Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i T3

GLOW-ZONE LAYER With a whopping 2,500 dimming zones powered by 30,000 mini LEDs, LG’s 86-inch 8K QNED screen offers stunning and bright HDR images Mini LED tech has rapidly evolved from a futuristic fantasy to a reality, with this year's Consumer Electronics Show bringing compelling consumer models for the first time. Indeed, the brand new 8K QNED screens from LG will have you completely re-evaluating what LCD screens are capable of. Packed full of 30,000 tiny LEDs backed up with a dream team of quantum dot and NanoCell tech, the new set is searingly bright and offers an absurd contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. Not only that but a wide gamut and unerringly precise colour accuracy means it offers truly vivid yet natural tones. And while this behemoth of a screen…

1 DJI MINI 2 From £419, dji.com Not that we're saying you should dodge the requirements of the law, but the folding DJI Mini 2- the almost physically identical sequel to DJI's revered Mavic Mini drone -carries one particular key advantage above all others: since it's just under 250g in weight, you don't need to take a CAA test before you send it airborne. As long as you're abiding by the drone safety code, which basically boils down to not sending it up in populated areas or near airports and keeping it below a certain height ceiling, then you're good to go. And don't be fooled into thinking small means delicate -level 5 wind resistance means the Mini 2 can hold its own in wind speeds of up to 24mph,…

EUFY SECURITY EUFYCAM 2 PRO Has 2K resolution, 365 days of battery life and AI detection of burglars that ignores cats – unless they’re cat burglars of course. Like all the devices in this column, it scooped a CES Innovation Award. £399, eufylife.com CHILISLEEP NEXT-GEN OOLER Tired of waking up in a hot mess? This system actually cools your mattress as you sleep, with a thermal range of 13ºC to 46ºC. Air conditioning for your bed, basically. From £699, uk.chilisleep.com LIP FACTORY BY COLOR TAILOR There’s little more frustrating than being unable to get exactly the right colour of lipstick to match your outfit. Lip Factory solves that by being like one of those paint-mixing machines you get at DIY stores, but for lipstick. £TBC, apgroup.com…

Q GRAHAM LEAWORTH, ISLE OF SHEPPEY What gadgets do I need to get my novel written? A Bearded lollygagger George RR Martin famously spends his time gawping at the walls of his home office, pretending to write the next A Song of Ice and Fire book while sat in front of a DOS computer running 1987’s WordStar 4.0. Guru writes with, depending on his platform, tangentially archaic software that pushes everything but the words out of the way; on Windows it’s WriteMonkey, on Mac he goes for BBEdit. He has heard of novelists writing full books on their phones (try JotterPad, free with IAPs), and technophobes hand-writing every word of their memoirs. The important thing is to write. Guru’s long-suffering Editor would certainly suggest, as he often does to GaGu,…

Tech has not really been all that helpful during the Covid epidemic that made 2020 so ‘memorable’, has it? The UK splashed £40bn on a track and trace system based, at least in part, on ‘tracking’ our phones so we could be ‘traced’ later. Alas, somewhere along the line, a few little things went awry. Nobody realised that if you have a tracking app with a switch that lets you turn contract tracing off, a lot of people will turn it off. It also didn’t seem to occur to anyone that a tracing system based on calling people up on their mobiles, from an unknown number, would lead to most people not bothering to answer the phone. Seriously, who answers their phone to unknown numbers? I don’t even answer my…

Leave those thick laptops in the noughties where they belong. Whereas massive, bulky laptops take up space and burden you with a heavy load when you’re commuting to work or sitting at your small desk at home, these ultrabook-style laptops have a smaller footprint. They are the very definition of portability. That’s while keeping things powerful and feature-rich to see you through an entire workday with a flourish. They cost more than the average laptop, but they’re worth the investment in the long run. These four lead the ultra-portable charge and are your best bets if you want to jump on the lightweight bandwagon. SURPRISE CONTENDER APPLE MACBOOK AIR M l No one could have predicted that Apple's lightest and cheapest would one day join the ranks of its Pro…

BEST TURNTABLE SYSTEM FOR LESS THAN £500 1 LENCO L-85 A semi-automatic, belt-driven turntable with a built-in phono stage and USB recording, the Lenco L-85 is a great starter deck. It offers an enjoyable performance for the money, which is next to nothing in record player terms, and its on-board pre-amp means you can just connect it to any powered speaker. You’ll be spending about double for a decent step up. £110, lenco.com 2 DENON D-M41DAB Great-sounding truly budget amplifiers are like hen’s teeth, but Denon offers a solution that takes care of more than only amplification. The D-M41DAB is a just-add-speakers micro-system that outperforms any group of separates you could find for the money. It has a CD player, DAB radio and Bluetooth, and an analogue input to connect…

£9.99 a month / £79.99 a year apple.com Bound to have the likes of Peloton and Fiit shaking in their gym socks, Fitness+ offers an interactive fitness experience powered by the Apple Watch. Clearly, Apple’s goal is to dominate the fitness space. But does it have what it takes to sway those already embedded in one of the other many fitness apps out there? Before you can dive head first into a sweaty workout, you’ll need to make sure all of your Apple devices and apps have been updated to the latest versions. You’ll need iOS 14.3, iPadOS 14.3, WatchOS 7.2, and/or tvOS 14.3 for it to work. These updates can take a bit of time: set-up probably took around an hour or so. But once we got going, our…

1 OLIVER SPENCER RUTHERFORD SHIRT So this is one shirt you could wear with a pair of dark colour joggers, as the smart-casual look does the heavy style lifting for you. £129, thread.com 2 OFFICINE GÉNÉRALE SLIMFIT SEERSUCKER SUIT JACKET Wearing a jacket indoors when the heating’s on is usually a no-no, but this one is made of lightweight and highly breathable seersucker. £380, mrporter.com 3 CLARKS ORIGINALS WALLABEE SUEDE BOOTS If you love wearing sneakers, these desert boots are a halfway house, providing the comfort of trainers but the smarter look of a boot. From £120, clarks.co.uk 4 ALEXANDER MCQUEEN FRINGED JACQUARD SCARF If you’re lucky enough to be headed out, add a bit of rock ’n’ roll edge to more subdued outfits with this wool and silk blend…

‘Tis the season to cycle indoors! While some cyclists will be happy to pedal away on the stationary bike, people who prefer to ride their own bikes indoors will probably opt to use a turbo trainer. Riding on a turbo can give you a near-identical experience to devouring the miles outdoors, but in the comfort of your own living room. The new Tacx Boost turbo trainer from Garmin (£229.99, garmin.com) builds on the foundation laid by the Tacx Flow and offers a very flexible yet powerful platform for cyclists to work out indoors. Setting up the Boost is easy; all you have to do is pop the legs open with two clicks, mount the bike and you can start riding. You don’t have to take the rear wheel off or…

CES is one of the biggest dates in the tech calendar and LG is always one of the biggest exhibitors there. This year, of course, the event was purely online and ‘virtual’, but LG still brought the goods, with its 2021 line-up of kitchen appliances. No, sorry, its 2021 line-up of ‘Furniture Concept Appliances’. For those looking to update their kitchens – something we’ve all been thinking about since we’ve been spending rather more time in them than usual – built-in appliances remain a popular option. However, what LG has come up with here is a set of appliances that don’t need to be secreted behind identical doors and panels. As LG puts it, they ‘blur the line between state-of-the-art home appliances and designer furnishings’. Presented in a ‘virtual showroom’…

HOW WE TEST In T3, we feature only the finest gadgets out there, and we believe that you -our loyal reader -deserve only the best tech in your life. We don’t want you to waste time, and money, on inferior products, and that’s exactly why our Tested section exists. In here you’ll find only the latest and hottest tech. Each product has been handpicked and tested by T3’s experts. We only choose people with specialist knowledge for each test, so you know you’re going to get an outcome based on many years of experience in their respective field. As well as our traditional five-star rating system (right), we also give out awards to particularly exceptional gadgets, using the line-up below -so when you spot one of these, you’ll know you’re…

From £379 samsung.com This TV takes a key place in Samsung’s line up: the company cornered the ‘entry-level TV by a credible brand’ market some time ago and, based on how strongly above its weight the TU7100 punches, doesn’t seem ready to give it up. As Samsung’s latest demonstration of its understanding of mainstream customers, it starts from just 43 inches and is available in a range of sizes up to 75 inches. This, if Samsung continues to read the runes correctly, is exactly what a lot of people want. As for the budget required, well you could buy one of each size of TU7100 and still only spend roughly a third of the price of Samsung’s flagship 85-inch Q950TS 8K monster. Despite its affordability, the TU7100 is well-specified. It’s…

From £1,299 samsung.com As a big, comprehensive Dolby Atmos soundbar, the Samsung HW-Q950T aims to create the effect of an elite 9.1.4 surround setup using four wireless boxes. The soundbar itself is substantial, and extremely nicely finished. There’s no avoiding its 123cm size, nor its 7kg bulk. Samsung includes a bracket for wall-mounting -just be sure your wall is up to it. That kind of width means this is for 55-inch TVs at the absolute minimum -58 inches and up is the sweet spot. The horizontal array is designed to provide absolutely as much width to the sound as possible. On top of the soundbar there are a further couple of drivers, angled upwards in an effort to reflect sound off the ceiling and deliver the front two overhead channels…

From £169.99 thrustmaster.com Let’s cut straight to the chase: this is a seriously good controller and one that offers truly phenomenal customisation and configuration options. Its party piece is its ability to swap out its joysticks, d-pad, triggers and grips at any time and replace or rearrange them as desired. Straight off, the eSwap X Pro’s quality is evident, looking advanced and feeling weighty in the hand. It feels like a more spacious version of the new Xbox Wireless Controller, which makes sense considering it’s officially licensed and made for Xbox and PC gamers. In terms of stock layout, it features all of the buttons and triggers you would expect, plus a pair of trigger locking switches, which allow you to lock trigger travel at your desired angle, and four…

2021 looks set to be the year of the bucket list, with scores of travellers considering once-in-a-lifetime trips. For many, this means a visit to Japan, which will (Covid willing) host the Olympics in July. No adventure in the land of the rising sun is complete without a visit to temple-filled Kyoto, easily accessible from Osaka and Tokyo. If you’re visiting later in the year, consider staying at the beautiful LXR Hotels & Resorts Roku Kyoto (hilton.com) – when it opens in the second half of 2021, it will become the first Asian property under Hilton’s luxurious LXR brand. For something totally different, consider learning to dive with PADI (travel.padi.com). With its glass-clear waters, the Maldives is the perfect location – you can dive with sharks, turtles and mantas, and…

As important as our guts are, we neither understand nor look after them. Wouldn’t it be great if we could take a snapshot of our gut microbiome and see how well things are going on inside? The Atlas Biomed microbiome test (£149, atlasbiomed.com) can help. By providing Atlas Biomed with a sample, you get a probiotics and beneficial bacteria report that explains how your microbes protect you from disease, understand how your diet affects gut bacteria, get personalised food recommendations through the Atlas App and so much more.…

1 CLAUDE & LEIGHTON ABSTRACT ART PRINTS For an easy way to introduce the Pantone Colour of the Year for 2021 into your home, dress one of your walls with some of these Claude & Leighton prints. They’re available in various sizes, and are printed with fade-resistant inks on 280gsm archival paper with a lustre finish. Our favourites are the ‘woman’ line drawings. From £18, claudeandleighton.com 2 SQUARE GEOMETRIC PRINT CUSHION GREY AND YELLOW Yes this geometric cushion feeds into the Pantone 2021 colour palette, but it’s classic enough to outlive interior style trends for the year ahead. At 40x40cm, it’s the perfect scatter cushion to throw on your sofa, ready for that big Sunday afternoon snooze. A 100% cotton outer covers the machine-washable cushion, with a 100% polyester filling…

CYBERPUNK 2077 It might be full of bugs and Keanu Reeves’ character could be a bit of a dick. But goodness it is good to finally visit the world of Night City after an eight-year wait. AEW DYNAMITE You can watch this on ITV 4 or fite.tv – while Guru is aware than not everybody cares for such things, AEW’s take on pro wrestling is a breath of fresh air over what WWE has become. COBRA KAI After two series which debuted on YouTube, the Karate-Kid-but-now series gets its first full season on Netflix. Guru can’t wait to start sweeping the leg and waxing on and off once again.…

There aren’t many gadget brands that can claim a heritage of nearly a century of iconic design. Yet Bang & Olufsen has had audiophiles drooling over its lush acoustics and timeless style ever since it was founded by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen way back in 1925. Fresh from celebrating its 95th anniversary last November, the company spoke to T3 about how it makes sure products offer great sound, look at home in your living room and stand the test of time. What’s the starting point when Bang & Olufsen begins designing a new product? KT: There’s a passion for perfection around acoustics, to start with. It’s really about recreating the sound as it was intended from the artist when it was made. That’s why we have our tone masters…

From £549 microsoft.com The Surface Laptop Go marks an attempt by Microsoft to offer a more affordable alternative to its line of premium products -and in this case those premium products are the Surface Laptop 3 and the Surface Book 3. It’s a laptop aimed at school and college students, or indeed anyone who wants an inexpensive laptop that’s going to take care of the basics. Emailing, essay writing, web browsing, movie watching… the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go handles all this very well. What you’re not going to get here is any kind of serious performance for high-end video and image editing projects, or gaming. If you need a laptop that works at top speed for more demanding tasks, then you’re going to have to spend a little bit more money.…

£250 grado.co.uk Anyone concerned about whether Grado’s acknowledged mastery of over-ear headphones could translate to a pair of true wireless in-ears, relax. Something so small never sounded so mighty. ‘Design’ is not really something that happens to Grado headphones. Consequently, these earbuds are small by prevailing standards, light (at just 5g each) and are slightly trickier to get securely in position than they really should be. They’re supplied with a selection of tips of varying sizes, but Grado’s insistence that the ‘twist and lock’ fitting action delivers the perfect fit in an instant is slightly wide of the mark. Persist, though, and a snug, secure fit that provides a degree of passive noise-cancellation can be achieved. There’s quite a large capacitive touch-surface on each earbud -it’s almost the exact size…

If you're looking for the very best tech available today, you've definitely come to the right place. Best of the Best is the most useful gadget-buying guide you will ever encounter. To create it, we've extensively tested the best tech the world has to offer, to bring you rock-solid recommendations for your home life, daily commute and the tech you use all the time. In 54 different categories, we've chosen the top four products, so you can choose one that's just the right mix of features and budget for what you need. These rankings come from real testing by our team of experts -they're the products we'd choose for ourselves, and we can't recommend any higher than that. Look for the links above each category that take you to the…