Computer Shopperの October 2017 の目次

AROUND 10 YEARS ago, I took part in BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking festival, which brought together speakers such as novelist A S Byatt, musician Brian Eno and Brookside creator Phil Redmond. I took part in a debate entitled ‘Who does technology put in charge?’, alongside Redmond and Tomorrow’s World presenter Vivienne Parry. The idea was to discuss whether the new technology that was revolutionising our lives was really giving power to ordinary people. It’s quaint now to think back to 2006, and imagine a time when anyone actually sat and considered whether all this new technology was giving advantages to the person on the street. I’d stake money on the fact that all the people in that audience – along with the panellists – are now so completely reliant…

No exaggeration Readers of Retro in Shopper 353 may well have thought that IBM was exaggerating when it was quoted as saying its Personal Computer had set a worldwide computer standard and created a multi-billion-dollar industry. Amazingly, though, this is no empty boast. Before the IBM Personal Computer came along, disparate standards stifled demand, and manufacturers yearned for the big computer company of the day, IBM, to set those standards in stone, or at least in metal and plastic. When the IBM PC arrived, manufacturers could at last make their motherboards, RAM, I/O cards, keyboards and entire PCs to conform to one clear standard of electrical and physical compatibility; they could also boldly reassure buyers that their products were ‘IBM compatible’. That opened the floodgates of demand, although IBM itself failed…

AS COMPUTER SHOPPER readers, I know that you’re a savvy bunch who question what’s in front of you. That’s a good stance to take, but it’s a shame that a lot of people on the internet aren’t like you all. Take, for example, the most recent Facebook scam, which had people sharing the following post: “Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then…

SAY WHAT? ONLINE RIGHTS GROUP the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has issued its latest report on online apps and what information they share with governments and what they tell users they share, and the results don’t make great reading for technology firms. The EFF report is called Who Has Your Back: Protecting Users from Government Overreach. It is clear from the findings that WhatsApp and Amazon do not have their users’ backs and do not protect them or their privacy from government overreach. Facebook and Google also take a kicking when it comes to protecting users, and even vocal privacyaware companies such as Apple could do a lot better. “This information is a magnet for governments seeking to surveil citizens, journalists and activists. When governments do so, they need to…

Virginia, US Hacked off A Russian cyber criminal kingpin has been jailed for nine years in a US federal prison for his efforts. Alexander Tverdokhlebov, 29, traded for almost a decade on underground Russian forums, dealing and selling in software and botnet access. Tverdokhlebov said in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia that it was his intention to be a better person going forward. Amazonia.com Nut cases Artificial intelligence-designed smartphone cases are beguiling shoppers on the busy virtual streets of Amazon. Not because of the technology behind such a venture, but because they offer unusual pictures on the case, such as people with illnesses or guttering. For some obscure reason. The My Handy Design bot is designing thousands of the cases. Users aren’t impressed, though. Who would want a phone case…

REVIEWS YOUR TRUSTED GUIDE TO WHAT’S NEW £449 • From oneplus.net/uk VERDICT The OnePlus 5 reaffirms a flagship-killing heritage, but raises the asking price ONEPLUS, IT SEEMS, has suffered from a severe case of tetraphobia. That is, the superstitious fear of using the number 4. The Chinese manufacturer’s latest isn’t called the OnePlus 4, as you’d expect the phone succeeding the OnePlus 3T to be called. No, this is the OnePlus 5, and it’s the best (if also the most expensive) smartphone the firm has ever produced. Like all its predecessors, the OnePlus 5 is envisioned as a ‘flagship killer’, aiming to undercut the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Apple’s iPhone 7 by considerable margins without sacrificing performance or design quality. The result is a 5.5in smartphone with a…

£321 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT It will please overclockers, but lets the features of compatible motherboards go to waste THE REVEAL OF Intel’s latest round of premium enthusiast CPUs – based around the new X299 chipset – was a bit of a break in tradition. In addition to the expected top-end Skylake-X platform, which ranges from the six-core Core i7-7800X to the 10-core Core i9-7900X, we have Kaby Lake-X, consisting of the relatively affordable quad-core Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7740X. These seem to share silicon from the standard 14nm Kaby Lake family, albeit tweaked for enthusiast use. The Core i7-7740X we were provided with, for instance, comes in at about the same price as the Core i7-7700K (Shopper 350), but has a slightly higher base clock speed of 4.3GHz (the…

£220 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT The Pixma TS9050 looks beautiful and produces great results, but at this price we’d expect nothing less CANON’S TS9050 is the flagship of the Pixma MFP range. It looks marvellous, with lovely high-gloss white panels and a huge touch control panel, but then, when it’s setting you back £220, it ruddy well ought to. Appearances aside, it’s not immediately clear why the TS9050 costs twice as much as a good home inkjet. As you’d probably expect, it supports wired and wireless networks, can print from an SD card and can duplex print, but that’s nothing you can’t get for much less. What, then, is Canon playing at? SIX SHOOTER You need to dig a little deeper to find what you’re paying for. Where cheaper models…

£169 • From www.f-secure.com VERDICT A clever router that protects every device connected to your home network, but it’s currently lacking a few features IT USED TO be that if you installed security software on your computer, you were protected. Not any more, as hackers aren’t just after your computer, but any device you have connected to the internet, from smart TVs to security cameras. Attacks on smart home devices are rather worrying and bound to increase. Last year, we saw the full threat when the Mirai botnet infected thousands of smart home devices and was used in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. That is only the start of the problems, however, and an infected smart home device could open up your home network to further attacks and…

£219 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Samsung’s 360-degree camera gets a handy redesign as well as some crucial feature upgrades AFTER A DECENT first stab at 360-degree video with last year’s Gear 360 (Shopper 345), Samsung is back with this complete remake. The new Gear 360 employs a pair of back-toback 8.4-megapixel f/2.2 fisheye cameras to create 360-degree photos and video, and if you want to dip your feet into creating VR content for the first time, its quality, ease of use and portability means it’s the 360-degree camera to get right now. A big part of the reason for that is, quite simply, the price. Whereas the previous model launched at £350, this 2017 version is dramatically cheaper at £219. Not only is that a big saving on Samsung’s own…

£85 • From shop.vodafone.co.uk VERDICT The Smart N8 offers good value for money, but its processor holds it back THE VODAFONE SMART N8 is the Smart Prime 7 (Shopper 343) successor we’ve been waiting for. Once again, it costs well under £100, but it comes with an improved camera, fingerprint reader and Android 7.0 out of the box. Despite being cheap, however, the Smart N8 is rather nicely made, from its textured rear cover to its beautifully crafted edges. However, at 8.6mm thick and weighing 151g, it is both chunkier and heavier than the Smart Prime 7. At the front, there’s a 5-megapixel camera, an unusual front-facing flash, and a single forward-firing speaker, which sounds surprisingly good. You’ll find a textured power button and volume rocker on the right, a…

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 that 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…

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 is slowly becoming more 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…

01 A 32in Full HD TV costs around £200 and will suit smaller living rooms. 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 your equipment. Two HDMI…

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…

01 A network-attached storage (NAS) device lets you store documents, media, and other files on its hard disks so you can share them with other devices on your network. Some have disks already installed, while others are empty enclosures into which you install your own disks. Buying an empty NAS can often be the more cost-effective option, as they’re usually less expensive and give you the freedom to expand the number of disks at a later date. You should buy one with a Gigabit Ethernet interface, as these provide the highest transfer speeds. To use a NAS device at these speeds, you’ll need computers with Gigabit Ethernet network adaptors and a Gigabit Ethernet switch or router. Computers with Fast Ethernet adaptors can still access the NAS device, but only at…

£1,249 • From www.apple.com/uk VERDICT Apple has taken the MacBook Pro into the future, even if the changes aren’t all for the better AFTER REDESIGNING THE MacBook Pro in 2016, making it lighter, sleeker, and packed with a whole slew of tweaks and upgrades, Apple has more recently made another change: the addition of Intel Kaby Lake CPUs. Unlike with the 12in MacBook, refreshed MacBook Pro models cost the same as their Skylake counterparts, so there’s no reason not to go for the newest option. Despite the cheaper 13in models omitting it entirely, the MacBook Pro’s headline feature is the Touch Bar. This strip of OLED touchscreen replaces the function keys (which are present on the cheaper models) and offers a contextsensitive range of buttons, sliders and shortcuts for any…

£1,449 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT The greatest Windows laptop becomes even better with an updated processor and longer battery life LAST YEAR’S XPS 15 was the closest we’ve seen to a perfect Windows 10 laptop, and now, like the XPS 13, it’s received an Intel Kaby Lake update. This year’s XPS 15 doesn’t deviate from the looks of its predecessor, instead sticking with the same smooth carbon fibre and aluminium combo of its 13.3in equivalent, albeit stretched out a bit to support that dominating 15.6in InfinityEdge display. It might not be as petite, or as commuter-friendly, as the XPS 13, but it’s well worth a look for those added inches of screen real estate. While there is a lack of outright design improvements, the XPS 15 remains a beautiful laptop…

£1,249 • From www.microsoft.com VERDICT Windows 10 S overly restricts this otherwise lovely laptop, but a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro saves the day MICROSOFT’S FIRST TRUE clamshell laptop – not counting the Surface Book, which is more like a 2-in-1 – is a strange prospect. It’s the launch device for Windows 10 S, a stripped-back version of Windows 10 intended as a student-friendly Chrome OS alternative, but is priced in such a way that most school- and university-goers will struggle to afford it. Models start at £979 for a Core i5- powered model with 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage, and scale all the way up to a version with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD – yours for £2,149. We tested…

£619 • From www.apple.com/uk VERDICT Slick, lightweight and incredibly powerful, the 10.5in iPad Pro is almost the perfect 2-in-1 THIS IS THE third iteration of Apple’s laptop-bothering iPad Pro, following the original 12.9in model and its 9.7in update. Despite having a larger screen than the latter, the 10.5in model isn’t significantly bulkier: it’s only 16mm taller, for instance, and a mere 32g heavier. This is largely thanks to the narrower bezels, which proportionally make the 10.5in iPad Pro look more like the 12.9in version. The display resolution has also been upped to 2,224x1,668, which keeps the pixel density of 264ppi identical to that of the 9.7in iPad Pro, while the refresh rate has been doubled to 120Hz. This lends everything a slightly smoother, less smeary feel onscreen, especially when scrolling…

£1,429 • From www.dell.com/uk VERDICT Dell’s second stab at a hybrid laptop is an expensive success SO FAR, WE’VE only looked at laptops and 2-in-1 tablets, but there is another kind of hybrid: one where the screen and keyboard are permanently attached, but by a 360-degree hinge, allowing it to fold flat with the touchscreen still fully accessible. These convertibles are a good choice for anyone who wants the larger screen and more substantial keyboard of a laptop, but still wants the mobility and touchscreen capabilities of a tablet. Despite the name, the XPS 2-in-1 is very much a rotating convertible, though it’s not the first hybrid device to bear the XPS name. Back in 2016, Dell inflicted upon us the XPS 12 (Shopper 341), a dire 2-in-1 complete with…

£580 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT The Huawei MateBook is a gorgeous Windows 10 tablet, but it’s hampered by poor battery life and a fussy keyboard HUAWEI IS NO stranger to making beautiful metal-clad smartphones, and the MateBook 2-in-1 shows that the Chinese giant is just as comfortable designing a Surface Pro-style tablet and keyboard attachment combo. This device launched last year, and is due to be replaced by the upcoming MateBook E, but for now this is more like good news: following Huawei’s announcement of its replacement, original MateBook prices have crashed, meaning you can get something that cost £1,000 at launch for £580 just a matter of a few months later. The MateBook E doesn’t even have a confirmed UK release date at the time of writing, so you’d…

£328 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A vivid Full HD touchscreen saves this budget hybrid from feeling a little too cheap AFTER HAVING ENDURED the dreadful £150 BravoWin 10K (Shopper 346), we approached Venturer’s latest 2-in-1 – the PrimePro 12 TS – with some trepidation. At £328 it’s not quite so bottom-end, but still shows plenty of signs of its thrifty nature, from its chunky 11.7mm thickness (24.6mm with the keyboard cover) to how the left, camera-housing bezel is thicker than the right, forcing the whole screen off-centre. At least it’s fairly light, and we could happily carry it about in a satchel without issue. There are other design successes, too; for instance, it uses a physical connector to dock the tablet into the keyboard, rather than relying on Bluetooth (which…

£15 • From www.ikea.com VERDICT A quality smart light bulb system, but the lack of a colour bulb or bayonet fitting are minor disappointments WHEN A FURNITURE manufacturer gets involved in technology, it’s usually a token gesture with lower-quality, cut-price products. Fortunately, this isn’t the case with the Ikea Tradfri smart light bulb system, which is surprisingly mature for something so new. Although there are no colour bulbs, Tradfri has white dimmable models and temperaturechanging bulbs, where you can adjust the light from warm to cold to suit your mood. We love these kinds of bulbs, as it’s great to be able to pick a cold energising light for work, and a warmer, cosier light for the evening. Ikea has Edison screw, small Edison screw and GU10 bulbs, but no…

£25 • From www.maplin.co.uk VERDICT Handy if you need only one light, but Wi-Fi has its issues and the bulbs are more expensive than the competition’s MOST SMART LIGHT BULBS use a dedicated smart home protocol, interfacing with your smartphone via a gateway or bridge. TP-Link has decided to do something different, integrating Wi-Fi directly into its bulbs, so no hub is required. Instead, everything is controlled over your home network using the Kasa app, which integrates with TP-Link’s other smart home products, such as the remote plug-in power socket. Whether Wi-Fi control is a good thing or not is likely to depend on how many bulbs you want, which defines how much you pay. The LB110 is a dimmable bulb (around £25), the LB120 bulb lets you adjust colour…

Send your problems to businesshelp@computershopper.co.uk Section healing I’m using Microsoft Word to write my dissertation. I have sections and subsections. The main sections are numbered sequentially from 1 upwards, while the subsections are 1.1, 1.2 and so on, where the first part of the number is the main section number, and the second part is the subsection within that main section. Is there a way to get Word to number the subsections for me so I don’t end up with two subsections with the same number? If it keeps the numbers correct when I move or insert sections, even better. Roy Martin The way to do it is to use heading styles for your section headers, along with a multilevel list. What you do is create and use a separate…

MEET THE TEAM Madeline Bennett Who can train Amazon Alexa the fastest to do what you actually ask her to, and not make unwanted interruptions David Ludlow Robot fights, where people have to fight robots Nathan Spendelow A race to find that stupidly tiny pin tool that opens SIM card trays James Archer Hammer throw, but with overdesigned PC mice Dave Neal Non-calamitous drone landing or tablet hurling Roland Moore-Colyer Email race to see who can clear an inbox full of nonsense and spam the fastest Simon Handby The singularity is coming: we’ll be the sport. Run, you fools!…

≫Beat the hackers Our step-by-step guide to defending all your devices and data from cyber criminals ≫Graphics cards on test We’re living in a golden age of graphics cards, but which one is best for you? From budget GPUs to monster gaming cards, find out in our extensive group test. ≫How vapourware helps build computing Hardware, software and games are promised, but never arrive. Here’s why – and we also explain how vapourware helps keep innovation ticking along COMPUTER SHOPPER ISSUE 357 ON SALE IN NEWSAGENTS FROM 14th SEPTEMBER…

David Ludlow RANTS I RECENTLY HAD the opportunity to visit the smart home of the future, full of the kind of technological tat that most people will never want (Wi-Fi kettle anyone?). Rather than trying to demonstrate how much easier life will be in the future, this smart home was there to show a new kind of hell: ambient advertising. According to the people running this demo home, we’ll soon live in times where we have home AI that controls everything, slowly eroding the will to live by delivering a constant deluge of adverts and promotions every time you try to do something simple. Apparently, the future would be as follows. You’re having a shave using a Gillette blade, and you’re told by your home’s AI that you’re about to run…

▸For the wallet For a smartphone to cost less than £100, you might expect a lot of typical features to be a bit rubbish, if not omitted completely. Not so with the Vodafone Smart N8, successor to the excellent Smart Prime 7. Yes, it’s slower than most handsets and the screen isn’t the best, but this packs in an awful lot of improved hardware for £85. The rear camera, for instance, is a huge step up from the Smart Prime 7, with better-looking photos and a host of new shooting modes. You also get a fingerprint reader and Android 7.0, which is pleasantly devoid of any annoying customisations. (Page 50) ▸ For the den The enormously long cable of the SoundMagic HP151 means this is one pair of over-ear headphones…

The fact that President Putin and I discussed a cyber security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen” Donald Trump distances himself from his own statements about a joint Russian-US venture Ha ha ha. He’s trolling us, right?” Security expert Graham Cluley checks in on Trump’s plans for Russian cyber crime cooperation I don’t personally use Uber because I don’t feel that it is morally acceptable, but that’s not to say they can’t reform their practices” Labour’s shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey explains her transport preferences If the United States needs, we can disclose the source code. Anything I can do to prove that we don’t behave maliciously, I will do it” Eugene Kaspersky battles to save his security company from espionage allegations This is not the day that…

£1,635 • From www.yoyotech.co.uk VERDICT It’s not the most powerful PC for the money, but the BlackBox SP effectively marries showiness with functionality YOU SHOULD KNOW this straight off: the Yoyotech BlackBox SP is not a gaming PC to buy for its price-to-performance ratio. £1,635 is far from an extravagant amount to fork out for something that can handle both VR and 4K resolution, but you don’t have to look very far for better-value alternatives: the PC Specialist Apollo K-VR (Shopper 352), for instance, has both a more powerful CPU and a higher-end GPU than the BlackBox SP, all while costing a few notes less. Still, Yoyotech’s system is no slouch in the hardware department. Its quad-core Intel Core i5-7600K has been overclocked from 3.8GHz to 4.6GHz, and has 16GB…

£300 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT The ROG Strix X299-E Gaming is a versatile and reasonably priced X299 motherboard, though it’s best served with Skylake-X ONCE AGAIN, WE have a new collection of CPUs that also demand a new motherboard. This time it’s Intel with its simultaneously released Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors, the shared LGA 2066 socket and X299 chipset aiming to form the basis of enthusiast PCs just as Broadwell-E did in 2016. While the least expensive Kaby Lake-X parts might not be huge leaps from their mainstream equivalents, you can get a proper set of premium features on a relatively affordable LGA 2066 motherboard. Take the Asus ROG Strix X299-E Gaming: at £300, it’s not the absolute cheapest available, but it’s no £500 monstrosity either, and still offers…

£201 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Canon’s MF633Cdw is a half-decent MFP, torpedoed by high running costs IF YOU’RE RUNNING a small business you almost certainly need a printer, and Canon’s i-Sensys MF633Cdw probably seems like a good bet. It’s a colour laser MFP that can scan, copy and print, and send and receive faxes – fully 20 years after most people discovered email. You can hook it up to a wired or wireless network, automatically make duplex (double-sided) prints, and control everything with a 12.7cm touchscreen that even the technologically dunderheaded can work out. What’s not to like? In fact, depending on your business, there may be a few things. While there’s an onsite warranty, it’s only a year long, which isn’t ideal. The printer’s standard paper input tray holds…

£299 • From store.nest.com/uk VERDICT It’s beautifully made, with great image quality and incredible face recognition, but the Cam IQ is very expensive ADVANCES IN CLOUD processing, faster broadband speeds and better mobile processors should mean that smart security cameras are capable of much more than just online remote control and saving footage to the cloud. Nest seems to think so, too, as its Nest Cam IQ is one of the smartest cameras around, using a 4K sensor at its heart. From the outside, the Cam IQ looks similar to the Nest Cam Outdoor (Shopper 350). Its conical body, covered in high-quality plastic, looks just as good inside the home as it does outside. Indoor use has slightly different requirements to external use, so the Outdoor Cam’s magnetic mount has…

£653 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT A subtle update, but the Nikon D5600 is a strong all-rounder at a reasonable price THE D5600 IS Nikon’s latest consumeroriented SLR, designed for people who are serious about photography but who aren’t necessarily aspiring professionals. Features such as a 39-point autofocus system, articulated touchscreen, built-in Wi-Fi and a microphone socket differentiate it from the entry-level Nikon D3400. You don’t get the Nikon D7500’s larger viewfinder, 51-point autofocus and 8fps burst shooting, but then the D5600 doesn’t cost £1,300. This is one of the smallest SLRs on the market, but there’s a substantial handgrip to ensure a secure fit in the hand. The 3.2in LCD touchscreen is bigger than the usual 3in screens, although this is more likely to be appreciated while reviewing shots rather…

£120 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT You’ll want to keep them indoors, but the HP151 is a sensational set of headphones SOUNDMAGIC IS RENOWNED for its budget E10 earphones, but the company makes more than just in-ears. In fact, it produces a less well-known yet surprisingly rounded range of external headphones that spans from this new SoundMagic HP151 up to the open-back HP200. The SoundMagic HP151 is an update to the SoundMagic HP150 and shares a lot of the same characteristics as the older model, albeit with a nicer finish and a more durable folding mechanism. These two design changes address the build-quality issues many HP150 owners picked up on. The over-the-ear headphones are better suited for home rather than on-the-go use. The large frame houses 53mm drivers and connects via…

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 15.4in screen and weigh around 2.4kg, 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 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 an 11in or…

01 A basic digital camera will suit someone who wants to take pictures to view on their computer and create 7x5in prints. It should cost around £80, but there may be hidden downsides such as slow performance and very basic user controls. 02 Spend a little more and you’ll get a higher resolution. A 16-megapixel sensor has the potential to produce sharp prints up to A3 size, but only if it and the lens are of a suitably high quality. Very high resolutions in compact cameras tend to boost noise more than detail levels, so many of the best models strike a sensible balance by using a 12-megapixel sensor. Back-illuminated CMOS sensors tend to produce less noise than CCDs, but check our reviews to find out how a particular model…

01 If you don’t have space in your home cinema setup for a set of surroundsound speakers, a soundbar is the next best thing. Whether you opt for a soundbar (which typically sits in front of your TV stand) or a soundplate (which sits underneath your TV), you’ll be getting significantly better audio than the weedy speakers today’s flatscreen TVs provide. 02 If you want to cut down on cable clutter, look for a soundbar with multiple HDMI inputs and outputs as well as Audio Return Channel (ARC). Not all soundbars use HDMI, with many making do with digital optical audio connections instead. This means you’ll have to connect Blu-ray players, games consoles and set-top boxes to your TV and run all audio through a single cable. Also look for…

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 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. Some mechanical hard disks still come with SATA2 interfaces, but newer models and most solid-state drives (SSDs) have faster SATA3 interfaces. You’ll need a motherboard with a SATA3 port if you want to benefit from SATA3’s faster speeds; SATA3 disks will work with SATA2 ports but can only transfer files at SATA2 speeds. 02 SSDs can make the most of SATA3’s extra 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…

GETTING STARTED The download instructions on the card insert (opposite) show you how to connect to the download site. Make sure you type in the web address exactly as shown. You’ll need your coupon code the first time you log on to the site. ANY PROBLEMS If you need help with any of the software this month, please send an email to support@creativemark.co.uk. We check this inbox regularly. Please include the issue number of the magazine and your coupon code. WHY DOWNLOADS In order to provide us with free software, publishers now require us to offer the applications as a download and require online registration. You need to use the unique code printed in the box on the card insert to register and download the software in this issue. The…

…YOUR WORK PC: DELL XPS 15 We could also have the XPS 13 here, as it shares many of the larger XPS 15’s qualities – including a terrific InfinityEdge display, excellent build quality and long battery life – for a lower price. Nonetheless, the XPS 15 takes Dell’s flagship laptop range to new heights. Its quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ gives it power unrivalled by any other ultraportable in this test, and the same goes for its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics processor. Even with both these high-end parts, it’s remarkably thin, and it’s not too heavy to ferry to and from the office. …YOUR GAMING PC: GIGABYTE Aero 15 Again, this is a toss-up between two laptops: the Aero 15 and the Razer Blade, which has been updated to possess…

£970 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A lower price and faster processor mean this MacBook alternative is a tempting Windows 10 ultraportable THE ASUS ZENBOOK range has always been – let’s put it politely – an homage to Apple’s MacBook Air. Nowadays, though, that brand is no longer a byword for thin-and-light portability, so the new ZenBook 3 takes its inspiration instead from the 12in MacBook. Its lavish build quality puts it in the same bracket as its MacBook counterpart as well. The accented gold trim and gold-backlit keys are well worth the price of admission, with a faint whiff of inspiration from HP’s recent gold-infused Spectre and Envy refreshes. The subtle detailing altogether lends itself to an exceptional device, worthy of the price that Asus is asking. Take a closer…

£1,880 • From www.cclonline.com VERDICT An excellent, if expensive, slimline gaming laptop, this time with decent battery life THANKS TO MOBILE CPUs becoming smaller and more power-efficient, gaming laptops are finally getting thinner. The latest example is Gigabyte’s Aero 15, a radical departure for a company whose high-performance offerings have tended to be rather hulking. The price is a sticking point: besides being a huge chunk of change in itself, the £1,880 tag is £80 more than the entry-level, Full HD Razer Blade. This includes the very same quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card as the Aero 15, and also benefits from a slim chassis, so Gigabyte’s laptop might be a tricky sell. That said, the Aero 15 is also cheaper – much cheaper –…

£2,399 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Razer’s Blade QHD+ is easily one of the best gaming laptops money – albeit a lot of it – can buy THE BULK AND weight of most gaming laptops can make them a hard sell, and even slimline options can sacrifice performance for portability. However, the Razer Blade, like Gigabyte’s Aero 15, makes a decent claim to the best of both worlds. For starters, it’s incredibly thin and light for a gaming laptop. At 1.95kg it’s reasonable even by general 15in standards, and considering the components inside, its top-to-base thickness of just 17.9mm is extremely impressive. It looks good, too. As with the Razer Blade Stealth – the firm’s other more compact, less expensive and not-as-gaming-focused ultraportable – the finish is all-black aluminium. It’s a…

£400 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A nicely portable 2-in-1, but the keyboard is poor and the internals don’t justify the price THE TRANSFORMER MINI is a compact Windows 10 device that measures just 259x170x14mm and weighs only 790g with the keyboard. Nonetheless, there’s a plethora of ports, including a Micro USB charging port, Mini HDMI, a USB3 port, a microSD slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack – all you need for everyday usage. There’s even a volume rocker for controlling the volume of the decent dual-stereo speakers. Around the back, there’s a fingerprint sensor – useful for quick unlocking – and on the front is a 2-megapixel webcam. It’s fine for basic video calls, but don’t expect good low-light performance. Available in quartz gray, amber, mint green and icicle gold,…

£1,379 • From store.hp.com VERDICT The HP EliteBook x360 is fast, sleek and flexible, but it also gets worryingly toasty THE HP ELITEBOOK x360 is another fine example of the convertible breed. It’s clad in smart, matt silver aluminium, packed with high-spec internals and, just like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, it’s slim and light enough that it looks just like a regular laptop, even up close. We were sent the Core i5-7300U model, which unfortunately isn’t available in the UK unless you import it from the US. There’s a very close UK equivalent, though, with an Intel Core i5-6200U – only 0.1GHz slower than the Core i5-7300U in base clock speed – as well as the same 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. FLIP ON THE RADAR Either way,…

£430 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT With its virtual keyboard and fantastic writing surface, Lenovo’s Yoga Book paves the way for the next generation of 2-in-1s LENOVO’S CONVERTIBLE YOGA Book is one of the most unusual hybrid laptops we’ve ever seen. For starters, there’s no physical keyboard. Instead, you get a fancy virtual one with illuminated, futuristic-looking keys that vibrate when you tap them, giving you a reassuring (and much-needed, considering the complete lack of travel) sense of haptic feedback with each stroke. This isn’t a merely aesthetic touch, however, as the Yoga Book is able to turn that virtual keyboard into a full-blown electromagnetic resonance (EMR) writing surface, allowing you to draw or scribble down notes with its bundled stylus at the flip of a switch. Simply press the small…

£135 • From www.thesmartshop.co.uk VERDICT LightwaveRF is a great system for those that want a classy-looking upgrade for their existing light switches and sockets LIGHTWAVERF IS RATHER different to the other systems that we’ve tested here, as it works with your existing lights and lamps. With this system, you have a choice of controlling device, including remote plug-in sockets, replacement wall sockets and replacement light switches The installation of wall sockets or light switches needs you to be confident in your DIY skills (or call an electrician), but it’s generally a like-for-like swap. The only thing to be aware of is that the LightwaveRF sockets are a little deeper than normal switches, so may not fit into shallow wall boxes; 10mm spacers cost just a few pounds and give you…

Send your problems to help@computershopper.co.uk Nexus nadir I’ve owned three Google phones from the Nexus 4 to my current 5X. I broke the first two myself, but the 5X seems to have finished itself off. Everything was normal until it suddenly restarted. Now it gets as far as the Google logo, sits there for about 15 seconds then restarts again. Holding in the power button for a few seconds would normally reset the phone, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference here. I’ve tried entering the Android recovery menu and selecting recovery mode, but I just get stuck in the same loop. Any ideas? Matt Hope We’ve heard of several LG-manufactured phones getting stuck in a ‘Google loop’, with the suggestion that the cause is weak solder holding the…

Photographer, musician, sound engineer, designer and video producer Ben Pitt guides you through a multimedia project ben@computershopper.co.uk MODERN BUSINESS IS often done entirely by email and phone, but people always like to put a face to a name. A headshot is a staple part of social media accounts, and most email services such as Gmail include an option to include a picture too. If you’re self-employed or you run your own business, you’ll know how important it is to make a good impression on customers, clients and business partners, and that means a portrait photo that reflects you and your business. This article isn’t just for sole traders and small business owners, though. Big businesses often use staff photos for intranet systems and access ID cards, but ghoulish mugshots don’t…

letters@computershopper.co.uk Why no AMD? I purchased Computer Shopper issue 354 in order to read the reviews of the £500 home office PCs on test. I was surprised – and disappointed – that there wasn’t a single AMD processor among all the computers reviewed. Not one. The reviewed computers, without exception, were Intel based. While Intel might very well be a good processor maker, surely a consumer magazine has some duty to promote choice, in processors, as well as other computernalia? A casual reader of this article might be led to assume that there is no competition in the processor space at all. By way of research, I found a Chillblast PC with an AMD A10 processor for under £450 at Ebuyer, but maybe that doesn’t fit the home office bill.…

MEL CROUCHER Tech pioneer and all-round good egg letters@computershopper.co.uk I AM NOT having a mid-life crisis. I don’t need to buy a red sports car that goes vroom-vroom to compensate for erectile dysfunction. I’m not having a mid-life crisis for one obvious reason. It’s because I had my mid-life crisis 30 years ago. That’s when I bought a red sports car that went vroom-vroom. I suspect its previous owner had only ever used it once, in a suicide pact. There was lipstick round the exhaust pipe. But the reason I bought it was because it had an on-board computer, just like the sci-fi cars I craved in my youth. Its primitive liquid-crystal display conspired with me to drive without a seat belt in several languages, including Russian. Which was subversive…

Google hit with record €2.4bn fine in antitrust case SAY WHAT? GOOGLE WILL HAVE to find a massive €2.4bn to put an end to an antitrust competition case. The firm was investigated over its shopping comparison services, and fined for what the European Commission called its “dominance in search” and its business of promoting its own shopping services at the expense of others. The EC said the web giant abused its position to give its own services a leg up over rivals. This is considered anti-competitive. “Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That’s a good thing. But Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its…

1 Reading the T&Cs A hotspot provider tricked people into cleaning festival loos in exchange for free Wi-Fi through a clause in its terms and conditions 2 Gordon Freeman Valve has updated Half-Life for the first time in 19 years 3 Smart glasses Google is to sell a revamped version of its smart glasses to businesses, more than two years after cancelling the original Google Glass 4 Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth The beat-combo has knocked Gangnam Style off the top of YouTube’s most-viewed list 1 Robot workers A security robot in Washington DC suffered a watery end after falling into a fountain 2 Biometrics An adult webcam company is offering chaps the chance to log in with their, um, chap 3 Encryption The Five Eyes intelligence alliance, including the…

NOKIA’S ONCE GRAND plan to create a luxury phone line has not worked out as hoped, and its blinged-up and expensive Vertu range of phones will soon be no more. The company has called it a day as far as UK manufacturing goes. Vertu, which was launched by the Finnish handset maker back in 1998 and despite appearances is a British-based firm, launched phones in association with other top-deck brands such as Bentley. The phones carry astronomical price tags, with the Signature range starting at £11,100. It might be fitting that news of the company’s demise came around the time that the iPhone turned 10, because the Apple phone has had a significant and dominant impact on the smartphone market that many manufacturers have struggled to compete with. Vertu has…

THE POLAROID PHOTOGRAPH, that iconic snapshot of history, has been around since 1948, incredibly, and first presented itself with preserved images that were immediately served in sepia tones. Polaroid, the company, had been established in 1937 as a company making polarised lenses. The camera business came about during a holiday to Mexico. The invention was inspired by the daughter of Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid, who wanted to know why you had to wait to see the images that had been taken with a camera. Legend has it that the first working camera came about just days afterwards. The first model to go on sale was the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95 in 1948. Early models used two rolls of film, one negative and one with a positive/developing agent.…

£860 • From www.overclockers.co.uk VERDICT This microATX system’s up-to-date AMD components make for a winning combination THE TITAN MERLIN is neither titanic nor particularly magical, but that doesn’t stop it being a fine little do-everything home PC. It’s a microATX-based system with AMD’s quadcore Ryzen 5 1400, the cheapest of the Ryzen 5 family, and an Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 570 graphics card offering 4GB of VRAM. This is a Shopper debut for both the CPU and GPU, and according to our benchmarks it’s a potent combination. With 8GB of DDR4 RAM helping things along, the PC scored 102 in our image test, 123 in the video test, 129 in the multitasking test and 122 overall. In other words, the Ryzen 5 chip clearly comes from the same school…

£730 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A high-quality monitor that’s perfect for photo editing and gaming alike CURVED DISPLAYS MAY not have caught on in the TV world, but they certainly seem popular in monitors. Following on from the Philips 349X7FJEW (Shopper 355), we have the 34in Samsung CF791. As with Philips’ model, the CF791 has a gentle curve to it that pulls you into the picture and subtly bends around your peripheral vision. The result is a more immersive picture, without outright distortion caused by a big bend, and we like the effect. It helps that the monitor has an ultra-wide resolution of 3,440x1,440, rather than a full Ultra HD resolution. 4K monitors at this size can feel a little overbearing, a bit like sitting inches away from a TV.…

222 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT A very smart interface and decent performance combine to make this one of the most flexible routers you can buy WE WERE QUITE taken with Synology’s first wireless router, the RT1900ac. Using the same excellent interface as the company’s NAS devices, it was easy to configure, but slightly patchy performance let it down. Now, Synology is back for more with the RT2600ac. As you can probably tell from the name, this model has faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi: 1,733Mbit/s 5GHz and 800Mbit/s 2.4GHz, combining to give (near enough) the 2,600Mbit/s speed in the name. Although the RT2600ac looks similar to its predecessor, it’s distinguished by two more antennas, one on either side of the router’s body. All the antennas have to be screwed into place; it can…

£500 • From www.very.co.uk VERDICT Clever new screen technology makes this headset a pleasure to use, but it’s hard to justify the high price WITH SO MANY VR headsets now available, it would be easy to dismiss the Avegant Glyph as just another one. However, looks can be deceiving, and this product is not really a VR headset. Although it has some of the same features of a VR headset, including dual displays, the Glyph is actually a personal video headset designed for watching videos or playing games. With some rather clever display technology powering the headset, it’s nice to see something a little different. The Glyph is a rather large beast, although the thin display band at the front is thinner than on any VR headset that we’ve tried.…

£649 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A great smartphone with a 4K screen, but there are better devices for less YOU HAVE TO hand it to Sony – no matter what the competition has come up with in recent years, it has stuck to its design guns. While Samsung has added curved edges to its phones, and HTC has veered from composite to stark metal and is now producing curvaceous all-glass handsets, Sony’s Omni-Balance design and squared-off shape is alive and kicking in the firm’s 2017 flagship, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium. Sure, it’s slightly different to previous Xperia flagship models – the edges have a curved rather than softly squared profile, and the corners are severely chopped off and sharp instead of being softly sculpted – but it’s as distinctive…

£500 • From www.cramptonandmoore.co.uk VERDICT A slim soundbar that punches above its weight, but it’s sonically flawed THE LG SJ8 is one of the most attractive soundbars we’ve ever come across. Not because it’s ostentatious or showy, or because it lights up like a Christmas tree when you switch it on, but because it’s incredibly, implausibly thin It stands a mere 38mm high, so it will fit under most TVs without obscuring the power switch or the infrared receiver. Most importantly, it’s unobtrusive; a soundbar that really does blend into the background. The LG SJ8 costs £500, which is quite a lot to spend on a TV speaker system with no rear speakers, especially when it’s going up against cheaper standalone soundbars such as the Q Acoustics M3 (Shopper 352)…

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. Apple iOS and Google Android have the most apps available but Windows Phone is slowly catching up. 02 All smartphones have colour screens, but their resolutions vary. Basic models have 800x480 pixels, but text can be indistinct. Look for a display that has at least 1,280x720 pixels so it’s easy to browse web pages. 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 later. The image quality of smartphone cameras…

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 Media streamers have come a long way from the hard disk-based set-top boxes of a few years ago. They now come in two main forms: flash drive-sized dongles that plug directly into the HDMI port in the back of your TV, and larger microconsoles that sit under it. Whichever model you choose, it will stream content from the internet rather than storing media files locally. 02 Most streamers use their own operating system, which you can navigate with a bundled remote control, but Google’s Chromecast dongle requires a paired smartphone, tablet or laptop to stream content on the big screen. If you’re looking to set up Netflix for someone who doesn’t have a smartphone, you should buy a standalone streamer such as a Roku or Amazon Fire TV device.…

01 Laser printers used to be much more expensive than inkjets and were typically restricted to offices. They are now much more affordable, however, and offer several benefits over inkjets, including lower per-page printing costs and faster print speeds. 02 A decent laser printer will typically cost around £80, and will happily print hundreds of black-and-white pages per hour. If documents are your priority, you’ll want a high minimum speed and low print costs. However, you’ll probably be limited to black-and-white printing at this price. 03 Although you can still buy singlefunction laser printers, multifunction peripherals (MFPs) are now far more common. These models can scan and photocopy documents as well as print them, and some of them also have fax capabilities. Laser MFPs start from around £200. 04 Heavy-duty…

01 It’s essential that you buy the right type of motherboard for your processor. Intel’s older Haswell processors require a motherboard with an LGA1150 socket, but newer, fourth-generation Skylake chips need an LGA1151 socket. A board for a Haswell processor must also have an H97 or a Z97 chipset, while Skylake processors use the new Z170 chipset. Skylake CPUs also use newer, faster DDR4 memory. 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 you need, such as VGA, 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…

Chat and Communication Evernote 6.4.2.3788 Store your notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and synchronise them between computers. Mailbird 2.4.3.0 A free desktop email client for Windows. UPDATED Miranda IM 0.10.71 Chat with friends across multiple messaging platforms, including AIM, Facebook, IRC and MSN, all from one simple interface. UPDATED Skype for Windows 7.38.0.101 Make internet voice and video calls for free, and buy credit to make calls to mobiles and landlines. Trillian 5.6 Use all your instant-messaging accounts with one application. Supports Windows Live!, AIM, Yahoo! and Google Talk. UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.2.5093 A free PC and Mac version of the popular messaging app, allowing you to chat straight from your desktop instead of using the web app. Customisation iolo System Mechanic Free 16.5.3 Speed up your system…

£1,299 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A faster processor and better battery life make for a much-improved and incredibly portable MacBook ALTHOUGH THE 2015 MacBook was a beautifully svelte laptop, it did have one problem: its Core M processor just didn’t seem like enough, as if it was meant to be a companion to a desktop computer instead of being able to replace it as your main PC Its successor, launched in 2016, aimed to fix this with souped-up Intel Skylake Core M chips, as well as faster RAM and SSD storage, and was entirely successful. Since then, Apple has refreshed the MacBook once again with Kaby Lake processors; however, these models cost several hundred pounds more than their 2016 equivalents, which are still being sold new, so we’ve included the…

£1,049 • From www.amazon.co.uk w.amazon.co.uk VERDICT This next-gen improvement sees the Dell XPS 13 move from a tantalising purchase to an essential one THERE WERE PLENTY of reasons to love the 2015 iteration of the XPS 13. Back when we originally reviewed it in Shopper 329, Dell’s premium ultraportable felt like the closest thing to a perfect Windows laptop. Even throughout the entirety of 2016, only the HP Spectre 13 could really rival it. Now, there’s finally one more laptop that can go toe-to-toe with the old XPS 13 – and it’s another XPS 13, in the form of an Intel Kaby Lake refresh. Put the new and old models side by side, and there’s barely a jot of difference between them. Unless you opt for the updated laptop’s rose…

£1,249 • From store.hp.com VERDICT Fast – for an ultraportable – and exceptionally slim, the HP Spectre 13 is a class act THE SPECTRE 13 is HP’s golden boy – literally. It looks positively gorgeous, with classy shiny gold detailing on the hinge and back edge of the 13in laptop, and it’s sturdy too, with a reassuringly flex-resistant carbon fibre and aluminium chassis. It’s also stunningly slim, at a mere 10.4mm when closed, and since it weighs 1.1kg it’s easy to carry around. Unsurprisingly, all this doesn’t come cheap, even on the entry-level model with a dual-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-6200U processor and 8GB of RAM. Upgrade the Core i5 to a faster 2.5GHz i7-6500U processor, which is the model we reviewed, and you’ll have to fork out £1,249 for…

£1,550 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Razer’s Kaby Lake-powered Blade Stealth takes on the MacBook Pro – and wins THE RAZER BLADE Stealth is everything we want out of an ultraportable. It’s lightweight, it packs a punch with its Intel Kaby Lake chip, and it’s well worth showing off on your morning commute. This 12.5in laptop is gorgeously slim at just 13mm from top to base, while weighing just 1.29kg. The spin-off of reasonably chunky Razer laptops of old, it was a perfect device for darting in and out of the office, and its all-metal aluminium chassis is sturdy enough – although it can get piercingly cold when exposed to the winter air. The whole thing nonetheless feels reassuringly rugged, with the screen hardly flexing a millimetre when put under pressure.…

£900 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT The Transformer 3 Pro is a good hybrid, though inferior battery life means it falls short of Microsoft’s Surface Pro WITH ITS ADJUSTABLE kickstand, folio keyboard and super-slim chassis, the Transformer 3 Pro looks unashamedly like a member of Microsoft’s Surface Pro range, but Asus’s 2-in-1 brings a few additions to the table in an attempt to stay ahead of its rival. The most obvious is the USB Type-C port. This allows for superfast data-transfer speeds and can also be used to output video. You still get a full-sized USB3 port as well, meaning you don’t need to shell out for an adaptor to use any older peripherals. Asus has also squeezed in a full-sized HDMI output and microSD slot, giving you almost as much…

£1,600 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT There’s little to dislike about the Spectre x360: it’s a classy laptop that will cope with almost any task HP HAS EXPERIENCED a resurgence as of late, with high-end consumer laptops such as the Spectre 13 ranking among the most desirable computers you can buy. The Spectre x360 convertible keeps up this good work. It comes in both 13in and 15.6in flavours, with a variety of Intel Kaby Lake processors: prices start at £1,249 for the base Full HD model, but pay more and you can get our review spec, which has a 4K screen, a dual-core Intel Core i7-7500U processor clocked at 2.7GHz, 8GB of RAM, a blazingly fast 512GB SSD and a discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX GPU with 2GB of VRAM. However, this…

£2,149 • From www.microsoft.com VERDICT It will devastate your bank account, but the redesigned Surface Pro is the technical pinnacle of Windows 2-in-1s TWO YEARS ON from the Surface Pro 4, we finally have a successor, and it’s… extremely similar to the Surface Pro 4. This new device, simply named the Surface Pro, sticks with the same 12.3in touchscreen, same magnesium alloy construction and even the exact same dimensions as the product line’s fourth instalment, forcing to you take a pretty close look to notice any physical changes. They are there, though. The angular shape remains, but the edges are rounder and softer, while the air vents have been sunk deeper into the chassis, producing a cleaner aesthetic. The hinge has been upgraded as well – it’s more discreet in…

£99 • From www.hivehome.com VERDICT They perform well, but a lack of fitting choice and no remote controls limit their appeal HIVE, BACKED BY British Gas, is best known for its smart thermostat, but the company is now in the smart lighting game with its Active Lights. The good news is that this system works with the existing Hive Hub, so anyone already with heating can just add the lights. If you don’t have Hive, the Hub costs £80, though you can get it cheaper as part of a deal with smart heating. Alternatively, the Hive Active bulbs work with Samsung SmartThings, though you have to set the bulb type manually using the rather awkward web interface. POWER TRIO Hive sells three types of bulbs. There’s the Active Light Dimmable…

£45 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT The widest range of light bulbs with the finest levels of controls, this is the best smart lighting system available THINK OF SMART lighting and there’s one name that jumps out: Philips Hue. Having made some of the first connected light bulbs, Philips’ system is now the most mature, with a huge range of accessories and bulbs, plus excellent support from other products As with most smart light bulb systems, Hue is composed of two components. First is the Hub, which plugs into your home network via its Ethernet connection and controls your light bulbs. There are two versions of the Hub available, but we recommend buying the newer, square-shaped one, which supports Apple HomeKit. The second part of the system is the light bulbs.…

Clive Webster has been tinkering with computers ever since Windows 98 forced him to manually install his drivers clive@computershopper.co.uk BEYOND WINDOWS 10’S flashy Live Tiles and glossy default apps lie many more hidden apps, tools and abilities. From making your screen look better to protecting your precious data and advanced features for coding, playing and managing your PC, there’s plenty on offer. The trick is finding all these features, which is where we step in. BEFORE WE RUSH into some of the brilliant, odd and useful apps and tools, we’re going to bore you about backing up data. It’s essential, and there’s a handy tool built into Windows that isn’t enabled by default: File History. FILE HISTORY File History is useful because it saves multiple versions of a file, allowing…

Charlotte runs her own business as a career and life coach, running workshops and one-to-one coaching sessions. She needed a photo for her website and her social media profiles that exuded an air of trustworthiness and approachability. We started by shooting against a plain wall using two off-camera flashguns bounced off the walls to simulate natural ambient light, but the results were too sterile for what we were looking for. For our next location we moved to the garden, which immediately looked more relaxed and interesting. The evening sun provided some nice contrast, and asking Charlotte to face away from the sun meant it caught the side of her face and avoided her squinting. We wanted to use a wide aperture in order to blur the background so it wasn’t…