Table of contents for October 2022 in Stuff UK

If you know your centaur from your Cerberus, you’ll understand why Urbanista’s new solar-powered earphones are named after the phoenix. In ancient Greek folklore, it’s a bird that lives forever, reborn each time from the ashes of its predecessor. And while the Phoenix buds won’t combust and regenerate when they’re out of juice, in theory the solar panel on the charging case means the battery will never completely run out. Covered in Powerfoyle material, the case will recharge whenever it’s exposed to light, even indoors, which should mean you can set fire to all your cables (though it can also be plugged in using USB-C). The buds themselves should last 8hrs before they need a juice-up, with the case holding 32hrs of power. As well as pushing the drivers the…

JARGON BUSTER •Mini LED Smaller LEDs mean you can cram more in per panel. The end result is a brighter image with much more precise control, with deeper black levels to boot. • Dimming zones Local dimming divides LED backlights into zones, each of which can be dimmed individually. The more zones you have, the better the blacks and the greater the contrast. SAMSUNG QE55QN85A Samsung’s version of Mini LED (the technology its marketing department insists on calling ‘NeoQLED’) can be snapped up at a more palatable price than you might expect in the form of the QN85A. It shares the same principles as the company’s pricier Mini LED screens but with much smaller and far more numerous LEDs in the LCD panel’s backlight. But what does that mean in…

JARGON BUSTER • AirPlay 2 The latest version of Apple’s Wi-Fi streaming tech lets you fire a wide range of content from your Apple device to compatible screens and speakers. It supports multiroom audio too. • Toslink This digital optical output type supports surround-sound. It’s superseded by HDMI on newer TVs, but is a good option for connecting a soundbar to an older one. BOWERS & WILKINS PANORAMA 3 For a company with such obvious prestige, Bowers & Wilkins has, weirdly, been unable to produce a soundbar that enhances its considerable reputation. Until now. The Panorama 3 is built from tactile and expensive-looking materials, and is put together without flaw. It’s also one of the longer, lower soundbars around, which means it needs a TV of at least 55in to…

£429 / stuff.tv/Watch5Pro Samsung has given smartwatch fans a tough choice with its new Galaxy Watch line-up. Do you go thin and slim with the 40mm Galaxy Watch5, plump for the bigger-screened 44mm version… or step up again to the 45mm Watch5 Pro? All three share the same internal hardware, with multiple fitness sensors and one of Samsung’s own Exynos CPUs running the show. They all run a version of Google’s Wear OS software too. But it’s the flagship model that stands out in more than a few ways. It might look utilitarian, but beneath the big bezel is a more premium build using tougher materials, and a double-stuff battery for multiple days of fitness tracking. It’ll also more accurately track your sleep, and has more customisation options than the…

1 Sony WH-1000XM5 £375/stuff.tv/WHXM5 Nobody was able to displace Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones from the top of this list for two years… yet the 2022 model manages to be even better. Key to the XM5s’ overall quality is the new carbon-fibre composite 30mm drivers: they bring even greater clarity than the previous generation, and the sound reproduction is beautifully precise. The simple fact is that these are the best noise-cancellers around by almost every measure. You really won’t regret buying them. Stuff says Sony keeps its grip on the top spot with an unrivalled combo of great sound, ANC and comfort 2 Bose NCH 700 £280/stuff.tv/NCH700 There are superior-sounding headphones, but if call quality and noise-cancelling are just as important to you then Bose’s flagship cans are the gold standard. The voice-pickup system…

1 Apple MacBook Air (M2) from £1249/stuff.tv/AirM2 With its super-powered new M2 processor, the latest version of Apple’s ‘basic’ laptop leaves the M1 model – an excellent machine in its own right – in the dust. This revamp redefines the Air in a meaningful way, instantly renders the 13in MacBook Pro obsolete, and sets a yardstick by which Apple’s entry-level devices will now be judged. Stuff says Shame about the price hike, but this is still the Mac to buy for most users TIPS & TRICKS If you can afford it, the 512GB option brings faster flash storage (and more of it, of course). Naturally the M2 Air performs better than the M1 version, but that older model is the value buy. NOW ADD THIS Belkin 4-Port GaN Charger 108W This…

1 Sky TV from £26/m + setup/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 Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and BT Sport in its user-friendly interface. It’s also restructured its packages to make them more affordable, 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 this tidy box – and best of all, Alexa voice control works brilliantly. You’ll…

1 Elden Ring from £42/PS5, PS4, XSX, XB1, PC With FromSoftware’s trademark difficulty and a richly imaginative world that doesn’t hold your hand, this ambitious action RPG is a crowning achievement. There’s so much to lose yourself in here: lore hunters will have a field day combing through the world’s mythology; speedrunners and those who thrive on challenge will relish figuring out the best weapons to use and where to find them. Even for most of us mere mortals, Elden Ring is an event: an invitation to greatness. Stuff says Majestic and daunting, this is like no other open-world action RPG TIPS & TRICKS Sprinting doesn’t consume stamina… until you get close to an enemy, when it suddenly does! Weapons are key: you need to improve them whenever you can. A…

1 Porsche Taycan from £75,500/stuff.tv/Taycan It was about time someone took the fight to Tesla, and boy has Porsche delivered with the Taycan. This electric four-door saloon is the EV that petrolheads have been waiting for. In full-fat Turbo S flavour, the Taycan hits 62mph in 2.8 seconds – and adding more drama to proceedings is how it shifts up through its two-speed gearbox. The Taycan has a dynamism that can’t be matched by other electric cars, with a surefootedness that encourages you to press on. Stuff says Big power, sports-car handling and lots of clever tech make the Taycan the most exciting EV yet 2 Audi Q4 E-tron from £43,975/stuff.tv/Q4Etron Audi’s premium electric SUV has decent range and is surprisingly well priced. The smart tech works great, but this is also…

1 GoPro Hero10 Black £350/stuff.tv/H10B At a glance it’s almost impossible to tell the Hero10 Black apart from its predecessor. Each is a little box with screens front and rear, and a lens housing that juts out. Under the hood, however, GoPro has truly levelled up its latest action camera – and much of that is down to the new GP2 processor. It’s more responsive and captures better images in all lighting conditions, while ‘nice to have’ features (better livestreaming and webcam support, faster wireless and wired transfer of video) iron out some old issues. Stuff says Beefed-up internals make the Hero10 Black a nippy, powerful, polished action cam 2 DJI Air 2S £836/stuff.tv/Air2S DJI’s laurels remain assuredly un-rested-upon, and this may be its best drone yet: an almost perfect balance of…

There must be something in the water this month. Something that makes things foldable, because in the space of just 24hrs Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold4 and Flip4 (both reviewed p29-32), Motorola revealed a new Razr, and perhaps best of all, Xiaomi removed the covers from the Mix Fold 2 – the world’s slimmest folding phone. At just 5.4mm thick when open, and 11.2mm when closed, it’s noticeably skinnier than the Z Fold4. It’s no weakling, though – there’s a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 CPU, 12GB of RAM and a choice of 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. On the outside you get a 6.56in 2520x1080 AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass Victus, while the 8.02in 2160x1914 screen on the inside has a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and 1300-nit peak…

Pinocchio Mixing live action with CGI, this is not a Boris Johnson biopic but a reworking of the classic Disney animated movie – and it’s coming straight to streaming. It stars Tom Hanks as Geppetto, the lonely woodcarver who whips himself up a son in the workshop, as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cynthia Erivo and Luke Evans. Filmxs / Disney+, 8 Sept Do Revenge High school meets Hitchcock in this twisted black comedy starring Camila Mendes and Maya ‘Robin from Stranger Things with the famous parents’ Hawke. The pair play students from opposite sides of the campus divide who form an unlikely team in order to exact vengeance on the bullies and jocks who caused both their downfalls. Film / Netflix, 16 Sept Cobra Kai Perfect bingewatch material, Cobra Kai’s…

With the Super Smash Bros series seemingly bowing out at its peak, or at least requiring some time before it can reinvent itself, it might be time for a new generation to muscle in on the platform fighter genre. While past attempts such as Brawlhalla may have been mechanically sound, they lacked the secret sauce of Smash’s appeal: the franchise crossover element, letting you play as all sorts of iconic characters. So we’ve already seen last year’s Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl… but a challenger with the IP vault to really back it up is MultiVersus, which summons characters from across the Warner universe – Looney Tunes, DC Comics, Scooby Doo, Game Of Thrones – to duke it out. We dare say it’s a better execution of the multiverse than Space Jam:…

Microsoft Surface Duo 2 from £860 / stuff.tv/Duo2 What’s the story? Microsoft’s second-gen effort continues to keep things (relatively) simple, with two separate inward-facing displays held together by a tiny but tough hinge. There’s nothing going on outside save for a trio of cameras, and the whole thing is a pencil-thin 11mm when folded. Is it any good? Software was a dog’s dinner at launch, but things are much improved now. Apps play nicely side by side, with gesture controls for swapping them around and better full-screen support. The twin OLED screens are detailed and colourful, but have thick top and bottom bezels that ruin the sci-fi vibe a bit – and it’s impossible to ignore the gap between the panels when watching videos full-screen. Key specs Screen 8.3in combined…

JARGON BUSTER •HDR10 / HLG HDR10 and HLG are both ‘high dynamic range’ formats that enhance the brightness, sharpness and colour performance of content. They’re both free and open-source. • Voice assistant Most new TVs now come with support for a voice assistant like Alexa (as with the Xiaomi here) or Google Assistant. Just press the mic button on the remote and speak your command. XIAOMI TV F2 We weren’t expecting a huge amount from this Xiaomi. We’ve used a couple of tellies with Amazon’s Fire TV built in before and they’ve been typically budget affairs with a glacially slow user interface and average picture quality. In short, they let down the good name of Amazon’s Fire TV sticks. The 4K HDR Xiaomi F2 immediately banishes our fears. Thanks to…

JARGON BUSTER • Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos delivers a 3D sound experience, letting you hear arrows whizz overhead or footsteps moving across a room. But you’ll need a compatible TV and Atmos-encoded content. • Trueplay Sonos’s clever Trueplay feature lets you use an iOS device’s microphone to fine-tune your Sonos speaker for the room it’s in. Android users will just have to borrow one. SONOS BEAM (GEN 2) We loved the original Sonos Beam so much that it won our Gadget of the Year gong back in 2018. But soundbars have moved on since then, with the current craze being virtual surround sound in the form of Dolby Atmos. That’s the headline-grabber with the Gen 2, which can now output Atmos with supported content. This Beam is practically identical to…

JARGON BUSTER • OLED Evo LG’s OLED Evo screens use an organic material called deuterium that can withstand higher voltages. The end result is a panel that’s 20% brighter than before. • Dolby Vision IQ This system combines dynamic metadata found in Dolby Vision content with an embedded light sensor in compatible TVs, calibrating and optimising the picture to suit the environment. LG OLED77G2 Now that Samsung has OLED panels of its own (with quantum dot tech thrown in), does an LG OLED still embody the perfect blend of stunning visuals and impressive performance? In short, yes. As the flagship offering in LG’s 2022 line-up, the G2 delivers on its billing with an upgraded OLED Evo panel, an all-new Alpha 9 Gen5 processor and improved heat dissipation. It promises to…

from £1299 / stuff.tv/13Plus Minimalism: it’s not just an art movement. Doing more with less is one of 2022’s biggest tech trends, and now Dell is getting involved. Flat is where it’s at for the XPS 13 Plus, a head-turning ultraportable that builds on everything we love about the firm’s compact laptops. And less really is more here: ‘Plus’ means a beefier CPU than what you’ll find in an XPS 13, as well as an invisible touchpad, a flush keyboard and a row of light-up function keys. Just don’t call it a Touch Bar. Our review unit came with a 12-core Intel i7-1260P chip, paired with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD (adding up to £1949), but you can spec it up to an even more potent i7-1280P.…

■ Against all prods There’s no electronic display, just a handful of buttons and LEDs that indicate remaining battery life and the degree of assistance being dished out. There’s also a button for the lights… but it doesn’t have any fitted. ■ One more sleight An internal hub means no chain noise or derailleur rattle as you pedal, and the road noise from the wide tyres is enough to cover up what little hum comes from the motor. The built-in kickstand is a welcome touch too. £2899 / stuff.tv/Transend ■ With its 500Wh battery packed into a chunky mid-frame, the Momentum Transend E+ is hardly a secret e-bike. The straight handlebars are clearly aimed at leisure riders rather than serious tourers too. There’s no suspension, and only seven gears, but…

It’s been a while since we reviewed a game that truly made us sweat like Rollerdrome does – and we don’t mean in the Nintendo Switch Sports sense. Set in an extremely violent, cel-shaded dystopian future, your task is to traverse a variety of deadly arenas on rollerskates, eliminating all the enemies – from melee grunts and shield-toting heavies to pesky snipers – before they do the same to you. Think Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater if he was armed like Rambo. And was a woman in a red boilersuit. Considering most weapons don’t require you to aim before you fire and you don’t need to worry about getting a perfect landing, the combination of skating and shooting might sound pretty straightforward. But you’ll often run out of ammo after unloading…

1 Samsung QE65QN95A £1299/stuff.tv/QN95A This is Samsung’s single most expensive current 4K telly (unless you buy a bigger version), but the pictures justify the outlay. The Korean giant’s implementation of the new Mini LED tech is, on this evidence, something to be reckoned with. It’s difficult to imagine how any of the new sets that are still to come this year could be much better. Stuff says This Mini LED television is a fearsomely accomplished set – and the one to beat TIPS & TRICKS You can configure this TV to work with the voice assistant of your choice, not just Samsung’s Bixby. Samsung’s remote is solar-powered, so don’t lose it down the back of the sofa – it’s dark down there. AirPlay 2 integration lets you stream content from…

1 Apple iPad Air (2022) from £569/stuff.tv/iPadAir2022 This tablet has enough power to rival the flagship iPad Pro – and even quite a few current MacBooks. And though you might need to add a keyboard, a stylus and even a gamepad to make the most of it, the 2022 Air reinforces the growing sense that an iPad really can be a laptop replacement for doing proper work (or play). Slight storage dilemmas aside, this is a top-notch device, supported by an ecosystem that makes it highly versatile for an increasingly wide range of users. Stuff says It’s not perfect, but this latest iPad Air is a top-quality package – not least because of that M1 chip 2 Apple iPad Pro from £749/stuff.tv/iPadPro The iPad Pro’s display is wonderful and the M1 chip…

1 Sonos Move £399/stuff.tv/SonosMove The Sonos range of wireless speakers had been crying out for a battery-powered portable model for ages – and finally our favourite multiroom audio specialist caved in. Luckily, the Move was worth the wait. Its adaptability and sound quality mean it’s fine value for money, and a no-brainer for anyone who’s already a fan of the brand. This is the speaker Sonos should have launched years ago – and for even better portability, see the Roam model at No4 on this list. Stuff says Sonos finally gets up to speed with the portable speaker craze, and in style TIPS & TRICKS You can control your Move with the touch controls on top, the Sonos app, Google Assistant or Alexa. Auto Trueplay adapts the Move’s sound to…

Way back in 2011, the year that Game Of Thrones first graced our tellies, the News Of The World printed its final paper and Steve Jobs stepped down from Apple, the tech world couldn’t stop speculating about when Sony would release a PlayStation phone. Finally, the Xperia Play was unveiled and it was… a bit rubbish. Now, 11 years later, we’ve got what everyone imagined the Xperia Play would be like – and it’s not a phone at all. Slot your iPhone (sorry, Androids aren’t welcome for now) into the Backbone One PlayStation Edition, launch the PS Remote Play app and you’ve got the perfect way to stream games away from your console. Apart from the rather Xbox-y thumbstick arrangement everything else is in keeping with an official PS5 pad,…

The low-light looker Razer Kiyo Pro Mood lighting might add ambience to your streaming room, but go too low and no one will see you through the gloom. Want a webcam that can bring you out of the shadows? Favouring bigger pixels over outright resolution, this 1080p Razer features an adaptive light sensor that adjusts settings to suit your surroundings. Perfect for noise-free footage of you playing Fortnite in a neon cupboard. £200 / razer.com WORK WATCHERS The office optic Microsoft Modern Webcam Work calls are tedious enough without worrying whether you look fuzzy. Certified for Teams, this Microsoft mountable is a simple solution for sharp 1080p streams. Auto light adjustment works with HDR to handle glare, while True Look retouching might just hide your hangover. £70 / microsoft.com The…

JARGON BUSTER •DTS Virtual:X This is an object-based surround-sound tech that, as its name suggests, is virtual. In other words, it pretends there are more speakers than there actually are. •Bluetooth 5 Like most new speakers, the SR-C20A has Bluetooth 5. This offers greater range and a more stable connection than older variants, making it reliable for music as well as TV. YAMAHA SR-C20A Want to put a rocket up your TV’s sound without finding space for a big soundbar? Yamaha thinks it has the answer in the SR-C20A: a small and affordable (by Yamaha’s standards) soundbar that’s designed to be a solid all-rounder. At a mere 60cm long, the discretion of its dimensions is enhanced by the anonymity of its looks: unassuming acoustic cloth, a few LEDs, and some…

JARGON BUSTER • QD-OLED A combination of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology we all know and love, and Samsung’s quantum dot (QD) technology that offers improved colour fidelity and brightness. • Dolby Vision An end-to-end imaging tech that starts with content creation and finishes at playback. It offers a larger colour palette and improved dynamic range. SONY XR-55A95K This certainly isn’t the first time a manufacturer has taken someone else’s good idea and run with it… but it’s the first time in a long time we can remember Sony doing it. Samsung developed QD-OLED to address OLED’s one shortcoming – a relative lack of brightness – while preserving all the many other things that make it such a compelling technology. Yet it’s Sony that leads the QD-OLED pack now.…

JARGON BUSTER • eARC You can send audio from your TV to your soundbar via HDMI using its Audio Return Channel. Better still, use Enhanced ARC for greater bandwidth and higher-quality results (including spatial audio). • 5.1.2 This is the number of audio channels the Dione seeks to replicate: five ‘surround-sound’ channels, one subwoofer channel and two ‘Atmos’ overhead channels. DEVIALET DIONE There are a few things you can rely on Devialet products for. Individualistic industrial design, for instance. Forthright sound. Price-tags that might, at a glance, look like a misprint. That sort of thing. But by turning its attention to television sound, Devialet seems to have set itself up somewhat. Yes, you can get bold tones out of a soundbar if you set your mind to it. But very…

Golf has always been a good fit for video games. Remove the extortionate membership fees and terrible fashion, and you’re left with the simple thrill of hitting a ball towards a hole. As Mario will tell you, it’s also easy to put your own spin on it, but we’ve never seen a golf game quite like this one – as much Dark Souls as it is Tiger Woods PGA Tour. You play as a would-be champ who gets struck by lightning and sent to Golf Purgatory, where you must successfully complete 18 holes (randomly allocated from a huge bank of levels) across a series of 2D worlds in order to return to the land of the living. But this is not St Andrews. Each hole is more like a dungeon,…

1 Sony WF-1000XM4 £199/stuff.tv/WFXM4 A worthy successor to the XM3 buds that sat atop this list for what seemed like decades, Sony’s latest true wireless noise-cancelling in-ears are smaller, smarter and better. With the arguable exceptions of call quality and app slickness, the WF-1000XM4s aren’t quite the best at anything; but they’re so close to being the best at everything that their all-round game is untouchable. No other wireless earbuds are so consistently accomplished across the board. Stuff says The finest true wireless noise-cancelling earbuds around – this is the complete package 2 Beats Fit Pro £200/stuff.tv/FitPro These Beats are excellent on manyl evels. Unless you really love the earhook design of the Powerbeats Pro, they’re definitely the best workout ’phones in the Apple/Beats range and rival any others at the price.…

1 Sony PlayStation 5 The PS5 is not a modest upgrade. Its hulking design means it’ll make a bad first impression on some, but spend time playing it and it’ll soon win you over – and then some. This is essentially a high-spec gaming PC for the living room: stupendously powerful, with greatly reduced loading times compared to the PS4. Most last-gen titles will run fine, many with a boost, and the line-up of new games is strong; we just hope developers make use of that fascinating DualSense pad and its haptic feedback trickery. Stuff says Huge power, clever hardware and a guarantee of great games to come make the PS5 hard to resist 2 Nintendo Switch OLED £310/stuff.tv/SwitchOLED While it’s identical to the standard Switch in terms of raw power, the…

1 VanMoof S3 £2148/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 discreet smarts to deter thieves. See also the ultra-techy new S5. Stuff says This smart-looking e-bike offers a great ride, great features and some genuinely useful security smarts 2 Cowboy 4 £2490/stuff.tv/Cowboy4 The Belgian maker’s latest model has 50% more torque than its predecessor, but the…

1 Meta Quest 2 from £399/stuff.tv/Quest2 The original Quest felt almost too good to be true. Its successor lacks the same wow factor, but you can’t argue with a better display and processor – not to mention a lighter, more comfy build – and the fantastic Beat Saber now thrown in. Are there more powerful headsets? Is motion sickness still an issue? Yes to both, but superb tracking and a total absence of wires make this the VR package to get… and with Meta accounts now live, you no longer have to be logged in to Facebook to use it. Stuff says Not a complete reinvention, but our favourite VR headset is now even better… and cheaper! 2 Valve Index £919/stuff.tv/ValveIndex While not revolutionary, the Index carries enough subtle upgrades to…

So you’ve gone full retro this time, to the point that this console has actual woodgrain. It does scream 1970s – but that was the point. This was home gaming, so it was decided the VCS (renamed the Atari 2600 in 1982) should work with your home decor. It was pioneering in other ways too, with external cartridges killing off the standalone TV games that had until then been popular. And, despite a lacklustre start, Atari stuck with its console – unlike rival Fairchild, which quickly dumped its Channel F system thinking gaming would be a fad. Whoops. And that left us with countless terrible Atari takes on cherished arcade games. Be fair. The console was primitive – largely based on hardware designed for playing Pong. But in the right…