HOW WE TEST

Computeractive is owned by Dennis Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility for testing the latest technology. You’ll often read references to our benchmark testing, which is a method of assessing products using the same criteria. For example, we test the speed of every PC and the battery life of every tablet in exactly the same way. This makes our reviews authoritative, rigorous and accurate.

Dennis Publishing also owns the magazines PC Pro, Computer Shopper, Web User and Micro Mart and the website Expert Reviews ( www.expertreviews.co.uk). This means we can test thousands of products before choosing the most relevant for Computeractive.

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This box also has voice control and lets you access Amazon’s film and TV collection. Some games are also available, but require an extra £40 controller. You can play content from other devices through it, but only by installing third-party apps, which is fiddly. 4K resolution (sharper than Full HD) only works with selected content, compatible TVS and very fast internet.

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This mid-priced streaming box links to overver 1,000 services, including BBC iplayer and the equivalents for other UK networks, NOW TV, Google Play, but not Amazon or itunes. It can also stream from devices (not always reliably). The pricier Roku 3 adds a voice-operated remote with motion sensing.

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This simpler device comes as a ‘puck’ thatat dangles from your HDTV’S HDMI socket and works with a limited range of online video services. There are ways to stream other content to it, but again not reliably. It can ‘mirror’ Android apps to the TV, but not Apple apps.