The 10 Best Laptops of 2016

The laptop market has undergone major changes in the past few years, and there's likely to be more confusion in the notebook aisle now than at any other time. Today's models encompass everything from featherweight, business-savvy ultraportables that barely tip the scales at less than 2 pounds, to lap-crushing gaming behemoths of 10 pounds or more.

And your standard laptop doesn't look like it once did, with dozens of convertible designs that rethink the standard clamshell to take advantage of touch interfaces. Some laptops double as tablets, with hinges that bend and fold, while other touch-enabled PCs are actually slate tablets that come with hardware keyboards for notebook-style use. There's simply too much variety in the laptop space for one size or style to fit every person's needs.

That's where this buying guide comes in. We'll brief you on all the latest designs and specs, and parse the current trends, helping you figure out which features you need, and how to find the laptop you really want.

Windows and Touch Input
Microsoft's Windows 8 was supposed to make computing more touch-centric, but general dissatisfaction with the interface (and apathy) meant that Microsoft made its next OS easier to use with a keyboard and touchpad. These days, Windows 10 is likely to be the operating system on your new laptop. Window 10 combines elements from the Windows 8 touch-based UI with more traditional features that don't rely on a touch screen. There's more to Windows 8 and 10 than can be addressed here, but the bottom line is that the operating system has brought the touch interface to the forefront. As a result, the majority of new laptops will feature a touch screen, and those that don't will have features in place to provide similar functionality.

If you're in the market for a Windows laptop, a touch screen is highly recommended. Even entry-level models in the $150-to-$300 price range feature touch displays, and the Windows user experience is dramatically more intuitive when using it with touch input. Gaming machines are the outliers, because touch input could potentially interfere with the precision control schemes you need to master today's game titles.

Ultraportables
Walk down any laptop aisle and you'll notice that the selection of laptops has gotten dramatically thinner and sleeker. These svelte lightweight designs, combined with the latest energy-efficient hardware and long-lasting batteries, produce laptops that deliver productivity with the sort of portability that old bulky clamshell designs could never offer.

These wafer-thin systems represent a new vision for ultraportable computing: a no-compromises laptop light enough that you'll forget it's in your briefcase, whose battery and storage let you resume work in seconds after being idle or asleep for days. Solid-state drives (SSD)—whether a full 128GB or 256GB SSD or, more affordably, 32GB to 64GB of eMMC flash storage—give these ultraportables their quick start and resume capability. Intel's marketing focus has migrated to the convertible-hybrid laptops and detachable-hybrid tablets that it refers to as 2-in-1 devices, but ultraportables are still a distinct category.

Most importantly, the entire laptop category has thinned down in general. Whether you're looking at ultraportables carefully designed to be sliver thin, mainstream PCs, or even gaming machines, the entire laptop category is thinner, lighter, and better suited to life on the go. The best of these models will still cost you a pretty penny, particularly if you're looking for a business system that won't weigh you down when you travel for work, but the performance they offer is remarkable, and they often come with several high-end features as well. Features like 1080p touch screens, full-size HDMI ports, and 8+ hours of battery life are commonplace these days. Premium laptops (with premium prices) now come with 3K and 4K high-resolution screens, up to 3,840-by-2,560 resolution at the top end.

For more, check out The 10 Best Ultraportables and The 10 Best Business Laptops.

Hybrid Laptop Designs

The emphasis on touch capability has done more than encourage the adoption of touch screens. That's where the category of laptop/tablet hybrid comes in. These convertible-hybrid laptop designs can transform from laptop to tablet and back again, most opting for a folding design that flips the keyboard out of the way.

Other systems, known as detachable hybrids, allow you to dock a tablet PC with an accessory keyboard for laptop-like functionality. Some of these hybrid designs offer docking keyboards with secondary batteries that provide all-day charge, while others opt for Bluetooth keyboards, forgoing the bulk of a docking hinge and connecting wirelessly.

Check out our roundup the 10 Best Windows Tablets.

Mainstream and Premium Models
While the entire laptop category has gotten slimmer, there's still a market for larger desktop-replacement laptops that blend premium design and function. Desktop replacements aren't quite as easy to cart around as smaller ultraportables, but these 14- and 15-inch laptops offer everything you need in a day-to-day PC. These larger laptops have bigger displays, a broader selection of ports and features, and are one of the few categories that still offer optical drives. Screen resolutions run the gamut from 1,366 by 768 for budget systems to the 1,920-by-1,080 resolution common in mainstream laptops, and up to the 3,840-by-2,160 resolution found on high-end multimedia laptops made for graphics professionals.

Media and Gaming Machines
There's no question that laptop and desktop sales have started to decline in recent years, and tablet sales have expanded to fill the gap, but gaming PCs have actually sold more. For the gamer who wants top-of-the-line performance, the combination of a high-end processor, a potent discrete graphics card, and a large, high-resolution display is well worth the higher prices that gaming rigs frequently command. And boy do those prices run high—while an entry-level gaming laptop typically starts at about $799, prices can go up to and over $3,500 for a high-end system with multiple GPUs and the horsepower to play games at Ultra-quality settings.

Before you drop a grand or two on a gaming laptop, however, you should know what you're getting for your money. Powerful quad-core processors are par for the course, with Intel Core i7 and AMD A10 chips pushing serious performance even for non-gaming applications. Discrete GPUs from Nvidia and AMD provide silky-smooth graphics and impressive frame rates. Some high-end rigs come with two GPUs, helping justify their high price tags. Additional features to watch for include high-resolution displays offering 1080p resolution or better, and hard drives that offer 1TB or more of local storage space, letting you store your entire game library on the machine.

Not all gaming laptops are hulking beasts, however. The sleek designs of ultraportables have given rise to a new breed of machine that puts gaming-level performance into a more portable design. These gaming ultraportables offer a sleek build and long-lasting battery life. But just like other gaming rigs, this sort of performance doesn't come cheap, with gaming ultrapportables running in the $2,000 range.

Check out our top-rated gaming laptop picks.

What About Chromebooks?
Chromebooks are at the other end of the pricing spectrum from gaming laptops. These Chrome-OS-based laptops run from $199 to around $500 in price (the exception being the luxury-oriented Google Chromebook Pixel), though many are in the middle of that range. They are power-efficient systems, made solely to surf the Internet using Chrome OS. Small in stature, tall in power, narrow of purpose, and wide of vision, Chrome OS is essentially the Google Chrome browser running on hardware specs that would be considered "tight" for a Windows PC. System memory is typically a small 2GB, and local storage is commonly limited to 16GB of Flash storage (though you will see systems with 32GB). However, that's certainly enough to get on to the Internet, where cloud services like Google Drive store your files.

A primary benefit of Chrome OS is that it is relatively immune to the malware plaguing Windows systems, because you're not running Windows programs at all. Chrome OS updates also take seconds, rather than the minutes and hours you'll wait on OS X and Windows. If you spend more than 90 percent of your computer time in the Chrome Web browser, you should have no trouble using a chromebook as your primary PC.

In the market for a Chrome OS laptop? We've rounded up the Best Chromebooks available.

Laptop Shopping by Spec 
Connectivity is key for a modern laptop. Every model on the market today offers Bluetooth for connecting wireless peripherals, and Internet connectivity is delivered with 802.11n Wi-Fi, with the 802.11ac standard coming to more systems every day. Mobile broadband options, for when there's no Wi-Fi hotspot handy, include 3G, 4G HSPA+, and 4G LTE, but these are increasingly rare, as users opt for personal mobile hotspots that work with several devices or that forgo a second mobile contract to stay with their smartphone connection.

Ultraportables and desktop replacements alike depend upon USB connectivity to work with a broad range of accessories and peripherals. USB 3.0, which offers much greater bandwidth and faster data transfer than USB 2.0, can be found in all but the oldest and lowest-priced designs; it's identifiable by a port colored in blue or labeled with the letters SS (for Super Speed). Some USB ports double as eSATA ports for external hard drives, while others can charge handheld devices, such as cell phones or MP3 players, even when the laptop is powered down. Look for a lightning-bolt icon next to the USB logo for these charging ports. Meanwhile, Apple, HP, and Lenovo have implemented Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 ports, an interface even faster than USB 3.0 for monitors, storage, and docking stations.

USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are beginning to crop up more often in laptops, promising extra performance from peripherals like hard drives and chargers. As laptops become even thinner (0.67 inch is a current benchmark), there is less space for large ports like Ethernet and HDMI. As a result, the traditional USB Type-A port is gradually being replaced by the USB-C port (also known as USB 3.1), which is much thinner and lets you plug the cable into the port without having to flip the orientation of the plug. Thunderbolt 3 rides in on USB-C's coattails, using the same plug and socket, with extra circuitry to boost throughput to 40Gbps for humungous data transfers. That's eight times as fast as USB 3.0, and four times as fast as USB 3.1/USB-C. USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are showing up in a lot of new laptops, from the $229 budget models, all the way up up to $5,000 mobile workstations. Expect these two interfaces to make their way into even more laptops in the near future.

The venerable VGA interface is rapidly disappearing, due in part to space constraints in ultraportables that preclude the bulky connector, and newer monitors and projectors that work better with DisplayPort or HDMI. The latter is especially popular lately, thanks to the demand for connecting laptops to HDTVs. HDMI's cable-free cousin, Intel's Wireless Display or WiDi, beams a laptop's audio and video to an HDTV set fitted with a third-party adapter. You'll also find some laptops supporting Miracast, a wireless display standard that works with a wider selection of devices, including HDTVs, mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.

Another feature becoming scarce is the optical drive. With so many software and game purchases occurring online, and cloud services taking over for many local applications, the optical drive has been dropped from most model lines, with new systems touting slimmer, lighter form factors. For those who still need to install software from a disc or want to enjoy movies on DVD or Blu-ray, you can still find them, but it takes some hunting. For those without, external USB DVD and Blu-ray drives are as easy to use as built-in drives.

While premium ultraportables rely solely upon SSDs for the performance boost offered by solid-state memory, most mainstream systems use a combination of speedy flash memory and the traditional spinning hard drive. These hybrid drives can easily offer 500GB of storage or more, while SSD-only laptops frequently top out at 256GB or 512GB, though 1TB and larger drives are coming available this year in premium systems. If you need more hard drive space, an external USB 3.0 hard drive does the trick.

Under the Hood
The most dominant processor chips come from Intel, which in recent months launched its sixth-generation (code named "Skylake") processors. Made with ultraportables and hybrid designs in mind, these new CPUs offer significantly improved energy efficiency and better cooling, resulting in battery life that stretches through most of the day. Compared with fourth-generation (codenamed "Haswell") CPUs and fifth-generation (codenamed "Broadwell") parts—identifiable by model numbers in the 6000s as opposed to the 5000s and 4000s—not only stretch battery life, they also boast improved graphics processing. Core M is another extension of Broadwell that trades some performance gains for ultimate battery life. AMD's own line of processors also offer enhanced performance, but can't match the efficiency gains of Intel's latest chips.

Whether Skylake, Haswell, Broadwell, or AMD APUs, you should find an integrated graphics subsystem adequate for graphics tasks, unless you're a part-time gamer or a CAD user. High-end, discrete graphics processing units are terrific for 3D games, transcoding 1080p video, or watching Blu-ray movies, but like fast processors, they also feast on laptop batteries. AMD Enduro, Nvidia Optimus, and Apple Automatic Graphics Switching are technologies that stretch battery life by switching seamlessly between integrated and discrete graphics based on application demand.

Many laptop designs now incorporate non-removable batteries that can't be swapped out. While the move toward sealing batteries into the chassis does allow for thinner designs, it removes the possibility of swapping out batteries on the go for longer use between charging. On the other hand, the efficiency gains of Intel's Broadwell and Skylake processors mean that most laptops will still last for the better part of a day.

Beyond Plastic
As designs get sleeker and slimmer, manufacturers are using an array of materials in their construction. Plastic (or polycarbonate) is the least expensive and most commonly used material in laptop frames, but manufacturers have shown great ingenuity in making plastic not look cheap. The most common technique is called in-mold decoration or in-mold rolling, a process made popular by HP, Toshiba, and Acer in which decorative patterns are infused between plastic layers. This process has evolved into etched imprints and textures, commonly seen on laptop lids.

In the end, though, plastics are often associated with low-priced laptops, while higher-end models rely on metal. Common premium choices include aluminum, which has a more luxurious look, and can be fashioned into a thinner chassis than plastic. Unibody construction, where the entire chassis is made from a single piece of metal, has become the gold standard, seen on the Apple MacBook Air and Pro lines. Other designs mimic this same look and feel, with all-metal designs that securely sandwich two separate layers together.

Other light, but strong chassis materials include magnesium alloy and carbon fiber. Both add strength while keeping overall weight low. Glass has long been found covering displays, but with ultra-strong variants like Gorilla Glass, you'll find the material being used in everything from the lid to the touchpad.

Buying an Extended Warranty 
Most laptops are backed by a complimentary one-year warranty on parts and labor. The standard warranty is a limited one, so it won't cover accidents that stem from, say, a spilled drink on a keyboard or a drop to a hard surface. 

Most laptop manufacturers also sell accidental coverage as a separate plan on top of optional extended warranties, so you might end up spending close to $300 for three years of comprehensive coverage. Apple offers a maximum three-year extended warranty ($250), while most Windows-based laptop manufacturers will offer up to four years.

Our rule of thumb is that if the warranty costs more than 15 percent of the laptop's purchase price, you're better off spending the money on backup drives or services that minimize downtime. Of course, you can't put a price tag on peace of mind. There are instances when the logic board or the display—the most expensive parts of a laptop—fail, and while rare, such a catastrophe can cost you half of what the laptop is worth. Defective components usually break down during the first year; anything after that is typically attributed to wear and tear. If the breakdown can be attributed to a design flaw, laptop manufacturers will sometimes extend free warranties to cover these flaws, but only for certain models built during limited time periods.

FEATURED IN THIS ROUNDUP

Asus Chromebook Flip (C100PA-DB02)

$299.00
The Asus Chromebook Flip (C100PA-DB02) blends the best elements from other designs into a single Chrome-based laptop with a slick, convertible form factor, fast performance, all-day battery life, and an affordable price. Read the full review ››

Dell Precision 15 5000 Series (5510)

$2603.00
The Dell Precision 15 5000 Series is an impressive mobile workstation featuring premium build quality, a stellar 4K touch display, and top-notch performance. Read the full review ››

Dell XPS 13 Touch (2016)

$1449.99
The latest Dell XPS 13 Touch delivers the ideal combination of power and prestige, with a sturdy build, a gorgeous QHD+ touch screen, a speedy new processor, and USB-C port with Thunderbolt support. Read the full review ››

Microsoft Surface Book

$1699.00
The innovative Microsoft Surface Book offers comfortable ergonomics, a big, beautiful screen, more than 15 hours of battery life, and the power to make short work of everyday and multimedia tasks. It's the first premium detachable-hybrid tablet to earn our Editors' Choice. Read the full review ››

Acer Aspire R 14 (R5-471T-52EE)

$699.99
The latest Acer Aspire R 14 convertible-hybrid laptop features a solid, versatile design, a 14-inch 1080p HD screen, strong performance, and excellent battery life. Read the full review ››

Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch, Retina Display (2015)

$1299.00
Although the fifth-generation Intel Core i5 processor and Force Touch trackpad are minor updates, this year's 13-inch Retina Apple MacBook Pro is still an easy top pick for high-end ultraportables. Read the full review ››

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 Special Edition (3153)

$599.00
The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 Special Edition (3153) is a well-built convertible-hybrid laptop, with better overall performance than its already-excellent predecessor, thanks to CPU, memory, and hard drive upgrades. Read the full review ››

Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-11 (80R2003XUS)

$179.99
The Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-11 is a well-built ultraportable laptop that features a lightweight design, competent performance, and more than 11 hours of battery life, at a very low price. Read the full review ››

Razer Blade Stealth (QHD)

$1199.00
Razer's Blade Stealth (QHD) isn't capable of high-end gaming without the company's forthcoming external graphics amplifier, but its top-notch design and performance still make it our top pick for midrange ultraportables. Read the full review ››

MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-1438

$2199.99
The MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-1438 gaming laptop improves 3D-animation speed and quality with the combo of a fifth-generation Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics with G-Sync. With smooth 3D rendering, it eliminates the glitchy artifacts that could take you out of the game

Google Nexus 6P

Android isn’t an elitist system. But it still has a pure-breed strain. We’re talking about the Nexus family, the official ambassadors of Google’s mobile republic. Phones like the Nexus 6P aren’t made in Google labs by Google robots, though.

The Nexus 6P is made by Huawei, which has clawed its way up from making budget phones, often for other companies, to produce this. And it is one of the lead Android phones, regardless of brand.

After the Nexus 6, which not everyone loves, the Nexus 6P sees the series get back on track. Starting at £449 it’s a bit cheaper than the ‘intended’ prices of the other flagships, and really aces a lot of phone side attractions as well as the main events, like the speakers, battery, fingerprint scanner and selfie camera.

It’s one of the best all-round phones money can buy.\

Huawei used to make pretty awkward-looking phones. Like a teenage boy trying to grow out his hair, there were some questionable moments in its design history. Before it starting coming up with stunners like the Mate S. The Nexus 6P is perhaps not quite as much a beauty as that phone, but it’s certainly smart-looking.

The Nexus 6P has a slim aluminium body and ours features a dark grey finish that takes the edge off the often-sparkly look of anodised aluminium. There’s a little raised lip at the top, a phone-wide bar covered by glass that makes the 6P appear a bit less of a stunner than something like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. However, we’ll take it. It lets the rest of the body stay a trim 7.3mm thick.

Phones don’t get points just for being slim, but a giant-screen phone like this needs to lose bulk wherever it can. One of the big problems with the original Nexus 6 is that the thing just feels huge.

By slimming down the frame and reducing the screen size a bit, the Nexus 6P is far more manageable. I found its size makes both hands gravitate towards the screen rather than just the one, but it’s not the thumb workout the Nexus 6 is. It’s more a Samsung Galaxy Note 5-a-like. You’ll need to treat it pretty nice, though. After accidentally keeping it in a pocket with my keys for about 45 seconds, it had already scraped off some of the outer dark finish. Oops.

This is just the nature of dark-coloured aluminium devices, though. So if you don’t fancy treating your Nexus 6P like a newborn you might want to consider the lighter silver and Frost white versions. All three look great.

Back to the good stuff: Huawei has handily bunged all the on-body buttons on the side, right where your thumb lands naturally, and the rear fingerprint scanner gives plenty of room for the front-facing stereo speakers. It’s a pretty successful case of phone Tetris.

While the finger scanner is part of the new Nexus Imprint team, it actually feels just like the one on the Huawei Mate S. It’s fast, it’s accurate and it works even when the phone screen is off.

Good fingerprint scanners have gone from being a rarity to the norm among top-end phones, but this is among the best. It seems to be able to deal with wet fingers far better than most too. Being on the back, the Nexus 6P wants you to use your index finger rather than your thumb. But you can train the little guy to recognise up to five fingers. Just like other finger scanner phones, then.

The speakers are just as worth noticing. The Nexus 6P has two front-facing speakers for a proper stereo effect while you play a game or watch a bit of Netflix. It’s a decent-sounding duo.

I put the Nexus 6P next to the BoomSound speakers of the HTC M8S and found the 6P is just as loud, just lacking a bit of the mid-range padding that makes HTC’s phone speakers so special. Google says the ‘P’ in the name stands for premium, and it’s pretty clear there are no half measures in this phone. This stands with the screen too.

The Nexus 6P has a Samsung-made Super AMOLED screen of 2,560 x 1440 pixels. It’s probably a very similar panel to what we saw in the Galaxy Note 5. Very big, very sharp, bright and with immense contrast, it’s a terrific screen.

Colour fidelity has been improved a smidge since the oversaturated Nexus 6, however to my eyes it still looks like the screen is a touch hot. It’s similar to what you get in the LG G4 and the ‘adaptive display’ mode of Samsung’s phones. It’s out to show off what OLEDs can do.

You don’t get the option of extreme accuracy that Samsung provides in the Note 5. Some of Huawei’s IPS LCD screens have a slightly more natural tone too.

Still, this is generally a great screen. It makes the phone a great little media and gaming machine. But no, there’s no Force Touch pressure sensitive nonsense going on here. With no support for it baked into Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Apple has a clear lead on innovating the way we prod our phones. There’s no Galaxy Note-style stylus either.

Media hoarders also need to note that the Nexus 6P memory is non-expandable just like every other Nexus device. However, sensible pricing makes even the 128GB version pretty attractive. You’ll pay £449 for the 32GB version I’m using here, £499 for the 64GB and £579 for the 128GB. That makes it the most affordable 128GB phone to date. Nice.

It’s quality memory too, with read speeds of 170MB/s and writes of 107MB/s making it way faster than most memory cards.

Those on a budget should look at the Nexus 5X too, but the 6P is still a bit of a bargain compared to the iPhone 6s Plus. Apple’s big boy starts at £599 for the paltry 16GB version and rockets up to £789. There’s a refreshing fairness to Google’s prices, don’t you think?

You also need to consider that the Nexus 5X is actually well under £100 cheaper. The 32GB Nexus 5X costs £379, the 32GB Nexus 6P £70 extra at £449. The lower-end model only seems dramatically cheaper because it comes in a 16GB flavour. Both are good deals.

Type-C for me

Tasty Android sweets

The other bit you have to love about a Nexus phone is its use of totally bloat-free software. The Nexus 6P is here to show off Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and there’s zero Huawei influence in the software. That’s a good job when a lot of people really don’t like Huawei’s Emotion UI software.

Marshmallow looks a fair bit like good old Lollipop, but messes with the apps menu so that it’s a single vertical scroll rather than a series of pages. You can actually get this look without a Marshmallow device, as the Google Now look is actually separate from the core software these days and has already been injected with Marshmallow goo.

The bits exclusive to Marshmallow phones like the Nexus 6P include things like Google Now on Tap, a turbo-charging of the Android digital assistant that lets it scan whatever’s on the phone screen and fling related info cards your way as part of a display overlay. You can do it at any time, while you’re using any old app.

Apple iOS 10 preview

What's better than the latest iOS 9.3 update? A free shipping container of Krispy Kremes? A puppy that does the washing up? How about iOS 10?

With Apple's WWDC 2016 knees-up done and dusted, and a preview of iOS 10 one of the main attractions, we now know a heck of a lot more about the iPhone's next big platform update than we did. Let's dive in and see what's coming.

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND

That bloody Stocks app. No one we know has ever used it, but it still insists on clinging to our home screens like a stubborn wart, refusing to die or disappear.

Thankfully however, iOS 10 will finally let you hide Apple's own default apps, making for a more clutter-free user experince. You won't be able to completely "delete" them off your device - they need to be there for authentication purposes, apparently - but you won't have them stinking up your home screens any longer.

ENDLESS EMOJI

Apple’s previously staid Messenger app is getting its biggest overhaul in years – and the focus looks to be on making it more fun.

During the company’s WWDC presentation, emoji played a big part. Not only will they display in a bigger format than they currently do, but you’ll be able to swap out individual words for emoji with a couple of taps (iOS will recognise the word “taco” for instance, and let you swiftly replace it with the taco emoji).

The fun won’t stop with smileys. You’ll be able to send messages of congratulation that result in the recipients screen filling with balloons or clouds of confetti, or hide the contents of a message under “Invisible Ink” that needs to be wiped off the recipient’s touchscreen with a swipe. You’ll also be able to send hand-written notes and sketches, and preview videos and web links from inside the app.

On a related note, iOS 10 is giving the keyboard a brain boost by integrating Siri’s deep learning skills. That means QuickType autofills and corrections will be more relevant to the context, and you’ll get auto reply options that use information such as your location or calendar contents.

THE LOCK SCREEN GETS SOME LOVIN’

WWDC confirmed that iOS 10 will bring a few welcome changes to the lock screen too. You’ll now be able to use “raise to wake”, which means you’ll only need to pick up your iPhone or iPad to see the lock screen and view the clock or any notifications.

3D Touch is being given a clever new job here too: you’ll be able to interact with selected notifications and pop-ups without having to unlock the screen. Just give the relevant notification a hard press and you’ll be able to delve into its contents, whether it’s a text message or a pop-up to say your Uber has arrived.

Another thing previewed at WWDC was a reworked Apple Music, with the (in our opinion) messy old layout replaced by something much cleaner and simpler. Creaking social layer Music Connect looks to have been quietly axed (it will be missed… NOT) and Apple has taken a leaf out of Spotify’s book by giving each user a regularly updated personalised playlist. Apple’s doing it every day rather than every week – although that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be better at magically tapping into your music tastes as Discover Weekly.

PHOTOS GETS A GOOGLE-STYLE BRAIN BOOST

Apple is set to inject a lot more AI-based stuff into the Photos app with iOS 10, with deep machine learning recognising faces, places, objects and events and using these things to categorise and tag your stills and videos. That means you’ll be able to find things quicker, and Photos will also automatically create little vignettes, collections and movies in a tab called Memories.

Yes, you’re probably thinking that sounds a lot like the features Google Photos has been offering for some time, but Apple’s implementation has one key difference: all the computation is done on your actual device, not in the cloud. The true implications of that difference (will it be slower/faster than Google Photos, for instance?) won’t be clear until launch, but in theory it could be a better way of doing things.

HAS MAPS FINALLY FOUND ITS WAY?

Apple’s Maps app has a chequered past. In its current form it’s a decent, usable mapping service, but its disastrous introduction means it’s lagging way behind Google Maps in terms of public perception. iOS 10 looks set to deliver a sizeable boost to Maps’ functionality, however.

At WWDC, Apple showed us how it's opening Maps up to developers, letting you book an Uber or make an OpenTable reservation without having to leave the app, and getting cleverer suggestions based on what it knows about you (gleaning stuff from your calendar, for instance).

The navigation is also getting richer, with traffic levels appearing in the route, while reroutes to avoid that – or to buy food or petrol – will give you more info on the extra time you’ll need.

Will that be enough to overtake Google Maps? Probably not, but it seems to be getting closer.

Yuneec Typhoon H review

If DJI is the Coca-Cola of consumer drones, Yuneec is Pepsi – a big, successful name, but still second best. We're not sure if it's got the same funny taste if you lick one, though.

The Typhoon H wants to tip the balance in Yuneec's favour, and on paper looks like it has the chops to do it: at £1,100, it’s cheaper than DJI’s Phantom 4, but has a beefier features list.

How does retractable landing gear, dual-operator flying and a 7in touchscreen built into the remote controller sound? If that doesn't get your motor running, the Typhoon has six of its own - two more than than the Pantom's four. All while packing in a similar blend of 4K video recording, clever trick flying modes and user friendliness.

In fact, the Typhoon H seems a more worthy rival to DJI’s step-up model, the Inspire 1 (£1,769 at the time of writing), than the Phantom 4.

So does it deliver the drone to finally knock DJI off its perch? Not quite – but it comes really, really close.

SIX APPEAL

image: http://images.cdn.stuff.tv/sites/stuff.tv/files/styles/big-image/public/brands/Yuneec/Typhoon_H/yuneec-typhoon-h-folded.jpg?itok=KUC_MuMn

This isn't a drone that's too tubby for take-off, even with six rotor arms. It's a fair bit larger than a Phantom with all six arms extended, sure, but you can fold them down to make it much easier to lug around between flights.

There's no carry case like the Phantom 4, though, so unless you want to lug it everywhere in the original box, it's a good idea to invest in the rugged backpack - a £110 option. I can throw (or rather carefully place) my Phantom 3 in a tote bag at a pinch for a discreet drone drop-off, but the Typhoon H is just that bit too wide for that.

At 1.85kg, it's a little heftier on the scales than the 1.38kg Phantom 4, too, but still far from back-breaking. You've got the lightweight carbon fibre rotor arms and landing gear to thank for that.

Ah yes, that landing gear. After take-off, flicking a switch on the controller will swivel the feet up about 90 degrees, letting the gimbal-mounted camera pan around a full, unobstructed 360 degrees. It's a party trick shared by DJI's Inspire 1, but not the Phantom 4, so it’s a quite the coup for Yuneec to squeeze it into such an affordable drone.

ROTARY CLUB

With six rotors, the Typhoon should, in theory, be more stable in-flight than any four-rotor rival. Flying round my local park on a cold, windy June morning (never change, British summertime), it certainly felt very stable - with the footage looking like it was taken from a crane rather than a dinky flying platform when I played it back later.

Then again, I’ve never found DJI’s quadcopters to be particularly susceptible to gusts of wind either, thanks to the gyroscopes and IMU sensors doing a bang up job to keep themselves level at all times. I’m not sure how much of the Typhoon’s stability is down to an abundance of motors.

The other advantage to putting hex appeal before quad goals is that, according to Yuneec, if one motor fails the drone will stay in the air. Short of sabotaging an £1100 loaner, this wasn't a claim I could test, so I'll have to assume Yuneec isn't telling porkies here.

SMALL FRY

Micro Drone 3.0 review

TAKE CONTROL

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Flying the Typhoon H is a cakewalk with the remote controller, which links up to the drone over Wi-Fi and radio. It's got a 7in touchscreen built in, for changing settings and getting a 720p real-time feed of what the drone's camera is pointed at. 

OK, the reflective screen coating can make flying a bit trickier when the sun's blazing, but the three-sided shade included in the box blocks out direct sunlight. Basically, you'll always be able to see what's going on, without having to stuff the controller up your jumper.

There are a ton of physical buttons and switches for controlling flying and camera modes, and it recharges over USB so you don't have to mess about with battery packs. It's a little on the large and heavy side, so the bundled neck strap definitely comes in handy when you're heading off to do some flying.

Overall, this Typhoon's remote is better than the Phantom's, mostly because you don't have to faff about plugging in a smartphone or tablet. It’s basically an Android tablet itself – you can even run apps on it.

Turn on the controller and the drone should pair automatically - at least, that's the theory. Most times, the RC would pair but the Wi-Fi wouldn't, so I was diving into the menus to try and re-bind the two together. If this happens once or twice, it’s forgivable, but it happened most times I used the drone.

I suspect it’s a problem that can be fixed through a software update, but right now it’s an annoying time-waster.

VISION OF THE FUTUR

UP, UP AND AWAY

There might be an extra pair of props, but once you'e up in the air the Typhoon feels a lot like the Phantom. 

It’s zippy and responsive, holds its position well if you take your fingers off the sticks, and has collision detection to stop itself ploughing into obstacles directly in front of it. Don't expect it to dodge anything if you're flying backwards or from side to side, though - that'll just end up with a shashed drone and an expensive repair bill.

Software restrictions make anything above 400 feet a no-fly zone, but you can still get a fair old distance away from the controller without losing connection. Yuneec reckons it's about a mile, but given how flying out of your visual range is illegal (and we're all law-abiding drone pilots here at Stuff), I didn't put that limit to the test. It's certainly fine to a few hundred feet.

If you do lose sight of the drone for whatever reason, flicking the flight mode switch to “H” makes it automatically fly back towards you and eventually land within a few metres. Spot it coming back and have some flight time left? Jump back on the controls and you can pick up where you left off.

A bunch of other handy autopilot modes are included, to circle a point of interest for a perfectly steady shot, follow a route you draw onscreen using map waypoints, or even lock the camera on a subject and track it - handy if you want an aerial shot of your bike ride or running route.