Is this iPhone?

Uh, no. The A79 might have the conventional good looks necessary to fit in at a Genius Bar, but it doesn’t truly belong. One look at the A79’s accessory-packed box should be enough to tell you that. When was the last time Apple included a phone case and charger?

And of course, those “conventional good looks” involve the A79’s somewhat bulky figure that Apple is so in love with. We’re not bothered by it. We’ll never fault a phone for slimming down, but if the materials are right, those bulky features go a long way in making a R9,000 piece of kit feel like double that price.

Our review model turned up in a ‘Mystery Black’ hue that probably bogged down the marketing team for weeks dreaming it up. On the rear, over in the top right corner is the rectangular “Innovative AI Camera” bump that fortunately doesn’t take up much real estate. The back is all coated in a treated plastic that’ll almost have you thinking “Oppo didn’t really cover this thing in glass, did it?”

Running along the phone’s iPhone-esque metal frame and rounded corners are all the usual port suspects. USB-C holds court in the centre, joined by a speaker vent and something we don’t often see anymore – a 3.5mm earphone jack. You’ll find the volume rocker and power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader along the right, while the left is home to the SIM tray.

Easy on the eyes

It might have the body of an iPhone but that’s where the similarities end. The A79’s 6.72in FHD+ LCD display makes that immediately apparent. That wasn’t a dig, the A79’s display, capable of reaching 680 nits brightness, handled everything we threw at it – which mainly consisted of watching YouTube, answering emails, and handing out Ws in Marvel Snap. That’s the 90Hz spec doing most of the talking.

While it made scrolling around a whole lot quicker, we had difficulties getting the A79’s gaming chops up to scratch. It struggled even booting them up, and in the case of Marvel Snap, a card game in the same vein as Hearthstone mind you, it couldn’t get the frames up higher than 30fps. Now imagine PUBG Mobile.

It’s easy to blame the 90Hz refresh rate for not living up to expectations, but that isn’t it. Our issue lies with the choice of processor: a MediaTek Dimensity 6020, 8GB of RAM and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. Again – when it comes to handling the mundane stuff, it’s great. Just… don’t expect much more.

More annoying is the Android reskin Oppo calls ColorOS – especially in the beginning. If you aren’t clearing out the boatload of bloatware, you’re being asked to register for Oppo-this or Oppo-that. Once the mountainous pile of Facebooks, Booking.coms and other rubbish was removed, ColorOS settled itself down in the background as a regular old Android clone that can be almost entirely forgotten about.

We did say almost. It’s far from being a big deal, and even further from being a dealbreaker, but Oppo’s presence is felt the most when hooking anything up through Bluetooth. Hit the Bluetooth switch on, and the A79 will automatically try to connect to the last device it used — waiting around thirty seconds before it gives up and accepts new connections. For those who have plenty of devices in a rotation, you have been warned.

Something to say (loudly)

One of the A79’s best features is the inclusion of dual stereo speakers, and what Oppo calls “Ultra Volume Mode” which will send the numbers rocketing up to 300%. Oppo wasn’t kidding. The A79 gets loud. Really loud. But on the journey to 300%, it loses much of its clarity before eventually reaching a level of distortion that becomes downright unpleasant.

When it wasn’t being put through the reviewer mill (because seriously, when will 300% volume ever be necessary?), the A79’s speakers turned out to be surprisingly decent. It’s not often we get to say that about a smartphone we aren’t paying through the nose for. Audio was clear and detailed — improving our YouTube and Netflix sessions a whole lot.

What turned out to be the A79’s proper best feature, however, was the 5,000mAh battery it’s got in there. It’s comparable to Samsung’s S24 Ultra — only losing out on the top spot thanks to the still respectable 33W charger in the box. It managed to conquer a full day without breaking a sweat, very nearly surviving long enough to make it a full 48 hours. It never quite managed the feat, but stick it on power saving mode, keep the gaming to a minimum, and it’ll pull it off easily.

Throw some more intensive use at it — a few videos from Hbomberguy at full brightness should do the trick — and it’ll start to tear at the seams a bit. That means calling out for a charger nine hours in, which, for the price Oppo is asking, is still rather impressive.

Utterly failing the A79’s decent feature set is its fingerprint and face unlock features, the former of which is embedded right into the power button. Under-screen sensors are the future, and the A79 is a perfect example of why. Unlocking the device took at least three tries per attempt — a combination of the failing face scanner and fingerprint sensor. Constant vibrations from the sensor’s failed attempts in your pocket didn’t help matters one bit.

Megapixels aren’t everything

You’ve probably heard that megapixels aren’t everything, or you read the sub-heading, one of the two. In Oppo’s case, it couldn’t be more true. It houses a solid 50MP main sensor in the rear, accompanied by an unenthusiastic 2MP depth sensor, and a simple 8MP sensor around the front. There isn’t a triple-digit spec to point at, but that didn’t stop the A79 from pulling some decent pictures out of the bag.

The 50MP sensor was obviously the star of the show. We knocked out a bouquet of decent-looking images across various lighting conditions, hardly ever losing detail. The 2MP and 8MP sensors are less serious about their jobs but will do everything you ask them to, and do them fine. Don’t expect them to do anything more, however.

You’ll need to flick on the camera’s AI enhancer to get the results we’re talking about, something Oppo leaves off by default. Colour reproduction does take a slight and unfortunate hit but that can be remedied with a bit of editing.

Oppo A79 5G verdict

Oppo’s A79 5G has everything a mid-range phone needs: a big display, excellent battery life, admirable camera skills, and an enticing price. Ignore the R12,000 RRP and you’ll find far more respectable listings around the R9,000 mark. It’s not without faults, like a failing processor that makes gaming a slog, or the too-loud speakers that’ll drown out any sort of quality. Thankfully they’re few and far between, making the A79 a good option for anyone looking to get out from under Samsung’s wing without breaking the bank.

Don’t set your heart on Rise of the Ronin being a carbon copy of The Witcher 3 or Assassin’s Creed, though. It’s an amalgamation of plenty of games — Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, and Nioh prominent among them — all smushed together to create something special and most importantly: unique. Oh, and lest we forget the intricate Dark Souls-like difficulty this game features.

Our preview is limited to the game’s first couple of hours (though we took around three and a bit to get to where Team Ninjas wanted us to be). That’s plenty, honestly. Rise of the Ronin doesn’t mess around. We got a great sense of the scale Team Ninja is going for, an introduction to the somewhat intriguing story and an urge to keep playing and exploring the world conjured up by the makers of Nioh (history helped, we guess).

Blurred around the Veiled Edges

Rise of the Ronin kicks off in 1853 Japan. Players don the kegetsu of two young samurai regularly referred to as Blade Twins. These ‘Twins’ are believed to have suffered a traumatic past — your childhood village burning to the ground will do that to you — before being inducted into the ‘Veiled Edge’ and trained as hardcore, katana-wielding killing machines.

Blade Twins are exactly that — proficient with a blade. At least, until we got our hands on them. They’re described as two peas in a pod, two halves of one whole, yin and yang, unable to go on without each other. You’ll be tested in this regard a little sooner than you might expect.

It’s here, after the game’s first “mission”, that the story starts to carve a path for itself. It’s a path we’re eager to see the tail-end of down the road. It’s an experience somewhat dampened by our expressionless main character — an issue with most loosey-goosey open-world RPGs. It’s not all for naught — the subtle worldbuilding Team Ninja’se infinitely more energetic NPCs and semi-rich open world provide make for an experience we wanted more of.

Rise of the Ronin is an RPG at heart. You’re not just role-playing a samurai as they cut down countless soldiers in their way (at least not all the time). Occasionally, you’ll make a decision or two. Major ones. We, for instance, chose to fell one of the game’s earlier bosses rather than spare their life, only to discover that the character could have returned as an ally down the road, massively simplifying future encounters.

We respected the gravity of our decisions a little more after that one.

Patience is a virtue

It doesn’t take Rise of the Ronin long before it starts handing you deadly weapons. You’ll whip up a character in the thorough character creator, choosing your character’s ‘Blade Sharpening Origin’ which essentially determines the style you’ll be playing, weapons, and stats, before jumping into the thick of things before you can blink.

If you’re at all concerned about committing to a set of stats and their recommended weapons, don’t be. Rise of the Ronin gives you plenty of testing time before it’ll be locked in. Our ‘Killer’ origin recommends a loadout consisting of katanas and ōdachis. We’re here to be samurai, dammit.

Anyone who’s bosom friends with Nioh will be instantly familiar with Rise of the Ronin’s impeccably smooth combat. The dense array of weapons each features specific stances and movesets, requiring effective use of Ki (basically a stamina gauge) to unlock their full potential. Altercations regularly consist of players whittling down their enemy’s Ki to throw them off balance and deliver an often final crushing blow.

Like any Souls-like worth its salt, rolling, parrying, and stamina management are key to making Rise of the Ronin work. Pull it off though, and you’ll be front-row to some of the flashiest and at times, vexatious, combat encounters we’ve seen. After you’ve had your ass handed to you ten, twenty, or fifty times, pulling off a perfect counter-spark (parry) and proceeding to return the favour delivers a high we rode for several hours.

Rise of the Ronin: Tears for the Open World

Like a Mormon who isn’t married yet, Rise of the Ronin does a lot of hand-holding once you enter the open world. It won’t be particularly long before that happens — but you’ll soon miss the tighter sequences found in the game’s intro. Don’t get us wrong — Rise of the Ronin’s open world is fine. But in a universe where Red Dead 2 and The Legend of Zelda exist, fine counts for less and less these days.

It’s not that there isn’t anything to do. Rise of the Ronin’s open world is flooded with content, but nothing is left to the imagination. You’ll come across small towns, villages, and even larger cities — eventually tiring of the seemingly infinite fetch quests and the like littered around the place. There is the occasional sidequest to break the monotony, but they’re few and far between. Cherish them.

If it wasn’t obvious, Rise of the Ronin is a blast. Apart from a slightly too unvaried open world and graphics that could have looked better (we prioritize FPS above anything else), everything the samurai RPG does perfectly shines through. Weighty, meaningful combat, solid RPG mechanics, and a story that has us invested to keep going. Not too shabby.

Rise of the Ronin releases 22 March 2024 on the PlayStation 5. Stay tuned for Stuff’s full review about that time.

The Aonic 50 Gen 2 isn’t perfect. You can look toward more notable brands if your conditions include a slice of perfection in your headphones. But it’s got loads to offer for folks looking for an alternative to the same old faces scrabbling for a space at the top of the audiophile audio pile.

Built to beat expectations

One thing a newcomer has to do is look the part. That’s something the Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 manages effectively. The build, from the sturdy earcups to the stubby curve sections connecting the whole to the padded headband, doesn’t necessarily scream ‘quality’ but it’s certainly talking at the top of its lungs. Seriously, it’s all very premium, right down to the physical buttons on the right-hand earcup that will do most of the controlling for you. Or you could use the app but who’s got time to fire up a smartphone every time they need to skip a track?

The Aonic 50 Gen 2’s right cup has a USB-C port, a button for setting up Bluetooth 5.2 connections, and then a main rocker that handles everything from answering (and rejecting) calls, playing and pausing tracks, and adjusting volume. You’ll figure all of this out in minutes and we don’t have to explain it here, but it’s important to note that the Bluetooth button is multifunction too. By default, it also controls noise cancellation, if you need it physically present on your cans, but this function can be altered via Shure’s app. It’ll shunt your ANC options to the app but gives you more freedom when using the headphones in public.

Using a physical button on something mounted on your skull can be a hit-and-miss affair, especially when the button is operated via a stabbing motion. Some companies overcome this by opting instead for touch controls. Shure simply ensures that these are seriously clamped onto the top of your dome. Sure, you can tear them off but it’ll take a passing bus or a ‘roided up crossfitter in the gym to do it. On the downside, it also made the Aonic 50 Gen 2’s a little uncomfortable over long periods. This isn’t universal (the other folks at Stuff had no such complaints) but you should be aware of the possibility.

There’s one last physical annoyance to get out of the way and it’s almost personal. The Aonic 50 Gen 2’s fold flat into their hardshell case but don’t fold down as compact as we’d like them. Noise cancelling as a feature makes the most sense on an airplane and space is at a premium in cabin luggage. The case is only just too large to be properly comfortable in an airplane seat or an overhead bin. It’s not a problem everyone has but those who have it wish they didn’t. It’s not a serious issue but it’ll bulk up your laptop bag more than you’re expecting.

Cancel culture 

Speaking of noise cancelling, the ANC in the 50 Gen 2 cans is… okay. We’ve heard better. Or, rather, we haven’t. That’s sort of the point. The spectrum of noise cancelled out by the internal microphones here is fairly broad but it’s not quite broad enough. Most of the time you’ll reside in blissful silence aside from the melodious strains of Now That’s What I Call Finnish Death Metal Vol. 665 but occasionally this contemplative state will be broken by intrusions from outside.

This isn’t an occasional thing, either. This exact scenario played out on a few occasions at the Stuff offices, which are not especially raucous (usually). Okay, so there’s also a bloody great big generator outside our window that causes serious mental health damage whenever it’s load shedding (and it’s always load shedding) but the point is that noise intrudes. Turning up the volume will work but that can’t be good for your ears.

Audio ointment

The rest of the Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2’s aural features most certainly are good for your ears. If you’ll let them be and are willing to fiddle. Out of the box, you’ll find that highs and lows are well-emphasised. If you’re in favour of dubstep and its descendants, you’ll be pretty well served by these over-ears. Fire up the app’s EQ and you’ll be greeted with enough options to make Tony Maserati twist a knob off in happiness. It also made resident audio nut Duncan Pike a beaming ray of sunshine for at least five minutes.

It’s not all about the electronica, of course. With the right tweaking, you’ll find yourself greeted with a soundscape wholly in keeping with the almost-R10,000 price tag. This is just as well because… well, there’s an almost R10,000 price tag.

There’s plenty of room for the highs, mids, and lows to roam around, though it’s also possible to overemphasise one over the others. Vocals, after a session with the EQ, are crisp and clear enough without drowning out the rest of the musical arrangement. This depends on what you’re listening to, but that’s on you.

There’s just one more fly in this audio ointment, however. The Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 overs are priced at R9,500 in South Africa. That’s about right, based on the features and performance found here. But there’s something else in South Africa at that price point (or lower) with better features and performance — the Sony WF-1000XM5 over-ears. You might want to give the new guy a shot but the old stalwart is a known (and better) quantity.

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 verdict

The sum of our concerns with the Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 overs are that they can get uncomfortable, they might be a teeny bit too enthusiastically priced, and the noise canceling needs work. Okay, and they might not be the best airplane headphones but that’s a design complaint. Balance that against excellent audio, a better app (which you’ll need to use for the best listening experience), and a brilliant build and Shure is on track to chew on some of the market currently going to more established brands. As long as Sonos keeps its rumoured headphones under wraps (or prices itself out of Shure’s demographic), we’re sure to see more from the American outfit in the very near future.

Whether you’re a fan of the books, encountered the Dune Chronicles for the first time with Villeneuve’s previous film, or a complete newcomer, we highly recommend you see the first film (if you somehow haven’t yet) and this one immediately after.

Dune: Part Two is to Dune: Part One, what The Godfather II and The Dark Knight were to their prequels. It’s that good.

Beginnings are such delicate times

Without spoiling anything, Dune: Part Two picks up where Part One finished. It follows a young Paul Atreides as he joins the Fremen on a journey of self-realisation through the desert planet of Arrakis while seeking revenge for the massacre of his family by the evil and bald Harkonnens who had help from Emperor Shaddam IV. That’s as simplified and stripped back as it gets for a film synopsis but there is far more substance to the main plot and subplots that’s worth discovering for yourself.

If you thought Part One had grand ambitions or set the bar high, you’ll be as surprised as we were by how easily Part Two clears that bar. Everything that Part One was praised for (which was most of it), was just as great, if not better in Part Two. That can make Part One seem a little tiny in comparison, almost as if it was nothing more than a two-and-a-half-hour setup for Part Two.

With Part One being the movie it was, we’d strongly argue against that. The best way around this would be for Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. to release a full-length five and five-and-a-half-hour director’s cut of both parts edited together. We wouldn’t even be mad if they adapted even more of the first book. If anyone could make that work, it’s Villeneuve.

A time of quiet between storms

We’ve been fans of Villeneuve since his return to cinema in 2009 with Polytechnique. Our respect and enjoyment of his work have only increased with his subsequent films – Prisoners, Sicario, Blade Runner 2049 – and with Dune: Part Two he is at the top of his game. He was given the freedom (and budget) to develop his ethereal style in this film and makes full use of that freedom in directing and executing his creative vision which brilliantly expanded, and now completes, his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s first book.

An easy example to point at is the choices he made in which parts of the book to include and which parts either didn’t make the final edit or were omitted entirely. With a runtime of 155 minutes, this certainly isn’t a short film, yet every scene is expertly crafted and expands on the world-building, often in surprisingly thoughtful ways. This goes a long way in making the world of Dune feel easy to believe in and when you’re saying that about a movie with giant God-like sandworms, that’s a sign of a job well done.

It isn’t only Villeneuve’s direction that makes Dune: Part Two worth seeing. Every cinematic aspect of the project elevates the film to something more than just the sum of its parts. In particular, the production design stood out to us because its attention to detail helped craft a more believable fantasy world. When you’re shown a new thing, especially in a fantasy setting, and the design or use of that thing immediately makes sense within the given context, you have the design team to thank.

Each man is a little war

You can have the best director and production team in the world and your film will still fall flat with a weak cast. That wasn’t an issue with the first movie and it is even less of an issue in Part Two. Every actor made their understanding of the material clear in their performance but three are worth a special mention.

After watching Timothée Chalamet grow into his role as a naive Paul Atriedes in Part One, the maturity and dark complexity he brings to the character in Part Two was impressive. Zendaya’s performance as Chani, Paul’s Fremen chaperone and later love interest, is equally impressive. Her character gets substantially more screen time in Part Two, allowing us to revel in her screen presence and properly enjoy the layered nuances of her performance.

Austin Butler joins the Dune cast as the sadistic Feyd-Rautha, a member of House Harkonnen and the Baron’s chosen heir. His inclusion provides a convenient avenue for further exploration of the Harkonnen House and its homeworld Geidi Prime. In a film of strange things, it somehow manages to be the strangest. Butler might still be relatively unknown but expect that to change if the physical and vocal performance displayed here are a sign of what’s to come. The explosive energy he brings to the screen can at times feel overdone, but it doesn’t detract from Butler’s performance. He makes it his own – another sign of a successful actor-director relationship.

Working with Villeneuve, Hans Zimmer and Greig Fraser have both produced some of their best work in the music and photography departments respectively. Zimmer’s sweeping score is as grandiose as Fraser’s breathtaking visuals. Listening to the soundtrack for Part One and Part Two sequentially makes Zimmer’s choices clear as wormsign. The entire film feels larger than life but Part Two’s score mirrors the film’s characters and somehow feels more human.

The same can be said of Fraser’s work as director of photography. Where his composition in Part One introduces Arrakis to the audience as a harsh and barren alien planet, in Part Two it feels familiar and almost inviting. Thanks to the slightly longer runtime, we’re treated to even more glamour shots, and when they look this good it’s hard to complain.

Dune: Part Two verdict

Dune has long had a reputation as being ‘unfilmable’, mostly due to the sheer volume of content but also in part due to its many interpretations. That didn’t stop Alejandro Jodorowsky and then David Lynch from trying. Jodorowsky’s film never made it to completion and although Lynch’s 1984 film did, many fans of the books (including Lynch himself) don’t count that as a success.

We’re quite sure hardcore book fans will find something to complain about with Villeneuve’s adaptations and they’ll probably have a point. We’re not saying Dune: Part Two is the be-all and end-all of Dune adaptations but it’s the best one we have right now. Go and watch it on the biggest screen you can.

Dune: Part Two is now showing in theatres.

That turned out to be the Honor X9b, a follow-up to that scrappy mid-ranger we had a good time with about a year ago. It’s (almost) everything a sequel should be; improved specs, a new letter in the name, a much larger battery, and a minimum price jump – coming in at a R13,000 (or cheaper if you know where to look). Oh, and it does come in black. Whew.

Like Clockwork (Orange)

If you’ve seen our review for the X9a, you’ve already got a good idea of what to expect from this younger sibling. Honor doesn’t like to fiddle where it’s not needed, so despite a shade like a forgotten toffee, the familiar design didn’t bother us at all.

The X9b is surprisingly light. Honor’s added 10g to the weight of the last model but at 185g, complaints are few and far between. It’s a bit thicker, but Honor’s managed to keep it from exceeding the 8mm mark (though only just), so it gets a pass.

Unfortunately, the best bit of our review model’s design — the vegan-leather backing that so excellently defends against fingerprints (and doubles as a conversation starter) — is exclusive to the Sunrise Orange hue we landed up with. It’s not a big deal, though. The included see-through cover rendered the discussion almost moot — meaning you won’t get a good feel of that leather-like backing anyway.

Surrounding those smooth metal edges are all the bits you’d expect. USB-C has the charging handled, parked right next to the SIM slot and singular speaker that proved to be quite lonely. The right-hand side is where you’ll find the volume rocker and power button. The IR blaster is the only blemish to the X9b’s minimal top rail.

Goodluck breaking this

Honor’s made quite a splash where the X9b’s display is concerned. We aren’t talking about the curved-edge display that returns for another round but rather the X9b’s launch event, where a crowd of people were instructed to try to break it. It doesn’t matter how tough your screen is. When there’s a R25,000 prize up for grabs, folks will find a way.

Break it they did but it still took a good three hours of constant drops, hits from a miniature wrecking ball, and shots of paintballs so it should survive the occasional drop without issues. Underneath the tough glass protection sits a 6.78in FHD+ AMOLED screen featuring a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,200 nits of peak brightness.

That refresh rate came in handy once we got to gaming, but we’ll sing those praises a little louder once we get round to the internals. The display played its part well; we didn’t notice any stuttering when loading up PUBG Mobile’s “Ultra” framerate setting or aimlessly scrolling around the OS.

If only the screen’s colour reproduction had us feeling as affectionate – often leaving the darker bits of the screen in the shadows despite the AMOLED tech — most noticeable during a late-night YouTube session. It didn’t bother us, but if Game of Thrones season 8 is your go-to mobile entertainment, it’s something to consider.

Chasing the Snapdragon

To keep the budget down, Honor shoved in Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 which proves to be a competent daily driver. It can’t compete with the flagship chipsets but those are usually more than double the price. The older entry-level chip means you won’t find any on-device AI capabilities, Honor’s saving those for its own flagship devices. Still, the X9b handles itself well considering its price bracket.

Our model showed up donning 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage – but you’ll regularly hear Honor touting 20GB of RAM here thanks to what it calls ‘Honor RAM Turbo’. The idea isn’t new but it’s supposedly in place to expand the device’s reach and make multitasking quicker. The X9b didn’t put up a struggle trying to multitask games and apps, but how much of that was down to the ‘RAM Turbo’… we can’t say.

Pair those specs with the Adreno A710 GPU and you’ve got yourself a nifty little gamer. We’ve already said PUBG Mobile behaved better than expected, but that was the case across the board. Marvel Snap might not seem like a difficult game to wring good performance out of, but bump the settings up and watch it struggle elsewhere. It did just fine here, even if the battery took a hit during longer stints.

Speaking of which, the 5,800mAh battery was superb, managing to provide around a day and a half’s worth of life before whining about it. Long gaming sessions bring that number down, but confine your usage to mundane tasks and you’ll net 36 hours easily.

The X9b’s not a very feature-packed phone (see the R13,000 price tag), but the few it does include work (almost) flawlessly. Only rarely did we have to jam our finger back on the display fingerprint sensor to get a correct reading and the face unlock worked rain or shine, day and night. Audio quality is where things begin to fall apart. It’s passable for scrolling socials but the lack of bass made almost any music sound hollow and thin. You’ll want to keep your wireless headphones within reach.

Enter the Matrix

Honor proves that bigger doesn’t always mean better. If you can get past the absolutely mahoosive three-camera array taking up a lot of the phone’s rear, you’ll find a 108MP main sensor doing all the heavy lifting, with a 5MP ultrawide, and 2MP Macro lens thrown in.

You’ll get some half-decent shots that hold onto a good amount of detail — as long as you’re blessed with rays or the right lighting. Thrust it under the moonlight (or say, a cloud) and the images soften up on you, blurring the edges. Flipping to night mode can help — but it applies an artificial-looking filter on top of it all that we weren’t particularly fond of.

Expect similar performance from the 5MP ultrawide sensor, though images here tend to lean on the side of grainy. It’s ‘good enough’ for a R13,000 phone, but we’d advise throwing a few filters at those images before posting to Instagram. We had more luck with the 2MP macro lens, but it’ll take some fiddling to get right. Super macro mode was probably the best of the bunch, but it’ll need some very up-close subjects before it spits out anything detailed.

Honor X9b verdict

Hollywood, take notes. This right here is how you do a sequel. It retains what we loved about the first — in this case that mid-range price, decent 120Hz AMOLED display, and great body — and improves on the rest where it can. That’s evidenced by the impressive 5,800mAh battery and overall upgrade to the processor that makes this such an excellent daily driver and occasional gamer. It’s not faultless (looking at you, camera and speaker) but they’re much easier to overlook with that R13,000 RRP. Now just to get rid of that orange, man…

You shouldn’t expect perfection from a R21,000 TV from any brand and LG’s offering is no exception. Still, the focus has been placed where it matters most. The panel is the main thing and if there’s nothing else you take from this review, know that this one is splendid. The semi-affordable price is almost a surprise at this point.

Boxing match

One of our main concerns when it comes to new TVs is how much of a pain they are to set up alone. Trying to unbox and install a 75in TV is a serious pain in the neck, for example, and smaller screen sizes are no guarantee of an easier time. LG’s 55CS3 has the benefit of the smaller panel but the screen’s extremely thin profile does make it challenging to extract and assemble without help. That said, some smart design work with the box and the base means that anyone with a moderately-sized coffee table and the ability to lift about twenty kilos at a time should have no trouble putting this up.

Installing the base is as simple as gently popping the screen face down on one of the box’s styrofoam inserts (the flat one, please) and inserting a couple of screws. Then it’s all over barring the lift-and-place in your chosen location and the subsequent software setup. If you’re looking to install the set on a wall, you can expect to do a little more work. Part of this work involves finding a mounting bracket since this TV doesn’t ship with one in the box. You should also have an assistant on hand, ensuring that it’ll only be slightly more of a mission than standing it on its base.

Everybody wants to be Netflix

Subsequent setup is the domain of LG’s Magic Remote, an onscreen pointer, and your internet connection. There’s little point in buying the 55CS3 — or one of the differently-sized variants — unless you’re planning to connect the TV to the internet and the interface reflects that. Perhaps unfortunately, WebOS 2.3 is also the same interface everyone else is bent on using. Visually, anyway.

There are plenty of smart features once you’ve clicked through the prompts and inserted your credentials in the right places and it’ll all feel familiar while you’re doing so. In a way, that’s a great thing. Ease of setup is always desirable. But it also immediately feels like everything else on the market and that’s something WebOS has never really been. Still, it’s a slick interface even if it tries just a bit too hard to be everything for everyone.

As was popular in 2023 (the year this television launched) and still is in 2024, there’s the option to let onboard artificial intelligence handle most of your audio settings. This can be enabled during the initial setup but you can also opt to skip it and fiddle by yourself for a bit. We took the latter course, because what’s the point if you’re not going to explore the menus on your own? Predictably, no matter which option you select, you’ll find that the 55CS3 will perform better with a soundbar attached. It’s nothing personal. Any TV at this price point (or lower and higher) faces the same challenge.

Zero performance anxiety

If middling audio has you slightly worried, you can stop now. Even if the 55CS3’s standard audio was all but absent, the TV’s visual performance is stunning enough that you’d still want to own one. We could gush about picture fidelity and contrast, the vibrant colour reproduction (we used Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom for visual testing, if it’s not immediately obvious) and the sharply defined outlines the OLED evo 55CS3 is capable of but we’d be rehashing any of the recent reports about LG’s OLED panels. They’re good. They’re always good. It would be more remarkable at this point to encounter a shoddy TV screen from the South Korean brand and even then, it’d have to be a factory defect.

The 55CS3 should especially be on the average gamer’s radar and not just because of the dedicated gaming dashboard packed with tweakable settings. There are four HDMI ports capable of 120Hz and the panel invokes all of the magical words required to summon the gaming gods. Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync, support for variable refresh rates, a 0.1ms response time, and support for Dolby Atmos and VisionIQ outfit this screen to give you the best possible image from the new generation of game consoles. It’s this way in practice too, with even previous generations (we took it as far back as the Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 2) being offered a vibrant overhaul by the TV’s internal processing. It won’t scale Mario Galaxy or Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal up to 4K but it looks better than you’d expect it to.

LG OLED evo 55CS3 4K TV verdict

LG’s OLED TVs rarely have any serious competition. When they do, it’s because LG provided the panels for those too (looking at you, Sony Bravia XR). The Evo version of the TV offers better brightness than LG’s stock OLED panels but there are better options from the company out there too. It mostly comes down to how much you’re willing to pay for one of LG’s OLEDs. If your budget is around the R20,000 mark (if it’s nearly there, make it bigger), you really should be sprinting in the direction of anybody who sells the 55CS3. The next step up is LG’s C3 set, with a corresponding leap in price. For an excellent balance of smart features and picture quality and to keep a little cash for a soundbar add-on, the OLED evo 55CS3 is very worthy of your attention.

It may not seem like there’s much separating Canon’s PowerShot V10 from a smartphone when it comes to snapping pics or shooting vids. Both feature capable cameras that you can vlog from directly. The PowerShot takes the lead with its flippable touch screen and is comfortably one of the better selfie cameras on the market thanks to its wide-angle 4K skills. It also goes toe-to-toe with flip phones that offer solo shooting thanks to its nifty built-in stand. There’s no question that the PowerShot would be handy for any vlogger but is it worth the extra pocket space?

Handy but hardly a handful

The 211g PowerShot V10 fits comfortably into your palm. It’s compact and simple to use, with a record button up front under the lens and a simple keypad under the screen. It may be a little too simple as there were numerous times we found it accidentally recording — but that got better with practice.

A small, capable compact camera can be a boon when shooting content in the field but there were times we felt that the PowerShot’s size worked against it. Users with larger hands may find difficulty handing the dinky little keys without frustration.

The flippable screen makes recording selfies or vlogs simple without compromising camera quality, as is often the case with smartphones. Touch controls give you access to playback functions, camera mode selection, and exposure and colour temperature controls.

There were times when the touch controls got in the way but thankfully you’re able to toggle them off. The onscreen buttons came in handy when we were using the built-in stand in selfie mode and couldn’t see the rear panel.

The PowerShot V10 is designed for very specific uses. That doesn’t mean you’re completely limited to those uses but we found, when placed on our desk, the angle isn’t the most gratifying. Good thing there’s a 20 UNC thread underneath which unlocks further mounting possibilities when paired with the tripod you’ve doubtless got lying around.

Small camera, big videos

The PowerShot V10 may be smaller than a phone but it records big videos — up to 4K at 30 fps if you want to max it out. For scenes with more movement, it can shoot 60 fps at FHD. The downside to shooting 4K videos in standard mode is the fact that the camera’s battery and temperature take a big hit. The light version of 4K shooting uses IPB digital compression to produce smaller videos that put less strain on the battery.

The battery life of the PowerShot V10 is its biggest weakness. We got about 65 minutes of footage on one charge, shooting in FHD. Shooting in 4K resulted in a temperature warning after about 6 minutes. After just under 20 minutes of shooting the camera shut itself down. Even shooting 4K video in light mode has the unit overheat in the same amount of time.

While the PowerShot has some very glaring shortcomings, it has features to mitigate them. After our light mode overheating session there was enough battery to continue recording once the camera cooled down. It’s also worth noting that while the battery may die quite quickly, charging it takes no longer than 25 minutes.

Swiss pocket camera

While not the main draw, stills with the PowerShot are decent enough, even though their resolution won’t exceed 5,472 x 3,648. That, together with the limited picture adjustments, tells us snapping pictures is more of a value-add than a feature.

The PowerShot’s physical 6.6mm lens is a 35mm equivalent with a 19mm focal length. Effectively it’s a wide-angle lens that’s great for capturing surroundings while vlogging. Pairing it with the flippable screen was a masterstroke for selfie shooting, helping to effectively frame your shots. That’s only for landscape mode though, portrait mode comically shrunk our subjects so we avoided it. It would be nice to have a dedicated portrait option but you can work around that with your framing.

The PowerShot V10 comes with various shooting modes to enhance video footage, namely: ‘auto’, ‘smooth skin’, ‘Movie IS’ (image stabilisation), and ‘manual’. Although we did most of our shooting in ‘auto’, ‘Movie IS’ came in handy for shots with a lot of movement. It’s no action camera but it makes a noticeable difference. ‘Smooth skin’ would probably be useful for beauty vloggers while we found the manual mode useful in low-light conditions as you’re able to manually set exposure, ISO, and aperture to your liking.

Beyond shooting modes, the PowerShot V10 offers other ways to enhance footage with the Q button. That includes resolution and framerate selection and switching between facial recognition, autofocus, and specific frame focus. You’ll need to adjust the former when filming fast-moving scenes while the latter makes changing from handheld to hands-free a breeze.

14 preset colour filters and a colour tone slider make up the colour temperature control while white balance settings are found in the camera menu. There is 3x digital zoom, which we don’t recommend, but we appreciated the ability to do some basic video trimming in the gallery.

Mainstream app

The most noteworthy part of the PowerShot’s connectivity feature is its live streaming. This is done directly to a YouTube or Twitch channel, a Facebook page, or a direct streaming URL. Unfortunately, it only supports FHD at 30 fps but there is a choice between 3.5 and 6 Mbps upload speed. Beyond that, the camera remote works the way most camera apps do.

Shooting with the BT remote provides all the controls found on the touch screen and a view of what the camera sees. The only added benefit is the ability to adjust the white balance without having to go to the PowerShot’s menu. Importing works the same way a printer would by transferring the files through a shared Wi-Fi network. Bluetooth transfer is also an option but it’s slower.

Canon V10 PowerShot verdict

Canon’s PowerShot V10 is a camera with a clear purpose — being the best option for a vlogger on the go. The flippable screen and wide-angle lens make framing yourself effortless and almost justify the purchase alone. Its compact size and weight make it super easy to pull out on a scenic hike, pumping concert, or family gathering and its built-in stand means a tripod isn’t strictly required for stationary shots.

On the other hand, while the PowerShot V10 gives you the option of shooting in 4K you won’t get very far before you’re hit with a temperature warning or run out of battery.

The PowerShot V10 comes in at just under R10,000 so purchasing a smartphone for roughly the same price would probably be better value for most people. But most people aren’t vloggers and don’t need to shoot videos of themselves while simultaneously playing a mobile game, reading their stream’s live chat, and trying not to get hit by traffic.

Eventually, rescue came in the form of Disney and Marvel Studios, when a deal was struck to introduce Peter Parker to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s been eight years since Spidey’s MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War, and now Sony finds itself in an awkward position. In order to retain the film rights, they have to produce a Spider-Man film every six years… except with no Spider-Man.

Madame Web is Sony’s latest addition to its Spider-Man cinematic universe after Venom and Morbius. Where Marvel and DC are winding down in the face of successive box office disappointments, Sony charges full steam ahead with three movies this year.

Madame Web is the first of these, and it differs from the other two in that the titular character is more hero than villain. It’s a decent popcorn comic book movie that focuses on its emotional beats over action sequences, but generally fails to stick the landing on either.

Cassandra Web

The story takes place in 2003 and centers around New York City paramedic Cassandra Web. She is a loner with her only friends being her colleague Ben Parker, and a stray cat. Cassandra’s mother was a biologist and researcher who discovered a mystical spider in the Peruvian Amazon that was said to give a certain group of tribesmen enhanced spider-like abilities. When her research partner Ezekiel Sims betrays and murders her, he steals the spider and runs. Fortunately for Cassandra, in his absence, the tribesmen help deliver Cassandra and expose her to a bite from the mystical spider. It’s never explained how a group of Amazonian tribesmen manage to get an American baby back to the USA.

The movie also gives us no hint of Cassie’s background in the US and no mention of foster parents or siblings. Outside of the occasional melancholy, Cassie seems rather well-adjusted for someone who’s been orphaned and raised in the foster care system all her life, and whose support system consists of a single person and a cat.

Cassie’s growth in the film seems to be tied to her finding a sense of belonging. So when she finds it among the teenage girls by the end, it feels unsatisfying because the loss of her mother never seemed to negatively affect her life that drastically to begin with.

Madame Web’s superpower can be frustrating to wrap your head around. Is she seeing a future that hasn’t happened yet, or is she seeing a different timeline altogether? A few times in the movie, Sims and Webb see visions of the three Spider-Women in action. So, if that doesn’t happen at the end of the movie, does that mean they were seeing alternate versions of the girls in a different timeline? Or is it still yet to happen in future movies? Who knows.

As someone whose ability is mainly precognition, the passiveness of her superpower can also be problematic. Multiple times in her battles with Sims, she escapes by jumping into some hurtling debris — maybe her ‘superpower’ is plot armour.

Ezekiel Sims

Ezekiel Sims begins his journey in the Amazon forest with Constance Webb. After finding the mystical spider with Webb’s help, Sims decides to steal the research for himself, murdering his research partners before returning to the US.

For years, Sims used the spider’s power to give himself superhuman abilities, including a limited amount of clairvoyance, which causes Sims to be haunted by a recurring dream wherein he is murdered by the three Spider-Women. He has dedicated his life to finding and killing these women before they grow into their abilities.

Tahar Rahim does his best to make lemonade with his performance but isn’t given much to work with emotionally and spends much of his time brooding. He is slightly more successful in trying to be menacing. The idea of a villain who can’t stop dreaming of his death and sets out to prevent it is really interesting. Yet, the story doesn’t do much with this except to justify his murder quest. We don’t learn anything of his backstory and know nothing of his motivations outside of surviving a hypothetical murder.

If Cassie’s superpower is luck, the biggest loser in this is Ezekiel who could’ve avoided a lot of trouble if he just took the time to watch for flying objects around him.

The would-be Spider-Women

Cassandra first meets Mattie Franklin, a Bantu-knotted skateboarder who is the daughter of wealthy, politically connected parents. She later comes across Julie Cornwall, who lives with her stepmother and a father who is more interested in his new family. Anya Corazon lives in Cassie’s apartment building, her mother is dead and her father was recently deported, making her conveniently self-dependent.

Fate entangles these four women’s destinies as Cass has a vision of them being murdered by Sims on a train. She makes a scene and gets them out, beginning their journey together. Mattie is snarky and impatient, Julie is reserved and tentative, and Anya is an overthinker and science lover. Though they have distinct personalities, they don’t have much to do in the story emotionally and thus don’t experience any kind of character arc or progression.

Our initial thoughts were that the movie would end as Ezekiel saw it, with the three girls as fully-developed Spider-Women taking on Sims together. A missed opportunity, we feel. Instead, by the end they are the same as they started. They’re the McGuffin by which Cassie and Ezekiel are defined.

The action

The main characters don’t have conventional superpowers so spend much of the movie running which diminishes the ‘action’ element somewhat. Madame Web has a distinct lack of epic hero-versus-villain matchups, which leads to a lack of memorable comic book-esque moments. Apart from an unintentionally funny moment when Cassandra drives an ambulance through a billboard. She manages to aim the vehicle enough to crash into a suited Sims and gets out of the car without a scratch.

The CGI, though sparingly used, was still underwhelming. Sims’s Spider Suit looks cheap and uncomfortable. The activation of Cassie’s powers could’ve been made more visually interesting, and the fireworks in the final confrontation were visibly fake.

Then there’s the hallmark of underwhelming CGI – an overabundance of nighttime action scenes. Director S. J. Clarkson does her best to inject some kind of directorial style with her use of Dutch angles and spinning shots, but most of these eclectic choices won’t do much to elevate your immersion.

Madame Web verdict

It’s worth reminding yourself that Madame Web is not a conventional superhero movie. With a female audience as its target, this movie is not as concerned with the physical battle between hero and villain, instead focusing on the psychological.

Dakota Johnson does her best with the script — she’s the only actor who seems skilled enough to be intentionally funny with her delivery of throwaways and one-liners. But even she can’t escape looking mentally checked out half the time. Celeste O’Conner, Sydney Sweeney, and Isabela Merced give decent individual performances but struggle to find meaningful on-screen chemistry.

People who have no attachment to the Marvel canon or the action sequences of superhero movies, and instead are more interested in the bond between the main characters, will likely enjoy Madame Web more than the traditional comic book movie fan. But if you’re looking for a female-led Spider-Man flick with web-slinging and action set-pieces, this ain’t it.

We’re guessing on that whole ‘best Android phone this year’ thing, obviously, but history has shown that Samsung usually wins the race early in the year. Smartphone releases have produced some diminishing returns for the South Korean tech maker of late, however. Sure, it’s the best, but the gap between handsets has been narrowing for years. Something new was needed. Has Samsung gone novel enough in 2024?

Titanium package

That… depends. There are several notable changes to the Galaxy S24 Ultra over its immediate predecessor(s), including an actual visual change. These are relatively rare in Smartphone Land and are worth paying attention to on their own. We don’t mean there’s anything new concerning camera or port placement. Nor has the S Pen moved from its customary home in the base of the phone. But Samsung’s levelled out the screen and rear panel, resulting in a flatter smartphone in 2024.

There’s still some curve to be seen but it’s all along the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s edges. Which, by the way, are also new. Titanium adorns the Ultra’s edges, making for a tougher smartphone without any significant uptick in the weight in your pocket. It also lets Samsung vie directly with Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max in terms of featured bullet points. We’re sure that’s entirely coincidental.

Expect the usual ports and keys, a slight bulge where the camera sensors stick out (we’re almost convinced that this is to convince you to buy a case), and a series of newly named shades. Our review unit was Titanium Amber… because plain old ‘Yellow’ isn’t allowed on a spec sheet.

Your only option

If you’ve become used to the latest Snapdragon chipset in your Samsung, the Ultra is the only place you’ll find it in 2024. The smaller handsets have stepped back to the Samsung-made Exynos but you’ll have no cause for complaint when it comes to speed on any of these devices. It’ll chew up tasks and games and spit out results or frames respectively. It’s remarkable how unremarkable that’s become.

This is just us saying that the Galaxy S24 Ultra doesn’t do anything new here. It’s a monster of a phone but when the previous four handsets have also been monsters, it stops being scary and starts being something you can take for granted.

The same thing goes for the excellent 6.8in screen adorning the S24 Ultra’s front. It’s more or less identical to last year’s display in terms of features, only Samsung is styling it a ‘dynamic LPTO AMOLED’ this year as if that wasn’t the case stretching back years. Peak brightness has been given a substantial boost and this is definitely visible compared to previous handsets in the lineup. It’s no device-selling feature but it’s good to have regardless.

Picture this

So you thought that last year’s camera was a world-beater, did you? That’s fantastic because it’s back for another round in 2024. The Galaxy S24 Ultra makes one very minor tweak, swapping out the 10MP periscope telephoto lens responsible for optical zoom out for a 50MP unit that features less… optical zoom…? Sure, okay. More megapixels means more for Samsung’s software to work with (more on that in a second) but it does take some of the functionality out of your hands.

In practical terms, you could just head back to last year’s review and read the camera portion. Substitute the mention of “10x optical zoom” for “5x optical zoom” and you’re most of the way to seeing what Samsung’s camera is capable of. It’s excellent, if you can’t be bothered to click the link above, but it’s also something we’ve seen before. If only there was some extremely novel feature to examine…

The elephant in the room

Here’s where Samsung’s device starts to stand out from what’s come before. We could make all manner of quips about how the hardware changes are less substantial every year but Galaxy AI is something genuinely new. It’ll also come to older smartphones at some point (some of it, anyway) but for now, if you want Samsung’s smartest, you’ll pay for a new phone to get it.

We’ve spoken a fair amount about what sort of features Galaxy AI adds to your phone but it’s another thing to see them in action. It may “only” be advanced image editing, translation, and transcription services but a little time with the Galaxy S24 Ultra will give you some idea of how useful they could be. Of course, the ability to automatically transcribe the audio recorded by Samsung’s own Recorder app is squarely aimed at media types like us so we’re bound to be captivated.

If you’re regularly talking to folks who speak other languages, the S24 Ultra (and the others in the series) can automatically translate both written and spoken communication. This is less useful for South Africans, given the introductory languages supported. English, obviously, is one but you won’t find any other South African languages on the list. Hindi? Sure? Simplified Chinese? Why not? Japanese? That’ll make watching unsubbed, undubbed anime a sinecure. There’s also a collection of European tongues, Vietnamese, and Korean if you need them, but using this feature is the tricky bit.

There’s one more notable Galaxy AI feature, designed to make it simple to buy items from the internet. Circle to Search lets you draw a circle with the S Pen and it’ll find that item — someone else’s shoes, a t-shirt, basically anything branded — for sale. Otherwise, it’ll do its best to provide info about whatever you’ve circled. It’s possible to screw with it but you’ll be marking blatantly generic portions of an image for no good reason. Kinda defeats the point, yeah?

Samsung has also baked in several image editing functions provided by Galaxy AI. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is capable of generating its own slow-mo footage, missing frames being (mostly competently) interpolated using AI wizardry. It’s also possible to yank subjects out of a frame, with the missing section being automagically filled in using… AI. No more asking a compliant Twitter Photoshop account to crop your ex from that one image you really like. AI-generated watermarks are also a thing. You can sidestep them, but it takes effort.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra verdict

Do you absolutely need Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra? Nope. But that’s been true of Samsung flagships for years. Most folks don’t need the overwhelming power these phones bring to market. The introduction of Galaxy AI means that most buyers will be using their handsets more extensively than they ever have before but if you’re fine with waiting to get your hands on Samsung’s artificial intelligence, you can hang onto your Galaxy S23 Ultra. Heck, probably even the S22 Ultra is worth keeping for another cycle.

But that doesn’t change the fact that this is Samsung’s most advanced phone ever. If you’ve been playing with the idea of trying an S-series handset for the first time, this is a great place to start. Provided you’re okay with parting ways with at least R30,000, this will be all the phone you need for the next two years or so. Even longer, if Samsung’s assurances of seven years of software support sound like something you could get behind.

If fewer zeroes sounds like a good deal, Hisense’s HS2100 soundbar + subwoofer combo will run you roughly R2,700 (if you know where to look), and conjure some decent waves while it’s at it. It might not have the features of something more costly, but it’s got the fundamentals down. It’s repping a subwoofer, 240W of sound and DTS Virtual:X decoding and playback that all make for a soundbar we hated saying goodbye to.

Quicker and easier than falling asleep

Newcomers to the realm of soundbar-subwoofer combos might be intimidated by the set-up, but we found that the HS2100 was about as plug-and-play as it gets All that needed doing was to stick all the cables in the right holes – of which there is a single HDMI (Arc), USB, optical digital audio input and 3.5mm aux at the back of the rectangle of noise. It’s got a two-prong doing the heavy lifting, and it’s mimicked as the subwoofer’s only cable.

The actual set-up involves putting all the cables in the right holes and hitting the on button. The lack of any LED indicators (aside from the volume slider) when pressing the subwoofer’s pairing button means you’ll have to make do with the superlunary voice that bleeds out to let you know everything is hooked up. It’ll be hanging around, too. It’ll keep you in the loop about which preset you’re using. Seeing as we hardly ever left HDMI, we nearly forgot all about it.

After that, it’s all about aligning the HS2100 with your home’s feng shui. We doubt that’ll be too difficult. The HS2100 is about as basic as a soundbar gets, turning up looking like your best idea of a black rectangle that’s here to do one job – spit some loud sounds at you. It helps that it’s smaller, thinner, and lighter than most similar soundbars, allowing it to blend into the background.

It’s covered in all the stuff you’d expect from a sub-R3,000 soundbar – black plastic, a bare-bones collection of ports and a whole lot of black felt. The cheaper build quality and extremely lightweight feel of the 2100 had us questioning whether there’d be a general shakiness as it worked to pump out those loud sounds. It didn’t — at least not until we turned it up to full blast. More on that later.

Mom, I’m scared.

What good is it to anyone if it can’t even pass what we like to call the ‘Mom’ test? If your mother – or someone with a similar disdain towards technology — can’t tell the difference between the two while blindfolded, it’s not worth the effort of taking it out of the box. We found somebody similarly tech-minded to act as our guinea pig and pit the HS2100 against our daily driver; LG’s 2023 CS3.

Purely being able to tell the two apart isn’t helpful to anyone, though. We took it further and had them face off in a proper showdown. Mostly, the HS2100 came out on top. There are still instances where LG’s efforts are king – like retaining quality at lower levels and singling out dialogue – but considering the price, we’re willing to cut the soundbar some slack. Throw the HS2100 at a cheaper TV, however – like we briefly did – and its best qualities blare that much louder.

Resoundingly sound… Sound

All that to say we liked what was coming out of the HS2100’s front end. It’s packing two 60W speakers in each end (that’s what the ‘2’ in 2.1 means), with the subwoofer making up the other 120W on offer here. Don’t let the soundbar’s stature deceive you. Hisense has built something that’s fully capable of convincing you that it’s a larger and more expensive piece of equipment.

That was made immediately apparent after we booted up our movies – The Fellowship of the Ring and that one really cool bit from Harry Potter. For one, it’s loud. Really loud. You can get louder, but this is the best you’re going to get on a budget for a reasonably sized room. It’ll do so without reaching a bat-like frequency though, hitting the highs of The Treason of Isengard with ease, and keeping the detail on the higher end of ‘good enough’. Confine your content to something… less epic and it’ll show off its more subtle strengths, holding onto that clean and balanced sound profile.

It can’t save Tenet from sounding like a four-year-old was in the mixing room, but that’s to be expected. Soundbar it may be, miracle worker it definitely is not. Give it any other job and it’ll take real care to isolate that dialogue and keep it at the forefront, especially if you’ve got the Movie and Surround presets engaged. Speaking of which, there are six EQ presets to choose from; Movie, Music, Night, News, Sports, and Game. You’ll want to pay attention to these when hopping around the place.

We got on just fine with the included DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Digital support to give some sort of surround sound effect, but we’d have liked to see Atmos get a look in. We’d also like a million bucks, but that isn’t going to happen. Hisense mentions a ‘TV Mode’ that’ll mimic your TV’s decoding – even if Atmos is available — but it looks like that’s only reserved for Hisense TV loyalists. We couldn’t get it going, at least.

Like any soundbar + subwoofer combo worth its salt, the subwoofer filled the role of adding that bit of oomph that’d be missing on a singular subwoofer. It’s got nothing on those Mongolian throat singers, but it offered plenty of functionality to elevate those epic scenes and make them epic-er. All while taking up very little room next to your setup. You can’t ask for more than that. Except maybe an LED indicator.

The boy who lived… come to gripe

If you’ve read the headline, you’ll know we misjudged the HS2100’s character prematurely. Its faults turned out to be fewer and farther between than expected, but they’re still there. Fortunately, they’re minor enough to be tucked away in the back of our minds, but it won’t be the case for everyone.

First up is how the soundbar handles low-level volume. Sounds tend to deflate when the volume crosses a certain threshold and lose out on the finer details until the volume gets cranked back up. When there’s a sleeping house to account for, it’s certainly worthy of consideration. Unless you’ve got a pair of decent headphones to pick up the slack, in which case, pump those rookie numbers up.

Our other gripe will likely only affect other tech reviewers, or those difficult neighbours who think blasting Nickelback at midnight is a good idea. It isn’t. It won’t be. Especially if it’s hooked up to the HS2100. That somewhat flimsy plastic build quality that we praised for knocking the price down, lets itself down when the volume reaches its limits. Those innards begin to hum and rattle more than we liked, Nickelback or not. If you’re the type to, uh, stand away from the thing blaring music, we reckon you’ll be just fine.

Oh, and we weren’t the biggest fans of the buttons in their current state. There’s a shabby remote nearby that nearly always made up for its misgivings, but don’t get your hopes up for any dedicated app support.

Hisense HS2100 soundbar + subwoofer verdict

If you’re looking for a soundbar that’ll cost less than R3,000, stop. It’s here. It’s there. Mess about and it won’t be for much longer. Look past the no-frills design and you’ll bring home a soundbar-subwoofer combo with a lot of heart (and sound, thankfully). It’s a concoction of all the best bits of a soundbar — clear sound, and high volumes — whose only fault is the lack of those frills. Want an app, buttonier buttons, and some surround-sound speakers? Expect to pay a few more zeroes at the till.