Audio & video

1 Apple AirPods Pro (2022)

£249 apple.com/uk Apple has improved its excellent wireless earbuds with the AirPods Pro 2. The battery life is longer, the active noise cancellation (ANC) and sound quality have stepped up, there’s a new Adaptive Transparency Mode, and the case now has Find My support.

2 Samsung BU8500

£849 samsung.com/uk The ideal smart TV for any Christmas TV binge watch, the affordable BU8500 has a stunning 65-inch 4K Ultra HD display (with HDR10+), support for a huge range of streaming services (including Apple TV+). Plus virtual 3D surround sound and three HDMI 2.1 ports.

3 Audio Pro A15

£350 audiopro.com This slim, stylish speaker from Sweden’s Audio Pro is not only a great-sounding Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 speaker but it’s portable too. Offering up to 11 hours of battery life and IPX2 water-resistance, it’s just as home in the garden as any room in your household.

4 Marshall Emberton II

£149 marshallheadphones.com This is a top pick if you want a roadworthy speaker for tunes on your travels. It’ll give you 30 hours of juice and is IP67 rated against ingress, plus it pairs up nicely with other Embertons for a multi-speaker set-up.

5 Lenco LBT-188

£219.99 lenco.uk Whether you’re hoping to digitise your old record collection or pass your love of vinyl on to your children and grand-children, this turntable is a great place to start. Available in pine or walnut, it offers Bluetooth and USB connectivity, and can spin discs at 33rpm and 45rpm.

6 Apple TV 4K (2022)

From £149 apple.com/uk Now sporting an A15 Bionic chip and HDR10+ support, Apple’s little black box is one of the best media streamers you can buy, with support for a huge range of apps and services (including Apple TV+). The £169 model has 128GB of storage and an Ethernet port.

7 Apple HomePod mini

From £89 apple.com/uk The HomePod mini packs in a surprising amount of smarts for such a small speaker. Set-up is near seamless, it integrates cleverly with Siri and smart home devices (including an ability to work as a Thread router), and the audio quality is something to behold.

8 Shure Aonic A40

£249 shure.com These premium over-ear headphones come with active noise cancelling (ANC) and up to 25 hours of Bluetooth 5.0 wires-free listening between recharges, plus an analogue audio input so you can listen to sources that need wired connections too. Great.

9 Creative SXFI Amp

£139.99 uk.creative.com WIth Apple Lossless now available on Apple Music, you may need a digital to analogue converter (DAC) to enjoy your music at its best on your Mac. Enter Creative’s SFXI Amp, a slim, aluminium DAC that delivers the sound quality you deserve at an affordable price.

10 Edifier M50A

£129.99 edifier.com Edifier’s MS50A multi-room wireless masks some clever smarts under its stylish veneer. It connects over Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi, or AirPlay 2, so can be used solo or as part of a group. You get touch-sensitive controls, easy set-up, and loud, full-range audio. It sounds fantastic too.