Sonos Ace Headphones
Falling in love with sound!
Price: R13 000
https://www.planetworld.co.za/products/home-audio/audio/amplifier/multi-room/sonos-ace-black-s44/
When you hear the word Sonos, what comes to mind? For me, it is stylish minimalistic design, a premium audio experience and pioneering wireless sound technology.
Sonos’ multiroom speaker systems have added sophistication and ease of accessing audio to millions of fans around the world. What was missing from the equation were headphones.
The recently launched Sonos Ace headphones have entered the premium headphone market with a bang. And they have tough competition from the likes of established players such as Bose, Apple, Sony, Bang & Olufsen, and Sennheiser, to name but a few.
So how do the new Sonos Ace headphones perform?
My experience has been phenomenal. They are the most comfortable over the ear headphones I have worn.
The noise cancellation is excellent and right up there with the competition. The sound is delivered by 40mm dynamic drivers in each cup to push a crisp, precision filled sound with a rich deep bass. The Dolby Atmos experience has dynamic head tracking, so the sound follows the direction your head is moving towards, giving you a hyper-realistic sound from every direction. And they integrate into your existing Sonos ecosystem with ease.
There are eight microphones that help target your voice and eliminate any exterior noise to deliver crystal-clear voice and video calls.
These headphones make a statement. They are incredibly stylish and comfortable and have been crafted with premium materials. With a 30-hour battery life, and amazing noise cancellation, they are your perfect companion for your next long-haul business flight.
SanDisk Ultra Drive Luxe
An essential data transfer gadget
Price: From R600
One of the frustrations in the technology world we are living in today is moving small amounts of data between devices.
USB Type A is the most common USB standard out there: it has been around for decades and you will still find this variant on most older PCs. USB Type C is the next-generation USB, which is smaller, you can plug it in much easier (I still fumble with the older ones), it has higher data transfer speeds, and is able to carry power. This is the future. Even Apple is transitioning from lightning cables to USB C. Until this transition happens, we are still going to be living in two USB Type worlds for a while.
SanDisk Ultra Drive Luxe is a two-in-one device capable of moving content between both USB Type C and USB Type A devices. Now there are many similar devices in the market, but be very careful buying brands you have never heard of. Security risks are huge because it has been known that many of these devices contain malware, and secondly the hardware is not what is described on the packaging. The last thing you want is a device failing on you and losing valuable data.
With the SanDisk Ultra Drive Luxe you can transfer data at high speeds from an iPhone to a PC or to a Mac. It is especially useful to use it for the backing up of photos and videos, and you can even password protect your files across iPhone, PC, and Mac devices. It comes in a stylish dual-purpose swivel design that protects connectors and features a keyring hole to take the drive on the go.
Data sizes range from 32GB to 1TB.
Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV
Displays that will leave you breathless
Price: From R55 000
https://www.samsung.com/za/tvs/all-tvs/?new+neo-qled+8k
Samsung has unveiled its new top-of-the-range flagship TVs and they are absolutely gorgeous!
The Neo QLED 8K televisions are equipped with the advanced NQ8 AI Gen3 processor and mark a significant leap in AI TV technology. This is where the magic happens in your TV. It features a Neural Processing Unit that basically has the power to process at incredible rates (eight times faster than previous generations) giving you that quality on your screen regardless on the input. AI technology is embedded into the processor to deliver even more picture detail.
The new Samsung Neo QLED 8K can also upscale, so if you have 4K content, for example, it will use the built-in technology and AI to deliver an 8K experience – the difference in quality is noticeable. Things like colour, clarity and facial expressions on a video are evidently superior. It also has a feature called “real depth enhancer pro” which adds a lifelike depth to the picture and pulls viewers into the scene every time – very cool, especially when watching sport.
The tiny silver encasing border and infinity display makes this television a statement in any living room or boardroom.
Every time I review a television I am always amazed at the picture quality and question if it could get better, and with every new model I am surprised again. The Samsung Neo QLED 8K delivers a jaw-dropping visual feast that you have to experience for yourself.
iPad Pro M4
Apple’s greatest iPad
Price: Starting at R23 000
https://www.istore.co.za/shop-ipad-pro-m4
Apple unveiled its latest and greatest iPad Pro range, featuring the impressive M4 chip. The new range comes in 11” and 13” versions.
iPads have come a long way, but they still hadn’t quite got to the point where they totally replace your laptop. These new iPads are as close as you will get in my opinion. They are fantastic! The first thing that you will notice are the screens. They feature the Ultra Retina XDR display with state of the art tandem OLED technology. This means for you as a user, you will get an extraordinary visual experience with probably the best colour balance in market. You have to see it to believe it. The precision, the brightness, and the precision of shapes is quite something.
This is all delivered by the new M4 chip which has a brand-new display chip and packs incredible power to deliver astonishing performance. This is critical in the AI-driven world that we live in today. AI is incredibly demanding from every aspect, and the technology needs to be able to deliver. This new M4 chip is capable of 38 trillion operations per second. To put that into perspective, it is 60 times faster than Apple’s first neural engine chip, the A11 Bionic chip.
Here’s the mind-blowing part. The A11 chip was only launched seven years ago. It is incredible to think how much progress has been made in such a short period and how powerful these computers that we use every day are.
Together with the new iPad Pro, Apple also introduced a new Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard that add even more functionality to these iPads.
As an entire ecosystem these new iPad Pros are truly amazing, from the cameras to the battery, and the size, the 13-inch, for example, is just 5.1mm thick!
But be prepared to fork out a fortune. They start at R23 000 and if you decide to get the best of the best with all the accessories you are looking at a mouth-watering R70 000!
Gallery
