A trainer mat prevents any dirt, oil or sweat from hitting the floor beneath your bike, which can be crucial if you’re Zwifting in a room with a carpet. Many of the direct-drive trainers can go up to 2000w. While this is plainly ridiculous – I struggle to hit 700w – it can matter if you are a heavier rider, and your weight adds to the downward power on the pedals. Control

A downside is that therelatively small size of a phone’s battery means that unless your session is short, you are going to need to rig up some way of charging it while on the bike. Heart rate monitors are required. (You’re allowed to race without a HRM, but your points are cut in half.) While the ability of a smart trainer to replicate a thigh-numbing 20 per cent gradient may look good on the spec sheet, is that a feature you really need if you’re on a budget? As a result, if you can afford it, we’d typically recommend a budget direct-drive trainer over a mid-range wheel-on trainer. The CPU. The CPU is the brains of the computer and a great Zwift experience demands a fast brain. Although Intel’s i5 CPU’s run Zwift well, for a few dollars more it pays to get Intel’s latest and fastest high performance CPU…the 4.2 GHz i7 CPU (model 7700K).The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 also has an amazing screen. It has a gorgeous IPS LCD display and supports HDR10+, so videos look great. Lastly, it has a 120Hz refresh rate, so it feels fast and smooth when navigating apps and AndroidAndroid.

If you’re buying their tablet for media usage, keep in mind that this device has expandable memory, and you can use an SD card to do so. You can spend a lot of money on an indoor bike trainer or turbo trainer and take your indoor cycling experience close to the real thing. Unlike most Apple Ipads, Samsung makes their tablets expandable through SD cards. You can go for up to 1 TB of extra storage, which makes this specific gadget perfect for everyday media use – movies, music, and more. Also, look out for the number of peripheral devices that your hardware can connect to simultaneously. If you've got a separate power meter and trainer you want to use, along with a heart rate monitor and speed sensor, you might run out of available concurrent connections. A smart trainer will have a power meter built in though, so again this may not be an issue or there may be workarounds. What does your pain cave look like? It comes with 128 GB of internal storage and 13 hours of battery life. You can enjoy 2000 x 1200 max resolution with this tablet. For those looking for a tablet that delivers solid audio, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is the right choice.

While the iPad has the best screen, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 is far superior in terms of screen size and aspect ratio. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 feels and works like a top smartphone. A fan simulates the wind you get when riding outside and is crucial to helping you stay cool and comfortable when riding indoors, especially when working hard. Our second TTT of Round 2 is a bit longer and pitchier than the first, testing riders’ endurance and ability to stay in efficient formation on short climbs and rollers. If you’re interested in using Zwift, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 is probably the best tablet to choose. While it has plenty of features, the smaller size makes it a better choice for general use. As we said, both Mac and Android devices work well with Zwift, but now we’ll talk about the device specifications you need to look for when you want good performance.

It won’t surprise you to know there are other things to get beside an indoor cycling trainer. There are always things, right?

KICKR

A good laptop is a versatile choice for riding on Zwift. There’s the option of propping a laptop up on a stand or table to use its own screen, or it can be hooked up to a TV with a HDMI cable very easily.