CD-ROMs at home with install files for various mobiles, installed them once and then never look at them again!
The USB cable is also for charging and this is too short.
Bluetooth is only for Headset Pairing (like the iPhone), not sending and receiving data.

Brilliant Android Phone
I received the HTC Hero on Friday and having used it for a few days now..my initial thoughts are this is a fantastic phone.

Firstly the phone is very well designed and is built to a high standard. The chin on the phone doesn’t look out of place and improves the phone. The touch screen is very responsive, with a good layout and easy to use interface.

As reported the HTC Hero is very customisable, with you been able to place widgets on any of the seven screens, for example twitter, weather, bookmarks, contacts, emails. Email is easy to set up, to receive emails from my hotmail account I simply entered my email address and password.

A great feature of the phone has to be its integration with social networking sites, when you first load up your phone it will ask you for your facebook, flickr etc account details. Then when adding a contact to your phonebook this can be linked with your contacts facebook account, which then will display status updates, events, birthdays, albums etc.

There is virtually no lag on this phone, the screen maybe paused for a couple of secs once or twice on the first day but nothing at all since even when running a number of applications at once.

The android market provides a large number of different applications, which provides even more customisation for your phone. The browser on the phone is excellent, I am on tmobile and the loading of web pages is very quick. The browser provides multiple tabs, pinch and zoom and navigating around the pages is very easy to do both using the touchscreen or the trackball.

The camera is of good quality more a less what you would expect from 5 megapixels. Battery life your looking at charging more a less every day if heavy usage. Call quality is crisp and clear.

This phone has so many great features which all work well and integrate together which overall provides an excellent android phone.

Toshiba Regza 32AV615DB 32-inch Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV with Freeview
From Toshiba

Customer Reviews

Great all round tv
After much searching and reading numerous reviews on lcd tv’s I finally settled on buying a Toshiba but when I went to purchase the tv there was a link to this one which was the newer model. Although there was no reviews for this model I took a gamble and ordered it anyway. I am very pleased I did.

The tv is for my bedroom and I love it. The picture has been great on digital tv, movies and (after a little playing with the settings) the picture is truely amazing when playing my xbox 360. For the price I think the picture is great, I really can’t fault it.

Soundwise if i was using it as my main tv in the living room I would probably invest in a surround sound system to get really deep sound but for a bedroom tv it is really impressive. I turn off bass boost when watching normal tv, turn it on when watching movies and when playing the xbox I turn on bass boost and surround sound to get a realy loud deep sound that totally immerses me in the gameplay.

My only criticism of the tv (which may be down to me missing a setting but I’m not sure) is that when using the EPG and going through the channels to see what is on the tv switches to the highlighted channel. This is my only annoyance with the set as it means I can’t watch one channel and see whats on the others at the sametime.

Overall a great tv at a great price that you can have up and tuned in about 10mins that includes fitting the stand

Cracking TV - amazing price
I remember my parents buying a 32″ HD Ready TV for nearly £1000 not that long ago. When my old TV went bang, I was expecting to pay at least £800 for a 32″ TV. I couldnt believe I paid less than £400 for this.

It’s a real beauty, nice design and amazing when connected to my XBox 360. I feel I’ve wasted the last few years of my gaming life! It’s nice to have the digital tuner built in and the menus are simple and I was up and running in less than 5mins from getting the TV plugged in. Picture on Freeview/ Digital is really decent (I get a “good” Digital signal)
Sound wise it’s up the job - I still connect to to my 5.1 home cinema when I watch movies.

No complaints so far - and really a pleasure to watch TV on knowing I got a real bargain!

amazing purchase
Having bought a 22inch broken Hitachi from Argos my heart sank when I saw this 32inch beast going for only £100 more, so i returned the 22 and bought this. As far as cheap LCDs go this one is unbelievable for the price:

Picture: Whilst it does not run 1080p i have my xbox running games at 1080i and it looks brilliant. The colours are great. When it comes to fast moving objects, most cheap LCDs suffer greatly from motion blur as they dont have any form of internal processor (i think thats why anyway) but this one does (called Active Vision). So when playing pro evo or watching any form of sport on this screen it looks much better than it did on the Hitachi. There is a bit of motion blur but for such a cheap lcd tv its more than acceptable.

As far as Dynamic Contrast goes, the tv changes backlight intensity depending on what is on screen, which makes the dark images look really good and the brighter images looking stunning (so batman combined with explosions in batman begins looks perfect) and the change is subtle; the only time I am made aware of it is when i am going into digital tv menus.

The internal digital box is definitely of high quality, I’ve got 2 cheap digital boxes and they dont pick up half the channels this one does. The only irritating thing is that you cannot check what is on other channels without it actually changing to that channel.

Picture options are vast and you can change everything - from contrast to hue - so for perfectionists i think theyll be able to achieve the picture they desire.

Sound: The sound is brilliant, changing from normal to surround sound makes a noticeable difference and bass boost is awesome for xbox fpss. Unfortunately, if you are in a very quiet room and the volume is on very low there is a small amount of feedback/white noise. I know all speakers have some element of feedback and I am probably being slightly hyper-sensitive but it is noticeable in the night if you’re around 2m away and have good hearing. I have an amp and 2 speakers so I have wired it through them and am no longer suffering from this problem. At normal volumes this sound is impossible to hear.

Design: Amazingly beautiful tv - i really like the way the toshiba symbol lights up when u turn the tv on - making it seem like a much more expensive tv than it actually is! Other than that, all the connections (other than one HD, RGB and headphones) are in the back so you wont get any unsightly wires protruding from the side of the screen.

And i’m sure this is the case with most flatscreen HDs these days but the small frame and flat screen actually make the tv look bigger than my previous 32 inch non-hd sony.

Remote design is basic - buttons are solid and are actually satisfying to press

All in all a brilliant tv with only a few gripes. But for the price I couldnt ask for any more - i would have bought a 32 inch with no processor and not dynamic contrast for the same price - so a perfect buy, especially if your a game nut like me.

Epson T071540 original durabrite ink cartridge Multipack - Cyan T0712 , Magenta T0713 , Yellow T0714 and Black T0711
From Epson