Table of contents for August 2020 in Stuff UK

Cursed A new take on the legend of King Arthur, Cursed tells the story of Excalibur, Merlin and the knights who say “Ni” (not really) as seen through the eyes of a gifted young woman who eventually becomes the Lady of the Lake. The inimitable Peter Mullan stars as the big bad king trying to hunt her and her kin down. S1 / Netflix, 17 July The Old Guard Working as a mercenary when you literally cannot die? That sounds like an extremely lucrative career… and in this adaptation of the popular graphic novel, Charlize Theron and co have been raking in the readies for a few hundred years. But when their powers of immortality are exposed, the crew seek vengeance in classic action-flick fashion… Film / Netflix, 10 July…

There are various ways to get closer to gadgets. You could hold this copy of Stuff much, much closer to your face. Effective, but not cool. Alternatively, you could browse Smartech’s awesome virtual online store or visit its treasure trove of a concession at Selfridges, London. Better. And now’s the time, because Smartech is changing gear after lockdown by taking over The Selfridges Corner Shop at its Oxford Street store on 22 July, transforming it into a one-of-a-kind electric vehicle destination complete with e-bikes, apparel and exclusive gear. Get yourself along to The Bike Shop for a test ride. You can find out more at smartech.buzz – but in the meantime, Smartech has put together a prize bundle of gadgets worth well over £2000 for one Stuff reader, including a…

from £1599 / stuff.tv/SBook3 The Surface Book 3 has the most dynamic design of any hybrid laptop. Most have a 360° hinge for flipping the screen over, but is it a real tablet experience if the keyboard doesn’t detach? Microsoft’s aim is to offer you a legit iPad Pro-style tablet running Windows with a keyboard that makes Apple’s Magic effort look like expensive tat. It mostly pulls this off, whether wasting time on the sofa or doing the kind of serious work an iPad Pro isn’t really prepped for, and it can play games well too. But the look is dated, and that matters when the most ready-for-fun versions of the Surface Book 3 are over £2000. Microsoft deserves credit for how well the fundamentals work. But it’s got a…

FORM SMART SWIM GOGGLES Watches, cycle computers, power meters and footpods flood you with stats on the bike and on the run… but what happens when you hit the water? GPS watches can track swim stats but it’s hard to check your vitals mid-crawl without messing up your flow. Bluetooth doesn’t play nice in water so audio updates over earphones aren’t an option either. So the moment you dive in, you’re essentially swimming blind. Not any more. Form’s AR eyewear tracks your efforts in the pool while waveguide display tech, specially designed to work underwater, puts simple dot-matrix metrics readouts right where you can see them, overlaying up to 12 real-time stats on the lenses. Metrics monitored include distance and duration, split time, length count, pace per 50 or 100m,…

DJI MAVIC MINI Nothing screams ‘epic adventure’ louder than a sweeping cinematic drone shot of you on a clifftop or a top-down view as you stride through a glorious landscape – but most airborne cams are too bulky to carry into the wilderness. The DJI Mavic Mini solves that. At under 250g, it’s the lightest drone DJI makes and is small enough to squeeze into even a modest running, hiking or biking pack. And because it’s so light you don’t need a licence to fly it in the UK, so there’s no need to register it with the CAA. While the excellent Mavic Air 2 appears to be a balance of just about everything DJI has to offer, the Mini does inevitably sacrifice some features for that saving in space…

VanMoof S3 Price £1798 / stuff.tv/VanMoofS3 What’s the story? Electric bikes have been a bit weird so far. You only seem to get two choices: an existing bike with a battery pack squished in somewhere odd, or a bespoke design that doesn’t look like a bicycle at all. The second-gen VanMoof S3 (or X3 if you’re under 5ft 8in) doesn’t fit in either category. It looks like a normal bike, rides like a normal bike and, crucially, doesn’t cost a ridiculous amount. Is it any good? The chunky 50mm tyres, slightly swooped bars and upright riding position all combine to create a super-comfy ride, whether you’re crushing the commute or cruising down to the beach, and we found it was even nice on canal towpaths. At 19kg it’s not particularly…

from £90 / stuff.tv/FireHD8 ◼ Show-bots in disguise Amazon tries to sell subscriptions (or at least tempt you with free trials) from the moment you hit the power button. It’s a feature that reflects the entire Fire OS experience, which can feel like an extension of the Amazon website. ◼ Bumble-spree The more you use this tablet, the more its suggestions reflect your tastes – and if you have a Prime sub, that makes sense. With much more storage than the old 16GB device, there’s greater capacity for offline Amazon content. ◼ Forget smooth aluminium and slim bezels: that’s never been the idea with Amazon’s bargainous tablets, and the latest Fire HD 8 is no exception. Plastic backs and thick black borders remain the order of the day… although it’s…

£799 / stuff.tv/SonosArc DAY 01 Sonos has a way of presenting its products as if they’re breaking exciting new ground, deploying technologies undreamt-of until now. And so it is with the 3D-firing television soundbar that’s just arrived on my doorstep. The multiroom audio brand has finally put its elderly Playbar out of its misery, and replaced it with an altogether more up-to-date alternative, apparently inventing the Dolby Atmos soundbar in the process (and you thought it’d been invented already!) – just like when it belatedly ‘invented’ battery-powered Bluetooth hi-fi speakers with the Sonos Move last year. There is a kind of justification to this brassy attitude: Sonos has established such ubiquity in the last 15 years or so that a wireless multiroom speaker category doesn’t really exist in the wider…

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.…

1 Sonos Move HOT BUY £399 / stuff.tv/SonosMove The Sonos range of wireless speakers had been crying out for a battery-powered portable model for ages – and finally our favourite multiroom audio specialist caved in. Luckily, the Move was worth the wait. Its adaptability and sound quality mean it’s fine value for money, and a no-brainer for anyone who’s already a fan of the brand. Not only is this the speaker Sonos should have launched years ago – it’s one of the best products of its type and price that we’ve heard. Stuff says Sonos finally gets up to speed with the portable speaker craze, and in style NOW ADD THIS Primephonic Bringing sexy Bach, this is streaming for classical music. Niche, yes, but its not-on-Spotify film and game scores offer…

1 Red Dead Redemption 2 HOT BUY from £23 / PS4, XB1 Believable characters, a world to lose yourself in, top-class voice acting and a story that intrigues all the way through. Warts and all, with improvements from other games ignored, this is Rockstar at its most arrogant but also its most powerful. Red Dead Redemption 2 trusts you to explore, to grow, and to let its world seep into your consciousness. This is a special game and one that was entirely worth the wait. Stuff says Ultra-addictive gameplay in one of the greatest open worlds ever created OR PLAY THIS Zelda: Breath of the Wild If you’re after a different kind of open-world experience that’s just as expansive and has a lot of heart, this is the one for you.…

1 DJI Mavic Air 2 HOT BUY NEW £769 / stuff.tv/MavicAir2 With the Air 2, DJI has built on the basic platform of a simple entry-level drone and thrown in a heap of pro-grade features, so those dipping a tentative toe into the waters of aerial photography or videography no longer have to put up with mediocre content. The new sensor and 48MP resolution produce very sharp imagery, while the ability to shoot in RAW format gives plenty of post-production options and the DJI Fly app allows for fast image filters, movie edits and social media uploads. Stuff says A great drone for noobs and ace snappers alike, this is DJI’s finest sub-£1K flyer yet 2 DJI Mavic Mini £369 / stuff.tv/MavicMini If you just want to get a fantastic balance of…

HOT FOUR #1 IT’S TIME TO STOP TAKING THE PS5 Sony PlayStation 5 An old router, a pound-shop tower fan, a PS2 inside a ringbinder – these are just a few of the things that Sony’s new PlayStation 5 has been compared to since it was unveiled. But as your mum still reminds you, it’s what’s inside that counts; so while the PS5 does look a bit like the beak of a duck/robot hybrid, you’ll forget all about that within a few nanoseconds of turning it on. With an eight-core 3.5GHz Zen 2-based CPU, 16GB of GDDR6 memory and a custom AMD graphics processor with 10.28 teraflops of pixel-pushing power, it’s got about five times as many teraflops as a PS4. And what else did your mum always use to…

FIRST LOOK STAR WARS: SQUADRONS PS4, XB1, PC After making our Jedi fantasies come true, the next Star Wars game is set to fulfil our dreams of being starfighter pilots. Sure, dogfighting made an appearance in Battlefront 2, but Squadrons puts you right in the pilot’s seat in intense first-person battles across the galaxy, in a bid to recapture the halcyon days of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. Letting you control pilots from both the New Republic and the Galactic Empire, the main focus is on 5v5 multiplayer battles, from traditional deathmatches to large-scale fleet battles, the latter requiring you to destroy the other team’s flagship. You’ll be able to plan your skirmishes with your squadron in the briefing room before take-off, so there’ll be time for strategy and camaraderie. You’ll…

Green Kitchen A traditional cookbook in your phone, this app has hand-picked recipes designed to get you eating more greens. There’s enough choice to keep you going for weeks, but not the kind of deluge that’ll lead to choice paralysis. Each dish has a mouthwatering snap, an ingredients list and steps to check off. And for those with limited diets, gluten-free and vegan recipes are clearly marked. £3.99 / iOS Paprika You can save recipes from the web in Kitchen Stories, but only if you pay a hefty annual fee; so Paprika is a better bet for stashing clippings of dishes you discover that fit your lifestyle. And because the app lets you edit what you store, you can tailor pretty much anything to make it healthier. Well, perhaps apart…

TENTSILE UNIVERSE 3-ELEMENT TENT If pitching up on terra firma is too tame for you, Tentsile’s unique multi-purpose tent will take your outdoor overnighters to a whole new level. This crashpad for all seasons can be set up to sleep five on the ground like a regular tent, or hitched up in the trees away from the damp, the creepies and the crawlies – the ones on the floor at least. But the real killer feature is an inflatable paddleboard-style rigid floor that lets you launch it onto water. For fairly obvious reasons you can’t sleep in it in float mode, but a tent that doubles as a lake-swim launchpad is pretty neat. It comes with its own trolley for transport, but with a 50kg pack weight you won’t be…

GARMIN FENIX 6X PRO SOLAR EDITION There aren’t many more capable running watches than the Fenix 6 series – and the standout 6X Pro Solar model has some unique skills. At the top of the list is a 1.4in screen that converts the sun’s rays into extra runtime, taking battery life up to a whopping potential 128hrs. Built for adventures beyond the city streets, the Fenix 6’s running tools are certainly comprehensive: this thing will track more performance metrics than you can shake a sweaty vest at. That includes grade-adjusted guidance to help you pace races perfectly, no matter how many hills the course throws at you. Its navigation skills are on point too, with round-trip routing, turn-by-turn navigation and a feature that lets you locate the most popular routes…

POLAR H10 If you’re really serious about heart-rate training and recovery, reliable accuracy is essential. Just one or two beats per minute can tip you into the wrong intensity zone or give you a bad read on your rhythms and next-day recovery. While wrist-based optical sensors have improved, the chest strap is still the go-to for elite coaches and athletes – and the ECG-based Polar H10 is the gold standard. The H10 offers better comfort than most chest-worn trackers, with a combination of a small and lightweight (39g) tracking unit along with a soft fabric strap, studded with silicone grip dots that help to keep it in place. The sensor responds rapidly and reliably, in real time, to changes in your workout intensity, and your data can be fired simultaneously…

Urbanista London (2020) VS RHA TrueConnect 2 They’re both fine-sounding buds, but Urbanista edges it with active noise-cancellation…

Remember what happened at the end of The Last of Us? No? Then you might want to go and remind yourself, because you’ll find no spoilers for either game here. Part II picks up five years later, with Joel and Ellie living in a walled compound in Wyoming, patrolling the countryside and picking off the zombie-like ghouls that roam the land. When this relatively peaceful existence is interrupted by an act of horrific violence, it triggers a chain of… well, a lot more horrific violence. The Last of Us Part II, then, is very much a continuation of the original game. Everything feels very familiar, at least for the first few hours, and scavenging for supplies is still the name of the game, whether it’s in knee-deep snow around New…

1 Sony WF-1000XM3 HOT BUY £169 / stuff.tv/SonyWFXM3 The original WF-1000XMs had an easy job in the early days of noise-cancelling in-ears, because there simply wasn’t much in the way of competition. That’s all changed now – yet the way the XM3s serve up sound quality as spectacular as this while being truly wireless, while effectively cancelling background noise and while remaining comfortable in the ears, is quite something. So, just as it was with the original XMs, it’s job done for Sony. Stuff says Outright winners on design, build, specifications and, most importantly of all, performance NEW 2 Technics EAH-AZ70W £240 / stuff.tv/AZ70W Technics has shrunk down its hi-fi skills to deliver affordable personal audio. While the charging case lacks a little juice, the AZ70s score highly for noise-cancelling and even…

1 Philips OLED+ 984 HOT BUY £3999 / stuff.tv/OLED984 The OLED+ 984 offers outstanding picture performance with universal HDR support, and goes above and beyond what we expect from TV sound thanks to a custom-made speaker system from British hi-fi brand Bowers & Wilkins. Plus it looks gorgeous, particularly with that four-sided Ambilight in full effect. Above all, this is the best picture we’ve seen from a Philips yet, and the best audio we’ve heard from any television. Stuff says Going big on design, performance and sound, this is the best Philips TV yet NOW ADD THIS Disney+ Philips’ smart TVs are compatible for streaming content from the new home of Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and even National Geographic. £5.99/month / disneyplus.com TIPS & TRICKS • We prefer to keep…

1 Sony DSC-RX100 V HOT BUY £699 / stuff.tv/RX100V It’s been around for a long time now, but this talented little Sony remains the top dog in our compacts list – and we’re keeping this model above the RX100 VI (see below) and even newer RX100 VII simply because of the price difference. It remains one of the finest point-and-shoots we’ve ever seen, with a flexibility that few pocket cameras can muster. While it’s still not exactly cheap, this is the compact camera to buy for fantastic-looking snaps. Stuff says A fair bit cheaper than its newer siblings, yet this is close to premium point-and-shoot perfection 2 Panasonic Lumix TZ200 £549 / stuff.tv/TZ200 This Panasonic compact is a significant upgrade from the TZ100, offering extra reach with the zoom lens, better colour…

HORIZON: FORBIDDEN WEST With no E3 this year, the PS5 reveal doubled as a showcase for all the games that are on the way for the new console – including Pragmata, a reality-bending Capcom title featuring a spaceman, the Moon and a holographic cat. Sadly, that’s not due out until 2022. Before that we’ll see Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart; Returnal, a shooter from the makers of Resogun; a LittleBigPlanet spinoff called Sackboy: A Big Adventure; plus some other highlights like those opposite (and a few more on p23). But one of the most hotly anticipated games on the list is the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn. Due next year but set in the rather more distant future, Horizon: Forbidden West is the kind of game that will be…

The Microsoft Surface Go 2 is like a Nissan Figaro in tablet form. That curvy car is as basic as they come under the bonnet, but who cares when it’s as cute as hell on the outside? That sounds like an insult, but with this Windows 10 slate being essentially a lightweight workhorse, the aesthetics, display and build quality – and the feel of the keyboard – become vital to its appeal. Just don’t go expecting it to seamlessly replace your old performance laptop. It may well feel slower day to day, and is almost useless for editing video and large images; but it’s a charmer nonetheless, and may even be a better gaming tablet than the iPad… although, as with its Apple rival, expensive accessories could be an issue.…

GARMIN VIVOACTIVE 4 If lockdown has proved anything it’s that some people can get fit using only household objects and self-loathing. But most of us need more help than that. The Vivoactive 4 delivers the training basics, including optical heart-rate and GPS, but its fitness powers extend way beyond the regular run-bike cardio capabilities. You get 20 pre-loaded sports profiles – including strength training with reliable-ish auto-rep and rest counting. You can also create custom workouts and sync them to the watch, with move-by-move animations for full gym sessions. The ‘body battery’ feature monitors your energy levels so you can spot when it’s time to go hard or just go home. You also get stress and hydration tracking to help you spot whether you need to drink or just, y’know,…

GSI HALULITE MINIMALIST COMPLETE COOKSET So you’re going on a multi-day walkabout and don’t fancy foraging raw food from the land? At some point you will need to cook… and that means fire. You could go all Ray Mears and start rubbing sticks together, but we think you’ve evolved a bit further from early man than that. Well, why not spark up this ultra-lightweight one-person cooking solution? The 27g setup has a canister-top stove, a windshield, a 600ml cooking-pot-cum-mug, an insulated sleeve to avoid burnt fingers, a silicone gripper and even a telescoping foon (which is the same thing as a spork, as far as we can tell) that won’t melt and go floppy while you’re stirring your mountain goat stew. All those elements – plus a 110g nesting fuel…

APPLE WATCH SERIES 5 Smashing out loads of mid-intensity running is a guaranteed way to plateau your progress. If you’re hoping to shift body shape or improve fitness, and running is your cardio fitness weapon of choice, investing in a heart-rate tracker to guide your workout intensity is a smart step. Other than the fact that it appears to do everything we want from a wearable, and offers a myriad of personalisation options to ensure it looks the business, if you want a smartwatch with solid heart-rate tracking, good fitness skills and plenty of all-day appeal, the Apple Watch Series 5 is it. First, it tracks BPM continuously during training and for three minutes after, to show how well you recover. But you also get 24/7 readings beyond workouts, revealing…

from £55 / stuff.tv/Evercade Releasing a brand-new handheld console in 2020 is a bold move. But rather than attack Nintendo on its home turf, the Evercade mines gaming’s history – in more ways than one. This console not only plays retro games, but does so in the most retro way possible: through collectable physical cartridges. That might seem gimmicky, but there’s something to be said for having a small selection of hand-picked games on a cart rather than a billion ROMs on an SD card. It avoids paralysis of choice – and the makers have done things properly, licensing every game. In some cases, they could’ve made better decisions – the Technos collection is all dreadful NES ports of classic brawlers rather than the arcade originals. But there’s no denying…

Fun fact: Halo began life as a real-time strategy game before shifting into an iconic FPS. Disintegration – from the creator of the Master Chief himself – is a sci-fi shooter that straddles those two visions, letting you fight alongside your troops on the ground but also command them from above. It’s an ambitious undertaking for V1 Interactive… but while it looks the part, this game struggles to hit the mark. Disintegration’s world is beautiful and varied across its 12-mission single-player campaign, completed with nice cinematic cutscenes. It’s got a decent premise as well, set in a future where most of humanity has ‘integrated’, a process of transferring their brains into robotic armatures. It’s supposedly a temporary survival measure, but a sinister robot superpower is plotting this to be the…

1 Pixelmator Photo HOT BUY £4.99 / iPad Apps like Snapseed revolutionised photo editing on mobile, making the process user-friendly and fast. Pixelmator Photo takes this to a whole new level. By way of a machine-learning algorithm trained on 20 million pro snaps, it’ll try to fix your photo with a single tap. Amazingly, this mostly works, resulting in balanced, natural tones. And should you want something more personal or creative for your photographic chef d’oeuvre, there are plenty of manual controls too. Stuff says A first-rate picture editor – only avoid if you don’t have an iPad… or hate making your photos look nice 2 Korg Gadget 2 £38.99 / iOS When making music, there’s GarageBand for iOS and Caustic for Android, but we remain smitten with Gadget. Its instruments ape…

1 Apple MacBook Air (2020) HOT BUY NEW from £999 / stuff.tv/MacBookAir The MacBook Air moves forward to affirm its status as the perfect Apple laptop for most people. The refined scissor-switch keyboard is the star of the show here, making it more comfortable to type for hours on end, but that’s far from the only thing that’s improved from the previous model – which was already our No1 laptop. If you’re after a simple all-round machine, this one will keep you going for years. Stuff says Our go to MacBook gets even go-to-er with better pricing and a better keyboard NOW ADD THIS Satechi Type-C USB 3 Combo Hub Two ports not enough? This hub adds loads more and sits snugly against the new MacBook Air’s side. £33 / amazon.co.uk TIPS…

1 Porsche Taycan HOT BUY from £83,367 (with PiCG) / stuff.tv/Taycan It was about time someone took the fight to Tesla, and boy has Porsche delivered with the Taycan. This electric four-door saloon is the EV that petrolheads have been waiting for. In full-fat Turbo S flavour, the Taycan hits 62mph in 2.8 seconds – and adding more drama to proceedings is how it shifts up through its two-speed gearbox. The Taycan has a dynamism that can’t be matched by other electric cars, with a surefootedness that encourages you to press on. Stuff says Big power, sports-car handling and lots of clever tech make the Taycan the most exciting EV yet 2 Nissan Leaf from £26,845 / stuff.tv/NissanLeaf Nissan has really got it right with the latest Leaf – an accomplished family…

Clad a bout the Boy You didn’t need to take a pack of felt pens to your Game Boy Micro if you hated its looks: borrowing a trick from the era’s phones, it had swappable faceplates. Seen the new Sega Game Gear Micro? Why can’t Nintendo do something like that? Nintendo did do something like that — way back in 2005. With the Game Boy Advance brand starting to tire by that point, Nintendo decided to give it a boost with a pocket-friendly (and cramp-inducing) new form factor. Sega’s dinky console might set hearts aflutter by looking like a Game Gear that’s shrunk in the wash, but the old Micro wins where it counts, in being thinner and having a much larger display: a whopping 2in, at a resolution of…