The Lenovo Yoga 530 or Flex 14 in the US is a 2 in 1 laptop spilling with features starting at around £400 or $400. There are a number of models in the range, but I’m looking at the entry level configuration with a Pentium Gold processor and a standard, 1366x768 so-called HD screen, rather than the Full HD screen of its more expensive counterparts. Even this base model has a … [Read more...]
Review: Teckin Smart Plugs. Budget smart home with Amazon Alexa & Google Home support.
Today I’m looking at some inexpensive smart plugs from Amazon, that enable you to use voice commands via Amazon Alexa or Google Home to control whatever’s plugged into them. So if I have a lamp plugged in, I can say “Alexa, turn on the lamp”. You can plug pretty much whatever you like into them. As well as lamps, I’ve got heaters, dehumidifiers and fans plugged into … [Read more...]
Review: SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive. Increase your iPad and iPhone storage
The SanDisk iXpand USB drive is a simple device that lets you transfer files easily between any iPhone or iPad with a Lightning connector and your computer. It has a standard USB connector on one end, and a Lightning connector on the other end that is sprung back on itself, resting in a lip on the body of the drive. It works with an app on iOS that lets you copy files … [Read more...]
Review: RAVPower FileHub (newest model). Inexpensive wireless storage for your tablet or smartphone
The RAVPower FileHub is a clever gadget that has two main uses. It can be used as a wireless hard drive for your smartphone or tablet, or it can backup your camera’s SD cards when you’re on the move. With storage on smartphones and tablets always at a premium, especially with Apple devices which have no expansion options, this former use is of particular interest to … [Read more...]
BenQ treVolo S electrostatic Bluetooth speaker review. Portable, HiFi quality?
In this review, I’m taking a look at a portable Bluetooth speaker from BenQ, a name better known for monitors and projectors. Bluetooth speakers are a two a penny but this one is quite intriguing. BenQ market the Trevolo S as the “smallest Bluetooth electrostatic speaker”. Electrostatic speakers are usually the reserve of high end, expensive audio systems but this speaker … [Read more...]
Stryd running power meter review. Turning my Apple Watch into the ultimate running watch.
Stryd is a wearable running gadget that clips onto the shoe laces of one of your running shoes and measures your running power, as well as a number of other metrics. The data is all fed in real time to your running watch or in my case Apple Watch. Typically runners measure their effort by feel, heart rate, or more commonly by pace from their running watch. You might try … [Read more...]
BenQ EW3270U monitor review. Is this the best value 32″, 4K, HDR monitor?
https://youtu.be/OV7lknCpj9E The BenQ EW3270U monitor has a huge 32" wide gamut, 4K screen. It has HDR support for gaming and streaming with High Dynamic Range, and has some interesting features for reducing eye strain. It's not cheap at around £450 or $600, but if you want all these headline features, it's currently one of the least expensive options. But is it any good? Why … [Read more...]
Anker SoundCore 2 Bluetooth speaker review. Is this the best budget portable speaker?
https://youtu.be/Z2sAZce46_8 Anker are a popular brand that appear to be sold exclusively through Amazon. They are particularly well known for their power banks, chargers and cables. But they also sell some very good value portable Bluetooth speakers. One of their most popular models is the , a compact Bluetooth speaker, with 24 hours of claimed battery life and an IPX5 … [Read more...]
LG 29WK600 21:9 ultrawide HDR monitor review. Best budget option?
https://youtu.be/OHIypw7XvTc There are two versions of this new ultrawide monitor from LG, the 29WK500 and the 29WK600 that I'm reviewing here. They are both 29" IPS displays with a resolution of 2560 by 1080 pixels. They both come with 2 HDMI ports but the 600 variant adds a DisplayPort. And also has HDR10 support, for gaming and streaming with High Dynamic Range or HDR. Why … [Read more...]
Amazfit Bip smart watch review. What do you get for £50 or $70? Quite a lot in fact …
The Amazfit Bip smart watch has a built in optical heart rate monitor and GPS receiver, a gorilla glass touch display and up to 45 days of battery life and it costs from only £45 or $65, depending on where you buy it from. But is it any good? https://youtu.be/mRVbHeSGjmU First impressions It's hard to know what to expect from a smart watch at this price, but first … [Read more...]
How to use Google Lens to identify anything. And without a Pixel phone …
https://youtu.be/e_2kNYjMqpk Google recently announced that even users without their premium Pixel phones could try Google Lens, that lets you learn more about real life objects. It's able to recognise landmarks, flowers, animals and food and can grab text from business cards or anything else for that matter. With the latest version of Google Photos, you can tap on a photo … [Read more...]
The iPhone X review. The best iPhone yet, but is it worth £1000?
https://youtu.be/YDlreZmGvCA I've had the latest iPhone from Apple for almost 3 months now, so plenty of time to determine whether its worth its £1000 or $1000 price tag, to me at least. The iPhone X has a new 5.8" HDR OLED screen, face recognition, is waterproof to IP67, has a wide angle and short telephoto lens both with image stabilisation, supports wireless charging and … [Read more...]
Could this be the best budget drone? Hubsan H507A X4 Star Pro review.
https://youtu.be/kMJ5RfYtdyY Drones from big names like DJI start from around £450, or $450 for the Spark. This is a lot of money for something you may not end up using very much. At the other end of the market there are plenty of cheap drones which tend to be lacking a lot of the features that make the more expensive drones so tempting. The Hubsan X507A drone is around £70 … [Read more...]
How to fast charge your new iPhone wirelessly or with a cable
https://youtu.be/2cJF6Ju3g5g The iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X all support fast charging both via a cable and wirelessly, which theoretically makes it possible to bring your empty phone up to 50% charge in as little as 30 minutes. This sounds great, but working out how to achieve the fastest charging is not as straightforward as you'd think. In the box with all these phones, you … [Read more...]
GoPro Hero 5 Black Review – the Goldilocks of the GoPro action camera range?
https://youtu.be/JafrgncQOl0 The GoPro Hero 5 Black action camera sits in the middle of GoPro's line up of its popular cameras and has a retail price of around £400 or $400. It's waterproof to 10m without any additional enclosure, comes with a 2" touch screen, records 4k video. It can be controlled with your voice and it's tiny! But who's it meant for and what advantage does … [Read more...]
Amazon’s budget friendly Echo Dot – a review and introduction to Alexa
https://youtu.be/-aY1GqcmPE4 The Echo Dot is Amazon's cheapest smart device featuring the Alexa voice assistant. But what exactly is it? Basically it's a Bluetooth speaker which can respond to voice commands. You can ask it questions, for example: Alexa, what's the weather today; Alexa, what's 100g in ounces: Alexa, who is Winston Churchill. Or you can ask it to set … [Read more...]
Apple’s next generation phones iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus – the future is even more choice
Apple released its next generation of iPhones last night, skipping a 7s model, announcing an iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and introducing a new flagship iPhone X model to mark 10 years since the launch of the original iPhone. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are available from 22nd September and the iPhone X won't be available until 3rd November, with prices starting at £699 ($699) and £799 … [Read more...]
Best budget travel laptop? Acer Aspire 14″ (E14 E5-475) review.
The Acer Aspire E14 E5-475 laptop is part of Acer's E Series of laptops. Acer describes this range as everyday laptops, and this specific model comes with a 14" HD screen, 8GB RAM, 128GB of fast SSD storage and weighs just over 2kg. Please see our video review below or read on for our written article and verdict. https://youtu.be/Sj8cUXQ4aD0 Features It was difficult to … [Read more...]
The confusing range of Panasonic mirrorless cameras, and why I chose their Lumix G80/G85
I've owned all sorts of digital cameras over the years, my first decent one being the Olympus C2020z back in 1999. I looked through my Lightroom catalogue out of idle curiosity and counted that since then I've owned 18 cameras, and that's not including smartphones or action cameras! What surprised me, was that I'd still taken more photos with digital SLRs than nearly all the … [Read more...]
The best unlimited magazine service – Readly or Magzter?
[Update: Summer 2020: In Readly, you now get newspapers: The Independent and The Evening Standard at the moment, in the UK at least. I'm hoping more will come. And they now include most of the popular computer magazines too including PC Pro, Computer Shopper and Custom PC. There are also Woodworking magazines including Woodsmith and Popular Woodworking. Overall this makes … [Read more...]
Can the new breed of office inkjet printers replace a laser printer? Canon MAXIFY MB2350 versus HP LaserJet Pro M451DN
I do a fair bit of printing, both at home and at my small business. Ink costs are a huge expense so I have always been tempted to try one of the new breed of home office / small business inkjet printers. In this article I'm pitting Canon's MAXIFY MB2350 (£117) against my HP LaserJet Pro M451dn (400 series) (£217, new version M452dn). This printer from Canon is aimed squarely at … [Read more...]
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