Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2019 i Stuff UK

This is a very special edition of Stuff. Probably not for you personally, unless you’ve got some sort of weird psychokinetic connection with the editorial team, but because the world’s best-selling gadget magazine (yes, us) has reached the milestone of its 250th issue. What does that mean? Well, we’re still here. We’re older, but not necessarily wiser. Stuff actually launched back in 1996, when the Notorious B.I.G. was still alive and Spurs ended the season trophyless. Our Hot Stuff editor Matt Tate follows the Lilywhites, and now knows full well that some things never change. The world of tech, however, has moved on exponentially (textbook segue). Netflix was launched around the same time, offering DVD rentals. I wonder if anyone predicted it would be making its own movies by now?…

£190/amazon.co.uk When it comes to weather forecasts, pointless pub trivia and conducting the smart home, Amazon’s Echo speakers are peerless. But with the possible exception of the Echo Plus, they don’t have the sonic muscle to do your Rick Astley back catalogue justice. That changes with the Echo Studio – the most powerful Echo to date. Studio apartment This is the first smart speaker capable of delivering 3D audio, with Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio bringing added depth and height to your tunes. There aren’t many songs that support the format yet, and you’ll need to subscribe to the new Amazon Music HD service, but even on its own the Studio is a room-filling monster capable of giving Sonos a scare. Another fine mesh Under its grey mesh…

1 A Park and Pigeons £1.99 / Android, iOS In this score-chaser, you too can be a pigeon, desperate for whatever scraps the humans have dropped… including, for some reason, entire bagels. Get munching, chase your foes away and watch feathers fly. 2 Mario Kart Tour £free (IAPs) / Android, iOS Remember all your fun times with Mario Kart? Well, forget them here, because this stripped-down slice of loot boxes and IAP even has a subscription that costs as much as Apple Arcade. 3 Dear Esther £4.99 / iOS Florence created a market for narrative sort-of-games, and this one sees you explore a gloomy island, piecing together a story from letter fragments read by an anonymous man. 4 Mindkeeper: The Lurking Fear £1.99 / watchOS Doom on Apple Watch? Not…

Withings Move ECG £130 / withings.com What’s the story? This neat hybrid smartwatch will do basic exercise and sleep tracking, but what makes it a worthy Apple Watch rival is its ability to take an electrocardiogram (ECG) and alert the user to an irregular heartbeat. Withings had some business dalliances with Nokia Health, but is independent once again and continues to offer solid wearable tech with a focus on affordability and style. Is it any good? There’s no denying the absence of a heart-rate monitor lets this one down in the exercise department. But for those looking for simple health tracking it’s a no-brainer, and the accompanying Health Mate App is an insightful addition. Withings has done a fine job of making a comfortable, subtle wearable that doesn’t need charging…

So the iPhone has followed almost every other area of Apple’s device empire and gone ‘Pro’, but what does that actually mean? Well, this is Cupertino’s elite handset, its gladiator, a knight in recycled aluminium charging into battle against the Android enemies vying for the smartphone throne. OK, we may have re-watched a Marvel movie or two recently, and on the surface this thing does look a lot like last year’s iPhone XS, but flip it over and you’ll see a triple-camera array that’s up there with the best we’ve tested this year. And with Apple finally catching up on the competition and developing some sharp Night Mode photography tech, it’s the best all-round smartphone camera, full stop. The A13 Bionic chip comes out on top in benchmark testing too,…

If you’re serious about mobile gaming and want a leg up over your online opponents, the ROG Phone II is the ultimate gamers’ handset of 2019. We just thought we’d put that one to bed early, because in case you were wondering how a laptop manufacturer had somehow snuck a smartphone into the Stuff supertest, it’s here on merit. Plus, even people who take mobile antisocial-ness to entirely new levels are humans. Officially the first phone to come packing Qualcomm’s jacked-up Snapdragon 855+ chipset, giving it more grunt than a Bavarian pig farm, it houses a whopping 6000mAh battery for entirely possible all-day gaming, while the 120Hz display (yes, really) spurts crisp, silky-smooth visuals at your peepers. Rivals like the Black Shark 2 can’t touch it for specs, performance and…

Sennheiser Momentum Wireless (2019) What’s the story? These days if you’ve got £300 or so spend on some wireless over-ear headphones with noise-cancelling skills, it’s hard to go wrong. Bose, Bowers & Wilkins and Sony each have a great pair to sell you; even Microsoft has a decent option. The Momentum Wireless have always been in the mix too… but they’ll have to be really good to take on the class of late 2019. Are they any good? This is a truly over-ear design, and those generous earcups will overwhelm anyone whose lugs are on the smaller side. They’re distinctive without being show-offy, with a smart combo of exposed steel and soft, tactile sheepskin. Everything looks and feels made to last. The 17-hour battery will be exhausted long before Bose…

The code to hell While Sega has re-released its 16-bit back catalogue on other platforms before, this collection offers a fine summary of the console’s history – including third-party titles such as Street Fighter II and Castle of Illusion. Cool if you think it’s over A lot of the games are perfect for pick-up-and-play sessions, and over a third support two-player. Those who want to invest in their nostalgia for longer can also enjoy RPGs like Shining Force and Phantasy Star IV. £70 / stuff.tv/MegaDriveMini Nearly two decades after Sega officially left the console-making business, it’s a delight to see the Japanese company revive its most beloved 16-bit machine – and this is the real thing, not some branded knock-off using dodgy emulation. It’s too late for the Mega Drive’s…

Apple iPad Pro from £769 / stuff.tv/iPadPro The iPad Pro isn’t cheap, but it’s a mobile powerhouse like no other, with a diverse and rich app ecosystem, tons of power, a gorgeous screen, and the kind of focus on creativity and productivity that just doesn’t exist on other tablets. If you just want to faff on Facebook or Netflix it’s massive overkill, so we’d recommend going for the iPad Air (from £479) instead; but even if you don’t actually need the new iPad Pro, you’re going to want one if you have it in your mitts for five minutes. Stuff says Once again Apple blasts ahead of the pack, with a stylish, powerful tablet full of creative potential Microsoft Surface Go from £379 / stuff.tv/SurfaceGo Having this slinky Windows tab…

Sony WH-1000XM3 £249 / stuff.tv/SonyWHXM3 Sony’s WH-1000 series was already a top performer, and the WH-1000XM3s make for an even more compelling package. With Bluetooth wireless and great noise-cancellation, they’re the ultimate public transport stress killer… well, aside from a chauffeur or a lottery win that lets you retire. The leather pads make them incredibly easy to wear, not unlike sitting in one of those ultra-comfy leather chairs, and most importantly of all the sound quality is fantastic. Stuff says Great wireless headphones with effective ANC and a sound that nails just about everything Bose NCH 700 £350 / stuff.tv/BoseNCH700 You won’t find a better voice pickup system than Bose’s, while the company’s already exceptional noise-cancelling tech is now even better. Other features, such as the slick touch controls, are…

Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar £2199 / stuff.tv/AmbeoSoundbar Utterly convincing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D sound, ample power and lots of inputs mean no other soundbar currently available can perform feats with the solidity and confidence of this Sennheiser. The sheer room-filling scale of this device’s sound is remarkable, and it’s hard to think of any content that wouldn’t benefit from being Ambeo’d. That’s why, as well as being the biggest and the most expensive, it’s the best you can buy. Stuff says The Ambeo Soundbar is a big unit but the sound it makes is bigger still Sonos Beam £399 / stuff.tv/SonosBeam Sonos’s great-value Alexa-equipped soundbar offers fine audio quality, comes with loads of features and is compact enough to fit into the average living-room AV setup without taking over. Stuff…

Sony PlayStation 4 Pro £319 / stuff.tv/PS4Pro As a gaming platform, PlayStation 4 is the best around – which makes the PS4 Pro the best of the best. Games optimised for the new console look stunning on a 4K HDR TV, and are substantially improved by the extra grunt inside this slightly bigger machine. Sure, it can’t match the Xbox One X for sheer power or resolution, but it makes up for that with an impressive line-up of games – including Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn and Bloodborne – and virtual reality support. Stuff says The system for console gamers who have a 4K TV and want the best catalogue of games on offer Nintendo Switch £279 / stuff.tv/NintendoSwitch Nintendo’s console earned a promotion in our list after it impressed…

Jaguar I-Pace from £60,995 (with PiCG) / stuff.tv/ipace Not content with simply making an electric vehicle that can get you from A to B with minimal fuss (and fuel bills), Jaguar has created something desirable, fun to drive and impressively capable when the going gets tough. This car offers Amazon Alexa integration, smartphone connectivity and a 10in touchscreen on the upper deck. With the I-Pace, Jaguar can happily claim to be the first mainstream brand to really give Tesla something to worry about. Stuff says Fun, fast and practical, the I-Pace is the greatest thing to happen to electric cars in a long time Nissan Leaf from £27,995 / stuff.tv/NissanLeaf Nissan has really got it right with the latest Leaf – an accomplished family car that packs some serious range…

Tado Smart Thermostat V3+ from £200 + installation / stuff.tv/TadoV3Plus It might not be as pretty as the Nest 3.0, but Tado has quietly evolved into the best all-round smart heating system around. Like autopilot for your boiler, it senses when you’re leaving home or coming back thanks to the app’s geolocation. And Tado’s gadgety goodness is second to none, with the option of zonal control for individual rooms and voice smarts from the likes Alexa and Google Assistant. Stuff says Tado roasts the competition with its combination of simplicity and smarts NOW ADD THIS Tado Smart Radiator Thermostats Once you’ve tasted the joys of zonal smart heating, you and your wallet will never go back. £70 each / tado.com Netatmo Welcome £157 / stuff.tv/NetatmoWelcome Netatmo’s smart cam has face…

Fujifilm X-T3 £1349 / stuff.tv/FujifilmXT3 It’s really hard to find anything bad to say about the X-T3 – it’s just consistently great in so many ways. Fuji has looked at virtually every feature on the X-T2 and upgraded it. With substantial tweaks made to the pro-level video options, the high-res EVF, the super-fast autofocus and the burst shooting, what you’re left with is an all-round beast of a camera in a small, beautiful form. As APS-C shooters go, it’s the best there is. Stuff says An incredible stills shooter with video smarts to match 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. £249 / manfrotto.co.uk TIPS & TRICKS Pre-shot ES mode starts…

I HAD LUNCH WITH FUJI’S NEW RETRO CAM Fujifilm’s X-Pro3 is a bit special – aimed at those who have retro sensibilities, probably still love film cameras, and quite possibly own a selection of berets. I spent the afternoon in London’s Borough Market to test it out… but having skipped lunch, my acute desire to go head-first into a massive paella meant that none of the photos I took inside the food market were in focus. So I dashed back and asked this willing staff member to strike a quick natural pose. Natalya Paul, Online Editor I BELIEVED I COULD FLY It might look like a bold take on Microsoft Flight Simulator, but this was Beats’ novel way of testing the transparency settings on its new Solo Pro on-ear noise-cancellers…

THE PLAYSTATION 5 IS OFFICIALLY INBOUND Sony has finally confirmed the PS5 will launch in 2020. The next-gen console will support ray-tracing for lighting effects, and swaps the hard drive for an SSD. A new controller replaces rumble with more realistic haptic feedback, while adaptive L2/R2 triggers allow for customised resistance. OCULUS QUEST BECOMES THE HANDIEST HEADSET The rather brilliant Oculus Quest has already freed us from wires and external sensors, and soon you’ll be able to use it without controllers. From early 2020, the Quest will support hand-tracking, using a new method of deep learning that can understand the positions of your fingers. REALME STAKES CLAIM AS CHEAP PHONE CHAMPION China’s Realme has launched the X2 Pro, a flagship impersonator at a fraction of the cost. On the spec…

SUBSCRIBE TO STUFF MAGAZINE TODAY AND PAY JUST £25 FOR 12 ISSUES, SAVING 58% SAVE 58% Celebrating 250 issues! 250TH ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION OFFER Pay just £25 for 12 issues, saving 58%* off the shop price Have each issue delivered directly to your door Never miss an issue of the world’s greatest gadget mag HERE’S HOW! ONLINE shop.kelsey.co.uk/STU017 CALL US 01959 543747 Please quote STU017 Hours: Mon-Fri 8.30am-5.30pm (calls charged at your standard network rate) Offer ends 28 November 2019 DIGITAL Pay just £37.99 for a 13-issue digital subscription: shop.kelsey.co.uk/stuff Terms and conditions: Offer available for UK customers only. You will pay £25 for 12 issues, saving 58%. For overseas rates please visit shop.kelsey.co.uk/stuff. Offer closes 28 November 2019 *Full UK subscription rate for 13 issues is £64.87, USA & EU…

It’s no secret that the OnePlus 7 was a bit, well, meh. Sure, it was powerful and good-looking, but just too similar to the 6T before it. Honor and Xiaomi then launched low-cost flagship-specced phones in the 20 Pro and Mi 9 with more cameras, lower prices and similar innards. Enter the OnePlus 7T, offering an array of enhancements over the only months-old 7 model. Most significantly, it adds the same super-smooth 90Hz refresh rate as the 7 Pro, although this 6.55in panel is still at only 1080p resolution. The rear camera setup gains a third sensor and a redesign, the processor has been upgraded to the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+, and the latest Warp Charge 30T is even faster than on the 7 Pro. Significant upgrades mean a slight…

Google’s own phones to take us crash-landing into a new decade are here. The Pixel 4 and 4 XL give Android 10 its debut, and show us what Google really cares about these days – other than everyone’s data. Focusing on the bigger brother of the two, the 4 XL, not a great deal has changed. Cameras and Android are still the Pixel fixations, while Google leaves stuff like design dynamism and ultra-long battery life for others to fight over. With the Pixel 4 XL, the tech giant has taken aim at those preferred areas and hammered them like a Japanese swordsmith. The camera is the main one: Astrophotography mode is a delight, and all the progress here is entirely in line with the brilliant work put into the Pixel…

When it comes to writing the 2019 chapter in the history books, there’ll be plenty of bonkers stuff to include. There was Nigelfest, the theft of a gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, and the ‘Wagatha Christie’ saga involving Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy… but one of tech’s weirdest tales is probably Donald Trump’s ongoing beef with Huawei. In case you aren’t in the loop, at the time of writing the US government has still blocked Huawei from having access to the Google Play Store and other Google apps. Its latest flagship, the stunning Mate 30 Pro, is the first casualty of this war – and we’re warning you, despite its sensational design, innovative camera system and ample power and battery, this is going to be one bittersweet write-up… not least…

PERFECT POINTERS The princely puck Azio Retro Classic Mouse This classy clicker might channel vintage vibes, but it’s no old-school scroller. Crafted from leather and aluminium, the refined RCM packs a battery good for months and a sensor that works on even the glossiest of retro desks. You can even switch the top cover to match your antique mousepad. £97 / aziocorp.com The Cupertino clicker Apple Magic Mouse 2 Longing to boost your iPad’s touchscreen with the tactile certainty of a solid click? Good news: iPadOS brings mouse support to your tablet. And what better peripheral to add than Apple’s own, with its slender shell, rechargeable cell and multi-touch surface that works like, y’know, a touchscreen. £79 / apple.com The streamlined sidekick Microsoft Surface Mobile Mouse A mouse might be…

Chimp chauffeurs, roads replaced by tubes and rocket mail are just some of the forecasts for 2020 that look set to miss the mark. No mention of Spurs winning silverware… but it just goes to show, making predictions is risky. So to mark our 250th issue with some future-gazing, we decided to largely wash our hands of it. Instead meet Matthew Griffin, an award-winning futurist dubbed ‘the adviser behind the advisers’, whose clients include leading tech firms and governments. “I look at two types of future: 0-20 years, where most companies sit, and 20-50 years, where most governments try to sit,” Griffin tells Stuff. “Take Samsung and Huawei. The world’s two largest phone makers are pretty much the only companies I’ve come across that by their own definition live in…

THE BASICS Prepare yourself Before updating, choose ‘About This Mac’ from the Apple menu, then System Report. Under Software, click Applications. Anything listed as ‘No’ in the ‘64-Bit’ column is not compatible with Catalina. Check for updates, and hold off on installing the new OS if none are available and you consider those apps vital. Before you do update, make a full bootable backup using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner – just in case. Get your game face on The Mac App Store now has an Arcade tab. If you’re already signed up to Apple Arcade, progress will sync from wherever you left a game on your other Apple devices. But note that not all titles are available on Mac, and on-boarding can be clunky, leaving you to figure out…

Data Wing £free / Android, iOS This game starts off as if Asteroids had a baby with a top-down racer: your triangular craft blasts around circuits, gaining speed when its bum scrapes neon track edges. Soon you discover you’re part of an OS ruled by a deranged AI. Story and game quickly expand, as you glimpse the world beyond the screen and battle gravity in cavern-based sections that recall 8-bit classic Thrust. Rarely do mobile titles pack in so many hours of clever, thoughtful narrative. Pretty much never are such games free. Stuff says A mobile game we’d happily recommend if it cost a fiver – for nowt, it’s an absurdly generous bargain Jumpgrid £2.99 / iOS Pac-Man and Frogger meet Super Hexagon and buckets of adrenaline in this superb…

Apple Watch Series 4 from £349 / stuff.tv/WatchS4 Series 5 is here, and almost certain to take top spot next month, but while the old model is still available from some stockists it remains a great option. The larger screen, improved processor and louder speaker mean it’s easier to actually do stuff on it than any previous Watch, and it has superb health features. Whether you’re navigating using Maps, going for a run without your phone or just wanting to keep track of your activity, it does a great job of handling all these things and more. Stuff says A sleek and sophisticated redesign of the previous Watch makes this the best wearable ever… for now Samsung Galaxy Watch from £279 / stuff.tv/GalaxyWatch A sturdy and stylish smartwatch with plenty…

Sonos One £199 / stuff.tv/SonosOne Making an amazing speaker was an easy job for the multiroom champs, but getting Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to dance along in time with it… well, that wasn’t such a simple task. But the One is now an altogether more well-rounded device than it was at launch, supporting Spotify with voice control as well as Amazon Music and TuneIn Radio, while the early Alexa hiccups seem to have been fixed by a series of software updates. It also has an improved processor in its current ‘Gen 2’ form. Stuff says Sonos’s Alexa-powered speaker remains a class apart from the competition Amazon Echo Dot £50 / stuff.tv/EchoDot If you don’t want to make room for a full-size Echo in your tat-cave, the 3rd-gen Dot is a…

Oculus Quest from £399 / stuff.tv/OculusQuest The Quest offers all manner of fully interactive, roamable virtual worlds that you can throw in your backpack without a single wire. That’s a mindblowing technical feat. Yes, the battery life is average, but the inside-out tracking and total absence of any cables make this the best all-round VR headset to date. It also ships with the Oculus Touch motion controllers included, which means you can play fully fledged Oculus Rift titles without being anywhere near a PC. Stuff says If you’ve been waiting to board the VR bandwagon, the Quest might be the best reason yet to go for it HTC Vive £499 / stuff.tv/HTCVive There isn’t much difference between this and the much cheaper Oculus Rift, in all honesty. But if you’re…

GoPro Hero7 Black £319 / stuff.tv/Hero7Black This is basically the excellent Hero6 Black (a five-star action cam that cost £500 at launch) with a bunch of improvements added – the most useful of which being the incredibly effective HyperSmooth image stabilisation, which has a huge impact on video quality. It’s great to see a company like GoPro continue to innovate in ways that are genuinely valuable to its main customer base, and the Hero7 Black is the best camera it’s made in years. Stuff says GoPro’s smoothest operator ever, and a brilliant flagship action cam DJI Osmo Action £329 / stuff.tv/OsmoAction The image stabilisation is sensational and the face-optimised metering makes DJI’s action cam an ideal choice for vloggers. It has some idiosyncrasies, but this is a smart shooter that…

SNES Classic Mini £70 / 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. £15 / 8bitdo.com TIPS & TRICKS Chickens killed you in Zelda again? You…

GET THE BEST GADGET DEALS WITH STUFF 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…

They look like… normal glasses? They certainly do, but in a feat comparable to the genie’s miraculous occupation of a lamp, Alexa has managed to squeeze herself into these unassuming spectacles. They’re part of Amazon’s ongoing mission to put its voice assistant into every existing physical object – and when you think about it, it’s a bit of a surprise that the Frames were actually beaten to it by the Alexa toilet. You’re worryingly infatuated with the Alexa toilet. So what do these things do, then? Put simply, the Echo Frames are prescription-ready glasses that offer hands-free access to Alexa. There’s no camera or AR features – both of which tend to make wearables look like Star Trek props – to speak of here. Using them is much like using…

Astro Golf £1.89 / Android? £1.99 / iOS When you think of someone playing ‘sport’ with planets, it’s usually a colossal alien potting them into black holes, like Ronnie O’Sullivan crossed with Galactus. But Astro Golf is far more sedate, as you smack a ball between planets in a single-screen solar system that whirls off to somewhere new when you complete a hole. With its minimalist vibe, drag-based controls and endless nature, there’s more than a hint of mobile classic Desert Golfing about this title. But it differentiates itself through endearingly bonkers gravity-aided ball-smackage (slingshots aplenty!) and an entertainingly tricky ‘hard’ mode that forces you to get a hole in one in order to progress – every single time.…

According to the Internet, ‘Reno is a city in the northwest section of the US state of Nevada, approximately 22 miles (35 km) from Lake Tahoe, known as the Biggest Little City in the World’. From what we can gather, it has nothing to do with the naming of Oppo’s Reno smartphone series, but there’s a metaphor in there somewhere for arguably the biggest little smartphone brand of 2019. Tenuous links aside, it’s a warm Mojave Desert welcome to the Oppo Reno2. Falling between the original Reno and Reno 10x Zoom, it joins its siblings crammed with multiple lenses and camera smarts, coupled with a big bold screen, fast-charging and a swanky pop-out selfie-camera that’ll steal the spotlight in any gadget gathering. This is a truly eye-catching, luxurious-feeling handset that…

No, we haven’t accidentally left off the ‘Pro’ part. Apple has risen back to the top on the strength of its wondrous cameras and extraordinary A13 Bionic chip, but not with the handset you may have been expecting. The 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max make us very happy indeed, but we can’t shake off the nervous twitch that comes with spending more than a grand on a mobile. And so the standard 11 – with its still-excellent cameras, equally adept processing power and cool shades of pastel – comes first. In the words of every career politician, let’s be clear, all the phones here are incredible… and Android fans, you’re spoilt for choice from OnePlus to Huawei with every Samsung and Sony in between. The Empire simply struck back.…

Slim tickings Our GT 2 was the 46mm Sport Edition and it looked glorious. The watch has a dial etched into the frame and two crown-like buttons on the right, and it isn’t obnoxiously chunky. And the rubber strap feels comfortable. Alive and ticking If you have automated heart and stress tracking turned off and don’t fire up a lot of workouts, you may be able to hit Huawei’s claimed two-week battery life. If you actually plan on using your wearable, it’s more like one week. from £179 / stuff.tv/WatchGT2 The Watch GT 2 is a beauty: round and sleek with a giant, bright screen. It’s a smartwatch we’ve loved having on our wrist… except it isn’t really a smartwatch at all, just a very fancy fitness tracker. Running Huawei’s…

Huawei P30 Pro from £799 / stuff.tv/P30Pro Huawei’s superphone sets a stratospheric benchmark for camera power, with no cost to overall performance. Everything about the design is top-notch, with only screen sharpness failing to hit the very highest marks – at least by Huawei’s own giddy standards. But it’s those oh-so-clever rear camera lenses that really set the P30 Pro apart. Just be aware that ongoing political problems for the brand make this a risky purchase at present. Stuff says Heaps of power – and the best smartphone camera you can buy NOW ADD THIS Huawei Smart View Flip Cover This case has a transparent window that will display your P30 Pro’s notifications, time and weather. £15 / amazon.co.uk TIPS & TRICKS Use Huawei’s OneHop tech for quick wireless file…

Moov Now £49 / stuff.tv/MoovNow Slow and steady wins the race, and the Now has gone on to prove that with a marathon-like pace helping it finally make it to the top of this list. We’ve long considered this tracker a bargain, but further reductions have helped it enter the realm of ‘downright steal’. OK, so it doesn’t have a screen or smartphone skills, but with guided voice coaching, a six-month battery and solid waterproofing, it has everything you’d ever want in your perfect fitness tracker. Stuff says A bargain-tastic fitness band that does more than just track your steps Fitbit Inspire HR £90 / stuff.tv/InspireHR Fitbit’s latest is a great little tracker. As well as step-counting, it’s surprisingly capable for proper run-tracking if you go out with a phone.…

Sky Q from £20 + £22/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 in stunning Ultra HD, along with the new addition of Netflix, 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 Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K £50 / stuff.tv/FireStick4K Amazon’s latest streaming…

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 Propel Star Wars X-Wing Battling Drone £65 / stuff.tv/SWDrone The Star Wars Battling Drone works indoors and outdoors, and doesn’t require a…

Blood & Truth £28 / PSVR Blood & Truth uses every trick available to deliver an absolutely rollicking action thriller – sweaty palms are guaranteed. Covering a huge breadth of environments and sequences that will make you forget its relatively short runtime, it turns London into a playground packed with dazzling action set-pieces, while the story keeps you grounded with a likeable and compelling cast. Anyone with a PSVR needs to play this; and for those who don’t already own one, the time is now. Stuff says A stunning full-length VR action blockbuster with a great story Superhot VR from £16 / Oculus Rift, Vive, PSVR There’s something really cool about hiding behind a desk before blitzing your opponents with streams of bullets as if you were starring in your…

Sony DSC-RX100 V £799 / stuff.tv/RX100V We wouldn’t recommend buying this camera if you already own the old IV model, but a few improvements have ensured Sony remains the top dog in our compacts list – and we’re keeping this model above the newer RX100 VI simply because of the huge price difference. It remains one of the finest point-and-shoots we’ve ever seen, with a flexibility that few pocket cameras can muster. While it’s still not exactly cheap, we reckon this is the cam to buy if you want fantastic-looking snaps from your holidays. Stuff says Only a small improvement over the RX100 IV, but this Sony is close to premium point-and-shoot perfection Panasonic Lumix TZ200 £599 / stuff.tv/TZ200 This Panasonic compact is a significant upgrade from the TZ100, offering…