Sony's first ever ultrabook & more new gadgets

Sony Vaio T13 Ultrabook and other great new gadgets

Sony Vaio T13 Ultrabook
The Ultrabook market is already becoming a crowded place, but this is Sony's first crack at it. Sony's Vaio T13 is 17.8mm thick, weighs approximately 1.6kg and has a claimed battery life of up to nine hours. Inside is an Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive, with the latter supported by a 32GB solid-state drive that is not used for file storage but instead improves the performance of the hard drive. Add to that a 13-inch screen with a 1366x768 resolution and you get a smart-looking laptop that could shake up the lower-end Ultrabook competition.

Availability: TBA
Price: TBA

Samsung Galaxy S3
The king is dead! Long live the king! Samsung's Galaxy S2 was the phone that established Samsung as a serious threat to Apple's smartphone dominance. But it's been out a while now and has lately been overtaken by new releases from the likes of HTC. No longer. Samsung is once again top of the Android pile with this stunning handset, with it's 4.8-inch high-def screen, NFC functionality and voice-activated features.
Availability: 29 May
Price: free on certain contracts







Disgo Tablet 8104
There's no doubt about the standout feature on the not-so-snappily-titled Disgo Tablet 8104: its price. This 10.1-inch tablet will get you a penny change from £150, yet its feature list is far from threadbare. Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) runs on a 1.2GHz processor with 512MB of RAM. There's 4GB of internal storage - but that can be expanded by up to an additional 32GB via microSD. Battery life is stated at around five hours. The weakest link is likely to be screen quality - the display has a resolution of just 1024x600.
Availability: later this month
Price: £149.99




Nikon D3200
Nikon's updated version of its entry-level DSLR camera, which supersedes the D3100, has a stack of improved features - notably a 24.2-megapixel sensor. There's also a more powerful processor inside, ISO speeds of up to 6,400 and a new version of Nikon's Guide Mode, which offers step-by-step pointers on the best settings for the type of picture you want to take. The D3200 can also shoot Full HD 1080p video at either 24 frames per second (fps) or 30fps.
Availability: later in May
Price: £559.99 (body-only) or £649.99 (with 18-55mm VR lens)




Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay A3 iPad dock
B&O doesn't yet have a version of this new dock that works with the new iPad, which seems a bit of a gaffe. Still, there is one incoming and, in the meantime, the BeoPlay A3 will happily get along with your iPad 1 or 2. Switch it on and your iPad's sound will be pushed through the A3's superior speakers. It's designed to be viewable in several different positions - landscape, portrait or lying on its angled back for web browsing.
Availability: now
Price: £449




Griffin ColourTouch Case
Remember Global Hypercolor? For about five minutes back in the 1990s these heat-sensitive T-shirts, which changed colour with your body warmth, were officially the coolest thing on the planet. Now that colour-shifting, tie-dye effect is back, albeit in the form of an iPhone case. Snap one of these onto your Apple mobile and you've got a case that goes all chameleon each time you pick it up. Essential, we're sure you'll agree. The cases are on sale now in Apple stores.
Availability: now
Price: £24.99




LG Optimus L7
Part of LG's L Series, the L7 is a smartphone that's designed to be a little easier on the bank balance than the iPhones and Galaxy S3s of this world. It will set you back just shy of £300, but not too many corners have been cut to hit that price point. Think of this as high-end mid-range, if you will. The L7's slim profile is one of its most striking features - it's just 8.7mm thick with a 4.3-inch touchscreen (480x800 resolution). Inside is a 1GHz processor running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Round the back is a five-megapixel camera which LG says can autofocus in six-tenths of a second.
Availability: now
Price: £299 (pay-as-you-go)




Bowers & Wilkins P3
Can hi-fi be sexy? It can when Bowers & Wilkins is involved. The British loudspeaker company has a reputation for bold, classy design and exceptional sound quality - something that was much in evidence when it launched its debut set of headphones in 2010. The P3 headphones are a more compact and portable version of those, now sporting a folding design and smaller memory-foam ear cushions. They come in either black or white and with two remote control cables, one for iPhone/iPod, one for other devices.
Availability: June
Price: £169.99


EchoStar Ultra Slim Box
Pity the poor personal video recorder (PVR). While every other gadget is the object of a designer's urge to make things smaller, thinner, slinkier, the humble PVR remains a black slab of plastic forever destined to be hidden away under your telly. No one cares about the looks of a PVR, you see. No one, that is, expect EchoStar - which has announced this, the slimmest PVR in the world. Just 14mm in height, it nevertheless houses a 500GB hard disk drive, twin Freeview+ HD tuners and internet connectivity.
Availability: 31 May
Price: £259.99




Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay V1 TV
We bet you don't have a telly that looks anything like this one. The BeoPlay V1 has an eye-catching design that's unlike anything else on the market, apparently inspired by the Japanese art of paper folding. It comes in either 32- or 40-inch screen sizes and can be displayed in four ways - a table top stand, floor stand, hung from a wall or, rather interestingly, hung from the ceiling.
Availability: now
Price: £1,999