Samsung Galaxy Mega

Never let it be said that Samsung leaves a niche unfilled. After the Galaxy S4 Mini, designed for those who feel the Galaxy S4 is just too big, we have the perfect phone for people who feel a five-inch phone looks like a silly little toy: the almighty 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega.

This isn’t the biggest phone we've seen, though; that honour belongs to the 7inAsus FonePad. The Mega's screen may only be 0.7 inches smaller when measured diagonally, but this translates to a handset that is more than 3cm shorter and narrower than the FonePad. While a 7in phone won’t fit in a trouser pocket, we carried the Mega around all weekend without even noticing it was there - helped by the Mega being just 8mm thick.

The Mega is big but skinny

We developed a love/dislike relationship with the phone's size during testing. The large screen made it a pleasure to use while at home, sitting on the sofa, surfing the web or watching videos; we were surprised at how much difference the screen size made compared to a five-inch phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 or Sony Xperia Z.

However, it's less fun when you're out and about. The phone is almost impossible to use properly one-handed, as your thumb can really only reach the bottom-third of the screen. One exception is when making calls, for which there's a one-handed mode that squeezes the numberpad into the bottom right-hand corner. Once you've dialled though, it's not particularly comfortable to hold up by your ear for long periods, and we never really managed to put our self-consciousness to one side.

You'll struggle to use the Galaxy Mega one-handed

You don't buy a device designed to replace both a phone and a tablet without accepting some compromises, though. The Mega is actually significantly easier to carry around and use as a phone than we were expecting.

Samsung has included its Multi Window feature, which we've seen before on the S4 and Galaxy Note, but it relaly comes into its own here on the bigger screen. A small tab poking in from the side of the display, which opens a launcher for a selected group of apps which can be dragged onto the top or bottom of the display (or the left and right in landscape mode). This means you can read a web page in one part of the screen while making notes in S Memo in the other.

We're fans of the Mega's multitasking capabilities

PERFORMANCE

Size aside, the Mega feels just like a normal Samsung smartphone to use. The operating system has the usual Samsung skin, and its 1.73GHz dual-core processor gives it similar performance to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini. The Mega completed the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark in an impressive 1,111ms, which makes it one of the faster Android smartphones we’ve seen, and 5,130 in 3DMark shows the phone also has above-average gaming power.

These figures pale behind one of the Mega's big rivals, though: the Sony Xperia Z Ultra. The Ultra has a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, completed the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark in just 860ms and managed a monstrous 17,899 in 3DMark, both of which are the best scores we have ever seen. You could see the difference when browsing the web on both phones; the Ultra was smooth at all times, while the Galaxy Mega showed an occasional jerk when scrolling past complicated parts of web pages, such as reams of nested article comments.

DISPLAY

The Ultra also has a superior screen. Quite apart from its resolution advantage - the Xperia Ultra has a full HD 1,920x1,080 screen compared to the Mega's 1,280x720 - we preferred its image quality. The Xperia Ultra's display had beautiful pure whites, while we saw a slight blue tinge from the Mega's AMOLED screen.

The Mega only really suffers when compared side by side with the Ultra, however. During everyday use the Samsung phone felt perfectly snappy and the screen is bright with vibrant colours. A screen this large could also benefit from a few more pixels, but we could still read headlines and standfirsts on desktop web pages. There is currently no official pricing information for the Xperia Ultra, but the cheapest we've found it so far is for over £600 on handtec.co.uk - over £200 more than the Galaxy Mega. Samsung seems to be pitching the Mega as a mid-range hybrid, saving the premium slot for the upcoming Galaxy Note 3.

CAMERA

The Mega has an eight-megapixel camera on the rear and a 1.9-megapixel model on the front. We liked the photos it took in daylight, which showed accurate exposure in bright sunshine. Low-light photos were reasonable, but with some softness from noise reduction. When shooting a low-light video with a pulsating light, we found the handset continually hunted for focus.

Well-judged exposure in this sunlit smoky scene

CONCLUSION

The Galaxy Mega's name definitely refers to its size rather than specification or price, as this is a phone with a mid-range specification which is a similar price on contract to the Galaxy S4 Mini, and looks like it will be significantly cheaper than one of its main rivals, the Xperia Ultra. You shouldn't buy it if you're just looking for a 3G tablet, as the Asus FonePad fills that niche for half the price. However, if you're prepared to put up with looking a bit silly when you're making a phone call; then the flexibility of having an excellent web surfing device which will still fit in your pocket, makes the Galaxy Mega a good buy.

Vauxhall Adam

Vauxhall’s Adam takes the fight to a new breed of premium superminis like the Fiat 500 and, of course, the MINI – but crucially, it’s cheaper than both. It’s the first to come with the brand’s intelliLink technology and sports a cute and compact chassis that sets it apart from its retro competitors – at least in the style stakes.

Its key USP is the kit on the dashboard – the Adam is possibly one of the most tech-friendly motors we’ve ever gotten our hands on. And the best thing is it won’t cost you an absolute fortune, with prices starting from just £11,225 for the basic model, which gives you air conditioning and DAB radio.

There are some downsides, though, most of which become apparent the moment you step on the accelerator. Performance is far from thrilling - it’s a bit on the firm side - while the steering lacks feel and inside space is limited. If you have a brood to boot, we recommend avoiding this car – it’s best suited to urban city dwellers who're less hungry for space, and more focused on looks.

There are more than 30,000 variations of Adam, according to Vauxhall. That includes 15 types of seat trim and 12 different body colours, each with a rather amusing moniker, such as 'The Greyfather' and 'A Star is Brown'. God only knows what the bods in Vauxhall’s marketing department were thinking when they Christened each one. We drove the bronze/orange model, or as Vauxhall likes to call it; ‘Pappa don’t Peach’. Jokers.

The current engine choice is limited to 1.2 and 1.4-litre petrol engines but a new three-cylinder engine is on its way (reportedly at the end of the year) and several four cylinder engines. But a bigger engine doesn't necessarily make a monster out of the car - that's certainly the case with Adam.

It’s so small and puny that we didn’t have the confidence to overtake and we couldn’t help but feel intimidated each time a crossover or 4x4 was crawling up our backside.

Ultimately, however, its size is its saving grace. We had no trouble fitting into small spaces and weren’t in the slightest bit concerned about clipping parked cars while driving through narrow roads, proving that ultimately, Adam's stature makes it the perfect city car.

Tech? Oh yes. IntelliLink is the custom software which uses your iOS or Android phone to supply media, such as music, and also a string of apps which you can interact with on the stunning 7-inch touchscreen.

Connecting via Bluetooth or USB, you can download a dedicated Maps app onto the iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S3 and then use that app as a sat nav for the car. When you're done you can park up, disconnect the smartphone and continue using the app on foot.

The only downside to this, however, is that the system uses the 3G connectivity on your smartphone, which can be a pain if reception is low. However, we experienced no problems while driving the Adam in London. We would have loved to have seen a wider choice of apps though - the system is a remarkably new one, so we're interested to see how it's developed come a year's time.

All in all, the Adam is a great city car. It isn’t the best drive but it’s great value for money and makes the most out of one of the most important devices in your life – your smartphone

Angelina Jolie Sunglasses Lookbook

Huawei Ascend P6

Huawei's press conference at Mobile World Congress in February was dominated by the launch of the Ascend P2, but even before the P2 hit the shelves in the UK Huawei had announced the very similar, if slimmer and prettier, P6.

Like the P2, the P6 has a 4.7-inch 1,280x720 display, and it even has the same 1.5GHz quad-core processor. However, the P6 has a couple of advantages. Firstly, it runs Android 4.2 instead of 4.1, and is an incredible 7mm thick.

It's also a rather beautiful handset. The Ascend P6 is one of the rare phones that impresses people straight out of the box. The flat front and back and brushed metal sides are attractive, and the textured plastic rear makes the phone comfortable to hold. There's also a minimal air gap between the LCD and the glass touchscreen, which helps the operating system feel like it's right under your finger. We're also fans of the way the headphone port has a metal plug, which keeps the design clean, but we're not sure how long the plug would last before getting lost.

Apparently the 3.5mm headphone jack is the limiting factor in how slim Huawei can make a phone

The P6 has the same screen as the P2, which is certainly a good thing. It may not be Full HD, but 1,280x720 pixels is enough to give you sharp text and icons on a 4.7in display, and you can read desktop-mode web pages when zoomed right out. We're also fans of the panel's clean whites and vibrant colours - it's certainly one of the better mobile screens we’ve seen.

Huawei has overhauled its Emotion interface for the P6. The round, blobby icons from previous Emotion versions have gone, replaced with smart, modern-looking squares. It looks great, but you may not like the operating system's layout. If you're used to Android, with its distinction between customisable homescreens full of icons and widgets and a main app tray for all your programs, you'll be lost at first. Emotion gets rid of the app tray entirely, leaving you with just homescreens for your apps and widgets.

A lovely screen and a refresh for Huawei's Emotion UI

The UI adds more homescreens as you fill up the current ones, so you don't have to worry about space, but it does mean there's no distinction between apps and widgets you use all the time and those you only look at occasionally; you still have to flick through all the apps you own, rather than pinning your favourites to a dedicated screen. You can at least tidy things up by putting apps into folders. 

Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini

We've got Samsung to thank for the miniaturisation craze. First it followed up the fantastic Galaxy S3 with the smaller, cut-down S3 Mini, and now, for those who have neither wide nor deep enough pockets for the Galaxy S4, here comes the S4 Mini.

Samsung is no longer the only manufacturer to have given up finding new names for different products, though. HTC has recently released the One Mini, which impressed us and won a Best Buy award, so the S4 Mini has some serious competition.

First impressions are reasonable. The Galaxy S4 Mini looks like a small Galaxy S4, with its squared-off top and rounder bottom edge. It's not a particularly exciting design, but it's certainly comfortable to hold for a long phone call. The phone is all plastic, but it's fairly soft-touch and feels tough. However, the HTC One Mini's silver and white chassis is certainly smarter and more interesting to look at, and we love the HTC's metal rear.

It's all about the plastic, but the S4 Mini feels well made

Like the One Mini, the Galaxy S4 Mini has a 4.3in display, but instead of 1,280x720 pixels, you only get 960x540. The difference is immediately obvious when you put the two phones side by side. While it's easy to read web pages when fully zoomed out on the HTC One Mini, the S4 Mini's lower resolution makes this much more of a struggle.

We can't argue with the S4 Mini's vibrant colours and wide viewing angles, which we've come to expect from AMOLED displays, but we're not convinced by its colour accuracy. Large areas of white on the HTC One Mini's screen were pure and white, but on the S4 Mini they have a blue tinge. The S4 Mini's screen also has a slight grainy texture, and feels rougher to the touch than the super-smooth HTC display.

The low-power AMOLED screen helps give the S4 Mini one big advantage, though; it has seriously impressive battery life. In our video playback test, which involves playing a video file on loop, the S4 Mini lasted an amazing 13h 3m. That's one of the best scores we have ever seen, and four and a half hours more than the LCD display-equipped HTC One Mini. This is definitely a phone with all-day life, even if you're a heavy user.

We're not particularly enamoured by the AMOLED screen, but it does give the S4 Mini fantastic battery life

When it comes to performance, too, the Galaxy S4 Mini pulls ahead of HTC's handset. Its dual-core processor may have half the cores of the full-size Galaxy S4 and indeed most high-end smartphones, but those cores run at a very quick 1.7GHz. This showed in the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, where the S4 Mini completed the test in just 1,008ms - even quicker than the Galaxy S4's 1,100ms. The S4 Mini couldn’t keep up with the full-size S4 in the 3DMark graphics benchmark, but a score of 5,549 is still up there with moderately powerful phones such as the HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Mega, and is around 700 points more than the HTC One Mini managed in the same benchmark. We found 3D games such as Beach Buggy Blitz ran smoothly enough.

HTC One Mini

The smartphone market is a confusing place. On one hand you have the ever-increasing screen sizes of top-of-the-range models, such as the huge 5-inch Sony Xperia Z and Samsung Galaxy S4, as well as monstrous phone/tablet hybrids such as the Asus FonePad and Samsung Galaxy Mega.

On the other, you have some brave 4-inch holdouts, such as the iPhone 5, and the trend started by Samsung with the Galaxy S3 Mini: compact versions of larger handsets. Now HTC has launched its own diminutive version of the range-toppingHTC One, the One Mini, which goes head to head with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini.

While we appreciate smartphones with huge, high-resolution screens, we're also fans of smaller displays. Smaller screens mean smaller handsets which are easier to slip into your pocket, are more comfortable to hold when talking and are much easier to use one-handed.

However, we were worried that mini phones would also have mini specifications, leading to handsets that are pale shadows of their award-winning bigger brothers. Fortunately, while the cheaper HTC One Mini has some corners cut compared to the Ultimate award-winning One, it's still a seriously impressive phone in its own right.

The One Mini is a good-looking phone. We like the silver chassis and white sides, and even the plus-sized speaker grilles at the top and bottom of the phone work with the design, making it look pleasingly skinny. It also has a metal rear, which we prefer to the plastic of Samsung's S4 Mini.

A metal chassis is always a winner

The screen has 1,280x720 pixels, which is plenty for its 4.3in size. The display has a pixel density of 341ppi, which is significantly higher than the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini's 275ppi and is even slightly sharper than the iPhone 5's 325ppi.

The screen's high pixel density makes text sharp and clear, and means the One Mini is fantastic for web browsing. It's possible to read text on web pages when fully zoomed out, which is not really possible on the S4 Mini without squinting. We were also impressed with the image quality from the LCD screen. Whites are pure and blacks are deep, and there's little sign of graininess. This is in contrast to the Galaxy S4 Mini's screen, which has a blue tinge and visible grain.

Sony VAIO Fit

Sony has trimmed down its vast range of different models and configurations into a smaller number of customisable laptops, of which the VAIO Fit is (appropriately) the first one we've seen. The name's a good fit too, with a slim and trim chassis.

It’s still quite sizeable, as it has to pack in a 15.5in display, but its slim aluminium frame and black glossy bezel look very smart and stylish. Measuring 22.5mm thick, the Fit could almost be an Ultrabook if not for its 2.4kg weight. It even uses the same low-voltage processors as an Ultrabook, but it has the potential to be a far greater all-rounder than such ultra-portable designs.

The VAIO Fit is an appropriately slender design

PERFORMANCE

It’s available in a variety of specifications, but our review sample came with a 2GHz Intel Core i7-3537U processor and 8GB of RAM. It scored 51 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, which is exactly what we'd expect from this type of processor, but it’s still fast enough to run multiple programs at once as well as those that require multi-threading.

Our sample also came with a dedicated 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 735M graphics chip for playing games. This mid-range chip isn’t quite as powerful as other dedicated graphics chips you’ll find on other general purpose laptops in this price range, but it still produced a respectable 40.2fps in our Dirt Showdown test on High quality settings at a 1,280x720 resolution.

This is a great score for a non-gaming laptop, but enjoying games at its native 1,920x1,080 resolution will require a few adjustments as we only managed 25.6fps on High quality when we re-ran the test at this resolution. Instead, we had to drop the settings down to Low and disable the anti-aliasing to get a smoother 50fps at 1,080p, but you should still be able to run older games at higher quality settings.

It was no match for our more demanding Crysis 2 test, though, as it only stuttered through with an average of 8.5fps on Ultra at its native resolution. Even knocking the settings down to High, which is the lowest quality setting on Crysis 2, it only scraped 17.3fps, so we’d recommend sticking with a lower resolution if you want to play the very latest 3D games.

DISPLAY

It may not be a gaming powerhouse, but the Fit’s 15.5in Full HD display looks great and its glossy finish really helps colours to stand out. Reds, greens and blues were bright and vibrant and whites were uniformly lit across the screen. Much like theSony VAIO Pro and Sony Duo 13, though, the Fit’s average viewing angles let it down slightly. While blacks were very deep, the lower part of the screen always looked a fraction lighter than the top half, and it was all the more noticeable in our high contrast images. While colours looked very rich, its contrast levels were fairly mediocre and we found it difficult to pick out a high level of detail in the darker areas of each photo. The reflective nature of the screen certainly didn’t help in this case, but we’ve seen better. Our sample also had an optional touchscreen, but this will set you back another £80.

As you tilt the display back it raises the Fit's rear, putting the keyboard at a slight angle for easier typing

INPUT DEVICES

The backlit keyboard also has room for improvement. It’s large enough to fit in a number pad, but while its flat Chiclet style keys are all very well spaced, there could have been a lot more travel between keys to give a better level of tactile feedback. Some keys, such as the left Shift key, could also have benefitted from being a little larger. Sony has pushed the keyboard very high up the chassis, which helps your posture if you're typing in a tight space as your hands sit further from your body.

The keyboard has been shifted up the chassis, which should improve your posture when typing

The touchpad doesn’t make use of the extra space beneath the keyboard though, we'd have preferred it a little lower down. It’s very responsive, though, despite its lack of physical buttons, and we had no problem using it to navigate the desktop or perform Windows 8 shortcuts. Some multi-touch gestures like pinch-zooming were a little over-sensitive, but two-finger scrolling worked perfectly.

The Fit has a good range of ports, with everything you'd expect. Along with a DVD optical drive, there’s one USB2 and two USB3 ports, an HDMI video output for connecting it up to an external display, an SD card reader and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Its battery life was pretty average, though, as it only lasted 5 hours in our light use test with the screen set to half brightness. We would have liked to have seen at least six hours considering its low-voltage processor, but unless you’re planning on hefting it about with you day-to-day, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

Plenty of ports are on offer, plus a built-in optical drive

CONCLUSION

The Sony VAIO Fit is certainly a huge improvement on other full-sized VAIO laptops we’ve seen in the last year and there’s a great deal of value to be found in the various configuration options available through Sony’s online store. Our review specification is already better value than the Best-Buy winning Samsung Series 7 Ultra, but its keyboard and screen aren’t quite good enough to edge it into award territory.

Acer Iconia A1

Acer's budget Android tablet takes some design cues from the iPad Mini, in that it has a 7.9in 4:3 display, rather than the 16:9 widescreen displays found on most Android tablets. It also has an impressive specification for a £160 tablet, but Android is notoriously picky when it comes to screens that don't stick to the tried and tested 16:9 aspect ratio.

With a plastic body that's a little on the chunky side, the Iconia A1 still manages to make an impression thanks to its unfussy white and black finish and rounded edges. There's a surprising selection of ports around the sides, with a microSD card slot for adding extra storage and a Micro HDMI output to connect the tablet to an external display. Both are rarely found on budget tablets, so are welcome inclusions. You'll also find the Micro USB charging port on the bottom of the tablet, next to the 3.5mm audio jack.

The A1's 7.9in display has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which sets the Iconia A1 apart from nearly every other budget Android tablet on the market. This squarer ratio means the screen is around a third bigger physically than the Nexus 7's, so you may find this makes web pages easier to read. However, the screen's 1,024x768 resolution means it falls behind the Nexus 7's in terms of pixels per inch (PPI) and therefore sharpness. Colours are fairly vibrant and screen brightness isn't bad either, as long as you use the tablet indoors – take it outside and it can be difficult to make out what's on screen. This is partly down to average viewing angles and the overly reflective screen. Fingerprints quickly build up, too, leaving more marks than on other tablets. Finally, the slightly grainy finish leaves much to be desired, especially compared to the Nexus 7.

The single rear-firing speaker, meanwhile, only manages to produce basic audio which lacks any real presence. There's no sign of any bass and the high-end is immensely tinny. Volume isn't that great either, so you should really use the tablet with a pair of headphones.

The Iconia A1 has a five-megapixel rear camera as well as a 1.3-megapixel version on the front for video chat and selfies. A rear camera is a rarity in a budget tablet, although the sensor is still only capable of taking basic stills. The lens is a fixed-focus affair and there's no flash, so low light shooting it practically out of the question, and even in bright light there's a lack of detail. It also had a tendency to over-expose images, even with just a small amount of light, making indoor photography a challenge.

Acer has abandoned its attempts to tweak Android, and stuck with the default version of Jelly Bean 4.2.2 for the A1. It's the latest version of Android, so you get access to features like multiple user accounts, separate pull-down drawers for settings and notifications and the Google Now search assistant. The only major addition is a set of programmable gesture commands, which can wake the tablet from standby and launch right into a particular app. We used it for jumping straight into the web browser, but snap-happy Iconia owners could set it to load the Camera app instead.

There aren't many pre-installed apps, which should be welcome news to anyone that appreciates a clean OS on their new device. You do get AccuWeather, a file manager app and AcerCloud, which lets you save content to Acer's cloud servers. This leaves as much room as possible on the 16GB of internal memory, which has around 12GB of internal storage available to the user. With access to the Google Play Store, you can quickly add your own selection of apps.

Performance comes from a quad-core MTK processor running at 1.2GHz, paired with 1GB of RAM. The tablet is fast enough to render Android's multiple home screens and widgets smoothly, but it can take a while to load certain apps or generate thumbnails if you've filled the Gallery app with high-resolution photos from a digital camera.

We could play most 2D and some 3D games smoothly, but the PowerVR SGX544 graphics chip struggles in intensive games such as Real Racing 3. Android still doesn't properly support the 4:3 aspect ratio either, so many apps don't render correctly. Games would only fill part of the screen, for example, but the touch-screen controls would stretch to fill the whole display area.

We expected the quad-core processor to have a negative impact on battery life, but the Iconia A1 managed to surprise us by lasting 8h 44m in our video rundown test. It's not the best we've seen from a budget tablet, but it's still an impressive result.

At just over £160, the Iconia A1 is a little bit too expensive for us to recommend, despite being a budget tablet that arguably punches above its weight. The processor is quick enough for most tasks, and the microSD card slot and HDMI video output are useful, but the Google Nexus 7 is still a better buy thanks to its superior screen.

Huawei Ascend P2

The Ascend P2 was announced amid much fanfare at this year's Mobile World Congress, but it took until the summer for it to become available. Since then, Huawei has announced the similar and similarly-priced Ascend P6, which has the same 4.7in, 1,280x720-pixel display as the P2, but is 2mm thinner and runs Android 4.2 rather than the P2's Android 4.1, as well as the latest version of Huawei's Emotion interface.

The upcoming phone may also have an 8 rather than 12-megapixel camera, but we're still not quite sure why you'd choose the P2 rather than wait for the slimmer and prettier P6; we can't quite work out Huawei's strategy.

Nonetheless, the P2 is still a big-screen quad-core smartphone for around £340, so is worth a serious look. First impressions are good. The phone is a good-looking three-tone unibody design, with a black screen, silver sides and, on our review model, a glossy white rear (the P2 is also available in black). The unibody means you can’t replace the phone's battery, and there's no microSD slot, so you'll have to make do with the built-in 16GB of storage.

The P2's rear may be all plastic, but it’s good-quality stuff and the phone as a whole feels well made. We were impressed with the screen, too. It may not be Full HD, but Android still looks great on 1,280x720 pixels; you just have to zoom in slightly to read text on Desktop mode web pages. It also has vibrant colours and bright whites; a Samsung Galaxy S3's whites looked almost grey by comparison.

The display also coped well with bright sunlight, but there was a bug with the software which made it reset the brightness from full to halfway every couple of minutes, which was maddening when we were trying to use the phone to navigate on a sunny day.

Huawei has done its usual heavy customisation of Android. The Emotion UI brings new icons, which are rounded and friendly, but controversially gets rid of the app tray. Instead of having homescreens full of widgets and your selection of app shortcuts, with the rest of your apps living in the app tray, the P2 has all your apps and widgets living together on the homescreens.

While some may like the fact that all your apps are in one place, others find it creates unnecessary clutter as you can't hide away less-frequently-used apps. It also leaves much less room for widgets. If you're already an Android fan you may find the changes too much to take, but those coming from other platforms may relish the UI's simplicity.

Huawei describes the P2 as "The World's Fastest 4G LTE Smartphone" but the company is referring to the speed of its 4G data chip rather than the processor. This is a good thing, as we found the P2's performance to be variable. It's beautifully smooth flicking through screens of apps, for example, but the default keyboard isn't particularly responsive.

We'd also certainly recommend using an alternative web browser such as Google Chrome instead of the P2's default Mozilla-based app. We usually find Mozilla-based mobile browsers to be pretty quick, but this one's a slug. It completed the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark in 3,328ms, which is the slowest score we've ever seen, and pauses and jerks when scrolling around graphics-heavy web pages such as www.guardian.co.uk.

Chrome is much better, with far smoother web browsing and a much faster Sunspider score of 1,634ms, showing there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the P2's hardware. We just feel that Huawei could do with optimising some aspects of its Android build to show the P2 in its best light.

The phone did acquit itself better in the 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark, with a score of 3,131; an above-average score, but we still saw some occasional jerkiness in 3D games such as Riptide GP.

Courtesy to Expertviews

Sony VAIO Fit

Sony has trimmed down its vast range of different models and configurations into a smaller number of customisable laptops, of which the VAIO Fit is (appropriately) the first one we've seen. The name's a good fit too, with a slim and trim chassis.

It’s still quite sizeable, as it has to pack in a 15.5in display, but its slim aluminium frame and black glossy bezel look very smart and stylish. Measuring 22.5mm thick, the Fit could almost be an Ultrabook if not for its 2.4kg weight. It even uses the same low-voltage processors as an Ultrabook, but it has the potential to be a far greater all-rounder than such ultra-portable designs.

The VAIO Fit is an appropriately slender design

PERFORMANCE

It’s available in a variety of specifications, but our review sample came with a 2GHz Intel Core i7-3537U processor and 8GB of RAM. It scored 51 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, which is exactly what we'd expect from this type of processor, but it’s still fast enough to run multiple programs at once as well as those that require multi-threading.

Our sample also came with a dedicated 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 735M graphics chip for playing games. This mid-range chip isn’t quite as powerful as other dedicated graphics chips you’ll find on other general purpose laptops in this price range, but it still produced a respectable 40.2fps in our Dirt Showdown test on High quality settings at a 1,280x720 resolution.

This is a great score for a non-gaming laptop, but enjoying games at its native 1,920x1,080 resolution will require a few adjustments as we only managed 25.6fps on High quality when we re-ran the test at this resolution. Instead, we had to drop the settings down to Low and disable the anti-aliasing to get a smoother 50fps at 1,080p, but you should still be able to run older games at higher quality settings.

It was no match for our more demanding Crysis 2 test, though, as it only stuttered through with an average of 8.5fps on Ultra at its native resolution. Even knocking the settings down to High, which is the lowest quality setting on Crysis 2, it only scraped 17.3fps, so we’d recommend sticking with a lower resolution if you want to play the very latest 3D games.

DISPLAY

It may not be a gaming powerhouse, but the Fit’s 15.5in Full HD display looks great and its glossy finish really helps colours to stand out. Reds, greens and blues were bright and vibrant and whites were uniformly lit across the screen. Much like theSony VAIO Pro and Sony Duo 13, though, the Fit’s average viewing angles let it down slightly. While blacks were very deep, the lower part of the screen always looked a fraction lighter than the top half, and it was all the more noticeable in our high contrast images. While colours looked very rich, its contrast levels were fairly mediocre and we found it difficult to pick out a high level of detail in the darker areas of each photo. The reflective nature of the screen certainly didn’t help in this case, but we’ve seen better. Our sample also had an optional touchscreen, but this will set you back another £80.

As you tilt the display back it raises the Fit's rear, putting the keyboard at a slight angle for easier typing

INPUT DEVICES

The backlit keyboard also has room for improvement. It’s large enough to fit in a number pad, but while its flat Chiclet style keys are all very well spaced, there could have been a lot more travel between keys to give a better level of tactile feedback. Some keys, such as the left Shift key, could also have benefitted from being a little larger. Sony has pushed the keyboard very high up the chassis, which helps your posture if you're typing in a tight space as your hands sit further from your body.

The keyboard has been shifted up the chassis, which should improve your posture when typing

The touchpad doesn’t make use of the extra space beneath the keyboard though, we'd have preferred it a little lower down. It’s very responsive, though, despite its lack of physical buttons, and we had no problem using it to navigate the desktop or perform Windows 8 shortcuts. Some multi-touch gestures like pinch-zooming were a little over-sensitive, but two-finger scrolling worked perfectly.

The Fit has a good range of ports, with everything you'd expect. Along with a DVD optical drive, there’s one USB2 and two USB3 ports, an HDMI video output for connecting it up to an external display, an SD card reader and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Its battery life was pretty average, though, as it only lasted 5 hours in our light use test with the screen set to half brightness. We would have liked to have seen at least six hours considering its low-voltage processor, but unless you’re planning on hefting it about with you day-to-day, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

Plenty of ports are on offer, plus a built-in optical drive

CONCLUSION

The Sony VAIO Fit is certainly a huge improvement on other full-sized VAIO laptops we’ve seen in the last year and there’s a great deal of value to be found in the various configuration options available through Sony’s online store. Our review specification is already better value than the Best-Buy winning Samsung Series 7 Ultra, but its keyboard and screen aren’t quite good enough to edge it into award territory.

Courtesy to ExpertViews

BlackBerry Q5

When the BlackBerry Z10 launched earlier this year, with a brand-new operating system and an incredibly bright screen, it faced two main criticisms. One was the lack of a keyboard and the other was the high price.

The Q10 solved the keyboard problem but kept the expense. The Q5, however, is similar to the Q10 but is available a cheaper price, so you can enjoy BlackBerry 10's excellent messaging features for less.

The Q5 still isn't cheap, especially when you can buy superb Android phones such as the Sony Xperia SP for a similar price SIM-free, but it is at least free on a £21-per-month contract. Unfortunately, it's not especially stylish, being made of hard plastic. The material feels tough, though, and the Q5 feels like it could survive a tumble.

Unlike the more expensive Q10, the Q5's dual-core processor runs at 1.2GHz instead of 1.5GHz, the camera's sensor has five rather than eight megapixels and the Q5 is a sealed unit, which means you can't replace the battery. This may trouble those who travel extensively, but the phone's relatively large 2,180mAh battery lasted over 12 hours in our video playback test, so you shouldn’t have to worry too much; we usually saw a couple of days' use between charges.

We also didn’t find the slower clock speed to be a problem; the phone may have only managed a relaxed 2,328ms in the Sunspider 0.91 JavaScript benchmark (the Blackberry 10 OS doesn’t support all the Sunspider 1.0 tests) but it renders web pages quickly and pans around them smoothly. The Q5 can also handle BlackBerry OS well; we saw occasional jerks in the menus, but the Z10 suffered from these as well.

We also liked the Q5's 3.1in, 720x720-pixel display. It doesn't have the deepest blacks we’ve seen, but whites are white and text is sharp. The Q5's screen doesn’t have the amazing outdoor performance of the super-bright Z10 display, though. Outside in bright sunlight, the screen was still usable, but wasn't anywhere near as bright as the Nokia Lumia 925 we used for comparison (neither the BlackBerry Q10 nor Z10 were available for testing).

BlackBerry 10 is a refined OS that's fantastic for messaging. You're never far from accessing your communications, whether they're email, texts, social media mentions, voicemails or phone calls. Gestures are the key to using BlackBerry 10 OS efficiently. Swiping up on the gesture bar above the keyboard displays a sidebar, and if you have any messages you want to look at a quick swipe right will go to the last inbox you visited.

Swipe left again and you will see a list of all the accounts on the phone, complete with the number of unread messages or notifications. At the top is the BlackBerry Hub, which aggregates all these accounts into one box, making the prospect of keeping tabs on all the info streaming into your smartphone a bit less daunting.

BlackBerry 10 also makes it easy to keep tabs on running apps. No matter which app you are currently running, swiping up from the gesture bar will pause it and go to a screen with all your running apps, depicted as cards. You can then switch to any of these apps or close them with a tap.

Samsung Ecobubble WF80F5E5U4W

The Samsung Ecobubble WF80F5E5U4W isn’t your average washing machine, and is packed full of the latest technology. As well as Ecobubble technology to ‘froth’ detergent and penetrate fabrics faster, saving energy and money, it even works with a smartphone app to diagnose problems and errors. All the hype aside, the most important thing is washing performance. Thankfully, it delivers here, too.

POWER AND WATER USAGE

Here’s where the Samsung Ecobubble WF80F5E5U4W really comes into its own. With the Ecobubble technology working its magic, we found that the 15C Super Eco cycle was exactly that – washing clothes so economically that it provided our best wash figures so far, on a par with the 12kg Ecobubble WF1124XAC that we tested previously.

Washing at 15C, and with a spin speed of 1,200rpm, we found that it used just 0.19kW of power and 45L of water with our 3kg test load. This worked out at a total cost per cycle of 15p, which is incredibly efficient. However, this cycle retained 1.6kg of water, which is quite a high figure.

Washing on a cotton wash at 30C saw our cost per cycle more than double at 31p. Power usage was fairly high at 0.82kW, water used was average at 66L, but water retention was significantly better than the Super Eco cycle at 1.1kg, thanks to the 1,400rpm spin speed.

Increasing the temperature to 40C saw interesting results. The cost per cycle actually reduced by 4p to 27p. While power was around about the same at 0.81kW, it used quite a lot less water – 53L. It was the same story when we ran it on a 40C Synthetic cycle – it reduced again, although this time just by a penny at 26p per cycle. Water usage was 53L, but power was reduced to 0.69kW on a 1,200rpm spin speed. Despite not being the cheapest we’ve seen, these costs were generally quite competitive overall.

EcoBubble technology means very low running costs for low-temperature washes

We also calculated running costs based on the EU Energy Label, which gives you annual electricity and water consumption figures for a year’s use, based on 220 full loads using a variety of programmed cycles. From this we can work out the average cost of a wash cycle.

To get our yearly running costs, we first have to create a level playing field. We do this by working out the total yearly weight of washing, by multiplying the UK average number of washing loads (274), by our high, medium and low individual wash loads of 6kg, 4.5kg and 3kg respectively. This gives us a total yearly high usage of 1,688kg, medium usage of 1,233kg and low usage of 822kg. By dividing these weights by the washing machine’s drum size, we can calculate how many loads it would require to fulfil each. For example, the Ecobubble WF80F5E5U4W’s 8kg drum means that it requires 205.5 cycles for a year’s high use washing.

With these calculations we worked out that this machine costs £49.68 for high usage, £37.26 for medium usage and £24.84 for low usage. These costs include water, waste water and electricity based on the UK average. For an 8kg machine, that’s pretty efficient and costs less to run than some others we’ve seen, although the Panasonic NA-168VG4 is cheaper still.

Renault Captur

The awkwardly named Renault Captur is a supermini crossover vehicle designed to compete with the very popular Nissan Juke. Indeed, it shares the same powertrain as the Juke due to a Renault and Nissan partnership.

The version we drove had a 1.5-litre, four cylinder turbocharged diesel engine that develops a maximum output of 90bhp at 4,000rpm, as well as a manual five-gear transmission. Although it looks like a 4x4, it’s front-wheel drive, as are all other Captur models. That doesn’t really matter, though, as the Captur is designed to provide the space and versatility of an MPV, the high driving position and looks of an SUV and the small form factor of a supermini.

It certainly looks the part, with its sporty yet conventional styling and 200mm ground clearance. The Captur’s more mainstream in appearance than the Juke, and we think it’s prettier, but the Juke’s quirky styling is a big part of its attraction and character.

However, a big selling point of the Captur is the ability to personalise it with two different colour tones, which does add a little quirkiness to the Captur. You could, for example, have an orange body and black roof or vice versa. Inside, you could then have a predominantly dark interior with orange plastic trim around switchgear and on the seats. It’d be easy to dismiss this personalisation as a gimmick, but it’s actually a very good way of livening up the interior of your car and adding a little bit of individuality.

For instance, we initially drove a black Captur with dark trim, and it felt miserable, boring and uninviting. Later, we drove a Captur with a black and orange trim, which really lifted the feel of the car and made it a much nicer and pleasant place to be.

The Captur’s cabin is on par with the trim levels of a typical supermini. It’s predominantly plastic, but it feels solid and well built. It looks modern and stylish, if a little spartan. The three rear seats should carry adults comfortably over short distances. Conveniently, you can adjust the rear seats to provide more luggage space in the boot or more legroom for your passengers.

Its boot has a maximum capacity of 377 litres, which isn’t huge, but that can be increased further to 1235 litres if you fold the rear seats down fully. You can also split the rear seats if required.

Microsoft Surface Pro

When Microsoft released the Surface RT at the end of last year, there were several complaints about the limitations of the Windows RT operating system, such as the limited range of apps. The Surface Pro rectifies this by coming with the full version of Windows 8 Pro, giving you much more flexibility when it comes to installing your own programs and apps. It’s available with 64GB or 128GB of storage, and it might just be the best Windows tablet ever made.

The Surface Pro is a little chunkier than the RT, but it runs full Windows 8

On the outside, very little has changed from the Surface RT. It’s a little chunkier than its predecessor, at 13.5mm thick instead of 9.5mm and weighing 916g rather than 682g, but it still has a beautiful edge-to-edge glass display and a gunmetal-grey magnesium chassis. The integrated kickstand is back, which flips out from the back panel, so you can stand the tablet on a desk. It’s still not height-adjustable, sadly, but we think it’s angled slightly better on the Surface Pro, making it much more comfortable to work on.

The integrated kickstand is neat and the 10.1in screen is excellent

Its 10.1in touchscreen is gorgeous and its Full HD resolution makes everything look razor sharp. At first we were concerned that such a high resolution on a screen this small would make using the touchscreen quite fiddly, but it was a joy to use and we had hardly any trouble tapping and opening individual files and web pages using the Start screen apps. On the Desktop it's not quite as good, as menus and the Taskbar are quite small and a bit tricky to read; fortunately, you can increase the size of icons to make these easier to see and use. We found that the display has excellent viewing angles and we could still see what was onscreen from a variety of different positions.

Roccat Isku FX

The Isku FX looks similar to the original Isku keyboard, but the FX edition has customisable key backlighting. It also has a bank of five macro keys to the left and multimedia shortcuts at the top. Roccat’s unique Thumbster keys are also here, giving you quick access to in-game shortcuts without taking your hands off the WASD keys. The wrist rest made typing comfortable, and although the membrane keys aren’t as desirable for gamers as mechanical keys, they were responsive.

Unlike the original Isku, the FX is just as easy to use in bright light as it is in the dark. You can pick a colour, set a rotating pattern or fading effect and turn off the backlighting completely, but you can’t set different colours to individual keys. Annoyingly, there’s no way to change the profile or Thumbster key LEDs, which are permanently blue.

The FX is a real improvement over the original Isku. Some gamers may prefer mechanical keys, but if you want complete control over your backlight, we can see its appeal.

Meridian Audio Explorer

If you're fed up with the mediocre sound quality and unstable drivers that commonly afflict motherboard-based audio systems then you need a good USB audio device, such as the Meridian Explorer.

Cambridgeshire-based Meridian, still managed by its founders, has a proven track record in digital audio. It created the first digital surround-sound processor as well as key parts of the Dolby TrueHD audio standard that’s intended for use on DVD and Blu-ray discs.

The UK-manufactured Meridian Explorer is one of the smallest dedicated USB audio devices we've reviewed and it’s also one of the most expensive. It measures just 15x110x30mm, and is a compact aluminium tube you can easily hold in one hand. It's slim enough to fit into even the tiniest laptop bag and comes with a soft protective sleeve. At one end is a mini USB port that connects the Explorer to your computer. At the other end are two 3.5mm audio outputs: a headphone port and a combined line and optical (mini-TOSlink) S/PDIF output. Audio is sent to both outputs simultaneously.

Unlike many USB audio devices, which use the drivers built into your operating system, you must download drivers from Meridian’s website to use the Explorer. A setup leaflet provides instructions. It doesn't give you a precise location for the driver, but it's easy enough to locate on Meridian's site. Mac and Linux users can simply plug it in and use it.

The Explorer uses an asynchronous USB connection, which means it uses a built-in clock to control the rate at which data is transferred instead of your PC's clock. This minimises the risk of glitches and other sound artefacts appearing in the audio. It contains a Texas Instruments Burr-Brown PCM5102 DAC as well as a variety of components derived from Meridian's 800 series customisable amp.

Should you use the Explorer’s S/PDIF output, bear in mind that S/PDIF supports a maximum sample rate of 96KHz, whereas the Explorer supports a 192KHz sample rate. Few people have such high resolution audio files, but if you do they'll be down sampled before being sent to the S/PDIF output. It’s also worth noting that it only supports stereo audio, so you won't be able to use it as a throughput for digital surround sound.

When used via its analogue outputs, the Explorer has a maximum 24-bit bit-depth and 192KHz sample rate. Three lights on the device denote the current sample rate. It sounds great if you use high resolution audio files, but audio above the 96KHz Blu-ray standard is still incredibly rare. Windows users will have to remember to configure the audio device's properties accordingly, as it defaults to DVD-quality 24-but/48KHz sound.

SOUND QUALITY

We tested the Explorer against our reference Kef X300A speaker set, which uses a Texas Instruments Burr Brown PCM1754 DAC. We also did comparative listening tests against Arcam's rPAC USB audio device, which uses similar hardware to the Explorer.

When listening to CD-quality audio, there's little to distinguish between the Arcam rPAC and the Meridian Explorer, but both devices sounded better than the Kef X300A speaker system, providing more precise and less boxed-in sound. This is particularly true of treble detail such as strings and cymbals.

The Meridian Explorer provides a brilliant sense of positional audio. A lively, precise bass makes the most of everything from squelchy synths to melodic picked bass or the vibrato of classical string sections. Both the line and headphone outputs have the kind of rich, balanced sound that we desire from computer audio.

Needless to say, sound quality still depends on the quality of your speakers or headphones. Our music sounded very good though our Best Buy winning SoundMagic e10 dynamic earphones, the sound card's output quality is good enough to make the most of premium equipment such as Shure's insanely expensive SE530 earphones or high-end speakers.

CONCLUSION

The Meridian Explorer is an unquestionably brilliant audio processor. It's got one of our favourite DAC chips and has more features than many of its rivals, but it's very expensive. The Arcam rPAC, which also uses the PCM5102, sounded virtually indistinguishable in our side-by-side tests and costs much less. However, it's a bit chunkier than the Explorer, lacks an S/PDIF output and has a lower maximum sample resolution. If you need those exra features and don't mind paying for them, the Meridian Explorer is easily one of the best external audio devices you can buy.