Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Stuff UK

Hello! This issue is all about helping you to get more done, more quickly. Our cover feature has the latest computing and tablet hardware to give your work a boost, plus stacks of task-appropriate accessories. And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve a whole extra section at the back of the mag with the latest in creator hardware, including a whopping laptop shootout. Elsewhere, we’ve got a roundup of mice to use with those laptops, an in-depth test of six cutting-edge coffee machines, plus three of the best running shoes. Meanwhile it’s a stellar lineup in the reviews section: our first test is the brand new Sony WF-1000XM5 in-ears. Given what we thought about their predecessors, we had high hopes for these – and thankfully they didn’t disappoint. We’ve also…

£65,000 (est)/hyundai.co.uk That looks like it means business. N Division has certainly turned up the wick on the popular Ioniq 5 for Hyundai’s first stab at an electric performance model. Longer, wider and lower than the regular car, the Ioniq 5 N’s front end even has active air-flaps to cool the brakes while you’re thrashing it around a track. What’s happened under the hood? The new dual-motor powertrain is the real star, being good for a supercar-thrashing 600bhp – or an even spicier 641bhp with the ‘N Grin Boost’ mode engaged. It’ll blitz 0-62mph in just 3.4secs. Hyundai’s been testing it on the Nurburgring GP circuit, which gives you an inkling of what it’s all about. There’s also stiffer suspension, a reinforced chassis, sharper steering, beefier brakes and specially created…

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ASUS ZENBOOK S 13 OLED £1600/go.stuff.tv/S13 The super-compact Zenbook range has been around for over a decade, but during that time it’s always kept pace with the latest advancements in laptop tech. This Windows 11 Pro model is no different, with a 2.8K OLED HDR NanoEdge display on top of a 13th-gen Intel brain and Xe graphics. You also get speedy LPDDR5 memory, a 6500MB/s SSD and dual Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, along with support for both Dolby Vision and Atmos (though predictably the speakers aren’t the loudest). In short, you’d have to work hard to find something with a sharper edge – and performance just isn’t an issue. And it’s so light – this is almost a sub-ultraportable. It’s around 200g lighter than Apple’s MacBook Air and the non-touchscreen…

APPLE MAC MINI M2 PRO from £1399/go.stuff.tv/MiniM2Pro The Mac Mini is Apple’s least talked-about computer but one of our favourites: with prices starting at £649 it’s long been the most affordable Mac, partly because you have to add your own monitor, mouse and keys. Now, this isn’t the most affordable Mini – quite the opposite, in fact: with the M2 Pro chip it’s at least twice the price – but it’s a flying machine. In benchmarks, it outperforms the much more expensive first-gen Mac Studio and leaves even the fastest M1 MacBooks floundering. If your work involves rendering or converting video you’ll be gobsmacked by how fast it is. Unless you’re working in 8K video editing, you probably don’t need a speedier Mac than this. External life In addition to…

■ NOW ADD THESE SAMSUNG GALAXY S23 ULTRA Who needs a tablet when you’ve got this big-screened, pen-powered phone? The S Pen turns the S23 Ultra into a proper productivity machine. In our review we called it the camera king, thanks to its quite amazing photo setup. from £1249/samsung.com GOOGLE PIXEL WATCH With full Fitbit integration, a host of health sensors and the best Wear OS experience yet, this smartwatch is the perfect partner for your phone: Google Assistant is always ready and the Gmail and Google Calendar integration are particularly good. from £249/store.google.com BEATS STUDIO BUDS PLUS These Beats are ideal for startup people who don’t stop. They deliver a stunning soundtrack whether you’re catching up on podcasts, expanding your horizons with an audiobook or getting the juices pumping…

THE BASICS ■ Start small You might want to animate the next Toy Story or Akira in your shed, but rein in your ambition at first. Start by trying some basic animation: a simplified flying bird, a bouncing ball or a walking stick figure. Create a loop that repeats every few seconds and expand from there. ■ Watch the world Unless you’re planning to create abstract animation best suited to late-night 1980s Channel 4, what you build will be based on the real world. So study it. When you want to create a walk cycle, record someone walking (with their permission!) and play that back in slow motion, watching how parts of the body move. Once you fully understand the basic principles, you can add your own style. ■ Learn…

■ Face across the world Zoom is a welcome addition to Sky Live, and the two companies worked together to optimise the experience. The camera will track people in front of it and zoom to keep everyone in focus or pan across the room. ■ Ache off Mvmnt is developed by those behind another fitness app called WithU, and there are 130 workouts available to try. Clearly a lot of work has been put into this part of the experience in particular – it’s pretty slick. from £6/m/go.stuff.tv/SkyLive ■ When Sky first announced its Glass streaming television back in 2021, it promised there would be a camera with it too. Well, it’s taken two years, but here we are. ■ At launch, Sky Live offers four key things: Zoom video…

1 Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max from £1139/go.stuff.tv/14ProMax This is essentially the same phone as the 14 Pro, but with a bigger screen and a bigger battery. So on paper it’s Apple’s best ever… but while that justifies its promotion to top spot, we should point out that it’s only worth it for people who really need that extra screen space. Do you? Well, it does make photo, video and audio editing (and gaming) easier. Stuff says The latest model gives the Pro Max a real bump, though all this quality costs ● NOW ADD THIS Belkin BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 This solid MagSafe charging dock lets you top up your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. £140/belkin.com ● TIPS & TRICKS ● The Dynamic Island makes it easier to control a call:…

1 Apple Watch SE (2022) from £259/go.stuff.tv/WatchSE If you’re talking about value, the SE is the best Apple Watch hands-down. It tracks sleep and all the exercise you need, supports Apple Pay, works great with your iPhone and… what more do most people require? The user experience is broadly identical, and while the screen bezels are a bit larger than on the Series 8 it’s hard to tell them apart without getting right up close. If you want a stainless steel case you’ll have to splash out on a Series 8 – but first ask yourself if it’s really worth the extra. Stuff says Offers most of the Apple Watch Series 8 experience for a whole lot cash less 2 Garmin Fenix 7 from £485/go.stuff.tv/Fenix7 If your budget stretches, the impressive mix…

1 Amazon Echo (4th Gen) £100/go.stuff.tv/Echo Having morphed from a cylinder to a sphere, the latest Echo is an excellent newsreader, weather forecaster, personal assistant and intercom straight out of the box; but it’s now also a capable speaker and a very accessible smart home hub. It doesn’t sound as good as the Sonos One for listening to music, but it’s significantly smarter and considerably cheaper too. Stuff says An all-round upgrade that makes the Echo a smarter speaker than ever ● NOW ADD THIS Honeywell T6R This Zigbee-enabled thermostat is wireless so you can place it where it’s most convenient. £170/screwfix.com ● TIPS & TRICKS ● The Echo’s built-in Zigbee hub can hook up hundreds of smart home devices without a bridge. ● Pair a compatible thermostat and the Echo’s temperature…

Shure MV7 £259/go.stuff.tv/MV7 A side from a head stuffed full of ideas and a voice that doesn’t sound like fingernails dragged down a blackboard, your most important requirement for podcasting is a decent mic. Yes, your phone has one. No, you should never use it in anything other than a real emergency, because it’ll pick up all sorts of unwanted background noise. And even if you’re in ideal recording conditions, like tucked inside a foam-lined, sound-isolated booth (or the budget version – your bedroom wardrobe with a duvet over your head), it won’t produce that precise professional sound you’re after. THE BOY WITH THE HORN AT HIS SIDE The Shure MV7 will. Its dynamic cardioid design gives it a tight pickup pattern, meaning it’ll only capture audio from the area…

What is this? A chunky thumb drive? Are we running low on ideas for this page? This is no bulbous USB stick. It’s a bulbous HDMI stick, from a time when most tellies were dumb, streaming services were gaining in popularity, and smart folks were figuring out how to get what they wanted to watch onto the screen they wanted to watch it on. Google’s plan was to give you that in a dirt-cheap dongle that was also dead simple, with barely any interface of its own. All you had to do was fire video across from a phone or a laptop. OK, so what was the remote like? Was that insanely stripped-back as well? Very much so, in the sense that it didn’t exist. You just used your source…

UNDER THE DOME, 324 CRYSTALS ILLUMINATE TO MATCH THE MUSIC £300/harmankardon.co.uk Er, what planet is that thing from? Considering it looks a bit like an incubator for the glowing egg on the poster for Ridley Scott’s Alien, you’d better hope it’s not LV-426, the moon where the crew of the Nostromo inadvertently pick up their chest-bursting xenomorph. In fact, the Aura Studio 4 is from a place much closer to home called the United States of America; and rather than a deadly face-hugger inside there’s Bluetooth, a 5.2in down-firing subwoofer and an array of six speakers, so the only thing that’ll be hatching from it is sweet, sweet music. OK, but what are the lights for? You mean just making it look extraterrestrial isn’t enough? Don’t let that alien hiding…

Right now is the defining stage for Web3. When we started to shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, nobody knew what the second generation was going to look like. Web 1 gave us access to the internet at home, in the office or in a cafe – but you had to be in one place. Web 2 took us around the world, directly from our pockets at all times. So, what is Web 3.0 going to do? We’re not sure yet. Perhaps it won’t bring NFTs or crypto coins, but it is going to be transformative. I want to be part of defining this experience, to solve problems that have been ignored. Your online valuables should be protected by keys, just like physical items are. FYI is a messenger…

APPLE MACBOOK AIR 15IN from £1399/go.stuff.tv/Air15 The 13-inch MacBook Air is something you’ll see everywhere in college libraries and student haunts, but for all its joys that display size is just a little bit on the small side for serious work – especially creative stuff across multiple apps – or TV streaming and movie watching. The new 15in version is much more fun, and more portable than you might expect. Despite the larger screen it’s quite light and eminently backpackable. There’s big power behind that big screen. The 15in Air has Apple’s latest M2 processor, which is more than powerful enough for even the most heavyweight work apps; its day-plus battery means it can handle even the most demanding shifts; and the keyboard is an absolute joy to type on. She’s…

■ NOW ADD THESE GOOGLE PIXEL TABLET Google’s Android tablet is a great all-rounder: an iPad alternative, a smart display and a multimedia hub. After years of disappointing tabs, it’s nice to have something so stylish to exploit Android’s new enthusiasm for big screens. from £599/store.google.com ELGATO WAVE:3 This microphone and digital mixing solution brings plug-and-play convenience and classy circuitry at a modest price point. As well as letting you grab clear audio that won’t distort (without having to constantly watch input levels), it has a sensor that mutes the mic feed when lightly touched. £129/elgato.com WACOM CINTIQ PRO 27 This is Wacom’s most advanced pen display to date, perfect for 2D illustrators, 3D modellers, animators, game developers and virtual production artists. The breadth and depth of colour is seriously…

● Lastminute.com The clue’s in the name… and the app version of this famous website helps you get started by allowing you to avoid choosing a destination and instead begin with options like ‘beach’ or ‘city’. Alternatively you can tap in a location and, via the magic of ChatGPT, fashion an instant itinerary. Just be sure to check the bot doesn’t make up half of what it suggests, like it tends to do with writing. £free/Android, iOS ● Hello Weather If you’re escaping to the sun (or from it), you’ll want to be sure the conditions at your destination are just right. Hello Weather makes it a cinch to see what’s predicted to happen at saved locations over the coming week. The bright, bold icons and bar charts make it…

Smeg BCC02 What’s the story? The smallest and most affordable machine on test, this Smeg is just 18cm wide. But its brewing specs aren’t cut down: you get a thermoblock water heater and burr grinder, and can tailor the grind with a simple manual control. It’s also good-looking, with curvy ’50s styling in a choice of six finishes. But this is the only machine here that can’t make two drinks at once. Controls are just a series of buttons on the top, to pick from eight drink types; there’s no app. And the frother is a wand – so you’ll need a little jug to froth milk in, then pour it onto your coffee. Pricier models do the whole shebang straight into your cup and have touchscreen controls. Is it…

FIRST ADD THESE ONE BELKIN BOOSTCHARGE PRO Leave your Apple Watch charger at home with this genius powerbank that can wirelessly fuel up your Apple Watch and AirPods Pro (2nd Gen), and plug into your iPhone. With 10,000mAh, there’s plenty of juice in the tank to fill your phone and watch a couple of times over without any hanging about. £100/belkin.com TWO NOTHING EAR 2 (BLACK) Buck the Apple-white trend and pick up the Ear 2s in black for some transparent AirPods alternatives that’ll play nicely with your Watch Ultra. The buds are light at just 4.5g each, they offer 24-bit hi-res audio support plus ANC and up to 36hrs of listening time – and all for barely half the price of a pair of AirPods Pro. £129/nothing.tech THREE NOMAD…

1 Garmin Edge 1040 Solar £580/go.stuff.tv/1040Solar Ideal for multi-day adventures and training camps, the Edge 1040 Solar harnesses the sun’s power for a massive 45hrs of riding time on one charge. It has all the mapping, navigation and training firepower you’ll ever need, including accuracy-boosting dual-band GPS, best-in-class route planning and detailed training insights via Garmin Connect. The screen could be brighter, but we love the custom ride profiles that make it easy to exploit all that performance data. Stuff says A do-it-all beast of a bike computer with unrivalled battery life, reliable GPS and useful training smarts 2 JLab JBuds Air Sport £70/go.stuff.tv/AirSport The third-gen JBuds Air Sport seriously flex JLab’s value muscle: with a solid earhook fit, custom EQ, an ambient awareness mode plus rapid charging and Tile finder tools,…

1 Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max £1799/go.stuff.tv/AmbeoMax Utterly convincing Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D sound, ample power and lots of inputs mean no other soundbar currently available can perform sonic feats with the solidity and confidence of this Sennheiser. The sheer room-filling scale of its sound is remarkable – and see also the more affordable (but still hugely powerful) Plus model. Stuff says The Ambeo Soundbar Max is a big unit but the sound it makes is bigger still 2 Sonos Arc £899/go.stuff.tv/SonosArc Don’t expect this soundbar to do everything a multi-speaker Dolby Atmos setup can do, but its up-firing and side-firing drivers give a real sense of cinematic scale. See also the much more affordable Ray model. Stuff says Big-screen sound for your big-screen binges 3 Roku Streambar £80/go.stuff.tv/Streambar It’s a compact soundbar…

NOW HEAR THESE THIS WEEK IN PHOTO TWiP is one of the longest-running photography podcasts around and covers a wide range of topics, from tech to ethics. thisweekinphoto.com HASHTAG AUTHENTIC Want to use your photography to build a business? This podcast has non-evil tips for growing social media engagement. meandorla.co.uk A SMALL VOICE If the artistry behind photography is more your bag, don’t miss this one. Each episode consists of an in-depth interview with an ace photographer. bensmithphoto.com Leica Q3 The price may be terrifying, but there’s something special about shooting on a Leica. The legendary German brand’s Q3 will have you working solely with a 28mm f1.7 lens; but with a 60.3MP full-frame sensor handling the images, you’ll have plenty of scope for cropping afterwards. Read the full review…

Razer Kiyo Pro from £100/go.stuff.tv/KiyoPro Love it or hate it, a major part of being a successful game streamer is being comfortable with having your geeky mug broadcast to an audience of thousands. A creative pursuit for the shy it ain’t… but even extroverts will want to look their best when nailing that Fortnite Victory Royale (or failing miserably). A good webcam is a must for that, and there’s no shortage of options – from an advanced mirrorless camera to the humble built-in jobbie on your laptop – but many require special lighting to avoid making your fizzog look grainier than a bucket of sand. SMILE LIKE YOU STREAM IT Enter the Kiyo Pro, which sits somewhere in the middle of the webcam choice gamut. It’s a dedicated webcam that…

Acer Swift Edge 16 What’s the story? Back in 2015, the LG Gram series changed how we thought about laptops–showing you could make a big-screen performance machine and have it weigh about as much as an empty cereal box. The Acer Swift Edge 16 nicks the concept and runs with it, leading to a seriously capable 16in laptop that weighs a ridiculous 1.17kg. That’s right, a 16in laptop much lighter than most 13in options. It’s eye-opening stuff, and a dream if you can’t get on with tiny screens but hate how big laptops drag on your shoulders when you carry them around. But is it the perfect solution for everyone else? Is it any good? There are areas of compromise here, and other parts that feel completely unaffected by the…

£499/sony.co.uk Sony’s latest speaker system comes in three parts – but you don’t have to put it together yourself ● 3D lover If you bought a Bluetooth speaker that came to bits as soon as you got it home, you’d rush back to the shop and demand a full refund; but Sony has made that a feature of the HT-AX7, not a flaw. Looking a bit like a jumbo cloth-covered Lego brick, the main unit includes two drivers at the front and a passive radiator on each side, while the pucks on top are removable satellites with up-firing full-range drivers. Place them behind you and Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping tech will encase you in a cocoon of 3D audio, even if what you’re listening to is only stereo. ●…

COMPACT CLICKERS The stealthy selector Logitech MX Anywhere 3S Hammering the clicky bits won’t make you a welcome guest in most co-working spaces. Luckily, this Logitech mouse hits the spot without getting you glared at: ‘quiet click’ buttons offer the same feel as standard ones but with less noise. It’s also packing a load of customisation options. £90/logitech.com The frugal friend Dell MS3320W Consult a corporate manual and you’ll find that time-management is the key to efficiency. This simple mouse takes battery replacement off your to-do list with its own form of frugality: fitted with a single AA cell, it’s rated to last a massive 36 months. And it supports Microsoft Swift Pair. £23/dell.com The slender sliver HP Z3700 Mice are hardly sexy, but this slick clicker deserves a longer…

■ NOW ADD THESE SAMSUNG ODYSSEY OLED G9 You don’t need a 49in curved widescreen gaming monitor to stay on top of your business, we know. But this is as good as it gets for work as well as play: you can juggle multiple apps on its huge panel, and it all looks beautiful with no lag. £1599/samsung.com ASTELL & KERN A&NORMA SR35 A&K make high-end audio players – this £800 job is its new entry-level model. Unlike pricier options it’s focused entirely on audio and doesn’t come packed with extras. That means it’s simple to use, and it sounds tip-top. £799/astellnkern.co.uk EDIFIER STAX SPIRIT S3 These may well be the best-sounding wireless Bluetooth headphones on the market there, with a clear and realistic soundstage. So on that basis, they’re…

ASUS ZENBOOK 17 FOLD OLED £3600/go.stuff.tv/17Fold If you’re looking for a laptop that’ll make people gasp, this is it: with a 17in foldable touchscreen, the Zenbook Fold 17 OLED looks like it’s been sent from the future. The screen isn’t a gimmick, though. It gives you a much larger working area, extending below the fold in laptop mode and the whole device turning into a huge 3:2 tablet when folded flat. It looks like the kind of thing a PC firm would show off as a concept with no intention of actually making it, but Asus has delivered on its promise and produced something breathtaking. Heroes and fillings The multi-purpose screen is the star, of course. But there’s plenty of power here thanks to a 12th-gen Intel Core i7, 16GB…

from £750/go.stuff.tv/Zenfone10 ■ For a phone with a screen size of less than 6in, the Zenfone 10 is chunky; but the flat sides are easy to hold, and the bio-based plastic back is quite grippy while managing not to feel cheap. This is one of the lightest flagships around. ■ Yep, we mean flagship, because the Zenfone 10 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and up to 16GB of RAM – and it doesn’t get much better than that. You shouldn’t suffer any slowdown, and the only time we got it to heat up was after cranking the framerate while gaming. ■ The Zenfone 10 runs Android 13, but you can customise how the OS looks – whether that’s to keep it close to stock or add some…

from £579/go.stuff.tv/Nothing2 DAY 01 It’s not easy to cause a stir with a mid-range smartphone, but that’s very much what Nothing managed to do with the Phone 1 just over a year ago. This sequel isn’t a straight follow-up – the screen is bigger, the internals are beefier, battery capacity higher and charging quicker – but it’s not a full-on flagship either, with prices starting at £579 for the base spec. The one I take out of the box is the £629 model, which comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage, but you can bump the capacity up to 512GB for £699. That makes the Google Pixel 7 its closest competitor, but the Nothing Phone 2 is a more eye-catching device, with the see-through styling and ‘glyph’…

Welcome to this extra section of Stuff, bringing you the latest in top-notch creator hardware. If our main feature on getting things done wasn’t enough for you, then we’ve got a roundup of the very best premium laptops for you starting on p106 – whatever you want to do, these power portables can help you do it! But before that, there’s a whole swathe of gear designed to help you be more creative. If (like everyone else) you want to do a podcast, we’ve got the latest in audio editing gear. Want to make music or design on the go? It’s all here. We’ve also got a review of the latest Apple Pencil, along with tips for getting the most out of it, plus the hottest kit for game streaming…

Apple MacBook Pro 14in (2023) from £2149/go.stuff.tv/Pro14 If you’re going to make it as a latte-slurping content creator, you’re going to have to learn to cut together short movies – at least in a rudimentary fashion. Nobody’s expecting Hollywood-quality clips, but the level of video-editing power you can amass fairly cheaply today is frankly astounding. With a 4K-capable mirrorless camera, a decent computer setup and some (free) editing software, you can achieve stunning results. SHAKE YOUR MONEY, MAKER For next-level video editing on the move, there’s no better PC than the current Apple MacBook Pro 14. Available with a choice of M2 Pro or M2 Max chips (both of which are blisteringly powerful) and up to 96GB (yes, really) of unified memory, this laptop will chomp through editing tasks with…

Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) £139/go.stuff.tv/Pencil2 The ultimate stylus, the Apple Pencil is not technically a necessity – iPads are of course designed for use with the humble hand. However, for creatives it’s criminal not to try one and watch your iPad spread its wings… Designed for use with iPad Pro, Air and Mini, the second-gen Pencil is as easy to use as an actual pencil and has unbelievably low latency, so it won’t slow you down. We noticed no perceptible lag between movements and on-screen results during our quick sketches and furious scribbles. KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DRAW You can even change tools without setting it down, thanks to an intuitive touch surface that supports double-tapping and makes for uninterrupted drawing sessions. We also like that you can rest your hand…