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CONTRIBUTORS
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ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER

R | JULY 2020 3
CONTENTS
Issue 389 July 2020

Contents
p104

p68

p88

p88 p110
Features
68 Get More
From Your
Smart TV
Regulars News Get the perfect
sound and vision,
6 Letters All the latest news and views from the discover all your
Your monthly missives of wit and wisdom, technology world, including: TV’s hidden
tips and tricks, and moans and groans features and
14 Need to Know
find out what to watch in lockdown with
Mobile firms braced for global slowdown in
8 Mel’s World the wake of coronavirus pandemic, while 5G
David Ludlow’s in-depth guide to getting
It’ll take more than a global pandemic to stop conspiracy theories cause despair and anger the best out of your smart set
Mel Croucher enjoying a pint with the
regulars from his local pub. And thanks to 16 From the Lab 1 Beginner’s
104
virtual reality and takeaway beer, it’s all In-depth coverage of all the latest scientific Guide to PC
possible while social distancing and technological advances Modding
We walk you
17 The Lowdown: Contact-tracing apps
10 Kay’s Corner through seven
Smartphone technology could help stop
Want to join the fight against coronavirus? quick and easy PC
the spread of Covid-19 and protect the
Kay Ewbank examines the distributed vulnerable. But will enough people sign up modding projects you can try at home,
computing projects that are harnessing and share their private data? from adding a personal touch with some
the unused power in our PCs and snazzy lighting to getting your computer
smartphones to help find a vaccine running cooler, quieter and more efficiently

12 Rants & Raves Learn 110 Retro:

It’s the end of an era, as News Editor
Roland Moore-Colyer bids farewell to
Shopper – but not to the humble computer,
which has plenty of life left in it yet
130 Zygote
A small island in the English Channel is
having trouble securing a suitable top-level
domain name. Zygote has a suggestion,
and for once he’s not being sarky
Point and Click
120 Helpfile & Business Help The classic
Got a PC problem, app annoyance or point-and-click
Windows woe? Fear not: Simon Handby adventure game
is here to answer all your queries Beneath a Steel Sky
is being rebooted
124 Advanced Projects for the modern day,
Allow Clive Webster to bring a little light complete with 3D graphics. David Crookes
into your life with his complete guide to talks to the man behind both the original
automating your home lighting setup game and its long-awaited sequel

4 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 p104

p124

Reviews Group Tests

76 Smart TVs
18 Hot Product Inspired by our smart
The Galaxy S20 is the cheapest of Samsung’s latest flagship line-up, but TV guide on page 68?
by matching its stablemates on key specs, such as the 120Hz display and Treat yourself to a
all-new Exynos processor, it feels like good value even at £799 stunning new 4K set
as we test eight of the
best tellies around, starting at just £299
22 Laptops 36 Handhelds
Intel’s 10th-gen CPUs look to be a good match While it shares many features with the 88 Tablets/e-readers
for gaming laptops, with the Gigabyte Aorus cheaper Galaxy S20, the Samsung Galaxy The best handheld
15G smashing our performance records S20+ is still a top-class phablet devices for everything
from making video
26 Components 40 Photography calls to settling down
The PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 5600 From the versatility of its shooting with a good book
XT effectively showcases AMD’s answer to capabilities to its incredible battery life, the
the Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti Nikon D780 is a DSLR that does it all

27 Networks
The Linksys Velop MX5300 Home Mesh WiFi
6 System might have the ‘m’ word in its name,
but weirdly, it doesn’t come with any satellites
30 Displays
If you can afford to splash out on a
42 Gaming
The Oculus Rift S ditches external sensors, 64 Your Software*
resulting in a VR headset that’s both Create high-quality customised PDFs
technically advanced and easy to set up from any Windows application with
the full version of novaPDF 9
44 Wearables
The Suunto 7 brings more extensive fitness

6
professional-grade monitor, the feature-rich tracking to Wear OS, though serious fitness
Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q will serve you well fanatics will need even more
FULL
32 Printers 46 Software PA CKAGES
The Epson Expression Home XP-3100 might Avast’s SecureLine VPN is competent and
seem temptingly cheap, but its ink costs usable, just not anything special enough to
become expensive quickly outmatch better services

33 Audio 48 Best Buys

Rich-sounding, smart-looking and not too
bulky, the Creative T100 is a splendid set of
desktop speakers
Looking for the best kit we’ve reviewed
* FREE
recently? From PCs and laptops to games and SOFTWARE
EDITION ONLY
smartwatches, it’s all in our Best Buys section

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 5

LETTERS

Letters
The lockdown is putting a huge strain on the broadband network, and for those
without a fibre connection the situation is even worse
letters@computershopper.co.uk

Profit of doom vast FX (foreign exchange) rate Case dismissed

I read with interest the
review of home office PCs
(Shopper 387). On the lookout for
a new PC, I checked out some of
the websites given. As of
mid-April, Palicomp has kept the
price at £600, Wired2fire is now
at £603 but Chillblast has
increased the Fusion Dauntless
Family PC to a whopping £760.
That is an increase of over 25%
on the price in the article. The ⬆ PC prices are in a
specification appears to be the state of flux
same but the price has increased
since the article was published when the
Chillblast website showed the price as £600.
Is this profiteering? I fail to see how such
an increase could occur in such a short time
and thought I should bring it to your attention.
C McPherson
PC component prices can fluctuate rapidly,
which has a knock-on effect on PC prices, but
as you note that’s quite a hike. We contacted
Chillblast and received the following response:
“We’ve seen significant price rises on
components across the board, due to the
changes we’ve seen since the
coronavirus epidemic, and the fact
that many components went into
shortage when China was in
shutdown, and therefore had to be
brought in by airfreight at
significant cost uplifts.
“The Ryzen 7 2700X – which, if
you recall from the review, was our
‘crown jewel’ component – has
also gone up by some £45, mostly
because the stock that got flushed
into the channel at a discount
dried up uncharacteristically
quickly when there were major shortages on
other high-end hardware.
“We always do our best to maintain prices
at a level consistent with reviews; however, in a
situation where the global supply chain and
component prices are adversely affected by a
totally unpredictable force majeure event, we
obviously cannot sustain selling products at a
loss and remain a viable business.
“Whilst I am sure this will be disappointing
to Mr McPherson, and he might feel the
changes are unreasonable, they are as a result
of factors beyond our control.”
I enjoyed your ‘Build Your Perfect PC’
article in Shopper 388. My family and I
have only ever bought one finished PC in
1995; since then I have built them all.
There is just one issue I would like to
bring up: in discussing computer cases, there
was no mention of external 5.5in drive bays.
I think this is worth discussing.
For donkeys’ years, one or two external
5.5in drive bays has been standard in
computer cases, for CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs.
All our software came on CD/DVD, many
games required the CD in the drive to work,
and data could be backed up on CD/DVD.
Whereas with faster broadband a lot of
this has moved into the download/upload
world, I am sure that virtually everyone other
than a complete newbie to computers will
have the need to access optical discs.
Perusing the online retail sector, I have
been aware that the 5.5in external drive bay
has been disappearing from new computer
cases, and indeed in your data table not
one of the cases you recommended has one.
If someone buys a case and only then finds
out that they cannot fit a 5.5in DVD-type
drive, it is a bit of a disaster.

Star letter
Exchange rates
Please spare a thought for those of
us still stuck on exchange-only lines.
With talk of Gigabit connections and
fibre-to-the-home, we are still unable to
get fibre-to-the-cabinet. The problem has
only got worse due to self-isolation and
the need to work from home; the
demands on the already slow ADSL
connection have got worse.
After checking online, BT Openreach
always has the same message in its
postcode checker: “We don’t have plans
to upgrade your area yet. But we’re
working with government and industry
to change that.”
Given that the rest of the village was
fibre-enabled over two years ago, this
seems like an empty promise.
Reverend Anthony William Mitchell
We’re sure there will be many We can’t do much to
others like you facing worse internet speed up your internet
speeds than usual during the connection or force BT’s
lockdown. According to the most hand to upgrade your area
recent worldwide broadband speed during the lockdown, but we
league from Cable.co.uk, the UK can send you a new SSD as
remains behind countries such as Madagascar the winner of our Star Letter prize, so at least
and two-thirds of other EU countries. your computer might run a bit faster.
 Write in and win
Do you wish your computer was faster when booting and loading
applications? Thanks to Crucial, you can achieve your dream of a
faster PC or laptop with a 500GB MX500 SSD. The writer of our
Star Letter will be awarded one of these solid-state devices, which
can be installed in a desktop PC or a laptop.
This SSD is 45 times more energy-efficient than a typical hard STAR
drive, and has sequential read and write speeds up to 560/510MB/s PRIZE
and random reads/writes up to 95K/90K IOPS, making it the 500GB
SSD
perfect replacement for the ageing hard drive in your sluggish PC.

6 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


⬆ External disc drives are
You can buy an external DVD/Blu-ray
drive connecting by USB, but it’s not as tidy or
space-efficient as a built-in drive. So buyer
beware: if you need a 5.5in external drive bay
or two, check the specification and pictures
carefully before you purchase a new case.
R G Willis
As the need for physical discs is rare, we’d
advise buying a modern case with other
features. External drives are a good solution:
you can stash it away in a drawer when not in
use, so it doesn’t have to clutter your desk.
Lotus position
Kay Ewbank recently bemoaned the
loss of Lotus Organizer (Kay’s Corner,
Shopper 382). It doesn’t have to
be like that.
I installed it as part of Lotus
SmartSuite 9.8.2 in Windows 7. It
rolled over into Windows 10 and
it is still running in version 1903.
Copies can be found on eBay.
Mike Wild
Image conscious
I recently asked Simon
Handby if he could advise
In the next issue
Unleash VLC
The free media
player that lets you
download from
YouTube, convert
video formats, and
play any type of
online content
COMPUTER SHOPPER ISSUE 390 ON SALE IN NEWSAGENTS FROM 11th JUNE
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
as to whether there was an officially
approved way of making disk images when
the PC was using Intel Optane accelerated
drives (Helpfile, Shopper 388). Like many
users, I had searched extensively, and
concluded that there really was
no satisfactory way; the Intel Optane
memory had to be disassociated prior to
making an image.
Simon’s answer was clear, to the point,
and very informative. I was both pleased
and impressed that the topic had been
thoroughly investigated in that Simon had
even consulted Intel UK.
Sadly, while software improvements may
be in the pipeline, his answer confirmed
what I thought, saying, “For now, imaging
with an Optane-accelerated drive is a pain”.
This technology, which has been around a
while, is becoming increasingly common as
major PC manufacturers are using it.
Meanwhile, one often reads of users of
such drives happily using Acronis or
Macrium software to make
satisfactory images. But sadly,
while they may have a
satisfactory image of their
primary disk insofar as it
accurately reflects what is on
their hard drive, it is useless
as a restore facility as there
are bits missing; namely,
the files that were stored
on the Intel memory.
I accept we are often
advised to check our images,
Better
broadband
Tips and tricks to get
ultra-reliable, fast
network speeds for
all your devices and
across your whole
home. Plus the best
routers and mesh
systems for your
home setup
Soundbbars
on test
We try out eiight
soundbars to
o find
which makess the
best home cinema
upgrade
LETTERS
but who does? Over the years, I have often
verified an image after making the image. I
have occasionally restored my PC from an
image and sighed with relief to see all was
back to normal, but I have never actually
done a restore to see that the image ‘works’.
Thus the question I would ask is, why do
image software manufacturers not highlight
the full limitations of their product?
Essentially, the imaging software is not
fully compatible with PCs that employ
Optane-accelerated drives. To use the
software, a workaround has to be employed.
The situation would be bad enough if the
software merely failed to run on a PC
employing an Optane-accelerated drive. In
such circumstances, at least all users would
be fully aware that it didn’t work, or flagged
an error, on their particular PC. But here we
have a situation where less savvy users
believe that they are taking the steps
necessary to provide themselves with the
best security possible to help prevent being
left with a PC that has died because of some
non-hardware problem.
Some may have gone out and purchased
the latest 2020 version in the belief that
imaging is so important, they must have the
latest version of the software. But in reality,
the manufacturer has sold them a product
that essentially doesn’t work for them.
I also find it extraordinary that none of
the manufacturers has taken the trouble to
advise the many anxious users specifically
asking forum questions on this subject.
Judy Wilson
In search
of reality
From vision to
sound, and touch
to smell, we explore
the technologies
that make our
computing
experience ever
more like the
real world
7
MEL’S WORLD
Lockdown lock-in
Mel Croucher is doing his bit for the community by helping to keep the local pub going –
virtually, of course. Just don’t take his seat in the corner
WE QUEUE WITH heads bowed,
dishevelled and confused,
maintaining the statutory
distance from one another to
prevent contamination. One
by one we approach the side
window, mutter a few words and
then, slowly and with grace, we
hand over our begging bowl to a
disembodied gloved hand that
reaches out to receive it. Our
vessels are dipped in a solution
of vinegar and holy water
MEL CROUCHER against the infection, before
Tech pioneer and all-round good egg somewhere in the sanctuary
letters@computershopper.co.uk of the hidden interior they are
filled with cleansing beer, then
returned through the gap.
For this holy ritual we must
pay, of course. We do not use
coin. It is too dangerous. We use
a little tarot card, which we wave
in the air then bring near to the
upturned face of an offertory,
pressed to the other side of the
sliding panel of thin glass. We
thank our benefactor, who is
willing to perform this duty for
one hour each day, and who
wishes us well in the hope that
we may be spared, to repeat the
ceremony another day. But we
are not spared, because today
Wehaveafinecommunity,caringandsupportive,
withonlytheminimumoflootingandpillaging
the parliament decrees that our
ale house is doomed. Where
once we gathered at the bar, we
ourselves are barred by plague.
But we are resilient and
resourceful people, and once
behind the sanctuary of our own
doors, we do not sit down to
weep, but instead we prepare to
laugh. Separately, together.
That is not an extract from
Daniel Defoe’s novel A Journal of
the Plague Year, but it could be.
Defoe tells the story of one
man’s experience in the dreadful
epidemic of 1665, and to be frank
there are not a lot of laughs in it.
8 JULY 2020
No, this journal is written by
me, and it’s my account of how
my community is keeping our
cherished local pub alive. We
have a fine community, caring
and supportive, with only the
minimum of looting and pillaging.
At time of writing, we are just 10
days into self-imposed isolation,
but by the time you read this,
and I hope you read this, it will
have been two months. What
with my age, my rubbish lungs
and my willingness to walk the
dog, this could be my last piece
for a while. In fact, this could be
my last piece full stop. In which
case, we need a bit of a laugh.
VIRTUAL REAL-ALE-ITY
The pub across the road from my
front door is the centre of the
community in my ancient little
street. It’s where we meet, discuss
and argue, it’s where we play
games and get pissed. So in this
Plague Year of 2020, I reckon it is
vital to keep the pub going, albeit
virtually. There are at least three
genuine software programmers
among the pub regulars, and
there’s also me. Between us, we
can save the world.
I decree that the virtual pub
must be like the actual pub.
Tiny, battered and stained brown,
captured as 3D electronic
wallpaper to replicate the
mismatched antique interior.
Each of we regulars has a lifelike
avatar, and is allocated a
distinguishing colour for our text
conversations. My colour is
mucus brown. Our regular
barmaid, she of the red hair,
green eyes and stubbly chin,
seems to have taken advantage
of Photoshop to shrink her waist
and enhance her mammalian
protuberances. And I swear
Justin’s bald spot has
miraculously sprouted something
that looks like a bush-baby’s
bum. As for Mrs O’Hagan, who
hasn’t bought a round in living
memory, she keeps posting the
same phrase over and over again,
“The Drinks Are On Me!”.
Old Twinkle is recapturing his
youth by smoking a very large
virtual joint, and blowing virtual
smoke rings towards the virtual
stains that decorate the virtual
ceiling. Young Twinkle is cheating
at virtual dominoes. Games of
backgammon and poker are
wagered for small stakes by the
virtual regular players. Habitual
arguments are conducted by
the virtual pub bores, with
everybody expounding and
nobody listening.
MOTHERS OF INVENTION
The mood of my avatar would
normally be swinging like a
pendulum from virtual hilarity to
virtual grumpiness, by way of
flirtation, foul language and
Frank Zappa. The thing is, our
little screens demonstrate the
comfort and joy of habit, as we
try to reject the unfamiliar and
re-create our ale-washed
community. We all seem to
occupy exactly the same virtual
seats at the same virtual tables
that we did before the familiar
world changed. When Justin
arrived, he told Young Twinkle to
shift his virtual sorry arse in no
uncertain terms, because he was
occupying Justin’s virtual seat.
And there in the virtual
corner, under the virtual
newspaper rack, next to the
virtual bookshelf, is my virtual
place. A small round table with
laminated beermats patterned
beneath polished glass. An
Edwardian chair with turned
wooden arms and legs, and
a faded upholstered seat.
Near enough to the action to
eavesdrop, and far enough to
remain aloof if needs be.
I see that my virtual chair is
empty, which is a wee bit
worrying. Let’s hope I have
simply wandered off to the
virtual bar to get a virtual pint
of Goodens Gold. Here in
the virtual pub, I believe that
there is no such thing as
closing time. Cheers, my dear
friends. Cheers.
| COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 KAY’S CORNER
Tech together to beat the virus
Crowd-sourced computing projects are harnessing the power of PCs and smartphones
in the battle against Covid-19. Kay Ewbank explains how you can help
KAY EWBANK
Software guru and Shopper legend
letters@computershopper.co.uk
There are a number of studies you can join
to help discover a vaccine more rapidly
10
WHEN I FIRST encountered a
omputer, it occupied a large
co
oom with its own special air
ro
onditioning, and a team of
co
opperators to keep it running. I’m
noot sure which IBM 360 model it
waas, but the Model 30 version
haad a maximum of 64KB of
memory, and could perform up to
344,500 instructions per second.
Thhat was main memory – RAM.
This isn’t a ‘back in my day
hen dinosaurs roamed the
woorld’ piece, however. What I
want you to think about is the
computing power we now have by
comparison, even on our phones.
A typical modern smartphone
probably has 8GB of RAM, or to
keep the same units as used so
far, 8,000,000KB, around 125,000
times more than that mainframe
computer. A smartphone can
run around 4 billion instructions
a second, 115,000 times more
than the mainframe.
I’ve been thinking about this
because of a whole set of news
about crowd-sourced or citizen
science. The idea of crowd-
sourced computing is that all that
computing power in our pockets
or our PCs can be combined to
create virtual supercomputers.
Most of us have vaguely heard of
a supercomputer, probably a
Cray, costing over £100m to buy
and around £5m a year to run.
What researchers worked out a
while ago was that if they could
use the spare power of personal
computers and mobile phones,
they could create virtual
supercomputers that would
give them power equivalent to
a real supercomputer.
Perhaps the best known
example of this is SETI@home,
where SETI stands for Search for
Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. This
project from the University of
Berkeley, California, has been
looking for life on other planets
since 1999. Over 5 million people
across the world have taken
part by installing software on
their computer that runs in the
background. Spare processor
time is used to analyse data from
space telescopes for signals that
might be radio messages from
other lifeforms in the universe.
ANTI-VIRUS PACKAGES
SETI@home developed into
BOINC (Berkeley Open
Infrastructure for Network
Computing), which uses the same
technique for a wide range of
distributed computing projects.
While the diseases being studied
by BOINC projects have until
recently been major killers such
as malaria, HIV and cancer, the
emergence of Covid-19 has driven
researchers on its Rosetta@Home
project to work instead on
predicting the structure of
proteins important to Covid-19,
and to look for new mini-proteins
that might be useful in
diagnosing and treating the virus.
This is just one of a number
of studies you can join with
either your personal computer
or your mobile phone to help
discover a vaccine more rapidly.
Folding@Home is another
long-running project that has
also moved to trying to find a
cure for Covid-19. Folding@Home
is now looking at how viral
proteins work and how to stop
them working, which would be
a way to prevent Covid-19
suppressing the immune systems
of people infected with it. The
researchers at Washington
University, St Louis, say their
community-based distributed
network is now running at over
1,000 petaflops, over five times
quicker than the world’s fastest
supercomputer, and that makes
it the first exaflop computer
(an exaflop is 1,000 petaflops).
Another call for your unused
computer power is slightly
different, in that it’s aimed at
JULY 2020
your smartphone. Vodafone has
created an app called DreamLab
for cancer research. The current
situation has changed the focus,
and the newly launched
Corona-AI project, a collaboration
between the Vodafone Foundation
and scientists at Imperial College
London, is to find treatments for
coronavirus. It isn’t limited to
Vodafone customers; anyone
with a smartphone can join. You
download the DreamLab app,
then set it to run at night while
your phone isn’t being used. This
uses data, but you can set it to
run on a Wi-Fi connection, so
avoiding using up your monthly
allowance. The app uses around
500MB of data a month,
assuming it runs for six hours a
night, and no personal data is
accessed or affected in any way.
The app has been downloaded
more than 100,000 times, and
the team from Imperial College
say that if that many people run
it for six hours a night for three
months, it will enable them to do
in that time what it would take
the supercomputers at Imperial
College a year to process.
DATA CRUNCHING
Corona-AI is working its way
through a vast amount of data
to see if there are existing drugs
that look as though they could
be effective against Covid-19.
Existing drugs are of particular
interest to the team because
they’ve already gone through
the testing stage. Data on
food molecules is also being
searched, to see if there are
foods that might help because
of anti-viral properties.
I’ve been tempted in the past
by these research projects, but it
seemed a faff, and I’m not that
bothered about contacting alien
life forms. Coronavirus is rather
more urgent, and if we can
help by letting researchers
use our unused computer or
smartphone power, it seems
a small inconvenience for a
potentially massive return.
| COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 RANTS
S & RAVES
S
Covideo calls are all well and good, but the lockdown also gives us a chance to
reconnect digitally with old friends we’ve lost touch with – and look at donkeys
del ine B en nett
Ma
I WAS PLANNING to rant this month about certain companiesmpanies
using coronavirus as a means to offer even worse customer service
than usual, hiding behind the pandemic as an excuse.
But in the scheme of things, I realised there is much more to
worry about than a parcel or two going missing (I’m looking at
you, Hermes), and decided to instead focus on a positive from
this virus outbreak: reconnecting.
Many of us are now turning to video-chat services such as Zoom,
Google Hangouts, House Party and FaceTime to keep up with friends
and family. However, I’m already suffering from Zoom fatigue and
have cut back on the amount of regular video meetups I do each
nd Mo ore - Colyer
Rola
ALL GOOD THINGS come to an end, which is why this is my final
issue as your News Editor; the mothership signalled and it’s time for
me to go home. But before that, I have a little time to reflect on my
two-and-a-bit years at this magazine. So indulge me if you will.
Despite being called Computer Shopper, regular readers will know
these pages are filled with more than just desktops, laptops and
various PC parts. Everything from smartphones to looking at how
very stupid people are scared of 5G is covered here.
That’s because everything is now a computer, from the cliché of
a smartphone being a PC in your pocket, to smart speakers touting
advanced chips and games consoles doing impressions of PCs.
However, since starting out as a technology journalist six years
ago, one thing that hasn’t changed is the constant bleating that the
PC is dead. Yet my time at Shopper has shown me it’s anything but.
Yes, traditional do-everything desktop PCs might not sell like
hotcakes, but there’s still a massive appetite for gaming machines
and all manner of laptops. Apple’s marketing for its iPad Pro might
try to present it as a computer replacement, but with Cupertino’s
12
wee ek. Suddenly, people I saw only once every few
mo onths are keen to do weekly calls, or entice me into
reg gular games of virtual music bingo or family quizzes.
After a few weeks of nightly three-hour-plus
viideo chats, I have cleared my diary. Instead, I’m
enjooying the more passive sport of watching web
videoss and reading online posts from organisations and
old friends I’d lost touch with.
In a normal week of rushing from work to evening engagements,
and dropping the kids to various after-school activities in between,
I wouldn’t have time to sit and watch donkeys frolicking in
Devonshire fields, or try to pick myself out of a whole school
photo posted online.
But the travel time I’ve recouped during the lockdown has freed
up an extra hour or so each day, when I can catch up on the Donkey
Sanctuary’s latest videos, or check my secondary school’s Facebook
group and reminisce with long-lost friends.
Better still, this can all be done webcam-free via a quick written
post rather than a scheduled hours-long video chat.
M
Magic Keyboard accessory bringing a trackpad and
proper keys to the tablet, the iPad is more like a
MacBook and thus a computer than ever before.
Recent tech showcases have shown that while
smartphones are evolving slowly, PCs have a lot more
innovation going for them. We’ve seen laptops with
s
secondary screens, Microsoft’s Surface Neo showing off
a prooper next-generation dual-screen computer, and
extremely thin yet powerful laptops.
Where once there were bulky PCs in dull cases, we now have
RGB-laden machines in all manner of form factors, ranging from
monolithic behemoths with clever water cooling to palm-sized PCs
and things in between like Intel’s Ghost Canyon NUC machines.
Hybrid laptops such as the Surface Pro actually work well and
gaming laptops have become true mobile pixel-pushing machines.
Intel is still popping out desktop processors despite the PC’s
supposed death, and AMD’s comeback with its Ryzen chips has
been captivating to behold. Meanwhile, Nvidia has brought in
dedicated ray-tracing hardware.
And that’s before we talk about improved storage chips to slice
dull loading times, and ridiculously high refresh-rate displays.
In short, the traditional beige computer is in the bone orchard. But
the computers of today and tomorrow are still full of innovation.
So while I hand my Shopper badge and gun back to Commander
Bennett – in a responsible, socially distanced fashion – I encourage
you to keep reading on, as the PC is far from dead.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 Tech firms braced for global slowdown
SAY WHAT?
THE SMARTPHONE WORLD rarely slows down,
and phone makers are still kicking out new handsets
despite the global coronavirus pandemic.
OnePlus, for example, launched its flagship
OnePlus 8 series at the beginning of April. Though
many are tightening their purse-strings in the current
crisis, the firm’s flagship OnePlus 8 Pro – which
comes with a 120Hz screen, 5G support and wireless
charging – is the Chinese company’s most expensive
smartphone yet, with a starting price of £799.
Apple has taken a different tack and jumped
back into the affordable smartphone arena with a
reboot of the iPhone SE. The device, which is Apple’s
cheapest handset at £419, has a 4.7in Retina display,
a Touch ID button, a 12-megapixel camera and the
same A13 Bionic processor that powers the iPhone 11 range.
Given these high-profile launches, along with the arrival of the
Huawei P40, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s business as usual for
the smartphone industry.
However, analysts are warning that the mobile phone market is
expected to slow by 13% in 2020. CCS Insights said it expects 1.57 billion
mobile phones will be sold worldwide this year, the lowest number in a
decade. The analyst house warned that the Covid-19 outbreak is
dampening demand among businesses and consumers, while supply chain
slowdowns are affecting both manufacturing and distribution.
CCS Insight isn’t the only one predicting a gloomy year ahead for the
smartphone industry. Gartner told Computer Shopper that consumer
‘Stupid’ 5G conspiracy theories lead to arson
SAY WHAT?
ONE SIDE EFFECT of the coronavirus crisis we
certainly didn’t expect was a conspiracy theory
linking 5G to the virus.
There are some bizarre theories that the
coronavirus is simply a way to cover up deaths
caused by 5G, or that it is helping the virus spread
and suppresses people’s immune systems.
There isn’t a single shred of evidence to link 5G
and coronavirus, so it seems bizarre that the two
things could possibly be linked, especially as 5G
uses electromagnetic radio frequencies while
Covid-19 is a droplet-based virus.
A report by Wired traced the origins of the conspiracy theories back to
an interview conducted by Belgium newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws with a
GP called Kris Van Kerckhoven. When asked if the growth of 5G masts
around the Chinese city Wuhan, where the Covid-19 outbreak happened,
could be related to the coronavirus spread, Van Kerckhoven replied: “I
have not done a fact check… But it may be a link with current events.”
The article was withdrawn by the newspaper, but it was too little too
late, as the GP’s words spread like wildfire online, and were translated into
14
demand for new devices is declining rapidly,
warning that this could have ramifications for
months to come.
“People are not going to buy a new smartphone
in the current economic situation,” said Roberta
Cozza, senior director analyst at Gartner’s Tech
Product Manager team.
“There’s going to be a drop and a shift; the
money consumers could have been spending on
smartphones during Q2 and Q3 is going to be spent
more on services, content and better connectivity.”
This dramatic drop in spending perhaps explains
why OnePlus, a firm famed for its cut-price ‘flagship
killers’, has increased its prices. Apple, a company
often criticised for its overly pricey gadgets, has
instead opted to target those not willing to shell out £1,000 for a handset
in the current climate with its most affordable smartphone in years.
While some firms appear to be continuing as normal – Samsung
recently launched its top-of-the-line Galaxy S20 series (see pages 18 and
36) – this shift change could be felt for some time to come and could even
mean that Apple’s typically flashy September launch, where it is expected
to show off the 5G-enabled iPhone 12, doesn’t go ahead as planned.
“Apple needs to send over engineers to approve final designs in China,
and this is going to slow down,” said Cozza.
“Can you see them releasing the iPhone 12 in this situation? For them
this has to be a very important launch, it has to be a hit, which it’s unlikely
to be if consumer spending stays as it is.”
English, thus propagating 5G-coronavirus theories.
No evidence was provided to support the spurious
claims, but outlandish theories spread nonetheless.
And then the celebrities jumped on the
bandwagon, with actors John Cusack and
Woody Harrelson, as well as boxer Amir Khan,
sharing posts on social media that referenced 5G
and coronavirus conspiracies. TV presenter
Eamonn Holmes also expressed his own,
unevidenced, 5G concerns.
“I totally agree with everything you are saying
but what I don’t accept is mainstream media
immediately slapping that down as not true when they don’t know it’s not
true,” Holmes said on ITV’s This Morning in response to the show’s
consumer editor, Alice Beer, describing the news of 5G phone masts being
vandalised in response to 5G conspiracies as “incredibly stupid”.
The whole conspiracy theory literally ignited with phone masts being
set on fire in what appeared to be arson attacks by anti-5G groups.
Somewhat ironically, many of these towers were for 3G and 4G
technology, not masts for the next-generation mobile network.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

SO WHAT?
THE FACT THAT Apple might not launch a
flashy new iPhone this year is hardly the most
concerning news in the world today, yet it
paints a picture of an industry that might never
be the same again.
Given Apple is one of the biggest names in
the smartphone world, its reluctance to carry
on ‘business as normal’ may force others in the
industry to do the same.
Gartner had expected 5G to be one of the
major catalysts for growth this year. However,
with Apple perhaps no longer planning to
launch a 5G iPhone, and most consumers
unaware of the benefits the next-generation
technology brings, rollouts of telecoms tech
and device launches are likely to stall.
“5G technology is not going to help a lot in
the new reality. We’re not going to see the
same level of 5G models becoming available,”
said Gartner’s Roberta Cozza.
This isn’t the only innovative technology
likely to be turned on its head amid the
pandemic. Foldable phones, such as Samsung’s
Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X, are
expected to be hit hard. These futuristic
devices, though impressive with their flexible
displays and unique cases, are still in the very
SO WHAT?
MADNESS AND STUPIDITY could be best
used to describe the 5G–coronavirus
conspiracies. The World Health Organization,
the International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection and multiple academics
have all deemed 5G to be safe.
There are some concerns There is no
over the long-term effects of evidence that
5G, given people and the wider
5G Wi-Fi networks
environment will be exposed
to more radio waves at higher are linked to the new
frequencies. But these waves coronavirus”
produce non-ionising
Full Fact
radiation, which is basically
harmless. Ionising radiation occupies the higher
frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum,
and includes X-ray and gamma ray radiation.
Independent fact-checking organisation
Full Fact concluded the claims of 5G spreading
through coronavirus are nonsense.
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
early stages, leading to high price tags that will
be hard for many to justify.
“I think OEMs are going to hold off on
foldables for the foreseeable. Even in a normal
scenario, they’re a hard sell,” Cozza explained.
While it looks like an unsteady few months
ahead for the smartphone industry, it’s not all
doom and gloom. Thanks to the rise in remote
working and homeschooling, it’s likely that
other devices, such as tablets, will be able to
withstand the current uncertainty.
“There are pockets of opportunity for other
computing devices, like the tablet. These
devices are going to hold up better than
smartphones,” said Cozza.
Services are also likely to see an explosion
in growth. Those staying at home are looking to
software such as Office 365, Zoom and Netflix.
With that in mind, the growing importance
of services rather than specs could shape the
industry going forward, putting some mobile
vendors in a better position than others.
Although Apple’s iPhone 12 launch might not
go ahead, its App Store will keep consumers
flocking to the company’s devices, while firms
such as Huawei – which recently lost access to
the Google Play Store – could struggle.
“This is not true. There is no evidence that
5G Wi-Fi networks are linked to the new
coronavirus,” the organisation said.
As a Shopper reader, you’re probably
shaking your head at the conspiracy theories.
But the conspiracies hide a
nasty sting beyond forcing
telecoms companies to
replace burnt down masts.
EE, O2, Three and
Vodafone wrote a letter
addressing the conspiracy,
noting their networks are
essential for the NHS and
emergency services, as well as those in isolation.
“There is no scientific evidence of any link
between 5G and coronavirus,” the letter stated.
“Not only are these claims baseless, they
are harmful for the people and businesses that
rely on the continuity of our services.”
Zoom boom
Videoconferencing service Zoom gained
100 million users in three weeks, as
more people adopt video calling to
communicate while under lockdownow
That time already
The Apple Watch is now five
years old and remains the
most successful smartwatch,
though not a great deal has
changed in terms of its design
over the past half-decade
Take cover
Apple has released the Magic
Keyboard for its new iPad Pro,
with a keyboard and trackpad in a slick
case, which helps the iPad get closer to
being a proper laptop alternative
Puppy love
While the coronavirus pandemic is
keeping people at home, virtual
adoption for rescue dogs has helped
home cute canines, showing that
technology can be a solution to all
manner of problems
Corona crooks
Since the onset of the coronavirus
pandemic, the World Health
Organization has reported a five-fold
increase in the number of cyber attacks
directed at its team members, and cyber
criminals are using the Covid-19 crisis to
try to scam the public
Tipped off
Google has abandoned a project to
introduce a tipping feature that would
have let people donate money to the
websites they’ve been browsing, which
could have helped struggling sites
That sucks
Tech giant Dyson won’t
be making ventilators for
the NHS after all, as its
CoVent machines are “not
required”, according to
founder James Dyson
Nintendo woe
Nintendo revealed that up to 160,000
Nintendo accounts were compromised
and cyber criminals used unauthorised
access to linked PayPal accounts to
make digital purchases
15
 Intel’s neuromorphic computing system
learns like a human
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) tech has
The price of
come a long way, but it’s still in its infancy, this escape
and there’s a lot of work ahead to perfect route is an
the machine-learning algorithms and
techniques that sit behind an AI system.
unprecedented
These hurdles include processing time and increase in digital
power consumption. Enter Intel and its surveillance”
neuromorphic computing systems.
The Tony Blair Institute for
The chip maker has taken the covers off
Global Change isn’t too keen
its new Pohoiki Springs system, which aims
on contact-tracing apps
to solve the two aforementioned problems.
Pohoiki Springs is different from
traditional systems in that its memory and It is highly
computing systems are intertwined, while likely that
traditional systems separate them. This eliminates instantaneously allows it to make predictions more
the shipping of data back and forth between the two accurately than a traditional deep-learning machine.
malicious actors
areas, dramatically speeding up processing times. The Pohoiki Springs system contains about 770 will use AI to attack
For example, Intel’s research team used just one neuromorphic chips in a chassis that’s no larger than the UK in numerous
neuromorphic research chip to train an AI system to a standard server. This gives it the computational
detect a hazardous odour. This system worked out capacity of about 100 million neurons, which is
ways, and the
how to detect each odour after just a single training similar to a small mammal’s brain. intelligence
sample, while the traditional deep-learning method The by-product of doing everything faster and community will
required 3,000 samples per odour. more efficiently is that it requires less power to
How did Intel manage that? Well, the deliver the same results as a deep-learning machine. need to develop
neuromorphic computing systems learn much as Power consumption has been a key impediment for new AI-based
a child might, by permanently learning sensory-
based objects – those they can see, smell, hear
large-scale AI development, as researchers at the
University of Massachusetts found that developing
defence measures”
or touch – after only one interaction, according to just one AI model can have the same carbon The Rusi think tank foresees
Intel. What’s more, this system’s ability to learn footprint as five cars over their entire lifetime. a new machine-based era of
cyber espionage

Nvidia brings AI tech and high-performance
computing to the coronavirus fight
FIGHTING A VIRUS usually takes a bit of medicine
and some rest. But the Covid-19 pandemic has shown
the devastation a new virus can cause, which is why
Nvidia is joining the digital fight against coronavirus.
The graphics giant has joined the Covid 19
vid-19
High-Performance Computing Consortium m 4000,000 volunteers have joined the
to provide its expertise in AI and
large-scale computing optimisations to
use smart tech to find new ways to
take on the virus. Nvidia will also
provide the consortium with access to
its SaturnV supercomputer.
The Covid-19 Consortium is a
private-public effort led by the White
House Office of Science and Technology
Policy, the US Department of Energy and IBM. By
bringing together federal government, industry and
academic leaders, consortium members can provide
unfettered access to many of the world’s most
powerful high-performance computing resources to
support Covid-19 research.
This isn’t the first time Nvidia has stepped up to
the plate to support efforts against the coronavirus.
With more than 27,000 Tesla V100 GPUs inside the
Summit supercomputer, Nvidia has been diligently
working toward uncovering the virus’s largest spike
What better
way of
plugging this gap
by engaging with
protein; this protein is what allows the coronavirus
to invade human cells and infect individuals.
female candidates,
Nvidia is also encouraging PC gamers to donate encouraging more
unused GPU clock cycles towards the digital fight innovation and
against Covid-19. Since kicking off in February,
generating as
Folding@home initiative, which Nvidia,
F yet untapped
Intel, AMD and other PC-centric brands excitement for
are involved in (see Kay’s Corner, p10).
Much like the Covid-19 High
IT in future
Performance Computing Consortium, generations?”
the Folding@home initiative looks to Tim Sadler, CEO of Tessian,
generate insights dug up from data the
g on the company’s report that
shared GPU power is crunching through, found only one in six UK IT
and
d use it to better understand diseases and professionals are female
ways to treat them. And to help battle coronavirus
further, Nvidia has also made access to its GPU-
accelerated genome analysis toolkit Parabricks Microsoft
free for 90 days to any researcher currently Edge +
working on combatting the virus. Outlook = Better
The fight against coronavirus may seem like
something for epidemiologists and clinicians, but together”
beyond the front lines, everyone is involved in this Microsoft is posting ads on its
crisis, from people self-isolating and governments email service to push people to
imposing lockdowns, to tech companies putting its newly revamped Edge
their resources and expertise to good use. web browser

16 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 Contact-tracing apps
How tech can help tackle coronavirus
DON’T WE NEED A MEDICAL CURE FOR THIS?
As it stands, there’s no vaccine, no cure, and no antiviral
medicine to tackle Covid-19. The only seemingly effective
way to fight coronavirus is social distancing to keep people
apart, and in some cases quarantine lockdowns, preventing
people from leaving their homes unless it’s essential.
However, technology could be another way to help tackle
the virus. And that comes in the form of contact tracing.
HOW DOES THAT WORK?
Basically, it’s the means to track people who have contracted
Covid-19 and those who might have come in contact with
them, and thus help inform them to isolate. The idea is to
proactively target people who are most at risk from the virus
and advise them to quarantine if needed.
This is potentially one way to avoid keeping a nation
under full lockdown. By quarantining those who may have
been exposed to the virus, it allows others who have not
been exposed to it to go about their daily business.
Contact tracing has been used in the past, but it relies on people to
understand they have contracted a disease, and to be clear about who
they may have come in contact with and report that accurately to
clinicians. That relies on people being transparent, remembering where
they have been, and who they may have seen; with a deadly virus
spreading globally, such a situation could be pretty stressful.
This is where technology could help.
WHAT TECHNOLOGY?
Smartphones have GPS capabilities and the ability to track one’s
movements, if said person grants the phone and various apps to do
that. Such tech can be used in custom contact-tracing apps to pretty
much automatically collect the movement data of people who may
have been exposed to coronavirus.
Using geolocation technology, that data can
then alert users if they’ve been nearby someone
who has tested positive for Covid-19. It’s worth One concern is that such apps
noting that people need to be willing to opt
into using the app, at least at the time of don’t allow governments to
writing – the government has yet to force
contact tracing on people. collect more data than needed
Again, such testing can allow people to go
about their normal life as much as possible, while also keeping safe, or
at least away from those with Covid-19. In theory, this could effectively
sever the ability of the virus to spread and eventually kill it off.
BUT I’VE SEEN NO SUCH APP
That’s because the UK doesn’t have one, though it’s working on an
app; by the time you read this, a contact-tracing app from the NHS
might be available, as one is already being tested at a Royal Air Force
base in North Yorkshire.
Contact-tracing apps have been successfully used in South Korea,
which has been something of a poster child in the use of technology
to ‘flatten the curve’ of the coronavirus infection rate. The Covid-19
Smart Management System (SMS) uses data gathered from 28
organisations to trace the movements of South Koreans, and within
10 minutes can analyse the movements of those who have been
infected by Covid-19.
Google and Apple have also announced they will join forces to
launch an application programming interface to enable governments
to tap into relevant contact-tracing data that an Android or iOS phone
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
might collect through Bluetooth connections. It’s up to governments
across the globe, as well as medical and technology organisations, to
set up and distribute such apps.
WHAT ABOUT MY PRIVACY?
That’s a tricky question. If a contact-tracing app was to collect personal
data, then it could be seen as an invasion of privacy.
However, the flipside is that such automated contact tracing could
save lives, so infringing on privacy might arguably be worth it. And
given some people have already lost some liberties under various
lockdowns, from enjoying a pint in the pub to sitting out in the park,
giving up some personal data for the greater good is arguably a minor
sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.
The NHS’s digital division, NHSX, has said it plans to keep the data
of its users private and inject a degree of
anonymity into the harvested data.
One overarching concern is that such apps
don’t allow governments to collect more data
than absolutely needed, and then purges the
data when they’re done with it. Otherwise, when
the coronavirus crisis is finally over, we may
have ended up surrendering more of our privacy
than we realised and enabled governments to use that data for more
than just contact tracing, such as for law enforcement.
ANYTHING ELSE TO WORRY ABOUT?
Unfortunately, yes. For contact tracing to work effectively, it’s thought
that 80% of smartphone users, or 56% of the general UK population,
needs to use a contact-tracing app.
But there are still people in the UK, especially the elderly, without
smartphones, or who aren’t au fait with accessing new apps, which
creates a ‘digital divide’ between those who can use a contact-tracing
app and those that effectively fall through the gaps.
Analysts at Counterpoint Research also noted that two billion, or a
quarter of the smartphones in active use, aren’t compatible with the
Bluetooth low-energy chips needed to detect when they are in close
proximity to other phones.
These are challenges that need to be overcome, and they will need
to be tackled quickly if contact tracing is to be effective – and that
might see people surrender some personal privacy to get there. In the
meantime, stay safe and wash your hands.
17
 REVIEWS
YOUR TRUSTED GUIDE TO WHAT’S NEW

ANDROID 10 SMARTPHONE

SAMSUNG Galaxy S20

★★★★★
£799 • From www.samsung.com/uk

VERDICT
While not the best smartphone ever, the Galaxy
S20 is the best-value of Samsung’s latest line-up

18 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER batch of
high-end Samsung Galaxy smartphones. This
time, there’s no cheaper, Galaxy 10-e style
model, so the standard Galaxy S20 is the most
attainable of the pack, which also includes the
S20+ (page 36) and S20 Ultra (Shopper 388).
This handset doesn’t bend like the Galaxy
Z Flip – unless you try very hard and don’t
care about your warranty – but at least it’s
actually quite close to its pricier S20 brethren
on specs. The new Exynos 990 processor,
choice of 8GB or 12GB of RAM and 128GB of
expandable storage are all consistent between
models, and the S20’s screen has the same
120Hz setting as that of the S20+. The main
differences come down to display and battery
size, as well as the fact that neither this
phone or the S20+ has the same 100x zoom
feature as the S20 Ultra.

CHANGING SIDES
At 6.2in, the S20’s display is the smallest, but
there’s something to be said for this: it allows
for more compact dimensions overall, making
for a phone that fits more comfortably in the
hand. Design changes from the Galaxy S10
series are relatively minor, however, so don’t
expect anything groundbreaking. The front
camera’s pinhole notch, for instance, is
smaller and has been moved from the top
corner of the screen to the top-middle, but
we preferred how it was before, when it felt
more out of the way.
Likewise, rather than placing the three rear
cameras in a neat vertical strip like last year’s
model, the Galaxy S20’s trio of cameras are
instead squished into an upright oblong in
the top left corner of the phone. It’s certainly
not as brutish as the S20 Ultra and its
gigantic telephoto zoom sensor, but it’s not
particularly nice to look at.
Conversely, the Dynamic AMOLED display
is gorgeous: 6.2in is more than big enough,
and it has a native resolution of 3,200x1,400.
This can be dipped down to FHD+ or HD+ in
the display settings if you want to squeeze
out a bit more battery life.

TWICE IS NICE
The main new addition is, of course, that
120Hz refresh rate, a doubling over the usual
60Hz. There are caveats to using it: it only
works at FHD+ or below, and most games on
the Play Store are capped at 60fps, so you
won’t always be getting a benefit. However,
it adds a fluidity and responsiveness to
scrolling that’s tangibly more satisfying than
it would be on a 60Hz display.
Still, this silky-smooth screen will be for
nothing if the quality of the display isn’t up to
scratch. According to our colorimeter test, the
Galaxy S20’s Dynamic AMOLED screen covers
94% of the sRGB colour gamut, with an
overall volume of 96% and an average delta-E
of 2.64 in the phone’s Natural display profile.
We found this to be the most colour-
accurate of the three screen profiles, although
it suffered from noticeably oversaturated red
tones and undersaturated pink and purple
wever, you can
tones, so it isn’t perfect. How
rest assured that the screen has a pin sharp
pin-sharp
contrast ratio of Infinity:1, and it’s also
capable of reaching a searing maximum
brightness of 748cd/m2.
The Exynos 990 processor is just as
potent. This is a 7nm, octa-core chipset with a
maximum clock speed of 2.73GHz and is
similar in architecture to last year’s Exynos
9820. Outside of Europe and Asia, the Galaxy
S20 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
instead, although we’re naturally testing the
UK model, which also includes 8GB of RAM.
FULL STRENGTH
As you might expect – or hope, given the
price – the Galaxy S20 stormed through our
usual suite of performance benchmarks,
scoring 923 in Geekbench 4’s single-core test
and 2,779 in the multicore test. It doesn’t
quite match the superior levels of
performance we’ve seen from the iPhone
11’s A13 Bionic chip, but it’s certainly fast
enough for you not to have to worry about
a sluggish experience, no matter which
applications you decide to throw at it. As
Android handsets go, it’s as good as it gets.
What’s more, if you can find a game that
supports the full 120Hz refresh rate, you’re
in for a treat. The GFXBench Manhattan
benchmark doesn’t, hence its onscreen test
result sticking at 58fps, but its offscreen test
result of 122fps confirms you’ll be able to run
compatible games well above 60fps.
The Galaxy S20 also gets things right when
it comes to battery life, provided you make
sure to choose the right settings. Fully
draining the 4,000mAh battery from full in

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 19

 our video rundown test, the Galaxy S20 lasted
18h 28m before needing to recharge, which is
rather good considering this was performed
at the phone’s default WQHD+ screen
resolution – albeit only at 60Hz.
Oddly, if you stick with the same
refresh rate but drop the resolution
down to FHD+, you won’t notice much
of a change. Where you will find a
drastic difference, however, is if you
switch on the 120Hz setting, which
negatively affected the S20’s battery
life by five hours in the same test.
ZOOM IN
Finally, let’s discuss the Galaxy S20’s
new camera capabilities. As it’s the
cheapest of the three phones, the
Galaxy S20 lacks the fourth depth-
sensing sensor found on the S20+
and S20 Ultra, though since this is
really only for arty bokeh shots, it’s
the most expendable lens of the lot.
The other three sensors are exactly
the same as those of the S20+:
there’s a 12-megapixel (f/1.8) main
lens, a 12-megapixel (f/2.2) ultrawide
sensor and a 64-megapixel (f/3.5)
telephoto zoom sensor.
As they’re attached to a £799
smartphone, it’s still fair to expect
them to stack up with the best.
And, when you consider the regular
iPhone 11 has only two cameras –
lacking the telephoto zoom option of
the Samsung – then you wouldn’t be
remiss for thinking the Galaxy S20
already has it beat before you even
press the shutter.
However, while the Galaxy S20’s
suite of cameras excel in a few areas,
20
they don’t quite match the sheer excellence of
the iPhone 11’s image and video captures. The
Galaxy S20 does slightly better at suppressing
noise in outdoor shots, but our test photos
also looked overexposed and strangely
candy-coloured, especially next to the
iPhone 11’s more naturalistic shots.
Apple’s handset also has the
advantage in low light. Shots taken
with the Galaxy S20 look drab when
placed side by side with the positively
vibrant images from the iPhone 11.
The differences are more slight
when you compare the two phones’
wide-angle images, however.
Both pictures are filled with detail,
although they both struggle a bit
when it comes to distortion in the
far corners of the frame.
Where Samsung really comes into
its own, however, is in the S20’s
zooming capabilities. It may not have
the 100x zoom of the S20 Ultra, but
it’s still capable of using a combination
of optical and AI-digital techniques to
magnify up to 30x.
The resulting images at maximum
zoom are a bit mixed, but there’s no
denying that this tech is quite
impressive. We can’t see there being
much need for zooming that far into
the frame – you certainly won’t be
sending these shots off to be printed
on a cushion – but since the iPhone 11
doesn’t have optical zoom at all, the
win goes to Samsung here.
SHAKY GROUND
Where Samsung really begins to
falter is in video-recording features.
The Galaxy S20 has the ability to
record in 8K resolution – a first for
smartphones – although this isn’t stabilised in
any way whatsoever, and you need an 8K TV
to view the footage in its original resolution
anyway. If you want to stabilise your footage,
you have to dip the resolution down to 4K at
30fps, which is a shame because the iPhone 11
can record stabilised 4K footage at 60fps.
Of course, the Samsung is currently
unmatched when it comes to sheer detail
captured at 8K, but when the resulting footage
is a shaky mess, it’s simply not pleasant to
watch. A tripod or gimbal is absolutely
essential to make the footage usable.
Still, even if not all of the Galaxy S20’s
innovations work out well, its breadth of
features remains impressive. All things
considered, it’s not that far behind the Galaxy
S20 Ultra, which costs £500 more; when you
think of this as a saving, with you still getting
the same processor and slick refresh rate, it
starts looking like a pretty good deal.
The iPhone 11 is still the better buy overall,
with its only noteworthy disadvantage being
less storage space, but if you’d prefer to stick
with Android, then the Samsung Galaxy S20
is a very good option indeed.
Nathan Spendelow
SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.73GHz Samsung Exynos 990 •
SCREEN SIZE 6.2in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 3,200x1,440 •
•
REAR CAMERAS 12 megapixels, 64 megapixels, 12 megapixels
STORAGE 128GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • NFC Yes •
DIMENSIONS 152x69x7.9mm • WEIGHT 163g • OPERATING
SYSTEM Android 10 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
www.samsung.com • PART CODE SM-G980FLBDEUA
Battery life 18h 28m
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 100 for performance details
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
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 WINDOWS 10 GAMING LAPTOP
GIGABYTE Aorus 15G
★★★★★
£2,199 • From www.scan.co.uk
VERDICT
Brand-new silicon and a fully mechanical
keyboard make this one of the best gaming
laptops ever
WHEN IT COMES to gaming PC Cs, the
mechanical keyboard is king; yo ou rarely,
however, see one adorning a ga aming laptop.
There is the odd exception, but most
manufacturers avoid integrating g mechanical
keyboards because the things ju ust add so
much weight and bulk.
Not so the Gigabyte Aorus 15G, which
incorporates, among other things, a
fully mechanical keyboard, yet keeps
the weight down to a manageab ble
2.3kg. Coupled with some
pretty potent innards, an
aluminium chassis that
feels as if it would survive
a nuclear blast and a
competitive-class 240Hz display, this is a
gaming laptop to be reckoned with.
The model we were sent costs £2,199 and
comes with a 240Hz display (running at
1,980x,1080), an octa-core, 2.3GHz Intel Core
i7-10875H processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB
SSD and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Max-Q graphics. This is a lot of cash indeed
– much more than the £1,699 base model –
but it’s not necessarily poor value. The
upcoming Razer Blade 15 refresh, it should
be noted, will be available with comparable
specs for £2,549: a full £350 more.
KNACK FOR CLACK
Starting with that mechanical key yboard, its
chiclet design might feel unfamiliiar to those
used to mechanical desktop keyb boards, but
once you get used to the spacing g you’ll
soon appreciate it taking
the place of a typical laptop
scissor switch. Besides the
naturally stronger tactility of
mechanical switches, what’s mosst
noticeable here is the travel deptth:
most laptop keys bottom out
after 1mm, but these keys go
down to 2mm. This makes for farr
more decisive keystrokes and a
more satisfying feel overall.
As this is a high-end gaming
laptop, the keyboard is also fully
equipped with RGB lighting. This is
fully customisable on a per-key
basis via the Aorus control centrre
software, and you’ll be pleased too
know that extends to turning it off
if it’s not your cup of tea.
The Aorus 15G isn’t the first
laptop to feature a mechanical
22
keyboard, but it is the first one to do so while
maintaining sufficient portability. Not to say
this is a svelte clamshell: 2.3kg is still twice the
weight of some ultraportables, and total
weight reaches 3kg if you count the power
supply. Still, compared to the likes of the
gigantic Acer Predator 21X, at least this can
feasibly fit in a backpack.
JUST A TOUCH
The touchpad works well, too, as does the
built-in fingerprint reader in its top-left
corner (although you’ll probably be using
a mouse most of the time anyway). Sadly,
other aspects of the Aorus 15G’s design
are a litt
ttlle less appealing.
The CNC-machined meta al chassis looks and
feels superb, and there’s a go ood selection of
inputs and outputs around the edges, too.
However, the positioning of those ports
leaves a lot to be desired. The HDMI, Mini
DisplayPort, USB3.1, 3.5mm jack and Gigabit
Ethernet port would be more practical if they
were located further back towards the rear,
and the same goes for the power port, USB
Type-C and the two other USB3.1 ports on the
right. As they’re mounted so far forward,
cables can often get in the way of your
mousing on smaller tables.
The 720p webcam is downright rubbish,
too. It is nice to see that there’s a sliding
privacy cover, but you’ll want to keep that
closed unless you want anyone to realise
quite how bad the capture quality is.
COOL RUNNINGS
In fairness to Gigabyte, there is a reason why
the Aorus’s po orts are all mounted towards
the front of the chassis:
namely, cooling. The laptop
has 52mm-long outlet grilles
on each flank, which add to
thee main cooling outlets that
spann most of the width of the
laptop p at the rear.
Giiven the calibre of the
intern nal components, cooling is
understandably a major focus here,
and a keyboard shortcut on the
Escape key toggles the fans between
Normal and Maximum. Even at
norm mal, there’s a constant and
audib ble whooshing – ramp it up and
it’s deafening – although the plus
side is that the fans are so powerful
that you get a rather pleasant
cooling effect around your fingertips
as airr is pulled through the keyboard
into the heart of the laptop.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 Most importantly,, there wasn’t
any evide ence of thermmal
throttlingg in our CPU
performa ance tests. Thhe
Aorus 15G G scored an
incrediblee 246 overalll,
taking intto account
an image e test
score of 179, a
video tesst score
of 240 an nd a
multitask king score off 273.
This putss the Core i7--10875H on a
par with a respectable high-end desktop CPU.
Since Intel’s 10th-ggen chips are still new, we
won’t hav ve many com mparisons to make until we
test more e contemporrary rivals; we’rre hoping to
acquire one of the new Blade 15 models soon, for
instance. Still, the Aorus 15G is well ahead of
gaming la aptops that use previous-generation Intel
chips; thee 2019 Blade 15 (Shopper 380) is left well
behind, even with its high overall score of 174.
The RTX 2070 Super Max-Q is also as
effecctive in games as you’d hope. In our
native resolution test of Metro: Last
Light Redux, running at the High
preset with SSAA off, it averaged
an extremely smooth 185fps. Besides
being high enough to take advantage
of the boosted refresh rate, this handily beats
the 2019 Blade 15’s 146fps, not to mention
the 82fps of the Asus ROG Strix Scar III
(Shopper 380). That’s especially impressive
considering the latter launched at £2,800.
Thanks to Intel’s and Nvidia’s hardware, the Aorus 15G is the
most powerful Windows laptop we’ve ever tested
Since the GPU supports both real-time
ray-tracing and Nvidia’s recently upgraded DLSS
2.0 – machine learning-based anti-aliasing tech –
we also added a little bonus test, booting up
Remedy Games’ Control to see how both
technologies would cope on the Aorus 15G.
With the highest preset selected, DLSS off and
ray tracing enabled we saw average frame
rates of just over 40fps; that’s playable, but
by enabling DLSS in place of regular AA, this
jumped up to 70fps with very little loss in quality.
For both the laptop and DLSS 2.0, that’s a win.
EXTRA TIME
Remarkably, with all of this power on tap and
the fans blowing up a storm, the Aorus 15G still
managed to put in a decent shift in our battery
life test. It lasted for 6h 25m of continuous video
playback, which isn’t amazing in the overall
scheme of things but is astonishingly good for a
laptop so beefy. The Blade 15 only managed
1h 51m, and gaming laptops in general usually
struggle to make it past two or three hours.
All of this runs through that super-slick 240Hz
15.6in 1080p display. The high refresh rate gives
games a huge boost – and the RTX 2070 Super
Max-Q is genuinely powerful enough to take
advantage – but the Full HD panel is also
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
technically very competent. Colour coverag ge
spans 93.2% of the sRGB colour gamut, colour
accuracy is exceptional with an average delta-E of
0.7, and the contrast ratio is a creditable 1,120:1.
The display’s peak brightness of 276cd/m2
is slightly disappointing, but it’s still plenty
bright enough for indoor use. If this is a
compromise you have to make for the silky
240Hz smoothness, it’s worth it.
TOP TALENT
Thanks to Intel’s and Nvidia’s hardware, the
Gigabyte Aorus 15G is the most powerful
Windows laptop we’ve ever tested; it’s an
immensely capable notebook. Not only that,
however, it’s also a thoughtfully put together
gaming machine as well, with a comfortable RGB
mechanical keyboard and a highly effective
cooling system that ensures all that silicon is able
to perform at its very best. Even battery life isn’t
too bad; a remarkable feat given how much
power is surging through this thing.
The looks won’t be for everyone and the price
is fairly high, but if you’re after the fastest gaming
laptop money can buy, then a hefty price tag
goes with the territory. Unless the new Razer
Blade 15 can steal its thunder with some canny
UK pricing (and ideally better battery life than the
last model), the Aorus 15G looks set to keep its
gaming laptop crown for some time to come.
Jonathan Bray
SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-10875H • RAM 16GB
• DIMENSIONS 356x260x25mm • • SCREEN
WEIGHT 2.3kg
•
SIZE 15.6in • GRAPHICS
SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080
ADAPTOR 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q • TOTAL
STORAGE 512GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home
• WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.gigabyte.com •
PART CODE Aorus 15G XB
Windows overall 246
Multitasking 273
Battery life 6h 25m
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 100 for performance details
 WINDOWS 10 ULTRAPORTABLE

HUAWEI
MateBook X Pro(2020)
★★★★★
£1,746 • From consumer.huawei.com

VERDICT
A great laptop gets updated, though only
ttery life
mildly and at the apparent cost of batt

IT HASN’T BEEN making laptops for lo ong, but

Huawei’s MateBook X Pro (Shopper 3777) had
little issue getting up there with the best
ultraportables you can lay your hands on.
The 2020 MateBook X Pro is the latestt
model. It comes with upgraded internal
hardware over last year’s laptop, and itt
remains a fine choice, especially as, unlike
the company’s smartphones, the laptop
division has avoided being slapped with h a ban
on using its core software: Windows 10 0.

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

As with previous versions, the 2020 Ma ateBook
X Pro has a fabulous 3:2 aspect-ratio 14 4in
display, it’s slim and light, and it has on
ne of
the nicest keyboards we’ve used on any
laptop. It’s nearly as good as the keybo oard on
the Google Pixelbook Go (Shopper 387).
In fact, physically, the MateBook X Pro
hasn’t changed one jot. It’s inside where all
the changes have been made, with Huawei
introducing new 10th-generation Intel
processors for improved performance and
(in theory) better battery life, too.
It also features a vivid and incredibly sharp
14in 3K touchscreen, and a beautifully made,
There’s nothing, aside perhaps from the glossy finish, that
we’d change about this screen. It is stupendously good
all-metal body. It’s a joy of a laptop to use, with
quad-speakers, a fingerprint reader, pop-up
webcam and a great keyboard and touchpad.
The catch? Its price. UK pricing hasn’t
been revealed yet but converting the euro
RRPs, even the base model – containing a
quad-core, 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-10210U
processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD
– comes to £1,309. For £1,484 you can upgrade
the integrated graphics to a discrete Nvidia
GeForce MX250 GPU, while the top-spec
model – the one we’re testing here – costs
£1,746 for a quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Core
i7-10510U and 1TB SSD on top of that.
There’s nothing new about the design of
the MateBook X Pro, but it’s worth reiterating
how good it is from this perspective. First up,
it’s very slim and lightweight, measuring
14.6mm thick when closed and weighing a
featherlight 1.33kg. We particularly like the
softly rounded edges, which mean it’s simple
to slide into laptop pockets in most bags
without catching the fabric lining.
WELL CONNECTED
Around the sides, you’ll also find a more
substantial selection of ports than you might
expect from such a slimline machine. There’s a
single, full-sized USB3 socket on the right,
which comes in very handy for connecting
legacy USB thumb drives and wireless
dongles. On the left edge is a pair of USB
Type-C ports, both of which support data,
charging and video output, and there’s also a
3.5mm headset jack next to these.
Lift open the lid – a single-finger
operation, thankfully – and you’re faced
with a spacious, backlit, chiclet-style
keyboard. It’s nicely laid out, with a large
two-row-high Enter key and nice big Shift
and cursor keys as well. The key action is
wondrously luxurious, too, with a lovely dig
of feedback and plenty of travel to each
keystroke and a smooth, almost liquid feel.
The keyboard is lovely and the large
touchpad is just as good to use. Although
there s
force-feedback technology
perfectly weighted mechanical click and
smooth glass top go together to make a
pointing device that’s a match for any that
you’ll find elsewhere.
SHARING IS CARING
Other than this, there are a few other features
worth noting about the MateBook X Pro. First
is the circular power button that sits just
above the keyboard on the right-hand side,
which incorporates a fingerprint reader, for
fast biometric login. The second – and the one
feature we wish Huawei would change – is
that the laptop’s 720p webcam remains
integrated into a function key, between F6
and F7 on the top row of the keyboard.
Video quality is passable, but the low
angle is as problematic as it was on last year’s
version. Besides it pointing unflatteringly up
below your chin, you end up with your
knuckles in the shot if you need to type
while on a video call. It’s also not compatible
with Windows Hello.
Lastly, there’s the MateBook X Pro’s
NFC-driven Huawei Share tech. This works a
little like Apple’s AirDrop wireless sharing,
except instead of an iPhone, you need a
Huawei handset to make it work. Huawei sent
over a P30 Pro to test out the feature and it
worked well, allowing quick transfer of files
back and forth without the need to faff
around with pairing or connecting cables.
It’s a shame it doesn’t work with other
Android phones, however.

24 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


YOU’RE BARRED
IPS touch display, which has a resolution of
3,000x2,000 and a tall-ish aspect ratio of 3:2.
This shape is ideal for a work machine, giving
you plenty of height so you can see more of a
document or web page without scrolling.
The flip side is that, when it comes to
watching films or TV shows, the black bars
at the top and bottom of the screen are a
little taller than with a 16:9- or 16:10-ratio
display, but that can be forgiven as this is a
‘Pro’ machine first and a leisurely media
consumption device second.
Having said that, it’s a display that works
well for all content in terms of its overall
quality y, because it performed brilliantlyy in
our technical testing. Peak brightness is
great at 533cd/m2, the contrast ratio is also
very impressive at 1,579:1 and colour
performance is exceptionally good.
With a colorimeter, we measured 96.2%
coverage of the sRGB colour gamut, and
colour accuracy was near perfect too.
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
p-up webcam and a power button with built-in fingerprint reader
aps from the
nge about this
ood.
HOT STUFF
st powerful
tion, we had high
e. Sure enough,
it started off well in our 4K benchmarks,
scoring 105 in the image test and 80 in the
video-encoding test, but a lower than
expected multitasking score of 67 led to it
producing an overall score of 78.
In fairness, this is still high for an
ultraportable, though it’s also a mere
three points higher than last year’s Core
i7-powered MateBook X Pro, so the
generation jump in CPUs hasn’t resulted in
major overall performance changes. It’s also
worth noting that the late 2019 version of
Dell’s XPS 13 – which was refreshed with the
same Core i7-10510U – scored 97.
As per usual with lap ptop p performance
discrepancies, this looks like a case of one –
the XPS 13 – having more efficient cooling
than the other. Again, though, we wouldn’t say
the MateBook 13 Pro felt either sluggish or
overly warm during normal use, so this
shouldn’t be a dealbreaker. The MX250 is
also a nifty GPU for lower-end gaming; we
got Dirt Showdown running at a smooth
79fps, using the High quality preset.
More concerning is battery life. Despite the
fact that it’s using a low-power Intel chip, the
MateBook X Pro lasted only 7h 55m in our
video rundown test. That’s actually better
than the XPS 13, but also worse than both
its immediate predecessor and the original
2018 model. The Lenovo Yoga C940 (Shopper
387), another Intel 10th-gen laptop, also
managed to go all the way to 11h 13m.
A MODEST PROPOSAL
This new MateBook X Pro is a solid update,
but an unexciting one. There are worse fates:
this laptop still has an amazing display, good
all-round performance – including a modicum
of gaming ability if you opt for either of the
models with discrete graphics – and an
excellent keyboard/trackpad combo.
However, the lack of big changes makes it
hard to fully recommend this 2020 model.
That’s especially in the light of the prices; you
couldd get a 2019 model for less, and wouldn’t
be losing any significant functionality.
Thhen there’s the Dell XPS 13 and, in
particcular, the Lenovo Yoga C940, both of
which h present more affordable and generally
betteer-performing choices.
Jonathan Bray
SPECIFICATIONS
PROC • RAM
CESSOR Quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-10510U
16GB • DIMENSIONS 304x217x14.6mm • •
WEIGHT 1.3kg
EEN SIZE 13.9in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 3,000x2,000 •
SCRE
GRAPHICS ADAPTOR Nvidia GeForce MX250 • TOTAL
R AGE 1TB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10
STOR
Home • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS consumer.
huawei.com • PART CODE MACHC-WAE9LP
Win
ndows overall 78
Multitasking 67
Battery life 7h 55m
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 100 for performance details
25
 GAMING GRAPHICS CARD
POWERCOLOR
Red Dragon Radeon
RX 5600 XT
★★★★★
£279 • From www.ebuyer.com
VERDICT
A simple yet effective 1080p card that repels
competition from Nvidia
THE CRUCIAL ISSUE with AMD’s latest
‘budget’ GPU, the Radeon RX 5500 XT
(Shopper 385), was that at £200 it invited
comparisons with mid-range cards more
than it did rival budget models. The new
RX 5600 XT, thankfully, suffers no such
identity crisis. Knowing its ambitions as a
powerful yet affordable GPU for 1080p
gaming, this PowerColor Red Dragon version
is both priced and specced where you’d
probably expect it to be.
In fact, it’s incredibly close to Nvidia’s
GeForce equivalent, the GTX 1660 Ti (Shopper
377). Both cost around £270 and have 6GB of
GDDR6 memory at their disposal. With a base
clock speed of 1,560MHz and a boost speed of
1,620MHz, the GTX 1660 Ti has the faster
cores, but the RX 5600 XT has many more of
them: 2,304 to the Nvidia GPU’s 1,536.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
PowerColor’s customisations are
characteristically straightforward. There’s a
dual-fan cooler and a plain black metal
backplate, neither of which make for a card
that’s particularly eye-catching in a windowed
case, but it’s nicely practical. The fans are
only modestly noisy during sustained gaming
runs and don’t need to run at all for lighter
loads, allowing for fully silent operation.
The selection of display outputs is similarly
utilitarian: with three DisplayPorts and one
HDMI port, there’s nothing fancy such as
USB Type-C connectivity, but for multiple
monitors this card will still do the job.
Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic
derailed our testing plans, as we were unable
to rescue our graphics testing PC from the
office before it was hastily shut down. Instead
of the standalone card AMD was going to
send us, then, we decided to use the RX 5600
XT as it appears in the pre-built Palicomp
AMD Orion (Shopper 388). Keep in mind (and
forgive) this departure from usual Shopper
testing protocol, though it’s at least good
news for the GPU itself: the AMD Orion’s
26
Ryyzen 7 3700X processor is more gaming g-
friendly than the standard test rig’s Intel
Core i7-4770K, so there should be less
bottlenecking in the CPU-sensitive Dirt
Showdown benchmark.
Sure enough, the RX 5600 XT blasted
through this particular Ultra-quality test,
averaging 180fps at 1,920x1,080 – its most
It sits under the looming shadow of the Radeon RX 5700,
which at just £20 more, represents nigh-unbeatable value
naturally inclined resolution – and going on to
score 150fps at 2,560x1,440 and even 85fps at
3,840x2,160. It wouldn’t be fair to compare
these 1080p and 1440p results to those of the
GTX 1660 Ti, which was tested with the Core
i7-4770K, but in the 4K test specifically, the
GPU would be more a defining factor than the
CPU – and here Nvidia’s card produced 76fps,
so first blood goes to the Radeon.
GOING UNDERGROUND
Metro: Last Light Redux is so taxing on
graphics hardware that CPU bottlenecking is a
non-issue, so this game gives an even clearer
picture of the RX 5600 XT’s power advantage.
Using Very High settings and SSAA, it
managed a very respectable 71fps at 1080p
and 42fps at 1440p; both visibly smoother
than the GTX 1660 Ti’s 64fps and 36fps
respectively. Both cards lack 4K credentials in
more demanding games, but the RX 5600 XT’s
19fps at this resolution is at least another win
over the GTX 1660 Ti, which produced 15fps.
Unexpectedly, given prior showings, the
GTX 1660 Ti managed to slip ahead in Tomb
Raider at 1080p: on Ultimate quality, its
150fps just edges the RX 5600 XT’s 145fps.
Otherwise, however, AMD remained on top,
its GPU cruising to 102fps at 1440p and even
a playable 53fps at 4K. While the GTX 1660 Ti
was never far behind, scoring 95fps at 1440p
and 47fps respectively, it’s
obvious at this point that
the RX 5600 XT is the more
powerful GPU.
It’s more efficient, too,
albeit only slightly. Both this
GPU and the MSI-built GTX
1660 Ti model we tested have
TDP values of 130W,, but the GTX 1660 Ti
maxed this out under load. By contrast, the RX
5600 XT tended to hover around the 120W
mark, and only ever peaked at 126W.
This leaves temperatures as the only
reason to choose the Nvidia GPU. It’s only
ever a single-digit difference, but the RX 5600
XT’s 44°C idle temperature, 71°C typical load
temperature and 73°C peak temperature are
all toastier than what MSI’s card managed
with a similar dual-fan cooler.
GAME FOR MORE
Still, this is not an unduly hot GPU by any
means, and you simply shouldn’t give up the
RX 5600 XT’s performance advantage just to
save a few degrees Celsius.
However, there is one more common
thread between the GTX 1660 Ti and the RX
5600 XT, and it’s one that makes the latter
somewhat less appealing. Both sit under the
looming shadow of the Radeon RX 5700,
which at just £20 more, represents nigh-
unbeatable value: it has an extra 2GB of
VRAM, and even sticking to 1080p, its
86fps in Metro and 168fps in Tomb Raider
represent big steps upward.
If you’re looking to upgrade a Full HD
gaming system, you won’t outright regret
buying the RX 5600 XT, but unless you
desperately need that pair of tenners for
something else, you might end up feeling like
you missed out on something even faster.
James Archer
SPECIFICATIONS
GPU AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT • MEMORY 6GB GDDR6 •
GRAPHICS CARD LENGTH 240mm • WARRANTY Two
years RTB • DETAILS www.powercolor.com • PART CODE
AXRX 5600XT 6GBD6-3DHR/OC
Dirt Showdown 180fps
Tomb Raider 145fps
Metro: Last Light 71fps
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 100 for performance details
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
802.11ax ROUTER

LINKSYS Velop MX5300

Home Mesh WiFi 6 System
★★★★★
£370 • From www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT
A fast enough Wi-Fi 6 router, but the lack of additional
satellites means this is not yet a full mesh system

MESH SYSTEMS USUALLY come with at system (Shopper 387), no manual control
least one main unit and then a satellite or Linksys doesn’t reserve over network channels.
two to spread around your home to improve one of the 5GHz bands You can force the
your Wi-Fi. It’s something of a surprise, then, for the interconnection outer to scan for the
ro
to open the Linksys Velop MX5300 Home (the backhaul) between beest channel and let it
Mesh WiFi 6 System box and find that there’s satellites. Instead, all make an automatic
just a single router inside. networks are open to deecision, but that’s the
This is what Linksys calls a ‘one-pack’, clients and, if you ever mit of control.
lim
which means that it’s not really a mesh have them, satellites. There’s device
system at this point, although it’s capable As this is a Wi-Fi 6 prrioritisation, to give
of being expanded into one at a later date. router, the specs are up to three devices
Well, it would be if you could buy additional quite impressive. The 2.44GHz network k priority, which can
satellites but, at the time of writing, you network has four stream ms running
g be handy
y forr a smart TV to make
couldn’t; nor can you buy the two-pack, at 1147Mbit/s, the first 5GHz network sure it can always stream content from
which is due to come later. has four streams at 2,404Mbit/s and the the internet. However, other devices on the
last 5GHz network (running on the higher network are throttled back, as we saw in our
ALL BY MYSELF channel) has four streams at 1733Mbit/s. initial performance tests.
At the moment, then, the MX5300 is very That’s a total of 12 streams.
much a standalone Wi-Fi 6 router that at FAMILY FAVOURITES
some point you’ll be able to expand into a STREAM TEAM Parental controls are basic out of the box: you
mesh system. It’s a rather plain-looking Streams, as we’ve mentioned in Shopper can blacklist a website manually, and you can
tower of a device, but that’s quite a good before, are particularly important in the schedule access on a per-device basis. If you
thing, as once it’s unpacked and set up, the Wi-Fi 6 world. A router can devote want to create profiles and use pre-defined
router kind of fades into the distance. streams to clients, giving each one dedicated categories to block websites, you have to
At the rear, there’s the standard port bandwidth, or a faster device can pull in upgrade to Linksys Shield. We’d have liked a
layout, with a Gigabit Ethernet WAN port multiple streams to get faster transfer rates. better free tier of blocking, with a paid-for
and four Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired In short, then, the more streams you have, the option improving features for those that want
devices. It’s a shame that there’s not a better the total bandwidth can be shared. it, much like on the Orbi system.
faster WAN port in preparation for To test the system, we used a Wi-Fi 6- As a Wi-Fi 6 router, the Linksys Velop
the full-fibre connections enabled laptop to get the best MX5300 is a decent enough performer,
that are starting to roll out throughputs. At close range, although it struggles at range. If you’re only
across the UK: if you’re going we saw fast throughputs with after a single router, the Netgear Nighthawk
to buy a router with the latest upload speeds of 448Mbit/s AX8 (Shopper 383) is a better, and cheaper,
Wi-Fi standard, it kind of and download speeds of choice. If you need a mesh system, the
makes sense to be prepared 468Mbit/s. Moving to the Netgear Orbi RBK852 is faster, although it is
for the future in all ways. first floor, speeds dropped very expensive and currently lacks parental
There’s also a USB3 port that a little but were still quick, controls, although these are coming soon.
you can use for sharing with upload speeds of For now, however, most people will find the
storage over your network. 314Mbit/s and download original Wi-Fi 5-based Netgear Orbi RBK50
As with most modern speeds of 315Mbit/s. On the (Shopper 358) offers the best combination of
routers, the MX5300 is set second floor, the single price, performance and features.
up and configured through router dropped off massively, David Ludlow
a smartphone app; there’s with upload speeds of
also a web interface that 16Mbit/s and download SPECIFICATIONS
mimics the app if you do speeds of 63Mbit/s. An
want to connect via a PC. extra satellite would have
MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD Wi-Fi 6 •
STATED SPEED 2,402Mbit/s and 1,733Mbit/s (5GHz),
The configuration is rapid, proved useful here. 1,147Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 1 • WALL MOUNTABLE
quickly taking you through All wireless networks No •WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.linksys.
setting up your broadband appear under the same name, com • PART CODE MX5300
connection and configuring with the router choosing
5GHz 2m 458Mbit/s
the Wi-Fi network. which one connecting devices
5GHz 5m 314Mbit/s
This router is tri-band, join based on features, 5GHz 10m 40Mbit/s
with one 2.4GHz network and performance and range. If you 0 200 400 600
two 5GHz networks. Unlike ⬆ The MX5300 is configured want to change the settings, See page 100 for performance details
the rival Netgear Orbi RBK852 through a smartphone app there’s very little choice, with

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 27

 4K MONITOR
DELL UltraSharp
UP2720Q
★★★★★
£1,337 • From www.ballicom.co.uk
VERDICT
It’s expensive, but Dell’s display serves up
pro-level quality and great features
THE DELL ULTRASHARP UP2720Q is a
feature-packed professional monitor with a
built-in colorimeter, a 4K resolution and
Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. Because of that
impressive specification, it will set you back a
cool £1,337. That’s a huge amount of cash, but
this panel is aimed at photographers and
designers, so image quality has to be top-notch.
BIG SHOT
This is one of the first professional screens
from Dell to include a colorimeter, and it’s a
welcome addition: it means it can be calibrated
to run accurately with a wide variety of colour
spaces. The 27in screen size and huge pixel
density also means the UP2720Q has loads of
desktop real estate available for any task,
staying crisp and precise throughout.
Dell has used IPS technology, which makes
sense for colour accuracy. The 60Hz refresh
rate and 8ms response time are fine for work,
but not brilliant for fast-paced animation tasks
or gaming during downtime.
Elsewhere, the display has 10-bit colour
and arrives with lofty ambitions when it comes
to gamuts, including 100% sRGB and Adobe
RGB coverage, a 98% DCI-P3 level and 80%
coverage of BT.2020. The UP2720Q can also
use the DCI-P3, BT.709, BT.2020, sRGB, Adobe
RGB 65 and Adobe RGB 50 colour spaces.
The UP2720Q has inarguably excellent
connectivity. This includes a single DisplayPort
1.4 connection and two HDMI 2.0 ports,
alongside a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3.0
port that handles the usual data and image
transfer alongside 90W of power delivery –
handy for driving a second screen.
There are also two full-size USB3.1 and USB3
ports, with one of the USB3 ports capable of
delivering 2A of power for charging phones.
Adjustment options are good, too: there’s
130mm of vertical movement alongside 25° of
tilt and 90° of swivel,
along with the ability to
rotate to portrait mode
and fit on 100mm
VESA mounts. Build
quality is excellent, and
the UP2720Q looks
smart generally, with its
sleek metal base and
slim bezels. Setting it
up doesn’t require any
tools, and its weight of
9.7kg is perfectly reasonable.
30
The UP2720Q can be managed with the
onscreen display or with Dell’s Colour
Management. Both are unfussy and effective,
with sensible organisation. The menus offer
lots of options, with the usual brightness and
colour settings alongside options to lay grids
across the screen or schedule calibrations, and
the row of navigation keys on the bottom
bezel can be customised. Picture-by-picture is
supported, but picture-in-picture is not.
PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
Dell provides factory calibration on each
UP2720Q, which means great image quality
out of the box. At factory settings, the Dell’s
average and maximum delta-E figures of 0.27
and 1.28 are stupendous – some of the best
we’ve seen. The colour temperature of 6,872K
is a little high, but it’s not far enough away from
the 6,500K ideal to cause noticeable issues.
The UP2720Q also performs well when it
comes to gamut coverage. It blasted through
the sRGB gamut at 99.8%, and rendered 96.1%
and 95% of the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3
gamuts. Those two latter figures are slightly
below Dell’s claimed results, but they’re still
easily good enough to enable working in these
colour spaces. The UP2720Q also handles
around 80% of the BT.2020 space.
By default, the panel runs at a brightness
level of 154cd/m2. That’s modest, but it still
provides enough luminance for work tasks.
That figure is joined by a stunning black level
of 0.16cd/m2, which is low enough to deliver
tremendous depth and
subtlety in darker areas.
The factory contrast
level of 968:1 is fine, but
below Dell’s quoted
figure of 1,300:1. It’s
good enough for design
work, but a higher result
would have allowed for
more versatility.
The contrast and
black point levels were
maintained d when we increased
brightness to its maximum level of 255cd/m2,
and colour accuracy and temperature were
maintained here too. Activating the screen’s
various gamut modes also saw these contrast
and accuracy levels remain consistent, with
contrast levels hovering around 1,000:1 and
delta-E levels well below 2.0 – beneath the
point where human eyes can detect deviation.
The Asus ProArt PA34VC is brighter, with
slightly better contrast than Dell’s monitor, but
its delta-E figures were higher and it couldn’t
handle the Adobe RGB or DCI-P3 gamuts.
BenQ’s DesignVue PD2720U has marginally
better contrast and colour temperature along
with comparable gamut coverage, but slightly
poorer delta-E and Gamma figures – so it’s
very close to the Dell in terms of accuracy.
ALL TRADES
The Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q costs more than
both of these other monitors, but it justifies
the extra outlay in important areas, particularly
the versatility afforded by its ability to work in
a wider variety of colour gamuts.
It’s not perfect – the contrast and colour
temperature could both be better, especially
considering how costly this display is – but
nonetheless, the UP2720Q offers ample
quality for a wide range of design and image
workloads alongside a great range of features.
Mike Jennings
SPECIFICATIONS
• RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 •
SCREEN SIZE 27in
SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • REFRESH RATE 60Hz •
VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 •
WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.dell.com •
PART CODE UP2720Q
CONNECTION PORTS
HDMI x2 DisplayPort USB Type-C
3.5mm
USB3.1 x2 USB3 x2
headphone jack
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
FULL HD MONITOR
BENQ GL2780
★★★★★
£145 • From www.ebuyer.com
VERDICT
A well-connected 27in monitor with great
image quality, all at a budget-friendly price
THE GL2780 IS an unusual monitor in that it
doesn’t sacrifice much to hit a relatively low
price point. Most monitors below £150 tend to
be 24in displays or smaller, but this one is a
whopping 27in, giving you loads of space to
spread out windows and applications.
The catch is that the BenQ GL2780 doesn’t
use an IPS panel. Instead, it employs TN tech.
Besides lower colour vibrancy, this means that
at extreme viewing angles the picture quality
falls off dramatically. If you’re only going to sit
directly in front of it, however, it’s one of the
better budget TN monitors we’ve seen.
PURE AND SIMPLE
In addition to the monitor itself, BenQ supplies
a desk stand – which you have to attach
yourself using a small thumbscrew – as well as
an HDMI cable and a kettle-type mains lead.
That’s all pretty standard, as is the display’s
design. The bezels are thick, and the housing
is made from plain black plastic at the front
with a curved, patterned rear. It’s practical
rather than pretty, but that’s no bad thing.
With excellent image quality and a huge expanse of display,
this is a stupendously good screen for very little money
There are plenty of nice touches, including
a power adaptor that’s housed within the
monitor, so there’s no dangling power brick to
worry about. You also get a cable tidy built
into the stand. You can’t adjust the height of
the monitor, but that’s not unusual at this
price, and you at least get tilt adjustment and
100mm VESA mount compatibility.
For a budget monitor, the GL2780 is
unusually well fitted out when it comes to
connections, with HDMI, DisplayPort, dual
link DVI-D and VGA outputs all included.
This means most
laptops and PCs are
covered, unless yours
happens to only have
USB Type-C ports.
Even then, you
don’t necessarily
need to miss out:
you can always buy
a cheap Type-C-to-
HDMI cable.
That’s it for video
inputs, but you also ge et 3.5mm
audio inputs and outpu uts,
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
positioned underneath the monitor in the
bottom left corner, so you can hook up a pair
of PC speakers or a headset.
BAND OF COLOURS
Stretching a resolution of 1080p across a
27in screen means things can look a little
pixellated, but this is far from a deal-breaker
because – outside of this middling sharpness
and the narrow viewing angles of the TN
panel – the picture quality is remarkably
good. The GL2780 goes pretty bright – all the
way up to 326cd/m2 – and the contrast ratio
is an excellent 1,316:1, which helps prevent
colours from looking washed out.
Colour performance is great for the money,
too. Using a colorimeter we found sRGB
gamut coverage to be 92.4%, which is good,
but it’s colour accuracy that steals the show.
Average delta-E comes in at just 0.99, which is
downright superb for a budget display.
There are no issues with brightness
uniformity across the panel, either, with no
patchiness or backlight bleed anywhere to be
seen. That’s a relief, as even far more luxury
monitors have been known to let the backlight
shine a little too brightly around the edges,
but there’s simply
none of that here.
Aside from
co
omprehensive
onnectivity, sensible
co
deesign and great
coolour performance,
thhere are some extra
feaatures you might
waant to take note of
as well. Top of the list
is an automatic
brightness mo ode, which lowers
the intensity of the backlight to
match the am mount of ambient ligght in your
room. It does this with the help of a small light
sensor jutting out of the bottom of the screen,
and it works well enough – though manually
adjusting brightness isn’t difficult either.
Then there’s the 75Hz refresh rate, a
modest step up from the usual 60Hz. Most of
the time this will manifest as merely smoother
mouse movement, but there is an advantage
here for playing games, providing you’re
running them at frame rates above 60fps.
There’s also a blue light reduction mode –
useful if you tend to use the monitor late at
night – and, finally, integrated speakers. These
aren’t exactly the last word in sound quality,
and we’d recommend a pair of desktop
speakers (or headphones) for games and
films, but they’re perfectly adequate if all you
want to do is watch the odd YouTube clip.
ECONOMIC RELIEF
The BenQ GL2780 costs just £145, which is a
great price for such a practical, feature-packed
monitor. With excellent image quality and a
huge expanse of display, it’s a stupendously
good screen for very little money.
That said, high demand seems to be
causing prices to fluctuate; during testing we
noticed it was going for £130. You might
therefore want to hold on until stocks are
replenished and the price has fallen.
Jonathan Bray
SPECIFICATIONS
• RESOLUTION 1,980x1,080 •
SCREEN SIZE 27in
SCREEN TECHNOLOGY TN • REFRESH RATE 75Hz •
VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-D, VGA •
WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.benq.eu •
PART CODE GL2780
CONNECTION PORTS
HDMI DisplayPort DVI-D
3.5mm 3.5mm
VGA headphone jack microphone jack
31
 MULTIFUNCTION PERIPHERAL
EPSON Expression
Home XP-3100
★★★★★
£50 • From www.argos.co.uk

VERDICT
The Expression Home XP-3100 is a cheap
MFP, completely undermined by its
expensive ink

EPSON’S EXPRESSION HOME XP-3100

looks to be everything you could want from a
multifunction peripheral (MFP) for the home.
Smart, compact and reasonably attractive, it
certainly won’t look out of place in a typical
living room. It also has the features you’ll
need: you can print, scan and copy, share it
over Wi-Fi, and print to both sides of the
paper without lifting a finger. That’s
impressive, given it only costs £50.
Look in more depth, however, and you’ll
see that this MFP misses some things you
might find on more expensive alternatives.
There are no front-panel USB or memory
card slots, for example, and no touchscreen.
Instead, you get a colour screen with a menu
controlled by membrane buttons. The screen
is small, but the system is very usable.
TWO SIDES TO THE STORY
Start printing and it becomes clear that while
the XP-3100 isn’t especially quick, it’s not bad
for the money. It produced our 25-page black
text job at a rate of 9.2 pages per minute
(ppm), and our complex colour graphics test
at 2.9ppm. Photo printing was more laborious,
however, with each 6x4in (15x10cm) postcard
Running costs are an eye-watering 5.2p per mono page,
or 18.3p for one full-colour page of text and graphics. No
matter the XP-3100’s strengths, that’s simply too much
print needing more than two-and-a-half Unfortunately for the XP-3100, it all falls
minutes. It’s great to have duplex printing at apart once you consider running costs. This
this price, but at just 2.3 images per minute printer takes Epson’s 603 series inks, available
(ipm) you’ll have to be patient. in standard and XL sizes. While the XL
Fortunately the XP-3100’s scan speeds cartridges print a reasonable 500 black pages
compare a little better. Tested over Wi-Fi, the and 350 in colour, the standard items are
MFP could preview an A4 document in 11 spent after just 150 black and 130 colour
seconds, and it needed 12 seconds to scan it pages – among the lowest capacities we’ve
at 150 dots per inch (dpi). Capturing a 6x4in seen. Even calculated for the larger supplies,
photo took 36 seconds at 600dpi, and a running costs are an eye-watering 5.2p per
minute at a detailed 1,200dpi resolution. mono page, or 18.3p for one full-colour page
Mono photocopies were swift, too, taking of text and graphics.
just 13 seconds, but colour copies needed
35 seconds to complete. UPKEEP DOWNER
Generally speaking, the XP-3100 produced No matter the XP-3100’s strengths, that’s
great results. Black text looked crisp, and both simply too much to pay for your printing.
mono and colour We’d recommend paying a little more up
copies were well front for the still-imperfect but generally
exposed, with much better Canon Pixma TS5350 (Shopper
accurate colours in 388). Alternatively – and especially if you
the latter. Scans were print frequently – consider a refillable ink
sharp, too, with a alternative such as Epson’s EcoTank ET-4750
wide dynamic range (Shopper 361). While this costs much more,
that preserved all it arrives with more than enough ink to
the colours and make it better value out of the box.
shades of our target Simon Handby
images. Photographs
were great for an SPECIFICATIONS
affordable device,
with skin tones
TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT
looking particularly
RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440dpi • MAXIMUM OPTICAL
SCAN RESOLUTION (OUTPUT BIT DEPTH) 1,200x2,400dpi
natural. Our one (24-bit)• DIMENSIONS 170x375x300mm • WEIGHT 4.3kg
disappointment was • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One
that colour graphics year RTB • DETAILS www.epson.co.uk • PART CODE

lacked impact on C11CG32401

plain paper. This was

especially true of Mono speed 9.2ppm

duplex prints at Mixed colour 2.9ppm

speed
the default setting, Mono page cost 5.2p
which uses less ink Colour page cost 13p
to minimise
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
bleed-through See page 100 for performance details
⬆ The XP-3100 has a reasonable set of features for just £50 and smearing.

32 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

DESKTOP SPEAKERS

CREATIVE T100
★★★★★
£110 • From www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT
Few similarly priced speaker sets offer the flexibility,
minimalist design and sound quality of the T100

THE CREATIVE T100 are the latest entry in
Creative’s ‘T’ series of desktop speakers.
Creative is perhaps best known for having
produced the Sound Blaster sound card in the
late 1980s but has since gained a reputation
for producing affordable, great-sounding
speakers, including the GigaWorks T20 Series
II and T40 Series II. The T100 may be dearer
than their predecessors, but impressive sound
quality combined with a few bells and whistles
make them a worthy addition to the family.
For £110 you get a pair of stereo speakers,
a mains adaptor, a 1.5m-long 3.5mm aux-in
cable and an infrared remote control. The
speakers house 2.75in full-range drivers and
each delivers a continuous 20W of power,
with the output of the pair peaking at 80W.
the speakers, cycling
input sources and
changing volu ume
can all be done via
buttons on the e top
panel of the left
speaker. The innfrared
remote adds a few more
options, including a mute button and individual
settings for basss and treble, while also giving
you the ability to switch between four
pre-programme ed EQ presets.
The differences between the Music,
Cinema, Concerrt and Gaming presets is not far: the weig
ght of bass on display is certtaiinlly
especially marke ed, but aside from Concert, impressive for a 2.0 speaker setup, but it
which strikes us as a slightly strange inclusion, would still undoubtedly benefit from a
each suited its designated medium. dedicated speaker for low-end frequencies.

COUNTING CONNECTIONS
The plastic casing makes the speakers pretty
lightweight at 1kg apiece and, while far from
luxurious in their build quality, they don’t feel
cheap. Crucially for those that like to keep
their workspace uncluttered, they don’t take
up a huge amount of room on your desk, with
each unit measuring 90x120x220mm.
The T100 are incredibly flexible for a simple
pair of stereo PC speakers. You can connect to
them via an analogue 3.5mm connection, but if
you want to go wireless, you can pair via
Bluetooth 5.0. Sadly, the T100 only support
the basic SBC codec, so you can’t enjoy higher-
quality audio streaming via Bluetooth as you
would with aptX, aptX HD or AAC.
While you can also play hi-res audio files
by plugging in a USB storage device, there are
a few caveats. The storage
device must be FAT32
formatted, 32GB in capacity y
or smaller, and you’ll only
be able to listen to MP3,
WAV and FLAC files. Your
final connection option
comes in the form of an
optical input that allows
you to hook up the T100
to your TV or games
console. These are
truly multipurpose
multimedia speakers.
Setting up the T100 is
about as easy as it gets;
you simply plug them
The T100 perform superbly if you’re listening to music
or watching video via the wired connection
Unfortunately, there’s no way to quickly tell
which settings you’re currently using and
when you turn the speakers off, the settings
reset. This is a minor annoyance, but the
inclusion of a display would have driven up the
price so it’s an understandable omittance.
LOW MOOD
For a pair of compact speakers, the T100 do
a good job of filling small rooms with sound.
We didn’t have any issues with dialogue
clarity
y when watching g movies or TV shows,
either – the T100 reproduced
midss and highs cleanly
witthout any tinniness,
which isn’t always the
caase with cheaper PC
sppeakers. Unfortunately,
video playback suffered
frrom noticeable audio
la
ag when connected
over Bluetooth, so we
had to use the 3.5mm
cable when watching
video content.
As with the majority
of the T-series, the T100
speakers use Creative’s
BasXPort technology,
That said, the omission of a subwoofer makes
the T100 a far more appealing package to
those for whom desk space is at a premium.
STRONGEST LINKS
The T100 have an impressive range of
connectivity options and the speakers look
smart while remaining spatially economic.
They perform superbly if you’re listening to
music or watching video via the wired
connection, though Bluetooth latency detracts
from the wireless experience with video. And
while not a deal-breaker, it’s a shame Creative
didn’t include support for newer codecs.
If you’ll make use of Bluetooth connectivity
for music alone and want the flexibility of
being able to connect via an optical-in or play
music via a USB device, the Creative T100 will
serve you very well. If you’re not going to take
advantage of those features and aren’t fussed
about having a remote, save yourself some
money and take a look at one of Creative’s
cheaper desktop speaker sets, such as the
Pebble Plus, T20 Series II or T40 Series II.
Andy White
SPECIFICATIONS
• RMS POWER OUTPUT 80W • DOCK
DRIVERS 2

into a power source, which the firm claims

CONNECTOR None • WIRELESS Bluetooth 5.0 •
DIMENSIONS 220x90x120mm • WEIGHT 2kg •
choose how you want to will do away with the WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS uk.creative.com •
connect to the speakers neeed for a subwoofer. PART CODE T100
and away you go. Powering on We wouldn’t go quite that

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 33

 WIRELESS IN-EAR HEADPHONES
SENNHEISER Momentum
True Wireless 2
★★★★★
£279 • From www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Sennheiser’s true wireless earbuds sound as
good as any, but they come at a hefty price
AT FIRST GLANCE, Sennheiser’s new
Momentum True Wireless 2 look more or
less the same as their predecessors, but
don’t be fooled into thinking the German
manufacturer has rested on its laurels. Its
second-gen true wireless earbuds improve
on the originals with active noise cancelling
(ANC) and drastically improved battery life,
along with a slimmer design.
The outer housing is still slightly bulky,
which can mean some fiddling as you work
out the best angle from which to insert
the earbuds into your ear canal. Once you
get used to the process, however, you’ll
have no problem inserting them – or leaving
them in for hours, as they’re pleasantly light
and comfortable.
MISTAKES WERE MADE
We wish Sennheiser had made the touch
controls less finicky, however. It’s all too
easy to perform the wrong input when the
sensor needs to share so many different
functions: one tap activates Google Assistant,
two enables transparency mode and three
switches ANC on or off.
The good news is that you can customise
all of the touch functions from the Sennheiser
Smart Control mobile app so that those you
use most are most readily accessible with a
single tap. It’s from the mobile app, too, that
you can toggle the earphones’ various smart
features on and off. Smart pause, which
pauses music automatically when you remove
an earbud from your ear, is enabled by default,
34
as is ‘Auto-accept call’, a feature that accepts
calls as soon as the right earbud is removed
from the charging case.
The app also lets you switch the
transparency mode on and off but, strangely,
there’s no way to check whether you have
ANC or transparency enabled at a glance.
That’s frustrating, but hopefully something
that Sennheiser will add in the future.
Other than ANC, the internal hardware
remains largely unchanged from the old
Momentum True Wireless, but that’s no bad
thing: those were some of the very best-
sounding true wireless headphones you
could buy. As such, the Momentum True
Wireless 2 impress in all the same areas.
There’s a sense of space to the sound
output that belies their design, and excellent
instrument separation helps make for truly
engaging listening. The sound signature is
neutral, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in
bass: low-end frequencies are as well
represented as mids and treble, they’re just
not as overbearing as they can be with many
in-ear Bluetooth headphones.
STEREO SYSTEM
With support for aptX and AAC via Bluetooth
5.1, it’s possible to stream high-res audio from
a range of different devices. And, because the
earphones use a Qualcomm QCC 5100 chip,
they also support Qualcomm’s TrueWireless
Stereo and Stereo Plus protocols, which
promise improved battery efficiency along
with a more robust connection with
compatible Android smartphones.
The only problem is, ironically, a lack
of reliability to the Bluetooth
connection. For long periods, it
would be absolutely faultless but,
at times, we’d notice one earbud
dropping out a little despite
being very close to the source
device (in our case, an Android
smartphone) with no obvious
source of interference.
There’s also a slight audio
delay when watching videos on
YouTube or Netflix. This could
feasibly be fixed in a firmware
upddate, but right now the
Mome entum True Wireless 2 are really
only suite ed to music.
On that note, the big addition here is that
ANNC functio onality. In terms of performance, it
can be tricky to gauge the effect because
in-ear headphones don’t get help from the
same level of passive noise isolation as
over-ear headphones, but generally the ANC
does an admirable job.
It capably cut out the background noise of
office chatter and air-conditioning sounds
when indoors, and when we simulated flight
conditions by loudly playing cabin sounds
through a hi-fi system, the Momentum True
Wireless 2 cut out most of the engine noise.
There’s no doubt the feature is a welcome
addition, though it seems to offer diminishing
returns as you turn the volume up louder,
more so than with over-ear or on-ear
headphones. If you’re the sort of person
who always listens to music loudly, then, it
might not be a vital feature for you.
RICH SOUND
Irrespective of this and the few other niggles,
however, our experience of Sennheiser’s
Momentum True Wireless 2 has been largely
positive. Their superior comfort and sound
quality are enough to make them a go-to
choice even when the benefits of going
all-wireless aren’t as important, like when
you’re sitting at home.
As with the previous model, however,
there’s the thorny issue of the price. If these
earbuds cost closer to £200, they’d be a
must-have, but when you can buy two pairs of
Sony’s superb WF-1000XM3 true wireless
headphones for just £40 more than one pair of
these, it shows just how expensive they are.
If money is no object, go buy them and
you’ll almost certainly be very pleased you
did – just remember that they’re not the last
word in true wireless buds.
Edward Munn
SPECIFICATIONS
HEADPHONES SUBTYPE In-ear • PLUG TYPE None •
WEIGHT 12g • CABLE LENGTH N/A • WARRANTY Two
years RTB • DETAILS en-uk.sennheiser.com • PART
CODE 508674
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
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 ANDROID 10 SMARTPHONE

SAMSUNG Galaxy S20+

★★★★★
£999 • From www.samsung.com/uk

VERDICT
Premium display quality, performance and battery life
make this a viable alternative to the Galaxy S20 Ultra

THE GALAXY S20+ risks being the awkward unused, on the left Aside from that,
middle child of Samsung’s 2020 flagship edge of the phone however, the
phone range. It isn’t as fully featured as the – although it is now screens are similar
top-of-the-range S20 Ultra (Shopper 388) activated by a long in specification.
and it’s more expensive than the standard press of the power Both use AMOLED
S20 (page 18), which has many of the button. Otherwise, it’s panels, ensuring
same features. all fairly standard stuff: perfect black level
However, of the three, this is the phone a volume rocker and and contrast, and
that gives you the best bang for your buck power button sit on both support HDR10+
on paper: it’s cheaper than the S20 Ultra, the right edge, the with a claimed 100%
and has both a larger display and bigger dual-purpose SIM and coverage of the
battery than the S20, as well as 5G included microSD card tray is DCI-P3 colour gamut.
as standard. Its CPU, storage, water- on the top edge, the Both have that
resistance and construction materials all USB Type-C port and super-smooth 120Hz
match those of the Ultra model, too. speaker grill are on the refresh rate, too.
The main features it lacks are the S20 bottom, and the selfie Our tests (and the
Ultra’s 108-megapixel main camera sensor camera peeks out evidence of our eyes)
and its 100x hybrid zoom. The Galaxy S20+ through a neat suggest that this is a
instead has a 30x hybrid zoom (3x optical) hole-punch cutout very good display
and a 12-megapixel main camera, which in the centre of the technically as well.
should be enough for most folks. display just like on the In the settings, you
Galaxy Note 10+ (Shopper 382). You don’t get have two different options: Natural, which
LAY OF THE BLAND an S Pen stylus here, however. provides coverage of the sRGB gamut at
Design-wise, it’s slim and sleek enough, Elsewhere, the phone is equipped with 96.2%, and Vivid, which delivers a colour
measuring 7.8mm thick, 162mm tall and a a range of suitably high-end features but, gamut that’s closer to Rec.2020 than it is to
mere 74mm wide, and it’s also nice and light again, nothing you wouldn’t expect from one DCI-P3. Use this one for HDR playback.
at only 186g. Compared to an iPhone 11 Pro of 2020’s most anticipated smartphones. Peak brightness is excellent, reaching
Max it feels noticeably more lithe – taller, but There’s IP68 dust and water-resistance, which 699cd/m2 in normal use, and it’s a fabulous
lighter and slimmer – which is quite the grants submersion in 1.5m of water for up to display on which to watch your favourite
achievement given the Samsung’s 6.7in 30 minutes. An under-screen fingerprint films and TV shows. Our testing also
display is 0.2in bigger. reader and face revealed a peak brightness with HDR
However, there’s unlocking allows for material that reaches a far higher 1,209cd/m2.
nothing special about quick access without That’s beyond the spec of HDR10 and it
the layout of having to tap in a means HDR video material looks as it
components and passcode. The phone’s should do, with deep, inky blacks, subtly
buttons, and the wireless chipset distinguished darker tones and blindingly
all-black model we supports 4G and 5G bright specular highlights.
were sent is a little connections along As a side-by-side comparison with the
boring to look at. with the latest flavour iPhone 11 Pro Max demonstrates, however,
It’s not even available of the super-fast Wi-Fi Apple’s reproduction of HDR material is even
in a particularly standard, Wi-Fi 6, and better. Notably, there’s a much better balance
alluring range of other there’s Bluetooth 5 as between dimmer parts of the onscreen image
colours: just this, well. There’s also and those bright highlights.
‘cloud blue’ and wireless charging and In day-to-day use this means you might
‘cosmic grey’. What’s reverse wireless struggle to see what’s going on, particularly in
more, while both the charging. This phone murky HDR scenes, whereas that’s rarely the
rear and front are pretty much has it all. case with the iPhone 11 Pro Max (and, by
coated with Gorilla extension, the iPhone 11 Pro). A win for the
Glass 6, the rear glass BRIGHT FUTURE iPhone on this count, although the Samsung
seems to be more The screen is the main Galaxy S20’s display is exceptionally good.
prone to picking up thing that makes the
unsightly fingerprints S20+ more expensive SMOOTH THINGS OVER
and grease. than the Galaxy S20. As you’d expect from a flagship refresh,
Perhaps the most It’s 0.5in bigger the Samsung Galaxy S20+ is flush with
notable thing to pick diagonally; that’s quite the very latest silicon. In the case of the UK
out is that the Bixby a lot in the realm of and European release of the phone, you’re
button no longer sits, smartphone screens. getting Samsung’s 7nm, 2.7GHz octa-core

36 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

The display, features,
battery life and performance
are all suitably high
quality and, although the
camera isn’t the best in the
business, it’s still capable of
taking very nice shots
Exynos 990 processor, and it’s backed by
12GB of RAM, just as the S20 Ultra is.
Performance is very swift as a result.
The S20+ scored 793 in Geekbench 5’s
single-core test and 2,738 in the multicore
test, ensuring snappy responsiveness in any
task. It’s not as fast as the iPhone 11 Pro,
however, and it’s weird that the single-core
result is lower than that of the standard S20.
For gaming, it’s clearly among the best.
Among the benefits of that 120Hz display is
that, in games that support it, the onscreen
frame rate can reach much higher than the
usual 60fps you get with phones that have
60Hz screens. In the onscreen Manhattan
GFXBench test, the S20+ achieved an average
frame rate of 105fps, which is among the
highest we’ve ever seen in this test.
There’s more good news, too:
alongside superb performance, battery
life is top notch. In our video rundown
test, with the display set to 170cd/m2
brightness and flight mode enabled,
the Samsung Galaxy S20+ lasted an
impressive 20h 12m. That’s nearly two
hours more than the Galaxy S20.
Bear in mind, however, that this result
was obtained with the phone in its default
settings; that is, with the resolution set to
FHD+ and the refresh rate at the more
standard 60Hz. Bump the settings up to
120Hz and you can expect that figure to
nose-dive by at least a couple of hours,
which is fine but not quite as excellent.
TEAM OF FOUR
There are three conventional camera
sensors on the rear of the Samsung
Galaxy S20+: a zoom lens, a standard
wide-angle lens and an ultrawide-angle
lens. You’re not getting the same
spectacular 100x Space Zoom as on the
S20 Ultra; instead, the zoom camera is
an f/1.8 64-megapixel 3x optical unit that
can digitally zoom to 30x. You’ll mostly
be using the main camera, however, and
that’s a much more standard-looking
12-megapixel f/1.8 shooter, while the
ultrawide-angle camera captures at
12-megapixels and has an aperture of f/2.2.
The fourth and final sensor, which
sits just below the LED flash, is a
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
0.3-megapixel time of flight module that’s
used primarily for measuring depth in a
scene so you can more accurately apply
background blur when editing.
In terms of performance, this camera
setup is good, if not quite as fantastic as
the S20 Ultra’s or the iPhone 11 Pro’s. In a
side-by-side comparison of daylight shots
captured with the iPhone 11 Pro’s
12-megapixel camera , we saw a little more
contrast and lower noise levels on the Galaxy
S20+, while the iPhone images looked a
touch more natural and neutral overall.
In low light, it’s a different story. This is
where the iPhone 11 Pro’s images come to
life; they’re more colourful, vivid and true
to life and, although the Samsung
smartphone’s shots look sharp and full of
detail, they are duller and darker.
The ultrawide photographs, in good
light, are very good. There’s a touch more
stretched-out distortion in the corners
than on the iPhone 11 Pro but the image is,
overall, a little cleaner and crisper with,
again, less noise.
RANGE FINDER
It’s the zoom where the S20+ begins to
claw back a lead. You’re getting more
optical magnification with the S20+ than
the iPhone 11 Pro and, thus, more detail.
That said, neither handset’s photos
are particularly pleasant to look at when
using extreme zoom. Even if you zoom
in only by a factor of 10, photos look
mushy and lacking in detail.
Video recording is a similar story.
Just like the S20 Ultra, the Samsung
Galaxy S20+ gives you the ability to
record in 8K resolution at 30fps, which
looks great if you use a tripod or a
gimbal (stabilisation isn’t available at this
resolution). However, viewing this footage
is only practical if you own an 8K TV.
Again, you’re better off shooting in 4K,
which is also packed with detail, but even
here there are limitations. While you can
shoot at a smooth 60fps, you’re limited to
30fps if you want a stabilised shot. The
iPhone 11 Pro, by comparison, can shoot at
4K in 60fps fully stabilised.
Elsewhere, there are some nice features
to play around with in the camera app,
notably the Single Take function, which
captures a series of video clips and still
images from a quick pan of the camera, then
presents them all in a tiled view.
Overall, the camera arrangement is a bit of
a mixed bag. Photos are better than those of
rivals like the OnePlus 7T Pro for overall image
quality but, if you’re buying a phone purely
for the camera and don’t have a preference
for either Apple or Android, we’d recommend
the iPhone 11 Pro as the superior option.
VALUED MEMBER
If you do want to stick with Android, however,
the Samsung Galaxy S20+ still makes a fine
choice. The display, features, battery life and
performance are all suitably high quality and,
although the camera isn’t the best in the
business, it’s still capable of taking very nice
shots if you stick to optical zoom. You’ll be
happy with the results, either way.
Ultimately, you’ll be choosing the
Samsung Galaxy S20+ because you want
the best an Android phone has to offer but
can’t quite justify the £200 extra for the Ultra.
If you do that, you won’t be disappointed.
Just don’t expect to be blown away.
Jonathan Bray
SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.73GHz Samsung Exynos 990 •
•
SCREEN SIZE 6.7in SCREEN RESOLUTION 3,200x1,440 •
REAR CAMERAS 12 megapixels, 64 megapixels, 12 megapixels,
• •
0.2 megapixels STORAGE 128GB WIRELESS DATA 5G •
•
NFC Yes DIMENSIONS 162x74x7.8mm WEIGHT 186g • •
•
OPERATING SYSTEM Android 10 WARRANTY One year
•
RTB DETAILS www.samsung.com PART CODE •
SM-G986BZKDEUA
Battery life 20h 12m
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 100 for performance details
37
 ANDROID 10 SMARTPHONE

MOTOROLA Moto G8 Power

★★★★★
£220 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com

VERDICT
An affordable phone that goes on and on, though
it’s not the game-changer its predecessor was

MOTOROLA CONTINUES TO stagger the In terms of core specs, lens with 2x zoom
releases of its new Moto G8 family, this time the Moto G8 Power is magnification, an
with the Moto G8 Power. The Moto G7 Power identical to the Moto G8 8-megapixel ultrawide
(Shopper 376) was the best of the bunch last Plus, with both coming with sensor and a 2-megapixel
time round, and this year’s update once again the Qualcomm Snapdragon macro camera.
includes a huge 5,000mAh battery to 665 processor paired with Surprisingly, however,
prioritise longevity. 4GB of RAM. As such, it this complete overhaul
However, the Moto G8 Power also goes for shouldn’t come as any doesn’t always produce
a slightly more mid-range set of overall specs, surprise that performance much better-looking photos
including a 1080p display, a big CPU jump is basically identical. than the Moto G7 Power.
from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 to the Scoring 1,505 in Geekbench In outdoor shots, the main
665, and a price rise to £220. It could still be a 4’s single-core test and visible difference is that the
great phone – just not a budget champion like 5,490 in the multicore test, Moto G8 Power’s shots are
the previous generation. the Moto G8 Power also brighter – so much brighter,
It’s also worth noting that the huge battery provides a sufficient in fact, that the automatic
comes at the cost of slimness: at 9.6mm thick, performance upgrade on exposure makes everything
the Moto G8 Power feels a bit chunkier than the Moto G7 Power, look really washed out.
most modern smartphones, and the same especially for multitasking. Despite this, it picks up
goes for its 197g weight. Despite this heft, The Snapdragon 665 plenty of detail and is
however, it’s rather stylish, with extremely also ensures the Moto G8 generally a good picture, but
thin bezels and a pinhole front-facing camera Power keeps up on gaming performance. arguably no better than its predecessor.
instead of a notch. It produced 18fps in the GFXBench In low-light shots the Moto G7 Power also
Build quality could be better; the curved Manhattan onscreen test and 19fps in the turns out to be better, again because the
edge of the backplate connects awkwardly offscreen test; its predecessor scored 20fps newer model washes out details that are
with the body of the phone, meaning you can onscreen but only 11fps offscreen, so the already smeary from the lack of natural light.
feel a sharp overlap if you run your fingers effects of the Moto G8 Power’s higher,
over it – but there are quite a few niceties to more demanding screen resolution are CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
make up for it. That backplate features a cancelled out by a stronger GPU. At least the Moto G8 Power’s other sensors
fingerprint reader, for example, and both a Against non-Motorola competition, the give it some much-needed advantages over
3.5mm headphone jack and a combined Moto G8 Power is on equal terms with the the Moto G7 Power’s single camera. A 2x
microSD/dual SIM slot are included, instead Honor 9X (Shopper 386) and Xiaomi’s Redmi telephoto lens at this price is very good value
of being left out as on so many phones. Note 8T (Shopper 387), so it at least matches indeed, and the macro sensor does a decent
the kind of power you should expect for the job at snapping extreme close-ups.
DUE AN UPGRADE money even if it doesn’t drastically surpass it. Even with the price hike, the Motorola
The Moto G8 Power has a 6.4in IPS LCD Moto G8 Power is a good phone overall.
screen with a resolution of 2,300x1,080, a STAYING POWER However, it doesn’t follow last year’s model
major upgrade on the 720p Moto G7 Conversely, its battery life is, again, a big in undercutting the competition, and this
Power for sharpness. standout. Running for opens it up to attack: the Xiaomi Redmi
Unfortunately, our tests 22h 27m in our standard Note 8T, for instance, is £50 cheaper and
found it to be slightly battery test, you should performs just as well in most areas. It has
weaker on colour easily get a couple of day’s poorer battery life, and misses the telephoto
performance than both normal use out of the lens (but still has four others to choose from),
its predecessor and the Moto G8 Power, and but it’s probably a better buy overall.
recent Moto G8 Plus although the Moto G7 Play Alan Martin
(Shopper 385). managed in excess of 26
With an sRGB gamut hours – that resolution
SPECIFICATIONS
coverage of 81.2% the G8 change comes into play
Power’s screen is good, again – this is still one of
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 •
but not quite as vibrant the longest-lasting Android
SCREEN SIZE 6.4in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,300x1,080 •
REAR CAMERAS 16 megapixels, 8 megapixels, 8 megapixels,
as the Moto G7 Power, handsets on the market. • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G •
2 megapixels
which managed 90%. The Moto G8 Power NFC No• DIMENSIONS 158x76x9.6mm • WEIGHT 197g •
It is, however, better also takes the number of OPERATING SYSTEM Android 10 • WARRANTY One year RTB

illuminated, with a rear camera sensors from • DETAILS www.lenovo.com • PART CODE XT2041
maximum brightness of one to four. Besides the
Battery life 22h 27m
525cd/m2, and the 16-megapixel main lens,
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
contrast ratio of 1,582:1 this includes an See page 100 for performance details
is decent, too. 8-megapixel telephoto

38 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

ANDROID 9 SMARTPHONE
OPPO A5
★★★★★
£160 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com
VERDICT
This a decent budget Android handset, but
you can do better even at such a low price
OPPO AND XIAOMI are both Chinese firms
making inroads into the UK smartphone
scene, and sometimes comparisons between
the two run remarkably deep: the Oppo A5
budget handset is almost identical to the
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T (Shopper 387) on
specs. It’s cheaper, but only by £10.
Which, then, is the better buy?
WEIGHT WATCHING
The first thing you notice about the Oppo A5
is that it’s pretty chunky. That’s not just down
to it having to make room for a 6.5in display, as
at 195g, it’s only a gram lighter than the huge
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ (Shopper 382).
It’s less of a problem when you get used
to it, however, and as for looks, it’s not any
better or worse looking than the Redmi Note
8T. Both even have the same semi-circle notch
for the front camera. It’s well equipped with
extras, too, including a rear fingerprint reader,
room for both two SIMs as well as a microSD
card and a headphone jack. This jack is
positioned on the bottom edge, however,
which again takes getting used to.
The screen uses an IPS panel with a
resolution of 1,600x720 – very much on the
low side for a 6.5in display. The Redmi Note
8T’s 6.3in panel is slightly smaller, but much
sharper at 2,340x1,080. The A5 still has a
decent screen on its merits, covering 89.7% of
the sRGB colour gamut and achieving a high
contrast of 1,375:1, not to mention an
impressively high peak brightness of
512cd/m2. Unfortunately
for Oppo, the Redmi Note
8T is simply better overall,
thanks to its sharper
resolution, even higher
contrast and more vivid
95.7% sRGB coverage.
Powering the Oppo
A5 is a Qualcomm
Snapdragon 665 and
either 3GB or 4GB of
RAM, depending on
the version; our test
unit had 3GB.
That is, of course, the
same chip found within
the Redmi Note 8T, and
our benchmark results
reflect this lack of
difference. The A5’s
scores of 1,514 and 5,508
in the Geekbench 4
single-core and multicore
tests respectively are in line sensor and two 2-megapixel
with not just its close Xiaomi lenses to “provide artistic
rival, but also other cheap portrait effects” – depth-of-
smartphones such as the field effects, in other words,
Motorola Moto G8 Power though it’s not clear why
(opposite) and Honor P the A5 needs two of these
Smart; the Redmi Note 8T lenses when similar setups
has a slightly higher multicore manage with one.
score of 5,600, but this In any case, photographic
doesn’t signal a noticeable performance is mixed, though
difference in normal use. not in the way you might
In the GFXBench expect. Cheap smartphone
Manhattan gaming cameras usually handle
benchmark, the A5 beat outdoor shots respectably
its rivals with 33fps in the then struggle indoors, but the
onscreen test, though since A5 has a much tougher time
it’s a 720p phone going up than its competitors when
against 1080p models, it was trying to capture outdoor
always going to have an detail. Colours also appear
advantage; though it’s also weirdly smoggy.
fine to opt for lower frame In conventionally more
rates in exchange for a crisper image. difficult low-light conditions, however, the
It doesn’t seem to affect performance A5’s shots are less blurred and more detailed
much, but Oppo’s ColorOS Android skin is than those of its rivals. That alone gives it
certainly one of the more aggressive we’ve some appeal, although overall, we’d still say
used. While it’s hugely customisable in terms the Redmi Note 8T’s camera array is the
of how you navigate, it’s enough of a better one. Besides its far better detail capture
departure from the stock Android UI that in favourable lighting, its own fourth lens
you’ll need to spend some time learning it. actually adds bonus capability in the form of a
Still, there’s not much in terms of bundled macro sensor, as opposed to being just one
apps, barring a few of Oppo’s own apps: half of a portrait mode shooter.
AquaMail, Game Space and Music. You’re
also given Facebook and Opera, which you SAME BUT DIFFERENT
may or may not want. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the
Oppo A5, but all things considered, its only
REVERSAL OF big win over the Redmi Note 8T is battery
FORTUNES life; on every other metric, Xiaomi’s phone
There is one unqualified is either as good or better, and that’s more
advantage to the A5, than worth the £10 premium.
however, and it’s a big If you do want a long-lasting phone and
one. Like the Moto G8 don’t mind a 720p display, this isn’t even the
Power, this phone best choice on those terms: consider a
contains a gigantic discounted Moto G7 Power instead.
5,000mAh battery, and it Alan Martin
helped the A5 last for a
superb 19h 47m: well SPECIFICATIONS
beyond the 14h 53m of
the Redmi Note 8T.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 •
The A5 also joins the
SCREEN SIZE 6.5in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,600x720 •
REAR CAMERAS 12 megapixels, 8 megapixels, 2 megapixels,
Moto G8 Power (and, yet • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G •
2 megapixels
again, the Redmi Note 8T) NFC No• DIMENSIONS 164x76x9.1mm• WEIGHT 195g •
OPERATING SYSTEM Android 9 • WARRANTY Two years RTB
in offering a four-lens rear
camera at a lower-than- • DETAILS www.oppo-uk.com • PART CODE CPH1931
usual price. The main
Battery life 19h 47m
12-megapixel sensor is
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
supported by an See page 100 for performance details
8-megapixel ultrawide
39
 DSLR CAMERA
NIKON D780
★★★★★
£2,183 • From www.amazon.co.uk
k
VERDICT
A stupendous camera capable of outstanding
results, whatever genre you shoot
THE TOP END of the DSLR market is a
minefield for consumers. Should pros and
high-end amateurs go mirrorless? Will your
investment in a full-frame DSLR hold up in a
few years’ time? What about established
versus upstart lens mounts?
The Nikon D780 is a camera that might
convince more than a few that the DSLR isn’t
buried yet. It’s a 24.5-megapixel, full-frame
sensor in a camera that can shoot up to a
respectable 7fps and which takes advantage
of Nikon’s legendary Advanced Multi-CAM
3500 II AF module to give you 51 autofocus
points. It is also Nikon’s first DSLR to offer
hybrid AF, bringing high-performance
autofocus to live-view and video shooting.
With awesome image quality, this is a
camera that should threaten just about
everything in its price bracket.
DUAL WIELD
There’s a certain romance to the D780’s
design, which is classic DSLR. That means
it’s not much to look at, but is a champ
when it comes to usability. It’s pretty big, at
144mm wide and 116mm tall, but all that
heft is put to excellent use.
For one thing, body controls are chunky
and easy to hit; the dials have a solid clunk to
them, and the controls on the back are easy
to manage. Our only complaint is directed at
the drive mode selector, which gets its own
selector wheel underneath the mod de dial.
To use it, you hold down a lock butt tton with
your thumb and move the selectorr around
to choose a new drive mode. The front edge
of the selector is ridged so you can n get a
good grip on it with a fingertip, butt
nonetheless, it’s fiddly. It’s also, giv
ven the
great design of the camera, a bit weird –
drive mode, which you can expect to want
to change frequently, gets the fiddly,
locked dial, while bracketing, which h
most photographers will use once then
forget about, gets its own shortcutt
button on the front of the camera..
Elsewhere, the D780’s hefty buiild
is put to good use. Swing open the e Switch to livve view, and the D780 has a trick
card slot door and you’ll find two SD
slots with all the normal options
– overflow for when the first card
fills, mirrored for hardware
redundancy, or JPEG and RAW
files to different cards. It’s a
welcome if obvious conclusion for
a camera that will find its way into the
bags of many professionals.
40
One thing that has gone since the old
D750 is the pop-up flash, with the D780
joining the likes of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
and the top-end Nikon D5 in having no
on-camera lighting. In truth this means one
fewer moving component to break, and will
make no meaningful difference to most
high-end professionals, who will supply their
own off-camera lighting of one sort or
another. One group of photographers who
might be negatively affected is snappers
who use their camera’s integrated flash to
trigger a nearby optical slave unit.
Still, Nikon taketh away and Nikon giveth:
although the monitor on the back of the
camera hasn’t grown, it has gained touch
sensitivity. Unlike some, it merely tilts,
allowing you to angle the camera up and
down; it doesn’t swivel or rotate.
THE LONG PLAY
The battery deserves a mention.
Photographers will quickly get
used to simply popping the
D780 in a cupboard without having to charge
it, because the 2,260-shot battery life means
most of the time you simply won’t think about
it. It’s vastly superior to the EOS 5D Mark IV’s
claimed battery life of 900 shots. Once it
starts to falter, you’ll be pleased to know the
D780’s next-generation specs extend to its
USB port, which is a USB Type-C PD socket,
allowing you to charge the camera without
removing the battery. It also gives you the
option of charging from a portable power bank.
The viewfinder is a cracker, big and sharp,
and that bulging grip gives you plenty to hold
on to. Its top speed of 7fps is utterly usable
for almost everything but high-end sports,
and we fell in love with its autofocus system.
Tenacious even in poor light, the relatively
austere number of AF points (51 versus
multiple hundreds on mirrorless cameras)
never held us up. We also found subject and
face tracking g in live view mode to be excellent.
Nikon claims the D780 will focus in
condittions up to -3 EV, and we used
it in
n a number of low-light, low-
contrast scenarios in the hope of
tripping it up, only to find it
ferociously holding on. We also
found leaving the camera to its
own devices in either dynamic
area or auto-area yielded good
results, with it accurately
detecting our intended subject
annd delivering a sharp result.
TWO IN ONE
up its sleevve: it’s the first Nikon DSLR to
offer hybrid live-view autofocus. It’s the
same syste em as in Nikon’s superb range of
Z-series caameras. Set the camera to live
view and you get on-sensor phase detection
that autommatically switches to contrast
detection iff it needs to. You get a lot more
autofocus po oints: 273, the same as on the
mirrorless Z66. A decent live-view autofocus
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
system opens up a few
possibilities, not least of
which is the promise of
using autofocus during
video recording, but also of
using face detection, whicch
proved super-accurate
during our tests.
Brick by brick, reasonss
to buy the D780 fall into
place. There are stacks off
processor-intensive trickss up its sleeve, such
as in-camera focus stackin ng, in which you can
give the camera the desired number of images
to shoot and how much it should shift focus by
each time (albeit in frustratingly imprecise
‘narrow’ and ‘wide’ terms). There’s also an
integrated intervalometer and a time-lapse
mode, to the presumed horror of remote trigger
manufacturers everywhere. All three work well
and go a long way towards making the D780
just about all the camera equipment a lot of
photographers will ever need.
Great images, great battery life, a top-notch movie mode and
excellent usability: the D780 gets pretty much everything right
So far, it’s a solid four out of five. Then you
start reviewing your images and fall in love all
over again. The colour science behind the D780
is rock solid, which resulted in images with loads
of editability; meanwhile, editorial photographers
will appreciate the lifelike tones and wide
dynamic range, which make for images that can
be filed with absolutely minimal intervention.
LEADING LIGHT
ISO performance is crazy, in a good way. In terms
of noise, there’s little distinction to be made
between images shot at ISO 100 and 800, and
we found there were another three stops – up to
ISO 6,400 – where the D780 was able to produce
profoundly usable images. Beyond that, noise
begins to make itself known, but even so, our
ISO 12,800 test images were – to our eyes –
printable, which gives photographers an
unbelievable amount of latitude in terms of
output. At what point does the D780 start
making unusable images? It really depends what
you’re shooting, but we felt perhaps ISO 51,200
might represent the upper limit of usability for
all but the most newsworthy of frames.
The D780’s video mode has received a major
upgrade from the D750. Where the D750 offered
no 4K option at all, the D780 can shoot 4K at
30fps, 25fps or 24fps. Opt for Full HD and you’ll
find frame rates available up to 120fps.
One slight niggle is that N-log – the option to
shoot ultra-flat footage with the broadest
possible dynamic range – is only available to
the D780 when you use an external recorder.
Other cameras, most notably the Canon EOS R
(Shopper 379), can record it internally. Still, we
shot with the camera’s integrated Neutral colour
profile and found plenty of editability when it
came to grading footage.
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
Videos move nicely – we had to move the
D780 very violently to get any of the leaning
verticals associated with rolling shutter, and
from our tests, at least, we wouldn’t hesitate
to shoot fast-moving subjects and attempt
vigorous camera pans with it.
This is a very competent video camera
thanks to some pro-level inclusions. Hardware-
wise, you get audio in and out for external sound
recording and monitoring, while internally you
get zebra striping and focus peaking, including
mid-take focus peaking, which makes pulling
focus easier during a shot.
SHUTTER BRILLIANCE
Great images, great battery life, a top-notch
movie mode and excellent usability: the Nikon
D780 gets pretty much everything right for the
price. Most importantly, the images it makes are
superb, with the instant quality demanded by
editorial photographers but the pliability desired
by digital artists. Those working in low light will
adore it, while the camera’s autofocus abilities
are state of the art whether you’re using the
phase-detection module through the viewfinder
or the hybrid AF system on the sensor.
It’s nicely built – perhaps not as well as the
Nikon D5, but certainly well enough that it will
survive all but the worst abuse. Similarly, the
controls are big and easy to hit; there are meatier
buttons out there, but most won’t need them.
It doesn’t make the DSLR market any less
turbulent, and choosing what you’re going to
spend your cash on is a challenge, but it’s
hard to imagine many photographers buying
the D780 and feeling disappointed.
Dave Stevenson
SPECIFICATIONS
SENSOR RESOLUTION 24.5 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE
35.9x23.9mm (CMOS) • FOCAL LENGTH MULTIPLIER 1x •
VIEWFINDER Optical • LCD SCREEN 3.2in (2,360,000 dots) •
VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION (35mm-EQUIVALENT,
COVERAGE) 0.7x, 100% • WEIGHT 840g • DIMENSIONS
116x144x76mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
www.nikon.co.uk • PART CODE VBA560AE
Battery life 2,260 shots
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 100 for performance details
 VR HEADSET
OCULUS Rift S
★★★★★
£400 • From www.argos.co..uk
VERDICT
A worthy successor to the Rift, with an eassy
all-in-one design and smooth display
IT’S BEEN A long time since the Oculus Riftft
broke cover as the first genuinely usable
consumer VR headset. In that time, Oculus
has produced two offshoot goggles – the
Oculus Go (Shopper 367) and Oculus Quest
– both of which are wireless, and aimed at the
masses in ways that the Rift never could bee.
Both are excellent products in their own
n
right, but the compromises required to mak ke
these self-contained VR headsets a reality
might leave some people feeling a little
short-changed. Fortunately, that’s where thee
new and improved Oculus Rift S comes in.
ALL IN THE HEAD
The Oculus Rift S is a more direct successor
to the original Rift, and although it
incorporates the same technology that
allows the Oculus Quest to function without
peripheral sensors, the Rift S is much more
of a full-blooded gaming VR machine.
With a 2,560x1,440 LCD display inside,
the Rift S connects to your PC via a split
DisplayPort/USB cable that stretches five
metres. It comes with two Oculus Touch
controllers, powered by a single AA battery
each; the headset itself is studded with five
outward-facing cameras, pushing the weight
up to a relatively light 563g.
This is far and away the best thing about
the Rift S: the package simply contains the
headset, two Touch controllers and some
leaflets. Unlike the original Rift, there are
⬆ The two Touch controllers are
powered by a single AA battery each
42
no external sensors required to use the
Rift S, as the headset tracks the user’s
movements from within.
PADDING AND SUBTRACTING
It should be said that, initially, the Rift S is
perhaps the least visually appealing Oculus
headdset; its oversized
d forehhead d andd inset
tracking cameras will make you look like a
gloomy beluga whale. It’s utilitarian, without
a doubt, but the matt black finish and
imposing headband add a touch of class
that the rubberised straps of the Oculus
Quest can’t quite match.
That headband is well designed, too.
Whereas older Oculus devices make do
with an adjustable velcro strap system,
the Rift S adopts a dial-adjusted headpiece
that’s reminiscent of Sony’s PlayStation VR.
Not only does it feel sturdier, but it’s also
much easier to adjust on the fly, and
spreads the not-insignificant weight of the
Rift S across your noggin better than the
Quest’s fiddly straps.
Like the PlayS Station VR, the Rift S has
a button that allo ows you to move the
eyepiece closer to and further from your face,
independent of the headband. This is helpful,
particularly for glasses wearers, as there’s no
spacer included in the box. It’s also worth
noting here that the Rift S is particularly good
at keeping outsid de ligh
ht from bleedding in,
courtesy of a relatively flat nosepiece.
In short, the Rift S should cling to your
head like a limpet. As indeed it does, although
the cushions are a little thin; prolonged use
will cause a little bit of soreness. This could
have been avoided simply by making the
cushions just ever so slightly thicker.
THE FULL PICTURE
Annoyingly, some other baffling design
choices get in the way of what would
otherwise be a thoroughly enjoyable
experience. The eyepiece lacks an inter-
pupillary distance (IPD) slider, so you’ll need
to fiddle with the in-app settings to try to
find a clear image. The Rift S also ditches
the over--ear headphones found on the Rift,
opting innstead for Quest-like directional
speakerss. However, they’re not quite as good
as the paair found on the Quest; audio is a little
tinny and d severely lacking in bass.
The display is better. Although the OLED
eyepiece es used by both the Rift and Quest
might produce richer colours and deeper
black tonnes, the Rift S’s LCD panel does a
better job of keeping the screen-door effect
(where you see visible gaps between pixels) to
a minimu um, thanks to the high pixel density
found in LCDs. The ‘fast-switch’ element limits
the effeccts of image persistence – the LCD
equivalen nt of screen burn, characterised by
images that linger after the screen refreshes.
As yoou’d hope, the difference is quite
noticeable. The Quest produces a more
vivid breadth of colours, but the Rift S
offe
ers a clearer, better-defined image –
pro
ovided you can find the sweet spot.
Pla
aying the startup tutorial on both
heaadsets revealed that the resolution
diffe
erences between the two actually
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
The best features have
been copied from the
excellent Oculus Quest,
and the worst features
are no more than a
little inconvenient
meant very little. Subjectively at least, the Rift
S seems to do a better job at reducing the
degree at which you can spot individual pixels.
The new display refreshes at 80Hz, which
is better than the Oculus Quest (72Hz) but
worse than the original Rift (90Hz). In practice,
an untrained eye won’t notice much difference
between 80Hz and 90Hz, although we did feel
a slight improvement when switching
immediately from the Quest to the Rift S.
FUN AND GAMES
Given that the Rift S is entirely dependent
on at least a moderately powerful gaming
PC, you’d expect it to offer the very best
VR experience from Oculus to date.
Fortunately, you won’t be disappointed –
not only are you able to access the broad
selection of games that are available on
Oculus’s own storefront, but the Rift S also
supports SteamVR out of the box and
displays the full Windows 10 desktop.
Provided your PC is up to the task,
breakout hits such as Beat Saber, Arizona
Sunshine and Superhot perform flawlessly.
Oculus recommends at least an Intel Core
i5-4590 processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX
970 or GTX 1060 graphics card for unhindered
VR performance, which is a reasonably
accessible list of hardware requirements.
Despite officially backing HTC’s VR
goggles, SteamVR also ran without a hitch,
even going as far as to recognise the Oculus
Touch controllers and render them in apps
and games. There’s certainly nothing stopping
you from playing beefy titles such as Fallout 4
or Skyrim VR using the Rift S, again assuming
that you have the right PC for the job.
Windows Mixed Reality headsets also
manage to run SteamVR, but the controllers
aren’t fully supported, and the results can
be a little hit and miss.
FRESH EYES
Pushing the Oculus Rift S to its limits, we
found that the Touch controllers occasionally
failed to register movement (particularly
when we held a controller at arm’s length).
It’s one of the few downsides of ‘inside-out’
tracking compared to using external sensors,
although Oculus states that the placement
of the cameras on the Rift S improves the
range of motion tracking in comparison to
the Quest. This has been further solidified
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
➡ The headset
is comfortable,
but it will
make you look
like a gloomy
beluga whale
by post-launch soft ftw
ware updates that have
drastically improved motion tracking,
although the lack of external sensors still
proves to be a slight hindrance.
One of the benefits of ditching the
external sensors, however, is that those
cameras can be hijacked to display the user’s
surroundings in real(ish) time. Oculus calls
this feature Passthrough Plus, and it can be
activated at any time from the Oculus Home
menu bar. It’s incredibly useful for preventing
potential disasters caused by overzealous VR
usage, and also serves a key function in getting
your play area set up without any hassle.
The setup process, incidentally, is
wonderfully simple. The Passthrough Plus
feature allows you to complete the fiddly bits
– identifying the ground level and creating a
safe play area – while wearing the headset.
All you need to get started is an Oculus
account and the Oculus desktop application.
It’s a far cry from the needlessly complicated
setup procedures of old, and it means that
even a true technophobe could get the Rift S
up and running with minimal stress.
NEW REALITY
All in all, this is a great update to the original
Rift. The best features have been copied
from the excellent Oculus Quest, and the
worst features are no more than a little
inconvenient. It’ss certainly an easy sell for a
PC gamer with an interest in VR or even for
a newcomer to the world of VR on PC. The
Oculus Quest remains easier to use and thus
potentially better for casual play, though the
Rift S is clearly a better heavy-duty option for
more enthusiastic gamers.
Next issue we’ll be reviewing the Rift S’s
newest main competitor, the HTC Vive
Cosmos, though don’t feel obliged to wait if
you’re already thinking of buying the Oculus
headset. Despite costing £700, a £300
premium, the Vive Cosmos offers the same
set of basic features as the Rift S, including
inside-out tracking and full Steam support.
There’s more to this comparison, of course,
but fundamentally, the fact that the Rift S
can even remotely compare to a product
£300 more expensive puts the headset in
an excellent position.
The Rift S isn’t without its own issues, but
for the frankly outstanding price, there is
currently nothing better on the VR market.
Will Georgiadis
SPECIFICATIONS
DISPLAY LCD • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 •
REFRESH RATE 80Hz • CONNECTIONS 1x DisplayPort,
1x USB3 • WEIGHT 563g • DETAILS www.oculus.com •
PART CODE Rift S
43
 FITNESS SMARTWATCH
SUUNTO 7
★★★★★
£429 • From www.suunto.com
VERDICT
The Suunto 7 combines both Wear OS smartwatch
facilities and extensive sports watch tools in one
WHILE MOST SERIOUS sports wearable
makers have largely shunned Google’s Wear
OS, Suunto thinks it has the formula cracked.
The Suunto 7 is its first smartwatch, and
combines the features of Wear OS with
Suunto’s fitness and sports tracking software.
That means conventional smartwatch
features such as notifications and NFC
payments alongside much more specialised
fitness-tracking and related tools, ranging
from Suunto’s ingenuous mapping software to
a full set of sensors. That includes a heart-rate
sensor, altimeter, motion sensors and GPS,
and it’s all waterproof up to 50m.
SMALL, BRIGHT AND HANDSOME
This doesn’t come cheap – in fact, this is one
of the most expensive fitness watches we’ve
tested – but straight away it demonstrates its
high-end credentials. The sculpted stainless
steel bezel looks just as good as the sharp,
vibrant 454x454 OLED touchscreen, and
both sit atop a resin case backing that sits
nice and comfortably on the wrist.
It’s practical, too, supplementing the
touchscreen with three large, easy-to-press
buttons on the right side and one at the top
left. That’s perfect for running in the rain,
swimming, or just working out with gloves
on – all of which would make using the
touchscreen more difficult.
Besides notifications, Wear OS also
confers Google Assistant functionality, which
means you can ask the watch questions, issue
commands to smart home tech – anything, in
effect, you can do with a Google Assistant-
enabled smart speaker. If you’re the type who
likes to run to music there’ss also Google
Play Music, which allo ows you
to download tracks to o the
watch and connect
your headphones
for listening without
your smartphone.
The Snapdragon
Wear 3100
processor and 8GB
of storage are
enough to keep
this smartwatch
functionality running
smoothly, but hit the
top-right button –
opening the Suunto app
– and the Suunto 7
transforms into a fully y fledged
multi-sport fitness tra acker.
44
If you’re familia
ar with
Suunto’s non-Wea ar OS
fitness watches, th hen the
interface is pretty much the
same. While runnin ng, for instance,
you have three datta screens
showing pace and heart rate,
distance and heartt rate zones. In Alpine
Skiing mode, mean nwhile, the focus is more
on altitude and spe eed.
There are a lot more activities it can
track than just run nning and skiing, however.
Indeed, from mainstream activities such as
hiking, swimming (both in the pool and in The Suunto 7 is suited to all types of
open water) and cycling, to more obscure sports, then, but because it’s a Wear OS
activities such as paragliding, roller skating device it isn’t the best for endurance athletes
and telemark skiing, it’s hard to think of or longer expeditions. Suunto quotes battery
anything it can’t do. In fact, the list extends life at 48 hours of smartwatch use (when not
to a total of 70 sports and activities, which actively tracking workouts) and up to 12 hours
is incredibly comprehensive. tracking workouts with GPS; we found these
official numbers accurate in our own use,
LOCKED IN but it’s not a great example of longevity
The one caveat to all this is that the app isn’t compared to most non-Wear OS fitness
very customisable; it isn’t possible to change watches. The Fenix 6 Pro, for instance, can
these sports profiles or to create your own, last for up to 28 days even with GPS usage.
and you can’t create preset workouts as you
can with Garmin wearables. ROUTE CLAUSE
Even so, Suunto’s mapping features more That said, it’s much better than the Apple
than make up for such restrictions. With local Watch Series 5 (Shopper 383), which only
map data (supplied by MapBox) downloaded lasts a day at the absolute most. The Suunto 7
to the watch automatically when you connect also makes up for its battery with reliable
to Wi-Fi, it’s possible to navigate via the watch tracking accuracy: considering the limitations
screen, wherever you happen to be. of wrist-mounted trackers, it’s seriously
The most useful thing about this mapping impressive that it so often matched the
feature is the heatmap view. This indicates, in heart-rate readings of a chest strap.
increasingly bright colours, popular routes GPS, too, only ever miscalculated a
used by other athletes, and because you can distance ran by 3.3% off the true distance.
also filter by activity, you can Demanding perfection is one thing, but
plann your routes with that’s not bad at all for a smartwatch.
knnowledge of both Overall, the Suunto 7 is a brilliant
what’s best-suited for Wear OS fitness watch – one of the best
your chosen activity of its kind, in fact. Those who take their
and how busy a sports very seriously should still consider a
route might be. dedicated Garmin, Fitbit or Samsung device –
The cherry on battery life and customisation options
the cake is that, in can make the difference – but if you
addition to all these specifically want standard smartwatch
features, there’s capability on top of accurate tracking,
plenty of support the Suunto 7 is worth buying.
for third-party Jonathan Bray
fitness platforms,
including Apple SPECIFICATIONS
Health, Google Fit,
Strava, MapMyRun,
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY
Tra
ainingPeaks,
SIZE 2in• RESOLUTION 454x454 • OS SUPPORT Android,
iOS • BATTERY LIFE Two days • WARRANTY One year RTB
Endo omondo, RUNALYZE • DETAILS www.suunto.com • PART CODE SS050379000
and quite a few more.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
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Buy the latest issue of your favourite magazine from
 VPN SOFTWARE
AVAST SecureLine
★★★★★
£50 per year • From www.avast.com
VERDICT
A dependable VPN with a polished interface,
but there’s nothing to make it truly stand
out from the crowd
AVAST’S BACKGROUND IS in security
products, and its SecureLine VPN looks and
feels more like an antivirus package than
your average VPN. It’s also sold as an annual
subscription rather than a monthly fee, just
like an internet security suite.
This doesn’t mean that Avast lacks the
privacy protections of other VPNs, however,
nor that it doesn’t cover streaming or P2P
applications. The simple UI reflects the fact
that the focus is on delivering a secure,
encrypted internet connection with the
minimum of fuss.
HERE AND THERE
With around 55 servers in 34 countries,
SecureLine doesn’t have the global reach of,
say, Nord VPN (Shopper 367) or ExpressVPN
(Shopper 347). It’s strong in Europe, Asia
Pacific and North America, but much weaker
elsewhere, with South America, the Middle
East and Africa covered by just one server
each (in Brazil, Israel and South Africa
respectively). It does, however, offer specialist
servers for video streaming in the UK,
Germany and the US, plus a few for P2P in
those countries plus France, the Czech
Republic and the Netherlands.
Client software is available for Windows,
macOS, Android and iOS, but not Linux. It’s
worth noting that, while most VPNs let you
connect from multiple systems at once,
SecureLine is sold on a single-device basis
(unless you pay extra for a five-device licence).
That’s worth bearing in mind if you’re looking
for a VPN to cover all your family’s devices.
It’s also not designed to run on routers.
One of SecureLine’s biggest strengths is
its ease of use: once you’ve downloaded the
app you can be up and running in minutes.
The Windows client is more stripped down
than that of HMA! Pro (which is also owned
by Avast), but it gives you basic instructions
while you’re using it, and it’s hardly tricky
to work out that you can click the big red
button marked ‘OFF’ to turn it into a big
green button marked ‘ON’.
GLOBE TROTTING
The Change Location button at the bottom is
equally self-explanatory: servers are listed by
region, and you can pick specific servers
(where available) by clicking a down arrow
next to the country. All other settings can be
found with a click of the Menu button; not
that there are many of them.
46
⬆ SecureLine is incredibly easy to set up and use
You can turn notifications on and off, and
choose whether SecureLine should start
automatically when the PC starts, but
otherwise the most noteworthy options are
under the Network Security tab, where you
can configure when the VPN turns on
automatically and enable the kill switch,
should you want it.
The final tab links you to Avast’s browser
extensions for Chrome and Firefox, and
gives you the option to use Avast’s Secure
If your priority is getting a secure connection, rather than
spoofing a specific location, you can expect great performance
Browser instead. This is based on the
Chromium open-source fork of Chrome and
has built-in ad-blocking, anti-phishing and
password-management features.
FOR THE RECORD
Avast is based in the Czech Republic, which
means it operates under EU privacy laws.
The company’s VPN policy makes clear that
it will comply with legal data-access requests.
It also notes that Avast does not store the
originating IP address of users when they
connect, and so cannot
reveal any information
about the applications,
services or websites you’ve
been using while connected.
What it does store is a
limited 30-day log that
includes timestamps of
connections, partly
anonymised details of the
originating IP address,
details of the VPN server
used and the amount of
data transmitted across
this connection.
We found SecureLine’s
privacy and security
protections perfectly robust. The software
uses 256-bit AES encryption with the
OpenVPN protocol on UDP, and Doileak.com
gave Avast SecureLine a clean bill of health,
exposing nothing untoward in terms of
location, IP address, DNS conflicts or even
excessive hops.
However, SecureLine doesn’t have the
additional security features of some rival
VPNs. Avast has added a kill switch in its
latest version, and it works well, but there
are no additional obfuscation or double-hop
features. If you want to make things as
difficult as possible for snoopers, other
VPNs go further.
THE FAST AND THE FAMILIAR
It’s our suspicion that SecureLine uses some
of the same infrastructure as HMA! Pro;
certainly some of the servers that popped
up seemed familiar.
The speeds we saw were very close, too,
and that means they’re generally very good.
Close to home there’s very
little drop in speed when
using the VPN: our
download speeds dropped
by just under 4% via a UK
server, while upload speeds
reduced by under 3%. It’s a
similar story using servers
based in the Netherlands
(–3.8% and –3.9%
respectively) and Germany
(–4.25% and -4.1%). If your
priority is getting a secure
connection, rather than
spoofing a specific
location, you can expect
great performance.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

At longer distances,
SecureLine is still pretty
speedy. Connecting to a US
server saw our ping rise from
14 to 85ms, but download
speeds went down by just
22%, and upload speeds
were still within 5% of a
VPN-free connection.
That means there’s easily
enough speed for HD video
streaming, gaming and P2P
applications. Connections to
Singapore and Australia
were predictably slower,
with speeds dropping by as
much as 60 to 86%, but
that’s not terrible by VPN standards.
It’s also worth mentioning that we had no
problems getting US Netflix to stream over
Boston or New York connections, and BBC
iPlayer streamed happily while connected
through a UK server.
Avast’s mobile apps have a similar look
and feel to the desktop version. The Android
version matches it for features – which isn’t
difficult, given how streamlined it is – while
the iOS version drops the kill switch feature.
Both are about as easy to use as possible:
unless you need to change location, you just
tap the button and go.
UPWARDLY MOBILE
Performance on Android was even more
impressive than on the desktop. Speeds
dropped by around 4% on a UK-to-UK
connection, and by just 3.3% (download) and
4.3% (upload) on a transatlantic connection.
We suspect this might have been achieved
via the use of virtual locations, whereby
European servers spoof a US location, but if
so, it doesn’t matter, as US Netflix worked a
treat, and Doileak.com’s tests didn’t detect
anything out of the ordinary.
Speeds were a little slower on our iPad,
with drop-offs of 7.4% and 3.7% on a UK
connection, and 19% and 11% while
connecting through the US. That’s still in
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
the same area as the desktop client, however,
and it’s hardly troublingly slow.
WELL HIDDEN
Avast provides a SecureLine browser
extension, but rather than the usual free
proxy VPN, this acts as a convenient control
for the full-fat VPN, enabling you to switch it
on and off at the click of a button in your
browser toolbar. We found this handy while
browsing the web, and if you want additional
security and ad-blocking features, you always
have the Avast Secure Browser.
There’s also a sizable online Knowledge
Base with FAQs, as well as a traditional
support service and 24/7 live chat. We found
the support responsive, polite and helpful;
the response to one query was a little short
on detail, telling us basic instructions on
which locations to use for P2P, but not the
best way to access them. Still, given how
easy the app is to use, this isn’t likely to be
a problem for many people.
As we said earlier, Avast doesn’t get
involved in the usual monthly charges and
multi-year discounts. Instead, it offers
SecureLine at £15 a year for a single iOS or
Android device, and £50 a year for PC and
Mac; if you want support for multiple clients,
there’s also a five-device subscription for £65
a year. That puts it in the same ballpark as
⬅ SecureLine provides
around 55 servers in 34
countries, with a decent
selection in Europe
⬇ A kill switch lets
you block all internet
access if the VPN is
disconnected
high-end VPNs such as Nord VPN or
ExpressVPN, but it’s a little pricier than
budget options such as StrongVPN,
SurfShark or Windscribe. If you want to test
it out before you buy, there’s also a seven-day
free trial available on all platforms.
DRAWING THE LINE
Avast SecureLine is easy to use, speedy and
affordable. The only real problem is that in a
very competitive market it doesn’t offer any
significant advantage over its many rivals,
including stablemate HMA! Pro and our
current VPN Best Buy holder, CyberGhost
VPN (Shopper 381). These both offer some
sort of additional feature that makes them
that little bit more compelling – and they’re
slightly cheaper, too.
Similarly, while SecureLine’s security
credentials are perfectly good, it can’t claim
to be any more secure than the competition.
It all adds up to a perfectly good VPN, but
one whose most distinctive point is its slick
interface – and it takes more than that to be
worth choosing over the rest.
Stuart Andrews
SPECIFICATIONS
•
OS SUPPORT Windows, macOS, Android, iOS DETAILS
•
www.avast.com PRODUCT CODE SecureLine
47
 Choosing a... PC system
01 A basic PC costing around £350 will
be able to run everyday office,
multimedia and education software and will
easily cope with surfing the internet. It might
even be able to run some modern games.
Many PCs can be sold either with or
without a monitor. If you don’t like the
display the manufacturer is offering, you
can always use your current one, or buy
another one separately.
03 All modern PCs come with at least
a dual-core processor and are
capable of most tasks. Anyone who
peripherals attach to these ports. Most new
PCs come with USB3 or the latest USB3.1
ports, which provide faster data transfers
regularly undertakes demanding tasks when used with supported devices than the
such as video editing and encoding older USB2 standard.
should consider a hexa-core or even
an octa-core processor.
06 Most new PCs now come with
Windows 10 pre-installed. Don’t be
04 There are plenty of good reasons to
upgrade the PC’s memory or hard
disk. If you’ll use your PC for gaming, video
too easily swayed by the inclusion of other
software, though, as it may be that you’ll
never use it.

02 If you want to play games, you’ll

have to upgrade the graphics card.
Budget cards such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX
1050 will cope well with many 3D games, but
to play the latest 3D games smoothly (and
enjoy the best-quality graphics) it’s worth
upgrading to a more powerful card such as
the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070.
editing or other demanding tasks, you’ll
need at least 8GB of RAM and a large hard
disk; 1TB should suffice. Many new PCs have
an SSD, which speeds up the time it takes for
your PC to boot and for programs to load.
05 Having plenty of USB ports is
always useful, as most computer
07 While most PCs come in cases of
a similar size, some have more
compact mini tower or mini PC cases.
These smaller PCs will fit under your TV
or on your desk more easily, but bear in
mind that they’re significantly harder to
upgrade than full-size machines.

PCs
RASPBERRY Y PI WIRED2FIRE Ultima WS
W
4 Model B ★★★★★
★★★★★ £603 • www.wired2fire.co.uk
£34 • thepihut.com
A highly capable home office
A fasterr processor, PC with hardware and
quicker networking performance well exceeding
and dual
al HDMI outputs what you’d normally get at this price. King of
w
etter desktop computer
make the Pi 4 a much better it all is the Ryzen 5 3600 processor, which
than previous Pi models,, and it hasn’t lost any appeal as a cheap ttogether with 16GB of RAM makes the Ultima
hobbyist board, either. 4K video implementation could be better WS a great productivity aid when dealing
– we had issues getting smooth playback in Raspbian – but that’s with large spreadsheets or editing photos and
the only noteworthy concern. video. It even has a gigantic 1TB SSD.

PROCESSOR Quad-core 1.5GHz Broadcom BCM2711 • RAM 1GB • USB PORTS 1x USB Type-C PROCESSOR Hexa-core 3.6GHz AMD Ryzen 5 3600 • RAM 16GB • FRONT USB PORTS 2x USB2,
(power), 2x USB2, 2x USB3 • STORAGE MicroSD card slot • DISPLAY None • OPERATING 1x USB3 • REAR USB PORTS 4x USB2, 4x USB3 • TOTAL STORAGE 1TB SSD • DISPLAY None •
SYSTEM Raspbian • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.raspberypi.org • PART CODE Pi 4 OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY Five years labour including two years parts
Model B • FULL REVIEW Sep 2019 • DETAILS www.wired2fire.co.uk • PART CODE Ultima WS • FULL REVIEW May 2020

ALPHABETAPC AMD D Ryzen 7 Pro PALICOMP AMD Abyss

Gaming Desktop PC ★★★★★
★★★★★ NEW £700 • www.palicomp.co.uk
£1,849 • www.alphabetapc.com ENTRY
At this price, you’d
For all its flashy styling, seriously struggle to find
what really makes this a more comprehensively
a great PC is the simple capable desktop system than Palicomp’s
balance of top-grade internals. The AMD Abyss. It can multitask with
Ryzen 7 3800X is a fantastically strong serious applications just as well as it
CPU on its own, and it also fully enables can run games, and with its large, fast
the RTX 2080 graphics card to go to NVMe SSD, it won’t be slowed down
work, pumping out high gaming performance even at 4K. by storage. There’s a lot of room for
future upgrades, too.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 3.9GHz AMD Ryzen 7 3800X • RAM 32GB • FRONT USB PORTS 2x USB2,
1x USB3 • REAR USB PORTS 4x USB3, 1x USB3.1, 1x USB Type-C • TOTAL STORAGE 500GB SSD, PROCESSOR Hexa-core 3.6GHz AMD Ryzen 5 2600X • RAM 8GB • FRONT USB PORTS 2x USB2,
2TB hard disk • GRAPHICS CARD 8GB Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Super Windforce OC • 1x USB3 • REAR USB PORTS 2x USB2, 2x USB3, 2x USB3.1, 1x USB Type-C • TOTAL STORAGE
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY Three years RTB including 30 days collect 512GB SSD, 1TB hard disk • GRAPHICS CARD 8GB AMD Radeon RX570 Armor 8GB OC •
and return • DETAILS www.alphabetapc.com • PART CODE AMD Ryzen 7 Pro Gaming Desktop PC OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS
• FULL REVIEW Jun 2020 www.palicomp.co.uk • PART CODE RYZ6 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2019

48 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing a... Laptop
01 A basic laptop costing around £300
will run everyday office, multimedia
and education software, but it won’t be
suitable for 3D gaming or processor-intensive
tasks such as video editing. Many laptops at
this price have a 15.6in screen and weigh over
2kg, so they’re best used around the house
and for occasional journeys.
portability, buy one that has a 13.3in or 14in
screen. In general, the smaller and lighter the
laptop, the more expensive it is, especially if
it has plenty of processing power.
04 Battery life is extremely important
for a laptop, particularly if you’ll be
carrying it around. We’d expect all but the
biggest and heaviest to last for at least
want better performance, you should
look for an Intel Core i5 or Core i7
model instead. We recommend a
minimum of 4GB of RAM, although 8GB
is better for multitasking.
06 Most budget and mid-range laptops
use a mechanical hard disk for
storage. You’ll want at least 500GB, but

02 If you want to play modern games,

you’ll need a laptop with a dedicated
graphics chip such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX
1060M. Good gaming laptops tend to have
large 15.6 or 17in screens and weigh around
3kg, so they’re best suited to use at home.
five hours on a single charge, but for an
ultraportable that you carry everywhere,
eight hours and above is more desirable.
1TB or more is better. Solid-state drives
(SSDs) have faster performance, making
your computer quicker to boot and more
responsive. They have lower capacities,
05 Laptops use mobile versions of
processors to conserve power,
though. You’ll need at least 128GB.

03 If you want a laptop that you can

take everywhere, look for a model
that weighs less than 2kg. For the best
and these lag behind desktop chips
when it comes to performance. For a
budget Windows laptop, an Intel Core i3
07 Convertibles and 2-in-1 laptops can
change from laptop mode to tablet
mode. We’ve listed our favourite models later
processor will do the job, but if you on in this guide in the Tablets section.

LAPTOPS
LENOVO Yoga C940 MICROSOFT Surface Laptop 3
★★★★★ 13.5in
£1,235 • www.lenovo.com ★★★★★
£1,549 • www.microsoft.com
When it
comes to Great design, highh
top-class performance,
convertibles, it effectively boilss down wonderful display,,
to a choice between the Yoga C940 and d comfortable keyboard – there’s
Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1, but we think Yoga’s flippy laptop clinches it almost nothing that the 13.5in
with competitive CPU performance and even better battery life. version of Microsoft’s latest laptop gets wrong. It comes with a
Add in powerful speakers and a bundled stylus, and this is an better selection of CPUs than the 15in variant, and you can now
excellent hybrid from any angle. choose between the fabric cover or a clean metal finish, too.

PROCESSOR Quad-core 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7 • RAM 16GB • DIMENSIONS
308x223x14.5mm • WEIGHT 1.3kg • SCREEN SIZE 13.5in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,256x1,504 •
GRAPHICS ADAPTOR Intel Iris Plus Graphics • TOTAL STORAGE 256GB SSD • OPERATING
SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
www.lenovo.com • PART CODE 81Q9CTO1WWENGB0 • FULL REVIEW May 2020
PROCESSOR Quad-core 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7 • RAM 16GB • DIMENSIONS
308x223x14.5mm • WEIGHT 1.3kg • SCREEN SIZE 13.5in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,256x1,504 •
TOTAL STORAGE 256GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • PARTS AND LABOUR
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.microsoft.com • PART CODE VEF-00064 •
FULL REVIEW Mar 2020

DELL Latitude 3300 GOOGLE

★★★★★ Pixelbook Go
£679 • www.dell.com ★★★★★
£829 • store.google.com
Dell’s
affordable The creatorr
and well-builtlt of Chrome
Latitude 3300 is made for OS has
students, but the fact that it once again produced one
has strong specs for the price e of the best laptops for the operating system. The Pixelbook Go
can be appreciated by anyone e isn’t perfect – screen brightness
ness could be higher, for instance –
looking for a general-purpose e laptop. The quad-core CPU keeps but it’s very powerful for a Chromebook,
Chromebook and manages some
performance up, and this particular
ticular model has a superior 256GB SSD fantastic battery life. They keyboard is also a pleasure to type on,
to the even cheaper versions’ eMMC drives. with comfortable, solid-feeling yet agile keys.

PROCESSOR Quad-core 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8250U • RAM 8GB • DIMENSIONS 330x231x22.9mm
• WEIGHT 1.56kg • SCREEN SIZE 13.3in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • GRAPHICS
ADAPTOR Intel UHD Graphics 620 • TOTAL STORAGE 256GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM
Windows 10 Pro • PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.dell.com •
PART CODE n013l330013emea • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020
PROCESSOR Dual-core 1.3GHz Intel Core i5-8200Y • RAM 8GB • DIMENSIONS 311x206x13.4mm •
WEIGHT 1.06kg • SCREEN SIZE 13.3in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • GRAPHICS
ADAPTOR Intel UHD Graphics 615 • TOTAL STORAGE 128GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Chrome
OS • PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS store.google.com •
PART CODE GA00526-UK • FULL REVIEW May 2020

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 49

 Choosing an... Internal hard disk
01 A basic 1TB internal hard disk should
cost around £40. This will be fast
enough for general use and will provide
enough storage for most users.
Make sure the hard disk you choose has
the appropriate interface type for your PC.
Most hard disks and solid-state drives
(SSDs) use the SATA3 interface, which
enables faster speeds than the older SATA2.
Pretty much every motherboard released in
recent years will have multiple SATA3 ports,
allowing you to connect several storage
drives at once.
to provide less capacity than mechanical
hard disks, they’re significantly faster. More
expensive SSDs use the NVMe standard,
which is even faster than SATA3, but require
an M.2 slot on the motherboard.
03 Buy a hard disk that provides more
capacity than you think you need, as
your storage requirements are likely to grow.
05
A 2TB disk strikes the best balance between
capacity and low cost per gigabyte.
04 If you want more disk space or you
want to protect your data against
duplicate your data for better protection.
RAID arrays require hard disks of the same
size. In theory, they can be from different
manufacturers, but it’s better to buy identical
disks if you can.
A hard disk’s spindle speed
determines how quickly it can
transfer data. A spindle speed of 7,200rpm
is common in desktop drives and is fast
enough for most purposes. Desktop hard
disks with 5,400rpm spindle speeds are
quite slow but use less power and generate
less heat and noise.

02 SSDs can make the most of SATA3’s

high bandwidth for fast file transfers.
They use flash memory similar to that found
in USB flash drives, and although they tend
disk failure, think about buying several hard
disks to create a RAID array. These use
multiple hard disks to create one large
To strike the best balance between
speed and storage capacity, use an SSD as
your system disk and store your files on a
logical disk with better performance, or to larger mechanical disk.

STORAGE
WD Blue SN550 1TB PNY Pro Elite 1TB
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£105 • www.ebuyer.com £175 • www.argos.co.uk
There are A tiny,
faster SSDs, very nimble
but the Blue portable SSD
SN550 isn’t slow, either. It’s therefore that’s both faster and cheaper than
a good bet for when you want as much Samsung’s similar T5 drive. Just make sure to
solid-state capacity for as little money as possible. connect via a USB3.1 port to get the best performance.

CAPACITY 1TB • PRICE PER GIGABYTE £0.10p • INTERFACE M2/NVMe • WARRANTY Five years CAPACITY 1TB • PRICE PER GIGABYTE £0.17p • INTERFACE USB3.1 • WARRANTY Three years
RTB • DETAILS www.westerndigital.com • PART CODE WDS100T2B0C • FULL REVIEW Apr 2020 RTB • DETAILS www.pny.eu • PART CODE PSD0CS2060S-1TB-RB • FULL REVIEW Feb 2020

ISTORAGE CloudAshur ADATA SD600Q 480GB

★★★★★ ★★★★★
NEW
£99 • www.istorage-uk.com ENTRY £68 • www.alternate.co.uk
The CloudAshur Put aside your fears
ears
looks like a USB about external
drive, but it’s actually a SSDs being too
module that adds PIN-protected encryption to expensive compared to hard diskss
your files as you save them to the cloud. It’s not fast, – this 480GB drive is excellent value,
lue,
but it is effective and totally unique. and decently quick.
CAPACITY N/A • COST PER GIGABYTE N/A • INTERFACE USB3 • WARRANTY Three years RTB CAPACITY 480GB • COST PER GIGABYTE £0.14p • INTERFACE USB3 • CLAIMED READ 440MB/s
with lifetime technical support • DETAILS www.istorage-uk.com • PART CODE IS-EM-CA-256 • • CLAIMED WRITE 430MB/s • WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.adata.com •
FULL REVIEW Jun 2020 PART CODE ASD600Q-480GU31-CBL • FULL REVIEW Aug 2019

SAMSUNG Portable SSD X5 1TB KINGSTON A2000 1TB

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£344 • www.scan.co.uk £159 • www.scan.co.uk
For when you The A2000’s
absolutely need to maximum
shift files as quicklyy speeds don’t
as possible, there’s the X5. Its use off look all that hot, but this SSD performs exceptionally well in
the Thunderbolt 3 interface makes itt the kinds of non-sequential transfer tasks you’re more likely to
the fastest external SSD ever. actually undertake in your day-to-day computing.
CAPACITY 1TB • COST PER GIGABYTE £0.34p • INTERFACE Thunderbolt 3 • CAPACITY 1TB • COST PER GIGABYTE £0.16p • INTERFACE M.2/NVMe • CLAIMED READ
WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • 2,200MB/s • CLAIMED WRITE 2,000MB/s • WARRANTY Five years RTB • DETAILS
PART CODE MU-PB1T0B/WW • FULL REVIEW Dec 2018 www.kingston.com • PART CODE SA2000M8/1000G • FULL REVIEW Dec 2019

50 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing a... Graphics card
01 You don’t have to spend much to buy
a decent graphics card that can drive
multiple monitors. The AMD Radeon RX 550
costs about £100, for example, and while it
isn’t suited to playing the latest games in Full
HD, it is perfect for watching videos,
browsing the web and playing basic games.
03 Check that your chosen card has
the graphics outputs you need.
Only low-end cards now have VGA
on a tight budget, get a card with 4GB of
RAM, as this should allow you to select the
highest-quality textures in games.
outputs, but many come with a DVI-to-VGA
adaptor. Depending on your monitor, you
may also want an HDMI output or even
DisplayPort connection.
05 A card’s size, noise output and
power requirements are the final
considerations. Make sure your PC’s case
Bear in mind that AMD’s Eyefinity has enough room to accommodate your

02 You’ll need to spend more money if

you want to play the latest games.
A good mid-range gaming graphics card is
the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which is
powerful enough to play all modern games
at Full HD resolution.
High-powered cards tend to be more
expensive, so expect to pay over £400 if
you want to play games in Ultra HD at the
highest quality settings.
triple-monitor gaming mode requires at
least one DisplayPort monitor, which
means your AMD graphics card must have
at least one DisplayPort output. Nvidia’s
Surround three-monitor mode needs only
DVI and HDMI ports.
04 The amount of memory a card has
is important if you want games to look
their best at high resolutions. Unless you’re
chosen card. Double-slot cards with large
fans tend to be quieter than single-slot
cards with small fans but will block other
expansion slots on your motherboard.
Also check that your power supply
can provide the power the card needs
and that it has the right connectors.
Many cards require a six-pin PCI Express
power connector, and some also need an
additional eight-pin connector.

COMPONENTS
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X AMD Radeon RX 5700
0
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£435 • www.overclockers.co.uk £279 • shop.amd.com
Forget the Intel Core AMD’s 7nm GPU is cheaper er
i9-9900K – this 12-core than the GeForce RTX 2060 0
monster of a CPU performs far better and the RTX 2060 Super, yet is
for similar money. There is a drawback, in that it’s not very i only
just as comfortable with gaming at 1080p and 1440p. This price ly
overclocking-friendly, but that’s partly because it’s so fast to begin seems to apply for the reference design rather than partner versions,
with. Pair it with some good RAM, and you’re already most of the but the blower-style cooler is the only real downside.
way to a capable home workstation.
GPU AMD Radeon RX 5700 • MEMORY 8GB GDDR6 • GRAPHICS CARD LENGTH 268mm •
SOCKET AM4 • CORES 12 • FREQUENCY 3.8GHz • INTEGRATED GRAPHICS None • WARRANTY Two WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.amd.com • PART CODE Radeon RX 5700 •
years RTB • DETAILS www.amd.com • PART CODE 100-100000023BOX • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019 FULL REVIEW Oct 2019

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X THERMALTAKE View 37

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£262 • www.amzn.to/2nFtHMC £100 • www.scan.co.uk
This octa-core chip has all A spacious, feature-rich chassis
the single-core strength of the for both ATX- and EATX-based
Ryzen 9 3900X, with mutlitasking builds, the View 37 comes with a
power that still puts it well beyond its Intel rivals. Low pricing and gull-wing side window that’s perfect for showing
power efficiency are additional highlights: the Ryzen 7 3700X only off your handiwork.
draws up to 65W, a tiny amount for this many cores.
CASE TYPE Mid-tower • MOTHERBOARD TYPE ATX, EATX, microATX, Mini-ITX • SUPPLIED
SOCKET AM4 • CORES 8 • FREQUENCY 3.6GHz • INTEGRATED GRAPHICS None • FANS 2x 140mm • MAX DRIVE BAYS 7x 3.5in, 11x 2.5in • DIMENSIONS 525x261x538mm •
WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS www.amd.com • PART CODE 100-100000071BOX • WEIGHT 11.8kg • WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.thermaltake.com •
FULL REVIEW Dec 2019 PART CODE CA-1J7-00M1WN-00 • FULL REVIEW Dec 2018

ASUS ROG Strix Flare NZXT Kraken X53

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£110 • www.box.co.uk £104 • www.scan.co.uk
Besides being a Not only is the Kraken X53 one off the
th mostt effective
ff ti
comfortable and AIO watercoolers out there, it’s also among the
responsive gaming keyboard, easiest to install and the easiest to customise.
thanks to its reliable Cherry MX Red switches, the ROG Strix Flare It works with lots of different Intel and AMD sockets too, so you
is loaded with useful features and extras: there’s a set of dedicated can upgrade older PC builds as well as newer ones.
media controls and a USB2 pass-through port, among others.
TECHNOLOGY Closed loop • FANS 2x 120mm • SOCKET Intel LGA 2066/2011-3/2011/1151/1150/
KEYBOARD SHAPE Full size • NUMBER PAD Yes • CONNECTION 1x USB2 • MEDIA KEYS Pause/ 1155/1156/1366, AMD AM4/TR4 (TR4 requires separate bracket) • RADIATOR DIMENSIONS
play, mute, skip, volume • USB PORTS 2x USB2 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www. (NO FAN) 123x275x30mm • WARRANTY Six years RTB • DETAILS www.nzxt.com • PART CODE
asus.com/uk • PART CODE 90MP000MO-BOEA00 • FULL REVIEW Oct 2019 RL-KRX53-01 • FULL REVIEW May 2020

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 51

 Choosing a... Display
01 A basic 24in LCD monitor costs
around £100. It will be fine for typical
Windows work but is likely to have poor
Many DVI and all HDMI connections
support HDCP, which lets you watch
protected video content, such as Blu-ray
cable or either HDMI or DisplayPort to use a
monitor at these resolutions.

viewing angles, so you’ll need to sit straight

on for the best picture quality. Its colour
accuracy may not be very good, either.
movies. DisplayPort is becoming more
popular, but you’ll need a graphics card with
a DisplayPort output (mini or full-size) to
04 If you want better picture quality,
look for a monitor with a high
contrast ratio. The higher the ratio, the
use this input on your monitor. whiter the whites and the blacker the blacks.

02 A VGA input lets you use the monitor

with any PC, but the quality may not
be as good as it is over DVI or HDMI. Both
are digital connections and require a
compatible graphics card but they avoid the
need for digital-to-analogue or analogue-to-
digital conversions, which can reduce image
quality. A digital connection achieves the
best picture automatically, so you won’t have
to adjust clock or phase settings as you do
with analogue connections.
03 A larger monitor will be easier on the
eye and may have a higher resolution.
Most monitors have a resolution of at least
1,920x1,080 (1080p), which provides lots of
room for working with multiple windows at
the same time. For even higher resolutions,
you’ll need a larger display. Some 27in and
30in screens have 2,560x1,600 or even 4K
resolutions. You’ll need a graphics card with
a dual-link DVI output and a dual-link DVI
You’ll also be able to see more fine detail in
images with high contrast levels. Viewing
angles are important, as wider angles mean
you don’t have to sit directly in front of the
monitor to get the best picture. Wider
viewing angles also allow more people to
view the screen at the same time.
Fast response times reduce ghosting,
but don’t be dazzled by the numbers. A
response time of 25ms or quicker is fine
for all applications.

DISPLAYS
LG 34GK950F LENOVO
★★★★★
£1,000 • www.overclockers.co.uk ThinkVision M14
★★★★★
LG’s curved £235 • shop.bt.com
ultrawide monitor
is as versatile as it With the ThinkVision M14, portable USB Type-C
is vibrant. HDR is supported (if only to the DisplayHDR 400 standard), monitors finally reach maturity. It’s razor-thin, has an
colours are accurate, and both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync can adjustable hinge instead of a fixed angle, and its IPS
smooth out games. panel is leagues ahead of the competition.
SCREEN SIZE 34in • RESOLUTION 3,440x1,440 • REFRESH RATE 144Hz • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY SCREEN SIZE 14in • RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • VIDEO INPUTS
IPS • VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort • WARRANTY Three years collect and return • DETAILS USB Type-C • WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.lenovo.com • PART CODE
www.lg.com • FULL REVIEW Jun 2019 D18140FX0 • FULL REVIEW Mar 2020

EIZO ColorEdge CG279X AOC CQ32G1

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£1,692 • www.wexphotovideo.com £321 • www.ballicom.co.uk
This professional-quality AOC has a habit of
monitor benefits from making great-value,
automatic calibration, large-screened VA monitors,ors,
y
ensuring practically perfect colour accuracy and the CQ32G1 is another to add to the list.
st A 144Hz gaming display
and wide coverage of the sRGB, DCI-P and Adobe RGB gamuts. first and foremost, it’s as fast and good-looking as it needs to be, and
It’s a worthwhile investment for editing photos and videos. supports both AMD FreeSync and, unofficially, Nvidia G-Sync.
SCREEN SIZE 27in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • REFRESH RATE SCREEN SIZE 31.5in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY VA • REFRESH RATE
60Hz • VIDEO INPUTS VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, USB Type-C • WARRANTY Five years RTB • 144Hz • VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort • WARRANTY One year repair and replace • DETAILS
DETAILS www.eizoglobal.cpm • FULL REVIEW Jun 2019 eu.aoc.com • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019

ACER Nitro VG270UP IIYAMA ProLite XUB2792UHSU

92UHSU
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£350 • uk-store.acer.com £380 • www.scan.co.uk
A great all-round gaming If you don’t need all the bells
monitor without the premium and whistles of a curved
price. Both FreeSync and ultrawide, the ProLite
G-Sync are supported, and the IPS panel combines a 144Hz refresh XUB2792UHSU nails the basics at a very
rate with vibrant colours, high accuracy and the kind of attractive price. 4K sharpness, high brightness and
responsiveness you’d normally only get from a TN panel. full sRGB colour gamut coverage add up to a superb monitor.
SCREEN SIZE 27in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • REFRESH RATE SCREEN SIZE 27in • RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • REFRESH RATE
144Hz • VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort • WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS www.acer. 60Hz • VIDEO INPUTS DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI • WARRANTY Three years onsite • DETAILS
com • FULL REVIEW Dec 2019 www.iiyama.com • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019

52 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing an... Inkjet printer
01 You should be able to buy a decent
inkjet printer for less than £40.
High-quality printing is possible on such a
03 If photos are your priority, speed is
less important. Choose a printer that
reproduces subtle tones well. You can’t
sided) printing or A3 capabilities are now
much more affordable.

printer, but it will be slow. The actual print

speed of an inkjet can be half the quoted
(maximum) speed for text documents,
and even slower when printing graphics.
Budget inkjet printers such as these are
designed only for light use and can be
expensive to run.
determine this by looking at the
specifications – only hands-on testing will
do, so remember to check our reviews
05
before you buy.
Borderless printing (up to the edge of
the paper) should also be possible. Pay
particular attention to running costs:
photos use three times as much ink as
Pricier photo printers let you print
from memory cards plugged straight
into the printer, so you don’t need to use a
PC. An LCD preview screen offers greater
control for this method of printing. Many
inkjet printers now have a PictBridge USB
port, which you can use to print images
directly from most digital cameras.

02 For £80 to £90 you can buy a more

capable printer that’s either faster and
regular colour documents.

06 If you’re really serious about

better built or better at reproducing photos.
If documents are your priority, you’ll want a
high minimum speed and low print costs.
Look for inkjets that can handle all your
office media, such as envelopes and labels.
04 Heavy-duty office inkjets can cost
up to £1,000 and their build quality
is improving. They use large individual ink
tanks, which can cut running costs.
Printers with automatic duplex (double-
photography, consider buying an
inkjet that can produce borderless prints
up to A3 size. The best devices can print
photos that look nearly as good as those
from professional labs.

PRINTERS & SCANNERS

EPSON WorkForce EPSON EcoTank ET-M3180
★★★★★
WF-110W £395 • www.printerland.co.uk
★★★★★
£201 • www.amzn.to/38A3dyz If you need to pump out
black-and-white documents, the
Low speeds and high running ET-M3180 is a great alternative
costs are usually a ruinous combination, but the to a bulky laser MFP. This ADF-equipped printer
WF-110W makes up for its shortcomings with a and scanner is impressively fast and, like the rest of the EcoTank
nicely portable design and high print quality. range, has incredibly low per-page running costs.
TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440dpi • DIMENSIONS TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 2,400x1,200dpi • DIMENSIONS
61x309x159mm • WEIGHT 1.6kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB • 375x347x346mm • WEIGHT 7.2kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY Three years
DETAILS www.epson.co.uk • PART CODE C11CH25401DA • FULL REVIEW Apr 2020 onsite • DETAILS www.epson.co.uk • PART CODE C11CG93402BY
02BY • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019

EPSON Expression Photo XP-8600 CANON Pixma TS205

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£100 • www.amzn.to/2WNU54e £35 • www.amzn.to/3eDwCLw
The Expression Photo It has a basic feature set
XP-8600 focuses on and isn’t very fast, but
creative use, and does the Pixma TS205’s print
a great job of it, too. At this kind of quality makes it a bargain. Replacement ink k
price, nothing else comes close on the quality of printed photos. cartridges are the biggest expense, but
that’s fine if you’re only printing at home occasionally.
ccasionally.
TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440dpi • SCANNER
RESOLUTION 1,200x4,800dpi • DIMENSIONS 142x349x340mm • WEIGHT 6.7kg • MAXIMUM TECHNOLOGY Thermal inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 4,800x1,200dpi • DIMENSIONS
PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.epson.co.uk • PART CODE 131x426x255mm • WEIGHT 2.5kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB
C11CH47401 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020 • DETAILS www.canon.co.uk • PART CODE 2319C008 • FULL REVIEW Sep 2019

CANON imageFormula EPSON EcoTank ET-7750

DR-C230 ★★★★★
£529 • www.wexphotovideo.com
★★★★★
£322 • www.ebuyer.com Like all EcoTank MFPs, the
This sheet-fed document scanner er ET-7750 offsets its high
is perfect for getting through stacks
k off d
documents price with low running
without having to manually scan each page. It’s costs, and this specific model delivers sharp,
pleasantly fast and pairs with Canon’s powerful CaptureOnTouch Pro solid colours that suit photo printing well.
software, which does a fine job of processing your scans.
TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440 •
TECHNOLOGY Dual CIS sheet-fed scanner • SCANNER RESOLUTION 600x600dpi • DIMENSIONS SCANNER RESOLUTION 1,200x2,400dpi • DIMENSIONS 168x526x415mm • WEIGHT 10.5kg •
231x291x530mm • WEIGHT 2.8kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A3 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.epson.co.uk •
• DETAILS www.canon.co.uk • PART CODE 2646C003 • FULL REVIEW Feb 2018 PART CODE C11CG16401CE • FULL REVIEW Sep 2018

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 53

 Choosing a... Wireless router
01 Wireless routers each use a number
of Wi-Fi standards, so you shouldn’t
have any trouble connecting your computer
or phone wirelessly if you get an 802.11n or
802.11ac router. Nearly all routers support
802.11n, so even a cheap model should
provide decent performance.
You can expect a transfer speed of around
40Mbit/s at a distance of 10m from any
modern 802.11n router. The very latest
routers use the 802.11ac standard, which
provides tremendously fast transfer
speeds. Some devices still don’t support
the 802.11ac standard, so check the
specifications before you buy.
a wireless router that has a built-in ADSL
modem. This will cost more than the
equivalent cable router, but it allows you
to connect your router directly to your
broadband connection without having to
use a separate modem.
03 Most 802.11n wireless routers use
the 2.4GHz frequency band. This has
good range but it can be prone to
interference if it’s positioned close to a lot
of other 2.4GHz devices, such as other
routers and baby monitors. If you have
trouble getting a consistent signal or you
want faster speeds for video streaming, for
example, it’s worth buying a dual-band
Alternatively, a high-gain antenna can
boost signals and improve ranges and
throughputs to the entire house. You can
also add a high-gain antenna to a PC’s
network adaptor. If wired network speeds
are a priority, you should look for a router
with a Gigabit Ethernet connection.
04 Many routers come with built-in USB
ports that let you connect a USB drive
and use the router as a network storage
device. If you want to share a USB printer
over your network, look for a wireless router
that has a USB print server.
Finally, if you’re interested in making voice
calls over the internet, buy a router with

02 If you subscribe to an ADSL

broadband service, you should buy
router that can use both the 2.4GHz and
5GHz bands.
built-in VoIP support (and phone sockets)
because this can save you money.

NETWORKS
BT Complete TP-LINK Archer C5400
400
Wi-Fi ★★★★★
£270 • www.amzn.to/2woYJMV
★★★★★
£5 per month • www.bt.com Although this isn’t
There are the fastest £200-plus
better-featured
ed
d router, it’s still speedy,
l bl b
mesh systems available, h Complete
but the l Wi-Fi is and comes with an impressive array of
decently quick on both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, and is well features, from parental controls and
worth it for BT Plus customers in particular. filters to BT YouView support and smart home integration.
WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 1,733Mbit/s (5GHz), 385Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 2x 2,167Mbit/s (5GHz),
USB PORTS 1 • WALL MOUNTABLE No • WARRANTY Under rental contract
c • 2x 1,000MBit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 1x USB2, 1x USB3 • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes •
PART CODE BT Complete Wi-Fi • FULL REVIEW Mar 2019 WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE C5400 • FULL REVIEW May 2018

YUBICO YubiKey 5 NFC wk AX8

NETGEAR Nighthawk
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£37 • www.yubico.com £305 • www.scan.co.uk
Like the YubiKey 4 If you want to get
before it, this USB stick in early on Wi-Fi
conveniently stores all the cryptographic
raphic 6/802.11ax, this is a
data you need to add two-factor authentication to a PC or good router to do it with. It’s no more
laptop; and this time, there’s NFC, allowing you to use it with difficult to set up than an 802.11ac
mobile devices via a single tap. model, but successfuly delivers the newer
ewer standard’s higherr spe
speeds.
eds.
eds
d
USB TYPE Type-A • OS SUPPORT Windows 10, macOS, iOS 11 and later, Android • MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ax
ax • STATED SPEED 4,800Mbit/s (5GHz),
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.yubico.com • PART CODE YubiKey 5 NFC • 1,200Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 2 • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes • WARRANTY Two years RTB •
FULL REVIEW Apr 2019 DETAILS www.netgear.com • PART CODE RAX80 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020

D-LINK DIR-1960 NETGEAR Orbi Outdoor RBS50Y

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£101 • uk.insight.com £220 • www.amzn.to/2MZg5YB
The DIR-1960 is a simple This weatherproof Wi-Fi extender
yet speedy router that cann is a perfect addition to mesh
optionally be turned into a systems that can’t quite cover a
mesh system (provided you buy the additional onal garden. It has similar internal specfications to the
satellites, of course). Either way, you can also take brilliant Orbi RBK50, meaning high speeds and
advantage of built-in Alexa and Google Assistant controls. reliable connections.
MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 1,300Mbit/s (5GHz), WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 1x 866Mbit/s (5GHz) 1x 1,733Mbit/s (5GHz),
600Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 1x USB2 • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes • WARRANTY Two years 1x 400Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 0 • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes • WARRANTY Two years RTB •
RTB • DETAILS wwww.d-link.com • PART CODE DIR-1960 • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019 DETAILS www.netgear.co.uk • PART CODE RBS50Y • FULL REVIEW Jul 2019

54 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing a... Smart thermostat
01 A smart thermostat can save you a
lot of money by intelligently
controlling your heating.
02 Want smart hot water control?
If you want to remotely set
schedules and disable hot water while
This option is more expensive to install but
will provide you with greater savings.

Most smart heating devices are designed

to be used with hot water central heating
systems, with the boiler directly controlled
by the system. These typically require a relay
to be wired into your boiler, with a wireless
thermostat giving you direct control.
Smartphone apps then tie into the system to
give you remote control. While it’s possible
to fit controls yourself, you may want to pay
an experienced plumber to do the job: expect
to pay around £150 for a typical installation.
If you have electric heating, there are
very few choices, and the big names (Nest,
Honeywell and so on) do not directly
support these systems.
you’re away, choose your smart system
carefully, as many don’t have this option.
Hot water control usually requires a second
04 Do you use a smart personal
assistant? Make sure that your smart
thermostat supports the one that you use.
relay to be wired into the boiler. Amazon Alexa, powered by the Echo and
Echo Dot, is the best-supported system;
03 What kind of heating system do
you want? There are two main
choices: a central system and one with
Apple’s HomeKit, powered by Siri, isn’t so
well supported; Google Assistant, built into
Google Home, is just gaining traction and
individual radiator controls. The former supports Nest only.
replaces your existing thermostat, and
lets you set one temperature for your
entire house. The latter requires each
radiator valve to be replaced with a
05 If you want your smart heating
system to do more, look for IFTTT
support. With this handy system, you can set
smart valve so that each room and automatic rules, such as turning the heating
radiator can have its own individual control. off if the outside temperature rises.

SMART HOME
AMAZON Echo Dot with Clock NEST Cam IQ Outdoor
door
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£60 • www.amzn.to/2LLc9aG £329 • www.johnlewis.com
This is literally ‘just’ an sive
While this is an expensive
Echo Dot 3rd Generation ld Nest
replacement for the old
with an added LCD clock, Cam Outdoor, its image
ge quality
but considering it’s no more expensive ognition
is without equal. Facial and sound recognition
and offers the same combination of capable speaker and versatile have also been improved, and it’s now much
smart home controller, that’s absolutely nothing to complain about. era from its mount
harder for thieves to remove the camera mount.
DRIVERS 1 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • WEIGHT 300g • NETWORKING Bluetooth, VIDEO RESOLUTION 4K sensor, 1080p recording • CLOUD STORAGE Yes (subscription required) •
802.11n • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk • PART CODE Echo Dot with NETWORKING 802.11ac • WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE Nest Cam IQ Outdoor •
Clock • FULL REVIEW Feb 2020 FULL REVIEW Jul 2018

TADO Smart Thermostat NEOS Smartcam

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£90 • www.amzn.to/2ZxwIfZ £30 • shop.neos.co.uk
A flexible and stylish-looking mendous
The Smartcam is a tremendous
smart heating system, the Tado bargain of an indoor security
curity
Smart Thermostat distinguishes camera. In many ways, it’s not all
itself with a clever geolocation feature that turns on your that advanced – footage is only shot at up to
heating when you enter a room and switches it off, saving 15fps, for instance – but the 1080p resolution,
olution,
money, when you leave. night-vision mode and free cloud storage ge make
mak
ake
ke
for a nifty little package.
REMOTE THERMOSTAT Yes • HOT WATER SUPPORT Yes • INDIVIDUAL RADIATOR CONTROL
Yes • VOICE ASSISTANT SUPPORT Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri • APPS iOS, Android and web • VIDEO RESOLUTION 1080p • CLOUD STORAGE Yes (free)
ee) • NETWORKING 802.11n
802 11n •
FULL REVIEW Jan 2018 WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE NS-CAM-02 • FULL REVIEW Jun 2019

GOOGLE Nest Hub Max RING Indoor Cam

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£219 • store.google.com £49 • www.amzn.to/2P1RbGj
Besides the addition of a The Indoor Cam doesn’t just
camera – which can be capture very high-quality footage
age
turned off – this is mainly
y for the money. With its Modes
just a larger Google Home Hub. Luckily, feature, you can easily activate the camera whenn
that also means it’s a fantastic smart you leave home and deactivate it when you return.
urn.
display, with a higher resolution and better-sounding speaker. It’s a smart blend of security and privacy.
DRIVERS 3 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DOCK CONNECTOR None • WIRELESS 802.11ac
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 • DIMENSIONS 183x250x101mm • WEIGHT 1.3kg • WARRANTY One year VIDEO RESOLUTION 1080p • CLOUD STORAGE Yes • NETWORKING NG 802.11n • WARRANTY
Y One
RTB • PART CODE Nest Hub Max • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020 year RTB • PART CODE Ring Indoor Cam • FULL REVIEW Apr 2020
0

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 55

 Choosing a... Smartphone
01 A smartphone’s operating system
(OS) dictates its basic features and
which third-party software you can install.
and watch Full HD videos. Don’t worry too
much about built-in media players or Office
document editors; you can always install apps
a variety of custom onscreen keyboards so
you can find one that suits you.

There are three main contenders: Apple’s

iOS, which is found on the iPhone, Google’s
Android, which is used by various handset
manufacturers, and Windows Phone, which
has few options, especially since Microsoft
has discontinued support for its OS.
Apple iOS and Google Android both have
thousands of apps available.
to replace these with better versions later.
The image quality of smartphone
cameras has improved tremendously in
recent years, and resolutions have
increased to as high as 20 megapixels.
03 Very few modern smartphones have
a physical keyboard for entering text;
they almost exclusively use touchscreens
04 Be careful when choosing a contract.
Look for one that includes a large data
allowance if you want to use the internet
regularly or you’ve set your phone to
synchronise your contacts, calendar and
email through online services.
Built-in Wi-Fi can help you avoid high data
charges by connecting to the internet
through wireless hotspots when you’re out,

02 All smartphones have colour screens,

but their resolutions vary. Basic models
have 1,280x720 pixels, but text can be
indistinct. Look for a display that has at least
1,920x1,080 pixels so it’s easier to read text
now. Physical keyboards can aid heavy
emailing, but today’s touchscreen
keyboards work just as well.
Android smartphones and iPhones
running iOS 9 or above allow you to install
or your router when you’re at home. Android
and iPhone handsets can operate as wireless
hotspots, letting you connect your laptop to
the web over your mobile data connection.
There may be an extra charge for this.

SMARTPHONES
MOTOROLA Moto G7 Power SAMSUNG Galaxy S20 Ultra
★★★★★ ★★★★★
NEW
£130 SIM-free • wwww.johnlewis.com £1,199 SIM-free; £60 up front plus £71-per-month
ENTRY
There’s no shortage of Moto G7 variants
•
contract www.carphonewarehouse.com

to choose from, but the Moto G7 Power
is easily the best value. It focuses on
battery life and is thus one of the longest-lasting
smartphones ever - and its performance, display and rear
camera are all rather good for the price, too.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 • SCREEN SIZE 6.2in • SCREEN
RESOLUTION 1,520x720 • REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels • STORAGE 32GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • NFC
No • DIMENSIONS 159x76x9.3mm • WEIGHT 193g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 9.0 • WARRANTY
One year RTB • DETAILS www.motorola.co.uk • PART CODE PAE90019GB • FULL REVIEW Jun 2019
Once again, Samsung has produced the
most opulent Android phone money can
buy. Whether it’s the huge 120Hz display,
5G connectivity, the mighty Exynos 990 processor or 100x
zoom, everything about this handset aims for the top.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.73GHz Samsung Exynos 990 • SCREEN SIZE 6.9in • SCREEN
RESOLUTION 3,200x1,440 • REAR CAMERAS 108 megapixels, 48 megapixels, 12 megapixels, 0.3
megapixels • STORAGE 128GB • WIRELESS DATA 5G • NFC Yes • DIMENSIONS 167x76x8.8mm •
WEIGHT 220g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 10 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE SM-G988BZKDEUA • FULL REVIEW Jun 2020

MOTOROLA Moto E6 Plus GOOGLE Pixel 3a

★★★★★ ★★★★★
•
£100 SIM-free; £9-per-month contract www.very.co.uk £329 SIM-free; £15-per-month contract •
(SIM-free); www.tescomobile.com (contract) www.carphonewarehouse.com
There’s plenty of smartphone here for the The Pixel 3a is a welcome return to
money, whether it’s the spacious 6.1in mid-range smartphones on Google’s
display or the surprisingly high performance. part. It’s essentially a cheaper version of
It also has a removable back panel, so it’s one of very few the flagship Pixel 3, which means a bit less horsepower
Android handsets for which you can use spare batteries. but the same clean, stock Android and superb camera.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2GHz Mediatek Helio P22 • SCREEN SIZE 6.1in • SCREEN RESOLUTION PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 • SCREEN SIZE 5.5in •
1,560x720 • REAR CAMERAS 13 megapixels, 2 megapixels • STORAGE 32GB • WIRELESS DATA SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,160x1,080 • REAR CAMERA 12.2 megapixels • STORAGE 64GB •
4G • NFC No • DIMENSIONS 156x73x8.6mm • WEIGHT 150g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 9.0 WIRELESS DATA 4G • NFC Yes • DIMENSIONS 146x68x7.9mm • WEIGHT 148g • OPERATING
• WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.www.motorola.co.uk • PART CODE PAGA0000GB • SYSTEM Android 9.0 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS store.google.com • PART CODE
FULL REVIEW May 2020 Pixel 3 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2019

SAMSUNG Galaxy Note 10+ APPLE iPhone 11

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£840 SIM-free; £57-per-month contract • £729 SIM-free; £29 up front plus £43-per-month
www.amzn.to/36doWKm (SIM-free); •
contract www.apple.com/uk (SIM-free);
www.tescomobile.com (contract) www.carphonewarehouse.com (contract)
From its cameras to its display, everything The standard iPhone 11 is a slick
about the Note 10+ drips with ultra- and powerful smartphone. It has
premium quality. It’s quite possibly the the same class-leading A13 Bionic
best Android phone on the market, albeit at a steep cost. chip as the iPhone 11 Pro, while costing hundreds of pounds less.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.4GHz Samsung Exynos 9825 • SCREEN SIZE 6.8in • SCREEN PROCESSOR Hexa-core 2.65GHz Apple A13 Bionic • SCREEN SIZE 6.1in • SCREEN RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION 3,040x1,440 • REAR CAMERAS 12 megapixels, 16 megapixels, 12 megapixels • 1,792x828 • REAR CAMERAS 12 megapixels, 12 megapixels • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G
STORAGE 256GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • NFC Yes • DIMENSIONS 162x77x7.9mm • WEIGHT 196g • NFC Yes • DIMENSIONS 151x76x8.3mm • WEIGHT 194g • OPERATING SYSTEM iOS 13 •
• OPERATING SYSTEM Android 9.0 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/ WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • PART CODE iPhone 11 • FULL REVIEW
uk • PART CODE SM-N975FZSDBTU • FULL REVIEW Dec 2019 Mar 2020

56 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing a... Tablet
01 All tablets rely on an operating system
(OS) to run apps. You have three main
choices: Apple’s iOS, which runs on the iPad;
Android, which Google licenses to various
manufacturers; and Windows 10, which has
become common in hybrid tablets and
convertibles. If you own an Apple or Google
smartphone, you can download your apps,
music and so on to a tablet that runs the
same OS, so it makes sense to stick with a
compatible device.
starting to see tablets that have even higher
screen resolutions. Some are as high as
2,560x1,600 or even 4K. Entry-level tablets
04 Tablets rarely include a SIM card
slot. This means you’ll have to rely
on Wi-Fi to get online, although some
typically use TN panels, which don’t have tablets let you access the internet through
particularly good viewing angles. The viewing your smartphone. If you want mobile access
angles of IPS panels are much better. to the internet, look for 3G- and 4G-ready
devices. These almost always cost more
03 If you want to listen to music, watch
films and play games, make sure your
tablet has plenty of storage. Many tablets
than Wi-Fi-only models, but they’re great
if you use your tablet while commuting
or travelling.
come with 8GB or 16GB of internal storage,

02 It’s important to pick a tablet that has

a good-quality, high-resolution screen.
Many budget tablets have 1,280x800-
resolution displays, but better tablets have
Full HD 1,920x1,080 panels, and we’re
although some budget models have less.
You’ll typically pay more for a higher storage
capacity. Many tablets also have microSD
slots that let you add extra storage, although
you won’t find one on an iPad. This is a cheap
way of boosting storage capacity.
05 Your choice of tablet determines the
apps you can use on it. You may find
that some of the apps you want are available
on iOS but not Android, and vice versa.
Windows 10, meanwhile, runs traditional
desktop applications.

TABLETS
AMAZON Kindle Oasis (2019)
019) APPLE iPad 10.2in
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£230 • amzn.to/2mp6ldb £329 • www.apple.com/uk
With the addition of a blue light After the previous iPad pivoted to
filter, the latest Kindle Oasis is as an education focus, the latest
good an e-reader as you can get. model changes course again,
Besides being easier on the eyes when reading at aiming to become a more affordable 2-in-1 than the iPad Pro range. It
night, it has the physical page-turn buttons that cheaper Kindles lack, works, too: the enlarged screen, Smart Connector for keyboards and
and the screen can auto-rotate according to how you’re holding it. high performance make for a relatively affordable laptop alternative.
PROCESSOR Not stated • SCREEN SIZE 7in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 300ppi • REAR CAMERA PROCESSOR Quad-core Apple A10 Fusion • SCREEN SIZE 10.2in • SCREEN RESOLUTION
None • STORAGE 8GB • WIRELESS DATA Wi-Fi, Bluetooth • DIMENSIONS 159x141x8.4mm • 2,160x1,620 • REAR CAMERA 8 megapixels • STORAGE 32GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G (cellular model)
WEIGHT 188g • OPERATING SYSTEM Kindle OS • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www. • DIMENSIONS 215x174x7.5mm • WEIGHT 483g • OPERATING SYSTEM iPadOS • WARRANTY One
amazon.co.uk • PART CODE Kindle Oasis (2019) • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019 year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • PART CODE iPad (2019) • FULL REVIEW Feb 2020

APPLE iPad Pro 10.5in MICROSOFT Surface Go

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£529 • www.apple.com/uk £509 • www.microsoft.com
While it’s still stuck with a If you’ve been craving a
mobile OS, rather than the tablet with the flexibility
productivity-friendly macOS, of a Surface Pro, without
there’s no arguing with the latest iPad Pro’s raw the usual expense, the Surface Go is a
power. An A10X Fusion chip makes it much faster than the 9.7in perfect fit. It’s smaller and uses a less powerful
werful Intel Pentium CPU,
CPU
model in both multitasking and single-threaded applications. but it’s still a much more work-ready 2-in-1 than any Android slate.

PROCESSOR Hexa-core 2.36GHz Apple A10X Fusion • SCREEN SIZE 10 .5in • SCREEN RESOLUTION PROCESSOR Dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Pentium 4415Y • SCREEN SIZE 10in • SCREEN RESOLUTION
2,224x1,668 • REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels • STORAGE 64/256/512GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G (cellular 1,800x1,200 • REAR CAMERA 8 megapixels • STORAGE 128GB • WIRELESS DATA No •
version) • DIMENSIONS 251x174x6.1mm • WEIGHT 469g • OPERATING SYSTEM iOS 11 • WARRANTY DIMENSIONS 245x175x8.3mm • WEIGHT 522g • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 S • WARRANTY
One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • PART CODE 9.7in iPad Pro • FULL REVIEW Oct 2017 One year RTB • DETAILS www.microsoft.com • PART CODE MCZ-00002 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2019

SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S6 AMAZON Kindle (2019)

9)
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£629 • www.johnlewis.com £70 • www.amzn.to/2x9nnhM
The Tab S6 is no simple slate. Some key upgrades make the e
Samsung’s DeX interface turns it into base Kindle a much more
a viable 2-in-1 laptop alternative, tempting prospect. There’s a
something that’s further enabled by its powerful new reading light on the front, plus Bluetooth
h
processor and glorious, high-resolution touchscreen. connectivity and the ability to download and
listen to Audible audiobooks.
PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.84GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 • SCREEN SIZE 10.5in • SCREEN
RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • REAR CAMERAS 15 megapixels, 3 megapixels • STORAGE 128GB • PROCESSOR Not stated • SCREEN SIZE 6in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 256ppi • REAR CAMERA
WIRELESS DATA No • DIMENSIONS 245x160x5.7mm • WEIGHT 420g • OPERATING SYSTEM None • STORAGE 4GB • WIRELESS DATA Wi-Fi only • DIMENSIONS 160x113x8.7mm •
Android 9.0 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE WEIGHT 174g • OPERATING SYSTEM Kindle OS • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
SM-T860NZAABTU • FULL REVIEW Apr 2020 www.amazon.co.uk • PART CODE Kindle (2019) • FULL REVIEW Aug 2019

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 57

 Choosing a... Soundbar
01 If you don’t have space in your home
cinema setup for a set of surround-
sound speakers, a soundbar is the next best
thing. Whether you opt for a soundbar
(which typically sits in front of your TV
stand) or a soundplate (which sits
underneath your TV), you’ll be getting
significantly better audio than the weedy
speakers today’s flatscreen TVs provide.
boxes to your TV and run all audio through a
single cable. Also look for phono inputs for
connecting older devices and 3.5mm audio
Most soundbars now include Bluetooth as
standard but, if your device supports it, it’s
worth looking for a mobile soundbar that
jacks for tablets or smartphones. includes aptX. This less-lossy codec is
capable of higher-quality streaming than
03 As with any speaker, the number of
speaker drivers inside a soundbar
should give a good indication of its audio
the standard A2DP profile.
AirPlay streaming is less common, but
iPhone owners should keep an eye out for it.
capabilities. Although this won’t tell you

02 If you want to cut down on cable

clutter, look for a soundbar with
multiple HDMI inputs and outputs as well as
Audio Return Channel (ARC). Not all
soundbars use HDMI, with many making do
with digital optical audio connections
instead. This means you’ll have to connect
Blu-ray players, games consoles and set-top
everything about sound quality, you should
still look out for separate mid-range drivers
and tweeters, as these should be able to
deliver a wider frequency range than
full-range drivers alone.
04 Bluetooth support is a must if you
want to listen to music from a
smartphone or tablet without wires.
05 For a little extra bass, be sure to
look for a soundbar with a separate
subwoofer. Many soundbars include a
wired sub, but for extra convenience you
should look for a model with a wireless
subwoofer instead. These can be placed
anywhere in a room near a power socket,
without having to run a cable back to the
soundbar itself.

HOME CINEMA
PHILIPS 55PUS6753/12
/ VIZIO SB362An-F6E
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£482 • www.amzn.to/2NJYgKc •
£149 www.amzn.to//
38pqxi0
This Philips set
doesn’t have This 36in soundbar is more of a basic option –
the best there’s no separate subwoofer, and certainly
implementation of HDR we’ve nothing like Dolby Atmos – but its core sound
seen on a TV, but otherwise, the quality and tone control make it a very respectable upgrade to
55PUS6753/12 is a fantastic 4K screen for a relatively low price. your TV’s speakers.
SCREEN SIZE 55in • NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • VIDEO INPUTS 3x HDMI, 5x component • SPEAKERS 4 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DIMENSIONS 914x132x53mm • WEIGHT 2.5kg
TUNER Freeview HD • DIMENSIONS 781x1,244x266mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING Bluetooth • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
DETAILS www.philips.co.uk • PART CODE 55PUS6753/12 • FULL REVIEW Dec 2018 www.viziosoundbar.uk • PART CODE SB362An-F6E • FULL REVIEW Mar 2020

SONY POLK AUDIO Command

nd Bar
★★★★★
KD-55XF9005 £190 • www.amzn.to/33TdAv4
★★★★★
£799 • www.johnlewis.com This is a genius combination
of soundbar and smart
Direct-lit backlighting, excellent upscaling and speaker, and for a low price
beautifully smooth motion make the KD-55XF9005 a too. It’s great for films, TV and music, and
worthy alternative to high-end OLED TVs, even though you can use Alexa as a voice-activated remote control
control.
it only has a VA panel.
SPEAKERS 3 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 260W • DIMENSIONS 1,091x102x51mm (soundbar),
SCREEN SIZE 55in • NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • VIDEO INPUTS 4x HDMI • 367x188x368mm (subwoofer) • WEIGHT 2.3kg (soundbar), 3.9kg (subwoofer) • DOCK
TUNER Freeview HD • DIMENSIONS 771x1,228x258mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi • WARRANTY Three years RTB •
DETAILS www.sony.co.uk • PART CODE KD-55XF9005 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2018 DETAILS en.polkaudio.com • PART CODE COMMANDUK • FULL REVIEW Oct 2019

03
3
PHILIPS 65OLED803 SONOS Beam
S
★★★★★ ★★★★★
★
£2,399 • www.currys.co.uk £329
£ • www.amzn.to/2RJpMef
ett
If you’ve got the budget The Beam could join
for an OLED TV, this is a a home cinema
great pick. The panel technology’s built-in setup on sound quality alone, but it’s loaded
strengths, such as perfect blacks and wide viewing angles, are with smart features, too. It can adjust sound output to the size
aided by Philips’ exemplary image processing engine, resulting in and layout of a room, for example, and form a multiroom system
truly wonderful picture quality. with other Sonos speakers.
SCREEN SIZE 65in • NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • VIDEO INPUTS 4x HDMI, 1x Component SPEAKERS 5 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DIMENSIONS 651x100x69mm • WEIGHT
• TUNER Freeview HD • DIMENSIONS 824x1,449x280mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • 2.8kg • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Ethernet • WARRANTY One
DETAILS www.philips.co.uk • PART CODE 65OLED803/12 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2019 year RTB • DETAILS www.sonos.com • PART CODE BEAM1UK1 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2019

58 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing a... Bluetooth speaker
01 Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes
and sizes, so you’ll need to decide
what you want to do with the speaker before
you buy. If you don’t plan to take your music
outdoors or around the house, look for a
wired speaker. These are typically cheaper
than speakers with built-in batteries.
If you do want a portable speaker,
however, pay particular attention to how
much it weighs. Ruggedised models should
be able to survive accidental drops, water
spills and unexpected rain showers.
It’s hard to tell the difference when listening
to pocket-sized speakers, but if you’re
looking for a speaker to fill a room, an
Single-driver speakers with larger driver
cones can be just as capable of producing
fantastic audio, however.
aptX-compatible device is a better option.
This Bluetooth protocol retains more detail
than the A2DP profile, although you’ll need
to use it with a compatible smartphone in
04 Most Bluetooth speakers have at
least one auxiliary input for a wired
3.5mm audio jack, in case you want to
order to get the benefits. listen to music from a device that doesn’t
have Bluetooth.
03 As with any audio product, the
number and size of speaker drivers
can have a significant impact on the quality
There are other extra features to look out
for, though. Speakers with built-in batteries
may have a USB port for charging your
of sound you get from a Bluetooth speaker. smartphone, or a built-in microphone to turn

02 Many of the cheapest Bluetooth

speakers use the lossy A2DP
Bluetooth protocol, which is prone to
compressing your music and discarding
detail compared with the original recording.
Typically, the presence of multiple drivers
enables the manufacturer to tune each one
for specific frequencies, directing high-end
sounds towards a tweeter and sending the
mid-range frequencies to the main driver.
it into a speakerphone when a paired
smartphone receives a call. Not all speakers
have physical controls; many rely on your
paired device’s controls for adjusting the
volume or muting playback.

AUDIO
CREATIVE Outlier Air SONY WH-1000XM3
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£55 • uk.creative.com £240 • www.amzn.to/2HHUG1J
A marvellouss Bose’s QuietComfort
set of true headphones have at last
wireless been toppled from the ANC
headphones, the Outlier Air combine a lively
lively and dynamic sound throne. The WH-1000XM3 headphones
with a comfy (if large) design
n and long battery life. Bluetooth aptX don’t just sound outstanding, with very effective noise cancellation,
support is worth the money in particular. but they’re smartly designed and come with a host of extras.
HEADPHONES SUBTYPE In-ear headset • PLUG TYPE None • WEIGHT 10g • HEADPHONES SUBTYPE Over-ear headset • PLUG TYPE 3.5mm jack plug (optional) •
CABLE LENGTH N/A • WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS uk.creative.com • WEIGHT 255g • CABLE LENGTH 1.2m • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.sony.co.uk •
PART CODE Outlier Air • FULL REVIEW Jul 2019 PART CODE WH-1000XM3 • FULL REVIEW May 2019

IKEA Symfonisk SONOS Move

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£99 • www.ikea.com £379 • www.amzn.to/2LGv5Yc
Ikea, with a little help from Sonos, Although this is much bigger and
has produced two great-sounding less portable than most Bluetooth
wired speakers. The cheaper speakers, it’s worth taking with you
‘bookshelf’ model is slim and subtle, but it’s worth when you can. It sounds absolutely superb, and
paying extra for the ‘lamp’ model, which both supports Trueplay, so can automatically adjust its
sounds fuller and doubles as a working lamp. output to fit the acoustics of its surroundings.
SPEAKERS 2 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • WEIGHT Not stated • NETWORKING Wi-Fi • SPEAKERS 2 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.ikea.com • PART CODE Symfonisk • FULL REVIEW 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth • DIMENSIONS 240x160126mm • WEIGHT 3kg • WARRANTY One year
Nov 2019 RTB • DETAILS www.sonos.com • PART CODE MOVE1UK1BLK • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020

NAIM Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation BOWERS & WILKINS 607

★★★★★ ★★★★★
NEW
£749 • www.johnlewis.com ENTRY £299 • www.weybridge-audio.co.uk
For a Bluetooth speaker this iss Inspired by the classic
immensely expensive, especially as 600 series, the wired
it’s mains-powered and thus not 607s deliver an exciting
fully wireless. Nevertheless, its sound output is as and enthusiastic sound profile that
expansive as it is customisable, and it can automatically adjust to its reveals the tiniest details in every
physical surroundings for the best tone. recording.
SPEAKERS 5 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 300W • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING SPEAKERS 4 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 125W • WEIGHT 4.7kg per speaker •
802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth • DIMENSIONS 1210x218x212mm • WEIGHT 5.6g • WARRANTY Two NETWORKING None • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.bowers-wilkins.eu •
years RTB • DETAILS www.naimaudio.com • PART CODE MUSO2QB • FULL REVIEW Jun 2020 PART CODE 607 • FULL REVIEW Jun 2019

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 59

 Choosing an... Action camera
01 Action cameras are typically much
smaller than a regular camcorder, as
they are designed to be mounted to a bike,
board or car, or worn on your person. As the
name suggests, they are designed primarily
for shooting action footage, but because of
their small size they are ideal for strapping
Keep an eye out for 4K/30, 4K/60,
1080p/60 and 720p/120 models for the
widest possible choice of resolutions
If you want to be able to see exactly
what you’re pointing the lens at, keep an
eye out for cameras with companion
and frame rates. smartphone apps, or wrist-mounted
viewfinders that also let you start and
03 Most action cameras rely on flash
memory for storing your video,
stop shooting remotely.

on to your pet’s collar or your children’s toys

for a different perspective.
letting you swap out memory cards on the
fly when you fill one up with clips. More
expensive devices can have integrated
05 Action cameras typically have a huge
range of accessories, with specific
mounts and harnesses for different activities

02 Even basic action cameras will shoot

Full HD video, and many will even
shoot 4K, but frame rate is arguably more
important than resolution when it comes to
action video. Higher frame rates will mean
smoother clips, and super-high frame rate
videos can be played in slow motion to
emphasise exciting shots.
flash memory as well as a card slot, but
it’s typically cheaper to buy the basic
version of a camera and pick up memory
and sports. If the camera itself isn’t water
resistant, a weatherproof case will protect it
from the elements, while a tripod mount will
cards separately. let you lock it firmly in place.
Spare batteries are essential for longer
04 Not all action cameras have LCD
displays; in fact, many don’t include a
sceen in order to extend battery life.
shoots, and some decent video-editing
software will help you to produce a more
polished result.

VIDEO
AMAZON Fire TV Stick 4K DJI Osmo Pocket
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£50 • www.amzn.to/2Y6q8wh £329 • store.dji.com
From set-top box to dangling dongle A cleverly made alternative to action
and now an ultra-compact stick, cameras, the DJI Osmo Pocket isn’t
Amazon’s 4K media streamer gets intended for extreme sports, but its
sleeker with every generation. It’s also been updated with a new mechancial stabilisation ensures smooth, great-looking
remote, which includes a microphone for Alexa voice commands. footage for life-logging videos.

VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 2.0 • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi • DIMENSIONS 108x30x14mm • SENSOR 1/2.3in CMOS • SENSOR PIXELS 12 megapixels • MAXIMUM RECORDING RESOLUTION
STREAMING FORMATS UPnP, AirPlay, DLNA, Plex • INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES Amazon 4K (60fps) • AV CONNECTIONS USB Type-C • DIMENSIONS 122x37x38mm • WEIGHT 116g •
Video, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.dji.com • PART CODE CP.ZM.00000097.01 •
www.amazon.co.uk • PART CODE Fire TV Stick 4K • FULL REVIEW May 2019 FULL REVIEW Apr 2019

DJI Osmo Action GOPRO Hero 8 Black

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£329 • www.argos.co.uk £380 • www.amzn.to/2NHTE8c
If you want most of the features of a GoPro action Instead of completely rewriting
camera at a lower price, consider the Osmo Action. the Hero 7 Black’s formula, the
It’s waterproof without a case, can shoot at 4K and Hero 8 Black focuses more on smaller improvements,
60fps with stablisation, and reaches the same high standard of video such as to its stabilisation and timelapse features. To GoPro’s credit,
quality as the Osmo Pocket, as they have the same sensor. this approach works: this is a truly brilliant action camera.

SENSOR 1/2.3in CMOS • SENSOR PIXELS 12 megapixels • MAX RECORDING RESOLUTION 4K SENSOR 1/2.3in CMOS • SENSOR PIXELS 12 megapixels • MAXIMUM RECORDING RESOLUTION
(60fps) • AV CONNECTIONS None • DIMENSIONS 42x66x35mm • WEIGHT 134g • 4K (60fps) • AV CONNECTIONS None • DIMENSIONS 49x66x28mm • WEIGHT 126g •
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.dji.com/uk • PART CODE CP.OS.00000020.01 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.gopro.com • PART CODE CHDHX-801-RW •
FULL REVIEW Dec 2019 FULL REVIEW Mar 2020

APPLE TV 4K GOPRO Max

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£179 • www.apple.com/uk £459 • www.amzn.to/2xbbAmb
This big update adds 4K K content (including,
(including for the At last, a 360° camera that is all
first time, Amazon Video support). The best part is things to all users. The GoPro Max
that if there’s a 4K version of content you’ve manages to be both usable for beginners and
previously purchased in HD, Apple will upgrade it free of charge. sufficiently advanced for more experienced videographers, shooting
super-smooth footage with plenty of extra features to try.
VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 2.0a • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 10/100/1,000 Ethernet •
DIMENSIONS 35x98x98mm • STREAMING FORMATS AirPlay, others via apps • SENSOR 2x 1/2.3in CMOS • SENSOR PIXELS 2x 16 megapixels • MAXIMUM RECORDING
INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES iTunes, Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, RESOLUTION 5.6K (30fps) • AV CONNECTIONS None • DIMENSIONS 64x69x40mm •
Now TV, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • WEIGHT 163g • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.gopro.com • PART CODE
PART CODE Apple TV 4K • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018 CHDHZ-201-RW • FULL REVIEW Feb 2020

60 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

Choosing a... Compact system camera
01 If you’re ready to step beyond the
basic controls of a compact camera,
or you want greater flexibility than an
ultra-zoom can offer, a compact system
camera (CSC) is the next logical upgrade.
With interchangeable lenses, manual controls
and stellar image quality, these cameras give
proper digital SLRs a run for their money.
Sony’s E-Mount has a slightly wider
range, but Micro Four Thirds offers the
widest variety. Both Panasonic and Olympus
budget. Most come with at least one kit
lens, but if you already have lenses for a
particular CSC mount, you can buy the body
cameras use this mount, and the lenses are on its own and save money.
interchangeable between manufacturers.
03 Micro Four Thirds cameras are
typically more compact than other
05 Once you’ve settled on a particular
mount, you should pay attention to a
camera’s features. Articulating screens and
types of CSC because the image sensor is integrated viewfinders will help you compose

02 There are three competing types of

CSC mount, and the one you buy
determines the number of compatible lenses
and accessories you have available.
Samsung’s NX-mount is arguably the most
limited in terms of lens selection, and the
company has confirmed that it’s shutting
down its European camera business, so it’s
best to avoid these altogether if possible.
physically smaller – with a 22mm diagonal,
it’s roughly 30% smaller than an APS-C
sensor. The APS-C sensors that Sony and
Samsung use in their CSCs are the same size
as those in traditional digital SLRs.
04 Like digital SLRs, CSCs come at a
wide range of prices. Available from
as little as £200, there’s a CSC to suit every
shots, while extra physical controls and a
hotshoe mount will give you flexibility for
manual shooting.
Touchscreens are great, but they’re no
replacement for physical dials when it comes
to changing shutter speed and aperture. An
integrated flash is much more convenient
than a detachable one, as you can never
forget to take it with you.

PHOTOGRAPHY
CANON EOS R CANON EOS 250D NEW
★★★★★ ★★★★★ ENTRY
£1,999 • www.johnlewis.com £599 • www.currys.co.uk
This is Canon’s first mirrorless This is an ideal camera for
full-frame camera, but you first-time DSLR buyers.
wouldn’t know it. Image quality iss Excellent user-friendliness
among the very best, and the included kit lens does a fantastic job. combines with high image quality for a very good-value shooter.
You can also get it body-only and attach your own RF-mount lenses. Videos also look great, but there’s definitely more of a focus on stills.
SENSOR RESOLUTION 30.3 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 36x24mm • FOCAL LENGTH SENSOR RESOLUTION 24.1 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 23.5x15.6mm (APS-C) • FOCAL
MULTIPLIER 1x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (3.6 million dots) • LCD SCREEN 3.2in (2,100,000 dots) • LENGTH MULTIPLIER 1.6x • VIEWFINDER Optical • LCD SCREEN 3in (1.04 million dots) •
VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION (35mm-EQUIVALENT, COVERAGE) 0.76x, 100% • VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION (35mm-EQUIVALENT, COVERAGE) 0.87x, 95% • WEIGHT 449g •
WEIGHT 580g • DIMENSIONS 98x136x84mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS DIMENSIONS 93x122x70mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.canon.co.uk •
www.canon.co.uk • FULL REVIEW Sep 2019 FULL REVIEW Jun 2020

NIKON Z6 POLAROID Originals OneStep 2

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£1,649 • www.johnlewis.com £83 • www.amzn.to/2DQhr05
If you can’t quite afford the The OneStep 2 brings
exemplary Z7, then the Z6 is back the simple joys of
the perfect alternative. It’s instant photography.
every bit the mirrorless all-rounder, and while it has a lower- Although the stock can get quite pricey,
resolution sensor than the Z7, this allows it to shoot at a faster rate. your shots will look just as they would on
a classic Polaroid – perfect for sharing or
SENSOR RESOLUTION 24.5 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 35.9x23.9mm CMOS • VIEWFINDER
simply sticking to the fridge.
Electronic (3.69 million dots) • LCD SCREEN 3.2in (2 million dots) • VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION
(35MM-EQUIVALENT, COVERAGE) 0.8x, 100% • WEIGHT 1,175g • SIZE (HXWXD) 101x134x68mm PHOTO SIZE 3.1x3.1in • BATTERY LIFE 15-20 packets of film • PORTS 1x Micro USB •
• WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.europe-nikon.com • FULL REVIEW July 2019 WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.polaroidoriginals.com • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018

SONY A6400 SONY RX100 VII

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£1,192 • www.amzn.to/2KO1PPj £998 • www.wexphotovideo.com
Sony’s tiny mirrorless camera We’ve never used a
doesn’t sacrifice quality in the nameme compact system camera
of portability. The 1,200-zone metering system helps that shoots as well as the
produce balanced photos, and the A6400 particularly excels at RX100 VII. Stills look superb, and video support is even better, with
speed-shooting, so it’s definitely worth a look for action photography. smooth footage and fast, silent autofocus.

SENSOR RESOLUTION 24.2 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 23.5x15.6mm (APS-C) • FOCAL LENGTH SENSOR RESOLUTION 20.1 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 13.2x9.8mm • FOCAL LENGTH
MULTIPLIER 1.5x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (2.36 million dots) • LCD SCREEN 3in (921,000 dots) • MULTIPLIER 2.7x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (2.4 million dots) • LCD SCREEN 3in (921,000 dots) •
LENS MOUNT E-mount • WEIGHT 403g • DIMENSIONS 67x120x60mm • WARRANTY One year WEIGHT 302g • DIMENSIONS 58x102x43mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.sony.
RTB • DETAILS www.sony.com • FULL REVIEW Oct 2019 com • FULL REVIEW Apr 2020

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 61

 Choosing a... Wearable
01 Wearable tech can include anything
from chest-strap heart-rate monitors
to augmented reality glasses, but the two
03 Fitness trackers are much more
dedicated to healthy pursuits.
Step counters, heart-rate monitors and
a single charge, so you can wear it to bed
and benefit from sleep tracking.

most common types are smartwatches and

fitness trackers. Both are designed to sit
unassumingly on your wrist, and are almost
always meant to be used in tandem with a
paired smartphone.
even sleep tracking are all common, and
the data collected is fed back to you so
you can see how your workout routine
or calorie intake is going.
Many smartwatches also contain
health-tracking features, but fitness-
05 Look out for waterproofing as well.
Wearables that don’t mind a few
lengths of the pool can be used for
swimming or just timekeeping, and at the
very least we expect a fitness tracker to be
able to deal with rain or sweat.

02 Smartwatches are typically more

complex and expensive, though
more closely resemble a traditional
wristwatch. You can use them to receive
and reply to text messages and emails,
quickly check maps and even play
games – like a smartphone, most
smartwatches allow you to install your
own choice of apps.
specific wearables tend to be cheaper,
smaller and lighter.
04 When it comes to battery life, it’s
important for any wearable to
last a full day, but if it’s a smartwatch
then you can get away with having to
charge it overnight. With fitness trackers,
it’s better if it lasts for several days off
06 Different smartwatches use
different operating systems, which
determine which apps you can install on
your device, as well as compatibility with
smartphones. Android Wear and Tizen
smartwatches will work with both Android
and iOS phones, but Apple’s watchOS will
only pair with an iOS handset.

WEARABLES
HONOR Band 5 APPLE Watch Series 5
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£30 • www.amzn.to/36nRxNz £399 • www.apple.com/uk
This is a perfect fitness band if The latest Apple Watch is, once
you’re just starting out on an again, not a major overhaul, but
exercise routine. It’s light, the always-on display is a nice
long-lasting between charges and accurate at little upgrade. The new compass also helps
measurements, a combination you won’t often with navigation, and the Health app redesign
see on something so cheap. helps display fitness stats more clearly.
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 0.95in • RESOLUTION 240x120 • PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.78in • RESOLUTION 448x368 •
OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Two weeks • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS OS SUPPORT iOS • BATTERY LIFE 18 hours • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.
www.hihonor.com • PART CODE KYG3649645453002TV • FULL REVIEW Feb 2020 com/uk • PART CODE Apple Watch Series 5 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020

GARMIN Vivoactive 4 FITBIT Inspire HR

★★★★★ ★★★★★
£280 • www.amzn.to/36gfTbX £89 • www.johnlewis.com
One of the best fitness There’s no better sub-£100 0
watch series gets another fitness tracker for casual
great instalment. The users than this. The Inspire
e
ctic
Vivoactive 4 is well designed, tracks an eclectic HR’s simplicity and stylishness give it
mix of activities and introduces some unique e new immediate appeal, and you’ll stay for the
features, including animated guides to workouts. top-quality mobile app.
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.3in • RESOLUTION 260x260 • PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 0.7in • RESOLUTION 128x72 •
OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Five days • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Five days • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS
www.garmin.com • PART CODE 010-02174-02 • FULL REVIEW Mar 2020 www.fitbit.com • PART CODE FB505RGPK-EU • FULL REVIEW Jul 2019

GARMIN Fenix 5 Plus MOBVOI TicWatch E2

2
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£469 • www.johnlewis.com £124 • www.mobvoi.com
You’ll have to pay a pretty penny At this price, there’s simply
ply
for it, but the variety of features no better smartwatch/fitnessness
on the Fenix 5 Plus is without tracker hybrid than the
peer. One of the most exclusive is its support for TicWatch E2. Built-in GPS, IP67 waterproofing
ofing
full-colour maps, along with the ability to create routes and an upgraded battery are all on board, and it’s
straight from your wrist. more responsive than most Wear 2100 wearables.
earables.
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.2in • RESOLUTION 240x240 • PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.4in • RESOLUTION 400x400 •
OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE 18 hours • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Two days • WARRANTY One year RTB •
www.garmin.com • PART CODE 010-01988-11 • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019 DETAILS www.mobvoi.com • PART CODE TicWatch E2 • FULL REVIEW Jun 2019

62 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 SOFTWARE

Vid soft
ADOBE Premiere Pro CC 2019 KASPERSKY Internet Security

Sec ftwa
eo wa

so
uri re
-ed re
★★★★★ ★★★★★

ty
itin
• • www.amzn.to/3aOISqJ

g
£30 per month www.adobe.com £24

This strong update of Premiere Pro CC adds improved

Lumetri Color controls and neat integration with the
Premiere Rush mobile app, among other tweaks.
OS SUPPORT Windows 10 version 1703 and later, macOS 10.12 and later (10.13 required for
hardware acceleration) • MINIMUM CPU Intel 6th-gen and later, AMD equivalents •
MINIMUM GPU Integrated graphics • MINIMUM RAM 8GB • HARD DISK SPACE 8GB •
DETAILS www.adobe.com • PRODUCT CODE Premiere Pro CC • FULL REVIEW Jul 2019
Not only is this one of the most fortified security
suites on the market, it’s also one of the best
designed, and there are loads of extra features.
OS SUPPORT Windows 7/8.1/10, macOS 10.12 or later, Android, iOS • MINIMUM CPU 1GHz •
MINIMUM GPU None • MINIMUM RAM 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit) • HARD DISK SPACE 1.5GB •
DETAILS www.kaspsersky.co.uk • PRODUCT CODE Internet Security • FULL REVIEW Mar 2020

CYBERGHOST VPN

pri

p ri
NORDVPN

Vir e net

Vir e net
vat

vat
tua wo

tua wo
★★★★★

l rk

l rk
★★★★★
£9 per month • www.nordvpn.com £2.10 per month • www.cyberghostvpn.com
There are cheaper VPN services available, but In addition to safeguarding your privacy, CyberGhost
none has the flexibility and multi-level security VPN is particularly well suited to unblocking content
features of NordVPN. It’s become much faster on different streaming services. Connecting to new
than previous versions, too. servers could be a bit faster, but once you’re connected, everything is
nice and stable.
OS SUPPORT Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, DD-WRT router • DETAILS www.nordvpn.com • OS SUPPORT Windows, macOS, iOS, Android • DETAILS www.cyberghostvpn.com •
PRODUCT CODE NordVPN • FULL REVIEW Sep 2018 PRODUCT CODE CyberGhost VPN • FULL REVIEW Nov 2019

McAFEE Internet Security 2019 APPLE macOS 10.14 Mojave

Sec ftwa

OS ate
so
uri re

up
ty

d
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£16 • www.amzn.to/2X5sQBL Free • itunes.apple.com
Impressively, the 2019 version takes McAfee Internet Mojave’s small UI improvements and minor added
Security from an industry damp squib to one of the features would disappoint on their own, but together
most reliable security suites on the market. Malware they add up to a great update. It’s free, too, so
detection is vastly improved and performance is better, too. there’s no reason not to make the switch.
OS SUPPORT Windows 7/8/8.1/10, macOS 10.12 and later; Android 4.1 and later, iOS 10 and later • OS SUPPORT OS X Mountain Lion or later • MINIMUM CPU Not stated • MINIMUM GPU
MINIMUM CPU 1GHz • MINIMUM GPU DirectX 9 • MINIMUM RAM 1GB • HARD DISK SPACE Integrated graphics • MINIMUM RAM 2GB • HARD DISK SPACE 12.5GB • DETAILS www.apple.
500MB • DETAILS www.mcafee.com • FULL REVIEW Apr 2019 com • FULL REVIEW Jan 2019

GAMING
NINTENDO Switch Lite OCULUS Go
Ha es co
ga
nd ns
m

VR dset
he
he ol

★★★★★ ★★★★★ a
ld e

£199 • www.amzn.to/2Cig3Tx £189 • www.overclockers.co.uk

The Switch Lite No longer do you need
d
can’t be used a decked-out PC or
with a TV like the standard Switch, nor can you premium smartphone to enjoy VR
VR. The Oculus Go
detach its controllers, but with a lower price, more compact design crams all the hardware you need into the headset itself, making virtual
and all the same power, it’s still a great handheld console. reality entertainment as immediate and accesible as it’s ever been.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.9GHz Nvidia Tegra X1 • RAM 4GB LPDDRX4 • FRONT USB PORTS None DISPLAY LCD • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • REFRESH RATE 72Hz • PROCESSOR Octa-core
• REAR USB PORTS 1x USB Type-C • STORAGE 32GB • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS 2.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 • RAM 3GB • WEIGHT 467g • DETAILS www.oculus.com/go •
www.nintendo.com • PART CODE Nintendo Switch Lite • FULL REVIEW Jan 2020 PART CODE Go 32GB • FULL REVIEW Sep 2018

NVIDIA GeForce Now

str
VR nd g

NINTENDO
Ga ing s
eam
he am
a

me er
ad es

- vice

★★★★★
set

Labo VR Kit NEW

★★★★★
£5 per month • www.nvidia.com ENTRY
£65 • www.studio.co.uk Google Stadia getss
This addition
ition more headlines but
to the cardboard-based
ardboard-based Labo series turns your GeForce Now, with its
Nintendo o Switch into a platform for a myriad of ability to dip into your existing library
inventive VR minigames. Kids in particular will enjoy constructing the of PC games, is the best game-streaming service right now.
goggles and controllers themselves.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8.1, 10; Android 5.0, macOS 10.10; Nvidia Shield TV; 4GB
AVAILABLE FORMATS Nintendo Switch • DISK SPACE Not stated • DETAILS labo.nintendo.com • RAM (Windows); 2GB RAM (Android) • DETAILS www.nvidia.com • PART CODE GeForce Now •
PART CODE Nintendo Labo VR Kit • FULL REVIEW Aug 2019 FULL REVIEW June 2020

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 63

 Free software guide
It’s easy to access your free software. Just go to www.shopperdownload.co.uk/389
and register with the code printed on the spine of the magazine cover

DOWNLOADING Softland novaPDF 9

YOUR SOFTWARE
Enter www.shopperdownload.co.uk/
389 into your browser’s address bar.
In the New user section, enter your
email address and the coupon
ode printed on the spine
co
into the relevant boxes,
YOUR UNIQUE then click the Register
COUP O N COD E button. Browse through
FOR £4.99 ISSUESE: this month’s choices
CHECK THE SPIN and follow the online
i
instructions to download
and register the software.
You may need to register a
user account for our software store
and enter your coupon code more
than once.
The registration process varies
from program to program, so read
the instructions carefully – they
explain exactly what you need to do
for each program.
Standard Edition
NOVAPDF IS A powerful
commercial tool for creating
PDF files. Install the program
and it equips your PC with a
virtual printer driver, enabling
you to create PDFs from any
Windows application. Just
open your target document,
choose the Print option,
select the novaPDF printer,
and the program will convert
it for you.
It also provides its own
console, where you can
choose a document and
convert it to PDF directly.
NovaPDF directly integrates with
w Microsoft
Office applications, too. Open a document,
click the novaPDF tab, and again you can have
it converted to PDF in a couple of clicks.
However you start the conversion process,
your finished document can be customised in
many different ways. Bookmarks, metadata,
options are all customisable,
while a smart Profile system
makes it easy to group particular
settings together (for example,
you might have one profile for
home documents, the other for
work, then change between the
two as required).
It’s even possible to define
how your finished PDF will be
opened later in a PDF viewer,
covering anything from hiding
menus, toolbars or other
interface elements, to
configuring particular transition types.
ous issues we’ve given you the Lite
In previo
version of nnovaPDF, but this is the Standard
edition, which allows you to compress images
in your PDF, add a PDF watermark to protect
your documents, add custom forms, rotate
and resize pages and much more.
REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8, 10; 250MB hard disk space

font embedding, link detection, text WEBSITE www.novapdf.com

NOTES www.novapdf.com/creativemarkn20-promo.html
optimisation, layout PDF/A and Linear PDF

ANY PROBLEMS?
If you need help with any of the
software this month, please send an
email to support@creativemark.co.uk.
We check this inbox regularly. Please
include the issue number of the
magazine and your coupon code.

NO CODE?
In order to use the unique code printed
on the spine, you must buy the £4.99
‘Free Software’ print version of the
magazine. If you have this edition and
still don’t have a code, please contact
letters@computershopper.co.uk.

REGISTER YOUR SOFTWARE

BY 18th JUNE 2020

64 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8, 10;
100MB hard disk space
WEBSITE www.softorbits.com
NOTES Get your activation code by
registering within the application
SoftOrbits Photo Stamp
Remover 11
YOU MAY SOMETIMES
appear to have captured
that perfect photo, but
look more closely and
there might be an
annoying object that
you want removed; a
person’s head poking
up in the background,
for instance.
One solution would
be to retake the shot,
but this could be
impossible if it was a
true one-off. The easiest
solution would be to
get out your photo
editor and start to work
some magic. Once you’re happy with the area, choose the
Photo Stamp Remover is a tool designed to removal mode; for example, the Hole Filling mode will
remove small objects from your photos. You can do fill in a dark area, whereas the Quick Remove will
this manually by hand-sketching a mask around the erase your selected area without fuss. Just click
object you want removing, but there are also Remove and Photo Stamp Remover will go to work.
automated tools that allow you to specify an area for If you’re unhappy with the results, click undo
removal. This is a great time-saver, although if the and play around with the color fuzziness slider,
object blends too closely with the background, it’s which will help separate the object you want to
better to mark it yourself. remove compared to the background.

Abelssoft AntiRansomware 2020

ANTIRANSOMWARE 2020 IS a
program designed to constantly
monitor your computer for
ransomware, and raise the
alarm as soon as any suspicious
activity is detected.
The package works by
scanning the key folders where
your data files are stored. You
can tell it to watch any or all of
the four main user folders –
Documents, Pictures, Music and
Videos – or add custom folders
of your own.
If AntiRansomware 2020
spots any potentially dangerous
activity, it will display a warning
and recommend that you
reboot your computer. If you’re
absolutely sure it’s a false alarm
this can be dismissed, but
otherwise the system will
automatically reboot into Safe
Mode after a countdown n.
Rebooting may sound d drastic,
and it could mean you lo ose
unsaved work. But if you u really
have been infected by
ransomware, it could sav ve
hundreds or even thousa ands of
files from encryption, an nd
rebooting automatically protects
you even if you’re not att the PC.
Because AntiRansom mware
2020 restarts your comp puter in
Safe Mode, the ransomw ware
should be prevented from
working. The program allso sends
an email to your registerr
address to act as a warn
in case you’re not around, an
opens an assistant to ad dvise you
of the next steps and he elp you
recover your data.
It can’t remove the
ransomware, unfortunately, so
it’s not a substitute for a full REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8, 10;
antivirus package. Still, you can 20MB hard disk space
WEBSITE www.abelssoft.net
run it alongside your existing
NOTES Get your registration code within the
package without conflicts, and it software (if you have previously registered an
just could give you a valuable Abelssoft full product, you won’t need to
register again)
early warning of problems.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 65


REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8, 10;
100MB hard disk space
WEBSITE www.ashampoo.com
NOTES Get a serial code by registering within
the software
REQUIREMENTS Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10;
50MB hard disk space
WEBSITE www.iobit.com
NOTES Get your registration code at
asc13.disc.computershopper.co.uk.
Includes a six-month licence
REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8 or 10;
2GB hard disk space
WEBSITE www.kaspersky.co.uk
NOTES No need to activate. Includes three
months of free updates
66
shampoo WinOptimizer 2020
As
ASHA AMPOO WINOPTIMIZER IS
a highhly comprehensive PC
clean--up, maintenance and
optimmisation suite.
If you’re short of hard disk
space, for example, the program can
remov ve leftover Windows and
appliccation files, surplus browser
tracess, unnecessary duplicate files
and broken shortcuts. The Disk Space Explorer helps
find other space-hogging folders, and the
ram can even defrag the drive when it’s done to
ensurre you’re getting the best possible performance.
Ann array of other speed-up modules helps to
control your Windows startup programs, highlight
and disable unnecessary services, optimise your
internet connection, clean and defragment your
Registry, remove unwanted applications, manage
running processes, and more.
IObit Advanced SystemCare 13 Pro
ADVANCED SYSTEMCARE 13 is the latest edition of
IObit’s comprehensive PC maintenance suite.
Just installing the package gets you an entire
library of essential tools. There
are modules to clean and
optimise your Registry, delete
junk and duplicate files, control
your startup programs, fix
Windows issues, detect and
remove malware, free up RAM,
update and back up your drivers,
undelete files, fully uninstall
applications, schedule PC shutdowns, securely
wipe confidential files, and apply a host of useful
Windows tweaks. That’s not everything, either;
you could build another excellent maintenance
suite from the modules we’ve left out.
There’s real depth and intelligence here, too.
SystemCare doesn’t just list your browser toolbars
aspersky Internet Security 2020
Ka
ASPER RSKY INTERNET SECURITY 2020 is a
powerful suite of malware-hunting, anti-hacker
web safe ety tools.
Theree’s antivirus, browsing protection, a firewall,
exploit protection, a vulnerability scanner, parental
controls,, webcam and audio protection, online
transactiion protection and even more tools
designedd to keep both your privacy and personal
informattion safe.
Thesee features have real
value, tooo. Independent
testing la
abs such as
AV-Comp paratives typically
rate Kasppersky as offering
some of the best protection
around;; it’s consistently been
one of the highest-scoring
anti-malware providers for
WinOptimizer also includes a
whole library of maintenance
modules, including tools to
benchmark your system speed,
monitor drive health, control
file associations, edit Explorer
context menus, save and restore
your desktop icon settings, and
split, join, encrypt, decrypt, wipe
and undelete files.
It’s also fully up to date, and includes modern
tools such as a Windows 10 privacy protector, which
disables Microsoft’s telemetry in seconds.
While this might sound complex, it’s all simple to
use. You can have WinOptimizer find and fix any
issues on your PC in a couple of clicks, then leave it
to maintain your system all on its own. Alternatively,
you can take full control of any of its modules
whenever you need them.
and startup programs and leave you to figure out
what to do next, for instance: it highlights
unnecessary or dangerous items and allows you to
remove them with a single click.
If you want even more
functionality, the Pro version
includes an Internet Booster
module, Auto RAM cleaning tool,
a disk optimisation feature and
tools to improve system startup.
Apart from a new design,
version 13 makes some good
additions, too. The Security Reinforce module, for
example, helps diagnose and fix system weaknesses,
while a Homepage Advisor module will warn if any
third-party tool attempts to hijack your web browser.
The updated Performance Monitor will also get
the very most from your system, and a rebuilt IObit
Undelete now supports portable storage devices.
several years now, and is quick to update its
protections when new threats arise.
The Software Updater checks for updates to
common apps (including Adobe Reader, Flash, Java,
Chrome and Firefox), and can optionally install them
without you having to see or do anything at all.
The Secure Connection feature is a privacy-
oriented VPN, automatically kicking in when you use
Wi-Fi hotspots, internet banking
sites and other potentially
sensitive services.
The Installation Assistance
tool also looks out for adware
and other pests that can get
silently installed with certain
free software, while the
Software Cleaner helps you
decide what to remove.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 Resources
Chat and Communication
Evernote 6.24.2.8919 Store your
notes, ideas and plans in the cloud,
and synchronise them between
computers.
UPDATED Mailbird 2.8.0 A free desktop
email client for Windows.
Miranda IM 0.10.80 Chat with friends
across multiple messaging platforms,
including AIM, Facebook, IRC and MSN,
all from one simple interface.
Customisation
iolo System Mechanic Free 19.1.4.107
Speed up your system with
iolo’s PC optimisation suite.
Rainmeter 4.3.1
Customise the desktop with your choice
of tools and shortcuts.
Windows 8 Transformation Pack 9.1
Emulate the look of Windows 8 on an
earlier version of the operating system.
General
Genie Timeline Free 2017 10.0.1.100
Protect your most valuable files with this
easy-to-use backup tool.
Paragon Partition Manager 16 Free
Create, format, split, merge and reorganise
all your hard disk’s partitions.
UPDATED PeaZip 7.2.0 An extremely
powerful archive-management tool.
Internet and Network
CarotDAV 1.15.8
Manage all your online storage services
with one simple application.
UPDATED Cyberduck 7.3.0
A powerful but easy-to-use FTP client for
uploading and downloading your files.
Glasswire 2.1.166.0
Keep tabs on your network usage with this
simple monitor.
Tweaking and Performance
UPDATED CCleaner 5.65 Remove unwanted
information, temporary files, browsing
history, huge log files and even the settings
that uninstalled software leaves behind.
Defraggler 2.22 Ensure that your system
is defragmented properly and improve
its performance.
Finestra Virtual Desktops 2.5.4501 Set up
four or more virtual desktops on your PC.
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
UPDATED Skype for Windows 8.58.0.98 Make
internet voice and video calls for free, and buy
credit to make calls to mobiles and landlines.
NEW VERSION Telegram 2.0.1 This free IM
app syncs your conversations across
multiple devices, and can spruce up chats
with stickers and GIFs.
UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.4.2088.0
A PC and Mac version of the messaging app,
letting you chat from your desktop.
Windows 8 UX Pack 9.1
Get a glimpse of the Windows 10 UI without
committing to a full OS upgrade.
Windows 10 Transformation Pack 7.0
Bring some of Windows 10’s new features
to your current operating system.
Winstep Xtreme 19.2
Freshen up your system with this suite of
desktop and UI replacement applications.
UPDATED Screenshot Captor 4.36.2 Create
and manage screenshots the easy way.
UpdateScanner 2.2.0.0 Scan all the software
on your PC, find out if an update is available,
then install it immediately.
ZipGenius 6.3.2.3116 A flexible file-
compression tool with support for a huge
number of compressed file formats.
FileZilla 3.47.2.1 A fast and reliable FTP client
with lots of useful features.
UPDATED NetBalancer 9.15.3
Make the most of your internet connection
by assigning download and upload priorities
to web applications.
UPDATED TeamViewer 15.4.8332
Remotely control your computer from
anywhere in the world.
UPDATED IObit Advanced SystemCare Free
13.4.0.245 A complete computer security,
maintenance and optimisation suite.
Revo Uninstaller Free 2.1.1 Remove installed
applications completely, including all their
folders, system files and Registry entries.
Simple Performance Boost 1.0.5 Tweak the
Windows Registry to give your PC a
performance boost.
67
68
GET THE
MOST
OUTOFYOUR
SMART
TV IF YOU ALREADY OWN –
OR ARE ABOUT TO BUY –
A SMART TV, MAKE SURE
THAT YOU GET THE MOST
OUT OF IT FOLLOWING
DAVID LUDLOW’S TIPS,
TRICKS AND SECRETS

W t

69
HOW TO CONFIGURE YOUR
TV FOR THE BEST PICTURE
T
Vs all ship with a default configuration,
which is all right for getting started, but
tweak your settings and you’ll get
better picture quality across all types of
content. If you’ve bought a particularly
expensive TV, you’ll want to get it properly
calibrated by an expert; for the rest of us,
tweaking the picture settings will do a
reasonable job of boosting image quality.
Here’s what you need to know. Menus
differ between TVs, so you’ll need to check
your set’s manual to find where the exact
settings are, although our advice will work
across all televisions. High contrast

Choose the viewing mode

TVs have multiple viewing profiles, called
things like Movie, Vivid or Game mode.
Changing a profile automatically adjusts
picture settings to give what you’re watching
a different look and feel. Most adjust the
standard appearance settings, but there are
a couple of exceptions.
Game mode typically disables a lot of the
onscreen processing to speed up response
times for playing games. If you connect a
console, you should use this mode. If you’ve
got a modern TV with Filmmaker Mode, this
is designed to let you watch films as the
filmmaker intended: this mode turns off
motion smoothing (more on that later),
forces the TV to show the right colours, and
drops brightness to a level that’s ideal for
watching in a darkened room.
Finally, you’ll often find an Expert mode
(or similar), which opens up more features
to adjust and is typically designed for
professional calibrators to use.
ABOVE: You can choose different viewing profiles to
change how the picture looks
Normal contrast
ABOVE: With the contrast up too high (top), you start to lose detail in the brighter parts of the image;
turning down the contrast (bottom) brings detail more evenly across the image
It’s best to start with a profile that you’re
happiest with, remembering that you may
need to pick different profiles for different
inputs: you may choose one for live TV,
and then use Gaming mode for your
console, for example.
Once you’ve chosen your
profile, you can start to adjust the
settings to fine-tune the image.
Adjust contrast
Contrast is defined as the difference
between the darkest and lightest
part of an image. Using the contrast
setting of your TV adjusts the
highlights (the lightest) part of the
image. Turn up the control and you’ll
see more detail in the brighter parts
of the image, but go too far and
you’ll find that everything merges
into white and the image will look
blown out; turn it down, and you’ll
find that everything looks too dull.
Setting contrast means finding a
bit of a film or TV programme with a
bright scene: something outside on a sunny
day with some clouds makes sense. Adjust
the contrast setting until you get all of the
detail in the brighter part of the image.
Adjust brightness
The brightness control on your TV actually
deals with shadow detail in the darker part
of the image. It’s effectively the opposite
control of contrast. To adjust this setting, find
a dark and moody scene that you can pause.
Turn the brightness down to its lowest level,
then slowly increase it until you get detail
appearing in the darkest parts of the image:
if you go too far, blacks will start to look grey,
so turn the setting down a bit.
Adjust the backlight
or OLED light
If you want your TV to actually be brighter
(more easily viewable under bright light), you
need to adjust the backlight or OLED light.
These control the intensity of the light coming
from the TV without affecting the brightness
and contrast that you’ve configured.

70 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 THINGS YOU DIDN’T
KNOW YOUR TV CAN DO
RECORD TO USB
If your TV has a USB port on the rear, there’s a good chance you can
plug in a storage device and use this to record live TV to: handy if
your PVR is on the blink or you want to add recording ability to other
TVs in your house. Make sure you check your TV’s manual for the
exact instruction and that you use a storage drive that’s fast enough
and big enough; if you can, plug in a powered USB hard disk.
ABOVE: The Amazon Fire TV Stick provides access to all of the major
STEP BACK IN TIME streaming services
If you’ve got a TV with Freeview Play built in, you can step back in
time in the guide. When you find a programme that you missed, and webcam. If you want to use a phone for the same job, check out our
it has a ‘play’ icon next to it, you can select it to launch the show in tips on screen mirroring (page 73).
the right on-demand app. Freeview Play supports all of the big UK
catch-up services, including BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My 5. UPGRADE YOUR TV
If your TV doesn’t have the features and apps you want, you can
USE YOUR TV AS A BIG MONITOR upgrade with a streaming media box. An Apple TV is expensive but
If you have a laptop or PC with an HDMI output, you can connect it adds Apple screen mirroring to any model and supports all the
directly to your TV and use it as a large monitor. You can play games, major apps; an Amazon Fire TV Stick is excellent value and gives you
watch videos or use your TV as a big screen for video chats, either pretty much every big streaming video app you could want, and
using a laptop’s camera for recording or through an external there are regular and 4K versions of the product available.

LEFT: Turn the brightness up too far (top) and you

can see more but blacks get washed out and the
image starts to lose its moodiness; put brightness
to a normal level, and you get a darker, more
realistic image

The quality of your TV will define the

total level of contrast it can display: the
best TV sets can show dark inky blacks and
bright whites; cheaper TVs can manage
one or the other. You may find that you
need to adjust brightness, contrast and
backlight settings a few times to get the
High brightness balance right for your TV.

Adjust colour
TVs let you adjust how colours will look, too.
A colour or saturation control defines how
intense colours are: turn the setting down
too far and colours will look muted and dull;
go too far the other way and what you’re
watching will look surreal. Unless you need to
change it, leave this setting alone.
Adjust colour temperature to change
the white balance, with warmer colours
making whites look more yellow, and
colder temperatures making them look blue.
A warmer setting looks more realistic.

Normal brightness
This setting sets up your television for
the ambient light level in much the same
way as you adjust brightness on your laptop:
you have it bright outside in sunlight in order
to see properly, but turn the brightness down
inside at night. So when you can’t see the
screen clearly, turn up the backlight; if your
screen is searingly bright, say at night-time,
then turn down the backlight.
OLED TVs don’t have a backlight, but the
OLED light control is similar. However, this
control can be disabled by some picture
modes, so you may need to switch modes
to use the setting.
Adjust motion smoothing
TVs are capable of showing at least 50 frames
per second of video, if not more. That’s more
than double the rate at which TV and films
are shot (25fps and 24fps, respectively).
TVs can use their extra capability with motion
smoothing, also known as frame interpolation.
With these motion-smoothing modes, your
TV will look at two frames of real footage,

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 71

 High colour
ABOVE: Turn the colour settings up too much (left) and you’ll get an image that looks really strange, particularly when people are on screen; dial down the
settings (right) and you see a more muted, realistic picture
then generate one or more frames between
them to smooth out the motion.
The result, particularly in films, is that
everything looks as though it was shot on
a cheap camcorder: that’s why this mode is
also known as the soap opera effect. This is
why we recommend disabling the setting.
To do this, you’ll need to find the setting,
which is often hidden a few menus in. The
setting might be called motion smoothing,
although look for brand-specific names:
TruMotion (LG), Intelligent Frame Creation
(Panasonic) or Motionflow (Sony). At the
minimum, turn the setting down to its lowest
setting, but our advice is to turn it off.
Position your TV properly
Placing your TV in the right place is crucial for
getting the best viewing experience. The ideal
situation is that you place your TV directly
TOP SMART TV APPS BEYOND NETFLIX
FACEBOOK WATCH
Trying to home school? There are loads of
good resources on Facebook to watch,
and this app lets you watch the videos on
your big TV. Samsung Smart TVs, Apple TV,
Android TV and Amazon Fire TV products
are supported.
YOUTUBE
Likewise, YouTube is full of educational,
cultural and fitness resources, aside from all
Facebook Watch
72
Normal colour
ABOVE: Don’t place your TV too high, otherwise
you’ll have to crane your neck to watch it
opposite the area in which you sit in, much as
you’d view a cinema screen. That’s fine if
you’ve got a perfectly rectangular room with
a single set of seats, but for most of us, it’s
about fitting the TV in around other furniture.
Even so, there are some handy rules to
help you. TVs are best watched straight on, so
the teenage vlogger channels, and it’s best
on a big-screen TV. YouTube is available on
most modern TVs, and you can cast from
your phone (see opposite).
DISNEY+
Star Wars, Marvel and Disney films all in
one place: brilliant for adults and kids alike.
This one’s available for most smart TVs, bar
older models, and you can get it for Apple
TV and Amazon Fire TV devices.
Disney+
try to place your TV opposite your main sofa
or chairs. If it’s going in a corner, then angle
the TV so that it’s comfortable to watch from
any of the seats in your home.
Height is important to get right, too.
Typically speaking, your eye line should
naturally fall about one-third of the way down
the TV from the top. Going a bit higher or
lower doesn’t matter, but avoid placing your
TV high up on a chimney breast: you’ll have
to crane your neck to look up, and vertical
viewing angles are typically poor, so you’ll
ruin the picture quality, too.
There are rules about distance, too, based
on screen size, although these are much
harder to deal with, as you need to place
your TV and furniture by walls, so you can’t
easily adjust this. Instead, follow our buying
advice (page 76) to get the correct-size TV
for your home.
CATCH-UP TV
Missed a show or want to binge on a boxset?
Catch-up services on BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub,
All 4 and My5 give you the best of free TV.
RENT FILMS
Want the latest blockbusters or premium
TV shows? You can buy and rent these
through your TVs. Apps vary by TV, but
good ones include Amazon Prime Video
and Google Play Movies & TV.
BBC iPlayer
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
HOW TO GET MORE
FROM YOUR SMART APPS
O
ne of the main reasons to buy a
smart TV is to get its range of smart
apps, letting you stream content
from the internet. Beyond simply setting up
Netflix, you can get more from your TV
following our guide.
Connect your TV
to the internet
First, you need to get your television
connected to the internet. Most TVs will
have Wi-Fi built-in, which is convenient,
although if you can use Ethernet you’ll
maximise your connection speed and ensure
the best-quality viewing, which is essential if
you start streaming in 4K Ultra HD. Follow
the instructions in your TV’s manual to get it
set up and connected to the internet.
Manage your apps
The interface differs from TV to TV, but most
sets will have a button that launches the
smart interface where you can launch
apps. You’ll find that the most common
apps will come pre-installed, and you
may even have dedicated buttons on your
remote to launch the likes of Netflix or
Amazon Prime Video.
On the main smart page, you’ll find all of
the other apps that are installed. You’ll need
to log into some of them, such as Netflix
and BBC iPlayer, to get them working the
first time. However, it’s now common for
smart TVs to have their own app stores,
where you can add new apps as they’re
launched: for example, Disney Plus.
You’ll also find a range of other apps in
there, varying in quality. For example, the LG
Content Store has YouTube Kids, Google Play
Movies & TV, BBC Sport and a range of varied
other apps from games to radio stations.
ABOVE: App stores let you add new features to your smart TV
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
ABOVE: You can cast content from Netflix or
YouTube on your phone to any smart device
that also has the same apps
YouTube and Netflix
YouTube and Netflix on all smart TVs both
support casting from your phone, letting
you search for what to watch on your
handset before sending it to the big screen.
To do this, make sure that your phone is on
the same network as your TV, then launch
the YouTube or Netflix apps. Find the content
that you want to watch, then start playing it.
Next, tap the Cast icon (it looks like a TV with
a Wi-Fi symbol placed on top).
You’ll get a list of compatible devices to
choose from. Find your TV in the list and
select it. Your TV will now automatically
launch the right app and start streaming
the content from your phone. YouTube
even has an additional trick: you can play
content straight away or add it to a queue,
letting you, for example, set up a load of
music videos for a house party.
Mirror your phone
Smart TVs also let you send other content
from your phone or
computer. Most smart
TVs support Miracast,
which works with
Android phones directly.
On your phone, go to
Settings, Displays,
Wireless display and
choose your TV from
the list.
For Apple users, you
might be lucky enough
to have a new smart TV
that supports AirPlay 2.
Using this, you can use
the AirPlay control in
compatible apps to
send video and photos directly to your TV.
Alternatively, you can mirror your Mac or
iPhone to the screen.
On an iPhone, swipe down from the top of
the screen to get the Control Center and tap
Screen Mirroring, then select your TV.
On a Mac, click the AirPlay icon (a triangle
pointing upwards into a screen) in the menu
bar and select your TV from the list. You may
need to enter the code shown on your TV
into your device.
If you’re using a phone or TV that doesn’t
support Miracast, you’ll need to install an app.
Your TV’s manual should say which app you
need; in some cases, you’ll need a third-party
app that you have to pay for.
Other apps can be more limited in features.
The LG TV Plus app, for example, can only
stream photos and videos from your phone,
and you can’t mirror your entire screen.
Add voice control
It’s more and more common to find that
you can control your TV via a voice assistant.
Instructions hugely vary between different
manufacturers, so check your manual to see
what’s possible.
Typically, you have to use an app on the TV
to register your set with either Amazon Alexa
or Google Assistant. You can then use the
Amazon Alexa or Google Home apps on your
smartphone to download your TV’s skill and
link to the two. For example, with our LG
OLED TV, we can use Amazon Alexa to turn
our TV on or off, change volume and change
channel, and the same features are available
for Google Home devices, too. Samsung
SmartThings TVs have similar controls.
Some TVs, such as LG OLED models and
Sony Android TVs, also have a voice remote,
which you can link up to a voice assistant.
These let you search for content, change
input, launch apps and, if connected to your
Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant accounts,
control your smart devices, too.
ABOVE: Many smart TVs support remote voice
control via a smart assistant
73
HOW TO IMPROVE
YOUR TV’S SOUND
A
s televisions have got thinner, there’s
less and less room inside for decent
speakers. If anything, TV sound has
generally got worse over the years, with the
exception of some higher-end models that fit
larger, better speakers into the base of the set
or even into a separate soundbar.
There’s no need to put up with what you’ve
got, however, as you can improve the quality
of your TV’s audio, either by tweaking the
settings or by attaching an external soundbar.
We’ll take you through all the options for
improving your TV’s audio no matter which
route you go down.
Improve your TV’s audio
It makes sense to start with what you’ve got,
tweaking your smart TV’s sound settings to
get the right sound for your living room.
You’re still limited by the quality of your
overall speakers, so while you can make
things clearer, some limitations still remain.
In the audio settings menu, you’ll find a
range of settings beyond standard volume
control. Options differ between
manufacturers, and more expensive
models generally have more settings, so
you’ll want to have your manual close by
to see what you can do.
The first thing you’ll probably see is a range
of different sound modes. Just as with image
settings, these are pre-set profiles designed
to change how your TV sounds. Often, the
sound profiles are linked to a specific type
of content, such as sport or films. Look out for
ABOVE: Changing the sound mode can have an
instant impact on the quality of your TV’s audio
74
ABOVE: Auto volume control can help even out very loud and very quiet bits
a mode designed to make speech clearer,
improving the frequencies that people use
when speaking, and dialling back music and
other noises. This may be called something
like Clear Voice or similar, and this kind of
mode is useful with the recent trend for TV
shows that use mumbled speech overlaid
with thumping soundtracks.
The best thing to do, as with picture
settings, is to start watching something and
then pick a sound profile that sounds best to
you. Once you’ve got that, you can adjust the
profile further. Again, you may need to pick
different profiles for different inputs, such as
one for live TV and one for your Blu-ray player.
Fix your sound equaliser
The sound equaliser is similar to the controls
that you get on a Hi-Fi, letting you adjust
specific parts of the sound range. Depending
on your TV, you may get bass, midrange and
treble controls, although you may find the
controls are listed by frequency. Lower
numbers, such as 100Hz, are for bass; higher
numbers, often presented in KHz, such as
1KHz, adjust the higher range.
You can use these settings to adjust how
your TV sounds. For muffled speech, try
dialling back the bass and upping the
high-end and mid-range more; if films lack
impact, then adding a bit more bass into the
mix can make your TV sound much better. You
can often get clearer audio with these settings,
although you’re still very much limited by the
quality of the physical speakers in your TV.
Adjust sound processing
Some televisions will have advanced
processing options inside, such as Dolby
Atmos or virtual surround settings. It’s worth
turning these options on and off to see if
they can improve your TV’s sound quality
and make things easier to hear.
What about volume?
If you watch TV at night, you’ll be particularly
struck by how some things on TV are very
loud, and some very quiet; in particular, you
may notice how adverts are a lot louder than
the main show. Rather than reaching for the
remote every few seconds, some sets have an
auto volume control, which is designed to
even out the peaks and troughs, so you can
watch at relatively low volumes without
anything overwhelming you, while quieter
parts of the soundtrack can still be heard.
How to use external speakers
If you’ve come to the full limitations of your
speakers, then you might want to add external
speakers into the mix. There are several ways
of doing this, depending on the speakers
you’ve got and the inputs they have.
If you have an old set of computer
speakers with a 3.5mm audio connector on
them, you can plug these into the headphone
jack on your TV. Turn your TV up to the right
volume for listening first, then connect your
speakers. Now, adjust the speakers’ volume
control until you’re at a comfortable volume.
You can now use your TV’s remote to adjust
volume up and down; just don’t touch the
physical control on your speakers.
ABOVE: Look for an optical S/PDIF output for
connecting up external speakers
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 WHAT TO WATCH IN LOCKDOWN
Stuck at home and still finding spare hours in the day after all that gardening, baking and video chatting? Aside from the
multitude of boxsets and films available, here are our picks of the best online content available – and it’s all free

CULTURE FIX
The National Theatre is streaming a recording of one
of its hit plays every Thursday on its YouTube channel. So
far, we’ve been treated to Jane Eyre, Treasure Island and
Twelfth Night. If dance and song is more your bag, the
Royal Opera House’s #OurHouseToYourHouse series is a
real treat. Watch Peter and the Wolf in ballet form or
Mozart’s Così fan tutte on its YouTube channel.

GET QUIZZING
With the closing of the pubs came the loss of another
much-loved British pastime: the pub quiz. Fear not,
as many alternatives have sprung up to offer
you the opportunity to have fun
with your friends and family, or
even give yourself a sense of
superiority with your knowledge.
Our favourites at Shopper are ABOVE: Holly’s YouTube English
the Virtual Pub Quiz (tinyurl.com/ lessons are great for kids of all ages
389smart1) and the Virtual Quiz LEFT: Test yourself against friends and
Club (tinyurl.com/389smart2). family at the Virtual Quiz Club
Both of these are encouraging
you to make a small donation With programmes aimed at
to NHS Charities Together in six different age groups, book clubs
exchange for taking part in quizzes hosted by Strictly’s Oti Mabuse
on everything from retro gaming and Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker,
and technology to the Marvel Manchester City footballer
Universe and Game of Thrones. Sergio Agüero teaching how to
count in Spanish and David Attenborough leading geography
KEEP THE KIDS BUSY – AND LEARNING lessons, there’s sure to be something in there to keep the kids
For most parents with school-age kids, the prospect of keeping them entertained and educated. There are also some fantastic people
occupied and happy as well as suddenly becoming teachers has giving up their time to teach kids during the lockdown: try
been one of the more challenging aspects of the lockdown (we Simon Hetherington’s art lessons on Mondays and Thursdays
write this from experience). Fortunately, the BBC is here to help (tinyurl.com/389smart3) and Holly’s daily English lessons and
with its daily Bitesize programmes, which launched on 20th April. Friday spellathon (tinyurl.com/389smart4).

An upgrade is to use the optical S/PDIF
output on your TV and plug this into a
soundbar or amplifier. The advantage of this
option is that it outputs sound at a constant
volume, so you then have to use your sound
device’s remote control to adjust volume:
your TV’s remote won’t do anything.
You can usually set your TV to output
to external speakers only, or to external
speakers and your TV speakers. The former
option is better.
Finally (and best of all), you can use HDMI
Audio Return Channel (ARC) if your TV and
sound device support it. For this to work, you
plug your soundbar (or AV receiver) into an
HDMI ARC input on your TV. This lets your
soundbar send video to the TV, but your TV
can send audio back the other way without
any additional cabling.
This can make cabling easier to manage.
For example, you can route all of your AV
kit through your soundbar, and then run a
RIGHT: HDMI ARC makes it easier to
connect external speakers to your TV
single HDMI cable up to your
television set. That way, all the
sound comes out of your
soundbar, no matter whether it’s
from your TV, Netflix, games
console or Blu-ray player.
To use ARC, you need to
enable HDMI-CEC on your TV.
This control protocol is used to
send commands over HDMI. For
example, a Blu-ray player can use
HDMI-CEC to tell your TV to turn
on and change to the right input
automatically. HDMI-CEC should
be turned on by default, but you
can check in the settings menu. To
confuse things, manufacturers often have their
own names for the technology, such as LG
Simplilink, but they tend to write HDMI-CEC in
brackets after the name; check
your TV’s manual for full
instructions. You also need to
enable HDMI-CEC on your
external sound device, too; follow
its instruction manual to do this.
Now, when you play normal TV
or use a smart app, sound should
come out of your external
speakers. Your TV’s remote should
now control your external sound
device, too. If it doesn’t, check
your TV’s audio settings and make
sure that it’s set to use HDMI ARC
as the sound output. Finally, turn
off the power to all of your
devices, then turn them on in
this order: TV, external sound
device, then other devices.
HDMI-CEC and HDMI ARC can be a bit
unreliable, so if it doesn’t work, you’ll need to
use one of the other methods.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 75

 WATCH AND LEARN
TVs
CONTENT REVIEWS Now you’ve discovered all the great features available
Page 78 with one of the new generation of smart TVs, it’s
HISENSE H55U8BUK time to get on board with 4K with the help of our
Page 79
HISENSE R50B7120UK guide to the best new tellies to suit any budget
Page 80
THROUGHOUT 2018 AND 2019, 4K TVs Of course, it’s hard to tell how a TV looks
LG 49UM7400 were finally transitioning from aspirational and performs until you get it home. We can
Page 81 luxury purchases to the new home help with that: following this guide to buying
LG OLED65C9 entertainment standard, and that included the right TV, you’ll find full tests of eight
the arrival of much more affordable sets. models, spanning a wide range of prices.
Page 82
Since then, the underlying technology has
PHILIPS 65OLED803 been improving too, resulting in better GIVE AN INCH
Page 83 image quality, connectivity and features You might be questioning whether it really
in everything from budget LCD sets to is worth upgrading to 4K if you’ve been
SAMSUNG QE55Q70R
top-of-the-line OLED screens. making do with a lower-resolution TV. It’s
Page 84 Nowadays, with both 4K TVs and content true that 4K was harder to justify when the
SAMSUNG UE50RU7470UXXU more accessible than ever, there are few primary source of 4K content was expensive
compelling reasons to stick with an old HD Blu-rays, but now it’s possible to stream UHD
Page 85
or Full HD TV. Especially if it lacks smart video from mainstream services such as
SONY KD-65XG9505 capability: another feature that’s become Netflix and Amazon Video, not to mention
more standard than special. completely free sources like YouTube.

76 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


Besides, there’s also the simple fact that
4K looks much better than 1080p, packing far
more detail into every frame. Often you can
even take advantage of upscaling to play
1080p content at a kind of pseudo-4K
resolution, enhancing older and cheaper
video sources, although the quality of
upscaling varies on each TV.
4K is a no-brainer, then, although you will
have to choose the size of your new TV. The
models we’ve tested range from 49in
diagonally up to 65in, and we don’t think it’s
wise to go much smaller than the former or
larger than the latter. 50in to 55in will suffice
for most room sizes; 65in only feels necessary
for very spacious living rooms, or if you have
cash to burn. Keep in mind that each TV
should have multiple size options available, so
if one of the models we’ve tested appeals to
you for performance but seems too big or
small, it’s worth checking for other versions.
DIODE TO JOY
Modern TVs can use one of several different
panel technologies. Most of the more
affordable sets incorporate LCD screens,
specifically using vertical alignment (VA)
panels. These typically offer very high
contrast, especially compared to other LCD
types such as in-plane switching (IPS) panels,
as well as good colour depth, but they also
suffer from narrow viewing angles. In short, if
you’re viewing the screen from a tight angle,
the image will appear darker and discoloured,
even if it looks fine when facing it square-on.
Pricier TVs might instead use organic
light-emitting diode (OLED) panels. Whereas
VA panels use backlighting to illuminate each
pixel, producing the images you see on the
screen, every pixel on an OLED panel directly
illuminates itself. This confers numerous
benefits, such as finer control over brightness
and perfect blacks (as the pixel LED can
simply turn off, instead of trying to produce
a very dark light). However, it often means
lower peak brightness overall, and OLED
screens have a remote risk of ‘burn-in’, where
traces of previous images remain visible.
Samsung’s proprietary QLED panels avoid
this by combining an LCD-style backlight
with a film of ‘quantum dots’, which can
produce colours on a per-pixel basis – similar
to OLED but without the individual LEDs.
It’s a smart middle ground that also retains
OLED’s wider viewing angles, even if OLED
screens tend to have the more vibrant,
colourful picture overall.
IMAGE SEARCH
The eight TVs reviewed here have been
extensively tested on every aspect of image
quality, from colour performance and
contrast to brightness and motion. As with
any display, you’ll want a vivid, high-contrast
screen that avoids over- or undersaturation
or any unsightly tinges.
High brightness has numerous upsides,
from helping to deal with glare to giving
colours extra pop. It’s downright essential to
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
TVs
get the best out of high dynamic range (HDR) handle 4K video up to 30fps, but for higher
content, which is becoming increasingly frame rates and HDR support, HDMI 2.0b
common on popular streaming services. connections are better equipped and can use
A peak brightness of 400cd/m2 is usually the the same cables as HDMI 2.0.
minimum for half-decent HDR. The newest HDMI format, 2.1, isn’t
We’ll also be looking at the quality of currently a must-have for most users, but
upscaled content, as this is determined it could be of interest to audio aficionados.
more by the TV than the content itself, as Its higher bandwidth allows for a lossless
well as how each set handles motion. A lot audio signal to move back and forth between
of TVs have dedicated motion processors to a TV and a soundbar or AV receiver, whereas
avoid blurring and visual artefacts around HDMI 2.0b compresses the signal. You will,
moving objects, and a good processor is however, need to ensure you’re using a
well worth having. certified ‘Ultra High Speed’ HDMI cable to
get the full benefit.
PICK YOUR PORT
Because multiple HDMI ports, S/PDIF audio AT YOUR SERVICE
outputs, and both Ethernet and Wi-Fi are One of the best recent developments in TVs
all standard issue on current-generation TVs, has been the addition of smart features, such as
you don’t need to worry too much about built-in streaming services accessible through
whether you can connect to the internet or the bundled remote. This can potentially save
plug in a soundbar. you the further expense of buying a separate
That said, not all TVs will have connections streaming stick or set-top box.
such as composite inputs or antenna sockets, We’ll note in each review whether a TV
so consider whether you need these before leaves out certain major streaming platforms,
buying. The capability of the HDMI ports but most of the big names – Netflix, Amazon,
can also vary: standard HDMI 2.0 ports will BBC iPlayer and so on – are common.
Supporting soundbars
Not all TVs’ integrated speakers are bad, but for the best audio
accompaniment to films, TV shows and games, they won’t beat
a good soundbar. Here are some of the best
POLK AUDIO COMMAND BAR
£190 • From www.amazon.co.uk
Not only is this an affordable and rich-sounding soundbar/
subwoofer combo with plenty of bass delivery, it doubles as
a smart speaker. Set up the Amazon Alexa smart
assistant and you can use voice commands to
play, pause and adjust the volume of whatever
you’re watching.
Some TVs have similar capability, but these usually require you to speak commands into
microphones within the remote control. Besides upgrading your home cinema audio, the
Command Bar is therefore a good pick if you want to minimise remote use.
SAMSUNG HW-MS650
£299 • From www.currys.co.uk
A slightly older option, but still a brilliant one in
2020. The HW-MS650 is one of the best all-round nd all
all-in-one
in one soundbars – as in
in, there’s
there s no
separate subwoofer – you can get, combining a clean, accurate sound with extensive
connectivity and even multiroom functionality.
One of its tricks is a digital signal processor (DSP), which is dedicated to making sure
multi-channel inputs are pushed out of the appropriate drivers. The result is a wide
soundstage that almost emulates a surround-sound effect, all by itself.
SAMSUNG HW-Q70R
£550 • From www.currys.co.uk
Having dropped from its original price of £779, the HW-Q70R is a canny choice
if you want the holy grail of home cinema audio: Dolby Atmoss. Just as surround
sound adds a sense of width, Atmos adds a sense of height,
bouncing sound off your ceiling for a more immersive 3D effecct.
The HW-Q70R is easily the cheapest Atmos soundbar we’v ve
seen so far, and it performs well as a general speaker/subwooofer combo
too, with clear dialogue and deep but not uncontrolled bass.
77
 TVs
HISENSE H55U8BUK
★★★★★
£649 • From www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
Hisense has done a good job for the money,
but several issues keep this 120Hz TV from
achieving true greatness
HISENSE HAS PLENTY of experience in
producing affordable big-screen TVs, and the
U8B family is a perfect example. With the 55in
H55U8BUK (on test here) costing £649 and
the 65in H65U8BUK costing £799, it’s hard to
go much bigger for less cash.
This does mean you shouldn’t expect
anything too highfalutin; for example,
Hisense’s ‘ULED’ branding just means the
H55U8BUK has an LED-backlit LCD panel,
like most TVs at this price point, and not
that it’s a unique technology like Samsung’s
QLED. Still, it’s solidly built, so build quality
hasn’t been scrimped on.
SMART MOVE
You’ll find all the connections hidden on
the left side of the TV, including four
full-bandwidth HDMI 2.0b ports. You also
get a pair of remote controls: one cheap
plasticky model, and one with a far more
premium-feeling finish.
We swiftly relegated the cheap remote
control to a nearby drawer, but the classy
silver remote control provided a lovely,
tactile experience in Hisense’s bizarrely titled
VIDAA U 3.0 Smart TV interface. It isn’t the
fastest or the slickest smart TV OS out there,
but it’s easy to navigate and not so sluggish
as to cause any frustration.
Vitally, you get access to all the usual
streaming apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime
Video and YouTube, and all have HDR
support. In our testing, the relevant HDR10,
HLG and Dolby Vision modes burst into
action when we selected HDR-compatible
content on the various streaming services.
The presence of Freeview Play is another
boon, as it provides a one-stop gateway to
content from all the major UK catch-up TV
apps, including BBC iPlayer.
One further pleasant surprise is that the
Hisense’s integrated speakers provide
good sound quality. Dialogue is clear
and easy to understand, and there’s
even a modicum of bass, as long as
you keep the volume in check. Push
the speakers too hard and distortion
begins to add a shrill, hollow quality
to the sound.
Like its stablemate, the
R50B7120UK, the H55U8BUK uses
VA panel technology, so you get the
usual positives of deep blacks and
great contrast weighed against the
negatives of reduced viewing angles.
If anything, these angles are even
narrower than we’re used to seeing
78
on VA panels, including the R50B7120UK.
Look head-on at the TV and it’s possible to
see some fading of colours and contrast as
you cast your eye to the corners of the
screen, and the effect is even more intrusive
as you move to either side. If the layout of
your lounge means you can’t sit directly in
front of the TV, then we’d already suggest
striking the H55U8BUK off your shortlist.
The basic 16-zone backlighting also means
that bright objects on dark backgrounds are
surrounded by obvious blooming and halos of
light, an issue that’s particularly evident in
HDR content. It’s also very noticeable on the
black bars above and below movie content.
These aren’t uncommon foibles for a
mid-range TV, but the H55U8BUK also drops
the ball on colour accuracy. Despite covering
94% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, colours are
visibly off, and no amount of tweaking was
able to rectify this to our satisfaction.
FASTER WAY
There is one significant feather in the
H55U8BUK’s bezel, however, and that’s its
120Hz refresh rate: double that of the
industry standard 60Hz. It’s not something
you see too much around this price point, and
it deftly enables smoother playback from
Blu-ray discs and the like. Better still, you can
also reduce motion blur and improve
smoothness in everyday content if you
engage the Ultra Smooth Motion setting.
The processing engine manages to avoid
distracting visual artefacts or the overly
smooth ‘soap opera effect’, and it’s reasonably
adept at upscaling, too. Although standard-
definition content looks a little soft compared
to the best TVs, the H55U8BUK effectively
managed to suppress the appearance of
jagged edges in TV broadcasts.
Hisense claims the UB8 range can hit a
brightness of 1,000cd/m2, which would greatly
aid its HDR capabilities. In reality, that number
both is and isn’t accurate: with a white
window filling 18% of the screen, it managed
to boost up to 1,200cd/m2 for around 30
seconds. After that initial burst, however,
the brightness dropped back to a much less
impressive 360cd/m2.
Oddly, we found that peak brightness
measured only 390cd/m2 on a smaller 10%
white window, and actually measured higher
with an all-white screen, peaking at 415cd/m2.
In actual content, where HDR highlights will
be on the screen for much longer than 30
seconds, you can expect peak brightness to
be much closer to 400cd/m2 than the claimed
1,000cd/m2. The net effect is that subtle detail
in specular highlights is flattened, particularly
so on content that’s been mastered to a
maximum HDR brightness of 4000 nits.
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATENT
The Hisense’s gaming capabilities aren’t all
that spectacular, either. There’s a low-latency
Game mode that can be enabled
manually, but input lag is quite high:
we measured it at 38ms in 1080p SDR
mode and 38ms in 4K HDR. Because
most console games are locked to run
at either 30fps or 60fps, you’re also
not getting the same benefit from
that 120Hz refresh rate as you would
from a 120Hz monitor for PC gaming.
For all its flaws, the H55U8BUK
is still a decent mid-range TV.
The 120Hz refresh rate is a particular
coup for watching movies, although
you should look elsewhere if you
prefer high colour performance to
speedy smoothness.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

HISENSE R50B7120UK
★★★★★
£299 • From www.argos.co.uk
VERDICT
A budget 4K TV with lots to like, with Roku’s
smart TV platform as the star of the show
HISENSE AND ROKU have been partnering
up on TVs for a while, but the R50B7120UK is
– as part of the Hisense Roku TV B7120 range
– one of the first to land on UK shores.
In some respects, it’s standard fare for a
budget 4K TV – the panel uses VA technology,
and HDR is limited to HDR10 and the BBC’s
Hybrid-Log Gamma – but at £299 it’s cheaper
than cheap, and Roku integration means some
excellent coverage of streaming services.
TALKING POINT
The cheap plastic chassis and non-adjustable
legs don’t exactly make for inspiring design,
but it covers all the basics for connectivity,
with three HDMI 2.0 inputs, composite,
headphone and optical S/PDIF sockets and a
single USB2 socket port on the rear.
Surround-sound support covers Dolby
Audio and DTS Studio Sound, although it’s
worth investing in a soundbar instead of
relying on the integrated speakers. While not
quite tinny, they’re lacking in clarity, with
unruly bass and a muddiness to dialogue,
unless you switch to Speech mode, which
thankfully brings dialogue forward while
cutting background noise.
Gamers will be pleased to know that input
lag is an incredibly low 16ms with Game mode
engaged, down from around 37ms when all
the TV’s picture processing features are
running as normal. That’s great news for fans
of competitive, reflex-based games, but don’t
forget that you’ll need to activate the feature
manually as the TV doesn’t have Auto-Low
Latency Mode support.
The remote control will look familiar to
anyone who’s owned one of Roku’s digital
streamers, such as the Roku Express or
Roku Premiere: it’s a curved, black remote,
and its deep purple navigation buttons are
distinctly Roku. There are handy shortcut
keys for accessing Netflix, Rakuten TV,
Freeview Play, Spotify and Google Play, along
with all the standard command and
channel-searching buttons.
The Roku TV OS is a highlight. The
easy-to-understand, responsive home
screen puts all your entertainment
sources – be they streaming, broadcast
or personal media – on the same level,
and you can even switch to a
connected games console without
having to manually change source.
Crucially, it also plays host to what’s
arguably the most comprehensive
selection of on-demand services in the
UK. All the big hitters are here,
including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video,
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
Now TV, Apple TV+, Rakuten TV, and
YouTube. Through the Freeview Play catch-up
app, you’ll find BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4,
My5 and UKTV Play.
Equally handy is Roku TV’s universal
search function. Type in a film or programme
name and it will display a list of all the
platforms it’s available on, as well as whether
it’s free or costs money. This is an absolute
blessing, saving you several frustrating
minutes of jumping between apps in search
of your favourite film. Moreover, it could
potentially save you money, helping you find
the best price across all platforms.
TRICKY ANGLE
Granted, you shouldn’t expect a premium
viewing experience with all this content. VA
panels can produce deeper blacks than IPS
but it comes at the cost of viewing angles, so
looking at the R50B7120UK from an angle
results in visibly lower brightness and vibrancy
than if you were facing it straight on.
There are no local dimming zones within
the panel, so it’s unable to enhance contrast
beyond its native capabilities within specific
areas, but admittedly that’s more of an issue
when it comes to High Dynamic Range content.
For 4K SDR playback, the contrast level is
more than adequate. In fact, given the
rock-bottom price, we’d say it looks excellent.
Video upscaling, by contrast, is fairly
average – there’s a clear difference between
genuine 4K content and upscaled 1080p
video – and the R50B7120UK isn’t terribly
colour-accurate, either. The Movie setting
TVs
performs best in this regard, but even this
bathes the screen with a light green tinge.
Motion handling could also be better, as
there are no motion-boosting features (such
as motion interpolation or black frame
insertion) on board. There’s some mild
smearing, too, when coloured objects move
quickly across a lighter background.
The biggest letdown, sadly, is HDR. First
off, the R50B7120UK’s peak brightness levels
are too low to have any meaningful impact.
With a maximum full-screen luminance of
only 225cd/m2, it can’t create the dramatic
contrast between dark and light that’s
characteristic of HDR content.
Then there’s the issue of colour gamut. The
Hisense covers 86% of the DCI-P3 colour space,
which is well below what pricier mid-range
sets can hit, and not up to the 90% mark
required for UHD Premium certification.
Therefore, it’s incapable of delivering the
vibrant, richly saturated colours that we’d
look for from wide colour gamut content.
Indeed, it’s a bit of a shame that the
R50B7120UK doesn’t support HDR10+ or
Dolby Vision, even if it’s an understandable
omission at the price. HDR formats with
dynamic metadata naturally still look their
best on top-notch TVs, but they also make the
most of the limited range of colours and
brightness available on lower-end models.
STREAM TEAM
For just £299, however, poor HDR
implementation doesn’t stop this Hisense
and Roku collaboration from being worth the
wait. The polished Roku TV smart
platform delivers an accessible and
responsive smart TV experience that
anyone can get to grips with, and with
so many streaming services on hand,
there’s no need to shell out further on
a separate media streamer.
Sure, some aspects of performance
are unimpressive, but 4K SDR content
looks great and gamers will appreciate
the incredibly low input lag. If you’re
looking for big-screen thrills on the
cheap, the R50B7120UK is a budget TV
to be reckoned with, and an even
bigger bargain than the LG 49UM7400.
79
 TVs
LG 49UM7400
★★★★★
£349 • From www.johnlewis.com
VERDICT
The 49UM7400 isn’t perfect but does offer
up decent HDR for relatively little cash
ASK ANYONE CRUISING into middle age and
they’ll tell you 49 is the new 36. That’s equally
true of TV screen sizes: 49in once seemed
unreasonably large for a television, but
nowadays is a thoroughly unremarkable size.
What’s more, while our desire for a bigger
screen is on the up, the price we have to pay
for it is ever-decreasing. You only have to look
at the LG 49UM7400 – it has the sort of
specification that would have cost more than
twice as much a few short years ago.
This is a 3,840x2,160 HDR TV that uses an
IPS LCD panel. It’s part of a range built to mop
up sales from customers who aren’t early
adopters, don’t want an enormous television
and who aren’t about to spend a month’s
salary on a new TV, but who nevertheless
don’t want to go without the niceties we’ve all
come to expect from modern 4K sets.
BULK OUT
In that respect, it has pretty much everything.
You get a usable smart interface with apps for
all the major streaming services, and you can
pick from 43in and 55in sizes if you want the
same tech in something slightly smaller or
bigger. The use of an IPS panel also means
the 49UM7400 has wider viewing angles than
TVs that use VA technology.
However, you can’t expect much in the way
of design flourishes or premium materials at
this sort of price/size ratio, and sure enough
the LG doesn’t deliver any. The 49UM7400
supports its relatively chunky chassis and
bezel on a plastic crescent-shaped stand.
All the connections are at the left rear of
the display, and these include three full-
bandwidth HDMI 2.0b ports and an optical
S/PDIF output for jetting audio into an AV
receiver or soundbar.
The WebOS smart TV platform is similar to
that found on LG’s OLED screens, and Netflix,
YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Freeview
Play, which includes BBC iPlayer, are
all available here with HDR support.
The user interface can get laggy on
occasion, however, which is annoying.
It’s also worth mentioning that,
rather than the Magic Pointer remote
control supplied with the OLED
models, the remote control here is as
prosaic as the TV it accompanies. It
does at least have Netflix and Prime
Video direct-access buttons, though.
Wider viewing angles aside, the IPS
panel isn’t all good news. As is typical
of the technology, it produces
shallower black tones than a VA panel
would; they’re greyish and milky rather
80
than deep and inky, and the picture is
inevitably robbed of depth. The global – rather
than local – dimming contributes to this too,
although the LG’s low-end gamma response
helps to resolve some shadow detail that
otherwise might end up disappearing.
TIME FOR TINGE
Fresh from the box, even the most accurate
picture preset has an undeniable green tint.
It can be dialled out, but in all honesty,
no-one’s expecting the owner of a new
49UM7400 to pay to have it calibrated.
Colours can be adjusted for a more natural
look, but it’s never truly accurate because of
the screen’s RGBW subpixel configuration.
Screen uniformity, however, is very good
by prevailing standards. There’s no banding,
and only very minor dirty screen effect; the
right edge of the screen on our sample was
very marginally darker than the left.
As this is a 60Hz panel, it can’t deploy
motion interpolation to reduce motion blur,
which can be mildly problematic. Select Real
Cinema from the picture mode menu,
however, and 24fps movies are delivered
smoothly with not a hint of judder.
As an upscaler, the 49UM7400 is good
rather than great. Standard-definition content
is prone to more noise and jagged edges than
LG’s mid-range televisions, which is likely
another consequence of the RGBW subpixel
configuration. RGBW is also the probable
cause of a mild shimmering effect when the
screen’s trying to resolve single-pixel lines
on 4K resolution content, too. There’s a
Smooth Gradation preset in the user menus,
but its effect is minimal.
As far as HDR goes, there’s no Dolby
Vision support, but at this price that shouldn’t
come as a shock. Peak brightness of 340cd/m2
means there’s a relative lack of HDR impact;
the LG actually adheres to the HDR luminance
standard pretty accurately, but only until
200cd/m2 or so. 4K-derived colours in
particular look rather muted – the LG’s P3
colour gamut coverage is an unimpressive
82% – and while Dynamic Tone Mapping
helps retain specular highlight details, this
is at the expense of overall brightness and
some shadow detail. Nevertheless, at this
price, the 49UM7400 is a relatively
accomplished HDR performer.
QUICK THINKING
As a gaming display, meanwhile, it’s downright
stellar. Select Game from the picture modes
and input lag for both 1080p SDR and 4K HDR
content is a negligible 12ms. The LG supports
Auto Low-Latency Mode (ALLM) too, so will
automatically engage Game mode when a
compatible console is fired up.
In terms of audio, the LG actually delivers
unusually potent levels of both bass and
volume. There’s barely a hint of
stereo separation, however, and the
resulting sound is muddled.
Some impressive technologies
distinguish the LG 49UM7400 from
quite a few competing budget sets, in
particular the dynamic tone-mapping,
super-low input lag and smooth 24fps
reproduction despite the 60Hz panel.
It’s all impressive stuff at the price.
Ultimately, it’s let down somewhat by
its lower-contrast IPS panel, and that
means it will have a tough time
competing against the increasingly
talented budget opposition, including
the Hisense R50B7120UK.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

LG OLED65C9
★★★★★
£1,999 • From www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
Superbly accurate image quality goes hand
in hand with cutting-edge features and a
premium design
AS THE SOLE manufacturer of commercial
OLED panels on the planet, you’d expect LG
to be a bit of dab hand at making OLED TVs.
And you’d be right: the past couple of years
have been filled with great LG televisions, and
the LG C9 series – represented here by the
65in OLED65C9 – continues the streak.
The design starts things off on the right
foot, with improbably slim bezels and, in
fact, an outrageously slim panel in general.
The bottom part of the chassis bulges out to
accommodate the internal electronics, but
it’s not overly bulky, and the solid-feeling,
brushed-metal stand both looks great and
provides stable support.
Peer around the left-hand side of the TV
and you’ll discover four full-bandwidth HDMI
2.1 inputs. Home cinema buffs will be
especially pleased that this upgrade from
HDMI 2.0 brings with it full eARC support as
standard, meaning you can transmit the
lossless Dolby Atmos TrueHD audio stream
from a 4K Blu-ray player to the TV and then
onwards to an AV receiver. A TV like this
certainly deserves to be accompanied by a
soundbar, although despite its thin chassis, the
OLED65C9’s speakers are better than most,
kicking out some surprisingly decent bass.
CLEVER DISGUISE
As we’ve observed over the past few years,
what separates the truly great OLEDs is not
how they deal with true black, but how they
handle the very darkest tones before they
fade to black – a facet of performance referred
to as ‘near-black presentation’. The OLED65C9
displays LG’s best work yet in this area, and
it’s achieved by a technique called dithering:
intentionally adding visual noise to mask
other, more unsightly issues.
This sounds counter-productive, but
viewed from any reasonable distance, it works:
the dither obscures that telltale
OLED flicker, and its own fuzziness
is only noticeable when peering
from extremely close up.
This is obviously great news,
and it only gets better once you
examine colour performance. After
calibration, our OLED65C9 review
unit delivered supremely accurate
colours with both SDR and HDR
content. Rest assured, you’re
seeing your favourite movies and
TV exactly as the director intended.
The OLED65C9 is a bit of a
dab hand at upscaling, too. The
Alpha 9 Gen 2 processor does a
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
fine job of retrieving sharp detail from
less-than-4K sources, even if it does so with
a touch more ringing and fuzziness than its
Samsung and Sony rivals.
Motion performance is good across the
board. One key difference is that the
TruMotion Clear setting has been tweaked to
lessen soap-opera effect and interpolation
artefacts, but if you’re a purist you’ll want to
turn it off anyway. Slow panning shots in
24fps movies are handled correctly, however,
and there’s not a hint of judder. Sadly, the
black frame insertion feature still results in
too much flicker to be used comfortably, and
particularly so in brighter scenes. It also
causes visible judder in 24fps films, so we’d
advise leaving it off.
The C9 doesn’t have any horrible
weaknesses, but you can find some minor
issues if you go looking for them. For instance,
we couldn’t notice any dirty-screen effect on
our grey test slides, but pull up an all-white
screen and it’s possible to notice some
mild colour tinting if you stare long enough.
We were hard-pressed to pick it up in
real-world viewing, though.
SHINE BRIGHT
For HDR, peak brightness on our calibrated
review unit reached 700cd/m2. That might
sound underwhelming after reading about
LCD sets that peak over 1,500cd/m2, but a
peak brightness of 700cd/m2 is still more
than enough to deliver an excellent HDR
experience. Combine this with a top-notch
TVs
DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 99%, and
the results are stupendous.
Gamers, too, will benefit from low input lag.
We measured just 13ms in both 1080p SDR
and 4K HDR game modes, putting the
OLED65C9 among the most responsive TVs.
Furthermore, the OLED65C9 is equipped
with Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) – called
Instant Game Response by LG – which
automatically switches the TV into its low-lag
gaming mode during gameplay. Another HDMI
2.1-enabled feature is variable refresh rate,
which reduces frame drop and screen tearing.
Using an EDID reader, we confirmed the
OLED65C9’s VRR range to be between 40Hz
and 120Hz – and, in practice, this is a huge
boon for crystal clear gaming performance.
It would be remiss of us to mention OLED
and gaming in the same sentence without
talking about burn-in or screen burn. While
there’s a risk even on the very latest OLED
TVs, from our experience it’s extremely low;
it’s something that has been blown out of
proportion. If it is one of your major concerns,
then be reassured: the OLED65C9 is even
more resistant than previous generations. The
updated 2019 OLED panel now employs a
larger red subpixel to combat the issue, and
the OLED65C9 judiciously – and imperceptibly
– dims the image when it detects a static logo.
NEXT GEN
It would be easy to write off the OLED65C9 as
a C8 series refresh with a handful of extra
features, but it’s much more than that. Its
gaming prowess is considerably
improved over it predecessors,
and LG stands uncontested as the
only TV manufacturer to offer the
most comprehensive set of HDMI
2.1 features currently available.
LG’s engineers have also proven
themselves by taking feedback on
board and swiftly addressing any
bugs through firmware updates,
which is fantastic to see.
Factor in the outstanding
picture quality and the competitive
launch pricing and the OLED65C9
is another OLED-encrusted jewel
in LG’s crown.
81
 TVs
PHILIPS 65OLED803
★★★★★
£2,399 • From w
VERDICT
e
Philips weaves OLED tech, exce
processing and Ambilight magic
very special TV
ADDING TO ITS formidable line
TVs, Philips has joined LG, Sony
in adopting what increasingly loo
future of premium TVs: OLED. T
903 series and less expensive 80
use this panel technology, which h
off pixels individually to produce
e better
contrast and perfect blacks.
Key features on the 803 series, represented
here by the 65OLED803, include LG-made
OLED panels powered by Philips’ second-
generation P5 video processing engine, Ultra
HD Premium certification and three-sided
Ambilight integrated bias lighting technology.
It runs on an Android-based Smart TV
platform, too. HDR support for the HDR10,
broadcast-friendly HLG and HDR10+ formats
are present and correct, though Dolby Vision
is a notable omission.
The 65OLED803 lacks the superb-sounding
Bowers & Wilkins speakers of the 903 series,
but picture quality should be similar, so the
former might be the more sensible choice if
you already have your own sound system. The
65in 65OLED803 is £2,399, but there’s also a
smaller 55in 55OLED803, which costs £1,499.
THIN BLACK LINE
From the front, the styling is the epitome
of minimalism. There’s only a pair of shiny
cuboid feet peeking from underneath the
panel, one of which is etched with the
Philips logo. It’s so low-slung, however, that
there’s not enough clearance to put even a
low-profile soundbar in front without
obscuring the screen. Thankfully, the
65OLED803’s onboard speakers are very
decent, producing sufficient presence and
dialogue clarity for run-of-the-mill viewing.
The screen itself is wafer-thin but
protrudes at the rear to accommodate the
internal components, power
supply, audio system and, more
importantly, the LED lights
responsible for Philips’ nifty
Ambilight feature (more on this
later). The connections are
found on the right side of the
television, including four HDMI
inputs. However, only HDMI 1
and HDMI 2 are full-bandwidth
HDMI 2.0b ports, capable of
supporting 4K HDR videos at
higher bit depth, frame rate and
chroma. You’ll therefore need to
hook up your Xbox One X, PS4
Pro or Apple TV 4K box to one
of these two sockets.
82
The 65OLED803 ships with two remote
controls, although neither of them is
conventional in the strictest sense. The one
with more buttons has a QWERTY keyboard
on the back, making it easy to type in your
Wi-Fi or Netflix password on the TV, but it’s
infrared-only and so requires you to point it
fairly accurately at the remote sensor on the
telly. The second remote is a more futuristic-
looking example, with only six keys, Google
Assistant support and a touchpad that doesn’t
look like a touchpad at all.
STRONG AND STABLE
As mentioned, this is a Philips TV, but it uses
LG’s WRGB OLED panel. Previous LG panels
proved to be very uniform, and the same is
true here. Thin vertical streaks were barely
visible on our 5%-above-black slide, and not
noticeable to us even in challenging low-light
scenes. Brightness uniformity is fantastic, too:
we checked the screen with full-field grey
slides and there was no obvious colour tinting
or dirty-screen effect to spoil your viewing –
another improvement on LG’s previous panels.
Perfect blacks, vibrant colours and wide
viewing angles are traits common to all OLED
TVs, but what makes the 65OLED803 stand
out is one particular set-and-forget motion
setting that lets you enjoy both high motion
resolution and smooth 24p playback without
unwanted side effects. In other words, you can
watch 24fps films without judder or soap-
opera effect, as well as 50Hz or 60Hz sports
content with high motion clarity and minimal
interpolation artefacts, all without needing to
change the motion settings after they’ve been
set correctly. This is a refreshing departure
from other TVs that require a degree of faff if
you want everything to look its best.
The 65OLED803 also excels at making the
best of standard-definition broadcasts, but
unsurprisingly it’s native UHD HDR content
where the TV shines. After calibration, HDR
peak brightness on our 65OLED803 review
unit came in at 875cd/m2, even higher than
the newer LG OLED65C9. This helps it deliver
some of the most impactful HDR we’ve seen
on a consumer OLED, despite minor clipping
of bright specular highlights in 4,000-nit
movies and occasional posterisation at high
colour luminance.
Input lag is a bit of a disappointment. We
measured 39ms in both 1080p SDR and 4K
HDR Game modes, which while entirely
playable, puts the Philips a fair way behind the
gaming responsiveness provided by high-end
OLED models from other TV brands.
SUITS HUE
The Ambilight bias lighting system deserves
a special mention. You can set Ambilight to
simply change colours and brightness
according to the picture or sound, but our
favourite use was to set it to a single, stable
white colour, which adds a gentle glow to
the wall behind and helps to prevent eye
fatigue. Just make sure you tone down the
default Ambilight brightness
level, otherwise it tends to
crush shadow detail, especially
during HDR viewing.
In short, Philips has made an
exemplary OLED TV. As with its
LCD predecessors, Philips’
image-processing engine serves
up stunningly refined motion
across sport, movies and games.
The only disappointment is the
higher input lag compared to the
class-leaders. Still, add Ambilight
to the mix, and the 65OLED803 is
a unique and credible alternative
to other top-performing OLEDs
on the market.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

SAMSUNG QE55Q70R
★★★★★
£800 • From www.johnlewis.com
VERDICT
gh
A capable QLED TV for sensible money, thoug
it does cut some corners to achieve this
SITTING BELOW THE premium Q90R, Q85R
and Q80R series, Samsung’s Q70R range
aims to deliver QLED magic for a lot less
cash than its stablemates.
We’re testing the 55in QE55Q70R here, but
whether you choose this or the 49in, 75in or
82in variants, they all have the same high-end
panel tech. These are also the cheapest
Samsung QLED TVs to use full array local
dimming (FALD) backlighting, giving them a
huge advantage over sets that use basic
edge-lit backlighting.
Admittedly, FALD comes in a simpler form
here – there are just 50 lighting zones, not
hundreds like on the Q80R range and above
– and the Q70R series also misses out on
Samsung’s Ultra Viewing Angle and Ultra
Black Filter features.
DEPTH WISH
FALD also makes the QE55Q70R thicker than
it would be otherwise, and combining this
with some very widely spaced feet, you’ll have
to make sure your stand is big enough before
buying. There are advantages to the chunky
chassis, however. Sound quality is strong, with
the internal speakers producing impressive
bass and volume; the downward-firing
speaker arrangement means that sound
directionality is below par, but the powerful
output more than makes amends. It’s
markedly superior to your average TV audio.
All four HDMI 2.0b ports are located on
the rear, and once you’ve got a source device
hooked up, you can choose between the
two bundled remote controls: a traditional
model, or the more modern Smart Remote.
The latter is perfect for browsing the slick
Tizen interface: this includes access to
HDR-enabled apps for Netflix, Amazon,
YouTube and BBC iPlayer, and the Prime
Video app supports HDR10+ dynamic
metadata. Apple users will be very
pleased to see that Airplay
support is present alongside the
Apple TV app, too. Only the lack
of Freeview Play gives cause for
some minor disappointment.
The QE55Q70R’s screen is a
VA-type LCD panel, which means
you can expect deep blacks and
great contrast – or at least you
can if you sit in the right seat.
As we’ve seen from Hisense’s
much cheaper TVs, one of the
limitations of VA technology is
that viewing angles aren’t
particularly wide, so you’ll lose
colour fidelity and contrast as you
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
move e off-centre. The lack of Ultra Viewing
g There are comprehensive motion controlss,
Angle hurts here, and the QE55Q70R’s
semi-glossy sheen is simply not as effective
as the reflection-absorbing finish of, say, the
QE55Q80R (Shopper 380).
It’s great to see that FALD is present and
correct, even with the lower number of
independent zones. Samsung adapts for this
by tailoring the local dimming algorithm to
suit, sacrificing shadow detail and dimming
brighter objects to maintain deep blacks
and reduce blooming or haloing artefacts.
This generally works well in practice, too, and
while the top and bottom letterbox bars aren’t
as black as they are on the flagship Q90R
range, they’re impressively dark.
All that said, we did notice brightness
fluctuation in subtitles, seemingly caused by
the small number of FALD zones. If you
regularly use subtitles, or are a fan of foreign
cinema, it might be worth investing in a
higher-end QLED TV, or just an OLED.
Colour accuracy could be better, too. It is
possible to massage the picture settings to
produce a more natural-looking picture, but
this is a TV more concerned with visual
impact than out and out accuracy.
HIT THE DIRT
The QE55Q70R’s picture processing delivers
high quality upscaling of SD and HD content,
so it’s a shame to see that it doesn’t get a
completely clean bill of health in other areas.
TVs
but enabling these tends to introduce
microstutter in 50Hz interlaced broadcast
content, and this is most noticeable from the
internal Freeview tuner. The TV’s Black Frame
Interpolation (BFI) feature suffers from similar
issues, too, with motion interpolation
artefacts becoming visible on 50Hz content.
We noted dirty-screen effect on full-field
grey slides and a mild blue tint across all four
borders of the screen, but these slides test
picture uniformity to the extreme, and as such
these issues are seldom visible in everyday use.
Performance is respectable otherwise.
After calibration, peak brightness reaches
700cd/m2 on a 10% window, and 410cd/m2 on
an all-white screen. This means that you can
expect a bold, impactful HDR experience.
Gaming puts the QE55Q70R right in its
element. Auto Low-Latency Mode (ALLM)
support means that the TV automatically
switches to the low-latency Game mode when
connected to a compatible games console,
and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) keeps screen
tearing at bay. We measured input lag at a
mere 15ms, which is about as low as it gets for
TVs. Game Mode sacrifices a little bit of the
QE55Q70R’s picture processing oomph, but
it’s worth it for the lower latency.
SAVE THE DAY
The QE55Q70R is yet another fine QLED TV
from Samsung that puts in a very respectable
all-round showing. HDR
performance is good, and while
the images the Q70R produces
aren’t strictly accurate, we suspect
most people won’t care – the
overall impact is thrilling.
Best of all, the QE55Q70R is
hundreds of pounds cheaper now
than it was at launch, and that
was only a matter of months ago.
This helps it see off potential
undercutting by LG’s more
affordable OLED sets, mainly the
B8 and C8 series, and makes
Samsung’s TV even more
appealing if you’re keen to avoid
the risk of OLED burn-in.
83
 TVs
SAMSUNG
UE50RU7470UXXU
★★★★★
£400 • From www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
Its HDR support isn’t great, but there
are plenty of other reasons to buy this
affordable 4K TV
AN AWFUL LOT of budget TVs these days
carry the HDR label, but it’s fair to say that
none of them can deliver the eye-popping
spectacle of pricier sets.
As the LG 49UM7400 shows, however,
trickle-down technology has done its bit to
steadily improve HDR performance for some
budget TVs. When the UE50RU7470UXXU
– the 50in contingent of Samsung’s new,
HDR10+ supporting RU7470 series – landed
in our labs, we were therefore hopeful it
might be able to serve up a little high-dynamic
magic on the cheap.
LOW PROFILE
Its VA-type LED edge-lit LCD panel is fairly
typical of TVs in this price range and, being 4K
UHD, it has a resolution of 3,840x2,160. So far,
so ordinary, and there’s little remarkable
about the design, either. The display is framed
with standard-sized bezels that have the
same steel grey colour as the rest of the
chassis, and it stands upon a classic Y-shaped
central stand. The built-in cable management
at the rear of the TV is welcome, as this
keeps cables neatly tidied once you’ve
plugged devices into the UE50RU7470UXXU’s
three HDMI 2.0a connectors.
To all three of these ports, Samsung has
added the same Auto Low Latency Mode
support as the much higher-end QE55Q70R,
which means the UE50RU7470UXXU will kick
into gaming mode when it detects a signal
from a compatible console; this helps keep
input lag to a minimum by toning down the
TV’s video processing. At only 15ms, the TV’s
input time is as low as any competitor in its
price range, making it an ideal for competitive
gamers. The only disappointment is that the
60Hz panel rules out support for variable
refresh rate (VRR) or Game Motion Plus.
The UE50RU7470UXXU’s speakers
aren’t bad at all; there’s even a touch of
refinement to the sound here. Dialogue
in films and television shows comes
through loud and clear so you won’t
have to rely on subtitles, but don’t
expect room-shaking explosions from
the latest blockbusters. As ever, we’d
recommend budgeting a little extra for
an affordable soundbar.
The VA panel’s semi-reflective gloss
coating is less than ideal – a matt finish
would have been preferable – but this
screen has its strengths too. By budget
TV standards, the UE50RU7470UXXU’s
84
VA panel has a high level of contrast,
achieving extremely dark greys that get
closer to true black than its IPS rivals.
Image quality is pretty great across the
board, too: colours are generally natural-
looking, human skin tones look impressively
realistic, and overall colour accuracy isn’t far
off the mark. Unlike the 49UM7400, there’s
no screen-wide tinge and you don’t need to
tinker with settings nearly as much, so
Samsung’s TV immediately has the advantage
for prospective buyers who just want
something that performs well out of the box.
Further inspection reveals that the panel’s
colour uniformity is also pretty high, apart
from mild dark tinting at the extreme outer
edges when displaying certain shades.
Some shades also cause low-level dirty-screen
effect, wherein a solid colour may not look
entirely even when displayed across a large
portion of the screen.
TURN IT UP
Even so, the Samsung UHD processor does a
fine job of upscaling 1080p content. It looks
fantastically clean, with minimal junk
pixellation and barely noticeable ringing
around edges – another winning performance
over the 49UM7400, which is far more prone
to visual noise and rough edges.
The video processing isn’t all-powerful,
mind you. Overscan, the feature that
sometimes cuts off the borders of images to
help them fit the screen, cannot be turned off
for non-4K content. Thankfully, you’ll only
lose 5% of the image at the absolute most.
Sadly, the UE50RU7470UXXU suffers
from narrow viewing angles, that common
issue with VA screens. In dark scenes, the
left and right of the screen glow more
brightly than the centre of the panel even
when sitting at the ‘perfect’ central position,
and the effect worsens noticeably as you
shift to either side. The cost-saving use of
LED edge lighting rather than local dimming
can also produce some jarring brightness
fluctuations in transitions from dark to light
scenes, and vice versa.
HDR performance isn’t up to much, either.
In its favour, the UE50RU7470UXXU does
manage to cover a respectable 92% of the
DCI-P3 colour gamut, but its backlight simply
isn’t potent enough to deliver truly great HDR
playback. We measured a maximum
brightness of 260cd/m2, and this simply isn’t
bright enough to do HDR justice. The
49UM7400 might have lower overall image
quality, but it does at least present decent
HDR implementation on a budget.
When playing content mastered to
1,000nits or 4,000nits – as most movies and
high-budget shows are – Samsung’s
algorithms do their best to retain all the
brightest HDR details by dialling down the
overall brightness, but the result is that HDR
content is robbed of its power and punch.
As the TV already has a low peak brightness
to begin with, the final result is an image
that is far too dark.
TALENT SHOW
Why, then, does the Samsung
UE50RU7470UXXU score so highly?
While it’s true that this television joins
a list of budget sets that fail to deliver a
worthwhile HDR performance, it also
runs rings around these similarly cheap
TVs in almost every other regard.
Its superb upscaling, fantastic colour
accuracy and ultra-low input lag mean
that you may not miss HDR at all –
this feature aside, it really is a lovely
all-rounder for the money.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

SONY KD-65XG9505
★★★★★
£1,300 • From www.currys.co.uk
k
VERDICT
This LCD TV’s comprehensive upgrades make
for dazzling impact that even troubles OLEDs
SONY’S CURRENT RANGE of TVs is
enormous, and crowned with a couple of 8K
monsters that you’d need to sell your house
to afford. Luckily it’s the upper-mid-range
screens that seem to offer the best
combination of performance and value, as
evidenced by the VA-panel XG95 range.
The 65in KD-65XG9505 model we tested
lacks the X-Wide Angle technology of larger
sizes, as does the £1,000 55in version, but still
it comes with a long list of goodies: full-array
local dimming LED backlighting, Sony’s X1
Ultimate video processor, HDR support for
HLG, HDR 10 and Dolby Vision, and Sony’s
proprietary X-Motion Clarity black zonal
insertion system for smoothing out motion.
The gun-metal grey bezel is impressively
thin for a FALD LCD display, and there’s a nice
accent along the bottom border. The feet are a
thinner, more streamlined shape than on the
preceding XF90 series, but as they’re located
near the ends of the panel, you’ll need a wide
AV rack to accommodate them.
Connections are mostly on the left rear of
the chassis and include four full-bandwidth
HDMI 2.0b ports with HDCP 2.3 compliance.
Enhanced ARC has only been implemented
on the third HDMI socket, however.
HAND TOOLS
An Android-based operating system takes
the helm and includes YouView and Freeview
Play catch-up services, alongside all the usual
streaming suspects, barring Now TV. The
SoC’s 2.5GB of available RAM is lower than
that of the XF90, but the screen is still
lightning-fast when navigating menus,
especially when compared to previous
Android-powered Sony TVs.
The new remote control is a huge
improvement on its cheap-feeling predecessor,
too. Its brushed metallic finish and textured
rear make it a pleasure to use, the length and
weight is just right, the buttons are well laid
out, and tactile feedback is more gratifying
than from the soft buttons of Sony’s
previous remotes. It isn’t backlit, which is
a shame, but it’s still a big step forward.
Sound quality isn’t bad at all, either,
with audio given width and presence by
a couple of side-firing tweeters mounted
at the rear of the chassis. This is what
constitutes the grandly named Acoustic
Multi-Audio system. Make no mistake,
though: you’ll still hanker after a proper
external audio system.
The absence of X-Wide Angle
technology is, unfortunately, felt: unless
you’re sitting directly in front of the
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
KD-65XG9505, colours and contrast drop off
fairly quickly. The screen itself is also more
reflective than equivalent OLEDs and QLEDs,
which you should bear in mind if your new
TV is going in a bright room.
Sit in the sweet spot, however, and colours
such as skin tones look natural and realistic.
The backlighting deserves praise, too: we
reckon Sony’s local dimming algorithm is the
best in the business, striking a wonderful
balance between preserving black depth and
restricting blooming. It very rarely draws
attention to itself.
That performance is particularly impressive
given that the Sony’s backlighting consists of
a mere 60 independently dimmable zones.
There are some haloing artefacts visible,
particularly so in HDR, but these are inevitable
when the image is of a bright object against a
dark background. One solution would be using
some gentle bias lighting to reduce blooming
and make letterbox bars appear darker,
though as this isn’t a Philips Ambilight TV,
such lighting isn’t included.
Screen uniformity is nevertheless
outstanding: there’s no significant banding or
dirty-screen effect, although corners are slightly
darkened, as is typical of Sony LED LCDs.
MOMENT OF CLARITY
We’ve long held Sony’s MotionFlow
interpolation technology in high regard, in no
small part because it doesn’t introduce as
many artefacts or soap-opera effects as
certain alternatives from rival brands – as long
as it’s properly set up. You’ll need to manually
TVs
enter the correct settings to activate X-Motion
Clarity, but it’s worth it in order to boost
motion resolution from the sample-and-hold
baseline of 300 lines to 1,080 lines (or even
higher) without any visible increase in flicker
or drop in light output.
24fps films are handled smoothly, with no
sign of judder even in slow pans. Upscaling is
also excellent, retrieving sharp detail from
low-resolution sources without excessive
fuzziness or ringing artefacts.
The Smooth Gradation feature also works
well in reducing posterisation from lower-
quality video. Strangely, however, it can be a
little over-aggressive with Dolby Vision
content, and we noticed that it caused a loss
of detail even on the lowest setting.
In general, however, HDR content looks
impressive. After calibration, full-field
brightness peaked at 720cd/m2, one of the
highest we’ve measured. This gives HDR
content the sort of dazzling impact even
many OLED TVs can’t match.
It’s not an absolute victory for LCD over
OLED. For 4K HDR content, DCI-P3 colour
gamut coverage measures 94%, which is
similar to the XF90 but still short of OLED and
QLED equivalents. In real-world viewing, 4K
Blu-ray images look fine, even if they do lack
the ultimate vibrancy of pricier TVs.
Gamers won’t just appreciate the XG95’s
prodigious brightness, as input lag is relatively
low as well. We measured a very agreeable
21ms in both 1080p SDR and 4K HDR modes
TUNE UP
That’s yet another improvement over the
XF90, to add to the four full-bandwidth
HDMI 2.0b inputs, more calibration
controls, enhanced eARC, better Android
TV navigation and – last, but by no means
leeast – a far better remote control.
All of that would be scant consolation
without the image quality to match, but
thankfully the KD-65XG9505 hits the
mark here, too. All in all, it’s our new
faavourite LCD TV, and while quality
OLED screens beat it on sheer pop,
itt joins the Samsung QE55Q70R as a
great lower-priced alternative.
85
 TVs

RECOMMENDED
CO BEST BUY
Manufacturer HISENSE HISENSE LG LG
Model H55U8BUK R50B7120UK 49UM7400 OLED65C9
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★
HARDWARE
Screen size 55in 50in 49in 65in
Native 3,840x2,160 3,840x2,160 3,840x2,160 3,840x2,160
resolution
Screen VA VA VA OLED
technology
3D No No No No
Claimed Not stated Not stated Not stated Infinity:1
contrast ratio
Claimed peak 1,000cd/m2 Not stated Not stated Not stated
brightness
Speakers 2x 10W 2x 8W 2x 10W 1x 20W, 2x 10W
Video inputs 4x HDMI 2.0b, 3x HDMI 2.0, 3x HDMI 2.0b 4x HDMI 2.1
1x composite 1x composite
Audio inputs None None None None
Audio outputs 1x S/PDIF 1x S/PDIF, 1x 3.5mm 1x S/PDIF 1x S/PDIF, 1x 3.5mm
USB hub 2x USB2 1x USB2 2x USB2 3x USB2
Other ports 1x Ethernet, 1x RF, 1x CI 1x Ethernet, 1x RF, 1x CI 1x Ethernet, 1x CI 1x Ethernet, 1x RF, 1x CI

Wi-Fi 802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11ac

Tuner Freeview HD Freeview HD Freeview HD Freeview HD, FreeSat HD
Media DLNA DLNA DLNA DLNA, Miracast
streaming
Dimensions 779x1,230x296mm 720x1,127x256mm 704x1,110x249mm 862x1,449x251mm
BUYING INFORMATION
Prices correct at time of going to press

Warranty Two years RTB Two years RTB Five years RTB Five years RTB
Price £649 £299 £349 £1,999
Supplier www.currys.co.uk www.argos.co.uk www.johnlewis.com www.currys.co.uk
Details www.hisense.co.uk www.hisense.co.uk www.lg.com www.lg.com
Part code H55U8BUK R50B7120UK 49UM7400 OLED65C9

VERDICT
Many of these televisions demonstrate that they don’t need to
excel at everything in order to be a worthwhile buy. The Hisense
R50B7120UK, for instance, has narrow viewing angles and HDR
implementation that might as well not be there; however, at £299
it’s so cheap, has such a user-friendly operating system and has
such low input lag that these flaws don’t come anywhere close to
killing its appeal. As long as you can angle it right when you put it in
your living room, it’s a brilliant budget option.
The Sony KD-65XG9505 also makes a good argument for why you
don’t need to go down the OLED route if you’re spending over
£1,000. Combining great-looking HDR and some of the best motion-
processing on the market, it’s a very good LCD screen indeed.

86 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 TVs

RECOMMENDED RECOMMENDED
PHILIPS SAMSUNG SAMSUNG SONY
65OLED803 QE55Q70R UE50RU7470UXXU KD-65XG9505
★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

65in 55in 50in 65in

3,840x2,160 3,840x2,160 3,840x2,160 3,840x2,160

OLED QLED VA VA

No No No No
Not stated Not stated Not stated Not stated

Not stated Not stated Not stated Not stated

1x 20W, 2x 10W Not stated 2x 10W 2x 10W

2x HDMI 2.0, 2x HDMI 2.0b, 4x HDMI 2.0b 3x HDMI 2.0a, 1x composite 4x HDMI 2.0b, 1x composite
1x component
None None None None
1x S/PDIF, 1x 3.5mm 1x S/PDIF 1x S/PDIF 1x S/PDIF, 1x 3.5mm
2x USB2 2x USB2 2x USB2 3x USB2
1x Ethernet, 1x CI+, 1x Ethernet, 1x CI, 2x satellite, 1x Ethernet, 1x CI, 1x RF 1x Ethernet, 2x satellite
2x satellite, 1x RF 1x RF
802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11ac
Freeview HD Freesat HD, TV Plus Freesat HD, TV Plus Freeview HD
DLNA, Miracast DLNA, Miracast DLNA, Miracast DLNA

842x1,449x280mm 708x1,231x248mm 736x1,125x347mm 902x1,447x333mm

One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB
£2,399 £800 £400 £1,300
www.currys.co.uk www.johnlewis.com www.currys.co.uk www.currys.co.uk
www.philips.co.uk www.samsung.com www.samsung.com www.sony.co.uk
65OLED803 QE55Q70R UE50RU7470UXXU KD-65XG9505

Samsung’s QE55Q70R is cheaper and uses a more high-tech QLED
panel, so could also make for a respectable OLED alternative,
although its upscaling system isn’t as effective.
As for the OLED models themselves, the Philips 65OLED803 looks
great, both on the screen and in a design sense – and its Ambilight
bias lighting is a seriously tempting bonus feature. However, the LG
OLED65C9 edges it on straightforward image quality, even if it does
so with the aid of multiple processing systems. Its HDMI 2.1 ports
shouldn’t be overlooked by anyone wanting to maximise audio
quality, nor by those who frequently play on games consoles.
The OLED65C9 is therefore our top pick overall, though happily,
there are several other fine choices if you want to spend less.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 87

 FLAT NOTES
Tablets and e-readers
CONTENT REVIEWS Newer form factors have put tablets and dedicated
Page 90 e-readers at risk, but both are still seeing new
APPLE iPad 10.2in
models that are – on design, performance and
Page 91
APPLE iPad Mini (2019) features alike – better than ever
Page 92
SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S6 TABLETS AND E-READERS have not been We’re not so sure, however. 2-in-1s are
having the easiest time. For many, buying a appealing in their versatility, but not everyone
Page 93 device solely for reading ebooks might seem needs a laptop replacement: standalone
VANKYO MatrixPad Z4 unnecessary when they can be read on their tablets can often be better for personal use,
existing smartphone, and conventional iOS such as watching videos and browsing the
Page 94
and Android tablets are being squeezed on two web, rather than pumping out documents and
AMAZON Kindle (2019) sides. On one, there are laptop-aping 2-in-1s: spreadsheets. They’re smaller, so can be more
Page 95 tablets running desktop software that are easily gripped with a single hand, and because
AMAZON Kindle Kids Edition designed specifically for use with a keyboard; they don’t need more powerful processors for
while on the other, ever-enlarging ‘phablet’ productivity, they can be thinner and quieter.
Page 96 phones provide a similar combination of E-readers, too, are incredibly specialised,
AMAZON Kindle Oasis (2019) portability and display size to tablets. but are simply better than smartphones at
This could sound as if tablets and e-readers their key task of displaying ebooks. Their
Page 97
have simply run their course, their demise at E-Ink displays make for a more natural,
KOBO Clara HD the hands of newer, more flexible kinds of comfortable reading experience than you’d get
devices more of an inevitability than a tragedy. from staring at text on a glossy phone screen,

88 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


and their use of wider aspect ratios more
closely resembles the format of real books.
In other words, both tablets and e-readers
are still worth picking up today. In the
following pages you’ll find tests of some of
the best (and worst) devices you can buy, as
well as this guide to choosing one with the
right specs and features.
INK IN MODERATION
One of the unique qualities of tablets is their
display size, which tends to range from about
7in to 11in – more spacious than a smartphone,
but smaller than laptops and most 2-in-1s. This
provides a nice balance for watching videos or
reading long web pages without needing to
squint or hold the screen too close to your face,
while also keeping the tablet small enough for
easy portability and one-handed use.
Tablet screens usually employ the same
IPS or AMOLED panel technology as
smartphones, so expect wide viewing angles
and colours with plenty of pop. AMOLED
screens have better contrast, but IPS screens
can go brighter; we’ve conducted our usual
calibrator-aided display tests to measure each
model’s strengths and weaknesses.
E-reader screens favour smaller (6in to 7in)
E-Ink panels, which are designed to achieve
two things: use a minimal amount of power,
and to more accurately replicate the
appearance of ink on real paper. These are
always black and white, so mainly differ in
resolution, which is typically measured in
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
pixels per inch (ppi) rather than horizontal and
vertical pixel counts as tablet screens are.
More pixels per inch means greater density
and thus a sharper screen, so text will look
crisper on a 300ppi display than a 167ppi one.
MAKE SOME SPACE
Contemporary tablets can be almost
unbelievably thin. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6,
for example, is a mere 5.7mm from front to
back. That’s great for portability, but it has the
drawback of limiting physical connectivity,
usually to one small data port, a headphone
jack and sometimes a microSD slot.
You’ll therefore be mainly relying on Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth, though expandable storage is
particularly useful if you’re likely to be making
very heavy use of your tablet. With e-readers,
you can’t typically expand on the internal
storage, which you might notice sounds low:
4GB to 8GB, most likely. However, if you’re
only saving ebooks, that’s not necessarily
anything to worry about, as these are
essentially text files and as such don’t take up
nearly as much space as videos and images.
If, however, you choose an e-reader that can
store and play back audiobooks, you’ll
find that 4GB models fill up much quicker.
One tactic used by tablet manufacturers
to avoid them being cannibalised by 2-in-1s
is to modify the (conventionally mobile-
focused) operating system to be a bit more
desktop-like; so even if it’s generally going
to be used as a standard tablet, it at least
has a dash of 2-in-1 capability should you
ever want to add a keyboard.
Apple’s iPadOS and Samsung’s DeX
platforms both demonstrate this approach,
expanding on aspects such as keyboard
support, multitasking and file management. If
you’re not interested in using your tablet for
productivity, the good news is that these
tweaks can be ignored, though you shouldn’t
expect a similar enthusiasm for improving the
classic tablet touchscreen experience from the
base iOS or Android experience.
That said, if you’re open to the notion
of using your tablet as a laptop, it’s worth
noting that iPadOS has a better selection of
‘serious’ apps than Android.
READ SPEED
You can expect smartphone-like performance
from most tablets, for the simple reason that
they often use the same system-on-a-chip
(SoC) designs. Apple, for instance, recycles
the chips used in its iPhones for its iPads,
while Samsung uses common Qualcomm
Snapdragon SoCs.
We’ve tested tablet performance using
benchmarks, and although the same tools
won’t work on e-readers, the principles are the
same: responsiveness is key, and sluggishness
when navigating an ebook store is just as
irritating as it is viewing a website on a tablet.
Then again, it’s easier to forgive low
performance on e-readers, as they’re (usually)
cheap and simple by design, your primary
interaction with them being to turn pages; not
TABLETS AND E-READERS
something that would massively benefit from
additional computing power. With tablets, it’s
more vital that the hardware is up to scratch,
as you’ll be switching through multiple apps
and maybe even playing 3D games.
THE DRAIN GAME
Battery life isn’t something you should worry
about too much when it comes to e-readers.
Even the shortest-lasting models will keep
going for days or even weeks of regular use,
thanks in part to their use of low-power
processors and economical E-Ink displays.
Tablets are another story. These will have
much larger batteries, but with bigger,
higher-resolution colour displays and
multicore processors, you’ll burn through
them much faster than with an e-reader.
Our battery benchmark test involves
looping a full-screen video file from full
charge to empty, keeping flight mode on and
brightness at a modest 170cd/m2 to measure
heavy usage without employing worst-case
conditions. Anything that lasts under 10
hours won’t necessarily require daily
recharging, but anything higher is ideal.
While backlighting has been standard on
most screens – tablets, smartphones laptops,
even handheld games consoles – for years, it’s
only recently become a common feature on
e-readers. Also known as a reading light, a set
of backlighting LEDs makes it possible to read
in darkness and low light; a major benefit.
Luckily, all four of the e-readers in this
round-up include a reading light.
Less common is a low blue-light mode.
The problem with screens lit with white or blue
LEDs is that the light they emit can cause eye
strain when viewed for long periods, and can
even prevent some people from sleeping.
Some e-readers therefore come with orange
LEDs as well, which illuminate the screen while
cutting down or eliminating the blue light.
This can help prevent discomfort when you’re
glued to the pages of a good ebook, though
unlike white backlighting it hasn’t quite
become a standard feature yet. You’ll have to
pay more to get an e-reader with a low
blue-light mode, so think about whether
you’ve had problems with smartphone and
monitor screens, and decide for yourself if it’s
worth the expense.
NOW LISTEN HERE
Lastly, be on the lookout for any little extras
you can get with your tablet or e-reader
purchase. A stylus, for example, would let you
take quick notes on a tablet without needing
the on-screen keyboard. The Amazon Kindle
Kids Edition also comes with a robust case and
content subscription, though it could be
argued these aren’t ‘extras’ per se, as the
whole thing costs more than the otherwise
identical standard Kindle.
Audiobook support, on the other hand, is a
bonus that spans the Kindle range regardless
of price. You’ll need to make sure you have a
pair of Bluetooth headphones, however, as
e-readers don’t tend to feature 3.5mm jacks.
89
 TABLETS

APPLE iPad 10.2in

★★★★★
£349 • From www.apple.com//uk

VERDICT
The latest iPad focuses on becoming a betterr
laptop alternative, becoming much more
usable in the process

EVEN WITHOUT CONSIDERING the

more expensive iPad Pro series, standard
consumer-grade iPads have been able to
turn into decent 2-in-1s for some time now.
The latest 10.2in iPad takes things even
further: it can still naturally be used as a lone
slate, but it now has a Smart Connector
socket on the side, granting compatibility with
the Pro series’ Smart Keyboard attachment.
If you’d rather stick with standalone use,
there’s good news elsewhere. This iPad
remains wonderfully slim and light, weighing
just 483g (or 493g for the cellular model),
and measuring 7.5mm thick. The broad
black bezels give it a relatively staid look
at a time of edge-to-edge smartphone
displays, although at least there’s room for
a Touch ID fingerprint reader on the front,
as well as a webcam.
The Smart Connector, which sits on the
left side of the tablet (or the bottom, in
landscape view), provides both power and
data connectivity for add-on keyboards. All
the rest of the buttons and features are in the e
same places as they have been for years: the
power and volume keys are on the edges at Its dual-ccore A10 Fusion SoC was first instances, and we like the fact that MacBook,
the top right corner, with the Lightning seen in the 2016 iPhone 7 (Shopper 346), iMac and Mac Mini owners can also now
connector and speaker grilles on the bottom, though performance stands up surprisingly use the iPad as a second screen using the
and the rear camera in the top left corner. well. We never felt the iPad was lacking in Sidecar feature. This only works with
Incidentally, this camera is still the same responsiveness, and its 769 single-core test MacBooks and Mac Minis running on the
8-megapixel unit as found on the previous result in Geekbench 5 – a newer, tougher latest MacOS Catalina, however.
model, and the front-facing camera hasn’t update to the Geekbench 4 benchmark
changed, either: it’s still a fairly – edges ahead of the Galaxy Tab S6. Only its MARRIED TO THE JOB
underwhelming 1.2-megapixel shooter. multicore test result of 1,412 is significantly For all these big steps towards making the
lower than that of the pricier Samsung tablet. humble iPad a genuine laptop alternative,
EYEBALL IT The Galaxy Tab S6 also has the advantage however, there is still the odd irritation. For
The display is a Retina class 2,160x1,620 on battery life, although the iPad is still pretty instance, if you’re using a web form to upload
screen, which means when it’s held at good in this regard. It lasted 12h 29m, a vast images to a website, it’s only possible to select
normal viewing distances most people improvement on its predecessor. one file at a time. There is a workaround to
won’t be able to see the pixels. this, but only if you’re uploading multiple
Unlike Apple’s Pro tablets, the touchscreen TRANSFER WINDOW images. In this case, you have to save them
is not laminated to the LCD beneath it, which Best of all is the new iPadOS software. Our into Photos and upload from there instead.
means there’s a small gap between the two favourite changes come to the Files app, What’s more, if you only want a tablet –
layers. You can see this for yourself if you which now allows you to connect to an not a 2-in-1 – then most of these
look at the edges from an oblique angle. external hard disk (or even a network drive) improvements won’t really affect you, and
This can have an adverse effect on perceived and transfer files back and forth. in truth there isn’t much new and exciting
contrast in bright ambient light. There’s also full desktop web browser about the new iPad that specifically relates
Still, the screen on this iPad is as good as capability in iPadOS, where previously it was to how it works as a standalone slate.
it gets at this price. It’s very bright, peaking a more limited mobile browser. For most At the very least, it would have been nice
at 492cd/m2 in our testing – that’s even browsing tasks, you probably won’t notice to have a newer processor; just because
brighter than the (much more expensive) much of a difference, but if you use websites there are already slower rivals doesn’t
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6’s screen. The iPad’s for work that involve online forms – maybe mean there’s no reason to sit back and
contrast ratio is a decent 1,060:1 and, as a website CMS or an antiquated admin tool coast on last year’s performance.
ever with Apple’s devices, it’s fully calibrated that hasn’t been designed with mobile use in However, it’s impossible to deny the
in the factory and colour accurate. When mind – this will make a huge difference to quality of the 10.2in iPad. It’s absolutely
tested against the sRGB colour space, we your ability to use an iPad for work. the finest tablet to be had at this price, and
measured an average delta-E of 1.01, which Other welcome additions include with the addition of a keyboard, its hybrid
is very good indeed. the ability for apps to open in multiple abilities are stronger than ever.

90 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 TABLETS

APPLE iPad Mini (2019)

★★★★★
£399 • From www.apple.com/uk

VERDICT
It might look just like the old model, but the
new iPad Mini is a vastly more powerful tablet

CONSIDERING FOUR YEARS passed between

the launch of the previous iPad Mini and this,
the latest model, not much appears to have
changed at all. The case design is the same,
down to the last millimetre; the buttons are in
the same positions; and the screen is the same
size and resolution. However, that doesn’t mean
there haven’t been internal improvements:
besides an upgraded processor, the iPad Mini
now supports the first-generation Apple Pencil
stylus for more natural note-taking.

ON REPEAT
Besides, if Apple is going to re-use a design, it
might as well be one as good as this. At 300g
and just 6.1mm thick, it’s a supremely portable
tablet; it could have been even smaller, too,
had the thick bezels been trimmed.
With the tablet held in portrait orientation,
you’ll find the volume buttons on the right
edge at the top, the power button on the top
edge at the right, the 3.5mm headphone jack
on the top edge at the left, and the charger
and speaker grilles on the bottom edge.
Even things you might have expected to
change haven’t. The iPad Mini still uses a
Lightning cable to charge and transfer files,
not USB Type-C like the newer iPad Pro
models, and it doesn’t have the Apple’s Face
ID security system, either. For quick unlocking
and payments via Apple Pay, the iPad Mini is
stuck with Touch ID. That’s not a problem:
Touch ID works as well as it always did: it’s
quick, reliable and very rarely fails.
The Apple Pencil works brilliantly,
capturing strokes as accurately as if it were a
real pencil. Beware, however, that only the
first-generation stylus will work; the newer,
second-gen Apple Pencil will not. That means
you’ll have to put up with charging it, rather
awkwardly, by removing the cap and plugging
it into the Lightning port at the base of the
tablet. Third-party styluses such as the
Logitech Crayon are compatible, however.
That’s it for major new features, but there
are plenty of improvements, and one of them
is the 7.9in display. It has a resolution of
2,048x1,536 for a pixel density of 326ppi, uses
IPS technology and, impressively, supports
both HDR 10 and Dolby Vision playback.
In a sense, at least; while the iPad Mini can
play back HDR and Dolby Vision titles via
Netflix and iTunes, the peak brightness of the
display isn’t high enough to give the full HDR
effect. We measured it at 530cd/m2, which is
more than enough for everyday use (including
outdoors), but short of the 700cd/m2 required
for true HDR 10 playback. Dolby Vision is even
more demanding, requiring at least 1,000cd/m2.
Nonetheless, this is a high-quality display. It
covers 91.3% of the sRGB colour gamut, which
is excellent, and colour accuracy is superb. We
also noticed the glass is fully laminated to the
IPS panel beneath it, unlike the standard iPad,
eliminating any glare-inducing air gap.
FAST BURN
The Apple A12 Bionic SoC also makes the iPad
Mini a beast of a tablet on performance. In
Geekbench 4’s single-core test, it breezed to a
score of 4,814, and its multitasking prowess is
even better: its 11,551 in Geekbench’s multicore
test is more than 11 times higher than that of
the Vankyo MatrixPad Z4.
There is a trade-off for all this power,
however. Battery life has taken a bit of a dip
from the previous, fourth-generation iPad
Mini: that lasted for 10h 43m in our video
loop test, but this new model fell to 8h 21m.
That’s still adequate, but the standard iPad
can pull out a few additional hours.
Tablets never make the most ergonomically
friendly camera alternatives when you want
to grab a quick snap, especially when most
people have a smartphone in their pocket
as well, but then the larger screen can make
for a better viewfinder, so it’s not terribly
surprising when it does happen.
If you do prefer to use a tablet over your
phone, the iPad Mini’s camera won’t
disappoint; likewise, it won’t astound with
its quality. The main camera at the rear is
an 8-megapixel sensor with an aperture of
f/2.4, which shoots 1080p video at up to
120fps for slow-motion footage.
This is fine if the light is good – a little
down on detail compared with a decent
smartphone camera, perhaps – but it struggles
to produce sharp shots in darker situations.
At the front – perhaps the more important
camera for a tablet – you have a 7-megapixel
FaceTime HD camera, which delivers
superlative quality for video calls at up to
1080p in HDR. If you’re looking for a device to
improve the quality of your video calls, the
iPad Mini is worth considering for that alone.
The camera is much better than you get on
many modern Windows laptops.
SMALL AMBITIONS
Besides some exterior design stagnation, there
isn’t much wrong with the 2019 iPad Mini. It
takes a popular recipe and updates it, adding
more performance and Apple Pencil support
along the way. Still, there’s a nagging sense
that more could have been done.
Those hoping for a more affordable price
will be disappointed, too. Although £399 isn’t
a huge outlay these days – compared to the
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, it’s a bargain – it’s
more than Apple is asking for the larger,
longer-lasting standard iPad.
Still, it’s hard to criticise the iPad Mini too
much when it’s so superior to its rivals at this
size. Despite its slightly old-fashioned looks,
it’s still a great tablet. It’s fast, has a wonderful
display, and is neat and pocketable.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 91

 TABLETS

SAMSUNG Galaxy
Tab S6
★★★★★
£629 • From www.johnlewis.com

VERDICT
A super-lightweight Android tablet that does
it all and comes with a stylus in the box

WITH APPLE DOMINATING the tablet

market, products such as Samsung’s Galaxy
Tab S6 are a breath of fresh air, even if it will
quite as freely blow through your savings.
Still, at least this remarkably high price
nets you truly top-end design. The Galaxy
Tab S6 is amazingly slim at 5.7mm – even
thinner than the iPad Mini – and while it has a
105in display, it’s more compact than the
10.2in iPad, thanks to its narrower bezels.

THE TASKS AHEAD

A microSD card slot allows for expanding on
the already-generous 128GB of internal
storage, and dual rear cameras – a 5-megapixel
ultrawide sensor joins the main 12-megapixel
lens – adds some unique photography
capabilities. It’s a shame that there’s no
integrated slot for storing the bundled S Pen
stylus, especially as the magnet on the rear
isn’t strong enough to keep hold of it reliably,
but that’s the only misstep worth mentioning.
Like the iPad, the Galaxy Tab S6 has
designs on 2-in-1 use as well as being a
standalone tablet. Android is famously poor
for such productivity, but Samsung has added
the same DeX interface as its flagship Galaxy
smartphones, enabling a more desktop-like
environment when attaching a keyboard.
DeX is a definite upgrade in this regard;
it takes the desktop paradigm much further
than iPadOS, with a taskbar that runs along
the bottom of the display and app windows
that can be dragged around, resized and
snapped to the edges of the screen at will.
There are, however, some hitches. It’s not
possible, for instance, to edit text within the
Chrome address bar, and selecting text in
Google Docs is fiddly, too, because you
have to double-click then drag a handle to
resize your selection, as if you were using
your finger on the screen.
Scrolling works inconsistently, too. Some
apps can be scrolled by using an external
mouse like a finger – hold down the left
button and flick up or down to scroll – while
others require you to use the scroll wheel, or
a two-fingered drag on the touchpad.
Ultimately the biggest issue with using
Android in a laptop-like setup is that the app
selection is simply less extensive than that of
iPadOS. You’re therefore better off with an
iPad for serious tools, especially creative
tasks such as photo and video editing.
Granted, that’s hardly Samsung’s fault, and
for more traditional tablet usage, there’s lots
to love about the Galaxy Tab S6. For example,
watching videos on this screen is a joy: whereas
Apple uses IPS panels, Samsung uses a 10.2in
AMOLED screen, which provides perfect
contrast and vivid colours that are easily a
match for the best iPads. It’s beautifully sharp,
too, with a crisp resolution of 2,560x1,600.
FIND YOUR OWN SPACE
Image quality is also exceptional. Like most
current Android devices, the Tab S6 gives
you a selection of colour profiles to choose
from, which tune the display for different
colour spaces. The Natural option delivers a
colour range that’s slightly wider than sRGB
(offering 102.1% gamut coverage), while Vivid
gets closer to the DCI-P3 gamut with an
impressive 106.9% sRGB coverage.
Brightness is somewhat limited; a
completely white screen comes out with a
maximum brightness of 307cd/m2, but if
there’s just a white patch covering 10% of
the screen, this rises to a peak of 486cd/m2.
The display recognises HDR content, too,
but it won’t hit anywhere near the HDR10
standard’s requirements of 1,000cd/m2.
The same is true of the iPad and iPad Mini,
but these are both brighter and cheaper.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 is powered by
a 2.84GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon
855 processor, partnered with 6GB of RAM.
It’s a combination that drives the Tab S6 to
excellent levels of performance: according to
Geekbench 5, it scored 732 in the single-core
test and 2,542 in the multicore test. The
former is slightly below that of the 10.2in iPad,
but the latter score crushes Apple’s tablet.
Given the price, the Galaxy Tab S6 delivers
roughly the performance you’d hope for. In
day-to-day use it feels ultra-responsive, and
we never managed to make it stutter or lag, no
matter how many tabs and apps were open.
Battery life is simply excellent, too: on a
full charge, we were able to play a video from
local storage, with the screen brightness set
to 170cd/m2 and flight mode engaged, for
15h 6m. That’s several hours longer than
both iPads featured in this round-up.
DEX AND BALANCES
The Galaxy Tab S6 is a fantastic tablet. It’s
powerful yet terrifically light and portable,
it offers great battery life, and while it is
much pricier than the iPad or iPad Mini, it’s
also not unreasonable for a high-end tablet.
An equivalent 11in iPad Pro, for instance,
would cost even more.
The big question is whether the software
support is sufficient for your needs. Samsung’s
DeX works better than regular Android for
productivity, and you can do a lot with apps
like Adobe Lightroom Mobile and Photoshop
Express. Even so, there’s nothing like the
power available to iPad users from apps such
as Affinity Photo; and if it’s video editing you
need, the selection is even slimmer.
Still, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 is
arguably the best Android tablet out there.
If you’re an Android fan looking for a
super-lightweight laptop replacement for
medium-duty document editing and creation,
there’s no doubt this highly capable and
desirable device will do the job in style.

92 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 TABLETS

VANKYO
MatrixPad Z4
★★★★★
£90 • From www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT
This dreadful slate only serves as proof that a
low price and good value are not synony ymous

NEXT TO THE £399 Apple iPad Mini and d

the £629 Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, the
prospect of having to pay only £90 for a
10.1in Android tablet sounds too good to o
be true. Unfortunately, as is often the caase,
it is here. The Vankyo MatrixPad Z4 is a
miserable product that struggled to
complete our benchmarks and,
astonishingly, manages to feel cheaper
than its very low cost of entry.
At a glance, the MatrixPad Z4 is a
pretty standard-looking tablet. The beze els
are a bit thick, and it’s mostly made of plastic,
but there’s nothing immediately untoward
considering the price. It’s when you pick it up
that the first signs of doubt appear.
The plastic is smooth, but it feels
insubstantial, as if the whole thing were
hollow. Also, if there’s one thing you cann
usually say for plastic-backed tech, it’s th
hat
it doesn’t attract unsightly fingerprints as
much as glass backplates do – but here,
weirdly, it’s just as prone to oily smudges.
DISTRESSED SURFACE
Worse is the screen, which feels like it has a
kind of rubbery resistance when you swipe a
finger over it. Sometimes this, combined with
the extremely slow internals, makes the
simple process of registering inputs so bad
that entering a pattern to unlock the tablet
just doesn’t register the final line.
The MatrixPad Z4 does have one thing
going for it: connectivity. Both a 3.5mm
headphone jack and a microSD card (up to
128GB cards are supported) are in place
alongside the usual power switch, volume
rocker and Micro USB charging port. All of
these are along the side when held in portrait
perspective, for some reason, although this
doesn’t present any real issues in practice.
The screen, however, has problems besides
its uncomfortable surface. For starters, its
peak brightness is a pathetic 162cd/m2,
while only 74% of the sRGB colour gamut
is covered and contrast is a poor 592:1.
Besides looking ugly in general, the display’s
low brightness and reflective surface make
it difficult to use in the sunlight.
Never mind the £300-plus tablets that join
the MatrixPad Z4 in this round-up; even the
£50 Amazon Fire 7 (Shopper 379) has a
contrast ratio of 1,205:1, and manages to hit a
peak luminance of 374cd/m2, so the low price
isn’t a good enough excuse.
That said, even a display of this quality
could be forgiven if performance was up to
par. Sadly, saying the MatrixPad Z4 is a pig to
use would require an apology to pigs.
There’s likely a reason you haven’t heard
of the Rockchip RK3066 processor before.
Performance is consistently awful, slowing
things down to a halt in just about everything
it does. Tap on the Google Play icon and it
finally loads after about six seconds. It takes
a total of three seconds for the keyboard
to slowly stutter on to the screen after
pressing the search bar.
STRAIN CHECK
Even transition screens on the homescreen
leave a slow ghostly trail as you see more
frames of the movement than you should.
These things get marginally better as the
tablet warms up, but it’s not great – and
speaking of warming up, watching YouTube
videos for a minute causes the plastic back
panel to noticeably heat up.
It barely spluttered its way through
Geekbench 4, ending up with a dire single-
core result of 402 and a multicore test
score of 998. Even the Fire 7 managed 638
and 1,656 respectively, and we had to delve
pretty deep into the archives to find a
device that last failed to break four figures
in the multicore portion. That would be the
Nokia 2 smartphone (Shopper 365), which
cost £100 when it launched in 2017.
Not that we’d recommend gaming on
either device, but the Fire 7 also beats
the MatrixPad Z4 in the GFXBench
Manhatt tta
an benchmark. Amazon’ss tablet
produced 12fps in the onscreen test, while
Vankyo’s coughed out 7fps.
Battery life provides one last
disappointment, with the MatrixPad Z4
giving up after 7h 32m of video playback.
That’s not the worst battery life we’ve ever
seen in a tablet but, considering how dim
that screen is, it’s still disappointing. We
normally run this battery test at 170cd/m2,
which the display can’t even reach, so it
manages to underwhelm even when given
what should be favourable testing conditions.
Z LIST
From the unpleasant build quality to a
screen so dim that it made us break
our own battery-testing rules, the Vankyo
MatrixPad Z4 is a top-to-bottom stinker.
The only reason it avoids the one-star fate is
that, despite everything, it does technically
work as advertised, and if you just want
something extremely basic to keep younger
(and ideally less tech-conscious) kids
occupied, this may be up to the job.
Even so, you could say the same of the
Fire 7, which is cheaper, and if you can wait
for the next Amazon sale you’ll more than
likely be able to get the superior Fire HD 10
for a similar price. Do not seriously consider
buying this tablet; if you have any but the
lowest standards, you might as well be
setting your money on fire. At least then
you’d get a decent level of brightness.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 93

 E-READERS

AMAZON Kindle
(2019)
★★★★★
£70 • From www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT
The basic Kindle isn’t so basic any more,
gaining Bluetooth connectivity and a
useful reading light

FOR A LONG time, the main argument

against buying the basic Amazon Kindle
was that, despite the low price, it was
too simple. More specifically, that it wasn’
as well-made as the Kindle Paperwhite
(Shopper 372), and that it had no built-in
reading light.
With the latest 2019 model, however,
those issues have finally been sorted out;
you can happily splash out £70 on
Amazon’s cheapest e-reader safe in the
knowledge that it does much more of wha
its pricier stablemates can.
The front light isn’t the only new featu ,
either. Amazon has also added Bluetooth
and, along with it, the ability to download
and listen to Audible audiobooks.

STARK RAVING ADS

On the outside, it’s all a lot more familiar.
It still has the 6in, 167ppi E-Ink touch
display of previous Kindles. It’s still available
in black or white, and it still hooks in
seamlessly to Amazon’s vast catalogue of
ebooks, allowing you to search for and buy
books on the device itself.
Like other Kindles, Amazon’s latest
e-reader is available in two different flavours:
‘With special offers’ and ‘Without special
offers’. Essentially, ‘special offers’ means
adverts on the lockscreen, although these
aren’t particularly intrusive. With these
enabled, the Kindle costs £70; if you want
to remove the ads, it’s £80.
At that price, the new Kindle has no
significant rivals when it comes to value
for money – not from other manufacturers,
anyway. In fact, the only big rival
manufacturer still selling dedicated
e-readers is Kobo, whose recent products
have all been focused more at the luxury
end of the market, leaving Amazon to mop
up in the budget sector.
At £110, the Kobo Clara HD isn’t as far a
leap upwards as the £230 Kindle Oasis, so it
could give the standard Kindle trouble,
though of course Amazon’s device remains
much more affordable. It’s also no longer as
cheap-feeling and plasticky as the previous-
generation Kindle. Sure, it isn’t as nice to
pick up and hold and read with as the
Kindle Oasis, but it’s a clear improvement
that makes it seem like you’re getting even
more for your money.
The Kindle is solidly made, light and feels
comfortable to hold. The edges and front
bezels are a little more rounded than the old
model, but otherwise it s a familiar design.
The E-Ink screen dominates the front of the
device, slightly inset to accommodate the
infrared touch sensors, and this display is
surrounded by quite broad bezels.
The only other significant physical
features are the Micro USB port and
power button located on the bottom edge.
There’s no headphone jack, which means if
you want to listen to audiobooks on this
Kindle, you have to connect a pair of
headphones or a speaker to it via Bluetooth.
You don’t get physical buttons for turning
the page, either, which might irk some. Still,
turning pages by tapping either side of the
screen, or swiping across, isn’t a big deal.
CONNECT THE DOTS
However, there are some disadvantages to
the Kindle next to the Kobo Clara HD. First
up – and probably the biggest – is the display,
which is lower in resolution on the basic
Kindle, at a pixel density of 167ppi to the Clara
HD’s 300ppi. This deficiency isn’t night and
day, but text on the cheaper Kindle is clearly
a little less crisp and well defined than its
more expensive rival. Our eyes were more
comfortable with the Clara HD’s sharper text.
Perhaps more of an issue is that the
Kindle’s 4GB of storage is only half that of
the Clara HD’s 8GB. This won’t be a problem
if you plan on sticking with just text-based
books, but if you plan on using your device
to download and listen to audiobooks
regularly, you’ll quickly chomp through
that amount of storage.
Another difference is that the front
light consists of four white LEDs rather
than the Clara HD’s eight. This isn’t as big
a difference as it sounds, however: the light
on the Kindle is still comfortably consistent,
with no discernible bright or dark patches.
The two e-readers also share a lack of
waterproofing and cellular connectivity,
though these aren’t serious shortcomings
unless you read a lot in the bath.
Sadly, it’s also somewhat disappointing
that Amazon still hasn’t found a place in its
current range of e-readers for a blue-light-
reduction system, which is another tool in
the Kobo Clara HD’s box. There’s also no
ambient light sensor, which would have
been preferable to having to change the
display brightness manually.
CLASSIC APPEAL
Nonetheless, the new Amazon Kindle
does the job admirably and, if you’ve used
a Kindle before, you’ll be right at home
with this new model. The software is no
different from that of the most expensive
Kindle Oasis, and Audible support grants
this Kindle a flexibility that previous
versions simply didn’t have. With the
addition of a front light and Bluetooth
connectivity, it’s clearly the best-value
Kindle in the range.
This also makes it worth choosing over
the Kobo Clara HD. For an extra £40 it’s still
a very respectable e-reader, but its higher
resolution and low-blue light mode only make
for a marginally better reading experience,
rather than a transformative one.

94 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


AMAZON Kindle
Kids Edition
★★★★★
£100 • From www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
The Kindle Kids Edition adds a protective
case and a damage guarantee to a
familiar device
IN THE PAST, if you were a parent and
wanted to get your children reading books
on a Kindle, you’d have to make do with
simply setting up a child’s profile and then
choosing which books you want to add to
their library.
Now, however, Amazon has released the
all-new Kindle Kids Edition. Following in the
footsteps of the Fire Kids Edition tablets, it
comes with a year’s subscription to Fire for
Kids Unlimited content plus the peace of
mind of a protective case and a two-year
guarantee against accidental damage.
Otherwise, this is exactly the same device
as the regular Kindle model. That means it has
the same 6in E-Ink touchscreen display, as
well as a front light for reading in the dark.
CONTENT IS KING
The Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription,
meanwhile, gives your little ones access
to thousands of children’s books at no
additional cost, but there’s no way to access
the audiobooks, educational apps, films and
TV that you also get with the same
subscription on a Fire Kids tablet.
Granted, the E-Ink screen isn’t made for
video content, and it’s just as good for
reading as it is on the standard Kindle.
There’s no ambient light sensor, so screen
brightness must be changed manually, but
the display always stays readable in any
lighting conditions.
The only real design difference, then, is
that it comes with a choice of either a pink
or blue protective case. This feels well
constructed and suitably protective, if not
made with easy cleaning in mind: the
soft-touch texture on the inside of the front
cover, in particular, looks as though it will
quickly gather dirt from grubby hands. In a
rather nice touch, however, it contains a
magnet that not only keeps it firmly shut,
but also wakes and puts the Kindle to sleep
when opened and closed.
When you first use the Kindle Kids
Edition, it invites you to set up your child’s
profile and activate the Fire for Kids
Unlimited subscription. After this, kids can
start browsing books right away from the
subscription service using categories that
include Characters & Themes, New Books
and Popular Books.
There are plenty of included titles,
including the full Harry Potter series and
out-of-copyright classics such as Treasure
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
Island and The Wind in the Willows. However,
it’s not an exhaustive selection – we couldn’t
find Philips Pullman’s His Dark Materials
trilogy or JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit, to give
just a couple of big literary names.
Moreover, while the display is great for
text, more visual-heavy publications such as
the Beano Annual would be much better
suited to colourful screens like that of the
Fire 7. There’s nothing to stop you buying
any title from the Kindle store and adding it
to your child’s library, of course, but it’s a
shame that Amazon hasn’t made it easier to
see what the subscription includes before
you part with your hard-earned cash.
TEACHING ASSISTANT
As a reading device, however, it’s worth
repeating that the Kindle Kids Edition works
very well. In the same way as the regular
Kindle, you can easily customise the size of
the font, and the handy Word Wise feature
lets you show hints for difficult words on
the page, potentially helping your child to
build their vocabulary without having to
look up words individually.
If a word isn’t flagged via Word Wise,
however, children can still long-press it to
check its definition, and any words looked
up in this way are added to the Vocabulary
Builder. From here, words can be revisited
at any time and marked when mastered.
It’s these kinds of features that make
the Kindle Kids Edition arguably better
suited than any printed book to helping
children develop their reading skills,
especially when there are none of the
distractions you’ll find on a tablet.
E-READERS
It’s also possible to check on your
children’s progress both on the device
and via the Parents Dashboard on your
smartphone or a web browser. Doing this
via the Kindle offers more in-depth stats,
letting you check the total time spent
reading each book, as well as the number
of pages read per day. There are also a
number of daily targets and game-style
achievements, to help motivate young
users into reading more.
Should you ever want to use the Kindle
Kids Edition yourself, you’ll be pleased to
discover that the device works just like
any other Kindle once you’ve quit the Fire
for Kids mode. This means that you can
access the Kindle Store and Goodreads,
and even download and listen to Audible
Audiobooks, all of which are sadly missing
from the children’s app.
PROTECTIVE MEASURES
As an e-reader to share with a child, then,
it’s a good option. The main problem is that
practically all its features can also be found
on the regular Kindle. Whether it’s worth
paying £30 extra for, then, depends on
how much you value the case, the two-year
accidental damage cover and one year’s
content subscription.
Remember also that a Fire for Kids
Unlimited subscription entitles your child to
far more content on a Fire 7 Kids Edition
tablet at the same price. Unless you’re
desperate to keep your children away from
the bright blue light of a tablet, the tablet
will likely be the more appealing device for
both parents and children.
95
 E-READERS
AMAZON Kindle
Oasis (2019)
★★★★★
£230 • From www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
It’s not much of an upgrade from the
previous model, but the Oasis still has the
best hardware of any e-reader
THERE WAS ONLY one thing missing from
the previous Kindle Oasis (Shopper 361): a
blue light filter. While every smartphone
manufacturer on the planet was accepting th he
medically recognised fact that beaming blue
light into your eyes just before you go to
sleep isn’t ideal, Amazon ploughed on with
regular LEDs in its premium e-reader.
With this latest model, however, the US
retail giant has seen the warm, orange
light and added such a filter. You can now
read at bedtime safe in the knowledge
that it won’t be your reading habit that’s
disturbing your sleep.
TWO-SIDED ARGUMENT
This Kindle Oasis is physically identical to
the previous model, which is to say that
it’s pretty from the rear and not so pretty
from the front. The anodised aluminium
finish feels lovely and smooth under the
finger, and there’s a little step about
two-thirds of the way across, giving you
a grip to hold on to.
We’re less keen on the ugly black border
surrounding the screen at the front, as well
as the fact that the border is much wider
on one side than the other. This has a
practical side effect, however. The side with
the wider border houses the Kindle Oasis’s
two physical page-turn buttons – a feature
lacked by lesser Kindles – and it gives you a
little more to hold on to as well.
On that note, you can hold the Oasis
with the wide border to the left or the right
of the screen; the display will flip orientation
so it’s the right way up however you hold it.
Again, this is a feature neither the standard
Kindle nor Paperwhite share.
Elsewhere, the Kindle Oasis remains very
light, weighing a mere 188g, is extremely
comfortable to hold for long periods, and is
still waterproof to the IPX8 standard, which
means it can be submerged in fresh water to
a depth of two metres for up to an hour.
It retains most of the rest of the previous
Kindle Oasis’s key features, too. There’s
Bluetooth, which lets you connect a pair of
wireless headphones for listening to your
Audible audiobooks. And if you own both
ebook and Audible audiobook editions, the
Oasis can synchronise your reading position
between the two.
Surprisingly, given the Audible integration,
you still can’t add extra storage via microSD,
which is just baffling, and neither can you
96
connectt olld-sch
hooll anallogue head
dph
hones, as
there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.
One final note of mild disappointment is
that new Kindle Oasis no longer seems to
have magnets embedded at the rear, so it
won’t work with the attractive, magnetic
slimline cases that the previous version
worked with.
SHARPLY OBSERVED
As before, the Kindle Oasis has a 7in E-Ink
touchscreen, with a pixel density of 300ppi.
This delivers a superlative reading experience.
E-Ink displays are easier on the eye than the
LCD and OLED screens on smartphones and
tablets and, as a result, are more comfortable
to read for long periods of time.
It’s a monochrome display, but you don’t
need colour for reading books, and at that
task the Oasis’s display excels. Characters on
the screen are sharp and clear, and the
contrast between text and page background
is excellent. You can also tweak the line
spacing, character size and font, margins
and justification to your liking.
For reading at night or in dimly lit
conditions, the Kindle Oasis has a series of
built-in white and amber LEDs arranged
around the edges of the display. In daylight
mode, these cast a perfectly flat, even glow
across the screen, and they can be adjusted
manually or automatically, according to the
ambient light conditions.
The adjustable warm light works equally
well. A secondary array of 13 amber LEDs
illuminates the screen in varying degrees of
orange lighht. The aiim is to red
duce the read
der’’s
exposure to blue light just before going to
bed, and thus improve the quality of their
sleep. As with the white LED lighting, the
‘warmth’ of the display can be adjusted by
way of a simple, onscreen slider control.
Slide it to the right and the screen takes on
a pronounced orangey appearance; slide it
to the left and the effect is more subtle.
NIGHT SHIFT
The effect can be simply adjusted manually
like this, or you can set it to switch on
and off to a predefined schedule. It’s also
possible to have it fade in and out in
synchronisation with the sunset and
sunrise. However you choose to control it,
the LEDs produce a perfectly even
illumination across the display, with no
bright or dim spots at all brightness levels.
This is a great new feature and one that
we’ve been wanting for a very long time.
However, the new Kindle Oasis isn’t quite
an essential upgrade, at least not to anyone
who already owns the 2017 model. Aside
from the new warm front light and the
rather strange withdrawal of the cover
magnets from the rear, it’s exactly the
same Kindle as the previous model at
exactly the same price. If you already own
a Kindle Oasis, it’s not really worth £230
just for the new lighting system.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to
move up from a standard Kindle – or any
other lower-tier e-reader – there’s nothing
better than the Kindle Oasis.
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389
 E-READERS

KOBO Clara HD
★★★★★
£110 • From www.johnlewis.com

VERDICT
Blue light reduction and easy reading make
this a strong alternative to the Kindle family

JUST AS THE Kobo Forma (Shopper 375)

took on the Kindle Oasis, the Kobo Clara HD
aims to usurp a different Amazon e-reader:
the mid-range Kindle Paperwhite.
This approach has been complicated by
the arrival of a new, standard Kindle, which
brings with it an impressive range of upgraded
features; the Paperwhite, meanwhile, hasn’t
been refreshed since 2018.

MAKING A MESS
Still, the Clara HD certainly looks like the
Kindle Paperwhite: take away each device’s
front logo and you could be fooled into
thinking they were the same product. The
differences are there, however, such as how
the Kobo Clara HD’s 6in display is slightly
inset behind the bezels. We admittedly prefer
the flush design of the Paperwhite.
The bigger problem isn’t how it looks,
but how it feels. There’s no Forma-style
rubberisation to provide extra grip, making it
easier to drop when jostled, and the back
panel is pockmarked with what must be
thousands of tiny craters. This doesn’t feel
particularly pleasant, and the holes inevitably
trap dust and debris that’s difficult to clean
out. Compared to the latest Kindle, let alone
the 2018 Paperwhite, Amazon has done a far
better job on build quality.
As on the Kindle, the Clara HD has no
page turn buttons, so you have to swipe with
the touchscreen to progress through your
ebooks. There’s a single port for the microSD
charging cable, and this sits next to the
power button on the bottom edge.
Anyone accustomed to using an up-to-
date smartphone will feel as though they’ve
travelled back in time when using the Kobo
Clara HD. It’s slow to respond as you browse
between menus, and searching for books
within the Kobo Store requires a not
insignificant level of patience.
This sluggishness isn’t uncommon among
e-readers, though it was enough to drive us
to do most of our ebook-browsing on a PC.
The Kobo Store has over five million titles
to choose from, so it’s unlikely you won’t be
able to find what you’re after. Having made
your selections, you can then just tap Sync
on the Kobo Clara HD (so long as it’s
connected to Wi-Fi) and the titles will
download to the device’s library.
Reading on the Kobo Clara HD is a
pleasant experience, if not as enjoyable as on
the Kobo Forma. It’s light enough to hold in
one hand without strain, and turning pages
just requires a quick flick of the thumb in
the desired direction. Occasionally it misreads
the swipe and turns backwards rather than
forwards, something that could have been
avoided with physical page turn buttons.
ANY COMFORT
The 300ppi display is incredibly crisp – more
so than the 167ppi Kindle – and thanks to its
customisable lighting, we never experienced
any eye strain. Fonts are highly adjustable,
too: there are 12 to choose from, including a
dyslexic-friendly font called OpenDyslexic,
and font sizing, line spacing and justification
can all be toggled to suit your preferences.
Kobo provides lots of detailed statistics
on your reading behaviour, and these can be
accessed with a quick couple of taps while
reading. Alternatively, you can ignore all this
and make the interface as clean as possible,
removing the header, footer and page
numbers. Another nice little feature is that
holding down on a word brings up the
Merriam-Webster dictionary definition.
By far the best thing about reading on
the Kobo Clara HD, compared to both the
Kindle and the Kindle Paperwhite, is the
ComfortLight Pro backlighting. In addition to
the white LEDs it uses for standard front
lighting, there’s an array of both blue and –
like the more expensive Kindle Oasis – orange
LEDs for warm or ‘natural’ light. Punch in
your bedtime and the ComfortLight will
slowly but surely take over as the clock
ticks down towards evening, reducing the
amount of sleep-disturbing blue light that
shines into your eyes. This happens
gradually and is barely noticeable.
Sometimes, when we wanted to go to bed
earlier, we manually lowered white light and
cranked ComfortLight right up to achieve that
sleepy candlelit look. It’s great that the more
affordable Kobo Clara HD has a feature that’s
currently exclusive to the top-end Kindle; the
Kindle Paperwhite uses an ambient light
sensor to automatically lower brightness
depending on lighting conditions, but this
doesn’t eliminate blue light as effectively as
the ComfortLight Pro.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
If this sounds like something you’d appreciate,
the Kobo Clara HD might well be a sensible
middle ground between the £70 Kindle and
the Kindle Oasis. Then again, it’s disappointing
that there’s no waterproofing on this,
something that’s present on the Paperwhite
and only absent on the basic Kindle. The latter
can also download Audible audiobooks and
play them via Bluetooth speakers or
headphones, so you’re not always getting
better functionality with the pricier Clara HD.
With the improved Kindle on the scene,
the Clara HD now has to compete with a
more affordable e-reader as well as the
Paperwhite model it originally targeted.
Focusing just on the newer Kindle, there are
meaningful differences between the two,
and often – whether it’s resolution or the
low-blue light mode – these work out in
Kobo’s favour. However, its less convincing
build quality and lack of audiobook support
mean it never truly feels like an outright
better e-reader in general.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 97

 TABLETS AND E-READERS

TABLETS
BEST BUY RECOMMENDED
Manufacturer APPLE APPLE SAMSUNG VANKYO
Model iPad 10.2in iPad Mini (2019) Galaxy Tab S6 MatrixPad Z4
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★
HARDWARE
Processor Quad-core 2.34GHz Apple Hexa-core 2.49GHz Apple Octa-core 2.84GHz Qualcomm Dual-core 1.5GHz Rockchip
A10 Fusion A12 Bionic Snapdragon 855 RK3066
RAM 3GB 3GB 6GB 2GB
Screen size 10.2in 7.9in 10.5in 10.1in
Resolution 2,160x1,620 2,048x1,536 2,560x1,600 1,280x800
Screen type IPS IPS AMOLED IPS
Dimensions 251x174x7.5mm 203x135x6.1mm 245x160x5.7mm 250x171x9mm
Weight 484g 300g 420g 490g
Front camera 1.2 megapixels 7 megapixels 8 megapixels 2 megapixels
Rear camera(s) 8 megapixels 8 megapixels 15 megapixels, 3 megapixels 8 megapixels
Flash Yes Yes No Yes
GPS Yes (cellular models only) Yes (cellular models only) Yes No
Storage 32GB 64GB 128GB 32GB
USB port Lightning Lightning USB Type-C Micro USB
Headphone jack Yes Yes No Yes
Memory card No No MicroSD MicroSD
slot
Wi-Fi 802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11ac 802.11n
Bluetooth 4.2 5.0 5.0 4.0
NFC No No No No
Wireless data Yes (cellular models only) Yes (cellular models only) No No
Battery size 8,827mAh 5,124mAh 7,040mAh 4,500mAh
SOFTWARE
Operating iPadOS iPadOS Android 9.0 Android 9.0
system
Prices correct at time of going to press

BUYING INFORMATION
Warranty One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB Three years RTB
Price £349 £399 £629 £90
Supplier www.apple.com/uk www.apple.com/uk www.johnlewis.com www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.apple.com/uk www.apple.com/uk www.samsung.com www.ivankyo.com
Part code iPad (2019) iPad Mini (2019) SM-T860NZAABTU MatrixPad Z4

VERDICT
Apple isn’t just on top of the tablets market through sheer
numbers. Both the 10.2in iPad and the iPad Mini are sleek,
powerful slates with great displays; everything you could want
from the format. iPadOS points towards more of a 2-in-1 future,
but neither is like the iPad Pro in that they’re only half a device
without the keyboard attachment. Both are very fine all by
themselves, although with its lower price and larger screen, we
have a preference for the ‘standard’ iPad.
Special mention also goes to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6.
Again, its software upgrades on previous generations are geared
towards making it more of a computing device, but it’s beautifully
designed, lasts an age between charges and packs a gorgeous

98 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 TABLETS AND E-READERS

E-READERS
BEST BUY RECOMMENDED
Manufacturer AMAZON AMAZON AMAZON KOBO
Model Kindle (2019) Kindle Kids Edition Kindle Oasis (2019) Clara HD
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★
HARDWARE
Processor Single-core 1GHz Freescale Single-core 1GHz Freescale Dual-core 1GHz Freescale Not stated
i.MX6SL i.MX6SL i.MX7D
RAM Not stated Not stated Not stated Not stated
Screen size 6in 6in 7in 6in
Resolution 167ppi 167ppi 300ppi 300ppi
Screen type E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink
Dimensions 160x113x8.7mm 162x119x14mm 159x141x8.4mm 160x110x8.4mm
Weight 174g 288g 188g 166g
Storage 4GB 4GB 8GB 8GB
USB port micro-USB micro-USB micro-USB micro-USB
Headphone jack No No No No
Memory card slot No No No No
Wi-Fi 802.11n 802.11n 802.11n 802.11n
Bluetooth 4.2 4.2 4.2 No
Reading light Yes Yes Yes Yes
Low blue light No No Yes Yes
mode
Water resistance None None IPX8 None
Wireless data No No Yes (4G model only) No
Battery size Not stated Not stated 1,130mAh 1,500mAh
SOFTWARE
Operating system Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary Proprietary
Audiobook support Yes Yes Yes No
Ebook library Kindle Store Kindle Store Kindle Store Kobo Store
BUYING INFORMATION
Warranty One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB One year RTB
Price £70 £100 £230 £110
Supplier www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.johnlewis.com
Details www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk uk.kobobooks.com
Part code Kindle (2019) Kindle Kids Edition Kindle Oasis (2019) N249-KU-BK-K-EP

AMOLED screen. Granted, there’s not much competition in the
Android space – definitely not from the Vankyo MatrixPad Z4 –
but the Galaxy Tab S6 is undoubtedly top of the pile.
On to e-readers, where Amazon’s Kindle Oasis takes the Best
Buy prize with its superior build quality – including robust
waterproofing – and wealth of features.
Many of these features are shared with the basic Kindle, part
of the reason that it’s also a great choice. You’re not getting a
blue-light filter, which might be an issue if you like to read at
night, but its newly added reading light is what even makes
that possible in the first place, and for £70 (£80 for the ad-free
version), it’s a great deal in any case.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 99

 REVIEWS

How we test
Find out how well products perform with the help of
Computer Shopper’s comprehensive tests

COMPUTER SHOPPER’S REVIEWS use The actual scores in each test are
some of the most exhaustive testing shown inside each bar
procedures you’ll find in any PC
magazine. Every product is subjected to
qualitative and quantitative tests that Normal speed 11ppm Bigger is better for
show how it performs in practical use. all bars except the
Graphs for performance, battery-life Mono costs 2.2p red ones, which
scores and costs are used in the Reviews show running costs
section, as shown on the right. Look in Colour costs 6.7p A product hitting
the ‘Summary of tests’ table (below) for the +100 per cent
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
details of each test we run. mark performed
For PCs and laptops, we evaluate twice as well as our
performance using our own custom reference
benchmarking suite. See opposite for This line represents the performance of a reference product in
a description of our benchmarking each test. All graphs for components and systems are relative
software and game tests. to our reference PC (see opposite for specifications)

SUMMARY OF TESTS
PC SYSTEMS & GAMING LAPTOPS
Windows overall Average speed across
numerous demanding tasks
Multitasking Speed when running
simultaneous applications
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at
(1080p) 1,920x1,080, 4xAA,
Ultra detail
Metro: Last Light Frames per second at
Redux (1080p) 1,920x1,080, SSAA,
Very High detail
LAPTOPS
Windows overall Average speed across
numerous demanding tasks
Multitasking Processor-intensive
multitasking test
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at
(720p) 1,280x720, 4xAA,
High detail
Battery life Run time in minutes for
continuous video playback
SMARTPHONES/TABLETS
Battery life Run time in minutes for
continuous video playback
PRINTERS AND MFPs
Mono text speed Pages per minute for
correspondence-quality text
Mixed colour speed Pages per minute for
presentable text and graphics
Mono page cost Running costs expressed as
pence per page
Colour page cost Running costs expressed as
pence per page
DIGITAL CAMERAS
Battery life Number of shots from
full charge
CAMCORDERS
Battery life Run time in minutes
for recording
ROUTERS
Laptop 2.4GHz Mbit/s at 5m with 802.11ac
5m laptop on 2.4GHz band
Laptop 2.4GHz Mbit/s 1 floor up with
1 floor 802.11ac laptop on
2.4GHz band
Laptop 2.4GHz Mbit/s 2 floors up with
2 floors 802.11ac laptop on
2.4GHz band
Laptop 5GHz Mbit/s at 5m with 802.11ac
5m laptop on 5GHz band
Laptop 5GHz Mbit/s 1 floor up with
1 floor 802.11ac laptop on 5GHz band
Laptop 5GHz Mbit/s 2 floors up with
2 floors 802.11ac laptop on
5GHz band
NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE
Large files Average MB/s for read/write
of 100MB large files
Small files Average MB/s for read/write
of 100MB small files
HARD DISKS
Huge files Average MB/s for read/write
of a single 2.5GB file
Large files Average MB/s for read/write
of 2.5GB of large files
Small files Average MB/s for read/write
of 2.5GB of small files
PROCESSORS
Windows overall Average speed across
numerous demanding tasks
Multitasking Speed when running
simultaneous applications
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at
(720p) 1,280x720, 4xAA,
High detail
MOTHERBOARDS
Windows overall Average speed across
numerous demanding tasks
Multitasking Speed when running
simultaneous applications
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at
(1080p) 1,920x1,080, 4xAA,
Ultra detail
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at
(720p) 1,280x720, 4xAA,
High detail
GRAPHICS CARDS
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at
(1080p) 1,920x1,080, 4x MSAA,
Ultra detail
Tomb Raider Frames per second at
1,920x1,080, SSAA,
Ultra detail
Metro: Last Light Frames per second at
Redux 1,920x1,080, SSAA,
Very High detail

100 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 REVIEWS

BENCHMARKS RATINGS & AWARDS

Computer Shopper rates
products out of five:

★★★★★
Excellent

★★★★★
Very good

★★★★★
Good

★★★★★
Below average

SHOPPER BENCHMARKS ★★★★★

Our benchmark suite uses open-source software that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux Avoid!
systems. This lets us use objective results to compare PCs and laptops, no matter which
operating system they run. It’s designed to test each computer to its limit, using a
combination of intensive image-editing, video-encoding and multitasking tests. The best products can win
We ran the tests on our reference PC, which has an Intel Core i5-4670K processor, the following awards:
8GB of DDR3 RAM and an AMD Radeon R7 260X graphics card. We normalised our
results so this PC had a score of 100. This makes it easy to draw comparisons between
test systems.
BEST BUY
Products with outstanding quality
The resulting overall score is shown at the bottom of every PC and laptop review. and performance for the money
As we use the same tests in our standalone and group test reviews, you can compare
win our Best Buy award.
the performance of any computer, whether it’s a hybrid, laptop or desktop, from both
sections of the magazine.

3D BENCHMARKS
DIRT SHOWDOWN
Dirt Showdown is a cracking racing
game that makes good use of
DirectX 11’s fancy graphical effects.
RECOMMENDED
Products that don’t quite qualify
You’ll want at least 30fps for
for a Best Buy award but are still
smooth racing.
highly rated by our reviewers.

TOMB RAIDER
With the ultra-demanding
Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing
(SSAA) enabled, 2013’s Tomb Raider
reboot is a great indicator of
mid-range performance.

BUSINESS BUY
The very best products for work
win our Business Buy award.
METRO: LAST
LIGHT REDUX
Our most demanding graphics test
uses tessellation, SSAA and massive
textures to give even high-end cards
a thorough workout.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 101

 PRODUCT INDEX

Product Reviews
Your guide to all the products reviewed

129
in this month’s Computer Shopper

re
Hot Product
Samsung Galaxy S20 18
Printers
Epson Expression Home views
XP-3100 32
Laptops
Gigabyte Aorus 15G 22 Audio
Huawei MateBook X Pro Creative T100 33 Wearables
(2020) 24 Sennheiser Momentum Suunto 7 44
True Wireless 2 34
Components Software
PowerColor Red Dragon Handhelds
Avast SecureLine 46
Radeon RX 5600 XT 26 Samsung Galaxy S20+ 36
Motorola Moto G8 Power 38
TVs
Networks Oppo A5 39
Hisense H55U8BUK 78
Linksys Velop MX5300 Home
Photography Hisense R50B7120UK 79
Mesh WiFi 6 System 27
Nikon D780 40 LG 49UM7400 80
Displays LG OLED65C9 81
Dell UltraSharp UP2720Q 30 Gaming Philips 65OLED803 82
BenQ GL2780 31 Oculus Rift S 42 Samsung QE55Q70R 83
Samsung
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE UE50RU7470UXXU 84
Sony KD-65XG9505 85

Tablets and E-readers

Apple iPad 10.2in 90
Apple iPad Mini (2019) 91
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 92
Vankyo MatrixPad Z4 93
Amazon Kindle (2019) 94
Amazon Kindle Kids
Edition 95
Amazon Kindle Oasis
(2019) 96
CALL 0330 333 9493 OR SEE PAGE 118
Koba Clara HD 97

102 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 From Apple to Zeiss, and
everything in between

Try these magazines from just £1:

magazinedeals.co.uk/technology
Whether you’re an IT professional or a first time buyer, Dennis technology has a
magazine for you, all of which are written and produced by expert editorial teams.
We cover the whole spectrum of technology news, reviews and features.
THE
BEGINNER’S
GUIDE TO
PCMODDING
P
FROM BOOSTING PERFORMANCE C modding has something of a reputation for primarily
being a pursuit of the most enthusiastic, moneyed and

WITH HARDWARE UPGRADES

technically expert of computer owners. Frankly, this
reputation is not entirely undeserved: modding
showcases, both online and at PC-focused events like
TO ADDING THAT PERSONAL Computex in Taipei, are usually filled with complicated
open-loop liquid-cooling structures and ambitious case mods
DESIGN TOUCH, HERE ARE that turn the chassis into elaborate sculptures, like pirate ship
models or even a functional table football game.

SEVEN EASY PC MODS YOU It’s all very impressive from a craft perspective, though it
would be a huge shame if inexperienced PC owners were put

CAN TRY AT HOME AND WITH off modding by the most complex creations of its masters.
Just like the ability to pick and choose individual components

NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED yourself (see Shopper 388), being able to customise and refine
a system – even long after you’ve finished building it – is one of
the PC’s greatest strengths as a platform.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through seven PC modding
projects that anyone can try. They’re all easy, relatively quick,
and don’t need any specialist skills or tools (beyond a few
basics – see ‘Key kit’, opposite). They might even get your PC
running cooler and quieter, or add whole new capabilities it
didn’t have before.

104
KEY KIT The exact tools you’ll need will vary on which modding project you want to try,
but when tinkering with PCs it’s always handy to keep these close

CROSSHEAD SCREWDRIVER
An essential tool for anything involving
interior components. A standard, medium-
sized crosshead screwdriver will do the job
for almost all screw sizes commonly
found within a desktop, from the
thumbscrews holding the side
panels in place to smaller screws
used for mounting components to
the chassis. Magnetic-tipped
screwdrivers are fine – the magnetic
field won’t be strong enough to cause
damage – but don’t use electric screwdrivers
with delicate components.
ANTI STATIC WRISTBAND
Static electricity can damage PC parts, so
you should always wear loose-fitting
clothing when modding and
ground yourself on a metal
object such as a metal pipe
before starting. Ideally,
you should also wear an
anti-static wristband,
which will prevent further
build-up of static as you’re
working. You can buy straps that plug the
grounding wire into a mains socket, but if
your workspace isn’t close enough to the
mains, get one with a crocodile clip and
attach it to a grounding object.
THERMAL PASTE
You’ll only need this if you’re replacing the
CPU cooler, but even if the new cooler has
paste pre-applied, it’s a good idea to have
some spare just in case. When
applying thermal paste, completely
clean both the CPU and the
cooler’s contact plate, then
apply a small blob in the middle
of the CPU and press down the
cooler to spread it evenly.

105
 CPU WATERCOOLING
WHAT?
Watercoolers, or liquid coolers, are a more efficient alternative to
the basic open-air coolers that are commonly bundled with CPUs.
Instead of routing heat from the chip to the radiator with short
metal pipes, pumped liquid cycles the heat away to a potentially
much larger radiator, more effectively dispersing it.
Open-loop watercooling systems are highly customisable but
require great care and skill to set up. We instead recommend
all-in-one (AIO) watercoolers, where the pump, liquid and radiator
are already connected.

WHY?
Since watercoolers are usually better than air coolers at keeping
CPU temperatures down, they can enable greater performance.
M
More ffi i nt cooling means the processor
efficie
can run closeer to its highest clock speeds
without overrheating, and if you want to ⬆ All-in-one watercoolers can boost your PC’s performance and make it
overclock yoour PC, a good watercooler quieter to run, and are easy to fit
should help you reach higher speeds.
Often, wa atercoolers can also make your HOW?
PC quieter. A
AIO models like the NZXT Kraken First, remove the PC’s motherboard – it’s easier to perform as many
X53 and Coo oler Master MasterLiquid ML240L installation steps outside of the case as possible – and take off the
RGB V2 have e 240mm-long radiators cooled existing air cooler. Clean the CPU and reapply thermal paste if your
by dual fans,, so not only is the heat spread new cooler doesn’t have any pre-applied.
over a greateer surface area than a small air Attach the fans to the watercooler’s radiator, then use the
cooler, but a
additional fans means they don’t included mounting brackets to affix the pump to the CPU. Different
needd to run as fast – and, therefore, manufacturers use different mounts, so just follow any written
as loud – as a single fan would. instructions, and make sure any power cables are plugged into
the appropriate motherboard pin headers. Then, reinstall the
⬅ Cooler Master’s MasterLiquid motherboard with the pump attached, and install the radiator
ML240L RGB V2 is a great choice (with fans attached) on to your case’s empty fan mounts.

WHAT?
Upgrading the cooling for specific components is worthwhile, but one
of the cheapest and quickest – yet still very practical – PC mods is to
improve cooling for the entire system at once. This can be achieved
with case fans, which
you’ve probably
already seen in your
PC, as cases tend to
come with at least
one fan pre-installed.

WHY?
Even as the CPU and
GPU cooler (if you
have a dedicated
graphics card) cool
down their respective

CASE FANS
➡ Case fans suck in cold
air from the front and blow
hot air out of the chassis

106 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 LIGHTING KITS
WHAT?
PC lighting kits combine stick-on strips of LEDs
and a controller unit that, unless it’s a single-
colour kit, lets you change the lighting colours and
effects. Some, such as Deepcool’s budget-friendly
RGB350 kit, include a remote control for instantly
flicking through different hues, while more
advanced kits such as the Corsair Lighting Node
Pro use addressable RGB lighting that can be
fine-tuned through desktop software.

WHY?
Not every PC mod needs to have a vital
performance or stability benefit. Internal
lighting, especially RGB lighting, is one of the
most eye-catching tools for customising the
look of your system, and can produce a
desktop that both looks great and is even
more distinctive than it was before.
You can, of course, get a similar effect ⬆ Simply connect the control box to a USB header and stick the lights to the inside of the chassis
from other light-up components like fans,
and even parts such as motherboards and graphics are commonly to one of your motherboard’s USB2 headers. These are commonly
dressed up with integrated lighting. A dedicated lighting kit, found at the bottom of the motherboard.
however, gives you more control, as you can choose where exactly Next, connect the first LED strip to the controller, peel off the
inside your case the LED strips will sit. adhesive backing paper and stick it to the inside of the chassis; if the
strip has magnets, you can use these to place the strip and see how
HOW? it looks before you use the adhesive to position it permanently.
Installation will vary by kit, so always be sure to consult the Repeat for any additional strips and, provided all the cables are
instructions, but the Lighting Node Pro is fairly typical of the connected properly, the LEDs should turn on automatically the next
general process. With this kit, you’ll first need to connect the time you boot up. Download and install any companion software,
controller (a small box – hide this inside the case when finished) such as Corsair Link, to customise colours and effects.

components, they’re not completely getting rid of the heat ➡ Some fans add
they produce, often just redirecting it into the PC’s main flair to your PC
internal chamber. with RGB lighting
To prevent this build-up of heat from causing system
throttling, instability and even permanent damage, you need case
fans to suck in cold air from the front, drag it across the hot
components and blow the resulting hot air out of the chassis.
Adding more fans will therefore help maintain the health of your PC.

HOW?
Installing case fans is incredibly simple: just find an empty fan slot on
your chassis, and use the screws included with the fan to securely
attach it. From there it’s only a matter of connecting the fan to the
motherboard, either directly to a 4-pin fan header or to a control box;
these can act as a hub for multiple fans, sometimes up to eight at
once. Just make sure the fan is oriented correctly: if adding fans at
the front of the case, they need to draw air in, and if they’re at the
back or in the roof, they should blow air outwards.
The Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 is a good, simple 120mm fan, though
you can also add some flair at the same time with an RGB-lit fan such
as the Cooler Master MasterFan MF120 Halo ARGB.

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 107

 GPU BRACKETS
WHAT?
NOISE DAMPING
WHAT?
GPU brackets come in one of While sharing the cooling load between multiple fans can reduce
two forms: vertical and noise, the addition of sound-absorbing g foam ppanels can make
anti-sag. Vertical brackets your system even quieterr. It has to be
are more of a purely the right sort of high-density acoustic
aesthetic modification: they foam – any old fluff won’tt do – but
re-orient your graphics card so o applied correctly it workss
it sits on its side, fans facing on two fronts, blocking
outward, instead of its conven ntional the sound of internal
flat position. Anti-sag bracketss keep fans from leaking outside e
the horizontal angle, focusing the chassis while also abssorbing
more on supporting particularly ⬆ Vertical brackets re-oriennt your vibrations that can createea
heavy graphics cards and graphics card so it sits on it
ts side buzzing or rattling effect on ⬆ Sound-absorbing foam panels
preventing them from straining lower-quality cases. can make your system quieter
the motherboard over time. They can still be added as a stylistic
touch, however. WHY?
The benefits of a quieter PC should be self-explanatory, but noise
WHY? damping might be particularly suitable for home-office PCs and
Anti-sag brackets might be useful if you have a large, heavy GPU. workstations, when you’ll need to stay focused without being
It’s not an immediate concern, but if left in a non-reinforced PCI-E distracted by fan noise.
slot, you might eventually notice the card drooping slightly, a sign
that it’s putting strain on the motherboard. HOW?
A vertical bracket can make for an interesting design twist, It’s possible to buy adhesive acoustic foam and cut it to fit
although there are some hardware requirements to consider first. yourself, but before you do, consider searching Overclockers UK’s
You’ll need a case that actually supports vertical mounting catalogue of pre-cut kits (tinyurl.com/389modding). These include
brackets, with a cutout hole in the rear and screw holes on the multiple slabs of foam measured to fit dozens of cases from the
PSU shroud. The left side panel should also be all-glass or have a likes of NZXT, Corsair, Cooler Master, Antec and Lian Yi, so it’s
window, or else you won’t be able to see your handiwork. worth checking just to make things really easy for yourself.
If a pre-cut kit for your chosen case isn’t available, just be
HOW? careful to correctly measure and record the spots in your case
Assuming your case is compatible, installing a vertical bracket is that could hold a piece of foam without impeding airflow or
simply a matter of attaching the GPU riser cable to the bracket, coming into contact with important, heat-producing components.
screwing the bracket on to its dedicated mounting point in the The base, front panel and both side panels should be your first
chassis and plugging the riser into the motherboard’s main PCI-E ports of call.
x16 slot. This cable is what allows the GPU to still communicate Once the foam is cut, simply peel off the paper on the back
with the motherboard, even though the new orientation prevents and use the adhesive to stick it on the chassis. Double check it’s
it being socketed directly. not pressed against any components, and if not, you’re set.
Fitting an anti-sag bracket is even easier. You’ll probably have
to adjust the height of the contact pads to ensure the GPU is
level, as all graphics cards are of different thickness, but once
that’s done, simply fasten it to the case’s rear PCI slots as you
would the GPU itself.

⬆ Installing a GPU bracket is one of the easiest mods you can make ⬆ Overclockers UK offers a selection of pre-cut kits for different cases

108 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 OPTICALDRIVESANDCARDREADERS
WHAT?
Optical drives were once an essential component of any PC
and laptop, until digital downloads and streaming made physical
media – CDs, DVDs and the like – increasingly less appealing.
Nowadays, you’ve got a better chance of having a built-in disc
drive if you install it yourself. The same goes for multi-card
readers, which add SD, CFI and Sony Memory Card connectivity;
these were never as common, but can still make for a
useful PC upgrade.
WHY?
As PC cases only very rarely have integraated SD or
microSD slots, adding a card reader offers both
functionality and convenience. Avid
photographers, for instance, won’t
have to fish a cable adaptor out of the
drawer to get their pictures on to their
PC: they can simply take out the SD
card and slide it into the reader.
➡ A card reader is a real boon for photographers
VINYL DECALS
WHAT?
The possibilities for decorating the exterior of
your case – as opposed to adding lighting and
mounting brackets to the interior – are vast,
but not everyone is an expert artist, and
plastering on cheap paper stickers will look a
bit rubbish. Vinyl decals are a more grown-up
option, balancing infinite customisation
potential with a smart finish that doesn’t look
out of place on a metal desktop.
WHY?
Decals are perfect for personalisation and for
making your PC look and feel even more
one-of-a-kind. There are numerous online
suppliers that will print whatever designs
you want, whether it’s the emblem of your ⬆ Vinyl decals can give the outside of your
favourite sports team, component maker system a real personal touch
logos or just your initials. You can even
get large ‘wrap’ designs that cover the entire case, though these are
more difficult to apply.
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
Even CD and DVD-RW drives can have their uses, such as for
digitising a CD-based music collection. You could even add a Blu-ray
drive and turn your desktop into a modern home entertainment PC.
HOW?
The big catch here is that to add these devices, your case will need
to have at least one empty 5.25in drive bay at the front, and this is
a fairly rare feature in 2020. At least, it is on the mid-tower cases
we usually
ll recommend; d a lot of budget cases and larger full
tower-stylee models still have such bays, so
k
keep that in mind if you’re either
building from scratch or willing to
change the entire chassis.
Otherwise, installation is nice and
straightforward. Slide the optical drive
o card reader into the slot from the
or
nt, and secure it with either the case’s
fron
ws or toolless clamps. Then, connect
screw
it to onee of the PSU’s L-shaped power
connectorss, as well as to the motherboard with
a standard SA ATA cable.
HOW?
If you’re buying pre-made decals, first clean
the area you’re going to be sticking them
to, then carefully peel the application tape
from the backing paper, discarding the latter.
Start applying by sticking one edge of the tape
on to the case, then, slowly and gradually, lay
the rest down. There shouldn’t be any air
bubbles left underneath, so rub the back of
the tape with a piece of card as you lay it
down. Press down on the decal itself to
make sure it sticks, then peel back the tape,
leaving the decal on the case.
But what if you want to create your own
decals at home? This is tricky, but doable:
first, print out the design on standard paper,
then carefully cut out empty spaces to create
a stencil. Use this to draw the design on to
some adhesive vinyl, then cut out your
finished decal. Remove the backing tape and stick it directly on to
the case, again doing so gradually to avoid air bubbles.
109
 The cyberpunk styling will
continue, but players will be
able to respond to and subvert
the world by their actions

Going a step beyond

for point-and-clicks
Revolution Software co-founder Charles Cecil talks to David Crookes
about reviving the magic of traditional adventure games with a long-
awaited sequel to the classic Beneath a Steel Sky

V
ery few gaming genres have been as
troubled as the point-and-click
adventure. There was a time, going
back to the 1980s and 1990s, when such
games would blast their way to the top of the
charts, but then they were gunned down by
first-person shooters, which replaced them as
the main attraction for players on PC.
Since then, critics would often read the
genre its last rites, only to see it bouncing
back. Developers would invariably spot an
opportunity to revive point-and-clicks on a
new piece of hardware such as the Nintendo
DS or the iPad, or they’d strike with some
success on the back of a fresh approach to
an old formula and win a new set of fans.
REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD
Charles Cecil is in such a position today,
working on a way to revive the 26-year-old
classic Beneath a Steel Sky. As the co-founder
of Revolution Studios, he has been here
before: in 2009, he released a remastered
version of this much-loved dystopian jaunt
on the iPhone to take advantage of the
touchscreen interface. But this time, he’s
reimagining how such an adventure can
remain relevant in a long-awaited sequel.
If anyone can pull it off, then he can.
Cecil has spearheaded the creation of some
of gaming’s best-loved point-and-click
adventures, among them the conspiratorial
Broken Sword series, the first of which
involved the Knights Templar in 1996, well
before Dan Brown put pen to paper for
The Da Vinci Code.

110 JULY 202

20 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUUE 3889

⬆ Characters had bags of personality in the original
game and they were inspired by the workers Cecil
saw when he was a management trainee for Ford
With Beneath a Steel Sky, he told of an
orphaned character called Robert Foster, who
was adopted by an indigenous tribe only to
find himself being seized at gunpoint and
flown to Union City, a dark metropolis
controlled by a mysterious computer
network called LINC. Players watched as
Foster escaped, and were tasked with
helping him figure what was going on.
In true point-and-click adventure tradition,
this meant moving a cursor around the
screen before selecting and examining items,
and working out how they could be used to
solve a huge number of puzzles.
Since Cecil has decided to move away
from the 2D stylings of the original with a
game made entirely in 3D, that kind of
interface is being made redundant. The new
game simply cannot stick to the tried and
tested method of point-and-click adventuring
if Revolution Software is to recoup the not
inconsiderable sums that have been shelled
out on the latest game so far.
“If you look at recent games such as
Dreamfall Chapters [a sequel to the point-
and-click game The Longest Journey] and Life
Is Strange [which many players compared to
a point-and-click adventure], then you see
these are these very successful adventure
games in 3D,” Cecil explains.
“Since they’re in 3D, they offer great
cinematography opportunities, and it just
felt to me that we could create a sequel that
fans could be very excited about. Those who
we talked to were enthusiastic about the
SUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER
ISS | JULY 2020
⬆ Charles Cecil has been making adventure games
for 40 years, including Lure of the Temptress,
Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword and In Cold Blood
dynamic world that could be achieved within
a 3D environment and they were very happy
about us moving in that direction.”
AN EVOLUTION
It wasn’t all that long ago when Revolution
Software was quite happy sticking with a 2D
environment. In 2013, it released Broken
Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse, having raised
more than $771,000 on Kickstarter, and the
game was the first entry in the series for
seven years. It came on the back of two
forays into 3D with the third and fourth
Broken Swords, both of which split fans of
the first 2D games (the latter being
particularly panned by critics).
But Cecil reckons there were lessons to be
learned from his previous attempts to move
RETRO
his adventures to 3D and, more importantly,
he says he’s fully taken them on board.
“I do think that adventures need to evolve
a little bit, and I think Life is Strange was one
of those games that did evolve it,” he says.
o
“Adventures, as a genre, are in a dynamic
place right now, and they’ve kind of moved
beyond point-and-click. That’s not to say
point-and-click is not at the heart of
adventures, but we have the opportunity with
a
Beyond a Steel Sky to maybe just take some
ideas and be innovative. If there is one thing
I’ve learned from writing adventures for 40
years, it’s that people love innovation.”
y
Certainly, the point-and-click genre has
ttwisted and turned its way through history,
taking
t its initial cues from text adventures by
eventually ridding gamers of the need to type
commands such as ‘get Computer Shopper’,
‘go to the Retro section’ and ‘read avidly’
while generally sticking to similar principles.
At first, they’d make use of graphics to
bring their environments alive, actually
showing players what they could grab and
use. King’s Quest on the PC, for example, still
used a text parser, but it became the first
adventure title to incorporate graphical
animation. It was a popular evolution that
spawned a long-running series. It also led to
the company releasing the best-selling
adventures Space Quest, Police Quest and
Leisure Suit Larry.
LucasArts arguably made point-and-click
adventures mainstream, however. It was the
publisher’s 1987 release of the spoof horror
Maniac Mansion, which introduced the
scripting language SCUMM (Script Creation
Utility for Maniac Mansion). This was a game
111
 RETRO
engine that powered the likes of Full Throttle,
Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the
Road, and it allowed players to choose from a
list of commands and items.
But it was The Secret of Monkey Island in
1990 that really hit the spot. Featuring Guybrush
Threepwood, it pushed humour to the fore,
with a whole host of knowing nods alongside
a beautifully implemented bout of insult
swordfighting that had the protagonists
seeking to roast each other with witty retorts.
“Monkey Island had some really fun
puzzles that didn’t make much sense, but
there was slapstick and that was part of the
charm,” says Cecil.
⬆ Leisure Suit Larry was a big hit for Revolution Software
112
⬆ Just like a traditional point-and-click adventure,
Beyond a Steel Sky will have many puzzles to solve
In the second game of this series,
Guybrush could use the piano-playing
monkey, Jojo, as a wrench on a valve to
open up a passageway.
“Puzzles like that were really great, but
generally we’ve always worked hard to make
sure that our puzzles make sense,” he adds.
HAVING A LAUGH
Like LucasArts, Cecil has long believed
humour to be important. Beneath a Steel Sky
had a factory supervisor called Gilbert Lamb
⬆ Sam & Max Hit the Road allowed players to choose from a list of commands
with a strong Yorkshire accent wearing a coat
“made from the last 10 beavers in the world”,
who describes one of his pipes in a very
risqué way. There was a crazy plastic surgeon,
Dr Burke, who asked for Foster’s testicles in
exchange for installing a port in his head (“I’ll
have to sell you my balls,” says Foster).
But could double entendres, one-liners
and crazy situations work as well today?
Cecil says the dialogue of the original is
cruder than would be expected today, but
humour will remain part and parcel of the
new package, as will the need to chat.
“Communicating with characters is still
how we’re conveying the new story,” Cecil
JULY 202
20 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUUE 3889

says, explaining that the new story starts 10
years after the previous events and shows
Union City as a seemingly utopian society. As
in the original, gamers will be treated to a
thought-provoking slice of entertainment.
“It’ll turn out that as you look around,
there’s a uniformity to what you see. We’re
exploring the idea of what a perfect society
would be if it was designed by artificial
intelligence,” he adds.
Indeed, as we talk to Cecil, it becomes
clear that characterisation and personality
will be crucial in making sense of Union City’s
society. Unlike traditional point-and-clicks,
they will also be more responsive.
⬆ Day of the Tentacle used the same game engine as Sam & Max Hit the Road
SUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER
ISS | JULY 2020
⬆ Off-beat, risqué British humour was a hallmark of
Beneath a Steel Sky
Rather than see them standing around
waiting for an interaction, it will be possible
to walk up to a non-player character and gain
an acknowledgement. Any conversations or
activities being carried out by these
characters will be quickly wrapped up as they
become ready to hear what Foster has to say.
It certainly makes for a complicated script.
“Interactive writing is quite different to
linear writing, which is one of the reasons
why so few linear writers pen games that
are successful, and indeed why so few
⬆ The Secret of Monkey Island, featuring Guybrush Threepwood
RETRO
video game writers produce scripts that are
successful,” he explains.
“But some of the core rules are very
similar, and the one that always strikes is that
as long as you know your world, you don’t
have to explain everything.”
THAT DOES WORK
In pushing ahead with a reimagined way of
approaching a point-and-click classic, the
Beneath a Steel Sky sequel is an exercise in
guarded experimentation to some degree.
For starters, it’s not going to be chopped into
episodes released at regular intervals as with
titles produced by the likes of Telltale Games,
113
 RETRO

⬆ Robert Foster’s buddy pairing with his robot pal
Joey forms one of gaming’s most iconic duos
the now-defunct company created by former
LucasArts employees in 2004.
But Revolution can look to the past. Telltale,
which was behind the classic Walking Dead
graphic adventures, resurrected an old point-
and-click when it released Tales of Monkey
Island between July and December 2009. In
doing so, it retained the need to combine
items to create other items but had players
holding and dragging the mouse to move
Guybrush as opposed to pointing and clicking.
Beyond a Steel Sky won’t be driven by the
inventory, however.
“We are adding extra elements that allow
us to have inventory items performing fairly
⬆ Characters will respond intelligently to players,
and puzzles can be solved in multiple ways
logical solutions. Then we complicate the
puzzle with extra dimensions,” Cecil tells us.
The original game included something
called the Virtual Theatre, which was hot on
artificial intelligence and was first used in
Lure of the Temptress. It would allow

comprehensive timeline of key in the loop. Keep an eye on the

moments from 1960 to the
present day, complete with
TO BE THIS GOOD explanatory text and loads of
TAKES AGES nostalgic ima
images.
The giant video gam me Visitors are also
V INTO ACTION
company Sega beinng encouraged to
emerged 60 years ag go, sharre their thoughts by
and the firm is mark king sennding messages
the occasion with a ab
bout Sega, which will
new website that bee shown to all from
delves into its historry. June. TThe publisher is also
Press ‘start’ to enterr promising to roll out some
(tinyurl.com/389retro o1) online gooodies as the weeks
and you can take and months go by, so it’s worth
a look at a bookmarking the site to stay
Events section as well.
AMSTRAD CPC
MAGAZINE BLASTS
While fans of the Spectrum
and Commodore 64 could be
excused for feeling overwhelmed
by the number of books and
magazines supporting their
favourite machines, those who
love the Amstrad CPC can find
themselves sitting enviously
on the sidelines.
Now, however, Amstrad CPC
fans can finally get in on the There’s also an interview with
action with a special one-off Dizzy creators Philip and Andrew
magazine called Fusion CPC Oliver, who give a fascinating
that’s available in both printed insight into the development of
and PDF form. It has been their 8-bit games.
produced by the prolific small To find out more, visit tinyurl.
publishing house Fusion Retro com/389retro2.
Books, the company behind
the annuals based on the GO BACK IN TIME
once-popular gaming magazines WITH A NEW WATCH
Crash and Zzap!64. The world’s first digital watch,
Running to 52 A5 pages, it’s the Pulsar Time Computer, was
packed with gaming and announced in 1970 by the
hardware features, as well as Hamilton Watch Company. To
reviews of newer games celebrate the 50th anniversary,
developed for the system. the company is bringing the

114 JULY 202

20 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUUE 3889
 RETRO

characters to wander independently and get
on with their owns tasks, rather than stand in
a single spot ready to be discovered. It lent
extra realism and was seen to great effect in
Beneath a Steel Sky with Gilbert Lamb. This
also allowed for an interesting puzzle.
“The player could hack an elevator using
the in-game computer network LINC and
remove Lamb’s access,” Cecil says.
⬆ As well as solving puzzles, a lot of fun was to be
had by engaging in chat with non-player characters
“His intentions were still to travel down,
but because you hacked his access he could
no longer do this. It changed how he behaved.”
By deploying the Virtual Theatre in
Beyond a Steel Sky, it will be possible to
subvert the game’s AI system on a grander
scale. The developer has also worked out a
way to stop non-player characters from
wandering too far, forcing players to go
looking for them in order to progress, a
problem that emerged in Lure of the
Temptress (the solution: to confine them
to set arenas).
“We’re using the logic of the player sitting
down and saying, ‘well, I know I’ve got this

tapes they were committed to, There’s also a good selection

then you can visit the VHS Vault
on the Internet Archive in the
hope of unearthing those
once-forgotten gems.
There are now more than
21,400 trailers, shows and
other captures, ranging from
a full movie showing of
Les Misérables from 1935 to
a look at ghost stories told
in and around Birmingham
(tinyurl.com/389retro3).
of shows made by the BBC,
with content filterable by topic
and year.
If you enjoy what you see, you
should also check out the rather
splendid TV Ark (www.tvark.org),
a recently relaunched online
museum dedicated to preserving
British TV idents, public
information films and old
television. Its thousands of clips
will keep you glued for hours.

stainless steel design back, yellow gold PVD coating

although it will cost you more
than £600 if you fancy having
it adorning your wrist.
The original sported an LED
display, which would light up
when the side button was
pressed, but the new version
incorporates a hybrid LED and
OLED panel, as well as sapphire
crystal glass with an anti-
reflective coating.
It’s also water resistant to
100 metres and it still looks
pretty amazing, particularly in
(although there are only 1,970 of
those available). Roger Moore
wore one as James Bond in
Live And Let Die. If only it could
actually rewind time…
WATCH OLD VHS
GOODIES
Hundreds of VHS and cassette
tapes from the 1990s and early
2000s have been added to an
already vast online archive so,
if your memory of old TV
shows feel as fuzzy as the

SUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER

ISS | JULY 2020 115

item, I know this character behaves in this
way, so if I do this then I change the
behaviour of that character’,” Cecil says.
“We’re not looking to frustrate them.”
He gives an example of a hackable,
internet-connected drinks machine in the
new game.
“It’s possible to swap the logic around so,
by default, the machine would figure if
someone had permission to get a drink and
dispense if so or refuse if not. If you tilt the
machine, it could set off an alarm.
“By altering the logic, the player can have
the machine set off the alarm instead of
dispensing a drink, drawing over a security
droid who might be guarding something else.
The person who expected his drink is
surprised because what they expected to
happen hasn’t happened. The world is
temporarily disrupted.”
CREATING A WORLD
The world is also looking better than ever.
Beneath a Steel Sky was a stylish game
thanks to the work of English comics artist
Dave Gibbons who, with writer Alan Moore,
116
developed the acclaimed miniseries
Watchmen. He designed the original title’s
backgrounds and characters, as well as a
stunning intro that was replicated in a
printed comic bundled in the game’s box.
Gibbons has been involved with the sequel.
“Our vision is to create a look where a
single frame appears as if it has come from a
comic book,” Cecil says.
“We also have our own proprietary
software called ToonToy. What this does is
take an object and effectively ink it in real
time. It puts an ink line around the outside
and we control how thick and what colour
that line is.
“This is done very much to mimic the art
style of a comic book, and it has the
advantage of making the backgrounds much
cleaner to look at, which means players can
look around for items that may be of use.
So yes, the aim was to create a look that is
beautiful and feels like an interactive comic
book to assist players and help them
overcome puzzles.”
At the moment, Cecil is unsure when the
game will be released. It was announced in
⬆ The game is set to be a major release for the
Apple Arcade platform, and it will also be released
on PC and other formats
⬅ Although it doesn’t explicitly say so, the game
is set in a futuristic Australia and includes the
outback, or ‘The Gap’ as it’s referred to
March 2019 during the reveal of Apple
Arcade but, as Cecil, who works from an
office in the historic Shambles in York,
tells us, the coronavirus pandemic has
hit development.
“It’s feasible for us to be developing from
home, but our office is where we do the
design and the scripting, working with
external partners,” he says.
There were murmurs that it would be
out in early 2020, but it will now be a little
later. Even so, Cecil reckons we’ll be pleased
with the result.
“I was being told that adventures were
dead in the later 1990s and we were
struggling to find publishers to fund
development of new games, but here were
are in 2020 with a sequel,” he says.
“What we have is an opportunity. We’re
not constrained by shelf space any more
because we’re distributing digitally and we
already have a loyal fan base. There’s still
going to be a mix of the dramatic and slightly
ludicrous, as there is in all of our games. It’s
also going to be entirely possible to play
Beyond a Steel Sky without having tried
Beneath a Steel Sky.”
That said, it’s still worth revisiting Beneath
a Steel Sky. The game was released as
freeware for the PC in 2003 and it can be
played without charge by visiting gog.com
today. The site also allows you to download
the manual and the comic.
“It’s worth giving it a go, because much of
what existed in the original has repercussions
in Beyond a Steel Sky,” says Cecil.
“I think people are going to love it.”
JULY 202
20 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUUE 3889
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 Helpfile &
BusinessH Hel
Whatever your PC, hardware, software, office application
or macro issues, Simon Handby is here to help
Send your problems to help@computershopper.co.uk

Power cuts upset my NAS drives

I’ve got two NAS drives connected to my
wired network: a Seagate Central and a
Kimax. I am using a Windows 10 PC and a
TP-Link N600 router. Every time we have a
power cut, both drives become inaccessible.
I think that what happens is that the
NAS drives are being given a new IP
address, which causes my computer to
rejig the drive letters it’s assigning to
them. If I’m lucky I just have to rename
each drive, but otherwise I have to try to
re-map the drives, which gives limited
success. I can’t change the drives’ IP
addresses in Windows, either.
The strange thing is that my Panasonic
Blu-ray recorder can find these changed
settings and access the drives without a
problem (albeit a little slowly). Is there a
way to lock the IP address settings so that
they remain in place after a power cut?
Dave Williams
It sounds as though you’ve mapped your
NAS drives using their IP addresses, and
that these might be swapping after a
power cut. You probably configured
a server name when you set each
device up: if you map network drives
using this, it shouldn’t matter if their
IP addresses change.
You can discover your NAS drives’
server name from their web admin
interface. Failing that, open the Start
menu on your PC, type CMD and run
Command Prompt. Type nbtstat -A
XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, replacing the Xs
with the IP address of each NAS.
You may need to scroll up in the
output to see a small table; the server
name should appear as one or more
entries marked ‘Unique’. Once you
have both server names, remove
your old drive mappings and re-create
them using the format \\SERVER_
NAME\SHARE_NAME.
Whether or not that’s the issue, it
won’t hurt to move your NAS drives
to static IP addresses. The first step is ⬆ Use NBTSTAT to find the NetBIOS name of a network device
⬆ Set the server name for the NAS, and use this – not the IP address – when mapping drives
to find the MAC address for both of your
NAS devices. These will probably be written
on the serial number sticker on the back,
usually in the format XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX.
If you don’t see them, you’ll need to enter
the web admin interface of each, look for the
LAN or network interface properties and
note down the MAC address.
Several of TP-Link’s routers are classed as
N600 – this refers to their theoretical wireless
throughput – so we can’t be sure which you
have. The next steps should be similar on
each, however. Use a browser to access the
router’s web interface and log in. Click DHCP
in the left-hand menu, then if necessary edit
the End IP Address down from 192.168.1.254
to 192.168.1.240 and click Save.
Ignore the prompt to reboot the router
and click Address Reservation in the left-hand
menu. Click Add New… and enter the first
NAS’s MAC address in the top field, then the
IP address you want to assign in the field
below. This should be in the range 192.168.1.241
to 192.168.1.254, which is now outside the
scope used for automatic addresses.
Save the reservation and add a second
one for the second NAS (using a different IP
address in the 241-254 range). Click System
Tools in the left-hand pane, click Reboot and
restart the router. Now reboot both NAS
drives and they should be allocated the fixed
IP addresses you specified.

120 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 HELPFILE & BUSINESS HELP

Unwanted interruption
We have a BT Home Hub 5 and a Netgear
EX3700 range extender. The Home Hub is
in the hall and the extender is on the
landing. The extender connects to the
hub’s wireless network, and all my devices
are connected wirelessly to the extender.
I listen to music stored on my computer
using Roon software and my KEF LS50
wireless speakers.
This works fine most of the time, but
there are frequent interruptions to our
internet connection. When it goes down, it
interrupts streaming around the house, and
the music stops. I also get this issue when
running the Spotify app on my PC and
streaming it to my speakers, even though
I have downloaded the music I’m playing.
The issue has also been known to interrupt
documents as they’re printing.
I believe this problem is something to do
with the BTHome Hub 5 but am not certain.
I posted to the Netgear community, which
gives me the impression that most modem/
routers would not have this issue. Please
could you let me know if there’s an
alternative setup that would work better,
ideally without spending too much more?
Tim
This doesn’t sound like an internet issue. In an
otherwise reliable setup, we’d expect local
network activity such as printing to continue
even without the internet, unless you’re using
a cloud service such as Google Cloud Print.
Having said that, with intermittent
internet service we have
experienced hesitations when
playing downloaded content ⬇ Range extenders can work
on Spotify, so your connection Wi-Fi wonders, but only if
could be a factor. they’ve got a decent signal
Before replacing any
equipment, we’d be inclined to try
to simplify and troubleshoot your
network. It’s not normal to suffer
repeated broadband losses, so
you might want to check your
phone cabling and socket filters,
and potentially seek support from
BT. Before changing anything, try
manually triggering your issues by
removing the phone cable from the
modem. If possible, find a 100%
reproducible problem that you can
use as a test.
If you can’t trigger the problems
you’ve been experiencing by manually
disconnecting the internet, consider
whether they might in fact stem from m
a local factor, such as interference
from a microwave or other device.
We’ve certainly experienced issues be efore
when a router and range extender haave a
poor-quality wireless link. If this doesn’t work, the issue may lie with the
Whether or not you can reproduce the Home Hub’s wireless network. Try connecting
faults, try simplifying the network. Turn off the range extender and hub using a wired
the range extender and connect your devices Ethernet cable, then turn off the Home Hub’s
directly to the Home Hub Wi-Fi; you may wireless networking and reconnect your
need to reposition them, if only temporarily. devices to the range extender’s network.

Everything but the sync

I’m trying to coax a few months longer out of my ageing Android phone, a Moto G5
Plus. It’s had the last update I can expect, to Android 8.1.0. Recently it became critically
low on storage so I freed some space by deleting a few apps. While that fixed the issue,
I seem to have developed a problem with syncing.
I’ve got two Google accounts on the phone, for personal and work use, and while
the personal account is working fine, I’ve stopped receiving new work emails.
Investigating further, I realised that my work contacts and calendar appointments had
stopped being updated, too. I’ve also just noticed that I can’t share images or other
items to my work account’s Google Drive; the folder list isn’t up to date with new
folders, and nothing happens if I try to share the file to an existing folder.
I’ve checked the account’s sync settings, and each service has an exclamation
mark next to it. At the bottom of the screen, it tells me: “Sync is currently
experiencing problems. It will be working again shortly.”
I’ve tried selecting ‘Sync now’ to force the phone to catch up, but after a brief
attempt it just returns to the same state. Can you help?
Max Moore

Assuming that your work account is accessible from another device, such as from a
browser on a PC, it’s probable that your phone’s relationship with it was damaged when you
ran out of space. The easiest and most likely fix is just to remove and re-add the account.
Return to the settings for your work account, tap the Remove Account button and
accept the warning. While it shouldn’t be necessary, it won’t hurt to restart the phone after
the account is removed. Once the phone restarts, return to the Users & accounts page in
the Settings menu, scroll down, tap Add account and select Google. Authenticate if
prompted, then provide the account details. You should find that it now works properly, ⬆ Sometimes Android sync problems aren’t temporary.
but it’s a good idea to check the Account sync page again to be sure. The fix may be to remove and re-add the account

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020 121

 HELPFILE & BUSINESS HELP

Overwrote a spreadsheet
A couple of years ago my wife bought me a
weather station, and I started making daily
observations. I decided to keep a record of
them in Google Sheets: specifically, in a
single workbook with a separate
spreadsheet for each month. I use quite a
bit of formatting, so I begin each month by
duplicating last month’s spreadsheet,
renaming it and deleting the data itself.
As I reached the end of February, I
realised that at the start of the month I’d
forgotten to duplicate my January
spreadsheet, so I’d actually deleted and
overwritten my January observations. I
realise that I could probably use the sheet’s
version history to recover January’s
weather, but then I’d lose my new
observations covering February and the
beginning of March.
I really don’t want to lose any data.
Is there a way to selectively restore data
from an older version of the workbook,
or can you suggest another way I can keep
all my observations?
Mel Hines
This should be easy to fix. Using Google
Sheets’ version feature, it is possible to step
through the differences between two versions
of a document, but unfortunately you can’t
selectively restore data. Instead, open the
workbook and from the File menu, select
Make a copy. Give the copy a sensible name
like ‘Temp weather observations’. Once the
copy has completed you should have both
the original and copied workbooks open.
➡ Google Docs’
version history
can get you out
of a hole
In the original, select Version history from
the file menu and find the version from the end
of January. Scroll down to check that you have
the final January entry, then click Restore this
version to recover January’s observations.
Now switch to the copied workbook, select
the February worksheet, click the arrow on the
⬅ Make a copy before reverting to
the original, then you can import a
newer sheet from the copy
February tab, select ‘Copy to’
and choose Existing spreadsheet.
Browse to the original
spreadsheet, highlight it, and
click Select to have Google
import the February sheet
into your original workbook.
Now repeat the process for
March. Once this is done, you
can delete the temporary copy.
The only thing that remains is to re-order
the spreadsheet tabs within your original
workbook. You’ll find the imported February
and March sheets all the way over to the right
in the tab order; you can drag them to the left
until they’re in the right place.

Is my dash cam legal?

I’ve been using a Halfords own-brand
dash cam for a few months, but a recent
discussion with a friend made me realise
that I might be falling foul of data
protection laws. What’s the law in the
UK, and is there anything I should or
shouldn’t be doing?
Richard Harvey

The short answer is that dash cams are

perfectly legal in the UK, provided they don’t
obstruct your view out of the car or pose
any other risk. As with other electronic
equipment, you also shouldn’t fiddle with a
dash cam while driving.
By their nature, dash cams record
identifiable footage of people in public
spaces. If their use is purely for personal
reasons, the General Data Protection ⬆ Dash cams are legal in the UK, but sharing the footage might not be
Regulation (GDPR) shouldn’t apply. It does
apply, however, if you share the footage, or if than is necessary to protect your property. should also check international laws before
you’re filming on behalf of a business. Unless you’re reporting an incident to the travelling abroad: dash cams are banned in
For individuals, it’s good practice to store police, you shouldn’t share any footage in Austria and Portugal, and heavily restricted
dash cam or CCTV footage for no longer which another person can be identified. You in other countries such as Switzerland.

122 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

 Advanced
Projects
Clive Webster has been tinkering with computers ever since
Windows 98 forced him to manually install his drivers
clive@computershopper.co.uk

Automate
your lighting
Automated lighting can help you sleep, focus
on your work, protect your home, set moods,
add trendy flourishes to home decor or just
make life easier. Clive Webster explains
GETTING YOUR LIGHTING just right can be tricky and expensive. Light
switches in the wrong place can cost hundreds of pounds to move, and
who wants to have to get off the sofa to turn on the lights these days?
It’s the 21st century, and we’ve all got digital assistants to do that.
Even worse, standard bulbs are like broken clocks: they only provide
perfect lighting at certain times of the day. Automated lighting is the way
forward. Smart bulbs and devices are relatively cheap, and it’s easier than
ever to link various products and systems together.

124 JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389


SMART LIGHTS CAN add incredible
flourishes and convenience to your life,
whether it’s splashing bold colours over
walls and features, or just having lighting
that automatically gives you the perfect
setting. You can even set your lights to
switch on automatically when you get home,
or randomly turn on and off when you’re
away to fool would-be burglars. All of this
takes a bit of thought, however.
Looking at what hardware and services
are available, we’re going to rule out buying
smart plugs to operate favourite standard
lamps. These used to be a cheap way to get
started, but now smart bulbs are just as
cheap and offer many more options. Smart
plugs cost between £10 and £45, while a
Philips Hue White Ambience bulb costs £25
and a LIFX Mini Day & Dusk costs £27.
There are other reasons to still consider
a smart plug. The £35 six-way Kasa Smart
Power Strip HS300 lets you schedule power
for each device, voice-activate each device,
and monitor power use, so it could be ideal
for your entertainment setup.
LIGHT IT UP
Smart bulbs come in two main types: Wi-Fi
and bridged. Wi-Fi bulbs, such as those
from LIFX and TP-Link, connect straight
to your router: screw them in, connect to
⬆ Smart light bulbs have now become a reasonably good-value option, and they can do far more than simply turn on and off
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
their network, follow the setup
wizard, and you’re done.
Conversely, bridged bulbs
use a low-power wireless
technology such as ZigBee to
connect to a dedicated ‘bridge’
or ‘hub’ device, which in turn
connects to your Wi-Fi router.
The bridge is required because
routers, smartphones and
tablets don’t support
these low-power wireless
technologies, so can’t interact
with the bulbs directly.
Examples include the Philips Hue
range and Ikea’s Tradfri lights.
Bridged bulbs have range limitations, as
low-power wireless signals can’t compete
with Wi-Fi for signal strength. However, many
bridge bulbs overcome this by using ZigBee
Light Link. This allows bulbs to connect to
each other, forming mesh and daisy-chain
networks from the bridge to outlying bulbs
placed far away. However, even if two bulbs
from different manufacturers use ZigBee
Light Link, there’s no guarantee that they’ll
be compatible.
You might think that bridged bulbs would
consume less power. However, a Philips Hue
White and Colour Ambience bulb consumes
0.5-9W, the same as the equally bright,
ADVANCED PROJECTS
W
Wi-Fi-toting LIFX Mini Colour.
You might also think that the
ZigBee-powered Hue would be
cheaper, but at £50 it’s actually
£5 more expensive than the
LIFX alternative, and £15 more
expensive than TP-Link’s
alternative (which is up to 200
l
lumens brighter).
While it’s not immediately
obvious which ranges and
bulbs to choose, there are
some bulbs to definitely rule
out. For example, some ranges
of bulbs have a cheaper option with a fixed
white tone; these might also be non-
dimmable. Avoid these. See also our
absolute veto on RF smart lights (page 127).
SWITCHED ON
When considering automated smart lighting,
there are two main considerations:
automating power, and automating colour.
It might sound niche to separate those
considerations, but the luxury of smart
lights extends way beyond automatically
turning on and off.
Consider coming home from work in
the middle of the summer. It’s bright sunlight
outside, your pupils are contracted, you step
inside and it’s like a cave; you need strong,
125
 ADVANCED PROJECTS

If money’s no problem,
LIFX’s ability to decouple
power state and colour
state makes them the only
option. Otherwise, consider
Hue or Hive bulbs
’ ’ prehensive as the
er. For example,
e in colour, at £50
per u or or e ng and bulb).
ulbs also cost £50,
mbience bulbs for
. are usually
haps using bulbs
en hues of white
nly the LIFX A60+
and BR30+ roduce IR li ht to help nocturnal
or wildlife).
, d the offerings
. V-Tac have
only. Ikea’s
Edison screw-
ype, an ere are on y a ew options.
mited to a few
⬅ ⬆ LIFX, Hive and Philips offer settin s, which also rules ou
ut the smooth
smart downlighters, with LIFX co our a es ava a e e sewhere. The Tradfri
offering just the bulb or the -party
whole package (above) . w price makes
‘warm and cool’
G10 bulb costs only £12, lesss than half the
Hive
price of a Hue White Ambience; other bulbs
are chea er than alternativees, too.
British Gas’s Hive bulbs are worth
reasons. The
prehensiv ve, but
e o ons are com e ve ely priced. The
ght al he most
ted h Gas also offers
(indoors and

Philips

pure light to even make it worth turning
on your lights. However, in winter, you still
arrive home at the same time, but as it’s
dark and grim outside you need softer,
warmer light; that harsh, bright, cool light
you needed in summer would be horrible
in deepest, darkest January.
To actually make this luxury happen, you
need lights that understand your local sunrise
and sunset times without having to turn on.
Currently only LIFX bulbs can do this. As part
of its standard Schedule options, there’s the
crucial ‘Leave Unchanged’ option, as pictured
on the opposite page. This option also allows
more elegant integration of other devices: a
motion sensor can only turn on a light, so
you need that light itself to know which
colour to usse. Other apps can schedule yo our
lights to mirrror solar movement, but becau use
they can’t unlink power and colour, setting a
warm tone forr sundown will turn on your
lights hours be efore you get home in the
winter. Or else you’ll have to accept
compromised lig ghting quality all-year round.
Bafflingly, LIFX X’s dedicated Dawn & Dusk
scheduling tool rep peats the mistake of other
manufacturers, tyin ng light colour to power
state and times of day. Hue’s various dawn
and dusk ‘Labs’ experrimental schedules also
make this mistake.
➡ Only Philips and TP-Link offer ‘filament’ smart
bulbs for decorative light fitt
ttings; they’re actually
powered by LEDs

126
 ADVANCED PROJECTS

BULB WARNING
RF smart lights
Some smart bulbs aren’t so smart, and it’s
usually easy to spot these dim offerings.
The giveaway is the need for a dedicated
remote control unit. These bulbs don’t
use smart wireless standards like
Bluetooth, ZigBee and Wi-Fi;
instead, they use cheap consumer
RF links. You can’t use your
smartphone with these bulbs,
and you can’t set automations;
you can’t do much at all. The
cost saving isn’t worth having to
fish out yet another remote
from the crack in the sofa.

outdoors), door and window sensors, a
motion sensor and a smart plug. Even more
intriguingly, it can incorporate Hue devices
(only via a Hue Bridge).
Choosing your smart bulbs depends
largely on what you want to achieve and
how much money you have. If money’s no
probblem,, LIFX’s ability to decouple power
state andd colour state makes them the only
⬅ Only LIFX allows you to decouple power state
from colour state
option. If you’re not sold on the need for
perfect light quality, then consider Hue or
Hive bulbs.
LIGHT THE WAY
We’ll show you how to glue together bulbs
from various systems into one scheme, but
first let’s cover basic automations. The apps
use similar methods, even if the words and
some details differ. For example, the TP-Link
Kasa app has you set schedules per bulb: set
an action, colour, fade-in duration, time and
day of the week, and then press Save.
LIFX’s system is similar, but you have
more options and you can group lights to
automate sets of lights. You can also set
schedules for all your lights; for example,
setting colour hue against sunset or sunrise.
Hue thinks more in terms of rooms than
groups of lights, so you add lights to a room,
and then set automations (Routines) for a
room, a set of rooms, or all your lights.
When setting lights to match sunlight,
always set long fade-in times of at least 20
minutes to mirror the gradually changing
quality of light. Shorter fades and transitions
of a second or two can give lights a feeling
of luxury. You can also set interesting
sequenced fades or power changes, perhaps
setting each row of your spotlights to have a
second delay from the previous row.
Perhaps more impressive is being able
to control your lights based on where you
are, a practice known as geofencing.
Essentially, you allow an app or service to
track your location, and the act of you
entering or leaving a location set through

SMART BULB COMPARISON

CONNECTION B22 E27 GU10 E14 BR30 FILAMENT EXTERIOR POWER/ LOCATION VOICE INTEGRATIONS OTHER
COLOUR TRIGGER ASSISTANTS
DECOUPLING

Hive Bridged D, D, W&C, D, D, Amazon Hive devices, Hue Light strips

W&C, C C W&C W&C Alexa, Google bulbs, Samsung C
Assistant SmartThings,
IFTTT
Hue Bridged, ND, D, ND, D, ND, ND, E27 D; B22 Spot C, Amazon Samsung
Bluetooth W&C, C W&C, C W&C, W&C, D; G93 D Strip C Alexa, Google SmartThings,
C C Assistant, IFTTT, Apple
Microsoft HomeKit, Razer
Cortana Chroma
Ikea Bridged W&C ND, D W&C E27 D Amazon Ikea Home Smart,
Alexa, Google Apple HomeKit
Assistant
LIFX Wi-Fi D, W&C, D, W&C, C C C BR30 C Amazon IFTTT, Razer Light panels
C C Alexa, Google Chroma , Nest, C, Light
Assistant, Flic strips C
Microsoft
Cortana
TP-Link Wi-Fi D, W&C, D, W&C, E27 D; B22 Amazon IFTTT
C C D Alexa, Google
Assistant,
Microsoft
Cortana
V-Tac Wi-Fi D D Amazon E27 (A95) D
Alexa, Google
Assistant
KEY: D – Dimmable single-colour white; ND – Non-dimmable single-colour white; W&C – Warm and cool white; C – Colour

ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 22020 127

 ADVANCED PROJECTS
TP-Link
⬆ In the TP-Link app (left) you set schedules per bulb, while LIFX (centre) lets you group lights together, and Hue (right) allows you to automate entire rooms
that app or service triggers your lights (and
other devices, if you choose).
The Hue app has geofencing built in - you
just sign up for a Hue account and use one of
the Hue Labs Routines (accessed through the
Explore section of the app). Labs aren’t the
easiest tools to use, loading in a captive web
browser that’s not entirely finger-friendly, but
there are lots of quirky Routines to play with.
For non-Hue users, there are other devices
that can sense your presence. For example,
128
LIFX
LIFX has an integration with Nest, so if you
have Home/Away Assist active on your
Smart Thermostat, you can have your lights
turn on as well as your heating.
For a mix-and-match system of different
devices and manufacturers, IFTTT is probably
best (see ifttt.com). Sign up and you can set
all kinds of triggers, from time and date to
location to other bits of smart hardware in
your house. We covered how to set up
IFTTT recipes in detail in Advanced Projects,
Hue
Shopper 381, but it works on the basis that ‘if’
a trigger event occurs, ‘then’ a resulting
action should happen – If This, Then That.
So you could set a location as your ‘This’
trigger and your ‘That’ action would be turn
on your porch, hallway, kitchen and living
room lights. If you use different lights from
different manufacturers for these rooms,
you might have to set up a few Recipes for
each manufacturer.
Rather than fiddle with geofencing, and to
allay any concerns about being tracked by
apps or companies, you could set your lights
to activate based on movement. The Hue and
Hive ranges have inexpensive motion
detectors. These are battery-powered, so can
be placed anywhere: the foot of your stairs,
a normally dark hallway leading to a toilet,
opposite the front door, the landing to help
guests find the bathroom at night.
If you’re dealing with a device that’s
directly supported, you can just add it to the
system using the relevant app. For example,
to add the £30 Hue Motion Sensor, open the
Settings menu of the Hue app, tap Accessory
setup, Add Accessory, then select Hue
Motion Sensor and follow the guide.
The default settings for the Motion
Detector Labs Recipe let you set a behaviour
for daytime (which you define by time, rather
⬅ The ever-brilliant IFTTT service has lots of
pre-made recipes to allow all kinds of events to
control your Hue lights
JULY 2020 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389

⬆ A fully automated smart lighting system brings a touch of modernity to any home
than dawn and dusk) and night time. The
latter makes sense, as you can say any
motion between midnight and 7am should
trigger a low-level reddish light to help people
find their way without waking them up too
much and ruining their night vision. You can
also set a time before a further change
happens, whether that’s turning off the
lights after 10 minutes or returning them
to their previous state.
⬆ Hue’ss Motion Sensor includes
a light sensor and a thermometer – not bad for £30
ISSUE 389 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JULY 2020
ADVANCED PROJECTS
Usefully, the Hue Motion Sensor
incorporates a light sensor, unlike the £29
Hive alternative. As there’s no ability to check
the solar position with any of the Labs
Recipes for the Motion Sensor, there’s still no
chance of replicating LIFX’s killer feature of
decoupling power and colour. But the light
sensor could be useful to tell lights to switch
on when you open a cupboard.
The Hue Motion Sensor also incorporates
a therm
thermometer, so you could monitor a baby’s
room an nd turn your lights blue or red if the
temmperature gets outside your preferred
l
limits. You’ll need the Temperature
Monitor Labs Formula for this.
Again, integrating motion
sensors into other lighting mixes
(or just avoiding having to use the
Hue Labs interface) is possible
through IFTTT. Just select your
sensor
s as the ‘This’ and select an
outcome
o as the ‘That’. IFTTT has lots
of
o pre-made recipes you can use
mmediately, but we had to search for
im
Huue specifically, as it wasn’t listed in
thee standard set of choices.
NEXT MONTH
UNLEASH VLC
VLC can play just about any video file
you throw at it, but we’ll show you ⬆ You can use the Hue Motion Sensor to turn on
even more tricks and abilities lights when it gets dark, but without a check on
sunlight, it’s not that helpful
129
 PARTING SHOTS
Zygote
Coronavirus may have brought the world to a halt, but it’s prompted one government
service to roll out an IT scheme quickly, efficiently and under budget. Strange days, indeed
GETTING SARKY
It has taken all of 20 years for
the International Standards
Organisation to recognise the
online existence of Sark, the
smallest of the Channel Islands.
But although the Organisation
has decided to grant the little
island a two-letter internet
identity, it could take another 20
years to agree which two letters
to use for its top-level domain.
While neighbouring Guernsey
enjoys the .gg domain, saddling
Sark with .ss is somewhat
insensitive, considering the
allegations of Channel Islander
collaboration with the Nazis
during the 1940-45 occupation.
So what are the alternatives?
The South Africans have bagged
.sa, Suriname owns .sr, and .sk
belongs to Slovakia, so there’s
nothing very meaningful left.
The Conseiller of Sark is
Nicolas Moloney, and he insists,
“In today’s connected world,
business and personal matters
are increasingly transacted
online, so it is important for a
small island like ours to promote
and protect its identity.”
Zygote would like to suggest
using the identifier .cq, which
would stand for Cerq, the original
name of the island when the
Normans ran the place. Not only
that, CQ is the international code
used by radio operators as an
invitation for anyone listening to
respond. Zygote is sometimes
accused of being a little bit sarky,
but on this occasion the
suggestion is completely genuine.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
If you’re frightened about all that
hoarded food going off, then
look no further than that
purveyor of hygienic, sealable,
plastic containers, the mighty
American giant, Tupperware. And
now look away very fast indeed!
Due to a rogue image file
planted in its website, www.
tupperware.com has become a
conduit for stealing money from
unsuspecting folk among its one
million visitors a month.
130
Although the HTTPS padlock
shows in the browser address
bar, users aren’t aware that when
their credit cards are authorised,
the payment form is registered
to an email address with the
Russian provider Yandex. If this
seems suspicious for a payment
system on a leading US branded
website, it’s because it is.
COURT IN THE ACT
As the nation struggled to adapt
to the health crisis, HM Courts
and Tribunals Service budgeted
for lawyers and judges to conduct
hearings via Skype. In fact, there
were plans for a future spend of
£1.2bn to replace all criminal
trials with video conference calls.
The plans had been long
delayed, amid accusations of
inefficiency and overspending.
But, of course, everything has
now changed, and there are
three systems up and running for
use in our courtrooms.
The Justice Video Service is a
secure system used between
fixed locations such as remand
centres, crown courts, probation
offices and prisons. Skype for
Business has been installed on
court-issued laptops, and is being
used by judges and court staff.
BT Meet Me is now the approved
audio conferencing system.
And the cost? A fraction of
what had been originally quoted,
and all delivered almost instantly.
SEX SCANDAL
Watford Community Housing is
not only responsible for more
than 3,500 tenants, it is also
responsible for the online data
security of all those people.
Those people could include
residents seeking sanctuary from
abusive partners, as well as
individuals housed under the
witness protection scheme. In
which case, sending out a mass
email to a whole load of
recipients on a completely
different mailing list would seem
like a really bad idea, even it was
simply a ‘please update your
contact details’ jobbie.
The innocent-looking email
included an attached spreadsheet
with 3,544 rows of data, including
the names, addresses and dates
of birth of all the organisation’s
tenants, their ethnic origin,
disability status, religion and,
scandalously, sexual orientation.
Four hours later, Watford
Community Housing sent
everyone a second email along
the lines of, ‘whoops, please
delete the first one’. That seems
to confirm the cock-up was
neither a hack nor a system error,
but idiocy. Zygote is unsurprised
to learn that it is now “in
engagement with the Information
Commissioner’s Office”.
Meanwhile, across the pond,
Microsoft sent out an internal
email about discount deals for
JULY 2020
employees, families and friends,
which came complete with a
Reply-All default. Unfortunately,
every time it was copied and sent
on to a new list of contacts, it
simply added the new email
addresses to the snowballing list.
At the last count, the number of
addresses in this unstoppable
chain of Microsoft Reply-All
messages had reached 52,000.
CELIA LIPS
The fashion for saddling virtual
assistants with girly names
continues. Amazon has its Alexa,
Microsoft employs Cortana,
Apple offers us Siri, and now
Huawei announces the arrival of
Celia. This coincides with the
announcement of its own
headphones, speakers and
‘ear-worn wearable’ accessories.
As you would expect, Celia
helps users to set reminders and
send messages, but so far she is
not too bright when it comes to
answering questions, mostly
because Huawei has been
cold-shouldered by Google’s
mobile services.
Instead, Huawei has done a
deal with the French search
engine Quant, which has a rather
unfortunate pronunciation in
certain English accents. Zygote
supposes that it’s more polite to
make users shout ‘hey Celia’ at
their phones rather than the
alternative ‘hey Quant!’
| COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 389