Gliding along Hampshire A-roads in the all-new Audi Q7 and there's a sudden bang. A sparrow has somehow flown head-first into the windscreen, presumably distracted by this SUV's all-new looks – which are altogether more sophisticated and a bit less "station wagon" than the previous generation Q7.

Virtual reality, often known as VR, has a long and winding history. From the distant dream of Sega's VR, unveiled back in 1993, to the modern day it's-almost-here reality of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, it's South Korean giant Samsung that's here to take on the more entry-level market with its Gear VR.

It only takes one glance at the Fujifilm X100T to know it's a special little camera. Or, perhaps more to the point, a specialist camera. The retro design, physical control dials, fixed 35mm f/2.0 (equivalent) lens, and a hybrid viewfinder make that pretty clear. And if not then the £1,000 price tag ought to hit it home.

For most people, a 10km run is an ample jaunt underfoot. Not so for Jez Bragg, the ultra-runner who this year completed the 3,054km Te Araroa trail from tip to toe of both New Zealand islands in a mere 53 days. We meet Bragg almost by chance at the back of a coach travelling along the Costa Brava, Spain.

We had Nest 3.0, the smart learning thermostat, installed at the tail-end of 2015, replacing the 2.0 model installed in the summer of 2014. Since then it's been sensing and learning our heating habits. Good job, as a wintry cold spell has really stuck in. Now, we know a thermostat probably sounds oh so boring - even a smart one like this - but one that learns your heating habits; that you can schedule from an easy-to-use app on your phone; and adjust over Wi-Fi from wherever you are in the world?

It can take quite a lot for a TV to stand-out from the crowd. Philips' approach? Plonk some LED lights around all four sides of its rear - aka Ambilight, used to real-time project coloured lighting in sync with the image on screen - and, no doubt, you've got one stand-out 4K UHD telly in the PUS8601.

Not so long ago the idea of a 6-inch phone sounded like a bonkers one. Now it's the norm for many, helped along by the iPhone 6S Plus, and with devices as powerful and refined as the Huawei Mate 8 also coming to market it's perhaps a more appealing concept than ever. Having lived with the earlier Ascend Mate 7 for a number of months in 2014 - a phone we thought we'd hate but actually loved (maybe it was ahead of its time?)

It's almost hard to believe that the BMW-reimagined Mini is now in its 15th year. Call it a birthday, if you will, that the Cooper Convertible arrives this month in its third-generation and best-looking guise to date; a little puppy fat, cute looks, bags of adolescent vigour and tireless energy are embodied in this coming-of-age convertible.

We're about to see a new badge banded around both content and products in an attempt to define a premium 4K ultra-high definition experience. See an Ultra HD Premium badge on a TV or a UHD Blu-ray? That means it qualifies and passes the UHD Alliance's specification to be considered a best-of-best audio-visual experience.

All the talk about Leica's "next big thing" was fixed on an interchangeable-lens Leica Q. And that was enough hype to get us ultra excited, given how much we love that particular compact camera. Such a concept has almost occurred in the Leica SL, the company's brand new full-frame compact system camera, only at a far more significant scale.

After picking up the Microsoft Surface Book the bag in which it was placed promptly ripped through at the handles as we wandered down the street. Ah, this isn't a lightweight tablet-esque Surface product and, we suppose, we learnt that the hard way before we even started to use the device. As it happens, Microsoft has - and who knows how - made one of the heaviest boxes for a product in the history of products* (almost certainly an exaggeration), as the Surface Book's 1.58kgs all-in weight isn't light but, then again, it's not absurdly heavy either considering the spec.

The Panasonic Lumix TZ100 (known as ZS100 in the US) joins an increasing raft of cameras built around a 1-inch sensor size, promising upgraded image quality over what you would normally expect from a standard compact. Most prominent camera companies are playing the pocketable 1-inch sensor camera game right now: we've seen the likes of Sony with its RX100 series, Canon with its PowerShot G5 X, and new to the stable is Nikon with its trio of DL models.