Audio

Seamless real-time translation that earns a spot in his travel bag, despite a paywalled offline app and cheap build; 8/10.

Looks cool with nice lighting but sounds like a $50 speaker; 5/10.

Premium-feeling and good fit, but one earbud failed to connect and the bottle-opener case is daft; 3/10.

Astonishing focused-sound effect, but not worth buying yet given the lost sound quality; 9/10 for futuristic.

Dual-driver top-end earbuds with a big step up in sound and isolation, let down by a glossy finish and middling battery life.

Cheap AirPods-style earbuds that sound surprisingly good and last 40 hours, held back only by a fiddly setup.

USB-C AirPods are annoying for recent Lightning buyers but good news for those who held off.

He thinks these are a big deal for the price, with adaptive noise cancellation, very long battery life and fast charging at just 99.

Premium-feeling speaker with a showstopper light show, though the sound is quite compressed.

Advertised as 12,000 watts but far smaller and weaker than the listing claimed, at 5 watts times two.

Awkward, stiff earbuds where only one worked at first, but fine for most people once paired.

An absurdly dense, heavy and loud speaker that he found impressive, though he never judged its value.

Soundproof mic mask that made him sound underwater and did not work at all.

A capable, self-charging shower speaker that is punchy rather than accurate, with most water pressure preserved.

Vikkstar's open-back studio headphones, popular with gamers for comfort and being able to hear yourself.

Low-latency gaming earphones with noise cancellation that are not the best sounding.

Good passive noise cancellation and sparkly highs, but lacking deep bass.

Crisp, upbeat sound with lovely attention to detail, though slightly lacking bass; rated 8 out of 10 for the price.

Standard black pair bundled free with the S23 Ultra exclusive, worth about $150.

A Sonos-powered picture frame speaker that blends into a room and sounds better than expected; rated 8.

Received free with his S22 pre-order and found he valued them less because they were thrown in.

Cited as an ecosystem product that lets iPhone users hand playback straight to the speaker.

The real AirPods come with more packaging and a slightly tidier build, but look almost identical to the fakes.

Surprisingly well built and decent sounding for $10, but one earbud failed to connect and they lack finer audio detail.