Hjgg

Beer lovers have always been prepared t o t rave l fa r a n d w i d e fo r a g o o d p i n t o f L a n d l o r d , s e e k i n g o u t i t s w e l l balanced flavours and complex citrus a n d h o p p y a ro m a . A n d n ow i t ca n b e fo u n d i n m o re p u b s t h a n e ve r b e fo re . A n d we ’ve m a d e i t e a s i e r t o d i s c ove r.

Ju st enter yo ur postcode on timothy taylor co uk /pint finder and you’ll be able to see the pubs near you that serve the drinker’s favourite A very modern w a y t o f i n d a t r a d i t i o n a l l y b r e w e d beer As even the hardiest of explorers wo u l d n o d o u b t a g re e

All for that ta ste of Taylor ’s

W hat do Taylor ’s brewers a nd sea soned chefs have in com mon?

C r e a t i n g d e l i c i o u s f o o d s t a r t s w i t h u s i n g t h e b e s t i n g re d i e nt s O u r b rewe rs b e l i eve t h e s a m e i s t r u e f o r b e e r T h a t ’s w h y t h e y a l w a y s i n s i s t o n u s i n g w h o l e l e a f h o p s, ra t h e r t h a n t h e h o p p e l l e t s u s e d b y m o s t brewers. It’s because the more d e l i c a t e a r o m a t i c s p r e s e n t i n

hops can be lost in the processing of pellets Although more costly, only whole leaf hops let our brewers c re a t e t h e b a l a n c e a n d l aye rs o f f l avo u r y o u e x p e c t f r o m a p i n t o f L a n d l o r d . M u c h l i k e a good chef always uses fresh h e r b s . We t h i n k t h e p r o o f o f t h e p u d d i n g i s i n t h e d r i n k i n g .

All for that ta ste of Taylor ’s

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this festive issue of Stuff , in which we not only give you a treat with our Christmas song themed headlines but also solve all your gift buying woes Yes, that’s right, our bumper gift guide is back with all the present ideas you could possibly need

But it’s also a reviews frenzy this issue, as we ’ re now getting all the gear that debuted when the leaves were starting to fall off the trees Our first test looks at Apple’s latest iPads, plus we ’ ve checked out the sharp new generation Motorola Razr, assessed the latest iterations of Amazon’s devices and reviewed laptops from Microsoft, Lenovo and Acer Plus there’s a long term test of Sky Stream, the streaming puck that gives you full Sky without having to own a dish We also inter view some of the key people behind the development of the Apple Watch Ultra in our new Inside Tech feature, take a look back at the best Nintendo consoles of all time, and check out a load of top drawer wallets in Upvoted they’d make ideal Christmas presents too And if you ’ re looking for entertainment, we ’ ve got you covered there with our pick of the best streaming shows for the festive period plus a bunch of great new games Oh, and if you ’ re not a subscriber to Stuff , we ’ ve got a great Christmas offer on at the moment check it out on p26 Enjoy the issue!

Advertising

Head of Commercial Neil Tillott (01959 543719, x7003) neil tillott@kelsey co uk

Production Ad Operations Manager

Martin Williams martin williams@ kelsey co uk Production and Design Manager Neil Hepden (01233 220245) stuff@ tandemmedia co uk

Management

Chief Executive

Steve Wright

Chief Operating Officer

Phil Weeden

Managing Director

Kevin McCormick

Publisher

Liz Reid

Head of Digital Steve Jones Retail Director Steve Brown

Subscription Marketing Director Gill Lambert Subscription Marketing Manager

Rochelle Gyer Smith

Print Production Manager Georgina Harris

• Volume 26 issue 13

• ISSN: 1364 963

• On sale 24 Nov 2022

www.stuff.tv facebook.com/joinstuff twitter.com/stufftv instagram.com/stuffmag

Dan Grabham , Editor in Chief / @dangrabham

Pump up the cam

The

Ever ybody’s haptic nowadays

This version of the Kishi V2 controller comes with the usual analogue triggers and programmable buttons, but also includes haptic feedback and a 3.5mm headphone port

tablet has two speakers, a microphone for chatting, and a webcam that you can use for multiplayer gaming The screen is coated with Gorilla Glass

Sooner or data

Support for Wi Fi 6E is standard, but Razer has also announced a 5G version to follow. It will be otherwise identical to this one in every way, except the price

Mobile games might be great for killing time while you wait for another delayed train; but if you want to kill Grunts in Halo Infinite on the way home from work, you need something like the Razer Edge

Essentially a powerful Android tablet bundled with an enhanced version of Razer’s Kishi V2 controller, the Edge supports Epic Games, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia GeForce Now, Steam Link and Google’s Play Store among others, so you can play everything from Deathloop to Marvel Snap (see p23) on it.

The 3GHz octa core Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 processor inside is a bit of a beast,

with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 5000mAh battery plus active cooling to stop everything overheating The screen is a 6 8in AMOLED job with a 144Hz refresh rate and Full HD+ resolution, which puts it ahead of the Steam Deck and Logitech’s G Cloud, albeit with a higher price tag than both At just 401g, it’s also lighter

Razer has only announced US availability of the Edge so far, with shipping not starting until January by which time we’re hoping there’ll be some news on a European release. Fingers crossed, eh? As hot as playing Halo in a volcano $400 / razer com

The needle and the choon

The new Sound Burger uses Audio Technica’s dependable, user replaceable ATN3600L stylus, which is spring loaded to cling to the vinyl when it’s playing.

HOT FIVE #2

THE 12” DAZE OF CHRISTMAS Audio-Technica

AT SB2022 Sound Burger

In Liverpool, a sound burger is what you’d get if you went to a really good fast food restaurant But in the 1980s on the streets of Tokyo, home to Audio Technica, the Sound Burger was a must have for on the go vinyl geeks.

Resurrected as part of the company’s 60th birthday celebrations, this 2022 version of the Sound Burger looks much the same, with a belt drive mechanism that’ll play singles or LPs. The big D cells inside are gone, though, replaced by a rechargeable battery that’ll keep the DC motor spinning its aluminium alloy platter at a steady speed for up to 12hrs But perhaps the biggest new addition is Bluetooth, which makes it much easier to hook your transportable turntable up to a speaker or connect a pair of wireless headphones without getting tangled up When you’re done, the tonearm tucks neatly inside so you can sling it in a bag without worrying about snapping it off, or you can use the strap Now all you need is a mullet, a Talk Talk T shirt (the group, not the broadband provider) and a copy of Now That’s What I Call Music II . As hot as flame grilled vinyl £200 / audio technica com

Fuel never walk alone

Charging is over USB C, and a cable for this is included in the box although you’ll have to find somewhere else to stash it when you’re out and about with your Burger

Heard on the wire

There’s a 3 5mm headphone port for solo listening, and this doubles as an analogue output to your old school hi fi via the 3 5mm to RCA cable in the box

Playingwith sapphire

All five second gen Marq models come with scratch resistant domed sapphire glass that protects the face and makes the 390x390 display easy to read.

Stormy leather

Straps are model specific: silicone on the Athlete, nylon on the Golfer and Captain, hardened titanium on the Aviator, leather and rubber on the Adventurer

This is guard core

Only the Captain and Aviator models come with ceramic bezel inlays, but they all have a guard on the action button to stop it being pressed accidentally.

IT’S THE MOST WANDER-FUL TIMEPIECE OF THE YEAR

Athlete, Adventurer, Golfer, Captain and Aviator might sound like the lineup of a Village People reboot, but Garmin’s updated Marq range is more concerned with GPS than YMCA

All five models come with extensive tracking skills plus contactless payments and smartwatch notifications, and each one sports a 46mm titanium case with an always on AMOLED touchscreen but there are subtle variations depending on their specialist subject Pick the Athlete model and you’ll get recovery time info; Adventurer offers NextFork mapping to stop you getting lost; Captain allows you to control your boat’s autopilot; Aviator can direct you to your nearest airport; and Golfer comes with a virtual caddie that also functions as a reminder that you’re way less gnarly than the others.

Whichever you choose, you’ll get a jet lag advisor and a battery that will manage 42hrs with GPS or up to 16 days without With one of these on your wrist, there really is no need to feel down.

As hot as… running an ultra marathon dressed as a sexy biker from £1600 / garmin com

Everybody likes the personal touch, whether it’s a monogrammed toaster or spelling out your name in Alphabites at dinner time; but getting customised moulds for your in ear headphones usually requires a costly trip to an audiologist Pick up a pair of UE Fits, however, and you’ll be getting soft gel filled tips that can fill every nook and cranny of your ears.

Once in place, built in LEDs emit a purple glow that hardens the gel in less than a minute for a truly one of a kind fit

There’s no ANC, but the snug positioning should ensure a better job of keeping background noise out than a regular pair of buds and UE reckons it also reduces pressure on your ear canals, so you’ll be able to wear them for longer

Single 10mm dynamic drivers provide the sound, with dual mics on hand for calls.

The touch controls, which also allow you to control playback and volume and summon your phone’s voice assistant, can be customised too and unlike the tips, they can be redone whenever you want using the UE Fits app.

As hot as Alphabites fresh from the oven £200 / ultimateears com

Plug wheelers anonymous

There’s a USB C port tucked underneath one of the handlebars for keeping your phone charged while it’s mounted on top, and for installing any updates to the system.

Let’s go grippin’

The bike is fitted with Schwalbe G One Allround 40mm tyres, so you’ll get good grip no matter what kind of terrain you ride it on (not including your local ice rink).

Most electric bikes look either so sleek and expensive they’d be nicked within five minutes of taking them outside, or so big and heavy you wouldn’t want to be seen dead riding one but it’s hard to tell Canyon’s Roadlite:ON 8 LTD is even an electric bike at all.

At 15 7kg it’s pretty slight as e bikes go, with an aluminium frame and a new lightweight Fazua Ride 60 drive system that has three levels of assistance: Breeze gives you a gentle but constant push; River matches the power of your own pedalling; and Rocket does exactly what you’d think, sticking a proverbial up your proverbial to

guarantee you make it up that massive hill in record time. You can switch between them using the controls on the handlebars, but there’s also a mount for your phone that allows you to fine tune settings on the go and create different riding profiles via Fazua’s app.

It’s all powered by the 430Wh battery that’s integrated into the downtube This is removable if you’d rather take it out when it’s time to charge and based on how much fun you’ll have riding it, that’s probably going to be quite often. As hot as the Tour de Death Valley £3649 / canyon com

A BASS CAN CAME TRAVELLING

Bluesound Pulse M

£449 / bluesound com

The Sonos rival adds a more affordable Wi Fi speaker to its premium multiroom lineup

Move us and shake us

Like Coke and Pepsi, Optimus and Megatron or Aldi and Lidl, Bluesound and Sonos are big rivals that have more in common than they’d probably care to admit but with its Pulse M multiroom speaker, Bluesound wants to show Sonos who’s boss Similar in size and price to the portable Sonos Move, the 80W Pulse M features an upfiring 5 25in woofer and two 0 75in tweeters that are mounted at 45°, with an acoustic reflector above them to help create a 360° soundstage That means your music will sound good no matter where you stand (well, as long as it’s not halfway down the road).

Have I the white?

Unlike the Move, the Pulse M needs mains power, but finding a home for its travel kettle sized chassis won’t be a problem (wall mounts and floor stands are also available) It only comes in white or black, so there shouldn’t be an issue choosing one that fits with your interior design choices. The BluOS Controller app includes over 20 music services such as Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz, but you can also use AirPlay 2, aptX Bluetooth or even Ethernet to feed the Pulse M

Super grouper

The idea behind a multiroom system is that you gradually build up a whole house full of units that will all sing in tune, so the Pulse M will work perfectly with all of Bluesound’s other speakers and streamers including as part of a stereo pair, or in a full on surround sound system with the Pulse Soundbar+ and Pulse Sub+ It’s just as happy on its own, but that might be because it has Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri for company although they’ll only listen to you via a connected device

The cover is acoustically transparent so it won’t affect the sound, and there are touch buttons on top that only light up when you reach for them.

MORE NEW HI-FI TRINKETS

NAD C 3050 LE

Limited to 1972 units and made to mark NAD’s 50th birthday, this stereo amp might look old fashioned with its VU meters but it also has Wi Fi, aptX Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 £1799 / nadelectronics com

AudioPro Link 2

Got some vintage hi fi kit you want to add streaming skills to? This little box has AirPlay 2 and Google Cast tech on board, plus loads of inputs and outputs for your old gear £280 / audiopro com

iFi Uno

This tiny USB powered DAC could be the perfect way to upgrade the audio coming out of your laptop, with different modes for music, movies and playing games. £79 / ifi audio.com

IT HAS ONE WOOFER, TWO TWEETERS AND AN ACOUSTIC REFLECTOR

You make me feel Leic dancing LEICA SL2 S REPORTER

For fans of the early ’90s breakbeat scene, just seeing the name ‘SL2’ will immediately have them singing On a Ragga Tip Leica’s latest snapper, which is limited to 1000 units, might have nothing to do with DJ Slipmatt, but its rugged all metal body and scratch resistant paint should at least make it raveproof Inside it has a 24 6MP full frame sensor that’s capable of 25fps continuous shooting and 4K @ 60fps recording with no limit to the footage length The L mount system supports Leica’s own lenses as well as glass from Panasonic and Sigma, and its chassis is cloaked in aramid fibre to add toughness and grip so unlike the dancefloor, it’s not so susceptible to drops from £4700 / leica camera com

Read the full review p78

Fold me ’til the morning comes MOTOROLA RAZR 2022

While Nokia reboots its classic phones as sub £100 burners, Motorola’s newest reborn Razr goes toe to toe with the best Powered by a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 CPU, the 6 7in OLED display inside the new folding Moto offers 10 bit colour, HDR10+ video playback and a 144Hz refresh rate that’s faster than you’ll find on any other foldable. On the outside, the 2.7in extra display flanked by a 50MP optically stabilised main camera and a 13MP ultrawide sensor with autofocus has a handful of new widgets, so you won’t have to flip the phone open so often And the battery’s had a boost to 3500mAh too, so you shouldn’t have to plug it in as regularly as the old Razr 5G £950 / motorola co uk

Disenchanted

Fifteen years after Enchanted , this sequel seems more than a simple nostalgia prodder True, almost the entire cast is back, including Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden, and Oscar winner Alan Menken supplies the music again, but Adams’ heroine has evolved a bit from fairytale princess into wicked stepmother Film / Disney+, 24 Nov

Willow

That poorly received Ron Howard and George Lucas fantasy movie from 1988? It’s getting a TV series sequel, with Warwick Davis back as unlikely wizard Willow Ufgood, now tasked with accompanying a group of young adventurers trying to save the world One for sentimental middle aged geeks only? We’re really hoping not S1 / Disney+, 30 Nov

Troll

Deep in the mountains of Norway, something giant and ancient stirs and you can probably guess what it is from the title of this straight to streaming release Inspired by Scandinavian folklore, this monster movie sees the mythical beast heading for Oslo while a small band of heroes tries to prevent all out disaster Film / Netflix, 1 Dec

Slow Horses

Apple’s espionage drama returns for a second series, with Jack Lowden, Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas all back on board The titular spies a cohort of MI5 misfits and failures who’ve been shunted off to Slough House to serve out a kind of purgatory are faced with a new threat Well, it’d be a bit dull if they weren’t S2 / Apple TV+, 2 Dec

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol

God knows how many A Christmas Carol adaptations there’ve been over the years Only a Scrooge would say “too many”, but rather worryingly, this one’s an animated remake of the 1970 musical Luke Evans voices Ebenezer himself, with Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Jonathan Pryce supporting Film / Netflix, 2 Dec

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

National Treasure: Edge of Histor y

There’s no Nicolas Cage this time around, but armchair historians more interested in vibes than accuracy will surely enjoy this return to the franchise It focuses on new, younger protagonists, but still finds room for Harvey Keitel and Justin Bartha Might Nic throw in a scenery munching cameo? S1 / Disney+, 14 Dec

The Mexican master of the macabre tackles something rather less creepy than his usual fare: a musical adaptation of Pinocchio , rendered in gorgeous stop motion animation Arriving just in time for Christmas, this will doubtless prove an intriguing counterpoint to Disney’s recent (and wholly unnecessary) live action remake. Our money’s on this one being better. Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Finn Wolfhard are among the voice cast. Film / Netflix, 9 Dec

DON’T MISSTHIS

What will Santa Claus say when he finds ever ybody streamin’? With this lot on offer, he’ll probably ask you to make room on the sofa…

DEVIALE T MANIA

Ever feel like you’re being watched?

Either you’re paranoid or you’ve just bought one of Devialet’s new portable speakers Despite looking like a robot’s eyeball, the Mania can’t see you; but pipe it some music over Bluetooth, Wi Fi (including Spotify Connect) or AirPlay 2 and you’ll certainly be able to hear it: this thing might only be the size of a teapot, but with six drivers inside and a maximum volume of 95dB, when cranked

to full it’s as loud as a motorbike engine and that’s before you add it to an existing Devialet system for any multiroom shenanigans

And you’re absolutely sure it can’t see?

Positive It can hear, though Four microphones measure reflective surfaces around it and tweak the output of its full range drivers to ensure they’re always delivering 360° stereo sound, whether the

Mania is placed in the centre of a room, in a corner or against a wall It can also tell when it’s been picked up and moved, so it’ll recalibrate when necessary. Devialet’s app lets you add Alexa control, but there’s a button that will mute the mics if you’d prefer a bit of privacy

So why does it look like an eye? You’d have to ask the designers that, but Devialet is well known for making stuff that wouldn’t look out

of place in a futuristic art gallery

Despite its woven fabric finish, the Mania doesn’t mind if you splash it with water, so you can use the built in handle to take the party outside (although at 2 3kg you won’t want to lug it too far) The battery lasts up to 10hrs and is topped up via USB C but if you opt for the gold embellished Opéra de Paris edition (£890), Devialet will chuck in the £69 conductive charging dock for nothing

IT MIGHT BE THE SIZE OF A TEAPOT, BUT CRANKED IT’S AS LOUD AS A MOTORBIKE

Plumber time

CASIO G SHOCK DW5600SMB 4

Time isn’t a huge concern in the Mushroom Kingdom You never see Mario look at his watch and realise he should’ve had Yoshi at the vet 20 minutes ago, or King Koopa suddenly scurry off mid battle to pick up Bowser Jr from school But if you’re late to meet your own Princess Peach or Luigi, there’ll be trouble so you’d best strap on one of these limited edition timekeepers Shock resistant and waterproof down to 200m, it’ll survive an encounter with a Cheep Cheep, while the Mario silhouette built into the backlight means he’ll appear to be jumping the green shell when you turn it on And with two year battery life, there might even be a new Mario game out by the time it dies £129 / g shock co uk

WTF IS MATTER?

Nothing. What’s the matter with you?

Well there’s no need to be like that We just wanted to tell you about this new smart home standard that’s backed by tech’s big three: Apple, Google and Amazon The idea is that it’ll put an end to having to read the small print every time you buy a new product to make sure it works with Alexa, Siri, Google Home or whichever other horse you’ve chosen to back in the smart home race When you buy a new phone you don’t worry that it won’t be compatible with the Wi Fi in your local coffee shop, so why should lights and thermostats be any different?

So how does it work?

Matter enables different devices to communicate over Wi Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy, which means their apps and cloud services can talk to each other too It’s also open source, so eventually you won’t need a different app to control each individual aspect of your smart home, or have to delve into the advanced settings to set up any kind of automation It won’t realise its potential immediately, but existing devices can be made compatible with Matter via firmware updates, so it should start to have an impact sooner than you might think

And who else is involved?

I feel the Earth groove

SONY LINKBUDS S EARTH BLUE

We can all do our bit to help the planet, whether it’s remembering to reuse plastic bags, leaving the car at home more often, or sacrificing yourself to a hungry polar bear but buying the new Earth Blue version of Sony’s LinkBuds S will also get you a dapper pair of earphones as a bonus Made partly from recycled bottles taken from office watercoolers, they have a neat tie dye look, ANC that adjusts to your surroundings, support for hi res audio thanks to Sony’s LDAC codec, and a nifty Speak to Chat mode that automatically pauses your music when you start talking to somebody Best of all, they’ll also allow you to explain to your work colleagues where the watercooler went £119 / sony co uk

Aside from the aforementioned big dogs, Samsung, Philips Hue, Ikea, iRobot, Nanoleaf and Meta (aka Facebook) are all on board, with over 100 companies part of the very serious sounding Connectivity Standards Alliance that’s behind it. A whopping 190 products have already received certification or are in the queue for testing, and work has begun on supporting other product types such as security cameras and home appliances Before long it could become as ubiquitous as Bluetooth, and we’ll all be wallowing in the connected homes of our dreams

Thanks to the likes of Ninja Gaiden and Nioh , Team Ninja has a reputation for games with masochistic combat difficulty on a par with fellow Japanese developer FromSoftware But its latest addition to this lineage moves away from Japan, to ancient China’s Three Kingdoms period a setting its publisher Koei Tecmo knows well from the OTT hack and slash Dynasty Warriors franchise

Regardless of the setting, the warrior you’re playing as here is all your own, thanks to a robust character creator taken from

Nioh 2 allowing for an even more diverse range of body types, skin colours and gender identities. One other important change is that it’s clearly taken a leaf from Sekiro , where the Souls like gameplay is faster thanks to your stamina no longer depleting when you’re just running along Combat is still punishing stuff: even the lowliest foe can wreck you if you just mash the buttons and don’t keep an eye on that stamina, and it soon escalates from humanoid enemies to huge mythical demons You also have

to contend with a morale system where enemies can get stronger the more times they kill you.

The best way to survive in Wo Long is not to rely on blocking attacks, which will just chip away at your precious stamina, but to learn to deflect attacks then perform a powerful counter But the real helping hand is being able to summon fellow players for co op even if the extra numbers do risk undermining the hardcore mechanics and turning it into more of a hack and slash affair But hey, whatever it takes

FIRST LOOK THE UNFRIENDLY BEASTS

WILD HEARTS

When it comes to games about hunting monsters, no one does it like Monster Hunter (clue’s in the name, isn’t it?); but it’s always good to see some healthy competition so the big question is, can this partnership between Koei

Tecmo and EA become the new apex predator? The Japanese developer already has some experience in this field, having made the Toukiden games beginning almost a decade ago but Wild Hearts is a new beast, set in a fantasy feudal Japan where you hunt mythical nature infused monsters called Kemono and with

a hint of Fortnite thrown into the mix

We don’t mean it’s a battle royale where there’ll be bizarre pop culture crossovers, but rather that it has a crafting system called Karakuri that’s integral to your hunts For instance, you can build stuff: a tower to help with traversing to higher ground, a crossbow to help you launch a zipwire, or

BEST OF SQUARE ENIX CLASSICS NOW ON SWITCH

a springboard that allows you to get in aerial attacks

And that’s just hunting by yourself when you team up with other hunters online (and with cross play supported), we can imagine even more interesting tactics that might be more than just whacking your biggest weapons at the beast until it drops The hunt begins on 16 February

NIER AUTOMATA: THE END OF YORHA EDITION Switch

Bayonetta 3 may be the hot new action game on Switch (see p94), but this weird action RPG set on a post apocalyptic Earth where androids fight for the future of humanity is a fine port that sacrifices none of its high speed balletic wonder

LIFE IS STRANGE: ARCADIA BAY COLLECTION Switch

If you’re looking for stories to leave you teary eyed while channelling your teen angst, then the two best Life is Strange games are finally on Switch As remasters, it’s rather hit and miss for the old console, but the gameplay is still hard to beat

THE DIOFIELD CHRONICLE

Switch, PS5, PS4, PC

Do you like your strategy games in real time or turn based? Enjoy both in this new hybrid, where you command a band of elite mercenaries caught in the chaos of war Battles are fought over detailed diorama style environments, almost like marshalling units like in a tabletop game

INCOMING

Rolls Royce Spectre THE FIRST NO-SMELL

Unique features include huge 23in wheels, a tweaked grille and even a reshaped Spirit of Ecstasy bonnet mascot for aero efficiency.

DASHBOARD

Ah, splendid, I’m due a new Rolls

The usual 6 75L engine?

Not at all: the Spectre is the iconic brand’s first electric car part of a concerted effort to move away from combustion engines by 2030 They’re calling it an ultra luxury super coupé, complete with rear hinged doors A low drag coefficient of just 0 25 means the car should deliver lots of ‘waft’ factor and a sublime ride through its planar suspension system.

What’s it like on the inside?

Rolls Royce will be including its new gen Spirit infotainment system, supplemented by the aptly titled Whispers app that lets owners set the car up just as they wish Meanwhile there’s lots of interior bling, including optional ‘Starlight’ doors with no less than 5876 illuminated dots So you can gaze at the stars without even looking up

And what’s the range?

With a kerb weight of 2975kg, this is a heavy EV despite lots of aluminium being used in its build (well, it is over 5m long) Even so, Rolls Royce predicts a range of over 320 miles Thanks to a beefy 120kWh battery plus 577bhp and 664lb/ft of torque it should also be reasonably rapid, with 0 62mph arriving in 4 5secs And it’ll support recharging speeds of around 200kW

Well, that all seems to be in order. Can I have one delivered to my Monaco apartment?

Sure you can you afford it? While the base price is likely to be around £275,000, nobody ever orders a Rolls without lots of custom trimmings so the Spectre will cost most buyers more like £500,000 or more Reassuringly, while BMW might own the brand nowadays, the car will still be built in Goodwood, West Sussex

HY FLYER

Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 is an all electric saloon whose 77 4kWh AWD edition offers a range of 380 miles and a 0 60mph time of 5 1secs The design is sleeker than the Ioniq 5 and the comfort and tech levels inside make it a treat to drive, while digital door mirrors only enhance the ‘premium’ experience

BOLD FOLDER

The Pure Advance Flex is a smart new take on the electric scooter It promises more stability and a smoother ride than most, with a design that folds away smaller than ever You also get built in indicators, puncture proof tyres and a range of around 25 miles on a charge, while the IP65 resistance rating means it’s Britain proof

X FLEXER

Best enjoyed in its e Power e 4orce incarnation, the latest Nissan X Trail delivers a neat twist on electric motoring without the need to plug in: there’s a petrol engine, but it only charges the battery. It’s also got plenty of in car tech, including a 12 3in infotainment screen and HUD and this SUV won’t mind if you decide to go off road

For your ears only B&W PX8 007 EDITION

With all the martini drinking, baddie busting and womanising that James Bond does, he probably doesn’t get a lot of time to kick back and enjoy the latest Taylor Swift album but if he did, we know which headphones he’d be wearing These special edition PX8s (the regular ones are reviewed on p70) are the same ‘midnight blue’ colour as the tux Sean Connery wore when he uttered Bond’s iconic introductory line for the first time in Dr No . They’re identical to the standard cans on the inside but if you’re thinking of using them to watch every Bond film in order, just be warned their 30hr battery life means they’ll run out halfway through Never Say Never Again Connery’s final 007 outing £699 / bowerswilkins com

DROP EVERYTHING & DOWNLOAD

Mar vel Snap

£free / iOS, Android, Steam

A lot of strategic card games can be harder to pick up than Thor’s hammer, but Marvel Snap ’s basic rules are simple to grasp The aim is to win at least two of the three locations on each board by playing cards with a higher combined power level than your opponent

Some cards also have unique abilities that can massively boost your score Iron Man, for example, doubles your power. Winning matches will raise your rank and earn you in game currency While you can spend real money on it, every card in the game is technically unlockable without spending a penny and with only six turns per match, you can easily play a handful of games in a 15 minute tea break

For zoom, the bell tolls

DJI MAVIC 3 CLASSIC

It’s often hard to tell two drones apart, especially when they’re hovering 400ft above your head, but with the Mavic 3 Classic it’s even tougher In many ways it’s indistinguishable from the original Mavic 3, with the same quadcopter design, 15km range and battery that’ll keep it in the air for up to 46 minutes; but the difference comes with the camera

It keeps the Hasselblad branded 4/3 CMOS 20MP main sensor that can shoot 5 1K video at up to 50fps, but ditches the secondary 12MP zoomer (which we found pretty underwhelming anyway) That adds up to a saving of £330 less if you add the upgraded DJI RC controller or the Fly More Kit, but still a lot of drone for not so much cash from £1399 / dji com

NEWS FEED

SONY REVEALS PSVR2 PRICE AND IT’S MIND GOGGLING

Sony’s PS5 compatible VR headset will be available on 22 February and set you back £530 that’s £80 more than the disc free version of the console itself For that you also get two controllers, but the separate charging station will cost an extra £40 Let’s hope they’re easier to get hold of at launch than the PS5

HUAWEI’S BEZZIE MATE COMES BEARING GIFTS

The Huawei Mate 50 Pro, whose 50MP main camera has a 10 stop adjustable aperture, will cost £1200 but if you order direct before 30 November you’ll get a bunch of free goodies, including a pair of Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2 wireless earphones and six months’ accidental screen damage protection

VERTU INTRODUCES THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCKCHAIN

Vertu’s latest mega pricey phone offers all the brand’s usual luxuries, including a £36,000 alligator leather option and an exclusive concierge service; but the Metavertu (from £2905) also includes a second OS specifically for fiddling with NFTs and the blockchain What’s that they say about fools and their money?

AMAZON OPENS UP ITS MUSIC LIBRARY (SORT OF)

If you subscribe to Prime, you can now listen to all 100 million songs on Amazon Music without ads and at no extra cost… but only on shuffle You can also only skip a few times before it’ll ask you to cough up for an Unlimited sub Well, it’s better than having a U2 album injected into your phone without consent

Augment for you HOLOKIT X

With Sony’s PSVR2 set to cost as much as a PS5 (see left), you might be feeling a little trapped in this reality right now but the HoloKit X makes extra dimensions affordable Powered by your iPhone and its cameras, this AR headset reflects the screen down like a periscope, so you can see real objects and virtual ones together in front of your eyes You can play games through the HoloKit app, moving around virtual items placed in the real world and hearing where things are through spatial audio If you’ve got an Apple Watch, that can even be used as a motion controller Who needs Apple to launch its long rumoured headset when you’ve got this for the price of a pair of AirPods? $129 / holokit io

Rhapsody in flue PORSCHE DESIGN 911 SOUNDBAR 2.0 PRO

Petrolheads love the sound of a good tailpipe, but how many would go so far as to turn one into a speaker? Adorned with the actual exhaust system from a Porsche 992 GT3, this 300W 2 1 2 soundbar is limited to 500 units, presumably because that’s how many 992 owners Porsche Design could steal parts off before one of them noticed It supports Dolby Atmos, plus there’s AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Bluetooth 5, while 4K compatible HDMI ports mean you can connect your Xbox, fire up Forza Horizon 5, get behind the wheel of a 992 GT3 and find out what that exhaust would sound like if it were still attached to a car. £9100 / porsche design.com

You’ve got the hi fi setup you want, but you’re still listening on the slightly tinny, plasticky over ears you’ve had for a decade? Well, dear reader, get a load of handmade brilliance instead with this pair of reference quality headphones from Brooklyn’s finest: Grado.

The Reference RS1x headphones have Grado’s 50mm fourth generation X Drivers. Their timeless finish combines maple, cocobolo (known for its warm, rich sound) and hemp wood There are also new eight conductor cables plus a white stitched leather headband that looks the part.

“In 1994 my dad John Grado went downstairs in the middle of the night to build our first RS1 headphone,” says Jonathan Grado. “It’s kind of extraordinary that this middle of the night idea is evolving into an even greater headphone 27 years later.” And now, a pair of Reference RS1x headphones could be yours find out how on the right, and check grado.co.uk for more info.

Fe l i z snaz zy tab

dozen years after the original iPad, the home button has finally disappeared from this 10th Gen model. We’ve come a long way from a gadget that was once dismissed as just a bigger iPhone

This tablet brings a complete and much needed overhaul to the ‘standard’ iPad range, and it’s

available in a few nice colours including a rather lurid pink (as well as blue, yellow and a more regular silver) What’s on offer here is essentially a slightly stripped down iPad Air, and there are several reasons why that makes sense plus several reasons why it doesn’t.

This is not quite the base level iPad, by the way the 9th Gen

model is still around (complete with its traditional home button)

It’s not that Apple doesn’t want to say goodbye; it’s just that this one is too high end in terms of price, starting at £499 (As with Apple’s other recent launches, UK pricing is currently very high compared to over the pond.)

The 9th Gen is on borrowed time, surely, but it does make

sense that it’s still available it can be bought for £369, dropping closer to £300 when there’s a sale on

The 10th Gen model, then, clearly fits with Apple’s strategy of taking things more premium, not less But is the company justified in charging so much more for this over the previous version? Let’s find out

The latest ‘basic’ iPad is a stunning tablet compared to its rivals… but it’s expensive, and raises questions about some of Apple’s design decisions

from £499 / go stuff tv/iPad10

1

Retina way with it

The 10 9in Retina display is larger than the 10.2in screen on the last iPad, which itself was an upgrade on the original tablet’s 9 7in size It’s not the brightest at 500 nits and it isn’t laminated like on the more expensive iPads, so it only supports the original Apple Pencil.

Smar t me up

The iPad range hasn’t had the same phobia of USB C as the iPhones, and this redesign has inevitably meant the appearance of a USB C port Apple’s Smart Connector is also present on the side, to enable connection to accessories

1 3 2 5 4

Here cams are nice

The cameras have been updated, and both front and back units are now 12MP a welcome step forward Images are clear and crisp, and everything is nice and quick gone are the days when iPad photos were a poor relation to those from smartphones

24 hours with the Apple iPad (10th Gen)

Good Meh Evil

Been por t stealing

Despite having four speaker grilles, this iPad has stereo rather than quad speakers With the move to the newer design, it’s also worth noting that there’s no headphone port We think that’s a bit of a challenge at this price point

Sister golden Air

The new iPad’s similarities to the original ‘all screen’ 2020 iPad Air are striking It sports the same A14 Bionic hardware and can cope with everything you’d normally throw at it: editing 4K video or fiddling about with large images is simply not a problem

…anditusesApple’sCentreStagetech soyou’rekeptintheframe. TouchIDisstillfavouredoverFaceID, andit’sonthepowerbutton. Ourreviewtabletisp ink.Infact,it’s VERYpink.Wow!ConfusionbetweenthisandtheiPad Airisinevitable.Setupispredictablyeasyandwe’re transferringappsfromouroldiPad. NotusingthenewerPencilissilly–a decisionbasedontheoldscreentech.

Thedisplayisn’tthebrightestifyou’re outinthesun,butit ’sfineelsewhere.Thislarger10.9insizeisfineforhaving twoappssidebysideinSplitView. Thefrontcameraisnowonthelonger sideoftheiPadforvideocalling…

1min 2mins 3mins 5mins 11mins 1hr 4hrs 5hrs 6hrs

TheMagicKeyboardFoliosnapson nicelyandevenhasafunctionrow. Ifyou’vegotthecellularversion,this iPadsupports5GliketheProandAir.Batteryliferemainsconsistentat around10hrsonWi-Fi.

Chargingthefirst-genApplePencilis acompletepain–adapterahoy ! DespiteApple’smorepremiumiPads, thisisallmostbuyerswilleverneed.

7hrs 8hrs 15hrs 18hrs 24hrs

Tech specs

Screen 10.9in 2360x1640 Liquid Retina touchscreen

Processor Apple A14 Bionic OS iPadOS 16

Storage 64/256GB Cameras 12MP rear, 12MP front

Connectivity USB C, Wi Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 2

Battery life Up to 10hrs (USB C) Dimensions 249x180x7mm, 477g

Dockin’ around the Christmas tree

The new iPad’s accessory lineup is, um, rather idiosyncratic to say the least. Here’s why…

Upselling

If you want this iPad as a laptop replacement, that means adding a keyboard But the Magic Keyboard Folio is crazy expensive at £279 Added to the £499 iPad, you’re into discounted MacBook Air territory.

Upstanding

That keyboard is in two parts, one of which gives your iPad a kickstand It includes a function row for playback controls and screen adjustments, and is excellent for typing if you’re on a flat surface.

Up in the air

Because this iPad still has an air gap between the display’s layers, it only supports the first gen iPad Pencil (£109) which doesn’t magnetically attach to the tablet, unlike the second gen version

Messed up

Here’s something else that’s odd: the first gen Pencil uses Lightning to charge but this is a USB C iPad An adapter is in the box if you buy a Pencil, but if you have one already an adapter is £10

The new everyday iPad is predictably good… but it’s also disappointingly expensive and uses the wrong Apple Pencil. Still, there’s much more positive than negative here: it’s a big upgrade over the previous model, with various worthwhile enhancements. The move to USB C for the standard iPad range is also very welcome @dangrabham

STUFF SAYS

A much-needed and mostly excellent reworking of Apple’s entr y-level tablet

The a lternative: Apple 12.9in iPad Pro (M2)

from £1249 / go stuff tv/ProM2

Apple’s new iPad Pro has one big change from its predecessor: the M2 chip lurking inside It’s a formidable bit of tech Available in storage sizes from 128GB right up to 2TB, this tablet can do everything

Well, we say everything, but macOS style multitasking is still a little beyond it. Stage Manager, introduced in a recent iPadOS 16 update, brings iPads closer to Macs in this regard as you can resize windows flexibly, but it’s still not quite the same. An upcoming update to add external display support may narrow the gap further

The design of the 2022 tablet is the same as last year’s, and it shows in a couple of details The 10th Gen iPad has both a camera on the long edge and function keys on the keyboard; these enhancements aren’t present on the Pro bizarre when the Magic Keyboard costs £379

Still, the Mini LED display is way better than the one on the basic iPad, and it absolutely sings on this larger version (there’s also an 11in Pro, from £899) You might struggle to see it properly if you’re outdoors on a very sunny day, but it copes with most situations thanks to its 1600 nit peak brightness

Key specs

SAYS

Sweet and 10hr hooligan

As with other iPads, Apple cites 10hrs of battery life. You’ll get there with normal tasks, but with cellular on you’ll be lucky

Just like starting hover Apple Pencil Hover shows you where you’re about to mark on the display OK, we’ve seen this deployed before, but Apple regulars will love it… and apps are being updated for it

All about that face Face ID is once again offered by the iPad Pro, and works in both portrait and landscape orientations It’s way more natural than the Touch ID system on the non Pro model’s power

The iPad Pro has a formidable camera array, and it’s had one improvement: the rear cam now records 4K ProRes video Bit niche, but it could be handy if your iPhone isn’t close by

The rubber rider

EvenOdd Slim Card Wallet

This slender pouch won’t stop your bike getting a puncture, but it does put deflated tyres to good use: it’s crafted from reclaimed inner tubes Each water resistant wallet wears a unique finish from its life on the road, while custom monogramming means you can add the stamp of your unique genius $38 / evenodd us

The pop-up pocket Jekyll & Hide Slim Card Slide

There’s nothing slick about fishing for cards This compact container makes it a cinch for fat fingers to find the right piece of plastic: its milled aluminium frame features a pop up mechanism. Thumb the little lever and it’ll raise your collection for easy selection No more pulling out your bus pass at the till £69 / jekyllandhide co uk

WALLETS

The fruity folio

Oliver Co RFID Premium Compact

With nine pockets, this wallet is more capacious than it looks but that isn’t its only surprise What looks like a lambskin finish is actually the product of an orchard: combined with poly cotton canvas, its shell uses surplus gunk harvested from apple juice and compote factories £89 / olivercompanylondon com

The

The woolly wallet

The banking belt

Trove Wallet

A rubber band is the ultimate in minimalist money management until it snaps For storage that’s stretchy but sturdy, try this reversible wrap Reinforced with leather, the elastic belt securely grips your banking bits. Use its three slots to hold cash, cards and keys, or reverse it for more paper space £30 / trove cc

The classic cardholder Herschel Roy

Financial efficiency starts in your pocket Slim and simple, this pared back portefeuille is a lesson in functional understatement Labelled with a woven patch, it has a basic set of storage sleeves inside. But Herschel hasn’t been totally frugal with the design: it’s got stripy lining How extravagant! £25 / herschelsupplyco co uk

Wallet

Want a coin purse with eco credentials?

You could sew your own from an old jeans pocket or you could let BearMade fashion a more durable one from its cotton offcuts Rather than binning the leftovers from its backpack workshop, it turns them into these weatherproof pouches £22 / bearmade co uk

1 Cash and carry

Fjallraven Norrvage

Need another reason to love sheep? This furry purse’s rugged fabric finish is made using wool waste from textile production, while the lining blends recycled polyester and organic cotton. With a pop shut compartment and zippered coin slot, it’s a fleecy sheath worth bleating about £55 / fjallraven com

The spacious sporran Harber London Leather Zip Pouch

The Doctor’s blue police box isn’t the only container with deceptive dimensions Despite its modest size, this leather pouch can hold over 20 cards or a fat stack of folded bills. Made in Spain, it has a main chamber that also features two pockets: one for coins, one for your Tardis key £59 / harberlondon com

2 Asset management

Most wallets have space for banknotes, while some feature separate coin compartments.

Committed to the cashless life? Streamline your pocket load with a cards only carrier

Internal dividers can bring order, but having lots of card slots will fatten your wallet’s waistline. The slimmest sleeves sacrifice some structure to keep their dimensions down

green grasper BearMade Zero Waste

Turns out money really does burn a hole in your pocket. Want a smarter way to cache your cash?

Chris Rowlands finds the finest homes for plastic and readies

The seamless stasher Bellroy Apex Note Sleeve

A bulging billfold might be a sign of success, but over stuffing can lead to unfortunate creases

This leather sleeve is pre moulded for a perfect fit, no stretching necessary. Sculpted sides maximise capacity from day one, while a streamlined interior keeps bulk to a minimum Bonded by heat instead of chunky stitching, it has a simple five slot setup, and magnets preserve the unwrinkled look belying the state of your bank account £149 / bellroy com

3 Feeling the pinch?

Contactless crime is rare Still, RFID blocking stops anyone skimming your bank details. Full shielding is great, but having one unprotected pocket means you can still tap to pay

4 Material wealth

Money can come and go, but a good wallet should last a lifetime. Fabric folders offer durability, while leather shells will take on a natural patina from your clammy hands

Hole

Tweak like me Keen to wobble things up a bit? You can set the Mini Play’s fun size joystick to work as a modulator or pitch bender

AKAI MPK MINI PLAY MK3

Nothing says Christmas getting repetitive like family carols around the piano. Tired of the same old singalong? Remix the Yuletide tunes with Akai’s mini music maker. Barely a foot wide, this portable plaything features 25 keys and an eight strong array of illuminated drum pads The setup is sensitive to the speed of your fingers, so you can tinkle as quietly as a mouse or drop hard like a Home Alone bandit A bank of more than 100 sounds means you can make like DJ Shadow, while the built-in speaker delivers the EDM ditties when you tour to your nan’s.

£105 / akaipro com

512 AUDIO TEMPEST

A grainy YouTube vid was enough to burden the world with Bieber, but when everyone’s a content creator it takes better production values to get noticed. Give your demos a boost with this fine studio mic Inspired by vintage types, it has a 34mm gold plated condenser capsule to capture your warblings in rich detail, while a USB C connection cuts out mixers in the middle.

£160 / 512audio com

REVOLUTION: THE HISTORY OF TURNTABLE DESIGN

Think Christmas comes around regularly? That’s nothing compared to a vinyl single But turntables aren’t stuck in a loop: a record of record players, this coffee table book charts their long history £75 / phaidon.com

DENON AH C830NCW

Most wireless earbuds come with all sorts of smart trimmings… but if you just want tunes, these Denons keep it barebones: no app, no EQ and no voice assistant, just an expressive flavour and a nicely focused soundstage £129 / denon.com

AUDIO TECHNICA LP3XBT

A diecast aluminium platter won’t look very elegant on the dinner table, but it’s a solid way to reduce vibrations when guests are dining on your vinyl collection

For a stutter free sonic banquet, pop an analogue disc on this Bluetooth turntable Fully automatic, it works with wired or wireless speakers, while a hydraulically damped tonearm protects your records from over eager flippers £280 / audio technica com

IFI ZEN DAC V2

It takes a keen audiophile to pick out each layer of In Dulci Jubilo Amplify your chances with this dinky DAC: equipped with a 16 core processor and fed via USB, it can decode MQA files on the fly for hi res audio sounding just as it was recorded £159 / ifi audio.com

BOSE SOUNDLINK FLEX

Christmas is such a hectic time for campanologists that even the keenest pealer will be jingled out by January. For bell like clarity to last all year, try this Bluetooth speaker It’s water resistant and has a 12hr battery £150 / bose co uk

SENNHEISER MOMENTUM 4 WIRELESS

In the market for earmuffs? This isn’t the cheapest way to shield your lugs against winter weather, but if you want cushioned cups that warm with superlative audio they’re up there with the best £300 / sennheiser hearing com

ROLAND T 8 AIRA COMPACT

Vintage synths add old school sauce to any set Don’t have the roadies to cart around a classic? This beat machine puts multiple retro rhythms in your backpack, reviving sounds from Roland’s drum and bass back catalogue £157 / roland com

DOROTHY STAMP ALBUMS: HIP HOP PRINT

Collecting stamps is about as far from hip hop culture as the monarch who usually adorns them But this print sheet gives philately an MC send up Its 42 graphics reimagine seminal albums of the genre: spanning from Run DMC and Wu Tang to Jay Z and Run The Jewels, each record’s release year defines the postage class £40 / wearedorothy com

PIONEER DDJ REV1

Get a bunch of squabbling relations under one roof and you might be forced to settle things with a Christmas rap battle. With sideways sliders up top, generous jog wheels and auto tracking, these digital decks will help. £259 / pioneerdj com

FENDER GEORGE HARRISON ROCKY INSTRUMENT CABLE

You need more than a fancy cable to lay down platinum licks, but if you want to riff like a Beatle a bit of colour can’t hurt This 10ft lead is inspired by George Harrison’s ‘Rocky’ Strat. £25 / fender com

LOGITECH K380 FOR MAC

Whether you’re tip tapping on a tablet or like to sit back from your laptop, this streamlined keyboard is a win for your fingers. Wedge shaped and wireless, its compact footprint fits neatly on any desk, while contoured scissor keys are cosy but responsive Available in blue, pink or off white, this low profile board is good for up to two years on a single charge ideal for travelling typists. £45 / logitech com

APPLE iPAD AIR

Tablets have changed since Roman times Apple’s latest lightweight slate is a champion of in chariot entertainment: fronted by a 10 9in Retina display, its M1 chip provides all conquering performance, with optional 5G from £669 / apple.com

BELLROY DESK CADDY

It takes more than a laptop to work from anywhere Organise your portable office with this practical pouch Its front folds down to reveal the bits stashed inside; stood upright on a work surface, tiered dividers offer easy access to your kit. £55 / bellroy.com

AMAZFIT T REX 2

Time waits for no one and unless you’re a VIP , neither do planes Don’t miss your departure: equip your wrist with this rugged ticker for reliable tracking Tested for toughness and shielded by a beefy bezel, the T Rex 2 is a smartwatch for all conditions Typical battery life should survive a three week getaway, while an arsenal of sensors tracks your vitals as you dash for the boarding gate £219 / amazfit com

CHIPOLO CARD SPOT

Lose your credit card on holiday and you’ll need some friends to spot you. Lose this card sized tracker and you’ll have thousands helping you find it. Slim enough to slip in your wallet, it works with the Find My network, waving at nearby Apple devices. £30 / chipolo.net

TECH NOMAD

WACACO EXAGRIND

Some coffee snobs are kept housebound by fear of a bad brew when out and about so this mobile bean machine brings caffeine freedom It lets you mill 20g by hand: fill it with beans, set the grind level then get winding. £100 / wacaco com

LIFESTRAW PEAK SQUEEZE

Water bottles add bulk even when they’re empty.

For more portable potability, this flexible pouch holds up to a litre of liquid, before packing down when you’ve had your fill It also has a replaceable microfilter.

€50 / lifestraw com

STUBBLE & CO ADVENTURE BAG

If baggage reclaim is the bane of your travels, sling this two strap over your shoulders It has pockets in all the right places, while soft sides and compression straps let you max out the 42L capacity within carry on limits. £195 / stubble andco com

ANKER 633 MAGNETIC BATTERY

Phone feeling drained? Treat it to a power nap with this handy MagSafe battery pack Snapped in place for a cordless boost, its 10,000mAh capacity is enough to fill your iPhone roughly twice over And if you want entertainment during the down time, flip out its stand and stick your phone sideways for perfectly angled movies on the move £70 / anker com

REMARKABLE 2

For paper like productivity without the bulk of a binder, try this E Ink tablet Absurdly slender, its monochrome display mimics the look and feel of a real notebook Load PDF docs for digital doodling or select a template to organise your scribbles. from £279 / remarkable com

UE WONDER BOOM 3

If your getaway requires a sonic kickstart, this little ball of boom should have the hotel hopping Sized like a large snow globe, it has enough bass for any festive bash; and 14hr battery life should see you through to Santa’s arrival. £90 / ultimateears com

Greyest day

URBANISTA PHOENIX

Your vitamin D level isn’t the only thing boosted by sunlight: solar exposure can also be a treat for the ears. Thanks to Powerfoyle material on the side of their charging case, these true wireless in ears can refuel from almost any light source, so you can hit the road with one less cable Lightweight and sculpted for a comfy fit, the earbuds are similarly liberating: they have active noise cancellation to mute noisy neighbours in transit, while the Urbanista app lets you tweak EQ settings and touch controls. Now all you need is a smartphone charging crank for theoretically infinite listening. £129 / urbanista com

Pack for good Dancing in the dark? Each earbud is good for 8hrs on a single charge, with a further 32hrs on offer from the wedge shaped case

Hear today

Voice control from Google Assistant or Alexa is supported, but that will require you to use the Ray alongside a smart speaker

Bands on the run

Thanks to AirPlay 2 support, the Ray can double as a fine speaker for music as well as telly but the lack of Bluetooth is a shame

Wall stand together

The Ray is a compact soundbar that’ll easily fit in any living room; but if you lack shelf space, there’s a £39 wall mounting kit.

SONOS RAY

No self respecting film fan should be marathoning 2022’s best flicks over the festive break using just their TV’s measly built in speakers. At the very least they’re going to need a soundbar, and Sonos’s latest also happens to be its most affordable yet To get the bad stuff out of the way, the Sonos Ray doesn’t have Dolby Atmos (though Dolby Digital is supported) or an HDMI port, forcing you to hook it up via optical But everything that people love about Sonos, from sleek design and great sound to AirPlay 2 support and seamless wireless integration with an existing Sonos setup, is included in this smart bar £279 / sonos com

STRESS FLIX DICE

You love films You subscribe to about 30 streaming services and spend ‘movie night’ bickering about what to watch This dice might help: each side is labelled with a different genre, and it doubles as a stress ball if it all gets out of hand £10 / thumbsup.com

LEGO T REX BREAKOUT

Jurassic Park turns 30 next year, so now is a great time to treat one of that film’s fans to some dino themed Lego This is a highly displayable brick recreation of one of its most famous scenes, where we see the big beast for the first time. £90 / lego.com

SAMSUNG FREESTYLE

Projectors can be intimidating things, but the oddly named Freestyle is anything but It’s capable of projecting a 1080p image of up to 100in in size, effectively putting a cinema screen in your suitcase Samsung has also kindly built in features like automatic keystone correction to help keep your picture sharp and straight on the wall. Not one for film fans who demand 4K, but for ease of use it’s king £699 / samsung com

AMAZON FIRE TV CUBE (2022)

The third gen Fire TV Cube is, shockingly, still cube shaped, but this streaming box has never been more useful Now wearing a fabric jacket, this model is slicker and more powerful, with an improved Alexa remote to boot £140 / amazon.co.uk

MOVIE BUFF

CITIZEN STAR WARS DUEL

It’s worth casting your eye over all of Citizen’s Star Wars collection, but if pushed we’d go for this one A wristy tribute to arguably the most iconic fight scene in movie history, this stainless steel timepiece is finished with red and blue markers around the dial to represent Luke and Vader’s lightsabers, while the latter’s famous “I find your lack of faith disturbing” line is engraved on the back £229 / citizenwatch co uk

SPIDER MAN SCORE (VINYL)

Long before the MCU came along, Sam Raimi’s Spider Man changed popcorn cinema forever and just as great as the film was the Danny Elfman soundtrack, which is getting a vinyl release to mark the movie’s 20th anniversary. £30 / amazon co uk

CLIPOLOGY

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without a game for everyone to drunkenly fall out over, and Clipology is a great pick for a cinephile family Mixing traditional board game play with real clips from TV and movies that players have to identify, it’s way more fun than Monopoly £25 / argos co uk

THE SHINING: A VISUAL AND CULTURAL HAUNTING

Give your favourite Kubrick fan something to get lost in while the in laws are watching Strictly. This stunning loose leaf book, styled to resemble Jack’s ‘writing project’, explores The Shining’s legacy. £50 / bfi org uk

Does someone feel the need for speed and UHD? Well, it’s their lucky day, because the original Top Gun and its Maverick sequel come together in this limited edition steelbook, which includes over 2hrs of bonus guff £100 / hmv com

POLK MAGNIFI MINI AX

Dolby Atmos soundbars appear to be getting smaller by the hour, and Polk’s MagniFi Mini AX is a frankly ridiculous case study Barely longer than one of those rulers you used to have in your pencil case at school, calling it ‘compact’ seems hardly enough, yet it supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X virtual surround sound, aided by a separate sub And it can make a right old racket £429 / polkaudio com

POWER IDOLZ E T WIRELESS CHARGING DOCK

We’re trying to resist the obvious line, but it’s just not possible: with this ET themed charging dock, they’ll always have enough juice to phone home Sorry Anyway, it’s also got an LED fingertip. £40 / justgeek com

If you want to turn your living room into a real home cinema, star t by scattering Coke and crisps on the floor… then ask Santa for this lot

ALLBIRDS TREE DASHER 2

Tread lighter on the planet with these plant based runners Featherweight and flexible, the knitted upper is sewn using eucalyptus fibre, while the midsole is sourced from sugarcane A collar locks your ankle in place, while bio based eyelets and recycled laces make for sustainable tying And with an FSC certified natural rubber outsole, you can land easy on the angular heel. £125 / allbirds co uk

OSPREY TALON EARTH 22

Approved by Bluesign for responsible textile use, this pack is perfect for alpine commuters It features a laptop sleeve, an ice axe attachment and a bike helmet hook, and is made from recycled fabrics and ocean plastic £160 / osprey europe.com

NATIVE UNION (RE)CLASSIC CASE

What feels like cowskin and sounds like a Kanye album? Yatay: a plant based material that’s hand crafted in Italy and covers this iPhone case More durable than polyurethane alternatives, it uses less water and produces lower carbon emissions than leather It’s used here with a recycled frame and microfibre lining. £50 / nativeunion com

HOUSE OF MARLEY GET TOGETHER 2 MINI

Nothing says sustainability like recycling last year’s Christmas playlist Need an eco speaker? This one’s fronted by renewable bamboo, with a fabric wrap woven from reclaimed materials £150 / thehouse ofmarley.co.uk

URBANEARS BOO TIP

These wireless earbuds are made using 91% recycled plastic sourced from bottles, air con units and other discarded detritus They’re also kind to your lugs at just 3 95g apiece, with a rounded fit for comfy listening £70 / urbanears.com

ECO WARRIOR

KOBO CLARA 2E

It’s not easy being a sustainable bookworm. You could stick to recycled paperbacks or get this eco e reader. Most of its shell is recycled plastic, and Kobo aims to stop 200,000 bottles reaching the ocean each year. £130 / kobobooks com

ANKER 543

USB C CABLE (BIO BASED)

Many smartphone makers now ship their handsets without cables Triffic, but what if you need one? Available with Lighting or USB C plugs, this cord’s exterior is 40% plant based materials It’s been tested to survive 20,000 bends. £15 / anker com

FOSSIL FB-01 SOLAR POWERED

A true Earth lover can tell the time using just the sun Still working on your solar timekeeping? Try this Fossil watch for size its battery is renewably boosted by exposure to sunlight And if you’re worried that wearing it will alienate you from fellow activists, just tell them about the ocean bound plastic materials used for the casing and strap £139 / fossil com

BIG OCEAN BOTTLE

Refill instead of buying and you’ll save the world from one more plastic bottle Buy this 1L flask and you’ll stop 1000 more entering the ocean. Its recycled stainless steel cylinder is vacuum insulated to keep drinks hot or cold. £45 / oceanbottle co

GOMI WIRELESS MAGNETIC CHARGER

Recycling is one way to tackle plastic waste But what about packaging that local councils can’t do anything with?

Gomi transforms non renewable scraps into accessories like this 15W charging puck £35 / gomi design

GROUND TRUTH RIKR TECH POUCH

The greenest way to transport your tech is to hold it all in your arms Too much kit to carry? Try this pouch

Carbon neutral and shipped in biodegradable packaging, it’s crafted entirely from recycled materials. £56 / ground truth global

Land

of cam fusion

‘Capture Fusion’ uses the 50MP main camera to enhance results from the 13MP ultrawide sensor, and there are low light modes too

NOKIA X30

The Nokia 3650 featured a round keypad all the way back in 2002… but the X30 is a different sort of circular. Flagship of Nokia’s new subscription service, it’s here to show that a smartphone is for years, not just for Christmas Buy it outright and you’ll bag an eco blower with a more sustainable shell; but get it on the Circular plan and Nokia will reward you for not upgrading, crediting ‘seeds’ to your account that can be donated to support good causes. And when it does finally conk out, Nokia will sort the recycling. from £399 or £22/m / nokia com

No son of mines

The frame is 100% recycled aluminium while the back is 65% recycled plastic, making this the greenest Nokia handset ever

The TheraCup offers three suction levels, three heat intensities and three vibration settings.

Especially for phew

Worried about welts? A pressure sensor and auto shutoff feature protect the skin against excessive suction

T H E R A B O DY T H E R AC U P

No, it’s not a container for your takeaway spiced latte this compact cup offers caffeine free relief for your aching muscles. Like the therapy ordered by Olympic athletes, the TheraCup deploys a combination of suction, vibration and heat to soothe your sore bits The cupping concept is pretty simple: by pumping on targeted areas, it’s meant to stimulate bloodflow, relieve tired tissue and speed up recovery But unlike a full physio setup, this thing can fit in your gym bag for treatments on the go. It’s also good for up to 2hrs per charge, and doesn’t require an intimidatingly healthy professional to push the buttons £109 / therabody com

Better the bevel you know It comes with three attachments 35mm, 45mm and 55mm for working on different body areas

I should be so sucky

UNDER ARMOUR HOVR SUMMIT FAT TIRE DELTA

Dashing through the snow is difficult if you’re slipping about like Bambi Be more Blitzen with these grippy kicks: inspired by bike tyres, the Michelin sole features traction lugs for maximum purchase Ripstop fabric protects your trotters, bungee laces blend stability with adjustability, and HOVR cushioning puts a spring in your winter step. £150 / underarmour co uk

BOOKMAN MONOCLE

No, it’s not an actual monocle This running headlamp has a lightweight build for bounce free bounding, while stepless adjustment lets you target the beam to suit your stride It’ll run for up to 10hrs between charges €49 / bookman visibility.com

POLAR PACER

True minimalists would run in the buff, but that tactic also strips you of stats. If you’re willing to wear one thing, this lightweight tracker logs data without distracting. It sticks to the essentials: heart rate, GPS and the metrics you need to hit PB pace. £170 / polar.com

EUFY SMART SCALE P2 PRO

It takes bravery to step on the scales after a month of Christmas munching If you’re ready to face the weigh in, you might as well go the whole hog: this connected balance conducts a complete body composition analysis across 16 metrics, measuring everything from heart rate to body mass. It then maps the results on a 3D model in the phone app Good luck £55 / uk eufy com

FITNESS FREAK

LAZER VENTO KINETICORE

Winter cycling is not for the timid Besides frosty headwinds whipping through your shorts, there’s the risk of icy asphalt at every bend Layer up against frozen falls with Lazer’s lightweight lid, inspired by car crumple zones £250 / lazersport.com

SHOKZ OPENRUN PRO

Traditional buds bring the inspiring tunes, but also block the sound of approaching sleigh bells These open ear alternatives use bone conduction tech to deliver up to 10hrs of tunes, without muting the winter world around you.

£160 / uk shokz com

PELOTON GUIDE

Home workouts can fight festive flab, but wobbling about on Wii Fit alone won’t burn off all that cake Boost your drills with this digital PT: a camera that sits atop your TV and uses AI to track your form, count reps and map muscle use. from £275 / onepeloton co uk

SOUNDCORE SPORT X10

At a brisk 152bpm, Chuck Berry’s Run Rudolph Run is a fine choice to soundtrack winter sprints For festive motivation, add it to your playlist, then add these workout buds to your wishlist They’re sweat proof and tuned for extra bass. £90 / soundcore com

BEELINE VELO 2

When you find yourself far from home and lost in a blizzard, you’ll regret your decision to navigate guided by a star. For wayfinding that won’t leave you looking to the heavens, attach this directional disc to your handlebars Its design puts route info front and centre, with up to 11hrs of turn by turn instructions showing which way to steer. Plan routes via Beeline’s app, or sync with Strava £100 / beeline co

SPECIALIZED X FJALLRAVEN FRAME BAG

Travelling with a lighter load than Santa’s sleigh? This functional frame bag is ideal for stashing cycling essentials. It’s part of a wider collab between Specialized and Fjallraven, and comes in a choice of three sizes. from £70 / specialized com

FITBIT INSPIRE 3

Need some help handling seasonal stress? You could hire a therapy elf, but for soothing assistance that raises fewer ethical questions try this tracking band It can monitor your calmness and guide you through useful breathing exercises. £85 / fitbit com

NANOLEAF SONIC STARTER KIT

Mario might be qualified to fix a leaky downpipe, but if it’s electricity you’re interested in there’s only one hedgehog for the job The 32 panels in this bundle can be used to create a Sonic, Tails or Knuckles pattern on your wall, a bit like a light up jigsaw If you’ve got the eye for it, you could even construct your own Mario layout from the same tiles. £219 / nanoleaf me

LOGITECH CHORUS

Fancy a game of Beat Saber after the big lunch? Attach this to your Meta Quest 2 VR headset and its swivelling speakers will pipe those pumping beats into players’ ears without cutting them off from everyone laughing at them £90 / logitech.com

PS5 MEDIA REMOTE

Sony’s DualSense pad is a marvel, but using it to control Blu rays and on demand apps is a bit like trying to play Call of Duty with a TV remote This PS5 zapper takes its cues from the ones you get with smart tellies and streaming boxes £25 / playstation.com

STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA PRO WIRELESS

Gaming headsets used to be a poor relation to normal over ear headphones, but this one’s packed with the kind of tech you’d expect to find in premium cans You get active noise cancellation, 360° spatial audio compatible with the PS5’s Tempest 3D engine and Microsoft’s Spatial Sound, a 10 band equaliser and support for hi res audio £329 / steelseries com

PICO 4

Need a break from the festiveness?

Pico’s latest VR headset is good for a nice dose of escapism, with a better than 4K display ensuring you won’t be distracted by mince pies. And even if you are, fitness apps such as Les Mills Bodycombat can help with that. £379 / picoxr.com

GAMING GEEK

XBOX ELITE SERIES 2 CORE

This is only slightly less ‘elite’ than the Elite pad: it has the same adjustable thumbsticks, short hair trigger locks and rubberised grip, but doesn’t come with all the extras you get with the pricier one It’ll work with PCs and mobiles as well as Xboxes £115 / xbox com

PHILIPS HUE PLAY GRADIENT LIGHTSTRIP FOR PC

Like Ambilight for your monitor, this strip of LEDs attaches to the back and changes colour in response to what’s going on in the game you’re playing Note that it needs a £50 Hue Bridge to work. from £130 / philips hue com

VIDEOGAME ATLAS

Part guidebook, part monograph, this 288 pager includes over 200 illustrations of worlds from 12 popular games It looks at them through an architectural lens, examining how these digital landscapes work Nerd heaven. £40 / thames andhudson com

JBL QUANTUM STREAM

Got a wannabe Twitch superstar on your buying list? Make sure all four of their subscribers can hear them loud and clear with this dual capsule condenser mic The dial on the front means they can easily adjust the volume, plus there’s a mute button on top that changes the colour of the RGB ring light, so they’ll always know when it’s safe to shout for their mum to bring them a cup of tea £80 / jbl com

HORI SPLIT PAD COMPACT

An upgrade on the Joy Cons that come with the Switch, the Split Pad Compact adds larger controls to either side to make it more comfortable on the go You also get assignable triggers on the back and a Turbo Hold mode for easier mashing £48 / hori co uk

RAZER LEVIATHAN V2

Most soundbars are designed to blend in. That means discreet designs that don’t catch the eye, but in a PC gaming setup you’ve got to fit in with all the customisable RGB lights and that’s what Razer’s Leviathan V2 does. It comes with a subwoofer. £230 / razer com

Know somebody who only puts down their phone to pick up their PS5 controller? Save them a few precious seconds by getting them a Backbone One. It clamps an iPhone between two halves of a legit PlayStation pad, so playing mobile games feels much more familiar, plus it works with the Remote Play app so you can continue the Gran Turismo career you started on your console from anywhere with a decent internet connection. Buying for an Android owner? There’s a more generic-looking standard Backbone One available that’ll let them play all their favourite games, just without the PlayStation style button layout £100 / playbackbone com

can’t constrain

GOPRO HERO11 BLACK MINI

Hitting the slopes this season? GoPro’s pared back action cam will record your runs without distracting from the downhill fun. Tiny but tough, it swaps touchscreens for a simple two button setup Two pairs of fold out fingers make it easy to mount to your lid, where it sits while shooting 5 3K footage at 60fps AutoBoost smarts detect how much stabilisation to apply, with HyperSmooth 5 0 glossing over moguls and Horizon Lock keeping the scenery level through your dizzying slalom turns. Highlights are sent straight to your smartphone, so you can share them on the chairlift then watch the likes roll in at the bar £300 / gopro com

Hard gadget to break

With a rugged outer shell and a dinky readout up top, this is one of GoPro’s toughest action cams to date

LOMOGRAPHY FISHEYE NO 2 ACAPULCO LA QUEBRADA

Considering fish aren’t known for their photography skills, their eyes feature on a lot of camera lenses This analogue snapper comes fronted by a 10mm job that offers an all encompassing 170° field of view £69 / shop. lomography.com

NANLITE PAVOTUBE

T8 7X

A basic selfie is no way to flex your creative muscles, so mix up your mugshots with this 1m long light tube With built in batteries, it can shine in a range of rainbow shades You can use the app to tweak the hues for dynamic long exposures. £95 / nanlite.com

DJI OSMO MOBILE 6

There’s no point shooting a festive film project on your mobile if your shivering mitts create a total shake fest Bung it in this gimbal for footage as smooth as a skating rink Foldable for portability, its three axis stabilisation works with DJI’s Mimo app to track subjects and steady shots And if your fingers aren’t frozen, you can use its scroll wheel to tweak the focus and focal length. £145 / dji com

BENRO TABLEPOD FLEX KIT

Wobbly legs are usually the last thing you want from a tripod, but bendable limbs let this compact stand hook into all sorts of spots Hidden inside its carbon fibre stems, other feet can be switched in for ultra flexibility £140 / benroeu.com

PHOTO FIEND

NIKON Z30

From turkey tutorials to decoration demos, this is a busy time for content creators Need help wrapping your Yule vlogs? Small enough to fit in a stocking, the Z30 captures 4K footage using the full width of its 20 9MP sensor Its vari angle touchscreen is a gift for shooting solo, while stereo mics ensure audio is crisp and even. Plus a red light shines bright like Rudolph’s nose when you’re recording. £649 (body only) / nikon co uk

LOWEPRO TREKKER LITE BP 250 AW

Tempting as it is to cuddle your lovely new kit, juggling lenses won’t end well So stash it in this travel pack for safer hauling. Its padded insert fits a full frame mirrorless plus a pair of barrels, while straps let you add a tripod. £160 / lowepro com

SHIFTCAM SNAPGRIP

With new phones getting bigger and slimmer all the time, one handed shooting can be a right pain in the aperture Get a better grip with this MagSafe tool. As well as a handy grip, it gives your iPhone a shutter button and a backup battery. £70 / shiftcam com

COOPH ROPE HAND STRAP

You could use a bit of tinsel to keep your camera on a leash For sturdier support, try this leather tipped effort Crafted from rugged climbing rope, its adjustable loop wraps securely around one wrist It’s designed to fit all camera types. £49 / store. cooph com

SANDISK PRO READER MULTI CARD

After a day of shooting cool snaps, glacial transfer rates can quickly have you hot and bothered For rapid offloads, stick your cards in this reader It can copy files from CF, SD and microSD cards at up to 5Gbps. £87 / western digital com

TOURBOX ELITE

Editing a sleigh load of Christmas snaps is tough enough without straining your hand to reach keyboard shortcuts Make lighter work of your latest batch with this compact desktop console Palm sized and wireless, it features customisable knobs, controls and scroll wheels within easy reach, for granular adjustment, one touch shortcuts and tool switching It works with a range of creative apps £240 / tourboxtech com

FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI LINK 2

Not content to spit out physical snaps the size of a credit card, this wireless printer works like a magic wand Fire up the AiR mode in the Mini Link app, choose a brush and wave it to make shapes; they’ll be overlaid on the print. £115 / instax co uk

When you’re shopping for the kind of shutterbug who sneers at the ver y idea of smar tphone selfies, you need one of these in the frame

BUILD YOUR OWN PINBALL MACHINE

Ordinarily you’d need way deep pockets if you were thinking about getting a child interested in pinball machines. But this is no six digit ’80s restoration, rather an eco friendly cardboard tabletop machine that they build themselves Everything you need is supplied, including the elastic bands that power the flippers. The best part? No carpet wrecking glue required. £20 / buildyourownkits com

BELKIN SOUNDFORM NANO

If you know all the words to Baby Shark then you probably should have bought them headphones a long time ago and with these Bluetooth buds you can save your own ears while knowing theirs are protected by an 85dB limiter. £30 / belkin.com

JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION: REAL FX BABY BLUE DINOSAUR

Jurassic World Dominion wasn’t a very good film, but at least it inspired a toy that’s sure to terrify grandparents this Christmas This lifesize baby velociraptor is controlled using a pistol grip controller mechanism built into the handling glove It reacts to touch and features 20 sound effects, but almost certainly doesn’t bite. £100 / smythstoys com

VTECH KIDIZOOM DUO 5 0

Today’s kids are probably baffled by a device that exists only to take photos; but if you want to introduce them to actual cameras, this is a fine place to start Aimed at children aged 3 9, it takes 5MP snaps, has a 4x digital zoom and shoots video. £65 / vtech.co.uk

HUCKLEBERRY MAKE YOUR OWN MOTOR BOAT

It’s easy to wow 2022’s kids with gadgets we didn’t even dream of at their age, but sometimes the simple things are still the best. All you get here is a waterproof motor with a two bladed propeller £10 / edenproject.com

TECH T YKE

TAMAGOTCHI PIX PARTY

Tech has come a long way since the early 2000s. They’ll still be nurturing a virtual pet from egg to adulthood, but these days the screen is colour, the buttons are touch sensitive, and they can invite guests around for a party.

£40 / thetoyshop com

NINTENDO SWITCH LITE

This isn’t the newest Switch, nor is it the best version of the console, but its size makes it the best choice for little hands… and as it’s a purely handheld console, they won’t be hogging the TV when you want to watch the fitba.

£199 / currys co uk

LEGO TABLE FOOTBALL

Lego is listing its new Table Football set as 18+, but we reckon that just means you have a good excuse to help the kids build it This 2339 piece creation is both buildable and playable, with each minifig team having a keeper, two defenders and two forwards Another 12 fill the separate grandstand, because what’s the point of scoring a worldie if there are no plastic people there to see it?

£215 / lego com

HOT WHEELS RAINBOW ROAD

Rainbow Road has always separated the good Mario Kart players from the pathetic amateurs, and this playset should do the same thing for Hot Wheels It’s an 8ft long recreation of the maddening track, complete with two karts. £120 / smythstoys com

XPLORA XGO3

Are they envious of your Apple Watch? This kid friendly ticker does a pretty good impression of one, but only gives them features like communication with pre selected phone contacts, safety focused GPS, a camera and a step counter. £140 / xplora co uk

YOTO MINI

This delightfully tactile speaker is the perfect way to keep kids entertained while you’re tackling the turkey Audiobooks come as cards that you slot into the top; they can then be listened to through its diddy driver or via headphones. £60 / yotoplay com

Scroll power

There is a web browser, but it’s designed to filter out inappropriate sites and lets you block whatever you don’t want them finding

Flex machine

You get 32GB of internal storage, which should be plenty for the most content hungr y tyke but it can be expanded up to 1TB

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 KIDS PRO

Handing a youngster a tablet doesn’t have to mean they’ll immediately spend 4hrs watching back to back Minecraft videos on YouTube. Amazon’s trusty Fire HD 8 tablet has been beefed up for 2022, and the education focused Kids Pro variant is as feature packed as ever Intended for children aged 6 12, it comes with the usual sprog proof case (as well as a two year guarantee in case that fails in its duty of protection), and includes a year of Amazon Kids+, which grants access to a mountain of age appropriate apps, games, books, videos and more from the likes of Disney, National Geographic and Lego They might even accidentally learn something £150 / amazon co uk

Papa’s got a brand new lag

The new Fire HD 8 has a 30% faster processor than the previous model and promises 13hrs of batter y life.

Strapped in soul

The P3 weighs a touch under 1.5kg. Getting tired of carr ying it?

You can add a shoulder strap (£12) that’ll make it a bit easier to lug

Tune! Tune! Tune!

The free Polaroid Music app includes five online radio stations that you can switch between using the dial on the top of the speaker

Ballad of easy wider

For stereo sound you can pair up two P3s, or mix and match with the other three speakers in the range

POLAROID P3

Polaroid is up there with Sinclair, DeLorean and, er, Woolworths when it comes to much loved retro brand names but try to take an instant photo with one of its latest products and you’ll be very disappointed The P3 is a 35 watt Bluetooth speaker that comes in five different colours yellow, blue, red, grey or black and lasts up to 15hrs on a single charge But it’s the old skool boombox design that really sets it apart from the sea of other wireless speakers out there, with a chunky analogue dial for adjusting the volume and a polished metal handle for carrying it around the suburban streets on your shoulder £170 / polaroid com

AMAZFIT GTR 4

Prefer a smartwatch that can also pass as an analogue tick tocker? Amazfit’s GTR 4 is packed with modern smarts, such as dual band GPS, a PPG biometric sensor and expansive fitness tracking capabilities, but maintains a vintage feel with its classic chronograph styling That’s only enhanced if you opt for the leather strap (for extra purchase) rather than a silicone or fabric band. £199 / amazfit com

SCALEXTRIC BACK TO THE FUTURE VS KNIGHT RIDER

As 1980s icons go, you don’t get much bigger than Marty McFly and Michael Knight, so who better to combine with the era’s greatest toy? This 5 3m track comes with both KITT and the Doc’s DeLorean £160 / scalextric.com

KLIPSCH PROMEDIA HERITAGE 2 1

This 220W audio system will add a retro twist to any desktop. The 8in sub looks after the low end, while the two main speakers have 3in woofers and 1in tweeters It’s wireless, but there are RCA inputs for retro connectivity £359 / klipsch.com

FUJIFILM INSTAX MINI EVO

Now that we’ve all got hugely capable snappers on our phones, any actual camera feels vaguely retro these days, but the Instax Mini Evo goes all out on the throwback thing It has a built in printer for spitting out the 4 9MP pictures it takes (or others from your phone), with a load of lens and film filters for giving them a suitably old skool look. Just don’t forget to buy extra film for it £175 / instax co uk

RETRO HE AD

LOGITECH MX MECHANICAL MINI

Nothing takes you back to the old days of computing like a mechanical keyboard, but this compact Bluetooth version has some modern tricks like a smart backlight and one button flipping between paired devices. £150 / logitech com

EVERCADE EXP

Evercade’s EXP makes retro gaming easier than beating a blindfolded toddler at Street Fighter II This handheld has a 4.3in IPS screen and 18 Capcom classics built in, including the aforementioned 2D beat ’em up. £130 / evercade co uk

ELAGO W8 STAND FOR APPLE WATCH

You’ve just got to love this silicone stand Slot your charger through the back, pop your Apple Watch in the top, and its screen will peep through the hole at the top, making it look like you’ve got a chunky old calculator on your bedside table £16 / elago com

NOKIA 8210 4G

If you know somebody who says they just don’t make phones like they used to, buy them a Nokia 8210 4G. OK, it’s not exactly the same as the late ’90s original, but the resemblance is obvious, plus you get a suitably simple 2 8in QVGA screen, 0 3MP camera, 128MB of storage and a removable battery that’ll last nearly a month on standby. Oh, and yes, it does come with Snake £65 / nokia com

RUARK R2

The R2 might look like an old radio, but behind its wooden grille you’ll find a very capable music system As well as DAB, FM and internet radio it’ll also let you listen over Bluetooth or stream directly from Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer. £479 / ruarkaudio com

MARSHALL MOTIF ANC

True wireless buds are a thoroughly modern invention, but Marshall’s IPX5 rated Motif ANC in ears look like they could have come from rock’s heyday They have customisable touch controls and a matching charging case £180 / marshall headphones.com

LEGO ATARI 2600

It’s hard to imagine Lego making an Xbox Series X in 40 years’ time (well, a plain black cuboid would be pretty boring to build) but the Atari 2600 comes from a time when consoles looked interesting It’s made up of 2532 pieces, including three cartridges. £210 / lego com

For the gadget nostalgia fan who seems to have forgotten how rubbish old tech really was, the solution is modern gear with vintage vibes

NOTHING EAR STICK

You could decorate a whole Christmas tree with all the different affordable in ears out there, but there’s only one pair we’d put at the top: the Ear Stick. These ’phones are comfortable in the ear and offer ANC for under £100, which Apple certainly doesn’t do with its AirPods Oh, and the transparent chassis means you can shine a light through them and they’ll look a bit like a star. £99 / nothing tech

1MORE SONOFLOW

These wireless over ears look not unlike Sony’s all conquering WH 1000XM5s They’re not that good, but they do offer surprisingly good ANC and punchy sound for a wallet friendly pair of cans, and 50hr battery life is the icing on the Christmas cake. £90 / 1more.com

GOOGLE PIXEL STAND (2ND GEN)

If you know someone who’s picked up one of the new Pixel 7 phones, they’ll want to pair it with a good wireless charger There are billions of options, but the USP of Google’s upright stand is that it can deliver up to 23W £69 / store. google.com

XIAOMI SMART BAND 7 PRO

Slapping a fitness wearable on their wrist is a good way to remind somebody to get started with their new year running plan and the new Smart Band 7 Pro gives you a lot for relatively little Built in GNSS promises better tracking and faster position locking than the old Smart Band 6, while a much larger AMOLED display shows a lot more information without having to swipe £85 / mi com

LYT 740ML BOTTLE

Water might be last on your drinking list after mulled wine, sloe gin, eggnog, sherry, port and Baileys, but it’s important to stay hydrated This stainless steel bottle has a UV C light built into the cap, which zaps germs every hour £60 / zerowater.co.uk

SURI SUSTAINABLE SONIC TOOTHBRUSH

A newcomer on the electric toothbrush scene, Suri reckons the magnetic motor in its first product delivers 33,000 plaque lifting vibrations a minute and it’ll even recycle the plant based heads for you £90 / trysuri com

LOGITECH LITRA GLOW

Buying for a keen streamer, or just someone who’s always on a video call? This glowing light will ensure they always look their best. It gives full spectrum LED light for a balanced, natural look, and sits on a three way monitor mount. £59 / logitech com

GOVEE SMART OUTDOOR STRING LIGHTS

You might have to wait a few months to start showing them off, but Govee’s RGB LED garden lightbulbs will add colour to any summer soiree They get on well with both Alexa and Google Assistant, and don’t need a hub £70 / govee com

MARSHALL WILLEN

Marshall’s most backpack friendly Bluetooth speaker to date is also perfect stocking fodder. As you’d expect, it looks not unlike a very teeny version of one of the legendary brand’s amps, but here you’re pairing a smartphone rather than plugging in a guitar The diddy speaker might weigh just 310g, but Marshall has crammed in two passive radiators paired with a 2in full range driver £90 / marshallheadphones com

GAMESIR X2 PRO

Microsoft is yet to launch a handheld Xbox, but you can at least make your Android phone look like one with this controller The X2 Pro has the usual Xbox button layout, and new members even get a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate included. £80 / amazon co uk

NOKIA C21 PLUS

Nokia’s budget blowers have long been some of the best, and the C21 Plus doesn’t damage that reputation Built with durability in mind, it has a 6 5in toughened glass HD+ display and a 4000mAh battery that promises up to two days of use. £99 / nokia com

I am a clock

On the pricier Echo Dot with Clock (£65), Amazon has swapped the old LED display for a dot matrix that can show more info

Scarborough pair

As always, the Dot can be paired with other Echo devices, allowing you to create multiroom audio setups or control the telly with Fire TV

The round of silence

Barking at Alexa will always do the trick, but if you’re next to the Echo Dot you can tap it to pause the music

AMAZON ECHO DOT (5TH GEN)

Of all Amazon’s Alexa toting smart devices, the Echo Dot probably still gives you the most bang for your buck. The fifth generation Dot sticks with the previous speaker’s design, but features a pretty much totally redesigned audio architecture, which results in beefier bass and clearer vocals than before So if Alexa’s being asked to play DJ, you can expect an all round improvement New motion and temperature sensors expand the Dot’s already extensive capabilities, while Eero mesh Wi-Fi router owners can have it double as a handy range extender in their home. This was already one of tech’s all time bargains and it’s now even more bargainy from £55 / amazon co uk

Rolled on years

The Ektar H35 takes standard 35mm film. A door on the rear opens for loading, while a thumb wheel lets you wind it on

Flashes to flashes

A built in flash throws light on dimly lit scenes. Twist the ring around the lens to enable it, then wait for the indicator to glow

Face oddity Keen to coordinate your kit? Clad in a leather effect faceplate, the H35 ships in black, brown, sage or sand.

KODAK EKTAR H35

Christmas memories might be priceless, but shoot the festivities on 35mm film and you’ll be forking out a fortune at the print shop come 12th night. Want analogue nostalgia with less of a hipster price tag? Lightweight and styled to match its vintage medium, Kodak’s compact H35 shoots half frames to maximise your roll allowance

Consecutive photos appear side by side in a single snap, giving you twice as many exposures from a single reel. That means you can experiment with contrasting or complementary compositions, like a portrait of Auntie Susan followed by an expressionistic study of her empty gin bottle

£50 / kodak com

HUMAX WI FI SMART PLUG

A display of a thousand lights begins with a single plug. Insert this one into a standard socket and it connects to your Wi Fi, with an app allowing you to switch your illuminations on and off at will, or schedule the big turn on for later £15 / humax direct.co.uk

LEGO 007 ASTON MARTIN DB5

Christmas mornings are hectic enough without 007 power sliding a DB5 across your lawn and demanding a pumpkin spice martini So try this little brick built kit: a 298 piece Aston complete with Bond in tux. £20 / lego.com

KEEPCUP HELIX KIT

Refilling bottles and cups saves pennies as well as the world and this hybrid is both a bottle and a cup A stainless base with swappable tops, it does double duty as a coffee mug and water slurper Use the pop shut lid to sip your morning brew, before swapping it for the flask attachment All elements are insulated, while a catalogue of colours means you can mix up your visual recipes. from £42 / keepcup com

IKEA NORDMARKE (2022)

You can’t top up your phone using Christmas spirit, but how about this Qi compatible disc? While 5W charging isn’t the speediest, it’s not bad for a tenner Just remember you’ll need your own USB C cable to hook it up to the mains. £10 / ikea.com

LOGITECH POP WIRELESS MOUSE

Gratitude at yet another knitted present isn’t easy to fake if only your face had a customisable emoji button like this compact wireless mouse Programmed through the Logi Options+ software, the dinky clicker can fling out your favourite face, allowing you to distribute joy to the world with just a tap of the top. Handy if you’re thanking your gran by email. £35 / logitech com

ALEXA VOICE

REMOTE PRO

Movie selection causes enough festive friction without arguing over who lost the remote Helpfully, this Amazon zapper can ring on request just ask Alexa Then you can use its mic to call up films on your Fire TV stick or screen.

£35 / amazon co uk

HUAWEI BAND 7

You don’t need a gym membership to get the jump on your new fitness commitment: this ticker will give you a full fat health assessment. Slim at 10mm and good for two weeks at a time, it features 96 activity modes and will monitor stress levels. £50 / consumer. huawei com

TRIBIT STORMBOX MICRO 2

For a stashable impulse buy that can soundtrack your seasonal shindig, try this miniature speaker The Micro 2 is the audio equivalent of pigs in blankets: pleasingly meaty Its 12hr battery can also be used to boost your smartphone £50 / tribit com

BELLROY LITE LAPTOP SLEEVE

Top Santa’s nice list and you might unwrap a laptop, but scratch it on day one and you’ll be plummeting down the naughty rankings. Best get some bulk free protection with this slim sleeve, with a recycled ripstop fabric skin. from £35 / bellroy com

ELAGO FLOPPY DISK CASE FOR AIRTAG

Gift someone a floppy disk today and it’s only useful as a retro coaster; but gift an AirTag owner this silicone equivalent and they’ll be able to track their stuff like it’s stowed safely in a 1990s filing cabinet Smaller and softer than the 3 5in original, Apple’s own disc sits neatly inside the case, with an integrated ring for easy keychain attachment £15 / elago com

JBL WAVE BUDS

These budget buds are shaped for comfort and tuned for a bassy listen, and they’re good for 8hrs of solid Cliff You’ll get 24 more from the case, while speed charging gives 2hrs in 10mins and TalkThru mode helps you yodel along in tune. £47 / jbl com

APPLE WATCH ULTRA

Most rugged watches are more than happy up a mountain but don’t fit in quite so well down at your exclusive members’ club. With its classy titanium case and military grade toughness, plus all the usual health and smartwatch features, the Apple Watch Ultra is at home in both environments though we wouldn’t advise the bright orange strap for dinner with the ambassador.

£849 / apple com

VANMOOF S5

Most electric bikes are more functional than fancy, but the VanMoof S5 is guaranteed to draw admiring glances when you lock it up outside your favourite takeaway granola station It has built in lights and is packed with anti theft tech £2998 / vanmoof.com

SMEG FAB10RDYVC5

Nothing says luxury like having a fridge just for champagne and with Veuve Clicquot’s name emblazoned across the front, there’s not much danger of filling this one with Scotch eggs and bottles of salad cream by accident Measuring about a metre tall and just over 50cm wide, it’ll fit in nicely at the end of the chaise longue, so you don’t even need to go to the kitchen for a top up. £2500 / smeguk com

DEVIALET DIONE

With its matt black finish and orb like centre channel, Devialet’s 950W Dione soundbar gives off real space age relic vibes but with 17 high end drivers in a 5 1 2 configuration and Dolby Atmos, it’ll make your telly sound cosmic £2000 / devialet.com

FOCAL UTOPIA (2022)

Luxury isn’t just about price it’s a feeling And with their lambskin memory foam earpads and leather headband, you can’t beat the feeling of slipping on a pair of these over ears and losing yourself in The Very Worst of Phil Collins £3699 / focal.com

BREAK THE BANK

PHILIPS

65OLED+937

It’s hard to fit a massive telly under the tree, but with its four sided Ambilight and Hue compatibility you could always try to integrate the 65in OLED+937 with the decorations Its integrated B&W soundbar would make it hard to wrap anyway.

£2899 / philips co uk

ASTELL & KERN A&ULTIMA SP3000

With a 5.46in Full HD display and a stainless steel chassis, this digital music player is for the audiophile in your life. Y’know, the kind who won’t settle for less than an Asahi Kasei AK4499EX DAC chip. £3799 / astellnkern co uk

GAGGIA CLASSIC

True extravagance is having your own live in barista but if you can’t quite stretch to staff, Gaggia’s Classic comes with a milk steaming wand and is capable of producing up to 15 bars of pressure, so it should turn out coffee fit for the fussiest bean snob Here it is in ‘lobster red’, a nod to the original Baby Gaggia machine that was launched 45 years ago £429 / gaggia com

HYDROW WAVE

If you’re not posh enough to go actual rowing, a machine that lets you do it in the comfort of your own home is a better (and drier) option. This is like Peloton for rowers, providing guided workouts via the 16in touchscreen. £1395 / hydrow co uk

KEF LSX II

Everything you need for a proper hi fi experience is packed into these colourful cabinets (they’re available in five finishes, including lava red and cobalt blue). They support Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth, with 100W of power driving each one. £1199 (pair) / kef com

MAEVING RM1

The grown up version of coming downstairs to find a BMX under the tree, unwrapping a Maeving RM1 will soon have the CBT holding recipient popping giant wheelies in excitement But the near silent electric motor means it won’t scare Grandma. from £5995 / maeving com

Up from the size This is the Calibre E4 in 45mm form, with a 1 39in 454x454 AMOLED display The smaller variant has a 1 28in screen One

Little wring

High end watches that cost the same as a new car might be full of technical intricacies and microscopic works of mechanical art, but they don’t scratch the ‘smart’ itch that Stuff readers demand of a timepiece Tag Heuer’s Calibre E4, however, sits nicely in the middle zone of the watch nerd/gadget fan Venn diagram There’s a 42mm or 45mm steel case with ceramic bezel to please the former, while the Snapdragon 4100+ processor that powers Wear OS caters for the latter, offering all the usual phone notifications and fitness features you’d expect from a Google powered wearable. That price tag is just the right side of unreasonable too from £1550 / tagheuer com

WGT Golf

This mobile ball thwacker is for proper golf geeks It has photorealistic takes on famous courses like Pebble Beach and St Andrews, and loads of kit to mess around with It’s also packed full of in app purchases But ignore all that and there’s plenty of contemplative fun to be had for the solo golfer or competitive fare for folks who fancy their chances in live matches against online players £free (IAP) / Android, iOS

Mini meme GOOD SWI NG , WENCESLAS

Even if you’re holed up in your bunker this Christmas, you can stay out of the rough with six great golf games that’ll keep you going until tee time

Golf Strike

If you like multiplayer golfing but aren’t keen on minor details like realism (and selecting clubs), try Golf Strike It dumps you in online matches that are a breakneck race to the hole This is every inch the casual golfing game and yes, that means a bunker full of IAP But even the free version is breezy fun that lefts you scratch your golfing itch while leaving your brain at the 19th hole £free (IAP) / Android, iOS

Golf on Mars

Some folks play golf to get away from it all Golf on Mars takes that idea a bit too far, pitting you against over 25 billion holes some nutcase has built on a future terraformed Mars With its minimalist vibes, simple gameplay and intuitive controls, this is properly hypnotic stuff as you take on the (almost) never ending course. Golf has never seemed quite so zen Nor looked so red £2 89 / Android £2 49 / iOS

Super Stickman Golf 3

This side on golf series has long infused the game with silliness Instead of boring fairways, you smack balls around floating islands of goo, space stations and castles Water hazards are joined by spinning buzzsaws, portals and lasers Along with taking on these challenges alone, you can try your luck against friends in multiplayer or frenetic race mode £free (IAP) / Android, iOS

Easy Come Easy Golf

Formerly Clap Hanz Golf , this Apple Arcade effort looks as good as any other golfing game on mobile, but its cartoonish style gives it a unique feel It’s not as out there as Super Stickman , but the arcade pace and short matches will appeal to casual players Being able to improve by mastering the superb controls should ensure golfing nuts aren’t left wanting either £4 99/m (Apple Arcade) / iOS

Pixel Pro Golf

While Easy Come Easy Golf feels like it’s been beamed in from modern consoles, Pixel Pro Golf dials things back to the days of 16 bit systems its blocky graphics and overhead view are a love letter to sporty games of the past But this is no exercise in nostalgia: great course design and tight gameplay make for something that’s ideal for mobile, rather than a relic walloped into the modern age with a five iron £free (IAP) / iOS

o r

The jolly and the fivey

from £999 / go stuff tv/Surf5

Microsoft isn’t known for making spectacular design changes to its Surface range, and the Laptop 5 is no different. Inside, though, it’s a different story.

Last year the Surface Book was replaced by the Surface Laptop Studio, an innovative new flagship But further down the tree, things are a bit more predictable The Surface Laptop took ages to even get a USB C port and it’s still only got one, now enhanced with the speedy Thunderbolt 4 tech. This is an ageing design, and though the aluminium shell does look very sleek it’s time for a new look next time around

Our 13 5in machine (there’s also a 15in version, starting at £1299) has a sage finish; it’s joined by grey, black and gold options Specced up to £1700 it’s a chunk more than the standard £999 model, with 16GB of memory and 512GB joined by a range topping 12th gen Intel Core i7 Let’s see how it performs

Love minus Evo

The Laptop 5 meets Intel’s Evo standard, a benchmark for laptops that basically means it’s good for all day battery life

Sense is working overtime

The PixelSense displays have long been one of the best bits of the Surface range, and again the 2256x1504 screen is top notch here (1) There’s no HDR support, but it does have Dolby Vision IQ ambient light adjustment The 400 nit brightness is lacking a little compared to some rivals.

Life during Core time

Performance does get a big improvement with the leap to 12th generation Intel Core processors (2). And the Core i7 1255U powering our review model is certainly punchy, with 10 cores at work it certainly copes with everything we throw at it pretty easily.

Day seeper Battery life is cited at 18hrs, but you won’t get that unless you don’t actually do anything… and even then you might not get it. But this laptop will certainly last you through the working day, and if you really eke it out you’re looking at somewhere in the region of 12hrs (3).

Thunderbolt 4 is most welcome

The touchscreen is pin sharp

Windows Hello works brilliantly

GOOD MEH EVIL

There are no AMD versions

A solitar y USB C port is sad

Look through many Windows Setup can be a little frustrating: once you get past all the basic stuff like connecting to Wi Fi, there are stacks of screens offering everything from an Office 365 trial (for which you need to enter your card details during setup!) to the choice of whether to store your stuff in OneDrive (4).

Thorn in my sidebar Windows 11 is pleasant enough (5) now that the creases have been ironed out it’s reliable and easy to use. There is a bit of Microsoft bloat in terms of the widget sidebar, which seems designed just to push you towards Microsoft content But that’s a small gripe.

Knockout

The keys and touchpad work extremely well, as usual the keyboards on Surface devices had Apple playing catchup for some time And although others have now improved, these are still the best laptop keyboards around

Spread out

Work out?

The wedge shaped design still looks pretty swanky, but we wonder if Microsoft could knock a bit more weight off to align it with the Apple

In some ways the Laptop 5 is very much of the moment, with latest gen Intel hardware and one of the best displays around. But yet again it feels like it has a foot stuck in the past with some ancient ports, a 720p webcam and large bezels

And that means you can do better with similar priced options like Dell’s XPS 13 @dangrabham

STUFF SAYS

the

Flank space

We’ve come a long way from the neck straining headsets of early VR The Pico 4’s battery is placed at the rear for better weight distribution, plus you get ample padding with excellent wicking to stop you turning into a sweaty mess during long sessions of Creed: Rise to Glory

The pancake optics deliver an impressively wide 105° view, with minimal flaring from any light that manages to sneak past the face mask The 4K+ resolution and 1200ppi pixel density minimise any screen door effect, and the 90Hz refresh rate should be high enough to avoid motion sickness

Pico’s game catalogue has over 150 titles available to buy, but it pales in comparison to Meta’s The headset’s built in fitness tracking seems a little generous, with our smartwatch suggesting fewer calories had been burned

The 16MP pass through camera lets you see your real surroundings in colour It’s not quite AR quality, but clear enough to read a text on your phone without having to take off the headset But it’s just a 2D image so it can’t show depth be careful when reaching for drinks

From a full charge, you can expect 2 3hrs of playtime from the Pico 4. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but you’ll definitely want to give your eyes a rest before then Refuelling takes almost 2hrs

my arms again

iPadOS & macOS

THE BASICS

Manage multitasking Strap in! Apple’s added a new windowing system to the Mac and iPad: Stage Manager This is like a simplified take on Mac windows You’ll need a 2018 or newer iPad Pro, or an M1 iPad Air and only M1/M2 iPads get upcoming external display support (Note: you can still use Split View on iPad and normal windows on Mac )

Boost browsing Safari now supports Passkeys, which will eventually consign passwords to oblivion Until then, you can edit suggested strong passwords to deal with site specific demands Website settings and extensions sync between devices, and you can share tab groups, to organise events or inflict your terrible taste in websites on others

Tweak toolbars

Apple talks about the iPad now having ‘desktop class apps’ No, that doesn’t (yet) mean Final Cut for iPad it’s mostly about the company laying the groundwork for consistent desktoppy features in iPadOS The most notable is custom toolbars in apps such as Mail Tap ‘ ’ and Customise Toolbar, then drag and drop items to suit your needs

Change chats

A FaceTime call comes in, but you answer it on the wrong device You hapless buffoon! But if your devices use the same Apple ID and are close, you can simply tap or click the FaceTime banner that appears The call (and wireless headphones) will switch over. You can also kick off FaceTime calls from shared docs tap the Collaborate button and select audio or video

Tidy tasks

In Reminders, tap the new Completed list to bask in the glory of cleared tasks, ordered by date Tap hold/control click lists in the sidebar to pin your favourites In the Today list, use ‘ ’ (iPad) or control click (Mac) and choose ‘Group by Time’ to arrange items into morning, afternoon and tonight, to see when they’re meant to be done

SET THE STAGE

Mappy Xmas (chore is over)

You can now add and rearrange multiple stops in Maps To use Handoff to get a route to your iPhone, tap the banner in the app switcher

Turn it on Stage Manager is activated in Control Centre, which on iPad also allows you to save space by auto hiding the dock and list of recent apps Newly launched apps will open in this view, which brings overlapping app windows to iPadOS

Mix and match

The ‘recent apps’ area will display four apps and let you switch between them You can also pair apps for these slots via drag and drop On iPad, this is where Stage Manager’s power lies, vastly speeding up working with multiple apps

As Apple’s tablet and desktop systems continue to nick each other’s ideas, Craig Grannell finds the best bits of iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura to maximise your harmonised Apple kit

CONNECT A CAM

Use effects

During a video call, move your iPhone close to your Mac and it should offer to replace your webcam If not, select it in the app’s input sources In Control Centre > Video Effects, explore Centre Stage, Portrait and Studio Light effects

Share your desk

Clip your iPhone to your Mac and turn on Desk View This uses the ultrawide camera to show a straight down view Share it during FaceTime calls (by pressing the Desk View button, then Share Desk View) This setup works best with flat objects

NEW APPS FOR MACS

SHARPEN SEARCHES

Use Quick Look

The tiny Spotlight preview pane has gone from macOS Instead, select a search result and press the space bar for a full Quick Look preview Within, you can listen to audio or browse PDFs

Find more facts

Search for a film or song on iPad or Mac and you’ll now get richer results Look for a subject and Spotlight will start rifling through your photos and web images too On Mac, location based searches are also shown

Start actions

There are third party Mac launchers that bake in actions, and now Spotlight takes a step in that direction On Mac, type Shazam and Spotlight will tell you what’s playing. Type Timer or Alarm and you can define details to send to the Clock app

POWER UP PICS

Edit in batches

In Photos on iPad, you can copy and batch paste edits Tap hold an edited image and choose Copy Edits Use the Select button to pick several photos and then Paste Edits to apply your improvements to them all You can easily revert to the originals later

Isolate a subject

Tap hold a subject in a photo or illustration to ‘lift’ it from the background Copy or share it via the menu, or drag it to Files or another app The cutouts aren’t perfect, but they’re OK for social media or as a starting point in an art app

WEATHER

Astonishingly, neither iPadOS nor macOS had the Weather app until now It makes good use of screen space by letting you see a lot of information at once; also, tap a pane and it reveals more most notably an animated precipitation map ripped right from Dark Sky.

CLOCK

Apple shoved a clock in the Mac menu bar back in 1994 Now there’s a full Clock app which, oddly, isn’t accessed from the one in the menu bar Ho hum Instead, it’s launched from the Applications folder and looks identical to the iPad’s Clock app. It’s solid, and very handy.

SYSTEM SETTINGS

System Preferences on macOS is gone, hurrah only System Settings isn’t much better. Again the design seems to have been lobbed over from iPadville Get used to using the search field and wondering who set fire to macOS interface conventions.

O holy fr ight

With leather everywhere, cast aluminium arms holding the cups in place and a headband that’s stuffed with memory foam, these headphones ooze luxury They also apply quite a bit of pressure on your head, which creates a good seal for noise isolation but can cause fatigue after a while

The PX8s are a delight to listen to All parts of the frequency range flow neatly together, with none of the dips, peaks or gaps in the upper mids found in lesser cans Complicated arrangements are given room to breathe, with an expansive soundstage and impeccable detail

Three mics in each earcup deliver subtle noise cancellation, designed to reduce background distractions rather than muting the entire outside world The focus is on the music, with ANC letting you concentrate on the details without needing to crank it up

We had no stutters or dropouts during a week of listening, even walking through places with heavy foot traffic But glasses wearers might want to turn off the wear sensor in the B&W Music app, because even the low setting can result in accidental pauses

At up to 30hrs with the ANC enabled, battery life is on a par with Sony’s best and ahead of the Apple AirPods Max, but behind the Sennheiser Momentum 4s Charging is satisfyingly speedy, with a 15min top up enough for around 7hrs of listening time Was there ever any doubt

Tapper’s delight

The metal buttons feel crisp every time you press one, and the textured finish on the play/pause control makes it easy to find

Double in paradise

Nearly all the physical controls are on the right earcup There are individual volume keys, and the play/pause button’s double tap functions can be customised in B&W’s app. The only button on the left cup

Play that chunky music

The headphones don’t fold to fit inside the hard shell case only the earcups twist flat, so it’ll still take up a fair bit of space in your bag. There’s a USB to 3.5mm cable, but wired listening won’t work if they run out of battery

B&W’s most opulent headphones yet promise positively godlike sound… but don’t look at the scary price

All

Waiting on Goo

Some Google apps will be added in the future, with Google Maps and Google Wallet tagged as ‘coming soon’ to the Sense 2

Fitbit has gone properly radical with the Sense 2: it’s got a button! The haptic controls have been dumped for something more traditional, familiar and all round useful But it does stick with the same rectangular 1.58in 336x336 AMOLED display, which is bright and delivers really rich colours

The button is baked onto a 40 5mm sized aluminium case with soft curves to give this square smartwatch an elegant feel You’ve got your pick of three colours and a wide range of straps If you want to take the Sense 2 for a dip, it’ll take water up to 50m deep.

Unlike the cheaper Versa 4, you’re getting the full package as far as health and stress are concerned: it will still count steps, monitor sleep and track heart rate with a pleasing level of accuracy, but it also has an ECG sensor And there’s an optical and IR sensor array for tracking SpO2 levels and skin temperature during sleep, plus a stress management app

It offers pretty much the same fitness skills as the first Sense but Fitbit’s sports tracking prowess doesn’t rival what a similarly priced Garmin, Polar or Coros watch can deliver in accuracy and level of analysis

Like the first Sense, it promises to last a week between charges as long as you don’t keep that display on 24/7 If you stick the screen into always on mode, you’ll be looking at more like 2 3 days.

OS I’m changing

Fitbit OS takes care of all things software related It has a similar feel to the version used on the first Sense, with some tinkering in terms of where finger swipes lead you. But getting from one screen to the next feels sluggish

The Sense 2 offers little that the Versa 4 can’t do for less Michael Sawh

Blank you for the music

Fitbit seems to have streamlined the smartwatch experience: there’s no Wi Fi, music player or Google Assistant option, and there doesn’t seem to be any third party app support any more either

As a smartwatch that puts health, stress and sleep monitoring at the forefront, the Sense 2 offers plenty to satisfy most but it is an inferior smartwatch to its predecessor and also to the new Google Pixel Watch, which packs a lot of Fitbit’s smarts. Still, it remains a strong health and wellness monitoring watch that offers reliable sleep and heart rate stats

Fitbit’s second-gen Sense has new tricks to keep those moments of stress in check. So is this a healthy smartwatch buy?

Keep on gunning

Nintendo launched a bazooka style light gun for the SNES called the Super Scope It’s now seen in the Super Smash Bros games

T E C H T I TA N S NINTENDO

Toys to the world: our favourite Ninty consoles

Zero of the day

It launched first in Japan as the Super Famicom, with just two games to choose from: F Zero and Super Mario World

01 SNES

There are consoles on this spread that are more innovative and important to gaming But if forced to pick just one machine (with its entire library of games) to take with us to a desert island, we’d be hard pressed to turn down the SNES

Bumping the NES up to 16 bits unleashed the creativity of developers, taking decent and so so

8 bit genres and elevating them to true greatness and there’s no denying the Super Nintendo Entertainment System has an all time amazing lineup of games

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past , Super Mario World, Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI are really just the tip of the pixelly iceberg This was Nintendo and, some

traditionalists would argue, gaming on the whole at its peak

The 2017 Classic Edition was an instant hit, and the 21 games it was packed with are still chuffing brilliant From a reborn Super Mario World to Secret of Mana and everything in between, these titles rank among the best ever to feature on a Nintendo made

machine all living inside an adorable HDMI capable box with two controllers for 70 quid

That added up to a total bargain in our books a modern reminder of how, in both gameplay and visuals, Nintendo’s future console successes owe it all to the groundwork laid by the SNES.

RELEASED 1990 (1992 in Europe)

Any gleam will do

The Game Boy’s screen wasn’t backlit, but there were lots of third party accessories, including attachments to illuminate it

02 GAME BOY

The Game Boy took fully fledged cartridge gaming portable. Even though its green and grey display meant it was technically inferior to Sega’s Game Gear and the Atari Lynx, this little handheld outlived its colour screened rivals by years Why? Simplicity, long battery life, solid construction, affordability and Tetris The pack in puzzler was the ultimate time killer one that paired perfectly with the machine and made up for a fairly paltry launch lineup.

The Game Boy also demonstrated Nintendo’s willingness to explore the possibilities of its hardware beyond gaming, with quirky add ons including a camera, a printer and the Pocket Sonar a fishing gadget that never made it out of Japan

It was followed by the Game Boy Color, which helped to bridge the gap until the Game Boy Advance, but the original model forever changed how and where we play games

RELEASED 1989

ALMOST GREAT…

Wii 2006

The Wii was the hype train that lost steam But it was as delightful as it was weird and its motion controls helped expand the definition of gaming

Game Boy Advance 2001

A pocket device of SNES quality, the GBA’s ports of Ninty’s hits meant it had perhaps the best lineup of any handheld ever

GameCube 2001 (2002 in Europe)

An awkward console, but it’s roster of games included Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros Melee and The Wind Waker

03 NES 04 N64

The NES established Nintendo as a gaming juggernaut, just about single handedly saved the industry, and spawned some of the greatest franchises of all time: Super Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Castlevania and it remains legendary today The NES Classic proved that when it became the must have Christmas present of 2016; but older gamers really didn’t need reminding.

RELEASED 1983 (1986 in Europe)

Coming after the 16 bit era, the N64’s stunning 3D games looked like magic It might seem awfully rudimentary now and sure, the PlayStation ultimately won out in that generation thanks in no small part to its use of discs over cartridges but any console that gave us local multiplayer essentials GoldenEye 007 and Mario Kart 64, plus the influential Super Mario 64, deserves its place here.

RELEASED 1996 (1997 in Europe)

05 SWITCH

Some might call it a bold move placing a current console in our top five, but that’s down to the Switch’s colossal impact While it still has a long way to go to rival the best, it has outsold every one of its forebears thanks largely to the incredible Breath of the Wild and extensive third party support Its novel hybrid design and versatile control scheme are equally worthy of singling out.

RELEASED 2017

DS 2004 (2005 in Europe)

With its dual display approach, including a touchscreen at the bottom, the DS enabled new gaming experiences in a pre iPhone world

INSIDE TECH APPLE WATCH ULTRA

ST R I V I N G LO N E

F O R Q U I C K N E S S

The Ultra model is the first major ground up redesign of the Apple Watch as we know it. So when Apple suggested that Stuff sit down (well, virtually) with three of the company’s vice presidents to ask them about the key sensors on the device, we didn’t have to think about it very long.

We spoke to Stan Ng, VP for Apple Watch marketing; Ron Huang, VP for sensing and connectivity; and Jay Blahnik, VP of fitness technologies So, first things first: Why is now the right time for the Ultra?

“Over the years we’ve heard from customers who shared with us how they wanted to use Apple Watch for their extreme adventures,” explains Stan Ng. “We wanted to create a watch that would be a meaningful tool, and it was driven by three use cases: endurance athletics, outdoor adventure and exploring the ocean ”

PUSH HOUR

The action button is one of the key new features of the Watch Ultra but why have a dedicated button? “When we thought about the ultra endurance athlete, it made a lot of sense to have a button that you can dedicate to do things during a workout without touching the screen,” explains fitness guru Jay Blahnik

“If you put together a custom workout let’s say you you’re doing 30 second intervals followed by one minute recoveries and you want to move past a recovery or an interval You can do that manually by pushing the action button. When you’re doing custom workouts, you don’t want to have to look at the screen ”

A multi sport feature helps athletes doing any configuration of swimming, biking and running, and automatically detects when you’re doing those activities “But we know there are endurance athletes who are very,

very picky about the exact time they consider their swim stopping and their transition time starting, and then their bike ride starting. So you can even flip into manual mode and use the action button for that ”

You’re also able to use the button to get a precise start time, while the Watch Ultra’s screen can display six metrics at any one time

“So perhaps you want time, pace, distance and heart rate, but you also at certain times of the run want to focus on our new running metrics like vertical oscillation, ground contact time or stride length You can have a secondary screen and, with one scroll of the digital crown, it flips to that ”

FOLLOW TWO FOLLOW ME

One of the major upgrades on the Watch Ultra is its dual GPS Of course, everyone’s been relying on GPS for a long time, but most of that has been on the L1 frequency, which is now almost 50 years old. L5 is the upgrade tech to GPS; the two frequencies are designed to complement each other, but L5 has been limited to a selection

of smartphones as well as devices like Garmin’s dedicated GPSMAP adventure trackers.

“If you think about how GPS works, it’s computing the distance between you and satellites that are 20,000km above you,” explains Huang “It does that by very precise timing between the satellites and your watch, with signals travelling at the speed of light So it’s easy to incur some error from passing through the atmosphere The ionosphere has a lot of plasma that disrupts the radio waves, for example. Because L1 and L5 are 400MHz apart, you can correct for that ” Blahnik cites the Boston Marathon as an example of where the watch can come into its own: “A good proportion of the marathon is run in the middle of the city’s skyscrapers, where L1 can be compromised ”

HOMEWARD FOUND

Backtrack is a new feature of the Compass app that enables you to retrace your steps if you get lost As Huang points out, often you don’t know you’re lost until it’s too late So Backtrack has an automatic mode that he calls a ‘safety net’.

“We built a wilderness detector, if you will We look at Wi Fi signals, because when there’s no Wi Fi today it’s likely to be wilderness We also look at your past usage to see if it’s a place you’ve been before. We even remember when you went from driving to walking, as that’s probably where you want to get back to So the watch automatically starts recording the trace for you. We can do that with very minimal battery impact ”

DON’T LET THE CELLS END

Another key area of focus during the Watch Ultra’s development

was battery life It tracks 12hrs of workouts in the standard mode, “which of course is way more than enough for a marathon and is getting into ultra marathon distance,” says Jay Blahnik

Now available via an update, the 60hr multi day adventure mode will be able to track around 15hrs of workouts. “But if you don’t need the full 60hrs and you just want to push through for a workout, you can get to 20hrs plus.”

The Apple Watch Ultra: it’ll get you home, but it won’t put the kettle on

“The Apple Watch has become essential for so many users now,” adds Ng “And they want to use it everywhere they go including mountains, deserts and the ocean. We think they’re going to be very excited about the Ultra ”

Low power mode can be activated in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone: “If you go to the workout section, there’s a new switch, but it’s only applicable if you put the watch into low power mode ”

How Apple took the Watch’s activity tracking to the next level with an Ultra version for fearless adventurers

Let’s glance

During a hardcore hike the Watch Ultra checks the GPS once a second In low power mode this is dialled back to only run once every 2mins

Fool if you think it’s under The Depth app starts up at 1m down The Watch assesses whether you’re in water based on multiple sensors.

On the screech

To ensure suitability for watersports, Apple built a 23ft long waterslide so they could accelerate the Watch Ultra up to 45mph on its way down.

The mode to quell Cellular data affects battery life, so the watch doesn’t stay connected in low power mode until you launch an app that wants to use data

I saw three flips

With a major design upgrade and top tier internals, will third time be the charm for Motorola’s rebooted clamshell phone?

After a two year break, Motorola is back in the foldable game This latest attempt to revive the classic clamshell is more a reimagining than a simple retread of the two versions that came before and is all the better for it

The chunky chin and distracting notch of the Razr 5G are gone, in favour of a larger internal screen and subtle punch hole selfie cam

The outer display has grown as well, and now plays nicely with (almost) all your apps You won’t find mid range hardware inside this time around, just top tier silicon, and there’s a bigger battery to power it

A metal frame with a blend of shiny and textured glass hammer home the point that this is a premium gadget, and there’s no gap when it’s folded shut Take that, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 and the Moto has a more appealing price to boot.

But is that enough to make this the de facto king of modern day flip phones?

Smart of glass

The ultra thin glass covering the 6.7in OLED display (1) feels a lot nicer under the thumb than the plastic used in previous Razrs It’s a stunner of a screen with a rapid refresh rate 144Hz only kicks in for gaming, but 120Hz is still plenty and the central crease is all but invisible

Do the cam

The 50MP main cam (2) doesn’t disappoint on the detail front, and delivers natural (some might say muted) colours and good HDR

An automatic low light mode is on hand for noise free night shooting. Exposure and dynamic range take a dive when swapping to the ultrawide lens, though

Dutiful day

This is no longevity lightweight, despite having ‘only’ 3500mAh to keep it juiced. It easily lasts all day, in part because you don’t wake the main screen for every notification 30W wired charging (3) doesn’t sound rapid either, but half an hour is usually good for a near 90% refill

Ghost wider Dolby Atmos

assistance virtually widens the stereo speakers’ soundstage. They get surprisingly loud and do fine for podcasts

Chips don’t lie

With a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor inside, was there ever any doubt the new Razr would be quicker than a whippet chasing a runaway pork pie? It’ll run any app without a whiff of slowdown, and comfortably keeps pace when multitasking thanks to 8GB of RAM

Swipe out

Moto’s restrained take on Android 12 (4) returns, with just a handful of pre installed apps and the customisations largely limited to useful custom gestures, like a horizontal swipe for split screen multitasking. Two new Android versions and 3yrs of security updates is not generous, though

GOOD MEH EVIL

Screen is lush, with no nasty crease Apps don’t make the most of it

Main rear camera gets detail galore

Ultrawide isn’t much cop, though

IP52 resistance isn’t great

Snappy performer for games

Quick time

Face time

Take your time

GE T T HE BEST GADGE T DEALS WI TH STUFF

Pairy

Lock and roll

We didn’t have any dropouts, even when walking through a busy station, and the buds stayed connected on different floors of a house

Fool for a pretty case

Can I click it?

Nothing’s distinctive in-ear buds are cheaper than the last-gen AirPods – but with more limited features, is this style over substance?

Nothing’s unique looking new in ears adopt the bold AirPods tactic of having no silicone tips to keep them locked in place They will stay put when you walk to the shops, but finishing a 5K without one popping loose will be a taller order On the other hand, because they don’t place pressure on your ear canals, we could wear them all day with no discomfort

Passive isolation is basically non existent, which can help songs feel airier and less enclosed but also means you’ll need to crank the volume to block out background distractions. There’s no active noise cancellation

Sound quality depends heavily on finding the right angle: with the stems pointed directly downward we lost all low end, yet a 45° angle gave a far better performance These are warm and energetic earbuds that will entertain casual listeners, but with less definition at both ends of the frequency range than Nothing’s pricier Ear 1s

An app handles fine grain EQ tuning, which is able to claw back an impressive amount of bass presence but can make some tracks sound boomier than they should You can also customise the stem squeezing touch controls

You’ll get about 7hrs of listening from the buds before they’ll need a trip to the charging case, which is good for three full top ups plus a teensy bit more There’s no wireless charging, just USB C.

Carol of the Bezos

The Amazon Fire TV Cube brings far field Alexa compatibility to your television which essentially means you can talk to Alexa without moving your backside off the sofa But it’s a bit of an anomaly in 2022

That’s because more and more TVs have Alexa built in these days, while you can use Amazon’s voice assistant with any Fire TV Stick via another device such as an Echo or Echo Dot (see opposite) And Fire TV devices also tend to have their own voice remotes, so Alexa is a mere button press away already

What the Cube does bring to the table is control of your set top box for cable or satellite viewing So as a result you can get Alexa to control that too

This new version is certainly powerful, with the latest gen Wi Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5 2 support and all the zippiness of an octa core processor Like the old version, it’s fully conversant with 4K and Dolby Vision as well as HDR10+

The Cube also includes an IR blaster so you can control devices such as a Blu ray player without opening your TV cabinet.

But if you’re interested in this gadget you probably have a Fire TV Stick already and so you can already do most of what’s on offer here, with the exception of the set top box support just in a slightly less convenient way That will surely limit the appeal of this fluffy black box

STUFF SAYS

A powerful bit of kit, but it doesn’t offer a great deal more than the much cheaper Fire TV Stick 4K

Talking in the air

The Fire TV Cube works with set top boxes from Sky, Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk Once it’s set up you can use your voice to control live telly

Big Sky

This skill makes use of one of our favourite buzzwords: hyperlocal It means you’ll get a weather forecast for where you live, as long as you’ve told the Alexa app

The new Dot offers improved sound quality and more bass than the 4th Gen model

Not surprisingly given its size, it still doesn’t have the heft of a full size Echo, but this Dot is more than good enough for bedside table or kitchen listening and light years away from the lame sound of the early models You’ll still want something with

more power to fill your living room, though

Also check out the £65 Echo Dot with Clock, which offers a better and much more useful LED display than the previous version you can now see things like basic weather info and song titles

STUFF SAYS

A nice upgrade to an already excellent little gadget

Cosmetically, the only thing different with the new Echo Studio is that it also comes in white Just as well: we were asking for that three years ago

What’s changed on the inside is the introduction of spatial audio processing, designed to enhance the stereo image and build upon the Dolby Atmos capability of the speaker via so called ‘Ultra HD’

streaming from Amazon Music And while the Echo Studio sounded excellent before, there is definitely an improvement to the soundstage

Although it’s twice the price of a standard Echo, this is a brilliant one box home speaker

STUFF SAYS

Even better than before, and that’s saying something

Audible Stories

Audible always enables you to carry on listening where you left off, and Audible Stories is a free Alexa skill that will read you a curated short story from a famous author

Just Eat

Here’s how to easily re order your last takeaway. You can also select whether it’s for delivery or pickup, and choose whether to pay with cash or by card

The basic Kindle gets its first update for three years and jumps into the water alongside the more interesting (but not out yet) Kindle Scribe.

It’s the same size as before at 6in, but slightly lighter; and the wonderful display now has a higher resolution (300dpi), while there are also upgrades to battery life and storage While the latter goes up

to 16GB from 8GB, the stamina improvement is better still: six weeks instead of four We’ll have to take Amazon’s word on that one, as we’ve not had it long enough to exhaust the charge But this is a great sub £100 e reader

STUFF SAYS

Some nice improvements make this Kindle a doozy

So you’ve read about the 5th Gen Dot above? This one can do everything that one does, with the same improved audio, but it adds a cute Owl or Dragon cover and a one year sub to the super friendly Amazon Kids+ service

Although Kids+ has content for those up to 12, it’s really most useful for younger nippers who

are happy with a walled garden Anyone above eight or so will expect more freedom

Some of the Audible stories are a bit naff, but there’s plenty of music on offer and you can use the Parent Dashboard to restrict access

STUFF

SAYS

Fun, but you need to dig to find the best kids’ content

In the sleek mid-Windows

Lightweight doesn’t have to mean limp: these two big-screen OLED ultraportables keep it slinky but still have all the power

What’s the story?

With a substantial 16in display but weighing a mere 1 17kg, the Acer Swift Edge proves laptop screen size doesn’t have to dictate luggability Folded shut it’s a barely there 14mm thick, yet its magnesium aluminium alloy chassis lets you silence the bit of your brain that links ‘light’ with ‘flimsy’

Some might call the styling work ish, but we reckon there’s a stealth bomber vibe going on: it’s black and angular, with a scary amount of firepower inside, courtesy of a creator friendly 4K OLED panel and a Ryzen 6800U CPU

Is it any good?

Acer might be going against the grain by siding with AMD rather than Intel, but it’s a move that’s paid off: the Swift Edge is as zippy as you like on the Windows desktop and can handle more demanding jobs too, although really push it and the cooling fan approaches hairdryer levels.

The display is the highlight It gets pretty bright and covers the full DCI P3 colour space, so can cut it for image editing The one downside is the 60Hz refresh rate, but that can be a boon for battery life: expect 7hrs of typical use between top ups.

Hybrid workers who don’t mind a slightly cramped keyboard (or that vocal cooling fan) will find plenty to like here

Price

AMD

Stuff says Efficient AMD internals mean this large but skinny laptop is a real road warrior

What’s the story?

Yes, the Yoga Slim 9i really does come from the same company that makes ThinkPad business laptops Lenovo has taken styling tips from the smartphone world for this especially chic ultraportable, which has curvy lines and a lid made of glass

It squeezes a 14in OLED display into a chassis the size and weight of the average 13 incher, thanks to ultra skinny screen bezels. A mostly full size keyboard and an expansive touchpad mean there’s no productivity compromise either

Is it any good?

Image quality is top notch, with a 90Hz refresh rate delivering smooth scrolling on top of infinite contrast, Dolby Vision support and lush colours The 2880x1800 resolution looks pin sharp; and while you can step up to 4K for a little extra cash, it doesn’t feel worth the hit to battery life… which is merely OK to begin with

That’s largely down to the Core i7 1280P CPU (a £140 upgrade on the i5 1240P), which could be seen as overkill It’ll crunch through tasks, but needs more juice than Intel’s U series silicon to do it.

You might overlook that if you’re a sucker for the styling, but be prepared for regular trips to a plug socket if you do

Price from £1660 / go.stuff.tv/Slim9i Tech 14in 2880x1800/3840x2400 OLED

Intel Core i5/i7 512GB/1TB storage

75Wh battery 315x214x15mm, 1 39kg

Stuff says

A potent ultraportable, but battery life is hit by the power hungry Intel CPU

THE POWER OF SHOVE: GAMING GOODIES

For graphics, the Swift Edge uses a Radeon 680M. It’s built into the CPU, and doesn’t transform this laptop into a full on gaming machine, but it has enough grunt to challenge some low end dedicated cards Fancy some Forza Horizon 5 on your lunch break? Stick to Full HD and it’s perfectly playable at a mix of medium and high settings.

The Yoga Slim 9i relies on Iris Xe onboard graphics, which can also be found in Intel’s less beefy processors.

It’s given a dash of extra juice here, so can push polygons a bit faster than in other skinnies, but you’ll still want to dial the detail settings down and stick to 720p for any games released in the last few years

Acer Swift Edge Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i Gen 7

TEST WINNER

1 Call the slots The Acer’s so svelte there’s barely room for full size ports at the sides Thumbs up to Acer for still squeezing in HDMI and a scattering of USBs

2 Long hot thumber

The fingerprint sensor hidden inside the power button is faster and more accurate than the Windows Hello facial recognition of the Lenovo.

3 Running up that grille

The Lenovo’s speakers are tuned by Bowers & Wilkins and have real presence They get impressively loud, at least by laptop standards

4 Smothering lights

A metallic keyboard and white backlighting isn’t the smartest combo It makes letters hard to make out during the day, even on low brightness settings.

Glow plum, all ye faithful

Bright lines

Even before you turn them on, the Arena 7 system’s two tilting satellites look more interesting than your typical boxy bookshelf speakers The translucent white panels that hide the RGB lights aren’t quite so easy on the eye, but they’re never on direct display

These compact speakers throw out a rainbow of light from the rear It’s nicely diffused, bright and brilliantly colourful, with independent zones to get creative with multi hued patterns as long as you place them far enough away from any walls

The lights default to a slow fade between colours, but you can pick a more dramatic effect, sync with other SteelSeries gear, or turn on the Ambilight esque Reflect mode There’s more delay here than you’ll find with Philips, but it still adds a level of immersion to games and films

This is an impressive audio system Whether we were dodging gunshots in Deathloop, listening to Spotify while working or bingeing She Hulk , the speakers never felt out of their element

The sub delivers a generous wallop of low end rumble We had to dial it back to avoid complaints from the neighbours, but the overall balance benefits from a little less bass anyway In a larger room with space to put distance between speakers and sub, you can crank it up freely

Tech specs

Dial be around

A volume dial and multi function button are built into the right speaker’s base, with a tiny LED showing the current source There’s also a 3.5mm port on the back if you want to connect a headset for in game chat

Sight the power

Generously long cables snake from each speaker to the sub, which is little more than a big black box This is also where you’ll find the power button, which can be a pain to reach if you’ve stashed it out of

The base LEDs are more subtle, but that’s a good thing as they’re in your line of sight

Anything brighter would be a distraction

* O n e p r o m o c o d e u s e p e r c u s t o m e r C a n n o t b e u s e d i n c o n u n c t o n w t h a n y o t h e r o f f e r

TREAT YOURSELF TO A CHRISTMAS TIPPLE

Visit the Timothy Taylor’s online shop for festive beers and other gifts

You can get that Taste of Taylor’s delivered straight to your or a loved one’s door, with online order bottle packs from £42 and mini kegs at £34. It’s all at timothytaylorshop.co.uk and what’s more, it all comes with free UK delivery, unlike some online retailers who charge exorbitant shipping fees. Of course, you don’t need to be buying for others you can also get great Timothy Taylor’s beers for you to drink over the festive period.

There’s plenty of choice, with all kinds of packs of Timothy

Taylor’s beers available to order in bottles as well as mini kegs And there are gift boxes of Landlord and mixed packs available at various prices depending on your taste. Plus you get a free handwritten cartoon gift card included with each purchase

Hat’s entertainment

But it’s not just beer you can order from the Timothy Taylor’s webshop there are stacks of excellent gifts on offer as well, including clothing. You can get T shirts, jumpers, bobble hats, hoodies, socks

and even rather stylish rugby and cycling jerseys

Want something truly unique? You can buy a mate or loved one a personalised pair of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord bottles plus a tulip pint glass for £27. That’s with up to 12 characters of your chosen text on the Landlord label itself A dozen personalised bottles is £48, while you can also buy larger packs and don’t forget the ‘pick and mix’ option for maximum variety

Get all your Christmas gifts delivered for free at timothytaylorshop co uk

The Timothy Taylor’s online shop stocks the whole range of Timothy Taylor’s packaged beers including Landlord, Hopical Storm, Boltmaker, Poulter’s Porter, Landlord Dark and Knowle Spring, named after the spring that sits underneath Timothy Taylor’s Keighley brewer y Plus there are more traditional gifts on offer for the beer drinker too, such as pint glasses and engraved tankards

Get wool soon Want more than just beer? Your clothing options include hats, a new Timothy Taylor’s Christmas jumper and, of course, socks

GRAB A DISCOUNT!

Enter the code TT STUFF22 for a 10% discount* at timothytaylorshop co uk including free delivery

APPLE iPHONE 14 PRO

ONE BELK IN ULT R AGL A SS SCREEN PRO T EC T OR

Apple’s phones hold onto their value better than any other kind, so you can sell them for a tidy sum even after a year or two… unless, that is, you have a nasty ding, scratch or crack in the screen So save yours with Belkin’s thin yet strong UltraGlass screen protector (The 14 Pro Max version is the same price.)

£35 / apple com

T W O D JI MIC

With powerful new 48MP cameras, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max capture fine 4K footage; but if you’re in a windy or loud environment and want to drown out the background noise, their mics need some help Plug in DJI’s receiver and use its two wireless mics to feed quality sound to your video Each one also works as a standalone sound recorder. £289 / dji com

T HREE A NK ER N A NO 3

Upgrading from an iPhone X or older? Your old power plug has a full sized USB port, but the cable that comes with all new iPhones plugs into the wall charger via a USB C port. Anker is on hand with a tiny solution: the Nano 3 Fuelling your phone at up to 30W using GaN charging tech, it’s small, convenient and neat in classic white or cutesy lilac.

£23 / amazon co uk

NOWTRY THIS… THENGETTHESE…

1 DON ’ T BE DIS T R AC T ED

Whether you’re a phone addict or are letting your kid use yours for vital TikTok work, the 14 Pro’s billion colour display is hard to ignore But you can dial things back in the settings Select Accessibility > Display and Text Size > Colour Filters; toggle it on, and choose Greyscale Then go to Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap > Double Tap, and select Colour Filters Now two taps of the back will kill the colour.

2 DECOR AT E T HE WA L L

If you’ve changed wallpaper on an iPhone in the past, it’s been a very 2D affair: you just chose an image and that was that Now, from your lock screen, if you just long press your wallpaper and select Customise, the fun begins

As you choose your photo, take advantage of iOS 16’s depth detection with a foreground and background element, switch out typefaces and filters and maybe even add widgets.

3 T URN T HE L IGH T S OFF

As much as you love your new wallpaper, you probably want to turn it off once in a while but dimming your screen all the way on the 14 Pro and Pro Max isn’t easy That’s because the always on display keeps your whole screen slightly lit up even when on standby If flipping your phone face down doesn’t scratch the itch, navigate to Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On, and toggle it off.

PROMOVIE RECORDER

Unlike a lot of Androids, iPhones don’t give you manual control over photos and video This app lets you adjust ISO, focus, shutter speed and more. £free (IAP)

4 CON T ROL YOURSEL F

One of the most used features of any iPhone is the Control Centre that pull down menu that gives you quick access to tools and settings But if you don’t need Music Recognition or an Apple TV Remote a few swipes away, open Settings > Control Centre to zap old ones and add new ones You can pick from loads of handy shortcuts including a QR code scanner, Voice Memos, Alarm and Notes.

5 L E A P IN T O AC T ION

Action Mode gives the iPhone 14 series GoPro grade stabilisation. Activating it is easy open the camera app, tap Video, and look for the little running person (it probably has a line through it)

Tap it to activate and you’re now in Action Mode To get the best performance, though, there’s one more step: switch from the default 0 5x zoom to 1x This switches to the main camera, which is better in low light.

6 C A M CL OSER

Have you noticed that, whenever you get close to a subject, your iPhone switches cameras and quality drops? The main camera can’t focus quite as close up as the ultrawide, so your phone automatically switches. But as we’ve just seen, that main cam is better To take back control of your macro photography, go to Settings > Camera > Macro Control Turn it on, and now you’ll get an override option.

STREAKS

Struggling to make good habits stick? Try this fun app, which enjoys great Apple Watch support. You can set habits, adjust their frequency and check them off on your phone £4.49

FITNESS+

The latest iOS update adds Fitness+ support even if you don’t have an Apple Watch Open the Fitness app, tap Fitness+ and (as long as you subscribe) enjoy workouts galore £9 99/m

Ding dong merrily on Sky

DAY 01

Like Ant and Dec, Sky TV and satellite dishes have come as a pair since the ’90s but when the internet only Sky Glass was launched last year, a new way to watch House of the Dragon and the biggest Premier League games was born For those who already owned a perfectly good telly, though, that didn’t help… but Sky Stream does

Barely any bigger than a drinks coaster, this little puck offers the

full Sky TV experience over Wi Fi (or Ethernet) no dish required What is required is regular cash: the very least you’ll spend on a Sky Stream subscription is £26/m, plus £20 upfront that’s for the Sky Entertainment & Netflix package, which includes all the basic channels such as Sky Atlantic, Comedy Central, MTV and the main Freeview channels (but not Sky Sports or Sky Cinema), plus Netflix Basic,

which normally costs £6/m and tops out at standard def Setup only takes a few minutes, and before we know it we’re looking at the home screen of Sky’s Entertainment OS At the top you get recommendations and shortcuts to recently viewed channels and apps, with a set of buttons underneath to jump straight to hubs for TV shows, movies, sports and such like Below that you can see what’s currently on the main terrestrial TV channels, or click through to see a full TV guide.

The remote is identical to the one you get with Sky Glass: a

sleek, smooth to the touch zapper that lights up when you use it in the dark It strikes a nice balance between functionality and simplicity, with dedicated buttons for the most commonly used features, although it’d be nice to have one that takes you straight to the EPG rather than having to navigate there via the home screen

On the whole, the Sky Stream interface doesn’t feel quite as instantaneous as we’d like and the channels themselves take about four seconds to load, which certainly isn’t as snappy as a

tv/SkyStream

DAY 03

The Stream puck has no built in storage, but its playlist feature functions like a hybrid of the watchlist on a regular streaming service and the recordings menu on a hard drive recorder If you add an upcoming show to your playlist you can often record it in the cloud, allowing you to watch it back as if it’s live rather than accessing it via catch up It’s not perfect, and can be a bit unclear at times, but it generally does the job

DAY 05

Idly channel surfing, we notice there seem to be way fewer channels here than on Sky Q, but that’s mainly because it doesn’t include SD versions of any that ar e are no ‘+1’ channels running on a 1hr delay. Instead, you can usually choose to start watching a programme from the beginning if you tune in after it’s started You can pause and rewind live TV too.

Sky’s streamed versions of the live HD channels arguably look better than their over the air counterparts There’s none of the softness you sometimes get with online streams of live TV, and even channels that are only available in SD are more than watchable

Donut of Truth

DAY 07

Tuning in to Monday Night Football, we choose to watch it in 4K Even with our 50Mbps connection it occasionally stutters, so you’ll need speedy Wi Fi to get the best from Sky Stream We have no such issues with Gangs of London , presumably because it’s able to buffer on demand stuff in a way that’s not possible with a live broadcast

DAY 10

The box suggests we watch Andor on Disney+ Go on then but when we select it, it fires up the Disney+ app So the process of watching stuff from third party providers isn’t seamless Some of these apps are less pleasing to use than others hello, ITV Player but that’s hardly Sky’s fault.

DAY 14

Sky Glass has hands free voice control, but with no always on mic you’ll need to hold a button on the remote when you want to talk to Sky Stream It can’t be used to control playback, but it’s a much quicker way to search for things than typing them out letter by letter And its ability to understand what we’re asking for is impressive

STUFF SAYS

Making it more affordable and accessible than ever, this is the best way to watch Sky TV

Gotham Knights

ot unlike a costumed vigilante tasked with cleaning up a lawless city, Gotham Knights has its work cut out for it For starters, it’s a Batman game without a Batman, trading the Caped Crusader for an arguably less interesting quartet of sidekicks: Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood And Batman hasn’t just been benched he’s been killed off

This setup might sound like a non starter, but the story actually handles his death quite well By

working through their loss and a case Batman couldn’t close the foursome regularly meet iconic villains and other characters whose lives have likewise been affected by Bruce Wayne’s sudden exit Toss in fan favourites such as Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox, and Gotham Knights does a surprisingly good job of breathing fresh Batman life into a world where he’s dead

Sadly, though, much of the core gameplay can be a bit of a slog. None of it is patently bad, and the

stealth and detective work often had us happy to be back under the cowl; but the combat relies more on mindless button mashing than timing and strategy Even after 20 plus hours of customising the perfect Batgirl, we still found ourselves frequently spamming the same few basic attacks to effortlessly clear room after room of dumb thugs

It doesn’t help that objectives and encounters can be repetitive, further fuelling a sense of going through the motions Exceptions

exist, but they’re overshadowed by stretches of monotony

Also, aside from a beautifully immersive and expansive Gotham, the game doesn’t exactly scream ‘next gen’ It never had us giddily firing up its photo mode, and its use of the PS5 controller’s tactile feedback and built in speaker doesn’t add much

This is a decent action RPG that scratches the Batman itch, but does so from the safety of its Arkham predecessors’ shadow.

Matt Cabral

PS5, XSX , PC / go.s tuf f.tv/Gotham Knights

For those who’d rather tackle the campaign as a dynamic duo, the game does bring two player online co op to the streets of Gotham and it’s a smart addition that makes spending time in the city that bit more enjoyable

The drop in, drop out feature works well, even managing to shave some tedium off the rote combat encounters But while mixing light and heavy melee with ranged attacks (plus a lot of dodge rolls in between) will get the job done with plenty of visual panache, the game’s many beatdowns are still pretty shallow

Crime fighting couples are untethered, so they’re free to go their separate ways still working together but not restricted to the same area This too breaks up some of the boredom, as the more repetitive mission types can be divvied up and tackled more quickly

Of course, faithful Bat fans pining for a brooding, solitary experience that recaptures the Arkham series’ vibe might cringe the first time they see the social wheel pop up in Gotham Knights For better or worse, teaming up is more evocative of playing Destiny 2 or The Division 2 than doling out vigilante Bat justice

Banter cause is coming to town

Robin’s grown some pupils since his time in Teen Titans Go!

And Red Hood’s changed a lot since that business with the big bad wolf

Bayonetta 3

Five years after it was announced, can this Switch exclusive live up to expec tations?

When it comes to fast paced character action games with a ridiculous sense of style, no one does it better than Bayonetta

In her previous outings, our titular witch has fought angels and demons in both Heaven and Hell but here the threat comes from strange man made homunculi that aren’t just invading cities across our world but taking over whole dimensions.

Of course, a multiverse means there’s more than one Bayonetta, from a pink haired version rocking a colourful Tokyo look to one with all the regal splendour of Cleopatra. Such imaginative art direction is what keeps this game looking so fresh and vibrant, even if the visuals themselves look like they could be from the Xbox 360 era.

Fortunately, the action is so smooth and pacy that the low resolution is hardly a distraction, with combo based combat that will be familiar to Bayo veterans plus wild new weapons to spice things up You can also now

summon demons during a fight, although controlling them feels unwieldy and sluggish not what you want when everything else is so high octane

Some levels are surprisingly large, but it’s worth venturing off the beaten track to find extra optional challenges, puzzles and collectibles This, alongside the drive to achieve the perfect rank in each fight sequence, is what makes it so replayable.

We’re less enamoured with the new characters and mechanics, such as the katana wielding Viola, or former frenemy Jeanne, whose stealthy side scrolling stages have a fun spy caper intro sequence but feel very much like a sideshow The absence of original voice actor Hellena Taylor is a pity too

Still, being the runner up to its predecessors the two very best games in the genre is hardly a poor consolation Even if its new ideas aren’t always successful, Bayonetta 3 is a thrilling ride through the multiverse that’s been well worth the wait.

Alan Wen

STUFF SAYS The best action game of the year, even if its new elements add little

In this dimension of the multiverse, the Strictly dance off is to the death

In this dimension of the multiverse no, sorry, no idea what’s going on here.

Frustrated by his stubbornly low TalkTV ratings, Piers Morgan finally loses it

PS5, PS4 / go s tuf f tv/Ragnarok

“God, this is soooo boring Why couldn’t we go to Alton Towers like all my friends?”

God of War Ragnarok

Gaming’s angriest protagonist returns with his son in tow for an epic and emotional Norse showdown

If 2018’s God of War is anything to go by, nothing brings a father and son closer together than a brutal, bloody romp through Midgard battling the gods and monsters of Norse mythology

With the world on the brink of an apocalypse, the relationship between Kratos and Atreus develops further in Ragnarok, with the noticeably older child becoming more of his own character and not necessarily always agreeing with his father New faces from the wider pantheon join more familiar ones; but whether friend, foe or somewhere in between, each character is as richly written as our heroes

Combat remains supremely satisfying, with each of Kratos’s weapons feeling weighty and impactful, while more enemy variety means there’s a wider range of ultra violent finishing moves Your repertoire can be expanded with a robust skill tree, while special abilities can also be upgraded just like your gear,

though it can be easy to miss some of the options available to you

Brawn is balanced with brains as you’ll also be using your weapons in puzzles or for traversal and in the absence of a jump button, the latter makes getting around feel more dynamic, whether Kratos is using his axe handle to slide down a zip wire or his chained blades to grapple up ledges

While there’s some linearity to the way quests are designed, lots of extra tasks and hidden areas can be found by venturing off the main track Only occasionally is there more emphasis on puzzles than we’d like we find ourselves nodding when one character tells Kratos, “Less talking, more killing things!”

It may not break new ground, but with satisfying, expansive and challenging gameplay, as well as deep storytelling and fascinating characters in search of a future beyond the end of the world, God of War Ragnarok sets an astoundingly high bar for other AAA blockbusters.

Alan Wen

STUFF SAYS Bigger and better in ever y way, Ragnarok deser ves godlike status

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

This wacky take on the plumber-meets-thingies turn-based strategy game manages to improve on an already winning formula

The first Mario + Rabbids mashup, 2017’s Kingdom Battle , had the feeling of an unhinged Saturday morning cartoon, but its colourful visuals belied a deceptively deep strategy game that ramped up the difficulty in the later levels.

With a new interplanetary setting, revamped combat and a generous chunk of side content, Sparks of Hope feels bigger and more epic than its predecessor. The real meat lies in its turn based battles, with freer movement and intuitive real time elements ensuring encounters always feel snappy and approachable

But don’t mistake this game for baby’s first XCOM Each character has their own unique weapons, abilities and traits that you’ll need to learn in order to form an effective team, whether it’s long range Luigi or Rabbid Mario’s close quarters talents

You will also need to think carefully about how to upgrade each character’s skill tree, although points can be refunded at any time if you want to remould

one for a specific fight that you’re struggling with

When you start a battle it’s crucial to examine the enemy team to identify weaknesses so you can take advantage with your Sparks weaponised star creatures that can be used in both attack and defence This does mean a lot of menu hopping, as Sparks can’t be reassigned in real time, and the load times are just a fraction too long for our liking; but their ability to reshape the battlefield in one turn adds another layer of slapstick chaos

Difficulty spikes are sudden and very occasionally the game can feel unfair, especially as it’s not always clear how far enemies are able to move in a turn, but most of the time failure is down to squad mismanagement and not thinking a move through.

It might be easy to get to grips with but there’s plenty of depth to Sparks of Hope , making it a worthy successor to one of the most unexpected crossover hits in the history of gaming.

Matt Tate

STUFF SAYS A great sequel, and a great entr y into the turn based strategy genre

You thought he was all cuddly, but Mario is a cold blooded two gun killer (of fungus).

They’ve really upped the ambition levels for the new series of Garden Rescue

Switch / go s tuf f tv/Hope

TIPS & TRICKS

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen for the app tray, so you can browse all of your apps

Press volume and standby together to take a screenshot, or just swipe your hand across the screen

Go to Settings >

Batter y to finely control your phone’s batter y saving efficiency

Google Pixel 7 Pro from £849 / go stuff tv/Pixel7Pro

Streamlined styling, plentiful performance and dependable battery life make this another worthy Google flagship It’s a minor upgrade over last year’s effort but really impresses on the photography front, with pin sharp zoom and great low light shooting

Stuff says

Google plays it safe, but the Pixel 7 Pro improves in the right places

Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max from £1199 / go stuff tv/14ProMax

This is essentially the same phone as the 14 Pro, but with a bigger screen and a bigger battery So on paper it’s Apple’s best but it’s only for people who really need that extra screen space. Do you? Well, it does make photo, video and audio editing (and gaming) easier

Stuff says The latest model really moves the Pro Max along… at a price

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

from £1149 / go stuff tv/s22ultra

If you’re a tech loving Android fan and can justify the outlay, this is the most fully featured phone of the current crop. The first ‘S’ model to have a built in S Pen, it also offers a wonderfully sharp 6 8in QHD+ screen with super smooth 120Hz scrolling and a stellar zoom camera, aided by a new neural processing unit that creates Samsung’s best pictures yet.

Stuff says

This is the most capable smar tphone you can currently buy

NOW ADD THIS

Samsung Smart Clear View Cover

This clever case reveals a small portion of your display so you can do basic stuff without opening it.

£29 / amazon co uk

OnePlus 10 Pro

from £699 / go stuff tv/OnePlus10Pro

OnePlus has done it again, with a powerful top end phone that takes on the Google Pixel 6 Pro

Oppo Find X5 Pro

£1049 / go stuff tv/X5Pro

An absolute stunner of a smartphone, only let down by limited zooming specs

Motorola Edge 30 Ultra £750 / go stuff tv/30ultra

A rapid charging powerhouse of a phone with a superb set of cameras for a tantalising price

Google Pixel 6a £399 / go stuff tv/Pixel6a

The cut price Pixel has a few rough edges, but its cameras and slick software are simply excellent

Sony Xperia 1 IV

£1299 / go stuff tv/Xperia1iv

Doubles down on the good stuff but this is a grown up phone for skilled snappers only.

Moto G82

£290 / go stuff tv/G82

A long lasting all rounder that offers excellent value for money.

Honor Magic4 Pro

£950 / go stuff tv/Magic4Pro

A stunning flagship at a great price point, though there are better camera phones

Sony WF-1000XM4

£199 / go stuff tv/WFXM4

A worthy successor to the XM3 buds that sat atop this list for what seemed like decades, Sony’s latest true wireless noise cancelling in ears are smaller, smarter and better.

With the arguable exceptions of call quality and app slickness, the WF 1000XM4s aren’t quite the best at anything; but they’re so close to being the best at everything that their all round game is untouchable No other wireless earbuds are so consistently accomplished across the board.

Stuff says The finest true wireless noise cancelling earbuds around this is the complete package

Beats Fit Pro

£220 / go stuff tv/FitPro

These Beats are excellent on many levels

Unless you really love the earhook design of the Powerbeats Pro, they’re definitely the best workout ’phones in the Apple/Beats range and rival any others at the price

Stuff says Good batter y life, punchy sound, lock tight fit

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II

£280 / go stuff tv/QCBuds2

You still can’t beat Bose for ANC And while its latest buds can be bettered slightly when it comes to sound quality, and bettered comfortably for battery life, they make for a competitive total package

Stuff says Bose is back with its best effort in a long while

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen)

£249 / go stuff tv/Pro2

Apple’s pricier in ears were already superb, and now they’re way better.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3

£220 / go stuff tv/TW3

Balanced and accurate prepare to extend your shortlist of premium in ear headphones

Sony WH-1000XM5

£345 / go stuff tv/WHXM5

Nobody was able to displace Sony’s WH 1000XM4 headphones from the top of this list for two years… yet the 2022 model manages to be even better. Key to the XM5s’ overall quality is the new carbon fibre composite 30mm drivers: they bring even greater clarity than the previous generation, and the sound reproduction is beautifully precise The simple fact is that these are the best noise cancellers around by almost every measure You really won’t regret buying them.

Stuff says Sony keeps its grip on the top spot with an unrivalled combo of great sound, ANC and comfor t

Sennheiser Momentum 4 £300 / go stuff tv/SM4

These are headphones that sound naturalistic, engaged and entirely musical, making every recording sound like an event And they’ll last a startling 60hrs even with ANC switched on

Stuff says Great audio, great batter y life, great price

Bose NCH 700 £350 / go stuff tv/NCH700

There are superior sounding headphones, but if call quality and noise cancelling are just as important to you then Bose’s flagship cans are the gold standard The voice pickup system is the best out there

Stuff says

As all rounders, these are hard to beat

Philips Fidelio L3

£219 / go stuff tv/L3

Refined and detailed: go for these if you value balance and accuracy.

Technics EAH-A800

£250 / go stuff tv/A800

These premium priced ANC headphones get almost everything right

Apple Watch SE (2022)

from £259 / go stuff tv/WatchSE

If you’re talking about value, the SE is the best Apple Watch hands down. It tracks sleep and all the exercise you need, supports Apple Pay, works great with your iPhone and… what more do most people require? The user experience is broadly identical, and while the screen bezels are a bit larger than on the Series 8 it’s hard to tell them apart without getting right up close If you want a stainless steel case you’ll have to splash out on a Series 8 but first ask yourself if it’s really worth the extra.

Stuff says Offers most of the Apple Watch Series 8 experience for a whole lot cash less

Garmin Fenix 7 from £600 / go stuff tv/Fenix7

If your budget stretches, the impressive mix of rugged durability, serious battery endurance, excellent navigation skills and smartwatch features make this the best all round sports watch you can buy

Stuff says

An ace tool for adventurous fitness building

Samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro £479 / go stuff tv/Watch5Pro

It carries a chunky price premium over the vanilla Galaxy Watch5, and doesn’t have much in the way of added features, but the Pro still makes a strong case for itself thanks to its more robust build and better battery

Stuff says

The toughest, longest lasting Galaxy Watch yet

Apple Watch Series 8

from £419 / go stuff tv/WatchS8

A great smartwatch, but it’s only worth upgrading if you have a Series 4 or older.

Google Pixel Watch from £339 / go stuff tv/PixelWatch

A stylish wearable with solid fitness tracking, but it falls short of its more established rivals

Hammerhead Karoo 2

£359 / go stuff tv/Karoo2

For ages cycling computers have been held back by outdated tech… but Hammerhead’s sharp screen really is a gamechanger, and effectively running a tiny Android phone inside a custom case feels like a no brainer The 3 2in display is a delight, helping you spot new trails branching off from routes, all with the nostalgic feel of an early smartphone Navigating with swipes and taps is intuitive (and works with gloves), and the software is constantly updated with helpful nips and tucks.

Stuff says

At last, a bike computer for the 21st century Wahoo and Garmin appear to have missed a trick here

Wattbike Atom

£1999 / go stuff tv/WBAtom

This is no beginner bike, but if you’re looking to improve your cycling form at home you’re in for a treat Pedalling feels eerily real, and the improvements over the first gen Atom are significant

Stuff says The benchmark for serious indoor cyclists

Fitbit Charge 5

£129 / go stuff tv/Charge5

The Charge 5 gets a colour touchscreen (something the Charge 4 lacked) and goes beyond basic tracking with clever features centred on health and stress It’s just a pity many are locked behind the Premium service

Stuff says

A solid tracker with smart optional extras

Huawei Watch GT Runner £160 / go stuff tv/GTRunner

Has the looks and smarts to be a more than capable jogging buddy.

Philips Bone Conduction Headphones £118 / go stuff tv/PhilipsBone

A satisfying way to fill your ears with sound, without actually filling your ears

TIPS & TRICKS

If you can afford it, the 512GB option brings faster flash storage (and more of it, of course)

Naturally the M2 Air performs better than the M1 version, but that older model is the value buy

Apple MacBook Pro 14in

from £1899 / go stuff tv/Pro14

If you don’t need this MacBook’s power and ports, going Pro really is overkill That’s especially true if your software isn’t yet optimised for Apple’s incredible M1 Pro chip: it’ll just mean you’re spending too much for what you’ll get out of it For the vast majority of us, the MacBook Air above offers more than enough grunt and flexibility if, however, you’re working in a field that can take advantage of its tech, this is the high powered laptop you’ve been waiting for

Stuff says The Pro goes fully ‘Pro’ again if you can afford it, you’ll love it

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED from £2000 / go stuff tv/DuoOLED

Clearly the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is not for everyone but it’s still an amazing piece of work with a full width second screen that really does make a huge difference to productivity. If you spend all your time in Premiere Pro, or have worn down the alt tab keys on your current laptop, that extra display will be a game changer Performance is also superb, even if it needs to crank the cooling fans to keep temperatures in check and battery life isn’t so stellar

Stuff says An innovative and powerful PC, despite some design compromises

Apple MacBook Air (M2)

from £1249 / go stuff tv/AirM2

With its super powered M2 processor, the latest version of Apple’s ‘basic’ laptop leaves the M1 model an excellent machine in its own right in the dust This revamp redefines the Air in a meaningful way, instantly renders the 13in MacBook Pro obsolete, and sets a yardstick by which Apple’s entry level devices will now be judged.

Stuff says Shame about the price hike, but this is still the Mac to buy for most users

NOW ADD THIS

Belkin 4 Port GaN Charger 108W

This brick lets you charge your Mac laptop through its 96W USB C output… and juice up three other devices at the same time £80 / belkin com

LG Gram 16 (2022) from £1229 / go stuff tv/Gram16

An incredible ultraportable that’s among the best Windows has to offer, and with great battery life

Dell XPS 13

from £949 / go stuff tv/XPS13

There’s little else that’s quite so well rounded but see also the beefier Plus model at No10

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro Gen 7 from £850 / go stuff tv/7iPro

A solid performer that hits a price point and misses the usual snags

Alienware x17 R2 from £2149 / go stuff tv/x17

Aimed at serious players, this machine glides through games with all settings maxed

Huawei MateBook X Pro from £1800 / go stuff tv/XPro

This is a real powerhouse of a Windows laptop See also the equally slick MateBook 14s.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 from £529 / go stuff tv/Go2

A fine ultraportable with more power than before, but avoid the base model for serious work.

Dell XPS 13 Plus from £1249 / go stuff tv/13Plus

If you need big processing power, this Dell looks the part and has a choice of superb screens

TIPS & TRICKS

Always

LG calls this a ‘Gallery Edition’ TV for good reason: it’s designed to be wall mounted

If you’re not a big fan of the Magic Remote, LG’s phone app is a more simple alternative

HOT BUY

LG OLED77G2

£3999 / go stuff tv/G2

As the flagship offering in LG’s current lineup, the G2 delivers on its billing with an upgraded OLED Evo panel, a new Alpha 9 Gen5 processor and improved heat dissipation. Colour accuracy is second to none: every hue is as vivid as you’d want it to be but still looks completely true to life And since this is an OLED, you’ll find perfect inky blacks with details preserved in the darker areas. There’s also clever AI processing that tackles upscaling to 4K incredibly well.

Stuff says Just about the best OLED telly on the market, albeit for quite a pretty penny

NOW ADD THIS

LG S series soundbars

Pairing your OLED with one of these is a stress free way to get Dolby Atmos spatial audio. from £600 / lg com

Xiaomi TV F2 55in

£499 / go stuff tv/XiaomiF2

If you’re a fan of Amazon’s interface, you’ll be happy to Fire up this 4K HDR bargain

Philips 55OLED807

£1299 / go stuff tv/OLED807

That clanging noise you can hear is Philips throwing the mid range OLED gauntlet down

Samsung 50AU9000

£429 / go stuff tv/AU9000

As much TV as most people will ever need, at a reasonable price

Philips 65OLED936

£2399 / go stuff tv/OLED936

Great picture, great four sided Ambilight… but what makes this Philips such a compelling option ahead of many of its rivals is the integrated 70W Bowers & Wilkins sound system sitting below the screen: its presentation is articulate and expressive, with plenty of low end presence and an absolute stack of detail in the mids Dolby Atmos performance is more convincing than you’ll get from the likes of the Sonos Beam too. It’s a worthy audio partner to a sizzlingly good television

Stuff says

A nice looking and well made T V with stunning audio included

Sony XR 55A95K £2399 / go stuff tv/A95K

Samsung developed QD OLED to address the one shortcoming of OLED a relative lack of brightness yet it’s Sony that leads the QD OLED pack now The XR 55A95K doesn’t come cheap, but its performance makes the asking price look fair enough In every respect colour balance, motion control, edge definition, detail it performs impeccably It’s a brilliantly naturalistic and lifelike watch, with the deep, varied black tones that are one of the real OLED trademarks

Stuff says QD OLED tech is here, and on this evidence it ’s the real deal

Sony KE 48A9 £999 / go stuff tv/KE48A9

Don’t be fooled by its relatively small size: the A9 is a real smasher of a 4K OLED

Hisense A7200G £299 / go stuff tv/A7200G

This 50in budget buy is a perfectly good way to get a biggish screen at a little price.

Sony XR-55A80K

£1495 / go stuff tv/A80K

Endlessly watchable 4K HDR images, but this isn’t quite the perfect package.

Sky Glass

£649 / go stuff tv/SkyGlass

The future of Sky is here… but probably not if you have a decent 4K television already

BARGAIN

Ready mode keeps your chosen voice assistant on constant alert, just like a smart speaker

Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max

£1799 / go stuff tv/AmbeoMax

The arrival of a new Plus model means the standard Ambeo Soundbar gains a ‘Max’ and a £400 price cut (at least for now)

Utterly convincing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D sound, ample power and lots of inputs mean no other soundbar currently available can perform sonic feats with this much confidence The sheer room filling scale of its sound is remarkable.

Stuff says The Ambeo Soundbar Max is a big unit but the sound it makes is bigger still

Sonos Arc

£899 / go stuff tv/SonosArc

Don’t expect this soundbar to do everything a multi speaker Dolby Atmos setup can do, but its up firing and side firing drivers give a real sense of cinematic scale See also the much more affordable Ray model

Stuff says Big screen sound for your big screen binges

Roku Streambar

£125 / go stuff tv/Streambar

It’s a compact soundbar and a versatile streaming stick in the same box and both parts of the deal work brilliantly well This is the simplest and cheapest way to upgrade your TV’s sound and smarts in one go

Stuff says A punchy little bar with built in streaming skills

Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

£449 / go stuff tv/SonosBeam

The addition of Dolby Atmos has made an excellent compact soundbar even better.

Sky TV

from £26/m + setup / go stuff tv/SkyTV

Already home to the biggest selection of 4K content, from blockbuster films and original dramas to top flight sport, Sky has adopted a can’t beat ’em join ’em approach to streaming by incorporating the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and BT Sport in its user friendly interface It’s also restructured its packages to make them more affordable, while multiroom and mobile options round off the most comprehensive content system money can buy.

Stuff says Sky has come out fighting to move with the times and its selection of shows is unrivalled

Amazon Fire TV Cube £110 / go stuff tv/FireTVCube

The Fire TV interface is easy to use and all the big catch up services are available via this tidy box and best of all, Alexa voice control works brilliantly The new version on p82 brings minor upgrades for £30 more

Stuff says A marvel of voice control for your telly

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K £50 / go stuff tv/FireStick4K

This streaming stick offers 4K plus a faster processor than the original Fire TV Stick, and comes with an Alexa remote but see also the Max model below, and the cheaper non 4K version

Stuff says Simply a great 4K streaming stick

Roku Express 4K £40 / go stuff tv/Express4K

Has the user friendly Roku OS and offers all the streaming services you’d expect.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max £55 / go stuff tv/Fire4KMax

The ‘Max’ part means faster insides, Wi Fi 6 support and a remote with more buttons

Apple iPad Air

from £669 / go stuff tv/iPadAir

This tablet has enough power to rival the flagship iPad Pro and even quite a few current MacBooks. And though you might need to add a keyboard, a stylus and even a gamepad to make the most of it, the latest Air reinforces the growing sense that an iPad really can be a laptop replacement for doing proper work (or play) Slight storage dilemmas aside, this is a top notch device, supported by an ecosystem that makes it highly versatile for an increasingly wide range of users.

Stuff says It ’s not per fect, but this latest iPad Air is a top quality package not least because of that M1 chip

Apple iPad Pro (M1) from £749 / go stuff tv/ProM1 We’ve tested the new, even more powerful M2 version on p32, but don’t discount last year’s iPad Pro just yet The display is wonderful and the ‘old’ M1 chip is still an absolute powerhouse

Stuff says The best tab around… not counting the new one

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra from £999 / go stuff tv/S8Ultra

Its sheer size might make it a bit niche, but this Galaxy Tab is perfect for watching films, playing games, reading text and taking notes with the bundled S Pen Add DeX, and this is the best Android tab money can buy

Stuff says Samsung has made the ultimate Android tablet

Apple iPad (9th Gen)

from £369 / go stuff tv/iPad9

Apple’s cheapest tab is a capable productivity tool but see the new model tested on p29.

Xiaomi Pad 5 from £329 / go stuff tv/Pad5

Xiaomi’s do it all Android tab is a proper all round bargain

Sony PlayStation 5

£540 / go stuff tv/PS5

The PS5 is not a modest upgrade Its hulking design means it’ll make a bad first impression on some, but spend time playing it and it’ll soon win you over and then some. This is essentially a high spec gaming PC for the living room: stupendously powerful, with greatly reduced loading times compared to the PS4 Most last gen titles will run fine, many with a boost, and the line up of new games is strong; we just hope developers make use of that fascinating DualSense pad and its haptic feedback trickery.

Stuff says Huge power, clever hardware and a guarantee of great games to come make the PS5 hard to resist

Nintendo Switch OLED £310 / go stuff tv/SwitchOLED

While it’s identical to the standard Switch in terms of raw power, the OLED model does move things on with its bigger, better display If you’re looking to buy a Switch for the first time, this one is well worth the extra cash

Stuff says A tempting upgrade from the trusty old Switch

Microsoft Xbox Series X £450 / go stuff tv/XSX

A fully future proofed machine that doesn’t scrimp on specs or speed, the Series X just wants more exclusive titles to make it sing Xbox Game Pass remains pretty much the best streamed offering in gaming

Stuff says A beast of a console that needs more games

Valve Steam Deck from £349 / go stuff tv/SteamDeck Battery life is a worry, but this do anything device could revolutionise PC gaming.

Microsoft Xbox Series S £250 / go stuff tv/XSS

Delivers affordability without sacrificing key features, but still falls short on new titles

MACHINES

TIPS & TRICKS

Sprinting doesn’t consume stamina until you get close to an enemy, when it suddenly does!

Weapons are key: you need to improve them whenever you can A good melee weapon is a must

A hub called the Roundtable Hold enables you to visit characters who can offer gear upgrades

NEW

Hades from £10 / all platforms

Just when you think you’ve seen all this hellish roguelite has to offer, a new tweak yanks you out of your comfort zone It quickly becomes very addictive and even if you’ll have to face numerous setbacks, few games make you feel so godly

Stuff says

Great even if you don’t like roguelites …and if you do, it’s the best there is

Return to Monkey Island from £22 / PS5, PC

A long overdue sequel fans of the original will love returning to familiar locations, while there’s some poignancy in seeing an ageing Guybrush desperate to take care of unfinished business.

At heart, though, this game cares most about making you laugh

Stuff says

A delightful, laugh out loud return to a pirate adventure classic

HOT BUY

Elden Ring

from £42 / PS5, PS4, XSX, XB1, PC

With FromSoftware’s trademark difficulty and a richly imaginative world that doesn’t hold your hand, this ambitious action RPG is a crowning achievement There’s so much to lose yourself in here: lore hunters will have a field day combing through the world’s mythology; speedrunners and those who thrive on challenge will relish figuring out the best weapons to use and where to find them Even for most of us mere mortals, Elden Ring is an event: an invitation to greatness.

Stuff says Majestic and daunting, this is like no other open world action RPG

OR PLAY THIS

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This adventure filled open world masterpiece might be five years old now, but it’s still brilliant £45 / Switch

Deathloop from £17 / PS5, PC

Meaty combat, organic exploration and lots of ingenious puzzles: pretty much flawless

Halo Infinite from £24 / XSX, XB1, PC

The best Halo since the original trilogy and it’s included with Game Pass

The Last of Us Part I £60 / PS5

Easily the best way to play or replay one of the greatest games ever made

Forza Horizon 5 from £30 / XSX, XB1, PC

This stunning fifth venture into the Horizon is the pinnacle of open world racing

It Takes Two from £22 / PS5, PS4, XSX, XB1, PC

A masterful co op experience that will live long in the memory.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart £48 / PS5

Consistently fun and incredible to look at, this is a PS5 must have.

Metroid Dread £40 / Switch

Samus Aran’s latest adventure is the perfect showpiece game for the Switch OLED

Sonos One £199 / go stuff tv/SonosOne

The Sonos One is now a more well rounded device than it was at launch, supporting Spotify with Alexa or Google Assistant voice control as well as Amazon Music and TuneIn Radio, while the early Alexa hiccups seem to have been fixed Sound quality is a cut above pretty much anything else at this price point with the exception of Amazon’s Echo Studio, but that speaker can’t beat this one’s lovely design and ease of setup. Plus it won’t force you to commit to one ecosystem ’til death do you part

Stuff says

A great balance of sound and smarts for for ward thinking audio nerds

No, the latest Zeppelin doesn’t quite give the widely separated stereo sound it reckons it can And no, that downward facing ‘ambient’ light doesn’t serve much of a purpose, while the absence of an HDMI input is perplexing. But in every other respect this is a deeply impressive wireless speaker There’s no clever DSP magic, just excellent sound with a stack of music making talent and a control app that helps rather than hinders It’s basically the complete package

Stuff

Sonos Move

£399 / go.stuff.tv/SonosMove

The Sonos range of wireless speakers had been crying out for a battery powered portable model for ages and finally our favourite multiroom audio specialist caved in. Luckily, the Move was worth the wait. Its adaptability and sound quality mean it’s fine value for money, and a no brainer for anyone who’s already a fan of the brand This is the speaker Sonos should have launched years ago and for even better portability, see the Roam model at No4 on this list.

Stuff says Sonos finally gets up to speed with the portable speaker craze, and in style

NOW ADD THIS YouTube Music Premium

If you’d like a side of optional visuals with your audio, look no further than the ad free tier of YouTube Music. £9 99/month / music youtube com

Sonos Roam £179 / go stuff tv/SonosRoam

There are better sounding sub £200 speakers, but none with the Roam’s portable skills

Naim Mu so 2nd Generation £1449 / go stuff tv/Mu so2

More than capable of maintaining Naim’s position at the front of the luxury hi fi pack

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII £319 / go stuff tv/C10Mk2

Ideal for multiroom systems there’s nothing else that sounds this good at this price

Devialet Phantom 1 108dB £2800 each / go stuff tv/Phantom1

An insanely powerful lump of hi fi magic, best enjoyed in a neighbour terrifying stereo pair

JBL Charge 5

£130 / go stuff tv/JBLCharge5

A no nonsense portable speaker for audio fans who won’t settle for a sonic lightweight.

Q Acoustics M20

£360 (pair) / go stuff tv/QM20

Hi res sound from multiple sources, with none of the compromises the price suggests.

Bose SoundLink Revolve II £200 / go stuff tv/Revolve2

A stylish cylinder with a big, bold voice that can easily fill all corners of a room

says Supremely enjoyable hi fi sound in a supremely large package

You can control your Move with the touch controls on top, the Sonos app, Google Assistant or Alexa

Auto Trueplay adapts the Move’s sound to different rooms, while the app offers additional EQ tweaks

Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin £549 / go stuff tv/Zeppelin

HOT BUY

HOT BUY

VanMoof S3

£2248 / go stuff tv/VanMoofS3

VanMoof’s second gen S3 (or X3 if you’re under 5ft 8in) looks like a normal bike, rides like a normal bike and, crucially, doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount of cash. The chunky 50mm tyres, slightly swooped bars and upright riding position all combine to make it super comfy, and 30 miles with the power assistance set to level three (out of four) left us completely sweat free with 20% still in the tank Plus, for such a looker, the S3 has a lot of discreet smarts to deter thieves. See also the ultra techy S5 model.

Stuff says This smar t looking e bike offers a great ride, great features and some genuinely useful security smar ts

Cowboy 4 £2490 / go stuff tv/Cowboy4

The Belgian maker’s latest model has 50% more torque than its predecessor, but the slinky profile and simple interface with GPS remain and there’s also an equally excellent step through version, the 4 ST

Stuff says Smoothly integrated e power at a good price

LeMond Prolog

£4425 / go stuff tv/Prolog

From multiple Tour de France winner and world road race champion Greg LeMond, the Prolog is an all carbon commute crushing machine that doesn’t really look like it has a motor or a battery at all

Stuff says If you want gears and lightness, it’s worth it

Ribble Endurance SL e Pro

from £5199 / go stuff tv/Endurance

Super light and a great bike on its own the motor is just the icing on the hilly cake.

Gocycle

G4i £4999 / go stuff tv/G4i

This folding e bike is silky smooth, super fast and splendidly futuristic for a price

Porsche Taycan

from £75,500 / go stuff tv/Taycan

It was about time someone took the fight to Tesla, and boy has Porsche delivered with the Taycan. This electric four door saloon is the EV that petrolheads have been waiting for. In full fat Turbo S flavour, the Taycan hits 62mph in 2 8 seconds and adding more drama to proceedings is how it shifts up through its two speed gearbox The Taycan has a dynamism that can’t be matched by other electric cars, with a surefootedness that encourages you to press on.

Stuff says Big power, sports car handling and lots of clever tech make the Taycan the most exciting EV yet

Audi Q4 E-tron from £44,975 / go stuff tv/Q4Etron

Audi’s premium electric SUV has decent range and is surprisingly well priced. The smart tech works great, but this is also a highly practical car and will make sense for a lot of families and compulsive boot fillers

Stuff says The best all round electric SUV we’ve driven

Polestar 2 from £43,150 / go stuff tv/Polestar2

From Volvo’s EV subsidiary, this five door saloon is perky and fun to throw around corners It also feels just that wee bit better put together than the Tesla Model 3, plus the Scandi looks are nicer

Stuff says This all electric fastback is a joy to drive

Hyundai Ioniq 5 from £41,650 / go stuff tv/Ioniq5

A deceptively large electric saloon that’s bristling with slick tech.

Volkswagen ID 4 from £38,710 / go stuff tv/id4

A step up from the smaller ID.3, and a great crossover option for families

TIPS & TRICKS

The Echo’s built in Zigbee hub can hook up hundreds of smart home devices without a bridge

Pair a compatible thermostat and the Echo’s temperature sensor can activate the heating

Alexa Flash Briefings deliver bursts of news or trivia; choose from 5000 sources in the app

3

Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) £25 / go stuff tv/Dot

It can’t match its big brother above; but as a radio and Alexa assistant for the bedside or kitchen, this cutey gets the job done It’s way better than its predecessor Dots, which always had fairly weak speakers this model is capable of everything you can ask Alexa to throw at it Sadly the ‘with Clock’ version of this iteration has been discontinued; the new one has an improved display that can show much more than just the time, but costs £65 (it’s £55 without the display see p83)

Stuff says Still a great mini wondergadget at a bargain price

Google Nest Mini

£49 / go stuff tv/NestMini

If you live in Google’s world (and let’s face it, most of us do) then the Nest Mini is the best, cheapest way to get into the smart home game Just like the latest Echo Dot, this latest version features upgraded speakers and mics compared to older models It’s a slightly better bet than the Echo Dot with Clock if you want close integration with your Google calendar and apps The only reason not to buy is if you want more powerful audio for that, get the Google Nest Audio instead

Stuff says Louder and cleverer than ever… and it’ll only improve with updates

HOT BUY

Amazon Echo (4th Gen)

£90 / go stuff tv/Echo

Having morphed from a cylinder to a sphere, the latest Echo is an excellent newsreader, weather forecaster, personal assistant and intercom straight out of the box; but it’s now also a capable speaker and a very accessible smart home hub It doesn’t sound as good as the Sonos One for listening to music, but it’s significantly smarter and considerably cheaper too.

Stuff says An all round upgrade that makes the Echo a smarter speaker than ever

NOW

ADD THIS Honeywell T6R

This Zigbee enabled thermostat is wireless so you can place it where it’s most convenient. £153 / screwfix com

Ring Indoor Cam

£50 / go stuff tv/RingIndoor

This cute little spy cam is a bona fide bargain for anyone with security worries

Nest Learning Thermostat £219 / go stuff tv/NestTherm A simple and mess free smart thermostat with Alexa compatibility

Amazon Echo Show 15 £240 / go stuff tv/EchoShow15 Amazon’s smart display has come of age this is easily the best Show in town

Philips Hue Starter Kit from £70 / go stuff tv/Hue Become an indoor god with the smartest way of lighting up your home remotely

Dyson V15 Detect Absolute

£630 / go stuff tv/V15Absolute Ludicrous but brilliant: a vacuum cleaner that illuminates your dust particles with a laser.

Facebook Portal+ £289 / go stuff tv/PortalPlus

Not the smartest display around, but a brilliant choice if you’re after a screen for video calls.

Nest Doorbell (Batter y)

£180 / go stuff tv/NestDoorbell

A simple gadget that makes it easy to answer the door when you can’t answer the door

HOT BUY HOT BUY

Meta Quest 2

from £396 / go stuff tv/Quest2

The original Quest felt almost too good to be true Its successor lacks the same wow factor, but you can’t argue with a better display and processor not to mention a lighter, more comfy build and the fantastic Beat Saber now thrown in Are there more powerful headsets? Is motion sickness still an issue? Yes to both, but superb tracking and a total absence of wires make this the VR package to get and with Meta accounts now live, you no longer have to be logged in to Facebook to use it.

Stuff says Not a complete reinvention, but our favourite VR headset is now even better and cheaper!

Valve Index

£919 / go stuff tv/ValveIndex While not revolutionary, the Index carries enough subtle upgrades to put it atop the PC based headset pack Everything looks fabulous and the controllers deliver the most fluid feeling VR interactions to date

Stuff says The best of the performance PC VR options

HTC Vive Pro £599 (headset only) / go stuff tv/VivePro

No longer the top dog for high end VR using a PC, the Vive Pro launched way back in 2018 remains a strong headset thanks to its crisp screens and comfy fit But see also the upgraded Pro 2 model

Stuff says Impressive, but not the best around any more

HTC Vive Flow

£499 / go stuff tv/ViveFlow

The VR is decent, but the ‘travel friendly’ part faces some obstacles.

PlayStation VR

from £170 / go stuff tv/PSVR Held back by niggling issues… let’s hope the upcoming PSVR2 will fix those

GoPro Hero11 Black

£550 / go stuff tv/Hero11

The Hero11 Black introduces a sensor with an almost square 8:7 aspect ratio, capturing footage that can be losslessly cropped at high quality for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or whatever other format you want That aside, the design is practically identical to its predecessor so it’s still compatible with almost all existing accessories Most importantly, its lightweight build is just as durable as past GoPros, and with HyperSmooth stabilisation you can expect footage with best in class smoothness.

Stuff says An innovative and power ful camera that ’s good for creators and adventurers alike

DJI Air 2S £881 / go stuff tv/Air2S

DJI’s laurels remain assuredly un rested upon, and this may be its best drone yet: an almost perfect balance of portability, performance and price, ideal for novices but still able to produce nigh on pro level results

Stuff says The best all round camera drone on the market

DJI Mini 3 Pro £709 / go stuff tv/Mini3Pro

Like the old Mini 2, this little quadcopter is light enough to avoid having to be registered with the CAA yet still grabs stellar aerial video It’s a user friendly compact drone that doesn’t compromise on performance

Stuff says

DJI’s latest dinky drone produces great images

DJI Mavic 3 £1729 / go stuff tv/Mavic3

It isn’t cheap, but DJI’s stunning flagship raises the bar for foldable flying cameras.

Insta360 One RS 1-Inch 360 Edition £810 / go stuff tv/360Edition

Huge 1in sensors make this the best 360° cam you can get for image quality

TIPS & TRICKS

It’s easy to set up the X T4’s customisable Q button: just hold it down for a couple of seconds for options

Avoid those wonky horizons by turning on the built in on screen level in screen settings

Fujifilm X Acquire is a clever bit of PC/Mac software that backs up all your X T4’s custom settings

Sony A7C £1699 / go stuff tv/A7C

Putting full frame sensors in small bodies is one of Sony’s greatest strengths, and the A7C minimises things even further It stuffs a lot of imaging power into a compact package with plenty of battery life; for photo and video geeks in need of a body they can carry in a small bag, this fits the bill better than any other interchangeable lens camera around It isn’t a budget model by any means, but it isn’t a starter job either it’s an enthusiast camera, capable of producing stunning photos and videos

Stuff says Superb quality and full frame goodness from a half pint camera

Sony A7 III £1699 / go stuff tv/A7iii

The A7 III manages to pack in a lot of tech and desirability for less than £2000 You get a full frame 24 2MP sensor, a super whizzy Bionz X processor, 10fps shooting, a hybrid AF system, a 2 3m dot EVF and a 3in 922k dot tilting LCD touchscreen It’s a fantastic all rounder that’s suited to a bunch of shooting scenarios, coping well with landscapes, portraits and even a little bit of high speed sport work. It’s not the prettiest thing we’ve ever seen, but it handles well for its compact size

Stuff says An excellent all round shooter that thrives in low light conditions

Fujifilm X-T4

£1549 / go.stuff.tv/XT4

The Fuji X T4 might be the high end mirrorless camera of your dreams Relatively affordable for a flagship, it excels at stills and video thanks to in body image stabilisation, high speed shooting and 4K recording at up to 60fps. Rapid shooting is backed up by fancy AF tricks that feel equally fast and reliable, and even the battery life goes above and beyond the usual standards There’s no doubting this is a worthy successor to the already fabulous X T3.

Stuff says A superbly capable mirrorless camera for shooting pretty much anything in style

NOW ADD THIS

Fujifilm XF 16 80mm f/4

This versatile lens covers a bigger zoom range than most and adapts to pretty much any requirements. £699 / jessops com

Nikon D780 £2199 / go stuff tv/D780

An all round DSLR that’s built like a tank and borrows the best tricks of its mirrorless siblings

Canon EOS R6 £2399 / go stuff tv/EOSR6

With its low light friendly specs, the R6 all but guarantees sharp shots in any conditions

Fujifilm X H2S

£2499 / go stuff tv/XH2S

This ace all rounder offers 40fps burst shooting, exceptional autofocus and wonderful stills

Canon EOS RP £1050 / go stuff tv/EOSRP

A full frame mirrorless marvel that’s light enough to not be a burden and offers top picture quality

Sony A1 £6499 / go stuff tv/A1

There are better options for specialists, but this is the ultimate no compromise all round camera.

Panasonic Lumix GH6

£1999 / go stuff tv/GH6

This superb Micro Four Thirds camera is easily Panasonic’s best mirrorless yet for video.

Fujifilm GFX100S

£5489 / go stuff tv/GFX100S

Not cheap, but lightweight and compact: Fuji has made medium format accessible

Fed up of yelling?

Alexa’s voice can work like an intercom with connected Echo devices

Alexa Voice Shopping lets you order from Amazon; add a ‘voice code’ to keep the kids off

Dot at your bedside?

Saying “Alexa, turn on whisper mode” will stop it waking up sleepyheads

Microsoft Xbox Wireless Headset

£90 / go stuff tv/XboxHeadset

With their chunky earpads, these black cans are unmistakably Xbox And the sound is impressive for the price, with a low end response so impactful we had to turn down the bass in the Xbox’s EQ app. You might find yourself wishing for some sort of multifunction button for non gaming use (and there’s no case, suggesting Microsoft expects you to keep it in the house) But if you like the sound of keeping your Xbox headset outlay below three figures, look no further

Stuff says

Yes, you really can bag a decent gaming headset for under £100

With this redesigned and markedly improved Paperwhite, Amazon’s e reader dominance looks sure to continue The bigger display is worth the added heft, while the warm light setting means the gap between this and the pricey Oasis has never been smaller The new interface gets a thumbs up too that is, providing you’re happy to buy all your books from Amazon, because it doesn’t make it easy to read from other sources. More than ever, the Paperwhite is the Kindle to go for

Stuff says

The evolved Paper white remains the best Kindle for almost ever yone

HOT BUY

Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen)

£25 / go stuff tv/Dot

As a radio and Alexa assistant for the bedside or kitchen, this cutey gets the job done It’s way better than its predecessor Dots, which always had fairly weak speakers this model is capable of everything you can ask Alexa to throw at it Sadly the ‘with Clock’ version of this iteration has been discontinued; the new one has an improved display that can show much more than just the time, but costs £65.

Stuff says Still a great mini wondergadget at a bargain price

NOW

ADD

THIS

Sportlink Wall Mount

This newly redesigned mount for the Dot will keep it clear from wet surfaces in the bathroom or kitchen. £11 / amazon co uk

SanDisk Extreme 1TB £119 / go stuff tv/Extreme1TB

A rugged little SSD for those who don’t just need a drive to dump next to their desktop

Raspberr y Pi 400 Kit £119 / go stuff tv/Pi400

This DIY PC kit is a superb gadget for hacking around and exploring computing’s past

Orange Crest Edition £95 / go stuff tv/OrangeCrest

Comfortable cans with a sound that’s true to Orange’s hard rocking heritage

Razer Kishi V2 £100 / go stuff tv/Kishi2

This compact device is a sleek (if pricey) way to turn your phone into a games console

Poco M4 Pro £210 / go stuff tv/M4Pro

Skips a few luxuries, but still a seriously good Android phone for the price.

Beurer TL50

£80 / go stuff tv/TL50

A beautifully designed anti SAD lamp that doesn’t cost the earth.

UE Wonderboom 3 £90 / go stuff tv/WB3

Showing its age at version 3, but still one of the best compact Bluetooth speakers around

Amazon Kindle Paper white £130 / go stuff tv/Paperwhite

Swapthe cavalr y

Unlike today’s sealed devices, the first Kindle had an easy to replace battery, which you could quickly access by sliding off the grey rear cover

Amazo n Kin d le

’ve got a Kindle, but this looks like someone’s roughly hewn it from wood with an axe.

The Kindle’s been called the ‘iPod for books’, in the sense of not being the first of its kind yet changing everything But this first version lacked Apple style design: it was as if Amazon had whacked an Etch A Sketch with an ugly stick, got drunk and glued on loads of weird bits Today it resembles a vision of the future from a badly made 1960s sci fi show. Still, they must have done something right: when you think of e readers, the name that springs to mind certainly isn’t Nook

Oh, be fair, Amazon got lots right: E Ink, clicky buttons, wireless ebook sync…

We imagine that people leaping to the defence of the first Kindle never used one after all, it was only sold in the US Otherwise they’d recall a display with a refresh rate so painfully slow that Amazon was forced to add a sort of gully down the right side with a cursor that you moved up and down using a scroll wheel The keyboard was designed to encourage you to reflect and review, but was so miserable to use that they removed it from later models. Still, kudos for the wireless download and sync, in an era of plugging devices into PCs

And kudos for evolving the Kindle, making today’s devices nothing like the first? Now you’re getting it There’s nothing wrong with celebrating the Kindle, but the first model was an experiment; refinement followed The gully was replaced by a joystick and then touch navigation Screens became sharper Backlights were added Amazon even relented on snubbing the popular format EPUB, which ‘Send to Kindle’ now converts although it sometimes wrecks formatting Maybe someone should send Amazon’s engineers an ebook on the importance of industry standard ebook formats