Cheapest places to buy this year's top gadgets

by Emma Roberts on 05 October 2010  |  20 comments
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Emma Roberts looks at where you can get the best deals on iPhones, Wiis, Kindles and other top gadgets!

Gadgets and gizmos make our lives more convenient and, as this article points out, they can also save us cash.

Today, I’m going to take you through the hottest gadgets of 2010 and hunt down where you can get them the cheapest.

Smart Phone

Perhaps the biggest technological revolution of this decade is the smart phone.

Now, most people I know are equipped with an all-singing, all-dancing smart phone that is an essential part of their lives.

We’ve already discovered that having a smart phone can save you cash, but they can also do a whole host of different tricks.

For instance, if you’re health conscious you can instantly measure your heart rate through your phone by downloading the free instant heart rate app.

For road users, you can make sure you avoid those annoying traffic jams by using the RAC’s free traffic app.

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But the initial cost of a smart phone doesn’t come cheap if you buy a pay as you go model, with some handsets costing nearly £500.

The thought of this almost completely put me off the idea of investing in a smart phone but then I shopped around for deals and signed up for a fantastic monthly contract with Vodafone.

So, I think the best way to afford a smart phone, is to sign up for a monthly contract.

Check out the table below to see what deals are around at the moment for the most popular smart phones but note that prices are based on a 24 month contract and are likely to change frequently.

So if you’re eyeing up an iPhone, 3 have the best deal at moment, as for £45 a month you get the phone for free and have a massive 5000 texts and a generous 2000 minutes.

T-mobile have a great deal on the HTC Desire, which is a brilliant handset and a great alternative to an iPhone.

For just under £26 a month T-Mobile are offering you the handset along with 600 minutes and unlimited texts.

If you don't want to be tied in to a long contract, ti's also worth noting that Tesco mobile is also offering iPhone 4 tariffs – and on cheap and cheerful 12 month contracts! Plus, you get triple Clubcard points for every £1 you spend on your monthly bill.

Here are the tariffs:

As you can see, Tesco blows the others out of the water when it comes to value for money. You can get an 16GB iPhone 4 with unlimited texts, 1GB of data and 250 minutes for just £589 in total. That's £160 less than its cheapest rival (O2) and, unlike with O2 you don't need to be an existing customer and you’ll be free from your contract in just 12 months! Woo-hoo!

Read The cheapest way to get an iPhone 4! for more info or, If you’re still not convinced about signing up for a monthly contract, find out how you can save £180 a year with a SIM only deal.

EBook readers

I find nothing more satisfying than getting stuck into an enthralling novel.

The problem is, that after I finish with it, the book remains on my cluttered book shelf and gathers more dust than a vacuum cleaner.

So, if you’re sick of carrying around heavy books or having an over-bulging bookshelf, then an EBook reader could be exactly up your street.

Basically, an EBook reader is a portable, handheld electronic device that allows you to download entire books for you to read at your leisure.

And the great thing there are thousands of free EBooks to download and the EBooks that you have to pay for are often cheaper than their paper ancestors- check out the table below for few examples.

So where can you get your hands on an EBook reader for the best price? Have a look at the table below to see where you can get the most popular readers fro cheapest.

As you can see from the table, Currys have some great deals on eBook readers at the moment and are selling the Sony PRS300R at £60 cheaper than Sainsbury’s.

Motion gaming consoles

Our final must-have gadgets are motion gaming consoles.

If you don’t own a Nintendo Wii, then you’re probably familiar with the TV adverts of families merrily jumping around with their waving their Wii controllers and laughing at the TV.

Motion control is the future of video gaming and it looks like this Christmas, it’s going to be the big present.

So let’s look at the main competitors in the motion-control gaming arena and the cheapest places you can get your hands on them.

So, for the moment the Wii is the cheapest gaming option and offers a wide range of established, motion controlled games.

Gamestation are doing the best deal of the moment for the Playstation 3 and PS3 move starter pack, as they throw in some extra games.

So now you know where to find the hottest gadgets of 2010 for the cheapest prices, you can feel less guilty if you want to treat yourself to a high-tech gift.

Technology lovers can chat about all things gadget at our Tech Shed group, so why not head over there and join in?

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