How to watch the World Cup in style
Ben Judge puts his feet up for the footie with this top-of-the-range kit.
The Q9FN(above) is "the best TV Samsung has ever made", says Caleb Denison on Digital Trends. It offers the "most pleasurable set-up experience available today" and, once you've got it out of the box, delivers a "killer picture" on its QLED screen that manages to be intensely bright while still maintaining deep black levels. But it is about so much more than picture quality; it's also a joy to use and its smart TV system is "better than ever", with apps such as Netflix loading immediately. It "does everything", and is quite simply "one of the most rounded TVs you can buy today".
Price: £5,999 for the 75-inch version from Samsung.com.
If 75 inches isn't enough for you, a projector is "the best way to get a truly massive cinema-like image in your living room", says Nick Pino on TechRadar. JVC has always been "the projector brand to follow", he says, with "black levels that will beat your local cinema screen". The DLA-X5900 might not be 4K, but with JVC's eShift technology, "you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference".
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Price: £3,999 from Richer Sounds.
The trouble with many a flat-screen TV is that it produces a flat sound, too. So add a bit of "oomph" to your soundtrack with the Sonos Playbase. The space-saving speaker is "designed to look like it was cut from a slab of granite", says Ced Yuen on Trusted Reviews, and sits discreetly under your TV. It boasts six drivers, three tweeters and one woofer; but add further Sonos products and "you can build as big a system as your house (or wallet) allows", from a formidable surround-sound system to a multi-room audio setup.
Price: £699 from John Lewis.
It's no good having top-of-the-range visuals if you're not sitting comfortably. And if you're watching England, you'll need a cool beer. The Premier Home Cinema Chair is made from soft Italian cowhide leather and is electrically adjustable so you can get settled in the perfect position, with a massage function for when things get stressful. The armrests contain a storage box and cupholder that can either be refrigerated or heated to keep your beverage at just the right temperature.
Price: £1,274.99, DrinkStuff.com.
You can't be at home for every game, so when you're out and about and one is about to kick off, pack the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. It's "all the tablet you need", says Tom Morgan on Stuff. It's impressively thin and light, at 6mm and 429g, so you'll have no trouble using it one-handed. You get a "gorgeous OLED" screen with "the deepest blacks and impeccable contrast" with "a clarity that LCD still struggles to match". Viewing angles are "fantastic" and brightness is "beyond impressive", so you'll have no trouble following all the action even in the brightest sunlight.
Price: £499 from Currys.
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Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.
Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin.
As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.
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