Apparently we don’t need to wait for our Government’s commitments to the WTO for gadget prices to come down. The market has taken its own course and NOW may be the best time to shop for your favourite personal tech. Here’s our take on the best gadgets for every type of shopping budget. And FYI, the list hasn’t been influenced by what the Fin Min will deliver later this week.

Up to Rs 5,000

1 Sennheiser HD-408
Neodymium magnets give these cans great bass for a disarmingly reasonable sum. Ultra-lightweight with a comfortable, flexible headband, the HD-408s are ideally suited to portable players, yet hold their own when plugged into a full-on home hi-fi.
Rs 2,984

2 Plantronics Explorer 210
Chuck the looks, forget the price and you get a great clip-on device replete with features like QuickPair for easy pairing and an accessible on-off switch, which gives you eight hours of talk time and eight days on standby. C’mon, talk!
Rs 1,399

3 iRock iR390
The iPod Touch and the iPhone are the two big success stories in the gadget world. Their flaws: the tinny speakers and poor battery life, which the iRock iR390 fixes with a generous add-on of a dual alarm clock with snooze. So you wake up listening to ‘Give me some sunshine…’
Rs 3,650

4 Casio G-9000
G-Shocks from Casio are arguably the toughest watches one can have. There are hundreds to choose from, but the G-9000 is special – unlike its brethren, this one looks sober! Toughness aside, it has a dual stopwatch, countdown timer and five alarms, no less.
Rs 4,995

5 Amkette Flash TV
Similar to the WD TV media player, this cute box accepts flash drives or external hard drives and outputs videos directly on an HD telly. There’s no HDMI port, but it does have component and a memory card reader! Now that’s sweet news for a movie buff.
Rs 3,000

Rs 5,000 - Rs 10,000

 1 Creative Vado
At an age where everything is nano-ised, this perhaps is a device that is both light on the pocket and great at work. It’s easy to shoot those smiles, laughs and all those special moments straight from your palm. Candid camera, now smile!
Rs. 9,990

2 Sony Walkman NWZ-S544
Sony’s NWZ-S544 is an excellent media player on this side of the Apple Nano. It comes with a 30-hour battery life, voice and FM recording, excellent built-in speakers and the ability to play most file formats. But most importantly, it’s a SONY.
Rs 6,990

3 HP Photosmart C4488
This value A4 printer churns out 23 colour pages of your most cherished photos per minute, or 30 per minute if you’re printing pages of text. It also doubles as a scanner and copier for your documents. At this price, it’s a multi-functional steal.
Rs 7,500

4 Panasonic Lumix FS42
Panny’s new Lumix comes in rainbow colours to suit every mood and packs it all in a chic metal body – a 10-meg sensor, 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD . It lacks Panasonic’s fabled ‘MEGA OIS ‘ IS , but it still manages to take great looking shots!
Rs 8,495

5 Nintendo DSi
The best gaming system you can nab for under a ton, the DSi totes not one but two screens, has an online store, a camera and access to a large amount of touchscreen-based tomfoolery. It’ll keep you busy on the train without leaving you so skint you have to travel in the toilet.
Rs 7,500

Rs 10,000 - Rs 20,000

1 Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2
This reigns supreme as the finest netbook, thanks to an agreeably low price, compact size and impressive performance. It uses a speedy Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, has 160GB of storage and a 10.1-inch screen. The six-hour battery life ain’t too shabby either.
Rs 16,817

2 Xylys ERSA
Few things melt a woman’s heart like an elegant watch. After all, it has 108 Swarovski crystals, a gloss-finished ceramic body and Swiss perfection in the form of a stunning timepiece, Ersa – that’s the name of the Greek goddess of dew too, by the way.
Rs 15,000

3 Creative Zen X-Fi2 16GB
At a cheaper price than an iPod Touch, Sony X-series Walkman or the Cowon S9, Creative’s bargain 16GB touchscreen option provides sterling audio and video, with the rarity of bundled headphones that don’t disappoint massively.
Rs 11,990

4 Sony PS3 Slim 120GB
With an Xboxmatching 120GB hard drive (a 250GB one is also available), built-in Blu-ray player and multimedia whatnots galore, this is the ultimate console. With some great value bundles available if you shop around, it’d be silly not to buy one.
Rs 19,990

5 MapMyIndia TrailBlazer
This nifty device comes preloaded with maps of 620 Indian cities, which can be seen on its 3.5-inch display. It also has a built-in FM radio transmitter that broadcasts turn-by-turn voice directions, lest your gang forgets the way!
Rs 18,990

Rs 20,000 - Rs 50,000

1 Nikon D5000
The D5000 is a spankingly competent 12.3-meg DSLR. It takes enthralling snaps in low light and is also very easy to use, which makes all the difference for those moving up from compact cameras. The kit includes an 18-55mm VR lens.
Rs 52,950

2 Bose SoundDock 10
Featuring wave-guide tech, the SoundDock 10 offers bass on par with stereo setups along with unmatched looks. Pricey for sure, but nevertheless worth it if you want a dock that will capably keep your guests entertained at the next house party.
Rs 40,388

3 Apple Mac Mini
A perfect solution for those who want a premium desktop but have minimal space amidst a healthy pile of gadgets. The Mac Mini has a more than reasonable Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz processor and is available with 160GB, 320GB and 500GB of storage.
From Rs 33,900

4 Samsung BD-P1600
Sammy’s Blu-ray player gets everything right! It upscales DVD’s to 1080p, and has a USB port to play files directly from flash and hard drives. It’s BD Profile 2.0 ready too, which gets you BD Live content from the internet via the Ethernet port.
Rs 26,990

5 HTC Touch2
Hiding the frumpiness of WinMo 6.5 under the stylish burkha of HTC’s neat TouchFLO interface, this phone is small and sassy yet exceedingly powerful. You can customise the home screens to your heart’s content with apps and shortcuts as well.
Rs 22,490

Rs 50,000 - Rs 1,00,000

1 Seiko SRX003P1
One from Seiko’s premier range, it looks classy and is powered by Seiko’s venerable Kinetic Direct Drive movement, which is precise to the T. Time aside, it also indicates the moon phase, power reserve, day and date via three sub-dials. Quite a watch, this.
Rs 55,800

2 LG 50PQ70
If you want to buy a Plasma that won’t cost you the earth and yet recreate an experience to remember, this one is likely to be your best bet. It’s only 720p compatible, but you’ll forget about all that once you’ve loaded The Dark Knight Blu-ray and turned off the lights.
Rs 74,000

3 Panasonic HDC-SD200
This by-no-means-budget camcorder is, needless to say, at the cutting-edge of HD recording, with vivid colours thanks to 3MOS technology and a 12x zoom. The strikingly intuitive interface and 2.7-inch touchscreen make it a true five-star product.
Rs 52,000

4 Sennheiser HD800
The HD800 sports a staggering level of audio clarity thanks to a large, circular HD Ring driver. Frequency response goes up to 51kHz – over double of what humans can actually hear, yet still adding something to the aural party.
Rs 79,000

5 HP Touchsmart IQ300-1040
The smartest desktop PC you’ll find for a song. The sleek, user-friendly IQ300 has a lush 20-inch touchscreen. With 4GB of RAM and a fast dual-core processor, it makes light work of applications and can be wall mounted for extra style points.
Rs 59,990

6 Sony VAIO X Series
The Vaio X is so good-looking and well-constructed you’ll break off your long-term relationship with Apple for it. Carbon-fibre body, solid-state storage, LED backlighting, what more could you possibly want?
Rs 54,000 onwards

7 Optoma HD65
This chump’s perfect for sworn movie addicts on a tight budget. With DLP technology, contrast ratio of 4,000:1 and 720p support, it takes to Blu-ray flicks well. The fact that it’s compact means you can pack and take it to a friend’s place when you wish.
Rs 73,000

8 Panasonic DMC-GF1
This high-end snapper with 12.1-meg Live MOS sensor can fire off up to 60 frames per second, so you never miss a shot. Its micro four-thirds interchangeable lens system gives it the versatility of a DSLR without the bulk, meaning pro performance with bags of ooh la la.
Rs 72,000

Rs 1,00,000 +

1 Tag Heuer Meridiist
This blower oozes class like no other: the titanium carbidecoating on a steel body makes it bombproof. Sapphire crystal glass on both the displays keeps it scratchproof too. The rest of the phone with a 2-meg camera and 7-hour talk time cuts the mustard.
Rs 2,78,000

2 Apple iMac
27-inch Displays graphics at a higher-than-hi-def 2560×1440 resolution, offers you a choice of dual or quad-core processors, and adds 4GB of RAM , a wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse to the mix. Oh, and an SD card slot too. Cheers, Apple.
From Rs 89,900

3 Canon EOS 7D
The EOS 7D is a big freaking SLR that can hold its own regardless of the situation. Ultra low-light photography, 1080p video recording, monstrous 18-meg results, and a very meaty mag-alloy body – it’s all there to bring out the photographer in you.
Rs 1,04,995

4 Christian Dior - Dior Phone
If you love to infuse some tech-etiquette in your beloved, then present her with this. Yes, it’s rather blingy, but it comes with an mini extension called My Dior that enables you to answer a call without fishing for your phone. Now that’s haute.
Rs 2,60,000

5 Samsung UA55B8000
This 1080p LED slicker is spectacularly slim and offers great colours and deep black levels. The built-in media library offers food recipes and high-res images that wonderfully showcase the telly’s multiple talents.
Rs 3,50,000

6 Alienware M17x
This gaming behemoth blasts the competitors into oblivion. It offers a 17-inch 1920×1200- pixel screen, nVidia SLI graphics, DDR3 memory and a quad-core Intel processor. Blu-ray is an optional add-on too. Think we’ve said about enough.
From Rs 1,25,000

7 Mitsubishi HC3800
Mitsubishi’s budget 1080p projector offers a 3,000-hour lamp life in normal mode and an amazing 5,000 hours in eco mode. With contrast ratio of 4,000:1, good brightness and zoom, this beamer is an all-rounder.
Rs 1,75,000