On the back of a sturdy looking pair of headphones are 2 speakers, both adding a lot of weight and width to the overall size of the product. The sound quality that comes from the headphones is superb, although you can really feel the weight of the headphones after a prolonged period of time.

Using the small control panel that comes with the headphones, you can then switch to speaker mode. This plays the music through the speakers, but the sound quality is a lot more ‘tinny’ than what we’d have liked. For the price, you won’t find a better pair of headphones, but you will certainly find a better pair of speakers.

Overall: 7/10

More information:  www.kitsound.co.uk

Price: £14.99

The Kitsound KS1 earphones come in a variety of colours; including blue, green and pink. Each pair of earphones has a metal finish, which add to the already sterling build quality of the products. The earphones manage to eliminate a lot of background noise, but not all, and sound quality is second to none. We weren’t a fan of the ear buds that came with the headphones, and ended up using a pair of our own before too long. For the price, you’re getting a superb pair of headphones, minus a few niggling problems.

Overall: 4/5

Klipsch S4A Earphones

More information: www.klipsch.co.uk

Price: £89.99

The S4A earphones are primarily for Android users, and come with a compact carry case. Sporting the standard black colour, the earphones themselves are comfortable and offer some superb sound. You can even download a free app to help control your earphones remotely. There’s barely anything we can criticise on the S4A earphones as they really are a superb piece of kit.

Overall: 5/5

Audeo PFE 012

More information: www.phonak.com

Price: £60.00

You get superb bass with the Audeo PFE 012 earphones, which is brilliant considering their price. They do feel slightly plastic, which will put a lot of people off, and their chunky design wont be to everyone’s taste. But in return you’ll get some great sounds, and that bass will definitely please you.

Overall: 3/5

—-

Group test winner: Klipsch S4A Earphones

Although they may be the most expensive of our three sets of earphones, you’re definitely getting what you paid for. Great build quality, stylish design and more importantly, brilliant sound.

On the back of the speaker is a grill, Ethernet port and the AC adapter port. We were a little disappointed with the plastic feel of the back plate that the grill is placed on; especially when you consider the fantastic build quality on the rest of the Sonos system.

Sound quality is impeccable, with every note sounding crisp and clear. Even though the Sonos Play:3 may be a little smaller than a lot of other speakers, the sound it produces can easily fill a room. Being able to wirelessly stream music from your Android handset is a massive plus, especially considering that the Sonos Play:3 system can stream any music from subscription services such as Spotify and Last FM.

If you plan to use more than one Sonos Play:3 speaker then you will need to purchase the official Sonos Bridge. The bridge connects to your router to bridge the connection between your internet connection and several Sonos Play:3 speakers. If you want to get the best out of the Sonos Play:3 speakers, then having a couple of speakers placed in different rooms makes you really appreciate the audio quality that these provide. Although there are plenty of cheaper alternatives, the Sonos Play:3 speakers and the Sonos Bridge offer some of the best sounds we’ve ever heard, while also being super stylish.

Find yourself constantly running out of battery at the worst possible moment?

Most smartphones are designed to get through the day on a single charge, but with heavy use they can often fall short. The PowerSkin series aims to solve that problem.

PowerSkin is a portable battery pack that doubles up as a case. Clip it onto the back of your phone and it will more than double the handset’s battery life. It’s stylishly designed, with a soft-touch finish, and lighter than you might expect, which means it can be used as a day to day case.

We’d recommend it most to the power user, though. If you find your battery always delivers less juice than you need then it is an essential add-on; more casual users will likely find the extra few millimetres added to the size of the phone is not a trade-off worth making.

Verdict: 7/10

Price: £49.99
Web: www.powerskin.co.uk

The Sportsband headphones come in a very minimalist design, with a plastic strap with a rubberised grip making the base of the headphones. At either end there is a control pad used to wirelessly control your music. The headphones are remarkably thin overall, but their quality build means they don’t feel flimsy when you’re wearing them.

Connecting your phone to the headphones is easy and the control pads work well. While we tested the headphones, we didn’t get any interference with other frequencies and outside noise was kept to an absolute minimum.

Music quality is of a high quality, with bass sounding brilliant and sounds crisp and clear. Minus a few niggling issues, their design and snug fit when worn make them a fantastic piece of kit.

Overall: 4

Three small buttons are placed on the top of the Jambox; these consist of a power button and volume controls. On the right hand side is a micro USB port, a 3.5mm audio jack and a pairing switch for Bluetooth. We didn’t have any issues with the functionality of the ports, although the pairing switch is a little flimsy.

Streaming music is an easy process, with pairing the Jambox through Bluetooth being effortless to do, or connecting to it with the audio jack as another option. Sound quality is second to none, and we were surprised with how loud the speaker can go when you consider its size. We especially loved the great sounding bass that came from the Jambox, and once again it’s surprising when you consider its size. Jambox also allows you to take phone calls through the speaker, although the calls did seem to echo a little at times.

The Jambox is one of the best speakers we’ve ever laid our hands on. Not only does it have a modern design, it offers some quality sounds. If you’re keen on getting a portable speaker, then look no further than this.

–

Available from: www.jawbone.com

Price: £159.99

The modern desk is awash with wires, cluttering up your workspace and filling all your USB ports. Needing to recharge your phone only adds to the problem, assuming yo’ve remembered to bring your charger at all.

It’s for this reason that we’re excited to embrace the world of wireless charging, and the Maxell Air Voltage products offer the ideal solution.

The product comes in two parts, which need to be purchased separately. There’s the mat, a shiny black unit about half the size of a typical mouse mat, that plugs into the mains and sits on your desk. And there’s the sleeve that clips to the rear and bottom of an iPhone 4 and 4S, adding about a centimetre to the length of the phone and a couple of millimetres to its thickness. It’s easily removable if you don’t want to keep it on permanently, although it could also serve to protect against scratches to the rear of your iPhone.

When you’re ready to charge simply drop the ensleeved iPhone onto the mat and the magic happens. And yes, it does feel like magic: there’s no noise or heat, or any fuss whatsoever in fact. The charging simply happens.

The sleeve covers the affixes to the iPhone via the standard iPhone connector, but the arrival of wireless sycning in iOS 5 means that even this does not serve as an obstacle to every day use. The mat can charge two iPhones at once, assuming they both have their own sleeve.

The Air Voltage combi is not the cheapest accessory you’ll ever buy, and at about £60 for the mat and £37 for the sleeve it’s well beyond the cost of buying another iPhone cable. But it is a smart solution that looks great and is extremely convenient, and it is also fits in perfectly with the ethos of the iPhone: it just works!

Price: Mat – £59.99; Sleeve – £36.99
Web: www.maxell.eu.com

Verdict: 9/10 – Editor’s choice

iBallz consists of four balls, with slots in, which tightly fit over each corner of your tablet. After prolonged use on the same tablet, the grip that each ball has on the corner of the tablet becomes more solid, giving you piece of mind when using them.

The balls can be tightened to fit the tablet better if need be, especially useful for smaller tablets. This is done by a small pull-cord attached to the iBallz, which is long enough to be useful, but not too long that it becomes an annoyance. In terms of protection, iBallz acts as a great shock absorber if you happen to drop the tablet, and the fact the balls take the tablet off the surface is helpful if you spill something near the device. We tried our set of iBallz on several tablets, ranging in thickness and size, and had no problems with attaching iBallz to any of them.

As well as offering a great level of protection for your tablet, iBallz can also be altered to make a useful stand for your tablet. Simply removing one of the balls from its corner and placing it behind the tablet offers a surprisingly sturdy stand.

As you can clearly tell, we love the iBallz. It isn’t the most sophisticated product we’ve ever seen, but what it sets out to do, it does brilliant well. For the price, iBallz is definitely a worthwhile piece of tablet protection worth investing in.

—

If you’re interested in picking up an iBallz, take a look here

The Power Prince is a compact and attractive solution for when there isn’t a power outlet to hand, acting as a universal battery pack with a focus on portable devices.

The unit is available in black, white or blue and is apple certified, making it perfect for the iPhone, iPod e.t.c. However, the Power Prince is not specifically tied to the Apple ethos and provides a collection connectors for a host of different devices.

Beyond the Apple brigade, users can charge a host of mobile phone, cameras and even laptops.

The unit boasts 5000mAh of battery power that is powered up via the included power supply, which takes 2-3 hours.

Once fully charged, it’s simply a matter of plugging in the supplied USB cable, and the right connector to the end, to start charging a device. A fully charged Power Prince means that a device, depending on use, can stay fully charged for days without the interruption of a visit to a power point.

When the charge level on the Power Prince does start to take a dip, there is a pretty blue power indicator to let the user know the current status of the power pack.

——

Price: £59.99

More information: www.caseaddict.com

Rating: 7/10

With just over 100 days left to christmas, what better present to buy than a mobile accessory, so how about the TankBot?

TankBot is the latest in robotic desk pets, aimed at being one of the most intelligent iPhone robots to date. One of the more intriguing things about the TankBot is that it has three modes which can be set to, each different from the last.

‘Maze mode’ allows you to test your TankBot by setting up a maze of desk clutter and seeing how long it takes him to escape. The second mode is a roaming mode in which your TankBot will use its infrared sensors to avoid obstacles and travel about. The third and final mode is where TankBot gets exciting, with you using your iPhone, iPad or any Android phone with the 2.1 OS to remotely control the TankBot.

The TankBot is currently available for pre-order on Red5′s website for £24.95, and will be readily available on the 20th of September.