T3の October 2020 の目次

As any audiophile knows, if you want super-lush sound out of your system, you’ve got to pair it with a decent valve amp. And decent doesn’t even come close to covering McIntosh’s MC1502 Vacuum Tube Amplifier. Inspired by the award-winning, limited-edition MC2152 – itself released in celebration of the company’s 70th anniversary last year – this amp can deliver a whopping 150 Watts to almost any speaker pair, thanks to McIntosh’s Unity Coupled Circuit output transformer technology. It also pumps out seriously clear sound, thanks to a signal-to-noise ratio of 112dB. Finally, it’s beautifully built: its vacuum tubes are set into a stainless steel chassis polished to a mirror finish, while their sockets include Air-Pipe cooling to boost the length of its service life. £13,995, mcintoshlabs.com TOTALLY TUBULAR The MC1502…

What can a hairstyle- and safety-conscious urban cyclist do to protect their skull? They can get the Hövding 3 (£249, hovding.com), the third iteration of the ‘safest cycle helmet in the world’. It only takes 0.1 seconds for the Hövding 3 to deploy in the event of an accident and the built-in algorithm reads your cycling movements 200 times per second to provide a safer riding experience. Also, when Hövding is deployed, a message is sent directly to your emergency contact with your location.…

1 HABITAT NINA YELLOW VELVET SOFA The Nina comes in 11 colours, making it one of the most versatile velvet sofas you can buy. We love the three-seater arrangement, with its angular silhouette and button detailing. The Nina is upholstered in micro pile velvet with a brushed fabric texture to prevent stains, so in theory it should be easy to care for. If you’re regularly hosting, check out the sofa bed version. From £1,600, habitat.co.uk 2 HARRIS TWEED BENCH Brighten your hallway with this Harris Tweed Grey wool covered bench seat. The fabric top rests upon colour-pop hairpin legs (choose yellow or mint). If it were us, we’d buy two and place them side by side to create a longer entryway bench. Other combinations of wool and wood are available.…

PURE LUXURY Take a dash of Prince, a jigger of disco bass, a big slosh of velour, shake the lot up and pour into an indie glass: Michael Lovett’s latest album as NZCA Lines is an opulent cocktail of syrup. 100% YES If you’re looking for a rougher edge, Melt Yourself Down’s sax-heavy walk through the London jazz-punk-funk scene is a honking trip that pulls in a load of North African influences. MUSIC NOT SAFARI Old-school synth stuff from The Emperor Machine, as if a particularly funky robot had discovered music, set all its circuits to squelch, then gone absolutely haywire in a studio.…

THE SPEAKERS MILLER & KREISEL IW SYSTEM Want the power and precision of studio-grade sound without having to share your movie room with a battalion of massive speakers? Then prepare to dig deep for this astounding in-wall 7.2.4 M&K speaker system. Comprising three IW150s, four IW150 Tripoles, four IW950s height channels and a towering X12 subwoofer (not all pictured here – it’s seriously megalithic), this system sounds so good that your local cinema’s whimpering just thinking about it. £14,790, mkloudspeakers.uk THE BLU-RAY PLAYER SONY UBP-1100ES It’s no accident that the UBP-1100ES 4K Blu-ray player is handled by Sony’s pro rather than consumer division. For as well as getting the absolute best from 4K Blu-ray discs’ unrivalled picture and sound quality, it plays practically every other disc format known to man…

THE TV HISENSE R50B7120 On paper, the R50B7120’s numbers don’t add up. Surely a 50-inch screen with a 4K resolution and hundreds of apps for just £329 can’t possibly be right? Especially when that TV’s picture and sound are also both above par for the budget TV market? Turns out, though, that when a TV combines the app-collecting might of streaming platform Roku with the manufacturing might of Hisense, miracles really can happen. £329, hisense.co.uk THE USB HDD SEAGATE BACKUP PLUS SLIM 1TB As anyone who owns a Sky Q system will confirm, despite the proliferation of catch-up TV streaming services, being able to record shows you can’t watch live still matters. Which is where the 1TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim comes in. Attach this straightforward, goodlooking and ultra-reliable USB…

01 APPLE iPHONE 11 The least expensive 2019 iPhone flagship, without the extra cameras of the Pro and Pro Max models, but with plenty of power and polish nevertheless. Watch out for even better deals on this Apple phone once the iPhone 12 has been revealed. From £729, apple.com 02 SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 Samsung launched three Galaxy S phones in 2020 – this is the most affordable. It’s smaller than the S20 Plus and the S20 Ultra, and has a slightly inferior camera, but also shares a lot of the same internal components. From £799, samsung.com 03 ONEPLUS 8 PRO While the Nord has been grabbing the headlines lately, the OnePlus 8 Pro is an even better phone – albeit a pricier one. It has a faster processor, a bigger…

£430 (£330 with a GoPro Plus subscription) gopro.com The GoPro HERO9 Black will be instantly recognisable to pretty much everyone, as will its basic functions, but GoPro has ingeniously cranked up specs almost everywhere as well as adding Apple-esque design tweaks to what was already a potent platform. That’s not to say it is complex to use; in fact, GoPro has kept complexity to a minimum, enabling pretty much anyone to pick up the GoPro HERO9 Black, clip it into a mount, and go shoot genuinely impressive 5K video. That impressiveness isn’t mainly to do with the resolution – although it’s near-Hollywood quality – but the astonishingly good stabilisation and capture options. These endure the rockiest, judder-iest activities, but spit out perfectly watchable, smooth video that’s worlds away from some…

If you’re looking for the very best tech available today, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Best of the Best is the most useful gadget-buying guide you will ever encounter. To create it, we’ve extensively tested the best tech the world has to offer, to bring you rock-solid recommendations for your home life, daily commute and the tech you use all the time. In 54 different categories, we’ve chosen the top four products, so you can choose one that’s just the right mix of features and budget for what you need. These rankings come from real testing by our team of experts – they’re the products we’d choose for ourselves, and we can’t recommend any higher than that. Look for the links above each category that take you to…

1 A.P.C. PABLO MÉLANGE WOOL SWEATER Wrap yourself in thick lambswool, knitted here to create a subtle mélange finish. Those sleeves are a comfy raglan design, by the way. £175, shopstyle.co.uk 2 FINISTERRE FURLONG KNIT JUMPER This casual yet hardy fisherman’s style merino wool sweater is made to handle the worst of British coastal weather, so yes it will keep you toasty down the boozer. £95, finisterre.com 3 HOWLIN’ CREW NECK WOOL SWEAT A really comforting sweater. It’s made from artisan Scottish wool, and comes in pastel shades of blue, yellow and pink. £155, matchesfashion.com 4 KINGSMAN WOOL AND CASHMERE BLEND ROLLNECK This handsome rollneck will see you through autumn and into spring. Wear it with tailored trousers or dark rinse jeans. £345, mrporter.com 5 SHACKLETON NELSON MERINO WOOL SWEATER…

Q KRIS PETERSSON, ABERDEEN Can I get a really cheap wireless outdoor security camera? A Oh, sure. Amazon is becoming basically overrun with Chinese wireless cams, some as cheap as £40. But you’re not an idiot (or you might be, Guru isn’t here to judge) so you’ll realise that a budget security solution is basically the tech equivalent of buying cut-price toilet paper: it’s neither pleasant nor a particularly secure experience, and one which may just let human waste through. GaGu would absolutely steer you towards a known brand that costs slightly more, be that the only-vaguely-known Kami (check out the chunky Wire Free Outdoor Camera, priced around £80) or Amazon-owned Blink (the XT2 is compact, costs £100 with the required hub, and lasts for two years on a pair…

Apple iPhone launches are possibly my favourite big event in the tech calendar. Admittedly that’s not saying much as I hate all trade shows, but still. This year’s was a vintage one in many ways, but also very different. For a start, there was no iPhone. This, it is said, was due to COVID. Given that the coronavirus pandemic has brought death in its wake and pushed the world to the brink of social and economic chaos, I am not going to claim that a delayed phone is all that big of a deal, but it was a decidedly sombre affair nonetheless. The Apple spokespersons were as cheery as ever, but the way the camera tracked them through the corridors and up and down the levels of Apple’s gleaming yet…

THE SPEAKERS FOCAL CHORA 5.1.2 SYSTEM The floorstanding 826-Ds, CC800 centre, SR800 rears and 1000F subwoofer in Focal’s Chora system paint a beautifully vivid audio landscape for movies and music alike – and look great while they do it. The game changer, though, is the up-firers nestled into the 826-Ds’ top edge. These produce Dolby Atmos’s overhead sounds so immaculately that you completely forget you were too lazy to build speakers into your ceiling. £4,100, focal.com THE BLU-RAY PLAYER PANASONIC DP-UB9000 Now Oppo and Pioneer’s stellar 4K Blu-ray players have fallen by the wayside, Panasonic’s UB9000 has the high-end market almost to itself. Just as well, then, that it’s brilliant. Panasonic’s peerless processing delivers gorgeously detailed, dynamic, richly saturated pictures that can be uniquely optimised for your TV and room,…

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The mid-range section of the smartphone market has never been busier: if you’ve got, say, £350 to £600 to spend, then there are a wealth of phones to pick from. The four mid-range devices mentioned here should offer something for everyone – they differ in size, features, software and camera quality, so you can compare them carefully against your own personal list of key considerations. Whatever you’re looking for, don’t rush yourself. New phones are appearing all year round, which knocks down prices further as the current handsets get older, so keep a careful eye on deals and special offers from the usual retailers. SE CHANGE iPHONE SE 2020 With a strong second-hand market and the iPhone XR, you’ve got several choices for an affordable iPhone, but the iPhone SE…

1 LEICA D-LUX 7 This stunner of a micro four-thirds camera, the Leica D-Lux 7, lets you reap the benefits of digital photography, including autofocus, optical image stabilisation and 4K video shooting, while still enjoying the look and feel of a 35mm film camera. Just because you’re switching to digital, that doesn’t mean you have to make do with that unappealing homogeneous design many DSLRs are sporting these days. £1,075, uk.leica-camera.com 2 MARTIN LOGAN ELECTROMOTION ESL X Martin Logan’s ElectroMotion ESL X prove that misunderstood electrostatic speakers far outshine their legacy. These combine amazing fidelity in the mids and highs with booming bass thanks to their traditional built-in subwoofers for a sound that’s out of this world. And thanks to their translucent panels, these speakers are a stunning, ultra-modern looking…

£169 sennheiser.com While Sennheiser’s never in any danger of winning the Most Stylish award for any of its headphones, where performance is concerned the CX400BT have almost everything you could realistically hope for. They have the Apple AirPods firmly in their sights while still doing things entirely their own way. Because this is Sennheiser, they’re flawlessly constructed. Though the plastics used feel (and look) quite hard and shiny, there’s nothing that doesn’t suggest both ‘quality’ and ‘longevity’. And once you’ve selected the correctly sized eartip, their twist-to-fit action means they fit securely, stay comfortable for hours and offer physical noise reduction beyond what the more ‘open fit’ AirPods can achieve. However, it’s just a little disappointing to discover there’s an all-in battery life of 20 hours here (seven hours in…

Normally, when we collect together the best products in a category, we get a range of quality… but it turns out wired headphones have been polished to perfection over 100 years – who knew? As a result, we’ve ended up with not just one, two or three but four pairs of five-star wired cans in our possession. Now what use is a group test of equally fine audiophile-pleasing headphones, we hear you ask? Well each of these sonic stunners has their own strengths, meaning they will suit different people and different needs. So we’ve got a set of top-tier headphones for you, regardless of your budget and listening preferences. Settle in and let’s find out which is your best buy. 01 STUNNINGLY RESPONSIVE SOUND AUDEZE LCD-1 £399, audeze.com Planar magnetic…

Everyone knows it’s important to look after their mental and physical health but, up until very recently, monitoring heart health and sleeping disturbances required multiple trips to the GP and carrying a wearable ECG device. It all changed with the advent of health smartwatches, making the process way more convenient than ever before. Developed by cardiologists and sleep experts, the Withings ScanWatch (from £249.95, withings.com) is the world’s first clinically validated hybrid smartwatch to detect both atrial fibrillation (AFib) and overnight breathing disturbances. AFib is the main form of irregular heart rhythm that is often underdiagnosed, while sleep apnea affects up to one billion people worldwide. As well as monitoring heart health and sleep disturbances, the Withings ScanWatch can also track parameters such as steps, calories, elevation, workout routes (via…

The current big thing in headphones is true wireless buds with active noise cancelling (ANC). And often, ‘big thing’ is quite literal. Just ask anyone who has had Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless or Sony’s WF-1000XM3 protruding from their ears. Some other recent challengers, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live and Google’s Pixel Buds have offered ANC in a more compact package, but with some compromises on in-ear fit and audio quality. Enter Jabra with its all-new Elite 85t (£219, jabra.co.uk). This promises to offer a perfect combination of advanced ANC and awesome sound quality, in a truly compact pair of buds. We haven’t been able to listen to them yet, but we believe Jabra will be able to pull it off. Why? Well, the brand’s current flagship buds, the Elite…

The fine folks at Flare spotted Guru talking about their ear adulterators last issue, and were kind enough to send him a couple of things to try. Note that Guru is an anxious man spooked by loud noises or too many voices going on at once, and he has also given himself some level of hearing damage and tinnitus via a misspent youth, so he’s basically the target market for this stuff. First up, the Flare Audio Isolate 2s, a set of fancypants ear plugs. They’re a combination of a metal stalk which acts as some kind of acoustic baffle – in Guru’s case it’s the Natural Aluminium flavour, but coloured versions and a higher-end Titanium variety are available – and a foam tip which you jam into your ear…

THE SOUNDBAR SAMSUNG HW-Q70T SOUNDBAR The Q70T soundbar delivers outstandingly powerful Dolby Atmos or DTS:X sound from its 330W, six-channel soundbar/wireless subwoofer setup. The main reason it’s made our gaming system, though, is its Game Pro mode. This adds Atmos-like effects to non-Atmos game soundtracks, putting you at the heart of the gaming world and emphasising subtle details, making it easier to hear enemies sneaking up on you. £599, samsung.com THE CONSOLE XBOX SERIES X While both next-gen consoles are going to transform the gaming experience, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X looks slightly more technically powerful than its rival. This makes it the perfect partner for a screen as cutting edge as the LG OLED48CX. Especially as this set carries built-in Dolby Atmos sound and, unlike the PS5, the Series X…

THE SOUNDBAR LG SN11RG SOUNDBAR Calling the SN11RG a soundbar is like calling the moon a chunk of rock. Yes, there’s a soundbar section. But there’s also a hulking external subwoofer and two meaty rear speakers sporting up-firing drivers on their top edges. The Dolby Atmos ‘sound dome’ is completed by up-, side- and front-firing drivers on the main unit – all of which adds up to one of the most potent, detailed-sounding Atmos ‘soundbars’ yet. £1,299, lg.com THE BLU-RAY PLAYER PANASONIC DP-UB820 4K BLU-RAY PLAYER The UB820 is the perfect partner for the 55OLED805. Partly because it delivers exceptionally pristine pictures that can be optimised for playback on an OLED screen, and partly because it joins the TV in supporting both the HDR10+ and Dolby Vision ‘premium’ HDR formats.…

HOW WE TEST In T3, we feature only the finest gadgets out there, and we believe that you – our loyal reader – deserve only the best tech in your life. We don’t want you to waste time, and money, on inferior products, and that’s exactly why our Tested section exists. In here you’ll find only the latest and hottest tech. Each product has been handpicked and tested by T3’s experts. We only choose people with specialist knowledge for each test, so you know you’re going to get an outcome based on many years of experience in their respective field. As well as our traditional five-star rating system (right), we also give out awards to particularly exceptional gadgets, using the line-up below - so when you spot one of these,…

£1,719 (with 24-50mm kit lens) nikon.co.uk An ‘entry-level’ full-frame mirrorless camera, the Nikon Z5 is designed to compete with the likes of the Canon EOS RP. It follows on from the original Z7 and Z6, sitting directly underneath them to give those with a smaller budget, or less advanced needs, a model to get them going. At the heart of the Z5 is a new 24.3 megapixel CMOS sensor. It’s similar in resolution to the Z6’s 24.5 megapixel device but importantly it is not backlit, which makes it cheaper to include at this price point. The 3.69-million dot viewfinder has been directly brought across, which considering this is an entry-level/cheaper model is reasonably surprising to see. Where Nikon has made a cutback is to the screen, which at 1.1-million dots…

From £449 samsung.com While QLED monopolises the brighter, higher ground of Samsung’s range, the majority of buyers pick from the tiers below, where similar smart platform connectivity dovetails with more affordable, though less exotic panel technology. Here lies the Samsung TU8500, the top model in the company’s Crystal LED line-up. It’s not just another cut-price 4K UHD flatscreen. Rather than use a single colour of LEDs in the light behind the panel, it actually employs two different LED colour temperatures (5000k and 2000k). This helps improve contrast, giving better black level performance. Screen uniformity is good, with no obvious light pooling or halos. Black level performance and contrast are reassuringly convincing for the price. If the screen does underwhelm, it’s with HDR. We measured HDR peak brightness a tad under…