All mod cons: Cartoon character Jane Jetson with her gadgets in the 1960s
The gadgets we think of as home essentials have changed beyond recognition in the past few decades. In 1970, just 35 per cent of homes had a landline telephone and there were no mobiles.
Now, technologies that were once the stuff of science fiction are part of our daily lives: take Amazon’s Alexa – inspired by the talking computer on the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek.
Today, millions of British households own these ‘smart speakers’ that allow voice commands to control everything from TVs to lighting systems.
Indeed, as of this year, one in five households will be ‘smart’, with devices that are wirelessly connected to the internet, and controlled via smartphone or a hub.
By 2022, it will be closer to half of families relying in some way on them.
Meanwhile, devices once pronounced dead – such as vinyl record players – are catching a second wind in a new century, as families opt for higher sound quality (and pleasing looks) over the convenience of digital music.
Today’s best innovations offer a mix of retro appeal, connected convenience and bargain prices. But what really makes a gadget a must-have?
Sir James Dyson (above) made more than 5,000 prototypes of his vacuum cleaner but his idea was rejected by all major manufacturers. It took 13 years before the Dual Cyclone became Britain’s fastest-selling vacuum cleaner of all time
‘Good design and engineering is about solving a real problem in an ingenious way – approaching it from a new angle through the application of science, design, and engineering,’ says Sir James Dyson, who knows a thing or two about the subject: his dual-cyclone vacuum cleaners turned him into one of Britain’s best-known inventors, now worth an estimated £7.8 billion. He adds: ‘It is not easy, and the result should cause people to increase their expectations of technology.’
Dyson himself made more than 5,000 prototypes of his vacuum cleaner but his idea was rejected by all major manufacturers. It took 13 years before the Dual Cyclone became Britain’s fastest-selling vacuum cleaner of all time.
Despite this, he agrees that not all inventions are actually advances. ‘The term “gadget” is associated with novelty and conjures images of those gifts that are consigned to the back of a cupboard once Christmas is over,’ he says.
‘We should be very demanding when we choose the technologies and products to equip our homes – they should be useful and long lasting in their utility.’
With this in mind, we bring you our must-read guide to the 50 most innovative and best-value home gadgets on the market right now.
We’ve chosen a mix of performance and price, with something to fit every room in your house.
Invest in one or two and you may be left wondering how you ever managed without them…
Hallway heroes
1. THE UNBEATABLE VACUUM Dyson Big Ball Animal 2. £299.99, dyson.co.uk. Like a Weeble, this powerful vacuum wobbles but won’t fall down, thanks to a ‘self-righting’ system built into the ball-shaped base. Designed to cope with lots of pet hair, it’s easy to manoeuvre, you empty it without touching the grime inside and there are no fiddly filters to change
2. NO MORE ‘KEY UNDER PLANT POT’ Masterlock Select Access Smart, £124.80, safe.co.uk. For anyone who’s ever left a key out for guests underneath an ‘inconspicuous’ plant pot near their front door, this is a much safer solution. The lock box is a perfect place to hide keys, and you can change the access code every time via the Bluetooth app – great for Airbnb hosts or people with a lot of guests
3. KNOCK KNOCK, WHO’S THERE… Nest Hello, £229 nest.com. This video smart doorbell finally gives you the upper hand in the war with delivery men and the postman. Every time someone goes near your front door, it alerts you, and if someone rings the doorbell, you’re instantly alerted via the app, and can talk through a speaker in the doorbell, so you can say ‘Just leave it in the recycle bin’ rather than getting one of those infuriating ‘You were out’ cards
4. SMARTER SECURITY Cocoon, £159, cocoon.life. Why settle for a security camera that watches one corner of one room, when this system listens for sounds throughout your whole home. You get an alert every time it detects something unusual (so it won’t trouble you if it’s just the cat), and there’s a wide-angle camera which records continuously
5. LIGHT UP THE ROOM Philips Hue Motion Sensor, £35, argos.co.uk. Become the sort of person who lights up a room simply by walking into it with this clever motion sensor that pairs with the Philips Hue smart lighting system. It requires no installation (just a Hue Bridge plugged into your router). It also detects when rooms are vacant and turns off the lights
6. HEAT CONTROL ON THE HOP Netatmo Thermostat, £104.99, officeoutlet.com. This Philippe Starck-designed thermostat responds to voice commands such as ‘Turn the temperature in the bathroom to 22 degrees C’. You can also set it via your phone before you get home. It adjusts itself to your daily routine, so the heating is never on when you don’t need it
7. NEXT GEN SMOKE ALARM Nest Protect CO2/Smoke Alarm, £80, nest.com. This ‘smart’ smoke and CO2 alarm will alert you even if you’re not at home, sending an alert to the Nest app on your phone. Better still, it can also be silenced directly from your phone when you get an annoying ‘false alarm’ at 3am. The sensors give you detailed alerts as to where the problem is, and the Protect is guaranteed for a decade
Get kitchen clever
8. ONE TOUCH COFFEE MAESTRO Sage by Heston Blumenthal Oracle Touch Bean-to-Cup £1,999.99 lakeland.co.uk If you’re used to slumming it with capsules, this gleaming bean-to-cup machine will offer a masterclass in what ‘proper’ coffee tastes like. It’s an espresso machine, but with automatic grinding, dosing, tamping and milk texturing. Expensive, yes, but Sage do make more affordable models with similar tech inside
9. THE FOLDING ROBOT Laundroid £12,500 laundroid. sevendreamers.com Unveiled this year to much fanfare, this huge robot promises to sort and fold your laundry using artificial intelligence. It can organise clothes by family member, and fold any item perfectly. Clever stuff, except that it takes five hours and can’t do socks
10. PUREST WATER EVER Zero Water Pitcher £34 zerowater.co.uk The Rolls-Royce of home water filters, with a five-stage process that removes metals, salts and minerals to banish 99.6 per cent of all tap-water impurities. A quality meter attached to the ten-cup dispenser shows you the ‘total dissolved solids’ reading of your water after it’s passed through the ion exchange filter
11. THE JUICE MASTER Braun J700 Juicer £134.99 argos.co.uk A muscular juicer that wolfs down whole fruits thanks to a 2in-wide chute – and turns them into juice in seconds, thanks to a powerful 1,000w motor. The anti-drip system, anti-splash spout and two-litre pulp container keep everything tidy
12. A PERFECT ROAST… EVERY TIME Meater Thermometer (left) £89 meater.com This thermometer provides an instant, definitive answer to one of the eternal cooking questions: ‘Is it ready yet?’ The wireless meat thermometer pairs with your phone via Bluetooth and alerts you when your meat is perfectly done. The wireless unit has twin sensors to measure the internal temperature of your meat and your oven’s real temperature. Right, 13. BLENDER THAT STANDS OUT Smeg BLF01 Blender £149.99 johnlewis.com Smeg’s kitchen gizmos add a splash of style to any home with their pastel-coloured retro aesthetic (and this is cheaper than buying one of their fridges, let’s face it). This blender offers serious performance as well, with four speed settings, plus crush, smoothie and pulse function. The 800w motor and stainless-steel blades will blend just about anything with contemptuous ease
14. MICROWAVE A PIZZA! Panasonic NN-CS894 £459 currys.co.uk It might look like a run-of-the-mill microwave, but it would be a shame to waste this on ready meals as it can steam, grill, oven-bake and microwave, or do combinations of all four, meaning you can produce everything from steamed veg to pizza. The large 32-litre oven is big enough to produce family meals and offers three shelf positions
15. THE RADIO WITH EVERYTHING Pure Evoke M4 Prestige £189 johnlewis.com Pure’s flagship DAB radio has evolved over the years and now has a lot more under the bonnet. It offers both DAB+ and FM, plus Bluetooth streaming to play music stored on your phone, combined with a colour display and extras such as an alarm and kitchen timer
16. KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR FRIDGE Smarter FridgeCam £100 store.smarter.am This camera stares inside your fridge so you never need to have one of those awful phone calls in the aisles of the supermarket asking your other half if you’ve got parmesan. The camera takes a snapshot every time the fridge door is opened or closed, and sends it automatically to a paired app. You can also scan barcodes and use the app to keep track of the expiry dates of all the food in your fridge
17. THE ROBOT MOP Deebot Ozmo 930 £549 amazon.co.uk Robot vacuum cleaners are old news – this takes care of one of the more dispiriting tasks in any home: mopping the floor. The smartphone-controlled robot offers wet mopping with a built-in electronically controlled water pump, as well as vacuuming with automatic mapping and carpet detection. It can be controlled directly from a smartphone app, or set to clean automatically on a schedule
18. ULTIMATE KITCHEN SCALES Drop Kitchen Scale £80 getdrop.com This ‘smart’ kitchen scale gets rid of a lot of the headaches of working from recipes in books or online. It pairs with an app and can ‘scale’ recipes automatically on screen so cooks don’t have to multiply and divide quantities. The app comes with hundreds of recipes built in, and also offers suggestions for substitutions if you run out of something important
19. THE HEALTHIEST CHIPS Philips Advance XXXL Airfryer £300 philips.co.uk Philips Airfryers deliver surprisingly tasty chips – with up to 90 per cent less fat. You put in a tiny amount of oil, but your food is cooked largely with hot air, which means chips come out crispy on the outside, like actual chips, but far less bad for your waistline. The XXL is also big enough to cook a whole chicken in one go
A more brilliant bedroom
20. DON’T FEEL SO SAD Beurer TL40 £39.99 betterlifehealthcare.com There’s no need to blow hundreds of pounds on a daylight-mimicking lamp when this value desktop model will work perfectly well. This lamp is built to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and puts out light in wavelengths similar to daylight, with no UV or flicker
21. E-READER YOU CAN USE IN THE BATH Kindle Oasis £229 amazon.co.uk This ebook reader adjusts its front light to its surroundings, so you won’t wake your other half if you decide to read a few pages before bed. It’s also waterproof, and you can listen to audiobooks (via Bluetooth headphones) at the same time, switching between the two as you go
22. LIGHT THAT SETS THE MOOD Wiz Smart Hero Table Lamp £95.94 glow.co.uk Who doesn’t need a bedside lamp you can switch off by simply saying ‘Turn the lights off’ – or, more optimistically, ‘Set the bedroom to “romance” ’? The Wiz lighting system is simpler than its rivals, as you don’t need a central gizmo, and each light connects directly to wi-fi for app control. It can be controlled via voice either with Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa
23. BEAT THE BEDROOM PHONE BAN Roberts Ortus 3 £90 currys.co.uk Keeping your smartphone next to your bed wrecks your sleep. This retro-styled radio alarm clock is defiantly old-school, with a huge LCD screen, DAB digital and FM radio and 20 presets. There are also two alarms built in
24. NEVER MISS A SHOW Chromecast £30 store.google.com Google’s gadget turns any TV into a smart TV, so if you’ve got an old set, it’s the easiest way to add Netflix, Amazon Prime and any other apps you have on your phone. It connects to wi-fi, and is easy to set up, allowing you to ‘cast’ videos directly from your phone on to the screen
25. THE SMART WEIGH IN Nokia Body+ £89.95. These merciless digital scales not only tell you your weight, they also reveal your body-fat percentage and BMI, and warn you every time you gain half a pound via a paired app. They connect to the app via wi-fi, so you can see graphs of your weight on your phone – and also deliver daily nags to step on the scales
26. WIN THE SNORE WAR Smart Nora £300 selfridges.com This gadget ‘prods’ snorers awake if it detects loud noises, meaning partners no longer have to suffer. The sensor ‘listens’ for sounds, and inflates an insert inside the snorer’s pillow, gently tipping their head over
27. THE SLEEP TRACKER Nokia Sleep £99 health.nokia.com Forget wearing a fitness bangle to bed – this gizmo slots under your mattress and tracks sleep cycles, heart rate and snoring. The device gives you detailed graphs on how you’re sleeping, advice on how to get better rest – and can be paired with other smart devices so that the lights and heating switch off as soon as you hit the hay
28. THE LIGHT-UP TV Philips 43PUS6262 £352.90 alza.co.uk Most TVs with ultra HD will cost you an arm and a leg but this modestly sized Philips set comes in at a bargain price. It’s also armed with Ambilight (LED lights which radiate out two sides of the set) to add ambience for late-night movie-watching. It offers Netflix and Amazon Prime built in, so you can enjoy your favourite shows straight away
The latest thing in the living room
29. THE SHARPEST PICTURE Sony UBP-X700 £200 currys.co.uk The latest Blu-Ray machines can play new 4K Ultra HD discs. Discs such as Planet Earth II look spectacular on Ultra HD TVs, and this player brings out the best in them. It also has Netflix, iPlayer and Amazon Prime built in
30. MAGIC BOX Apple TV 4K £179 apple.com/uk/tv If you’ve bought an Ultra HD TV, it’s still difficult to find things to actually watch in ‘4k’ – four times the resolution of current full-HD TVs. This box makes it (relatively) easy, with a range of films on sale in 4K, plus apps such as Netflix and Amazon Prime which offer some shows in 4K. You can search through all shows available on the device using Siri voice commands
31. THE RADIO TABLE Ruark R7 Mark III High Fidelity Radiogram £2,000 ruarkaudio.com This harks back to the days of radiograms – when radios were halfway between furniture and gadgetry. It contains an alarming amount of hi-fi technology, with a CD player, wi-fi, high-quality Bluetooth Apt-X, Spotify Connect, DAB and FM. You can even connect a record player, as there’s a built-in phono pre-amp. You can also stream music from the Radiogram to smaller Ruark units in other rooms
32. CINEMA SOUND… AT HOME Sonos PlayBase £699 sonos.com This nifty flat speaker sits underneath your TV, adding ‘big’ sounds to any show you play through it – without eating up space in your room. It also turns into a normal wi-fi speaker on demand, and can work as part of a multi-room set-up. As with anything Sonos, it pays to add more speakers to get the best out of it
33. NOT JUST HOT AIR Falmec Bellaria £800 archiproducts.com Most air purifiers tend to look like cooker hoods: this adds a dash of Italian style. It’s made with Murano glass with a leaf-shaped indicator on the front which turns yellow when there are pollutants in the air. The leaf turns green as the device ‘cleans out’ bacteria, viruses, dust mites and pollen
34. DITCH THE REMOTE CONTROL Polk Command Bar £349 richersounds.com Part of a new generation of voice-controlled home-cinema technology (so you never need to find the remote), the Polk Command Bar soundbar has Amazon Alexa built in
35. DECK THAT HAS IT ALL Pro-Ject Essential III £259 henleyaudio.co.uk If you’re thinking of diving back into vinyl, don’t be tempted by a ‘bargain’ deck – buy this basic but capable multi-award-winning beauty instead. The belt-driven deck is pre-fitted with a tone arm and an Ortofon OM 10 cartridge, and delivers gorgeous sound. You can opt for versions with a built-in phono stage as well to make it even more fuss-free
36. THE INVISIBLE TV Samsung Q9F QLED TV £2,500 johnlewis.com Over the years, TVs have consumed less and less of our living space, but this is the first to actually ‘turn invisible’. The Q9F’s ‘ambient mode’ means it can display patterns on screen while not in use, even ‘copying’ the wallpaper behind it, so it seems to ‘disappear’ into the wall
Check out these bathroom beauties
37. THE STYLISH DRYER Dyson Supersonic (left) £299.99 dyson.co.uk This hair dryer is pricey for what it does, but it has become a style icon in its own right. The revolutionary design puts the motor into the handle, ensuring better balance, a neater size and a quieter operation. It is impressively powerful thanks to 13 internal impeller blades. Right, 38. THE ECO SHOWER Pure Pulse Eco £30 pulseecoshower.com Shower and save the planet at the same time with this nifty shower head which uses 60 per cent less water. Simply unscrew your existing shower head (even on an electric shower) and replace it with this one. The Pure Pulse also offers a lifetime guarantee against limescale. One caveat: you need decent water pressure (0.5 bar) to use it
39. MIRROR, MIRROR… HiMirror Plus+ £320 himirror.com It’s not (quite) a magic mirror which will reassure you that you’re the fairest of them all – but this wi-fi connected gadget uses a built-in camera to provide a personalised skincare report, identifying wrinkles, pores, red spots, brightness levels and firmness. It records changes over time, so you can see whether your new beauty product is actually doing anything
40. THE GREAT SHOWER SHOW Grohe Aquasymphony £22,500 grohe.co.uk This is the most over-the-top shower ever created – not only does it play music and include a ‘steam’ option, it also has rainbow-coloured LEDs to create a light-and-water show for one. There’s an iPhone and Android app to take control of the myriad options, with dozens of nozzles offering a variety of options, from ‘Waterfall XL’ down to a pulsing massage-style spray
41. A TOOTHBRUSH WITH A BRAIN Oral-B Pro 2000 (left) £79.99 oralb.co.uk There’s no shortage of alarmingly expensive ‘connected’ toothbrushes, but Oral-B’s Pro 2000 concentrates on the important part – cleaning your teeth. A pressure sensor warns you if you’re brushing too hard, and a two-minute timer ensures that you’re doing it for the correct amount of time. Right, 42. A SPLASH OF SOUND JBL Link 10 £160 uk.jbl.com One of the few speaker systems you can perch on the edge of your bath without fear, this waterproof unit is also armed with Google Assistant voice control, so you don’t need to dry off your fingertips to change tracks. Just say ‘OK Google, play jazz’ and lie back
The way to a smarter office
43. LAPTOP WITH LOOKS Huawei MateBook X £1,199 currys.co.uk This is among the most glamorous laptops ever created – and it doesn’t even have an Apple logo on the back. The Huawei machine has a screen- to-body ratio of 88 per cent – unheard of until now – while the 3K display is touchscreen. The laptop also has a webcam which ‘pops up’ like a periscope from within the keyboard
44. ULTRASLIM EXERCISE BIKE V-Fit MXC-1 folding exercise bike £110.99 robertdyas.co.uk One of the few home exercise machines that you’ll actually use, this nifty bike folds up on its X-frame when not in use. There is an LCD screen to track your progress, such as calories burned, eight levels of resistance to vary your workout programme, and an adjustable seat and toe straps
45. THE SOUND OF SILENCE Bose Quietcomfort 35 £349 bose.co.uk Bose’s Quietcomfort headphones have long been the go-to models for noise-cancelling quality – and the latest models are not only totally wireless but also offer Google and Alexa voice assistants built in for hands-free control. As ever, sound quality is sterling, and Bose’s noise-cancelling is a perfect hush that’s yet to be beaten
46. ONE FOR HI-FI SNOBS Astell&Kern ACRO L1000 £799 currys.co.uk This headphone amp looks like a giant volume knob – and is built for serious hi-fi snobs. The 32-bit system has two separate digital-to-analogue converters to keep music sounding crisp, with outputs for both big and small headphones. Plug it into your computer or MP3 player and it will play digital music in ‘hi-res’ audio formats (ie sounding better than CD). Just make sure your headphones are up to scratch
47. THE SMARTER SPEAKER Sonos One £199 sonos.com This smart speaker has Amazon Alexa built in for voice control – but it sounds far better than most rivals, and also works as part of a Sonos multi-room system. You can control apps such as Spotify fully by voice, and if you tire of the mono sound of the unit, you can add another one and they pair in stereo instantly
48. WI-FI… THAT ACTUALLY WORKS Google Wi-Fi £229 for two store.google.com For anyone whose office is positioned at the other end of the house from their router, this gadget will be a revelation: it’s a ‘mesh’ wi-fi system which plugs into your router, and lets you dot several units around your house to ensure even coverage everywhere. It’s all controlled by an app, which offers tips to give you perfect wi-fi coverage throughout your home
49. BREATHE EASIER Philips C3256/60 Air Purifier Anti-Allergen £329.99 cramptonandmoore.co.uk This air purifier will swiftly reassure the most twitchy hypochondriac – with a light which changes colour to reflect the amount of gunk in the air. If the light is blue, your air quality is good; if red, it’s bad. The device removes 99 per cent of airborne particles such as dust
50. COFFEE MACHINE WITH AN EXTRA SHOT OF SAVVY Nespresso Prodigio £149 currys.co.uk What could be better than arriving at your coffee machine to find a steaming hot espresso already made for you? That’s the promise of this high-tech Nespresso machine, which lets you schedule cups via Bluetooth, and keeps track of how many precious pods you have left so you can refill ahead of time