Stuff Magazine South Africa

It doesn’t take much to change the world. Folks who are into tech are more aware of this than people who are not. After all, we’ve seen it happen on several occasions. Microsoft changed the world. The internet changed the world. Blackberry changed th

Most fitness tech nags you to do boring stuff: stand up, go for a walk, check your heart rate. So when you see Polar’s new Grit X displaying an instruction to drink and take 10g of carbs (approximately ten jelly beans), you might think you’ve finally

Canon’s latest full-frame mirrorless camera can do something that’s probably never been done before: film a lockdown braai in 8K at 120fps. Just imagine how badly burned your boeries will look when they’re rendered in 7680x4320 pixels. Of course, you

The next next-gen console war is underway, with both Sony and Microsoft’s consoles revealed and ready to launch by the end of 2020. Sony’s shown off the PlayStation 5, dazzling the world with its alien-like design. We don’t know who needs to hear thi

Forget the trade war with Trump, forget the lack of Google apps, forget the impact of Covid-19: Huawei is carrying on like nothing’s happened, and in the P40 Pro it’s delivered a powerhouse phone that ploughs its own path. Wrapped in glass and metal

I know Liverpool are the team of the moment, but are shellsuits really back in fashion? Calm down, calm down. You’re more likely to see this on the streets of east London than Merseyside – but it’s not just a questionable item of clothing. Embedded

More than ever, videogames in 2020 have been a way for us to escape to other, exotic places. But after being transported to ancient Egypt and Greece, the latest Assassin’s Creed brings us somewhere a little less exotic – in a manner of speaking. Set

Few games have had such a cultural impact as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, a title that got people into both skateboarding and punk rock. Now, a little over two decades later, Activision is bringing back the game and its sequel for modern players. To be cl

Finding it tough to decide which adorable programmable robot to buy? Then go modular, and potentially fashion thousands of creations from what you find in the Clicbot box. Components slot together like Lego, letting you build everything from a worm-l

The role that nobody saw coming for the film that nobody saw coming, Ryan Reynolds is Detective Pikachu – a fully-voiced Pokemon out to solve the mystery of his owner’s apparent demise. It’s a little unnerving to hear Deadpool voicing a surprisingly

If you follow Apple, you’ll know about the controversy over the keyboards on its laptops. From the moment the company introduced a butterfly mechanism to help keep things slinky, reports of sore fingers and stuck keys began to mount. Apple caved, pu

R11 000 (import) / hp.com This is pitched as ‘the world’s thinnest 14in business Chromebook’, which sounds like a brand clutching at marketing straws. Really, this is a Chromebook for folks who don’t know when to shut the laptop lid: an ultraporta

It’s one thing to sit in front of the TV every now and again but when it’s basically a responsibility, you might want to shell out a little extra for your experience. The Beovision Harmony combines two brands into once excellent product – A 65in or 7

In a world dominated by unfounded rumour and fake news, what we all need right now is a podcast built entirely on those pillars. Gossipmongers takes casual, sometimes innocent but often harrowing playground conversation emailed in by members of the p

In case 2020’s absurdity needed further underlining, Apple’s most exciting new product is an iPad. Of course, the Pro isn’t just any iPad. It’s the big one with a huge, super-slick 120Hz Liquid Retina screen, ludicrously speedy internals and a double

Keeping up with local radio like 5FM, Talk Radio 702 or CliffCentral has never been so important – plus a desktop DAB does a neat job of keeping you away from smartphone news alerts. Revo’s Mad Men-style radio delivers 15W of digital audio to keep yo

This portable purifier is discreet enough to pop on a shelf next to your ‘Batman on the toilet’ themed action figure collection… and, while it won’t bring poor Brucie’s parents back, it uses ionisation to suck the tiniest pollutants out of the air wi

Rtba / myistore.co.za Swap the charging case for a carry pouch, stick a cable between each bud, and what you’re looking at here is a pair of Powerbeats Pro for for cheaper. The (just) Powerbeats retain the familiar over-ear hook design, soft-touch fe

Rtba / tagheuer.com Tag Heuer’s third-gen Wear OS watch is ultra-premium in specs, with GPS, 5ATM water-resistance, heart-rate monitoring and all-day battery life. Strong, sturdy and heavy, the 45mm metal casing takes inspiration from Tag’s Carrera

R4 500 / 3120 pieces This girl has got teeth. You’ll recognise her as the T.Rex from Jurassic Park – and in case you’ve got a Zoom quiz or two coming up, a bit of trivia for you: her real name is Roberta. Not so ferocious now, eh? That said, we’d s

Rtba / samsung/com/za As reasons to splurge on a new TV go, staying away from all the other humans telling us to stay indoors is a pretty compelling one. But coming up with an excuse to spend huge sums of money on said TV is a little trickier… unless

R1 800 / sound-magic.co.za We were wondering when SoundMagic might get around to crashing the true wireless party. If anyone knows about combining ‘great-sounding’ with ‘affordable’, it’s these chaps, and we’ve never met a pair of theirs we didn’t li

R5 300 / nurvv.com Nurvv’s system combines smart insoles – each with 16 pressure sensors – with a GPS tracking unit that clips to the side of your shoe and an app offering real-time coaching insights. It’s all designed to help you fine-tune your runn

from R34 000 / incredible.co.za You can’t rush the Danes – they do things in their own time. This, the Beosound Stage, is Bang & Olufsen’s attempt to bring some of its Scandinavian stylishness to the soundbar… but, like Axl Rose performing live, it’s

Effectively succeeding the HTC Vive, the Cosmos Elite uses a lot of the same hardware but gains an upgraded headset for better visuals, and swaps the inside-out tracking of the Vive Cosmos (see panel) for the pinpoint precision of base stations. Even

from R6 500 / huaweistore.co.za Huawei’s not even slightly phased by the worldwide lockdown. Before we knew it, the company had announced a new range of P40 devices. The baby brother of which turns out to be a real mid-range contender called the P40

from R3 000 / fitbit.co.za With good fitness-focused smartwatches getting ever more affordable, you might think the humble band has lost its place. But with built-in GPS, continuous heart-rate monitoring, NFC and an entirely new motivational metric,

Imagine a highway that knows you’re travelling on it or a street that knows where you’re going. Imagine shopping in a store without human staff. Imagine never having to own a car because you can just get into an autonomous vehicle at any time and be

Experts agree that there is no single starting point for a connected city. You just begin, somewhere – eventually all the systems should integrate into a greater whole able to respond to the needs of a population. One of the largest roadblocks on the

R17 600 / samsung.com/za Remember when a new Samsung Galaxy flagship was guaranteed to be the centre of attention in the world of smartphones? Heck, it was only a couple of years ago… Now, the Galaxy S20 finds itself the mere starting point of Samsun

from R18 800 / dji.com Unboxing time… and we’re struggling to get our heads around how DJI’s engineers have crammed so many exciting new features into something only a bit larger than the device it replaces – our favourite little mid-range drone, th

from R39 000 (body only) / ormsdirect.co.za Dragging a DSLR into the new decade is a bit like trying to convince everyone to start buying CDs again instead of streaming music. There are some advantages, sure, but when convenience is king you may as

One of the very best things about the Galaxy S20 is its screen – so be smart and keep it safe. The S20 LED View Cover is fancy armour shielding all sides that flips open when you want to fire the phone up. It also packs a set of punch-holes on the fr

Find out what’s already out there. If you’re keen on a particular subject, check out what people are already doing in that space. A great way to build a following is to cover something interesting and different; failing that, you’ll at least need a u

Released in 1997, the original Final Fantasy VII put Japanese RPGs on the global map and was responsible for awakening audiences to emotional storytelling in video games. Now, as the series runs into the double digits, it’s VII that resonates most –

Scrolling beat-’em-ups were all the rage in the ’90s, and Streets of Rage ruled the roost. But short-burst arcade thrills are apparently passé, so it’s taken a collaboration between fans and indie developers to give the Sega series its long-awaited r

There couldn’t be a game better suited to easing self-isolation anxiety than Animal Crossing: New Horizons. What could be more relaxing than frolicking on a desert island with a bunch of talking animals? In this first Switch entry in the laid-back li

R17 600 / samsung.com/za The bigger and flashier S20+ and S20 Ultra models are the headline-grabbers, but the ‘basic’ Galaxy S20 feels like the Goldilocks of flagship phones right now: not too big and clever, not too small and basic, just right. I

R15 000 / huaweistore.co.za We know, we know, Huawei’s shiny new devices landed in SA. But it was lockdown and we’ve only gotten to reviewing them now. Which means that this Huawei still sits the throne for another issue. It was the first techslab

from R15 000 / myistore.co.za The iPad Pro isn’t cheap, but it’s a mobile powerhouse like no other, with a diverse and rich app ecosystem, tons of power, a gorgeous screen, and the kind of focus on creativity that just doesn’t exist on other tablet

R50 000 / lg.com/za Replacing its memorable predecessor, last year’s C-class OLED gives you LG’s most advanced picture and processing tech. It’s got the snappy as heck Alpha9 processor. Along with being faster than we can handle, the set looks bea

from R25 000 (13in) / myistore.co.za The entry-level MacBook Pro received a noteworthy spec bump last year, and the base 13in variation won’t necessarily break the bank. What this also means, is the previous-gen Pro’s have received a price cut. Whi

R1 400 / game4u.co.za There’ll be playground spats and online feuds over whether Nintendo’s or Sega’s games are better, but the Mega Drive Mini wins the miniature retro console war in terms of the faithful recreation of both hardware and software

R8 900 / myistore.co.za The Mavic Mini definitely won’t be for everyone. If you want maximum control over your footage, have no qualms about registering your drone, need 4K capture at 60fps, are OK with spending the best part of R20k and consider

from R15 000 / 1 80by2.co.za The Quest offers all manner of fully interactive, roamable virtual worlds that you can throw in your backpack without a single wire. That’s a mindblowing technical feat. Yes, the battery life is average, but the inside-

R23 000 (body) / myfujifilm.co.za It’s really hard to find anything bad to say about the X-T3 – it’s just consistently great in so many ways. Fuji has looked at virtually every feature on the X-T2 and upgraded it. With substantial tweaks made to t

R7 000 / sonos.co.za The Sonos range of wireless speakers had been crying out for a battery-powered portable model for ages – and finally our favourite multiroom audio specialist caved in. Luckily, the Move was worth the wait. Its adaptability and

from R8 500 / playstation.com/za As a gaming platform, PlayStation 4 is the best around – which makes the PS4 Pro the best of the best. Games optimised for the new console look stunning on a 4K HDR TV, and are substantially improved by the extra gr

from R600 / PS4, Xbox One Believable characters, a world to lose yourself in, top-class voice acting and a story that intrigues all the way through. Warts and all, with improvements from other games ignored, this is Rockstar at its most arrogant bu

Yeah, VR! I love VR! Wait… what’s this hellish contraption? Hellish is right. Everything about Virtual Boy, Nintendo’s first foray into ‘proper 3D’, seems designed to cause abject horror. The ad spot featured a bipedal Virtual Boy marching across a