Stuff UK -julkaisun October 2020 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

It’s hard to comprehend this right now, after a month of basking in the consequences of global warming where raising an eyebrow was enough to break out in a sweat, but you’re about to be given even more reasons to stay indoors. If there’s one industry guaranteed to have a strong recovery in the run-up to Christmas, it’s entertainment. Coming at you in the next few months are not one but two next-gen games consoles, while shows that had their production halted due to the pandemic are soon to be back on the menu (if someone could prioritise Gomorrah that’d be swell). And new sporting seasons have kicked off – still without packed stadiums, meaning more armchair fans and bigger subscriber numbers. Yes, nature is healing. So what are you…

£3799 (body only) / sony.co.uk For stills or video, Sony’s new full-frame beast is ready to take them all on Hold it, don’t crop it With the line between stills and video cameras now blurrier than a selfie taken after one too many shandies, Sony’s A7S III is here to confuse things even further. While other snappers offer 6K or even 8K video now, the A7S III has its video capped at 4K – but where some crop their 4K output, this Sony grabs every pixel, with frame rates up to 120fps. There’s also no cap on recording time, and an ISO range of 40-409,600 (expanded) means it’s not afraid of the dark. Are we stills friends? Of course, not everyone wants their pictures to move – and the A7S…

Perfect Play £free or £9.99/m / iOS You don’t have to be an aspiring pro to use Perfect Play; but if you want to benefit from some of the same coaching that got Tammy Abraham and co where they are today, Chelsea’s app could help your next 90 minutes be more Frank Lampard than Frank Spencer. It includes video drills to improve shooting, dribbling, passing, speed, strength and agility – all you need is a ball and jumpers for goalposts. The app (iOS-only for now but due on Android soon) mimics the work done at Chelsea’s training ground, using AR to measure out the play space precisely, while some drills use computer vision to assess how well you perform. You get 32 drills free; the rest is stuck behind a…

Sounds like you need to see a doctor… That’s none of your business – and besides, it’s been ages since it came out green. More importantly, STISS has nothing to do with anybody’s health, intimate or otherwise. It stands for Swiss Technology Inside Smart Sapphire and it could be the key to making any watch you want that little bit smarter. What, even this old thing my grandad gave me? Eventually, yes. To begin with it’s only available on the WinWatch MuchBetter Payment watch – a £230 Swiss-made chronograph with quartz movement, 41mm black PVD-plated stainless steel case and 50m water-resistance. But what sets it apart is the sapphire glass that protects the hands. Not only is it proper tough (second only to diamond, in fact) but the STISS technology…

Bose NCH 700 £350 / bose.co.uk What’s the story? The mission for active noise-cancelling headphones is clear: allow the user to enjoy a Phil Collins megamix uninterrupted by the screams of a nearby baby. Bose raised the bar for everyone with its QuietComfort 35s – so having sorted out what you can and can’t hear, their successors focus on how well other people can hear you by isolating your voice from 360° of undesirable racket. Are they any good? The Boses’ USP is undoubtedly their new voice-pickup system. If you’re someone who makes a lot of calls on the go, you won’t find better. Meanwhile the already exceptional ANC tech is even better, and can be tweaked precisely to the user’s tastes. Other features, like a band’s worth of voice…

Now watch this JURASSIC PARK Yeah, yeah, we know, but have you seen it in 4K? Amazon currently includes a tasty-looking Ultra HD version of Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster on its Prime Video service if you’re hankering for some dino action. Amazon Prime ROMA The best Netflix-made movie yet… and Roma’s triple Oscar win included the cinematography award. This Mexican-set drama is immensely impressive on a technical level – beautifully shot and composed in black and white. Netflix WU-TANG CLAN: OF MICS AND MEN Whether it’s the MCs themselves, Staten Island coming alive or some incredible archive footage getting added oomph, this must-see music doc about the superstar rap group is irresistible in 4K. Sky ALTERNATIVELY SONY KD-55XH9005 £1299 / sony.co.uk While Samsung’s QE65 snubs special features to concentrate on a…

HOT BUY UPDATE 1 Sony WH-1000XM3 £229 / stuff.tv/SonyWHXM3 We’re all excited about the incoming XM4s (see p29), but Sony’s new over-ears have a lot to live up to. With reliable Bluetooth and great active noise-cancellation, the XM3s – our No1 cans for about as long as we can remember, and now going cheaper than ever – are the ultimate public transport stress killer. The ear-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 sound that nails just about everything 2 Bowers & Wilkins PX7 £349 / stuff.tv/PX7 B&W’s second ANC headphones place greater emphasis on comfort and are all the better for…

HOT BUY 1 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 2 Sonos Arc £799 / 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…

HOT BUY 1 Sony PlayStation 4 Pro £349 / stuff.tv/PS4Pro Yes, the PS5 is coming… but for now, the PlayStation 4 is the best gaming platform around – which makes the PS4 Pro the best of the best. Games optimised for the 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 Death Stranding, God of War and Dreams – and VR support. Stuff says The system for console gamers who have a 4K TV and want the best catalogue of games on offer 2 Nintendo Switch £280 / stuff.tv/NintendoSwitch Nintendo’s console…

HOT BUY 1 Half-Life: Alyx from £46 / Oculus, Vive, Valve Index Announcing Alyx as not only a ‘midquel’ but a VR exclusive got some Half-Life diehards riled up… but in classic Valve fashion, the end result is utterly brilliant. Alyx succeeds because its universe just happens to be a perfect fit for the format. It’s also larger and much more robust than most VR games, at a meaty 12-15 hours. And though it unfolds at a different kind of cadence to past Half-Life games, it feels like a fully fledged solo campaign and a key part of the franchise narrative. Stuff says Valve’s beloved series returns… and offers one of the strongest arguments to date for VR gaming 2 Beat Saber from £23 / Oculus, Vive, PSVR Gleefully swing…

There are some things you just don’t expect to be released as Lego sets: Coventry Central Police Station, the Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon, Fred and Rose West’s house. A piano probably doesn’t immediately spring to mind either. After all, they’re complex beasts, seemingly unsuited to being replicated in plastic blocks… yet here we have a 3662-piece brick-built grand piano you can set on a desk. Its 25 fully working keys might not match the 88 of a real grand, but there is a top-lid to prop up and moving foot-pedals. Most importantly, there’s an authentic hammer action, so you can unleash your inner Beethoven (or, more likely, attempt a halting Chopsticks). It’s still made of plastic, though, so surely it can only make a dull thud when you hammer…

Canon EOS R5 Canon’s R5 is ahead of its time. It can shoot 8K video, which will be of limited use to many right now, but with up to 20 snaps per second and a 45MP sensor it’s a top stills camera too. £4199 / canon.co.uk Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera If it’s just video you’re after, this one comes in 4K or 6K flavours, with a 5in touchscreen on the back and multiple mic inputs. from £1055 / blackmagicdesign.com Fujifilm X-T4 If the prices of these full-frame models put you off, Fuji’s more affordable X-T4 also offers in-body image stabilisation and 4K at 60fps. But how good is it? Well, have a look at p96… £1549 / fujifilm.co.uk…

SAMSUNG SERO from £1599 / samsung.com Allow us to make something clear from the start: Samsung’s Sero is a ridiculous piece of technology. It’s a TV that can rotate between landscape and portrait orientations, the latter essentially turning it into a ginormous phone onto which you can beam 15-second videos of thieving seagulls and dancing teenagers from your actual phone. And honestly, that seems to be the main reason it exists. This is a TV for millennials, then, except Samsung decided to fit it with one of its QLED panels so it costs £1600. At 43 inches it’s probably too small for most living rooms, but the hefty stand and added height mean it won’t work in a lot of bedrooms either. Add to all this the fact that it…

PS5 vs XSX for visuals If you’re looking at a new 4K or even 8K TV and you even remotely care about games, then you’re surely wondering about the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Both are still due to launch by Christmas, although exact dates and pricing details were still TBA at press time. Unfortunately, without any live media events over the past months, there hasn’t been a good chance for us to see games running side by side on rival hardware in order to spot any real differences. In pure numbers, though, Microsoft has an advantage: the Xbox Series X’s 12 teraflops of graphical output beat the PS5’s 10.3 teraflops. It’s a modest but potentially meaningful difference, especially when other hardware details are similar (both run AMD…

Yolt Most banks are stuck in the Dark Ages, their apps merely spewing out lists of transactions. Yolt aims to make sense of your spending. You can train the app to categorise your outgoings, check the current state of multiple accounts and cards, and get a little graph that shows how well (or not) you’re spending. It’s friendly — and secure too, given that it’s by Dutch bank ING. £free / Android, iOS Pennies This app doesn’t connect to bank accounts; instead, you define budgets and manually track spending. Bit dull? Yep, but the effort of adding entries keeps you honest, and Pennies’ flexible, friendly nature makes it a budgeting app you’ll actually want to use. If nothing else, it’s a good bet for keeping tabs on personal ‘fun’ budgets,…

Chip to be square The T2 chip improves your Mac’s security — and much more. Borrowing tricks from the iPhone, it brings better exposure and face-detection in the FaceTime camera, and noticeably boosts bass from the built-in speakers. Do USBelieve in love? People might grump about the ports still being on the iMac’s rear, but you get a solid range of options. Having four USB-A slots but only two USB-C is odd, mind, as more and more kit shifts to the latter. from £1799 / stuff.tv/iMac27 Let’s face it: you’re mostly buying this iMac for the display. It was already superb, but now True Tone tech can adjust colours to match the ambient light. An equivalent standalone 5K screen would cost you north of a grand. Apple’s finally put a…

POLESTAR 2 Cruise the streets in a Polestar 2 and passers-by will scratch their heads, generally look perplexed and then blurt out: “Is it a Tesla?” It turns out a large chunk of the general public haven’t heard of Polestar yet – and that’s a shame, because the electric subsidiary of Volvo launched its Polestar 1 last year and it was a stunning (if limited in number) £140,000 hybrid that revealed a beautiful new design direction, punchy performance and innovative tech. Despite rave reviews, Polestar always planned to ditch the fossil-fuel engine completely – and its difficult second album is aimed squarely at those who consider the Tesla Model 3 the last word in (sort of) affordable electric motoring. Prices start at £46,900 for this five-door all-electric fastback, which has…

HOT BUY 1 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 2 Sky: Children of the Light £free (IAPs) / Android, iOS Now available on…

HOT BUY 1 Apple Watch Series 5 from £399 / stuff.tv/WatchS5 There’s no great secret to Apple’s continuing smartwatch domination: it’s all down to a seamless relationship between hardware and software, plus impressive health features that other makers still haven’t been able to match. But while the Series 5 isn’t as significant an upgrade as the previous model, it does have one key addition: an always-on display. Also new is a compass, while watchOS 6 added a host of tricks to make the Watch even smarter than it was already. Stuff says This is a minor upgrade on S4, but an always-on display makes the best smartwatch even better 2 Samsung Galaxy Watch from £299 / stuff.tv/GalaxyWatch A sturdy and stylish smartwatch with plenty of power and a truly lovely…

HOT BUY 1 Sky TV from £20 + £25/month / stuff.tv/SkyTV Already home to the biggest selection of 4K content, from blockbuster films and original dramas to top-flight sport, Sky has adopted a can’t-beat-’em-join-’em approach to streaming by incorporating the likes of Spotify, Netflix and Disney+ in its user-friendly interface. It’s also restructured its packages to make them more affordable and include rivals like BT Sport. The box has 2TB of storage, while multiroom and mobile options round off the most comprehensive content system money can buy. Stuff says Sky has come out fighting to move with the times and its selection of shows is unrivalled 2 Amazon Fire TV Cube £110 / stuff.tv/FireTVCube The Fire TV interface is easy to use and all the big catch-up services are available via…

Like having a Jacuzzi in the en-suite or keeping a pet giraffe, owning a projector can seem impossible unless you’ve got a particularly spacious lounge. But while nobody has yet invented a short-necked micro-giraffe ideal for suburban safari lovers, ultra-short-throw projectors make big-screen movie nights a reality for those of us who don’t have spare rooms to turn into home cinemas. BenQ’s V6050 and V6000 are both capable of projecting a 100in picture from just nine inches (23cm) away, so you’ll still need a fairly sizeable chunk of empty wall to hang a screen in front of, but there’s no chance of anyone getting accidentally dazzled: a motion sensor will stop the projection if someone sticks their head too close. Well, you wouldn’t want 3000 lumens of 4K HDR pixels…

£5525 (est) / mi.com IT HAS NO REFLECTIVE CATHODE LAYER AND ALL THE PROCESSING UNITS ARE IN THE BASE Something wrong with that TV, hope it’s still under warranty? On the contrary, what you’re looking at is a very intentional piece of transparent technology that claims to be the world’s first mass-produced television of its kind. It’s called a TOLED (short for transparent OLED, obvs), and it’s been designed without the reflective cathode layer that prevents you from seeing through a conventional OLED. ‘Mass-produced’ sounds like it’s actually available to buy? It is, in China. We’ll just have to make do with boring old OLEDs you can’t look through. Mostly, though, this is part of Xiaomi’s 10th anniversary celebrations and a transparent attempt to get attention… although, quite honestly, it’s…

The new streaming service could have a big impact on gaming #1 IT STREAMS TO YOUR PHONE …or your tablet, or ‘another connected device’ – which could eventually include TVs and other kit. All the heavy lifting your Xbox One normally does is dealt with by servers in data centres around the world. #2 YOU NEED A SOLID SIGNAL The big enemy is latency: the time it takes for the game to register your button presses. The data centres keep this to a minimum, but that won’t help if you’re attempting multiplayer over weedy broadband. #3 IT WON’T REPLACE CONSOLES Microsoft says Project xCloud isn’t designed to replace the Xbox but to complement it. Playing on a phone will never beat sitting in front of a 65in TV, but people…

£349 / stuff.tv/XM4 We’ve reviewed a lot of five-star noise-cancelling headphones over the last couple of years. But back in the olden times, when it was normal to sit on planes and trains, our pick would always be Sony’s WH-1000XM3s. With their perfect balance of wearability, noise-cancelling prowess and audio performance, there just hasn’t been a better package. Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, even Marshall and very recently Microsoft have all got pretty close to toppling the mighty XM3s, but since arriving way back in 2018 they’ve sat atop our headphones list. Given we’ve run out of things to say about them, it’s about time they got an upgrade… and that brings us to the Sony WH-1000XM4s, the imaginatively-named successor to our favourite racket-banishing cans. They look and sound almost identical,…

Now add this ROKU STREAMING STICK+ Roku’s first 4K streaming device supports UHD at 60fps and opens up a world of apps including Amazon Prime, Netflix and YouTube with HDR support. You’ll also get access to iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4 and My5, plus Sky content. £50 / roku.com AMAZON FIRE TV STICK 4K Amazon had packed 4K into a streaming device before, but it was a box. Now you get 4K, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support in a tiny stick with an Alexa remote. Prime Video content is prioritised but you also get most of the big apps. £50 / amazon.co.uk GOOGLE CHROMECAST ULTRA Seems crazy, but the Chromecast Ultra has been going strong since 2016. It comes into its own casting content from premium providers off your phone,…

STUDENT SPECIALS The foxy funkster Fjällräven Kanken Pen Case Quick Swedish lesson: ‘fjällräven’ means ‘Arctic fox’, hence the logo on this waxed case. Available in nine different colours, with space for about 10 penna (that’s pens), it’s designed to fit into one of the pockets of the company’s rucksacks, although any decent ficka (that’s pocket) should do. £28 / fjallraven.com The stylish stalker Eastpak Oval Camo If you’re partial to taking your pens out into the wilderness and sketching the bucolic sights, or using the solitude to focus and jot down your thoughts, this camo case might be a little too easy to lose in a bush. Then again, it could stop you being spotted by that stag you’re trying to sketch. Your call. £16 / eastpak.com The functional folder…

from £1179 / stuff.tv/Note20Ultra DAY 01 If you’ve just splashed out very nearly £1200 on a 5G mobile, you want it to wow you the moment you prise open the box… and the new Note20 Ultra does exactly that. The design is seriously bold, especially in this ‘Mystic Bronze’ outfit with a matt finish that fends off fingerprints. While the buffed metal frame is an elegant touch, this is a big phone, and its beefy body is combined with a beefy rear camera bump to match. Power it on, though, and it becomes clear the real masterpiece here is the display. With QHD+ resolution, it’s sharper than any iPhone – and thanks to its size, this Note sucks you right in. It’s curvacious, it’s rated IP68 for redsistance to water…

HOT BUY 1 Sony WF-1000XM3 £169 / stuff.tv/SonyWFXM3 The original WF-1000XMs had an easy job in the early days of noise-cancelling in-ears, because there simply wasn’t much in the way of competition. That’s all changed now – yet the way the XM3s serve up sound quality as spectacular as this while being truly wireless, while effectively cancelling background noise and while remaining comfortable in the ears, is quite something. So, just as it was with the original XMs, it’s job done for Sony. Stuff says Outright winners on design, build, specifications and, most importantly of all, performance 2 Technics EAH-AZ70W £240 / stuff.tv/AZ70W Technics has shrunk down its hi-fi skills to deliver affordable personal audio. While the charging case lacks a little juice, the AZ70s score highly for noise-cancelling and even…

HOT BUY 1 Peloton £1990 + £39/m / stuff.tv/PelotonBike Not just an exercise bike, Peloton is a fitness phenomenon based around a stylish Wi-Fi-connected bike and 22in HD tablet that streams live and on-demand training sessions 24/7. The interface is intuitive and you can view your stats and progress, or browse them later in the app; and there are even video rides through famous places in case you can’t face your instructor. It’s expensive – but if you need some punishment and can’t get to a gym any time soon, this is the way to go. Stuff says A smooth app and hardware make this as good value as any gym membership 2 Wattbike Atom £1599 / stuff.tv/WattbikeAtom Aimed at cyclists looking to enhance their training whatever the weather, the…

HOT BUY 1 Apple iPad Pro from £769 / stuff.tv/iPadPro The old iPad Pro was already our favourite tablet by miles, and the latest update only makes it more desirable. As before, it isn’t cheap; but with its huge and super-slick 120Hz Liquid Retina screen, ludicrously speedy internals and double-lens camera (like the one in the iPhone 11), this is one working device to rule them all. Since Apple added cursor support to iPadOS, it’s also the best tablet to replace your laptop – and a glimpse into the near future of computing. Stuff says Apple’s mega-tablet evolves into an outstanding piece of kit and pulls even further ahead of the pack 2 Apple iPad from £349 / stuff.tv/iPad2019 If all you want a tablet for is consuming media and typing…

HOT BUY 1 VanMoof S3 £1798 / stuff.tv/VanMoofS3 VanMoof’s second-gen S3 (or X3 if you’re under 5ft 8in) looks like a normal bike, rides like a normal bike and, crucially, doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount of cash. The chunky 50mm tyres, slightly swooped bars and upright riding position all combine to make it super-comfy, and 30 miles with the power assistance set to level three (out of four) left us completely sweat-free with 20% still in the tank. Plus, for such a looker, the S3 has a lot of tech hidden away to make it a less than ideal target for thieves. Stuff says This smart-looking e-bike offers a great ride, great features and some genuinely useful security smarts 2 Cowboy 3 £1990 / stuff.tv/Cowboy3 The 43-mile range, app-controlled lights,…

HOT BUY UPDATE 1 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. 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 – plus it ships with the Oculus Touch motion controllers included. And the best news of all? After months of pandemic disruption, the Quest does appear to be finally back in stock at the time of writing. Stuff says If you’ve been waiting to board the VR bandwagon, the Quest might be the best reason yet to go for it 2 Valve Index £919 / stuff.tv/ValveIndex While not revolutionary, the Index carries enough subtle…

HOT BUY 1 Sphero RVR £260 / stuff.tv/SpheroRVR The RVR pulls off the balance between serious coding and knockabout fun perfectly: it’s a fast, fun all-terrain vehicle that you can throw about without worrying about it breaking; but it also has serious hi-tech chops, being compatible with the best low-cost programming machines around. That means playing with the RVR can be as simple or as complicated as you want: spend hours constructing the most intricate driving routine imaginable, or just gun the motor and tear it up. Stuff says If you’re turned off by the mere mention of the word ‘coding’, the RVR might just convert you 2 Lego Boost Creative Toolbox £150 / stuff.tv/LegoCreativeToolbox Building Lego is already ridiculously good fun, so think what great a time you’ll have…