Table of contents for January 2019 in Tech Advisor

Price: £1,149 from fave.co/2yX48Zb Our review of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 6 focuses even more than usual on the differences between this new generation and its predecessor, the Surface Pro (2017), because they seem nearly identical – at least on the, er, surface. Visually, you’d be hard-pressed to differentiate the Surface Pro 6, the Surface Pro (2017), or the Surface Pro 4, all iterations on Microsoft’s iconic 12.3in two-in-one PC. This time around, the major changes are inside: a bump up in the processor to an 8th-generation Core chip, some weird adjustments in pricing, and a new colour – black – separate the new from the old. There’s actually a downgrade of sorts in the GPU compared to the Surface Pro (2017), which is a bit of a disappointment. The Performance…

Price: £999 from fave.co/2zMwHKC This is a ‘tock’ year for the iPhone (or, in Apple lingo, an ‘S’ update) and many of us expected a relatively quiet and minor refresh for 2018 after the fireworks of 2017’s iPhone X. Of course, Apple doesn’t really do quiet phone launches, and two of its late-2018 newbies are fascinating: if nothing else the XS Max and XR have enormous screens (the biggest and second-biggest Apple’s ever offered) and the latter’s price tag offers a comparatively affordable entry point to the new generation of all-screen iPhones. But where does that leave the third new handset, the iPhone XS? Rather outshone. Physically, it’s the same design as the iPhone X, and the 5.8in edge-to-edge screen that looked so fancy last autumn has now got bigger…

Antivirus software is nearly as crucial as a PC’s operating system. Even if you’re well aware of potential threats and practice extreme caution, some threats just can’t be prevented without the extra help of an AV program – or a full antivirus suite. You could, for example, visit a website that unintentionally displays malicious ads. Or accidentally click on a phishing email (it happens). Or get stung by a zero-day threat, where an undisclosed bug in Windows, your browser, or an installed program gives hackers entry to your system. We’re not suggesting that PC security software is fool-proof. Antivirus software often can’t do much to stop zero-day exploits, for example. But it can detect when the undisclosed vulnerability is used to install other nasty bits, like ransomware, on your machine.…

Price: £739 from fave.co/2RDX8sL Possibly one of the most leaked smartphones of all time is here, so it might not come as a surprise but Google’s latest flagship handset is official. We attended the Pixel 3’s London launch and have spent solid time with it. Read on for our thoughts. Design There’s not a huge design change when it comes to this year’s Pixel phone as on the whole, Google is sticking to the same style and look. The Pixel 3 has a distinctive style at the back with its two-tone effect, which not everyone will like. The iconic glossy section at the top houses the camera with the lower part containing the fingerprint scanner. This time around, it’s a fully glass design, with the lower section offering a matte…

Price: £1399 from fave.co/2OMdrWL Google Home Hub combines a Google Home digital assistant with a 7in screen, allowing a graphic display of your schedule, weather, and commute traffic all at the command of your voice. There’s more in there too: it has a good speaker for playing music, will act as a digital photo frame when not otherwise in use, and you can use it to watch your favourite shows if you have a compatible pay TV service, or monitor the feed from your home security cameras. In many ways it mirrors what a modern Android phone can already do, but with a better speaker and a bigger, always-on screen. There’s a lot to like about this impressive little gadget, and its thoughtfully designed software is a big improvement on…

Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2018 Update differs from past Windows updates in an important way: this time around, the day-today improvements will impact you in more profound ways than the new features and conveniences. What’s a feature? What’s a convenience? Think of it this way: not all of you have used Windows 10’s Paint 3D app. But probably every one of you has managed files within Windows and the cloud, used Windows’ search function, and adjusted the size of a font or text. We’re calling these the ‘conveniences’ of the Windows 10 Oct. 2018 Update. They may just make your life easier. Bluetooth battery gauges offer peace of mind Connecting a mouse to a PC via a USB charging cord isn’t the end of the world, but it’s always handy…

Price: £899 from fave.co/2q8bvJb Last year, Huawei unveiled the Mate 10 Pro, which had not only the new Kirin 970 processor but also a noticeably different design from the Mate 9 which preceded it. The Mate 20 Pro continues that trend with another completely new design, a next-generation CPU and the camera setup everyone wants: standard, wide angle and telephoto. Huawei has obviously listened to our wishes, ditched the monochrome camera and replaced it with an ultra-wide angle colour camera which means you can now go from an effective 0.6x zoom right the way through to a 5x hybrid zoom. With other new features such as the innovative in-screen fingerprint sensor, 3D face scanning unlock and reverse wireless charging, it’s a very tempting 2018 flagship to add to your shortlist.…

Price: £27.99 from fave.co/2z1Z6um For years, Kaspersky Lab has been one of the best names in computer security. The company’s top-tier product for consumers right now is Kaspersky Total Security. Taking a look at the dashboard (see above), it’s easy to see why Total Security is so popular. The program is very easy to understand. There are eight basic options Scan, Database Update, Safe Money, Password Manager, Privacy Protection, Backup and Restore, Parental Control, and My Kaspersky. The most important feature is, of course, Scan, which offers all the various features you’d expect. You can do quick and full scans, a selective scan that looks at specific folders, and an external device scan for USB drives. Of all the dashboard features, the one that might cause some confusion is Safe…

How can I stop Windows 10 updates? Whether it’s preventing Windows 10 from kicking off a critical update during a presentation, or deferring Microsoft’s Windows 10 feature update because of worries about data loss, it’s a question we’ve all asked. You shouldn’t block all Windows 10 updates. But you can manage them. Windows 10 feature updates and security updates provide a valuable service: they not only patch Windows, its apps and components, but provide new features and capabilities twice a year. Windows Update can also automatically provide updated drivers for hardware connected to your PC, such as a USB-attached printer. As we write this, however, Microsoft is wrestling with the fallout from the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, which apparently deleted user data in an undisclosed number of cases and…