Home
Epaper
Letter to Editor

You are here: Home > Features > Features > Budget buys

Budget buys

By: S R Ramakrishna    

MiD DAY visited some electronic stores to bring you a choice of digital gifts for the festival season. We set Rs 1,500 as our budget, and found quite a few interesting knick-knacks.

Here are our recommendations:

Tata Sky set-top box

You get some channels free with the set-top box, but it's bound to be the basic package, and we advise you to check out the competition. If you're a music buff, for instance, you might find the Airtel package with WorldSpace radio more interesting. Big TV should also be in the reckoning. Rs 1,499

i-Pod case

Several firms make attractive iPod cases, and you will definitely find a good range if you are willing to spend between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500. We found an attractive, pink-coloured Speck Techstyle iPod case for Rs 1,250. If you're looking for a gift for a guy, you'd probably look for other colours. Rs 1,250

Sennheiser HD 202

Diwali can be a good excuse to buy yourself a good pair of headphones. We recommend the Sennheiser HD 202. It has become an attractive buy after its price was slashed recently. It handles the bass and middle frequencies well, which means you'll particularly enjoy music from your mp3 player, which tends otherwise to emphasise only the highs. Also recommended is the Koss UR 18 at Rs 1,200, but this is not widely available. Rs 1,590

One for All universal remote

Integrates the functions of three remotes, which means you can use it to control your TV, DVD player and music system simultaneously. Helps you clear the clutter, and saves you the bother of having to juggle between multiple remotes. A more advanced touch-screen model is available, but that will set you back by about Rs 5,000. About Rs 1,290

Logitech notebook stand

This rubberised stand helps you adjust the screen of your laptop. Useful if you're uncomfortable with the posture your laptop is forcing you to adopt. Rs 999

Creative Asus 2.1 speakers

Useful if you are listening to music on your computer, but you should check out other brands before you settle on this. The coolest 2.1 speakers are priced between Rs 7,500 and Rs 10,500, way above the budget we had set for ourselves, but this is just to remind you that you can buy yourself a pair of speakers and a sub-woofer for a small price. Rs 1,250

NEWS My NEWS ENTERTAINMENT SEX & RELATIONSHIPS FEATURES SPORTS THE GUIDE