Two Uses, Two Options
One is from your July review-the Compaq v3225AU-and the second is the Dell Inspiron 1420. The difference between the laptops in terms of price is around 10K. Which will be better? Do you know if Dell offers finance options?
Abhishek Tripathi
First up, banks will flock to give you finance options; the laptop has become the single most-financed IT product in the consumer market. That said, its also possible each vendor (HP and Dell) has tie-ups with certain banks for even better deals (lower EMIs, etc.) The Inspiron 1420 has a Core 2 Duo processor which offers greater performance. However, this is relative to your usage, and regular office applications, music, Internet apps, etc. will not see much benefit-the Presario v3225AU also has a reasonably fast CPU (the Turion 64). If you only plan on using your laptop for tasks of this sort, save yourself some cash and buy the Compaq. If you plan on a little more power usage, get the Dell. And please opt for 1 GB of memory-both laptops offer 512 MB in their base avatars.
As Vague As It Gets…
Q. I want to purchase a mobile with a good camera and music playback. What are my options?
Amit Barla
No budget mentioned, no preferred brands mentioned, and it’s not clear if you want good music playback, but anyway… a “good” camera is relative to how much money you want to spend. On a budget of below Rs 10,000 I’d recommend the Sony Ericsson K750i (8,000 bucks street price). This phone is excellent value for money right now. It also has good MP3 playback. If you want something in the price range of 15K, look at Sony Ericsson’s K790i. With a 3.2MP camera and great music quality, it’s a great buy. Nokia’s N73 also makes a good buy at around 1,500 bucks more-it has the same features but is based on Symbian’s S60 operating system, which has a lot of application support and is more functional.
A Nod For The Pod
Q. I want to buy a PMP. My requirement is: 40 to 80 GB, good battery life, best music quality, canal headphones, and compactness. No budget issues. Also, what is the difference between a regular iPod and a nano?
Satyam
The iPod 80 GB seems right for you. It’s a full-featured PMP with good audio capabilities. The regular iPod plays videos, while the nano doesn’t. The nano is, however, just as good in terms of audio quality, and was designed with sleekness and weight in mind. It’s much more portable than the iPod Video. It uses Flash memory, while the iPod Video uses a hard drive-Flash makes the unit sturdier. Hard drives tend to get damaged with sharp impacts. If you travel a lot and your player might get banged around in your pocket, or even dropped a bit the iPod video isn’t for you.
The nano will offer you up to 8 GB, while the iPod Video will give you the magic figure of 80 GB. If you want to lug loads of music along, then go the iPod Video way. However if all you need is a few gigabytes of music and if you want something really light, then look at the nano. The iPod Video 80 GB should cost you around Rs 17,000 (street price). The nano 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB versions will cost you Rs 7,500, 10,000, and 13,000 respectively.
Ancient’s Expensive
Q. I am planning to buy a new AGP graphics card (AGP). Can you tell me about cards within Rs 10,000? Also, I have an unbranded 400 W power supply. Is that enough for powering such a graphics card? My current system specs are:
P IV 3 GHz
ASRock p4i65GV motherboard
512 MB DDR RAM
LG GSA-H12N DVD R/W
Samsung 160 GB SATA HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 4000
Renjith N P
As far as your query goes, the 7600GS has an AGP variant that should cost you Rs 6,000. The 7800GS is the most powerful AGP card you can get (Rs 11,000). I must caution you that AGP is now a dead interface with no more cards being made for it. Because of this, AGP variants of cards are also very expensive. The 7600GS PCI-Express card, for example, costs just Rs 4,500. I’d suggest you consider upgrading your motherboard, memory, and CPU to a PCI-Express platform. A 400 watt PSU will not suffice. Look for a 500 watt VIP, which should cost you around Rs 3,500.
Old Is (Sometimes) Good
Q. I have a Nokia N70, and I want to buy a second phone. My budget is Rs 5,000 to 6,000. I’m looking for a cell phone with a 1.2 MP camera, Bluetooth, a good colour display, a good MP3 player, and GPRS.
Abhigyan Sarmah
Consider the Sony Ericsson W700i-it offers all you’ve mentioned, and a 2MP camera. It’s a compact and good-looking phone. The real icing on the cake is the fact that this isn’t the newest of models, and is therefore excellent value for money now (Rs 8,000 street price). The reason I have gone above your mentioned budget is that good music quality and expandability is not something we’re seeing in lower-end phones right now. Sony Ericsson’s K750i is also available for around the same price. It’s an older model, with good music capabilities. The camera (2.0 MP) has auto-focus (the W700i doesn’t).