Smart Tech: When They X-Ray Your Luggage, This Is What You Want Them to Find

iPad

If you want to replace your paperbacks with an e-reader, thanks to the Kindle app, Apple’s worldbeater rises above all others.

From RS 31,000; apple.com/uk

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Altec Lansing iMT237 Orbit Portable Speaker

No day at the beach is complete without tunes, and the winner of The Gadget Show’s travel speaker test will keep your party going for a full 24 hours. This is big enough to give your beats a bit of power, but small enough to fit in your bum bag.

From RS 1,500; amazon.com

Canon Powershot S90

Behold a classy compact that’s small enough to fit in your pocket, but powerful enough to glean a five-star review from the tech boffins at Stuff. Over and above the abundance of features, the gadget’s lovers were especially impressed by the S90’s ability in low-light (think clubs). Shoot in 10MP, weighs 198g and captures video in 640x480.

RS 23,000; canon.co.uk

John Lewis travel hair dryer

If you’re abroad you’re either with your girlfriend or trying to pull. Reside in the ‘with the missus’ camp? Just borrow hers. Member of the ‘you’re not going to believe this, but I’m actually an astronaut’ band? Make sure your hair lives up to your bullshit, by packing this.

RS 900; johnlewis.com

Asus Eee PC

Seashell 1005PE

Behold the computing world’s Black Beauty – a teeny netbook, which has been given five stars by over 56% of purchasers on Amazon. The reason? Could be the long battery life, the 250GB of storage or the fact it weighs just 1.27kg.

RS 21,000; amazon.co.uk

AK-47 Aqua Fire

Vanquish your rivals for the King of the Beach crown by packing this season’s finest water gun. The AK-47 Aqua Fire has a range of 8m and shoots continuously for 60 seconds. What happens then? Um, then everyone soaks you while you fill it up. Still all’s fair in love and beach-based war.

RS 15,000; iwoot.com

Sennheiser PXC 310

Want to hear more wah- wahs than waah-waahs? Then save up for these cans, which feature Sennheiser’s crack noise-cancelling tech. WHAT’S THAT?! SOMEONE’S SPEAKING TO YOU! Press the talk-through button and your sounds stop instantly.

RS 18,500; sennheiser.co.uk

Russell Hobbs steamglide travel iron

Newsflash: ‘the heat’ might straighten out the odd crease, but it won’t turn your linen shirt from crisp bag to clinically perfect. Conclusion? Give the sun some help. Pack this travel clothes smarter-upper with steam control, spray nozzle and water jug!

RS 950; russellhobbs.co.uk

Blackberry Bold 9700

Look every inch the business traveller (even though you’re just checking the transfer gossip) by packing the phone they rate as the best. The web access is excellent and the GPS will find your hotel after you’ve woken up on an Ibizan highway.

RS 30,000; blackberry.com

Seagate FreeAgentGo hard drive

Made for the man who can’t stand Rai Uno or Richard Quest, this portable drive lets you take your music and movies anywhere in the world. It’s Mac or PC compatible, needs two USB ports and stores up to 250GB, which is around 200 movies. How do you spell BitTorrent again?

RS 3,300; seagate.com

Powermonkey-eXplorer

Rated ‘awesome’ by Maclife magazine and ‘essential’ by FHM, this charger can be powered by the sun, the mains or via USB and gives your mobile and iPod a whopping 96 and 40 hours of juice respectively.

From RS 4,700; powertraveller.co.uk

Bag a bargain: the best countries for buying cheap gadgets

1. Apple kit: America

The days are gone when Apple’s US prices matched the UK, dollars-for-pounds. But there are still significant savings to be made. A 64GB 3G iPad will cost you £629 in the UK, but around £560 in the US. You can save about £40 on a top-end iPod Touch, too. Be aware that anything you buy will not be covered by the usual warranty.

2. Cameras: Japan

Japan is good for many electronics, but be careful, shop in the Akihabara area of Tokyo and you need to be ready to haggle in a language you barely comprehend. Make sure to check that anything you buy is compatible with UK power supplies and always check the box before you leave the shop (some less reputable places will swap your goods below the till). English language manuals can usually be downloaded if they’re not supplied.

3. Laptops: Dubai

Dubai is tax free so a lot of electronics are competitively priced with the UK. However, you’ll need to do some haggling in order to get any significant saving. Go to the smaller shops – as long as you’re confident the goods are genuine – as shopping centres can be more expensive than the UK.

4. Blu-ray: Australia

While most DVD players are now capable of playing discs from any region, the same is not true of Blu-rays. Australia is in the same Blu-ray region as the UK (B) and though prices tend to be the same as in the UK, they get a fair few big releases a month or so before us. Video games from Oz will also work on UK systems, but they’re massively more expensive.

UK customs only allow you to bring in £390 worth of goods before paying duty, so you’re supposed to declare anything over that.

From the August 2010 issue of FHM India.