In-depth guides, expert tips, and buying advice to help you make the best purchasing decisions
The litre figure describes the basket, not the food — in a four-litre air fryer, cook no more than a kilo of chips or the air cannot circulate. From a 31-model tested field: the one-element mechanism, the tower design that saves worktop, and the 240-degree outlier.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best gaming monitors of 2026, with UK prices verified on 2 August. The MSI MPG 322URX QD-OLED leads on picture quality, with ultrawide, QD-OLED and budget alternatives.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best wireless gaming headsets of 2026, with UK prices verified on 2 August. The Razer BlackShark V3 Pro leads on microphone quality, with Beyerdynamic, SteelSeries, JBL and Logitech alternatives.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best Qi wireless power banks of 2026, with UK prices verified on 2 August. The 4smarts TitanPack leads on measured capacity, with two Anker MagGo packs as the practical everyday buys.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best massage guns of 2026, with UK prices verified on 2 August. The Flowlife Flowgun Ultra leads on adjustable amplitude, with Therabody, Orthomechanik and Bob and Brad alternatives.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best height-adjustable standing desks of 2026. The Boho Office Basic Line leads on stability at full height, with the Ofinto Rise, Flexispot E7 Pro and Secretlab Magnus Pro as alternatives.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
A sports watch carries the same sensors as a smartwatch and takes each of them considerably further — multi-GNSS instead of plain GPS, heart rate you can train zones against, and recovery data. Fifteen picks across three tiers, and what each tier actually buys.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
Cheap no longer means bad — the compromises just moved. Screens are now AMOLED at this level; cameras and 3D gaming are where the corners are cut. Four tested picks, with software support running from two years to six.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best handheld gaming consoles of 2026, with UK prices verified on 2 August. The Steam Deck OLED leads on screen, price and software, with the Nintendo Switch 2, Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go close behind.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
The best robot vacuum-mops of 2026, from a tested field of eight. The DJI Romo P leads on navigation and app polish, the Mova V50 Ultra Complete is the value flagship, and Roborock and Dreame follow close behind for suction and mopping.
John Higgins
3 Jul 2026
Four free Word alternatives compared — LibreOffice, Google Docs, FreeOffice and Writemonkey — plus the official way to use Microsoft Word free.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
The best smart rings of 2026, with UK prices verified on 2 August. The RingConn Gen 3 leads on features, operation and battery, with the Oura Ring 5 and Samsung Galaxy Ring as the main alternatives.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
A mobile router turns a SIM into a proper all-day Wi-Fi network — and unlike your phone, many still have removable batteries, the single best predictor of how long the device stays useful. Five picks spanning Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 7, with measured speeds for each.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
The useful battery figure is measured under a stated workload — 10 hours 40 of Full HD video, not "all-day". From a 54-notebook tested field: the processor tiers that match work to silicon, five picks with real measurements, and the same-name-different-chip trap.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
Two numbers on a tablet spec sheet are close to useless: battery capacity, which predicts runtime badly, and the headline processor generation. From a tested field of 73 — why IPS is fine, why 16 GB is the real floor, and where last year’s silicon saves you money.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
The megapixel count is the number that tells you least about a phone camera — and very high resolution can actively hurt low-light photos, which is why phones bin four pixels into one. What aperture, sensor size and software really decide, across a tested field.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
The choice is not which 3D printer but which technology: FDM is cheaper and lets you buy filament from anyone, while SLA prints finer detail but usually locks you to the maker’s own resin. From a 13-printer field, including the safety practice each one actually requires.
John Higgins
2 Jul 2026
The most expensive over-ear headphones are not the most comfortable — the number of ways they adjust to your head predicts that better than price does. From a 58-pair field: what ANC genuinely cannot do, and why the huge battery figures are the wrong ones to shop on.
John Higgins
12 Jun 2026
Cheap full-frame cameras still use magnesium bodies and sealed builds — the savings hide in stabilisation, card slots and viewfinders instead. From a 95-camera tested field: why the sensor physics favours even budget full-frame, and where each affordable body cuts its corner.
John Higgins
11 Jun 2026
The costliest CPU mistake is a chip that fits the socket but not the chipset — and some boards cannot even update without a compatible CPU installed. From a 62-processor tested field: AMD against Intel in plain terms, the cooling that stops silent throttling, and six picks.
John Higgins
11 Jun 2026
A device-focused comparison of 87 blood pressure monitors: Omron X3 Comfort leads the upper-arm field, while Sanitas SBC 22 leads the wrist models, with five alternatives for connectivity, memory and portability.
Matt Fankey
11 Jun 2026
The best NAS for beginners in 2026: the Synology DS223j wins on software and snapshots, with the fast Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro, the step-up Synology DS225+, the powerful Ugreen NASync DXP4800 Plus and the silent Terramaster F4 SSD.
John Higgins
11 Jun 2026
A bean-to-cup machine is a maintenance relationship, not a purchase — and most of its running cost is cleaning. From a tested field of 54: why the brew unit decides everything, the three milk systems, and the three brands whose machines you can never open up.
John Higgins
11 Jun 2026
We compare 53 speakers from nine multiroom ecosystems. Sonos wins with the most mature platform and the superb Five, while Teufel, Bose, Denon Home and Yamaha MusicCast each earn a recommendation for a different kind of listener.
John Higgins
11 Jun 2026