India's “gadget Oscars”, better known as the Quickheal NDTV Tech Life Awards,
are India's most popular gadget awards to recognize top gadgets.
The products were tested by Living Digital at CyberMedia Labs, and finally
selected by a grand jury. There were 16 categories this year.
- Best Audio System
- Best Budget Mobile
- Best Smartphone
- Best Computing Device
- Best Computer Peripheral
- Best Gaming Product
- Gadget Eye Candy
- Best Television Display
- Best Imaging Device
- Best Portable Audio Product
- Best Mobile App
- Green Gadget of the year
- Gadget of the Year — people's choice
- Best Celebrity Endorsement
- Gadget of the year- jury's choice
Invitations were sent out to vendors to nominate their
products in specific categories. The nomination process was online, via a
website specifically created for the purpose. Once the online nomination process
was closed, Ernst & Young audited all the entries, bringing the number to about
650 valid entries across the categories. These entries were then submitted to
Team LD to call in for the products and start the testing process.
Jury Meet The awards jury included the most popular and The eight-member jury, armed with the test reports made Each jury member individually filled up their ratings/scores in the jury docket after the |
Testing at CyberMedia Labs There were separate testing processes for different The extensive testing process pitted the gadgets Every category had a pre-defined test base/test set-up, Once this was done, the test reports for all the 130 |
The ICT Categories' award winners
CyberMedia chief editor Prasanto K Roy announces the jury's
choice for Gadget of the Year, as fellow jury members (from left) Ashish Bhatia,
Kishore Bhargava, Gul Panag, and Atul Chitnis, applaud the winners:
Reliance and Tata, for their 3G modems-”Broadband on the Move”
Best Computing Device
Dell Inspiron Zino: The compact design is a delight: the
colorful little box looks like no desktop computer we've seen (the package ships
with three cover colors). For under Rs 17k, you get a big-brand desktop with LCD
monitor, keyboard and mouse. Basic specs (Atom N230, 1GB, 160GB, XP) and performance, but a smart addition to your living room.
Best CE Device:
Western Digital Live: A smart and flexible media player
that upscales videos to full-HD, playing from an HDD or via the home network, so
that you can fully enjoy your HDTV. Plays most video formats (as well as DTS
audio), and has most controls on the remote. Uses proprietary cables, but overall very capable and worth the Rs 10k price.
Gadget Eye Candy
Dell Adamo XPS: This is what slim means-under 10 mm, for a
13-inch laptop. Unbelievable. And a design like no other, with neat touches like
a heat-sensor-strip which opens the lid. Intel Core2Duo ULV 1.4GHz processor,
4GB memory, and overall decent specs and performance...but weighed down somewhat
by the unpractical, just-over-two-hours battery life, and the very stiff
pricetag.
Best Computer Peripheral
Microsoft LifeCam Cinema HD Webcam: Webcams are synonymous
with jerky, grainy, poor images. Not this one: the first true 720p high-def
webcam we've come across, and the first step to bringing decent videoconference
quality to the home, at a nice price. It's 16:9 widescreen, autofocus, and the
build quality is great--the aluminum chassis makes it feel solid and gives it a
classy look.
Smartphone of the Year
Motorola Milestone: Motorola's comeback attempt, and a
solid effort it is. Absolutely latest Android version, full QWERTY keyboard (and really slim, despite it), touchscreen, great interface and even live wallpaper. The camera is average, and the price is stiff: but overall, a
great package that's brought the Indian mobile market's nearly-forgotten
Motorola back with a bang.
Budget Phone of the Year
Samsung Corby S-3653: This is one for the young (or young
at heart): bright colors, touchscreen with cool widgets and Samsung's TouchWiz interface and a small, neat design. At under Rs 8k, this is
one of the first to integrate social networking apps (widgets) at this
pricepoint. There's lots of java apps and games available. Nice package, though
no 3G or wi-fi.
Best Mobile App
Opera Mini 5: This is the big O of the mobile world. A
browser that's a joy to use on any phone, keypad or touchscreen. Now with tabbed
browsing, password management, download manager and a “speed dial” homepage that
shows favorite sites as thumbnails. It even compresses traffic up to 90%. And
did we mention that it's free?
Gadget of the Year
Broadband on the Move: 2009 saw the arrival of true mobile broadband with Reliance launching the Netconnect Broadband+ and Tata launching the Photon+ data cards. With
speeds of up to 3.1Mbps offered on laptops connected to the 3G data cards,
staying connected on the move became easier, and affordable. For the first time,
we're not suffering from India's poor wi-fi infrastructure. Yes, the jury felt
that this bit of tech would have the maximum impact on tech usage in India, this
year.