Looks like Packard Bell is trying hard to recatapult its brand with the release of the Easynote DT85 and the Dot m/u.

Well the Easynote is surely going to have many techies drooling over it. Its got an absolutely Ki-ller set of features and specs and can easily match upto any desktop. It’s got a 18.4 inch HD monitor, a Blu-Ray drive and an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. It comes loaded with a 4GB of DDR3 RAM and  NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 240M graphics chip and also has a 1.25 TB hard drive on board so that you can take along your collection of movies with you. This one is expected to hit the U.K markets by the end of this month along with a $699 price tag.

Coming to the Dot m/u notebook… this one is a sleek notebook which almost less than an inch and weighs only 1400g and can easily fit into the handbag plus its lightweight as well. The Dot m/u is offered in two colours black and red. Its got a decent enough battery life of 8 hours.  Also this one ain’t going to be an easy one on the pocket at $399.

Thumbs up: High quality audio performance, efficient noise cancellation, comfortable.

Thumbs down: Expensive, could be a bit more robustly built, no Bluetooth.

Inside the trunk:

• Design: Over-the-ear
• Color: Silver
• Weight: 0.5 lbs

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: This one from BOSE comes in after the QuiteComfort 2 and the QuiteComfort 3 and surely makes the best even more better. This time BOSE has tried to reinvent its own baby, the noise cancellation feature, to probably punch the ones who tried to copy its invention like Creative and Sennheiser right in the face… and surely this ones going to hurt bad. BOSE has left no stone unturned in making this one an absolute masterpiece.

As far as the designing is concerned this almost looks familiar to the QC 2 with hardly any difference. BOSE sticks to its iconic design with the over the ear design with earcups which can easily be swiveled around and put into the elegant case that comes along with it. With the headphones in it, the case hardly becomes any thicker than a CD case. And just for the convenience of frequent travelers this comes along with a “high/low” switch.

Though in the QC2’s even when the noise cancellation feature engaged, they had soft cushions which protected the users ears from the ambient noise. Also the QC2’s had the noise cancellation microphones only on the inside. In contrast, the QC15 has the noise cancellation microphones both on the inside and the outside which by the claims of BOSE increases their effectiveness. A few users might feel like they are traveling in a train in a tunnel because of the noise cancellation quality, this is just because there is some pressure created on the eardrums. A few might even find it annoying but once the music starts plugging in that feeling vanishes. And just incase the user finds it increasingly annoying, BOSE offers the 30 days- money back surety.

While on the move this one proves to be quite efficient because the battery life is pretty decent. There is hardly any chance that your music would leave your side while you are on the run. It has a battery life of 35 hours with a AAA battery which is fitted into the  earcup on the right side. For those who still prefer the rechargeable option the Q3’s are always there to the rescue. I personally am a fan of the standard alkaline batteries just because of the fact that you don’t have to carry your charger everywhere you go to.

Since these are over the ear, expect a kind of a moist feeling below the cushions. Also it gets a bit difficult during the hot days to stick onto the cushions. It gets a tad bit too uncomfortable. For all those who love their short naps when on the run, there is good news because the cord can be easily detached and the earcups can be easily used to ward off any kind of noises on the way.

Coming down to the sound quality… the sound quality offered by the QC15 is far more superior than its other siblings. Its comparatively smoother and makes up for the bass mess that the QC2 was peculiar with. The bass and treble are far more crisp and nice. The audio is highly clear. Though at times this offers some sound distortion at the high-maximum volume range, at most of the times the sound is pretty much articulate. However I must add that not many hip hop fans will like this one. But then again its all a matter of choice.

Nitty- gritty: Well when I was handed over this pair my first reaction was “I want to listen to my entire collection with this one.” LOL. Sounds like a kid been given a chance to try all the pizzas in town with a new topping. Anyways moving ahead… this one is the most improved noise cancellation headphones I have come across and is also amongst the best. Like I always maintain that BOSE offers stuff at high prices and this one is no small bargain either. They are anyday better than the $350 QC3 headphone which surely doesn’t match upto this one in anyway. I would recommend this one to all the travelers who are seeking refuge from the noise in the surroundings with added high comfort levels.

Thumbs up: Pocket friendly price, excellent battery life, good call quality, decent touch screen performance.

Thumbs down: No 3.5 mm headphone jack, poor image quality, absence of 3G and Wi-Fi.

Inside the trunk:

• Price at launch £140.00
• Connectivity USB 2.0
• Dimensions 106 x 53.5 x 11.9
• Weight (g) 93.50
• Battery Type Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
• Camera Resolution 3.15

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: This one is the youngest one from the Tocco family. After the Samsung Tocco F480 and the Tocco Ultra Edition S8300 comes in the Samsung Tocco Lite S5230. This latest one is peeled off a few features that its older siblings had to offer, but I guess this was done to make the price more pocket friendly as this one claims to give the user an affordable touchscreen experience.

Razzle- dazzle: This one doesn’t stand out to be any different from the basic design of the other members of the Tocco family. Its got the basic black glossy look with a bare to the bones classy design which almost of the touchscreens after the iPhone have been adhering to. For all those who are bored of the black, this one is being offered in flashy pink and pure white versions too. It’s got curved edges to add to its swish looks and at 92g this one is quite lightweight plus its got some texturing on the back which allows for some good grip. Also at 106(h) x 53.5(w) x 11.9(d) mm this one fits quite conveniently into the pocket or in any clutch.

With this one Samsung has surely gone minimal, on the front side it has the touchscreen display and below it there is the navigation toggle along with the talk and end buttons. The display is quite bright and clear though it faces a few problems when directly under the sun, but then again most of the touchscreens have this glitch. It works absolutely fine otherwise.

The right side houses the camera button and the lock/unlock key and the other side houses the volume/zoom rocker control, multi-connector socket for USB cable, charger and the earphones jacks. The lock/unlock facility functioned properly most of the times but on a few occasions got unlocked on its own in the pocket and also a few widgets were activated though no calls were made.

Inside dope: Though Samsung has compromised on quite a few features with this one it has retained the TouchWiz UI like in the others from the Tocco family and the Jet. The interface can easily be managed by swiping the finger over the screen. This one being more of a resistive display, doesnot have the smart multi-touch feature.

The 3 buttons on the standby screen are for stimulating the numberpad, the contact book and the main menu. The numbers on the numberpad have been comfortably placed to avoid any mispresses and it well quite succeeds in achieving this. The phonebook can be used to find a number in three ways. Either swiping down through the whole list or directly typing the name on the search bar. The other option that it offers is searching through sections letter by letter. It also has an option of photo contacts, using which all your recent contacts photos will pop up on the screen in a grid like fashion and all you have to do is click on the photo to make a call.

Coming to messaging… with the roomy virtual pad that this one has to offer, messaging is made a bit less harrowing an experience than most of the touchscreen phones. Though, most heavy texters might find this touchscreen a bit of a hassle compared to the conventional phones I guess this is the most Samsung could do to help them. The T9 option offered with this one does take some time to get used to. It also has a handwriting recognition mode which works just fine. One complain that I have with the Samsung phones is that when you are typing the text you do not come to know if you have crosses the on page limit, its only when you go ahead with sending the message do you come to know if you have crosses the limit. This offers an email service too, using the regular POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts.

The call quality that this one has to offer is pretty much impressive with hardly any static or interference. The sound quality was pretty much audible and clear with no echo effects. Even the callers on the other end had no complains with most of them not even coming to know that I was using a celllphone.

This one offers a nice comfortably big screen for browsing the web and using the internet but then again it does not support 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity for faster speeds. Using the GPRS or the EDGE services takes up a lot of time. The Samsung browser is also hassle free as compared to most of the competition that it faces.

This one comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera but by the looks of it, it looks like this one is surely not an imaging device. It lacks even the basic LED flash. The images appear to be a bit oversaturated at times and also with close ups, the quality of the photographs isn’t crisp enough. It’s got the fun frames and the smile detection feature along with a colourisation and timer effect. Its kind of shoot-and- wish kind of a scenario with this kind of a camera. I wish Samsung had come up with something better in this department.

The music player though not as high end as the  one offered by the iPhone is decent enough. The audio quality through the speakers is quite decent just with some added bass which could be avoided by using the earphone( yeah this one doesn’t have a 3.5mm  headphone jack). Video streaming can get grainy and discontinuity may occur because of the low speeds.

The Tocco lite battery life has been estimated to be around 10 hours of talktime and about 600 hours in standby mode which brilliant enough and this iss possible because of the absence of the 3G and Wi-Fi services.

Nitty- gritty: I would recommend this one to anyone to wants to be in touch control at a budget price. Though this one doesn’t have a lot of features, the price it is being offered for makes up for it.