We look at how to avoid unnecessary purchases and save yourself some much-needed cash.
By its very nature, technology goes forward. It advances relentlessly, through innovation, research and production. Things improve and then improvements are made on those improvements.
This constant progression works in tandem with our consumerist, capitalist culture, where the need for seemingly endless growth means companies are constantly looking for new ways to make us spend our money. That, of course, means new products.
What I haven't mentioned, however, is invention. Why?
Simply because as far as I can tell, this is exceedingly rare. For the most part, new products build on something that already exists. Every year, we have new smartphones, for example, with faster processors, sharper screens and better cameras. And every year, it seems the manufacturers of these devices struggle to come up with additional features to excite the public and, crucially, encourage them to spend.
Admittedly, I'm no student of economics or sociology, so I'm sure anyone more learned in these fields could easily pick holes in my limited analysis of this phenomenon. All the same, it seems to me that a lot of what's being pushed at us is unnecessary and simply doesn't justify getting your wallet out -not yet, at least.
With that in mind, let's take a look at what could well be the most pointless upgrades right now. (Bear in mind that with all of these products, if you don't already own one, it's not an upgrade; it's a new purchase.)
Smartphones
Assuming your current handset isn't a budget model but rather a last-generation flagship design, then you probably don't need anything that's on the market now. The advantages you gain with a new phone are so minimal, you're basically just throwing money away.
Higher screen resolutions are frequently posited as a reason to upgrade, but surely we've reached a point where pixel density is going beyond what the human eye can perceive. Do the 720p smartphone displays of yesterday look vastly different to the 1080p ones of today? And as for 4k, would you even know you had it if it wasn't written on the side of the box?
The matter of resolution also applies to the camera. Unless you're a professional photographer or an amateur enthusiast of this art (in which case you'd probably want to use a DSLR anyway), the pictures you capture are likely to be in an informal setting. You don't need professional features to snap your mates in the pub or your cat wearing a slice of bread on its face. And it seems unlikely you're ever going to want to print these images as billboards or posters on the sides of buses, so smaller resolutions will be probably be sufficient. And, of course, the number of megapixels is not the be all and end all. What's more important is good light, and in the absence of that, the cameras of the current flagships don't fare much better than their predecessors.
Other factors, such as increased RAM and faster processors, are virtually irrelevant unless you're running certain games. Even then, the most graphically demanding titles should still run quite happily on a last-gen phone.
What does that leave us with? Storage instantly comes to mind. It's no surprise that many mobile devices don't have an SD card slot, because additional capacity is something you might genuinely want and need, and allowing you to upgrade that alone, without the requirement that you buy a brand new, shiny gadget doesn't make good business sense. Thankfully, some manufacturers (notably, Samsung) are more generous in this respect and offer SD card slots in their phones.
Beyond these things, it's all about gimmicks. Fingerprint scanners, heartbeat monitors and voice control are just a few of the things that are meant to convince you to spend, but my advice would be to keep your money and get yourself a SIM-only contract - one you can easily cancel whenever you really do need to upgrade.
Monitors
Let's make another assumption: that your current PC monitor was made in the last five years and isn't a CRT. Let's also take it as given that it supports 1080p resolutions.
Needless to say, if it doesn't meet these criteria, you should seriously think about upgrading as soon as you can afford it. In fact, even if it is a 1080p flat panel, there's still good cause to get a new one. Because you tend to sit relatively close to your monitor when you use your PC, you'll be able to appreciate higher resolutions such as 4k in games and movies.
There's also the possibility that you might want a larger display or additional ones for multi monitor setups. These, as well as things like picture quality and response times, are certainly good reasons to buy a new screen, if you old one is deficient in any way.
What's less convincing are 3D and touch-screens.
Five years on from James Cameron's movie Avatar, 3D is at best a novelty and at worst an annoyance. In the same way that people are increasingly opting for the 2D option at the cinema, we've seen gamers turn away from the glasses-free 3D of the Nintendo 3D. Indeed, it was this feature's problems that led to the release of the 2DS (a wise move, perhaps, apart from the fact it did away with one of the console's key attractions: the folding form factor).
None of this is surprising when you think about it. 3D's biggest problem is surely that it's just not very good. Things on 3D screens and monitors rarely look like they're three-dimensional objects. Instead, they look like staggered two-dimensional layers, so there is an illusion of depth, but in no way is it realistic. Such imagery can be interesting to look at, but when you do get a 'wow' moment in a 3D movie or game, surely that's pulling you out of the experience, rather than immersing you in it. It's only when you forget about the 3D that you're usually able to enjoy the media you're consuming.
Touch-screens, meanwhile, while immensely useful on mobile devices and things like self-checkout tills at supermarkets, are a pointless luxury for a home PC monitor - a fact that no doubt contributed heavily to the failure of Windows 8. Using one requires you to stretch out your arm and lean over two perfectly functional and in many ways superior peripherals: your keyboard and mouse. Not only is this physically uncomfortable, you then find yourself potentially having to deal with fingerprints on your display.
Neither of these technologies is worth upgrading for, and if you are due a new screen anyway, then you'd be better off avoiding them to save some cash.
RAM
As with many things, whether or not you need to upgrade your RAM largely depends on what you use your computer for. For the typical home PC user, though, 4GB is usually enough, as our sister mag PC Pro showed in an article entitled 'How much RAM do you really need?' (April 2014). Through various tests it was shown that for most common computing tasks, this amount of memory is perfectly sufficient. The results of these tests also indicated that as you increase the RAM beyond that point, you see diminishing returns, meaning the improvement in performance soon becomes negligible or even non-existent.
Of course, there are situations when having 8GB or even 16GB of memory is actually useful. Chief among them is image and video editing. Programs like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere can use vast amounts of memory if it's available, and you'll see real-world improvements here. The same goes for 3D rendering software and other design applications.
But most people don't do these things. Even games generally don't benefit from more than 4GB of RAM. Probably the only reason to upgrade, other than photo and video processing, is if you're particularly keen on having 20 tabs open in your web browser, while you listen to Spotify, read PDFs, write a letter in Word and edit a spreadsheet in Excel - all the while running a game on a second monitor and perhaps watching iPlayer on a third. Basically, if you're asking your computer to multitask a lot and on a regular basis, then getting some more RAM might be a good idea. Even then, though, 8GB is probably more than enough.
Of course, if you're buying a laptop, then you might want to get as much memory as you can afford, because they can be difficult, if not impossible, to upgrade later.
Windows
Again, whether you need to upgrade here depends on what you currently have and what you use your PC for. If you're running Windows 95 and you only ever use Microsoft Paint, with no connection to the internet or any other networks and, most importantly, you're perfectly happy with the performance you're getting, then you don't have any need to upgrade.
More likely, though, you could be one of the millions of people still running Windows XP. Similarly, if you're happy with what it does and you don't need any new features from your OS, then it should be fine - as long as it doesn't have an internet connection.
Because Microsoft has now ended support for XP, any new vulnerabilities found in this operating system won't be patched. To be on the safe side, you'll want to install a new operating system, but does it really have to be Windows? Linux distributions are becoming increasingly easy to install and run, and for the majority of tasks, they do everything they need to.
Of course, you might want to stay with Windows, in which case an upgrade to Windows 7 would certainly be advisable.
If you're already on that OS, though, the step up to Windows 8 is undoubtedly one you can skip past. It does offer some performance improvements, but the radical Ul makes it an unappealing prospect and, ultimately, a waste of money.
Whether or not Windows 9, when it arrives, will justify upgrading depends largely on its price. At the time of writing, there are rumours that it could be offered to existing Windows users for free or at least extremely cheaply (which Mark Pickavance addressed in issue 1328). If that does turn out to be the case, then you have no reason not to upgrade. Otherwise, you can probably just stick with Windows 7 for a while longer.
Office Software
There have been many different versions of Microsoft Office over the years, but have any of them offered anything much better than their predecessors? It would seem not. The most dramatic change to this software since its inception is probably the introduction of the divisive Ribbon interface.
Even if you do like the Ribbon, it's not really worth upgrading from an earlier version of Office to get it. Assuming that your current office suite (whether it's a Microsoft product or not) does everything you need, then there seems little reason to change it.
Of course, Microsoft Office is a well-crafted and advanced application, so there will be features that you can't get elsewhere. However, I'd be willing to bet money that the majority of people don't use them and likely aren't even aware they exist. For them, a free application like OpenOffice or LibreOffice will provide everything they require. Plus there are cloud-based options like Google Docs and Zoho to consider.
With these you get the convenience of being able to access your files from anywhere you have an internet connection, including phones and tablets. And if you wanted to add cloud storage to OpenOffice or LibreOffice, you could simply save your files to a service like Dropbox or Google Drive.
USB 3.0
If you have a laptop with USB 2.0 only, then you're probably out of luck. Desktop users, however, are more fortunate. Stick a USB 3.0 add-on card into a PCI Express slot, and you'll have access to a number of benefits. Firstly, of course, USB 3.0 external hard drives and flash drives can achieve much greater transfer speeds than USB 2.0. Secondly, because of the increased electrical power of these ports, things like mobile devices will charge much faster from them (if they support fast charging). Thirdly, USB 2.0 AC wi-fi dongles are bottlenecked by the limitations of this port, so you'll need USB 3.0 if you want to truly benefit from the speeds that this wireless standard can offer.
Routers
For everyday internet browsing, email and even HD movie streaming from sites like Netflix, an N-class router should suffice. Indeed, if your internet usage isn't being slowed down by your wireless connection, then you don't really need to upgrade (even if you're using a pre-N router). If it is, however, or if you have high-speed broadband and do a lot of file transfers over your home network, then the time for a new router has come. Find one with gigabit Ethernet ports and AC-class wi-fi, and you won't be disappointed by the performance.
Mechanical Keyboards
You don't have to be a professional typist or a gamer to benefit from a decent keyboard. Mechanical keys are not only more responsive, more comfortable and better for your fingers, but they also offer an undeniably satisfying click when you press them. Perhaps that's doesn't sound like the greatest reason to spend your cash, but once you've tried one, you'll understand the appeal.
Solid-state Drives
Without a doubt, an SSD is the upgrade that will make the most difference to a PC's performance. Your OS will boot faster and programs will open in a snap. And now we're regularly seeing 256GB models for less than £80, so you can still have enough space for a decent selection of applications and games.
Hard Drive
Even though SSDs are much faster and lighter, the traditional hard drive still represents a useful upgrade path. Media file hoarders and anyone else working with a lot of large files will benefit from increased, not to mention good value, storage. And at the moment, SDDs cannot compete on this front.