ITJim
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Brother - INKvestment Tank MFC-J995DW XL Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer - White
The Brother MFC-J995DW XL INKvestment Tank all-in-one inkjet printer with tank technology is the optimal choice for your home or small office needs. The MFC-J995DW XL features reengineered INKvestment Tank cartridges along with an internal ink storage tank to deliver uninterrupted printing for up to 2 years without the need to purchase ink. Business-capable features include mobile device printing, Near Field Communication (NFC) print and scan capabilities, flexible paper handling options, automatic two-sided printing and easy on-screen navigation using a 2.7" color touch screen. With the ink included in-box, the Brother INKvestment Tank all-inclusive solution delivers truly uninterrupted printing, exceptional features, super convenience, large page yields and low-cost printing. Includes a two-year limited warranty with free online, call, or live chat support for the life of your printer. Prints up to 12 ISO ppm*, up to 10 ppm* in color.
Solid performance with some image quality issues
Customer Rating
4.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
Ease of Use:
Setup out of the box was easy. It took me about 15 minutes to physically remove the printer from the box, remove the packing tape, and load the ink cartridges. Full setup, however, took me about an hour. This included the physical setup, the quick setup instructions to prepare the printer for use, loading the ink cartridges, priming the internal ink wells, printing tests, configuring the Brother Management software and drivers on my computer, and deploying all the printer firmware and software updates. The printer does have wireless and hard-wired options to connect to your network. I chose to setup the printer on my wireless network. Windows 10 will find the printer on the network and load the appropriate drivers for you. That’s good news if you do not want to deploy Brother’s software. The downside is that you won’t get the nifty ink report that shows a graphic representation of how much ink is left or how many pages are left to print. Brother’s software also allows remote scanning of documents and images as well as control over where the printer can pull images from.
Ink Capacity:
The ink cartridges that ship with this printer are massive! The color cartridges are about three times the size of a standard Brother ink cartridge. The blank in cartridge is twice the size of the color cartridges. The cartridges walls are clear so that you can see the amount of ink left in each cartridge. When I installed the cartridge, the printer went into a three to five-minute transfer of ink from the cartridge to an internal reservoir. The process was quiet. I included a photo one of my old Brother color cartridges next to the new one. Huge difference.
Print Quality Black:
Black print quality is outstanding! I printed several documents. One sided print is fast, clean, and the results are super easy to read. Duplex printing is not as fast. For some reason it takes a moment for the printer to orient the page so that it can pull the page back through the printer to print on the back of the page. The results were still clean. The images, on the other, were a mixed bag. See below.
Print Quality Color:
Color printing seems to be dependent on the quality settings for your print job. As a test, I scanned a high gloss image of an F-22 Raptor promotional poster. I first reprinted the image using “normal” as the print quality. I ended up with what looked the image I scanned printed on graph paper with one inch squares. The lines of each square are bold printed in the color of whatever part of the image it covers. At first, I thought that the printer had an alignment problem. I ran the onboard print and alignment tool. The pattern printed cleanly. Next, I printed the same image at high quality. The image did look better and the strange 1-inch squares were gone. I printed several other images; switching between normal quality and high quality. I did not get the grid pattern with any of my other “normal” quality images. But, I did get some degree of lines in every image.
The colors were good. I never felt that the ink on the page matched the colors of the image I was viewing. Most likely this is a calibration issue between the computer’s screen and the printer. Since I do not need this level of accuracy I chose not to pursue fixing this. I did notice that images were not a crisp and often missed subtle detail. For example, I printed an artist’s rendition of sun rays passing over a belt of colorful gasses somewhere in space. The printed image was missing all the light rays. Additionally, a lot of the detail was not as crisp as the original image. I noticed this on the image of the F-22 Raptors. I also noticed this on a few professional photos I had taken of some plastic models I built. The tight details were lost. I also noticed that areas of high contrast were minimized regardless of the print quality I chose. Finally, I did print a multi-page PDF that contained black text, colored text, and colored images. The black and colored text was sharp and easy to read. The colored images suffered from that line issue I described earlier. Normally, if I’m printing out one of these documents, I am not looking for the highest image details. But, I would like the images to not have strange artifacts in them.
The colors were good. I never felt that the ink on the page matched the colors of the image I was viewing. Most likely this is a calibration issue between the computer’s screen and the printer. Since I do not need this level of accuracy I chose not to pursue fixing this. I did notice that images were not a crisp and often missed subtle detail. For example, I printed an artist’s rendition of sun rays passing over a belt of colorful gasses somewhere in space. The printed image was missing all the light rays. Additionally, a lot of the detail was not as crisp as the original image. I noticed this on the image of the F-22 Raptors. I also noticed this on a few professional photos I had taken of some plastic models I built. The tight details were lost. I also noticed that areas of high contrast were minimized regardless of the print quality I chose. Finally, I did print a multi-page PDF that contained black text, colored text, and colored images. The black and colored text was sharp and easy to read. The colored images suffered from that line issue I described earlier. Normally, if I’m printing out one of these documents, I am not looking for the highest image details. But, I would like the images to not have strange artifacts in them.
Print Speed:
Print speed for text and images is fast. I had a fix page, single sided document out of the printer in no time. It is also much quieter than my previous Brother Multi-function printer. That is a plus. Color images take a little bit longer but not much longer. Of course, the print speed is tied to the image quality. Normal quality printed faster than high quality images. Duplex printing did take significantly longer. Where a text document took a few seconds, it took a duplex black and white document about 10 to 15 seconds a page. That is because the duplex unit had to take a few seconds to setup the page to return through the printer for the second printing pass. I did not attempt to print color images in duplex mode. I figured that ink saturation would destroy the page like it has on every other ink jet printer I’ve ever used.
Software:
As I mentioned earlier, you do not need the install the brother software on your computer. I have about seven Windows 10 computers on my network and not all of them need the full Brother suite of software installed. Windows 10 does have a driver. Brother does include the address to the software in their quick start guide. I typed the URL into my browser and downloaded the software to my test machine. Installation was easy. The software immediately detected an update for the printer. I allowed the software to download those updates and update the printer. The console does give me an estimate of how many pages of printing I have left for each ink cartridge. It also allows for remote scanning of content as well as remote connectivity to external storage devices. I did remote scan documents and images to my computer. The process was easy. I would like to have seen a preview of my subject before I did a full scan. For example, some scanners will allow you to select the part of the image that is important to you so that the least amount of time is taken to scan the image. Other software packages allowed for rotation of the image. Maybe it is part of this printer’s software package. I was not able to uncover it during my testing.
The software also checks for updates on a regular basis. You can adjust the frequency of the checks. You can also influence how and when the updates are installed. As well as how often the software nags you about the updates. Part of the reason I did not deploy this software to all of my machines was to control which machines could control the updates.
The software also checks for updates on a regular basis. You can adjust the frequency of the checks. You can also influence how and when the updates are installed. As well as how often the software nags you about the updates. Part of the reason I did not deploy this software to all of my machines was to control which machines could control the updates.
Scan quality:
The scan quality of whatever I scanned looked good. I didn’t notice any artifacts in my images. Colors look good as well. Color and plain text came out clean and ready for me to use however I wanted it.
Scan Speed:
Scan speed at the default of 300 x 300 dpi is fast and mostly quiet. My older Brother multifunction printer could be heard across my house when it scanned anything. This new model is about half as loud. I did perform a 1200 x 1200 dpi test and had to lift the scanner’s lid to see if anything was happening. I ruined the exposure to prove the scanner had not stalled. The scanner was so quiet that I didn’t realize that my image was being scanned. In all fairness, the Brother Software should have told me that the image was scanning and at what percentage of the image was complete. The 1200 x 1200 dpi scan took a full minute. The 300 x 300 took about 8 seconds. The scanner will take additional time as the scan dpi increased between 300 to 1200.
WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor):
The WAF is pretty good. My wife stated that she really liked the color and preferred it over the black Brother multi-function printer that this replaced.
Final thoughts:
This printer is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I cannot give it five stars simply because of the awful image reproduction under normal quality. I am not expecting the amazing image reproduction here. But, the strange lines that are introduced in the image are not acceptable regardless of the image quality settings. The duplex printing and scanning functions are great. The software package seems a bit bloated for what it does but not overly so. And I do like the estimated page counts for each ink tank. I would hope the that software is watching the printing habits and calculating the page counts based on habits and not on some arbitrary ISO or made up marketing standard. Time will tell. They say there are two years of ink in the box. We will see.
Finally, the full color control panel is well setup and the menus are very easy to navigate. The display panel is also on a hinge, so you can see it at multiple angles. I did find this feature useful during setup.
If you are looking for a solid performer for home, school, or a small office then go with this printer. If you need something that will give you rock solid color image printing, then keep shopping around.
I hope you found this review useful.
Finally, the full color control panel is well setup and the menus are very easy to navigate. The display panel is also on a hinge, so you can see it at multiple angles. I did find this feature useful during setup.
If you are looking for a solid performer for home, school, or a small office then go with this printer. If you need something that will give you rock solid color image printing, then keep shopping around.
I hope you found this review useful.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Mobile Submission: False
+58points
58out of 58found this review helpful.
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ENVY 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 - 128GB Solid State Drive - HP Finish In Dark Ash
Study or work hard on this HP Envy convertible laptop, which features a large 15-inch screen. The laptop opens up easily to create a tablet for note-taking, while an AMD Ryzen processor supports Windows 10 Home and other applications effortlessly. The reliable128GB solid-state hard drive on this HP Envy convertible laptop stores lots of files and programs.Learn more.
HP has Ryzen!
Customer Rating
5.0
Setup:
The HP Envy 2 in 1 was super easy to setup. Unpacking and setup took about 10 minutes. Windows 10 with Cortana narration makes going through the steps of setup and sign-in simple. I was greeted with HP’s Jump Start program during my first sign on. Jump Start will guide you through product registration, McAfee Anti-Virus sign up, and other paperwork like items. There is also an HP Support Assistant that will handle items such as driver updates, firmware updates, and allows access to a lot of technical information about the laptop. This tool is also a very easy way to access the laptop’s serial number and model number. Both numbers are printed on the bottom of the laptop, but you won’t be able to read it without a magnifying glass. Having this information available through HP Support Assistant will come in very handy when you interact with HP for support services.
Microsoft Word signed me into my Office 365 account and verified and instantly registered Office on my new laptop. Within minutes, all of my office applications were available to me. Windows took care of syncing my shortcuts between my different Windows 10 system. Synced my desktop settings such as my desktop background. One Drive and Windows 10 email took a few minutes to setup. Windows Update also went very smooth.
Look and Feel:
This laptop has an excellent feel to it. It feels solid to the touch. The laptop is thin. It is heavy at 4.7 pounds. It is not so heavy that it prevents me from throwing this in a backpack or computer bag to work on the go. The unique hinge design allows the laptop to fold in half so that I can use it as a tablet. The hinges are made of metal. I do not have any worries about the laptop joints being week and breaking with use.
Microsoft has done a great job on the tablet experience. The screen supports both touch and Windows Ink. Meaning, I can use a Windows Ink enabled pen to draw, write, and paint on the screen. I can also use the pen as a mouse in many applications. My Microsoft Surface Pen synced with this laptop with no issues. Writing was smooth. Input lag was minimal if any at all.
Probably my favorite part of the look and feel are the two AMD badges on the wrist wrest. It is so refreshing to finally have something other than an Intel logo on a laptop. It is a small thing but it did make me happy to see them.
Screen:
The screen is pretty good. The screen resolution is 1080p. Not as high resolution as a Microsoft Surface and certainly not in the same league as a Mac Book. But, the screen is adequately bright and vibrant enough for most uses. I played a few videos on Netflix. The motion was clean with some occasional stutter and pixilation. But nothing unlike what I see on an expensive LED TV. The AMD Settings application does give me the ability to adjust the video experience by giving you access to multiple video presets such as Cinema, Vivid, and Home Video. It also gives you the ability to custom tailor your experience by giving you access to all the settings controls.
Working through office applications was easy. The screen responded to pinching, zooming, and navigation commands without hesitation. Scaling is also spot on. Images and text were clear regardless of the zoom level. Images were sharp and colorful. The screen provides an acceptable and pleasant computing experience.
The laptop screen is FreeSync enabled. This means that the integrated Vega 8 graphics processor can squeeze better frame rates and performance out of the screen than it could without the technology. By default, FreeSync is not enabled. I have no idea why. You will need to go into the AMD Settings application to turn it on. The laptop is not a gaming platform. It will play games from the Windows Store with ease. I tested using Halo Spartan Assault. The graphics were butter smooth. Response between my Xbox controller and the laptop were also very quick. I was limited to what I could test due to the limited size hard drive on this system. Then again, I didn’t pick up this laptop to game on.
Performance:
Performance out of box has been very good. I have not seen any slow-downs working with Windows or Windows applications. Multi-tasking has been excellent. My only gripe is the performance of Microsoft’s Edge browser; which stinks on every computer I have used. This is not an issue unique to HP or AMD.
My primary use for this computer is Microsoft Office, web browsing, and lite entertainment. Microsoft Office applications start quickly and without any issues. The computer does keep up with my typing without any pausing or keystroke buffering. Spreadsheets load quickly. I have had no issues manipulating data or working with pivot tables. Microsoft OneNote, which I do use extensively, does not hesitate when jumping between notebooks, typing pages of data, drawing, manipulating images, or importing content from the web. Overall, I would say this notebook rocks when it comes to productivity!
For lite entertainment, I do watch the occasional Netflix movie. I was able to work through multiple OneNote notebooks while streaming a Netflix movie. The movie video played without any interruptions. There was no stuttering or artifacts that I could detect. OneNote did not give me any issues either. Having other applications open and minimized did not seem to have an impact on performance either. I did spend some time watching CPU and memory performance in Task Manager. Ryzen ate through whatever I threw at it. It was a real treat to see a laptop with eight threads all churning through work. The 8 GB of memory also seemed to be more than adequate for my needs.
Touchpad and keyboard:
The keyboard feels comfortable. The keyboard does include a full number pad. The over-sized touchpad is off center, favoring the left side of the keyboard, and is comfortably located under the space bar. Everything is offset due to the inclusion of the number pad. The keys are a comfortable size, have a good travel, and are relatively quiet. You will not be keeping anyone awake typing on this keyboard unless you are one of those people who really pound your way through a document.
The keyboard keys are backlit. I work at my computer under multiple lighting conditions. Backlighting solves all the issues I have associated with workspace lighting. The keys and keyboard are evenly lit. Each key’s value is easy to read. No one key looks brighter than any other key. Finally, there are no bright spots bleeding between the keys. This makes the keyboard’s lighting easy on the eyes.
The touchpad can make a break a notebook. I have had issues with laptops, name your manufacturer, where the typing experience is ruined by the cursor jumping around the screen while typing. This does lead to content being auto deleted while typing, text being injected into parts of the document where I did not intend it to go, and sometimes the mouse choosing items off the ribbon in MS Word and causing some random feature being activated. Most people will tell you to lift your wrists when typing. It is not a wrist issue. It is an issue with the touch pad. HP and Synaptics seem to have nailed the drives on this model. I’ve written this entire review without a single typing incident. Thank you both for fixing this!
There are some issues still with the touchpad. For example, if I am on a media rich web page, the finger gestures may stutter or not work at all. The good news if that these issues do not extend to the touch screen. If I am having an issue scrolling down a web page with the touchpad then I can perform the same activity directly on the touch screen with little to no issues. If I had to choose between the typing experience and web surfing performance, I will choose the typing experience.
Sound:
Bang & Olufsen have done a remarkable job in the world of laptops. The sound is not deep and rich by any measure. All speaker laptops are similarly constrained. However B&O have done a great job of making their laptop solution clear at all volume levels. The sound is not tinny. The laptop and speakers do not resonate when the speakers are at volume. For laptops speakers, these are excellent!
Misc:
I was able to connect to multiple Bluetooth enabled devices including my office’s stereo receiver to stream Pandora while I worked. I also connected to a portable Sony speaker, another HP Laptop, wireless headphones, and a smart TV. I tried to connect to a Microsoft Xbox Controller but was not able to do it with the one controller I have. I am unsure if it was an issue with the controller or the laptop. The controller connected via USB cable without any issues. I enjoyed an hour of Halo Spartan Assault with the controller without any further issues.
Overall Impressions:
I think HP has a home run with this laptop. The build quality, the system specs, and the laptop’s performance are outstanding at this price point. Multi-tasking is superb. I really love that HP took a chance on the new Ryzen APU. AMD has come a long way over the last few years and this mobile processor shows that AMD can stand toe to toe with Intel.
I did add a second monitor to this laptop via HDMI cable. Video is clear, bright, colorful, and smooth. The sound is great for a laptop. I can easily connect, via Bluetooth, to external devices to stream content. I am very thankful that my workflow is no longer interrupted by garbage touch pad issues thanks to improved driver support from Synaptic. The HP Support Assistant software is very useful. System specs, help documents, interactive help, and warranty information are a few clicks away where they used to be a painful phone call to support.
This is a great laptop and I hope to get years of excellent use from it.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Mobile Submission: False
+90points
98out of 106found this review helpful.
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MartinLogan - Dynamo 600X 10" 240W Ported, Powered Subwoofer, with Sub Control App and Wireless Ready - Satin Black
Add dramatic bass elements to your music system or home theater experience with this 600X MartinLogan Dynamo subwoofer. The high-performance amplifiers and pro-style woofers fill your entertainment space with a wide spectrum of bass frequencies. This MartinLogan Dynamo subwoofer also has remote control capability through your smartphone app, allowing precise configuration of settings.
Great 10" sub with innovative software!
Customer Rating
5.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
Setup:
Setup of the subwoofer was very easy. The box does show simple to follow directions to unpack the subwoofer from the box. It is very important that you follow their directions so as not to damage your new subwoofer. The subwoofer is packed very well. The top and bottom of the sub is packed in Styrofoam. The sub is wrapped in a thin cloth bag that keeps Styrofoam bits from sticking to and helps prevents scratches during unpacking. Personally, I thought the added touch gave a bit of class to the whole process. All the controls and connections on the back of the sub are clearly marked. For my setup, all I needed was power and the LFE cable from my receiver’s sub pre-out to the LFE connection the sub. I set the gain to the middle of the dial, the power control to auto, and toggled the app control switch to app. The sub is light and small making it easy to move into whatever room position I wanted. I chose to place the sub at the front of my room a few feet away from the corner. The user’s guide does cover, in detail, how to find the best room placement for your sub. Unpacking, connections, and placement took about ten minutes.
Setup of the subwoofer was very easy. The box does show simple to follow directions to unpack the subwoofer from the box. It is very important that you follow their directions so as not to damage your new subwoofer. The subwoofer is packed very well. The top and bottom of the sub is packed in Styrofoam. The sub is wrapped in a thin cloth bag that keeps Styrofoam bits from sticking to and helps prevents scratches during unpacking. Personally, I thought the added touch gave a bit of class to the whole process. All the controls and connections on the back of the sub are clearly marked. For my setup, all I needed was power and the LFE cable from my receiver’s sub pre-out to the LFE connection the sub. I set the gain to the middle of the dial, the power control to auto, and toggled the app control switch to app. The sub is light and small making it easy to move into whatever room position I wanted. I chose to place the sub at the front of my room a few feet away from the corner. The user’s guide does cover, in detail, how to find the best room placement for your sub. Unpacking, connections, and placement took about ten minutes.
App:
There are two apps that make up the control system for this sub. There is the MarinLogan Sub Control app and then there is the Anthem Room Correction, or ARC, app. The user’s manual does cover these applications in detail. The application allows control over Volume, Low Pass Filter, Phase control, Listening Modes, 20 – 30 Hz boost levels, Room Correction, and the ability to set a pass code so that you can restrict who can modify the sub-woofer settings. I have this subwoofer paired with a Pioneer Elite receiver supports minimal base management. These applications add the base management back into my listening space. First, I’m allowing the receiver to manage the crossover frequency to the subwoofer. I have it set to 80Hz. It is a very common crossover setting. I then loaded the MartinLogan Sub Control app to my iPhone. I spent some time playing with all the settings. I didn’t have to worry about screwing up the sub because there is a reset button that will return everything to factory defaults. So, have fun. Finally, I chose to give the Anthem Room Correction a try. I was prompted to download a separate application from the Apple Store. The directions were simple. The results were magical. I was instructed to hold my iPhone at my primary listening position and then four additional positions around my listening position. What a difference this made to how the sub sounded in my room. It was like night and day. The base was smoother at my listening position and sounded better than with any of the manual settings that I had tried. Bravo MartinLogan! I wish I had this capability for my main home theater system.
There are two apps that make up the control system for this sub. There is the MarinLogan Sub Control app and then there is the Anthem Room Correction, or ARC, app. The user’s manual does cover these applications in detail. The application allows control over Volume, Low Pass Filter, Phase control, Listening Modes, 20 – 30 Hz boost levels, Room Correction, and the ability to set a pass code so that you can restrict who can modify the sub-woofer settings. I have this subwoofer paired with a Pioneer Elite receiver supports minimal base management. These applications add the base management back into my listening space. First, I’m allowing the receiver to manage the crossover frequency to the subwoofer. I have it set to 80Hz. It is a very common crossover setting. I then loaded the MartinLogan Sub Control app to my iPhone. I spent some time playing with all the settings. I didn’t have to worry about screwing up the sub because there is a reset button that will return everything to factory defaults. So, have fun. Finally, I chose to give the Anthem Room Correction a try. I was prompted to download a separate application from the Apple Store. The directions were simple. The results were magical. I was instructed to hold my iPhone at my primary listening position and then four additional positions around my listening position. What a difference this made to how the sub sounded in my room. It was like night and day. The base was smoother at my listening position and sounded better than with any of the manual settings that I had tried. Bravo MartinLogan! I wish I had this capability for my main home theater system.
The manual does state that any sub will sound boomy without proper room calibration. So, keep in mind that great bass does take some effort on your part. ARC does make this process much easier.
Another cool innovative feature that I directly benefited from is the ability to play a range of test tones through the sub. The app will run through a range of tones from 20hz to 120hz. I noticed immediately that my room hit a resonance frequency that sounded like the room was rattling. I was able to pause the frequency sweep and isolate the rattling noise to a frequency of 39hz. With the tone playing, I was able to identify the source of the resonance. It turned out that one of the subwoofer feet was not completely touching my floor. The movement was so slight that to the touch everything felt fine. I move the sub slightly and the resonance stopped. Wow! I would have never found this without the app. Saved me months of trying to track down strange resonances. The MartinLogan apps definitely set the Dynamos apart from all other subwoofers at this price point. What a value!
Finally, the application does have three sound modes to choose from: Movie, Music, and Night. Movie is an aggressive bass management preset that is great for filling in those power bass notes from our favorite movies. Music is less aggressive and does make a difference when listening to my favorite music. Night is a bit more interesting. It seems to be a combination of aggressive bass management but at a lower volume. I noticed the sub was not very loud but did have great detail at those levels. I found this great because I often listen to my stereo at night when others in the home are in bed. It is also a great feature for those of you who live in apartment buildings and don’t want to upset your neighbors but still want good low-end detail.
Documentation:
The included documentation is excellent! I have not seen another speaker manufacture be as clear and descriptive as MartinLogan. I have owned Klipsch, SVS, Bower and Wilkins, and Sony. None of them hold a candle to MartinLogan. The manual is written in multiple languages. The diagrams are clear. The explanations of each feature are also clear and concise. A printed copy is in the box. The PDF copy is available on MartinLogan’s website.
The included documentation is excellent! I have not seen another speaker manufacture be as clear and descriptive as MartinLogan. I have owned Klipsch, SVS, Bower and Wilkins, and Sony. None of them hold a candle to MartinLogan. The manual is written in multiple languages. The diagrams are clear. The explanations of each feature are also clear and concise. A printed copy is in the box. The PDF copy is available on MartinLogan’s website.
Music Sound:
MartinLogan recommends that you break in your sub for about 50 hours before putting any real stress on it. After setup, I left my stereo play the radio for two days before doing any serious listening.
MartinLogan recommends that you break in your sub for about 50 hours before putting any real stress on it. After setup, I left my stereo play the radio for two days before doing any serious listening.
The sub sounded boomy before running the room correction software. After running ARC, the sound did even out to sound more natural in my listening space. The base is tight and not overwhelming. For music, I do not have the sub setup aggressively. I listened to pop, some rap, electronica, electro swing, and classical music selections. They all sounded great. The sub is capable of outputting good sound pressure, but it is not powerful enough to punch me in the chest. In my opinion, a larger sub would be required to give you that punch to the chest feeling while also maintaining good, tight sound.
For my purposes, this is one of the best 10” subs I’ve listened too that does a great filling in the low end for my speakers.
Movie Sound:
One of the first challenges I put the sub through was the original Pacific Rim. As I mentioned before, the bass from this sub will not punch you in the chest. It did play this movie with excellent detail. Every Jaeger foot step, punch, and Kaiju roar was excellent. The sub was also very detailed and speedy between changes in frequency. I normally watch this movie in my home theater that includes an SVS 2000 PB 12” ported sub. The SVS shakes the entire house! The 600X is not big enough or powerful enough to shake my house. It did still give me an excellence experience when taken in context of the smaller listening space and the inclusion the bass management provided by ARC. The experience does make me wonder how the larger subs in MartinLogan’s range could compete with my SVS sub in a home theater solution. When I’m ready to upgrade, I will definitely give MartinLogan a serious evaluation. The 600X is doing an excellent job as an inexpensive second system solution in my smaller, secondary listening space.
One of the first challenges I put the sub through was the original Pacific Rim. As I mentioned before, the bass from this sub will not punch you in the chest. It did play this movie with excellent detail. Every Jaeger foot step, punch, and Kaiju roar was excellent. The sub was also very detailed and speedy between changes in frequency. I normally watch this movie in my home theater that includes an SVS 2000 PB 12” ported sub. The SVS shakes the entire house! The 600X is not big enough or powerful enough to shake my house. It did still give me an excellence experience when taken in context of the smaller listening space and the inclusion the bass management provided by ARC. The experience does make me wonder how the larger subs in MartinLogan’s range could compete with my SVS sub in a home theater solution. When I’m ready to upgrade, I will definitely give MartinLogan a serious evaluation. The 600X is doing an excellent job as an inexpensive second system solution in my smaller, secondary listening space.
I did test the sub’s prowess with additional content from Netflix. Again, the bass was accurate for its size, speedy, detailed, and never overwhelmed my speakers. All I needed to do was swipe a few settings in the base control app and more base was instantly available. I will caution you though. This sub only reaches down to 27 Hz. A movie like Pacific Rim will deep down to 20Hz or lower. Even though the movie sound great, there are still details that the sub cannot reproduce. Most music, however, will never reach this low. If you want to go deeper, then you may want to check out the 800X instead.
Night Sound:
As I mentioned before, I was impressed with the level of detail available with night mode. I listened to music and watched a few movies on Netflix. The sound levels did not rock my world but it did give me a special respect for this subwoofer. Give it a try.
As I mentioned before, I was impressed with the level of detail available with night mode. I listened to music and watched a few movies on Netflix. The sound levels did not rock my world but it did give me a special respect for this subwoofer. Give it a try.
Overall Impression:
I purchased this sub to add a stereo system to a small basement room that is primarily used for office work and music listening. I didn’t want to place a super powerful sub in this space because I don’t have a need for chest punching bass. My goal was sound detail. I feel that I achieved this. The inclusion of the application controls using my iPhone really took this 10” sub to a level that I didn’t think I could achieve with the equipment I have in this space. Boy, was I wrong. MartinLogan is really spoiling it’s customers with this level of control at this price point. They raised the bar for what I will expect for my next home theater subwoofer purchase.
I purchased this sub to add a stereo system to a small basement room that is primarily used for office work and music listening. I didn’t want to place a super powerful sub in this space because I don’t have a need for chest punching bass. My goal was sound detail. I feel that I achieved this. The inclusion of the application controls using my iPhone really took this 10” sub to a level that I didn’t think I could achieve with the equipment I have in this space. Boy, was I wrong. MartinLogan is really spoiling it’s customers with this level of control at this price point. They raised the bar for what I will expect for my next home theater subwoofer purchase.
I hope you found this review helpful. I would recommend this subwoofer to anyone who is looking to setup an inexpensive home theater or stereo system in a smal
I would recommend this to a friend!
Mobile Submission: False
+21points
22out of 23found this review helpful.
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LG - Streaming 4K Ultra HD Hi-Res Audio Wi-Fi Built-In Blu-ray Player - Black
Set up a Dolby Vision home cinema with this LG Ultra HD Blu-ray player. It supports 4K and HDR content, and its Wi-Fi connectivity lets you enjoy premium on-demand programs from your favorite streaming providers. Play media files from a portable device via the USB port of this LG Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
Great player!
Customer Rating
4.0
Pros:
Solid construction
Great color reproduction
Compact
Two HDMI outputs for systems without HD Pass-through
3D performance is flawless
Solid construction
Great color reproduction
Compact
Two HDMI outputs for systems without HD Pass-through
3D performance is flawless
Cons:
Stupid product sticker on front of box
No options to display HDR output type
Special Display color settings don’t make sense
Simplink is a pain
Magic Remote kind of works
Stupid product sticker on front of box
No options to display HDR output type
Special Display color settings don’t make sense
Simplink is a pain
Magic Remote kind of works
This is a very capable 4K Blu-ray player. The player’s interface is very easy to work with. The home screen has four icons that represent the four major functions of the player: Movie, Music/Pictures, Applications, Settings. I have never used a Blu-ray player to server up photos before. I do have an DLNA compliant SAN on my network that does contain many photos and music albums. Unfortunately, the player did not recognize the network device. As a result, I was not able to test this feature.
Since I already own a Smart TV there was no need to setup either YouTube or Netflix on this BD player. The inclusion of the apps is a great feature for those who do not have a Smart TV and want to stream either service. For some reason, LG felt the need to put an ugly sticker on the front of this player to advertise the fact that it had streaming capabilities. The reason I bring this up is because the sticker is very hard to take off. I understand the reasoning before advertising, but LG should have used an easy to remove sticker. I am sure that I am like a lot of folks who purchased this player for integration into a home theater system. All of my components are black, so they blend into the background when content is playing. The sticker cheapens that experience.
Movies are first rate. I tested 4K Dolby Vision content, HDR 10 Content, regular Blu-ray content, and 3D content. The Dolby Vision content was outstanding. You do need a TV and a player that are both Dolby Vision capable. If you are running the content through a receiver then the receiver needs to either support Dolby Vision or Dolby Vision passthrough. My receiver supports passthrough. I eventually chose to by-pass the receiver for video in favor of going straight to the TV. Simplink was playing havoc with my receiver’s Audio Return Channel, ARC, so I was forced into a work around. The player does have two HDMI outputs: one supports audio/video and the second is audio only. I chose to run an HDMI cable from the BD player to the HDMI 1 port on the TV. I then ran a second HDMI cable from the audio only port to receiver’s BD HMDI labeled port. I did not run into any picture/audio syncing issues with this configuration. I could have chosen to go with a single HDMI out to the TV and then allow the TV to output the audio either via Fiber Optic or over the ARC. Unfortunately, the receiver was unable to sync the sound with video using either configuration. I did try to modify the audio delay but could not find any setting that made either of these configurations work. This is not a shortcoming of the BD player since there are a lot of components contributing to this issue.
A little image appears in the upper right-hand corner of the TV stating if the content is either HDR or Dolby Vision. The image only lasts a few seconds. There is no way from the BD player what format is running. The image seems to be the only indication. Your TV may have an info screen that will tell you. Definitely check your TV’s user’s manual. I did find one strange quark regarding the HDR indicator image. When I first got the BD player, I did get the Dolby Vision image on the screen. Now all I get is the HDR image regardless of the disc’s format. The images are still amazing.
Content: The first movie I played was Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The second scene of the movie where our heroes are fighting an interdimensional rainbow spitting monster is a visual delight. I believe every color that fits in the HDR color space is exercised somewhere during this scene. The movie simply gets better from there. Sound reproduction is top notch. It was like being at the movies with my current 5.1 surround. Black Panther is another incredible Dolby Vision. Pacific Rim and Star Trek Beyond, HDR 10 films, also looked amazing. The color space is not as wide as Dolby Vision, but I didn’t really notice. I did try a few regular Blu-ray films. Independency Day 2, the 2017 version of Jumanji, and Game of Thrones performed flawlessly. My last test was 3D playback. I have an older LG 3D capable TV so I gave Pacific Rim 3D a ride. Awesome!
I own an LG magic remote. I tried to setup the remote with the BD player. If you try this then be ready for some disappointment. The only buttons on the magic remote that work are the d-pad buttons, play, and pause. The scroll wheel in the center does not interact with the BD player at all. Plan on using the remote that comes with your player.
Except for a few minor annoyances, Simplink and the Magic Remote, this is a very solid BD player for integration into a home theater system. The most compelling reason to purchase this BD player is for your Dolby Vision capable TV. I hope this review proved useful.
I would recommend this to a friend!
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
+21points
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LG - 65" Class - OLED - E8 Series - 2160p - Smart - 4K UHD TV with HDR
Enjoy your favorite movies and shows on this 65-inch LG OLED television. The Intelligent Processor optimizes quality to produce realistic images, and the advanced HDR upscales each scene in lower resolution videos to 4K. This LG OLED television has Dolby Atmos for a surround sound experience that's immersive and lifelike.
Awesome Image Quality!
Customer Rating
4.0
Pros:
Beautiful images
Great looking TV
A mountain of options to fine tune image quality
Built in Apps – Netflix/YouTube – easy to use
Built in speakers are decent
Wall Mountable
Integration into home theater system
Dolby Vision!
Magic Remote works well with TV
Beautiful images
Great looking TV
A mountain of options to fine tune image quality
Built in Apps – Netflix/YouTube – easy to use
Built in speakers are decent
Wall Mountable
Integration into home theater system
Dolby Vision!
Magic Remote works well with TV
Cons:
Audio Return Channel is buggy
Simplink overrides receiver settings
Unable to tell if content is Dolby Vision or some other HDR format
Mounting holes on TV are on the bottom third of the TV instead of dead center
Magic Remote does not integrate well with LG 4K Player
Proprietary power cable
Audio Return Channel is buggy
Simplink overrides receiver settings
Unable to tell if content is Dolby Vision or some other HDR format
Mounting holes on TV are on the bottom third of the TV instead of dead center
Magic Remote does not integrate well with LG 4K Player
Proprietary power cable
First off, the TV is gorgeous. The pane of glass covering the front of the TV does add a little extra something to the classiness of the TV. There is about two inches of extra glass hanging off the bottom of the screen that fits into the wedge-shaped TV mount. LG went for the floating TV illusion. I am unsure if they succeeded because I hung this TV on my wall. The extra glass does look a bit out of place when the TV is hanging but nothing that detracts from my enjoyment of the TV and the home entertainment center it is integrated into. The picture quality is also first rate. All content served up by the TV, such as Live TV and Netflix, look fantastic. If some piece of content does not look as good as I think it should then there are plenty of picture presets and granular controls to adjust the content to my liking.
This TV is capable of Dolby Vision. This is one of the reasons why I got the TV. In order to enjoy Dolby Vision content, you must also have a Dolby Vision capable source. In my case I picked up the LG UBK90 4K Blu-ray player. The first movie I tested was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. The eye candy in this movie is a visual feast. It is mind blowing on the OLED65E8PUA. Everything was vibrant, rich, and some of the best image reproduction I have ever seen on a TV screen. As a follow-up, I streamed the movie Coco from the built in Netflix App! Holy Cow did that movie look amazing! The kicker is that the movie was streamed at 1080p. The TV did an incredible job with color reproduction and motion control. I did play several other pieces of content from regular Blu-ray, live TV, and streaming services. In a few instances I did cycle through the picture presets and in a few cases modified the motion controls, OLED Brightness settings, and a few other settings. Essentially, I adjusted the TV to my personal taste.
One place where imaging enhancement options proved import for tuning certain content. For example, I found that I had to turn the judder control, under the TruMotion menu to 10 to watch certain scenes in Star Trek Beyond. Specifically, towards the beginning of the movie, Kirk and McCoy walk onto the bridge of the enterprise. The camera then pans around the bridge. The scene is complete garbage without Judder turned all the way up. For most movie content, this has become my default setting. For live events I turn Judder off. It is not a technology that does well with content such as sporting events.
I did notice a few quarks during 4K playback. When a 4K movie starts, the HDR format is displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Sometimes it would display HDR and sometimes Dolby Vision. This is with Dolby Vision disks such as Guardians 2 and Black Panther. I could not find an option that would report which HDR format was being used during movie playback. The images were still amazing. Though, I would like to see a feature that reports to the user which HDR format is being used. Maybe even allow me to choose which format to use. Though, the later is more of a curiosity than a need. I would like to be able to see the actual difference between formats demonstrated on the same TV. I hope LG gets on this one and releases an update.
One final thought regarding HDR. Be sure that your cables are Ultra HDMI cables or 2.0x compliant. They need to support 18gb throughput. Otherwise, you risk degraded image reproduction. You can look up HDMI standards on Wikipedia or other sources for more information about the different HDMI standards. My system is using Ultra HDMI cables from Rocketfish.
I did mount this TV onto a pre-existing TV mount. The mounting holes are located on the bottom third of the TV instead of dead center like most other TVs. I dropped the wall mount by six inches so that the TV is at the same viewing level as my older Sony. The speakers, connectors, and components that drive the TV are in a bump out on the lower third of the TV. There are several connectors that face directly out of the back of the TV. These include the HDMI 4, two USB ports, RS-232, Optical out, LAN, and an audio/video connection that is unfamiliar to me. The other connectors are hidden behind a removable panel and point to the side of the TV. If you plan on mounting this TV, and need access to the back facing connectors, then I recommend that you pick a mounting kit that keeps the TV away from the wall.
The sound quality of this TV is pretty good as far as flat panel TVs go. The sound was clear and held good volume. This will be more important to me as the summer heats up and I shut down the home theater to save on home cooling costs. There are six speakers in this TV. They are all located in the bottom third of the TV. I cannot tell you specifically where they are located because it is difficult to tell the difference between a speaker grill and an air vent. There are holes on the bottom of the TV facing the floor and vents on the top of the equipment housing. I cannot be more specific without taking the TV apart. LG states that this TV is Atmos capable. I cannot imagine that the TVs speaker arrangement will give any Atmos effects as is. I am sure the answers are in the TV user manual that you can find in magical fairy unicorn land because the manual that comes with the TV is a waste of effort on LG’s part. The TV does have a built-in help system but it is also minimal effort at best. It would have been nice to have a better explanation of how this TV supports Atmos along with a solid write up covering all the other TV’s options.
As wonderful as this TV is, I did run into some annoying challenges. First, Simplink is overly aggressive in how it manages other controllable equipment. This TV is integrated into a home theater system. For example, the when I tell the TV to use the receiver input, the TV automatically assumes I want to connect to the BD input and then switches on the Blu-ray player. If, instead, I really wanted to use my Xbox, then I am forced to fight with the receiver for control of the BD input. It will keep picking the BD input and player for a good two minutes. Yikes!
Second, when I do turn the input back to Live TV, the receiver input will not automatically change back to TV. The LG also will not engage the Audio Return Channel, ARC, when I do manually turn the receiver to the TV input. I have to reset the receiver input connection in order to re-engage the ARC. Pain in the butt. CEC, ARC, and Simplink was enabled on all devices. I also tried multiple combinations of these connective technologies enabled/disabled. I did some research on a few AV forums that I frequent. Apparently, issues like this have been around for a few years. One possible solution is to ignore the ARC all together and bypass it with a toslink cable, also known as a fiber optic cable. I have not tried this myself, yet, but many folks reported success with this work around. There were no reports specific for this TV.
Second, when I do turn the input back to Live TV, the receiver input will not automatically change back to TV. The LG also will not engage the Audio Return Channel, ARC, when I do manually turn the receiver to the TV input. I have to reset the receiver input connection in order to re-engage the ARC. Pain in the butt. CEC, ARC, and Simplink was enabled on all devices. I also tried multiple combinations of these connective technologies enabled/disabled. I did some research on a few AV forums that I frequent. Apparently, issues like this have been around for a few years. One possible solution is to ignore the ARC all together and bypass it with a toslink cable, also known as a fiber optic cable. I have not tried this myself, yet, but many folks reported success with this work around. There were no reports specific for this TV.
The magic remote does not integrate well with any other device other than the TV. LG did tell me to try the magic remote with the LG 4K player connected directly to the TV. According to LG, sometimes a receiver will disrupt or misinterpret the commands from the remote. I did not connect the 4K player directly to the TV for two reasons. First, I want the receiver to manage my device relationships. Second, I have limited space in the cable cover running along my wall for cables. A second HDMI cable would be impossible to hide with my current setup. It is a nice to have but not a must have feature. Even if I could achieve full system integration, the Magic Remote only has a play and pause button. Not exactly a robust set of options for controlling other LG devices or compatible home theater equipment.
In LG’s defense, it does appear an effort was made for system integration with the Magic Remote. If you go into the Input selector screen (press the image of the cable and then choose edit from the menu) you will find that you can setup multiple devices including home theaters, BD players, DVD players, Game systems, etc for magic remote compatibility. At best I can setup the LG 4K player to recognize play, pause, and the directional buttons. The select button, however, is not recognized regardless the settings chosen. I can manage power on/off for almost anything. TV management with the magic remote is pretty good. The pointer takes a little getting used to. I found it easy to navigate between menus and options using the remote. I know a lot of people are complaining about the remote’s cheap look and feel. I do not mind it much. It fits in my hand well. All buttons, except the power buttons, are accessible with my thumb without having to change my grip on the remote.
Finally, the power cable is a disappointment. The connector to the TV is a proprietary plastic connector that has more in common with a circuit board connector than a traditional three-pronged power cable connector. I am sure there is a good reason LG chose this design. However, this does lock me into a power cable that is about five feet long. If you need a longer cable, like me, then you will need to contact LG directly to see if they will sell you one.
Over-all, this is a beautiful TV. Hopefully LG is working through the integration issues. Otherwise, this TV is a pretty awesome
I would recommend this to a friend!
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
+43points
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Improve your dental care routine with this Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean electric toothbrush. It has three modes for a customized brushing experience and a pressure sensor to protect your gums from over-brushing. This Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean electric toothbrush has a built-in timer to encourage you to meet the recommended brushing time.
A definit upgrade from my older Philips brush
Customer Rating
5.0
Pros:
- Multiple Speeds and intensity settings
- Fairly quite compared to other brushes I’ve owned
- Easy to hold
- Firm bristles
- Wireless recharging station
- Multiple Speeds and intensity settings
- Fairly quite compared to other brushes I’ve owned
- Easy to hold
- Firm bristles
- Wireless recharging station
Cons:
- Vibration can be too much for some
- Vibration can be too much for some
My old electric toothbrush was getting a bit old and needed replacing. The rechargeable battery was having a difficult time holding a charge. This new Philips so far is a great replacement. At first I was worried about the head size and the stiffness of the bristles. The head is smaller than my old brush; about half the size. It is also about half the size of a standard manual toothbrush. The number of features on the toothbrush are quite a bit. It has the standard clean mode, teeth whitening mode, and gum care mode. It also has three speeds for each mode. I did try all three modes and didn’t quite understand the need for all of them. The cleaning mode did a great job of cleaning my teeth. The tooth whitening mode seemed to do the same thing but just on a slower setting. And the gum mode. I just didn’t understand why I would want to put a head covered with stiff bristles on my gums regardless of the vibration speed. And the whitening mode seems to be a slower vibration than the clean mode. Why wouldn’t the clean mode whiten my teeth? Personally, I think it is a gimmick to give the brush more settings than the step down brush.
The toothbrush was easy to control. It fit well in my hand. The buttons are easy to press while the brush is in operation.
The only thing I don’t like about this brush is that the high speed can overwhelm someone with sensitive teeth. I originally purchased this for my wife. However, the vibrations proved too much for her. Which is how the toothbrush became my toothbrush.
Over all, this seems to be a quality brush. My teeth feel great after using it. It is definitely an upgrade from my old Philips electric brush.
I would recommend this to a friend!
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
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Sony - SRS-XB31 Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Blue
Dance the night away with this Sony portable wireless speaker. Its interactive Party Booster sound effects and multicolor lights bring another dimension to the music, and its Party Chain technology lets you wirelessly connect up to 100 speakers. This Sony portable wireless speaker is resistant to rust, dust and waterproof for reliable use outdoors.
Lot of Great Features
Customer Rating
3.0
Review Sony - SRS-XB31 Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Blue
Pros:
- Attractive
- Unique Lighting is fun
- Bluetooth easy connectivity
- Multiple light modes
- Ultra-portable
- Rear cover hides controls and external audio input
- Cool fabric like texture and a great presentation
- Washable
- Water and dirt resistance
- Great for outdoors and portable party time
Pros:
- Attractive
- Unique Lighting is fun
- Bluetooth easy connectivity
- Multiple light modes
- Ultra-portable
- Rear cover hides controls and external audio input
- Cool fabric like texture and a great presentation
- Washable
- Water and dirt resistance
- Great for outdoors and portable party time
Cons:
- Needs a tweeter
- Muddy mid-range and constrained highes
- The Party boost mode can inject too much base
- The microphone is not sensitive enough for a quality speaker phone
- Not for an audiophile
- Needs a tweeter
- Muddy mid-range and constrained highes
- The Party boost mode can inject too much base
- The microphone is not sensitive enough for a quality speaker phone
- Not for an audiophile
Starting with the positives. The speaker is very small, has a great visual presentation, the lighting effects are very well executed, and the volume can get loud enough to drown out a small room of party goers. The speaker does allow multiple ways to connect: physical stereo mini-jack, Bluetooth, and NFC. The physical connections are hidden behind a water resistant, rubberized door. In addition to the stereo mini-jack, there is a USB out that is labeled DC only (charge your phone from battery), a USB-C type connection for DC in (charging), and buttons to check battery level, WPC, and to add the speaker to a network of other Sony speakers for a stereo setup or multi-room audio experience. There is also a recessed reset button. The speaker is water resistant and dirt/dust resistant. Sony states that you can run the speaker under an open faucet to wash the dirt off. However, the user’s guide states that the warranty is void if you use this in a shower. The unit does have the texture of an exfoliating sponge which should encourage me to shower with it. But, whatever…
The speaker I picked up is the blue version. It is more like a dark teal than actual blue. Setup of the unit was super easy. I did find that I could still use the Sony App with this speaker while I had another device, such as my laptop, connected to the speaker via stereo cable.
The light shows are slick; especially if the room is dark. The top and bottom of the unit have a transparent strip that runs the length of the unit. They can be bright but not blinding. There are also two white lights that flash and/or strobe. I haven’t figured out if there is any real pattern to these lights. They sometimes seem to time to the beat and sometimes not. Over-all, the different lighting patterns do allow flexibility for the kind of ambiance you wish to set with your music. There is also an option to turn off the lights.
Finally, I have not taken the opportunity to hold this unit under the faucet. I haven’t gotten it dirty since I bought it. So, you will need to seek out other reviewers for their experience washing this unit. The user’s manual does state I can do this without voiding the warranty. And yet, no shower…
I do like that I can set the unit to tell me the battery charge percentage. Nice feature to have since there is no other indicator on the unit of how much power is remaining.
There are several things that I think Sony can improve upon. I was able to play my music very loud. I can see the allure to using a device like this for a dorm room party. Anything with base will really shine with this compact unit. However, you will be disappointed if you expect an accurate reproduction of your music. I found that CD quality or higher music got very muddy. For example, “Go All the Way” by The Raspberries (found on the Guardians of the Galaxy CD) has a lot of base and guitar feedback. Driving this song through this speaker sounded like I was trying to play the song underwater. I did play a whole range of music such as, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Meghan Trainor, Lady Gaga, Idina Menzel, Loreena McKennit, Enya, Mozart’s Requiem. I played both CD Quality music and low quality, compressed music from Spotify. In most instances, the music sounded compressed and muddy. I did find that a hard-wired connection to my audio source slightly improved the speaker’s performance. Enya sounded pretty good for some odd reason. She was the rare exception.
There is a party mode, beat the snot out of your speaker, mode. I simply don’t get this. If I turn it on, then when I hit the speaker, hard, in certain places, the speaker will make a noise. Why am I being incentivized to beat the snot out of my speaker? What got my attention is how hard I needed to hit the speaker. If someone at my party is wailing on my speaker, then I’m probably escorting them out of my party. Plus, it adds zero value to owning this speaker. Making music loud with a light show I get. And the speaker does this very well. Just don’t beat on my speaker, please. Or, if you are a speaker masochist then a Geek Squad replacement plan should be part of your purchase.
This speaker does have a microphone. The microphone is not sensitive enough to capture my voice from a foot away. Unless Sony adds a more sensitive microphone, or the ability to adjust the microphone’s sensitivity, then this is a useless feature.
Overall, I think the speaker does meet its use case of an ultraportable sound system that will travel to a party and play music loud. The lighting effects are cool and will add fun to any social gathering. The beast part is that you do not need to play the music loud to get the cool lighting. You will need to look elsewhere If you are looking for a music system that will reproduce your music with fidelity. I believe if Sony added a tweeter to the unit then the music reproduction would be better. This way the mid-range wouldn’t have to play double duty playing mids and highs. I do like that you can wash the dirt off this unit. That way, if you get sand, sawdust, or other particulate matter on the unit, then you can simply wash it off. Would I recommend this product to a friend? That depends what they were looking for. If they wanted a party style, outdoor speaker that can play compressed audio from a cell phone, then, yes. I would even recommend this for a collage dorm room, kids bedroom, or a workshop. But, if you work and live by your music, then no, you need to look elsewhere.
I would recommend this to a friend!
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
-5points
2out of 9found this review helpful.
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Enjoy playlists in private with these Sennheiser wireless earbuds. The three-button remote lets you take calls or cycle through music with a single touch, and the earpieces are magnetic, so they stick to one another to prevent loss while not in use. These Sennheiser wireless earbuds have a range of up to 30 feet from a paired device.
Not for me
Customer Rating
2.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
Pros:
- Nice carry case for headphones and accessories
- Rubberized strap is comfortable and unobtrusive
- Multiple sized ear buds
- Solid base
- Magnetic connector for ear buds
- Easy to pair with devices
- Easy to learn and use inline controls
- Wireless has good range
- Long battery life
- Good connectivity with notifications, phone calls, and music apps.
- Nice carry case for headphones and accessories
- Rubberized strap is comfortable and unobtrusive
- Multiple sized ear buds
- Solid base
- Magnetic connector for ear buds
- Easy to pair with devices
- Easy to learn and use inline controls
- Wireless has good range
- Long battery life
- Good connectivity with notifications, phone calls, and music apps.
Cons:
- Audio quality is not on par with Apples ear bud’s that came with my phone
- Uncomfortable in ear canal after an hour of use
- No noise canceling/voice focusing for microphone
- All surrounding office chatter picked up and transmitted by microphone
- Magnetic connection between headphones is very weak
- Headset does pick up and transmit the scuffing of the headset as it brushes against my collar
- The speakers suffer from midrange sound breakup
- Audio quality is not on par with Apples ear bud’s that came with my phone
- Uncomfortable in ear canal after an hour of use
- No noise canceling/voice focusing for microphone
- All surrounding office chatter picked up and transmitted by microphone
- Magnetic connection between headphones is very weak
- Headset does pick up and transmit the scuffing of the headset as it brushes against my collar
- The speakers suffer from midrange sound breakup
I was excited about getting the Sennheiser HD1 Free Wireless headset. For years, I’ve been using the headset/microphone earbuds that Apple included with my iPhone. These are the first wireless earbuds that I have owned. The headphones have attractive styling. I really like the rubberized cord that connects all the components together. The earbuds look great. I love the glossy black and grey two-toned bodies. And the wireless range is spot on with the side of the box. I was able to walk around my house freely during phone calls and music listening without worrying about where I placed my phone or laptop. I was able to pair the ear buds with multiple devices. Reconnecting those the earbuds to the phone was super easy.
There is a three-button control on the right ear bud cord. The buttons are not large but big enough that they are easy to identify without looking. The strap is designed to hang from your neck. And the ear buds are designed to magnetically attach to each other’s back. I found the magnets very weak but not so weak that the ears buds came apart. However, I do feel that any level of jostling will cause them to come apart and increase the risk of them falling off from around my neck.
Sound quality is really where these ear buds fail, in my opinion. The voice and music feel constrained. Almost like the sound is trying to penetrate my ear drum through a very small hole. Base, when there is a strong enough beat, is clear. Highs also seem to be clear. The mid-range, however, seems to break up on the speaker. I noticed this while holding a conversation with my wife. She has a strong high-midrange voice. Some of her words seemed to simply break up. At first, I thought it was static. Then, I noticed that the speakers kept breaking up with the same words and with certain inflections that she was using while speaking with me. I found the same issues with Music. I played a range of music from Classical to modern Pop. Again, the lows, when they were present, seemed strong and highs were clear. The midrange was sloppy. Tylor’s Swifts, Blank Space, had all kinds of issues with the midrange. The beat in the song seems high. There is an afterbeat that throws static into the sound stream. I switched over to my Apple ear pods and the break-up of the afterbeat went away. Also, the ear pods showed immediately the weakness of the Sennheiser’s.
I knew going in that these ear buds were not sound canceling. I have a pair of sound canceling head phones if I want true isolation in my music listening and wireless phone calls. But, I got these ear buds to have a light, portable option instead of always carrying around my bulky Sony Headphones. Walking around the office, I heard every conversation taking place around me. The silicon caps on the ear buds offered very little in the way of isolating me from the office. Every scrape of the neck strap against my clothing did enter my ear canal. The sound did disrupt my ability to listen to my phone conversation.
The microphone is too sensitive. Every person I spoke with commented that they could hear all the background noise in my office. That is scary because I never want the conversations in the office to broadcast over an open line. My office also has white noise generators that are used to cut down on a lot of the cross noise that occurs when large groups of people are gathered into a small place. The headphones also transmitted this noise. It would have been nice if there was a way to either narrow down the sensitivity of the microphone or if the microphone could zoom in on my voice and ignore the background.
Over all, I think the presentation of these headphones is nice. But, given my negative experiences, I cannot recommend these headphones to anyone.
Thank you for reading this review. I hope it proves helpful.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
-4points
18out of 40found this review helpful.
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Acer - 15.6" Chromebook - Intel Celeron - 4GB Memory - 16GB eMMC Flash Memory
Acer 15 Chromebook: Enjoy up to 12 hours of battery life with this 15.6-inch Acer Chromebook. Its Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of RAM load webpages quickly and provide lag-free streaming, and the 16GB of internal storage holds documents and photos. This Acer Chromebook has an HDMI port for connecting to a larger display.
Nice for the price
Customer Rating
4.0
Pros:
- Good construction
- Comfortable keyboard, good for typing
- Speakers are clear at volume
- Big screen
- Shortcut keys at top of the keyboard
- Minimal pre-installed software
- Long battery life
Cons:
- No backlit keyboard
- No touchscreen
- Google Docs unresponsive sometimes
- LCD poor viewing angles
- No Caps lock or Delete key
- Good construction
- Comfortable keyboard, good for typing
- Speakers are clear at volume
- Big screen
- Shortcut keys at top of the keyboard
- Minimal pre-installed software
- Long battery life
Cons:
- No backlit keyboard
- No touchscreen
- Google Docs unresponsive sometimes
- LCD poor viewing angles
- No Caps lock or Delete key
I purchased this laptop for the student in my family. Her school is standardized on Chromebook and the Google application ecosystem. Currently, she uses a seven-year old Asus laptop that I upgraded with an SSD and Windows 10 late in 2016. The computer still performs well but lacks a lot of the modern technology that this Chromebook does support. For instance, the Chromebook has an integrated HD camera for video conferencing or making recordings. The AC class wireless is much faster than her older laptops wireless G connection. The battery is newer and does last all day. It has an HDMI output, two USB 3 ports, sports a stereo jack for headphones, and it is super easy to get started with all Google apps. Unlike Windows, setup takes about 5 minutes. This makes sense since you are almost exclusively plugging into Google’s online services.
There is nothing special about the physical characteristics of this Chromebook. You get a basic laptop at this price point. The unit feels well-built and doesn’t have that cheap look or feel to it. The top cover is attractive with the brushed aluminum look and Acer’s and Chrome’s logos. The keyboard keys have a textured surface, the keys have good travel when depressed, the spacing is good for someone who touch types, and the keyboard is also quiet to type on. I could comfortably type a paper in a public library without worry of disturbing anyone around me.
The LCD screen is good. It will be easy to share documents and black and white content between multiple viewers through multiple angles. However, images and video are a different matter. The best angle for this content is straight on. The colors and images do not survive well at any other angle than straight at the screen. I discovered this with images, video, and while I was working with my daughter on a paper in Google Docs. The issue with Google Docs presented itself when we tried to highlight text in her document. She could see the highlight around her text. I, a few degrees off center, could not see the highlight.
There is no backlighting for the keyboard. If you are using the laptop in a well-lit environment, then backlit keys are not an issue. The keyboard is different from your standard Windows keyboard layout. The traditional F-function keys at the top of the keyboard are replaced with specific Chromebook keys. They keys are: forward, back, reload, full screen toggle, open app toggle, screen darker, screen brighter, mute, volume controls, and a soft power off button. There are also a few other differences from a standard keyboard. The caps lock key does not exist. In its place is a google search button. There is also no delete key. I do find this annoying because I do use both keys regularly as I work on my documents.
Probably the most defining feature of this laptop are the overly large speaker grills to either side of the keyboard. I did play a few YouTube videos and music from Spotify as a test. The speakers were able to maintain a clear sound at all volume levels. However, there was very little base. I did not find anything on this system that gave me access to equalize the sound for my source material. However, connecting an external speaker system or high-quality headphones will most likely solve any issues you have with frequency range.
Next, the software experience. As I mentioned earlier, Chrome is a lightweight interface that relies heavily on its own cloud infrastructure to supply the computing muscle. I decided to use Google Docs to write this review as my first official foray into Google’s world. My first impression is that Google Docs is good as a free platform, but Office 365 has nothing to worry about in terms of functionality and ease of use. During the writing of this review, the web page hosting my document froze, then crashed, and forced me to restart my browser and re-enter Google Docs. The good news is that Google Docs does commit the document to memory as I type. The downside is that I had to wait five minutes after reloading the document before the page would register any of my keystrokes. Second, highlighting content using the touch pad was challenging. My intent was to move a sentence from one location to another in my document. What I got was five failed attempts that included highlighting the wrong text and moving it, moving partial text, move a whole paragraph other than my chosen text, and so on and so forth. Free is good but I’ll pay for Office 365 any day of the week! And to drive the point home further, I got so frustrated with Google Docs, that I copied the whole document into MS Word to finish and edit this review.
For the most part, I will not be ditching my Windows 10 laptop for this Chromebook. The Chromebook is a nice device to have if you basic needs are education and you are on a tight budget. From that perspective, I think the features, the build quality, and how my daughter will interact with her school’s educational infrastructure is well worth the cost of this entry level laptop. I would hand this system off to a high school or college student. I would not recommend this system for business or for an enterprise environment. It is a nice system, but not a daily workhorse that requires integration into a business network. Also, I found the shortcomings of leveraging web-based office applications, such as Google Docs, disruptive. This may be ok for a use case such as education on a slim budget. But Google has some work ahead of them if they want this type of ecosystem to integrate with an enterprise environment.
At this time I can only recommend this budget device as an educational tool.
I would recommend this to a friend!
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
+6points
6out of 6found this review helpful.
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Adobe - Photoshop Elements 2018 - Windows, Mac OS
Go from hundreds of mystery folders to a visual view of your photos automatically sorted by date, subject, people, and places. See your best photos auto-curated based on quality, faces, subjects, and more. Make your photos look amazing with automated photo editing options, and create and share printed artwork, new dynamic slideshows, photo collages, and gifts for friends and family.
Great consumer friendly Photo Editing package
Customer Rating
5.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
Pros:
Easily accessible filters and special effects
Easy to follow wizards for quick easy editing of photos
Expert mode with many common photo editing features
Support for Touch, tablet, and active stylus
Works with my Surface Pro 4 in all modes
No Subscription!
Easily accessible filters and special effects
Easy to follow wizards for quick easy editing of photos
Expert mode with many common photo editing features
Support for Touch, tablet, and active stylus
Works with my Surface Pro 4 in all modes
No Subscription!
Cons:
Steep learning curve when using Expert mode
Cut-Out tool does get confused easily
Often need to go into Expert mode to adjust Cut-Out tool’s selection
Save changes can be confusing
I do some photo editing of my family and event photos. Most of my photo editing needs focus on the arts and crafts that I make and post to various sites. For the last three years I have used Photoshop like competitor products. My biggest paint points are the Cut-Out tools when changing backgrounds, special effects, applying filters, or converting my photo into wallpaper for block text. This year, instead of paying for my annual, marginally improved upgrade, I chose to give Photoshop Elements a try.
Steep learning curve when using Expert mode
Cut-Out tool does get confused easily
Often need to go into Expert mode to adjust Cut-Out tool’s selection
Save changes can be confusing
I do some photo editing of my family and event photos. Most of my photo editing needs focus on the arts and crafts that I make and post to various sites. For the last three years I have used Photoshop like competitor products. My biggest paint points are the Cut-Out tools when changing backgrounds, special effects, applying filters, or converting my photo into wallpaper for block text. This year, instead of paying for my annual, marginally improved upgrade, I chose to give Photoshop Elements a try.
My needs are simple. I take the photo, sharpen the photo, adjust the color, and maybe apply a few special effects when needed. I was not expecting much from Elements and thought the wizards were marketing fluff. I was mostly wrong. Attached to this review is a picture from my last Disney vacation as an example of something that would take me hours to figure out in another product. I was able to do the same work within five minutes with Elements. What I did was load the photo into the “Quick” view. Selected the view drop down to Before & After. And then walked through the preset special effects. I found the effect I want and then went straight into the “Guided” tab. From there I applied text to my photo, pressed a button, and my image magically became wall paper for the block text! You have no idea how excited this made me.
The great part is that I can get fancy or as simple as I want to make it. If there is an effect or a touch up that the wizards can’t do for me, then “Expert” mode is available. The features are a subset of what you will find in Photoshop CS but they are probably the most commonly used features. The icons are large and easy to handle. Each feature does have a subset of adjustments to reduce or amplify an effect. These features are where the learning curve steepens considerably and an opportunity for Adobe to leverage hover help bubbles. Unfortunately, they do not. You will be forced to head out to YouTube and look for helpful videos on how to use each feature’s settings. The good news is that Adobe does supply information about their features online. Click on the question mark in the section that pops up at the bottom of the screen and you will be taken to a web page with more information. So, read or watch a video from some kind stranger.
I also love the fact that this product works without issue on my Surface Pro 4. It is slower on the surface than my full featured desktop. The speed has more to do with the portability and convenience over raw performance that most of these ultra-portable devices fall into. The good news is that the MS Pen works without flaw. And Adobe fully supports finger gestures. I cannot tell you how much of an advantage an active stylus is over a mouse pointer. When I need precision, the Surface is my go-to platform. When I need raw speed, then I’ll leverage my desktop.
I do have a few gripes that I hope Adobe addresses in upcoming updates. First, if you hover your mouse pointer or active stylus over an object eventually a name will pop-up. This is helpful if you don’t know what an icon represents. The problem I ran into is that the pop-up is usually blocked by my active stylus. It would be nice if I can indicate to the program that I would like the pop-up boxes to appear over my pen tip and not under it.
My next gripe is the selection tools. I tried to use the background replacement wizard with an actual person in the shot and found that it was only partially successful. For whatever reason, any colors in a photo that are close will throw the tool off and give you some strange selection. I also found that multi-layered objects such as a box with a pattern on it will also through off the selection tool. This may be where I need to spend more time learning about the selection tool. My point is if you really want to swap out backgrounds then you will need to put some time into the tool and even the wizard before you will get the effects you want.
Finally, I noticed that when I edit a photo, I’m only editing a safe copy of the photo. Meaning, the original is preserved. What I find difficult, and I hope Adobe addresses this, is how do I accept the changes to the photo. A few times, I have made the mistake of saving my photo only to find out that I did not save anything at all. I was forced to do a Save As and then create a whole new file. I would like to see some mechanism that tells me what will save my changes, how it will save them, and where it saves them.
I have only had this product for about a week. It’s going to take a month of dedicated use before I can dig through all the cool features. My list of pros and cons are superficial at best. My chief take-away is Adobe put together a consumer-friendly package with many common tools and effects front loaded for the weekend photo editor. There are many advanced features back loaded for those who want to take their photo editing skills to that next level. So far, this has changed the way I work and what I expect to see in a consumer-friendly photo editing program.
I would recommend this to a friend!
My Best Buy number: 0736414133
Mobile Submission: False
+6points
6out of 6found this review helpful.
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ITJim's Questions
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JBL - FREE True Wireless In-Ear Headphones Gen 2 - Black
Perceive every detail of your music with this pair of JBL wireless headphones. The 10Hz to 22kHz frequency response lets you enjoy the full range of sound, while the in-line microphone provides an effortless switch to hands-free calls. Featuring 5.6mm dynamic drivers, these JBL wireless headphones supply rich, resonant bass for your enjoyment.
Are these noise cancelling for gyms that play really loud music?
No, they are not noise cancelling. They do come with three silicon ear canal adapters: small, medium, and Large. You can block out some sound if you use a connector that fits snuggly in the ear canal. This will muffle and not canceling outside noise.
6 years, 5 months ago
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Posted by:
ITJim
Acer - Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - AMD Radeon RX 560X - 1TB Hard Drive
Enjoy engaging simulations and immersive visuals with this Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop. The Radeon graphics card offers 4GB of dedicated video memory for efficient rendering performance, and the 2.GHz AMD Ryzen processor and 8GB of RAM provide ample computing power. This Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop has a 1TB hard drive for your collection.
Not computer savvy. Love playing games but also surfing the web and photos. Just looking for a "standalone" that I can take anywhere...outside or in my room with no wires and connections. Is this good for that? And can I connect to a printer? Thanks!
If I understand you correctly, you want to know if you can surf the web, view photos, and connect to a wireless printer. Correct?
You can use this computer to surf the web, view photos, and connect to a wireless printer. You will need to a wireless network, of some kind, in order to surf the web without a wired connection. The printer could be connected to your wireless network or you could connect over bluetooth. It depends on your printer. My Acer Nitro 5 is connected wirelessly to my network, the internet, and my printer. If you are unsure of how to setup a wireless network, connect your laptop, or connect wirelessly to your printer, then I you will want to speak with your local Best Buy Geek Squad representative. They should be able to get you going. Hope this helps!
You can use this computer to surf the web, view photos, and connect to a wireless printer. You will need to a wireless network, of some kind, in order to surf the web without a wired connection. The printer could be connected to your wireless network or you could connect over bluetooth. It depends on your printer. My Acer Nitro 5 is connected wirelessly to my network, the internet, and my printer. If you are unsure of how to setup a wireless network, connect your laptop, or connect wirelessly to your printer, then I you will want to speak with your local Best Buy Geek Squad representative. They should be able to get you going. Hope this helps!
6 years, 8 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
Envy x360 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - HP Finish In Dark Ash Silver
Optimize your productivity and entertainment experience with this 15.6-inch HP Envy convertible laptop. Its AMD Ryzen 5 processor and 8GB of RAM provide smooth performance, and its AMD Radeon graphics loads stunning gaming visuals. This HP Envy convertible laptop has 1TB of storage, and its Windows Ink feature lets you work with a digital pen. Learn more.
What is the full name of the cpu?
The CPU is a Ryzen 5 2500u. It is a four core, eight thread CPU with integrated Vega Graphics in a 15W TDP. You can find more information from AMD's website here: https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-2500u
7 years, 6 months ago
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Posted by:
ITJim
Envy x360 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - HP Finish In Dark Ash Silver
Optimize your productivity and entertainment experience with this 15.6-inch HP Envy convertible laptop. Its AMD Ryzen 5 processor and 8GB of RAM provide smooth performance, and its AMD Radeon graphics loads stunning gaming visuals. This HP Envy convertible laptop has 1TB of storage, and its Windows Ink feature lets you work with a digital pen. Learn more.
Does this laptop have a display port?
No. It has an HDMI output and a USB C connector that can do video with the right connector. Do a search on BB's site for: USB C to display port. There are several options listed.
7 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
Pioneer - 980W 7.2-Ch. Network-Ready 4K Ultra HD and 3D Pass-Through A/V Home Theater Receiver - Black
Learn moreabout Magnolia PremiumInstallation Connect to a range of Web-based music services via this Pioneer Elite VSX-44 receiver's built-in Ethernet LAN. Includes HDMI 4K Ultra HD and 3D pass-through technologies for compatibility with 3D TVs, Blu-ray players and gaming consoles and 4K Ultra HD TVs.
What sub woofer matches up well with Pioneer Elite VSX-44?
That really depends on your other speakers and your room. I'm using the ESW-C10 with B&W 685 Bookshelf speakers and couldn't be happier with the arrangement. The ESW-C10 is a bit big for my small room so I keep the volume turned down but it does a great job shaking the room during movies and mixes well with any music or TV programs I've thrown at them.
10 years, 4 months ago
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Posted by:
ITJim
from
Maine
Microsoft - Surface - 32GB - Black
Microsoft Surface Tablet: Do more on the go with the productivity of a laptop in the compact size of a tablet. Create documents with Microsoft Office RT, sync files between Windows devices and video chat with friends and family. The built-in kickstand props up your tablet at just the right angle for easy viewing.
do i have to get a network package to buy the surface?
ive been told i need to buy a network plan with a monthly charge. Or can i just use wifi?
No Surface product has native support for a Cell carrier such as ATT, Sprint, etc.... All you have is WiFi. If you have internet in your home with a WiFi router or some other device to server your WiFi enabled devices, then you have everything you need. Just make sure your connection is password protected and encrypted. You can also turn off the WiFi on the tablet, Airplane mode, and use it offline. I hope that answers your question.
11 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
from
Maine
Microsoft - Surface - 32GB - Black
Microsoft Surface Tablet: Do more on the go with the productivity of a laptop in the compact size of a tablet. Create documents with Microsoft Office RT, sync files between Windows devices and video chat with friends and family. The built-in kickstand props up your tablet at just the right angle for easy viewing.
Can I download PFD files from Internet Explorer to the Microsoft Surface RT?
Can I download PFD files from Internet Explorer to the Microsoft Surface RT, then view them without internet connection?
Yes you can. First go to the Microsoft Store and pick up the Free Adobe Acrobat Reader application. Then you can open PDFs from your flash drive, desktop, network locations, or even the web. Do keep in mind that your ability to open some PDFs from the web is also dependent upon the source of your PDFs. Finally, the surface, as I have experienced with most tablets, do have a difficult time with very large PDF files sizes and very complex PDFs. This is typically an issue with the small amount of RAM you have on a tablet as compared to a modern PC. (2GB on Surface RT and up to 64 GB on a PC). The amount of RAM does make a difference.
11 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
from
Maine
Samsung - Galaxy Note 2014 Edition - 10.1" - 16GB - Black
Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 Edition - 10.1" - 16GB: This sleek, stylish tablet comes with a 10.1" Full HD touch screen to display movies, Web sites and more with impressive visual fidelity. The included S Pen is pressure sensitive and allows you to draw, write, edit and more as easily as if you were using a real pen.
Syncing with a Windows 7 Laptop.
Will this version of Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition be able to sync with my laptop and thus allow me to control it from the laptop, like the Samsung Tab 2 allows? This also mean I would be able to view content like pics and music from my laptop to my tablet and vice or verser.
I've found that the Galaxy 2014 edition doesn't sync well with anything. Or I haven't found the app or the feature or the best kept secret desktop app that will allow it. I'm thinking of something like iTunes that will sync everything for me and backup my device.
I have found a few work arounds the may interest you.
1) You can upload all of your photos and files to an SD card. You can then move the SD card between the computer and the tablet. Kind of 10 years go I know but there you go.
2) You can plug your tablet directly into the laptop with the USB cable that is connected to your power cord. Then you can easily move items between the tablet and your Laptop using the very useful Windows Explorer App. Thank you Microsoft.
3) If you want to take control of your laptop from your tablet then you can download another nifty Microsoft tool called Microsoft Remote Desktop. You will also have to allow remote connections in Windows on our laptop to make this work. I've already taken over my desktop to edit photos from my tablet. It works very well. However, there is no pinch and zoom. So if you can't read a word when you pull it up on the screen then there isn't anything you are going to do about it. There are other remote desktop apps that may give you additional features. X2 is one I used for my Ipad and is also available on Google Play.
4)Laptop taking control of the Tablet? I haven't heard anything about this. I do know, however, that Samsung saved all the best software for this own devices. Sync easily between your Samsung laptop and your device. However, this is only software and Samsung could be a hero and release it to the rest of their paying customers. I've seen the Samsung Laptops. I won't be buying one anytime soon.
I have found a few work arounds the may interest you.
1) You can upload all of your photos and files to an SD card. You can then move the SD card between the computer and the tablet. Kind of 10 years go I know but there you go.
2) You can plug your tablet directly into the laptop with the USB cable that is connected to your power cord. Then you can easily move items between the tablet and your Laptop using the very useful Windows Explorer App. Thank you Microsoft.
3) If you want to take control of your laptop from your tablet then you can download another nifty Microsoft tool called Microsoft Remote Desktop. You will also have to allow remote connections in Windows on our laptop to make this work. I've already taken over my desktop to edit photos from my tablet. It works very well. However, there is no pinch and zoom. So if you can't read a word when you pull it up on the screen then there isn't anything you are going to do about it. There are other remote desktop apps that may give you additional features. X2 is one I used for my Ipad and is also available on Google Play.
4)Laptop taking control of the Tablet? I haven't heard anything about this. I do know, however, that Samsung saved all the best software for this own devices. Sync easily between your Samsung laptop and your device. However, this is only software and Samsung could be a hero and release it to the rest of their paying customers. I've seen the Samsung Laptops. I won't be buying one anytime soon.
11 years, 7 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
from
Maine