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Subscriptions hotline 0860 070 700 Email subscriptions@ mdafrica.co.za Advertising Business director Sally Hudson sally@stuff.co.za Senior account manager Thalia Pallotta 083 375 2418 thalia@stuff.co.za

For team Stuff, the things that go bump in the night are usually us, tripping over the cat while trying to find the light switch after a streaming binge (p101), or getting tangled in the cables of retro gaming controllers (p16). Which is why this issue’s big feature is dedicated to nocturnal tech (p38).

From smart lights and glowing jackets to brilliant (in both senses) alarm clocks and bicycles, this is tech that could save your kneecaps, and your life.

There’s other potentially life-saving tech in this issue, too.

Apple’s new Watch Series 4 (p12) includes fall detection that’ll buzz the emergency services if you tumble and can’t get up. You might need it once you see the price of Apple’s new flagship iPhones (p8). Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch (p59) can’t detect a fall, but it’s got a far more potent (and potentially sales-inducing) trick up its, err, sleeve: thanks to its Tizen OS it works with Android phones and Apple ones.

And speaking of Android phones, it’s the season of new mobile operating systems. Last issue we brought you protips for iOS 12, and this time around you should hang onto your fork, because there’s Android Pie (p83) to dig into.

Got some pie crumbs in your beard? No problem, our list of beard trimmers (p64) will help you find the ideal grooming tool to remove – or improve – your snack catcher.

Ladies (and thoughtful men), we also have it on good authority (well, our digital publisher’s) that the best trimmers aren’t just good for faces. Ever wanted to surprise your loved one with a message in your leg hair? Now you can.

Capable as some trimmers are, though, it’s probably best to leave the puppy or kitty topiary to the professionals, lest you void the warranty and set yourself up for a very awkward conversation with a store assistant. Instead, treat your fur child with the finest in pet tech (p68)… or, you know, repurpose it and impress your friends by shooting snacks directly into your mouth while playing Marvel’s Spider-Man (p90) on the couch. Which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “treat yo’self”.

Account manager (Cape Town) Bernice Blundell 073 618 1882 bernice@stuff.co.za Management Stuff South Africa is published by the Stuff Group (Pty) Ltd. Directors: Toby Shapshak, Sally Hudson PO Box 74, Melrose Arch, 2096 Haymarket UK Stuff UK content is published with the permission of copyright holder Kelsey Publishing Ltd, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG ... and a word about prices Generally, we show the manufacturer’s recommended price.

Occasionally we (or suppliers) can make mistakes. Please remember that prices listed in Stuff are intended as a guide only. We make every effort to confirm that all information is correct (and triple checked) when we go to print.

Craig Wilson, Editor craig@stuff.co.za @craigwilson

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1 Promotions, giveaways and competitions are entered through Stuff Group’s website www.stuff.co.za and are opened for Issue 90, 2018 on 22 October 2018 and close on 25 November 2018. 2 The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into. 3 Employees of Stuff Group and their families are not allowed to enter. Advertising and public relations representatives may not enter competitions in the issue in which their promotions, giveaways or competitions are carried. 4 Prizes are not exchangeable for cash and/or other products. Prizes are available while stocks last. It is at the discretion of Stuff Group and the custodian of the prizes to ensure that, should there be a problem with the stipulated prize won, a reasonable replacement of the same value will be offered. 5 Stuff Group carries promotions, giveaways and competitions in good faith and cannot be held responsible for any misrepresentation on the part of the custodian of the promotions, giveaways and competitions. 6 Winners will be notified telephonically and by mail. It is the responsibility of the winner to ensure that the correct address and contact details are given. It is the responsibility of the custodian of the promotion, giveaway and competition to ensure that prizes are sent out correctly and within the specified time. 7 Prize delivery will take four to six weeks from the time the winner has been notified. 8 Promotions, giveaways and competitions are open to South African residents only. 9 All prize-winners will be published on www.stuff.co.za the following month, once the competition lines have closed. 10 Readers may not claim for more than one prize at a time, and once announced as a winner in any Stuff promotions, giveaways or competitions, will not be eligible for another prize for three (3) months thereafter. 11 By entering any promotions, giveaways or competitions, or by accepting any prize, entrants agree that their personal details may be retained by the promoter and/or Stuff magazine and used for the purpose of sending them information about future promotions, events and news, as well as for internal administration and analysis. 12 Unclaimed prizes will be kept for three months and will not be resent. 13 Participation in any promotion, giveaway or competition and/or acceptance of any prize implies full knowledge and acceptance of all rules.

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© Stuff South Africa. All due care will be taken with material submitted, but the magazine and publishers cannot be held responsible for loss or damage. Stuff South Africa assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial, graphic or other material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial and graphic material will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and material will be subject to Stuff South Africa’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially. Stuff South Africa is fully protected by copyright and nothing may be reprinted in whole or part without written permission from the publisher.

While reasonable precautions have been taken to ensure the accuracy of advice and information given to readers, the editor, publisher and proprietor cannot accept responsibility for any damage or inconvenience that may arise therefrom.

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CON S P12

ON THE COVER

P67

p8 The road of XS

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18 20 22 26 30 34 36

The Hot Six O Apple iPhone XS Max, XS & XR O Apple Watch Series 4 O Sony Xperia XZ3 O Samsung Q900R O Sony PlayStation Classic Icon Sony FES Watch U It’s more than just a pretty (watch) face Vital stats DJI Mavic 2 Pro Snazzy Hasselblad-touting foldable drone Apps Including your new handheld drum machine Gigapixel Acer Predator Thronos A gaming arcade in your spare room Games Rage 2 Still ruddy furious after all these years Start menu The gadget horses to back this month Wheels Mercedes-Benz EQC Tesla-hunting in Merc’s new electric SUV

p38 Eternity’s sunrise

67 74 75 76 78 80 84 88 90

p59 Immortal hand

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First test Samsung Galaxy Watch Little and large have never looked so sexy 3 of the best Bluetooth speakers Tremor vs Kilburn II vs Megaboom 3 Tested HP Omen 15 It looks the part, but how does it play?

Tested Sony RX100 VI Ace compact snapper gets a touchscreen Tested BMW i8 Sporty little hybrid number loses its roof Tested Lexus LC 500 This car’s got even more tech than our office Tested Jabra Elite Active 65t Give your sweaty jogs more audio oomph Long-term test Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 This laptop’s more versatile than James Milner Tested Microsoft Surface Go Tasty tab for prudent professionals Tested Huawei Mate 20 Lite Panting for the new flagship? This isn’t it…

Tested Canon SX740 A travel cam with a big snoopy conk Tested Games Spider-Man, Forsaken and Lara’s latest

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WIN! p24

P38 P107

FEATURES 38 Cover feature Nocturnal tech Whether you’re trying to get the little darlings off to sleep, staying safe on the road or wanting to beef up your home security, this is the way to glow 58 Mini meme Good habit formers Use your smartphone more efficiently 64 Upvoted Beard trimmers If birds are nesting, it’s time for a fuzz-off 68 Stuff picks Pet tech Keep tabs on your tabby 82 Beta yourself Android Pie “OK Google, how can I optimise this OS?” 86 Instant upgrades MacBook Pro Get more from your swanky new laptop 112 Next big thing? Wall-mounted coaches The best excuse ever for mirror staring

TOP TENS 95 The Stuff Top Ten of everything Your essential gadget-buying guide: Smartphones, tablets, headphones, TVs, smartwatches, laptops, consoles, games, wearables, budget tech, system cameras 98 Should I upgrade? Razer Blade 15 (2018) Is it time to give your PC hardware a refresh?

99 Playlist Best anime to stream Catch up on the finest Japanese toons 101 Your streaming essentials BoJack’s back and Pep reveals his master plan 105 The big question What should my kids be streaming?

107 How to buy… a Bluetooth speaker Play that funky music anywhere you fancy 110 5-minute hacks Use a PS4 pad with your Nintendo Switch

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I GOT NORDIC WITH MY WI-FI

I LIT UP MY LIFE… AND MY LOUNGE

Using free public Wi-Fi is a boon if you run out of airtime or you’re travelling overseas. But it can be hazardous. Security researchers warn that one of the most dangerous things you can do is use an unsecured wireless network because it can be easily compromised and your data intercepted. Worse, hackers often pretend to offer ‘free Wi-Fi’ in public spaces so they can steal passwords and other sensitive data. The way to protect yourself is with a virtual private network (VPN), which creates a secure ‘tunnel’ from your phone to the VPN servers, keeping your data safe from prying eyes. I’ve been using NordVPN, which is fast and easy to use. We all use public Wi-Fi sometimes, which means we should all be using VPNs. Toby Shapshak, Publisher and Editor-in-chief

My current tech obsession is smart lighting. It started with a Philips Hue Bloom, followed by a pair of not-so-smart Algato’s from Avea (now Eve). Next, I added one of Wiz’s superb colour-changing bulbs. Then Nanoleaf’s utterly mesmerising, impossibly smart, triangular Aurora light panels crossed my web browser. I sprung for 15 panels, added the Rhythm module that creates a beat-matched light show, and bought the dodecahedron remote control for switching between a dozen scenes by flipping the appropriate numbered side to the top, or adjusting the panels’ brightness by rotating it. The only problems?

I had to import the lot. And now my neighbours think I’m running a nightclub in my apartment.

Craig Wilson, Editor

Making Stuff up Publisher and Editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak toby@stuff.co.za Editor Craig Wilson craig@stuff.co.za Digital Publisher Nic Boerma nic@stuff.co.za Digital Editor Brett Venter brett@stuff.co.za Deputy Digital Editor Marcé Bester marce@stuff.co.za Art Director Brandon van Rensburg art@stuff.co.za Selling Stuff Business Director Sally Hudson, sally@stuff.co.za Senior Account Manager Thalia Pallotta 083 375 2418 thalia@stuff.co.za

OUR MONTH What this issue has brought us by way of geekery I LOOKED AT ART WITH A DRONE Well, to be more accurate, first I explored a really big garden from above. The Nirox Sculpture park to be exact, which reminded me how similar most public parks, gardens and the like look from above. Long story short, I flew a drone for the first time in my life, and not some dinky budget one either, the brand new DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, which made peering at the sculptures liberally distributed around the park a cinch. In true gamer fashion, I tried to navigate using the phone screen alone. Pro tip: try to keep an eye on the drone in the sky while flying in unknown airspace… otherwise you might just lose a R26k drone to a Magaliesburg tree or pond. Thankfully there were pro drone wranglers on hand to get me back on course.

Marcé Bester, Deputy Digital Editor

I UNBOXED AN LG GIGANTA-TV It took some organising around a broken-down truck, a hardto-find address, and a couple of deadlines, but I finally managed to take delivery of LG’s R50 000 65in C8 OLED TV for a couple of weeks of testing. I just happened to have Avengers: Infinity War on hand, as well as Insomniac’s absolutely spectacular take on Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4 to give it a really rigorous test.

LG’s newest version of webOS is a couple of steps above previous takes and the TV is a dream to navigate. My only complaint a week in?

LG’s gone and changed the layout of their Magic Remote, which means my muscle memory is now completely useless – till I give this screen back, that is. By which time I’ll be used to it.

Brett Venter, Digital Editor

Getting Stuff to you Printing CTP Distribution RNA 011 248 3607 (Caitlin) Contacting Stuff Call us 011 889 0610 Email us stuff@stuff.co.za Subscribe stuff.co.za/buy Find us www.stuff.co.za StuffSA @StuffSA Caxton House, 368 Jan Smuts Ave, Craighall, Johannesburg, 2196

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1 terabyte ready with expandable memory Galaxy Note9 512GB now available in South Africa

512GB Model available at selected stores. Up to 512GB additional storage with external SD card (sold separately). Samsung 512GB SD card coming soon.

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XS MAX KEY SPECS O 6.5in 2688x1242 OLED screen O Apple A12 Bionic chip O 4GB RAM O iOS 12 O 64/256/512GB storage O Dual 12MP rear, 7MP front camera O 3174mAh battery 8

2018’s iPhones have been bumped up to IP68, which makes them not only water-resistant but also fully resistant to dust and dirt.

Should the urge arise, you can bathe your new phone in warm beer.

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22 PAGES OF THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM PLANET TECH

Face race iOS 12 alone gives your iPhone a noticeable shot in the arm, with apps reportedly launching up to 30% faster.

And the XS has faster Face ID than its predecessor, as well as quicker wireless charging.

HOT SIX #1 VOLUNTARY XS

APPLE iPHONE XS & XS MAX The iPhone X made quite the splash. It pioneered the much-imitated notch, was the first iPhone with an edge-to-edge OLED display, and was the first to ditch the home button. So 2018 was always going to be a quieter year for Apple… but once you’ve finished frowning at the names of its new flagships, you’ll find a lot to love.

First, the XS (pronounced, ‘ten ess’, Apple insists, though nobody’s listening), which looks like last year’s model but packs the

new A12 Bionic chip – which enhances your photos, gaming and AR while giving you more battery life than the X. The dual 12MP rear snappers have faster sensors and Apple’s Smart HDR, while a new slider lets you adjust depth of field in real time.

And all of this is also available in the XS Max, whose huge 6.5in OLED screen makes it – inevitably – the ‘best iPhone ever’.

As hot as… Tim Cook’s favourite Jacuzzi from R22 000/R24 000 / myistore.co.za 9

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Pic that one out The iPhone XS’s enhanced cameras boast larger and deeper pixels, which might sound silly but supposedly give you more realistic colours and less noise in low light.

XS, but XL The A12 chip has a fast storage controller, which enables the iPhone to blaze past the 256GB space limit for the first time. If you have the cash, you can now splash out on 512GB of built-in storage.

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HANDS-ON APPLE iPHONE XS MAX Gilty, your honour Worried nobody is going to notice you’ve got an iPhone XS? Have a word with yourself.

But if you’re that concerned, make sure you opt for the eye-catching new gold finish.

This is a clear extension of the iPhone X style. It looks like an X that’s been gently inflated with a bicycle pump, with the same shiny stainless-steel edge, glass back and that nowfamiliar notch where the TrueDepth camera unit sits.

The easiest way to tell whether you’re looking at an iPhone XS or its larger XS Max sibling is to check the notch – because it’s the same size on both, it looks proportionally smaller on the Max’s display. It’s manageable in the hand, just, and offers the same tactile smoothness of the iPhone X. The new Portrait Mode feature is as impressive as it sounds, and more than just a basic adjustment of background blur. Machine learning contributes to working out what the image is and what the light sources are.

The result is subtle and effective, with extraordinary levels of realism.

It’s simply done by adjusting a slider that appears on the bottom of the screen when you hit edit, and is worth getting excited over.

HOT SIX #2 R YOU EXPERIENCED? Apple iPhone XR

Pane relief If you go for the XS Max, you can rotate it to landscape and some apps will offer a dual-pane mode (like on the iPhone Plus). It’s handy for filing emails or browsing categories in Settings.

Recognising that not everyone has over 20 grand to drop on a phone, Apple also introduced the iPhone XR. During its unveiling, the word ‘same’ was used almost hypnotically by Jony Ive’s soothing voice to stress that this device has plenty of the same bits found in the pricier iPhone XS models: the same A12 chip, the same True Depth camera, the same Face ID system. What’s not the same: the price (lower), the camera system (no dual setup here, although Smart HDR and the bokeh slider do make it), and the display. Apple reckons the XR’s 6.1in LCD screen is the most advanced the industry’s ever seen –but the 1972x828 resolution is below Full HD, and at 326ppi only matches the sharpness of the iPhone 8. If you can get past that, though, you’ll be able to enjoy a variety of vibrant colour options, including arresting red, gleaming yellow and bright blue numbers, that make the XS models look like they’re taking themselves far too seriously.

As hot as… flame-grilled envy Rtba / myistore.co.za 11

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It’s a grower The 38mm and 42mm case sizes are no more, replaced by 40mm and 44mm to accommodate the bigger display. Good news for people who wanted more screen space; not so great for skinny wrists.

HOT SIX #3 WATCHOS 5 LOWDOWN OLYMPIC GAINS There’s nothing like a bit of friendly(ish) competition to get you moving. A well as sharing activity stats, watchOS 5 lets you challenge pals to seven-day competitions.

WRIST NEVER SLEEPS Imagine going for a run and not tracking every sweaty stride. With watchOS 5, this won’t happen, as the wearable automatically detects when you’re working out.

YOGI BARE Apple has also added yoga to the Workouts app for those who want to boast about the quality of their downward dog.

THE VOICE OF POD Spend as much time listening to waffle as music? Podcasts are now available on Apple Watch, syncing with your phone whenever a new episode comes along.

TALK TO THE, ER, WRIST Apple’s Walkie-Talkie app, which lets you talk to other Watch users by tapping a big yellow button, is a fun addition. But is it really any more useful than a phone call?

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AWRISTED DEVELOPMENT

Apple Watch Series 4 Like flat-earthers and Phantom Menace apologists, smartwatch sceptics are still out there. But anyone who’s worn one of Apple’s wearables will vouch for its subtly useful skillset, to the point that reverting to a dumb watch soon becomes very difficult indeed. The Apple Watch Series 3 laid the foundations for the product’s future by offering a cellular option that freed it from the iPhone in your pocket, and for Series 4 Apple has delivered on another important department: giving the Watch the comprehensive redesign users have been crying out for. The screen is 30% bigger, the body is thinner, and the digital crown now vibrates with haptic feedback. The speaker is also 50% louder, while the microphone has been shifted over to the right for more separation.

There are major additions in the health department too: the Watch can now detect a slip or fall, and reach out to your chosen emergency contact if it detects you’re not moving afterwards.

Ashotas…yourpost-marathonarmpits from R8 000 / myistore.co.za

Ticking along The Watch Series 3 is hardly a slouch, but Apple has introduced a new processor for its latest wearable. The S4 chip is (by its maker’s estimation) up to twice as fast as the old one.

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Beater meter Apple has been pushing the idea of the Watch being your wearable guardian since day one, and the heart sensor now tells you when your rate falls below a set threshold for an abnormally long period of time.

Just do it As with previous Apple Watches, the Series 4 will also be available in Nike+ models, with both Sport Band and Sport Loop strap options.

The nylon straps have reflective material woven in.

KEY SPECS O Dual-core S4 processor O W3 wireless chip O 16GB storage O Battery life up to 18 hours O Heart-rate sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor O Water-resistant to 50m O 36.7g (44mm), 30.1g (40mm) 13

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Range things are happening That OLED display is only half the story; the XZ3 excels in the HDR department too, working wonders with compatible Netflix shows and upscaling everything else.

We’re getting good vibes Like the XZ2 before it, Sony’s new phone features a Dynamic Vibration System, which means it apes the rumbling of a DualShock when you’re watching films or gaming.

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HOT SIX #4 SOMETHING OLED, SOMETHING NEW Sony Xperia XZ3

There’s no denying it: when it comes to smartphones, Sony has been lagging behind for a long time. But this latest big-screen offering is the business.

For a start, it’s rocking a 6in 18:9 HDR OLED display. The ‘OLED’ part of that is the important bit, as it puts Sony’s new flagship in line with the top-end iPhones and Galaxies of the world, and Sony knows a thing or two about OLED panels from the TV side of its business. Sporting a gorgeous

3D glass design, it’s definitely a looker as long as you’re OK with a bit of bezel.

Other notable new features include the AI-powered Side Sense, activated by a double-tap on the side to quickly access your most used apps. The processor and rear camera are unchanged from the XZ2, but the selfie snapper is bumped up to 13MP. It seems Sony’s a contender again.

As hot as… lava surfing Rtba / sony.com/za

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HOT SIX #5 ALL YOU CAN EIGHT

Samsung Q900R

We’re hearing good things The XZ2 was already a booming phone, but Sony reckons the duo of front-firing speakers on the XZ3 are even louder. Wearing cans?

Hi-res audio playback is supported.

Technology comes at you fast. Chances are Joe Bloggs is still getting his head around the arrival of 4K, and you can’t even watch local news in HD yet. Those cows could look so, so much better. But of course, tech companies don’t care about any of that, and Samsung is boldly putting itself at the forefront of an 8K revolution we didn’t know we needed. Its new Q900R range starts at 65in and goes right up to an 85in set, each boasting 8K QLED HDR screens. Pixel count? 7680x4320, which translates to 16x more detail than Full HD. But before you hand your new 4K TV to the charity shop, you should remember that there is precisely no 8K content to watch.

Samsung’s workaround is AI upscaling that uses machine learning to more accurately fill in the gaps. Put simply, it will make everything look smoother and more vibrant, be that an already stunning 4K movie or a low-res YouTube fail montage.

Add to that 4000-nit peak brightness and pitch-perfect colour accuracy, and this showoff TV starts to look enticing.

As hot as… 7680x4320 lit matches Rtba / samung.com/za 15

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Wire you doing this?

Who’s in control here?

The NES Mini’s short cables were a pain. We’ll soon see if Sony’s been more generous, but chances are you’ll be sitting cross-legged in front of the TV just like the old days.

A 1:1 recreation of the original PlayStation controller means you’ll have to do without the analogue sticks of its follow-up. Wonky camera controls it is, then.

HOT SIX #6 LATE CONSOLE ELATION PlayStation Classic

You could see it coming a Gran Turismo mile off. Nintendo’s decision to put two of its iconic consoles through the tumble dryer has paid off big time, so it’s no surprise that Sony now wants a slice of that tasty nostalgia pie.

Arriving in time for the big guy in the red suit, the PlayStation Classic is 45% smaller than the original machine (which is nearly 25 years old!) but otherwise looks pretty much the same as you remember. The two 16

bundled controllers haven’t changed either, but your memory card is now stored virtually. Sony has even designed packaging similar to what you would have savagely torn open in the ’90s.

It comes with 20 pre-loaded games, including Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash!, Tekken 3 and Wild Arms. Here’s wishing you a jaggy festive season.

As hot as… Spyro’s morning breath Rtba / playstation.com/en-za

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SONY FES WATCH U Rtba / sony.com/za That’s a funny-looking Kindle.

Ah, how very perceptive of you to notice that Sony’s FES Watch U has a face made of E Ink – the stuff they use to make the screens for Amazon’s Kindle e-readers.

What you might not have clocked, though, is that the display doesn’t stop there: it wraps right around the strap. E Ink makes this watch’s display very easy on the eye, and it only really uses up power when it needs to be refreshed. Because that will only happen every 60 seconds, the battery lasts a whopping two weeks.

Wow! That’s way better than most smartwatches.

Ah… did anyone actually mention smartwatches? Because this thing isn’t exactly smart. While it does have Bluetooth and a compatible iOS and Android app, it’s not for storing heart-rate data or making sure all your text, calendar and reminder notifications get from your phone to your wrist. It can’t do any of that. The FES Closet app is purely for transferring patterns to that E Ink strap and display. There are heaps to choose from, or you can create your own by uploading an image.

So I could have a different look for each day of the month?

Not quite. The watch itself can only store 24 designs. Still, it’s a premium chunk of wrist candy.

There’s a choice of two finishes: the more expensive black version with a steel body, scratch-resistant sapphire glass and ion plating, or the cheaper silver option, which has untreated mineral glass instead. Both are water-resistant, but don’t even think about taking them on your next scuba-diving expedition. It’s probably too dark to read down there anyway.

THE APP SENDS PATTERNS TO THE WATCH’S DISPLAY AND STRAP 18

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QUAD IN THE HIGHEST

DJI’s new ActiveTrack 2 tech uses multiple sensors to map a 3D image of the environment for more accurate tracking.

DJI Mavic 2 Pro R30 000 / myistore.co.za

A go-anywhere drone with a no-compromise camera?

That’s the idea behind DJI’s new Mavic 2 Pro, a folding quadcopter with formidable aerial video skills…

O One-inch punch The Mavic 2 Pro’s big selling point is its Hasselblad-branded camera.

The Swedish firm (part-owned by DJI) built the cameras NASA took to the moon, but this is its first drone-mounted snapper – and it’s a doozy. A huge 1in 20MP sensor and adjustable aperture 20

mean great performance in any lighting conditions, with video options including 4K 10-bit HDR and 120fps slow motion. All that dynamic range should give your images of bald-headed dog-walkers some striking colour depth and punchy contrast.

O Eye will follow DJI has improved its already eerily accurate ActiveTrack system for the Mavic 2 Pro, so you can concentrate on flying while the camera automatically follows your chosen subject. Just drag a box

around the person/car/hedgehog you want to make your video’s star and the drone will do the rest.

mode, of course, in which case all sensors are disabled and you’re on your own out there.

O Sensory overload Nobody wants to see their new R30k flying camera tumbling helplessly to the concrete after an altercation with a tree, so less experienced pilots will be relieved to hear that DJI has, for the first time, put anti-collision sensors on all sides of this drone. That means it’ll stop itself from ploughing into obstacles – unless you decide to switch into the 72km/h Sport

O Wander woman Because it uses radio-based transmission rather than Wi-Fi, the Mavic 2 Pro has an incredible remote control range. DJI claims that, with no obstructions or interference, it’ll fly it up to 8km away from the controller, all while beaming a live 1080p video feed to your phone. And 31 minutes of flight time per battery charge is the longest for any DJI on the market.

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Winning the spinning

YAMAHA MUSICCAST VINYL 500

AFFORDABLE FOLDABLES O Parrot Anafi (R13 000)

With vinyl not merely ‘revived’ but sitting up in bed and cracking jokes, it was only a matter of time before someone made a turntable for audiophiles who love the old-school thrill of physical music but hate old-school cables. Yamaha’s MusicCast Vinyl 500 fills that gap. It’s a record player with Wi-Fi, meaning it can stream your vinyl collection wirelessly to Yamaha’s MusicCast speakers. If that wasn’t enough, it’s absolutely rammed with additional connectivity: Bluetooth and AirPlay are both supported, and if you want to listen to something that isn’t an old Engelbert Humperdinck LP you can stream from services like Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and more. Alexa’s along for the ride too, because of course she is.

Rtba / yamaha.co.za

A dinky drone with USB charging, 4K HDR video and 25 minutes of battery life, the Anafi’s only significant flaw is its lack of collision-detecting tech.

O DJI Mavic Air (R14 000) More pocketable than the Mavic 2 Pro but also blessed with a 4K camera, 21-minute battery and 4km range, the Mavic Air balances performance and portability.

O Yuneec Mantis Q (R15 000) A seriously specced-up offering for the price, this offers 72km/h top speed, 33 minutes of battery life and voice controls for when you’re too lazy to use your thumbs.

Bingeing on hingeing

THIS IS THE FIRST DJI WITH ANTI-COLLISION SENSORS ON ALL SIDES

LENOVO YOGA BOOK C930 Two years is a long time in tech – much longer than it was, say, two years ago. But if you can still remember 2016, you might recall Lenovo unveiling an experimental laptop called the Yoga Book, whose digital ‘Halo’ keyboard would illuminate only when you required its services.

The Yoga Book C930 is an evolution of the same concept, but that keyboard has been swapped for an E Ink display. Running up to a 7th-gen Intel Core processor, there’s no arguing with the C930’s PC credentials, but it’s the device’s versatility that makes it interesting: the hinge lets you flip it over and scribble with a stylus, or use the lower half as an e-reader. Like to hear yourself type? Lenovo says it’s made its travel-less keyboard as clicky as possible.

Rtba / lenovo.com/za 21

A P P S This month’s mobile must-downloads 1

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APP MATHS ASPHALT 8: AIRBORNE

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Free (IAPs) / Android, iOS Absurdly nitro-happy high-octane racing meets cynical IAP grind.

Still brilliantly bonkers, mind.

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SUPER MARIO RUN

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Free (IAPs) / Android, iOS Platform gaming, stripped back.

You’ve no direct control over the moustachio’d protagonist here, just his jumps.

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ASPHALT 9: LEGENDS

1 Snoozle

2 Travis & Fripp

3 Moment Pro Camera

4 Timeshifter

5 Pitter Patter

6 Rowdy Wrestling

7 Holedown

8 Earth Atlantis

9 Look, Your Loot!

Free / Android, iOS This split-personality alarm clock serenades you to sleep with the sounds of rainforests and crackling fires. In the morning you’re roused by messages sent by friends. Hope they don’t go in for screaming.

Free (IAPs) / Android, iOS Zombified after a trip abroad?

Timeshifter may lack a magical ‘stop getting hungry at weird times’ IAP, but it does battle jet-lag with personal schedules for when best to take in daylight – and coffee.

R60 / Android, iOS Digging with a spade is so last year.

In Holedown, you blast through numbered bricks by lobbing bouncy balls at them. Quite why said balls are smiling, we’ve no idea; they must have quite the headache.

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R50 each / iOS Having squeezed a digital Brian Eno onto iPhone, Peter Chilvers manages the same trick with Theo Travis and Robert Fripp. Three apps provide a trio of endless chill-out experiences akin to live performances.

Free / Apple Watch Want to feel a friend’s heartbeat, but find it inconvenient and creepy to follow them around with your hand on their chest? Try this app instead, sending all their ba-dums directly to your wrist.

R80 / iOS It turns out the climate change people were right – and the fish are really annoyed. In this shooter you get all splashy and shooty, blowing them away with your sub and cooing at lovely sepia visuals.

R60 / iOS O R28 / Android Manual cameras are great… until you realise you’ve messed up settings while sorting your shot.

Moment puts you right with speedy double-tap presets and a slew of other fab pro-level features.

Free / Android, iOS As if pro wrestling weren’t already ridiculous enough, this game doubles down on the stupid.

Bouncy arm-whirling hulks rumble in cartoon chaos, smacking each other with fists, feet and chairs.

Free / Android, iOS Dungeon-crawling with a grid of cards is now a thing on mobile.

This game refines the sub-genre until it squeaks (the hero’s even a mouse), making for superb pocket-based RPG-lite larks.

Free (IAPs) / Android, iOS On-rails racing, where you don’t even steer – just time your drifts and boosts.

Sounds rubbish?

Cartwheeling through the air into your rivals is anything but.

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REDMI S2

SMARTPHONE The “S” is for selfie. The S2 is a brand new Redmi series smartphone specially designed for people who like taking selfies and communicating. It offers excellent performance at a great price.

Tech specs Display 5.99in, 720p, 18:9 aspect ratio Memory 3GB RAM Storage 32GB Battery 3080mAh Rear camera 12MP + 5MP Front-facing camera 16MP camera with flash Processor Snapdragon 625 Weight 170g

TO ENTER SCAN THE QR CODE OR VISIT:

stuf.co.za/ win-redmi-s2 Entries valid from 22 October 2018 until 25 November 2018.

Terms and conditions on the editor’s letter page (p2).

COMPETITION ENTRIES CLOSE 25 NOV 2018 24

VS

4K frolics

CANON SX740 HS Your smartphone has been trying to muscle out the compact point-and-shoot camera for a while, but keen photographers will always find a space in their backpack for a dedicated snapper, especially if it’s as talented as Canon’s pocketable PowerShot SX740. Specs-wise, it’s not a lot different to last year’s SX730, inheriting that camera’s 40x zoom, 20MP sensor and 5-axis image stabilisation. But now, with 4K video recording added to the mix, you can thrill relatives with your pin-sharp holiday montages.

R6 000 / canon.co.za

Filtered fun

FUJIFILM XF10 Just because a camera can fit in your pocket, that doesn’t mean it can’t take photos worthy of an art gallery. With an 18.5mm f/2.8 fixed lens and 24MP APS-C sensor, Fuji’s XF10 is ideal for taking stunning shots on your travels.

And if you want 4K footage to truly capture your holiday memories, then the XF10 is up to the task, albeit at only 15fps. On top of that, you get a bulging collection of filters: ‘Rich and Fine’ is your go-to for tasty shots of dinner, while the NIR effect lends eerie monochrome drama to your NYC album.

Rtba / fujifilm.co.za

The bigger picture in tech

GAME OF THRONOS While the games industry seems intent on selling VR as the future of the medium, Acer’s approach is more old-school… and a little bit crazy. Its new Predator Thronos puts you into a gaming chair that reclines 140°, lights up and vibrates in sync with whatever you’re playing. Yes, it’s 2018’s answer to the ’80s Afterburner arcade cabinet. Just add three of Acer’s gaming monitors, one Predator gaming PC and whatever keyboards, mice and controllers you want to bring to your cockpit party. We know nothing about price yet, but given the cost of all those peripherals – and possibly a crane to lift the 200kg structure into your house – you might want to start saving.

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FUJI’S LARGE MEDIUM Fujifilm’s opted to supersize their medium-format camera range with the GFX 50R. In a manner of speaking. Fuji’s packed a 51.4MP CMOS sensor and a host of other improvements into an even smaller body than its previous eyebrow-lifter, the awesome GFX 50S.

QUEST FOR OCULUS Move over Oculus Rift, Facebook’s announced the Oculus Quest – their first standalone VR gaming system. It won’t need a gaming PC or a smartphone in the visor. What’s inside it? We’re not sure but it’ll be less powerful than the Rift(’s PC). Obvs.

HITTING THE SPOT(IFY) All you prospective musical superstars may get a shot in the arm soon. Spotify is trialling the ability for independent artists to upload their own tunes to the service, without the need for a publisher. It’s invite-only for now, but do stay tuned…

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WTF IS THE HUAWEI AI CUBE? That… that’s not a cube.

No, it isn’t a cube, and to be honest we’re still as much in the dark about the naming process behind the AI Cube as you are. Geometric outrage aside, though, Huawei’s debut smart speaker is a fascinating product – and one that manages to stand out from its contemporaries, of which there have recently been absolutely loads.

Adventure time

CASIO PRO TREK WSD-F30 The latest entry in Casio’s Pro Trek series is narrower and thinner than its predecessor (see p40); but, let’s face it, you’re not going for sleek with these chunky beauties. No, the WSD-F30 is for people living in their own action movie: hanging off mountains, diving into oceans, and yet still wanting to know the time. This watch is waterproof to 50m and MIL-STD–810-certified, runs Google’s Wear OS, and includes Casio’s colour-map-downloading navigation smarts. Extend Mode can boost the standard 36hr stamina to three days by flipping the 1.2in dual-layer display to monochrome; and if you’re lost in the woods you can fire up Multi Timepiece Mode, which adds a compass.

Rtba / wsd.casio.com

Alright then. What has this almost cylindrical cube got to offer?

You know how George Weah was really good at soccer and now runs Liberia?

Well, some might say the AI Cube has similarly impressive versatility. It’s at the same time a speaker and a 4G router, accepting a SIM card via a slot on the bottom of the device to enable connection at LTE Cat 6 speeds. It also supports the 802.11ac standard, meaning you can use it as a dual-band Wi-Fi router that tops out at 1200Mbps.

I don’t see my Amazon Echo offering to help me watch BoJack.

Exactly. And if the marketing babble is to be believed, the AI Cube (you’re just going to have to accept it) isn’t shirking it’s responsibilities as an audio device either. Concealed within its matte white exterior is a 400ml sound cavity and an aluminium diaphragm, which Huawei says will help it produce well-rounded sound from top to bottom. The company’s own Histen tech, meanwhile, can perform such magic tricks as ‘virtual bass’ and adaptive gain control.

And the pièce de résistance?

Drum roll, please… it’s Alexa, of course!

Amazon’s increasingly omnipotent voice assistant is built in and skilled up to her virtual eyeballs. There’s even a blue ring that lights up just like your Dot when you say the word. Maybe she can clear up the ‘cube’ thing.

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Sitting on the bay of a dock

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 (2018) If you’re after a super-cheap tablet, there’s been nothing to top Amazon’s Fire HD range for a while now. While the new Fire HD 8 may look indistinguishable from the 2016 model, it aims to continue this reign of dominance with several upgrades under the hood, such as a new quad-core processor, a 720p front-facing camera and up to 400GB of expandable storage. But the big new feature is the optional new dock and case, which charge the device wirelessly and activate Show Mode, essentially turning your Fire HD 8 into an Echo Show. This means you get visual answers to your questions, and can ask Alexa to play the latest TV shows from Prime Video.

Rtba / takealot.com

Available from

www.dji.com

G A M E S

OUT AUTUMN 2019

FIRST PLAY RAGE 2 PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Rage 2 is a surprising sequel, to say the least. Not because of what’s new or different here, but mainly because the original Rage kind of came and went… and then seven years passed with no hint that it’d be anything other than a one-off.

But after a brash debut at E3, we’re glad to see id Software give this post-apocalyptic romp another shot. It lands like an amped-up Mad Max, albeit one that packs the kind of wallop we expect from an id shooter.

The chunk we played was brief but lively. As dimwitted, 30

neon-tinged goons paraded around the rubble outside the Eden Space Center, we savoured each encounter as an opportunity to test out the myriad abilities on offer in this open-world single-player adventure. There’s more at hand than just epic shotgun blasts, even if those are present as expected.

The game’s over-the-top nature is represented by your hero’s abilities, which let you speedily dash up to foes, use a kinetic ‘shatter’ move to blast them back, or slam

down from above to cause epic damage all around.

Things really step up a gear when your fully-charged meter lets you kick into overdrive. Now the game takes on a surreal strobe-light aesthetic as you mash your way through all opposition at high speed.

What else? Well, Wingstick, aka the murder-boomerang from the first game, has been improved, and we haven’t even had a chance to try the crazy vehicular combat yet. Loaded with personality, this could be an early 2019 highlight.

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STREETS OF RAGE 4 Switch If The Crystal Maze and Take That have managed it, you’ve got to back Streets of Rage to make a triumphant comeback, even if no one saw it coming.

Yes, after a full 24 years of hibernation, the legendary

beat-’em-up series is reborn with Streets of Rage 4, which will pick up where the Mega Drive games left off.

It’s being developed by Lizardcube, the team behind the gorgeous Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap from last year, and also employs a hand-drawn art style.

Crucially, the game will feel familiar to anyone who spent

many a weekend in the ’90s punching up 2D criminal sprites in side-scrolling city-based stages. Streets of Rage stalwarts Axel and Blaze are back and suitably bandana’d, while the power of modern consoles means brawling looks much better in motion a couple of decades on.

But this is apparently an evolution rather than a straight

throwback, the devs promising new mechanics and a fresh story (currently under wraps) to go alongside the game’s reimagined style.

You can play alone or with friends, but Streets of Rage 4 will almost certainly be at its best with a group of mates, a couch, and more bags of crisps than is reasonable.

Remember those days?

COMINGTONINTENDOSWITCH

O

LUIGI’S MANSION 3

ANIMAL CROSSING

due 2019 Nintendo fans were given a bit of a scare when it looked like Luigi had been killed off in a recent Super Smash Bros Ultimate trailer. Thankfully, it was later confirmed that Mario’s skittish twin was fine, for now at least – because for some reason he’s heading into a haunted mansion, again.

due 2019 Animal Crossing is a bizarre phenomenon.

You do little more than wander about a small town chatting to the eccentric animal residents, collecting fossils and flogging turnips. Let it sink its claws in, though, and it’ll quickly become more compelling than anything in your real life.

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS U DELUXE out 11 January Originally launched on the Wii U, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe has been sprinkled with new features and re-released on the Switch. As well as the original 2D platformer, you get two new characters and the New Super Luigi U add-on.

INCOMING OUT NOW(ISH) O ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY O SUPER MARIO PARTY O RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 NOVEMBER O HITMAN 2 O FALLOUT 76 O BATTLEFIELD V DECEMBER O JUST CAUSE 4

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DROP EVERYTHING & DOWNLOAD Google Art Selfie Free / Android, iOS We’ve all been there. Sitting on the couch on a Sunday, perusing the pages of the arts section when the big question hits like a daub of acrylic: “Which historic portrait do I most resemble?”

Well, ponder no longer, because everyone’s favourite search giant has delivered a solution to this creative conundrum – and it’s brilliant.

Simply download the Arts and Culture app, scroll down to the ‘Art Selfie’ section and tap on ‘Get started’. Once you’ve snapped a shot of your beaming mug (or gurning, if you like), Google will fire your face through its database of thousands of portraits from galleries and museums all around the world.

In a jiffy, it’ll offer up the best matches, all rated against your face – so you’ll finally know whether you’re 46% Thomas Jefferson or 60% Frida Kahlo.

Hush hour

SONY WH-1000XM3 Sony’s new WH-1000XM3 cans, which come in black or silver, have had their hubbub-hushing tech upgraded and now have better signal-processing performance. Adaptive Sound Control automatically adjusts the noise-cancelling depending on your surroundings, so you won’t miss out on announcements when travelling by plane – plus they’re now slimmer and lighter, with a 30-hour battery life. If, for some reason, you do want to let the bleating of colleagues in for a few seconds, you simply tap the right cup – and with the eager-to-please Google Assistant due to arrive soon, we’re struggling to see why you’d ever need to take them off.

Rtba / sony.com/za

Flittiness tracker

FUJIFILM X-T3 Smartphone cameras are so damned good nowadays that you’d need a pretty good reason to lug a DSLR around. Well, the Fujifilm X-T3 has many such reasons. Its back-illuminated APS-C sensor has more than four times the number of phase-detection pixels of its predecessors, bringing a greater ability to track fast-moving subjects as they careen across the screen. Autofocus works in the lowest of low light, so no one in the club is safe from your snapping, and it’s more accurate and faster than ever. The X-T3 also happens to be the world’s first camera to output footage at 4K/60p 10-bit, which is professional videographer standard. That’s made you put your phone down, hasn’t it?

R23 900 (body only) / fujifilm.co.za

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ircuit City

(Pty) Ltd

Electronics

www.circuitcity.co.za

S T A R T M E N U I GONDI GOE-

The latest startups, crowdfunded projects and plain crazy ideas

We’ve got the horn

KOZMOPHONE If you love vinyl but feel you’ve not really gone retro enough when it comes to playing music, there’s always the option of sticking a gramophone in your living room. Should that idea appeal, but not the century-old tech, Kozmophone drags Edison’s invention into the present – and then drop-kicks it into the future.

The main unit resembles a classic gramophone, but incorporates a headphone stand that includes a holographic display and a wireless phone charger. There’s Bluetooth in and RCA line out, and the latter might come in handy should someone nab Kozmophone’s detachable horn: it provides 12 hours of portable audio playback. from $249 / kozmophone.com BACK IT STACK IT

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ST KIC AR K TE R

ST KIC AR K TE R

ST KIC AR K TE R

I GONDI GOE-

SACK IT

Dave, my mind is going

Got any Ice Cube?

Smoking bot

Soft ware

HAL 9000

THE CROWN

ARTIBO

Based on studio blueprints from 2001, HAL 9000 is a reminder that computers are not to be trusted. But rather than refusing to open pod bay doors, HAL’s a Bluetooth speaker these days. Still, the command centre upgrade ($889) has HAL coldly speak his famous phrases while you subject him to Chris Rea’s greatest hits. $499 / masterreplicasgroup.com

Yes, it’s another Bluetooth speaker, but this one’s creators reckon it turns any place into a music venue – and they appear to mean that literally. Its 41W output is blasted from a 360° design with reactive mood lighting, and its hollow form is fully insulated so you can fill it with ice at a party without affecting sound quality. $149 / kickstarter.com

With its blocky head/body and massive wheels, this robot looks like the offspring of a Segway and Eve from Wall-E. Relentlessly cheery, it zips about helping kids to code and parents to learn Spanish, and will terrify the dog. You also get a Walkie Talkie mode, scheduling and, most importantly, optional furry bunny ears. $99 / artibo.cubroid.com

THE ICONIC PILLOW COLLECTION

If you’re fed up with your iPad jabbing you in the squishy bits during hugs, get some of these hand-crafted pillows. The five designs cover iconic Apple products from the Apple II to the iPhone. And for once, an oversized tech product is good: extra stuffing is more cuddly. $39 / throwboy.com

STU FF PRO MOTIO N

BMW: Always there when you need them Life is unpredictable. You never know where it’ll take you, or what might happen along the way, but with BMW you know that even when the unexpected happens on your journey, there are some things you can rely on.

INTELLIGENT EMERGENCY CALL If an airbag is deployed, Intelligent Emergency Call automatically contacts the BMW Call Centre via an accident-proof telephone unit permanently installed in your vehicle – independently of your own mobile phone. Specially trained personnel inform the relevant emergency services and give you support by telephone. The same connection simultaneously transfers the precise position of the vehicle together with pertinent information to rescue services.

TELESERVICES Servicing is a must, but with BMW TeleServices you no longer have to take

care of it yourself. Your BMW registers automatically when a service is required and transfers all the data relevant for the service to BMW. Your preferred BMW Dealer can access the data and call you to arrange an appointment, or arrange an appointment manually by simply pressing a button in your vehicle.atch your plans to your mood.

ROAD-SIDE ASSISTANCE BMW roadside assistance is a peace-of-mind offering for those unlikely and unforeseen times when you might be stuck next to the road. It is standard on any new vehicle sold, up to a vehicle age of 60 months from date

of purchase, without any kilometre limit, and comes with extended motor plans or BMW Approved Used Cars.

CONCIERGE SERVICES Whether you wish to book a table in a restaurant or a hotel room – BMW Call Centre Agents from Concierge Services are always on hand to assist: 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pressing a button connects you directly. Your “personal assistant” is there to help and give you support on all your questions, and can even send points of interest directly to your in-car navigation system while talking to you.

Thanks to BMW’s numerous call centres, whether you’ve got a roadside emergency or need a last-minute booking at a local restaurant in a new town, help is only a call away.

BMWSA

BMW_SA

BMWSouthAfrica

BMWSouthAfrica

www.bmw.co.za

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W H E E L S

Mercedes-Benz EQC

A NEW EV, EASY AS EQC Blue alloy wheels are your first clue that this ain’t your typical Merc. Missing exhaust pipes give the game away too.

Rtba / mercedes-benz.co.za Are you sure that’s electric?

Looks like a typical Merc to me...

That’s kind of the idea. Instead of pretending to be an out-there version of what its design team reckons we (or our chauffeur bots) will be driving in 30 years, the EQC mostly sticks to what Mercedes does best: understated premium looks. Beyond its big shnozz of a grille, this five-seat SUV fits right in with the range.

So practicality has stomped all over performance, then?

Well, just because the EQC isn’t rocking an AMG badge, doesn’t mean Mercedes has been stingy with the power. It has two electric motors with a combined output of 402bhp. Top speed might be limited to a ‘mere’ 180km/h, but the EQC is still good for 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds… oh, and it has four-wheel drive, in case you ever decide to take your electric SUV off-roading. The 80kW

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NEWS DASHBOARD

battery should last for around 320km of real-world range too. Not the best, but not the worst of the bunch either.

Is it future-friendly inside?

As up to date as modern Mercs get, yep. The EQC has Mercedes’ MBUX interface, which ditches dials and instruments for twin 10.25in screens. Touchpads on the steering wheel help you swap between screens and settings, or hook up your smartphone for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

Expect lashings of leather and aluminium over every surface too, for that luxury EV edge.

Are we talking concept here, or will this actually be turning up in dealerships some time soon?

The EQC isn’t just another fantasy showpiece – it’s road-ready and will be on sale in the UK next year.

When it’ll come to SA, however, remains to be seen.

Gotta PIN it to win it

Electric beaut with a boot

Marvellous Spyder, man

Are your no-good sproglets forever pinching the keys to your electric super saloon? Worry not, Tesla owners: your car has just had an over-the-air update that lets you protect it with a password.

Think of it as a digital version of Peugeot-Citroen’s analogue PIN pad from the ’90s.

With compact electric motors instead of a hulking V10 engine and a shooting brake design, Audi’s PB18 e-tron concept is a supercar you might actually get a holiday’s worth of luggage in the back of. Looks wild, but expect it have some influence on the upcoming all-electric Mk3 R8.

What’s better than a limited-run Ferrari that’s been bred for smashing lap times on the race track?

One you can pop the roof off on the drive home. The 488 Pista Spyder is just as nippy as the hardtop, hitting 100km/h in 2.85secs and on to a 340km/h top speed thanks to a fire-breathing twin-turbo V8.

IT’S IN YOUR HANDS...

Only for Nintendo Switch (sold separately)

NEW

Learn more at www.nintendo.co.za Nintendo Switch required (sold separately). Multiple system shown with use of a single Toy-Con Variety Kit. Nintendo Labo and Nintendo Switch are trademarks of Nintendo. Š 2018 Nintendo

Also available

PG

NOCTURNAL TECH

COME HAVE A GLOW As party animals, night owls and vampires will tell you, the night time is the right time. But it’s even better with the right gear. This nocturnal tech will help you flourish after dark…

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NOCTURNAL TECH

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NOCTURNAL TECH

NOCTURNAL TECH

OFF-PISTE ADVENTURES TH EV E M EN AI T N

Pack this tech in your backpack to help you stay safe when the beaten track is a faint memory

Phoozy Phone Case

Wear OS might have started out as a wearable operating system for city workers, but the F20 throws that theory into the great outdoors. This is Casio’s second attempt at a tough smartwatch and crucially carries on-board GPS. Casio claims a two-day battery life as long as you’re not caning it with some sort of mammoth kayaking expedition, because nobody wants to be literally caught up the creek without a paddle.

The 1.32in dual-layer LCD screen is super-bright in the pitch black, and if the battery is running low a clever feature flicks off the colour display in favour of a low-power monochrome one.

Rtba / wsd.casio.com

There’s something stupidly clever about an inflatable, waterproof, solar-rechargeable lantern. It puts out 75 lumens of LED light for up to 24 hours and can also be charged by USB. Luminaid donates lanterns to disaster relief efforts, giving you an extra glow.

R360 / luminaid.com

Pulsar Edge GS 1x20 NV Goggles Who doesn’t want to walk around with night-vision goggles like you’re Ray Stantz from Ghostbusters?

These have a wide-angle infrared illuminator, while a secure head mount keeps them stable while you scare off lions.

R9 500 / pulsar-nv.com

HT G E NI LIF

Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20

This snazzy pouch is made from materials originally developed for astronauts – it contains chromium to reflect heat and thermonuclear materials to cold-proof it to -20°F, it has military-grade drop protection and battery saving, and it floats.

R430 / phoozy.com

Luminaid Packlite

Drone fireworks

Sonnet Labs Mesh Network

SOL Origin Survival Kit

MSR Tailshot Water Filter

No phone signal?

This military-grade encrypted mesh network lets smartphones communicate. That means texts, voice recordings, images and GPS locations shared in an off-the-grid Jason Bourne style.

R1 300 / sonnetlabs.com

Being stranded in the wilderness under the night sky isn’t for the faint of heart. This palm-sized survival kit packs in firestarters, fishing kit, compass, knife and LED light plus a drop-point blade and a rave whistle.

R650 / surviveoutdoors longer.com

Gasping for lifepreserving water under the moonlight? This pocket microfilter lets you drink directly from any source while you evade aggressive swans (they’ll break your arm, you know).

It’ll filter a litre in just 60 seconds.

R650 / msrgear.com

Disney’s used them, and brought crowds to a standstill.

Drought-hit areas of the US resorted to replacing Fourth of July fireworks with them to prevent fires. Yep, choreographed LED drone light shows could be about to provide an eco-twist to Guy Fawkes. intel.com

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NOCTURNAL TECH

URBAN EXPLORATION TH EV E M EN AI T N

Whether you’re night running or running the night, get lit with this load of wearable hi-vis tech

HT G E NI LIF

Urbanista Boston Night Runner Reflex A glow-in-the-dark reflective cable joins the bass-brimming buds on Urbanista’s Bluetooth earphones. They attach magnetically when not in use so you can pretend you’re wearing some sort of rave necklace.

R1 150 / urbanista.com

Night Runner 270 Head torches are fine if you want to look like DJ duo Orbital, but pounding the pavement becomes head-free, hands-free and far cooler with a set of these on your shoes.

The 150-lumen lights illuminate a path up to 10m ahead, while red taillights alert drivers.

R950 / nighttechgear.com

Nathan Lightbender Despite sounding like the sequel to Napoleon Dynamite, Nathan Lightbender is a featherweight LED armband for 360° night-time visibility.

It’s sweatproof and water-resistant, and has two LEDs for a blinking or steady light.

R280 / nathansports.com

Black Diamond Night Trails Don’t like the dust of trail running? How about hitting the trails after dark when you’re less likely to notice the dirt… or the snakes and other forest creatures of which you’re petrified? Do make sure your headlamp is charged. kinetic-events. co.za

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Asics GEL-Kayano 25 Lite-Show

Arion Running Wearable

The Lite-Show running shoes from Asics look pretty inconspicuous during the day, but like most night owls they come alive after dark, thanks to 3M reflectivity. Flytefoam Propel and Lyte technology offer a bit of extra bounce.

R3 000 / asics.com

Part smart insole for running shoes, part LED footpods attached to the side, the Arion system measures metrics to adapt your technique and improve performance. Handily, it also provides bright blue lights for your sneakers for at visibility at night. from R3 200 / arion.run

Tracer 360 Don’t ditch your black running kit just yet. The Tracer 360 is an LED vest with fibre-optic technology and 3M reflective materials that slips over an existing T-shirt or jacket. There’s also an accompanying illuminating harness that adjusts to fit any dog.

R1 700 / noxgear.com

Vollebak Blue Morpho Jacket By incorporating two billion microscopic glass spheres, Vollebak’s high-visibility coat shines a brilliant bionic blue when exposed to light, turning you into some sort of urban messiah to passing traffic. The overcoat copies one of nature’s most eye-catching marvels that’s nothing to do with the Book of Genesis and everything to do the iridescent wings of the blue morpho butterfly.

This insect has been seen shimmering in rainforests from more than a kilometre away because of the microscopic scales covering its wings. The jacket mimics these microstructures, making it ultra-visible from long range.

R9 300 / vollebak.com

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NIGHT RIDERS TH EV E M EN AI T N

Ditch the neon spokey dokeys, because after-dark cycle safety has seen the light – lots and lots of it

If you’re a cyclist who’s forever jealous of cars, what with their fancy indicators and brake lights, Lumos’s helmet may be for you. It features 48 LEDs and is Bluetooth-connected. When you slow down, the red LEDs at the back light up, making you more visible to cars behind. There are indicators too, triggered using a handlebar-mounted button device or gestures (by way of hand signals on the arm wearing your Apple Watch).

Strava and Apple Health integration are also included.

The range-topping Kickstart comes with MIPS (Multidirectional Impact Protection System) for an additional layer of safety.

R2 600 / lumoshelmet.co

Revolights

Ortlieb Velocity

Frickin’ lasers fitted to your fixie sounds like immense fun; but rather than a weapon for slicing through badly driven cars, British invention Beryl is all about blindspot safety: it projects a 300-lumen LED picture of a bike on road surfaces in full view of motorists.

R1 900 / beryl.cc

Revolights incorporate front and rear bike lights into your actual wheels, while providing Tron-like 360° visibility. Splash out for the Eclipse+ version and you get a smart brake light that flashes to indicate when you’re preparing to turn, plus Bluetooth connectivity.

R2 150 / revolights.com

Ortlieb guarantees its bags to be waterproof – helpful when a passing taxi can kick up enough spray for you to want to whip out a loofah. You’ll also find high-luminosity reflective yarn that turns the 24-litre Velocity into a giant reflector.

R2 400 / ortlieb.com

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Lumos Kickstart Helmet

Beryl Laserlight

Moonlight Mass Cape Town

Pure Cycles Zulu Glow Don’t be fooled by the zebra-like daylight look of the Zulu Glow: solar-activated paint means this bike glows bright green at night. An hour absorbing daylight is enough for a similar amount of after-dark visibility. It arrives in December.

R7300 / purecycles.eu

Garmin Varia

Fabric FL Series

Radar has come a long way since WW2. Now it’s compact enough to provide cyclists with rear-view awareness.

Varia lets out a visible and audible alert to warn riders if a vehicle is approaching from up to 140m behind them and doubles as a taillight.

R1 650 / shop.garmin. co.za

Fabric’s 300-lumen bike light is enough to reach streetlit city limits and beyond, but its special trick is switching from a standard lamp to a strip of emergency LEDs if you’ve ventured too far and battery levels are low. Choose between a constant light or blinking mode.

R950 / fabric.cc

Joburg’s Critical Mass might’ve all but fizzled out, but Cape Town’s free, nocturnal group bike rides still happen on the reg, usually coinciding with the full moon.

Take spare tubes, working bike lights, some reflective kit, a helmet and a sunny disposition. criticalmass.co.za

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SUNLESS SNAPPERS TH EV E M EN AI T N

Shoot for the stars or dingy basement bars with cameras for every low-light situation

Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III

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Huawei P20 Pro

Fujifilm X100F

A monster you shouldn’t avoid in the dark, the RX100 III is gargantuan in low-light conditions. It snaps sharp images where most cameras its size would struggle, thanks to a superb lens with 2.9x optical zoom and a 1in 20.1MP sensor.

R13 800 / ormsdirect.co.za

We’ve written extensively about the Huawei P20 Pro, but then its triple-lens Leica camera has wowed us all year. Its pixels are larger than other phone’s so they capture more light and detail.

Use Night Mode for the clearest shots post-sunset.

R17500 / huawei.com/za

Capturing foreign climes from dusk to dawn is what Fuji’s retro travel compact is all about, thanks to a high ISO performance delivering clean shots even in dingy conditions. This 23.4MP camera includes an APS-C sensor and a more than competent processor.

R17200 / fujifilm.co.za

Samsung S9+

Sony A7 III

Canon EOS R

The dual 12MP cameras on the S9+ can switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 apertures on the fly, cranking open for low-light shooting, then closing again when the sun comes up. Making late-night club shots clear even if your recollections aren’t.

R18 000 / samsung.com/za

The Alpha A7 III is a 24MP mirrorless wonder with superhigh ISO levels, a stonking sensor and backside illumination for insanely clean images in low light. It includes 4K video, a 3in tilting touchscreen and a 693-point AF system.

R37600 / ormsdirect.co.za

Canon’s 30.3MP full-frame mirrorless camera is a low-light powerhouse. That’s mostly down to the remarkable 5655 phase-detect AF (autofocus) system.

Add in a whopping ISO range and this is a Speedy Gonzales 4K shooter at sundown.

R38 800 / canon.co.za

Past Experiences Sightseeing in Joburg is the perfect excuse to test out a new camera, whether you’re a resident, showing visitors around, or visiting the City of Gold yourself. Past Experiences specialises in city tours, from graffiti-focused ones to urban pub crawls. pastexperiences. co.za

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Nikon P1000 The mystery of whether the moon really is just Noel Fielding covered in shaving cream is about to be solved once and for all, and it’s all down to Nikon’s new super-telephoto digital camera. The P1000 not only features an extraordinary 125x optical zoom, but has its own dedicated Moon Mode for capturing Earth’s natural satellite in all its pockmarked glory (and maybe even a Clanger or two). Lunar photography isn’t the P1000’s only showpiece, because it also shoots in 4K with a focal length of 243000mm. And if that’s still not enough, start shouting “More power, Captain!” and switch to the 250x Dynamic Fine Zoom setting for a 6000mm equivalent – just expect to sacrifice a smidge of image quality as a result.

R18800 / nikon.co.za

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Once connected to the app, it also becomes an audio baby monitor so you’ll know straight away if you’ve got a Stewie Griffin on your hands.

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ELECTRIC DREAMERS TH EV E M EN AI T N

If you’re a baby, or just want to sleep like one, we’ve got the soporific tech to help

Bose Sleepbuds

A godsend for red-eyed parents, Suzy Snooze is a nightlight for kids to help them sleep. Connect it to your Wi-Fi network, push down its hat and it starts the sleep sequence. First is the soothing phase – playing relaxing sounds with calming light patterns. How long this goes on for is up to you, but it can be restarted at any time by pressing down the hat again. Next comes the sleep phase. Here it works as a standard nightlight, with a dim glow creating a cosy environment. Finally, it wakes the child by lighting up, while the hat pops up. Train your kids to stay in bed until the hat comes up and who knows, you might even get a lie-in. Chance would be a fine thing, but we’re willing to bet you’d do anything after a month of 4am ‘alarms’.

R1 900 / bleepbleeps.com

No, not the Gimp’s latest outfit, but a wearable isolation tank that zips up to cover your face. The Relaxation Hoodie cuts you off from the outside world.

There’s a phone pocket, and it’ll even play ‘pink noise’ to soothe your tired ears.

R4 200 / vollebak.com

Nokia Sleep Worried you’re snoring, but don’t have a significant other to tell you? Nokia Sleep will. It also offers heart-rate tracking for racy dreams, and syncs to the Health Mate app. Finally, IFTTT smart home integration can adjust lights at night and morning.

R1 900 / health.nokia.com

HT G E NI LIF

Suzy Snooze

Neighbours drilling at 3am? Bose Sleepbuds fill your ears with ‘noise-masking technology’. Some sounds are specially optimised to mask noise, others simply to relax you – and with no wires to garrotte you in the night.

R3 600 (import) / bose.com

Vollebak Relaxation Hoodie

Day of the Dead

Zeeq Smart Pillow This pillow has a snore alarm. When the built-in mic detects you sounding like a blocked vacuum cleaner, it vibrates to get you to move onto your side without waking you.

It can also play music from the integrated speaker, letting you doze off to a lullaby.

R3 800 / rem-fit.com

Philips SmartSleep SmartSleep aims to improve the quality of your sleep so you feel more rested. Sensors detect when you’re in deep sleep and trigger quiet audio tones to boost the slow brain waves that characterise this stage.

R5 800 (import) / philips.com

Matrix Mattress The Matrix Mattress tracks heart rate, breathing, movement, stress levels and sleep cycles, so if you feel groggy all day, you’ll know why. It wakes you during the optimum part of your sleep cycle, leaving you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

R11 500 / matrixsleep.com

Mexico City’s Day of the Dead celebrations take place on 2 November.

Planning your own party?

Google’s Arts and Culture app has an interactive history.

Alternatively, Pixar’s VR film project, Coco, is based on the day and is free for the Oculus Rift. oculus.com

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RISE AND SHINE TH EV E M EN AI T N

Catch the proverbial worm with the best smart alarm clocks to beat the morning blues

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Beurer WL 90 4-in-1

Ruggie Alarm Clock

Amazon Echo Spot

This glowing orb of 256 colours includes all the necessary simulated sunrise and sunset smarts to stunt the right hormones at night and kickstart them in the AM. Its super-wide colour spectrum can also be controlled from your smartphone.

R2 500 / beurer.com

Taking the ‘time to get up’ mantra and running wild with it, Ruggie is an alarm clock that makes you get out of bed and place your twinkle-toes on it to shut it off. It’s tough love, with daily motivational messages to make you rise and shine.

R1 000 / ruggie.co

An alarm clock is the perfect home for Alexa.

She gives you the weather forecast, reads news headlines and even lets you show off your bed hair during video calls. Plus, you can silence the alarm with a voice command.

R1 850 (import) / amazon.com

Clocky

Barisieur

Lumie Bodyclock Luxe 750D

As with Ruggie, cocky Clocky also makes you jump out of bed to shut it off – but this one makes you work even harder by wheeling around the bedroom like a hyperactive child until you catch it. It comes in a range of seven colours, including chrome and raspberry.

R750 / clocky.com

You’re not truly awake until you’ve had a few sips of something hot.

That’s why the designer behind the Barisieur decided to mash together an alarm clock and a coffee/tea brewer, so you’ll have your caffeine fix waiting for you as soon as you open your peepers.

R6 500 / barisieur.com

Billy H’s Balloon Rides Hot air balloon rides need to take place at dawn or dusk because the balloon needs heavier, cooler air around it to rise. Bad news for your body clock, great for stunning views over the Serengeti… or somewhere a little closer, like Magalies or the Pilansberg. balloon.co.za

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Arguably the most comprehensive SAD lamp and alarm clock on the block, the Luxe 750D includes a DAB radio, 20 wake-up and sleep-inducing sounds, Bluetooth for streaming your own music, and a USB port for a wired connection.

R3 800 / lumie.com

Philips Somneo In a bad mood? It might have something to do with the rude awakening your alarm insists on giving you every day. The Somneo Sleep and Wake-up Light aims to stop you biting heads off in the morning by offering a gentle simulated sunrise so you feel ‘zen’ from the moment you prise open your eyes. This is complemented by sounds from nature or your favourite FM radio station. Feeling wide awake has everything to do with sound sleep in the first place, so the Somneo uses a light-guided wind-down function inspired by relaxation exercises to send you off to dreamland. It’s joined by a sunset simulation mode, which feels nice and moody but won’t quite fool your Instagram followers.

R3 500 (import) / philips.com

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A multi-level touch display lets you programme personal settings. The panel’s brightness is automatically adjusted to match the room’s ambient levels.

Light touch

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COUCH LOVERS TH EV E M EN AI T N

Never mind the pouring rain: it’s time to Netflix and chill (fully clothed) on the couch

Guaranteed to transform a room on a dingy overcast day or help you recreate a shiny late-’90s rap video, Nanoleaf’s new Canvas system comprises touch-controlled light squares that can cover entire walls or ceilings. The edge-to-edge LED tiles are modular and up to 500 can be supported by a single control square. If they’re out of arm’s reach and you can’t get off the couch, they also respond to voice commands or the app.

The latter also lets you set schedules and visual alarms, or enable music visualisation for illuminations in time with your tunes (presumably something by Redman and featuring velour tracksuits).

Mostly, though, we want to play oversize Tetris when they arrive in November.

R3 400 (import) / nanoleaf.me

Richard Clarkson Floating Cloud

The Aura Studio 2 speaker looks like it’s trying to suck the world into some sort of wormhole. Really, though, it’s just trying to make it a far nicer place by delivering incredible sound and incorporating an ambient white glow.

R4 700 / harmankardon.com

Jeez, we love the sound of a magnetically levitating ambient LED lamp. The Floating Cloud reacts to sound, with a full spectrum of lightning-like activity while it floats above a base powered by lithium ion batteries.

R66 350 (import) / richardclarkson.com

Eve Flare Smart lights become awfully expensive if you replace every bulb in the house. The portable Flare solves that problem by allowing you to bask in the aura of any colour you wish before deciding where to place it. Control it with your voice, an app or Apple Homekit.

R2 100 / evehome.com

HT G E NI LIF

Nanoleaf Canvas

Harman Kardon Aura Studio 2

Mars Season 2

Royole Moon

Fatboy RockCoco

Philips 903 OLED

Back in the day, Olympus released the Eye Trek – effectively a cinema screen you attached to your head.

Royole refines the idea with its Moon mobile theatre for Full HD 2D and 3D movies. Lie back on your bed with Pulp Fiction for a Royole with cheese.

R17000 / royole.com

Say hello to your dinner party centrepiece.

A baroque-style LED chandelier for the modern age, the RockCoco is polycarbonate, portable, and doesn’t require hardwiring. It can even be used outdoors for post-dinner dips in the hot tub.

R11 300 / fatboy.com

The glowing LED light show emanating from the rear of Philips’ Ambilight TVs makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If mixing it with a 4K OLED display wasn’t enough to tickle our fancy, Bowers & Wilkins is taking care of the sound.

R47000 (import) / philips.com

In case you’ve missed it, Mars is National Geographic’s docudrama based on a fictional first manned mission to the Red Planet in the year 2033.

Season two blasts off in November, so the countdown is on to play catch up with season one on Netflix now. netflix.com

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HOME ALONERS TH EV E M EN AI T N

When things go bump in the night, this little lot is on hand to help you work out what it was

Hive View

HT G E NI LIF

If you use a Hive thermostat to keep you snug at night, its infrared indoor camera will keep an eye on the house when you’ve gone to bed. The View looks the part and records in Full HD, while its party trick is a removable cube-shaped camera.

R3 600 / hivehome.com

Aumi Smart Lights

Nest Cam IQ Outdoor

Aumi’s adorable connected nightlights include motion detection. Choose from 16 million colours, toggle the intensity and set smart timers, all from the app. Batteries last 12 hours, or four hours if they shine at their brightest all night long.

R570 / aumilight.com

The outdoorsy Cam IQ with night vision is an HD device with a 4K digital sensor and a wide 130° view for spotting Harry and Marv. Subscribe to the Nest Aware service at R75 a month and you get intelligent face recognition.

R6 200 / nest.com

Fing Box

Netatmo Presence

Zombie training Protecting your home from the living is one thing, but securing it from the living dead is quite another.

Zombie apocalypse training with real military weapons is a thing. The Apocalypse World Tour might be your best holiday activity yet. apocalypse worldtour.com

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Ring Floodlight Cam While Ring is known for video doorbells, its Floodlight Cam works on a similar principal to the Netatmo on the right, only it has to be hardwired. It has twin LED lamps, a 110dB siren alarm and two-way HD audio, plus facial detection.

R6 600 / ring.com

The Fing is a shining blue beacon for securing a home Wi-Fi network.

After scanning your devices, it alerts you if anything rogue is attempting to join and blocks them. It also checks kids’ internet usage and tells you how much bandwidth each device is hogging.

R2 400 / fingbox.com

Not only does Netatmo’s outdoor security light double as a camera – it can distinguish between people, cars and animals like the Terminator. No subscription fees, Apple Homekit-compatible, and it works with Google Assistant.

R4 700 / netatmo.com

Netgear Arlo Light The humble security light has been overreacting to passing cars and pedestrians since day dot. Of course we’d rather be safe, but there has to be something smarter.

Netgear’s Arlo security cameras are brilliant, so we like the idea of adding to that ecosystem with the Arlo Light. Its motion detection is refined – place it strategically away from your cameras and they work in tandem to cover a wider area.

Notifications are sent to your phone, and if the light goes off it automatically sets cameras to record. It’s possible to schedule the light for when you’re at home, at work or on holiday, and everything is managed through the Arlo app or by conversing with Alexa.

R2 650 / arlo.com

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THE SKY AT NIGHT TH EV E M EN AI T N

There’s more to space than the Plough: discover new worlds with a stargazing starter pack

A bit like a globe drinks cabinet, there’s a cheesiness to owning a telescope that makes it kind of cool.

Celestron’s stupidly easy-to-set-up spyglass is called Inspire for a reason, because it’ll have you reaching for the stars in no time. The genius at work here is the ability to attach a smartphone so you can take interstellar images with the camera using the telescope as a super-long lens – your Insta followers won’t see that coming. A built-in red LED flashlight provides some night vision so you don’t go bull-in-a-china-shop clumsy, and a focus micrometer switches you back to a specific focus point: Millennium Falcon, Starship Enterprise, Superman, etc.

R4 000 / celestron.com

Tiny1 Astronomy Camera

Light pollution means the night sky can be a washout in cities. The Star Theatre makes home the final frontier by projecting 60000 real stars onto your ceiling, with tonnes of added information and the mimicking of celestial movements.

R2 100 / firebox.com

This cosmic connected camera is a crowdfunder success story. It’s designed specifically to clip onto any telescope lens and uses software to reduce image noise and make planetary pictures sharper. An augmented-reality map helps identify stars.

R7400 / tinymos.com

Orion Big 20-Power Binoculars Astronomy binoculars can help with depth perception when exploring the vast distances of the universe/Clifton Beach.

These have big 80mm-aperture lenses and 17mm eye relief for use with spectacles.

R2 200 / telescope.com

HT G E NI LIF

Celestron Inspire 80AZ

Star Theatre Planetarium

Sark stargazing

Petzl Tactikka+ A red filter light not only offers night vision – it also helps your eyes stay adjusted to the dark while reading star charts, planet finders or telescope markings.

The Tactikka+ can be used as a head torch or attached to a belt or pocket. You can also switch it to white light.

R660 / petzl.com

Thermos Ultimate Series 500ml Vacuum insulation tech keeps contents hot or cold for up to 24 hours, while a two-part stopper ensures ultra-smooth pouring and everything on the outside remains cool while everyone’s waiting for a glimpse of Uranus.

R600 / thermosonline.co.uk

Star Walk 2 The earliest carving of the constellation Orion was found on a mammoth tusk over 32000 years old. Star maps now appear in apps. The gorgeous UI on Star Walk 2 includes augmented reality, a time-travel feature to skies past or future, plus satellite IDs. R50 / iOS, Android

Sark is a curious little rock in the Channel Islands with no public lighting, no paved roads and no cars. It’s also the world’s first Dark Sky Island, as awarded by the Dark Sky Association, making it truly astonishing for astronomy free of light pollution. sark.co.uk

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TESTED APPS

Mini meme

O Pause Rather than staring at gurning faces on Facebook, Pause invites you to peer at a gloopy blob, which you track with a finger.

You then close your eyes and continue moving your digit mindfully, until a bell goes ding, telling you to stop. You’ll look ridiculous thoughtfully caressing your phone, but the app really does help you to regain focus and relax.

Stuff says ++++, R28 / Android O R30 / iOS

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GOOD HABIT FORMERS

Stop that half-conscious Insta-scrolling, right now! If you want an extra nudge to use your phone for good rather than evil, these are the apps you need…

O Streaks Determined to infuse good habits into your daily routine?

Then don’t let reminders get lost in the hubbub of calendars and to-do lists – use Streaks instead. Its six gigantic buttons provide a clear view of your intentions, and when you want data you can delve into exciting wiggly graphs… assuming you haven’t let them all flatline.

Stuff says +++++ R80 / iOS

O Bear Focus Timer

O Forest

O Loop

O Space

Can’t go for five minutes without checking your phone? BFT offers a cunning psychological trick: its focus timer only works when you put your phone face-down. You can customise noise/break lengths and which ambient sound plays when you’re focusing. Best of all, try to sneak a cheeky peek at your screen and the bear will angrily growl at you.

Stuff says +++++ R12 / Android O R7 / iOS

If you want ongoing pats on the back for not using your phone when you should be doing more important things, try Forest.

Make it to the end of a timed work cycle and you’ll get a little tree to plant in a virtual forest.

But cheat and ignore the app’s warnings, and Forest mercilessly kills your plant, leaving only a sad little dead stick.

Stuff says ++++, Free (IAPs) / Android R30 (IAPs) / iOS

In the land of Android, Loop broadly echoes Streaks in having you track habits and goals, and see how you’ve done over time. You don’t get massive friendly buttons, but Loop does have a five-day checkbox grid that’s insanely easy to understand. So now you’ve no excuse to not exercise/walk the dog/get up early/learn to play the banjo.

Stuff says +++++ Free / Android

Android P and iOS 12 allow you to track phone usage, but aren’t interested in you crowing about your efforts. Go ‘pro’ by installing Space, and you’ll be able to compare statistics with friends.

Even with the free version you get tips and achievements, although the app sadly won’t blast your phone into orbit if you whizz past your app allowance for the fifth time this week.

Stuff says +++,, Free (IAPs) / Android, iOS

F I R S T T E S T S A M S U N G G A L A X Y WAT C H

Watch and learn With a choice of sizes, a friendly user interface and styles to please almost everyone, can Samsung’s Galaxy Watch teach other wearables how it’s done?

Rtba / samsung.com/za

ou’d be forgiven for mistaking the new Samsung Galaxy Watch for a stylish ‘old-school’ timepiece, what with its premium design, circular face and metallic bezel.

And it’s not just a pretty face either. It’s packed with plenty of features to make it one of the best smartwatches out there.

Y

Samsung’s previous watches were of the one-size-fits-all variety, but this one comes in two (albeit very similar) sizes: there are 42mm and 46mm versions to choose from.

Those with smaller wrists will welcome a chance to wear a smartwatch that isn’t bulky, but the bigger model comes with a significant boost in

battery life and features a bigger screen. The decision for many will be a tough one, but the fact that there’s a choice this time round is refreshing.

The Galaxy Watch’s stylish circular design is bound to have mass appeal, and could even sway some iOS users away from the Apple Watch. However, although this is a solid choice for

iPhone owners, it’s no surprise that Galaxy phone users will have the best user experience, so think twice before you jump ship.

The question is, does the Galaxy Watch’s bold new name match up to its design, features and user experience in this increasingly crowded smartwatch space?

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F I R S T T E S T S A M S U N G G A L A X Y WAT C H

2

1

Do the twist

This watch’s rotating bezel sets it apart from other smartwatches.

It’s the best way to navigate through the interface, feels satisfying to use with its heavy click, and quickly becomes second nature. It also protects the glass against knocks.

2 Power rangers

5

3 Tizzy rascal

Both Galaxy Watch models have decent battery life in comparison with the competition. The smaller one can last up to five days, though we found it only managed about three with lots of use, while the bigger model can keep powering through for up to a week.

4 Let it shine

Tizen 4.0 is one hell of a smooth operator (well, operating system).

Its notification support is oh so slick, it handles fitness tracking well, and it has support for apps like Spotify. Combined with the rotating bezel, it makes the watch a breeze to use day in, day out.

5 Wrist management

The Galaxy Watch has an AMOLED touchscreen display that measures 1.2in on the 42mm model and 1.3in on the 46mm version. As you’d expect from Samsung, the display is sharp and colour-rich, and it has an adaptive brightness setting.

There are three metallic finishes to choose from, plus swappable straps and more than 60 000 watch faces to play with.

Dig deeper and you can also customise the menus, settings and widgets. You can really make this watch your own.

Good Meh Evil

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24 hours with the Samsung Galaxy Watch

3mins 60

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2hrs

3hrs

4hrs

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F I R S T T E S T S A M S U N G G A L A X Y WAT C H

Techspecs Screen 1.3in or 1.2in 360x360 Super AMOLED Processor Exynos 9110 1.15GHz Storage 4GB OS Tizen 4.0 Battery life Up to 7 days Sensors Accelerometer, gyrometer, barometer, heart-rate, ambient light Dimensions 46x49x13mm, 63g; 42x46x12.7mm, 49g

Fitness first It may be an all-singing, all-dancing smartwatch, but the Galaxy Watch is also a fantastic fitness tracker…

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4

12hrs

15hrs 16hrs

18hrs

Q Make a splash

Q On your marks

The Galaxy Watch is waterproof to 50m and it’s swim-friendly, which means you can take it for a dip in the sea or the pool at your gym, where it’ll keep tabs on lengths, distance and pace.

You can start working out without having to tell your Watch what you’re up to.

Supported auto-tracked activities are walking, running, cycling, elliptical training, rowing and dynamic workout.

Q Lungey jumping

Q The beat goes on

There are plenty more activities that the Watch can monitor for you. It can currently track 39 exercises, from lunges and burpees to yoga and pilates. It’s time to get sweating.

Like to keep an eye on how your body’s doing?

The Galaxy Watch can show you how your resting heart rate changes over time, and displays how hard your heart is pumping as you work out.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch is a sturdy and stylish smartwatch with plenty of power and a truly lovely user interface, thanks to its rotating bezel and Tizen operating system. iPhone owners are still likely to get a better experience with the Apple Watch, but for Android users this might just be the best smartwatch money can buy.

STUFF SAYS +++++ A stunning display and decent performance make this a surefire bet for Android phone owners

24hrs 61

F I R S T T E S T S A M S U N G G A L A X Y WAT C H

The alternatives: 3 more smartwatches Other wearables that are longing to wrap themselves around your wrist

BEST FOR VALUE

BEST FOR APPS BEST FOR RUNNING

Apple Watch Series 3

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Garmin Vivoactive 3

Fitbit Versa

from R5 500 / myistore.co.za

R6 000 / shop.garmin.co.za

R3 700 / fitbit.co.za

What’s the story?

Third verse, same as the first: aside from the red-dot crown, the Apple Watch Series 3 looks just like the original. A cellular option let’s you use the watch like a phone but we still don’t get that version in South Africa. There’s GPS, a good heart monitor for exercise tracking, and 5ATM water-resistance means you can even wear it in the swimming pool.

What’s the story?

You get 90% of the tech of Garmin’s pro athlete watches here, in a much smaller package and with a much less scary price. Oh, and a touchscreen. GPS, a fine heart-rate sensor, swim-ready water-resistance and around four days of battery life (depending on how much exercise you track) add up to just about the best exercise watch available.

What’s the story?

Joining the smartwatch race years behind the competition sounds mad… but it means Fitbit has the benefit of knowing what people actually want from one. It turns out that’s good battery life and the basics done well, not 10 000 rubbish apps. The Versa is also one of the friendliest-looking models around, much prettier than its Ionic predecessor.

Is it any good?

We’re excited about the new Watch Series 4, but the S3 is already the real smartwatch deal. Want to play with apps? It’s got a load of ’em. Sport tracking? The Apple Watch is almost bizarrely good at that too these days.

Haptic feedback also makes the experience here totally different to any rival model. However, no surprise: the Watch’s battery life is the worst of the lot at 1-2 days. Better keep that charger handy.

Is it any good?

If exercise tracking comes first in your priority list, the Vivoactive 3 is great.

It’s a proper sport watch that looks and feels like a smartwatch – you don’t have to be running ultra-marathons or cycling up the sides of buildings to pull this one off. And Garmin’s Connect software is brilliant if you actually want to track training progress. One thing to bear in mind, though: aside from Garmin Pay wireless payments, the smarts are pretty basic.

Is it any good?

Four days of real-world use? That’s a killer feature in smartwatch world. It makes the Versa extremely easy to live with, especially as you still get that bright and punchy screen up front. Fitness tracking isn’t up to the standard of the Garmin on the left, but you can use GPS tracking if you take your phone out with you. Just don’t expect ultra-reliable heart-rate readings – or loads of extra apps to keep you entertained but with FNB you do get Fitbit Pay.

KEY SPECS Screen 1.65in 390x312/340x272 OLED Battery life 18 hours Dimensions 43x36x11.4mm, 32.3g

KEY SPECS Screen 1.2in 240x240 MIP Battery life Up to 7 days Dimensions 43x43x11.7mm, 43g

KEY SPECS Screen 1.34in 300x300 LCD Battery life Up to 4 days Dimensions 39x39x11 mm, 39mm

Stuff says +++++

Stuff says +++++

Stuff says ++++,

Still the definitive smartwatch – at least until we’ve weighed up the S4

The king of smart/sport hybrids, this is the perfect watch for runners

Sticks to the basics to keep the price low and the battery life long

GROUP TEST BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS

3 OF THE BEST

Bluetooth speakers Wireless music-blasters keep on coming, and keep getting better.

Take your pick from the latest crop of portable noisemongers…

T W

ER N IN

BEST FOR POOL PARTIES

BEST FOR BATTERY LIFE

BEST FOR ROCK POWER

Dreamwave Tremor

Marshall Kilburn II

UE Megaboom 3

What’s the story?

What’s the story?

What’s the story?

Tipping the scales at 5.7kg, built like a tank, and resembling a rocket launcher, the Dreamwave generates tremors if you put it down too quickly. The largest speaker here, it’s the most likely to survive calamity, and a 20 800mAh battery means you can expect up to eight hours of playback at full volume, or 18 hours at more reasonable volume… all while recharging your smartphone.

The Kilburn II isn’t exactly a shrunk-down Marshall speaker cabinet, but it is pretty rock’n’roll. It has volume and EQ knobs up top – you’ll need your phone for play/pause and skip – and a velour-lined handle… not that you’ll be wanting to take this 3kg beast on short-haul flights. The battery lasts up to 20hrs at mid-level volume, and a neat LED gauge lets you see how much juice is left.

The Ultimate Ears mission statement has always been clear and simple: give the people ultra-durable Bluetooth speakers that go really flipping loud. The newest addition to the Megaboom line generates even more 360° sound, while its modestly dubbed Magic Button allows you to play, pause and skip songs without needing to reach for your phone.

Is it any good?

Packed with half a dozen drivers, tweeters and subwoofers, a hi-fi digital amplifier, and 50W of power, the Tremor gets seriously loud without distorting. Pairing wirelessly is a cinch or use the 3.5mm jack to connect older, wired sources. The seatbelt-like strap is a necessary touch. If you need an indestructible party starter this is the speaker for you.

Is it any good?

The Kilburn II isn’t all about brute force. For a start it has an extra driver on the back, pushing out bonus treble. This really does help, and sound dispersal is actually quite wide. The EQ dials are also surprisingly useful, letting you control the politeness of the bass and the zing of the treble without ever sounding less than pleasant.

Is it any good?

All in all, the Megaboom 3 easily matches the performance we’ve come to expect from UE. While much of the speaker’s innards remain the same as the Megaboom 2, it’s had its passive radiator tweaked for even punchier bass performance. Plus it’s now dustproof as well as waterproof, making it as good on the road as it is in the pool.

Price R4 000 / mitechdirect.co.za

Price R4 500 / macnificent.co.za

Price Rtba / takealot.com

Stuff says +++++

Stuff says ++++,

Stuff says +++++

Brilliant sound and bulletproof build quality with military styling

A rocking speaker that can go from polite to party monster with the twist of a dial

You’ll struggle to find a better, or more fun, portable Bluetooth speaker 63

EVERYDAY GROOMERS

BUSH TAMERS

SPECIALIST STRIMMERS

UPVOTED

The stubble sucker

The frequent flyer

The laser leveller

Philips BT7202/13 Try to ignore the inevitable comparisons with the Suck Kut from Wayne’s World and attaching a vacuum to a beard trimmer is actually a pretty good idea. It won’t catch 100% of the detritus your face gives off, but it’ll definitely make cleaning the basin afterwards less of a chore.

R1 120 / amazon.com

Remington Endurance Groomer Most beard trimmers come with a bulky charger that you use so infrequently you always forget where you put it. Not only is Remington’s Endurance Groomer about half the size of most others, but it comes with a tiny adaptor that allows you to juice it up from any common or garden USB port.

R780 / amazon.co.uk

Philips Series 9000 BT9297/13 Maintaining a tidy beard is a full-time job.

Dedicated Black Coffee wannabes should consider calling in the big guns and using the pop-up laser on Philips’ Series 9000, which projects a red guideline onto your face. All it needs now is a spirit level to ensure you’re holding it straight.

R4 800 / merkado.co.za

The buzzy barber

The complete clipper

Wahl 4in1 Multigroomer Wahl’s heavy-duty Multigroomer is a bit more industrial than most other beard trimmers – if you don’t believe us, listen to the racket it makes when you turn it on.

Its rather basic attachments make it feel a bit DIY to use but it’s the only one here that can give haircuts as well.

R1 200 (import) / wahl.com

Remington MB4045 Beard Kit Remington’s Beard Kit comes with enough accessories to please at least two thirds of ZZ Top – including three different comb attachments, one of which will deal with beards up to 35mm in length, plus a sharp pair of scissors for taming unruly tufts and a boar-bristle brush.

R770 / amazon.com

The steady snipper

The stubble saver

The nostril nibbler

Babyliss 7897U Super Beard When you’ve put a load of time and effort into cultivating a mug rug, the last thing you want is for a slip of the hand to ruin months of growth. Babyliss’s Super Beard has a button that locks the guard attachment in place, so there’s no chance of ending up with a lopsided beard.

R1 760 / merkado.co.za

Philips Series 5000 BT5200/13 It can be hard work to make it look like you don’t make an effort, but the shortest setting on Philips’ Series 5000 is great for maintaining a three-day stubble. With a 10mm maximum cutting length, it’s not designed for anything too bushy, but for everyday face maintenance it’s ideal.

R2 600 / merkado.co.za

Braun MGK3060 The older you get, the more places you’ll find hair growing where it shouldn’t. As well as multiple comb attachments for dealing with hair on your face, Braun’s MGK3060 comes with a special tool for dealing with unwanted ear and nose hairs, plus a whole extra razor for wet shaving.

R580 / amazon.com

HOW TO DECIDE 64

Struggling to find a gap for the soup spoon?

Stuff is on hand with the best buzzers

1 Cutting crew There’s a big difference between an electric razor and a beard trimmer. If you want anything more than very light stubble, make sure you buy one with blades, not a foil.

2 Get the look Comb attachments with longer teeth (as with hair trimmers) are better for bushier beards, while the more boxy ones are better for keeping shorter efforts neat and tidy.

UPVOTED

The whisker whisperer Panasonic ER-GB60 With three comb attachments offering 58 different length adjustments at half-millimetre increments, Panasonic’s ER-GB86 will happily take on face fuzz of pretty much any length. The longest one can cope with up to 30mm, which means it’s particularly suited to beards that’d make a Viking blush (not that you’d be able to tell).

The teeth on each attachment are made from sturdy plastic, plus the whole thing’s completely waterproof, so you can rinse off any beardy build-up without having to worry about the blades going rusty.

R1 500 / panasonic.com/za

3 Close control Some trimmers come with attachments for hard-to-reach zones. If yours doesn’t, think about also investing in something smaller like Gillette’s Fusion ProGlide Styler.

4 Keep it clean Some beard trimmers need to be oiled to keep the blades working at their best, but they’re not waterproof. If that sounds like a hassle, buy one you can just rinse under the tap.

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TESTED HP OMEN 15 DC0029NA

Rate expectations HP’s latest gaming laptop has a 144Hz screen for super-smooth gaming – but is it a genuine player?

Rtba / hpshop.co.za Q HP’s new gaming machine has a 1080p screen with 144Hz Nvidia G-Sync. That means eSports titles and less demanding games will run smoothly at frame rates beyond 100fps. Only trouble is, the GTX 1060 graphics chip isn’t fast enough to ensure that today’s demanding single-player titles work the display that hard.

Q Aside from the screen, the GTX 1060 has the power to play the best games at their highest levels of quality – and it’s paired with a fantastic six-core Intel CPU that won’t balk at any task.

Q HP’s machine looks the part, with industrial design and a dark, attractive finish. It’s a little chunkier than some other gaming laptops, at 25mm thick and 2.52kg on the scales, but it does offer plenty of connectivity – and it’s got B&O speakers, which serve up solid volume and audio quality.

Q Battery life isn’t great, which is no surprise, and the fans are a little loud too so we’d definitely recommend wearing a headset.

Q HP sells the Omen 15 at all sorts of specs – one with a better GPU, and several with weaker versions.

Sadly, the beefier GTX 1070 won’t run the most demanding games beyond 100fps – so you still won’t be getting the most out of that 144Hz screen.

Tech specs Screen 15.6in 1920x1080 IPS with Nvidia G-Sync Processor 2.2GHz Intel Core i7 GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 RAM 8GB OS Windows 10 Storage 1TB HD + 256GB SSD Battery life Up to 6 hours Dimensions 360x263x25mm, 2.52kg

Q Flat out

Q Twilight zone

The chiclet keyboard is great for typing and for casual gaming, but the flat, shallow buttons can’t compete with more conventional designs – or with mechanical keyboards – when it comes to high-end gaming.

HP includes software to monitor the key components and to alter the keyboard’s lighting, but it’s not too impressive: while the keyboard does have RGB backlighting, you can only alter the lights in four specific zones.

STUFF SAYS It’s speedy, but that screen isn’t as smooth as it’s specced up to be +++,,

Worth a look for casual gamers, but not for the hardcore 66

This HP has good gaming and application pace alongside solid design, decent versatility and reasonable ergonomics – and is expected to be reasonably priced for a gaming laptop. However, the headline feature is that 144Hz G-Sync screen, and this machine simply cannot push pixels fast enough to make use of G-Sync in the toughest situations. It’s also a little loud and hot, and battery life isn’t great.

TESTED SONY RX100 VI

Sixth of the best The new iteration of Sony’s unbeatable RX100 compact has a monster zoom lens and, woohoo, a touchscreen R23700 / ormsdirect.co.za Q Know your Roman numerals?

Then you’ll have worked out this is Sony’s sixth version of the flagship RX100 series. The VI packs the range’s most powerful zoom yet: it has a 24-200mm lens, equivalent to 8.3x zoom. It seems the Lumix TZ models finally have some zooming competition.

Q The design might be familiar but that’s not a bad thing, because these cameras have always looked and felt great. The buttons and dials, although quite close together, are positioned where your finger and thumb naturally rest. No larger than a chunky chocolate brownie, it’ll easily fit in most pockets and you can wrap your entire hand around it.

Q Sony is treating us to an LCD touchscreen here – finally. It doesn’t have full functionality, but it works for all the important stuff such as tap-to-focus.

Q Behind that long lens you get a 20.1MP Exmor CMOS sensor, similar to the holy innards of Sony’s Alpha series. Other features include lightning-fast autofocus and full-res continuous shooting at 24fps, 4K video at up to 30fps, and 1080p slow-motion capture. But there are no mic ports for capturing decent audio.

Q There’s USB charging, which is handy – you’ll want to get this cam charged at every opportunity as it gulps down battery juice like it’s just run a marathon.

Tech specs Sensor 20.1MP CMOS Optical zoom 8x Display Tilting 7.5cm touchscreen Video 4K @ 30fps, 1080p slow-mo Dimensions 102x58x43mm, 301g

Q Busy little thing

Q Get it before it’s gone

What you might lose from this Sony’s limited aperture, you gain in the zoom. Even at 100x our results were most pleasing, with really lovely depth and pin-sharp focus on the subject – in this case a bee that just wouldn’t sit still.

With 4-stop image stabilisation and ultra-rapid AF, this camera works best as a point-and-shoot miracle-worker. Many snappers will also be thrilled to see the addition of Eye AF mode, which tracks faces incredibly well.

STUFF SAYS A dinky yet luxurious point-and-shoot with handy zooming skills +++++

You’ll always find space for it, no matter how small your bags

This Sony hits all the right design notes, shoots a staggering 24fps at full resolution and has an AF faster than a mouse’s blink. Yes, the lack of a mic port is an oversight and the RX isn’t going to be at its best in low light, but the tilting touchscreen makes it mega-handy for taking subtle close-up street scenes and it’ll be just as good at sweeping landscapes. Plus that honking great zoom is truly a modern marvel.

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Pet tech It’s reigning cats and dogs – so why not give our semi-intelligent masters the gadgets they deserve?

KEY

Pawbo munch

FOR DOGS

To you and us, the Pawbo Munch probably looks like a fun but ultimately gimmicky accessory. Your dog/cat, on the other hand, knows it only as the mysterious glowing god of treatgiving. Whether you’re there in the house or out and about with a suitably connected phone (see right), the Munch can dispense tasty pet snacks

FOR CATS FOR ANYONE WHO FANCIES IT

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of all shapes and sizes on your order.

And that’s not all: if Patch is the gambling type, there’s even a ‘slot machine’ game that releases treats when randomised symbols align. We only wish this gadget had been around during our own family puppy’s chewing-holes-through-walls phase.

R2 000 / pawbo.com

MACHINE’S BEST FRIEND You’ll also need the Wi-Fi-enabled Pawbo+ (R2 800) to release treats via the app – otherwise you’ll have to be there to operate the remote.

STUFF PICKS

LET ME ENTERTAIN CHEW The Pawbo Munch’s animated LED screen should keep your pet occupied when you’re too busy to join in, and it’ll even play ‘catchy’ music.

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STUFF PICKS

DON’T SIT ON THE GEOFENCE With live on-map GPS tracking, it’s possible to draw a virtual fence and set an alert when Foo-Foo Trixiebell gets close to that main road.

The Kippy Vita isn’t a breakfast biscuit to help you start the day right; it’s a GPS and activity tracker for your pooch or kitty, to ensure they’re safe and healthy. The tracker attaches to the collar and connects to the Kippy app, which is so easy to use you could probably get the dog to keep track of the cat with it. It’s waterproof too,

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THE GRATE OUTDOORS The Vita is designed for rough and tumble. It’s happy in water, doesn’t mind being shaken about, and its battery lasts up to 10 days.

should you have a pup that fancies a tussle with a turtle. You can also use it to calculate your pet’s daily calorie consumption, based on its activities and some voodoo, er algorithms.

What’s that, you say? How about tracking their happiness? That’s down to you and those tummy tickles.

R950 + R150/month / kippy.eu

STUFF PICKS

Microchip-reading cat flaps are nothing new – experts believe the Egyptians fitted them to some of the larger pyramids. But this one does more than just keep out hallway-weeing intruders: plug the accompanying Hub into your router and you’ll be connecting your cats to the internet. Don’t worry, you’re not about to lose them to social

media the same way you did the kids – it just means you can follow their movements via the Sure Petcare app. You can also set curfews, to keep them inside at night when you’ve had enough of being woken at 3am with the proud offering of a still-twitching mouse.

Cat Flap R2 100, Hub R950 / surepetcare.com

CAT-A-LOGGING As well as giving alerts exits, the stats for me each g outside n they’re flap.

CAT-A-WALLING Fitting is as simple as it is with a normal cat flap: you just need a hole (and four AA batteries). You can buy tunnel extenders if it’s going through an exterior wall.

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STUFF PICKS

GAME OF THROWS The app lets you schedule when you deliver treats to your pet (or the couch).

We’re thinking just as Bake Off starts, then every five minutes. We’re already salivating.

We’re going to be honest with you.

We think some pet tech is better suited to humans than it is to dogs, cats, lizards, hamsters or even a goldfish. Having spent so much time around gadgets, we’re all about hacking them into another use that they maybe weren’t designed for.

That’s why we’re mounting this pet 72

monitor next to the TV and keeping it full of Rascals. It can fling treats up to 2m, and with a bit of fine tuning we reckon we could get them straight into our mouth while we’re bingeing on the latest season of Narcos.

Assuming we can sit still enough, that is. Who’s a good boy now, then?

R4 150 / petcube.com

KEEP ’EM APPY Running out of treats?

Re-order more with the app. It also enables you to deliver a treat remotely – you can see if your pet caught it in mid-air via an HD feed.

STUFF PICKS

A dear friend of ours has a Siamese cat called John. John, she insists, acts more like a dog and regularly joins her on road trips across the country.

They’re inseparable, so we’re pleased to have found the perfect Christmas present for John’s species-fluid qualities, because the Smart Trolley is suitable for transporting felines or

canines. It acts like one of those annoying suitcases with wheels that we’ve all tripped over. Fortunately, for times of increased people-traffic there are shoulder straps to transform it into a pet backpack. Add in plenty of cubby holes for tins of snacks and suddenly John is travelling in style.

R900 / amazon.co.uk

CAT-STRAPPED The Smart Trolley is all about versatility, so if John decides he wants to travel by bus there are straps for securing his carriage to the seatbelt.

DOG MESH Made from durable, water-resistant material, the main compartment is covered by a breathable mesh that lets your pet see what’s going on outside.

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TESTED BMW i8 ROADSTER

Roofless efficiency BMW’s i8 hybrid supercar has done away with its roof just in time for the South African summer from R2330000 / bmw.co.za Q The BMW i8 is not your typical supercar. It doesn’t have a big 12-cylinder engine: its main power source is a tiny, super-boosted 3-cylinder engine borrowed from a Mini Cooper, aided by an electric motor driving the front wheels.

Q This new Roadster version – with an auto-folding roof that collapses vertically into a slot behind the seats – also has a bigger hybrid battery, allowing it to hum around like a supercharged milk float for up to 53km. It can hit 120km/h on pure electricity.

Q Oh, you noticed the price? Well, it’s beautifully built and the tech kit list is impressive. The hi-res 8.8in infotainment display and BMW’s Professional Navigation system are standard, as are Harman Kardon speakers, a head-up display and an all-round camera/sensor system.

Q Through the embedded SIM card, the GPS updates your route using live traffic info. You can talk to it either by using voice recognition or by writing out individual letters on the iDrive controller. BMW’s LCD-screened Display key fob also comes as standard.

Q The BMW Connected Drive app allows you to connect your smartwatch or smartphone to the i8, syncing essential data including the amount of charge remaining in the hybrid battery.

Good to know before you promise you’ll be there in 20 minutes.

Q In your face

Q Laser BM

As well as the standard dash and 8.8in infotaintment screen, you get a head-up display showing current speed, local speed limit and navigation directions. It floats in a ghostly manner over the bonnet, perfectly in your eyeline.

BMW says the i8 was the world’s first production car to get the option of LED laser headlights.

Costing an extra R65 000, they have a high-beam range of 600m, twice that of standard LED lamps.

Tech specs Screen 8.8in infotainment display Connectivity Bluetooth, USB Engines 1.5l petrol rear, electric motor front Gearboxes Petrol engine 6-speed auto, electric motor 2-speed auto

STUFF SAYS Like no other convertible supercar – and the planet thanks you for it +++++

This is the kind of car hybrid technology was invented for 74

The i8 Roadster offers the best of both worlds. It may only have a Mini engine, but it goes like an express train on the open road and is pretty incredible on bendy mountain ones too. Thank that electric motor, which pulls the front wheels and nose around tight bends without fuss. And when you’re done, you can cruise back though the city in silence using battery power alone.

TESTED LEXUS LC 500

Tech the high road

With its Tokyo Drift looks and 10 gears, this gadget-stuffed luxury GT aims to put Lexus in the long-distance driving seat from R1 846 600 / lexus.co.za Q The Lexus LC 500 is Japan’s hi-tech answer to the European GT brigade. With styling plucked straight from a video game, its meticulously engineered driving modes can tackle SA’s most vicious pothole assault courses.

Q We’re not complaining about being given the 5.0-litre V8 version to test, but the greater ingenuity arguably lies with the 3.5-litre V6 hybrid model. It has Lexus’s Multi Stage Hybrid system, which runs on pure electric power all the way up to 140km/h.

Q 10-speed direct-shift automatic transmission sounds ludicrous, but we’re assured it brings better fuel economy in the higher gears and smoother acceleration in the lower ones. For the V8, 0-100km/h arrives in a blistering 4.4 seconds and 471bhp takes it up to 270km/h.

Q The LC 500 is packed with protective tech so good it needs capital letters, including Pre-Crash Safety, Traffic Sign Recognition, Lane Keep Assist and a Sway Warning if the car becomes unstable (rather than alerting you to rap on the radio).

Q Let battle commence

Q That was just a noise

Located above the steering wheel is a ‘drive mode’ selector stalk. Toggle between Eco for urban driving, Comfort for long distances, Custom for your own setup, or Sport S and Sport S+ for scaring elderly relatives.

For a further thrill, pull up at the cemetery and immerse yourself in the Mark Levinson 13-speaker audio system. It adds 915 Watts of pounding surround sound, tuned for the cabin, and does its best to drown out the V8.

Q Our test car was upgraded with a Sport+ pack primed for Michael Bay chase scenes. This optional power-up adds four-wheel steering (with a steering wheel that weights up according to speed), a retractable rear spoiler, 21-inch alloy wheels, carbon fibre roof, and an alcantara interior that genuinely fits two more in the back.

Tech specs Screen 10.25in infotainment display Connectivity USB, Bluetooth, aux in Engine 5.0-litre V8 Gearbox 10-speed automatic

STUFF SAYS Makes us want to slide through a sushi drive-through in slo-mo ++++, A roaring V8 and oodles of smart driving tech?

Jurassic Park!

It’s not quite in Jaguar F-Type territory, but the LC 500 V8 doesn’t half make a grin-inducing din. Every bit a Japanese Mercedes, it’s a formidable long-distance cruiser – and not so harsh on the planet if you plump for the V6 hybrid version.

If Lexus could only simplify the confusing infotainment system and give us a touchscreen, we’d be ready and waiting with tan string-back driving gloves.

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TESTED JABRA ELITE ACTIVE 65T

Sweat yourself free Finally separated yourself from the couch?

These fully wireless in-ears are designed to soundtrack your new, super-fit life…

R3 350 / circuitcity.co.za When you live an active lifestyle, it’s imperative that you a) don’t harp on about it all the time, b) always have an emergency banana in your bag, and c) invest in a decent pair of wireless in-ears that aren’t going to pop out or flood with your sweat.

It’s fair to say Jabra’s totally wire-free Elite Active 65t are up to the task; but these clever buds have a lot more going for them than just the basics. Their audio performance can be tweaked to your liking, there are built-in accelerometers for tracking steps, and your voice assistant of choice can be summoned mid-run at the touch of a button.

Feature-wise, these ‘Active’ Jabras sit between the Elite 65t and Elite Sport models. The former lack accelerometers; the latter can track your heart rate. So, are these an effective compromise?

And how do they stack up against the non-Jabra in-ear competition, including Apple’s AirPods?

We took them walking, running and sitting in a sweltering Gautrain carriage to find out.

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1

1 A tad large When asked to describe these buds, one Stuff staffer went with “steroid-infused tadpole”. They are quite bulbous, but the most important thing is that they slot perfectly into your ear. And you get three different-sized pairs of silicone ear-tips to make sure.

2 A buddy pain Our buds never fell out on the job: once you’ve given them a twist, they’re pretty much drilled into your ear. While this guarantees their exercise credentials, it does mean they can become a bit uncomfortable after a while.

3 A pressing matter There’s a single button on each bud; these let you adjust volume, skip tracks, pause, receive calls and bring up Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant. Cramming all that into two earbuds was always going to be tricky, but Jabra has done an admirable job.

Good Meh Evil

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Tech specs Connectivity Bluetooth 5.0, microUSB charging Features Motion sensors, wind noise protection, ambient noise reduction, IP56 dust/water-resistance Battery life Up to 5 hours, 15 hours with charging carry case (included) Weight 12.3g (buds), 67g (case)

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It’s a fit app Pairing with your smartphone is quick and simple… and now you’ll have access to Jabra’s Sound+ app

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5 A word in your ear(s) Bluetooth 5.0 gives these in-ears strength and stability that the SA government can only dream of – we didn’t have any drop-outs – and few truly wireless in-ears at this price point can match the Jabras for audio quality.

… pu and sh ja es bb th ing em a fu t th Ta rt e b he u ha ke r i tto nd th nt n ily e b o s ou ju au ud to s o r l st ug -p ff s. au an …o s e… d t alb r n he um ot m .

W w e us hil ’v ic eo e w ill rd jus er t m Ru i ng is m nn od in a c se el gn an d h et e te alf s i ar en a n s tr lun n om aff ch i c ee .H .

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4 An unstoppable force With an IP56 rating, these buds can withstand the force of a high-pressure water jet, so you shouldn’t be worried about sweat. One issue, though: they’re supposed to auto-pause when you remove them, but we found that detection to be unreliable.

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Q Silent fitness

Q Tone up

The main listening settings are Commute, Focus and Active. They’re all self-explanatory, but we’re hugely impressed by the noise isolation afforded by Focus. That’s one up on the AirPods.

Each mode has its own EQ, where you can adjust bass and treble to your liking. And if you’ve had enough of your tunes, you can listen to the sweet sound of songbirds instead. Ahh.

Q Slow coach

Q Watch your step

The app is where you pick your voice assistant of choice. Alas, Alexa is not nearly as helpful on the road as she is on an Echo, so we ended up only calling on her for quick weather updates.

You don’t get a heart-rate monitor, but there are motion sensors to give you step and workout stats. This isn’t worth the extra cost over the standard Elite 65t for anyone with a smartwatch.

If you’re the sort of devoted fitness buff who’d give The Rock a run for his mountainous piles of money, you’re perhaps better off opting for the more tech-heavy Elite Sport buds. For everyone else, though, we fully recommend these Jabras: they’re the best running earbuds we’ve come across, in terms of both build and sound quality.

STUFF SAYS ++++, Great-sounding wireless buds, but a few usability niggles keep them from being perfect

24hrs 77

TWO WEEKS WITH THE DELL XPS 15 2-IN-1

Bat out of Dell This handsome hybrid has a 4K touchscreen and some fancy processing tech for super-speedy performance… Stuff spent a fortnight trying to keep up from R45 500 / takealot.com

The snappy, ultra-low-travel keyboard is based on ‘maglev’ train technology, using tiny magnets.

DAY 01 he Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 is a hybrid in every sense of the word. While we’re used to seeing machines with hinges or detachable screens take on that label, it’s more unusual to find one with an Intel processor sitting pretty alongside AMD integrated graphics.

Of course, this hybrid ticks the box for the first definition too, with a hinge that allows the screen to lean all the way back into tablet format when that’s all you really

need. So, reviewed at R45 000 spec – Intel Core i7 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD – does it offer performance that’s as impressive as its design? he XPS 15 2-in-1 is a very attractive machine indeed, with an anodised aluminium lid and carbon-fibre keyboard that are becoming familiar sights on Dell’s premium machines. he build quality is consistently excellent: there’s no give in any of the

The power button also functions as a fingerprint reader, and the webcam slots neatly beneath the screen 78

panels, the screen is sturdy and the hinges are rock-solid.

In fact, this Dell is stronger than most hybrids we’ve tested – and just as robust as the conventional Dell XPS 15. he dimensions aren’t bad either. Its 1.97kg weight and 16mm thickness compare well with conventional 15.6in laptops, and that weight matches the chunkier Microsoft Surface Book 2.

You’ll only get something lighter or slimmer if you make compromises – such as slower performance, a detaching screen or a fabric keyboard. Anyway, it’s not as if this Dell is particularly

unwieldy. If you’re used to carrying around a mid-sized machine, this won’t be any different.

Along both edges you’ll find pairs of USB 3.1 Type-C and hunderbolt 3 connectors. hey all function as DisplayPort outputs, and all work for power delivery too. he power button also functions as a fingerprint reader, and the webcam slots neatly beneath the screen. A stylus is also included for the touchscreen, which is precise and well-weighted. he only downsides? here’s no wired networking, and the only full-sized USB port comes from an adaptor.

LO N G -T E R M T E S T

01

Donut of Truth™

05

04

02 03

01 Exceptional Intel and AMD hardware 02 4K touchscreen with great contrast 03 Sturdy and good-looking hybrid design

04 It can get a little noisy when the processor is working hard 05 ‘Maglev’ keyboard feels great but some might want more physical movement

Tech specs Display 15.6in Full HD / Ultra HD touchscreen Processor 8th-gen Intel Core i5/i7 RAM 8/16GB Storage 256GB/ 512GB/1TB SSD OS Windows 10 Dimensions 354x 235x16mm, 1.97kg

DAY 03 hree days in, and the 16:9 4K Gorilla Glass touchscreen panel (with anti-reflective coating) is working impressively well for productivity and entertainment alike. he brightness level of around 450 nits is huge, and contrasts with a black level of below 0.3 nits. hese figures deliver a contrast ratio of 1570:1, making a big impact on day-to-day use. he dazzling brightness means this Dell can be easily used outdoors and beneath bright lights, and the deep black measurement ensures darker areas do look suitably dingy. hese results also mean colours are incredibly vibrant.

DAY 05 We’ve been testing out the Dell’s gaming chops – and it hasn’t let us down. he undoubted star running the show here is the Intel Core i7-8705G processor. his chip mixes hardware from Intel and AMD to deliver a better balance of processing power and graphical grunt.

And then there’s AMD’s Vega GPU, which is surprisingly swift.

You won’t be able to play top titles at 4K, but it will handle most games at 1080p with moderate

alterations to settings. If you play more modest games – Fortnite, PUBG or eSports titles – then this machine won’t have any problems.

DAY 11 A bit of a powerhouse, then, but the new chip does hinder thermal performance. While this XPS is silent during low-intensity tasks, when you push the processor the fans spin up – and when this happens, the Dell is louder than its admittedly weaker hybrid competition. hat extra noise is certainly caused by the chip, which has a peak power draw of 65W – at least 20W higher than any of Intel’s more conventional CPUs.

DAY 14 his is a truly excellent hybrid. It looks and feels great, while the 4K screen has superb contrast and the keyboard is super-slick. he meaty chip does affect battery life and noise performance, but these aren’t new compromises and they certainly aren’t ruinous.

Put simply, the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 is superb. It’s powerful and versatile, with ace performance and impressive ergonomics. It is expensive, but worth the cost if you need a next-level hybrid for proper portable work.

STUFF SAYS A powerful, portable and versatile hybrid, but with the price tag to match ★★★★★

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T E S T E D M I C R O S O F T S U R FA C E G O

To boldly Go Microsoft’s practical yet affordable new beauty is here to persuade you that taking the plunge into tablet ownership is highly logical, Captain

1 4

from R15 300 / pclinkshop.co.za Like the last puppy left in the pet shop, tablets are a sort of cross-breed of smartphone (but less useful) and laptop (but less powerful or functional).

These days no one seems to see them as either endearing or essential.

Microsoft, however, thinks it’s worth having a bash at creating an affordable and stylish tablet that has all the functionality of a PC and some of the creative muscle you’d expect from an iPad. And it’s hit a lot of the right notes.

The Surface Go might be the most useful tablet we’ve come across, with ample laptop imitation skills, decent enough media prowess, excellent sound, Windows Hello (Face ID), a front-facing camera that puts Apple’s iPads to shame, and a Type Cover accessory that’s going to transform this tablet into the PC you didn’t know you needed.

We’re suckers for a cute little puppy… so will this one grow up to be a top dog?

2 1 Business class This tab looks neat, stylish and professional: the sort of thing you’d feel content, maybe even smug, whipping out at the start of your meeting. Weighing barely 500g, with a 10in screen, it’s almost like a shrunken Surface Pro with kickstand and all.

2 Economy class For R15k you can’t expect a tiny power-python, but the Pentium Gold processor will cope with web-browsing, managing your emails and tinkering with the Office Suite apps that come as standard. You can do all this while blasting out Abba Gold on Spotify.

Good Meh Evil

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3 Middle class Battery life is somewhere between mediocre and quite good. Microsoft promises 9hrs of video playback, but in our testing it fell shy of that. And if you’re juggling Word docs with YouTube videos plus heavy email usage, it’ll be more like 5hrs.

4 Show your class At 1800x1200 pixels, the touchscreen display is a long way short of the latest iPads.

But text and video are sharp, colours are accurate, scrolling through holiday pictures is a dream… and for work (plus a bit of play) it’s more than adequate.

Techspecs Screen 10in 1800x1200 PixelSense touchscreen Processor Intel Pentium Gold RAM 4GB/8GB OS Windows 10 in S mode Storage 64GB eMMC / 128GB SSD Battery life Up to 9 hours Dimensions 245x175x8.3mm, 522g

MakeitGofurther

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5 Class dismissed As an entertainment tool, the biggest drawback here is a lack of apps. Yes, most services work through the web browser, but that can be clunky. The key apps are covered – Netflix, WhatsApp, Spotify – but there’s no Amazon Video, for now at least.

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If you’re in the mood to spend a little more than R15k, there are a few ways to soup up your Surface Go…

Q Revert to type

Q Draw the line

The Type Cover and Surface Pen don’t come in the box, but we reckon that keyboard is a must.

It’s an extra R2 500. Note it can also serve as a protective screen cover when not in use.

Like the Type Cover, the Surface Pen is another optional extra.

The Surface Go’s 180° kickstand comes in handy here: you’ll always be able to find the best angle for drawing on the screen.

Q Pick a card

Q RAM it home

Underneath the kickstand lurks a microSD card reader, which can be used to expand storage and to read media. You also get a USB-C port as well as the main charging input – one up on the iPads.

The basic Surface Go has a 64GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM. If you really need a machine that’s capable of speedy multitasking, the 128GB version has an SSD and 8GB of RAM.

The Go is an ultra-portable tablet that’s both stylish and useful. Like having a mini PC on you at all times, it’s reassuring to know you can fix that last bit of work on the way to or from the office… or take it to meetings instead of lugging your laptop around. The processor is adequate for everyday tasks and the screen is lovely.

STUFF SAYS +++++ Your go-to for tying up loose ends at work and then kicking back and streaming box-sets in the evening

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BETA YOURSELF

Using Google’s latest mobile OS is as easy as pie when you know where all the best bits are – Stuff reveals the tastiest slices, so you can get more from your phone FIND YOUR WAY

without using the Overview.

Want to kill an app? Swipe its preview upwards.

Q Try gestural navigation Android 9 Pie retains the traditional navigation buttons (back, home, overview) but only by default. We recommend swapping them out for the new gestural system. In Settings, head to System then Gestures and turn on the ‘Swipe up on home’ button. The back arrow will now be contextual, only showing when relevant. The home button will be a flat pill, but it works just as before.

Q Use the new Overview In the Overview, gestures more obviously boost speed and fluidity. Flick upwards on the home button to see large previews of open apps, like on iOS. Drag/flick the previews left or right to navigate them and tap an app to expand it.

Q Control screen rotation In Pie, you can still disable the display auto-rotate. But the new OS adds a bespoke rotate button in the navigation bar when rotation is possible. This locks your device to the other orientation until the button is pressed again or auto-rotate is reactivated.

Q Get at your apps

Q Pin an app

Also in the Overview, you’ll see shortcuts to regularly used apps at the bottom of the screen, along with a search bar. To access the apps drawer, drag/flick that pane up. The new home button also enables you to quickly switch between two apps by flicking right over it. This means you can jump quickly between, say, Chrome and Gmail,

App-pinning isn’t new, but it’s now simpler. Open Settings and under ‘Security & location’ go to Advanced, tap ‘Screen pinning’ and turn it on. In the Overview, tap an app’s icon and ‘pin’ to lock the device to that app. Hold the back and home buttons to unpin. In Settings, ‘Lock device when unpinning’ will stop someone nosing through your device.

SNAP HAPPY Q Take a screenshot

Lockdown In Settings > Security & Location > Lock screen, turn on ‘Show lockdown’.

This adds lockdown to the power button long-press menu. A PIN is then required to unlock.

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You can still take a screenshot in the usual manner, by holding power and volume down. But Pie also offers a simpler way: hold the power button until a pop-up menu appears, and then tap Screenshot.

Q Edit your screenshot When editing, use the drag handles to crop your screenshot. You can also pinch-zoom the image within the crop frame. Underneath this area, you get pen and highlighter tools with a range of colours, and undo/redo buttons in case you make a horrible mess when scribbling.

MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE

HAVE A BROWSE In Settings, tap on Accessibility. Chances are you rarely or never explore this area.

You should, because although the features within are primarily designed for people with specific needs, many available options can be beneficial to a much wider audience…

REMOVE ANIMATIONS GET WELL SOON Q Heavy user?

POWER SAVER Q Boost battery life If it’s not on already, head to Settings > Battery > Adaptive Battery and turn on ‘Use adaptive battery’. Over time, your device learns your usage patterns. Apps that need more power are prioritised.

Q Manage brightness Turn on adaptive brightness in Settings > Display and your device will attempt to change your brightness settings to match your environment.

Manually make adjustments in ‘Quick settings’ and they’ll subsequently be taken into account when automated changes are made.

In Settings > ‘Digital wellbeing’, the dashboard outlines your general device usage for the day, along with the number of unlocks and notifications received. Tap the graph to delve into per-app figures, and see how often your Android’s been in your mitts.

Q Learn to wind down On the Dashboard, tap ‘Wind down’. Turn the feature on and define a schedule during which it will be active. Turn on Greyscale to make your screen look less appealing when it’s time to go to bed, and use ‘Do not disturb’.

Q Set an app time limit Tap ‘No timer’ to bring up a timer menu, and define a maximum amount of daily usage for any app. When your allocation’s up, the icon will be greyed out until midnight.

TAME NOTIFICATIONS

For example, turn on ‘Remove animations’ and Android 9 Pie’s animations are either removed or massively sped up. If you suffer from a vestibular disorder, that means no longer getting dizzy; for everyone else it feels like a faster smartphone.

Q Block timewasters If you’re getting sick of an app bugging you with notifications, tap-hold one and then ‘Stop notifications’. Also, in Settings, go to ‘Apps & notifications’ > Notifications to see and disable notifications from apps that recently sent one.

Q Choose the best bits If you don’t fancy blocking an app’s communications with you entirely, instead tap the ‘info’ button. When the pane loads, tap ‘notifications’. You can then decide which kinds of notification the app can send, so you’ll only get the ones you want.

ADD A NEW MENU Under ‘Accessibility menu’, tap ‘Use service’ and ‘OK’. This adds an accessibility button to the navigation bar. Tap it and you’ll see single-tap buttons for a range of features. Here, quick settings and screenshots become accessible to one-thumb users.

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T E S T E D H U AW E I M AT E 2 0 L I T E

Lite refreshme Huawei’s latest mid-priced phone is really just a starter before the main course of the Mate 20 Pro… and it’s left our stomachs grumbling R9 000 / huawei.com/za With a name like Mate 20, you’d be right to expect good things from Huawei’s latest handset.

Well, that’s 10 whole Mates better than the Mate 10, right?

Sorry to be the bearers of bad news. Think of the Mate 20 Lite as the entrée before the main course. The full-fat Mate 20 Pro will arrive later in the year, so this is just a taster.

It might end up looking like a case of Huawei’s eyes being bigger than its stomach, though.

The very similar and cheaper Honor Play arrived barely a month ago… and on paper there’s very little to separate them.

Look and feel is where Huawei hopes the Mate 20 Lite can make the biggest impression. Its front and back are made from glass, sandwiched around a metal frame. It’s what you’ll find in most of this year’s flagship phones, whereas the cheaper Honor makes do with metal.

Does it feel premium? You betcha. Would you pay extra for it? Well, that depends what’s going on under the skin…

1 Lite-ness of touch The screen is long and thin, and the bezels are skinny, so this phone doesn’t feel as big as it really is. The fingerprint sensor has been shunted to the back. It’s perfectly placed for your digits to rest on, but with face unlock built in, you may not even need it.

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1

2 Blinded by the Lite Huawei has stayed sensible with the specs, using an LCD panel and 2340x1080 resolution to keep costs down, and to avoid sapping too much battery – it has the same specs and size as the Honor Play’s. It’s fairly colourful, with decent contrast and clarity.

3 Greased Lite-ning?

The Mate 20 Lite makes do with a mid-range Kirin 710 CPU – an octa-core chip, but not nearly as efficient or as fast as the Kirin 970 found in the P20 Pro. Still, apps load quickly, there’s little in the way of stutter and most games run well.

Good Meh Evil

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T E S T E D H U AW E I M AT E 2 0 L I T E

Tech specs Screen 6.3in 2340x1080 IPS LCD Processor Kirin 710 octa-core RAM 4GB OS Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI Cameras 20MP + 2MP rear, 24MP + 2MP front Battery 3750mAh Storage 64GB (plus microSD) Dimensions 158x75x7.6mm, 172g

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Lite and shade The Mate 20 Lite isn’t rocking Huawei’s very best camera tech, but the numbers sound promising…

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5 A Lite that never goes out The best thing about how phone makers are switching to taller, thinner screens?

Bigger batteries. This one gets a 3750mAh cell, and that’s a very good thing. If you’re really careful, the Mate 20 Lite really can go the two-day distance.

W co ith ul on d t ly ak 4 e a GB hi of ti R Ev fy A at er ou M, ho us ’re m m ed ap ulti ew a p- ta H ith ua hu ski ng ng th we ry is i b Cu iO e . sh st f S or om -li ore tc is ke ? ut a in You s o tio te ’l n t n is rfa l fe he g ce el o Co . lo od m ul c ks ,w ay d t be hi cr ith ee u ,b sp ut ho n. se fu we ne l ’re la to st t Ba pp w on tt ing o d a p ery up ay ar life be s? w ,l fo We ith ike re ll m so be , os m d. to u th ch er el m se id- , is ra re ng all er y s.

4 Many apps make Lite work EMUI, Huawei’s custom skin that sits on top of Android Oreo, is very Apple-esque, with multiple home screens full of apps instead of a drawer (although there’s an option to put one back in). There’s also a load of Huawei bloatware you’ll never need to use.

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Q Four eyes

Q Don’t be too piccy

You get a 20MP sensor on the back and 24MP on the front – that’s a lot of pixels, and they’ve each got secondary 2MP snappers backing them up, although they’re only there for depth-sensing.

Some of the Mate’s portrait photos look like their backgrounds were blurred in Microsoft Paint, with plenty of jagged edges, but feed it enough light and this phone can take respectable photos.

Q Nifty shades

Q All to Play for?

Colours are well-judged, only sometimes veering towards oversaturation.

Shots are exposed naturally and detail is captured clearly. Zoom in, though, and you’ll see the processing limitations.

We’re not convinced the extra pixel count makes photos look dramatically better than the 16MP Honor Play’s, but low-light performance is a step above the Honor’s, thanks to the f/1.8 aperture.

The Mate 20 Lite doesn’t have any obvious failings – it’s a decent enough mid-range handset with good looks, a respectable camera and performance that’s right on the money. But the hike in price to get this instead of the Honor Play is just too big, considering the differences between the two are really only skin-deep. Now to convince them to bring the Play to SA.

STUFF SAYS ++++, A design refresh isn’t quite enough when rivals and other Huaweis offer better specs for less

24hrs 85

SW IT IT UP CH …

ONE HYPERDRIVE THUNDERBOLT USB-C ADAPTER Apple might be ready for a brave new world where the only port is Thunderbolt, but you probably aren’t.

Fortunately, this multi-port hub lets you plug in almost anything: SD and microSD cards, two USB 3.0 cables and an HDMI 4K display. It’ll even do pass-through charging via its USB-Cs. R1 500 / myistore.co.za

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TWO INCIPIO FEATHER SNAP-ON CASE Having splashed out on a new MacBook Pro, the last thing you want is it getting all scratched up.

Incipio’s form-fitting case – in ‘raspberry’, ‘navy’, or ‘smoke’ – keeps your notebook protected in your bag. Plus, rubber feet on the bottom half keep your workhorse surefooted whatever the surface.

R700 / myistore.co.za

THREE POSTURE STAND Notebooks are convenient but not that great ergonomically. For long Mac sessions, use a stand to raise the screen to eye height – and an external keyboard and trackpad.

The Posture Stand is an adjustable effort that doubles as a standing desk, helping you to pretend you’re keeping fit while you faff about on Facebook.

R1 200 / backpainhelp.com

NO TH W IS DO …

TH TH EN ES GE E… T

INSTANT UPGRADES

AFFINITY PHOTO

1 GO DARK

2 KEEP THINGS TIDY

3 OPEN APPS LESS

Apple’s macOS Mojave update has the kind of new toys that make your MacBook Pro feel like a new Mac. Head to System Preferences and, under General, click ‘Dark’. You’ll get an instant dark mode, for working into the wee small hours without frying your retinas. Fancy something a bit more subtle? In Desktop & Screen Saver, select a dynamic desktop that’ll slowly change as you move through the day.

If your Mac desktop looks like someone sprayed documents everywhere using a hose, bring order to it with Stacks.

Control-click the desktop and then select ‘Use stacks’. Define how they’re grouped in ‘Group stacks by’. You’ll then have little piles of similar documents you can expand with a click, scrub through with a two-finger swipe, or preview as one by tapping the space key.

Apple’s revamped Finder and Quick Look both reason you shouldn’t need to open apps to perform basic tasks. he Finder Gallery view is all big previews and quick switching between files. he adjacent Preview pane offers extra details such as photo metadata and quick actions for rotating images, marking up and creating PDFs – as does Quick Look, so no need to faff about in Preview.

Don’t want to splash out on a Photoshop subscription?

Try this R800 app, which takes full advantage of the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar. Mac App Store

MOOM Although MacOS would quite like you to work in full-screen mode, you’ll probably still spray windows everywhere.

Moom (R150) lets you control them with shortcuts. manytricks.com

4 GET SNAP HAPPY

5 TAKE A NOTE

6 SECURE YOURSELF

Continuity is one of Apple’s big things of late – that notion of the interconnectedness of its various devices. Previously, you could hurl a web page in Safari or a half-finished email in Mail from your iPhone to your Mac. Now, you can use a device’s camera to directly inject snaps into compatible apps, such as Pages, Keynote and Notes. Just be aware they won’t also end up in your Photos library.

he Voice Memos app arrived on iPhone way back in iOS 7, and stubbornly remained rooted there alone. Sure, your iPhone is the closest Apple device in form factor to a dictaphone, but you may like to make recordings on other Apple kit too. Well, now you can.

Voice Memos is built right into macOS Mojave (and iPad as of iOS 12), and iCloud syncs your notes between devices.

You can ask Siri “Show me my passwords” to quickly access the relevant section in Safari’s preferences. You’ll then be able to update passwords across multiple accounts. MacOS also automatically creates, autofills and stores (in iCloud Keychain) unique passwords for new logins.

One-time codes sent via SMS appear as autofill in Safari and in tap-to-enter fashion on the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.

BETTER TOUCH TOOL Starting at R90, this amazing utility is used to define shortcuts for Mac input devices – such as keyboard triggers.

On a MacBook Pro you can create Touch Bar actions. folivora.ai

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T E S T E D C A N O N P O W E R S H O T S X 74 0

Baby zoomer Why go to the mountain when it can come to you, courtesy of Canon’s super-zooming compact snapper?

R6000 / canon.co.za Q These days the phone in your pocket is pretty much all you need for snapping a great shot. But – for now at least – there are still some things your trusty handset can’t quite muster. Take cameras like the Canon PowerShot SX740, with its whopping great 40x optical zoom lens. Now you can get up close and personal with distant landmarks, zoo animals and… well, whatever takes your fancy.

Q Other features include 4K video recording, a tilting screen, manual control and up to 10fps shooting.

Not bad for a travel shooter that’s as compact as it is wallet-friendly.

Q Cramming a 40x lens inside a body that fits snugly in your pocket is an impressive feat, but otherwise there’s nothing revolutionary about the SX740: if you’ve ever used a Canon compact before you’ll be at home here. On top is a dinky mode dial, and the buttons on the back are grouped to the right of the screen for easy one-handed shooting.

Q One button worth singling out is the Zoom Frame Assist button.

Hold this down if your subject disappears from view, then locate it and release to zoom back in.

Q The tilting screen takes up the rest of the back of the screen. It goes all the way forwards, making it ideal for selfies, but it’s not touch-sensitive. For some of us it’s a bit strange having to go back to old-fashioned buttons.

Tech specs Sensor 20.3MP CMOS Optical zoom 40x Display Tilting 7.5cm LCD Video 4K @ 25fps, 1080p @ 50fps Dimensions 110x64x40mm, 299g

Q Wide boy

Q Sunny side up

In bright conditions, the overall impression of detail is very good at the wide-angle end of the lens. At high zoom settings there’s a little bit of fuzziness, but nothing unexpected for a compact in this price range.

The 1/2.3in 20.3MP sensor is smaller than we’re used to these days. It means this camera is not so well equipped to produce the goods in low light… but if it’s your holiday camera, you may well not care about that.

STUFF SAYS A solid travel cam that goes big on the zoom but small on the extras ++++,

Pocket this if you love a good zoom but don’t want a DSLR 88

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use, pocket-sized cam and your main consideration is zoom ratio, then the Canon SX740 is a great choice. It’s also not too damaging on the old bank balance. Clearly it represents a compromise – whether you’re happy with the low-light performance resulting from such a small sensor is really down to personal preference, but this is certainly worth thinking about as a holiday snapper.

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DIGITAL Pay only R180 per year for 10 issues 89

TESTED GAMES

PS4 / playstation.com/en-za

Marvel’s Spider-Man There’s no timewasting recap of how Spidey got his powers in this game, which is great news, but is there more to it than just swinging between skyscrapers and beating up baddies? Hell yes… he first thing you see in Marvel’s Spider-Man is an actual spider. Dangling outside Peter Parker’s New York City apartment. Within seconds, you’re flying past the beastie and swinging among the skyscrapers of Manhattan with the ease of a seasoned Spidey.

The game makes a thrilling first impression by immediately putting players in the Spandex of an experienced web-slinger, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for growth. While the game’s

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satisfyingly intuitive mechanics allow you to feel like a do-gooding superhero right out of the box, its many RPG-flavoured systems let you progress Spidey into an even better day-saving badass.

Levelling up allows players to invest points in a trio of ‘skill trees’, focused on Innovator, Defender and Webslinger paths. Brimming with active and passive perks and abilities, these trees offer the opportunity to upgrade existing powers or unlock entirely new ones. Players have the freedom

to focus on abilities that improve acrobatic prowess, combat skills, or various combinations of the two.

But the addictive levelling loop is just the beginning – because actually unleashing all Spidey’s acquired skills, powers and abilities is where the real fun is at. Something as simple as sliding through the legs of an enemy, before beating him down from behind, feels fantastic. Credit is due to the game’s fantastic controls, which pack a rewarding

punch during combat and give physics the finger when navigating the cityscape.

If you can get past the game’s more formulaic elements and old-school design decisions, you’ll discover one of the Marvel icon’s absolute best interactive adventures to date. The addictive progression path, engaging combat and thrilling web-swinging not only overshadow the game’s flaws – they make them fun in spite of themselves. How fun?

Even collectibles are a blast.

STUFF SAYS Some minor gameplay flaws can’t keep Spider-Man from flying high ++++✩ 90

TESTED GAMES

3 of the best superhero games

Batman: Return to Arkham Still the gold standard for superhero games, and an obvious inspiration for Spidey’s new PS4 exclusive, the Arkham series is renowned for its satisfying close-quarters combat and narrative twists worthy of the comics.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2

The skill trees let you, for example, enhance Spidey’s acrobatic prowess.

Juggle baddies, cocoon them in webs and use them as human wrecking balls!

Love Spider-Man but own an Xbox? ‘Console’ yourself with this Lego outing in which the web-slinger starred last year.

It’s a family-friendly superhero pick’n’mix, letting you play as anyone from Black Panther to a cowboy Captain America.

Injustice 2 With an enormous roster of DC superheroes and a great story mode, this is one of the best fighters you can play, whether you’re a hardcore genre fan or a baffled newcomer. Always wanted to see Catwoman punching Hellboy halfway into tomorrow? This is your game.

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TESTED GAMES

PS4, Xbox One, PC / destinythegame.com

Destiny 2: Forsaken This latest DLC has given Bungie’s shared-world shooter a major update, including a much better story – and it might just be enough to save the series estiny has had something of a rough ride in the four years since the original game’s release. The franchise has been a standard-bearer for the concept of ‘games as a service’: titles that offer regularly refreshed challenges and updated content in order to keep people playing (and paying) regularly for a long period of time – and at times developer Bungie has struggled to find the right balance.

Destiny 2 delighted everyone at launch, but soon after it became clear that Bungie’s attempts to cater to the casual crowd had left the rest of us with nothing to do after a few weeks.

Since then there’s been a concerted effort to win back players, with a decent (if rather unspectacular) second DLC, a major reworking of Destiny 2’s nuts and bolts and now Forsaken, a major expansion DLC that adds a ton of new stuff to do.

Destiny 2’s plotline was a step up from anything in the first game merely by virtue of having a coherent story, but Forsaken takes

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things further with its engaging Western-style revenge plot.

There’s more emotional and moral weight in the story missions than anything previously seen in Destiny. We won’t spoil the plot, but it begins with a prison break of one sort and ends with another of an entirely spookier kind.

While there’s nothing massively novel about the story missions’ gameplay, the fights are enjoyable.

You’ll also find a vast amount of post-campaign stuff to get your teeth into here, with the ability to grind to the new maximum power level in a variety of ways.

All-new game mode Gambit is a joy to play. It mixes PVE with PVP, pitting four players against another group in a race to kill enemies, bank motes and beat a huge boss. It should hopefully become a staple of the series from now on.

Forsaken has revitalised the series and brought it to its most healthy place since The Taken King came out back in 2015. If you own Destiny 2, you should probably own Forsaken.

Forsaken introduces two new areas, filled with patrols and region chests.

Dozens of new exotic weapons and armour pieces have been added to the mix.

STUFF SAYS A welcome overhaul that knocks Destiny 2 into much healthier shape ++++, 92

TESTED GAMES

PS4, Xbox One, PC / tombraider.com

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Globetrotting Lara heads to South America for the trilogy’s high-stakes finale. Have we seen it all before, or is this worth shelling out R1 000 for? ideo gaming’s foremost explorer (sorry, Nate) is back for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The third and final instalment of the reboot trilogy has Lara Croft heading for deepest South America to once again race shady organisation Trinity to a magical and potentially worldchanging artefact.

The plot – apparently aided by historians and cultural consultants – takes you to some pretty interesting places, particularly as you learn more about the villain of the piece, Dr Dominguez, and the natives who fear him.

The Peruvian jungle is a simply magnificent creation. Playing with headphones on (recommended), you can hear screeching monkeys clambering through the treetops above and the not-so-friendly purring of jaguars stalking you through the bushes.

As you make your way through immaculately detailed foliage and muddy swamps, crossing creaky rope bridges, you’ll encounter massive stone temples that clearly don’t get a lot of visitors. Like its

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In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight… but that jaguar’s definitely awake.

Cracking puzzles involves shooting rope arrows, pulling levers and sending things crashing around.

predecessors, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is made up of hub worlds littered with murals, documents, survival caches and hidden tombs; this jungle is one of them, but you’ll also spend a lot of time in the game’s numerous towns and settlements.

As you progress through the game you’ll gradually unlock upgrades in three skill categories: Seeker, Scavenger and Warrior.

There are also some brilliant fights throughout, and feeling like a near-superpowered jungle warrior never gets boring. Meanwhile, the puzzles remain relatively short and simple once you know what’s required of you.

You can’t shake the feeling that you’ve done it all before, though, and this is no radical reinvention.

Still, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is without doubt the best of the bunch, a veritable rollercoaster of a game that gives players a lush South American jungle to explore, tombs crafted with real care, and Uncharted-worthy set-pieces that’ll rival anything you see in the cinema this year.

STUFF SAYS A thrilling finale for one of the finest action/adventure series ever ++++✩ 93

GADGET DOCTOR

ALWAYS ON CALL

facebook.com/stuffsa ● @StuffSA stuff@stuff.co.za

MAIL OF THE MONTH Q

YOU MIGHT BE AN ADDICT

Okay, so my parents won't let me play Fortnite on my Xbox until school holidays so I've come up with a plan and I don't know if it'll work. I have a 500GB Xbox One, computer monitor and laptop. My plan is to connect the HDMI cord from the Xbox One to the monitor then connect the VGA cord from the monitor to the laptop to make them think I'm playing Fortnite on my laptop rather than the Xbox.

Will this plan work or am I just too addicted to Fortnite?

Thabang

We're not about to go against your parents on this one... but we can tell you that your plan is not going to work based on your connection setup. The monitor is not going to output to your laptop that way, you'd need to have a direct connect to the Xbox and even then, displaying the video from a console on a laptop screen is a mission at best. But there is a way to wirelessly stream from an Xbox One to a Windows 10 (the operating system is important) computer. If you happen to go looking for it, well... ¯\_("))_/¯

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Speak your brains to Stuff and you could win!

This letter wins an Amazon Fire 7 tablet worth R1 400.

Q

UNDER THE SURFACE

I am an avid reader of your magazine, and I especially savour the Top Ten lists in each issue. For a while now, I have wondered when the Microsoft Surface Pro would make an appearance, and to my pleasant surprise I see that it has found its way onto your top ten tablet list (September 2018 issue). I am not quite sure that this was the best list for the device, which is in effect a 2-in-1 laptop. Perhaps the difficulty in correctly classifying this particular device is that it is fantastic in both states; it is a

reliable and capable tablet, as well as a mean and powerful laptop!

My surprise, in its inclusion on your list, is that I had thought that the device is not easily available or supported in South Africa this has been the only reason why I do not own one yet. Is my understanding correct? Or have I been missing out for no reason?

Rubeshan We have an ongoing debate in the office about this. On the one hand, the Surface range continues to go from strength to strength, and they're the only

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genuine laptop-replacement/ convertible machines we can whole-heartedly recommend.

On the other hand, as you rightly point out, they're anything but readily available. The local Microsoft office tells us there are still no plans to officially sell the devices here. We've hit the same wall with big retailers like Incredible Connection and Takealot... which means people are largely relying on importers or bringing them in themselves.

For the moment we've been including one because it's such a compelling device. But we're constantly reevaluating the Top Ten lists and that may not always be the case.

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TECHNICALLY SPEAKING…

I am stuck between buying an upgrade kit for my current PC, or selling it to buy a new laptop.

My budget would be around R15 000 for a new setup. At the moment I am using an H81MS2PV mobo with 6GB DDR3 (running at 1333MHz) RAM. The CPU is an Intel Core i3-4170 and the GPU is a ZOTAC GTX 1050 with 2GB of VRAM. JR In the event that you go for the upgrade route, most of your internals are going to have to go. In your shoes, we’d go for

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an upgrade kit like those from Evetech which could jump you four CPU generations to a Core i7 8700K, a new MSI mobo to go with it, 8GB of DDR4, and the cooler that you'll need for the chip. That chews up a whole lot of your budget, with just about R4 500 left over. If you can wait (and it'll suck) until you can lift that amount over R7 000, you can add a GTX 1070 Ti 8GB card a little later on. If you want a 1080, you're looking at about R9k a card.

It might be a longer wait but if you're gaming, it should be worth it. And, if you shop around, you might be able to source identicalbut-cheaper components to those available buying them individually. Might.

If you want to go the laptop route, you're looking at a lower-specced machine.

For your R15 000, you'll snag a 15in notebook with an 8th-gen Core i5 8300H, 8GB DDR4, and a GTX 1050. Look at a revised budget (accounting for saving extra for a GPU) of R17 500 and the spec doesn't change substantially. You'll find a rare Core i7 machine, but the RAM and GPU are pretty constant in that price bracket – though the GTX 1050 is a 4GB card compared to your 2GB version.

If you want a similar spec to the desktop upgrade, you're looking at R25 000 upwards.

Congratulations to our Acer Predator Helio 500 winner: Tyrone Lubbe and LG G7 ThinQ winners: David Gosman, Matteo Buxman

Next month’s mail of the month wins an Amazon Fire 7 tablet and cover worth R1 400 courtesy of Circuit City 94

This gadget leapt straig outta testin and into ou rankings.

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Time changes everything, including Stuf Top Ten placings.

HOT BUY BARGAIN BUY UPDATE Searing with techy genius, a product that’s set our hearts aflame.

A solid gold bargain.

Worth owning, regardless of cashflow.

Smartphones Phablets Tablets Playlist TVs Streaming guide Laptops Wearables Budget buys

96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104

The big question: Streaming for kids Cameras How to buy…

Headphones Bluetooth Speakers Consoles and 5-minute hacks Games

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HOW TO USE THEM

TOP TENS SMARTPHONES

96 HOT BUY

While Samsung and Apple’s war for smartphone supremacy rages on, Huawei has sauntered up and knocked both companies off their feet with the P20 Pro. Serious snappers will love this flagship phone thanks to the triple-lens camera, with 5x zoom and a 40MP main sensor. Add to that a quite awesome AMOLED display, lightning-fast internals and a top-notch design, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for the best new smartphone of 2018.

TIPS & TRICKS Activating ‘Natural Tone’ in settings will adjust the screen’s brightness according to your environment.

Stuff says +++++ That triple-lens cam gives the P20 Pro the edge in the smartphone wars

To capture a screenshot, simply double-tap the front of the P20 Pro with your knuckle.

O NOW ADD THIS Tuff-Luv P20 Pro Back Case With its fragile back, you’ll want a case for your P20 Pro – one that accommodates the three sensors.

R200 / takealot.com

Turn on ‘Face unlock’ in ‘Security & privacy’ and you can wake up the P20 Pro with just a glance.

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HOT BUY

Apple iPhone X

R14 000 / samsung.com/za

from R16 000 / myistore.co.za

Small tweaks such as better placement of the fingerprint sensor, more power and a new dual-aperture camera combine to make the latest Samsung flagship a smart upgrade on the S8. And of course, you’ve still got that luscious near-bezelless screen.

There’s no question that the iPhone X is a fantastic phone.

Even notch-haters have to admit its design is majestic, while Face ID, a gorgeous display and a versatile camera all combine for one of the best all-round handsets you can buy. The only problem is the price.

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Stuff says +++++ Not a huge upgrade on the Galaxy S8, but it’s still a very welcome one

Stuff says +++++ An awesome iPhone that goes toe to toe with Android’s best offerings

+++++ R11 300 / samsung.com/za Still a great phone, with a much better price now that the S9 is getting all the love and attention.

LG G7 ThinQ +++++ R13 000 / lg.com/za We’re still waiting for another V to drop but LG’s latest has some competition on the camera front.

Apple iPhone SE +++++ from R4 700 / myistore.co.za If you absolutely must have an old-style iPhone, this is (still) your only port of call.

Huawei P20 Lite ++++, from R6 000 / huawei.com/za Huawei’s Lite range balances pricing and features to a fine degree and the P20 Lite is no different.

UPDATE

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung Galaxy S8

9 HOT BUY

Apple iPhone 8 ++++, from R12 000 / myistore.co.za The iPhone 8’s days are numbered on this list. The menacing XS and XR are coming soon.

Sony Xperia XZ2 ++++, R13 500 / sonymobile.com/za Sony’s flagship is hanging in there and we’ve got high hopes for the incoming Xperia XZ3

Nokia 6.1 ++++, R4 000 / hmdglobal.com All-new innards, Android One pedigree, and nary a price bump? Is it our birthday, Nokia?

FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS VISIT STUFF.CO.ZA OR STUFFSA ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

O Prices quoted are for handset only unless otherwise stated

Huawei P20 Pro R15 500 / huawei.com/za

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PHABLETS TOP TENS HOT BUY

TIPS & TRICKS

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 from R19 000 / samsung.com/za

The Note 9 has a mess of AI camera tricks up its sleeve. If you wanna turn those off (you might), hit the camera settings and unselect the Scene optimizer and Flaw detection options.

If you like them big, then you’ve come to the right place. Samsung’s latest Note is also their greatest Note – in size as well as in capability. It’s packing their Exynos 9810 octa brain-box, 6GB of RAM (in the base 128GB version) or 8GB of RAM (for the 512GB pocket-computer) and the amazing variable aperture cam from the S9+. Oh, and a 4000mAh battery, because it takes a lot to keep this lot of hardware running all day. We’ll admit that Samsung hasn’t done much about the look of the thing but it looked pretty damn good to start with . And then there’s the S Pen…

Bixby’s button is here to stay with the Note 9 (officially, anyway). But you can still disable Bixby Home – just long-press the home screen and swipe right till you get to where Samsung has hidden the toggle.

Stuff says +++++ Incremental rather than innovative, the Note 9 is still the phone fans have been hoping for.

You can use the S Pen as a camera shutter if you’re so inclined but you can also use it to unlock the Note 9 itself. Select the Unlock with S Pen Remote option in the S Pen settings. Protip: Enable Smart Lock too.

O NOW ADD THIS UAG Monarch Case Makes the Note 9 look bulky but also protects this R20k smartphone. #nobrainer.

R780 / takealot.com

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UPDATE

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6 7 Samsung Galaxy Note 8

R17 600 / samsung.com/za

R14 000 / samsung.com/za

The S9+ has been dethroned. Still, it’s a mighty fine device, matching the Note 9 almost spec-for-spec.

The variable aperture camera and CPU are identical, the screen size is nigh-on the same and you don’t have to fiddle around with a stylus you’re probably going to lose.

Samsung’s maintaining podium dominance but we’re expecting a shakeup when Apple’s XS Max drops. For now, though, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 remains an excellent device with the added benefit of a load of price drops happening at present.

Stuff says +++++ Don’t feel the need for a stylus?

This phone’s for you.

Stuff says +++++ Want a stylus but can’t afford the Note 9? This is your best option

HOT BUY

9 UPDATE

Huawei Mate 10 Pro +++++ R13 600 / huawei.com/za Huawei’s most ambitious effort packs in AI smarts, a huge battery and heaps of power.

Apple iPhone 8 Plus +++++ from R15 000 / myistore.co.za Short stay on the podium notwithstanding, the Phone 8 Plus is the big Apple you want... for now.

+++++ from R11 000 / myistore.co.za The 7 Plus has not gone from the charts or our hearts. Slipped a few places though.

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+++++ R12 500 / samsung.com/za Samsung’s making pretty good large phones – good enough to hold the top four spots at once.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

UPDATE

Samsung Galaxy S9+

Samsung Galaxy S8+

BARGAIN Y

LG V30+ +++++ from R13 300 / lg.com/za The LG V30+ takes everything good about the G6 and improves on it – a little late, but still.

Huawei Mate 20 Lite ++++, R9 000 / huawei.com/za Four camera sensors, a notch, slim bezels, and a sub-R10k price? Must be Huawei’s new Mate Lite.

Xiaomi Redmi S2 ++++, R3 100 / mia.africa.com A 6in screen and a 12+5MP dual rear cam are joined by a 16MP selfie shooter at a bargain price.

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TOP TENS TABLETS

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98 HOT BUY

UPDATE

Apple iPad Pro 10.5in from R11 000 / myistore.co.za The 9.7in iPad Pro was already sitting comfortably as our favourite tablet, but that wasn’t good enough for Apple. Rather than giving its flagship tablet a few minor tweaks, Apple has introduced a bigger screen and an immensely potent processor.

In fact, this device is so powerful and flashy that it’s even blurring the lines between tablet and laptop. If you only want to browse social media and watch Netflix, the 10.5in iPad Pro is overkill; this is for those more interested in creation than consumption.

Stuff says +++++ The iPad Pro puts all other tablets to shame – it’s unbeatable as a multimedia machine or creative tool

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 from R10 000 / samsung.com/za The Tab S3 is powerful and has a gorgeous screen, while the bundled stylus is a welcome extra that you don’t have to be an artist to appreciate. It doesn’t do half-measures, which is rare in an Android tablet.

Stuff says +++++ The first genuine rival to Apple’s iPad Pro

Apple iPad (2018) from R5 500 / myistore.co.za There might not be a lot different here compared to the previous iteration of the standard iPad, but subtle improvements, Apple Pencil support and a decent price make this the best tablet for most people.

Stuff says +++++ A versatile tablet for both work and play

Microsoft Surface Go +++++ from R15 300 / pclinkshop.com Like carrying a mini-PC everywhere, with the added benefit of actually being available in SA.

Apple iPad Pro 12.9in +++++ from R13 500 / myistore.co.za The other Pro, this one is fuller featured and larger. But... still not quite a laptop surrogate.

Should I upgrade?

RAZER BLADE 15 (2018)

A year is a really long time for PC gamers.

Back in 2017, you probably thought your new Razer Blade 15 would last you ages, with its ultra-powerful GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card and super-speedy 7th-gen CPU. But now you’ve seen the shiny new 2018 edition, you might well be having second thoughts.

First up, this year’s model has a GTX 1070 GPU and that oh-so-tasty 8th-gen processor. There’s no doubt those are seriously impressive specs… but they’re unlikely to be the main reason why you’d consider an early upgrade. That honour belongs to the new model’s gorgeous, colour-popping, eye-delighting display.

Time for a refresh?

The headline feature of the latest Blade 15 is unquestionably its 144Hz refresh rate, helping to make the on-screen action appear more fluid than even before. Not far behind, though, is the design. Not only has squashing down the bezels allowed this Razer to fit in a larger 15.6in screen, but it’s also resulted in rather suave look.

There’s a problem, though: you’ve got to pay over R70 000 to get a Blade 15 with a 144Hz display and a GTX 1070 GPU. That’s a lot of cash – unless you’re a proper gaming snob, we’d advise waiting one more long year before investing in a hardware upgrade.

Plus, it’s not readily available in South Africa.

Maybe next year that’ll change, too.

DO IT!

144Hz refresh

New GPU

HOLD OFF!

Small spec boost

Incredibly pricey

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99

PLAYLIST BEST ANIME TO STREAM

PLAYLIST TOP TENS

The Japanese may be slightly insane when it comes to TV game shows, but you can’t fault them for their fantastic animated films and series

BEST FOR ABSURD ACTION One Punch Man What seems at first a totally ridiculous premise for a show quickly reveals itself to be a stroke of genius. Saitama is a superhero in a world filled with heroes and monsters. But unlike most of his caped counterparts, Saitama can dispatch the various villainous fiends with a single gut-busting punch.

TV series / Netflix

Castlevania Video games may still be struggling to conquer Hollywood, but this Castlevania TV adaptation nailed the move to the small screen. There are only four episodes right now, but season two will bring plenty more gothic renditions of Belmont’s fight against Dracula.

TV series / Netflix

BEST NEW ANIMATED TV SERIES ON NETFLIX

The Boy and the Beast Few people would want to be the apprentice of a huge hairy monster, but orphaned Shibuya doesn’t have a choice when living on the streets. Despite the odds, though, the pair eventually form a bond to rival Scooby and Shaggy.

Film / Amazon Video

Fullmetal Alchemist

Cowboy Bebop

Your Name

One of the all-time best anime series, Cowboy Bebop sees Spike and his crew of bounty hunters jet about the solar system locking up criminals. With only 26 episodes, you don’t have to forfeit your social life to reach the finale.

TV series / Amazon Video

We’ve all seen those Freaky Friday-type films where two people reluctantly swap bodies, but to call Your Name a cliched copycat would be brutally unjust.

This romance story feels totally unique, with its gorgeous animations and whimsical characters.

Film / Amazon Video

FINAL SPACE

BIG MOUTH

PARADISE PD

Ever become best buds with someone, only to later find out they’re a planet-destroying alien?

No? Well, spaceman Gary clearly isn’t as lucky.

Puberty is a very private and sensitive experience for teenagers, which makes it the perfect target for this cringeinducing comedy.

A racist old man, a drugaddicted sniffer dog and a gun-toting maniac make up the police force in this cartoon. Just like your local force, then.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done? Burnt the toast? Whatever it is, it’s nothing compared to the sin of Edward Elric, whose attempts to resurrect his dead mother result in the loss of his arm and the disembodiment of his little brother.

TV series / Netflix

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TOP TENS TVs

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HOT NEW BUY

LG OLED 65C8 R50 000 / lg.com/za LG’s new 65C8 is all screen from the front. From the side, though, it’s barely there. LG’s intuitive webOS er… OS guides you through a very simple setup. After that you just have to bask in the reverse-glow of inky OLED blacks, crisp picture reproduction and upscaling (for when you don’t have anything 4K on hand), and a refresh rate that’ll make your PS4 Pro or Xbox One X transform into a Disney princess and start singing. Cue harmonious woodland critters.

Stuff says +++++ It’s a choice between this one and LG’s wallet-busting E8. We picked this one TIPS & TRICKS

LG’s TV is smarter than ever so if it offers you a settings change, take it.

The interface is simple enough that you can revert whenever you like but… you won’t.

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O NOW ADD THIS Sony PlayStation 4 Pro You’re going to want to use your 4K screen to display 4K bits and the PS4 Pro is going to help you to do that. Best when paired with Sony’s PlayStation VR headset (R7 300).

R7 000 / playstation.com/za

Difficult neighbours?

Swap between eight different audio output options in the Settings menu, including alwaysconnected headphones or a Bluetooth device.

3

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4 5 UPDATE

6 NEW

7 Samsung 65Q8C

Samsung Frame TV

R55 000 / samsung.com/za

R22 000 / hirschs.co.za

Okay, it’s still curved and we’re kind of past that but Samsung’s big screen hits your eyes with a 4K panel toting their neato Quantum Dot tech. It also looks the part, with no bezels and minimalist styling, making sure that this one fades into the background… until you turn it on, that is. Samsung’s Q HDR 1500 also helps in that regard.

Say you want a TV but don’t want people to know you have one.

Samsung’s designer Frame TV mounts on your wall and pretends to be artwork when not in use, disguising the fact that you’ve got a 55in UHD 4K TV on the wall. Pity that folks can see the Xbox One X is plugged into the side of that abstract painting.

Stuff says +++++ The price-is-no-object screen of your dreams

Stuff says +++++ If your house looks like a magazine ad, this TV will fit right in

UPDATE

8 9 10

LG 65UH950 +++++ from R35 000 / lg.com/za It’s not OLED, but it’s still 4K, and that omission keeps the price down, but webOS 3.0 intact.

Hisense 65M7000UWG +++++ R20 000 / hisense.co.za Hisense doesn’t have LG or Samsung’s tech but they do have a 65in 4K smart TV for R20 000.

Samsung 55Q7F +++++ R25 000 / samsung.com/za Samsung’s 4K TV supports HDR and has a price that means you’ll still able to eat at month end.

LG OLED 65E8 ++++, R105 000 / lg.com/za LG’s heavy hitter is amazeballs, but the price hits your wallet harder than the pixels pummel pupils.

Hisense 75N9700UWG ++++, R56 000 / hisense.co.za Hisense lobs Quantum Dot colour tech and a humongous 75in 4K ULED screen at you.

Skyworth 55G7200 ++++, R13 700 / iskyworth.com A 55in 4K display for under R15k? For that combo, we’ll forgive the user interface missteps.

LG 43UJ620V ++++, R6 600 / lg.com/za Want 4K for less than R10k? LG’s budget 43-incher offers 4K and HDR10 for a song.

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YOUR STREAMING ESSENTIALS

NEW TO STREAMING TOP TENS

There’s something to watch for everyone this month, from a marmalade-mad bear to the world’s largest dinosaur. Hmm, there’s an idea for a crossover…

NETFLIX

AMAZON VIDEO

SHOWMAX

The Dragon Prince (S1)

Paddington 2

Guardians of the Galaxy (S1)

Avatar: The Last Airbender was a prime example of how cartoons can be enjoyed by adults, even without fart jokes and violence. Next up from the Avatar writer is The Dragon Prince, which delves into the world of fantasy.

Paddington is certainly not smarter than the average bear, especially after turning all the prison laundry pink in this sequel. But what he lacks in wit, he makes up for with charm that’s as sweet as a marmalade sandwich.

Wait, there’s an animated Guardians of the Galaxy series? Why did nobody mention this sooner? Catch up with the kid-friendlier animated group of Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot as they get up to… antics, pre-Snap.

BoJack Horseman (S5)

All or Nothing: Manchester City (S1)

Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur

Spent all last season calling Guardiola an overrated gold-digger? Well, this documentary will finally prove whether Pep is a football genius or a fraud with its behind-the-scenes access to City.

Always-enthralled and entralling Sir David Attenborough narrates this investigation of the remains of the largest dinosaur ever discovered – meet Argentina’s titanosaur.

Despite the cartoon animals and multitude of punny jokes, BoJack Horseman may just be the most depressing show on television right now. Don’t let that stop you watching it, though – this is pure TV gold.

You (S1)

Ali G Indahouse

Superstore (S2)

Romance stories have changed a lot since Romeo and Juliet. Now instead of standing under balconies, Netflix drama You shows how men are using tech to convert themselves from stalkers to proper boyfriends.

With Sacha Baron Cohen currently running riot in America, it’s the perfect time to remember when he was first unleashed upon the UK. Back in 2002, watching an idiot rise to political power seemed harmlessly funny…

Superstore tells the story of the folks who work and shop at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box store. It’s billed as a black comedy, so expect some darker situations that somehow still make you laugh. Shamefully, we hope.

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TOP TENS LAPTOPS TIPS & TRICKS

It may be small and tough but a sleeve will assure you that there’s thing scuffing your new ur backpack.

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1

Uninstall. Not all of it, just the selection of pre-installed apps that you’re never going to use.

Your eyes (and your data connection) will thank you.

HOT BUY

UPDATE

Dell XPS 13 from R26 300 / dell.co.za The original XPS was already a great, lightweight laptop, then Dell gave it a welcome Windows 10 refresh. With improved battery life and performance, it’s the thinking person’s Ultrabook and a whole lot more. We’ve tried the 2-in-1 hybrid version, and while it’s good, this Apple MacBook destroyer will more than suffice for most users. The price is awfully close to a Mac equivalent, meaning that you’re going to be tempted to join the Apple army.

Stuff says +++++ An excellent Windows 10 Ultrabook, small in size and great in stature O NOW ADD THIS Dell Power Companion If the terrific battery life isn’t enough, grab this 12 000mAh external battery.

R1 700 / dell.laptopdirect.co.za

UPDATE

3

UPDATE

MSI GT75 Titan 8RG +++++ from R46 500 / evetech.co.za MSI’s desktop replacement is a beast off the bat. Throw in Intel’s new Core i9 chip and it roars.

UPDATE

Apple MacBook +++++ from R20 500 / myistore.co.za The new Kaby Lake processor keeps the standard MacBook competitively brilliant.

Huawei MateBook X Pro +++++ from R24 000 / huawei.com/za A stylish Windows laptop with some clever ideas to get the maximum display for your rand.

UPDATE

HP Spectre 13 +++++ R30 000 / hp.com/za Still super-thin, still elegant, now with i7-8550U chips, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Apple MacBook Pro (2018)

Asus Zenbook UX331UA

from R31 500 / myistore.co.za

from R17 000 / asus.com/za

Updated processors, more RAM and a quieter (and less prone to crumb-damage) keyboard mean the MBP feels like it deserves the P again, but the asking price for the entry-level model is dear, and you’re probably going to want one of the fancier ones.

Asus’ new 1.12kg Zenbook 13 might look less like a MacBook than its predecessors did but that’s okay. It’s not like a Mac inside either, with a Core i7-8550U, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and other metrics that make Apple’s machines look slow.

Stuff says +++++ Beautiful, reliable and potent, this is the best MacTop right now

Stuff says +++++ Something this fast shouldn’t be this light

NEW

Lenovo Legion Y530 +++++ fom R15 500 / evetech.co.za Starting at Core i5 and climbing to Core i7, this budget portable gamer suits most pockets.

UPDATE

HP Omen 17 ++++, from R35 000 / hpshop.co.za HP’s gaming lineup looks better than ever, with the beefy Omen 17 being the crown jewel.

Apple MacBook Air 13in ++++, from R14 000 / myistore.co.za If a portable road warrior is what you’re after, this slinky MacBook remains a great choice.

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SMARTWATCHES, FITNESS TRACKERS TOP TENS HOT BUY

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Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS) from R5 500 / myistore.co.za

Garmin Fenix 5 from R9 500 / garmin.co.za

The original Apple Watch was the best smartwatch on the market when it launched, but it lacked focus. The Series 2 devices came with an array of upgrades – more power, a brighter screen – along with a greater emphasis on fitness functions without a phone in tow. Both GPS and waterproofing made it a far more compelling gadget for exercise fanatics. The Series 3 keeps the best of the 2 and adds an altimeter and an enhanced Heart Rate app. The best just got even better.

The king is dead! But that’s okay, because we’ve got a newer, better one to replace him, and he’s kin. This is the smartest of the smartfitness watches you can buy right now. Track everything from swimming to sprinting to… wait, does that say skydiving?

Yes, yes it does. Which is an awfully specific function. The Fenix 5 is the ultimate sportswatch, so much so that you’ll feel you need a degree in sports fitness to understand all the stats, but that’s why we love this one. Anything we can do it can help us do better.

Stuff says +++++ Apple’s further tweaks and even heavier sports focus add up to make the Series 3 unmissable

Stuff says +++++ If you’re going to be the sportiest of your pentathlonbeating mates, you’re going to want the Fenix 5

UPDATE

Fitbit Ionic

Garmin Fenix 3

R5 000 / fitbit.co.za Once more fitness tracker than smartwatch, the Ionic now includes Fitbit Pay with support from FNB and Deezer offline playlists while still delivering heart-rate tracking, multisport modes and up to four-day battery life.

Stuff says +++++ The best go at a Fitbit smartwatch so far

R7 000 / garmin.co.za Just because the number 5 has taken over doesn’t mean that you have to kick the Fenix 3 out of bed. It’s going to beat most of the competition for a long time to come – just like you do, right?

Stuff says +++++ One case where second place still wins

Samsung Gear S3

UPDATE

4 5

UPDATE

Garmin Vivoactive HR

rom R5 000 / samsung.com/za Samsung’s Tizen OS combined with the rotating bezel is the stuff smartwatch dreams are made of. It’s a real rival for Android Wear... now Samsung just needs to get devs as excited about Tizen as we are.

Stuff says +++++ A few more apps and it may be unbeatable

R3 500 / garmin.co.za Garmin has a frankly bewildering array of fitness trackers and outdoorsy GPS watches, but the Vivoactive HR is the one you really want. It’s packed with long-lasting, easy-to-use rewarding fitness cleverness.

Stuff says +++++ All-round tracker with sensors and stamina

Fitbit Versa

Fitbit Alta HR

++++, R3 500 / fitbit.co.za Decent battery life and a smattering of smarts make this an attractive watch.

Huawei Watch 2 ++++, from R4 600 / huawei.com/za A SIM slot and slick interface make this the best Android smartwatch on the market today.

4 5

+++++ R2 000 / fitbit.co.za The slim design, HR monitor, and notifications make this the best discreet wristable.

Garmin Vivosmart HR+ ++++, R3 000 / garmin.co.za A superb tracker packed with features; it’s just a little bulky for wearing 24/7.

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TOP TENS BUDGET BUYS

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HOT BUY

SNES Classic Mini R1 250 / nintendo.co.za TIPS & TRICKS Why bother splashing out over R7 000 on a games console when you can get the SNES Classic Mini for a fraction of that? Especially when you get 21 classic titles pre-installed on this nostalgia-inducing machine, including the likes of Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, Super Mario World and the never-before-released Star Fox 2. And with two controllers bundled in the box, you’ll be able to start the Super Mario Kart action right away.

Chickens killed you in Zelda again? You can rewind up to five minutes and pretend it never happened.

For full-fat nostalgia you can read the instruction manual for each of the SNES games online.

Stuff says +++++ Better games than the NES Classic Mini send this to the top of our wish list

Stop trying to raid Bowser’s castle in one sitting, and use one of the four save slots to take a break.

2

O NOW ADD THIS 8Bitdo Bluetooth Retro Receiver Fed up of those short cables? Use this clever device to connect most modern controllers wirelessly.

R500 / 8bitdo.com

3

4 5 PDATE

6 7 Raspberry Pi Zero W

UE Wonderboom

R185 / pishop.co.za

from R949 / takealot.com

It might be nearly twice the price of the original Pi Zero, but when you’re still getting change from a R200 the wireless Pi is fantastic value.

Simplicity is key, with no need to mess about with dongles or hubs.

This also means your Pi projects can be squeezed into smaller places.

If you want a cheap portable Bluetooth speaker, you can’t go wrong with either the UE Roll 2 or the UE Wonderboom. But the latter makes this list for offering bigger sound, its nifty design and waterproofing. It’s also Stuff’s reigning hi-fi gadget of the year.

Stuff says +++++ The Pi Zero was already brilliant; wireless add-ons make it better

Stuff says +++++ Our absolute favourite hi-fi gadget is a steal at only R1 000

HOT BUY

HOT BUY

8 UPDATE

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Moov Now +++++ R1 050 / mantality.co.za The best budget tracker you can buy – gives most Fitbits a run for their money.

Amazon Kindle +++++ from R1 600 / circuitcity.co.za Top of our holiday packing list, the basic Kindle is thinner and lighter than its predecessor.

SoundMagic E10C +++++ R690 /sound-magic.co.za SoundMagic is royalty when it comes to budget buds. For under R700, these are stupendous.

Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 +++++ R1 100 / fujifilm.co.za The new Mini 9 keeps the point-and-print charm of its predecessors... and the same film.

Ryze Tello ++++, R1 800 / takealot.com Rule the skies without breaking the bank with this affordable toy drone.

Amazon Echo Dot ++++, R1 000 / geewhiz.co.za This smart home assistant is a lot smaller than the full-size Echo, but it’s a much bigger bargain.

Xiaomi Mi Power Bank 10400 ++++, R300 / mia.africa.com Everyone could use extra power but having to fork out for it sucks. Thankfully, you don’t.

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105

THE BIG QUESTION TOP TENS

THE BIG WHAT SHOULD MY QUESTION KIDS BE STREAMING? FOR DISNEY DOOZIES

DStv Now We don’t usually associate anything from DStv’s parent Multichoice with ‘free’, but the company’s DStv Now app offers a handful of kiddiefriendly fare for – you guessed it – free, gratis, nada, zilch... though the pickings are slim.

1

DISNEYLIFE R90/month Fed up of your tots moaning in the back of the car? Instead of wasting duct tape sealing their mouths shut, Disney has a better solution.

Offering a Netflix-esque service, this app has over 450 movies – from classics such as Snow White to modern greats such as Zootopia – that can be downloaded to your smart device.

It’s not just films that are on offer. Subscribe to DisneyLife and your cherubs will also get access to over 5000 Disney TV episodes, more than 1900 shorts and – a feature you may prefer to hide from them if you value your eardrums – 7500 classic Disney singalong tracks.

And once your kids inevitably gobble up all the best content in

this whopping library, they’ll be able to use the app to livestream Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior for no extra fee.

Talking about money, you only have to cough up R90 per month, which is half the cost of the service when it first launched. That’s not a bad deal at all, especially when you get blissful silence during lengthy car journeys in return.

SPECIAL SKILL 10% OFF STORES Does half of your income go on Disney plushies and merchandise?

Then you’ll be overjoyed to know that the DisneyLife streaming service also offers five 10% discount codes for Disney Store every month, just as an extra perk for being a subscriber.

FOR TELLY TOONS

SHOWMAX

SPECIAL SKILL HIDE THE BILL Showmax wants to make it as easy as possible for you to pay the monthly subscription after your 14-day trial ends, so if you already pay for DStv, Telkom, MWeb or Vodacom you can have it added to one of those bills.

THE FREE OPTIONS

R99/month Your offspring may already have a substantial pile of DVDs laden with content fit for their malleable minds, but optical is an outdated tech (just ask Apple) and you can’t play them on an iPad. What you need is fare you can download to phones or tablets to consume wherever the need for P&Q strikes.

From recent, instant classics like Despicable Me to some probably not really suitably for the children shows like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and even the occasional bit of local-is-lekker video, Showmax will keep you well stocked whether it’s for a drive to the mall, or another province.

2 YouTube

Kids If Logan Paul’s controversial video of a corpse proved anything, it’s that YouTube needs a filter system in place for children.

This app does a decent job of that, although the odd unsuitable video has been known to slip through somehow.

FOR FAMILY FILMS

NETFLIX from R100/month With everyone going on about Netflix these days, it’s surprising how underrated the children’s section is. There are loads of great movies here, from Shrek to Wallace and Gromit, and enough TV shows to occupy younglings of all ages for years. And with this section being separated from the rest of Netflix, you don’t need to worry about them stumbling on Breaking Bad.

3 My5

For some reason, there’s no separate kids’ app here. You have to download My5 and select the Milkshake category to locate the likes of Bob the Builder and Mr Men. That means there’s only an ‘adult content’ warning in the way of Spartacus.

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TOP TENS DSLRs, COMPACT CAMERAS

1

HOT BUY

106

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UPDATE

HOT BUY

Fujifilm X-H1 R23 000 (body only) / fujifilm.co.za

Panasonic Lumix LX100 R13 300 / panasonic.com/za

The Fujifilm X-T2 was our favourite camera for a long time. So it’s little wonder its successor, the X-H1, takes our top spot. The key new features? The 3in LCD is now touch sensitive, there’s a monochrome LCD on top of the (slightly larger) grip for instantly checking settings, and the already excellent sensor now includes 5-axis stabilisation, which should mean up to 5.5 extra stops handheld. And video fans get new film simulation modes for 4K video shooting. The best mirrorless camera just got even better.

This is one the most capable premium compacts on the market – and the LX100’s 4K capabilities give it a crucial edge over its rivals. HD video capture and superb stills performance make the Panasonic Lumix LX100 a star performer when it comes to the basics too. It doesn’t hurt at all that the LX100 is priced affordably enough that almost anyone can get it. 4K on the go is within reach of most photography wallets. Connectivity and optical image stabilisation just seal the deal.

Stuff says +++++ A hardy body, outstanding ergonomics and brilliant image quality in a compact package

Stuff says +++++ Having 4K in your pocket goes a long way when you’re shooting on the run

UPDATE

UPDATE

4 UPDATE

5

Sony A7RIII

Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II

R56 400 / premiumbrands.co.za Taking all the good bits from previous A7 models (OLED viewfinder, solid build, fullframe sensor), perfecting certain things and adding a host of new features, this is a brilliant enthusiast camera that’ll handle any task.

Stuff says +++++ A true imaging powerhouse with a lofty price

R9 500 / canon.co.za The latest in Canon’s stable, the updated G7 X delivers incredible image quality and lowlight performance. A tilting LCD, continuous shooting at 8fps, 20.1MP 1in sensor, and NFC and Wi-Fi support make it a great buy.

Stuff says +++++ Ticks all the basic boxes, connectivity just seals it

Fujifilm X-T20

Fujifilm X100F

R18 400 (with 18-55mm lens) / fujifilm.co.za The same 24.3MP APS-C sensor as the X-T2 but the addition of a touchscreen and a lower price make this one of the best mirrorless cameras you can buy. Fujifilm’s excellent lens selection helps, too.

Stuff says +++++ The sweet spot between price and features

+++++ R17 200 / fujifilm.co.za A 24.3MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS III sensor and X-Processor Pro image processor mean you can dial up the ISO to a whopping 51200, but with the built-in light-guzzling Fujinon 23mm f/2 lens, you probably won’t need to.

Stuff says +++++ Our compact cam of 2017, with good reason

Nikon D850

Nikon Coolpix AW130

+++++ R57 000 (body only) / nikon.co.za This super-cam has a tonne of features that will appeal to anyone who can afford it.

Canon EOS 80D +++++ R17 800 / canon.co.za The 80D is so easy to use that even a toddler would get some great shots with it.

4 UPDATE

5

+++++ R5 000 / nikon.co.za Waterproof, cold-proof and shock proof, this is the one to haul where others fear to tread.

Fujifilm XP120 +++++ R3 500 / fujifilm.co.za Waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof and dustproof, with 5x optical zoom to boot.

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107

HOW TO BUY BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS

HOW TO BUY TOP TENS

A traditional hi-fi is fine for lounge listening; but when you want to bring the party outside (or just over to the kitchen), it’s time to turn the air Blue

NFC Near Field Communication lets you connect a phone to your speaker via Bluetooth by just tapping.

aptX An audio codec that promises superior sound quality when streaming music over Bluetooth.

JARGON BUSTER

Drivers The actual speaker cones that generate the sound; bigger drivers are better at pumping out strong bass.

MUSIC LESSONS 1

Carry a tune

While it’s important that your music doesn’t sound like it’s coming out of a tuna can, this shouldn’t be your only focus when buying a speaker.

The best-sounding ones generally aren’t very portable… plus they can cost a packet. Still, if it’s all about the sound, the B&W Zeppelin is a very good shout.

O Get this: Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless bowers-wilkins.com

OR GET ONE OF THESE…

NOTEWORTHY EXTRAS 2 Repeat to fade If you’re buying a Bluetooth speaker primarily for bringing along to parties and camping trips, you’ll need one that’s small enough to easily fit in a bag – and one that has decent battery life. Today the average speaker seems to last around 15 hours before needing a recharge. The Fugoo Style XL, however, offers a whopping 35 hours of stamina.

O Get this: Fugoo Style XL fugoo.com

3 Handles water music Taking your gadgets to a pool party always feels like tempting fate – you know some drunken chap is going to get too splashy. Instead of living in constant fear of your speaker getting damaged, it’s worthwhile getting a waterproof one.

Every Ultimate Ears speaker is IPX7-rated, meaning they can survive metre-deep water for 30 minutes.

O Get this: UE Wonderboom ultimateears.com

4 Play it again, Google The emergence of the likes of Siri and Alexa has made us lazy.

Who wants to spend precious time scrolling through a massive Spotify playlist when you can just ask a voice assistant to play your chosen song?

More and more Bluetooth speakers are being installed with a helpful AI. The JBL Link 20, for example, has Google Assistant helping out.

O Get this: JBL Link 20 jbl.com

5 Fuellin’ around By doubling as a battery bank, the JBL Charge 3 not only provides great audio, but can also juice up your smartphone, making it perfect for outdoor trips.

O Get this: JBL Charge 3 jbl.com

O NINETY7 VAUX

O LG G7 THINQ

Already got an Amazon Echo Dot? Then there’s no need to buy a portable smart speaker, as you can just get the Ninety7 Vaux and dock your Dot on top to give it some proper audio power.

You could just get rid of the middle man and buy a phone with audio beefy enough to get the party started on its own. LG’s G7 ThinQ turns whatever table you lay it on into a passive speaker.

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TOP TENS HEADPHONES

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Sennheiser PXC 550 R5 800 / mitechdirect.co.za

SoundMagic E10BT R890 / sound-magic.co.za

It’s tough at the top. Tough to get there, and tough to stay there.

Truth be told, there’s not much in it between these and the Bose QC 35s below… except cool factor. But that counts. As does two levels of active noise cancellation, touch controls, quality accessories and around 30 hours of life to a charge. Frequent flyers, these are your cans. You don’t have to be an airline afficionado to want to pop these over your ears but they certainly lend themselves to lengthy times in transit.

How do you kick our long-standing earbuds champ off the top of the list? By taking the same headphones and making them wireless, obvs. The SoundMagic E10BT in-ears are the same as the E10Cs, just sporting a lovely new Bluetooth finish which means they’ll play nice with those smartphones that have ditched the 3.5mm. Expect a spot of bass, as well as some very clean treble and detailed mids in a package that keeps the most important thing of all intact: The sub-R1 000 price tag.

Stuff says +++++ Good looks, superb build, top-notch comfort and stonking audio to boot. The PXC 550s set the bar.

Stuff says +++++ We didn’t think that SoundMagic could provide more value than they did with the E10Cs but they’ve done it.

Bose QuietComfort 35 II

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R8 500 / makro.co.za They’re the same QC35s you’ve come to know and love, so expect active noise cancellation and blissful silence, whether you’re on a plane or in a crowded office. The big change? Just the addition of Google Assistant, really.

Stuff says +++++ So effective, you won’t know you’ve landed HOT BUY

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Sennheiser HD 4.50BTNC R3 200 / mitechdirect.co.za Sub-R3500 over-ears with noise cancellation and Sennheiser’s signature detailed sound? What’s the catch? Well, you can’t turn off the noise-cancellation (unless you go wired). That’s it. Really? Yes, really.

Stuff says +++++ For times when you need things to be quiet

AKG Y50BT +++++ R2 500 / audicoonline.co.za Proof that good wireless sound needn’t bankrupt you. 20 Hours of life and rock-solid.

JBL E-40BT +++++ R1 600 / musica.co.za You get 40mm drivers, a built-in mic, 16 hours of battery life and fold-flat flexibility.

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Jabra Elite Sport R3 300 / circuitcity.co.za For serious in-ear fitness tech, you have to get Jabra’s Elite Sport wireless buds.

In-ear heart monitoring, up to nine hours of battery life, and a gnarly (and detailed) fitness-focussed app are the highlights here.

Stuff says +++++ The smartest fitness partner you’ll ever have

Apple AirPods R2 500 / myistore.co.za Yes, you’ll look silly, but their range is astounding, as is call quality and ease of use.

Worth looking like you’ve rammed a white pipe in one ear and out the other before bending down the protruding bits.

Stuff says +++++ We hope the others are taking notes

Sennheister CX 3.00 ++++, R690 / mitechdirect.co.za Sennies are always a win. These have their faults but they’re worth the price on the box.

SoundMagic E10C ++++, R690 / sound-magic.co.za Dethroned, but we’re not upset. These are still greatvalue, ifyour device has space for a 3.5mm.

FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS VISIT STUFF.CO.ZA OR STUFFSA ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

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UE Wonderboom from R949 / takealot.com It might resemble a can of baked beans wearing a colourful jersey with a cross on the front, but don’t let that put you off: the UE Wonderboom is the best compact Bluetooth speaker you can buy. It’s waterproof, the rechargeable battery beneath its mesh exterior is good for eight plus hours, and the sound it produces is staggering given how compact it is. If that wasn’t enough – and it ought to be – it’s also one of the most affordable portable speakers out there. Boom.

Stuff says +++++ The Wonderboom shouldn’t be as good as it is for the price, but it is O NOW ADD THIS Joox Want to get the proverbial party started? But where to start? Joox’s numerous curated playlists can help. from R29/week / joox.co.za

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JBL Xtreme +++++ R4 300 / dionwired.co.za A killer speaker that’s also become a far more affordable one in recent months.

JBL Pulse 3 +++++ R4 000 / myistore.co.za Pretty pricey, but potent for its size, and the LED light show is utterly mesmerising.

Braven 705 +++++ R1 300 / itoys.co.za A massive price drop makes the 705 such a bargain it’s worth getting two to pair up.

JBL Flip 4 +++++ R1 700 / incredible.co.za Like a Pulse without the lights, the new Flip adds Siri and Google Voice to its skillset.

DreamWave Tremor

UE Boom 2

R4 000 / takealot.com

R1 700 / ultimateears.com

With 50W of thumping audio output, a humongous 20800mAh rechargeable battery that provides up to 18 hours at medium volume (or eight at full tilt), and the most rugged body we’ve ever seen in a speaker, the Tremor is a real beast of a portable noise maker.

Years making in-ear monitors for musos means UItimate Ears knows its bass from its mids. Water-, dust- and drop-proofing along with 360º sound, 15-hour battery life and a slick app so friends can play DJ makes the Boom 2 our pick of the mid-sized pack.

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Stuff says +++++ It’ll last all day: come rain, snow, sand or being rolled down a hill

Stuff says +++++ If you were going to take one of these surfing, this is the one

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JBL Clip 2 +++++ R800 / incredible.co.za A pocket-sized party package that delivers pounding performance while being pound-proof.

Fender Newport +++++ R4 000 / musica.co.za Great battery life, incredible sound and good looks make this amp imitator utterly irresistible.

Marshall Kilburn II ++++, R4 500 / macnificent.co.za The Kilburn II is a speaker with rock-god cred and a 20-hour battery. Weighs 3kg, though.

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TOP TENS CONSOLES & 5-MINUTE HACKS HOT BUY

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USE A PS4 PAD WITH YOUR SWITCH The Nintendo Switch’s Pro Controller is fantastic, but it costs a fortune at R1 300.

Good news: if you’ve got a PS4, you can control your Switch with a DualShock:

PlayStation 4 Pro from R7 000 / playstation.com/za

O Stick it to ’em To get your PS4 controller synced up to the Switch you’ll need to buy a Bluetooth USB-A dongle.

8BitDo’s Wireless USB Adapter will do the job for R450 from Amazon.

Once it arrives, slot the Switch into its dock and then plug the dongle into the dock’s USB port.

O Switch allegiance With the Switch turned on, head to ‘System Settings’, search for and select ‘Controllers and Settings’ and then activate ‘Pro Controller Wired Communications’.

O Share the love Now click the pairing button on your dongle and hold down ‘Options’ and ‘Share’ on the DualShock. A blue light on the pad will signal that pairing is complete, and you’re free to go and play Mario with a DualShock.

As a gaming platform, PlayStation 4 is the best around – which makes the PS4 Pro the best of the best. Games optimised for the new console look stunning on a 4K HDR TV, and are substantially improved by the extra grunt inside this slightly bigger machine. If you’ve already splashed out for a 4K HDR screen and you enjoy video games at all, it’s well worth the upgrade. The missing 4K Blu-ray drive means it isn’t a perfect entertainment system, but streaming converts won’t care.

Stuff says +++++ The system for console gamers who have a 4K TV and want the best gaming experience possible

Microsoft Xbox One X

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from R9 000 / xbox.com/za There’s no doubt the Xbox One X is the most powerful console here, capable of producing stunning 4K visuals… but it simply doesn’t have the line-up of games to usurp the PS4 Pro from top spot.

Stuff says +++++ A 4K monster held back by its game catalogue

Nintendo Switch from R5 900 / nintendo.co.za Nintendo is on the block with this one and we’re pleased to say that the Switch delivers, hard. The platform will still rise and fall on its library of games but as it stands now, the Switch is a bloody marvel.

Stuff says ++++, Whether stationary or mobile, it’s excellent NEW

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PlayStation 4 Slim ++++, from R5 200 / playstation.com/za Haven’t got a 4K TV? This is the best way to enjoy PlayStation’s brilliant exclusives.

Microsoft Xbox One S ++++, from R5 000 / xbox.com/za No longer our Xbox of choice, but the One S remains a seriously affordable option.

AUTOMATICALLY SKIP INTROS ON NETFLIX Everybody hates opening credits, especially when you have limited time to watch Altered Carbon before bed. Here’s a way to get rid of them for good: O Speed watching While Netflix does allow you to skip the credits and start the next episode, you have to click a button every time to trigger it.

This Chrome extension does it automatically, so you don’t need to go grasping for the remote.

Simply download ‘Never Ending Netflix’ to Chrome, activate it, then toggle which features you want to include. Nothing will get in the way of your binge-watching now.

O Guilt free Tick the ‘Don’t prompt’ box and you can prevent Netflix from asking “Are you still watching?” No longer will you feel guilty about watching Jessica Jones in one sitting.

FOR UP-TO-DATE NEWS VISIT STUFF.CO.ZA OR STUFFSA ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

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God of War R1 000 / PS4 A lot has changed for PlayStation’s god-slaying champion. Not only has Kratos gained some wrinkles and grown a chin-full of hair, but he’s also ditched his iconic Blades of Chaos for a magic axe and angered a whole new bunch of gods. But while the action is as breathtaking as ever, it’s the surprisingly mature storyline that’s the draw here, with the short-tempered Kratos learning the ropes of parenting. Don’t expect him to start telling dad jokes just yet.

TIPS & TRICKS Collect Frozen Flames by defeating various enemies to upgrade your trusty Leviathan axe.

Stuff says +++++ The epic return of Kratos is yet another phenomenal PS4 offering

Throw your axe at enemies and it will freeze them in place, leaving you to fight others with your fists.

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O OR PLAY THIS Bayonetta 2 If you’re upset that God of War has binned its hack-and-slash roots, this eccentric Switch title is the perfect replacement.

R800 / Switch

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Monster Hunter: World

Dragon Ball FighterZ

R975 / PS4, Xbox One

R975 / PS4, Xbox One, PC

From a flame-spitting dinosaur to a poison-puking bird, there are plenty of critters to kill in this RPG. But it’s the addictive weaponupgrade tree and online co-op multiplayer that will dig their claws into you. That and nailing the perfect pose for your screencap.

FighterZ is quite simply gorgeous, fantastic fun to play, and not so difficult that fighting-game newbies will be instantly put off.

Dig deeper than the one-button auto combos, though, and you’ll find a nuanced game that genre fans are going to love picking apart.

Stuff says +++++ Beast-slayin’, gear-makin’ fun for newbies and pros alike

Stuff says +++++ This Super Saiyan fighter is a blast to play, and looks great too

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Marvel’s Spider-Man +++++ R1 000 / PS4 One of the Marvel icon’s absolute best interactive adventures to date.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider +++++ R1 000 / PS4, Xbox One, PC A thrill ride of a finale for one of the finest action/adventure series in recent memory.

Dark Souls Remastered +++++ from R700 / PS4, Xbox One, Switch There wasn’t much to change here. We’ll take the resolution update and Praise the Sun, thanks.

Mario Tennis Aces ++++, R900 / Switch A superb and eccentric tennis game that needs a few more online features to come out swinging.

Jurassic World Evolution ++++, R800 / PS4, Xbox One, PC This dinosaur building-sim sandbox is barebones in features but still a fun and nostalgic ride.

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Assassin’s Creed Origins ++++, from R600 / PS4, Xbox One, PC The best Assassin’s Creed in ages – until Odyssey arrives to knock Bayek down a notch.

Far Cry 5 ++++, R975 / PS4, Xbox One, PC A few minor gripes aside, this is a brilliant evolution of the open-world FPS series.

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NEXT BIG THING?

wall-mounted coaches irror, mirror, on the wall…

Who is the laziest of them all? Good question. Hang one of these up in your bedroom and you’ll soon find out. You see, this Mirror (inspired name, isn’t it?) does much more than just give you a handy visual reminder to lay off the biscuits. It’s also a fully qualified, completely connected personal trainer. And don’t think you can slack off just because there’s no one there to shout at you.

If you’re wearing an Apple Watch or the bundled Bluetooth heart-rate monitor, the Mirror will let you know if you need to pick up the pace.

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Who wants fitness advice from a robot?

Au contraire. It’s not bots telling you to drop and give them 20 – it’s real fitness types, with more than 50 new classes from yoga to boxing available to livestream per week, so even the keenest gym bunnies should find plenty to keep them busy. Can’t clock on for a workout at the scheduled time? Don’t get too comfortable on that couch, because classes are also available on demand. If you do decide you need a bit more dedicated tuition, the Mirror has a camera, microphone and speakers built in, with one-to-one sessions available soon.

Sounds like Mr Motivator for millennials.

It’s certainly not a million miles away. But your TV didn’t display vital stats related to your workouts in real time when Mr M was shouting encouragement at you, did it? And you couldn’t choose from a selection of curated playlists or hook your phone up to blast your own either.

The Mirror is controlled through an app, so you won’t get sweaty smears all over it – which is just as well, because it costs $1495 plus $39 a month to subscribe. Perhaps convincing the real Mr Motivator to be your live-in personal trainer isn’t such a bad idea after all.

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