Sports and smartwatches
Tom Tom Multisport Cardio
Tracking your running, swimming, cycling – a separate cadence sensor can also be fitted to your bike – and more, the TomTom Multisport Cardio is perhaps the ultimate wrist-borne personal trainer. If you're looking to move up from step-counting to proper, zonal cardio training, this is your new best pal.
Fitbit Charge
The Fitbit Charge is the world's favourite fitness tracker combines simplicity, strong social integration and sufficient accuracy to make it useful. It isn't for elite athletes – and you're not one anyway, let's face it – it's for anyone who wants to lose a bit of weight. This latest one adds call alerts for added smartness.
Garmin Edge Touring Plus
Any "proper" cyclist needs certain things: unflattering tights, an aerodynamic helmet, the inability to discern red lights… and one of these. It's a cycle satnav that shows routes other Garmin users have discovered, and also a cycle computer compatible with your heart-rate monitor. A MAMIL must-have.
LG G Watch R
The LG G Watch R is a chunky, blokey piece with all the usual Android Wear side benefits, primarily the ability to speak into it in order to get directions, send texts and resemble Dick Tracey. The P-OLED screen is always on, so no need to press a button to find out what the time is.
Withings Activite
For a more stylish spin on "smart watches", the Withings Activite is hard to beat. In a nutshell, it's just a very nice watch with a motion tracker in it. Plug it into your PC and you get step and sleep stats. Wear it on the street and you look like a regular chap.
Cameras
Canon 7D Mark II
Canon made its fans wait a long, long time for the EOS 7D Mark II, its new flagship APSC DSLR. But it was worth the wait, because the Canon 7D Mark II delivers a professional continuous shooting speed of 10 frames per second at a third of the price of a pro camera. The new sensor and advanced AF system produce terrific results.
Fuji X-T1
Fuji's 16Mp XTrans sensor may not have the highest resolution, but it delivers beautiful image quality with a handy 400% dynamic range expansion option that really works. It's the Fuji XT1 design that wins hearts, though – a blend of oldschool controls with cutting edge imaging technologies. It looks and feels just like SLRs used to!
Panasonic FZ1000
Bridge cameras can be disappointing. You get a massive zoom range but a small sensor that delivers only mediocre image quality. But Panasonic has broken the mould, cramming a much larger 1inch sensor into a bridge camera body. The zoom range is 'only' 25400mm, but that's plenty and the lens is a cracker. The Panasonic FZ1000 put other bridge cameras to shame.
Panasonic LX100
Panasonic pulls off its 'big sensor' trick with the LX100 too, squeezing in a Micro Four Thirds size sensor (the same size used on Panasonic and Olympus CSCs), a terrific 2475mm f/1.72.8 lens and even an electronic viewfinder. It doesn't stop there. The LX100 tops it off with brilliant retrostyle external shutter speed, aperture and ISO dials – and even 4K video.
Samsung NX1
This is the camera that could put Samsung, and CSCs, well and truly on the map. The Samsung NX1 combines a high pixel count and backilluminated sensor technology to produce great image quality, but the real story is its 15fps continuous shooting speed – higher than any pro DSLR – and its ubersophisticated hybrid AF system. The weathersealed metal body is impressive too.
