Author: Duncan Pike

It was inevitable that Marantz, the dependable hi-fi brand, would develop its own wireless speaker. Even so, we were pleasantly surprised when the company announced the Horizon and its bigger brother, the Grand Horizon, towards the end of last year. Known for its high-end audio and home theatre amplifiers, separates, and receivers, Marantz is now exploring a new venture with this duo of wireless speakers. But, as new as they are, the company’s 70-year pedigree is still palpable, and not just when you’re running your fingers over the marble base and seamless fabric. Marantz says the Horizon was created for…

How much are you willing to pay for good, or even great, home audio? We’d probably have as many different answers as people who answered. And what about near-perfect home audio? Danish audio stalwart Bang & Olufsen celebrates its centenary this year, so it’s kind of fitting that its local distributors picked now to officially launch the flagship Beolab 90 floor-standing speakers in the country. Polarising design, effortless sound The Beolab 90 isn’t new, it was first launched in 2015 and named for the company’s 90th anniversary. Yet, ten years later, it is still regarded as one of the best…

It wasn’t that long ago that we had the last ProArt P16 in for review. As this is essentially the same laptop, just a little faster at some tasks, most of what we said about the last one applies to this one too. That’s almost entirely a good thing, as the last one looked great and proved capable of handling any creative workloads we threw its way. It could also hold its own with some gaming, but if that’s what you’re doing, Asus has a few other options that will bring you more joy. If you just need something to…

Want tech but don’t want to pay full price? This weekend, Checkers Sixty60 is holding its Xtra Xtra Weekend sale, the retailer’s most ambitious online-only promotion to date, with up to 60% off online-listed goods in the Checkers Hyper delivery areas. There are over 250 deals listed in the Sixty60 app and on the retailer’s website, which now allows you to complete your whole shopping trip right in your browser. “With Xtra Xtra Weekend we are stepping firmly into the general merchandise e-commerce space. We’re competing at the highest level with the intent of becoming South Africa’s everyday store —…

It might be the first official day of Computex 2025, but that hasn’t stopped the big brands from releasing their plethora of new tech already. Acer is one such big brand and, along with the usual new devices, unveiled a few unique things too. The Acer FreeSense Ring and AI TransBuds from Acer Gadget apparently “reflect the company’s growing expansion into AI-powered wearables and real-time communication tools.” One guess as to what each one does. Acer Gadget branches out with smart wearables If you guessed a ring-shaped health tracker and real-time translation earbuds, congrats, you win all the points. The…

After a three-year wait, Sony has finally unveiled its latest flagship active noise-cancelling wireless headphone, the WH-1000XM6. They bring external and internal changes and upgrades to the range, but not for free. Where the WH-1000XM5 launched at R9,000, these will carry a suggested retail price of R11,000 when they eventually come to South Africa in August. One of the headline upgrades in the XM6 isn’t really an upgrade, but we’re excited to see it nonetheless. Sony has opted to return to a foldable design, which was last seen in the XM4. This also means that the case can be smaller…

Huawei has launched a host of new devices, most of them wearable, at its “Fashion Next” launch event in Berlin, Germany, today, 15 May. The star of the show this time around is the Watch 5, the company’s latest tech-focused smartwatch. It was joined by two new entries to the Watch Fit series, the new in-ear Freebuds 6, and a refreshed MatePad Pro 12.2in. It’s Watch 5 o’clock The Watch 5’s headline feature is its “significantly enhanced” TruSense system, which now uses what the company calls ‘multi-sensing X-TAP technology’. That’s what the new side-mounted sensor array is for. It allows…

Samsung recently announced its new Odyssey OLED G6 gaming monitor, and its 500Hz refresh rate immediately caught our eye. It feels like just the other day when we first heard about 500Hz panels. In reality, that was over three years ago — display technology has come a long way since then. Samsung says this is the world’s first OLED monitor to support such a refresh rate, and after a quick search, we’re inclined to believe them. Asus also have a monitor that will do 500Hz, but that one isn’t an OLED, meaning Samsung wins by a technicality. Unfortunately, if you’re…

Generally, laptop buyers can be divided into three groups: those who want the cheapest thing available, those who want the best that money can buy, and finally, those who want the best value for their money. Sure, there might be some overlap, but we’d wager most folks fall into the third group. Luckily for them, that’s also where the Acer Swift Lite lives. It isn’t going to blow anyone away with its performance, but that’s not what Acer set out to achieve. The target with this one is its value proposition, and to that end, Acer does pretty well. With…

Few things in life are certain, but Microsoft trying to get you to switch to Edge is one of them. This time, its latest ploy comes at the expense of one of its more useful apps — Microsoft Authenticator. If you’re a frequent user of Microsoft Authenticator as a simpler, more secure way of signing into your Microsoft account, or other app accounts on your smartphone, you should know that it will lose a lot of its best features by August this year. Edging out Microsoft Authenticator In a Microsoft Support post, the company opens by saying how great MS…