T3 July 2019

CUTTING-EDGE SOUND To provide the truest, clearest possible audio, the gorgeous Air D1 uses ‘transconductance’, whereby the amp constantly monitors the loudspeaker’s behaviour, correcting its own output accordingly for ‘phenomenally low distortion’ ORBITSOUND AIR D1 It’s rare that we find a product that fully encapsulates true style and incredible sound, so when we do, we get excited. Allow us, then, to break out the bunting for the Orbitsound Air D1. Described as ‘the world’s only one-box luxury loudspeaker’, this sumptuous floor-standing active speaker has been designed by renowned audio engineer Ted Fletcher (a music world luminary who has worked with Dusty Springfield, Dire Straits and The Who) and son Daniel. Orbitsound’s own Airsound technology (first developed in 2005) has been polished and perfected to deliver audiophile performance with a compelling stereo image, meaning…

It’s the time of year when all the gadgets the T3 team has looked at over the year enter the Thunderdome. (Or, if you want to explain it to kids, you can tell them it’s like Fortnite: Battle Royale, but all the characters are robot hoovers and stuff.) We’ve got more categories here than ever before, looking at nearly 70 types of products that have technology at their core, whether that’s processors and screens or high-tech materials and cutting-edge design. From huge TVs to tiny action cameras, from indoors to the wilds, we’ll reveal the products we rate the highest out of everything we’ve tested. The ones we think deserve recognition above all others (though it was damn close in lots of cases, and some of the arguments between the judges…

Our mission is to bring you the clearest recommendations we can – and that means a great deal of hard work happens before a product even reaches our pages! Because we only feature products the T3 team would happily use ourselves, we end up discarding a significant number of options in each category before settling on a final shortlist to review. We select only the best of the best for our Tested section; the gear we know you’ll want to seriously consider purchasing. And that should mean an end to you having to undertake hours of painstaking research and product comparisons. You won’t see any duff products, but you will come away with clarity on which one is the best in its category or for a specific task: our awards badges (see…

1 B&W FORMATION SUITE From £599, bowerswilkins.com Your high-fidelity audio dreams are about to come true… if you have the cash to spare. Bowers & Wilkins’ dreamsome new Formation Suite wireless multi-room system is dressed to kill and promises a sound to match. The five products that comprise the Formation Suite are all very different beasts, with each standing out in its own unique way. They all talk to each other through Bowers & Wilkins’ own patented wireless mesh network – separate to, and unhindered by, your home Wi-Fi system – so they should deliver perfect synchronicity, with a meagre one-microsecond time lapse as they stream audio between themselves. The range comprises the Formation Bar (three-channel high-fidelity home theatre system), Formation Bass subwoofer, Formation Wedge (countertop speaker), Formation Duo (active stereo speaker pair)…

For 20 years, Jens Kronvold Frederiksen has been the resident Jedi Master in charge of Lego Star Wars. As creative director, he’s overseen its transformation from a cool concept into a juggernaut of creativity and desire. Speaking to him, it’s clear he has a deep love for the brand he shepherds. He talks about his work with a personal connection and affection that’s no surprise, given how much of his life he’s been doing this. The first thing we ask, obviously, is which of the ships over the years has become his favourite. Jens walks us over to a pair of Millennium Falcons – the two versions of the expensive Ultimate Collector Series models that have been released over the years. The first version was designed by him. It started life as…

Lego’s new big Star Wars set, and one you can expect to see a lot more of as we come towards its September 2019 release date, is actually three sets and an app in one box. The Lego Star Wars Boost set lets kids build three iconic droids, including R2-D2, and program them through missions using an app. It’s designed to teach kids the core concepts of coding, with programming done by dragging blocks together on a phone or tablet to form a series of commands. The droids can move around, but also have lots of extra things they can do, partly driven by attachments you can add to them all. We had the chance to try out the new robots with designers Carl Merriam and Steve Geist, with an early version…