Sony Xperia Z3

The big waterproof rival to Samsung's Galaxy S5

While Samsung dominates the Android phones market, there are alternatives worth considering. We’ve always been big fans of Sony’s previous Xperia phones, and the Z3 is the latest incarnation.

Previous Xperias have suffered from screens that lacked the radiance of rival phones. That’s no longer the case here - the Z3’s 5.2in screen is bright with impressive colour accuracy and contrast, wide viewing angles, and - thanks to the 1080p resolution - sharp text. Like its smaller-scale counterpart, the Z3 Compact, the Z3 uses a slightly modified version of Android 4.4 KitKat, with an upgrade to 5.0 Lollipop promised in the near future.

Chillblast Fusion Rhino

A fast and colourful Windows 7 PC

The Chillblast Fusion Rhino is an updated version of the Fusion Mammoth, one of our favourite PCs of 2013. Although the Mammoth wasn’t cheap and was sold without a keyboard, mouse or monitor, it was nonetheless a great PC (we gave it five stars) thanks to its power, compact size and quiet operation. The Rhino retains all of these great qualities.

The Rhino’s dimensions are more compact than most tower PCs, so it saves space whether on your desk or under it. It would be a shame to hide it away though because it’s available in a variety of eye-catching colours (red, white, orange, black, green and blue). It’s an attractive look, particularly the red and blue (see main image) versions. The Rhino has plastic moulded handles in case you ever need to relocate it, but it’s a heavy beast and over longer distances the handles will start to dig into your hands, so you don’t want to be moving it far.

Announcing the... Raspberry Pi 2

The Raspberry Pi 2 is out now – we speak to Eben Upton and James Adams to get the inside story on its development, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation's 2015 plans

Six times more powerful. That’s one of the first things that we heard about the Raspberry Pi 2 and that alone was enough to get us loading the car for a road trip to Cambridge - that and the name itself. We had been half-expecting a Model C to arrive at some point early this year, but a Pi 2 - what would warrant the 2? As it turns out, the Raspberry Pi was upgraded with a mighty new processor: the BCM2836. Arriving at Pi Towers to learn more, we met Liz Upton, head of communications at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and within minutes we were introduced to the engineering team and on the guided tour, surrounded by prototype boards, 3D printers hooked up to Raspberry Pis, desks strewn with resistor strips and Rubik’s cubes, massive oscilloscopes and all manner of delightful gadgetry.

Epson EcoTank L355

Economical to run, the four-ink Epson EcoTank L355 could be just the entry-level printer you’re looking for, says Vincent Oliver

While continuousink system (CIS) printers have been around for some time, they have tended to be high-end professional printers with price tags to match. However, the entry-level Epson EcoTank L355 printer is aimed at the home user, and features Wi-Fi, a scanner and a USB 2.0 port. It is basically the same printer as the Epson Expression Home XP-225, but with the addition of the EcoTank system.

Alone together

Working from home doesn’t have to rob you of all human contact

You’ve seen it in spam comments on the web, on flyers taped to utility poles, shouted at you from your inbox and late-night TV: Work from home, earn thousands of dollars a week! Ha ha, who would ever fall for... actually, maybe that spam is onto something. After all, who doesn't know someone who works from home? My wife and I moved to San Francisco from New York a year ago, and she still works for the same firm—East Coast hours, meetings via webcam, the whole deal. Our upstairs neighbor is doing pretty much the same thing.