5 thrilling tech reviews of the week: why the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is your must-buy new phone and Hisense’s best ever mini-LED TV

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is probably the best Samsung phone for most people right now. It has the best battery life of the S25 lineup, outlasting the Ultra by ten minutes at 18 hours and 45 minutes. Its finish is gorgeous, with our reviewers cooing over the new rich blue colorway in particular. And its screen is stellar – not only is it just a tiny bit smaller than the S25 Ultra’s, at 6.7 inches compared to 6.9 inches, but it rocks the same number of pixels, making it the sharpest display Samsung currently offers.

But really, what makes the Galaxy S25 Plus one of the best phones available right now is its value. Despite costing just a few hundred more than the S25, it’s a significant step up and is much closer to the S25 Ultra in terms of its power and potential. You’re getting a phone that’s capable of much of the same things as its bigger sibling without spending extra money on a few premium features you likely won’t use as much.

The Hisense U9N is undoubtedly the brand’s best TV to date. Its mini-LED backlight offers up to 5,300 local dimming zones, enabling it to achieve exceptional contrast with deep, consistent blacks and bright highlights. This bold contrast and its vivid colors are maintained even at off-center viewing angles, while its 4.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos speaker system is capable of both impressive bass, as well as excellent positioning of dialogue and effects.

What makes it particularly exciting, though, is how good value it is. Both its 75-inch and 85-inch models have already seen some significant reductions from their release prices. Compared to the premium mini-LED screens released by big brands like Samsung and Sony, the U9N is very competitively priced, making it one of the best value ways to get this kind of super-vibrant screen into your living room.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 is, in the words of our reviewer, ‘polished, powerful, and predictable.’ That’s not really a negative with a device that’s this solid, though – it’s the product of incremental improvements over the years, with its sleek design, the elegant yet increasingly skilled One UI 7 interface, and its vibrant, colorful display. Admittedly, its most hyped AI features do seem to have taken a backseat – whether this is a restraint on Samsung’s part or more of a ‘watch this space’ remains to be seen.

Perhaps the most important development here, though, is the Galaxy S25’s performance. Unlike in some of the best phones – we’re looking at you, iPhone 16 – Samsung hasn’t bundled a cheaper chipset into its base-level handset. Instead, it includes the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip as in the Ultra, meaning it runs blisteringly fast. Not bad for the cheapest handset in its line.

The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Pro owes its form to its iconic predecessor, the near 20-year-old airship-shaped iPod dock. However, inside, it’s received several upgrades over the years, enabling it to compete with many of the best wireless speakers on the market. The Pro offers both aptX Adaptive Bluetooth compatibility and Wi-Fi streaming access via a range of streaming services.

Not only this, but it’s crammed with upgraded hardware, including a reworked tweeter array and the titanium dome unit adapted from the B&W 600 S3 passive speakers, as well as two mid-range drivers and a 150mm bass driver. Backed up by 240 watts of amplification, this gives the Zeppelin plenty of dynamism and detail, while ensuring it sounds tightly integrated across its whole frequency range. For its price, this is a hard speaker to beat.

The HP Chromebook Plus has surprisingly powerful specs for a laptop running ChromeOS, yet it manages to preserve the light and thin form factor that’s typical of this kind of device. It’s solidly built and has a construction that actually feels pretty premium despite its comparatively affordable price. On top of this, its display is clear and crisp, offering vibrant color no matter the lighting conditions.

However, Chromebook Plus’s performance makes it a particularly noteworthy candidate for the best Chromebook. Running ChromeOS is smooth and seamless, while productivity apps don’t even make it break a sweat. It’s also comfortably able to stream 4K video and can even manage some impressive gaming performance: we were able to run Asphalt Legends Unite on high graphics settings without us having to pump the brakes. All in all, it’s impressive stuff.