Phones W e a ra bles audio T Vs ca rs ho m e
101Gadgets you can’t live without B est-in-class t ech buys:the ultimate kit for modern living
B&O BeoLab 18 Huawei P9
Beoplay H8
Relaxing Grooming Cooking Fitness Gaming Travel Working
Apple Watch Hermès
Samsung galaxy
Dyson’s connected home
Note 7 Why you need the new king of phablets
XBOX ONE S Reviewed!
Turbo-boost your gaming now Technics Grand Class SL-1200G
RETRO CAMERAS
Chic new snappers from Panasonic, Olympus and Fujifilm on test
TRY OCULUS RIFT today It’s here! And you can go dinosaur hunting with it
MAN VS CAR / BUILD A RASPBERRY PI ARCADE / great gear for £100
p r e s e n t s…
New tech with the power to dent the universe
sena sm a rt h e l m et
Wearing earplugs while you ride a motorbike is de rigueur, unless you want to go partially deaf before you hit retirement. But they’re probably the most lo-tech thing ever – squidgy, waxy bits of foam that you stuff in your ears. Well, hopefully, Sena, an established manufacturer of comms systems for motorbike helmets, is about to bring this antiquated noise-cancelling era to an end with its Smart Helmet. While it doesn’t have the obvious smarts of the Kickstarter-infamous (and now sadly defunct) Skully Lid – like a heads-up display – the Smart Helmet does address one crucial area: noise. Sena’s solution is Intelligent Noise Control; the helmet is, essentially, outfitted with a pair of noise-cancelling cans, the likes of which you’d normally find gracing many a bonce on a train journey. But these are neatly integrated, so you just pull the helmet over your head and go. When you’re on the move, four microphones analyse incoming noise, while the headset electronics filter out any harmful sounds across the spectrum. Don’t fret – you’ll still hear the important sounds, and a quick press of the Ambient Mode button and you’ll be able to have a clear conversation at a stop without having to remove your lid. Price TBA Available TBA URL sena.com Subscribe to T3 today and save big! See p78
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issue 260 / OCTOBER 2016
Meet the team M eet our advertising team
Rob Carney
Nick Odantzis
Claire Davies
Editor Rob has just had a Ford Mustang delivered. Five litres of pure American power. He also got a speeding ticket, so will obviously be obeying all limits from now on.
DEPUTY Editor Nick is still testing the awesome Volkswagen Golf GTE. He particularly enjoys the smoothness of the hybrid drive – more to come on this in next issue’s Our Gadgets.
Assistant Editor Retro gaming consoles, mood-manipulating wearables and slippers that help you lose weight. Claire’s spent the month researching 101 Gadgets You Can’t Live Without – read it on p46.
Paul Dimery
Luke O’Neill
Dan Grabham
production editor It’s BBQ season and Paul has been taking advantage of the warmer weather, cooking delicious pizzas in the awesome Verycook Verypizz, and grilling steaks on the Weber Q1200.
art editor Luke has spent this month doing what comes naturally to him – namely, talking to models (and art-directing photoshoots with them). See the stunning results in our main feature on p46.
editor, t3.com This month, Dan lusted after a new amp and turntable, checked out some wireless in-ear headphones in preparation for the iPhone 7, and ate too many scallops at the Galaxy Note 7 launch.
Robert Jones
Duncan Bell
Spencer Hart
FEATURES EDITOR, T3.COM It was very much game on rather than game over for Rob this month, as he spent a good chunk of it reviewing the Xbox One S. You can check out his review on p108 #pooroldrob.
Lifestyle Editor, t3.com Duncan took a holiday this month, and therefore has zero tech anecdotes of note to share. His stand-in, The Secret Policeman, drops by on p28 to talk about the tech the Bobbies are using.
mobile tech editor, t3.com This month, Spencer set out to discover which was faster off-road – an £80,000 Range Rover or a marathon runner kitted out with the latest tech. Head over to Man Vs Tech on p92 for the results!
commercial sALES DIRECTOR CLARE DOVE clare.dove@ futurenet.com +44 (0)1225 687226
advertising director RICHARD HEMMINGS richard.hemmings@ futurenet.com, +44 (0)1225 687615
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR ANDREW TILBURY andrew.tilbury@ futurenet.com, +44 (0)1225 687144
ACCOUNT DIRECTOr Crispin Moller crispin.moller@ futurenet.com, +44 (0)1225 687336
Th e global m agazine T3 is currently licensed worldwide, from Australia to Mexico
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How to license T3 Interested in publishing a licensed version of T3 in your territory? Please direct enquiries to T3’s Senior Licensing & Syndication Manager, Matt Ellis (matt.ellis@ futurenet.com; +44 (0)1225 442244)
Life’s better with t3... Tomorrow’s Technology Today, to give T3 its full name, was launched in 1996 and has been helping readers select the right gadgets to improve their lives for nearly 20 years as a magazine (print and digital) and at T3.com. We’ve been at the heart of every shift in consumer
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technology ever since – from DVDs and HD TVs to smartphones and virtual reality. But our mission has remained the same throughout: to help you live a better life through technology, and to filter the latest gadgets to ensure you only ever buy the best of the best.
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issue 260 / OCTOBER 2016
Editor’s letter 101 gadgets you can’t live without. Trust me, I’ve tried* and I can’t bring myself to get rid of a single one of them…
3 for £5! Get three issues for just a fiver! p78
*OK, that’s a bit of a fabrication – I didn’t have all of these immense gadgets in my house. Though I wish I did. Imagine it – a gadget for every occasion. Every life event. Everything you do. Well, that’s exactly the list we’ve put together in this month’s positively rammed edition of everyone’s favourite gadget magazine. From tech to help you relax, through the latest in connected home and fitness kit, to the gear you need to earn more cash, it’s all here. Flick to p46 now and start upgrading your existence. In our regular Man Vs Tech feature, our mobiletech editor Spencer jumps into a Range Rover and goes head-to-head with contributor Luke Edwards – who’s on foot, kitted out with the latest in running tech. Who’ll win the race? Turn to p92. Something that really excited me this month is the Galaxy Note 7 (p8), Samsung’s latest topof-the-range phablet, now featuring the same dust- and waterproofing tech as the Galaxy S7 Edge. Next month, we bring you our annual awards issue. Join us as we reveal the best tech of the year on 30 September. Why not guarantee your copy by subscribing, and getting three issues of the mag for a fiver (see p78)? Until next time!
Rob Carney, Editor rob.carney@futurenet.com Tweet me @robcarney
Discover more great ways to enjoy T3…
Digital edition The iPad edition of T3 features a raft of fresh content, including video reviews and interactive articles. T3 is also available on Android devices, and on your desktop via Zinio.com.
Visit T3.com We’ve overhauled T3.com – the best site for gadget news and reviews now has a great new look and is fully responsive, enabling you to enjoy it on any device.
Key contributors Luke Edwards,
Gavin Stoker,
Joe Waldron,
writer
writer
illustrator
Freelance journalist and keen runner Luke (of Pocket Lint fame) took our Man Vs Tech challenge this month, racing against Spencer Hart (who was in a souped-up Land Rover). Check out what happened on p92.
If there’s a guy who knows about cameras, then it’s good ol’ Gavin. He was born with a camera in his hand and only speaks in photography jargon and acronyms. Read his CSC State of the Art feature on p80.
Our regular Gadget Guru artist returns this month with his own comical illustrative slant on our sage’s advice. See p30, and check out his website at www.joewaldron.co.uk for more of his work.
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O C TO B E R 2 0 1 6 T3 5
issue 260 / october 2016
Contents 046
Features 030
G adget Guru A fountain of tech knowledge, our man answers your burning questions. This month, how to improve your running training, and how to find your remote control when you subsequently collapse on the sofa.
101 gadgets you can’t live without!
enda 035 Ag
Tech adventures to try today, including how to build a Raspberry Pi arcade machine, how to ride a backpack to work and, of course, how to order a therapist on your phone.
080
s tate of the art Want to know which Compact System Camera to spend your money on? Find out here - we test the ultimate CSCs from Olympus, Fuji and Panasonic.
092 M an Vs Tech
Is a Range Rover faster than a man kitted up with crosscountry tech on an off-road course? Let’s find out shall we…
S UBSCRIBE
030
080
AND SAVE BIG MONEY!
Get three issues for a fiver on p78 To subscribe to T3, point your browser at myfavourite magazines.co.uk, or turn to p78. The next issue of T3 goes on sale 30 September
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092
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issue 260 / october 2016
008
Preview This month’s bleeding-edge gadgets including the stunning new Loewe OLED TV, a rather swish titanium smart blender, and the phablet that everyone’s talking about right now: the Samsung Galaxy Note 7
022 style
What’s the one thing you find that lacks when you’re out and about? Bass? Yes, we thought so too. The basslet is a bracelet that gives your mobile tunes added oomph wherever you go… no lie
026
we can build you... Suffering from the night-time blues? Then get a load of this gear designed to help you sleep better and live healthier. Here’s a free pointer: don’t go to the pub and sink ten pints before trying this one out
028
TALKING TECH This month, our occasional stand-in for Duncan Bell – The Secret Policeman – reveals the security risk that chasing a bunch of virtual animals around the land poses
100
under Armour healthbox The HealthBox promises to improve your training needs with its ecosystem of fitness gadgets. But does it work?
104
smackdown So you want an easier way of making tasty meals? You’ll need one of these smart food processors: its Tefal Cook4Me versus Kenwood kCook
106
super six Six of the best digital radios tested, find out which is deserving of your ears
108
Xbox one s Microsoft’s souped-up games console is flying off the shelves, and here’s what we make of it
119 discover the best buying guide known to man!
From thermostats to tablets, and cameras to cars, our pick of the very best tells you what to buy Plus! T3’s £100 Hotlist
108
110
our gadgets Team-T3-tech is at it again: we’re testing our favourite gadgets over a period of time to give you a real-world result
112
games The sequel to Limbo, Batman: The Telltale Series – Episode One and more reviewed!
112 Subscribe to T3 today and save big! See p78
Essentials 003 Gamechanger 004 welcome 078 Subscriptions 117 Next issue 118 Competition 130 Money No Object o c to b e r 2 0 1 6 T3 7
issue 260 / OCTOBER 16
this month…
your guide to the hottest tech, People and Styles Right now
12 Loewe bild 7 14 Polar M600 JR Ultra Titanium 15 IQ Smart Blender 16 Philips Health Watch 18 BlackBerry DTEK50 20 BuddyGuard Flare 22 The Basslet 26 Best sleep tech 28 Opinion
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
first look
T3 goes hands-on with the latest Galaxy handset. Is this the phablet we’ve been waiting for? £700, www.samsung.com The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a phone that’s designed for a very specific user base: those who want a larger screen but are craving a stylus, too. It feels like an incremental improvement over the S7 Edge, taking in some updates to the S Pen and making the new phablet feel more business-like and, well, grown-up. One thing we love about the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge is the always-on display, which shows a static clock, calendar or image, so you don’t need to keep switching on the phone to simply see routine updates. And with the S Pen, you can now write directly onto the almost-blank screen – it’s like you’ve always got a piece of paper and a pen to hand. Your scribbles can then be pinned to the front screen as a reminder, or saved to your notes for looking back at later – not having to open the Notes app every time you want to jot something down seems to be a real win here. The main changes to the S Pen’s toolbox are adding a GIF maker, the ability to instantly translate text, the option to magnify the screen and, for some reason, the ability to paint directly from the Notes app and then blend those colours as if they were real oils. The latter feature is a neat trick, although it doesn’t feel like
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something that’s going to change the world – we’re thinking the Notes section is going to be used more as a to-do list than an entertainment centre. The Magnify option feels rather pointless; we get that it can be used to help accessibility, but much of this phone’s UI is too small and precise to make use of the S Pen’s direct input, so it doesn’t feel very user-friendly in that case. It’s the same with Translate and the GIF maker: cool features to have, but there are good apps out there which do the same. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is – like the Galaxy S7 – IP68-rated, which means you can lob it around in the dust and water. The screen has
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Hype SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7
Vital stats IP68 3,500mAh The Note 7 is rated IP68, meaning it’s dust- and waterproof
The large battery should keep you going all day
200 5.7 inches The points of recognition of the new iris scanner
The size of the screen on the Note 7
ABSOLUTELY PHABULOUS The Note 7’s 5.7-inch screen is larger than anything in Samsung’s current range, and the addition of HDR makes this a mean mobile movie-watching machine. It’s also a productivity powerhouse, thanks to the updated S Pen. Oh, and there’s also an iris scanner!
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been retooled to support the S Pen even underwater, meaning you’ll be able to take notes while you stand there in your trunks. Are you desperate to make lists in the rain? Well, the Note 7 will work perfectly for you. The user interface is a lot more muted than the colourful overlay on the Samsung Galaxy S7 range, which again makes it feel like Samsung is leaning the Note 7 towards a more business-like audience; one that doesn’t want to be seen with a device that’s too ostentatious. Then again, you can get it in a silver option that’s clearly more gold (we’re not sure how that’s come about), so perhaps being a little more bling is on Samsung’s roadmap.
The 5.7-inch screen is larger than anything in Samsung’s current range, though – with the S7 Edge side-by-side, it looks very much the ‘big phablet of the group’ that we expected. That display also comes with a big headline element: mobile HDR. For the uninitiated, this means you’re getting a screen that can display dark areas and bright zones equally well – as long as the content is filmed that way. Right now, though, there isn’t a whole lot of mobile HDR footage out there. It feels a bit like when Sony launched the Z5 Premium with the 4K screen... yes, there’s Ultra HD content coming, but it’s not being piped into your phone at the moment. We couldn’t see the larger screen on the Note 7 benefitting from the tech in general use, but that could be because
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first test
the Super AMOLED tech Samsung is using these days is so good that it makes it hard to see the incremental improvements. The Note 7 also sports the lowest reflectance rate of any phone – it’ll be easier to see in direct sunlight.
Eye, eye It’s hard to know precisely why Samsung decided to bring iris scanning to the Galaxy Note 7 – it feels very much like a luxury addition when there was already something good there. The fingerprint scanner is present and correct, and is as swift as ever: press the Home button to wake the phone, and you’re already into the main display – exactly what you want to see. But with the iris scanner, you need to wake the phone, swipe right and then place the phone perfectly in front of your face to make it work. Yes, when it’s held in the right position, it works instantly (and that’s megaimpressive), but it was too erratic in our early tests for us to see it as a winning feature, especially when there’s already a great security feature right there in the fingerprint scanner. You could argue that the iris scanner is more secure, as it comes with 200 points of recognition over the approximately 80 for a fingerprint. But neither
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is flawless, and given that this is just a safer way to avoid having to put in a PIN, we’re not convinced. The design of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is pretty impressive – it’s like the S7 Edge, but slightly refined to cater for a new audience. There’s a slimmer curve in the metallic rim around the edges, and the back is curved into the same frame. The Note 5 had the curved rear, as does the Galaxy S7, but the combination of front and back is more reminiscent of the S7 Edge. It’s not quite as pronounced and smooth, which is a shame, but it does mean fewer accidental taps of the screen. The edge display is on offer, though, which is great, as you can add in your favourite apps and
Want a stylus for your phone? The S Pen is the best option out there
shortcuts to quickly get to things that matter to you – and hopefully, more elements to download to here will appear soon, as Samsung expands the feature. In terms of specs, things are a little confusing – in the US, you get a Snapdragon 820 CPU, which is quad-core, but the UK and other parts of the world will be getting the Exynos option instead (Samsung still hasn’t confirmed which model this will be), to deliver more power. There’s 4GB of RAM backing up both CPUs, and 64GB of internal storage, with the option to expand that by up to 256GB with a microSD card. One of the surprising additions here is a USB-C port, which is something the brand decided against just a few months ago for the new S7 range. Apparently, the technology has matured enough in that time to make it worth including here. That
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Hype SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7
With a huge screen in a compact form, the Note 7 is the phablet to beat PAUL DIMERY, PRODUCTION editor
means faster data transfer and charging. There is an adaptor in the box, though, so don’t worry if all your devices aren’t compatible just yet.
Great snapper The camera is largely the same as the one found on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge – which means a 12MP snapper with optical image stabilisation and the customary bump on the back to allow for the larger sensor. It takes the sort of great pictures you’d expect from a Samsung handset, and as fast as you’d expect. The South Korean brand has been working hard to make the user interface more one-hand-friendly, and you can easily flip between filters and the front-facing camera now. The battery is confusing, though: it’s 3,500mAh, which is smaller than the Galaxy S7’s (although bigger than the Note 5’s from last year), despite being in a bigger chassis. We can only assume this is because the S Pen takes up a lot of room down the side... but it does mean that battery life will be a little compromised. That said, the Note 7 will charge up super-fast – and the wireless charging options mean it’ll start topping up the instant you pop it down on a charging pad. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is all about refinement, while bringing back a key product line (there was no Note 6, after all). The S Pen is a great addition for those that like the precision it brings, and some of the new features seem fun, if not exactly indispensable. The iris scanner doesn’t seem to have much of a point to it at the moment, as it’s simply too slow and doesn’t add much over the fingerprint scanner that’s already there. But with a brilliant camera and a design that’s been slightly rebooted, as well as IP68 waterproof smarts, it’s hard to see how anyone can dislike this compact, yet intensely powerful, phablet. Well worth a look. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Loewe bild 7
on-board PVR The Loewe bild 7 has a built-in Freeview hard-drive recorder that also acts as a media server for other networked Loewe TVs
£4,490, loewe.tv
Hey T3, my mate’s been banging on about this TV for ages… Every bugger’s banging on about it, and for good reason. The Loewe bild 7, an Ultra HD OLED TV with a built-in soundbar, is packing exciting technology called VantaVision. You know VantaBlack, right? The darkest substance created by man? Well, VantaVision is inspired by that, and the result is that the bild 7’s blacks are the deepest you can get on TV right now, making contrasting colours pop like mad.
One to watch! loewe bild 7 £4,490
Woah. This sounds like a fancy telly. It’s the fanciest. The screen has a gorgeous aluminium bezel finished in matt graphite grey, and apparently we’ll have a choice of dark grey or light grey acoustic fabric for the soundbar. Tell me more about that soundbar. It’s a hider. When switched off, the TV screen glides down, obscuring the soundbar. Switch the TV on and the screen rises. You can even expand the soundbar to 5.1, adding wireless rear speakers and a subwoofer. Is the bild 7 capable of all that 4K HDR malarkey? Yup. Not only does it support regular HDR10 (found on 4K Blu-rays), it also supports Dolby Vision, which will be unlocked with a firmware update after launch. Dolby Vision offers scene-by-scene grading for HDR, delivering greater precision. Netflix is the first service to stream Dolby Vision. This sounds epic. When’s it out? The Loewe bild 7 is available to buy this month. If 55 inches is too small for your taste, you can splash out further by dropping £6,490 on a 65-incher. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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