Electronics Reviews


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Samsung Flatscreen TV – LCD 650

Brand: Samsung
Product Name: Flatscreen LCD 52″ 650 HDTV
Model: LN52A650
Model Year: 2008
Amount Paid: $2200
Date Purchased: September 2008

Overall Assessment:
The Samsung 650 series HDTV is the best bang for the buck in the LCD TV world. The 750 series has some added features on the TV’s hard drive that don’t affect the performance any. So, if you don’t need some additional recipes stored on your TV, then the 650 should be plenty good for you. At one time, the 650 series TVs were having a firmware issue where the TV would randomly turn off, especially while watching Blue Ray movies. This is no longer the case for sure, as this issue has been resolved by Samsung and any TV you buy new at the store will already have the fix in place. I have not had any issues with the TV except that I’m completely addicted to watching it!

Picture Quality:
Walk around the store and compare all the LCD TVs and pick the best one…for me that was the Samsung 650 series. It is a subjective decision that you must make on your own. I’d definitely try the Blue Ray movies with this TV as well. I nearly fell over when I saw my first Blue Ray movie. It looks so beautiful and real that you think you’re a part of the movie. They have finally found a way to show movies the same way the eye ball actually sees the world.

There are certain stores that offer a picture calibration with the purchase of the TV (for an arm and a leg). I would recommend that you not purchase the calibration for the 650 series TV for 2 reasons: first, I’ve heard it makes the dark colors too deep they all start looking the same, and second, it takes 5 minutes to go into the settings on the TV and adjust the TV to have the exact picture you desire. They tell you when advertising the calibration that it will save you such and such in electricity bills…your picture adjustment in the TV settings will also do the same in five minutes and you’ll save yourself a couple hundred dollars.

Summary:
Hopefully my many hours spent in the store will help you make your TV decision, but it really comes down to you spending time in the store comparing and buying the best TV for you. I have been nothing but pleased with the Samsung 650 series TV.

LizRating

I’m giving the Samsung 650 series TV a rating of 10 out of 10. Samsung has gotten the hang optimizing the picture quality of their TVs for the price. Let’s take advantage of it!

iPhone Review – LizRating

Comprehensive Cell Phone Review

Brand: Apple
Product Name: iPhone 3G
Model: A1241
Model Year: 2009
Amount Paid: $199
Date Purchased: 3/1/09

Overall Assessment:
Is the iPhone worth all the hype? When it first came out, I definitely thought NO. Since then, I’ve been patiently waiting and waiting to buy one until the price finally came down far enough to be on my radar. I think it was worth the wait. The touch screen functions so well that the touch screen function alone makes it the most pleasurable phone to use on the market. You can type reasonably fast on it and the email even turns sideways now to be in landscape orientation.

Email Capabilities:
After the latest update, you can now type your emails in landscape orientation. Now I really don’t have anything to complain about.

Battery Life:
I’m not completely thrilled about the battery life on the iPhone. I charge the phone every night. If I use the phone to listen to music for more than 3 hours or make business calls on it all day long, I noticed it needs to be charged before the day is over. For a normal day’s use, it seems to last all day with no problem. A normal day might be defined as about 10 phone calls less than 5 minutes long or thereabout and 3 hours of listening to music. I guess if I think about all the things this phone does, I’m not surprised the battery doesn’t last more than a day. It’s a trade off…the cooler the phone, the more battery life it’s going to consume.

Ring Tones:
The only other thing I have to whine about (call the wambulance) on the iPhone is the difficulty of creating ring tones. Unless you have a Mac computer, you have to pick one of the few eligible ringtones from your iTunes library, right click to create the ringtone, right click to create an AAC version, save the ringtone to your desktop, change the file extension from “.m4a” to “.m4r.” Ring tones are really easy to get for a Blackberry…all you have to do is go to crackberry.com and send any ring tone you want right to your phone. This is what I’m used to. So, I wanted to put some of my favorite ring tones on my iPhone. Since I didn’t purchase these ring tones on iTunes, the iPhone wouldn’t allow me to install them. I quickly found a way around this annoying little quirk! I loaded some software made by Xilisoft called Xilisoft iPhone Ringtone Maker. All you have to do is quickly create a ringtone with any song or sound bite you want and import it. It’s so easy and I get my way! Rock on! Sorry Apple suckers!

Comparisons:
The Storm doesn’t compare with the iPhone…I don’t care what they say. The Storm simply can’t compete. I even switched mobile services just to get the iPhone instead of the Storm. Not to mention…$199 for a second generation iPhone and the same price for the first generation Storm. Experience pays off! When you compare the phones, you find out that the iPhone is superior on pretty much all levels. With the iPhone, applications open faster, you can type faster, and there are applications up to your eyeballs available at your finger tips. Gotta be fair though, the Storm will catch up on the applications. And Apple’s applications will always be confided within the “Apple Box” while for Blackberry products, you can get applications from more outside sources and they’re more likely to be free on websites like www.crackberry.com.

The browsing function is better on the iPhone when compared to any of the Blackberry products. As far as internet speed, I’d say there’s not enough of a difference there to talk about. The iPhone browser seems to have a better look and feel and seems to be a little easier to use. When you need to zoom on the iPhone, you can pinch with your fingers closer together or further apart, which is just plain cool. On the Storm, you either have to double tap the screen or use the plus/minus buttons to zoom. You just have to determine what’s right for you. 

Summary:
It seems to be the case that if you use your phone mostly for emailing and texting, that the Blackberry products are better for that, while if you use your phone mostly for internet and browsing purposes, then the iPhone is better for that. You’ve got to make your own decision though. Have fun playing with the phones and figuring out which one’s better for you.

LizRating

I’m giving the Apple iPhone 3G a rating of 9 out of 10. Apple has gone out of its way to make some really creative products that are pushing their competitors. That’s what we need, a little friendly competition!

iPod Nano Review – LizRating

iPod Nano 2GB_2.gifComprehensive iPod Nano Review

Brand: Apple
Model: Nano 2 GB
Model Year: 2006
Date Purchased: July 2006
Purchaese at: Best Buy
Product Description: 2 GB flash drive music and photo slideshow player, up to 14 hours of music playback, black Read Full Article