Sommaire pour March 2019 de Computer Shopper

As I sit and write my latest column, it’s still 2018 – just; by the time this issue arrives in your hands, it will be a new year. Our resolution here at Shopper is to keep bringing you the best and most thorough reviews throughout 2019, as well as keeping you abreast of advances in technology, offering useful and challenging projects to work on, and exploring interesting and unusual areas of the computing world. With that, the first issue of the new year seems a good time to introduce some new elements to the magazine. Our popular Retro feature has trebled in size and has moved to the in-depth section of the magazine. In the updated article, we’ll be profiling some of the key figures who have been so influential…

PCs on test Finding a versatile home PC on a budget can be hard, but it’s not impossible. We go in search of budget perfection with £700 desktops on test Super computing We delve into the world of super computers, and explore how they are making a real difference to the worlds of healthcare and the environment Make Windows 10 retro How to get a retro Windows look but with all the convenience and reliability of the latest Microsoft operating system COMPUTER SHOPPER ISSUE 374 ON SALE IN NEWSAGENTS FROM 14th FEBRUARY…

David Ludlow RAVES ORIGINALLY POSTED IN 2015, a Boston Dynamics video was doing the rounds again this Christmas. It shows a sleigh being pulled along by the company’s quadruped robots, cheerfully dressed up to look like reindeer. It’s truly the stuff of nightmares. Yet, being three years old, the advancements in the robots have been quite truly stunning. Unlike Daleks, which could be easily thwarted by running upstairs, the Boston Dynamics quadrupeds can climb stairs and open doors. It’s Atlas, the human-like biped, that has come on the most. A few years ago, it was falling over or making a mess of stacking shelves. Today, it can jump over objects and even perform parkour. More recently, Atlas has been learning something that most children have mastered early on: walking properly.…

“No government agency has ever informed us that it has found malicious hardware on our products”Server hardware firm Supermicro is adamant that a Bloomberg report of its tech having Chinese spy chips is false “The narrative is that leaking is bad, and the number one priority is to prevent any leaks”Ex-Google engineer Jack Poulson claims his former employer is hunting data leakers “The extent of discrepancies is alarming, as some NHS organisations are far better resourced, funded and trained than others”Redscan’s director of cyber security, Mark Nicholls, on how some NHS Trusts spend as little as £250 on cyber security per year “We were all surprised how much gut and faecal bacteria there was on the touchscreen machines”Dr Paul Matewele from London Met University ponders how every McDonald’s self-service machine…

£800 • From www.game.co.uk VERDICT A finely crafted PC, but you can get much more gaming and CPU power for similar money IT’S HARD TO remember a time when you could find full, custom-made desktops in bricks-and-mortar stores. A handful of department stores and specialist retailers may carry a small variety of PCs, but these tend to be slightly soulless, mass-produced systems from big firms such as Dell and Acer. Sure, it’s usually cheaper and more convenient to buy online, but many still prefer to see the goods in person before parting with their cash. This thinking is also behind Yoyotech’s recent team-up with Game, which is already seeing the former’s UK-designed-and-built gaming desktops on full display inside Game stores. It’s an unusual sight, although not an unwelcome one in…

£460 • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT At last, an Nvidia RTX GPU that combines big performance with a reasonable price SO FAR, NVIDIA’S GeForce RTX series has been tinged with disappointment. Not in the sense that they’re bad GPUs – the RTX 2080 (Shopper 372) and RTX 2080 Ti (Shopper 371) are both monstrously powerful, with the RTX 2080 Ti in particular delivering the ‘60fps at 4K’ dream shared by PC gaming enthusiasts for years. There are, however, a couple of problems. The first is the RTX series’ pricing. Partner card versions of the RTX 2080 go for around £700, a deeply unattractive proposition considering it’s only about as powerful as the last-gen GTX 1080 Ti, while the RTX 2080 Ti can set you back £1,100 or more. This actually is…

£119 • www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk VERDICT With a 75Hz refresh rate and FreeSync, this is a perfect match for gamers on a budget GAMING MONITORS CAN be expensive, but at £119, the G-Master Black Hawk G2530HSU-B1 is making a confident move into the budget arena. It doesn’t have the catchiest name in the business, but a great set of features and an amazing price make this a monitor you won’t forget in a hurry. The G2530HSU-B1 is a 24.5in gaming monitor with a Full HD (1,920x1,080) TN panel. It runs at a native 75Hz refresh rate, although thanks to AMD’s FreeSync, that can vary dynamically, syncing with the frame rate output of an AMD GPU to ensure tear-free gaming. It has an adjustable stand and a borderless design on three sides, which…

£111 • From www.epson.co.uk VERDICT Epson’s XP-6100 is a brilliant MFP for creative home use, but it could be cheaper to run THE EXPRESSION PREMIUM XP-6100 is a mid-range inkjet multifunction peripheral (MFP), designed for everyday and creative use at home. It can print, scan and copy, and you can share it among users on a wireless network. There’s support for automatic duplex (double-sided) printing, although if you want to fax you’ll have to look elsewhere. While rivals such as Canon’s Pixma TS6250 (Shopper 372) use a touchscreen, this MFP partners a colour screen with a small group of buttons. It works well enough, and the XP-6100 has plenty of other neat features. In the base there are two trays for up to 100 pages of A4, and 20 sheets…

£1,399 • From www.apple.com/uk VERDICT Apple revamps the MacBook Air, but it’s lost some of its appeal in the process THE MACBOOK AIR remains an iconic laptop, and deservedly so. It brought Apple laptops into the mainstream, and its combination of style, size, weight and decent battery life made it a classic. Even so, the Air has – unlike the MacBook and MacBook Pro – essentially been gathering dust, rather than treated to the new Retina displays and internal upgrades granted to its stablemates. With this new model, Apple is finally rectifying that. EYE CATCHER The headline addition to the laptop is also the most-requested among MacBook fans: a Retina-class display. With a resolution of 2,560x1,600 and a pixel density of 227ppi, it’s a huge upgrade over the 1,440x900 resolution…

£330 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT For flagship performance at an affordable price, absolutely nothing beats the Pocophone F1 XIAOMI MIGHT NOT be a name you’re familiar with. Pronounced ‘shh-OW-mee’, the Chinese tech company is the fourth most popular smartphone maker in the world, but has only just begun making inroads here in the UK. We suspect you’ll be hearing a lot more about Xiaomi, however, as the Pocophone F1 – one of its very first UK smartphones – is phenomenal value. By including the Snapdragon 845, the same CPU currently powering most of the world’s flagship phones, it’s a mid-range handset in price alone. NO FIELD COMMUNICATION Well, perhaps not entirely: some corners have been cut, most noticeably in the uninspired all-plastic chassis. Still, silver-tinted chamfered edges add a dash…

£220 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT With a bigger screen, bigger sound and better microphones, the 2nd-gen Echo Show is a much-improved smart home controller AT THE TIME of its release, the original Echo Show (Shopper 361) was easily the most technically able of Amazon’s Echo family, so it’s good to see the design refined for a 2nd-generation model. It’s timely, too: with the launch of the brilliant Google Home Hub (Shopper 372), not to mention the imminent Lenovo Smart Display, the new Echo Show has the chance to prove it’s the best of these smart displays. LOOKING BACK One wise change Amazon has made is moving the speaker from the front to being mounted on the rear. This allows for a larger screen in a shorter package, which is absolutely…

01 A basic 1TB internal hard disk should cost around £40. This will be fast enough for general use and will provide enough storage for most users. Make sure the hard disk you choose has the appropriate interface type for your PC. Most hard disks and solid-state drives (SSDs) use the SATA3 interface, which enables faster speeds than the older SATA2. Pretty much every motherboard released in recent years will have multiple SATA3 ports, allowing you to connect several storage drives at once. 02 SSDs can make the most of SATA3’s high bandwidth for fast file transfers. They use flash memory similar to that found in USB flash drives, and although they tend to provide less capacity than mechanical hard disks, they’re significantly faster. More expensive SSDs use the NVMe…

01 A basic 24in LCD monitor costs around £100. It will be fine for typical Windows work but is likely to have poor viewing angles, so you’ll need to sit straight on for the best picture quality. Its colour accuracy may not be very good, either. 02 A VGA input lets you use the monitor with any PC, but the quality may not be as good as it is over DVI or HDMI. Both are digital connections and require a compatible graphics card but they avoid the need for digital-to-analogue or analogue-todigital conversions, which can reduce image quality. A digital connection achieves the best picture automatically, so you won’t have to adjust clock or phase settings as you do with analogue connections. Many DVI and all HDMI connections support HDCP,…

01 A smart thermostat can save you a lot of money by intelligently controlling your heating. Most smart heating devices are designed to be used with hot water central heating systems, with the boiler directly controlled by the system. These typically require a relay to be wired into your boiler, with a wireless thermostat giving you direct control. Smartphone apps then tie into the system to give you remote control. While it’s possible to fit controls yourself, you may want to pay an experienced plumber to do the job: expect to pay around £150 for a typical installation. If you have electric heating, there are very few choices, and the big names (Nest, Honeywell and so on) do not directly support these systems. 02 Want smart hot water control? If…

01 A 32in Full HD TV costs around £200, but premium larger 4K models can be closer to £2,000. TVs look much smaller in the shop than in your home, so measure the space available before you buy. Curved TVs are becoming increasingly more common, but bear in mind that these typically take up more floor space than a traditional flat set. 02 A 1,920x1,080-resolution TV can display a 1080p image. You can still buy TVs with a 720p (1,366x768) resolution, but they’re no cheaper and the image won’t be as sharp. 3,840x2,560 Ultra HD resolution, or 4K, TVs are finally available at reasonable prices, although you’ll still pay a premium for one over a 1080p model. 03 Consider the number of inputs you’ll need to connect the rest of…

01 If you’re ready to step beyond the basic controls of a compact camera, or you want greater flexibility than an ultra-zoom can offer, a compact system camera (CSC) is the next logical upgrade. With interchangeable lenses, manual controls and stellar image quality, these cameras give proper digital SLRs a run for their money. 02 There are three competing types of CSC mount, and the one you buy determines the number of compatible lenses and accessories you have available. Samsung’s NX-mount is arguably the most limited in terms of lens selection, and the company has confirmed that it’s shutting down its European camera business, so it’s best to avoid these altogether if possible. Sony’s E-Mount has a slightly wider range, but Micro Four Thirds offers the widest variety. Both Panasonic…

Chat and Communication Evernote 6.16.4.8094 Store your notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and synchronise them between computers. UPDATED Mailbird 2.5.24.0 A free desktop email client for Windows. Miranda IM 0.10.80 Chat with friends across multiple messaging platforms, including AIM, Facebook, IRC and MSN, all from one simple interface. Skype for Windows 8.34.0.78 Make internet voice and video calls for free, and buy credit to make calls to mobiles and landlines. Telegram 1.4.3 This free IM app synchronises your conversations across multiple devices, and can spruce up chats with stickers and GIFs. UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.3.1649 A free PC and Mac version of the popular messaging app, letting you chat from your desktop. Customisation iolo System Mechanic Free 18.0.1 Speed up your system with iolo’s PC optimisation suite. Rainmeter…

One of the drivers of the smart home has been smart speakers, with the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home proving popular. These devices are powered by voice assistants, which let you communicate with your devices using your voice. Being able to talk to change a setting or turn on a light is a powerful way of using your smart home, as you no longer have to reach for your phone to open an app. The main choice is between Amazon Alexa and Google Home, although Apple users have the option of the Siri-powered HomePod. Here, we look at the pros and cons of each, so you can choose the system that best meets your needs. Choice of device Amazon used to have the advantage when it came to…

Routines are a brilliant way to control multiple devices at once, whether you want to get your home ready for a movie night or just turn off everything when you go out. We’ll show you how to create routines using the Google Assistant for Google Home devices, but Amazon has similar controls for Alexa in its app. 1 CREATE A NEW ROUTINE Open the Google Home app and tap Settings (under all your devices on the home page), then tap More settings at the bottom of the page. Tap Assistant and select Routines. Tap the Plus icon and you’ll be on the screen for creating a new Routine. 2 ADD A TRIGGER You can use the Add commands option to give the Routine a name. This is also the trigger…

£249 • From www.hivehome.com VERDICT A decent smart heating system that can expand to lighting and beyond, but you get more features and expansion options elsewhere ACTIVE HEATING 2 is the successor to Hive’s first, rather basic-looking system. As well as being nicer to look at, Hive has been expanding the system’s capabilities, with sensors, smart lighting and even cameras now feeding into the single app. Hive, like Nest, is more of a complete smart home system rather than a standalone device. Design, undoubtedly, was largely responsible for Nest’s success. The circular smart thermostat is a beautiful thing, hewn from metal and glass – something you wouldn’t mind having on show in a modern, minimalist living room. The Active Heating 2 is very different, but attractive nonetheless. Its mirrored front…

£219 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT This system can’t be expanded, and it’s not cheap, but the simple controls and great-looking thermostat make it a great choice IF THERE’S ONE name synonymous with smart heating, it’s Nest. Now on its third generation, the Learning Thermostat is one of the best and simplest smart heating systems. The system ships as two components: the smart thermostat and the Heat Link, which connects to your boiler. With this version, the Heat Link is capable of controlling both heating and hot water, and it’s OpenTherm compatible for modulating control. There are no optional smart TRVs, although you can install multiple Nest thermostats if you have multiple heating zones and want to control them individually. It’s fairly straightforward to connect the Nest up yourself, but professional…

£200 • From www.tado.com VERDICT A powerful, well-designed and upgradable heating system, but beware of extra costs THE TADO SMART Thermostat has evolved since it first launched. It now offers a huge degree of flexibility, extending into smart radiator controls, so you can expand the system to give room-by-room control. There’s now a monthly charge for some of the money-saving features, although existing owners that want to upgrade to the new app can do so for a one-off fee of £20. At its most basic, you need the Smart Thermostat Start Kit, which consists of the Smart Thermostat and the USB-powered Internet Bridge that connects via Ethernet to your router to give you app and voice assistant control. With the latest V3+ Bridge, you get HomeKit support for Siri integration.…

£279 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT This is a stunningly affordable 4K TV, but you’ll need to work around its low brightness HISENSE HAS BEEN steadily making inroads into the high-end TV market, but its core television business – at least in the UK – is more affordable sets that focus on value for money. The company’s latest H43AE6100UK 4K LED LCD is a perfect example: a 43in TV that can be yours for just £279, far less than its already-low launch price of £329. Like the rest of the Hisense AE6100 LED LCD series, this set features a native 4K UHD resolution, uses direct-lit LED backlighting, and runs on the Chinese brand’s VIDAA Smart TV platform. There’s HDR support for both the open-standard HDR10 and broadcast-friendly Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) formats,…

£1,199 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Philips’ second-ever OLED TV is a 4K HDR stunner with some clever lighting tricks FOLLOWING UP ON the excellent Philips 901F, which arrived all the way back in early 2017, TP Vision – the company responsible for the development and marketing of Philips-branded televisions in the UK and Europe – has launched another OLED TV in the form of the 55POS9002. Confusingly, this exact spec also seems to be named the 55OLED873, though since 55POS9002 is both the original name and the one retailers appear to be sticking with, we’re going to do the same. Whatever it’s called, this 55in 4K HDR screen is packed with standout features. As ever, Philips’ excellent Ambilight integrated bias lighting technology makes the grade; there’s also Ultra HD Premium…

£1,799 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT With sharp design and superlative processing, only a slight lack of brightness for HDR material holds the KD-55AF8 back UNLIKE MANY RIVAL TV manufacturers, Sony has preferred to keep its panel options open, embracing both OLED and LED LCD technologies within its Bravia line-up. We’ve seen a great recent addition on the LCD side with the KD-55XF9005, and there’s also a newer OLED model in the KD-55AF8. On paper, its specifications are almost identical to last year’s excellent Sony A1, including a UHD OLED panel, the top-of-the-range X1 Extreme picture processor, the Android Smart TV platform, Acoustic Surface sound technology (which allows the entire screen to act as a speaker) and HDR support for HDR10, HLG and – following a firmware update – Dolby Vision…

Send your problems to help@computershopper.co.uk Stuttery video playback We’ve got a Windows 10 mini PC that sits under our main TV. We almost exclusively use it for streaming video from Netflix and Amazon, with the odd bit of YouTube. It’s about four years old and has always worked well, until very recently when video playback has started to get choppy. It’s most noticeable in tracking shots where the camera is moving smoothly: it looks as though the computer is skipping one or two frames, perhaps once or twice a second. There’s no associated problem with the audio, but the playback issue is making most things unwatchable. I’m stumped as to what’s causing it. I wondered if it was a browser issue, but had the same problem with other browsers and…

The law on using ROM versions of games is pretty clear: it’s illegal. A court ruling in June 2015 (see tinyurl.com/copyright-june-2015) outlawed format shifting – the process of copying copyrighted material from one object to another – even for personal use. So this means that your phone-load of MP3s is also illegal, as is your library of DVD and Blu-ray backups sitting on your NAS. This court ruling has had almost zero impact, however. Insert a CD into your computer and your music player will still offer to rip the contents. If the ruling isn’t going curb the behaviour of Apple and Microsoft, it seems unlikely that personal users should worry. The rule of thumb has always been that using a ROM of a game you own is fair use.…

letters@computershopper.co.uk Base instincts @ I’m grateful for Mike’s well-meant suggestion of Filemaker for running membership systems (Letters, 372). Unfortunately, it doesn’t come on Shopper’s cover gift any more. Typically, it’s £12 a month to rent or £400+ to buy. Not really much use to cash-strapped voluntary organisations, which need cheap but legitimate software. Paul Martin We’re well under way with the research for our ‘Life after Access’ feature, investigating four different database options, so hopefully that will provide a suitable alternative for you. Look out for the article in the next issue of Shopper. Out of control @ As a long-time subscriber I have used your magazine to buy many products over the years and found almost all of them to be good value for money. Unfortunately, as a retired…

Tech pioneer and all-round good egg letters@computershopper.co.uk THIS IS A story about the future of streamed digital music, which is why I am starting it in the past. Once upon a time, I was a bass player in a rock’n’roll band. That was back in the old days, when everyone with greasy hair and acne was forced to be in a rock’n’roll band by law. At the time, there was a rock’n’roll gold rush going on, and I was out to stake my claim and dig up a gleaming nugget. My band wrote too much lousy music, we rehearsed too often, and we got paid too little. In fact, every time we appeared on stage we lost money, not only because we were rubbish, but also because we got ripped…

Internal Facebook documents spark fresh concerns over social network’s privacy policies SAY WHAT? AS YEARS GO, 2018 wasn’t a great one for Facebook. The social network was embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and fined £500,000 as a result by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO); it accidentally published the private posts of 14 million users; and saw Mark Zuckerberg tackle questions from US senators over Facebook’s data use, privacy policies and how it tackles fake news. That would be enough for pretty much any company, but the year had one last jab to throw at Facebook. When Zuckerberg sent his chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer to answer a UK parliamentary committee’s questions about Facebook’s part in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, MPs weren’t exactly impressed. Damian Collins MP, chair of the…

£2,699 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT An undersized desktop with overwhelming performance, but it’s expensive even by premium standards STANDING NEARLY 400MM tall, the Trident X isn’t quite in the same mini-PC territory as the Trident 3 and Trident 3 Arctic (Shopper 372). If anything it’s a completely different type of system: whereas the Trident 3 aimed to put PC performance and versatility into a consolesized box, the Trident X appears to be testing how much sheer power can fit into a small, if still recognisably tower-shaped, desktop. It still makes a nice change from the usual PC fare. It’s strikingly narrow and adopts an unusual, compartmentalised internal layout, with windowed panels providing glimpses of the CPU cooler and vertically mounted graphics card (all accompanied by RGB lighting). PREMIER LEAGUE The…

£150 • From www.box.co.uk VERDICT Thinner keycaps and superb mechanical switches propel this RGB keyboard to greatness THE VULCAN SERIES was, in our eyes, one of the standout product launches of last summer’s Computex 2018 show. No small feat for a trio of keyboards, surrounded by some of the most powerful and ambitious tech the industry had to offer. Said keyboards – the Vulcan 80, Vulcan 100 Aimo and Vulcan 120 Aimo – really did feel a bit special. From the short time we had to try them out, the slimline, half-weight keycaps and Roccat’s custom-made mechanical Titan switch made for a strong first impression, and now we’ve finally had the chance to use the Vulcan 120 Aimo back home. TAKEN BY SWARM Before we get into specifics, a warning:…

£700 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A Ryzen 7 processor gives this flippy laptop decent performance for a mid-ranger, but its battery life is terrible LENOVO PROVED TO be ahead of the game with its Yoga series of rotating convertibles, and even if not every laptop in the series has broken new ground, it’s still finding ways to switch things up. The Yoga 530 is a perfect example: on the outside it’s very plain – dull, even – but it’s also the first Yoga to adopt AMD’s mobile Ryzen chips. Weighing 1.67kg and measuring 229x328x17.6mm when closed, it’s neither light nor particularly slim for a 14in laptop, and although the assortment of physical connections is decent – there are two USB3 ports, one USB Type-C port, one HDMI output, a 3.5mm…

£969 • From www.apple.com/uk VERDICT A technically brilliant hybrid, but the price and some minor limitations hold it back THE NEW IPAD Pro is at the centre of a battle at Apple HQ. Not the kind that involves Jony Ive prodding Tim Cook with a pike, but a battle over the future of mobile computing; more specifically, between iPads and MacBooks. You see, the iPad Pro – now in its third generation – is a device that’s powerful and capable enough that Apple would be glad for it to replace your laptop. At the same time, the firm not only continues to launch traditional clamshell MacBooks and MacBook Pros, but seems to be imposing roadblocks that prevent the iPad Pro from achieving its potential as a professional tool. NEW YEAR,…

£749 • From www.apple.com/uk VERDICT The iPhone XR is not the best-equipped iPhone, but it’s nearly as good as the XS and is far, far cheaper IT’S BEEN A frustrating wait for the iPhone XR, the cheapest of Apple’s latest round of iOS smartphones. Not that it’s cheap per se – at £749, it’s costlier than most high-end Android handsets – but at least it doesn’t hit the £1,000 mark like the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max (Shopper 371). It’s also tough to spot many physical differences between the XR and the XS models. The iPhone XR’s tiny bezels are only very slightly thicker than on the iPhone XS, and the frame is matt-finish aluminium instead of shiny stainless steel. DRIER GROUND Look a little closer and you’ll see…

01 A basic PC costing around £350 will be able to run everyday office, multimedia and education software and will easily cope with surfing the internet. It might even be able to run some modern games. Many PCs can be sold either with or without a monitor. If you don’t like the display the manufacturer is offering, you can always use your current one, or buy another one separately. 02 If you want to play games, you’ll have to upgrade the graphics card. Budget cards such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 will cope well with many 3D games, but to play the latest 3D games smoothly (and enjoy the best-quality graphics) it’s worth upgrading to a more powerful card such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. 03 All modern…

01 It’s essential that you buy the right type of motherboard for your processor. For example, Intel’s Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake processors all use the same LGA 1151 socket, but because each CPU generation introduced new chipsets, you’ll need to get a Z370 motherboard for a Coffee Lake chip, a Z270 board for a Kaby Lake chip and so on. 02 All current Intel processors have built-in graphics chipsets, so if you want to use your chip’s built-in graphics, make sure the motherboard has the video outputs, such as DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. If you want to play the latest games, you’ll need to fit a dedicated graphics card in the motherboard’s PCI Express x16 slot, although this may block one of your other slots. 03 Normal tower…

01 You should be able to buy a decent inkjet printer for less than £40. High-quality printing is possible on such a printer, but it will be slow. The actual print speed of an inkjet can be half the quoted (maximum) speed for text documents, and even slower when printing graphics. Budget inkjet printers such as these are designed only for light use and can be expensive to run. 02 For £80 to £90 you can buy a more capable printer that’s either faster and better built or better at reproducing photos. If documents are your priority, you’ll want a high minimum speed and low print costs. Look for inkjets that can handle all your office media, such as envelopes and labels. 03 If photos are your priority, speed is…

01 A smartphone’s operating system (OS) dictates its basic features and which third-party software you can install. There are three main contenders: Apple’s iOS, which is found on the iPhone, Google’s Android, which is used by various handset manufacturers, and Windows Phone, which has few options, especially since Microsoft has discontinued support for its OS. Apple iOS and Google Android both have thousands of apps available. 02 All smartphones have colour screens, but their resolutions vary. Basic models have 1,280x720 pixels, but text can be indistinct. Look for a display that has at least 1,920x1,080 pixels so it’s easier to read text and watch Full HD videos. Don’t worry too much about built-in media players or Office document editors; you can always install apps to replace these with better versions…

01 Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes and sizes, so you’ll need to decide what you want to do with the speaker before you buy. If you don’t plan to take your music outdoors or around the house, look for a wired speaker. These are typically cheaper than speakers with built-in batteries. If you do want a portable speaker, however, pay particular attention to how much it weighs. Ruggedised models should be able to survive accidental drops, water spills and unexpected rain showers. 02 Many of the cheapest Bluetooth speakers use the lossy A2DP Bluetooth protocol, which is prone to compressing your music and discarding detail compared with the original recording. It’s hard to tell the difference when listening to pocket-sized speakers, but if you’re looking for a speaker to…

01 Wearable tech can include anything from chest-strap heart-rate monitors to augmented reality glasses, but the two most common types are smartwatches and fitness trackers. Both are designed to sit unassumingly on your wrist, and are almost always meant to be used in tandem with a paired smartphone. 02 Smartwatches are typically more complex and expensive, though more closely resemble a traditional wristwatch. You can use them to receive and reply to text messages and emails, quickly check maps and even play games – like a smartphone, most smartwatches allow you to install your own choice of apps. 03 Fitness trackers are much more dedicated to healthy pursuits. Step counters, heart-rate monitors and even sleep tracking are all common, and the data collected is fed back to you so you…

Using Amazon Alexa to control your smart home is easy once you know all the tricks. To follow this guide, you’ll need an Echo device and a compatible smart home device. We’re using Philips Hue for this demonstration. A similar process is required for Google Home. 1 ADD YOUR SKILL Open the Alexa app and tap the menu bar (the three horizontal buttons), then tap Skills and Games. Search for the smart home device that you want to control (in this case Philips Hue). If you get multiple hits, you can scroll through the list to find the one you want. 2 ENABLE SKILL Tap your selected Skill and then choose Enable. You’ll be redirected to a login page, where you have to enter your authentication details for your chosen…

While we’ve covered the main products that will make for a decent smart home, we’ve not managed to fit everything in there. Here are a few products that can complete your smart home. Smart plugs Smart plugs are a brilliant way to make dumb devices smart. Whether you want to remotely turn off an iron you left on or switch off a lamp, smart plugs are the way to go. Most work using Wi-Fi, connecting directly to your main network. The Belkin WeMo Switch (£40, www.belkin.com) is the best we’ve tested. It works with SmartThings, IFTTT, Alexa and Google Home, plus you can use it with Logitech Pop! and Flic buttons. The WeMo Insight Switch (£50) lets you measure power usage, and also enables you to do clever things such…

EASE OF INSTALLATION NEST Thermostat E If you have an old wired thermostat that you just want to swap out, the Thermostat E is hard to beat. Simply follow the instructions to wire in the new wireless receiver, plonk the thermostat on a table and that’s pretty much it. Even better, the Thermostat E comes with a preset schedule, so it’s ready to go out of the box, learning and adjusting to better suit you as the weeks go on. Throw in geolocation and the ability to learn how your home warms up, and you’ve got a top thermostat for smart home novices. MULTIROOM CONTROL HONEYWELL Evohome Even though it’s a little older now, the Honeywell Evohome remains the king of multiroom control. Its huge range of options give you…

£215 • From theevohomeshop.co.uk VERDICT It’s expensive to install, but this is a powerful and flexible room-by-room heating system HONEYWELL EVOHOME WAS the first multiroom heating system, and it’s still the only product that’s built with this in mind. However, with this flexibility and individual control comes expense, and Evohome is the most expensive system we’ve tested. At its cheapest, Evohome costs £215, which nets you the touchscreen controller and the remote boiler relay for on/off control. In this mode, the system acts as a smart heating system, with the touchscreen controller using its internal temperature sensor. You can add an additional boiler relay if you’d like to control hot water. If you want to control a modulating boiler, you have to buy the more expensive OpenTherm relay. Operating like…

£199 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT The Thermostat E is a straightforward system with user-friendliness at its core THE PROBLEM WITH many smart thermostats is that they require professional installation, which can be a real hassle. The Nest Thermostat E is different, as it’s designed to be easy for anyone with an existing wired thermostat to install. At the heart of the system is the Heat Link E boiler relay, which is designed to go on the wall where your old thermostat is. Given that this will be on display, Nest has done a good job making it nice to look at, with its soft-touch grey material cover reminiscent of a Google Home Mini smart speaker. The Heat Link E is entirely battery-powered, so there’s no messing around with mains power.…

£1,999 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT LG has upgraded it’s ‘entry-level’ OLED TV, and the results are sensational HOLD ON TO your credit cards: the LG B8 is the new ‘entry-level’ OLED TV from the South Korean brand. With a starting price of £1,299 for the 55in model it’s still by no means cheap, especially when the 65in model we were sent bumps things up to £1,999, but with the latest OLED technology on show – not to mention an upgraded image processor – this big-screen TV looks set to deliver a spectacle to remember. SMART GALLERY Whereas LG’s higher-ranking C8, E8, G8 and W8 series TVs feature the company’s new top-end Alpha 9 processor, the OLED65B8 uses an Alpha 7 processor, which is essentially a modified version of the chipset…

£549 • From www.ao.com VERDICT HDR isn’t up to much, but Philips’ 4K TV is otherwise a superb all-rounder for the price AT THE OPPOSITE (more or less) end to Philips’ 55POS9002 OLED TV is a slew of more affordable LED LCD models, including the Philips 55PUS6753/12, a 55in 4K HDR screen priced at only £549. Sure, that’s not quite as dirt-cheap as the Hisense H43AE6100UK, but it’s still a refreshing change when so many 4K TVs sail clean over the £1,000 barrier. Besides, as fantastic a bargain as the H43AE6100UK is, it does have its issues, so perhaps the 55PUS6753/12 can strike a better balance between affordability and performance. This television uses direct-lit LED backlighting, and while it lacks the local dimming technology of pricier sets, that omission is…

£1,199 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT Excellent HDR, motion handling and upscaling make this a great 4K TV SITTING BETWEEN THE Bravia A1 and the flagship ZD9 in Sony’s TV hierarchy, the 55in KD-55XF9005 aims to deliver top-notch quality while stopping (just) short of the truly high-end price bracket. As such, it comes with a rather impressive specs list: 4K and HDR are first and foremost, but it also features full-array local dimming, direct-lit LED backlighting – which is generally superior to the more common edge-lit backlighting – as well as Sony’s most advanced X1 Extreme processor. This in turn helps power the Android Smart TV platform. Finally there’s X-Motion Clarity, the light-boosted backlight-scanning technology that’s currently exclusive to the XF90 family. HEAVY FOOTED The KD-55XF9005 is a fine-looking TV. The…

Cable tied @ I’ve just returned from a trip of a lifetime, and like any good techie tourist, I took my technology with me. It wasn’t the technology that bothered me, or the fact I had to lug it around. What astonished me was the sheer number of power supply units and connecting cables I had to take just to power and/or charge the portable devices. My wife’s laptop and my laptop needed different PSUs, the camcorder likewise, as did the two digital SLRs. Mobile phones, tablets, portable music players, fitness watches, the list goes on. Some devices charged external batteries in situ, others needed a dedicated charging cradle. On top of that, I had every type of USB cable ever invented. Out of curiosity, I weighed the total amount…

Software guru and Shopper legend letters@computershopper.co.uk GET ANY GROUP of runners, cyclists or keen hikers together, and soon after the debate on the best warm-up exercises and ways to prevent blisters, they’ll have their wrists out comparing fitness bands and apps. If one person boasts of how their device or app can tell them their average heart rate while cycling and how well they’re sleeping, someone else will have a better GPS (and a device that’s waterproof to 25 metres, not that they ever go diving). In these situations I sit quietly in the corner and hide the fact I use a cheapo band I bought second-hand and am in an online league with – well – me, really. However, I’m as hooked as the rest of them, partially because…

NINE UK POLICE forces are using artificial intelligence technology to create a system that effectively predicts incidents of violent crime before they happen. Dubbed the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS), the system uses both AI tech and statistical data analysis to assess how much at risk someone is of committing or becoming a victim of knife or gun crime. The system also tries to work out how likely some people are of becoming victims of modern slavery. West Midlands Police is leading the AI and data analysis project, but eight other police forces, including London’s Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police, will be involved. By March 2019, the police are expected to have a prototype of the system up and running. According to a document on the NDAS and a…

ANDROID 9.0 SMARTPHONE £499 • From www.oneplus.com VERDICT Even putting aside its multiple improvements on the OnePlus 6, the 6T’s core performance, design and camera are brilliant ONEPLUS HAS BEEN flying the flag for flagship-killing Android smartphones for several years now, with the OnePlus 6 (Shopper 367) setting the benchmark for delivering high-end smartphone features at a price that significantly undercuts some of the finest handsets out there. With each new generation of OnePlus phone, the Chinese firm has created a ‘T’ version, offering a suite of nips and tucks to improve on the phone the company released earlier. The OnePlus 6T is, unsurprisingly, the exact same story. BIG UP At first glance, there aren’t many major differences between the 6T and its predecessor. The rounded rectangular design is immediately…

£1,149 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A competent desktop system with a high-end CPU and some handy little hardware extras ACER’S NITRO BRAND of desktops, laptops and monitors tend towards casual gamers, with the Predator brand catering for a more enthusiastic crowd that’s more willing to part with big sums of cash. The Nitro 50 doesn’t entirely subvert this – it comes with a variety of internal specs, several with entry-level parts – but the specific model we have here, the N50-100, looks as if it could have a lot of CPU brainpower for a £1,149 mid-ranger. That’s thanks to its octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 2700, which sits behind only the Ryzen 7 2700X (Shopper 366) in AMD’s 2nd-gen desktop CPU line-up. While the included RAM is a basic 8GB, the…

£239 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT The C27G1 caters mostly well for gaming, but the panel’s poor brightness is hard to overlook THE C27G1 IS AOC’s latest 144Hz gaming monitor to aim for a highly responsive panel without compromising too much on picture quality. Much like the 2017 Samsung CFG70, which has coincidentally dropped to a similar price as this monitor, AOC’s panel is based on vertical alignment (VA) technology. In practice, VA is supposed to merge the best of both worlds by offering a high contrast ratio, good picture quality and a fast response time all in one, but the technology has some limitations. BEND GAME The C27G1 has an 1800R curvature with a three-sided borderless design. Of course, borderless shouldn’t be taken entirely literally, but the monitor’s thin bezels…

£5 per month • From www.bt.com VERDICT A fast and powerful mesh networking system that’s great value for anyone with a BT Plus account MOST WIRELESS MESH systems are roughly the same: they all come with a collection of satellites that you spread throughout your home, and are designed to extend and improve your wireless network. BT Complete Wi-Fi is a little different. Yes, Complete Wi-Fi has a router and multiple satellites (called ‘discs’ here), but it also comes with a guarantee. Available for BT Plus customers, the BT Complete Wi-Fi system costs £5 a month, and is covered by BT’s guaranteed performance. The guarantee is that you’ll get strong Wi-Fi in every room. The starter package ships with the BT Smart Hub 2 router and one additional disc for…

£1,100 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT The elevated keyboard is nice, but otherwise this laptop is too hot, too slow and too expensive THE ASUS ZENBOOK S looks a little odd – the keyboard section connects to the display section about an inch-and-a-half higher up than clamshell devices usually do – but you shouldn’t judge a laptop by its ergonomically elevated keyboard. The ZenBook S is designed to function as an even slimmer, ultraportable spin-off to the Asus ZenBook and Asus ZenBook Pro ranges. It’s a sleek, compact device with a 13.3in IPS display, weighing only 1.4kg. When closed, it has an incredibly slim depth of 12.9mm, slipping neatly into a rucksack or under your arm when on the move. It even comes with its own snazzy protective sleeve. UPWARDS TRAJECTORY…

£900 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT With its cutting-edge processor and triple cameras, the Mate 20 Pro is one of the most luxurious phones ever MERE WEEKS AFTER the iPhone XS Max (Shopper 371), we have our first Android smartphone with a 7nm processor. The Mate 20 Pro’s Kirin 980 chip is, like Apple’s A12 Bionic, built using this finer fabrication process, which in theory should help it to be faster and more power-efficient than 10nm chips such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. It’s a fitting innovation for Huawei’s latest top-tier smartphone offering, which looks and feels the part as well. The comfortable curved edges are reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, and it meets the IP68 standard for dust- and water-proofing, so will survive accidental dunkings. Like the OnePlus…

£31 • From www.brainwavzaudio.com VERDICT Inexpensive, waterproof and with an appealing sound, the BLU-300 make excellent workout companions IF YOU’RE LOOKING for Bluetooth earphones that can survive a good drenching, the Brainwavz BLU-300 might be just the model for you. Weatherproof and sweatproof, they’re water-resistant to the IPX7 standard, which means they can be submerged in up to one metre of water for 30 minutes. It seems unlikely anyone would need to fully test these credentials, but you can at least be sure they’ll endure the wettest of outdoor activities without skipping a beat. Their design is well suited to being used on the move, too. That’s because they have a neckband that ensures the full weight of the Bluetooth receiver never ends up tugging the earbuds from your ears.…

01 A basic laptop costing around £300 will run everyday office, multimedia and education software, but it won’t be suitable for 3D gaming or processor-intensive tasks such as video editing. Many laptops at this price have a 15.6in screen and weigh over 2kg, so they’re best used around the house and for occasional journeys. 02 If you want to play modern games, you’ll need a laptop with a dedicated graphics chip such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060M. Good gaming laptops tend to have large 15.6 or 17in screens and weigh around 3kg, so they’re best suited to use at home. 03 If you want a laptop that you can take everywhere, look for a model that weighs less than 2kg. For the best portability, buy one that has a…

01 Building your own PC is often cheaper than buying a pre-made system, and gives full control over the components. You don’t need any special computer knowledge: just a few spare hours, a screwdriver and your choice of parts. Even things such as liquid-cooling systems can be found in user-friendly, easy-to-install packages, and for the most part it’s as simple as inserting each component into a particular slot. 02 Arguably the most important component is the CPU. These days you can get a quad-core chip even on a tight budget, which should provide more than enough brainpower for simple tasks such as web browsing, but hexa-core and octa-core chips are better for tougher jobs such as media editing, gaming and content creation. The CPU will also determine which motherboards you…

01 Wireless routers each use a number of Wi-Fi standards, so you shouldn’t have any trouble connecting your computer or phone wirelessly if you get an 802.11n or 802.11ac router. Nearly all routers support 802.11n, so even a cheap model should provide decent performance. You can expect a transfer speed of around 40Mbit/s at a distance of 10m from any modern 802.11n router. The very latest routers use the 802.11ac standard, which provides tremendously fast transfer speeds. Some devices still don’t support the 802.11ac standard, so check the specifications before you buy. 02 If you subscribe to an ADSL broadband service, you should buy a wireless router that has a built-in ADSL modem. This will cost more than the equivalent cable router, but it allows you to connect your router…

01 All tablets rely on an operating system (OS) to run apps. You have three main choices: Apple’s iOS, which runs on the iPad; Android, which Google licenses to various manufacturers; and Windows 10, which has become common in hybrid tablets and convertibles. If you own an Apple or Google smartphone, you can download your apps, music and so on to a tablet that runs the same OS, so it makes sense to stick with a compatible device. 02 It’s important to pick a tablet that has a good-quality, high-resolution screen. Many budget tablets have 1,280x800-resolution displays, but better tablets have Full HD 1,920x1,080 panels, and we’re starting to see tablets that have even higher screen resolutions. Some are as high as 2,560x1,600 or even 4K. Entry-level tablets typically use…

01 Action cameras are typically much smaller than a regular camcorder, as they are designed to be mounted to a bike, board or car, or worn on your person. As the name suggests, they are designed primarily for shooting action footage, but because of their small size they are ideal for strapping on to your pet’s collar or your children’s toys for a different perspective. 02 Even basic action cameras will shoot Full HD video, and many will even shoot 4K, but frame rate is arguably more important than resolution when it comes to action video. Higher frame rates will mean smoother clips, and super-high frame rate videos can be played in slow motion to emphasise exciting shots. Keep an eye out for 4K/30, 4K/60, 1080p/60 and 720p/120 models for…

SMART LIGHT SWITCH LightwaveRF Gen 2 £185 www.lightwaverf.com LightwaveRF Gen 2 are the best smart light switches, with a high-quality metal finish to them. In everyday use they operate as a normal light switch. With Alexa, Siri and Google Home control, you can also control your lights remotely using your voice, or you can use the app. The base kit, which costs £185, gets you the smart hub and one light switch; additional switches cost from £60. IFTTT supports rounds off the package. If you want the best-looking light switches, these are the ones to go for. SMART LIGHTBULBS Philips Hue £45 www.amazon.co.uk Philips Hue is the best-known smart lightbulb system, and it’s also the best. The cheapest starter kit gets you the Hue Bridge and two white bulbs; you…

One of the biggest issues with the smart home is that devices largely act by themselves, controlled via their distinct apps. While voice assistants can help unify control, talking to a speaker isn’t always the easiest thing to do, and the current assistants don’t work with all devices, nor do they give you any automation controls. Fortunately, there are some other options for unifying your smart home, which we’ll look at here. IFTTT If This Then That (IFTTT) is an excellent way to make your smart home devices talk to each other. This cloud-based service is completely free, and you can sign up for your own account at ifttt.com. IFTTT is a service that uses Applets, which make smart things happen in your home. The ‘if this’ part is known…

£184 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT An easy-to-use, well-priced multiroom heating system that’s seen some major improvements in the past year DRAYTON’S WISER IMPRESSED us last year by being easy to set up and cheap to buy. This year, those two attributes still count, but the company has also made several underlying improvements, including IFTTT and Google Home support. The Wiser Heat is available in several versions, depending on whether you need to control just heating (one channel), heating and water (two channels), or two heating zones and hot water (three channels). We looked at the one-channel kit, which ships with the boiler switch, a wireless thermostat and two Radiator Thermostats. Impressively, this costs just £184, which is cheaper than some thermostat-only kits. GET GOING As with other smart heating systems,…

£150 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A little inflexible at times, the Lyric T6 makes up for it by being extremely good value RECOGNISING THAT EVOHOME is a little expensive for some people, Honeywell has also brought out the Lyric T6 thermostat. It’s part of an ecosystem of other products, including security cameras and a smart water leak detector. Unfortunately, now a few years old, the Lyric T6 has fallen behind the competition. The Lyric T6 is available in two versions. The standard T6 connects to existing thermostat wires, while the T6R costs about £15 more, comes on a stand and operates wirelessly. Both versions require you to install the remote relay, which hooks up to your boiler and triggers heat on demand. Given that the relay installation involves mains power,…

£149 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT A gorgeous-looking thermostat that can be expanded with radiator valves, but the scheduling is fiddly to configure A LOT OF smart thermostats can look a little ugly, much like their regular counterparts. Netatmo’s Smart Thermostat is different: it was designed by the renowned French firm Starck, and looks great. The neat battery-powered thermostat looks great, and it’s the kind of device that you can display with some pride in your living room. As well as looking neat, you have two options for installing the thermostat. First, you can wire the bundled receiver directly to your boiler using the provided adaptor cables. Alternatively, if you already have a wired thermostat, you can remove that from the wall and connect the thermostat unit directly to the existing…

VALUE PHILIPS 55PUS6753/12 The Hisense H43AE6100UK gets a special mention, as not too long ago it seemed unthinkable that a living-room-sized, 4K-ready TV could cost as little at £279. Nevertheless, we think the £549 55PUS6753/12 is the smarter buy overall. It, too, is very cheap indeed for a 4K TV, while being bigger and better than Hisense’s model. True, brightness is low enough that you won’t be taking much advantage of HDR, but colours are good, input lag is low, and it comes with Philip’s lovely Ambilight system. Just like on the premium 55POS9002, this bias lighting can help reduce eye strain and better immerse you in the action. PICTURE QUALITY LG OLED65B8 It’s hard to beat a good OLED for straight-up visual prowess, and the OLED65B8 is easily one…

£2,999 • From www.cramptonandmoore.co.uk VERDICT This TV delivers premium styling, great sound and gorgeous OLED images; it’s just a shame about the price OUTSIDE OF GERMANY, Loewe is not a well-known TV brand. And even those that have heard of the company probably aren’t aware that it has the biggest range of OLED TVs save for LG: there’s the bild 9 designer TV, the bild 7 with a motorised stand, the bild 5, the bild 4, and the bild 3, the 55in model of which we’re reviewing here. While it sits at the bottom of the Loewe family, the bild 3.55 has all the headline features you’d expect at the rather considerable price. It has a UHD resolution, HDR support for the open-standard HDR10, broadcast Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) and proprietary…

£701 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT This mid-range set benefits from minimal input lag and superb image processing, but the 60Hz panel lets it down WHILE THE UPPER echelons of Samsung’s TV range keenly demonstrate the very latest in quantum dot technology (also known as QLED), the UE49NU8000 proves that Samsung hasn’t abandoned the more affordable LED LCD end of the market. However, if you were hoping for an eye-catching new physique for Samsung’s latest mid-range set, then prepare to be disappointed. The NU8000’s design refuses to break the mould that’s been so successful in recent years, with a slim black bezel, rounded corners, and a slightly thicker bottom border finished in light grey. It would be churlish to complain about the results, however: the classy two-tone appearance and brushed metal…

MATTHEW SMITH PLAYING MANCHESTER To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the classic 8-bit platformer Jet Set Willy, its enigmatic developer Matthew Smith is set to make a rare appearance at one of gaming’s most popular events. The former ‘rock star’ developer will be taking to the stage for a Q&A at Play Expo Manchester, straight after the UK premiere of a short animated film called Willy: 48k About a Legend. With a quiz and an award for the best Jet Set Willy mod, it looks set to be a mammoth celebration of this 1984 follow-up to Bug-Byte’s Manic Miner. Tickets for the event – which takes place at the Manchester Central Convention Complex on 4th and 5th May – are available from www.playexpomanchester.com/tickets. WATCH THIS SPACE Gone are the days of Channel…

Clive Webster has been tinkering with computers ever since Windows 98 forced him to manually install his drivers clive@computershopper.co.uk DECADES BEFORE DARK Souls introduced a generation to hardcore gaming, there was Ninja Gaiden, the first ‘NES-hard’ game. The rivalry between Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One is nothing compared to the heady days of SNES vs Mega Drive and Sonic vs Mario. Mention classics such as Micro Machines, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda II, Mortal Kombat, Gain Ground, Street Fighter II: Turbo, Super Mario Kart, Altered Beast, Streets of Rage or NHL Ice Hockey (with its frequent punch-ups), and memories of the golden age of gaming will come flooding back. If not, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. In all, that’s £36 for a games console…