Hands-on troubleshooting guides for Virgin Media, Sky, BT, EE and more, written and tested by Graeme Messina.
Walkie talkies earn their keep on campsites, building sites and ski slopes, and for calling children in from the far end of the garden, yet most boxes on the shelf look alike. The details that matter ...
A USB-C cable looks the same whether it tops up a phone, charges a laptop at 240W or runs a monitor over Thunderbolt, and the plug gives almost nothing away. The differences sit inside: the current it...
A smart bulb screws or pushes into an ordinary light fitting and then takes its orders from an app, a voice assistant or a wireless switch. Choosing one comes down to four things: the fitting it has t...
Rechargeable AA and AAA batteries save buying pack after pack of alkalines for the remote, the game controller and the kids' toys. Choosing them is less simple than it looks. Panasonic, Duracell and E...
A projector can turn a bedroom wall into a cinema, put the football on a 100-inch picture or take a film out into the garden on battery. The spec sheets are where it gets confusing, with lumens that n...
A portable power station is a large rechargeable battery with an inverter and ordinary sockets, and the same box gets sold for camping trips, campervans, garden offices and power cuts. The spec sheet ...
A phone tripod sounds like one product, but the range runs from Manfrotto's 13.5 cm PIXI desk stand to travel tripods that Ulanzi lists at over 1.5 m, with selfie sticks, bendy-legged grips and motori...
A paper shredder cuts old bank statements, bills and letters into pieces too small to put back together, which keeps your name and address out of the recycling bin. Report Fraud, the police service fo...
A head torch keeps both hands free for a dark run, a dog walk down an unlit lane, a job in the loft or a power cut on a winter evening. The numbers on the box need some decoding, though. Lumens, beam ...
An item tracker is a small Bluetooth tag that clips to your keys or slips into a wallet, then shows up on a map when the item goes missing. The catch is that each one leans on a phone maker's finding ...
Microsoft sells two current Xbox consoles in the UK, and the gap between them is bigger than one letter suggests. The Xbox Series X aims at native 4K and comes with or without a disc drive; the Xbox S...
Sonos sells more in the UK than its short product names suggest: the Era speakers, the Five, three portables, four soundbars, two subwoofers and two sets of Ace headphones. Every one of them runs from...
Samsung UK's phone store splits the Galaxy range into three families: the Galaxy A series for everyday budgets, the Galaxy S series of flagships and the folding Galaxy Z series. The names move on ever...
The Google Store UK sells four current Pixel phones: the Pixel 10a, the Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro with its larger Pro XL sibling, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. The names move on every year, so the Pixel...
Apple sells three MacBook lines in the UK, and the chip names make the choice look harder than it is. The MacBook Neo, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro differ on chip, memory, screen, ports, how many monit...
Apple sells seven iPhones in the UK, and the names make the choice harder than it should be. The iPhone 17e, iPhone 16, iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and the folding iPhone D...
Smart rings do much of what a fitness tracker does, from a ring on your finger instead of a band on your wrist. In the UK the main names are Oura, Samsung's Galaxy Ring, Ultrahuman and RingConn, and t...
A thermostatic radiator valve, the numbered dial at the end of most UK radiators, sets how warm one room gets. A smart radiator valve swaps that dial for a motorised head you can schedule from an app,...
A record player can be a suitcase with the speakers built in, or a turntable that feeds powered speakers, a hi-fi or a Bluetooth speaker. The right one depends on where the phono preamp sits, which sp...
Sony sells three PS5 consoles in the UK, and the gap between them is bigger than the names suggest. The standard PS5 has a disc drive, the Digital Edition does not, and the PS5 Pro adds graphics power...
When the lights go out, the first job is working out whether the fault sits inside the house or out on the network. Next comes reporting it to the right company, which is not the one that sends the bi...
The Nintendo Switch 2 plays most original Switch games, so choosing one is less about leaving an old library behind and more about the screen, the TV picture, storage and what comes in the box. This g...
A mini PC is a Windows desktop small enough to sit behind a monitor or on a shelf under the TV. The right one depends on the job: quiet office work, media, light gaming or a home server that runs all ...
Kindle and Kobo e-readers look much alike, but each is tied to a different bookshop, and that matters more than the screen. Amazon's Kindles buy from the Kindle Store, while Rakuten Kobo's eReaders bu...
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