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WELCOME PAGE

Welcome!
CONTACT US
Editor Madeline Bennett madeline@computershopper.co.uk
Reviews Editor James Archer james@computershopper.co.uk
Contributing Editor David Ludlow david@computershopper.co.uk
News Editor Roland Moore-Colyer roland@computershopper.co.uk
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
Can you guess what the picture below is? Turn to page 136 to find out.

Madeline Bennett, Editor


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ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 3


CONTENTS
Issue 364 June 2018

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

6 Letters 18 Globe Trotting


Offbeat news from around the world
Your monthly missives of wit and wisdom,
tips and tricks, and moans and groans 19 The Lowdown: AI in chips
New chipsets are using artificial intelligence to
8 Mel’s World boost their capabilities, but will it benefit you?
Modern cars are so smart they can
20 From the Lab
immerse you in foreign culture and take
The latest scientific developments explained
you to the best restaurants in town. It’s
only a matter of time, says Mel Croucher, 21 Retro: Microsoft Zune
before they start flogging you stuff, too The portable media player that took on
Apple’s mighty iPod – and failed
10 Cyber Insider
Can’t remember the name of the street 102 Boost Your Home Network
where your first pet’s favourite band lived? Turn your frustrating notwork into a Learn
Perhaps an old-fashioned low-tech turbo-charged network with our guide to
solution to those tricky security boosting your Wi-Fi. We show you how to fix 122 Business Help
questions might be the answer interference, boost your wireless range, Our expert answers your software queries
configure your router and much, much more
12 Rants & Raves 124 Helpfile
We bid a tearful farewell to an old 114 Eco-friendly Your Windows and hardware problems solved
high-street favourite, and wonder where Tech
we’ll pick up our emergency cables and Can technology save 126 Advanced Projects
adaptors now that Maplin is no more the planet? We look If you have a favourite bit of software that
at the innovative only works on Windows XP, help is at hand.
138 Zygote solutions that are Clive Webster reveals the secure XP alternative
How much is the privacy of a child worth? helping to combat
About 15p, apparently. Zygote asks if we’ve climate change, air 131 Multimedia Expert
got our priorities right when it comes to pollution and our Things aren’t quite what they seem this month,
data protection plastic-filled oceans as Ben Pitt turns his eye towards the artistic
possibilities of abstract photography

4 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


p114

p131

p76

Reviews Group Tests


76 Budget Gaming PCs
22 Hot Product Cryptocurrency mining has sent
With the Galaxy S9, Samsung has left the design mostly untouched graphics card prices spiralling,
in favour of upgrading the rear camera. The resulting shots look but fortunately you can still
fantastic, but it needs more than that to justify its titanic price pick up a PC that’s capable of
Full HD gaming for just £600,
as these eight models prove
24 PCs 40 Smart Home
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ makes the best Apple’s HomePod is one of the best-sounding 90 Printers
micro PC even better, adding upgraded smart speakers; sadly, it’s not that clever Whether you want an office workhorse or
802.11ac Wi-Fi and a faster processor an occasional printout
42 Video of your photos, these
28 Laptops GoPro finally gets a real action cam eight high-quality
It’s not the slimmest or longest-lasting laptop, competitor in the Yi 4K+ printers and MFPs
but the Acer Swift 3’s Ryzen CPU delivers will have you covered
premium power on a mid-range budget 44 Handhelds
Sony’s Xperia XA2 is a good, if rarely superb,
30 Components sub-£300 smartphone
Cooler Master’s MasterCase H500P Mesh
White is a great case for PC builds that 46 Audio
72 Your Software*
need an abundance of cooling The Bose SoundSport Free headphones sound Wipe all traces of your deleted files,
upbeat and fun; we just wish they fitted better cookies and browsing history with the
32 Displays full version of O&O SafeErase 11
The Philips Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB sets the 47 Wearables
standard for cheap IPS monitors: it’s a A fitness watch that lacks fitness features,
well-built, great-looking display for under £200 Fossil’s Q Control can be safely ignored

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 5


LETTERS

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

6 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


LETTERS

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.

In the next issue


❱❱How to run
Linux on a
Chromebook
mebook
Get around
ound your
Chromebook’s
book’s
limitations
ns by
installing a full
Linux desktop

❱❱Spec your perfect PC ❱❱Happy 50th, Intel!


Build your ideal machine with our pick of The processor pioneer hits its half-century
the best processors, motherboards, this year. We look back at the company’s
thi
graphics cards, SSDs and more origins and future prospects

COMPUTER SHOPPER ISSUE 365 ON SALE IN NEWSAGENTS FROM 10th MAY

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 7


MEL’S WORLD

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.

8 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Monitors

Vivid, true-to-life colours


in an elegant design
276E7QDSW

CCL
COMPUTERS
CYBER INSIDER

Insecurity through obscurity


By trying to make things more secure, many companies succeed in doing the
opposite or locking users out of their accounts, says 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.

10 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


RANTS & RAVES

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.

12 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


The biggest stories from the tech world, and what they mean for you

Fresh flaws revealed in AMD processors


SAY WHAT?

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.

Nvidia and Microsoft bring ray-tracing to games


SAY WHAT?

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.

14 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


▶ For the wallet
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
is the Pi Foundation’s first
flagship micro PC
since 2016, and
even though its
SO WHAT? Wi-Fi upgrades
and processor
ON THE SURFACE, this would seem like a published, which presented the flaws as a lot more speed
straightforward process of identifying flaws then dangerous than they really are, given the need for improvements
rolling out of fixes akin to the way Intel, AMD and administration access before they can be exploited. are small
others tackled the Meltdown and Spectre bugs. And the legitimacy of CTS Labs itself was brought individually,
But the plot to this tale is a lot thicker. into question, as it had popped up out of nowhere together they add
CTS Labs didn’t give AMD the traditional 90-day in 2017 and was reporting on seemingly critical up to something
deadline to tackle the holes, as is the standard way flaws in the processors of an established chipmaker. truly special.
of the cyber security community. This raised some While CTS Labs’ research was verified by a third The organisation hasn’t
eyebrows, especially as CTS Labs party – Dan Guido, of security firm bumped up the price, either:
noted that it has a vested interest I thought the Trail of Bits – it didn’t disclose any rather excellently, the Model
in the performance of AMD, which whole industry technical details of the flaws. CTS B+ costs no more than the
suggested the company had a
was corrupt before, Labs said it has kept this quiet to original Pi 3, and for those
short position on the chipmaker’s give AMD and Microsoft a chance who need reminding, that’s
stocks whereby it stands to profit but it’s getting to work on fixes. a mere £32. Besides showing
if the company’s share price falls. ridiculous” Linus Torvalds The situation looked to be an impressive amount of
Linux founder Linus Torvalds erring into the realm of tech restraint on the part of the
was sceptical about CTS Labs’ actions. conspiracy until AMD, which had only said it was Pi Foundation, that leaves
“When was the last time you saw a security looking into the flaws and wasn’t aware of CTS Labs this little computer as an
advisory that was basically ‘if you replace the BIOS before the report, revealed the flaws were legitimate. even better buy than its
or the CPU microcode with an evil version, you If you’re running a machine with an AMD Ryzen popular predecessor.
might have a security problem’?” he said. or Epyc processor, there’s no real cause for concern (Page 24)
“I thought the whole industry was corrupt unless you know dodgy people with admin access
before, but it’s getting ridiculous.” to your machine. Make sure you’re set to receive
This was given credence in the aggressive firmware updates from AMD or your PC’s supplier, ▶ For the den
language used in the white paper CTS Labs and don’t take all security reports at face value. This would perhaps also be
‘For the office’, depending
on where you keep your PC,
but the Philips
Brilliance
241B7QPJKEB is
outstanding
value wherever
SO WHAT? you put it.
Indeed, this 24in,
BOOT UP ANY triple-A game such as The Witcher said Mikko Orrenmaa, technology team manager at Full HD monitor
3: Wild Hunt, Forza Motorsport 7 or Rise of the Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment. is a bargain at £189, largely
Tomb Raider and you’d be forgiven for thinking that “Developing exclusively on Nvidia RTX, we thanks to its fully adjustable
game graphics have peaked. were surprised just how quickly we were able to SmartErgoBase stand and
But there’s still a good way to go before they prototype new lighting, reflection and ambient high colour accuracy.
reach near photorealism or even get close to aping occlusion techniques, with significantly better visual (Page 32)
the computer-generated images the film industry fidelity than traditional rasterisation techniques.”
can achieve. Yet if you can buy into Microsoft’s and That might all sound pretty technical, but it
Nvidia’s vision for ray-tracing, that could all change. shows Nvidia and Microsoft are keen to make it ▶ For the shelf
Ray-tracing could be the next step graphics need easy for developers to get cracking with ray-tracing. There are few reasons to
to take to make games more realistic, no matter As such, the next games we see running EA’s consider the Fossil Q Control
how fantastical their setting, and allow PC gamers Frostbite or Remedy’s Northlight engines could as a sporty smartwatch
to feel they are getting the very best out of their contain some form of ray-tracing that’s either contender. It looks OK, but it
hardware over Xbox One or PlayStation 4 gamers. enabled by default or is an option for people with isn’t terribly comfortable,
table,
Of course, having the technology is one thing; PCs sporting Nvidia’s Volta-based graphics cards. and it’s missing loads of
getting developers to tap into the tech is another. Given the limitations of games console graphics features that should be
However, Nvidia and Microsoft are quite good at in comparison to the flexibility of PCs, we’re unlikely standard for fitness
encouraging early adoption of their latest work, to see ray-tracing replace more established graphics tracking, such as an
and there are already developers playing around rendering straight away, as developers will still need altimeter and GPS.
with RTX and DirectX Raytracing. to make games that cater for millions of console Even its heart-rate
“Integrating Nvidia RTX into our Northlight gamers. But ray-tracing looks to be the next really monitoring is
engine was a relatively straightforward exercise,” exciting step in graphics. woefully inaccurate.
(Page 47)

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 15


BOOTING UP
Multilingual assistants
Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant
keeps getting smarter and could soon
acquire the skill to translate languages
in real-time

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.

16 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Maplin enters administration Windows 10 S to become
after failing to find buyer a ‘mode’ of Windows 10
LONG-STANDING ELECTRONICS retailer WINDOWS 10 S will cease to be a standalone product next year,
Maplin has gone into administration after as it evolves into a mode for the full-fat version of Windows 10.
the ailing business failed to find a buyer. The announcement was made on Twitter by Joe Belfiore,
Blaming the fall in the pound’s value corporate vice-president at Microsoft’s operating systems group,
after the Brexit vote, along with the while discussing why Windows 10 S was omitted from a blog post
withdrawal of credit insurance and poor highlighting the success of Windows devices in education.
customer confidence, Maplin was on the “Next year 10 S will be a ‘mode’ of existing versions, not a
hunt for a buyer to save it. distinct version,” Belfiore said.
“This necessitated an intensive search Windows 10 S is a locked-down, streamlined version of
for new capital that in current market Windows 10 targeting the Chromebook’s dominance in education.
conditions has proved impossible to raise. As well as being less resource-intensive than Windows 10, it also
These macro factors have been the only allows programs to be installed from the Windows store,
principal challenge, not the Maplin brand making it both more secure and less open to misuse.
or its market differentiation,” said Graham The plans mark a change in strategy from how Windows 10 S
Harris, Maplin’s chief executive. is distributed at the moment, where it is only available as a
“We believe passionately that Maplin has a place on the high street, and standalone product, albeit one that
that our trust, credibility and expertise meets a customer need that is not can be upgraded to the full version
supported elsewhere.” of Windows 10 for or a one-off fee.
In March, Maplin called in PwC to take care of the administration Pricing has yet to be
process, which put more than 200 stores and 2,300 staff at risk. At the time confirmed, but reports
of writing, PwC had already cut 55 staff from Maplin’s workforce. suggest that Windows
ndows Pro
Maplin has struggled to compete with online retailers such as Amazon, users would need d to pay a
which offer electronics and PC parts at lower prices and rapid delivery, one-off fee of $49 (£35) to
arguably trumping in-store customer service. unlock the full mode, not
While Maplin’s turnover sits at £235.8m, it’s been on a downward spiral. unlike the current
ent
PwC is keen to find a buyer for the company, but it seems no company or situation with
investor has been forthcoming since previous buyout talks collapsed. Windows 10 S.

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

270% $71,000 £25m


How much macOS
malware increased Value of bitcoin pilfered from THE AMOUNT TO FUND 5G
over the past year Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak TRIALS ACROSS THE UK

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 17


US Serbia/Kosovo North Korea
Rage against the machines It’s slow time! Not guilty
San Francisco residents Electronic clocks ran up to six minutes slow Blaming North Korea
have been laying down across 25 countries after their power supply for cyber attacks is in
beatings on defenceless was disrupted. The bizarre loss of time was vogue. But after being
driverless cars and robots. down to tensions fingered as the culprit of a hack against systems
Reports have surfaced of people between Serbia in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, it
showing their dislike of autonomous tech in a and Kosovo, which transpires that Russia was behind the attack.
very physical fashion. One taxi driver hopped separated in 2008 That’s according to US intelligence, which
out of his car and slapped the window of but have yet to claims Russian cyber specialists acted in
General Motors’ Cruise driverless car; another agree how to share a joint power grid. retaliation for Olympic organisers not inviting
incident saw a car of the same make under As a result, Europe’s power network lost Russian athletes to compete in the games
attack from a pedestrian. Meanwhile, a 113 gigawatt-hours of power and failed to following a ban for state-sponsored doping.
Knightscope autonomous security robot used operate at a frequency continuously above Apparently, the Russian operatives used
by an SPCA animal shelter to shoo away 47.5Hz. Any deviation below this causes a North Korean internet service provider
homeless people got pushed over, covered devices based on power grid frequency to make it appear as if the nation had been
with a tarp and smeared with BBQ sauce. such as electronic clocks to disconnect. behind the attack.

Spain China Japan


Not much to see at MWC Hypersonic hype Switch hit
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will have Concorde may Skyrocketing Switch sales could see Nintendo
been and gone by the time this issue is in your have gone the way overtake Microsoft in the console market as
hands, but you haven’t missed much. of the dodo, but the Japanese gaming giant finds its feet again.
The mobile tech showcase saw the launch China has IHS Market analysts expect sales of
of the Samsung Galaxy S9, a minor upgrade ambitions to Nintendo products to rake in $11bn this year,
over the S8. And LG, Sony and create a hypersonic plane to fly driven mostly by the Switch hybrid console. In
Acer pushed out handsets that from Beijing to New York in a mere two hours. contrast, Microsoft will see its Xbox One
very much erred on the side of The flight normally takes around 14 hours, revenues drop to $10bn, allowing Nintendo to
evolution not revolution. but scientists from the Chinese Academy of take the second spot after Sony’s PlayStation
Highlights include the Huawei Sciences have tested a scaled-down version of 4, which raked in $20bn in 2017.
MateBook X Pro, a slim Windows the I-plane hypersonic aircraft, which can hit After the relative failure of the Wii
10 laptop that has the slick design speeds of up to Mach 7 (8,600kph). U, Nintendo was thought to
of a MacBook Pro but features a Traveling at hypersonic speeds is a tricky be on the rocks. But
display with miniscule bezels akin balance of maintaining a lift-to-drag ratio due the Switch smashed
to the Dell XPS 13. It also hides a to the presence of “strong shock wave drag expectations and is
webcam under a function key to and massive viscosity”. The I-plane has two still selling like hot
prevent any clandestine snooping. sets of wings to combat that problem. cakes on a cold day.

18 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Artificial intelligence in chips
AI is increasingly finding its way into chipsets, but what effect will it have?

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.

HOW CAN A SINGLE CHIP POWER AI?


That question needs answering in two parts. First, AI systems are
trained using machine-learning algorithms to spot patterns in data to
answer questions or solve problems rather than follow a hard-coded
set of instructions. This training can either be done under the
supervision of human experts or left to AI to draw its own conclusions
from data sets with or without guidance. SOUNDS INTRIGUING. WHO’S WORKING ON SUCH TECH?
More advanced AI systems use a process called deep learning, A whole raft of tech firms. The likes of Intel, AMD, ARM and Nvidia
which is reliant on an artificial neural network. are all working on chipsets that can either handle AI algorithms or
have dedicated processors for powering smart software.
WAIT, A NEURAL WHAT? Microsoft’s next HoloLens augmented-reality headset is set to
In much the same way a human’s brain has a neural network of contain a coprocessor dedicated to running deep learning neural
neurons connected by synapses, an artificial neural network is made networks, with the goal of delivering better movement tracking and
up of layers of nodes. voice recognition on the device.
When presented with data – for example, an image – the neural And Apple’s latest A11 Bionic chip, found in the iPhone X and
network breaks it up into many pieces, or indeed pixels, and each iPhone 8, features the Neural Engine, which has circuits dedicated to
node tries to work out what it’s seeing, such as the colour of an accelerating AI-based software, image processing and speech
image segment or its shape. recognition, as well as the advanced FaceID facial-recognition feature.
As the data flows through the network, each node tries to Basically, there are a whole load of tech firms looking at putting AI
decide how right or wrong the specific into people’s hands and gadgets rather
data it’s looking at is for solving a query, than leaving it stuck in a data centre.
figuring out if a dog is in a picture, for
example, and then assigning it a
A whole load of tech firms GREAT, BUT HOW DOES ALL
corresponding weight or value.
Often data will filter through many
are looking at putting AI into THIS AI TECH BENEFIT ME?
It not only makes a lot of existing
layers of nodes, hence the term deep
learning. The process is repeated with the
people’s hands and gadgets features smarter, such as the automatic
organisation of photos, but it also has a
weighting of the nodes changed until a few other tricks up its sleeve.
system learns to get an answer that’s more than likely the correct one. For example, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of
This process takes a lot of data and requires servers with hefty Technology have designed a neural network chip that uses AI smarts
amounts of processor power to carry out AI training at scale. But once to potentially reduce smartphone battery consumption by a massive
a machine-learning model is smart enough to solve a base level of tasks, 95 per cent, something people with long commutes would welcome.
the AI features it supports can be put into action. This stage is called Google is using its AI tech to power Lens, a feature on the latest
inference: the AI still learns as it goes along, but it’s more likely to tailor Pixel phones that can recognise what’s in a picture or camera feed
its capabilities to individual users, such as learning to better understand and serve up useful information about it – literally judging a book by
their voice or what they like to buy or eat. its cover, for example, to offer a precis on the author and where the
At this level, AI doesn’t need nearly as much compute power to book can be purchased.
figure things out, so a powerful mobile chip is enough to support it. In a nutshell, with the right training AI can handle all manner of
That being said, more chip-makers and tech firms are adding specific human-assisting tasks, from things we need to things we don’t
hardware to better power AI features and allow for smart devices to normally notice. And no, AI is not yet advanced enough to rise up
get smarter by themselves. and enslave us all.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 19


SOUND
Private browsing isn’t that private after all,
say MIT boffins
BYTES
If robot
MIT RESEARCHERS HAVE anyone picking up the stray vendors don’t
discovered the private and decrypted code wouldn’t be
‘incognito’ modes of popular able to link it to a specific page.
act quickly,
web browsers leak data and Veil also offers an even ransomware attacks
fail to protect a user’s privacy. more secure solution: the user on robots could
The academics at can request a picture of the cripple businesses
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology’s Computer
website, so no executable code
ends up on their PC. If you click
worldwide”
Lucas Apa, senior security
Science and Artificial on the image, the browser
consultant at IOActive, on
Intelligence Laboratory noted records the coordinates clicked
exploiting robot vulnerabilities
that browsers leave various and returns them to the
leak vectors wide open to give blinding server, which sends an
away your identity: the file updated image if your action Boring Co
system, the browser cache, the DNS cache, as well triggered something, such as opening a link. urban loop
as “on-disk reflections of RAM such as the swap All these safety measures don’t seem to affect system would
file”. These files can remain on your PC for days, and device performance, either. “Experiments show that have 1,000s of
even if browsers knew where they were stored, they Veil’s overheads are moderate: 1.25x–3.25x for Veil
wouldn’t necessarily be able to delete them. with encrypted client-side storage, mutated DOM
small stations the
To tackle this, the researchers have come up with content, and heap walking; and 1.2x–2.1x for Veil in size of a single
a privacy-protecting framework called Veil, which DOM hiding mode,” the paper reads. parking space that
aims to take the onus of privacy from a browser and It seems a clever solution to a problem that the take you very close
put it in the hands of website operators. security-conscious will welcome, but there are a
The basic gist is that everything loaded into your couple of hitches. The first is that the framework
to your destination
computer’s memory is encrypted until the moment requires web developers to create a Veil-friendly & blend seamlessly
it appears onscreen. To get a website to display in version of their website. The researchers have into the fabric of
this manner, you don’t type in the URL, but instead created a compiler that automates the process, but a city, rather than
visit the Veil website and type the URL in there. A
blinding server transmits a version of the requested
all the same, it’s hard to imagine websites hostile
to privacy taking the time to do so unless user
a small number
page that has been translated into Veil format. demand becomes overwhelming. However, the
of big stations
This looks like an ordinary web page and is visible researchers are optimistic that those who wish to be like a subway”
in any browser, but within it is code that executes a known for their privacy credentials will embrace it. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk
decryption algorithm. From there, it is loaded into What’s slightly more of an issue is who pays for appears to have accidentally
memory for as long as it remains on screen. the maintenance of the blinding servers. These could reinvented the bus
Ordinarily, this would provide an opportunity for potentially be hosted by a network of volunteers, or
the determined snooper, but Veil has other fail-safes at the expense of a for-profit company. Alternatively, In order for
in place. The server drops a bit of meaningless code websites could host their own Veil-enabled versions humanity to
to every web page served, for example. No two of websites themselves, which might prove
transmissions of the same page will look the same appealing to companies that want to trumpet
leave the cradle
on a code-level, and the researchers think that their privacy credentials over their rivals. of Earth, we
need to develop
infrastructures
Google to put 72-qubit quantum beyond our
home planet”
computer to the test Robert Böhme, CEO of
PTScientists, on putting a 4G
AS IT CONTINUES to push the development of Google hopes its new machine can move LTE network on the Moon
quantum computing, Google has revealed plans towards achieving ‘quantum supremacy’, where
to test a 72-qubit system. a quantum computer will be able to outperform a The Acorn
Soaring beyond IBM’s 50-qubit machine, Google traditional supercomputer. team in
looks to have the largest quantum computer in the
world. But the web giant has to test it rigorously to
“We believe Bristlecone would then be a
compelling proof-of-principle for building larger
the 1980s
ensure the system can perform scale quantum computers,” accomplished such
quantum computing tasks without explained Julian Kelly, research groundbreaking
needing to carry out performance- scientist at Google’s Quantum achievements
consuming error correction. AI Lab. that didn’t just
Dubbed Bristlecone, the “We are cautiously optimistic
quantum computer gets its that quantum supremacy can be
change Acorn, they
name from the way 72 qubits achieved with Bristlecone, and feel changed the world”
are arranged in a pattern that learning to build and operate Sam Goult, director of design at
that resembles the scales devices at this level of performance Acorn, hopes to attract funding
of a pine cone. is an exciting challenge.” for a mid-range Android phone

20 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Microsoft Zune
Redmond’s iPod rival that never took off
MICROSOFT’S CURRENT HARDWARE is
pretty slick, with the Surface range offering
swish tablet-cum-laptop hybrids and the
Xbox One X holding the crown as the
most powerful games console ever made.
But the Redmond company has plenty of
failures to go alongside its successes.
Back in the early 2000s, Microsoft was
doing well, with Windows XP dominating the
operating system market and the original
Xbox challenging Sony’s PlayStation 2. So
Microsoft decided to take a swipe at the iPod,
the device that helped fuel Apple’s resurgence.
To take on Steve Jobs’ company in the
portable media player market, Microsoft came
up with the Zune brand. Consisting of media
players, software and a music subscription
service dubbed Zune Music Pass, Redmond
hoped to steal the iPod’s thunder, which had
been building since its release in October 2001.
In November 2006, Microsoft released the
Zune 30, a portable digital media player that
wasn’t a million miles away from the styling of
the iPod. At 112x61mm and a relatively bulky
15mm thick, the Zune 30 still managed to fit
nicely into the hands of digital music fans and
came in a range of interesting colour trims.
Into its compact but durable frame it
squeezed 30GB of storage, comparable to the
lower-end iPods at the time. This was enough
for a healthy collection of music, photos and
videos, all navigated through a 3in, 16-bit
colour display and a circular controller pad despite its fairly high cost and the need to opt and other portable media players, it had a slick
flanked with back and play/pause buttons. into Cupertino’s iTunes ecosystem. user interface that was the precursor to the
With Wi-Fi for sharing some songs, which Despite failing to knock the iPod off its tile-based interface found in the Windows
was ahead of its time, and an attractive user throne, Microsoft persevered with the Zune, Phone and Windows 8 operating system. It
interface, the Zune 30 was fairly well equipped launching the Zune 80 in 2007, which offered had a gutsy Nvidia Tegra chipset to power it.
to take on the iPod. But it failed. devices with 80GB or 120GB of storage, a
larger display and better battery life. At the THE LATE SHOW
SUPPORT IN A STORM same time, Redmond released the Zune 4, 8 The Zune HD was met with critical acclaim.
The Zune 30’s media playback was comparable and 16 models to take on the iPod Nano line. But like the Windows Phone that followed it,
to the iPod and other media players available The second wave of Zune players were the Zune HD was stymied by a lack of apps,
at the time. But it lacked compatibility with seen as proper competition to Apple’s iPod its late arrival to the market, and failure to
music from popular services such as Napster, Classic. But they were rendered obsolete offer a compelling Apple alternative.
and had no native support for WAV or WMA before release by the iPod Touch, which So in October 2011, Microsoft announced
lossless files. Video support was far from arrived in September 2007 and was essentially it would discontinue making Zune hardware,
comprehensive, while photo compatibility an iPhone without the phone bit. having failed in a five-year long campaign
was limited to the JPEG format. The Zune line-up simply couldn’t compete to attract people away from the iPod.
But the Zune 30’s biggest problem was it with the iPod Touch, which rode the coat tails Come June 2012, the Zune was dead.
arrived five years after the original iPod made of the iPhone, the device that could be Zune stands as one of Microsoft’s biggest
its debut. In that time, Apple had managed to credited with filling Apple’s coffers with the flops, yet the legacy of the Zune lives on with
position the iPod as the must-have gadget, gargantuan piles of cash it has today. the DNA of its interface visible in Windows 10.
meaning the Zune 30 never really stood a In 2009, Microsoft had another bite at the Microsoft’s now-honed forward-thinking
chance. However, it was in good company as cherry with the Zune HD. Sporting an OLED approach to hardware could be attributed to
the iPod saw off many other rivals as well, display in a chassis that stood out from iPods the lessons learnt from the Zune failure.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 21


REVIEWS
YOUR TRUSTED GUIDE TO WHAT’S NEW

FLAGSHIP ANDROID 8.0 SMARTPHONE

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

22 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


stakes, as the iPhone 8 still outpaced the conditions of around 1 lux, the camera
Galaxy S9 in both GeekBench and GFXBench. was able to capture a noise-free image,
However, if you’d rather stick with Android with plenty of detail. This is certainly
than switch over to iOS, then this is – and helped by the image signalling processor’s
could well be for a while – the most powerful ability to shoot 12 frames in quick
smartphone you can go for. succession and combine them into
one practically perfect image.
KEEN EYE
All that power takes a toll on battery life, MOTION QUICKNESS
however, and with a severity we haven’t Indeed, put the Galaxy S9’s low-light images
seen on the flagship Galaxy phones in a long side by side with shots from the excellent
while. With the screen set to our standard Pixel 2, and the S9’s look even better, with
170cd/m2 brightness and flight mode superior colour reproduction across the
engaged, we were able to run our video palette. In more camera-friendly lighting
playback test for 14h 23m before battery conditions, heaps of detail is picked up, and
levels fell flat. That’s decent, but some shots are well exposed. The HDR system
two-and-a-half hours behind the Galaxy S8. also does a good job at punching up dark,
There’s some good news, fortunately: shadowy areas and softening highlights.
once the battery hits zero, the Galaxy S9 The video hardware gets an upgrade,
can be fast-charged to full in just under an too. The Galaxy S9 can now record 720p
hour and a half. footage at a ridiculous 960fps, stretching
One subtle update that makes the Galaxy 0.2 seconds of activity out into six seconds
S9 much more pleasant to use is the of video. It’s extremely easy to set up:
combination of the phone’s iris and facial simply draw a box on the screen, and the
recognition systems. The Galaxy S8 and S8 slow-motion recorder will kick in whenever
Plus introduced these biometric login tools movement is detected within that space.
last year, but the Galaxy S9 brings them This is also one of the first phones to
together, under the name ‘Intelligent Scan’. feature Samsung’s answer to Apple’s
If you enable this, the phone will try to Animojis. Unlike the Apple implementation,
unlock using one method, and if that fails, which maps a predefined emoji on to your
it falls back to the other. It’s a simple idea, face, Samsung’s system allows you to create
but we found it greatly reduced the your own avatar, Bitmoji-style, and overlays
frequency of failed recognition attempts it on to your face via the IR camera. It’s a
compared to the previous generation. neat idea, but the results may or may not live
The fingerprint enrolment process has also up to expectations; sometimes the resulting
been improved, so it now takes only two animated characters are decent likenesses
swipes of your index finger to register instead of their subjects, sometimes they clearly
of the 16 dabs it required previously. misjudge certain facial features or hairstyles,
Bixby, Samsung’s smartphone AI platform, and sometimes they just look unsettling.
has had an upgrade, too: it can now translate
text in real time via the rear camera. That’s an FORTUNE HUNTER
ability that Google’s Translate app has had Even if this isn’t a radical departure from
for years, but we found Samsung’s last year’s blueprint, the Galaxy S9 can
implementation faster and more accurate. make the enviable claim of having both
the best smartphone camera and the best
OPEN WIDE performance of any current Android handset.
Superficially, the Galaxy S9’s camera specs That’s nothing to sniff at, although we’re still
are similar to what went before: you get a not quite convinced by the price.
single 12-megapixel sensor with dual-pixel At £739, this is £60 more than the Galaxy S8
phase-detection autofocus and optical image was at launch, and now even that has – like
stabilisation. As with the Galaxy S8, there’s many other Android flagships – dropped below
no secondary 2x telephoto zoom lens on the £500. This makes it hard to recommend picking
regular-sized handset. up the Galaxy S9 right now, although if that
What is new is an f/1.5 aperture that’s price drops to something more reasonable, it
significantly wider than that of the S8. This lets in could become much more of a must-have.
much more light, brightening up shots and Nathan Spendelow
capturing crisper details. You don’t need to do
anything to get the benefit: the camera widens SPECIFICATIONS
the aperture automatically once the lighting
conditions are below 100 lux, which is about what
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.9GHz Exynos 9810• SCREEN SIZE
you’d get on a gloomy, overcast day in the UK.
5.8in• SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,960x1,440 • REAR CAMERA 12
megapixels • STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G •
For brighter scenes, the Galaxy S9 can switch DIMENSIONS 148x69x8.5 mm • WEIGHT 163g •
to f/2.4 on the fly, so you get a bit more depth of OPERATING SYSTEM Android 8.0 • WARRANTY One year RTB

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

performed remarkably well. Even in pitch-black

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018


MICRO PC

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

IT’S BEEN TWO years since Raspberry Pi


last regaled us with a ‘full fat’ new model,
with the foundation having released the
Raspberry Pi Model 3 (Shopper 340) back in
February 2016. Today, we have that model’s
successor, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. Coming soon is a new Power-over-Ethernet of performance, but it should make some
As you might guess from that model (PoE) hat – a type of add-on board – which more complicated projects run that bit faster.
name, this new computer isn’t a revolution, means that the Pi 3 Model B+ could be Otherwise, it’s business as usual for this
but an incremental update, improving on the powered by the same cable that delivers data. new Raspberry Pi, and that’s no bad thing at
original’s minor shortcomings. As such, the However, the pins on the board that provide all. Raspbian, the main operating system for
new model has a slightly faster processor, this capability may mean that some older Pi 3 the board, is a mature and well-supported OS
dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and faster wired cases won’t fit the new model. that does everything you need it to.
networking as its stand-out features. Wi-Fi performance is dramatically The main benefit of buying a Raspberry Pi
improved. The old 802.11n chip on the Model 3 over rivals such as the Asus Tinker Board
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE was fine for getting the Pi on your network (Shopper 357) is the level of support you get
Of course, these are all differences that and for a bit of web browsing, but the from the community and the availability of
are hard to spot from the outside. In fact, standard is old and slow, and not so good for projects. Simply put, no matter what you
stand the Model 3 next to the Model B+,
and you’d be hard-pressed to see anything
that has changed.
The board size remains the same, and
The new model has a slightly faster processor, dual-band
you get the same layout, with the full 40-pin
GPIO header, headers for the camera and
802.11ac Wi-Fi and faster wired networking
screen, four USB2 ports, a microSD card
slot and a Micro USB power input. For file transfers. Using 802.11ac is a step up, want to achieve, there will be example projects
the latter, we recommend using a 2.0A particularly if you’ve got a matching router, and people out there willing to help you.
USB charger to provide enough power although you shouldn’t expect the same That kind of backup is worth far more than
for the USB ports. throughputs that you might get with a the price of the board.
Take a closer look, and you’ll see that the powerful laptop or smartphone. And speaking of the price, the Pi 3 Model
processor now has a very small heatsink Again, testing with iPerf, we saw B+ costs the same as the Model 3, so you
attached to it. That’s because the quad-core throughputs of 85.6Mbit/s. That’s a far cry can’t say fairer than that.
Broadcom BCM2837 CPU has been clocked to from the best 802.11ac performance, but a
1.4GHz, up from 1.2GHz on the Pi Model 3. step up from the old wireless adaptor. A SMALL STEP
The Ethernet port has also been Faster throughputs are hard, as the Model On the face of things, the Model B+ isn’t the
upgraded from 10/100Mbit/s on the Model 3 B+ doesn’t have any visible antennas, so most exciting of launches. Indeed, if you have
to Gigabit Ethernet. However, the chipset only performance was always going to be more a Model 3 that you’re happy with, the new Pi
supports speeds of up to 350Mbit/s. Indeed, limited than on a full-size computer. isn’t a game-changer. Nonetheless, the faster
running our network throughput tests, the There’s also now Bluetooth 4.2 built in, networking and processor make a difference,
Model B+ topped out at 229Mbit/s when giving wider compatibility with external creating a better all-rounder that can handle
running the iPerf benchmark. devices, as well as faster transport speeds. more demanding projects without needing a
whole lot of new power.
COUNTING UP Besides, the Pi doesn’t need to be hugely
The faster processor powerful for the types of jobs and projects
just gives a bit more that it’s designed for. What Raspberry Pi has
breathing room and done here is create the ultimate project board
makes the system that for today, at a price that’s still quite hard to
little bit snappier. believe. The Pi 3 Model B+ is, without doubt,
Running Sysbench to the finest project computer you can buy.
calculate every prime David Ludlow
number up to 10,000,
the Model B+ finished SPECIFICATIONS
the test in 30.04s,
which is a decent •
PROCESSOR 1.4GHz quad-core Broadcom BCM2837 USB

PORTS 1x Micro USB (power), 4x USB STORAGE microSD
improvement over the • •
card slot DISPLAY None OPERATING SYSTEM Raspbian

Model 3’s 45.86s. That’s • •


WARRANTY One year RTB DETAILS www.raspberrypi.

not life-changing levels



org PART CODE Pi 3 Model B+

24 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


27in ALL-IN-ONE

APPLE iMac Pro


★★★★★
£4,899 • From www.apple.com/uk

VERDICT
It’s staggeringly expensive, but the iMac Pro
is a fabulously built and immensely powerful
professional workstation

THE MACBOOK RANGE has long been a


popular choice for business laptop users,
beloved by everyone from marketing execs to
software developers. Now Apple is making
another effort to get inside your office with an
absolute monster of a machine that’s built to
handle serious workloads: the new iMac Pro.
Apple’s first enterprise-grade machine
since the Mac Pro, the iMac Pro has already
gathered some negative attention over its
pricing. It starts at a wallet-withering £4,899
(the spec we tested) and, with upgrades to the
processor, AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics
and SSD, can scale all the way up to £12,507.

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

26 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


It even managed a smooth 35fps on the Ultra iMac Pro has a robust suite of port options,
quality setting. We should also point out that including 10Gbit/s Ethernet, an SDXC card
at no point during our testing did we notice reader, four USB3 ports and no fewer than
any loud cooling fans, and the machine felt four Thunderbolt 3 inputs. These allow you to
cool to the touch throughout the duration. connect not only two external 5K monitors,
It’s one cool cucumber. but also an external GPU, letting you bolster
your iMac Pro with additional graphics power.
SPEED READER
More pertinently to the iMac Pro’s intended OFFICE ACE
number into perspective – a comparably users, it can more than hold its own when The iMac Pro is one seriously heavyweight
specced Windows workstation would cost at rendering, 3D modelling and running CAD contender. It’s fitted with some of the most
least £10,000, and that’s without including applications, and can crucially juggle multiple powerful components ever to grace an
the cost of a 21in 5K monitor. tasks at the same time without slowdown. Apple machine, and it puts them to great use.
In any case, the base model we tested – Storage is lightning-quick, too, with the The display is as gorgeous as you’d expect,
which comes with an octa-core 3.2GHz Intel 1TB PCI-E SSD delivering measured read and the whole thing runs like a dream.
Xeon W-2140B processor, an 8GB Radeon Pro speeds of 2.4GB/s and write speeds of 3GB/s, Let’s address the elephant in the room,
Vega 56 GPU, 1TB of SSD storage and 32GB of which is well over twice the speed of the though. Yes, it’s expensive, but as we
RAM – still waltzed through our benchmarks. 2017 iMac’s Fusion Drive. In fact, compared mentioned earlier, it’s actually not that much
It easily blew last year’s bottom-tier 5K iMac to the latter’s 130MB/s write speed, the more expensive than Windows machines in
out of the water in our benchmarks, racking iMac Pro is over 2,000% faster. the same category. Admittedly, you will be
up an overall score of 283, well over double All of which is to say that this is an almost paying a noticeable markup compared to
the regular iMac’s score of 109. The iMac Pro’s frighteningly powerful machine. This particular similarly equipped rivals, but remember that
multitasking score of 366 also represents a spec is not as quick as the beefiest Windows for your initial entry price, you’ll also be
massive improvement on the previous model. workstations on the market, but it’s by far the getting a truly spectacular 27in 5K display,
Graphics performance is good most capable piece of hardware and the whole package is wrapped up in by
as well. Since the third-party Apple has ever produced – and far the most sleek and attractive chassis of
Mac ports of Dirt Showdown this is just the entry-level any workstation we’ve seen.
and Metro: Last Light Redux configuration. From 3D Adam Shepherd
wouldn’t have provided rendering to extreme
any very scientific points multitasking and demanding SPECIFICATIONS
of comparison, we media-editing work, there’s
instead used Unigine’s not much that this sleek
PROCESSOR Octa-core 3.2GHz Intel Xeon W-2140B RAM •
• •
32GB DDR4 FRONT USB PORTS None REAR USB PORTS
Heaven benchmark to all-in-one won’t be able to •
4x USB3, 4x USB Type-C TOTAL STORAGE 1TB SSD •
stress-test the iMac Pro’s handle, including VR GRAPHICS CARD 8GB AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 DISPLAY •
Vega chip. Here, it achieved hardware and apps. •
27in, 5,120x2,880 OPERATING SYSTEM macOS 10.13 •
a very good 48fps at a Apple may have

WARRANTY One year RTB DETAILS www.apple.com/uk •
PART CODE iMac Pro
2,560x1,440 resolution and abandoned the idea of
Medium detail. Although versatile connectivity Windows overall 283
this is only marginally options for its MacBook Multitasking 366
better than the 5K iMac’s range, but it certainly 0% -50 Reference +50 +100
result from last year, it’s hasn’t given up on it with See page 68 for performance details

nonetheless impressive. its desktop devices. The

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER


PPER
R 27
WINDOWS 10 LAPTOP

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

ALTHOUGH THE SWIFT 3 is the second-


lowest ranking member of Acer’s clamshell
line-up – a range that includes the
luxuriously slim Swift 7 – this latest version
is no plasticky entry-level laptop: it has a
1080p, 15.6in IPS display, an attractive and
durable aluminium build, and even an
integrated fingerprint reader.
There are numerous Intel-based Swift 3
variants, but the model we’ve tested is of
particular interest. That’s because it’s part
of the very first wave of laptops to use one
of AMD’s mobile Ryzen chips, which have
finally launched almost a year after their
transformative desktop counterparts.
It’s another attack on Intel’s dominance,
this time in the laptop and 2-in-1 space,
and the Swift 3 is in the vanguard.

BRUSH WITH GREATNESS


Being a sub-£1,000, 15.in notebook, the Swift 3
was never going to be very slim or light. tasteful brushed aluminium, and that’s not real misstep is the downward-firing speakers,
Indeed, it’s a full 18.9mm thick when closed just an effect: it’s a proper all-metal chassis the positioning of which doesn’t help their
and it weighs 2.1kg. To be fair, that’s light that makes for a reassuringly sturdy base. The already tinny sound; best to leave these for
enough that we could lug it to and from the screen is also topped with scratch-resistant occasional voice call duties and pack some
office without too much discomfort, but we Gorilla Glass NBT for even more durability. headphones for everything else.
wouldn’t want to do so on a daily basis. Heat-wise, there’s some mild warming of
Otherwise, this is a commendably the top of the keyboard under heavy CPU TRAVELLING LIGHTS
well-designed laptop for the money. Both loads, but nowhere near enough for it to be One of the upsides of the Swift 3’s
the lid and the base are finished with a worrying or distracting while typing. The only considerable size is that there’s room for a
keypad, perfect for number-
crunching work. The keyboard
in general isn’t too cramped as a
result, either; in fact, on first glance we
thought there might be a little too much
empty space between the keys. However, that
fear was never realised, as we instantly got to
typing quickly and accurately.
This was, it should be said, in spite of some
rather shallow travel depth and a lack of
tactile feedback from each stroke, both
common issues with scissor-switch keyboards
such as this one. Still, at least it has white
backlighting, which comes in handy for
typing in less well-lit rooms, even if you
can’t manually adjust the brightness.
We’ve no complaints about the trackpad:
it’s generously proportioned, responsive to
gestures, and smooth to the touch without
feeling too glassy.

GLOOM WITH A VIEW


Sadly, the Swift 3’s screen is by far its greatest
weakness. It gets off to a good start: the
1080p resolution is plenty crisp enough, the
IPS panel provides wide viewing angles and

28 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


The desktop Ryzen chips succeeded by beating Intel on BURN OUT
Battery life, however, is awfully short.

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

be a similar story for laptops as well


taxing use you’ll need to keep the charging
cable to hand. We’ll need to run the same
test on other Ryzen 5 2500U devices to see
if this is the cost of higher processing power,
a nice, low black level of 0.19cd/m2, dark or if the Swift 3 specifically just hasn’t been
scenes in videos and even black-heavy given a very heavy-duty battery. We’re leaning
web pages look pretty good. towards the latter, considering the chip’s fairly
frugal 15W TDP.
NICE THREADS As for that 256GB SSD, we recorded a
Along with a middling yet adequate 8GB of sequential read speed of 466MB/s and
RAM and a 256GB SSD, this laptop gives us sequential write speed of 251MB/s. We’d
our first look at AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U in have preferred the latter to be a little better,
action. It’s a quad-core, eight-thread chip, but it’s all fine in practice, with Windows
running at a base clock speed of 2GHz with consistently feeling sharp and responsive.
a 3.6GHz boost, and packs integrated Since you’re probably not going to be dealing
Radeon Vega 8 graphics. with massive video files or AAA games, that
The desktop Ryzen chips succeeded capacity should suffice as well.
by beating Intel on heavily multithreaded Another benefit of forgoing ultra-slimness
tasks, and it looks like it might be a similar is that you’re not limited to USB Type-C
story for laptops as well: the Swift 3 managed for physical connectivity. Here, Acer has
an extremely impressive score of 62 in our stayed contemporary by including a (non-
4K multitasking Thunderbolt 3) Type-C port, but it’s joined by
benchmark and 74 one full-size USB2 and two USB3 ports, so
overall. That’s much juggling peripherals and removable storage is
higher than what a lot seldom a worry. Just as convenient is the SD
of premium, Intel-based card slot located on the right edge, and on the
ultrabooks have scored in the same tests, other side, an HDMI socket can handle video
including the Dell XPS 13 and the Asus output duties even if the Type-C port can’t.
ZenBook 3 Deluxe (Shopper 363). The latter Credit is also due to the fingerprint
costs around twice as much as the Swift 3, so reader, a tiny pad positioned just below
there doesn’t immediately appear to be this is an outstanding coup for this the bottom-right corner of the keyboard.
anything wrong with its vibrancy. comparatively unassuming notebook. Other than a couple of misfires, we found it
However, continued use and our display The Vega 8 graphics processor also generally reliable for logging in biometrically,
benchmarks tell a different story. We recorded appears to beat Intel’s most recent and it works quickly, too.
the Swift 3 covering just 57% of the sRGB equivalents, HD Graphics 630 and UHD
colour gamut, and with a startlingly high Graphics 630, and by some margin. Running BIG BRAIN THEORY
average delta-E of 5.47, the colours it can Dirt Showdown at 1,280x720 with High It’s a shame that the Swift 3’s display can’t
show aren’t even accurate. Brightness also settings, the Swift 3 produced a handsomely handle colours that well, as with so much
peaked at only 233cd/m2, which means it will smooth 67fps; on Intel’s integrated graphics, multithreading power for the cash, it could
struggle with direct sunlight – a problem you’d more likely land in the 40-50fps range. have made a decent budget option for basic
compounded by the panel’s glossy finish. It couldn’t quite handle 1,920x1,080 with Very video and media editing.
That’s not to say that the screen is a High settings, at which it sagged to 23fps, but However, there are lots of ways to harness
total bust. It managed a very respectable for basic gaming we’d much sooner opt for a that power, and you’d be doing so on a laptop
contrast ratio of 1,199:1, and together with Ryzen laptop over a Coffee Lake model. that’s both well built and well equipped for
connectivity and features. If you value
performance over portability (and battery life),
it deserves your attention, and as an example
of Ryzen laptops it’s a promising start.
James Archer

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 29


MID-TOWER PC CASE

COOLER MASTER MasterCase


H500P Mesh White
★★★★★
RECOMMENDED £138 • From www.ebuyer.com

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

tidiness. This can also be seen in • •


DRIVE BAYS 4 DIMENSIONS 542x242x544mm WEIGHT

touches such as the shroud, which • •


11.3kg WARRANTY Two years RTB DETAILS www.

coolermaster.com PART CODE MCM-H500P-WGNN-S00
can be half-removed if you only want

30 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


USB DEEP
IP66 AUDIO
FLAC BASS
Wirelessly link 2 speakers!
FULL HD MONITOR

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

UNTIL NOW, IF you’d asked us to recommend


a colour-accurate, 24in IPS monitor for less
than £200, we would have directed you to the
fairy dust aisle in Tesco. The Philips Brilliance
241B7QPJKEB, however, resets all the rules.
It’s not unheard of to find excellent
monitors at this price – take the AOC
Q3279VWF (Shopper 361), which has both a
high 2,560x1,440 resolution and a 75Hz refresh
rate. That uses an MVA panel, though, which
means narrower viewing angles and inferior
colour reproduction to an IPS panel, as on the
1,920x1,080 Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB. The That can be forgiven considering all the ports In fact, this display only has one big
Philips monitor also has the benefits of a fully and connectivity. You can connect it up via weakness: peak brightness. We measured
adjustable stand, an excellent design and even DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4 or VGA, which are luminance topping out at 213cd/m2, so
an integrated 2-megapixel webcam. tucked round the back along with 3.5mm you’ll struggle to use the Philips monitor
headphone and PC input jacks. Philips also in bright ambient light, such as next to a
SWIVEL EYED packs in two 2W speakers but, as ever, these window that catches the sun.
The design instantly grabs your attention. The should ideally be supplanted with dedicated
top and side bezels are so slim as to be almost speakers if you want to listen to anything SHEER BRILLIANCE
borderless, making it seem as if the image is more intricate than Windows notification Brightness uniformity could also be better,
floating in space, and cutting down the space sounds. A single USB3 port, complete with with a 15% variance at its weakest point.
that the Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB consumes. fast-charging capabilities, sits on the left. This isn’t as bad as it might seem, as most
Philips also includes its SmartErgoBase, consumer-grade monitors that cost less than
which provides height, swivel and tilt PRETTY AS A PIXEL £200 are far worse in this regard.
adjustment. You can pivot it 180°, while the We’re often impressed by the level of display The Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB isn’t built for
sturdy base prevents the panel from wobbling. quality customisation on Philips monitors, gaming specifically, but the panel responds
If a tidy desk is important, you’ll appreciate its and again the Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB delivers. well when set to the Fastest mode within the
smart cable routing channel at the back, which The monitor’s OSD is accessed through SmartResponse settings. Inverse ghosting is
stops the cables from haphazard dangling. physical buttons placed on the bottom kept to a minimum and input lag is
The features don’t end there: Philips has right-hand side of the monitor. Within it, surprisingly low. If you’re looking to play the
also squeezed in its ingenious PowerSensor. you’ll find a selection of different options; odd game, its 60Hz panel works well.
This sits beneath the Philips logo and detects most notably, you can adjust LowBlue mode, For under £200, you’ll be hard pressed to
when you’re away from the desk, dimming the which alters the level of blue light that’s find a more complete IPS monitor. Its colour
display automatically to reduce energy costs displayed. That’s useful if you’re gazing at accuracy and contrast ratio make it perfect
and prolong the life of the panel. this monitor long into the evening. Within for watching films or browsing the web,
When you want to make a Skype call, the Picture settings you can adjust also while that stunning design immediately
you simply pop up the integrated brightness, contrast, sharpness, response marks it out from the crowd. It’s the most
two-megapixel webcam. It’s no time and enable Pixel Orbiting, which can versatile sub-£200 IPS screen around.
match for a dedicated webcam, further prolong the life of the screen. Christopher Minasians
whether for video or audio quality, This leads us to the Full HD IPS panel,
but it’s great for occasional calls, which is a brilliant example of its type: SPECIFICATIONS
and it can handily be popped excellent viewing angles, superb colour
back into the monitor’s frame. accuracy and a good contrast ratio. In
SCREEN SIZE 24in • RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 • SCREEN
That way, you won’t have to sRGB mode, the 241B7QPJKEB had an
TECHNOLOGY IPS • REFRESH RATE 60Hz • VIDEO INPUTS
HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA • WARRANTY Three years RTB •
worry about anyone spying on average delta-E of 1.6, which is lower (in DETAILS www.philips.co.uk • PART CODE 241B7QPJKEB/00
you, too, although there’s a other words, better) than the AOC CONNECTION PORTS
small LED to indicate when it’s Q3279VWF’s 1.95. With a contrast ratio HDMI USB3 DisplayPort
in use, which is useful as well. of 1,327:1 and 90.6% sRGB coverage,
The Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB colours are vibrant and full of life, while
doesn’t look quite so slick when blacks are deep, measured at 0.16cd/m2 at
VGA 3.5mm headphone
viewed from the side; it bulges peak brightness. Together, all of this
somewhat, most noticeably results in an amazing viewing
towards the top of the monitor. experience, especially for £189.

32 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


QHD GAMING MONITOR

ASUS ROG Strix


XG32VQ
★★★★★
RECOMMENDED £550 • From www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT
It’s not a true ultrawide, but this is a splendid
monitor for competitive gaming

WE’VE LONG BEEN fond of AOC’s huge 31.5in


AG322QCX gaming monitor, but a few flaws
have always niggled; notably, the somewhat
sluggish response time and distracting inverse
ghosting with Overdrive acceleration enabled.
Now it has a competitor, in the shape of
the Asus ROG Strix XG32VQ: a QHD display
that’s similarly priced, and just as big, but
which promises a faster response time and
some flashy ornamental touches.
an immersive experience, with no distractingly contrast ratio of the AOC monitor, but that’s
SIGNAL FLAIR large bezels. What’s more, since the monitor less of an issue, as it’s still perfectly strong
The ROG Strix XG32VQ is a 31.5in widescreen supports Adaptive-Sync technology – an enough to produce bold, striking scenes.
gaming monitor with a native resolution of offshoot of AMD’s FreeSync – you can enjoy
2,560x1,440. Its curved VA panel delivers vivid tear-free gaming with any compatible AMD THINK FAST
colours with fast response times, and supports graphics card. If you’re using an Nvidia GPU, One of our criticisms of the AOC AG322QCX
refresh rates up to 144Hz, with Adaptive-Sync you can still use the monitor in 1440p at was its slow response time. That isn’t a
technology to keep things perfectly smooth. 144Hz, but to eliminate tearing you’ll have to problem with the ROG Strix XG32VQ; in our
The first thing you’ll notice about the rely on Nvidia’s Adaptive V-Sync technology tests, we found the monitor responded very
XG32VQ is the distinctive stand. Its chunky instead, which increases the input lag. well, with minimal perceptible input lag.
rotary base is redolent of a plane’s propeller; The XG32VQ’s 31.5in VA panel has a native Be aware that this was achieved with
it’s practical, though, allowing the screen to resolution of 2,560x1,440 and runs at 144Hz. Overdrive set to Level 4 in the OSD. Turn it
tilt (-5° to 20°) and swivel (-50° to 50°), and Despite its size, this isn’t an ultrawide monitor, up to the maximum Level 5 and inverse
has a 100mm height adjustment range. but conforms to the familiar 16:9 aspect ratio. ghosting becomes visible, without any
It’s also flashy, with a beaming red light noticeable improvement in performance.
that projects an ROG logo on to your desk. NOT SUCH A BRIGHT IDEA The other thing to consider is that you’ll
This can be replaced with a logo of your own; While the display looks vivid, you might need a high-end graphics card to get the full
included in the box is a blank cover, essentially immediately notice that it’s not as bright as 144Hz refresh rate at the monitor’s native
a piece of clear acrylic on which you can draw some of its rivals. Our i1 Display Pro calibrator 1440p resolution. If you have a lesser card
whatever you like. If you find it distracting, it measured a peak luminance of 248cd/m2, games should still run smoothly, thanks to
can be disabled through the OSD. while enabling sRGB mode drops this to Adaptive-Sync, but you won’t be experiencing
There’s also a circular RGB strip on the rear 185cd/m2. The AOC AG322QCX is around everything the ROG Strix XG32VQ has to offer.
that works with Asus’s Aura Sync software, 50cd/m2 brighter in both modes, and the Asus’s ROG Strix XG32VQ is slightly
so it can be synchronised with other Asus difference is definitely perceptible. dearer than its AOC rival, but it’s not as bright
peripherals and components, such as On the plus side, overall brightness and doesn’t have the same level of colour
keyboards, mice, motherboards and graphics uniformity is surprisingly good across the accuracy. In games, the more responsive panel
cards. Since it faces the rear, however, you panel’s surface. With no more than -11% and low input lag will more than make up for
won’t see it yourself while you’re gaming – it’s variance from the centre, the panel competes those shortcomings. While the RGB lighting
only good for showing off to others. with professional-level monitors, which is doesn’t add much, the ROG Strix XG32VQ is
Also on the rear are a joystick and four not something that can normally be said for our new favourite 31.5in gaming monitor.
buttons for controlling a gaming display. Christopher Minasians
the monitor’s OSD: an The Asus covers an
excellent design choice, impressive 98.1% of the SPECIFICATIONS
as it makes interacting sRGB gamut. However,
with the monitor colour accuracy isn’t
SCREEN SIZE 31.5in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN
TECHNOLOGY VA • REFRESH RATE 144Hz • VIDEO INPUTS
effortless. As for great, with an average HDMI, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort • WARRANTY Three
connectivity, there’s delta-E of 3.29 and years RTB • DETAILS www.asus.com • PART CODE XG32VQ
HDMI, DisplayPort and maximum of 7.94; the CONNECTION PORTS
Mini DisplayPort 1.2, AG322QCX attained HDMI USB3 x2 DisplayPort
plus a 3.5mm headphone scores of 1.03 and 3.94
jack and two USB3 ports. respectively, making it
From the front, the XG32VQ looks a better choice for media Mini DisplayPort
great, with a three-sided editing. The Asus’s contrast
borderless design and a ratio of 1,773:1 also doesn’t
1,800R curvature. This creates quite match the 2,002:1

34 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BEND YOUR REALITY
AG352UCG AG352QCX
WIRELESS MESH SYSTEM

TENDA Nova MW6


★★★★★
£155 • From www.amazon.co.uk

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

36 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


250GB SSD

SAMSUNG 860 Evo 250GB


★★★★★
£82 • From www.ebuyer.com

VERDICT
Faster and longer-lasting than the 850 Evo
yet still competitively priced, this is the new
king of SATA SSDs

EVEN IF SAMSUNG’S smartphones tend to of its 850 Evo equivalent. But


play second fiddle to the ever-popular iPhone, it’s further up the capacity list
the Korean firm looks an awful lot like the where we start to see truly massive
best in the world at consumer-grade storage. increases: whereas the 1TB 850 Evo was
Besides the 960 Pro (Shopper 348) and quoted at 150TBW, the 1TB 860 Evo is
960 Evo (Shopper 349) setting the standard 600TBW, and if you can afford the 4TB rather than great: here, it scored 273.9MB/s
for NVMe drives, there’s also the (much model, that goes all the way up to 2,400TBW, read and 503.7MB/s. The old 850 Evo did
more affordable) SATA-based 850 Evo. This from 300TBW on its 850 Evo equivalent. better here, funnily enough, but then the 860
has had pride of place in our Best Buys for Having been on the wrong end of both Evo beats its predecessor by considerable
absolutely ages, and for good reason – its catastrophic hard disk failures and margins in the huge and large files tests, so
rapid read/write speeds were excellent in frustratingly slowed-down SSDs, any effort we’d say it’s the faster SSD overall.
2014, and they still hold up today. to extend the period of peak performance What’s really interesting, however, is that
Perhaps that’s why it’s taken so long – for a storage drive is more than welcome to the 860 Evo looks to be faster in certain
surprisingly long, in fact – for a replacement us, even at the apparent expense of being situations than the 860 Pro; we’ll have a full
to arrive. The Samsung 860 Evo initially able to focus entirely on generational review of the latter in next month’s issue,
appears to be a rather minor update: it still speed improvements. However, that doesn’t but a quick run of the 256GB model in
uses stacked V-NAND memory and the mean that the 860 Evo has neglected such CrystalDiskMark had the more expensive Pro
6Gbit/s SATA3 interface, and the advertised upgrades and, as a result, this is one at 361.5MB/s for sequential read speeds and
sequential write speed has been modestly exceptionally fast SSD. 530.7MB/s for sequential write speeds. These
increased from 540MB/s to 550MB/s. In fact, in CrystalDiskMark’s sequential are still excellent scores for a SATA drive, but
The quoted write speed hasn’t changed at read test, it actually surpassed Samsung’s not quite as good as the 860 Evo’s.
all, sticking at 520MB/s. You get the same listed speed, hitting 562.5MB/s, and then did
choice of capacities as well: 250GB, 500GB, the same in the sequential write test, with SOLID GROUND
1TB, 2TB and 4TB. This time, the two largest 532.2MB/s. Even more impressive was how it Best of all, the 860 Evo isn’t some overpriced
options are available at launch, instead of kept composure in the much tougher 4K luxury: the cost per gigabyte is perfectly
coming months or years later. random tests, scoring 400.8MB/s read and reasonable for a 2.5in SSD of this calibre, at
364.2MB/s write. 32.8p for 250GB, 30.4p for 500GB, 29.6p for
AIM LONGER 1TB, 30.8p for 2TB and 31.3p for 4TB.
Instead, it’s endurance that Samsung wants BIG EASY Compare that to the 860 Pro, which ranges
to focus on improving, both for this and its Switching to our own file-copying from 48p for the 256GB model to 37.5p for
(supposedly) faster, more expensive benchmarks, the 860 Evo performed superbly the 4TB model, and it becomes the same
counterpart, the 860 Pro. This comes in in the huge files test, averaging a read speed story as Samsung’s other PC storage
the form of more durable V-NAND, and gives of 491.8MB/s and a particularly quick write releases: just like the 850 Evo and 850 Pro,
some sizable lifespan extensions in terms of speed of 544.7MB/s. Things got a little as well as the 960 Evo and 960 Pro, it makes
TBW; that’s terabytes written, the amount strange in the large files write test, as we more sense to get the cheaper (but still
you can write to the drive before you can ended up with an average of 655.3MB/s, fantastically fast) Evo version.
expect it to start failing. which shouldn’t be possible with SATA3’s Finally, then, we have a worthy alternative
The 250GB model we were sent, for throughput limits. This is a Windows issue, to the 850 Evo, and it’s the very SSD intended
instance, can survive 150TBW, double that as the OS can state that the transfer is to replace it. Whether you’re planning a new
complete before it PC build or switching from solely mechanical
actually is, continuing storage for the first time, there’s no contest:
the operation in the this is the best SATA SSD you can buy.
background. The good James Archer
news is that this is how
fast the drive will appear in SPECIFICATIONS
Windows, so it’s still CAPACITY 250GB • COST PER GIGABYTE 32.8p •
representative of blazing INTERFACE SATA3 • CLAIMED READ 550MB/s •
real-world performance. CLAIMED WRITE 520MB/s • WARRANTY Five years RTB •
DETAILS www.samsung.com • PART CODE MZ-76E250BW
The large file read test also
returned an average of
Huge files 518.3MB/s
478.8MB/s, another
top-tier performance. Large files 567.1MB/s
Judging by our small Small files 388.8MB/s
files test, mass-moving lots 0% -50 Reference +50 +100
of little pieces is the only See page 68 for performance details
area where the 860 is good

38 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


SMART SPEAKER

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

LET US BEGIN by saying that we love the


HomePod, Apple’s first attempt at an Amazon
Echo or Google Home-style smart speaker,
but not for the reasons you might expect.
It’s not as capable of controlling smart home
equipment as the 2nd-generation Echo
(Shopper 361), and it’s not a better bedside
alarm clock than the Echo Spot (Shopper
363), but it is easily one of the best-sounding
compact speakers we’ve ever heard.
The HomePod is 172mm tall, 142mm wide
and weighs a hefty 2.5kg. It’s mostly covered
in spongy fabric, and its only distinguishing
feature is the thick, fabric-covered cable
sprouting from the rear. On the top is a
gloss-black circular panel, subtly curved,
which acts as an occasional control surface.
You can tap it once in the middle to play or
pause, tap it twice to skip to the next track
and tap the glowing plus and minus
symbols to the side to adjust the volume.
A multicoloured, strangely fuzzy blob glows
when Siri is active; otherwise, the HomePod
blends quietly into the background.

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

40 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


THE RIGHT NOTES
We’re also very impressed by
the Ho
HomePod’s far-field
microphone array. It can
microp
pick uup the ‘Hey Siri’ wake
phrase when spoken at
normal volume from
several metres away
severa
music is playing at a
while mus
moderate level; in tests
modera
against the Amazon Echo
agains
Plus, it works just as well.
Unfortunately, while
Unf
HomePod’s audio
the Ho
engineering shows touches
engine
genius, that’s far from the
of gen
word w we’d use to describe Siri
digital assistant.
as a digi
To be fair, there are some strong
points to the HomePod’s voice-driven
First, its Apple Music contextual
tech. Fir
features are fantastic. Being able to ask
featur
who’s playing the guitar, who’s singing and
even ffor different versions of a song is
extremely useful for music lovers without an
extrem
outright encyclopaedic knowledge of pop
outrig
musicians’ movements and history. You can
musici
even a ask Siri to tell you more about a
particular band, and you’ll get a full-on,
particula And, while the HomeKit integration does
robotic-sounding music review.
roboti work nicely, it’s worth pointing out that the
The integration with HomeKit devices is number of devices with HomeKit support is
elegant, too, taking advantage of the Home
elegan currently far smaller than the number of
ability to group devices by room to
app’s abi manufacturers releasing products with
allow you to issue commands such as, ‘Hey Amazon Skills compatibility. You won’t be
turn off all the lights’, which turns off
Siri, tur asking Siri to adjust the temperature on
everything in the room you and the HomePod
everyt your Hive thermostat any time soon.
are in without having to specifically append
location. You can also ask Siri all the
the locat FACING THE MUSIC
boilerplate digital assistant questions,
boilerpla That doesn’t mean the Apple HomePod is a
including what the weather is like, what the
includ terrible product; far from it. It’s a stunning
news h headlines are (you can switch between example of how engineering and technology
BBC Ra Radio 5 Live, LBC and Sky News), and can be put to use in new and exciting ways,
how th the traffic looks on your commute. to improve the way small speakers sound,
no matter where you put them. In fact, were
LOSING CONTROL
LOSIN this a regular Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speaker,
However, the rest of the HomePod’s
Howeve we’d have no qualms in recommending it,
result is that you can put the HomePod voice-driven capabilities fall severely short of
voice- even at £319. It really is that good.
wherever you like, and it will sound good. what y you might expect, certainly compared That said, good audio quality doesn’t
Place it on an enclosing
ing shelf, for instance, with A Amazon’s and Google’s equivalent Echo mean that the under-developed smart
and at first it will sound overly bassy, as the and Home products. The first problem is Siri, control component is off the hook. It would
proximity of the shelves reinforce the which in our experience has never been as be much better if it supported other
low-frequency sound waves; after a few good as Google Assistant or Alexa at streaming services properly and smart-home
seconds, though, the HomePod will sense this interpreting what you say. Nothing changes tech more broadly, and if Apple ironed out
and rebalance it. Move it back to a table in here: Siri works well most of the time, but still crazy stuff such as not being able to choose
open space and the music sounds thin, but makes more misinterpretations than Alexa different radio stations with your voice.
only for a short period while the scan takes does when given similar commands. The Sonos One (Shopper 363) is ultimately
place, after which the bass goes back to There are other issue, too: you can’t set a more successful marriage of premium
normal and it sounds brilliant once again. up multiple timers at once, for example, sound and smart home integration: it’s a
All of this takes places entirely only one at a time. You also can’t ask Siri great-sounding multiroom speaker with all
automatically, completely seamlessly and to play any radio station other than Beats 1 the flexibility of Alexa, and Google Assistant
without any additional user input. When the (despite drawing from others for news support is being added in the future, too.
HomePod detects it’s been picked up, it headlines), and you can’t ask to play music Jonathan Bray
performs a scan once you’ve set it down from Spotify, Tidal, Deezer or any other
again. This is an improvement on Sonos’ music-streaming platform. SPECIFICATIONS
Trueplay system, which achieves a similar It’s not entirely a case of Apple Music or DRIVERS 8• RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DOCK
effect but via a manual process that bust, as you can listen to other platforms on CONNECTOR None • WIRELESS Bluetooth, 802.11ac Wi-Fi
involves measuring your room with your the HomePod via the app on your iPhone, • DIMENSIONS 172x142x142mm • WEIGHT 2.5kg •
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk
smartphone’s microphone. If you move the but that defeats the point of having a smart
speaker, you have to do it all again. speaker in the first place. • PART CODE HomePod

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 41


4K ACTION CAMERA

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

FOR A LONG time, the market for action


cameras has been dominated by GoPro, but
that might be about to change. The Yi 4K+,
hailing from China, is a stunning new action
camera that not only rivals the latest GoPro
Hero 6 Black (Shopper 361) on quality but
manages to beat it on price, too.
Specifically, it matches the Hero 6 Black’s
headline act of recording at up to 60fps in 4K,
and can also handle 120fps at 1080p and
240fps at 720p. As for the price, it’s nearly You can use the 4K+ to live-stream directly to your Facebook
£140 cheaper than the GoPro’s £399 camera;
this is largely accounted for by the 4K+ having page or YouTube channel. This is great if you like sharing
your moments in real time with friends, family or fans
no GPS functionality or built-in waterproofing.
It does come with a waterproof case for rainy
days and underwater shooting, although
keeping it inside this case seems to adversely
affect audio recording quality. Just like the GoPro, the Yi 4K+ is rather That’s right, you can use the 4K+ to
picky with microSD cards. Because of the live-stream directly to your Facebook page
HIP TO BE SQUARE sheer volume of data being transferred to the or YouTube channel, provided you download
The Yi 4K+ is a little smaller than the GoPro, camera, you’ll need one of the fastest cards and install the Yi Action Camera App on
measuring 42x65x30mm. It’s an otherwise around; a U3-class card to be specific. If your phone to set it up. This is great if you
familiar design, with a rectangular body, you’re not sure your card is up to the task, like sharing your moments in real time with
protruding lens, 2.2in 640x360 touchscreen compatible cards are listed on Yi’s website. friends, family or fans.
at the rear and multifunction button on the By touching the small cog on the screen,
top. A nice touch here is that the button has LIVE AND KICKING you’ll be presented with a flurry of options
an LED embedded in it, which flashes red We found the 4K+’s onscreen interface under the video tab, including the ability to
when recording. very easy to understand, yet it still provides record in flat colour mode (useful for colour
On the left-hand side there’s a flap a deep level of customisation for budding matching in professional projects), and adjust
covering a USB Type-C port, which is used enthusiasts. From the home screen, if you metering, ISO sensitivity and shutter speed.
both for charging and audio input. Connect swipe from top to bottom, you get a set of
the bundled USB Type-C-to-3.5mm adaptor quick toggle options. SMALL TALK
and you can add an external microphone. Swipe from either side and you can If you find operating the camera a little too
You can also purchase a Type-C-to-RCA quickly switch between video and photo fiddly with the tiny touchscreen, you can
adaptor. Underneath is a ¼in tripod mount, modes. Scroll upwards and you can jump control various
va functions via the Android
and you’ll find the battery and microSD to other modes, such as Time Lapse Video, or iOS apapp. This works flawlessly and
compartment down here as well. Slow Motion, Burst, Timer and Live. connects to the camera via 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
There’s also Bluetooth, which allows you to
connect wirelessly to a remote or a
compatible
compat selfie stick.
If you prefer to go hands-free, there’s
a remote
remo voice control option, too. This
lets yyou start and stop recordings, snap
stills and switch off the camera, all of
which could come in handy if you’re using
camera on a helmet mount or in a car.
the ca
You need to be in a quiet environment
and speak clearly for it to work, though.
Nonetheless, the touchscreen and
Non
menu system is so responsive and usable
that w we seldom had to even consider
voice controls, and that’s thanks to its
quad-core Cortex A53 64-bit CPU.
quad-c
Unlike the GoPro equivalent, the Yi 4K+’s
onscreen animations are clean, smooth
onscre
responsive to the touch.
and respo

42 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Chillblast
sales@chillblast.com
The lack of GPS is a shame, however. The Hero
his regard by not only
6 Black pulls ahead in this
01202 068 333
including GPS, but an altimeter, compass and
G-force indicator as well.

BETTER OFF VID


Image quality, on the
other hand, is a lot more
close-fought; in fact, to our
eyes, the cheaper 4K+
actually comes out on top.
The core of the camera’s a’s
imaging engine is its Sony
apixel
IMX377 1/2.3in 12-megapixel
CMOS image sensor with
pped
Exmor R, and this is topped
with an f/1.8, seven-
vides
element lens that provides CHILLBLAST FUSION IMP
up to a 155° field of view.
ew.
The combination of PROCESSOR: AMD RYZEN 3 2200G
the image sensor and CASE: CHILLBLAST F3 GAMING CASE
CPU COOLER: AMD QUIET WRAITH
lens delivers stunning
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS PRIME A320M-K
image quality. Pictures are
MEMORY: 8GB DDR4 2400MHZ
rich in colour, with good d contrast and footage at lower resolutions and frame rates, GRAPHICS CARD: INTEGRATED AMD RADEON VEGA 8
parison to both the
oodles of detail. In comparison including 4K/30fps. The EIS is effective but if HARD DRIVE: SEAGATE 1TB FIRECUDA SSHD
Hero 6 Black and the older Hero 5 Black e
Black, we you’re looking for the ultimate in smooth, stable POWER SUPPLY: FRACTAL DESIGN 80 PLUS 500W
found the Yi 4K+ produced slightly more video output – or you want smooth 60fps 4K SYSTEM: WINDOWS 10 HOME 64-BIT
colour-accurate images and videos. The Hero 6 video – you should invest in a handheld gimbal. PRICE FROM £479.99
Black’s footage looked somewhat softer and
warmer, although this itself was a slight MIKING UP
improvement on that of the Hero 5 Black. While image quality is great, however, audio www.chillblast.com
The Yi 4K+’s still image quality is also quality isn’t so good. Despite all three cameras
extremely impressive, and low-light performance recording in 48kHz at 128Kbit/s, the 4K+ doesn’t
isn’t bad, either. Of course, there is image noise sound as wide or deep as either the GoPro Hero
in the background, but that’s to be expected. 6 Black or the Hero 5 Black.
Enabling Auto Low Light mode reduces image On the plus side, with the bundled USB
noise a touch. Type-C-to-3.5mm adaptor, you can plug in an
Video capture is what it’s all about with external microphone. This will then provide far
this camera, however, and that’s sensational. superior audio quality, even if it’s a cheap
As with still image quality, the Yi 4K+ records clip-style mic such as the Sony ECM-CS3.
videos with superior colour accuracy and Since the 4K+ is so much cheaper than an
contrast to the GoPro range. equivalent GoPro, it’s worth spending a little
It records at a much higher bit rate, too, extra to get drastically better audio recording.
which results in crisper videos and better detail Something else worth noting is that sound
retention. Using the MediaInfo app to extract this quality on the Yi 4K+ gets worse when it’s
information from our test clips, we saw the 4K+ used with the waterproof case, with audio
hit a bit rate of 135Mbit/s at 4K/60fps, as well as becoming tinny and claustrophobic. The same
105Mbit/s at 4K/30fps; the Hero 6 Black, by can be said with the GoPro’s waterproof FUSION PHOTO OC VIII
contrast, tops out around 80Mbit/s. In practice, casing, but remember you don’t need to buy
PROCESSOR: INTEL CORE i7-7820X 8 CORE
this meant cleaner lines, less blurring and more that particular accessory unless you plan to
CASE: FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE R5
crisply rendered details from the Yi 4K+. go deeper than 10m underwater. CPU COOLER: CORSAIR H100i V2 CPU COOLER
Otherwise, the Yi 4K+ proves that even if MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE X299-UD4
BREAK THE SHAKE GoPro continues to dominate the world of MEMORY: 32GB DDR4 2133MHZ
If 4K isn’t your cup of tea – not everyone has action cameras, it’s possible to get something GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 6GB
a display to watch these clips on, of course – that’s just as good, if not better, than the OS DRIVE: 250GB Samsung 960 EVO M.2
HARD DISK: 2 x Seagate 3TB HDD in RAID 1
then the 4K+ can be dialled down. At 1080p competing top-of-the-line model for less cash.
OPTICAL DRIVE: Blu-Ray ReWriter Drive
and 120fps, the 4K+ still beat the GoPro on Not that £266 is terribly cheap, but compared to
CARD READER: Akasa 17 in 1 Card Reader
overall quality, with cleaner detailing and the Hero 6 Black, it’s an outstanding bargain, POWER SUPPLY: CORSAIR CX750 80 PLUS BRONZE
superior colour reproduction. making this a great choice for anyone in the SYSTEM: WINDOWS 10 HOME 64-BIT
The only downside of this superior quality market for a high-quality action camera.
is the sheer size of the resultant files. For a Christopher Minasians PRICE FROM £2399.99
56-second clip recorded at 4K/60fps on the Yi
4K+ you’re looking at 917MB, while a 49-second SPECIFICATIONS
clip recorded on the GoPro at 4K/60fps is much
smaller at 353MB. That’s a huge difference.
SENSOR 1/2.3in CMOS• SENSOR PIXELS 12 megapixels •
For movement, Yi Technology uses electronic
MAXIMUM RECORDING RESOLUTION 4K (60fps) •
AV CONNECTIONS USB Type-C • DIMENSIONS 42x65x30mm •
image stabilisation (EIS) to provide a more stable WEIGHT 96g • WARRANTY One year RTB •
image. Alas, just like on the Hero 6 Black, EIS DETAILS www.yitechnology.com • PART CODE 91107
doesn’t work at 4K/60fps, but will smooth out Terms and conditions are on the website.
All trademarks are acknowledged.
Pictures are for illustration only.
Prices are correct at time of going to press (23-02-18) E&OE
ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018
ANDROID 8.0 SMARTPHONE

SONY Xperia XA2


★★★★★
£270 • From www.amazon.co.uk

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

respectable 1,167:1 and The specifications look • PART CODE 1312-1890


brightness peaks at a decent enough, with an f/2.0
sunlight-friendly 507cd/m2. 23-megapixel snapper on Battery life 14h 27m
This is one impressive the rear, 1/2.3 in sensor, phase- 0% -50 Reference +50 +100
display and, on a £270 detect autofocus and a See page 68 for performance details

smartphone, it’s a real treat. single-colour LED flash.

44 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


ANDROID 8.0 SMARTPHONE

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

contrast ratio of 1,500:1 There’s plenty of detail on


• SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,160x1,080 •
SCREEN SIZE 5.65in
REAR CAMERA 13 megapixels, 2 megapixels • STORAGE
the P Smart makes for show, even in low-contrast 32GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • DIMENSIONS 150x72x7.5mm
good video playback. We areas, and colour • WEIGHT 165g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 8.0 •
suspect that some dynamic reproduction is good too. WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS consumer.huawei.
com • PART CODE FIG-L31
contrast is at work, as the Sadly, as with many
brightness drops a little (to low-cost phones, camera
570cd/m2) when displaying performance isn’t so great Battery life 7h 48m
colours other than white. in low-light conditions. 0% -50 Reference +50 +100
Still, the screen isn’t HDR processing helps a See page 68 for performance details

oversaturated and doesn’t bit, brightening up the

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 45


WIRELESS IN-EAR HEADPHONES

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

46 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


ANDROID WEAR SMARTWATCH

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 47


IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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
just getting started with raw a pleasure not a grind, so
photo processing, or a digital you’ll need a PC powerful
photography expert with a colossal enough to apply common
photo collection, the right PC will make adjustments, such as lens
sure nothing gets in the way of your distortion correction,
creative flow. quickly to large batches of
We’ve teamed up with the PC-building photos. When it comes to photo ▲ Chillblast Photo OC VIII
experts at Chillblast to show you the editing and management, Lightroom
hardware you need to make light work of remains the gold standard, so you’ll need to raw format, are capable of gobbling up your
editing and organising your snaps, whether make sure your PC has a powerful enough PC’s storage space at an alarming rate.
you’re on a modest budget or want a PC processor for all the application’s features. There’s no doubt that conventional
worthy of your top-of-the-range SLR. When it comes to which processor to mechanical hard disks are astonishing
choose, you don’t need to be too fussy value; just £55 will buy you a 2TB WD
CORE ELEMENTS about whether to go the way of Intel or Blue Drive, with enough space for 45,000
You’ve just spent two weeks on holiday. AMD. The main thing is that, even if you’re images in raw format.
You’ve got a memory card full of images, on a tight budget, you get a processor with However, such hard disks have one big
all of which need importing and tweaking at least four cores. Fortunately, the latest drawback: they are very slow compared to
in Adobe Lightroom, with occasional range of Intel Core processors (codenamed solid-state drives (SSDs). This can affect how
forays into Photoshop to remove errant Coffee Lake, Core i3-8100 and up), are quickly Windows and your applications load,
passers-by and For Sale signs outside finally quad-core across the board. The as well as how responsive your PC feels. In
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.
quad-core Intel Core i3 or The best approach is a compromise, with
AMD Ryzen 3 CPU for only applications and the photos currently
Lightroom as an entry- being manipulated stored on the SSD. We
level processor, a Core i5 recommend a split storage system with a
or Ryzen 5 for mid-range, fast SSD for Windows and the editing
and for ultimate packages, and for the current workload,
performance a Core i7 along with a large secondary disk for
or Ryzen 7 CPU. archiving. This gives you a responsive
When it comes to RAM, system with a large storage capacity, but at
you should certainly aim a realistic price.
for 16GB. 8GB will just
about do, but you may hit GRAPHICS ACCELERATION
the occasional slowdown A photo-editing PC’s graphics hardware
– especially if you’re needs to do more than display a static image
flicking between onscreen. This is because modern creative
Lightroom and Photoshop software can take advantage of a graphics
during your photo edits. card’s processing power in order to
accelerate certain functions. Both
SPACE AND SPEED Lightroom, in the photo-editing Develop
▲ Chillblast Photo OC VIII Photos, especially those in module, and Photoshop support graphics
PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

▲ Chillblast Fusion Sprint ▲ Fusion Photo OC Lite IV

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improve performance when running at high 250GB SSD to make Windows and cores and the ability to boost up to a huge
resolutions, such as 4K. applications load in a snap, a 1TB hard disk 4.7GHz when required. This is one of the
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.
– modern variants of Adobe Creative Suite card to give you plenty of GPU acceleration Finally, we come to the highest of the
allow hardware acceleration to get the best in your creative applications. high end. The Chillblast Photo OC VIII
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especially if you’ve splashed out on a lovely £1,499.99, but the specification has the future. At the heart of the £2,399.99
4K monitor to show off your photos in all taken several leaps over the Fusion Sprint. system is an Intel Core i7-7820X processor.
their glory. This PC also has one of Intel’s latest Coffee This is from Intel’s Skylake-X range of
processors: X for extreme. It’s an eight-core
RECOMMENDED BUILDS chip, but applications see a further eight
By now, you should have a good idea of what cores thanks to Intel’s Hyper-Threading
to look for in a PC, but why trawl through technology. This processor is significantly
manufacturers’ websites and fiddle around faster than the already colossally quick
with custom specifications when our Core i7-8700K when it comes to
experts have done the hard work for you? manipulating photos in Lightroom.
Here are three PCs that are perfect for The PC comes with 32GB of RAM, so you
photo-editing: one for enthusiastic won’t run out of memory no matter how
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The Chillblast Fusion Sprint (tinyurl.com/ games at high detail levels, too, if you fancy
fusionsprint) may be at the lower end of the a break from photo editing.
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£899.99 you get a quad-core Intel Core response from your applications, and even
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mind, the new 8th Generation Core i3 3TB hard disks. The Photo OC VIII is the
processors sport a native quad core, ▲ Fusion Photo OC Lite IV ultimate photo-editing workstation.
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

Theta S alongside Garmin • HARD DISK SPACE 8GB •DETAILS www.adobe.com/uk

⬆ Premiere Pro 2018 enables you to work with full 360º VR content VIRB 360 output, and the
• PRODUCT CODE Premiere Pro CC

50 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


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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.

02 If you want to play games, you’ll


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

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

WIRED2FIRE Pyro Reactor PALICOMP


★★★★★ i5 Titanium
£1,083 • www.wired2fire.com ★★★★★
The rise of Ryzen CPUs £500 • www.palicomp.co.uk
has brought about a
rush of excellent While there’s no
AMD-based PCs, perhaps the best of dedicated GPU, the i5
which is Wired2Fire’s Pyro Reactor. Titanium is a brilliantly
Its GeForce GTX 1060 will breeze through balanced home office PC, with a
most games at 1440p, and its hexa-core capable quad-core processor, compact
Ryzen 5 1600X is capable of getting case and speedy SSD/hard disk
serious work done. It’s a real all-rounder combo. It’s not particularly upgradable
at a very fair price. but, for the price, it offers very good
performance right out of the box.
PROCESSOR Hexa-core 3.8GHz AMD Ryzen 5 1600X • RAM 16GB • FRONT USB PORTS 2x
USB3 • REAR USB PORTS 2x USB2, 6x USB3.1 • TOTAL STORAGE 250GB SSD, 1TB hard disk • PROCESSOR Quad-core 3GHz Intel Core i5-7400 • RAM 8GB • FRONT USB PORTS 2x USB3 •
GRAPHICS CARD 6GB Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • REAR USB PORTS 2x USB2, 2x USB3x 1x USB Type-C • TOTAL STORAGE 250GB SSD, 1TB hard disk
WARRANTY Three years labour including two years parts • DETAILS www.wired2fire.com • • GRAPHICS CARD None • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10 Home • WARRANTY Three years
PART CODE SYS_W2F_PYRE2 • FULL REVIEW Dec 2017 RTB • DETAILS palicomp.co.uk • PART CODE KAB3 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017

52 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Choosing a... Laptop
01 A basic laptop costing around £300
will run everyday office, multimedia
and education software, but it won’t be
that weighs less than 2kg. For the best
portability, buy one that has an 11in or 13in
screen. In general, the smaller and lighter the
will do the job, but if you want better
performance, you should look for an
Intel Core i5 or Core i7 model instead. We
suitable for 3D gaming or processor-intensive laptop, the more expensive it is, especially if recommend a minimum of 4GB of RAM,
tasks such as video editing. Many laptops at it has plenty of processing power. although 8GB is better for multitasking.
this price have a 15.4in screen and weigh
around 2.4kg, so they’re best used around
the house and for occasional journeys. 04 Battery life is extremely important
for a laptop, particularly if you’ll be
carrying it around. We’d expect all but the
06 Most budget and mid-range laptops
use a mechanical hard disk for
storage. You’ll want at least 500GB, but

02 If you want to play modern


games, you’ll need a laptop with a
dedicated graphics chip such as the Nvidia
biggest and heaviest to last for at least five
hours on a single charge, but for an ultra-
portable that you carry everywhere, eight
1TB or more is better. Solid-state drives
(SSDs) have faster performance, making
your computer quicker to boot and more
GeForce GTX 1060M. Good gaming laptops hours and above is more desirable. responsive. They have lower capacities,
tend to have large 17in screens and weigh though. You’ll need at least 128GB.
around 3kg, so they’re best suited to use
at home. 05 Laptops use mobile versions of
processors to conserve power,
and these lag behind desktop chips when 07 Convertibles and 2-in-1 laptops can
change from laptop mode to tablet

03 If you want a laptop that you can


take everywhere, look for a model
it comes to performance. For a budget
Windows laptop, an Intel Core i3 processor
mode. We’ve listed our favourite models later
on in this guide in the Tablets section.

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

GIGABYTE DELL XPS 13 (2017)


Aero 15 ★★★★★
★★★★★ £1,100 • www.amzn.to/2uirlnL
£1,800 • www.scan.co.uk Powered by an
updated Intel Core
The Aero 15 i7-7500U,
7500U, the refreshed
is another Dell XPS 13 goes from
rom a tantalising
slimline purchase to an essential
ential one.
gaming laptop, this time withth The 3,200x1,800 display
splay still
the heft of a GeForce GTX 1060060 inside. looks excellent, too,
oo, both in itself
The result is excellent frame rates even in and surrounded
highly demanding games, with unusually by the razor-thin
long battery life to sweeten the deal. InfinityEdge bezels.

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 53


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

install. There are three main contenders:


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

02 All smartphones have colour screens,


but their resolutions vary. Basic
models have 800x480 pixels, but text can be
now. Physical keyboards can aid heavy
emailing, but today’s touchscreen keyboards
work just as well.
or your router when you’re at home. Android
and iPhone handsets can operate as wireless
hotspots, letting you connect your laptop to
indistinct. Look for a display that has at least Android smartphones and iPhones the web over your mobile data connection.
1,280x720 pixels so it’s easy to browse web running iOS 9 or 10 allow you to install a There may be an extra charge for this.

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

HONOR 7X GOOGLE Pixel 2


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£230 SIM-free; free on £27-per-month contract • £559 SIM-free; free on £43-per-month contract •
www.argos.co.uk (SIM-free); www.three.co.uk (contract) www.carphonewarehouse.com

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

SAMSUNG Galaxy J5 (2017) HONOR 8 Pro


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£155 SIM-free; free on £15-per-month contract • £449 • www.debenhamsplus.com
www.amzn.to/2B6fPjS (SIM-free);
www.carphonewarehouse.com If you can live with the EMUI skin, the
Honor 8 Pro is a fantastic phablet. It
The new Galaxy J5 performs well, takes competes with more expensive
great photos, has an incredibly vibrant flagships on performance, and has a vibrant 5.7in
screen and looks stylish, but it’s the display, plus a sharp rear camera with 4K video capture.
battery life – over 18h in our tests – that really impresses.
PROCESSOR Octa-core 2.4GHz HiSilicon Kirin 960 • SCREEN SIZE 5.7in •
PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.6GHz Exynos 7870 • SCREEN SIZE 5in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,280x720 SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • REAR CAMERA 12 megapixels •
• REAR CAMERA 13 megapixels • STORAGE 16GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • DIMENSIONS STORAGE 64GB • WIRELESS DATA 4G • DIMENSIONS 157x78x7mm •
146x71x8mm • WEIGHT 160g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 7.0 • WARRANTY One-year RTB • WEIGHT 184g • OPERATING SYSTEM Android 7.0 • DETAILS www.hihonor.
DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE SM-J350FZKABTU • FULL REVIEW Dec 2017 com/uk • PART CODE DUK-L09 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017

54 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


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

02 It’s important to pick a tablet that has


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

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

APPLE iPad Pro 10.5in MICROSOFT Surface Pro (2017)


( )
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£619 • www.apple.com/uk £1,999 • www.microsoft.com
While it’s still stuck with a This pricey 2-in-1 earns every
ery penny,
mobile OS, rather than the with its colourful, pin-sharp
rp
productivity-friendly macOS, display, best-in-class app
there’s no arguing with the latest iPad Pro’s raw performance, lengthy battery life and quality
ity
power. An A10X Fusion chip makes it much faster than the 9.7in keyboard cover. It’s been given welcome design
model in both multitasking and single-threaded applications. tweaks too, like a more durable hinge and smoothed-off edges.

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

SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S3 AMAZON Kindle Oasis (2017)


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£599 • www.amzn.to/2EJBII0 £230 • www.amzn.to/2iz8Cge
Yes, it’s incredibly expensive for an The premium instalment of
Android slate, but the Galaxy Tab S3 Amazon’s eReader line is
is pure luxury: the AMOLED display back with a bigger screen,
looks exquisite, the stereo speakers sound great, and ambient light sensor and IPX8 waterproofing,
Samsung’s S Pen stylus is included as standard. though its most interesting improvement is
the ability to play Audible Audiobooks.
PROCESSOR Quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 • SCREEN SIZE 9.7n •
SCREEN RESOLUTION 2,048x1,536 • REAR CAMERA 13 megapixels • STORAGE 32GB • PROCESSOR Not stated • SCREEN SIZE 7in • SCREEN RESOLUTION 300dpi • REAR CAMERA None
WIRELESS DATA None (4G optional) • DIMENSIONS 2937x169x6mm • WEIGHT 429g • • STORAGE 8GB • WIRELESS DATA Optional 3G • DIMENSIONS 159x141x8.3mm • WEIGHT 194g •
OPERATING SYSTEM Android 7.0 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk OPERATING SYSTEM Kindle OS • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.amazon.co.uk •
• PART CODE SM-T820 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017 PART CODE Kindle Oasis (2017) • FULL REVIEW Mar 2018

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 55


Choosing a... Digital camera
01 A basic digital camera will suit
someone who wants to take pictures
to view on their computer and create 7x5in
check our reviews to find out how a
particular model performs.
921,000-dot resolutions for a sharper picture.
A touchscreen is useful for moving the
autofocus point.
prints. It should cost around £80, but there
may be hidden downsides such as slow
performance and very basic user controls.
03 A 3x zoom lens provides you with
reasonable scope for framing your
shots, but a larger range can do wonders 05 Leave some room in your budget for a
memory card, as the bundled memory
for your photography. Most compact provided with a camera is never enough. A

02 Spend a little more and you’ll get a


higher resolution. A 16-megapixel
sensor has the potential to produce sharp
cameras can manage a 5x zoom, while
pocket-size ultra-zoom cameras can
provide 24x zoom ranges.
16GB card costs less than £10. You may also
need to buy batteries.

prints up to A3 size, but only if it and the lens


are of a suitably high quality. Very high
resolutions in compact cameras tend to
Numbers such as 28-105mm tell you the
wide-angle and telephoto limits of the zoom
range. Big zooms require optical image
06 Don’t forget that a camera’s
specification tells you very little
about its image quality. You’ll need to read
boost noise more than detail levels, so many stabilisation to avoid blur due to camera our reviews for that. With a compact
of the best models strike a sensible balance shake when zoomed right in. camera, we believe the user shouldn’t have
by using a 12-megapixel sensor. to grapple with complicated controls in
Back-illuminated CMOS sensors tend
to produce less noise than CCDs, but 04 Most cameras now have a 3in screen.
Look out for 460,000-dot or
order to take great pictures in a range of
lighting conditions.

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

NIKON D3400 POLAROID Originals OneStep 2


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£348 • www.johnlewis.com £109 • www.jessops.com
A collection of minor The OneStep 2 brings
improvements to battery life, back the simple joys of
shooting speed and stills quality
y instant photography.
add up to make the D3400 the best entry-level DSLR available. Although the stock can get quite pricey,
your shots will look just as they would on
SENSOR RESOLUTION 24 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE 23.5x15.6mm (APS-C) • VIEWFINDER a classic Polaroid – perfect for sharing or
Optical TTL • LCD SCREEN 3in (921,000 dots) • OPTICAL ZOOM (35mm-EQUIVALENT FOCAL
simply sticking to the fridge.
LENGTHS) 3x (27-82.5mm) • 35mm-EQUIVALENT APERTURE f/5.25-8.4 • LENS MOUNT Nikon F
Mount • WEIGHT 655g • DIMENSIONS 99x124x135mm • WARRANTY One year RTB • PHOTO SIZE 3.1x3.1in • BATTERY LIFE 15-20 packets of film • PORTS 1x Micro USB •
DETAILS www.europe-nikon.com • FULL REVIEW Jun 2017 WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.polaroidoriginals.com • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018

PANASONIC Lumix GH5


H5 PANASONIC Lumix DMC-G80
MC-G80
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£1,599 • www.wexphotographic.com £749 • www.jessops.com
This update to the brilliant The G80 is ahead of the pack
GH4 can take great photos, when it comes to video quality, y,
but it’s video capture where the GH5 truly excels. Its and its stills look great as well.. It’s
4K, 60fps footage is crisp enough for serious indie filmmaking, and it more expensive than the preceding G7, but includes
ludes a
supports 10-bit recording and an optional flat colour profile as well. superior 12-60mm kit lens, among other improvements.

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

56 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


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

viewing angles, so you’ll need to sit straight


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

02 A VGA input lets you use the monitor


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

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

VIEWSONIC AOC Q3279VWF


XG2700-4K ★★★★★
★★★★★ £200 • www.amzn.to/2BjxUGC
£547 • www.amzn.to/2oqjuAj
We never thought
Even if this isn’t the you could get so
most cutting-edge monitor,or, its his
much monitor for this
4K gaming capability still holds up, with a responsive
ive A
little cash; £200 for a vast 31.5in MVA
and colourful IPS panel and almost a complete lack of ghosting. AMD panel, with Quad HD resolution, good colour accuracy and high
graphics card owners can also eliminate tearing with FreeSync. contrast, plus a 75Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync support.
SCREEN SIZE 27in • RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • VIDEO INPUTS SCREEN SIZE 31.5in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY MVA • REFRESH RATE
VGA, HDMI x3, DisplayPort, mini DisplayPort • WARRANTY Three years parts and labour • 75Hz • VIDEO INPUTS HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA • WARRANTY Three years collect and return •
DETAILS www.viewsonic.com • PART CODE XG2700-4K • FULL REVIEW Apr 2018 DETAILS aoc-europe.com • FULL REVIEW Mar 2018

PHILIPS Brilliance 258B6QUEB SAMSUNG C34F791


1
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£384 • www.uk.insight.com £750 • www.ebuyer.com
A USB Type-C port doesn’t With its Quantum Dot ot
sound like the most thrilling display, the C34F791
feature on a monitor, but it can achieve pristine colour
gives the Brilliance 258B6QUEB a wonderful coverage and superp accuracy. Its Ultra HD resolution and 34in
flexibility, allowing you to hook up any laptop, 2-in-1 or Type-C curved screen make it ideal for multitasking, but a 100Hz refresh rate
peripheral. Picture quality is very good, too. and AMD FreeSync support ensure it’s even better for 4K gaming.
SCREEN SIZE 25in • RESOLUTION 2,560x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY IPS • REFRESH RATE SCREEN SIZE 34in • RESOLUTION 3,840x1,440 • SCREEN TECHNOLOGY VA •
60Hz • VIDEO INPUTS VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, USB Type-C • WARRANTY Three years RTB REFRESH RATE 100Hz • VIDEO INPUTS DisplayPort, HDMI • WARRANTY Two years RTB •
• DETAILS www.philips.co.uk • FULL REVIEW Mar 2017 DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • FULL REVIEW Oct 2017

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 57


Choosing a... TV
01 A 32in Full HD TV costs around
£200 and will suit smaller living
rooms. TVs look much smaller in the shop
03 Consider the number of inputs
you’ll need to connect the rest of
your equipment. Two HDMI ports should be
and the brightest shades that the screen
will be able to display. The higher the
number, the darker the blacks and the
than in your home, so measure the space the bare minimum, but many TV sets come brighter the whites. Buy a TV with High
available before you buy. with four HDMI connectors. You’ll need Dynamic Range (HDR) support for the best
Curved TVs are becoming increasingly HDMI 2.0 if you want a future-proof 4K TV, picture from supported services.
more common, but bear in mind that these as this is the only way to get 60fps video
typically take up more floor space than a
traditional flat set.
playback from external sources at such
a high resolution.
If you want to plug a PC into your TV,
05 HD content is now becoming fairly
widespread, but if you want Ultra
HD content your options are more limited.

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

The Viera The HW-MS750 750


TX-50DX802B not doesn’t need a
only looks great and dedicated subwoofer;
bwoofer; it puts out a thunderous
comes equipped with an expansive amout of bass all by itself, and its massive soundstage is perfect for
suite of smart apps, but it also has its own soundbar, allowing for films. It’s the best standalone soundbar around, although you will
clearer, boomier movie nights. need to pay a premium for it.
SCREEN SIZE 50in • NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • VIDEO INPUTS 3x HDMI (1x ARC), SPEAKERS 11 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 450W • WEIGHT 6.3kg • NETWORKING 802.11n Wi-Fi,
component, composite • TUNER Freeview HD • DIMENSIONS 1,115x647x35mm • WARRANTY Five Bluetooth • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE
years RTB • DETAILS www.panasonic.com/uk • PART CODE TX-50DX802B • FULL REVIEW Apr 2017 HW-MS750 • FULL REVIEW May 2018

SAMSUNG UE49KS7000 PANASONIC DMP-UB900


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£1,099 • www.reliantdirect.co.uk £369 • www.johnlewis.com
A good-quality 4K TV Together with the
needn’t cost the earth, Samsung UBD-K8500,
as the UE49KS7000 this forms the vanguard of a new
proves. In fact, this Quantum Dot breed of Ultra HD Blu-ray players. Samsung’s model is cheaper,
display earned the UHD Alliance’s but the DMP-UB900 has superior features, particularly where
UHD Premium badge for its rich, detailed visuals. audio delivery is concerned.
SCREEN SIZE 49in • NATIVE RESOLUTION 3,840x2,160 • VIDEO INPUTS 4x HDMI • TUNER BLU-RAY PROFILE 6.0 • 3D CAPABLE Yes • DIMENSIONS 435x199x68mm •
Freeview HD, Freesat HD • DIMENSIONS 1,089x634x43mm • WARRANTY Five years RTB • NETWORKING Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi • WARRANTY One year RTB •
DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE UE49KS7000 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2017 DETAILS www.panasonic.co.uk • PART CODE DMP-UB900EB • FULL REVIEW Aug 2016

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO TV2 (v2) POLK Audio MagniFi Mini


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£200 • shop.cambridgeaudio.co.uk £334 • www.hifix.co.uk
The TV2 (v2) is a simple, A tiny soundbar with big sound, the
clean-looking soundbase. What it lacks in multiroom MagniFi Mini takes up hardly any
capability, due to its lack of Wi-Fi, it more than space under your TV but is capable of filling the living
makes up in exquisite sound quality, especially with an integrated room with crystal-clear music and dialogue. Best of all, it comes with
subwoofer producing strong but controlled bass. a standalone subwoofer, empowering bass booms with an extra kick.

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

58 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


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

02 If you want to cut down on cable


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

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

PANASONIC SC-All7CD LG SH5


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£280 • www.johnlewis.com £159
£15 • www.cramptonandmoore.co.uk
uk

A focus on Proof that great-


good old- sounding soundbar and
fashioned CDs, subwoofer combos don’t on’t need to cost
in addition to the usual digital the earth, the LG SH5 is a sleek, stylish 2.1 set with plenty of
streaming services, makes the SC-All7CD one of the most versati
versatile
atile
le modes and features.
mo
multiroom speaker systems you can buy.
bu
SPEAKERS 2.1 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 320W • DOCK CONNECTOR None • NETWORKING
SPEAKERS 2.1 • RMS POWER OUTPUT 40W • WEIGHT 3.4kg • NETWORKING Bluetooth • Bluetooth 4.0 • DIMENSIONS 945x53x85mm (soundbar), 171x320x252mm (subwoofer) • WEIGHT
WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.panasonic.com • PART CODE SC-All7CD • 2.26kg • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.lg.com/uk • PART CODE SH5 • FULL
FULL REVIEW Dec 2016 REVIEW Jan 2017

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 59


Choosing a... Media streamer
01 Media streamers have come a long
way from the hard disk-based set-top
boxes of a few years ago. They now come in
doesn’t have a smartphone, buy a
standalone streamer such as a Roku or
Amazon Fire TV device.
locally from a networked PC or NAS device.
Not all streamers are capable of playing all
media file formats, however. If you have a lot
two main forms: flash drive-sized dongles of MKV or MOV files, check that your
that plug directly into the HDMI port in the
back of your TV, and larger microconsoles
that sit under it. Whichever model you
03 A media streamer is only as good as
the services it supports, although a
device that offers more services won’t
chosen streamer supports them before you
buy. These are typically the file formats
devices struggle with the most.
choose, it will stream content from the necessarily offer more high-quality content
internet rather than storing media files
locally.
than a media streamer with fewer channels.
Instead, look out for major channels such
as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, BBC
05 Media streamers aren’t just for video,
either. Many support online music
services including Spotify, Rdio and TuneIn

02 Most streamers use their own


operating system, which you can
navigate with a bundled remote control, but
iPlayer, Sky Go and YouTube. If any of
these are missing, the remaining channels
aren’t likely to be much cop.
Radio. Others essentially use the same
hardware as a smartphone and are capable of
running apps or playing games. Some of the
Google’s Chromecast dongle requires a most powerful are compatible with dedicated
paired smartphone, tablet or laptop to
stream content on the big screen. If you’re
looking to set up Netflix for someone who
04 Although nearly all streamers now
pull content from the web, they’re
still capable of playing content stored
game controllers, but these are typically sold
as optional accessories rather than bundled
with the streamer.

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

NVIDIA Shield TV (2017) GOPRO Hero 5 Black


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£190 • www.johnlewis.com £299 • www.jessops.com
A good media streamer/ GoPro has launched the
Android games console hybrid made even better by a Hero 6 Black, but that
more comfortable controller, a wider range of only offers minor video
streaming sources and smart home integration. enhancements. We think the Hero 5 Black
is a better deal, especially as it still has full waterproofing and has
VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 1.4 • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 10/100/1,000 Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.1 dropped to a much lower price.
• DIMENSIONS 159x98x26mm • STREAMING FORMATS Plex, Kodi • INTERNET STREAMING
SERVICES Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play Movies and TV, Google Play Music, YouTube, SENSOR 1/2.3in CMOS • SENSOR PIXELS 12,000,000 • MAX RECORDING RESOLUTION 4K (30fps)
BBC iPlayer • WARRANTY Two years repair and replace • DETAILS www.nvidia.co.uk • PART • AV CONNECTIONS Micro HDMI • DIMENSIONS 45x62x32mm • WEIGHT 117g • WARRANTY One
CODE 945-12897-2505-000 • FULL REVIEW May 2017 year RTB • DETAILS www.gopro.com • PART CODE Hero 5 Black • FULL REVIEW Mar 2017

APPLE TV 4K SAMSUNG Gear 360 (2017)


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£179 • www.apple.com/uk £190 • www.amzn.to/2wesOMX
This big update adds 4K content (including
(including, for the Samsung’s updated 360º camera
first time, Amazon Video support). The best part is improves on the original in every way: it’s
that if there’s a 4K version of content you’ve more portable, supports live video stream,
am,
previously purchased in HD, Apple will upgrade it free of charge. and is no longer limited to Samsung Galaxy phones. Bestt
of all, it’s cheaper than the previous model was at launch.h.
VIDEO OUTPUTS HDMI 2.0a • NETWORKING 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 10/100/1,000 Ethernet •
DIMENSIONS 35x98x98mm • STREAMING FORMATS AirPlay, others via apps • SENSOR RESOLUTION Dual 8.4 megapixels • SENSOR SIZE Not disclosed • VIEWFINDER None •
INTERNET STREAMING SERVICES iTunes, Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, LCD SCREEN 0.5in 72x32 PMOLED • DIMENSIONS 100x46x45mm • WEIGHT 130g •
Now TV, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.apple.com/uk • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE SM-R210NZWABTU •
PART CODE Apple TV 4K • FULL REVIEW Jan 2018 FULL REVIEW Oct 2017

60 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


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

but the two most common types are


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

02 Smartwatches are typically more


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

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

MISFIT Phase HUAWEI Watch 2 Sport


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£135 • www.misfit.com £199 • www.currys.co.uk
An interesting combination It’s worth shelling out
of classic timepiece, fitness for the premium version of
tracker and connected this sporty Android Wear
smartwatch, the Phase doesn’t have a smartwatch: it includes built-in 4G connectivity,
touchscreen or apps but can still control music
ic which when combined with GPS tracking means you can
playback and smart home hardware. safely leave your smartphone at home.
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.6in • RESOLUTION N/A • PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.2in • RESOLUTION 690x690 •
OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Six months • WARRANTY Two years RTB • OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Two days • WARRANTY Two years RTB •
DETAILS www.misfit.com • PART CODE MIS5000 • FULL REVIEW Jun 2017 DETAILS consumer.huawei.com • PART CODE Huawei Watch 2 Sport • FULL REVIEW Jul 2017

FITBIT Charge 2 SAMSUNG Gear Fit2


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£120 • www.johnlewis.com £180 • www.argos.co.uk
Though it lacks high-end There’s much to like about
tools like GPS and full this Tizen-powered fitness
waterproofing, the Charge 2 tracker. GPS is a very
strikes a fanastic balance between value and welcome inclusion, and you can add
versatility, offering heart-rate tracking and a widgets to the touchscreen, just like
helpfully large screen. on a smartwatch.
PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.3in • RESOLUTION Not stated PEDOMETER Yes • HEART-RATE MONITOR Yes • DISPLAY SIZE 1.3in • RESOLUTION 216x432 •
• OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Five days • WARRANTY One year RTB • OS SUPPORT Android, iOS • BATTERY LIFE Four days • WARRANTY Two days •
DETAILS www.fitbit.com • PART CODE FB407SBKL-EU • FULL REVIEW Apr 2017 DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE SM-R3600DAADBT • FULL REVIEW Sep 2017

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 61


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

Most smart heating devices are designed


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

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

TADO Smart Thermostat HONEYWELL


★★★★★
£199 • www.tado.com Evohome Security
★★★★★
A flexible and stylish-looking £300 • www.theevohomeshop.co.uk
smart heating system, the Tado
Smart Thermostat distinguishes This smart alarm system
em will notify you of a break-in,
itself with a clever geolocation feature that turns on your and its motion sensors can even take a picture of an
heating when you enter a room and switches it off, saving intruder so that you can quickly rule out false alarms.
money, when you leave. A great range of sensors and full app control make this a top choice.
REMOTE THERMOSTAT Yes • HOT WATER SUPPORT Yes • INDIVIDUAL RADIATOR CONTROL AVAILABLE SENSORS Motion sensor, door/window sensor, motion sensor with camera •
Yes • VOICE ASSISTANT SUPPORT Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri • APPS iOS, Android and web • DISARMING OPTIONS Remote keyfob, app, Tags • SIRENS AND CONTROLS External siren,
FULL REVIEW Jan 2018 contactless tag reader/internal siren • WARRANTY Two years RTB • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017

GOOGLE Home NETATMO Presence


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£104 • store.google.com £210 • www.wickes.co.uk
Amazon Echo may be compatible le This clever outdoor security
with the most smart home camera can recognise the
products, but Google Home has difference between people,
the smartest assistant. Able to understand contextxt animals and cars, and you can choose which ones es
and reply to questions in a more conversational to get alerts from. In other words, it’s the ideal
way, Google Home is a brilliant personal assistant.
nt. camera to monitor the busy front of your home.
DRIVERS 1x 2in driver, 2x 2in passive radiators • RMS POWER OUTPUT Not stated • DOCK VIDEO RESOLUTION 720p/1080p • CLOUD STORAGE Yes (can upload footage to Dropbox) •
CONNECTOR None • WIRELESS 802.11ac Wi-Fi • DIMENSIONS 143x96x96mm • WEIGHT 477g • NETWORKING 802.11n (2.4GHz) • WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE Presence •
WARRANTY One year RTB • PART CODE Home • FULL REVIEW Jul 2017 FULL REVIEW Feb 2017

62 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Choosing a... Laser printer
01 Laser printers used to be much
more expensive than inkjets and
were typically restricted to offices. They
peripherals (MFPs) are now far more
common. These models can scan and
photocopy documents as well as print them,
subtle tones well. You can’t determine this
by looking at the specifications; only
hands-on testing will do, so remember to
are now much more affordable, however, and some of them also have fax capabilities. check our reviews before you buy.
and offer several benefits over inkjets, Laser MFPs start from around £200. Borderless printing (up to the edge of the
including lower per-page printing costs paper) should also be possible.
and faster print speeds.
04 Heavy-duty office lasers designed for
printing thousands of pages per
06 If you want to print from multiple

02 A decent laser printer will typically


cost around £80, and will happily print
hundreds of black-and-white pages per hour.
month can cost thousands of pounds. They
use large individual toner drums, which can
cut running costs. Automatic duplex
devices, make sure you look for
extended connectivity. Decent laser printers
can be shared on your local network and
If documents are your priority, you’ll want a (double-sided) printing is also common here. have USB ports for direct printing, memory
high minimum speed and low print costs. card slots for printing images from a digital
However, you’ll probably be limited to
black-and-white printing at this price. 05 Although laser printers are more
suited to printing text than graphics,
many are still able to produce high-quality
camera, and iOS, Android or Google Cloud
Print support for printing from mobile
devices such as smartphones or tablets.

03 Although you can still buy single-


function laser printers, multifunction
photographs. Speed isn’t a priority here
– instead choose a printer that reproduces
An LCD preview screen offers greater
control for this method of printing.

PRINTERS & SCANNERS


EPSON Expression XYZPRINTING da Vinci Minimaker
X
★★★★★
★★
Photo HD XP-15000 £107
£10 • www.stuff-uk.net
★★★★★
£281 • www.amzn.to/2u36B4U It’s not as fully featured as the da
The Expression Photo HD Vinci Jr 1.0w, but the Minimaker
XP-15000 is, as the name prints at identical speed and
suggests, a photographer’s
’s quality,
qua and costs much, much less. In fact, it’s the
he
friend: it can print out shots in exceedingly
gly most affordable 3D printer we’ve ever used.
mos
high quality, on paper sizes all the way up to A3+.
TECHNOLOGY Fused Filament Fabrication • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 100 microns •
TE
TECHNOLOGY Piezo inkjet • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 5,760x1,440dpi • DIMENSIONS MAXIMUM BUILD SIZE 150x150x150mm • DIMENSIONS 390x360x335mm • WEIGHT 11.5kg •
159x439x370mm • WEIGHT 8.5kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A3+ • WARRANTY One year RTB • FILAMENT 1.75mm PLA • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS eu.xyzprinting.com •
DETAILS www.epson.co.uk • PART CODE C11CG43401 • FULL REVIEW Apr 2018 PART CODE 3FM1XXEU00D • FULL REVIEW Apr 2017

HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 CANON Pixma TS3150


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£104 • www.ebuyer.com £35 • www.ebuyer.com
The OfficeJet Pro 7720 If you only print or scan
strikes a fine balance infrequently, you probably
between price, performance and features, making it don’t need a load of fancy features. The Pixma TS3150
ideal for home offices and small businesses – especially those that does the job for hardly any money – it’s a bit slow, but the results are
could use A3 printing. of a higher quality than we’d expect from a budget MFP.

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

CANON imageFormula RICOH SP 150SUw


DR-C230 ★★★★★
£110 • www.printernet.co.uk
★★★★★
£323 • www.ebuyer.com Buying a mono laser
nner
This sheet-fed document scanner printer for your home may
is perfect for getting through stacks
ack off d
documents sound strange, but the SP
without having to manually scan each page. It’s 150SUw’s printing speed, quality and quietness
pleasantly fast and pairs with Canon’s powerful CaptureOnTouch Pro make a lot of sense at this price.
software, which does a fine job of processing your scans.
TECHNOLOGY Mono laser • MAXIMUM PRINT RESOLUTION 1,200x600 • SCANNER
TECHNOLOGY Dual CIS sheet-fed scanner • SCANNER RESOLUTION 600x600dpi • DIMENSIONS RESOLUTION 1,200x1,200dpi • DIMENSIONS 137x350x275mm • WEIGHT 7.5kg •
231x291x530mm • WEIGHT 2.8kg • MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB MAXIMUM PAPER SIZE A4/legal • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.ricoh.co.uk •
• DETAILS www.canon.co.uk • PART CODE 2646C003 • FULL REVIEW Feb 2018 PART CODE 408005 • FULL REVIEW Jun 2017

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 63


Choosing a... NAS device
01 A network-attached storage (NAS)
device lets you store documents,
media, and other files on its hard disks so
can still access the NAS device, but only
at the much slower speed of 100Mbit/s.
Synology’s barebones NAS kits have spare
disk trays for cheaper and faster upgrades.

you can share them with other devices on


your network. Some have disks already
installed, while others are empty enclosures
02 The amount of network storage you
need depends on the types of files
you use. If you want to store Word and Excel
04 If you want extra protection for your
data, look for a device that supports
RAID. RAID 1 and RAID 5 arrays reduce the
into which you install your own disks. Buying documents, for example, a 1TB device will be available capacity by duplicating data, but
an empty NAS can often be the more fine. In fact, a 1TB device should be sufficient you won’t lose it if a disk fails.
cost-effective option, as they’re usually less for a family’s entire media collection,
expensive and give you the freedom to
expand the number of disks at a later date.
You should buy one with a Gigabit
regardless of how many music and video files
everyone owns. Small businesses should
consider higher storage capacities,
05 If you need access to your files while
you’re away, look for a NAS device
with an FTP server. Some can also share a
Ethernet interface, as these provide the depending on the nature of the business. USB printer across your network.
highest transfer speeds. To use a NAS device A NAS device with a Universal Plug and
at these speeds, you’ll need computers with
Gigabit Ethernet network adaptors and
a Gigabit Ethernet switch or router.
03 If you can see no end to your storage
needs, you should buy an upgradable
NAS device. Many have a USB port for
Play (UPnP) or DLNA media server can
stream your music, photos and videos to a
network media player, so you can enjoy your
Computers with Fast Ethernet adaptors adding an external disk. Devices such as media collection in another room.

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

YUBICO YubiKey 4 TP-LINK Deco M5


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£39 • www.amzn.to/2vfQhtC £230 • www.currys.co.uk
This isn’t your standard Provided you’re willing
networking device: it’s a to tinker with a few
USB key that stores the cryptographic data settings, the Deco M5 is the most
required to log into your devices and services via two-factor feature-rich mesh Wi-Fi system around, even if it’s
authentication. This adds a secure and convenient second layer of not strictly the fastest. Get the triple pack
ack for the
protection, wherever you are. best coverage throughout the house.
USB TYPE Type-A • SUPPORTED SERVICES Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Windows, MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 867Mbit/s (5GHz),
macOS Sierra, LastPass, Dashlane • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS www.yubico.com • 400Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 0 • WALL MOUNTABLE No • WARRANTY Three years RTB •
PART CODE YubiKey 4 • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017 DETAILS www.tp-link.com • PART CODE 210380 • FULL REVIEW Dec 2017

D-LINK DIR-895L GOOGLE Wifi


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£349 • www.dlink-direct.co.uk £229 (twin pack) •
store.google.com
If you can stomach
the price, D-Link’s Arguably the most
DIR-895L will make user-friendly mesh
it worth your while with staggeringly fast speeds and exceptionally networking system
yst yet, G
Google
l
long range. It also lets you connect to your home network remotely, Wifi trades long-range speed for supreme ease of
via an L2TP VPN. use and excellent configuration tools.
MODEM Gigabit Ethernet • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 2x 2,166Mbit/s (5GHz), MODEM N/A • WI-FI STANDARD 802.11ac • STATED SPEED 1,200Mbit/s • USB PORTS 0 •
1,000Mbit/s (2.4GHz) • USB PORTS 1x USB2, 1x USB3 • WALL MOUNTABLE Yes • WALL MOUNTABLE No • WARRANTY One year RTB • DETAILS madeby.google.com •
WARRANTY Two years RTB • PART CODE DIR-895L • FULL REVIEW Dec 2017 PART CODE Google Wifi • FULL REVIEW Jul 2017

64 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Choosing an... Internal hard disk
01 A basic 1TB internal hard disk should
cost around £40. This will be fast
enough for general use and will provide
in USB flash drives, and although they tend
to provide less capacity than mechanical hard
disks, they’re significantly faster. The latest
duplicate your data for better protection.
RAID arrays require hard disks of the same
size. In theory, they can be from different
enough storage for most users. drives use the NVMe standard, but require manufacturers, but it’s better to buy identical
Make sure the hard disk you choose has an M.2 port. disks if you can.
the appropriate interface type for your PC.
Some mechanical hard disks still come with
SATA2 interfaces, but newer models and
most solid-state drives (SSDs) have faster
03 Buy a hard disk that provides more
capacity than you think you need, as
your storage requirements are likely to grow.
05 A hard disk’s spindle speed
determines how quickly it can
transfer data. A spindle speed of 7,200rpm
SATA3 interfaces. You’ll need a motherboard A 3TB disk strikes the best balance between is common in desktop drives and is fast
with a SATA3 port if you want to benefit capacity and low cost per gigabyte. enough for most purposes. Desktop hard
from SATA3’s faster speeds; SATA3 disks will disks with 5,400rpm spindle speeds are
work with SATA2 ports but can only transfer
files at SATA2 speeds. 04 If you want more disk space or you
want to protect your data against
disk failure, think about buying several hard
quite slow but use less power and generate
less heat and noise.
To strike the best balance between

02 SSDs can make the most of SATA3’s


extra bandwidth for fast file transfers.
They use flash memory similar to that found
disks to create a RAID array. These use
multiple hard disks to create one large
logical disk with better performance, or to
speed and storage capacity, use an SSD as
your system disk and store your files on a
larger mechanical disk.

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

SYNOLOGY DiskStation DS216jj WD Red 6TB


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£147 • www.ebuyer.com £170 • www.ebuyer.com
This entry-level NAS device is loaded This is pricier than most 6TB
with features. We particularly like hard disks, even those created
Synology’s Package Center, which specifically for NAS drives, but the
makes it easy to automate large downloads, turn the WD Red’s performance makes it a worthwhile investment. Despite its
DS216J into a media server or set up a Surveillance 5,400rpm spin speed it manages to outperform 7,200rpm drives such
Station for security camera footage. as the Toshiba N300 in read/write tests.
FREE 3.5in HARD DISK BAYS 2 • NETWORKING 1x 10/100/1,000 Ethernet • DLNA MEDIA SERVER CAPACITY 6TB • COST PER GIGABYTE £0.03 • INTERFACE SATA3 • CLAIMED READ 175MB/s •
Yes • PRINT SERVER Yes • DIMENSIONS 165x100x226mm • WEIGHT 880g • WARRANTY Two CLAIMED WRITE 175MB/s • WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.wdc.com •
years RTB • DETAILS www.synology.com • PART CODE DS216J • FULL REVIEW Sep 2017 PART CODE WD60EFRX • FULL REVIEW Nov 2017

SAMSUNG TS 500GB SAMSUNG 960 Evo


vo 250GB
★★★★★ ★★★★★
£190 • www.overclockers.co.uk £109 • www.ebuyer.com
Samsung’s easily While it’s not quite as
pocketable SSD can ro,
quick as the 960 Pro,
reach breakneck transfer the 960 Evo is still the
speeds; in fact, it’s the fastest portable second-fastest NVMe SSD we’ve ever
SSD we’ve tested. This makes it worth your attention even ordabl
able,
abl
tested, and since it’s much more affordable, e,
with its high cost per gigabyte. it’s the one most people should go for.
CAPACITY 250GB • COST PER GIGABYTE £0.44 • INTERFACE M.2/NVMe • CLAIMED READ
CAPACITY 500GB • COST PER GIGABYTE £0.38 • INTERFACE USB3.1 • WARRANTY Three years 3,200MB/s • CLAIMED WRITE 1,500MB/s • WARRANTY Five years RTB •
RTB • DETAILS www.samsung.com/uk • PART CODE MU-PA500B • FULL REVIEW Dec 2017 DETAILS www.samsung.com • PART CODE MZ-V6E250BW • FULL REVIEW Mar 2017

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 65


Choosing an... Intel motherboard
01 It’s essential that you buy the right
type of motherboard for your
processor. Intel’s older Haswell processors
graphics card in the motherboard’s PCI
Express x16 slot, although this may block
one of your other slots.
x1 and x4 cards also work in PCI Express x16
slots. If you need a lot of storage, a
motherboard with plenty of SATA2 and
require a motherboard with an LGA1150 SATA3 ports is essential. SATA2 is fine for
socket, but newer, fourth-generation Skylake
chips need an LGA1151 socket. A board for a
Haswell processor must also have an H97 or
03 Normal tower cases can
accommodate ATX motherboards,
which provide the most expansion slots. A
optical drives and hard disks, but to make
the most of an SSD you need SATA3.

a Z97 chipset, while Skylake processors use


the new Z170 chipset. Skylake CPUs also use
newer, faster DDR4 memory.
microATX motherboard will let you build
your PC in a smaller case, but if you opt for a
microATX board, make sure it has all the
05 All motherboards have built-in audio
chipsets, but some support only 5.1
surround sound rather than 7.1. If you’re
features you need built in as there won’t be connecting to older surround-sound

02 All current Intel processors have


built-in graphics chipsets, so if you
much room for expansion cards. amplifiers that don’t have HDMI, look for
an optical or coaxial S/PDIF output. All
want to use your chip’s built-in graphics,
make sure the motherboard has the video
outputs you need, such as VGA, DVI, HDMI
04 If you want to install lots of expansion
cards, look for a motherboard that
offers plenty of PCI and PCI-E x1 slots. Some
motherboards have Ethernet ports and most
have the faster Gigabit version. You may also
find it useful to buy a board with built-in
and DisplayPort. If you want to play the motherboards also have PCI Express x4 slots Wi-Fi so you don’t have to use up a USB port
latest games, you’ll need to fit a dedicated and extra PCI Express x16 slots. PCI Express or PCI slot with an adaptor.

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

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 NZXT H700i


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£245 • www.ebuyer.com £154 • www.amzn.to/2Fkt7ID
The cheapest of AMD’s octa-core It’s not great value, and its headline
Ryzen 7 processors is also the ‘Smart box’ feels superfluous, but the
best mix of price and performance. H700i is saved by exceptional build
It’s highly overclockable, but even at stock speeds can quality, smart cable management and lots of features
come close to the £500 Ryzen 7 1800X in multithreaded tasks. that make building and upgrading your PC that bit easier.
It’s also incredibly efficient, with a TDP of just 65W.
CASE TYPE Mid-tower • MOTHERBOARD TYPE ATX, EATX, microATX, Mini-ITX • SUPPLIED
SOCKET AM4 • CORES 8 • FREQUENCY 3.0GHz • INTEGRATED GRAPHICS None • FANS 3x 120mm, 1x 140mm • MAXIMUM DRIVE BAYS 2x 3.5in, 5x 2.5in • DIMENSIONS
WARRANTY Three years RTB • DETAILS www.amd.com • PART CODE YD1700BBAEBOX • 516x230x494mm • WEIGHT 12.3kg • WARRANTY
TY Two years RTB • DETAILS www.nzxt.com •
FULL REVIEW Jul 2017 PART CODE CA-H700W-BR • FULL REVIEW Mar 2018

HYPERX Alloy Elite MSI B350M Mortarr


★★★★★ ★★★★★
£96 • www.currys.co.uk £82 • www.amzn.to/2HyP1Zr
This is a brilliant do-it-all gaming A near-perfect motherboard
therboard for
keyboard; the agile Cherry MX Red AMD Ryzen-based,, microATX
key switches provide a strong foundation, systems. It’s remarkably
rkably well equipped for
upon which HyperX has built a comfortable, detachable connectivity and upgradability, and comes close to much more
wrist rest, dedicated media keys and customisable red backlighting. expensive mobos in performance benchmarks.
The USB pass-through port is handy, too.
PROCESSOR SOCKET AM4 • DIMENSIONS 244x244mm • CHIPSET AMD B350M • MEMORY
KEYBOARD SHAPE Full size • NUMBER PAD Yes • CONNECTION 2x USB2 • MEDIA KEYS Pause/ SLOTS 4 • PCI-E x16 SLOTS 2 • PCI-E x1 SLOTS 2 • PCI SLOTS 0 • USB PORTS 2x USB2, 3x USB3.1,
play, mute, skip, volume • USB PORTS 1x USB2 • WARRANTY Two years repair and replace • 1x USB Type-C • VIDEO OUTPUTS 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, 1x DVI-D • WARRANTY One year RTB •
DETAILS www.hyperxgaming.com • PART CODE HX-KB2RD1-UK/R1 • FULL REVIEW Mar 2018 DETAILS www.msi.com • PART CODE B350M Mortar • FULL REVIEW Aug 2017

66 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


SOFTWARE

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

ABBYY FineReader 14 MAILBIRD Mailbird Pro 2.0

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

£217 • www.amzn.to/2okLvJg ★★★★★


£48 • www.tesco.com
HDR support is great,
but it’s the 4K Blu-ray player Breath of the Wild’s vision of Hyrule is a beautifully
that makes this sleeker, intricate open world – one you have total freedom
smaller Xbox One really stand out against to explore right from the off. Charming and
the competing PS4 Slim. challenging, this is both a brilliant game and the single best reason
PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.75GHz Jaguar • RAM 8GB DDR3 • FRONT USB PORTS 1x USB2 •
to buy a Nintendo Switch.
REAR USB PORTS 2x USB2 • STORAGE 500GB/1TB/2TB • WARRANTY One year RTB • AVAILABLE FORMATS Ninetendo Switch • DISK SPACE 13.4GB (Switch), 13GB (Wii U) •
DETAILS www.xbox.com • PART CODE Xbox One S • FULL REVIEW Dec 2016 DETAILS www.zelda.com • FULL REVIEW Jun 2017
Fir sho

BETHESDA Doom SONY PS4 Slim


st- ote

Ga nsol
pe r

me e
co
rso

★★★★★ ★★★★★
n

£7 • www.cdkeys.com £250 • www.johnlewis.com


A bloody and breathless FPS, Doom is a worthy Sony has made the PlayStation
entry into one of gaming’s most hallowed series. 4 even better with a slimmer,
Open-ended levels, agile enemies and gory but neater chassis and superior
satisfying takedown moves make every demon battle rewarding. power efficiency. It’s as cheap as the PS4 has
ever been as well.
AVAILABLE FORMATS PC, Xbox One, PS4 • OS SUPPORT Windows 7/8/8.1/10 • MINIMUM CPU
Intel Core i3-550, AMD Phenom II X4 955 • MINIMUM GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB, AMD PROCESSOR Octa-core 1.6GHz AMD Jaguar • RAM 8GB GDDR5 • FRONT USB PORTS 2x USB2 •
Radeon HD 7870 2GB • MINIMUM RAM 4GB • HARD DISK SPACE 55GB • DETAILS doom.com • REAR USB PORTS None • STORAGE 500GB/1TB/2TB • WARRANTY One year RTB •
FULL REVIEW Sep 2016 DETAILS www.playstation.com • PART CODE B01GVQVQH2 • FULL REVIEW Jan 2017

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 67


REVIEWS

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

68 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


PRODUCT INDEX

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

SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker 87

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 69


State of the art
Award-winning PCs and laptops
delivered next day

Next day Next day


delivery delivery

3XS LG15 Performance GTX - LN81612 3XS LG15 Vengeance - LN86498


• Intel® Core™ i7 7700HQ processor • Intel® Core™ i7 7700HQ processor
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 • 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
• 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti • 6GB GTX 1060
• 250GB WD SSD • 250GB WD SSD plus 1TB HDD
• Microsoft Windows 10 64bit • Microsoft Windows 10 64bit

£969.99 INC
VAT £1199.99 INC
VAT

Choose your perfect PC today


. 01204 47 47 47
Next day Next day
delivery delivery

Scan Gamer - LN86504 Scan Gamer - LN86510


• Intel® Core™ i3 8100 processor • Intel® Core™ i3 8100 processor
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 • 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
• 4GB EVGA GTX 1050 Ti • 6GB EVGA GTX 1060
• 250GB WD SSD plus 1TB HDD • 240GB WD SSD plus 1TB HDD
• Microsoft Windows 10 64bit • Microsoft Windows 10 64bit

£819.99 INC
VAT £899.99 INC
VAT

Next day Next day


delivery delivery

3XS Gamer - LN84936 3XS Gamer - LN85402


• Intel® Core™ i5 8400 processor • Intel® Core™ i7 8700 processor
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 • 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
• 6GB EVGA GTX 1070 • 8GB EVGA GTX 1070 Ti
• 250GB Samsung SSD plus 2TB HDD • 250GB Samsung SSD plus 2TB HDD
• Microsoft Windows 10 64bit • Microsoft Windows 10 64bit

£1,429.99 INC
VAT £1,589.99 INC
VAT

Next day Next day


delivery delivery

3XS Gamer - LN84933 3XS Gamer Ti - LN84932


• Intel® Core™ i7 8700 processor • Intel® Core™ i7 8700K processor
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 • 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
• 8GB EVGA GTX 1080 • 11GB EVGA GTX 1080 Ti
• 250GB Samsung SSD plus 2TB HDD • 500GB Samsung SSD plus 2TB HDD
• Microsoft Windows 10 64bit • Microsoft Windows 10 64bit

£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,
look for duplicated files. there’s a quick 1-Click option
FileFusion goes far further that will auto-scan your entire
than regular duplication tools computer and automatically
by creating a digital analysis of remove duplicate files and make
your computer and all the files space. There’s also an Undo
REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8 or 10,
70MB hard disk space
stored on your drive, and it option, which could be
WEBSITE www.abelssoft.net does this automatically, so extremely handy if you
NOTES Get your registration code within you don’t need to worry about accidentally delete a file you
the application
what it’s processing. actually want to keep.

72 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Ashampoo Photo
Commander 15
ASHAMPOO PHOTO COMMANDER is a one-
stop tool for organising, browsing, editing and
sharing your digital images.
The program opens with a powerful thumbnail
browser. This supports a good range of formats,
including PSD, many Raw variants, MPO/JPS 3D
images and even WEBP – a new addition for this
version. Every image is displayed along with its key
details: resolution, colour depth, aspect ratio, DPI,
EXIF and DMP tags. You can filter your photos by
type, age, name or tag, rate them with a click, then
organise them into virtual albums for later reference.
Photo Commander provides several automatic An excellent vector editor helps you customise
optimisation tools. It can fix contrast and colours, your images with lines, arrows, callouts, text,
remove noise and reduce compression artefacts, or clip-art-type shapes and more.
you can apply the whole lot in a couple of clicks. Elsewhere, there’s enhanced file format support
The real power, though, comes in the manual edit, (you can open multi-page PDFs, or save as PSD, for
REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8, 10,
where you can crop or resize an image, straighten example), completely redesigned Wallpaper and
3GB hard disk space horizons, remove red eye, repair scratches and apply Slideshow wizards, smarter use of hardware
WEBSITE www.ashampoo.com various special effects, either globally or with a pen acceleration, full support for Windows 10, and a
NOTES Get your registration code within the
for pixel precision. A dual-view mode means you can completely redesigned image browser with
application
see the “before” and “after” images side-by-side. multiple monitor support.

Ashampoo Photo Card 2


TAKING DIGITAL PHOTOS is your own text and captions. Alternatively, you might just opt
easy, and sharing them isn’t Anyone can do it: there’s no for something simpler, with a
exactly difficult either. artistic or design skills required. classy border and background.
Attaching them to an email or The program comes with It’s entirely up to you.
uploading them to Facebook more than 50 professionally The default photo settings
or Instagram generally only designed templates, covering almost certainly won’t be correct,
takes a few seconds. just about every requirement. but that’s no problem. You can
If the images are special, There are cards for birthdays move and resize your photo by
however, you might want to and Christmas, holidays and clicking and dragging. There are
make a little more effort. Halloween, babies, engagements sliders to adjust its opacity,
Install Ashampoo Photo Card and more. You can place your saturation, brightness and
and you’ll be able to transform subject’s face on classic images, contrast. This can be further
your photos into stunning ranging from Marilyn Monroe customised with a huge
greetings cards, complete with to Yoda and Forest Gump. collection of clip art, and a Text
tool makes it easy
to add your own
personal greeting.
While there’s
a lot to explore,
it’s all very
straightforward,
and even your
first card will
probably be
finished within
five minutes.
And once you’ve
finished, you can
share the results
via email or
upload them to
REQUIREMENTS Windows 7, 8, 10,
Ashampoo Web, 15MB hard disk space
Facebook or WEBSITE www.ashampoo.com
Picasa, all with NOTES Get your registration code within
the application
just a few clicks.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 73


iolo System Mechanic 17
SYSTEM MECHANIC 17 is an Registry, optimise the boot applications by grouping related
amazingly comprehensive tool process by removing unnecessary files together, while enhanced
that provides everything you’ll startup programs, and provide AcceleWrite technology helps
need to clean and speed up your a temporary performance boost to improve the efficiency of
PC, fix system problems and by closing down selected your drives, and the SSD
protect your privacy. background processes. Accelerator keeps solid-state
If your PC isn’t performing, for Each of these functions in drives running at their optimum
instance, then System Mechanic turn delivers far more than you performance levels.
will help you defragment your might expect. For one thing, you It’s the same across the suite,
hard disk, optimise your internet don’t just get a defrag module: with powerful features and
connection for faster downloads, System Mechanic also uses the functionality everywhere you
defragment and compact the Program Accelerator, optimising look. There are tools here to
defragment and
compact the Registry,
repair hard drive
problems, enhance
system security,
locate unnecessary
duplicate files, or
recover from disaster
if Windows won’t boot.
A Windows tweaking
tool provides easy
access to more than
100 key Windows
settings, and an
Advanced Uninstaller
completely removes
apps to free up hard
disk space – and you
REQUIREMENTS Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 could still create a very
32/64-bit, 50MB hard disk space
capable maintenance
WEBSITE www.iolo.com
NOTES Get your registration code at suite from the other
sm17.disc.computershopper.co.uk. tools we haven’t got
Includes a six-month licence
space to mention.

Auslogics BoostSpeed 9
AUSLOGICS BOOSTSPEED IS a Windows startup programs, Disk Defrag will then rearrange
comprehensive suite of tools Explorer extensions and more. your files to deliver the best
that will improve performance in BoostSpeed can highlight possible performance.
just about every area of your ‘dangerous’ items, programs it There are also tools to clean
PC’s operations. believes may be spyware, for an up and defragment the Registry,
If your system is slow to boot, additional security benefit. as well as a module to speed up
for instance, then you can use BoostSpeed makes it easy your internet connection; you
BoostSpeed’s Startup Manager to get a bloated hard disk back can tweak these settings
to locate and disable unnecessary into shape. There are tools to manually, if you know what
remove junk you’re doing, or let BoostSpeed
and leftover handle the tricky decisions.
files, clear What’s more, Auslogics has
your web, included several bonus tools that
Windows and are useful even if they don’t
application improve performance: you can
histories, undelete files, discover and fix
and explore hard disk problems, securely
your drive to shred data and wipe entire drives.
see which Launch a System Scan and
folders are BoostSpeed will automatically
consuming and quickly identify Registry
REQUIREMENTS Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 or
10 32/64-bit, 100MB hard disk space
the most problems, leftover hard drive
WEBSITE www.auslogics.com space. The junk, file fragmentation and
NOTES Get your serial code from excellent more. You can then fix any
bs9.disc.computershopper.co.uk
Auslogics issues in just one click.

74 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


Resources
Chat and Communication
UPDATED Evernote 6.9.7.6770 Store your UPDATED Skype for Windows 8.16.0.4
notes, ideas and plans in the cloud, and Make internet voice and video calls for
synchronise them between computers. free, and buy credit to make calls to
UPDATED Mailbird 2.5.1 mobiles and landlines.
A free desktop email client for Windows. Telegram 1.2.6 This free IM app synchronises
Miranda IM 0.10.77 your conversations across multiple devices, and
Chat with friends across multiple can spruce up chats with stickers and GIFs.
messaging platforms, including AIM, UPDATED WhatsApp Desktop 0.2.8361 A free
Facebook, IRC and MSN, all from one PC and Mac version of the popular messaging
simple interface. app, letting you chat from your desktop.

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
of tools and shortcuts. to your current operating system.
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
earlier version of the operating system. desktop and UI replacement applications.

General
Genie Timeline Free 2017 Protect your UPDATED Screenshot Captor 4.27 Create and
most valuable files with this easy-to-use manage screenshots the easy way.
backup tool. UPDATED SUMo 5.5.5.386 Quickly scan your
Paragon Partition Manager 14 Free PC’s installed applications and find any
Create, format, split, merge and reorganise updates that are available for them.
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.

Internet and Network


CarotDAV 1.14.6 UPDATED FileZilla 3.31 A fast and reliable FTP
Manage all your online storage services client with lots of useful features.
with one simple application. NetBalancer 9.12.1
UPDATED Cyberduck 6.4.1 Make the most of your internet connection
A powerful but easy-to-use FTP client for by assigning download and upload priorities
uploading and downloading your files. to web applications.
UPDATED Glasswire 2.0.91 TeamViewer 13.0.6447
Keep tabs on your network usage with this Remote-control your computer from
simple monitor. anywhere in the world.

Tweaking and Performance


UPDATED CCleaner 5.40 Remove unwanted IObit Advanced SystemCare Free 11.2.0.210
information, temporary files, browsing A complete computer security, maintenance
history, huge log files and even the settings and optimisation suite.
that uninstalled software leaves behind. Revo Uninstaller Free 2.0.4 Remove installed
Defraggler 2.21 Ensure that your system applications completely, including all their
is defragmented properly and improve folders, system files and Registry entries.
its performance. Simple Performance Boost 1.0.5 Tweak the
Finestra Virtual Desktops 2.5.4501 Set up Windows Registry to give your PC a
four or more virtual desktops on your PC. performance boost.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 75


PLAYTOWIN
76
BUDGET GAMING PCs
JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364
BUDGET GAMING PCs

Graphics card prices are through


the roof, but that doesn’t mean you CONTENTS
Buying guide.......................78 Mesh Ryzen
have to spend a bundle for quality Essential extras..................79 Gaming PC – CS ..............84
Palicomp i3 Pulsar.............85
Full HD gaming. We’ve tested eight PC REVIEWS
Box Cube RedWing 3....... 80
PC Specialist
Obsidian Elite ..................86
complete PCs, each costing £600 CCL Bazooka....................... 81
Chillblast Fusion
Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker...87

Crossbow .........................82 Benchmarks....................... 88


or less, to see what kind of power Cyberpower Verdict................................. 88
Ultra 3 GTX ......................83 Table......................................89
you can get on a budget

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 77


????????????

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

78 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUDGET GAMING PCs

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

AOC G2460VQ6 SPEEDLINK ULTOR LOGITECH G300S


£130 • From www.amazon.co.uk £42 • From www.amazon.co.uk £27 • From www.amazon.co.uk
In many ways, this is a pretty run-of-the- Think that saving money means being stuck Another peripheral that hides its low price
mill 24in monitor. There’s nothing special with a mushy membrane keyboard? Think behind premium features, the G300S is
about its contrast ratio, which we again: the Ultor has Kaihua Kailh Red key loaded with practical touches, whether it’s
measured at 706:1, nor its slightly switches, which – save for a tiny bit of extra the ergonomically sculpted design,
confusing OSD layout. Then again, for actuation force – are copies of Cherry’s adjustable DPI or six extra programmable
£130 it’s a good little display, especially industry-standard, gaming-spec MX Reds. buttons, which could help make up for the
for gaming. It has a 75Hz refresh rate That means crisp, responsive inputs with Ultro’s lack of macro keys. Even the left,
instead of the more common 60Hz, for no distracting click-clack noise. right and middle click functions can be
example, so if you’re hitting 70-75fps It’s a surprisingly well-featured keyboard customised to perform different roles.
you’ll be able to see the difference, in general, with N-key rollover (so hitting It’s ambidextrous, which is good news
instead of being capped at 60fps. multiple keys at once won’t result in some of for oft-overlooked lefties, and if you wish
sRGB coverage is also high, at 96.8%, them failing to register), white backlighting to take advantage of the programmable
even if you need to enable sRGB mode and fully programmable keys. The only things buttons, you can keep up to three saved
manually to get it. Doing so will improve missing are dedicated macros and a number configurations and switch between them
colour accuracy as well, with the pad, but considering most full-size easily. Helpfully, the lights running down
G2460VQ6’s delta-E measurement mechanical keyboards are closer to £100, each side grip will glow a different colour
lowering from 3.1 to 2.7. it’s not too hard to live without them. to inform you which profile is in use.

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 79


BUDGET GAMING PCs

BOX Cube RedWing 3


★★★★★
£550 • From www.box.co.uk

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.

80 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUDGET GAMING PCs

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 81


BUDGET GAMING PCs

CHILLBLAST Fusion Crossbow


★★★★★
£600 • From www.chillblast.com

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.

82 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUDGET GAMING PCs

CYBERPOWER Ultra 3 GTX


★★★★★
£600 • From www.cyberpower.co.uk

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 83


BUDGET GAMING PCs

MESH Ryzen Gaming PC – CS


★★★★★
£600 • From www.meshcomputers.com

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.

84 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUDGET GAMING PCs

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 85


BUDGET GAMING PCs

PC SPECIALIST Obsidian Elite


★★★★★
£599 • From www.pcspecialist.co.uk

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.

86 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUDGET GAMING PCs

WIRED2FIRE Pyro Stryker


★★★★★
£600 • From www.wired2fire.co.uk

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 87


BUDGET GAMING PCs

BENCHMARKS
Dirt Showdown (fps) SteamVR Performance Test

Palicomp i3 Pulsar 88 PC Specialist Obsidian Elite 7

Chillblast Fusion Crossbow 75 Palicomp i3 Pulsar 3.7

Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker 74 CCL Bazooka 3.3

Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC - CS 73 Chillblast Fusion Crossbow 3.2

CCL Bazooka 72 Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker 3

Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX 72 Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC - CS 2.9

PC Specialist Obsidian Elite 65 Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX 2.7

Box Cube RedWing 3 30 Box Cube RedWing 3 0


0 20 40 60 80 100 0 2 4 6 8 10

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.

Metro: Last Light Redux (fps) 4K benchmark (Overall)

PC Specialist Obsidian Elite 38 Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC - CS 170

Palicomp i3 Pulsar 30 Palicomp i3 Pulsar 112

CCL Bazooka 29 Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker 106

Chillblast Fusion Crossbow 29 Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX 103

Mesh Ryzen Gaming PC - CS 28 Box Cube RedWing 3 100

Wired2Fire Pyro Stryker 28 Chillblast Fusion Crossbow 92

Cyberpower Ultra 3 GTX 27 CCL Bazooka 73

Box Cube RedWing 3 10 PC Specialist Obsidian Elite 53


0 10 20 30 40 0 50 100 150 200

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.

88 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUDGET GAMING PCs

Award RECOMMENDED BEST BUY RECOMMENDED


Manufacturer BOX CCL CHILLBLAST CYBERPOWER MESH PALICOMP PC WIRED2FIRE
SPECIALIST
Model name Cube RedWing Bazooka Fusion Ultra 3 GTX Ryzen Gaming i3 Pulsar Obsidian Elite Pyro Stryker
3 Crossbow PC – CS
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★
CORE SPECS
Processor Quad-core 3.5GHz Dual-core 3.9GHz Quad-core 3.1GHz Quad-core 3.5GHz Hexa-core 3.2GHz Quad-core 3.6GHz Quad-core 3.5GHz Quad-core 3.7GHz
AMD Ryzen 3 Intel Core i3-7100 AMD Ryzen 3 1200 AMD Ryzen 3 Ryzen 5 1600 Intel Core i3-8100 AMD Athlon X4 950 AMD Ryzen 3 1200
2200G 2200G

Processor socket AM4 LGA 1151 AM4 AM4 AM4 LGA 1151 AM4 AM4

RAM 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB

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

PORTS AND EXPANSION


Front USB ports 1x USB2, 1x USB3 2x USB2, 1x USB3 2x USB2, 1x USB3 2x USB3 2x USB2, 1x USB3 2x USB3 2x USB3 2x USB3

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 (free) 1 (1) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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)

M.2 (free) 0 2 (2) 1 (1) 0 0 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1)

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)

Drive bays 5.25in (free) 0 0 0 0 2 (2) 0 2 (2) 1 (1)

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

Price £550 £600 £600 £600 £600 £600 £599 £600

Supplier www.box.co.uk www.cclonline.com www.chillblast.com www.cyberpower. www. www.palicomp.co.uk www.pcspecialist. www.wired2fire.com


co.uk meshcomputers. co.uk
com

Details www.box.co.uk www.cclonline.com www.chillblast.com www.cyberpower. www. www.palicomp.co.uk www.pcspecialist. www.wired2fire.com


co.uk meshcomputers. co.uk
com

Part code CU-RW38GB2TBWH CCL Bazooka Fusion Crossbow Ultra 3 GTX Ryzen Gaming COF1 Obsidian Elite Pyro Stryker
PC - CS

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 89


PERIPHERAL DECISION
Printers
CONTENT REVIEWS Don’t doom yourself to smudgy documents and
Page 92 bland photographs. We’ve put eight printers on
BROTHER MFC-J895DW
Page 93
test to help you choose the right one
CANON i-Sensys MF633Cdw TO MANY PEOPLE, printers might never As always, it’s particularly important that you
Page 94 seem like the kind of essential kit they’d buy one that suits your specific needs, so
CANON Pixma TS305 count alongside their smartphone or laptop. within these pages we’ve tested eight printers
It’s a digital world, after all, and email and and multifunction peripherals (MFPs, which
Page 95 cloud storage have become so entrenched have built-in scanners and photocopiers) to
EPSON EcoTank ET-4750 that even the least tech-savvy users can go see which are the best in each class, whether
months without the need to create their own it’s high-volume document printing or the
Page 96
paper copies of something. creation of good-looking photographs.
EPSON Expression And yet, printers are indeed essential.
Photo HD XP-15000 Even if it’s a rare occurrence, such as printing INKJET, LASER, PIEZO?
Page 97 a CV for a job interview or grabbing tickets for It was once the case that the most
EPSON WorkForce an event, there are situations where being fundamental choice you had when picking a
Pro WF-3720DWF without a printer can leave you well and printer was whether to go for an inkjet model
truly stuck – and that’s not to mention those (which presses tiny dots of ink directly on to
Page 98 for whom the ability to print and scan are the page, creating text and images) or a laser
HP Envy Photo 7830 daily necessities, such as professional (which uses an electrically charged drum to
photographers and home office workers. roll toner on to the page, following the laser
Page 99
As such, we certainly recommend having essentially drawing the page contents on to
HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 your own printer, as well as upgrading if the drum). Historically, laser printers have
your existing model is too slow or inflexible. been far better for office work because of

90 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


PRINTERS

their speed and low running costs, while


inkjets made more sense for creative and
Inkjet cartridge costs have dropped to the point where the
home use, being generally better with colours.
Nowadays, it’s all a bit muddled, as
technology is viable for high-volume work
inkjet cartridge costs have dropped to the
point where the technology is viable for Innovations such as Epson’s EcoTank can print, scan or copy from a smartphone,
high-volume work, and some can outpace system can see refills costing less than a or directly from an inserted USB drive.
lasers on print speed even on plain black-and- penny per page, but when buying a new That doesn’t mean they can get away with
white prints, at which laser printers usually printer, you should always think about ink a dodgy physical interface, though. Colour
excel. As a result, there are now more pricing in relation to the cost of the printer touchscreens are a big benefit, both for
important things to consider than the itself. Case in point, the EcoTank ET-4750 performing simple jobs and delving deeper
underlying printing technology, although is a cool £392, so while it’s great for into settings menus, and there shouldn’t be
we will say that our favourite printers and minimising the long-term expense, if you too few (or too many) buttons to make setup
MFPs tend to be inkjets. print infrequently it might still make more and everyday operation too much of a pain.
economic sense to buy a cheaper printer
PRINT AND SCAN RESOLUTION with slightly higher refill costs. SOFTWARE
One spec to watch out for is print resolution, On that note, we’ve appraised each printer’s
measured in dots per inch (dpi). Not unlike a CONNECTIVITY AND desktop software, which – for all the upsides
TV or monitor, a higher resolution means a DIRECT PRINTING of PC-less printing – often provides greater
sharper image, so it’s worth going higher if One useful way printers and MFPs have control over your device and its prints than
you’ll be printing lots of photos and images. been modernised in recent years is the you might get from an integrated touchscreen.
The same goes for scanning resolution, for widespread adoption of indirect printing – As with any piece of software, balancing
those MFPs with an integrated scanner. in other words, you don’t need to connect capability and competence with user-
Most of the A4 printers we’ve covered a PC or laptop, even over Wi-Fi, to print friendliness is key here; we’ll mention if we
here max out at 4,800x1,200dpi, which is something off in a rush. Even budget models had any problems you should be wary of.
more than good enough for general-purpose
printing. Those that can print on larger paper
sizes, such as the Epson Expression Photo THE BEST PRINTERS FOR…
HD XP-15000, will be able to go higher, but
remember that a higher resolution means it PHOTOGRAPHY
will take longer for a page to print. If you’re
not too fussed about maximising quality – EPSON Expression Photo HD XP-15000
if, say, you’re just outputting a few quick True, at £281 this is expensive for a printer, particularly one that can’t
pages of text – you can opt to reduce the scan or copy as well. But when you’re making prints of your best
resolution, which should speed things up. photos, the one area you shouldn’t be skimping on is quality, and
here the Expression Photo HD XP-15000 delivers.
SPEED None of the other seven devices comes close on crispness and
Obviously, the ideal situation would be that colour vibrancy, thanks mainly to the 5,760x1,440dpi resolution and
you could print at maximum quality while the use of six individual ink cartridges rather than the usual four.
maintaining high output speed. This will still What’s more, its relatively large maximum paper size of A3+ means
vary depending on how much of each page your shots don’t have to be cramped on to a sheet of A4.
is text, images or empty space, as well as
if you’re printing in borderless mode THE HOME OFFICE
(assuming that’s an option).
We use two benchmark tests to measure HP OfficeJet Pro 7720
printing speed; both are 25 A4-size pages Don’t bother with a bulky laser printer: the OfficeJet Pro 7720 is
long, and we record how long each printer more or less a perfect workhorse, which is especially impressive
takes to complete them. This allows us to considering it costs barely more than £100. It prints quickly, so
work out a pages-per-minute (ppm) speed. won’t hold up productivity as much as most inkjets, and its low
One is composed entirely of simple black cartridge costs will please any hard-nosed accountant.
text, while the latter includes various images, Despite its pace, print quality is high as well, and scans aren’t too far behind, on both
for testing black-and-white and colour sharpness and speed. Our only real complaint is the oversimplified physical interface,
performance respectively. Generally, we’re which can make copying and scanning a little more fiddly than they strictly need to be,
looking for mono speeds of at least 12ppm, but at least HP’s software UI has improved on previous versions.
and colour speeds of 4ppm.
Where applicable, we’ll also run 10-page SAVING THE PLANET
mono and colour photocopying tests on
MFPs, as well as printing speed tests for EPSON EcoTank ET-4750
6x4in photos. We’ve long admired Epson’s EcoTank system, which instead of
replaceable cartridges uses high-capacity, refillable tanks built
INK COSTS into the chassis. That’s why it was so frustrating that we had
Although the relative pricing of inkjet to wait until the EcoTank ET-4750 before it was implemented
cartridges and laser toner has become closer into a good MFP.
over time, the running costs of individual It’s still only a qualified success, but there’s no denying the EcoTank’s
printers can still vary. Spending nearly 10p efficiency: fully filled, you’re looking at thousands and thousands of pages before you
per colour page only sounds like a small need to top up, while even XL inkjet cartridges only aim for a few hundred. That amounts
amount when you’re not comparing it to to a lot less plastic (from the refill bottles) that you’ll need to throw away, reducing your
the 3p (or less) that a different model carbon footprint as well as the impact from these refills on your wallet.
might set you back.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 91


PRINTERS

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.

92 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


PRINTERS

CANON i-Sensys
MF633Cdw
★★★★★
£199 • From www.printerland.co.uk

VERDICT
Canon’s MF633Cdw is a half-decent MFP,
torpedoed by high running costs

IF YOU’RE RUNNING a small business


you almost certainly need a printer, and
something like Canon’s i-Sensys MF633Cdw
probably seems like a good bet. It’s a colour
laser MFP that can scan, copy and print in
colour, and send and receive faxes – more
than two decades after most people
discovered email. You can hook it up to a
wired or wireless network, automatically
make duplex prints, and control everything
with a 12.7cm touchscreen that even the
technologically dunderheaded can work out.
What’s not to like?
In fact, depending on your business, there
may be a few things. While there’s an onsite
warranty, it’s only a year long, which isn’t
ideal. The printer’s standard paper input tray
holds only 150 sheets, and there’s no
after-sales upgrade: you could spend quite a
bit of time restocking it. It ships with colour
cartridges (cyan, magenta and yellow) each
rated for a meagre 690 pages, and even their The i-Sensys MF633Cdw has some strengths, but its small
paper cassette and lightweight supplies mean it’s not
high-yield replacements will last only around
2,200 pages, so you could also spend quite a

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 93


PRINTERS

CANON Pixma TS305


★★★★★
£37 • From uk.insight.com

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.

94 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


PRINTERS
PRINTE

EPSON EcoTank ET-4750


★★★★★
£392 • From www.amazon.co.uk

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 95


PRINTERS

EPSON Expression Photo HD XP-15000


★★★★★
£281 • From www.amazon.co.uk

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.

96 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


PRINTERS

EPSON WorkForce Pro WF-3720DWF


★★★★★
£78 • From www.amazon.co.uk

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 97


PRINTERS

HP Envy Photo 7830


★★★★★
£90 • From www.amazon.co.uk

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.

98 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


PRINTERS

HP OfficeJet Pro 7720


★★★★★
£105 • From www.printerbase.co.uk

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 99


PRINTERS

Award RECOMMENDED BEST BUY RECOMMENDED BUSINESS BUY

Manufacturer BROTHER CANON CANON EPSON EPSON EPSON HP HP


Model MFC-J895DW i-Sensys Pixma TS305 EcoTank Expression WorkForce Envy Photo OfficeJet Pro
MF633Cdw ET-4750 Photo HD Pro WF- 7830 7720
XP-15000 3720DWF
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★
HARDWARE

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

Dimensions 249x457x497mm 400x451x460mm 143x430x282mm 231x375x347mm 159x479x370mm 425x378x249mm 491x454x193mm 307x445x585mm

Weight 10.5kg 22kg 2.9kg 6.8kg 8.5kg 8.6kg 7.6kg 15.5kg

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

Borderless printing Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Direct (PC-less) printing USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile USB, mobile

Memory card support No No No No No No SD No

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

Price £115 £199 £37 £392 £281 £78 £90 £105


Prices correct at time of going to press

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

Supplier www.amazon.co.uk www.printerland. uk.insight.com www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.printerbase.


co.uk co.uk

Details www.brother.co.uk www.canon.co.uk www.canon.co.uk www.epson.co.uk www.epson.co.uk www.epson.co.uk www.hp.co.uk www.hp.co.uk

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.

100 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


From Apple to Zeiss,
and everything in between

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magazinedeals.co.uk/tech
Whether you’re an IT professional or a first time buyer, Dennis technology has a
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We cover the whole spectrum of technology news, reviews and features.
BOOST
YOUR
HOME
NETWORK
FED UP WITH YOUR HOME NETWORK CONSTANTLY
DROPPING OUT? DAVID LUDLOW SHOWS YOU
HOW TO MAKE YOUR WI-FI MORE RELIABLE

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.

102 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 103
THETROUBLEWITHWI FI
T
he benefit of using a wired network Whether you have a 2.4GHz
is that you have a dedicated or 5GHz network, the key to a
connection running between your trouble-free life is to minimise
devices. This gives you an extremely interference where possible
reliable network connection that’s also and use additional kit to extend
very fast. But the technology ties you to range where physical factors
a specific area, whereas Wi-Fi makes such as the construction of your
it easier to roam and gives you a home are the limiting factors.
connection where you physically can’t or
don’t want to run cables to. WIRED UP
Yet with this freedom also come the While it’s easy to blame
problems with wireless networking. everything on wireless, not all
The main issue is that as wireless signals network problems are caused
are broadcast, they can therefore suffer by the technology itself. Poor
from interference. range, for example, is often just
a limitation of your router and
INTERFERENCE PATTERN is easy to diagnose, as your
Interference is worse on networks that devices will stop connecting
use the 2.4GHz frequency band, which is the further you get from it.
also used by other devices, including While tweaking some wireless
baby monitors and DECT phones. And, settings can help this issue a
of course, all of your neighbours have little, the best way to fix
wireless networks, too, which causes range problems is with a new
even more problems. router, installing a second
Modern 802.11ac wireless routers wireless access point in the ⬆ First check that any problems aren’t to do with your internet
can also run on the 5GHz band, which area where you get poor connection, rather than your home network
delivers more speed at the expense of reception or by upgrading to a
range. You get less interference with 5GHz mesh system. We’ll show you how to master telephone socket (ADSL and BT
networks, but that doesn’t mean you’re tackle both of these solutions later. Fibre only; Virgin Media cable connections
free of the problems. Poor speed is trickier to diagnose, as a won’t be affected by this).
slow internet connection may be caused by For ADSL connections, these sockets
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY something else. For example, if your router’s also usually have a test socket. Check for a
As well as interference from other a long way from the master phone socket removable rectangular plate on the front
wireless networks, the construction of where your broadband comes in (ADSL and of your primary phone socket. Removing
your home has a part to play. While wood, BT Fibre only), poor-quality wiring in your this will reveal the test socket, if you have
plaster and glass have little impact on home could mean that your internet one. Plug your microfilter into the test
your network’s capabilities, brick and connection is slow, making it appear as socket, plug only your modem (ie, no
concrete can stop it dead. In particular, though there’s a Wi-Fi problem. phones) into the filter, and then test your
old homes with thick masonry walls can Before you do anything else, it’s worth internet connection by plugging your
really suffer from wireless issues. In some using SpeedTest (www.speedtest.net) router or modem in here.
cases, if your router is mounted on a brick to test your internet connection speed. If you see an improvement in speed, it’s
wall or sitting on a metal shelf, simply Run the test using a computer connected the internal cabling that’s causing the issue,
moving it can make a difference. via wireless and then again with a wired so you should leave the router in its new
computer connected via position or replace the old cabling.
Ethernet. A discrepancy A second test is to time how long it takes
in the speed results from to copy a file to a shared folder or NAS
the two tests may device over your wireless network. If it’s
indicate that there’s a really slow, it’s a wireless problem. If speeds
wireless problem, but be don’t seem too bad, don’t give up reading
careful: an old router may ay yet, as making some tweaks to your router’s
not provide enough Wi-Fi -Fi settings may increase speeds anyway.
speed for your internet
connection (read about
standards below).
If your internet
connection is slow via
both connection types,
try moving your router
and plugging it into the

⬅ 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

104 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


UPGRADE,REPAIRORGOWIRED?
K
nowing what the issues are with modem (tinyurl.com/ ⬅ A range extender can help your
your home network is one thing, virginmodemmode), Wi-Fi signal go further
but dealing with them is another. which you can then plug
The solution will depend on the age of your your router into. performance. This model has
per
network and what you want to achieve. All modern 802.11ac ab base station that plugs into
We’ll help you make the right decision modems list the total speed your router, and a satellite with
based on your particular problems. available over all bands, such
uch one Gi
Gigabit Ethernet and four
as AC5400. For example, the 10/100
10/100Mbit/s ports. The two are
FIXED DEVICES HAVE TP-Link Archer C5400 has connected via a high-speed
connec
INTERNET PROBLEMS three network bands: two 5GHz wireless connection, giving you a
A wired network will give you greater running at 2,167Mbit/s each, remote outpost with wired
reliability, deliver faster throughputs and and one 2.4GHz network running
unning connec
connections for extra devices.
help you eradicate any interference issues. at 1,000Mbit/s. At a minimum, m, The sasatellite has an 802.11n
The downsides of a wired network are go for a dual-band router, with hotspot, to give you web-
hotspo
twofold. First, you have to be tied to one the 5GHz band running at browsi
browsing capable wireless where
place, so you can’t move around. Second, 1,300Mbit/s and the 2.4GHz your mmain router may not reach.
you have the hassle of running network band running at 600Mbit/s. Fin
Finally, you can extend range
cabling, which isn’t always easy. wo
Tri-band routers, with two with aan additional wireless
For that reason, wired networking is the distinct 5GHz networks, can access point, which connects to
best answer to devices that are fixed in be useful, as you can keep your ro
router via Ethernet. We
place, such as a TV, set-top box or games one network for a set of devices,
vices, show yoyou how to use an old router
console. We show you how to wire up your such as your TV, games console ole for this on pag
page 111.
home on page 110. and so on, and one network for
phones, tablets and computers. POOR RANGE OR
A VERY OLD ROUTER Most modern routers will have an SPEED EVERYWHERE
If you have a router option calle
called band steering. If you want quality wireless everywhere, a
that pre-dates the Thi
This presents all the mesh system is the way to go (page 112).
802.11ac wireless ne
networks as one, with These consist of multiple satellites you plug
standard, then the the router directing a in around your home. One must connect
odds are that you’re connecting device to
co via Ethernet, but the rest communicate
hampering the potential the best band based wirelessly. The main benefit is that you
speeds at which more on its performance and boost range and speed throughout your
modern laptops, range. This simplifies
ra home, and you get to keep your old router.
smartphones and other networking, but gives
ne The BT Whole Home Wi-Fi (£189,
devices can connect. you less control.
yo shop.bt.com) is a decent upgrade to any
For that reason, we system, with a 1,733Mbit/s 5GHz network
recommend that you POOR SIGNAL IN
PO and 800Mbit/s 2.4GHz network.
upgrade your router ONE PLACE
ON
to something more If you’re happy with your THE REPAIR OPTION
modern, getting the general network speed,
gen Before you buy new kit (and even after),
best throughputs that but only have poor changing your wireless settings is a good
you can. There are now reception in one place,
re way to improve performance and get
two options for then you can go for the the most solid and reliable connection.
upgrading a router. wireless extender We show you how to configure a 2.4GHz
First, you can replace option. The simplest and 5GHz network on pages 108 and 109.
the actual model itself, ⬆ You may need a new modem to replace an extenders connect
or second, you can buy existing router to your router
outer
a wireless mesh system wirelessly and
nd
that plugs into your existing router. The rebroadcast your wireless signal. Ideally,
latter is a good option if you want better these devices should be plugged in n
coverage all round your home; the former is roughly halfway between your area rea of
a good choice if you’re mostly happy with poor reception and your router. The he
coverage, but lack performance. downside is that performance is only
Few modern routers have an ADSL ever as good as the signal between en
modem built in, so you’ll need to have your router and range extender. As a
a separate modem to plug them into. result, this option is best for those
For fibre connections, you’ll need the that just need enough range for
modem, which is usually a BT Openreach web browsing. The TP-Link AC1200 00
model. If you don’t have a modem, the RE350 Wi-Fi Range Extender
Netgear DM200 (£35, www.scan.co.uk) will (£50, www.cclonline.com) is a
do the job: you plug this into a phone line or simple range extender.
fibre port, and your router into the modem. A device such as the Devolo
For Virgin Media connections, you can GigaGate (£131, www.scan.co.uk) can ⬆ The GigaGate is a great way to get additional
turn the provided SuperHub router into a be more useful when you need the he best wired ports where Wi-Fi doesn’t stretch

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 105


FIXINGINTERFERENCE
I
nterference issues will cause problems
with any type of wireless network,
regardless of how new or old it is.
Changing your router, mesh network or
wireless extender’s settings can
dramatically improve performance,
range and reliability. Before you upgrade
or replace any kit, it’s worth running
through a few things to see if you can
improve your situation.

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 THE RIGHT


WI-FI CHANNEL
Although your router will run on a frequency
band, such as 2.4GHz, underneath it’s ⬆ Other devices, such a baby monitors, can interfere with a Wi-Fi network
actually only using a 20MHz slice of the
frequency, called a channel. For example, overlap. Typically, channels 1, 6 and 11 and channel 6. Picking the right channel
channel 1 for 2.4GHz networks uses the should be used, as these channels don’t isn’t just about making the right decision
20MHz slice between 2,412MHz and overlap and work everywhere in the world based on technical data, but also about
2,432MHz. Unfortunately, most of the (12 and 13 are restricted in some places, picking the right channel based on the
2.4GHz channels overlap, causing although not the UK) . networks around you.
interference: channel 2 uses 2,417MHz to It’s not always that straightforward, Routers have an auto mode that’s
2,437MHz, for example. however, as plenty of people don’t designed to change channels automatically
The illustration below shows you how follow this simple rule. For example, you to avoid interference, but the act of
the channels stack up. All of the channels may be surrounded by people using changing channel can, in some cases,
that are shaded the same colour don’t channel 2, which overlaps both channel 1 actually worsen your experience.

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

Try to choose the same colours if


you can in order to avoid overlap

CHANNEL

106 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


YOUMAYJUSTHAVETO
PICKTHECHANNELTHAT
GIVESYOUTHEBEST
RESULT,REGARDLESS
OFTHECONSEQUENCES
FOROTHERPEOPLE.
Interference is less of an issue with 5GHz
networks, which have more channels, none
of which overlap. However, a neighbour
may be running a network on the same
channel, causing interference issues.
802.11ac routers use multiple channels at
once to boost speed, increasing the chance
of overlap. Likewise, a router’s auto mode
may actually cause problems. For both
2.4GHz and 5GHz networks, the trick is to
set your router to use a channel different
(where possible) to other wireless networks
within range, and one that doesn’t overlap.
This isn’t a perfect science, and
sometimes the interference or problems
are caused by devices that you can’t
detect, such as a baby monitor or
wireless doorbell. As a result, you may
need to change channels a couple of
times to see any improvement.
The first place to start is with a Wi-Fi
scanner for your computer. These scan for
wireless networks within range and tell
you which channel they’re running on,
and the base frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz).
WiFi Analyzer for Android is the best tool
we’ve used; Windows users can download
inSSIDer 3.1.2.1 (later versions are paid for).

SCAN FOR CHANNELS


Using WiFi Analyzer, you get a list of
networks and the channels on which
they’re running. Go to the menu and you
can select 2.4GHz Channel Graph or 5GHz
Channel Graph to see a graphical
representation of what’s going on.
The peak of the curved graph shows you
the channel on which a network is running;
the sides show how much overlap there is
with other channels. What you’re looking for ⬆ Use a Wi-Fi scanning app to see which channels are best for your network
is a clear area of the graph, where there’s
no, or very little, other activity. neighbour and picking a channel that 2, 3, 4 and 5, as well as channel 1. In this
For 2.4GHz networks, look at the most doesn’t cause too much interference. case, you’ll need to pick a channel that
used channels. For example, you may find In other words, look at the channel with doesn’t overlap the most congested area,
that most of your neighbours are using the greatest concentration of wireless so channel 11 in this example. Ultimately,
channel 1. Using WiFi Analyzer you could networks, then use the chart opposite to with so many wireless networks around, you
pick an uncongested channel farthest pick an alternative channel of the same may just have to pick the channel that gives
from the one most used. In this example, colour; this will also make it easier for other you the best result, regardless of the
channel 11 would be ideal, but channel 6 people to add or configure their networks. consequences for other people.
would also work. Note that in some areas, there are so For 5GHz networks, overlap isn’t a
There’s nothing to stop you using many wireless networks using all kinds of problem, but general congestion could be.
channels 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 or 13, as these don’t channels that it’s impossible to choose a Note which channels are the busiest: you
overlap channel 1. We don’t recommend channel that doesn’t overlap any others. should avoid using these channels in your
that you do this, however. Part of owning You may find, for example, that some home network. We’ll show you how to use
a wireless network is being a good routers around you are using channels this information to configure your router.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 107


CONFIGUREA2.4GHzROUTER
H
SET THE OPERATING MODE
ere, we’ll show you how to configure
a 2.4GHz router, improving range 3 Most routers will let you set the
and performance. For 802.11ac operating mode. This defines which wireless
routers, you should follow this advice, and standards can connect to your router.
the instructions on the opposite page for For example, you can force it so that only
configuring a 5GHz network. Please note 802.11n devices can connect. If all your
that all routers have slightly different devices use the fastest speed the router
layouts and use different terms, so check offers, set it to the highest mode. If you
your manual as you follow this guide. have some older legacy devices, make sure
you set a mixed mode that includes the
CONNECT TO THE
1 MANAGEMENT PAGE
fastest speed the router supports. For
example, 802.11n routers should be set to
Connect to the web-based management support 802.11n, 802.11g and 802.11b. an Auto setting for this mode, but we
page by opening a web browser and typing Note that 802.11ac routers still use the recommend manually selecting the best
in your router’s IP address. This should be 802.11n standard for 2.4GHz networks, so mode to get initial stability, then
written in the manual that came with the this will be the highest speed you can set. experimenting by turning Auto on later.
router, but you can find the address simply
CHANGE YOUR
enough from your computer.
In Windows, bring up a Command 5 ROUTER’S CHANNEL
Prompt from the Start menu and type You now need to change the channel
ipconfig. Note down the Gateway address,
ipconfig on which your router runs. Using the
as this is your router’s IP address. If you information you noted down from the
have a Mac, open Terminal and type Wi-Fi scanner and the overlap chart, select
netstat -nr.
-nr You’ll see a long list of results: the least congested channel, with no
the Gateway address listed next to overlap to other channels (where possible).
Default is the one you want. Save your choices and the new settings will
be applied. Again, some routers have an
Auto setting for this mode, but we’ve
generally found that manually selecting a
DISABLE CHANNEL
4 BONDING
channel works the best. If you can’t see
channels 12 and 13, you’ll need to change
Next, you need to see how many channels your router’s location setting to the UK.
your router is using. To increase the speed,
many routers use channel bonding, which
uses two wireless channels simultaneously
to double theoretical throughput. In the
congested 2.4GHz space, this causes
interference and can reduce performance,
which is why we recommend setting your
router to use a single channel. If you live in
an uncongested area, you can experiment
DISABLE BAND STEERING
2 Once in your router’s management
by turning on dual-channel mode later.
The setting varies depending on the
page, go to the advanced view; the basic router, so you may need to check your
view won’t give you the settings you need. router’s manual. For 802.11g networks, look
First, we’ll disable band steering. for a channel-bonding selector, or change
Band steering is a technology that’s the maximum speed from 125Mbit/s or
designed to make networking easy by 108Mbit/s to half these values. For 802.11n
TEST YOUR SETTINGS
giving you a single network name for your
2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. When it works,
routers, you may see a channel bonding
option, but you’re more likely to see a speed 6 You can now try out your new settings.
it’s brilliant; when it doesn’t, it’s very setting. If the router is set to 270Mbit/s or Walk around your house to see if wireless
annoying and often disables advanced 300Mbit/s (or higher), drop the setting range and signal strength have improved.
options. Note that this technology can be down to half these values. You may want to test your broadband
called different things. TP-Link, for example, With 802.11ac routers, the 2.4GHz part speed again. If things have improved, you
calls the setting ‘Smart Connect’. actually uses 802.11n. You may find the can go back into your router’s settings and
same settings as try turning on some of the Auto settings.
above, but some You may want to try channel bonding to
routers have a increase speed, but we don’t recommend it
Channel Width as we’ve always found it causes problems.
setting, which If things haven’t improved or have
should be set to become worse, you should go back to your
20MHz, down from router’s settings and try a new channel,
40MHz. Finally, using the information you collected before
some routers have to pick the next least-congested one.

108 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


CONFIGUREA5GHzNETWORK
N
etworks on the 5GHz band are similar to 2.4GHz networks to
deal with, but there are a few more options. If you have an
802.11n router that supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz
networks, you may find that it supports only one at a time, forcing
you to make a choice. Most likely, you’ll need to choose the 2.4GHz
network for compatibility and range, so you shouldn’t need the
advice here. With 802.11ac routers and some 802.11n routers, you
can run both networks simultaneously, so the 5GHz network has to
be configured properly. We’ll assume that you’ve logged on to your
router already using the steps on the opposite page. If your router
supports two 5GHz networks, we’ll show you how to configure both.

CHECK NETWORK NAME


1 Check the name of your 5GHz network and make sure it’s
different to the name for your 2.4GHz network – perhaps append
_5GHZ to the other network’s name. We’ve seen some routers that
use the same name for both networks, but this means you’ll have no
control over which frequency band your devices are connecting to.
It’s fine to leave the security settings the same for both routers.

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.

CHANGE YOUR ROUTER’S CHANNEL


4 You can now select a channel, using the information you
gathered earlier. You may find that your router has an auto mode,
SET THE OPERATING MODE
2 You can set the wireless mode of your router to support only
but pick a dedicated channel for the time being, as you can always
change this later when everything is working properly.
certain standards. If all your devices support the fastest speed of If your router has two 5GHz networks, you can now repeat the
the router, such as 802.11ac, set the router to use this mode only steps above for that network. The second network should have a
(not all routers support this). If you have older devices that can distinctive name. The choice of channel will usually be much higher
connect, set a mixed mode that supports the router’s fastest than on the first network, too, typically channel 100 or higher.
standard. For example, an 802.11ac router should be set for a
TEST YOUR SETTINGS
mixed mode that supports 802.11ac, 802.11n and 802.11a.
5 You can now test out your new settings. Try moving around
your home to find out if range has improved. You may want to try
running a broadband speed test to see if things have improved
there, too. If you’re still suffering from problems, try changing the
wireless channel again and disable channel bonding if available.
You can always change the settings back, re-enabling modes later.
Don’t forget that 5GHz networks have less range than 2.4GHz ones,
so you won’t get as good coverage from these networks.

CHANGE CHANNEL BONDING OPTIONS


3 5GHz networks, and 802.11ac networks in general, can use
multiple channels for the highest speed. This setting will usually
be called Channel Width and will give you a choice of 20MHz,
40MHz and, on some routers, 80MHz. Typically speaking, you

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 109


RUNNINGAWIREDNETWORK
A
wired Ethernet network is, if you
can achieve it, the best option.
With Gigabit Ethernet, you’ll get
better-than-wireless speeds and incredible ble
reliability. For a fixed desktop computer,
NAS or entertainment devices that won’t
move, such as a smart TV, an Ethernet
connection is often the best idea.

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.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 111


HOWTOCONFIGURE
AMESHNETWORK
W
ireless mesh networks are a ➡ You can fix the 2.4GHz and
great and new way of boosting 5GHz channels in the advanced
wireless around your home. They settings of most mesh systems
work with your existing router, replacing its
USE ETHERNET
Wi-Fi. With satellite access points around
your home, you can kill all dead spots. 2 IF YOU NEED TO
Unlike doing the job yourself, mesh If your mesh system
systems have smart technology in them supports Ethernet, rather
that will push connecting devices to the than wireless, as the remote
strongest and best access point. connection, this can help
The configuration is similar with all mesh and give you more range.
networks, so we’ll take you through some For example, we use a BT
tips and tricks to get them set up perfectly. Whole Home Wi-Fi access
point in a garden office,
CONFIGURE THE FIRST
1 ACCESS POINT
connected to the main
network via Ethernet.
Your first access point must be plugged into
TURN OFF YOUR
your router via its Ethernet port. Do this
and place the access point so that it’s clear 3 ROUTER’S WI-FI
of obstruction. Ideally, access points should There’s no point in competing
CONFIGURE ADVANCED
stand on a shelf, not inside a cupboard.
Follow the instructions in the smartphone
with your mesh system, so go to your main
router’s configuration page and turn off 4 SETTINGS
app to configure the first satellite. the wireless radios. This setting is usually Most mesh networks use channel bonding
Next, you’ll need to configure the other in the advanced section of your router. to push connecting devices to the right
access points, placing them around your For routers with multiple networks (2.4GHz network. With the systems that we’ve
home. Think about the layout of your home and 5GHz), you’ll have to disable each tested, there’s no way to change this
for positioning: for multistorey homes, an network one at a time. setting, so you’re stuck. If you’re having
access point on the ground and first floor problems connecting a
helps; for a long home, one at the front and few older devices, you can
one at the rear of the house can work. If you enable your old 2.4GHz
have three or more access points, spread network on your router.
them out using these techniques, being Most mesh systems
careful not to place any too close together have advanced settings,
or you won’t see the benefit. where you can fix the
Each setup app we’ve used runs a 2.4GHz and 5GHz
system check to make sure that your network channels.
positioning will work. ⬆ Turn off wireless radio in your router’s configuration options This can be handy to
change if you’re having
problems. Our BT Whole Home Wi-Fi
system, for example, would drop out
when using automatic channels.
Advanced settings can be found in
some apps, but you may need a computer
to connect a browser to an access point.
The IP address you need to connect can
be found in the mesh system’s app.
You might need to try a few; with BT
Whole Home Wi-Fi, only one disc will
respond to incoming connections.
Once into the web interface (or the
advanced section of the app), look for the
option to fix a channel. Use the advice on
page 106 to find an uncongested channel,
and set the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks
to the best option.
Test your setting carefully to see if it
works. If you have problems, go back and
try another channel; you may need to
⬆ Plug your access point into your router using an Ethernet connection connect via a wired computer.

112 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


114 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364
ECO
FRIENDLY
TECH
NICOLEKOBIE
INVESTIGATESTHE
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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).

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 115


“There’s a real potential benefit “The danger is in assuming that
to devices that let us manage our lower power bills can come neatly
energy use in a smart way, such as packaged in a box – the reality, as
thermostats,” says Gary Cook, always, is more complicated,” the
senior corporate campaigner at researchers advise.
Greenpeace. No wonder, then, Aside from managing our
that smart home gadgets such personal use, smart appliances
as Nest thermostats and smart and home batteries that let us only
home meters are so popular. pull down power from the grid at
A survey last year from Maplin times of lower demand can help
(we miss it already) revealed that ease the burden; that’s the idea
a quarter of British homes already behind Elon Musk’s Powerwall,
have smart devices of some sort, up which recharges via solar panels on
135% from the previous year. For the your roof or by drawing from the grid
most part, that’s cameras, lighting at low-demand times. That takes the
and thermostats, as well as home pressure off utilities, says Cook,
hubs and voice assistants such as meaning they need not “turn on
Amazon Echo and Google Home. another power plant”. And that’s a big
But how much energy do they win, given backup power stations tend
actually save? Google-owned Nest to be the dirtiest, as here in the UK we
claims its smart thermostats save 12% TOP: The Tesla higher energy use. That’s according to rely first on renewables and nuclear
on heating and 15% on cooling in the Powerwall draws researchers at RMIT University in before padding that out with coal.
power from the grid
US by using machine learning to track Australia, who found that 75% of Renewable energy is the other great
when demand is low
your patterns and adjust your home’s participants in a study failed to hope for environmental change: if we
temperature to match. ABOVE: Nest actually use the devices, with many can improve what goes into making
claims its smart
Smart meters have been touted as saying they were too difficult to electricity, everything we do becomes
thermostats can
energy savers, too, cutting use by a few save you money on install or “inconvenient or not useful”. greener. As much as half of the UK’s
percentage points, but they merely your heating bills Of the quarter of participants left using electricity came from low-carbon
record and display your power use, so smart home devices in the study, the sources in 2017, helped by winter
it’s up to you to take that information researchers noted that some actually storms turning wind turbines,
and use it to change your habits. increased the amount of energy they according to a report from the Centre
However, smart home devices used, by switching the heating on of Environmental Policy.
remain complicated to use, hindering before arriving home or keeping the There’s plenty of clean-energy
their take-up, and can actually lead to lights on when away for security. startups with tech to help make clean

116 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


energy: Kite Power Systems uses an
actual kite to turn a turbine to produce
energy, while Pavegen collects energy
from footsteps on flooring panels.
Microgrids such as Brooklyn-based LO3
Energy let us share and sell the energy
we each make via solar panels or other
renewable methods, either to our
neighbours or to utility companies.

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 117


eye on the water if you’re in Cape Town, ABOVE: Junk food: Organisation limits by more than 50% City Green Solutions has a similar
Kristianstad or Baltimore, and you may the WasteShark for levels of dangerous particles known idea, but pairs the IoT and plants for its
gobbles up rubbish
spot one of the rare creatures. as PM2.5, while the city surpassed the street-level filters. The CityTree, as the
in polluted water
As clever as such ideas are, the best legal limits for nitrogen dioxide within first product is called, is a wall of moss
solution is to prevent pollution. the first week of this year. that can be integrated into a bench,
“Rather than having robots and After facing lawsuits, central which uses sensors to measure air
drones to clean up, it’s much better government is finally taking action pollution and to keep the air-filtering
to eliminate the problem in the first with a new clean air strategy, while mosses – not normally at home in an
place,” notes Cook. London mayor Sadiq Khan has rolled urban jungle – well fed and watered.
In the meantime, however, at least out plans to ban diesel vehicles from Meanwhile, students at Imperial
we can set such drones to work the centre of the city. College London and Royal College of
cleaning up our water. But technology could offer an Art have created water-mist-based air
answer, too. Airlabs is a British startup filters called Pluvo that would sit at the
BREATHE EASIER that’s working on smart street furniture side of roads to suck up and clean
Air pollution is a problem for us all, but to clean up air in places we wait, such emissions, all while showing advertising
most of all in urban areas. Data from as transport hubs. Its benches and bus in their ‘mist’. Developer Nick Hooton
the London Atmospheric Emissions stops filter out pollution, with one test says air could be 60% cleaner after
Inventory revealed last year that 95% by King’s College London in 2016 being filtered by Pluvo: “It should have
of residents of the capital live in showing the Airlabs filter removed quite a significant impact on the level of
areas that exceed World Health 87% of key pollutants. air quality on London’s streets.”

ABOVE: The Airlabs bus stops filter out


pollutants from the air we breathe

LEFT: The company also produces benches


that perform the same function

118 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BEGREENER
WITHYOURTECH
Technology manufacturers have improved their
green game, says Greenpeace’s Gary Cook
(pictured), making efforts to switch away from
hazardous materials in production and trying to
reduce the carbon footprint in their supply chains.
That said, the IT sector is still responsible for
up to 12% of electricity demand globally, with
e-waste set to hit 65 million tonnes – enough,
Greenpeace notes, to “bury San Francisco at a
depth of more than four metres”.
The big tech firms don’t
score well on the activist group’s
Guide to Greener Electronics,
with all but Fairphone scoring a
C grade or below.
It may feel as though there’s
nothing you can do – you need
ABOVE: Air filters from Pluvo sit next to IS TECH THE ANSWER? a smartphone, after all – but
the road and clean vehicle emissions Clever ideas aside, it’s worth there are steps we can all take to
remembering how much damage to the be greener with our technology.
While cleaning up the air for city planet the technology industry causes: The best move to help the
dwellers is important, we need to the sector eats up as much as 12% of environment is to keep your
prevent pollution, too. Electric cars are global electricity, e-waste is piling up at device for as long as possible,
one key technology, and innovations in a rate of millions of tonnes a year, and with as much as 80% of the
battery technology make them ever it’s only going to get worse as more and carbon pollution from electronics
more viable. Even if they’re powered by more of the world gets connected. down to the manufacturing
electricity generated by coal, they’re at So while we look to tech for process before your shiny new
least not spewing fumes in your child’s solutions to polluted water, air and smartphone or fitness tracker is even switched on.
face on the way to school. planet, we need to ensure we’re not As Nesta’s Bego says, “I expect (and hope) that
Another possible solution is making it worse. A smart home or the general public will start to demand cleaner
drone-based deliveries. As silly as IoT-enabled office can slash energy use, alternatives and become more conscious about
Amazon Prime by Air may sound, but it’s of little use if the devices behind their consumption: do we really need to change
courier lorries release a significant such environmental gains are damaging our phone every year?”
amount of carbon and other pollution the planet in their manufacture. Cook suggests upgrading and repairing
into our air; in the US, trucks make up “This explosive growth in internet devices where possible, but admits it’s difficult
just shy of a quarter of greenhouse gas devices is often sold to us as a good as smartphones and laptops become slimmer,
emissions from transport, according thing: ‘smart’ is more efficient and helps eschewing screws for glue to hold components
to research published in Nature us save energy,” notes Nesta data in place. “Five years ago we had a lot of phones
Communications. That study revealed scientist Katja Bego. out there where you could pop out the back and
drones required less energy and emitted “But what we often forget when we put a new battery in – now with slim phones
fewer greenhouse gases than trucks for install that smart thermostat is that the that’s not possible,” he says.
small deliveries at half a kilogram and production processes behind these “A lot of the manufacturers, that’s come back to
below. Larger packages didn’t see the products have a significant carbon bite them,” Cook adds.
same substantial savings, however. The footprint and rely on the use of finite, Look at Apple’s and Samsung’s recent battery
researchers also noted that hard-to-recycle resources.”
harmful and hard-to-recy woes: user-replaceable batteries would have
there were other costs, Cramming sensors and avoided the former’s need to slow phones’
such as setting up more gadgets into our homes performance to battle worn-out batteries; the recall
warehouses to make ake up cities can help us
and citie for exploding Galaxy smartphones, meanwhile,
for shorter flights, s, but understand where the
understan would have been less onerous if Samsung could
suggest drone deliveries
eliveries pollution is and
worst pol have simply popped in new batteries.
could help clear the he air with mopping it
assist wi Cooks notes: “These obstacles shorten the life
in urban areas, making up, but llet’s make sure of devices in a way that’s totally unnecessary.”
an otherwise silly-
lly- tech isn’t giving us
green tec Glued-together slim devices are harder to fix,
sounding idea suddenly
uddenly more to clean up, too. but not impossible. If you do want to keep it green
a lot more appealing.
aling. Drones th that clean up – or just save some cash – you can find instructions
polluted ports are great on how to replace batteries and cracked displays
RIGHT: City Green Solutions’
for our pplanet, but so are for a wide range of devices at www.ifixit.com.
wall of moss integrates with a phones th that don’t get sent
bench to measure air pollution after 18 months.
to landfill aft

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 119


Business Help
If you have database, office application or macro issues,
Kay Ewbank is here to help
Send your problems to businesshelp@computershopper.co.uk

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

122 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


BUSINESS HELP

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.

Out of form Where are my


I have a number of problems with an Access form and subform. I want to change the
order of the columns in my subform and also alter the widths of the columns. I can
make the changes, but when I go back to the subform, the changes are lost. I’ve also
Favorites?
got problems with the tab order on the subform. I’ve tried making the changes in I’ve recently (and reluctantly) moved from
both the Form and Layout views, but nothing seems to work. I’m using Access 2010. Outlook 2003 to 2010, and can no longer find the
Emily Henderson Favorites folder. It used to be there at the top of
the list of folders, and now it’s not. I can’t find out
The fact you mention the columns in your subform makes me think that the subform is how to create it, and there doesn’t seem to be
shown as a datasheet, and Access is very stupid about making changes when in this anything in the documentation about it. Is this
mode. It remembers the original column order and persists in showing the form in that another useful feature that Microsoft in its
order, even when you try changing it. wisdom has decided we no longer need?
In order to get it to work correctly with the revised column order, you have to open the David Harrison
Tab Order dialog. You’ll find this in Design View, in the Tools section of the Access ribbon.
Click Tab Order, and you can drag the columns up or down the tab order. You can also The Favorites folder is still available. To make it
click the AutoOrder button; this will make Access put them into order based on their visible, make sure you’re looking at the Mail view
logical position on the form. This won’t alter the width of the columns, though. To do this of Outlook, then click
you’ll need to open the subform in Datasheet view, and alter the widths in that view. on the View menu.
There’s one other problem that you still need to address, though, and that’s the In that ribbon, click
column headings for the subform. So long as you used a wizard to create the datasheet Navigation Pane in the
form, the resulting form has a detail Layout section of the
section that contains controls with ribbon, and in the
attached labels, and in this case, when options in that dialog,
you move the column, you move the put a tick mark against
associated label. If, however, you created Favorites. You should
a tabular form with the headings in the find your Favorites
form header, Access essentially ignores folder appears.
the labels in the form header, and uses Once there, you can
the field names in your query to label add any folder to be
the columns. You’ll need to move the displayed in Favorites
labels separately, and it might even be by right-clicking it ⬆ Display the Favorites folder
easier to delete your form (making sure and choosing Show in Outlook by selecting it in
⬆ Moving columns in a tabular subform requires you’ve saved any code) and re-create it in Favorites. the Navigation Pane dialog
working via the Tab order dialog in Access using the wizard.

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 123


Helpfile
HelpWhatever your general PC, hardware and software
woes, Simon Handby is here to help
Send your problems to help@computershopper.co.uk

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 problem you’re coming up against is


a limitation in the master boot record ⬆ Available from Windows 10 version 1703 onwards, the MBR2GPT tool converts MBR disks to GPT
(MBR) partitioning scheme, which dates
back to the early 1980s. MBR uses a 32-bit there – we’d recommend taking a full backup Assuming the conversion is successful,
number to keep track of sectors on the before you do anything else. While the backup you’ll see the message, ‘Before the new
disk, and because the sectors are each is running, check that you’re running Windows system can boot properly you need to
512 bytes, that allows for a maximum 10 version 1703 or higher by opening the Start switch the firmware to boot to UEFI mode!’.
addressable capacity of ‘only’ two menu, typing winver and hitting Enter. If Type exit and hit Enter to restart the PC,
terabytes. The solution is to switch to the you’re on an earlier version than 1703, visit then if necessary enter the BIOS and
newer GUID partition table (GPT) scheme, www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/ change the boot mode. Once this is done,
which doesn’t have this limitation. windows10, click Update now and follow the your computer should boot again, and the
There are two problems, however. update process. As a final step, open the disk’s full capacity should be available.
The first potential issue is that it used to Start menu, type Disk Management, and There’s a small risk that the disk
be tricky to convert an MBR disk to a GPT select Create and format hard disk partitions. conversion won’t be possible or that it will
one without data loss. Fortunately, with Look in the left-hand grey boxes at the foot fail. If you do experience a major issue it’s
Windows 10 version 1703 (the Creators of the Disk Management window to establish probably best to reinstall Windows from
Update), Microsoft added a tool to do just the disk number for your 3TB disk; if it’s the scratch. Provided you do this with your PC
this. The other issue arises if you’re planning only disk, it’s likely to be disk 0. already in UEFI boot mode, the Windows
to boot your system from your 3TB disk. With your drive backed up and the PC Setup program should automatically create
Only computers with a Unified Extensible updated if necessary, boot into Windows’ a GPT disk, but only if the disk is empty.
Firmware Interface (UEFI) support booting Advanced Recovery Command Prompt by With UEFI mode enabled, begin the
from a GPT partition. Most PCs built in the holding down the Shift key while you restart process of installing Windows, confirming
past decade should be fine, but you’ll your PC. When asked to choose an option, your language settings and the Windows 10
probably find that, if present, UEFI boot select Troubleshoot, Advanced options, version you want to install, then when
mode isn’t enabled on your system. If it’s Command prompt. Allow the PC to reboot and prompted choose Custom: Install Windows
supported you should find instructions on log in when prompted, then at the prompt only (advanced). When asked where you
how to enable it in your PC or motherboard type mbr2gpt /validate /disk:0, replacing 0 want to install Windows, select any existing
manual. If it’s not supported, you’ll need to if necessary with the disk number for your partitions on the 3TB disk and delete them
fit a second disk and install Windows on it 3TB drive. Hit Enter and wait a few moments; until the disk shows only Unallocated Space
before you can convert the 3TB disk to GPT. you should see the message, ‘Validation – be very careful not to delete partitions on
We’re going to assume that your PC completed successfully’. If you do, enter any other drives in your computer. Click the
does support UEFI boot mode. Given that mbr2gpt /convert /disk:0, again changing the unallocated space to select it and click Next,
you’ve installed Windows on the 3TB disk disk number if you need to. The process then Windows should install itself to a 3TB,
– and we assume you’ve also saved data shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. bootable GPT disk.

124 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


HELPFILE

Messed-up USB stick Here’s a


I’ve got a 4GB USB stick that
I generally use for scratch suggestion
applications – shuttling files
around between PCs, and My Windows 10 PCs recently upgraded
occasionally messing about themselves to the Fall Creators Update
with alternative operating (version 1709), since when I’ve started
systems. I hadn’t used it for a getting occasional suggestions from
while and can’t remember the Action Centre. These are always
what I last did with it, but banal – for example, asking if I’m
when I’ve come to use it lately bored with my desktop background.
my Windows PC allocates it I’m bored with being asked about it;
several drive letters. I can’t how do I turn it off?
access anything on most of Rob Hunter
these, but one appears to be a
normal partition that takes up Windows is suggesting new features you
almost the drive’s full capacity. ⬆ GParted removes the partitions that Windows’ tools can’t reach might like, or ways it thinks it can help
I opened Disk Management in you, but it’s not to everyone’s taste.
Windows, but the Delete Volume option order. Once your PC begins to boot from the Fortunately, you can turn it off: open
is greyed out for the extra partitions. GParted Live disk, ensure the problem USB the Start menu and click the Settings
How can I recover the USB disk? disk is inserted, then accept all the defaults gear wheel icon, then select System
Jo Laurie until GParted loads. Once GParted starts, you’ll and choose Notifications & actions.
need to drop down the disk selection box at Scroll down if necessary to see the ‘Get
It’s probable that you’ve created a bootable the top right and choose your USB disk; if it’s notifications from these senders’ section,
USB device for an operating system or not clear which disk it is, look for the correct find Suggested and turn the switch off.
low-level utility, and that this has modified the capacity. It’s imperative that you choose the
USB disk’s partition structure in a way that right disk to avoid deleting the wrong data.
can’t be fixed by Windows’ built-in tools. If you With the USB disk selected, you’ll see a
can’t remember what created the disk and list of its partitions: right-click each in turn
there’s no data on there you need, the easiest and choose Delete until you see a single
thing is to erase everything with a partition unallocated space remaining on the disk.
manager such as GParted. Visit gparted.org/ Now click Apply in the menu, agree to the
download.php and download the most recent data loss warning and wait a few seconds
stable release of GParted Live for your PC for the operations to finish.
architecture, then either burn the ISO to a With this done, hit Ctrl-Q to quit GParted,
CD-ROM or follow the instructions at gparted. then double-click the Exit button, select
org/liveusb.php to create a bootable USB stick Shutdown, click OK, remove the GParted boot
(using a different USB device). disk and hit Enter. When you reboot the PC,
Insert the bootable CD or USB device into you should be able to use Disk Management ⬆ You can choose which notifications you
your PC and restart; you may need to enter to create and format a new simple volume on get in Windows
the BIOS for your PC and change the boot your USB disk, then use it normally.

V-Pi-N, without the Pi?


Thanks for your great article on setting up a Raspberry Pi as a
VPN (Shopper 362). I followed all the instructions and it works
really well. However, I subsequently came across an article on
the web where the VPN involved two routers, one using the
alternative DD-WRT firmware. I liked the idea of this as it allows
two internet connections, one over a VPN and the other not,
which helps tackle the problem of reduced speed.
Are you able to advise on such a setup, particularly regarding
which router to use for DD-WRT? Many of the recommended
models are expensive; should I use one of those as the primary
router and use my TalkTalk Super Router as the VPN, if it supports
it? I could then use the Pi as a media streamer. ⬆ DD-WRT could boost performance, but will it work on your router?
Thomas J Marshall
Further complicating matters, not all DD-WRT-compatible routers
Unfortunately we’ve only configured a few routers with DD-WRT, so work with the DD-WRT OpenVPN service, and setting this up can be
we’re not able to offer advice on which new routers would be suitable. tricky. You can find instructions at tinyurl.com/364helpfile2. In short,
DD-WRT’s support for current routers tends to be patchy, and it’s very hard to know for sure what works and what doesn’t, and
compatibility can additionally be dependent on hardware revisions; even there’s a risk of buying a new router and discovering it’s not suitable.
if the router model is supported, the version currently on sale may not If you’re determined to go ahead, it might be a better idea to see if
be. You need to use the router database at tinyurl.com/364helpfile1, you could pick up an older supported router second hand, so you’ll
paying particular attention to the supported revision(s). be less out of pocket if you can’t get it working.

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

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

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ADVANCED PROJECTS

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

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ADVANCED PROJECTS

⬆ A journey back in time: ReactOS is pre-loaded with all those familiar Windows XP applications

arrow keys to select the correct language, ⬅ Playing back


and then you can pretty much press Enter or videos is just as
easy as it was on XP
click Next until ReactOS is installed.
Installing ReactOS on actual hardware isn’t
much more difficult, as long as your PC is
compatible. However, the list of compatible
hardware is pretty short and almost
exclusively contains hardware with release
dates of between 1997 and 2005; see tinyurl.
com/364projects to check. You also have to
burn the Boot CD ISO file to a CD or DVD.
Whichever software you use to do this (and
Windows 10 has the function built in), ensure
that the disc is bootable. We had no success
at all trying to create a bootable USB flash
drive to install ReactOS from.
Insert the disc into your PC’s disk drive
and turn on the PC, pressing Delete (or
the alternative) to enter the BIOS. ReactOS
will not install on (or from) drives that use
the AHCI protocol, so ensure that the hard
disk and optical drive are both set to IDE that even offers the choice between AHCI hardware. We found that the automatic
mode. Then change the boot order to check and IDE mode will mean your PC is just too installer rarely found anything useful, but
your optical drive first, and install ReactOS modern for ReactOS to accept. We instead that ReactOS ran perfectly well regardless.
as detailed above. used ReactOS on a virtual machine to
We should note that we had no joy explore its features and capabilities. USING REACTOS
installing ReactOS on any of our old PCs, The first time ReactOS boots, it will Once you’ve installed ReactOS, you should be
with hangs either during the install process probably ask you to install Wine Gecko in a very familiar environment. There’s a
or at first bootup; possibly having a PC (do so) and drivers for various bits of teal-ish coloured desktop with familiar icons

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ADVANCED PROJECTS

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

Credit: Boffy b, under GFDL and CC-BY-SA


to allow software
ftware that should only
run on Windows
ndows to run on Linux
operating systems.
There’s a big dollop of Linux
thinking when installing
software, too, with the
Applications
ons Manager giving
you an ‘app
pp store’ of compatible
software. That’s an idea that
Microsoft only adopted in 2012
with Windows
ows 8; Windows NT
4.0 was released
eleased in 1996,
XP in 2001. In this case
we much prefer
refer the

➡ 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

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ADVANCED PROJECTS

⬅ The Applications Manager is a welcome


addition to a Windows environment – it
makes installing compatible software
very easy

⬇ Installing ReactOS on a virtual machine


is a relatively straightforward task

listed on the left, a Start menu at


the bottom left, a System Tray at the
bottom right, the Task Bar is along
the bottom, and all the menus show
options that ape Windows.
The first job (as with a clean
install of XP) is to set the screen
resolution. Right-click the Desktop,
select Properties and you’ll see
the standard Windows display
properties. Open the Settings tab
and you’ll see the standard
Windows Screen Area slider, Colours
drop-down and Advanced button.
Once you set the resolution, you’ll
get that familiar count-down timer
to accept your changes.
Even the definitely non-Windows not listed in the Start menu, but you can find utility uses familiar DOS commands rather
addition of the Applications Manager is easy it at C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer). than the Linux-default Bash language: type
to get used to, and is often invaluable. As Equally, if you still have the installation CDs ipconfig (rather than ifconfig as with Linux)
struggling XP users will know, most new and DVDs for your favourite XP software, you and you’ll see the details of your network
software only runs on Windows 7 and can use them. If you’re running ReactOS on a connection; type dir (rather than ls) and
onwards, meaning you have to hunt out old, virtual machine, you can access the host PC’s you’ll see the contents of the current folder.
XP-compatible versions to use, and these optical drive by right-clicking IDE Secondary You can keep up with ReactOS updates via
downloads are almost always hosted on Master on the main screen and selecting Host its Twitter feed (twitter.com/reactos) and
third-party websites. Open the Applications Drive D: (or whatever your drive letter is). contribute by filing bugs to ReactOS’s Jira
Manager, however, and you’ll see a list of system (see www.reactos.com/wiki/File_Bugs).
software that should work (remember that LIBRARIES GAVE US POWER Also remember that while XP mostly
ReactOS’s alpha status makes it hard to Should your application need a specific eliminated the need to press Ctrl-S every five
guarantee anything at this point). Tick the library (Microsoft’s .NET Framework, Visual seconds, ReactOS is still alpha software so
box for the software you want, then click the Basic Runtime, or Adobe AIR, for example), you should save your work regularly.
Install button and the software will download you can install these from the Libraries
and install automatically. If a favourite piece section of the Applications Manager. There
NEXT MONTH
of software is missing from the Application are also some drivers for specific hardware.
Manager, you can still download or install it You’ll find DOSBox and DosBlaster in the MAKE AN APPLE HOMEPOD-
from a CD or DVD manually, in exactly the Other category, which might help you to run STYLE SPEAKER
same way you would with any Windows PC. software that requires MS-DOS. We show you how to make a wireless
We recommend installing the Opera web Having a Command Prompt icon on the speaker that’s compatible with
browser from the Applications Manager to Desktop is also atypical of a Microsoft OS, Apple’s AirPlay standard, as well as
help you download software, but you can use but it merely replicates the ‘cmd’ function of other streaming services
the built-in Wine Internet Explorer (bizarrely Windows. Even better, the Command Prompt

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Multimedia
Expert
Photographer, musician, sound engineer, designer and video
producer Ben Pitt guides you through a multimedia project
ben@computershopper.co.uk

Abstract
photography
Discover how to separate a subject
from its identity with our guide to
abstract photography

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PHOTOGRAPHY ENCOMPASSES everything


from holiday selfies to fine art, but what makes
a photo a work of art? One answer is when it’s
not just the subject matter that’s important,
but equally, the way the subject is presented
in the frame and the shapes it creates.
A photo can transcend its subject matter to
become visually interesting in its own right.
Abstract photography takes this one
step further. The subject matter becomes
secondary, irrelevant, perhaps even
unrecognisable, pushing the viewer to
concentrate on the shapes, colours and
textures that fill the frame.
These photos might not be to everyone’s
taste, but it’s a useful exercise to improve your
general technique. It will help you to spot
strong compositions and think creatively
about how to frame a subject. It’s also great
practice for developing an idea through ⬆ Photo-hosting sites such as Flickr and 500px shadows. Direct sunlight through a window
careful adjustment of the subject, lighting and are useful sources of inspiration provides a bright canvas to work with, and the
camera angle. Apply the same objectives and straight edges of the window frame can be
techniques to your normal photography and objects that can be juxtaposed to create used to add some structure to the image.
you might end up being a better photographer. interesting shapes, although you may find Then it’s a simple matter of finding objects
that it will take time and experimentation to with interesting silhouettes and positioning
WHERE TO START sharpen your eye to what might work. them in creative ways.
This is a project that you can do almost A handy shortcut to making household Expand on this theme by casting shadows
anywhere. The average home is full of objects less recognisable is to work with on to surfaces that hold some interest of their

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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT

⬆ 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.

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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT

⬆ The trees were captured with a 1/5 -second


exposure and deliberate upwards motion of the
camera to create a motion blur

The rule of thirds is perhaps the best-known


convention for photography. The argument is
that placing a subject dead centre looks flat
and dull, whereas positioning elements to one
side of the frame gives a sense of tension and
release. The convention is to divide the frame
into thirds, both vertically and horizontally,
and to place objects or high-contrast edges
on the lines that divide the frame.
For portraits, the convention is to place the
subject’s head (or eyes, depending on how
near he or she is) at the intersection of these
lines, so a third of the way down from the top
and a third from the left or right edge. If the
subject is looking left or right, they should
face towards the centre of the frame. You can
use the same approach for abstract images,
even when there are no recognisable human
forms. Place key elements on the grid lines,
and if there’s a sense that the subject is facing
or moving in a particular direction, position it
so it faces towards the centre of the frame.
The same principles apply for images with
more than one key element. Try to establish a
feeling of balance between these elements, with a wide base and point at the top will be a winding path, the edges of a building
perhaps by locating them towards opposite appear solid and grounded. A triangle with or a pattern on the floor. Lines that
corners of the frame. When an object appears a point at the bottom will be dynamic, converge are particularly striking, and so
more than once, the convention is to include dramatic and imposing. It needn’t be a are parabolic curves. Leading lines should
three or five rather than two or four, and this triangular object; the shape can be formed guide the viewer’s attention across the
gives a better sense of balance. by any lines in the image. frame to the main point of interest.
Triangles can be a particularly good Leading lines are anything that guides Frames within frames are where an object
basis for a strong composition. A triangle the viewer’s eye around the frame. It might in the photo frames the main subject. It might

134 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


MULTIMEDIA EXPERT

⬆ A half-second handheld exposure of this sunset


gives it a dreamy quality that resembles a painting

⬅ The rhythmic repetition of the gulls and posts


has an abstract quality to it. This shot required a
few attempts, but this one – where the tops of the
posts are in line with the side of the lake – worked
best as it helped the gulls stand out. We used
Lightroom’s Linear Gradient tool to overexposure
the horizon, creating three distinct strips of light-
dark-light across the frame

flashguns or just a selection of lamps to


bring out the shapes in your composition.
Illuminating subjects mostly from behind to
reveal the outline and just a bit of detail is a
handy way to disguise the subject matter,
simplify the scene and concentrate the
viewer’s attention on bold shapes.
You should also think about capturing
your shot from an unusual angle. Drone
photography excels for this, particularly
when pointing the camera straight down.
It’s an angle we’re not used to seeing so
familiar subjects can look unrecognisable.

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

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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT

⬆ There’s a strange new fad to hammer coins into


tree trunks at the nature reserve I visited. Boosting
the saturation reveals a range of colours where the
coins have begun to rust. The tight crop and lack of
context makes for a more abstract photo

various tools without having to commit to


anything until you’re finished.
Cropping is a critical part of the process.
You may have carefully composed the shot,
but we often shoot a little wider and leave the
final crop to be done in software. If nothing
else, it gives some room for manoeuvre when
displaying the image at an aspect ratio that
doesn’t match the original shot. For highly
abstract images, it’s also worth rotating just
to see if it reveals anything interesting.
Lightroom’s Straighten tool is great for
aligning straight lines with the edges of the
frame. This can help an image appear punchier, ier,
and make subjects appear more abstract.
There’s a choice of Level (horizontal), Vertical
⬆ Photographing this mushroom from above
and Full (both), plus a Guided option that lets disguises its identity a little. The original photo
you define what should be aligned. was rotated and cropped so the stick-like foliage
It’s worth getting creative with exposure suggests a chalice-shaped base holding up the red ⬆ More shadows, this time with a vase that creates
and colour controls. Under- or overexposing orb. We used Lightroom’s Heal tool to clean up the some interesting textures as light passes through
some parts of the frame can help to clean up scratches and marks on the mushroom it. Simplicity is key in this image
the composition. Boosting the Contrast and
Vibrancy will exaggerate colours, and Dramatic colour correction tends to Noise Reduction and Colour Noise Reduction
Lightroom’s Dehaze tool can generate vivid, increase noise, so it’s worth zooming in and settings up to 100, and reduce the Detail and
high-contrast colours from the flattest of checking the noise reduction settings. Sharpening controls to zero.
colour schemes. Another trick for livening up Ramping them up to maximum settings can You might also want to use the Clone and
colours is to use the White Balance colour also help to clean up and simplify the scene, Heal tools to remove unwanted distractions
picker to neutralise the colours in the main as the noise reduction will also gloss over from the scene, or to rearrange elements to
subject, and then boost the Vibrancy and fine details. This is particularly effective for improve the composition. You could even use
Saturation to bring out the colours that long-exposure images, giving the streaks of a layer-based image editor such as Photoshop
deviate slightly from this neutral palette. colour a wispy quality. In Lightroom, turn the to incorporate elements from multiple photos.

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MULTIMEDIA EXPERT

⬆ This nude shot was taken with a single lamp


behind the model. Heavy processing in Lightroom
reduces the shot down to two simple shapes, with
only a hint of subject matter’s identity
➡ This barn conversion creates some interesting
shapes with its beams and windows. The
resulting shape in this shot reminded me of a
grasshopper’s head

Some people might consider this cheating –


you wouldn’t be allowed to enter a composite
image in a photo competition, for example
– but if you’re making a work of art it’s up to
you which tools you allow yourself to use.

THE SLOW REVEAL


Abstract photography rejects the notion that
a camera never lies. Here, reality is relegated
to second place or disregarded altogether.
However, there’s always a lingering question
for the viewer: what is it? Teasing at the
truth can be part of what makes an image
interesting. It’s also fun to mislead the viewer
about the subject’s identity: inanimate objects
that look like faces, human forms that
resemble rolling hills, folded paper to give
the impression of modern architecture.
The more layers of meaning an image has,
the more rewarding it is for the viewer.

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

ISSUE 364 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | JUNE 2018 137


13
PARTING SHOTS

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.

138 JUNE 2018 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 364


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