Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i Stuff UK

Imagine being an Apple employee and handing in a September holiday request. “Hey, I know you’re dropping three new headline-grabbing iPhones, a seriously gorgeous smartwatch and the release dates for four new operating systems… but I thought I’d rediscover myself at a Machu Picchu yoga retreat”. It’s not going to fly. Stuff HQ was abuzz on launch night. At least I think it was – I was on my way to an Arctic Monkeys gig. Sorry guys. Thing is, when Alex Turner took to the stage I still thought he might say something about it, such is the fuss an Apple Event still causes. But where Turner failed, we’ve excelled, pulling together some exceptional coverage on everything announced at Apple Park, with a wealth of knowledge, expert opinion and valuable…

DJI Mavic 2 Pro £1299 / dji.com A go-anywhere drone with a no-compromise camera? That’s the idea behind DJI’s new Mavic 2 Pro, a folding quadcopter with formidable aerial video skills… • One-inch punch The Mavic 2 Pro’s big selling point is its Hasselblad-branded camera. The Swedish firm (part-owned by DJI) built the cameras NASA took to the moon, but this is its first drone-mounted snapper – and it’s a doozy. A huge 1in 20MP sensor and adjustable aperture mean great performance in any lighting conditions, with video options including 4K 10-bit HDR and 120fps slow motion. All that dynamic range should give your images of bald-headed dog-walkers some striking colour depth and punchy contrast. • Eye will follow DJI has improved its already eerily accurate ActiveTrack system for the…

from £529 / sony.co.uk That’s a funny-looking Kindle. Ah, how very perceptive of you to notice that Sony’s FES Watch U has a face made of E Ink – the stuff they use to make the screens for Amazon’s Kindle e-readers. What you might not have clocked, though, is that the display doesn’t stop there: it wraps right around the strap. E Ink makes this watch’s display very easy on the eye, and it only really uses up power when it needs to be refreshed. Because that will only happen every 60 seconds, the battery lasts a whopping two weeks. Wow! That’s way better than most smartwatches. Ah… did anyone actually mention smartwatches? Because this thing isn’t exactly smart. While it does have Bluetooth and a compatible iOS and Android…

Google Art Selfie £free / Android, iOS We’ve all been there. Sitting on the sofa on a Sunday, perusing the pages of the arts section when the big question hits like a daub of acrylic: “Which historic portrait do I most resemble?” Well, ponder no longer, because everyone’s favourite search giant has delivered a solution to this creative conundrum – and it’s a doozy. Simply download the Arts and Culture app, scroll down to the ‘Art Selfie’ section and tap on ‘Get started’. Once you’ve snapped a shot of your beaming mug (or gurning, if you like), Google will fire your face through its database of thousands of portraits from galleries and museums all around the world. In a jiffy, it’ll offer up the best matches, all rated against your…

We’ve got the horn KOZMOPHONE If you love vinyl but feel you’ve not really gone retro enough when it comes to playing music, there’s always the option of plonking a gramophone in your living room. Should that idea appeal, but not the century-old tech, Kozmophone drags Edison’s invention into the present – and then drop-kicks it into the future. The main unit resembles a classic gramophone, but incorporates a headphone stand that includes a holographic display and a wireless phone charger. There’s Bluetooth in and RCA line out, and the latter might come in handy should someone nab Kozmophone’s detachable horn: it provides 12 hours of portable audio playback. from $249 / kozmophone.com Dave, my mind is going HAL 9000 Based on studio blueprints from 2001, HAL 9000 is a…

Do we want to actually be killer whales? No, of course we don’t. Sleeping underwater sounds really uncomfortable, and we hear sealions taste disgusting. But as for the other stuff – leaping, diving and rolling through the sea at dizzying speeds – we’re well up for a bit of that. Thanks to Virgin Experience Days, one lucky Stuff reader will be getting a taste of that life with the Predator Adventures Seabreacher Experience (RRP £160). Strapped into an orca-like pod, you’ll feel some serious g-force as your expert driver puts the craft through its watery paces. And there’s more. This month’s winner also gets to capture that extraordinary moment in awesome 360° video and photos with an Insta360 One bundle worth £400 – including an all-important waterproof casing! Finally, the…

THE MAIN EVENT Lumos Kickstart Helmet If you’re a cyclist who’s forever jealous of cars, what with their fancy indicators and brake lights, Lumos’s helmet may be for you. It features 48 LEDs and is Bluetooth-connected. When you slow down, the red LEDs at the back light up, making you more visible to cars behind. There are indicators too, triggered using a handlebar-mounted button device or gestures (by way of hand signals on the arm wearing your Apple Watch). Strava and Apple Health integration are also included. The range-topping Kickstart comes with MIPS (Multidirectional Impact Protection System) for an additional layer of safety. £180 / uk.lumoshelmet.co Beryl Laserlight Frickin’ lasers fitted to your fixie sounds like immense fun; but rather than a weapon for slicing through badly driven cars, British…

NIGHT LIFE Red Letter balloon rides Hot air balloon rides need to take place at dawn or dusk because the balloon needs heavier, cooler air around it to rise. Bad news for your body clock, great for stunning views over the Serengeti… or the less lion-rich British countryside. virginballoonflights.co.uk Beurer WL 90 4-in-1 This glowing orb of 256 colours includes all the necessary simulated sunrise and sunset smarts to stunt the right hormones at night and kickstart them in the AM. Its super-wide colour spectrum can also be controlled from your smartphone. £130 / beurer.com Clocky As with Ruggie, cocky Clocky also makes you jump out of bed to shut it off – but this one makes you work even harder by wheeling around the bedroom like a hyperactive child…

THE MAIN EVENT Celestron Inspire 80AZ A bit like a globe drinks cabinet, there’s a cheesiness to owning a telescope that makes it kind of cool. Celestron’s stupidly easy-to-set-up spyglass is called Inspire for a reason, because it’ll have you reaching for the stars in no time. The genius at work here is the ability to attach a smartphone so you can take interstellar images with the camera using the telescope as a super-long lens – your Insta followers won’t see that coming. A built-in red LED flashlight provides some night vision so you don’t go bull-in-a-china-shop clumsy, and a focus micrometer switches you back to a specific focus point: Millennium Falcon, Starship Enterprise, Superman, etc. £200 / celestron.com Star Theatre Planetarium Light pollution means the night sky can be…

£1150 / stuff.tv/RX100VI ■ Know your Roman numerals? Then you’ll have worked out this is Sony’s sixth version of the flagship RX100 series. The VI packs the range’s most powerful zoom yet: it has a 24-200mm lens, equivalent to 8.3x zoom. It seems the Lumix TZ models finally have some zooming competition. ■ The design might be familiar but that’s not a bad thing, because these cameras have always looked and felt great. The buttons and dials, although quite close together, are positioned where your finger and thumb naturally rest. No larger than a chunky chocolate brownie, it’ll easily fit in most pockets and you can wrap your entire hand around it. ■ Sony is treating us to an LCD touchscreen here – finally. It doesn’t have full functionality, but…

£1250 / stuff.tv/HPOmen15 ■ HP’s new gaming machine has a 1080p screen with 144Hz Nvidia G-Sync. That means eSports titles and less demanding games will run smoothly at frame rates beyond 100fps. Only trouble is, the GTX 1060 graphics chip isn’t fast enough to ensure that today’s demanding single-player titles work the display that hard. ■ Aside from the screen, the GTX 1060 has the power to play the best games at their highest levels of quality – and it’s paired with a fantastic six-core Intel CPU that won’t balk at any task. ■ HP’s machine looks the part, with industrial design and a dark, attractive finish. It’s a little chunkier than some other gaming laptops, at 25mm thick and 2.52kg on the scales, but it does offer plenty of…

HAVE A BROWSE In Settings, tap on Accessibility. Chances are you rarely or never explore this area. You should, because although the features within are primarily designed for people with specific needs, many available options can be beneficial to a much wider audience… REMOVE ANIMATIONS For example, turn on ‘Remove animations’ and Android 9 Pie’s animations are either removed or massively sped up. If you suffer from a vestibular disorder, that means no longer getting dizzy; for everyone else it feels like a faster smartphone. ADD A NEW MENU Under ‘Accessibility menu’, tap ‘Use service’ and ‘OK’. This adds an accessibility button to the navigation bar. Tap it and you’ll see single-tap buttons for a range of features. Here, quick settings and screenshots become accessible to one-thumb users.…

£350 / stuff.tv/CanonSX740 ■ Wide boy In bright conditions, the overall impression of detail is very good at the wide-angle end of the lens. At high zoom settings there’s a little bit of fuzziness, but nothing unexpected for a compact in this price range. ■ Sunny side up The 1/2.3in 20.3MP sensor is smaller than we’re used to these days. It means this camera is not so well equipped to produce the goods in low light… but if it’s your holiday camera, you may well not care about that. ■ These days the phone in your pocket is pretty much all you need for snapping a great shot. But – for now at least – there are still some things your trusty handset can’t quite muster. Take cameras like the…

HOT BUY 1 Huawei P20 Pro £669 / stuff.tv/P20Pro While Samsung and Apple’s war for smartphone supremacy rages on, Huawei has sauntered up and knocked both companies off their feet with the P20 Pro. Serious snappers will love this flagship phone thanks to the triple-lens camera, with 5x zoom and a 40MP main sensor. Add to that a quite awesome AMOLED display, lightning-fast internals and a top-notch design, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for the best new smartphone of 2018. Stuff says That triple-lens cam gives the P20 Pro the edge in the smartphone wars ⚫ NOW ADD THIS AModern Huawei P20 Pro Case With its fragile back, you’ll want a case for your P20 Pro – one that accommodates the three sensors. £6.99 / amazon.co.uk ⚫ TIPS &…

HOT BUY 1 Apple Watch Series 3 from £329 / stuff.tv/AppleWatch3 Apple may have been pushing the cellular edition, but it’s the GPS-only Watch Series 3 that’s secured the top position on our list. With subtle upgrades – such as the dual-core S3 chip that allows for super-breezy navigation, and the W2 chip that boosts the efficiency of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – this is a major upgrade from the Series 2. Factor in the unrivalled app support and quality fitness features, and there isn’t another smartwatch that comes close. The new Series 4 has a lot to live up to… Stuff says Watch this space for the new Series 4, but for now the Series 3 has everything you’d want in a wrist companion NEW 2 Samsung Galaxy Watch from…

HOT BUY 1 SNES Classic Mini £80 / stuff.tv/ClassicMini Why bother splashing out over £200 on a games console when you can get the SNES Classic Mini for a fraction of that? Especially when you get 21 classic titles pre-installed on this nostalgia-inducing machine, including the likes of Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, Super Mario World and the never-before-released Star Fox 2. And with two controllers bundled in the box, you’ll be able to start the Super Mario Kart action right away. Stuff says With 21 classic games installed, gamers won’t find better value anywhere ⚫ NOW ADD THIS 8Bitdo Bluetooth Retro Receiver Fed up of those short cables? Use this clever device to connect most modern controllers wirelessly. £16.14 / 8bitdo.com ⚫ TIPS & TRICKS ⚫ Chickens…

Ever wondered what’s up with the links in Stuff? We’ve got a team of retail pros who scour the web to find you the best gadget deals – visit any stuff.tv link in this issue and you’ll be taken to the best deal for that product. If you make a purchase, we may get a small commission. It’s that simple, and has no impact on how much you pay. ⚫ In the mag: We pick out the best price for every featured product ⚫ Online: Choose from our roster of great-value retailers…

I WADED WITH DIGITAL FISH It was just a normal Tuesday, except I was barefoot, roaming around in a dark magical space of infinite colourful lights and music. Next, I was wading through milky waters as projections of koi carp swam around my knees. All this was down to the creators and technologists behind teamLAB and its digital art show in Tokyo. It seems being trapped between a ’90s TV gunge-fest and a thought-provoking digital art exhibition is the only thing that can distract me from my phone. Natalya Paul, Online Editor I SHARED MY GAMING INCOMPETENCE IN GLORIOUS 4K A few years ago, I loved playing video games and sharing clips on YouTube; but as happens to all of us eventually, life got in the way. Two things have…

1 Animatix £1.99 / iOS If photos insult your eyes with their lack of movement, go a bit Harry Potter on your snaps with Animatix. Loads of effects and filters are available, from frizzy glitches to underwater weirdness. 2 The Bullet Journal Companion £2.79 / Android So you like writing on paper – hence Bullet Journal. But you don’t always have your journal with you – hence this app, for capturing thoughts to write with a pen later. 3 DailyFocus £free / iOS A taster for the paid CreativeLive experience, DailyFocus is also a neat way to brush up on your photography skills. Dip in every day and devour the freebie five-minute video to become a better snapper. 4 Patterning 2 £19.99 / iOS Drums are round, and so too…

That… that’s not a cube. No, it isn’t a cube, and to be honest we’re still as much in the dark about the naming process behind the AI Cube as you are. Geometric outrage aside, though, Huawei’s debut smart speaker is a fascinating product – and one that manages to stand out from its contemporaries, of which there have recently been absolutely loads. Alright then. What has this almost cylindrical cube got to offer? You know how George Weah was really good at football and now runs Liberia? Well, some might say the AI Cube has similarly impressive versatility. It’s at the same time a speaker and a 4G router, accepting a SIM card via a slot on the bottom of the device to enable connection at LTE Cat 6…

PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC OUT SPRING 2019 Rage 2 is a surprising sequel, to say the least. Not because of what’s new or different here, but mainly because the original Rage kind of came and went… and then seven years passed with no hint that it’d be anything other than a one-off. But after a brash debut at E3, we’re glad to see id Software give this post-apocalyptic romp another shot. It lands like an amped-up Mad Max, albeit one that packs the kind of wallop we expect from an id shooter. The chunk we played was brief but lively. As dimwitted, neon-tinged goons paraded around the rubble outside the Eden Space Center, we savoured each encounter as an opportunity to test out the myriad abilities on offer in…

£67,000 (approx) / mercedes-benz.co.uk Are you sure that’s electric? Looks like a typical Merc to me… That’s kind of the idea. Instead of pretending to be an out-there version of what its design team reckons we (or our chauffeur bots) will be driving in 30 years, the EQC mostly sticks to what Mercedes does best: understated premium looks. Beyond its big shnozz of a grille, this five-seat SUV fits right in with the range. So practicality has stomped all over performance, then? Well, just because the EQC isn’t rocking an AMG badge, doesn’t mean Mercedes has been stingy with the power. It has two electric motors with a combined output of 402bhp. Top speed might be limited to a ‘mere’ 112mph, but the EQC is still good for 0-62mph in…

THE MAIN EVENT Casio Pro Trek WSD-F20 Wear OS might have started out as a wearable operating system for city workers, but the F20 throws that theory into the great outdoors. This is Casio’s second attempt at a tough smartwatch and crucially carries on-board GPS. Casio claims a two-day battery life as long as you’re not caning it with some sort of mammoth kayaking expedition, because nobody wants to be literally caught up the creek without a paddle. The 1.32in dual-layer LCD screen is super-bright in the pitch black, and if the battery is running low a clever feature flicks off the colour display in favour of a low-power monochrome one. £349 / wsd.casio.com Phoozy Phone Case This snazzy pouch is made from materials originally developed for astronauts – it…

NIGHT LIFE Apple photo walks Most of us only tap into a small percentage of our smartphone’s camera capabilities. To make the most of what an iPhone can do, Apple Store staff offer local photo walks to perfect your low-light snaps. It’s also a cheeky way to nab a free city tour. apple.com Sony Cyber-shot RX100 III A monster you shouldn’t avoid in the dark, the RX100 III is gargantuan in low-light conditions. It snaps sharp images where most cameras its size would struggle, thanks to a superb lens with 2.9x optical zoom and a 1in 20.1MP sensor. £499 / sony.co.uk Samsung S9+ The dual 12MP cameras on the S9+ can switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 on the fly, cranking open the aperture for low-light shooting, then closing it again…

THE MAIN EVENT Nanoleaf Canvas Guaranteed to transform a room on a dingy winter’s day or help you recreate a shiny late-’90s rap video, Nanoleaf’s new Canvas system comprises touch-controlled light squares that can cover entire walls or ceilings. The edge-to-edge LED tiles are modular and up to 500 can be supported by a single control square. If they’re out of arm’s reach and you can’t get off the sofa, they also respond to voice commands or the app. The latter also lets you set schedules and visual alarms, or enable music visualisation for illuminations in time with your tunes (presumably something by Redman and featuring velour tracksuits). Mostly, though, we want to play oversize Tetris when they arrive in November. £179 / nanoleaf.me Harman Kardon Aura Studio 2 The…

SPECIALIST STRIMMERS The stubble sucker Philips BT7202/13 Try to ignore the inevitable comparisons with the Suck Kut from Wayne’s World and attaching a vacuum to a beard trimmer is actually a pretty good idea. It won’t catch 100% of the detritus your face gives off, but it’ll definitely make cleaning the sink afterwards less of a chore. £48 / philips.co.uk The frequent flyer Remington Endurance Groomer Most beard trimmers come with a bulky charger that you use so infrequently you always forget where you put it. Not only is Remington’s Endurance Groomer about half the size of most others, but it comes with a tiny adaptor that allows you to juice it up from any common or garden USB port. £30 / uk.remington-europe.com The laser leveller Philips Series 9000 BT9297/13…

£2595 / stuff.tv/BromptonElectric ■ Bromptons have tiny wheels, fold in half for easy carrying and ride as well as their larger-wheeled brethren. Surely adding electricity to the mix must mean a guaranteed hit? We can confirm the Brompton Electric is heaps more fun than taking the train all the way to work. ■ The little motor in the front wheel emits a gentle hum when it’s whirred up to the restricted 15mph top speed; after that your legs are on their own. We had no trouble topping 30mph down the Mall in top gear. ■ The downside of all that extra electrical power is the added weight – the battery pack and motor add a hefty 7kg over the standard edition. It’s not noticeable in the ride, but once folded…

from £124,735 / stuff.tv/i8Roadster ■ The BMW i8 is not your typical supercar. It doesn’t have a big 12-cylinder engine: its main power source is a tiny, super-boosted 3-cylinder engine borrowed from a Mini Cooper, aided by an electric motor driving the front wheels. ■ This new Roadster version – with an auto-folding roof that collapses vertically into a slot behind the seats – also has a bigger hybrid battery, allowing it to hum around like a supercharged milk float for up to 33 miles. It can hit 75mph on pure electricity. ■ Oh, you noticed the price? Well, it’s beautifully built and the tech kit list is impressive. The hi-res 8.8in infotainment display and BMW’s Professional Navigation system are standard, as are Harman Kardon speakers, a head-up display and…

£150 / stuff.tv/SpheroBolt ■ Play time The Play app includes three games. In Exile II, there’s a Space Invaders-style spaceship. Lightspeed Drifter is a futuristic racer in F-Zero style, while Round Trip has you rotating the Bolt to guide a bouncing ball. ■ School time Sphero Edu is the educational app. Once you sign in, you choose a role: Learner, Educator or Parent. Connect to the Bolt and you can programme a set of manoeuvres, sounds and flashing light patterns. ■ If you’ve seen one of Sphero’s robots before, you know what to expect here. It’s basically a ball that you control from your phone. It has a hard, scratch-proof shell, which is good because it’s going to crash into your walls. A lot. ■ The Bolt has a matrix…

HOT BUY NEW 1 Sonos Beam £399 / stuff.tv/SonosBeam Sonos’s home cinema gear has always been a little expensive, but with the Beam it’s created a great-value soundbar. It sounds ace, comes with loads of features and is compact enough to fit into the average living-room AV setup without taking over. If you want the best-sounding system then the Playbar or Playbase are still the products to go for, but they’re a lot more money, they don’t have Alexa, and they don’t control your TV in the same slick way the Beam does. Stuff says Smaller and cheaper than the already excellent Playbar, and packed full of smarts HOT BUY 2 Q Acoustics Media 4 £199 / stuff.tv/Media4 The justifiably multi-award-winning Media 4 combines subtle detail with precise surround effects…

HOT BUY 1 Lego Boost Creative Toolbox £150 / stuff.tv/LegoCreativeToolbox Building Lego models is already ridiculously good fun, so think what great a time you’ll have when the completed model turns into a functioning robot. With the accompanying tablet app, you can use simple coding to make the robot move, fire projectiles and play various games. And rather than retiring it to the dusty shelf once you’re bored, you can rebuild him into four other programmable models: a harmonica-playing cat, a driveable rover, a working robot-builder and a playable guitar. Stuff says All hail Vernie and friends – for value and sheer fun, it’s hard to beat this programmable Lego kit 2 Sphero BB-8 with Force Band £130 / stuff.tv/BB8 BB-8 was fun even without the Force Band. Now it…

1 KeepCup Brew Reusable Glass Cup 12oz (Cork Edition) First cup of the day, and this splashproof glass number has a tidy cork band. I’m wide awake. £21 / amazon.co.uk 2 Big Bamboo Eco Thermos 450ml Email checked… I should probably neck another, larger coffee immediately. This mug keeps drinks hotter or colder for longer. £14 / amazon.co.uk 3 Frank Green Stainless Steel SmartCup 10oz Time to switch brews. Frank Green’s new stainless steel cups have removable tea strainers. £25 / frankgreen.com 4 Stojo 12oz Collapsible Coffee Cup Its collapsible design means Stojo’s silicone cup can be crushed down to a puck no larger than an Echo Dot. I’ll make this one a latte. £10 / bearandbear.com 5 Joco 8oz Glass Coffee Cup Lime On to coffee number five. This…

2nd FORZA HORIZON 4 Ever daydreamed about disrespectfully donutting a supercar around the cobbled streets of Edinburgh’s old town? Well now you can, as the latest entry in Forza’s arcadey Horizon subseries heads to wet and windy Britain. 3rd VENOM Tom Hardy stars in this Spider-Man spin-off, in which his character is bound to an alien symbiote that gives him superpowers. Going by the trailers, it looks set to honour the famously violent comics in what is a true anti-hero flick. 12th CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 The news that this year’s CoD wouldn’t have a traditional single-player campaign upset a few, but it does have Blackout, a last-man-standing multiplayer mode inspired by Fortnite and PUBG. With the former ruling servers worldwide, we’re keen to see if Black Ops…

NIGHT LIFE Neon Naked Life Drawing Neon Naked offers a twist on traditional life drawing classes, with models covered in UV lights and reactive body paint. This full moon party is happening each week across London – just imagine if you luck out with an Ultimate Warrior lookalike.neonnaked.com Urbanista Boston Night Runner Reflex A glow-in-the-dark reflective cable joins the bass-brimming buds on Urbanista’s Bluetooth earphones. They attach magnetically when not in use so you can pretend you’re wearing some sort of rave necklace. £69 / uk.urbanista.com Asics GEL-Kayano 25 Lite-Show The Lite-Show running shoes from Asics look pretty inconspicuous during the day, but like most night owls they come alive after dark, thanks to 3M reflectivity. Flytefoam Propel and Lyte technology offer a bit of extra bounce. £160 / asics.com…

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

NIGHT LIFE Zombie training Protecting your home from the living is one thing, but securing it from the living dead is quite another. Zombie apocalypse training with real military weapons is a thing. The Apocalypse World Tour will have fresh dates for UK cities soon. apocalypseworldtour.com Hive View If you use a Hive thermostat to keep you snug at night, its infrared indoor camera will keep an eye on the house when you’ve gone to bed. The View looks the part and records in Full HD, while its party trick is a removable cube-shaped camera. £189 / hivehome.com Ring Floodlight Cam While Ring is known for video doorbells, its Floodlight Cam works on a similar principal to the Netatmo on the right, only it has to be hardwired. It has…

1 Cutting crew There’s a big difference between an electric razor and a beard trimmer. If you want anything more than very light stubble, make sure you buy one with blades, not a foil. 2 Get the look Comb attachments with longer teeth (as with hair trimmers) are better for bushier beards, while the more boxy ones are better for keeping shorter efforts neat and tidy. 3 Close control Some trimmers come with attachments for hard-to-reach zones. If yours doesn’t, think about also investing in something smaller like Gillette’s Fusion ProGlide Styler. 4 Keep it clean Some beard trimmers need to be oiled to keep the blades working at their best, but they’re not waterproof. If that sounds like a hassle, buy one you can just rinse under the tap.…

FIND YOUR WAY ■ Try gestural navigation Android 9 Pie retains the traditional navigation buttons (back, home, overview) but only by default. We recommend swapping them out for the new gestural system. In Settings, head to System then Gestures and turn on the ‘Swipe up on home’ button. The back arrow will now be contextual, only showing when relevant. The home button will be a flat pill, but it works just as before. ■ Use the new Overview In the Overview, gestures more obviously boost speed and fluidity. Flick upwards on the home button to see large previews of open apps, like on iOS. Drag/flick the previews left or right to navigate them and tap an app to expand it. ■ Get at your apps Also in the Overview, you’ll…

HOT BUY BARGAIN BUY 1 Beyerdynamic Byron £36 / stuff.tv/Byron A strong argument for the idea that you don’t really need to spend more than £50 on earphones, the Byrons have a sound we defy you not to like. They’re not like the company’s studio headphones, designed for sound engineers looking for extreme accuracy – they’re for everyday folk – but these humble-looking buds do come with a shot of that special Beyer sauce. They’re some of the truest-sounding in-ears we’ve heard, with great midrange detail and good punch to the bass. Stuff says Seriously classy in-ear headphones with the detail to outdo the competition 2 Sony WF-1000X £131 / stuff.tv/SonyWF Impressive levels of detail and clarity, a decent amount of bass weight to the mix, and active noise-cancelling that…

HOT BUY 1 Sky Q from £20 + £20/month / stuff.tv/SkyQ Sky Q works flawlessly and could change the way you watch TV – especially now 4K’s arrived. With Sky Movies’ huge range of films and Sky Sports’ frequent doses of football and F1 now all in stunning Ultra HD, there’s something for everyone to treat their eyes with. And 2TB of storage means you can record 350 hours’ worth of entertainment, so you’re unlikely to be sweating over which show needs deleting. Factor in its multiroom skills, and Sky Q is undoubtedly the best TV experience you can get. Stuff says You’ll have to cough up for a subscription, but this is the best box for watching both live and recorded shows BARGAIN BUY 2 Amazon Fire TV Stick…

HOT BUY 1 Oculus Rift £399 / stuff.tv/OculusTouch The Oculus Rift has been playing catch-up for a while; but now that it’s got the fantastic Touch Controllers, has boosted its room-tracking capabilities to match the Vive and has had a price drop to undercut HTC’s standard headset by £100, it finally deserves to top our VR headset rankings. Its library of exclusive games has grown considerably since launch too, with the likes of Robo Recall, Lucky’s Tale and Lone Echo all added. This is now the best VR headset available that doesn’t cost the world. Stuff says Thanks to the price cut and much-needed updates, the Rift is now the best reasonably-priced VR headset 2 HTC Vive £499 / stuff.tv/HTCVive Barring a £100 price difference, there isn’t much difference between…

HOT BUY 1 Fujifilm X-T20 £749 / stuff.tv/XT20 Coming with the same 24.3MP APS-C sensor and processor as the X-T2, plus a touchscreen (which its sibling lacks), the X-T20 will leave you with a lot more spare cash in your account. And for most people, the model will deliver results that are just as good as its pricier big brother’s. With well laid-out controls, a huge viewfinder, excellent autofocus and access to superb lenses, the X-T20 is just one more fantastic mirrorless camera from Fujifilm. Stuff says The X-T20 nails the sweet spot between price and performance ⚫ NOW ADD THIS Manfrotto 190 Go! Carbon Fibre Tripod You no longer have an excuse for wobbly photos with this carbon-fibre tripod. It weighs just 1.65kg. £235 / manfrotto.co.uk ⚫ TIPS &…