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Editor Madeline Bennett madeline@computershopper.co.uk
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Senior Staff Writer Nathan Spendelow nathan@computershopper.co.uk
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Design Bill Bagnall
WHEN I FIRST sat down to start writing my Production Editor Steve Haines
Production Manager Daniel Stark
monthly missive, my plan was to focus on our Production Assistant Lewis Small
cover feature detailing how to get perfect Wi-Fi, Network Production Manager Kerry Lambird
CONTRIBUTORS
and easily. Surely the Holy Grail of modern Jonathan Bray, Mel Croucher, Kay Ewbank, Simon Handby,
computing, and no doubt why many of you Nicole Kobie, Christopher Minasians, James Morris,
Edward Munn, Ben Pitt, Adam Shepherd, Clive Webster
picked up the magazine and are reading this now. ADVERTISING
The good news is that the article is a thorough Email ads.shopper@dennis.co.uk
Group Advertising Manager Charlotte Milligan 020 3890 3486
and easy-to-follow guide to sorting out all those COVER GIFT CONTACT
niggly wireless issues you’ve been suffering from Chris Wiles support@creativemark.co.uk
SUBSCRIPTIONS
for years – poor range, dropped connections, slow Tel: 0330 333 9493
speeds. I’ve finally got reliable Wi-Fi after much Email: customercare@subscribe.computershopper.co.uk
Web: ManageMyMags.co.uk
trial and error; following this guide should mean UK £44.99, Europe £70, Rest of world £90
you avoid wasting time testing solutions that won’t actually fix the problems. PHOTOGRAPHY
Michael Pheasant
The bad news is that as soon as I started to think about all the examples LICENSING AND SYNDICATION
I could include here of my own past #wifigate experiences, my blood started Ryan Chambers 020 3890 4027 Ryan_Chambers@dennis.co.uk
Anj Dosaj-Halai 020 3890 3816 anj_halai@dennis.co.uk
to boil. It brought back all too painful memories of the many times I’ve been MANAGEMENT
sat at my keyboard hitting the keys or almost at the point of chucking my Tel 020 3890 3890
Managing Director John Garewal
laptop out the window out of frustration at another lost connection. Group Advertising Director Julian Lloyd-Evans
Newstrade Director David Barker
Now breathe. Group CFO/COO Brett Reynolds
Chief Executive James Tye
So I decided it would be best to instead highlight some of the more Company Founder Felix Dennis
life-affirming articles we’ve covered this month, to help me rediscover my PRINTING
Printed by Wyndeham, Bicester, Oxon
Zen state of mind. Distributors Seymour 020 7429 4000
We’ve been looking into ways that technology is helping to save the LIABILITY
While every care was taken preparing this magazine, the publishers
planet, rather than add to its demise. Computing and electronics firms have cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information or
a lot to answer for when it comes to introducing harmful substances into any consequence arising from it. All judgements are based on
equipment available to Computer Shopper at the time of review.
the environment and encouraging a more wasteful attitude to devices such ‘Value for money’ comments are based on UK prices at time of review.
All prices include VAT unless otherwise stated. Computer Shopper takes
as smartphones, which have now become more cheap disposables than no responsibility for the content of external websites whose addresses
measured investments. are published in the magazine.
COMPUTER SHOPPER INCORPORATES UPGRADE SHOPPER, GAMES
So it’s good to learn about technology projects such as the WasteShark, SHOPPER, INTERNET SHOPPER, MOBILE SHOPPER, PC SHOPPER,
which swims through our polluted seas gathering up plastics and rubbish; PORTABLE SHOPPER AND SOFTWARE SHOPPER
A DENNIS PUBLICATION
and green benches, which can filter polluted air. Computer Shopper is published by Dennis Publishing Ltd,
In Multimedia Expert, we’re covering abstract photography. We show you 31-32 Alfred Place, London WC1E 7DP. Company registered in England.
All material © Dennis Publishing Limited licensed by Felden 2018, and
how to create interesting shots that encourage the viewer to appreciate the may not be reproduced in whole or part without the consent of the
publishers. ISSN 0955-8578
colours, shapes and textures of the image rather than just the subject matter.
© Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited
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Contents
p24
p102
p76 p114
News
All the latest news and views from the
technology world, including:
14 News Round-up
New security flaws revealed in AMD processors,
Regulars Features plus the technique set to revolutionise graphics
p131
p76
36 Networks
Even if you haven’t heard of Tenda, there’s no
50 Software
Adobe’s updates make Premiere Pro CC 2018
6 FULL
PACKAGES
doubting its Nova MW6 is a wonderfully a top-quality video-editing suite
straightforward mesh Wi-Fi system
52 Best Buys
38 Storage All the best kit we’ve reviewed recently
Blazingly fast and cheaper than the 860 Pro,
the Samsung 860 Evo is our new favourite 68 How We Test * FREE SOFTWARE
EDITION ONLY
SATA SSD Our tests, ratings and awards explained
Letters
While one reader brings back memories of computer companies from the past,
another suggests winding up scammers in memory of a much-missed contributor
letters@computershopper.co.uk
Fitting tribute I once had one of these But of course it can, with Google Actions.
I’ve just read your people arguing that the Xbox
peo In addition, Google offers a range of tools to
touching editorial on One isn’t a computer.
On allow users to develop their own Actions,
Dave Neal (Shopper 362), John Malcolm some suited to developers and other tools
and have one suggestion. suited to enthusiasts.
How about readers write in What a great idea, John. I managed to set my Google Home to
with their best fake computer er That
Th would make a fitting respond in a defined way when I speak
company names, so they can an tribute
tri for Dave, who we’re certain phrases.
bamboozle these scam callers? rs? feeling the loss of at Shopper.
feelin I would love this to be a
Maybe all the better if they
ey topic for Advanced Projects.
make little or no sense, just to Home win Computer Shopper could
further twist these scumbags’ s’ noodles I’m pleased to see you’re covering the even expose its contents as a
further, such as Dave’s Computer And growing world of home automation. Google Home Action, so I
Gurgle Centre, or The Eek Computer And I think David Ludlow slightly misinformed could say ‘Ask Computer
Watermelon Company Ltd? It could be called readers, however, by saying in Shopper 359 Shopper mag which edition
Dave’s Anti-Scam Call Corner, but I’m sure that Google Home cannot be expanded with has an article on qubits’.
you can come up with something snappier. skills in the way as Alexa. Michael Waite
Star letter
Light relief Capture One and impressed. Back then it
I always get a burst of enthusiastic Darktable were both was only available for
excitement when the magazine drops on our shortlist for Linux but, as you point
through the door. Get a coffee and sit inclusion, but space out, it’s now available
down for the read. Am I the only one who limitations meant they didn’t make the final for Windows and macOS. However, blog
starts at the back? Zygote is the first cut. Phase One Capture One Pro commands a posts at www.darktable.org suggest that
article to be read, the choice bits out loud dedicated following among a select group of these versions have been released in
to my wife. Then it has to be Ben Pitt. professional photographers, although in our response to demand but not with the full
I was looking forward to his Lightroom experience it’s mostly those who use Phase confidence of the developers, and without
versus the rest report. Sadly, I was One’s medium format cameras. The software’s any guarantee that it will be stable.
disappointed. I agree with his main finding €270 plus VAT price puts it out of the running As we mentioned in the article, it’s
as I have used DxO Prime for years to for most people, and when Ben reviewed it a important that you can have confidence that
reduce noise before going into Lightroom. few years ago for our sister publication PC Pro, your chosen software will support future
I was not so sold on Ben’s comparison it couldn’t justify its price premium over cameras as well as your existing one, and
choices. Where was Capture One, long Lightroom and DxO Optics Pro. that seems to be uncertain with Darktable
seen by photographers as the main We covered Darktable in our round-up of for Windows. Still, if you’re willing to take
competitor to Lightroom? I also thought it free Lightroom alternatives (see Multimedia this risk, it appears to be an excellent option
sad that the superb open-source Expert, Shopper 327), and were generally for cash-strapped photographers.
Darktable, available for every platform,
was missing. This is so similar to
Lightroom in its non-destructive methods ❱❱ Write in and win
that anyone used to the Creative Cloud Do you wish your computer was faster when booting and loading
software could make the switch easily. applications? Thanks to Crucial, you can achieve your dream of a
I know space is limited and the article faster PC or laptop with the BX300 SSD. The writer of our Star Letter
could have been three times as long, but will be awarded one of these solid-state devices, which can be
I thought the Darktable option should installed in a desktop PC or a laptop.
have been there. Don’t worry, though, I This SSD is 300% faster and 45x more energy-efficient than your STAR
will still look forward to Ben’s next typical hard drive, and will make your computer boot incredibly quickly and your PRIZE
iteration, after reading Zygote, of course. applications load faster. With 480GB of storage, there’s plenty of room for 480GB
Julian Cremona Windows and all your apps, too. SSD
It’s a question of how easy things are to two do differently so as not to follow the Windows woes
achieve. Amazon’s rich Skills store makes it same trajectory as those who disappeared? Here we are in 2018 with new
easy to add extra features to the Echo, Richard Najduch technology all around us and with a
expanding what it’s capable of. Google Actions not-too-old version of Windows – or is it?
allow you to create custom ‘skills’ for Google We haven’t tracked the rise and fall of the Windows 10 is becoming rather like the giant
Home, but it’s not as easy to use and is far PC manufacturers in huge financial detail, but in Jack and the Beanstalk. For an ordinary
more hands on. As such, out of the box, the we imagine that good customer service and user it must be a nightmare when they
Echo has certain advantages to most people. being quick to start selling online were two suddenly find that it’s going to take possibly
Actions are, as you point out, definitely an factors. We’ll look into this subject for a future over four hours to load a brand new system
enthusiast or developer-level tool, and certainly article for Shopper. supplied with their purchase.
fodder for a future issue of the magazine. Translate that into having to set up 20
Solid advice PCs for a business and you might as well say
Whatever happened to…? Thanks for my star prize of the goodbye to your IT manager, because you
While having a long-needed clearout Crucial BX300 240GB SSD, very much aren’t going to see them for a while.
at home, I stumbled upon some appreciated. When I received the SSD, Let me just say that my purchases are not
really old articles and equipment I decided to use it as a backup for my bottom of the bucket machines: they have
reviews from Shopper from 2003 main computer, mainly for storing Core i5 processors with 8GB of RAM and a
and earlier. What struck me was photos. I plugged the drive into my 256GB SSD from a proven manufacturer.
the turnover – perhaps ‘cull’ computer via a SATA-to-USB3 cable. The problem appears to be that once
might be a better word – of PC The drive was recognised in Device you switch on the PC, you cannot avoid the
manufacturers that seemed Manager but wasn’t usable. upgrade route that Microsoft takes as it
ubiquitous at that time. I did what most people would currently stands.
Names such as Time do and consulted Google. What a Would it not be a better solution to put
Computers, Watford Electronics, lot of people have had the in place whatever version of Windows 10
Evesham.com, NetHighStreet. same problem, and what a lot Pro ships and then do all the upgrades?
com and HiGrade, to name of possible solutions! I decided There just has to be a better solution, and
just a few from that era, to buy an enclosure from this view appears to be shared by other IT
which all seem to have sunk Amazon, at a cost of £8.59, professionals I speak to.
without trace despite taking out advertised as plug and play, and specifically Brian Cameron
several pages of advertisements in listed as usable with an SSD.
yours, and other, magazines. It plugged but didn’t play, although Raw power
It could well be that they’re still the hardware was recognised in Device Just seen your write-up of Raw editors
around, just with a different business Manager as before. (Multimedia Expert, Shopper 363). Good
profile. After all, my first computer was a I emailed Crucial for help, and received article, and I agree with your conclusions,
Viglen, which I know is still in existence but a surprisingly speedy response with an certainly concerning ON1 at high ISOs.
doesn’t, as far as I know, sell computers to embarrassingly simple solution. I needed to However, not sure you were looking at
the general public any more. initialise the SSD first to make sure it was the latest edition of ON1 Photo RAW, which
So what went so wrong for these detected by my OS. Crucial details how to came out on 1 March. In particular, the user
companies? Did they just overstretch do this in its Tribal Knowledge Base. guide on page 65 states clearly that edits in
and become too big for their boots, and The SSD is now very happily connected Develop are non-destructive, and that is my
are there lessons to be learned for the to my USB port, giving fantastically speedy experience. Perhaps this was an update.
current companies who feature heavily backup. What a great piece of kit. David
in your review sections? There are lots of other people out there
Two companies fairly local to me who who have had a similar problem. Please Thanks for the update on this, David.
were around at that time, Scan Computers advise anyone else who wants to use an SSD Shopper 363 went to print in late February so
and Dabs.com, still seem to be thriving, as a backup drive how to do what I did. unfortunately we weren’t able to include any
the latter now owned by BT. What did these Chris Adam additions made with the March release.e.
Deals on wheels
Now that his Japanese smart car has taken to recommending local sushi restaurants,
Mel Croucher thinks it won’t be long before it’s using his personal data to flog him stuff
ISN’T IT GRAND to be a motorist intelligence, it’s also on a mission to their in-car listening with
in the future! Long ago, when I to serve Japanese culture. I personalised advertising is no big
was a motorist in the past, I tried wonder if smart cars built by shift. Costa vs Starbucks,
to negotiate a relationship with a other nations are pulling the McDonalds vs Burger King, Shell
snot-green Morris Minor that same trick. Perhaps if I drove a vs BP, all ready to pay for the
really sulked. I had to fondle its Volkswagen it would force me privilege to push-feed a tempting
handle and crank it for ages until to pick up Syrian refugees or offer to any driver in the vicinity
it fired up, and every weekend I invade Poland. Probably best if and get one over the opposition.
had to get down on my knees to I stick with the Toyota. And it gets even smarter,
grease its nipples and oil its as the car’s sensors are alerted
dashpot, all to keep the TRACKS OF MY FEARS to a component failure and
relationship going. And it never We’re used to the fact that our recommend a detour to Kwik Fit
answered me once when I talked phones track us and report back or Halfords, whoever pays the
MEL CROUCHER to it. Maybe it never answered to advertisers, and most of us right price. In fact, cars could
Tech pioneer and all-round good egg because of some traumatic early don’t bother to change the self-assess the impact of an
letters@computershopper.co.uk garage experience. Maybe it had default settings because we accident and decide whether to
been involved in a suicide pact. accept being tracked as part of call the AA or reserve a slot
There were traces of lipstick the deal. Or we simply don’t care. at the crematorium.
round the exhaust pipe. Now cars are getting connected
Meanwhile, here in the future, to the web, I reckon the same DON’T FOLLOW ME
my shiny modern car likes acceptance has already begun. So should I be worried that my
nothing better than to have a After all, most people are near-silent electric car won’t be
chat, if only to break the silence perfectly happy about speed able to keep its computerised
under its sleek bonnet where cameras and number-plate gob shut about my personal
there is nothing but a computer- recognition, and if there’s a way behavioural patterns? Will it
controlled silver slab powered by of stopping data getting slurped shop me if I drive home from
rainbows and unicorns. from our dashcams and sat navs the pub, or have sex in the
Although my new car is very then most of us have never back seat, or betray Aldi in
happy to take orders and proffer bothered to find out how. The favour of Lidl, or visit a clinic,
advice, I have to admit it has likes of Audi and Volvo are or a church, or a crack den?
Well, should I be worried?
Actually, no, I should not be
I wonder if smart cars built by other nations are pulling the same worried in the slightest, because
governments and guardians can’t
trick. Perhaps if I drove a Volkswagen it would force me to pick up afford to channel and exploit this
huge stream of car-based data
Syrian refugees or invade Poland that is automatically generated
by the on-board computers. But
Google, Facebook and Amazon
begun to exhibit behaviour that already integrating the Android can, and every car manufacturer
may not be in the best interests Auto system into their next on the planet will be only too
of the British way of life. For generation of cars, which feeds happy to facilitate them. And not
example, yesterday I was driving straight back to Google. So cars one of them cares if I’m a spy or
in unfamiliar territory and are becoming computers on a drug dealer. They don’t care if I
busting for a pee. So using the wheels, and they don’t even need am a saint or a sinner. They’re
voice-control, I asked my car to a service provider or network not interested in my secrets and
take me to the nearest comfort connection to generate all that lies. They don’t give a monkeys
station. It promptly selected a personal data. And there’s a huge about my monkey business. All
new route and slithered to a halt amount of data to be gleaned, they care about is trying to sell
outside a branch of YO! Sushi. cross-referenced and monetised. me as much stuff as possible.
The thing is, the day before I had As ever, it’s all about the And right now, all I care about
asked my car to direct me to a money. Punters are willing to is why I seem to be parked in
wildfowl nature reserve, and it accommodate an intrusive app front of a large glass window,
went and took me to a different that monitors every press of the staring at a moving belt of
branch of YO! Sushi. It just so pedal and turn of the wheel in colour-coded dishes that
happens that I drive a Toyota, order reduce their car insurance contain an endless selection of
and I’m starting to think my car is premiums in return for evidence healthy Japanese cuisine at very
not only endowed with artificial of good driving, so an interruption reasonable prices. Yummy.
CCL
COMPUTERS
CYBER INSIDER
HOW MANY TIMES have you Certainly, that’s easy enough Asking for security questions
been in a situation where you’ve to remember and takes out the is also rather pointless as a step
tried to log into a little-used requirement to think about what to boost security. Either the
online account – you know, answer you put down, how you information is relatively easy to
where you finally figure out what spelt it (was it upper case or find out by hackers, or it’s too
your username is, struggle lower case, and did you use complicated to remember easily.
through and enter your password spaces?). But is it secure? Not In other words, you’re being asked
after a few failed attempts, and really. Criminals are well versed to enter a second password.
then hit the list of questions? in guessing simple passwords, Instead, manufacturers
“Please enter the first name and they’re well versed in should be using two-factor
of your first pet’s best friend,” guessing easy-to-remember authentication, sending a
you’ll be asked, or, “What was answers to questions, too. one-time code via an app,
the name of your home town in Yet that’s the situation we find SMS or telephone. That’s far
Roman times?” Or, the worst ourselves in, and manufacturers more secure and means that
one I’ve encountered was simply, are using obscure questions to you don’t have to remember
“Please enter your memorable push home (in)security. That any bits of information.
information”. Of course, I had no can’t be good, but the answer is
idea what that was, which kind of twofold: what the manufacturers PLAY IT SMART
defeats the point. can do and what you can do. Unfortunately, things are unlikely
In all cases, the experience to change overnight, but there
is one of frustration and ASK A STUPID QUESTION are things that you can do to
annoyance. It’s easy to see why The first thing manufacturers make life easier. The best advice
companies have added these need to do concerns passwords. is to take a notebook and write
extra questions: it’s an attempt Setting complicated rules for down the answers to any security
to protect account access by passwords, such as the number questions. Store that notebook
requiring additional and of symbols, length and upper- somewhere safe, such as in a
locked drawer.
Ideally, don’t even answer the
A long password of random words (CanChairJewelleryTissue) questions truthfully, just enter a
random collection of words, as
is harder to brute-force attack than a shorter collection of random per your password. Next time
you’re required to enter your
letters and symbols (can0Fdr1nk!#), and it’s easier to remember security information, you can
turn to your trusty book and
look up the information.
supposedly unique information. case letters, seems like a good Delve into the security
Largely, this is because people idea. Yet the problem is that settings of your accounts, too,
tend to use the same passwords each manufacturer only tells and see if there’s an option to
for all accounts. As soon as you what the password policy turn on two-factor authentication
one account and password is is at the point when you create yourself. You’ll be surprised how
compromised, all other accounts your account. many companies offer this as an
can fall one-by-one afterwards. When you log in, the same option, although none makes
Ultimately, asking users to information should be presented you use the option by default.
answer questions simply doesn’t if you enter your password Online security remains a hot
work, for several reasons that incorrectly. That way, you may be topic and it’s easy to see why
we’ll look at here. prompted to remember the companies have taken the steps
combination that you used. they have to protect your data.
FEELING INSECURE Next, forcing complexity is Yet the changes often lead to
I’ve heard that a technician actually rather pointless. As us being locked out, or weak
working for a well-known we’ve discussed in the pages of information being entered that
fruit-based manufacturer Computer Shopper before, a long could actually reduce security.
recommends just typing in part password made up of random Smarter thinking on the
of the question as the answer words (CanChairJewelleryTissue) developers’ side could improve
when setting up an account. is harder to brute-force attack things, but until then it looks as
So, if you were asked, “What than a shorter collection of though noting down answers on
street did you grow up on?” random letters and symbols a bit of securely stored paper is
you just write “street” as the (can0Fdr1nk!#), and it’s easier the best way to boost security
answer and so on. to remember, too. and reduce frustration.
You’d think that living in the capital city of one of the world’s biggest economies would
mean you could get half-decent broadband, wouldn’t you? Well, you’d be wrong
re-Colyer
Roland Moo
There
There’s
re’ currently a Vodafone advert doing the rounds
featuring
featur
tur Martin Freeman carrying out a daring rescue
man
manoeuvre in an online game when his connection
fa
fails at the last moment; I’m basically that guy.
And I’m utterly fed up with it.
You may think I live in a remote cottage in
deepest Wales. But you’d be wrong. I live on a high
dee
str
street in an East London borough. I’m 30 minutes from
SPEEDY INTERNET CONNECTIONS are great, making ing being
ng able to shout at pigeons in Trafalgar Square, but
tech-dependent modern work, entertainment and life fe proper
per broadband is nevertheless beyond my reach.
wonderfully slick. But I wouldn’t have a clue about th that. There’ss fibre in E11, literally on the other side of the road,
The likes of Virgin, BT and Sky plaster advertising space but it may as well
ell be the other side of Britain.
with glossy promotions touting how superfast their broadband Now I appreciate that broadband coverage in the UK isn’t the
services are; speeds are waved around with fancy rendered worst. But in a nation with a growing tech sector and one of the top
images of light firing through fibre wires. economies in the world, having parts of a major city that remain out
Yet my broadband crawls along like a snail made of granite of the reach of superfast broadband is unacceptable.
carrying an anvil. Loading image-heavy websites is a sure way to get I can post my interest in fibre to Openreach and Virgin, but
my temper rising. And every time I try to upload a photo to the there’s no indication of when or if it will arrive. The government
cloud, I can get through at least one well-brewed cup of tea. claims to be pursuing the national rollout of superfast broadband
I have a 4K TV, but at best it can only put half its pixel count to with gusto, but the state of fast internet connections is laughable.
work as my broadband lacks the bandwidth to pipe enough visual That’s needs to change if the idyllic future of interconnected
data to the screen. And online gaming is a near religious experience, tech often painted by our government is to be realised, as currently
as I pray my connection doesn’t drop when I line up a perfect shot. the state of British broadband is a joke. Just not a very funny one.
r
James Arche
we often need. Our testing lab has seen all manner of
SATA cables, thermal paste tubes and foam cleaner
tin
tins sourced from the branch just around the corner
fro
from our offices, and I’ll never forget half-sprinting
to the Great Portland Street store in my best shoes
to grab the Micro HDMI adaptor needed to save the
ann
annual Shopper awards from technical catastrophe.
That convenience will soon be a thing of the past,
whi
which is enough of a shame on its own. But this isn’t
YOU COULD PROBABLY critique the following just a
about now having to wait a day or two for delivery
statement as part of some kind of normalisation of equipment purchases: it’s about losing the only
on our eq
hypercapitalism, but so be it: I am sad about a shop p closing. This high street sto
store that not only welcomed the tech-obsessed, but
time it’s Maplin, purveyor of display cables, Wi-Fi range extenders, made them its core customers. Not just PC nerds, but the maker
PC case fans and just about anything else of a techy nature. community and music technicians, too – where else could you find a
It’s not clinically, stone-cold dead, at least not at the time of rack of Intel Arduino boards next to a MIDI controller display?
writing, but it’s several weeks into administration, and with no likely It’s true that these are niche audiences, a fact that will likely be
buyers coming forward the store closures and job losses have pointed towards as a reason for Maplin’s decline. Still, barring a
already begun. So far, so brick-and-mortar retailer in 2018, but the miracle, there will soon be nowhere outside the web for them – for
almost-certain loss of Maplin feels different to that of Woolworths, us – to call home. And that’s a far bigger cause for disappointment
BHS and, uh, Toys R Us – to me, it’s borderline distressing. than having to look elsewhere for a pack of cable ties.
There are strictly utilitarian reasons for this. Maplin’s central Still, Maplin as an entity wouldn’t suit an emotional goodbye,
London shops have repeatedly come to Shopper’s aid by virtue of so I gave our nearest branch a more befitting send-off: I went in,
being the only nearby stores that reliably stock the specialised kit wordlessly purchased an 18-in-one screwdriver set, and left.
AMD PROCESSORS FROM the Ryzen PC and Used in conjunction with Ryzenfall, the flaw could
Epyc server range have been found to contain allow for data-snooping malware to be installed
security flaws that open up the CPUs to hacking. on a computer and hide from detection while it
Israeli security firm CTS Labs found a total of 13 siphons sensitive information.
flaws, which mostly affect the Secure Processor The Chimera category provides backdoor
found in AMD’s CPUs. This is a co-processor that vulnerabilities to both CPU hardware and firmware,
contains and controls a computer’s sensitive data which could be used to inject malware into the
such as encryption keys and passwords. Secure Processor, while remaining undetected by
The bugs were placed into four categories: most endpoint security tools and services.
Ryzenfall, Fallout, Master Key and Chimera, and all CTS Labs’ researchers noted the flaws in the
could allow a hacker to cause havoc if exploited. CPUs could put computers “at considerable risk”,
Ryzenfall allows a hacker to infect the Secure with the scope for hackers to “potentially engage
Processor with malware that allows access to in persistent, virtually undetectable espionage,
secured data. With that data the Windows Credential Guard, designed to executed from AMD’s Secure Processor and AMD’s chipset”.
stop hackers from taking over a network, can be bypassed, allowing for Serious stuff. And the researchers didn’t pull any punches: “It is our
malware to be spread to other connected machines. view that the existence of these vulnerabilities betrays disregard of
Fallout works in a similar fashion but only applies to Epyc processors. fundamental security principles.”
It can break the virtualised barriers that segregate a server’s network After a week or so of near silence, AMD said it had investigated
credentials from other parts of its memory, meaning the flaw could allow CTS Labs’ report and confirmed the existence of the flaws, adding that
servers supporting, say, a cloud service become riddled with malware. it would push out firmware updates to squash the bugs.
Master Key allows for malware to bypass the Secure Processor’s The chipmaker also pointed out that any attackers trying to exploit
firmware and allow it to infect the secure boot process of a computer, the flaws would need administrative access to a targeted computer.
which normally checks to make sure a machine hasn’t been fiddled with. At that stage, they’d already be in a position to spread malware and
By exploiting Master Key, hackers could take control of programs that chaos through a “wide range of attacks at their disposal” without
run at startup and disable other security features on AMD’s processors. exploiting the processor flaws.
THE HOLY GRAIL of graphics is often said to be ray-tracing, a rendering “GPUs are only now becoming powerful enough to deliver real-
technique that traces the path of light rays in an image or video that time ray tracing for gaming applications, and will usher in a new era
illuminate and fill a scene. The technology can enable cinema-level visuals of next-generation visuals.”
that have accurate lighting, shadows and reflections to make a virtual Ray-tracing is nothing particularly new, and is commonly used in
scene look significantly more realistic than other rendering techniques. movie-making to render lifelike worlds for fantasy and sci-fi flicks.
The problem is that it takes a lot of graphical horsepower to do this, But now there’s a good chance that technology will be able to feed into
which puts ray-tracing out of the reach of even the most powerful the next swathe of triple-A games without knocking frame rates below
consumer graphics cards. But Microsoft and Nvidia the PC gaming standard of 60 frames per second.
have joined forces to bring ray-tracing rendering to Real-time ray- Nvidia’s RTX tech, when used with its upcoming
games later this year, with the use of the latter’s tracing has been a Volta GPUs, will allow for ray-tracing work to be
Volta GPU architecture. offloaded from the main graphics processor to
That’s arguably quite a lofty ambition, but dream of the graphics dedicated onboard hardware. It will also use the
Microsoft is adding its DirectX Raytracing industry and game Tensor compute engines on Volta cards, which are
software to its DirectX 12 application developers for decades” typically used to power machine-learning algorithms
programming interface (API), an established rather than push pixels and render scenes.
Tony Tamasi, senior vice-president, Nvidia
industry graphics standard. And Nvidia is While Volta cards have yet to reach the gaming
working on RTX, a set of hardware and PCs, Nvidia already has notable widely used game
software algorithms designed to support ray-tracing on its next- engines and tools, such as the Unity, Unreal and Frostbite engines, on
generation graphics card architecture. board to work with ray-tracing. Developers from Remedy, EA and 4A
“Real-time ray tracing has been a dream of the graphics industry and Games are all keen to support the use of the fancy rendering tech.
game developers for decades, and Nvidia RTX is bringing it to life,” said Simply put, 2018 looks like being a very interesting year for the
Tony Tamasi, senior vice-president of content and technology at Nvidia. future of graphics in the gaming arena.
Cloud gaming
Game streaming powered by the
Microsoft Azure platform will form the
future of Redmond’s gaming division
Computer cheating
An AI beat the top
score in classic
game Q*Bert by
cheating in a
fashion human
players have never
Data from millions of Facebook users
thought of
or discovered
said to have been harvested to
influence political voting
Saving Skype
Microsoft released a ‘Classic’ version of FACEBOOK USER DATA was allegedly used campaign in the 2016 EU referendum and
Skype after its Universal Windows app to influence voters in the EU referendum and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
version of the communication software the US Presidential election of 2016, with This meant the company was illegally
unimpressed some long-time users British firm Cambridge Analytica making using Facebook data, as it was tapping into
use of information illegally gleaned from information in a fashion people had not
50 million Facebook users. agreed to. Cambridge Analytica refuted the
Autonomous driving It’s well known that Facebook has a allegations and claimed that it had done
A self-driving Uber car killed a woman in treasure trove of data used to target nothing wrong.
Tempe, Arizona, by failing to spot her as advertising and products at its users. But However, Christopher Wylie, who
she crossed a dimly lit road, raising third parties and developers can only worked with Kogan to harvest Facebook
questions around driverless car testing harvest user data if it’s used to improve their user data and pass it on to Cambridge
services and apps; they cannot sell it on. Analytica, said the company used the data
Back in 2014, Cambridge University to psychologically profile people and target
academic Dr Aleksandr Kogan created a pro-Trump content at them.
personality quiz app called ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ Cambridge Analytica is now being
and encouraged approximately 270,000 investigated by the UK Information
Facebook users to find out what their Commissioner’s Office, as well as US
personality type was, under the knowledge authorities, Facebook and its own internal
they were agreeing to have their data auditors. Facebook is also facing scrutiny
accessed for academic research. over how it allowed developers to access
Slingshot spyware Facebook had a fairly relaxed policy data, and its protection of users’ privacy.
A US cyber spying operation was found towards who could tap into its data back After some days of silence, Facebook CEO
in the form of spyware hiding on then, allowing app developers to access Mark Zuckerberg declared that Cambridge
MikroTik routers for the past six years information on users and their friends, even Analytica’s use of data was a “breach of trust”
though consent to do so only came from an and apologised for Facebook’s part in the saga,
Tax-free tech app’s user. With this in place, data on a saying it will do more to stop such data misuse
The European Commission plans to couple of hundred thousand people turned from happening in the future. Such actions will
charge companies with significant online into a mass of information from tens of include developer audits, investigations into
revenues a 3% tax on online turnover, millions of Facebook users. apps with large amounts of data prior to data
which could hit the wallets of tech firms All this was within Facebook’s data policies policy changes, and further limiting developer
such as Facebook, Google and Amazon at the time, but Kogan apparently breached access to Facebook user data.
the rules by passing on the collected data to At the time of writing, the mix of
Takeover deals analytics and political strategy firm Cambridge allegations and denials means only a full
Donald Trump blocked Singapore-based Analytica, all without the knowledge of those investigation can get to the heart of the
Broadcom’s takeover of chipmaker taking part in the original quiz. alleged data abuse and the lack of safeguards
Qualcomm, claiming it raised “national Facebook got wind of this and asked Facebook had for its users’ data. Some people
security concerns”, thereby preventing Cambridge Analytica to delete the data, but it are already taking matters into their own
the $117bn deal from going ahead allegedly did no such thing, and Facebook hands by deleting their Facebook profiles.
failed to take proper steps to recover the The scandal raises the question of whether
data. Cambridge Analytica reportedly went people would rather pay for a service and
CRASHING on to use the information to profile
Facebook users and attempt to steer their
remain out of sight from data-hungry firms,
or have free access but surrender a chunk
political support in favour of the Vote Leave of their personal data.
500,0006YEARS 500
The number of bugs found
and fixed in GitHub’s public
code repositories
How long New Orleans police and Palantir
Technologies carried out a predictive
policing trial without citizens’ knowledge
NEW SECURITY THREATS
CROP UP EVERY MINUTE,
ACCORDING TO McAFEE
1x1mm 4.35GHz
The size of IBM’s new ‘world’s
smallest computer’
THE CLOCK SPEEDS AMD’S RYZEN 2 PROCESSORS
ARE EXPECTED TO HIT
AI ON CHIPS?
Think of artificial intelligence and you will probably think of robots or
clever software backed up by the power of the internet and cloud
computing. And you’d be right. But AI tech is also being embedded
into the heart of various processors and chipsets, and entering
smartphones and headsets.
Take Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 845 mobile chip (see News,
Shopper 363): it not only offers gutsy processor and graphics
performance, it’s also tuned to run machine-learning algorithms –
effectively the clever code behind AI systems – on the chipset.
It uses a combination of chip parts, such as the Adreno GPU and
the Hexagon vector processor, to power Qualcomm’s AI engine.
This allows smart features such as the processing of voice
commands in natural language to work at quite a lick and image
recognition to be carried out on a smartphone, without relying on
a consistent internet connection.
Having the tech on a widely available chipset gives developers
more scope to put smart AI features into their apps and services.
SAMSUNG Galaxy S9
★★★★★
£739 • From www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
An impressive phone with a superlative camera,
but even that isn’t quite worth the money
CHANCES ARE YOU already know at least off slightly further. The result is an even
something about the Samsung Galaxy S9: higher screen-to-body ratio than on the S8.
leaks, rumours and educated guesses have The screen itself remains 5.8in diagonally,
been rampant, and there were certainly no with the same high 2,960x1,440 resolution and
gasps of surprise when the Galaxy S9 was 18.5:1 aspect ratio – and, since this is one of
finally officially revealed at MWC 2018. Samsung’s Super AMOLED panels, it looks
It probably didn’t help Samsung’s fantastic. Our X-Rite colour calibrator found it
pre-release buzz that the Galaxy S9 looks so covered 99.3% of the sRGB colour gamut
much like the Galaxy S8 (Shopper 353); to an space, with an average delta-E of 1.94, which
extent, this is a smartphone that builds on means you can expect bright, accurate colour
previous successes, rather than aims for a reproduction across the board, although
complete reinvention. Despite this, it costs images are a tad overexposed in the phone’s
£739, making it even more expensive than default Adaptive display mode.
the infamously dear iPhone 8. AMOLED technology also delivers
However, there are two key upgrades here: unbeatable contrast levels – our colourimeter
the new 12-megapixel f/1.5 rear camera, which reported a perfect infinity:1 score – and the
promises to perform better in low light than Galaxy S9’s maximum brightness reaches a
the Galaxy S8’s camera; and the Exynos 9810 very respectable 299cd/m2. Switch on auto
chip, which should offer faster performance. brightness, and that figure rockets up to a
blinding 996cd/m2.
FAMILIAR FACE Along the bottom edge you’ll find the same
In any case, it’s not necessarily a bad thing connections as the S8, too: a solitary USB
that the general design is so familiar. The Type-C port for charging and, mercifully, a
Galaxy S8 was an extremely good-looking 3.5mm headphone jack. On the right edge
handset, and so is this, especially now that the sits the volume rocker and power button,
top and bottom bezels (which were already alongside a dedicated button for the Bixby
the only ones remaining) have been shaved digital assistant, while the combined microSD
and nano-SIM card slot is placed at the top. at Qualcomm’s offices. In GeekBench 4, it
All these slots and ports don’t prevent the recorded a stupendously high 3,659 in the
Galaxy S9 being rated to the IP68 for dust- single-core test, as well as 8,804 in the
and water-resistance, either. multicore test – so besides having a good
chance of besting every other Android
CHIP SHAPE handset to be released in the coming year,
The real differences from the Galaxy S8 are the Galaxy S9 manages to improve on its
on the inside. In the US, the Galaxy S9 immediate predecessor’s scores by 45% in
includes Qualcomm’s latest flagship chip, the single-core and 25% in the multicore test.
the Snapdragon 845, but here in the UK, This is one seriously quick smartphone.
you’ll get Samsung’s own octa-core, 2.9GHz GPU performance is also up on the Galaxy
Exynos 9810 instead, along with 4GB of RAM S8: the S9 managed 45fps in GFXBench
and 64GB of storage. Manhattan’s native-res onscreen test, as well
This regional change is fine by us, as as 77fps in the 1080p offscreen test.
the Galaxy S9’s benchmark scores clearly Notably, it looks as though both Samsung
surpassed what we saw from the and Qualcomm are still having to play
Snapdragon 845 when we tested the latter catch-up with Apple in the performance
field and don’t have to worry about overexposure. • DETAILS www.samsung.com • PART CODE SM-G960F
Experienced photographers will be very happy to
hear that you can also select the aperture size for Battery life 14h 23m
yourself in the camera’s Pro mode. 0% -50 Reference +50 +100
In use, the Galaxy S9’s wide-aperture camera See page 68 for performance details
RASPBERRY Pi 3 Model B+
★★★★★
£32 • From thepihut.com
VERDICT
It’s a minor update, but the Pi 3 Model B+
feels like a much more complete system and
remains the ultimate project computer
VERDICT
It’s staggeringly expensive, but the iMac Pro
is a fabulously built and immensely powerful
professional workstation
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Although it’s undeniably expensive, it’s also
wildly powerful – it’s Apple’s most powerful
machine to date, in fact. More on that in a
moment, but Apple also deserves praise for
how firmly it’s nailed the design of the iMac
range in general. You can get all-in-one PCs
that have the same relative horsepower and
display quality as an iMac (often for a cheaper On top of that, Apple has added a
price), but there really is no substitute for the number of clever design features, such as
aesthetic appeal of a bank of pristine iMacs. support for VESA mounting: just detach the
Understandably, Apple hasn’t messed with base, and you can attach it to a wall-mount
its winning formula, and the iMac Pro is or a third-party stand.
visually identical to the vanilla iMac. It has the The only issue we have with the iMac
same minimalist aluminium shell and the same Pro’s design is that it still lacks height
clean lines. There are a few critical differences, adjustability, but this is a minor gripe that
however. For a start, the iMac Pro is the only pales into insignificance when the rest of gorgeous, accurate colours and sharp, crisp
member of the iMac family to come in space the construction is so good. blacks with deep contrast. At 551cd/m2, the
grey – which is the only colour it comes in. maximum brightness is actually slightly
It comes with Apple’s Magic Keyboard and PIXEL ART blinding; we had to turn it down to about
Magic Mouse 2 and an optional Magic Apple’s hardware is famous for its image 75% to reach a comfortable level.
Trackpad 2, all of which are also in space grey. quality, and the display quality of its latest The iMac Pro supports a wide range of
Apple doesn’t sell the space grey versions iMac range is absolutely stunning. colour profiles, and it’s ideally suited to design
individually, so if you want to get your hands Unsurprisingly, the iMac Pro is every bit as work and editing. This is unlikely to be a
on these snazzy peripherals, an iMac Pro capable as its stablemate in this regard, and surprise to anyone who already owns a Mac
purchase is your only option. the 27in screen is an absolute joy to behold. from recent few years; Apple’s reputation
The appeal isn’t just skin-deep. It’s perfectly It has an incredibly crisp 5K resolution for fantastic displays is well earned, and the
balanced, requiring the lightest touch to tilt (specifically, 5,120x2,880) and supports the iMac Pro is a demonstration of why.
the screen. It’s equally easy to rotate, although wide colour DCI-P3 gamut. It was effectively
the screen itself doesn’t rotate along the X flawless in our display tests, covering POWER SURGE
axis; you have to shift the whole thing. 98.9% of the DCI-P3 gamut and producing Performance-wise, Apple has brought out
the big guns for the iMac Pro; indeed, it’s
intended to handle pretty much any
workload you can throw at it, short of
heavy-duty server operations. As we say, it
doesn’t come cheap, with the top-spec
configuration combining an 18-core Intel
Xeon W processor, 128GB of DDR4 memory,
a 4TB SSD and AMD’s Radeon Pro Vega 64
graphics chip for £12,507. That may sound like
utter madness, but it’s important to put that
ACER Swift 3
★★★★★
£700 • From www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
It may be a basic laptop in some respects,
but thanks to its AMD Ryzen processor, the
Swift 3 is enticingly powerful
heavily multithreaded tasks, and it looks like it might We measured it lasting a scant 3h 16m in
our video playback test, so even with less
SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR Quad-core 2GHz AMD Ryzen 5 2500U •
RAM 8GB • DIMENSIONS 371x255x18.9mm • WEIGHT 2.1kg
• SCREEN SIZE 15.6in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080
• GRAPHICS ADAPTOR AMD Radeon Vega 8 • TOTAL
STORAGE 256GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10
Home • WARRANTY One year • DETAILS www.acer.com •
PART CODE SF315-41
Windows overall 74
Multitasking 62
Battery life 3h 16m
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
See page 68 for performance details
VERDICT
This redesign improves the cooling from last year’s
H500P, while keeping its neat-freak tendencies
IT WASN’T TOO long ago that the original largest of hands and some bulky
gun-metal grey MasterCase H500P first components. Motherboard
went on sale, but Cooler Master has been support scales from Mini-ITX
quick to release an updated version that fixes all the way up to EATX; the
some of the earlier version’s foibles. CPU clearance of 190mm is
As the name implies, the MasterCase more than enough for any
H500P Mesh’s most significant change is respectable tower-style air
greater use of mesh panelling. If this doesn’t cooler; and you’d actively
sound like much of an upgrade, consider that struggle to find a graphics card
the H500P had a solid piece of acrylic running that fills the 412mm of GPU clearance.
right down its front, so while its dual 200mm As well as the seven horizontal PCI-E slots to access the 3.5in drive cage underneath, or
intake fans were capable of sucking in huge at the rear, the H500P Mesh throws in two the large, grommet-fitted routing holes. These
amounts of fresh, cooling air, they could only vertical slots, so you can mount a graphics make it easy to thread cables through while
gasp for small breaths through relatively slim card sideways (holding it up for you to admire holding them securely in place.
lines of mesh down either side. Now the its cooler design through the side window). On that note, this case is fantastic at
entire front panel is perforated metal, Sadly, this requires the additional purchase of keeping cables and wires hidden away. Besides
allowing for much better airflow. a £45 bracket and riser cable kit. the shroud and the metal cable management
To our eyes, it also makes the H500P Much more generous are those two bar inside the main chamber, even on the
Mesh White look a little better, and this is a 200mm fans, which together with a 140mm other side there are removable plastic
strongly attention-grabbing PC case in general. exhaust deliver the exact kind of high-capacity, covers for the PSU and front I/O cables, as
Bright and chunky, with a full-size, tempered in-and-out airflow a spacious case needs. well as any CPU cooler mounting brackets.
glass side window, almost nothing about the The H500P Mesh is also compatible with an Opening and closing these might add a few
exterior design is subtle or understated. excellent range of fan and radiator sizes: both seconds to your building or stripping time,
Much of it is built from plastic, but the whole the top and front of the case will fit radiators but the results look immaculate.
thing feels sturdy and heavy, save for a up to 360mm long, as well as multiple 120mm
surviving piece of acrylic on top, which or 140mm fans, while the rear fan mount can VACANT POSSESSION
provides a secondary window but feels take both 120mm and 140mm radiators. One of the few missed opportunities is
flimsy next to the thickset side panel. For even more pizzazz, the front fans are storage capacity. It’s not that what you get is
equipped with RGB lighting, something that’s insufficient: there are two quick-release 3.5in
BLOW WITH THE FLOW well supported on the accessories front. trays, which can fit 2.5in drives as well, plus
It’s also a mighty big case by mid-tower A three-way splitter cable is included, for two dedicated 2.5in brackets. You can even
standards, at 542mm tall and 242mm wide. group control over multiple fans, and a simple, move the latter around to your choosing,
The upside of this is the vast amount of space single-button control switch helps compensate attaching them to the shroud, on top of the
inside: there’s acres of room for both the for motherboards without dedicated RGB 3.5in cage or on the rear of the motherboard
headers. The latter can toggle the lighting bay. It’s just there’s little reason why there
for up to four fans, if you’re making full couldn’t be brackets for each mounting point
use of the splitter as well. to begin with, which would have upped the
total drive capacity from four to seven.
COMING CLEAN Otherwise, however, there’s an awful
Another, less obvious improvement lot of PC case here, even for nearly £140.
over the original H500P is how the Its big, brash exterior belies a chassis that’s
PSU can now simply slide in through clearly been designed with a keen attention
the back; previously, you had to to detail and a quiet acknowledgement of
remove the shroud and slot it in the first H500P’s flaws. It’s a great pick
front-to-back. On the Mesh White, all for high-end builds that demand powerful
you need to remove and replace is a cooling, such as those with dual GPUs.
small bracket and some thumbscrews. James Archer
This change shows the H500P
Mesh White’s wider approach of SPECIFICATIONS
making PC building as
straightforward as possible, while
•
CASE TYPE Mid-tower MOTHERBOARD COMPATIBILITY
•
Mini-ITX, microATX, ATX, EATX SUPPLIED FANS 2x
retaining a certain sophistication and • •
200mm, 1x 140mm MAX 3.5in DRIVE BAYS 2 MAX 5.25in
PHILIPS Brilliance
241B7QPJKEB
★★★★★
BEST BUY £189 • From www.uk.insight.com
VERDICT
Superbly built and with great colour quality,
this is the best IPS monitor you can get on a
tight budget
VERDICT
It’s not a true ultrawide, but this is a splendid
monitor for competitive gaming
VERDICT
A great-value three-pack mesh system, which
performs well, and is quick and easy to set up
ANOTHER MONTH, ANOTHER wireless then you end up using double Network upgrade option, and also lets you toggle on
mesh system, this time from Tenda, a Address Translation (NAT), once on the the guest wireless network, but that’s about it.
relatively little-known router manufacturer. MW6 and once on your router. In effect,
What the company lacks in name recognition, you’ll have two networks, which can confuse THE QUICKENING
however, it makes up for with a high-quality things. However, this is normal for most What’s really important with a mesh system
and reliable mesh system that shows some mesh networks bar the BT Whole Home is how well it performs, and the Nova MW6
of its big-name rivals how it’s done. Wi-Fi kit (Shopper 358). didn’t let us down. The system uses dual-band
The downside of using the Nova MW6 802.11ac, running at up to 300Mbit/s on the
ROUTE ONE as your router is that you sacrifice wired 2.4GHz band and up to 867Mbit/s on the
The Tenda Nova MW6 ships with a three-pack Ethernet ports. The main unit leaves you just 5GHz band, on which we tested it.
of satellites, each one a neat cube that you one spare Gigabit Ethernet port; the other At close range, we saw upload speeds of
can tuck neatly out of the way. With all three, two satellites give you two Gigabit Ethernet 254.05Mbit/s and download speeds of
Tenda claims that the system is capable of ports (the WAN port on the remaining 434.19Mbit/s; on the first floor, we saw upload
giving you 6,000ft2 of coverage. In other satellites turns into a LAN port). As such, you speeds of 220.15Mbit/s and download speeds
words, that’s enough to cover most UK may need to buy a Gigabit Ethernet switch. of 378.91Mbit/s; on the second floor, we saw
homes, even those with thick walls that upload speeds of 148.38Mbit/s and download
usually don’t play nicely with wireless. LOCK DOWN speeds of 333.07Mbit/s. That puts the system
As with other wireless systems, the MW6 The Tenda Nova MW6 system is managed a chunk ahead of our previous mesh speed
has to have one satellite connected to your entirely through the smartphone app. It’s winner, the TP-Link Deco M5 (Shopper 358).
main network, using the dedicated WAN port. surprisingly easy to set up: plug the first unit Outside, at the bottom of the garden,
This can either be into your existing router, or into your router or modem, then configure we still managed to find a throughput of
you can replace your router entirely, as the your network name; plug in the satellites 69.79Mbit/s. That is very quick, although the
MW6 supports PPPoE connections: you just
need a router with an Ethernet port on it.
If you can, it makes sense to replace your
existing router with the MW6. If you don’t,
Tenda claims the system is capable of giving you 6,000ft2
of coverage – enough to cover most UK homes
where you want them, and they connect BT Whole Home Wi-Fi system managed
automatically. Smartly, each satellite has an slightly faster throughputs at the same range.
LED on top that flashes a different colour to Ultimately, the choice comes down to
show you signal strength. If you place one what you want to achieve and how much
too far away, you can quickly see and move it. you’re happy to spend. For a three-pack, the
We had our system running in a matter of Tenda Nova MW6 is excellent value. Its
minutes, which is impressive. simplicity and ability to replace an existing
Once up and running, the app shows you router make it an enticing choice.
how many devices are connected and the The main competition is the BT Whole
status of the network. There’s no control over Home Wi-Fi kit. This is slightly more expensive
the Wi-Fi settings, as the MW6 automatically for a three-pack, but also comes in a cheaper
selects the best channel to use. It also uses two-pack option, which might suit smaller
channel bonding, directing incoming devices properties. Its main advantage is that it
to the best channel (which could be 2.4GHz or integrates nicely with existing routers, which
5GHz, depending on speed or performance). makes it a better choice for anyone that
Enabling Fast Roaming is a good idea for doesn’t want to swap their main router.
modern devices. With this option turned on, David Ludlow
your wireless devices will more quickly switch SPECIFICATIONS
the connection from one satellite to another
as you move around. This helps you maintain
MODEM Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED
a strong connection everywhere.
• USB
SPEED 300Mbit/s (2.4GHz), 1,867Mbit/s (5GHz)
PORTS None • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes • WARRANTY One
Parental controls are built in, letting you year RTB • DETAILS www.tendacn.com • PART CODE MW6
group one person’s devices into a profile,
where you can toggle internet access or set 5GHz close 344.12Mbit/s
5GHz 1 floor 299.53Mbit/s
an access schedule. It’s a shame that parental
5GHz 2 floors 240.73Mbit/s
controls don’t extend to website blocking.
0 200 400 600
The app also gives you Port Forwarding See page 68 for performance details
⬆ The MW6 is managed entirely via your phone control, a UPnP toggle and a firmware
VERDICT
Faster and longer-lasting than the 850 Evo
yet still competitively priced, this is the new
king of SATA SSDs
APPLE HomePod
★★★★★
£315 • From www.apple.com/uk
VERDICT
The HomePod is a triumph of audio
engineering – it’s just a shame its smart
features aren’t on the same level
RING OF POWER
All the most interesting stuff is going on
inside. The smart functionality is powered by
an Apple A8 processor, the same as inside
the iPhone 6 smartphone, while the audio
engineering that’s gone into this speaker is
outstanding. At the top of the HomePod is
a 4in, high excursion woofer, which is
monitored by a low-frequency calibration Setting up the Apple HomePod is a Just tap its icon in the Apple Home app: the
microphone, with the aim of preventing typically Apple-esque experience in its details will be transferred again and you’ll be
distortion and clipping. simplicity. Hold your phone anywhere in the ready to go in a second or two.
Below it, in a ring surrounding the middle vicinity of the speaker and a small setup
of the speaker, is an array of six further window pops up at the bottom of your MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE
microphones – equivalent to the seven-mic phone’s display; this then runs you through That’s all impressive stuff, but what’s truly
amazing about the HomePod is the way it
sounds. It produces masses of bass, but never
The width of the soundstage and its ability to fill even too much, and it’s always in control. The mids
and treble are balanced, well separated and
large rooms is truly astonishing strike the perfect balance between clarity and
warmth. And although you won’t be able to
experience proper stereo until later in the
far-field array in the Amazon Echo and Echo the various options and usual terms-and- year, when a software update will allow you
Plus (Shopper 361) – which are used to conditions agreements. to link two HomePods together, the width
sense the shape and size of the room and With that done, you’re pretty much ready of the soundstage and its ability to fill even
adapt the sound accordingly. to go. There’s no faffing around with selecting large rooms is truly astonishing.
Lastly, seven horn-loaded tweeters Wi-Fi networks or entering passwords. The most impressive part is how well
circle the base of the HomePod, each Everything is transferred across from your the HomePod adapts to the space you
powered by its very own amplifier. Apple iPhone, and you’re ready to go in minutes. place it in. By using its microphones to
uses these to ‘beamform’ the sound out Even if you move the speaker to a new sense how sound waves are bouncing off
into the room to create a more focused location or change your router password, it’s surfaces in a room, it can tell how to tune
yet broad soundstage. a doddle to get the HomePod set up again. the sound to best suit that space. The
YI 4K+
★★★★★
£266 • From www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Better than the GoPro Hero 6 Black
and cheaper, too, this camera is simply
superb value
VERDICT
It’s got some rough edges (and sharp corners) but
generally, the Xperia XA2 is a worthy mid-ranger
SONY’S XPERIA XA2 was just one of a long, As for the innards, the The results are very
laundry list of smartphones to launch at this Xperia XA2 is equipped impressive. The XA2 does a
year’s CES, doing so alongside the plus-sized with Qualcomm’s 2.2GHz fantastic job at capturing
Xperia XA2 Ultra and the budget Xperia L1. octa-core Snapdragon detail-rich images outdoors
Take it out of the box and you’ll spot that 630. It comes with 3GB in good light. Exposures are
the XA2 cuts a familiar figure, both to its new of RAM and 32GB of well judged and colours
stablemates and to older Xperia phones. Aside storage, expandable up particularly well captured,
from the smaller footprint, narrower top and to 256GB via microSD. with the camera picking up
bottom bezels and (slightly) more rounded This Snapdragon chip wispy cloud layers and
edges, this looks identical to last year’s Xperia was last seen powering neighbouring brickwork
XZ1 (Shopper 359), which is no bad thing. the sluggish HTC U11 Life with effortless ease.
(Shopper 362), so it’s no In particular, the sunset
GETTING THE POINT surprise that the Xperia in the background of
However, like the rest of Sony’s handsets, this XA2’s performance also some of our test shots
design decision comes at a cost. While the sits squarely in the was captured beautifully.
XA2 adopts the same glinting chamfered middling range. However, as soon as
edges at the top and bottom of the phone, In fairness, it did a tiny the light dims, the camera
and softly rounded edges, the corners where bit better than the U11 Life in Geekbench, begins to fall short. Our low-light test shots
the two meet are – once again – hazardously scoring 854 in the single core test and 4,157 in were rife with compression artifacts and
sharp-edged, and primed to wear a hole the multicore test. In everyday use you won’t blotchy chroma noise, which is a big
straight through your pocket. feel the phone slow down too much, but disappointment, especially considering how
If that doesn’t bother you, or if you carry launch an intensive application such as well the camera performs in good light.
your smartphone elsewhere about your Google Maps or juggle multiple apps at once
person, there’s not much to complain about and the XA2 begins to stumble slightly. STEADY AS SHE GOES
in terms of the layout of ports and buttons. The XA2 isn’t capable of 4K video capture at
There’s a solitary USB Type-C port with Quick COMBAT ROCK 60fps. You’re limited to 1080p, and if you
Charge 3.0 support on the bottom of the Likewise, gaming performance could be want to take advantage of Sony’s excellent
handset, complete with a volume rocker, better. While simple games such as Candy SteadyCam electronic image stabilisation and
circular power button and dedicated camera Crush or Wordscapes ran without any HDR recording, it sticks to 30fps as well.
shutter button on the right-hand edge. The hiccups, as soon as the XA2 tried to tackle Low-light photography issues aside, the
microSD and nano-SIM slots are on the left, more graphically demanding games such as Xperia XA2 is an impressive smartphone,
beneath a removable flap. Asphalt or Modern Combat 5, drastic frame made even better by its highly reasonable
At the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack, and drops became a frequent occurrence. asking price. Its display is fantastic, battery life
a circular fingerprint reader is placed just Tested using the GFXBench Manhattan is good and the handset itself looks like
below the camera on the rear of the phone. benchmark, the Xperia XA2 produced 14fps something you’ve paid twice as much for.
Alas, the screen isn’t one of these new 18:9 in both the onscreen and offscreen tests, The problem is that for £270, you could
aspect-ratio wonders and, like the XZ1 which is on par with the U11 Life but well buy either the Honor 9, with its far superior
Compact, its small, 5.2in Full HD (1,920x1,080) behind the identically priced Honor 9 performance and dual rear cameras, or the
display initially feels somewhat old hat. (Shopper 359), which also easily beat the Honor 7X, which has a 18:9 screen in a
Luckily, it’s a superb display in every way Xperia XA2 and U11 Life in Geekbench. slimmer, sleeker chassis, albeit with worse
besides size and resolution. Battery life, meanwhile, is decent, with the battery life. This is the best Sony smartphone
Images look terrifically Xperia XA2 lasting 14h 27m in in ages, but think carefully before you buy.
vivid, especially with the our continuous video playback Nathan Spendelow
phone’s slightly saturated test, with the screen set to our
Super Vivid display mode standard 170cd/m2 brightness SPECIFICATIONS
engaged, and the screen is and flight mode engaged.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
reasonably colour accurate, With lower-priced
too. With Super Vivid mode smartphones upping the ante
• SCREEN SIZE 5.2in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 •
REAR CAMERA 23 megapixels • STORAGE 32GB •
engaged, it covers 96.5% of in the camera department WIRELESS DATA 4G • DIMENSIONS 142x70x9.7mm •
the sRGB colour space, the recently, the Xperia XA2 WEIGHT 171g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 8.0 •
contrast ratio reaches a faces stiff competition. WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.sonymobile.com
HUAWEI P Smart
★★★★★
£230 • From www.carphonewarehouse.com
VERDICT
The P Smart isn’t a bad phone, but the Honor
9 Lite offers more and costs less
THE P SMART is Huawei’s latest budget suffer from any noticeable image and suppressing
phone, finally making its way to the UK after colour shift when viewed image noise, but only to an
being announced in December 2017. at extreme angles. extent: we still saw plenty of
Budget phones have come a long way in Packed inside the P noise and graininess in our
terms of design. Long gone are the days of Smart’s aluminum shell is darker test shots.
ugly bricks; the Huawei P Smart looks as an octa-core 2.36GHz Turn on HDR, however,
elegant as any flagship handset, with its HiSilicon Kirin 659, and the image drastically
rounded edges reminiscent of its older partnered with 3GB of improves. There’s much
sibling, the Huawei P10 (Shopper 361). RAM. That’s plenty of less image noise and the
Although antenna lines are visible, they power for everyday tasks entire scene is brighter
smartly complement the phone’s design. and light gaming, but don’t and better balanced.
The P Smart comes in a range of four expect it to cope with Enable the flash, and both
colours (black, blue, gold and rose gold), graphically intense games. shadows and image noise
but right now only black is available in the In use, Android 8.0 Oreo are completely eliminated.
UK. It looks tasteful enough, although it (with Huawei’s EMUI 8 Around the front of the
does tend to pick up fingerprints. customisations) feels phone there’s a single
On that note, Huawei has gone for a very fluid, and it helps 8-megapixel selfie camera;
rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, which we that the phone doesn’t this does an acceptable job,
found perfectly responsive and easy to use. come filled with bloatware. with relatively good detail
Keeping up with recent trends, there’s also a There are a few pre-installed and colour accuracy. It’s
dual-lens camera at the back, with dual-LED apps, including Facebook nowhere near as vibrant or
flash. At the front, a single selfie camera sits and Instagram, but these can simply be as sharp as the results you
atop the elongated 5.65in display. uninstalled if you don’t want them. get from the rear camera, however; this is
On the left-hand side, there’s a dual-SIM Our performance benchmarks showed that one big advantage of the Honor 9 Lite, which
slot, which will alternatively take a single SIM the P Smart performs more or less equally to has a dual-lens 13+2-megapixel camera on the
and a microSD card, to add up to 256GB of its closest budget competitors. Its Geekbench front as well as the back.
storage. At the bottom, there’s a Micro USB scores of 916 in the single-core and 3,525 in
port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a single the multicore test aren’t significantly different OUTSMARTED
downward-firing speaker. to those of the Honor 9 Lite or Honor 7X The Huawei P Smart is an impressive budget
(Shopper 362), but they are some way ahead smartphone. With an 18:9 aspect ratio, an
TALL, BRIGHT AND HANDSOME of the Motorola Moto G5S (Shopper 360). attractive design, a decent set of cameras and
The P Smart’s IPS display has a resolution of The same could be said of its GFXBench a blisteringly quick fingerprint reader, there’s
2,160x1,080, for an aspect ratio of 18:9. This is Manhattan showing, scoring 9fps in both lots to like about this handset.
becoming a popular shape, and it’s good that the onscreen and offscreen tests. Unfortunately, Huawei seems to have shot
you don’t have to pay a premium to get it, as itself in the foot by putting it up against the
was the case when handsets such as the SHORT ORDER Honor 9 Lite. That phone – made by Huawei’s
Samsung Galaxy S8 first adopted it. Our testing did throw up one disappointment, own subsidiary company – has a better selfie
It looks good, too. Our colorimeter however: the Huawei P Smart’s 3,000mAh camera, plus a longer-lasting battery. It’s also
measured an impressive peak brightness battery lasted a mere 7h 48m in our video arguably prettier, and it’s around £30 cheaper.
of 600cd/m2, so you’ll have absolutely no rundown test. The Honor 7X, by contrast, That makes it impossible to recommend the
trouble viewing it even in lasted for 9h 47m. P Smart over its competition; it’s a decent
the brightest sunlight. If you’re shooting in phone, but you can do better for the money.
That’s a step above even daylight, the P Smart’s Christopher Minasians
the Honor 9 Lite, which dual-lens 13-plus-2-
achieved 570cd/m2. megapixel camera does a SPECIFICATIONS
Colours, meanwhile, great job of capturing
look vibrant, and with a clean, sharp pictures. •
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.36GHz HiSilicon Kirin 659
BOSE SoundSport
Free
★★★★★
£180 • From www.bose.co.uk
VERDICT
A decent-sounding pair of wireless headphones,
but the price is high and design is poor
LAST YEAR SAW the release of the Bose around a bit under more strenuous exercise, standard Bluetooth LE; you don’t need any
SoundSport Wireless (Shopper 358), which which is both uncomfortable and distracting. special software. However, the optional Bose
sounded good, but didn’t quite live up to the There’s also a portable charging case, Connect app includes an audible Find My Buds
name: a behind-the-neck cable connected capable of providing two full charges. A single feature, which is useful, since these units can
the left and right in-ear units, so the charge provides around five hours of playback, easily get lost in a gym bag or behind the sofa.
headphones didn’t deliver the kind of true so if you fully charge up the case and You could even leave them in a different room,
wire-free experience you might want when earphones you can listen for up to 15 hours as their operating range is very good: we were
you’re trying to exercise. without having to track down a wall socket. able to keep listening even when our phone
The SoundSport Free, then, look like the Recharging uses a proprietary connector, was 15 metres away, through several walls.
perfect update, being wireless earphones with so you won’t be able to charge the earphones These earphones lack the high-quality aptX
no cable connections at all (similar to Apple’s without the case. A full recharge takes around audio codec, but they still sound great, with a
AirPods). Connecting via Bluetooth, they could
be the perfect match for those who want to go
running, cycling or to the gym without feeling
a cable bouncing on the back of their neck.
The slightly bulky design of the earphones caused them
Unfortunately, the design means they don’t
get off to the best start: each bud sticks some
to bounce around in our ear canals while jogging
way out of your ear, so you can often hear the
wind catching on them. Their weight is also two hours; there’s also a 15-minute quick- warm, fun sound signature. The bass is
noticeable, with each earbud coming in at 15g. charge option, which will keep you going for pronounced, while the mids are clear-sounding,
At £180, they’re expensive, too. To be fair, around 45 minutes. Five LEDs on the if a tad pushed back. The highs have a nice
thatt’s a pretty normal price for a pair of cylindrical case indicate how much charge sparkle at the top end, and the overall
headphones like these – the near-identical remains, which is a convenient UI touch. soundstage is impressively spacious.
Jabra Elite Sport cost £175, while the less You get three colours to choose from, Upbeat genres such as pop, rock and
sporty, ANC-enabled Sony WF-1000X come in namely black, midnight blue and bright orange. reggae benefit the most from this. Each guitar
at £200. Unusually enough, it’s Apple that It’s worth choosing a colour you like, as these strum is tangible, while percussion is clear and
offers a cheaper option, with the £159 AirPods. earphones are quite large and conspicuous; vocals sit powerfully in the foreground.
In any case, £180 is a lot to spend on in-ear they recall the Frankenstein Ultimate Ears That said, these earphones don’t work
headphones, so it’s even more important that TF10, which attracted an uncomfortable so well with less strident productions. On
they get everything else right. number of curious looks on public transport. live recordings, for instance, the mid-bass
response becomes overpowering, and the
ON THE CASE WHOOSH HOUR whole sound becomes slightly muffled.
The SoundSport Free come with three sets of Even if you’re not bothered about how you look, Sub-bass response is limited, too.
StayHear+ Sport tips, designed to keep the you might care about that aforementioned
buds in your ears during workouts. They would wind noise – we found them more or less MOVERS AND SHAKERS
benefit from another set for those with unusable while cycling. Noise was less of a In all, the Bose SoundSport Free aren’t
smaller ears, however, as with larger, poorer- problem while jogging, but the slightly bulky audiophile-grade earphones, but they are
fitting tips, the whole earbuds can wiggle design of the earphones still caused them capable of providing a good sound that’s fun
to bounce around in our ear canals, which to listen to. The wireless range is good, and the
experience. The IPX4 rating
wasn’t a pleasant experience Find My Buds feature is a definite plus.
withstand a splash of
means they’ll be able to withs They’re undeniably expensive, and the
rain or sweat, but unlike the Soul X-Shock bulky design is a big potential turn-off: even
waterproof.
they’re not properly waterp discounting the considerable wind noise,
There are a few controls built into the anyone with smaller ears may struggle to make
two earphones: the leleft unit has an these earphones stay comfortably in place.
while the right unit
on/off button, whi That’s not much better a situation than having
offers a volume control and a a neck cable slapping against your skin.
button, which do
play/pause butt Christopher Minasians
double duty as skip/previous
found these buttons
controls. We fo SPECIFICATIONS
placed, and stiff to the
awkwardly place
extent that we had to use our
HEADPHONES SUBTYPE In-ear headphones •
press them reliably.
fingernails to pre • WEIGHT 30g • CABLE LENGTH N/A •
PLUG TYPE None
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.bose.co.uk •
SoundSport Free
The Sound PART CODE 774373-0010
connect to yyour phone over
FOSSIL Q Control
★★★★★
£279 • From www.fossil.com
VERDICT
The Q Control is Fossil’s first fitness-focused
smartwatch, but it lacks several key features
MAINLY BY VIRTUE of including a heart- charging cable: lasts ‘all day’, and
rate monitor, Fossil’s Q Control is its first on three this is pretty
Android Wear device to be described as a separate much spot on; if
‘Sports Smartwatch’. How, then, does it occasions, we you charge it
compare to other fitness-minded wearables thought we’d overnight, the
such as the Apple Watch Series 3, Samsung left the device battery should last
Gear Sport (both Shopper 363) and Huawei charging, only until the following
Watch 2 (Shopper 355)? to come back and evening, but there’s
For one, it’s no less nice-looking. The chunky find its battery still no way it will make it
steel casing exudes a certain degree of style totally empty. through the night.
and sophistication, as you’d expect from a On the bright side,
brand that’s associated with fashion OUT OF POSITION Android Wear is a pretty
accessories. Once it’s on your wrist, however, Like most smartwatches good OS, though there’s no
you might become less enthusiastic about the today, the Q Control NFC for wireless payments, as
chunky design, as it’s quite weighty, which automatically logs metrics there is on many other Wear
isn’t ideal when you’re taking it out on a run. including step count and heart smartwatches. Agenda, Contacts,
The optical heart-rate sensor does at least sit rate. These can be easily viewed Fit, Keep Reminders and Weather
flush with the back of the casing, meaning it via the Google Fit app, where you are useful preinstalled apps that
won’t become any more uncomfortable when can also set specific fitness goals. help you keep on top of daily tasks
you leave it on your wrist for hours at a time. When you want to log a without having to keep reaching for
workout manually, you just open the aptly your phone. The Android Wear Play Store is
IMPERFECT CIRCLE named Fit Workout, which lets you choose also much better stocked with third-party
To control the smartwatch, there’s a 1.4in from an enormous list of activities, from apps than Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store, so
full-colour OLED touchscreen and one cycling and running to strength training and you can install Telegram, Messenger, Strava
button on the right side, which lets you downhill skiing. Unfortunately, because and Runtastic, among many others.
hop between the app drawer and the there’s no built-in GPS, you’ll need your
home screen. The screen’s 450x450-pixel phone with you if you want to track your ON THE WRONG TRACK
resolution looks good, but an air gap movements precisely. That’s an unforgivable Google Assistant is another great boon.
between the front glass panel and the omission for a new £279 ‘sports watch’. Simply long-press the watch’s button and
display means it falls short of greatness. There’s also no barometric altimeter, so you can use it to send a message, get
Another method of navigation comes via you can’t count steps, and that heart-rate directions with Google Maps or start
the watch’s ‘virtual touch bezel’, which lets monitor – a first for Fossil smartwatches – is tracking your heart rate or run.
you scroll through apps, notifications or one of the worst we’ve ever used. For That’s not to say that Android Wear is
emails without swiping up and down on starters, it’s inaccurate, somehow only perfect. The music controls worked really
the touchscreen. However, we rarely measuring a peak of 90bpm during a well when playing Spotify from our phone,
found ourselves using it, as in practice brisk bike ride yet jumping to 200bpm but whenever we tried playing a song
it doesn’t actually prevent errant at the end of it. Checking your heart directly from the watch, the Spotify app
fingers covering the screen. rate can also feel like a chore, as simply would not play ball. The Q Control’s
Garmin found an excellent you need to go all the way into 4GB of built-in storage will let you store music
workaround for this problem with the Google Fit app instead of just offline, but only using Google Play Music.
the Vivoactive 3, placing a touch consulting a widget. The Q Control is a great-looking watch, but
panel on the side of the casing. One of the few points in the unfortunately, that’s where our endorsements
The Q Control uses a Q Control’s favour is that it’s for it end. It’s a minimally featured and often
20mm black silicone strap, waterproof to 5ATM, or unreliable fitness aid, and a flawed everyday
so you can easily swap it approximately 50m. There’s smartwatch as well. Android Wear offers
out when it wears out, or if no swimming mode in the plenty of great smart features and a strong
you want to add a bit more Fit app, but you can keep range of third-party apps, but to really
character. We found the track of your pool compete with sports smartwatches in 2018,
strap comfortable, and there workouts with the third- the Fossil Q needs to offer much, much more.
are plenty of notches for both party MySwimPro app. Edward Munn
bigger and smaller wrists. The Q Control’s
Fossil’s website claims the Q Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip SPECIFICATIONS
Control uses wireless charging, but and 768MB of RAM is speedy PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes •
in reality what you get is a small enough to keep everything DISPLAY SIZE 1.4in •RESOLUTION 450x450 •
four-pin magnetic charging pad running smoothly, but •
OS SUPPORT Android 4.3 and later, iOS 9 and later
that you perch the watch on top of. unfortunately, battery life was
BATTERY LIFE One day •
WARRANTY Two years RTB •
DETAILS www.fossil.com •
PART CODE FTW7000P
We ended up wishing for a traditional another letdown. Fossil estimates it
The perfect
photo-
editing PC
Want the perfect PC for editing
and organising your photo
collection? Here’s what you need.
W
hether you’re a keen amateur You want this task to be
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beautiful cottages. same is true of even the cheapest chips in an ideal world we’d all fit 2TB SSDs in our
AMD’s Ryzen range. photo-editing PCs and so have both capacity
We’d recommend a and speed, but such drives cost almost £450.
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AMD Ryzen 3 CPU for only applications and the photos currently
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or Ryzen 5 for mid-range, fast SSD for Windows and the editing
and for ultimate packages, and for the current workload,
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Ideally, a photo-editing PC needs a for over 20,000 raw images (or five times fastest processors you can get when it
good-quality mid-range Nvidia GeForce or that number in JPEG format), all topped off comes to applying corrections to big
AMD Radeon card for optimal performance by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics batches of photos.
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VIDEO-EDITING SOFTWARE
ADOBE Premiere
Pro CC 2018
★★★★★
RECOMMENDED £20 per month
•
From www.adobe.com/uk
VERDICT
This comprehensive update makes Adobe
Premiere Pro CC the best it’s ever been,
especially for creating 360° video
ASIDE FROM THE monthly sucking of Once Project Locking has been enabled in VR Projection filter stretched the Ricoh
funds from your account, there’s one the Premiere Pro preferences, you give your footage perfectly to match the Garmin’s.
major problem with subscription-only workstation a username in the same dialog. The remaining effects are essentially
software such as Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Then, you create Shared Projects, and can 360°-aware versions of their 2D counterparts.
it’s easy to miss when a significant new use a little padlock icon in the bottom The immersive transitions include Chroma
version arrives. left-hand corner to toggle read-write mode Leaks, Gradient Wipe, Iris Wipe, Light Leaks,
Don’t make that mistake with this latest or release a project for others to work on. Light Rays, Mobius Zoom, Random Blocks
incarnation, because it’s a belter. Along with and Spherical Blur.
some long-needed usability and collaboration TAKE A GOOD LOOK AROUND All use the 360° space in an interesting
improvements, there’s also much better The other significant area of improvement is way to move between clips, and are a
support for 360° video content. for creating 360° VR content, which Adobe is welcome addition as most 2D transitions
labelling Immersive Video. Premiere Pro CC introduce unwanted visual artefacts. Premiere
MORE THE MERRIER had received some support for 360° content Pro itself also now works in VR, so you can
Let’s start with the improvements to with version 2015.3 in the middle of 2016. edit while wearing a VR-viewing device such
usability and collaboration. It seems a But for CC 2018, this has been beefed up as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
bizarre feature not to have had over Adobe considerably, with a selection of 360°-aware
Premiere Pro’s 25 years of history, but at effects and transitions that derive from DUE CREDIT
long last you can now open more than one Adobe’s acquisition of the Mettle SkyBox There are a couple of other significant new
project simultaneously. Before, if you wanted Suite (sadly Adobe hasn’t included the latter’s features. The Essential Graphics Panel,
to reuse assets created in one project within 360° stitching tools in Premiere Pro). introduced with Premiere Pro CC 2017 to
a new one, you would need to import the old Although you could apply 2D effects replace the legacy titler, has been improved
project. This could get very messy. already, these could introduce unwanted by the addition of Responsive Design.
Now you can just open both projects, artefacts along stitching lines. However, The Time element lets you pin a range of
then copy and paste between them. You can the new effects are seamless, and include intro and outro keyframes at the beginning
grab elements from the timeline of one Blur, Chromatic Aberrations, Colour and end of a motion graphics clip, which are
sequence, and when you paste them into a Gradients, De-Noise, Digital Glitch, Fractal preserved when you make ripple edits.
sequence in another project, their related file Noise, Glow, Plane to Sphere, Projection, This also includes a rolling credits
references come with them. This is a much Rotate Sphere and Sharpen. feature. The Position element lets you pin
more convenient way of working. The Plane to Sphere effect is particularly a graphics layer to another layer or the
Vaguely related is the new Shared useful; without it, when you import a 2D image video frame itself. The graphics layer will
Projects facility. Premiere Pro CC has had a it will automatically look curved. Apply the VR then respond to changes to the pinned
team project capability via Creative Cloud Plane to Sphere, and the image will instead layer or video frame, so when these are
storage for a while, but Shared Projects are appear like a 2D placard within a 360° space, added to a sequence with a different aspect
aimed at collaboration using communal with tools to adjust how far away it looks and ratio they will maintain their relative position.
storage on a local network. A user can orientation. Even better, all these effects are There are sundry smaller improvements,
now lock a project that has been loaded GPU-accelerated, so they gain a performance including the ability to preview fonts and edit
from a central storage repository, say a advantage from your graphics hardware. motion graphics templates created in After
NAS or SAN, so that other workstations The VR Rotate Sphere effect lets you Effects directly within Premiere Pro. There are
can only open it in read-only mode. correct orientation issues with your 3D now also eight new label colours to aid clip
sphere, and you can add organisation. But the ability to load multiple
keyframes to animate the projects, shared project controls and
default view direction extended VR support are the killer new
within the 360° space. features. Premiere Pro CC 2018 is even easier
The VR Projection tool is to use than ever, and now also a serious
also handy, because it contender for creating 360° content.
makes it easy to use James Morris
footage shot on different
360° cameras on the SPECIFICATIONS
same timeline. For OS SUPPORT Windows 7 (SP1), 8.1, 10 (64-bit), OS X 10.11,
example, we imported •
macOS 10.12, 10.13 MINIMUM CPU Multicore •
footage shot on a Ricoh MINIMUM GPU Integrated graphics • MINIMUM RAM 8GB
⬆ Premiere Pro 2018 enables you to work with full 360º VR content VIRB 360 output, and the
• PRODUCT CODE Premiere Pro CC
Dennis Buyacar Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London, W1T 4JD (GB09151058) (FRN:667368) Is Authorised And Regulated By The Financial Conduct Authority. Buyacar is an independent credit broker and not a lender
Choosing a... PC system
01 A basic PC costing around £350 will
be able to run everyday office,
multimedia and education software and will
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 the latest USB3 ports,
which provide faster data transfers when
easily cope with surfing the internet. It might regularly undertakes demanding tasks used with supported devices than the
even be able to run some modern games. such as video editing and encoding older USB2 standard.
Many PCs can be sold either with or should consider a quad-core or even a
without a monitor. If you don’t like the
display that the manufacturer is offering,
hex-core processor.
06 Most new PCs now come with
Windows 10 pre-installed. Don’t
you can always use your current one, or
buy another one separately. 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
be too easily swayed by the inclusion of
other software, though, as it may be that
you’ll never use it.
PCs
RASPBERRY Pi LENOVO IdeaCentre 620S
Zero W ★★★★★ NEW
★★★★★ £730 • www.lenovo.com ENTRY
£9 • www.thepihut.com
Mini PCs can be overpriced, slow
ow
The Pi Foundation’s latest or even sold without RAM and
pocket-sized hobbyist PC is storage, but the IdeaCentre 620S
0S
a big improvement on the is a complete system that’s both reasonably
original Pi Zero, thanks to integrated Wi-Fi powerful and pleasantly affordable. The quad-core
core
and better performance. It’s not as fast as Intel Core i5-7400T handles office work well
the more expensive Pi 3, nor as generous enough, while an Intel Optane Memory drive gives
ves
with connections and ports, but the bargain the hard disk a speed boost, and there’s even a
Zero W is perfect for low-power projects. GeForce GTX 1050 Ti for extra graphical capability.
ty.
PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-7400T • RAM 8GB • FRONT USB PORTS None •
PROCESSOR 1GHz single-core Broadcom BCM2835 • RAM 512MB MB • USB PORTS 1x Micro USB REAR USB PORTS 4x USB3 • TOTAL STORAGE 1TB hard disk, 16GB Intel Optane Memory drive •
(power), 1x Micro USB OTG • TOTAL STORAGE MicroSD card slot • DISPLAY None • GRAPHICS CARD 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti • DISPLAY None • OPERATING SYSTEM
OPERATING SYSTEM Raspbian • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.raspberrypi.org • Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.lenovo.com • PART CODE
PART CODE Pi Zero W • FULL REVIEW Jun 2017 90HC0011UK • FULL REVIEW May 2018
LAPTOPS
HP Spectre x360 ASUS ZenBook UX310UA
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£1,549 • www.very.co.uk £660 • www.saveonlaptops.co.uk
Following in the Sadly we
footsteps of the can no
Spectre longer find
13, HP’s Spectre x360 is a the UX310UA for the same
convertible hybrid laptop bargain price at which we
with premium ultrabook reviewed it, but this is still a
sensibilities. That means high
igh lovely ultraportable that can
performance from its Core i7 processor, a lush 4K display and even last a full working day away fromrom
discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics. the mains. Best of all, this price gets you
a more powerful Intel Kaby Lake processor and a larger SSD.
PROCESSOR Dual-core 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U • RAM 8GB • DIMENSIONS 356x251x17.9mm •
WEIGHT 2kg • SCREEN SIZE 15.6in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • GRAPHICS ADAPTOR PROCESSOR Dual-core 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-7100U • RAM 4GB • DIMENSIONS 323x223x18.4mm
Nvidia GeForce GTX 940MX • TOTAL STORAGE 512GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 • WEIGHT 1.4kg • SCREEN SIZE 13.3in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • TOTAL STORAGE
Home • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.hp.com • PART CODE 15-bl000na • 256GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTY One
FULL REVIEW Sep 2017 year RTB • DETAILS www.asus.com/uk • PART CODE UX310UA • FULL REVIEW Jul 2017
PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ • RAM 16GB • DIMENSIONS 356x250x19.9mm PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U • RAM 8GB • DIMENSIONS 304x200x15mm
• WEIGHT 2.1kg • SCREEN SIZE 15.6in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,980x1,080 • GRAPHICS ADAPTOR • WEIGHT 1.29kg • SCREEN SIZE 13.3in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 3,200x1,800 •
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 • TOTAL STORAGE 512GB SSD • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • GRAPHICS ADAPTOR Intel HD Graphics 620 • TOTAL STORAGE 256GB SSD •
WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS www.gigabyte.com • PART CODE Aero 15W-CF2 • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY Three years RTB •
FULL REVIEW Aug 2017 DETAILS www.dell.com/uk • PART CODE XPS 13 9360 • FULL REVIEW May 2017
SMARTPHONES
MOTOROLA Moto Z2 Play SAMSUNG Galaxy S8
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£299 SIM-free • www.amzn.to/2IFEoVb £471 SIM-free; £60 on £38-per-month contract •
www.amzn.to/2qNy2fT (SIM-free);
The second-generation version of our www.carphonewarehouse.com (contract)
favourite modular smartphone takes
some small steps back on battery life The most powerful Android phone
and display quality, but is still a lot of smartphone for ever. The camera is superb, the
£379, with good performance and a sharpshooting display is dazzling, and even the base
camera. It’s compatible with older Moto Mods, too. model comes in a beautiful, almost completely bezel-free, design.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 • SCREEN SIZE 5.5in • SCREEN PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.3GHz Samsung Exynos 8895 • SCREEN SIZE 5.8in • SCREEN RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G 2,560x1,440 • REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • DIMENSIONS
• DIMENSIONS 156x76x6mm • WEIGHT 145g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 7.1 • WARRANTY 149x68x8mm • WEIGHT 155g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 7.0 • WARRANTY One-year RTB •
One year RTB • DETAILS www.motorola.co.uk • PART CODE XT1710 • FULL REVIEW Nov 2017 DETAILS wwww.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE SM-G950FZKABTU • FULL REVIEW Jul 2017
Don’t fancy paying huge amounts of The larger Pixel 2 XL has a higher-res
cash for a phone with an edge-to-edge, display and better battery life, but this
18:9 display? The Honor 7X is just the is the better buy: it’s just as fast and
thing: it’s affordable but posseses a vast, vibrant screen, has the same pure Android OS, but doesn’t suffer from
and comes with a great dual-camera array as well. the same vibrancy problems as the XL’s screen.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.36GHz HiSilicon Kirin 659 • SCREEN SIZE 6in • SCREEN RESOLUTION PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.45GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 • SCREEN SIZE 5in • SCREEN
2,160x1,080 • REAR CAMERA Dual 16 megapixels • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • REAR CAMERA 12.2 megapixels • STORAGE 64/128GB • WIRELESS
DIMENSIONS 157x75x7.6mm • WEIGHT 165g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 7.0 • WARRANTY DATA 4G • DIMENSIONS 146x70x7.8mm • WEIGHT 143g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 8.1 •
One year RTB • DETAILS www.hihonor.com • PART CODE 51092ADQ • FULL REVIEW Apr 2018 WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS store.google.com • PART CODE Pixel 2 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018
TABLETS
SAMSUNG Galaxy Book 10.6in HUAWEI MediaPad M3
3
★★★★★ ★★★★★
★★
£650 • www.johnlewis.com £300
£30 • www.ebuyer.com
Good budget 2-in-1s are rare, but Android slates may have fallen n out
Samsung hits the mark with its of fashion in favour of 2-in-1s,
s, but
10.6in Galaxy Book. The Full HD the MediaPad M3 shows they ey can
touchscreen display looks great and, unlike still be worth your cash. The Kirin 950 chip delivers
st livers
with the iPad Pro or Surface Pro ranges, the excellent keyboard and massive processing power, and the sleek design gn
stylus peripherals come included in the box. and vibrant screen deserve your attention as well.
PROCESSOR Dual-core Intel Core m3-7Y30 • SCREEN SIZE 10.6in • SCREEN RESOLUTION PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.3GHz Hisilicon Kiring 950 • SCREEN SIZE 8.4in • SCREEN RESOLUTION
1,920x1,280 • REAR CAMERA None • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA No • DIMENSIONS 2,560x1,440 • REAR CAMERA 8 megapixels • STORAGE 32GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G •
261x179x8.9mm • WEIGHT 650g • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY Two years DIMENSIONS 124x215x7.3mm • WEIGHT 320g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 6.0 • WARRANTY
RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE SM-W620NZKAXAR • FULL REVIEW Nov 2017 One year RTB • DETAILS www.huawei.com/uk • PART CODE BTV-DL09 • FULL REVIEW Feb 2017
PROCESSOR Hexa-core 2.36GHz Apple A10X Fusion • SCREEN SIZE 10.5in • SCREEN RESOLUTION PROCESSOR Dual-core 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-7660U • SCREEN SIZE 12.3in • SCREEN RESOLUTION
2,224x1,668 • REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels • STORAGE 64/256/512GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G (cellular 2,736x1,824 • REAR CAMERA 8 megapixels • STORAGE 512GB • WIRELESS DATA No • DIMENSIONS
version) • DIMENSIONS 251x174x6.1mm • WEIGHT 469g • OPERATING SYSTEM iOS 11 • WARRANTY 292x201x8.5mm • WEIGHT 784g • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Pro • WARRANTY One year
One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • PART CODE 9.7in iPad Pro • FULL REVIEW Oct 2017 RTB • DETAILS www.microsoft.com • PART CODE FKH-00002 • FULL REVIEW Sep 2017
PHOTOGRAPHY
SONY RX100 V FUJIFILM X-T2
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£949 • www.amzn.to/2rtLjLf £1,434 • www.jessops.com
It may be small, but the RX100 The X-T2 is a mirrorless
V is seriously fast, and because CSC capable of shooting
it also captures a surprising high-quality images at incredibly high burst speeds,
amount of light, image and video quality are both top-notch. making it ideal for wildlife and sports photography.
SENSOR RESOLUTION 20 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 13.2x8.8mm (1in) • FOCAL LENGTH SENSOR RESOLUTION 24 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 23.6x15.6mm (APS-C) •
MULTIPLIER 2.7x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (2,400,000 dots) • LCD SCREEN 3in (1,228,800 dots) • FOCAL LENGTH MULTIPLIER 1.5x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (2.36 million dots) • LCD SCREEN 3in
OPTICAL ZOOM (35mm-EQUIVALENT FOCAL LENGTHS) 2.9x (24-70mm) • 35mm-EQUIVALENT (1.04 million dots) • VIEWFINDER MAGNIFICATION (35mm-EQUIVALENT, COVERAGE) 0.77x,
APERTURE f/4.9-7.6 • WEIGHT 298g • DIMENSIONS 60x104x41mm • WARRANTY One year RTB 100% • LENS MOUNT Fujifilm X Mount • WEIGHT 507g • DIMENSIONS 92x143x51mm •
• DETAILS www.sony.co.uk • FULL REVIEW Apr 2017 WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.fujifilm.eu/uk • FULL REVIEW May 2017
SENSOR RESOLUTION 20 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 17.3x13mm • FOCAL LENGTH SENSOR RESOLUTION 16 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 17.3x13mm • FOCAL LENGTH MULTIPLIER
MULTIPLIER 2x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (3,680,000 dots) • LCD SCREEN 3.2in (1,620,000 dots) • 2x • VIEWFINDER Electronic (2,360,000 dots) • LCD SCREEN 3in (1,040,000 dots) •
LENS MOUNT Micro Four Thirds • WEIGHT 725g (with kit lens) • DIMENSIONS 98x146x88mm • LENS MOUNT Micro Four Thirds • WEIGHT 715g with kit lens • DIMENSIONS 79x137x130mm •
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.panasonic.com/uk • FULL REVIEW Sep 2017 WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.panasonic.com/uk • FULL REVIEW Jul 2017
DISPLAYS
ASUS VC239H BENQ SW2700PT
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£127 • www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk £619 • www.amzn.to/2fj53dh
It’s rare to see IPS After calibration, this
panels on monitors professional-grade
this cheap, and in monitor has near-perfectect
Standard mode, the VC239H colour accuracy, so it’s ideal for photo and
nd
delivers much better image quality video editing. The Quad HD resolution also ensures there’s plenty of
than we’ve come to expect from budget displays. room for Windows multitasking.
SCREEN SIZE 23in • RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • VIDEO INPUTS SCREEN SIZE 27in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS (AHVA) •
VGA, DVI, HDMI • WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.asus.com/uk • PART CODE VIDEO INPUTS DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort • WARRANTY Three years RTB •
VC239H • FULL REVIEW Mar 2017 DETAILS www.benq.com • PART CODE M352753 • FULL REVIEW Nov 2017
02 A 1,920x1,080-resolution TV can
display a 1080p image. You can still
buy TVs with a 720p (1,366x768) resolution,
you’ll need to use either HDMI or VGA
inputs. Be aware that some TVs only let you
use a PC on an analogue input, and others
Most Ultra HD TVs have Netflix built into
their smart TV systems, but only BT is
currently providing live Ultra HD video,
but they’re no cheaper and the image won’t won’t display the Windows desktop at the with BT Sport Ultra HD.
be as sharp. 3,840x2,560 Ultra HD resolution, TV’s highest resolution. Ultra HD Blu-ray players give you an
or 4K, TVs are finally available at reasonable amazing picture, and Amazon’s Fire TV
prices, although you’ll still pay a premium for
one over a 1080p model. 04 The contrast ratio tells you the
difference between the darkest
set-top box will stream its Prime Video
service and Netflix at Ultra HD resolutions.
HOME CINEMA
PANASONIC Viera TX-50DX802B SAMSUNG HW-MS750
W-MS750 NEW
★★★★★ ★★★★★ ENTRY
£799 • www.johnlewis.com £800 • www.currys.co.uk
SPEAKERS 3 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 150 • DIMENSIONS 100x500x333mm • WEIGHT Not SPEAKERS 7 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 150W • DIMENSIONS 813x340x101mm (soundbar),
stated • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING Bluetooth (aptX) • WARRANTY Two years 366x118x366mm (subwoofer) • WEIGHT 1.76kg (soundbar), 3.68kg (subwoofer) • DOCK
repair and replace • DETAILS www.cambridgeaudio.co.uk • PART CODE TV2 (v2) • CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth • WARRANTY One year repair and
FULL REVIEW Jul 2017 replace • DETAILS www.polkaudio.com • PART CODE MagniFi Mini • FULL REVIEW Sep 2017
AUDIO
BOWERS & WILKINS P7 Wireless
Wir BOSE QuietComfortt 35 II
★★★★★ ★★★★★
★★
£325 • www.freemans.com £269
£26 • www.weybridge-audio.co.uk
Bowers & Wilkins’ second-ever The world’s best ANC
pair of Bluetooth headphones headphones get a Google gle
are a triumph – they’re Assistant upgrade: you u can
exceedingly comfortable and sound superb, search for songs, select playlists and set
even without any active noise cancelling. reminders all via the built-in microphone.
ne.
And, of course, they sound splendid.
HEADPHONES SUBTYPE Over-ear headset • PLUG TYPE 3.5mm
jack plug (optional) • WEIGHT 323g • CABLE LENGTH 1.2m • HEADPHONES SUBTYPE Over-ear headset • PLUG TYPE PE 3.5mm jack plug
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk • (optional) • WEIGHT 310g • CABLE LENGTH 1.2m • WARRANTY Two years RTB •
PART CODE FP38954 • FULL REVIEW Feb 2017 DETAILS www.bose.co.uk • PART CODE 789564-0010 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2018
UE Wonderboom UE Megablast
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£59 • www.amzn.to/2s4lpgH £200 • www.johnlewis.com
The Wonderboom may The Megablast brings Amazon Alexa
look small, and it is, but functionality to UE’s marvellous
this portable, waterproof wireless range, making it a rare
speaker is capable of blasting out sound smart speaker that can easily be taken outside or
that’s both incredibly loud and used in the shower.
satisfyingly rich.
SPEAKERS 4 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not disclosed • DOCK CONNECTOR None •
SPEAKERS 2 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (SBC) • DIMENSIONS 237x88x88mm •
NETWORKING Bluetooth • DIMENSIONS 40x46x65mm • WEIGHT 425g • WARRANTY Two years WEIGHT 1.2kg • WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS www.ultimateears.com •
RTB • DETAILS www.ultimateears.com • PART CODE 82343342 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017 PART CODE 984-000923 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2018
VIDEO
AMAZON Fire TV with AMAZON Fire TV Stick
★★★★★
4K Ultra HD (2017) £30 • www.amzn.to/2s4qrKp
★★★★★
£60 • www.amzn.to/2B72FTN Don’t have a 4K
TV? No worries – the
Despite shrinking from a set-top box to an HDMI standard Fire TV Stick is a wonderful little streamer
dongle, this is packed with new features, including a in its own right. The 2017 model has added Alexa, Amazon’s digital
remote that works with Alexa voice commands. assistant, so searching through the vast library is easier than ever.
VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 2.0 • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi • DIMENSIONS 65x65x15mm • VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 2.0 • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi • DIMENSIONS 86x30x13mm •
STREAMING FORMATS UPnP, AirPlay, DLNA, Plex • INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES Amazon STREAMING FORMATS UPnP (via apps) • INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES iPlayer, ITV Hub,
Video, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My5 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www. All4, My 5, Amazon Prime Instant Video, Netflix • WARRANTY One year RTB •
amazon.co.uk • PART CODE Fire TV with 4K UHD (2017) • FULL REVIEW Feb 2018 DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk • PART CODE B01ETRIFOW • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017
WEARABLES
SAMSUNG Gear S3 APPLE Watch Series 2
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£274 • www.amzn.to/2ssXHv4 £279 • www.apple.com/uk
The Gear S3 isn’t the cheapest It only plays nicely with
smartwatch, but it is one of iPhones, but the Watch Series
the best. It’s ripe with both 2 is a lovely bit of design, with
everyday and serious fitness features, and its a well-stocked app store, GPS tracking capabilitylity
rotating bezel is hands-down our favourite and added waterproofing making it a true
method for navigating menus on a wearable. do-anything smartwatch.
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.3in • RESOLUTION 360x360 • PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 38/42mm • RESOLUTION
OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Five days • WARRANTY Two years RTB • 340x272 (38mm)/390x312 (42mm) • OS SUPPORT iOS • BATTERY LIFE 18 hours • WARRANTY
DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE M-R760NDAABTU • FULL REVIEW Apr 2017 One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • PART CODE Watch Series 2 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2017
SMART HOME
AMAZON Echo 2nd Generation NEST Cam Outdoor
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£75 • www.amzn.to/2DxFEuQ £179 • www.johnlewis.com
The updated Echo is both The easiest external security
smaller and cheaper than camera that we’ve ever
the original, and while the installed also happens to be
souped-up £140 Echo Plus is better for listening one of the best. Excellent picture quality and a
to music, this model’s blend of value and great app make this an ideal device for
all-round quality makes it a better buy. monitoring outside of your home.
DRIVERS 2 • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • WEIGHT 921kg • NETWORKING Bluetooth, VIDEO RESOLUTION 720p/1080p • CLOUD STORAGE Yes (subscription required) •
802.11n Wi-Fi • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk • PART CODE Echo NETWORKING 802.11n (2.4GHz) • WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE Nest Cam Outdoor •
2nd Generation • FULL REVIEW Mar 2018 FULL REVIEW Apr 2017
TECHNOLOGY Thermal inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 4,800x1,200dpi • TECHNOLOGY Thermal inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 4,800x1,200dpi •
SCANNER RESOLUTION 1,200x1,200dpi • DIMENSIONS (HXWXD) 307x445x585mm • SCANNER RESOLUTION 600x1,200dpi • DIMENSIONS 126x373x315mm • WEIGHT 3.9kg •
WEIGHT 15.5kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A3 (print only) • WARRANTY Three years RTB • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.canon.co.uk •
DETAILS www.hp.co.uk • PART CODE Y0S18A • FULL REVIEW Dec 2017 PART CODE 2226C008 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018
NETWORKS
D-LINK DIR-842 TP-LINK Archer C5400
400 NEW
ENTRY
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£50 • www.amzn.to/2AyE8G6 £230 • www.currys.co.uk
This budget Although this isn’t
dual-band router the fastest £200-plus
is fast enough to router, it’s still speedy,
serve as an affordable upgrade and comes with an impressive array of
to your ISP router, and it’s easy features, from parental controls and
to set up, too. filters to BT YouView support and smart home integration.
WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 867Mbit/s (5GHz), 300Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 2x 2,167Mbit/s (5GHz),
USB PORTS None • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes • WARRANTY Two years RTB • 2x 1,000MBit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 1x USB2, 1x USB3 • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes •
PART CODE DIR-842 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018 WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE C5400 • FULL REVIEW May 2018
STORAGE
SYNOLOGY DiskStation DS418j INTEL Optane Memory 32GB
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£287 • www.broadbandbuyer.com £52 • www.ebuyer.com
When a tiny two-bay NAS An interesting twist
won’t cut it, the fast, on M.2 SSDs,
high-capacity DiskStation DS418j Optane Memory isn’t
sn’t
is an excellent upgrade, especially as it can automatically convert old so much a dedicated storage drive as a
hard disks to be compatible with this NAS’s hardware and features. large cache for your existing hard disk,
isk
accelerating its read speeds to NVMe levels at a much lower price.
3.5in HARD DISK BAYS (FREE) 4 (4) • NETWORKING 1x 10/100/1,000 Ethernet • DLNA MEDIA
SERVER Yes • PRINT SERVER Yes • DIMENSIONS 184x168x230mm • WEIGHT 2.21kg •
WARRANTY Two years RTB • DETAILS www.synology.com • PART CODE DS418j • CAPACITY 32GB • PRICE PER GIGABYTE £1.63 • INTERFACE M.2/NVMe • WARRANTY Five years
FULL REVIEW Jan 2018 RTB • DETAILS www.intel.com • PART CODE MEMPEK1W032GAXT • FULL REVIEW Sep 2017
COMPONENTS
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 D5 2G NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£120 • www.overclockers.co.uk £279 • www.geforce.co.uk
Nvidia’s GTX 1050 is Based on the same Pascal
the best-performing architecture as the fearsome
entry-level GPU, and GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, the
Gigabyte has made some nice tweakss mid-range GTX 1060 is unmatched when it
to its own version, including a near-silent
ilent fan comes to marrying price with 4K and VR-readiness.
cooler. It also sips power, with a tiny TDP rating of 75W. It’s surprisingly power-efficient, too.
GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 • MEMORY 2GB GDDR5 • GRAPHICS CARD LENGTH 172mm • GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 • MEMORY 6GB GDDR5 • GRAPHICS CARD LENGTH 250mm •
WARRANTY Three years repair and replace • DETAILS www.gigabyte.com • WARRANTY Three years repair and replace • DETAILS www.geforce.co.uk • PART CODE GTX 1060
PART CODE GV-N1050D5-2GD • FULL REVIEW Mar 2017 Founder’s Edition • FULL REVIEW Nov 2016
De soft
DIGITALVOLCANO SOFTWARE KASPERSKY Security Cloud
Sec ftwa
du wa
pli re
so
uri re
cat
Duplicate Cleaner 4.0 Pro ★★★★★
ty
i ng
★★★★★
£50 • www.kaspersky.co.uk
£24 • www.digitalvolcano.co.uk It’s just as effective as Kaspersky Total Security, but
The free version of Duplicate Cleaner program is Security Cloud goes a step further by learning your
good, and upgrading to the Pro version makes it bad security habits and warning you about them.
exceptional for ridding your PC of duplicate files. OS SUPPORT Windows 7/8/10, OS 10.11/macOS 10.12, Android 4.1 and later, iOS 10/11 •
MINIMUM CPU 1GHz • MINIMUM GPU None • MINIMUM RAM 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit) •
OS SUPPORT Windows Vista/7/8/10 • HARD DISK SPACE 20MB •
HARD DISK SPACE 1,020MB (Windows), 1,110MB (Mac) • DETAILS www.kaspsersky.co.uk •
DETAILS www.digitalvolcano.co.uk • FULL REVIEW Sep 2016
PRODUCT CODE Security Cloud • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018
MICROSOFT Windows 10
pri
EXPRESSVPN
Vir e net
vat
OS ate
tua wo
up
Anniversary Update
d
★★★★★
l rk
£6 per month • www.expressvpn.com ★★★★★
ExpressVPN allows you to easily dodge region
Free • www.microsoft.com
restrictions on online content while encrypting This update adds UI improvments, new features and
your connection, and is fast enough to handle apps for stylus users, and a host of bug fixes, making
4K Netflix streaming. Its great software support and huge number of Microsoft’s OS even more worthwhile.
endpoints makes it the most flexible service, too.
OS SUPPORT Windows 10 • MINIMUM CPU 1GHz • MINIMUM GPU DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0
OS SUPPORT Windows, macOS, iOS, Android • DETAILS www.expressvpn.com • driver • MINIMUM RAM 1GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit) • HARD DISK SPACE 16GB (32-bit), 2GB (64-bit) •
PRODUCT CODE ExpressVPN • FULL REVIEW Jan 2017 DETAILS www.microsoft.com • PRODUCT CODE Windows 10 version 1607 • FULL REVIEW Nov 2016
Em lient
OC ware
sof
ail
c
R
t
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£249 • www.abbyy.com £12 per year or £39 lifetime • www.getmailbird.com
The more feature-rich Corporate edition is expensive, While the free version of this email client is good,
but FineReader 14 is perfect for turning paper notes upgrading to Pro is even better – you get a unified
and documents into digital, editable files using view of all your mailboxes, loads of themes and
optical character recognition (OCR). extensive integration with other apps and productivity software.
OS SUPPORT Windows 7/8/8.1/10 • MINIMUM CPU 1GHz • MINIMUM GPU DirectX 10 • OS SUPPORT Windows XP/7/8/8.1/10 • MINIMUM CPU N/A • MINIMUM GPU N/A •
MINIMUM RAM 1.5GB plus 512MB per additional CPU core • HARD DISK SPACE 2.4GB • MINIMUM RAM N/A • HARD DISK SPACE 50MB • DETAILS www.getmailbird.com •
DETAILS www.abbyy.com • PRODUCT CODE FineReader 14 • FULL REVIEW May 2017 FULL REVIEW Nov 2016
GAMING
XBOX One S NINTENDO The Legend of Zelda:
4K conso
Act entu
ga le
ad
Breath of the Wild ion re
me
v
★★★★★
s
Ga nsol
pe r
me e
co
rso
★★★★★ ★★★★★
n
How we test
Find out how well products perform with the help of
Computer Shopper’s comprehensive tests
COMPUTER SHOPPER’S REVIEWS use some The actual scores in each test are shown
of the most exhaustive testing procedures inside each bar
you’ll find in any PC magazine. Every product
is subjected to qualitative and quantitative
tests that show how it performs in practical Bigger is better for all
Normal speed 11ppm
use. Graphs for performance, battery-life bars except the red
scores and costs are used in the Reviews ones, which show
Mono costs 2.2p running costs
section, as shown on the right. Look in the
‘Summary of tests’ table (below) for details Colour costs 6.7p A product hitting the
of each test we run. +100 per cent mark
0% -50 Reference +50 +100
For PCs and laptops, we evaluate performed twice as well
performance using our own custom as our reference
benchmarking suite. See below for a brief
This line represents the performance of a reference product in each
description of our benchmarking software test. All graphs for components and systems are relative to our
and game tests. reference PC (see below for specifications)
SUMMARY OF TESTS
PC SYSTEMS & GAMING LAPTOPS
Windows overall Average speed across numerous demanding tasks BENCHMARKS RATINGS & AWARDS
Multitasking Speed when running simultaneous applications
Computer Shopper rates
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at 1,920x1,080, 4xAA, SHOPPER BENCHMARKS products out of five:
(1080p) Ultra detail
Metro: Last Light Frames per second at 1,920x1,080, SSAA,
Our benchmark suite uses
Redux Very High detail open-source software that Avoid ★★★★★
LAPTOPS
runs on Windows, Mac OS X
Windows overall Average speed across numerous demanding tasks
Below average ★★★★★
Multitasking Processor-intensive multitasking test and Linux systems. This lets
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at 1,280x720, 4xAA, us use objective results to Good ★★★★★
(720p) High detail
compare PCs and laptops,
Battery life Run time in minutes for continuous video playback
no matter which operating
Very good ★★★★★
SMARTPHONES/TABLETS
Battery life Run time in minutes for continuous video playback system they run. It’s designed Excellent ★★★★★
PRINTERS AND MFPs
Mono text speed Pages per minute for correspondence-quality text
to test each computer to its limit, using a combination of
Mixed colour speed Pages per minute for presentable text and graphics intensive image-editing, video-encoding and multitasking tests.
The best products can win the
Mono page cost Running costs expressed as pence per page We ran the tests on our reference PC, which has an Intel
Colour page cost Running costs expressed as pence per page following awards:
DIGITAL CAMERAS
Core i5-4670K processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and an AMD
Battery life Number of shots from full charge Radeon R7 260X graphics card. We normalised our results
CAMCORDERS so this PC had a score of 100. This makes it easy to draw
BEST BUY
Battery life Run time in minutes for recording Products with outstanding
comparisons between test systems. quality and performance for the
ROUTERS
Laptop 2.4GHz 5m Mbit/s at 5m with 802.11ac laptop on 2.4GHz band The resulting overall score is shown at the bottom of money win our Best Buy award.
Laptop 2.4GHz 1 floor Mbit/s 1 floor up with 802.11ac laptop on 2.4GHz band every PC and laptop review. As we use the same tests in our
Laptop 2.4GHz Mbit/s 2 floors up with 802.11ac laptop on
2 floors 2.4GHz band standalone and group test reviews, you can compare the
Laptop 5GHz 5m Mbit/s at 5m with 802.11ac laptop on 5GHz band performance of any computer, whether it’s a hybrid,
Laptop 5GHz 1 floor Mbit/s 1 floor up with 802.11ac laptop on 5GHz band
laptop or desktop, from both sections of the magazine.
Laptop 5GHz Mbit/s 2 floors up with 802.11ac laptop on
2 floors 5GHz band
NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE
Large files Average MB/s for read/write of 100MB large files
3D BENCHMARKS RECOMMENDED
Small files Average MB/s for read/write of 100MB small files Products that don’t quite qualify
HARD DISKS DIRT SHOWDOWN for a Best Buy award but are still
Extra large files Average MB/s for read/write of a single 2.5GB file Dirt Showdown is a cracking racing game highly rated by our reviewers.
Large files Average MB/s for read/write of 2.5GB of large files
that makes good use of DirectX 11’s
Small files Average MB/s for read/write of 2.5GB of small files
PROCESSORS
fancy graphical effects. You’ll want at
Windows overall Average speed across numerous demanding tasks least 30fps for smooth racing.
Multitasking Speed when running simultaneous applications
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at 1,280x720, 4xAA, TOMB RAIDER
(720p) High detail
MOTHERBOARDS With the ultra-demanding Super-
Windows overall Average speed across numerous demanding tasks Sampling Anti-Aliasing (SSAA) enabled,
Multitasking Speed when running simultaneous applications 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot is a great
BUSINESS BUY
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at 1,920x1,080, 4xAA, The very best products
indicator of mid-range performance.
(1080p) Ultra detail for work win our
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at 1,280x720, 4xAA, Business Buy award.
(720p) High detail METRO: LAST LIGHT REDUX
GRAPHICS CARDS
Our most demanding graphics test
Dirt Showdown Frames per second at 1,920x1,080, 4x MSAA,
(1080p) Ultra detail uses tessellation, SSAA and massive
Tomb Raider Frames per second at 1,920x1,080, SSAA, Ultra detail textures to give even high-end cards a
Metro: Last Light Frames per second at 1,920x1,080, SSAA, thorough workout.
Redux Very High detail
Product Reviews
Our guide to all the products reviewed
in this month’s Computer Shopper 128
revi ews
Hot Product Networks
Samsung Galaxy S9 22 Tenda Nova MW6 36
Wearables
PCs Storage Fossil Q Control 47
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ 24 Samsung 860 Evo 250GB 38
Apple iMac Pro 26 Software
Smart Home Adobe Premiere Pro
Laptops Apple HomePod 40 CC 2018 50
Acer Swift 3 28
Video Budget Gaming PCs
Components Yi 4K+ 42 Box Cube RedWing 3 80
Cooler Master MasterCase CCL Bazooka 81
H500P Mesh White 30 Handhelds Chillblast Fusion
Sony Xperia XA2 44 Crossbow 82
Displays Huawei P Smart 45 Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX 83
Philips Brilliance Mesh Ryzen Gaming
241B7QPJKEB 32 Audio PC – CS 84
Asus ROG Strix XG32VQ 34 Bose SoundSport Free 46 Palicomp i3 Pulsar 85
PC Specialist Obsidian Elite 86
Printers
Brother MFC-J895DW 92
Canon i-Sensys
MF633Cdw 93
Canon Pixma TS305 94
Epson EcoTank ET-4750 95
Epson Expression
Photo HD XP-15000 96
Epson WorkForce Pro
WF-3720DWF 97
CALL 0330 333 9493 OR SEE PAGE 120 HP Envy Photo 7830 98
HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 99
£969.99 INC
VAT £1199.99 INC
VAT
£819.99 INC
VAT £899.99 INC
VAT
£1,429.99 INC
VAT £1,589.99 INC
VAT
£1,649.99 INC
VAT £1,999.99 INC
VAT
Intel, the Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Free software guide
It’s easy to access your free software. Just go to www.shopperdownload.co.uk/364 and
register with the code from the card insert. Please be aware that you need to have
bought the ‘Free Software Edition’ and not the ‘£4.50 Edition’ to access the downloads
GETTING STARTED
The download instructions on the card O&O SafeErase 11
Professional
insert (overleaf) show you how to
connect to the download site. Make
sure you type in the web address exactly
as shown. You’ll need your coupon code
the first time you log on to the site.
WHEN YOU DELETE a file from your PC, it’s not
ANY PROBLEMS necessarily gone forever. To minimise performance
If you need help with any of the
software this month, please send an
loss, and reduce wear and tear on your hard disk,
email to support@creativemark.co.uk. Windows simply marks the file as deleted. This
We check this inbox regularly. Please means its header is overwritten and the space in
include the issue number of the
magazine and your coupon code.
which it resides is marked as available for writing to.
Until that space is physically overwritten by other
WHY DOWNLOADS
In order to provide us with free data, it remains accessible and retrievable.
software, publishers now require us to This can be a worry for those with sensitive data
offer the applications as a download
they want truly deleted for good. That’s where O&O As for files you’ve already ‘deleted’ in Windows,
and require online registration. You
need to use the unique code printed in SafeErase 11 Professional comes in: it uses methods SafeErase can wipe all that supposedly free space
the box on the card insert to register recognised by the US Department of Defense to delete where the remnants of past files still reside. Rather
and download the software in this
files in such a way that they can never be recovered. than just wipe everything, SafeErase will search for
issue. The unique code means we
stop the deals leaking online, so only SafeErase also includes tools for securely wiping what it considers are unsafe deleted files, speeding
Shopper readers get the software. all traces of your internet browsing, from cookies up the process. You can also delete entire partitions
NO CODE?
and downloaded files to the pages you’ve visited. and hard disks, essential if you’re planning to sell on,
If you don’t have the card insert with the There’s also a component for wiping insecure recycle or otherwise dispose of an old PC or drive.
unique code, you must buy the £4.99 Windows and program files, such as temporary files All of this raw power is wrapped up in a single,
‘Free Software’ print version of the
magazine. If you have this edition and
and Flash Player cookies. simple-to-use interface. Click Start Analysis, and
still don’t have a card, please contact SafeErase will go to work. You can then review its
REQUIREMENTS Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10, 50MB hard disk space
letters@computershopper.co.uk.
WEBSITE www.oo-software.com findings and clean up your PC with a single click or
NOTES Get your registration code at opt to work with specific tools, such as the SafeErase
REGISTER YOUR SOFTWARE safeerase11.disc.computershopper.co.uk
files and folders option for deleting selected files.
BY 17th MAY 2018
FileFusion 2018
IF YOU HAVE a laptop with a small SSD, then you’ll That’s not to say you shouldn’t be careful when
be familiar with the process of having to manually drawing on its more powerful capabilities; when we
delete files on your system to save space. asked FileFusion to scan our entire drive, it found
In many cases, this can be caused by having a lot 600MB of space that could be recovered, but didn’t
of unwanted duplicates, stored across various explain exactly what it had found – in other words,
locations. Because of this, it can take time to find what we’d be deleting. It’s therefore best to stick to
and manually delete them all, especially if they’re searching individual folders, rather than your entire
not obvious duplicates. drive. So, for example, you could get it to scan your
FileFusion is a new file- music files, photos and other
duplication finder that can scan media files to find duplicates,
an entire drive, drive partition or and only remove these.
just a few selected folders to If you’re just in a hurry,
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FileFusion goes far further that will auto-scan your entire
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REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8 or 10,
70MB hard disk space
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NOTES Get your registration code within you don’t need to worry about accidentally delete a file you
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BoostSpeed’s Startup Manager to get a bloated hard disk back can tweak these settings
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Customisation
iolo System Mechanic Free 17.0.1 Windows 8 UX Pack 9.1
Speed up your system with iolo’s PC Get a glimpse of the Windows 10 UI without
optimisation suite. committing to a full OS upgrade.
Rainmeter 4.1 Windows 10 Transformation Pack 7.0
Customise the desktop with your choice Bring some of Windows 10’s new features
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Windows 8 Transformation Pack 9.1 Winstep Xtreme 17.1
Emulate the look of Windows 8 on an Freshen up your system with this suite of
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General
Genie Timeline Free 2017 Protect your UPDATED Screenshot Captor 4.27 Create and
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Paragon Partition Manager 14 Free PC’s installed applications and find any
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all your hard disk’s partitions. ZipGenius 6.3.2.3116 A flexible file-
UPDATED PeaZip 6.5.1 A tremendously compression tool with support for a huge
powerful archive-management tool. number of compressed file formats.
WHEN AN INFLUX of interest in horsepower than we usually do for PC section of the market has seen some big
cryptocurrency mining forced up graphics reviews; the idea is to see how high a standard improvements in the past year, so quad-core
card prices in 2017, we hoped it would just of graphics performance you can get for your chips, which have better multitasking prowess
be a temporary spike. Instead, it’s become a (relatively small amount of) money. than dual-core processors, are even more
sprawling plateau of unaffordability – months That said, we’re sticking to our trusty common than dual-cores. As always, we’ve
have passed and most GPUs are still well benchmark duo of Dirt Showdown and Metro: run our 4K benchmarks to test image editing,
above their pre-mining boom prices, if you Last Light Redux, which will show how well video editing/encoding and multitasking.
can even find them in stock. each system copes with both a fast-paced but In addition, while the CPU won’t be the
Inevitably, this has had a knock-on effect technically undemanding game and a more driving force behind gaming performance
on pre-built gaming PCs, with the price of intensive title that really pushes the GPU. (unless it’s one of AMD’s APUs), it’s still
some systems jumping by triple digits in the Consistently high frame rates at 2,560x1,440 a determining factor: it has to process all
space of a few weeks. There’s rarely been a resolution is asking a bit much at this price, the GPU’s rendering and physics simulation
worse time – well, a more expensive time – to so we’ve focused on 1080p credentials. work, after all. A CPU that can’t keep up
invest in a system that can run games as well For both games, the standards to meet are will ‘bottleneck’ the GPU, preventing you
as it can browsers and office software. a minimum of 30fps and, ideally, 60fps. It might from getting the performance your
All is not lost, however. Lower-end cards be that some settings need to be reduced to graphics hardware is capable of. It’s
haven’t been affected as badly by the price
increases (owing to them not being able to
mine as effectively as mid-range and premium
cards, and thus not being in as high demand),
Quad-core chips, which have better multitasking prowess
and from experience we know these GPUs
can be more than adequate for playing at
than dual-core processors, are now common
1,920x1,080 with at least medium quality
settings. What’s more, AMD has recently meet the latter, which is fine, but the fewer therefore worth ensuring a good balance
launched its Raven Ridge APUs with Radeon sacrifices you have to make, the better. between these two key components.
Vega graphics, which supposedly far exceed We’re also using the SteamVR As for RAM, there’s not much to say.
what we’ve come to expect from the Performance Test benchmark, which runs a You’re going to want 8GB to avoid slowdown
integrated graphics in consumer Intel chips. snippet of Valve’s Aperture Robot Repair while keeping costs low, and that’s exactly
In other words, there’s hope yet for those demo to determine how well a system handles what all these PCs will give, without exception.
who want a reasonably powerful gaming PC virtual reality. Again, don’t expect amazing That said, it’s nice to see DDR4 become the
without bankrupting themselves. For more things, but even some mediocre VR capability new standard for budget rigs. Just three years
proof, look no further than the eight desktop would be a good showing for these PCs. ago this was mainly limited to enthusiast PCs,
systems we’ve reviewed in the pages to come: with the cheaper but slower DDR3 more
all of them have been built with graphical CENTRE OF ATTENTION widespread. Now, DDR4 is bringing its higher
power in mind, and not one costs more than Of course, you shouldn’t forget about CPU throughput to more affordable systems.
£600, including Windows. performance. You won’t be gaming 100%
of the time, and having a fancy graphics DISK AND REWARD
CARD CORE card won’t stop most other Windows Storage shouldn’t be a deal-breaker around
Before we look at which of these are the best, applications running poorly if the other the £600 mark: basic setups, often consisting
consider exactly what you should be looking hardware isn’t up to snuff. of a single hard disk, aren’t exactly below par.
for from a cheap PC. Here, we’re putting At this budget, you’re looking mainly at However, some PCs might go above and
somewhat more of an emphasis on gaming entry-level chips, but happily, this particular beyond, either by including a hybrid SSHD
Essential extras
If you’re buying your first PC, you need the right gear to go with it.
oard and mouse
Here are our picks for a budget-friendly monitor, keyboard
drive – essentially a mechanical hard disk with example, you ever decide that the hard disk is or so, when it comes to connectivity you
a small solid-state cache, which speeds up slowing you down, you could take advantage should be looking for a PC that makes the
access to a handful of favourite apps – or of the case’s empty drive bays (or the M.2 most of the basics. That means using faster
even a small SSD, backed up with a larger slot on certain motherboards) to add a faster USB3 and USB3.1 ports instead of just USB2, a
hard disk to ensure workable capacity. SSD. Or you could simply slide a sound card decent front I/O panel for easier access, and
Obviously, this last option is best, even if or Wi-Fi card into an empty PCI-E slot, up-to-date display connections such as HDMI
CPU and graphical performance take higher adding brand new capabilities without and DisplayPort, not just VGA and DVI.
priority. An SSD will mean Windows boots needing to buy a whole new PC or even Not that you can’t get some nice surprises;
up faster, and applications (including games) take yours to a professional technician. some PCs include a pre-installed 802.11n
take less time to load, so you can spend With that in mind, we’ll also be judging Wi-Fi card, which can be very useful even if
less time waiting and more time enjoying how easy each PC is to upgrade and it isn’t the fastest, while others might offer
your PC. SSHDs can deliver a similar effect, customise, even if – for the first few months something like an SD card slot. These are nice
though not as reliably. of ownership – it might just be hypothetical. little extras if you can get them, not least
The main thing is to make sure you choose Admittedly, even this might involve some because they might be saving you having to
a PC with sufficient capacity, as modern price-induced expectation management, as pay for and install an upgrade in the future.
games can take up huge amounts of storage we’re more likely to see small and thus less VR gaming poses a slight issue: headsets
space. Don’t settle for less than 1TB. well-equipped microATX motherboards, as such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift connect
well as both mini-and mid-tower cases, but via an HDMI port, which most of these PCs
HOME MAKEOVER these should still offer more than a few have only one of. If you want to get into VR
Admittedly, if you’re looking to buy a pre-built ways to enhance your setup. but only have an HDMI cable to connect the
PC, you might not be particularly interested in PC to your monitor, you’ll need to find or buy
opening the side panel and tinkering with WHAT, WHERE AND WIRED a DisplayPort or DVI-D cable and switch. It’s
the parts yourself. However, that leaves a Since asking for things such as hi-fi-quality hardly a complicated workaround, but there’s
world of untapped potential for making the audio outputs and 802.11ac Wi-Fi would be no harm in double-checking if your monitor
system even better in the future. If, for slightly overambitious anywhere under £1,000 came with any more non-HDMI cables.
VERDICT
This otherwise fine PC makes a gamble on integrated Vega graphics that doesn’t quite pay off
THE CUBE REDWING 3 is interesting for This is the lowest possible configuration
a couple of reasons: first, it’s £50 cheaper that Metro’s benchmarking tool allows, and
than the other PCs in this group test, and although it’s a pretty enough game that we
second, it gives us our first look at AMD’s couldn’t call the results ugly, the loss of SSAA
latest Raven Ridge APUs in action. resulted in some unsightly jagged edges.
In this case (no pun intended) it’s the Perhaps predictably, Vega 8 is also no good
Ryzen 3 2200G, something of a successor to for VR. It scored a grand total of zero – yes,
the entry-level Ryzen 3 1200 but with a higher zero – in Valve’s SteamVR Performance Test,
3.5GHz base clock and, most importantly, meaning it won’t even meet the minimum
integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics. AMD has specs for low-quality virtual reality gaming.
promised that this would vastly outperform Judged on its own, the Cube RedWing 3’s
the integrated graphics on comparable Intel non-VR performance isn’t all that bad for
chips, which would need to be true here, as integrated graphics. In fact, by those
the Cube RedWing 3 relies on it entirely – standards it’s rather good: we’ve certainly
there’s no dedicated GPU to be seen. never seen Intel HD Graphics or UHD Graphics
come anywhere near what Vega 8 can do. Intel
CARD DECLINED Iris Plus Graphics 640 can match 30fps in Dirt
Backed up with 8GB of DDR4 memory, could Showdown, but that’s a premium platform applications will get a speed boost. You won’t
the Ryzen 3 2200G do what Intel never could found in far more expensive CPUs. For AMD see this improved quickness in everything,
and make a proper stab at 1080p gaming on a to get that kind of power into a quad-core but it’s certainly preferable to a purely
budget? The answer is ‘sort of’. Starting with chip that costs about £87 at retail is, mechanical hard disk.
Dirt Showdown on Ultra quality, the Cube therefore, a commendable achievement. Another upgrade you won’t have to make
RedWing 3 just makes it into playable territory Unfortunately, there’s also the fact that is Wi-Fi, as the Cube RedWing 3 throws in an
at 30fps. That may seem underwhelming, but for £50 more you could have one of several 802.11n card in one of the PCI-E slots. As ever,
a pleasant surprise was how far it jumps up PCs that do have a dedicated graphics card, this won’t match the Gigabit Ethernet port for
performance-wise when you make some and against this hardware, the Vega 8 can’t speed, but saves a lot of hassle if a wired
relatively minor adjustments: choosing the stand up. All the systems here with at least a connection isn’t feasible.
High quality preset more than doubled the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti – inarguably a budget With its image test score of 100, video test
frame rate, with Dirt running at 68fps. That’s card – can attain well over double the frame score of 103, multitasking score of 98 and
still with the 4x MSAA option enabled, too. rates of what the Cube RedWing 3 can do in overall score of 100 in our benchmarks, the
Sadly, this PC had a much rougher time in both Dirt and Metro, and even make decent Ryzen 3 2200G also impresses on more
Metro: Last Light Redux, managing only 10fps attempts at running VR. It’s simply a case of general performance. Like all budget chips,
with Very High quality and all additional choosing between something that’s capable of it’s not ideal for serious compute loads, but
graphics settings maxed out. We were able to 1080p, and something that’s proficient in it. it should handle some light photo editing as
get it up to a playable 42fps, but the cuts ran well as basic everyday use.
deep: we had to drop down to Low quality, STORED UP
and disable SSAA, AF 4X, tessellation, motion What about that £50 saving? It’s not enough CLIPPED WING
blur and advanced PhysX effects, while turning to factor in a separately purchased graphics It’s a shame that the motherboard’s A320
down texture filtering from AF 16X to AF 4X. card while keeping to a £600 budget, but it chipset doesn’t allow overclocking, as this
does give you a bit of extra would have been a free way to squeeze more
flexibility when making power out of the APU, both for general and
upgrades elsewhere. gaming purposes. It’s a basic board in general,
Storage, for example: with with a single PCI-E slot, two PCI-E x2 and RAM
that spare cash, you could slots each, and even an old PCI slot. You also
easily pick up a 120GB SSD only get three storage bays in total, two taking
for better performance 3.5in drives and one holding a 2.5in drive.
from some choice External connectivity is a bit better, with a
applications, or possibly a USB3.1 port as well as two USB2 and three
3.5in hard disk if you just USB3 ports at the back, as well as one extra
want more capacity. USB2 and USB3 each on the front panel.
Not that this PC is We’re not sure about the single HDMI, DVI-D
lacking for space to begin and VGA video outputs, though – a
with, however. If anything, DisplayPort would have been better than
the Cube RedWing 3’s 2TB using the ageing VGA connector.
SSHD is one of its best This is a good system in many ways, and in
features: masses of room other situations the Ryzen APU’s graphical
to save games, programs abilities would have impressed. Still, even if
and big files, integrating a this technically fits the bill as a 1080p gaming
small solid-state cache so rig, it’s worth spending the full £600 to get
that your most-used one with a superior, dedicated GPU.
CCL Bazooka
★★★★★
£600 • From www.cclonline.com
VERDICT
It’s a bit plain, but the Bazooka’s gaming prowess and built-in Wi-Fi display a quiet confidence
THERE’S NOTHING TOO fancy about the PhysX effects, we got it up to 66fps without
CCL Bazooka, and certainly nothing fancy doing unreasonable damage to the game’s
about how it looks. Everything is contained looks. We didn’t even need to turn off SSAA,
within a plain black Thermaltake Versa H17 so corners and edges remained smooth.
case, with no side windows or flashy lighting. Playing in VR is possible, although as with
The closest it comes to extravagance is the Metro you’ll need to make some graphical
slight faux-brushed aluminium effect on the adjustments to get most games running at
plastic front panel. high frame rates. That’s according to the
However, inside are some tried-and-trusted SteamVR Performance Test, which awarded
components, including a 4GB GeForce GTX the Bazooka a score of 3.3 out of 11. That
1050 Ti – the best-performing budget GPU on might sound terrible, but it just means the
the market – and a dual-core, four-thread Intel PC is capable of VR gaming rather than
Core i3-7100, along with 8GB of DDR4 RAM. excellent at it. A more urgent concern might
It’s hard not to be wistful for the (significantly be the graphics card’s single HDMI port; if
stronger) Coffee Lake Core i3-8100, but we’ve you’re using a VR headset, it will most likely
no specific gripes with this Kaby Lake chip need to plug in here, so if you only have an
and its relatively high 3.9GHz clock speed. HDMI cable for your monitor, you’ll need to lack of front-mounted fans at least means
switch to DisplayPort or DVI-D. it’s easy to slide in a watercooling radiator.
ROCKET PROPELLED Otherwise, the Bazooka delivers exactly The lower airflow doesn’t seem to cause
It’s the graphics card we’re here for, though, what we want from a £600 gaming PC: 1080p problems, either: the CPU, despite only using
and the MSI-built GTX 1050 Ti put up an proficiency at both medium and high settings. Intel’s low-profile stock cooler, peaked at a
expectedly good showing in our 1,920x1,080 perfectly healthy 63°C during our benchmarks.
gaming benchmarks. Dirt Showdown ran just THREAD LETTER DAY It runs surprisingly quietly, too – more so than
fine with Ultra-quality settings enabled, CPU performance is harder to get enthusiastic most PCs with simple air coolers.
averaging 72fps – that’s more than slick about, but it’s acceptable. The Core i3-7100 While it’s not a full-sized ATX
enough for a fast-paced racer such as this, managed scores of 97 in our 4K image-editing motherboard, at least CCL has avoided
and bodes very well for how the Bazooka test, 72 in the video test and 65 in the wasting any space by putting it inside a
handles less demanding 3D games. multitasking test, for an overall score of 73. suitable compact mini-tower case. Despite
In Metro: Last Light Redux, using the Very Besides the low core and thread count this, there’s workable scope for adding
high preset with all other settings enabled or making it somewhat averse to heavy storage, with two 2.5in drive mounts and two
turned up to max, the Bazooka had a much multitasking – which is understandable at this 3.5in mounts built into the chassis. Only one
tougher time. It produced 29fps, which might price – the Bazooka will serve you well for of these, of the latter, is already occupied.
be playable during quieter moments, but everyday use and, most importantly, does a
scenes with a lot of onscreen characters and good job of enabling the GTX 1050 Ti to tick CABLE CUTTER
effects caused some chugging. The good along without hindrance. It can’t compete with The rear I/O panel gets by with the bare
news is that rectifying this is a piece of cake: the application performance of the Mesh minimum of four USB ports – two USB2, two
by simply dropping down to Medium settings, Ryzen Gaming PC – CS and its hexa-core USB3 – and the graphics card does similar,
and disabling both tessellation and advanced Ryzen 5 1600, but it’s far ahead of the PC offering a single HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI-D
Specialist Obsidian Elite in output apiece. Since modern peripherals won’t
the same kinds of tasks. work with the two PS/2 ports without an
Elsewhere, it’s obvious adaptor, you’ll most likely need to resort to the
where savings have been single USB3 and two USB2 ports on the front.
made. The 1TB hard disk is However, at the back, you’ll also find a
almost as basic as storage welcome little extra: antenna points for the
can get, and the microATX 802.11n Wi-Fi card, installed in the second
motherboard lacks niceties PCI-E x1 slot. There is a Gigabit Ethernet jack,
such as a second PCI-E x16 of course, but this added wireless capability
slot or an M.2 slot for could be very handy for those whose desk is
NVMe SSD or Intel Optane too far away from the router, and don’t have
Memory drives. There’s the mesh or Powerline hardware that would
also no intake fan, leaving allow for a wired connection.
a conspicuously empty This inclusion shows that even with a few
void at the front of the small niggles, and a general lack of flair
internal chamber. (though depending on your tastes, that might
Still, even these points be no bad thing), a lot of thought has been
come with upsides: that put into designing and building the Bazooka.
motherboard, for example, The result is a very good budget gaming PC,
still provides a PCI-E x1 slot and if that’s not enough, for the time being
and a spare RAM slot for you can get a digital copy of PlayerUnknown’s
future upgrades, and the Battlegrounds thrown in as well.
VERDICT
This pint-sized PC sticks to cheap components, while showing why that’s not always a bad thing
CHILLBLAST IS FOND of the CiT F3 mini-tower Showdown benchmarks, just 3fps higher than
case; this is something like the third budget the Bazooka, while Metro: Last Light Redux
Chillblast PC we’ve tested to arrive inside that returned a precisely equal 29fps on the Very
aggressively angled chassis, this time wearing High setting and 66fps with medium quality,
a bold green-and-black colour scheme. tessellation off and advanced PhysX disabled.
That’s not a complaint, as the F3 is one of There was also only a 0.1 score difference
our favourite low-cost cases for microATX in the SteamVR Performance Test, this time in
systems. Besides being nice and compact, with the Bazooka’s favour: the Fusion Crossbow
minimal wasted space, it has the rare quality ended with a result of 3.2, so it too will be able
of built-in SD and microSD card readers, to run medium-quality VR games at 90fps or
positioned conveniently on the front I/O panel above. All in all, that’s another impressive set
alongside two USB2 and one USB3 ports. This of results from a great budget GPU.
is no image-editing rig, but the ability to slide Any slight differences can be pinned on the
in an SD card should be welcome to anyone CPUs involved, although while the single-core
who owns a digital camera, and the microSD focus of Intel’s Kaby Lake chips (like the Core
slot could also come in handy for transferring i3-7100) has historically made them better-
files to and from a smartphone or tablet. suited for gaming than Ryzen, there’s no such
The only thing we’re not sold on is the advantage here. In fact, the Fusion Crossbow’s
somewhat garish green, which extends to the score of 93 in our 4K benchmark’s image test can mount a number of hard disks and SSDs
lighting on the front intake and rear exhaust is just four points behind the Bazooka’s. comparable to that of larger mid-towers. In
fans. It even clashes with the red (by default) What’s more, the Ryzen 3 1200 proved other words, the Fusion Crossbow can hold
lighting on the AMD Wraith Spire air cooler, itself far superior in multithreaded tasks, two 3.5in drives (including the existing SSHD),
though since this is RGB, you can change it to scoring 93 in the video test and 92 in the plus up to three 2.5in drives. To make use of
whatever hue you wish via software. multitasking test, for a good overall score of all three, however, you’d need to remove the
92. Admittedly, this is still behind PCs that 24-pin power connector that’s been threaded
ARMS RACE use the 1200’s successor, the Ryzen 3 2200G through a hole beneath where the drive would
As the cooler implies, this is an AMD-based (such as the Box Cube RedWing 3 and the sit. The cherry on top is an M.2 slot on the
PC, with a 3.1GHz quad-core Ryzen 3 1200 and Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX), as well as the motherboard, perfect for an ultra-fast SSD or
a GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. It’s the very same Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker, which overclocks its Intel Optane Memory. Then again, the latter
graphics card as the CCL Bazooka: MSI’s own 1200 to 3.7GHz. Even so, it’s a spirited wouldn’t make so much sense when there’s
shrunken GeForce GTX 1050 Ti LP. attempt by an entry-level, stock speed CPU, already an SSD cache on the main drive.
Accordingly, the two are almost identical in and will serve perfectly well for both 1080p Unsurprisingly, there’s not much room
terms of 1080p performance. The Fusion gaming and everyday home use. elsewhere on the board for expansions, save
Crossbow produced 75fps in our Dirt for a single PCI-E x1 slot (there is another,
CACHE IN HAND but it’s rendered inaccessible by the graphics
Also of note is the use of an card). We’re glad that the rear I/O panel
SSHD drive, rather than a focuses on faster USB3 ports more than
simple hard disk. For most USB2: there are four of the former and two
file transfers, it’s not of the latter. As with the CCL Bazooka, the
quick – we recorded a graphics card provides only one HDMI
sequential read speed of output, one DisplayPort connector and one
just 70.61MB/s, though DVI-D socket, so you’ll have to be sparing
the sequential write speed with extra monitors or VR headsets.
of 157.85MB/s was better
– but it seemed to help PLUG AND PLAY
open folders and games a That’s probably fine if you’re in the budget
little quicker once we’d end of the PC market, and with those extra
used them a few times. USB ports and card reader slots at the front,
The 1TB capacity is fine, this is one of the better £600 PCs for stuffing
too, but if you’re looking with peripherals and removable storage.
for the best storage Even so, it’s not these little things that
setup at this price, the make the Fusion Crossbow such a good
Ultra 3 GTX and Mesh’s system: it’s the balance of CPU and GPU
Ryzen Gaming PC – CS power. It’s not quite an award-winner, as it
both have proper SSD/ doesn’t truly excel in any specific area – the
hard disk combos. Palicomp i3 Pulsar is slightly faster in games,
While we’re on the while the Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC – CS beats it
subject, one of the other on mixed processing speed and storage – but
things we’ve always liked this remains a pretty good bet if you’d prefer
about the CiT F3 is that it something more compact. Or green.
VERDICT
The balance of processing, gaming and storage performance make this a fantastic all-rounder
FOLLOWING ON FROM the Cube RedWing Also right on par was its Metro: Last Light
3, this is another PC built around AMD’s Redux performance, averaging 27fps on Very
Vega-infused Ryzen 3 2200G APU. For the High settings. It’s somewhat easier to notice
Ultra 3 GTX, Cyberpower has wisely opted to small frames-per-second differences at these
pass on integrated graphics and include what lower levels, so for best results you’ll want to
is evidently the graphics card du jour, the MSI tone things down. At medium quality with
4GB MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti LP. tessellation and advanced PhysX off, the Ultra
Once again, the Ryzen 3 2200G together 3 GTX managed an agreeable 63fps, pretty
with the expected 8GB of DDR4 RAM much what we’d want from the hardware.
manages to pierce the 100-point barrier in On the other hand, its SteamVR
our 4K benchmarks, scoring 104 in the image Performance Test score of 2.7 was a bit lower
test, 105 in the video test, 101 in the than we anticipated, considering those PCs
multitasking test and 103 overall. with the same GPU got 3.2 to 3.3 in the same
That’s better than what you’d get from benchmark. Still, even a score like this is
either a stock-speed Ryzen 3 1200 or Intel’s enough for medium-quality VR in most games,
Core i3-7100, thanks to having higher clock so it’s a workable PC for that particular niche.
speeds than the former and more physical Either way, it’s clearly multiple steps up
cores than the latter, albeit a little lower than from simply relying on the Ryzen APU’s
the more recent Core i3-8100 found in the integrated graphics, not least since – unlike To be sure, one of the reasons it was so
Palicomp i3 Pulsar and far below that of the the graphics card-deprived Cube RedWing 3 crucial for the Ultra 3 GTX to nail its storage
Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC – CS and its – this PC is actually able to run VR in the first out of the box is that there isn’t much scope
budget-defying, hexa-core Ryzen 5 1600. We’d place. Overall, for 1080p gaming, the Ultra 3 to add more in the future. Both of the two
stick to relatively simple workloads on this, GTX doesn’t diverge from rival GTX 1050 dual-purpose 2.5/3.5in trays come occupied,
but making quick tweaks to pictures and Ti-based systems (other than the i3 Pulsar, leaving just one additional 2.5in mount, which
juggling a few different windows will be fine. with its factory overclocking) in any affixes the drive to the internal chassis by way
meaningful way, and that’s just fine by us. of a little remove cage.
GTX FACTOR The motherboard isn’t much for
Those higher clock speeds don’t translate DOUBLE ACT customisation, either. It’s a microATX board
into improved gaming performance, although Where this system stands out, in the best inside an ATX-compatible mid-tower case,
that’s probably because the GTX 1050 Ti can possible way, is its storage. While most cheap and has no unused PCI-E x16 or RAM slots
run at its best – without bottlenecking – even Windows desktops will get by with just a you can easily slip new components into
on a slower processor. Thus, in Dirt mechanical hard disk, or perhaps an SSHD yourself. The only thing you could add without
Showdown, the Ultra 3 GTX produced a hybrid drive, this gives you a proper 2.5in SSD. taking something else out is a single PCI-E
smooth 72fps, which looks visually indistinct It delivers the goods on speed, which we device, and the lack of an M.2 slot means that
to the 75fps of the Chillblast Fusion Crossbow measured in AS SSD as 500.66MB/s read and as good as the existing SSD is, you’ll only ever
and is dead even with the CCL Bazooka. 433.50MB/s write, and its 120GB capacity is know SATA-limited speeds.
enough for Windows and
a few favourite games MASTER OF SOME
or other programs, External connectivity is quite serviceable,
ensuring they’ll cut down with the rear panel containing two USB2
on time spent waiting for ports, four USB3 ports, a PS/2 socket,
them to load up. Ethernet jack, standard 3.5mm audio jacks
That much space and three display outputs: one HDMI,
wouldn’t be enough for DisplayPort and dual-link DVI-D connector
long-term use, but that’s each. Rounding things off are the two USB3
where the 1TB hard disk ports at the front; it’s hard not to wish for
comes in, providing plenty more, but at least they’re not just USB2.
of room for less-used If it weren’t for the Ryzen Gaming PC – CS
applications as well as all with its muscular Ryzen 5 1600 CPU, not to
your photos, videos and mention an SSD/hard disk duo of its own, the
music files. It’s not as Ultra 3 GTX would be in with a very good
flashy a quality as blazing shout of being the best PC here. Luckily, it’s
gaming performance or still an excellent choice, especially if you’re
workstation-grade not interested in the kind of things a more
processing power, but this powerful processor would benefit most, such as
genuinely is about the best media editing and encoding. Whether booting
storage configuration you up markedly faster than its hard disk-based
can expect at this kind of rivals or barrelling through Dirt Showdown on
price. Only the Mesh Ryzen maxed settings, simply using the Ultra 3 GTX
Gaming PC – CS rivals it. is rarely anything other than a pleasure.
VERDICT
Just as good as its rivals for gaming, but its Ryzen 5 processor takes things up a level
IN TERMS OF cold, hard specs, the Ryzen A320 chipset playing ball, although you should
Gaming PC – CS looks a titan among budget be wary of two things: first, only the stock
PCs. Besides the SSD/hard disk combination, Wraith Spire air cooler is installed, which will
a rare quality shared only by Cyberpower’s chill modest overclocks but at the cost of
Ultra 3 GTX, it has something we never fan noise; and second, Ryzen 5 chips don’t
thought we’d seen in a system this cheap: get anywhere near the performance
the hexa-core AMD Ryzen 5 1600. improvements you’d see from overclocking a
This is a bona fide mid-range CPU, sitting Ryzen 7. Still, that we’re even comparing
below only the 1600X in the Ryzen 5 range; something in this PC to a high-end component
an echelon above the Ryzen 3 and Core i3 is testament to how good it is for the money.
families. Mesh has teamed it up with 8GB of The only thing for which the Ryzen 5 1600
RAM and – surprise, surprise – a 4GB GeForce isn’t significantly better than a Ryzen 3 or
GTX 1050 Ti: this time, a miniature Asus Core i3 chip is 1080p gaming, although it’s no
model, albeit not the same as the overclocked worse either. The Ryzen Gaming PC – CS
Asus card in the Palicomp i3 Pulsar. performed almost exactly the same in our
gaming tests as most other PCs with the
FIFTH GEAR same underlying graphics processor, with
Other than the odd hiccup, which we’ll get to 73fps in Dirt Showdown on Ultra quality.
shortly, we’re happy to report that the Ryzen
Gaming PC – CS realises the lofty promise of LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The drive appeared to work fine otherwise,
its hardware. Scoring 116 in the image test of Metro: Last Light Redux also presented a reaching a competitive measured sequential
our 4K benchmarks, as well as a mighty 163 in familiar routine, hitting 28fps on Very High read speed of 502.47MB/s, and since read
the video test and 193 in the multitasking test, quality and 65fps on Medium with tessellation speeds determine things such as how long
Mesh’s system came out with an overall score and advanced PhysX disabled. Finally, the it takes Windows to boot and the load
of 170, beating the i3 Pulsar by a monumental SteamVR Performance Test returned a decent times in games, we didn’t notice any further
58 points and more than tripling the PC 2.9. Since we’re already well past the point of problems in everyday use.
Specialist Obsidian Elite’s final mark. repeating ourselves, the Ryzen Gaming PC – CS The spacious mid-tower case has a decent
The multithreaded performance is is yet another PC that can take care of 1080p amount of room for adding further drives:
particularly distinct from any entry-level CPU business on medium, high or very high there’s a three-bay 3.5in cage under the PSU
or APU, with the Ryzen Gaming PC – CS being settings, and extend to medium-quality VR, shroud, only one of which is taken, and a
about twice as good at most of these other should you own a suitable headset. second 2.5in drive can be mounted to the
PCs at intensive multitasking. Storage looks like a cut above, too: it internal chassis. You can even add in a
All of this is achieved with the Ryzen 5 matches the brilliant Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX couple of 5.25in drives, although only one
1600 running at its stock speeds: 3.2GHz per by having both a 120GB SSD for Windows and is accessible from the outer front panel;
core with a 3.6GHz Precision Boost that kicks some choice applications, and a 1TB HDD for essential for things such as DVD and Blu-ray
in when there’s sufficient thermal headroom. more general-purpose file saving. We’ve said it drives or multicard readers. The second is
You can overclock it, thanks to the chip’s before and we’ll say it again, these specs are a internal only, which makes it suitable to be
unlocked multiplier and the motherboard’s standard to aspire to, at least when you’re turned into an extra storage drive bay through
below the £900-£1,000 region. the installation of an adaptor bracket.
The Ryzen Gaming PC – CS
deserves credit for squeezing CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
both drives in, despite the CPU The microATX motherboard might not make
presumably taking a big chunk the most of the case size, but it is well
out of its production budget. equipped, with one spare PCI-E x1, a full three
However, we did have the spare RAM slots and one unused M.2 slot. On
misfortune of receiving a review the back, there’s a healthy mix of four USB3
sample with a seemingly faulty and two USB3.1 ports (a further two USB2
SSD; essentially, we measured ports and a single USB3 are located on the
its sequential write speed as front), with two PS/2 sockets and an Ethernet
varying between 70MB/s and jack joining them. It’s the usual suspects for
90MB/s, far below what’s video card connectivity, with one HDMI port,
typical of a SATA-based SSD. one DisplayPort output and a DVI-D jack.
A bit of research revealed that Besides the unfortunate write speed issue,
the drive in question, the WD which probably won’t even affect most people,
Green, has presented the same this is a superbly well-rounded PC for £600.
problem to many people who True, we originally set out specifically in
have bought it separately, search of graphical power, but it’s the Ryzen
pointing to this being a Gaming PC – CS’s ability to deliver this while
manufacturing defect rather simultaneously offering a potent mid-range
than a mistake on Mesh’s part. CPU that makes it Best Buy material.
PALICOMP i3 Pulsar
★★★★★
£600 • From www.palicomp.co.uk
VERDICT
Upping the graphics card’s clock speeds is a winning tactic for this powerful system
CPU OVERCLOCKING CAN be a cost-free single digits, which doesn’t amount to a visible
way of boosting your PC’s performance, and difference. That’s not to put down its quality:
as long as you don’t push the chip too far, it’s 30fps on Very High settings is very good, as
easier and less risky than you might think. is its 69fps on Medium settings with both
GPU overclocking isn’t much different, but it’s tessellation and advanced PhysX switched off.
usually possible simply to buy a card that’s Its SteamVR Performance Test score of
been pre-overclocked by the manufacturer. 3.7 is also very high by the underlying GPU’s
However, this service inevitably means the standards, even if it’s middling in the grander
card will cost more, which is probably why so PC scheme. Although you’ll still need to stick
far we haven’t yet seen one of these cheap with medium-ish settings to get smooth
PCs include an overclocked graphics card. frame rates in virtual-reality games, you
That changes with the Palicomp i3 Pulsar, should be able to get away with one or two
which comes with a 4GB Asus Cerberus higher settings than with the Cyberpower
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition. Ultra 3 GTX (which scored 2.7) or the Pyro
Also of note is the Intel Core i3-8100 CPU, Strkyer (which scored 3.0).
which means we at last have one of Intel’s It was a mild surprise that Dirt Showdown
latest Coffee Lake chips in the midst. This ups benefitted more from the GPU overclock than
the number of physical cores from two (on Metro. Typically, it’s the latter that’s more
the Core i3-7100) to four, so we’ll be looking singularly dependent on graphical power,
for better multithreaded performance than whereas Dirt also leans heavily on CPU It also uses the high-end Z370 chipset,
the CCL Bazooka in our 4K benchmarks. speed. Still, the i3 Pulsar is comfortably up in not the mid-range B250 or budget H110.
the top tier of gaming capability for £600, so Admittedly, most of this chipset’s advantages
BOOST INTENTIONS we have no complaints there. don’t come into play with the locked-down
First, let’s see how that overclocked GPU Core i3-8100, but should you ever update to
stacks up. In Dirt Showdown, the i3 Pulsar GIVE IT THE BEANS an unlocked, overclockable CPU, you’ll already
managed an excellent 88fps, making it the As for that Coffee Lake chip, not only did it have a motherboard that supports doing so.
first GTX 1050 Ti system here to break past thrash the Bazooka’s Kaby Lake in our Since this PC shares the same case as
75fps. If you’re playing on a 120Hz or 144Hz benchmarks, it also helped the i3 Pulsar edge Cyberpower’s, it shares the same strengths
monitor, the game should look a tiny bit ahead of all the Ryzen 3-based competition as and weaknesses. On the upside, the chassis
smoother than it would on, say, the Chillblast well. Specifically, it scored a decent 102 in the provides two speedy USB3 ports on the front,
Fusion Crossbow or Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker, image test, a good 113 in the video test and a plus ample cooling/radiator upgrade potential,
and it’s an impressive 23fps faster than the great 114 in the multitasking test, for 112 not to mention good looks inside and out.
PC Specialist Obsidian Elite. However, as overall. That represents the kind of all-round However, there’s also a lack of storage space:
we’ve seen, that PC’s GTX 1060 is hampered everyday proficiency you could have expected just two 3.5in trays, with a single 2.5in bracket.
considerably by its weak CPU. from certain Core i5 chips this time last year.
The i3 Pulsar is also slightly better in Only the Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC – CS does THE HARD WAY
Metro: Last Light Redux than its GTX 1050 Ti significantly better, with its Ryzen 5 1600, and Next to all the SSHD and SSD-plus-hard disk
peers, but this time it’s only by frames in the even that doesn’t help it overcome the i3 configurations in this group test, the i3
Pulsar’s advantage in games Pulsar’s sole mechanical hard disk also looks
(for other single-core tasks it like one of the poorer – or, at least, slower –
is slightly more efficient). options. Fortunately, it’s a 2TB drive, so you
Yet another distinct quality get a vast capacity for files and games even if
of Palicomp’s PC is that it you don’t get fast booting and loading times.
makes the most of its Rear connectivity is fairly standard, too,
ATX-compatible case – the with two USB2 ports, four USB3 ports and
Cooler Master Masterbox one PS/2 port for peripherals. A Gigabit
Lite 5, the same as the Ultra 3 Ethernet port serves for networking, audio is
GTX – with a full-size ATX handled by the typical line-in, line-out and
motherboard, rather than microphone 3.5mm jacks, while the choice of
making do with a microATX video outputs is the same as on any GTX 1050
model to cut costs. As a result, Ti: one HDMI, one DisplayPort and one DVI-D.
it’s relatively overflowing with Of course, the i3 Pulsar’s true strengths
spare slots and expansion are found back on the inside. Even if it’s only
opportunities: there’s one empty by small margins, that overclocked graphics
PCI-E x16 slot, two M.2 slots and card makes this PC one of the best for
a generous four PCI-E slots all straight-up gaming power. The Obsidian Elite
ripe for the taking, along with performs better in certain situations, but the
two of its four RAM slots, the i3 Pulsar beats it in others, and this comes
other two being occupied with with a far stronger processor and more
8GB of DDR4 memory. upgrade-friendly motherboard to boot.
VERDICT
Bottlenecking is a problem for this GTX 1060-based PC, but not enough to spoil it completely
A CURIOUS THING is happening to the Nvidia same conditions, mainly because Metro is
GeForce GTX 1060: as the card itself continues more GPU-reliant while Dirt Showdown
to suffer from sky-high price inflation, the leans more heavily on the CPU.
amount you have to pay for a PC with one Our attempts to boost the frame rate still
already installed seems to be getting lower. seemed to point towards a bottlenecking
First there was the £670 Medion Erazer effect, as dropping to High settings only saw
P4408 D (Shopper 361), now there’s the £599 an improvement to 42fps, and sacking the
PC Specialist Obsidian Elite, which, like the graphics almost completely – choosing Low
Medion, packs the 3GB version of Nvidia’s settings, reducing texture filtering quality, and
mid-ranger. That’s hardly a huge compromise, disabling both tessellation and advanced
as most in-game benchmarks put the 3GB PhysX – got us to a mere 52fps. Consider that
GPU only a handful of frames per second the GTX 1050 Ti-powered CCL Bazooka, to
behind its bigger 6GB brother. name but one, managed 66fps while sticking
Before you get too excited, however, take to Medium quality, and suddenly the Obsidian
note of which CPU it’s being paired with: the Elite’s initial victory seems rather hollow.
AMD Athlon X4 950. For all its encouraging This is a budget rig, so it would be
specs, such as its four cores, 3.5GHz base and unreasonable to ask that both the GPU
3.8GHz boost speed, it’s still a £50 Bristol and CPU come from the mid-range market.
Ridge chip that was first released to OEMs all And, to be fair, the Obsidian Elite is
the way back in 2016. A good graphics card inarguably a competent 1080p gaming PC, games, and there’s a very decent amount of
needs a CPU that can keep pace, so is this which is precisely what we’re looking for. room to add more. Specifically, the case
entry-level processor up the challenge? But the fact remains that even a GTX 1050 provides mounts and trays for up to an
Ti-based system, like several within these additional two 2.5in drives, one 3.5in drive and
ON THE LEASH very pages, can do even better – and that’s two 5.25in drives, these being perfect for
Our game tests suggest that sadly, it isn’t. a disappointment, even if it doesn’t present Blu-ray drives or multicard readers. There’s
Take the Obsidian Elite’s run through Dirt practical problems. also an M.2 slot on the motherboard, which
Showdown on Ultra settings, in which it There is one exception, though: VR gaming. could potentially be filled with Intel Optane
produced 65fps. That sounds OK – enough to The Obsidian Elite’s SteamVR Performance Memory to give the current hard disk a boost.
max out a 60Hz monitor, in fact – until you Test score of 7 is well ahead of its budget Speaking of the motherboard, it’s a
remember that a 3GB GTX 1060 can manage GPU-equipped rivals, so Oculus Rift and HTC microATX model, so upgradability is otherwise
almost twice that if it isn’t being shackled by Vive owners will get much smoother play limited; there are no free RAM slots, and only
a weak CPU. We’ve seen this in the Erazer out of this PC in particular. It’s a niche one of the two unused PCI-E x1 slots are
P4408 D, which thanks in part to its Intel Core application, but one in which the GTX 1060 accessible, the other being obscured by the
i5-7400 got to 119fps in the same test. finally shows what it can do. graphics card. Still, it imparts a healthy two
It should be said that in Metro: Last Light USB2 and four USB3 ports to the rear, as
Redux, the Obsidian Elite came much closer to BRISTOL FASHION well as Ethernet, two PS/2 sockets and
what we’d expect from the GTX 1060, scoring As for how the X4 950 performs by itself – or standard 3.5mm audio jacks. Via the
38fps on maxed-out settings. You won’t see at least, with 8GB of DDR4 RAM – it scored 66 graphics card, you have a choice of three
any lower-end cards hitting that under the in our image test, 56 in the video test, 47 in DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI connector
the multitasking test and 53 and one DVI-D socket. A second HDMI would
overall. It’s not a terrible have been nice, but it’s fine nonetheless.
set of results for a £50
chip, being on a par with a MAKING THE UPGRADE
premium ultra-portable Ultimately, we’re still a bit sore over seeing
laptop, but you can get a how the CPU essentially holds back the GTX
lot more heft from a Core 1060 from its true potential: a £599 PC with
i3 or a Ryzen 3. You may this card running at full whack could have
find Windows becomes a been the deal of the century.
tad less responsive if The realities of cheap PC construction may
you’re juggling lots of have got in the way of this dream, but perhaps
different programs. all is not lost. Even if the X4 950 can’t hold a
Don’t expect candle to Ryzen, it uses the same AM4 socket
tremendous speeds and compatible A320 chipset, so you could
from the storage, either, hypothetically swap it out for a Ryzen 3
as it’s a straightforward 1300X or even a Ryzen 5 1400. This would
mechanical hard disk. give you much better combined CPU and GPU
On the bright side, it’s a performance, for much less than it would cost
big one, providing 2TB to upgrade to a GTX 1060 in any of these
of space for all your other £600 PCs. On these grounds, it’s a
applications, files and viable, if not strictly ideal, long-term option.
VERDICT
Besides a deftly overclocked CPU, the Pyro Stryker is happy to play things safe
THIS DINKY LITTLE desktop is even shorter Switching to our CPU-focused 4K tests,
top-to-bottom than the Chillblast Fusion the Pyro Stryker scored highly, ending with
Crossbow, but don’t be fooled: the key 105 in the image test, 108 in the video test
internals are no less competitive. Besides the and 105 in the multitasking test. This
not-at-all-surprising-at-this-point GTX 1050 Ti produced an overall score of 106, which –
graphics card, Wired2Fire has included the judging by the Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX – puts
quad-core Ryzen 3 1200 and gone a step the overclocked Ryzen 3 1200 very slightly
further by overclocking it up to 3.7GHz. ahead of its replacement Ryzen 3 2200G when
Despite this clever touch, because the the latter is running at stock speeds.
Cooler Master Masterbox Lite 3 case mounts True, the Palicomp i3 Pulsar and Mesh
the PSU at the top, without a shroud, this PC Ryzen Gaming PC – CS both come out ahead
has more of an overtly ‘budget’ look than the in a direct comparison – these are powered
others. Exacerbating things are the plain black by an Intel Core i3-8100 and a Ryzen 5 1600
styling and the numerous cables at the bottom, respectively – but we admire the Pyro
visible through the small plastic side window. Stryker’s otherwise successful attempt to
make up for its modest stock performance
CLAIM TO GAME with overclocking trickery. A clock speed of
Still, this is a gaming PC, not a fashion 3.7GHz isn’t even the highest a Ryzen 3 1200
accessory, and on those grounds it does well. can go, either, but perhaps it was wise not to
Its 74fps in Dirt Showdown, running on the aim for something like 3.9GHz or 4.0GHz
usual Ultra preset, is very much on a par with considering that the chip is only being cooled Masterbox Lite 3’s minimal drive capacity: it
the other PCs reviewed here, with only the by a basic Wraith Spire air cooler. has just one dedicated 3.5in and 2.5in tray
Palicomp i3 Pulsar managing to beat it to a apiece, and the latter is awkwardly placed
degree you could see with the naked eye. SLIM FIT underneath the former, so installing an SSD
In Metro: Last Light Redux, it falls just For the record, however, you can tinker is much fiddlier than usual. The good news is
short of our recommended 30fps on Very with the core multiplier yourself, should that there’s also a 5.25in drive bay, something
High quality, although its average of 28fps you so wish; the microATX motherboard’s that’s either been forgotten about or wilfully
wasn’t too far off by any means. Getting it to B350M chipset does allow it. What this ignored on many modern chassis designs.
a smoother, more easily playable standard board doesn’t allow much of is physical This can also hold one extra 3.5in drive or two
was easy, with a quick drop to Medium upgradability, as there’s no room for a 2.5in drives, pushing the theoretical maximum
quality (and turning off both tessellation and second PCI-E x16 slot, and one of the two up to a half-decent four, although ideally this
advanced PhysX effects) yielding a slick 64fps. PCI-E x1 slots is obscured by the GPU. wouldn’t require sacrificing the ability to have
VR capability is so-so, judging by the On the other hand, there are a couple of a front-accessible optical drive.
score of 3.0 in the SteamVR Performance positive points for a motherboard of this size:
Test, but as with all PCs landing in the 2.5 to instead of just two RAM slots, you get four, CLEAN FREAK
3.5 range, that’s good enough to run most and three of these can be added to without As simple as it is in some respects, it would
virtual-reality games without having to make having to toss out an existing stick of DDR4. be unfair to characterise this is an utterly
excessive cuts to visual quality. There’s also an M.2 slot, for an NVMe SSD or basic budget case. The two USB ports on top,
Intel Optane Memory drive. for instance, use the faster USB3 standard,
The latter in particular rather than USB2, and we like that there’s
might be a wise purchase in a magnetically attached dust filter behind
the future, as the Pyro the front panel. It’s easy to remove, and
Stryker comes with only a thus easy to scrub regularly.
1TB hard disk. Adding a The motherboard also deserves credit for
cache would therefore be its rear I/O panel, which ditches USB2 entirely
an easier and more cost- for a mix of four USB3 ports and two USB3.1
effective way of giving this ports. That’s on top of two PS/2 connectors,
mechanical drive a speed 3.5mm audio jacks and an Ethernet socket,
boost than buying an SSD plus one HDMI port, one DisplayPort output
and moving your entire and one DVI-D socket.
Windows installation to it, All things considered, the Pyro Stryker’s
although to be fair, the pre-overclocked CPU is about the closest it
hard disk posted some comes to standing out; it performs well across
relatively fast file-transfer the board, to be sure, but it doesn’t have the
speeds in AS SSD, with a best performance, the best storage or the best
sequential read speed of design, nor an exceptional combination of any
190.14MB/s and a sequential of these factors. That makes it difficult to
write speed of 158.27MB/s. advocate over the Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC – CS
Using the M.2 slot would or Palicomp i3 Pulsar, but at least this PC
also help deal with the doesn’t have any serious weaknesses either.
BENCHMARKS
Dirt Showdown (fps) SteamVR Performance Test
Even with its fast pace and rough-and-tumble physics, This benchmark plays a two-minute VR demo and scores the
Dirt Showdown is a fairly undemanding game, so dedicated PC based on which quality settings you’d need for a stable 90fps.
GPUs will have few problems hitting the ideal 60fps. It’s playable A score of 6 or above indicates you can use high settings, with
as low as 30fps, but generally you should aim higher. scores around 3 denoting medium quality. A score of 1 or below
SETTINGS 1,920x1,080, Ultra quality, 4x MSAA means 90fps is effectively unattainable.
This post-apocalyptic shooter is much tougher on your PC’s Calculated using a PC’s scores in our custom media-editing and
graphics, so at the £550-£600 price range, hitting a playable 30fps multitasking tests, these overall scores indicate general CPU
is a tall order. Be prepared to lower settings to Medium if you want performance. A score of 100 puts it on an equal footing with our
a smooth 60fps. reference Intel Core i5-4670K.
SETTINGS 1,920x1,080, Very High quality, SSAA on
VERDICT
These PCs show that when searching for the best gaming better all-round performance. With that in mind, the Mesh Ryzen
performance on a budget, it’s not always as simple as going for Gaming PC – CS is our pick of the bunch: its GTX 1050 Ti is a very
the one with the biggest, baddest graphics card. The PC Specialist suitable 1080p tool, storage is split between a fast-reading SSD and
Obsidian Elite, with its GTX 1060, might have walked over the GTX a spacious hard disk, and the Ryzen 5 1600 processor gives it
1050 Ti-equipped systems that make up the bulk of its competition, multitasking potential far beyond any of its rivals.
but its underpowered CPU means it can only claim to be the best in For gaming alone, the Palicomp i3 Pulsar is a better-rounded
a couple of specific benchmarks. alternative to the Obsidian Elite, its overclocked GPU providing
To be sure, unlocking the Obsidian Elite’s true power would be a a crucial edge in Dirt Showdown and SteamVR particularly.
relatively inexpensive (if time-consuming) process, but for best Cyberpower’s Ultra 3 GTX is also worth considering. It uses a slightly
results straight out of the box, it makes more sense to give up a few less speedy version of the GTX 1050 Ti, but makes up for it with a
frames per second both to gain them back elsewhere and enjoy versatile CPU and the best storage setup of the bunch.
Processor socket AM4 LGA 1151 AM4 AM4 AM4 LGA 1151 AM4 AM4
Memory type DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 DDR4 DDR4
Maximum memory 32GB 32GB 32GB 32GB 64GB 64GB 32GB 64GB
Motherboard Gigabyte MSI H110M Eco Asus Prime MSI A320M Asus Prime Asus Prime Z370-P Asus Prime A320-K Asus Prime
A320M-HD2 A320M-K Pro-VD/S B350M-A B350M-A
Motherboard chipset AMD A320 Intel H110M AMD A320 AMD A320 AMD B350 Intel Z370 AMD A320 AMD B350
Rear USB ports 2x USB2, 3x USB3, 2x USB2, 2x USB3 2x USB2, 4x USB3 2x USB2, 4x USB3 4x USB3, 2x USB3.1 2x USB2, 2x USB3 2x USB2, 4x USB3 4x USB3, 2x USB3.1
1x USB3.1
Other ports 2x PS/2 2x PS/2 2x PS/2 1x PS/2 2x PS/2 1x PS/2 2x PS/2 2x PS/2
Networking Gigabit Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet
802.11n Wi-Fi 802.11n Wi-Fi
Case type Mini-tower Mid-tower Mini-tower Mid-tower Mid-tower Mid-tower Mid-tower Mini-tower
Case dimensions 381x208x456mm 390x205x380mm 412x208x366mm 455x200x469mm 450x212x475mm 455x200x469mm 426x215x508mm 379x180x406mm
PCI-E x1 (free) 2 (1) 1 (0) 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 (1) 4 (4) 2 (1) 2 (1)
PCI-E x16 (free) 1 (1) 2 (1) 1 (0) 1 (0) 1 (0) 2 (1) 1 (0) 1 (0)
Serial ATA (free) 4 (3) 4 (3) 4 (3) 4 (2) 6 (4) 4 (3) 4 (3) 6 (5)
Memory slots (free) 2 (0) 2 (1) 2 (0) 2 (0) 4 (3) 4 (2) 2 (0) 4 (3)
Drive bays 2.5in (free) 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 1 (1) 2 (1) 1 (1) 2 (2) 1 (1)
Drive bays 3.5in (free) 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 (0) 3 (2) 2 (1) 2 (1) 1 (0)
STORAGE
Total storage 2TB SSHD 1TB hard disk 1TB SSHD 120GB SSD, 120GB SSD, 2TB hard disk 2TB hard disk 1TB hard disk
1TB hard disk 1TB hard disk
Memory card reader None None 1x SD, 1x microSD None None None None None
Optical drive type None None None None None None None None
GRAPHICS
Graphics card AMD Radeon 4GB MSI GeForce 4GB MSI GeForce 4GB MSI GeForce 4GB Asus Phoenix 4GB Asus Cerberus 3GB Zotac GeForce 4GB Inno3D GeForce
Vega 8 GTX 1050 Ti LP GTX 1050 Ti LP GTX 1050 Ti LP GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GeForce GTX 1050 GTX 1060 Mini GTX 1050 Ti
Ti OC Edition Compact X1
Graphics/video ports 1x HDMI, 1x dual-link 1x HDMI, 1x HDMI, 1x HDMI, 1x HDMI, 1x HDMI, 1x HDMI, 1x HDMI,
DVI-D, 1x VGA 1x DisplayPort, 1x DisplayPort, 1x DisplayPort, 1x DisplayPort, 1x DisplayPort, 3x DisplayPort, 1x DisplayPort,
1x dual-link DVI-D 1x dual-link DVI-D 1x dual-link DVI-D 1x dual-link DVI-D 1x dual-link DVI-D 1x DVI-D 1x dual-link DVI-D
SOUND
Sound card Onboard Onboard Onboard Onboard Onboard Onboard Onboard Onboard
Sound card outputs Line out Line out Line out Line out Line out Line out Line out Line out
SOFTWARE
Operating system Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home Windows 10 Home
Operating system Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore Windows 10 restore
restore option
BUYING INFORMATION
Warranty Three years parts Three years collect Five years labour Three years labour Lifetime labour, two Three years RTB Three years labour Three years labour
and labour and return including two years including two years years parts, one year including one year including two years
collect and return parts collect and return parts and one parts
month collect and
return
Prices correct at time of going to press
Part code CU-RW38GB2TBWH CCL Bazooka Fusion Crossbow Ultra 3 GTX Ryzen Gaming COF1 Obsidian Elite Pyro Stryker
PC - CS
BROTHER MFC-J895DW
★★★★★
£115 • From www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
It’s well specified, but Brother’s MFC-J895DW comes up short of the competition
BROTHER’S MFC-J895DW is a mid-range A4 complex graphics test. Six borderless 6x4in and 14 seconds at 300dpi. Photocopies were
inkjet multifunction peripheral, aimed mostly photos flew out in just over five minutes. also produced fairly casually, with a single mono
at home and micro-office use. It has an Brother’s software is usually faultless, but page taking 17 seconds and a colour copy
enviable list of specs, combining scanning, in this case we had an issue where the TWAIN needing 21 seconds. The 20-page automatic
printing and fax capabilities with wired and scan interface couldn’t complete a scan to the document feeder, however, was downright
wireless networking, a colour touchscreen host PC. We retried on two other PCs, running sedate: 10 copies took almost two-and-a-half
and automatic duplex printing. Provided you Windows 7 and Windows 10, before giving up minutes in black, and three minutes in colour.
don’t need to make unattended copies from on it. Fortunately, Brother now also installs Print quality was generally strong, with
double-sided originals, the MFC-J895DW has the iPrint & Scan PC app, which provided a bold and crisp black text, and reasonably
just about everything covered. practical alternative, even if it can’t be called punchy colours on plain paper. Duplex prints
It’s a relatively smart-looking device, too, up directly from an imaging program. were noticeably more faint, with a degree of
with a squat design in white and black plastic. Scan speeds were quite acceptable, with bleed-through, but photocopies were very
Get hands-on, however, and the feel of these an A4 colour page taking 10 seconds at 150dpi good. Even photos were decent for an
plastics leaves something to be desired, office-biased device. Scans were sharp,
especially in the clattery paper tray and but darker areas were too dark, resulting
its notchy paper guides. The front panel in a loss of detail: the darkest seven
is pleasantly uncluttered, though, and its shades on our scan target were
touchscreen control works well enough. indistinguishably black; one of the
Like other Brother inkjets, the worst results we’ve seen.
MFC-J895DW uses capillary tubes to feed Ultimately, the MFC-J895DW is an
moving print heads from stationary ink underwhelming MFP, and it’s let down
tanks, but there’s no keying to stop you further by disappointingly high running
accidentally putting these in the wrong costs. Its ‘high yield’ supplies last for
slot, so care is required when refilling. only 400 pages, and using them we
Fire up the printer and two things calculated a cost of 12.6p per A4 page of
are apparent: it’s not the fastest home text and graphics, of which the black
office inkjet around, but it is one of the component was a steep 3.6p.
quietest, potentially making it a good Considering that Epson’s WorkForce
desk mate. It completed our black letter WF-3720DWF is available for less than
test at 12.6ppm, which is quite leisurely £80, offers further savings by being
for this type of MFP, but in draft mode cheaper to run and manages to beat the
it managed 16.9ppm. Colour print MFC-J895DW in almost every other
speeds were more impressive, with respect, it’s safe to say you should forget
the printer reaching 5.5ppm on our about the Brother and go for that MFP.
CANON i-Sensys
MF633Cdw
★★★★★
£199 • From www.printerland.co.uk
VERDICT
Canon’s MF633Cdw is a half-decent MFP,
torpedoed by high running costs
ideal for a busy office, and its running costs are huge
bit of time replacing its consumables.
Specifications aside, this is a smart and
comparatively compact MFP that’s easy to
set up. During the first boot it asks if you
want to calibrate its colour output, furnishing MF633Cdw’s automatic document feeder scanned page count, it doesn’t tell you how
you with a reference page which you scan on was sprightly, eagerly pulling through our far along the printer is.
the platen. We left the printer switched off 10-page photocopy test while the printer We were broadly happy with the quality of
for a few days, after which it had leased a itself fought to keep up: the job took 43 our test results. Scans were excellent, and
new IP address; neither the print nor scan seconds in black, and 57 seconds in colour. prints were crisp, with great shading control.
drivers missed a beat. While the screen helpfully shows the Unfortunately, photos and colour graphics
Canon says that the had a slightly dull colour
i-Sensys MF633Cdw takes bias, which even the Vivid
no time to warm up, and Photo setting couldn’t fix.
our tests confirmed this. Colour photocopies had a
Whether printing similar problem, despite the
immediately after another calibration step during setup.
job or after an hour sitting The i-Sensys MF633Cdw
idle, the first page of text has some strengths, but its
emerged in just 14 seconds, small paper cassette and
and our 25-page test lightweight supplies mean
completed at 16.3ppm. it’s not ideal for a busy
Although you can select a office. More fundamentally,
(well-hidden) 1,200dpi mode, its running costs work out at
the printer’s true resolution a huge 16.2p per A4 page.
is 600dpi; it printed six While new consumables for
6x4in photos on three A4 new printers often fall in
pages in 28 seconds. price, that’s a very high
Scans were quick up starting point; we’d expect
to the maximum a laser in this category to
resolution – again an come in at under 12p, and
adequate 600dpi – with an equivalent inkjet to be
a 300dpi A4 scan needing nearer 6p. As such, it’s hard
15 seconds. The i-Sensys to recommend this MFP.
VERDICT
Dirt-cheap but basic and slow, Canon’s Pixma TS305 feels like an own goal
IT’S 2018 AND we’ve all got smartphones, lumber, wheeze and scrape all at once. It’s six borderless 6x4in photos. Annoyingly, it’s
so perhaps it’s time they can be used to also slow, delivering our 25-page black letter possible to configure an A4 borderless
improve other devices. Such runs the logic test at 7.5ppm. Typically for a Pixma, it was photo print on glossy paper in the driver,
behind Canon’s Pixma TS305, an entry-level no quicker at draft quality. Despite the only to get an error when you send the job:
inkjet printer which, with help from a lackadaisical pace, printed pages tended to the TS305 doesn’t support A4 photo prints,
smartphone and the relevant app, can also get unruly in its basic output tray, even with or without borders.
make photocopies. Canon has even marked spilling out when we were reprinting on the That sounds like a lot of moaning, but
out the top cover with guidelines; the effect reverse side in our draft test. print quality was very good, particularly in
certainly makes the TS305 look distinctive, Colour printing was a test of endurance. colour, and especially on photos. It was
but its main function lets you line up a The TS305 took almost quarter of an hour to simple to create copies with the Canon Print
paper document on top of it, snap a photo hand over our 24-page colour graphics test, app, which is smart enough to detect the
with your phone and print out additional at a strictly bottom-of-the-table 1.6ppm. It outline of most documents and correct for
copies from there. also needed nearly 15 minutes to conjure up skew in the camera angle. You can make
Unusual lid aside, this is a typical manual adjustments to the outline or
entry-level inkjet printer. There are no orientation, before sending the image
bold claims for speed or maximum to the printer. We managed to frame,
resolution and no fancy paper-handling adjust and send an image for copying
tricks, but you can connect it wirelessly in less than a minute, with the printer
either to your router or directly to a needing a further 45 seconds to
smart device. Ink comes in one black deliver an acceptable colour copy.
and one tri-colour cartridge, both of It’s more fiddly than a proper MFP,
which are available in XL flavours, but fine for occasional use.
although at 400 and 300 pages All of this would make the Pixma
respectively, they’re closer to medium- TS305 a decent enough entry-level
sized. Running costs work out at 9.8p inkjet printer, but there’s one more
for an A4 page of mixed text and problem: the Pixma TS3151 (Shopper
graphics: about right for an entry-level 359). This costs the same to buy and
device, but 50% or so more than you’d run, and combines essentially the
pay with some mid-range models. same printer with a decent scanner,
Follow Canon’s easy installer, faff so it’s far more flexible and useful.
around with manual head alignment, This leaves us wondering who exactly
start printing and you’ll soon discover the Pixma TS305 is for and, more
that this isn’t the quietest inkjet. importantly, why anyone would buy it
Somehow the TS305 manages to instead of the Pixma TS3151.
VERDICT
At long last, Epson’s ET-4750 begins to deliver on the EcoTank promise
EPSON’S ECOTANK SYSTEM has always page: you’d only need to print around 5,000 as bold as we’d have liked, but they were free
been a promising concept. Instead of costly, pages over the lifetime of an inkjet MFP for of obvious artefacts such as banding.
wasteful ink cartridges, EcoTank devices the ET-4750 to prove better value. Unfortunately, it seems the ET-4750 is
have big tanks, come with generous bottles The ET-4750 delivered our mono text cursed with a slow scanner. At either 150 or
of ink, and slash printing costs to a fraction test at 16.3ppm, and reached 5.2ppm on our 300 dots per inch, A4 scans took 28 seconds,
of their previous level. It’s a great idea, but colour graphics test, both competitive results which is at least twice what we’d expect.
we’ve been frustrated that we’re yet to see it for the sub-£100, office-biased MFPs that A 1,200dpi postcard photo scan needed
fitted to a particularly good printer or make up its true competition. Photos were almost two minutes. Suspecting a slow
multifunction peripheral. The EcoTank quite slow – postcard-sized prints took network interface, we repeated the tests via
ET-4750 finally changes that. about two-and-a-half minutes each – but USB, but got near-identical times. At least
It’s immediately clear that Epson has the results were surprisingly good given the the results were excellent, quality-wise.
improved the EcoTank system itself. This office bias. Plain paper prints weren’t quite The slow pace extends to photocopies.
MFP’s ink tanks are neatly integrated into Single-page jobs were acceptable at 14 and
the front where you can view their levels 32 seconds for black and colour
at a glance; it’s important not to let them respectively, but copying 10 pages using
run dry. More significantly, Epson has the 30-page automatic document feeder
overhauled the filling system, introducing took two-and-a-half minutes in black and
keying to eliminate the risk of misfuelling. four minutes in colour. Again, the results
The new system appears to be more were good, if a shade too dark by default.
leak- and splash-proof: now you just slot It may be a bit slow to scan and copy,
a bottle on to the tank and leave it for a but the ET-4750 feels like a half-decent
minute to disgorge. EcoTank MFP. It’s well equipped, with a
For anyone printing moderate touchscreen, fax modem, automatic
amounts, the financial arguments for double-sided printing, and support for
the ET-4750 are compelling. It’s around wired and wireless networking. And yet
£300 more expensive than we’d expect nothing about it is particularly special,
for a typical MFP with its specification, tactile or nicely designed: for nearly £400,
but Epson says it comes with enough ink we don’t think a little surprise and delight
for 14,000 black pages and 11,200 in is too much to ask. So, while we can finally
colour. Most inkjets arrive with ink for recommend an EcoTank MFP, we can’t
only a few hundred pages, after which shake the feeling that Epson could make
they might typically cost about 7p per an even better one than the ET-4750.
VERDICT
Epson’s XP-15000 is superb for printing high-quality photos all the way up to A3+
PLENTY OF WEB services can turn your Send a print job and the XP-15000 motors We wouldn’t recommend this printer if
digital photos into glossy prints, but keen out its paper output tray and gets quietly on you’re planning to do lots of plain paper work:
photographers know there’s nothing like a with it. On plain paper it’s not especially quick, while text was legible and reasonably crisp, it
high-quality printer for getting an image just reaching only 9.3ppm on our black letter test, lacked the sharpness and darkness you’d see
so. Epson’s awkwardly named Expression but on our complex colour graphics test its from an office-focused device. Colour graphics
Photo HD XP-15000 could be ideal for 4.9ppm was more competitive. The XP-15000 were free of artefacts, but lacked the punch
amateur snappers or professionals on a tight is more impressive on photo paper, delivering you get from a great plain paper printer.
budget. Costing less than £300, it can print our six postcard-sized photos at about 90 On photo paper, however, the results were
without borders on paper sizes up to A3+, and seconds each, and our two 10x8in photos in sensational. Images were crisp and beautifully
can even print labels on to CDs and DVDs. five minutes. We timed a borderless A4 photo detailed, without showing any signs of
Epson says this is its smallest A3+ printer, at a reasonable three minutes, 37 seconds, artificial sharpening or enhancement. This
and it’s certainly compact: only about 10cm and an A3 photo at five minutes, 46 seconds, also applied to colour reproduction, which
wider than the equivalent A4 device, the which is fast at this price. was lively without looking artificial or
Expression Photo XP-760. Epson has oversaturated. Skin tones looked
clearly tried hard to shrink this printer, perfect, while precise shade control
even rotating the ink carrier by 90º so helped deliver high levels of detail.
that the six cartridges stack front to back, Our first black-and-white print
rather than the typical left to right. The threatened to spoil the party with a
XP-15000 uses a conventional black, cyan, subtle but disappointing magenta cast,
magenta and yellow setup, supplemented but trying again with the black-and-white
by red and grey. The former gives an photo mode resulted in a neutral
improved gamut (colour range) across monochrome print, with impressive
plain and photo paper, while the latter contrast throughout.
provides fine shade control on photos. Running a photo printer isn’t cheap.
Despite its obvious photo focus, the Calculated for Epson’s XL range of
XP-15000 has most of the basics covered. cartridges, a single A4 page of text and
In the base there’s a 200-sheet tray for graphics costs nearly 13p, and that
paper up to A4, while the rear feed can doesn’t include grey ink, which is only
handle anything from 6x4in to A3+ media. used on photos. For most of us, an
There are no memory card slots, but you online snaps service will do just fine,
can connect wirelessly from a smartphone but if you want more control over the
or other device. Direct control is via a end result, the Expression Photo HD
small-ish 6.1cm colour screen paired with XP-15000 is an excellent, comparatively
direction and selection buttons. affordable A3+ photo printer.
VERDICT
Epson’s MFP is a great all-rounder for the home office, but ink costs make it expensive to run
EPSON’S WORKFORCE PRO WF-3720DWF intuitive menus. Build quality feels higher than but photo prints were slow – each 6x4in print
is a mid-range inkjet MFP for the home office. some competitors, with solid drawers and lids took more than three minutes.
It’s the latest update to a range that we’ve and nothing begging to be snapped off. We were expecting a quicker scanner, too.
showered with praise – we awarded its Epson’s PC and smartphone software Previews and low-resolution scans were fine,
predecessor, the WF-3620DWF (Shopper 355) remain refreshingly easy to use, although but it took 28 seconds to scan a photo at
a Best Buy – and it looks as if Epson’s reeled we’re not keen on the PC’s new simplified 600dpi, and two-and-a-half minutes at
out yet another superb inkjet workhorse. scan interface; we preferred the old one. 1,200dpi. That’s about five times what the
The WF-3720DWF appears to be slightly On plain paper this is quite a quick printer, WF-3620DWF managed on the same test.
more than a light refresh of the now-retired managing 19.2 A4 pages per minute in our mono Happily, there’s been no drop in quality.
WF-3620DWF: it has a less cluttered, more text test, and a decent 5.6ppm in the more Scan results weren’t the sharpest, but they
upright new design, and the crisp new colour complex colour graphics test. At three sides displayed the excellent colour accuracy and
touchscreen offers direct control over various per minute, duplex prints were competitive, dynamic range we typically see from Epson. If
functions. It can print, scan, fax and copy, anything, print quality is subtly improved
has a 35-page automatic document feeder across the board: while text is noticeably
and connects to a wired or wireless network lighter, it’s also crisper and more defined.
– pretty much everything a home office or There’s little to complain about elsewhere:
small business startup could ask for. colour graphics are excellent, photocopies
It’s not all good news, however. While are very good, and photos aren’t bad at all
the WF-3620DWF could make duplex for an office-focused device.
scans, copies, faxes and prints, the The WF-3720DWF is a great all-in-one
WF-3720DWF doesn’t have a duplex ADF; for home office duties, even if it is a shame
you can automatically print both sides, but about the loss of duplex scanning and
not scan, copy or fax. Epson has removed copying functions. However, there’s a more
the SD card slot, which is a shame, pressing problem: XL ink cartridges work
although there is still a USB port for direct out at 9.3p per colour page, significantly
prints and scans. The overall impression is higher than leading competitors and about
of an MFP that’s been tidied up, but 50% more than the WF-3620DWF. While
slightly downgraded at the same time. it’s easy to find third-party cartridges that
Even so, there’s still plenty to like about go as low as 2.7p per colour page, these
the WF-3720DWF. The new touchscreen is don’t always give you as high-quality or
excellent, responding predictably to taps reliable results as genuine cartridges, and
and drag gestures as you navigate the we can’t vouch for them in this case.
VERDICT
Despite its name, the Envy Photo 7830 isn’t good enough at printing photos
MOST INKJET PRINTERS can turn digital than adequate, and its 4ppm in our more colour pages using the ADF, but the same job
images into a decent photo, but for some it’s complex colour graphics test is also fine. needed only 79 seconds in mono – a fast
more of a speciality. Photo printer hallmarks With slightly long drying pauses, its 2.6 result. Scan speeds were mostly acceptable,
include borderless prints, support for wireless images per minute in our duplex test is a with a 300dpi A4 scan completing in 16
connection to smartphones, and slots for little slow. As you might expect, photo prints seconds, but our 1,200dpi postcard photo
printing photos directly from memory cards. were reasonably quick, with each 6x4in scan took two-and-a-half minutes.
HP’s Envy Photo 7830 has all this and more – borderless photo needing about 90 seconds. Examine this MFP’s results in isolation and
it can copy and scan, and supports automatic It took six minutes to print two 10x8in photos you’d be hard pressed to detect any photo
double-sided duplex printing – but it doesn’t with borders on A4 paper. bias. Its plain paper prints were excellent, and
have one other common feature: five or more Photocopying was generally on the slow photocopies were also very good. Document
inks to improve its colour gamut and reduce side, with a single mono page taking 19 scans were crisp and well exposed, but
the appearance of grain. seconds and a colour page taking 27 seconds. zooming in on photo scans revealed artefacts,
That needn’t be a show-stopper, however, It took three-and-a-half minutes to copy 10 suggesting that they had been artificially
as plenty of cheap photo printers do well sharpened. We couldn’t find an option to
with four inks, and the Envy Photo 7830 turn this off. Photo prints were OK, but
makes up for it in other ways. It’s their colours were a little too punchy for
controlled via an intuitive touchscreen, our tastes. More significantly, we noticed
has a second media tray just for photo an inconsistency in their gloss finish
paper up to 5x7in, and you can connect it between areas of colour and dark black.
via a wired or wireless network. This was most pronounced in our black-
HP has done away with install discs: and-white test print, and we recreated the
instead you download drivers from effect on two types of HP photo paper.
123.hp.com. It’s an easy process, but the The Envy Photo 7830 is a photo MFP
software is intrusive, demanding to know that isn’t especially good at scanning or
both your postcode and what kind of printing photos. If this is the kind of
business or home user you are. You can’t legwork you need a printer for, and don’t
skip this bit or leave the postcode blank, have the budget for the Epson Expression
although you can simply make one up. Photo HD XP-15000, you’d get better
This is a quiet printer, its heads results from Canon’s Pixma TS5050
whizzing across the page as it goes. It’s (Shopper 355). This lacks duplex printing
not especially rapid, but its speed of and wired Ethernet connectivity, but only
13.3ppm in our mono letter test is more costs £90, the same as this HP MFP.
VERDICT
Fast, competent, and good value to buy and run, HP’s OfficeJet 7720 is a great A3-capable MFP
HP’S OFFICEJET PRO 7720 is an inkjet MFP Copy page includes only a single start button Scans were swift, too, with A4 jobs at up
for moderate use in a small office. It’s a bit that defaults to colour. If you want a black-only to 300dpi taking around 10 seconds. Scanning
bigger than the norm because it can print – copy you’ll have to fiddle with the settings. a 6x4in photo at 600dpi took 19 seconds, and
but not scan or copy – on A3 paper. Few These are fairly minor grumbles, and in at 1,200 took 63 seconds. At 16 seconds in
authorities would agree with HP’s description use the OfficeJet Pro 7720 quickly makes up black and 22 seconds in colour, single-page
of this as constituting wide format, but it’s for its weaknesses. It raced through our photocopies weren’t so fast, but 10-page
still a useful trick, particularly if you ever 25-page text test at 22.7ppm, and reached an copies from the ADF were competitive,
need to print detailed plans, posters or impressive 8.6ppm on our more demanding taking one minute, 23 seconds in black and
spreadsheets at a more practical size. colour graphics test. On A3 paper, five A3 one minute, 41 seconds in colour.
Aside from A3 support, the OfficeJet Pro pages of text took 26 seconds, while five Print quality was generally excellent on
7720 supports wired and wireless network graphics-rich pages took a minute. Even at plain paper, with photo prints being good
connections, can print on both sides of a the Maximum DPI setting, each 6x4in colour for an office device. Copies were fine, if
sheet of paper and has a 35-page automatic photo took little more than a minute. slightly drab, while scans were above average:
document feeder for automated, colours were accurate and the focus
multipage faxes or copies. Direct jobs like was reasonably sharp, but this MFP
copies and faxes are controlled through struggled to capture subtle differences
the obligatory touchscreen interface. The in the darkest shades. Enabling its
only significant omissions are duplex Auto Exposure feature just tended to
scanning – so you can’t make automatic wash out the lightest regions, too.
double-sided copies or faxes – and a USB The OfficeJet Pro 7720 accepts a range
port for direct printing or scanning. of ink cartridges, with the highest-capacity
We’ve never been particularly keen on black supply stretching to 3,000 pages,
HP’s oversimplified print and scan and colour cartridges available at 1,600
software, but the latest iterations aren’t pages. Calculated for these, running costs
all that bad. On Windows 10 the print work out at a very competitive 5p per
driver is neatly laid out over several tabs, mixed page, split between 1.1p per page
but on Windows 7 you have to dive into for black and 3.9p per page for colour.
unfriendly Advanced settings to change Overall, this MFP finds a good balance
paper size. HP’s TWAIN scan interface no between price, performance and features.
longer induces fury, but it’s still our least If your home or small business needs A3
favourite among big manufacturers. The printing, and you can live without duplex
MFP’s touch interface is decent, but its faxes or copies, it’s an excellent choice.
Technology Thermal inkjet Colour laser Thermal inkjet Piezo inkjet Piezo inkjet Piezo inkjet Thermal inkjet Thermal inkjet
Maximum print resolution 6,000x1,200dpi 600x600dpi 4,800x1,200dpi 4,800x1,200dpi 5,760x1,440dpi 4,800x2,400dpi 4,800x1,200dpi 4,800x1,200dpi
Maximum optical scan 1,200x2,400 (24-bit) 600x600dpi (24-bit) N/A 1,200x2,400 (24-bit) N/A 1,200x2,400 (24-bit) 1,200x1,200 (24-bit) 1,200x1,200 (24-bit)
resolution (output bit depth)
Mono print speed 12.6ppm 16.3ppm 7.5ppm 16.3ppm 9.3ppm 19.2ppm 13.3ppm 22.7ppm
Colour (graphics) 5.5ppm 15.2ppm 1.6ppm 5.2ppm 4.9ppm 5.6ppm 4.0ppm 8.6ppm
print speed
Number of colours 4 (4) 4 (4) 4 (2) 4 (4) 6 (6) 4 (4) 4 (2) 4 (4)
(cartridges)
Maximum colours 4 (4) 4 (4) 4 (2) 4 (4) 6 (6) 4 (4) 4 (2) 4 (4)
(cartridges)
Interfaces USB, USB host, USB, USB host, USB, USB host, USB, USB host, USB, USB host, USB, USB host, USB, USB host, USB, USB host,
Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Ethernet, Wi-Fi Ethernet, Wi-Fi Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Wi-Fi
NFC NFC NFC, SD card
Duty cycle (maximum 2,500 30,000 Not stated 5,000 Not stated 20,000 1,000 30,000
pages per month)
PAPER HANDLING
Maximum paper size A4/legal A4/legal A4/legal A4/legal A3+ A4/legal A4/legal A3 (print only)
Maximum paper weight 80gsm 163gsm 265gsm 300gsm 300gsm 90gsm 90gsm 105gsm
Input trays (capacity) 3 (100+20+20) 3 (150+50+1) 1 (60) 1 (250) 2 (200+50) 1 (250) 3 (125+15+35) 2 (250+35)
Automatic duplex printing Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
FEATURES
Direct (PC-less) printing USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile
Supported operating Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS, Windows, macOS,
systems Linux, Android, Linux, Android, iOS Android, iOS, Android, iOS Android, iOS Android, iOS Android, iOS Linux, Android, iOS
iOS, Windows 10 Windows 10 Mobile
Mobile
Display Colour touchscreen Colour touchscreen None Colour touchscreen Colour touchscreen Colour touchscreen Colour touchscreen Colour touchscreen
BUYING INFORMATION
Warranty One year RTB One year onsite One year RTB Three years RTB Three years RTB Three years RTB One year RTB One year RTB
Mono page cost 3.6p 2.9p 4.2p 0.2p 3.6p 3.4p 4.0p 1.1p
Colour page cost 9.0p 13.4p 5.6p 0.4p 9.2p 9.3p 6.6p 3.9p
Part code MFCJ895DWZU1 1475C030 2321C008 C11CG19401CE C11CG43401 C11CF24401 Y0G50B Y0S18A
VERDICT
While these eight printers include a disappointing number of duds These two are notably expensive, though, so how about
– even the Canon Pixma TS305, priced at a mere £37, doesn’t seem something for those on tighter budgets? The £105 HP OfficeJet
a very smart buy – there are some much better options to take. Pro 7720 is an excellent office aid, pumping out prints at fantastic
Epson has done particularly well with its recent output, producing speed without compromising on quality or features. The Epson
the Expression Photo HD XP-15000 – a superlative device for WorkForce Pro WF-3720DWF also hits a very reasonable price of
printing large photographs – as well as the EcoTank ET-4750, which £78 (though you should keep an eye on cartridge costs), and
doesn’t match the Expression on quality but beats it on speed, and makes up for its lack of duplex printing with decent all-round
has attractively low ink costs, too. performance and one of the better-designed mobile apps.
N
etworking, particularly wireless, is one of
the greatest and also one of the most
annoying technologies ever invented.
CONTENTS
The trouble with Wi-Fi ..............................104
Nowadays, we rely on our home networks
more than ever, with everything from home Upgrade, repair or go wired?.................105
entertainment to our smart devices internet-connected. Fixing interference......................................106
This dependence on our home networks just makes it Configure a 2.4GHz router......................108
even more frustrating when a problem develops.
Configure a 5GHz router..........................109
If you’re suffering from dodgy Wi-Fi or a device that
Running a wired network.......................... 110
won’t connect to your home network, don’t worry, as
we have you covered. In this feature, we’ll show you Using a router as an extender................. 111
how to fix, boost and upgrade your home network, Configure a mesh network....................... 112
leaving you with something far more reliable in place.
⬅ The construction of
your home can make
a big difference to the ⬆ A test socket can help you work out if there’s a
quality of your Wi-Fi problem with your internal wiring
REPOSITION ROUTER
For the sake of testing, put your router
close to your master phone socket to
eliminate any potential wiring issues. Take it
off a metal shelf, if positioned on one. If it’s
wall-mounted on a brick wall, try taking it
off. Finally, try repositioning the router and
seeing if that improves the signal, and you
may be surprised at the results.
CHOOSING A CHANNEL
2.4GHz Wi-Fi has 13 channels in the UK, but
overlapping frequency ranges mean there
are never more than three non-overlapping
combinations of channels
FREQUENCY
CHANNEL
should leave the Auto option on; if changing the router’s channel
(see next step) doesn’t affect speeds, then try changing the option:
start at 40MHz, then go to 20MHz. Note that this can have an
impact on performance, but it could be a price worth paying for
increased reliability. Note that some 802.11ac routers don’t have
an option for channel bonding at all.
ROUTE ONE
All routers have an Ethernet switch built ⬆ An 8-port Gigabit Ethernet switch is a great way to expand how many wired devices you can run at once
into them. An Ethernet switch lets multiple e
devices talk to each other at maximum Ideally, then, use one cable to your router
speed. The router can convert the traffic Ethernet switch that you need.
per Et
a),
from the switch to wireless (and vice versa),
letting all devices on your home network PLUG AND PLAY
talk to each other. If you ca
can’t physically run cabling around
Your wireless router will most likely your h
home, or don’t want the hassle, then a
have four Gigabit Ethernet ports. This lets HomePlug network can help. These
Hom
you connect up to four devices directly to pr
products plug into normal power
the router. Ethernet cables can have long sockets and turn your power cables
runs, of up to 100m. That gives you more into network cables. Speeds aren’t
than enough length to cover a home. quite as good as dedicated Ethernet,
Where you can, then, you should run an although we’ve seen speeds of up to
alt
Ethernet cable from your router to the 300Mbit/s - as good as decent Wi-Fi.
300Mbi
device you want to connect. The difficulty is HomePlug adaptors need to be plugged
Hom
in running the cabling. In our home, which directly into wall sockets, so look for
has a void under the floorboards, we’ve run n products that have a pass-through port.
produc
cables this way, threading them through to ⬆ A quick connect wall socket lets you hide That wway, you can connect an additional
the areas we need them, with one run where an Ethernet cable runs, giving you a device in the same power socket.
heading outside and up the side of the neater-looking wall socket To get HomePlug to work, connect one
house. Tacking cabling around a room into a plug near your router, and connect its
could be an option, too. Ethernet RJ45 jack; www.nexxia.co.uk has Ethernet port into your router. Place a
When buying cabling, make sure that a wide choice of sockets. You’ll then need second HomePlug adaptor near the devices
you buy Cat5e at the minimum, which an Ethernet patch cable to connect your you want to wire in, and connect via
supports Gigabit speeds. Cat6 cables are device to the socket. Ethernet. You can buy HomePlug adaptors
also compatible, but are designed to More easily, you can use a pre-made with two or three Ethernet ports, although
reduce interference and support 10Gbit/s cable and just plug one end into your you can connect to an Ethernet switch if
Ethernet speeds, which aren’t common on router and the other end into your device. you need more wired connections.
modern devices. Cat5e cable is relatively This works well if you can’t see where the You can add more HomePlug adaptors
cheap, with a pre-made 50m cable costing cable is coming out. as you need them, too. The only thing to
around £33 from www.ebuyer.com, and a watch out for is that the signal can’t always
1m cable costing around £1. SWITCHED ON make it past two consumer units, such as if
Wherever your Ethernet cable pops If you need more Ethernet ports where you have an external building with power.
out, such as through a hole in the wall or you’ve got a run, the easiest option is to put HomePlug adaptors come in different
floorboards, you have two options. First, if an Ethernet switch at the end of your cable standards, but go for the fastest to get
you want a neat finish, you can buy an run. An 8-port Netgear GS308-100UKS the best throughputs, such as the Devolo
RJ45 wall socket and run your cabling costs around £20 (www.amazon.co.uk). This dLAN 1200+ Powerline (£130 for a pack
into this. You’ll need to chisel out a back lets you plug in seven n devices, as one port of two, www.johnlewis.com).
cables. Most require you
box to house the cabl needs to be hooked up to your router.
to wire in the Ethernet cable, but you can The downside of this option is that
get sockets that have a ‘quick connect’ plug all devices connected d to the
at the rear, where you connect a standard switch sh
share one Gigabit
igabit
Ethernet connection to
your rout
router. For this
reason
reason, we don’t
recomm
recommend
daisy-
daisy-chaining
Ethern
Ethernet switches
togeth
together, as you
may enend up with
one pa
part of your
netwo
network that’s
⬆ Cat5e cabling is cheap, reliable and very fast partic
particularly slow. ⬆ Powerline networking is a great option if you don’t want to run Ethernet cables
110
110 JUNE 2
JUN 2018
018 | COM
COMPUTER
COMPUT
PUTER
PUT ER SHO
SHOPPE
SHOPPER
PPER
PPE R | ISS
ISSUE
UE 364
HOWTOUSETWOWIRELESS
ROUTERSTOEXTENDRANGE
U
sing two routers is often the Look out for the router’s IP
best solution to a poor wireless address setting. This must be
connection, giving you a seamless for the LAN interface, not the
and quick way to extend Wi-Fi range. If WAN interface, which is for the
you’ve gone down the HomePlug wireless internet: the two addresses
access point route, the instructions here are aren’t related. Change the
similar, but check your product’s manual for router’s IP address to the one
full instructions and how to configure it. you found was safe in Step 1 of
this guide (192.168.0.200 in our
CONNECT TO YOUR
1 PRIMARY ROUTER
example). Your router may
restart. If it does, you’ll need to
Connect to the web-based management connect to its web-based
page of your primary router (the one management page again, this
connected to broadband) and navigate time typing the router’s new IP
to the DHCP settings, which will most address into your browser.
likely be under the LAN settings. DHCP is If your computer won’t
the protocol that deals with network connect, it’s possible that it’s still
addresses for connecting devices, as holding on to an old IP address,
each one must have its own unique IP so you’ll need to make it refresh
address. An IP address is made up of its settings. The easiest way to
four numbers separated by full stops, do that is to unplug the Ethernet
CONFIGURE BOTH
such as 192.168.0.2.
The DHCP server information will tell
cable from your computer and plug it in
again. Once you’re connected to your router 4 ROUTERS TO USE THE
you the first address that is handed out, again, find the DHCP page and select SAME WI-FI NETWORK
such as 192.168.0.2. It will then either tell Disable. Click Save to apply the changes. Connect wirelessly to your home network,
you the last address, such as 192.168.0.100, You’ll most likely be disconnected from the as you would normally. Open a browser and
or the number of addresses it hands out. router, but that’s fine for now. type in your new router’s IP address to
For the latter, you add the number of access its web-based management page.
addresses to the last number of the Go to the wireless settings and input the
starting address to get the end address. same network name and security settings
If the number of addresses is 100 and the as for your existing wireless network. Make
starting address is 192.168.0.2, the last sure you pick a new channel that doesn’t
address would be 192.168.0.102. overlap with the existing network’s channel
You need to note down an IP address (this is for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks),
that falls outside of this range and is not and that you’ve configured both routers to
the same as your router’s IP address. This use optimal settings, as per our 2.4GHz and
means keeping the first three numbers the 5GHz guides. Save the settings. You’ll now
same, such as 192.168.0, and picking the have one big wireless network, with
CONNECT THE TWO
final number, which can be between 1 and
254. In both of our examples above, 3 ROUTERS TOGETHER
excellent range and throughputs.
The only downside is that your devices
192.168.0.200 would do the job. Disconnect your computer from your new will try to hang on to the strongest signal,
router, as it’s time to connect it to your so you may find they take a while to switch
broadband router. You can either do this between routers. Your best option is to
step using an Ethernet cable, or you can manually disconnect and reconnect if
use HomePlug between them; both you’re having problems.
do the same job. Plug one end
of an Ethernet cable into a
spare Ethernet port on your
broadband-connected router.
Plug the other end into a spare
Ethernet port on your new
router; not the WAN port, as
CONFIGURE THE
2 NEW ROUTER
this won’t work.
If you’re using HomePlug,
Next turn on your new router, but don’t you’ll need two Ethernet cables:
connect it in any way to your existing one from the new router to a
router. Instead, plug a computer into the HomePlug adaptor, and one
new router via Ethernet and visit its from a HomePlug adaptor to the
web-based management page. old internet-connected router.
C
SAVETHEPLANET limate change, polluted air,
plastic-filled oceans – the earth
isn’t in great shape. But the
creative forces that power the
tech industry’s constant state of
innovation could help, with clever
power generation and storage,
roadside air filters paid for by advertising,
and plastic-chomping water drones.
Forget the money-making ideas that fund
Silicon Valley, there are plenty of clever
creations that could do real good for the
world, cleaning up energy, encouraging us
to cut our power use, and mopping up
the mess we’ve made of the environment.
Here are some to watch out for and make
use of in your own home.
GREENER HOMES
While some technological innovations can be
energy guzzlers – we’re looking at you, bitcoin
– other ideas help slash energy use, notably
smart home and smart city tech, such as the
so-called Internet of Things (IoT).
DRONING ON ABOUT
CLEAN WATER
Given how important water is to our
survival, it’s remarkable how terrible
we are at keeping it clean: wealthy
countries treat only 70% of the Oliver Cunningham, the company’s TOP: Kite Power used to mop up oil, clean “alien or pest”
wastewater we make, compared to 38% chief commercial officer. Systems uses vegetation, and even collect golf balls
an actual kite to
for developing countries, according to It uses Wi-Fi and GPS to navigate for anywhere that happens to be a
produce energy
the UN. Research published in Science with LIDAR – the laser tech that assists problem. Alongside cleaning up, it
revealed eight million metric tonnes of most driverless cars – to avoid ABOVE: Pavegen collects data via built-in sensors to
collects energy
plastic ends up in our oceans each year, collisions, and so far there have been help monitor the environment.
from footsteps
leading to giant clumps of garbage at no injuries to animals. That means “Ocean trash is a critical global
sea, while WWF research shows that WasteShark can swim on a set path or problem, for sure, but we have designed
40% of the rivers in England and Wales be allowed to roam autonomously in a the WasteShark for much more than
are polluted by sewage. predefined area. Each battery charge just that,” Cunningham explains.
Drones are one possible solution. lets it swim and collect garbage for “The WasteShark has been designed
RanMarine Technology’s WasteShark eight hours, and it can gobble up for urban water: it is compact, agile,
water-based drone has been trialled in 180 litres of garbage weighing up to lightweight and green, so it is perfectly
Rotterdam’s port, gobbling up garbage. 350 kilograms. “When it is full of trash adapted to navigate the tight angles
“We modelled the WasteShark on it will return to land, discharge the and confined spaces of cityscape
the whale shark: a gentle, unobtrusive, payload and then set out to feed marine environments.”
efficient predator, designed to eat its again,” Cunningham adds. After the Rotterdam trial,
prey at maximum quantities and Aside from cleaning up water-logged WasteShark is being tested in South
with minimal effort,” explains rubbish, the WasteShark drone can be Africa, Sweden and the US – so keep an
Numbers up
I have an array of data in Excel that consists of the date on which the last reference number for 1/4/2018. VLookup has four parameters:
the data was entered, the reference number, the reference type the first is the value you want to look up, in our case, the date in K2.
and the fee paid. The reference numbers increase by one as each The second parameter is the range of cells holding the data to be
reference is added, and the reference type consists of a character searched, sorted into order on the column containing the value you’re
and number pair that shows which operator generated the looking up. We’re looking for the date and reference number
reference. So a typical set of data might be: combination in columns A and B, from A2 to B100. The next parameter
says which column from the range should be returned. In our case,
Date Ref no Ref type Fee column A is 1, column B is 2, and we want the value from column B, so
column 2 in the range. The final parameter is optional – you can either
1/4/2018 925 B1 123.50
look for an approximate match or an exact match of the return value.
1/4/2018 926 C2 54.90 Excel returns an approximate match if you specify True or leave
1/4/2018 927 B1 27.50 that parameter blank, so we have to use a False to make sure we get
an exact match for the date. The second example of the formula looks
2/4/2018 928 B1 50.00
for the date plus 1, so finding the first reference number that was
issued on a date greater than the date we’re searching for. If you then
I need to generate a report that shows the first and last reference subtract 1 from the reference number, that will get you the last
numbers each day, and the sum of the fees collected for that day. reference number from the day of interest, so the second formula
While I’ve shown a few new reference numbers per day, in reality actually needs to be:
we have dozens, or sometimes hundreds. There must be a way to
do the counting using Excel, but I’m struggling. =VLOOKUP(K2+1,A$2:B$100,2,FALSE)-1
Terry Mason
You might need to format this column to be integer, as Excel may
The first thing to say is that this looks more like a case where you need decide you want a date.
to use a database than a spreadsheet, and I would advise you to look Having used VLookup to get the first and last reference numbers
into that as an alternative. However, if you have some reason why for a particular date, you can find out the fees issued for that date
you want to carry on using Excel, the formulae you need to use are a using SumIf:
combination of VLookup and SumIf.
To get the reference numbers issued for a particular date, if the =SUMIF(A2:A100,K2,D2:D100)
date for the query is in cell K2, and the source data is in the block
A2:B100, you’d use: SumIf can be used to find the sum of values in a range that match
criteria that you specify.
=VLOOKUP(K2,A$2:B$100,2,FALSE) SumIf expects two or three parameters:
This would find the first reference number entered for the date stored SUMIF(range, criteria, [sum_range])
in cell K2. Then, to find the last reference number issued for the date
in K2, you’d use: The first parameter you specify for SumIf is the range. This is the range
of cells that contain the values that should be matched by the criteria.
=VLOOKUP(K2+1,A$2:B$100,2,FALSE) In our case, the cells in A2:A100 contain the dates, and the match is
against the date in cell K2. The third (optional) parameter is the
For the example data given above, and if K2 held 1/4/2018, these two sum_range. This contains the cells that contain the values that
formulae would return 925 as the first reference number, and 927 for should be summed for rows that match the criteria.
⬅ Use VLookup
to find values in a
range in Excel
Title deed
I’ve got a document template that I’m The more modern solution in Word is
creating in Microsoft Word 2010, where to use Content Controls. There are two
the document has a title that includes a variations of this, the easier being Document
number, so it might be Contract 472, for Property Content Controls, which gives you
example. I want to use the number from up to 15 controls into which your users can
the title elsewhere in the document, but not place text. The Document Property controls
have to re-enter the number. I’m planning are the same ones where the document
on having a text entry box so the user title is stored, as we’ve already seen.
enters the document number in the title. However, the interesting part is that you
How can I then make that number available can rename the Document Property
and visible elsewhere in the document? controls. Fourteen of the controls are
I’ve tried looking on the Developer tab, plain-text controls, and the Publish Date
but I can’t work it out. control is a Date-Picker control. If you look
Tom Foster ⬆ Use a Word Content Control to have repeated through the Document Property controls,
fields in documents you’ll find some that you’re unlikely to use
There are a number of ways to do this. If you for their original purpose, such as Abstract.
mean the actual document title (as specified in the document You can rename them from the Developer Tab.
properties), then you can insert it from the Insert tab of the Word To see the way this works, first place a textholder for the Abstract
ribbon. Choose the QuickParts drop-down, and in the options there, property into your document using Insert, Quick Parts, Document
select Document Property, then choose Title from the properties on Properties, Abstract. Then, with the Developer tab of the Word ribbon
offer. Note that if you’ve given the document a title of Contract 472, visible, click on the field and choose Properties. Change the title of the
then the whole of this text will be inserted by this action. field to reflect what you want to store. Next, click Design Mode and
If by the document title you mean something typed at the top of the change the placeholder text from Abstract to something more suitable,
document and entered into a text entry box as you suggest in your such as Enter Document Number Here. To use the new names for the
question, there is still a choice of how to insert your text. If you were Document Property, you have to copy and paste it to the other places in
using an older version of Word (pre-2007), you could get what you want your document; inserting it as you did originally will get it with its original
using a combination of a REF field for the user to enter the text, and name and placeholder text. Once inserted, changing the details in one
bookmarks to show that information later in the document. box will change the ‘matching’ boxes elsewhere in the document.
Where’s my terabyte?
My system crashed a couple of weeks ago
and refused to boot. After trying to
troubleshoot things, I ended up
purchasing a new 3TB hard disk and
reinstalling Windows 10.
I only realised after the installation
that Windows thinks the hard disk is
1.99TB; it doesn’t see the extra terabyte.
I downloaded Seagate DiscWizard, but
although this can see the extra capacity,
it can’t access it. Is there any way of
activating the extra space using a
software program? Everything I have read
online seems to suggest that I need to
reformat the hard disk and reinstall
Windows, but obviously I’d rather not.
Norman Dennis
The secure XP
alternative
If you just can’t ditch that vital piece of software
that only runs on XP, you finally have a secure
alternative: ReactOS. Clive Webster shows you
how to use this open-source XP clone
MANY PEOPLE STILL view Windows XP as download if you prefer to install your software Download and install VirtualBox from
Microsoft’s crowning glory, the pinnacle of manually; alternatively, download the latest www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads and click
PC operating systems, the perfect balance build from www.reactos.com/getbuilds – we New to start creating your virtual machine.
between simplicity, reliability and flexibility. used the msvc-win version of ReactOS Give the machine a name (ReactOS, for
Some people just need to use XP because a 0.4.9-dev-50 for this guide (the gcc-lin example) and select Windows XP (32-bit)
vital or favourite piece of software was never version is for use on Linux PCs). The file from the Version drop-down menu. Click Next
updated to run on anything else, and even downloads as a 7z compressed file, so use and set the memory size to 2,048MB (2GB); if
the Compatibility Modes of later Windows WinRAR (www.rarlab.com) or 7-Zip (www.7-zip. your main PC has 4GB of RAM or less, only
versions couldn’t help. Whichever camp org) to uncompress the ISO file. lend 1,024MB of memory to the virtual
you’re in, there is one significant flaw: Borrowing from Linux habits, there is a machine. Click Next and then Create (to
Windows XP no longer receives security Live CD version of ReactOS which runs the make a fake hard disk), leave the setting as
updates. XP is therefore a sitting duck for OS from a CD, allowing you to test the look VDI and click Next again, leave the setting as
hackers, leading to many XP users running and feel of ReactOS without risking your Dynamically allocated and click Next, then
their PCs in total isolation – no internet, no data. The Boot CD, meanwhile, will wipe your give the virtual machine something like 60GB
USB drives, no chance of ingress for any hard disk to install ReactOS. However, of disk space before clicking Create.
malicious software. Obviously that’s a pain, running any OS from a CD makes it rather The newly created virtual machine should
so here’s an alternative: ReactOS. sluggish. Currently the Live CD version appear in the left-hand pane of the main
At the time of writing, the latest stable doesn’t have the ability to actually install VirtualBox screen; right-click on it and select
release of ReactOS is 0.4.7, which tells you ReactOS, so we would instead suggest Settings. Open the Network settings from the
something quite important about its current installing the Boot CD version on a virtual left-hand pane and click Advanced, then set
state: this is alpha software. As such, the list machine rather than using the Live CD. Adapter Type to PCnet-PCI II (Am79C970A)
of compatible hardware is limited, the before clicking OK. If you hit compatibility
installation options are fairly specific and INSTALLING REACTOS problems, disabling the audio and USB might
some features may not work. Even worse, we We’ll first take you through creating a help. Click OK to close the Settings menu.
found that version 0.4.7 doesn’t have the virtual machine to test ReactOS, then On the main screen you’ll see a list of the
required SSL certificate to allow it to access discuss how to install ReactOS for real on new virtual machine’s ‘fake hardware’ - find
its own ‘Applications Manager’ app store. an actual computer. A virtual machine is the Storage section and right-click the IDE
We instead used one of the ‘nightly essentially a fake computer run entirely in Secondary Master: [Optical Drive] Empty
builds’, a release that is a bit further down software on your main PC, borrowing some entry. Use the file browser to select the
the development road and has a functional of that ‘host’ PC’s hardware. We’ve detailed ReactOS Boot CD file you downloaded.
Applications Manager, but which may not how to use VirtualBox in previous issues, Double-click the virtual machine and it will
be as stable or reliable. You can download but there are a few odd settings when boot, loading the Boot CD file and starting
the stable release from www.reactos.com/ creating your virtual machine. the ReactOS installation process. Use the
⬆ A great way to test any new OS is to run it on a virtual machine using the free VirtualBox application
⬆ A journey back in time: ReactOS is pre-loaded with all those familiar Windows XP applications
What is ReactOS?
The best way to think of ReactOS is as a
reverse-engineered Windows NT clone.
We’re being fussy about the distinction
between NT and XP here, as ReactOS is
more interested (at least at this point) in
replicating the ‘Windows NT architecture’
rather than XP specifically.
Windows NT was originally the
workstation version of Windows, but
Microsoft did such a great job with NT 4.0
that it used this as the basis for Windows
XP. As Windows XP is essentially
Windows NT 4.0 with a pretty interface,
your XP-only software should run on
ReactOS. However, you won’t see the
default XP colour scheme, countryside
desktop background or the enthusiastic
search puppy in ReactOS.
We are also going to be fussy about
the term ‘reverse-engineered clone’, as the
ReactOS developers haven’t just taken an
XP installation disc and copied the code,
as that would be a breach of copyright.
Instead, ReactOS has been built from
scratch using entirely new code that ⬆ It’s a bit basic at the moment, but that’s the good ol’ Windows Start menu
replicates XP features, functions, visuals
and capabilities. This is the same method There are, as we’ve alluded to elsewhere, ease of use over absolute authenticity.
that IBM rivals used back in the 1980s to certain elements of ReactOS that are You can also install software on ReactOS
reverse-engineer IBM’s BIOS code and distinctly non-Microsoft. For a start, it’s by launching a standard .exe file.
create cheap ‘IBM-compatible’ PCs. open source, so you can inspect every line Most of ReactOS works pretty much
The crucial element here is, as the of code to ensure ReactOS does what it like a Windows PC; files are stored in
ReactOS Readme explains, “the code our says; you can also develop patches, drivers C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\
developers create is clean”, created using and other elements of the OS that work My Documents rather than the Linux
“clean-room reverse engineering, using and submit them to the ReactOS team. equivalent of /home/documents, for
existing documentation freely available” On a more tangible level, ReactOS uses example. The Start menu behaves just
with “black-box engineering methods”. distinctly Linux-like conventions and like Windows 95’s Rolling Stones-
If you’ve seen the TV show Halt and software in some places. For example, endorsed offering. Using ReactOS feels
Catch Fire (Netflix, Amazon Instant Video) Wine is a fundamental part of ReactOS. very much like using a PC circa 2000,
you’ll have a thorough understanding of As the Readme says, “ReactOS has always and updates for the operating system
the process and legality of reverse- intended to work with the Wine project to are promised every three months.
engineering software. share as much programming effort
as possible”.
”. Wine is typically used
➡ ReactOS is a Windows
clone in the same way
that many PCs in the
1980s were clones
lones
of the IBM
⬆ ReactOS is based on the same architecture as Personal
Windows XP, but follows the more professional Computer,
NT 4.0 aesthetic. Thankfully pictured
Abstract
photography
Discover how to separate a subject
from its identity with our guide to
abstract photography
⬆ Creating shadows with household objects: in this case a toy figure, tripod and glitterball to create the spots
own, or interact with the shadows in creative of light. The shadow’s interaction with the door frame it’s projected on to gives some added interest
ways. Reflective, translucent and textured
objects that let some light through expand speed of one to four seconds works well, so it easy to pick out a particular detail. The best
the palette beyond light and shade. We got a you’ll need a tripod and dim artificial light to architecture has the same aesthetic objectives
lot of mileage from a vintage-style glass vase avoid overexposing the image. If the subject that we’re looking for here, where the
that scattered light into rippling waves. is static, try moving the camera instead. structure is designed to transcend its function
Human bodies are full of interesting A half-second exposure and deliberate to create something beautiful in its own right.
shapes. In most cases they’re instantly sweep or twist of the camera can create The photographer simply has to find the
recognisable, but with some creative lighting, interesting streaks of colour. It’s pretty hit compositions to bring out that beauty. There’s
thoughtful composition and judicious use of and miss, but that’s all part of the fun. beauty to be found in random textures, too.
Rusty metal, lichen-covered walls and peeling
paint are favourites for abstract photography.
The average home is full of objects that can be Check out photo-hosting sites such as
500px and Flickr for inspiration. 500px can
juxtaposed to create interesting shapes show a feed of Popular and Editor’s Choice
images, and the Categories drop-down list
includes an option to show photos in the
Raw processing (which we’ll cover later), it’s Another way to make subjects less Abstract category. Flickr has vast numbers
possible to create images that are more recognisable is with a macro lens. This lets you of user-moderated groups, with many
abstract. It might also be fun to work in the reveal images that are often unseen by human dedicated to abstract photography.
other direction, finding objects such as plants, eyes, so it’s brimming with opportunities to
lampshades and musical instruments that conceal the subject matter and create abstract COMPOSITION GUIDES
suggest the shapes of a human body. compositions. We covered macro I’m not a big believer in rules for what makes a
A slow shutter speed is a handy shortcut photography in Multimedia Expert, Shopper good photograph. It’s better to think of them
to abstract imagery. Moving humans take on 354, so refer to that issue if you have a copy. as conventions: they can be useful, but it’s
a wispy appearance, and moving some parts Architecture is a popular subject for often more interesting to break than to follow
of the body more than others can reveal abstract photography, with lots of bold, them. Even so, it’s useful to know what they
recognisable forms here and there. A shutter geometric shapes and a large scale that makes are so you can knowingly follow or break them.
POST PRODUCTION
We’re not too worried about realism here
so we can go to town with image-editing
be something obvious such as a doorway or Try to achieve a sense of balance between settings. We always recommend shooting
an arch, or it could be a tree or anything that these elements, and don’t be afraid to use Raw but this is especially true here, and will
creates an interesting border. lots of space in the frame. Sometimes let you apply far more radical settings
One rule that works particularly well for known as negative space, this absence of without image quality suffering too much.
abstract photography is to keep it simple. subject matter can become the subject Raw-processing software such as
One or two bold shapes on a featureless matter in its own right. Lightroom is in its element here because
background helps the viewer focus on It’s really helpful to be able to control the its non-destructive editing tools mean
the shapes rather than the subject matter. light in your scene. You could use off-camera you can jump back and forth between the
NEXT MONTH
VIDEO STORYTELLING
Most home videos are shared clip by clip.
We reveal what to shoot and how to edit
to tell a story
Zygote
Video games are more dangerous than guns, according to the governor of Kentucky. But
then he is endorsed by the National Rifle Association, so he would say that, wouldn’t he?
THE NAKED TRUTH KENTUCKY FRIED Scientists at the Vienna Technical was stolen, but it failed to admit
Jeff Smith, a logging worker from In the first six weeks of this year University have mapped the to the rubbish security it had
Canby in Oregon, is suing Verizon more than two thousand people complete neural system of a been operating. For these
Wireless for damages of $4m. He were murdered at random by nematode worm, recreated it as misdemeanours, the company
claims that photographs of his gunfire in the USA. Of these, 350 a software program, and has been ordered to settle
fiancée’s vagina and breasts were were teenagers, 75 were under successfully downloaded it to charges against it amounting
unlawfully transmitted from his 11 years old and there were 18 a computer. They have also to £465,000 under a breach of
Verizon phone and shared with at incidents of mass shootings at managed to teach the brain to the Children’s Online Privacy
least one other Verizon customer American schools. Matt Griswold perform certain actions and Protection Act. So now we know
without his permission, and he Bevin, the Republican governor of behaviour, and reward it for what the value of a child’s
blames the Verizon Cloud storage Kentucky, says he knows why. success, for example to balance privacy is worth. About 15p.
system for the malfunction. “Guns are not the problem,” he a microscopic pole on its
Zygote sympathises with Mr declares. “Video games are the microscopic tail. SPEND A PENNY
Smith, and never realised that a problem, and there’s nothing to The important thing about all Good news for everyone worried
woman in the state of Oregon prevent children playing them.” this is the fact that there isn’t any about being spied on by malicious
needs the permission of a man Zygote has always thought it code that has been created by hackers peering at their privates
before images of her body can be is extremely difficult to kill a child humans to control these actions via a webcam. There is no longer
distributed online. Zygote also with a video game, compared to, and behaviour. The computer any need to stick a blob of
hopes their relationship will not say, a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle brain has worked it out all by Blu Tack or a strip of tape over
suffer, especially as the matter legally purchased by a schoolboy, itself, and seems to be on the your computer’s front-facing
came to light when a colleague of but Bevin knows better. way to proving that machine camera, thanks to a remarkable
his fiancée spotted the images on “Kids play video games that learning and organic learning development just launched by
his own phone, and recognised give people extra points for can follow the same process. Lenovo. Its brand new laptops
her personal attributes. slaughtering people, for doing the come fully equipped with an
very same thing that students V SIGNS amazing device called the Think
ICE CREAM are doing inside of schools. VTech is a global supplier of Shutter, which is guaranteed to
Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson is Video games are garbage.” Wi-Fi-connected toys, online defeat the most prurient of
the man responsible for supplying Zygote would like to inform games and educational programs peeping toms. The Think Shutter
electricity to Iceland’s data readers that the governor is for infants, and it supplies the is activated by a manually
centres, and he has announced a endorsed by the National Rifle likes of Argos and Toys R Us in operated micro-lever that
disturbing statistic. According to Association, he believes same sex the UK. The company holds positions a precision-engineered
Sigurbergsson, the energy marriage is linked to incest, and information on almost three polycarbonate acrylonitrile
required for bitcoin mining he has had all of his nine children million children, who use a service butadiene disc over the camera
operations based in Iceland is educated at home, presumably called Kid Connect. This data lens, thereby rendering it
around 840 gigawatt hours a without the benefit of video includes the child’s name, gender, inoperable. The new Lenovo
year, whereas the annual energy games. So that’s all right, then. address, date of birth and a whole laptops sell for about a grand,
consumption used to power the host of other personal details. which seems extraordinarily good
needs of all Iceland’s homes is WORM WHOLE When VTech got hit by value for the luxury of a piece of
only 700 gigawatt hours a year. The world’s first true artificial hackers, it not only lied to plastic the size of a penny and
The news triggered the following brain has been created in Austria. parents about the data that costing about the same.
response from the Icelandic
parliament: “Cryptocurrency
mining requires almost no staff,
minimal capital investment, and
generates no taxes either. The
value to Iceland is virtually zero.”
Zygote notes that all Icelandic
energy comes from renewable
sources, and the nation is a
beacon of democracy with no
armed forces. This makes it a
very attractive proposition for the
bitcoin mob in search of a safe
haven for their activities. But they
may be in for a rude awakening.
The Icelandic parliament wants
to change the constitution to
allow for punitive taxation of
virtual currency profits.
Imagine yourself sitting in front of a 32-inch curved panel. The screen size and the curved
design make it easy to perceive all the action happening on the screen. Nothing disturbs your
attention so you can fully enjoy the feeling of being pulled in by your favourite game.
GMASTER.IIYAMA.COM