Decide what to buy

In light of the credit crunch, you would have thought that we’d all be being a little more careful over our spending but new research from Reevoo has found that we not only still spend a fortune on electrical devices but we are also still shopping for middle of the range brands, rather than cheaper ones. But it must be said that we are at least reading more reviews so that we can be sure we’re spending our money on worthy goods.

The poll of 3,000 households revealed that 77% of Brits are now opting to read customer reviews before selecting items such as televisions, washing machines and dishwashers. And 69% of people are taking more time over choosing electrical products.” – very wise.

The research also showed that over our working lives, we will spend a massive £48,940 on electrical devices alone. And what is the item we’ll have to replace the most? The humble kettle. We will buy one every three years, costing us £1000 over our lifetime.

But that’s small fry compared to the amount we’ll spend on PCs, TVs and ovens over the years. The table below shows how often we’ll replace items and how much they’re likely to cost us.

Spending patterns differ in different regions. Click on the map below to see how much you’re likely to spend in your area:

We?ve been looking into design here at Reevoo. Good product design is becoming more and more important and clever and innovative designs are what consumers look for to save time and make their lives a little easier.

So we looked into which brands were coming up with the best designs. When a shopper buys something from one of Reevoo?s 55 retail partners, they are sent an email asking them to rate it. One of the categories they rate is the design of the product.

Looking at 22,000 products, with over 15 reviews, we took these design scores and ranked all of the products in terms of their score for design ? the product with the highest score at the top.

What we found was pretty impressive for one brand in particular. In the top 100 products for design, a whopping 51 of them are from Samsung! It?s a real result for the brand that has put a strong focus on design in recent years.

LG in second place and Sony and Apple in joint third made up the top 3.

If you?re a regular reader of Decide What to Buy, I?m sure you can guess at which product Numatic had in the top 100? Hetty! She?s had a stonking 2008, already topping the best vacuum cleaner list back in June and in March.

But we wanted to look deeper into the data so we split the products up into categories. We looked at Home Entertainment, Mobile Phones, White Goods, Computing and Home and DIY in more detail to see which brand?s products performed the best for design in each category.

And here are the results:

Home Entertainment:
1. Toshiba 46XF355D (television)
2. Samsung LE37A656 (television)
3. Toshiba 40XF355D (television)
4. Samsung LE37A436T (television)
5. Samsung YP-K3JAB 4GB (MP3 player)
6. Samsung YP-P2JCB 8GB (MP3 player)
7. LG 32LG5010 (television)
8. Sony Bravia KDL32W4000U (television)
9. Pioneer Kuro PDP5080XD (television)
10. Samsung PS50Q97HD (television)

Mobile Phones:
1. Samsung F480 Tocco
2. Apple iPhone 8/16GB
3. Nokia 8600
4. Motorola PEBL U6
5. Samsung P520 Armani
6. Motorola W375
7. Sony Ericsson W890i
8. Sony Ericsson T650i
9. Motorola ROKR U9
10. Nokia 7500

White Goods:
1. Bosch KTR18P20GB (fridge)
2. Miele GT 316 ES (freezer)
3. AEG-Electrolux Santo 75348KG (fridge-freezer)
4. Baumatic BF207SLM (fridge-freezer)
5. Kenwood GT/AL17 (microwave)
6. Samsung RSA1DHMH (fridge-freezer)
7. Daewoo ERF336MB (fridge-freezer)
8. Samsung RSH1DTMH (fridge-freezer)
9. Miele KFN 8762 SDed (fridge-freezer)
10. Samsung RSH1DBBP (fridge-freezer)

Computing:
1. Apple MacBook MB403
2. SONY Vaio VGN CR31Z
3. HP DV9646EM RECON
4. ACER M1100
5. Dell Inspiron 1525
6. HP DV9702EA
7. Compaq Presario V6642EM
8. HP V6630EM
9. HP DV9705
10. Toshiba Equium P200-1ED

Home & DIY:
1. Numatic Hetty (vacuum cleaner)
2. Neff B1442NO (oven)
3. Neff B1442S0 (oven)
4. Neff U1322N1GB (oven)
5. Electrolux Insight EKT6045X (oven)
6. Bosch HBN1315 (oven)
7. Prestige 47433 (steam cooker)
8. Bosch HBN131251 (oven)
9. Aeg B41014 (oven)
10. Neff B1422 (oven)

A few very odd reviews in this week’s Funny Friday…

"Good to send to the man who has everything. High Five! Hey may send you pictures… give me a labotomy" Borat Mankini Swimsuit

"Takes a little time for anybody with average computer skills and over 40 to get to grips with…And Since losing my "super cool" position within the family i have been forced to remove my underwear from the fridge!" APPLE I-MAC 24 - we weren’t too sure what this review was all about but it did make us chuckle

"the SEXIEST way to turn on a TV ever!" Samsung LE40F86BD

"the glass screen is far too reflective so its like your watching a half tv half mirror. useful for doing your hair in" Hitachi 15WDVB

"the muscles are a tad big- my kid can hardly eat when he’s got it on" Spider-Man Reversible Costume

If you like your wine, you might want to get your hands on one of these. It?s a nifty device that can age wine - or any other alcohol that benefits from age, like Whisky - almost instantly. The Ultrasonic Wine Ager looks like a common ice bucket but it uses ultrasound to collide alcohol molecules which artificially ages the alcohol. In 30 minutes, your wine will taste like it?s been aged for decades.

It?s also great for preventing hangovers because the process purifies the alcohol and makes it easier for your kidneys to absorb.

So you can take a cheap supermarket bottle of vino and change it into an oak-aged vintage in no time. Or take a bargain Whisky and turn it into an eight-year-aged single malt.

Casey Jones, inventor of the device, even tried it on orange juice and said it made it taste a lot fresher and look brighter too.

It improves the taste, look and bouquet of the drink ? I?d imagine you all saying that in the voice of Jilly Goolden… But although you could quite happily turn a cheap bottle of plonk into a masterpiece, the price of this gadget is definitely not cheap. It?s ?350 at the moment. A little steep but if you?re into your wine, I reckon it would pay itself off in no time…just beware of restaurants trying to make you pay a fortune for paint stripper..

As I was browsing Reevoo, trying to find a present, I decided to see which were the top rated DVDs to help me find something. I have to say that they were the strangest collection of titles and definitely not what I expected so I thought I?d share them with you all.

The top 10 most highly rated DVDs* on Reevoo.com were:

1.    Long Way Down
2.    Gavin & Stacey
3.    Dirty Dancing
4.    Sharpe
5.    Shaun the Sheep ? The Christmas Giftset DVD
6.    Peppa Pig Vol.4
7.    Lazytown
8.    Genesis - When In Rome
9.    Fifi Bumper Collection DVD
10.  Dancing On Ice

*with over 15 reviews

Pretty odd, hey? Unfortunately we can?t control people?s taste but it got me thinking about my favourite movies.

If you had to pick your top three movies of all time, what would they be?

If you?re bored of buying batteries for your all your children?s toys, here are some to give you, and the planet, a bit of a break.

First up is the wind-up radio that also works as a mobile phone charger, suitable for old and new Nokias as well as Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola handsets.

As well as relieving the planet from batteries, the radio also comes packed in bio-degradable packaging.

You can get your hands on a red football radio or a pink heart radio. Both are ?8.49.

Next is the Bat Torch. He requires no batteries and will never run out. All you need to do is squeeze him to operate the light.

He will also stand upright so that he can act as a nightlight. You can pick one up for ?4.99.

And here?s an interesting one. A women?s cooperative in the Philippines make these bags from recycled juice cartons. Seeing as the juice cartons use non-biodegradable foil on the inside, they would otherwise be sent to clog up landfill sites or be incinerated, so it?s a great way to reuse the cartons.

They make loads of different bags but as we’re all about little people today, these kids? backpacks are good and come in loads of different fruits and colours. They’re ?12.99.

You can find out more about the cooperative here.

If you’re looking for more normal toys, you can read toy reviews over on Reevoo to help you decide what to buy.

If you want to be cool, drive an Aston Martin, play Nintendo and wear Agent Provocateur…not necessarily all at the same time. These are some of the coolest brands around according to the annual Coolbrands survey.

Voted for by the Coolbrands council and 2,500 members of the public, Aston Martin receives the award for the coolest brand for third year running - certainly aided slightly by a certain Mr Bond who is rather partial to their vehicles.

Relative newcomer, the iPhone is in at second place, preceding the mother ship ? Apple, in third.

There?s no doubt that brands and celebrity go hand in hand. With Bond helping out in the car department and constantly-in-the-press Daisy Lowe being the face of Agent Provocateur, there?s a healthy little partnership of which somebody can be very proud.

But it?s not all down to the celebs.  With brands like Apple, Nintendo and Bang & Olufsen it shows that brands who constantly lead their field in design and innovation are worthy recipients of the accolade.

Congratulations should also go to the Tate Modern who have managed to get onto the list at number 10 - pretty impressive with all those super-brands on there.

You can check out the top 10 coolest brands below:

Top 10 Coolest Brands
1.    Aston Martin
2.    iPhone
3.    Apple
4.    Bang & Olufsen
5.    YouTube
6.    Google
7.    Nintendo
8.    Agent Provocateur
9.    Rolex
10.  Tate Modern

www.reevoo.com/pink

If you’re a girl who needs everything to be pink; if you’re a guy who’s struggling to find a gift for his girlfriend or if you’re a man who just likes a bit of pink, it turns out you’re not alone.

Research by consumer review website, Reevoo.com, looked at how popular pink products were across its own website and those of its partners. Websites such as Dixons, The Carphone Warehouse and Currys were analysed to find out how pink products shaped up compared to their duller counterparts.

In the last 3 months, the pink JVC Everio GZ-MG330 camcorder has been one of the most popular models on the market and one of the most popular pink products.  One in twenty camcorder visits has been to look at this pink camcorder.

To continue the success of pink products, the pink Motorola ROKR U9 has been a great example to all pink mobile phones. Out of all 22,000 products, from TVs to MP3 players and washing machines, it was the 21st most popular product.

And it wasn’t just mobile phones bringing down the big guys, the Medion Celeron Processor Pink Laptop beat the mighty 17 inch MacBook Pro in the popularity stakes.

A Decide What to Buy favourite, Hetty, also did well to be the 16th most popular vacuum cleaner. There are over 375 vacuums so Hetty did pretty well.

You can see the top 10 pink products below, how popular they are in their categories and how popular they are compared to all the other 22,000 products.

Click on table above to enlarge.

To celebrate all this pinkness, Reevoo has created a page full of the pinkest products around. Fom pink MP3 players and pink laptops to pink irons and pink beanbags, they’re all there. You can find them at www.reevoo.com/pink.

If you’re heart’s still in the eighties with jelly shoes and hypercolour t-shirts, then you might be a little disappointed by this announcement.

Classics like The Goonies, Gremlins and Beetlejuice are about to be Blu-rayed up and re-released. It all sounds great until you think about it. Some of the best bits about those films are the grey and fuzziness. So we’ll either be able to see just how badly they were filmed in the first place or it’ll ruin the fuzzy magic.

But I do like the fact that it’s made me want to dig out all my old video tapes and watch them again. Who knew that Mikey Walsh would turn out to be a tiny hairy man a few years later…

If you are actually really excited about seeing your old faves in high-definition, get yourself a Blu-ray player but read all the Blu-ray player reviews before you do.

This week’s gadget watch is a gadgets-for-guys special. Three great gadgets that any self-respecting man should have…

For anyone who’s ever had the misfortune of looking forward to a nice cold beer, only to find that it’s been swiped out of the fridge by a thieving housemate, this is definitely the gadget for you. The Beer Burglar Alarm will stop crooks in their tracks with either a stern voice alerting them to “Keepa da hands off ma beer” or an intolerable siren that will be sure to send them packing. Spend a fiver, save a beer…

Next up is the Pyramat S2500W Sound Rocker chair. It’s a gaming chair with a difference. For serious gaming sessions, its contours and poly-stretch fabric will ensure comfort throughout and you’ll also feel all of the action through it with its pulsing and vibrating speakers.

It connects up to MP3 players or any system with an audio output and acts as a super surround-sound device with its ARX high performance speakers. So you can enjoy games, music and even movies in this chair of entertainment. It will also fold up for easy storage. You can pick one up for around £100 and read reviews here.

And finally, the Sharp Shootin’ remote. If there’s ever a fight in your living room over watching match of the day or Sex and the City, this will solve the problem and ensure you never have to sit through a girlie programme again.

The Sharp Shootin’ remote will learn all of your TV remote’s actions and makes changing channels much more fun. It even has sound effects and comes with a Sheriff’s badge. For £7, you can’t go wrong.