Innehållsförteckning för December 2018 från Tech Advisor

We now know when the next Windows 10 update is coming, and if you forget, it’s right there in the name. Microsoft’s autumn update to Windows 10 is known as the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. At the time of writing, it was expected to be a collection of improvements and updates, rather than any earth-shattering new features. Microsoft made the announcement at this year’s IFA show in Berlin. The build cycle for the October 2018 Update, also known as Redstone 5, is wrapping up. While at the time of writing it’s not known what the final build will be, Microsoft typically issues several rounds of bug fixes before settling on a ‘final’ build that it decides to push to consumers. As for the date consumers will receive it? That’s…

Price: £849 inc VAT from fave.co/2NzBre8 The Envy 13 is one of the best laptops around if you like the idea of a MacBook or Dell XPS 13, but can’t stomach the expense. A few small compromises, such as a dimmer screen, minor flexing and a slightly oversensitive trackpad, have been made, but the price and design are spot-on, and the GeForce MX150 GPU plays games better than many Ultrabooks twice the price. Price Our review unit is the version we’re keenest to recommend – ah0001na. It has a Core i5 8th Gen Intel CPU, 256GB SSD, GeForce MX150 graphics and 8GB RAM. It costs £849. Jumping to £1,099 nets you an upgrade to a 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM and a Core i7 CPU. You lose that sub-£800 value appeal,…

If you’re looking to buy a laptop, we can help. Here at Tech Advisor, we’ve tried and tested a huge range of laptops to determine which are the best on the market. Here, you’ll find our pick of the top models you can buy right now, and offer a verdict on each. How to choose the best laptop for you Sometimes you just can’t beat a bigger screen, a keyboard and Windows for getting stuff done, and then your only choice is a laptop. There are many different kinds, including hybrids that can be either laptop or tablet, high-end gaming laptops, cheap and cheerful budget models, and even those running macOS rather than Windows 10. How much should you spend on a laptop? Sometimes the best does come at a…

Microsoft’s Font Maker app feels like something your parents should know about: a fun, quirky, but still useful way of turning their handwriting into an actual font for invitations and other personalized notes. Microsoft quietly launched Font Maker in conjunction with the beta releases of Windows 10 that it distributes to members of its Windows Insider program. But it’s really just an app that can be downloaded from the Windows Store, and you can download and use it even if you have an ordinary version of Windows 10. Creating a font from your handwriting should take about five to ten minutes, tops. The only real requirement is a touchscreen PC, preferably a tablet that you can lay flat to write upon. And yes, you’ll probably want a stylus, preferably an…

It’s that time of year again. Time for Apple to unveil its latest iPhones and get us all excited about the steady march of technological progress. This year, Apple had plenty to cover. There are three new iPhones, all of them with the powerful A12 Bionic processor and TrueDepth camera and Face ID system that was previously exclusive to the £1,000 iPhone X. There’s also a hot new Apple Watch Series 4. Over the following pages we round up all the major announcements made at its September event. Apple Watch Series 4 When Apple introduced the new Series 4 Apple Watch, it said: “Everything about it has been redesigned and re-engineered.” And truly, this is the first Apple Watch to have major, obvious design changes rather than the minor tweaks…

Price: £699 inc VAT from fave.co/2xKAIg5 Just six months after the Xperia XZ2 introduced the new Sony smartphone look, the XZ3 refines it by adding a curved edged, curved corner OLED display that borrows from Sony’s Bravia TV range. This is the best-looking Sony phone for some time, looking equal parts Pixel 2 XL and Galaxy S9, but with a unique glass back that you’ll either love or hate. We still aren’t sure it does enough for us to recommend it over those phones though, despite its high points. But all credit to Sony, it has made a beautiful piece of phone hardware at a reasonable flagship price and improved in key areas. If you like where it’s coming from, this could be the phone for you. Design While the…

If your laptop’s performance has you down, don’t simply accept it as a way of life. It’s possible that by upgrading your laptop’s RAM you can give your portable PC a boost. Does your particular laptop support a RAM upgrade? Well, that depends. Laptop designs vary, including which components are accessible and upgradable. Because not every laptop is built the same, there’s no way to say with complete certainty what you can or can’t upgrade. What we can say, however, is that most budget laptops tend to be far more serviceable than ultra-thin, premium models. Microsoft’s Surface devices, for example, are sealed shut, while Apple favours proprietary parts, with everything soldered to the motherboard. A budget laptop, by design, is generally far more modular and leans on easily available PC…

Price: To be confirmed The Lenovo Miix 630 two-in-one is one of the first three Windows 10 devices powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor – rather than an Intel chip. The HP Envy x2 and Asus NovaGo released earlier this year, but Lenovo has waited a little longer to release the Miix 630. The upshot of using the Qualcomm chip is that the Miix 630 enjoys always-on LTE connectivity along with a mammoth battery life of 20 hours – though can the Snapdragon power a Windows 10 laptop as smoothly as it does a flagship phone? Read on to find out. Price and availability The Miix 630 is on sale now in the US, where it costs $899 (around £685). That’s just over £300 less than the £999 HP Envy…

Price: £379 inc VAT from fave.co/2QX1fj0 With Huawei fans eagerly awaiting the launch of the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, the company has whet their appetites with the Mate 20 Lite, the cheapest member of the new line. It’s a slightly odd strategy, but one that probably serves the Mate 20 Lite itself well, as it’s freed from comparisons to faster (and pricier) siblings and instead gets its own time in the spotlight. That doesn’t save the phone from comparisons to the rest of the mid-range market though, and the Mate 20 Lite can’t quite keep up with the competition. Design Following on from the P20, it’s no surprise to see that the Mate 20 Lite boasts a big, notched display, though it’s actually a slightly wider notch, a…

How do you recover from a dead internal hard drive or SSD? Or if Windows becomes so messed up it’s unbootable? You can always reinstall Windows from scratch. But after that you must reinstall all of your programs, then reconfigure everything. But if you have a recent image backup handy, you can recover Windows, your programs, and your configurations with a few minutes’ work. Image backup versus file backup An image backup copies everything on your drive, including partitions and the boot sector. It’s the only way to back up your Windows installation properly, with all of your programs and settings. Don’t confuse this with a file backup though, which only copies your data files (documents, photos, spreadsheets, and so on). Of the two, the file backup is the most…