It’s the last Friday of the month and that only means one thing: a new episode of Which Hi-Fi?‘s Pick of the Month, where our team of experts describe the top-grossing products that passed through our listening and viewing rooms over the past four weeks.
It’s been a particularly hectic month, with the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2023 finally returning this week, but that hasn’t stopped our experts from trying out the latest and greatest in the world of TV and audio. In fact, as many as six products impressed our testers enough to earn recommendations this month — two of which actually come from the same company.
Each product on this list has been rigorously tested by our technical experts and scored a minimum of 4/5 or higher to be included on this list, so you know they are worth your precious time and attention.
Without further delay, here are our experts’ top picks for February 2023.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Samsung handsets have been a staple of our best phones list for nearly half a decade, and with good reason.
The company’s flagships have consistently delivered excellent viewing experiences with their AMOLED displays offering best-in-class black levels, beautifully vibrant colors and, most recently, solid HDR performance. That’s why we had very high hopes for its latest flagship, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, when we got it in for testing.
The 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED display really impressed our reviewers. View a fragment of LeMans66 the punchy colors made for a great viewing experience and were indicative of generally brilliant HDR performance in our testing. This led our reviewers to conclude:
“With Samsung’s reputation for TVs and its history of delivering excellent displays on its smartphones, it’s no surprise that the picture performance of the S23 Ultra is usually very good. Movies feel right at home on the expansive AMOLED screen, leaning towards the vibrant and punchy colors that have become synonymous with Samsung to date.
The Ultra’s Dolby Atmos speakers add to the allure, providing a surprisingly wide and well-organized audio presentation during our checks. This plus its solid camera and powerful performance made it an easy recommendation, especially for Android users.
The only downside is that its main rival, the iPhone 14 Pro Max, performed better as a dedicated music player when we played the two against each other. The colors also turned out to be a tad more accurate and gave more of an “as the director intended” feel than the Ultra on titles like Villain One during our testing.
Rating: 4/5
Read our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review
Samsung QN85B (QE55QN85B)
Is a Mini LED Worth TV? This month, our team of testers found out again when they tested the QE55QN85B – a Mini LED kit from Samsung with a surprisingly affordable price tag.
Our reviewers ran our standard battery of tests and were impressed to find it offers impressive brightness and contrast, sharp native 4K while also offering excellent value for money for a set of this size.
The image quality is day and night better than what we’ve experienced on its main Mini LED rival, the Hisense 65U8HQ. Watching important titles, such as Blade runner 2049 And Mad Max: Fury Road, the Samsung delivered one of the best viewing experiences we’ve had from a set of this price. The HDR performance in particular is impressive, aided by some of the deepest blacks we’ve seen on a non-OLED set and wonderfully high maximum brightness levels.
This led our reviewers to conclude:
“No cheaper or similarly priced LCD TV we can think of is bright enough to get even halfway to the level of HDR experience the 55QN85B can achieve without sacrificing much more black levels than Samsung’s set.”
With four HDMI 2.1 inputs, the set is also fully stacked so you can connect both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, plus a dedicated sound system – which we recommend if you like listening to TV at high volume, as one of our only niggles with the QN85B is that the sound system is a bit on the quiet side.
Rating: 4/5
Read our Samsung QN85B (QE55QN85B) review
Nothing Phone (1)
The Nothing Phone (1) is the first device from the new company of OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei. Our team of expert reviewers have put the mid-range set to the test and can confirm it’s a great value Android handset.
The main thing that immediately caught our eye was the atypical design, with an LED light on the back of the phone. Some team members loved the feature, which glowed or flashed for various incoming alerts, while others found it a bit gaudy.
But for the money it does a great job for most people, with its 120Hz OLED screen offering one of the best viewing experiences we’ve found on a handset of this price.
Thor: love and thunder looked excellent, with the screen offering wonderful levels of contrast and creating a brilliant sense of depth. The image is also full of detail with skin and environmental textures all looking well resolved.
Watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story we were equally impressed, with distant stars punching through the deep black levels to create a suitably immersive viewing experience to keep most buyers happy. In fact, the Sony Xperia 10 IV is the only phone we’ve tested at this price that’s capable of doing better with difficult space scenes.
This led our reviewer to the conclusion:
“If you want a smartphone that turns heads, alongside a pretty solid AV experience overall, the Nothing Phone (1) might just be the rebellious new alternative for you.”
Rating: 4/5
Read our Nothing Phone (1) rating
Atacama Nexxus 600 essential
Over the years we’ve tested them, we’ve always been impressed with the modular versatility of Atacama’s Nexxus range of speaker stands. This trend continued with the Atacama Nexxus 600 Essential that we reviewed this month.
Our testers tested the stands in our listening rooms and were impressed with the Nexxus 600’s sturdy construction, wealth of top plate size options and the sheer number of standard speakers they work with.
During our checks we managed to connect them to everything from small sets, such as the Elac Debut ConneX and KEF LS50 Meta, to larger options, such as the deeper Q Acoustics Concept 30 and B&W 705 S3.
Playing locally stored music and Tidal streamed tracks through our Naim/Burmester reference system, the Nexxus 600 performed admirably. Kate Bush’s Run up that hill retained a good amount of firmness and punch. On We March by The social network soundtrack is packed with texture depth that is wonderfully accurate.
This led our testers to the conclusion:
“The modular and versatile design of the Nexxus 600 series will undoubtedly appeal to many. Atacama has created a clever arrangement that fits a wide range of standmount speakers and provides a solid, stable and clean sound for your hi-fi system.
The only minor downside is that we still preferred the Award-winning performance Atacama Moseco 6 speaker stands, which offered a more layered performance during our checks.
Rating: 4/5
Read our Atacama Nexxus 600 Essential Review
Tribit Stormbox Micro 2
If you’re looking for an affordable, rugged Bluetooth speaker for outdoor or shower use, the Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 is one of the best we’ve tested.
With a water-resistant woven finish, the Micro 2 proved nearly indestructible during our checks, easily surviving being thrown into a bag and used outdoors during one of Britain’s frequent downpours.
The Bluetooth 5.3-ready speaker also delivered surprisingly loud and solid audio, for a speaker of this size and price.
Juice by Lizzo retained the raw and playful nature of her vocals and was an indication of how well the Micro 2 handled vocals overall, remaining crisp and detailed throughout our testing.
To play Legend has it from Run The Jewels, the speaker kept the dynamics of the song. It was also nicely accurate, with note stopping and starting being quite snappy. All in all, based on our tests, you will not find a speaker of this size and price that performs better.
For people on the move, the 12 hours of listening we got out of the speaker in our testing also put it on par with the more expensive JBL Flip 6 and Flip 5, and just two hours shy of the UE Wonderboom 3 – how impressive is given the size of the Micro 2.
This makes it an easy recommendation for any buyer looking for a compact, affordable Bluetooth speaker.
Rating: 5/5
Read our Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 review
Rega Elex Mk4
The Rega Elex Mk4 is the latest amplifier to pass through our listening rooms. It’s the mid-range sibling of the Rega Elicit Mk5 we tested last year and a direct competitor to the Which Hi-Fi? Award-winning Cambridge Audio CXA81, ensuring stiff competition.
Essentially, the Mk4 retains the same Class A/B design as its siblings. The big change, however, is that it now comes with a DAC – a first in the Elex range.
In our listening tests, the amp performed brilliantly, offering our reviewers a confident, elegant sound. To play The chain by Fleetwood Mac via the analog inputs, the Elex Mk4 delivers a wide and open sound with enough room for every part of the track to blossom.
We were particularly impressed with how well it handled the song’s famous bassline, which felt pretty tight, with no discernible low-end weakness.
This led our reviewers to conclude:
“The Rega Elex Mk4 is a stunning amplifier. Revealing and faithful, it’s capable in ways that far exceed our expectations at this mid-range price. The addition of digital inputs and a headphone port is a big step in the right direction, giving customers more flexibility in how they listen to this great amp.”
Our only minor reservations arose when we went head-to-head with the Cambridge Audio CXA81 during our checks, which has slightly better connectivity and offered a livelier, fuller sound than the Rega.
Rating: 5/5
Read our Rega Elex Mk4 review