101 Gadgets You Can’T Live Without
BE ENTERTAINED
01 BenQ TK800
4K movies never looked so good! For an immersive home-cinema experience, fire up the TK800 and enjoy a 100-inch, 4K UHD 8.3 million-pixel picture with super-vivid HDR colour that will look vibrant in strong daylight or ambient evening lighting. This affordable projector is designed for live sports, with custom Football and Sports modes, as well as big-screen gaming and films, and rocks a bold sound that’ll make you feel like you’re in the midst of the action.
£1,195, benq.co.uk
02 Como Audio Musica
If you’ve got a big CD collection but no modern, good-looking sound system to play your discs on, Como Audio’s all-in-one music stunner is has your name on it. The Musica sees to all of your home audio needs, enabling you to stream tracks wirelessly via Bluetooth, stream music directly through Spotify Connect, Tidal and Deezer, and tune into more than 30,000 internet radio stations and DAB. It’s even multi-room when used with other Como Audio units. All that and it’s an elegant-looking piece of kit that caters to tastes both old and new.
£649, comoaudio.co.uk
03 Sonos Beam
This is the soundbar everyone’s losing their mind over, and it’s yours for less than £400. Alexa is also on board, making the wireless Sonos Beam a gadget you really can’t live without in the modern smart home. Sonos’ advanced soundbar has a range of music services built-in and is AirPlay 2 compatible, delivering great audio to small and medium-sized rooms. As it’s part of the Sonos system the Beam can be expanded to support Sonos multi-room or 5.1 surround sound.
£399, sonos.com
04 Sony AF8
Can’t live without your TV? Then invest in one of the best money can buy… Sony’s successor to the A1E doesn’t leap too far forwards in terms of design, but it’s still one of the most remarkable screens we’ve ever seen. The OLED panel, available in 55- and 65-inch options, is the same as in the epic A1. It paints a jaw-dropping 4K HDR picture with deep blacks and incredible image processing. Sony’s Acoustic Surface tech also turns the screen into a giant speaker. Amazing.
From £2,499, sony.co.uk
05 Plantronics RIG 500 Pro
Ignore that fearsome outer skeleton because Plantronics’ headset puts comfort first with ultra-soft ear cups, a supremely padded headband, and reduced engineering that makes it feel light even through long gaming sessions. The RIG 500 Pro for PC also does a few special things between the ears: it’s a stereo headset with 50mm drivers, but by using some digital audio trickery the RIG 500 manages a convincing Dolby Atmos surround effect, bringing more life to games.
£79.99, plantronics.com
06 Sony HT-ZF9
This simple soundbar offers a convincing virtual Dolby Atmos soundstage, mimicking seven channels of surround and two height channels, all from a single box, using digital signal processing wizardry. Blimey! Its wireless sub is compact and brutal in its bass delivery. And there’s a stack of smart features, like Google Home compatibility, Bluetooth streaming, multi-room support using the Sony Music Centre app, and Chromecast built-in.
£650, sony.co.uk
07 Lenovo Mirage Solo
Fancy trying VR but can’t stomach the price of a high-end setup? Lenovo’s Mirage Solo Headset is PC-, cable- and external sensor-free. Instead it uses Google WorldSense tech that works with two internal tracking cameras and proximity sensors to detect objects and recreate your movements on the 5.5-inch display. You have access to 250+ apps on the Daydream OS, enabling you to explore exciting new worlds or, you know, more of this one.
£349.99, lenovo.com
08 Xbox One X
The One X is one mighty gaming and media machine. A powerful processor and huge graphics performance enables you to run the latest games at 4K natively, rather than upscaled from a lower resolution. And all in glorious HDR, too. Plus, there’s support for Dolby Atmos, so they sound absolutely convincing. Once you’ve completed all your games, kick back with a 4K Blu-ray or dig into your media on the 1TB internal drive.
£449.99, xbox.com
09 Astell & Kern SR15
A&K’s name has become synonymous with portable hi-res audio and for good reason. We’ll even forgive its engineers, whose pursuit of the finest sound and the sharpest design has led them to attach the screen on quite an odd angle. Actually, this is a feature used to prevent your fingers obscuring the panel while you’re holding the SR15, which combines a dual DAC, quad-core processor and a price that brings your enjoyment of A&K’s lofty sound standards down to the realm of mere mortals.
£599, astellnkern.com
10 Audeze LCD-4
Give your music the luxury treatment with these glorious Audeze planar magnetic headphones. The over-ear LCD-4 has a world-class bass sound, making it the ideal listening partner for rock, metal, hip-hop and other thunderous genres of music. Audeze outfitted the LCD-4 with a range
