MacFormat UK – September 2019

Accessories STORE GUIDE

SEPTEMBER 2019 | MACFORMAT | 101

BEST BUYS... Curated picks of third-party kit

Getting a colour-accurate display used
to cost a pretty penny, but this monitor
is both impressive and affordable. It hits
99% of the Adobe RGB gamut – great for
colour-critical work – and supports 10-bit
colour. Throw in a host of ports (including
USB-C), an IPS display and a great price,
and you have a seriously good screen.

We love this display. At 32 inches

diagonally it’s big enough to make its

4K resolution worthwhile, and its colour

rendering is excellent – 100% of sRGB,

93% of Adobe RGB and 97% of the P3

gamut that Apple’s new MacBook Pro

uses. It’s big, bold, beautiful and superb

for productivity and colour work alike.

With two blazing fast Thunderbolt 3
ports and a 5Gbps USB-C port to boot,
the Drobo 5D3 can provide you with rapid
file transfers to and from your Mac. You
can load it up with up to five HDDs or
SSDs of differing capacities, giving you
plenty of flexibility for storage options.
It’s pricey, but a worthy investment.

This Asus router has a lot going for it.

The winner of issue 321’s group test, the

DSL-AC88U scored an impressive five

stars in three out of four categories.

It performed brilliantly in our tests, has

excellent connectivity (with both Ethernet

and ADSL options), and it looks great too.

It’ll keep your network powered for years.

If you want an all-round printer that can

also scan and copy documents, look no

further. Brother’s MFC-J5330DW won

MF #333’s group test, impressing with its

rapid print and scan speeds and A3 paper

handling. The real kicker? It does all that

while maintaining low running costs and

a sub-£200 asking price.

Powerline devices

give you the

stability of wired

Ethernet without

needing to fill your

house with cables. Devolo’s Magic 2 WiFi

adapters blend in better than a lot of

networking hardware. Moreover, this is the

fastest powerline set we’ve tested, thanks

to the latest G.hn standard, and its mesh

Wi-Fi coverage provides strong wireless

reception for your whole home.

This drive is the fastest portable SSD

we’ve ever tested. Freecom claims its

write speeds can reach 700MB/sec, but

in our tests it blazed past that to reach

713.8MB/sec write speeds and 907.3MB/

sec read speeds, thanks to its USB 3.1

Gen 2 capability. It’s costly, but worth

it if you feel the need for speed.

The Netatmo

Presence is an

impressive outdoor

security camera. Set

in a sturdy housing,

it’s built to defy the

elements. It has a

built-in floodlight to

deter intruders, and a 100° field of view

recorded in 1080p. There’s also an SD

card included for storing your footage,

and the camera is HomeKit-compatible.

Winner of issue

336’s group test,

this backpack has

had every element

of its build carefully

considered. From the

pocket that lifts your

MacBook off the

ground, to the little extras like supersoft

pockets and the key clip, you’ll find this

a functional and comfortable option for

carrying your MacBook and more.

MONITOR

Philips 328P6AUBREB
£400 philips.co.uk

DESKTOP STORAGE

Drobo 5D3
£749 drobo.co.uk

PRINTER

Brother MFC-J5330DW
£191 brother.co.uk

ULTRA HD MONITOR

Philips 328P6VJEB

£530 philips.co.uk

WI-FI ROUTER

Asus DSL-AC88U AC3100

£258 asus.com/uk

IP CAMERA

Netatmo Presence

£250 netatmo.com

EXTERNAL SSD

Freecom mSSD MAXX 512GB

£269 freecom.com

MESH WI-FI + POWERLINE

Devolo Magic 2 WiFi

£170 devolo.co.uk

MACBOOK BAG

STM Goods Myth

£100 stmgoods.com

Image credits (left to right, top to bottom): Philips, Philips,
Freecom, Drobo, Asus, Devolo, Brother, Netatmo, STM Goods