Innehållsförteckning för August 2020 från T3 India

RETURN TO THE FOLD Haven’t got the room to stash a full-sized e-scooter in your flat or hallway? Don’t sweat it. The AER 557’s frame effortlessly concertinas away. And at 23kg it’s easy enough to get into a lift or carry up stairs AER 557 There are many adjectives one can apply to e-scooters. Convenient. Efficient. Fast. Not currently road legal. But rarely will you find them described as ‘graceful’ – at least that is until now. The AER 557 is like the iPod of electric scooters: although it’s far from the first, it may well be the product that defines the design language of all the vehicles that zip along in its tracks. Not only does it have a gorgeous aesthetic, with slow curves and beautifully rounded lines, but…

GRAND SEIKO X WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND, TOGE Combining British Racing Green, the texture of Grand Seiko’s Mount Iwate dial, a gold GMT hand, and a brown leather strap, this piece beautifully combines Japanese and British design. watchesofswitzerland.com TIMEX, Q TIMEX This popular reissue is now available in three new colourways! Features a true-to-the-era stainless-steel bracelet, functional battery hatch, rotating bezel, and luminescent markers and hands. timex.com HUBLOT, BIG BANG GMT ALL BLACK YOHJI YAMAMOTO Designed in partnership with renowned designer Yohji Yamamoto, this Big Bang has been given the all-black treatment using the concept of ‘invisible visibility’. The GMT function is ace for jet setters. hublot.com MAURICE LACROIX, AIKON QUARTZ CHRONOGRAPH This sporty watch features a black sun-brushed dial and three ‘snailed’ sub-dials. It delivers chronometric precision, courtesy of its…

Building a complete home gym is a laborious activity. Where should you start? Get a pair of dumbbells? What size? Do you need a weight bench? A kettlebell? How about a pull-up bar? Maybe an ab roller? And even if you had all this equipment, what workout should you do with them? Would you check out a few videos on YouTube? Or maybe watch a few Instagram live videos? If you don’t want to put yourself through all this and get demotivated instantly, the NordicTrack Fusion CST Trainer (nordictrack.com) might be a good addition to your home gym gear shopping list. It’s a 2-in-1 machine that can help you build strength and shed fat at the same time, with structured workouts displayed on a 10-inch touchscreen tablet mounted on the…

1 SOFOLOGY CRICKET 3 SEATER TEAL VELVET SOFA Quite possibly the most perfect sofa in the world. It nails the eclectic glamour trend, and, quite frankly, looks like something Ziggy Stardust would have been happy lounging around on. You can buy the Cricket sofa in various sizes, from a two-seater up to a movie night-ready corner suite. It also comes in leather, but why would you want that when you can have plush velvet? sofology.com 2 ELLA JAMES FUSCHIA SILK TABLE LAMP A clever way to do maximum colour on a smaller scale. The base is made from a mix of aluminium, brass and iron, while the shade is crafted from fine silk. Ella James’s lamps are versatile enough to work in modern and period-style homes, so you should easily…

TRUE WIRELESS EARPHONES Kiss those wires goodbye 1 AIRPODS PRO At T3 we sometimes have to state the obvious. Here it is: Apple’s high-end own-brand buds are, by some margin, the number one choice if you’re an iPhone user. They’re spectacular, offering class-leading ANC, a great fit, superb sound, excellent connectivity, and the small cachet that comes with those iconic stalks. apple.com/in 2 CAMBRIDGE AUDIO MELOMANIA 1 Melomania literally means ‘love of music’ and it shows. Cambridge Audio has poured every bit of audio passion it has into these well balanced buds – which are built as monitors, so they won’t adulterate the sound – and still managed to drop them at a price perfect for any pocket. cambridgeaudio.com 3 SENNHEISER MOMENTUM TRUE WIRELESS 2 Second time’s the charm: these…

T3 India as a magazine/ezine rightly focuses on products that are new and under development. This, of course, does not suggest or imply that everything old is bad and outdated. The pace at which technology moves, demands that we cover all product developments for our readers. In few cases, this means going back to the past. Look at the worldwide revival of turntables. Only 20 years ago, the turntable was consigned to the dustbin. Today, pressing plants are hard pressed to meet the demand. The area where retro is most in demand is music – both Western and Indian, and T3 India seeks to address this gap. We hope you enjoy this section.…

There’s no denying that this year’s holidays look slightly different. Unsurprisingly, more holidaymakers are choosing self-catering properties and this seems a trend likely to continue well after lockdown is over, whether it’s beautiful cottages or alpine chalets, such as the ones rented by Les Chalets des Fermes (chaletsdesfermes.com). You’ll find them in the pretty village of Megève in the French Alps, and there are nine to choose from, although our favourite is Le Chalet du Darbelet, which sleeps up to 10 people. Book a stay and you’ll enjoy spectacular views of the Beaufortain mountains, as well as easy access to clearly marked hiking routes. Closer to home, consider Cliff Beach House in Ireland’s stunning Ardmore Bay (cliffbeachhouse.ie). This six-bedroom villa is an architectural gem – highlights include a cinema room…

One of the more heartening things about the recent global apocalypse has been that people have still been taking the time to stay fit. Many people quite reasonably assumed the UK’s population would come out of the other end of this twice as wide as when it went in. Not so, statistics say, and really it’s not so surprising. When the news is full of nothing but the grim fate awaiting the unwell, booming interest in fitness and health seems like a natural reaction to me. If you are one of the many people who have been trying to avoid becoming half man, half sofa while stuck at home, you will probably know it has not been easy. Not just for the usual reasons to do with willpower or lack…

The audio amplifier was invented in around 1912 by Lee De Forest who developed the first triode vacuum tube, also known as a valve. The first amplifiers were therefore valve amplifiers. With the invention of transistors in the early 1960s, audio amplifiers based on transistors made an appearance. Most modern amplifiers today use solid state transistors of which the most popular is the MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor). MOSFET was invented by Mohammed Atalia and Dawon Kahng of Bell Labs, USA and was quickly adapted for audio use by the Japanese. The first was Yamaha but others like Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba and JVC soon followed. Transistors are cheaper, lighter, more reliable and require less maintenance. Valve amplifiers have migrated to the upper echelons of the market and are…

From ₹80,990 ( ₹1,61,990 variant reviewed), asus.com/in There’s no shortage of gaming laptops in the market today. You find them at various price points. Yes, they are portable but a majority of them are bulky. The ROG Zephyrus G14 from Asus, however, is different. It’s portable because of its lightweight and slim design and, more importantly, packs in enough power to run the latest games. The ROG Zephyrus G14 is available in India in two design variants - one with AniMe Matrix and one without. What’s AniMe Matrix, you ask? Well, it’s a novel way to personalise your laptop for the world to see. The ROG Zephyrus G14 features 6,536 CNC holes on the laptop lid and houses 1,215 mini LEDs that allow the user to write or display a…

From ₹899, sandisk.in The heyday of USB flash drives are over, thanks to cloud storage and ample storage on mobile devices. However, USB flash drives still have the advantage of plug-and-play and not rely on factors like an internet connection to access the data on the cloud. SanDisk recently launched their dual drive flash drive that adds up to 1TB of portable storage and allows it to be used with computers and mobile devices that support USB Type-C. But is it worth it? Let’s check it out. Aesthetics are the last thing one considers while buying a USB flash drive, but if that is what you are looking for in a flash drive, SanDisk has it covered. The SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive Luxe comes in an all-metal design with a…

₹2,999, theworldofplay.com The market is flooded with true wireless earphones where almost every smartphone manufacturer or an accessory maker has their version. Vying for consumer attention is Play’s latest offering - PlayGo T44 with its affordable price tag. The PlayGo T44 goes for the AirPods-like half in-ear design, and while there’s little any company can do to differentiate such a design, the T44 has a curvier stem with a glossy white hue to distinguish itself from the competition. The pocketable case, on the other hand, features a white matte finish with USB Type-C port at the back. The case cover feels flimsy and reveals earbuds’ magnetic docking area with an LED status indicator and a small button. Compared to the case, the build of the earbuds is better and is…

SAMEER KHAN Q Which smart camera has the best battery life? THE BLINK XT2 CAN APPARENTLY KEEP ON TRUCKING FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS ON JUST A PAIR OF AA BATTERIES A With Guru Labs currently out of commission following an unfortunate and mysterious ‘leakage’, your white-coated hero is unable to give definitive answers here. Instead, let’s throw a big pinch of salt at some manufacturer claims and see which battery lies look the most plausible. Swann’s Smart Security Camera is plenty cheap, but its battery life is poor, stated to offer you a month yet offering Guru, in his previous tests, about a week. Netgear states four to six months in ‘normal use’ for the entire range of Arlo cams. That’s not exactly amazing, particularly once you’ve subtracted a…

PLAYSTATION 5 There’s no denying it. 2020 has been a turbulent year. And now, for the first time since the original grey game changer 25 years ago, Sony is launching a console generation with a colourful box. Well, monochrome and some blue lighting. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The PS5 has finally been revealed with a striking design in two flavours. If you’re buying a next-gen console for access to 4K Blu-rays as well as games, you’ll want the full fat version with the UHD disc drive, but if you’ve chosen a physical-media-free future, there’s a slightly slimmer Digital Edition. This should also slim down the wad of cash you’ll be handing over but no pricing has been revealed as yet. So what’s inside the so-clearly-designed-for-maximum-airflow box?…

HOW WE TEST In T3, we feature only the finest gadgets out there, and we believe that you – our loyal reader – deserve only the best tech in your life. We don’t want you to waste time, and money, on inferior products, and that’s exactly why our Tested section exists. In here you’ll find only the latest and hottest tech. Each product has been handpicked and tested by T3’s experts. We only choose people with special knowledge for each test, so you know you’re going to get an outcome based on many years of experience in their respective field. As well as our traditional five-star rating system (right), we also give out awards to particularly exceptional gadgets, using the line-up below - so when you spot one of these,…

₹6,999, creative.com You may recognise Singapore-based Creative Technology for its sound cards and speakers back in the day. The company still sells them, but when it comes to the latest products, they have flown under the radar in the last few years, especially in India. Things seem to be changing, and Outlier Air is the first TWS from Creative launched in India. Does it have the pedigree of a company that created Sound Blaster? Let’s find out. For a product category that’s restrictive in terms of design, Creative Outlier Air’s design is refreshing. The case is tall and wide that makes it one of the largest cases you will see for a TWS, but it slips nicely in the pocket. The aluminium case has dual-tone graphite and black matte finish…

₹9,990, hyperxgaming.com You’d be forgiven if you mistook HyperX’s latest Cloud Stinger headset with the one that’s selling in the market for quite some time. HyperX has a wide range of Cloud Stinger headsets and the latest to join the ranks are the wired version of Cloud Stinger Core 7.1 and the wireless variant, which we are looking at today. Gaming headsets are designed to complement gamers’ RGB-laden gaming setup, but the Cloud Stinger Core Wireless + 7.1 prefers subtlety. It sheds the flashy colours for an all-black design, with the only exception being the silver-coloured HyperX logo on the device. We like the matte black plastic finish and while HyperX has made the headset lightweight at 244g, we think the build quality could be better. The Cloud Stinger Core…

₹3,999; PS4 All is fair in love and war says the adage but in Tsushima, it’s all about the latter than the former. Set in the year 1274 and inspired by a real-world event of the Mongol empire invading the Tsushima island, Ghost of Tsushima brings a fictional story of a samurai who goes all the way to save his homeland. However, there’s a problem. Not only the Mongols are brutal as revealed by the first few minutes into the game but are cunning too, who know the samurai ways and led by their capable commander, Khotun Khan. Enter Jin Sakai. The protagonist and the samurai who almost gets killed in the battle and realises the only way Mongols can be defeated is by fighting less honourably or in other…