JBL Roxy Reference 250 Earphones - Total Ear Candy

Ilove colourful things, but this one might be a little out of my league; it’s pink, with orange tips. Yikes, that’s bright! However, the Roxy Reference 250 earphones definitely serve as a great accessory as they look cool, sound great, and have the added functionality of a hands-free.

Shiny happy earpieces

Design and features
The pair of earphones I’m reviewing are a bright bubblegum pink, with earpieces that look a little like those tiny orange boiled sweets I used to love as a kid. However, they’re also available in a really nice shade of green with bright blue earpieces. The microphone for the hands-free is also the same bright orange and has the JBL logo, as well as the Roxy branding on it. One good thing about this set of earphones is that they come with this nice little carrying case that can also double up as your PMP case. 

Here are the specifications:

• Compatibility: iPod (all models); MP3, CD and DVD players; laptop computers (all platforms); satellite radio; home stereos; airline sound systems
• Microphone: In-line-microphone with mute control enables hands-free operation
• Case: Matching carry purse included
• Input requirement: Main connection – 3.5mm stereo mini jack
• Power: 2 x 5mW
• Sensitivity: 94dB SPL/mW @ 1kHz
• Frequency Response_ 20Hz – 20kHz (–10dB)
• Input Impedance: 16 Ohms
• Wire length: 1.1m ( 43.3 inches)
• Dimensions: Diameter – 13.5mm (1.35 cm)

Performance
These are in-ear, so there’s a bit of noise reduction involved. I must admit that they’re a little generous with the mid frequencies, but the bass is loud and clear and the treble is sweet and sparkly. I listened to a lot of genres on it and found that it is best suited for hip-hop, pop and dance music as heavy rock and metal sounded a little muddy. The hands-free works well, but I heard a lot of hiss and both parties felt that the voice level could’ve been higher, so this is far from the best hands-free.

Carrying case adds a nice touch

Verdict
I really like this set of earphones in spite of the colours, which make me look a little fruity (absolutely no pun intended). I’d obviously be a lot happier with the green and blue ones, but I had no qualms wearing these around the office today, even with people giving me weird glances. The colourful carrying case also adds a nice touch.

I give these earphones 3 ½ stars. I’ve cut points for the overbearing mid frequencies and weak hands-free, but the overall sound quality is good and so is the design and appeal. So if you have Rs. 1,999 to spare and like colourful things that sound good and make your ears pop (not literally of course), the JBL Roxy Reference 250 is the right set of earphones for you.

JBL Launches New Dock, the OnBeat

Harman International Industries Incorporated today, announced the release of its new JBL OnBeat loudspeaker docking station. This is the first JBL dock that works with any iPad, iPhone or iPod device. The OnBeat features dual Phoenix full-range transducers with computer-optimized DSP equalization. It has a universal connector that docks an iPad, iPod or iPhone and lets you rotate iPod and iPhone screens to portrait or landscape orientation according to how you would like to view your content. The OnBeat also has an infrared remote (IR) that gives you full control over system functions and music navigation.

A multi faceted dock

The OnBeat has a USB connection to sync and charge devices when connected to iTunes as well as a 3.5mm stereo auxiliary input which can connect to your other PMP or audio device. This dock features JBL Weave design styling and looks pretty nice as well. It also charges your iPod, iPhone or iPad while you use it. The JBL OnBeat loudspeaker dock is available in April in jus one colour, black for $149.95 (Rs. 6,698). There's no saying when this dock will hit our shelves here in India though.

Top 3 HDTVs Under Rs. 45,000

It’s recession time, everyone knows that, and the value of articles on cheaper and reasonable alternatives can never be underestimated, as everyone is on a saving drive. But, in the world of consumer electronics, prices seldom can be justified, and just because something is priced high doesn’t mean it's good. In fact on the contrary, we have seen some really nice TVs in the market release in the last year, which are reasonably priced, but perform well. They obviously have some flaws, which we have tried to fully mention. This is not a shootout, just a round up.

Samsung LA32A550P1 32” Full-HD LCD TV 
Rs. 43,000

This one is very good at around Rs. 43,000 bucks, purely for the reasons that the panel is not from Samsung’s entry level, rather it's a mid range 5 series model. The resolution is Full HD, which means you get 1920 x 1080 pixels in a 32 inch panel, which will appeal to the enthusiast who simply requires a sharp and clear high def image. The design is not like Samsung’s flagship touch of color bezel, there is no red tinge in the TV’s frames.

The contrast ratio is 35,000:1 which must be the Dynamic rating. Brightness is healthy at 500 cd/m2. The backlight is made of CCFL, which is what is regularly used in LCD TVs. It does not have the famous 100 Hz feature that Samsung claims to make video smoother, plus there are 3 HDMI inputs, which is good. The response time is 5 ms. The proprietary features available are Wide Color Enhancer 2, which claims to create a dynamic display of on-screen color and reinforce traditionally weak colors such as green and blue, so that they appear vivid and deep. Then we have Samsung’s famous Dnie engine, which is a video optimizer that makes the images more precise and vivid.

Samsung Announces Super High Resolution LCD Display

It looks like Steve Jobs will have to work harder on the next set of displays for his iPads and iPhones. The Retina displays are known to have one of the best screens on any device on sale at the moment. The high resolution on the retina displays were used as a USP to sell them to the public. I want some high-res goodness But now, Samsung and Nouvoyance have demoed the industry’s first 10.1-inch WQXGA (2560x1600) LCD display. At the launch, Joel Pollack, executive vice president of Nouvoyance said, “In order to develop tablets with the form and function that consumers demand, a design engineer ultimately has to determine how to get the highest resolution display possible, while still fitting within the overall power budget for their design”. The panel uses PenTile technology used in the displays,improvesthe brightness, resolution, contrast as well as  power consumption of the said display. According to Dr. Sungtae Shin, Senior VP of Samsung Electronics, Samsung’s "PenTile display technology is the only display technology that operates at 40 percent less power yet provides twice that of Full HD-viewing performance for consumers compared to legacy RGB stripe LCDs. There is no other commercial display technology on the market today that offers this high of a resolution and pixel density in a 10.1-inch size display”. Now that Samsung and Nouvoyance have given the world this technology, let’s hope companies adopt it quickly and we receive some high resolution eye candy.

Hasselblad Launches 200 Megapixel H4D-200MS Camera

Hasselblad makes cameras that are in a league of their own. Their latest camera, the H4D-200MS takes things to a completely new level. For one, it’s a 200 megapixel camera as compared to most DSLRs that use 10 and 25 MP sensors. The H4D-200MS uses a 50 MP sensor that can capture six photos into one. Not the cheapest camera around Unlike other cameras that can let you stitch multiple images into a single panaromic image, this one has motors which shift the sensor and captures the images. The sensor on the camera is larger than most DSLRs and can capture images with a resolution of 6132 x 8176. The ISO sensitivity range of the sensor is between 50 and 800. A single RAW image file measures close to 600 MB. You’re likely to require a high-performance, high-capacity memory card as well. CompactFlash is supported but going by the size of each image, it would be advisable to use a hard drive, which is something this camera supports. The Hasselblad H4D-200MS doesn’t come cheap. It’s selling for $45,000 (approximately Rs. 20,00,000). Users of the existing H4D-50MS can upgrade to the H4D-200MS by paying a difference of $10,000.

Best laptops under Rs 30,000

Recently, we’ve been getting queries as to what one should buy; a netbook or a laptop, from a budget point of view. Well, both these devices serve different purposes, while netbooks are mainly meant for basic computing on the go, laptops are capable of doing more than just chat, email, casual Internet surfing and such. Even the most entry-level laptop is much more powerful than a standard netbook. Unlike netbooks, laptops are more comfortable to work on, in terms of ergonomics. Laptops are better at handling demanding applications like designing suites, multimedia, video playback and such. But netbooks tend to become sluggish even with multiple tabs during heavy Internet browsing, let alone multitasking and heavy applications. However, this fact is also about to change soon when netbooks with Nvidia’s Ion platform and dual-core Intel Atom processors take the market with storm.

We’ve listed a few budget laptops, a few of which might already be owned by some of you and some might be new. All laptops in this list fall under the Rs 30,000 price bracket, and most of them can perform the daily computing tasks seamlessly. Let’s take a quick look at them and see which one bags the ‘best pick’ title.

Samsung R522
Price: Rs 26,250
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300, 2.1 Ghz
RAM: 3 GB DDR2
HDD: 320GB
Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
DVD-Writer
Screen: 14-inch HD
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Basic

Samsung R528-DA01IN
Price: Rs 24,000
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4400, 2.2 GHz
RAM: 2 GB DDR3
HDD: 250 GB
Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
DVD-Writer
Screen: 15.6-inch HD
Operating System: DOS

Samsung R528-DA03IN
Price: 27,750
Processor: Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo T6600, 2.2 GHz
RAM: 2 GB DDR3
HDD: 250 GB
Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
DVD-Writer
Screen: 15.6-inch HD
Operating System: DOS

Sony VAIO S - Slim, Trim but Mighty

The introduction of netbooks brought in low-power computing, but it also brought along compact laptops that were easy to carry around. Suddenly, ultra portable notebooks were seen as extremely expensive. Sony's new compact VAIO S notebooks for those who want less baggage People have always wanted light-weight notebooks and it looks like Sony’s new VAIO S series might be offer users just that. They offer better performance and also, an optical drive which netbooks can’t. We’ve received one of the models from this series - VAIO S VPCSB16FG.   Features The VAIO S comes with a 13.3-inch display that supports a resolution of 1366x768. The processing power comes an Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor, the Core i5 2520M that’s clocked at 2.50 GHz bundled with 4GB of DDR3 memory. Sony bundled Windows 7 Home Premium on this particular model. There’s also an AMD Radeon HD 6470M graphics solution which should offer good HD playback performance as well as graphics performance sufficient for some gaming.   External connectivity options include USB 3.0 devices Apart from that, the laptop comes with a USB 3.0 port along with two other USB 2.0 ports. External displays can be connected using the HDMI port or the D-Sub port. Two memory card readers are present on the side. One of the readers is dedicated for SD cards while the other for Sony’s Memorystick cards. There’s an slot hidden under a flap at the bottom of the laptop that is there to allow you to connect an extension battery to the laptop.  Activity indicators and a switch to turn on wireless connectivity There’s a dedicated slider for the wireless connectivity that lets you switch it on or off quickly. One of the other controls is the Stamina-Speed slider which sets the laptop into a more power saving mode and the speed mode offers better performance. LED indicators for the Caps lock and Num Lock are present above the array of keys.   Build Quality and Design The back of the laptop has a rough matte finish unlike most other notebooks that come with a clean glossy finish. The same treatment is given to the sides of the noteboook. Overall, the notebook is pretty sturdy.  Something different - a rough matte finished back The hinge isn’t very sturdy and it wobbles with the slightest of movements. We weren’t terribly fond of the trackpad and the buttons on it. The clicks are hard to register if you press on the edges of the buttons.   A decent keyboard layout that's easy to get used to The keyboard is pretty good fun to use. The isolated keys - chiclet design is easy to use. Key strokes are hardly missed after a while of getting used to it. The layout is pretty spread out and there’s no clustering of keys. Being a 13.3-inch display notebook, it lacks a dedicated numerical pad. The keys don’t feel very sturdy and we noticed some squeaking sounds from some of the keys while using them rather roughly. Although this laptop isn’t designed for gamers, you might not want to go easy on the keys  Performance CPU and memory subsystem performance was decent. PCMark Vantage scores were 6771. Video encoding of our standard clip took no more than 1 min 12 seconds, which is pretty good for a notebook. It’s almost twice as fast as a good netbook but a little slower than a decent Core i7 based netbook. Frame rates in Cinebench R11's OpenGL test was 18.32 fps, which is respectable. Frame rates in Unigine averaged 11.1 at high settings.  One should be able to do some amount of gaming on it at medium and low quality settings. Older games from a couple of years back should run perfectly fine though. Switch to toggle between performance and power-saving modes The hard drive performance was average. With a sequential 2GB set of data being written on the drive, we recorded speeds of 37.5 MB/s. In terms of power, it’s a relatively powerful configuration for mainstream desktop application, but not necessarily suitable for gaming or high-end content creation suites.   Our intensive battery life test ran for 56 minutes, which is slightly below average. The battery test we run does stress the entire system quite a bit, but we’ve seen laptops run for close to an hour and a half.   A fairly large trackpad, not necessarily the best The touchpad supports multitouch and gestures, but it’s not the most sensitive and most accurate of trackpads we’ve seen. The viewing angles on the VAIO S are decent. The color rendition is pretty saturated and is great for browsing and watching movies. The contrast levels aren’t as impressive though. The darks appear grey instead of pitch black. Speaker quality is decent but they aren’t really loud.    Verdict At Rs. 56,990, it’s not exactly great value for money as far as performance is concerned. It’s design like many of Sony’s other designs are catchy. As you plan on using it as a mobile workhorse, you’re bound to get better performance in the battery-life department for cheaper. There’s a price to pay for slightly higher performance - in terms of money, as well as battery life. If you’re going to be using this laptop at home or at in office on a powered line, the battery life shouldn’t be an issue and the new VAIO S makes a good buy for anyone looking out a light-weight portable laptop to carry everyday. There are other manufacturers offering solutions at similar prices but few of them include an optical drive solution.