T3の April 2021 の目次

LEGO BOTANICAL COLLECTION Introducing more greenery into your environment can be an incredible way to help you de-stress, brighten up dull surroundings and boost your mood. But what if you’re about as green-fingered as Dutch elm disease? Well Lego has an unorthodox solution for you: why not build your own plant life? No, they’re not expecting you to be a dab hand at genetic modification – instead the company has released two new sets aimed at helping adults to practice mindfulness and create their dream greenery. The 756-piece Flower Bouquet allows grown-ups to channel their inner Monty Don and artfully arrange vibrant plastic petals to decorate their homes. Meanwhile, the 878-piece Bonsai Tree lets them shape their own pint-sized sapling, even coming with pink blossoms and green leaves to mark…

1 C SEED M1 • Around £290,000, cseed.tv MicroLED is here, and it’s completely out-of-its-gourd crazy. The C Seed M1 takes advantage of every one of the new screen tech’s core features to create a TV the likes of which we’ve never seen before and will (unless something very strange happens) never see in our own homes: this folding, expanding hideaway TV is a feat of engineering as much as it is a leap in innovation. It’s the sort of TV you build a room around – quite literally, given that it’s supposed to emerge from a mechanised hole in your floor and unfurl its 165-inch panel automatically, then tuck itself back into the floor when it’s done. The M1 pulls off that feat by using MicroLED’s unique ability to…

UNDER ARMOUR UA HOVR MACHINA 2 RUNNING SHOES A Bluetooth-enabled long distance running shoe that directly connects to the UA MapMyRun app. It features a high-ventilation mesh fabric for improved breathability and reduced weight. £140, underarmour.co.uk ATTIS STRIDESENSE RUNNING LEGGINGS Five motion tracking sensors on your legs and waist connect via Bluetooth to an app. The sensors measure 10 specialised running metrics including bounce, pelvic rotation and symmetry. £299, attisfitness.co.uk PERCKO LYNE FIT POSTURE CORRECTING T-SHIRT Percko’s t-shirt can help reduce back pain and realign the spine thanks to its patented tensor system that pulls the shoulders back to better posture. It can enhance breathing and reduce fatigue too. £109, percko.com…

CHERRY, VIA EMAIL Q Do I need a pulse oximeter? What’s the right thing to get? A Everyone is talking about pulse oximeters right now. Mama Guru gets on the phone nightly, tediously listing her O2 stats in order that Guru can enter them into a spreadsheet. GaGu’s postman, wearing shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of winter, knocks on the door and it’s all “oxygen saturation” this and “please unclamp your dog’s jaws from my shin” that. Frankly, reader, Guru is sick to the point of breathlessness from being asked about them. Conversely, Doctor Guru loves you and wants you to be well. Pulse Oximeters are the in thing, both because they can (used correctly) suggest to you the early signs of breathing difficulties, and because they are…

Do you remember Marie Kondo? She was huge a few years ago, thanks to her winning philosophy of decluttering your life. ‘Look at all your possessions,’ she said, in Japanese, ‘and decide if they spark joy.’ Although interestingly the expression she used actually translates more accurately as ‘decide if they spark fluttering, throbbing or palpitations’. At least according to Wikipedia. Those of your possessions that did not make you throb and flutter should be discarded at once, Marie advised sternly yet adorably. I always thought this was sage advice in theory but remarkably hard to adhere to in practice. After a year or more of lockdown, it’s become all but impossible to follow. Brands have continued to send me mountains of stuff, and with the office shut it’s had nowhere…

Gaming tends to be an afterthought with most soundbars. For some reason, the consumer electronics industry has been much slower to offer gamers an upgrade to their sonic experience than it has movie enthusiasts. But Panasonic has stepped in to put this right, and it’s done a good job. At £249/$299, the SC-HTB01 Soundslayer – to give it its full moniker – is not quite the entry-level bargain its extremely compact dimensions might suggest, but comes in nicely at the affordable end, still. Having said that, though, it’s not specified like an entry-level soundbar either. On the inside, the Panasonic features a pair of forward-firing 4cm full-range drivers and a couple of 14mm tweeters, while there is an upward-facing 8cm subwoofer augmented by a 8cm passive radiator facing in the…

In 2021, home workouts are the norm and even when gyms reopen, it’s doubtful there will be as many people working out in them as before. For those individuals who prefer exercising in their living rooms, have some dosh to spend and like to look at themselves as they workout, NordicTrack has the perfect product. The carbon steel-framed NordicTrack Vault (from $1,999, nordictrack.com) is an all-in-one ‘smart fitness studio’ and features a sizeable 32-inch HD touchscreen (to stream iFit workouts on) covered by a 60 x 22-inch mirror that’s able to rotate in 360 degrees, meaning that although the unit will most likely be by a wall – where else would you place a huge cabinet? – you can workout anywhere else in the room where the Vault is placed.…

Spring is here, and spring has been officially designated as both the time of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the time to clean. Hence ‘spring cleaning’. Although, if you really only clean your home once per year in spring, just before it gets hotter and dustier, you are probably not someone whose home we want to visit, outside of spring. If you have hard floors and are interested in cleaning them, you may be aware that there is a growing range of machines for doing just that. Kärcher, Vax and more make vacuum cleaner/mop-type devices replete with whirling rollers that buff your parquet, lino and laminate to a fine sheen, while sucking the filth from their surfaces. Now, however, Bissell has come up with a hard floor cleaning machine…

#100 SMART BEDS Given we spend a third of our lives in bed, sleeptech is a huge deal. We’ve got eyes on Kikoo, which promises to employ superoriented graphite in the foam core of its (as yet unshown) mattress to wick heat away from the body. And if Eight Sleep’s actively climate-controlled Pod mattress – which splits its temperature tech into two halves for each sleeper – makes it across the pond, we’ll sleep very easy indeed. #99 WOWCUBE An intriguing thing which, while it may not change the very future of mobile devices, certainly offers something new – it’s basically a twistable 2x2 Rubik’s Cube with a tiny screen on each of its faces. When you’re not playing games you can use its individual panels to monitor different aspects…

1 IKEA FLOALT Sometimes you don’t want a bulb, you want a whole panel of light to control from your phone or through your smart speaker – and that’s exactly what you get with the Floalt, part of Ikea’s growing range of intelligent illumination products. Available in a variety of sizes, these panels really enable you to get creative with your lighting setup. From £65, ikea.com 2 PHILIPS HUE AMARANT One of the latest products from the smart lightning veterans at Philips Hue is the Amarant, an outdoor light bar that can blanket a wall or a particular part of your property with a white or coloured light. You can even connect several of them together, and they’re perfect for hedges, fences, and any other bit of outdoor furniture that…

Because of its heritage and its predecessors, the Dell XPS 15 9500 (2020) is immediately a best laptop contender: the XPS series has been a huge success for Dell, and the laptops from this sleek line are constantly impressing us. The Dell XPS 15 9500 really is a gorgeous-looking laptop from every angle – the XPS line has been wowing users and winning awards for years now, and Dell very much knows what it’s doing with the look and finish. This is a premium-level laptop in every area, from the soft and tactile typing experience to the carbon fibre finish around the nicely backlit keyboard. It’s a computer that’s stylish but subtle, professional and polished, and it feels really solid in use too. The screen is another standout feature of…

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…

Not so long ago, travel was all about getting from A to B in the fastest time possible, whether this meant flying from London to Sydney without a stopover, bragging about being a passenger on a plane that piggy-backed jet streams for a lightning-fast transatlantic crossing, or whizzing from one Japanese city to the next on a sculpture-like bullet train. But it’s hardly surprising that many are predicting a post-pandemic passion for slow travel, and trains are at the forefront of this movement. A classic example has been the growing popularity of Amtrak’s sleeper services, which have chugged their way across America with a no-frills determination for decades. 2021 marks Amtrak’s fiftieth birthday, which means it’s the ideal time to sign up for – or at least book – an…

1 MIND THE GAP KAFTAN WALLPAPER The Kaftan marries deep blues with mustards and glimpses of ochre, creating an instantly rich, warm and soothing vibe. Mind The Gap is known for its pitch-perfect retellings of exquisite prints, and this one is no exception. For the price you get three rolls of premium quality wallpaper (covers 4.65 square metres), printed using eco-friendly ink on a non-woven, toxin-free base. £175, ionianinteriors.com 2 CLASSIC BROWN TEAPOT A remake of a vintage design, Know & Love’s stubby spout, dimpled teapot is endlessly charming and perfect for a retro cottage feel. At 14cm diameter (and 15.5cm tall), it’ll hold a nice drop of brew, and is safe to pop in the dishwasher too. £50, knowandlove.co.uk 3 MOUNTAIN & MOLEHILL LAMPSHADE Create the perfect cosy cottage…

PARKS AND RECREATION Swallow up all six seasons on Netflix. Ignore the fact that there are technically seven seasons, because Guru says the show actually starts on season two and that’s final. SOLAR OPPOSITES An animated series from Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland, new to Disney+. Violent, stupid and hilarious, it shares a little of its forebear’s DNA, but it’s still very much its own thing. GROUNDED What does a shut-in Louis Theroux do? He creates a Radio 4 podcast where he applies his unique interviewing style to chatting to celebs like Rylan Clark-Neal and FKA twigs.…

Decent displays can get you by, but only the best ones will immerse you in your work without making it feel like a burden. The best home office monitors do more than just show you what’s on your PC. They deliver a computing experience like no other, turning everything up by 110%, starting with picture quality. They are not bad on the price front either. Although some might cost a pretty penny, many stay relatively accessible to most consumers. That’s important, especially since there are other costs involved when setting up your new home office. These four home office monitors come with our seal of approval. GO ULTRAWIDE SAMSUNG CHG90 A 49-inch monitor may not be for everyone, but it also isn’t just for gamers. Graphic designers, spreadsheet masters and…

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,…

The Yamaha SR-B20A intends to offer a compact, high-achieving upgrade to your TV’s sound without hitting the wallet too hard. And it delivers. It packs 120 watts of power, half of which is given over to the 75mm subwoofers. The remaining 60 watts is split between two 55mm mid-range drivers and two 25mm tweeters. When connected to a mid-range TV over HDMI, the Yamaha wastes little time in establishing just how much more full-bodied, expansive and detailed a listen it is compared to the average TV’s integrated sound system. Put on a movie and your sonic experience goes up a notch. At the ‘standard’ EQ preset, there’s greater low-frequency presence, more detail through the midrange and a more substantial top end. Switch to the ‘movie’ preset and the sound gains…

Amazfit has been busy establishing itself as not just another no-name Chinese smartwatch manufacturer in the last few years and with the GTS 2e, it’s really hit the nail on the head. The smaller sibling to the Amazfit GTS 2, the GTS 2e has an Apple Watch-like body and sports Fitbit-like features for a budget-friendly price. It boasts a 1.65-inch ‘HD’ AMOLED display with a resolution of 348 x 442 pixels hidden under a ‘2.5D’ curved tempered glass lens. The glass blends nicely with the bezel, making it look bigger than it actually is. The accompanying strap is smooth silicon and is pretty decent for a low-priced watch. The display and the switching between the different widget views are both sharp and fast, on a par with more expensive touchscreen…