Straight-talking verdicts on telly, tech and culture.
The skip button has quietly turned opening credits into dead air, and most of us now hit it on reflex before the first chord lands. Here's what that reflex is costing us — plus five intros still worth sitting through and a blunt three-question rule for when to leave the remote alone.
We all do it: telly on, phone in hand. But what happens when you actually put the thing down? A three-night experiment, a few uncomfortable truths, and some practical rules for watching properly again.
One plastic card, zero pounds a month, and a surprisingly deep shelf of telly, films and audiobooks. We spent a fortnight living off UK library apps to see whether free actually holds up against a paid subscription — waiting lists, clunky apps and all.
A 28-day test drive sounds like a free rental. It isn’t. Here’s how UK returns rights actually work, which retailers make sending tech back painless, and the first-week checks that stop you being stuck with a dud telly, soundbar or budget phone.
Britain's streaming shelves are packed, but more of us are paying £3.49 for a single rental instead of adding another monthly direct debit. We test the UK rental shops, read the expiry small print, and decide when one-off is smarter than signing up.
Britain's 2026 telly diet is increasingly made up of shows we've already seen — and the streaming bills keep coming. We rank the comfort genres we return to, weigh up what that caution costs, and decide when a rewatch is money well spent.
Every December someone warns that your festive telly habit is quietly bankrupting you. We put a typical 2026 unit rate against real British viewing habits — OLEDs, consoles, soundbars and all. The answer is smaller than you think, but there are still a few settings worth fixing before the King's Speech.
A used PS5 can save you nearly two hundred quid this Christmas — or hand you a six-year-old fan full of carpet dust and a stranger's account ban. Here's the honest maths, the five-minute test to run before cash changes hands, and the 'bargains' you should walk away from without a second thought.
Black Friday 2026 lands on 27 November, but Britain's charity shops are already flogging the sort of second-hand gadgets that make the deals pages look daft. We put five common finds through the Reviewr once-over — and separated the fiver bargains from the future landfill.
Every telly in Currys now has a sticker shouting about quantum something or AI nonsense. Here's the plain-English guide to which specs actually change what you see — and which ones just change the price.
Streaming bills keep climbing, ad tiers keep multiplying and account sharing is getting awkward. I spent a month with a £28 indoor aerial and a budget Freeview recorder to see if free telly can genuinely take the pressure off.
A no-nonsense ranking of the big gadget names on repairability in 2026 — who sells the parts, who hides the manual, and who quietly nudges you towards a brand-new box. Plus the checks to make before you spend this winter.
Foreign-language drama used to be a late-night BBC Four habit. In 2026 it's the default Saturday night pick. We look at why British viewers have stopped fearing the subtitle — and whether the habit will stick.
A £30 streaming stick can make a sluggish old smart TV feel years younger — but only if you know what it can and cannot fix. We tested the budget options on an ordinary British broadband line and a diet of iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4.
Halfway through a new series and the remote is already twitching? You're not alone. Here's why 2026 is the year of the mid-box-set bailout, plus a three-question test before you press play.
Your smart TV is logging more than you think. Here's a practical, UK-friendly walk through the settings that actually matter, the defaults worth changing tonight, and what the data rules do — and don't — do for you in 2026.
Black Friday 2026 lands on 27 November, and the gadget aisles are already warming up. Some discounts will be genuine; plenty will be theatre. Here are five product categories where the UK hype tends to collapse once you read the model number, the returns policy and the actual price history.
A cheap projector promises cinema-sized film nights for the price of a decent round. We tested the sub-£150 dream in a dark November living room to see where it shines, where it falls apart, and whether it is worth the plug socket.
That shiny new set looked brilliant in Currys and odd in your front room for a reason. Here’s the seven-point picture reset we’d do on any budget or mid-range TV in 2026 — plus the settings worth leaving well alone.
Rotating streaming subscriptions has gone from frugal hack to national sport. We test the 2026 rota against annual-plan traps, Black Friday bait and the password police — and pick the services that reward you for staying.