Ten tested products to watch out for in the January sales
From headphones to fridgefreezers and mattresses, Bill Tyson reveals the list of products that impressed the testers in the past year
It might be handy to know – if you’re still shopping for lastminute Christmas gifts or are thinking of splashing out in the January sales – that consumer watchdog Which? conducts rigorous tests on all kinds of products to make sure we get value for money. It recently released a comprehensive list of the top Best Buys that wowed its testers in 2019.
Let’s work our way through the top 10 – backwards:
10) If you’re looking for a new fridge freezer then LG’s model with the moniker GBB62PZGFN (seriously?) is worth considering. This makes the top ten with high praise and a score of 90%. Thousands of fridge freezers have passed through its labs since 1963 – but ‘none were as good as this LG,’ according to the watchdog. Currys sells it for €980.
9) It’s refreshing to see a new smartphone at a realistic price. The Realme 3 Pro costs from €240, proving its sheer value-for-money in an overpriced market.
8) The 64GB version of the Apple iPad Pro 11-inch costs from €869 in the usual places (Harvey Norman, Currys etc).
7) Apple’s (over)pricing policy on most products is annoying. And none more so than its Airpods (wireless earphones). Despite all that, the little yokes would make a nice pressie for a valued friend.
The cheapest place to buy them, according to Pricespy.ie, is Currys at €169, including the charging case, which is well worth paying an extra €4 for.
6) Tens of millions of used coffee ps end up in landfill. So this award goes to a reusable coffee cup that is the world’s first to be made from recycled paper cups. The rCUP is available on Amazon for around €14 and will save money in cafes that give discounts for refills.
5) The Amazon Kindle was the first introduction to a wave of new technology for many of us. It’s hard to believe that we were so amazed by the ability to read books on an electronic pad that it sold out when launched in 2007 for $400.
It’s nice to see it make a comeback at a much lower price today. The Kindle’s low-light
screen was kind to your eyes but the basic model couldn’t be read at night. The latest basic version Kindle now also incorporates a light. The cheapest place to buy one is Currys for €79.99.
4) You’re on the bus listening to your favourite new song and some eejit starts talking loudly, ruining the moment. You need noise-cancelling headphones. And the Sony WH-1000XM3 is the best value model. However, they don’t come cheap at a best price of €279 from DID, Currys and Harvey Norman.
3) Ikea’s Malfors mattress is a ‘bargain basement’ buy – the cheapest of Ikea’s range – yet provides superior support than most pricier mattresses, even some costing 10 times more, according to Which?. This would be a handy buy for the spare room, costing from just €90.
2) The Second Best Product of 2019 doesn’t look like much. But the Sony XRS–XB01 achieves a superb sound from a tiny speaker the size of an apple – and a correspondingly tiny price. The cheapest is €19.99 from Littlewoods Ireland.
1) The Product of the Year 2019 is . . . drumroll . . . The Hyundai Kona Electric car.
The pure battery version makes the strongest case yet for going emission-free, according to the magazine.
It offers a great driving experience and an impressive range of 375km, which will take you between any two
Irish cities and (almost) from Cork to Donegal.
Unusually, for electric cars, the claimed range is pretty accurate. The UK price quoted (£24,995, €29,398) is considerably less than the cheapest model here – €38,630. But other cars are correspondingly dearer too and Ireland has better EVbuying incentives.