At a Glance Expert’s Rating Pros Impressive sound quality Comfortable, secure fit Solid battery life Cons No ANC No auto-pause Fiddly touch controls Our Verdict The Jabra Elite 3 earbuds deliver an impressive all-round audio experience that belies their affordable price tag – provided you can live without ANC. Best Prices Today: Jabra Elite 3 It’s hard to believe that the very first pair of true wireless earbuds were released as recently as 2015....
While working on my review of the Kobo Nia this week, I was reminded again of the importance to an eBook reader of the content available for it. You can have the best hardware in the world, but if the device is only able to download books from a badly curated online store that gets its books later than everywhere else, you’re not going to have a good time. But let’s see how things compare right now....
Kingdom Hearts 3 has been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. We have been exploring the latest Kingdom Hearts news, as well as speculation about the game’s Disney worlds (some of which have already been revealed), new gameplay features and trailers that give a sneak peek at the game. The Kingdom Hearts games have widespread appeal thanks to their ties with Disney and Final Fantasy, so we expect this to be among the best-selling games of 2019....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict The Lenovo Smart Clock is a fairly simple concept – a Home Mini with a screen – but slick design, a simple interface, and smart features around screen brightness make it a surprisingly compelling offering. The only real downside is the lack of Bluetooth support – the main Home Mini feature missing here – but everything else about this does exactly what you want it to....
At a glance Expert’s Rating Pros Stunning, golden design Clear and bright OLED screen Decent performance Cons Underwhelming everyday battery life No USB-A or HDMI ports Shallow key travel Our Verdict The Yoga Slim 9i from Lenovo has a design that stands out from the crowd and impressive performance across a variety of tasks. However, the battery life is a bit of a let down. Best Prices Today: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i (Gen 7) Unlike most of Lenovo’s Yoga laptops, Slim 9i (Gen 7) isn’t a 2-in-1 device....
At a Glance Our Verdict We loved – strike that – still love the LG G2, so we’re pleased to find the LG G3 is a solid upgrade to the G2. It has a faster processor, an improved camera and the ability to expand the phone’s internal storage with a microSDXC card, plus it beats all its rivals with a quad-HD screen and good value for money. Best Prices Today: LG G2 When the LG G2 was released we judged it to be the best smartphone money can buy, and to this day it sits atop our best smartphone 2014 chart....
At a Glance Our Verdict As we haven’t had any hands on time with the Sony Xperia Z4 as it is yet to be announced in the UK, we can’t say definitively which phone is better. With that being said, it depends on what you use your phone for – the LG G4 seems to be the better option for photography and general style/comfort, while the Z4 looks to be the more powerful of the two phones....
Car tech is exploding right now: Apple and Google are getting in on a game that Microsoft has tried to conquer for a while: infotainment systems. Now, there’s another player – Automotive Grade Linux (AGL). AGL was launched at a recent Automotive Linux Summit in Tokyo, a collaboration between the Linux Foundation and Jaguar Land Rover along with plenty of other companies including Nissan and Toyota. As you’d imagine, it’s an open platform so anyone can get the source code and develop apps....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict When we first heard about the Logitech Harmony, we were very excited about the concept of controlling our home cinema devices using our iPhones, however it seems the concept was better than the execution. While the Harmony has serious potential and its hardware does a great job with controlling devices (over 225,000), we feel that the accompanying app and setup lets it down somewhat....
Nearly 25 years have passed since fans of Tolkien’s works saw Middle-Earth on the big screen. However, this winter, we can return to the world of Elves, warriors and wizards with The War of the Rohirrim – the first animation set in the Lord of the Rings universe. The film is set almost 200 years before Frodo’s quest. Rohan is ruled by King Helm Hammerhand. He is conflicted with the Dunlendings, led by Wulf, seeking revenge for his father’s death....
At a Glance Our Verdict Until we have an exact UK price for the HTC One E8 it’s a little difficult to make any firm conclusions. However, if we are to believe that it will come in with a mid-range price tag – say, no more than £300 – it’s very difficult to justify the extra cost of the £519 HTC One M8. Go for the flagship and you get a better rear camera and a more-stylish metal design....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict Although we’re slightly pining for a completely new Mario Kart, this Deluxe version of the Wii U game is worth picking up whether you’ve played its predecessor to death or you’re completely new to the series. While racing isn’t hugely changed by the addition of double weapons, the new battle modes and arenas fix the biggest problem with Mario Kart 8. Best Prices Today: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe At launch, the Nintendo Switch was all about Zelda: Breath of the Wild but there’s finally a new major franchise game in town and it’s part of one of the most liked series to date....
There aren’t many franchises where animated shows and live-action ones co-exist in official canon, but streaming services are opening doors for different types of series to feed into one another where they haven’t been able to before. The latest example is What If…? – the fourth Marvel series to hit Disney Plus and the first fully animated series to be part of the MCU (previous Marvel cartoons aren’t part of the official canon)....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict The Microsoft Band is the most Microsoft product imaginable. It does useful stuff. And mostly it does that stuff well. But it is ugly and uncomfortable and no-one is ever going to point at a Microsoft Band and say ‘I want one of those’. Which is a shame, because having used it for a while – and despite issues with battery life and distance measurement – I like it and will probably keep using it....
Microsoft Build 2020 is taking place this week, although it’s quite unlike any in the event’s history. For the first time, the company’s flagship developer conference will be taking place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. If you’re not familiar with Build, think of it as Microsoft’s answer to WWDC. It might not feature new hardware launches, but software development is arguably just as important to the company’s strategy. Microsoft made the announcement that Build would be online-only back in March, so it’s had plenty of time to prepare this all-new virtual event....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Pros Excellent 120Hz display Premium design Great performance Solid battery life Cons Expensive Limited ports Pure tablet experience still needs work Our Verdict The Pro 8 is the best Windows 2-in-1 you can buy right now, offering an excellent blend of design, performance and versatility. If you’re looking for a premium productivity tablet with detachable keyboard, it’s a no-brainer – provided you can afford it....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict Budget phones don’t often come in a plus model offering a bigger screen and larger battery, but the Moto E5 Plus ticks both these boxes and at a price tag under £150. What’s also impressive is that you get Moto G design and some other handy features including a fingerprint scanner. The downside is that performance is a bit laggy, so it might be worth jumping up to the G6 Play....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict If you’re looking for a cheap 4G smartphone then the Moto E 4G is the best deal on the market right now. If you would rather have a cheap dual-SIM phone with 3G connectivity then the mark 3 Moto G is your best bet. But the new Moto G 4G for 2015 is not the best phone for either customer, and its larger, higher-resolution screen, marginally improved photography credentials and stereo sound are not enough for us to turn a blind eye to its £60 higher price, slower hardware and missing software features....
At a Glance Expert’s Rating Our Verdict The G5s is a good-looking, well-built phone that suffers from below-average performance. Its cameras are good, though, and it has a decent screen. The main problem is that you can get a faster phone with better specs for the same money, so it’s hard to recommend it unless you find it significantly cheaper. Best Prices Today: Moto G5S When the Moto G5 launched it became our favourite budget phone, but things weren’t perfect....
At a Glance Our Verdict So the second-generation Moto X is categorically better than its predecessor. Significantly so. It has a much more powerful spec, and the display is what we hoped we’d see on the 2013 version. The camera is now worth your Consideration, and it is a thin and light smartphone. We liked the original Moto X, but the 2014 flavour is definitely worth the upgrade. Best Prices Today: Moto X (2nd gen....
