TOP TRAVEL TECH TO PACK THIS SUMMER
SAMSUNG S22 ULTRA REVIEWED
Amazing screen. Tons of power. The best Android phone ever
FROM QUANTUM DOT OLED TVS TO COLOURCHANGING CARS, MEET THE ELITE GADGETS AND TECH TRENDS YOU CAN’T MISS
SHOWSTOPPER Gadgets that showcase the very best that design and technology have to offer
UNDER THE HOOD
PHOTOGRAPHY: SPRITE PHOTOGRAPHY
The other hardware here is similarly off the charts. 32Nm-torque Simucube 2 Steering Motor? Hydraulic brakes? Top-of-the-range built-in PC and KEF speakers? There’s more checks here than on a chequered flag
A X SIM FOR M U L A SIM U L ATOR You may feel like your racing wheel and pedals give you an immersive racing experience but, compared to AXSIM’s Formula Simulator, they aren’t much better than steering with a dinner plate and making ‘vroom’ noises. Perhaps the most realistic F1 simulator ever, it comes with three levels of breathtaking immersion. The cheapest option offers its D-BOX Haptic System, which uses dynamic actuators to not only replicate the suspension of an F1 vehicle but also vibrations in the racetrack. Step up a level and you also get its yaw platform, which simulates the rear of the vehicle swinging out and helps recreate the sensation of drifting round corners. Lastly, the most pro model also includes multiple pneumatic airbags in the seat and seatbelts that expand and contract to simulate g-force as you rip round the track. Hook it up to a large 8K TV using HDMI and you’re in for a treat. From £39,900, axsim.racing
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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
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Welcome
Editor’s letter Anyone else remember when headlines used to be about run-of-the-mill things? It feels like 15 years ago, all we had to worry about was happy slapping, MPs spending our taxes on duck mansions and the odd JOREDO ĆQDQFLDO FULVLV 1RZ ZH KDYH SHUPD GHPLFV war-mongering billionaire kleptocrats, and... well, DbJOREDO FRVW RI OLYLQJ FULVLV :KLFK KDV OHIW DOO RI XV LQ QHHG RI D ELW RI PLQGOHVV HVFDSLVP %XW SXW \RXU IDLWK LQ WHFK DQG LW ZLOO SURYLGH 6RQ\ KDV UHFHQWO\ FRQĆUPHG LWèV ZRUNLQJ RQ 3OD\6WDWLRQ 95 DQG RIIHUHG XV RXU ĆUVW JOLPSVHV RI LWV GHVLJQ :HèUH H[FLWHG WR SOXQJH RXUVHOYHV LQWR D ELW RI K\SHU realistic, immersive Horizon DOWKRXJK WKH UHOHDVH GDWHV FXUUHQWO\ PRRWHG PHDQ ZHèOO EH ZDLWLQJ WLOO HDUO\ T3 DOVR KDV D EXQFK PRUH LQQRYDWLYH LQERXQG WHFK WR WDNH \RXU PLQG RII WKLQJV :KHWKHU \RXèUH LQWHUHVWHG LQ UHYROXWLRQDU\ H YHKLFOHV JDPH FKDQJLQJ SRUWDEOH FRQVROHV RU VXVWDLQDEOH XSJUDGHDEOH JDGJHWV ZHèUH SURĆOLQJ WKH PRVW H[FLWLQJ HPHUJLQJ WHFK MXVW DURXQG WKH FRUQHU 2Q WRS RI WKDW ZHèUH EULQJLQJ \RX RXU LQ GHSWK UHYLHZ RI WKH EHVW $QGURLG SKRQH HYHU å WKH VOLFN VFUHHQHG 6DPVXQJ *DOD[\ 6 8OWUD å DQG UHYHDOLQJ WKH EHVW JDGJHWV WR WDNH RQ \RXU QH[W JOREDO JHWDZD\
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Contents
Contents 027
054 6 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
HOT 100
From virtual worlds to OLED laptops, here’s the future tech you need to know about
IN GOOD HANDS
Trick out your wrist with one of these breathtaking timepieces
061
TAKE A BREAK
Holidays are back! Here’s what you should pack to keep your next trip abroad on track
Contents BEST OF THE BEST
HORIZON
TESTED
010
068
HORIZON TOP 10 *DUPLQèV )HQL[ WDNHV ćLJKW ZLWK VRODU FKDUJLQJ DQG VXSHULRU ĆWQHVV LQVLJKWV
SAMSUNG GALAXY S22 ULTRA
The heir to the Note’s throne, this ćDJVKLS SKDEOHW KDV DQ HSLF VFUHHQ DQG high-octane hardware
072
016
STYLE
SONY LINKBUDS WF-L900
Doughnut-shaped buds that offer super sound without blocking your lugs
Macs and jackets to protect you from showers this spring
079
018
FITNESS & OUTDOORS
Adidas’ self-drying earbuds allow you to enjoy no-sweat tunes while you run
073
GARMIN DASH CAM 67W
Compact and cloud-connected, this is your car’s guardian angel
074
YOUR IN-DEPTH BUYER’S GUIDE 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 PRO 8
019
A hench hybrid tablet laptop with a slick 120Hz screen and powerful hardware
Get a road map for the car of the future with the Mercedes-Benz EQS
RUNNING SHOES
TRAVEL
020
LIVING
076
Discover which training shoe is your new sole mate
022
GADGET GURU
025
TALKING TECH
Duncan Bell worries about the weighty bills he’s racking up
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AND SAVE BIG MONEY Get the latest offers
052
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SONY A7 IV
A huge 33MP sensor and an ability to shoot hour-long 4K takes make this is JUHDW IRU VQDSSHUV DQG ĆOPPDNHUV
Horizon
The best new tech heading your way
GARMIN FENIX 7 From £600, garmin.com Apple hasn’t tied the smartwatch market up in a bow quite yet. As much as the fitness features of the Apple Watch shine, many serious runners want something meatier: more often than not, that comes from Garmin. The Fenix 7, available in three sizes and a range of specs, is probably the sharpest iteration on its premium, outdoorsy, triathlonfriendly vertical so far. Garmin hasn’t thrown its carefully honed formula to the wind. Though the Fenix 7 earns itself a new touch screen for quick control, the buttons are still there, now with a little more rugged shielding. Solar charging makes an appearance on more expensive models, helping you power through without a charge, but if you opt for the Solar Sapphire edition you no longer have to choose between juice from the sun and an extra-tough screen. Pick up the bigger Fenix 7X, and you can expect up to five weeks’ battery with GPS off. Many of the biggest improvements are logical. A host of new training tools help you drill down into your performance in your chosen sport or set up a personalised training plan to help you reach your goals. You can also automatically generate new training routes to use with the Fenix 7’s pinpoint turn-by-turn navigation. Garmin’s fresh stamina monitoring tech even takes a look at your past performance compared to your current metrics and offers an indication as to when your tank’s likely to go dry. If you’re really pushing it, that’s the kind of tech you need.
TECH-O-METER
SENSOR SENSIBILITY The Fenix 7 is packed with sensors. You get a heart rate sensor and pulse oximeter module on the rear, and positioning smarts like an altimeter, barometer and compass inside.
“This isn’t just a watch – it’s a training coach, one with abs for days” Josh Russell, Editor
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Top 10
GPS PRECISION The Fenix 7 comes packed with maps and uses GPS, Galileo and GLONASS satellites in tandem; opt for the most expensive Sapphire Solar edition for multi-band GPS, which promises to pinpoint your location even more accurately. Want an adventure? Drop a pin with Garmin’s TracBack and it’ll send you back to your starting point when you’re done.
IMAGE SOURCE: GARMIN
OFF THE CLOCK When you’re not training hard, qualityof-life features like Garmin Pay make this perfectly useful as an everyday watch, and it’s compatible with a bunch of third-party apps, too. If you are out getting sweaty, there’s space on board for music or audiobooks, so you can leave your phone at home.
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Horizon
ACER PREDATOR TRITON 500 SE From £1,999, acer.com Acer's giving us a bit of a weird sell for the Predator Triton 500 SE. It's a trim and slimmed version of its beastly high-end gaming laptop, which Acer reckons is just brilliant at 'multitasking' and 'empowering your creativity'. Let's be honest here: that is the modern day version of convincing your parents to buy a Commodore 64 in order to help with your homework. You could work on it. It looks far more professional than many gamer-centric machines of this ilk, and features a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports for expansion and a fingerprint reader for security. But this is really about pushing those polygons in style, with a 30-series graphics card inside, Intel's class-leading 12th-gen CPU at the helm and a 240Hz 2560x1600 IPS panel up top. Good luck staying focused on that spreadsheet. IMAGE SOURCE: ACER
T3 SAYS: Luxury gaming in a slimline package.
TECH-O-METER
BEOPLAY PORTAL PC PS £449, bang-olufsen.com
T3 SAYS: The ultimate wireless gaming headset.
TECH-O-METER
1 2 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
IMAGE SOURCE: BEOPLAY
The original Portal made a big splash (and presumably many other sounds) as B&O transferred its audio expertise over to the gaming market. But where the first was an Xbox headset, this latest version – engineered, as its name suggests, for PC and PlayStation gamers – has much more universal appeal. And what's not to like? There's no ugly boom mic to breathe into, with beamforming mics instead doing the job of collecting your voice for your friends. And dual connectivity means you can connect the Portal to your phone as well as your console, meaning you won't need to stop what you're doing if your mum unexpectedly calls. Decent ANC means you can really immerse yourself in the game, a 19-hour battery means you can keep going much longer than you should, and they'll charge to full in two hours.
Top 10
KÄRCHER VC6 CORDLESS PREMIUM £380, kaercher.com
IMAGE SOURCE: KÄRCHER
Kärcher has been quietly grinding away in the vacuum cleaner game for an age, but now it’s getting loud enough that we’re listening. The company has unveiled a whole new range of cordless cleaners, which pair Kärcher’s traditional industrial design with some triedand-true tech – much of which will be familiar if you’ve been following Dyson’s wire-free evolution. With the VC6 Premium you get a 50-minute battery (30 minutes on the VC4 model) and a spare in the box, as well as LED lighting to help highlight the dirt, a very reasonable 800ml dust tank, and HEPA filters with an included cleaning tool. They’re light enough – this is 2.6kg – and not overly noisy, topping out at under 78dB. No word on the suction power yet, but at least the price is right. T3 SAYS: This is going to suck. But not like that.
TECH-O-METER
HP ELITE DRAGONFLY CHROMEBOOK £TBA, hp.com The prevailing tide of extremely crummy Chromebooks offers the entire range something of an undeserved reputation. Look at HP’s new Elite Dragonfly, the first of the Dragonfly line to run ChromeOS, and it turns out that may not be true: Chromebooks could just be fantastic road-warrior work machines. They get a light-touch OS that offers them excellent battery life, the ability to expand their abilities way beyond basic browser apps and, in the case of the Dragonfly specifically, some pretty gorgeous hardware. It’s hardcore for business use, with a blazing-fast 12th-gen Core chip with (for the first time in a Chromebook) vPro support, as well as a 51 Watt-hour battery. Pick the right options, add a stylus, and it might qualify as an awesome machine for creatives.
IMAGE SOURCE: HP
T3 SAYS: Windows? MacOS? Who needs ’em?
TECH-O-METER
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Horizon
STERN’S RUSH From $6,899 (around £5,090), sternpinball.com
IMAGE SOURCE: STERN
Though the arcade industry is now pretty much entirely based on the principle of earning tickets to spend on Drumstick lollies, pinball refuses to die. If anything, it’s levelling up. Stern’s Rush, unsurprisingly, comes with a rockin’ soundtrack, and features footage of the band on its large screen. It’s a feast of LEDs and loops, with some innovative playfield elements. But it’s Stern’s new Connected feature that’s most intriguing. Use the machine’s QR scanner to scan your phone, and it’ll head off to the internet to track your high scores, help you earn unique game achievements, and compete with remote friends – though the physical nature of pinball means everything is registered on a per-machine basis. T3 SAYS: The silver ball goes next-gen.
TECH-O-METER
LEGO SANTIAGO BERNABÉU STADIUM £310, lego.com
T3 SAYS: Now let’s see microfig-scale Galácticos.
TECH-O-METER
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IMAGE SOURCE: LEGO
Real Madrid fan or not, it’s hard to resist the pull of Lego’s showpiece sets – particularly one as huge and intricate as this. Built to celebrate the stadium’s 75th anniversary, Lego replicates its iconic architecture over 5,876 pieces – not quite as many as the enormous Colosseum set, admittedly, but this is arguably more visually interesting than Rome’s beige behemoth. Everything from the pitch pattern to the stands to the corner towers to the stairwells gets a faithful scale recreation. There’s even a dinky player bus parked out front. Grab a couple of straws and a suitably sized pea and you might even get a solid game of blow football in. Okay, perhaps not – but all credit to Lego for expanding its 18+ range so regularly and with so many certifiably cool structures.
Top 10
AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-CKS50TW £150, audio-technica.com cancelling (which will chop about five hours off the battery), all the niceties of Bluetooth 5.2, aptX Adaptive for low-latency connections, and AudioTechnica’s 9mm Solid Bass HD TWS drivers to further hammer your skull with low frequencies. Decidedly not for reference listening, then.
IMAGE SOURCE: AUDIO-TECHNICA
Audio-Technica is a reliable brand. You pretty much always get big sound, a slight (or definite) lean towards the bass end, and solid hardware. So A-T’s new wireless buds, which claim to tick that bass box through a super-snug fit, are exciting by default – but the fact that the company has somehow squeezed in a 20-hour battery, with an extra 30 hours in the charging case? That’s extra-tempting. These are slightly more bulbous than they might appear, but that size is not only there to hold the beefy battery. The ATH-CKS50TWs also include noise
T3 SAYS: Earbuds with a boom.
TECH-O-METER COOLNESS INNOVATION FEATURES
AYANEO NEXT From £1,250, ayaneo.com platform, the Next is basically just a compact Windows PC, meaning you can run your Steam library as well as games got elsewhere. Yes, the price is a big jump from Valve’s machine – and Ayaneo’s small scale operation may make it hard to find – but what price can you put on freedom? T3 SAYS: Hardcore gaming on the go.
TECH-O-METER COOLNESS INNOVATION FEATURES
IMAGE SOURCE: AYANEO
The Steam Deck looks incredible, but the Steam Deck is what it is: a Linux-based machine built to a very attractive price. If you want to get more out of your portable gaming, Ayaneo’s power-packed handheld covers all the bases. It crams in AMD’s newest 5000-series mobile chip, which brings with it both battery and cooling benefits as well as some incredibly capable Vega 8 integrated graphics – enough that it’ll handle AAA games at medium settings without missing a beat. And where the Steam Deck is restricted only to those games that support its
TIKI BRAND PORTABLE FIRE PIT $295 (around £220), tikibrand.com into a handy drawer. And perhaps most importantly it’s engineered to burn off a lot of the smoke that would otherwise upset your neighbours, allowing you and yours to gather around its four-foot heat radius without choking. IMAGE SOURCE: TIKI BRAND
Now is the time to kit out your garden for those long, cool spring nights. Should you be lucky enough to get one where it isn’t chucking down, a fire pit should be high up your list of wants – and why not one that’s small and light enough that it could live in your shed when you’re not using it? Hence Tiki Brand’s compact new pit, which ticks so many boxes for urban burning besides its compact size. Its 16-gauge stainless steel frame is powder coated and painted to resist the rust that some pits claim is a patina. It’s easy to clean, dropping all of its ash
T3 SAYS: We’re more than ready to get outdoors.
TECH-O-METER COOLNESS INNOVATION FEATURES A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 1 5
Horizon
APRIL COOL
Prep yourself for the changing of the seasons with a new jacket that’s perfect for springtime weather ALL-WEATHER ATMOS Blending style and practicality, this four-way, durable stretch weave jacket will keep those April showers at bay while the SympaTex membrane is windproof. Perfect for bucolic jaunts at Easter weekend. £425, nobis.com
PADDED MAC Sustainable Dutch brand Maium designs outerwear that can be worn on the bike so this versatile mac has side zips that transforms it into a bikefriendly coat and a poncho that can cope with the vagaries of Northern European weather. ¤215, maium.nl
DENIM JACKET Stalwart denim designer Lee Jeans says its SS22 collection puts comfort to the fore. Sherpa collar, striped blanket lining and quilted lining on the sleeves means this jacket will suit nippier spring days too. £125, lee.com
IMAGE SOURCE: NOBIS, MAIUM, LEE, I AND ME, PAUL SMITH
JAPANESE SELVEDGE JACKET Gender neutral and sustainable clothing is the USP of London denim and lifestyle brand I And Me. Natural fabrics with a focus on form is its vibe and this 100% cotton hooded jacket from its SS22 collection boasts plenty of laidback style. £295, i-and-me.com
COTTON CHORE JACKET While its optimistic blue hue looks light and airy, this is a chore jacket, which not only makes it hard-wearing but will protect you from brisk spring winds. A perfect marriage of fashion and function from the London designer. £225, paulsmith.com
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Style
WHICH WATCH
MONEY NO OBJECT
THE HOTTEST TIMEPIECES RIGHT NOW
Tateossian Windsor Batton Bracelet
ZENITH, DEFY SKYLINE
%ULQJLQJ WKH ć\EDFN IXQFWLRQ WR WKH $XWDYLD FROOHFWLRQ IRU WKH ĆUVW WLPH WKH &KURQRPHWHU )O\EDFN LV UXJJHGO\ KDQGVRPH DQG LQVSLUHG E\ KLVWRULF 7$* +HXHU GDVKERDUG WLPHUV £5,250, tagheuer.com
3DLULQJ VOHHN DQG HYRFDWLYH GHVLJQ ZLWKbXQSUHFHGHQWHG IXQFWLRQ ZLWK WKH VPDOO FRXQWHU DW RèFORFN D FRQVWDQWO\ UXQQLQJ WK RI D VHFRQG KDQG UHPLQGLQJ WKH ZHDUHU RI WKH SUHFLVLRQ +]bPRYHPHQW ZLWKLQ £7,100, zenith-watches.com
HUBLOT, BIG BANG UNICO GOLF ORANGE CARBON
BULGARI, OCTO ROMA BLUE CARILLON TOURBILLON
1RZ ZLWK D ]HVW\ OLJKWZHLJKW RUDQJH FDUERQ FDVH WKLV LQQRYDWLYH ZDWFK VKRZV JROIHUV ZKLFK KROH WKH\ DUH RQ KRZ PDQ\ VKRWV WKH\èYH WDNHQ RQ WKDW KROH DQG WKHLU FXPXODWLYH VFRUH IRU WKH URXQG £26,900, hublot.com
&RPELQLQJ WZR WUDGLWLRQDO FRPSOLFDWLRQV RI WKH WRXUELOORQ DQG WKH VWULNLQJ PHFKDQLVP WKLV LV KRXVHG LQ D SODWLQXP FDVH WKDW KDV EHHQ GHVLJQHG WR DPSOLI\ WKH VRXQG UHQGLWLRQ DQG FODULW\ $317,000, bulgari.com
Making the leap from city financier to cufflink designer is something of a unique transition but it’s one that Robert Tateossian made in 1990 when he launched his luxury jewellery brand. Starting with a modest workshop in the heart of the silversmith industry, Birmingham, Robert soon earned himself the moniker ‘king of cufflinks’ as his reputation grew for producing jewellery of high quality and an unusual pairing of materials (meteorite and dinosaur bones have known to feature in his designs). The Tateossian brand has grown to encompass the whole gamut of men’s and women’s accessories, from earrings to necklaces. Inspired by his global travels, Tateossian designs have an international aspect and often feature ethnic influences, including his wide range of stacked, handmade macramé bracelets, most of which start from circa £150. If you have a bit more to spend, however, Tateossian also caters with pieces such as this hand-wrapped macramé bracelet. It earns its £1,950 price tag as it holds 139 micro black pavé diamonds set within a sterling silver frame, with a total carat weight of approximately 1.29ct. £1,950, tateossian.com
$ 3 5 , / T3
IMAGE SOURCES: TAG HEUER, ZENITH, HUBLOT, BULGARI, TATEOSSIAN
TAG HEUER, AUTAVIA CHRONOMETER FLYBACK
Horizon Fitness BEST HATS FOR RUNNING & WORKOUTS
The 9FORTY’s structured front panel and contoured crown provide a close fit that feels and looks good on the head. Not a hat you’ll wear for running but in the gym, this headpiece will surely help you blend in. £19, bulk.com
DRY BUDS
IMAGE SOURCE: ADIDAS
IMAGE SOURCE: BULK
BULK X NEW ERA 9FORTY BASEBALL CAP
DON’T SWEAT IT Adidas launches new workout headphones with plenty of features
IMAGE SOURCE: HOKA
HOKA ALL GENDER PERFORMANCE HAT This lightweight and fastdrying hat is all you need to tackle your outdoor sessions when the sun’s at its full power. The adjustable fivepanel construction is lasercut for more breathability and features a flexible brim for easy packability. £24, hoka.com
Adidas is at it again. It’s back with another new release/update, the FWD-02 SPORT ($169, adidasheadphones.com), that is said to “offer a superior experience for runners seeking freedom, uncompromising sound quality and innovative features designed to help them go further”. New and notable features include customisable ear wings and tips to provide the perfect fit for any ear shape and a new force-touch interface that allows runners to control media, regardless
of weather conditions, running gear or sweaty fingertips. In addition, the FWD-02 SPORT has a compact carry case with a breathable mesh fabric lid that displays battery level and helps dry earbuds from sweat or water when stored. The only missing feature is in-case UV sterilisation: that would make the FWD-02 SPORT the ultimate earbuds for workouts. Battery life is up to six hours in the buds plus another 19 hours in the self-drying case.
FLY BY
BORN FOR THE TRAILS New Saucony Peregrine shoes reduce weight and improve speed Made with tear-proof woven fabrics, ultra-soft sweatbands, clip-pull sizing and finished with hand-detailing, the On Lightweight Cap is a truly functional yet surprisingly stylish running hat for people who appreciate expert craftsmanship. Whether it’s searing sunshine or a sudden downpour, this cap won’t let you down. £32, on-running.com 18 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
Over 30 grams lighter, the Saucony Peregrine 12 (£130, saucony.com) takes flight with a redesigned 5mm lug pattern and PWRTRAC rubber outsole to allow for maximum traction on uneven surfaces. The improved rock plate sheds moisture and provides more flexibility, and the even more breathable upper protects the foot from damage with its pliable overlays. The PWRRUN cushioning will see you fly across any obstacle while running off the beaten path.
IMAGE SOURCE: SAUCONY
IMAGE SOURCE: ON
ON LIGHTWEIGHT CAP
Travel
SO FAR, SO GOOD
IMAGE SOURCE: MERCEDES-BENZ
BRIMSTONE HOTEL AND SPA, LAKE DISTRICT Looking to escape the city and relax? You can’t go wrong with the stylish suites at Brimstone. Influenced by the spectacular landscape, it’s the perfect getaway where your every need is looked after. From £340 per night, brimstonehotel.co.uk
IMAGE SOURCE: BRIMSTONE HOTEL
AND RELAX…
PURE ELECTRIC LUXURY Travel editor Spencer Hart glimpses into the future of motoring BAMFORD HAYBARN SPA, COTSWOLDS The Bamford Haybarn Spa is a wellness retreat in the Cotswolds, situated next to the famous Daylesford Farmshop. The spa has a holistic approach to wellness, offering treatments for the mind, body and spirit. From £70, bamford.com
THE FIFE ARMS ALBAMHOR, SCOTLAND Set within the Cairngorms National Park, The Fife Arms is an ideal place to unwind and recuperate. Albamhor, the hotel’s spa, features power showers and a bespoke sauna that can be enjoyed before a unique spa experience. From £60, thefifearms.com A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 19
IMAGE SOURCE: BAMFORD
available battery capacity is sufficient to return to the starting point without charging, and what’s particularly impressive about this system is that it will prioritise faster chargers. The sat-nav is controlled using the large, curved ‘Hyperscreen’, which sweeps from A-pillar to A-pillar. It’s hugely impressive from the moment you sit in the driver’s seat, automatically logging into your profile using facial recognition and setting up the car with your personal preferences. It feels more like you’re piloting a spaceship than driving a car. The EQS has a similar level of cruising tech to a spaceship as well, the most advanced of which is Drive Pilot, a semi-automated mode that works up to 40mph where traffic density is high or in traffic on the motorway. I was also very impressed by the ‘Intelligent Recuperation’, which uses the car’s cameras and computers to decide when to draw power back into the battery and when to coast. Driving the Mercedes EQS was a genuinely interesting glimpse into the future of motoring. Not only did the semi-autonomous systems make driving long journeys effortless, the long-range and clever mapping essentially killed range anxiety. It showed me a future where electric cars aren’t simply as good as ICE cars, they’re 100-times better.
IMAGE SOURCE: THE FIFE ARMS
Reviewing the very latest high-end luxury vehicles is always an exciting experience, not because I get to see what it’s like to be Alan Sugar for a week, but because it gives you a glimpse of the technology that will eventually trickle down into vehicles that most people can afford. The new Mercedes-Benz EQS is the perfect example of this – it’s just as much a rolling tech showcase as it is a car. For a start, the EQS marks the launch of a new generation of batteries with significantly higher energy density and innovative battery management software. The result is a range of up to 453 miles (WLTP), which genuinely lets you forget about dreaded ‘range anxiety’. I drove down to Chichester from Oxford and back on a single charge, something that I wouldn’t have even attempted with previous electric cars I’ve reviewed. When it does finally come to charging, the EQS can be charged up to 200kW at fast-charging stations with direct current, adding up to another 185 miles (WLTP) in just 15 minutes. Finding the electric charging points has never been easier thanks to Mercedes ‘Navigation with Electric Intelligence’, which plans the fastest and most convenient route taking into account traffic, your driving style, and electric charging points along the way. It will tell you at the start of the day whether the
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MORE AIR PURITY POLICE
This big beast is also a humidifier and a cooling fan. Even better, the name of the product absolutely spells this out to you, so nobody can be in any doubt what it is. There’s app control and some good auto sensing settings. £600, dyson.co.uk
HEY, SUCKER
A LITERAL DUST MAGNET Blueair DustMagnet is an air purifier with a twist
IMAGE SOURCE: AIRTHINGS
AIRTHINGS VIEW PLUS If you want to check your air purifier is doing its job, try this advanced sensor. View Plus can detect gases, particles down to 1 micron across and even radon – a radioactive gas that’s far more commonplace than you’d like. £260, airthings.com
IMAGE SOURCE: MOLEKULE
MOLEKULE AIR PRO This chic purifier claims to ‘break down pollutants at a molecular level, including viruses, bacteria, mould, ozone, allergens, and chemicals’. It certainly looks nice, and emits a pleasingly purple glow as part of the purifying process. £1,049, molekule.uk 2 0 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
A lot of people complain the tech in their home acts as a ‘dust magnet’, attracting filth from the air, from exterior pollution through human skin particles to everyone’s favourite: insect excrement. Lovely. Scandinavian air purifier purveyor Blueair takes a different approach, though. It’s unleashed a literal dust magnet called, logically enough, DustMagnet (from £349, blueair.com). Disappointingly, this does not look like a massive cartoon horseshoe magnet, of the kind Wile E Coyote might have bought from Acme Products in order to catch Road Runner. It looks like a rather stylish air purifier… because that’s what it is. That and a rather stylish side table, because this is also the first ever air purifier that you can safely stand a cup of coffee on. DustMagnet has a compact footprint, four short legs at the bottom and that small shelf on the top. This covers the air inlet, which draws in pollution, dust and general foulness, then removes and traps it via not one but two filters in the chamber below. As well as a simple control panel on the device itself, with three speed settings, DustMagnet also allows you to control it via an app or just leave it on Auto to react to changing air conditions in your home. Unusually, there’s also a geofencing feature,
which causes it to start up as it detects you’re nearing your home, using your phone’s GPS. The idea is that it cleans the air ready for your return, without needing to be kept on 24/7. Voice control via Alexa and Google Home is also possible. Now, it must be said that any air purifier will remove dust from the air to some extent. However, Blueair claims that DustMagnet has ‘unique’ HEPASilent filtration technology that ‘captures and removes airborne dust before it settles on floors and surfaces.’ That sounds like a dream come true, right? On top of that, it also sucks up the usual air purifier stuff – allergens, pollen, mould, pet dander and microplastics from the air. It further claims to be able to deal with ‘bacteria and viruses’ to some extent. A pair of carbon filters means it can do a job on smoke, gases and bad smells too. In T3’s test bedroom, DustMagnet kept the constant grime bombardment at bay to an extent, but it definitely hasn’t ended the need for dusting. Our reviewer’s bedroom is insanely dusty though, it must be said. As an affordable, well made and practical air purifier it’s very good indeed, however. Slightly reducing the amount of dusting you have to do is just the lazy icing on the clean air cake.
IMAGE SOURCE: BLUEAIR
IMAGE SOURCE: DYSON
DYSON PURIFIER HUMIDIFY+COOL
Living
WHAM, BAM! Forget discretion, designers in 2022 are embracing all that is bright and bold with the optimistic Maximalism trend NILO MIRROR Interiors are leaning towards a more vibrant, expressive vibe in 2022 with the bold colours and designs of the Maximalism trend. Confident, vibrant hues and clashing styles: everything goes with this look and Hommés Studio embraces it all with this Art Deco-inspired, black nickel mirror in gold and bronze aluminium. £2,873, hommes.studio LARGE AMPHORA JUG Working the Maximalist trend doesn’t necessarily require heavy investment and you can hint at the look with a few well-chosen accessories. This statement jug, made from dolomite, boasts a seductive curved design and comes in a confident shade of deep blue. Maximalise your dinner table or display some brash flowers. Magnolia, anyone?
JULIETTE LAMPSHADE The Maximalism trend is undoubtedly an indulgent one that allows you to feast your eyes on a riot of colour, clashing styles and creative ideas, but let’s not forget a sprinkle of decadence will always enhance bold interiors and this chandelier in Burnt Orange ticks that box nicely. Made from goose and rooster feathers with a ball and chain in brass, this is a sensory delight for any room. £420, coldharbourlights.com
GIANNA LED NEON CANVAS Artistic expression is a key driver of Maximalism, alongside a sense of optimism, and both are in abundance in this neon, hand-painted canvas. Orange, red and teal fizzle in contrast, further enhanced by 3D neon LED sunglasses. Embrace the future, people, it’s bursting with colour! This canvas measures in at 70x90x4cm and it comes with a 12V DC UK adaptor plug. £269.95, audenza.com
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IMAGE SOURCE: HOMMES STUDIO, SASS AND BELLE, COLDHARBOUR LIGHTS, AUDENZA
£18, sassandbelle.co.uk
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T3’s pugilistic tech titan limbers up for another Q&A session
AIDEN ENGLISH, UTOXETER
Can tech help me train my fighting skill? Alright, reader. You want to fight? Guru will see you outside, bub. Except he won’t, because in truth GaGu is actually some kind of pathetic shivering jelly, terrified of anything even resembling combat. Spook him and he faints like a goat, at which point you’re basically free to kick him in the face. Please don’t. He has a note from his mum. Even more supremely punchable than GaGu is the classic Century Bob (between around £380 and £550, depending on if you want the big one), which is basically an eerie and extremely ugly armless flesh-coloured man, sliced-off at
ILLUSTRATIONS: STEPHEN KELLY
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the waist and jammed on to a base. The tech doesn’t stretch far beyond ‘you can punch this’, and Guru may not follow the promo photos and drag Bob out to a wasteground in order to kick him in the chops, but you could. Something fancier, you say? Please don’t look at Guru like that. Why not try the Bruce Lee Slam
ABOVE Talk about stony faced... even after such a beating, he won’t crack
Century Bob is basically an eerie and ugly, armless, fleshcoloured man, sliced-off at the waist and jammed on to a base
Man (£500, if you find the right deal), which is neither a man (it resembles a frightening yellow robot mannequin) nor suitable for practicing your bodyslams. Instead, its various lights map out a pattern for you to batter, helping improve your accuracy and violence speed. If you prefer to roll, the Grappling Smarty ($280 or around £210 unfilled, which is your only option if you want to import it) seems like the thing: it doesn’t do anything, as such, other than laze about in a guard position waiting for you to snap its limbs – pick one up if you want the true ‘having a fight with GaGu’ experience.
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO: INBOX@T3.COM OR FACEBOOK.COM/T3MAG 2 2 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
Gadget guru
HARRY PERCH, RUISLIP
Is it okay to go out and launch a rocket into the air? Guru, somehow, was delivered to several rocket-making classes in his youth – clearly his parents hadn’t quite worked out his tendencies at that point – so he knows a thing or two about failing to launch a homemade spacecraft. The answer is: yes. In fact, as long as your booster doesn’t exceed 160 Newton-seconds (and basically no hobby rocket motors do) you can do whatever you want. Go wild. Set it off in your living room. Essentially the CAA’s conditions are that you don’t send something off beyond the stratosphere (that’s 50km up, and you’re not getting that far, reader, however hard you try) and that, if you do go beyond the 160Ns limit, you follow the appropriate rules in the Air Navigation Order 2016, which is far more lenient than the rules attached to piloting a drone. GaGu isn’t going to go through all the ins and outs of rocket
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science here, but it’s not brain surgery: you can pick up a basic rocket body from a site like the excellent modelrockets.co.uk for about £30, or a ready-to-fly set for around £65. It’s a surprisingly cheap hobby to get into, even with all the extras accounted for. Guru especially recommends the Klima Me-163 Komet – a rocketpowered glider, therefore moderately more fun than just hurling something skyward – which is £85, though you’ll also need to add your own remote control gubbins and build a nice launch ramp. You may also wish to consider the Estes Astrocam (around £48), which packs its own camera so you can capture your gawping face looking up at it, or a multi-stage rocket if you’re looking to truly bother the clouds. Look, rockets are cool, okay? There’s fire and everything. Try mixing fire with a drone that hasn’t been catastrophically crashed.
ABOVE Who’d have suspected Buzz Aldrin was in fact wholly composed of hot air?
GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX Guru has had a Framework Laptop DIY Edition on loan for a little while (from £750, but you can double that once you’ve picked up all the other components you need) and he feels it his duty as a serious journalist to put in ink his unwillingness to give it back. It’s just so cool, for so many reasons. You can pull out the ports, which are all in selfcontained slot-in modules, and switch ’em around or replace them with extra storage. You can open it up with five captured screws and drop in whatever RAM or SSD you want to use, and every replaceable component inside is labelled up with where to get a new one. The screen is spiffy, the keyboard solid, it looks great, and it runs fast. Not a gaming laptop, but for work GaGu can think of nothing finer – this sustainable design is one every manufacturer should be looking at as an example because it’s brilliant.
GaGu’s own treat money this issue went on something a little less pricey in the form of a 2021 Kindle Paperwhite (£140 without the pesky ads). This may not be news to you, but it was to him: e-ink has definitely come on a long way. The page, as it were, looks incredible, with basically no ghostly remainders of previous passages spoiling Guru’s reading; the fact that it is waterproof enough that he is now apparently able to fling it in the bath is a bonus. Do allow Guru to indulge in a tech support tale, however. Plugging the Paperwhite into his desktop PC saw it randomly and repeatedly connecting and disconnecting to USB, which seems to be a problem with certain internal USB controllers. The trick, if this affects you, is not to get stroppy with Amazon support. Just plug it into a USB hub, or a different machine, and it’ll work. Not ideal, yes, but one you’ll have to suck up.
CAREFUL DRIVER, VIA EMAIL
How practical is an electric car really? Guru’s prognostication abilities suggest that the answer now will not be the answer in two, five, ten years. Now, you might struggle to recharge. Now, you might have to sit and wait on long journeys to get it done. The car you buy today may not meet the tech to come. But don’t let that stop you upgrading, because it is an upgrade. Don’t think this is GaGu going on an environmental journey, as his mysteriously leaking and possibly radioactive pile of discarded electronics is all the evidence the authorities would ever need of his culpability in the climate crisis. The fact is that EVs kick hard, they’re smooth, and many find them much more fun to drive than petrol grumblers. Even if you just add a little battery runabout to your car collection – the dinky Honda E, for example, starts around £26,000 and will fit just about anywhere – you’re set for a future where buying fossil fuels will cost, if not an arm and a leg, at least a finger.
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A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 2 3
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NEW MEDIA
NOW PLAYING Guru finds the finest media you need on your various devices
PETE YEATS, GLASGOW
Can you help me get more storage in my loft? Although this is T3 and not Practical Storage Magazine (incorporating Unseen Collections), you’re asking the right man. Many of GaGu’s prize hoardables – his RoboCop memorabilia, his Amstrad CPC collection, et al – are stashed safely in his loft, sat not on the crawl boards but on mid-rafter shelves. It’s a clever way to get a bit more space; LoftZone’s Steel TrussShelves are probably the easiest to fit, but do check the space between your trusses before you buy – Guru’s were a weird distance apart, so he had to make his own with LoftLeg’s Loft Ledge brackets and some chipboard.
IMAGE SOURCE: DOMINO
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TOO LATE NOW / OH NO Indie, you say? They don’t come much more fuzzy and catchy and indieriffic than Wet Leg, whose latest EP contains four excellent 6-Music-baiting tunes that will not leave your brain.
IMAGE SOURCE: BIG BIG BIG
BIG GREG, VIA EMAIL
How do I know when my washing is done?
IMAGE SOURCE: LOMA VISTA
THE CANDYMAN A chucklesome six-part podcast covering the harrowing details of a suspiciously familiar 1971 chocolate factory visit, which left four children horribly maimed and one missing.
IMPER A According to 4chan, Ghost make ‘metal for people who don’t like metal’ and ‘ScoobyDoo chase music’. That is one of the reasons Guru is so excited for the new album in March.
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ABOVE If you hold a die up to your ear, you can hear Caesars Palace in Las Vegas
While there are connected washers that could do the trick – LG’s ThinQ range, Miele’s awkward-to-pronounce WifiConn@ct, models from Candy and Hoover – you may not be due an upgrade, and it’s probably not worth switching just because you’re lazy. If your washer is tucked away in a utility room, Guru suggests a more lateral solution: a cheap Wi-Fi camera. For around £30 you should be able to find a camera, which can be trained on your washing machine’s screen (or its contents) and be easily checked to see when things are clean – though, admittedly, this only really prevents a small amount of manually leaving the sofa.
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Many of GaGu’s prize hoardables – his RoboCop memorabilia, his Amstrad CPC collection, et al – are stashed safely in his loft
J WESTERCROFT, DURHAM
Dice. Can I make my own dice? If you’re happy to accept that without an expensive injection moulding machine your dice will be wonky and not roll true, you can. You will need: resin (go for ArtResin, about £36 for 500ml), a set of dice moulds (check Etsy, or make your own with some silicone), a pressure pot (one meant for paint spraying works to squish the bubbles in your resin, expect to pay around £100), a compressor to fill the pressure pot (about £100 for a decent one) and safety gear because resin is Not Nice and your pressure pot might explode. So that’s about £300 all in, not counting your time and well-being, for something, which you can pick up pre-made for a fiver. Good luck!
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Opinion
Duncan Bell is saving money When you have a load of tech and the price of the energy to run it is soaring, what’s a guy to do? he world is not in its happy place right now. Who knows what state it’ll be in by the time you read this, but even if we’re not warming our hands on a smouldering building whilst eating rats, chances are we’ll be less well off than we were last year. And last year was no bed of roses, let’s face it. I am not going to claim to be terribly off. There are clearly plenty of people worse off than me in the current cost of living crisis. With the weather getting warmer, I won’t have to decide between heating the house or eating. I won’t have to decide between turning the air conditioning on and eating either, but it will cost me more to run. A lot more. You don’t have to be down to your last few quid to be narky about having to tip hundreds and hundreds of pounds every month into a big hole marked ‘gas and electricity costs’. The problem with having an interest in technology – especially when people just send it to you, like poor old me – is that it nearly all needs electricity to run. In the very recent past, this was only an issue in terms of finding enough sockets to plug it all into. Now, everywhere I look, I don’t see gadgets. I see potential additions to an already painful leccy bill. Thank god I don’t have a smart meter, in spite of my energy supplier emailing, texting and writing to me practically every
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day, informing me they’re absolutely gagging to fit one in my domicile. Seeing the consumption in real time would probably give me a nervous breakdown at this point, like seeing footage of a fruit machine paying out in reverse, so all the shiny coins are sucked back into the machine. At least I no longer have a plasma screen in the front room. I’m not going to pretend to be any kind of eco warrior, but with hindsight, the energy consumption of some plasma TVs is very hard to justify. There are probably small towns in
Seeing the consumption in real time would probably give me a nervous breakdown poorer parts of the world that use less electricity than firing up some of my old plasmas. The problem is, although I have been actively thinking about how I should and could use less electricity, I haven’t really done anything about it. I know I should be turning things off properly rather than leaving them on standby, but I don’t want to go around the house unplugging things every night and then having to go around and plug them back in
the following day. However, just for once, having too much tech lying around the house has paid off for me here. Searching through my various storage rooms – tech graveyards, filled with the ghosts of gadgets past – I was able to locate enough smart plugs to have at least one in every room. I’ve just sort of accumulated them over the years, and never had a need for them before. With an eight-way power strip plugged into each, I can now turn everything off via Alexa without having to even get off the couch. It’s the ultimate lazy person’s way to save money. Obviously, the cost of buying five smart plugs and five multi-way plug strips would be in the low hundreds for normal people who don’t just accumulate this stuff over the years while working as a technology writer. Also, with no smart meter, I actually have no idea if it is saving me any appreciable amount of money. But at least now I feel like I’ve done something. If energy costs – and the cost of the products that energy powers – continue to rocket, perhaps eventually we’ll have to really take a hard look at our tech-filled lives. That’s probably no bad thing, but I’d sooner put it off for a while longer, personally. A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 2 5
Hot 100
HOT 100 The tech, the trends and the people that are hurtling us forward into what’s hopefully a brighter future Words: Alex Cox Photography: Neil Godwin
A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 27
Hot 100
#100 REFLECT
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#98 MACKIE M•CASTER LIVE #99 KARA PURE
Under the hood the Kara Pure isn’t an entirely QHZ GHYLFH å LWèV D FRQGHQVHU GHKXPLGLĆHU which explains its magical ability to pull 10L ĆOWHUHG DONDOLQH ZDWHU RXW RI WKH DLU HYHU\ GD\ 7KDW PDNHV LW JUHDW IRU ĆOOLQJ D UHIUHVKLQJ JODVV in places where the water supply might be routinely contaminated – and it’ll leave the air LQb\RXU KRPH FULVS WRR $3,499 (around £2,570), karawater.com
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#95 #94 LAB-GROWN CHEESE ZUVI HALO #96 SCUF INSTINCT PRO
*DPH FRQWURO LV D VHULRXV EXVLQHVV DQG LI you want what some would consider an XQIDLU DGYDQWDJH 6FXIèV IXOO\ FXVWRPLVDEOH FRQWUROOHUV RIIHU MXVW WKDW *HW \RXUVHOI VRPH ORQJHU WKXPEVWLFNV IRU SUHFLVH FRQWURO PDS WKH UHDU SDGGOHV WR ZKDWHYHU IXQFWLRQ \RX OLNH WDNH DGYDQWDJH RI SUR OHYHO WULJJHU EXWWRQV å DQG VZLWFK RXW WKH IDFHSODWH IRU D VQHDN\ SV\FKRORJLFDO ERRVW From £200, scufgaming.com 2 8 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
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#97 FIBBR QUANTUM
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#93 OCADO SMART PLATFORM
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#92 ENDGAME GEAR XM1 RGB
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#91 WEMO DOORBELL
Belkin is back in the smart home game, and it seems to be doing it properly: its new doorbell is compact and (some would say) more attractive than PDQ\bULYDOV ,W DOVR KDV high-contrast night vision DQGbIDFH UHFRJQLWLRQ and it’s compatible with Matter over Thread, JLYLQJbLW QH[W JHQ FRQQHFWLYLW\ RSWLRQV $250 (around £185), EHONLQ FRP A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 2 9
Hot 100
#90 #89 L’OREAL COLORSONIC MOVANO RING 1RW TXLWH DV VPDUW DV ODVW \HDUèV <6/ 5RXJH 6XU 0HVXUH ZKLFK PL[HG XS FXVWRP OLS VKDGHV /è2UHDOèV Colorsonic gadget is more DERXW KDLU G\LQJ VLPSOLFLW\ It mixes the colour and GHYHORSHU RI LWV VKDGH FDUWULGJHV RQ GHPDQG meaning you can save VRPH IRU ODWHU WRXFK XSV and an oscillating nozzle in its applicator brush SURPLVHV SHUIHFW FRYHUDJH ZLWKRXW WKH PHVV e7%$ ORUHDO FRP
#86 EVE MOTIONBLINDS
Movano has us convinced that smart rings might PLJKW MXVW EH UHDG\ IRU SULPH WLPH &RPELQLQJ VHQVRUV FRYHULQJ VOHHS KHDUW UDWH WHPSHUDWXUH and more – and coming in D IHZ QHDW GHVLJQV QRQH RI ZKLFK OHDQ WRZDUGV WKH GLVWUDFWLQJO\ FKXQN\ å WKH Movano Ring certainly SDFNV D ORW LQ ,I WKH EDWWHU\ OLIH LV XS WR VFUDWFK WKLV gadget is going to start a VHULRXV WUHQG £TBA, movano.com
7KH\èUH SOHQW\ SUDFWLFDO IRU FRYHULQJ ZLQGRZV LQ KDUG WR UHDFK VSRWV EXW VPDUW EOLQGV KDYH WKXV IDU EHHQ SUHWW\ GXPE (YHèV QHZHVW LQQRYDWLRQ ZKLFK EHLQJ (YH UXQV RQ +RPHNLW KDV WKH FRQQHFWLYLW\ SRWHQWLDO WR GR D ORW PRUH Forget straight open and closed; why not have WKHP DXWRPDWLFDOO\ IROORZ WKH VXQ WR NHHS WKH JODUH RXW RI \RXU IDYRXULWH VSRW" e7%$ PRWLRQEOLQGV FRP 3 0 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
#88 HYPER HYPERDRIVE iMAC TURNTABLE DOCK
7KHUHèV YHU\ OLWWOH ZURQJ ZLWK WKH ODWHVW L0DF DW OHDVW DSDUW IURP $SSOHèV SULRULWLVDWLRQ RI DHVWKHWLFV RYHU SUDFWLFDOLW\ ,I \RXèG OLNH DQ easier way to rotate your iMac and a chance to put its ports somewhere you might actually be DEOH WR DFFHVV WKHP WKH +\SHUGULYH GRFN GRHV WKLV ZLWKRXW LJQRULQJ WKRVH ORRNV e DURXQG K\SHUVKRS FRP
#85 #84 DEBBIE STERLING BCOOL FOUNDER AND CEO, THERMOMETER You might have ready DFFHVV WR EDWWHULHV EXW GOLDIEBLOX 'HEELH 6WHUOLQJ ZDV RQH RI WKH IHZ HQJLQHHULQJ VWXGHQWV DW 6WDQIRUG LQ KHU FRKRUW :RQGHULQJ LI WKHUH was a correlation with the IDFW WKDW VKH ZDV RQH RI WKH only ones who didn’t play ZLWK FRQVWUXFWLRQ EORFNV LQ KHU \RXWK VKH FUHDWHG *ROGLH%OR[ WR EULQJ 67(0 WR\V WR JLUOV $QG WKH\ ZHUH D VPDVK RQ .LFNVWDUWHU
#87 SUPERSONIC FLIGHTS
:KDWèV ROG LV QHZ DJDLQ and smashing past the VSHHG RI VRXQG FRXOG ZHOO EH FRPLQJ EDFN LQ YRJXH 86 VWDUWXS %RRP 6XSHUVRQLF KDV VROG as-yet unbuilt Overture SODQHV WR 8QLWHG SURPLVLQJ WKDW WKH\ FDQ PDNH D KRS across the Atlantic in a PHUH WKUHH DQG D KDOI KRXUV &RQFRUGH PD\ QRZ EH JDWKHULQJ GXVW EXW LWV OHJDF\ OLYHV RQ
#83 GARMIN INREACH MINI 2
,I \RXèUH RQ DQ DGYHQWXUH somewhere with good millions in the developing PRELOH VLJQDO DUH \RX UHDOO\ ZRUOG GRQèW $QG ROGHU RQ DQ DGYHQWXUH DW DOO" 1R mercury thermometers are <RX DUH QRW 6R *DUPLQèV hazardous to both people WLQ\ UXJJHG SRFNHW DQG WKH HQYLURQPHQW FRPPXQLFDWRU FRQQHFWHG 7KDWèV ZK\ GHYLFHV OLNH WKLV to the 100% global Iridium which charges enough to VDWHOOLWH QHWZRUN LV D PXVW WDNH D UHDGLQJ WKURXJK D IRU HPHUJHQF\ FRQWDFW VKDNLQJ PRYHPHQW DUH VR when you’re not able to call important – that and they KRPH 8VH LW VSDULQJO\ DQG GRQèW JR ćDW ZKLOH VWRUHG LWèOO ODVW GD\V e7%$ EDUDFRGD FRP £300, garmin.com
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#82 LOGITECH LITRA GLOW
/LJKWLQJ LV KDUG /RJLWHFKèV FRPSDFW DQG SRVLWLRQDEOH streaming lamp – which is just as capable at illuminating \RXU IDFH IRU PDNHXS DV LW LV PDNLQJ \RX ORRN JRRG WKURXJK D ZHEFDP å UHIXWHV WKDW FODLP HQWLUHO\ ,W SURYLGHV D GLIIXVH ćDWWHULQJ JORZ GHVLJQHG WR UHDOO\ HQKDQFH \RXU IHDWXUHV IDLWKIXOO\ UHSURGXFHV RI WKH VSHFWUXP DQG FDQ FKDQJH WHPSHUDWXUH EHWZHHQ . DQG . e ORJLWHFK FRP
#81 WAVERLY LABS AMBASSADOR INTERPRETER
The Ambassador’s dorky looks are practical – this universal translator is designed to be shared (it comes in a two-pack) so it’s meant to be easy and hygienic to slip on an HDU LQ D PRPHQW ,WV DSS supports 20 languages and 42 dialects, and its microphone is tuned to SLFN XS VSHHFK IURP DERXW HLJKW IHHW DZD\ SHUIHFW IRU VRFLDOO\ GLVWDQFHG FRQYHUVDWLRQ $149 (around £110), ZDYHUO\ODEV FRP
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#80 LABRADOR CADDIE/ RETRIEVER
0DQ\ FRPSDQLHV FRPH WR &(6 DQG VKRZ RII KRPH robots. Virtually every RQH LV LPSUDFWLFDO DQG ZLOO never be released. We see a different future for /DEUDGRUèV SDLU RI VHOI driving smart motorised OLIWLQJ WUROOLHV 7KH\èUH WKH PRVW SUDFWLFDO DVVLVWLYH ERWV \HW DQG ZLOO FHUWDLQO\ help a lot of people. )URP e ODEUDGRUV\VWHPV FRP
#78 IRSAP POLYGON #79 EDIFIER MC500
Streaming has never been more popular, but rule one of video is that you have to get the DXGLR ULJKW (GLĆHUèV FRQVROH ZKLFK KDV PRUH WKDQ HQRXJK /('V WR ĆW DQ\ VWUHDPèV DHVWKHWLF LV PDGH WR PDNH EURDGFDVWLQJ HDVLHU PRUH IXQ DQG \HV EHWWHU VRXQGLQJ ZLWK D KRVW RI DXGLR WRROV DQG WZHDNV RQO\ D EXWWRQ SUHVV VOLGHU QXGJH RU NQRE WZHDN DZD\ e7%$ HGLĆHU FRP
NEHA SHUKLA, TEEN SCIENTIST & INVENTOR
Neha Shukla has only been on the planet for \HDUV EXW VKHèV PDGH WKH PRVW RI HYHU\ one of them. The young inventor has already GHYHORSHG DQ XOWUDVRQLF VRFLDO GLVWDQFLQJ GHYLFH FRDFKHG RYHU VWXGHQWV WKURXJK her Innovation Sessions programme, been QDPHG D *OREDO 7HHQ /HDGHU E\ 1LOH 5RGJHUVè :H $UH )DPLO\ )RXQGDWLRQ DQG ZRQ WKH 'LDQD $ZDUG :H FDQ RQO\ LPDJLQH ZKDWèV QH[W 3 2 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
#75 BLACK AND DECKER BEV
Perhaps not one you should use alongside some RI %ODFN DQG 'HFNHUèV PRUH IDPRXV SURGXFWV 7KH %HY LV DQ DXWRPDWLF FRFNWDLO PDNHU PRXQW your favourite tipples, employ one of its Bartesian FRFNWDLO FDSVXOHV WR DGG ćDYRXUV DQG ELWWHUV WR \RXU PL[ DQG LWèOO ZRRVK \RX a glass full of something IDQF\ LQ PHUH VHFRQGV e7%$ EODFNDQGGHFNHU FRP
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#74 E-INK FOR CARS
$UJXLQJ WKDW %0:èV SURSRVHG H LQN FRDWLQJ VKRZQ RII DW &(6 shimmering like a PRQRFKURPH FKDPHOHRQ LVQèW DW OHDVW D OLWWOH ELW VQD]]\ ZRXOG EH KDUG WR GR ,W GRHVQèW RQO\ RIIHU D WRXFK RI SHUVRQDOLVDWLRQ either. A brighter exterior ZLOO KHOS NHHS WKH FDELQ FRRO LQ WKH VXPPHU ZKHUHDV D GDUNHU RQH KHOSV GUDZ LQ KHDW DQG ZH LPDJLQH LWèOO ZRUN ZHOO ZLWK VRODU FKDUJLQJ WRR
#77 KOHLER PERFECTFILL
.RKOHUèV LQQRYDWLRQV FRQWLQXH WR SDLQW D SLFWXUH of the bathroom of the IXWXUH ,WV DSS FRQQHFWHG 3HUIHFW)LOO WHFK OHWV \RX VHW your desired temperature, mark your desired depth, DQG WKHQ LW UXQV WKH SHUIHFW EDWK IRU \RX $OO LWèV PLVVLQJ is the ability to add a little EXEEOH EDWK EXW WKHUHèV room for improvement in every gadget. e7%$ NRKOHU FRP
#73 PLUME HOMEPASS
0HVK QHWZRUNLQJ GRHVQèW FRPH PXFK PRUH SOXJèQèSOD\ WKDQ ZLWK Plume. Its straight-in-theVRFNHW UHSHDWHU PRGXOHV KDYH QRZ EHHQ XSJUDGHG WR :L )L IRU H[WUD speed and are boosted by 3OXPHèV +RPHSDVV VPDUWV ZKLFK DOORZV SUHFLVH DQG deep remote management straight from your phone. $OO QHWZRUNLQJ VKRXOG EH WKLV VLPSOH DQG FRYHU DV PXFK JURXQG )URP e SOXPH FRP
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ANKERWORK B600 VIDEO BAR
Basically a studio in a box, designed to make your video calls look and sound as amazing as possible. And it works both ways: it packs a sharp 2K frame-tracking camera and a bar light to make your face look great, uses a four-mic array to cancel outside noise and help you sound awesome, and incorporates a pair of speakers that’ll best your laptop’s output. e DQNHUZRUN FRP
THE HAYMAKER
At last. Headphones ostensibly made for everything from gaming to working out, with DIRAC’s UHD Hi-Res 7.1 Surround Sound and True 3D Audio tech built and tuned into them. That’s cool, but it’s the ballsy LED-infused style of the Haymaker that intrigues us most. If one celeb straps ’em on they’ll be everywhere. DURXQG e WKH KD\PDNHU FRP
#70 WITHINGS BODY SCAN
It’s possible to get a good picture of body composition from a pair RI SDGV RQ WKH ćRRU EXW IRU D WUXO\ great picture – say, going limb by limb – Withings’ latest innovation seems like the thing. Pull up and hold on to the bar and it reads a full circuit through your body, offering its app a segmental body view, insights into your heart, and a lot more. e7%$ ZLWKLQJV FRP A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 3 3
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GARMIN TREAD XL
The traditional sat-nav PDUNHW PD\ EH PXFK VPDOOHU WKDQ LW RQFH ZDV but Garmin arguably NQRZV WKH WHFK EHVW 6R HYHQ EH\RQG WKH KDUGZDUH ZKLFK LV ELJ VFUHHQHG WRXJKHQHG DQG WRXFKDEOH HYHQ ZLWK JORYHG KDQGV WKLV RII URDG URXWHĆQGHU GRHVQèW KDYH DQ\ WURXEOH PDNLQJ D FDVH IRU LWVHOI ,I \RXèUH SODQQLQJ WR GHYLDWH from the beaten path, you absolutely need this. e JDUPLQ FRP
BETTER SLEEP
If you sleep soundly, good GD\V IROORZ 7KDWèV D SODLQ IDFW DVN H[SHUW 0DWWKHZ :DONHU (YHU\ WUDQFKH RI WHFK LV FRQVSLULQJ WR KHOS \RX FDWFK VRPH VHULRXV =V ZKHWKHU LWèV HYHU\ VPDUWZDWFK ZRUWK LWV VDOW FDUU\LQJ VOHHS WUDFNLQJ the 10minds Motion 3LOORZ LQIODWLQJ DQ DLUEDJ to reposition snoring KHDGV RU VOHHS ILUVW $1& earbuds like the QuietOn V EORFNLQJ RXW HYHU\WKLQJ but your thoughts.
LETINAR T-GLASSES PAT BROWN, CEO AND FOUNDER, IMPOSSIBLE FOODS
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AIRTHINGS VIEW FLUENTPET CONNECT
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CASIOTONE CT-S1000V
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AKTIIA 24/7 BLOOD PRESSURE WEARABLE
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RAZER SEIREN PRO V2
Audio is paramount, whether you’re streaming, recording, or just Zooming with colleagues. Razer’s mic doesn’t just look the part, it plays it, offering a deliberately radio-friendly vocal tone, improved noise suppression over other cardioid mics, DQG G\QDPLF KLJK SDVV ĆOWHULQJ DQG JDLQ limiting to ensure that even those with terrible technique sound amazing. e UD]HU FRP
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#60 WALLBOX QUASAR 2 While many people look to Powerwalls as the answer to blackouts, the lateral step of the Quasar 2 might be a better choice. It’s a bidirectional charger, compatible with the CHAdeMO and CCS standards. If your EV works in bidirectional mode, you can switch your home from grid power to your car’s battery when you need to stop your Magnums thawing out. £TBA, wallbox.com
#59 RAZER PROJECT SOPHIA
Desks-as-PCs are a popular area of extreme creativity for builders, but Razer’s concept is something else. It’s fully modular, designed to accept snap-on components under the desk to add things like pen tablets, macro keys and audio systems to the glass surface – even if you’re not big on gaming, this could be the perfect way to align your personal workspace. £TBA, razer.com
#55 PICOO #56 JOY BUOLAMWINI, FOUNDER, ALGORITHMIC JUSTICE LEAGUE
A true champion for equality in the tech sector, Joy Buolamwini’s research and activism has highlighted glaring issues with the technology we’re taking into the future. These include serious racial and gender bias in both AI data sets and speech recognition systems, which the Algorithmic Justice League aims to squash with a movement towards equitable and accountable AI. 3 6 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
You want to get your kids outside, but your kids don’t want to stop playing videogames. It’s the modern conundrum. Picoo’s clever self-contained outdoor console might just solve it: there’s no screen to gawp at, it’s fuel for a whole host of wacky runaround wide games, and in the future kids will be able to set their own rules and create their own games. €249 (around £210), picoo.com
#58 EUFY SECURITY VIDEO DOORBELL DUAL
#57 BIRD BUDDY
Eufy’s new dual-cam setup offers some very decent resolution to its packagewatching lens, pointing to a pivot in doorbell tech: the priority for many of us is what’s on our doorstep, rather than who. And if you’re in an area frequented by porch pirates, evidence of both is a bonus. $260 (£195), eufylife.com
Not only does this give you a chance to offer your local birds a delicious meal, and feature a camera which can allow you to watch them enjoying a snack, but with its app it’ll automatically snap, identify, and collate a database of your avian garden visitors – assisting experts track migration and population, and helping you collect birds like feathered Pokémon. $199 (around £150), mybirdbuddy.com
#54 RICOH THETA X
#53 MRNA VACCINES
Using previous Theta models has felt a little like taking a 360-degree shot in the dark. Not so, now: the Theta X includes a touch screen for easy previewing of your shots, stitches its scenes together even more seamlessly, and can utilise an external memory card if you’re running low on space. Shooting video at 5.7K, that’ll happen sooner rather than later. £899, theta360.com
The way we protect ourselves has changed. Let’s not dwell on the reasons, but two-thirds of us now has a turboYDFFLQHbćRZLQJ WKURXJK our veins, one which was EXLOW IURP D SUH GHĆQHG template and basically ready to go when disaster struck. As a proof of concept, that’s pretty strong, and should see future diseases met with similar speed. Now, about those antibiotics...
IMAGE SOURCE: SPENCER DAVIS FROM PIXABAY
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#52 DYSON V15 DETECT ABSOLUTE
What more can Dyson do for the vacuum market? Laser beams, that’s what. The point being that there’s probably a lot of GXVW RQ \RXU ćRRUV WKDW \RXèUH MXVW QRW going to see, which the V15’s groundlevel beam highlights as you go. It then measures how many dust particles are coming in, ramping up the power if required and offering you detailed stats RIb\RXU FOHDQLQJ VHVVLRQ £629, dyson.co.uk
#51 PIVO POD PRO X
What Apple’s personfollowing tech does in software, the Pivo Pod X does in hardware. It’s a motorised phone mount and app combo that tracks you around the room, does cinematic zooms and AIbased motions, and even tilts 60 degrees up and down. Forget roping in a cameraman for that social shot: self photography has just got a whole lot easier. From $289 (around £215), getpivo.com
#50 GRAND THEFT AUTO VI
5RFNVWDU KDV FRQĆUPHG it’s in development, and ZLOO êVLJQLĆFDQWO\ PRYH beyond what we’ve previously delivered”. That’s about all we have, but honestly it’s enough: if the next GTA isn’t a genreUHGHĆQLQJ JDPH DQG D highlight of this console generation (and probably the next couple, too) then we’ll eat our hubcap. A trailer will land soon-ish. £TBA, rockstargames.com A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 37
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#49 VICTROLA RE-SPIN
Given that it’s a relatively cheap portable record player, this suitcase spinner has a surprising amount going for it. It bumps up the speaker quality from Victrola’s previous efforts, adding extra anti-vibration tech to counteract the newly-improved bass response, and allows you to throw your Bluetooth tunes to it – or stream \RXUbYLQ\O WR DQ H[WHUQDO speaker instead. $100, victrola.com
#48 AMAGAMI HAM HAM ‘Amagami’ is the delightful gesture whereby babies DQG SHWV JLYH \RXU ĆQJHU a little delicate nibble. Yes, there’s a Japanese word for it – and a Japanese soft toy for it, too, in the form of Ham Ham. Stick your digit in its craw and it’ll offer you a soft playbite, for no other reason than it’s nice and cute and heart-warming. More robots like this, please. £TBA, hamham.ux-xu.com
#45 MARISSA GIUSTINA, QUANTUM ELECTRONICS ENGINEER, GOOGLE
After a PhD thesis that conclusively proved that quantum entanglement is indeed, as Albert Einstein hand-waved it, “spooky action at a distance”, Marissa Giustina took to Google’s drive for next-gen computing, helping demonstrate quantum supremacy with a machine able to solve in 200 seconds a problem that would take an ordinary computer 10,000 years to crack. Next up for Giustina: an actually useful quantum computer... 3 8 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
#47 RAZER ZEPHYR PRO
Razer’s oh-so-Razer face mask, with its transparent mouth window, RGB lighting and cyberpunk design, was a concept that surprised us when it became reality. But with the requirement for masks still a thing in some places, we’re a little less surprised about this XSJUDGH ZKLFK PDLQWDLQV WKH WKUHH GD\ ĆOWHUV RI WKH RULJLQDO DQG DGGV YRLFH DPSOLĆFDWLRQ WR help you sound a little less Bane-like. £TBA, razer.com
#44 JOBY WAVO
Let’s be real. While DSLRs and photography never shall part, their application in video – allowing even amateurs to produce pro-looking footage with beautiful focal depth – is one of their stronger assets. Not so much sound, though, which is what makes Joby’s Wavo range so exciting. Lavalier mics, shotgun mics, you name it: the GorillaPod maker is coming for camera audio. From £45, joby.com
#43 MAESTRO PEDALS
Maestro changed the way guitarists play. The FZ-1, released in 1962, made modern rock what it is – and Gibson’s acquisition sees the brand refreshed with a line up of classicstyled pedals offering both vintage tone and modern bite. There’s a new fuzz pedal, chorus, delay, distortion and overdrive, all in a pedalboard-friendly package at a pub-gig price. £139, maestroelectronics.com
#46 ASTELL & KERN ACRO CA1000
When you’re already jamming a whole load of smarts into your headphone amp, it’s sometimes hard to stop. A&K basically didn’t, adding a ten-hour battery, four outputs, a host of inputs, support for 32bit/384kHz playback, and a whole digital music player into the portable CA1000. Iconic stuff. £1,999, astellnkern.co.uk
#42 SAMSUNG ECO REMOTE 2022
The newest Eco Remote, Samsung’s apparently eternal remote that never needs charging, adds the ability to harvest RF energy and juice up its battery through the radio waves of your router. We wonder whether that’ll add much beyond what its solar back can drum up – but we’re impressed with the concept, at least. £TBA, samsung.com
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#41 GARMIN INSTINCT 2 SOLAR
7KRVH IDPLOLDU ZLWK 3HEEOH ZDWFKHV ZLOO ĆQG WKHLU spiritual successor in Garmin’s newest Instinct, which combines an e-ink screen with the company’s solar-charging glass. Theoretically, that means certain models of the Instinct can keep on ticking in perpetuity, monitoring your health, multi-GNSS position, and current external conditions. There are even special versions for surfers and truckers. From £299, garmin.com
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#40 MASONITE M-PWR
Your front door is probably plastered with gadgets, but Masonite’s smart door combines them into one sleek whole. Streamlining LED courtesy lighting, a Ring doorbell, a Yale smart lock, and the necessary connectivity to help you keep tabs on whether some born-in-a-barn heathen has left it open, this is nextgen ingress. A suggestion though: how about switchable frosted glass? £TBA, masonite.com
#39 MERCEDES VISION EQXX
Mercedes certainly has a lot of ideas, but the most exciting tweak in its EQXX concept comes in terms of its range – especially as its guts are set to land in a 2024 saloon. A new battery designed with the Mercedes-AMG F1 team, combined with lightweight materials, a new drive WUDLQ DQG IUHVK VRIWZDUH HIĆFLHQF\ WHFKQLTXHV apparently offers the EQXX a range of over 1,000km. That sounds impressive to us. mercedes-benz.com
#35 FLIC TWIST #36 JOHN TERNUS, SVP, HARDWARE ENGINEERING, APPLE
Wondering why Apple is so great at hardware? ,WèV -RKQ 7HUQXV +H KDV KDG KLJK OHYHO ĆQJHUV in the iPhone, iPad, Mac and AirPods pies, and played a big part in the move to M1 processors – a major and risky change which, it has to be VDLG KDV EHHQ VRPHWKLQJ RI D TXDOLĆHG VXFFHVV 1HZO\ LQ WKH 693 UROH 7HUQXVè LQćXHQFH ZLWKLQ Apple is only growing. 4 0 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
Flic’s tiny tactile smart home buttons made a splash a while back, but they were so small they ZHUH WRXJK WR ĆQG WKH larger Twist just makes so much more sense to us. It’s tailor-made for guests to be able to control, say, your lights, without having to install an app to do it, and its twistable control gives us so many ideas. Turning the volume up will be more fun than ever. õ DURXQG e ćLF LR
#38 #37 APEMAN SEEKER R1 RING ALARM GLASS Bike safety has moved on, and the Seeker R1 BREAK SENSOR sees itself as the ultimate solution. It offers a 4K 60fps rear-facing camera and a smartphone dashboard to supply you not only with metrics but with a safe rear view. It also features a slowing sensor WKDW ćDVKHV D EUDNH OLJKW to those behind, and even lasers that beam anticollision markers on the road. $399 (around £295), apemans.com
Put up all the window sensors and cameras you like. If someone smashes your double glazing and just walks through, there’s little you can do about it. But with this, you can at least be informed. It listens specifically for the IUHTXHQF\ RI EURNHQ JODVV sends a push message to your phone, and can set off Ring’s sirens. £35, ring.com
#34 LOOKING GLASS 8K GEN2
#33 OKAI ES800
Looking Glass calls its displays ‘holographic’; realistically they’re just really lenticular, allowing you to move around them and see real depth. Pricey, but for group visualisations of three dimensional ideas it’s ideal. And could it be the future of TV? In some rich universes, maybe. From $17,500 (around £13,000), lookingglassfactory.com
You know how electric scooters are legally iffy on our roads? Where you’re going, on the Okai ES800, you don’t need roads. Not that this trail-shredder would be street legal anyway: beyond its chunky wheels and full suspension it packs a 2.4 horsepower motor, which can (at least in its unregulated version) hit 37mph and tackle 35-degree inclines without breaking a sweat. £TBA, okai.co
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#32 Q ACOUSTICS CONCEPT 30
Amusingly, Q Acoustics calls these standmounters the world’s quietest speakers. That would be pretty useless, but they’re saying it with a wink: really, these have been crafted and honed to have the most neutral, vibration-free enclosures possible. There’s no resonance, no colour to your sound which shouldn’t be there. For the price, this just may well be peak audio. £899, qacoustics.co.uk
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IMAGE SOURCE: DYLAN CALLUY
Hot 100
#31 NFTs
There’s no arguing that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) aren’t a hot topic right now. They’re a great way for digital artists to actually access the market – at $6m, Beeple’s Sotheby’s NFT auction was the third largest art sale ever by a living artist ever – though fraud, art-stealing bots, and the environmental cost of minting monkeys makes the NFT a tricky sell for us at the moment.
#30 SKYWORTH W82
Does tech have to make sense? Actually, scratch that, we’re not asking TXHVWLRQV KHUH MXVW marvelling at the W82’s bonkers gimmick. It’s ELOOHG DV WKH ZRUOGèV ĆUVW ‘transformable’ OLED, ZLWKbWKH RSWLRQ WR EHQG into a 1000R curve or straighten itself out into D IXOO\ ćDW FRQĆJXUDWLRQ You don’t need a reason to want this, other than it being really neat. £TBA, skyworth.net
#29 JBL 4305P STUDIO MONITORS
*UHDW ORRNLQJ DQG VXSHU ćDW LQ WHUPV RI their audio response, JBL’s latest bookshelf monitors are exactly what compact speakers should be. They’re loud and detailed enough WR PLPLF VHULRXV ćRRUVWDQGHUV LQFOXGH WKHLU RZQ DPSOLĆFDWLRQ DQG FRQQHFWLYLW\ IHDWXUH D high-resolution DAC, and the studio tech they borrow from makes a serious difference in terms of sound. $2,200 (around £1,625), harman.com
#26 BENQ X3000I #27 ACER CONCEPTD 7 SPATIALLABS EDITION
We don’t think you’re too likely to see stereoscopic displays as a commonplace laptop add-on, but for those who need to visualise their creations in three dimensions they’ll be absolutely invaluable. Acer’s glasses-free panel takes that old Nintendo 3DS tech to the next level, and it’s coupled with more than enough PC power to satisfy any 3D creator. From €3,599 (around £3,045), acer.com 42 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
It’s 4K, it’s HDR, and it’s made for gaming: BenQ’s big box 4LED projector has EHHQ WXQHG VSHFLĆFDOO\ WR make open-world games work on the wall. More VSHFLĆFDOO\ WKDW PHDQV D 4ms response time and 240Hz refresh rate, DSPtuned audio output that apes surround sound, and 3,000 lumens brightness with colours tweaked to work perfectly with the latest titles. £TBA, benq.eu
#25 AUDEZE FILTER
Planar magnetic drivers aren’t just a headphone tech. Audeze is out to prove that they’re perfect for any space-saving speaker where audio TXDOLW\ LV SDUDPRXQW ,Q this case, the Filter – which looks amazing – acts as a go-anywhere conference call speaker with a noiserejecting beamforming mic to ensure it picks up only your dulcet tones. $250 (around £185), audeze.com
#28 GRAPHENE BATTERIES
Safer than lithium, 50% more efficient, faster to charge and 25% better in terms of carbon footprint, graphene batteries may be the ultimate next-gen portable power solution. Graphene power banks like the pictured Apollo Traveller exist, electric buses in China are testing graphene, and the first car maker to the punch is going to score a knockout.
#24 MSI RAIDER GE76 12UX
MSI’s super-powered laptop looks every bit the gamer’s dream with LWV REOLTXH DQJOHV DQG innovative LED elements. But it’s the insides – the 12th-gen Intel CPU, the speccable 30-series RTX card, the radical cooling solution and biggest legally possible battery – that set it apart. Oh, and the screen. From $1,599 (around £1,185), msi.com
Hot 100
#23 WONDERCISE FLEX CYCLE
Peloton’s fortunes may be ćRXQGHULQJ EXW WKHUHèV QR VWRSSLQJ WKH ĆWQHVV PDUNHW 7KH )OH[ &\FOH should hopefully be far cheaper than the big-name devices, giving it a serious chance, and its four training modes (including a glute-punishing lean-forward FRQĆJXUDWLRQ PDNH LW IDU PRUH interesting than a standard bike. £TBA, wondercise.com
#22 INNOVATIVE COOLING
PCs get hotter, cooling gets better. That’s the graph, you can SORW \RXU RZQ D[HV å EXW WKH ZD\ we’re getting there is fascinating. Cyberpower’s Kinetic case, with its breathing front fins; HP’s Omen 45L case, which incorporates a separate Cryo chamber to chill its water cooling loop; EK’s fancy new processor water blocks. Things are JHWWLQJ FROGHU å EXW SUHWWLHU
#21 DENON AH-C830NCW
There’s a science to noise cancelling, but the big advancements are going to come not from new signal processing chips but from changing the way they operate. The tuning on Denon’s debut ANC in-ears is all based around the shape of the typical ear canal, allowing them to block more noise and deliver a clearer signal from a very compact set of true wireless buds. £139, denon.co.uk
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Hot 100
#20 ALIENWARE CONCEPT NYX
6FDUFLW\ RI KDUGZDUH KDV D ORW WR DQVZHU IRU WKRXJK WKH SRVLWLYH LV WKDW LW KDV FRQWULEXWHG WR VWUHDPLQJèV UHMXYHQDWLRQ $OLHQZDUHèV &RQFHSW 1\[ FRXOG EH WKH QH[W VWHS LI \RX SUHIHU WR PDQJH \RXU FROOHFWLRQ \RXUVHOI ,WèV D PDLQIUDPH IRU JDPHV VKDULQJ LWV power to stream multiple WLWOHV DURXQG WKH KRPH DW WKH VDPH WLPH £TBC, alienwarearena.com
#18 #17 NVIDIA RTX 3090 TI PIEGA ACE :KHWKHU \RXèOO DFWXDOO\ EH DEOH WR JHW RQH LVQèW WIRELESS #19 TCL X925 PRO
TCL’s transition from cut-price follower to bona ĆGH LQQRYDWRU LV H[FLWLQJ :LWK WKH LQFUHGLEOH ORRNLQJ LQFK ; 352 LW GURSV D QHZ PLQL /(' EDFNOLJKW GXEEHG 2' =HUR EHKLQG LWV . TXDQWXP GRW SDQHO GLDOV XS WKH JDPH IULHQGO\ SURFHVVLQJ VPDUWV DQG SUHVHQWV D QH[W JHQ 79 WKDW KDV WKH SRWHQWLDO WR VOLS LQ QH[W WR WKH 6RQ\V DQG 6DPVXQJV RI WKLV ZRUOG £TBC, tcl.com
#15 OLED LAPTOPS #16 CANNONDALE SYNAPSE WITH SMARTSENSE
7KHUHèV D EDWWHU\ LQ WKH 6\QDSVH EXW WKLV LVQèW DQ HELNH <RXèOO KDYH WR SXW DOO WKH SRZHU LQWR WKH SHGDOV \RXUVHOI :KDW LW LV LV D VPDUW ELNH RQH ZLWK LQWHJUDWHG /H]\QH OLJKWV DQG 9DULD UHDU UDGDU RQH ZKLFK DXWRPDWLFDOO\ SRZHUV XS ZKHQ \RXèUH QHDU DV ORQJ DV \RX KDYH WKH DSS LQVWDOOHG 3XULVWV ZKR DOUHDG\ RZQ OLJKWV PD\ EH IRDPLQJ EXW WKLV ULGHV OLNH D GUHDP VR From £3,200, cannondale.com 4 4 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
/DVW \HDU WKH PDUNHW IRU 2/(' ODSWRSV H[SORGHG ZLWK WKH KLJK HQG ZKLFK PHDQV WKH OLNHV RI 'HOOèV ;36 IHDWXULQJ D JOXW RIbVHOI HPLVVLYH VFUHHQV 7KLV \HDU LWèV RQO\ JRLQJ WR JHW ELJJHU FKHDSHU DQG PRUH GHVLUDEOH LI DV LV HQWLUHO\ SRVVLEOH $SSOH DGGV 5HWLQD UHVROXWLRQ 2/(' WR WKH 0DF%RRN DQG LI VPDOOHU 2/(' SDQHOVbXS WKHLU UHIUHVK UDWHV WR PDWFK WUDGLWLRQDO ,36 VFUHHQV
UHDOO\ WKH SRLQW EHFDXVH \RX ZRQèW DW OHDVW XQWLO WKH ZRUOG VRUWV LWVHOI RXW 1RQHWKHOHVV 1YLGLDèV ODWHVW LV D VXSHU SRZHUHG FDUG WKDW PDUNV WKH SLQQDFOH RI WKH VHULHV UDQJH ZLWK HYHQ PRUH &8'$ FRUHV *38 FOXVWHUV bDQG H[RUELWDQW SRZHU GHPDQGV ([SHFW WKH SULFH WR EH DEVROXWHO\ EDQDQDV WRR £TBC, nvidia.com
3LHJD LV D VPDOO IDPLO\ EXVLQHVV LQ 6ZLW]HUODQG WKDW PDNHV SUHFLVH DQG EHDXWLIXO KDQG EXLOW VSHDNHUV 7KH\èUH QRUPDOO\ SUHWW\ SULFH\ å WKH WRS HQG 0DVWHU /LQH 6RXUFH PRGHO FRVWV õ SHU FDELQHW å EXW WKH $FH :LUHOHVV VWDUWV DW XQGHU D JUDQG QRW D EDG SULFH WR SD\ IRU VSHDNHUV ZLWK ERWK HOHJDQW ORRNV DQG VRXQG From £900, piega.ch
#14 CANON EOS R5 C
#13 FRANCES HAUGEN, DATA SCIENTIST
2ND\ VR &DQRQ KDV MXVW WXUQHG WKH FDPHUD PDUNHW RQ LWV KHDG 7KH PLUURUOHVV (26 5 & ZKLFK VPDVKHV WRJHWKHU HYHU\WKLQJ JRRG DERXW WKH & DQG (26 5 EHIRUH LW LV D EHVW RI ERWK VQDSSHU ,WV 03 IXOO IUDPH &026 VHQVRU FDQ VKRRW . S YLGHR LQ ELW &LQHPD 5$: /LJKW <RX FDQ UHFRUG LQ PXOWLSOH IRUPDWV DW RQH WLPH $QG LW WDNHV D PHDQ SLFWXUH WRR £4,500 (body only), canon.co.uk
%ORZLQJ WKH ZKLVWOH RQ WKH VKDG\ GDWD SUDFWLFHV RI KHU IRUPHU HPSOR\HU )DFHERRN )UDQFHV +DXJHQèV UHYHODWLRQV LQ The Wall Street Journal SURYHG WKH FDWDO\VW RI VXFK PDMRU WXUPRLO ZLWKLQ WKH VRFLDO QHWZRUN WKDW LW FKDQJHG LWV QDPH å DQG JRYHUQPHQWV ZRUOGZLGH EHJDQ VFUDPEOLQJ WR HQVXUH VRFLDO QHWZRUNV ZHUH KHOG WR DFFRXQW
Hot 100
#12 NIKE ZOOMX STREAKFLY These are the best running shoes you can buy. That’s basically all you need to know. Nike is just so committed to improving its footwear tech: here it incorporates a Pebax compound plate into the sole to provide better energy return than carbon, pairs it with its incredible ZoomX foam, and includes an outsole design based on extensive data research to match the foot perfectly £135, nike.com
#11 SONY SIGNATURE SERIES WALKMANR NW-WM1ZM2 Housed in a machined oxygen-free copper chassis, equipped with Sony’s own S-Master HX digital amp, shielded, specced-up and capable of 16-bit 44.1/48kHz lossless playback, this is high-end everything in a portable package. A worthy carrier of the Walkman name, and the perfect home for your hi-res collection – even if you RQO\ HYHU XVH LW KRRNHG XS WR \RXU KL Ć £TBC, sony.co.uk
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#09 THE METAVERSE
#10 NEW PROCESSORS
<RX ZDLW \HDUV IRU D QHZ &38 GHVLJQ DQG WKHQ D EXQFK FRPH DORQJ DW RQFH $SSOHèV 0 VHULHV FKLSV DUH D KLJKOLJKW WHDULQJ WKURXJK WKHLU FRPSHWLWLRQ EXW WKH\èUH QRW DORQH ,QWHOèV UHIDFWRUHG WK JHQ &RUH SURFHVVRUV DUH JUHDW DQG HYHQ ([\QRVè ODWHVW PRELOH FKLSV ĆQG XQWROG VSHHG ([SHFW PXFK PRUH UHIDFWRULQJ WR EH RQ WKH WDEOH å PLJKW $0' KDYH VRPHWKLQJ XS LWV VOHHYH"
#08 HIGH REFRESH RATE MONITORS
+] VFUHHQV OLNH $OLHQZDUHèV $: + DUHQèW DOO DERXW WKH IUDPH UDWHV *DPHUV PLJKW FODLP DQ DGYDQWDJH RU YDVWO\ LQFUHDVHG KHDGVKRWV EXW LWèV PRUH VLPSOH WKDQ WKDW WKH IDVWHU D VFUHHQ XSGDWHV WKH OHVV RI WKH SUHYLRXV LPDJH LV OHIW EHKLQG DQG WKH VPRRWKHU WKH GLVSOD\ LV RYHUDOO $QG ZLWK &KLQHVH PDQXIDFWXUHU %2( QRZ WRXWLQJ D +] )+' GLVSOD\ WKLQJV DUH RQO\ JHWWLQJ IDVWHU
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Hot 100
#07 FOLDABLES
The latest Samsung foldable phones proved a tipping point, where folding screens definitively transitioned from a sales gimmick to a practical and useful part of today’s top hardware. Expect to see a lot more, and not only in phones: devices like the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold prove they’re awesome in laptops, and rollable or otherwise unfurling TVs might make a mainstream impact soon.
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Hot 100
#06 PORSCHE TAYCAN 4S
Porsche jumped on the electric bandwagon early, and its dedication shines through in every aspect of the new Taycan 4S. It goes like the wind, handles like a dream, might just be the most comfortable sporty Porsche ever built, and it isn’t actually as expensive as you’d imagine. As much as you might like a growly engine, sports cars are all headed in this direction. From £83,580, porsche.com
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#05 SUSTAINABLE TECH
Right-to-repair, environmentally friendly tech, a path to upgrades that doesn’t mean buying a whole new device: the market is moving in that direction. Samsung and Acer are embracing ocean plastics, Apple is easing its stance on repairability after some legal shenanigans, and Framework has launched a laptop made to be taken apart, fixed, and upgraded – one which could influence the entire market.
#04 WIRELESS SURROUND SOUND
All credit to soundbars, which are now really very good at speaker-wrangling virtual surround, but the future of compact and inconspicuous living room audio lies in allaround wireless surround systems. Sony’s HT-A9 proves what it’s possible to do with that virtual surround code and just four speakers; Philips is cooking up something for later in the year. Listen out for it.
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#03 PLAYSTATION VR2
6RQ\ KDV FRQĆUPHG LWV H[LVWHQFH UHYHDOHG LWV design, and we couldn’t be more excited. 4K resolution, new sensors, eye-tracking with foveated rendering (meaning the bits you’re not looking at get less detail, making things smoother) and at least one major game on the way in the form of Horizon: Call of the Mountain? Fire up the PS5, because we may never see the real world again. £TBC, sony.com
#02 STEAM DECK
Others have tried the same thing on a smaller VFDOH EXW 9DOYHèV FUHDWLRQ LV WKH ĆUVW WR JHW WKH consolised PC-as-a-handheld design right. The Steam Deck is powerful, well-cooled, controls like a dream, and is available for an entirely affordable price. With ever-growing game compatibility, we’re already ready to peg this DVbWKH JDPHV PDFKLQH KLJKOLJKW RI From £349, steampowered.com
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Hot 100
#01 QUANTUM DOT OLEDS
The next big display tech is strangely familiar. Tomorrow’s premium screens will combine the brightness and per-pixel lighting of OLED with the colour saturation and depth of 4XDQWXP 'RW VXEVWUDWHV 4' 2/(' UHPRYHV WKH ĆOWHULQJ effect of traditional OLED, with blue light-stimulated Quantum 'RWV DOORZLQJ LW WR JR HYHQ EULJKWHU WKH ĆUVW VFUHHQV SHDN DW D ULGLFXORXV QLWV 7KH VHOI OXPLQHVFHQW 2/(' SL[HOV effectively eliminate the halo effect that plagues LED-lit screens, even those with dense mini-LED backlights. Multiple OLED layers even help to spread the load of brightness production, which should help them last longer. Sony’s excellent Master Series A95K LV ĆUVW WR PDUNHW 6DPVXQJ LV RQ LWV ZD\ DQG 'HOO LV SXVKLQJ WKH tech in Alienware gaming monitors. Expect much, much more over the next year.
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In good hands
GOOD HANDS IN
Half a dozen of the most opulent new watches that are so fantastic you’ll be clamouring to welcome them onto your wrist Words: Spencer Hart
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TAG HEUER AUTAVIA COSC GMT 7KH FRPSOHWHO\ QHZ WKUHH KDQG *07 $XWDYLD LV D SHUIHFW ĆW IRU WKRVHbZKR ORYH WR WUDYHO E\ URDG RU E\ DLU å LPPHGLDWHO\ FDSWXULQJ DWWHQWLRQ ZLWK D EULOOLDQW EOXH VXQUD\ EUXVKHG GLDO D EOXH DQG EODFN FHUDPLF EH]HO DQG D SROLVKHG VWDLQOHVV VWHHO FDVH 7KH QXPHUDOV DQG KDQGV DUH FRDWHG ZLWK 6XSHU /XPL1RYD IRU UHDGDELOLW\ DQG LQVLGH LV WKHb&DOLEUH &26& *07 PRYHPHQW £3,500, tagheuer.com
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HUBLOT YELLOW GOLD COLLECTION $LPLQJ WR UHFDSWXUH WKH RULJLQDO HVVHQFH RI WKH EUDQG HDFK RI WKHVH VL[ QHZ PRGHOV UHSUHVHQWV D SLHFH RI +XEORWèV KLVWRU\ 3LFWXUHG EHORZ LV WKH PRVW HVVHQWLDO H[SUHVVLRQ å WKH &ODVVLF )XVLRQ &KURQRJUDSK 7KLV LV WKH ĆUVW WLPH LW KDV EHHQ SURGXFHG LQ \HOORZ JROG LQ D GLDPHWHU RI PP ,WèV FOHDQ XQGHUVWDWHG DQG VW\OLVK ZLWK WKH +8% 6HOI ZLQGLQJ &KURQRJUDSK 0RYHPHQW DW LWV KHDUW £22,200, hublot.com
BULGARI LVCEA INTARSIO %XOJDULèV VLJQDWXUH URXQG ZDWFK SD\V KRPDJH WR WKH VXQGLDOV RI DQFLHQW 5RPH 7KH QHZ PRGHOV DGG QHZ FRORXUV WR WKH SDOHWWH ZLWK GLDOV FUDIWHG LQ PDWHULDOV WKDW FDSWXUH DQG HQKDQFH WKH OLJKW 7KH EOXH DYHQWXULQH GLDO LV FXW DQG WKHQ IDFHWHG E\ KDQG WR IRUP WKH WKUHH GLPHQVLRQDO VXUIDFH 7KLV PRGHO LQ VWDLQOHVV VWHHObZLWK GLDPRQGV GLVSOD\V WKH ERQG EHWZHHQ %XOJDULèV MHZHOOHU\ DQG ZDWFKPDNLQJ H[SHUWLVH £9,000, bulgari.com
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Take a break
TAKE A
BREAK
All the travel gadgets you’ll need to make your next trip the best yet Words: Jamie Carter
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Take a break
DRIVE
Road trip! Whether home or abroad this is how to make your journey as exciting as your destination
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£459.99, garmin.com
£104.95, getnexar.com
£119, roidmi.uk
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OUTSIDE
Kick back on beaches and geek out in the great outdoors with these portable gadgets 1
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The best gadgets for exploring, enjoying and staying safe in cities
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£26, chipolo.net
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£249, amazon.co.uk
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TESTED Expert reviews and recommendations WR KHOS \RX EX\ ZLWK FRQĆGHQFH Edited by Josh Russell
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SAMSUNG GALAXY S22 ULTRA
SONY LINKBUDS WF-L900
GARMIN DASH CAM 67W
MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 8
RUNNING SHOES
SONY A7 IV
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 WKDWbVFRUH ĆYH VWDUV å UHFHLYH RXU Platinum Award
A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 67
Tested
Display 6.8-inch 120Hz HDR10+ 3088x1440 AMOLED CPU 64-bit 2.80GHz Octa-Core Processor RAM 8GB / 12GB Capacity 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB OS Android 12 Camera 108MP wide angle, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP 10x telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto rear; 40MP front Battery 5,000mAh Connectivity USB-C, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Dimensions 77.9x163.3x8.9mm Weight 229g
From £1,149 samsung.com
amsung has done it again. Every year it manages to pack the latest in smartphone tech into a range of sleek, sturdy devices. And the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is no different – every part of it is sure to impress you. Whether it’s performance, camera, battery, design or screen, this smartphone is about as good as they get right now. Straight out of the box, the S22 looks very different from its predecessor, the S21. Its rectangular shape strikes you straight away, and not so instantly you’ll notice the now included S Pen neatly tucked away in the body of the phone. It definitely takes inspiration from the Galaxy Note series. We didn’t see a Note 21 hit the shelves last year, and now it’s clear why. Samsung has combined the Ultra and the Note to create the ultimate productivity handset for professionals and enthusiasts. On the back there’s four camera lenses that don’t sit in a module. Each one stands alone and is integrated into the back panel. They
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ULTRA WARRIOR
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra A power-packed, eco-friendly device that has everything \RXèG H[SHFW IURP D ćDJVKLS SKRQH DQG PRUH 6 8 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
COMPARING NOTES With its expansive 6.8-inch screen and enclosed S Pen, it’s clear the S22 Ultra has become the spiritual successor of the now defunct Galaxy Note series.
HOT CHIPS As well as the latest 4nm processor – the Exynos 2200 or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 depending on your region – Samsung has also squeezed in its new, twice-as-fast NPU to provide AI tasks a boost.
fit neatly with the phone design and look very smart. But they do stick out a little and the phone rocks slightly when you use it on a flat surface, but not so much so that it gets annoying. It’s a small minus in a sea of pluses. Speaking of seas, one of the bonuses here is Samsung’s commitment to being more ecoconscious. The S22 Ultra is made from ocean-bound plastics like discarded fishing nets, and the packaging it comes in is completely recyclable as well. Definitely a step in the right direction. Its size might be a minus for those with small pockets and small hands but it does mean that you get a serious amount of screen to play with. The unit measures 77.9 x 163.3 x 8.9mm and weighs in at 229g, so it’s not a lightweight, but the 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Edge QHD+ screen is beautiful. Sharp and detailed, you can use it for just about anything, whether that’s photo editing, gaming or streaming video. It’s big enough to comfortably watch
shows on, more like watching on a miniature tablet than on a phone. You’ll also be able to see every inch of the video with no problems at all; it’s well balanced with clear contrast between light and dark areas. There’s also an Adaptive Refresh Rate that is automatically adjusted from as little as 1Hz right up to a seriously smooth 120Hz, based on the task at hand. This will help conserve the battery and makes it a delight to scroll and swipe while using the screen. Made from Armor Aluminium and Gorilla Glass Victus, it’s durable and tough enough to withstand damage if you were to knock it or drop it. It’s also IP68 rated, so it will survive being submerged in up to 1.5m of water for 30 minutes, and won’t be impacted by dust or dirt. A lot of the S22 Ultra’s hardware is complemented and improved by artificial intelligence, and the screen is no different. There is a Vision Booster that intelligently adjusts the display so you can see every detail even when you’re looking at it in
Dust, dirt, water and being dropped shouldn’t bother the Ultra too much
bright sunlight. It looks to maximise the contrast and make colours look more vivid and bright. And it does a great job. We were able to watch videos under the sun and take photos with a clear view of the screen. There is room for improvement but then there always is.
Cool camera The camera tech on smartphones is critical to its success and the S22 Ultra keeps the same impressive lenses as last year’s model. There’s a 12MP ultra-wide camera, a 108MP wide camera and two 10MP telephoto cameras (one with 3x optical zoom and the other with 10x optical zoom). You also get a 40MP front camera for those all-important selfies. You can expect to take some impressive shots – the camera system is one of the best you’ll find on any smartphone up to this point. Whether you’re snapping selfies, shots of landscapes, cityscapes, one person, two people, plants or pets, photos come out looking bold, sharp and vibrant. But this year, it’s the new A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 69
Tested
FOCUS GROUP Unlike the S21, there’s no module for the cameras here: they’re integrated straight into the back panel. But they’re just as stellar as you’d expect, offering an 108MP wide angle, 12MP ultra-wide and two 10MP telephoto lenses.
SMOOTH OPERATOR Not only is the Ultra’s 6.8-inch AMOLED display gorgeous but it offers up to 120Hz variable refresh rate and HDR10+ support.
and improved camera features that are really worth talking about. One of the most useful features is the improved Night mode, which blends multi-exposure frames to create clearer, brighter shots. Then it uses AI to identify objects; Samsung reckons it’s able to capture their true shape and colour tones, as well as enhance the details in the shot and reduce noise. In action, it did a great job at illuminating the scene without losing out on detail or looking unnatural. But for the best results, you need to be stood quite still as it takes a few seconds to capture the image.
Shoot videos in the evening without fear of graininess or losing detail
Another cool feature is the Nightography, which allows you to shoot videos in the evening without graininess or loss of detail; it’s the first time Samsung has applied a Night mode to both photography and video. There’s a shiny new Portrait Mode as well, which uses deep learning to improve its accuracy; Samsung claims it’ll be able to pick up even the finest of details like a single strand of hair. For simpler Portraits where you just want to blur out the background, it worked well, but it was more hit and miss when we went to block it out
completely. It also gives you studio lighting on selfies, an Automatic Night Portrait Mode on the front camera and even a Pet Portrait Mode. Like the S21 Ultra, you get a 100x Super Zoom here. It’s incredible and will be able to capture far more than the human eye can see. Keen on editing your photos post-capture? The new Expert RAW takes multi-frame raw images to allow for more information in one picture and more effective post-capture editing. You’ll also be able to choose your own settings including the ISO, white balance and focus.
PRO ADD-ONS
SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 4 The Galaxy Watch 4 is slim, comfortable and made from tough armour aluminium so it’ll be able to withstand knocks. Its BioActive Sensor is also able to measure everything from your heart rate to your rough body composition. £249, very.co.uk 7 0 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
SAMSUNG SILICONE COVER WITH STRAP Not only does this silicone case protect your S22 Ultra but the fetching strap adds a pop of FRORXU ZKLOH DOORZLQJ \RX WR PDLQWDLQ D ĆUP grasp on your phone. And the strap can be swapped out for whenever you fancy a refresh. £23.80, samsung.com
PHILIPS FIDELIO T1 The T1 aren’t just good, they’re excellent. The sound quality is powerful with extraordinary detail, while the noise cancelling is incredible. They offer 48 hours of battery and pause your tunes when you remove them. £249, amazon.co.uk
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
ELECTRIC DREAM The Ultra’s 5000mAh battery seems to last an impressive 17 hours. Coupled with 45W wired and 15W wireless fast charging, you’ll rarely struggle for juice here.
Packed with power
Slingshot and Slingshot Extreme tests. If you want all of the perks of a Under the hood, the S22 Ultra packs flagship handset and you’re a gamer, in the latest 4nm processor, which this is one of the best gaming phones could be either the Exynos 2200 or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 depending on you can buy right now. Browsing the web is just as fast where in the world you are. Alongside thanks to the most up-to-date Wi-Fi that, there’s a choice of 8GB or 12GB 6E and 5G support. But it’s the NPU, RAM paired with 128GB, 256GB, or Neural Processing Unit, that’s 512GB or a huge 1TB of built-in memory. There’s no MicroSD card slot really interesting. It’s supposedly twice as fast as it was in the S21 here so you’ll have to make sure you get the right amount from the get-go. series, which will go a long way to improving the efficiency of the Promising serious amounts of phone’s AI-based features. power, this phone will cope with Keeping things up and running is a anything you can throw at it. After 5,000mAh battery with up to 45W using it for a number of different tasks, it was clear that this lives up to wired charging and 15W wireless charging. It lasted us a whole workday the Note 20 as being a productivitywithout coming close to needing a focused product. You can open up charge. We ran a video over two hours games without long loading times, on full brightness and the battery and there’s no lag when you’re level only dropped by 12%, which flicking through a few different suggests a good 17 hours in total. windows open at once. The brain of the operation is In our Geekbench 5 benchmark Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI tests on it, it matched last year’s S21 Ultra as well as being similar to other 4.0 interface – it looks fantastic, is the most customisable OS yet and it’s flagship smartphones like the super easy to use. The privacy features OnePlus 9 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi 11 have been updated to give you much Ultra. To test out its gaming more control over the system, which capabilities, we ran 3D Mark’s Wild includes a new privacy dashboard Life test, the phone giving an impressive average frame rate of 44.90 where you can find all of your settings while it actually maxed out 3D Mark’s in one easy-to-access place. You’ll be
The phone’s AI-based features UXQ PRUH HIĆFLHQWO\ thanks to the NPU
able to switch off all of your camera apps from there and an indicator shows every time a mic or camera is switched on. We can’t think of many downsides to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Everything about how the phone works feels very considered and suits the device perfectly. It won’t be for everyone – because it’s very expensive and very big – but if you want an all-singing, alldancing smartphone then they don’t get better than this.
VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Incredible 6.8-inch display; long-lasting battery; top camera. WE’D IMPROVE No MicroSD card slot; charger not included; expensive. THE LAST WORD The S22 has everything \RXèG H[SHFW IURP D ćDJVKLS DQG PRUH
Find the best deals on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra at: bit.ly/t3s22ultr
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Tested Sony LinkBuds WF-L900
£149 sony.co.uk
ACE IN THE HOLE
Sony LinkBuds WF-L900
The Sony LinkBuds have a hole in the middle, and it turns out that can be a good thing he world is far from short of wireless in-ears but these… are different. These have a hole over your ear canal. On purpose! By deploying a 12mm ‘ring’ driver in each earbud, Sony has created an in-ear headphone that doesn’t block the wearer’s ear. Which means greater awareness of surroundings for the user and reduced inclination to shout at the user for the rest of us. It’s fair to say it takes a few minutes to get used to the sensation of wearing true wireless in-ear headphones and yet not being utterly unaware of sounds that might be happening all around. But once you get accustomed to the amount of ambient sound you receive, there’s lots to enjoy about the way the LinkBuds make music. Theirs is an open sound. They create a generous soundstage, giving competing elements on it plenty of elbow-room in which to do their individual thing. And they organise it well, too – it’s not at all difficult to understand an individual musician’s position relative to the others, even if you’re talking about a full-on symphony orchestra. With EQ levels left flat, the top of the frequency range has just about enough bite and shine to avoid being described as ‘dull’. There’s a sensation of roll-off, certainly, but it’s acceptably mild. The transition into the midrange is seamless, and once down there the LinkBuds are brimming with detail both broad and fine. Problems, such as they are, concern the way the buds reproduce lower frequencies. At the
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7 2 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
otherwise-ideal flat EQ setting, bass is rather flimsy and insubstantial – there’s a decent level of detail revealed and proper shape to it, but as far as substance and punch go, well… there’s just not all that much of it. The LinkBuds are small and very light (just 4.1g each), and are therefore able to fit into a small, light (34g) charging case. Despite the dimensions, the LinkBuds have a respectable enough battery life of between five and six hours and another couple of full charges in the case – and a 10-minute charge will give you an hour’s playback. None of this is especially impressive though. Light weight and tidy dimensions go a long way to making the LinkBuds comfortable – and to make absolutely certain Sony provides five different sizes of soft ‘fitting supporter’ (which is a sort of fin or wing that helps keep the earbud stable when in position). Almost all the news here is positive. The Sony LinkBuds are innovative, comfortable, sound great (with just one significant caveat), are adaptable and easy to control. For now, they’re number one in a field of one. In some ways, a pair of noise-cancelling headphones is more flexible, since you could turn on the ambient/ transparency mode if you want to let sound through. But it’s not quite the same thing, and they’re all bigger and heavier. When it comes to the mix of features and that barely-notice-they’re-in-your-ears design, the LinkBuds are a solid buy, if that’s what you want.
VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED Light and comfortable; excellent control options; open, well-organised and energetic sound. WE’D IMPROVE Bass not that convincing; average battery life; hit-and-miss call quality. THE LAST WORD If you like VPDOO FRPIRUWDEOH DQG ĆQH sounding in-ear headphones, but you also like to know what’s going on in the outside world, Sony has answered your prayers.
Find great deals on the Sony WF-L900 at: bit.ly/t3snyl900
Tested Garmin Dash Cam 67W
DASH HIT
Garmin Dash Cam 67W $ ćDJVKLS GDVK FDP ZLWK DOO WKH EHOOV DQG ZKLVWOHV EXW LW FRPHV DW D SULFH e can’t blame you for losing track of the Garmin Dash Cam range. There are currently three models that look almost identical, yet span a price range of £130 to £200. But with 180-degree FOV and Vault Storage, Garmin’s new cloud storage solution, the latest flagship 67W is worth taking notice of. If you’re familiar with recent Garmin dash cams then you’ll know the score here. Compact, matchbox-shaped and subtle, the Dash Cam 67W packs a lot of technology into its small frame. The rear is taken up by a 2-inch display, controlled using four buttons on the right side – with the most important one, which manually saves video, protruding slightly to make it easy to press without taking your eyes off the road. As well as working like any other dash cam, sensing impacts and automatically saving the most recent portion of recorded video, the 67W has various extra features. There’s a suite of driver assistance systems, including warnings when you drift out of your lane or the camera thinks you might collide with the vehicle ahead. There’s also an alert for if you don’t notice the traffic ahead has set off, plus alerts for nearby speed and red light cameras. The Dash Cam 67W has a battery but this is only rated for 30 minutes of use. Instead, owners are advised to use the included USB cable, or purchase Garmin’s hardwiring kit for a constant power supply. With this fitted, the camera’s Parking Guard mode can be enabled, where the
W
video will be recorded and your smartphone notified when a collision is detected. We’ve been very impressed with the footage produced by the Dash Cam 67W. The resolution is slightly higher than Full HD, at 1440p, and there’s HDR for retaining detail in the brightest and darkest portions of the video. We also liked the 180-degree lens. While its wide view causes some slight fisheye-style distortion, this is worth the benefit of being able to see right to both front corners of your vehicle. That way, you’re more likely to capture footage when a car drives into the side of you, or when a pedestrian or cyclist is alongside. Day and night, the footage captured by the Garmin 67W is very good, with crucial details like road signs and vehicle registration plates visible. Footage can be viewed on the dash cam display itself, transferred to a computer or tablet via the microSD card (not included), or uploaded to Garmin’s Vault cloud storage system using Wi-Fi and the Drive phone app. Not everyone will want to spend £200 on a dash cam. Especially when other options from Garmin itself start at just £90, in the case of the Mini 2. But the 67W still manages to make a compelling argument for itself, thanks to its 1440p resolution, GPS, compact design and 180-degree wide-angle lens. We’re also big fans of the effortlessly simple windscreen mount, and the new cloud storage system is convenient for those who want to connect their dash cam to Wi-Fi and the cloud.
£149 garmin.com
VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED ([FHOOHQW YLGHR TXDOLW\ FRPSDFW GHVLJQ QHZ DXWRPDWLF FORXG VWRUDJH WE’D IMPROVE &RVWO\ GULYHU DVVLVWDQFH QRW DOZD\V KHOSIXO VRPH IHDWXUHV QHHG KDUGZLULQJ THE LAST WORD )URP LWV S VFUHHQ DQG GHJUHH OHQV WR LWV GULYHU DVVLVWDQFH IHDWXUHV DQG FORXG VWRUDJH WKH : KDV D ORW JRLQJ IRU LW %XW WKH SULFH LV IDLUO\ VWHHS FRPSDUHG WR RWKHU *DUPLQ GDVK FDPV
Find great deals on the Garmin 67W at: bit.ly/t3garm67w
A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 73
Tested
Screen 13-inch 2880x1920 120Hz display CPU Quad-core 11th-gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 / i7-1185G7 GPU Intel Iris Xe Graphics RAM 8GB / 16GB / 32GB Storage 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB Operating system Windows 11 Home Connectivity 2x USB-C, Thunderbolt 4, 3.5mm headphone jack, Surface Connect port, Surface Type Cover port, Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 Battery life Up to 16 hours Dimensions 287x208x9.3mm Weight 891g (tablet only)
DUAL IN THE CROWN
£879 microsoft.com
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 An impressive piece of kit that shows Microsoft is still leading the way when it comes to 2-in-1 laptops ight from the get-go, we can tell you that this is one of the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy. Surface PCs are the very definition of a hybrid device so they rule this category. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 looks almost identical to the previous generation. Despite having a bigger screen it’s all still packed into a similar-sized device, measuring 287 x 208 x 9.3mm. You’ll find slimmer
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bezels and the same matte black aluminium on the back; it looks smart but then it always did. The 13-inch touchscreen is stunning. It has a resolution of 2880 x 1920p, up to 120Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision. Bright, sharp, smooth and colourful – it’s great for just about any task you could throw at it. The 3:2 aspect ratio means you can fit a lot on the screen as well, displaying almost a whole page of work at once.
To hook the tablet up to a Surface Type Cover, you just need to magnetically snap the keyboard onto the bottom edge of the display – simple. Do bear in mind that this won’t feel completely like a laptop to type on. The Type Cover is so thin, and it leaves a gap between the keyboard and the table, which means it moves a little when you press down on the keys. Writing on the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 using the Surface Pen 2 feels
Microsoft Surface Pro 8
natural and very satisfying. Whether you need it for quick note-taking or detailed drawing, the pen is accurate and the touchscreen is responsive. One reason the pen feels this good is because of the haptic feedback feature, which mimics the friction you feel when you write on paper by sending tiny vibrations through the stylus. Both of these add-ons need to be bought separately, though: they aren’t included as standard.
Higher power Promising plenty in the way of performance, the model we tested out uses the 11th-gen Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It’s certainly powerful enough for most tasks; we never had any problems with long loading times or opening up software. As a tablet, it’s seriously powerful. As a laptop, it’s not quite as impressive but it’ll still do more than enough for most. To compare it to other PCs, we ran the Geekbench 5 benchmarking test where the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 scored 1,142 in single-core and 4,133 in multi-core. That’s lower than other similarly priced PCs like the Samsung
Galaxy Book Pro 360 and the Huawei Matebook 14s, but not far off either. The battery seemed to last us through most of a day’s work, comprising some typing and clicking through the web, but it won’t last much more than that. We ran a video over two hours on full brightness and in that time the battery level dropped by nearly 40% so it would have lasted just over five hours in total – that’s okay but we’ve definitely seen better. If you need a laptop for work, and therefore video calls, it has a highquality 5MP front camera that is detailed with balanced colours. You won’t be plagued with graininess from your webcam. Meanwhile, the 10MP rear camera takes shots that are actually useable and can record footage in resolutions up to 4K. It still won’t match your smartphone camera but, for a tablet, it’s really good. The 2W speakers with Dolby Atmos surround sound produce audio that is much better than on most other tablets and it’s even better than a lot of laptops. The Pro 8 sounds full and rich and is good for watching movies and making calls. Admittedly it does sometimes distort the audio slightly
The display is 2880 x 1920p, up to 120Hz and has Dolby Vision
THE ALTERNATIVES ASUS ZENBOOK FLIP S
HP ELITE DRAGONFLY G2
This is far dearer than the Surface Pro 8 but it’s good for those who need a laptop more than a tablet. The screen swivels back by 360-degrees to transform it, but the quality of the 4K OLED screen is fantastic. £1,299.99, amazon.co.uk
Another premium device to consider, which like the Asus laptop, has a screen that swivels back to turn it into a tablet. This laptop is small and lightweight with incredible performance. £1,558.80, hp.com
so won’t beat a dedicated speaker for listening to music. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 improves on what came before it in a few big ways while maintaining the essence of the Surface Pro series. It switches between laptop and tablet without any fuss, and if you don’t intend to use it much as a laptop, this is one of the most powerful tablets you can buy. It’ll be great for notetaking and drawing too. Okay, so the battery life could use a boost and it’s a shame there’s no MicroSD card slot. But the only real reason we would say not to buy this is if you’re only planning to use it as a laptop because you can get more power for your money elsewhere.
VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED 13-inch screen with 120Hz refresh rate; HD webcam and 4K rear camera; impressive performance. WE’D IMPROVE Average battery life; no MicroSD slot; extra cost for the keyboard and pen. THE LAST WORD A 2-in-1 laptop that packs in plenty of power as well as a stunning touchscreen display. It won’t be for everyone but it’s a truly fantastic piece of kit.
Find great deals for the Surface Pro 8 at: bit.ly/t3mssrfpr8
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Tested
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£125, hoka.com
£120, adidas.co.uk
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Running shoes
unning shoes – or best running trainers, as some people like to call them – are an essential piece of running gear. A decent pair of trainers can not only help you run faster but also reduce injury
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risk and, in some cases, improve running form. Besides, getting a new pair of running shoes can be an excellent motivator to start running for those who find it hard to muster up the energy to go and exercise.
Fortunately, whether you’re a beginner looking for your first pair of running kicks or a seasoned pro trying to replace your completely worn training shoes with the best running trainers, you’ll find the best options here.
FULL BLAST
FOAM RUN
ASICS NOVABLAST 2
NEW BALANCE FRESH FOAM 1080V11
£130, asics.com
£135, newbalance.co.uk
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Tested Sony A7 IV
£2,399 sony.co.uk
HOCUS FOCUS
Sony A7 IV Sony’s latest generation full-frame mirrorless camera holds appeal for both photographers and videographers ony remains a respected force in photography and videography, with its latest full-frame mirrorless in the Alpha A7 IV building on its Mark III predecessor from three years ago and reaffirming the seriousness of its maker’s intent. At the heart of this latest offering is a generous 33-megapixel full-frame sensor, pitched at both stills photographers and those recording video. To the casual observer, the look and design of Sony’s A7 series has barely altered since its inception, even if there have been slight incremental shifts. We once again get a robust build and a design that resembles a downsized DSLR. This comes complete with a shooting mode dial, command wheel and various buttons and switches that will enable anyone trading in an old DSLR and swapping to this mirrorless system feel on fairly familiar ground. Rather than an optical viewfinder, the Sony features an electronic viewfinder (EVF) above the now fairly standard flip out and twist touch screen LCD. With the camera raised to our eye, it’s easy to forget we’re composing our framing without the use of an optical viewfinder, so detailed and lag-free is the EVF. As well as a newly developed 33MP chip, the Sony A7 IV features the latest-generation Bionz XR processor to cope with all that extra data processing. Autofocus speed and accuracy has been an area that developers and engineers have keenly focused on – forgive the pun – of late. We’re pleased to report back that the Sony’s
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7 8 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
autofocus was frequently spot-on, while there’s the ability to tap the screen and move the focus point around manually if desired. Though the Sony A7 IV itself offers as solid a lineup of features as any semi-professional Alpha camera to date, a boast this time around is the ability to record 4K quality 60P video continuously for more than one hour. That’s useful perhaps if we’re attempting a single shot project similar to Sam Mendes’ supposedly ‘one take’ 1917, doubling the recording duration we’d typically have got in the past from this ilk of camera. A camera body costing £2,400, or £2,600 with lens, is not inexpensive, and for that price, with the new 33MP sensor factored in, we were expecting to be knocked out by Sony A7 IV’s results. Though on occasion we did notice some fall-off of focus towards the extreme edges of the frame, images were as detail-packed and colour rich as we were expecting. Most of us won’t require all 33MP for everyday shooting, but wedding, portrait and fashion photographers – as well as landscape photographers seeking to make wall art – will certainly find the specification of use. The Sony A7 IV sees the manufacturer stick to a tried and tested winning formula – a robustly built camera that delivers swift responses and accurate, detailed imagery. It also excels thanks to your ability to expand the system beyond the camera body and lens you bought to begin with, thanks to the manufacturer and third parties’ very extensive accessory offerings.
VERDICT WE’RE IMPRESSED New 33MP full-frame sensor; usual robust build; 4K video; high quality, semi-pro-level mirrorless camera. WE’D IMPROVE Not all that compact; could be more lightweight; conspicuous. THE LAST WORD Offers Sony’s newly developed 33MP fullframe chip, coupled with a robust build, 4K video and lots of handson creative control. In a nutshell, high quality from the get-go.
Find great deals on the Sony A7 IV at: bit.ly/t3snya7iv
Best of the best INSIDE
BEST OF THE BEST The world’s best tech, all in one place
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A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 79
Best of the best
SMARTPHONES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestphone APPLE iPHONE 13 From £779, apple.com The iPhone 13 takes smartphone quality DQG UHĆQHPHQW WR D whole new level. For most people it will be the ideal companion, DbSRZHUIXO DOO URXQGHU that delivers a great experience across WKHbERDUG
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Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcheapphone iPHONE SE (2020)
From £420, apple.com $ QHDU ćDJVKLS iPhone experience IRU D IUDFWLRQ RI the cost. The SE is XQGHU KDOI WKH FRVW RI WKH L3KRQH DQG IRU WKDW UHDVRQ it demands attention IURP DQ\bSURVSHFWLYH phone upgrader.
ONEPLUS 9 PRO
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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 ZLWK LWV EDODQFH RI IHDWXUHV TXDOLW\ DQG SHUIRUPDQFH IRU D very attractive price.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S22 ULTRA From £1,149, samsung.com Combining everything we loved about the Galaxy Note series ZLWK WKH VSHFV IURP the Galaxy S series, the S22 Ultra has an S 3HQ D LQFK VFUHHQ D WRS WLHU FDPHUD and internal storage options up to 1TB.
8 0 T3 A P R I L 2 0 2 2
From £699, samsung.com The best core S20 IXQFWLRQDOLW\ DORQJ with 5G, but at a PRUH DIIRUGDEOH price point, this is actually nothing like a budget handset, as it is still loaded with premium hardware DQG IHDWXUHV HONOR 50 From £249, hihonor.com 7KLV ORRNV DQG IHHOV like a premium handset, covered in glossy glass and IHDWXULQJ D FXUYHG OLED screen on the IURQW 7KHUHèV HYHQ D PD[LPXP UHIUHVK UDWH RI +] VR LW IHHOV VR smooth to use.
SMARTWATCHES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsmartwatch APPLE WATCH SERIES 7 From £369, apple.com Apple is king when it comes to smartwatches. The Series 7 includes a bigger, better screen, DQG IDVW FKDUJLQJ ,WèVbVWLOO WKH RQO\ device to straddle WKHbOLQH EHWZHHQ WHFKbDQG IDVKLRQ SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH 4 From £269, samsung.com A modern, stylish take on a smartwatch – it’s VOLP FRPIRUWDEOH DQG able to withstand knocks and bumps. 3OXV LWèV ZDWHUSURRI The only downside KHUH LV EDWWHU\ OLIH DW 40 hours it’s not the ORQJHVW ODVWLQJ SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH ACTIVE2 From £269, samsung.com 6OHHN DQG SRZHUIXO this is the best VPDUWZDWFK IRU Android users. The screen and design are on par with the Apple Watch, while D FROOHFWLRQ RI QHZ ZDWFK IDFHV JLYH LW DbPRGHUQ HGJH APPLE WATCH SE From £299, apple.com Despite being the çDIIRUGDEOHè VPDUW ZDWFK IURP $SSOH WKH SE is a truly excellent smartwatch. You ZRQèW QRWLFH LI $SSOH has cut corners in JHQHUDO XVH DV LW IHHOV OLNH WKH IXOO $SSOH Watch experience.
Best of the best
HYBRID SMARTWATCHES
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besthybrid
WITHINGS STEEL HR SPORT £190, withings.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
WATCHES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwatch AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK CHRONOGRAPH £21,500, audemarspiguet.com We love Audemars 3LJXHWèV VLPSOH stainless steel model with a blue Grand Tapisserie pattern GLDO ,W IHDWXUHV D VHOI winding manufacture calibre 2385 movement with a 40KRXU SRZHU UHVHUYH
GARMIN VIVOMOVE HR PREMIUM
BAMFORD LONDON MAYFAIR DATE
£250, garmin.com
£500, bamfordlondon.com The Bamford Mayfair Date is dependable and has the added EHQHĆW RI EHLQJ waterproof to 10ATM, making it a great accessory for outdoor activities whilst remaining cool DQG VW\OLVK
One of the most comprehensive hybrid watches you can buy, with a wide range of ĆWQHVV DQG KHDOWK tracking features, a subtle touchscreen digital display, and several different FRORXUV WR SLFN IURP FOSSIL HYBRID SMARTWATCH HR £129, fossil.com 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
BAUME SMALL SECONDS £430, baume-et-mercier.com Baume uses sustainable and recycled materials where possible, and its elegant watches are fully customisable, with over 2,000 permutations achievable on an RQOLQH FRQĆJXUDWRU BELL & ROSS BR03-92 NIGHTLUM £2,300, goldsmiths.co.uk No complicated bells and whistles here; the BR03-92 has its roots in aviation, a heritage the folks at B&R have clearly channelled LQWR WKH %5 èV straightforward, seconds-minutesKRXUV GDWH GHVLJQ
WATCHES UNDER £1,000
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwatchunder1k CHRISTOPHER WARD C60 SAPPHIRE
£795, christopherward.com Striking, bold designs really set this British 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
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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 SAMSUNG QE55Q80A £839, samsung.com
This well-specced 55-inch set from Samsung is the overall best bang-for-buck TV at the time of writing, balancing image quality and features. Bright and colourful, it acquits itself excellently.
SAMSUNG 65QN95A
LG OLED48A1
£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.
£799, lg.com
PHILIPS 55OLED936
SAMSUNG 43QN90A
£1,799, philips.com
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£1,999, optoma.co.uk This second-gen ultrashort throw projector GHOLYHUV D IDQWDVWLF . viewing experience overall. Image quality is superb, and you can get a 120-inch picture with the projector placed around a metre from the wall.
£1,499, benq.com A brilliant buy if you ZDQW . ELJ VFUHHQ sports, but don’t particularly want to dim all the lights. Its motion smoothing is highly effective, so onscreen action looks wonderfully naturalistic.
BENQ TK700STI £1,199, benq.com
The only TV with Samsung’s next-gen ‘Neo QLED’ panel that comes within our budget, you can expect bright images with deep blacks in precise areas of the screen. It also handles motion really well.
SAMSUNG 65AU9000 £999, samsung.com LG’s mid-range screen may lack a couple of the G1’s features, but it has all you really need: taking the design of the CX and making it better, adding in HDMI 2.1 and VRR as well as LG’s revised webOS.
OPTOMA CINEMAX P2
BENQ TK850
£899, samsung.com
£1,100, lg.com
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestprojector
The LG A1 isn’t as bright as more elite OLED TVs, but it costs a fraction of the price. More importantly, it gives you rich HDR performance. And LG’s excellent smart TV platform.
For a total home cinema upgrade in a single simple package, this is unbeatable. It’s not only a fantastic 55-inch OLED TV, but built into the stand is a Dolby Atmos system, complete with XSĆULQJ VSHDNHUV LG OLED48C1
PROJECTORS
7KLV . SURMHFWRU LV smartly geared up for gaming, with a low LQSXW ODJ PV DW . 60fps), with movies and TV catered for via a hidden Google TV stick, and an impressively short throw of 2m.
VIEWSONIC M2 MOBILE STUDIO £616, viewsonic.com
This is Samsung’s best 2021 TV that isn’t QLED, which means it might not have quite the same punchy colours and brightness, but costs a lot less, enabling this huge 65-inch model to squeeze under £1k.
The perfect 1080p option for big-screen fun and games. It requires next to no warm up, runs cool and is maintenance free. Images are sharp and detailed, and colour performance is similarly outstanding.
Best of the best
GAMING TVs Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestgamingtv LG C1
GAMES CONSOLES
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/gaming PLAYSTATION 5
£1,300, lg.com You still get 4K 120Hz, VRR and ALLM on all four HDMI ports, and a great low input lag level, but you can also now customise the gaming mode depending on what you’re playing.
SAMSUNG Q80A
£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 QLED at a more affordable price. There’s one HDMI 2.1 port, with support for VRR, 4K 120Hz and ALLM, plus three 2.0 ports. Image quality is really strong, and it really punches above its price range.
SONY X85J
If you’re looking for an HDMI 2.1 gaming TV that won’t break the bank, this is it – and it’s one of the few gaming TVs that’s available in a 43-inch variant, which is handy if you don’t have much room.
£599, hisense.co.uk
£349.99, nintendo.com How easily you can switch between playing on your TV to gaming on the go hasn’t changed. What has changed is that bigger, brighter screen; it makes handheld gaming much more enjoyable.
£249.99, xbox.com The A6G features HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, and supports VRR and ALLM on all three HDMI 2.1 inputs. You get eARC, Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet, CI Card and RF too. Even composite video.
SONOS BEAM 2
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.
MICROSOFT XBOX SERIES S
HISENSE 55A6G
£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.
£449, sonos.com
NINTENDO SWITCH OLED
£1,100, sony.co.uk
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestsoundbar SAMSUNG HW-Q950A
MICROSOFT XBOX SERIES X
£999, samsung.com
SOUNDBARS
A superb soundbar that’s small enough WR ĆW XQGHU HYHQ D 32-inch TV but big HQRXJK WR ĆOO \RXU room with brilliant sound. This version adds Dolby Atmos, and improved onboard processing.
SAMSUNG HW-Q800A £800, samsung.com 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.
SONY HT-G700 £399, sony.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.
An excellent package that makes it easy to recommend – it JLYHV \RX VLJQLĆFDQWO\ more spectacular directional audio than budget soundbars, and you need to spend double to really improve on this.
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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
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£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 SL £179, 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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In terms of the sound quality, this really impresses with detail and clarity across the whole range, and how well balanced it is for treble and mid-range especially. You can get two for stereo, but RQH ZRUNV ĆQH 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 BANG & OLUFSEN BEOSOUND A1 V2 £199, johnlewis.com
BLUETOOTH HEADPHONES
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestwireless SONY WH-1000XM4 £330, sony.co.uk
If you want a full, punchy sound that’s fairly expansive, and that doesn’t crush when going loud, then this is the place to start. It’s also an object of desire, and is available in a great range of colours.
JBL TUNE 660NC
£78, amazon.co.uk
£90, jbl.com The Wonderboom 2 doesn’t really try to straddle home and outdoors: it’s clearly meant to be taken to wherever the party is. It’s waterproof, and well protected against grit, dust and beachside sand.
£379.95, bose.co.uk One of the best portable speakers money can buy. Connect it to Wi-Fi for Alexa or Google Assistant functionality, or use it over Bluetooth, for powerful, accurate, 360-degree sound.
AUDIO PRO ADDON C3 £178, electricshop.com A super-portable speaker with Wi-Fi streaming for higher quality and multiroom, with Bluetooth for total convenience. It’s a stunner, especially if you can avoid using Audio Pro’s quite crappy app.
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttruewireless PHILIPS FIDELIO T1 £249, philips.com
The new kings may be beaten on individual features, but not on them combined. Great all-rounders, they offer rich bass, clear treble and a detailed mid-range. Being comfortable and light helps too.
ULTIMATE EARS WONDERBOOM 2
BOSE PORTABLE SMART SPEAKER
TRUE WIRELESS HEADPHONES Powerful and crisp with a great level of GHWDLO \RX ZRQèW ĆQG many wireless buds that sound better. With effective noisecancelling and battery life of up to 48 hours with the case, the T1s are a winner.
SONY WF-1000XM4 £225, sony.co.uk JBL does great work at bringing big sound to affordable packages. If you’re looking for a comfortable option that offers great detail in your music, and are heavy on the bass, they’re ideal.
AUDIO-TECHNICA M50XBT2 £179, audio-technica.com Long battery life and sound that’s closer to the more neutral WRQHV RI KL Ć FDQV (though still with a slight extra kick of bass), plus great comfort levels, make these ideal for losing yourself in music.
SONY WH-CH510
The latest version of Sony’s high-end buds has slimmed down in size and weight, but improved on battery life, boosted audio quality and polished their noise cancellation. That’s quite the upgrade.
CAMBRIDGE AUDIO MELOMANIA 1+ £120, cambridgeaudio.com High-end sound for a pretty incredible price. With drivers made of miracle substance graphene, the Melomania 1+ are uniformly excellent. And their battery life is also right up there with the very best.
NOKIA BH-205 LITE
£36, sony.co.uk
£40, nokia.com While you may not be getting the latest and greatest audio technology, you’re still getting truly remarkable quality for something so cheap. 30mm drivers deliver sound that’s powerful and upfront.
Cheap and cheerful, as you’d expect, but they deliver where you need it. The sound is well-balanced, and doesn’t feel like you’re missing out on anything. Solid audio and long battery life.
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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.
BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 45
FLARE AUDIO FLARES JET 3
£319, bose.co.uk
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Comfortable, and great sounding, these feature some of the best noise cancelling we’ve (not) heard. Elsewhere, there’s no manual EQ, and you can’t turn noise cancelling off, but this is rarely a problem.
JBL TUNE 660NC
If you’re looking to immerse yourself in music without spending hundreds, these deliver punchy sound, have excellent noise-cancelling capabilities, and are genuinely surprising åbD WRS EX\ SONY WH-1000XM3 £199, sony.co.uk
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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.
£49, soundmagicheadphones.com Can we really be recommending a pair of headphones for under £50? Yes we can! The grown-up sound quality and exemplary comfort RIbWKH F PDNH WKHPbWKH VRQLF bargain of the year.
KLIPSCH T5M WIRED £65, klipsch.com
The XM4s may be at the top, but the XM3 cans are still absolutely brilliant. They’re comfy, have excellent noise cancelling, are pretty superb in the sound department, and the price is good too.
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
SOUNDMAGIC E11C
£80, jbl.com
WIRED OVER-EAR HEADPHONES
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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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.
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.
SENNHEISER HD 660 S e VHQQKHLVHU FRP One look at the HD 660 S tells you everything you need to know about them: clear and open earcups for air movement; big plush pads that wrap around your ears for comfortable listening.
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 PLJKW EH WKH EHVW 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
HP ELITE DRAGONFLY G2 £2,630, hp.com
7KH 'HOO ;36 LVbWKLQQHU DQG PRUH SRZHUIXO WKDQ HYHU 8S WR 7% RI 66' VWRUDJH *% RI 5$0 D . VFUHHQ DQGbIDVW WK generation Intel chips KHOS PDNH LW D WRS TXDOLW\ DOO URXQGHU MACBOOK PRO (M1) 2021 From £1,899, apple.com $YDLODEOH DV D LQFK RU LQFK ODSWRS ZLWK HLWKHU WKH 0 3UR RU 0 0D[ FKLS 0DFERRN 3URV RIIHU WRS OHYHO SHUIRUPDQFH and yet hugely impressive battery life. The very best Apple has to offer.
TABLETS
A seriously impressive ODSWRS å LWèV IDVWHU more premium and even nicer to use than WKH ĆUVW JHQHUDWLRQ RI WKH 3& WKH +3 (OLWH 'UDJRQć\ DQG WKDWèV saying something. Versatile and transportable.
MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 8 From £999, microsoft.com $Q\RQH ZKR QHHGV versatility and portability should consider the 0LFURVRIW 6XUIDFH Pro 8. If you buy the optional Surface Type &RYHU LW ZRUNV MXVW DV ZHOO DV D WDEOHW DV LW does a laptop.
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 10.2 (2021) From £319, apple.com 7KH FKHDSHVW IXOO size Apple tablet has evolved in some UHDOO\ XVHIXO ZD\V The storage options have been increased WR *% RU *% ZKLOH WKH SURFHVVRU has been boosted to WKH ]LSS\ $ %LRQLF SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S5E From £319, samsung.com This is Samsung’s QHZHVW WDEOHW DQG if your needs aren’t that demanding and \RX ZDQW D ZHOO EXLOW $QGURLG WDEOHW ZLWK DQ H[FHOOHQW VFUHHQ LW GHĆQLWHO\ VWDQGV out as one of the best WDEOHWV RI APPLE iPAD MINI (2021) From £479, apple.com $ OLWWOH SRZHUKRXVH of a tablet and a fantastic creativity PDFKLQH SDFNLQJ LQ an incredibly fast $SSOH $ SURFHVVRU that makes it the PRVW SRZHUIXO L3DG RXWVLGH RI WKH 3URV remarkably.
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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 RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED £2,499, msi.com The sort of system WKDW 3& JDPHUV dream of owning, VRbWKH IDFW WKDW LW DOVR looks like something you could take LQWR D )RUWXQH FRPSDQ\bERDUGURRP at the same time is just heavenly.
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 experience for PS4 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 L *% RI 5$0 *% 190( 66' SOXV D 7% KDUG drive and a Nvidia *H)RUFH *7; 7L *% LWèV VWLOO D SRWHQWbSHUIRUPHU
MSI GS66 STEALTH £1,500, msi.com
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Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/best4kmonitor PHILIPS BRILLIANCE 328P6VUBREB £692, amazon.co.uk
This monitor’s vibrant display will do your graphic design, video editing and gaming pastime justice. It’s also shockingly affordable, especially when you consider WKLV LV D LQFK display with 4K.
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.
RAZER KRAKEN V3 HYPERSENSE £130, razer.com
An astonishingly powerful gaming laptop with up to a 10th-generation Intel &RUH L DQG 1YLGLD *H)RUFH 57; *38 7KLV LV QRW D cheap laptop, but it delivers incredible performance.
4K MONITORS
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
:LWK LWV FRPELQDWLRQ RI SRZHUIXO ' VRXQG and haptic feedback, you won’t just hear your game but feel it too. The mic is crystal clear, but the feedback tech makes it chunky, and there’s no wireless option.
A great 4K monitor for professionals, GHOLYHULQJ D LQFK 8OWUD +' ,36 SDQHO with integrated ZHEFDP :LQGRZV +HOOR LQWHJUDWLRQ DQG 86% & FRQQHFWLYLW\ but no advanced gaming features.
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DRONES Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestdrone
ACTION CAMERAS
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestactioncam GOPRO HERO 10 BLACK
DJI AIR 2S £899, dji.com
£585, gopro.com v;mv-ঞom-Ѵ 1-l;u- 7uom;ĺ ;vrb|; 0;bm] Ѵb]_| ;b]_| -m7 ;u rou|-0Ѵ;ķ |_bv =oѴ7-0Ѵ; 7uom; r-1hv vol; bm1u;7b0Ѵ; om0o-u7 |;1_ķ bm1Ѵ 7bm] - ƐŊbm1_ " v;mvou |_-| ;m-0Ѵ;v o |o 1-r| u; ƔĺƓ b7;oĺ
£599, auteldrones.com $_; 7blbm ঞ ; |;Ѵ o -mo ];|v ; ;u |_bm] ru; l 1_ vro| omĺ $_; h; b|;l _;u; bv |_; 1-l;u- -m7 b|v ƐņƑŊ bm1_ v;mvouķ _b1_ r m1_;v - -0o ; b|v ;b]_|ķ v_ooঞm] ; 1;rঞom-Ѵ Ɠ b7;oĺ
£429, gopro.com
DJI MINI 2
GOPRO HERO 8 BLACK
AKASO BRAVE 7 LE £140, akasotech.com
£279, gopro.com
$_; u- ; ƕ C|v mb1;Ѵ bm |_; r-Ѵl o= o u _-m7ĺ )_bѴ; b|v _;-7Ѵbm; =;-| u; bv - =uom|Ŋ =-1bm] v1u;;mķ b| -Ѵvo vrou|v - m l0;u o= =;-| u;v omѴ v -ѴѴ =o m7 om =-m1b;u lo7;Ѵvĺ AKASO BRAVE 7 £120, akasotech.com
$_bv o uo _-v ]oo7b;v ; ;u _;u; o 1-u; |o Ѵoohĺ o u bu| -Ѵ Ѵ;mv;v ];| o |_; b7;-Ѵ C;Ѵ7 o= b; =ou _-| o Ľu; v_ooঞm]ķ -m7 m; |Ŋ];m b7;o v|-0bѴbv-ঞom h;;rv b| v|-0Ѵ; -m7 1ubvrĺ DJI ACTION 2
0Ѵ; |o u;1ou7 Ɠ -| ƒƏ=rv Ő|_; bl-]; v|-0bѴbv-ঞom bvmĽ| r |o l 1_ķ _o ; ;uőĺ |Ľv -|;uruoo= |o ƐƏlķ _-v - ƑŊbm1_ u;-u |o 1_v1u;;mķ -m7 1ol;v b|_ - u;lo|; -v ;ѴѴ -v v rrouঞm] ob1; 1om|uoѴvĺ
OLFI ONE.FIVE BLACK (2ND GEN)
£349, dji.com Ľv Cuv| 1olr-1|ķ ruoŊѴ; ;Ѵ 7uom; bv o |v|-m7bm]ĺ | 1ol;v b|_ | o 1-l;u-vĹ - =o uŊ|_bu7v -vv;Ѵ0Ѵ-7 |_-| ruo7 1;v |_; 0;v| bl-];v o 1o Ѵ7 _or; =ouķ rѴ v - v;1om7 b|_ ƑѶ _ 0ub7 oolĺ
$_; -ѴѴ;|Ŋ=ub;m7Ѵ ;uoƕ )_b|; 0ouuo v ru;lb l =;-| u;v =uol |_; ;uoƕ Ѵ-1hĺ 7;-Ѵ =ou r-u|Ŋঞl; -7u;m-Ѵbm; f mhb;v m;;7bm] - vblrѴ; 1-l;u- |_-| v_oo|v +o $ 0;Ŋ u;-7 =oo|-];ĺ
0b]];u v;mvou ŐƑƒĺѵ őķ l;-mv |_bv mb[ 1-l 1-m v_oo| Ɣ ņƒƏ b7;o -m7 ƑƏ vঞѴѴvķ -m7 o ];| - ;Ѵ1ol; ƒƏѷ 0- ;u 0oov| o ;u |_; ;uo Ѷĺ $_;u;Ľv - =uom| v1u;;m |ooĺ
$_; r;u=;1| t -Ѵb| 1-l;u-Ŋ1-uu bm] 7uom; =ou |_; l-vv;vķ |_bv ঞ|1_ 0bu7 bv vo vl-ѴѴ _;m =oѴ7;7 o 1-m _b7; b| 0;_bm7 -m b _om;ĺ $_; 1-l;u- bv Ɠ vr;1ķ -m7 b7;o |u-mvlbvvbom 7bv|-m1; f lrv |o ƐƏhlĺ
£769, dji.com
GOPRO HERO7 WHITE
$_; m; ;v| -77bঞom |o |_; u-m]; r-1hv - m; ruo1;vvou |_-| l;-mv |_bv o uo bv vloo|_;u -m7 vѴb1h;u |_-m ; ;uĺ (b7;o |orv o | -| Ɣĺƒ ѵƏ "ķ Ɠ -| ƐƑƏ "ķ -m7 Ƒĺƕ ņƑƓƏrĺ "ঞѴѴv ];| - 0oov| |o Ƒƒ ĺ GOPRO HERO 9 BLACK
DJI MAVIC 3
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestcheapaction
£179, gopro.com
AUTEL EVO NANO
£419, dji.com
CHEAP ACTION CAMERAS
_-v vrѴb| b|v m; ;v| 1-l;u- bm|o lo7 Ѵ;vĺ $_; l-bm mb| bv m;-| -m7 1olr-1|ķ _bѴ; -11;vvoub;v ŋ v 1_ -v -m ; |u- 0- ;u -m7 - =uom|Ŋ=-1bm] v1u;;m ŋ 1-m 0; vm-rr;7 om l-]m;ঞ1-ѴѴ ĺ
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A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 8 9
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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
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
£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.
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.
NIKON D850
FUJIFILM X-S10
FUJIFILM X100V
£3,299, nikon.co.uk
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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.
CANON EOS 90D
FUJIFILM X-T3
£1,249, canon.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.
NIKON D500
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£699, sony.com 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.
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 also shoot the occasional still image.
PANASONIC TZ200
£1,719, nikon.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.
SONY ZV1
NIKON Z5
£1,699, nikon.co.uk
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£629, panasonic.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
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.
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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.
The latest dash FDPbIURP 1H[WEDVH boasts muchimproved video quality, improved stabilisation and the inclusion of some rather clever What3Words geolocation services.
TOMTOM GO PREMIUM
GARMIN DASH CAM 66W
£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.
GARMIN DRIVESMART 61 LMT-S £209, garmin.com
THINKWARE F800 PRO
£999, pureelectric.com The Flux One offers exceptional value for money and punches above its weight in terms of looks and performance. Its max range is only 25 miles, but for urban riding that is plenty, and recharging is rapid.
CANYON ROADLITE:ON
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.
XIAOMI MI SMART FOLDING ELECTRIC BIKE £1,399, xiaomi.com
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.
PURE ELECTRIC PURE FLUX ONE
£2,799, canyon.com
£249, thinkware.com
£299, tomtom.com
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestebike
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.
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
ELECTRIC BIKES
Perhaps not the most fun on two wheels, but it really packs in the features. It folds up small, but drives along smoothly enough at the legal 15.5mph top speed, and has gears, a display, and lights.
GOCYCLE G4I £3,999, gocycle.com
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.
A folding bike with a riding position that’s practically identical to a full-size bike, everything from the overtly ‘futuristic’ styling to its wealth of high-tech features marks this out as one of the best in the biz.
A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 91
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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 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.
LIFX
£239.99 (without stand), amazon.co.uk Amazon’s biggest smart display can be mounted on the wall or on a stand. The 15-inch HD screen looks fantastic, and the brand new Alexa widgets, make this the most useful smart display yet.
From £19, lifx.com
AMAZON ECHO 4TH GEN
NANOLEAF ESSENTIALS
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
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Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestthermostat NEST THERMOSTAT E
AMAZON ECHO SHOW 15
£139, amazon.co.uk
SMART THERMOSTATS
£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
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 ACTIVE HEATING 2
From £13, ikea.com
£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
This excellent system LV ĆWWHG E\ D TXDOLĆHG engineer, and includes a receiver, an internet hub and a wallmounted thermostat. It’s easy to use, and tracks your phone so the house is warm when you get home.
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SMART PLUGS Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestplug TP-LINK KASA MINI KP115 £23, 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 IROBOT ROOMBA J7+ £899, irobot.co.uk
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£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
£665, roborock.com
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iROBOT ROOMBA S9+
£30, kasasmart.com
£180, en-uk.ring.com
£1,499, irobot.co.uk
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AMAZON SMART PLUG
EUFYCAM 2C
iROBOT ROOMBA I3+
£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
£699, irobot.co.uk
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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 IWC 81483 £229, indesit.co.uk
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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 G7110 SC £1,199, miele.co.uk (FRQRPLFDO HDV\ WR XVH DQG FRQWUROOHG IURP \RXU VPDUWSKRQH WKH * 6& FRPHV ZLWK DXWRPDWLF GHWHUJHQW GLVSHUVDO IRU XS WR ORDGV DQG KDV D KDQG\ TXLFN SRZHU ZDVK F\FOH HISENSE HS520E40WUK £259, hisense.co.uk
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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 FRIIHHbDQG 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 £1,389, appliancesdirect.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
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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
£300, philips.co.uk
£35, 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
£125, philips.co.uk
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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
2IIHULQJ WKH FXUUHQW EHVW EOHQG RI IHDWXUHV and price in the 6RQLFDUH UDQJH WKLV brush doesn’t pile on too many pointless cleaning modes – just WKH VHOI H[SODQDWRU\ ‘clean’ and ‘white’ plus D çJXP FDUHè PRGH ORAL-B IO9
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
£500, oralb.co.uk A rotary shaver that requires a circular PRWLRQ RQ WKH IDFH 6WXEEOH GLVDSSHDUV like magic, and the whole experience is YHU\ ORZ LUULWDWLRQ You get a clipRQ WULPPHU IRU VLGHEXUQVbWRR
PHILIPS ONEBLADE PRO
This only has two cleaning modes and no ‘smart’ IXQFWLRQDOLW\ WR VSHDNbRI EXW DVN \RXUVHOIð GR \RX really care? It has a timer, pressure sensor, and excellent URWDU\ FOHDQLQJ
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
£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
£50, philips.co.uk
PHILIPS SONICARE 6100 PROTECTIVECLEAN
PHILIPS SERIES 9000 S9211/31
PHILIPS BT9000 PRESTIGE
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 ORAL-B PRO 2 2500
£165, braun.com
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/besttrimmer
£120, philips.co.uk
PHILIPS SERIES 9000 PRESTIGE
BRAUN SERIES 7 70-N7200CC
BEARD TRIMMERS
e bSDQDVRQLF FR XN 7KH 553 IRU WKH L2 6HULHV LV ULGLFXORXV 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
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
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestrunningwatch GARMIN FORERUNNER 245 MUSIC
FITBIT CHARGE 5 e ĆWELW FRP
RUNNING WATCHES
A decent update over the Charge 4, and the AMOLED screen is very handsome. It’s comfortable to wear, and the overall user experience is also great, but it’s as expensive as some running watches.
e JDUPLQ FRP
The ultimate phone-free GPS running watch for the price-conscious runner. The battery can last up to seven days in smartwatch PRGH DQG VL[bKRXUV LQb*36 PRGH ZLWK music playing.
HUAWEI WATCH FIT ELEGANT
GARMIN FORERUNNER 945
e KXDZHL FRP
e JDUPLQ FRP 7KH SUHWWLHVW ĆWQHVV tracker on the market. Its 1.64 inch AMOLED display has a 456 x 280 resolution and an ambient light sensor, dimming when it’s dark to help the already excellent battery life.
GARMIN VENU 2 e JDUPLQ FRP
The Forerunner bKDV UHWDLQHG WKHbORRN DQG IHHO of the 935, but LQVLGH LWbKDV EHHQ completely revamped. There are new GPS chips and heart-rate sensors, plus onboard maps.
POLAR VANTAGE V2
The AMOLED screen of the Garmin Venu 2 really brings the widget view of the Garmin OS to life, including the animations when you hit new milestones such as your daily step goals.
FITBIT CHARGE 4
e SRODU FRP
Excellent build quality, and loads of useful tests and data å PDQ\bRI ZKLFK FDQèW be found elsewhere – for serious runners and cyclists to better their form and get ready for races PRUHbHIĆFLHQWO\
COROS PACE 2
e ĆWELW FRP
e FRURV FRP 7KH EHVW ĆWQHVV tracker you can buy and a big step forward for Fitbit, adding features such as GPS and a new exercise tracker alongside the step-counting. There are plentiful sleeptracking features too.
RUNNING HEADPHONES
Find the lowest prices at: t3.com/bestrunningphones BEATS POWERBEATS PRO
e EHDWVE\GUH FRP XN These true wireless powerhouses absolutely crush WKHLUbSUHGHFHVVRUV when it comes to quality of sound and VHFXULW\ RI ĆW $OO but impossible to accidentally dislodge from your ears.
JAYBIRD VISTA 2 e MD\ELUGVSRUW FRP Real class, with an H[FHOOHQW ĆW DQG advanced water and PXFN SURRĆQJ 6RXQG quality is great, and there is both effective noise cancelling and a ‘SurroundSense’ mode to hear what’s going on around you.
SKULLCANDY INDY ANC e VNXOOFDQG\ FR XN An amazing piece of workout kit for the price, combining Audiodo technology with active noise cancelling, making it possible to listen to your playlists in the gym without having to crank up the volume.
BEATS BY DR DRE POWERBEATS
The Pace 2 gets the basics right, but also has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. It might provide fewer casual features than some Garmins, but the running features on offer here are pretty much spot on.
e EHDWVE\GUH FRP XN A chunk cheaper than their big daddy, and they sound identical – which is to say they sound superb for workout music. And for non-workout music too. As a bonus, they boast a longer battery life.
A P R I L 2 0 2 2 T3 9 7
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