£8,000 to be a gizmo man

The price of being a modern man was revealed today.

With gadgets including plasma-screen TVs, wireless laptop computers and portable MP3 players now considered essential, the cost of owning a technology arsenal guaranteed to make a man the envy of friends is £8,420. Consumer technology-magazine Stuff has listed what it considers to be the top gadgets every up-tothe-minute man should own, with prices from £50 to £4,500.

The most aspirational boys' toy on the list is the Nokia 6600 mobile phone with bluetooth-wireless technology, at £50 with a new contract.

Second is the £250 Apple iPod pocketsized MP3 player, which allows users to listen to songs downloaded from their computer.

Third - and most expensive - is Pioneer's PDP-434HDE plasma-screen TV, with a hefty £4,500 price tag.

Fourth is Pioneer's NS DV990 home cinema system costing £650, while the Sky + personal video recording system is at number five, priced £250.

But it is a fickle field. The palmtop computer, second on Stuff's must-have list last year, has dropped out, overtaken by newer technology.

Stuff says the gadget market is worth about £4.5billion a year. Editor Tom Dunmore said: "Gadgets are as important to the modern man as the clothes he wears and the car he drives.

"The great thing about the digital revolution is that 21st-century gadgets aren't limited to one function. So now phones can play music and an iPod can store your diary.

"All we are waiting for now is a gadget that combines the iPod's music capacity and a mobile phone - so you can download any song you fancy, wherever you are."