Reviews

Kenwood Cooking Chef XL Stand Mixer Review: A kitchen unto itself

You’d be forgiven for thinking you just bit off more than you could chew when Kenwood’s new Cooking Chef XL. Given its multitude of attachments, the device comes in a supersized box that looks like you’ve just purchased a medium-sized bar fridge. Open it up though, and things look much more manageable. Despite the “XL”…

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Sonos Roam Review: Punching well above its weight, even with a few drawbacks

At 430g, the Sonos Roam is the company’s lightest speaker to date. That’s no surprise, seeing as the Sonos Roam is named so for a reason. It’s the first Sonos speaker designed to compete in the very competitive market of lightweight portable Bluetooth speakers that have been specifically designed for outdoors use. You know, the…

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Sennheiser IE 300 Review: Bringing cabled back in a big, bass-heavy way

Cables on a pair of earphones in 2021? Surely you jest. While the trend keeps moving towards truly wireless and Bluetooth for high-end earbuds, Sennheiser clearly want to cover all bases. They’ve already got some of the best truly wireless lifestyle earbuds on the market with the CX 400BT (which I have 4.5 stars in…

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Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 Review: Running laps around the competition

The Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 just may be the most reliable of its kind right now. It’s blazingly fast, beautifully designed, and shows of just how powerful and important having a mesh system can be when building a more modern, smarter home. Although having one would depend on your needs. A home of modest size…

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JBL Xtreme 3 Speaker Review: Powerful, portable and pricey

I don’t know what JBL did but their speakers lately have been hitting more home runs than the brand usually does. And with this current winning streak, of course the reliable, bass-obsessed brand is going to lift their game for their Xtreme series of wireless Bluetooth speakers. As such, the JBL Xtreme 3 is one…

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De’Longhi PrimaDonna Soul Review: Wow factor guaranteed

The De’Longhi PrimaDonna Soul is a very expensive fully automatic coffee machine, but it continues the brand’s very solid reputation of putting out class-leading devices designed for hard-to-please coffee enthusiasts. Experimentation sits at the heart of the enormous $2,799 machine, which requires quite a bit of counter space and is perhaps a bit too large…

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Nokia 5.4 Review: Keeping it simple might just be the point

As budget phones begin to adopt more attractive value propositions, Nokia are in a nice position to maintain its reliable reputation, but are they doing enough with the Nokia 5.4? Though Apple is now playing heavily in the mid-range, and wallet-friendly Android options are solid from the likes of Samsung, Google, and Oppo, Nokia still…

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Bose Sport Earbuds Review: excellent sound, superb fit… the best out right now?

Bose’s flagship QuietComfort Earbuds are understandably some of the most impressive and highly sought in-ear music headphones on the market. But at $400, they are also a demanding investment. Look down lower on the price scale and you’ll find the newer Bose Sport Earbuds, which are obviously designed more towards the fitness/running crowd, but sound…

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Bose Sleepbuds II Review: Helping you get those eight hours

Inconsistent battery performance and some design flaws lead to Bose discontinuing their first iteration of the Bose Sleepbuds a few years ago. Which was disappointing. It’s an incredible concept – having some buds designed and in complete dedication to getting quality sleep, as opposed to music -playing in-ear phones that also threw in a bunch…

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JBL Quantum 800 Review: The perfect mid-range gaming set?

JBL’s recent focus on gaming is long-overdue and so very, very welcome. The brand has been at, or at least near, the very top when it comes to professional-quality headphones, with an obvious love to big, meatier sounds that still retain plenty of detail. That’s replicated over on the Quantum series, which tackles just about…

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D-Link Full HD Pan-Tilt Pro Wi-Fi Camera Review: Flexible and reliable, with some drawbacks

An indoor camera that is able to rotate and tilt for a full 360-degree view is of unquestionable value when it comes to smart home tech. Lucky, then, that the ever-reliable D-Link launched one towards the end of last year as part of a small addition to their already solid line-up of smart security tech….

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GTW 270 Hybrid

EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid Earbuds Review: Wireless Audio for the Nintendo Switch

With the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid earbuds, EPOS is showing serious interest in trying something new. Many have tried to create gaming earbuds but none have ever had the punch of a decent set of cans. EPOS is a partner brand of audio maker Sennheiser. They are tinkerers and inventors, they like to throw ideas…

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Lenovo Duet Chromebook Review: Costs less, offers more

I’m shocked. Not because Google and Lenovo have produced a capable entry-level 2-in-1 with the Lenovo Duet Chromebook, but because it’s only $599 (although you can probably get it for much less right now). That’s not cheap per se, but it’s incredible value for something that doesn’t feel like a heavily compromised budget PC. The…

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Amazon Echo (4th-Gen) Review: Spheres are sexy, and so is surface area

We haven’t even reached the point where smart devices are truly mass market, but we will get there. Curating smart homes has been a big talking point over here at the AU, and in general. It’s a fascinating lean forward into the IoT world, and the big companies like Google and Amazon are starting to…

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JBL Party Box On-The-Go Review: A creative way to party

Whatever your feeling towards the rather aggressive and inelegant name JBL have given their new party box, it’s hard to deny the brand’s impeccable timing. At the tail-end of 2020, where people are looking for different ways to recreate some nightlife at home, the JBL Party Box On The Go is heaven-sent. The pricey, chunky…

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Arlo Essential Wire-Free Video Doorbell Review: It’s all about that 1:1 aspect ratio

By 2024, its predicted that more than 7 million smart video cameras will be totalled across Australian households. Does that sound accurate? It just might. Interest in smart security picked up dramatically in 2020, even though most people were staying at home. And as 2021 continues to unfold, it’s highly likely that interest will keep…

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Valentine’s Day gift ideas that aren’t boring in 2021

Let’s face it, Valentine’s Day is not just about romantic gestures that go heavy on the cheese and cliché (not that there’s anything wrong with that). It also happens to be the first established gift-giving occasion on the calendar year, and given 2020 was an absolute shitshow, that means a lot. Brightening up your signature…

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D-Link COVR-X1873 Mesh Wi-Fi 6 Review: Fast, reliable, and very well-connected

The new COVR-X1873 from D-Link is a powerful triple node system of AX1800 Dual Band Seamless Mesh Wi-Fi 6 towers – the latest in the company’s award-winning COVR series and absolutely one of the most impressive. I’d go so far as to say this is one of the best mesh Wi-Fi 6 systems you can…

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Withings ScanWatch review: medicale grade ECG major step forward for health tracking

Withings have always made the more beautiful watches when it comes to fitness trackers, sticking closer to a more conventional design that doesn’t look like you’re wearing anything too high-tech on the wrist. Withings watches are simple, elegant, and feature-rich, and the ScanWatch is undoubtedly their best offering yet. And that’s no surprise, hype has…

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DeLonghi La Specialista Maestro review: The best semi-auto coffee machine money can buy?

This coffee machine is smart. And there is perhaps no smarter created to date, reimagining the do-it-all semi-automatic machine to make it more accessible for a great variety of coffee drinkers, whether they have barista experience or not. And while it is quite pricey, that’s a valuable thing to have for the office or the…

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Philips Air Purifier Series 3000i AC3033 review: it’s time to think deeply about air quality

How we take care of the air in our homes has shot up in terms of priority this year. We’re used to sucking up all the dirt and potentially hazardous particles from our surfaces with a high-powered vacuum cleaner, but prior to 2020, it wasn’t as widespread to consider how we go about maintaining the…

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DJI Pocket 2 review: Almost perfect tiny camera can do a lot with very little

A camera just over 5-inches long has no business being this good, and yet the DJI Pocket 2 is perhaps the best pro-quality camera made with such a small, flexible profile. It’s part of DJI’s renewed focus on becoming the highest quality provider of action cameras, and they nail just about everything they could while…

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Oppo Reno4 5G Review: Smart compromises make this mid-ranger a solid 5G option

After the masterstroke that was the Find X2 series, Oppo is in a very good spot within the smartphone market. Chinese peer Huawei is still battling away with its advanced hardware but Google shut-out, which definitely helps, plus the brand has now expanded their ecosystem in Australia, which includes Oppo Watch and Oppo Enco Earphones….

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Fujifilm X-S10 Review: An Enthusiast Camera Worth the Investment

Aimed at photo and video enthusiasts, Fujifilm’s new consumer offering the X-S10 is all about fast continuous shooting speeds, vlogging tools and making shooting easy. But how easy? That depends on how well you know your way around a camera body. A small-ish, light-ish interchangeable lens mirrorless camera, the Fujifilm X-S10 sports the same 26.1MP…

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Fujifilm X-T4 Review: A Camera that Can Do It All (Almost)

Fujifilm have designed the XT-4 to be a great all-rounder – a strong mirrorless offering in video and stills shooting, rugged and robust, visually aesthetic and high powered. It offers a 26MP sensor, 20 frame per second shooting with autofocus, 4K video up to 60p and high speed video for up to 10x slow motion…

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Sony WF-XB700 Review: Great, bass-forward sound for a pair of budget earbuds

Given that, years later, the Sony WF-1000XM3 truly wireless earbuds are still the best out. Yes, still. It’s an interesting prospect to get a pair of budget buds from the company. Can they be as successful on the other end of the price range? That’s a loud and clear yes, although there are obviously cost-cutting…

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BlueAnt X3 Review: A reliable performer that’s 100 per cent Australian owned and made

A chunky 9,600mAh battery, a built-in power bank, and a punch 30-watts of power with an optional Bass Boost feature – what’s not to love about the BlueAnt X3? Well, it’s design doesn’t help the portable boombox stand out on a crowded market, although it offers enough to muscle around with the likes of JBL’s…

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Google Pixel 5 Review: Almost my favourite phone of 2020. Almost.

There’s a lot to love about the Google Pixel 5. Quite a lot actually. In the face of the relentless trend of high-end phone brands splitting their newest flagship into multiple iterations to appeal to different budgets, the indelible company has decided to be different. Yet again. For their new flagship, Google have bowed out…

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Sonos Arc Review: Simply the best soundbar out

The Playbar and Playbase are no longer the top-of-the-line offers for Sonos’ multi-room prowess. The pinnacle of transforming your TVs sound with Dolby Atmos and high-fidelity audio is now the Sonos Arc. And what a soundbar it is. Sonos took their time getting into the Dolby Atmos game while competitors would breeze past time. It’s…

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Dyson V11 Outsize Review: Do you believe in magic?

Looking for a new vacuum to me isn’t much a matter of power as it is motivation. When Dyson, who have already proven themselves incredibly reliable when it comes to home tech, slap an eye-watching price tag on a product, they at least pack it with enough punch to justify to hefty investment. Specs is…

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