Computer Shopperの May 2019 の目次

There’s a meme that’s been doing the rounds on social networks recently about how precious the internet has become to many of us: “If you unplug the Wi-Fi box for 1 sec, everyone in the house act like they goin die. You’ll see people come out of rooms you ain’t never seen before. LIKE WHO YOU?” And there’s another sage piece of advice for the digital era that’s often dished out: “If you want to call a family meeting, just turn off the Wi-Fi router and wait in the room in which it’s located.” I must admit to being one of those access-obsessed people. If the wireless drops for even a split second in my house, whether I’m working at my desk, watching Netflix or just browsing the web, I’m…

£1,715 •From store.hp.com VERDICT An improved, pleasantly compact Xeon-based workstation, but it has its limits IN KEEPING WITH the Z2 family’s identity as serious-faced workstations, the HP Z2 Mini G4 is a conservative update rather than a radical one. It’s visually indistinguishable, in fact, from the Z2 Mini G3 (Shopper 355) it replaces. That’s not strictly a complaint. The Z2 Mini G3 was one of the few feasible options for getting proper workstation-grade components in a mini-PC form factor, and the Z2 Mini G4 gives you that same choice but with updated internals. In the top-spec model we tested, for example, a hexa-core Intel Xeon E-2176G vPro CPU is joined by a 4GB Nvidia Quadro P1000 graphics chip and a 512GB NVMe SSD. Oddly, our sample unit came with 16GB…

£699 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT The Nitro 5 is far cheaper than most gaming laptops, but don’t expect those savings to pay off GAMING LAPTOPS HAVE recently moved away from chunky, garish machines towards slimmer, more refined devices. At least, they have at the high-end; budget gaming notebooks still exist, but as the Nitro 5 shows, they’re as hefty as ever. This particular model, with a quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 2500U CPU, and a 4GB Radeon RX 560X GPU, weighs a back-breaking 2.7kg, not counting the power brick. It’s bulky, too, with a footprint measuring 390x266mm. Acer has attempted to brighten up the red and black colour scheme with a shimmering chevron pattern on the lid and palm rest areas, but there’s no hiding its sub-standard build materials. The chassis…

£90 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT Customisable and stuffed with component support, the Level 20 VT is a big success THIS IS A microATX/Mini-ITX case with a twist – almost literally. Because both the glass side panels and the metal base have the same dimensions, they can be removed and swapped around to your choosing. This lets you flip the entire chassis on its side, rotating the orientation of the internal layout, while keeping the rubber feet on the ground and all sides covered up. There are some limitations to this modularity: the top panel, for instance, can be removed and re-installed on one of the sides, but the side panels don’t quite fit on top due to fan mounts that only the top panel makes room for. The front panel…

£90 • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT If you’re after an inkjet MFP for the home office, Brother’s MFC-J491DW doesn’t quite hit the mark BROTHER’S MFC-J491DW is an inkjet multifunction peripheral (MFP) primarily aimed at home office use, so there’s Wi-Fi, duplex (double-sided) printing, a fax modem and a 20-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for unattended faxes, scans and copies. As a fairly lowly model, the MFC-J491DW is reasonably keenly priced. It does without a touchscreen, but its button-controlled menu is straightforward. Brother appears to have cut down on the orange plastic that once protected its ink cartridges, but it’s yet to introduce physical keying to prevent you inserting them in the wrong slot. There’s a seven-minute thumb twiddle while the printer primes its ink system; you can’t join a wireless network…

£599 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A great-sounding standalone soundbar that’s both expandable and smart NOT UNLIKE THE Sonos Playbar (Shopper 374), the Denon Heos Bar is the kind of soundbar that doesn’t immediately seem to offer a lot of value; it’s only when inserted into a wider multiroom speaker system that it starts to make sense. That requires robust wireless connectivity, but the Heos Bar comes with a wide range of physical ports as well. Nestled neatly in a cutout at the rear are four HDMI inputs plus a single HDMI ARC (audio return channel) output. That’s more than any other soundbar we’ve seen at this price. It’s even more impressive when you consider that every one of those ports is HDMI 2.0a-enabled, so you can use the Heos Bar…

£230 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A very decent luxury e-reader, with some rough edges smoothed out by great features and hardware CANADIAN E-READER COMPANY Kobo is one of several underdogs in a Kindle-dominated arena, and its latest flagship device – the Forma – is making a direct challenge to Amazon’s Kindle Oasis. There are certainly elements of the Forma’s design that seem to owe a debt to the Oasis: the offset screen, the buttons on a grip off to one side, the ultra-thin chassis, even the shared IPX8 waterproofing. This means you can dunk the Forma in up to two metres of water (but not salt water) for up to 30 minutes. The two devices are very obviously cut from the same cloth. FORMA FACTOR There are some key differences,…

£299 • From www.vegascreativesoftware.com VERDICT It’s still a capable video editor, but Vegas’s crown is slipping VIDEO IS EVERYWHERE, and a vast amount is produced by non-professionals, particularly for businesses creating social media content. It’s a little strange, then, that there aren’t more editors in the mid-price band to compete with Vegas Pro. Most professionals use Avid or Premiere Pro, and there are various consumer editors to choose from, but Vegas Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro are the only serious contenders to straddle the gap. Our tests of version 16 got off to a shaky start, with frequent crashes while playing back a project. This was tracked down to GPU acceleration, and an update improved stability significantly, but not entirely. We still experienced occasional crashes, averaging roughly two per…

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-to-digital 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 If you don’t have space in your home cinema setup for a set of surround-sound 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 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 UPDATED Evernote 6.17.6.8292 Store your notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and synchronise them between computers. Mailbird 2.5.27.0 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. UPDATED Telegram 1.5.12 This free IM app synchronises your conversations across multiple devices, and can spruce up chats with stickers and GIFs. UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.3.2043 A free PC and Mac version of the popular messaging app, letting you chat from your desktop. Customisation UPDATED iolo System Mechanic Free 18.5.1 Speed up your system with iolo’s PC optimisation suite. Rainmeter…

£5 per month • From www.bt.com VERDICT A fast and powerful mesh networking system that’s great value for BT Plus customers MOST WIRELESS MESH systems are roughly the same: they come with a collection of satellites that you spread through your home, 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’), 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 extending range. If you can’t get a…

£229 • From store.google.com VERDICT Staggeringly easy to configure and with some amazing configuration tools, this is wireless networking made easy GOOGLE WIFI IS designed to upgrade your existing router, bringing a smart mesh network into your home. For the best results, you need to disable your router’s existing wireless, so Google Wifi becomes the default. Google Wifi is sold as either a single unit (£129) or a two-unit pack (£229). Given that this is a mesh networking product, it makes the most sense to buy two access points. Google has done a good job with the Wifi’s access point design. Each one is a small hockey puck-style unit, which you can place conveniently out of the way without having make too much room. A single white LED shows each…

£155 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT With multiple satellites delivering wide coverage and fast speeds, the Tenda Nova MW6 is great value TENDA IS A relatively little-known router manufacturer, especially here in the UK. However, judging by the MW6, what it lacks in name recognition it makes up for with a quality and reliable Wi-Fi system that shows some of its big-name rivals how it’s done. The Tenda Nova MW6 ships in single, two- and three-pack varieties, costing £65, £110 and £155 respectively; the smallest of these couldn’t really be called a mesh system, but the other two are very competitively priced, considering how many other systems cost in excess of £200. Each individual device is a neat cube, small enough to neatly tuck out of the way. With the three-pack…

TRAVELLING SONY WH-1000XM3 There’s no better travelling companion than the WH-1000XM3, and that goes for 16-hour intercontinental flights as much as it does for half-hour train journeys. A big part of that is their sheer longevity: a single full charge can net you 30 hours of uninterrupted playback, and that’s with both Bluetooth and ANC engaged. Noise-cancelling also deserves a special mention, as the WH-1000XM3 are as adept at blocking out ambient noise as well as any headphones we’ve ever worn. Besides keeping music and movies free of any distracting engine drone, ANC has the lesser-considered benefit of making it easier to catch an undisturbed mid-flight nap. EXERCISING BRAINWAVZ BLU-300 These are not the best-sounding in-ear headphones, nor are they truly wireless – a Bluetooth connection tethers them to a…

£150 • From www.skullcandy.co.uk VERDICT With built-in tracking tech, these are a great pair of ANC headphones for the forgetful SKULLCANDY’S HEADPHONES ARE often cheap but garish, so the tastefully understated Venue is an interesting change of pace, even if they cost £150, a considerable step upwards from Skullcandy’s typical pricing. That money gets you not just good looks and Bluetooth connectivity, but the kind of features that could give Sony, Bose and others a bit of a fright: 40mm drivers, active noise cancellation (ANC), voice assistant compatibility, quick charge and a 24-hour battery life. They even have Tile’s clever Bluetooth location technology built in, letting you find them even when they’re switched off. In terms of design, the Venue headphones are pretty hard to fault. Skullcandy’s favoured bright colours…

£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 drenching, the Brainwavz BLU-300 might be just the model for you. Advertised as ‘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 should need to fully test these credentials, but you can at least be sure they’ll endure the wettest of outdoor activities. 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. This is handy…

Listening in @ A recent article on a Radio 4 programme highlighted the fact that both Google Home and Amazon Echo can, and do, eavesdrop on conversations around their products without the key phrases being spoken. The digitised data is saved and analysed by the technology giants. Do users of these devices appreciate that their children’s conversations are being monitored if these devices are in their bedrooms? Apart from the privacy concerns, could these conversations skew any recommendations in a search request similar to targeted adverts appearing on YouTube and Facebook pages? Are these ‘always-on’ devices the start of the problems, associated with Internet of Things products, which have been voiced in many quarters, including the worry about the lack of security and the ease with which such devices can…

MEL CROUCHER Tech pioneer and all-round good egg letters@computershopper.co.uk THERE WAS ONCE a little Quaker boy called Charlton, who got sent off to a nice school in Oxfordshire. Charlton liked video games, and when he turned 13 he became a fan of one particular game called Deus Ex Machina. It was hopelessly life-affirming, and it allowed him to influence the plotline and outcome, like a load of similar games. It was also the first truly interactive movie, running in real time, with voice actors and a full soundtrack. It came with a large monochrome poster of the face of a beautiful, innocent yet alluring lady robot, which the boy hung on his wall. And that thought pleases me, because I was the creator of the game, and my intention was…

Samsung sets the tone for 2019’s Android phones SAY WHAT? YOU DON’T NEED a crystal ball to predict that Samsung will release a flagship phone at the start of every year. Nor do you need to read tea-leaves to predict that the latest Galaxy phones will be near class-leading examples of Android handsets. But we didn’t expect Samsung to reveal five new Galaxy phones just ahead of MWC 2019, yet that’s what the South Korean tech giant did. Let’s get the straightforward stuff out of the way. Samsung revealed a follow-up to its Galaxy S9 and S9+ in the form of the Galaxy S10 and S10+. While the Galaxy S9 models were but a minor upgrade over the critically acclaimed Galaxy S8, the S10 phones are a proper step up.…

ABOVE THE FOLD Huawei had a heavy presence at MWC, announcing three new laptops and its first crack at a foldable smartphone: the Mate X. Whereas the rival Samsung Galaxy Fold (see below) has a smaller screen on the outside and a larger screen on the inside, the Mate X has two massive 6in displays – one on the front, one on the back – that combine to make a single, 2,840x2,200 OLED screen, a design Huawei credits to its purpose-built ‘falcon wing’ hinge. The triple-lens camera, which we’re told will likely be similar in specs and capability to the Mate 20 Pro’s, is positioned on a bar that runs down the rear, along with a combined power button and fingerprint sensor. There’s 5G connectivity, too. It’s an overall much…

£1,000 • From www.very.co.uk VERDICT This slim PC is a competent gaming machine, but you can get much more for less money IN MANY WAYS the Erazer P66042 isn’t much of a risk-taker: both its 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card and Intel Core i5-8400 are common choices for a mid-range gaming PC. It’s not a boring PC either, however, as Medion has added a couple of little design flourishes to the chassis. For example, the lights on the front panel can change hue, offering a decent degree of personalisation. Whereas most chassis force you to change colours in the BIOS or through software, the Erazer P66042 has a pair of well-disguised buttons on the front panel, which cycle through the pre-set colours. It’s an easier and far more…

£2,040 • From www.dell.com VERDICT Alienware puts out another heavy-hitter with a lighter chassis and powerful internals ALIENWARE LAPTOPS MAY look odd, but they never skimp on the materials, and the m15 is more of the same. The chassis of this gaming notebook is made almost entirely from magnesium alloy, making it tough but light; 20% lighter, in fact, than 2017’s Alienware 13. That’s despite a larger 15.6in display. It still weighs 2.16kg, so it’s hardly an ultraportable, but it packs in high-end components such as an Intel Core i7-8750H, Nvidia GTX 1070 Max-Q and a massive 32GB of RAM. The only thing that doesn’t reflect its premium nature are the bezels, specifically the ones above and below the screen: they’re chunky and ugly, a far cry from the tiny…

£1,699 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT The X-T3’s wide range of features and agreeable price make it perfect for photographers and videographers alike FOR ALL THE different DSLR and mirrorless cameras on the market, very few manage to excel at everything – stunning still shots, top-quality video and high-end usability are easy to find individually, but all three rarely come in a single package. The X-T3, however, shows that Fujifilm has pulled off this feat. It has a large, APS-C sensor shooting 26-megapixel stills, 4K video recording with 10-bit, 60fps and LOG shooting support, and more dials than the floor of a Rolex factory, all for a highly appealing price. BIG TWIST The arsenal of controls might even look intimidating at first, but they’re what make the X-T3 so eminently usable.…

£250 • From uk.jbl.com VERDICT More expensive than other smart displays, but the Link View has by far the best speakers YET ANOTHER SMART screen device has hit the shelves, following the Google Home Hub (Shopper 372) and the Lenovo Smart Display (Shopper 374). Like these, the JBL Link View is powered by Google Assistant, so it shares the core functionality of controlling smart home hardware, playing music and YouTube videos and so on, but the Link View also has a front-facing camera for two-way video calls, as well as a greater focus on audio quality. Despite having an 8in display, the Link View is closer in size to the 10in Lenovo Smart Display than the diminutive 7in Google Home Hub. At 100mm deep, it’s just about small enough to…

£549 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com VERDICT Battery life won’t ever be a problem with the Oppo RX17, but it’s expensive for what it is IT’S NOT NECESSARILY a bad thing that the Oppo RX17 Pro is a dead ringer for the OnePlus 6T (Shopper 373), right down to the teardrop notch and the flashing green in-screen fingerprint reader. The real big issue here is why anyone would choose the RX17 Pro over the 6T, which both performs better and costs less. In Oppo’s defence, this is a very good Android phone in many ways. It’s also more than a simple OnePlus knock-off: there’s a three-lens camera array on the back, for example, something the 6T doesn’t have. The two phones do share certain drawbacks, including the lack of a waterproofing rating…

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 As with Intel motherboards, you’ll need to make sure you match an AMD processor with a compatible motherboard. This is relatively simple for AMD hardware, as most of its recent chips use the same AM4 socket, and the most recent second-generation Ryzen processors are backwards-compatible with first-generation chipsets, such as the X370 and B350. 02 Budget APU and a minority of Ryzen processors have integrated graphics, so to make use of this, ensure that your motherboard comes with video outputs such as DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. For Ryzen chips that lack integrated graphics, or if you want more graphics power, install a dedicated graphics card into one of your motherboard’s PCI-E x16 slots. This also has the benefit of providing a greater range of video outputs to choose from.…

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…

You only realise just how much you rely on Wi-Fi the second that your router goes down and you run into problems. Solid, reliable Wi-Fi is a must for any modern household. In this guide, we’ll show you how to best set up your router so that you get the best performance out of it. That goes for all devices, even if you’ve bought one of our top-rated mesh systems (see page 88 for our buying guide and mesh system group test comparing the eight top products). Quality is about more than speed, so we’ll also take you on a journey through your router’s more in-depth settings, so you can restrict access from unknown devices, improve internet reliability and use advanced features that you may not have known about.…

£186 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A smart and easy way to upgrade your home’s Wi-Fi, but the price is a little high BT’S COMPLETE WI-FI system may have arrived, but there’s still room for the firm’s older mesh system, Whole Home Wi-Fi, to be a worthwhile purchase. That’s because they’re very distinct products: while Complete Wi-Fi includes its own router and is built for BT Plus customers, Whole Home Wi-Fi works with any provider and simply aims to boost the range of your existing router. With the Whole Home Wi-Fi kit, you get three identical access points, which – as with the Complete Wi-Fi system – BT calls ‘discs’. Each disc is just 165mm across and sits neatly on the integrated stand, making them easy to position anywhere. Each disc…

£230 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A decent mesh system that’s more affordable than the Orbi RBK50, but you can get an even better deal elsewhere WHILE THE ORBI RBK50 (opposite) offers outstanding speeds, there’s no denying it’s a bit expensive, and that gives rivals such as the BT Whole Home Wi-Fi and the Tenda Nova MW6 the chance to slip past it on sheer value. There is, however, a cheaper alternative made by Netgear itself. The RBK20 is essentially a baby version of the big RBK50, adopting the same approach of bundling a router and a single satellite with tri-band Wi-Fi capabilities, but with slower speeds and a lower price. COME IN THREES Where the RBK20 differs from BT’s offering is two-fold. First, you get a router, so you can…

£200 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A smart mesh system with tons of features, but there are faster alternatives AS THE MARKET has flooded with new mesh Wi-Fi systems, one thing that manufacturers have struggled with is finding a unique angle that makes their product stand out. TP-Link, however, has managed to pull this off with the Deco P7, which has built-in Powerline networking. As good as mesh systems are, the speed of the network is only as good as the quality of the link between satellite devices. For this reason, many mesh systems support an Ethernet backhaul – that is, satellite devices are connected together using a physical Ethernet cable, improving performance. If you don’t have or can’t run Ethernet things can get tricky, which is where the TP-Link Deco…

£155 • From www.brainwavzaudio.com VERDICT These retro over-ear headphones from Brainwavz are neither the best sounding nor the most practical STUDIO HEADPHONES ARE almost always larger than their wireless counterparts, but nothing can prepare you for the size of the Brainwavz HM100. To give you an idea of their scale, they’re accompanied by a solid case that measures 260x240x130mm. That’s an 8L cubic capacity, or the same as a small backpack. Naturally, you don’t have to pack them away every time you’ve finished using them, but the fact they won’t fold away into a small pouch like some of their rivals tells you everything you need to know about the HM100s: they’re not designed with portability in mind. Instead, Brainwavz boasts that these headphones offer accuracy, clarity and a wide…

£300 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Sony hits the high notes with the WH-1000XM3, its best ANC headphones yet SONY’S PREVIOUS ANC headphones, the MDR-1000X and WH-1000XM2, were both great, but they never quite managed to topple the Bose QuietComfort series, particularly on noise cancellation quality. Now, however, the third-generation WH-1000XM3 is here, and it may have at last taken the crown. Design-wise, the WH-1000XM3 are similar to the WH-1000XM2, except for the headband’s metal core being covered up with faux leather for the less industrial look. With thicker and softer cushioning on the earpasd, and improved padding on the headband, the WH-1000XM3 are more comfortable than ever, so you can wear the headphones for hours on end and not feel the strain. SMOOTH OPERATOR Smooth surfaces on the earcups maintain…

£120 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A good-quality pair of earbuds that offer strong competition against the best, for a lower price THE TICPODS FREE are another set of true wireless earbuds, and as with their contemporaries in this young but rapidly growing space, they come in a small carry-case that also acts as a charging dock. While the setup process might not be the most streamlined we’ve seen, it’s still pretty simple. When the TicPods are removed from their case, they switch on automatically, and begin the pairing process. They will always attempt to connect to the last device that they were paired with, which means the actual pairing process need happen only once. Failing that, they’ll remain visible to any devices with Bluetooth, allowing you to connect them instantly…

• SECOND ARCADE CLUB OPENING DOWN T’ROAD Arcade Club, the largest free-to-play video and pinball venue in Europe, has already attracted scores of visitors to Bury, Greater Manchester, but now it is hoping to welcome even more gamers at a new branch in Kirkstall, a suburb of Leeds. As in Bury, where the action takes place over two packed floors, the Leeds arcade is looking to entice gamers on Thursday and Friday nights as well as all day on Saturdays and Sundays with an array of top coin-ops, some of them rare. A single entry fee allows access to all of the machines without having to fill your pockets with 10 pence pieces. Find out more by heading to www.arcadeclub.co.uk. • TO BE THIS GOOD TAKES 30 YEARS Over the…

Make an indoor air-quality sensor Concerns about indoor air quality are growing, thanks to draught-free windows and building materials that ‘off-gas’. Clive Webster shows you how to breathe more easily THE SMELL OF new carpet or fresh paint might be appealing to some, giving the sense of newness and a job well done. Similarly, a kitchen or bathroom smelling of bleach might be considered an innocent by-product of basic cleanliness. However, these are examples of ‘off-gassing’, where a product or material emits a gas that might be harmful over time. Worse still, some ‘off-gassing’ is odourless, and materials such as plywood (which is often treated with formaldehyde) can continue to off-gas for a long period of time. ‘Low-VOC’ alternatives are expensive, but thankfully our DIY indoor air-quality sensor isn’t. HOUSES ARE…

Resistor rest @ The latest issue of Computer Shopper (374) arrived at the weekend and I have to say that I enjoyed reading David Ludlow’s article on the Raspberry Pi. I was also impressed by the juxtaposition of the Pi article and the following supercomputer article; you couldn’t get a much larger difference in capability than that. But when David wrote the second paragraph on page 111 he said that the resistor goes between J60 on the breadboard and the negative bus in the same column. That’s not what the picture shows: the resistor is in fact in G60. Also, if you’re looking for a topic for an article, may I suggest one on the intricacies of the Windows boot process? I have a dual boot laptop, Windows 10 and…

KAY EWBANK Software guru and Shopper legend letters@computershopper.co.uk THE BRITISH WEATHER is a wonderful thing, but it could never be called predictable. As I’m writing this, everything is hard frozen and my office bears a strong resemblance to Ice Station Zebra. I know there’s no point replacing the car with huskies, though, because next week I’m just as likely to be bemoaning the floods or the drought or the heatwave. If we lived in a country where the weather was more predictable, we could plan for it; have triple glazing and amazing insulation, put in air conditioning rather than relying on a couple of fans. Of course, I could crack and heat the place by turning up the central heating (or put the fans on to cool the place down…

£2,000 • From www.overclockers.co.uk VERDICT A slim, light powerhouse of a laptop, massively let down by build quality issues THE P65 CREATOR is an unusual hybrid of styles: the specs suggest it’s a gaming laptop, with its Intel Core i7-8750H, 144Hz display and GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics, but MSI insists it’s designed for mobile photo and video editing. It’s certainly a lot lighter than most gaming laptops. In fact, 1.8kg is about as good as it gets for something with a GPU of this magnitude, and at 18mm thick with the lid closed, it’s not too chunky. Even the 508g power supply is relatively slim and compact. LOOSE BENDS However, while the design succeeds, the build quality is woeful. Push down on the metal area above the keyboard and the…

£160 • From www.scan.co.uk VERDICT With this AIO, you’ll come for the customisable OLED display but stay for its impeccable cooling CUSTOMISING THE AESTHETICS of a DIY PC build usually means one thing: lighting, especially of the RGB variety. CPU watercoolers are an increasingly common outlet for this approach, and we’ve had plenty of multicolour all-in-one (AIO) units pass through our lab, such as the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R RGB (Shopper 366) and the Deepcool Castle 240 RGB (Shopper 368). The ROG Ryuo 240 offers a very different way of putting that personal touch to a desktop system. There’s still a thin strip of RGB lighting around the base of the pump, but it’s what’s on top that stands out: a 1.77in OLED screen, which can display JPG and GIF…

£134 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Slightly over-the-top motion detection aside, the TP-Link Kasa Cam KC120 is a quality camera with free cloud storage SECURITY CAMERAS ARE both a great deterrent to thieves and a valuable way of collecting evidence and monitoring your home when you’re out. The biggest issue is trying to decide which camera is best for you, since there are so many devices to choose from, including models with comparatively expensive cloud storage plans. The TP-Link Kasa Cam KC120 aims to simplify things with two days of free cloud storage and a flexible stand that makes it easier to install anywhere. Standing on a tall stick of a stand and decked out in black plastic, the Kasa Cam KC120 is a fairly inoffensive-looking security camera. Importantly, the stand…

£50 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A great streamer with a rare advantage over 4K smart TVs: full integration with smart home hardware AMAZON’S FIRE TV Stick 4K is the company’s latest TV streamer, and it improves on its non-4K predecessor in a number of ways. As well as supporting Ultra HD (UHD) streams, it’s 80% more powerful, and supports HDR, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, along with Dolby Atmos surround sound. The streamer comes with the all-new Alexa Voice Remote, which adds volume and power buttons for your TV, in addition to letting you open apps and control video playback with your voice. It’s a seriously capable streaming stick at a highly tempting price of just £50. SLIMMED DOWN This isn’t the Fire TV brand’s first 4K streamer: we’ve had the…

£200 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com VERDICT Huawei’s newest budget offering is a great performer, with the exception of its camera HAVING ENDED 2018 with the excellent Mate 20 Pro (Shopper 373), Huawei has begun 2019 with an altogether more affordable handset: a new version of the budget P Smart (Shopper 364). Not that you’d think it was cheap at a glance. With no physical buttons, and a screen that dominates the front of the phone (save for minimal bezels and a tiny circular camera notch), it certainly looks the part of a quality smartphone. The same goes for the rear: along with a round fingerprint sensor, there’s a dual-lens camera array with a single LED flash. Some of the sheen is lost when the phone is in your hand, as the…

£215 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT A highly functional runner’s watch with a much better design than the last generation THE POLAR M430 (Shopper 363) is a great running watch: its GPS tracking proved so consistently accurate that we now use it to see if other wearables are keeping pace. The problem is that the sartorial faux pas of wearing two watches is multiplied when you look at the chunky M430. Technically, you can wear it at all the time, but you wouldn’t want to; especially not the bright orange model we were sent. The Polar Vantage M fixes that problem. It’s a successor to the M430, but adopts a much more stylish circular face and a slimmer, understated appearance. This is a watch you could quite happily wear all the…

01A 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. 02If 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. 03If 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 13.3in or 14in…

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…

Even the best-performing router or mesh system that we’ve tested needed some configuration to get the best speeds and reliability. Thanks to the different levels of interference and building materials, each home is unique in the way Wi-Fi works, so some tweaking and adjustments are required to get everything working at its best. Here’s what you need to know about getting everything set up in the best way. DO YOU NEED A MODEM? If you’re replacing your existing router, you may need a modem, as most routers use Ethernet for the WAN (internet) connection. If you have a standard connection through your phone line, then you’ll most likely be on a VDSL connection, although there’s a chance that you’re on an older ADSL connection. VDSL lines used to be supplied…

Did you know that your router or mesh system might be supported by Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant? For example, many of Netgear’s routers and the Orbi system have Alexa Skills and Google Assistant apps, as do TP-Link and D-Link devices. Asus currently supports Alexa for its routers. Check your router’s support pages to find out what it can do and how to enable the Skill, as the options differ from service to service. Once enabled, smart assistant support will let you do things such as toggle your guest network on or off, and obtain your network details.…

MAXIMUM RANGE BT Whole Home Wi-Fi If you’re lucky enough to own a house so large that one or even two satellites aren’t enough to completely remove wireless dead spots, a three-pack mesh system will help you fill in the gaps. There are many available – even some of the systems we’ve reviewed here as two-packs have a more expensive, tripled-up package – but BT Whole Home Wi-Fi is a particularly good deal. For less than £200, it gives you three satellites that can simply be added to your current router, maximising coverage for less than half the price of, say, the three-pack equivalent of Netgear’s Orbi RBK50, the RBK53. It’s a pretty fast system, too. MAXIMUM SPEED NETGEAR Orbi RBK50 For those who can afford it, the RBK50 is…

£161 • From www.ebuyer.com VERDICT Simple and cheap, the D-Link Covr mesh system doesn’t have the performance to keep up with the best D-LINK HAS A few different mesh Wi-Fi systems available, but the most affordable is this C1023 version of the Covr. This nets you three satellites for £161 – that’s even cheaper than the BT Whole Home Wi-Fi, which is relatively old and has seen multiple price cuts. As with BT’s system, the D-Link Covr is designed to upgrade your existing router’s Wi-Fi. The idea is that you hook up the first device to your router via Ethernet, and then disable your old wireless. The remaining two satellites then create a wireless mesh network, extending your network throughout your home and, hopefully, eliminating dead spots. Although it’s comparatively…

£320 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT A smart system for boosting Wi-Fi range and speed, the RBK50 could be the answer for larger homes struggling with wireless performance IF YOU HAVE a very old router and want to benefit from upgrading it and getting the improved coverage that a mesh network can offer, the Netgear Orbi RBK50 is the product for you. With this system – a larger, faster relative of the Orbi RBK20 – you get one router, into which you plug your broadband connection via the Ethernet WAN port, and one satellite router that you ideally place in the middle of your home to give yourself the best coverage. The router and satellite communicate via a dedicated 1,733Mbit/s, 802.11ac 5GHz network (the network backbone, to use the more technical…

£329 • From www.johnlewis.com VERDICT Microsoft’s headphones have a sharp look and adjustable ANC, but audiophiles won’t be bowled over THE SKULLCANDY VENUE isn’t the only set of headphones to depart from its makers’ usual output. The Surface Headphones are Microsoft’s first stab at a premium audio product, and an unexpected twist considering the Surface family almost entirely comprises 2-in-1 tablets and laptops. Microsoft has made an effort to ensure the Surface Headphones complement the design of the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2, coming in a neutral ‘platinum’ colour scheme with shiny Microsoft logos embossed on either side of the headband. With a total weight of 292g, these headphones aren’t too heavy, and the ear pads are soft, so you can wear them for long periods without discomfort…

£200 • From www.currys.co.uk VERDICT Good sound quality makes up for some missteps, but there are cheaper wireless earbuds available THE APPLE AIRPODS may possibly be on their way out, due to be replaced by a newer version, but they heralded a significant move for wireless in-ear headphones: not only would there be no cable connecting them to a source device, but there wouldn’t even be one connecting the two buds together. ‘True’ wireless earbuds thus quickly entered the mainstream, resulting in similar products such as the BeoPlay E8. To help you tell which bud goes in which ear, the E8s have a left or right indicator shown within the inner part of the silicone housing. A plastic enclosure sits towards the edge of the housing, where a metal ring…

£150 • From www.amazon.co.uk VERDICT Phenomenal sound quality and strong design see the TrueConnects to total wireless greatness UK-BASED RHA is yet another audio manufacturer offering true wireless earbuds, in the form of the black and grey TrueConnect. RHA’s design is subtle yet flawless. Despite being made out of plastic, the all-black matt finish oozes quality and doesn’t attract fingerprints. A small LED light on the inner part of the earbuds’ housing works as a connectivity and low battery indicator, and RHA has makes it easy to distinguish between the left and right channels by adding a red dot indicator on the right earbud. Both earbuds have a button on the outer part of the housing – it’s not touch-based, which comes as a relief as you won’t mistakenly change…

In the 75 years or so since the first computers, our use of technology – and the data we create – has grown out of all proportion. Today our businesses, institutions, homes, cars and even our clothes are all producing data, much of which is ultimately being queried and manipulated in giant databases. Getting value from this information relies on our ability not only to store it, but to pull up the relevant bits on demand to run queries or make changes. That’s only been possible since the 1960s, with the invention of direct access storage such as hard disks. Before then, with data stored on tape, extracting a specific record meant reading the tape sequentially until it arrived at the right place. The first databases, running on mainframe computers, stored…

Cryptic notifications Occasionally, perhaps once or twice a week, my Android phone makes the message notification sound, yet when I look there are no new messages. I’ve got WhatsApp and Signal installed, and I’m using the latter for SMS rather than the built-in Messages app. I can’t find any settings that might explain it. Any ideas? Oliver Tucker There could be a few culprits, depending on which phone you have. If you have a Samsung Galaxy model, open the Settings page, select Advanced Features and try disabling Smart Alert. This is meant to notify you of outstanding messages when you pick up the phone, but the movement detection can be too sensitive. If that’s not it, open Signal, open the menu and choose Settings, then Notifications, and make sure that…