16 T3 DECEMBER 2021
Horizon
TECH-O-METER
TECH-O-METER
BEATS FIT PRO
$199 (around £150), beatsbydre.comWhen you’re Apple, you have the luxury of
making your own competition. Thus the
company’s subsidiary, Beats, consistently seems
to follow any new Apple headphone release
with one of its own. Beats’ new addition – a set
of mid-range buds that nestles neatly between
the Studio Buds and Powerbeats Pro in the
market – certainly look like they’ll make a big
enough splash. They inherit the exact same H
chip that powers the Airpods 3, meaning they
share the same extensive list of quality of life
features, as well as support for Apple’s fancy
spatial audio tech. There’s also what sounds like
some fairly powerful ANC in there too, updating
itself 200 times per second to ensure absolutely
nothing slips through. Beats calls these its most
advanced earphones to date – and we can
definitely believe it.
T3 SAYS: Has Beats beat big brother Apple?
FAIRPHONE 4
£500, fairphone.comSustainability is a big buzzword right now. And
the good thing is that sustainable kit is actually
starting to get quite good. Not only does
Fairphone’s fourth bite at the sustainable
cherry carry a five-year warranty and the
freedom for you to be able to open it up and,
say, switch out the battery or replace a
malfunctioning component, but it’s made of
responsibly-sourced and recycled materials
in factories certified to treat employees well.
It’s also a pretty damn good mid-range phone.
It runs bone stock Android for a clean
experience, packs 5G connectivity through the
Snapdragon 750G chipset, and there’s plenty
of RAM and storage available. Only the camera
module looks a bit iffy, but we imagine an
upgrade for that will be available in short order.T3 SAYS: Whether you’re clumsy or eco-
conscious, this is a game-changer.IMAGE^SOURCE:^ BEATSIMAGE^SOURCE:^ FAIRPHONE