While this all sounds great you’ve got to carefully balance up what you need from your potential purchase as there are many devices out there each with their pro’s and con’s. Tech Gift Guide have tried out quite a few and would definitely pick the Acer Aspire One A150 due to it’s power, flexibility, excellent keyboard and brilliant screen.

First things first we’ll let you know that it does lack bluetooth which might be a deal breaker for some. But really now, when was the last time that you used it huh? Exactly, yeah just as we thought so this really is not an issue. The things that make or break a netbook are it’s keyboard and screen. Let’s go through these in turn.

The keyboard on the Acer Aspire One A150 is’, quite simply, one of the best we’ve seen on the market. Feedback is great and we were touch typing in about 30 minutes. Acer really put a lot of effort into the keyboard and it shows as the right shift key is nice and large. Perfect for replying to emails or blogging (in fact this review was composed on it while on the train). Do yourself a favour and get on down to a computer store and try out the netbooks on offer. You’ll feel right at home typing on the Acer Aspire One.

Now onto the screen… Most will be in the range of 8.9” to 10.2” and running at a native resolution of 1200×600. While that does sound like an odd number it is indeed widescreen and for most applications there is plenty of screen to go around. It’s crisp and clear and can tilt back quite far. Great for trying to get the perfect viewing angle when using it in strange places. We found the screen to crisp and clear and had no issues using everyday applications on it. The only niggle we have (and everyone has their own opinion on this) is that the display can be, at times, too reflective. If you’ve got a bright light source shining on it it can prove to be difficult to read. No choice on a matte option. But of course it’s a lightweight netbook so go on and move!

The Acer Apsire One comes in various flavours depending on the amount of memory (512MB or 1GB), storage via SSD or HDD and it’s size and then operating system. You’ve got a choice between either Linux or Windows and while we did try out the Linux version we quickly wiped it off in favour of Windows XP. Don’t flame us, it’s a personal choice but for the average user I’d definitely recommend against the Linux version.

While day-to-day tasks were okay in Linpus nothing felt extremely polished. Everything is there from Firefox for browsing to OpenOffice for document editing but the general lack of cohesion definitely let it down. Of course going over to Windows meant that we did lose out on the ultra fast boot time of Linpus which was a bit of a shame.

Now when it comes to value for money we’d suggest getting the Acer Aspire One A150 which comes bundled with a 120GB HDD and 512MB of RAM. You’ll only then need to decide whether it’s Windows or Linux. A personal choice indeed so we’ll leave that one entirely in your hands.

Whatever netbook you chose it really will make the ultimate gift due to their versatility, portability and extreme “I just want to quickly look something up online”ness. The perfect accompaniment to your desktop and wonderful to carry around for when you have time to kill and want to get emails done.

So I decided there were 2 key features I needed – built-in GPS and a decent camera. Being a long time Sony Ericsson fan, I started my search with their new phone catalogue. The Cybershot phones offered great cameras … but no GPS. In fact not a single Sony Ericsson came with GPS built-in. The search continued.

My GPS requirement seriously reduced my list of options. The only phone on the market featuring both this and a minimum 5MP camera was the Nokia 6220 Classic.

I should tell you I have never been a fan of Nokia. I find the styling dull, the menu complicated and the build quality poor. So of course I bought one anyway! They must have improved over the years – they can’t be the world’s best selling mobile phone for nothing … can they?

The first model I received had a broken key. Unfortunately it was the “*” key, so unlocking the phone was a b*tch. After a long fight with three (3 are possibly the worst mobile network on the planet, but I won’t get into that here) I received my replacement phone. The keys all worked, so far so good.

To my disappointment, the menu was still as convoluted as ever. There seems to be no logic to the placement of key features. But this is something that can be learned over time (a lot of it) I suppose.

The keypad is far too small and fiddly to build up a decent texting speed. The function keys are too close to the ‘menu’ and ‘clear’ buttons. I’m still accidentally closing text message when I’m simply trying to backspace. Very annoying indeed, especially as there is physically space to move the keys further apart.

The camera is actually pretty good and takes clear pictures. Video also provides a decent quality with good sound. I believe the images can be geo-tagged, though I haven’t been able to find that mysterious menu item yet. You’d think it would be one of the camera options …

The GPS gets a lock pretty quickly if you’re outdoors and seems reliable. I don’t like the Nokia maps software and will be looking at replacing it as soon as the free 2 month trial ends. As with all Nokia software, it is clunky and not user-friendly.

The phone is a good size and weight and fits in my pocket alongside my wallet with ease. It’s design certainly isn’t going to win any awards, but it’s okay.

The build quality is a little shaky. I suspect it wouldn’t survive a fall in the way the good old nokia’s used to. The plastic battery cover is flimsy and the plastic catches break easily, making it impossible to put the cover on correctly.

If it wasn’t for the built-in GPS, I would have abandoned this phone a long time ago. Come on Sony Ericsson, built-in GPS is the way forward! Grab one today from Amazon USA / UK

That’s half the price of the original iPhone but for that you’ll get enterprise functionality such as push e-mail/contacts, Assisted GPS providing you with near instant location information and the amazing App Store when you can download amazing applications.

Of course it handles phone calls, plays your music and offers ‘real’ Internet browsing with the built Safari web browser. No longer do you need to carry around your cellphone, GPS or music player – the iPhone 3G offers everything in one slim and stylish device.

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) were a little disappointed in the fact that the iPhone still only contains a 2 megapixel camera, lagging far behind the Nokia N95 which sports a 5 megapixel unit. The iPhone still still has no MMS or video recording support which seems to be popular with the YouTube generation of today. Granted one can e-mail pictures around the ‘net but sometimes only a video recording will convey those utterly embarrassing drunken moments

iPhone 3G is appearing in stores from 11 July and, unlike the first generation, you need to sign up to a contract in your mobile store. Apple has given into the mobile providers and backtracked on this innovative ’signup at home’ technology all in the name of making the device more affordable. Mobile providers are now offering a handset subsidy in order bring it to you at this unbelievable price. While there are rumours of certain networks, such as O2, offering it on pre-paid for approximately £399 (compared to the £99 contract price) we have yet to see confirmed pricing. Of course it is still locked so moving to another network is not yet an option.

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) still rate this an amazing device and we will bring you more details as soon as we get our hands on it.