IPhone

The 2013 update brought us two new iPhones. The iPhone 5s is available in gold, silver and space grey designs, and incorporates new fingerprint technology into the Home button. Now you can lock your iPhone and open it again using your finger without entering a numerical code. Despite improved performance (both its CPU and graphics are up to twice as fast as its predecessor), battery life is reasonable, though it doesn’t stop us wanting more. Apple says you’ll get up to 10 hours talktime or video playback, 250 hours standby and 40 hours of music playback on a full charge – although, naturally this goes down when you access Wi-Fi, location services, and so on.

The iPhone 5c has essentially identical performance to the now-discontinued iPhone 5, but it comes in a range of bright colours. You can set the Home screen’s background to match the colour of its rear body, and Apple released a range of matching silicone cases. As the newest capacity, 8GB, is only £40 cheaper than the 16GB version, it‘s poor value for money.