INLine-COMPUTERS.co.uk: The Gadget Show 2012 (UK Technology Event)

It’s been a long time since my last – and first blog post. I was intending to write every month, maybe that was abit advantageous.

The Gadget Show LIVE 2012

I thought I might use the Windows 7 speech recognition software and write this blog, mmm.. could be challenging, can’t complain suppose it’s free!

As I was able to have some day's holiday I took the opportunity to buy a ticket for this year’s Gadget show LIVE, held at the Birmingham NEC. Starting off mid-morning I drove up the M5 to Birmingham (with my mum as she likes tech too), arriving just before lunchtime. As this was the first time I had been to the NEC, it was surprising to see how huge the place was. With the car parked (at a price of ?? £8) we followed a small stream of people through the maze of buildings to discover the main entrance.

This year the gadget show was being hosted in halls 6 to 12 with 12 been the super theatre. Once inside I realized the show was much larger than l originally thought, with rows of brightly lit stands and a huge crowd of people moseying around. With such a large amount of people packed into the halls it did make getting on to the stands difficult, especially with the wave of people exiting the super theatre at mid-day, this is where the live show was been held.

The first stand, which I struggled onto was the LG stand - with its glowing logo and numerous TVs hanging from the walls, I made my way round the side where there was a 3D TV viewing area playing the Sky 3D demo. Picking up some 3D glasses I decided to give it a try. I was quite surprised as it was by far the best 3D experience I have ever seen (and at the show after trying others like the SONY active 3D that was disappointingly poor), these LG TVs seem to be excellent all-rounders.

Moving onto the Samsung stand where I was able to see the Samsung Note and Samsung Galaxy Tablet, which were not all that inspiring as I am a Samsung fan. Seeing the Note in real life (and not in an advert) was odd. It looked too large in size (too much of a good night out in McD's maybe), and the Galaxy was well the Galaxy.

The show was divided up into Zones with a large food court (food was expensive, maybe a packed lunch next time) a Photo Zone, Game Zone, Music Zone, In-Car Zone and Home Gadgets Zone.

With lots of electrical gadgets everywhere I was abit disappointed not to see many PC’s stands, (maybe that’s because Desktop PCs are a dying breed! No sorry becoming more specialist again. Eventually I stumbled upon the Scan Computers stand. Scan Computers had a good display of computing tech, including this £4000 pound Workstation. A Scan sales representative was kind enough to open the side of the PC to show what £4000 buys (pictured below). With a Sun Micro motherboard and 2x Cool Master cooling blocks it looked quite impressive. The Hard drives were nicely stacked facing you for easy access with spare spaces at the bottom and the HX1050 power supply tucked to the left.

I did try (for some daft fun) to run the Windows experience rating test. Unfortunately the test could not cope and kept failing when it reached the memory test. - This computer was really designed for high end graphics and number crunching. Scan Computers were also running some overclocking demonstrations throughout the show with these pretty cool open PCs. (pictured below) which seemed to draw a crowd.

In the Photo Zone they were running short photography tutorial classes. As I am a complete novice at photography I decided to dip into one. It was quite informative and interesting learning about the best times of day to take photos as well as different light conditions, lens types and using perspectives.

Nearing the end of the day I bumped across the Acer stand, which did interest me as I have had a lot of experience with their hardware. The stand was full with the usual array of tablets and tech. I was quite impressed with the Iconia tablet, it does seem a nice bit of kit. On the stand they also had this unusual looking computer (Acer Revo: pictured right) that resembles a PS2?.

The show had a lot of interactive features. In the Active Zone there was a zip wire for the kids and a track so people could test drive a Segway. Also there was the mini Canon tower with people climbing up to try out different lenses and the VW Up car feature which seemed to pull a crowd. Gadgets were also available for sale on some stands at great prices. Overall I can definitely recommend the show for anyone who likes their tech and wants a good day out, even if it’s more like hill walking for the day?? Now where’s that sofa!