Extra Extra: Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide is on sale

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It may be a tad early to start your holiday shopping, but there’s a good chance you’ve at least been thinking about it. Maybe you’ve had a big-ticket gift—like a new TV or home theater—in mind for a while now, but are putting off the purchase till November or December. If it’s sales you’re waiting for, you probably know what you want and how much you’re willing to pay. On the other hand, you might just a teeny bit leery of throwing so much cash at something you know very little about. Which is better: a plasma or LCD TV? Should you upgrade to a Blu-ray player or stick with standard-def DVDs?

If you find yourself in need of expert advice, consider the newest edition of the Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide. Inside you’ll find a wealth of information on everything from televisions and computers to smart phones, GPS units, and much more. For each product, the Consumer Reports editors walk you through the basics, explaining what’s available, which features matter, brand profiles, and offering tried-and-true shopping tips.

In addition to product information, the guide offers advice on how to shop smarter, including:

• Netting the best deals online, and protecting yourself when you shop on the Web


• When to repair and when to replace a broken item


• How to haggle effectively


• Finding the best electronics retailer based on our comprehensive annual survey


• How to save—and what to be wary of—with refurbished or open-box products on store shelves


• Where to get free office software, free computer security programs, and more useful freeware

Boxing Day sales: Last-minute tips for Canadians

The day's title baffles Americans—a celebration of pugilism, perhaps? But Canadians like me—I'm a transplant from Ottawa—know the day after Christmas, named for the long-lost tradition of giving boxed gifts that day, as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, not least for electronics gear.

Like Black Friday south of the border—a non-event in Canada, since Thanksgiving falls in early October—it's a day replete with early openings, frenzied crowds, and often-deep discounting. Unlike Black Friday, of course, it's almost all people shopping for themselves, trying to snap up stuff they didn't get given the day before.

This year, much as with Black Friday, some Canadian retailers began their sales before the actual day, especially online. For example, the major Canadian electronics chain Future Shop began its Boxing Day sales online at 8pm on Christmas Eve.

Gifts: To keep or not to keep? Check our Ratings first

After the presents are unwrapped, there's likely to be at least one gift you keep turning over in your hands, wondering "Do I really want this?". That's a question Consumer Reports might be able to help with.

Whether it's to scope out the possibilities for exchanging that digital camera for a more compact model, or to see how the camcorder you got stacks up against others on the market, our detailed product Ratings, available to subscribers, will give you the lowdown on what you got—and maybe didn't get.

If the exact model of an item you received doesn’t match what we've rated, remember that good performance often runs in the family, as our tips on buying electronics explain. Our tests have shown that untested models in the same brand as well-rated models tend to perform well themselves. We also compile brand reliability information on TVs, digital cameras, computers, and more, so subscribers can see if your gift is more repair-prone than other brands.

(Ratings and reliability info are available to subscribers of ConsumerReports.org. If you're not yet a subscriber, or might like to give a subscription as a last-minute gift, click here.)

If you decide to exchange a gift, our advice: Don't dally, and read the fine print.

Digital cameras: Good values for under $150

Many low-priced digital cameras are so-called compact models that are small enough to fit in a bag, if a bit bulkier than pocket-sized subcompacts. How good a value are these budget models, some of which cost less than $150?

The best are very solid values, according to an analysis of the price and performance of the compact cameras tested for our recently updated Ratings (available to subscribers).

The data is in the chart below. Using a tool called the Consumer Reports Value Index™, which we launched last month with an analysis of superzoom cameras, it plots the approximate retail price against overall score for compact cameras we've tested. Then it places groups of cameras into value zones – Higher, Medium, and Lower – based on the price and performance of all models in those categories. Products on the upper right side of the chart offer better values than those further to the left and bottom.

To use the Value Index, first roll your mouse over a circle to find out a bit more about the model it represents. To learn even more about a model, subscribers can click on its name to go to its page, which includes our expert review, a detailed breakdown of the model’s overall test results, Reliability data, user reviews, and a link to compare online prices for that model.

(More on the Value Index and our updated Ratings after the jump.)

Online shipping: Deadline and opportunities, December 17-18

If you're among the folks who plan to shop online this holiday season—some 44% of adults, according to a survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center—the next few days are important to getting your purchases shipped at minimal cost and with maximum assurance they'll arrive by Christmas.

While the deadline for free shipping has already passed for some retailers, many others have deadlines of tomorrow or Thursday to place free-shipping orders that will arrive by December 24. Most notably, tomorrow's the deadline to place such an order that qualifies for free shipping with Amazon.com, the online giant that's among the higher-rated websites in our Ratings of electronics retailers (available to subscribers). The company will fill orders with standard shipping on the 18th and still guarantee delivery by the 24th, but you'll have to pay the shipping yourself.

Also, as Tightwad Tod, our frugal-shopping guru highlighted recently, Thursday is being billed as Free Shipping Day, with a host of retailers supposed poised to offer no-cost shipping on orders placed that day, with delivery guaranteed by Christmas Eve. Many participating merchants are already listed on Freeshipping.org, the site that's coordinating the effort; others may announce their participation late, in order not to dampen sales over the next day or so. The site also provides a handy one-stop list of shipping deadlines for many websites.

Deal-of-the-day sites: Narrow, but potentially good, offers

The constant churn of electronics products and prices online includes a type of Website whose deals come and go according to a fast and prescribed schedule. So-called deal-a-day sites sell only one product at a time: a manufacturer's surplus, end-of-product closeout, refurbished item, or occasionally, introductory model that's offered for just 24 hours, or less, if it sells out, at a supposed bargain price.

The original deal-a-day site, Woot.com, began in 2004 with electronics and computer deals. The concept has spawned hundreds of one-day/single-item sites, some of them beyond electronics—such as hat-of-the-day or outdoor-gear-item-of-the-day sites. There are also deal-a-day offers from established retailers, including Amazon.com and Buy.com, and even a few manufacturers, such as the storage-drive brand Iomega.

Electronics gear offered on deal-a-day sites runs the gamut of gadgets and accessories, as well as kinds of products. Consumer Reports does not rate such sites. But one day our reporter checked four deal-a-day sites' prices against the lowest prices for the same goods on price bots PriceGrabber, Google Product Search, and Yahoo Shopping; in this unscientific sampling, all of the deal-a-day prices beat the bots'. The best deal, about 65 percent off a pair of new $20 earbuds, was found on a manufacturer's site.

Daily bargain sites come with an important caveat: Return and refund policies can be very limited. Ordering from a deal-a-day site should be avoided if there's any likelihood you'll have buyer's remorse. If you're looking for electronics bargains and are familiar with prices and specs, checking these sites daily could net real savings.

GPS: Gifts for drivers—and the outdoor adventurous types

Portable GPS navigation units have become a hot gift item for holiday shoppers this year. In our latest Ratings of GPS units (available to subscribers), you'll find our colleagues over at the Cars Blog have bought and tested models that cost as little as $150, and prices are likely to be even lower during holiday sales. Some are very capable performers, making our list of Recommended GPS navigation units (available to subscribers).

But GPS isn't just an aid for drivers navigating the paved paths of urban and suburban travels. Portable, handheld personal navigation devices (PNDs) also make great gifts for hikers, boaters, and others who prefer going off the beaten path. (After all, the GPS system was designed to help the U.S. military more accurately navigate the vast seas and trackless terrain of desert and woodland battlefields.)

Still, the navigation needs of hikers can be vastly different from drivers. As such, our colleagues in the CR Cars section have further refined our GPS Buying advice and produced a new report on handheld hiking GPS.

Our video on handheld hiking units (click on the embedded player above to watch) will help you see how such units differ from the portable GPS units used by drivers. More importantly, the video will show you how you can use portable navigation units for "geocaching."

It's a real-life adventure game that's often described as a "high-tech treasure hunt" where participants use the Internet and PNDs to find hidden caches of goodies—often small-valued trinkets—in all sorts of places, including the urban jungle! More information can be found in our video and at http://www.geocaching.com.

If you're looking to cash in on geocaching or need to find that perfect gift for the "directionally challenged" person in your life, there's more good news. The new Consumer Reports Value Index™ on GPS units can steer you to a PND that gives you the most bang for the buck. See the latest CR Cars Blog entries, Best GPS values: Traffic-ready navigators and Best GPS values: Basic navigators for more information.

—Paul Eng

Deal-aggregator sites: One stop for bargains across the Web

With the churn of prices on the Internet, even the most intrepid electronics shopper can't keep track of every deal as it appears. Two types of website promise to help. Another blog will soon cover deal-a-day sites that sell a single bargain-priced product—manufacturer's surplus, end-of-product closeout, refurbished item, or occasionally, introductory model—for just 24 hours. Today, we look at so-called bargain-aggregator sites that find, check, and link to limited-time-only deals from a host of retailers, some of which may last only a few hours.

Such sites, which include dealnews.com, dealslist.com, techbargains.com, and techdeals.net, can help you find good deals. But they aren't for everyone. Rather, they're most useful if you're open to a range of different models or brands. If you're shopping only for a specific model, look elsewhere; it may never rise to being a good deal compared with other models—and so may never be listed by a bargain-aggregator site.

To get the best bargain with a deal-linking site, follow these tips:

Use price-comparison tools. Some deal aggregators include a price-search engine like PriceGrabber.com. Take advantage of it to see if any better deals for an item can be found online. To be sure you're getting the lowest price, consult more than one bot.

Consumer Reports has not rated deal-aggregator sites, but our reporter tracked 10 deals for laptop computers, TVs, monitors, digital cameras, and GPS navigators listed on dealnews.com or techbargains.com against PriceGrabber, Google Product Search and Yahoo Shopping. One of the best deals depended for its lowball price on a mail-in rebate, which can result in delays. The best immediate bargain (without shipping) came to nearly 10 percent less than all bots on a $600 Olympus camera. But more than half the time at least one of the bots matched or bettered the price on the so-called "deal" sites.

HDTV values: Consider plasma, 720p, less-familiar brands

If you're out shopping for a flat-panel HDTV this holiday season, you're likely wrestling with which models and technologies offer the most bang for your buck. The chart below (after the jump) aims to help by grouping LCD TVs and plasma TVs, in two popular sizes, into value categories.

The chart uses a new tool called the Consumer Reports Value Index™, which we launched last week on our Money blog. Based on a survey of median online prices taken earlier this week, it plots price against overall Ratings score for LCD and plasma sets in two screen sizes: 40- to 42-inches, and 50- to 52-inches. It places the sets into one of three value zones—High, Medium, and Low—based on the price and performance of all sets in those categories. Products on the upper right side of the chart offer better values than those further to the left and bottom.

The upshot: The High and Medium values are all among the sets we recommend in our plasma TV Ratings and LCD TV Ratings (both available to subscribers). That's not surprising, since value factors heavily into those recommendations (also available to subscribers). The results also jibe with our general HDTV buying advice, including our updated video buying guide on TVs. (Click on the player embedded on the right to watch.)

Here are highlights of our advice on flat panels, with some specifics on how the chart's data reinforces these points:

Recommended electronics gifts: Top HDTVs, digital cameras, GPS, and more

Just in time for the holidays, here's a quick way to find electronics gifts that are sure to please: Our free Electronics Gift Guide. We've picked out dozens of the newest and best products from our labs and conveniently listed models and prices for each product category.

Here's what you'll find:

• 11 HDTVs
• 7 Blu-ray players
• 16 digital cameras
• 11 laptops

Plus the latest portable DVD players, digital picture frames,  MP3 players and sound systems, headphones, GPS, desktop computers, netbooks, and binoculars.

Related: Which video game system: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or Wii? Our review of six netbooks Black Friday deals on HDTVs Our first impressions of the BlackBerry Storm cell phone 10 money-saving shopping tips for electronics

—Jeff Fox