2008 was another strong year for portable electronics. The Apple iPod family continued to dominate and was joined by a new, cheaper, more popular iPhone. Ebook readers slowly crept more into the consciousness of consumers, led by strong sales of the wireless Kindle. Portable media and MP3 players of all kinds continued to surface, with a new trend of wireless Internet abilities becoming more common. Portable DVD players continued to have a good retail presence as well. With all the great products out there from 2008, below is presented the top portable electronics picks for the last year.
Amazon Kindle
Amazon.com
The growing in popularity ebook reader from online bookshop Amazon.com gets the nod as a top product because of its ability to let one buy popular and mainstream books without ever needing to browse a computer screen. The Kindle offers wireless browsing through a high-speed cellular network, letting one buy and download books directly to the device. It can storage a large library of reading material, eliminating the need to carry lots of novels and magazines on a trip. The display is also very easy to read.
Philips DCP951
Philips
The Philips DCP951 is what one might call a hybrid portable DVD player. Besides letting a user enjoy DVD video playback on its nine-inch display, it also has a built-in iPod slot for enjoying iPod video on the same screen. This portable DVD player supports video and photos on SD/MMC memory cards via the built-in reader and reads most disc formats, expect for Blu-ray Disc, further adding to is versatility. Video playback is upwards of 2.5 hours on the player's rechargeable battery
Peek
Peek
Simplicity is what garners the Peek a spot on this top picks list. It is an email-only device, meaning you can read and respond to email wirelessly from up to three of your personal email accounts. It does nothing else beyond that. It works on wireless networks similar to your mobile phone, guaranteeing a wide coverage range. The 2.5-inch color display provides for the viewing of messages and a built-in keyboard, though small, letting one easily respond to messages.
Archos 5
Archos
The future of portable media players seems to be to add wireless Internet abilities to them so one can browse the Web and check email. The Archos 5, a self described Internet Media Tablet, is one such device which does the dual jobs of entertaining and Internet very well. There are almost no shortcomings to this device. It has a beautiful 4.8-inch touchscreen display, a well designed interface and support for a wide variety of media file formats. Great on-screen Web browsing and support for audio and video streaming from Web sites further enhance the Archos 5's rounded feature set.
Creative ZEN Mozaic
Creative
The Creative ZEN Mozaic stands out for its ease of use and unique keypad design. The choice of multiple body colors and non-traditional controls give it a playfulness not found in a lot of similar products. There's also a nice array of other features to give this player high marks for, including a long battery life, FM radio, a built-in speaker, voice recording and a small pocket design body design.