Technology keeps getting more expensive: you can thank the global memory shortage for that. Fortunately, there’s still a space for affordable and mid-range gear that still gets the job done. Samsung’s latest in this category is the Galaxy A27 5G, a $499 phone that does a lot of things its pricier cousins do.
Impressively, the A27 ships with six years of operating system and security updates, which is good to see from a sub-$500 handset. With the cost of everything constantly increasing, people hang on to their phones for longer, so the long-term software support is a welcome addition.
On the front, the Galaxy A27 has a 6.7-inch ‘Super AMOLED’ display, including a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. To provide more screen real estate, Samsung has also outfitted the phone with what it calls an “upgraded Infinity-O” screen design. This means the punch-hole spot where the front camera sits now takes up less space.
On the inside, Samsung’s latest phone runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, along with 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage. It also has a microSD card slot, letting you expand the storage with up to a 2TB card.
More AI-based features are trickling down to Samsung’s mid-range phones, too. Chief among them is Google’s Circle to Search tool, which lets you look up whatever’s on your screen at any given moment. Various AI assistants come supported, including Gemini and Perplexity, while other AI features include voice transcriptions and translations, and erasing unwanted background objects in photos.
More screen space and an upgraded chipset are the main upgrades to the Galaxy A27. The 5,000mAh battery and three-camera rear array (main, ultra-wide, and macro) are fairly standard features for the price point.
Speaking of which, Samsung has a launch discount of $50 for anyone who buys the Galaxy A27 between 3 July (its Australian launch date) and 30 July. More than anything else, it’s nice to see a mid-range phone get some upgrades while staying the same price as its predecessor.
Embracing aptX Lossless, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones take things to the next level.
The Momentum 4 were Sennheiser’s flagship over-ear noise-cancelling headphones since 2022, but the audio giant shook things up last year when it unleashed the $999 Sennheiser HDB 630 aimed squarely at well-heeled audiophiles.
That leaves this year’s new $750 Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones in an awkward position, being $170 more expensive than their predecessors yet still not the best that Sennheiser has to offer those with deep pockets and an ear for quality.
The flagship Sennheiser HDB 630 is battling it out with the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM6, Apple AirPods Max 2 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra. Yet, the Momentum 5 actually gains a few new features not included in the HDB 630 – so which Sennheiser headphones deserve top billing comes down to where your priorities lie.
The Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones come in a surprisingly thin carry case, not just because the cans fold flat but also because they’re a bit thinner than what you might expect from high-quality over-ear headphones.
The slender Sennheiser Momentum 5 carry case holds everything you need and slips nicely into your bag. Image: Adam Turner.
The headphone’s slender design helps keep the weight down to 290 g, which admittedly is still a little heavy compared to its competitors. Even so, a slightly off-centre padded headband and a clamping force that isn’t too oppressive ensure that the Momentum 5 headphones are comfortable to wear for extended periods, even when wearing glasses. They get a little warm on the ears after a while, but certainly not as bad as some over-ear headphones.
The slender design is impressive considering that Sennheiser has doubled the number of microphones to four per can. It’s an even more impressive feat considering there is now a user-replaceable 700 mAh battery to help extend their lifespan. User-replaceable batteries have become rare in the push to make thinner gadgets, because the trade-off is usually a thicker device.
On the outside, the Momentum 5 sticks with Sennheiser’s typically understated aesthetics, with a matte plastic on the back of the cans and braided cloth on the exterior of the headband.
The headphones stick to Sennheiser’s understated style. Image: Adam Turner.
There’s a subtle power button on the bottom of the right can, alongside the USB-C and 2.5 mm audio ports. You miss out on a dedicated button for summoning your phone’s smart assistant.
You’ll also find touch controls on the back of the right can, including a handy double-tap passthrough that disables noise-cancelling and lets in the outside world when you need to talk to someone. There’s no conversation mode to automatically engage transparency mode when talking, but they do automatically pause your audio when you take them off.
Inside the carry case, you’ll find much-appreciated straps to hold the supplied USB-C and 2.5-to-3.5 mm audio cables, plus a pouch for extra accessories you might invest in. Unfortunately, Sennheiser doesn’t include a dual-pronged airline adaptor for jetsetters.
Sennheiser Momentum 5 specifications and price
Drivers
42 mm
Response frequency
USB & Bluetooth: 6 Hz to 40 kHz Analog Line-In: 6 Hz to 22 kHz
The Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones are designed for hi-res lossless wireless listening, breaking new ground even compared to Sennheiser’s top-shelf HDB 630.
For starters, the Momentum 5 are Bluetooth 5.4 wireless headphones with multi-point support for fast switching between two devices. It’s a step up from Bluetooth 5.2 on the Momentum 4 and HDB 630. Sennheiser says the Momentum 5 will be upgraded to Bluetooth 6.0 in a future firmware update.
The Momentum 5 (and 4) is also compatible with Sennheiser’s $80 BTD 700 Bluetooth USB dongle, which is thrown in for free with the HDB 630.
When it comes to sound quality, the Momentum 5 naturally supports the SBC and Apple-friendly AAC codecs, plus Qualcomm’s aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless. The standout is aptX Lossless (CD quality 16-bit, 44.1kHz), which is still only supported by a handful of Android handsets. All of this gives the headphones Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon Sound” seal of approval, but in return, you miss out on Sony’s rival LDAC hi-res codec.
Again, aptX Lossless puts the Momentum 5 at the front of the pack. It’s missing on the HDB 630, while the old Momentum 4 lacks both aptX Lossless and aptX HD.
Of course, you also need devices and content that can make the most of aptX Lossless. These days, most streaming music services offer lossless audio, at least on their premium plans, but you might need to dip into the advanced settings to enable it.
The Momentum 5 also lets you make a wired USB connection to desktop and mobile devices using the supplied USB-C cable. This wired connection handles 24-bit/96kHz audio for those who appreciate the finer things, but won’t stretch to 192kHz.
Finally, you’ve got that old-school 2.5 mm audio port, with a supplied 2.5mm-to-3.5mm cable so you can plug into devices with a headphone jack. Similar to most wireless headphones these days, they need to be powered up even when listening via the audio jack, so you can’t fall back on the cable when you run out of juice.
When it comes to immersive audio, the Momentum 5 are Sennheiser’s first to support Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio with headtracking. Plus, they add a low lag mode for gaming.
To help block outside distractions, you’ve got hybrid active noise cancellation with easy access to transparency mode when you need to hear the outside world.
To tailor the sound, you can download the Sennheiser Smart Control Plus App, which makes it easy to customise things using the eight-band equaliser with preset sound modes. It’s set to neutral with bass boost disabled by default.
There’s also a new Sound Personalisation feature, plus you can adjust the noise cancelling or select adaptive. The app also lets you automatically switch presets depending on your location, which is handy when moving from the office to the gym.
The icing on the cake is the impressive 57 hours of playback, even with ANC enabled. If you don’t need that much juice at your disposal, you can limit recharges to 80 per cent to help extend the life of the battery.
Quality
To give the Sennheiser Momentum 5 a chance to shine, I tested them with the Motorola Edge 50, which supports aptX Lossless – taking advantage of hi-res audio on Tidal and disabling normalise volume in order to squeeze out the best sound quality.
If your handset doesn’t support aptX Lossless, it will fall back on the best version of aptX available, such as aptX Adaptive, otherwise it will opt for AAC. Even on a supported device like the Edge 50, getting aptX Lossless to work isn’t easy.
I tried installing all the latest updates, disabling Dolby Atmos in Tidal and messing around with the handset’s Bluetooth developer settings. In the end, I needed to downgrade Tidal’s Wi-Fi streaming quality from Max (24-bit/192 kHz) to High (16-bit, 44.1 kHz) before it would switch from aptX Adaptive to aptX Lossless.
Either way, the connection was understandably scaling down 24-bit audio to run over Bluetooth. The problem was that it seems to favour aptX Adaptive 48 kHz for music sources higher than 44.1 kHz. Dropping the quality to 16-bit, 44.1 kHz saw aptX Lossless kick in, which should be an improvement considering aptX Adaptive is still lossy.
Even then, things were temperamental, but I’ll admit that I struggled to hear the difference. The step up from AAC is clear but, when taking high-quality audio from Tidal, both aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless add subtle depth and emotion to a wide soundstage – making its presence felt on tracks like David Bowie’s Space Oddity.
With a warm but balanced sound, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones bring to life audiophile favourites like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me. The default preset isn’t as bass-heavy as some headphones, but juicy bass lines still sound sweet in tracks like Macy Gray’s Why Didn’t You Call Me.
When it comes to active noise cancellation, the results are acceptable but far from best in class. Whether dealing with droning sounds and background chatter, they’re outgunned by my trusty 10-year-old Sony MDR-1000X over-ear headphones, which have served me well on countless international flights, as well as my AirPods Pro 2 earbuds.
However, the Momentum 5’s transparency mode is impressive, offering natural sound that doesn’t sound amplified or distorted.
Who are the Sennheiser Momentum 5 headphones for?
The $749 Sennheiser Momentum 5 may not be Sennheiser’s flagship over-ear headphones, but they can hold their head high even alongside the $999 Sennheiser HDB 630.
If you’d make the most of aptX Lossless and appreciate the option to replace the battery down the track, the Momentum 5 is certainly an attractive alternative. The sound quality is very impressive, although the active noise cancellation is a bit underwhelming – if that’s your highest priority, then make sure you weigh up the alternatives.
Of course, there’s some tough competition out there. If your smartphone is on Team LDAC rather than Team aptX, the similarly priced Sony WH-1000XM6 won’t disappoint.
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Sennheiser Momentum 5
Stepping up to aptX Lossless, the Sennheiser Momentum 5 bring your music to life.
You’re settling in to watch the World Cup (hopefully to cheer on the Socceroos), snacks in hand, anxiously awaiting kick-off. You’ve gone to the effort of sorting out your TV signal, with SBS ready to go. But there’s one TV setting you’re still agonising over: motion smoothing or no motion smoothing?
It’s a controversial technology in many circles, just ask any cinephile. Motion smoothing, frame interpolation, or whatever you want to call it, is a TV technology that uses post-processing in an effort to make footage smoother.
Across most TV brands, it takes the source material, whether from a broadcast TV feed or an online stream, and generates additional frames to create the effect of smoothness. However, depending on what you’re watching, the resulting effect can look quite strange.
Motion smoothing divides TV enthusiasts almost as much as the World Cup draws competitive lines between nations. Some like the look the technology produces, while others vehemently detest it. Patrick Chen, Product Trainer at TCL Electronics Australia, believes it’s best to let the TV do the heavy-lifting.
“A lot of people think turning up the motion settings will make sport look better, but the opposite can be true,” Chen said. “Sports broadcasts are already shot at a specific framerate and TVs automatically adjust to accommodate this – layering extra motion settings on top can throw a spanner in the works.”
Australian free-to-air TV’s HD channels broadcast in 1080i at 50fps, while SBS On Demand’s online streams are in 1080p at 25fps. TVs can adapt to the format of source media, much like the ‘Filmmaker Mode’ removes post-processing and runs at 24fps (which most movies are shot at). Motion smoothing attempts to boost the framerate of the source material and reduce motion blur.
Should you use motion smoothing with the World Cup?
While Chen said “it’s best just to watch the Socceroos as the broadcaster intended”, he added that a TV’s sports mode can help improve the sports-watching experience.
“What it does is adjust the brightness and sharpens the picture so you can clearly follow the ball and see every bit of the action,” he said. “It also handles the motion processing, which helps stop the players from turning into a blurry mess when they’re sprinting down the field.”
Rather than cautioning viewers away from motion smoothing entirely, Chen advised sports fans to avoid going too far and turning up the existing processing applied by the TV.
“’Overcranking’ the TV like this can lead to an unnatural viewing experience, where the television’s frame insertion software overcompensates to expected enhancements by adding frames that aren’t there,” he said. “This is why fast movement – like the ball or players moving across the pitch – can look unnatural or jarring.”
A lot of nervous Socceroos fans will be tuning into their TVs. Image: Chris Button.
Nick O’Connor, the National Training Manager from Hisense, the official TV sponsor of this year’s World Cup, took a more hands-off approach. Content to let viewers decide what looks best to them, he pointed to the brand’s sports-optimising technology.
“No matter the source, Hisense’s proprietary Hi-View Engine, the TVs can recognise livestreamed sports; in the case of FIFA, through SBS On Demand, and in conjunction with AI Sports Mode, automatically optimise and minimise distractions and disruptions so you don’t miss a thing,” O’Connor said.
He mentioned that Hisense’s TVs use a combination of AI technologies to automatically adjust to sports broadcasts. It’s meant to make the ball look clearer to view in motion, make commentary sound clearer from crowd noise, and help scoreboard graphics stand out from live play.
As for whether you should leave motion smoothing off, on, or adjust it when watching sports, the common consensus is that it’s up to personal preference.
“While it can help with motion processing and is best to be left alone, sometimes (rarely) this ‘smoothing’ can make the picture look a bit artificial — like everything is moving a bit too fast or too slick,” Chen said. “If you think it’s a bit over the top, you can always go into your TV’s settings and turn the motion smoothing down a notch until it looks just right to you.”
After tackling dirty floors, home robotics brand Mova is ready to clean your pool, with the debut of the Diver A10 in Australia.
More than 3.1 million Australians live in a home with either a swimming pool or a spa, according to 2023 research from Roy Morgan. By some estimates, well over a million Aussie households have a pool, which makes sense for a nation known as the ‘sunburnt country’.
But cleaning and maintaining a swimming pool is a lot of work. Nor is it just a summertime task. With the popularity of robot vacuums on the rise, so is the prominence of robot pool cleaners, automating a chore that’s typically time-consuming and costly.
It’s why Mova has moved in to provide some competition to fellow robot heavyweights, including Aiper, Dreame, and Ecovacs. Priced at $1,299 — discounted to $1,099 at launch during the EOFY sales — the Mova Diver A10 is one of the more reasonably priced options in Australia.
Mova’s robot scrubs a pool’s sides and base, while also filtering debris into its 3.5L basket. It sucks up to 22,700LPH (litres per hour), circulating water and getting rid of leaf litter and other particles that find their way into the water.
Doing most of the work for you, the robot runs along the bottom and side of the pool using four wheels, guided by a set of sensors to ensure it comprehensively cleans all areas, including 5cm above the waterline.
Like a lot of other robot appliances, the Diver A10 can be controlled remotely via an app. Here, you can set it to follow automatic cleaning routines, keeping the pool clean in winter, ready for use in summer.
Once it’s done cleaning, the robot then parks by the poolside, ready for emptying and charging. Out now in Australia, the Mova Diver A10 is available from various retailers, including Mova’s online store, Amazon, Harvey Norman, and Robot Mowers Australia.
There you have it: Grand Theft Auto 6 costs $129.95 in Australia. That’s for the standard edition, at least. The fancy ‘Ultimate Edition’ costs $159.95, but it’s not unheard of for game companies to sell a pricier version packed with a bunch of extra digital content.
With the GTA 6 price locked in, pre-orders are live now, with the game scheduled to launch on 19 November. Big W already has a small discount on the game’s standard edition, pricing its pre-orders at $125 across both PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Here are the current online listings in Australia:
Notably, the physical editions of GTA 6 won’t include a disc in the box. Instead, they will include a download code that players can redeem to start pre-downloading the game on 12 November, but it won’t be playable until the 19th. It’s likely a tactic to avoid overloading servers on the game’s launch date, which is set to be busy.
Why is GTA 6‘s price significant?
Rockstar Games’ announcement ends months of speculation around the price of GTA 6. Being the long-awaited follow-up to one of the best-selling games of all time, there was plenty of talk about the price tag being significantly higher to account for the game’s large scope and lengthy development time.
For a bit of background, Bloomberg journalist Jason Shreier published a good explainer on YouTube recently about why games cost so much to make. Essentially, because modern games are so big, more people are working on them for longer, with the bulk of development budgets going to employee salaries.
Overseas, GTA 6 costs US$80, above the usual price range of $60-$70 for a full-priced game. Here in Australia, the $129.95 pricing isn’t that far off the $124.95 sticker for a flagship PS5 game, like God of War Ragnarok.
Still, it’s a new price category, regardless. It might bust down the door for other game developers and publishers to follow, or it could be a move that can only be justified by Rockstar Games’ tentpole release.
Travel SIM cards have been growing in popularity for obvious reasons — people love going places and hate being without internet. But the question of what kind of trip makes these kinds of SIMs worth it also comes up a lot, so I used Simify for my whole family for a trip to Taiwan, and then for myself on business trips across Japan, China and Hong Kong.
The answer is that travel SIMs like Simify aren’t suited to every trip, but they come in clutch for very specific kinds of travel.
Using Simify in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan
What I loved about using Simify for my family holiday in Taiwan was how easy it was to set up. This was particularly great for my mother, because while she’s more tech savvy than many almost-80-year-olds, having me be able to order SIMs for her, my wife, and me in one go, and then text the links to them, which set up seamlessly in the app, was such a relief. The app’s instructions for the setup were clear, and both her iPhone 12 Pro Max and my iPhone 17 Pro Max were ready to go within minutes.
We got an Unlimited Asia eSIM because we wanted to be able to use it in Hong Kong if our layovers got extended or rerouted. I like to be prepared for any eventuality, and I don’t trust airlines to stick to a timetable (and I am so right for that).
Screenshot: Alice Clarke.
It wasn’t without a hitch, though, and while it’s certainly a lot less work than buying a prepaid SIM when you get to your destination, it lacks a lot of perks that are available to those willing to put in the effort.
For starters, not having a local phone number meant it was much harder to use Taipei’s bike rental scheme. This was another issue that came up in Japan, because I didn’t have access to any phone number, so I just couldn’t use the bikes there. There are workarounds, of course, but they’re a lot more labour-intensive and often not as good.
The second issue was that it was a lot more expensive than buying a local SIM, and also more expensive than some competitor products. Simify is cheaper than Holafly on some plans, but more expensive than some of the options on SimCorner, for example. On the Asia plan, at its most expensive, it’s $5.40 a day. It’s cheapest if you stay for 180 days, making it $2.19 a day.
My third issue was that Simify uses the old definition of “unlimited”. To me, unlimited data means that I can use an unlimited amount of data at the advertised 4G/5G speeds. To Simify, unlimited data is 1GB at full speed, and then unlimited data at a trickle so slow that Google Maps won’t load.
That said, it is very easy to message Simify in the app (over Wi-Fi, because the app also won’t load on the throttled speeds), and ask them to reset your data cap, and they’ll usually respond either instantly or the next day.
If your data allowance runs out, prepare for slow speeds. Screenshot: Alice Clarke.
Another issue is that for shorter trips (16 days or less), it’s actually more expensive than using Optus or Vodafone’s roaming options. With Optus, $5 a day gives me 5GB of data and unlimited calls and texts. With Simify, $5(ish) a day gives me 1GB at full speed and then not much else. But it does make a lot of sense on longer trips when you don’t need much data, because you can be connected for as little as $2.20 a day if you’re staying somewhere for more than 90 days.
While that doesn’t make sense if you’re just staying in the one country, because it would be cheaper and more effective to just get a local SIM, an around-the-world trip with many stops and a need for flexibility is the perfect use case for Simify.
The final issue is a bit nitpicky, but the app needs to chill with the notifications. If I am actively on a trip, using a Simify SIM card, I do not need daily (and sometimes more frequent) ads to buy a SIM card, regardless of what discounts are being offered. I needed to keep notifications on so I could know when customer support replied to my messages asking for more data, and it was just aggravating to have the privilege of push notifications be abused like that. It showed a lack of respect for the customer.
China
Those gripes aside, it was great using Simify in China, because all my roaming traffic was routed through various European countries by default, which meant I could browse the internet unimpeded.
On Wi-Fi, the Great Firewall of China blocked me from much of my social media and some other websites, but using Simify, I was able to (very slowly) browse like I was home without having to faff about with VPNs.
Simify Unlimited Asia eSIM verdict
While Simify isn’t the best option for every use case, I mostly found it very easy to use, and can absolutely see which situations it would be ideal for, as long as people are aware of the limitations.
If Simify upped the data cap for what is available at full speed, it would be a lot easier to recommend, given that 1GB is nothing in 2026. But aside from that, Simify is a great option for your next multi-country trip longer than 16 days.
My latest sim racing obsession is the Moza Porsche Mission R Steering Wheel, an officially licensed replica based on the CAD data of the real-life Porsche Mission R electric supercar wheel. The 320mm wheel comes with a machined aluminium frame, making it strong and rigid, while the suede-like grips feel great in-hand.
With a modest 12 controls, this Moza wheel has that sleek, premium feel while sticking true to the real-life version. Around the back, you have aluminium alloy paddles for shifting gears and releasing the clutch with precision. The big hitter has to be the oversized 5.4-inch flexible OLED display made from tempered glass. This thing is a beauty.
Naturally, I spun the wheel playing Forza Horizon 6 and driving the Porsche Mission R to match. Some things are just meant to be. At a rather lofty $2,299, this wheel is for those with deep pockets, compared to some of Moza’s more affordable wheels. But it’s great for diehard Porsche fans.
