Table of contents for November 2018 in Tech Advisor

Price: £379 inc VAT from fave.co/2BGokTO Microsoft’s 10in, £379 Surface Go tablet is a departure from the company’s Surface tradition, which put forth expensive, ambitious designs to break trail for the rest of the PC industry. Now, the Surface Go’s decidedly mainstream price should appeal to business people on the go, as well as consumers considering an Apple iPad or Android tablet. Caveats such as its operating system – Windows 10 in S Mode – and its low-end processor may give you pause. And the optional but cramped Type Cover somewhat offsets the Surface Go’s convenience. But our Surface Go review will walk you through the Surface Go hardware, the Type Cover, and the new Mobile Mouse, then tell you how it all works in practice, both as a pure…

Price: £439 inc VAT from fave.co/2BI5zPL After buying and rescuing Motorola’s phone business, Lenovo went all-in on modular design. 2016’s Moto Z introduces Moto Mods, the snap-on accessory ecosystem that gave you a speaker, extra battery or even projector if you wanted it. Two years later and Moto is on to the third generation of Moto Mod smartphones. It’s great that accessories two years old work with the latest crop of Moto phones, but the Z3 Play is a hamstrung device compared to the Z2 Play and even the original Z Play. The ‘Play’ moniker refers to the mid-range version of the Z range and has stood for mid-range specifications but with similar design and superior battery life. That’s not so clear cut anymore, and while the Z3 Play is…

First, perform a backup of your Mac before installing the update. You will also need to restart your Mac. 1. Launch the App Store app in the Applications folder, or click on the › in the menu bar, select About This Mac, and then in the Overview section, click on the Software Update button. 2. Click on Updates in the top bar of the App Store app. 3. Look for the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update in the listing. If you don’t see it, go to the menu bar and select Store > Reload Page or press Command-R to refresh the Updates. 4. Click on the Update button to the right of the Supplemental Update listing. The update will download and the installation should start automatically. Your Mac will…

Price: £4,409 inc VAT from fave.co/2MoZx7o Since its introduction in 2016, the MacBook Pro as we know it today has produced mixed reactions. People love the combination of size, weight, and performance. But there are issues that make people hesitate or even regret buying one: keyboard problems, the need to find ways to work with its Thunderbolt 3/ USB-C ports, a low RAM ceiling. With the 2018 MacBook Pro, Apple has addressed some of those issues. And if you’re lamenting that I didn’t say all of those issues, well, there are some things that, in an effort to move towards a particular technological ideal, Apple won’t change. But as a whole, the 2018 MacBook Pro is a better laptop than its 2017 predecessor, and a vast improvement over the 2016…

Although some of us are old enough to remember when you had to handwrite your undergraduate dissertation, those times are behind us now. Even secondary school pupils can work on tablets and computers for exams these days, so most students have a keen eye on a new laptop (parent bank account permitting in some instances). But there are a lot of laptops, and a lot of budgets. While expensive MacBooks and Surface Pros are more than adequate for relatively basic student needs, you can spend much less and still do most things, such as stream Netflix until four in the morning. There are a few things to consider when buying a student laptop besides price though, and we have a range of prices here to suit all budgets. Ports and…

Price: £899 inc VAT from fave.co/2BTVkIj Like clockwork, Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 9, the big-screen, stylus-toting cousin of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. It looks a lot like the Note 8, but despite the hype we think the upgrades are significant enough to make this Samsung’s best phone alongside the S9 Plus. While headline changes are the (variant depending) yellow S-Pen with Bluetooth, a bigger battery and improved cameras, the general look, feel and performance of the Note 9 means this is Samsung’s most refined Note to date. Since the launch of the iPhone X, the idea of a £1,000 phone is less alien now, and that’s roughly the price you’ll pay if you want a Note 9 off contract. But it’s such a pleasure to use,…

It’s that time of year again. No, we’re not talking about back-to-school or the end of summer – it’s time for a new flavour of Android. And this year the tasty confection is... Pie. That’s right, the ninth version of Android has an official name and that means it’s ready to install on the precious few phones lucky enough to support it on day one. This year, however, the wait for Android Pie might not be so excruciating. Thanks to Project Treble, several phones already have beta versions of Android 9 in the wild, so it could be weeks, not months, before it starts showing up on more phones. But no matter how long it takes, it’ll be worth the wait. Pie introduces enough new features to make any Oreo…