Author: Duncan Pike

Alright Samsung, easy does it. It’s only been 11 days and the company has already released its first phone of 2022. We know the Galaxy S21 FE is coming but the A03 Core is kind of a surprise if you weren’t paying attention. Announced in November last year and released in December, the A03 Core is the latest in Samsung’s entry-level lineup to arrive in SA. With a recommended retail price of just R1,800, this one might prove popular. For your money, you get a 6.5in HD+ display with an over 80% screen-to-body ratio. There’s a teardrop that hides the…

Stuff says –  4/5 Mackie, the American brand that specialises in professional audio equipment, has entered the near-ear audio market with a range of over-ear monitors. We spent some time with the MC-250 to see if Mackie could crack the formula on its first attempt. We were rather impressed.Bring the sounds On the outside, you’re met with a mostly-black plastic construction aside from the silver Mackie logo on either earcup. No frills or RGB found here. These are budget studio cans after all and the build quality reflects that a little. The size adjuster lacks any noticeable steps so sizing…

iPhone SE 5G might be coming this March In his latest newsletter, tech journalist and Apple development guru Mark Gurman claims that Apple is going to release an update to its iPhone SE lineup. The announcement is expected to come during the company’s virtual spring presentation “likely” happening in March or April. Based on previous SE iterations, Apple will probably keep the now-ageing iPhone 8 design and just stick in a new System on Chip (SoC). The A15 chip from last year’s iPhone 13 looks ripe for the picking. That SoC will also bring 5G connectivity to the iPhone SE.Although…

Unless you’ve been living under several rocks or hiding away in Dubai because you’re heavily implicated, you would have been following the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture in some capacity. Whether it’s quickly skipping past it while you flick through channels or watching every minute of it unfold live. And there have certainly been many minutes to watch over the roughly 430 days since the commission began in January 2018. And to think it was meant to be completed in 180 days initially. After many extensions, the commission is reaching its conclusion. The first of three…

After the early leaks back in April 2021 and then the back-and-forth of production stopping, starting and stopping of the Galaxy S21 FE, Samsung finally officially announced the device. Like the previous S20 Fan Edition from 2020, this year’s watered-down flagship seeks to offer flagship-level specs for a midrange price. This isn’t making it any easier to pick a phone, Samsung. Introducing #GalaxyS21FE 5G, the newest addition to Galaxy S21 series. Made for the epic in everyday. — Samsung Mobile SA (@SamsungMobileSA) January 4, 2022 Can the S21 FE stand out enough for you to notice? Aside from the slightly…

If you’re into technology, CES is always an exciting time. Companies take the opportunity to show off some of the new products or ideas they are working on. This year, Alienware is focusing on the home gaming experience with its Concept Nyx. The core idea with Concept Nyx is to centralise all of your games across the various storefronts, platforms and methods of viewing to one point that’s accessible anywhere in your house and where switching between devices or platforms is as seamless as walking into the next room. That’s cool Alienware, but why? While it might sound like a…

New year, new Telegram update Image: Telegram Telegram decided to end 2021 by releasing the 12th update of the year. This one was packed with message reactions, message translation, themed QR codes and a hidden text feature. The message reactions work similarly to Facebook Messenger or what WhatsApp is working on. The hidden text formatting is great for hiding spoilers. Select the part of your message and mark it as ‘spoiler’. Your recipient can tap to reveal after you’ve warned them. Messages also received a dedicated translate feature that does pretty much what it says on the tin. You’ll need…

Before I started at Stuff in June of this year, I spent a lot of my free time watching and reading product reviews of the latest tech products and gadgets. I still do that on the odd occasion but now that I get to use the products myself, I try to form my own opinions before comparing them to those of others. Here are a few of the products I enjoyed using in the second half of this year and one from the first, in no particular order.  MSI GE76 Raider On my first day in the Stuff office, two…

We were expecting a little more from the JBL Quantum 800, considering it falls under the Harmon brand. This is JBL’s first foray into the gaming headset market and while it isn’t particularly bad, there is plenty it can improve. To start off with, the R3,800 price is rather high but JBL does a fairly good job of giving you your money’s worth in terms of features. You get active noise cancellation (not something included in most gaming headsets), EQ options and spatial audio (called JBLQuantumSound) enabled through the software and a dedicated physical volume wheel to adjust the levels…

As far as gaming laptops go, there’s a limit to what manufacturers can do with the traditional form factor. This is one of the reasons some of them are trying new things like adding a second screen (although that doesn’t add much in the way of performance) or having the GPU sit outside the chassis. But most of the time, no matter how many high-end specs they cram into a laptop, there will always be issues with thermals, acoustics and trying to find a good balance between the two. It can’t get too hot or it won’t perform but when…