Is it just me or has the world gone entirely sane?
we appear to be in the midst of a weird outbreak of common sense. I’m as surprised to write that sentence as I suspect you are to read it, but such phenomena do occasionally happen. Just like “corrections” on the stock exchange, every second decade or so technology companies pause their headlong rush for faster, smaller and more expensive, and listen to what punters genuinely want. Crazy things such as phones with longer-lasting batteries and prices that don’t require a once-in-a-lifetime inheritance.
This is most obvious in the Google Pixel 5 ( see p62), a supposedly flagship phone that’s priced at a not-insane £599. OnePlus pulled a similar move with its 8T ( see p63), and even Apple is getting into the act. While the base model iPhone 12 ( see p58) is hardly cheap at £799, our comparison table of available iPhones highlights that Apple now caters for all budgets.
Head to p53 and you’ll see another product to warm the cockles of bargain hunters, with AMD’s stunning Ryzen 4800H processor priced so aggressively that Huawei can sell its MateBook 14 – which is as fast as Intel-based rivals that cost £3,000 or more – for £950. When I described the performance of this laptop to my fellow PC Pro podcasters (broadcast live on mixlr.com/pcpro every Thursday at 1pm), Darien Graham-Smith was almost lost for words – a rare occurrence indeed.
Fortunately, a certain Jon Honeyball has restored some semblance of normality by reviewing a phone (tablet? Phablet? Dual-screened weird thing?) that costs well over £1,000. Or at least, it woul d if you could buy one in the UK.
I talk of Microsoft’s Great Silver Hope, the Surface Duo, and while I suspect you won’t face a crush at Heathrow if you decide to fly over and buy one, I do think it’s the most interesting product we’ve reviewed for years. Read Jon’s thoughts from p42.
I’ve so far managed to resist any urge to buy the Surface Duo myself, with my only technology spend this month costing £35. While LG might not enjoy every aspect of my review of its Ergo 27 monitor ( see p64), perhaps it can take heart that it inspired my outlay. For now, after many years of vaguely thinking about buying one, I have my very own monitor arm. In this homeworking world, it’s a godsend: it means I can swing the monitor close when I need to, and fling it back against the wall when I want to use the desk for other things – or make a video call using my laptop’s built-in camera without having to manhandle my 32in monitor out of the way.
As you may be able to tell, it’s a packed Reviews section this month, and we even have a two-page treat to finish it off: a selection of Christmas gift ideas for the tech lover in all of us from p72. This guide includes a selection of products that we and our sister title Expert Reviews have tested, alongside a couple of yearned-for devices from our editors – but, reflecting the mood of this issue, Jon’s choice of Stax Reference Electrostatic Earspeakers for a modest £3,895 didn’t make the cut.
Tim Danton
Editor-in-chief