Great speaker for the money

In this price range, the Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3 is a standout. It plays music with a quality that is rare in this class and can easily challenge more expensive speakers in the compact class. Apart from the lack of dynamic range, it has clear qualities as an all-round music communicator, and if you avoid connecting it to the weakest amplifiers, you can get a lot of use out of the small B&W speakers. A great buy and well worth the money.

The CD player of the future

If you don’t need an SACD player, the CD 50n is a better buy than the SACD 30n. In this way, Marantz has created a problem for itself, because the CD 50n costs much less, is almost as well equipped – and has HDMI input for the TV sound. There are only slight differences in sound quality, and both are perfect combinations of CD and network player. The Marantz CD 50n may lack that one per cent in dynamic contrast, but you have to ask yourself if it’s worth paying so much more for so little.

Cheap and great budget TV

The C655/QLED780 is the latest in the line of affordable LCD panels from TCL. The picture quality is well above average and we were particularly impressed with the contrast and colour reproduction of the TCL screen. Add a well-functioning Google TV user interface and you get a total package with excellent performance for the price.

The model range is also available in a wide range of screen sizes, so whether you’re looking for a new kitchen TV or a large cinema screen, there are plenty of options here. However, the sound is a little thin, so you’ll have to pay for a separate soundbar. A great buy in the budget class!

The very best OLED TV

The G-series from LG has traditionally been among the best OLED TVs on the market, and this year’s OLED G4 is no exception. The combination of raw and contrasting picture quality, great design and a smart user interface and good design make this an excellent overall package. This year it even comes with a foot in the box (!) – so you can quickly set up the TV. The fact that the price starts a little lower than its predecessor did back in the day is no disadvantage either.

Of course, the LG OLED G4 faces strong competition from the Samsung S95D in terms of picture quality, usability and design. And if the built-in TV sound is an important factor for you, Samsung has a clear advantage. But as a pure imaging machine, the G4 is – by a narrow margin – the best in our opinion. Therefore, it’s a narrow but well-deserved victory for LG in this duel.

All in all, we have no hesitation in giving the LG OLED G4 top marks and our special recommendation. It’s simply a great TV!

A mind-blowing film experience!

TCL has previously impressed us with its large and affordable LCD screens. With the X955 series, they really take the step up to the high-end class. And we have to say that the Chinese manufacturer has succeeded well with its largest and most expensive TV to date.

Technically, the X955 delivers impressive brightness and contrast. The black level is also very good, with very little “halo” effect thanks to very precise and well-functioning local dimming.

Grayscale and colour reproduction is very nuanced, although colour precision is not quite “studio quality” out of the box. It may therefore be worth paying for a Calman calibration on this monitor.

All in all, we can safely recommend the TCL X955. If you’re dreaming of your own IMAX cinema, the 115″ TCL 115X955 MAX could be for you. But the 98-inch is in itself wild enough for most people, and appears to be the more sensible choice of the two – to the extent that a 98″ TV can be called sensible!

Impressively lifelike picture

The BenQ V5010i is a projector that not only promises a lot, but delivers on most counts. Its impressive color performance and good contrast make it stand out from the crowd. The user experience is intuitive and the factory-calibrated image quality is a big advantage.

The projector balances high performance with good usability. The V5010i is therefore an attractive package for everyday use and also provides great experiences in a home theater context. The Android TV interface isn’t the fastest we’ve come across, so if you’re a very active user, it might be worth investing in a streamer on the side.

The solitary top model

The Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra is an excellent, but also very strange Asus smartphone. It looks like its ancestor. However, that parent is not the Zenfone 10, but the ROG Phone 8, with which it is identical in almost all respects.

The engine in the two mobiles is also the same, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This makes the Zenfone 11 Ultra one of the undeniably fastest mobiles on the market right now. It also makes it expensive, but Asus has still managed to keep the price below €1,200. This makes it one of the cheapest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobiles.

With three rear cameras, including one with Asus’ ingenious gimbal image stabilisation, the Zenfone 11 Ultra is a super powerful phone that should be considered by anyone looking for a high-end Android phone. But mobile buyers are loyal to Apple, Samsung and OnePlus. So it’s likely that the Zenfone 11 Ultra will also remain a well-kept secret.

Home cinema at its best

The Marantz Cinema 30 is a high-end amplifier for the discerning home cinema enthusiast. It delivers a wonderful combination of powerful surround sound, high resolution and advanced audio processing. The support for up to four subwoofers is particularly impressive, and together with Dirac Bass Correction, it delivers amazing bass integration in the room. Don’t worry, it also works great with two or just one subwoofer.

Compared to its sister model, the Denon AVC-X6800H, they have very similar performance. The Marantz has some slight advantages on the music front and also has a more playful look. The price makes it best suited to those who appreciate a premium aesthetic product.

The Marantz Cinema 30 is far from being cheap, but it provides a top-notch surround experience for people who really want to invest in a serious home cinema.

Insanely good

This small amplifier from Wiim is one of the very best buys on the market at the moment. The price is as remarkably low as the performance is high. Usually amplifiers in this price range are too weak, too anaemic to play music with conviction. Not so with the Wiim Amp. It remarkably combines power and finesse with user-friendly streaming in high-resolution quality. If we were to be really critical, we could have pointed to too few inputs and the absence of any kind of indicator telling us which input is selected, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Wiim Amp is a sensational bargain.

Dynamic stage masters

The old Rubicon series stood for really good sound at the level just below high end. And with Rubikore, the ambitions have been raised considerably. Rubikore 2 is quite simply the best two-way compact speaker in the price range I’ve heard. As a tester, I could perhaps wish for a slightly more monitor-like sound in the upper bass. But for music enjoyment, it works perfectly. And all criticism is silenced when you experience the acoustic scene the small speakers paint: clear, crisp and full of detail. If the larger members of the series are as good, it ought to be a success.

Now you can listen to hi-fi without cable

The Argon Audio Forte A4 WiFi is a very successful speaker set that adds new capabilities to its already excellent predecessors. Among true active stereo speakers in its price range, Argon is virtually unrivalled. The Wi-Fi model is slightly more expensive than the Bluetooth-only version, but the addition of multi-room and music streaming more than justifies the price difference. And if you don’t need that, the standard version is still available. Bass reproduction is as good as you’d expect from a tiny speaker unit in a tiny enclosure, but if you’re playing in even medium-sized rooms, a subwoofer will be necessary. Or consider buying the larger A5 model.

Pure like spring water

Peter Lyngdorf’s mission with Radiant Acoustics Clarity 6.2 was to bring technologies from his companies, and not least Purify, down to a price point where more people can participate. The result is a very unique speaker. And a speaker that doesn’t compromise in many places. The drivers and cabinet are of a quality that you would normally have to pay twice as much for. Or more.

If you are looking for charm (which Peter Lyngdorf would probably call distortion), this is not the speaker for you. What comes out of it is very much what goes into it. Distortion and colouration are very, very low and you’re listening more to the rest of the chain than to the speakers.

This places demands on the amplifier, which must also have a good amount of raw power and dynamic range to make the very heavily driven speakers perform at their best. If you have the right equipment and can live with the striking appearance, the Clarity 6.2 can be a great buy.

Bose is back at the top

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra is a successful new top model from Bose. It focuses on sound quality, noise reduction and customisation. Whilst not necessarily setting new standards in all areas, they represent a significant effort by Bose to keep up with and in some cases surpass the competition. A great choice for those looking for quality and reliability in their audio equipment.

Absolutely pure sound

The Dali iO-12 are noise cancelling headphones in a price range that borders on hubris. You can get excellent ANC headphones for less than half the price. In fact, we’ve only tested two other wireless headphones in the same price range, the Focal Bathys and the Mark Levinson No. 5909. These are excellent competitors, with the Dali probably most similar to the Focal Bathys in their ability to reproduce dynamics. We haven’t pitted the two directly against each other, but the iO-12 stands out as one of the cleanest and most undistorted I’ve ever worn on my head. At least if we limit the field to wireless headphones and thus exclude the insane Sennheiser “Orpheus” HE1, which you cannot even afford to dream about.

The ability to play even better with cable – and best of all with everything switched off – is an unexpected trump card that makes the Dali iO-12 more than “just” excellent wireless headphones.

Dynamite on the floor

In terms of design, Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra looks like an industrial machine. The robot sometimes sounds like this when it’s at work or emptying its dust chamber into the stand. I’m not thrilled with the angular design. I’m particularly bothered by the awkward containers with corners where dirt can collect and the open top where dust will accumulate.

However, design is a matter of taste, so it shouldn’t be the downfall of the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra. On the contrary, the robot vacuum cleaner is easy and efficient to use. The app and robot are a pleasure for the home’s floors and for the home’s occupants.

My floors, carpets and tiles were generally clean after meeting Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra.

The S8 MaxV Ultra is efficient and does what I set it to do without wandering off into other rooms of the home. The voice control works, and talking to your vacuum cleaner – almost – doesn’t feels foolish. Especially when it responds nicely and obeys.

Solid grinder does it all by itself

Uniform is for users who want precisely ground beans for specific types of coffee. The app is preset to distribute water and amount of ground beans in relation to each other according to the type of coffee.

If you (like me) know in advance how you like your coffee, you can skip the app’s instructions and make your coffee as usual. By doing so, you might end up paying for more than you need.

Conversely, the Wilfa Uniform WSFBS-200B delivers impressively uniformly ground beans, whether you grind for espresso or French press. Which you should expect, because the Uniform has 5.8 cm wide, stainless steel blades of Italian origin. You can see it and feel it.

Like no other ice cream machine

The Ninja Creami Deluxe introduces a whole new way of making ice cream. The technology is convincingly practical in the home, which is not always the case with technology originating from the professional world. The Creami Deluxe manages to produce a texture as soft and delicious as a traditional ice cream maker.

Most importantly, it’s fast. The noise may be a challenge for some, but that’s the price you pay for the brutal approach. The variations alone, especially slushice, give the Ninja Creami Deluxe an advantage over most “regular” ice cream machines. Once you get used to having a few different ice cream flavours in the freezer beforehand, it’s hard to go back to a regular ice cream maker. The Ninja Creami Deluxe is simply smarter.

The airfryer that can handle large oven dishes

At first, we were sceptical about the low but extra wide format, which makes the Dualfry Grill take up a lot of space on the kitchen counter. But it’s precisely this format that makes it possible to cook things that don’t fit in a regular airfryer and made the regular oven superfluous throughout the test. Also note the extra high temperature and the grill grate to get a proper surface. However, we were annoyed that you can’t opt out of preheating and that it takes so long to heat up.

Small and smart charging solution

Zaptec Go is an excellent choice for those looking for a compact, smart and affordable EV charger for the home. It’s easy to install, virtually flawless to use and has all the features you need to charge your EV quickly and efficiently. Plus smart power management and up to 22 kW charging power.

Samsung's new smart tag is impressive

If you own one of the supported Galaxy models, it would be a good idea to buy Samsung’s own SmartTag2. We’re impressed with the new features, the design and how easy it is to use the tag.

It has almost everything for half the price

The Acer Swift Go 14 is a lesson in well-chosen solutions. The OLED display is excellent, there’s plenty of storage space and the processor is really fast. The fact that it doesn’t cost more is impressive. The graphics performance isn’t for serious gaming, but it’s still fast enough for any task you might encounter in the office. And also for editing those vacation videos after hours. A touchscreen would have been the icing on the cake. But at this price, there’s nothing to complain about. Absolutely nothing.

The smoke alarm that's more than a smoke alarm

This is not a smoke alarm you buy to test if you like it. You buy it because you want the ultimate protection for your home and probably because you plan to add more security products from the same manufacturer. In this context, the FireProtect 2 is a top-class smoke alarm. But we’d like to see it in a slightly smaller and more discreet version.

More of a good thing

If you dream of the fastest gaming laptop on the market, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is not the answer. It is, however, the computer you would buy instead of just dreaming.

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is about half as fast at 3D shooters as the best gaming laptops on the market. But it costs between a third and a quarter of those. And there’s still enough power to run the vast majority of games at any relevant resolution and speed. At least as long as you use the built-in 240 Hz QHD display.

This year’s model is very similar to last year’s. But you get a lot more performance for not just the same money, but actually a little less.