Smarthouse Smart Awards 2015

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SMARTHOUSE.COM.AU AUSTRALIA’S #1 CONSUMER ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE & WEBSITE

2015 SMART AWARDS

WE PICK THE BEST OF THE BEST

LENOVO YOGA 3 PRO PRODUCT OF THE YEAR


SMARTHOUSE.COM.AU AUSTRALIA’S #1 HOME ENTERTAINMENT WEBSITE & MAGAZINE CEO & Editorial Director David Richards dwr@4squaremedia.com Managing Editor David Richards dwr@4squaremedia.com Staff Journalists Pamela Connellan pamela@4squaremedia.com

editorial By David Richards

Today, we have big Ultra High Definition TVs and a new breed of OLED TVs. Sound is now being pumped across wireless networks to speakers devoid of cables. What has not changed are the brands that are still delivering award winning products. Back in 2003 Samsung was a TV favourite and

A 42” TV is sub $500 and the quality is light

BenQ made an excellent projector.

years ahead of what was around 10 years ago. With our 2014 Awards issue we recognise

Contributing Journalists Peter Familari

Pansonic media players were hot and so

and honour the gadgets, software and

were Marantz receivers. The Toshiba Qosmio

organisations which have delivered some

Sales – 02 90025906 Edward Cooper ecooper@4squaremedia.com

notebook was a clear winner and so is its Kuro

outstanding technology for consumers.

Accounts/Production Manager Fahad Naeem fnaeem@4squaremedia.com Digital Content Manager Lee Huy Lam

notebook today. Brands such as Samsung and Panasonic The best smartphone was the iMate PDA2K

still lead the way and organisations

EVDO. It sold for $1,450 had a very small

like Sennheiser are still delivering great

screen on a slider and limited processing

headphones. In the tablet market, the

power. The OS was Windows and the device

competition between Apple and Samsung has

was manufactured by HTC.

resulted in a generation of technology packed into portable devices.

Lee@4sqauremedia.com

The best organiser was the Compaq iPAQ Design Richard Roberts Think Big Online

which sold for $799. C Bus was all the range

Winners are decided by experts spanning

in the automation market; the only problem

overseas publications and our own

was that you needed to take out a bank loan

knowledge of the industry. What we have

Published by 4Square Media Pty Ltd Suite 102a 275 Alfred Street NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060 CAN 100 767 600

to install the technology. Today companies

chosen as award winners today are the

such as Belkin are delivering home lighting

products that will be the benchmarks for

automation systems for under $400.

future products, as brands try to outdo themselves in developing the next wave of

Competition and innovation have driven No material may be reproduced in part Or in whole without written consent From the copyright holders. Liability Howsoever as a result of use or reliance upon any advice, representation statement, opinion or conclusion expressed in Personal Tech magazine is expressly disclaimed by 4Square Media and all persons involved in the Preparation of this publication. 2

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devices.

prices down and miniaturisation has seen some brilliant technology packed into wafer

The future is going to be more about content

thin devices.

and connectivity and software is set to play a key role.

What is in the Award winning LG G2 smartphone today took two devices ten years ago and tablets have more processing power than even the most powerful Intel based PC from 2003.

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REVIEW LENOVO

Vendor of The Year Lenovo

If there is one market that is brutally hard to compete in, it’s the PC market which has lacked style and flair. For decades design for the PC brands has followed a tired theme of throw a PC in a metal and plastic chassis, install an Intel processor, load a new Windows OS and hope for the best out in the market place where every other PC vendor is doing the same old. Then along came Lenovo and in a very short space of time they turned the PC market on end, initially by buying out IBM’s Think Pad business, and then by delivering products like their Carbon notebooks in the SMB market. More recently, Lenovo entered the Australian consumer PC market with the new Yoga 3 Pro and Yoga tablets, including a 13.3” model that has a projector built in. This is a Company that is #1 globally in the PC market because it recognised what its rivals have not: design counts, not in a token form, but in a dynamic form. A testimony to this can be found in the new Yoga Pro 3, which is the best new product we have seen this year. The good news is there is more to come with Lenovo set to release a new range of Motorola smartphones as well as a new range of Ultrabook’s. This is a brand that deserves the Vendor of The Year Award.

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REVIEW GRAEME REARDON

Industry Executive of The Year Graeme Reardon

Graeme Reardon is an IT industry veteran who as the head of consumer products at Cisco was responsible for growing their business, not only in the networking market with the Linksys brand but across storage and security products. He joined Cisco from D Link. After a stint with a distributor, Graeme returned to D Link to take on a senior role. At the time D Link was struggling to find traction in the fast growing networking and Wi Fi market. Within months of Reardon coming on board he was able to significantly increase sales. He expanded the D Link product range not only across the enterprise and small medium business market, but in the fast growing consumer market. In May 2014 he was made CEO of D Link Australia.

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REVIEW LENOVO YOGA 3 PRO

Product of the Year

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro When PC Company Lenovo decided to break into the Australian consumer PC market they rolled out the Yoga 3 Pro a breathtaking and refreshingly new 13� Ultrabook. It’s light, thinner than a pencil and powerful for its size with all of the technology wrapped around a brand new chassis. There is a very clever multimode hinge that allows users to flip and fold the notebook in Stand, Tent, and Display mode. This makes it ideal for watching movies or making PowerPoint presentations. And if that is not enough you can lay this device out flat, 180 degrees. This is no ordinary Ultrabook, this is an evolutionary product that gives you an insight as to how Lenovo became the #1 PC Company in the world.

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REVIEW DIGIDIRECT

Best Specialist Retailer of the year DigiDIRECT

This year’s award has gone to digiDirect a Company that is fast earning a reputation in the highly competitive world of photographic retailing. Shant Kradjian is a savvy CEO who is giving some of the bricks and mortar retailers a serious run for their money in the camera market. Shant has been in the photographic retail business since high school, when he took a part-time job as a floor assistant in a well-known Sydney City camera store. All of the staff at digiDIRECT which was established online in 2005 and initially operated from a spare bedroom, are either professional photographers, or at least photography enthusiasts. Moving into bricks and mortar stores in 2006 digiDirect is now among the largest holders of camera stock in the country. Today they have their website, and a physical retail presence with 4 stores in 3 states. 10

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REVIEW THE GOOD GUYS

REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

One of the most competitive markets in Australia is the mobile phone market where consumers expect competitive pricing, good service and fast download and upload speeds.

In 2014 Audio Active Australia a Melbourne based distributor of high end audio gear has grown their portfolio significantly with brands like Sony and Martin Logan now using the Companies management and distribution skills to grow their business. Run by former senior management at JB HI Fi Audio Active was founded in 2009

Carrier of The Year Telstra

Retailer of The Year The Good Guys

Retail is a tough gig at the best of times and the CE and appliance markets are equally as tough due to margin pressure and constantly changing stock.

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One Company that stands out for their high level of service, and well-structured stores is The Good Guys. This Melbourne based Company constantly ranks highly in customer satisfaction surveys and one only has to visit one of their stores to see the level of quality that they deliver. They also stock a wide range of products both in appliances, TV’s and general consumer electronic goods.

Telstra has not only delivered a brilliant 4G network that is fast, stable and above all built to handle large volumes of traffic, they are now rolling out a new LTE network. The multibillion dollar investment by Telstra in its networks is paying off with tens of thousands of consumers now switching to Telstra because of the maturity of its mobile network.

Distributor Of Year Audio Active

Today the brands they distribute include Paradigm, Anthem AV, Sim2, Sony, Martin Logan, Isotek, Luxman, Primare, Vincent Audio, Vienna Acoustics, and Van Den Hul.

The Good Guys currently operates 98 stores across metropolitan and regional Australia and online they employ just over 3,500 employees nationwide. This year the Company has invested heavily in new customer experience sales model which has transformed the business from being transactional based to relationship based as a result their customer satisfaction rankings have climbed significantly. 13


REVIEW FETCH TV

Best Digital Media Centre Fetch TV

In the competitive world of subscription TV there has been very few players to take on Foxtel. That was until Fetch TV came along with a superior and far more compact set top box and above all a management interface that is a pleasure to use, whether you are searching and storing TV programs or watching the latest movie or documentary. Another big thing about Fetch TV is that you get access to good high quality content, you can store 585 hours of TV content and this year the service was made available via Harvey Norman stores as well as via the likes of Optus, iiNet and several other ISP’s.

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REVIEW SAMSUNG HU9000

Best Curved TV Samsung HU9000

Why do the TV brands continue to design and build TVs as sleek, feature studded and as well built as this years award winner and then give it the uninspiring moniker, HU9000. Samsung has a winner on its hand with this model that boasts a massive 65-inch, curved screen and a 4K Ultra HD resolution. Like many 4K models, the Samsung will upscale any movie, TV program, sporting event or content streamed from the net at four times the resolution of full high definition. The Hu9000 is a thoroughly modern upmarket TV with features to match. We enjoyed the set’s magic remote that you can point, use a scrolling 16

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wheel or talk to activate the TV’s many features. Recording a program to a connected USB or hard drive was a doddle. And thanks to the set’s twin-tuners we watched another show whilst we were recording to USB. So you’d think after releasing such a decent TV, Samsung (and most other manufacturers) could conjure up a better model designation than a boring series of letters and numerals.

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REVIEW LG 55EC930T

Best OLED TV LG 55EC930T

OLED TV offers a mesmerising level of picture quality. We propped ourselves in front of LG’s beautiful, curved 55EC930T OLED TV and allowed movies laced with natural colours and an abundance of detail to wash over us. Old favourites such as Grindhouse and Once were presented with a palpable sense of picture depth that looked true to life – and that was before we switched from 2D to 3D conversion. That’s the thing about this 55-inch OLED TV – because LG gets all the aspects of picture quality so right, it then becomes hard to believe it has taken us this long to make this journey with TVs. The OLED TV’s - contrast is as good as it gets – in fact, it’s infinite. At an RRP of $3999, this model has mesmerising good looks, delivers unbeatable blacks and amazingly vivid colours and with that magnificent curved screen, what you get is a game changer for TVs in general.

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REVIEW LG 65UB980T

Best 4K Ultra High Definition TV LG 65UB980T

Three months ago we undertook the biggest shootout of 4K Ultra HD TVs pitching Sony versus Samsung and the big Sharp TV. Of the models tested, the clear 4K Ultra HD winner was the LG 65UB980T TV. This TV simply stood out from the crowd with its amazing clarity during movie action and strong reproduction of colours. When we set this TV to normal, vivid, and cinema modes, it performed brilliantly in our view, beating the performance of other 4K Ultra HD TVs that we tested.

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REVIEW BENQ 1080 ST+

Best Value Projector BenQ 1080 ST+

BenQ ‘s all about value for money video projectors, and a stand out example of this consumer friendly approach is the mighty 1080ST+ model. A short-throw model, the 1080ST+ is enormously flexible and it’s also very compact. And so easy to set up anyone with a modicum of sense can do it in minutes. In use, the 1080ST+ threw an image in our living room that was virtually wall-to-wall and wall to floor in size. The HD 1080p resolution was evident with scads of detail, vibrant colours and plenty of brightness etched from the action packed John Wicks movie. Images were also ultra smooth and yes, black levels were well, really black. All this for $1299 makes the BenQ 1080ST+ the projector bargain of the year.

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REVIEW PHILIPS 8600 SERIES 65” ULTRA SLIM

Best Value 4K UHD TV

Philips 8600 Series 65” Ultra Slim The new 8600 Series 65” Ultra Slim Philips 4K Ultra HD LED TV, is only sold at Harvey Norman and SmartHouse was lucky enough to get the first look at this UHD 4K TV which is a cracker of a TV. This is the same Company that is also producing a real value for money 55” Full HD TV. Philips was an early pioneer of TV back in the old days of CRT, today they are delivering some excellent flat screen models, no more so than with the new Philips 8600 series 4K Ultra HD TV that has a 400Hz PMR Ultra HD engine that delivers smooth moving images especially for gamers. Also built in is Pixel Plus Ultra HD technology and Wi-Fi Miracast that lets you mirror your smartphone screen to your TV.A Philips MyRemote App allows owners to share content from a tablet or smartphone direct to the TV you can also pull free to air digital TV onto your tablet or smartphone. For the price this is serious value for money.

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REVIEW SHARP QUATTRON PRO LC70LE360X

Best value For Money TV Over 65-inches Sharp Quattron Pro LC70LE360X

Remember the days when the typical family TV had a 32-inch screen. These days a bedroom telly is likely to nudge 40-inches and beyond. Enter Sharp’s mammoth 70-inch Quattron Pro a model that proves when it comes to TVs bigger is best. Screen real estate is part of the appeal of this Sharp TV. Picture quality and advanced network features are another. A 4K 3D model with a panel built in Japan, the Quattron Pro is part of a series of models loaded with smart WiFi features. Above all what impressed us most were the smoothness, detail and natural colours of fast moving sports on that big screen. 26

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REVIEW HUMAX 4TUNE

BEST MEDIA PLAYER HUMAX 4TUNE

This beautifully made and thought out media player was a mile in front of its rivals. And why wouldn’t it be with its compliment of four tuners and the ability to allow users to perform seven functions at the same time. We were able to record four different networks, stream two live channels to a smartphone and a tablet and switch to watching a recording we’d made of the evening news-simultaneously. Such a feature-rich media player is boosted further by a comprehensive

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electronic program guide, the ability to record wherever you feel like it using Humax Live TV on your smartphone or tablet. Moreover you can access and control the Humax 4Tune using your smartphone anywhere in your home.

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REVIEW NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK X6

REVIEW NETGEAR EX6200

Best Router

Best Range Extender

Netgear Nighthawk X6 Don’t you just love the name Netgear have given this model. Conjuring up images of stealth fighter plane, the Nighthawk X6 is nearly as fast.

This AC3200Tri-band Wi-Fi Gigabit router performs at 3.2w Gbps, which we found provided us uninterrupted, ultra fast Wi-Fi speed. A for the range of the Nighthawk, let’s say we used portable devices back and front of our home without a hitch. That’s the kind of extended range you expect to enjoy when your router has six high performance antennas and

Netgear EX6200 fairly hefty amplifiers to extend the range.

Sometimes you need a bit of a helping hand to extend the range and speed of your network. If this is what you require look no further than Netgear’s tidy solution called the EX6200.

Nighthawk crunches data via a 1GHz dual core processor that put in a mighty effort as we played a few of our fave online games. Getting back to our work, the NightHawk X6 was a joy to use with our smartphones, notebooks and laptops, talking to each one without the hint of a glitch.

What your money buys is a model that supports dual band Wi-Fi up to 1200Mbps. Internally 700mW is more than enough grunt for a decent range and a Dual Core processor plenty good enough for a solid Wi-Fi performance. The smart thing about the EX6200 is its universality. It will work with any garden variety, standard Wi-Fi router. It also handles HD video streaming and gaming with comparative ease. We linked smartphones, iPads and notebooks and used them to print pictures and documents to our USB printer connected to the Netgear without a glitch.

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REVIEW CONTROL 4

Best Home Automation System Of The Year Control 4

When the likes of AMX and Crestron were still claiming that the future for home automation was proprietary systems and expensive home automation kits Control 4 was launching a new Linux based hub that allowed users to easily control their automation needs. What Control 4 delivered back in 2006 was a system that allowed for easy programing and the control of light switches, zoned audio amplifiers, networked thermostats, and touch-screen keypads but more importantly they allowed third party products such as TV’s, Hi Fi systems and security systems to be connected to their network. Today Control 4 is one of the leading automation Company’s used by installers and property developers who want a simple easy to install and above all easy to use automation management system. 32

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REVIEW BLUSTREAM

Best Automation Cable Blustream

Occasionally a product comes along that could easily be described as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, the new Blustream technology turns any standard Cat 5 cable into a connection powerhouse delivering sound TV, display and connectivity via one cable. The Blustream technology not only saves time and money but is a product that allows video, audio and networking to be delivered around a home easily. Inside the cable is the ability to deliver HDBaseT Full HD / 3D and 2K / 4K uncompressed distribution up to 100M with no zero latency. Audio can also be run direct from the HDMI chipset. Installers they can run cable in hours instead of days and for users the cost cutting is a big benefit, plus there is the added benefit that you only have to use one cable Vs multiple cables.

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REVIEW DLINK DGS-1024A

Best Home Switch

DLink DGS-1024A SOHO and small to medium size businesses have been hanging out for a 24-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch of this calibre for years.

REVIEW D-LINK DCS-5222L

The wait is over and it’s been worth it for a model that combines the increased bandwidth of Gigabit ports with energy-efficiency. Our sample was solidly finished and housed in an industry first plastic case designed to dissipate heat without a fan. It’s also a clever energy saver with the smarts to detect and power down unused ports or indeed any other ports connected to computers that have been shut down. The DGS-1024A can be desk or wall mounted. But either way it’s the best we’ve road tested that’s silent and allows each port to connect via standard Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, or Gigabit Ethernet connections-and its also inexpensive.

Best Security Camera

D-Link DCS-5222L D-Link’s hugely talented DCS-5222L pan and tilt security camera is bound to lower a small or medium sized business owner’s anxiety level for a number of compelling reasons. First and foremost, the DCS-522L is an inexpensive, complete, fully featured, wireless video surveillance system and secondly, it’s the epitome of simplicity to install and use. We had our sample up and running, linked to our computer network and monitoring outside house within half an hour. We also really liked the ability of this camera to record in HD 720p resolution during the day or night thanks to a series of built-in infrared LEDs and a built-in CPU. If the camera loses its connection to your network, no problem. A Micro SD card slot that keeps on recording covers it. And yes, MYDlink allows you to use your phone to view what’s on or remotely setup the camera to record to your schedule.

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Panasonic has all the TV aces it needs to play with this neat and heavily featured LED/LCD TV.

We couldn’t help but notice the K390PAD in the showroom at Hisense headquarters in Melbourne. The 55” is one of a bundle of models in the brands Vision series.

The Belkin Wemo home automation kit looks good and functions like it should. This is a budget system that is easy to configure especially when it comes to basic controls, you can also communicate with the device using a tablet or smartphone.

Who said it was a case of all over Red Rover for Blu-ray? Not us.

Best TV 42-55 inches Panasonic Viera TH-L50DT60A

It’s a family friendly size thanks to a 50-inch screen that worked well in our test room that is about the size of the average Aussie living room. It looks good with its sleek bezel and uncluttered facia-and its smart. Power it up and you’re greeted by a home screen loaded with a big range of content for you to choose from as well as your TV. We flicked through photos and played a selection of music videos from YouTube but there were bundles of other stuff on offer as well. Feature wise it’s hard to go past the way you can speak a key word to the touch pad remote and the telly starts searching. That’s called ‘Voice Interaction’. But this set also has ‘Voice Guidance ‘and will ‘speak’ onscreen information such as channel name and program content. A commendable feature for the visually impaired.

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Best TV 55”-65’’ Hisense K390PAD

But its screen size and price suggested a huge market place appeal for consumers with average sized living rooms. Which counts in most of us. It arrived as one of six sets vying for our award. It proved to be an immensely rewarding TV largely because of its solid picture quality and the addition of Google Play Store. Using Google Chrome as a web browser we romped through dozens of apps, games, movies and of course music. All looked a treat on that 1080p HD sensibly sized 55inch screen.

Best Budget Automation System Belkin Wemo

Best Blu-ray Player Panasonic DMR-BWT945GL recorder Blu-ray is still the highest resolution carrier for movies recorded to disc. And while 4K Blu-ray is being developed standard 1080p movies look mighty good played via Panasonic’s well-endowed BWT945Gl recorder and player. So do DVDs because the Panasonic up scales them to fit your TVs resolution. But the BWT945GL will be of most interest to home recordavistas who will revel in this models triple HD tuners, two Terabyte hard disk drive and enhanced multi-room TV streaming. We gave it top billing and it romped home with this year’s awards because we the quality it delivered as we transferred treasured family camcorder footage to Blu-ray disc was outstanding. So was the way the Panasonic can be programmed to record whatever you desire on TV using a web page or mobile app even if it’s in your living room, and you’re in China.

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REVIEW CARSON PREFERENCE 92-INCH 16:9

REVIEW EPSON EH-LS10000

Best Projector Epson EH-LS10000 Everyone was talking about Epson’s EH-LS10000 3LCD Reflective Laser Projector at various trade shows recently. After giving it a fair flogging in our listening room, we have to agree, this one’s a ripper projector with colours to die for and a deep level of blacks and high white brightness to back it all up.

Resolution is outstanding and what’s more the new Epson also carries 4K Enhancement Technology so you’ll be ready to view a staggering amount of picture detail if and when the 4K bandwagon gets rolling. For the here and now if 1080p resolution in 2D and 3D with sensational picture quality is what you hanker for, look no further than Epson’s class leading EH-LS10000. It’s a firstclass ticket to an exquisite home cinema experience.

Best Projector Screen Carson Preference 92-inch 16:9 Too many consumers buy a complete home cinema rig including a dandy video projector but skimp on the screen.

Images are not only sharper using the Carson screen, but they’re also brighter and more detailed. That’s the net effect of using a quality screen.

If only they’d been shown how superior movies look on a screen as classy as Carson’s motorized Preference compared to the same movies displayed on a garden-variety screen, they would have spent that little extra.

Those who travel the Carson route can choose a custom size of up to 400-inches and a finish of pearl white or piano black. An all-rounder the Preference works nicely in home, office or other commercial installations.

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REVIEW LG G3

Best smartphone LG G3

The 2014 Best Smartphone Award was hotly contested with a number of great devices coming out this year. The LG G3 came through as Smarthouse’s champion device, which is testament to its brilliance. LG knew when it brought out the G3 it was going to be up against some mean competition, so the flagship smartphone had to be, not only good, but really good – and it is. The Quad HD screen comes into its own when watching movies and video, delivering crisp, sharp pictures that bring the images to life. I have also seen great benefits when trying to read text-based pages of web sites. The screen clarity is so good that when navigating the fantastic 5.5-inch screen you never feel like you’re missing out on quality. A special mention must also be made of the 13MP camera which delivers excellent images. The G3’s user interface is another highlight. It is ultraintuitive and minimalist and is deceivingly simple to use. The G3 may well be LG’s easiest to use smartphone, at the same time as being a deeply talented device. The G3’s brilliance technically is married and enhanced by the LG’s styling, ergonomics and build quality, which were all top notch. It is a smartphone to be very proud of and a worthy winner of the Smarthouse 2014 Best Smartphone Award. 42

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REVIEW SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 4

Best Phablet

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Consider Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 a fabulous Phablet loaded with personality and plenty of desirable ‘’smarts’’ about it. Snap away using its 16-megapixel camera which has a dandy optical image stabilization technology and then replay your happy snaps on the Note 4’s generous 5.7-inch screen and you’ll wo0nder if it gets better than this. The Note 4 carries a tidy stylus in its slick chassis which we immersed ourselves in writing reams of notes and admiring our occasional doodles. Build quality is very high and this time around Samsung has ditched polycarbonate and opted to give the Note 4 metallic trim right around the edges of the chassis. A move which gives the Note 4 a boost in ‘’hold ability’’ and of course, durability.

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REVIEW HTC ONE MINI 2

Best Mini Smartphone HTC One Mini 2

There used to be one smartphone category. These days there are bundles and to prove our point take a long considered squiz at HTC’s dazzling One mini 2. If big and cumbersome isn’t your thing the One mini 2’s ultra compact size will surely rock your boat. As it should, given it’s built to fit perfectly in the average hand. Not that we felt the One Mini 2’s screen lacked ‘’readability’’. After all, unlike past generations of phones starved of screen real estate, this one has a sensible size of 4.5-inches. Neither too bulky nor too small. It’s just right and this sums up the endearing qualities of HTC’s One mini 2. But lest you think compact size equates to diminished feature count and performance we’re here to tell you it isn’t so. HTC have packed the One mini 2 with a fast, powerful processor and lots of other good things including a 5megapixel front facing camera with self-timer.

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REVIEW SAMSUNG GALAXY S 10.5”

REVIEW SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S 8.4”

Best Tablet Of the year

Best Small tablet

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S delivers a vividly colourful image because it has a razor-sharp screen.

In every way that matters, this is a great small tablet. It’s the perfect size for toting around with you everywhere, I use this device every day because it has a crystal clear screen and is highly functional for reading books, accessing email and application.

Samsung Galaxy S 10.5”

This is very noticeable when you compare this product side by side with an iPad. It is also very fast and on board is access to a lot of applications. Above all Samsung has made it easy to not only access content but a host of services not available on an iPad. It’s also an ultra-thin, lightweight designed tablet that has become the benchmark for Android based tablets.

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Samsung Galaxy tab S 8.4”

Like its 10.5” Galaxy S big brother this device this thin and lightweight and if you are considering buying this device you have to get the Samsung cover because it is well designed and highly functional. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 has a 4,900mAh battery and I found it good for a 10 hours of standard definition video, if you are not running video you can get over 12 hours which is great for long flights. 49


REVIEW APPLE IMAC RETINA 5K DISPLAY

REVIEW ACER S7

Best All in one

Apple iMac Retina 5K Display The Apple 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display is without doubt one of the best PC’s ever produced. It not only has the world’s highest resolution display with14.7 million pixels it is the product that just about every designer of industrial products and graphic design wants to own. The quad-core processors are designed to deliver highperformance graphics and while this is the most powerful Mac ever produced one has to give credit to the Apple design teams who have designed a product that not only performs but is a design piece in its own right. With a resolution of 5120 x 2880, the Retina 5K iMac has a display has four times more pixels than the standard 27inch iMac and 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display.

Best Notebook Acer S7

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Acer’s S7 notebook was already an award winning product before we picked it as the best notebook sold in Australia. At CES in January this product was picked as the best portable notebook by a panel of the world’s leading industrial designers. It also won a Red Dot Award. As thin as a tablet and at just 1.2 kilo, the Aspire S7 has a simple, streamlined design with

embellishments kept to a minimum to maintain a clean and elegant look. The use of straight lines, glossy white Gorilla Glass 2, glowing light and anodized aluminium have culminated in a notebook that champions cutting-edge technology alongside innovative design.

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

If you spend a lot of time doing Skype video chats this is an excellent web camera that delivers stunning full 1080p HD quality for a Windows based PC. Logitech has been making web cameras for several years and this is a great functional product that delivers crystal clear sound and sharp images. The software is also highly functional.

Yamaha is a pace setter in the home cinema market place producing feature laden, superb sounding AV separates and complete rigs with consummate ease.

The Seagate Central is an impressive NAS device (Network Attached Storage) and ideal for home users. This attractive, yet simply-designed piece of hardware provides easy sharing of photos, videos, music, and documents between multiple users within a home network or even outside of the home—whether on a PC, Mac, or smartphone.

The new Western Digital My Passport Wireless device is versatile, easy to use, and provides up to 2TB of mobile storage space, it also has a built in SD card which comes in handy. Ideal for connecting to a new generation of cameras such as the award winning Panasonic G4 or the new Samsung NX1. The WD My Passport Wireless is an excellent mobile media drive, especially for photographers. On one side, there’s a standard Micro-USB 3.0 port for both charging and data connections. You can charge the drive via a computer’s USB port, a standard wall outlet, or in your car.

Best Web Camera Logitech HD Pro C920

Best Home Theatre Kit YHT9910AU

The YHT9910AU turned in a stonking surround sound performance during the group test, breathing new life in some of our fave movies and music videos. John Wicks, Ronin, Top Gun, The Last Samurai, Get Shorty, Love Actually, Underworld, World War Z and Dawn Of The Dead, all benefited from this models seven speakers powered by hefty 90-watt per channel amplification.

Best Network Portable Storage Seagate Central

Best Portable Storage Western Digital My Passport Wireless

For good measure we rounded out our session playing with Airplay, Spotify and Pandora before using one of the receiver’s 7 HDMI connections to use with our resident X-box and PlayStation consoles. Movie, music videos or games, we couldn’t get enough with this awesome Yamaha cinema system.

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REVIEW LG 29UM65

Best Monitor LG 29UM65

This widescreen monitor is a cracker, perfect for multitasking and high-quality media consumption. I have been using widescreen monitors for a while now and I am in love with them. One of the many benefits in using widescreen monitors is that they can improve productivity, something I have personally reaped the rewards of. For instance I can split the screen into two windows side by side, a payments spreadsheet on one side and my bank statement on the other, thus allowing me to work off both simultaneously and easily. The LG 29UM65 offers fantastic functionality in terms of widescreen multitasking but also a host of extra benefits. The LG 29UM65 is a 29-inch LED edge-lit monitor. Using LG’s IPS panel with a 21:9 ultra-widescreen aspect ratio and a native resolution of 2560×1080 pixels, LG’s 29UM65 is an excellent choice for media consumption. The LG 29UM65 is a worthy winner. It will enhance your productivity, offer stunning pictures and is very easy on the eye.

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REVIEW BLUESOUNDS

Best 24-Bit Wireless Sound System Blusound

With every brand and its resident pooch getting into the wireless streaming market, it takes something very special to walk away with our award. Blusound doesn’t just amble. It fairly romps to the winning line because its horde of rivals lack the sonic ace, Blueound plays. That ace in Blusound’s deck translates as a performance built around high resolution, 24-Bit native, pure digital music streaming-anywhere, anytime in a house-or office. This kind of market leading performance comes down to the people who designed Blesound. They were none other than the folks who pioneered hi-fidelity sound for beer budget prices at the elite brand we know as NAD.

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REVIEW BENQ TREVOLO

Best Portable Wireless Electrostatic Speaker BenQ Trevolo

The moment the folk at BenQ put the Trevolo on my living room’s table and hit the ‘’on’’ button, one thing wad abundantly clear: the mighty Trevolo was a game changing award winner in its category for this year’s Smart House awards. The sound was powerful, dynamic, and lucid. Everything you’d expect a super-light, ultra fast electrostatic speaker to provide-but not in a package this compact. BenQ has cleverly built both electrostatic speakers as fold out units on the Trevolo. Folded out the sound we heard streamed from our smartphones, was gob smacking. Build quality on our gloss black with gold trim sample Trevolo was outstanding. But ultimately it was all about the sumptuous sound.

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REVIEW HEOS

Best Wireless Sound System HEOS

Backed by the dazzling heritage of no less than Japanese heavyweight AV brand Denon, the HEOS range of wireless audio streaming models has left its rivals in its wake. We’ve had HEOS models running here at home for a month and everyone remarks on how easy is to use and how wonderful it sounds. Which is no mystery when you consider the software for HEOS was developed right here in Australia. And as we all know we Aussies like to keep things uncomplicated. While the HEOS doesn’t target a hi-res market its performance thanks to its Denon pedigree, is stellar and most users won’t be left wondering if there’s more.

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REVIEW IBL CHARGE PORTABLE BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

Best Portable Wireless Speaker

JBL Charge Portable Bluetooth Speaker Our Blue and White JBL charge portable wireless speaker had the look and feel of a bright summer’s day. But it was also robust which it needed to be as we trundled from room to room to suss out its wireless performance. No sweat. The tiny JBL powered trough the library stored on my Apple MacBook Pro and Sony smartphone. What’s more two built-in full range JBL drivers and a hefty 122-hour battery life provided by its Li-ion battery made the JBL a no-brainer for its price and class.

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REVIEW SENNHEISER URBANITE

REVIEW SENNHEISER MOMENTUM

Best Headphones

Best In-Ear Headphone

It’s easy to be impressed by the look and the feel of the Urbanite range that comes in a mountain load of finishes.

Sennheiser hasn’t missed with its extensive range of Momentum on-ear headphones. Now it’s followed up by releasing an inear version that is commendably stylish, well built and has good sound quality.

Sennheiser Urbanite Build is also exemplary and handling the Urbanite imparts a feeling of luxury and pride of ownership. But while, as we said, it’s easy to be carried away by the Urbanite’s styling and build quality, these headphones are all about sound quality. Slip a pair over the Toby Jugs and the Urbanites transport you effortlessly to your own private world of crystalline sound. Your ears will be cosseted by silken highs, golden midrange underpinned by a slamming bass that descends to the lowest octaves. For those into vocals, use the Urbanites to listen to Cher Lloyd’s acapella version of sirens and you’ll be blown away by the complex harmony and tonal beauty delivered to your ears by these affordable headphones.

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Sennheiser Momentum

All the Momentum models target mobile devices particularly smartphones. So it comes as no surprise that the in-ear Momentum has a flat cable with built-in remote and it comes in two versions. One is tailored for iOS devices and the other favours Android devices. But whichever you choose it will come packaged in a handy carry case which is a safe place to store your new Momentum. Either way, the in-ear Momentum’s sound quality is light years ahead of the tacky ‘phones typically bundled with many smartphones.

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REVIEW SENNHEISER PXC 450

Best Noise Cancelling Headphones

Sennheiser PXC 450 No better reference for the PXC 450’s level of comfort and noise cancelling prowess could be gleaned than the testament of one of out frequent flying colleagues. He fell asleep for six hours on a long haul while wearing the Sennheiser PXC 450s. We however were wide awake as we assuaged the PX450’s music making qualities against a horde of rivals we were also trailing. Our assessment with the caveat that noise-cancelling models seldom cut the musical mustard is the 450s are musically accomplished with an immersive sound quality and scads of detail. They’re also very comfortable, so much so you barely notice them on your head. But that’s largely due to the 450’s captivating musical qualities that set your feet tapping and fingers snapping in time with the music. 66

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

We listened to a mountain load of full-range loudspeakers, but the flawless neutrality of the Focal Aria’s sound captivated us.

This worthy award winner has a mystifying sumptuousness. Mystifying because the superb styling and finish of our gloss-white sample with matching stands was inexplicable at its budget price point.

Bass isn’t non-direction. A point proved by the batch of models we trawled through before selecting Velodyne’s mighty DD18 as this year’s ward recipient.

We were so captivated by this racks good looks and sonic prowess we bought it after we completed our group test of equipment supports.

Once positioned correctly, the Velodyne didn’t draw attention to itself. We mean, who wants their attention to be drawn to a powerful bass speaker when a movie calls for copious amounts of trouser flapping, skirt lifting bass?

Made by UK brand Quadraspire and one of an extensive range, the Q4 is by no means the most expensive model in its range but you wouldn’t know it.

Best Full Range Speaker Focal Aria 48 (black finish)

It wasn’t the most expensive loudspeaker in our review batch, not be a long shot. Some of the models in our hunt for this year’s best in class left no change from $18,000. The heady competition didn’t faze the Aria. Not one jot. It happily played jazz, rock, pop, acoustic and classic selections fed to it by our resident Audio research reference equipment. If the highest quality of a loudspeaker is a self-effacing performance leaving you with the sense of being with musicians in your listening room, then take it from us, the Aria will seem to disappears in your room.

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Best Bookshelf speaker Q Acoustics Concept 20

But then again, Q Acoustics is an adept hand at producing musically satisfying, budget priced speakers with a superior level of fit and finish. Most models, and the Concept 20 is no exception, run away with awards and accolades. Power this attractive speaker up and feed it a decent signal source and it will entrance you as it did us, for hours on end. If gloss white finish doesn’t do it for you, no problem, the Concept 20 is also available in gloss-black with matching stands.

Best Subwoofer Velodyne DD18

We enjoyed the thrust and roar of Top Gun’s jet engines and lord, when Tom Cruise road away on his motorcycle, the Velodyne made it seem like it was doing a circuit in our listening room. Along with loads of bass, the Velodyne was fast and tight. And the bonus? Thanks to its overall design excellence and plethora of controls, it blended seamlessly with our resident loudspeakers.

Best Storage System Quadraspire Q4 Evo

While it seems churlish to praise an audio-video stand for its contribution to sonic excellence, take it from us stands can hugely influence the ability of hi-fi gear to perform the way the manufacturer intended. The Q4 resists floor borne vibration that otherwise could enter and be stored in a hi-fi components chassis where it degrades the sound. Neutral, light but sturdy and beautifully finished, the Q4 is the best in its class.

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Ask us and we’d tell you of all audio components, the one affording designers the greatest degree of difficulty, would have to be the preamplifier.

Audio greenhorns equate hi-res audio with pristine sound quality. They’ll tell you 24-bit 192kHz resolution is a guarantee of super sound quality.

Yamaha’s mighty CD-S3000 SACD player was released to match the brand’s awesome S-3000 integrated amplifier. Both are a testament to Yamaha’s desire to continue building hi-fi stereo components of the highest calibre.

While most look sound on paper, they tend to sound opaque in real life. That’s hardly the case with the Australian designed and manufactured Elektra Pnyx.

Done well, hi-res audio files do sound grand. Problem is, too many hi-res audio products can sound sterile and mechanical.

Yamaha is on a roll with its amazing spread of Hi-Fi stereo components which are showcased by the 1000, 2000, S2100 AND S3000 series and Soavo speaker range. They’re so go, you could forget Yamaha is a top gun when it comes to home cinema gear. Which is why its Aventage 3040 impressed us mightily when we employed it to give us multi-channel sound from a range of Blu-ray movies.

A valve model, the Elektra Pnyx removes the usually veils of colouration most preamplifiers, valve or solid state, seem to create.

If your Hi-Res files fail to satisfy play them through PS Audio’s Direct Stream DAC and you’ll be in for an audio epiphany. What’s more, so musically talented is the Direct Stream DAC, even standard 16-bit CDs sound immeasurably superior played through the PS Audio.

Best Preamplifier Elektra Pnyx

Like a good neutral umpire, the Elektra Pnyx doesn’t impede the ebbs and flow of whatever musical genre it’s asked to handle. Jazz, acoustic, rock or ambient, the Elektra remains unfazed retreating to the background leaving the musical performance to unfold with a beguiling level of reality. The wonder is this sub $5000 preamplifier is hitting and winning in the major league where $30,000 models like to frolic. 70

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Best Dac PS Audio Direct Stream

The DACs we arraigned against the PS Audio were brimming with features but couldn’t rise to the level of performance the Direct Stream seemed to produce with consummate ease. Is some DACS are soft sounding, the PS Audio is the polar opposite giving both standard and hi-res recordings, scale and bite accompanied by a plethora of fine detail.

Best Sacd Player Yamaha Cd-S3000 Sacd

The CD-S3000 left its award rivals in its distinguished dust by way of a sound quality so lifelike as to be startling, and a build quality that would make a Swiss watch manufacturer green with envy. From the get go, the CD-S3000 displayed an ability to produce the softest and the loudest passages in a piece of music-simultaneously. So it has an enormous measured and real world dynamic range that’s matched by diminishing levels of low distortion. The Yamaha’s sound was also beguiling with a tonal quality that was smooth and inviting. But it was also a case of the iron fist in the velvet glove and when it came time to boogie, the Yamaha CD-S3000’s lightening response to musical transients hits you in the solar plexus.

Best Surround Receiver Yamaha Aventage 3040

From the get go, this 11.2 channel, Dolby Atmos ready receiver thrilled us replaying the sound track to Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. The opening scene when Bane begins his escape from the FBI’s plane had us pinned to our seats as the DTS HD Master soundtrack unfolded with pinpoint accuracy. Turning to a more subtle soundtrack, the Yamaha evoked a strong emotional reaction reproducing the sonic splendor of The Life Of Pi thanks to its musical insight and ability to communicate the message in the music.

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REVIEW SOL REPUBLIC TRACKS

Best Wireless Headphone Sol Republic Tracks

Plenty of headphones are wireless models but few would make it to our short list for decent sound quality. Wireless Headphone and superb sound quality seem to be an oxymoron. Enter Sol Republic’s Tracks, a substantial overhead model we were happy to give some houseroom because they were enjoyable playing back music or movie soundtracks. After a test session, we reached for the Tracks as we wound down the day and settled in on the couch to watch a movie.

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During the Chronicles Of Riddick, it occurred to us just how revealing these headphones were. Later that night retired to bed watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead, we loved being able torn up the volume levels without disturbing the rest of the household. Reason enough to own a set of wireless ‘phones.

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REVIEW MARANTZ PM6005

Best Integrated Amplifier Up To $1800 Marantz PM6005 74

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REVIEW MARANTZ CD-6005

Yes, truly. Marantz’s brilliant sounding PM6005 integrated amplifier is proof positive we’ve come a long way in the digital era to get to where we came from.

Marantz have made the sub $1000 CD player something of a company specialty proven by the number awards lavished the CD6005’s predecessors.

Savvy buyers are likely to match this sub-$1000 musical powerhouse with Marantz’s award winning CD6005 CD player and glory be, an entry-level Rega, Project or Music Hall turntable. Either way, CD or Vinyl, powering up the Marantz unleashes 45 high current watts that are tailor made to drive a pair of quality bookshelf speakers to thundering levels of loudness. But the Marantz is also as much about musical finesse as it is about clout. It sounds vibrant and fresh no matter what genre of music it’s fed. Tote up a built in Moving Magnet phono stage and Hi-Res DAC, and the Marantz PM6005 emerges as unbeatable value in its class.

Best CD Player

Marantz CD-6005

You can take it to the bank the CD-6005 is another of Marantz’s award magnets and it won ours because it made for addictive listening sessions. The CD-6005 proves the audio adage that a great sounding audio component has you continuously reaching for the “on’’ button. From the moment we unpacked the CD-6005 and installed it in our reference system, its intuitive music making captivated us. Even when playing familiar albums, the CD6005 had us believing we were exploring these recordings for the first time. A quality that ensured we always looked forward to turning on the CVD-6005 and giving our CDs a spin. If the measure of an audio component is how you feel about returning it, we can tell you we really miss the CD6005. 75


REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

This Tivoli Digital clock radio wins out by simplicity and a sound quality that defies what’s expected of similarly sized models.

Pitch perfect. Fire up Our turntable awards winner, Avid’s Ingenium and what you get is a rock-stable performance.

If you’re not aware there’s a vinyl revival underway which is giving traditional cartridge brands a real lift in fortune.

While we still love our CDs, SACDs and Vinyl discs we also enjoy music streaming and JB-Hi Now is our favourite music streaming service.

Vinyl after vinyl well into the night, the Ingenium turns in a pedigree performance without a hint of deviation of speed.

Ortofon is to cartridges what Ferrari is to F1-an icon. While the Red 2M isn’t Ortofon’s equivalent of a Ferrari 458 Speciale, and more of a Golf hot hatch GTI, like the latter it oozes value for money and bundles of fun.

Best Digital Radio Tivoli Albergo Radio

Which should come as no surprise since this brand was built on radios with enjoyable sound. The Albergo follows Tivoli’s iconic styling cues and blends retro with contemporary. The retro is the exposed speaker grill and array of circular operating knobs. There’s not a toggle switch anywhere in sight on the Albergo’s appealing facia. Typically Tivoli, reception is just dandy and so is the feature set that includes Bluetooth, two alarms and a natty remote control. Used as a wireless Bluetooth speaker or a digital radio, the Albergo will not disappoint anyone who wants to start the day cosseted by the sound of a radio that’s smooth and beguiling.

Best Turntable Avid Ingenium $2500

Fitted with a Project arm and Ortofon’s Red 2M cartridge running into Yamaha’s amazing A-S2100 integrated amps phono stage, the Stone’s Honky Tonk Women from Let It Bleed was raucous and downright funky. An abundance of detail, magical midrange, sparkling treble and gut wrenching bass allied to tonal neutrality, are the hallmarks of the Ingenium. The crowning glory is a palpable 3D-like soundstage with musicians located in precise locations. So lifelike, you feel like reaching out and touching them.

Best phono cartridge Ortofon Red

We fitted the Red 2M to Avid’s $2500 Ingenium turntable and it rewarded with a full-bodied and always enjoyable musical performance. The Red 2M is just the ticket for an entry to mid-level turntable and thanks to its user replicable stylus, can be confidently recommended to first time turntable buyers.

Best Music Streaming Service JB Hi Fi Now

With a user interface that’s simple and a joy to use, a catalogue of over 18 million songs, a free 10-day trail period and priced from as little as under seven dollars per month, JB Hi-Fi now is hard to beat. We dipped into that vast catalogue and streamed our choices through Bluesound and HEOS models and were never less than impressed with JB Hi-FI Now’s sound quality and reliability. And of course we factored in its compatibility with a wide range of platforms in our award considerations. JB Hi-FI Now works beautifully with iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Airplay and the Ubiquitous Sonos. The 10-day trial is a good idea, allowing consumers to sample the service before shelling out for any contract.

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Sweet and petite, Yamaha’s YSP2500 sits unashamedly at the upper end of the stalwart brand’s sound bar range.

Next time you’re at the flicks enjoying the sight and sound of the latest blockbuster send a roving eye to the speakers lining the walls of the cinema.

Most décor proud apartment dwellers delight in the idea of kicking back with an entertaining movie or even better, a music video.

Portable high-resolution music players of the AK240’s quality are thinner on the ground than bare derrieres in sub freezing temperatures.

Penny to a pound they’ll have the JBL logo somewhere on the grill. Same goes for the massive array of large speakers hidden behind and underneath the screen.

What they don’t harbor is the desire to have five or six loudspeakers absorbing their limited living space.

If its ultimate detail you harbor, than the AK240 is the only game ion town with its support for just about any audio file known to mankind including the coveted files recorded in the blisteringly good 24-bit 192kHz resolution.

Best Soundbar Yamaha YSP2500

The Yamaha is a two-part package of listening bliss. While the sound-car creates a shimmering treble and openmouthed middle frequencies, a canny wireless sub-woofer that is discreetly sized, generates plenty of bass wallop. The other in the shape of a discreet self-powered wireless subwoofer. So you can expect something very special when you make the connection between this sleek performer and any widescreen TV you’d fancy to choose. Yamaha’s decades long skill with exemplary home cinema gear, totally shows in the way the YST2500 envelopes you with enthralling surround sound.

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Best Budget Soundbar JBL Cinema SB400

These days JBL is the brand of choice for movie theatres and for home movie devotees looking to give their TV’s puny sound the audio breath of life. While the JBL Cinema SB400 is budget priced the sound you’ll hear is way above what you’d expect at this lowly price-point with scintillating highs and deep, taught bass.

Best Home Theatre Pack B&W M1

The M1 was a natural choice for its award thanks to its blend of discreet footprint and captivating sound quality. The B&W team behind the mighty M1 package intended this speaker system to disappear, but still fill small to medium sized rooms with a convincing sound. Which is what the M1’s did much more so than the rival models we auditioned

Portable Hi-Res Player Astell and Kern AK240

Accessing these files was a pleasure on the AK240’s pristine AMOLED touchscreen. Playing back Hi-Res tracks on our Audio Research/Elektra/Sonus Faber reference system was an arresting sound experience. Effortless amounts of detail, wide dynamic range and low noise were the AK240’s domain. This is truly the aristocrat of all Hi-Res portable music players.

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REVIEW PANASONIC LUMIX GH4

Best 4K Mirrorless Camera Panasonic Lumix GH4

The Lumix GH4 is a seriously good camera, around the world, publication after publication has given this camera five star ratings. One of the most capable stills/video cameras we’ve ever seen, the GH4 is housed in a sealed magnesium alloy body, inside is a 16MP sensor that can capture 4K footage for brilliant motion video output.

Apart from some of the best-looking video we have seen on a mirrorless camera this device also has an excellent electronic finder and 3-inch fold out LCD display that is highly flexible.

The shutter can fire as quickly as 1/8000th seconds and syncs with flashes at up to 1/250th of a second. Continuous shooting is boosted to 12 frames per second, 7.5fps with continuous focus.

The GH4 is a striking camera that deserves this award, it also demonstrates that Panasonic is still a clear leader in the mirrorless camera market.

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REVIEW NIKON D6 10

BEST DSLR Nikon D610

Nikon scored a double in this year’s awards winning ‘’Best DSLR’’ and the ‘’Best Compact’’ camera categories. We were enthused by the D610’s predecessor, the D600, which we had the pleasure of perusing a couple of year’s ago. Back then we were excited about the 600’s sturdy body which survived quite a pounding used continuously on a hiking trip to the foreboding but beautiful country in Tasmania’s deep south. The D610 retains the strong camera body and wonderful picture and video quality of the D600 and adds a new shutter mechanism tailored for continuous snapping and a superior auto white balance.

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REVIEW NIKON COOLPIX P340

SMART AWARD

2015

Best Compact Camera

Nikon COOLPIX P340 Our contending batch of compact cameras were of such high standard it was quite a chore to sift through to the eventual winner-Nikon’s user friendly COOLPIX P340. The wee Nikon won through by virtue of a combination of features and of course crucially, its fine picture quality. Combining enhanced GPS and wireless technology with a powerful lens and super easy image editing features, the P340 stood out from the crowd. Playing back our happy snaps and video masterpieces on LG’s 55-inch curved TV we had on hand for our awards, made for a grin inducing experience. The P340 makes the most of its 12-megapixel engine and 5x wide angle to telephoto zoom and its high definition 1060/60i resolution. Pictures and videos looked sharp with clearly defined edges, pleasing colour palette and lack of grain.

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REVIEW HTC RE

Best Action Camera HTC RE

And you thought HTC made really desirable smartphones. Which it does do nicely thank you. But here’s the thing HTC also makes the astounding RE Action Camera a point ‘n shoot, wireless model that signals a new direction for the company. A genre defining minimalist, cylindrical approach typifies what’s so special about this wee camera that fits in the palm of a hand. Indeed, the RE says, HTC, was conceived to be handheld and feel comfortable and snug there. The sample RE we were loaned showed this was no idle boast. The RE did feel like it belonged in the hand. The RE is waterproof up to a metre so kids will have a ball with it at the beach. Yes, we know the RE it isn’t a Leica but it is loads of fun.

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

With so many digital cameras offering better and better video performance you might wonder if there were still a market for the trusty camcorder.

It’s a misnomer to think of Uniden as a global phone manufacturer when it excels at many other technologies including in-car camera/camcorder recorders.

But after taking Canon’s LEGRIA HF G30 and its rivals for this year’s award, on an afternoon out to the races, we’re left in no doubt that very few digital still cameras can reach the recording heights inhabited by camcorders the caliber of the HF G30.

The iGo Cam 850 is succinctly quite an impressive ‘’accident logger’’ thanks to its compliment of three cameras built into a svelte, ultra compact chassis.

Reviewers prattle on endlessly about the PS4’s advanced social connectivity features, its wonderful ability to integrate second screens especially the PlayStation Vita, but also smartphones and tablets. And don’t get them started on the PS4’s gaming prowess or you’ll have your ears burnt with jargon such as the consoles supercharged PC architecture including its enhanced Graphics Processing Unit. We agree with all the above. But hey, the PS4 is much, much more than a sophisticated console! It’s in fact, one of the best DVD and Blu-ray players going around. Few can rival its picture quality, build and eye-massaging styling. And to boot, the PS4 sounds sublime with music. So as a comprehensive home entertainment games, movies and music hub, the PS4, like the PS3 before it, is unrivalled. Gamers love the PS4. But so do cash-strapped families.

It’s hard to get lost when you’re using any of Tom Tom’s vast range of well-priced GPS units. But one we plucked from the bunch of models we brought in for this year’s awards, was particularly outstanding. Tom Tom’s GO600 served as well helping us navigate Melbourne’s torturous major roads in peak hour with alternative routes. The Advanced Lane Guidance feature was also a bit of a miracle worker helping us to see which lane to head for at major junctions. The 6-inch screen was a sensible size and more than large enough for a quick squiz when we stopped at lights. The screen is an interactive model and after using it couldn’t see ourselves reaching for anything less. As for the GO600’s smartphone connectivity, our advice is don’t settle for any GPS model that omits the ability for your smartphone to connect with it wirelessly. TomTom being the GPS giant we all know and love, provides lifetime TomTom Traffic info and Lifetime mapping.

Best Video Camera Canon LEGRIA HF G30

Videos captured by this Canon had the look and feel that can only come from an expensive top shelf model. Picture definition had oodles of depth and the colour range was immensely charming. Qualities befitting a camcorder that sits majestically at the very apex of Canon’s range. Fit and finish were also commensurate with a flagship model and there’s little doubt the HF G30 will repay its purchase price with year after year of trouble free service.

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Best Value Crash Cam Uniden iGO Cam 850

A flagship Uniden model, the Cam 850 has night vision that will come in handy for its recording quality. Especially if you’re unfortunate enough to have a bingle after sundown and are involved in a faultfinding dispute with the other party. Along with night vision, the Cam 850 also has a reverse camera that worked really well with the camera mounted on our much-travelled station wagon. Not only did it record clearly when our vehicle was in reverse it also used GPS to document the direction we were travelling, out location and speed.

Best Gaming Console Sony PlayStation 4

Best In-Car Navigator TomTom GO600

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REVIEW SAMSUNG SRF890SWLS

Best Premium Refrigerator

The Samsung Four Door French Door Refrigerator SRF890SWLS Each one of these Four Door French Door Refrigerators has a built-in sparkling water dispenser from SodaStream and a chilled water dispenser. You can even choose your ideal level of fizz from three settings! That’s right up there on the high comfort level. This magnificent refrigerator will help make preserving your food easy, with a brilliant feature called Triple Cooling Technology which allows you to control the three different zones of the refrigerator separately.

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This French Door refrigerator is the epitome of design excellence and brings some amazing features and opulence to any kitchen. There’s no wonder this refrigerator is the winner of our Best Refrigerator Award.

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REVIEW SHARP STEAMWAVE OVEN AX1100JS

Best Steam Cooker

Sharp SteamWave Oven AX1100JS This multi-purpose three-in-one oven offers a unique combination of the healthiest cooking methods. So convenient and versatile, it will cater to all your needs and then some. With a strong steam mode and microwave mode, we found with this oven, you can’t go wrong. A nice feature is the fact the microwave component is a flatbed, so there is no rotating plate and you can put odd-sized or shaped dishes in without a worry. And the best part is, it actually heats evenly! We found this oven very easy to clean because there are no areas for food to get stuck. Stubborn stains are removed easily after using steam mode so it all adds up to a high score from us.

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REVIEW MIELE ELECTRIC OVEN

Best Oven Miele Electric Oven H 2661 BP

Combining precision German engineering at an attractive price, the H 2662 BP Oven from Miele is the winner of Best Oven this year. This oven has pyrolytic cleaning which means it will automatically turn any food residues to ash which can then be easily wiped out – making cleaning a breeze. The oven has a feature called CleanSteel which protects the oven’s exterior surfaces so fingerprints are virtually invisible. It also has an AirClean catalyzer which reduces the grease and odours released when you open its door, keeping your kitchen cleaner. With lots of room at 76 litres, this oven will add class and style to your kitchen.

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REVIEW PANASONIC STEAM COMBINATION MICROWAVE

Best Microwave

Panasonic Steam Combination Microwave NN-C894S

When you add the combined power to steam, bake and grill to your microwave, you’ve got a kitchen revolution on your hands. This is one smart appliance and it will help you produce an endless variety of dishes. We’ve seen how the powerful, high density steam from this microwave gives you speedy, professional steaming, making it easy to prepare delicious, oil-free dishes. Steaming can also be combined with convection and microwave cooking to greatly expand the variety of foods on your table.

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To top it all off, this microwave has in-built sensor technology to take all the guess work out of cooking – plus it has an easy swipe control panel. What’s not to love about this machine? We say it’s a winner.

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Moving away from heat sources like flames, the Fisher & Paykel Induction Cooktops produce electromagnetic vibrations which induce the pot or pan to generate its own heat. Why would you go to an induction cooktop like this? Because the results of this type of cooking are amazing – you get shorter heat-up times, greater precision and a safer cooking surface in your home. We found this cooktop cooks and boils much quicker than gas. As far as cooking goes, it sears the meat in your wok and doesn’t let the juices out which can make the meat chewy. Overall, from our experience, it’s just fantastic for all types of cooking. We love the fast boiling time and the fact it is so easy to clean.

The 115 litre Beko freestanding cooker has a very spacious interior to make your cooking quicker and easier. The cooker trays are large enough to cook up to 25 per cent more food in one go, a smart feature for those times when you are entertaining or just cooking up some large meals.

We had to get this product in our Smarthouse Awards this year because it is so quiet in operation and yet, so efficient at cooling down a room. Dyson says these fans are up to 75 per cent quieter and we believe them – it was awarded a Quiet Mark from the Noise Abatement Society in the UK. An added extra is the fact the Dyson Cool Fan uses up to 40 per cent less energy. We just love this product – it’s so safe for everyone including children. It’s easy to clean (unlike other fans), it has 10 precise air flow settings and it can be programmed to turn off after an interval of either minutes or hours. This product is a great new innovation for the home and we have to make it the winner of Best Cool New Appliance.

The Hisense 36 Bottle Dual Temperature Zone Wine cabinet has wooden shelves and comes with in a sleek stainless steel finish. We loved the dual temperature zone because it allows you to store different types of wine at the right serving or storage temperature.

Best Induction Cooktop Fisher & Paykel Induction Cooktop

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Best Freestanding Oven Beko GE 15320 DX

Additionally, the 55mm deep tray is ideally suited for roasting or baking. Constructed with a full glass panel, the interior of the door is free of bolts, making it easy to clean with a single wipe. Altogether, you can see why this oven comes out a winner.

Best Cool New Appliance Dyson Cool Fan

Best Wine Cabinet HiSense Wine Cabinet HR6WC36D

This winning cabinet comes with an LED temperature control and display and it takes no chances by maintaining consistent storage temperatures for you with a triple glaze glass door

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This nifty little air conditioner will make sure your room reaches the ideal temperature and maintains it without temperature fluctuations, because of its innovative inverter technology.

With this iron from Philips you can say goodbye to stressful ironing! The PerfectCare iron requires no setting at all and still irons any garment from silk, to linen, to cotton, to cashmere with a guarantee not to burn them. You can iron items in any order without adjusting the temperature – heaven!

This dryer from Electrolux dries your garments gently for exceptional results. With a range of settings, we found even very delicate items are in safe hands.

With 2400 watt replaceable elements and supported by a five year guarantee, this toaster is built to last. We have found these toasters are just never a problem. Everything on them works perfectly – they cook all different types of bread, crumpets, muffins, pitta bread, gluten-free – even banana loaf!!!

Best Portable Air Conditioner DeLonghi Portable Air Conditioner

All air conditioners remove some moisture from the air during operation, but DeLonghi Portable air conditioners have a separate dehumidifier function which can collect up to 35 litres a day. It can often be quite humid in Australia, so this feature is a great addition for our climate. Convenient, effective and a winner in this category

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Best Iron Philips PerfectCare Azur GC4912/30

The PerfectCare Azur does this with its Optimal Temp technology which maintains the perfect combination of temperature and steam so you no longer need to adjust the temperature when ironing different fabrics. Independent iron testing institutes have used PerfectCare on the most sensitive garments and they confirmed the excellence of ironing results. Ironing without stress? We think this makes this iron the winner of this category hands down!

Best Dryer Electrolux EDV6051

This dryer will save you precious time and energy because it has a tumbling action which alternates between clockwise and ant-clockwise, thus drying faster and reducing clothes tangling and bunching together. It even minimises creasing because the drum rotates periodically after the drying cycle ends, until you switch it off, so you have fresh, crease-free clothing when you unload.

Best Toaster Sunbeam Café Series 2 Slice Toaster

We love the extra-wide and deep toasting slots and it’s just so convenient with the high-lift lever because it means there’s no more sticking your fingers in the slots to find those smaller items. The removable crumb tray makes for easy cleaning and tidy cord storage is always a help if you have a lot of appliances on your kitchen bench top. It all adds up to this toaster being a winner for our Awards.

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REVIEW BREVILLE ORACLE

Best Premium Coffee Machine Breville Oracle

We know this machine won this category last year, but there just hasn’t been anything to top it this year. And it’s always going to be difficult to top this machine because Breville’s Oracle is definitely inspired by the coffee gods! It’s an automatic manual espresso machine, designed to give you the true café quality taste of a manual machine and the convenience of an automatic one. And we know from experience, the Oracle won’t let you down. Amazingly, the Oracle can turn out two perfect lattes or cappuccinos every 90 seconds – ideal for entertaining. Thanks to this great coffee machine from Breville, we can all now enjoy true café quality coffee at home!

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REVIEW BREVILLE WIZZ PRO BFP800

Best Food Processor Breville WIZZ Pro BFP800

All food comes in different shapes and sizes. So how do you get your food chopped to exactly to the size you want? With a product like the WIZZ from Breville – that’s how. It has a variable slicing disc with 24 settings so you can customise the thickness of your slices from a paper thin 0.5mm – all the way up to a 8.0mm thick.

longer slices for great stir fries etc. And it’s all backed up by a heavy duty 2000 watt direct drive induction motor with wait for it – a 25 year guarantee! Sounds like a winning combination to us!

The WIZZ has an extra-wide feed chute so you don’t have to chop up the food beforehand too much and it makes

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REVIEW BREVILLE THE BOSS BBL910

Best Blender

Breville The Boss BBL910 The Boss is an easy-to-use, super blender which gives you a lot of control and lets you make just about everything – from green smoothies to hot soup, we’ve found it all tastes better when you are using the Boss. This blender has a high velocity ProKinetix blade and bowl system which pulverises virtually any combination of ingredients, creating up to 50 per cent smaller particles than traditional blenders. When you eat food with this super fine texture, it is easier to absorb more of the nutrients and obviously it tastes a whole lot better as well. We say this is a must for every kitchen with holiday entertaining season already upon us.

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REVIEW BREVILLE BJE520 IKON FROOJIE JUICE FOUNTAIN

Best Juicer Breville BJE520 Ikon Froojie Juice Fountain

We’ve heard a lot of people say this product is exactly what the juicer market needed and in essence, this is also why it’s the winner of our Juicer section. These days we all want to have a fresh juice in the morning but just plain juice can look a bit boring after a while. With the Froojie, you can easily add in a whole banana or some berries and voila, you have some extra oomph to your juice – in fact, it starts to look like a dairy-free smoothie which can be a whole lot more appetising! The Froojie has a unique soft fruit disc which purees soft fruits like bananas, mangoes and berries. A 25 per cent larger feed tube makes juicing faster and easier than ever and a patented juicing system extracts up to 20 per cent more vitamins and minerals than other juicers. It comes with five speeds, an LCD display, automatic pulp ejection, and an easy clean design.

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REVIEW LG FRONT LOADER WD 14024D6

Best Washing Machine

LG Front Loader WD14024D6 This LG WD14024D6 front loader is one of those products that everyone will love. It’s packed with sophisticated technology, but at the same time, it’s easy to use and navigate. When it’s on, it runs very quietly. LG’s unique 6 Motion control means that you can simply choose a wash cycle and your washer works out the best motions to give you an outstanding wash whilst caring for your clothes. With 14 wash programs on offer, LG’s front loader washing machine comes with a WELS water efficiency star rating of 4.5. This is clearly an award winning product.

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REVIEW SAMSUNG WATERWALL

REVIEW LG ROBOKING SQUARE

Best Robot Vacuum

The LG Roboking Square VR6270LVMB This robot vacuum is square shaped so it enables a closer reach into corners when cleaning.

Best Dishwasher Samsung WaterWall

This dishwasher from Samsung could change your view on dishwashers forever. Samsung’s designers have come up with an innovative new technology called Water Wall technology, which creates a linear wall of water able to reach into the all the corners of the dishwasher – so now there are no more dirty items that need to go back for a second clean. Another fantastic feature is the fact the Water Wall Dishwasher is extremely quiet – in fact, you can be in the same room and hardly know it is on. It has up to six wash programs and features a high temperature rinse cycle so you can wash dishes at 65 degrees Celsius, helping to clean those really tough dishes.

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The shape, along with its extended side brushes means it achieves better corner cleaning coverage over some of the round robot vacuum cleaners.

We loved the Flextray which lets you lift the top rack full of clean cutlery and implements away from the dishwasher so you can unpack it easily into the drawer. It also has flexible half wash options which allow you to select the upper, lower or both halves of the dishwasher, depending on how much of a load you have. It’s definitely the winner of this category.

It has two cameras plus infra-red and ultrasonic sensors, allowing it to map out each room so it won’t bump into furniture or fall down the stairs. Cleaning hard floors is a breeze and when it comes to dusty carpets or rugs, it simply switches to the Smart Turbo mode and increases suction power for a better clean. With a family-friendly low noise volume, this vacuum takes the cleaning load off with smart technology, and that’s why it wins the award this year.

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REVIEW PANASONIC REVERSE CYCLE INVERTER

Best Air Conditioner

Panasonic Reverse Cycle Inverter This reverse cycle air conditioner has been designed for Australia with some great new features. One of these is ECONAVI – an advanced feature which can detect the presence or absence of people in a room and their levels of activity. We found with ECONAVI, you can make sure your air conditioner delivers optimum cooling for the room’s conditions. The nanoe-g air purifying system which comes with the conditioner will give you peace of mind. It utilises nanotechnology to eliminate micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses and mould, whether airborne, surface-based or in the filter. The air conditioner also has a setting for Mild Dry Cooling so you don’t get dry skin, dry mouths and throats when using it for prolonged periods.

Need life style image from Fahad

We loved the fact this conditioner operates with noise as low as 21dB, which is quieter than a typical library. As well, the Panasonic Inverter Technology delivers substantial energy savings of up to 50 per cent during cooling operation and 64 per cent during heating operation. Perfect for Australia’s long, hot summers but still great for those areas of Australia which get very cold in winter, this air conditioner has got you covered and will save you money on your power bill at the same time. 112

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REVIEW ADDITIONAL WINNERS

Additional Winners

Additional Winners

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Additional Winners

Some would say this coffee machine from Aldi doesn’t really compare to the more expensive DeLonghi machines but we can attest to the fact this machine still delivers the goods. Because of the lower price of the machine, you are automatically getting value for money – and the coffee you get from this machine is consistently high quality and flavoursome.

This is certainly one nice coffee machine and the DeLonghi patented instant frothing device automatically froths milk so you can have cappuccinos all day long. Another great feature is its auto-clean function which is integrated into the froth regulating knob to make cleaning easier.

This vacuum delivers powerful performance, it’s hygienic, provides easy dust disposal – and you get a far better cleaning result when you use it.

This 1.7 litre Schott Glass Kettle combines the natural purity of glass with a soft open lid to make an arresting design piece for you kitchen. In fact, these kettles look so good on your kitchen bench, you’ll find you get frequent compliments.

Best Budget Coffee Machine Aldi ExpressBeverage Machine

Sure, this machine is a bit louder in its operation than some machines but Aldi stores are everywhere and they sell the pods you need to make a great coffee. And we’ve heard Aldi gives first class service and will replace your unit without hesitation if you are having any trouble with it. It’s hard to beat that kind of service and value for money.

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Best Capsule Coffee Machine DeLonghi PremiumEN 750.MB

The touch screen and display on this machine provide a range of convenient programs and functionalities and the clear text guidance makes operation and programming easy. Finished in brushed aluminum, together with the white LED Illumination of the capsule container, you get a sophisticated looking machine that simply makes great coffee.

Best Vacuum Cleaner Electrolux ZUC4103DEL

A feature that makes this vacuum a real winner is the fact its multi-cyclonic technology provides outstanding suction power as well as excellent dust pick up and filtration rate – resulting in better quality air in your home as well. The vacuum’s handle has been ergonomically designed and includes remote control to adjust the speed setting. With soft rubber wheels to protect hard floors, the vacuum has a wide base, providing stable operation. As well, the AeroPro motorised nozzle allows for deep cleaning performance on hard floors and/or carpet – easy to see why this vacuum is a winner.

Best Kettle Breville Glass Kettle BKE595

As well, the clear glass makes it easy to see what’s happening to your water and easy to clean. We found it pours well, has a sturdy handle for a comfortable grip and very important in a family situation – it is quiet in operation. We can’t imagine using anything other than a glass kettle now!

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Smarthouse Smartawards honour Roll 2015 Vendor of the Year Product of the Year Industry Executive Of Year Specialist Retailer Of The Year Retailer Of The Year Best Carrier Distributor Of The Year Best Digital media centre Best Installer Automation System Best Value Automation System Best Router Best Home Swich Best Range Extender Best Security Camera Best Value 4k UHD TV Best TV 42” to 55” Best TV 55” to 65” Best Value For Money TV Over 65” Best OLED TV Best Curved TV Best Ultra High Definition TV Best Projector Best Projector Screen Best Value Projector Best Home Theatre Kit Best Blu-ray Player Best Media Player 116

SMART HOUSE AWARDS

Lenovo Lenovo Yoga 3 Graeme Reardon DigiDirect The Good Guys Telstra Audio Active Fetch TV Control 4 Belkin Wemo Netgear Nighthawk X6 D Link DLink DGS-1024A Netgear Ex6200 D Link DCS 5222L Philips 8600 Series Panasonic TH-L50DT60A Hisense K390PAD Sharp Quattron Pro LG 55EC930T Samsung HU9000 LG 65UC980T Epson EH-LS 10000 Carson 92 inch 16:9 BenQ 1080ST+ Yamaha YHT9910AU Panasonic DMR-BWT945GL Humax 4k

Cameras Sound Best 24 Bit Wireless Sound System Best Wireless Sound System Best Electrostatic speakers Best Soundbar Best Budget Soundbar Best Portable Wireless Speakers Best Full Range Speaker Best BookShelf Speaker Best Home Theatre Speaker Pack Best Subwoofer Best Amplifier Best Surround Reciever Best Storage System Best Digital Radio Best Turntable Best Music Streaming Service Best Headphones Best In Ear Headphones Best Wireless Headphones Portable High Res Audio Player Best Noise Cancelling Headphones Best Pre Amplifier Best DAC Best Phono Cartridge Best SACD Player Best CD Player

Bluesound Denon Heos Benq Trevolo Yamaha YSP 2500 JBL Cinema SB400 JBL Charge Focal Aria 48 (Black) Qacoustics Concept20 B&W M1 Velodyne DD18 Marantz PM6005 Yamaha Aventage 3040 Quaraspire Q4 Evo Tivoli Albergo Avid Ingenium JB Hi Fi Now Sennheiser Urbanite Sennheiser Momentum Sol Republic Tracks Wireless Headphones Astell & Kern 240 Sennheiser PXC 450 Elektra PNYX PS Audio Direct Stream Ortofon Red 2M Yamaha CD-S3000 Marantz CD6005

Computing Best Notebook All In One Best Tablet Tablet Best Small Tablet Best Portable Storage Best Network Storage Drive Best Monitor Best Webcam Best Automation Cabling

Acer S7 Apple Imac retina 5K Samsung Galaxy 10.5” Samsung Galaxy 8.4” Western Digital My Passport Wireless Seagate Central LG LG 29UM65 Logitech C920 Blustream

Best 4K Camera Best Compact Best DSLR Video Camera Best Action Camera Best Value Crash Cam Best in car navigator Best Gaming Console

Pansonic Lumix G4 Nikon Coolpix P340 Nikon D610 CANON LEGRIA HF G30 HTC RE Uniden IGO Cam 850 Tom Tom GO600 Sony Playstation 4

Appliances Best Premium Refrigerator Best Microwave Best Steam Cooker Best Oven Best Freestanding Oven Best Induction Cooktop Best Premium Coffee Machine Best Budget Coffee Machine Best Capsule Coffee Machine Best Food Processor Best Juicer Best Blender Best Toaster Best Kettle Best Dishwasher Best Vacuum Cleaner Best Iron Best Washing Machine Best Dryer Best Air Conditioner Best Portable Air Conditioner Best Wine Cabinet Best Robot Vacuum Cleaner Best Cool New Appliance

Samsung SRF890SwLS Panasonic NN-C894S Sharp AX1100JS Mele H2661BP Beko GE 15320 DX Fisher & Paykel Breville Oracle Aldi Expessi DeLonghi Premium 750.MB Breville Wizz Pro BFP800 Breville BJE520 Breville The Boss sunbeam Café series 2 Breville BKE595 Samsung Waterwall Electrolux ZUC41030EL Philips Azur GC4912 LG WD14024D6 Electrolux EDV6051 Panasonic Reverse Sycle Inverter DeLonghi HiSense HR6WC36D LG VR6270LVMB Dyson Cool Fan

Smartphones Best Smartphone Best Phablet Best Mini Smartphone

LG G3 Samsung Note 4 HTC one Mini 2 117


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SMARTHOUSE 4SQUAREMEDIA PRT LTD LEVEL 1, 275 ALFRED STREET. NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060 CONTACT NUMBER: 02 9002 5900


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