Stuff UKの August 2019 の目次

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, not that, the other one. The one where it’s T-shirt weather in the manor, you’ve dismissed the notion of wearing sunscreen in a foolhardy act of defiance, and there’s no way you can have too many ‘festival strength’ ciders. Scrumpy? No I’m not, leave me alone. When the drunken haze starts to lift and you awake looking like a cross between an anaesthetised Troll doll and a post-spray Donald Trump, take a moment to stop and smell the roses because, hayfever notwithstanding, Britain is in bloom. The colours of summer make this the perfect time to get to grips with a new camera. So we’ve pulled together the ultimate collection of snappers for every occasion, plus expert tips to up your…

DJI calls its RoboMaster S1 an educational robot. To look at it, you’d think the only thing it’s likely to teach you is how to invade an alien planet, but when it arrives in pieces the first thing you’ll have to learn is how to put one together. Once you’ve fitted the controller, the motor and the four wheels that give the S1 omnidirectional movement, you can use its gimbal-poised blaster and clever sensing armour to have battles with other RoboMasters. But it’s when you use the app to tinker with 46 customisable components and six AI modules that it’ll really come to life: you can get it to follow a line on the ground, respond to gestures, and recognise and track people or visual markers. These skills can then…

How do you improve on perfection? That’s the task for Final Fantasy VII Remake, which takes the 1997 PlayStation RPG, widely regarded as one of the greatest games ever made, and reworks it with high-end graphics and gameplay. Thankfully, that tall order is not only met but smashed to bits with a gigantic sword. There’s loads here for diehard fans to get excited about. This game – the first in a series, say its developers – takes place in Midgar, the first setting in the original. Character banter and boss battles are now rendered with cinematic performance capture and brought to life with fully acted voices. But the real winning blow is that, for JRPG novices, gameplay is as easy to pick up as a snoozing chocobo. You play as…

Box-shaped heart CHATTERBOX Having realised kids are more likely to play with boxes than what comes in them, tech’s given in. Nintendo has its Labo cardboard creations, and now Chatterbox is taking on Alexa. This DIY smart speaker is aimed at little ’uns, and also built by them – they’ll first need to put together the dinky ’bot, powered by a Raspberry Pi. It never collects data, and only listens when the big yellow button on its bonce is held down. It’ll then do whatever kids (as young as seven) programme it to. Which presumably means sending messages like “We can now build robots and will no longer do your bidding, parents and teachers!” $129 / hellochatterbox.com Make a game of it 32BLIT The brains behind the Picade mini-arcade go…

NIKON Z6 £1529 (body only) / stuff.tv/Z6 Nikon has form for producing cameras that handle low light with ease, and the Z6 is its latest night-ninja. The mirrorless Z series has really ramped things up here, with special goodies for night owls and anyone else shooting in murky conditions. The Z6 is all about soaking up light like a sponge rather than producing images the size of a lorry. And with and an ISO range going right up to 51,200 in its normal mode, this camera will soldier on in all conditions. That’s even easier now thanks to a firmware update that gave low-light performance an extra boost, as well as allowing it to focus more accurately on low-contrast subjects and, crucially, better eye detection . Low-light credentials are further…

SPORTY SACKS The cycling stasher MAAP X Bellroy Shift A little subtlety goes a long way when you’re head-to-toe in gaudy Lycra. With room for a 15in laptop, contoured support, side pockets plus a bike-light clip and reflective strip, this weatherproof roll-top is a classier way to wheeze your way out of the back of the peloton. £209 / bellroy.com The hip hugger Motionlab Active Commute Jogging to work might bring smug satisfaction when you beat the bus, but a bouncing backpack will soon cause sore shoulders. Keep the spring in your step with this supportive running pack, with extra straps to shift the weight of your daily haul onto your hips. £189 / motionlab-bags.com The weightless walker Lowe Alpine Tensor 20 Unless you’re a geologist gathering samples in a…

£90 / stuff.tv/Wonderboom2 ▪ Tree-dimensional Bluetooth pairing is a doddle. It’s fast to set up and stays solidly connected. Outdoor Boost mode is also simple to switch on: just press the button on the base. There’s even a picture of a nice outdoorsy tree to help you find it. ▪ Pair-shaped Stereo pairing is great to see on a speaker in this price bracket, and it works superbly well. Once your second Wonderboom 2 is paired up, a long press on the top button turns on stereo mode. This won’t work with an old Wonderboom. ▪ The Wonderboom 2 looks about as intimidating as a Powerpuff Girl. But just like Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, Ultimate Ears’ latest Bluetooth speaker wields great superpowers. It’s incredibly hardy, taking water and dust in…

RHA TrueConnect £142 / stuff.tv/TrueConnect Wireless in-ears usually come with compromises. Great sound, poor fit. Great design, no waterproofing. And that’s before we start on the biggest bugbear: connection stability. But the RHA TrueConnects seem to nail all the important stuff, and arguably better than any others we’ve tested. They sound fantastic, the design is lovely, there’s waterproofing to IPX5 and the Bluetooth 5.0 connection is rock-solid. They also pack a generous five-hour battery life, with 20 extra hours available from the sturdy case. Stuff says These wireless buds are superb all-rounders, with solid tone and a strong Bluetooth connnection Beats Powerbeats Pro £220 / stuff.tv/PowerbeatsPro It’s not all about the bass this time – in fact, when it comes to audio quality, it’s all rather mature. Add the great…

Sky Q from £20 + £22/month / stuff.tv/SkyQ Sky Q works flawlessly and could change the way you watch TV – especially now 4K’s arrived. With Sky Movies’ huge range of films and Sky Sports in stunning Ultra HD, along with the new addition of Netflix, there’s something for everyone to treat their eyes with. And 2TB of storage means you can record 350 hours’ worth of entertainment, so you’re unlikely to be sweating over which show needs deleting. Factor in its multiroom skills, and Sky Q is undoubtedly the best TV experience you can get. Stuff says You’ll have to cough up for a subscription, but this is the best box for watching both live and recorded shows Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K £50 / stuff.tv/FireStick4K Amazon’s latest streaming…

Fujifilm X-T3 £1349 / stuff.tv/FujifilmXT3 It’s really hard to find anything bad to say about the X-T3 – it’s just consistently great in so many ways. Fuji has looked at virtually every feature on the X-T2 and upgraded it. With substantial tweaks made to the pro-level video options, the high-res EVF, the super-fast autofocus and the burst shooting, what you’re left with is an all-round beast of a camera in a small, beautiful form. As APS-C shooters go, it’s the best there is. Stuff says An incredible stills shooter with video smarts to match NOW ADD THIS Manfrotto 190 Go! Carbon Fibre Tripod You no longer have an excuse for wobbly photos with this carbon-fibre tripod. It weighs just 1.65kg. £249 / manfrotto.co.uk Sony A7 III £1740 / stuff.tv/SonyA7iii The…

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from $5999 / apple.com Fleetwood, whisky, rain, Bernie, Big – competition to be the best Mac is fierce, but Apple’s almighty new Pro takes some beating. With a spec sheet more potent than a wheel of Stinking Bishop, this is what you’ll get for your 6000 bucks… • The big cheese The grater-like chassis isn’t just a parting gift from Jony Ive – it’s an entirely function-led industrial design to keep the components cool. With thermal architecture allowing for more than 300W of power, there’s an Intel Xeon processor with up to 28 cores, support for 1.5TB of RAM, and a Radeon Pro Vega II Duo – which, at 28 teraflops, Apple claims is the world’s most powerful graphics card. • Catalina whine mixer Whether you’re mixing music videos or…

We’re looking forward to being confronted with the fiery pits of hell later this year. No, not Sheffield United in the Premier League – we mean taking on Satan’s army in Doom Eternal. A direct sequel to 2016’s Doom, this FPS handles just like the fast-paced original, but will offer a new multiplayer mode in addition to the classic campaign where players face off against each other as either the Doom Slayer or demons. As in the 2016 game, taking down enemies in various ways will reward you with the items you need to take down the demonic forces threatening Earth: ‘Glory Kill’ finishing moves will reward you with health, chainsawing a demon to death will top up your ammo, and you pick up armour by unleashing your flamethrower on…

You can’t blame Sony, off the pace in the smartphone arms race for years, for deciding to try something different – something for those punters who pine for a genuine alternative. But does anyone really want longer phones? The Sony Xperia 1 is a beast. Packing the world’s first 4K HDR OLED smartphone display, a triple camera loaded up with Sony Alpha eye-tracking tech, advanced video features and stacks of power, it’s most definitely a flagship – with a price to match. That just leaves the question of whether there’s enough innovation and sheer quality in this phone to make it stand out in the face of stiff competition from Apple, Huawei, OnePlus and Samsung. As so often, it depends what you’re after from a phone. After a few days…

CANON EOS RP £1399 (body only) / stuff.tv/EOSRP The EOS RP is the newest mirrorless smasher in Canon’s EOS R line, and one of the cheapest ways to crack your way into full-frame shooting. And if homing in on life’s smaller details is what you’re focused on, you’ll be stoked with what it offers. For a start, it’s really diddy for a full-frame shooter, so there’s no bother using it on the fly. Flip out that LCD and you’ll be able to place it in the strangest of places for unorthodox angles – and with a super-responsive touch panel, you just need to tap the subject for the Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system to work its magic. That focusing tech boasts 4779 AF points spread right across the frame, while…

DJI MAVIC 2 PRO £1349 / stuff.tv/Mavic2Pro It feels as though drones have been buzzing around our skies for ages, but from the hardware and imaging chops to the rules around flying them, heaps has changed. DJI’s commitment to firing out cracker after cracker hasn’t, however, and its Mavic 2 Pro gives you a good idea of why the company still rules the skies. You can fly for up to 31 minutes at a time and, in calm conditions, push it to speeds of up to 72km/h. Thankfully, obstacle sensing in all directions keeps it clear of anything that might block its path, so the chances of a bird strike are slim. Swedish camera expert and majority owner Hasselblad is also on board, quite literally, with its own camera. And…

THE BASICS ▪ Create a movie Going from raw footage to edited video in Quik requires just a few taps. Kick off a new project by pressing the ‘+’ button then select media from your device (videos are obviously best, but you can include photos). Tap-hold and drag the thumbnails to rearrange their order, then tap the tick (Android) or Add (iOS). Quik will instantly serve up an edit, complete with transitions and soundtrack. ▪ Rearrange clips Play back your edit and you might decide it needs more work. On Android, tap your video to access the clip editor. You can add a clip either side of the currently playing one, and drag and drop thumbnails to adjust their position. On iOS, tap the pencil button after tapping the video…

Smartphones 88 Tablets, mobile games 89 Headphones 90 Wearables 91 Laptops 92 Hi-fi 93 TVs 94 Soundbars, 95 smart speakers Home cinema, consoles 96 Games 97 Tech toys, electric cars 98 VR headsets & games 99 Smart home 100 Drones, 101 compact cameras System cameras 102 Budget buys 103 How to buy… 104 noise-cancelling headphones HOW TO USE THEM…

Lego Boost Creative Toolbox £150 / stuff.tv/LegoCreativeToolbox Building Lego models is already ridiculously good fun, so think what great a time you’ll have when the completed model turns into a functioning robot. With the accompanying tablet app, you can use simple coding to make the robot move, fire projectiles and play various games. And rather than retiring it to the dusty shelf once you’re bored, you can rebuild him into four other programmable models: a harmonica-playing cat, a driveable rover, a working robot-builder and a playable guitar. Stuff says All hail Vernie and friends – for value and sheer fun, it’s hard to beat this programmable Lego kit Propel Star Wars X-Wing Battling Drone £66 / stuff.tv/SWDrone The Star Wars Battling Drone works indoors and outdoors, and doesn’t require a…

Ever wondered what’s up with the links in Stuff• We’ve got a team of retail pros who scour the web to find you the best gadget deals – visit any stuff.tv link in this issue and you’ll be taken to the best deal for that product. If you make a purchase, we may get a small commission. It’s that simple, and has no impact on how much you pay. In the mag: We pick out the best price for every featured product Online: Choose from our roster of great-value retailers…

I BECAME A GOVERNMENT CAR GEEK How’d you like to hear all about methods of validation? Nobody? What about driverless cars? Ah, there we go. We’re a long way from truly autonomous vehicles, but state-funded initiatives like Move_UK are taking us ever closer. I went to Greenwich to see Bosch and Jaguar Land Rover’s fleet of vehicles – fitted with data-recording sensors and sent out to gather real-world data covering 120,000 miles. Now, back to those methods of validation… Natalya Paul, Online Editor I’VE BEEN RIDING AROUND IN THE MATRIX No, not the actual Matrix with Keanu, but the new lights-built-in helmet from Lumos. Its front light has been doubled in brightness from the previous version and the rear now boasts an LED matrix (hence the name) – the array…

If there’s one thing Microsoft is exceptionally good at – other than irritating animated paperclips – it’s games in which you shoot things. And while titles like Halo Infinite grabbed headlines at E3 (which you can read all about on page 18), team Xbox announced an updated version of the pad that hardcore gamers will be using to play them. The Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 (rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) lives up to its name – the ‘Elite’ part, that is – with adjustable-tension thumbsticks for added aiming precision. You have a choice of three resistance settings, including the option to replicate the Xbox 360 and standard Xbox One pads. And that’s not all. Wraparound rubberised grips now extend to the top of the controller, while shorter…

Apple Pro Display XDR Announced alongside the Mac Pro, the XDR is a 32in Retina 6K screen with 10-bit colour and 1600 nits of peak brightness. The new Mac’s grille pattern is repeated on its rear. from $4999 / apple.com LG UltraFine 4K A new Apple Store arrival, this 23.7in 4K screen features two Thunderbolt ports so you can daisychain two together. LG has even managed to shoehorn in some stereo speakers. £629 / apple.com Acer ConceptD CM7 Golden Spice isn’t Geri Halliwell’s new nickname – it’s a special shade of yellow and Acer’s Pantone-approved 4K monitor is designed to display it, and all colours, with unerring accuracy. £2049 / acer.com YOU CAN SPECIFY 1.5TB OF RAM AND THE WORLD’S FASTEST GPU…

£213,500 estimated / lamborghini.com Has the World Rally Championship opened a supercar class? If it did, the Huracan Sterrato would be first across the start line. Turns out ‘safari builds’, or turning fast road cars into fast-anywhere cars, is big business – so much so that the original manufacturers want to get in on it. This concept is what Lamborghini would do if customers came calling… and who wouldn’t? It’s a rally car with a 5.2-litre V10! But what does a supercar maker know about going off-road? Quite a bit, actually. Lambo already had form with the LM002 4x4 back in the ’80s, and now it has the Urus SUV. But the Sterrato turns all that up to 11. Starting with a ‘standard’ Huracan EVO, they’ve jacked up the ride…

30th ASTRAL CHAIN Proving the Switch isn’t all plumbers and variations on green tunics, the latest wacky action game from PlatinumGames is exclusive to Nintendo’s console. You play as a member of a cyberpunky specialist police force in conflict with some interdimensional aliens, aided in combat by the Legion, a living weapon that humanity developed to retaliate against unwanted visitors. 12th SHAZAM (BLU-RAY) DC’s big-screen output has been a mixed bag to put it kindly, but we’re yet to see a more enjoyable superhero outing this year than Shazam, an origin story about a teenager gifted a range of powers by a wizard. THEN 8 years ago Samsung announces the first Galaxy Note device NOW Samsung Galaxy Note 10 revealed? 14th ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Tarantino’s latest stars…

Samsung Galaxy S10+ from £899 / samsung.com What’s the story? The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has curved Gorilla Glass on its front and back, with a band of shiny aluminium that sits between. The Infinity-O display is this year’s big change. In the two other Galaxy S phones for 2019, the S10 and S10e, this involves just a little punch-hole cut out of the OLED display, but the S10+’s dual front cameras demand more space. Is it any good? The all-screen look is fantastic, but the chunk of display eaten by those cameras is obvious when you watch a movie – and there’s no removing it. Still, that aside, Samsung’s OLED strengths are on show here and this phone goes insanely bright, kicking up to 1200 nits. It shrugs off direct…

FUJIFILM X-T3 £1349 (body only) / stuff.tv/FujifilmXT3 It’s hard to think of a subject the X-T3 can’t handle, from sport and seascapes to macro and more. But if it’s food you’re shooting, it’s got a few tricks that will make your images extra-tasty. For a start, this was the first Fujifilm camera to be furnished with a 26.1MP sensor, which is ahead of the 20-24MP norm at this level. That gives you oodles of detail to begin with, but also the flexibility to crop right in later. There’s also all those luscious film simulation modes – from the Velvia colour option, injecting a shot of vibrancy, through to the more restrained Provia setting that keeps things a little more natural. We also love the three-axis-tilting LCD, which gives you huge…

from £199 / stuff.tv/iPodTouch ▪ We’ve not heard a peep about the iPod since 2015, so assumed it was seeing out its last days in a California home for retired tech. Suddenly, enter the 7th-gen iPod Touch, which looks awfully familiar but now sports an A10 Fusion chip for AR – a big deal for gamers with Apple Arcade launching this autumn – and in testing, just shy of 40 hours’ play time. ▪ Styling is retro Apple and the Home button brings back warm and fuzzy memories. It’s so light and thin it feels airy next to an iPhone XR, and there’s a dinky 4in display. No Face ID means a six-digit passcode, while elsewhere you’ll find a Lighting port, a built-in speaker and a 3.5mm headphone jack (honestly).…

Asus ZenBook Pro 14 Price £1049 / stuff.tv/ZenBookPro14 What’s the story? So a certain fancy fruit-flavoured laptop has a few OLED shortcut keys? That’s minor league compared to the ZenBook Pro 14: it gets an entire second screen instead of a boring old touchpad. Think having an in-situ smartphone at your fingertips, complete with its own built-in apps to simplify typical desktop duties. This isn’t a one-trick wonder either. The all-metal build feels sufficiently premium, the colour scheme of deep blue with gold accents is more on trend than a beauty blogger’s summer wardrobe, and the hardware can keep pace with much more expensive machines thanks to a dedicated Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics chip. It’ll be more Rocket League than Rage 2 when it comes to gaming unless you drop the…

CLIPS Aimed at the social media generation, Clips dumps timelines and has you record everything live. There are loads of great animated posters, and if you’ve got an iPhone with a TrueDepth camera, Selfie Scenes can plonk you into a Manga wonderland. £free / iOS MAGISTRO If even Quik feels like too much effort, try Magistro. Select a load of videos and images, choose a theme and some music, and the app forges an animated edit. With the free version you’re limited to one minute… but who wants more these days? £free (IAPs) / Android, iOS ACTIONDIRECTOR A bit like Clips but for Android, ActionDirector is all about making fast edits to hurl online with a minimum of fuss. Load clips, add transitions, faff with speed and colour, and weld…

TIPS & TRICKS • Use Huawei’s OneHop tech for quick wireless file transfers from the phone to your laptop. • The P30 Pro works as a wireless charger, so you can share its juice with any other Qi-enabled device. • Drive an Audi? You can use this phone as a digital car key, to unlock it and even start the engine. Huawei P30 Pro from £899 / stuff.tv/P30Pro Huawei’s latest superphone sets a stratospheric benchmark for camera power, with no cost to overall performance. Everything about the design is top-notch, with only screen sharpness failing to hit the very highest marks – at least by Huawei’s own giddy standards. But it’s those oh-so-clever rear camera lenses that really set the P30 Pro apart. Just be aware that ongoing political problems…

Tado Smart Thermostat from £200 + installation / stuff.tv/Tado It might not be as pretty as the Nest 3.0, but Tado has quietly evolved into the best all-round smart heating system around. Like autopilot for your boiler, it senses when you’re leaving home or coming back thanks to the app’s geolocation. And Tado’s gadgety goodness is second to none, with the option of zonal control for individual rooms and voice smarts from the likes Alexa and Google Assistant. Stuff says Tado roasts the competition with its combination of simplicity and smarts NOW ADD THIS Tado Smart Radiator Thermostats Once you’ve tasted the joys of zonal smart heating, you and your wallet will never go back. £70 each / tado.com Netatmo Welcome £170 / stuff.tv/NetatmoWelcome Netatmo’s smart cam has face recognition…