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IndyBest team's best buys of 2018: From coffee machines to 4K TVs

With January sales on the horizon, here's our favourite products of the past year

Monday 31 December 2018 15:00 GMT

It's been a big year for tech, sustainability and LGBT awareness (istock)

Throughout 2018, we've spent the year testing everything on the market – from children's toys to vacuum cleaners and smartphones to mascaras, to find the very best products which have been put through their paces by our expert writers.

Here we've rounded them all up in one place, to get your 2019 off to a flying start.

Best fashion & beauty products of 2018

Best highlighter: Stila Heaven’s Hue Highlighter: £29, Feel Unique

Stila’s offering lives up to its name with its heavenly finish, effortless application and buildability. The unique cushion formula is the perfect balance between a powder and a cream: it’s bouncy to the touch meaning it’s best applied with your fingertips, but the creamy consistency gives you more control than a powder when you apply it to the high points of your face.

Our tester describes the finish as a wet-look sheen without the dewiness of a liquid. She loved how it immediately melted into the skin without breaking down her foundation as many liquids do.

The highlighter contains light-diffusing particles to help intensify the glow, but isn’t too glittery. Heaven's Hue adds extra radiance to the skin while still looking natural, but is also buildable enough to create a serious pop of highlight for a night out. It lasts all day, too. Our favourite shade was Brilliance, a multi-dimensional gold, which we think will turn heads.

Best face serum: Chanel Hydra Beauty Micro Serum: £70 for 30ml, Boots

Yet another surprisingly lightweight serum from Chanel at a higher price point for those who want to splash the cash. The French brand claims it delivers a revolutionary infusion of hydration for 24 hours – so we put it to the test; and was pleasantly surprised.

Upon first application, it reminded us of all the Korean and Japanese essences on the market; light, watery and easily absorbed. Its camellia scent (a light white floral and white tea smell) is suitable for those with sensitive skin as it isn’t pungent.

The serum leaves your skin feeling hydrated all day long without any need for re-application. If you can afford it, we'd say, stock up.

Best women’s winter coat 2018: Funnel-neck coat: £129, Zara

Zara, how do you do it? We all adored this £129 funnel-neck coat. Often, belted coats can look like dressing gowns, but this is structured enough to avoid that faux pas.

The wool blend is warm enough for a British winter while the double-breasted buttons and flap pockets deliver instant polish. We loved the dramatic length but more petite wearers may need it taken up an inch or two.

Best men’s winter coat 2018: River Island Burgundy Wool Blend Overcoat: £45, River Island

River Island's offering is a stylish, three button up style that provides a classic look as well as practicality. The wool blend fabric is warm and comfortable, and goes with most outfits. We recommend pairing it with a cream jumper and blue jeans, but you’ll easily find the right combinations to make this coat work for you.

The coat's burgundy colouring stands out from the usual numbers you see on the high street and at £45 down from £90, we think it's a bargain.

Best home & garden products of 2018

Best bean to coffee machine: Sage Oracle Touch: £1,999, John Lewis & Partners

If you want the best, you’ve got to be ready to spend. The fully automatic Sage Oracle Touch has everything you need for a barista quality brew. The user friendly control panel is easy to navigate, requiring just a simple swipe through the touchscreen menu to choose from a wide range of drinks.

The Oracle also comes with settings for preferred coffee strength, water temperature, and milk texture. Once you’ve found your favourite beverage settings, the Oracle saves it in the touch menu with a unique picture and name (up to eight personalised coffee slots are available). With a sturdy stainless steel design, optimum brewing pressure and an automated steam wand, perfect for micro-foam latte art, this is truly a machine of the future.

Best mattress: Casper Mattress: from £350, Casper

This American-made foam-core mattress, with memory foam layer, has backing from the likes of designer Steven Alan and actors Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio. But it only recently launched in the UK as a bed-in-a-box option.

A particular hit with our testers, it’s marginally softer than the Simba, one of its closest rivals, and great for all types of sleepers, including people who sleep on their backs – and if you treat it well, it should last you a decade or more. It’s stable and breathable, but there aren't any handles on the side, just the bottom, so rotating or turning this mattress (which should be done every three to six months) is no mean feat.

Available in sizes single, double, king or super king.

Best slow cooker: Morphy Richards Sear and Stew Slow Cooker 460016: £29, Amazon

With most slow cookers, you have to forgo searing your meat unless you’re prepared to brown it off in a separate pan first. Not so with this clever machine that allows you to do both, making this a one-stop pot for a hearty dinner. The dishwasher safe glass lid means you can check on your meal as it cooks without releasing any heat, and the 3.5l capacity easily feeds three to four people (and fits a whole chicken). It’s smarter looking than most, even featuring the notoriously trendy rose gold colour. But unfortunately, there’s no keep-warm function.

Best corded vacuum cleaner: Dyson Big Ball Animal 2: £299.99, Dyson

It doesn’t get better than this for pet owners – the bagless cylinder vacuum cleaner even comes with a tangle-free turbine tool to pick up stubborn tufts of fir from your carpet or upholstery.

Other handy accessories include pneumatic floor head, combination tool, stair tool and carbon fibre head. Good on all floor types, it works quickly and efficiently to remove pet hair and pretty much anything else in its wake.

It’s quiet, had a big canister and good filter, which will be music to the ears of allergy sufferers. Plus, it’s got a patented technology to push and pull in any direction. But you need a bit of elbow grease on thicker carpets and slightly heavier than we expected.

Best kids products of 2018

Best toy: i-Top Electronic Spinning Top Game, aged seven plus, £14.99, John Lewis & Partners

This toy triggers the competitive streak in all who play it. Spin it and it measures the number of revolutions you can make it do. It’s the sort of game that you will watch a child play for a while, see what score they get and then be itching to have a go yourself.

Before long everyone its owner meets will be encouraged to try and beat the highest score. There are other challenges you can try too, such as attempting to get it to stop on its 99th spin – harder than it sounds.This game is small enough to fit in a pocket, so it’s great for travelling. With batteries included, this is reasonably priced toy that has everyone hooked.

Best pushchair: iCandy New Peach: from £999, John Lewis & Partners

This latest version of the iCandy Peach (the fifth update) is one of the pushchairs you’ll find parents drooling over in the big department stores. It pushes like a dream even on rough terrain, requiring nothing but the lightest touch, looks as stylish as they come (available in a wide variety of colour combos), can be converted into a double pushchair without being too big and has a seat that’s large, comfy and reversible.

Plus, it’s travel-system convertible and can be used from newborn (with a carrycot that’s available separately) and from six months (with the main seat), lasting up until they’re 25g (that’s seven of eight years-old). It’s got a huge hood, an even bigger shopping basket than its predecessor and a very easily adjustable handlebar that you can work with one hand.

There’s little not to like really, although some people might find it a bit heavy and cumbersome when folded – and it can’t be folded at all with the seat unit attached. An idea for the sixth i-Candy Peach, perhaps? Plus, it’s quite time-consuming to set up.

Best car seat: Maxi Cosi Pebble Plus: £199, John Lewis & Partners

You can use this rear facing seat either with a regular adult seatbelt or an Isofix base, and it can be used as part of a travel system too. Aimed for newborns up to the age of one, it boasts some of the best safety results on the market (particularly when it comes to side impact) and has a feel of great quality, while also being light.

It’s a doddle to install and almost impossible to get wrong. It’s roomy, with good support for your baby’s legs and it’s well padded for comfort, as well as coming in some gorgeous colours. But you’ll need to buy the base separately to use it under the new i-Size car seat regulations.

Best travel cot: Spacecot Travel Cot: £117.95, Precious Little One

A cot designed by rocket-scientist dads who couldn’t believe how complicated it was to build an on-the-move baby bed – so they made their own. It unfolds in one second, with no effort required at all, and is instantly ready to use, with a thick, comfy mattress; invaluable when you’re arriving somewhere to stay and your baby really needs to get to sleep.

“After a long day at a wedding, it was so ridiculously easy to put up at midnight with a four-week old,” said one tester. Its bassinet insert is perfect for little ones, so they can sleep higher up (saving your back), while older toddlers (it can be used up to around aged three) are close to the ground so they can’t “escape”. It’s light too, weighing only 6.7kg, and easy to see your baby through the side mesh.

Best travel & outdoors products of 2018

Best cabin bag: Spectra 2.0 Global Carry-On: £310, Victorinox

Capacity: 31l
Weight: 2.8kg

This bag might be pricey, but it has lots of brilliant features. The external polycarbonate shell is so hard-wearing and durable that you may well be able to sit down on it. We found the fully rotating wheels were some of the best quality on test.

The Spectra is designed for frequent travellers, and is lockable and registered with Victorinox’s Swiss Tracker bag tracking system. The bag has plenty of pockets – ideal for tickets and passports – and we loved the slim design, which made it easy to store. We also liked the rubber handles and the luggage tag. It looks and feels luxurious.

Best men’s hiking boot: Merrell Moab 2 GoreTex Low: £115, Merrell

Weight: 422g
Waterproofing: Gore-Tex
Sole: Vibram
Material: synthetic leather
Colours: grey, blue and black
Sizes: 6.5-15

There’s a generous cut to the Moab 2 that makes it great for wide feet and gives it a forgiving trainer feel. Don’t be fooled – it’s actually a tough hiking shoe. Cushiony heels, Gore-Tex waterproofing, rugged stay-put laces and great grip even on slippy terrain made us feel comfortable trusting it in serious weather, and it’s light, breathable and versatile enough to wear to the gym or down the pub. A good choice if you don’t wear leather, as the suede is a synthetic substitute.

Best women’s hiking boot: Merrell Siren Sport Q2 Mid Boot: £135, Merrell

Weight: 675g per boot
Waterproofing: Gore-Tex
Material: Leather and mesh
Colours: Black and purple; olive
Sizes: UK 3-9, including half sizes

The Sirens are our best buy for their versatile performance at the right price. The clever outer combo of leather and mesh provides both warmth and breathability, and Gore-Tex technology keeps everything dry when bad weather looms. They’re grippy, even when we tested them on slippy rocks in pouring rain. We’ve worn them in freezing cold and bright sunshine and felt comfortable and supported in both. Make sure you lace the boots up tightly, as they are cut rather wide around the ankles.

Best airbed: Outwell Flock Classic Two Chamber: £40, Outwell

You won’t have to argue over whether to go for a soft or firmer tension mattress anymore as this airbed allows each sleeper to fine tune the firmness on their side.

The handy side effect of this is greater stability, with less chance of the edges lifting off the floor when two people lie on it – an annoying feature of many double air beds. Made of robust PVC, with a soft velour top – it’s comfy and quick to inflate, as well as deflate.

Best books of 2018

Best non-fiction book: In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum: £20, Amazon

War correspondent Marie Colvin was the journalist every news reporter looked up to. Glamorous, hard drinking and brave, she reported from the most dangerous places in the world, bearing witness to the horrifying truths of war. Famed for the trademark eye-patch she wore after losing the sight in her left eye when she was hit by a grenade in Sri Lanka, she was killed in Syria in 2012.

The title of this superb and moving memoir, written by her friend and fellow foreign correspondent Lindsey Hilsum, is taken from one of Colvin’s own Sunday Times dispatches. “It has always seemed to me that what I write about is humanity in extremis, pushed to the unendurable, and that it is important to tell people what really happens in wars,” she wrote in 2001.

Best poetry book: The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry, edited by Jonathan and Jessica Wordsworth: £16.99, Penguin

No collection is complete without a volume of poems written during the Romantic period of the late-18th and early-19th centuries. This hefty tome features some of the nation’s best-loved poems, including “The Tyger” by William Blake, “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley and “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth, as well as works by women, poets like Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. The volume is arranged by theme and genre and features fascinating mini biographies of the poets themselves. The late Jonathan Wordsworth, who edited this collection with his wife Jessica, was descended from Wordsworth’s younger brother.

Best cookbook: Ottolenghi Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi, Tara Wigley and Esme Howarth: £15.98, Wordery

He’s inspired a whole new wave of chefs and restaurateurs while firmly put Middle Eastern cuisine on the map, but when it comes to an Ottolenghi recipe, it’s fair to say they are both feared and revered in equal measure.

Well-known for their challenging components and hard-to-find ingredients, they certainly weren’t undertaken lightly. Well, not anymore. Simple is, as the name suggests, a 130-strong collection of recipes, with all of Yotam’s signature bold flavours and inventive vegetable-focused dishes, but finally in a more manageable package.

Best LGBT book: Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover: £11.34, Amazon

As Kimia sits in a hospital waiting room, anticipating her IVF results, she reflects on the history of her family, from her great grandfather with his 52 wives to her parents, Darius and Sara, who fought back against each corrupt regime of their time in Iran. Tales of her extended tree of relatives are captivatingly brought to life as we explore the family’s interconnectedness, their conflicts and their secrets.

At the age of ten, Kimia travelled across the Kurdish border and through Turkey to eventually land in France when her parents flee Iran. Reflecting on her childhood in her homeland, her teen years in Paris and her current life as a DJ and a hopefully soon to be mother, Kimia is easy to fall in love with, and so are her eccentric, hilarious and sometimes terrifying relatives. Making its English language debut, this novel is one not to be missed.

Best food & drink products of 2018

Best prosecco: Prosecco Romeo & Juliet NV Treviso, Pasqua: £11.99, Majestic

Vibrant and bursting with colour, the design of this bottle alone is enough to make it a hit. Interestingly, although located around 100km west of Treviso, the romantically inspiring city of Verona is where Pasqua was founded in 1925, as well as providing the backdrop for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Pale in colour and light to drink, this prosecco offered exactly the right combination of smooth bubbles and subtle taste.

Best organic wine: Domaine de la Metairie D’Alon Chardonnay 2016: £20, Vivino

A cracking little chardonnay with wonderful complexity, from a mountainous area between Limoux and Roquetaillade in Southern France.

The high altitude of the vineyard results in a crisp acidity, but couple that with a creamy oak and vanilla aroma, ripe lemon and biscuity hazelnut notes and you have a rich, yet balanced wine that is a joy to drink. Enjoy alone or up the indulgence with a creamy pasta dish.

Best plastic-free tea bag: We Are Tea, £2.49 for 15, Ocado

This whole leaf tea company started in 2007, and were the first brand to remove the paper tags from teabags. In 2012, We Are Tea joined the Ethical Tea Partnership, supporting small estate growers and moved from nylon bags to ones made from a bi-product of cornstarch called soilon. Each teabag is sealed by ultrasound instead of glue, which makes them biodegradable at an industrial level between three and six months, so make sure you put them in your council food waste bin. It can go in your home compost, but it will take much longer (at least 18 months). The plastic inner part of the packaging is not recyclable, but the team are working on changing this and using natureflex, which is a woodpulp and takes between three to six months to decompose at home.

Best luxury chocolate box: Classic Chocolate Cabinet, 590g: £50, Hotel Chocolat

For quality, variety and flavours, eye-catching presentation and sheer indulgent joy, Hotel Chocolat is the pick of the bunch. A lavish array of delicious chocolates is presented in a luxurious two-tiered box with a sliding compartment – a definite reusable option once the sweet stuff is finished.

Chocolates range from bite-sized nibbles to major mouthfuls, including a few mini chocolate slabs. The menu reads like a mini novel, and our tasters were in particular ecstasy throughout. Meltingly delicious goodness.

Best tech products of 2018

Best 4K TV: Panasonic TX-55FZ952B: £1,999, John Lewis & Partners

Screen size: 55in
Display technology: OLED
HDR compatibility: HDR10, HLG, HDR10+
Dimensions: 1230 x 710 x 60 mm plus stand
Audio: Stereo

Panasonic’s 55-inch OLED is 4K with HDR in three formats, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG, but not Dolby Vision. The colours on this TV look immaculate – Panasonic has worked with Hollywood colourists to achieve this and the results are stunning. Design is good, and works to improve the sound – a soundbar runs across the base of the screen for considerable sonic oomph.

It even has a remote with backlit keys. But the main event, of course, is the picture quality which is tremendous, with deep contrast and strong black levels, punch colours, decent brightness and exquisite detail. The Panasonic smart TV interface is also good with bold, simplistic icons making it easy to navigate.

Best Smartphone: Apple iPhone XS: From £999, Apple

Screen size and resolution: 5.8in, 1125 x 2436 pixels, 458 pixels per inch
Screen technology: OLED
Storage capacity: 64/256/512GB
Expandable storage? No
Camera (rear): 12MP wide, 12MP telephoto
Camera (front): 7MP
Dimensions: 143.6 x 70.9 x 7.7mm
Weight: 177g
Headphone jack? No

The iPhone XS comes in two sizes: XS and XS Max. The XS is the same size as last year’s iPhone 8, and the Max is like the iPhone 8 Plus, but both are all screen, 5.8in and 6.5in respectively. The Max is big, so definitely worth holding before you buy, but the display is immersive and appealing – and big enough for watching a movie. Smaller phones usually mean fewer features or reduced components, but apart from battery life, price and screen size, the two iPhone XS models are identical, so all details apply to both.

There’s that cut-out at the top of the screen where the Face ID camera sits. The facial recognition is highly reliable and works even in the dark. The design here is sumptuous and appealing, with a glass front and back which makes it compatible with wireless charging. It also means that, despite Apple’s claim that this is the most durable glass on any smartphone, that it may be worth buying a case, as it’s not totally invulnerable.

It is waterproof, like many on this list. The camera is exceptional and includes a portrait mode where you can adjust the level of background blur after you’ve shot the image. Some other phones can do this but not as well. These are expensive phones but they have a lot to offer. Battery life on the XS is a day, and over a day on the XS Max.

Best tablet: Apple iPad Pro: From £769, Apple

Operating system: iOS 12
Screen size: 11in, 12.9in
Storage capacity: 64GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Wifi or wifi and 4G? Both available

The newly released iPad Pro is easily the best tablet yet, from any brand. It comes in two sizes and is the first iPad to use Face ID – there’s no fingerprint sensor on the new iPad Pro. Removing the fingerprint button means the tablet has a full-screen front which is sumptuous and attractive – and also means the overall size of the tablet is smaller than most other models. Note that these are the first iPads without a headphone socket or headphones supplied.

The iPad Pro, even the larger model, is extremely thin and light. It packs in an advanced processor which delivers great performance, even if you are a creative with specialised needs. The Smart Keyboard Folio and Apple Pencil (version 2) are sold separately but are both brilliant – the keyboard is comfortable to use and makes the iPad Pro a very effective laptop alternative. An earlier iPad Pro with a fingerprint sensor and a 10.5in display is also available.

Best wireless in-ear headphones: Sennheiser Momentum Free: £148, Amazon

Sennheiser makes some of the best audio products in the business and the Momentum Free pair is no different. As an offshoot from the amazing Momentum range, the Free headphones are also painless to set up – it took about 20 seconds from getting them in our hands to having them paired to our phone. The audio quality is peerless – while not as heavily bassy as some other in-ear wireless headphones, the overall clarity is really good, just like you’d expect from Sennheiser. They’re also very light, comfortable, and we had no issues getting them to fit out of the box. They’ve around six hours of battery life and come with a sturdy carry case for travelling, but which, as a heads up, doesn’t charge the headset itself.

Best video game: Red Dead Redemption 2: £49.99 for PS4 and £49.56 for Xbox One, Amazon

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the latest epic from developer Rockstar Games. It places you in the worn leather boots of cowboy Arthur Morgan, setting you free into the most well realised open world to date – a gorgeous rendition of the frontier, complete with rocky mountains, open plains, swampy bayous and arid deserts. With reactive AI, brilliant missions, a tragic story and an upcoming online mode, this is the best game of 2018.

Buy for PS4 now
Buy for Xbox One now

Best sports & fitness products of 2018

Best women’s running top: NB Ice 2.0 Mesh Tank: £35, New Balance

This stylish racer-back vest from New Balance offers everything you would want in a running top. We loved the lightweight nature of the mesh fabric which made up the outer layer of this vest; its efficient ventilation kept us cool and calm during our run.

The patented Ice material is great at managing moisture; it dried really fast so our sweat didn't weigh us down. The vest was incredibly comfortable and with reflective branding on the front and back, this kept us visible on early morning and late evening runs.

Our favourite thing about this vest was how it looked – the double layer style and the flattering racer-back meant this looked great with all our running leggings and shorts. At £35, it sits in the middle of the range we tested. However it washed extremely well so it will last a couple of running seasons at least.

Best yoga mat: Super Grip Yoga Mat: £65, Sweaty Betty

Sweaty Betty was founded 20 years ago to create fitness accessories that not only do the job but also look good. It’s not surprising then that the brand’s sleek Super Grip Yoga Mat ticks all the right boxes.

Not only was this the first mat that made it onto our Instagram stories (a modern-day mark of success for any item), but it was also the one we kept returning to due to its superior comfort and grip.

At 4mm thick, it is slightly thinner than some of the other brands we tried, but we found that from shavasana to headstand, it provided all the padding we needed. From day one, the mat was ultra-grippy and it remained virtually slip-free throughout our practices, whether we were dripping in sweat in our weekly Bikram class or squeezing in a quick 20 minutes at home.

The mat is made from natural latex, meaning it is biodegradable (although be careful if you have an allergy), and at 2kg it is light enough to carry around. Make sure you take any makeup off before using this mat. We found it was prone to picking up small marks, especially foundation, which isn’t ideal when your favourite position is child’s pose. It can be easily looked after, however, by wiping clean with a damp cloth and a little mild soap.

Best snowboards: Ride Burnout 155 2019: £493.68, Blue Tomato

Any Brit who watched the 2018 Winter Olympics will remember Billy Morgan’s dramatic bronze medal in the Big Air event. This was the board he used.

It’s far from the most expensive board on the market, but it’s ideal for the kind of freestyle riding that Morgan specialises in. The mid-stiff flex means it’s steady at speed, but it’s not so rigid that you can’t ride rails on it. A great all-rounder at a good price, and an excellent choice for anyone with a few weeks riding under their belt who wants to improve.

Best cycling jacket: Proviz Reflect 360CRS: £129.99, Proviz

Millions of tiny glass beads embedded in the fabric give this commuter jacket its reflective capabilities. Proviz’s original jackets are great at night when they light up bright white in car headlights, but their silver-grey finish isn’t quite so eye-catching in daylight. This coloured version fixes that and the bright green really stood out on the road. It’s quite a substantial jacket so should see you right through the winter with a couple of layers underneath it.

There’s a mesh liner and a combination of zipped underarm air vents and covered shoulder slots to help with ventilation when it’s humid or you are pedalling hard. The two outer chest pockets have the same waterproof zip as the main body, and there’s another zipped pocket at the back, giving you plenty of space to carry your bits and bobs. There are both men’s and women’s versions available.