Reviews
Independent write-ups after weeks of end-user experiences and testing.
You may often find indispensible advice here and a no-nonsense attitude to evaluating the products.
We don’t go for the bits-and-bytes approach but aim to address the core factor: value-for-money for the average end-user.
Written by Kerrie Baker | 02 March 2010
Posted in Reviews - Appliances
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| Gastro200 Bamix & Mill Package |
I purchased my first Swiss made Bamix wand when I was setting up house in 1981, although they had been manufactured in Switzerland since 1954. At the time, Bamix was a very new concept in Western Australia and every houseproud homemaker simply “had to have one”.
It has served me faithfully throughout the past 29 years, without any malfunctions or problems, so I was thrilled when www.everten.com.au offered me the opportunity to review the current Bamix Gastro 200.
My first impression has left me even more amazed than I already was. My old Bamix is only 100 W in power, whereas the new Gastro 200 is 240 W – more than twice as powerful! The Gastro 200 is also built with a 4.5 centimetres longer immersion section of the wand, allowing for improved liquidising to be conducted in deeper mixes.
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Written by Joe Baker | 01 March 2010
Posted in Reviews - Miscellaneous
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| B&D Diamond PD Control A Door |
Look at this! Installation made easy, well built and quiet to operate. What am I describing? It’s the B&D Diamond Power Drive door opener graciously provided for a review by www.bnd.com.au
What they didn’t know was that I have had one of their older products before and that is still going strong operating one of my five roller doors, pretty much on a daily basis, so just maybe I might be a bit biased.
At digitalreviews.net we tend to only pick products we are fairly sure come from a good stable, having used their older products before or are impressed with the supplier’s code of ethics. Anyway, I shall take you through the installation, which I intend to do on my own and check that this later model, the Diamond PD - Power Drive operates as well, or manages to equal my older one. Surpass it? Let’s see!
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Written by Ronald | 14 February 2010
Posted in Reviews - Storage
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| Thecus N2200 NAS |
In an effort to strengthen its NAS (network attached storage) lineup for the home or small office, Thecus has released the new N2200. Designed to be easy to setup and use, it offers enterprise-class data protection combined with rich multimedia features. Because this is meant for the home, ease-of-use is a key concept since it needs to be easily accessible and useful to a larger audience. In addition, the hardware needs to be easy to configure and setup, while having a design that can easily fit within a home environment. If a company can build a product that performs well in all these, I’m sure the product will be a hit. But from my past experience, each NAS product always seems to have certain strengths and weaknesses. Let’s begin by having a look at the product.
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Written by Martin Regtien | 08 February 2010
Posted in Reviews - Mobile Devices
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| Tegatech TEGA TTP10 |
Move over iPad! Sitting on our test bench is Australia's latest Tablet PC, a beautiful 10 incher from the House of Tegatech.
You may know Tegatech as the key distributor and seller of UMPCs and ruggedised tablet PCs to list a few of their niche products. And you may know them from previous reviews we've done, like the MediSlate and the Ruvo Avox.
This time Tegatech has used their expertise to develop their own device. It is a 10.2" Tablet PC with built-in 3G modem and they are calling it TEGA.
They worked with the Chinese manufacturer K.R.T. to develop an Australianised Tablet PC by adapting firmware and the touchscreen to suit our climate.
As we mentioned in our Upcoming Reviews highlight: we quickly came to the conclusion that this is a very handsome and handy device with plenty of potential uses.
So here's a more in-depth take on this tablet and let's see how our findings panned out over the last few weeks.
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Written by Joe Baker | 04 February 2010
Posted in Reviews - Appliances
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| Jura Impressa Z5 Automatic Coffee Machine |
The reviewer was astounded at just how much you could tailor the Jura Z5 Generation 11 Automatic Coffee machine to suit your needs. Pretty much any weird tastes in coffee can be saved to a button and one press after that always gets you what you want with either 1 or 2 cups.
The reviewer? Yep that’s me!
The Jura Z5 arrived on 15 January 2010 and we have been putting it through some of its many features. So far our initial assessment comment has been little short of astounding. Our intention is to check features that may be controversial or complicated and on how well they operate. We will also take into consideration any comments, whether they be positive, negative or otherwise that we have read previously on this machine and either dispel or endorse pros and cons alike.
In the first day we went though 8 litres of milk testing the Cappuccino side and still had many more programmable features and coffee specialities to go.(latte macchiato, ristretti, expressi, or cafés crème coffees)
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Written by Kerrie Baker | 01 February 2010
Posted in Reviews - Appliances
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| Breville BBM600 Breadmaker |
Making bread with an electric bread-maker sounds easy, but when it comes to making gluten free bread I can assure you that it is a totally different world and anyone in that world would appreciate the difficulties experienced. Since being diagnosed with Coeliac Disease some two years ago, I have tried numerous gluten free bread recipes, mostly with little success.
My old electric bread-maker claimed to be able to make gluten free bread, but after dozens of hard, solid little “bricks” being produced, I totally gave up on using the bread-maker and reverted to the conventional oven baked method. However, after using the latest Breville ikon Baker’s Oven BBM600 Bread-maker for the very first time, I have been converted into believing that technology really can vary immensely. My first loaf was a delight.
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Written by Paul Moons | 26 January 2010
Posted in Reviews - Miscellaneous
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| HDi Dune BD Prime 3.0 |
With the sheer number of Network Media Players on the market today, manufacturers are increasingly looking to find a clever angle to distinguish their products from the others. In putting a Blu-Ray drive inside the BD Prime 3.0, HDi Dune's angle is more of a
convergence. A convergence of everything HD.
Read on for our review.
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Written by Paul Moons | 22 January 2010
Posted in Reviews - Video
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| AC Ryan PlayOn!HD |
With network media players being the home video equivalent of the
iPod MP3 player, more and more variations (of what are essentially the same product) are appearing on store shelves.
Unlike MP3 players however, the network media player segment is yet to be dominated by any one major player. This allows manufacturers to release genuinely different devices in the hope that their unique formula might just catch on and be the next big thing.
Enter the AC Ryan PlayOn!HD.
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