This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar

Nokia Lumia 520
Windows Phone 8 goes low end but not low rent

This week we've looked at the HTC First, the first phone with Facebook Home pre-installed as well as Nokia's bottom-rung Lumia, the 520.

We've also got hands on with the new Kobo reader as well as TomTom's brand new Sport watch.

So let's get stuck in. Here's our round-up of the hottest tech we've played with this week.

Nokia Lumia 520

The Nokia Lumia 520 is Nokia's fifth Windows Phone 8 handset. It's a phone which slots into the very bottom end of the range, just below the Nokia Lumia 620. And we do mean just below - the specs of the 520 and 620 are remarkably similar, meaning that Nokia's main competition at the bottom end of the market is itself. Otherwise, its biggest rival is likely to be the recently launched Huawei Ascend W1 - a low-end handset that we're rather fond of.

Nokia Lumia 520

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 review

With the Galaxy Note 8.0, which bridges the space between the Note 2 and Tab 2 10.1, it's clear that Samsung is continuing its approach of throwing out as many devices as it can in an effort to catch as many consumers as it can. The question is, do the customers care about all this subtle differentiation, or is Samsung just creating confusion in an oversaturated market? A scaled up Samsung Galaxy Note 2 it may be, but there are a lot of positives on offer thanks to that larger screen.

Galaxy Note 8.0

HTC First review

Facebook is so big, so everywhere, so omnipresent that it's already on everyone's phone, but apparently that's not enough for the sharing mogul. Now Facebook has decided to completely take over devices with Facebook Home, and has collaborated with HTC to create the HTC First, a phone meant to show just what that experience can be. The First moniker comes from being the first phone with Facebook Home preloaded. It's a well built, unassuming little handset, nowhere near as big, flashy or as fast as the quad-core HTC One.

HTC First

Hands on: TomTom Multi-Sport GPS Watch review

TomTom has always been about getting from A to B in the fastest, simplest way. So the announcement that it would be focusing more on the space in between those points was a surprise to many, despite the fact that TomTom's mapping system makes its GPS watch feel like a no-brainer in many ways. But with wearable tech the current hot topic of discussion, the initial surprise around TomTom's sports watch has rapidly turned into intrigue. So TechRadar got wrist-on and personal to see whether TomTom could bring its solid reputation as a mapping service to the realm of sports tech.

Nikon Coolpix P520 review

Competition in the bridge camera market at the moment is pretty fierce. It's one of the only growing segments in the compact camera market, as users look for something much more advanced than their phone, especially in regards to zoom functionality. It's a bit of an oxymoron that bridge cameras are lumped into the compact genre when, in actuality, many of them are roughly the same size as entry-level DSLRs. Where the difference lies, however, is in the size of the sensor. The Nikon P520 houses an 18 million pixel, 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor. This is the same size as those found in many "normal" compact cameras. However, where this camera, and other cameras of its type, trumps the larger sensored DSLR is the zoom flexibility.

Nikon Coolpix P520

This week's other reviews

Cameras

Nikon Coolpix A review

Panasonic Lumix GF6 review

Nikon Coolpix P330 review

Ricoh GR review

Accessories

Thrustmaster Y-250C review

Klipsch Image ONE (II) review

Chrome Sentinel Laptop Backpack review

SteelSeries World of Warcraft Wireless MMO Mouse review

Mobile phones

Motorola Razr HD review

Samsung Galaxy Mega review

Networking kit

Archos TV Connect review

Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ review

Speakers

Edifier e10 Exclaim review

Storage

LaCie Blade Runner 4TB review

Transcend Wi-Fi SD Card review

Tablets and ereaders

Archos ChildPad review

Amazon Kindle Fire HD review

Kobo Aura HD review

Contributor

Dan (Twitter, Google+) is TechRadar's Former Deputy Editor and is now in charge at our sister site T3.com. Covering all things computing, internet and mobile he's a seasoned regular at major tech shows such as CES, IFA and Mobile World Congress. Dan has also been a tech expert for many outlets including BBC Radio 4, 5Live and the World Service, The Sun and ITV News.

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