While a lot of tech is sold under Rs. 10,000, from a 3rd hand motorcycle to a powerful budget smartphone, we'd like to show you some tech that may have passed under your radar.
Rs. 7k to Rs. 10k
Martin Logan Mikros 70
Price: Rs. 9,700
Coming from a company that’s popular for manufacturing high-quality electrostatic speakers, we were genuinely surprised with the quality of the Mikros 70 because it’s their first ever hand at making IEMs. For the price, this set offers unbeatable performance as the audio is on the brighter side and everything sounds perfectly balanced. Although some people might find the bass a bit lacking on this, but the set makes up for it by ticking all the right boxes in the other departments. We compared the Mikros 70 with the best IEMs out there and it was on par with them especially considering the fact that the other sets costed more than twice the price of this one.
Dell Venue 7
Price: Rs. 8,490
Tablets are amazing to use for certain scenarios such as browsing the web, reading books, watching video content and a lot more. Somehow, tablets with 7” screen size or form factor are easier to use and carry around as compared to the bigger ones. The Venue 7 from Dell is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 dual core processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and built-in Intel HD graphics. As its name suggests, the Venue 7 has a 7” IPS display which has a resolution of 1280 x 800. For the price, the Venue 7 is a really good option to go for when going for a budget 7” tablet for regular use.
Dell S2240L
Price: Rs. 8,499
This might just be a “small” 21.5” monitor, but the S2240L from Dell is among the very best monitors available in the market today. This IPS panel runs at 1080p and its colour quality is exemplary. The display is a glossy one and very reflective which might turn some of you off, but if you take care of your room’s lighting, there’s a very pleasurable experience in store for you. How do we know this? We’ve had this monitor in our test centre for over a year and there is literally no way that Dell can pry that monitor (and its 27” bigger brother) from our bony fingers.
TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 3TB
Price: Rs. 7,363
Space is always at a premium these days. All media is slowly going 4K, HD is already the norm, phone cameras don’t shoot at anything less than a dozen megapixels and games are easily hitting the 50GB mark. One TB HDDs are just not going to cut it anymore and so, it’s now time to think big. Really big. The Toshiba DT101ACA300 is a monster of a 3TB drive that runs at a full, 7200rpm, boasts of a 64MB cache and a latency of 4ms. Why this drive and not any other? Rs. 7,000 for a 3TB drive is an absolute steal whichever way you cut it and you’ll be hard pressed to find better value anywhere else!
D-Link DIR 868L
Price: Rs. 8,300
Speaking of space, higher resolution files means that you’ll need a much higher bandwidth to be able to stream those files to and from a media centre, if you so desire. A high resolution 1080p movie will need a bandwidth of over 25MBps and 4K will only be happy with something that’s closer to 100MBps. How do you get around it? By getting the DIR 868L from D-Link of course! A bandwidth of 1750MBps is quite excellent and should be enough to let you stream high-resolution content to more than a handful of devices.
JBL Pulse
Price: Rs. 9,499
Portable speakers need not just be functional and boring. Get yourself a JBL Pulse and get some fun (and colour) back into your life! Available under 10k, this excellent little Bluetooth speaker is portable, will deliver a psychedelic light show on demand, comes bundled with a Lithium-Ion battery that’ll last you 5hrs with the light show (10 without) and can be controlled wirelessly via the JBL app. Truly, this is an all-in-one entertainment device. If 10k is too high a budget for you and you’d rather have a less colourful musical experience, get yourself the JBL Charge. It’s cheaper, lasts longer and can also double as a portable charger.
Audio Technica ATH-M50X
Price: Rs. 9,299
Audio Technica ATH-M50X Audio Technica is a very well-known name among audiophiles and their M50 is the Holy Grail. Popular the world over, the M50 is often regarded as the best value-for money studio monitor set out there. It’s claimed to offer sound quality that is unmatched even by some sets that cost twice as much. But Audio Technica went a step further; they upgraded the M50 and unleashed the M50X on the world. Audio Technica claim to have taken great pains to maintain the audio quality in the upgrade and thus, the most significant difference that you might notice is that now you get the headphones with three sets of detachable cables. Whether you get the M50X or the M50, you’re in for a treat.
Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G
Price: Rs. 8,147
That mouthful of a name belies a lens that’s one of Nikon’s best. The Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G boasts of a 35mm equivalent focal length of about 50mm, which is absolutely ideal for almost any kind of portrait photography. A wide aperture of f/1.8 means that you get a lot of depth of-field options and can easily take your backgrounds from sharply in focus to artistically blotchy at will. Another advantage of that massive aperture is that there is that much more light coming into your lens and thus, you can shoot at a much lower ISO, translating to lower noise and cleaner images in light that most other lenses will struggle in.
Around 5k
Let's lower the budget and find what we can squeeze in and you should have for just 5K
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1
Price: Rs. 5,565
For some unknown reason, most of us seem satisfied with the onboard audio from our motherboards. Unfortunately, those of us who have not seriously considered a sound card have probably not heard the difference that even a half-decent sound card makes to the audio output. if you’re a gamer or a movie enthusiast and are lucky enough to own a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setup, you owe it to yourself to get yourself at least the ASUS Xonar DX 7.1. It’s a PCIe sound card that features a signal to noise ratio of 116dB, an output THD of >0.00056% and a frequency response of 10Hz to 48KHz. If that’s not enough, the output/input full scale voltage is 2Vrms, which is more than enough to drive even the most demanding of headphones and take your speakers to ungodly volume levels!
Steelseries Siberia V2
Price: Rs. 4,999
What can we say about the headset that’s been a king-of-the-hill and a favourite of professional and amatuer gamers alike around the world for all these years right from its inception. The Siberia V2 oozes quality because it’s really well made and designed quite nicely too. A gaming headset should provide great aural feedback especially in games and should let you pin-point your enemy in hiding while also providing that natural feel and comfort. Steelseries’ Siberia V2 performs brilliantly and if you want a good gaming headset, this is the one to go for.
Under 1K
Well, okay you are a cheapskate but you can still buy some good stuff.
Mi 10400 mAh Power Bank
Price: Rs. 999
Although smartphones and other devices are getting better by the day in terms of the sheer amount of computing power that they possess, where they still lack is their capability to keep themselves running for long. Courtesy, the current battery technology of course which is yet to catch on. This is why you may have definitely experienced anxiety generated because of the lack of juice in your smartphone when you would’ve needed to use it the most. Forget your worries and get yourself the Mi 10400 mAh power bank as this will literally last you more than a couple of full battery charges even if you have the best flagship smartphone out there. And at this price, it’s a steal.
Amigo 2.4GHz Wireless Gamepad
Price: Rs. 999
Game controllers are quite handy especially when you want to play RPG’s, hack and slash, platformers and even use emulators for old consoles on your PC. This is why it’s always good to have a controller at hand. When you can’t afford to get the pricey wireless XBox or XBox One controller for Windows, don’t fret as you can still get a decent controller that too in Rs.999. This bright red game controller in a translucent plastic body from Amigo is wireless with an operating range of 7 metres and supports three platforms - PC, PS2 and PS3.
Dragon War Leviathan
Price: Rs.999
Why buy just any other regular mouse when gaming mice are available for cheap these days. Not only do you get a cool looking mouse with all the bling, but you also get something ergonomically designed. The Leviathan by Dragon War is one such popular mouse that’s made for right-handed gamers. With a 3200 DPI laser sensor and a total of nine programmable control buttons, the Leviathan is no slouch in terms of features and even has four preset DPI levels. What’s nice about the Leviathan’s package is that it even comes with a cloth based gaming mouse mat.
Logitech M185 wireless mouse
Price: Rs. 950
If you’re a laptop user who prefers using a mouse instead of the touchpad, you know how important it is to carry around a decent mouse. It’s even better to have a wireless one with a mini receiver as it provides you more freedom of movement when it comes to using your laptop how you want. The Logitech M185 is a wireless mouse with 2.4GHz wireless connectivity and comes with an extremely small wireless receiver as well. Available for just Rs.950, the M185 comes in three colours to choose from namely Grey, Red and Blue and is a good ergonomically designed mouse to go for.