ITJim
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- First ReviewNovember 23, 2013
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- First AnswerNovember 23, 2013
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Acer Googlebook 14 ~ The Industry~s First Convertible Googlebook: Experience the new Acer Googlebook 14, where a brilliant 3K OLED touchscreen, refined convertible design, and long-lasting battery life come together in one beautifully crafted device. Designed for Gemini Intelligence, it provides personalized AI assistance that helps you create, organize, and accomplish more with ease. Point to anything on screen for contextual guidance or simply describe what you want to create and watch your ideas take shape in seconds, all while staying firmly in control of the experience.
Good start, requires quality of life improvements
Customer Rating
3.0
Images for this Review
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The Acer Googlebook 14 hardware, fit, finish, and the tactile experience fits nicely with similarly priced Windows 11 and Apple MacBook laptops. The OLED touch screen is beautiful but suffers horrible glare. See photos. The keyboard is comfortable to type on. The touchpad provides ample space to work. The laptop's outer shell is made of metal and weighs almost nothing. The Laptop is a classic 2 in 1 design. I only wish the Acer Googlebook shipped with a pen. The desktop and application experiences are a bit clunky and need a quality-of-life pass. The final thing I would like to mention is the Googlebook is Google’s move away from Android OS on a laptop to a more purpose build desktop operating system. Let’s get into it!
Setup:
The initial setup took about an hour. Setup time includes country, network, system updates, account creation, system use qualification pages, and cell phone sync. The setup process is a bit clunky overall. For example, I was asked to unlock my phone and keep it near the Googlebook so that the phone could be used to setup the system. And then it completely ignored my phone until I manually setup the Googlebook.
Seasoning the desktop and application experience to my needs and taste came next. And this is where I found the settings interface, application layout, and extensions hunting to be a bit clunky. For example, the very first thing I typically set on my computer is Dark Mode. I like black screens with white text. It extends battery life and is less wear and tear on my eyes. And yet Dark mode is not universal for all applications including the Google productivity applications. Sigh. I then need to go find a Chrome browser extension to add Dark Mode to Google Docs. And then the two modes fought for control of my screen. Sigh…
Second, the Settings page itself is well organized but lacks granulatiry. And Gemini is of little help because Gemini only pulls data from the web. Meaning, Android 17 for Googlebook is too new to find anything useful for me. Let me provide an example. I added the battery widget to my desktop. By accident! And now I cannot turn it off, find the setting in Settings, and cannot find any online help via Gemini to make it go away. Settings have a fancy search feature, but it has proven useless. Also, Settings, in general, feels a bit overly streamlined for my uses. I am used to a more robust user experience and control over my desktop and applications.
Fingerprint Reader:
I like fingerprint readers for the most part. Except, the Acer Googlebook 14 fingerprint reader does not work very well. It took more than a dozen touches and two to four minutes to capture a single fingerprint. And then the reader refuses to read my fingerprint to unlock the laptop. I tried setting this up several times. I eventually gave up and turned off the feature.
Performance:
Performance is really good when everything is working as expected. First, a single application or web page works magnificently. There are no slowdowns. No hesitation. And very little system heat. The only issues I ran into were normal issues with the webpage itself and nothing to do with the Googlebook. I was able to confirm webpage performance from one of my windows systems.
I tried to overload the system with applications and was pleasantly surprised by how well the Googlebook managed a YouTube Video, Netflix, Chrome with 10 open tabs, Google Docs documents, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Gemini, and pretty much any other application I could find on the system all running at once. The videos ran simultaneously without any issues. Memory never pushed past 14 GB of the 16 GB total system memory. And, according to task manager, the CPU never passed 50% utilization. Popping between applications was quick and without any issues. The system warmed up enough to kick the fans on. But the system never got hot. And the fans were quite enough to fit comfortably into a business environment without being noticed.
I ran into a few issues. Pinch and Zoom with the touchpad on many pages, and applications would simply not work until I used the touch screen to force Pinch and Zoom. And then the touchpad would fall back in line. Sometimes scrolling pages would prove problematic and would require the same remedy. On a few occasions the Googlebook would refuse to recognize the keyboard after logon. Instead, it would give me invoke the tablet keyboard. I would have to complete convert the Googlebook to tablet mode and back to laptop mode in order to regain control of the keyboard. Other times, the keyboard backlight would not recover from sleep mode. There is no true sleep or hibernation modes. The system suspends but continues to burn battery in the background while in a low power state. I had a situation where the battery completely drained over the course of day in suspend mode. Most of these issues can easily be overcome. But together, this creates a clunky experience that makes the Googlebook feel like an unfinished product.
Gemini and Magic Pointer:
Gemini is installed as an app on the desktop. It can be brought up at any time. However, the app is not directly integrated into anything on the laptop. It even told me as much. The Gemini app is essentially the same Gemini that is accessible via any Google search prompt. Gemini is available in different applications such as Google Docs. Except Google Docs Gemini integration requires a monthly subscription. Documents, questions, and other tasks are still available via copy and paste into Gemini for desktop. Though inefficient and a bit clunky, it still works.
Magic Pointer with Gemini, on the other hand, has the potential to be a real game changer. For example, I used Magic Pointer to grab images off the internet; a dog and a room. I instructed Gemini to merge the images by making the Dog an alien-fighting rock star. It legit took 2 seconds for Gemini to return a pretty great slop image of a humanoid dog, in a space suit, burning down a horde of aliens with fire coming out of its eyes! Gemini got a few details wrong. Like eyeball flames do not shoot out the back of someone’s head. Gemini took the feedback and regenerated the same image with my corrections. Normally, with most AI engines I have used, I get a whole new image that may or may not be close to what I was looking for. Gemini really impressed me. Don’t get me wrong. It is still AI slop, but it is collaborative slop. I think this feature will provide me with the kind of value that no other laptop is capable of providing me today without a major investment in creativity software.
Battery:
Battery life, like with most laptops, is dependent on use. YouTube and Netflix will drain the battery in about four to six hours depending on how bright the screen is. Productivity apps can comfortably see an eight-hour day assuming I don’t have a load of background apps running. Draining the battery to 20% automatically engages battery saver mode. And at 1%, the laptop preserved my application states and shut down. Charging the battery back to 100% takes about an hour. Overall, battery life is in line with what I would expect from a mid-tier laptop.
Overall Impressions and Final Thoughts:
I use the Googlebook for word processing, web searches, shopping sites, AI chats and research, and to watch YouTube videos while riding my exercise bike. Yes, flipping the Acer Googlebook to Tablet mode, resting it on my handlebars, and then tilting the screen forward provides me with a rich, competent touch control console
I find the hardware capable for a mid-tier laptop. However, the screen is too reflective and must be used in a poorly lit room with indirect lighting. Otherwise, the reflections will overtake the screen. The software integration and interoperability is clunky and has a lot of room for improvement. Everything is here. Things just need a quality-of-life pass to make system usage more intuitive. The 2 in 1 design is well executed though I would have liked to see the inclusion of a Pen. I’m sure there is a first party or third-party pen available that will work with this screen. And like with all new systems, there is an onboarding period to get used to the quarks, unique workflows, and unique features. The more I use the new Acer Googlebook, the more uses I find for it. And did I mention that the Acer Googlebook ships with a dedicated soft case that looks and feels like a quality add-on? It does. And it is nice enough that I don’t mind being seen in public with it. Overall, my first experience with Acer’s new Googlebook was a bit of a mixed bag. It is functional but clunky. With 10 years of guaranteed updates, I am confident that the experience will improve as Google processes user experience feedback. But for now, I cannot recommend the system for anyone other than folks already deep in the Google Ecosystem with their Chromebooks.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Feel all the emotion of your music. MOMENTUM 5 Wireless combines our best-ever noise cancellation with brilliant, exceptionally detailed sound. Advanced codecs and a meticulously tuned driver make instruments feel like they~re right there, playing just for you. The new ANC uses twice as many microphones (8) for three times better midrange noise cancellation than MOMENTUM 4 Wireless. The (replaceable) battery provides up to 57 hours of playtime with ANC on. You also get clear calls, gaming mode, and Bluetooth 6.0*. But features don~t define MOMENTUM 5. It~s how effortlessly they disappear, leaving nothing behind but emotion and music.
Fun Listening! Comfortable! Great Experience!
Customer Rating
5.0
Sennheiser did a great job with the Momentum 5. They are lightweight, singularly comfortable, provide days of battery life, excellent ANC, equally excellent transparency, robust touch controls, include a low-profile hard case for travel, and most importantly sound great. In short, the Momentum 5 is a fun listening experience that packs enough features to make it an all-day companion.
Sound quality:
The Momentum 5 casts a convincing sound stage, good instrument separation and spacing, and has an overall slightly warm and pleasing presentation. A great example is the song “Clockwork” from Laufey’s “A Matter of Time” album. The piece opens with ringing church bells harmonizing along with background singers singing in time with the bell. The bells are clear, clearly separate from the vocals, and have a good decay. From here, Laufey’s voice gently rises from the background to take center stage. Laufey’s silky seductive voice was center stage spatially in the sound field and unobstructed by the accompanying instruments. The accompanying instruments, such as guitars, piano, and drums, were clear, spatially behind Laufey’s vocals, and spread across the sound field.
Lady Gaga’s “Disease”, from her Mayhem album, is the polar opposite to Laufey’s “Clockwork”. The musical score and Lady Gaga’s voice work seem to angrily arm-wrestle for the spotlight. The song opens with Lady Gaga’s voice entering the sound stage like mist pouring through a creepy forest. And then we are suddenly slammed into the piece with a duet consisting of Lady Gaga’s meaty vocals and a hard-hitting drumbeat. Again, the Momentum 5 does an excellent job with instrument and vocal separation. However, unlike with Laufey’s voice, the Momentum 5 loses some of the textured gravity of Lady Gaga’s lower register that is brilliantly on display in “Disease.” There are passages that start from a low growl before soaring off into space. Those same passages, if you listen closely, have a sample of Lady Gaga doing backup vocals for herself in a lower register that inject some gravitas into her passages. These are genuinely difficult to hear with the Momentum 5. I am guessing that this may be because the song is a saturated cornucopia of sound. This is especially true during the song’s crescendo. But I have heard other headphones around this same price range handle this song, and these specific passages better.
Classical and Jazz instrumentals are fantastic. The bulk of my workday was Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Handel, and many others. Mostly I listened to piano concertos, string quartets, and chamber music. Other times I played movie soundtracks such as “How to Train your Dragon”, “Pacific Rim”, and “Wing Commander the Motion Picture”. In all cases, the Momentum 5 did a fabulous job of keeping me both entertained and focused during my workday. I enjoyed them so much that, instead of removing my headset when I left my desk, I would turn on Transparency mode and leave my desk with the headphones still playing. Transparency mode so folks could talk to me or tell me to get out of the way.
Voice only content like YouTube talking heads and news sites like NPR were 100% clear, realistic, and natural. Women sounded like women. Men sounded like men. And large husky men with deep voices sound like large husky men with deeper voices.
There is a caveat that you need to know to make the Momentum 5 sound its best. The Momentum 5 has a very narrow volume band between 40% to 60% where it sounds its absolute very best. Too quiet, and vocals will take front stage pushing the band to a very quiet background. Too loud, and the vocals and instruments are compressed and the sound breaks up. For example, Journey’s 1983 power ballad, “Faithfully”, from the album Frontiers, is a master class in power vocals that the Momentum 5 beautifully reproduces while playing at sweat spot volume levels. Steven Perry’s vocals are not only clear, but they are powerful, front and center, and at no time does the Momentum 5 show any sign of strain or fatigue. However, at low volume listening, Steven Perry’s vocals go from commanding attention to mousy at best. And the piano, synthesizers, guitars, and drums take on a neighbor-down-the-road-is-playing-the-stereo-too-loud-again kind of characteristic. Meaning, most of sound is far away and lacking detail if you can hear it at all. Turn the volume too high, then Steven Perry’s vocals will simply overwhelm the headphones and render the song unlistenable.
In general, if you stay in the headphone’s sweat spot, then the Moment 5 will amaze you with wonderful music.
Comfort:
The Momentum 5 is very comfortable. The headset is lightweight for its size. I found the clamping force perfect for all day comfort. And at no time did I find any discomfort around my glasses. The plushy ear cup pads are wrapped with what feels like bonded leather. The Momentum 5 is so comfortable that at one point I forgot they were on my head. Yes, I went looking for something that I was already wearing. In my defense, I had Transparency mode active and was not listening to music.
My only real gripe is that my ears touch the earcup walls when worn. This may prove an issue for anyone with large or extra-large ears. There is plenty of padding inside the earcup to assist with comfort. Any feeling of claustrophobia I had subsided after about 10 minutes of use.
Build Quality:
The Momentum 5 is very light for its size. So light that it confers a cheap quality to the feel of the headset. Then again, HiFi quality is often jokingly sold by the pound. But not in this case. The metal and plastic earcups are surprisingly light considering they hold batteries, drivers, damping material, cushions, and three microphones each. The earcups themselves should survive most sports bags and your average desk accident. The ear cushions are covered in what feels like soft bonded leather. The filling is plushy foam that simply melts when touched. The headband is a metal leaf spring with plastic extendable armatures covered in a combination of fabric, plushy foam, and bonded leather. The ear cup holders and hinge connections are all plastic. To me, the earcup holders and hinges feel like quality plastic. Though I worry that these may be points of failure for the Momentum 5 if dropped or stuffed into a bag. I plan on using the included hard case when traveling so that I do not accidentally break the headphones when traveling.
The earcup holders and hinges are smartly designed. The headband’s hinges allow the Momentum 5’s earcups to rotate a full 90 degrees forward from center and 90 degrees back from center for a total of 180 degrees of motion. This gives me the option of resting the earcups around my neck either earcups out or earcups inward. Most folks have a preference. The earcups rotate along the Y-axis about 20 degrees towards my temples. The combination of the headband flex, the telescopic headband adjustment, 180 Degree earcup swivel, and the earcup vertical adjustment should allow the Momentum 5 to fit any head.
Battery life!
OMG! Does this thing ever run out of power!? Normally, when I get a new battery powered product, I charge it to 100% straight from the box. Not this time. The Momentum 5, out of the box, had about 80% battery life. I got the headphones on a Saturday, wore them for approximately four to six hours a day from Saturday to Friday. The battery finally gave up Friday night at 9pm. Rough back-of-the-napkin math… that is 28 – 36 hours of power. Usage included music, phone calls, streaming such as YouTube and Podcasts. I switched between ANC and Transparency modes as needed throughout the week. Brand new, battery life is excellent!
ANC:
ANC is excellent! Sennheiser knocked this one out of the park. I typically work from home. My wife is retired. A typical workday has my wife buzzing around the house with the vacuum cleaner, knocking about pots and pans, working on her sowing machine, or blasting the AC. The Momentum 5’s ANC filtered out everything except the closest and most obnoxious sounds. For example, it had a hard time with a MAC Truck idling outside my office window. Thankfully, that does not happen very often. Alternatively, I had an experience where I was sitting at my kitchen table with the AC buzzing two feet off my left ear and my kids watching a movie, loudly, through my living room home theater. I did not hear a thing. I was actually surprised how loud the house was when I removed the Momentum 5 from my head. I promptly asked the kids to lower the volume. Honestly, I could not ask for better.
Sennheiser Smart Control Plus:
Sennheiser did a great job with the app. It is organized well, has a great feature set, and is well-integrated with the Momentum 5 headset. I think most users will enjoy the ANC/Transparency options, Immersive Audio, and the ability to use finger gestures on the Momentum 5’s right ear cup’s touch surface to operate the different features defined in the control app. If Sennheiser is taking requests, I would love to see some context sensitive help or feature explanations built directly into the app. For example, what is a Sound Zone, why do I care, and how does the app know when to engage one zone over another? Other than this, I think Sennheiser did a great job.
Final thoughts:
The Sennheiser Momentum 5 is fun to listen to, has amazing ANC and Transparency, is feature rich, and is one of the most comfortable headphones I have ever owned. In my opinion, the price to value proposition here is very compelling. My only real issue is the narrow volume band where the Momentum 5 operates. Otherwise, I think Sennheiser did an amazing job with the Momentum 5.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The ROG Zephyrus G16 features a premium aluminum CNC-machined chassis that delivers exceptional durability in a slim 0.7" profile and a lightweight 4.30 lbs build. Powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, the Zephyrus G16 delivers the performance needed to play games, create content, and multitask. The 16" OLED ROG Nebula Display HDR brings gaming experience to life with a 240Hz refresh rate, ultra-fast 0.2ms response time, 1100 nits peak brightness in HDR, and VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000 for deeper contrast and richer colors. Dolby Atmos audio with dual woofers delivers immersive sound, while ROG Intelligent Cooling~paired with an upgraded exhaust vent design~improves airflow to help sustain performance during intense gaming sessions.
Luxurious, power, portable design, and hot!
Customer Rating
5.0
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is a luxuriously styled laptop. The body feels like it was crafted from milled aluminum. The design is clean lines with minimum bling to clutter the presentation. The keyboard, touchpad, and speaker presentation are visually elegant. The touchpad is one of the smoothest surfaces I think I have ever touched. The OLED screen is crisp, clean, colorful, not harsh on my eyes, and the color fringing, inherent with many OLED gaming screens, is minimal here. Gaming performance is outstanding.
Setup:
The Zephyrus ships with Windows 11 Home, Asus Armoury Crate, MyAsus, and a handful of pre-staged applications like Netflix, Dropbox, Adobe Offers, and MS Office. All are easily removed from the Windows Installed Apps page in Settings. Otherwise, setup is the standard Windows experience. After an afternoon of Windows updates, game installs, application updates, and driver updates, I was ready to go.
Gaming:
Gaming on the Zephyrus’ 16” OLED is fantastic. The 5070 Ti and the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H are well tuned to deliver maximum performance with the 240Hz OLED screen. I played a handful of games including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (BO7), Forza Horizon 6, and MechWarrior Online (MWO). I experienced a steady 85 fps to 110 fps with BO7, 140 fps to 180 fps with Forza Horizon 6 on the High preset, and between 100 fps to 120 fps with MWO. In all instances, the screen provided beautiful renderings of my game world. I did not see any ghosting, unintended motion blur, latency issues, or screen tearing in fast-paced games such as BO7 and Forza. Images were sharp. The screen handled all the action effortlessly. MWO, being a much slower game than either BO7 or Forza, gave me the time I needed to really see how well the screen managed motion. Overall, it managed it very well.
Switching to an external 1440p monitor was a different story. The Zephyrus has an HDMI port for connection to an external display. The Zephyrus acquitted itself well despite the inherent performance hit the 5070 Ti took from driving the higher resolution monitor. The FPS hit was not enough to interfere with smooth gameplay in either BO7 or Forza. MWO was a different story. There were multiple times where I experienced screen tearing in MWO. This was mostly with background graphics such as walls and buildings. This may have been the 5070 Ti having issues rendering those assets at 1440p or something else. This is not an issue with my gaming desktop with the same monitor. And screen tearing was not an issue when using the Zephyrus’ built-in OLED screen.
Heat and Fan Noise:
The Zephyrus’ day-to-day operation is cool to warm depending on content and system load. There were very few times that the fans kicked on to cool the system. The fans also run in near silence at low system loads.
Gaming is a different story. First, gaming is hot. Very hot. The majority of the heat is contained to the top of the keyboard bezel just above the F5 to F8 keys. The rest of the chassis will warm but not cook an egg hot like the top middle keyboard bezel. The fans will get leaf-blower loud to dump the heat from the CPU and GPU. The system will hit a max heat output and remain there for the duration of the gaming session. The power supply brick will also get very hot during gaming. I lay the power brick on its side with plenty of air around it so as to aid in cooling. I also use inexpensive furniture coasters I picked up at the hardware store to elevate the back of the laptop off my table. I stack them two high on each rear corner. This increases the airflow from the bottom of the laptop. It also reduces the amount of heat the laptop is dumping into the table surface. And trust me, the table surface will get hot if the laptop is kept flush on the table.
Armoury Crate will be a good tool to help maximize system performance while also minimizing energy consumption and heat generation. For example, for daily driving, I set Armoury Crate to Silent fan mode and Eco Power mode to maximize battery life. I do this for those times when I am working on a document, surfing the web, or reading email. I am rewarded with longer battery life and low heat. For gaming, I set the fan to Turbo mode and GPU mode to either Optimized or Ultimate. This generates the very best performance and maximum heat and fan noise. There is a Manual mode that would allow me to build my own fan profile. I have heard some folks comment that they can squeeze extra cooling and performance out of the system using the Manual fan profile.
Battery life:
Battery life can be excellent and terrible depending on your settings in Armoury Crate. Setting the laptop to Silent Mode on the Home Screen and Eco Mode in the GPU Performance screen netted the best results. Turning screen refresh to 60Hz, decreasing screen brightness, turning off keyboard animations, turning on Dark Mode for all applications, and lowering keyboard backlighting all contribute to maximum battery life. On average, I was able to squeeze 2 to 4 hours from the battery starting at an 80% charge. Why not 100%? Asus has a battery health mode where it will change maximum battery charge from 100% to 80%, which maximizes overall battery life. If I turn this off, then I can expect 4 hours battery life. I was actually surprised how long I could go on a gaming laptop battery. For gaming, just go straight to AC. You can game on battery but it simply is not worth the trouble in my opinion.
Sound:
The speakers are good for spoken word and OK for everything else. However, if you want the best musical experience, then you will want to invest in a good pair of headphones or earbuds.
Network Performance:
The Zephyrus supports Wi-Fi 7. My home network supports up to 6E. My home is supported by a 1Gb fiber connection. I was pulling 800 Mbps over the air from my Wi-Fi router. I downloaded and installed games in excess of 150GB, each, from Xbox Game Pass in under an hour. I also did not experience high latency or dropouts while gaming. Overall, the Wi-Fi card in the Zephyrus is a solid performer. Of note is the absence of an RJ-45 jack. A USB dongle or network connection
Power Supply:
The power brick is smaller and lighter than I have seen with other high-performing gaming laptops. It also gets very hot during gaming. While gaming, I keep the power brick on top of my desk, on its side to maximize my cooling surface area, and I never put anything on it or around it.
Final thoughts:
Overall, I think the Zephyrus is an amazing, luxury-class gaming laptop. This review barely scratches the surface on performance and capabilities. The Zephyrus was designed to be a high-performing, ultra-portable gaming laptop that is as much at ease in the office as it is with the latest FPS or RTS games. There is a lot to like here. And I look forward to many years of use with this laptop for both my daily work and my nighttime gaming experiences.
Thank you for reading my review. I hope you found this helpful.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The Sole Vibe heated foot massager is your all-in-one solution for tired, aching feet and legs. Using PulseWeave Technology, Sole Vibe delivers heat and vibration to boost blood flow, relax muscles, and relieve pain while you sit or stand. On one side, the acupressure surface kneads and stimulates the whole foot, waking up the arches and heels, while the hot stone surface digs into sore spots and melts away tension. The Sole Vibe gives you the relief your feet have been aching for.
Cleared up the knots in my feet. Thank you.
Customer Rating
5.0
I got the Sole Vibe for one simple reason. Relief. Or at least the hope of relief. My arches have some kind of knots that are sensitive and cause foot cramps. Stretching, foot exercise, new shoes, memory foam pads to stand on at my workstation, acupressure toys, heat, and massage have had little impact. I even tried impact and wand type deep massage devices. But they were either too harsh or never really delivered the right kind or amount of treatment to the point I was trying to manage. Then I was introduced to the Sole Vibe. I figured it couldn’t hurt.
My expectations going into this were very low. To my humble surprise, the Sole Vibe not only offered relief. Those knots are gone! In both feet! My feet do feel better. Did they solve any underlying medical problems? Probably not. And Chirp makes zero claims to being a medical device. However, let me re-iterate, the knots are gone. And I can do foot exercises such as pointing my toes and pulling back on my toes without fear of foot cramping. So, it did something right. My arches are still sensitive. And I can still feel little nodules of discomfort along the tendons that make up my arch. But, by and large, the massage and heat of the Sole Vibe helped clear something up that I have spent years trying to resolve. Is this the right device for you for your situation? Maybe. Let’s get into it.
Setup:
Setup is simple. Unbox, charge to 100% using your cell phone USB charger, turn on, place on floor, apply foot. That’s it! No annoying apps. No EULA to sign. No nagging registration reminders. Nothing. Conceivably there could be an app to remotely control the different heat, intensity, and vibration programs. Then again, there is little effort to press the buttons on the side of the Sole Vibe, place on floor, and apply foot. Sometimes the analog method is the best method.
Use:
First, the Sole Vibe vibrates. It can vibrate a little or it can vibrate a lot. Meaning, it can shake the photos from your walls and upset your downstairs neighbors at the same time. The Sole Vibe has four intensity modes. Vibrate, by itself, has four intensity levels.
Levels 1 and 2 shake my hardwood floors but are mild enough not to travel into my walls. Levels 3 is intense enough to shake my room’s walls, hanging photos, and pretty anything not tied down. Level 4 will rattle the dishes in my kitchen. If you have neighbors that share walls or live below you then you may want to either place some kind of pad underneath your Sole Vibe. For me, I moved my Sole Vibe sessions to one of my basement rooms where those vibrations were rejected by my concrete floor. Problem solved.
Session:
My first session was with the Vibration only. No heat and no pre-determined program. I turned on the Sole Vibe while holding it, placed it on the floor, and placed my right foot on the acupressure surface. It took me a minute to get used to level 1. I slowly rocked my foot back and forth. I immediately felt the acupressure and vibration in my arch. More specifically, in the knot that I described at the beginning of this review. And I leaned into that spot with all prejudice. Which is probably what I was not supposed to do. But it felt good. I increased the intensity to level 2 about 5 minutes into my 10-minute session. Anything over level 2 simply felt too intense for my first time. I did each foot for 10 minutes.
Next, I flipped the Sole Vibe over and turned on the heat function. The heat function automatically started on High Heat at Level 2 vibration intensity. Unlike the acupressure side that is made up of tens of little silicon fingers, the heating stone can be used to target a specific point on my foot. And I used it to specifically target the knots. The heat, at least for me, was most noticeable around the edges of the heat stone. At times the heat seemed really hot and other times it simply vanished into the background. I am guessing that this is how the device is supposed to work. Vibration for both heat intensities can be set from levels 1 through 4 using the vibration button settings button.
The knots in my feet were gone about two days after my first session. My arches are still tender. But at least I am no longer walking on knots.
The Sole Vibe also has three preset therapy sessions; Refresh, Circulation, and Deep Release. I chose Deep Release. And it was about 10 minutes of the most intense foot massage I have ever had. The Sole Vibe started out at Level 4 on the heating stone side. The intensity and pattern of the vibration changed every few seconds. The vibration was so intense that I had to swap feet halfway through the treatment. It was a good workout. But I will give my feet a few days to recover before applying another treatment.
Rocking Motion:
The Sole Vibe is designed to rock back and forth with a natural motion. There are wings on both sides of the device that stop the Sole Vibe from rolling over from the acupressure side to the heat stone side. I found the motion very natural. At least until I hit the wing stops. I found myself adjusting my foot a few times but never once was I able to get a full roll from front to back on my men’s size 9 foot. I feel that a larger device would naturally accommodate larger feet. The rocking motion also allows the Sole Vibe to be used unpowered as a simple acupressure device.
Other parts of the body:
The Sole Vibe is designed specifically for the foot. However, its shape does allow it to be applied to the back of the knee, the calf, the back of the thigh, and, with a soft chair or some soft cushions, to the soft tissue of the hip. I would not go any higher than that. The reason I bring up the legs and hips is because, after a session with my feet, I noticed that the tension started traveling up my leg along my sciatic nerve. It’s almost like relieving tension in one spot simply uncovered tension in other parts of the leg. For this, I set the Sole Vibe to level 1 and applied in sequence up my leg starting at the calf, then back of my knee, the back of my thigh, and eventually into the soft part of my hip. I applied this for about 5 minutes per spot. And it did an amazing job! When I stood up, the final bits of tension released with some cracking and popping from my knee, hip, and lower back. Then I set about stretching to get the final bits out. Finally, I spent the day drinking plenty of water to help flush all the toxins out of my system.
Final thoughts:
I was honestly skeptical of the Sole Vibe. I had tried so many other things to get lasting relief with my feet that I was ready to give up. I saw the Sole Vibe and figured it couldn’t hurt. To my delight, it works wonderfully. It hits all the right spots. It can apply intense vibration and heat exactly where I need to apply it. And is flexible enough that I can apply it to other parts of my leg as the tension from my feet uncovers areas of tension further up my leg. It is not a fix-all device. But I am very happy to add it to my arsenal of tension relief devices.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Blockbuster sound~built for the biggest screens. Our flagship model, BRAVIA Theater Trio, expands sound far beyond the screen. Perfect for today's ultra-large TVs, its three-unit design and 360 Spatial Sound Mapping generate a vast, room-filling soundstage~bringing cinematic scale and immersion into your living room.
Great system. Bravia app needs a quality review.
Customer Rating
3.0
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This is part I of a three-part review for the Sony Bravia Theater series of products. Please see my reviews for the Bravia Theater Sub 9 and Bravia Theater Rear 9 for my complete review.
Initial impressions:
The Sony Bravia Theater Trio, and by extension the Bravia Theater system, is not a sound bar and it is not a traditional component home theater system. It is a hybrid solution that combines the ease of a sound bar with the flexibility and improved sonic performance of a component home theater. The Trio is comprised of separate center, left, and right speakers. The center channel is a two-way, dual ported box that is the shape and size of a small sound bar. The left and right speakers are two-way, single ported cylinders that are about the size of an average bookshelf speaker. The Bravia Theater Trio is for anyone who does not want a Soundbar but is not ready to move up to a larger, and more complex, home theater system but want some of the benefits of a larger component system. Finally, the Sony Bravia app gave me a lot of issues during setup and during operation which degraded my appreciation for this otherwise great system. This is reason for the three stars and not the full five.
Setup:
Sony did an exceptional job of packing the Trio and ensuring the easiest unboxing possible. Packaging is 99% cardboard. The speakers were wrapped in protective fabric socks. Placement around the room was easy to figure out. The center channel goes under the TV, the dedicated left speaker goes to the listener’s left, and the right speaker goes to the listener’s right. All speakers are wall mountable. In my case, I placed the center on the my entertainment stand and the left/right speakers on sound isolation on my room’s subwoofers. My room would not support wall mounting the speakers due to how I have the existing theater configured.
The center channel is the brains of the entire Bravia Theater system. It has an HDMI eARC for TV connectivity and an HDMI input for an Xbox, 4k player, or other HDMI devices. Each speaker has a dedicated power cable. In my case, I had the Trio connected to a single Panamax M5300-PM. This cleans the power, protects, and provides plenty of outlets.
The center channel connected to the left and right speakers automatically when powered. The configuration and control app, Bravia Connect, is where the setup process soured for me. First, I tried to setup and perform a mandatory firmware update using my iPad. This failed over and over and over again. Finally, I used my iPhone and the setup, sync, and firmware update process went swimmingly. Why? No idea. But this is just the first of a long string of frustrating moments I had with the Bravia Connect application. I was forced to perform room calibration with my iPhone’s microphone since my phone does not have a USB C port for the included calibration mic. Long story short. Use the included microphone. Luckily, once the firmware was updated for all of my Bravia Theater products, I was able to switch back to my iPad to calibrate the system with the USB calibration mic. Unfortunately, this back and forth between devices and firmware update time outs turned a 20 minute process into hours. Once everything was powered, calibrated, and all connections confirmed, I was ready for some home theater action!
Movie performance and modes:
The Theater Trio, on its own, is anemic. I started off with Pacific Rim, scene 2, where Gypsy Danger is fighting a Kaiju in a hurricane. The center channel sounded like a sound bar and the left/right channels struggled to provide weight and emotion to the battle, weather, and that very strange air horn that Gypsy Danger uses. The male voices were high and lacked authority. And the overall sound scape was simply unconvincing. Adding the Bravia Sub 9 solved 90% of my issues. The Sub 9 is a proper, compact, subwoofer. It provided the weight and presence I was looking for to immerse me in the movie. Second, the Bravio Connect app automatically sets “Voice” mode to on. Which is probably great for the evening news but terrible for movies. I turned this off and the movie finally came alive.
TV Performance and modes:
From Pacific Rim I switched to the World Cup Finals. And the Trio’s volume level went from acceptable to blowing me out of my seat. The Sub 9 and Rear 9 volumes were also elevated, muddy, and simply unacceptable. This is another theme throughout my time with the Bravio Theater system. After “recalibrating” the master volume, the sub volume, and then the Rear 9 speaker volume, I enjoyed the entirety of the game. The Trio’s center channel did an excellent job of conveying the commentators’ voices. I even enabled the “Voice” mode here to boost the speakers so that the master volume control would not drown me in crowd and background sounds. In Voice Mode, male voices were boosted in volume, boosted on the top end, and the normal lower frequency weight of the voices were removed. Female voices sound boosted but without much change. This is mostly because female voices are naturally higher than male voices. The halftime show flowed naturally from the game. And even the few commercials behaved themselves.
Console Gaming and modes:
After the game, I switched to my Xbox to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Again, I was forced to “recalibrate” the systems volume controls. Seriously, Sony! I shouldn’t have to readjust the entire system every time I change inputs or move from one content type to another. Once I dialed in the system, again, the overall experience was a lot of fun. The Trio by itself did a good job with voices and effects that did not require subwoofer support. And the Atmos speakers did a decent job of filling the soundscape. However, it was clear that the Sub 9 was required to drive home the gunshots, explosions, and low frequency audio artifacts. The Sub 9 was also able to fill the room with a low-level hum that added the atmosphere that the Trio itself is simply too small to provide. It was also clear that the Rear 9’s were need to fill the 360 sound scape with positional audio queues such as foot steps coming from behind, gunshots to my left, or bombs falling on my head from above behind me.
Software:
The software interface is clean and poorly organized. There are also no presets such as Sports, Video Game, Movie or Cinema, or other quick settings. The system does not remember settings and preferences for TV, 4K Player, or Game Console which I found very frustrating. And even though there are settings for things like IMAX and Theater Reverb, they are buried in the menu system. The included remote control is marginally useful. There is no on-screen TV display to illustrate settings of volume levels. And the center does not have an information display. Overall, I think Sony whiffed on the software of an otherwise capable system.
Music Streaming:
Connecting the Bravia Trio to a phone was as easy as selecting it as a Bluetooth device on my iPad. I streamed multiple music genres from Apple Music. The Trio, by itself, can playback via all three speakers or stereo. The two-channel stereo option is buried in the Bravia Connect app. This is one of the only Bravia Connect app settings that are persistent. Overall, I found the stereo playback to be very good. I found the Center Channel less than ideal. I think this is mostly because the center significantly smaller and optimized for voice. Adding the Sub 9 provided the low end support the Trio needed for full range music reproduction. Overall, both the Trio and the Sub 9 blended well together. Adding the Rear 9’s further enhanced my enjoyment. They did a great job of filling in the rear. I did try the surround features. I ultimately turned them off. I found the Stereo setting sounded fuller, focused, imaged well, and was generally more enjoyable than anything the 360, DTS, or Atmos was able to provide.
Final thoughts:
The Sony Theater Trio speakers sound ok by themselves but really need something like the Sub 9 to support the entire system. Physical setup and placement, either standing on an entertainment center or mounted to the wall, is straightforward and easy to understand. The real tragedy of this story is the Bravia Connect app. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should be expected to ride the subwoofer volume, rear/surround sound volume, and the best surround format options when changing channels, inputs, or content. I have setup and own several systems and at worst I adjust the master volume. The Sony Bravia Trio should be the same way. Sonically, the system is a joy to listen to with most content. It does not match my bigger home theater. Though, a friend of mine did comment that he enjoyed the Sony Bravia Trio more than my regular, larger, and more expensive system.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Premium bass. Depths revealed. The BRAVIA Theater Sub 9 uncovers ultra-low frequencies with precision using dual opposing 200 mm aluminum drivers to deliver deep, tightly controlled bass with minimal distortion and vibration. Bass you can feel throughout the room without the trembling.
Welcome addition to the Sony Bravia experience
Customer Rating
5.0
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This is part II of a three-part review for the Sony Bravia Theater series of products. Please see my reviews for the Bravia Theater Trio and Bravia Theater Rear 9 for my complete review.
Initial Thoughts:
Finally, a real subwoofer! And it is glorious. If you are purchasing any of the Sony Bravia Theater products then this is the subwoofer you want. Do not accept anything less. Go with two if you really want to elevate your game.
Setup and Configuration
First, this is a heavy box. If you are not comfortable lifting 50lb, then you will want some help. Wherever you place this sub is where it will live. It is not moving. There are only two pieces to the Sub 9; power cord and subwoofer. The Sub 9 is a cube measuring 15 3/8 x 15 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. The Sub 9 has dual opposing 200mm (7.9 Inch) drivers facing each other. This is a fully vented design with the air flow traveling down the middle of the box with exits at the front and the rear. The Sub 9 is compatible with an array of current Sony home theater products including the Theater and HT series sound bars, the Theater Quad, and even Sony’s own AVR lineup. Which really allows you to up your game if you currently own any of these products. This is especially true, in my opinion, with any of the soundbar products. For my setup, I integrated the Sub 9 into my Bravia Theater system.
Using my iPhone, the Bravia app recognized the Sub 9 and synced it with the Theater Trio within a matter of seconds. Once synced, I ran the Bravia Connect room correction app on my iPad with the calibration mic that shipped with the Theater Trio. The Sub 9 was synced, time aligned and integrated into the Theater system in about five minutes. The benefits of adding the Sub 9 were immediate. Music, vocals, action scenes, Godzilla’s roar, and Call of Duty finally commanded attention, emotion, and provided weight to my content. The Sub 9 also did an excellent job of pressurizing my small room.
The Bravia Trio remote control, and the Bravia app, allow for increasing and decreasing the bass volume. From the app, I can also boost the bass. This is good for those times when I want a little extra punch.
Placement:
For my room, the best placement was mid-wall instead. I could have teased more base out of the Sub 9 by corner loading the subwoofer. Unfortunately, that option is available to me due to the room’s furniture layout. Instead, I chose to place the Sub 9 along my right side wall about 1/3 of the room’s distance from the front wall. I left about six inches between the back of the Sub 9 and my wall.
As mentioned in my Theater Trio review, I rode the bass volume control both via remote control and Bravia Connect app every time I switched between public TV, streaming, video games, 4K movies, and on and on and on. The Sub 9, itself, is perfectly fine. The software driving the system has a lot of room for improvement. For example, watching the World Cup game, Spain vs Argentina, the sub did a fantastic job fantastic. The sub was mostly idle during the game but came alive at half-time for the few commercials aired during the game. I got some good bass, beats, and that underlying foundation to the musical presentation that most performances rest upon.
After the game, I switched over to my 4K players to watch Godzilla: King of Monsters. This time, I had to turn off THX, Bass Boost, and lower the Sub 9 volume to -4. Overall, Godzilla sounded big, grounded, and dangerous. The other monsters were also fun to watch. Again, once the system was dialed in, the sub vanished and there was only immersive content. I did turn off the sub a few times. The impact was immediate and obvious. It was like all the air was let out of the room when the sub was off. Finally, the Sub 9 does not come equipped with good floor isolation feet. The floor was rumbling, plates were clattering, and the walls were humming with the bass energy that was going into the floor. This is the first best way to upset everyone in the house or apartment and the your neighbors. If you do go with the Sub 9 then I recommend either isolation feet or a small isolation platform. You will get better, tighter bass while also increasing your neighbor acceptance factor.
Video Games:
I stream my Xbox through my TV. From the TV, game sound is transmitted via HDMI eARC to the Bravia Trio center channel. And from the center channel to the rest of the system. Changing over from Godzilla to Call of Duty, just like switching between other content, I was forced to ride the remote control and the Bravia App to dial in the system. Once dialed in, Call of Duty was pretty awesome! The Sub 9 provided punch to my gun shots, solid weight to grenade explosions, awe to my air strikes, and did a decent job of pressurizing my room with low frequency hum of the battlefield. I found it very immersive. The Sub 9 also did a good job of supporting surround effects such as heavy footsteps and the distant sounds of combat from clear across the map. Overall, the Sub 9 did a great job.
Music:
Just like with Godzilla and Call of Duty on my Xbox, I had to re-adjust the speaker and subwoofer output for my music. I streamed everything from Jazz to Classical to Classic Rock to K-Pop over Apple Airplay from my iPad. The subwoofer did an excellent job supporting the music regardless of what content I threw at it. However, I did find myself riding the bass volume controls more often as I switched from genre to genre. For reference, I have a dedicated stereo system with a dedicated sub that I calibrated one time. And that system has never needed to be recalibrated regardless of what genre of music I throw at it. This is a Sony software problem that Sony needs to address. The musical experience was very pleasing once the Sub 9 was dialed in.
Final Thoughts:
First, I am happy to see that Sony is finally adding a real subwoofer to a consumer level home theater audio solution. The downside is that the only brand this subwoofer works with is Sony. The good news is that Sony has worked the Sub 9 into its sound bars, the Theater Trio, and even their AVR product lines. Meaning, when you are ready to grow, then the Sub 9 will grow with you. What I do not like is constantly riding the Bravia Connect app and the bass volume control as if it was some grotesque interactive game. The Sub 9 subwoofer is a quality subwoofer for the money. It does a fantastic job of pressurizing the room. And it does a fantastic job of supporting the rest of my Bravia wireless theater. The software, however, needs a usability and quality of life pass.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Premium surround. All angles. BRAVIA Theater Rear 9 wireless rear speakers add surround and height with up-firing drivers and 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, creating phantom speakers for immersive sound from behind and above.
Great pair of Rear and/or Surround speakers
Customer Rating
5.0
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This is part III of a three-part review for the Sony Bravia Theater series of products. Please see my reviews for the Bravia Theater Trio and Bravia Sub 9 for my complete review.
The Sony Bravia Rear 9 wireless surround speakers provide surround sound and Dolby Atmos support for the Bravia Theater Trio, Bravia Theater and HT soundbars, and Bravia TVs. The Rear 9’s are an add-on product. Do you want them? Probably. The Rear 9’s completes the immersive home theater experience for movies, video games, sporting events, music, and other content that supports multi-channel and Dolby Atmos audio. For me, a home theater is not complete without the surround speakers. They add that little bit extra to the sound field, like MSG on Chinese food, that complete the immersive experience. Yeah, I know, poor analogy. But you all get my point.
Setup and Configuration:
Setup, for me, was super easy. I already have a pair of tower speakers at the back of my room in the exact locations that work best for my living room. I plugged in each Rear 9 to wall power, placed a protective cloth over each tower speaker, and then placed a Rear 9 on top of each speaker. I could have also used a shelf, speaker stands, tables, or even wall mounted the Rear 9’s using the included mounting hardware.
The bottom of each speaker has a power/link button. Pressing the button powers the speaker and automatically puts it into link mode. My Theater Trio center channel found and connected to the Rear 9 before I even opened the Bravia app on my phone. I still needed to add the speakers in the app, perform a software update, and then take calibration readings with the Bravia Trio USB calibration mic with my iPad. I was up and ready to rock and roll within five minutes.
* See my Trio review for an explanation of why I started with an iPhone and ended with an iPad.
Placement:
For my room, I placed the Rear 9’s behind my couch; elevated slightly to align the bottom of the speaker with the top of my couch. Why? Because my couch would simply absorb the Rear 9’s output and reduce the overall 360 experience. I could turn up the volume on the Rear 9’s but that seemed like a terrible option when I had better options available. Please note, this has nothing to do with the Rear 9’s. It is just physics. Elevating the Rear 9’s produced the best results for my space.
The power cables for the Rear 9’s are long enough to reach almost any outlet in a medium-sized room that has properly spaced outlets. In my case, I do not have a wall outlet along my right wall. The power cord is long enough to reach my rear wall. Unfortunately, my only option here is to wall mount the speaker. And that would mean mounting the speaker to a window. In this case, my room constraints picked the best location for my Rear 9’s.
Movies:
The Rear 9’s, just like the Theater Trio front left and right speakers, have tilted up-firing Atmos speakers built into the case. These speakers are designed to literally bounce music, sound effects, and objects off the ceiling to my listening space. This can work. For instance, when watching the 4K Blu-ray presentation of Pacific, effects such as falling rain sounded convincing. Large splashing ocean waves, Kaiju roars, and overhead helicopter blades sounded more generally positioned in front of or behind me instead of pinpoint locations in space. Sony claims their 360 Spatial Sound technology creates virtual speakers across my listening space. I simply did not find the effects convincing with movies such as Pacific Rim, Godzilla: King of Monsters, and Project Hail Mary. Now, did the 360 Spatial Sound create an immersive environment? When compared to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, yes. 360 Spatial Sound did manage to create an enveloping 360-degree sound field around my listening position. It worked very well wherever I was standing in my living room. It simply did not convince me that I had 6 extra speakers in my ceiling or two extra sidewall speakers.
Sonically, the Rear 9’s do an excellent job with straight forward surround sound content and music.
Sports:
I watched the Spain vs Argentia World Cup game Sunday afternoon on network television. This was an over-the-air presentation, with an antenna, connected directly to my TV. The Bravia Trio carried all the commentator conversations, game announcers and announcements, and the few times the refs made audible calls. The Rear 9’s worked with the Trio speakers to fill in the white noise of the cheering fans. It was like being there but at my desired volume level. Sometimes there was a random audio effect that accompanied the a transition from the field to the commentator’s booth. Backfilling the crowd noise in the room really adds to the immersion of live sporting events. Turning on 360 Spatial Sound expanded the crowd noise to everywhere all at once.
Video Games:
Video Games:
The Sony Rear 9’s did an excellent job of supporting my multi-channel gaming audio experience. I played Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Footsteps of opposing players sneaking up behind me were properly resolved in 3D space. Grenade explosions, gun fire, and other effects originating from behind me in 3D space were equally resolved. I actually stop paying attention to what speaker sound effects were issuing from and found myself completely immersed the game play. I was able to react to events quickly due to the positional audio queues scattered around the room. Again, like with my movies, I was not exactly sure if the Atmos speakers were offering much. But they were not taking away from the experience. And the audio did sound like it was all around me and immersing me in a full 3-dimensional sound bubble.
Music:
I found Music to be the most interesting experience. The Bravia Connect app allows the Bravia Theater system to spread a 2-channel audio track across my Bravia Theater Trio, Bravia Theater Sub 9, and the Bravia Theater Rear 9’s. And I honestly did not like the audio experience when the Center and Atmos speakers were engaged. Instead, I set the system to play the stereo signal between the front left, right, Sub 9, and Rear 9’s exclusively. And that was really good and immersive. The Trio speakers did a good job of creating a believable sound stage. And the Rear 9’s did an excellent job of filling in a believable sound stage. The Bravia Remote and the Bravia Connect app allow adjustments to the Rear 9’s volume. I could have volume level matched the Rear 9’s with the front speakers. But chose not to. Keeping the Rear 9’s about 1/3 the volume of the front speakers created a more convincing front sound stage than asking the Rear 9’s to directly compete with the front Trio stereo pair.
Final Thoughts:
The rear speakers of any home theater system tend to only call attention to themselves when a movie reaches a crescendo, atmospherics are required to pressurize a room, or a special effect is triggered. Otherwise, you may never notice the rear speakers at all. The Bravia Rear 9’s do an excellent job of filling these roles. They are slightly smaller than the Trio left and right speakers. They can be wall mounted or placed free standing on a table, shelf, or other flat surface. And they do an excellent job with movies, TV, and video games. I am still not convinced of the virtual speakers of 360 Spatial Sound. Maybe Sony should include an app that will run the user through all the physical and virtual speakers in the room like Dolby Atmos or DTS will do. Just a suggestion. Overall, the Rear 9’s are not a necessity to enjoy immersive content. But I would recommend getting them anyway. They may not be flashy or call attention to themselves. But you will them once you’ve heard them.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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CORSAIR~s VANGUARD 96 WIRELESS shrinks a full keyboard with arrow keys, a tenkey pad, an LCD screen, rotary dial, and 6 programmable G-keys into a super-compact frame. Featuring wobble-free pre-lubricated CORSAIR MLX switches, it~s also hotswappable, supporting compatible 3-pin and 5-pin switches. The stunning LCD screen takes personalization to the next level with animations, stats, and game integration support. Quad-layer sound dampening provides satisfying keypress acoustics, and 8,000Hz wireless hyper-polling delivers lightning-fast inputs via SLIPSTREAM WIRELESS. VANGUARD 96 also features Elgato Virtual Stream Deck integration, FlashTap SOCD handling, and easy customization via our web-based utility, CORSAIR Web Hub.
Nice
Customer Rating
4.0
The Corsair Vanguard 96 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard benefits from the solid build quality, comfortable wrist rest, strong feature set, flexible connectivity options, fantastic lighting, accessible documentation, and strong software ecosystem that I have come to expect from Corsair.
Setup:
The Corsair Vanguard 96 will go from retail box to computer as quickly as it takes to unpack and plug it into a computer. This is true using either the included USB cable or the included wireless dongle. Bluetooth takes a little bit longer simply because you need to tell Windows to add the keyboard as a Bluetooth Sync partner.
iCUE:
I rely on iCUE to integrate my systems lighting and gaming profiles. I have Corsair fans, AOI Cooler, RGB Tower, RGB memory, gaming mouse, RGB gaming mat, and other Corsair accessories that all work together via iCUE. The Vanguard will need to be added to my current profiles as a new device. This includes recreating macros, RBG color profiles, and other custom settings. I can also directly upload hardware profiles to the keyboard.
Web Hub:
The Web Hub shines for those who are either on the road traveling to tournaments or LAN parties. It is a lightweight solution that removes the overhead typically associated. This should, in theory, allow more system resources for gaming performance.
Keyboard Lighting:
Corsair has lighting figured out. iCUE complex RGB lighting maps and animations. Web Hub, hardware only profiles, are limited to five layers of lighting and lighting effects, macros, and special keyboard customizations. Using iCUE, I was able to create elaborate RGB color designs such as Christmas, Flames, and specific per game lighting profiles. With Web Hub, I am limited to five layers of lighting. Which limits me to only the most essential RGB effects.
Keyboard fit and feel:
My Vanguard 96 uses the Corsair MLX Plasma pre-lubricated linear switches. These have a 2mm actuation point with a 4mm total travel. This, in my opinion, is the sweet spot for an all-around gaming/daily workhorse keyboard. The linear travel is smooth and effortless. The 45-gram resistance allows my fingers to rest comfortably on the keys without accidently activating the switch. This helps prevent accidental key presses.
Typing is comfortable. There is key crowding to the right of the Enter Key. Touch typists will require an adjustment period. Specifically, I ran into issues with the position of the NUM and DEL keys. I keep pressing the NUM key whenever I reach for the DEL key. I also ran into issues with the arrow keys offset from the rest of the keyboard. My fingers are trained to a standard full-sized keyboard.
Gaming:
Gaming performance is top notch. The mechanical Plasma linear switches are perfect for my simulation, RTS, and strategy games. I do not feel that a faster or more sensitive switch will impact the games I mostly play. If, for some reason, I need increased responsiveness then I have options to increase the polling from anywhere between 1000hz to 8000hz.
Special Features:
The inclusion of the LCD screen expands the Vanguard’s functionality by including visual cues, sensors, graphics, and the ability to add fun animations. The combination of FN+F12 and the rotary dial allows me to scroll through the different functions and then through the features of each function. For example, I set up a CPU% and GPU% sensor to display while gaming. I use the rotary dial to flip between the different sensors.
Flash Tap provides customization for the A and D, or left and right, movement keys. The four settings are: Off, Last Priority, First Priority, and Neutral. In my opinion, this will mostly benefit FPS players. Last Priority prioritizes the last key pressed. Press and hold A will move your character to the left. Press D while holding A and the character will move right. First Priority is the exact opposite of Last Priority. Press and hold A to move left, press D while holding A, and your character will continue to move left. Neutral will simply cease all input if both A and D are depressed at the same time.
Finally, key assignments. I can remap any key to any other key. I can map any combination of keys to any key. And I can make Macros. I can create and map them to any key including the five special G-Keys along the side of the keyboard. I can also remap special function keys such as assigning the Right Ctrl function to the Elgato/Copilot special function key. I have at least one game that requires the Right Ctrl key.
Thank you.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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From the first drop to the last note, the PS-LX5BT elevates your vinyl journey with clear, warm analog sound. Seamlessly connect to Bluetooth headphones, soundbars, or speakers, or enjoy a traditional wired connection to component devices. Full-auto playback lets you start listening at the push of a button.
Vinyl as an Appliance
Customer Rating
5.0
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I missed the vinyl renaissance of the early 2000s. Why? Because I had left vinyl behind back in the 80s. The introduction and wide spread availability of cassette tapes and CDs pretty much ended vinyl for my generation. Modern day streaming pushed me even further away from vinyl. I currently own a very nice two channel system. And have been reluctant to head back down the vinyl path. In my mind, vinyl is the hobbyist hobby. Presently, I do not want to worry about cartridges, tone arm balance, tonearm material or shape, isolation and vibration control, or the never-ending benefits of the infinite type of drive systems, phono-preamps, cables, and anti-vibration systems. I want an appliance that plays records at a reasonable quality without all the hoopla of micro-adjustments that promise to squeeze every last detail from my records.
The Sony PS-LX5BT is that vinyl-as-an-appliance machine. The table comes with built in anti-vibration control, the tonearm is pre-calibrated, the moving magnet cartridge is calibrated and non-upgradable, and the inclusion of Bluetooth allows me a hybrid wired/wireless listening experience. This may be my gateway to the wider world of vinyl and turntables. But, for now, this is a no-fuss integrated solution that meets my don’t-bother-me-with-the-details approach that I am currently comfortable with. And it does a pretty good job at that.
System Setup:
Sony made the setup of the Sony PS-LX5BT easy and straightforward. Sony packed the parts smartly and well protected. The assembly instructions are just as simple to follow. It took me about 30 minutes to unpack, assembly, and get my first record playing. Vinyl is all about precision. Be sure to take your time. The plinth of the Sony PS-LX5BT is plastic and thin metal construction. The motor, gears, and electronics are all stored in the plinth. The platter is cast aluminum and comes with a rubber mat for your records. The tonearm is j-shaped, made from an aluminum alloy, a proprietary cartridge statically mounted on the end, and pre-balanced for 2.0±0.5 g of tracking force. The anti-vibration feet are soft rubber cylinders that tapper to appoint where the feet meet the plinth. Everything else is plastic. The luxury of the Sony PS-LX5BT is its aesthetics and operational simplicity.
I used the included RCA style cables to connect the Sony PS-LX5BT to my Marantz Model 50 two-channel amplifier which in turn connects to my Bowers and Wilkins 702 S2 tower speakers and SVS PC-4000 subwoofer. And let’s be honest, this is a lot of system for the Sony PS-LX5BT. I’ll cover what I set up for wireless playback in the wireless section below.
Sound and performance Highlights:
I started with a 1976 pressing of Boston’s self-titled album, “Boston.” Why? Because it is one of the best albums I own. I cleaned the record, placed the album on the rubber mat covered platter, unlocked the tonearm, and pressed play. The Sony PS-LX5BT took care of the rest. “More than a Feeling”, the first track, welled up from the slight background hiss and gradually filled my room with the metal symphony that Boston is best known for. There was some expected surface noise between tracks. The music was full, the sound stage width and depth were fantastic, vocal centering was believable, and the overall experience was like rediscovering an album that has served as one of the soundtracks for my life. I found the experience very satisfying.
Next, I turned to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short and Sweet”. Which was warped! The tonearm road the waves, so to speak, without any issues. But the surface noise was omnipresent. Thankfully, I also had the deluxe edition of the album. And this version was not warped. Like Boston, the Deluxe album showed signs of surface noise during the quiet between-track parts which quickly vanished once the music started.
Finally, my wife insisted that I play her 1964 release of Mary Poppins from Buena Vista Records. We’ll just say the surface condition of the record was well loved. The Sony PS-LX5BT presented the album with hiss and pop throughout. My wife found it satisfying because that is exactly the sound she grew up with. And honestly, listening to Julie Andrews sing on her worst day is still a great day in my book. A few songs were rougher than others. Thankfully July Andrew’s, “Spoon full of Sugar,” was one of the best tracks with the best presentation of the entire album. Overall, I think the Sony PS-LX5BT did a great job. One thing to keep in mind is that the Sony PS-LX5BT is completely dependent on the quality of the vinyl. The Sony PS-LX5BT has zero configuration attributes to help squeeze that last 10% performance from anything. It is a simple, elegant solution for those who want to play vinyl without all the fuss and effort one would find with an audiophile grade player.
Wireless Setup:
For wireless I used my Sonos Play portable speaker, Sonos Era 100 smart speaker, Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones, and my Bowers and Wilkins PX8 S2 headphones. The Sony PS-LX5BT supports Bluetooth transmission via SBC, aptX, aptX Adaptive. Strangely, it does not support Sony’s LDAC codec. Which I found disappointing since the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones do. I was really looking forward to finally experiencing LDAC.
Connecting devices to the Sony PS-LX5BT was easy. First, set the players output from Phono to Line on the back of the player, press the Bluetooth button on the player, press the Bluetooth button on the receiving device, and they sync. Done. Which brings me to my first real issue with the Sony PS-LX5BT. If it is a requirement that the Line/Phono switch be in Line mode for Bluetooth then why is this switch hidden around the back of the player. Second, if I forget to set this switch back to Phono then I run the risk of causing real damage to my gear when I return to two-channel stereo from wireless playback. The switch should be on the top of the player and not hidden around back. If, like me, you are running the Sony PS-LX5BT with a hybrid setup, that you always always always check the switch before playback.
Wireless Audio Quality:
First the Sonos. The Sonos Era 100 picked the Sony PS-LX5BT right up. And it sounded pretty good without the need to apply any EQ. I was also able to press and hold the play button on the Sonos Play to sync it with the Sonos Era 100’s playback. Essentially, I could have the Sony PS-LX5BT playing throughout my home, wirelessly, if I had enough Sonos devices to fill every room. This is mostly the benefit of buying into the Sonos ecosystem that the Sony PS-LX5BT can tap into. And the effort is near zero. Next, I connected the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones. Syncing was as easy as the Sonos. Sound quality, however, was a bit underwhelming. I had to apply a very aggressive EQ to the XM6’s in the Sony app to get the best presentation. However, my Bowers and Wilkins PX8 s2 headphones required no such attention. They connected simply and played beautifully without any EQ. Unlike the XM6’s, applying EQ to the PX8 s2’s enhanced the experience instead of correcting it. Then again, the PX8 s2’s costs more than the Sony PS-LX5BT where the XM6’s are cost-equivalent to the Sony PS-LX5BT. Overall, wireless setup, transmission, and sound quality were well received. Regarding Boston, the Sony PS-LX5BT, and the PX8 s2’s? Perfection! I loved the combination.
Final thoughts:
The Sony PS-LX5BT is an all-in-one, automatic, pre-calibrated solution for someone like me who does not want to, or is not yet ready, to leap into the Audiophile customize my way to ultimate musical nirvana complexity. I do not need to worry about the tonearm shape or material, weight, stylus angle, pressure on the record, cartridge quality or calibration, or anything else for that matter. The Sony PS-LX5BT simply plays my vinyl via wired or wireless. Which provides me with a huge level of flexibility. Will the Sony PS-LX5BT provide the best musical performance? No. It is not built for that. It is built for simplicity and flexibility. It has a plain presentation with sharp lines and muted color pallet. Which will allow it to blend into any system or environment you have. It looks right-smart on my stereo cabinet. And it does an adequate job of satisfying my vinyl listening needs while not forcing me into yet another audio hobby. Overall, I think the Sony PS-LX5BT suits best an audience that shares my sensibilities for simplicity, aesthetics, and flexibility.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Flip your day, your way. More than just a laptop~it~s your all-day, anywhere companion with 4 flexible modes. Power and performance for AI acceleration, it keeps pace with your most creative ideas and demanding workloads. With fast charging and a design that~s both sleek and durable, the OmniBook X Flip moves as effortlessly~and stylishly~as you do.
Powerful, light, and cool running business laptop
Customer Rating
4.0
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Up until recently, my personal laptops have been gaming laptops. I appreciate their no compromise and price-is-no-object performance and quality. Unfortunately, gaming laptops also suffer from high energy use, short battery life, and high heat. I picked up the HP OmnibookX because I need a laptop that is energy efficient, good balance of performance and convenience, lighter than a gaming laptop for travel, supports all day battery life, large screen size, and runs cool. My primary use for my OmnibookX is office productivity, financial applications, web surfing, watching video, travel, and email. The Ryzen AI 5 with 16GB of memory and a 16” screen seems reasonable and ticks most boxes.
Performance:
Applications load quickly and smoothly while connected to AC Power. Switching between windows or moving from application to application is very smooth. A typical system load for me is Outlook, Excel, Word, multiple MS Edge tabs, and a financial application. Swapping between Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Edge, and my financial application showed little to no interruption in workflow. I would call the system zippy when on AC Power.
On battery, system performance decreases. First, the system reduces the CPU speed to conserve power. This directly impacts performance. Under the same system load as described above, it is immediately obvious that applications take longer to load and swapping between windows or applications can cause system stutter. All within expectations. Working within a single application, such as MS Word to write this review, the OmnibookX performed as well as if it were on AC Power. Overall, I am pleased with the OmnibookX’s performance.
Battery Life:
So far, battery life is wonderful. A full charge lasted me a full day’s work. With a second monitor, the battery discharged in about half that time. There are several power saving features built into the OmnibookX such as presence awareness, screen and keyboard lighting times out, reduced CPU and GPU power consumption while on battery, OLED Screen automatically dims, 3-minute default laptop sleep mode, and other technologies. In my case, I am using the factory default power profile. In addition, I set the OLED screen brightness to minimum, activated Dark Mode for both Windows and Office, and set the keyboard backlight to minimum. I have been typing in Word for the last hour. I am tracking about 8% battery usage per hour of constant use.
Heat:
The OmnibookX runs cool. It does not heat up my lap nor can I cook an egg on the keyboard. On battery, the fan will kick off occasionally. This typically happens when I am watching videos. The laptop is still very cool even when the fan kicks off. Meaning, there is not a lot of excessive heat that the cooling system is actively dissipating.
In my office, on my desk, I have the OmnibookX exclusively connected to AC Power, a 34” 1440p OLED monitor via HDMI, and an external mouse. The system is configured for multi-monitor use. My typical system load is Office, financial, browser, and streaming either music or video. I will move content around both monitors, move data between applications, and close/launch applications on a regular basis. At best, the system fan will kick off to dissipate heat. Overall, HP does a fantastic job keeping the heat under control, the fan quiet, and maintains a high level of computing performance.
Keyboard and Typing:
The OmnibookX keyboard is a fully featured, squished down version of a full-sized keyboard. The standard alphanumeric keys are well sized and easily accommodate my fingertips. The Delete, Backspace, and Enter keys are smushed to accommodate the number pad. The home keys, for those touch typists out there, are not centered on the screen. They are offset to the left. Also, the smaller Backspace key ensures that I hit the Num Lock as often as I hit the backspace key. It took me a few days to adjust.
The keyboard is a membrane style with fully backlit chicklet keys. Key actuation as a plunger feel. The keys are easy to read with all information on each key fully backlit. Typing is very responsive. At no point did I feel like I was waiting for the computer to keep up with my typing. Fatigue set-in after about an hour of typing. This is party due to the actuation force required to depress the key and the plunger effect that forces some of that energy back up into my fingertips. A softer typing approach may be best when approaching this keyboard. Otherwise, you may find the typing experience unforgiving.
Sound:
The OmnibookX’s speakers are better than most I have used in this class laptop. Audio from YouTube, Movies, and music sound good enough. Voice reproduction is very clear and very usable for Zoom and MS Teams meetings. For critical listening, I automatically swap over to my headphones or earbuds.
Bluetooth:
The OmnibookX advertises Bluetooth 6.0. The Realtek Wireless Bluetooth adapter built into my OmnibookX supports LMP 12.35106. Which in layman’s terms is Bluetooth 5.3. An LMP of 14.xyz supports Bluetooth 6.0. So, I am not sure what is going on here. The OmnibookX will support any Bluetooth headset, earphones, and earbuds on the market today. However, it will not provide any of the benefits of Bluetooth 6.0 when connected to a Bluetooth 6.0 device. I do not have a Bluetooth 6.0 device to test so I can only go by what Windows 11 Device manager reports. I can report that connecting my Bowers and Wilkins PX8 and Pi8 headphones and earbuds, respectively, was quick and easy. Music and voices were transmitted without any audible artifacts.
2K OLED Screen:
Photos and images look colorful and engaging. The screen can get very bright even at minimum brightness level. Text specifically suffers from color fringing along the top and bottom borders of any shape or letter. This is most noticeable, for me, with white text, or a white object, against a black background. This may be an issue if your intended use is graphic arts, CAD, or other visual activity where color or line accuracy is paramount.
The screen is locked at 60hz. Some eyes, like mine, may be sensitive to this frequency. If so, then you will want to choose an HP laptop with a higher refresh OLED or LCD screen. White Light from this monitor, at any brightness, is harsh. This is even true when Office is in Black mode where the background is dark grey with White Text. As a counter, I turned on Windows Night Lite mode and adjusted the Strength slider until I found a comfortable white light temperature for my eyes. I could also set my font color to light Grey. Finally, the low refresh seems to increase ghosting and visual artifacts when content is flowing across the screen. I like this screen best for viewing still images or online content. I like this screen least when there is a lot of white content on the screen. And videos are acceptable as a device of convenience and not as a primary daily driver.
I feel that the new HP OmnibookX is a solid performing, energy efficient, cool to run, light weight, excellently sized for travel, and has enough ports and connectivity options to support all my office needs. Monitor performance is ok and I like the size. For me, the OmnibookX checks enough boxes.
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Bowers & Wilkins - B&W PI5 True Wireless Headphones with Adaptive Noise Cancellation, Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX - Charcoal
B&W PI5 true wire-free headphones are attractive, well-built, and they deliver a refined sound quality. Featuring Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX technology these earphones ensure reliable connectivity whether you are streaming from your smartphone, tablet or PC. Allows connection of up to two devices at the same time, however, only one device can be used to play or make a call at a time. Download the Bowers & Wilkins free headphone app, available for Apple and Android for further control of the sound and noise cancellation, right on your phone. The PI5 headphones feature the latest innovations in adaptive noise cancellation along with 4 built-in microphones that pick up ambient noise and cancel it with an equal, but opposite, audio signal and enhance the call quality. There are three levels of Adaptive Noise Cancellation ~ High, Low and Auto, that can be controlled either by the multi-functional button on the left earbud or via the app. Similarly, the touch-sensitive button on the right earbud allows you to enable voice assistance. The buttons also allows you to control playback and phone call functions with single (play/pause, answer call), double (skip forward, end call), or triple presses (skip backward). Another stand-out feature of these headphones is the intuitive detection sensors that put the earphones on standby or reconnect them depending upon whether they are removed or put back on. The PI5s come with a sturdy and attractive charging case for charging the earbuds when not in use. The case is equipped with two 350mAh rechargeable batteries. Each earbud has a rechargeable battery which provides up to 4 hours of wireless playback. Including the charging case, the PI5 can provide up to 12 hours of continuous playback.
Is there an App to set the equalizer?
App version 3.1.3 does not have EQ functions.
5 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon
With the 10th Gen Intel~ Core~ i7 processors enabling up to 8-cores and 16-threads of multi-threaded performance, the latest generation of Alienware m17 goes beyond its predecessor. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with Ultimate performance for gamers and creators. Realistic ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated DLSS. Our latest thermal technology, Advanced Alienware Cryo-Tech, is an engineering approach where an Alienware system~s gaming performance is never compromised by means of electrical and mechanical methods while maintaining system stability during the highest performance states.
Is this a per-key RGB keyboard or a 4 zone?
Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon
With the 10th Gen Intel~ Core~ i7 processors enabling up to 8-cores and 16-threads of multi-threaded performance, the latest generation of Alienware m17 goes beyond its predecessor. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with Ultimate performance for gamers and creators. Realistic ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated DLSS. Our latest thermal technology, Advanced Alienware Cryo-Tech, is an engineering approach where an Alienware system~s gaming performance is never compromised by means of electrical and mechanical methods while maintaining system stability during the highest performance states.
Is the display having G-Sync?
For the 300Hz screen:
From Alienware's site:
"15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) 300Hz 3ms 300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut"
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-m15-r4-laptop?~ck=mn
I do not see any indication of G-Sync on/off in the nVidia driver settings.
From Alienware's site:
"15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) 300Hz 3ms 300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut"
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-m15-r4-laptop?~ck=mn
I do not see any indication of G-Sync on/off in the nVidia driver settings.
5 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon
With the 10th Gen Intel~ Core~ i7 processors enabling up to 8-cores and 16-threads of multi-threaded performance, the latest generation of Alienware m17 goes beyond its predecessor. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with Ultimate performance for gamers and creators. Realistic ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated DLSS. Our latest thermal technology, Advanced Alienware Cryo-Tech, is an engineering approach where an Alienware system~s gaming performance is never compromised by means of electrical and mechanical methods while maintaining system stability during the highest performance states.
Is the ram upgradable?
From Alienware's user's guide:
Onboard system memory
NOTE: The memory is integrated to the system board and
cannot be upgraded after purchase.
You can find the user's guide on Alienware's support site.
Onboard system memory
NOTE: The memory is integrated to the system board and
cannot be upgraded after purchase.
You can find the user's guide on Alienware's support site.
5 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB SSD - Mica Silver
HP OMEN Gaming Laptop: A thin and light premium gaming experience in an elevated design so you can play everyday. With an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics and cooled by OmenTempest Cooling, it makes you think how it all fits into such a tiny little package."
Can this output 144Hz over hdmi?
Yes it can. I am using the HP Omen X 25f over HDMI as an external monitor.
Just be sure to use a HDMI 2.0 or newer cable.
Just be sure to use a HDMI 2.0 or newer cable.
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6 years, 3 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB SSD - Mica Silver
HP OMEN Gaming Laptop: A thin and light premium gaming experience in an elevated design so you can play everyday. With an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics and cooled by OmenTempest Cooling, it makes you think how it all fits into such a tiny little package."
Does it have Gsync?
This is not a Gsync monitor. At least I cannot find any information online or in the system drivers that tell me otherwise.
You can connect the laptop to a Gsync monitor and take advantage of all the features of Gsync with that monitor.
You can connect the laptop to a Gsync monitor and take advantage of all the features of Gsync with that monitor.
6 years, 3 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
How many cores are there in this pc
8 physical cores. This processor does not support 16-way multitasking.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
Is there a gtx 1660ti installed or not? What size pwr supply?
It says in the name that it is a GTX 1660ti. I can confirm that the video card is exactly as described. It is the 6gb version of the card. The Power Supply is 500Watts.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
Does this computer have a memory card reader built in?
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
What is the operating system for the pc, and does it come with a virus protection app
Windows 10 standard. It ships with 30 days of McAfee.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim