Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i Computer Shopper

As I sat and wrote my welcome letter for the previous issue in late March, the UK had just gone into lockdown, and it was the first few days of schools, non-essential shops and businesses being closed. As I write this at the end of April – with the vast majority of Brits complying with the new stay-home rules and the virus peak having passed – the focus is now on how the lockdown will be eased. A core part of lifting restrictions involves technology, namely a new contact-tracing app being developed by NHS (see ‘The Lowdown’, page 17). But this will require millions of us to sign up – and share our data with the app. By the time you read this, certain restrictions may already have been lifted,…

Better broadband Tips and tricks to get ultra-reliable, fast network speeds for all your devices and across your whole home. Plus the best routers and mesh systems for your home setup In search of reality From vision to sound, and touch to smell, we explore the technologies that make our computing experience ever more like the real world Unleash VLC The free media player that lets you download from YouTube, convert video formats, and play any type of online content Soundbars on test We try out eight soundbars to find which makes the best home cinema upgrade COMPUTER SHOPPER ISSUE 390 ON SALE IN NEWSAGENTS FROM 11th JUNE…

Madeline Bennett RAVES I WAS PLANNING to rant this month about certain companies using coronavirus as a means to offer even worse customer service than usual, hiding behind the pandemic as an excuse. But in the scheme of things, I realised there is much more to worry about than a parcel or two going missing (I’m looking at you, Hermes), and decided to instead focus on a positive from this virus outbreak: reconnecting. Many of us are now turning to video-chat services such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, House Party and FaceTime to keep up with friends and family. However, I’m already suffering from Zoom fatigue and have cut back on the amount of regular video meetups I do each week. Suddenly, people I saw only once every few months are…

“The price of this escape route is an unprecedented increase in digital surveillance”The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change isn’t too keen on contact-tracing apps “It is highly likely that malicious actors will use AI to attack the UK in numerous ways, and the intelligence community will need to develop new AI-based defence measures”The Rusi think tank foresees a new machine-based era of cyber espionage “What better way of plugging this gap by engaging with female candidates, encouraging more innovation and generating as yet untapped excitement for IT in future generations?”Tim Sadler, CEO of Tessian, on the company’s report that found only one in six UK IT professionals are female “Microsoft Edge + Outlook = Better together”Microsoft is posting ads on its email service to push people to its newly…

£2,199 • From www.scan.co.uk WHEN IT COMES to gaming PCs, the mechanical keyboard is king; you rarely, however, see one adorning a gaming laptop. There is the odd exception, but most manufacturers avoid integrating mechanical keyboards because the things just add so much weight and bulk. Not so the Gigabyte Aorus 15G, which incorporates, among other things, a fully mechanical keyboard, yet keeps the weight down to a manageable 2.3kg. Coupled with some pretty potent innards, an aluminium chassis that feels as if it would survive a nuclear blast and a competitive-class 240Hz display, this is a gaming laptop to be reckoned with. The model we were sent costs £2,199 and comes with a 240Hz display (running at 1,980x,1080), an octa-core, 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-10875H processor, 16GB of RAM, a…

£370 • From www.amazon.co.uk MESH SYSTEMS USUALLY come with at least one main unit and then a satellite or two to spread around your home to improve your Wi-Fi. It’s something of a surprise, then, to open the Linksys Velop MX5300 Home Mesh WiFi 6 System box and find that there’s just a single router inside. This is what Linksys calls a ‘one-pack’, which means that it’s not really a mesh system at this point, although it’s capable of being expanded into one at a later date. Well, it would be if you could buy additional satellites but, at the time of writing, you couldn’t; nor can you buy the two-pack, which is due to come later. ALL BY MYSELF At the moment, then, the MX5300 is very much a…

£50 • From www.argos.co.uk EPSON’S EXPRESSION HOME XP-3100 looks to be everything you could want from a multifunction peripheral (MFP) for the home. Smart, compact and reasonably attractive, it certainly won’t look out of place in a typical living room. It also has the features you’ll need: you can print, scan and copy, share it over Wi-Fi, and print to both sides of the paper without lifting a finger. That’s impressive, given it only costs £50. Look in more depth, however, and you’ll see that this MFP misses some things you might find on more expensive alternatives. There are no front-panel USB or memory card slots, for example, and no touchscreen. Instead, you get a colour screen with a menu controlled by membrane buttons. The screen is small, but the…

£999 • From www.samsung.com/uk THE GALAXY S20+ risks being the awkward middle child of Samsung’s 2020 flagship phone range. It isn’t as fully featured as the top-of-the-range S20 Ultra (Shopper 388) and it’s more expensive than the standard S20 (page 18), which has many of the same features. However, of the three, this is the phone that gives you the best bang for your buck on paper: it’s cheaper than the S20 Ultra, and has both a larger display and bigger battery than the S20, as well as 5G included as standard. Its CPU, storage, water-resistance and construction materials all match those of the Ultra model, too. The main features it lacks are the S20 Ultra’s 108-megapixel main camera sensor and its 100x hybrid zoom. The Galaxy S20+ instead has…

£2,183 • From www.amazon.co.uk THE TOP END of the DSLR market is a minefield for consumers. Should pros and high-end amateurs go mirrorless? Will your investment in a full-frame DSLR hold up in a few years’ time? What about established versus upstart lens mounts? The Nikon D780 is a camera that might convince more than a few that the DSLR isn’t buried yet. It’s a 24.5-megapixel, full-frame sensor in a camera that can shoot up to a respectable 7fps and which takes advantage of Nikon’s legendary Advanced Multi-CAM 3500 II AF module to give you 51 autofocus points. It is also Nikon’s first DSLR to offer hybrid AF, bringing high-performance autofocus to live-view and video shooting. With awesome image quality, this is a camera that should threaten just about everything…

£50 per year • From www.avast.com AVAST’S BACKGROUND IS in security products, and its SecureLine VPN looks and feels more like an antivirus package than your average VPN. It’s also sold as an annual subscription rather than a monthly fee, just like an internet security suite. This doesn’t mean that Avast lacks the privacy protections of other VPNs, however, nor that it doesn’t cover streaming or P2P applications. The simple UI reflects the fact that the focus is on delivering a secure, encrypted internet connection with the minimum of fuss. HERE AND THERE With around 55 servers in 34 countries, SecureLine doesn’t have the global reach of, say, Nord VPN (Shopper 367) or ExpressVPN (Shopper 347). It’s strong in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, but much weaker elsewhere, with…

01 A basic laptop costing around £300 will run everyday office, multimedia and education software, but it won’t be suitable for 3D gaming or processor-intensive tasks such as video editing. Many laptops at this price have a 15.6in screen and weigh over 2kg, so they’re best used around the house and for occasional journeys. 02 If you want to play modern games, you’ll need a laptop with a dedicated graphics chip such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060M. Good gaming laptops tend to have large 15.6 or 17in screens and weigh around 3kg, so they’re best suited to use at home. 03 If you want a laptop that you can take everywhere, look for a model that weighs less than 2kg. For the best portability, buy one that has a…

WD Blue SN550 1TB £105• www.ebuyer.com There are faster SSDs, but the Blue SN550 isn’t slow, either. It’s therefore a good bet for when you want as much solid-state capacity for as little money as possible. CAPACITY 1TB •PRICE PER GIGABYTE £0.10p •INTERFACE M2/NVMe •WARRANTY Five years RTB •DETAILS www.westerndigital.com •PART CODE WDS100T2B0C •FULL REVIEW Apr 2020 ISTORAGE CloudAshur £99• www.istorage-uk.com The CloudAshur looks like a USB drive, but it’s actually a module that adds PIN-protected encryption to your files as you save them to the cloud. It’s not fast, but it is effective and totally unique. CAPACITY N/A •COST PER GIGABYTE N/A •INTERFACE USB3 •WARRANTY Three years RTB with lifetime technical support •DETAILS www.istorage-uk.com •PART CODE IS-EM-CA-256 •FULL REVIEW Jun 2020 SAMSUNG Portable SSD X5 1TB £344• www.scan.co.uk For…

01 A basic 24in LCD monitor costs around £100. It will be fine for typical Windows work but is likely to have poor viewing angles, so you’ll need to sit straight on for the best picture quality. Its colour accuracy may not be very good, either. 02 A VGA input lets you use the monitor with any PC, but the quality may not be as good as it is over DVI or HDMI. Both are digital connections and require a compatible graphics card but they avoid the need for digital-to-analogue or analogue-todigital conversions, which can reduce image quality. A digital connection achieves the best picture automatically, so you won’t have to adjust clock or phase settings as you do with analogue connections. Many DVI and all HDMI connections support HDCP,…

EPSON WorkForce WF-110W £201• www.amzn.to/38A3dyz Low speeds and high running costs are usually a ruinous combination, but the WF-110W makes up for its shortcomings with a nicely portable design and high print quality. TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet •MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440dpi •DIMENSIONS 61x309x159mm •WEIGHT 1.6kg •MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.epson.co.uk •PART CODE C11CH25401DA •FULL REVIEW Apr 2020 EPSON Expression Photo XP-8600 £100• www.amzn.to/2WNU54e The Expression Photo XP-8600 focuses on creative use, and does a great job of it, too. At this kind of price, nothing else comes close on the quality of printed photos. TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet •MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440dpi •SCANNER RESOLUTION 1,200x4,800dpi •DIMENSIONS 142x349x340mm •WEIGHT 6.7kg •MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.epson.co.uk •PART CODE C11CH47401 •FULL REVIEW Jan 2020 CANON…

01 A smart thermostat can save you a lot of money by intelligently controlling your heating. Most smart heating devices are designed to be used with hot water central heating systems, with the boiler directly controlled by the system. These typically require a relay to be wired into your boiler, with a wireless thermostat giving you direct control. Smartphone apps then tie into the system to give you remote control. While it’s possible to fit controls yourself, you may want to pay an experienced plumber to do the job: expect to pay around £150 for a typical installation. If you have electric heating, there are very few choices, and the big names (Nest, Honeywell and so on) do not directly support these systems. 02 Want smart hot water control? If…

MOTOROLA Moto G7 Power £130 SIM-free• www.johnlewis.com There’s no shortage of Moto G7 variants to choose from, but the Moto G7 Power is easily the best value. It focuses on battery life and is thus one of the longest-lasting smartphones ever - and its performance, display and rear camera are all rather good for the price, too. PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 •SCREEN SIZE 6.2in •SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,520x720 •REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels •STORAGE 32GB •WIRELESS DATA 4G •NFC No •DIMENSIONS 159x76x9.3mm •WEIGHT 193g •OPERATING SYSTEM Android 9.0 •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.motorola.co.uk •PART CODE PAE90019GB •FULL REVIEW Jun 2019 MOTOROLA Moto E6 Plus £100 SIM-free; £9-per-month contract• www.very.co.uk (SIM-free); www.tescomobile.com (contract) There’s plenty of smartphone here for the money, whether it’s the spacious 6.1in display or the surprisingly…

01 If you don’t have space in your home cinema setup for a set of surroundsound speakers, a soundbar is the next best thing. Whether you opt for a soundbar (which typically sits in front of your TV stand) or a soundplate (which sits underneath your TV), you’ll be getting significantly better audio than the weedy speakers today’s flatscreen TVs provide. 02 If you want to cut down on cable clutter, look for a soundbar with multiple HDMI inputs and outputs as well as Audio Return Channel (ARC). Not all soundbars use HDMI, with many making do with digital optical audio connections instead. This means you’ll have to connect Blu-ray players, games consoles and set-top boxes to your TV and run all audio through a single cable. Also look for…

CREATIVE Outlier Air £55• uk.creative.com A marvellous set of true wireless headphones, the Outlier Air combine a lively and dynamic sound with a comfy (if large) design and long battery life. Bluetooth aptX support is worth the money in particular. HEADPHONES SUBTYPE In-ear headset •PLUG TYPE None •WEIGHT 10g •CABLE LENGTH N/A •WARRANTY Two years RTB •DETAILS uk.creative.com •PART CODE Outlier Air •FULL REVIEW Jul 2019 IKEA Symfonisk £99• www.ikea.com Ikea, with a little help from Sonos, has produced two great-sounding wired speakers. The cheaper ‘bookshelf’ model is slim and subtle, but it’s worth paying extra for the ‘lamp’ model, which both sounds fuller and doubles as a working lamp. SPEAKERS 2 •RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated •WEIGHT Not stated •NETWORKING Wi-Fi •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.ikea.com •PART CODE…

01 If you’re ready to step beyond the basic controls of a compact camera, or you want greater flexibility than an ultra-zoom can offer, a compact system camera (CSC) is the next logical upgrade. With interchangeable lenses, manual controls and stellar image quality, these cameras give proper digital SLRs a run for their money. 02 There are three competing types of CSC mount, and the one you buy determines the number of compatible lenses and accessories you have available. Samsung’s NX-mount is arguably the most limited in terms of lens selection, and the company has confirmed that it’s shutting down its European camera business, so it’s best to avoid these altogether if possible. Sony’s E-Mount has a slightly wider range, but Micro Four Thirds offers the widest variety. Both Panasonic…

HONOR Band 5 £30• www.amzn.to/36nRxNz This is a perfect fitness band if you’re just starting out on an exercise routine. It’s light, long-lasting between charges and accurate at measurements, a combination you won’t often see on something so cheap. PEDOMETER Yes •HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes •DISPLAY SIZE 0.95in •RESOLUTION 240x120 •OS SUPPORT Android, iOS •BATTERY LIFE Two weeks •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.hihonor.com •PART CODE KYG3649645453002TV •FULL REVIEW Feb 2020 GARMIN Vivoactive 4 £280• www.amzn.to/36gfTbX One of the best fitness watch series gets another great instalment. The Vivoactive 4 is well designed, tracks an eclectic mix of activities and introduces some unique new features, including animated guides to workouts. PEDOMETER Yes •HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes •DISPLAY SIZE 1.3in •RESOLUTION 260x260 •OS SUPPORT Android, iOS •BATTERY LIFE Five days •WARRANTY One year…

Softland novaPDF 9 Standard Edition NOVAPDF IS A powerful commercial tool for creating PDF files. Install the program and it equips your PC with a virtual printer driver, enabling you to create PDFs from any Windows application. Just open your target document, choose the Print option, select the novaPDF printer, and the program will convert it for you. It also provides its own console, where you can choose a document and convert it to PDF directly. NovaPDF directly integrates Office applications, too. Open a document, click the novaPDF tab, and again you can have it converted to PDF in a couple of clicks. However you start the conversion process, your finished document can be customised in many different ways. Bookmarks, metadata, font embedding, link detection, text optimisation, layout PDF/A and…

£649 • From www.currys.co.uk HISENSE HAS PLENTY of experience in producing affordable big-screen TVs, and the U8B family is a perfect example. With the 55in H55U8BUK (on test here) costing £649 and the 65in H65U8BUK costing £799, it’s hard to go much bigger for less cash. This does mean you shouldn’t expect anything too highfalutin; for example, Hisense’s ‘ULED’ branding just means the H55U8BUK has an LED-backlit LCD panel, like most TVs at this price point, and not that it’s a unique technology like Samsung’s QLED. Still, it’s solidly built, so build quality hasn’t been scrimped on. SMART MOVE You’ll find all the connections hidden on the left side of the TV, including four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.0b ports. You also get a pair of remote controls: one cheap plasticky model,…

£1,999 • From www.currys.co.uk AS THE SOLE manufacturer of commercial OLED panels on the planet, you’d expect LG to be a bit of dab hand at making OLED TVs. And you’d be right: the past couple of years have been filled with great LG televisions, and the LG C9 series – represented here by the 65in OLED65C9 – continues the streak. The design starts things off on the right foot, with improbably slim bezels and, in fact, an outrageously slim panel in general. The bottom part of the chassis bulges out to accommodate the internal electronics, but it’s not overly bulky, and the solid-feeling, brushed-metal stand both looks great and provides stable support. Peer around the left-hand side of the TV and you’ll discover four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs. Home…

£400 • From www.currys.co.uk AN AWFUL LOT of budget TVs these days carry the HDR label, but it’s fair to say that none of them can deliver the eye-popping spectacle of pricier sets. As the LG 49UM7400 shows, however, trickle-down technology has done its bit to steadily improve HDR performance for some budget TVs. When the UE50RU7470UXXU – the 50in contingent of Samsung’s new, HDR10+ supporting RU7470 series – landed in our labs, we were therefore hopeful it might be able to serve up a little high-dynamic magic on the cheap. LOW PROFILE Its VA-type LED edge-lit LCD panel is fairly typical of TVs in this price range and, being 4K UHD, it has a resolution of 3,840x2,160. So far, so ordinary, and there’s little remarkable about the design, either.…

£349 • From www.apple.com/uk EVEN WITHOUT CONSIDERING the more expensive iPad Pro series, standard consumer-grade iPads have been able to turn into decent 2-in-1s for some time now. The latest 10.2in iPad takes things even further: it can still naturally be used as a lone slate, but it now has a Smart Connector socket on the side, granting compatibility with the Pro series’ Smart Keyboard attachment. If you’d rather stick with standalone use, there’s good news elsewhere. This iPad remains wonderfully slim and light, weighing just 483g (or 493g for the cellular model), and measuring 7.5mm thick. The broad black bezels give it a relatively staid look at a time of edge-to-edge smartphone displays, although at least there’s room for a Touch ID fingerprint reader on the front, as well…

£90 • From www.amazon.co.uk NEXT TO THE £399 Apple iPad Mini and the £629 Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, the prospect of having to pay only £90 for a 10.1in Android tablet sounds too good to be true. Unfortunately, as is often the case, it is here. The Vankyo MatrixPad Z4 is a miserable product that struggled to complete our benchmarks and, astonishingly, manages to feel cheaper than its very low cost of entry. At a glance, the MatrixPad Z4 is a pretty standard-looking tablet. The bezels are a bit thick, and it’s mostly made of plastic, but there’s nothing immediately untoward considering the price. It’s when you pick it up that the first signs of doubt appear. The plastic is smooth, but it feels insubstantial, as if the whole thing…

£230 • From www.amazon.co.uk THERE WAS ONLY one thing missing from the previous Kindle Oasis (Shopper 361): a blue light filter. While every smartphone manufacturer on the planet was accepting the medically recognised fact that beaming blue light into your eyes just before you go to sleep isn’t ideal, Amazon ploughed on with regular LEDs in its premium e-reader. With this latest model, however, the US retail giant has seen the warm, orange light and added such a filter. You can now read at bedtime safe in the knowledge that it won’t be your reading habit that’s disturbing your sleep. TWO-SIDED ARGUMENT This Kindle Oasis is physically identical to the previous model, which is to say that it’s pretty from the rear and not so pretty from the front. The…

We have a BT Home Hub 5 and a Netgear EX3700 range extender. The Home Hub is in the hall and the extender is on the landing. The extender connects to the hub’s wireless network, and all my devices are connected wirelessly to the extender. I listen to music stored on my computer using Roon software and my KEF LS50 wireless speakers. This works fine most of the time, but there are frequent interruptions to our internet connection. When it goes down, it interrupts streaming around the house, and the music stops. I also get this issue when running the Spotify app on my PC and streaming it to my speakers, even though I have downloaded the music I’m playing. The issue has also been known to interrupt documents as…

letters@computershopper.co.uk Profit of doom I read with interest the review of home office PCs (Shopper 387). On the lookout for a new PC, I checked out some of the websites given. As of mid-April, Palicomp has kept the price at £600, Wired2fire is now at £603 but Chillblast has increased the Fusion Dauntless Family PC to a whopping £760. That is an increase of over 25% on the price in the article. The specification appears to be the same but the price has increased since the article was published when the Chillblast website showed the price as £600. Is this profiteering? I fail to see how such an increase could occur in such a short time and thought I should bring it to your attention. C McPherson PC component prices…

Tech pioneer and all-round good egg letters@computershopper.co.uk WE QUEUE WITH heads bowed, dishevelled and confused, maintaining the statutory distance from one another to prevent contamination. One by one we approach the side window, mutter a few words and then, slowly and with grace, we hand over our begging bowl to a disembodied gloved hand that reaches out to receive it. Our vessels are dipped in a solution of vinegar and holy water against the infection, before somewhere in the sanctuary of the hidden interior they are filled with cleansing beer, then returned through the gap. For this holy ritual we must pay, of course. We do not use coin. It is too dangerous. We use a little tarot card, which we wave in the air then bring near to the…

Tech firms braced for global slowdown SAY WHAT? THE SMARTPHONE WORLD rarely slows down, and phone makers are still kicking out new handsets despite the global coronavirus pandemic. OnePlus, for example, launched its flagship OnePlus 8 series at the beginning of April. Though many are tightening their purse-strings in the current crisis, the firm’s flagship OnePlus 8 Pro – which comes with a 120Hz screen, 5G support and wireless charging – is the Chinese company’s most expensive smartphone yet, with a starting price of £799. Apple has taken a different tack and jumped back into the affordable smartphone arena with a reboot of the iPhone SE. The device, which is Apple’s cheapest handset at £419, has a 4.7in Retina display, a Touch ID button, a 12-megapixel camera and the same…

£1,746 • From consumer.huawei.com IT HASN’T BEEN making laptops for long, but Huawei’s MateBook X Pro (Shopper 377) had little issue getting up there with the best ultraportables you can lay your hands on. The 2020 MateBook X Pro is the latest model. It comes with upgraded internal hardware over last year’s laptop, and it remains a fine choice, especially as, unlike the company’s smartphones, the laptop division has avoided being slapped with a ban on using its core software: Windows 10. ONE FOR THE BOOKS As with previous versions, the 2020 MateBook X Pro has a fabulous 3:2 aspect-ratio 14in display, it’s slim and light, and it has one of the nicest keyboards we’ve used on any laptop. It’s nearly as good as the keyboard on the Google Pixelbook…

£1,337 • From www.ballicom.co.uk THE DELL ULTRASHARP UP2720Q is a feature-packed professional monitor with a built-in colorimeter, a 4K resolution and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Because of that impressive specification, it will set you back a cool £1,337. That’s a huge amount of cash, but this panel is aimed at photographers and designers, so image quality has to be top-notch. BIG SHOT This is one of the first professional screens from Dell to include a colorimeter, and it’s a welcome addition: it means it can be calibrated to run accurately with a wide variety of colour spaces. The 27in screen size and huge pixel density also means the UP2720Q has loads of desktop real estate available for any task, staying crisp and precise throughout. Dell has used IPS technology, which makes…

£110 • From www.amazon.co.uk THE CREATIVE T100 are the latest entry in Creative’s ‘T’ series of desktop speakers. Creative is perhaps best known for having produced the Sound Blaster sound card in the late 1980s but has since gained a reputation for producing affordable, great-sounding speakers, including the GigaWorks T20 Series II and T40 Series II. The T100 may be dearer than their predecessors, but impressive sound quality combined with a few bells and whistles make them a worthy addition to the family. For £110 you get a pair of stereo speakers, a mains adaptor, a 1.5m-long 3.5mm aux-in cable and an infrared remote control. The speakers house 2.75in full-range drivers and each delivers a continuous 20W of power, with the output of the pair peaking at 80W. COUNTING CONNECTIONS…

£220 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com MOTOROLA CONTINUES TO stagger the releases of its new Moto G8 family, this time with the Moto G8 Power. The Moto G7 Power (Shopper 376) was the best of the bunch last time round, and this year’s update once again includes a huge 5,000mAh battery to prioritise longevity. However, the Moto G8 Power also goes for a slightly more mid-range set of overall specs, including a 1080p display, a big CPU jump from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 to the 665, and a price rise to £220. It could still be a great phone – just not a budget champion like the previous generation. It’s also worth noting that the huge battery comes at the cost of slimness: at 9.6mm thick, the Moto G8 Power feels a…

£400 • From www.argos.co.uk IT’S BEEN A long time since the Oculus Riftftft broke cover as the first genuinely usable consumer VR headset. In that time, Oculus has produced two offshoot goggles – the Oculus Go (Shopper 367) and Oculus Quest – both of which are wireless, and aimed at the masses in ways that the Rift never could be. Both are excellent products in their own right, but the compromises required to make these self-contained VR headsets a reality might leave some people feeling a little short-changed. Fortunately, that’s where the new and improved Oculus Rift S comes in. ALL IN THE HEAD The Oculus Rift S is a more direct successor to the original Rift, and although it incorporates the same technology that allows the Oculus Quest to…

01 A basic PC costing around £350 will be able to run everyday office, multimedia and education software and will easily cope with surfing the internet. It might even be able to run some modern games. Many PCs can be sold either with or without a monitor. If you don’t like the display the manufacturer is offering, you can always use your current one, or buy another one separately. 02 If you want to play games, you’ll have to upgrade the graphics card. Budget cards such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 will cope well with many 3D games, but to play the latest 3D games smoothly (and enjoy the best-quality graphics) it’s worth upgrading to a more powerful card such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. 03 All modern…

LENOVO Yoga C940 £1,235• www.lenovo.com When it comes to top-class convertibles, it effectively boils down to a choice between the Yoga C940 and Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1, but we think Yoga’s flippy laptop clinches it with competitive CPU performance and even better battery life. Add in powerful speakers and a bundled stylus, and this is an excellent hybrid from any angle. PROCESSOR Quad-core 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7 •RAM 16GB •DIMENSIONS 308x223x14.5mm •WEIGHT 1.3kg •SCREEN SIZE 13.5in •SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,256x1,504 •GRAPHICS ADAPTOR Intel Iris Plus Graphics •TOTAL STORAGE 256GB SSD •OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home •PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.lenovo.com •PART CODE 81Q9CTO1WWENGB0 •FULL REVIEW May 2020 DELL Latitude 3300 £679• www.dell.com Dell’s affordable and well-built Latitude 3300 is made for students, but the fact that it…

01 You don’t have to spend much to buy a decent graphics card that can drive multiple monitors. The AMD Radeon RX 550 costs about £100, for example, and while it isn’t suited to playing the latest games in Full HD, it is perfect for watching videos, browsing the web and playing basic games. 02 You’ll need to spend more money if you want to play the latest games. A good mid-range gaming graphics card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which is powerful enough to play all modern games at Full HD resolution. High-powered cards tend to be more expensive, so expect to pay over £400 if you want to play games in Ultra HD at the highest quality settings. 03 Check that your chosen card has the graphics…

LG 34GK950F £1,000• www.overclockers.co.uk LG’s curved ultrawide monitor is as versatile as it is vibrant. HDR is supported (if only to the DisplayHDR 400 standard), colours are accurate, and both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync can smooth out games. SCREEN SIZE 34in •RESOLUTION 3,440x1,440 •REFRESH RATE 144Hz •SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS •VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort •WARRANTY Three years collect and return •DETAILS www.lg.com •FULL REVIEW Jun 2019 EIZO ColorEdge CG279X £1,692• www.wexphotovideo.com This professional-quality monitor benefits from automatic calibration, ensuring practically perfect colour accuracy and wide coverage of the sRGB, DCI-P and Adobe RGB gamuts. It’s a worthwhile investment for editing photos and videos. SCREEN SIZE 27in •RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 •SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS •REFRESH RATE 60Hz •VIDEO INPUTS VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, USB Type-C •WARRANTY Five years RTB •DETAILS www.eizoglobal.cpm •FULL REVIEW…

01 Wireless routers each use a number of Wi-Fi standards, so you shouldn’t have any trouble connecting your computer or phone wirelessly if you get an 802.11n or 802.11ac router. Nearly all routers support 802.11n, so even a cheap model should provide decent performance. You can expect a transfer speed of around 40Mbit/s at a distance of 10m from any modern 802.11n router. The very latest routers use the 802.11ac standard, which provides tremendously fast transfer speeds. Some devices still don’t support the 802.11ac standard, so check the specifications before you buy. 02 If you subscribe to an ADSL broadband service, you should buy a wireless router that has a built-in ADSL modem. This will cost more than the equivalent cable router, but it allows you to connect your router…

AMAZON Echo Dot with Clock £60• www.amzn.to/2LLc9aG This is literally ‘just’ an Echo Dot 3rd Generation with an added LCD clock, but considering it’s no more expensive and offers the same combination of capable speaker and versatile smart home controller, that’s absolutely nothing to complain about. DRIVERS 1 •RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated •WEIGHT 300g •NETWORKING Bluetooth, 802.11n •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk •PART CODE Echo Dot with Clock •FULL REVIEW Feb 2020 TADO Smart Thermostat £90• www.amzn.to/2ZxwIfZ A flexible and stylish-looking smart heating system, the Tado Smart Thermostat distinguishes itself with a clever geolocation feature that turns on your heating when you enter a room and switches it off, saving money, when you leave. REMOTE THERMOSTAT Yes •HOT WATER SUPPORT Yes •INDIVIDUAL RADIATOR CONTROL Yes •VOICE ASSISTANT SUPPORT…

01 All tablets rely on an operating system (OS) to run apps. You have three main choices: Apple’s iOS, which runs on the iPad; Android, which Google licenses to various manufacturers; and Windows 10, which has become common in hybrid tablets and convertibles. If you own an Apple or Google smartphone, you can download your apps, music and so on to a tablet that runs the same OS, so it makes sense to stick with a compatible device. 02 It’s important to pick a tablet that has a good-quality, high-resolution screen. Many budget tablets have 1,280x800-resolution displays, but better tablets have Full HD 1,920x1,080 panels, and we’re starting to see tablets that have even higher screen resolutions. Some are as high as 2,560x1,600 or even 4K. Entry-level tablets typically use…

PHILIPS 55PUS6753/12 £482• www.amzn.to/2NJYgKc This Philips set doesn’t have the best implementation of HDR we’ve seen on a TV, but otherwise, the 55PUS6753/12 is a fantastic 4K screen for a relatively low price. SCREEN SIZE 55in •NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 •VIDEO INPUTS 3x HDMI, 5x component •TUNER Freeview HD •DIMENSIONS 781x1,244x266mm •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.philips.co.uk •PART CODE 55PUS6753/12 •FULL REVIEW Dec 2018 SONY KD-55XF9005 £799• www.johnlewis.com Direct-lit backlighting, excellent upscaling and beautifully smooth motion make the KD-55XF9005 a worthy alternative to high-end OLED TVs, even though it only has a VA panel. SCREEN SIZE 55in •NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 •VIDEO INPUTS 4x HDMI •TUNER Freeview HD •DIMENSIONS 771x1,228x258mm •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.sony.co.uk •PART CODE KD-55XF9005 •FULL REVIEW Aug 2018 PHILIPS 65OLED803 £2,399• www.currys.co.uk If you’ve got the budget…

01 Action cameras are typically much smaller than a regular camcorder, as they are designed to be mounted to a bike, board or car, or worn on your person. As the name suggests, they are designed primarily for shooting action footage, but because of their small size they are ideal for strapping on to your pet’s collar or your children’s toys for a different perspective. 02 Even basic action cameras will shoot Full HD video, and many will even shoot 4K, but frame rate is arguably more important than resolution when it comes to action video. Higher frame rates will mean smoother clips, and super-high frame rate videos can be played in slow motion to emphasise exciting shots. Keep an eye out for 4K/30, 4K/60, 1080p/60 and 720p/120 models for…

CANON EOSR £1,999• www.johnlewis.com This is Canon’s first mirrorless full-frame camera, but you wouldn’t know it. Image quality is among the very best, and the included kit lens does a fantastic job. You can also get it body-only and attach your own RF-mount lenses. SENSOR RESOLUTION 30.3 megapixels •SENSOR SIZE 36x24mm •FOCAL LENGTH MULTIPLIER 1x •VIEWFINDER Electronic (3.6 million dots) •LCD SCREEN 3.2in (2,100,000 dots) •VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION (35mm-EQUIVALENT, COVERAGE) 0.76x, 100% •WEIGHT 580g •DIMENSIONS 98x136x84mm •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.canon.co.uk •FULL REVIEW Sep 2019 NIKON Z6 £1,649• www.johnlewis.com If you can’t quite afford the exemplary Z7, then the Z6 is the perfect alternative. It’s every bit the mirrorless all-rounder, and while it has a lowerresolution sensor than the Z7, this allows it to shoot at a faster rate. SENSOR…

ADOBE Premiere Pro CC 2019 £30 per month• www.adobe.com This strong update of Premiere Pro CC adds improved Lumetri Color controls and neat integration with the Premiere Rush mobile app, among other tweaks. OS SUPPORT Windows 10 version 1703 and later, macOS 10.12 and later (10.13 required for hardware acceleration) •MINIMUM CPU Intel 6th-gen and later, AMD equivalents •MINIMUM GPU Integrated graphics •MINIMUM RAM 8GB •HARD DISK SPACE 8GB •DETAILS www.adobe.com •PRODUCT CODE Premiere Pro CC •FULL REVIEW Jul 2019 Video-editing software NORDVPN £9 per month• www.nordvpn.com There are cheaper VPN services available, but none has the flexibility and multi-level security features of NordVPN. It’s become much faster than previous versions, too. OS SUPPORT Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, DD-WRT router •DETAILS www.nordvpn.com •PRODUCT CODE NordVPN •FULL REVIEW Sep 2018 Virtual…

Enter www.shopperdownload.co.uk/389 into your browser’s address bar. In the New user section, enter your email address and the coupon ode printed on the spine into the relevant boxes, then click the Register button. Browse through this month’s choices and follow the online instructions to download and register the software. You may need to register a user account for our software store and enter your coupon code more than once. The registration process varies from program to program, so read the instructions carefully – they explain exactly what you need to do for each program. ANY PROBLEMS? If you need help with any of the software this month, please send an email to support@creativemark.co.uk. We check this inbox regularly. Please include the issue number of the magazine and your coupon code.…

£299 • From www.argos.co.uk HISENSE AND ROKU have been partnering up on TVs for a while, but the R50B7120UK is – as part of the Hisense Roku TV B7120 range – one of the first to land on UK shores. In some respects, it’s standard fare for a budget 4K TV – the panel uses VA technology, and HDR is limited to HDR10 and the BBC’s Hybrid-Log Gamma – but at £299 it’s cheaper than cheap, and Roku integration means some excellent coverage of streaming services. TALKING POINT The cheap plastic chassis and non-adjustable legs don’t exactly make for inspiring design, but it covers all the basics for connectivity, with three HDMI 2.0 inputs, composite, headphone and optical S/PDIF sockets and a single USB2 socket port on the rear. Surround-sound…

£2,399 • From www.currys.co.uk ADDING TO ITS formidable line-up of LCD TVs, Philips has joined LG, Sony and Panasonic in adopting what increasingly looks like the future of premium TVs: OLED. The flagship 903 series and less expensive 803 series all use this panel technology, which can switch off pixels individually to produce better contrast and perfect blacks. Key features on the 803 series, represented here by the 65OLED803, include LG-made OLED panels powered by Philips’ second-generation P5 video processing engine, Ultra HD Premium certification and three-sided Ambilight integrated bias lighting technology. It runs on an Android-based Smart TV platform, too. HDR support for the HDR10, broadcast-friendly HLG and HDR10+ formats are present and correct, though Dolby Vision is a notable omission. The 65OLED803 lacks the superb-sounding Bowers & Wilkins…

£1,300 • From www.currys.co.uk SONY’S CURRENT RANGE of TVs is enormous, and crowned with a couple of 8K monsters that you’d need to sell your house to afford. Luckily it’s the upper-mid-range screens that seem to offer the best combination of performance and value, as evidenced by the VA-panel XG95 range. The 65in KD-65XG9505 model we tested lacks the X-Wide Angle technology of larger sizes, as does the £1,000 55in version, but still it comes with a long list of goodies: full-array local dimming LED backlighting, Sony’s X1 Ultimate video processor, HDR support for HLG, HDR 10 and Dolby Vision, and Sony’s proprietary X-Motion Clarity black zonal insertion system for smoothing out motion. The gun-metal grey bezel is impressively thin for a FALD LCD display, and there’s a nice accent…

£399 • From www.apple.com/uk CONSIDERING FOUR YEARS passed between the launch of the previous iPad Mini and this, the latest model, not much appears to have changed at all. The case design is the same, down to the last millimetre; the buttons are in the same positions; and the screen is the same size and resolution. However, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been internal improvements: besides an upgraded processor, the iPad Mini now supports the first-generation Apple Pencil stylus for more natural note-taking. ON REPEAT Besides, if Apple is going to re-use a design, it might as well be one as good as this. At 300g and just 6.1mm thick, it’s a supremely portable tablet; it could have been even smaller, too, had the thick bezels been trimmed. With the…

£70 • From www.amazon.co.uk FOR A LONG time, the main argument against buying the basic Amazon Kindle was that, despite the low price, it was too simple. More specifically, that it wasn’t as well-made as the Kindle Paperwhite (Shopper 372), and that it had no built-in reading light. With the latest 2019 model, however, those issues have finally been sorted out; you can happily splash out £70 on Amazon’s cheapest e-reader safe in the knowledge that it does much more of what its pricier stablemates can. The front light isn’t the only new feature, either. Amazon has also added Bluetooth and, along with it, the ability to download and listen to Audible audiobooks. STARK RAVING ADS On the outside, it’s all a lot more familiar. It still has the 6in,…

£110 • From www.johnlewis.com JUST AS THE Kobo Forma (Shopper 375) took on the Kindle Oasis, the Kobo Clara HD aims to usurp a different Amazon e-reader: the mid-range Kindle Paperwhite. This approach has been complicated by the arrival of a new, standard Kindle, which brings with it an impressive range of upgraded features; the Paperwhite, meanwhile, hasn’t been refreshed since 2018. MAKING A MESS Still, the Clara HD certainly looks like the Kindle Paperwhite: take away each device’s front logo and you could be fooled into thinking they were the same product. The differences are there, however, such as how the Kobo Clara HD’s 6in display is slightly inset behind the bezels. We admittedly prefer the flush design of the Paperwhite. The bigger problem isn’t how it looks, but…

CROSSHEAD SCREWDRIVER An essential tool for anything involving interior components. A standard, mediumsized crosshead screwdriver will do the job for almost all screw sizes commonly found within a desktop, from the thumbscrews holding the side panels in place to smaller screws used for mounting components to the chassis. Magnetic-tipped screwdrivers are fine – the magnetic field won’t be strong enough to cause damage – but don’t use electric screwdrivers with delicate components. ANTI-STATIC WRISTBAND Static electricity can damage PC parts, so you should always wear loose-fitting clothing when modding and ground yourself on a metal object such as a metal pipe before starting. Ideally, you should also wear an anti-static wristband, which will prevent further build-up of static as you’re working. You can buy straps that plug the grounding wire…

Exchange rates @ Please spare a thought for those of us still stuck on exchange-only lines. With talk of Gigabit connections and fibre-to-the-home, we are still unable to get fibre-to-the-cabinet. The problem has only got worse due to self-isolation and the need to work from home; the demands on the already slow ADSL connection have got worse. After checking online, BT Openreach always has the same message in its postcode checker: “We don’t have plans to upgrade your area yet. But we’re working with government and industry to change that.” Given that the rest of the village was fibre-enabled over two years ago, this seems like an empty promise. Reverend Anthony William Mitchell We’re sure there will be many others like you facing worse internet speeds than usual during the…

Software guru and Shopper legend letters@computershopper.co.uk WHEN I FIRST encountered a computer, it occupied a large room with its own special air conditioning, and a team of operators to keep it running. I’m not sure which IBM 360 model it was, but the Model 30 version had a maximum of 64KB of memory, and could perform up to 34,500 instructions per second. That was main memory – RAM. This isn’t a ‘back in my day when dinosaurs roamed the world’ piece, however. What I want you to think about is the computing power we now have by comparison, even on our phones. A typical modern smartphone probably has 8GB of RAM, or to keep the same units as used so far, 8,000,000KB, around 125,000 times more than that mainframe computer.…

£279 • From www.ebuyer.com THE CRUCIAL ISSUE with AMD’s latest ‘budget’ GPU, the Radeon RX 5500 XT (Shopper 385), was that at £200 it invited comparisons with mid-range cards more than it did rival budget models. The new RX 5600 XT, thankfully, suffers no such identity crisis. Knowing its ambitions as a powerful yet affordable GPU for 1080p gaming, this PowerColor Red Dragon version is both priced and specced where you’d probably expect it to be. In fact, it’s incredibly close to Nvidia’s GeForce equivalent, the GTX 1660 Ti (Shopper 377). Both cost around £270 and have 6GB of GDDR6 memory at their disposal. With a base clock speed of 1,560MHz and a boost speed of 1,620MHz, the GTX 1660 Ti has the faster cores, but the RX 5600 XT…

£145 • From www.ebuyer.com THE GL2780 IS an unusual monitor in that it doesn’t sacrifice much to hit a relatively low price point. Most monitors below £150 tend to be 24in displays or smaller, but this one is a whopping 27in, giving you loads of space to spread out windows and applications. The catch is that the BenQ GL2780 doesn’t use an IPS panel. Instead, it employs TN tech. Besides lower colour vibrancy, this means that at extreme viewing angles the picture quality falls off dramatically. If you’re only going to sit directly in front of it, however, it’s one of the better budget TN monitors we’ve seen. PURE AND SIMPLE In addition to the monitor itself, BenQ supplies a desk stand – which you have to attach yourself using…

£279 • From www.amazon.co.uk AT FIRST GLANCE, Sennheiser’s new Momentum True Wireless 2 look more or less the same as their predecessors, but don’t be fooled into thinking the German manufacturer has rested on its laurels. Its second-gen true wireless earbuds improve on the originals with active noise cancelling (ANC) and drastically improved battery life, along with a slimmer design. The outer housing is still slightly bulky, which can mean some fiddling as you work out the best angle from which to insert the earbuds into your ear canal. Once you get used to the process, however, you’ll have no problem inserting them – or leaving them in for hours, as they’re pleasantly light and comfortable. MISTAKES WERE MADE We wish Sennheiser had made the touch controls less finicky, however.…

£160 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com OPPO AND XIAOMI are both Chinese firms making inroads into the UK smartphone scene, and sometimes comparisons between the two run remarkably deep: the Oppo A5 budget handset is almost identical to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T (Shopper 387) on specs. It’s cheaper, but only by £10. Which, then, is the better buy? WEIGHT WATCHING The first thing you notice about the Oppo A5 is that it’s pretty chunky. That’s not just down to it having to make room for a 6.5in display, as at 195g, it’s only a gram lighter than the huge Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ (Shopper 382). It’s less of a problem when you get used to it, however, and as for looks, it’s not any better or worse looking than the Redmi…

£429 • From www.suunto.com WHILE MOST SERIOUS sports wearable makers have largely shunned Google’s Wear OS, Suunto thinks it has the formula cracked. The Suunto 7 is its first smartwatch, and combines the features of Wear OS with Suunto’s fitness and sports tracking software. That means conventional smartwatch features such as notifications and NFC payments alongside much more specialised fitness-tracking and related tools, ranging from Suunto’s ingenuous mapping software to a full set of sensors. That includes a heart-rate sensor, altimeter, motion sensors and GPS, and it’s all waterproof up to 50m. SMALL, BRIGHT AND HANDSOME This doesn’t come cheap – in fact, this is one of the most expensive fitness watches we’ve tested – but straight away it demonstrates its high-end credentials. The sculpted stainless steel bezel looks just…

RASPBERRY PI 4 Model B £34• thepihut.com A faster processor, quicker networking and dual HDMI outputs make the Pi 4 a much better desktop computer than previous Pi models, and it lost any appeal as a cheap hobbyist board, either. 4K video implementation could be better – we had issues getting smooth playback in Raspbian – but that’s the only noteworthy concern. PROCESSOR Quad-core 1.5GHz Broadcom BCM2711 •RAM 1GB •USB PORTS 1x USB Type-C (power), 2x USB2, 2x USB3 •STORAGE MicroSD card slot •DISPLAY None •OPERATING SYSTEM Raspbian •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.raspberypi.org •PART CODE Pi 4 Model B •FULL REVIEW Sep 2019 ALPHABETAPC AMD Ryzen 7 Pro Gaming Desktop PC £1,849• www.alphabetapc.com For all its flashy styling, what really makes this a great PC is the simple balance…

01 A basic 1TB internal hard disk should cost around £40. This will be fast enough for general use and will provide enough storage for most users. Make sure the hard disk you choose has the appropriate interface type for your PC. Most hard disks and solid-state drives (SSDs) use the SATA3 interface, which enables faster speeds than the older SATA2. Pretty much every motherboard released in recent years will have multiple SATA3 ports, allowing you to connect several storage drives at once. 02 SSDs can make the most of SATA3’s high bandwidth for fast file transfers. They use flash memory similar to that found in USB flash drives, and although they tend to provide less capacity than mechanical hard disks, they’re significantly faster. More expensive SSDs use the NVMe…

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X £435• www.overclockers.co.uk Forget the Intel Core i9-9900K – this 12-core monster of a CPU performs far better for similar money. There is a drawback, in that it’s not very overclocking-friendly, but that’s partly because it’s so fast to begin with. Pair it with some good RAM, and you’re already most of the way to a capable home workstation. SOCKET AM4 •CORES 12 •FREQUENCY 3.8GHz •INTEGRATED GRAPHICS None •WARRANTY Two years RTB •DETAILS www.amd.com •PART CODE 100-100000023BOX •FULL REVIEW Nov 2019 AMD Ryzen 7 3700X £262• www.amzn.to/2nFtHMC This octa-core chip has all the single-core strength of the Ryzen 9 3900X, with mutlitasking power that still puts it well beyond its Intel rivals. Low pricing and power efficiency are additional highlights: the Ryzen 7 3700X only draws up…

01 You should be able to buy a decent inkjet printer for less than £40. High-quality printing is possible on such a printer, but it will be slow. The actual print speed of an inkjet can be half the quoted (maximum) speed for text documents, and even slower when printing graphics. Budget inkjet printers such as these are designed only for light use and can be expensive to run. 02 For £80 to £90 you can buy a more capable printer that’s either faster and better built or better at reproducing photos. If documents are your priority, you’ll want a high minimum speed and low print costs. Look for inkjets that can handle all your office media, such as envelopes and labels. 03 If photos are your priority, speed is…

BT Complete Wi-Fi £5 per month• www.bt.com There are better-featured mesh systems available, but the Complete Wi-Fi is decently quick on both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, and is well worth it for BT Plus customers in particular. WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac •STATED SPEED 1,733Mbit/s (5GHz), 385Mbit/s (2.4GHz) •USB PORTS 1 •WALL MOUNTABLE No •WARRANTY Under contract •PART CODE BT Complete Wi-Fi •FULL REVIEW Mar 2019 YUBICO YubiKey 5 NFC £37• www.yubico.com Like the YubiKey 4 before it, this USB stick conveniently stores all the cryptographic data you need to add two-factor authentication to a PC or laptop; and this time, there’s NFC, allowing you to use it with mobile devices via a single tap. USB TYPE Type-A •OS SUPPORT Windows 10, macOS, iOS 11 and later, Android •WARRANTY One year…

01 A smartphone’s operating system (OS) dictates its basic features and which third-party software you can install. There are three main contenders: Apple’s iOS, which is found on the iPhone, Google’s Android, which is used by various handset manufacturers, and Windows Phone, which has few options, especially since Microsoft has discontinued support for its OS. Apple iOS and Google Android both have thousands of apps available. 02 All smartphones have colour screens, but their resolutions vary. Basic models have 1,280x720 pixels, but text can be indistinct. Look for a display that has at least 1,920x1,080 pixels so it’s easier to read text and watch Full HD videos. Don’t worry too much about built-in media players or Office document editors; you can always install apps to replace these with better versions…

AMAZON Kindle Oasis (2019) £230• amzn.to/2mp6ldb With the addition of a blue light filter, the latest Kindle Oasis is as good an e-reader as you can get. Besides being easier on the eyes when reading at night, it has the physical page-turn buttons that cheaper Kindles lack, and the screen can auto-rotate according to how you’re holding it. PROCESSOR Not stated •SCREEN SIZE 7in •SCREEN RESOLUTION 300ppi •REAR CAMERA None •STORAGE 8GB •WIRELESS DATA Wi-Fi, Bluetooth •DIMENSIONS 159x141x8.4mm •WEIGHT 188g •OPERATING SYSTEM Kindle OS •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk •PART CODE Kindle Oasis (2019) •FULL REVIEW Nov 2019 APPLE iPad Pro 10.5in £529• www.apple.com/uk While it’s still stuck with a mobile OS, rather than the productivity-friendly macOS, there’s no arguing with the latest iPad Pro’s raw power. An A10X…

01 Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes and sizes, so you’ll need to decide what you want to do with the speaker before you buy. If you don’t plan to take your music outdoors or around the house, look for a wired speaker. These are typically cheaper than speakers with built-in batteries. If you do want a portable speaker, however, pay particular attention to how much it weighs. Ruggedised models should be able to survive accidental drops, water spills and unexpected rain showers. 02 Many of the cheapest Bluetooth speakers use the lossy A2DP Bluetooth protocol, which is prone to compressing your music and discarding detail compared with the original recording. It’s hard to tell the difference when listening to pocket-sized speakers, but if you’re looking for a speaker to…

AMAZON Fire TV Stick 4K £50• www.amzn.to/2Y6q8wh From set-top box to dangling dongle and now an ultra-compact stick, Amazon’s 4K media streamer gets sleeker with every generation. It’s also been updated with a new remote, which includes a microphone for Alexa voice commands. VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 2.0 •NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi •DIMENSIONS 108x30x14mm •STREAMING FORMATS UPnP, AirPlay, DLNA, Plex •INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES Amazon Video, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5 •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk •PART CODE Fire TV Stick 4K •FULL REVIEW May 2019 DJI Osmo Action £329• www.argos.co.uk If you want most of the features of a GoPro action camera at a lower price, consider the Osmo Action. It’s waterproof without a case, can shoot at 4K and 60fps with stablisation, and reaches the same high…

01 Wearable tech can include anything from chest-strap heart-rate monitors to augmented reality glasses, but the two most common types are smartwatches and fitness trackers. Both are designed to sit unassumingly on your wrist, and are almost always meant to be used in tandem with a paired smartphone. 02 Smartwatches are typically more complex and expensive, though more closely resemble a traditional wristwatch. You can use them to receive and reply to text messages and emails, quickly check maps and even play games – like a smartphone, most smartwatches allow you to install your own choice of apps. 03 Fitness trackers are much more dedicated to healthy pursuits. Step counters, heart-rate monitors and even sleep tracking are all common, and the data collected is fed back to you so you…

NINTENDO Switch Lite £199• www.amzn.to/2Cig3Tx The Switch Lite can’t be used with a TV like the standard Switch, nor can you detach its controllers, but with a lower price, more compact design and all the same power, it’s still a great handheld console. PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.9GHz Nvidia Tegra X1 •RAM 4GB LPDDRX4 •FRONT USB PORTS None •REAR USB PORTS 1x USB Type-C •STORAGE 32GB •WARRANTY One year RTB •DETAILS www.nintendo.com •PART CODE Nintendo Switch Lite FULL REVIEW Jan 2020 Handheld games console NINTENDO Labo VR Kit £65• www.studio.co.uk This addition to the cardboard-based Labo series turns your Nintendo Switch into a platform for a myriad of inventive VR minigames. Kids in particular will enjoy constructing the goggles and controllers themselves. AVAILABLE FORMATS Nintendo Switch •DISK SPACE Not stated •DETAILS labo.nintendo.com •PART…

Chat and Communication Evernote 6.24.2.8919 Store your notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and synchronise them between computers. UPDATED Mailbird 2.8.0 A free desktop email client for Windows. Miranda IM 0.10.80 Chat with friends across multiple messaging platforms, including AIM, Facebook, IRC and MSN, all from one simple interface. UPDATED Skype for Windows 8.58.0.98 Make internet voice and video calls for free, and buy credit to make calls to mobiles and landlines. NEW VERSION Telegram 2.0.1 This free IM app syncs your conversations across multiple devices, and can spruce up chats with stickers and GIFs. UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.4.2088.0 A PC and Mac version of the messaging app, letting you chat from your desktop. Customisation iolo System Mechanic Free 19.1.4.107 Speed up your system with iolo’s PC optimisation suite.…

FACEBOOK WATCH Trying to home school? There are loads of good resources on Facebook to watch, and this app lets you watch the videos on your big TV. Samsung Smart TVs, Apple TV, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV products are supported. YOUTUBE Likewise, YouTube is full of educational, cultural and fitness resources, aside from all the teenage vlogger channels, and it’s best on a big-screen TV.YouTube is available on most modern TVs, and you can cast from your phone (see opposite). DISNEY+ Star Wars, Marvel and Disney films all in one place: brilliant for adults and kids alike. This one’s available for most smart TVs, bar older models, and you can get it for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices. CATCH-UP TV Missed a show or want to…

POLK AUDIO COMMAND BAR £190 • From www.amazon.co.uk Not only is this an affordable and rich-sounding soundbar/subwoofer combo with plenty of bass delivery, it doubles as a smart speaker. Set up the Amazon Alexa smart assistant and you can use voice commands to play, pause and adjust the volume of whatever you’re watching. Some TVs have similar capability, but these usually require you to speak commands into microphones within the remote control. Besides upgrading your home cinema audio, the Command Bar is therefore a good pick if you want to minimise remote use. SAMSUNG HW-MS650 £299 • From www.currys.co.uk A slightly older option, but still a brilliant one in 2020. The HW-MS650 is one of the best all-round all-in-one soundbars – as in, theres no separate subwoofer – you can…

£349 • From www.johnlewis.com ASK ANYONE CRUISING into middle age and they’ll tell you 49 is the new 36. That’s equally true of TV screen sizes: 49in once seemed unreasonably large for a television, but nowadays is a thoroughly unremarkable size. What’s more, while our desire for a bigger screen is on the up, the price we have to pay for it is ever-decreasing. You only have to look at the LG 49UM7400 – it has the sort of specification that would have cost more than twice as much a few short years ago. This is a 3,840x2,160 HDR TV that uses an IPS LCD panel. It’s part of a range built to mop up sales from customers who aren’t early adopters, don’t want an enormous television and who aren’t…

£800 • From www.johnlewis.com SITTING BELOW THE premium Q90R, Q85R and Q80R series, Samsung’s Q70R range aims to deliver QLED magic for a lot less cash than its stablemates. We’re testing the 55in QE55Q70R here, but whether you choose this or the 49in, 75in or 82in variants, they all have the same high-end panel tech. These are also the cheapest Samsung QLED TVs to use full array local dimming (FALD) backlighting, giving them a huge advantage over sets that use basic edge-lit backlighting. Admittedly, FALD comes in a simpler form here – there are just 50 lighting zones, not hundreds like on the Q80R range and above – and the Q70R series also misses out on Samsung’s Ultra Viewing Angle and Ultra Black Filter features. DEPTH WISH FALD also makes…

£629 • From www.johnlewis.com WITH APPLE DOMINATING the tablet market, products such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6 are a breath of fresh air, even if it will quite as freely blow through your savings. Still, at least this remarkably high price nets you truly top-end design. The Galaxy Tab S6 is amazingly slim at 5.7mm – even thinner than the iPad Mini – and while it has a 105in display, it’s more compact than the 10.2in iPad, thanks to its narrower bezels. THE TASKS AHEAD A microSD card slot allows for expanding on the already-generous 128GB of internal storage, and dual rear cameras – a 5-megapixel ultrawide sensor joins the main 12-megapixel lens – adds some unique photography capabilities. It’s a shame that there’s no integrated slot for storing the…

£100 • From www.amazon.co.uk IN THE PAST, if you were a parent and wanted to get your children reading books on a Kindle, you’d have to make do with simply setting up a child’s profile and then choosing which books you want to add to their library. Now, however, Amazon has released the all-new Kindle Kids Edition. Following in the footsteps of the Fire Kids Edition tablets, it comes with a year’s subscription to Fire for Kids Unlimited content plus the peace of mind of a protective case and a two-year guarantee against accidental damage. Otherwise, this is exactly the same device as the regular Kindle model. That means it has the same 6in E-Ink touchscreen display, as well as a front light for reading in the dark. CONTENT IS…

WHAT? The possibilities for decorating the exterior of your case – as opposed to adding lighting and mounting brackets to the interior – are vast, but not everyone is an expert artist, and plastering on cheap paper stickers will look a bit rubbish. Vinyl decals are a more grown-up option, balancing infinite customisation potential with a smart finish that doesn’t look out of place on a metal desktop. WHY? Decals are perfect for personalisation and for making your PC look and feel even more one-of-a-kind. There are numerous online suppliers that will print whatever designs you want, whether it’s the emblem of your favourite sports team, component maker logos or just your initials. You can even get large ‘wrap’ designs that cover the entire case, though these are more difficult…

Send your problems to help@computershopper.co.uk Power cuts upset my NAS drives I’ve got two NAS drives connected to my wired network: a Seagate Central and a Kimax. I am using a Windows 10 PC and a TP-Link N600 router. Every time we have a power cut, both drives become inaccessible. I think that what happens is that the NAS drives are being given a new IP address, which causes my computer to rejig the drive letters it’s assigning to them. If I’m lucky I just have to rename each drive, but otherwise I have to try to re-map the drives, which gives limited success. I can’t change the drives’ IP addresses in Windows, either. The strange thing is that my Panasonic Blu-ray recorder can find these changed settings and access…