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Norge is a brand that’s worn many a tempest and taken on some imagines competition, yet never elastic to gimmicks or tall claims. The company makes only audio cog, such as stereo amps and speakers, so a lot of audio purists opt for Norge as the products are very sensibly priced. They’re from India, not Norway, which almost certainly explains how costs can be cut.

From what I’ve seen so far, most of Norge’s gear drop in the band of decent-to-good, despite some clear flaws. Do the new Norge 75 bookshelves offer any important enhancements? Can honest sound can be achieved from a device whose cost runs into just four digits? I’m as curious as you are; so let’s go ahead with our review.

Design and Features

These are typical bookshelf speakers with a basic straight-edged rectangular cabinet; the type that brings back memories of a bygone analog era. The cabinet is MDF, with a PVC coat of light oak. Though the beauty of PVC is debatable in the eye of the beholder, this one does look warm and rich.

The front panel is covered in black and supports the tweeter and woofer drivers, making this a two-way reaction design. The bass port is at the back, along with the most basic speaker connectors. The design is unassuming, but some may want a jazzier look – perhaps some smooth curves to make things interesting. All that comes at a cost, so whatever we have is not bad.

The silk dome tweeter is 30 mm in size, while the woofer with an ’specially treated’ cone is 5.5 inches. Encouragingly, the drivers are from Wavecor. The weight is 5.5 kg, which I believe is on the lighter side.

Performance

These healthy speakers require be placing on heavy stands, about 3.5-4 feet wide, and slightly toeing in for a full spectral delivery. The amp has to be good, as stereo sound can get very much colored in the amp itself, which the speaker can do nothing to improve. The speakers came to us already broken in, so I straightaway started the tests. First off I inserted a Sheffield Labs test CD and ran a few tones and sweeps to make sure the scene. The speaker can go down low till about 30 Hz odd, though not in a flat way. In highs it touched 18K before wisping off. While I did not have the real sensitivity rating, qualitatively I can say it would be quite high.

In addition to the pristine recordings from the test discs. What I incidental was a wide and open sound stage; the sort of stuff that appeals to a mature audience. Thump was not there, though low bass frequencies were present, and sounded nice.

The mids were a little forward for my taste: very crisp and made some vocals sound overemphasized, but not harsh at any point. Sound depth was praiseworthy as a line to the imposing sound stage. High frequencies were rolled off and subtle, with no extra sibilance anywhere. This I liked a lot, as I hate too much be good at in the sound.

At a price of Rs 8500, the speakers offer bang for the buck. If you’re not a stickler, the flaws talk about can be ignored, as the good points outweigh the bad. The design could have been better, it’s true, but then true audio quality has not anything to do with looks.

With a sub I’m sure these speakers will rock. They nicely fit the requirement of a bedroom stereo music system and could be an ideal choice for a quiet musical evening, but not a party.

This 2.0 speaker set is a descendant to the I-Trigue 2200, with just a few slight changes. It’s a little more stylish, but astonishingly, loses a feature that figures in the previous version. The set is aimed at those looking for a speaker solution for a laptop or movable media player; let’s look at whether it’s worth its price tag.

Specifications: System Setup: 2.0, Output (RMS): 18 watts

Driver satellite: 36 mm NeoTitanium micro drivers

Magnetic Shield, Signal-to-noise ratio: 80 dB

Frequency response: 120 Hz ~ 20 kHz

Controls: Power On/Off & volume control, tone control

Headphone jack

Design

These speakers are high. The 2300 has a whole gloss face and a proper stand for better looks and stability respectively (as compared to the 2200). The thin face and depth of the 2300’s satellites are the same as those in the previous model. The depth given to the satellites, along with the air-vents at the rear, are destined to enhance the bass. Each of the satellites has two high-quality NeoTitanium drivers for better sound clearness crossways the spectrum. The drivers are not hidden, as in case of most satellites.

As customary, the right satellite holds all the controllers and connectors. There’s a headphone jack, the two knobs, and an LED on the front. Of the knobs, one is the volume control which also does the duty of the On/Off switch, and the other is for tone control — no divide bass and treble here. In fact, there’s a Creative two-speaker set from around the year 2000 that has separate bass and treble… I just can’t see why this unit has only a tone control! The back houses a DC-in, Line-in, and the jack for the left satellite. I must say the plan of the speakers is attractive.

Performance

The combined output spec of 18 watts RMS is good on paper, but the sound quality wasn’t quite as good as I’d predictable. It was a pleasure listening to tracks without too much bass. The treble of the strings in Country and Soul tracks was copy sensibly well by the small 36 mm drivers.

With type like Rock and Trance the drivers couldn’t really handle the bass. Turning the knob to the treble side sent the highs way too high, and made the music sound even worse. I found that the best settings for tracks with lots of bass was with the tone knob set at almost full bass, and the volume knob at sandwiched between 50 and 70%, 70% being just about manageable. Throughout my testing, the dual driver satellites delivered the mids and highs, but even with the depth provided by the design to enhance bass, there wasn’t much of it to be grateful for.

It’s unlucky that the quality that the satellites can deliver is not complemented by a woofer; satellites with NeoTitanium drivers should be escort by a sub, otherwise it’s a waste of those quality drivers. Speaking of which, the I-Trigue 2200 provides a port to attach a sub, and this one doesn’t! I’d say this system is at best good enough for some quiet music in the backdrop.

The Creative I-Trigue 2300 2.0 sells for Rs 4,499, and comes with a one-year warranty. It beats me why anyone would want to spend that much on a 2.0 system. For that price, you can easily afford a good 2.1 set, or a low-end 5.1 system, which would deliver enhanced music overall. If you’re looking for a solution for your portable media player, you’d do enhanced to look for a set of moveable speakers (it’s likely you might require to invest more), or perhaps better headphones than those that came bundled with the device. And if you’re looking for speakers for your laptop, I’d say it would be much better to spend in a good pair of headphones.

Although not a completely new camera, the NV10 gained my attention after I become aware of a very unique excellence about it in their TV ad. I noticed a series of unlabeled buttons right below the screen that were being used to scroll through the pictures taken. I had to see what was up with that, in its place I found a complete lot more.

Design & Features

At 97×60x19 mm, the NV10 is easily pocket able and at 190 grams you won’t even feel it’s there. The best and the most distinguished feature about the NV10 is its unique and tremendously effective interface. Instead of the standard D-pad and OK button action that most cameras use, this one has a series of buttons around the screen - something like X and Y axis that control all the navigation and action of the camera.

The buttons are highly touch responsive that highlight options on screen as you gently move your fingers over them. To activate an option, simply press the matching button. It’s almost like using a touch screen interface, just more accurate. On the top of the camera you will find the mode dial, power button and shutter release. There’s also a cute little flash hidden around the top-center that pops up at what time required. the length of by means of the by now mentioned buttons there’s also a zoom switch and a play button to view the clicked pictures. The 2.5 creep LCD display works pretty well under most lighting conditions. I personally didn’t have any visibility issues with it even under bright sunlight.

Even in its ultra-compact body, Samsung did manage to fit in a little hand-grip on the right, which helps with single handed operation. The manual features in the camera revolve mostly around setting your own exposure and color, but no manual focus. I particularly love the white balance meter, which instead of giving you the same old presets, just gives you a color bar which you can navigate with the slider below because your display gives you an immediate preview. It’s a lot more effective and a better way to set the colors you approximating. There are, as one can be expecting, a plethora of scene modes to choose from but it was the property mode that I had the most fun with. Take a look at a quantity of of the shots below.

Performance

In general there isn’t really anything worth complaining about. The image quality in terms of sharpness may not be top notch but it does bring the goods. The shots I took in my tests did seem slightly un-sharp at full view, but that didn’t take much away from the details. Still, I predictable more from a 10 mega pixel camera. The colors were entirely soaked keeping the consumer’s requirements in mind. Things appeared more vivid than customary but not soaked enough to damage the image quality.

I wasn’t too impressed with the 3 second start-up delay but the shot to shot time was pretty good with 1.5 seconds between shots (without flash) and around 0.7 seconds in high speed mode. I particularly liked the nighttime scene mode. As you can see from the image below, the NV10 kept a good balance of slow shutter pace and a somewhat high ISO. This technique you get a clear night shot with minimal noise, with the only catch that you have to keep the camera on a still outside for a few seconds when taking the picture.

Macros turned out pretty good, and the NV10 had no problem focusing on objects till up to an inch away, as you can see from the ultra macro of the Hulk statuette below. Like I said, there’s nothing worth bad tempered about in its functionality. The NV10’s meant to satisfy the average consumer and I’m very sure it will. The border is great, the image quality is nice, and it’s got the extra bells and whistles to appeal to everyone. The only problem is its hefty cost tag of Rs. 19,900 (street price).

So in the end it all comes down to performance vs. features. If you need a better performer in terms of picture quality, pace and manual options, I’d suggest you take a look at the Casio Exilim series. But if its fun features and a high ‘cool’ issue that you’re looking for then look no further.

I akin to cameras cameras that I can tote around easily, especially when I’m traveling extensively. Which incidentally I did lately. I had taken the Casio Z75 with me on this little excursion, so I decided to provide a complete update on the camera (because I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be bored with a blow-by-blow account of my amazing trip).

The camera really is slim. It’s also very light at 4.03 oz, so you can just shove it your pocket when the travel bug bites you. Need to take some candid shots? It’s right there. (No, not in that pocket, stupid!) What I didn’t like is the odd brown pouch that comes with it. It serves no purpose except to keep the large 2.6 inch LCD protected. There’s no strap or clip to attach it to your belt or anything else. Waste.

Performance

The camera takes just a second to start up, which is brilliant. If you switch the preview off it takes practically no time to take the next image. On the whole I was very happy with the quality of the images (after I saw what they actually looked like on my PC, that is). Outdoor shots of landscapes and scenery with and without people were really quite good. The colors are a bit too vivid though. They seem bright and a little burned out. But quite vibrant nevertheless.

These closeups of flowers in macro mode will demonstrate exactly what I mean when I talk about the colors being too vivid. They appear so bright they could hurt your eyes. Where the heck are my sunglasses? The good thing (and this is a matter of opinion of course) is that if there’s no sun, the images will make it crystal clear that it was either raining or dull, or that you were under cloud cover. Detail is preserved quite well, but there’s a minor issue when it comes to dark greens – they tend to blur and look ‘painted’.

If you zoom in to an object, over and above the 3x optical zoom capabilities in digital zoom, the images would naturally appear a bit blurry and unfocused, but the quality is still better than that of most cameras in its class that I’ve reviewed. On the plus side, the video recordings came out great. You can get some very decent videos using the Z75.

Now we come to the battery. On a single charge I had no problem using it for a full two days even with videos. On a seven-day trip with plenty of video and photo ops, I had to charge the battery just once.

For the price of Rs 12,500, the EX-Z75 just about qualifies as an okay camera for the cost. The battery is really good, and there’s certain simplicity in the navigation and use. The small size and weight are definitely a bonus. The only grouse I have is with the resolution of the display. The menu covering a potion of the screen irked me even more. Why has a 2.6 inch TCFT display at all if you can’t use the whole thing?

The bottom-line is – it’s good but not great. If the price falls to below 10K, I just might gift one to myself. Ergonomic layout of the keys is important, and the Z75 does fine in this regard. The power and shutter release keys are on the top, and at the bottom you’ll find a USB port and battery/SD card compartment.

Straight off, I must admit that I wasn’t quite impressed by the pixel resolution of the display. It was not clear even though it’s supposed to have a resolution of 479 x 240 pixels with around 11K colors.

The preview of images after they were taken looked horrible and blurry for some reason – but this is not the case in actuality. If you check the files in storage you will see a significant difference and feel that you managed to get some decent snaps after all. The problem is you’ll always be in doubt till you transfer them to your PC. So I’d advise you to switch off the quick preview entirely.

The BS (I mean best picture, not anything else) is a great tool for first time users or those who aren’t into taking absolutely perfect shots by fiddling with the micro settings. You’re spoiled for choice, and each option has a small thumbnail preview. This makes it so much easer to select what kind of setting you’ll need, depending on the situation. The five-way circular navigation pad is user-friendly.

Another issue with the screen is that it says ‘widescreen’ almost everywhere, including the box itself. But the darn options occupy one side of the screen, making it simple to change settings but covering part the screen. It’s a bit unnerving initially, because you’ll probably keep wondering if a portion of the image you wish to capture is hidden by the settings menu.

Kodak’s new M-series of cameras aspires to “redefine the consumer’s prospect of style and features inside the mid-priced segment”. Consumers seem for slimmer cameras can no hesitation benefit from the ultra-compact form factor of the M-series. However, I’ve observed that Kodak cameras can often be a hit-or-miss issue. The M853 is the cheapest offering in the M-series and is surely aimed at people looking for a one-click solution. To begin with, the camera has very little to boast about; it’s simple, small and entirely free of physical controls. It’s an 8MP camera with 3x optical zoom.

Let’s look at the construct first. The design of the M853 has been kept very simple with a few buttons to house a handful of features. It comes equipped with a 2.5-inch LCD screen that is capable of displaying up to 154,000 pixels. Beside the screen, on the right, are the delete, menu and review buttons. The zoom in and out keys are placed on the upper right corner, just above five-way D-pad. The mode dial is placed on top, beside the shutter let go button. The whole thing you require can be found on the dial itself; the two most useful being the Auto mode and the scene modes. The camera doesn’t offer any manual settings, apart from for experience controls.

Your top way out is to pick the auto mode and be hopeless, or simply select the right scene modes – you can choose from self-portrait, children, backlight, candlelight, sunset, portrait, panorama, sport, landscape, night portrait, night landscape, snow beach, text, fireworks, flower and manner/museum. One high-quality feature is the Panorama form. Like most Kodak cameras these days, this one too features the auto-stitching facility. Just click and it stitches your view on its own.

This 8MP camera also features multi-zone AF (auto focus) so it can detect more than one object to focus on. You can reach the macro mode directly through the dial, so there is no mucking around with menus etc. Having said that, it still brings no new wonders as the macro shots were very bad. There is very little detailing, and pictures from a close range look kind of sodden.

Shooting during daylight is not a problem, but night time shots can be a pain. Different most cameras in this range, the M853 suffers from shutter lag. Firstly it takes ages to focus on anything and in the end still manages to deliver out-of-focus pictures. Also, in the night scene mode, pictures had an avoidable reddish tinge. Even though the M853 has a macro mode to take pictures of objects within 28 inches, it hardly gives good results. I’ve taken better pictures than the one I managed on the M853. The overall performance of the camera is below par. Pictures are noisy, with smudging problems prevalent in most. Detailing in images is minimal, and much as I hate to say this, you will find a lot of purple fringing. The images are not as crisp as you’d expect either.

As I talk about earlier, low light circumstances render the camera useless. The battery life is decent though. With one charge I got about 90 shots with minimal flash. The camera costs Rs 11,999 but is honestly a bad bargain still at this rate. I’m therefore hesitant to advocate this camera to anyone other than a big Kodak fan. You could think the Fujifilm A800 instead. It costs about the same and does a better job.