These 5 reviews from this week are blisteringly hot, from Nvidia’s sublimely powerful RTX 5090 to this ridiculously expansive 110-inch TV
Reviews Recap: the most exciting products we've tested the week of January 20, 2025
It’s been another jam-packed week in tech. Whether it’s the reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, with its substantial new screen and game-changing AI features, or Trump’s 11th-hour intervention on the US’s TikTok ban, there’s been a huge amount going on over the last seven days. But that’s why it’s worth taking a minute, kicking back, and catching up with all of TechRadar’s latest reviews.
A whole lot of gadgets have passed through our testing labs since our last recap. First off, we’ve finally gotten our hands on Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, and we can confirm it’s just staggeringly powerful.
On top of that, we’ve been gazing in awe at Hisense’s new monolithic 110-inch mini-LED TV, taking in its gorgeous colors – and noticing the odd flaws to boot. So, if you want the lowdown on which tech is worth your spend, check out our highlights below.
1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 review
✅ The absolute best performance you can buy
✅ Makes 8K gaming viable
✅ DLSS 4 is a little bit magic
❌ Exorbitantly priced
❌ Utterly chugs your electricity
❌ Making the most of it demands a premium gaming PC
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 has been so hotly anticipated by the gaming community for a reason. It’s just absurdly powerful, offering up to a 50% performance boost over the RTX 4090 while actually consistently delivering 8K gameplay at high frame rates. Additionally, its DLSS 4 AI-powered multi-frame generation can boost the frame rates of your games to generate absurdly smooth visuals. It’s absolutely one of the best graphics cards out there.
However, there is an implicit question underlying all of this. Do you actually need the RTX 5090 right now? Sure, if you’re working in 3D rendering or AI, all that extra power will make you cackling like a mad scientist. But, as a gamer, is this a must-buy currently? Perhaps not, especially given its $1,999 / £1,939 / AU$4,039 price tag, the fact few gaming monitors on the market currently offer 8K, and the reality that it quaffs down 575W of power like a dehydrated viking.
If you can’t miss out on the bragging rights or want to be prepared for future advancements, it’s worth it, but whether you need it just yet is up for debate.
- Score: 4.5 / 5
2. Honor Magic 7 Pro review
✅ Epic battery life
✅ Super-fast performance
✅ Better camera module
✅ Speakers pack a punch
❌ Doesn’t come with a charger or case
❌ Inconsistent camera image processing
❌ Software not to everyone’s taste
The Honor Magic 7 Pro is a lightning-fast flagship phone – rocking the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, the handset handles many games without breaking a sweat, maintaining 60fps without a hint of overheating. It also lasts a staggeringly long time, despite being more modest than its predecessor – it should happily last you two days, while topping up super-fast thanks to its 100W charging.
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With a 200MP telephoto lens that packs a 3x optical zoom and a whopping 1/1.4-inch sensor, the Magic 7 Pro is a shoo-in for one of the best camera phones. However, if you push it, the limits of its AI SuperZoom become abundantly clear, with the picture processing yielding mixed results. Meanwhile, Magic OS 9 makes some odd design choices compared to stock Android, making navigating the system harder than it needs to be if you’re coming from the OG OS.
- Score: 4 / 5
3. Hisense 110UXN review
✅ Bright, detailed picture
✅ Brilliant, vivid colors
✅ Fantastic big screen for gaming
❌ Seriously expensive
❌ Backlight blooming during dark scenes
❌ Need to adjust picture settings
The Hisense 110UXN is a whopping 110-inch TV that promises to turn your living room into a home cinema or gamer’s paradise. It offers gorgeous color reproduction, rivaling the best OLED TVs, and regularly hits brightness peaks of around 3,000 nits, making games and movies alike look fantastic. It does occasionally struggle with backlight blooming during darker scenes, though, and you’ll need to fiddle around with its settings to truly get the best out of its 4K images.
What makes these slight issues harder to swallow is that at $15,000 / £20,000 (around AU$24,300), the 110UXN is also seriously expensive, meaning you have to be really keen for that extra screen estate. But despite this, it’s an impressive-looking set that’s capable of breathtaking color and brightness.
- Score: 4 / 5
4. Roberts Rambler Classic review
✅ Gorgeous, classic design
✅ Crisp, bassy audio
✅ Doubles up as a Bluetooth speaker
❌ Quite expensive for a radio
❌ Doesn’t include rechargeable battery
❌ Bluetooth version behind the times
The Roberts Rambler Classic is the perfect gadget for anyone who misses the golden age of radio – but isn’t quite willing to forgo the 21st century entirely. Its retro ‘70s-inspired styling with its leather handle, bamboo side panels, and old-school speaker grille is a blast from the past, while its precise bassy sound, DAB+ functionality, and it also doubles up as one of the best Bluetooth speakers.
It’s not the cheapest radio you’ll find, mind: at £179 (around $223 / AU$353), this is a fairly premium package for what’s inside, especially given the version of its wireless connectivity is 4.2, which is pretty long in the (Blue)tooth. And if you want a rechargeable battery to take it on the move, that’ll cost you extra.
- Score: 4 / 5
5. Philips Hue Play Light Bar review
✅ Precise color reproduction
✅ Simple to setup
✅ Connects effortlessly with other Philips Hue Play devices
✅ Works as standard smart lights when not using TV
❌ Requires Philips Hue Bridge and Hue Play HDMI Sync Box for the best experience
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar is a great way to add top-quality backlighting to your TV without the need for adhesive strips or janky cameras. Pick up a Philips Hue Bridge and an HDMI Sync Box and you can use these light bars to extend the picture beyond the boundaries of your TV screen.
Their color reproduction is impressively accurate, while the setup is straightforward, and they’ll happily sync other Philips Hue products, meaning you can take your personal light show even further. And once you’re done binging boxsets, you can use them as smart lights in their own right. Ultimately, they're more expensive than some of the best smart lights, particularly once you factor in the cost of the Bridge and HDMI Sync Box, but they are seriously impressive.
- Score: 4.5 / 5
Josh is Reviews Editor at TechRadar. With over ten years of experience covering tech both in print and online, he’s served as editor of T3 and net magazines and written about everything from groundbreaking gadgets to innovative Silicon Valley startups. He’s an expert in a wide range of products from Spatial Audio headphones to gaming handhelds. When he’s not putting trailblazing tech through its paces, he can be found making melodic techno or seeking out the perfect cold brew coffee.
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