Author: Brett Venter

To stand out in the crowded mid-range segment, brands must do things… differently. Honor’s X9c, like its immediate predecessor, has taken the Chuck Norris route to grab your attention. It’s supposed to be rough, tough stuff – better able to shrug off mishandling than the average phone. In that, the company has succeeded. It didn’t ship a 20mm steel ball bearing with our review unit for nothing. We weren’t supposed to whip it at the phone like Tesla showing off the Cybertruck but it does bounce right off if you conduct an impromptu drop test (terms and conditions apply). But…

Smartphones are useful in their way but, despite their processing power, have yet to displace laptops and tablets. The Amber KB 1, an upcoming product from designer Justin Mitchell, wants to change that. If the visuals and listed features for the mobile keyboard are to be believed, it just might. Originally known as the AmberDeck, the gorgeous little portable keyboard bears no small resemblance to Nintendo’s 2DS XL handheld console. Inside where you’d expect to find dual screens and a small collection of buttons, though, is a full keyboard and a slot for you to supply your own display. Amber…

Earlier we mentioned how smartphone makers struggle to reinvent mobile phone design. There’s the elegance of the Minimal Phone and then there’s this: The Doogee S119. Despite the name, the lesser-known Chinese brand has no affiliation with Neil Patrick Harris… we think. But the phone’s design — it’s a solidly mid-range rugged device — is certainly as wacky as some of the Doogie Howser M.D actor’s later film and television roles. That Doogee S119 in the window The obvious oddity is the S119’s rear 1.39in 360 x 360 “second screen”. It looks, to us at least, like a surplus Android…

In 2025 it’s exceedingly rare that smartphone makers do anything new. That’s not the case with the Minimal Phone, a handset currently up for pre-order. The price of novelty? About R7,600 with free worldwide shipping, provided you purchase before the phone goes on sale. And why would you want this smartphone? Because it integrates functions from Android, the average Kindle, and the old-school BlackBerry designs to give you a smartphone that maybe won’t entirely consume your life. Keep it Minimal A quick look at the Minimal Phone immediately reminds us of the original Kindle devices. The large display and underslung…

Fusion reactors have long been the stuff of myth — a clean energy source with massive output and little risk to users (unless you fall into the reactor) — but Helion Energy, an American company that just secured R8 billion ($425 million) in funding, reckons it’ll have the problem sorted by 2028. Of course, that’s exactly what you’d say if you just convinced investors to give you enough money to pay a minor fraction of Eskom’s current debt. You certainly wouldn’t say “This is our best guess,” or something like that. But since Helion Energy has a bit of a…

Is there anything HR won’t do to ruin your fun when the supervisor is away? If the new Logitech Spot is any indication, the answer is ‘no’. Usually, we’d expect Logitech to launch a peripheral. Technically, this is a peripheral but we don’t reckon you’ll see it pasted to the side of a PC gaming right unless the company adds some RGB. The Logitech Spot is a small sticker-backed sensor designed to be mounted on a wall. Its main purpose is to keep an eye on the goings-on in an office. It’s not as invasive as a surveillance camera but…

Sometimes you just get the urge to create something from one of the planet’s most renewable resources. Wood literally grows on trees, after all. If you’re setting up a home workshop, you’ll need to populate it with the tools and gear most likely to give you results in the shortest possible time. That’s where we come in. If you’re starting from scratch and are dying to build that gazebo you’ve always been dying to gaze at as you sip your coffee in the morning, these are the tools you should have taking up space in your garage. Sorry. Workshop. It’s…

Japanese company Bandai is known for releasing a range of oddball products but its Star Wars-themed Tamagotchi lineup lives on the edge of a galaxy far, far away. There are a couple to choose from — Grogu and R2-D2 — but there’s a new one coming later this year: Darth Vader. The new product is up for pre-order, with expectant Padawans being expected to part with R570 ($30) before shipping over to the Dark Continent. At least, that was the case a few hours ago. The pre-order link, which appeared in several earlier stores, seems to have gone dark. Perhaps the…

Eskom’s having a pretty good run but there are more reasons than just ”State power utility bad” to want to kit your home out with an alternative energy solution. It all boils down to stepping off the grid and the Lumo Powerall 1.5 looks like a decent enough boulder to start your journey. Unlike other power stations we’ve tested before, this hunk of metal and rare-earth elements isn’t entirely intended to be a multi-role device. The Lumo Powerall 1.5 might make it along on a camping trip (if there’s no hiking involved) but none of the South African company’s other…

Last week, China unveiled a new humanoid robot training ground in Pudong District, Shanghai. The facility, previously known as the Humanoid Robot Kylin Training Ground, is currently capable of training more than 100 robots at a time. Plans are afoot to scale training up to 1,000 robots by 2027. The initiative is one driven by the Chinese government, which is funding the training of humanoid robots in a series of 10 different scenarios. The National and Local Co-Built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center aims to develop a robust platform for training robots, which will later be deployed to newer facilities in…