Smartphon

If you're looking for a budget Windows 10 Mobile smartphone that can breeze through basic tasks without breaking the bank, Cricket Wireless currently has both the Microsoft Lumia 650 and the olderMicrosoft Lumia 640 available at promotional prices.

The Microsoft Lumia 650, the entry-level Windows 10 Mobile smartphone that Microsoft sells for a cent under $200, is now available from Cricket at $119.99. Since Cricket is a prepaid carrier, you won't be tied to a carrier agreement, although you won't be able to use the handset on other networks.

The Lumia 650 features hardware specs that include a 5-inch AMOLED panel running at 720 by 1280 pixels, an entry-level Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 chipset with a quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of microSD-expandable integrated storage, an LTE radio, an 8MP primary camera, and a 5MP secondary sensor on the front. All of this hardware is powered up by a 2000mAh battery.

Overall, the Microsoft Lumia 650 offers a solid build, a good display, as well as a decent camera. That's more than we can say about most other smartphones in its price range. However, as mentioned in our detailed Microsoft Lumia 650 review, the handset also comes with its fair share of drawbacks.

Microsoft Lumia 650 Review

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The Lumia 640, which was Microsoft's budget-minded Windows Phone 8.1 handset can be had from Cricket at just $29.99 for new activations, or at just $9.99 if you're switching from another carrier. 

The Lumia 640 comes with hardware specs such as a 5-inch display running at 720 by 1280 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM, 8GB of expandable internal storage, an 8MP primary camera, a 1MP selfie camera on the front and a 2500mAh battery. 

The Microsoft Lumia 640 can be updated to Windows 10 Mobile, or you can keep using the Windows Phone 8.1 OS, which is installed out of the box.

Overall, the specs of the Microsoft Lumia 640 are fairly unimpressive, but the handset makes for a great backup device. You can't really ask f

Long-term test: Sony PS4 review

Eight months is a lifetime in tech. A phone that's been available for eight months has already been demoted to irrelevance by the next dream device on the horizon.

But with consoles it's different. Consoles have to live for years, and consoles evolve as they get older thanks to more games, more apps and more features.

It's no different with the PlayStation 4, of course. There have been no fewer than ten firmware updates added since launch, plus new games and apps, but is the PS4 really that different - and better - than the console we first met back in November 2013? And is it still ahead of the Xbox One in perhaps the most vicious console war ever known? Continue reading this freshly updated review to find out

DESIGN AND BUILD: LIVING LIFE ON THE WEDGE

Smaller and lighter than it seems in pictures, the PS4 is not a device that you’re going to have trouble finding a home for. In fact, it’s very close to the PS3 Super Slim in terms of width and height - the 30cm depth does increase its footprint, but only to PS3 Slim levels. It’s a pretty compact device, then, and that’s extra impressive when you realise that the power pack is built in, whereas the Xbox One has a big external unit.

Overall this is a subtle but unique design, with the etched PS4 logo and glossy section (which is actually the removable hard drive cover) adding a touch of class. Only the slot-loader lets the side down in this regard – there’s nothing exactly wrong with it, but it’s got a bit of clunky resistance that the super-smooth Wii U drive doesn’t.

Far more important as far as we’re concerned is the noise a console makes, and the PS4 is a very stealthy device. When idling we recorded 42dB from 14cm in front of the console – just 2dB over the ambient noise in the room. While installing a game disc this rose to 51dB, but once the disc is ripped it settles back down to around 43-44dB. In short, it’s significantly quieter than the most recent versions of the PS3 and Xbox 360, and at most times completely unnoticeable unless the room is all-but silent. Impressive.

Eight months on we're still to hear of any major technical issues with the PS4. There's always time for a Red Ring Of Death-type problem to reveal itself, but so far the slim, tightly packed chassis doesn't appear to impact reliability.

It still looks like a classy bit of kit, too, even if the smart details such as the thin strip that runs around the edges are tireless dust-collectors.

And if black is just a little too subdued for your tastes, you can now pre-order a really pretty white version of the console, which comes bundled with Destiny

The controller: more different than it looks, and all the better for it

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For many people (including this reviewer) the DualShock 3 was just too small and light to be very comfortable, and the lack of trigger-like shoulder buttons was an ergonomic issue when it came to shooters and racing games. Thankfully, while the DualShock 4 looks like only a minor departure from its predecessor, it’s a much better pad.

There’s a small increase in weight, slightly larger, rounder handles, and the L2 and R2 buttons have greater surface area and far greater travel. Each individual improvement is a subtle one, but together they’re enough to transform the DualShock into a far more satisfying controller and a worthy rival to the Xbox One pad.

Also in the “subtle changes” category is a shift from mini USB to microUSB for the top-mounted charge-and-sync socket. There are also two new sockets below the PS button on the underside of the controller. One is for connecting a wired headset (more on that below), the other – labelled “EXT” – has a purpose not yet revealed by Sony. We love a good mystery, but if it turns out to be for a QWERTY keyboard attachment we’re going to be right miffed.

The Start and Select buttons have now been retired and replaced with Share and Option buttons, the first of which enables easy uploading of the game footage that the PS4 is constantly, automatically capturing, while the latter largely behaves just as the DualShock 3's Start does during games, but also reveals more info and options when pressed while an icon on the GUI is highlighted.

Those two new buttons straddle the DualShock 4’s boldest new feature – a clickable, multi-touch-capable touchpad. Unfortunately we’re not completely sold on the usefulness of the touchpad – it does nothing at all when you’re in the PS4’s menus and only serves a purpose in games if developers specifically integrate it. Eight months on, the cute controls in The Playroom and control of the OWL robot in Killzone Shadow Fall - both launch titles - are still the most interesting uses of the touchpad, with other games using it only as an extra button, if at all.

CHECK OUT OUR FULL PS4 AND DUALSHOCK 4 GALLERY HERE 

We’re still similarly underwhelmed by the light bar on the top edge of the controller. We understand that it helps the optional PlayStation Camera to track you and it does look pretty, but the suggestion that it can communicate player status and the like by flashing and changing colour is rather undermined by the fact that you can’t really see the bar when holding the DualShock at a normal gaming angle.

We wouldn’t mind, but the touchpad and light bar are presumably the high-tech elements that most push the cost of a separately bought DualShock 4 up to the hefty sum of £49. We suspect Sony would have sold a great deal more controllers by now if they'd been cheaper, even without the light bar and touchpad.

One of the fancy features of the DualShock 4 that we do love is the in-built speaker. Again, it's been used only sparingly so far, but alerts in Resogun and voice logs in The Last of Us Remastered are injected with an extra dose of awesome when they come out of the controller.

Speaking of sound, the bundled mono headset continues to be an unpleasant blemish in an otherwise very premium package. Essentially half of the cheapest-feeling pair of earphones you’ve ever seen, the bud actually does a decent enough job of pumping voice-chat into your lugholes and has a mic and switch at around chin height so that you can spout expletives at your enemies and use voice control for the PS4 UI. If you're looking for a voice-chat upgrade, we'd heartily recommend the £12 Turtle Beach P4C.

One extra advantage of the headset socket is that it can be set to carry all audio, so any normal pair of headphones can be plugged into it for a spot of private gaming or Blu-ray watching. There are also now a whole host of PS4-compatible headsets out there, ranging in price from about £20 to £200.

Read more at http://www.stuff.tv/sony/playstation-4/revi

3 of the best PS4 headsets

So you're isolated in hostile territory, almost out of ammo and badly wounded. As the enemy approaches your position, a squadmate's voice crackles over your cheapo headset: "I'll cover you. Run to your pssszzchZZZZCXXHzz and I'll bzzZZZzrrgh. Got that? Hello? Hello?"

Too late - you're dead.

But it needn't be that way. Invest in a decent gaming headset and you'll benefit from crystal-clear in-game music and effects and the ability to speak to your mates without having to guess what they're saying.

You don't even have to spend that much, with good quality kit available for as little as £20. Here's our pick of the current crop for the.

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TRITTON KAMA

This isn’t the cheapest PS4 headset out there, but it’s close, and nicer than the budget alternatives we’ve tried. It’s dead simple, too: plug the short cable directly into the bottom of your DualShock 4 then change the ‘output to headphones’ option in the settings menu to ‘all audio’ and you’re golden.

You’re not getting the same build and sound quality of the other two here, but you’re not paying for it either – and for £20 the Kama is actually very impressive. Plus, it will work with your PS Vita too, if you have one.

Sound effects and voices come through clearly and there’s plenty of weight for the big bangs of Battlefield 4. There’s a little digital fuzz in the background of your voice, but it’s low enough that it won't prevent your commands and swears from being broadcast clearly to your friends and enemies.

Amazon Fire (2015) review - now with 16GB

Amazon’s tablet range has struggled to find a place amongst other Android tablets in the past, primarily because the FireOS custom operating system was designed purely with Amazon’s services in mind, at the expense of app support and Play Store compatibility. Now, however, the company seems to have found its niche; incredibly cheap devices that redefine what customers can expect for their money.

The Fire is the epitome of this new approach – so much so you get a free one if you buy five at once. £50 will barely get you an eighth of an iPad Air 2, but here it buys a 7in tablet powered by a quad-core processor. There’s nothing else out there from a major brand that even comes close to this price, which could make the Fire the tablet bargain of the year.

When the tablet launched, it shipped with just 8GB of storage, although there was a microSD card slot to upgrade storage space. This is handy, particularly as a 32GB micro SD card can be bought for less than £10. However, going down this route means that you end up with two storage devices to save content to. Now, you don't have to worry about the card slot, as there's an optional 16GB Fire tablet, which costs £10 more (£60). That's not quite as good value as the micro SD card, but it's certainly less hassle. Ultimately, double the storage for £10 more is worth it, and 16GB is enough storage for light use and web browsing, whereas 8GB is really not enough.

We test the Sky Now TV box, service and content

If you always wanted Sky TV but were put off by the high prices and having to install a satellite dish and Sky+ box in your home, then Sky’s Now TV service may be just the thing. In direct competition with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Instant Prime Video, Sky’s TV service provides top-quality content via your internet connection.

The content itself is broadly split into Sports, Movies and Entertainment, which largely mirror Sky’s usual satellite offerings of Sky Sports, Sky Movies and many of the usual entertainment channels you’d expect from a pay-TV package. How you pay for these is very different though, with all three available individually, rather than in complex bundle deals, and you can cancel and restart each service as you wish.

As always with a service like this, Sky Now is constantly evolving and the packages available keep changing. Most recently, Sky has changed how its Sports package works, so you can subscribe for a month's worth of content (more on this below). Although comparatively expensive compared to the other packages, it could work out well if there's a particular month that has a lot of sport that you want to watch, such as all of the football over Christmas.

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How to Watch

Of course you’re going to need something to watch Now TV through. thankfully, the list of supported devices is pretty impressive and Sky has done a good job of expanding it as newer devices become available. It's not widespread on Smart TVs admittedly, with only LG sets having the service available as an app, but the range of other devices does largely make up for this.

For watching on your TV, you can hook up a PC or laptop to a HDMI input, and Macs are also supported too. Games console support has now caught up with the latest generation of devices with Now TV apps for both the Xbox One and PS4, as well as the older Xbox 360 and PS3. Youview boxes are supported, as is the new EE TV set top boxm Roku boxes, such as the Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick, and the Apple TV. It's also supported on the very cheap Google Chromecast, and away from your TV you can watch it on iOS and Android devices. Not all services are available on all devices, but a full list is available here.

Sky also has its own dedicated box, which has recently been updated. The new, faster version is still astounding cheap at just £15, plus you can buy a bundle with discounted Now TV content thrown in for £25, saving up to 31% on the usual prices. Occasionally, you might also see specific deals on Now TV boxes in supermarkets. We've seen boxes being sold for as little as £7 if you're lucky. Argos is currently selling the Now TV box with a two month movie pass for £10.99 if you can find it in stock.

The Now TV box also comes with free content and features - including iPlayer and the other main UK TV catchup services. In fact, for some, it’s worth buying even if you never use a single Now TV service. It’s a good and cheap way of upgrading an older TV with basic smart TV features (presuming it at least has an HDMI input).

So you might want Now TV without the box (because you already have compatible hardware), or you might want the box without Now TV. Because of this I’ve split the review in two sections, on this page I’ll deal with the Now TV service, how much it costs and what you get, which is largely independent of the device you’re watching it. On the next page I’ll look at the current Now TV box.