Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser, £149.95
The new Hotel Chocolat Velvitiser launched in September this year, and quickly became a fan favourite. The new and improved Velvetiser provided chocolate aficionados with the ability to make hot chocolate and, unlike its predecessor, cold chocolate drinks too. But at £149.95, is the Velvetiser worth the price tag?
‘I love that it makes my hot chocolate creamy and velvety,’ says our reviewer, ‘and it adds a real depth to the flavour. It’s so much better than the powdered alternative.’ When asked if she’d ever replace her Velvetiser with a cheaper version, she said that would probably be a milk frother, but it wasn’t a good substitution. ‘I want a Velvetiser forever now. And it goes beyond the product for me, it’s also about the service; I started to notice a problem with it at one point, and I just took it to the store and the staff replaced it with a new one straight away.’
However, our reviewer did say she wouldn’t want to buy it at full price, ‘I’d wait until it was discounted, or there was a deal on.’
Apple Watch, £369
Apple Watch Series 11 also released in September, and boasted a 24 hour battery life, a screen that is twice as scratch resistant as the previous model, and supports 5G (if that’s something that your mobile provider offers). At £369, it is a big investment, but can you put a price on (monitoring) your health?
‘I love it. It’s one of the nicest bits of tech I’ve ever owned,’ says our reviewer. ‘I bought it for the fitness tracker, and that feels like the most advanced, user-friendly version on a smartwatch. I find that it helps me achieve my fitness goals rather than making me feel ashamed for not reaching them. You also get a free trial of Apple Fitness +, and they have tailored fitness workouts with real instructors on video, and that links with your watch, and your iPhone, so it knows what you’re doing.’
He wasn’t sold by the cheaper alternative, which we agreed was probably a Fitbit, ‘It feels very rudimentary in comparison, and it's not as accurate. The Apple Watch adapts to your sleep cycle, your heartbeat, your blood oxygen levels. The fitness tracking on an Apple Watch doesn’t feel as arbitrary as a Fitbit, it feels more tailored to me. If you’re an Android user, then a Fitbit or a Pixel Watch is probably fine. But for me, the Apple Watch is worth it.’
The Nintendo Switch 2 hit the shelves in June, and whilst the ROG Xbox Ally is a serious contender in the handheld gaming market, sales for the Switch 2 show no sign of abating. Nintendo’s launch titles were Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, and Legend of Zelda fans also got Switch 2 editions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. But what does our reviewer think?
‘It’s worth the investment if you want to play the exclusive games, which are interesting twists on the previous twists on the franchises, but I wouldn’t buy the Switch 2 just for those titles,’ says our reviewer. ‘If you’re the type of person that plays the Switch and thinks the frame rate is terrible, and the resolution is low, then yes you should buy a Switch 2. If you don’t understand anything I just said, you don’t need a Switch 2.’
With the cheaper alternative probably being the original Switch, our reviewer says that for most people, that’s a better purchase, ‘The price investment in the Switch 2 for the software that’s available is not that good. At the moment, you’re not missing out on the software that’s there; everything right now is coming out on Switch anyway.’
