Innehållsförteckning för Issue 199 från T3 Australia

HP OMEN 17 Over the last year, the sheer elation and escapism of gaming has really come into its own. But components shortages have made building your own gaming rig nigh on impossible. Fortunately, gaming laptops have become a great alternative, combining top-tier specs with portability. Case in point: the HP Omen 17. Available with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, it will make any AAA title gleam, while its max 32GB of RAM and Intel Core i7-11800H processor will absolutely shred any task you can think of. Additionally, its 165Hz QHD display with 3ms response time and Wi-Fi 6E compatibility make lag virtually non-existent – helping you waste any opponent. And HP isn’t only thinking about the short term: its RAM and SSD are easily upgradeable, while its…

The nice folks at Master Lock, aware of Guru’s fascination with poking slender tools into awkward holes and wiggling them around until something pops, sent your author a biometric outdoor padlock (the nattily-named 4901EURDLHCC, which sounds like someone attempting to write a product name but succumbing to food poisoning half way through). It’s reasonably heavy, with a 9mm boron-hardened steel shackle secured with servo-actuated ball bearings to prevent shimming. On the front you get a fingerprint reader with a d-pad around it for backup access using a directional code; pull off the base of the rubberised housing surrounding the metal lock body and a pair of 9V battery terminals offers power backup should the main battery die on you. On the packaging Master Lock gives this full marks on its…

REALME GT Thanks to brands like OnePlus, Oppo and realme, budget ‘flagship killers’ have become a familiar sight. And yet the realme GT is still worth sitting up and taking notice of. It’s not that it comes with a zippy Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor. Nor is it the gorgeous, buttery smooth 120Hz Samsung Super AMOLED display or its hyper-responsive 360Hz touch sample rate. Frankly, it’s not even its 4,500 mAh battery and 65W SuperDart charging or its stainless steel VC cooling system for enabling superior heat dispersion. Each of these features can be found in other handsets after all. Instead the most remarkable thing about the GT is that it offers these features all in one package... and a package that will set you back a fraction of the…

01 GOPRO SHORTY A camera grip is extremely useful; however, the Shorty is more than just a regular grip. Telescopic sections extend allowing you to use it for selfies, while three fold out legs also enable it to be used as a tripod. $59, gopro.com 02 GOPRO CHESTY While helmet-mounted cams are popular for shooting your exploits on bike or board, you get a much more interesting POV with a chest-mounted camera. GoPro’s Chesty is one of the best models around. $49, gopro.com 03 EXPOSURE CAPTURE CAMERA LIGHT Whether you’re attaching Exposure’s tough but light, er, lights to a vlogging rig, or to your bike for capturing night rides, this is one of the best of its kind around. $TBC, exposurelights.com…

Portability and connectivity are king when it comes to Samsung’s latest ultrabook, with a frankly ridiculous weight of just 0.87kg and a thickness of less than 12mm when closed. There’s plenty of competition in the ultralight ultrabook arena, and the compact chassis of the Galaxy Book Pro makes it clear that Samsung is taking aim at competitors like Acer’s Swift 5 and Dell’s XPS 13. That impressive exterior doesn’t mean that the Galaxy Book Pro is all sizzle and no steak, fortunately; the hardware specs on show here demonstrate that this ultrabook can go toe-to-toe with bigger laptops. An 11th-generation Intel Core CPU with Xe G7 graphics gives this laptop a decent amount of processing oomph, enough to keep up with other Windows 10 ultrabooks cut from similar cloth. This…

Aaaand... it’s lockdown. Again. Oh great. As the nasty Delta variant sends us back to our home-prisons, what is a tech fan with worsening cabin fever to do? How about this - dive deep into this fabulous issue of T3 and figure out just what goodies inside you need to make life a bit more interesting. I’m talking about the T3 Awards. We’ve spent the last few months testing all of the outstanding devices available, from tremendous top-tier TVs to superb smartphones, all so we can bring you the absolute gold-standard of gadgets. And, for the first time ever, we’re also celebrating the products transforming the way we work with our Working from Home Heroes. Everything here is, we do very much believe, the best of the best. Choosing what…

DYSON OMNI-GLIDE While the V15 Detect is hardly hefty, this is the lightest and most manoeuvrable Dyson has ever made. It zips around like an eel, cleaning surfaces and flooring with aplomb. Your hard-to-reach places are now… not so hard. $599, dyson.com.au DYSON PURE HOT + COOL FORMALDEHYDE The brand’s latest and greatest fan is also an air purifier, is also a heater. And, as the name unsubtly suggests, it can also deal with formaldehyde. This noxious gas is given off by plastics, paints and cleaning products and is notoriously hard to detect. $999, dyson.com.au DYSON 360 HEURIST An older bit of Dyson tech, this robot maps its way around your home with its one Cyclopian eye. Cleaning power is noticeably stronger than most robots and the full-width brush bar…

CEP RUN SOCKS 3.0 The CEP Run Socks 3.0 have better moisture management thanks to the Feran ICP finish. Comfort is further enhanced using the Smart Dry Yarn and HeiQ Smart Temp tech that will keep the feet insulated yet cool. $65, cepaustralia.com ROCKAY VIGOR COMPRESSION SOCKS The Econyl Regenerated Nylon yarns used to make the Rockay Vigor Compression Socks are made from recycled ocean plastic, making them one of the most eco-friendly socks out. The Polygiene-treated socks also need less washing as long as they are laid out to dry in between use. $65, rockay.com ADIDAS TORIC GOGGLES The new Toric range from Adidas features one model with six Toric lens colour options boasting a clear, all-direction view. The mask features a three layers of varying density foam for…

1 DJI AIR 2S ND FILTERS SET A neutral density (ND) filter is essential for creating smooth motion blur. Like a pair of sunglasses for the camera, it prevents overexposure at slower shutter speeds when shooting video. This DJI-Air-2S-specific set comprises four ND filters for shooting in a variety of lighting conditions. $129, dji.com 2 DJI SMART CONTROLLER One of the most common problems when using a phone with your drone is being able to see the live camera feed in bright sunlight. This DJI-specific hand controller comes with a built-in 5.5-inch screen that is twice as bright as any phone for detailed live-feed visuals in any light. $1,099, dji.com 3 FINAL CUT PRO DJI apps come with basic video editing facilities but you’d be much better off editing your…

At first glance, the M1 MacBook Air doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from the throngs of other Apple laptops available right now. That’s by design, of course: MacBooks are instantly recognisable thanks to their iconic brushed silver design and black keyboard. The chassis is largely identical to the previous Intel-powered Air, with no flashy touch bar to be found. The trackpad is nice and broad, and the built-in ‘Magic Keyboard’ feels great to use thanks to sophisticated scissor-switches under every key. The Retina display is gorgeous, with excellent brightness and a higher resolution than the Galaxy Book Pro. Inside this machine, though, Apple’s ARM-based M1 chip is the beating heart of what makes the MacBook Air great. Intel and AMD laptops running integrated graphics will be blown out of…

$2,199 focal.com The Focal Clear MG are luxurious headphones, made for a luxurious listening experience, and they hit that mark dead on. For our money, these are absolutely the best wired headphones on the planet. The Focal Clear MG cost roughly the same as the Sennheiser HD 800 S that are their single biggest competition and about half of what you’d pay for Focal’s wonderful Stellia headphones. So in the scheme of audiophile headphones, they’re pretty well-priced, even if they make the cost of Apple AirPods Max look like pocket change. Microfibre earpads and headband material feels like sinking into a sofa when you put them on, and they held firmly in place on the head without being uncomfortable or warming up too much over a long period of listening.…

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 5each category 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 the…

Our mission is to bring you the clearest recommendations we can – and that means a great deal of hard work happens before a product even reaches our pages! Because we only feature products the T3 team would happily use ourselves, we end up discarding a significant number of options in each category before settling on a final shortlist to review. We select only the best of the best for our Tested section; the gear we know you’ll want to seriously consider purchasing. And that should mean an end to you having to undertake hours of painstaking research and product comparisons. You won’t see any duff products, but you will come away with clarity on which one is the best in its category or for a specific task: our awards…

Air, hellair! The Hollies once sung that ‘sometimes all you need is the air that you breathe,’ although if that’s true of you, I’m afraid you might have a rather boring life. But, of late, I’ve been thinking about the air in my home a lot more than I should. Late last year, I began reviewing air purifiers – so I definitely do have a boring life. Prior to having to grind out 1,000 words on them, I had near zero interest in the ‘purity’ of my home air. I don’t have a wood burner, or live next door to a chemical plant – although I do live in a major city, which is sort of like an enormous chemical plant that I share with nine million other people. However,…

Whether it’s shooting crystal-clear footage from 400 feet above a stunning waterfall, snapping aerial holiday snaps on the beach or even earning a living in the TV and real estate industries, now is a better time than ever to start enjoying the full cinematic freedom that only a drone can provide. Unlike land-bound cameras, drones can shoot from any angle, any height and any perspective to create photos and videos that pop with exuberance. They are, quite literally, tripods of the sky. And the best thing of all is that even the most competent models now cost less than a grand. Take the new DJI Air 2S for example. This startling model can shoot in 5.4K, autonomously follow the user through obstacle-laden terrain without crashing and even video a selection…

One crumb of comfort from the unprecedented nature of the past year or so is that spending so much time at home has created a national longing to swap the couch and boxset for clean air and the great outdoors. Now that restrictions have been relaxed, we can at last leave the urban areas we’ve spent so much time in to explore wilder places. This recently reclaimed freedom to travel combined with a desire to get fitter and healthier has seen huge numbers of us getting out and about to enjoy clean air, the pleasures of nature and a life outdoors on foot, by bike, or on the water – which has now become even more appealing with warmer temperatures and sunny skies approaching. Of course, documenting such outdoor adventures…

CHECK YOUR FRAMING With a tiny viewscreen, you’re never going to get a great view of your subject using your action cam alone. This problem is compounded when mounting your camera in a position where you can’t see the viewscreen at all. Fortunately, you can get a live and far better view of what’s in shot by using your camera’s smartphone app, which will allow you to set up exactly the framing you need. CHECK YOUR SETTINGS With buttons that can switch shooting modes and a small screen with even smaller icons, when checking your footage it’s not unusual to find that instead of the video you wanted to shoot, you’ve got something completely different, such as a time-lapse sequence instead. Similarly, it’s easy to have accidentally switched from shooting…

APPLE AIRPODS MAX If you don’t want to give up the iMac’s 3D audio feature the second a glaring loved one makes you don some headphones, you’ll want to pick up some AirPods Max. Not only do they also offer spatial audio, they sound and look stunning. $899, apple.com/au LOGITECH MX VERTICAL MOUSE This good-looking mouse sits at a 57 degree angle to reduce wrist pressure, is ergonomistapproved, and is seriously comfortable. Speed is also on its side: it has advanced optical tracking with a 4,000-dpi high-precision sensor. $128, logitech.com BELKIN USB 3.0 4-PORT HUB As we’ve already pointed out, continuing to use a lot of your older, pre-USB-C devices is going to require you to pick up a hub. This simple option offers four USB 3.0 ports in a…

From $550 garmin.com Garmin finally made a fitness smartwatch that’s actually usable and doesn’t look too bad either. Better still, the battery life is pretty impressive for an AMOLED watch. The Venu 2 has stayed true to its roots in terms of offering a more fitness-y experience; it just does it way better than previous iterations. The 1.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen display has a resolution of 416 x 416 pixels and it even has an optional always-on mode. The AMOLED screen really brings the widget view of the Garmin OS to life and all the milestone animations, like when you hit your step goals, look way better on the pretty screen. Battery life is a category the watch really excels in. Officially, it offers ‘up to’ 11 days in smartwatch mode;…

ARCHER MAKER Most of us spent our childhoods being told every brief journey we’d take as an adult would involve being whisked through skies in some futuristic vehicle. And yet reality has stubbornly refused to live up to these lofty expectations. Thankfully, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft like Archer’s Maker are set to change all that. Able to travel 96km at 240kph, the Maker is designed to take the hassle out of urban journeys and short hops, while its 270-degree wraparound window means you can really take in that view. Redundant motors, batteries and avionics allow it to get you home regardless of unforeseen circumstances. And with engines that only produce 45dBA of noise and zero emissions, it has no negative impact on the environment. So what’s the…