5 in-depth tech reviews of the week: trailblazing noise-cancelling headphones and the budget phone with iPhone 16 Pro looks

The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 are premium wireless headphones that offer some serious spec upgrades over their predecessors. On top of their streamlined look, they’ve been upgraded to Bluetooth 5.3 with aptX Lossless compatibility for CD-quality streaming. And further upgrades are coming, with both spatial audio and Auracast promised in future over-the-air updates, giving them a feature set that can rival most other mass-market, high-end headphones.

But what truly earns the Px7 S3 their place in the pantheon of the best noise-cancelling headphones is their sound quality. They’re deliciously dynamic and offer punchy bass, yet are capable of a spacious, airy soundstage. And their ANC, while not fully Bose-esque, can compete with every other headphone brand, silencing most external noise without weakening the quality of your tunes.

“Impressive in pretty much every respect, this is one of Bowers & Wilkins’ very best products when judged on a pound-for-pound basis.”

Read Simon’s full Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review.

A good deal of what makes Sky Glass Gen 2 so appealing is also true of its first generation. It gives you access to Sky TV without the need for dishes or discrete boxes, instead running over your home network, and also contains a built-in Dolby Atmos soundbar, making it a great all-in-one home cinema solution.

What does the Gen 2 bring to the table that improves it over its predecessor and makes it worth choosing over any of the other best TVs? A whole bunch of upgrades. It rocks boosted brightness. It crams in way more dimming zones than its forebear, helping to improve its blacks and contrast. And its 3.1.2 sound system offers improved bass, giving its audio way more guts and presence. All told, it’s an even more polished option for Sky customers and anyone who wants a complete home entertainment package.

“The Sky Glass Gen 2 offers a significant improvement over its predecessor, bringing better brightness, more immersive sound, and more advanced local dimming. An all-in-one, easy-to-use Sky hub that doesn’t require a dish to be installed for live viewing, you’re getting a very solid QLED TV and a highly convenient package that Sky customers may find difficult to resist.”

Read Harry’s full Sky Glass Gen 2 review.

The Honor 400 Lite very much wears its design inspirations on its sleeve. It offers an Apple-aping notch widget system and camera control button, plus a clean form factor and three-lens camera bump that will look familiar to any iPhone 16 Pro fans out there. But it offers all of this in a budget Android handset that costs just £249.99 – unconventional features like this are a real rarity at this kind of price range.

So does that make the Honor 400 Lite a shoo-in for one of the best cheap phones out there? Not quite. Honor’s MagicOS is still a pretty cluttered software ecosystem compared to Apple’s streamlined setup, while the camera system feels pretty limited. It does have a good-looking 6.7-inch OLED display, though, and the battery life isn’t bad, so if you absolutely need iPhone looks on a budget, you could definitely do a lot worse.

“The Honor 400 Lite is a fascinating budget Android phone that seems way more enamored with the Apple way of doing things, offering some appealing features, including a dedicated camera button and a handy notch widget system. However, it takes its eye off the ball in some key areas.”

Read Jon’s full Honor 400 Lite review.

The DeLonghi Linea Classic Espresso Machine is a compact, appealing coffee maker that takes a lot of the work out of making coffee manually. Rather than having to manage water quantity, temperature, or the brewing pressure, you can simply load up your portafilter, give it a good tamp, and then you’re ready to brew a single or double shot of espresso. Froth or steam various kinds of milk with its built-in wand, and you can make your favorite drink in no time.

Admittedly, these features aren’t at all unusual among the best coffee machines. But what is unusual is the price: very few espresso machines cost as little as $199.95 (about £155), especially not when they produce as decent results as this. It also occupies only a small amount of worktop space, making it easy to tuck away when not in use.

“The De’Longhi Linea Classic Espresso Machine is somewhere in between a manual and an automatic espresso machine. Tamp your finely ground coffee carefully into the portafilter and insert it into the machine. Press the button for a single or double espresso and watch it brew.”

Read Karen’s full De’Longhi Linea Classic review.

Technically, the Nikon Z5 II may be the ‘entry-level’ model out of the most recent generation of the brand’s mirrorless cameras. But, in practice, it’s far higher spec than this label would lead you to believe. It follows in the footsteps of the Nikon Zf, gaining its Expeed 7 processor and getting access to its excellent subject detection and ultra-faithful 3D tracking. It offers a giant leap forward compared to the original Z5 in every area, meaning it’s a natural choice if you’re looking for the best mirrorless camera at a reasonable budget.

Speaking of budget, though, it is important to recognize that it has had a significant boost to its list price this generation, going for $1,699 / £1,599 / AU$2,699 for its body alone. However, we’d argue that this increased cost is worth it, given the vastly improved camera you’re getting in return.

“The Nikon Z5 II is a calculated and well-executed camera that blurs the line between affordability and performance. Despite being angled as the brand’s entry-level model, the body has received significant upgrades over its rather pedestrian predecessor. As a superlative, catch-all camera that performs in the vast majority of scenarios, the Nikon Z5 II ticks every box.”

Read Alex’s full Nikon Z5 II review.