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HOME AUDIO

UPGRADES

From high-quality streamers to 3D music, step up to a whole new era of audio gadgets

LIGHT LAPTOPS

UNDER £999

RATED

For work, study and play!

ONEPLUS NORD CE 5G

Get a slick 90Hz screen for the lowest price yet

REVIEWED

THE BEST EVER

OLED

Panasonic’s new TV smashes LG and Sony

BUILD YOUR OWN BAR

Party in the garden with this tech for brewing & BBQing

HOT!

SONY XPERIA 1 III

The perfect phone for pro photos

Meet the team

Meet the team

MEET OUR ADVERTISING TEAM Get in touch to see what T3 can do for your brand!

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, TECHNOLOGY KATE COLGAN kate.colgan@futurenet.com

JOSH RUSSELL Editor

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RUSSELL LEWIN Production Editor

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THE GLOBAL MAGAZINE JO GULLIVER Group Art Director

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MATT BOLTON Home Tech Editor

T3 is currently licensed worldwide, from Australia to Mexico

FRANCE

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POLAND

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4 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

VISIT T3.COM We’ve overhauled T3.com – the best site for gadget news and reviews now has a great new look and is fully responsive, enabling you to enjoy it on any device.

Welcome

Editor’s letter A lot has been happening the last few weeks. First of all, Freedom Day came and went, putting an end to the last RI WKH &RYLG UHVWULFWLRQV $QG LQ D ĆW RI PHWHRURORJLFDO irony, the UK went into literal meltdown as we received WKH ĆUVW WUXH KHDWZDYH RI WKH \HDU Now we’re free to eschew masks, sweatily embrace VWUDQJHUV DQG HDW ćDJV å DOWKRXJK , ZRXOG SHUVRQDOO\ XUJH you to do none of these things – a lot of people have been getting out and enjoying the blistering heat. In light of this, we’ve been looking at ways you can (safely) make the most of the remainder of your summer.

Planning some time away? Then we’ve put together a guide to the best gadgets to take on your travels, whether you’re taking a road trip to see family, going on a camping adventure or planning a short hop abroad to a country on the green list. Just fancy a pint with friends? Why not build your own garden bar, with the latest gear for brewing, cocktailmaking and entertaining?

And if you’re just looking to kick back with some tunes RQ bGRQèW PLVV RXW RQ WKH ODWHVW ORVVOHVV DQG ' DXGLR WHFK We show you all the hottest headphones, dream streamers and superlative speakers that will help you level up your listening experience.

Josh Russell, Editor josh.russell@futurenet.com Tweet me @joshlrussell

T3’S MISSION Our mission is to bring you the clearest recommendations ZHbFDQ å DQG WKDW PHDQV D JUHDW GHDO RI KDUG ZRUN KDSSHQV before a product even reaches our pages!

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T3, ISSN 1364-2642, is published monthly with an extra issue in September by Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. UK The US annual subscription price is $168.87. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named World Container Inc, 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Brooklyn NY 11256.

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A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 5

Contents

Contents 028

HOME AUDIO UPGRADES

Level up to 3D and lossless music with these top speakers and headphones

041

046 6 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

35 HOTTEST TRAVEL GADGETS

Plan the perfect road trip, staycation or trip abroad with this incredible travel tech

059

BUILD YOUR OWN BAR

Invite friends over for a sip of their fave tipple in your own garden bar

LIGHTWEIGHT LAPTOPS UNDER £999 +HDGLQJ EDFN WR VFKRRO XQL RU WKH RIĆFH" 7KHVH perfectly priced notebooks will ease your return

Contents BEST OF THE BEST

HORIZON 010

HORIZON TOP 10

Check out Nintendo’s beautiful OLED-screened Switch upgrade

TESTED 068

PANASONIC JZ2000

Topping out at a blazingly bright 950 nits and packing super sharp AI, this may well be the best OLED ever

072

BEATS STUDIO BUDS

018

STYLE

Beats’ latest are affordable, easy to pair and sound smashing

It’s time to don some denim with these jackets, jeans and sneakers

020

FITNESS & OUTDOORS

Make like Aquaman with Speedo’s shark-inspired smart swimsuit

079

073

YOUR IN-DEPTH BUYER’S GUIDE

Powerful and packing a vibrant screen, this is a cracking Windows laptop

2XU JLDQW EX\HUèV JXLGH KHOSV \RX ĆQG the world’s best gadgets in over 50 categories, from top tellies to DSLRs to car tech to shavers – all tested by T3’s team of tech experts!

MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP 4

074

ONEPLUS NORD CE 5G

021

TRAVEL

A budget Nord that cuts a few corners to reach its cheapest ever price

SUBSCRIBE

Walk on the wild side with Thera-Sea’s rustic wellness retreat

022

LIVING

Harness the power of plasma to defunk your duds

076

SAMSUNG HW-Q950A

This soundbar’s 22 drivers and 11.1.4 channels drop a driving dome of sound

024

GADGET GURU

Stop your JoyCons conking out and groom your gentleman garden

027

TALKING TECH

Duncan Bell celebrates the triumph of innovation over iteration

8 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

078

HUAWEI MATEVIEW

Great connectivity and smart features make Huawei’s 4K monitor a hit

AND SAVE BIG MONEY Get the latest offers

038

Horizon

The best new tech heading your way

NINTENDO SWITCH OLED VERSION £310, nintendo.co.uk Long has the world waited for the fabled Switch Pro, but the world should have known that was not the Nintendo way. Nintendo’s console revisions are about iterative improvements: see the long history of the 3DS, the GBA Micro, even the redesigned NES, released at the end of that console’s life. None messed with the formula even slightly; they just made things better. Few drove any meaningful wedge between the haves and have nots – your old hardware was still good.

For this second revision of the main-line Switch hardware (the first of which was a quiet battery upgrade, stealthily pushed out in 2019) Nintendo sticks to those guns. It has a better, bigger screen. It introduces a few minor quality-of-life improvements. It packs in highly sexy (and very grown-up) white Joy-cons along with some additional storage. But the Nintendo Switch OLED version does not meaningfully change what the Nintendo Switch is. It just makes it that little bit better.

As much as we’d have loved 4K docked output, better frame rates, or extra beef to give the next wave of stone-cold Nintendo classics the muscle they need to shine, we’re forced to admit that this revision is exactly what the still-in-its-prime Switch needs. Everything will run exactly as it did, and if you’re already a Switch owner, as nigh on 80 million people are, there’s no need to worry about your hardware becoming obsolete. Want a better screen?

Upgrade. Not bothered? You’re good.

TECH-O-METER

The standard Switch’s flimsy, narrow kickstand gets an adjustable full-width upgrade, making playing anywhere more palatable.

And its Joy-con connections remain the same, so you can bring your old controllers.

“Haven’t already bought a Switch? This should win you over” Josh Russell, Editor

10 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Top 10

OLED ALERT With 7 inches of contrasty screen to play with (compared to the 6.2-inch display of the standard Switch) the Switch OLED drops a whole lot of bezel. This may or may not be a Samsung PenTile panel – we hope not, as those can get fizzy – and has Nintendo solved the OLED burn-in problem? Time will tell...

IMAGE SOURCE: NINTENDO

NEW KID ON THE DOCK The dock gets a small upgrade in this edition, with a sleeker, slightly more rounded design. There’s a bonus around the back in the form of an Ethernet port – solidifying Nintendo’s commitment to twitchy online games.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 11

Horizon Top 10

LOTUS EMIRA From under £60,000, lotuscars.com Due spring 2022, this marks the end of an era for Hethel’s iconic manufacturer. It’s Lotus’ combustion engine swan song, with the company (under the new majority ownership of Geely) planning an all-electric lineup in coming years. The Emira – dubbed a ‘junior supercar’, nestling into the market just below the likes of Porsche’s 718 Cayman – will launch with a 3.5-litre Toyota V6 powering the rear axle, before transitioning to a 2.0-litre Mercedes AMG power plant later next year. It’s a new start of sorts, too, marking the debut of Lotus’ new Sports Car Architecture, the platform its future electrics will be built on. Proportionally, this is a very different car to the Lotuses before it, and the interior is far more spacious and comfortable than you might expect..

IMAGE SOURCE: LOTUS

T3 SAYS: Petrol, we’ll miss you, but we’re super-excited for the electric revolution.

TECH-O-METER

SONY XPERIA 1 III £1,199, sony.co.uk

T3 SAYS: This has the potential to be a photography essential.

TECH-O-METER

1 2 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

IMAGE SOURCE: SONY

Sony’s mobile business technically died in 2019, and yet here it is, consolidated with other departments and effectively acting as the final ghostly holdout for powerful phones that satisfy the enthusiast rather than just the pure aesthete. Not that this latest flagship handset isn’t beautiful – it’s glass-backed, slightly thicker than the Xperia 1 II before it but given a slassy metal-edged and boxy redesign – but it’s just so remarkably practical. There’s a slick 6.5-inch 120Hz 4K HDR OLED screen, but there’s also a headphone jack. There’s a truly world class camera packing an optical zoom, super-speedy thanks to the Snapdragon 888 chipset and 12GB RAM – and still Sony remains one of the final holdouts of expandable microSD storage.

These extras do come at a high price, though.

Horizon Top 10

NIKON Z FC From £899, nikon.co.uk The throwback styling of Nikon’s Z-mount mirrorless (which digs into the archive to ape the company’s old-school FM and FE SLRs) does not stop at merely being hipster bait; it dishes up dedicated control dials for functions like ISO and exposure compensation, and boasts the first fully articulating LCD viewfinder of any Z-mount camera. Inside you get the precise same 20.9MP sensor that graced the Nikon Z50, although the more expensive Z fc arguably wears it better, allowing Eye-Autofocus while shooting video and offering manual control over eye AF while shooting stills.

Charging, power and data transfer are handled by a USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface, which is good, though vloggers may be a little put off by the lack of a headphone port for audio monitoring.

IMAGE SOURCE: NIKON

T3 SAYS: Plenty beautiful – and there are coloured leather versions promised, too.

TECH-O-METER

SAMSUNG GALAXY M32 £270, samsung.com

T3 SAYS: A pocket-friendly price for a phone that’ll run and run.

TECH-O-METER

14 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

IMAGE SOURCE: SAMSUNG

Samsung’s Galaxy M series is consistently brilliant, acting as a cost-effective sink for those components that are no longer at the superhigh end but which remain super-cool. Here it’s the 90Hz Super AMOLED Infinity-U 6.4-inch display – certainly not the usual £270 phone fare – coupled with a four-camera rear array, including depth sensing, a 2MP macro lens, and an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 123-degree field of view. Samsung, tellingly, isn’t talking specifics about the other internals at press time, so expect a middling to low chipset – but with an extensive 5,000mAh battery on board even the most inefficient processor should make it well over a day. It’ll be available on Amazon and through Samsung directly – though you’ll need to snap it up fast.

Horizon

SENNHEISER CX TRUE WIRELESS £120, sennheiser.com

IMAGE SOURCE: SENNHEISER

These aren’t the first toe Sennheiser’s dipped in the true wireless waters – the Momentum 2 buds shone late last year – and not, indeed, its first CX-shaped buds, though this new edition offers some hefty improvements. Prime among these is the Sennheiser TrueResponse transducer, which trickles down from more high-end buds and should mean significantly improved sound quality. Extended battery, up an additional seven hours with the charging case in the mix, won’t hurt either, and there’s a bump from Bluetooth 5.1 to 5.2. You also get a whole host of app control, from EQ to Sennheiser’s Side Tone voice mixer in calls.

Sennheiser is listing these at a price point similar to its Momentum buds, but we’d expect them to be available for a little less.

T3 SAYS: Bound-to-be-brilliant buds.

TECH-O-METER

TCL ROKU TVs From £229, currys.co.uk

T3 SAYS: Ideal as second TVs, with enough power to be ace budget living room buys too.

TECH-O-METER

16 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

IMAGE SOURCE: TCL

TCL’s push into the UK market is growing stronger, with a series of six new TVs available through Currys’ bricks-and-mortar stores, joining an online range launched in 2018. TCL is starting to seriously cement itself as an affordable mainstay of our shelves. This series, topping out at the £550 65-inch 65RP620K, also marks the debut of Roku TV on these shores following a very successful launch elsewhere. Building Roku guts into a TV means a (theoretically) unbiased OS, one without the ads of Android TV or Fire TV Edition sets, but that retains the smarts that Roku has built up over the years. So you can count on having solid voice search, access to a massive range of services, and a simple interface suitable for even the most technophobic.

Top 10

SHARP GX-BT60 £29, sharpconsumer.uk DuoLink function makes it trivial to wirelessly link two of them together to act as a stereo pair for double the power and a wider sound stage.

Given the reasonable price, we can’t imagine there’d be much of a barrier to you picking up a second.

T3 SAYS: Bluetooth speakers have evolved; the bottom end is thriving.

IMAGE SOURCE: SHARP

Summer is with us and, if you’re venturing outside, this is a speaker with real chuck-it-around energy. Lob the GX-BT60 into your pocket for a day out, toss it on the inevitably damp grass, hurl it in the freezing paddling pool to entertain the kids, dump it in the shower when you eventually try to get yourself warm after a ‘summer’ day, whatever works.

If you need six watts of decent audio, bolstered by a passive bass radiator, DSP-driven equalisation, a battery capable of 13 hours’ playback and IP67 rated water- and dust-proofing, this is the one. What’s more, Sharp’s

TECH-O-METER COOLNESS INNOVATION FEATURES

SONY SRS-NB10 NECK SPEAKER Around £150, sony.co.uk signal processed to minimise feedback and echo, should ensure that you can hear and be heard clearly. But that’s the tip of the iceberg; this is great for private TV watching at night, for bouncing around doing housework, even (perhaps) for cycling with tunes.

T3 SAYS: We can see ourselves basically living with these on.

TECH-O-METER COOLNESS INNOVATION FEATURES

IMAGE SOURCE: SONY

Neckband speakers are more niche than they deserve to be. If you want sound in your ears but over-ear headphones or in-ear buds put too much strain on your lugs – or you want to absolutely ensure that you’re able to hear the sounds around you – they’re an ideal option. Sony’s latest uses a pair of speakers to point sound directly at your ears (as opposed to bone conducting through your collarbone, we suppose) with passive radiators to add warmth. The the company is pitching this as a good conference call companion; twin beamforming microphones,

DELL ULTRASHARP WEBCAM £258, dell.com ghost sitting in a gloomy graveyard.

You can tweak your FOV, use it in conjunction with Windows Hello, and even slap on a physical lens cap in those moments you don’t want the world watching. Webcams have rarely looked quite as impressive as this.

T3 SAYS: Another meeting? Don’t mind if we do.

IMAGE SOURCE: DELL

If you’re fully resigned to spending eight hours of your day on a webcam – whether you’re a streamer, a home-bound wage slave, or just absurdly sociable – Dell’s new webcam makes all the right waves.

Don’t look at it so much as a 4K cam, though you can take full advantage of that Sony Starvis sensor if you want to. It’s all about the smarts. The UltraSharp Webcam will drop the resolution a little, and make up for it by framing you perfectly as you move around the room, using HDR and automatic lighting correction to ensure you do not look like a pallid

TECH-O-METER COOLNESS INNOVATION FEATURES A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 17

Horizon

TRUE BLUE

Dazzling, dashing or functional – whichever way you wear it, denim is back on our style radar. Whether you play it chic or casual, it’s always cool. Just don’t double up...

DENIM CAP Uniqlo is a brand that is wellknown for its paired-back, relaxed yet elegant designs and this understated cap fits that bill perfectly being light in weight but heavy on the style. £14.90, uniqlo.com

IMAGE SOURCE: UNIQLO, NUDIE JEANS, CONVERSE, A.P.C

NUDIE JEANS STEADY EDDIE II DARK CLASSIC Nudie has nailed it with the Steady Eddie.

Designed in a dark, indigo hue, the Eddies have a tapered fit, which gives, says Nudie, a “modern silhouette” and they’re made from soft organic stretch denim too. £120, nudiejeans.com

CHUCK TAYLOR ALL STAR 70 DENIM HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS Converse is not adverse to releasing new versions of its iconic Chuck Taylor design and we’re fully in favour of this denim iteration that has all the quintessential markers, including the All Star logo and rubber soles. £80, mrporter.com

18 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

MEN WASHED DENIM UTILITY JACKET All work and no play isn’t good for anyone but this super-lightweight utility jacket can be worn wherever you’re heading as it is the ultimate in smart casual with its clean edges and classic design. £24.90, uniqlo.com

A.P.C LAURE LOGO-PRINT DENIM TOTE BAG Paris-based brand A.P.C is a leader in urban menswear and we’re pretty impressed with this long-handled tote that has been crafted from Japanese denim. Be gone, single-use plastic! £70, mrporter.com

WHICH WATCH

MONEY NO OBJECT

THE HOTTEST TIMEPIECES RIGHT NOW

Martyre sterling silver and brilliant-cut diamond ring

TUDOR, BLACK BAY FIFTYEIGHT BRONZE

PORSCHE DESIGN, 1919 GLOBETIMER UTC

Tudor has gone back to bronze for its latest version of the Black Bay Fifty-Eight, combining the brand’s iconic 39mm watch case with a new colourway, based on a rich ‘brown-bronze’ palette. £3,390, tudorwatch.com

Designed to show off the beautiful simplicity associated with Porsche cars, the 1919 Globetimer UTC is made from titanium carbide coating with a leather strap made from Porsche interior leather. £5,600, porsche-design.com

G-SHOCK, GBX-100NS G-LIDE SURF

RESERVOIR, LIMITEDEDITION HYDROSPHERE BRONZE

Perfect for surfers, this new G-Shock shows high tide and low tide times.

It comes with a phone app for simple selection of one of approximately 3,300 locations around the globe. £159, g-shock.co.uk

Limited to just 50 pieces, each buyer will be offered a once in a lifetime dive experience with Greg Lecoeur in the PortCros national park, Hyères, France. £4,600, reservoir-watch.com

When childhood friends and LA creative heavyweights, model Anwar Hadid and musician Yoni Laham, combined forces, the result was unisex jewellery brand, Martyre. The pair concocted the concept in 2018 and while it has been enjoying success Stateside ever since, Martyre has only just arrived in London (summer 2021) with an exclusive launch at Selfridges.

All Martyre jewellery is handcrafted in LA, including this sterling silver and diamond-cut ring that features 100% sterling silver and four diamonds. Its split design with a mirrored brand engraving at the front is unique and playful and, like its founders, combines street attitude with LA glamour.

The driving force behind Martyre, says co-founder Anwar Hadid, is to renew the concept of his and hers jewellery, bringing a fresh perspective onto the term ‘unisex’. “I grew up wearing hoodies for their fit and material,” he says, “not because they were classified as men’s or women’s – unisex jewellery reflects this new way of thinking, letting people decide for themselves without any judgement.”

Alongside the silver/diamond ring, Selfridges is selling seven other Martyre pieces, including a necklace, from which Martyre will donate 50% of its sales to Centrepoint in London. £470, selfridges.com

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 19

IMAGE SOURCE: MARTYRE

Style

Horizon Fitness

IMAGE SOURCE: BOWFLEX

BOWFLEX SELECTTECH 1090i ADJUSTABLE DUMBBELL A household name in home workouts, Bowflex’s SelectTech 1090i Adjustable Dumbbell is a must-have for anyone who is creating a comprehensive home gym but lacks the required space for a big rack of dumbbells. £538, fitness-superstore.co.uk

SINK OR SKIN

IMAGE SOURCE: SPEEDO

BEST ADJUSTABLE DUMBBELLS

TIPPING THE SCALES

IMAGE SOURCE: MUSCLESQUAD

Speedo unveils its ‘most intelligent swimsuit’ yet, the Fastskin 4.0.

Too bad no one can buy it for another 20 years

MUSCLESQUAD 32.5KG ADJUSTABLE DUMBBELL This bad boy delivers a workout experience similar to the Bowflex SelectTech 1090i for less cash. MuscleSquad’s monster dumbbell takes up surprisingly little space yet leaves a lot of room for progression and to ‘go heavy’. £200, musclesquad.com

With its latest sustainable swimsuit concept, the Fastskin 4.0, Speedo looked at the evolution of current swimsuits and combined them with forecasted technological advancements to create a suit that the brand predicts could lead to an improvement of up to 4% across sprint events by 2040.

The Fastskin 4.0 is crafted using 3D scanning, AI prediction and bioengineered printing, featuring customisable compression and adaptive buoyancy cells that ‘push what is possible in the pool to a new limit’. The AI involvement doesn’t end

there either: a built-in AI monitors vitals and live-coaches athletes mid-race. The smart yarn used for the suit converts the force of the water into energy, which is used to power the AI system.

The swimsuit also features an in-built exoskeleton that ‘flexes for explosive power, snap and maximum amplitude’, as well as an adaptive bioengineered surface that ‘replicates shark skin for optimum flow through water’. There is even a core reactor that equalises the body position for added hydrodynamics and streamlining, just for good measure.

TOUGH LOVE

TRAIN HARD WITH TRX POWERBLOCK SPORT 2.4 ADJUSTABLE DUMBBELL PowerBlock Sport 2.4 Adjustable Dumbbell may look like a basic Bowflex rival but as a matter of fact, it’s a surprisingly neat way to replace eight standard dumbbells. Good if you’re tight on space and cash. £199.99, sweatband.com 2 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

TRX’s new Kevlar home gym equipment range (trxtraining.co.uk, prices from £29.95) includes ab sliders, power bags and an ultratough weighted vest, all using Kevlar, a heat-resistant, strong synthetic fibre with a high tensile strength-to-weight ratio. The TRX Kevlar collection is focused on functional training and it can complement bodyweight training, aka calisthenics, extremely well.

Great if you like training.

IMAGE SOURCE: TRX

IMAGE SOURCE: POWERBLOCK SPORT

The Kevlar-enhanced workout gear is tougher than you’ll ever be

Travel

WILD WAYS

SPACE PLACE

Stand-up paddle boarding is one of the watersports of choice at the moment, and this top quality, beginner-friendly kit lets you travel the local waterways in style. It includes everything you need to get SUPing, in one portable(ish) package. £899, redpaddleco.com

IMAGE SOURCE: RED PADDLE

IMAGE SOURCE: THERA-SEA

RED PADDLE CO RIDE MSL 10’6” SUP BOARD

A WILD WELLNESS RETREAT

out in nature. The activities, which ranged from cold water swimming to axe throwing to paddle boarding, were the rewarding kind of challenging, even if not all my efforts were wholly successful (campfire building: trickier than it looks, folks). “The activities get you focused and motivated and help you to push through some barriers,” says Griffin. “It’s great to remind yourself you’re capable of these things.”

Also on the agenda were daily wellness workshops, during which we explored things like how to manage stress, sort out your sleep, and improve your relationships.

For me, these sessions were less appealing even than taking a dip in a freezing river.

Sure, talking about your fears and anxieties with strangers can be cathartic, but what if one of your fears is talking about your anxieties with strangers? Despite that awkwardness – that apparently only I felt – we covered a lot of things that I’ve found myself implementing in the weeks since the retreat, so I’ll concede it’s probably been good for me in the long run. “It’s about preventative work and what you can do in everyday life that just keeps you a little bit better,” explains Griffin.

To find out more or book a Thera-Sea retreat, head to thera-sea.co.uk.

The Aquaforno has an ingenious modular design that means you can use it as a pizza oven, BBQ grill, campfire, water heater, or a mix of the above. We think it might be the perfect companion for al fresco summer socialising. £395, aquaforno.com

IMAGE SOURCE: AQUAFORNO

Thera-Sea is a wellness retreat, but not the pampering kind. Founded and run by mental health nurse and ocean-lover Katy Griffin, these retreats are designed to diffuse the stresses of modern life via a mixture of wild living, adventurous activities and lifestyle medicine workshops.

I joined a group on one of the two-night stays at 7th Rise, a remote location on the banks of the River Fal in Cornwall, to see if getting back to nature could provide the wellness boost we’re all looking for.

With outdoor showers and toilets, limited electricity and even more limited phone signal, this was a strictly back-tobasics trip. While screens are allowed, Griffin’s suggestion that we take a break from them was embraced with almost indecent enthusiasm. Thera-Sea retreats run all year round, and although my retreat took place in May, the glorious sunshine was interspersed with bouts of absolutely biblical wind and driving rain, so you can rest assured I got ‘the full experience’.

Thankfully, the catering, which came courtesy of The Aussie Smoker, was far from basic, and several large leaps above your average camping grub.

As T3’s Outdoors Editor, I didn’t need selling on the restorative power of getting

AQUAFORNO II

VIVOBAREFOOT TRACKER FOREST Fancy joining the barefoot movement? Vivobarefoot’s boots have wide, minimal soles to help you connect with the earth. Its latest boots are designed to be suitable for even challenging terrain, so you can wear them on any outdoors adventure. £180, vivobarefoot.com A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 21

IMAGE SOURCE: VIVOBAREFOOT

T3’s Ruth Hamilton heads on a Thera-Sea retreat to see if getting back to nature really is the best medicine

Horizon Travel MORE CLOTHING REFRESHERS

This new device can deep clean denim, delicates and trainers, as well as refreshing clothing. It’s essentially a tank that you fill with water and W’air’s special detergent, attached to a spray gun that projects a fine mist of cleaning fluid over your soonto-be-refreshed clothes. £199, justwairit.com

IMAGE SOURCE: FISHER & PAYKEL

IMAGE SOURCE: LG

LG STYLER If all these handheld solutions seem like pussyfooting around to you, try the Styler.

This is essentially a wardrobe that fills with scented steam while special hangers waft your clothes about. The result: your most precious clothes are safely refreshed, while bacteria and creases are slain. £1,500, lg.com

FISHER & PAYKEL HEAT PUMP DRYER This advanced tumble dryer has a ‘Steam Freshen’ cycle to deodorise and remove creases, leaving clothes ready to wear again without the need for a standard wash cycle. A further 22 programmes handle every possible drying need. £TBC, fisherpaykel.com 2 2 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

PONG, BEGONE

REFRESH YOUR CLOTHES! Harnesses the mystical power of plasma to destroy odours Every now and then, a product comes along that is so clever, you are blown away. Even if you subsequently realise that it may not be all that useful for most people. The Bosch FreshUp (£249.99, bosch-home.co.uk) is one such product.

The nearest thing we can compare it to is high-tech Febreze, which is a fabric cleaner designed for sofas and curtains but which some people – skanks, let’s call them – use to freshen up their clothes, by masking the smells emanating from them.

Bosch FreshUp removes rather than masks smells, however, and the way it does so is ingenious. This handheld device slightly resembles one of those handheld crumb removers that you occasionally still see used to clean tables in restaurants.

When you power it up, it creates plasma.

Yes, plasma: the mysterious ‘fourth state’ of matter, after solid, liquid and gas.

Well, it turns out that plasma, as well as helping to give us life, and make TVs in the mid-2000s, is also able to completely dissolve odour molecules. Who knew? So as you run the FreshUp over your clothing, any lingering smells – from smoke to body odour – are removed completely. With lighter fabrics and lesser smells this is generally done with one application.

Things do get trickier with heavy fabrics such as denim, and if you are

trying to remove the smell of a bonfire from your best winter coat, you may be there some time. In particular, Bosch says waterproofed garments are harder to treat. It also can’t be used on leather, fur or damp fabrics. In fact, if you try to use it on fabrics that are moist, the FreshUp will detect this, flash purple and refuse to work – clever.

Bosch is at pains to point out that there is no cleaning going on here. FreshUp cannot remove stains or general muck.

However, it does remove smells from garments that are clean as far as the naked eye is concerned, so they can be re-worn without social embarrassment.

The most obvious uses are for workwear – especially if you wear dry clean-only suits – and taking on holiday, where cleaning clothes becomes much harder. However, there are other potential uses. We know many people want to use their washing machine less, both for environmental reasons and because every wash moves clothing further away from their original, box-fresh state, and one step nearer to the charity shop or bin.

As a pure piece of technology, FreshUp is quite brilliant, so hopefully it will succeed. It works for 60 minutes on a single charge and recharges in 3 to 4 hours via USB-C.

IMAGE SOURCE: BOSCH

IMAGE SOURCE: W’AIR

W’AIR

Living

GOLDEN AGE As we are now able to entertain at home once more, interiors have seen a leaning towards using warm metals to create a welcoming yet elegant vibe HAKO COLLECTION The homestyle trend for indulgent gold and brass shades will bring a sprinkle of glamour to your home and a look that’s as inviting as it is classy. Rose And Grey take this trend and up it in the style stakes with its trio of Japanese-inspired pieces that includes a side table, a coffee table and a bar. Elegant and functional, this golden-hued threesome are crafted from ash wood and French bamboo mesh with brass attachments.

From £365, roseandgrey.co.uk SARZAY MIRROR We couldn’t not include this French-inspired piece. Louis XIV’s love affair with gold gave the French people the opulent Versailles, after all. This mirror also has regal aspirations as it’s named after Sarzay Castle. Made from iron, this mirror is more of a small nod than a statement piece measuring in at 10cm in height and 13cm in width.

EICHHOLTZ LA PLUME BOX High-end furniture, lighting and accessory brand Eichholtz has a reputation for dovetailing the contemporary with luxury by creating modern pieces at prices that won’t send you reeling. The Netherlands-based brand was also born from its founder’s love of antiques and each Eichholtz piece will feature a nod to the past in its design. £170, sweetpeaandwillow.com GOLD CONSOLE TABLE If you’re looking for a statement piece for your home, this console table from Mineheart will certainly add glamour to a room.

Made from gold mirror polished stainless steel, you can style it against deep greys, rich blues or exotic wallpaper to create a luxury corner. It slots in perfectly in hallways and alcoves. £1,950, mineheart.com

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 2 3

IMAGE SOURCE: ROSE & GREY, OKA, EICHHOLTZ, MINEHEART

£495, oka.com

Horizon

T3’s tireless tech titan runs rings round your latest queries

JOHN CULMER, TAMWORTH

What’s a good running starter kit?

It’s that time of year again, is it? Where readers beg flat-foot plodder GaGu to reveal his top-secret jogging tech?

Fine. Start with the motivation.

Ignore those lithe, gorgeous, matte people pounding the pavement: focus instead on the glistening chunky dudes trying their best. If they can do it, so can you.

You’ll find adequate coaching in the form of a good Couch to 5K app, or a Garmin Connectcompatible tracker, which can help build you a personalised starter program – the Forerunner 45 (£160) is cheap; the Fenix 6 (£530) will carry you further in the, er, long run.

ILLUSTRATIONS: STEPHEN KELLY

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In-ear motivation is important, which means good sweat- and jiggle-resistant headphones. GaGu feels it is imperative, if you’re going true wireless, to pick up a set with powerful Bluetooth able to readily penetrate the meaty fluids of your body and not drop out while you’re running; the Powerbeats Pro (£220) are amazing, even sitting at the

ABOVE Still not the harshest stag do prank we’ve seen

The value proposition of higherend running shoes isn’t quite there until you’re doing enough to really appreciate them

two-year Apple apoapsis which puts them at risk of replacement fairly soon.

Good footwear is obviously vital, but don’t let GaGu influence you on the right fit given that his own feet look like strangely hairy spades.

Just think of the price: the value proposition of higher-end running shoes isn’t quite there until you’re doing enough to really appreciate their more subtle differences. Same goes for something like the Nurvv Footstrike Coach (£250) – Guru recommends waiting until you’re confident putting one foot in front of another at pace before you start to monkey with your gait.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO: INBOX@T3.COM OR FACEBOOK.COM/T3MAG 24 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Gadget guru

G GURU, THE WEST COUNTRY

What can I do about my Nintendo Switch controllers?

Thank you, suspiciouslynamed reader, for bringing to light an important topic.

GaGu will now express his personal feelings (not those of T3 as a whole) as rudely as possible in the hope that those in charge of hardware for the in-production Switch OLED edition actually listen: Switch Joy-Cons are complete rubbish, they’re far too expensive, and Nintendo should be utterly ashamed to have released them as-is. Guru can only presume that they are as crap as they are because selling multiple £50-odd sets of defective controllers to saps is a good way to make money appear. Guru himself is about £200 deep in replacements and repairs alone. Now that his latest set has started acting up, he’s basically decided to give up on the Switch in handheld mode altogether.

In case you didn’t know, the key problem with Joy-Cons is drift, where the joysticks decide they like

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pointing in a certain direction. This is caused by filth buildup on the contacts, and a contact cleaner (Guru uses WD-40 Specialist Fast Drying Contact Cleaner) can offer some temporary respite, though the drift comes back quickly. You can replace sticks on the cheap with kits available on Amazon and Ebay, though this is a fiddly process liable to create more breakage.

Whipping out the screwdriver also doesn’t solve any of the other problems. The easily-killed buttons, the abysmal Bluetooth range, the random disconnections, the poor attachment to the main body of the Switch which almost immediately loosens out of the box, the fact that the layout is really not made for human fingers. Guru’s inevitable conclusion – clearly not the conclusion of T3, you understand, just that of one crotchety idiot – is this: give up. Get a Switch Lite, or a Pro Controller, or Not A Switch.

Why bother fighting?

ABOVE Such a tragic loss of 1UPs

GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX Guru loves a sugar-free energy drink, to the point that his recycling men must think he has some kind of extreme sports sponsorship (or, some kind of addiction). Enough.

Not enough of energy drinks, you understand, because these three pages would just read ‘This issue Gadget Guru could not be bothered’ in 300-point text were GaGu not precisely 32% caffeine. But enough of cans and fizz and all that. Guru, being a wellknown influencer with impeccable status and precisely zero Twitch subscribers, asked the nice people at Sneak Energy for some samples of their powdered energy wares and they somehow agreed to it.

The idea, basically, is that you lob a scoop of dust into a shaker with some water, jiggle it adequately, and you’ve got yourself an energy drink. Sneak has a bunch of fruity, sweet and pleasant flavours and one £35 tub is enough to mix up 40 drinks

– making this fundamentally cheaper than spending on cans.

Overall this did the trick for GaGu – knowing that all but 10g of the contents of the shaker is tap water is quite reassuring; Sneak’s claims of crashless energy seem straight up, and whether it’s a psychological boost or a physiological one Guru feels like he has gotten the Monster off his back.

In other news GaGu has his eye on e-ink again, having begun forcibly reciting Terry Pratchett to his younglings and realised his Nook Simple Touch is – ulp – a decade old, and smothered on the back with that gross coating that goes sticky over time. The reMarkable 2 (£399) is fantastic for notes but it just isn’t a good e-reader; can he swingle a Kindle (£80 without ads, because a £10 saving isn’t enough for the ickiness) from the family purse?

Time will tell.

TIM TROTT, HOVE

Can I fly an RC plane?

Quadcopter drones might be the cool kids, but radio-controlled planes are the smart ones. Listen to the Civil Aviation Authority, which loves a nice sensible rule and/or regulation: as such, flying privately outside of the purview of a model aviation club puts you in the Open Category of its guidelines, meaning you need to register, pass an online test, hold a flyer ID, mark your plane with it, and behave yourself. Note that the newest version of the regs also demands that FPV flyers have a spotter with them to ensure nothing untoward happens. The rules will be tightening in 2023, too.

Rules, shmules, though: what should you spend your hard-earned on? The Cessna-150-like Bigfoot from Arrows Hobby (£275) is a good starter aircraft, with various stabilisation features which will (all being well) prevent you smashing it to smithereens on your maiden flight – just bear in mind that model planes are, by their nature, fragile things, so be sure to have some spares and superglue on hand.

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A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 2 5

Horizon

NEW MEDIA

NOW PLAYING

IMAGE SOURCE: DISNEY

Guru finds the finest media you need on your various devices

THE SIMPSONS Here’s a show you’ve never heard of, right? New to you?

Look: Disney+ is superb value for Seasons 3-10 alone. The rest don’t exist and you cannot prove to Guru otherwise.

JAY, VIA EMAIL

How do I shave – down there?

Guru will use the word ‘manscaping’ once and not again. He has better words.

For good nutsmoothing, choice of razor is important. Go for a disposable two-blade so as to cause less irritation, and be prepared to get limber. Safe ballshearing means safely reaching every stretched crevasse with the utmost care.

Frankly you may be best served dangletrimming with a shaver with a guard. You do not have to buy the portmanteau-branded type gonadmowers from the online ads; just about anything will do as long as the blades are clean and well lubricated. Follow up your grundlegrooming with conditioner after the shower to soften stubble.

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ABOVE Maybe the cutscrote razor isn’t the safest bet...

LIZ WESTON, LEITH

Is it fair to turn my subwoofer up?

IMAGE SOURCE: DC COMICS

JC S: CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY The YouTube algorithm loves this channel, full of long-form interrogations with the tricks of the detective’s trade laid bare. It’s like real-life Columbo.

DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL A soundtrack album for a DC comic book series that features the likes of Idles, Mastodon, Rise Against and Health.

Moody, heavy, nice.

26 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

As someone who has been dealing with the impact of a musically excitable but entirely taste-free personal trainer setting up shop in next door’s garden, Guru’s immediate answer is ‘no’: Sean Paul’s bass frequencies are indiscriminate. They go everywhere. Imagine being haunted by the ever-murmuring ghost of Barry White.

But let’s be realistic here. If you keep things sociable, why shouldn’t you enjoy low frequencies? If you’re able to place that sub somewhere that won’t cause it to vibrate your walls, you’ll still get the full impact in the room. Enjoy bass responsibly, and if someone asks you to stop, at least kick it down half a notch.

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If you’re able to place the sub somewhere that won’t cause it to vibrate your walls, you’ll still get the full impact in the room

HEATHER BROWN, LONDON

Shoelaces are such a faff, Guru. Any alternatives?

Guru has just given up on convincing Guru Jr to re-tie the sloppy trip-trails hanging out of his trainers and instead done away with his laces altogether. Not in a Run-DMC style, but with cheaters’ laces, little silicon bands which join pairs of eyelets together to hold the shoes on.

They’re cheap enough, come in snazzy colours, and easily available, but if you’d rather stick with actual laces, see fieggen.com/shoelace – for 18 years the ultimate online resource on shoe lacing, and home of (yes) the Ian Knot.

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Don’t miss another instalment of the legendary Gadget Guru!

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! See p38

Opinion

Duncan Bell is always innovating This is an era of amazing new tech – some from surprising sources e live in exciting times right now. Not always in a good way, I grant you. Everyone is doing all manner of things they wouldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago.

Or at any rate, if they had dreamed of them, they probably wouldn’t have talked about it in public.

The good news is that this attitude of ‘to hell with it, let’s do something crazy’ is now permeating the tech world. The even better news is that it’s doing it in a more positive way, that doesn’t involve flirting with extremism, or abusing strangers on the internet.

The world of tech, instead, is embracing a new era of innovation.

When I say ‘innovation’ here, I don’t mean squeezing a few more megapixels into a phone camera, or making your TV have even more pixels and even blacker blacks in it.

No no. I mean real innovation.

Gadgets that are quite unlike any we’ve seen before, with the distinct possibility of there being only a very niche audience for them.

I can safely say that this is a trend because I have seen three of them in the last few months, and if there’s three of something, that is a trend. Everyone knows that.

On page 22 of this very magazine you can read about one of them. The Bosch GoFresh uses the unfathomable power of plasma to destroy odour molecules, so your clothes don’t stink. No really.

You run a small, handheld, plasmaspurting device over those jeans you haven’t washed for six months – because that will immediately make them shrink by a factor of 30% and lose 50% of their colour –

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and hey presto: smells be gone.

Who wants to pay £300 for such a device? I don’t know and I suspect Bosch doesn’t either, but I am very glad they have created it.

Last month, we had the Sage FoodCycler. This is nothing short of a food waste recycling plant, reduced to the size of a microwave.

Put in your food waste – raw or cooked – press a button, and it turns it into compost-like material, ready to make your roses grow.

For someone like me, who lives in London, where the council does not recycle food waste, in a flat with some window boxes, this is absolutely perfect. For practically anyone else, it seems, shall we say,

“I am glad Sage has produced this product.

It’s genuine out-of-thebox thinking” a tad niche? For a family, it is probably too small. Those who have a house with a garden could just compost it in the normal way.

And if your local council collects food waste for recycling – into god-knows-what – then why bother doing it for them in advance?

Again though, I am glad Sage has produced this product. It’s genuine out-of-the-box thinking, and a great departure from what they normally do, which is swanky

kitchen appliances. The same could be said about Bosch, come to think of it. When have you ever previously associated the Bosch name – either the power tools brand or the dishwashers and washing machines one – with devices that exude plasma, in order to make you not smell? Exactly.

Granted, I can’t give you a third recent example of an established, staid brand taking off its glasses, letting its hair down and revealing its innovative beauty. However, a crowdfunded startup is now redefining the smartwatch.

YHE Techs’ BP Doctor Pro looks pretty much like any smartwatch but it is also a blood pressure monitor. There have been smartwatches that have claimed to do this in the past, but they have actually just given guesstimates based on your pulse rate. The BP Doctor Pro, when it’s not alerting you to messages, actually inflates around your wrist, to take a blood pressure reading in almost the same way as your doctor would.

Okay, you’d probably be better off using a device that measures BP via your upper arm, like your doctor actually does. So this is, again, not a perfect product that’ll have massive appeal to everyone. Even so, its spirit of innovation and risk-taking is very much to be applauded.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 27

Next-gen audio

NEXT-GEN AUDIO From hi-res audio to Dolby Atmos 3D sound, music is enjoying a resolution revolution. But knowing how to make the most of these new aural experiences isn’t always crystal clear...

Words: Steve May Photography Neil Godwin

usic has evolved. No longer an esoteric obsession for the hi-fi hardcore, hi-res audio has moved to the centre stage. File downloads have been ousted by high-quality music streams, while 3D audio, powered by Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio, is bringing spatial audio to headphones and sound systems alike. It’s almost like orchestrated advances in audio are compelling us to upgrade our sound systems – and inspiring a whole new universe of audio components.

But while hi-fi has never been more exciting, it’s also never been more confounding. If you want to achieve audio nirvana you’ll need to carefully go over the small print. For example, most of us stream music via Bluetooth to our wireless headphones but, for the highest-fi, you should really use Bluetooth aptX, or even better, aptX HD. Both your smartphone and your headphones need to play ball.

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2 8 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Bluetooth aptX uses advanced compression to achieve CD-like 16-bit/44.1kHz audio, and it sounds pretty good. AptX HD can handle 24-bit/48kHz resolution audio, which is even better. Helpfully, aptX HD is fully backwards compatible with regular aptX and classic low-res Bluetooth. Unhelpfully, not every mobile phone maker supports the aptX codec, the obvious hold-out being Apple. If your mobile doesn’t support aptX or aptX HD, it’s worth considering a dedicated DAP (digital audio player), like the £649 Astell & Kern A&norma SR25.

3D spatial audio is similarly gaining traction, driven primarily (but not exclusively) by Dolby Atmos. But listening to Dolby Atmos Music is not as straightforward as you might hope (we’re looking at you Amazon Music HD!).

So yes, it’s all kicking off on the audio front – but while hi-res audio may be crystal clear, making sense of it certainly isn’t.

Next-gen audio

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 2 9

Next-gen audio

3D AUDIO

Sound is all around when you go 3D We’re all familiar with Dolby Atmos cinema sound, which brings fully immersive audio to movies and TV shows. It’s big and exciting and we love it. But it’s also now finding favour with music studios and artists – and the results can be stunning. Tidal, Amazon Music HD and Apple Music all offer spatial audio, mainly powered by Atmos, either as part of their basic tier or a step-up hi-fi subscription tier.

Listening to 3D audio is a completely different experience to conventional twochannel stereo. The Dolby Atmos remix of DnB dance track Universal Language by Metrik (on Tidal) locks its rhythm track to the front soundstage, but allows electronic

pulses to fly in every direction. It’s like being on the dance floor of an Ibiza beach club, sans the soap suds.

Even classic tracks can benefit from a spatial redux. The Doors’ Riders on the Storm (Tidal) uses the height component of the Atmos mix to drench you with that opening deluge.

Dolby Atmos isn’t the only 3D audio game in town though. 360 Reality Audio does much the same and is available via Deezer and Tidal, while immersive binaural recordings continue to gain ground, particularly with the BBC. Sky Q subscribers can listen to binaural classical performances on the set-top box’s BBC Sounds app.

LOSSLESS AUDIO

Streaming rocks – with the right hardware While there’s no set standard for hi-res audio, the term generally refers to music streams that offer better quality than compressed 320 kbps.

16-bit FLAC streams are billed as hi-res, but are basically the equivalent of a CD. Lossless audio, be it 24-bit/96kHz or 24-bit/192kHz, is decidedly better. What you actually hear though depends on your hardware, and how you choose to listen.

Sampling rates and acronyms aside, what can you really expect from hi-res audio? In short, improved musicality. With high-quality headphones or premium hi-fi kit, you’ll feel like you’re in the recording studio, peering over the shoulders of the mixing engineer.

3 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Mid- and high-resolution detail is favoured over thumping bass, the sound is more open – you should be able to discern space and air around instruments within a recording, which can be a refreshing experience.

The best hi-res audio performance will likely be heard from hi-fi separates, using downloaded hi-res files (FLAC or DSD), or native streaming apps built into network players. Remember, Bluetooth connectivity can often be a limiting factor.

To listen to high-res streams on a nonnetwork connected legacy home hi-fi, you’ll need to add a Bluetooth streamer – these are usually available for less than £150.

Services

SERVICES

There are now so many next-gen streaming brands they’re coming out of your ears

APPLE MUSIC

SPOTIFY

Having recently had a massive upgrade, Apple Music now offers both ORVVOHVV KL UHV DQG 'ROE\ $WPRV VSDWLDO DXGLR IRU QR H[WUD FRVW $SSOH employs ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) for its hi-res streams, ZLWK D FKRLFH RI SOD\EDFN RSWLRQV ELW N+] &' TXDOLW\ $SSOH 0XVLF /RVVOHVV RU ELW N+] +L 5HV /RVVOHVV 7KH VHUYLFH DOVR KDV D JURZLQJ FDWDORJXH RI 6SDWLDO $XGLR ZLWK 'ROE\ $WPRV 7KH latter can be used on any headphones, or streamed direct from an $SSOH 79 . SOD\HU LQWR DQ $WPRV VRXQGEDU RU $9 V\VWHP

6SRWLI\ RIIHUV D EHVW LQ FODVV XVHU H[SHULHQFH JUHDW SHUVRQDOLVDWLRQ DQG XQEHDWDEOH FRQWHQW GHSWK %XW LW ODFNV DW OHDVW IRU QRZ QH[W JHQ DXGLR å WKDW PHDQV QR KL UHV DQG QR ' VSDWLDO VRXQG 6WUHDPLQJ TXDOLW\ LV ORFNHG WR NESV PHDQLQJ LW FDQèW FRPSHWH ZLWK LWV ELJJHU ULYDOV RQ WKH TXDOLW\ IURQW 7KHUH LV OLJKW DW WKH HQG RI WKH WXQQHO WKRXJK 6SRWLI\ KDV FRPPLWWHG WR D KLJKHU TXDOLW\ &' OLNH WLHU EHIRUH WKH HQG RI <RX VKRXOG EH DEOH WR OLVWHQ WR LW YLD $9 V\VWHPV DV ZHOO DV RYHU KHDGSKRQHV

£9.99/month, £14.99/month family package, apple.com

£9.99/month, £16.99/month family tier, spotify.com

AMAZON MUSIC HD

DEEZER

The most affordable of all the hi-res audio streaming services, Amazon Music HD boasts a huge selection of 16-bit CD quality albums, dubbed HD, and a growing number of 24-bit hi-res cuts too, ćDJJHG KHUH DV 8OWUD +' 7KH VHUYLFH DOVR KDV D ZLGH VHOHFWLRQ RI 'ROE\ $WPRV PDWHULDO LGHQWLĆDEOH ZKHQ EURZVLQJ E\ D ' EDGJH +RZHYHU WKHVH ' PL[HV FDQ RQO\ EH SOD\HG RQ DQ $PD]RQ (FKR 6WXGLR VSHDNHU XVLQJ *RRJOH &DVW 7KHUHèV DQ $PD]RQ 0XVLF +' DSS IRU )LUH 79 EXW WKLV GRHVQèW SOD\ $WPRV WUDFNV

Deezer also offers lossless stereo streams, using high quality )/$& HQFRGLQJ DQG LPPHUVLYH DXGLR +RZHYHU UDWKHU WKDQ EDFN 'ROE\ $WPRV 'HH]HU IDYRXUV WKH ULYDO 5HDOLW\ $XGLR VWDQGDUG LQYHQWHG E\ 6RQ\ 7KLV ZRUNV UHDOO\ ZHOO ZLWK DQ\ KHDGSKRQHV EXWbUHTXLUHV WKH XVH RI D GHGLFDWHG SOD\EDFN DSS $V ZLWK $WPRV 5HDOLW\ $XGLR HQJXOIV \RX ZLWK VRXQG 8QIRUWXQDWHO\ WKH FRQWHQW FKRLFH VHHPV UDWKHU OLPLWHG FXUUHQWO\ å OHW XV KRSH WKDW LW LPSURYHV LQ WKH GD\V WR FRPH

£9.99/month, £7.99/month for Prime members, amazon.co.uk

£14.99/month (hi-res tier), deezer.com A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 31

Next-gen audio

HEADPHONES

Bathe your noggin in the best audio available

MEZE AUDIO 99 CLASSICS :KHQ LW FRPHV WR DXGLRSKLOH KHDGSKRQHV IRU KRPH XVH WKHUHèV QR VKRUWDJH RI FKRLFH :LUHG QRW ZLUHOHVV LV D JLYHQ DQG SULFHV FDQ EH VSHQG\ SDUWLFXODUO\ LI \RX RSW IRU DQ RSHQ EDFN GHVLJQ %XW EHIRUH \RX VSOXUJH WU\ WKH &ODVVLFV IURP 0H]H $XGLR (IIRUWOHVVO\ VW\OLVK DQG OLJKW DW J WKH\ feature a chromium-manganese alloy headband that makes them easy to wear for long periods, and WKHLU PP GULYHUV DUH JORULRXVO\ UHYHDOLQJ ZLWK KL UHV VRXUFHV £269, mezeaudio.com

SENNHEISER IE 300 IN-EAR MONITORS &DQ HDUEXGV GHOLYHU KLJK UHV DXGLR" 7KH\ FDQ LI \RX FKHDW 7KHVH SUR VW\OH LQ HDU PRQLWRUV DUHQèW ZLUHOHVV DQG ODFN %OXHWRRWK EXW WKH\ RIIHU D VWXGLR JUDGH KL UHV DXGLR SHUIRUPDQFH LQ D WLQ\ IRUP IDFWRU <RXèOO QHHG D VPDUWSKRQH RU GHGLFDWHG PXVLF SOD\HU ZLWK D PP MDFN EXW WKDWèV WKH RQO\ GRZQVLGH /LJKWHU WKDQ WKH DYHUDJH EXG WKH\ KDYH DGMXVWDEOH HDU KRRNV IRU FRPIRUW DQG VSRUW FXVWRP GHVLJQHG PP H[WUD ZLGH EDQG GULYHUV ZKLFK VRXQG DPD]LQJ £259, sennheiser.com 3 2 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Headphones

APPLE AIRPODS MAX

SONY WH-1000XM4

%HDXWLIXOO\ PDGH \HW LQIXULDWLQJO\ H[SHQVLYH WKH QRLVH FDQFHOOLQJ $LU3RGV 0D[ DUH KDQGV GRZQ WKH EHVW ZLUHOHVV KHDGSKRQHV \HW IURP $SSOH 7KHLU GHVLJQ LV SHHUOHVV D VWDLQOHVV VWHHO KHDGEDQG with telescoping arms, provides a comfortable clamp, while acoustic PHPRU\ IRDP HDU FXSV HQVXUH QRLVH UHGXFLQJ LVRODWLRQ 7KH $LU3RGV 0D[ DUH SRZHUHG E\ $SSOHèV SRZHUIXO + FKLSVHW ZKLOH EHVSRNH PP G\QDPLF GULYHUV RIIHU GHHS EDVV DQG FULVS WUHEOH %L]DUUHO\ WKH\ GRQèW ZRUN ZLWK $SSOH /RVVOHVV $XGLR EHFDXVH WKH\ XVH WKH ELW UDWH OLPLWHG $$& FRGHF RYHU %OXHWRRWK +RZHYHU WKH\ ZLOO ZRUN ZLWK VSDWLDO DXGLR SRZHUHG E\ 'ROE\ $WPRV

Arguably pound for pound, the best wireless headphones you can buy right now, with class-leading noise cancelling, superb comfort DQG D PXVLFDO SHUIRUPDQFH IHZ FDQ PDWFK DW WKH SULFH 7KH :+ ;0 XVH VLON\ PP /LTXLG &U\VWDO 3RO\PHU GULYHUV WKDW GURS GHHS ZKHQ WKH\ QHHG WR EXW DOVR RIIHU FULVS KLJKV 7KH\ VRXQG VXEOLPH ZLWK LPPHUVLYH 5HDOLW\ $XGLR IURP 'HH]HU EXW WKH\ GRQèW VXSSRUW %OXHWRRWK DSW; ,QVWHDG ZH JHW /$'& 7KLV LV D KLJK KHDG URRP DOWHUQDWLYH WKDW VXSSRUWV VWUHDPLQJ XS WR NESV DW ELW N+] 7KH FDWFK LV \RXèOO QHHG WR SDUWQHU WKH KHDGSKRQHV ZLWK DQ /'$& FRPSDFW PRELOH RU '$3

£549, apple.com

£260, sony.co.uk

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 3 3

Next-gen audio

WIRELESS SPEAKERS

Add new depths to your music – not a bunch of cables

SONY SRS-RA5000

AMAZON ECHO STUDIO

Offering immersive sound from a single enclosure, the SRS5$ bLV WKH ĆUVW VWDQGDORQH VSHDNHU GHVLJQHG IRU PXOWLFKDQQHO 5HDOLW\ $XGLR 7KH 656 5$ HPSOR\V D WULR RI XS ĆULQJ speakers that splash sound vertically, while three middle placed VSHDNHUV ĆOO LQ WKH KRUL]RQWDO 7KHUHèV DOVR DQ LQWHJUDWHG VXEZRRIHU IRU DGGLQJ VRPH VHULRXVO\ ERXQFLQJ EDVV %XW WKRVH H[WUD GULYHUV GRQèW JR XQXVHG ZLWK QRQ HQFRGHG VRIWZDUH b$Q ,PPHUVLYH $XGLR (QKDQFHPHQW DOJRULWKP LV XVHG WR XSVFDOH WZR FKDQQHO VWHUHR WUDFNV ZKLFK LV UDWKHU KDQG\ $QG WKH 5$ LVQèW MXVW IRU VSDWLDO DXGLR LWèV DOVR FHUWLĆHG IRU KL UHV 6R WKDWèV ERWK RI RXU ER[HV WLFNHG Other features include a built-in Sound Calibration option, to optimise the speaker to your listening room (useful), and an Auto Volume IHDWXUH WKDW DGMXVWV WUDFN E\ WUDFN QRW VXUH DERXW WKDW RQH

%LJ DQG EHHI\ WKH 6WXGLR LV WKH .LQJ .RQJ LQ $PD]RQèV (FKR MXQJOH ,WèV DOVR 'ROE\ $WPRV HQDEOHG DQG FXUUHQWO\ WKH RQO\ ZD\ \RX FDQ OLVWHQ WR 'ROE\ $WPRV WUDFNV RQ $PD]RQ 0XVLF +' ,W XWLOLVHV D WULR RI PP PLG UDQJH GULYHUV RQH RI ZKLFK LV XS ĆULQJ IRU $WPRV KHLJKW SODFHPHQW D PP WZHHWHU DQG D GRZQZDUG ĆULQJ LQFK EDVV ZRRIHU ,QWHUHVWLQJO\ ZKLOH WKHUHèV D ELW '$& LQVLGH FDSDEOH RI UHVROYLQJbXS WR N+] LWèV QRW DFWXDOO\ EHLQJ JDLQIXOO\ HPSOR\HG 7KH 6WXGLRbGRZQVFDOHV KLJKHU UHV VRXUFHV WR ELW N+] SUHVXPDEO\ WR SURWHFW LWV EXGJHW WZHHWHU /LNH RWKHU (FKRHV LW ZRUNV RYHU :L )L DQG %OXHWRRWK DQG WKHUHèV D PP DX[ PLQL RSWLFDO OLQH LQSXW LI \RX QHHG LW ,W FHUWDLQO\ JRHV ORXG å SRZHU RXWSXW LV TXRWHG DW : å DQG LW VRXQGV VXLWDEO\ KXJH ZLWK ' DXGLR WUDFNV

£500, sony.co.uk

£190, amazon.co.uk

3 4 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Wireless speakers

DENON SOUND BAR 550

KEF LS50 II WIRELESS

1RW VR PXFK D VRXQGEDU PRUH D QH[W JHQ DXGLR 6ZLVV $UP\ .QLIH 'HQRQèV 6RXQG %DU RIIHUV KL UHV DXGLR SOD\EDFN FRXUWHV\ RI WKHbEXLOW LQ +(26 SODWIRUP SOXV 'ROE\ $WPRV GHOLYHUHG E\ D VL[ GULYHU DUUD\ FRPSULVLQJ WZR PP WZHHWHUV DQG IRXU PP IXOO UDQJH GULYHUV 7KHUHèV DOVR D WULR RI SDVVLYH UDGLDWRUV WR ERRVW ORZ HQG SHUIRUPDQFH 7KLV %OXHWRRWK VSHDNHU LV DOVR $SSOH $LUSOD\ FRPSDWLEOH DQG VXSSRUWV YRLFH FRQWURO ZLWK $PD]RQèV $OH[D EXLOW LQ &RQQHFWLYLW\ LQFOXGHV +'0, GLJLWDO RSWLFDO DXGLR DQG PP DQDORJXH OLQH LQ And if you want all that home cinema stuff, you can also pair it to RSWLRQDO ZLUHOHVV UHDUV IRU IXOO FLQHPDWLF VKHQDQLJDQV

%HDXWLIXOO\ ĆQLVKHG DQG H[SHUWO\ HTXLSSHG .()èV VHFRQG JHQ DFWLYH %OXHWRRWK VSHDNHUV VSRUW WKH EUDQGèV GLVWLQFWLYH 8QL 4 GULYHU DQG KDYH D : SRZHU SODQW ZLWK : JRLQJ WR WKH WZHHWHU DQG : WR WKH PLG UDQJH GULYHU They can handle hi-res audio up to 96kHz/24 bit wirelessly, or full IDW N+] ELW XVLQJ D FDEOH FRQQHFWLRQ '6' ĆOH GRZQORDGV DUH ZHOFRPH DQG WKH\èUH DOVR &KURPHFDVW HQDEOHG ZLWK $LUSOD\ DQG 5RRQ IXQFWLRQDOLW\ 7KH /6 ,, DUH JRRG IRU ZLUHG VRXUFHV WRR å GLVF SOD\HUV JDPHV FRQVROHV RU VHW WRS ER[HV DOO ZRUN 7KHUHèV +'0, SOXV RSWLFDO DQG FRD[LDO GLJLWDO DXGLR LQSXWV DQG HYHQ DQDORJXH PP

£499, denon.com

£2,249, kef.com

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 3 5

Next-gen audio

HI-FI SETUPS

Get the best Atmos and audiophile-pleasing sound with these hi-fi separates

NAIM UNITI STAR 2IIHULQJ SUHPLXP TXDOLW\ VWUHDPLQJ 1DLPèV 8QLWL 6WDU LV DQ DOO LQ RQH GHVLJQHG WR RIIHU WKH KLJKHVW UHVROXWLRQ IURP VWUHDPLQJ PXVLF VRXUFHV 2SWLRQV DUH SOHQWLIXO ,W KDV DSW; +' %OXHWRRWK &KURPHFDVW EXLOW LQ $LU3OD\ FRPSDWLELOLW\ DQG 83Q3 QHWZRUN VWUHDPLQJ 3K\VLFDO FRQQHFWLYLW\ LV VLPLODUO\ H[SDQVLYH 7KHUHèV +'0, ZLWK $5& WZR GLJLWDO RSWLFDO LQSXWV ZKLFK VXSSRUW ELW N+] SOXV FRD[LDO DXGLR DQG %1& ZKLFK XS WKH DQWH WR ELW N+]

7KHUH DUH DOVR DQDORJXH LQSXWV 7KRVH ZLWK DQ H[WHQVLYH &' FROOHFWLRQ ZLOO DOVR DSSUHFLDWH WKH EXLOW LQ GLVF SOD\HU (YHQ EHWWHU LWèOObULS GLVFV WR ORFDO VWRUDJH 3RZHU RXWSXW LV DOVR UDWHG DW D KHDOWK\ [ : DOO \RX QHHG GR LV DGG VSHDNHUV DQG \RXèUH JRRG WR JR £3,599, naimaudio.com

IFI ZEN STREAM 'HVFULEHG DV D ç:L )L DXGLR WUDQVSRUWè WKH 6WUHDP LV WKH ODWHVW DGGLWLRQ WR L)LèV ORRNDOLNH =HQ DXGLR VHSDUDWHV OLQH DQG SURYHV D SRZHUIXO KL UHV XSJUDGH IRU DQ\ H[LVWLQJ KL Ć V\VWHP RU D '$& 0DNHU L)L VXJJHVWV PDWFKLQJ LW ZLWK WKH ORRNDOLNH L)L =HQ '$& ZKLFK DOVR IHDWXUHV D KLJK JUDGH KHDGSKRQH DPS WR PDNH D IRUPLGDEOH KL UHV KHDGSKRQH DXGLR V\VWHP 7KH =(1 6WUHDP IHDWXUHV WZR GLJLWDO RXWSXWV DV\QFKURQRXV 86% DQG FRD[LDO GLJLWDO DXGLR DQG VXSSRUWV KL UHV DXGLR IURP PXOWLSOH VRXUFHV 7KHUHèV D GHGLFDWHG 7LGDO VWUHDPLQJ PRGH '/1$ FHUWLĆFDWLRQ $LU3OD\ DQG &KURPHFDVW VRRQ YLD ĆUPZDUH XSJUDGH ,WèV DOVR 5RRQ FRPSDWLEOH e LĆ DXGLR FRP 3 6 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Hi-fi setups

FOCAL CHORA 826-D

BEOSOUND STAGE

+DQGV GRZQ WKH PRVW HOHJDQW ćRRUVWDQGLQJ ORXGVSHDNHUV ZLWK $WPRV XSĆULQJ EXLOW LQ )RFDOèV &KRUD ' ZLOO FKDQJH WKH ZD\ \RX WKLQN DERXW VSDWLDO DXGLR LQ WKH KRPH $Q XSGDWH RQ WKH RULJLQDO &KRUD WKLV QHZ YHUVLRQ FRPELQHV three forward-facing mid-range woofers and an aluminiumPDJQHVLXP 71) WZHHWHU ZLWK D UHFHVVHG 'ROE\ $WPRV XS ĆULQJ GULYHU ,WèV D EHVW RI ERWK ZRUOGV DSSURDFK JRRG IRU KLJK TXDOLW\ KL Ć DQG ' DXGLR 3DUWQHU ZLWK D 'ROE\ $WPRV $95 DQG DV PDQ\ DGGLWLRQDO VSHDNHUV DV \RX ZDQW )RFDO RIIHUV WLPEUH PDWFKHG VXUURXQG FHQWUH DQG VXEZRRIHUV LQ WKH &KRUD OLQH

Designed in collaboration with Danish studio NORM Architects, WKLV JRUJHRXV H[DPSOH RI 6FDQGLQDYLDQ FDELQHWU\ LV DYDLODEOH LQ aluminium, bronze tone aluminium or smoked oak, and features an HQJUDYHG WRXFK VHQVLWLYH ZRRGHQ FRQWURO SDQHO 0RUH LPSRUWDQWO\ LW VRXQGV DZHVRPH 7KH %HRVRXQG 6WDJH VSRUWV QR IHZHU WKDQ GULYHUV HDFK ZLWK LWV RZQ ZDWW DPSOLĆHU :KLOH 'ROE\ $WPRV FRPSDWLEOH WKHUH DUH QR XSĆULQJ VSHDNHUV ,WèV D WKUHH FKDQQHO GHVLJQ RR]LQJ KL Ć FUHGLELOLW\ %OXHWRRWK LV MRLQHG E\ &KURPHFDVW EXLOW LQ DQG $SSOH $LU3OD\ +'0, ZLWK H$5& LV RIIHUHG IRU FRQQHFWLRQ WR D WHOO\

£1,699 a pair, focal.com

From £1,250, bang-olufsen.com

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 37

Subscribe

SUBSCRIBE & GET YOUR STM TREE CHARGER

WORTH

£69.95 RRP*

Can charge three devices at once!

• Ideal for phones, AirPods & Apple Watches • Slim and sleek, it takes up minimal space on a desk or nightstand

TO SUBSCRIBE GO TO

magazinesdirect.com/t3charger21

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7HUPV DQG FRQGLWLRQV 2IIHU FORVHV 2FWREHU 2IIHU RSHQ WR QHZ 8. VXEVFULEHUV RQO\ $GYHUWLVHG 'LUHFW 'HELW SULFLQJ LV JXDUDQWHHG IRU WKH ĆUVW PRQWKV DQG ZH ZLOO QRWLI\ \RX LQ DGYDQFH RI DQ\ SULFH FKDQJHV 3OHDVH DOORZ XS WR VL[ ZHHNV IRU GHOLYHU\ RI \RXU ĆUVW VXEVFULSWLRQ LVVXH <RXU JLIW ZLOO EH GHOLYHUHG VHSDUDWHO\ ZLWKLQ GD\V DIWHU \RXU ĆUVW SD\PHQW KDV FOHDUHG *LIWV RQO\ DYDLODEOH to subscribers on the UK mainland. Gift not available with a digital subscription. The full subscription rate is for 12 months (13 issues) and includes postage and packaging. If the magazine order changes frequency per annum, we will honour the number of issues paid for, not the term of the subscription. For full terms and conditions, visit magazinesdirect.com/terms. For enquiries please call: +44 (0) 330 333 1113. Lines are open Monday–Friday 9am–5pm UK time or email: help@magazinesdirect.com. Calls to 0330 numbers will be charged at no more than a national landline call, and may be included in your phone provider’s call bundle.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 3 9

Build your own bar

BUILD YOUR OWN

BAR

This summer, being at home no longer equates to dullsville. From drink HVVHQWLDOV WR IDQF\ ĆQGV and beyond, these home bar gadgets give BYOB a whole new meaning Words: Michelle Rae Uy

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 41

Build your own bar

1

2

4

3

1 NETTA ICE MAKER

2 VITINNI PARTY

MACHINE

COOLER

3 OONI KODA 16 GAS POWERED PIZZA OVEN

4 LINDR SOUDEK 50/K

DRAUGHT DISPENSER

If you’re entertaining all summer long, invest in Netta’s Ice Maker, a large capacity ice maker that can turn that home bar into your very own ice kingdom – or rather produce 2kg of ice in just 10 minutes and up to 12kg of ice in a day.

It’s really easy to transfer to your drink, too. No more tedious trips to Tesco just to top up the ice bucket.

Experienced hosts know that if you are going to have a cooler at your grown-up event, at least have one that doesn’t look like it’s just been used tailgating.

Enter Vitinni’s snazzy Party Cooler, a wheeled, electricpowered, brushed stainless steel cooler that keeps your drinks chilled for ages. The fact it doesn’t require ice also means no unseemly watery mess.

The Ooni Koda 16 Gas Powered Pizza Oven lets you make homemade, stone-baked pizza in the comfort of your own home bar – and in only VHFRQGV ćDW WKDQNV WR LWV 500°C cooking temperature.

Whether you’re throwing a pizza party for the kids or having a meal with the family, this is without a doubt a perfect addition to your bar-senal.

Planning a sizeable soiree? $bWULSOH WDS GUDXJKW EHHU NHJ dispenser might just be the upgrade your home bar needs.

This Soudek 50/K Draught Dispenser from Lindr is compatible with all standard kegs, can pour up to 35-40L in an hour, and only takes up WR ĆYH PLQXWHV WR VHUYH WKRVH drinks cold, making it just the ticket for a large party.

£146, amazon.co.uk

£199, aldi.co.uk

£499, ooni.com

£945, nationalmobilebars.co.uk

42 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Build your own bar

1 NINJA 2-IN-1 BLENDER Blenders aren’t just for green juices and fruit smoothies. They’re necessary to make those perfectly refreshing summer cocktails as well, and none are as good as Ninja’s 2-in-1 contender. This 2.1L-capacity blender comes with three one-touch blending programs, taking all that guesswork out of the equation, and three speed levels as well if you’re already a cocktail connoisseur. Strawberry margaritas, anyone?

If you’ve been pouring red wine straight out of the glass, an aerator will change your life because it’s designed to accelerate wine aeration and perk up your favourite reds. Aervana’s Original Wine Aerator sits at the top of the aerator pile, its innovative ‘wine tap’ design making that process all the more effective. Get it before your next dinner date with friends – they’ll be well impressed.

£99, ninjakitchen.co.uk

£152, homeloft.uk

3 POLAROID AT-HOME

4 VONSHEF 9PC MATTE BLACK

PHOTO BOOTH

PARISIAN COCKTAIL SHAKER SET

Who hasn’t squeezed into a dark photo booth at a bar with their friends and VQDSSHG VRPH VHOĆHV" 3KRWR ERRWKV DUH practically a staple of dive bars and, these days, any Instagram-worthy event. With this At-Home Photo Booth, they can be a staple of home bars as well. Trust us: word of your summer party will spread faster than you can say cheese. £350, amazon.co.uk

2 AERVANA ORIGINAL

WINE AERATOR

)RUJHW WKRVH LQćXHQFHU DSSURYHG FRSSHU cocktail shakers you’ve seen all over Instagram. Look like a total pro to your guests with this nine-piece Parisian Cocktail Shaker Set in Matte Black, complete with a muddler, a hawthorne strainer, and a jigger.

It even comes with a cocktail starter recipe booklet that includes a few classics to help truly dazzle your guests.

1

£38, vonhaus.com

2 3

4

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 4 3

Build your own bar

2 1

3

4

1 ATGAMES LEGENDS

2 EVERDURE BY

Guests and conversations can eventually run out of steam.

Luckily, you can keep them entertained with this retro arcade machine that boasts a whopping 300 games. With its game menu spanning three decades and including popular titles from Atari to Disney, you’ll treat them to a bit of nostalgia as well. Next: how to make them leave.

What is summer after all without backyard barbecues?

Be a grill master with Heston Blumenthal’s Everdure 4K Charcoal Grill. This stunner RI D VPRNHU ERDVWV DQ DLUćRZ control system that maximizes the heat inside, no matter if you’re grilling something quick or smoking meat for hours. $QGbLW HYHQ FRPHV ZLWK D QLIW\ touch glass display.

3 FLAVOUR BLASTER We love a good smoky drink.

But a nifty smoking gun kit has been adding a new level of fun to everyone’s favourite smoky cocktails. Purists might not approve, but the Flavour Blaster might just make your ĆUVW VXPPHU JHW WRJHWKHU with friends the most talked about yet. Who won’t be impressed with those smoky bubbles and vapour clouds you’ll be serving your drinks with? It’s theatre without going to the theatre.

ULTIMATE 300 MULTI GAME ARCADE MACHINE

HESTON BLUMENTHAL 4K CHARCOAL GRILL & SMOKER

£799, libertygames.co.uk

£1,999, everdurebyheston.co.uk

e ćDYRXUEODVWHU FRP

4 4 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

4 SAM TEMPO

OUTDOOR AMERICAN POOL TABLE

Add a bit of space-age spin to that home bar you’re building with this pool table from Sam Tempo. Designed for outdoor use, this pool table doesn’t just look retro-cool, it’s also robust enough to survive the elements thanks to its ĆEUHJODVV FDELQHW VSHFLDO synthetic waterproof top cloth and aluminium components.

You’ll have the funkiest outdoor bar in town. £5,197, homeleisuredirect.com

Build your own bar

1 ECLIPSE BAR CART Bar carts are a dime a dozen, but this smart, minimalist choice from West Elm is the perfect step-into-adulthood choice. ,WèV D WHUULĆF PHHWLQJ RI WKH ROG DQG WKH new as well, its elegant marble and brass top giving that bronze and walnut bottom a bit of a modern touch. And that contractgrade build ensures it’ll last you a lifetime.

2 ITEK FLOORSTANDING Let guests take charge of the soundtrack with the iTek Floorstanding Jukebox.

Boasting retro and modern touches, this ZRRG ĆQLVKHG MXNHER[ LVQèW MXVW D UHFRUG DQG CD player. Friends can also hook up their devices via Bluetooth or 3.5mm audio and play their favourite tunes without fuss.

£399, westelm.co.uk

£245, amazon.co.uk

3 THE GREATER GOOD PINTER The Greater Good’s Pinter and its fresh press packs make the process of brewing EHHU HIIRUWOHVV 6LPSO\ ĆOO LW ZLWK WKH KDQGFUDIWHG IUHVK SUHVV EUHZLQJ \HDVWbDQG water, then leave in the fridge to brew.

Before long, you’ll have fresh beer to serve to friends. Go ahead: claim you painstakingly brewed it yourself. We won’t tell anyone.

4 OPEN SPACE CONCEPTS Open Space Concepts’ aluminium-framed glass verandas let you and your friends spill out into the backyard without worrying about getting soaked during those occasional summer showers. You might even add remote-controlled under blinds or drop-down screens to yours for added protection on sweltering sunny days.

From £85, thegreatergood.co.uk

Get quote, openspaceconcepts.co.uk

JUKEBOX WITH RECORD PLAYER

1

GLASS VERANDA

2

3

4

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 45

35 best travel gadgets

35 BEST

TRAVEL GADGETS 7KH EHQHĆWV RI HVFDSLQJ GXOO FDUH DQG HYHU\GD\ URXWLQH FDQèW EH H[DJJHUDWHG IRUbERWK \RXU PHQWDO DQG SK\VLFDO KHDOWK 7KH HVFDSH ZLOO EH HYHQ PRUH SOHDVXUDEOH LI \RX PDNH WKLV WRS WHFK SDUW RI \RXU WUDYHO LWLQHUDU\ Words: Jamie Carter Photography: Neil Godwin

4 6 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

35 best travel gadgets

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 47

35 best travel gadgets

ROAD TRIP 6XSHU FKDUJH WKH WKULOO RI WKH RSHQ URDG ZLWK WKHVH DZHVRPH JDGJHWV

THULE TEPUI AYER 2

SCOSHE BTFREQ

3LWFKLQJ D WHQW LV HDV\ EXW WDNLQJ LW GRZQ DIWHU WKH LQHYLWDEOH UDLQ" 8UJK 7KLV SRS XS URRIWRS WHQW IRU WZR GHVLJQHG LQ 6ZHGHQ WDNHV D IHZ VHFRQGV WR ERWK SLWFK DQG SDFN XS ZLWK WKH ODGGHU VOLGLQJ LQWR SODFH RQ WKH URRI WRR %HVW RI DOO D IRDP PDWWUHVV LV EXLOW LQ VR \RXèUH JRRG WR JR PLQXWHV DIWHU DUULYLQJ DW D FDPSVLWH £1,499.95, thule.com

,I \RXèUH UHQWLQJ D FDU WKHQ QHYHU SUHVXPH LW KDV D GHFHQW DXGLR VHW XS GRXEO\ VR LI \RX JR IRU D YLQWDJH FDPSHUYDQ (VVHQWLDOO\ UHWUR ĆWWLQJ LQ FDU %OXHWRRWK FRQQHFWLYLW\ WKLV KDQGV IUHH FDU NLW FRQQHFWV WR D VPDUWSKRQH YLD %OXHWRRWK WKHQ EURDGFDVWV LWV DXGLR RQ )0 $OO \RX QHHG LQ \RXU YHKLFOH LV WR WXQH LQ DQ\ DJHLQJ )0 UDGLR WR WKH ULJKW IUHTXHQF\ £29, scosche.com

TILE MATE

VOLKSWAGEN CALIFORNIA 6.1 COAST

$ ORW FDQ JR ZURQJ RQ D URDG WULS EXW ZKDW \RX GHĆQLWHO\ GRQèW ZDQW WR EH GRLQJ LV UHWUDFLQJ \RXU VWHSV WR JDWKHU XS WKH EHORQJLQJV \RXèYH VWUHZQ DFURVV WKH FRXQWU\èV EXGJHW KRWHOV &XH 7LOH 0DWH D VLPSOH %OXHWRRWK WUDFNHU WKDW EX]]HV ZKHQ \RX FDOO LW DQG FDQ EH DWWDFKHG WR DQ\WKLQJ IURP FDU NH\V DQG FDPHUDV WR OXJJDJH DQG ZDOOHWV £19.99, uk.tile.com

6XUH \RX FDQ GR D URDG WULS LQ D FDU EXW LI \RX ZDQW D VOLFH RI çYDQ OLIHè WKHQ RQO\ D 9: FDPSHUYDQ ZLOO GR 'HVLJQHG IRU WZR DGXOWV DQG WZR NLGV WKLV :' YHUVLRQ FRPHV ZLWK D PDQXDO SRS XS URRI D EXLOW LQ DZQLQJ D UHPRWH FRQWURO KHDWHU DQG IURQW DQG UHDU SDUNLQJ VHQVRUV 7KLVbLV çJODPSHUYDQQLQJè RQ D QHZ OHYHO £58,313, volkswagen-vans.co.uk

4 8 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Road trip

1

3

2

1

2

3

KELTY’S FOLDING COOLER 45L

NEXTBASE 622GW

SIMO SOLIS X

:LWK URRP IRU PRUH EHHU WKDQ DQ\ URDG WULS UHDOO\ QHHGV WKLV OLJKWZHLJKW VRIW VLGHG DQG FROODSVLEOH FRROHU LV SULPHG IRU D PLG WULS GDVK WR WKH VXSHUPDUNHW $V ZHOO DV NHHSLQJ XS WR FDQV FROG IRU KRXUV LW KDV D OLG ZLWK IRXU LQWHJUDWHG FDQ RU FXS KROGHUV VR LW GRXEOHV DV D WDEOH IRU LPSURPSWX SLFQLFV £69.95, kelty.com

$ GDVK FDP LV D PXVW KDYH WUDYHO FRPSDQLRQ HVSHFLDOO\ LI \RXèUH UHQWLQJ D FDU EXW UDUHO\ GRHV IRRWDJH VKRW IURP D GDVKERDUG ORRN WKLV JRRG 1RW RQO\ LV LW DEOH WR VKRRW LQ . DW IUDPHV SHU VHFRQG EXW LWV SRODULVLQJ ĆOWHU DQG LPDJH VWDELOLVDWLRQ PDNH LWV *36 DQG WLPH VWDPSHG YLGHR WKH EHVW ORRNLQJ DURXQG £249, nextbase.com

:KDWèV WKH SRLQW RI D URDG WULS LI \RX FDQèW XSORDG \RXU LQVDQH VHOĆHV WR ,QVWDJUDP" $ :L )L KRWVSRW ZHLJKLQJ MXVW J WKH YLUWXDO 6,0 LQ WKH 6ROLV ; RIIHUV JOREDO * :L )L LQ D ZKRSSLQJ FRXQWULHV $Q HDV\ WR XVH DSS JLYHV \RX D FKRLFH RI DIIRUGDEOH SD\ DV \RX JR GDWD SODQV IRU DOO NLQGV RI WULSV £171, simo.co A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 49

35 best travel gadgets

CAMPING HOLIDAY 3DFN WKH ULJKW JHDU DQG \HV \RX ZLOO VXUYLYH WKH RXWGRRUV

COLEMAN CASTLE PINES 6L BLACKOUT

HELINOX SWIVEL

7KLV LVQèW *ODVWRQEXU\ ZKHUH ZDNLQJ XS DW DP LQ D VZHDW ZLWK \RXU IHHW VWLFNLQJ RXW RI WKH GRRU FRQVWLWXWHV D JRRG QLJKWèV VOHHS ,I \RXèUH FDPSLQJ ZLWK WKH IDPLO\ LQ WKH 8. \RXèUH JRLQJ WR QHHG WR NLS ZKLFK LQ VXPPHU LQ WKHVH QRUWKHUQ ODWLWXGHV LVQèW DOZD\V HDV\ &XH WKLV DZDUG ZLQQLQJ WXQQHO WHQW ZKLFK KDV EODFN RXW EHGURRPV WKDW EORFN RI VXQOLJKW £770, coleman.eu

'RQèW JLYH FDPSLQJ FKDLUV WKH ERRW 1RW DOO RI LW ,QVWHDG RI FDUWLQJ DURXQG ORQJ DQG ĆGGO\ IROG XSV FRQVLGHU WKLV SDFNDEOH FDPS FKDLU WKDW ĆWV LQWR D FP ORQJ WRWH EDJ DQG ZHLJKV MXVW NJ ,WèV FRPI\ WRR WXUQLQJ WKURXJK GHJUHHV VR \RX FDQ WHQG WR WKH ĆUH WKURZ D IULVEHH DQG VZDW D PRVTXLWR ZLWKRXW JHWWLQJ XS £124.95, helinox.eu

BIOLITE HEADLAMP 750

UNISTELLAR EVSCOPE EQUINOX

+DQGV IUHH KHDG WRUFKHV PDNH D ORW RI VHQVH EXW WKH\ FDQ ZHLJK KHDY\ RQ \RXU IRUHKHDG DQG PRVW ERXQFH DURXQG GXULQJ DFWLYLW\ 7KLV RQH SXWV PRVW RI WKH HOHFWURQLFV RQ WKH UHDU DQG ZHLJKV D PHUH J ZLWK WKH WLOWLQJ IURQW /(' UHDFKLQJ D VXSHU EULJKW OXPHQV $YDLODEOH LQ JUHHQ RU JUH\ LW ODVWV XS WR KRXUV RQ ORZ EULJKWQHVV VHYHQ KRXUV RQ KLJK £99.95, bioliteenergy.com

,I \RXèUH FDPSLQJ WKHQ \RXèUH XQGHU GDUN HQRXJK VNLHV WR VHH LQFUHGLEOH JDOD[LHV QHEXODH DQG VWDU FOXVWHUV XVLQJ WKLV HDV\ WR XVH çVPDUW WHOHVFRSHè 7KH ĆUVW WHOHVFRSH ZLWKRXW DQ H\HSLHFH DQG RSHUDWHG VROHO\ YLD DQ DSS LW FDOLEUDWHV DXWRPDWLFDOO\ DQG GHOLYHUV LQFUHGLEOH YLHZV WR XS WR VPDUWSKRQHV DQG WDEOHWV ,W DOVR FRPHV ZLWK D EDFNSDFN £2,599, unistellaroptics.com

5 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Camping holiday

1

2

3

1

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ALPKIT CLOUD PEAK 200

WEBER Q 1200

PRIMUS CAMPFIRE PREP SET

$W ODVW D VOHHSLQJ EDJ GHVLJQHG IRU WKH ZDUP ZHW FRQGLWLRQV %ULWV KDYH WR FDPS LQ $ VOLJKWO\ WDSHUHG PXPP\ VKDSH WKLV FRPSUHVVLEOH VOHHSLQJ EDJ LV OLQHG ZLWK V\QWKHWLF 7KHUPROLWH D ĆOO WKDW NHHSV \RX ZDUP HYHQ LQ GDPS FRQGLWLRQV +DQGLO\ \RX FDQ DOVR VKRYH LW LQ WKH ZDVKLQJ PDFKLQH £84.99, alpkit.com

,I \RXèYH QHYHU EHHQ FRQYLQFHG E\ WKH DOOXUH RI çRQH SRWè FDPS FRRNLQJ UHDG D FXS RI KRW EHDQV WKHQ \RXèOO EH SOHDVHG WR NQRZ WKDW SRUWDEOH JDV EDUEHFXHV DUH QRZ DOO WKH UDJH :HLJKLQJ NJ å VR UHTXLULQJ D FDU å WKLV IROG XS LV ELJ HQRXJK IRU WKUHH DGXOWV ,W ZLOO JHW \RX %%4 LQJ PRUH DW KRPH WRR £313.95, weber.com

:LWK D FKRSSLQJ ERDUG RDN KDQGOHG NQLIH D JUDWHU DQG VDODG VHUYHUV WKDW QHDWO\ UROO XS LQ D SRO\ FRWWRQ UROO WKDW FDQ EH ODLG RQ WKH JURXQG WKLV SRVK IRRG SUHSDUDWLRQ VHW DGGV D WRXFK RI FODVV WR \RXU DO IUHVFR VXSSHU ,QFOXGHV SRFNHWV IRU WKDW VWDVK RI VDOW DQG SHSSHU VDFKHWV OHIW RYHU IURP WKDW SXE YLVLW WZR \HDUV DJR £61.99, primus.eu A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 51

35 best travel gadgets

STAYCATION *RLQJ QRZKHUH" 7KHQ GR LW LQ VW\OH ZLWK WKLV PXVW KDYH JHDU IRU WKH %ULWLVK ,VOHV

BERGHAUS MAITLAND GORE-TEX WATERPROOF TROUSERS %ULWLVK VXPPHUV PD\ EH TXLWH ZDUP EXW WKH\èUH DOVR ZHW VR EH SUHSDUHG E\ KDYLQJ D SDLU RI WKHVH RYHUWURXVHUV LQ \RXU EDFNSDFN )XOO\ ZDWHUSURRI DQG ZLWK DQ DUWLFXODWHG ĆW VR DV QRW WR UHVWUDLQ PRYHPHQW WKH\ KDYH ]LS DGMXVWDEOH DQNOHV WR PDNH LW HDV\ WR JHW RQ RYHU \RXU ERRWV DV VRRQ DV WKH KHDYHQV RSHQ £99, berghaus.com

THINKTANK STREETWALKER PRO V2 ,I \RX XVHG WKH WLPH \RX IRXQG \RXUVHOI ZLWK LQ WKH ODVW \HDU WR UHDFTXDLQW \RXUVHOI ZLWK \RXU '6/5 RU PLUURUOHVV FDPHUD WKHQ \RXèOO EH LWFKLQJ WR JHW VQDSSLQJ EH\RQG \RXU EDFN JDUGHQ $ OLJKWZHLJKW EDFNSDFN WKDW WDNHV WZR FDPHUD ERGLHV OHQVHV DQG ĆWV D PP OHQV LWèV FRPIRUWDEOH WR ZHDU DOO GD\ FDQ WDNH D ODUJH WULSRG DQG DOVR KROGV Db LQFK WDEOHW £156, thinktankphoto.com

TOLLY McRAE FOX

VONHAUS GEO PICNIC

,I \RXèUH JRLQJ WR VSHQG WKH VXPPHU VQDFNLQJ DURXQG WKH 8. WKHQ D SLFQLF UXJ LV WKH LGHDO DFFHVVRU\ IRU \RXU FDU ERRW 5ROOHG LQ D FKHVWQXW EURZQ OHDWKHU FDUULHU VWUDS WKLV [ FP RUDQJH ZRROOHQ SLFQLF EODQNHW LV SHUIHFW IRU SLFQLFV EXW LV VRIW HQRXJK WR XVH DV D EODQNHW LI \RXèUH VWLOO RXWVLGH ZKHQ WKH HYHQLQJ VWHDOV WKH DIWHUQRRQ £125, tollymcrae.co.uk

<RX QHHG WR SHUIHFW \RXU SLFQLFZDUH ,I HQMR\LQJ WKH %ULWLVK FRXQWU\VLGH LV DERXW ORQJ OXQFKHV ZLWK \RXU ORYHU WXFN LQ WR WKLV SLFQLF EDFNSDFN IRU WZR ,QVLGH LV D SLHFH GLQLQJ VHW ZLQH JODVVHV D FRUNVFUHZ ZLWK ERWWOH RSHQHU DQ LQVXODWHG FRPSDUWPHQW WR NHHS FRQWHQWV FRRO DQG D ZDWHU ERWWOH KROGHU &RPHV ZLWK D PDWFKLQJ SLFQLF EODQNHW £31.99, vonhaus.com

52 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Staycation

1

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1

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NIKON PROSTAFF 7S 10X30

EMBER MUG2 SMART STAINLESS STEEL TRAVEL MUG

SONY CYBERSHOT RX100 VII

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:KHWKHU \RXèUH FDU WRXULQJ RU KLNLQJ D KRW FXSSD LV QHYHU IDU DZD\ ZLWK WKLV VPDUW ćDVN $OORZLQJ \RX WR VHW \RXU LGHDO GULQNLQJ WHPSHUDWXUH WR WKH SUHFLVH GHJUHH XVLQJ DQ DSS WKLV PO ćDVN PDLQWDLQV WKDW WHPSHUDWXUH IRU DERXW WZR KRXUV £180, ember.com

$ VR FDOOHG çWUDYHO FDPHUDè ZLWK D ELJ VHQVRU WKLV SRFNHW VL]HG VKRRWHU IURP 6RQ\ LV WKH EHVW DURXQG LQ LWV QLFKH :LWK LPSURYHG DXWRIRFXV DQG YLGHR VWDELOLVDWLRQ LWèV JRW D PP ]RRP OHQV DQG D VKDUS ORRNLQJ WKUHH LQFK /&' WKDW ćLSV RYHU IRU VHOĆHV DQG YORJJLQJ $ TXDOLW\ DOO URXQG SRLQW DQG VKRRW £1,200, sony.co.uk A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3

35 best travel gadgets

ADVENTURE HOLIDAY ,I \RXèUH KHDGHG LQWR WKH ZLOG KHUHèV ZKDW \RXèOO QHHG WR KHOS \RX JHW E\

LOOK CYCLE E-765 OPTIMUM

LIFESAVER LIBERTY

1R HOHFWULF ELNHV DUH QRW FKHDWLQJ :HLJKLQJ MXVW NJ GHVSLWH EHLQJ SRZHUHG E\ D PHDW\ )$=8$ (YDWLRQ PRWRU KLGGHQ ZLWKLQ WKH FDUERQ ĆEUH IUDPH WKLV JUDYHO H ELNH JRHV XS WR PSK DQG FDQ WDNH RQ DOO NLQGV RI URXJK VXUIDFHV ,I \RX ZDQW WR JR UHWUR \RX FDQ VLPSO\ UHPRYH WKH EDWWHU\ ,WèV DYDLODEOH LQ JORVV EODFN DQG PHWDOOLF EOXH £5,250, lookcycle.com

6R WKLUVW\ \RX FRXOG ODS IURP D SXGGOH" 3OHDVH GRQèW $EOH WR WUDS RI YLUXVHV EDFWHULD DQG F\VWV IURP ULYHUV ODNHV DQG HYHQ VWDJQDQW ZDWHU WKLV SXPS DFWLRQ ERWWOH FDQ FOHDQ XS OLWUHV RI ZDWHU ,W HYHQ FRPHV ZLWK D çVFDYHQJHU KRVHè IRU H[WUDFWLQJ ZDWHU IURP KDUG WR UHDFK SODFHV DQG DQ DWWDFKPHQW IRU UHĆOOLQJ D KLNHUèV K\GUDWLRQ EODGGHU £124.99, iconlifesaver.com

SNUGPAK TRAVELITE SLEEPING MAT FULL

FJÄLLRÄVEN KEB ECO-SHELL JACKET

,I \RX ZDQW WR WUDYHO OLJKW DQG VOHHS WLJKW WKHQ IRUJHW SXPSLQJ XS DQ DLUEHG DQG HPEUDFH D VHOI LQćDWLQJ VOHHSLQJ PDW :HLJKLQJ MXVW J WR PLQLPLVH WKH ZHLJKW \RXèOO KDYH WR FDUU\ RQ DQ RYHUQLJKW KLNH DQG [ FP ZKHQ FROODSVHG LQWR LWV VWXII VDFN LWèV DOVR JRW D QRQ VOLS EDVH WR JLYH \RX D VWHDG\ VOHHS ZKHUHYHU \RX SLWFK £74.95, snugpak.com

,I \RXèUH JRLQJ LQWR WKH PRXQWDLQV RU RYHU WKH PRRUV \RX QHHG WR EH UHDG\ IRU D VRDNLQJ $ SURSHUO\ ZDWHUSURRI WKUHH OD\HU WHFKQLFDO VKHOO IURP 6ZHGHQ EDVHG )M¦OOU¦YHQ WKLV VKHOO KDV D EDFNSDFN DQG ZDLVW EHOW +HQFH QR KDQG SRFNHWV ZKLFK DUH UHSODFHG E\ JHQHURXV FKHVW SRFNHWV ODUJH HQRXJK WR ĆW D IROGHG XS 26 PDS FRPSDVV DQG VQDFNV JDORUH £450, fjallraven.com

5 4 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Adventure holiday

1

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1

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GOPRO MAX

HANWAG FERRATA II GTX WALKING BOOTS

GARMIN FENIX 6 PRO SOLAR

)RU PDNLQJ \RXU RZQ GHJUHH YLUWXDO UHDOLW\ VW\OH YLGHRV RI \RXU DGYHQWXUHV WU\ WKLV ZDWHUSURRI DQG GURS SURRI FDPHUD WKDW FDSWXUHV HYHU\WKLQJ VR \RX GRQèW PLVV D WKLQJ ,WV WZR GHJUHH ĆVKH\H FDPHUDV ĆOP LQ . TXDOLW\ ZLWK *R3URèV FOHYHU DSS FXWWLQJ LW GRZQ WR D VWDQGDUG OLQHDU YLGHR £379.98, gopro.com

$UH \RXU ERRWV XS WR WDFNOLQJ WRXJK WHUUDLQ" 7KHVH VROLG ZDONLQJ ERRWV DUH GHVLJQHG IRU WKH PRVW FKDOOHQJLQJ RI KLNHV DQG VFUDPEOHV ZLWK D 7XEH7HF 5RFN VROH IRU H[WUD FXVKLRQLQJ ćH[ ]RQHV IRU IUHHGRP RI PRYHPHQW DQG FOLFN FODPS ODFLQJ WKDW PDNHV LW HDV\ WR VHFXUH WKHP £282, hanwag.com

'HVLJQHG WR EH GURSSHG VRDNHG DQG WDNHQ RXW DGYHQWXULQJ WKHUH DUH IHZ PXOWL VSRUW ZDWFKHV DV VPDUW DV WKLV RQH ,WèV JRW *36 D GLJLWDO FRPSDVV D KHDUW UDWH VHQVRU DQG IHDWXUHV VSHFLĆFDOO\ WR DSSHDO WR UXQQHUV F\FOLVWV KLNHUV EDFNFRXQWU\ VNLHUV VZLPPHUV DQG HYHQ PRXQWDLQ ELNLQJ £679.99, garmin.com A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 55

35 best travel gadgets

LUXURY RESORT HOLIDAY <RXU JHWDZD\ LV WKH LGHDO SOD\JURXQG IRU D FDFKH RI VRPH VXSHUE HOHFWURQLFV

ANTLER CLIFTON CABIN WITH POCKET

BOSE SOUNDLINK MICRO

,GHDO DV D FDUU\ RQ IRU RQH WULS IRU RYHUQLJKWHUV DQG IRU UHPRWH ZRUNLQJ WKLV KDUG VKHOO VXLWFDVH IHDWXUHV D SDGGHG VOLS SRFNHW RQ WKH IURQW WKDW ĆWV D WDEOHW DQG D LQFK ODSWRS $ 76$ ORFN VHFXUHV WKH FRQWHQWV DQG IRXU GRXEOH ZKHHOV DOORZ LW WR JOLGH WKURXJK DLUSRUWV ,QVLGH DUH SDFNLQJ VWUDSV D ' ]LS SRFNHW DQG D ZDWHUSURRI SRFNHW IRU WRLOHWULHV £179, antler.co.uk

+HUHèV D %OXHWRRWK VSHDNHU WKDWèV SHUIHFW IRU WDNLQJ FDOOV DQG OLVWHQLQJ WR PXVLF ZKLOH \RX VLW E\ \RXU SULYDWH YLOODèV SRRO 5XJJHG DQG ZDWHUSURRI LW OLQNV WR WZR VPDUWSKRQHV XVLQJ %OXHWRRWK DQG NHHSV JRLQJ IRU VL[ KRXUV 3UHVV D EXWWRQ RQ WKH WRS DQG \RX FDQ VSHDN WR 6LUL RU *RRJOH $VVLVWDQW ZLWKRXW IXPEOLQJ IRU \RXU SKRQH £99.95, bose.co.uk

ZYGO SOLO EARPHONES FOR SWIMMING

DJI OSMO POCKET

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/X[XU\ UHVRUWV DUH LGHDO IRGGHU IRU ,QVWDJUDP EXW \RXU VKRUW YLGHRV RQ VRFLDO PHGLD KDG EHWWHU ORRN VOLFN &DSWXULQJ . YLGHR LQ WRS TXDOLW\ WKH UHDO WULFN RI WKLV FXOW KDQGKHOG FDPHUD LV LWV EXLOW LQ WKUHH D[LV JLPEDO WKDW PDNHV HYHQ WKH PRVW DPELWLRXV YLGHRV ORRN EXWWHU\ VPRRWK )RU VXQVHWV DQG VWDUV LW FDQ DOVR VKRRW PRWLRQ WLPH ODSVHV DQG EH XVHG DW QLJKW £329, dji.com

5 6 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Luxury resort holiday

1

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RAZER ANZU AUDIO SUNGLASSES

AMAZON KINDLE OASIS

APPLE AIRPODS PRO

,I D IHZ ZHHNV LQ D KDPPRFN RU RQ D VXQ ORXQJHU DZDLW \RX WKHQ IRUJHW DERXW VKDGHV DQG HDUSKRQHV DQG MXVW ZHDU WKHVH WKH EHVW ORRNLQJ VOHHNHVW DXGLR VXQJODVVHV \HW $W WKHLU EHVW ZLWK DXGLRERRNV SRGFDVWV DQG KDQGV IUHH FDOOV WKH\ SDLU ZLWK D VPDUWSKRQH YLD %OXHWRRWK DQG NHHS JRLQJ IRU ĆYH KRXUV £199.99, razer.com

/RJJLQJ RII IRU D IHZ ZHHNV D \HDU LV ZLVH EXW QRW EHIRUH \RXèYH GRZQORDGHG VRPH VXPPHU SDJH WXUQHUV :DWHUSURRI DQG ZLWK D VKDUS ORRNLQJ 3DSHUZKLWH GLVSOD\ WKDWèV HDV\ WR UHDG LQ GLUHFW VXQOLJKW WKLV VHYHQ LQFK H UHDGHU DOVR KDV D EDFNOLJKW IRU WKH HYHQLQJV 7KHUHèV DQ RSWLRQ WR LQFUHDVH VWRUDJH IURP *% WR *% £229.99 amazon.co.uk

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ON SALE NOW!

T N I R P E N I L N O DIGITAL SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE!

www.magazinesdirect.com/whi

Lightweight laptops under £999

LAPTOPS UNDER

£999 $V PRUH VFKRROV XQLYHUVLWLHV DQG RIĆFHV UHRSHQ RQFH DJDLQ ZH SLFN WKH EHVW DIIRUGDEOH ODSWRSV IRU NLGV students and adults Words: Matthew Hanson

Buying a new laptop doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Sure, there’s plenty of ultrapremium (and expensive) laptops out there that will happily drain your bank balance, but there’s also a huge range of excellent notebooks that can be had for under £999.

As the global Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work and study, investing in a new lightweight laptop has never been more important. If you’re working and learning from home, a new laptop offers you the freedom and flexibility to comfortably work wherever you need to – be it a desk in a home office, a chair in your living room or even on your

Words:Xxxx bed!

They also let you wind down at the end of a hard day, letting you stream your favourite shows and movies, or even play a few games as well.

And, for those of us returning to schools and offices, even on a part-time basis, laptops can help you get back into the swing of things, and let you take your apps, documents and more with you wherever you go.

We need to be more flexible than ever these days, and laptops can help. Best of all, affordable laptops offer thin and light designs and long battery lives, which are essential considerations these days.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 59

Lightweight laptops under £999

KIDS 1 2

3 4

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ACER CHROMEBOOK SPIN 311

GOOGLE PIXELBOOK GO

MICROSOFT SURFACE GO 2

HP STREAM

This isn’t super powerful, but it doesn’t need to be. Chrome OS runs great, allowing children to write up homework using Google Docs and browse the LQWHUQHW <RX FDQ ćLS WKH VFUHHQ backwards, turning it into a tablet-like device, which is SHUIHFW IRU ZDWFKLQJ 1HWćL[ RU using Android apps.

Chromebooks are brilliant for kids, as they are affordable and easy to use, while also allowing you to set up parental controls to keep them safe. They also aren’t as susceptible to viruses as Windows laptops. The Pixelbook Go is the pinnacle of Chromebook design with a great keyboard, fast performance and 12 hours of battery life.

This is technically a tablet, but if you add on the Type Cover, which magnetically connects to the screen, it turns into a laptoplike device with a keyboard and touchpad. It runs Windows 10 (and will be upgraded to Windows 11 for free), so you can run any application you want on it, and it’s easy to carry around.

HP Stream laptops are very basic laptops, with not much memory or storage, which means they aren’t suited to intensive workloads. However, they are also very cheap, ZKLFKbPDNHV WKHP LGHDO IRU D NLGèV ĆUVW ODSWRS DV WKH\ FDQ handle the basics and they’ll survive the odd knock and bump in the playground.

£260, acer.com

£629, store.google.com

£399, microsoft.com

£190, hp.com

6 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Kids

5 6

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ACER SWIFT 1

ASUS X515

ASUS VIVOBOOK 17

LENOVO IDEAPAD DUET CHROMEBOOK

If you want a slim and stylish laptop for kids that is cheap enough you won’t worry about them taking it to school, then the Acer Swift 1 is a fantastic choice. It comes in three colours – gold, pink and silver – has a reasonable 15-hour battery life and a decent 1080p 14-inch screen for doing that allimportant homework on.

The Asus X515 is a thin and attractive-looking laptop that is perfect for kids who want a larger 15.6-inch screen to work on. It weighs just 1.6kg, so it’s easy to carry around, and it offers plenty of ports to plug in extra peripherals. Again it’s not the most powerful laptop, but for kids it’ll offer more than enough performance.

While many children will want more compact laptops, if they need a large screen for doing their homework on (or, let’s be honest, watching videos), then this 17-inch laptop is a great choice. It comes with a huge 1TB hard drive for storing all their ĆOHV RQ DQG WKLV EXQGOH IURP Amazon includes a wired mouse and carry bag.

If you like the idea of a 2-in-1 device like the Surface Go 2, but want something even cheaper, then the brilliant Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook is worth considering. Chrome OS runs a treat on this device, while it has a keyboard that’s comfortable to use and detaches to turn it into a tablet.

£349, very.co.uk

£329.99, argos.co.uk

£399, amazon.co.uk

£280, lenovo.com A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 61

Lightweight laptops under £999

STUDENTS 2

1

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APPLE MACBOOK AIR

ACER SPIN 5

ACER CHROMEBOOK SPIN 311

HP ENVY 13

The MacBook Air is one of the most iconic thin and light laptops, and the latest model, with Apple’s own M1 chip powering it, shows it’s still a force to be reckoned with – and you can get it for less than £999, making it great for students who want a very fast Apple laptop without spending a fortune.

This is another great thin and light 2-in-1 laptop that’s ideal for students. It comes with a stunning touch screen, includes a stylus (great for jotting down notes during lectures) and offers brilliant battery life, all while running Windows 10. And it DOVR DOORZV \RX WR ćLS WKH VFUHHQ backwards to use it like a tablet.

Students need versatility with their laptops so that the GHYLFHV FDQ ĆW LQ ZLWK WKHLU work and social lives, and here’s an excellent example of this.

Chromebooks are great for students, and this one also has a 2-in-1 design that lets it quickly turn into a tablet-like device.

Be the envy of your classmates with this slick lightweight laptop from HP. Not only is it thin and light enough to carry around campus, but it offers plenty of power with 8GB of RAM, a 10thgen Intel processor and even a Nvidia MX350 GPU for light gaming (but it won’t be able to play AAA titles like Cyberpunk).

£898, amazon.co.uk

£899, acer.co.uk

£260, amazon.co.uk

£649, currys.co.uk

62 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

Students 5

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ASUS TUF DASH F15

MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP 3

ACER CHROMEBOOK 714

LENOVO THINKBOOK 14S YOGA

Students need to unwind, and playing games is perfect. The Asus TUF Dash F15 is a great laptop, then, as it disproves two things. First, that gaming laptops have to be big and bulky, or that they cost a fortune. This is an affordable lightweight gaming laptop that can handle modern titles with ease.

Coming in at nearly £200 less than its recent successor, the Surface 4, this incredibly thin and light laptop is a great way to get a beautifully sleek design with excellent build quality and performance without it costing the earth. It’s available in both 13.5-inch and 15-inch sizes.

If you need a laptop you can sling in your rucksack and carry around campus without worrying about it breaking, then the Acer Chromebook 714 is a great choice, thanks to its sturdy metal chassis. It’ll withstand the rough and tumble student life, and its brilliant battery life will have you all sorted.

Lenovo’s ThinkBook range offers up some ideal student laptops, and the 14S Yoga is one of the best, with a gorgeous 14-inch full HD touchscreen, cutting-edge 11th-generation Intel processors and up to 24GB of RAM, which ensures a very powerful laptop to work on.

£899, currys.co.uk

£795, microsoft.com

£499, currys.co.uk

£769, lenovo.com A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 6 3

Lightweight laptops under £999

ADULTS

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HP ENVY X360 13

ASUS ZENBOOK 13

ASUS EXPERTBOOK B9450

HP CHROMEBOOK 14

If you’re heading back to the RIĆFH VWLOO ZRUNLQJ IURP KRPH RU ZRUNLQJ ćH[LEO\ WKHQ D lightweight laptop is a great choice. This offers top-notch performance, a gorgeous 1080p touchscreen and a stylish aluminium body that can handle knocks and bumps while you commute. It’s a 2-in1 device, so it can be used as a tablet-like device as well.

Asus’ ZenBook laptops are supremely stylish thin and light laptops that back some seriously impressive specs as well. This model features a new 11th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Its 13.3-inch screen makes it ideal for commuting, and can be had for well under £999 at the moment, so it’s well worth considering.

If you’re after a light business laptop with incredible battery life – for under £999 – then the Asus ExpertBook B9450 is the laptop to get. Along with D VWXQQLQJ VFUHHQ ĆQJHUSULQW scanner and IR web cam, its battery life lasts a whopping 16 hours on a single charge. You’ll be able to work unplugged for a full work day – and then some.

Chromebooks aren’t just great devices for kids and students, they are great options for adults as well. The HP Chromebook 14 offers excellent battery life and a great 14-inch 1080p screen; working on it is a joy. As far as specs go, the Intel Celeron N3350 CPU and 4GB of RAM is pretty good for a Chromebook, and means apps like Google Docs works brilliantly.

£720, johnlewis.co.uk

£649, hughes.co.uk

£999, amazon.co.uk

£240, hp.com

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ASUS CHROMEBOOK FLIP C436F

LENOVO LEGION 5

MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP 4

MEDION DEPUTY P10

This premium Chromebook brings a build quality and level of performance that you just won’t ĆQG LQ EXGJHW &KURPHERRNV and while it’s more expensive than many of its ChromeOS-toting rivals, it’s still a lot cheaper than a Windows 10 laptop offering the same level of specs. It’s got a 1080p screen and an excellent keyboard.

Lenovo’s Legion range of laptops are excellent choices for people who want a dependable laptop to do their work on, but which can also play the latest spectacular AAA games as well. This model comes packed with some of the best modern components around, including an RTX 3060 graphics card, AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, 120Hz screen and 8GB of RAM.

Sneaking in at just under £1,000, this Surface Laptop 4 is Microsoft’s best ever laptop.

Featuring a 13.5-inch screen, AMD Ryzen 5 CPU and 8GB of RAM, not only is this a premium, thin and light device that is LGHDO IRU JRLQJ EDFN WR WKH RIĆFH with, but with a huge 19 hours of battery life, it means you can use it on the move extensively.

Medion might not be a brand name with the kind of reputation and recognition that Dell, HP and Lenovo have, but it makes some excellent affordable laptops. The Deputy P10 isn’t just well under a grand, it’s thin and light enough to carry around with you, and it features an Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti GPU, Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM.

£699, johnlewis.com

£899, box.co.uk

£999, currys.co.uk

£679, ebuyer.com A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 6 5

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GADGETS

YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT Top tech you won’t want to miss, from stunning TVs and hot headphones to gear for HQWHUWDLQLQJ DQG WKH JUHDWHVW ĆWQHVV NLW

:H DUH FRPPLWWHG WR RQO\ XVLQJ PDJD]LQH SDSHU ZKLFK LV GHULYHG IURP UHVSRQVLEO\ PDQDJHG FHUWLĆHG IRUHVWU\ DQG FKORULQH IUHH PDQXIDFWXUH 7KH SDSHU LQ WKLV PDJD]LQH ZDV VRXUFHG DQG SURGXFHG IURP VXVWDLQDEOH PDQDJHG forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill holds full )6& )RUHVW 6WHZDUGVKLS &RXQFLO FHUWLĆFDWLRQ DQG DFFUHGLWDWLRQ All contents © 2021 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this PDJD]LQH PD\ EH XVHG VWRUHG WUDQVPLWWHG RU UHSURGXFHG LQ DQ\ ZD\ ZLWKRXW WKH SULRU ZULWWHQ SHUPLVVLRQ RI WKH SXEOLVKHU )XWXUH 3XEOLVKLQJ /LPLWHG FRPSDQ\ QXPEHU LV UHJLVWHUHG LQ (QJODQG DQG :DOHV 5HJLVWHUHG RIĆFH 4XD\ +RXVH 7KH $PEXU\ %DWK %$ 8$ $OO LQIRUPDWLRQ FRQWDLQHG LQ WKLV SXEOLFDWLRQ LV IRU LQIRUPDWLRQ RQO\ DQG LV DV IDU DV ZH DUH DZDUH FRUUHFW DW WKH WLPH RI JRLQJ WR SUHVV )XWXUH FDQQRW DFFHSW DQ\ UHVSRQVLELOLW\ IRU HUURUV RU LQDFFXUDFLHV LQ VXFK LQIRUPDWLRQ <RX DUH DGYLVHG WR FRQWDFW PDQXIDFWXUHUV DQG UHWDLOHUV GLUHFWO\ with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this SXEOLFDWLRQ DUH QRW XQGHU RXU FRQWURO :H DUH QRW UHVSRQVLEOH IRU WKHLU FRQWHQWV RU DQ\ RWKHU FKDQJHV RU XSGDWHV WR WKHP 7KLV PDJD]LQH LV IXOO\ LQGHSHQGHQW DQG QRW DIĆ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liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material is for publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.

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SONY A90J REVIEWED Outstanding picture meets incredible smarts DREAM EBIKES Leave the peloton eating your dust ONEPLUS NORD 2 TESTED The award-winning mid-range phone gets a sequel BACK TO THE OFFICE Great gadgets for smoothing your return to work * ALL CONTENTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

TESTED Expert reviews and recommendations WR KHOS \RX EX\ ZLWK FRQĆGHQFH Edited by Josh Russell

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PANASONIC JZ2000

BEATS STUDIO BUDS

MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP 4

ONEPLUS NORD CE 5G

SAMSUNG HW-Q950A

HUAWEI MATEVIEW

HOW WE TEST In T3, we feature only the finest gadgets out there, and we believe that you – our loyal reader – deserve only the best tech in your life. We don’t want you to waste time, and money, on inferior products, and that’s exactly why our Tested section exists.

In here you’ll find only the latest and hottest tech. Each product has been handpicked and tested by T3’s experts.

We only choose people with specialist knowledge for each test, so you know you’re going to get an outcome based on many years of experience in their respective field.

As well as our traditional five-star rating system (right), we also give out awards to particularly exceptional gadgets, using the line-up below - so when you spot one of these, you’ll know you’re onto a good thing.

THE SCORES EXPLAINED Forget it Below average Good for the price Very good all round An exceptional, best-in-class product

OUR AWARDS This is given to winners of our group tests, so you can see which is the best at a glance

Only the very best products – those that VFRUH ĆYH VWDUV å UHFHLYH RXU 3ODWLQXP Award

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 67

Tested

From £2,699 panasonic.com

Display 55, 65-inch Panel 3840x2160 120Hz OLED HDR HDR10+, Dolby Vision Audio Dolby Atmos Smart assistants Google Assistant, Alexa Connectivity HDMI 2.1 x4 (eARC x1), USB x3, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Dimensions 1227x764x69mm / 1448x888x69mm Weight 18.5kg / 23kg

SCREEN SUPREME

Panasonic JZ2000

A no-compromise premium 4K OLED TV that thinks it’s a movie theatre ust like its predecessor, the much-revered HZ2000, this flagship TV combines Panasonic’s best-in-class Master HDR OLED Professional Edition screen with a fully integrated Dolby Atmos sound system.

The set builds on that, with significant improvements in

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functionality. This includes neat side-firing enclosures to match the up-firing height speaker, Space Tune auto calibration, and a whole new level of Auto AI processing.

Behind the glass, new chips identify the content type you’re watching so that they can optimise sound and vision accordingly.

Panasonic has also (finally) got game,

with HDMI 2.1 variable refresh rate (VRR) and high frame rate (HFR) 4K 120Hz both now supported. The set comes in 55-inch and 65-inch versions, and it’s the smaller of the two we’ve got in our test cave this month.

So is this the ultimate OLED TV? You know what? It very nearly may be… Connectivity is a big step up on previous Panasonic OLEDs. The HDMI

Panasonic JZ2000

BRIGHT MAGIC Measuring up to 950 nits on certain presets, this is a seriously bright OLED, most likely the brightest ever. No longer do you have to pick between deep blacks and brilliant whites.

SMART SET Trained on over a million pieces of footage and audio, this set is able to identify and upgrade different genres in real time, for example boosting greens and crowd noise for sporting events.

quartet on this screen divvy up 2.1 functionality. There’s eARC on input 2 (if you really need a soundbar), plus VRR and HFR 4K 120fps compliance on inputs 1 and 2; so that’s where you’ll want to dock your new-gen games consoles. All four HDMIs have Auto Low Latency Mode game modes.

There’s also a trio of USB ports, a digital optical audio output and Ethernet. Wireless covers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and you get Google Assistant and Alexa.

The set also offers HDMI Signal Power Link, which is apparently designed to simplify living with non-CEC supported devices such as old digital TV boxes and disc players.

The JZ2000 heralds a huge update to Panasonic’s smart platform. If you thought we were in for just a little tinkering around the edges, prepare for a surprise: Home Screen 6.0 feels very, very different – in a good way.

It builds on what we’ve seen before – those customisable Home buttons are still front and centre – but adds more layers of refinement, like My Scenery, which allows you to

customise your own image gallery, or chill to pictures and videos from the Lumix Club. It feels fully formed, perhaps for the first time.

There’s a wide range of streaming apps – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Rakuten TV and BritBox among them, but Disney+ remains conspicuous by its absence, which is a disappointment. We also get Freeview Play, which brings with it integrated catch-up players for all the mainstream TV services (BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My 5, UKTV Play). The JZ2000 also supports dual Bluetooth connections, which means the screen can transmit to two separate Bluetooth devices simultaneously. A couple can watch a movie late at night together or have a co-op gaming session, on cans, without disturbing the kids.

Smart zing Let’s not beat about the box: the JZ2000 is absolutely gorgeous. Its all-new processor, dubbed HCX Pro AI, can take much of the credit. Final detail is stratospherically high,

The JZ2000 draws you in with its subtle and QXDQFHGbLPDJHV

textures beautifully realised, noise low, colour gradations smooth and sumptuous. The JZ2000 features the same gloriously over-engineered Master HDR OLED Professional Edition panel as its predecessor, and it’s still stunning. This is fine champagne in screen form.

HDR peak brightness and overall zing are class leading. This OLED panel doesn’t glare in the same way Mini LED tends to, its images are more subtle and nuanced, but you’re drawn in regardless.

In Normal viewing mode, we measured HDR peak brightness at more than 900 nits. That’s easily high enough to show off fancy HDR grading effects and specular highlights. With the Dynamic preset, using a 5% measurement window, it hits 950 nits.

Inspired engineering delivers an enhanced dynamic range, with peerless black level performance and superb shadow detail. With this OLED you’ll have no trouble seeing something menacing in the shadows – if that’s what the cinematographer A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 69

Tested

GAME CHANGER While previous generations have been a bit lacking in gaming features, the JZ2000 has more than made up for this. Two of its four HDMI 2.1 ports offer VRR and HFR 120fps, while its input lag is a none too shabby 14.5ms.

THICK SET All the drivers included need to be squeezed in somewhere, so inevitably this isn’t the thinnest panel in the world, coming in at 69mm.

intended. Fine colour tuning is handled by Hollywood colourist Stefan Sonnenfeld, and there’s an authenticity to its hues which is mesmerising. Skin tones retain believable tonality, even when the rest of the frame is rich with wild visual effects.

The JZ2000 supports a refreshingly wide range of HDR formats and flavours. There’s Dolby Vision IQ, which adds dynamic adjustment to ambient light, Filmmaker Mode with Panasonic’s own Intelligent Sensing (a sensor-based auto correction mode) and HLG Photo. There’s even

The set is nice and slim – even with its additional speakers

support for HDR10+ Adaptive, which dynamically adapts HDR content to the lighting conditions of the viewing area. Only Philips offers comparable HDR support.

The JZ2000’s big party trick is being able to determine what type of content is being viewed, analysing it frame-by-frame in real time, and comparing it to an on-board library.

It doesn’t just do this for video; audio gets the AI treatment too.

It has also been trained to recognise genres. Players in a stadium are given grass with a more authentic hue, while the audio

system adds stadium-like ambiance.

Panasonic says the HCX Pro AI processor has been trained with over a million pieces of content.

This smart auto pilot seems to work well enough for general viewing, but you might want to disengage it for movie night as by default it engages Intelligent Frame Creation and sets interpolation at maximum – which for a smart system is pretty dumb.

Speaker party Which brings us to that built-in Atmos theatre system. We’ve listened to, and enjoyed, a good number of

PRO ADD-ONS

SAMSUNG HW-Q950T As you’ll see on page 76, the staggering sequel to this soundbar has just arrived. So why opt for 2020’s one? In a word: value. Price cuts have made this 9.1.4-channel system very affordable, offering great Dolby Atmos for under £1,000. £999, samsung.com 7 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

PHILIPS HUE PLAY GRADIENT LIGHTSTRIP Brightest OLED ever not immersive enough?

Strap on one of these and it will bathe your rear wall in Ambilight-style colour. The catch?

Also required are the HDMI Sync box and Hue Bridge, adding nearly £280 to the price. £159.99, philips-hue.com

XBOX SERIES X *LYHQ WKHUHèV D 3DQDVRQLF VHW WKDW ĆQDOO\ RIIHUV a panoply of gaming features, you’ll want to pair it with a latest-gen console. And what’s better than the sumptuous graphics and high-octane hardware of the most powerful Xbox ever? £449.99, xbox.com

Panasonic JZ2000

BREAKING NEW SOUND With a built-in 7.1 Dolby Atmos system, the audio it offers is anything but meek. It comes with additional side-firing drivers next to the obligatory height speaker, as well as a sub and forward facing soundbar-style array.

novel enhancements designed to improve TV audio.

Samsung has OTS+, with discreet drivers peppered around its QLED panel, while Sony employs transducers that vibrate the glass itself, as part of its Acoustic Surface technology initiative.

Here, Panasonic has taken a far more literal approach to cinematic sound, refining its onboard Dolby Atmos audio system with additional side-firing enclosures, placed adjacent to the rear-mounted height speaker, and it gives all its rivals a run for their money.

Providing the front soundstage is a forward facing soundbar-style array.

The set boasts a seven-channel sound system, plus subwoofer, with a combined output of 125W, and the whole lot has been tuned by Technics, which Panasonic owns. Panasonic dubs this configuration 360° Soundscape Pro. When installing the JZ2000, you’re invited to optimise audio performance using the set’s own Space Tune calibration system. This involves the usual routine of peeps and whistles. While the TV doesn’t really have the wherewithal to deliver deep bass, it does at least

make a good mid-bass effort, and certainly doesn’t jettison the low frequencies. There are no satellite speakers, nor connections for them, so you don’t get sound from the rear, but what you do get is a thoroughly entertaining audio presentation that goes high and wide.

Meanwhile, gaming, long a weak point for Panasonic, is no longer treated like an afterthought. The JZ2000 offers a big improvement in input lag, with latency down to 14.5ms in Game mode (1080/60). This makes it a decent choice for players, while VFR and HFR 4K are on hand to keep the faithful happy.

You might think that with a whole Dolby Atmos sound system strapped to its back, the JZ2000 might look a tad bulky. Not a bit of it. The set is stylishly slim, even with those additional speakers, extending the depth to just 69mm. There’s barely a bezel to speak of, with the Technics speaker bar blending seamlessly. It’s an elegant, minimalist confection.

The panel itself sits on a circular pedestal stand, with spin to accommodate different viewing positions, while the supplied remote is a heavyweight premium affair, with a brushed finish, that feels nice

Watching a match?

Grass will have a more authentic hue

in the hand. As always, there’s copious menu tinkering available, but you don’t need to deep dive.

Everyday controls sit in a handy, graphical bar.

Panasonic’s partnership of its superb Master HDR OLED Pro panel with an equally accomplished AI processor produces jaw-dropping results. The JZ2000 delivers bright pin-prick HDR and looks (and sounds) supremely cinematic. The only downside is the price, but we were expecting that.

VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Sophisticated picture performance; Dolby Atmos sound; 4K 120Hz. WE’D IMPROVE Not every input is HFR ready; Auto AI not always smart; expensive.

THE LAST WORD A peerless premium screen. The only downside is its cost.

Find the best deals on the Panasonic JZ2000 at: bit.ly/t3panjz2k

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 71

Tested Beats Studio Buds

£129.99 apple.com

NO MEAN BEATS

Beats Studio Buds

These wireless earbuds can do it all, and cost less than most of the competition ireless earbuds has become a very crowded landscape, with the best ones rapidly dropping in price while more and more of them include active noise cancellation. But the Beats Studio Buds have come in aggressively, offering not just a great price and ANC, but also fast-pairing and anti-loss features.

Compared to most noise-cancelling true wireless buds, they’re impressively small. These Beats models feature a design that’s both clever and usefully ergonomic. They extend away from the ears a bit, but taper to a thinner strip – which is then perfect for grabbing with your fingers. It makes them super easy to remove from the case, and to position or tweak in your ears.

Setup is a snap with these, whether you’re on iPhone or Android. Instant pairing on both platforms means you just open the lid and follow the instructions on-screen. This is a first for Beats on Android, though it’s worked this way on iPhones for a few years.

The drawback is that they can only pair with one device at a time. When paired with the phone, it will not connect to anything else even when the phone is off and vice versa. We’ve used plenty of Bluetooth devices over the last few years that could pair with multiple devices at once without issue. It’s a slight annoyance.

One of the major features of these earbuds is the implementation of ANC and Transparency modes. While neither mode has blown us away, they work well enough. When using ANC, the

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Beats Studio Buds can block all background noise in a crowded gym or when going for a walk not right next to traffic. The transparency mode is a little less successful. You can certainly hear ambient noise better than you would without it.

But it’s not like speech or similar important elements really stand out – with music playing, it can be a bit of a din.

The sound quality is probably the most important aspect of any pair of headphones. And, the Beats Studio Buds are able to deliver... for the most part. The highs and mids are well balanced, so you’re able to hear everything clearly. The highs are detailed without being too bright and the mids are rich enough that you won’t feel like anything is missing.

However, it seems to struggle with dynamic range when bass and mid-range are both pounding. Bass is full, and compared to some of the best-sounding headphones for the price, the mids will feel slightly recessed and compressed.

We were able to get just over five hours of battery life with ANC on from a single charge of the buds themselves. The charging case gives you two more full charges for a total of 15 hours of use with ANC and 24 with it off. This is a bit low, and these are the only wireless headphones in a while to leave us actively surprised when we couldn’t get any more juice from the case.

The Beats Studio Buds are a really strong set of earbuds. You can find options with better sound, or better battery life and so on – but barely anything does it all so well in one package.

VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Simple to set up and operate; feature-rich; good sound quality and ANC. WE’D IMPROVE Only pairs with one device at a time; Transparency Mode could be better; battery life is a bit short.

THE LAST WORD Really impressive. They come with most of the functionality of the AirPods Pro, but also offer easy pairing and Find My support on $QGURLG 7KHLU ćDZV DUH PLQRU

Discover more great true wireless buds at: bit.ly/t3truwrls

Tested Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

FANTASTIC 4

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 The Surface Laptop 4 looks great, is wonderful to use, and packs plenty of power he Surface Laptop 4 covers a lot of bases – you could argue it’s one of the best lightweight laptops, best student laptops, and best laptops full stop, and that’s a mark of just how well made this Microsoft machine is.

It’s certainly hard to fault the Surface Laptop 4 in terms of its design and visual appeal – the aesthetics here are top-notch. There are only so many ways to design a laptop of course, but that said we do like what Microsoft has done here: there’s a premium fit and finish all round, and that extends to the display hinge, which feels solid and reliable.

Our review unit came with a 13.5-inch, 2,256 x 1,504 pixel IPS LCD screen, which is sharp, bright and vibrant – just about everything you could want, even if it doesn’t quite reach the deep blacks and contrast levels you get with OLED. We also like the 3:2 aspect ratio, which means you can see more of a document or a website at one time. If we did have a quibble, the bezels are a little on the thick side for 2021, but it’s fine really.

In terms of ports, there’s not a great selection, though it’s fairly standard for a laptop of this size and weight: you get one USB-C port, one USB-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the Surface Connect port that Microsoft likes to put on its laptops. That proprietary port does rather limit you in terms of chargers and other accessories, but it’s not something that’s a huge drawback.

Our Surface Laptop 4 review unit came with an 11th-gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor, plus

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8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Other configurations are available, at different price points: you can get up to an i7 Intel processor, for example, while AMD options are also available, and the RAM goes all the way up to 32GB. You’ll be pleased to know that the laptop is fully Windows 11 compatible too, and in our time with the device it breezed through everything that we asked of it: editing documents, working with images, browsing the web (with dozens of tabs open at a time), and even some light gaming.

The 11th-gen Intel chips do come with integrated Iris Xe graphics that can play less demanding games at reasonable resolutions and frame rates.

Microsoft reckons you can get about 17 hours of battery life out of this laptop with ‘typical device usage’, which might be a bit on the optimistic side. In our tests, two hours of video watching – albeit at maximum display brightness – drained the battery by 16% on average, suggesting around 12-13 hours in total.

At the time of writing, the base model can be yours for £999/$999 – and more advanced models (like our review model) will cost you significantly more than that. But that’s not a bad price for what you get: Microsoft has neither underpriced nor overpriced this device.

In our time with the Surface Laptop 4 we were very impressed with both the performance of the laptop and how it felt to use. For a well-priced Windows laptop that can do just about everything well, apart from the most demanding tasks, this is absolutely one of the best options out there.

£999 microsoft.com

VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Choice of FRQĆJXUDWLRQV VW\OLVK SUHPLXP GHVLJQ H[FHOOHQW /&' ,36 VFUHHQ WE’D IMPROVE Can get H[SHQVLYH FKXQN\ GLVSOD\ EH]HOV SURSULHWDU\ 6XUIDFH SRUW THE LAST WORD Another superb laptop from Microsoft. *LYH WKLV D VHULRXV ORRN LI \RX want a stylish Windows laptop that can go just about anywhere and do almost anything.

Find great prices for the Surface /DSWRS DW ELW O\ W VXUćS

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 73

Tested

Screen 6.43-inch 2400x1080 90Hz AMOLED OS Android 11 CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G 5G GPU Adreno 619 RAM 8GB/12GB Storage 128GB/256GB Battery 4500mAh Cameras 64MP/8MP/2MP rear; 16MP front Connectivity Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, 5G, USB-C Dimensions 159.2x73.5x7.9mm Weight 170g

BUDGET BANGER

OnePlus Nord CE 5G Taking on the affordable phone market, the Nord CE 5G is capable but cuts corners he marketplace for cheap and mid-range phones is growing. Not everyone is keen to spend upwards of £800 on a phone they’ll only keep for a couple of years, and you don’t need to spend loads to get a decent handset.

After the success of the OnePlus Nord last year, the manufacturer is back with a new version.

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G, or Core Edition, is a more stripped-back handset than the original. It has a plastic casing as opposed to the Gorilla Glass on the Nord. The CE also only has three rear camera lenses, down from four, as well as a single 16MP front camera. Both have a similar-sized FHD screen and a similar processor, and the new model actually has a bigger battery.

It’s seriously slim and super light, weighing just 170g. That makes it easy to use one-handed, and perfect for anyone who prefers a smaller phone.

Available in three colours – Blue Void, Charcoal Ink and Silver Ray – the plastic casing has a matte finish and doesn’t seem to pick up fingerprint marks very easily.

Unlike a lot of phones, you still get the 3.5mm headphone jack on the frame, sitting next to a USB-C charging port. In terms of buttons, the OnePlus Nord CE 5G keeps things simple; there’s just the power button

T

From £299 oneplus.com

74 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

OnePlus Nord CE 5G

and two volume controls. OnePlus has removed its trademark slider, which is a shame because it was something that made its phones just a little bit different from the rest.

A 6.43-inch edge-to-edge AMOLED display stretches across the front of the phone. It has a resolution of 2400 x 1080 and a 90Hz refresh rate – not much has changed from the OnePlus Nord, but it didn’t really need to. It feels sleek and smooth to tap, swipe and scroll on, and HDR10+ support means you’ll get a good experience streaming video from the likes of Amazon Prime Video.

Altered images A three-lens camera system sits on the back of the phone, with a 64MP main lens, an 8MP ultrawide lens and a 2MP mono lens. Photos taken on a bright sunny day came out looking well-balanced, bright and colourful.

Look a little closer and you’ll see they lack some finer detail, and actually slightly exaggerate colour too. It’s hardly going to rival the leaders of the pack, the OnePlus 9 series, but the quality of point-and-shoot images is fine for a cheap smartphone. In fact,

they’re slightly better than other handsets at this price.

A mid-range chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G, powers the Nord CE 5G, and with it comes 5G so you’ll get the fastest internet speeds possible if your area supports it. You can choose between 8GB RAM/128GB storage and 12GB RAM/256GB storage – there’s no MicroSD card slot to expand storage, but you can fit dual SIMs. Day-to-day, the handset coped well with most tasks and even handled some mobile gaming. You have to expect some shortcomings when it comes to performance; it sometimes suffered from a little lag, but most won’t even notice. Falling slightly behind the OnePlus Nord in its Geekbench 5 scores, the Nord CE 5G got 440 in single-core and 1,775 in multi-core. Hardly super-speedy, but that’s about the same as other similarly priced phones. Packing a large 4,500 mAh battery means that you’ll get loads of juice from each charge, easily lasting the whole day.

The phone runs OxygenOS 11, based on Android 11, so the software feels smooth and intuitive. It’s not

THE ALTERNATIVES iPHONE SE

SAMSUNG S20 FE

Simply the best cheap phone in the world. That’s because LW GHOLYHUV D QHDU ćDJVKLS iPhone experience but does so for a fraction of the cost.

Indeed, the SE is so cheap that it rings up for under half WKDW RI WKH ćDJVKLS L3KRQH From £399, apple.com

We’re stretching ‘affordable’ here but the S20 FE’s higher SULFH LV HQWLUHO\ MXVWLĆHG whether that’s by its buttery smooth 120Hz display, top tier chipset and decent camera. All in all, a solid mid-range phone.

From £599, samsung.com

This is one slim and super light phone, easy to use one-handed

quite as nice to use as pure Android, but it’s not that far off. You get all the usual Google apps pre-installed, and happily OnePlus hasn’t filled it up with loads you’ll just delete. For version 11, OnePlus has improved the Dark Mode and Zen Mode, while a new always-on display means the screen wakes when you pick it up.

If you’re on a budget, this phone doesn’t make too many compromises.

It takes a bit of a hit in performance, but it’s really nothing dramatic and the phone will be able to cope with everyday tasks like texting and social media. Anyone who wants to spend a bit less, needs a reliable battery and wants a decent display should definitely add this to their shortlist.

VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Impressive battery life; 90Hz refresh rate; easy to use one-handed.

WE’D IMPROVE Performance is merely average; no ZDWHUSURRĆQJ SODVWLF GHVLJQ THE LAST WORD Not quite the standout phone that the original Nord was, but it is cheaper. Anyone on a budget ZKR ZDQWVbDbVPDOO OLJKW SKRQH with decent battery life and good display will be happy with this.

Discover more great affordable phones at: bit.ly/t3bgtphn

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 75

Tested

Drivers 11.1.4 Connectivity HDMI x2, (eARC x1), Optical In, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Dimensions 1232x69.5x138mm main, 125x203x141mm rear, 210x403x403mm sub Weight 7.1kg main, 1.8kg rear, 9.8kg sub

£1,599 samsung.com

AUDIO ATTACK

Samsung HW-Q950A

Enjoy the ultimate Dolby Atmos soundbar experience with the audacious audio of this 11.1.4-channel monster o you want a home cinema upgrade that is a total beast, and will bring you the most complete and impactful Dolby Atmos 3D effect we’ve heard from anything to date? Then this top of the pile soundbar could be just what you need.

Samsung’s ambition with its latest flagship soundbar – as with its predecessors – is to deliver the sort of audio performance associated with a

D

76 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

separates system from a package that also delivers the practical living space advantages of a soundbar (ie, it’s smaller and simpler to set up). How does it achieve this? By combining a huge 616W of output power with a variety of tried and tested widedispersion speaker technologies and an exceptional number of real (as opposed to virtual) audio channels.

The Q950A increases the channel count from the already massive 9.1.4 of

2020’s Samsung HW-Q950T to an unprecedented 11.1.4. Impressive.

Fresh out of the box the main soundbar looks clean, minimalistic and serious thanks to its excellent build quality, metallic corners and felt-covered main section. It is pretty much unchanged from that of the Q950T. There are still seven main drivers (front centre, front left, front right, side left, side right and two up-firers for delivering Dolby Atmos/

Samsung HW-Q950A

DTS:X height effects) squeezed inside an impressively slim and compact box.

And as you would expect the soundbar supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as carrying two HDMI inputs, an HDMI output with eARC support, and an optical digital audio output. The HDMI loopthrough supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+, as well as the basic HDR10 system, while the eARC support means it can receive lossless Dolby Atmos/DTS:X passed through from eARC-compatible TVs. Keeping the slim and compact soundbar company is a wireless subwoofer that boasts a meaty 8-inch side-firing driver despite being slim enough to tuck out of the way at the end of a sofa or under a sideboard. Plus, you get a couple of impressively compact wireless rear speakers, which accommodate the two extra channels in the form of new side-firing drivers.

While impressive in many areas, flagship Samsung soundbars have been criticised for not supporting any auto-calibration tools. The Q950A, though, mildly changes this courtesy of its SoundFit+ system. Still no full standalone auto-calibration system.

But there are two new features that

you won’t find on the Q950A’s predecessor: support for Apple Airplay 2, and Samsung’s Active Voice Amplifier technology. If the latter is active and the soundbar detects a loud ambient noise (such as a vacuum cleaner) for more than three seconds, the soundbar volume is increased and the sound profile is adjusted.

The main soundbar is powerful, detailed and dynamic

Sound of mettle Happily, the extra drivers immediately make their presence felt. The distinctive Dolby Atmos/DTS:X ‘dome’ of sound appears strikingly more complete. And, given that the rear speakers are the main reason for stepping up to a Q950A from Samsung’s cheaper models, the enhanced rear soundstage actually makes the new model feel better value than previous flagship models.

The main soundbar is phenomenally powerful, detailed, dynamic and aggressive. Effects are well positioned vertically or horizontally. Impact sounds hit harder than they do with any rival soundbar we’ve heard to date. Vocals are crystal clear, realistic and gently lifted. And the way the sound expands to fill your

THE ALTERNATIVES

LG SN11RG

B&O BEOSOUND STAGE

Only those with a screen over 65 inches can likely handle this bar but with its big size and big price FRPHV D VLPLODUO\ KXJH VRXQG ,W DOVR RIIHUV ĆQH spatial positioning, twin HDMI inputs and easy setup. £999, lg.com

Not everybody wants to erect a mini-Stonehenge in their living room. Fortunately, the Stage gives you 11 drivers sans all the boxes, superb sound and a seriously stylish package. £1,349, bang-olufsen.com

room from the soundbar’s narrow physical start point is impressive.

The subwoofer churns out superb amounts of deep, rich bass. The excellent dynamic range of the main soundbar means the subwoofer doesn’t sound detached from the rest of the sound mix either.

As usual with Samsung soundbars, the Q950A is more at home as a movie player than a music player. Regular stereo plays with plenty of power and detail, and there’s a good sense of scale and between speaker ‘space’. But the presentation feels slightly more muscular than musical.

There is no doubt, though, that the HW-Q950A is another outstanding high-end soundbar from Samsung.

VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Hugely powerful sound; uniquely complete 3D soundstage; Q-Symphony on Samsung TVs. WE’D IMPROVE Better for movies than music; no full auto-calibration system; very premium price.

THE LAST WORD Combines the power and precision of a high-quality separates system with the compact form factor of a soundbar – it’s spectacular.

Find the best deals on the HWQ950A at: bit.ly/t3hwq950a

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 7 7

Tested Huawei MateView

£599.99 huawei.com

DISPLAYMATE

Huawei MateView A slim and minimalist 4K monitor with some really clever features hen you hear the name Huawei, monitors aren’t the first thing that come to mind. Huawei is trying to change that with its new flagship monitor, offering ultra high definition in a modern, minimalist package.

A 28.2-inch IPS monitor with a seriously sleek design, the Huawei MateView will fit in well with modern, minimalist decor. A screen-to-body ratio of 94% means the display is almost bezel-free. The aluminium square stand and base are coated in matte silver, giving it a smart and elegant aesthetic. It’s really good looking.

Something that makes it a little bit different is the 3:2 aspect ratio, which you don’t see too often. We like it as it means there’s plenty of screen space for working on – you can see your entire project or document laid out in front of you without everything looking small.

You can adjust the height and tilt of the screen; there’s no swivel or rotation, though. On the bottom of the frame you’ll find the Smart Bar, which is used to adjust the display’s settings using touch controls. Slide your finger along it to navigate the menus and tap to confirm your choice. One thing to note is that the display offers very limited display settings in comparison to other monitors.

Sitting on the base is an NFC connection point if you have a compatible Huawei smartphone. It lets you really easily project your screen onto the monitor. You can also wirelessly project from a Windows PC although it won’t deliver on speed

W

7 8 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

as much as a wired connection will, and you’ll only be able to project in 2K resolution.

The wired connectivity includes a USB-C which supports data transfer and 65W charging to keep your devices topped up, two USB-A 3.0, an HDMI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort and a 3.5mm headset and microphone 2-in-1 jack, all of which are located on the side of the stand, making them very easily accessible.

The Huawei MateView has a resolution of 3840 x 2560 with 1.07 billion colours and 98% DCI-P3 colour gamut, covering 100% sRGB. That’s really impressive: creators will rejoice over the level of colour accuracy and depth, although admittedly the clarity could be improved on. The 500-nit peak brightness is plenty to bring out every inch of detail and the screen also has a matte coating so can be seen even in bright light.

For anyone who will spend hours upon hours looking at the display, it has an Eye Comfort mode with TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light and Flicker-Free certification, which adds more of a yellow tinge to the screen. Without it, a screen headache could slowly start to creep in.

Anyone who cares about the aesthetic of their home office will love the Huawei MateView’s minimalist, slim build. There’s detailed image quality with loads of depth and plenty of ways to connect, even if there is only one USB-C port. It is a little on the pricey side, and without a Huawei smartphone you won’t be able to make the most out of all of its features, but despite that this monitor has plenty to offer to professionals.

VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Large screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio; plenty of ways to connect; Smart Bar touch controls.

WE’D IMPROVE Doesn’t swivel or rotate; can’t wirelessly project in 4K; limited display settings.

THE LAST WORD 28.2 inches of stunning 4K, packing in clever features like wireless projection. +XDZHLèV ĆUVW ćDJVKLS PRQLWRU LV one of the most elegant-looking screens you can buy.

Discover more great 4K monitors at: bit.ly/t34kmon

Best of the best INSIDE

BEST OF THE BEST The world’s best tech, all in one place

If you’re looking for the very best tech available WRGD\ \RXèYH GHĆQLWHO\ FRPH WR WKH ULJKW SODFH %HVW RI WKH %HVW LV WKH PRVW XVHIXO JDGJHW EX\LQJ JXLGH \RX ZLOO HYHU HQFRXQWHU 7R FUHDWH LW we’ve extensively tested the best tech the world KDV WR RIIHU WR EULQJ \RX URFN VROLG UHFRPPHQGDWLRQV IRU \RXU KRPH OLIH GDLO\ FRPPXWH DQG WKH WHFK \RX XVH DOO WKH WLPH ,Q GLIIHUHQW FDWHJRULHV ZHèYH FKRVHQ WKH WRS IRXU SURGXFWV VR \RX FDQ FKRRVH RQH WKDWèV MXVW WKH

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Smartphones

80

Cheap smartphones

80

Smartwatches

80

Hybrid smartwatches

81

Watches

81

Watches under £1,000

81

TVs

82

TVs under £1,000

82

Projectors

82

Gaming TVs

83

Games consoles

83

Soundbars

83

Turntables

84

Streaming DACs

84

Multi-room speakers

84

Bluetooth speakers

85

Bluetooth headphones

85

True wireless headphones

85

Noise-cancelling headphones

86

Wired in-ear headphones

86

Wired over-ear headphones

86

Laptops

87

2-in-1 laptops

87

Tablets

87

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88

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88

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88

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89

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90

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91

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91

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91

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92

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92

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92

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93

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93

Robot vacuums

93

Cordless vacuums

94

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94

Dishwashers

94

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95

Fridges

95

Ovens

95

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96

Electric toothbrushes

96

Beard trimmers

96

Fitness trackers

97

Running watches

97

Running headphones

97

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 79

Best of the best

SMARTPHONES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestphone APPLE iPHONE 12 From £799, apple.com Apple has outdone itself. 5G has been added, the CPU has more power than you’re ever going to need, and the dual-lens rear camera system can take spectacular photos in any kind of light.

CHEAP SMARTPHONES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcheapphone iPHONE SE (2020)

From £420, apple.com $ QHDU ćDJVKLS iPhone experience for a fraction of the cost. The SE is under half the cost of the iPhone 12, and for that reason it demands attention IURP DQ\bSURVSHFWLYH phone upgrader.

ONEPLUS 9 PRO

ONEPLUS NORD

From £829, oneplus.com Very much an evolution of the OnePlus 8 Pro, with a similar design and iterative specs bump for this year, the OnePlus 9 Pro has doubled down on the camera. And the results are excellent.

From £379, oneplus.com A fantastic midranger, with a Snapdragon 765G processor, at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and 5G. That’s not to mention the sharp, bright 6.44-inch AMOLED display.

iPHONE SE (2020)

SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 FE

From £420, apple.com Apple’s iPhone SE (2020) handset has taken this year by storm, the hot new handset winning acclaim worldwide with its balance of features, quality and performance for a very attractive price.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S21 ULTRA From £1,149, samsung.com Not only the best phone Samsung has ever made, but the ĆUVW 6 VHULHV KDQGVHW that comes with digital stylus support.

From its massive screen to the quad camera, this is a 5-star beast in every way.

8 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

From £699, samsung.com The best core S20 functionality, along with 5G, but at a more affordable price point, this is actually nothing like a budget handset, as it is still loaded with premium hardware and features.

XIAOMI MI 10T LITE From £249, xiaomi.com There’s a lot of handset for your money here.

Decent battery life, respectable specs (including 6GB of RAM) and a quadlens rear camera DUHbVWDQGDUG SOXV *bFRQQHFWLYLW\

SMARTWATCHES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsmartwatch APPLE WATCH SERIES 6 From £379, apple.com Series 6 adds a SXOVHbR[\JHQ VHQVRU to its health systems, makes its always-on display 2.5 times brighter, steps up to WKH QHZ 6 &38 bDQG throws in all the QHZbIHDWXUHV RI watchOS 7.

SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH ACTIVE2 From £269, samsung.com Sleek and powerful, this is the best smartwatch for Android users. The screen and design are on par with the Apple Watch, while a collection of new watch faces give it DbPRGHUQ HGJH SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 3 From £399, samsung.com The Galaxy Watch 3 comes in two sizes, and with a very good battery life. It’s the innovative rotating bezel that is the star here, though, as it is, without doubt, the best way to control DbVPDUWZDWFK APPLE WATCH SE From £269, apple.com Despite being the ‘affordable’ smartwatch from Apple, the SE is fast and comfortable ZLWKbD FOHDU VFUHHQ (no always-on GLVSOD\bWKRXJK DQG excellent health and ĆWQHVV IHDWXUHV

Best of the best

HYBRID SMARTWATCHES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besthybrid

WITHINGS STEEL HR SPORT £190, withings.com

WATCHES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwatch HUBLOT BIG BANG INTEGRAL £17,300, hublot.com

Featuring a heartrate monitor and the ability to track 30 different exercises, this is ideal for ĆWQHVV IDQDWLFV ,WèV water resistant to 50 metres, and the battery lasts around GD\V

7KH ĆUVW %LJ %DQJ WRbIHDWXUH DQ integrated bracelet åbWKLV ZDWFK KDV EHHQ GHVLJQHG WR ćRZ seamlessly from the FDVH WR WKH FODVS Available in black ceramic, King Gold RUbWLWDQLXP

FOSSIL HYBRID SMARTWATCH HR

TUDOR BLACK BAY FIFTY-EIGHT

£129, fossil.com

£2,760, tudorwatch.com Named after the year in which Tudor UHOHDVHG LWV ĆUVW GLYHUèV ZDWFK WKLV comes in a new vintage colour combination and smaller 39mm sized FDVH ,WèV SRZHUHG E\ WKH &DOLEUH 07

This timepiece features activity and sleep tracking, plus app and call alerts, time zones, and buttons to control VPDUWSKRQH PXVLF Yet it mostly looks like a regular watch, aside IURP WKH H LQN GLVSOD\ WITHINGS MOVE ECG £129, withings.com Think a pricey Apple Watch is needed to take an ECG reading of your heart? This can do that, plus activity tracking and sleep monitoring, ZLWKbD PRQWK battery life, for a UHDOO\ ORZ SULFH WITHINGS SCANWATCH £269, withings.com :LWKLQJVè ODWHVW hybrid is also its smartest, packing a huge amount of KHDOWKbDQG ĆWQHVV tracking tech into a VOHQGHU ERG\ $QG 15 different strap RSWLRQVbHQVXUH LWèOO VXLW DQ\ RXWĆW

OMEGA SEAMASTER DIVER 300M 007 EDITION £7,390, omegawatches.com This stylish 6HDPDVWHUbPDGH from Grade 2 Titanium will be strapped to the wrist of 007 in 1Rb7LPH WR 'LH ,WèVbVWURQJ lightweight, and perfect for an XQGHUFRYHU DJHQW JAEGER-LECOULTRE MASTER CONTROL DATE £6,000, jaeger-lecoultre.com Featuring a calibre with a 70-hour SRZHUbUHVHUYH D new 40mm doublepolished stainless steel case, and a FOHDU bHOLJLEOH GLDO WKLVbLV SXUH DQG VLPSOHbZDWFKPDNLQJ DW LWV ĆQHVW

WATCHES UNDER £1,000

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwatchunder1k CHRISTOPHER WARD C60 SAPPHIRE

£795, christopherward.com Striking, bold designs UHDOO\ VHW WKLV %ULWLVK brand apart from its more conventional 6ZLVV ULYDOV 7KH EHVW example of this is the C60 Sapphire, which features a seethrough dial made IURP VDSSKLUH FU\VWDO VICTORINOX I.N.O.X £459, victorinox.com +DYLQJ XQGHUJRQH 130 durability WHVWV bWKLV ZDWFK ZLOObVWDQG XS WR anything you throw DW LW 7KH SDUDFRUG strap hints at its adventurous heritage, DQG LWèV JUHDWbIRU DOO ZULVW VL]HV

HAMILTON KHAKI FIELD £375, hamiltonwatch.com This is a faithful recreation of its original 1960s forebear and is WUXHbWR +DPLOWRQèV PLOLWDU\ KHULWDJH 7KHb PP VWDLQOHVV steel case is paired with a durable 1$72bVWUDS TAG HEUER FORMULA 1 QUARTZ MENS WATCH £895, tagheuer.com This F1 timepiece features a steel case with sapphire crystal protecting the legible PRQRFKURPH GLDO 7KH strap is black leather, a quartz movement provides the power DQG LWèV ZDWHU UHVLVWDQW XS WR PHWUHV

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 81

Best of the best

TVs Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttv SAMSUNG 75QN900A £7,999, samsung.com A master of SD, 8K and everything in between, this isn’t OLED but has so many dimming zones you’ll swear it is. This is an outstanding TV, ready for anything today or tomorrow can offer.

TVs UNDER £1,000

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttv1000 LG OLED55BX £999, lg.com

£1,699, acer.com The best for the budget. The LG BX gives you everything that’s great about OLED TVs, and LG’s image processing PDNHV . ORRN expertly detailed, and brings HD up to a QHDU . VWDQGDUG

SONY KD-55XH9005

£2,999, samsung.com 7KH ćDJVKLS . PRGHO from Samsung’s 2021 UDQJH LV DOVR WKH ĆUVW to use the new Neo QLED Mini-LED display tech, and the results are utterly incredible, beating even the OLED TVs we’ve seen so far.

£899, sony.com

LG OLED65G1

SONY KD-49XH9505

8 2 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

6RQ\èV ćDJVKLS /(' . 79 IRU packs in all kinds of advanced technology and processing for supreme picture quality. Somehow, WKH LQFK PRGHO LVbDYDLODEOH IRU OHVV than a grand.

SAMSUNG QE55Q70T £999, samsung.com The C1 is LG’s midrange OLED, and while it may lack a few of the G1’s features, it has everything you need. It’s a very capable set, especially when paired with the new consoles, and the picture is top-notch.

OPTOMA UHD40 £999, optoma.co.uk

£999, sony.com

£2,499, lg.com

Acer really hit the sweet spot here: VPDOObHQRXJK WR ĆW on a coffee table, whisper-quiet in operation, and yet still produces a EULJKW bFULVS +'5 . picture of 70 to 110 inches (at 3.5m).

Some other TVs PD\bEHDW LW IRU LPDJH quality in certain areas, but nothing gives you this quality of picture at this size with such great technical features WRbPDNH VXUH LWèV future-proof.

7KH ĆUVW 79 ZLWK D brighter, next-gen version of OLED that consumes less power.

That means the G1 is around 20% brighter than previous OLED TVs, giving broader and more striking HDR than ever.

LG OLED65C1

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestprojector ACER V7850

SAMSUNG 65QN95A

£2,999, lg.com

PROJECTORS

. UHVROXWLRQ DQG HDR in a projector for this price is hard to beat. It doesn’t quite have the pop and HDR richness of more expensive sets, but it’s way beyond HD projectors at the same price.

OPTOMA UHZ65 £3,499, optoma.co.uk This is aimed right at the proper AV enthusiast, but laser projection at this price makes it worth it for anyone. . +'5bYLGHR LV supremely rich, and it can hit 120 inches IURP MXVW P EPSON EH-TW6700W £999, epson.co.uk

The Q70T sits in a real sweet-spot in Samsung’s TV range. Pictures from . VRXUFHV DUH outstanding: vividyet-natural colours, strong contrasts, lavish detail levels DQGbVPRRWK PRWLRQ

If you’re happy with Full HD resolution, this is the best option, partly thanks to a super-easy setup process. The image quality is good, you just don’t get the IXWXUH SURRĆQJ RI +'5 DQG .

Best of the best

GAMING TVs Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestgamingtv LG G1

GAMES CONSOLES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/gaming PLAYSTATION 5

£2,999 lg.com A next-gen screen that’s brighter while keeping OLED’s deep black levels. Four HDMI 2.1 ports are ready for 4K 120Hz, and there’s support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD Freesync Premium too.

LG CX

£449, playstation.com Look beyond the big, bold design.

This console offers powerful next-gen hardware, backwards compatibility, an excellent DualSense controller with haptic feedback and truly stunning graphics.

£449.99, xbox.com A gaming dream that’s packed with features ready for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. LG’s best OLED panel to date mixes with low input lag and 120fps 4K, with a variable refresh rate too.

SAMSUNG QN95A £2,200, samsung.com If price is no object, go for the best. This TV’s new Mini-LED tech means bright HDR performance, ZLWK ĆQH FRQWURO RI local dimming. You also get a special menu dedicated to its gaming features.

£800, sony.com

SONY HT-G700

Microsoft has nailed it. This is a console that delivers massive amounts of power and performance. Because of its raw pixelpushing prowess, it’s a superb base for a new generation of jawdropping experiences.

NINTENDO SWITCH £279, nintendo.com

This soundbar and wireless subwoofer include Sony’s IDQFLHVWbSURFHVVLQJ to make the three drivers seem like they’re giving you sound coming IURPbWKH VLGHV DQGbDERYH SAMSUNG HW-Q800A £800, samsung.com

We love the Switch, which brings Nintendo’s great gaming pedigree to genuinely stylish, premium-grade hardware. Forget WKHbVSHFV LWèV DOO about the sheer MR\bRIbJDPLQJ

£249.99, xbox.com This is one of two TVs branded as ‘Ready for PS5’ by Sony, which means it has a fast response time, and supports 4K at 120fps over HDMI inputs. It’s also one of the best-looking TVs for its price.

£1,599, samsung.com Delivering over 600W of power from 22 different drivers, this really brings the cinema experience home, yet still retains all the size and convenience advantages of owning a soundbar.

£450, sony.com

MICROSOFT XBOX SERIES S

SONY XH90

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsoundbar SAMSUNG HW-Q950A

MICROSOFT XBOX SERIES X

£1,500, lg.com

SOUNDBARS

Our top mid-range soundbar right now strikes just the right balance between being a big audio upgrade, being useful with most TVs, and a good price. It’s a hard target to hit, and the Samsung excels.

YAMAHA SR-C20A £229, yamaha.com

Stylish, affordable, easy to set up and taps into the very slick Xbox ecosystem seamlessly. It does have limited storage space out of the box though, and can’t play current or previous gen games on disc.

The audio quality here is excellent for the price, adding so much more balance, clarity and depth than a budget TV speaker could ever hope to produce, with really impressive width and stereo positioning.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 8 3

Best of the best

TURNTABLES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestturntable PRO-JECT ESSENTIAL III £250, project-audio.com Really sounds great for the money, with an expansive and enjoyable sound across a range of genres and volume levels. It also looks very pleasing, in a variety of high JORVVbĆQLVKHV

STREAMING DACs Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestdac SONOS PORT £399, sonos.com A great streamer, especially if you already own a Sonos speaker. It has an analogue input and output, as well as streaming to any Sonos speaker, so you can plug in \RXUbWXUQWDEOH YAMAHA WXAD-10

£1,199, technics.com With rock solid build quality, easy set-up, immense bass, and a hugely exciting and involving sound, this is much more than just a DJ deck. There are few turntables that are more enjoyable to own.

£120, yamaha.co.uk

PRO-JECT PRIMARY E

IFI XDSD

ELIPSON CHROMA CARBON RIAA BT £699, elipson.com

8 4 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

£1,300, naimaudio.com 0X 6R FUXVKHV its competition. An awesome, thumping wall of sound and reliable, versatile software platform DQGbVWUHDPLQJ support make for the perfect 21st-century music experience.

SONOS ONE £199, sonos.co.uk

This Yamaha lets you stream everything from Bluetooth to hi-res audio, with support for AirPlay, most of your favourite streaming services and, of course Yamaha’s RZQb0XVLF&DVW

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Sonos One is compatible with every music service ever, multi-room connectivity is fab, and Alexa comes EXLOWbLQ DV DQ DGGHG ERQXV 0DQ\ SULFLHU Sonos speakers then await you…

RUARK R5

This dinky little combined Bluetooth receiver, DAC and headphone amp supports AAC and aptX and sounds really superb. It has a battery, and can be used with earphones as well as speakers.

AUDIOLAB 6000N £449, audiolab.co.uk

Elipson’s top-line turntable pulls GRZQbDbORW RI IHDWXUHV from the truly high end. You get a super-stiff carbon ĆEUH WRQHbDUP DQG new digital belt drive motor, plus AptX Bluetooth and USB.

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestmultiroom NAIM MU-SO 2ND GENERATION

TECHNICS SL-1200GR

£179, project-audio.com Pro-ject’s entry-level player is the record player stripped down to its most basic form.

Everything comes pre-adjusted and preinstalled, so it’s ready to go right out of the box with the perfect tracking force.

MULTI-ROOM SPEAKERS

£1,000, ruarkaudio.com Like a mini system for the 21st century, Ruark’s R5 chucks in a CD player, DAB and )0 UDGLRV DQG WZR extra inputs, including one pre-amped for use with a turntable.

There’s even Bluetooth too.

AUDIO PRO ADDON C10 MKII £359, audiopro.com

Probably impractical if you don’t have a KL Ć VWDFN EXW ZLWK support for audio up to 192Khz/24-bit, its sound quality is noticeably better than the Sonos and Yamaha streamers further up the list.

Audio Pro makes speakers that cater to every type of music and the Audio Pro $GGRQ & 0.,, is no different. It’s energetic, loud and three-dimensional, showing off every detail of the track.

Best of the best

BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestbluetooth

BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwireless AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT

KANTO TUK £749, kantoaudio.com A stereo pair of attractive, compact bookshelf speakers.

The left-hand one contains the connections and DACs and Class 'bDPSOLĆHUV DQG WKHbULJKW RQH LV D wired slave.

£179, audio-technica.com /RQJ EDWWHU\ OLIH DQG sound that’s closer to the more neutral WRQHV RI KL Ć FDQV WKRXJK VWLOO ZLWK D VOLJKW H[WUD NLFN RI EDVV SOXV JUHDW comfort levels, make WKHVH LGHDO IRU ORVLQJ yourself in music.

SONOS MOVE

AKG Y400

£399, sonos.com

£110, uk.akg.com A Sonos speaker that’s been UXJJHGLVHG DQG KDG D battery and Bluetooth added, so you can use it anywhere.

Clever software automatically optimises the sound to its location.

ULTIMATE EARS MEGABOOM 3 £169, ultimateears.com The best waterproof speaker – it even ćRDWV å RIIHUV hours of battery life and a hefty sound that’s perfect for outdoor parties. ,W ZRUNV JUHDWbIRU kitchen audio GXWLHV bWRR BLUESOUND PULSE FLEX 2I £299, bluesound.com More than a Bluetooth speaker, with Wi-Fi and Ethernet included WKLVbLV PRUH OLNH D portable Sonos. It’s AirPlay 2 compatible, and works with VWUHDPLQJ VHUYLFHV and internet radio.

TRUE WIRELESS HEADPHONES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttruewireless SONY WF-1000XM4 £225, sony.co.uk

The latest version of 6RQ\èV KLJK HQG EXGV has slimmed down LQ VL]H DQG ZHLJKW but improved on battery life, boosted audio quality and polished their noise cancellation. That’s TXLWH WKH XSJUDGH BOWERS & WILKINS PI7

These AKGs are PLQLPDOLVW DQG OLJKW but still feel solidly built and comfortable.

They offer impressive VFDOH H[FHOOHQW GHWDLO and a very naturalistic attitude towards the whole of the IUHTXHQF\ UDQJH OPTOMA NUFORCE BE SPORT 4 £100, optoma.co.uk 'HVLJQHG IRU WKH J\P b\RX PLJKW think these wouldn’t VRXQGbYHU\ JRRG But you would be incorrect. They’re very musical with ZHOO ZHLJKWHG EDVV DQG H[FHOOHQW QRLVHbLVRODWLRQ SOUNDMAGIC S20BT £40, soundmagicheadphones.com Truly impressive buds.

Connectivity is rock solid, and Bluetooth 5.0 means that they’re futureproofed.

25 hours of battery OLIH LV DOVR JUHDW IRU the price. A wellmade, effective and HQJDJLQJ RSWLRQ

£349, bowerswilkins.com Some of the very best wireless earbuds.

7KH\ KDYH H[FHSWLRQDO sound, but there are no compromises here.

(YHU\WKLQJ DERXW WKH DXGLR LV H[DFWO\ ZKDW you want, and you’ll love to wear them day in, day out.

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO MELOMANIA 1+ £120, cambridgeaudio.com +LJK HQG VRXQG IRU a pretty incredible price. With drivers made of miracle VXEVWDQFH JUDSKHQH the Melomania 1+ are XQLIRUPO\ H[FHOOHQW And their battery life LV DOVR ULJKW XS WKHUH with the very best.

MASTER & DYNAMIC MW08 £279, masterdynamic.co.uk 8VLQJ FXVWRP PP Beryllium drivers, the MW08s are very clearly focused on GHOLYHULQJ KLJK HQG audio performance, which is precisely what these stylish buds do for 12 hours RQ D FKDUJH

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 8 5

Best of the best

NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestnoisecancelling SONY WH-1000XM4 £349, sony.co.uk

Nailed it. Light, with broad, soft ear cups and a remarkably comfortable headband, these offer best-in-class noise cancellation with great sound, rich bass and a lively approach to music.

WIRED IN-EAR HEADPHONES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestinear MEZE AUDIO RAI SOLO

£179, mezeaudio.com With a single-driver design capable of excellent dynamic range, these can pull from a deep well of bass as well as shimmering treble. $bZHOO SULFHG XQIXVV\ and great-sounding pair of headphones.

BOWERS & WILKINS PX7

KLIPSCH T5M WIRED

£275, bowers-wilkins.co.uk A bit dull-looking, EXWbWKH DXGLR TXDOLW\ and noise cancelling are extremely FORVHbWRbWKDW RI WKH Sonys. B&W’s usual exciting, but well balanced, sound meets excellent QRLVHbFDQFHOOLQJ

£65, klipsch.com

SHURE AONIC 50

FLARE AUDIO FLARES JET 3

£359, shure.co.uk The sound quality RIbWKH $RQLF should have purists purring. There isn’t an excess of bass and it delivers all WKHbVSDUNOLQJ GHWDLO and painstaking accuracy you FRXOGbZDQW BOSE NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES 700 £299, bose.com Close rivals to the Sony and B&W options above, they’re less exciting, but also very easy to listen to for hours on end.

If you are easy like Sunday morning, maybe these are \RXUbEDELHV

8 6 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

WIRED OVER-EAR HEADPHONES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestoverear FOCAL CLEAR MG £1,399, focal.com

Simply sumptuous, ZLWK VRIW PLFURĆEUH on the earpads and a headband that you can sink into; then comes the rich, warm sound to totally lose yourself inside.

They’re just fantastic in that regard.

GRADO SR325E £399, gradolabs.com When you factor just how good these sound, they’re a bargain. In a quiet room, they sound as good as headphones WKDW FRVW ĆYH WLPHV more. They’re among the leakiest we’ve tried, however.

7KH ĆWWLQJ LV XQXVXDO but nonetheless immediately felt comfortable and VROLG b7KH DXGLR LV boosted, primped and pop-friendly, with plenty of bass and a very lively and engaging sound.

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AUDIO TECHNICA ATH-A1000Z Maintaining the quality of the Flares Pro (see Bluetooth headphones), removing the DAC element and thereby slashing the price, these audiophile inear headphones are a tremendous option.

SOUNDMAGIC E11C £49, soundmagicheadphones.com Can we really be recommending a pair of headphones for XQGHU e " <HV ZH can! The grown-up sound quality and exemplary comfort RIbWKH F PDNH WKHPbWKH VRQLF bargain of the year.

£439, audiotechnica.com Forget about MP3s or EDM: these headphones don’t ćDWWHU RU VDFULĆFH sound quality for bass. But if you give them a good amp DQGbD JRRG VRXQG source they do incredible things.

AKG K52 £25, akg.com These have absolutely no right to sound half as good as they do. For at-home listening they offer a massive soundstage, impressive balance and a frankly ludicrous amount of detail for the dosh.

Best of the best

LAPTOPS Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestlaptop APPLE MACBOOK AIR (M1, 2020) £999, apple.com

2-IN-1 LAPTOPS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/best2in1

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttablet

ASUS ZENBOOK FLIP 13

APPLE iPAD AIR (2020)

£800, asus.com Apple’s cheapest laptop is a revolution.

Think thin and light laptops have to VDFULĆFH SRZHU" 1RW any more. This is the EHVW RI DOO ZRUOGV ZLWK DQ HLJKW FRUH 0 &38 DV SRZHUIXO DV those in gaming PCs.

The Zenbook Flip 13 might be the best laptop Asus has ever released. Tooled up ZLWK DQ HLJKWK JHQ ,QWHO &RUH SURFHVVRU the tablet mode feels JUHDW WR XVH WKDQNV to a responsive touchscreen.

ASUS VIVOBOOK S15

MICROSOFT SURFACE BOOK 3

£899, asus.com

£1,439, microsoft.com 3XOO WKH VFUHHQ DZD\ from the keyboard and it’s a tablet.

Connect them for more graphics SRZHUbDQG EDWWHU\ OLIH $ SUHPLXP IDQWDVWLFDOO\ SRUWDEOH and supremely versatile system.

This slim and super light laptop hits a ZRQGHUIXO VZHHW spot. With an Intel &RUH L *% RI 5$0 D *% 66' and a touchscreen 6FUHHQ3DG LW UHSUHVHQWV ZRQGHUIXO PLG UDQJH YDOXH DELL XPS 13 (9310) £1,194, dell.com The Dell XPS 13 LVbWKLQQHU DQG PRUH SRZHUIXO WKDQ HYHU Up to 1TB of SSD VWRUDJH *% RI 5$0 D . VFUHHQ DQGbIDVW WK generation Intel chips KHOS PDNH LW D WRS TXDOLW\ DOO URXQGHU LG GRAM 17 (2021) £1,549, lg.com

SAMSUNG GALAXY BOOK PRO 360 £1,199, samsung.com Unlike some other LQ V WKLV GRHVQèW IHHO DZNZDUG WR XVH LQ WDEOHW PRGH ZKLFK is super responsive and feels lovely to XVH ZLWK WKH VW\OXV IRU TXLFN VNHWFKHV RU QRWH WDNLQJ ZLWK WKH LQFOXGHG 6 SHQ MICROSOFT SURFACE GO 2 £519, microsoft.com

/DUJH EXW OLJKW WKH Gram 17 is incredibly portable yet has VWURQJ FRUH KDUGZDUH VSHFV EDFNHG XS ZLWK an impressive battery OLIH TXDOLW\ NH\ERDUG DQG IRU D ODSWRS JRRG audio too. It’s perfect for professionals.

TABLETS From £479, apple.com Technically the iPad $LU EXW PRUH like the latest iPad 3UR ZLWK VRPH RI the ‘pro’ features removed. Apple Pencil VXSSRUW LV KHUH WKRXJK DQG WKHUHèV D smart connector for DbNH\ERDUG WRR APPLE iPAD PRO 12.9 (2021) From £969, apple.com $SSOH VKRZLQJ RII 7KH QHZ PLQL /(' screen is simply the best display in any WDEOHW DQG WKH 0 processor inside is stunningly fast.

It’s ridiculously RYHUSRZHUHG IRU most people.

APPLE iPAD 10.2 (2020) From £349, apple.com $ ZKROH ORW RI $SSOH tablet for not much PRQH\ LW RIIHUV $SSOH Pencil support and the latest iPadOS VRIWZDUH 3HUIHFW LI \RX ZDQW WRS WDEOHW performance and you don’t have lots to spend on it.

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S7 PLUS £699, samsung.com

%XLOGV RQ ZKDW PDGH the original Surface *R VR JRRG DGGLQJ D PRUH SUHPLXP feeling design and a small specs bump to make sure you can SRZHU WKURXJK DOO your computing tasks ZLWK QR GLIĆFXOW\

An Android SRZHUKRXVH WKDW QRW RQO\ JRHV WRH WR WRH ZLWK WKH L3DG Pro in terms of SHUIRUPDQFH EXW does so in terms of VW\OH DQG EXLOG TXDOLW\ too – this thing is only 5.7mm thick!

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 87

Best of the best

GAMING LAPTOPS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestgaming ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS G14 £1,099, asus.com A game-changer that delivers buckets of performance despite being compact and light. It does this thanks to its use of AMD’s hot QHZ 5\]HQb&38V and Nvidia’s RTX b*38 MSI GS66 STEALTH £1,500, msi.com An astonishingly powerful gaming laptop with up to a 10th-generation Intel &RUH L DQG 1YLGLD GeForce RTX 3080 *38 7KLV LV QRW D cheap laptop, but it delivers incredible performance.

ACER NITRO 5

GAMING HEADSETS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestheadset STEELSERIES ARCTIS 7P WIRELESS £160, steelseries.com This is an impressive piece of kit, delivering an excellent audio H[SHULHQFH IRU 36 DQG 36 $ 86% & dongle makes it quick to set up and means it will also work with a 3& 1LQWHQGR 6ZLWFK or Android phone.

LUCIDSOUND LS50X £249, lucidsound.com A hugely impressive new entry as we enter the era of the next-gen consoles, with an all-round package – style, setup, audio – that’s YHU\ GLIĆFXOW WR EHDW %XLOG TXDOLW\ LV ĆUVW rate too.

ASUS ROG DELTA S

£750, acer.com

£190, asus.com A lower spec is UHćHFWHG LQ WKH ORZHUbSULFH :LWK D &RUH *% RI 5$0 *% 190( 66' SOXV D 7% KDUG drive and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 7L *% LWèV VWLOO D SRWHQWbSHUIRUPHU

GIGABYTE AORUS 15G RTX 30 SERIES £1,799, gigabyte.com Nvidia GeForce RTX VHULHV *38V KDYH arrived on laptops, and this is one of WKH ĆUVW WR WDNH advantage: if you want the very best graphics capabilities, then this is very much worth checking out.

8 8 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

4K MONITORS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/best4kmonitor

PHILIPS BRILLIANCE 328P £420, philips.co.uk A plucky display sporting an impressive HDR 600 UDWLQJ DQG D x 2,160 resolution.

It’s also shockingly affordable, when you FRQVLGHU LWèV D LQFK GLVSOD\ ZLWK . and HDR support.

EIZO COLOREDGE CG319X £3,989, eizoglobal.com (TXLSSHG ZLWK D UDIW of high-end features, this screen is ideal for high-end photo and video work, as well as general usage and gaming. Serious hardware commands a serious premium price, however.

SAMSUNG U28E590D £279, samsung.com

A very impressive headset that will ZRUNbZLWK MXVW about any device.

Audio quality is of the highest order whether you’re rocking out or WDNLQJbSDUW LQ LQWHQVH gaming sessions.

STEELSERIES ARCTIS 7X WIRELESS £90, steelseries.com

Delivers a super-fast 1ms response time, 170-degree viewing angles and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. You don’t get quite as much size as other models, but it cuts very few corners hitting its low price.

PHILIPS BRILLIANCE 329P1H £816, philips.co.uk

The Xbox version of our favourite headset delivers really strong performance, with nuanced audio reproduction across the soundscape, a comfortable design, and a quality &OHDU&DVW PLF

$ JUHDW . PRQLWRU for professionals, delivering a 32-inch 8OWUD +' ,36 SDQHO with integrated ZHEFDP :LQGRZV Hello integration and 86% & FRQQHFWLYLW\ but no advanced gaming features.

Best of the best

DRONES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestdrone

ACTION CAMERAS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestactioncam GOPRO HERO9 BLACK

DJI AIR 2S £899, dji.com

£429, gopro.com A sensational camera drone. Despite being lightweight and very portable, this foldable drone packs some incredible onboard tech, including a 1-inch CMOS sensor that enables you to capture 5.4K video.

DJI MINI 2

The perfect quality camera-carrying drone for the masses, this titchy bird is so small when folded you can hide it behind an iPhone. The camera is 4K spec, and video transmission distance jumps to 10km.

This recent GoPro has goodies everywhere. Four virtual lenses get \RX WKH LGHDO ĆHOG of view for what you’re shooting, and next-gen video VWDELOLVDWLRQ NHHSVbLW stable and crisp.

GOPRO HERO7 BLACK

£1,120, dji.com

£250, gopro.com This pro-spec drone is almost impossible to crash, and has a stunning three-axis gimbal-mounted Hasselblad camera.

As rock solid and FRQĆGHQFH LQVSLULQJ as we’ve come to like and expect.

DJI MAVIC AIR 2

The waterproof Hero7 Black makes capturing pro-looking shots easier, thanks to HyperSmooth electronic stabilisation. 4K image quality is excellent, and there’s slick 60fps recording.

OCLU ACTION CAMERA

£769, dji.com

£215, oclu.com Everything about this drone shouts BUY ME. The camera is a cracker capable of shooting 4K footage at 60fps, while a completely redesigned controller is another major improvement.

GOPRO HERO7 WHITE

A bigger sensor (23.6MP), means WKLVbFDP FDQ VKRRW 5K/30 video and 20MP stills, and youget a welcome 30% battery boost over the Hero8.

There’s a front VFUHHQbWRR

£279, gopro.com

DJI MAVIC 2 PRO

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcheapaction

£179, gopro.com

GOPRO HERO8 BLACK

£419, dji.com

CHEAP ACTION CAMERAS

Bucking tradition, this has a topmounted screen and D ZLGH ORZ SURĆOH body perfect for mounting beneath a skateboard. Threebutton operation, an ultrawide lens and 4K 30fps round it out.

The wallet-friendly Hero7 White ERUURZVbSUHPLXP features from the Hero7 Black. Ideal for part-time adrenaline junkies needing a simple HD camera that shoots YouTubeready footage.

AKASKO BRAVE 7 LE e DNDVRWHFK FRP

The Brave 7 LE ĆWVbQLFHO\bLQ WKH SDOPbRI \RXUbKDQG While its headline feature is a frontfacing screen, it DOVRbVSRUWV D QXPEHU of features only usually found on fancier models.

AKASO BRAVE 7 e DNDVRWHFK FRP

Able to record 4K at 30fps (the image stabilisation isn’t up to much, however).

It’s waterproof to 10m, has a 2-inch rear touchscreen, and comes with a remote as well as supporting voice controls.

OLFI ONE.FIVE BLACK (2ND GEN) e ROĆFDPHUD FRP A bulging bag of bangs for a relatively small number of bucks. It can shoot in 4K, take 15MP photos, is waterproof to 30m, can record at 120fps, and has a wealth of other premium features.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 8 9

Best of the best

DSLR CAMERAS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestdslr

MIRRORLESS CAMERAS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestmirrorless NIKON Z50

NIKON D780 £2,199, nikon.com

FUJIFILM X-T3

£3,299, nikon.co.uk

e IXMLĆOP FR XN

CANON EOS 90D

An APS-C sensor means you don’t have to lug around heavy lenses and accessories but still leaves you with cracking image quality. The X-T3 has impressive 4K video capabilities too.

NIKON D500

Quite possibly the ideal vlogging camera, with 4K video recording, a vari-angle 3-inch touchscreen and the ability to use an external microphone. It can shoot the occasional still image too.

PANASONIC TZ200

£1,299, canon.co.uk This solidly built camera is the SHUIHFWbFKRLFH IRU those who like to shoot a little bit of everything, thanks to a brilliant autofocus system and glorious image quality from its 20MP sensor.

A beautifully retro design mixed with a host of advanced features, this, like LWVbSUHGHFHVVRUV sports a DSLR-sized (APS-C) sensor, ZKLFKbLV SDLUHG ZLWK Db PP I Ć[HG length lens.

£699, sony.com If you’re looking for \RXU ĆUVW IXOO IUDPH camera, the Z5 PDNHVbD ORW RI VHQVH You get a 24MP full-frame sensor, D QLFHO\bHUJRQRPLF body design and excellent electronic YLHZĆQGHU WRR

CANON EOS RP

£1,699, nikon.co.uk

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SONY ZV1

£1,719, nikon.co.uk A mid-range model that packs a lot of power for its price.

You get a 32.5 megapixel sensor, uncropped 4K video recording, and an RSWLFDO YLHZĆQGHU WKDW offers a 100% view of the scene.

For the best image quality in a pocketfriendly body, look here. The RX100 VII continues t o build on Sony’s reputation for high-quality premium compacts, and does so without breaking the bank.

FUJIFILM X100V

NIKON Z5

£1,249, canon.co.uk

9 0 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

£1,099, sony.co.uk All the best bits IURPbWKH = UDQJH shrunk into a more affordable package.

A smaller (APS-C) 20.9MP sensor means a smaller overall body, ideal IRUbWUDYHO DQG everyday shots.

NIKON D850

With a highresolution 45.4 megapixel sensor, 4K video capture, a 153-point AF system, and a sturdy body, you’ll never be GLVDSSRLQWHGbZLWK what the D850 can create for you.

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcompact SONY RX100 VII

£849, nikon.co.uk The D780 is, in many ways, a Nikon Z6 (mirrorless) camera inside a larger DSLR body. Thanks to this, we’ve got room for dual memory card slots and a lot more direct control dials and buttons.

COMPACT CAMERAS

£629, panasonic.com Excellent full-frame image quality, but with a few GUDZEDFNV bVXFK as a low frame rate (5fps). There’s also the annoying problem of there still being scant native RF OHQVHVbDYDLODEOH

This might be the ideal travel companion, with a versatile zoom lens XSbWR [ DQG D fantastic one-inch sensor that captures bright, sharp images.

It’s also stylish and pocket-friendly.

Best of the best

SAT-NAVS Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsatnav TOMTOM GO DISCOVER £279, tomtom.com

DASH CAMS Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestdashcam NEXTBASE 622GW £250, nextbase.com

A straightforward navigation device without fancy features. It is ultimately about utility, not fancy tricks, and there’s no doubt TomTom delivers excellent usability here.

£290, tomtom.com

£169, garmin.com This state-of-the-art sat nav links with IFTTT, so you can connect to home devices, interact with personal digital assistants, get QRWLĆFDWLRQV DQG share location and arrival data.

This fantastic little cam earns its place on this list with good image quality, extra features including GPS and speed camera warnings, and an attractive design.

Video is 1440p, in a 180° angle.

THINKWARE F800 PRO £249, thinkware.com

This sleek sat-nav KDVbVXEVWDQFH WR match its style, ZLWKbDbELJ GLVSOD\ OLIHWLPH WUDIĆF and maps (for Europe) and useful points of interest information courtesy RIb7ULS$GYLVRU TOMTOM GO 6200 £299, tomtom.com

A great example of how electric bicycles have evolved in recent years.

Mainly because it feels, handles and largely looks like a normal bike, but with electrical assistance to keep you moving.

VANMOOF S3 £1,789, vanmoof.com This Dutch hipster brand has taken the S2, which was excellent, and made it better. It’s a sturdily built thing, you can get up to 20mph on WKH ćDW ZLWK PLQLPDO effort, and it irons RXWbKLOOV D WUHDW GTECH EBIKE CITY £995, gtech.co.uk

With an almost invisible design, time-lapse recording and a great night mode, this is a good stealthy option if you’re worried PRUHbDERXW YDQGDOLVP or theft than your fellow drivers.

NEXTBASE 522GW £149, nextbase.com

Packed with good IHDWXUHVbEXW QHYHU ĆGGO\ DQG ZLWK Google and Siri support, this is a really good mobile companion too. The price includes lifetime updates via Wi-Fi for most features.

CANYON ROADLITE:ON

The latest dash FDPbIURP 1H[WEDVH boasts muchimproved video quality, improved stabilisation and the inclusion of some rather clever What3Words geolocation services.

GARMIN DASH CAM 66W

£209, garmin.com

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestebike

£2,799, canyon.com

TOMTOM GO PREMIUM

GARMIN DRIVESMART 61 LMT-S

ELECTRIC BIKES

7KH ĆUVW GDVK FDP available in the UK with Alexa builtin, this also has impressive safety features that will alert the emergency services of a crash. It also crisply masters the basics.

Way cheaper and simpler than most RIbWKH ELNHV KHUH DQGbGHVSLWH EHLQJ years old now, it’s VWLOObWKH EHVW FKHDS HELNH \RXbFDQ buy, and ideal for beginners or those RQbD EXGJHW BROMPTON ELECTRIC £2,595, brompton.com Ebikes aren’t just about tech. They should be fun too.

The Brompton is a hoot, and if \RXèUH DbFRPPXWHU there’s no better: LW PXQFKHVbPLOHV and then folds to an incredibly tiny size.

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 91

Best of the best

SMART SPEAKERS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsmart AMAZON ECHO SHOW 10 £239.99, amazon.co.uk The most comprehensive Alexa smart speaker to date, capable of doing lots, and with a unique trick: its large screen rotates to follow you around the room, so that you can always see it clearly.

SMART BULBS Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestbulb PHILIPS HUE

LIFX

£139, amazon.co.uk

From £19, lifx.com Bigger than the previous model, it has beefed up speakers and features, while the Zigbee smart home functionality that used to be part of the Echo Plus only has been moved into the standard Echo.

GOOGLE NEST HUB MAX £219, store.google.com Winner of our 2020 T3 award as the best smart speaker for doing absolutely everything. You get a crisp 10in screen, a VSHDNHU WKDW FDQ ĆOO a room, a front camera and of course *RRJOHb$VVLVWDQW APPLE HOMEPOD MINI £99, apple.com

9 2 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

£180, nest.com/uk This cheaper 1HVWbPRGHO GRHVQèW ĆWbDV PXFK information on its screen and doesn’t feel as premium, but that’s it. Same algorithm, same Alexa and Google Home compatibility.

TADO SMART THERMOSTAT £99, tado.com If you fancy a Hue system but don’t want to spend so much, LIFX has a strong product range and integrates with your favourite personal digital assistant.

Philips still wins, EXWbRQO\ MXVW

NANOLEAF ESSENTIALS From £18, nanoleaf.me A line of bargainpriced bulbs and OLJKWbVWULSV WKDW support Thread, DQbXSFRPLQJ SURWRFRO a bit like Zigbee.

We love the faceted look, but they’re only available in E27 or % ĆWWLQJV IKEA TRÅDFRI

Tado is very sociable: it works with 95% RIbWKH V\VWHPV RXW WKHUH ,WèV ćH[LEOH clever and supports a wide range of accessories too.

3ULFHbFXWV KDYH PDGHbLW HYHQ PRUHbHQWLFLQJ NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT £220, nest.com/uk Nest made smart thermostats sexy and this third-gen model looks great.

It’s simple to use with good Google Home and Amazon Echo integration, but a tad pricey, especially ZLWKbLQVWDOODWLRQ HIVE HEATING CONTROL

From £13, ikea.com A quality little speaker with the ability to act as a HomeKit hub to control smart home devices – and even support for QHZ VPDUWbSURWRFRO Thread. The slickest phone-to-speaker experience there is.

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestthermostat NEST THERMOSTAT E

From £59, philips-hue.com Hue dominates the smart lighting sector for good reason: it’s a superb system with the widest range of bulbs and a simple, useful app. Rivals may be cheaper but they can’t compete with Hue’s variety.

AMAZON ECHO 4TH GEN

SMART THERMOSTATS

£179, hivehome.com Ikea’s Zigbeecompatible system doesn’t have the range of Hue, but if you prize control over colour options it’s stellar value for money and has some great controllers DQGbGLPPHUV

Imagine: British Gas in ‘exciting’ shocker.

Hive is great: it’s affordable, works well, and is part of a larger smart home system that includes bulbs and security options. This is an LGHDO ZD\ WR MXPS LQ

Best of the best

SMART PLUGS Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestplug TP-LINK KASA MINI KP105 £19, kasasmart.com

SECURITY CAMERAS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsecurity ARLO ESSENTIAL SPOTLIGHT CAMERA £130, arlo.com

A reliable smart SOXJbWKDW GRHVQèW LQFOXGH HQHUJ\ PRQLWRULQJ EXW LWèV KDSS\ WR ZRUN ZLWK $OH[D *RRJOH +RPH DQG %L[E\ 7KH 73 /LQN .DVD DSS LV DOVR PXFK LPSURYHG RQ UHFHQW JHQHUDWLRQV

HIVE ACTIVE PLUG £39, hivehome.com

ROBOT VACUUMS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestrobotvac ROBOROCK S6 MAXV £599, roborock.com

$UORèV FKHDSHU VWDQGDORQH FDPHUD FRQQHFWV GLUHFWO\ WR \RXU :L )L EXW VWLOO PDQDJHV SHUVRQ SDFNDJH DQG DQLPDO GHWHFWLRQ WZR ZD\ FRPPXQLFDWLRQ FRORXU QLJKW YLVLRQ DQGbD VSRWOLJKW ARLO PRO 3

7KLV URERW YDF KDV VXSHUE QDYLJDWLRQ VNLOOV DQG PDSV D URRP LQ D YHU\ ORJLFDO IDVKLRQ VWDUWLQJ DW WKH HGJHV ĆUVW EHIRUH ĆOOLQJ LQ WKH JDSV ,W ZLOO DOVR PRS \RXU KDUG ćRRUV XVLQJ LWV PO ZDWHU WDQN EUFY BOOSTIQ ROBOVAC 30C

£550 (two cameras), arlo.com ,I \RX FDQ OLYH ZLWKRXWbWKH .

UHVROXWLRQ RI WKH $UOR 8OWUD WKHQ WKH $UOR 3UR LV MXVW DERXW WKH EHVW KRPH VHFXULW\ FDPHUD \RX FDQ EX\ ULJKW QRZ DQG LWèV DYDLODEOH DW D YHU\ UHDVRQDEOH SULFH

£270, eufylife.com

TP-LINK KASA SMART WI-FI POWER STRIP KP303

RING STICK UP CAM

iROBOT ROOMBA I7+

£30, kasasmart.com

£180, en-uk.ring.com

£1,199, irobot.co.uk

6LPLODU WR %HONLQ +LYHèV SOXJbFDQ WXUQbVRFNHWV RQ RII YLD \RXU SKRQH DQG FUHDWH VFKHGXOHV ,W DOVR ZRUNV ZLWK $OH[Db<RX QHHG D +LYHb+XE e

WR XVH WKH $FWLYH 3OXJ bWKRXJK

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<RXèOO QHHG WR IHQFH RII REVWDFOHV IURP WKHb & DV LW GRHVQèWbXVH DQ LQWHUQDO PDS EXW IRU WKH SULFH WKLV LV D VROLG LI VOLJKWO\ LQHOHJDQW FOHDQLQJ ERW å HVSHFLDOO\ RQ KDUG ćRRUV

3UHWW\ PXFK DQ\ IHDWXUH \RX FRXOG DVNbIRU LV LQFOXGHG VXFK DV QLJKW YLVLRQ PRWLRQ GHWHFWLRQ DOHUWV WZR ZD\ DXGLR bDQG S YLGHR \RX FDQ YLHZ RQ $OH[D GHYLFHV ZLWKbVFUHHQV

7KH L LV WKH L ZLWK DQ DGGLWLRQDO GLUW ELQ LQ WKH EDVH DQG DQ H[WUD e RQ WKH SULFH ,WèV ZRUWK LW LI \RX KDWH HPSW\LQJ WKH ELQ EXW DQ\ L LV DbJUHDW FOHDQLQJ URERWbWKDW OHDUQV LWV ZD\ DURXQG

AMAZON SMART PLUG

EUFYCAM 2C

IROBOT ROOMBA S9+

£25, amazon.co.uk

£299 (two cameras), eufylife.com 7KLV LV D ZLUHOHVV VHFXULW\ FDPHUD V\VWHP ZLWK D VKDUS . VHQVRU D GHJUHH GLDJRQDO YLHZ VROLG ,5 QLJKW YLVLRQ ZLWK D VSRWOLJKW LI \RX QHHG D EULJKWHU YLHZ DQG D FODLPHG VL[ PRQWK EDWWHU\ OLIH

£1,499, irobot.co.uk

'HVLJQHG WR EH XVHG ZLWK $OH[D WKLV SOXJ FDQ EH FRQWUROOHG XVLQJ YRLFH FRPPDQGV RU WKURXJK WKH $OH[D DSS ,I \RX XVH WKH *RRJOH $VVLVWDQW RU LI \RX KDYH $SSOH +RPH.LW \RXèOO ZDQW WR ORRN HOVHZKHUH

7KH PRVW DGYDQFHG å DQG H[SHQVLYH å URERW YDF DURXQG DW WKH PRPHQW ,W H[FHOV RQ FDUSHWV DQGbDXWRPDWLFDOO\ GHWHFWV WKH ćRRU VXUIDFH DQG UDPSV XSbRU ORZHUV WKH VXFWLRQ DFFRUGLQJO\

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 9 3

Best of the best

CORDLESS VACUUMS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcordlessvac DYSON V15 DETECT ABSOLUTE £599.99, dyson.co.uk 5HĆQHG DQG LPSURYHG DFURVV DOO VXUIDFHV EXW WKH UHDO KHDGOLQH IHDWXUH LV WKH DGGLWLRQ RI D KHDGOLJKW D ODVHU PRXQWHG DW DQ DQJOH RQ WKH IURQW RI WKH KDUG ćRRU KHDG WKDW UHYHDOV D KRUULĆF DPRXQW RI GLUW SAMSUNG JET 90 PRO £600, samsung.com

WASHING MACHINES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwashing AEG 9000 SERIES L9FEC966R £899, aeg.co.uk $(* GHOLYHUV VXSHUE ćH[LEOH FOHDQLQJ HIIHFWLYH ZDWHU VRIWHQLQJ DQG D VWHDP FOHDQLQJ IHDWXUH WR UHGXFH \RXU LURQLQJ SLOH ,WèV TXLHW HIĆFLHQW DQG HQYLURQPHQWDOO\ IULHQGO\ WRR HISENSE WFQY1014EVJM £349, hisense.com

0DWFKHV WKH '\VRQ LQ SUDFWLFDOO\ HYHU\ ZD\ DQG ZLOO DOPRVW FHUWDLQO\ HQG XS EHLQJbFKHDSHU ,W FRPHV ZLWK D SURSHU VWDQG WR KROG DQG UHFKDUJH LW DQG KDV DWWDFKPHQWV IRU IRXUbWRROV VAX ONEPWR BLADE 4 £220, vax.co.uk 7KLV QHZ FRUGOHVV %ODGH IURP 9D[ LV D ORW FKHDSHU WKDQ WKH '\VRQ 9 EXW WKHUHèV UHPDUNDEO\ OLWWOH WR WHOO EHWZHHQ WKHP LQ WHUPV RI FOHDQLQJ SRZHU 7KH 9D[ PDNHV D ELJJHU QRLVH WKRXJK DYSON V11 ABSOLUTE £599, dyson.co.uk

BOSCH SERIE 8 WAX32GH4GB £849, bosch-home.co.uk 7RS QRWFK FOHDQLQJ SHUIRUPDQFH ZLWK D NJ FDSDFLW\ DQG D USP PD[LPXP VSLQ VSHHG WKHUHèV DOVR LQWHOOLJHQW VWDLQ UHPRYDO D ' ZDVK V\VWHP IRU H[WUD HIĆFLHQF\ DQG $OH[D YRLFH FRPPDQGV INDESIT MY TIME EWD81483WUKN £229, indesit.co.uk

7KH KLJK WRUTXH KHDG ZHOO VL]HG ELQ DQG SRZHUIXO VXFWLRQ PDNH WKLV WKH WRS VXFNHU WR JHW DQG ZRUWK WKH ç'\VRQ WD[è b7KH $XWR SRZHU PRGH ZRUNV ZHOO EDODQFLQJ EDWWHU\ DQG VXFWLRQ QLFHO\

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:HOO SULFHG VSDFLRXV HDV\ WR RSHUDWH WKHUH DUH D ORW RI UHDVRQV WR FKRRVH WKLV ZDVKLQJ PDFKLQH DQG LWèV QR VXUSULVH WR VHH WKH DSSOLDQFH HDUQLQJ UDYH UHYLHZV IURP SOHQW\ RI VDWLVĆHG FXVWRPHUV

7KH DIIRUGDELOLW\ RI WKLV DSSOLDQFH GRHVQèW PHDQ \RXèUH JRLQJ WR PLVV RXW LQ WHUPV RI FOHDQLQJ TXDOLW\ DV WKH NJ FDSDFLW\ LV JRLQJ WR EH HQRXJK WR NHHS PRVW IDPLOLHV KDSS\ ,WèV FRPSHWHQW HIĆFLHQW DQG FKHDS

DISHWASHERS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestdishwasher BOSCH SMS67MW00G

£629, bosch-home.co.uk $ WRS QRWFK GLVKZDVKHU WKDW XVHVb]HROLWH D PDJLFDO PLQHUDO WKDW WXUQV PRLVWXUH LQWR KHDW LQbWKLV FDVH WR GU\ GLVKHV ZLWKRXW XVLQJ H[WUD HOHFWULFLW\ $QG E\ GU\ ZH PHDQ ERQHbGU\ BOSCH SERIE 2 SMS24AW01G £329, bosch-home.co.uk :LWK D VLPSOH LQWXLWLYH GHVLJQ DQG D EUDQG QDPH \RX FDQ WUXVW WKLV SODFH VHWWLQJ GLVKZDVKHU KDV D ORW JRLQJ IRU LW EHVLGHV WKH ORZ SULFH :DVKLQJ DQG GU\LQJ SHUIRUPDQFH LVbH[FHOOHQW MIELE G7310 SCI £1,019, miele.co.uk 6HPL LQWHJUDWHG DQG VPDUWSKRQH FRQWUROOHG \RX FDQ VWDUW ZDVKLQJ F\FOHV UHPRWHO\ FKHFN XS RQ WKH VWDWXV RI WKH PDFKLQH DQG HYHQ RUGHU PRUH GHWHUJHQW WKURXJK WKH DSS RU YLD YRLFH FRQWURO

BOSCH SERIE 4 SPS4HKW45G £439, bosch-home.co.uk 1RW MXVW D VOLPOLQH GHVLJQ <RX JHW UHPRWH FRQWURO IURP \RXU SKRQH DQ H[WUD GU\ PRGH IRU GLIĆFXOW WR GU\ ORDGV DQG D VLOHQFH RQ GHPDQG IHDWXUH WKDW ZLOO TXLHWHQ WKLQJV GRZQ IRU PLQXWHV

Best of the best

COFFEE MACHINES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcoffee SAGE BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL THE ORACLE TOUCH £1,999, sageappliances.com The Oracle Touch looks like a baristaoperated machine, it produces coffee like one, yet all the clever stuff – dosing, tamping, extraction, milk texturing, is done for you. Not cheap – but amazing.

FRIDGES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestfridge MIELE K 28202 D WS £875, miele.co.uk

£720, delonghi.com

£75, russellhobbs.com This A+ rated, 43-litre counter-top fridge is perfect for studio ćDWV EHGVLWV VWXGHQW digs and mobile homes. For its size, this dinky chiller provides surprisingly ample estate for PRVWbVROR QHHGV

£999, sageappliances.com Cheaper, faster DQG ZLWK EHWWHU frothed milk than WKHb2UDFOH bWKLV PD\ be the better buy for most unless being unable to make FRIIHH bDQG VWHDP PLONbDW WKH VDPH WLPH is a deal breaker.

GAGGIA VELASCA £479, gaggiadirect.com The espresso and lungo that the 9HODVFDbPDNHV DUH DVbJRRG DV anything you can buy in most coffee shops. It produces a reassuringly oldfashioned, intense ćDYRXU IRU \RXU EUHZ

NEFF N 70 B57CR22N0B

If you have the spondoolicks and FP RI VSDFH ZLWK no cupboards above, this cooler should be top of your list. Its clever cooling keeps foodstuffs fresh ZLWKRXW KXPLGLW\ DQG it’s cavernous.

RUSSELL HOBBS RHTTLF1

SAGE BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL BARISTA TOUCH

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestoven

£789, neff.co.uk

DELONGHI LA SPECIALISTA EC9335.M Solidly built using VZDWKHV RI EUXVKHG stainless steel and good quality SODVWLFV bWKLV ORRNV MXVWbOLNH D small version of a professional café espresso machine.

Dynamite coffee too.

OVENS

LIEBHERR TP 1760 PREMIUM £489, home.leibherr.com Arguably the only A+++ rated undercounter model on the UK market.

Despite its diminutive exterior, inside it’s like the Albert Hall, D FKLOOHG 7DUGLV ZLWK WZR VHSDUDWH VDODG YHJ GUDZHUV BOSCH SERIE 2 CLASSIXX KSV29NW3PG £643, bosch-home.co.uk Looking for a midsized larder fridge that doesn’t cost the Earth, provides SOHQW\bRI IRRG VWRUDJHbVSDFH FRROV quickly and is cheap to run? Consider this HIĆFLHQW DQG ZHOO made Bosch.

The unique Slide and Hide door is brilliant, the touchscreen is handy and the oven’s no slouch: it enables you to cook multiple GLVKHV ZLWKRXW WKDW unfortunate crosscontamination from VWURQJ ćDYRXUV ZANUSSI ZOD35660XK £399, zanussi.co.uk This electric double RYHQ LV D ĆQH FKRLFH if you’re looking for plenty of cooking capacity and some really useful features on top, like even heat distribution, DXWRPDWLF VZLWFK RII and a bright display.

MIELE H7164BP £1,300, miele.co.uk Reliable and easy to operate, this model FRPHV ZLWK SOHQW\ of features that are going to appeal – like its Moisture Plus tech for getting perfect ‘bake off’ results. You can even control it from your phone.

BOSCH SERIE 8 HBG634BS1B £729, bosch-home.co.uk A great all-rounder, ZLWK D GHGLFDWHG SL]]D cooking function, this is easy to use, easy to clean, and has a simple touch display.

A fan constantly circles heat around the interior for HYHQbFRRNLQJ

A U G U S T 2 0 21 T3 9 5

Best of the best

ELECTRIC SHAVERS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestshaver BRAUN SERIES 9 9390CC £250, braun.com

ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSHES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttoothbrush

PHILIPS SONICARE 9900 PRESTIGE £300, philips.co.uk

Given that the trend is to shave less nowadays, we recommend the %UDXQb6HULHV IRLO shaver over Philips’ almost equally LPSUHVVLYH HIIRUWV ,W is slightly better on ORQJHU VWXEEOH ORAL-B IO9

£300, philips.co.uk

£500, oralb.co.uk The second best shaver has a silly RRP (£430!) but is DYDLODEOH IRU DURXQG e ,WèV JRRG IRU sensitive skin, mows long stubble and is really close to the VKDYH \RX JHW IURP WUDGLWLRQDO UD]RUV

£50, philips.co.uk 7KH EHVW WULPPHU IRU those with sensitive skin, this uses LQQRYDWLYH 2QH%ODGH WHFKQRORJ\ ,WèV JRRG IRU ERWK \RXU IDFH and your downstairs, although you may wish to change heads LQ EHWZHHQ BRAUN BEARD TRIMMER 7 £65, braun.com This is a great toothbrush with excellent cleaning power, and an attractive but HDVLO\bVPDVKHG JODVVbFKDUJHU ,W DOVR comes with a handy travel case with 86%bSRZHU

ORAL-B PRO 2 2500 £35, oralb.co.uk A rotary shaver that requires a circular PRWLRQ RQ WKH IDFH Stubble disappears like magic, and the whole experience is YHU\ ORZ LUULWDWLRQ You get a clipRQ WULPPHU IRU VLGHEXUQVbWRR

96 T3 A U G U S T 2 0 21

PHILIPS ONEBLADE PRO

£145, philips.co.uk

£199, philips.co.uk

The classiest looking beard trimmer we’ve ever clapped H\HV RQ LW RIIHUV DQ HTXDOO\ FODVV\ VKDYH Designed primarily IRU QHDWHU EHDUG scaping, it whips away whiskers without any VQDJV RU SXOOV

7KH 553 IRU WKH L2 Series 9 is ridiculous, EXW \RX FDQ JHW LW IRU less, and it is brilliant at actually cleaning your teeth, plus it’s also very stylish, with a colour touchscreen and a tooth-tracking PRQLWRULQJ V\VWHP

7KLV QHZ RIIHULQJ IURP %UDXQ ZLWK WKUHH IRLO KHDGV LVbDQbDEVROXWH FUDFNHUbLQ HYHU\ UHVSHFW ,W VKDYHV as close as a wet UD]RU RQO\ LQ KDOI WKH WLPH $QG WKDWèV QRbH[DJJHUDWLRQ PHILIPS SERIES 9000 S9211/31

PHILIPS BT9000 PRESTIGE £120, philips.co.uk

PHILIPS SONICARE DIAMONDCLEAN SONIC

£165, braun.com

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttrimmer

Philips’ most advanced electric toothbrush yet, it IHDWXUHV 6HQVH,4 WHFKQRORJ\ ,W VHQVHV pressure, motion and coverage up to 100 times per second, adapting the intensity LI \RX EUXVK WRR KDUG

PHILIPS SERIES 9000 PRESTIGE

BRAUN SERIES 7 70-N7200CC

BEARD TRIMMERS

This only has two cleaning modes and no ‘smart’ IXQFWLRQDOLW\ WR VSHDNbRI EXW DVN \RXUVHOIð GR \RX UHDOO\ FDUH" ,W KDV a timer, pressure sensor, and excellent URWDU\ FOHDQLQJ

7KLV WULPPHU IHHOV OLNH JRRG YDOXH IRU PRQH\ earning it a place on WKLV OLVW 6PDOO OLJKW and easy to use, its tough blades shave FOHDQO\ %DWWHU\ OLIH LV solid, and the unit is ZDWHUSURRI HQRXJK IRU HDV\ ULQVLQJ PANASONIC I-SHAPER ER-GD60 e bSDQDVRQLF FR XN

For slightly longer beards, this is the RQH WR JR IRU ,WV unusual, ‘side-on’ cutting action, where you pull the shaver through your hirsute tresses more like a comb, soon becomes VHFRQGbQDWXUH

Best of the best

FITNESS TRACKERS

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestfitness

RUNNING WATCHES

Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestrunningwatch GARMIN FORERUNNER 245 MUSIC

FITBIT CHARGE 4 e ĆWELW FRP

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GARMIN FORERUNNER 945

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GARMIN VENU 2

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Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestrunningphones BEATS POWERBEATS PRO

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LUXURIES Exclusive gifts to seriously spoil yourself

A STON M A RTIN VA L H A L L A With a limited run of just 150, most of us are unlikely to ever sit behind the wheel of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, the brand’s limited-run hypercar promising an F1 experience in a street legal road car. However, with the Valhalla, the premium automotive brand has packaged up much of what makes the Valkyrie so extraordinary in a mid-engine supercar more suitable for everyday driving. Its innovative gasoline/battery electric powertrain combines a 4.0-litre Mercedes-AMG M178 LS2 twin-turbocharged V8 engine with a 150kW/400V battery hybrid system that drives the front axle in EV mode or both axles in other modes. While not hitting the absurd 1,160hp of its older sibling, this 1,000hp powertain can still push it to ridiculous speeds, topping out at 217mph and accelerating from 62mph in just 2.5 seconds. )DVWbGRHV QRW HYHQ FRYHU LW £TBC, astonmartin.com

NEXT ISSUE IS ON SALE WEDNESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 101 gadgets you can’t live without!

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