Amaysim announces great value 100GB SIM-only mobile plan

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If you're constantly going over your mobile data allowance, you may want to consider one of Amaysim's newly-announced SIM-only plans, with the carrier offering up to 100GB of data per 28 days for only $70.

Don't need quite that much data per month? Amaysim's $40 and $50 plans might be more your speed, offering 15GB and 20GB respectively over its standard 28-day cycle.

Each of these plans also offers unlimited national talk and text, unlimited international calls (to 10 specific countries) and 300 minutes of international calls to a further 22 countries.

Amaysim now selling phones & tablets outright

Along with these high data plans, Amaysim has also announced some impressively affordable mobile plans for those customers who don't spend as much time streaming video on their phones.

Amaysim's 1GB plan comes with unlimited talk and text and is just $10 per 28 days, while $20 will get you 2.5GB of data over the same period. For $30, you can get 5GB of data along with unlimited talk, text and international calls to 10 countries.

You can find out more about Amaysim's new mobile plans at the carrier's website.

The best value Australian SIM-only deals

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Charlie Brooker contemplating expanding the Black Mirror universe

Twisted-tech anthology series Black Mirror started out as a TV show, and has since spun off into a book (out next year), but don’t rule out further brand extensions, according to creator Charlie Brooker.

In an interview with Total Film magazine ahead of the launch of the new series on Netflix, Brooker first admits that he’s shifted his stance on an extended Black Mirror universe. “When people used to ask me, ‘Are these all set in the same universe?’, I’d go, ‘No.’

"I’ve now changed my position, and explicitly some of them are. And we’ve tied together several episodes in that story. But you don’t need to have seen any of those episodes.

“The basic rule is that you only have to watch one episode, if you want. But there are direct references to other things and other worlds and other stories we’ve done in that story.”

Talking specifically about the upcoming books, Brooker says he’s not dictating what the story ideas up, but is feeding back on his writers’ ideas. “It’s a different world. It’s its own separate thing, in a way, but it’s got to have shared Black Mirror DNA.”

And, when TF asks there are any other media Brooker would consider exploring Black Mirror in, he says, “Yes, games and comics are two worlds that I’ve thought about. It’s really getting the time that’s the challenge, at the moment. Because those are both things I can see us doing stuff in, but it would have to be right. I can’t say too much, but those are all things that I’ve thought about. There are other mediums and things that you contemplate.”

There’s currently no news on a launch date for series 4 of Black Mirror, but it’s expected to be on Netflix before the end of the year. You can find more on Black Mirror, including an on-set report from Iceland, inside the latest issue of Total Film magazine, which is on sale now.

For a steady stream of the best film and TV content all year round, subscribe to Total Film magazine

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The best Samsung Galaxy S8 deals in November 2017

Notwithstanding the release of the Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone X, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is still one of the most impressive phones ever released. On this page you can find, filter and compare all of the best Samsung Galaxy S8 deals currently available in the UK.

The price of the Galaxy S8 started high when the phone launched in the Spring and have gradually fallen since. But now the prices have started to go into free fall, prompted by Black Friday.

Underneath the comparison tool below, you'll find our editors' selections for all of the best value S8 deals currently available from the major networks, EE, O2, Vodafone and Three. We also have recommendations for the best value plans in our view, whether you're after the cheapest deal available, loads of data or a good balance of both.

Filter and compare all of the Galaxy S8 deals available in the UK: Our exclusive Samsung Galaxy S8 deals: The best Samsung Galaxy S8 deals for the big networks:

Here we'll walk you through all of the best value Samsung Galaxy S8 deals currently available from EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three in the UK (if you're in the US or Australia, we can help you find the best Galaxy S8 deals for the US and the best Australian Samsung Galaxy S8 deals).

Samsung Galaxy S8: consider going SIM only

If you’re determined to get yourself a Samsung Galaxy S8, the most economical way of doing it is to buy the phone outright and pair it with a SIM only deal. The £689 RRP is certainly high, but it can still work out a little cheaper on average over the two years - especially now that some retailers are selling it for £100 less than that. Check out our page dedicated to the best unlocked SIM free Galaxy S8 prices.

With the Galaxy S8, Samsung is getting nearer and nearer to smartphone perfection. The bezel-less design is something a little bit special in an area of tech that can sometimes feel like it's standing still. There are advancements with the splendid screen and fantastic 12MP camera, too.

Read TechRadar's full Samsung Galaxy S8 review

Samsung Galaxy S8 deals by network

Whatever your favoured network, however much data, calls and texts allowance you need, we've trawled the market to pick out our favourite Galaxy S8 deals below.

The best Samsung Galaxy S8 deals on O2 The best Samsung Galaxy S8 deals on Vodafone The best Samsung Galaxy S8 deal on Three

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Our exclusive broadband deal ends on Thursday: only £140 for one year

Here it is – the cheapest way you can currently get the internet in the UK. If you begrudge spending a penny more than you have to for home broadband, then this is the deal for you. And it's exclusive to TechRadar readers.

Until midnight on Thursday evening, you can sign up for this unprecedented low price for a year's worth of Origin broadband. Pay £139.99 upfront and get unlimited home internet for a year, with no bills to pay whatsoever. That's the equivalent of a mere £11.67 per month, which is over £6 a month cheaper than any other broadband deals right now – a massive £87 saving over the course of the year!

Keep reading for more information about this incredible exclusive offer for your new broadband package. And if the thought of splashing out all at once for your internet doesn't appeal, we have some pay monthly cheap broadband options that may suit you instead.

The UK's cheapest broadband deal – a TechRadar exclusive: Other great broadband deals: Click here to contrast and compare the best broadband deals around

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Google’s next Pixelbook could get an auto-opening lid with nifty security tricks

It’s not often that a concept which is completely new emerges in the field of laptops, but a freshly-granted Google patent points to an idea which certainly hasn’t been seen before – a notebook with a motorized lid which opens itself.

Your initial reaction is probably much the same as ours: is this just a rather gimmicky feature, or an accessibility feature that will only be of interest to people who find it difficult to lift the laptop lid when firing up their portable up?

But, looking beyond that initial reaction and digging deeper into the patent, this is actually a rather nifty idea which could change the whole way we interact with our laptops – or rather, the way our notebooks interact with us.

On a basic level, there’s something quite cool about a laptop which opens itself, of course. Google’s vision is for a ‘motorized hinge structure’ capable of both opening and closing the laptop lid, triggered by a touch-sensitive area on the surface of the lid. You just tap to open.

But it has more potential, as the patent (spotted by Patently Mobile) also describes sensors which detect where the user is in relation to the notebook. It also covers the possibility of having an image sensor (complete with facial recognition login capabilities) which can detect the user’s face and “continuously adjust the angle and position of the lid to keep the face in the field of view of the camera and/or keep the lid in the optimum viewing position”.

The last point is particularly interesting, with this potentially being a notebook that could adjust the display to maintain the best viewing angle for wherever the user happens to be (whether they lean back or forwards, and so forth).

Locking lid

The patent also discusses an alternative to touching the laptop lid to open it, namely the use of automatic detection of the user being in proximity to the machine triggering it opening and/or unlocking.

Similarly, when the user leaves the laptop, it could automatically close and/or lock. That would be a pretty major boon on the security front, particularly for forgetful types who may be prone to leaving their open notebook unattended.

The main potential downside here would be the fact that this is something else that could go wrong with your machine, and another point of potential mechanical failure – probably quite a substantial one by the sounds of things.

Of course, all this may come to nothing and it’s just a patent (originally filed at the end of 2013), but then again the next Pixelbook from Google (or a model further out in the future) could sport this motorized lid and the aforementioned tricks to boot.

Via: Engadget

Google’s Pixelbook makes it onto our best laptops list

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Bose adds Soundlink Micro to its family of mobile speakers

Bose has added a tiny new member to its Bluetooth-enabled portable speaker line-up. The SoundLink Micro is the company's smallest speaker to date and comes with an IPX7 waterproof rating.

The Soundlink Micro speaker uses Bluetooth to connect to your iOS or Android device and lets you playback music, answer calls or bring up Siri or Google Assistant.

Bose claims that "no other Bluetooth speaker this small sounds as good" and that "you'll never want to leave it behind."

Packed with a new custom transducer, miniature dual-passive radiators, and a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the Micro delivers up to 6 hours of audio from an enclosure that measures 9.83cm wide and deep, 3.48cm high and weighs just 0.29 kgs.

Bose soundlink

The Bose Micro is waterproof from the inside out and is made to withstand soapy water, chlorinated water, and salt water. Its silicone exterior protects it from scratches, dents, falls, dust and dirt.

Micro also works with Bose Connect app that can sync with other SoundLink speakers for Stereo Mode (left-right channel) or Party Mode (to play music simultaneously).

The new SoundLink Micro comes in black, midnight blue, and bright orange. It will be available from 29th November for AED 499 (US$135) at Bose retail stores and authorized Bose dealers.

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Tesla owner uses free Supercharger power for pure Bitcoin-mining profit

As Bitcoin's value has continued to surge, interest in Bitcoin mining has exploded, but it's struggled to remain profitable because of how energy intensive a process it is - leading to many spending more on electricity than they earn in Bitcoin.

Now one user has found an interesting way around the problem, by building a mining rig into the trunk of their Tesla. In doing so they'd theoretically be able to power their mining apparatus for free, and any Bitcoins earned would be pure profit.

As Bitcoin's popularity has continued to surge, its energy requirements have drawn increasing fire from critics. The currency doesn't rely on a central bank, and so it relies on multiple people ('miners') doing the same calculations in order to check that no one is cheating the system.

Intense energy

However, this doubling up of effort means that the network requires far more energy than conventional transactions. In fact, the whole network consumes more electricity in a year, according to the Guardian, than the whole of Ireland.

These intense energy requirements are bad news for both the environment and miners, leading to alternative solutions being developed. Motherboard reports that miners in China are turning to hydro energy, while European operations are relying on wind.

This Tesla solution however, is only good for the miner, since it draws from a power grid that still overwhelmingly relies on fossil fuels. Another criticism is that it could increase wait times at Superchargers for other drivers.

However, as Bitcoin's value continues to rise, miners are only going to get more and more creative with how they approach the currency's energy issues.

How to buy Bitcoins in 2017 Best mining GPU 2017: the best graphics cards for mining Bitcoin Source: Electrek

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi avoids turning Luke into 'Obi-Two', says Mark Hamill

We all know Luke Skywalker, right? Wide-eyed farmboy turned interplanetary swashbuckler, the new hope that brought the power of the Light Side to that galaxy far, far away? Think again.

New Star Wars movie The Last Jedi is set to bring us a very different take on the iconic hero – one that disturbed star Mark Hamill when he first read the film’s screenplay.

"If I was the same person from Jedi without the trauma, I would be just another version of Obi-Wan, and we’ve already seen that.here

“As you know from the trailer, Luke says it’s time for the Jedi to end,” he says, speaking exclusively to SFX. “When I read it I went ‘What?’. He was always the most optimistic character, who believed with all his heart and soul in what Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi taught him. I said ‘What could have happened in that gap 'that would make him to be this cynical hermit who wants to end the Jedi?’”

Hamill reveals he had to trust in the Force of director Rian Johnson. “It was very troubling for me, but I came to realise that Rian wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before.

"If I was the same person from Jedi without the trauma, I would be just another version of Obi-Wan, and we’ve already seen that. And since it’s not my story anymore, now it’s Rey’s story, I think you can be more flexible in terms of how the supporting characters like myself are handled.”

So how does it feel to find the fate of the character you’ve played for 40 years in new hands? “You can’t help but feel a little ownership even though I didn’t create it,” he tells SFX.

“Then you think ‘These young punks think that they know Luke better than me!’ But this is the first generation of filmmakers who were fans, who were kids when the movies first came out, and now they’re reinterpreting them for a new generation.”

You’ll find more essential coverage of the worlds of science fiction, fantasy and horror in every issue of SFX, the UK’s best-selling sci-fi magazine.

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Best iPad games: the top free and paid-for titles around

No-one predicted the meteoric rise of gaming on iOS, and we're not sure anyone knew what the iPad was for at all when it first appeared.

However, Apple's tablet has become a very able gaming platform. With more screen space than the iPhone, games have the means to be more immersive. The iPad's therefore a perfect platform for adventure games, strategy titles and puzzlers.

Not sure which iPad is best? We've got them listed on our best iPad ranking - or you can check out the best tablets list to see the full range available now.

But, just like the iPhone, there are so many iPad games that it's tough to unearth the gems and avoid the dross. That's our mission here - to bring you the very best iPad games, mixing traditional fare with titles that could only have appeared on a capable and modern multi-touch device.

New: Flower ($4.99/£4.99/AU$7.99)

Flower is a game that revels in bombing along as a petal on the wind, scything your way through fields of lush grassland, and soaring into the air above mountains and windmills.

Each environment starts with you playing as an individual petal. As you collide with other flowers, they bloom and offer a petal of their own to join yours, which soon becomes a spinning, swooping conga of color, wheeling above Flower’s tiny, beautiful worlds.

There’s a smattering of exploration and light puzzling in Flower, primarily to unlock more parts of each level, and discover secrets. But mostly this game is about enjoying an immediate, accessible, beautiful journey that has an emotional core and an exhilarating edge.

PUSH comes across a bit like a set of logic tests plonked in front of you by aliens aboard a minimalist UFO. Each of the game’s challenges takes the form of a small device that hovers before you. Each of these devices has a number of buttons, and some have other features, too, such as the ability to rotate when a glowing pink button is prodded.

Every puzzle’s objective is identical: all of the buttons must be pushed. The trick is in figuring out precisely how this is achieved. It’s hardly a spoiler to note that in the earliest levels, you’re mostly finding pairs.

But later on, the game’s sense of logic becomes a mite more complex as it develops a playfulness that nicely contrasts with the rigid visual forms of the puzzles themselves.

FROST is a thoughtful, tactile game that feels like a living piece of art. Across dozens of scenes, sparks and barriers scythe across the screen while you direct flocking neon creatures towards orbs. Once the orbs fill, you can move on to the next challenge.

Ultimately, FROST is a path-finding puzzler. You use logic to understand the conditions before you, and how to meet your goal. But FROST feels very different from its contemporaries. The abstract visuals are exciting and fresh, but also it really wants you to play, experiment and discover.

Most of the puzzles tend to be simple, and you could probably blaze through the entire game in a few hours. But doing so would miss the point, because FROST is an iPad experience to bask in and savor.

cityglitch is a puzzle game set in a world of haunted cities. These are ‘glitching out’, and need the powers of a flying witch. She scoots about, avoiding spooks and skittering things, and lighting the runes that release the glitch.

This all plays out in turn-based fashion on a five-by-five grid. Success in solving any given puzzle often depends on figuring out how obstacles and foes behave, and countering their effects by moving appropriately. An optional moves indicator helps – it’s especially handy when you realize you’ve made 47 moves on a puzzle that’s beatable in five.

Given the diminutive size of the play area and its overtly old-school CRT stylings, you’d think cityglitch an ideal iPhone game. But somehow it works better on iPad, with a fantastic mix of bold, brash visuals, tactile puzzling, and the way it regularly shakes up the complexity of the challenges you face.

Freeways explores interchange design for autonomous vehicles, which sounds deathly dull. It isn’t. Just as Mini Metro coaxed something gorgeous and essential from underground railway maps, so too does Freeways create a hugely entertaining game from the drudgery of urban planning.

Each map sector provides you with highways that must be connected to each other. Hold a sign and you get an idea of traffic flow and the links you must make. You then scribble roads down, adding overpasses and increasingly complex routes when the realization dawns about how tough this task can be.

The drawing tools and visuals are crude, and there’s no undo – mess up and you must start that particular section of the map from scratch. But the underlying gameplay is enthralling, not least when you tap ‘simulate’ to watch your layout’s traffic move in fast forward, hoping to avoid a dreaded traffic jam.

Active Soccer 2 DX is a love letter to classic soccer videogames. Eschewing photo-realism and semi-scripted canned goals, this one’s all about pitting the dexterity of your thumbs against a tough computer AI, with tiny players darting about a massive pitch.

At first, it can feel a bit like pinball, as you’re mercilessly thrashed again and again. But spend time mastering the controls and tweaking the setup to your liking (there are several viewpoints, for example), and there’s a lot to like here.

You can play quick one-off games, or immerse yourself in an expansive career mode. And while it all feels a bit rough and ready compared to the games playing in the big leagues, it’s an awful lot more fun on iPad than mobile takes on FIFA or PES, providing a lovely level of replay-ability even after multiple sessions.

Space Junk is what happens when someone rethinks classic arcade blaster Asteroids and goes all-out, souping it up for the iPad. The basics remain: you’re floating in space, blowing everything around you to smithereens. Big things, when blasted, split into smaller things. UFOs take occasional pot-shots. Anything that hits you kills you.

But everything’s handled with such grace and good humor that you can’t help but be enthralled. The controls – despite being dreaded virtual buttons – work nicely, aided by subtle inertia on your little spaceman.

For those who prefer precision over random blasting, there’s a bonus for careful shots. And even the varied level names and themes raise a smile, such as ‘So Long, Space Shuttle’ (blowing NASA’s finest to bits) and ‘Victorians Got Here’, with its steampunk space stations.

Neo Angle is an engaging puzzle game set in a minimal world of neon grids suspended in space. The aim is to reach a goal, but because you’re moving a triangle, the pivot point shifts depending on the direction you’re moving in.

At first, this makes little odds – early challenges are essentially tutorials to help you understand the basics. But the game then lobs fuel cells, switches, and gates into the mix – along with a twist that when you reach a milestone, you can’t backtrack.

Because you also can’t cross tiles you’ve already trundled over, Neo Angle quickly shifts from casual noodly puzzler to brain-teaser. You’ll end up staring at the screen, several restarts later, swearing blind you can’t thread your way around a particular level peppered with teleporters and switches. As ever, it’s all about finding the right angle.

Standby is a brutally tough yet rewarding platform game. Your little hero darts about angular levels, sliding along while shooting doors, and bounding about like a hyperactive flea.

You’ll die many times before reaching your goal, and then learn the entire successful journey took a mere handful of seconds. To add insult to injury, the game will point out even that was way beyond the target.

This one’s an ego-checker, then, and just – barely – on the right side of the maddeningly frustrating/‘one more go’ divide.

Mostly, it’s the breakneck pace combined with short levels that make Standby ideal fodder for picking up at any point, to take another crack at a level that’s killed you dozens of times already. But it also looks and sounds great, and boasts smart, finger-twisting level design.

An iPad’s a must, too – given the split-second timing required, Standby really isn’t a game to be squinting at on a tiny screen.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 2 is a racing management game without boring bits. Whereas many management simulations tend to be glorified spreadsheets, this game gives you just enough control, before hurling you into the action – surprisingly tense and exciting top-down races. (This being surprising because you’re essentially watching numbered discs scoot about circuits.)

You can get a feel for how things work in one-off races, where you fiddle with car set-ups during qualifying, and then strategize regarding pit-stops and tyre types in the main race. But the meat of the game is a full-on championship, where you’re juggling cars and drivers, sponsors and money, and sporadic problems that crop up.

Like the cars it features, Motorsport Manager Mobile 2 is streamlined and slick. There’s admittedly not too much depth, but if you fancy delving into an accessible, immediately rewarding management sim, this game takes the checkered flag.

Reckless Racing HD is a top-down racer that first graced the App Store way back in 2012. It’s different from its contemporaries in having you coax battered vehicles around ramshackle tracks.

There’s no slick tarmac – bar a mall parking lot that forms part of a course. More often, you’re zooming about the likes of a wrecker’s yard, or dirt roads near an old church that rises majestically out of the screen like it’s about to poke you in the eye.

Given a 64-bit reprieve in mid-2017, Reckless Racing HD is a fantastic blast from the past. The cars have a great sense of weight – the physics when racing is just about perfect. And although it now looks a bit rough and ready, it’s decidedly more reckless (and fun) than its overly polished sequel, and includes the online multiplayer that the most recent entry in the series lacks.

Osmos for iPad is an ‘ambient’ arcade game, and although it started life on PC, it’s a game that only really makes sense on a touchscreen.

Across eight distinct worlds, you control a tiny ‘mote’, propelled by ejecting pieces of itself, its direction of travel determined by your taps. Collide with a smaller mote and it’s absorbed. Your aim is to ‘become the biggest’.

When other motes are stationary, victory’s relatively easy – although very crowded levels require careful taps and judicious use of a time-warp slow-down feature.

But when levels feature ferocious motes intent on your demise, or the game shifts from microscopic warfare to motes speeding around a central giant – like celestial bodies orbiting a sun – brains and fingers alike will suddenly find Osmos a much sterner test.

At every point in the journey, Osmos is magnificent. Convince a friend to buy the game and engaging multiplayer arenas await too.

Mos Speedrun is an engaging speed-run Mario-ish platform game, featuring a little bug zooming through 25 hand-crafted levels. The crude visuals feel decidedly old-school, featuring the usual floating platforms and patrolling enemies that mostly lack even the slightest hint of intelligence.

But Mos Speedrun turns out to be one of the finest games of its kind on iPad.

First, the level design is really smart, forcing you to learn the precise position of every platform, gap, and enemy, if you want to beat the speed-run target. Secondly, each level has alternate targets – finding a hidden skull, and collecting all the loot – that boost replay value, but also force you to shake up your approach.

Finally, Mos Speedrun amusingly subverts the idea of ‘ghost’ replays. Die a lot and you end up battling your way through a level alongside the spirits of the fallen from your previous failures. It’s bonkers – and humbling – when dozens of the things are skittering about.

Fowlst is a high-octane two-thumb arcade game featuring an owl cast into hell. Quite what the owl did to deserve such a fate, we’ve no idea (and the game’s not telling), but the result is a deliriously ridiculous and frenetic smash ’em up.

You control the damned bird by tapping the left or right of the screen. Each tap has the bird perform a brief upwards thrust, before gravity does its thing. Your aim: smash into angry red demons, avoiding both their projectiles, and also local hazards (deadly saw blades; speed-sapping water).

Defeat all demons in one room, and you can move on to the next – while hoping it won’t house a gigantic owl-killing boss.

A special power button is annoyingly placed at the top-right of the screen, but otherwise this game feels well suited to iPad, because your thumbs don’t cover the action. And, believe us, there’s a lot of action to be had here – and an awful lot of owl death. Turns out it’s not easy to survive in hell.

Kalimba is an inventive and compelling platform game for people bored with controlling just one character at once. Here, you help two colored totem pieces avoid deadly pits and roaming enemies – and you control both simultaneously.

Initially, you’re eased in by way of a split-screen set-up where the totems don’t meet. At all times, you must be mindful that when one totem’s on safe ground, the other may be seconds from doom. And then the game really starts shaking things up.

You’re soon faced with color barriers that force you to repeatedly swap the totems around, the prospect of ‘stacking’ and double-jumping to reach gems, gravity flipping, totems that fly through the air while their partners very much don’t, and chase sequences featuring massive, terrifying bosses.

If it’s all a bit much alone, there’s a superb two-player single-device mode – although how much actual co-operation there’ll be when you’re juggling four totems and your friend hurls you into a lava pit, it’s hard to say.

Mobile gaming’s early days featured all manner of straightforward shooters that had you desperately fending off hordes of aggressors coming from above. No Stick Shooter recalls Space Invaders, in enemies heading downwards towards your defenses, but also Missile Command, in that your weapon’s rooted to the spot, and success depends on precision shooting.

However, unlike those games, No Stick Shooter is a resolutely modern affair. On selecting a weapon, shots are unleashed by tapping the display. For a very brief period, this is quite a leisurely process, picking off asteroids.

But the game soon bares its teeth, flinging all manner of neon foes your way, which must be defeated by deft fingerwork and tactical weapon selection, including crackling lightning and gigantic red laser beams.

On an iPhone this is a terrible game because it’s too fiddly; but on an iPad, No Stick Shooter is a wonderful, vibrant, thrilling shoot ’em up that’s not to be missed.

The iPad’s no stranger to multiplayer gaming, but more often than not, modern multiplayer happens online. The idea with Bloop is not only to get several participants in the same room, but also crowded round a single device, and then – horrors – invading each other’s personal space.

The game itself is extremely simple. Up to four players select a color, and they then seek out and tap ‘their’ squares as quickly as they can. Across several rounds, the squares gradually get smaller, and the tapping gets more frenzied, with hand collisions aplenty. At the end of the game, Bloop tots up the score and that’s your lot.

It’s simple, but that’s the point - Bloop is a game anyone can learn in seconds. But its straightforward nature combined with bold colors and retro sound effects makes for a fast-paced and amusing party game.

Steredenn is an endless horizontal shooter, infused with the beating heart of the best retro blasters around, topped off with a head-nodding guitar-laden soundtrack.

Unlike most games of its ilk, it works brilliantly on iPad. The responsive controls have you drag the left of the screen to move your ship, and tap the right to fire at incoming waves of enemies. A flick of your right thumb switches weapons, and if your ship darts beneath a digit, crosshairs pinpoint its position.

And you’ll need that knowledge at all times, because enemies come thick and fast in all their chunky-pixel glory. But so too do power-ups – and learning the effectiveness of weapons against specific opponents boosts your long(er)-term survival.

Well, that and sometimes bolting a massive whirling saw blade to your ship, like some kind of space lunatic. It’s superb, raucous, shooty fun.

It takes quite a lot to make a solitaire game tense, but Card Thief manages, mostly by smashing dealing out cards into turn-based stealth-oriented puzzling.

As the titular villain, you map out pathways across the cards on the screen, figuring out how to grab loot without losing too many stealth points, which are depleted on battling adversaries.

Repeat play is rewarded by improving your strategies, unlocking new kit to help increase your score, and eventually finding your way to new missions with different foes.

Like any take on solitaire, Card Thief does get a bit repetitive, but this is also a game you’ll be able to happily play a round of a day for many weeks, gradually improving your ability to sneak about and become a master pickpocket.

Online multiplayer is increasingly commonplace, whether battling a live opponent, or playing against a recorded ‘ghost’ lurking in the system. But Mucho Party reasons it’s a lot of fun to play a game against someone in the same room as you – and in this case, on the same device.

After setting things up with a few mug-shots (which then appear within your on-screen avatar), you partake in a randomized selection of mini-games. These range from fairly typical sports efforts, such as hurdles, to wackier battles where you must rapidly silence a pile of blaring cellphones.

It all comes across like a colorful multiplayer take on WarioWare, and is a perfect fit for iPad - at least if you pay the IAP to unlock all 44 games rather than being stuck with the miserly 5 you get for free.

This fast-paced platform game is brutal and brilliant. Your little pixelated hero auto-runs through vibrantly colored environments, which you must learn how to traverse by way of jump and action buttons.

The difficulty level recalls the sadistic beating hearts of Super Hexagon and RunGunJumpGun, but Miles & Kilo’s charm is such you’ll keep returning for more, even as the game constantly showcases your lack of gaming prowess.

Much of this is down to the sheer variety on offer. This is a game that never sits still, whether having you leap about colorful islands, careen along in a minecart, perform Sonic-style targeted attacks, or hold onto your dog’s lead as he belts after a fleeing cat.

But also, each level is brief - just 30 seconds long. You therefore always think you’re within spitting distance of the finish line, even when that line may take dozens of attempts to reach.

If you’ve played a game based on just clicking before, you’ll be aware they’re barely games. You click (or tap) away, earning points to spend on upgrades that automatically click on your behalf – until you end up with an absurd number of clicks per second, to pay for yet more upgrades.

Through minimal imagery, a gorgeous soundtrack, and quite a lot of madness, Spaceplan just about manages to subvert the genre and become something different... something better.

Really, Spaceplan is a semi-interactive story; the clicker bit’s an excuse to string things out for pacing purposes. To say too much would spoil things, but it involves a planet, a “total misunderstanding of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time”, and quite a lot of technology powered by potatoes.

It also has an ending. Have it run on your screen over a few days for a rewarding - if brief - take on a gaming genre that’s usually entirely forgettable.

Monument Valley 2 echoes its predecessor in having you explore isometric Escher-like worlds packed full of optical illusions. The aim in each level is to reach a goal, which is often achieved by manipulating the landscape, creating pathways that in the real world simply could not exist.

It’s a visually stunning game, with tiny levels crammed with vibrancy and details, making it ideal for the iPad’s larger display. The narrative featuring a mother and daughter also satisfies, but is careful to leave the experience with a sense of mystery. The levels are diverse in feel, demands, and structure.

If there’s any downside it’s that Monument Valley 2 is short and largely bereft of challenge. But treat it as a couple of hours immersed in a unique and beautiful universe and you’ll find it’s well worth the outlay.

It says something about Euclidean Lands that it feels like a proper turn-based quest, despite taking place on the faces of minimal cubes suspended in space.

You must plan ahead, responding to enemy movements and the squares they defend. Carefully position yourself to bump them off, much like in Hitman GO. Rinse and repeat.

Only here, the entire game world shifts and changes as you rearrange the landscape, as if it were a giant Rubik’s Cube. Also, the puzzles are frequently deviously clever, and they vary throughout the game’s five chapters.

No sooner do you think you’ve got the game sussed than it hurls another brain-twister your way, or shakes things up with a boss battle where you no longer have control over the cube.

The game’s sheer quality is also evident when you consider that although it riffs off of Hitman GO and Monument Valley, it doesn’t come off as a pastiche; at the very least, Euclidean Lands is the equal to either of those classic titles. Buy it.

Zombies have taken over the USA, and so it’s road trip time in Death Road to Canada, the aim being to flee to the safety of the land of the moose. The tiny snag: the aforementioned zombies, and the fact you start out in Florida.

The game itself is an action-oriented role-playing title, switching between top-down shooting/scavenging scenes, choose-your-own-adventure text sections, and claustrophobic and downright terrifying sieges that lock you for a set time in a confined space with hundreds of the undead.

Actually, it’s not that terrifying, given that Death Road to Canada looks like a game from the 1990s. But it is excellent fun, despite some slightly slippy virtual controls. (If you’ve an Made for iPhone controller, use that to boost your zombie-killing prowess.)

In the inky blackness of space, humans have started mining massive space rocks, and it turns out aliens have a big problem with that.

Enter: the hero of Darkside, who has to blow up said aliens and, for some reason, all the rocks the humans are supposed to be mining. Videogame logic!

It all comes across like someone gleefully mashed together two classic arcade titles – Asteroids (shoot rocks until they’re tiny enough to obliterate) and Robotron (the original twin-stick shooter) – and wrapped the result around beautifully rendered planetoids.

Although there’s a free version, splash out for the paid release and you get smart bombs in the arcade mode, and two extra modes to try: one being mission-based, and the other being a tough endless mode for cocky veterans.

The end result is tons of shooty fun that’s accessible enough for newcomers, but that provides a stern test for even the swiftest of trigger fingers.

The notion of mashing up golf with a side-on platform game might seem odd. But with Golf Zero, the end result is positively psychotic, given that the platforming bit echoes super-tricky twitch titles like Super Meat Boy.

Each side-on course finds you majestically leaping about tiny islands, trying hard to not end up in the water or impaled on a spike. On finding the hole, you smack your balls in its general direction, hoping for the best.

Mercifully, it goes all slo-mo – Matrix-style – when you’ve got your club out. Even so, success can be elusive, and you’ll likely keep hitting restart in a frenzied manner until you nail a hole.

At least that’s the case if you pay the one-off IAP to nuke the ads, which derail momentum in what’s otherwise a compelling and fun – if sometimes murderously challenging – slice of arcade craziness.

In The Big Journey, rotund cat Mr. Whiskers is on a mission to locate the maker of the dumplings he loves to scoff. His journey takes place across colorful landscapes packed with hills and tunnels to traverse, bugs to munch, hostile critters to avoid, and dumplings that make him instantly fatter.

The game plays out as a sort-of platformer. It brings to mind lost iOS classic Rolando and PSP hit LocoRoco, in utilizing a tilt-based mechanic to make the protagonist move, and then prodding the touchscreen to make him leap into the air.

But The Big Journey is a comparatively sedate affair compared to many of its contemporaries – a pleasant title that encourages exploration and drinking in its visuals rather than a breakneck dash to the finish line.

It turns out the way to make sliding puzzles interesting again is to combine them with 1980s horror flicks – and then combine that with chunky Crossy Road-style visuals.

In Slayaway Camp, then, the mechanics are familiar: swipe to make your character slide until it hits something; repeat (tactically) to hit several targets and then finally reach a goal. But the way everything’s portrayed is decidedly oddball, with lashings of chunky retro gore.

The combination of ‘twisted’ and ‘oddly adorable’ provides a great hook, but it’s the puzzles that keep you playing. Well, unless you get a bit too much into the blood-curdling screams – in which case, please seek help.

Many path-finding puzzlers have you use arrow tiles to direct auto-running critters to goals. (Long-time gamers may fondly remember ChuChu Rocket! as a shining example).

Causality is in similar territory, only you also get to control time itself, by dragging up and down the screen.

Early on, this primarily allows you to fix errors – going back to try again when a sprinting astronaut is eaten, or when you run out of your limited number of steps. Before long, though, you’re hurling people through time portals, so they can assist their past selves.

It’s mind-bending stuff, but also one of the finest puzzle games of modern times. It’s also perfect for iPad, due to its visually dazzling and tactile nature.

Evergrow is one of those rare titles that can only really work on the iPad. It stars a grinning square floating in space whose only goal in life is to grow. In the void, other squares lurk. Like-colored ones can be attached; collisions with wrong-colored ones cause damage. Grow enough and you head to the next level.

When things get hectic, multi-touch allows you to manage several squares simultaneously. But the game’s well-suited to the iPad in other areas, too: the large display is ideal for interaction, and the squarish aspect ratio allows you to see incoming hazards more easily than on a widescreen iPhone.

It’s a simple idea, well-executed. And what might have been a gimmicky game has plenty of staying power, too, since Evernote regularly lobs new ideas, weapons and foes into the mix.

There’s something gleefully classic about SpellTower. It marries very old-school word games – in the sense of paper-based crosswords and word searches – with much-loved arcade puzzlers. The result is the best word game on iOS.

Tower mode has you face a stack of letters, tapping out snaking words that disappear when submitted, the tiles above then falling into the gaps. A keen sense of planning is required to balance letter stacks and ensure tiles aren’t left stranded.

Additional modes soon open up: Puzzle adds a new row of letters for every word you submit; Rush throws in a timer; and Debate pits two players against each other. iPad Pro owners also get Super Tower mode, offering a colossal 432 tiles and the potential for blockbuster scores – if you can find the right words lurking within the jumble.

Described by its creator as a literary RPG, Voyageur mixes text adventure with space trading. Imagine seminal classic Elite combined with Lifeline and you’re on the right track.

The story begins with you having bolted an alien ‘Descent Device’ to your ship, enabling faster-than-light travel – but only towards the center of the galaxy. You embark on a one-way journey, stopping off on planets to trade, explore, and become embroiled in side quests.

With the game being text-oriented and algorithmically generated, descriptions and events tend to repeat quite often. Still, if you at any point feel you’ve seen a planet before, you can leave with a few taps – and there are always new things waiting to be found. For anyone armed with an imagination, Voyageur becomes a unique, captivating experience.

Hidden object games are often dull and can be heavy on the pocket, demanding you spend lots of money on IAP. Hidden Folks isn’t either of those things, and has the added bonus of being hugely charming.

You’re presented with hand-drawn scenes, each of which has a strip across the bottom, depicting objects to find. You can tap any of them for a clue, but the scene can also be interacted with, for example to rustle bushes to find someone lurking behind them.

Cute mouth-originated sound effects pepper proceedings, and the pace is varied with differing map sizes, and the odd playable scene, such as helping someone to a destination by adjusting the landscape.

Thus, with its wit and smarts, Hidden Folks very much stands out from the crowd – unlike some of the tiny critters it tasks you with locating.

The basic mechanics of Splitter Critters resemble 1990s arcade puzzler Lemmings, in that you guide marching creatures to a goal. But whereas you armed lemmings with tools, Splitter Critters has you slice up the screen with a finger, so you can adjust the landscape to create new pathways.

This is clever, but Splitter Critters isn’t done. The undo button reverts your last cut, but not the position of critters. Undo therefore becomes a device vital for completing levels, rather than merely a means of reverting errors.

Throughout its length, the game keeps adding new elements, such as ocean worlds and a grim underground base full of critter-frying lasers. And although the challenge never rises above slight, the charm and tactile nature of Splitter Critters makes it a joyful journey, especially on the iPad’s larger display.

Twisted Lines is another great iOS puzzler with simple rules, but also level design seemingly created to drive you to despair. Each of the 100 levels involves you directing a little colored block that leaves a trail of two colors, but should you cross over the trail, your block changes color to match the first line it hits.

This is pretty important, given that your task is to scoop up colored blocks littered about claustrophobic, deviously designed single-screen puzzles. From the start, Twisted Lines is a pleasingly tricky challenge, and it keeps adding further complications – trail erasers; teleporters – to keep you on your toes.

If there’s any drawback to the game, it’s the strict linear unlock of levels (presumably, this is designed to urge you to grab hint IAPs if you get stuck). But other than that niggle, Twisted Lines is a brain-teaser among the very best on iPad.

Although there’s a hint of Limbo about the silhouette-heavy imagery in Yuri, this is a much sunnier – and speedier – affair. An exploration-oriented platform game, Yuri finds the titular protagonist belting about on a skateboard-like bed.

Visually, the game resembles a living papercraft project, with cut-out creatures milling about, and subtle textures providing depth, but it’s the feel of the game that draws you in.

This is a world where every nook and cranny begs to be scrutinized and, because you get endless lives, there’s little frustration when you zoom along at Sonic speeds and suddenly find yourself at the bottom of a ravine. You can just try again – perhaps knocking back the speed a touch.

Old-hands might gripe Yuri is a bit simplistic and shallow, because there’s little to do beyond exploration. But then that’s the point, and so if you fancy delving into an interesting arty world on your iPad, Yuri’s a good bet.

This old-school adventure game is all the more impressive when you realize it’s the work of one man. From the delicate pixel art to the smart story – all delivered in rhyme – you’d think a team of clever people had beavered away on Milkmaid of the Milky Way rather than a sole individual.

The star of the show is Ruth. Her tools have vanished in a storm, and she needs to make cheese and butter to sell. It’s all very slow and relaxing – until a spaceship abruptly shows up and rudely steals her cows, propelling her into a rather more out-of-this-world experience.

If you’ve played this kind of game before, you’ll know what to expect – explore your surroundings, find objects, and figure out where to use them.

But the difficulty curve is gentle enough to snare newcomers, while the feel and polish of the game should help it appeal to anyone who spent years taking on Lucasfilm fare on a PC.

First appearances aren’t everything. Initially, Super Gridland looks much like any other match game. You swap tiles, try to match three or more, and with a little luck initiate cascades that further your cause.

From the off, though, there’s something odd about Super Gridland. You’re collecting resources, and building structures rather than gaining points. And as the sun sinks below the horizon, everything goes dark, the tiles spin, and you find yourself fending off all manner of horrors.

Much of the magic in Super Gridland is in figuring out how everything works, and so we won’t spoil things.

Suffice to say: this is a clever, distinctive entry in a packed match game genre. And while the journey itself is quite short, it’ll make you think far more than contemporaries only interested in how fast you can swap tiles.

There are games that scream for attention and then there are creations like Klocki. This somewhat minimal puzzler is as relaxed as they come, with its lack of a time limit and serene soundtrack that bubbles away as you play. The tasks also – initially at least – border on the meditative, early puzzles being very simple to complete.

The basic aim is to fashion complete lines, which is achieved by manipulating tiles on the surfaces of 3D shapes. At first, this is just a case of swapping a few tiles around, but later levels become quite devious in adding new ideas and challenges to trip you up.

Even so, Klocki never becomes frustrating. This is a no-stress puzzler, ideal for winding down rather than being a game that will wind you up. But even if you typically prefer tougher fare, give Klocki a go, because its tiny isometric worlds prove rewarding and mesmerizing in equal measure.

You might balk at Pac-Man appearing in a best-of list for iPad games, but this isn’t your father’s arcade game. Sure, the basics remain: scoot about a maze, eating dots, avoiding ghosts, and turning the tables on them on eating a power pill. But Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is significantly faster, has neon-clad mazes and a thumping soundtrack, and the gameplay’s evolved in key areas.

First, the maze is split in two. Clear one side and a special object appears on the other, which refills the cleared side when eaten. Secondly, snoozing ghosts can be brushed past to fashion a spectral conga to shepherd, contain, and not blunder into – until you eat a power pill, reverse course, and eat your pursuers to amass huge points.

In short, this game is superb, transforming an ancient classic into something fresh and exciting. And importantly, it works best on the large iPad display, because your fingers don’t get in the way of your frenetic dot-gobbling.

In the future, it turns out people have tired of racers zooming about circuits on the ground. In AG Drive, tracks soar into the air – akin to massive roller-coasters along which daredevil racers of the day speed, gunning for the checkered flag.

This is a pure racing game – all about learning the twists and turns of every circuit, and the thrill of breakneck speed. The only weapons you have available are strategy and skill. And this suits the kind of stripped-back controls that work best on iPad – tilting to steer, and using thumbs to accelerate, brake, and trigger a turbo.

Also, while some slightly irksome IAP lurks, there’s little need to splash out. The game’s difficulty curve is such that you can gradually improve your skills and ship, working your way through varied events until you become an out-of-this-world racing legend. (Or, if you’re a bit rubbish, an ugly stain on the side of a massive metal building.)

Most city building games are about micro-management – juggling budgets, people’s demands, and limited space. But Concrete Jungle rethinks the genre as a brilliant brain-bending puzzler. And here, restrictions regarding where you can build are of paramount importance.

At any point, you have seven rows with six lots where you can place a building. Said buildings are served semi-randomly from a card deck. Each column needs to have enough housing points for it to vanish and unlock more space on which to build. The snag: other buildings boost or reduce the points allocated to adjacent lots.

You must therefore take great care to place your factories (bad) and parks (good), realizing that any complacency may be severely punished several moves down the line, when you suddenly find yourself faced with a slum of your own making.

Treasure Buster comes from the Angry Birds school of game design – at least in terms of its insanely simple controls. You drag back on a little dungeoneer, who upon release bounces about the screen, scooping up loot and smashing into enemies. Clear a room and you venture further into the dungeon, unearthing new adversaries that try to kill you in excitingly varied ways.

Chances are your tactics won’t vary a great deal – these kinds of titles (which take influence from Japanese pachinko, a style of mechanical arcade game) often devolve into firing at maximum strength and hoping for the best.

But there is at least some nuance here, in locating or buying new powers, and defeating bosses by way of amazing pool-like rebound shots.

And at any rate, Treasure Hunter looks superb on the iPad screen, with an immediacy and energy that’s compelling enough to counter any lack of depth.

Although it's almost 13 years old, Rome: Total War is one of the best games of 2017 thanks to its re-release on iPad.

You can now rule an empire from your Apple slate in this strategy game that defined the genre. You start the game as one of six factions, aiming to throttle enemies and conquer the known world. This historical simulator will force you to wield your tactical brain, as well as demonstrating your diplomatic and fighting skills.

You may not think this complicated battle simulator would work on iPad, but Feral Interactive have reworked the game enough that it works brilliantly with a touchscreen. You’ll want a larger iPad to play this though, as you’ll need to do a lot of reading within the menus.

But if you have a sizeable slate this is essential, and the Barbarian Invasion expansion is coming to iPad very soon as well, so there's a lot of life in this game.

It’s ‘maniacally yet methodically skidding through dirt tracks time’ in Go Rally, an overhead arcade-oriented take on zooming along like a lunatic, against the clock.

Aside from some nicely rendered courses, Go Rally’s a winner through its controls, solid physics, and relatively short tracks. Playing doesn’t feel like an ordeal to be overcome – instead, the brevity of the courses makes Go Rally akin to a Trials title, where you can conceivably master every turn.

The career mode eases you in gently, gradually unlocking access to new cars and tougher races. And if you get fed up with what the game throws at you, it’s even possible to scribble on your iPad’s screen to fashion new tracks of your own. The tracks of your dreams – and everyone else’s nightmares – can then be inflicted on the world at large.

Coming across like the mutant offspring of ALONE… and Jetpack Joyride, RunGunJumpGun is a murderously difficult yet gripping auto runner/shooter.

You blast your way through 120 levels set across three unique worlds, but even endless ammunition and lives don’t help, because every level is packed full of spikes, projectiles and massive saw blades – plus, the protagonist is a massive idiot.

Instead of carefully picking his way through the carnage, he belts along, using his gun to blast ahead (whereupon he loses altitude) or downwards (in order to gain height). You’re therefore charged with juggling these minimal controls while figuring out a route, getting the timing precisely right so you’re not killed and catapulted back to the start – repeatedly.

If that’s not quite enough for you, each level includes collectables, designed as a “gift to self-hating completionists” by the game’s creator. Masochistic? Quite possibly. Ingenious fun-infused havoc? Definitely.

Traveling on underground railways can be a fairly hideous experience, which is perhaps why Mini Metro is such a pleasant surprise. The game is all about designing and managing a subway, using an interface akin to a minimal take on the schematics usually found hanging on subway walls. And it’s glorious.

Periodically, new stations appear. You drag lines between them, and position trains on them, in order to shepherd passengers to their stops. All the while, movement generates a hypnotic, ambient soundtrack.

Over time, things admittedly become more fraught than during these relaxing beginnings. The demands of an increasing number of passengers forces you to juggle trains and rearrange lines until you’re inevitably overwhelmed. But the nature of the game is such that this never frustrates – instead, you’ll want to take another journey - hugely unlike when suffering the real thing.

From the creators of Machinarium and Botanicula, Samorost 3 is an eye-dazzlingly gorgeous old-school point-and-tap puzzler.

It follows the adventures of a gnome who sets out to search the cosmos and defeat a deranged monk who's smashed up a load of planets by attacking them with a steampunk hydra.

The wordless tale primarily involves poking about the landscape, revealing snatches of audio that transform into dreamlike animations hinting at what you should do next.

Although occasionally opaque, the puzzles are frequently clever, and the game revels in the joy of exploration and play. It's also full of heart – a rare enchanting title that gives your soul a little lift.

RPG combat games usually involve doddering about dungeons with a massive stick, walloping goblins. But in Solitairica, cards are your weapon; or, more accurately, cards are the means by which you come by weapons.

Your aim is to trudge to a castle, defeating enemies along the way. You do so in a simplified solitaire, where you string together combos by removing cards one higher or lower than your current card. Doing so collects energies used to unleash defensive or offensive spells.

Unfortunately, your enemies also have skills, and survival requires a mix of luck and planning to defeat them.

This involves managing your inventory so you're always armed with the best capabilities, while probably simultaneously wondering why the hero didn't arm themselves with a bloody great sword rather than a deck of cards.

One time darling of Sony handhelds, Lumines barges its way on to iOS by way of Lumines Puzzle & Music. If you've not played any games in the series before, we're very much in Tetris-style block-falling territory, only Lumines has a thumping beat at its core.

As you drop blocks into the well – each comprising up to two colors – you aim to craft solid slabs at least two-by-two squares in size; these are then wiped when the playhead moves over them.

Time it right and you get combos, high scores, and a giddy sense of smugness; mess up and you'll merely be taunted with a premature game over, while sadly nodding your head to the beat.

High-octane card games don’t seem the greatest fit for iPad gaming, but Exploding Kittens perfectly captures the manic chaos of the Oatmeal-illustrated original. As per that version, this is Russian roulette with detonating cats.

Players take turns to grab a card, and if they get an exploding kitten, they must defuse it or very abruptly find themselves out of the game.

Strategy comes by way of action cards, which enable you to peek at the deck, skip a turn, steal cards from an opponent, and draw from the bottom of the deck “like the baby you are”.

Local and online multiplayer is supported, timers stop people from dawdling, and a ‘chance of kitten’ meter helps everyone keep track of the odds. Large hands of cards rather irritatingly require quite a bit of swiping to peruse (although cards can be reordered), but otherwise this is first-rate and amusingly deranged multiplayer mayhem.

By the 1990s, pinball games had come a long way from their roots, and Timeshock! has long been regarded as something of a classic.

The basic plot involves unlocking and then traveling between time zones, achieving further goals by winning various prizes scattered throughout the ages.

Of course, this all comes by way of smacking a metal ball about the place, racking up points by successfully hitting ramps and targets.

Fast forward to 2016 and the original creators have had a couple of cracks at Kickstarter to bring back their game, the second of which succeeded.

But rather than a straight port, this new edition of Pro Pinball is reimagined for modern devices, with eye-popping graphics, lush lighting and remastered audio.

You only get one table, which might seem miserly in a world of Zen Pinball and Pinball Arcade, but it’s one of the best – and certainly the best-looking – pinball tables you’re going to find on an iPad.

There’s some seriously black humor lurking at the heart of 60 Seconds! Atomic Adventure. The game begins as a frantic collect ’em up, your chunky dad bounding around his home trying to grab whatever he can in order to survive an imminent nuclear strike.

The controls and physics are bouncy and elicit a sense of panic as you choose between shotguns, food, family members, maps, and radios.

Assuming you make it underground, the game switches to a Choose Your Own Adventure of sorts, with a smattering of resource management.

You dish out provisions, send your kid out into a probable nuclear winter, armed only with a torch and your best wishes, and attempt to eke out an existence before everyone inevitably dies of starvation.

It’s a bleak end of the world story as written by a satirical cartoonist: equally chilling, compelling and – due to the breezily-written narration – oddly entertaining.

One of the things the iPad’s been really great at is reimagining books. From textbooks to stories, interactive tomes have brought new life to literature and education alike.

Burly Men at Sea sits halfway between game and storybook, and features three chunky sailors with hugely impressive beards, keen on setting out to sea on an exciting adventure.

Being that this is a videogame, they’re of course instantly eaten by a whale, after which point you direct their progress by dragging the screen and tapping items to interact with them.

The story is short, but you end up in a kind of nautical Groundhog Day, retracing steps and attempting to locate further pathways to explore.

The branches are limited in number compared to the complexity found in the likes of 80 Days, but Burly Men at Sea remains essential nonetheless, due to its charm, polish and sheer artistry.

It might have the word 'deep' in its title and be about digging, but Dig Deep! isn't a game about depth. Instead, this is a frantic auto-runner/digger, a bit like Doug dug. on fast-forward.

As your little miner burrows into an alien world, you must avoid being blown up by buried explosives, eaten by alien monsters, or impaled on spikes some idiot carelessly left lying around.

All you can do is move left or right, dashing (by way of swipes) to scoot faster when necessary, and hope a pick-up (shields; super-fast digging boosters) shows up when you're in a tough spot.

This might all seem suited to iPhone, but Dig Deep! works far better on an iPad resting on a table. The larger display makes it easier to spot incoming hazards, and the seat-of-the-pants nature of Dig Deep! gives you more of a fighting chance when you're not covering half the display with two thumbs.

Although a fairly simple game to play, there's a lot to unpack in Severed. It features a one-armed woman attempting to save her family from a hell populated by hideous-looking beasts.

She roams dungeons, slicing enemies to bits and then - equally ingeniously and horrifically - uses their severed parts to level-up her own skills and powers.

There's no gore, though - Severed resembles Infinity Blade as reimagined by a graphic designer. The visuals are all sleek 2D planes, lines and tasteful gradients. But the battles are exciting, comprising frantic swordplay and careful parries.

Often, you find yourself surrounded, rhythmically flicking between monsters, figuring out which to kill first and those you can cope with absorbing a few blows from.

The repetitive nature of such skirmishes may pall a little over the game's length, but there's enough here to keep touchscreen swordplay fans occupied for hours. And the story that underpins the adventure has the kind of heart that provides an emotional center that's frequently lacking on mobile.

There's a strangeness at the core of Road Not Taken that will be familiar to anyone who's experienced Spry Fox's other top-notch mobile puzzler Triple Town. Road Not Taken is a more expansive title than its forebear, featuring a ranger attempting to rescue children lost in the woods during a harsh winter. Said younglings must be reunited with their parents, but that's easier said than done.

The frosty woods are full of horrors, and you have limited energy, sapped by moving when holding items, or when blasted by a blizzard.

You must therefore figure out the most efficient way to get the kids back to safety, making use of the game's quirky way of manipulating objects: tap and you hurl everything you're holding in a straight line away from you, until it hits something; combine several of a specific item and you'll sometimes be nicely surprised by what they transform into.

There is something of a take-no-prisoners aspect to Road Not Taken - it'll be a while before you fully understand its many nuances. But if you're after a game with depth, charm, and intrigue, this snowy puzzler won't leave you cold.

When playing Linia, you feel like a hunter, waiting to strike. Only instead of lobbing a spear at a wild beast, your prey is abstract shapes that shift and morph in cycles.

Your target is displayed at the top of the screen as a row of colored discs. You must then drag a line through shapes that match the provided series of target colors. Hit a wrong color – even if you only slice a bit too far – and you'll need to try again.

The mechanic is, of course, Fruit Ninja – and every other slicing game you've ever played; but the stark visuals and rhythmic nature of the targets results in something fresh and vibrant. And you'll need a strong sense of observation along with excellent timing and reactions to succeed, not least when shapes start revolving, pulsating, hiding, overlapping and changing before your very eyes.

From the minds behind World of Goo and Little Inferno comes this decidedly oddball puzzler. Human Resource Machine, in a non-too-subtle satirical dig at workers, finds a little employee as a cog in a corporate machine.

Actions (moving and sorting boxes) are 'automated' by way of programming inputs - loops and routines constructed by dragging and dropping commands.

This might seem daunting, but the learning curve isn't too harsh, and a distinct sense of personality permeates the entire production, smoothing things over when the mechanics are threatening to make your brain steam.

If there's a criticism, the story seems slight compared to the team's previous work, but it is nonetheless oddly affecting to see your little automaton age as you work your way through the game.

For people of a certain age, Day of the Tentacle will need no introduction. This pioneering work set the standard for point-and-click adventures in the early 1990s, through its mix of smart scripting, eye-popping visuals and devious puzzles.

On iPad, you get the original title more or less intact, along with a remastered edition, with all-new high-res art and audio. (You can instantly switch between the two using pinch gestures.)

Chances are the puzzles and pace might initially throw newcomers, but players old and new will find much to love trying to stop the nefarious purple tentacle taking over the world, along with delving into the importance of hamsters, and figuring out how to best utilize items to assist people stuck in three different time zones.

(And if you're very old and wondering if they included Maniac Mansion in the PC, it's there, in full!)

If you find golf a bit dull, Super Stickman Golf 3 offers a decidedly different take on the sport. Instead of rolling greens, a sprinkling of trees and the odd sandpit, golfers in this bizarre world pit their wits against gravity-free space-stations, floating islands, and dank caverns with glue-like surfaces.

The game's side-on charms echo Angry Birds in its artillery core, in the sense that careful aiming is the order of the day. But this is a far smarter and more polished title, with some excellent and imaginative level design.

With this third entry, you also get the chance to spin the ball, opening up the possibility of otherwise impossible shots. And once you're done with the solo mode, you can go online with asynchronous turn-based play and frenetic live races.

In Telepaint, a semi-sentient wandering paint pot wants nothing more than to be reunited with a brush. The tiny snag: it appears to be stuck in a world of brain-bending maze-like tests, comprising single screens of platforms and teleporters. Your goal is to figure out a route, avoiding pot-puncturing spikes and a clingy magnetic 'friend' - a task that becomes increasingly baffling and complex.

You're helped along a little by VCR-style controls that let you pause for breath, and these often become key to solving puzzles, enabling you to switch teleport triggers while everything else on-screen remains static. Even then, the going's tough.

Still, while Telepaint has the propensity to make your head hurt like having a paint can dropped on it, this is a colorful, unique and enjoyable iOS puzzling classic that's not to be missed.

One of the earliest 3D games was Battlezone, a tank warfare title at the time so realistic the US military commissioned a version from Atari to train gunners. iOS tribute Vector Tanks was subsequently gunned down by Atari lawyers, but its DNA survives in Tanks! - Seek & Destroy.

Like Battlezone, Tanks pits you against an endless number of vector tanks, on a sparse battlefield. But this is a much faster, tougher game, with tilt-and-tap controls that put you more in mind of console racing games than a stodgy tank 'em up. The result is a relentlessly thrilling 3D shooter that marries the best of old-school smarts and modern mobile gaming.

Pinball games tend to either ape real-world tables or go full-on videogame, with highly animated content that would be impossible on a real table. INKS. tries something different, boasting a modern 'flat design' aesthetic, and having coloured targets on each table that emit an ink explosion when hit with the ball.

Each of the dozens of tables therefore becomes a mix of canvas and puzzle as you try to hit targets while simultaneously creating a work of art. Neatly, as the ball rolls through ink splats, it creates paths across the table, which is visually appealing and also shows when your aim is off.

Because each level is short — usually possible to complete in a minute or so — INKS. manages to be both approachable enough for newcomers and different enough for experts to get some enjoyment out of.

Nintendo fans probably wonder why the big N hasn't yet brought the superb Advance Wars to iPad, but Warbits now scratches that particular itch. However, although Warbits is influenced by Nintendo's turn-based strategy title, it isn't a copy — the iOS game brings plenty of new thinking to the table and is very much optimised for the iPad.

Working with 16 varied units, you conquer a series of battlefields by directing your troops, making careful note of your strengths and the enemy's relevant weaknesses. All the while, Warbits merrily has you and your opponent trading barbs, often about subjects such as whether tomatoes are fruit, because that's the kind of thing you'd go to war over.

Finish the 20-mission campaign and you'll have a decent grasp of Warbits, and can then venture online to take on other human players across dozens of different maps. With superb visuals, enough new ideas over the game that inspired it, and a single one-off price-tag, Warbits is a must-buy for any iPad-owning strategy nut.

Traditional platform games often fare poorly on iPad, but Traps n' Gemstones bucks the trend. Its approach is resolutely old-school, from the on-screen controls to the Metroid-style gameplay that involves exploring a huge interconnected world, opening up new passageways by finding and correctly using objects.

The theme, though, is more Indiana Jones. A little chap, armed with a whip and with a fedora on his head, leaps about a pyramid, grabs loot, and gives mummies and snakes a good whipping. Interestingly, the game simultaneously manages to appeal to casual and hardcore gamers.

Progress doesn't reset, meaning you can keep getting killed but gradually work your way into the bowels of the pyramid. But your score reverts to zero when you come a cropper; getting into the thousands is therefore a big challenge for those who want to take it.

Love You to Bits has a heart as big as a thousand iPads. It's a tap-based adventure that finds a little space explorer trying to retrieve pieces of his android girlfriend that have been scattered across the galaxy.

The mechanics are right out of classic point-and-click gaming, essentially having you amble about 2D locations, unearth items and then drop them in the right spot.

But the game is so relentlessly creative and inventive with its environments — full of dazzling visuals, references to movies and other games, and increasingly clever mechanics and ideas — that you can't help but love it to bits yourself.

The little monster at the heart of A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build, wants some friends, and so sets about making them from crisp snow covering the ground. But as the game's title states, making snowman is hard — largely because of strict rules governing the monster's universe. Snowmen must comprise precisely three balls of gradually decreasing size, and any snowball rolled in the snow quickly grows. A Good Snowman therefore becomes a series of brain-bending puzzles - part Soko-Ban, part Towers of Hanoi - as you figure out how to manipulate balls of snow to build icy friends for a monster to hug.

You get the feeling creators of classic vertically scrolling shooters would sit in front of AirAttack 2 in a daze, dumbfounded at what's possible on modern home-computing devices. That's not down to the gameplay, though: like its predecessor, AirAttack 2 is a straightforward shooter - you're piloting a fighter in World War II, downing enemies while optionally yelling "tally ho" at an annoyingly loud volume.

But this World War II is decidedly different from the one that occurred in our reality: Germans own limitless squadrons and building-sized tanks (versus the Allies, seemingly relying on a single nutcase in a plane to win the war). It's the jaw-dropping visuals that really dazzle, effortlessly displaying swarms of enemies to down, colossal bosses to defeat, and a destructible environment to take out your frustrations on. For the low price (not least given that there's no IAP whatsoever), it's an insane bargain.

The first Badland combined the simplicity of one-thumb 'copter'/flappy games with the repeating hell of Limbo. It was a stunning, compelling title, pitting a little winged protagonist against all kinds of crazy ordeals in a forest that had clearly gone very wrong.

In Badland 2, the wrongness has been amplified considerably. Now, levels scroll in all directions, traps are deadlier, puzzles are tougher, and the cruelty meted out on the little winged beast is beyond compare. Still, all is not lost - the hero can now flap left and right. We're sure that comes as a huge consolation when it's sawn in half for the hundredth time.

We mention The Room and its sequel elsewhere in this list, but The Room Three is the best entry in the series yet. Again, this is a somewhat Myst-like game of exploration and puzzle-solving, figuring out how to escape your environment by utilising everything around you.

But there's more freedom this time round, with multi-room locations, surreal and deeply strange moments that find you sucked into the very puzzles you're trying to solve, and the creeping menace of The Craftsman, a malevolent nutcase who initially leaves you locked in a dungeon, and then tasks you with freeing yourself from the confines of the remote island on which you're stranded. One to play in the dark, with rain pouring down outside - if you dare.

This single-screen platformer initially resembles a tribute to arcade classics Bubble Bobble and Snow Bros., but Drop Wizard is a very different beast. It's part auto-runner, which might infuriate retro-gamers, but this proves to be a brilliant limitation in practice. Your little wizard never stops running, and emits a blast of magic each time he lands. You must therefore time leaps to blast roaming foes, and then boot the dazed creatures during a second pass. It's vibrant, fast-paced, engaging, and — since you only need to move left or right — nicely optimised for iPad play.

Since it rebooted Robotron-style twin-stick blasting, the Geometry Wars series has been the go-to game for a session of duffing up hordes of neon ships. Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved takes the basic concept and wraps it around 3D shapes lurching and spinning in space.

It disorients but brings a new dimension (pun intended) to the genre, and is one of the prettiest and noisiest games on the system. If you're armed with an iPad Pro, you even get a co-op mode, where two people play on the same screen.

A murder mystery inside a rickety old PC, itself inside your iPad, Her Story is one of the most intriguing titles around. It plonks you in front of the L.O.G.I.C. Database, a creaky old system that returns snippets of police interviews in relation to search terms. Helpfully, you can only access five at once, even if there are many more results (the joys of 1990s interface design!), but this forces you to delve deeper. Before long, you'll be scribbling notes, eking out clues from every other sentence, and realising there's more to every mystery than meets the eye.

One of the most beautiful games we've ever seen, Icycle: On Thin Ice also has a penchant for the surreal. It features naked hero Dennis, peddling through a strange and deadly post-apocalyptic frozen wonderland. Each level feels like a scene from a Gilliamesque animation, but on venturing further into madness, you'll note how tight the level design is — any failures are down to your fingers rather than the game. At the tail end of 2015, seven new locations arrived, so you could discover what happens at the end of the end of the world.

Much in the same way Hitman GO reworked a much-loved franchise for mobile, Lara Croft GO transforms Tomb Raider into a dinky turn-based boardgame of sorts. It shouldn't work, but the result is wonderful — all minimal, breathtaking visuals, and smart puzzles that present a challenge but rarely stop you for too long in continuing your journey. Most amazingly, it feels like a proper Tomb Raider game, with moments of wonder, and palpable tension when you mull over whether your next move will send Lara tumbling into the abyss.

Because of the nature of touchscreen controls, there's a tendency to slow things down on iOS. ALONE… throws such caution to the wind, flinging you along at Retina-searing speed as you try in vain to save a little ship hurtling through rocky caverns of doom.

This is a game that's properly exciting, and where every narrow escape feels like a victory; that all you're doing is dragging a finger up and down, trying in vain to avoid the many projectiles sent your way, is testament to you not needing a gamepad and complex controls to create a game that genuinely thrills.

It turns out the future will involve hoverboards, only it'll be robots piloting them. In Power Hover, all the humans are gone, but so too are the batteries that power your robot village. So you hop on your flying board and pursue a thief through 30 varied and visually stunning levels.

Whether scything curved paths across a gorgeous sun-drenched sea or picking your way through a grey and dead human city, Power Hover will have you glued to the screen until you reach the end of the journey. And although it's initially tricky to get to grips with, you'll soon discover the board's floaty physics and controls are perfectly balanced.

A love letter to trees. A game about the beauty and joy of cultivation. These aren't words that would usually scream 'amazing game'. But Prune is a unique and frequently remarkable experience. It starts simply, teaching you how to prune a tiny branch, so a plant can grow to reach the sunlight and blossom. Before long, you're responsible for cultivating huge trees that arc past poisonous floating orbs, dealing with fragile foliage in unforgiving cities, and coaxing unruly underground weeds towards their prize.

This fantastic platform puzzler stars a bug who's oddly averse to flying. Instead, he gets about 2D levels by rolling around in boxes full of platforms. Beyond Ynth HD hangs on a quest, but each level forms a devious test, where you must figure out precisely how to reach the end via careful use of boxes, switches and even environmental hazards.

And for anyone wanting an even sterner test, cunningly placed jewels are there to find in each stage, requiring all kinds of trickery and box manipulation to reach.

Blek is akin to shepherding semi-sentient calligraphy through a series of dexterity tests. Each sparse screen has one or more dots that need collecting, which is achieved by drawing a squiggle that's then set in motion. To say the game can be opaque is putting it lightly, but as a voyage of discovery, there are few touchscreen games that come close.

In what we assume is a totally accurate representation of what boffins in Geneva get up to, Boson X finds scientists sprinting inside colliders, running over energy panels and then discovering particles by leaping into the abyss.

Initially, at least, said abyss is quite tricky to avoid; but learn the patterns in each collider and you'll have a fighting chance of success in this addictive mash-up of Super Hexagon, Tempest and Canabalt.

CRUSH! is deceptive. At first, it appears to be little more than a collapse game, where you prod a coloured tile, only for the rest to collapse into the now empty space. But subtle changes to the formula elevate this title to greatness: the tiles wrap around, and each removal sees your pile jump towards a line of death. So even when tiles are moving at speed, you must carefully consider each tap.

Some variation is provided by the three different modes (which affect block speed and surges), and power-ups, which blast away colors and blocks in specific ways you can take advantage of.

Device 6 is first and foremost a story — a mystery into which protagonist Anna finds herself propelled. She awakes on an island, but where is she? How did she get there? Why can't she remember anything? The game fuses literature with adventuring, the very words forming corridors you travel along, integrated puzzles being dotted about for you to investigate.

It's a truly inspiring experience, an imaginative, ambitious and brilliantly realised creation that showcases how iOS can be the home for something unique and wonderful. It's also extremely tough at times. Our advice: pay attention, jot down notes, and mull away from the screen if you get stuck.

Eliss was the first game to truly take advantage of iOS's multi-touch capabilities, with you combining and tearing apart planets to fling into like-coloured and suitably-sized wormholes. This semi-sequel brings the original's levels into glorious Retina and adds a totally bonkers endless mode. Unique, challenging and fun, this is a game that defines the platform.

It's great to see Square Enix do something entirely different with Hitman GO, rather than simply converting its free-roaming 3D game to touchscreens. Although still echoing the original series, this touchscreen title is presented as a board game of sorts, with turn-based actions against clockwork opposition.

You must figure out your way to the prize, without getting knocked off (the board). It's an oddly adorable take on assassination, and one of the best iOS puzzlers. There's also extra replay value in the various challenges (such as grabbing a briefcase or not killing guards), each of which requires an alternate solution to be found.

A roller-coaster ribbon of road winds through space, and your only aim is to stay on it and reach the highest-numbered gate. But Impossible Road is sneaky: the winding track is one you can leave and rejoin, if you've enough skill, 'cheating' your way to higher scores. It's like the distillation of Super Monkey Ball, Rainbow Road and queue-jumping, all bundled up in a stark, razor-sharp package.

A boy awakens in hell, and must work his way through a deadly forest. Gruesome deaths and trial and error gradually lead to progress, as he forces his way deeper into the gloom and greater mystery.

Originating on the Xbox, Limbo fares surprisingly well on iOS, with smartly designed controls that feel entirely at home on the iPad. But mostly it's Limbo's eerie beauty and intriguing environments that captivate, ensuring the game remains hypnotic throughout.

Racing games are all very well, but too many aim for simulation rather than evoking the glorious feeling of speeding along like a maniac. Most Wanted absolutely nails the fun side of arcade racing, and is reminiscent of classic console title OutRun 2 in enabling you to drift effortlessly for miles. Add to that varied city streets on which to best rivals and avoid (or smash) the cops, and you've got a tremendous iOS racer.

The iPhone's a bit small for pinball, but the larger iPad screen is perfect for a bit of ball-spanging. Pinball Arcade is the go-to app for realistic pinball, because it lovingly and accurately recreates a huge number of classic tables.

Tales of the Arabian Nights is bundled for free, and the likes of Twilight Zone, Black Knight, Bride of PinBot and Star Trek: The Next Generation are available via in-app purchase. On exploring the various tables (you can demo all of them for free), it rapidly becomes apparent just how diverse and deep pinball games can be.

Ah, Super Hexagon. We remember that first game, which must have lasted all of three seconds. Much like the next — and the next. But then we recognised patterns in the walls that closed in on our tiny ship, and learned to react and dodge. Then you threw increasingly tough difficulty levels at us, and we've been smitten ever since.

That said, we suspect only if you're superhuman will you ever get to see the hallowed final screen that appears when you survive 60 seconds in every Super Hexagon mode.

Apple's mobile platform has become an unlikely home for traditional point-and-click adventures. Sword & Sworcery has long been a favourite, with its sense of mystery, palpable atmosphere, gorgeous pixel art and an evocative soundtrack.

Exploratory in nature, this is a true adventure in the real sense of the word, and it's not to be missed. (To say anything more would spoil the many surprises within. Just trust us on this one, grab a copy, don some headphones, and immerse yourself in a gorgeous virtual world.)

Threes! is all about matching numbered cards. 1s and 2s merge to make 3s, and then pairs of identical cards can subsequently be merged, doubling their face value. With each swipe, a new card enters the tiny grid, forcing you to carefully manage your growing collection and think many moves ahead. The ingenious mix of risk and reward makes it hugely frustrating when you're a fraction from an elusive 1536 card, but so addictive you'll immediately want another go.

This sweet, endless title stars a bird who loves to fly but doesn't have the wings for it. Instead, she uses gravity, sliding down hills and then propelling herself into the air from the top of adjacent slopes. Meanwhile, in another mode, her offspring are happily racing, bounding over lakes, eager to earn the biggest fish from their mother. Whichever route you take, Tiny Wings is a vibrant, warm and friendly experience.

You can almost see the development process behind this one: "Hey, fingers look a bit like legs, so if we put a skateboard underneath…" And so arrived one of the finest iOS sports titles, with you using your fingers to roam urban locations and perform gnarly stunts. Admittedly, this game is tricky to master, but it's hugely rewarding when you do so, and video highlights can be shared with your friends. The game's also a great example of touchscreen-oriented innovation — Touchgrind Skate just wouldn't be the same with a traditional controller.

Ever since cop-in-a-coma Rick awoke to find himself in a post-apocalyptic world filled with the undead, Walking Dead has captured the imagination of comic-book readers and TV viewers alike. The interactive version follows a new set of characters, but the threats facing them are no less terrifying.

As with creator Telltale's other titles, Walking Dead comes across like a mash-up of comic strip and adventure, with palpable moments of tension, and a game experience that changes depending on your actions. The first part of the story is free, and you can then buy new episodes; if you survive, season 2 is also available.

It didn't begin life on the iPad, but World of Goo certainly makes sense on it. A bewitching game of physics puzzles and bridge building, the title also has real heart at its core. The basics are disarmingly simple: use semi-sentient blobs to create structures that enable unused goo to access 'goo heaven' (by way of an industrial-looking pipe).

But through powerful and frequently surreal imagery, haunting audio and the odd moment of poignancy, you find yourself actually caring about little blobs of goo, rather than merely storming through the game's many levels.

At the heart of Year Walk is something dark and horrifying. This daring game is a first-person adventure of sorts, but it presents itself as a kind of living picture book. You begin in a sparse forest, snow crunching underfoot.

Gradually, a story is revealed that is unsettling, clever, distinctive and beautifully crafted — much like the game itself. You won't rest until the story's told, but getting to the end will mean facing many moments of horror in one of the iPad's most unmissable and original creations.

Pinball games tend to be divided into two camps. One aims for a kind of realism, aping real-world tables. The other takes a more arcade-oriented approach. Zen Pinball is somewhere in-between, marrying realistic physics with tables that come to life with animated 3D figures.

Loads of tables are available via IAP, including some excellent Star Wars and Marvel efforts. But for free you get access to the bright and breezy Sorcerer's Lair, which, aside from some dodgy voice acting, is a hugely compelling and fast-paced table with plenty of missions and challenges to discover.

Want more? Here are the best iPhone games around

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Amazon's delivery drones could self-destruct to keep you safe

Amazon’s drone delivery service isn’t the norm quite yet, so it’s not often that we stop to consider the potential drawbacks of our skies being filled with automated flying machines. Something certainly worth tackling before it happens on a wider scale is what happens when a drone suddenly falls from the sky.

No matter how good the technology in Amazon’s drones is they’re going to have to contend with sudden weather changes, software malfunctions, and vandalistic bystanders, all of which could bring them very quickly down to Earth.

Fortunately, Amazon is already considering a solution. And no, it’s not lead-lined umbrellas.

Heads up

According to Digital Trends, the online retailer is looking into a system that would pick up when a drone is malfunctioning and prompt it to disintegrate in mid-air. While this doesn’t guarantee nothing will fall from the sky, the object is likely to be small enough that any kind of impact would be inconsequential.

The system is outlined in a patent recently granted to Amazon by the US Patent and Trademark Office, titled ‘direct fragmentation for unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs)’.

Within the document, Amazon states that something as simple as “unexpected heat, cold, wind, rain, hail, high or low (e.g., barometric) pressure regions” could affect a drone’s rotor system, flight control, battery or flight sensors and send it tumbling.

It’s detailed how the drone would be able to assess the conditions on the ground before dismantling themselves, noting: “The fragmentation sequence includes a release timing and a release location to fragment away (eg, release, drop, jettison, eject, etc away) one or more UAV components in case the flight operation of the UAV is disrupted.”

While we imagined a kind of instant comic book disintegration that would leave drone glitter falling from the sky, Amazon apparently intends the drones to break up piece by piece. The patent states that different parts of the drone will be shed to change “the weight, speed, air drag coefficient, and other factors related to the UAV” so that it can make a landing that won’t harm those below.

This does, admittedly make more sense. Amazon customers aren’t likely to opt for drone delivery if there’s a chance that their package could disintegrate entirely.

This is one of many patents Amazon has been granted in relation to its drone delivery service. It’s actually one of the less outlandish ideas the company has been looking into and it’s a good insight into how Amazon is considering the wide range of issues that are likely to arise.

Interested in a drone of your own? These are the best drones 2017 has to offer

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The best travel compact cameras in 2017

When you're going on vacation you're going to want to take a camera too, and the one in your smartphone probably won't cut it because it doesn't have a decent zoom.

In fact zooming is the key, because you won't know what you want to shoot until you get there and quite often the things you want to photograph will be off in the distance. Now is not the time to find out your zoom isn't powerful enough.

Check out our guide to the best compact cameras

This is why the 'travel camera' genre is so popular. These are compact cameras barely larger than a regular point-and-shoot model, but with massive 20x or 30x zoom lenses. You get the portability of a regular camera, but with much more scope for shooting different kinds of subjects.

You're not going to get the same kind of quality you'd get from a DSLR or a mirrorless camera because the only way to make cameras with big zooms small enough to go in a pocket is to use a smaller sensor. But the picture quality is still pretty good, and perfect for sharing with friends and family.

If you're not sure this is the kind of camera you need, check our step by step guide: What camera should I buy?

Otherwise, keep reading, because here's our list of the top compact travel cameras you can buy right now.

The Nikon Coolpix W300 is made for those who love capturing adventurous moments as it happens. For that purpose, there’s already the GoPro series cameras in the market, but this one much more access to features found on a conventional digital camera. It comes with a 16MP back-illuminated CMOS sensor and is capable of shooting 4K UHD videos. It is rugged and that’s the USP of the camera; it is waterproof to a depth of 30m, shock proof from a height of 2.4m, cold resistant down to -10 degree Celsius and dust-proof as well.

It also has a SnapBridge feature that allows users to easily transfer the images to any mobile device via Bluetooth Low Energy connection. Nikon is offering the camera in four amazing colours – Orange, Yellow, Black and Camouflage.

With the rise of high-end compacts like the excellent Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V stealing the thunder from compact travel zooms, Panasonic's response has been to keep the camera body about the same size as its earlier ZS/TZ-series cameras but to squeeze a much larger sensor into the Lumix ZS100 (known as the Lumix TZ100 outside the US). This enables the pixels to be about 2.4x bigger than they are in models like the Lumix ZS50 / TZ70 (see below) and this helps the Lumix ZS100 produce much higher quality images. The slight downside though is the zoom range lens isn't quite so extensive, but you still get an electronic viewfinder that makes it easier to compose images in bright sunny conditions. Not only that, there's the addition to 4K video recording and Panasonic's 4K Photo mode to help capture 8MP images of fleeting moments. It all adds up to be a powerful, if pricey option.

Read our in-depth Panasonic Lumix ZS100 / Lumix TZ100 review

Panasonic TZ70

Panasonic's ZS/TZ-series cameras kicked off the whole big-zoom travel camera genre, and they still lead the field. The ZS50 (TZ70 outside the US) might not be the newest model, but with a big 30x zoom, auto and manual controls and the ability to shoot raw files – a big bonus for keen photographers who want the best quality from a small camera, there's little to fault for the price. The ZS50 even squeezes in an electronic viewfinder. Okay, it's not the largest EVF out there, but it can be really handy in bright light. It's the Swiss Army Knife of travel cameras, combining convenience, quality and control. There are lots of imitators, but this is the original.

Read the full review: Panasonic Lumix ZS50 / TZ70

Sony HX90

The HX90V shares the same 30x optical zoom range as the ZS50 / TZ70, but has a few neat tricks of its own. It has a pop-up electronic viewfinder – a big bonus in the glare of harsh, bright light, when regular LCD screens can be hard to see. There's even a 180-degree tilting screen, and while you can't shoot raw files, the HX90V does put your pictures on the map – literally – by recording the location using its built-in GPS receiver.

Read the full review: Sony HX90V

The Canon PowerShot SX730 HS is something of a tale of two halves. The good news is that it exhibits a fine build and is generally pleasing to use, with good response across most aspects of operation. If you want a no-nonsense camera with a broad zoom range, and most of the decision-making left to it, the SX730 HS may just be what you’re after. The flipside of this is that the PowerShot SX730 HS lacks several of the features of its rivals, despite being one of the dearest options of its kind. 4K video, touch operation, an electronic level, even the option to move the focusing point; if you want any of these you'll have to look elsewhere.

Read the full review: Canon PowerShot SX730 HS

Canon SX710 HS

The Canon PowerShot SX710 HS offers a 30x zoom, just like the Panasonic ZS50 / TZ70, and costs quite a bit less – but you don't get raw format shooting or an electronic viewfinder. What you do get is 5-axis image stabilisation and a neat set of movie options, including Full HD at 60p for slow-motion playback and a Hybrid Auto mode that captures both stills and movies – you can then create a Story Highlights movie in-camera. The SX710 HS shoots movies just like other travel cameras, but takes them a whole lot further to make them an easy and fun way to capture your travels. Worth considering if you're on a budget and going to be shooting just as many movies as stills.

Read the full review: Canon PowerShot SX710 HS

Nikon S9900

Looking a lot like the Coolpix S9900 that it replaces, there's a lot packed into the A900 from Nikon. The combination of its slim build and 35x optical zoom range are the key attractions here with this travel zoom compact. Handling is good on the whole, and the tilt-angle screen is a nice touch, though there's no built-in viewfinder. The Coolpix takes advantage of Nikon's SnapBridge Wi-Fi system to transfer images and while the image quality from this camera isn't the best here, but is solid none-the-less and on the whole is good value for money.

What camera should I buy?Best compact camera Camera reviews

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Apple HomeKit devices: great smart home appliances that work with iOS

HomeKit is Apple's attempt to bring all your smart devices together into a single connected ecosystem. In Apple's vision of the home of the future your smart door-lock will talk to your smart lights, and your smart thermostat will be able to work seamlessly with your smart ceiling fan.

Since iOS 10, Apple has allowed you to control all your HomeKit-supported devices through a single app, and the ecosystem of products it supports is rapidly growing.

Of course any smart home ecosystem is only as good as the devices that support it, so without further ado, here's our pick of the most interesting gear that currently works (or plans to work) with HomeKit.

HomeKit Smart speakers

Smart speakers are the element of the smart home that seem to be getting the fastest integration into people's everyday lives, and are often the element that unifies a smart home, allowing you to talk to your digital assistant and request a light dimmed, a radiator heated or a door locked.

HomeKit thermostats

Ecobee3

Smart internet connected thermostats were one of the first areas in which the connected home began to take hold, but unfortunately the market leader, Nest, has not announced HomeKit support.

Whether this will arrive at a later date, or whether Google's ownership of the company will prevent it permanently is unclear, but thankfully there are a number of other HomeKit enabled thermostats that are still very much worth your consideration.

Other thermostats worth considering Netatmo - UK exclusive Elgato Eve Thermo - connected radiator valve iDevices Thermostat - US exclusive

HomeKit light bulbs

Philips Hue

With the ability to change color, turn on and off with a pre-planned schedule, and even dim to suit your mood, smart lightbulbs are an essential part of any self-respecting smart home setup.

There's something immensely satisfying about turning your lights off with your voice, you can use them as a burglary deterrent by having them come on while you're away, and you get the added benefit of never having to worry if you've left a light on.

There are quite a number of smart lightbulbs on the market now, with more getting added to the list of HomeKit connected products regularly. Below are just a few of the ones that we think it's worth you knowing about.

Just make sure that you buy the correct light fitting for your region.

Other bulbs to consider / coming soon: iDevices Socket - converts your light fittings to 'smart' fittings so you can still use standard bulbsLifx - one of the most reliable innovators in the field, the bulbs also integrate with other smart home ecosystemsC-sleep - provides different types of light at night and in the morning to compliment your sleep cycle

HomeKit switches

If you want to make your lighting smart without changing all of your bulbs, you can change your light switches for smart switches, and then control your lights from your phone, or with your voice.

What's more, because all of your devices are connected using HomeKit, you can program your switches so they control far more than just your lights.

Other smart switches to consider / coming soon: iDevices Wall Switch – US onlyLeviton Decora – US only HomeKit power outlets

iHome SmartPlug

The range of products that are becoming 'smart' seems to be growing on a weekly basis, but undoubtedly you aren't going to want to replace everything in your home, and there are certain products that are going to take a long time before they make the switch, if ever.

That means that some products that have the highest 'Did I leave that on?' factor are frustratingly left behind. Well, smart plugs can help you control your more antiquated technology using your phone by switching them off at the wall.

This not only means no more leaving your iron on when you're running late for work, but also that you can schedule lamps to come on at specific times, and stop your TV from running up your power bill on standby mode.

Other power outlets to consider / coming soon: iHome Control Smart Plug ConnectSense Smart Outlet

HomeKit Locks

August Smart Lock

You might be hesitant to entrust your home's security to a smart connected device, but HomeKit certification requires security to be built into the hardware of the device itself. So long as your smart lock has the stamp of approval from Apple you know that the data it's sending is end-to-end encrypted, which should prevent anyone from hacking your front door.

If you do decide to invest in a smart lock you'll find it has a number of advantages, from being able to gain entry to your house using your phone, assigning 'guest keys' to friends, and even remotely letting people into your house.

Other smart locks to consider / coming soon: Kwikset Premis HomeKit Doorbells

SkyBell

Distinct from smart locks, smart doorbells are (you guessed it) doorbells with smarts. You may be thinking 'How can you make a doorbell smart? You press a button and it rings.' Well, it turns out that the humble doorbell has been distinctly lacking in some features you never knew you needed.

As well as the button, there is usually a camera and a speaker in the unit too. This means you can use your smartphone to see who's at your front door from the comfort of your couch, or even at the office. And with that handy speaker you can use the doorbell as a tannoy to tell the delivery driver that you're happy for the package to be left with a neighbor.

Most come with the option to record as well, meaning if you're uncertain about a caller you have a record of them, and if you're trying to figure out who's ringing your doorbell and running away, wonder no longer.

HomeKit Sensors

First Alert Alarm

There are quite a range of different kinds of sensors you can kit your house with, from motion sensors, to weather sensors, to your more traditional smoke alarms and CO2 detectors.

Smart smoke alarms allow you to learn (should the worst happen) that your house is on fire from your phone, and when paired with HomeKit can allow for potentially life-saving features such as having all your lights turn on to allow you to more easily escape your house.

There are also sensors that you can attach to your windows, doors and safes that alert you when they are opened, so you know that your house and your valuables are safe.

Other security cameras to consider / coming soon: Onelink by First Alert Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm ConnectSense Temperature & Humidity SensorConnectSense Water Sensor HomeKit Security cameras

Canary Connected Home

We've already discussed smart doorbells that come equipped with security cameras, but a number of companies are also producing HomeKit enabled cameras, which you can use to protect and monitor your house.

Other security cameras to consider / coming soon: Kidde RemoteLync Camera with RemoteLync bridge - coming soonLogitech Circle 2 - coming soon

Haven't found what you're looking for? For a full list of every single item currently supported by Apple HomeKit, check out the official Apple HomeKit page.

Confused about Apple's home automation suite? Here's a full guide to Apple HomeKit.

more info...

PC market to slump in 2018 but hybrids like Microsoft Surface remain a bright spot

A major analyst firm is predicting that sales of PCs will drop by 2.7% for 2017 (compared to the previous year), and things are set to get worse with shipments slumping by 4% year-on-year in 2018.

After some brighter forecasts this year, this is back to the traditional doom and gloom with IDC’s latest report which is for the shipments of ‘personal computing devices’, meaning traditional desktop PCs, laptops and workstations, as well as tablets.

Looking further ahead to 2021, shipment volumes are expected to drop to 394 million units from 423 million units this year, which represents a decrease of around 7% in terms of pure volume.

Most of that predicted decline will come from weakness in the traditional desktop PC and also tablet markets, while laptops, workstations and detachable tablets (hybrids like Microsoft’s Surface devices) will actually make some positive gains according to IDC.

Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers, highlighted detachables as a particular strong point, with most of these being Windows devices.

Reith noted: “Detachable tablets are expected to see double-digit growth from 2018 through 2021. Windows-based detachables already count for close to 50% of the volume in this category and this isn't expected to change much over the duration of the forecast. Apple's iPad Pro line-up will remain at 30-35% of the category with the remainder going to Google-based devices.”

Unfortunately, detachable hybrids are still not a massive part of the overall PC market, representing 5% of shipment volume this year, although that will grow to a healthy 9.4% in 2021.

Short on supply

IDC further observed that the traditional PC market did actually outperform expectations this year, despite problems such as component shortages, including issues with the supply levels of SSDs which we highlighted back in the spring.

Jay Chou, research manager with IDC's Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, commented: "IDC believes the shortage issues should ease as we head toward 2018. Despite shrinking demand overall, IDC remain optimistic the market can expect continued growth in emerging form factors such as convertibles and ultraslim notebooks, which when combined will form the dominant notebook form factor by 2019.”

We’ve picked out the best business laptops right here

more info...

SIM only deals: the best plans in November 2017

The best SIM only deals of sales season 2017:

So you've come to the end of your phone contract? You basically have two options - grab a brand new mobile phone deal on one of the latest and greatest smartphones on the market. Or keep your beloved phone of the last two years and sign up for one of the cheap SIM only deals on this page.

A SIM only deal is a mobile phone plan that offers calls, texts and data in return for a monthly fee, but does not come bundled with a phone. Leaving the phone out of the equation gives you more flexibility (especially if you go for a 30-day rolling contract) or is ideal if you're eyeing up a new SIM-free phone.

If you take a sift through our handy price comparison tool above you'll see that 12-month prices start from a mere £3.99 per month for a basic plan, while you can also still bag Three's Mobile Choice Award winning 30GB for £18 deal. Whatever your needs, going SIM only is just the ticket if you're thinking to team one up with a brilliant Black Friday handset purchase.

And if you're still unsure whether SIM-only is the route for you, our expert advice will help you decide - our all knowing FAQ includes tips on switching your number, the networks that offer free gifts and answers to a host of other questions.

The best SIM only deals of the week are:

We've run the figures and plucked out the very best sim only deals available this month. Whether you’re after the cheapest plan possible, want to dig out the best value big data SIM plan or just want an all-round great deal but don’t know how much to spend, you’ll find a recommendation just for you.

1. The absolute cheapest SIM only deal out there 2. The best 1GB+ SIM only deal 3. The best 2GB-4GB SIM only deal 4. The best 5GB-8GB SIM only deal 5. The best 10GB-16GB SIM only deal 6. The best 20GB-30GB SIM only deal 7. The best SIM only deal for unlimited data Check out today's best unlimited data SIM only deals 8. Best EE SIM only deal 9. Best Three SIM only deal 10. Best data only SIM deal

Should I go SIM only?

If you a) want to save some money; b) don't want to be tied into a lengthy contract; or c) both of the above, then SIM only is well worth considering. In fact, you're probably one of two people if your thoughts are indeed turning to SIM only:

You're coming to the end of your contract and your network is calling you a million times a day to get you to upgrade. Well if your phone is dying a death or you just fancy a change, head to our best mobile phones deal page to see what bargains are lurking, but otherwise going SIM only on your current phone is a no-brainer. You'll wind up paying much less than you are under contract, and you can stick to a rolling 30 day contract so that if your circumstances change, you can get out of the arrangement tout suite.

It's time for a shiny new smartphone and you want to get the best value humanly possible. You'll have to find a few hundred quid up front for the handset (be sure to check our SIM free comparison chart) but box clever and you'll end up paying less over the next 24 months (see below). Plus, if you're a commitment-phobe, most SIM-only plans don't require you to sign up for two years like you would with a normal contract.

sim only deals

Is SIM only cheaper than contract?

It can be. Teaming a SIM only plan with a standalone SIM-free handset could save you a few quid. It's usually the case when a flagship phone hits the market and contracts are made deliberately expensive. Take the Samsung Galaxy S8 as a prime example, where you could have saved over £100 over two years by splashing the £800-odd for the handset and slipping in a cheap SIM card.

Not all the savings you can make are as extravagant, and on big data it's frequently more cost effective to dive into a contract instead. But if you can afford to splash a few hundred pounds up front then the savings over the next couple of years could well be worth it.

sim only deals

Is my phone unlocked - can I use a new SIM in it?

The times have passed since most phones were locked to a network and you had to pay a dodgy backstreet 'engineer' to unlock it. Nowadays, it's standard practice for networks to let you use whatever SIM you want in the phone as soon as you've paid up the original contract (or earlier if you pay them a fee) - and Three ships all its handsets unlocked from the outset.

The exception, alas, is Apple iPhones. They're generally sold locked to the original network that you purchase them with for the life of the handset. Very frustrating if you're looking for a tasty SIM only deal once your 24 month sentence is up.

The good news is that your iPhone (or any other mobile before the end of your contract) can be unlocked - the bad news is that most networks make you pay for the privilege. Insert a friend or family member's SIM into your phone to see whether it's already unlocked and, if it isn't, look for your network below to see how to cut ties with them:

EE Once six months have gone by on your contract, you can call EE on 0800 956 6000 and pay them £8.99 to unlock your phone. It says it will take around 10 days to complete. PAYG phones can be unlocked for free.O2 As long as you don't own a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus (they can't be unlocked until you've paid off your contract), you can unlock any O2 phone - including iPhones - for free if you're on a pay monthly contract. PAYG customers have to pay £15.Three Fear not, all phones on Three are unlocked as standard. Shove whatever SIM you like in there, it will work a treat.Vodafone The red network doesn't quite get the same marks as Three, as your phone will be locked to them on arrival. But they have made unlocking handsets absolutely free within 10 days of your request.

sim only deals

What SIM card size do I need?

There are three sizes of SIM card that you can get for your phone, and the one you need will depend on your handset. It's been a while since the traditional, so-called standard SIM (15x25mm) has genuinely been the staple in new phones. Instead, any phone you've bought within the last five or so years is much more likely to require a micro (12x15mm) or nano (8.8x12.3mm) SIM - the iPhone 5 was Apple's first mobile with a nano SIM, while Samsung began using the smallest size in its Galaxy S6.

Before you purchase your new SIM, double-check the manufacturer's website to see what size you require. And if you're simply not sure, most networks now simply send out a triple SIM, so you'll get one of each size.

sim only deals

How do I keep my old number?

Ever heard of PAC codes and wondered what a classic 80s arcade game had to do with telephone numbers? It actually stands for Porting Authorisation Code, and it's the set of digits that you need to grab from your old network to let you transfer over your existing mobile number. If you're on one of the major networks, you can see what phone number you can contact them on here:

EE 07953 966 250O2 0344 8090202Vodafone 03333 040 191Three 0333 300 3333ID 0333 003 7777GiffGaff 43431 from your handsetVirgin 0345 6000 789BT 0800 800 150Tesco 0345 301 4455Sky 03300 412 524Asda 0800 079 2732

If you want to grab a bargain SIM only plan above, but it's on your existing network then your network won't release a PAC code and you'll be forced to take a new phone number.

At least you would have, if it wasn't for this clever (if convoluted) work-around. You have to order a free pay-as-you-go SIM from another network. Once you have it, you can tell your old network that you're moving and they'll give you that precious PAC code. Then, once your number is registered to the substitute network, simply get another PAC code from them. Take that to your old network, and they'll move your number to your new contract. Simple - kind of!

sim only deals

What contract length should I get?

Unlike with a contract, there's a lot more flexibility available when it comes to how long your SIM only plan will last. Two year commitments are virtually unheard of, with the norm being either one year or rolling one month contracts for ultimate flexibility. You can often get better prices if you tie yourself in for 12 months, especially on larger data tariffs. But sticking to one month at a time means that you can effectively hand pick a new plan to suit you every 30 days or so.

sim only deals

How much data do I need?

Because you can change your plan up more regularly than a normal, lengthier contract, it's less crucial to get this nailed from the start. But if you're thinking of grabbing a 12-monther or just put a personal pride on getting things right first time, then we'll help you pick out the sweet spot of data for you.

Firstly, check your phone to see how much data you've been using to date, and whether you have the tendency to use more than your current allowance every month. Then, if you're still unsure, check out our guidance:

0-1GB Tiny amounts of data on SIM only deals could be a blessing or a curse. If you're putting it in a rarely used phone that will scarcely be away from wi-fi then you're quids in. But if you end up with one because your head's turned by the incredible price, then you could end up paying more if you continually go over your allowance.2-3GB For anybody who needs data for little more than the occasional Google Maps route planning, 2GB and 3GB plans come cheap and give you much more freedom to check the football scores and scroll Facebook away from the wi-fi without danger.4-8GB If you can't leave the house without having a music streaming service like Spotify pouring into your ears, then it might be worth paying for some extra GBs of data.10-16GB This is a significant amount of data and some networks offer it for a very appetising price. Whether streaming music, downloading podcasts, watching social media videos, or all three is your thing - you should be covered.20-30GB Only smartphone junkies that need regular (and hefty) data fixes need bother with this avalanche of GBs. You'll be able to rinse Netflix, Spotify and online games without too much fear of topping out.Unlimited Maybe it's because you use remarkable amounts of data. Maybe it's because you simply don't want to keep checking how much data you've used every month. Whatever your reason to go unlimited, you have only two choices when it comes to network: Three or GiffGaff.

sim only deals

Do I need unlimited calls and texts?

Call it practicality, call it greediness, call it what you want - it's human nature to want 'unlimited' anything if offered. But you should think genuinely about whether you really need it in a world where the likes of WhatsApp and Skype let you call and text for free over wi-fi or 4G. If you decide that a few thousand monthly minutes and texts should do you, then you could shave off some cash from your bill.

sim only deals

What's the best mobile network for SIM only?

While EE, O2, Vodafone and Three are generally considered the major four networks for contract plans, when it comes to SIM only there are some other key players are well worth a look. See what we think of them below, and whether you'll get any free perks to help persuade you to sign up. Plus, we'll tell you about a couple of other SIM sellers that might be able to wrangle you an even better deal.

EE SIM only deals

If you want fast and furious 4G, then your choice has to be an EE SIM only deal. Its speeds are around 50% faster than the other major networks, which is really noticeable if you like watching films or football on the move. And EE gives you three free months of BT Sport, as well as six months of Apple Music.

View all: EE SIM only deals

O2 SIM only deals

O2's best claim for your contract is with its Priority rewards - from cheap lunch deals and pre-order privileges on gig tickets, to ad-hoc discounts and competitions. Plus, they have 1000s of Wi-Fi hotspots in shops and cafes that you can connect to for free and save your precious data.

View all O2 SIM only deals

Vodafone SIM only deals

Vodafone seems to have been around since mobile phones were cumbersome bricks, but they remain a major player. Look out for a Red Entertainment tariff, which gives you your choice of a NOW TV Entertainment Pass, Spotify Premium or Sky Sports Mobile subscription.

View all Vodafone SIM only deals

Three SIM only deals

Three is still the only network to offer unlimited data and it often features unbeatable deals on other big data plans - that makes them a natural choice of many a data hungry smartphone addict. But it's a bit shy on the free promotions stuff, and 4G coverage isn't as strong as the other networks.

View all 3 mobile SIM only deals

sim only deals

BT SIM only deals

That familiar old stalwart of telecommunications BT is so-so when it comes to SIM only tariff prices. That's unless you're already a BT broadband customer, in which case you get some really favourable prices - a fiver less than the rest of the hoi polloi. Plus you get a BT Reward Card that can be spent anywhere that accepts Mastercard, the value of which depends on how much data you're in for.

Check below to see the current prices plans and what value Reward Card you can claim when you sign up. It's also worth noting that the 8GB and 20GB SIM only deals with BT also include free access to BT Sport on mobile.

For existing BT Broadband customers
(click the customer option at the top if the prices are more expensive)

12 months | 500MB data | Unlimited calls and texts - £7 per month at BT

12 months | 4GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £10 BT Reward Card - £11 per month at BT

12 months | 6GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £60 BT Reward Card - £13 per month at BT

12 months | 15GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £75 BT Reward Card - £18 per month at BT

For non-BT Broadband customers:

12 months | 500MB data | Unlimited calls and texts - £12 per month at BT

12 months | 4GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £10 BT Reward Card - £16 per month at BT

12 months | 6GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £60 BT Reward Card - £18 per month at BT

12 months | 15GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | £75 BT Reward Card - £23 per month at BT

iD SIM only deals

iD is a good option if bargain basement prices are what you covet most. This is a network run and owned by Carphone Warehouse - it piggybacks on the Three network. It's an excellent option if you want great value on a rolling monthly contract.

View all iD SIM only deals

giffgaff SIM only deals

GiffGaff is very hard to beat on price – if you want to grab a cheap SIM card deal, this could be your best option. You can't argue with £5 a month. The cheap deals don't give you much of an allowance to play with, but if you just want to keep your phone going and available to use for calls and texts with the occasional bit of internet use outside of your home WiFi, GiffGaff is a strong offering. Look out for the T&Cs though as some of the big data deals throttle the speed after a few gig.

View all giffgaff SIM only deals

Virgin Mobile SIM only deals

Virgin Mobile has been going for a long time, and some of its SIM only deals are particularly attractive. They're all one-month rolling contracts, so you can stop paying at any time if you so wish, giving you flexibility if you want to change your plan or go for a phone-inclusive deal down the line. Prices start from as little as £9 a month.

View all Virgin Mobile SIM only deals

Tesco Mobile SIM only deals

The UK's biggest supermarket has been known to offer competetive - if not stellar - SIM only deals, with low data prices starting around the £6 a month mark. Where it get's really interesting is if you download the Xtras app to an Android phone: you'll save £3 on your monthly bill, but you will have to see adverts every time you unlock your handset.

View all Tesco Mobile SIM only deals

TalkTalk SIM only deals

TalkTalk is a telecoms company that also offers home phone, broadband and TV packages, so the best deals can be had if you sign up for more than one service. However, at the time of writing the cheapest deal is £3.95 per month for an admittedly measly 250MB of data. Better yet, for just £7.75 you can get 2.1GB.

View all TalkTalk SIM only deals

Plusnet SIM only deals

Plusnet might be more well known for its broadband deals, but it's also keen to push some very cheap 30-day SIM only deals. You don't have to be a Plusnet customer, although you could get double the data on some of these SIM only deals if you are. You don't have to worry about signal either as Plusnet uses EE's network that covers 99% of the UK. Plusnet's latest cheap SIM only deals start at just £4 a month, check them out via the link below.

View all Plusnet SIM only deals

Freedom Pop SIM only deals

Freedom Pop is trying something new - offering contracts for FREE. The catch being that you only pay if you do over the allowances of your bundle or opt for a larger deal. The prices for doing so vary, so be sure to take a look at the small print. It seems that they feature a different offer each week, but seeing as you can cancel at any time, they may be worth a look.

View all Freedom Pop SIM only deals

Mobiles.co.uk SIM only deals

It's always worth checking out Mobiles.co.uk before settling on your SIM - its aggressive price cuts are often unmatched by anyone else. While the online retailer is known more for its handset contracts, it also offers a wide range of SIM only deals from all your favourite networks.

View: SIM only deals at Mobiles.co.uk

sim only deals

Carphone Warehouse SIM only deals

Carphone Warehouse doesn't just sell handset contracts. It also has a wide range of SIM only deals for Vodafone, O2, EE and ID. The online store is also known to include additional incentives such as half price fees for six months, free Beats by Dre headphones or Currys vouchers.

View all Carphone Warehouse SIM only deals

sim only deals

Which networks have coverage in my area?

It's one of life's (many) little frustrations - you sign up with a network, get your SIM up and running and then discover that you get no coverage at all in your house. Well this little pain in the neck can be avoided by using the dedicated coverage checker that most networks provide. Enter your postcode and you'll see whether your address has 2G (calls, texts and email), 3G (the basics plus picture messaging and faster web browsing) and 4G (all the powers of 3G, plus faster downloads, online gaming and media streaming) coverage.

We've provided links below to all the available coverage checkers on multiple networks. We'd advise not only checking coverage in your home, but also work, school, uni, favourite pubs and so on. Anywhere where you spend time on a regular basis really.

EE coverage checker O2 coverage checker Vodafone coverage checker 3 mobile coverage checker BT mobile coverage checker iD coverage checker GiffGaff coverage checker Virgin mobile coverage checker Tesco mobile coverage checker TalkTalk coverage checker Plusnet coverage checker Freedom Pop coverage checker

sim only deals

How does TechRadar make money from SIM only deals?

If you buy a phone after visiting this page, TechRadar will be paid a small commission by the network or reseller you buy from. This money is paid by the site you buy from and thus does not affect the amount you pay for your phone contract. If you go direct to the site you buy from, you would pay the same amount.

While some sites out there will be paid larger fees for pushing people to specific deals that aren't necessarily the cheapest, TechRadar will always find you the absolute best value. Trust and integrity is important to us, so if you ever think we're not displaying the very best deals let us know.

sim only deals

The SIM only deals on this page are checked every day to make sure they're still available and up to date! If you're ready to go SIM only, then head back to the top of this page and use our tool to find the perfect plan...

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Lossless audio explained: sorting the FLACs from the ALACs

Thanks to the PC, the iPod and then the smartphone, the music world was once ruled by the 128kbps MP3 file. Our music was mobile, and heavily compressed, and to anyone who had been used to CD or vinyl, it sounded pretty terrible. Lossy MP3, WMA and AAC music ripped from CDs or downloaded was the way of things … until recently.

Cue a new dawn of music downloads and streaming services that deal in music that's as close to the original Studio Master as possible, and called either lossless audio, or the often-confused Hi-Res Audio. Hang on … there are two new lossless music formats?

SACD players like the Pioneer PD-70AE-S support lossless music

What is lossless audio?

In its purest form, lossless refers to uncompressed music. “Lossless audio is the unmodified output of the recording process, it's the most accurate representation of output of the recording process that exists,” says Gilad Tiefenbrun, CEO at hi-fi and audio equipment company Linn, which pioneered Studio Master downloads in 2007.

The Studio Master – the original recording made laboured over by the artists and producers – perfectly captures the sound, the texture, the detail, and the space required to express the feeling and the emotion of the original performance.

"Even before digital recording, studio engineers were required to reduce both bandwidth and dynamic range … to shrink down the size of the Studio Master to fit on an LP or Cassette Tape," says Greg Stidsen, Director, Technology and Product Planning at hi-res multi-room streaming company Bluesound. Studio-quality lossless digital-audio formats include AIFF and WAV, though the resulting files are often pointlessly massive. Cue lossless compression files.

The FiiO M3 player supports 24-bit/96kHz playback

What is lossless compression?

“Use a lossless compression format and the result will still be lossless as long as the compression format is perfectly reversible,” says Tiefenbrun.

The open-source lossless format FLAC (free lossless audio codec), Apple Lossless (ALAC) for iTunes and Monkey's Audio APE files are examples of lossless compression formats, and these are perfectly OK for music to be considered lossless.

"What is generally meant by lossless audio is the direct copy of the Studio Master recording, reduced in size for lower bandwidth transmission, and reconstituted later while retaining all the musical information from the original recording," says Stidsen.

It's much like a ZIP file, where a complex document is zipped into a smaller size container for transportation to another computer where it gets unzipped and is again identical to the original file.

These file formats are a delivery mechanism; they use compression algorithms to squeeze-out the silence from music. What they don't do is compress the actual music, or delete any data. That's different to compressed or 'lossy' music file formats like MP3, which removes data.

“Given the amount of processing, storage, and bandwidth available today, it seems foolish to commit the world’s precious music creations to formats that modify or remove information from the output of the recording process,” says Tiefenbrun.

The Sony UBP-X800 supports Hi-Res Music

What is High Res Audio?

Lossless is not the same as High Res Audio, which is effectively designed to be far better than an MP3, much better than a CD, and as close as possible to the Studio Master without having to deal with horrendously large file sizes.

“The distinction between the two is an unfortunate confusion,” says Tiefenbrun. “Many companies have taken to calling the format of CD 'lossless', while declaring anything distributed with a sample rate or bit depth higher than that as 'hi-res'. However, the only thing that's technically lossless audio is the original, unmodified recording.

"The generally accepted definition of High Res Audio is an analogue frequency response of at least 40kHz, and a minimum of 24-bit 96kHz digital recording and playback," says Stidsen. So-called 24/96 is the most common, but you can also find music files at 24/192 and even 24/384.

Before we delve any deeper, let's look at what these numbers actually mean.

Bit-depth explained

"Bit depth is how we define dynamic range, or the difference between the loudest sound and the softest sound," says Stidsen.

Each bit represents six decibels (dB) of dynamic range, so a 16 bit signal has 96dB of dynamic range, and a 24 bit signal has 144dB. Compared to an LP, which couldn’t contain the full dynamic range of music, a 24 bit systems gives an additional 48dB of dynamic range.

"That's enough to capture all the subtle musical detail that adds so much realism to reproduced sound," says Stidsen.

OK, so we want 24 bit music for plenty of dynamic range. What next?

Sampling frequencies explained

Analogue sound moves in waves, so when it's converted into a digital signal, a microphone samples it at regular time intervals. How often it does that is the sampling frequency, with 1 Hz meaning one sample per second.

"At least two samples are required to reproduce a waveform which means that we need at least 80kHz of sampling rate to reproduce the 40kHz signal that defines High Res Audio," says Stidsen. A CD gives you 16-bit/44.1kHz.

Tidal Masters offers studio master quality music via streaming

Where can I find lossless & Hi Res Audio music?

Hi-res music was first available as DSD files on DVD-A and SACD discs (the latter are supported by the Sony UBP-X800 Blu-ray player), and more recently downloads from sites like HDtracks.com, ProStudioMasters.com, 7digital.com, OnkyoMusic.com and HighResAudio.com.

"Due to the relatively large file sizes, hi-res started as a download option from stores such as HDTracks and 7Digital, but streaming services are now becoming available, most notably from Tidal and Qobuz, but not yet on Apple, Google or Amazon’s music services," says Jack Wetherill Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. Spotify doesn't even offer lossless audio streaming yet, let alone hi-res, but there is evidence that the technology is being investigated.

More recently, hi-res audio has started to enter the mainstream through Tidal Masters and Deezer thanks to a new format called MQA. However, it's not lossless – some compression does take place.

Deezer is also now offering to stream MQA files

What devices support lossless music?

Unfortunately, although a hi-res music library is incredibly impressive, there are issues with compatibility because lossless files – as well as taking up vastly more storage space – can only be played on hardware capable of decoding the files.

"Sales are still relatively small, but growing, restricted mostly to high-end stereo amps, AV receivers and network audio players," says Wetherill.

More popular are portable Hi-Res Audio players like the Astell & Kern AK70, Sony NWZ-A10 Walkman, Onkyo DP-S1 and Pioneer XDP-30R, though smartphone support is building.

"LG's and Samsung’s introduction of Hi-Res capability this year into some of their smartphones is also helping drive up the installed base of Hi-Res devices," says Wetherill, though he insists that major promotion and making it simple to listen to music in better quality needs to happen. He adds: "Millennials need to be convinced that the sound quality is significantly superior to what they have experienced until now."

Need some headphones to indulge your newly discovered love of lossless audio? Our guide to the best headphones has everything you need to get equipped

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The best broadband deals in November 2017

Find the best broadband deal for you

Finding the best broadband internet deals is no easy task - there are so many options. Do you need superfast fibre broadband? Should you go for a cheap broadband only deal for less than £20 per month, or add TV and phone plans to your internet package?

We're here to help you make that decision. Pop in your postcode above and we'll give you a list of the lowest priced home broadband deals available in your area. With the latest offers from BT broadband, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk all included, our widget will filter down the best broadband deals in the UK today.

Below, you'll find TechRadar's handpicked favourite deals for fibre (if you can get it), broadband and TV packages and broadband only plans. Keep scrolling down and you'll find our advice on what else you should consider when buying broadband - from the speed you'll need, to whether getting fibre broadband is a must for your household.

best broadband deals

Best fibre broadband deals (subject to availability at your postcode) TechRadar's exclusive cheap one year broadband deal: The best broadband and TV deals in the UK this month Best broadband only deal in the UK this month What broadband speed do I need?

Superfast fibre broadband may sound appetising, but it may not be necessary for your home - especially if you want to cut costs. It could be worth considering slower, cheaper ADSL instead.

Broadband speeds are represented in megabits per second, or Mb. Crudely speaking, the more Mbs, the faster the broadband speed. But remember that the advertised speed is the maximum and doesn't necessarily represent the actual speed you'll end up getting. That varies depending where you live.

0-25Mb This entry-level broadband speed is transmitted via an ADSL connection to your nearest BT exchange. The equivalent to around 2.1MB per second, It should be fast enough for small households where only one or two people are using the internet at once. Be aware that if you stream TV, you may experience the odd interruption.

25-50Mb Where Virgin led the way, the rest followed. Now every big provider offers rapid fibre broadband. This is the sweet spot between fast speeds and good value and just the ticket for a family household where four or five members are all streaming, downloading and surfing at once.

50+Mb If you stream 4K TV or have loads of people trying to use your broadband connection at once, then it may be worth shelling out for the extra speed. It may cost you more, but you're pretty much guaranteed lag-free use - plus, the providers often sweeten the deal with added extras and rewards.

best broadband deals

Is fibre broadband available in my area?

There's one very easy way to find out...scroll to the top of this page and input your postcode. We'll tell you straight away whether you can get fast fibre broadband.

Roughly speaking, 90% of UK homes now have the option of connecting to fibre broadband. But if you have your heart on Virgin Media fibre plans, it's more like around 60%.

best broadband deals

What contract length should I go for?

Most broadband providers lock you in for at least 12 months, with one year plans being by far the most common. That said, perhaps taking their cue from mobile phone contracts, we are now seeing some providers experimenting with longer plans, with 18 month contracts rearing their heads.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, some providers now offer short term rolling contracts. Virgin Media, for example, have 30 day plans for commitment-phobes. The downside is you'll be expected to play a larger setup fee.

When your contract comes to an end, be prepared for your monthly tariff to be hiked - especially if you were lucky enough to get a great introductory offer at the outset.

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Will I have to pay anything upfront for broadband?

Usually. Sometimes known as 'setup', 'upfront' or 'activation' fees, most of the major broadband providers ask for at least some payment when you kick off your contract. The amount usually depends on what level of package you go for, but it will likely be somewhere between £10 and £60. Only TalkTalk bucks the trend - they've scrapped their activation fee completely, while other brands run frequent promotions where they temporarily scrap their upfront cost.

There may be other added extras, too, however. If you take a broadband and TV package, you might be charged for the TV set-top box. And some, including BT and EE, charge delivery for the router.

best broadband deals

Do I have to pay more to have a phone line?

If you still use a home landline to make and receive calls, you're in luck - many broadband plans don't just feature a landline, but they actually include it in your monthly price.

You will have to start paying more though when you have a personalised call plan. You'll see your standard monthly bill begin to escalate when you start adding unlimited evening, daytime or international calls to the mix.

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The best Vodafone broadband deals in November 2017

We know what you may be thinking – "since when did Vodafone do broadband deals?" Well it's been around two years since the mobile phone network entered the rat-race of providing home internet and it's proving itself to be one of the most cost effective exponents of cheap broadband on the UK market.

Vodafone used to hold back its best deals exclusively for customers already with a phone contract. But now the company's best prices on superfast fibre broadband are available to all-comers.

If you already know the Vodafone internet deal you want, it's easy to select it from our comparison tool above. But if you're still deciding, then scroll down for more information about what it offers.

Vodafone broadband packages compared – what broadband speed can I get with Vodafone?

Vodafone offers three different speed options, from standard ADSL to razor sharp 76Mb fibre broadband. What you decide to get will depend on your budget and home internet use:

Vodafone Unlimited Standard Broadband 17

This is Vodafone's standard ADSL option with connection speeds of up to 17Mb (around 2.1MB per second). Existing Vodafone customers do get a better deal than others on this plan, as you'll have less to pay upfront. But generally Vodafone doesn't have very competitive prices on ADSL either way. Invariably in fact, it's cheaper to go for its cheapest fibre option. Vodafone Unlimited Standard Broadband 17 includes:

Up to 17Mb speedUltra-Smart Vodafone Connect routerUnlimited data usageHome phone line6 months' free F-Secure SAFE antivirus

Vodafone Unlimited Fibre 38

This is where Vodafone broadband gets really interesting. Its superfast fibre package - Unlimited Fibre 38 - is one of the cheapest fibre broadband deals on the market right now. The monthly payments are super cheap and there are no activation or delivery fees to pay upfront. So pop your postcode in our comparison chart at the top of the page, to see whether your home can get Vodafone's 38Mb speeds. Vodafone Unlimited Fibre 38 includes:

Up to 38Mb speedUltra-Smart Vodafone Connect routerUnlimited data usageHome phone lineSix months' free F-Secure SAFE antivirus

Vodafone Unlimited Fibre 76

An extra fiver a month allows you to crank up the speed to a maximum of 76Mb (9.5MB per second). That's money well spent if you have a house full of people all trying to use the internet at once, or have a penchant for streaming the latest 4K Ultra HD films and box-sets. Again, for the speeds you get, this is excellent value. Vodafone Unlimited Fibre 76 includes:

Up to 76Mb speedUltra-Smart Vodafone Connect routerUnlimited data usageHome phone lineSix months' free F-Secure SAFE antivirus

To sign up to any of these packages, you can head to the Vodafone website.

Should I switch from my current provider to go for Vodafone broadband?

Wow, you must be really keen on these Vodafone bargains! And as if the the super low tariff and promise of free gifts weren't enough of an incentive, Vodafone broadband will also give you £100 to break alliances with your current provider to cover any cancellation fees.

Before doing so, we'd strongly suggest speaking to your current provider first. They'll tell you exactly how much your cancellation penalty comes to – and may even offer you a better rate to convince you to stay. We'd also recommend reading the exact terms and conditions to receive the £100 on the Vodafone website.

Can I add TV or call plans to Vodafone broadband?

If you're looking for a one-stop shop for broadband, TV and call plans from your home's landline, then you'll have to keep hunting. Vodafone doesn't currently offer these add-ons (although Vodafone TV may not be far away...). Head to our best broadband and TV deals guide and use the comparison chart to narrow down your ideal all-round package.

What is the Ultra-Smart Vodafone Connect Router?

This is the free router you get when you sign up for Vodafone broadband, whether that be standard ADSL or superfast fibre. You don't even have to pay to have it delivered! You can control the router from your mobile if you download Vodafone'as app, which lets you see who's connected and change your Wi-Fi password.

Another rather nice touch is that the router's LED lights (which can often be something of an irritant out the corner of your eye) can be turned off, or only come on when you pass your hand over them.

How long will my Vodafone broadband contract last?

This is very straightforward indeed – all Vodafone broadband contracts last for 18 months. So if you're adamant on only committing to your internet provider for a year, then you'll have to continue your search for cheap broadband deals.

To transfer to Vodafone now, head to our comparison table at the top of this page and narrow down your perfect plan. Alternatively, you can head straight to the Vodafone website.

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The best mobile phone deals in November 2017

The best mobile phone deals of sales season 2017 so far:

So here they are - the lowest prices on the very best phones on the market. This is the place where you can easily find the best mobile phone deal for your needs and budget. So sit back, relax and prepare to bag a bargain.

We've rooted out the cheapest deals on the best handsets from the major UK networks. Use TechRadar's custom made price comparison chart above to find your ideal phone and contract - simply pick your desired handset, budget and allowances and we'll tell you the very best phone deal around.

Below, you can browse through our individual handset guides for all of the best mobile phone deals out there, whether you're after the new iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or something a little older (and cheaper!). Want a free phone? Lots of data? The lowest possible monthly cost? We'll help you find the perfect deal. We've even picked out the best SIM only deals, in case you're not quite ready to part with your current handset.

Get £10 off the upfront cost of any mobile phone deal (except the iPhone X) at Mobiles.co.uk with our exclusive 10OFF discount code Buying a mobile phone - what you need to know

Of course you want to find the cheapest price for your new smartphone - and our comparison chart at the top of the page will narrow that down for you - but we know there are likely to be dozens more questions you'll want answering. Keep reading below, where we answer some of the key commonly asked questions about buying a new mobile.

Can I keep my old number?

You can indeed, and it's really easy - so no need to send one of those texts to everybody in your phone book telling them your new digits.

What you need to do is grab a PAC - or Porting Authorisation Code - from your old network. We've listed the direct numbers you need for the four major networks below. As soon as they've sent it to you, which should be within a day or two, you just need to give it to your new network. Voila - brand new phone with the same old number. Easy.

It becomes slightly less easy if the deal you pick out above is on the same network as your current one. They won't let you keep your number, so you have to use this workaround. Buy a free pay-as-you-go SIM from any other network and tell your network that you're moving. They'll release the PAC code, which you then give to the substitute network. Then, you immediately get another PAC code from them. Take that to your old network, and they'll move your number to your new contract. Long winded, but worth it.

Which phone network is best?

Loyalty is an admirable trait, but could end up costing you money when it comes to the perfect phone deal. If you don't mind leaving your comfort zone, you may find that heading to one of the other major networks may well be worth it...

Despite what Richard Branson's adverts might suggest, EE is the Usain Bolt of phone networks. Nobody else can come close to EE's 4G speeds in the UK. So if you rely on fast internet while away from WI-Fi, then EE is the obvious choice. Plus, EE gives you three free months of BT Sport (or more if you get a Max plan) when you sign up, as well as six months of Apple Music. The EE coverage checker will confirm how strong it is where you live.

The biggest lure to O2 is the network's Priority rewards (well, that and Sean Bean's mellifluous tones). From cheap lunches and free coffees to first refusal on big gig tickets, O2 is the network for regular goodies. Plus, they have 1000s of Wi-Fi hotspots in shops and cafes that you can connect to. Use the O2 coverage checker to see whether you'll be able to access 4G.

Good news for jet-setters - Vodafone lets you use your data, calls and texts allowances in 50 countries around the world without charge. But things really start to get good when you splash out on its bigger Red Entertainment data plans, as Vodafone will give you your choice of a NOW TV Entertainment Pass, Spotify Premium or Sky Sports Mobile subscription. Click to check if Vodafone covers your home.

3 remains the king of the big data deals, and still the only one of the big four networks to offer unlimited, uncapped, all-you-can-eat delicious data. We also like that you can use 4G to make calls and texts via the dedicated Three inTouch app, and you can connect to Wi-Fi in the London Underground if you ever find yourself in the capital. But 4G coverage isn't as strong as the other networks - check whether your postcode is covered with the Three coverage checker.

What phone contract length should I get?

Well if you're buying a new phone plan with a contract, you haven't got much choice. It's 24 months or nothing, these days. If you don't want to be tied down to that kind of commitment, then you'll have to go down the SIM only route and buy the handset separately - we've rounded up the best SIM free phone deals to help you make your chocie.

How much phone data do I need?

The answer to this one will be different for everybody. If you only really carry your phone for emergencies, then go for the minimum amount of data and save a packet. If you like to scroll through Facebook on the bus and stream Spotify, you'll need a bit more. And if you frequently stream videos and download masses of files, then 30GB or even unlimited may be worth paying extra for.

As well as checking your phone to see how much you tend to use a month at the moment, the below guidelines will also help you pick out the perfect plan:

1GB Some networks offer 500MB plans, but realistically we think you should get at least 1GB. It won't be much more expensive (if at all) and will afford you a little bit of Google Mapping, WhatsApping and emailing when you need them.2-3GB If you like to scroll through your social media feeds and emails while out and about without fear of extra cash to pay on your monthly bill, then up your data.4-8GB The likes of Spotify and Apple Music have promised us all our favourite tunes wherever we roam. Kit yourself out with a bit more data and you'll have plenty for music streaming and the occasional video, too.
10-16GB This should be more than enough for most users. Loads of data for streaming music, downloading podcasts and enjoying social media videos. Because there's no such thing as too many cats falling into bins.20-30GB Big data for the big phone user. Perfect for watching Netflix videos, downloading content and streaming loads of music. And these plans often have extra freebies thrown in, too.Unlimited The 3 network is still the only one of the 'Big 4' to offer unlimited data. It can be really pricey though, so think long and hard whether you really need it.

Should I get unlimited calls and texts?

Actually these days, the vast majority of phone contracts feature unlimited calls and texts. We do see some of the cheaper plans sometimes limit them, but even if they do, you can use your data allowance on popular apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Hangouts to make calls and texts if your minutes run dry.

How much phone memory do I need?

You're likely to be one of two kinds of person:

Person 1: You like all your photos, music, downloads and other media to be saved directly on to your phone. If that sounds like you, 16GB or 32GB handsets may not be enough and you should use our comparison chart to find the most affordable 64GB, 128GB or 256GB models.

Person 2: You're a stream demon. You've got subscriptions to Spotify and Netflix and you save all your Word docs and snaps into the cloud. Save your money and go for a cheaper, lower memory handset.

OK person 3, calm down - you fall somewhere between the two, right? If you can afford to get a smartphone with more memory, that is probably safest. But don't forget that most phones do allow you to insert an additional SD card if you run out of space - most phones apart from iPhones, that is.

Are refurbished phones good to buy?

Refurbished phones can provide a alternative to a new handset if you're budget is a shoestring. 'Refurbished' often means that the previous owner simply changed their mind about the phone soon after buying it, so it's still practically brand new - and the potential savings can be substantial.

If you do spy an unbelievable deal on a refurbed phone, the main thing to make sure of is the warranty. Double check that you are properly covered for a decent length of time. A year's warranty is preferable.

TechRadar's unbiased and independent mobile phone deals comparison

Thanks for visiting TechRadar's mobile phone deal comparison page! Our price comparison system includes 2.47 million mobile phone contracts from all of the major networks and resellers so that you can always find the one that suits you best.

Unlike some other major sites, our philosophy is to always display you with the absolute cheapest deals for the criteria you select. So you'll always be able to see the cheapest prices for the best phones with contracts with the most generous data allowances.

How does TechRadar make money from affiliates?

The money that TechRadar makes from this free service allows us to improve our product comparison tools and pay the editors who trawl through all the sites and select the best deals every month.

While some sites out there will be paid larger fees for pushing people to specific deals that aren't necessarily the cheapest, TechRadar will always find you the absolute cheapest deal. Trust and integrity is important to us, so if you ever think we're not displaying the very best deals let us know.

How do we order these mobile phone deals?

Our mobile phone deal comparison tools sift through millions of different deals and surfaces the ones we think are the very best. Essentially that means finding deals that work out the cheapest over a 24 month contract while still supplying at least 1GB of data, as you've told us that 1GB is your absolute minimum. If you need more data, use the filters and we'll display the cheapest prices for your increased amount.

On this specific page, we have many mobile phone options displaying in one comparison table. In this case, we try and find you a balance between paying the cheapest price and getting the best phone for your money.

How do the mobile phone deals comparison tools work?

The comparison tools you find on the page above will hopefully be very easy to use. You can select what your budget is, whether it be upfront cost or monthly fee or both. And you can say how much data you need or how many minutes and texts. You can even filter by network if you really want to be on a specific carrier. The deals will automatically update as you drill down in your search, always favouring the cheapest options over the more expensive ones. If you ever want to refresh and start your search again, simply select the 'CLEAR ALL FILTERS' option to begin again from scratch.

What is TechRadar?

TechRadar is Europe's largest technology reviews website with over 22 million visitors every month. It's our aim to provide you with the very best buying advice, always. If you'd like to read reviews of the mobile phones you see on this page, you can visit TechRadar's reviews homepage.

How do we select which networks and resellers to display?

TechRadar strives to include all mobile phone deals from all UK networks and resellers so that you can search through all the available deals in the UK without having to look on all the websites separately. However, for sites to be included they need to supply us with a feed of their deals. This is the only reason why a phone reseller or network wouldn't appear in our system – but the vast majority do.

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Best value mobile phone deals of the month:

Our editors look at all of the available deals for all of the best smartphones every week of every month of every year - not just when the going is good around Black Friday. In this section, we've picked out the best deal available right now for each phone, as well as a link through to the 'best deals' guide for each individual handset.

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iPhone X deals

We know it's a word that bugs a lot of people, but please let us use it this once - GAMECHANGER. After years of incremental gains and upgrades, Apple finally unveiled a radically improved handset to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone.

We've found the best iPhone X deals

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iPhone 8 deals

It's really the iPhone 7S by another name, as it's little more than an incremental upgrade on the iPhone 7. And it has had its thunder stolen by the iPhone X somewhat. Wireless charging is the big new feature - the first time we've seen it on an Apple phone.

Here are the best iPhone 8 deals and iPhone 8 Plus deals

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Samsung Galaxy S8 deals

We were a little surprised by how expensive Samsung's latest flagship was on release, but prices have fallen significantly since then. If you need something bigger and can't stretch to the Note 8, the even larger Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is closer to a phablet.

See more Samsung Galaxy S8 deals and Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus deals

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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 deals

Big in stature and price tag, this 6.3-inch monster will only appeal to people who use their phone as a multimedia hub. It has a QHD+ display and 6GB Ram - phones like the Note 8 don't come around too often.

See more Samsung Note 8 deals

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iPhone 7 deals

Prices on Apple's recently surpassed flagship phone are now finally starting to fall to more palatable levels. We've seen prices as low as £22.99 a month on the UK's fastest 4G network EE!

Discover more iPhone 7 deals and iPhone 7 Plus deals

LG G6 deals

LG's new flagship phone has a longer screen with a rather fetching rounded-corner design. A fine alternative to the Galaxy's Edge screen and for a lower price.

Discover more great LG G6 deals

iPhone SE deals

By far, the cheapest way to get an Apple smartphone, you'll find the iPhone SE for £17.99 (and sometimes even lower!). It has all the power of iPhone 6S with the design of iPhone 5S. A brilliant bargain.

Read our guide: iPhone SE deals

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Samsung Galaxy S7 deals

It may now have been superseded, but the Samsung Galaxy S7 is still a brilliant phone. And now it's a year old, it means you can get big data deals for a reasonable price.

Get more great Samsung Galaxy S7 deals and Galaxy S7 Edge deals

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Google Pixel and Pixel XL deals

The Google Pixel replaces the Nexus 5X, comes with a 5-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, 12 megapixel camera and we've seen prices for less than £17.99 a month. The Google Pixel XL is larger and more premium but dearer.

Read our guide to Google Pixel and Pixel XL deals

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iPhone 6S deals

Grab the best possible deal on the still excellent iPhone 6S with our dedicated page. You can get very attractive plans for well under £30 per month.

See our other iPhone 6S deals and iPhone 6S Plus deals

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iPhone 6 deals

Prices just absolutely dived on the iPhone 6. Great news, considering it remains an excellent way to own an awesome Apple phone for meagre amounts of money.

See more ace prices with our best iPhone 6 deals and iPhone 6 Plus deals

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Nokia 8 deals

If the Nokia 3310 is a fun bit of nostalgia, then the Nokia 8 means business. It's The Finnish brand's first rue flagship for a few years and it's well worth a look if you're on a budget.

Learn more about the best Nokia 8 deals

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Nokia 3310 deals

Had you told us last year whether we'd be featuring Nokia 3310 deals on these pages, we would have laughed you right out of the building. But it's back and it costs an unfeasibly reasonable £39 from Vodafone.

Learn more about the best Nokia 3310 deals

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Nokia 8 deals

We're big fans of the Honor 9. It's a genuinely good, new Android mobile at a price you'd expect to pay for a Samsung Galaxy a few generations old. The design is a treat and the 20MP main camera is better than we could have dreamed of.

Learn more about the best Honor 9 deals

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HTC U11 deals

Much has been made of the new HTC U11's Edge Sense technology, but some of the tariffs available are also newsworthy. Click the link below to find the best deals.

For more deals and free handset offers, head to our HTC U11 deals

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Sony Xperia XZ deals

The Sony Xperia XZ is a great handset offering everything you'd expect from a brand new flagship phone. Want something more powerful? Then you can pay extra for the XZ Premium.

Pick your own Sony Xperia XZ deals or Sony Xperia XZ Premium deals

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BlackBerry KeyONE deals

Blackberry spent many years in the wilderness, but its return with the BlackBerry KeyOne is a massive return to form.

Click for more brilliant BlackBerry KeyONE deals

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Samsung Galaxy S6 deals

Like the older iPhones above, the Samsung Galaxy S6 presents an ideal way to get a superb mobile for a much lower tariff. use our dedicated deal pages to see tariffs for less than £600 over two years.

More Samsung Galaxy S6 deals, Galaxy S6 Edge deals and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus deals

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iPhone 5S deals

All it takes to get this classic iPhone 5S is around £17 a month. Other than that, it's completely free, with no upfront costs. You can upgrade it to Apple's latest iOS 10.3.2, so you'll have the latest software on your cheap, cheap iPhone.

Read our guide to the best iPhone 5S deals

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Sony Xperia X deals

Sony worked hard to strike a balance between top-of-the-range premium features and affordable prices - it hit gold with the Xperia X and smaller Xperia X Compact.

Follow the link for more Sony Xperia X deals and Xperia X Compact deals.

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HTC 10 deals

HTC's follow up to the One M9 was a worthy upgrade. In fact, we still think it's brilliant, and a genuine alternative to the newer, pricier U11.

Read our guide to the best HTC 10 deals for more cheap prices

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LG G5 deals

Get modular with LG's innovative former flagship phone. And if you just want to pick up a cheap handset that runs Android, these LG G4 deals are still worth a look, too.

Get stuck in to the best LG G5 deals

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HTC One A9 deals

The HTC One A9 is a brilliant budget smartphone that could well do the job if you don't want to spend the earth.

Discover even more cheap HTC One A9 deals

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Moto X Style deals

If you want a 20MP camera and 2K display without busting your bank balance, then the Moto X Style is worth considering.

All the best Moto X Style deals in one convenient place

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Sony Xperia Z5 deals

Sony's Z5 range put the iconic Japanese tech company back on the mobile phones map. You can't get them on contract any longer, so you'll have to team your Z5, Z5 Compact or Z5 Premium handset with a cracking SIM only deal.

Cheapest prices on the Sony Xperia Z5, Xperia XZ Compact and Xperia XZ Premium

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SIM only deals

If you need to plug the gap between iPhone launches or are simply happy with the phone you already have, grabbing a free SIM card may be the best option. If you have the cash, you may even find that teaming up a cheap SIM only deal with a new handset is a cheaper way of getting your new smartphone, with tariffs for less than a fiver a month.

Visit our dedicated round-up of the best SIM only deals

Wondering what phone to choose?

If you can't decide what phone your should buy, check out our best mobile phones buying guide. On that page you should find everything you need to make the choice of handset.

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The best wide-angle lenses for Canon and Nikon DSLRs in 2017

Next to a telephoto zoom lens, a super-wide-angle optic is one of the most popular accessories for a DSLR.

Most kit lenses offer a widest focal length of 28mm equivalent, or sometimes even 24mm. This does give your camera a pretty wide angle of view, but sometimes that's not enough.

You notice it most when you're photographing large buildings or other landmarks, and when you're trying to get group shots across a narrow street, for example. It can also be difficult to 'get everything in' when you're shooting indoors.

This is where a super-wide-angle lens comes into its own – but having the wider angle of view isn't just a practical benefit. With a super-wide lens you can get much closer to your subjects without cropping them off, and this produces some brilliantly exaggerated perspectives. It goes without saying that they're perfect for landscape photography as well.

Super-wide-angle lenses can give your pictures a real sense of depth. They produce strongly converging lines that help lead your eyes into the picture and they help to create a 'story' that links your subject to its surroundings.

You can get super-wide-angle lenses made by your camera manufacturer and by third-party lens makers, but here you need to make sure you get the right lens mount for your camera before you click on the 'Buy' button. Occasionally, lenses may be sold at different prices for different camera mounts.

APS-C vs full-frame

There is something else to be aware of – it's really important that you choose super-wide-angle lenses designed for your camera's sensor size. You can use a lens designed for full frame cameras on those with smaller APS-C sensors, but you'll lose the super-wide-angle effect.

For example, on a full-frame Canon DSLR like the EOS 6D, a standard zoom or 'kit' lens will be in the range 24-70mm, so Canon's EF 17-40mm full frame lens gives a really wide angle of view.

But on a Canon with an APS-C sensor, like the EOS 760D, the kit lens will typically be in the 18-55mm range, and you'll need a 10-20mm zoom, or thereabouts, to get a super-wide angle of view.

You can fit the full frame Canon 17-40mm lens to an APS-C Canon, but you'll be using a smaller part of the image created by the lens and you'll hardly be any better off than using the regular 18-55mm kit lens.

But don't worry. We've split these lenses up into APS-C and full-frame lists so that there's no danger of buying the wrong one – and we've done this for Nikon DSLRs and lenses too.

Image stabilizers and filters

There's one more thing to explain. Super-wide-angle lenses often don't come with image stabilizers, especially those with a constant maximum aperture. This doesn't matter quite as much as it would with a regular lens since camera shake is less visible with short focal lengths – but we still mark this as a 'con'.

Second, many super-wide-angle lenses have lens hoods which are fixed permanently to the lens. This offers some protection for the large front elements, and from lens flare. But it does mean that you can't use conventional filters on the front of the lens, so, desirable as a lens hood is, we mark this down as a 'con' too.

We have listed some of the best wide-angle lenses available to the users so far.

The best digital cameras in 2017 The 8 best mirrorless cameras you can buy in India

Canon's entry-level and enthusiast cameras, right up to the EOS 7D Mark II, use an APS-C size sensor. This means you need wide-angle lenses designed specifically for this smaller sensor size and this is what we list here. Just bear in mind that you can't use these lenses on full-frame cameras if you decide to upgrade later on.

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM

This lens is newer, bigger and better than Sigma's original 10-20mm, which is still on sale. This new one has a constant f/3.5 maximum aperture, yet it's now only a little more expensive than its predecessor. It's a professional-grade lens with fast and quiet ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and a seven-blade diaphragm. It's quite a chunky lens, though, and features a large 82mm filter thread. Sharpness and contrast are excellent, though, and it's also very consistent throughout the zoom range. Colour fringing is very well controlled, and distortion is only really noticeable towards the shortest end of the zoom range. A superb lens that's also great value for money.

Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM

The Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 (top) is a bit of a modern classic because of its specs, performance and price, but if you want a lens that's wider still, then take a look at this Sigma 8-16mm. It only has a 2x zoom range, but at these focal lengths the extra 2mm at the wide-angle end of the zoom range makes a big difference to the angle of view. The Sigma 8-16mm is quite long because the hood is built into the lens barrel, but the build quality is very good, with a smooth-acting zoom ring and ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system. One downside of the ultra-wide angle of view is that barrel distortion at the short end of the zoom range is more noticeable but this lens is unbeatable if you're after the widest possible view.

Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM

Canon is rolling out more and more compact, lightweight lenses with its STM (stepping motor) autofocus system. The lightweight theme stretches to the mounting plate, unfortunately, which is made from plastic rather than metal, but the STM system delivers silent and fairly rapid autofocus, along with smooth autofocus transitions – very important when shooting video. The 'fly by wire' focus ring is very thin, which isn't great for handling, but it's very smooth and precise in operation. The 10-18mm zoom range makes sense, as it gives a wide angle of view at the short end, and matches the 18mm starting point of standard kit zooms at the long end. Another bonus is that this lens offers image stabilization, which is uncommon in super-wide-angle lenses. Sharpness is good and this lens outperforms Canon's long-established 10-22mm lens at some settings, despite costing a lot less.

Tokina AT-X Pro 12-28mm f/4 DX

With a minimum focal length of 12mm, this Tokina lens can't go quite as 'wide' as most of its rivals, but it does offer a longer maximum zoom setting which makes it more of an all-rounder that you could leave on the camera more of the time. It feels reassuringly robust and has Tokina's new SD-M (Silent Drive-Module) autofocus, which is based on a GMR (Giant Magneto Resistance) system. It still lacks full-time manual override, but you can quickly switch between AF and MF via a simple control in the focus ring. The amount of barrel distortion is disappointing at the shortest zoom setting, but it's practically non-existent at the long end of the zoom range. Sharpness is respectable, but it isn't quite as good as Tokina's own 11-16mm lens (below).

Tokina AT-X Pro 11-16mm f/2.8 DX II

With its comparatively paltry 1.45x zoom range, both the minimum and maximum focal lengths offered by this Tokina lens look unimpressive. But the spec that sets it apart from the rest is its f/2.8 widest aperture, which remains constant throughout the zoom range – it's the one of the 'fastest' super-wide-angle lenses on the market. It's an update of an older model but the latest Mk II edition of the lens doesn't add much for Canon users, apart from revamped coatings to resist ghosting and flare. Sharpness is good throughout the zoom range, even at f/2.8, though colour fringing is a bit high and distortion levels are slightly disappointing.

Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 DI II

When it was first launched, this Tamron lens set a new 2.4x zoom range record for a super-wide-angle lens. That's since been equalled by the Nikon 10-24mm, though, and the Tokina 12-28mm also comes close. The Tamron does have a built-in electric motor for autofocus but it lacks the refinement of ring-type ultrasonic or stepping-motor systems, and the focus ring rotates during autofocus so you have to keep your fingers clear. Sharpness at the centre of the frame is good, especially at the short end of the zoom range, although the edges and corners of images can look soft. Barrel distortion remains quite pronounced throughout the zoom range. The Tamron is still a decent buy, but the drop in price of the constant-aperture Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 makes the Tamron look less of a bargain and in both specs and performance the Tamron 10-24mm now looks average.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

For a long time this has been the official Canon super-wide-angle zoom for its APS-C DSLRs, and although it's now been joined by the new EF-S 10-18mm STM lens, the 10-22mm remains the pricier, more upmarket option. Now 10 years old, the lens still feels like a quality item, and includes ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and a focus-distance scale mounted beneath a viewing window. We have, however, experienced poor sharpness from this lens in the past. The sample we tested this time proved better at the frame centre with apertures around f/8, yet sharpness was still disappointing towards the edges and corners, especially at larger apertures, where vignetting was also noticeable.

The 10 best DSLRs you can buy right now

If you have a full-frame Canon DSLR like the 5D Mark IV, then you'll need a full-frame super-wide-angle lens – you can't use a smaller lens designed for its APS-C cameras. Nikon full-frame DSLRs can use smaller format lenses in a 'crop' mode, but that's not possible with Canons.

Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM

Canon has some superb full-frame ultra-wide-angle zoom lenses, but until recently the only option shorter than 16mm was the EF 8-15mm f/4 – but that's a fisheye lens. The extra 5mm advantage of the 11-24mm lens may not sound very much, but even very small changes in focal length have a huge impact with ultra-wide-angle optics – every millimetre delivers a visibly wider angle of view. Although it may have a short focal length, the EF 11-24mm f/4L USM is a pretty substantial lens, with a bulbous front element shielded by a built-in petal-style lens hood. A lens cap pushes over the hood to protect the precious glass in transport – and you will want to protect it because the optical performance is excellent.

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 DI VC USD

This Tamron lens doesn't go quite as wide as the Canon 11-24mm, but it's still wider than most. Tamron has developed a line of 'fast' zoom lenses that have a constant, wide f/2.8 aperture, complete with optical image stabilization or VC (Vibration Compensation), and this 15-30mm takes the lineup into super-wide-angle territory, continuing the themes of impressive build quality, weather-sealed design, ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and image stabilization. It's a big lens, but it feels well balanced on Canon full frame bodies from the 6D to the 1D X and handling is excellent. Sharpness is exemplary from the centre to the extreme edges of images, throughout the zoom range. Colour fringing is controlled well and the VC (Vibration Compensation) gave a four-stop benefit in our tests.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM

On the face of it, the smaller maximum aperture of this lens compared to the 16-35mm f/2.8 version (below) might make it seem less desirable, but the build, weather sealing and handling are just as good and what this lens loses in the 'speed' of its widest aperture, it makes up for with the addition of a four-stop image stabilizer. Centre-sharpness is fabulous throughout the zoom range, even at the widest f/4 aperture. Sharpness is also well maintained away from the centre but it falls off towards the edges marginally more than in the Tamron 15-30mm lens. There's very little colour fringing and overall performance is excellent, making this lens better value than the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM

Like other L-series Canon lenses in Canon's lineup, the 16-35mm f/2.8 is robust and features weather seals. Its ring-type ultrasonic autofocus is fast and quiet, and the zoom and focus rings are silky-smooth in operation. This latest version is optically a lot better than the Mark II version, delivering excellent sharpness across the whole frame, along with superb contrast, even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8. However, sharpness and contrast aren’t significantly improved over the EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM, and that lens also features image stabilization.

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 DI VC USD

This is like the full frame equivalent of the APS-C format Sigma 8-16mm. With a 122-degree viewing angle at its shortest focal length, the maximum viewing angle is wider than anything else on the market, bar the Canon 11-24mm. This lens offers ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and delivers excellent center sharpness throughout the zoom range, though this does drop off at the extreme corners of the frame when using wide apertures at very short focal lengths. Barrel distortion is quite well controlled though – this is often quite strong in super-wide-angle lenses.

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

This is one of Canon Canon's L-series (Luxury) lenses and includes weather seals, with a rubber ring around the mounting plate to guard against dust and moisture entering the camera. It's not the widest super-wide-angle lens in the Canon range, but from a money-saving point of view, the 17-40mm is only just over half the price of the Canon 16-35mm. Autofocus is very rapid and the manual focus ring is smooth and precise, both in manual focusing mode and in full-time override of autofocus. The action of the zoom ring is similarly smooth. There is no optical stabilizer in this lens, and while the sharpness is mostly impressive, there's some vignetting (darkening of image corners) when combining the shortest focal length with the widest available aperture – but it's no worse than average.

Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 PRO FX

This is a big, heavy lens weighing nearly a kilogram (2lb), due in part to that fast f/2.8 constant aperture. The Tokina employs a 'silent' DC autofocus motor and GMR (Giant Magnetoresistance) module, and the company claims this gives faster, quieter autofocus. It's certainly true compared with some of Tokina's older lenses. This lens has Tokina's trademark 'one-touch focus clutch' – essentially a push-pull mechanism coupled to the focus ring, for switching between autofocus and manual focus. It's slicker than some because you don't need to switch between AF/M on the camera body or lens. Handling and image quality are very good, with high levels of centre sharpness and restrained colour fringing, though the corners could be sharper. The built-in hood helps to avoid ghosting but precludes the use of filters.

The 10 best full-frame DSLRs available in India

Like Canon DSLRs, Nikon DSLRs split into two groups. The beginner/enthusiast models up to the D500 have APS-C sized sensors (Nikon calls them 'DX' format), while models from the D610 up have full frame sensors (FX format).

As with Canon DSLRs, you need to choose a lens to suit the sensor size, because a full-frame super-wide-angle lens won't give you such a wide angle of view on an APS-C format camera.

The difference here, though, is that you can use smaller DX format lenses on full frame FX bodies, albeit in a reduced resolution 'crop' mode. It's not ideal, but if you do get any of these lenses for your DX Nikon and then upgrade to an FX Nikon later, you'll still be able to get some use out of them.

Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC HSM

This lens is newer, bigger and better than Sigma's original 10-20mm, which is still on sale. This one has a constant f/3.5 maximum aperture, yet it's now only a little more expensive than its predecessor. It's a professional-grade lens with fast and quiet ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and a seven-blade diaphragm. It's quite a chunky lens, though, and features a large 82mm filter thread. Sharpness and contrast are excellent, though, and it's also very consistent throughout the zoom range. Colour fringing is very well controlled, and distortion is only really noticeable towards the shortest end of the zoom range. A superb lens that's also great value for money.

Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM

The Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 (above) is a bit of a modern classic because of its specs, performance and price, but if you want a lens that's wider still, then take a look at this Sigma 8-16mm. It only has a 2x zoom range, but at these focal lengths the extra 2mm at the wide-angle end of the zoom range makes a big difference to the angle of view. The Sigma 8-16mm is quite long because the hood is built into the lens barrel, but the build quality is very good, with a smooth-acting zoom ring and ring-type ultrasonic autofocus system. One downside of the ultra-wide angle of view is that barrel distortion at the short end of the zoom range is more noticeable but this lens is unbeatable if you're after the widest possible view.

Nikon AF-S DX 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G

As with many own-brand lenses, the Nikon 10-24 is expensive compared to similar spec third party lenses. In its favour, it has a class-leading 2.4x zoom range, which it shares with the Tamron 10-24mm lens, although the Tamron is little more than half the price. The Nikon's build quality and construction is good, though, with ring-type ultrasonic autofocus which delivers fast, snappy AF – and the handling is excellent. The medium-aperture sharpness is no more impressive than in most other rival lenses, but the Nikon does retain sharpness at wide apertures particularly well, and stays sharp into the corners of the frame. Vignetting is also quite well controlled.

Tokina AT-X Pro 12-28mm f/4 DX

Tokina AT-X Pro 11-16mm f/2.8 DX II

With its comparatively paltry 1.45x zoom range, both the minimum and maximum focal lengths offered by this Tokina lens look unimpressive. But the spec that sets it apart from the rest is its f/2.8 widest aperture, which remains constant throughout the zoom range – it's the one of the 'fastest' super-wide-angle lenses on the market. It's an update of an older model but the latest Mk II edition incorporates an autofocus motor, so it will work with cheaper Nikon bodies like the D3300 and D5500 that don't have autofocus motors built in. Sharpness is good throughout the zoom range, even at f/2.8, though colour fringing is a bit high and distortion levels are slightly disappointing.

Tamron SP AF 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 DI II

When it was first launched, this Tamron lens set a new 2.4x zoom range record for a super-wide-angle lens. That's since been equalled by the Nikon 10-24mm, though, and the Tokina 12-28mm also comes close. The Tamron does have a built-in electric motor for autofocus but it lacks the refinement of ring-type ultrasonic or stepping-motor systems, and the focus ring rotates during autofocus so you have to keep your fingers clear. Sharpness at the centre of the frame is good, especially at the short end of the zoom range, although the edges and corners of images can look soft. Barrel distortion remains quite pronounced throughout the zoom range. The Tamron is still a decent buy, but the drop in price of the constant-aperture Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 makes it look less of a bargain and in both specs and performance the Tamron 10-24mm now looks average.

Nikon AF-S DX 12-24mm F/4G IF-ED

Whereas the Nikon 10-24mm super-wide lens was launched back in 2009, this lens dates from 2003, preceding even the D70 camera which brought DSLR photography to the masses. Even relatively ancient lenses can still be extremely good, and you'd certainly have high hopes for this one, given that it's the most expensive DX-format ultra-wide lens on the market. Features include fast, quiet ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and a constant aperture. Even so, it's a stop slower than the Tokina 11-16mm lens, and the the maximum angle of view is reduced. Considering its high price, performance is disappointing for both sharpness and color fringing. Taking everything into account, the Nikon looks overpriced compared with independently made competitors, as well as its own 10-24mm stablemate.

The best telephoto zoom lenses

While it is possible to use DX format super-wide-angle lenses on full frame Nikons, it's for emergencies only because the camera has to work in its crop mode, where it loses more than half of its resolution. So as with full frame Canon DSLRs, you need to invest in full frame super-wide-angle lenses to go with your full frame Nikon.

Nikon AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED

This is Nikon's top super-wide-angle zoom for its full frame DSLRs and it's a stunner. It doesn't quite deliver the widest angle of view, but it comes close, and it does this with a constant f/2.8 maximum aperture and superb image quality – and with a level of distortion and aberration control that's quite remarkable. Of course, this comes at a price, and not just in financial terms. It's not just expensive, it's also big and heavy, with a massively bulbous front element that requires a fixed, petal-shaped lens hood and prevents the use of regular filters. Autofocus is incredibly fast – faster than all its rivals.

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 DI VC USD

This Tamron lens doesn't go quite as wide as Nikon's 14-24mm, but it's still wider than most. Tamron has developed a line of 'fast' zoom lenses that have a constant, wide f/2.8 aperture, complete with optical image stabilization or VC (Vibration Compensation), and this 15-30mm takes the lineup into super-wide-angle territory, continuing the themes of impressive build quality, weather-sealed design, ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and image stabilization. It's a big lens, but it feels well balanced on full frame Nikon bodies. Sharpness is exemplary from the centre to the extreme edges of images, throughout the zoom range. Colour fringing is controlled well and the VC (Vibration Compensation) gave a four-stop benefit in our tests.

Nikon AF-S 16-35mm f/4G ED VR

This was Nikon's first ultra-wide optic to feature an optical stabilizer. It's based on Nikon's second-generation VR (Vibration Reduction) system, and gives a four-stop benefit in beating camera-shake. It can't match the focal range and maximum aperture of the Nikon 14-24mm or Tamron 15-30mm, but it has proved a popular, lighter alternative for landscape photographers – especially since you can fit regular filters to the front. Other attractions include ring-type ultrasonic autofocus, a weather-sealed mounting plate and fast, ring-type ultrasonic autofocus which is practically silent and enables full-time manual override. Image quality is good although barrel distortion is very noticeable at the 16mm focal length.

Nikon AF-S 18-35mm F/3.5-4.5G ED

This variable-aperture zoom is smaller and cheaper than the Nikon 14-24mm and 16-35mm lenses. You lose a little in angle of view and the variable maximum aperture is a cost saving that hints at a more amateur audience. This lens also lacks the VR (Vibration Reduction) facility of the Nikon 16-35mm lens, though the overall build quality feels of an equally good standard. Another downgrade is that the 18-35mm lens has Nikon's Super Integrated Coating rather than Nano Crystal Coating, but its resistance to ghosting and flare is still pretty good. Chromatic aberration is very well controlled for a lens in this price bracket and fine detail is generally retained very well even in the extreme corners of images, although overall sharpness at the short end of the zoom range isn't a match for the Nikon 16-35mm.

Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 DG HSM II

This is like the full frame equivalent of the APS-C format Sigma 8-16mm. With a 122-degree viewing angle at its shortest focal length, the maximum viewing angle is wider than anything else available for full-frame Nikon DSLRs without resorting to a fisheye lens. The Sigma 12-24mm offers ring-type ultrasonic autofocus and delivers excellent center sharpness throughout the zoom range, though this does drop off at the extreme corners of the frame when using wide apertures at very short focal lengths. Barrel distortion is quite well controlled though – this is often a weak point in super-wide-angle lenses. The variable maximum aperture isn't ideal and there's no image stabilizer, but if the maximum possible angle of view is your main requirement, you might want to put this lens up towards the top of your list.

Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 PRO FX

This is a big, heavy lens weighing nearly kilogram (2lb), due in part to that fast f/2.8 constant aperture. The Tokina employs a 'silent' DC autofocus motor and GMR (Giant Magnetoresistance) module, and the company claims this gives faster, quieter autofocus. It's certainly true compared with some of Tokina's older lenses. This lens has Tokina's trademark 'one-touch focus clutch' – essentially a push-pull mechanism coupled to the focus ring, for switching between autofocus and manual focus. It's slicker than some because you don't need to switch between AF/M on the camera body or lens. Handling and image quality are very good, with high levels of centre sharpness and restrained colour fringing, though the corners could be sharper. The built-in hood helps to avoid ghosting but precludes the use of filters.

Best entry-level DSLRs in India: What to look for and which to buy in 2017

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Fitbit Ionic UAE release date, news and features

Fitbit has finally launched its smartwatch in the Middle East and it's called the Ionic.

It comes with a large full color display and a lightweight body designed specifically for working out. Mobile payment technology is also promised for early next year.

We have all the details down below on what you need to know about the Fitbit Ionic, so read on to find out the release date, specs and everything else we know so far.

Fitbit Ionic release date

Fitbit showcased its new smartwatch at an event in Dubai along with other products it its range. The Ionic has already gone on sale in the UAE with the rest of the Middle East to follow.

Pricing for the Ionic is set at AED 1,399 in the UAE and it's available at Virgin Megatore, Sharaf DG and Sun & Sand Sports.

Fitbit Ionic design and display

The Ionic is the first wearable from the company that has been entirely designed in-house at Fitbit.

The watch is waterproof up to 50 meters, meaning you can take this swimming or you can just wear it in the shower. It's made of aluminum merged with plastic to allow for a waterproof yet premium-feel design.

There are three physical buttons that are slightly raised compared to the rest of the body, making them easy to find mid-workout.

One sits on the left hand side in the middle while two sit on the right hand side of the watch. The Ionic is thinner and lighter than other Fitbit models like the Blaze, so it should be a comfortable fit while you're working out.

In the Middle East, Fitbit is launching the Ionic is three colour combinations: silver gray tracker and clasp with blue gray band, smoke gray tracker and clasp with charcoal band, or burnt orange tracker and clasp with slate blue band.

The rectangular watch face could be a highlight too, as the shape means it looks different to almost anything on the market right now. The display has a resolution of 384 x 250 and Gorilla Glass 3 to stop you scratching it. It should also be as bright as the Apple Watch, as the display can reach 1000 nits.

Fitbit Ionic fitness

Fitbit has given its first smartwatch a big focus on fitness features. There's a heart rate sensor on the rear that the company says is more accurate than on other devices, as it sits closer to your wrist and the algorithms are improved.

There's also built-in GPS tech, so you can take this out without having to take your phone to track your run. It'll also automatically track your exercise, so you can just start running and the Ionic will notice.

One new feature for the Ionic is auto-pause during workouts, which means for example that when you get to a traffic light it will pause recording your data until you start to run again on the other side of the road.

There are specifically designed workouts in the Fitbit Coach app as well that will tell you what to do and time your press ups and other exercises.

There's also an Sp02 sensor in the Ionic for measuring blood oxygen levels, but it won't be activated until later. Those with diabetes will be able to use the Ionic to monitor glucose levels when it's paired with something like the Dexcom G5 Mobile sensor.

Audio workouts will also be coming in the future, but you'll need to have a Bluetooth headset connected, which, the company also sells and is called Flyer.

Fitbit Ionic battery and software

Fitbit estimates the Ionic will last for four to five days without needing a recharge, but that will change depending on how much you use the watch. If you're often exercising, it will likely last a lot less time.

When you're tracking with GPS Fitbit also estimates it will only last for 10 or so hours, so you'll want to remember to turn GPS off when you're not using it.

The Ionic is running new software called Fitbit OS. As it's a smartwatch, this allows for lots of other features, apps and watch faces that are unavailable on previous Fitbit products.

You'll be able to download Fitbit and third-party apps and watch faces from its own App Gallery. At launch, everything here is expected to be free, but the company may decide to charge for some services in the future.

The full range of third-party apps are currently unknown, but we do know Strava and AccuWeather will both be offering up their own Fitbit-based applications for you to use.

Plus, notifications will also come through to the watch, so if you get a text to your phone and it's nearby you'll then get the notification through to your wrist.

Fitbit Ionic compatibility and other features

The Ionic will be compatible with most recent iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices. Almost all phones running iOS 9 or Android 4.4 KitKat software will be able to be pair with the latest Fitbit products.

Mobile payments will be possible through the Ionic with a new service called Fitbit Pay, however, that technology is not going to be available to the Middle East just yet.

You'll also be able to store music directly on the Fitbit Ionic, with 2.5GB of storage included. That's a rather limited amount of space, but should be enough for a couple of audiobooks or albums.

Fitbit Ionic price and availability

The Fitbit Ionic costs AED 1,399 which is the same as the 42mm model of Apple Watch 3 or most high-end Android Wear watches.

It is already on sale in the UAE from stores such as Virgin Megatore, Sharaf DG and Sun & Sand Sports.

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