Author: Duncan Pike

If you’re the type who likes to travel light, whether that be on holiday or to the office, you’re probably aware that if you’re taking a laptop with you it is likely to be the heaviest thing in your bag. That seems to be Asus’ entire focus with the new Zenbook A14. At 980g it is one of the lightest laptops we’ve reviewed, coming in under the 1kg weight of the Zenbook S 13 from 2023 while being nearly 50% thicker and a whole inch larger. Is that enough to justify its R30,000 price? Well, no, not on its own.…

Sooner or later the default router your ISP gave, sold, or loaned to you isn’t going to cut it. Maybe that’s because your ISP upgraded your line’s speed and you want to take advantage of less buffering and faster downloads. Maybe there’s a specific setting or feature you need that the standard router doesn’t offer. Or it could simply be that you need more coverage. After living with it for the better part of four months, we were a little surprised to learn that the three-pack Cudy M1300 mesh kit comes in at under R2,000. At that price, you can’t…

At a launch event in Johannesburg last night, Huawei officially unveiled two new mid-range smartphones in the nova 13 series along with a new MatePad 11.5 tablet. All three new devices are already available on the Huawei online store, with the nova 13 smartphones requiring a small deposit while the MatePad tablet can be bought outright. In classic Huawei style, it has chosen to focus on the design and camera capabilities of the nova 13. It features a material-like plaid texture on the rear of the green colourway, although there is also a plain black option if you’re not into…

We’re sure there are folks out there… somewhere… who relish the thought of cleaning their homes. Likewise, we know that most people don’t. The Xiaomi X20+ robot vacuum is for both types of people. If you’re the second kind, like us, having this thing zooming around your house will considerably cut down the time you spend on cleaning. If you’re in the first group, then owning the Xiaomi X20+ means you might not get to clean quite as often but can still pay special attention to those areas in need of a deep clean. Farewell, dirt Making the dirt disappear…

It’s a new year so that means we get new stuff. Asus has wasted no time in bringing the Zenbook A14 to the South African market. Sporting a Snapdragon X Elite chipset and weighing in at 980g, Asus claims this is the “lightest 14-inch Copilot+ PC on the market.” The company has achieved this through the use of what it calls Ceraluminum, “a sumptuously tactile material that’s 30% lighter and three times stronger than anodized aluminium.” We’ve seen previous Asus laptops made with this material, like the Zenbook S13. That too was rather light but the A14 takes the cake…

Earlier this week, Google announced that it had released (most of) the source code for the first modern smartwatch – the Pebble. Google acquired Pebble and its intellectual property through its purchase of Fitbit but has now made PebbleOS open-source, meaning anyone is free to tinker with it. The person best suited to tinkering with PebbleOS, Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky, already has plans for the watch to make a comeback. Pebbles on your wrist We won’t blame you if the name isn’t that familiar, the company’s first product started out as a Kickstarter campaign in 2016 after four years in…

In an ideal world, we all have enough money to afford one monitor for work and a separate monitor for pleasure. Most folks don’t live in that world and have to prioritise one over the other. Or, they meet in the middle and get something like the MSI Pro MP341CQ. It is marketed as a productivity monitor but some of the specs that make it good for work transfer over to gaming, like an increased resolution and higher-than-average refresh rate. As is often the case, trying to be a jack of all trades can mean you end up as a…

Anyone with wireless earbuds of some description will already know that the Bluetooth connection between their ‘buds and source device isn’t always reliable if the two aren’t together. Nor is it particularly good at delivering high-quality audio compared to what you get over a cable. That makes a lot of sense considering the power limitations of wireless earbuds – a Wi-Fi connection draws too much power so we’ve been kinda stuck with Bluetooth. Until Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon S7+ Gen 1 sound platform in 2023. We’re still mostly stuck with Bluetooth for our mobile audio connections but that shouldn’t be…

Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy S25 Ultra, S25+, and S25 at its first Unpacked event for 2025. While the devices all sport minor hardware changes, the main focus for Samsung, as with last year’s Unpacked, is around Galaxy AI. Spearheading the AI focus this year is Samsung’s One UI 7 Android 15-based operating system which has been “rebuilt from the ground up as an AI operating system,” according to Justin Hume, Vice President of Mobile at Samsung South Africa. Samsung doubles down on AI with Galaxy S25 Thanks to its revamped One UI 7, Samsung introduced a host of…

After spending the last few months with the Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro strapped to our wrist, it’s clear that Huawei’s wearable division isn’t resting on its laurels following the impressive Watch GT 4 series. The Watch GT 5 Pro continues the legacy of functional and stylish smartwatches from the Chinese tech company in most areas but misses out in a few others. Is it the right watch for your wrist? Only you can know that but we’re here to help you figure it out. Catches the eye The Watch GT 5 Pro is available in two sizes with two…