ADVISOR OR REVISER? (PC Advisor)

Name: Fantasybeliever

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Product:	PC Advisor
Date:	24/11/04 (121 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great contents page, Full of useful and interesting features

Disadvantages: Price, Amount of advertising

*** INTRODUCTION***

I “celebrated” my 40th birthday recently. I was very lucky and happened to receive a brand new, shiny PC as a present from my brother and my parents.

Despite having a job as a systems/business analyst (managing a marketing database), I am remarkably uneducated about the inner workings of the humble personal computer. As I now have one that is adoringly and lovingly used on a daily basis, I felt decided it was time for a personal training and education programme!

There’s a rake of publications out there aimed at the home PC user, and as the rest of my family subscribe to PC Advisor, I thought I could do worse than start here!

***CONTENT & LAYOUT***

This is a hefty magazine, weighing in at 230 pages, so it’s more of a brochure than a magazine! The first thing to impress me about this publication was the content of the “Contents” pages. They are neat, they are clever, they are easy to read. The contents themselves are colour coded and laid out in a systematic and methodical manner. Even the inset pictures are linear. It works as an index page as the eye is drawn to the relative article by the colour coded heading , or an appropriate image.

However, the contents themselves are divvied up into broad headings, which is consistent with the manner in which most magazines deliver these pages. In PC Advisor we have “Regulars”, “Reviews”, “Features”, “Top 10 Charts” and “Here’s How”.

Given that I have a new “toy” and want to maintain its general health and security, subjects of interest for me at this current moment in time are privacy and security. I was specifically interested in any coverage of anti virus or firewall software. Although there was nothing specific in this issue, there was an interesting article about safeguarding privacy when using instant messaging software. Definitely appropriate to me as I use Yahoo and MSN Messengers, as well as AOL IM software, and use them all on a fairly regular basis.

I’m also interested in the current debate around the launch of Service Pack 2, released to support Windows XP. There is a very interesting article in this issue that discusses whether SP2 is a “must have product”. Personally, my jury is still out and I haven’t quite made my mind up.

Although I was given a new PC, alas I don’t have a printer, so was interested in any coverage around suitable hardware. In this month’s publication PC Advisor review “all in one” devices which has encouraged me to consider whether this type of printer is for me.

There are numerous problem solving pages, internet advice, windows advice, application support, etc. You name it, it’s here. The publication is definitely aimed at a broad market and seems to cover a wide range of issues. I’m not surprised that many people buy it regularly, as it would be unlikely not to find something of interest to you.

PC Advisor usually contains some kind of cover disc containing a broad range of free software. These discs contain full programs (some with timeouts) like Panda Internet Security, trial programs, patches, toolbars and games. This month’s edition contains an Internet Security toolkit.

***FEATURES***

Somewhat surprisingly for such a weighty tome, features are quite limited. This issue contains just four, one on troubleshooting PC problems, an article on common “Wi-Fi” (wireless free) issues, a feature on “the no-messing guide to instant messaging” and a review of laptops aimed at helping the prospective buyer target the right laptop for them.

Although initially disappointed with the lack of “features” I soon discovered that there were some noteworthy articles contained elsewhere in the magazine. For example, substantial hardware and software reviews are unsurprisingly found in the “Reviews” section, whilst a few really useful articles were actually found in the “Here’s How” section hidden under the strapline of “workshops”. I found good use for the article entitled “Conquer cable clutter”, containing good advice on managing the multitude of cables that seem to breed with PC’s and hardware!

Other “workshop” features in this issue featured an article on how to create and burn a DVD movie disc as well as how to boost the performance and storage capacity of an ageing laptop.

***ADVERTISING***

PC Advisor’s major downfall is the extraordinary and humungous amounts of advertising. However, this is probably also one of the key’s to its success. In a magazine review, I would ordinarily count the pages to obtain a rough gauge of the percentage of advertising vis-à-vis total content. Well, not in this one; I don’t have the time and I certainly don’t have the inclination.

Lots of “big brand” advertisers - Dell, PC World, Acer, Mesh, Sony. If you can think of a name associated with personal computers, software, hardware and home computing, it’s likely you’ll find an advert somewhere in PC Advisor!

Not only does the publication contain a rather irksome number of advertising pages, it also has glossy pull out advertising features, not to mention those really annoying inserts that have a habit of falling all over the shop floor.

***THE PRICE***

When I picked this up, I was frantically looking for the price on the front cover. It’s not that I’m tight or anything (despite my Scottish roots); I just wanted to make sure I had enough loose change on me to buy it in Sainsbury. Well, I needn’t have worried, because you need more than loose change to procure this little beauty. In fact, you need £3.50 per issue.

I think that’s surprisingly expensive. Again, it’s not because I’m frugal - it’s simply because I would have imagined that they could sell it for less, and at profit, with the amount of advertising it contains?

***MY HUMBLE OPINION***

My overall conclusion is that I liked it, I thought it was “OK”. For the moment, my opinion is that it’s “mediocre”. Nothing in the content leapt out at me and told me that I must buy this without fail every month.

As for my general personal education and training in relation to personal computing, yeah, this issue was useful and I did learn a few things and pick up a few interesting snippets of information. It also delivered in terms of meeting some of my objectives in relation to privacy and security issues, as well as providing a review of a product that I have a significant interest in at this moment in time - I.e. printers.

To summarise, the positives for PC Advisor is that it covers a broad range of issues that will appeal to a number of home computer users. Its layout is clear, concise and sharp and it cleverly utilises printing techniques to make important articles and features easy to read and gentle on the eye. Its “Contents” page is second to none that I have seen to date.

The negatives for PC Advisor are its price, the huge amount of advertising and advertising features and probably the least attractive magazine cover I have ever seen! The other criticism I have of this publication is the misleading title - in my opinion, this leads me to believe that all my problems will be solved through the use of this fantastic aid. Well, they’re not. It’s much more of a review magazine, giving in depth advice on hardware, software and current trends in home computing issues.

Would I buy it again? Probably. But every month, definitely not.

My general rating 7/10.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers

© Christina ;-)x

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