We all know that has been going down hill of late and last installments like Black edition and Prostreet were like final nails in the coffin. Die hard NFS enthusiasts are turning towards titles like Gran Turismo. But Need for Speed are back with Shift which has drastic changes made to its game engine. The developers have ditched the story interface that we have been playing since Underground and now you get a shut-up-and-race environment. Yes! The good old race track days are back and this time they have even more eye candy. In Shift, you are a guy who keeps racing to climb up the ladder and eventually wins the World Tour. We don’t know how you will take abrupt end of story type theme that NFS has been having but we certainly liked these new look. In the first race, you get to choose the difficulty level which will remain the same throughout the game. But you can change it if you are not happy with the default settings that come. You earn money when you win races and you  [...]

With the number of gaming laptops rising, the hardware makers are now feeling they can cash in by making dedicated mice and keyboards for gaming. Razer Orochi is a by product of similar ideas. Now we all know Razer’s prowess when it comes to making gaming gear. It is one of the best and churns out good devices one after the other. We weren’t disappointed by any means when we tested the Razer Orochi. The mouse can be used as a Bluetooth wireless device as well as a wired device through USB. The rubber around the mouse makes it comfortable to grip when you are engrossed in games. The USB cord of the mouse is covered in cloth which makes it ultra rugged. This is a portable mouse and maybe this move has been made to make the mouse stand to the tough conditions that you might put it in, while traveling. The mouse can be used both wired and wirelessly, when wired the mouse gives sensitivity of 400 dpi but it will dip to 2000 dpi when you use it through Bluetooth. 2000 dpi is good  [...]

Microsoft’s last offering on webcams was LifeCam VX-7000 and though it was not that bad, it wasn’t that good on features either. The 1.3 megapixel webcam has a new successor in the form of Microsoft LifeCam Show. This camera is an improvement on a lot of features as compared to its predecessor. This device doesn’t work on MAC based computers. Microsoft LifeCam Show is a two mega pixel camera which can capture pictures at 1600x1200 pixels and videos at 800x600 pixel resolution. But an upgrade in hardware is accompanied by an increase in price. VX-7000 cost you $60 where as this camera will set you back by $100. It is up to you to decide whether it is worth to upgrade. Microsoft LifeCam Show has a Windows Live Call button, when you press it, it will start video call with your contacts on the IM list. It is called Windows Live Call button since it is from the stables of Microsoft, but the button works with messengers which support video like Skype. We were happy with the  [...]

HP is out with another computer, this time it is HP Pavilion p6210y and it has got plenty of good hardware but it doesn’t beat the Gateway SX2800-01 which is standing hard at number one position in our tests till now. The front of the cabinet has a glossy finish of black color so it is sure to attract a lot of finger prints. There is a panel in the front for plugging in headphones so that you don’t have to go running behind the computer every time. Aside from that there is a media card reader. Comparing this desktop when it comes to price, the HP Pavilion P6210y costs the same as Dell Inspiron 545s-3055NBK. The specs are the same of the two computers but HP gets the edge because of the quad core AMD processor. Gateway SX2800-01 is still the better computer than this product by HP, it has an edge when it comes to performance and it also costs less. When it comes to expansion cards, HP Pavilion P6210y has a single empty 16x PCI Express slot to put in your graphic card. If you  [...]

Samsung LN26B360 is an entry level 26 inch TV and there is stiff competition in this section for price between the rivals. The screen gives good picture considering this is a HD ready panel, in fact we found that this TV had the best picture quality in this price range. This TV is available in sizes of 32, 26, 19 and 22 inches. The image quality and features are the same but 22 and 19 inch models have lower contrast ratio. The Samsung LN26B360 looks like a typical LCD but still makes it very attractive. We liked the thin glass bar peeping out from the bottom of TV. The TV swivels on its sides. The TV is smaller as compared to full size HD panels. The TV is made for people who are not potato couches but for light viewing. This is reflected in the remote control of the TV which has simple controls as compared to those bigger TVs. The interface is not much complicated and you wont need much time to get used to it. The remote looks bright with the buttons all separated with various  [...]

Sony Vaio series of notebooks are mainly aimed at multimedia users, they usually don’t make a basic entry level notebooks. So we are naturally excited every time a Sony Vaio notebook lands in our test centers. This one too doesn’t disappoint you on our features it has Blu-ray drive which makes us wish the display was full HD. But maybe we are getting too greedy. This laptop is good for light gamming but it is certainly not for high end full fledged gamming. If you push games to its highest limits and play in all its glory, it will bring this laptop to its heels. We tried a few games with the special effects all closed and we had decent game play. Sony Vaio FW560F/T is not your portable laptop, it is made as a desktop replacement for people who don’t need much clutter on the desk and want some basic mobility.  [...]

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard is a simple keyboard and though the name looks somewhat intimidating it is a computer peripheral which is kept at a low price range and the only specialty it has is the back lighting. This can be great if you are typing in the dark. The keyboard doesn’t have features which normal gaming keyboards have like volume controls or scroll dials. But this has probably done to keep the price under the limit. The keys have micro lens reflectors fitted beneath each key so that it gives you a light blue effect. This light effect is awesome when typing in the dark. There are three levels for you to customize the intensity of lighting and you can choose to switch it off if you don’t need it. The Logitech Illuminated Keyboard has two feet on the top behind the body which is there for better typing experience. This keyboard is quite similar to keyboard of the IBM Thinkpad laptop You don’t need to install any drivers for the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard  [...]

The Dell Inspiron i545s-3055NBK is slim but it comes at the cost of performance. This budget desktop is not for your advanced user or high end gamers. The computer is powered by 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 which is pretty fast but not on par with other fast systems that are available on the market. The RAM in the computer is 6 GB DDR2 RAM of 800 MHz, we would have liked a DDR3 rated RAM. A better quality RAM would have given better performance. There is no discrete graphic card in the computer and all you get is 256MB (shared) Intel GMA 3100 integrated graphics chip. Any high end game or graphic demanding application will bring this system to its heels. This computer was made with the budget user in mind who needs a computer only for basic purposes and not for gaming or any high end applications. An absence of a discreet card also means you cannot watch movies in all their glory. But there is plenty of memory space for you store all your files with the 750 GB, 7200 RPM disk.  [...]

We were wondering about what Samsung could possibly mean when they said Dualview on the camera name. We gave up, after thinking for a lot of time and we finally opened the product to find out for ourselves. What followed really blew us of our feet. Yes! It has a screen right next to the lens of the camera. The screen is used for self portrait and a few other functions that we will discuss later. But a presence of a dual screen would add to the cost and it does take up the price of the product a little. The screen of the Samsung DualView TL220 is about three inches and it is a touch screen interface. Most of the physical buttons have been sacrificed for the LCD interface. The LCD has lots of functions you may get confused with the features of the camera if you are a newbie. This camera has a lot of expert features and has been made for shutter bug freaks. It will get a while for you to get used to this camera if you have never handled one before. The LCD display of the touch screen  [...]

Logitech makes one of the best mice in the market, no doubt about that. We have hardly had any complaints with Logitech mice and keyboards. They don’t do anything extravagant, they have great ergonomics and all this is done keeping price in mind. This mouse is a bit expensive at $50 but we think that with the single receiver feature it is worth spending the extra buck. But let’s start with the basics; the Logitech Wireless M505 doesn’t have a thumb button that we are used to in Logitech mice. It has just two buttons with a middle scrolling wheel. The scrolling wheel is notched rather than smooth that most mice posses. We are more comfortable with the notched wheel rather than smooth one. The right click and the left click buttons on the Logitech Wireless M505 are fine and we had no problems with them. It was easy to click and comfortable. The Logitech Wireless M505 has a symmetrical design which makes it comfortable to use it with both hands. Left handed as well as  [...]