Innehållsförteckning för Issue 195 från T3 Australia

The summer warmth is here and 2020 is nearly over. Always good to start with the positives, isn’t it? Setting aside the weather and looking past this madhouse of a year, we’ve been scouring the undergrowth to find all the delectable audiovisual treats you need to see you through in our new home cinema guide. Whatever your dream setup is, we’ve got you covered. Replicate the true cinema experience – sans sticky floors and COVID risk – with an 8K projector and 7.2.4 surround system. Upgrade your setup with the latest OLED TV and a Dolby Atmos soundbar. Or complement the next-gen console you’ve pre-ordered with an 120Hz, variable-refresh-rate screen. Sort yourself a new tablet or phone, and get something you’ll love without busting the budget. We’ve got guides for…

RESERVOIR, IDEC SPORT EDITION 2020 Every one of these robust and eye-catching 24 limited edition watches will be installed in the toolbox of the LMP2 IDEC Sport racing car as it competes in Le Mans 2020. $TBA, reservoir-watch.com CHRISTOPHER WARD, C65 SUPER COMPRESSOR Featuring a complex case design that increases in strength and integrity with depth, becoming even more water-tight as you dive, this is the first true Super Compressor made in nearly a half-century. $859, christopherward.com TISSOT, SUPERSPORT CHRONOGRAPH TDF 2020 This chronograph features the official colours of the Tour de France, and its four large hands make it easy to tell the time... even when racing along at high speed riding a top-of-the-range bike. $572, tissotwatches.com SWATCH X BAPE, TOKYO MULTI CAMO Bathing Ape provides its disruptive and…

What can a hairstyle- and safety-conscious urban cyclist do to protect their skull? They can get the Hövding 3 ($465, hovding.com), the third iteration of the ‘safest cycle helmet in the world’. It only takes 0.1 seconds for the Hövding 3 to deploy in the event of an accident and the built-in algorithm reads your cycling movements 200 times per second to provide a safer riding experience. Also, when Hövding is deployed, a message is sent directly to your emergency contact with your location.…

PURE LUXURY Take a dash of Prince, a jigger of disco bass, a big slosh of velour, shake the lot up and pour into an indie glass: Michael Lovett’s latest album as NZCA Lines is an opulent cocktail of syrup. 100% YES If you’re looking for a rougher edge, Melt Yourself Down’s sax-heavy walk through the London jazz-punk-funk scene is a honking trip that pulls in a load of North African influences. MUSIC NOT SAFARI Old-school synth stuff from The Emperor Machine, as if a particularly funky robot had discovered music, set all its circuits to squelch, then gone absolutely haywire in a studio.…

UNDER $2,000 Surround sound at a reasonable price 1 FOCAL SIB EVO DOLBY ATMOS 5.1.2 HOME CINEMA SYSTEM Get that sound quality cinematic dreams are made of. Carrying on Focal’s long tradition of producing immersive audio, the Sib Evo 5.1.2 comes with two loudspeakers, each of which boasts an up-firing driver that bounces sound off the ceiling for that 3D auditory experience. Of course, those Sib & Co loudspeakers themselves are a treat. $1,750, focal.com 2 SONY G700 Don’t discount a 3.1-channel solution, especially for covering smaller spaces. The G700 soundbar might be missing up-firing speakers, but Sony’s innovative Vertical Surround Engine lets you have the same immersive audio, albeit virtually. Thanks to this technology, its front-firing speakers recreate a vertical sound for the Dolby Atmos experience, rounded out with…

$2,249 (with 24-50mm kit lens) nikon.com An ‘entry-level’ full-frame mirrorless camera, the Nikon Z5 is designed to compete with the likes of the Canon EOS RP. It follows on from the original Z7 and Z6, sitting directly underneath them to give those with a smaller budget, or less advanced needs, a model to get them going. At the heart of the Z5 is a new 24.3 megapixel CMOS sensor. It’s similar in resolution to the Z6’s 24.5 megapixel device but importantly it is not backlit, which makes it cheaper to include at this price point. The 3.69-million dot viewfinder has been directly brought across, which considering this is an entry-level/cheaper model is reasonably surprising to see. Where Nikon has made a cutback is to the screen, which at 1.1-million dots…

$299 sennheiser.com While Sennheiser’s never in any danger of winning the Most Stylish award for any of its headphones, where performance is concerned the CX400BT have almost everything you could realistically hope for. They have the Apple AirPods firmly in their sights while still doing things entirely their own way. Because this is Sennheiser, they’re flawlessly constructed. Though the plastics used feel (and look) quite hard and shiny, there’s nothing that doesn’t suggest both ‘quality’ and ‘longevity’. And once you’ve selected the correctly sized eartip, their twist-to-fit action means they fit securely, stay comfortable for hours and offer physical noise reduction beyond what the more ‘open fit’ AirPods can achieve. However, it’s just a little disappointing to discover there’s an all-in battery life of 20 hours here (seven hours in…

If you’re looking for the very best tech available today, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Best of the Best is the most useful gadget-buying guide you will ever encounter. To create it, we’ve extensively tested the best tech the world has to offer, to bring you rock-solid recommendations for your home life, daily commute and the tech you use all the time. In 36 different categories, we’ve chosen the top four products, so you can choose one that’s just the right mix of features and budget for what you need. These rankings come from real testing by our team of experts – they’re the products we’d choose for ourselves, and we can’t recommend any higher than that. Look for the links above each category that take you to…

ADIDAS TERREX SPEED LD The Adidas Terrex Speed LD has a breathable and abrasion-resistant dope-dyed mesh upper. Underfoot, the Continental outsole provides a grip and responsiveness on varied terrain. $180, adidas.com.au ROCKAY RAZER TRAIL SOCKS For every Rockay Razer purchased, the company removes 125g of plastic waste from the ocean. Also, if you get blisters running in them, Rockay will either refund you or replace the socks. $40, rockay.com NIKE AEROBILL TAILWIND RUNNING CAP The Nike AeroBill Tailwind Running Cap features laser perforations for ‘optimised breathability’ on the front and side panels and it is also made from at least 50% recycled polyester fabric. Get in. $35, nike.com…

Q KRIS PETERSSON, BRISBANE Can I get a really cheap wireless outdoor security camera? A Oh, sure. Amazon is becoming basically overrun with Chinese wireless cams, some as cheap as $30. But you’re not an idiot (or you might be, Guru isn’t here to judge) so you’ll realise that a budget security solution is basically the tech equivalent of buying cut-price toilet paper: it’s neither pleasant nor a particularly secure experience, and one which may just let human waste through. GaGu would absolutely steer you towards a known brand that costs slightly more, be that the only-vaguely-known Kami (check out the chunky Wire Free Outdoor Camera, priced around $130) or Amazon-owned Blink (the XT2 is compact, with the required hub, and lasts for two years on a pair of AAs).…

This month something quite significant happened in the world of tech. It wasn’t a big leap forward. In fact, it was a step backwards, as both Google and, to a lesser extent, Apple released brand new, flagship phones that were less expensive and less desirable than their predecessors. Admittedly, Apple persisted with the Pro line of iPhones at eye-watering prices, but there was also the iPhone 12 mini. This is a literally scaled down version of the iPhone 12 that costs as little as $1,199. Google, meanwhile, focused even more explicitly on keeping the price down and doing the basics well with its latest Pixel phone. This phone does not have whizz-bang specs or jaw-dropping features, but it seems highly competent. Now, I don’t want to overstate this as some…

BUDGET SONY STR-DH790 This budget AV receiver is capable of supporting a 5.1.2 speaker system, and is compatible with high-resolution audio up to 40,000Hz for an extremely detailed sound. It also supports HDCP 2.2 and HDR for 4K UHD and HDR video watching experience. Musos will also appreciate its Bluetooth connectivity. $1,049, sony.com MID-RANGE DENON AVR-X3600H Denon has many excellent AV receivers, but it’s the AVR-X3600H that gets the approval of mid-range consumers. Highly versatile, it lets you choose between a 7.2.2 speaker system, a 5.2.4 one with four ceiling speakers, or adding another amp to extend to an 11.2 system. It’s also smart-assistant compatible. $2,595, denon.com LUXURY MARANTZ SR8012 The Marantz SR8012 is an excellent choice if you want a feature-rich AV receiver. A 7.1.4-capable receiver with 205W per…

01 APPLE iPHONE 11 The least expensive 2019 iPhone flagship, without the extra cameras of the Pro and Pro Max models, but with plenty of power and polish nevertheless. Watch out for even better deals on this Apple phone once the iPhone 12 has been revealed. From $1,199, apple.com/au 02 SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 Samsung launched three Galaxy S phones in 2020 – this is the most affordable. It’s smaller than the S20 Plus and the S20 Ultra, and has a slightly inferior camera, but also shares a lot of the same internal components. From $1,099, samsung.com 03 ONEPLUS 8 PRO While the Nord has been grabbing the headlines lately, the OnePlus 8 Pro is an even better phone – albeit a pricier one. It has a faster processor, a bigger…

1 LEICA D-LUX 7 This stunner of a micro four-thirds camera, the Leica D-Lux 7, lets you reap the benefits of digital photography, including autofocus, optical image stabilisation and 4K video shooting, while still enjoying the look and feel of a 35mm film camera. Just because you’re switching to digital, that doesn’t mean you have to make do with that unappealing homogeneous design many DSLRs are sporting these days. $2,500, leica-camera.com 2 MARTIN LOGAN ELECTROMOTION ESL X Martin Logan’s ElectroMotion ESL X prove that misunderstood electrostatic speakers far outshine their legacy. These combine amazing fidelity in the mids and highs with booming bass thanks to their traditional built-in subwoofers for a sound that’s out of this world. And thanks to their translucent panels, these speakers are a stunning, ultra-modern looking…

$699 ($559 with a GoPro Plus subscription) gopro.com The GoPro HERO9 Black will be instantly recognisable to pretty much everyone, as will its basic functions, but GoPro has ingeniously cranked up specs almost everywhere as well as adding Appleesque design tweaks to what was already a potent platform. That’s not to say it is complex to use; in fact, GoPro has kept complexity to a minimum, enabling pretty much anyone to pick up the GoPro HERO9 Black, clip it into a mount, and go shoot genuinely impressive 5K video. That impressiveness isn’t mainly to do with the resolution – although it’s near-Hollywood quality – but the astonishingly good stabilisation and capture options. These endure the rockiest, judder-iest activities, but spit out perfectly watchable, smooth video that’s worlds away from some…

GOOGLE PIXEL BUDS While not packing the same noise cancelling smarts shown by the AirPods Pro, the Pixel Buds offer pretty great sound that adapts to your environment and come at a more affordable price to boot. $279, store.google.com/au ANKER POWERCORE 26800 Want to maximise that beefy 3,140mAh Pixel battery? Then pair it with Anker’s Brobdingnagian power pack, which has a 26,800mAh capacity and three USB ports – enough to also juice a tablet and smartwatch. $99, anker.com OLIXAR SENTINEL CASE AND GLASS SCREEN PROTECTOR This case keeps your new phone safe from knocks but also includes a tempered-glass screen protector and enables you to still access the fingerprint reader. $21, olixar.com…

From $3,144 dell.com Given it’s been topping best laptop lists for years, it’s no surprise that the 2020 version of the Dell XPS 13 is a stunning portable computer. As usual with Dell, a variety of configurations are available, so you can spec it out to suit your needs and budget. Even at the low end though, we’re talking about a laptop with premium build and a premium price There’s no doubt about it, the Dell XPS 13 for 2020 looks great: the display bezels are thinner than ever and the whole computer weighs just 1.27 kg. Special mention to the screen, which is stunning: bright, crisp, HDR-ready and all round fantastic. You can opt to go all the way up to a 4K (3,840 x 2,400 pixel) touchscreen model…

1iPHONE 12 From $1,199 (iPhone 12 mini) $1,349 (iPhone 12) apple.com/au Leave it to Apple to go big. Where Google’s Pixel 5 elicited, if we’re honest, a bit of a shrug, Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 12 – and its attendant mini, Pro and Pro Max variants – caused a stir for all the right reasons. Reasons like the company bringing the ludicrously fast A14 Bionic processor from the iPad Air 4 into a phone form factor, or finally (finally!) giving the iPhone 5G capabilities with, suggests Apple, cover for more 5G bands than any other phone. Reasons like the seven-element rear camera, and the return of Apple’s MagSafe branding in the iPhone 12’s auto-aligning, extra-efficient Qi charging setup. The flat-edged design more than hints at the classic metal frame…

Everyone knows it’s important to look after their mental and physical health but, up until very recently, monitoring heart health and sleeping disturbances required multiple trips to the GP and carrying a wearable ECG device. It all changed with the advent of health smartwatches, making the process way more convenient than ever before. Developed by cardiologists and sleep experts, the Withings ScanWatch (from $450, withings.com) is the world’s first clinically validated hybrid smartwatch to detect both atrial fibrillation (AFib) and overnight breathing disturbances. AFib is the main form of irregular heart rhythm that is often underdiagnosed, while sleep apnea affects up to one billion people worldwide. As well as monitoring heart health and sleep disturbances, the Withings ScanWatch can also track parameters such as steps, calories, elevation, workout routes (via…

The fine folks at Flare spotted Guru talking about their ear adulterators last issue, and were kind enough to send him a couple of things to try. Note that Guru is an anxious man spooked by loud noises or too many voices going on at once, and he has also given himself some level of hearing damage and tinnitus via a misspent youth, so he’s basically the target market for this stuff. First up, the Flare Audio Isolate 2s, a set of fancypants ear plugs. They’re a combination of a metal stalk which acts as some kind of acoustic baffle – in Guru’s case it’s the Natural Aluminium flavour, but coloured versions and a higher-end Titanium variety are available – and a foam tip which you jam into your ear…

The mid-range section of the smartphone market has never been busier: if you’ve got, say, $350 to $750 to spend, then there are a wealth of phones to pick from. The four mid-range devices mentioned here should offer something for everyone – they differ in size, features, software and camera quality, so you can compare them carefully against your own personal list of key considerations. Whatever you’re looking for, don’t rush yourself. New phones are appearing all year round, which knocks down prices further as the current handsets get older, so keep a careful eye on deals and special offers from the usual retailers. SE CHANGE iPHONE SE 2020 With a strong second-hand market and the iPhone XR, you’ve got several choices for an affordable iPhone, but the iPhone SE…

SUPERB SHOES ASICS METARACER This might be yet another Nike Vaporfly alternative but it offers a completely different running experience, in a good way, putting you in control of every step you take. The integrated carbon plate, combined with the Guidesole and the FlyteFoam midsole technology, does a great job in propelling you forward. $469, asics.com ADIDAS 4D RUN 1.0 More of a running sneaker than actual performance running shoe, the Adidas 4D Run 1.0 has a unique 3D-printed lattice sole that’s crafted using oxygen and light yet delivers a decent running experience. Not only does it offer good traction under foot but it feels secure and well padded. $360, adidas.com.au AWESOME WATCHES GARMIN INSTINCT SOLAR The Garmin Instinct Solar’s main USP is the solar charging: if you use the…

DJI OSMO ACTION While not quite able to fill the HERO9 Black’s sizeable shoes, this action cam from DJI offers both a colour front-facing screen and 2.25-inch rear touchscreen and captures 60fps 4K video. And it costs $300 less to boot. $388, dji.com GOPRO MAX If you fancy another approach entirely, why not wave flat 5K footage goodbye and upgrade to 360-degree 6K? While not as much of a whizz with conventional vids, the GoPro Max captures immersive, hyper-hi-res footage. $659, gopro.com SJCAM SJ8 PRO When you’re looking to shoot your stunts for less, the SJ8 Pro is the perfect, wallet-friendly cam. It’s lightweight, knocks out 4K at 60fps, offers super smooth slow-mo at 720p 240fps and costs less than half a HERO9 Black. $279, sjcam.com…

From $1,695 sony.com Sony’s elite-but-less-expensive 4K LED TV, the X900H has most – though not quite all – of the features and functionality included in the top-of-the-line X95H range. But, despite representing pretty impressive value for money, as it stands it isn’t quite the complete package yet. In terms of picture quality and HDR, this set really shines. As is usual with Sony, every HDR standard except HDR10+ is catered for here. With some 4K Dolby-Vision-assisted content up and running, the Sony looks vivid and detailed. Edges are drawn smoothly, picture noise is suppressed almost entirely, and the all-important skin-tones and -textures are completely convincing. There’s a slight ‘either/or’ element to the way the set delivers black tones: you can either have them impressively deep and lustrous, or with plenty…

$449 sony.com As good as the recent Shure Aonic 50, not to mention relative veterans such as Bose NC 700 and Sony WH-1000XM3, there’s nothing out there that can beat the Sony WH-1000XM4, the brand’s latest noise-cancelling headphones. Adding a stack of new features to an existing favourite while still delivering where it really counts – sound quality and noise-cancelling – Sony is clearly not sick of winning yet. The WH-1000XM4 packaging makes a big splash of the headphones’ Hi-Res Audio Wireless credentials, and we can tell you that high-resolution (24bit/192kHz) music absolutely slays. Broadly speaking, everything that was admirable about how the WH-1000XM3 sounded is ported to these intact. They use the same 40mm free-edge full-range drivers, so perhaps it’s not all that surprising. The lowest frequencies are deep,…

$119 www.transcend-info.com Dashcams are almost essential nowadays. Whether it’s to prove events to cops and insurers, catch a crim or to record a hoon for social media internet points, it’s surprising that so few cars have them built-in as standard. But there are common issues in dashcam world: devices frequently look bulky, cheap and besmirch the windscreen of your automotive pride-and-joy, while the best-looking models can be extravagantly expensive and complicated to use. However, Transcend’s DrivePro 10 instantly impressed us. The dinky, 40-gram device has diminutive dimensions of just 58 x 36 x 23mm (plus a protruding lens) meaning it’s almost half the size of most of the market’s smaller models. The mount is also miniscule and yet crams in a lockable ball joint to enable an accurate outlook that…