Cowon iAudio Q5W Cowon's attempt to steal Archos's crown

There aren't many fields in the tech industry that you could argue are dominated by a particular make and model of hardware, but we believe the PMP (portable media player) market to be one of them. So impressive has Archos's range of players been over the last couple of years that it's difficult to see how someone else could compete.

A high-profile launch into this market would be a ballsy move then, but it's one that Cowon hasn't shied away from with the release of the iAudio Q5W. It's finished in black with a dominating 5-inch display and a nice range of connectivity that includes a full sized USB port - so you can transfer content from devices such as digital cameras or MP3 players - and a proprietary connection for A/V output through the supplied composite/component lead. The latter is a nice touch since it means you can hook the device up to your TV or audio system directly.

On starting it up for the first time we were impressed by the clarity and vibrancy of the 800 x 480 screen, which makes good use of the Cowon Launcher software to offer a nice degree of access and control over your media. This interface actually runs over Windows CE 5.0, which is a bit disappointing considering how long version 6.0 has been around for.

Your media options include video, music, an FM radio and flash player, though you'll also find a photo and text viewer. The range of customisation and control options for playing back all forms of media is excellent: you can adjust everything from the aspect ratio, subtitle size and speed at which a video file plays back, to custom equalizers using the iAudio JetEffect settings and full slideshow control for photos.

When you hook the thing up to an external device such as a TV, you can use the supplied remote control to access the Q5W from a distance. We found it to be quite unresponsive though, with a rather bizarre key layout that involves repeated trial and error to get the Q5W to behave as you'd like. While playback quality is pretty good, the rather complex menu structure doesn't make for friendly operation, at least not with a remote that's as poorly conceived as this.

In addition to standard media playback the Windows CE interface can be accessed directly to view contents, run games and applications and browse the Internet. There's wireless built in, which is fairly easy to set up if you know what you're doing, along with Bluetooth so you can pair with compatible devices such as headphones or external speakers.

Despite an impressive feature set that, at least on paper, might send a chill down the spines of rivals, it doesn't all come together as well as you'd think. From a multimedia point of view everything works nicely, in large part due to the excellent display, but building a front-end on top of an accessible operating system does make things seem a tad clinical.

Specifically, we noticed that application switching was rather sluggish, it's very difficult to operate the device cleanly with your fingers - though there is a built-in stylus to help - and perhaps most damning of all it's very expensive. On the upside the iAudio Q5W is extremely customisable, there's a fantastic degree of media control and excellent format support, making the final verdict a rather difficult one to call.(itreviews.co.uk)

Fujifilm FinePix Z100fd cool 8-megapixel camera with enhanced features

It was only a few months ago that Fujifilm released its FinePix Z10fd digital camera, which was clearly intended to appeal to the young and style-conscious, with its exotic-sounding colour variations, smooth metal appearance and range of menu settings geared towards party, beach and fun living.

The Z100fd is essentially an enhancement of the Z10fd with a little more style, a little more weight and a few more features that should ensure that this becomes the cool accessory of choice. So the dimensions are marginally greater (92.0 x 55.7 x 19.8mm and weighing a comfortable 138g) and there are four new, funky shades to choose from (Shell Pink, Satin Silver, Cappuccino Brown and Tuxedo Black).

There's also a larger sliding cover on the front which moves diagonally from top right to bottom left: this turns the camera on while simultaneously lighting up the ‘Z' on the logo - everybody go “Ooooh!”

Or not.

The LCD display on the back has a reinforced glass coating to keep it scratch-free and has been expanded from 2.5-inch to 2.7-inch in size (there's no optical viewfinder), while the optical zoom lens has increased from 3x to 5x, placing it considerably ahead of its rivals.

The controls on the back are neat and uncluttered and the main menu dial now features one finger rotation as well as ‘arrow' selection, which makes scrolling through the sixteen scene modes a breeze. The scenes are the same as on the Z10fd, which means you can still shoot underwater (with a suitable case cover), on snow, at the beach and take snaps for eBay as well as the useful Natural Light With Flash mode, where two snaps are taken with and without flash for you to compare.

The other similarities with the earlier model are the ISO settings (64 - 1600), the Face Detection facility, which comes with automatic intelligent red-eye removal, and the Intelligent flash system that cleverly balances out how much power to use to achieve a natural looking foreground illumination and background exposure.

The 8-megapixel CCD array provides a significant improvement on the quality of images over the Z10fd's 7.2-megapixel, although there is still a problem with increased noise at any ISO setting over 800. This is partly due to the fact that the Z100fd is the first in the Z range to use CCD-shift image stabilisation to help cure blurring.

The 54MB internal memory is quite generous and the Z100fd is xD-Picture card, SD and SDHC compatible. There's not much in the way of in-camera editing, but the Blog mode survives and you can view up to 100 frames simultaneously in the LCD. Slide shows are a bit slow but the overall quality of the images, especially using the flash options, is considerably above average.(itreviews.co.uk)

Hitachi CP-RX70 budget LCD projector

Hitachi isn't a name that you usually associate with budget products but in the case of the CP-RX70 LCD projector the low price is a headline-grabbing figure.

It's no great surprise that the package is fairly basic, so the black carry case is rather ordinary and the remote control is fairly large and clunky. The only other extras are the power cord and VGA cable, so Hitachi hasn't gone out of its way to spoil us with fripperies. The projector has a silver painted finish that lacks any feeling of luxury and the styling is very plain, but that's just about the end of the sniping that we can level at this projector.

It's clear from the photo that the CP-RX70 bears a strong resemblance to a plain box with a heavily perforated front panel, but it's only when you know the dimensions are 274 x 71 x 205mm and the weight is 1.7kg that you appreciate it's a rather slender and lightweight box.

Setting up the Hitachi is a quick process as it uses two drop-down feet at the front and you can adjust settings very rapidly with the remote control. You have a choice of two menus for Easy or Advanced but we found all of the controls we needed, such as keystone, brightness and contrast, were neatly arranged under the Easy menu.

The CP-RX70 uses Hitachi's triple LCD technology and sports an XGA resolution of 1,024 x 768, which comes as something of a surprise as budget projectors often sneak an SVGA resolution of 800 x 600 into the equation. The use of LCD technology means that the contrast ratio is inevitably rather low at 500:1 compared to a DLP projector, however the brightness rating of 2,000 lumens is par for the course.

That's the brightness rating in Normal mode, which gives a noise level of 35dB and we found that to be a touch on the high side. Switch to Whisper mode and the noise level drops to 29dB, which is a significant improvement, yet the drop in brightness to 1,500 lumens makes surprisingly little difference to the picture, making Whisper mode our preferred setting unless the background light level is very high.

We had something of a surprise when we plugged in an audio cable between our laptop and the projector as the mono 1W speaker worked very acceptably. Most projectors have a pathetic speaker that distorts under the slightest duress, but the speaker in the CP-RX70 did a capable job and was rather louder than the 1W rating would suggest.

In the main we were very happy with the Hitachi and can only level one significant criticism against this budget projector, as the inputs consist of dual VGA, Component, Composite and S-Video without the option of a digital connection. It's hardly the end of the world and is quite understandable at this price point, but even so, DVI would have been nice.(itreviews.co.uk)

HANNSG HG216DP high-res 22-inch HDMI-capable monitor

If you've been holding off buying an HD-ready monitor until you felt the price was low enough for you to afford, then now might be a good time to invest in one. HANNSG has a reputation for producing stylish monitors with a good performance record, and you'd be hard pushed to find many better deals for 22-inch monitors than the HG216DP; it's officially valued at £179 but has been spotted on the Web for as little as £135.

Once you get it out of the box you'll be able to appreciate its chic silver and black design and the cool neon blue logo that lights up when you power on, although it's a lot chunkier than many of its rivals, at 518mm x 230mm x 412mm and 5.8kg.

The controls are discreetly hidden under the bottom right of the display but are easy to operate, with the usual manual and auto settings plus scrolling buttons. The stand, though, took some shoving to fix in place and offers only a 20-degree tilt and no height adjustment.

It's when you get around the back that you notice that - as well as the standard VGA and audio inputs - there's also an HDMI input in place of the usual DVI. For those not in the know, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface is the first to provide uncompressed digital video and audio, so you end up with a ‘pure' translation from the source. HDMI has a 5Gbps bandwidth which means it has lots of spare capacity for future expansion.

With a respectable 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 16.7 million colours and 300cd/m2 brightness, you know the colours are going to be vivid and distinct, but the big bonus is an outstanding top resolution of 1,680 x 1,050. When allied to the quick 5ms response time, games like Hellgate London never looked so devilishly attractive on the PC, and PS3 users should be especially ecstatic that they can make good use of their two HDMI outputs.

DVD films also come out crisp and sharp and Xbox 360 owners will be viewing graphically gorgeous games like Assassin's Creed and Medal of Honor Airborne with new eyes. On the audio side you're supplied with a pair of pretty ineffectual 1W speakers, but it was always going to be inevitable that you'd take your audio feed from elsewhere (ideally a powerful 5.1 surround sound system) to match the visual eye candy on-screen.(itreviews.co.uk)

Nintendo - Wii

A bit of an odd review, this one, and we should 'fess up at the start. We've not had a Nintendo Wii to review on our own testbed. Instead, we were invited to a house in the middle of London that Nintendo has kitted out with its brave new hope. The following is based on the several hours we spent hammering a number of games to death and generally getting to know the new machine.

Arguably, the Nintendo Wii is the most important console launch in some time. The reason? Its ethos is different. While Sony and Microsoft are happy to slug it out for the fast performance crown, Nintendo - as it did with the DS handheld machine - has popped off in the opposite direction and tried something different.

To an extent, Nintendo tried this with the Game Cube too, which it sold as a gaming box rather than any kind of multimedia machine. The result? It was perceived as a kids' toy and the numbers nearly wiped Nintendo out of this particular segment of the console market.

That won't be happening with the Wii, though. The first reason is a resurgent, confident Nintendo, whose persistence with its way of thinking has resulted in the huge success of the DS, where it was tipped to fail against the technically superior Sony PSP. The second reason is that Nintendo has been bolder with the Wii, and it really does deliver good fun.

The specs inside the box are fairly modest and well known, easily eclipsed by Sony and Microsoft's latest console juggernauts. But it's the way you interface with the machine that's won the headlines to date, and rightly so.

The main Wii control looks like a remote control, albeit with a speaker and motion sensors built in. It's a wireless device, and a flexible one at that. Using the Wario Ware Smooth Moves game, at times you need to turn it horizontally and grip it like handlebars, whereas in the tennis segment of Wii Sports you turn side on and swing it like a tennis racquet.

The tanks game within Wii Play and the boxing segments of Wii Sports require you to plug an extra controller into this remote, and the result is staggeringly intuitive. Picture a ten pin bowling minigame where you literally do a bowling motion. Or an air hockey-type game where you wave your controller around, with the movements replicated on-screen by your paddle. It's delightfully simple and yet adds a genuinely fresh perspective to what otherwise would be fairly unspectacular software.

What's more, when we went along, you could barely wipe the grin off our faces. The software titles that play to the Wii's strengths are tremendous fun, accessible for all levels of gamer and contain plenty to enjoy. Multiplayer can be just awesome.

The box itself is small, lightweight and easily expandable. It'll support old Game Cube games and controllers and it'll also sport the Virtual Console, which we didn't get a chance to play with, where you can buy and download old Nintendo classics for a couple of quid apiece.

There are downsides, of course. Much though we enjoyed first person shooter Red Steel - and that works a treat with the Wii controller - the graphical limitations of the machine shone through, against something like Call Of Duty 3 on Xbox 360. We also found that in one or two games the controller can be a little too sensitive, demanding that you point it exactly at the screen. And while the Wii-centric software we've seen is both great fun and exciting, we wonder how third party franchises will fare.

Yet these are minor points. Every one of us who went into the Wii house that day came back out with something new at the top of their shopping list. And that's when Nintendo really plays its trump card, as the machine is selling for a princely £180 at launch, with the excellent Wii Sports bundled in.

That really is the gaming bargain of the season, and Nintendo deserves your support, your custom and your appreciation for continuing to take risks and innovate in a gaming market that otherwise seems a little stale. It isn't the most powerful games console on the planet by any measure. But at this moment in time it's by far the most interesting(itreviews.co.uk)

Olympus - Mju 770 SW

Compact digital cameras vary a bit in design, but generally look and behave in similar ways. The Olympus μ (greek letter Mu) 770 SW is a bit different, though, as it's designed to be waterproof to a depth of 10m. This means you could drop it in a swimming pool without having to claim on insurance, or even take it snorkelling.

The camera is also claimed to be shockproof up to a height of 1.5m, though it's not clear what kind of a surface Olympus dropped it on. We'd be impressed by concrete or stone, not so much by a barrel of feathers or a bath of recently-set jelly. We take the company's word that the μ 770 SW is a sight more rugged than most digital compacts, though.

The styling fits with the rugged but smart image Olympus has set for the μ range, aiming it at the outdoor lifestyle market with a touch of extreme sports thrown in for good measure. It's cased in brushed steel with highly polished buttons and is held together by deftly-placed hex and cross-head screws.

Controls aren't that easy to use, as the buttons are small and don't project far from the surface of the case. There's a separate button for shot mode: landscape, portrait, night shot, even one for taking eBay sale items, and the usual four-way ring for menu navigation.

The 64mm LCD display is the only viewfinder and in bright sun it's not easy to see. The lens offers 3x optical zoom and focuses down to a minimum macro distance of 70mm, and the camera supports ISO ratings up to 1600, designed to give good response in low light.

This is a 7.1-megapixel device, so each full-resolution shot takes around 3.5MB and you'll only get five on the 19MB of available internal memory. The camera uses xD cards for removable storage, but none is supplied as standard. The μ 770 SW is powered by a 740mAh Lithium-ion battery, which showed notable drain after only a few shots. A charger is provided, but takes about five hours to deliver a full charge.

With all this ruggedisation, what's the image quality like? Not bad, but not the best we've seen in this price range. Set to auto, landscape shots on a bright sunny day came out slightly under-exposed and we also detected some barrelling when shooting straight edges near the sides of a frame. When we shot close up, indoors, colours tended to over-saturate.(itreviews.co.uk)

BenQ - DC X725

It was only a couple of months ago that we were admiring the slimness of BenQ's T700 digital camera, which was a shade under 15mm thick. Like the X725, the T700 was about the dimensions of a credit card, boasted 7 megapixels and had a display screen resolution of 232,000 pixels.

The other parallel was that both cameras were geared towards the style conscious, as the X725 - like its predecessor - comes in four stainless steel colours (stern black, pearl white, dramatic red and cool silver) and because of its dimensions (officially 91 x 60 x 14.7mm), slips handily into a pocket or handbag.

However, it's not just in price that the X725 falls below the T700, as there's a mixture of missing elements as well as an unusual array of controls that makes this model inferior to its more impressive brother. For instance, the T700 had a 3-inch touch screen display and the X725 dispenses with the touch system and opts for a 2.5-inch LCD screen.

Both cameras do, on the other hand, capture video at 30fps in MPEG4 format and have three movie modes with resolutions of 640 x 480, 320 x 240 and 160 x 128. While unfortunately both also have an in-built meagre 12MB storage, requiring an SD slot for vital extra capacity, happily both have a Super Shake-Free capability and an SMC Pentax lens.

The ISO limit on the X725 is exactly the same as the T700 (4000) yet surprisingly the image quality suffers severely in terms of colour, sharpness and image noise once you start using anything but the lower ISO settings in low light conditions. Curiously the X725 has no fewer than 29 scene mode settings, including such ultra refinements as Building, Soft Flowing Water, Food and Museum as well as six white balance settings.

There are three additional effects modes (sepia, vivid and black & white) plus the usual variations in sharpness, saturation and contrast, three compression settings and five flash options. There's a good selection of bundled software too, including Ulead VideoStudio 8, Ulead Photo Express 5 and Ulead Photo Explorer 8, and it's Pictbridge compatible.

We can't finish assessing the X725, though, without mentioning the other anomaly which is the arrangement of the controls on the back panel. The zoom control at the top is followed by a large thumb-rest and then two tiny buttons for stills and video, which makes choosing the right photo mode awkward at best. A more meaty square control dial lies below these and then a further two miniscule buttons for menu and delete. These are anything but user-friendly.(itreviews.co.uk)

Sony - NW-A806

Where other companies have attempted to usurp Apple's dominance of the MP3 player market by offering alternative features such as video playback, higher capacities and cheaper prices, Sony is the closest yet to taking it on at its own game.

Traditionally Sony's players are solidly built, stylish and make no compromises over audio, both in terms of quality and control. The new A800 range is Nano-esque in shape and design, and retains the same control system as the popular A1000 series. A directional pad, menu buttons and side-mounted volume control make it as easy to operate as they come, which is a good thing considering the wealth of options available to control your media.

The A800 series is a full-blown multimedia player, with support for video and photo content as well as your music. We already know Sony is at the top of the pile when it comes to audio quality so it'll be interesting to see how it handles the rest.

Just to reassure those new to Sony's game, sound quality in its players is typically top-notch, and it's nice to see that the A806 we have on test doesn't shirk its responsibilities. Audio is superbly crisp and clean at default settings, but the combination of some excellent in-ear bud 'phones and wide range of adjustments available takes things to another level.

In addition to a customisable equalizer and environment presets there's a number of extra modes and sound enhancers that together offer an unrivalled potential for near-perfect listening. You can set up bookmarks and playlists, rate your tunes and include album art in search and display menus to add an extra visual element to proceedings. There's not a lot else to say here other than that Sony has once again proved that, in terms of raw audio performance on these portable players, it truly is the leader in the current market.

As mentioned though, we're keen to see how Sony handles video and photo playback, and it's here that you get to enjoy the quite fantastic, full colour, 2-inch display. The high resolution combines with excellent contrast and colour reproduction to form what is probably the best colour screen we've seen yet on a portable media player. Brightness can be adjusted for different environments and you can view both photos and video in either landscape or portrait mode.

Up to this point it seems that Sony can do no wrong, at least as far as performance is concerned, but there are a few more stones to upturn before we get over-excited with our conclusion.

Unfortunately you won't find support for drag and drop here: all content that is transferred to the player must be done through the SonicStage software supplied. This has the advantage of allowing a massive 30 hours of playback for audio as well as tidying up your ID3 tags and optimising file sizes to make the most of the capacity, but some might find it frustrating to require this to be installed in order to update their player.

You could also argue that the asking price is a little high, varying from around £110 for the 2GB player up to £200 for 8GB. This is more expensive than most rivals, although we expect prices to fall a few months after release.(itreviews.co.uk)

HTC - S730

HTC's S730 updates an older device, the S710. It is a funny thing about hardware updates: when the original is groundbreaking, the update can sometimes appear a let-down. There is an analogy with bands who amaze and astound with their first album and then have trouble with the tricky second one.

Despite the fact that HTC is prolific in the field of Windows Mobile devices, this is the case with the S730.

The original S710 was a Windows Mobile Smartphone which, for the first time ever, had a slide-out keyboard. That might sound like a fairly simple piece of design, but it brought the possibility of speedy text entry to the Smartphone format, and as such made the S710 one of the smallest Windows Mobile devices with feasible mobile e-mail capability.

The S730 has the same design, but its slide-out keyboard is no longer an innovation. Add in the fact that there are several touch-screen Windows Mobile Professional devices with sliding keyboards that can rival the S730 for weight and overall size, and the new device becomes an even less alluring proposition.

At 150g there are Windows Mobile Professional (touch-screen) devices that weigh less, and if you are looking for a thin and pocketable smartphone then, at 101mm tall, 50mm wide and 17.7mm thick, this chunky device isn't it.

On the features side of things the S730 is quite advanced, though. It is quad-band GSM with 3G and HSDPA, and has a front-facing camera for video calls and a 2-megapixel unit on the back.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are both present, the latter opening up the prospect of mobile e-mail and Web access from free wireless hotspots or your own network rather than on your tariff. There is 256MB of flash memory and 64MB of RAM. Fresh out of the box my review sample reported a little over 120MB of free storage. A microSD card slot is on the right-hand edge of the casing so you can expand on what is built in.

This being a Windows Mobile 6.0 device, you can edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents (though not create them from scratch). The keyboard can come in handy here and mobile e-mail fans may find it particularly useful.

HTC has put its own Today screen onto the device, and this can be used to do things like view a weather report and forecast, get to your speed dials and set alarms quickly and easily. Anyone who has seen TouchFLO on an HTC Touch will recognise the look, although here, without a touch-screen, the feature set is more limited.(itreviews.co.uk)

Creative - Zen Stone Plus

Earlier this year Creative released a simple music player called the Zen Stone, as an obvious rival to Apple's iPod Shuffle. The big advantage of the Zen Stone was its price, but it was quite basic. Now the company has released the Zen Stone Plus, which adds a number of extras including a display, FM radio, voice recording, a watch/stopwatch and twice the memory.

The most obvious addition is the display, and the 64 x 64 pixel, blue OLED screen has enough room to show the current track title, battery status, graphic equaliser (which includes four presets) and time, but disappointingly, it doesn't show album or artist. Can you remember the names of all the tracks in your music collection?

The play function has been moved from the joypad on the front of the Stone to a separate button on the top edge of the Stone Plus, which makes it easier to use, particularly as it doubles as the power button when held down.

2GB of onboard memory is enough for around 500 MP3s or, Creative claims, 1,000 WMAs. The player can handle copyrighted material protected by Windows DRM if you use Creative's downloadable software or Windows Media Player to transfer it.

Music playback quality is good; better than good, if you replace the unexciting Creative earbuds with something better. Bass is still lacking, but mid and high frequencies are crisp and well differentiated. Overall, sound is marginally better than an iPod Shuffle but, unsurprisingly, no better than the original Stone.

The new recording mode is good enough for noting thoughts that come to you when out and about, but sound is fairly muffled and not up to the standard of a dedicated voice recorder. FM radio is better and, assuming you have a reasonable signal level, quite listenable. There's a rather excessive 32 presets available and a frequency scan or manual tuning option.

There's no software CD supplied with the Zen Stone Plus, but if you have a recent version of Media Player it will be automatically recognised and you can drag files to and from its sync list. At the simplest level you can open up a Windows file browser and drag and drop MP3, WMA or Audible files to and from the player. It can also be used this way to transport data files.

Various optional accessories are designed to endear the player to those who jog and drive, as there are wrist- and arm-bands, a key-fob, a number of skins and the TravelSound, which engulfs the Zen Stone Plus with speakers.(itreviews.co.uk)

Orange - Tokyo

Orange recently launched two own-branded mobiles, the Berlin and the Tokyo, both available on Pay As You Go. At launch the Tokyo cost £159.99, but it has been reduced to £79.99.

At launch I thought this was an overpriced mobile and difficult to recommend. The considerable reduction in price has done it a favour, though, and it is now a more attractive proposition. I'm still not sure I'd recommend it in terms of its features, which are rather thin on the ground, but in terms of its looks this phone has won me over.

There is no doubting the absolute cuteness of this mobile. Its black and silver colour scheme might not be original, but the shiny black buttons and brushed metal finish to the battery cover are attractive.

More significant is that this phone is tiny. At just 92mm tall, 35mm wide and 14mm thick it is one of the smallest mobiles I've ever seen. It is also one of the lightest at just 68g. I found it very easy to slip into the tiniest of pockets when wanting to travel really light.

Of course this means that both the buttons and the screen are small. I had no trouble with the buttons, but then I've got fairly small hands. The screen, at 1.3 inches corner to corner and managing just 128 x 160 pixels, is a bit cramped at times, though. To add to its woes, I found it a bit hard to read outdoors.

The features list is small, to say the least. There is a camera, but it shoots stills at just 1.3 megapixels, making it way below the generally accepted entry level of 2 megapixels for mobile phones. There is a self-portrait mirror but no flash.

There are mobile phone staples like a calendar, to-do list manager, alarms, currency converter and unit converter built in. There's a stopwatch and a sound recorder, and a couple of games.

Also among the phone's features are mobile e-mail and Web and WAP browsing, though I found all three quite a trial on the small screen. It just can't show enough information to make these features viable. The phone also plays music, and a 512MB microSD card comes in the packaging so you can store tunes.

I rather like the ringtone composer which lets you make up tunes using the numberpad to represent different notes. It offers a variety of instrument sounds. None really sound like the instrument they are labelled as, but they are all noticeably different, so I forgive that.(itreviews.co.uk)

Sandisk - Sansa View

Sandisk's Sansa e200 series of ‘Nano killers' received rave reviews across the market last year, playing a large part in putting the memory specialist's portable player range back on the map.

Despite the fact that it couldn't trump Apple's aesthetics, Sony's sound or Archos's adaptability, it taught all of these companies a lesson in value for money. The road to the next generation, the Sansa View, was a bumpy one, seeing Sandisk abandon its plans for an Archos-style PMP in favour of a more traditional Nano-type design.

After getting our hands on one, we're not convinced that this was the best choice; the new Sansa is a pretty chunky player and, while this allows it to offer a 2.4-inch widescreen display and an excellent 35 hour (7 for video) battery life, we must admit to expecting something a little more compact. The dimensions (108 x 49 x 9mm, weighing 82g) are those of your average sized mobile phone.

In terms of features, you'll find support for MP3, WAV, WMA, secure WMA and Audible formats, along with JPEG photos and improved video support that now includes DivX-encoded MPEG-4 in addition to WMV and H.264. There's also an FM radio and voice recorder built in.

All of this is controlled by a traditionally styled mechanical scroll wheel and a single ‘Home' button which allows you to quickly skip in and out of applications. Handily, the device automatically switches to landscape mode for photo and video playback, but despite suggestions to the contrary we weren't particularly impressed by its generic support of a range of compatible video formats.

We'd always prefer to adopt a drag-and-drop approach where possible with these players, but despite testing a range of video files we ended up resorting to using Sandisk's rather bloated 86MB video conversion application, downloadable from the Web site at www.sandisk.com/support/sansa/. This admittedly works pretty well, and will convert and transfer video files directly to the player on the fly. Despite larger capacities making it ideal for the purpose, we're not sure how successful it'll be in this area since the screen, whilst clear, isn't particularly vibrant for video and does put a bit of a strain on your eyes after a time.

In terms of control, you'll find yourself well catered for regarding music, which adds categories such as Podcasts, Audiobooks and a song rating system to traditional artist/album/genre views. There's a handful of preset equalizers along with a custom option for tweaking the audio. You'll probably find yourself fiddling with this quite a bit, and while certainly capable we weren't overly impressed by the quality of the sound in comparison to rivals such as Sony, and you'll almost certainly end up replacing the supplied earphones before long.

Sandisk hasn't particularly impressed us so far with the Sansa View, then, but as we head into home territory for the manufacturer it becomes apparent that it might well have another winner in the offing. You can pick up a View in either 8GB or 16GB capacities in this country and at the time of writing they were going for around £95 and £125 respectively. This means you can pick up a 16GB player for the same price as an 8GB iPod Nano, which represents spectacular value for money. In addition you'll find a MicroSD/SDHC slot on the side, offering the ability to double the capacity for an extra £50 or so.

This is obviously the Sansa View's saving grace, and goes a long way towards making up for our initial disappointment over the design and rather basic nature. We can see this selling well among slightly less discerning consumers, and must end by congratulating Sandisk in pricing its rivals out of the market yet again(itreviews.co.uk)

Canon - LV-7265

Canon has built a reputation for producing high quality, adaptable and sturdy projectors that will fit the needs of education, business and leisure clients. Three more in its successful LV range have now raced onto the market. The LV-X7 is an entry-level affordable machine aimed at the education sector, while the LV-7260 is a business model that just lacks a few important elements of the top-of-the-range LV-7265 reviewed here.

A compact 310mm x 109mm x 265mm in size and weighing just 3.1kg, the LV-7265 is housed in a stylish cream and silver casing and is designed to function as a multimedia projector in anything from a 'box' room to a boardroom. The 200W NSH lamp gives you a brightness of 2,500 lumens (1,900 in Quiet Mode) which means you don't have to draw the blinds to start your presentation, and Canon promises a lamp longevity of around 3,000 hours of operation.

Your minimum projection distance is 1.1m, and even if you need a 100-inch image the minimum throw is only 2.8m. The wide-angle zoom lens is 1.6x, manually controlled with a 600:1 contrast ratio, and outputs a resolution range from XGA (1024 x 768) through UXGA (1600 x 1200) to SXGA (1280 x 1024) using high-quality compression.

Unlike the LV-7260, the LV-7265 contains a built-in DVI-I interface for perfect reproduction of digital signals from PCs or other digital video sources such as DVDs, plus a VGA output for an external monitor as well as S-Video, Component, Composite, VGA and audio inputs. There is also an in-built 5W speaker.

In terms of operation, it's simply a matter of attaching the appropriate lead, switching on the power button on the projector and the lamp is up and running within 8 seconds. The on-screen menu can be activated either via the controls on top of the projector or via the supplied remote control. As well as five automatic image settings (Presentation, Video, Cinema, Standard and sRGB, which can also be manually adjusted) you are offered eight colour correction settings so that your images don't melt into the shade of the background wall.

If you need to leave the projector running for a while, you can program the shut-off for any time between 30 minutes and 16 hours, thus preserving power and energy, and the lamp cools down rapidly; within 40 seconds. The Automatic Vertical Keystone Adjustment allows you to compensate for a tilt factor of 30 degrees and you can reduce the noise levels to around 29dB when in Quiet Mode. The other useful extra is the Wireless Mouse Control which means you can dispense with a pointer and instead use the remote like a mouse.(itreviews.co.uk)

BenQ - SP831

Digital projectors don't come cheap, but at nearly £1,300 + VAT you'll need deep pockets to afford the BenQ SP831. But then it is a highly specified and capable device, with facilities to handle not one but two video sources and display them together in optional split screen and picture-in-picture (PiP) modes.

Like other BenQ projectors, the SP831 is a professional looking device, housed in a large and shiny black casing. It's also clearly designed more for static than portable use, with a ceiling mount available as an optional extra. Alternatively, built in levelling feet allow the projector to be placed on a desk and, with 4,000 Lumens on tap, it's bright enough to be used in a large auditorium without dimming the lights or drawing the curtains.

A 300W lamp provides the illumination, rated for 3,000-4,000 hours, depending on use. The lamp is easy enough to change, but a screwdriver is needed and it could be a little awkward when the projector is ceiling-mounted. Focusing, too, could be an issue in such circumstances as it's manual only. However, once setup, no further adjustment should be needed, plus there's a digital zoom available via the remote control which also incorporates a laser pointer.

The rear panel is awash with connectors and interfaces, including both analogue (15-pin D-Sub) and digital (DVI) sockets for PC attachment. A set of converter cables comes as standard along with others for the RCA and S-video jacks for use with cameras, video and DVD players and other sources. An array of audio connectors is also provided, along with a full set of output ports and a socket to take an optional Signal Shuttle attachment, enabling the projector to connect to PCs up to 100 metres away.

Inside, a Texas Instruments Digital Light Processor (DLP) is used to generate the image, the same chip as used in a lot of back-projection TVs. This can generate up to 1.07 billion colours with a native resolution of 1,280 x 768 (WXGA) and aspect ratio of 15:9, although other resolutions and ratios can be selected to suit.

No special knowledge is required to setup the projector. We cabled it according to the user guide, switched it on and the active source was detected automatically. An on-screen menu is used to configure the display options, using either buttons on the top of the projector or the remote control. A huge number of settings are available here including keystone correction to get a perfectly square picture, with five preset modes to save having to fiddle about too much and three user modes to save custom setups.

The SP831 compares well with other projectors in this price bracket, producing clear and bright pictures, whether giving business presentations in a proper auditorium or watching DVDs on the living room wall. The split screen and picture-in-picture options work well too, but they're not a common requirement and for more modest applications a cheaper projector would be just as good.(itreviews.co.uk)

NEC - MultiSync LCD2690WUXi

The NEC MultiSync 2690WUXi has a nominal size of 26 inches and, even though the true diagonal measurement is a mere 25.5 inches, this is still a very large TFT display.

The resolution is also huge at 1,920 x 1,200 pixels, so the NEC is capable of displaying 1080 HD TV. However, that isn't what this display is about. There are no HDMI or Component inputs but instead you get one DVI-I, one DVI-D and one VGA connector. In the box you get a DVI-to-DVI cable plus a DVI-to-VGA cable.

If you choose you can connect three input devices simultaneously - two PCs and a laptop would fit the bill - and then switch from one input to another. This may sound like an odd course of action, but the NEC monitor is very expensive and is unlikely to end up on every desk in the office, so you can expect it to be a shared resource within a workgroup.

The styling of the 2690WUXi is very smart and businesslike with a base that looks like a triangular star that is somewhat akin to the Mercedes Benz logo, providing a solid support for the height adjustment post. You need height adjustment to make use of the pivot function, although that's another feature that would be unlikely to find much use at home. However, graphics professionals may well be wowed by the ability to stand their huge pictures on end.

Initially we connected the NEC to our test PC using the DVI-D input and were rewarded with an image that was intolerably harsh on the eye. Switching to the DVI-I alternative improved matters hugely as the displayed image was superb. The picture was a touch bright so we used the OSD to reduce the brightness from 100 percent to 80 percent which sorted things out nicely and also introduced us to the OSD, which is both extensive and intelligently designed.

The layout of the OSD is unexceptional but the navigation uses a touch of genius, as the function of each of the buttons is displayed on the screen next to the button as an illuminated label, so you have no need to squint at the tiny legend on each button.

As for the displayed image; well, it's very close to being faultless. The 400-nit brightness and 800:1 contrast ratio are par for the course on a modern TFT but the colour reproduction and white balance of the NEC are simply superb. The viewable angle of 178 degrees in both horizontal and vertical planes is also quite normal but there's no nonsense with colours changing appearance as you move your head around or stand up in front of the display.

It seemed to us that the image on the screen wasn't quite as sharp as we would have liked but this could be a consequence of the huge screen size as the pixels are spread relatively far apart.

So what's the downside? The price for one thing, and the lack of home movie connections for another. Neither is a particular problem for the professional user but it means that most of us will never have the pleasure of using the LCD2690WUXi.(itreviews.co.uk)

LG - L1960TR

The L1960TR is a stylish 19-inch flat screen monitor. Resplendent in deep black, and sat atop a stand featuring a polished marble-style finish, it certainly impresses straight out of the box. It's easy to set up, slotting into the stand and locking in one simple move, and cable tidies are provided at the back to keep everything nice and neat.

The monitor's controls are cleverly tucked away on the side of the screen - although the buttons are a touch stiff - and even the on-off switch is unobtrusive, simply being a touch-sensitive spot at the base of the panel which is pressed with a mere brush of the finger. If we had to choose one word to sum up the overall design, it would have to be "slick". The build quality is very solid and the panel tilts up to 20 degrees backwards on the stand (or 5 degrees forwards, should you wish).

Turning the monitor on, the first thing you'll reach for is your sunglasses. For some reason, the brightness is set to 100 percent by default, so that needs to be turned down to a more palatable level pretty sharpish. The L1960 doesn't come with any calibration software, just a basic driver and an even more basic pidgin English PDF manual. Luckily, it's all simple enough to figure out, and the picture is excellent once you've adjusted the brightness and contrast down somewhat.

The display is crisp and clean under Windows, but fire up a 3D shooter and the monitor's 2ms response time really shines, with no ghosting detectable. The L1960 produces some gorgeously rich colours and bold blacks (it also boasts an impressive 3,000:1 contrast ratio), and we were further pleased to find there were no dead pixels on our review model. However, there are a couple of weaknesses with the picture.

Firstly, the L1960 suffers from a touch of backlight bleed-through at the extremes of the screen. Also, the viewing angle isn't the strongest we've seen, particularly in the vertical plane. However, neither of these are big enough issues that they impacted our enjoyment of the monitor's rich colours.

A final mention goes to LG's Flatron F-Engine technology, a range of enhanced display modes for text viewing, movie watching and gaming, plus there's one that's user definable. We weren't hugely impressed with the default settings, but we found when fiddling with the user definable mode we could add a more vivid edge to the colours in games, which was an added bonus.(itreviews.co.uk)

Sony - PlayStation 3 review

To be fair to Sony, the actual hardware was never really going to be in much doubt. And after your first few hours in the company of the PlayStation 3, you're likely to be impressed.

Several initial thoughts went through this reviewer's head. Firstly, the machine's really quite heavy. Secondly, aesthetically, it's really quite smart. And thirdly, and surprisingly, is that given the immense processing grunt under its glossy, buffed-up exterior, it's very quiet in operation. It certainly puts the Xbox 360 in the shade in that department.

When we switched on for the first time, following as simple a connection procedure as you'd expect with a games console, we signed up for the PlayStation Network and downloaded an advised, albeit not compulsory, update. This involved us getting the machine online, which was thankfully straightforward. A built-in wireless receiver or the Ethernet port at the back are your two choices, and we tried both, finding the machine adapted to either at breakneck speed.

The download and application of the upgrade took care of the first five minutes or so, but eventually we got to spend some time with the browser interface. This bears striking similarities to the one Sony employed with the PSP, and given that the two machines have a degree of interoperability, that's perhaps unsurprising.

It was interesting to note, going through the menu, just how Sony has made it easy to support elements you'd usually not expect it to be so welcoming of. The option for an OS install took us aback, and we were pleased to see the Folding@Home client built in too. But on top of that, the likes of keyboards, mice, Web-cams and such like - all of which can hook up via the assorted USB ports - are very easy to add.

Media support is well-rounded, too. That 60GB hard drive inside the machine can be filled with music files, for instance, and several codecs are supported. Likewise, there's Blu-ray and DVD playback. The former - the reason why the machine is so over deadline and so over budget - actually turns out to be a bit of a trump card. While we've not had the pleasure of many Blu-ray players, we're informed by colleagues who have that the PS3 is one of the finest, if not the very best, Blu-ray disc playback device on the market, to the point where many are picking up the PS3 for precisely that reason, rather than for its gaming prowess. It's aided - again, for the time being scoring a point over its Microsoft-produced rival - by the native inclusion of HDMI, meaning full 1080p output is well within the realms of the console (a new model of the Xbox 360 is expected to add this feature shortly).

The games, which ultimately will be the biggest influence in the rise or fall of the machine, we'll look at in a separate review. But there's little doubt that the PS3 is capable of some incredibly impressive-looking games. There's no obvious outright classic available as this review was written, nor a clear one on the horizon, but Sony's track record should ensure that the shortage isn't a long-term one. There's also, of course, Sony's equivalent to Xbox Live Arcade, whereby games can be bought and downloaded onto the console online. A free game was available at launch and you can expect lots more, for sub-£10 price tags, in the future.

But there are still problems here, and they break down into price, the competition and backwards compatibility. In reverse order, then, the European model has been compromised slightly and the hardware that allowed support for PSOne and PS2 games has been cut back. As a result, software emulation is doing more of the work, and it renders a massive chunk of the Playstation back catalogue incompatible at this point in time. Given the price premium Europeans are paying, we find this a complete and utter disgrace.

Furthermore, for the same money as the PlayStation 3 goes for, a gamer could pick up both a Wii and an Xbox 360, and arguably they'd get better value that way. £425 for a games console is, in the modern era, unacceptable, and ironically the only people who will initially get real value from it are the aforementioned Blu-ray player customers. Gamers aren't getting the best end of the deal.

So it all leads to point one: price. £425 is a massive price tag and one that, while the hardware may justify, the competition makes a mockery of. Sony is, infamously, making a heavy loss on each unit sold at the moment too, which may yet tie its hands for future price cuts, and that leaves the PlayStation 3 in a very weak place. The machine is genuinely excellent and in many ways it's better than the Xbox 360. But it's not got enough up its sleeve to justify a £150 price premium.(itreviews.co.uk)

Microsoft - Xbox 360 Elite

The enhanced version of Microsoft's successful gaming console has to realistically be marked down as a missed opportunity. On one hand it's undoubtedly a powerful beast, and better equipped to go toe-to-toe with Sony's Playstation 3 machine. But on the other, there was a real chance to seize the initiative here, one that Microsoft appears to have squandered.

The machine itself, to all intents and purposes, is an Xbox 360 with some welcome additions. Over the Premium version of the console, the Elite sports a 120GB hard drive compared with a 20GB device (comparing favourably to the PS3's 60GB), and there's an HDMI port on the back of the machine to allow easy and proper support of 1080p output (a connection that was picked up and optimised immediately when we hooked it up to our 52-inch 1080p test screen). Finished off in smart black, the list of enhancements stops right about there.

And that's the problem. Given the 360's well-reported problems with noise and heat, little seems to have been done to address these issues and refresh the technology inside the box. When under pressure, it still sounds unfavourably loud and can easily be heard over any game. Furthermore, it's still a plain old DVD drive in the case, rather than an HD DVD device, the latter still sold as an additional extra (although, to be fair, there's a strong argument that this still leaves consumers with the choice about whether they want to pay more for high-definition support).

On top of that, the HDMI support is restricted to 1.2, and not the most recent 1.3, robbing the machine of full Dolby TrueHD audio functionality. Microsoft's confirmation that the future versions of all Xbox 360s will feature HDMI output also dampens the spirits a little.

On the upside, the content of the box is quite generous. Microsoft includes an HDMI cable with the machine (you won't find one of those in a Playstation 3 box), and there's also a breakout adapter if you want to run digital audio separately. Furthermore, you'll find a wireless controller, a 360 headset and a SCART converter, as well as a month's trial of Xbox Live Gold. Still no integrated wireless networking support, though, which is immensely frustrating and requires a £60 outlay for an adapter. That's just not good enough.

The Xbox 360 was already a strong console, to be fair, and the Elite is inarguably the premium version of the machine now. But - especially given the recent price cuts for the other packs - the main enhancement is that hard drive, which seems logical for existing 360 owners to pick up as an upgrade when it inevitably becomes available.

For those who have been biding their time, the 360 Elite is a terrific gaming console; perhaps not the best value way to enter this generation of the tech battle, but unlikely to disappoint. If only Microsoft's ambitions had been that bit more impressive with this update.(itreviews.co.uk)

Canon EOS 40D

You've got to the stage in your photographic development where you've outgrown the teenage point-‘n'-shoot crowd and have maybe thought seriously about composing shots where you have more say in the settings, effects and lighting conditions. You might even be thinking about stepping up to pro status, but are nervous about spending thousands of pounds on high-end SLRs that might prove just too complex.

The best compromise is to head for a sturdy, semi-pro DSLR which will still have some features that remind you of what's important, and where you can switch to auto when you're in doubt, whilst still giving you much more control. This is where Canon's eagerly awaited replacement for the EOS 30D comes into its own.

Like the 30D, the 40D has a reassuringly solid build and, to enhance this, even the grip has been slightly modified to allow your middle finger stronger purchase. Although the dimensions are broadly the same, there are some immediately obvious changes. The CMOS sensor has expanded from 8.2-megapixels to 10.1-megapixels and the image processor is Canon's standard DIGIC III (replacing the DIGIC II).

The LCD has also grown in size from 2.5 to 3.0-inch and the optical viewfinder is also marginally larger. One very significant physical change is the proliferation of new buttons and controls, designed to give you easier access to more settings. Beneath the LCD are five buttons for playback, delete, jump (for skipping playback photos), info and picture styles, the latter offering seven preset parameters for portrait, landscape, neutral, etc., which can be adjusted, plus you can create new ones.

There's also now a large, quick control dial for menu navigation on the back, plus a mini joystick (for more refined selections) and a smaller display on top that reveals all the camera settings at a glance. The other big change is the ability to use the main LCD for Live View when in the ‘creative zone' - i.e. when not in auto or scene modes - when you can have greater accuracy at manual focusing (the AF system now uses 9 cross type points). You can also use Live View for remote controlling through your PC, connecting via USB or optional Wi-Fi.

The 40D introduces a new dust control system at start-up that can be further refined through the accompanying software, and the continuous shooting rate is a competition-busting 6.5fps, which will be especially good news for sports photographers (the top shutter speed is 1/8000 second). Not only is the picture quality exceptional but you are offered two RAW formats (standard plus sRAW) and a PC terminal for external flash units.(itreviews.co.uk)

Nikon D300 12.3-megapixel SLR

The Nikon D300 is probably one of the most important releases for Nikon so far. Not only does it have a lot to live up to, replacing the much loved and respected Nikon D200, it also marks a pivotal point in the semi-pro/serious amateur DSLR market.

Why? Well, because this is a camera that has not only progressed in leaps and bounds from a predecessor two years' its senior, it has also drastically raised the stakes for any mid-range camera in terms of performance, pricing and sheer quality.

The front body of the D300 looks fairly inconspicuous when set alongside the D200. However, check out the rear and the first thing that jumps out at you is the generously sized LCD preview TFT screen. Measuring 3.0-inches with a superb resolution of 922,000 pixels it offers plenty of opportunity to check out previewed shots in crisp detail.

There's also a handy plus point for the LCD display as it can be used to show live views if it's impractical to look through the viewfinder, meaning you can easily frame a shot without resorting to raising your camera to eye-level. Of course, this can prove a little tricky if you're shooting in bright light due to glare.

The 12.3 million effective pixel CMOS sensor makes the D300 capable of shooting images up to 4,288 x 2,848 resolution, and annoying artefacts shouldn't be too much of a burden with the D300 as it also features a self-cleaning sensor unit. Using the menu options you can set it to automatically shake off the dust and dirt that may be riddling the sensor at the camera start-up or shutdown. Place your ear against the body as you do this and you can hear the satisfying high-pitched vibration.

The D300 measures in at a weighty 825g, which might be a little heavy for some if out for the whole day. However, if you reckon you could handle more it's also compatible with the MB-D10 battery grip. As well as obvious benefits in shooting time, an affixed battery grip also speeds up the continuous frame capture of the already impressive 6 frames per second to 8 frames per second.

Picture quality and shooting features are where the D300 comes into a league of its own. With various picture controls you can manually boost sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue to possibly save on image editing at a later stage.

However, a word of warning: it's not easy to see how drastic your settings are on the LCD screen, especially when boosting sharpening levels, so it's worth trying out any presets before you endeavour to shoot anything important. Take the levels up too far and images can look like they've had an Unsharp Mask applied to them.

An additional feature, which Nikon calls ‘Active D-Lighting', can be activated from the camera's menu and proves invaluable when you're having trouble with the dynamic range of your image. Turning this function on forces the camera to preserve details in highlights and shadows.

This is particularly useful if you're shooting a subject in shadows as it will boost underexposed areas for a well balanced shot. What it doesn't make clear, however, is that ‘Active D-Lighting' will over-ride any brightness/saturation adjustments you may have set with your manual picture controls.

Focussing is made a lot easier with an increased Dynamic AF setting of 51 points, which can be used with 3D tracking. With this feature set if you are framing a subject through the viewfinder and the subject moves out of frame, the camera will automatically set a new point to focus. This proves very useful if you're capturing a scene with plenty of movement, such as sports, as it's quick to respond with accurate focussing.

Needless to say, with so many extra ways to enhance and perfect an image, the quality of the Nikon D300's photos is pretty superb, with results that compare or even exceed that of the next level pro camera, the D2X. There's no evidence of fringing, the annoying under-exposure (which previous Nikon SLR models fell victim to) has been eradicated here and noise levels are impressively sparse, even at the highest ISO 3200 sensitivity.(itreviews.co.uk)