ITJim
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ITJim's Stats
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- First ReviewNovember 23, 2013
- Last ReviewOctober 25, 2026
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- Average Rating4.3
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- First AnswerNovember 23, 2013
- Last AnswerMay 22, 2021
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Use D-Line Small Cord Organizer Boxes to hide power strips and excess cable clutter. By utilizing D-Line Cord Organizer Boxes, wasted space is regained, appearance improves and cables become less accessible to pets and infants. Perfect for cable management around computer workstations, audio visual equipment or holiday decorations for example.
Gets the job done. Smartly built. Very Useful.
Customer Rating
5.0
My original plan was to place this box behind my subwoofer to hide a Panamax power strip and some cables that littered the space. Unfortunately, the small box is too small for this purpose. Instead, I chose to use this box to organize the cable nest which lives in my daughter’s bedroom. The D-Line small cord organizer box does a fantastic job with her mess. I also have a cord chewing rabbit that will fry his little fury face off if allowed access to a nest of unsecured cables.
First, the box is made up of hard plastic. The box supports a small power strip that fits on the bottom of the box. The cable organizer box is not bespoke for any one kind of power strip. Meaning, do not expect your power strip to simply snap into some holder at the bottom of the box. This is general purpose box that should work with a wide variety of small power strips. I also found that power strips with top facing outlets work well and power strips with side facing outlets do not work at all. You will want the larger of D-Line’s cord organizer box if you have a large power strip or a power strip with side mounted outlets.
The organizer box has two openings on the back corners of the box and one along the top rear of the box. I found these well positioned to easily support the power strips power cord. The opening seemed natural enough for the power cord so as not to put any stress on the cord. It also gives me an opportunity to hide the cable between the wall outlet and the wall. The topmost cable route provides ample room to run many cables up and away from the power strip. For my purposes, I had a laptop power supply cable, a fan power cable, and an iPhone charging cable existing from the top.
Any heat generated from the power strip or wall warts can easily escape from the box via the cable openings and through a series of vent holes along the top cover. Meaning, I am not worried about anything heating up due to poor air flow. The top cover is removable. It requires some force. You average two-year old should, may, probably will, but don’t count on it, find it difficult to open. It will definitely thwart the efforts of your average thumbless bunny. This also means the box will not fall apart if accidentally kicked, dropped, or poorly handled.
The box itself is much nicer to look at than an ugly cable octopus. I can push the box up against the wall and hide the short power cable. And I can run the cables up the wall to the desk where, again, I don’t see them. The only downside to this box is that it is a lint and dust magnet. Other than that, it does exactly what it is supposed to do. Next, I’ll probably grab the larger of the two boxes to address my subwoofer cable mess.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Powered by our next-gen processor and intelligent algorithms, the WH-1000XM6 premium headphones deliver studio-quality sound and our most advanced noise cancellation. Co-created with mastering audio engineers, every detail and note are heard as the artist intended. Enjoy a pure, uninterrupted listening experience anywhere with crystal-clear call quality and pro-level audio.
Sony earned their five stars
Customer Rating
5.0
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The Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones are awesome! Audio is crystal clear, accurate, expansive, and with excellent bass reproduction. Comfort is fantastic. I could wear these all day without much worry for discomfort. ANC does a fantastic job of filtering out ambient noise. And the app support is second to none. As an all-arounder, the Sony XM6’s checks every box. I have seen nothing at this price level or above that delivers as complete a package Sony does with the XM6.
The musicality of the XM6 headphones are nothing short of amazing. I tend to listen to headphones at low to low-medium volume. According to Sony Sound Connect, this is equivalent to 60db to 65db; a very safe level for all day listening. At my preferred volume, vocals were clear and airy, instruments were resolving, and bass was crisp, clean, and very well behaved. For example, listening to Wilson Philip’s “Hold On”, the vocals and harmonies were front and center, the beat never got in the way of the vocals, and the guitars were properly both in the background and supportive of the vocals. This experience was easily reproduced with any artist and musical genre. Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” is an excellent example of a bass heavy track mixed with Beastie Boys typical rapping signature. The bass track is so heavy that it could easily overwhelm a pair of headphone drivers. Not here. Separate and clarity were perfect.
Movies are equally fun. The Sony XM6’s allows for standard 2-channel audio that can be up-mixed to Sony’s own 360 Audio format. My primary streaming platform is Netflix. Netflix recently produced an animated series titled “Arcane.” This series is a cornucopia of neon colors, hard-edged artistically rendered characters, and has a surprising rich musical and special effects soundtrack. The series is mixed in 5.1 surround. I originally watched the series on my 5.1 home theater system. I fired up a few key episodes on my laptop to test both stereo (Standard) and Cinema (360) modes. This is controllable via the Sony Sound Connect Application. Standard mode offered what I would call a standard two-channel, two-dimensional presentation. Cinema mode was a completely different presentation. Dialogue was shifted from the left and right ear cups to front and center. Explosions were spacious and extended beyond the confines of the ear cups. There were more subtle sound effects that seem to weave in and out of the scene like an ocean wave. Overall, I cannot think of any reason not to watch Netflix with anything other than the XM6’s from here on out. Will these replace my home theater? No. But if you enjoy cinema then I think you will love the Cinema mode. I found it hard to go back to standard two-channel listening after using Cinema mode for a few episodes.
ANC is fantastic. Constant, consistent noise such as fan noises and vacuum cleaners are easily filtered out. The noise reduction may cause a slight background hum which will invade the ear cup when nothing is playing. It is almost inaudible at my normal playing volume. ANC with music, even at low volumes, completely drowns out voices. For example, I was listening to NPR with ANC turned on during my workday. My wife had company in the next room that was speaking as if they were alone in the house. I had no idea they were in the house until I took off the XM6s. They could have been right outside my doorway, and I probably would not have heard them.
Ambient noise mode does a great job of providing a transparent hearing experience. It is not perfect. For example, the wall reflections from a hand clap are boosted by the XM6’s 12 microphones. Otherwise, the transparency is nearly perfect. Other headphone manufacturers also offer near transparency ambient noise passthrough. However, Sony takes their ambient sound to the level. First, in the Sony Sound Connect app, I can set the ambient noise threshold. Meaning, I can control the balance between my music intensity and the ambient sound intensity. I can also set a filter to prioritize voices. This allows me to filter out noise while allowing voices to pass through. Sony goes as far as to allow Speak-to-Chat which will reduce the volume of the music, or other audio content, and auto switch to an Ambient conversation mode. The voice sensitivity and mode time out are fully configurable. The Speak-to-Chat feature can be a mixed bag. First it works awesome and does exactly what it is supposed to do. Second, clearing my throat will, even on low sensitivity, activate this feature. Making an under-my-breath comment will also activate the mode. If you are one of those who talk to themselves, or self-narrate their day’s activities, then you will find it best to leave this mode disabled.
Sound quality, musicality, comfort, ANC flexibility, and an immersive cinema experience are worth Sony’s price of entry for the XM6’s. But Sony did not stop here. None of this would be possible without industry-leading software. No one comes close to what Sony offers in this space. I touched upon flexible ANC and Ambient modes above. Other notable features are a 10-band equalizer with three programmable presets. Too little bass? No problem. Maybe you want the vocals to be a bit brighter? No problem. Or maybe you want different presets for classical, Jazz, and Rock. That is easy enough to set. Sony even includes a built-in hearing test that will allow you to discover your best EQ settings. However, the test depends on the listener providing their own music for the test instead of providing a standardized loop of sounds that would aid in a more accurate test.
Sound Connect will also take hearing and headset wearing measurements to optimize 360 Reality Audio and Spatial listening. This is done using your cell phone’s camera. It is quick, simple, and does a great job.
A sub tab in Sound Connect, “Discover”, has a feature called Safe Listening. This page is dedicated to sound pressure in the ear cup over time. The most helpful feature on this page, in my opinion, is real-time ear cup sound pressure level (SPL) measurements. Once registered, this information will be displayed on the “My Device” page under your playing musical selection. Personally, I think this data should be front and center at the top of the page. Why? This is invaluable data to maintain good hearing health. Hearing damage is cumulative. Also, for whatever reason, Apple Music does not normalize every track to a standard output level. Meaning, there are times I am riding the volume controls because track 1 is quiet and track 2 blows my doors off.
Overall, the Sony WH-1000XM6’s are amazing. They are fun, musical, supremely comfortable for all day wearing, have outstanding ANC, are light, have unassuming aesthetics, and have a level of flexibility that make the XM6’s unique at any price level. There is a lot more that the XM6’s are excellent at that I did not cover here. Phone calls, multi-point pairing, automatic phone to music switching, automatic source switching, touch controls, storage, the case, and so much more that I could go on for hours about how much Sony got right with the XM6’s. If you are looking for the best all-arounder coupled with a robust software package, then you will love the Sony WH-1000XM6’s.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Unlock a next-level gaming experience with the ROG Strix G18. Featuring a 2.5K 240Hz Nebula Display with Pantone-validated color accuracy, it delivers stunning visuals. Powered by an Intel Core processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 laptop GPU, enjoy seamless gaming and creative performance. With 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and advanced ROG Intelligent Cooling, stay at the top of your game. The esports-ready keyboard, Dolby Atmos audio, and customizable RGB Aura Light Bar elevate every moment. Plus, enjoy easy upgrades and 3 months of PC Game Pass for the ultimate gaming experience.
Outstanding Performer
Customer Rating
5.0
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The ASUS ROG Strix G18 gaming laptop is a powerhouse for gaming. The G18 chewed through my favorite games like a hot knife threw butter. Its 3Dmark Time Spy benchmark score was 22,827. The Mobile 5080’s individual score was 21,815 while the Intel Ultra 9 275HX CPU score was 16,574. I keep reading reviews about how weak the Intel Ultra 9 is for gaming. Not only did this CPU bench well. It games well.
Gaming:
Mechwarrior Online, or MWO for short is a Direct X 9/11 game that is about 12 years old. It is also the game I play the most and am the most familiar with. There is No DLSS, no Ray Tracing, and no ALLM. Instead, this game is solidly in the class of system destroying, brute force, high horsepower graphics rendering that leverages TXAA anti-aliasing, Post-Processing, and, of course, max fidelity settings. Well, it was back in its day. At 2560x1600, the G18 completely owned MWO. FPS ranged from 130 to 90 with an average of around 100 FPS. In my experience, 130 is where this game tops out. Considering how poorly optimized this game is, 100 to 130 is perfect. Better yet, I was able to maintain this performance connected to my external 34” 1440 monitor.
Next, Diablo IV. This game runs great at medium high settings with DLSS turned on. DLSS is fine when walking around a town. When bossing or in a tough fight, where timing is everything, then DLSS simply gets in the way, and in some cases, will get your character killed. With DLSS on, I was steady around 130 FPS. With DLSS off, the G18 was able to maintain a steady 100 or higher FPS. Graphics settings were set to medium-high with some Ray Tracing on.
Finally, Call of Duty Black Ops 6. The first thing I did was run the built-in benchmark/calibration routine. I posted a screenshot so you can see all the numbers. The system scored 150 with DLSS on and 136 with DLSS off. For competitive play, turn DLSS off. It will save you a lot of frustration. Actual game play, the FPS hovered around 100 FPS. This was more than good enough to remain competitive. There was not screen tearing, no lag, and not ghosting on the screen. I actually had some of my best matches on the G18. That is, after I turned off DLSS. With DLSS on, I had some of my worst matches due to the lag or delay in real time, screen rendered information.
Overall, less DLSS, my gaming experience was excellent. DLSS has its place. Just not in online competitive gaming.
Fan Noise:
The G18 has five power profile modes that directly impact system noise. Amory Crate has three pre-configured profiles: Silent, Performance, and Turbo. Amory Crate also has a mode that works directly with Windows Power Plan. Finally, there is the option to build your own power profile. Silent is exactly that. Fans are off. The system will get warm but not hot. Performance mode has a range from quiet to loud depending on system load. Energy consumption increases on the system. This in turn causes more heat which demands the fans run to keep the system cool. While gaming, the fans ramped up to about 80% to 90%. I would recommend a good pair of noise canceling headphones while gaming. Turbo mode is full peak system power, peak heat, and peak leaf blower fan performance. At 100%, the G18 fans are loud. Headphones with good noise isolation is required. The fans running at 100% does a good job of keeping up with the heat. But, the system will still heat up and you will run into CPU throttling.
Overall, I feel that the Performance pre-set power profile is an excellent balance between energy consumption, heat management, and performance.
Keyboard and RGB lighting:
The keyboard is well laid out, comfortable to type and game on, and the keys have a good resistance and return. The only thing I do not like about this keyboard are the translucent Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F, and space bar keys. In a dark room, or a room with poor lighting, it is nearly impossible to read the silk screened letter on the key cap. I found this challenging in situations where I need to see the key. For example, I use a rare key function in one of my games and want to visually confirm before pressing the key. Not all my games are FPS games. This is not an issue in a well-lit room.
The RGB, as a whole, is very well done. The letters, number, and words on the regular key caps are shine through. And each key cap allows light to purposely blead around the edges. The bottom of the G18 has four RGB light strips that can either coordinate with the keyboard RGB or act independent of the keyboard. I kept them on for a few days and then turned them off. The RGB strips are well done, well placed, and cast a lot of light. Asus provides a way to change RGB via some presets. It also provides the ability to turn the lighting off. One place where Asus seems to keep missing the mark is keyboard lighting customization. Aura Creator is a nice to have, assuming it will even detect your keyboard and chassis light bars, but it is insanely difficult to use to any effect. And tying custom profiles to games has always been a hit or miss exercise.
Sound:
The speakers are clear and good enough for laptop speakers. They won’t compete with a dedicated headset or dedicated external speakers. They are good enough for YouTube, pod casts, Netflix, internet radio, and other leisurely listening activities. While gaming, the fan noise will overwhelm the speaker audio quality. They are still useful for gaming. However, the competition with the fan noise will eventually force you into a headset.
Screen Performance:
I think Asus nailed it with the screen. Colors are bright and vibrant. The refresh rate at 240Hz is excellent. I did not notice any ghosting, artifacts, or screen tearing while gaming. Even the fast twitch movements associated with playing CoD6 was clean, fast, and completely immersive. The only thing that would make my experience better is upgrading the laptop’s screen to an OLED. Or connecting to an external OLED gaming monitor.
Upgradability:
I upgrade my laptops. Back in the day, laptops had doors and drawers to access hard drives, memory, CD players, and batteries. Today, everything has screws and plastic clamps which are time consuming, difficult to work with, and can often lead to scratches or other unintended damage. Thank you, thank you, thank you Asus for bringing “easy” back to user-accessible upgrades. The bottom cover has a latch that slides, clicks, and then the bottom cover simply slides off. It could not be any easier. Ram, battery, and SSD slots are easily accessible. The main board is protected by a secondary plastic cover.
Final thoughts:
This is a beast of a system. The system will get warm regardless of what power mode is selected. Under load, the system fans get loud. Gaming performance is excellent. Daily productivity is excellent. There are power saving features, such as CPU Core Configuration and nVidia Optimus, that will help make this laptop perfect as a workstation and gaming computer replacement. Overall, I am very happy with the G18. I think it is an excellent system.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Upgrade your home theater experience with the Rocketfish 15 ft. In-Wall Male to Male RCA Cable with Shielding for Subwoofers and More and enjoy a high-level audio experience, reduced signal interference and a better overall performance. A step up from your basic RCA cable, it features digital coaxial technology, high-quality copper, 100% shielding, and corrosion resistant gold-plated connectors. The durable 22 AWG cable is also UL CL2 in-wall rated so you can feel good about your new setup.
Gets the job done without all the eye candy
Customer Rating
5.0
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I replaced a 20-year-old three-foot RCA Monster Cable that was originally used for a camcorder, remember those, with a Rocketfish RCA 15-foot shielded cable. The cable connects my MartinLogin 600X 10-inch sub to my Technics SA-600 integrated stereo/CD amplifier. This was fine when the stereo lived on my desk and cable length was not an issue. As my system grew, and my office needs changed, I found that I needed a rack to store all my gear. The rack stands next to my work desk. I need a longer cable.
The Rocketfish cable is made from a flexible PVC jacket that easily bends around corners, through cable runs, through walls (UL CL2 in-wall rated), and around furniture. For me, the cable needs to run from behind my rack, follow power and data cables to my desk, rest in a wire cable holder under my desk that runs the length of the desk, and be long enough to support the desk changing heights throughout the day. The desk is a motorized, variable height desk. The PVC jacket is smooth enough to resist friction from the other cables. It is also flexible enough to resist snagging on the furniture, laptop power bricks, and other items as the desk rises and lowers multiple times a day. This is important because the desk is powerful enough to cause damage if the cable were to get snagged on anything.
The PVC jacket is molded into the aluminum shell connectors. It is a handsome cable. But definitely not what I would classify as dopamine fueled audio jewelry. The ends of the cable are gold plated. They connect tightly to my sub’s RCA jack and my stereo’s RCA jack. I pulled on the cable and could not disconnect it with a good yank. Twist and pull seems to be the preferred method of disconnecting the cable. There is little chance that the cable will disconnect when playing the system hard. Finally, I tried to unscrew the gold-plated connectors. They would not budge.
My office has multiple laptops, monitors, stereo equipment, a charging station, printer, and everything is plugged into a Panamax power center. The subwoofer cable touches many of these power cables, touches two AC laptop power bricks, and shares cable hanger space under my desk with multiple data and speaker cables. That is a lot of potential EM interference that the cable could pick up. Since this cable is shielded, I do not hear any humming, snow, or static through the sub when the sub powered on and silent. When playing music, my bass is full, quick, and clean. Essentially, the cable is not getting in the way of my music. Which is exactly what one would expect from a good cable.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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SCUF - Valor Pro Wired Performance Controller for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC - Steel Gray
Valor Pro pushes performance on Xbox with optimized ergonomics and game-changing features. Stop sacrificing your aim. Keep your thumbs on the thumbsticks while you jump, slide, reload, and more. The wraparound bumpers are designed with more surface area allowing faster transitions between bumper and trigger. Elevate your audio controls by effortlessly managing all your sounds without taking your hands off the controller. Our new anti-drift Hall effect thumbsticks are designed to alleviate common symptoms of wear and tear. A non-slip grip helps during those high intensity situations while the new shape fits naturally in your hands for comfort. Valor Pro redefines gaming comfort and performance.
Great Experience. Great Feature Set.
Customer Rating
5.0
If the original Xbox controller and the Xbox Elite controller had a middle brother, or sister, it would be the SCUF Valor Pro. It is a little more premium in feel and function than the original Xbox Controller. And it has many of the advanced features of the elite at a fraction of the cost. What I like most about the Valor Pro is the size and feel are so close to the first party controller that it feels like a tricked out first party controller. It feels comfortable in my hands, is responsive, does not suffer the stick drift issues of the original Xbox and Elite controllers, and I feel that the paddle setup feels very natural. Below is my detailed review. However, if you are short on time, let me just say that the SCUF Valor Pro is a fantastic controller that does not require me to make any compromises by choosing it over a first party controller. If anything, it allows me to dip into the premium world, with a familiar look and feel, without breaking the bank. If you are in the market for a new controller then I highly recommend giving the Valor Pro a spin.
The meat of my review:
First, it is almost the exact same size as the original Xbox controller. In the hand, it feels exactly like an original Xbox controller. The handles of the controller are covered in a hard textured rubber type material that prevents slipping. The grips do a good job. The rest of the Valor’s surface is covered in a smooth, soft texture that provides some additional handling control. It is not grippy enough to impede my ability to reach for buttons, manipulate the thumb sticks, or activate the controls on the bottom of the controller.
The trigger and bumper buttons are smaller than the original Xbox controllers. Not a big deal since they are still spaced properly for my muscle memory. The trigger stops have two settings: long and short. The default setting allows the trigger to flow along its full range of motion. I found the default range of motion too deep for my liking and play style. The short setting is super short. There is almost no movement between rest and press. However, the short trigger setting has a higher resistance. I found that the increased responsiveness more than made up for the additional depression resistance.
The bumpers, XYAB buttons, and thumb stick buttons all have a familiar feel as any other high quality Xbox controller. The XYAB buttons are black and look good with against the grey background and orange highlights. The XYAB buttons do not appear replaceable. At least not easily replaceable like the D-Pad and thumb sticks. The thumb sticks are a bit stiffer than what I am used too. It took a good twenty minutes of COD6 before I felt comfortable. This was especially true with aiming down sight. The increased resistance made it difficult for precision aiming until I got used to the additional resistance.
The thumb sticks are interchangeable. The Valor Pro ships with two additional sticks. The sticks come in a medium height and tall size. Both replacement sticks have a concave pad to make it easier to control with the added height. The faceplate must be removed in order to replace the thumb sticks. Thankfully, the faceplate is magnetically attached which makes removal super easy. The sticks pull out and the replacements press on. I found that I need an exceptional amount of force to remove and replace the thumb sticks. The control surfaces of each thumb stick is also comfortable and feel well made. Finally, there is no tension control for the thumb sticks. What you have is what you have. I did find this a bit disappointing because I very much wanted to loosen them up a bit.
Anti-Drift thumb sticks. My avatar in Titan Fall 2 no longer drifts to the right. If you have ever played Titan Fall 2 with a first party controller, then you know exactly what I am talking about. The Valor Pro does not suffer stick drift. Consider this confirmed!
The paddle system is unique. I normally remove the paddles from any controller I own that has a paddle feature. Those without removeable paddles gets returned. I tend to play with a death grip on my controller. Which means the paddles just get in the way. I think SCUF had my play style in mind when they developed their paddle system. The paddles are thin slices taken out of the hand grips. Simply squeezing my hand is not enough to activate them so there is no worry about panic pressing either paddle. I found them to be very natural to use and did not require me to change my grip. Saying this, there are two buttons on the bottom of the controller. I did not like those so much because I would need to retrain my hands to use them. SCUF was thoughtful enough to make the buttons removable. The Valor Pro ships with replacement button covers to cover the buttons.
The controller is wired. The SCUF Valor ships with a 10-foot fabric braided cable. The cable is USB A on one end, for the Xbox or PC, and the controller end is USB C. I realize that using a cable in 2025 may seem a bit old school. However, it does allow for the controller to be lighter due to the exclusion of a battery pack. The controller will also never run out of power or lose power. If you are anything like me then you enjoy long multi-hour gaming sessions where any interruption can cause a panic attack. I cannot tell you how many times I lost my you-know-what in the middle of a match because I forgot to charge my controller the day before.
Unique features. The controller has a programing function. Essentially, I can reassign any button on the controller to a paddle. The bottom of the controller has a special program button. Press and hold the program button, press the button I want to map, and then press the paddle. Unfortunately, there is no PC or Xbox program that allows me to visually program the buttons. I also did not see any mention of programming macros to any of the paddle buttons. I know macro programming is popular on the PC side of the Call of Duty world and with other popular cross platform games. No joy here with the SCUF. And I am ok with that. I would rather play too my skills than play to my macro. At least I know that what I did, I earned.
There are also three profiles that are easy to access: Blue, Green, Red. Each profile is a different paddle configuration. A simple press of the profile button on the bottom of the controller will cycle through all three. This makes finding an agreeable configuration a snap if you do not want to go through the trouble of programming each paddle.
Overall, I really enjoy the SCUF Valor wired Xbox controller. What I was coming from was already a great controller. I found it to be a wonderful compromise between the original Xbox Controller and then Elite. Does it make me a better gamer? No. Not really. Better gear will increase enjoyment and may give me a leg up in some instances. But, I am still the same mediocre player I have always been.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Rising from the successful Project Esther, feel the future of gaming immersion with Razer Freyja ~ the world~s first HD haptic gaming cushion. Powered by Razer Sensa HD Haptics, experience a full range of dynamic tactile sensations that fully syncs with your game, from forceful explosions to the subtle pulse of a heartbeat.
Increases immersion for my favorite games
Customer Rating
4.0
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Originally, I did not give the Razer Freyja much consideration when asked to review it. Then I learned that two games, Mechwarrior: Clans and Mechwarrior: Mercenaries, would have dedicated Sensa HD haptic game profiles. I had to have it. Unfortunately, the Sensa HD game profiles were not available at the time of this review. Fortunately, the Freyja has a few tricks up its sleeve to keep it relevant for all games. The Frejya, in essence, are three pairs of transducers that turn electrical impulses into physical impulses that jiggle your back and bottom in time to music and sound effects mostly in the bass and sub-base frequencies down to 30hz. The Sensa software reads the sound output from the game, isolates the proper frequencies, and then sends them wirelessly to the Frejya where six transducers turn that sound into vibrations.
Why is this important to me? I, and my fellow Mechwarriors, are always looking for ways to increase the immersive experience with these games. Imagine feeling the footfalls of a 100-ton battlemech as metal meets unyielding pavement in your cockpit two stories up. Now, image feeling the recoil from launching ordinance the size of a small car down range. Or imagine that same found impacting you? Upgrading to a larger monitor, adding an RGB programmable keyboard, installing RGB everything else, integrating powerful speakers and subwoofers, buying a surround sound gaming headset, and even integrating a VR helmet increases immersion. But nothing provides that raw immersive experience of feeling the vibrations of your mech’s footfalls rise up through your chair. Or the back of your gaming chair giving you a good jolt as you squeeze off an autocannon round. It is one step closer to the visceral experience from one that, up until recently, has been locked in the visual and sonic realm. The Freyja, after some adjustments, did an excellent job of delivering on that experience and adding that one dimension I was missing to connect me with my game.
In short, I am glad I did not snob this one off. Razer’s Chroma application will intercept the audio output stream for any application via the Sensa HD Haptics module and push that data to the Freyja. OK. Game on!
Mechwarrior Games:
The first game I loaded up was Mechwarrior 5: Clans. I chose a mission full of combat, city destruction, exploding fuel tanks, and a huge hamster ball shaped dropship that would make NASA’s Orion program envious.
I turned the haptic intensity to 4, started with the “Controlled” haptic preset, and then I hit the battlefield in my 75 Ton Timberwolf battlemech. And…sad face disappointment... I was expecting to feel every footfall up through my gaming chair as I marched my battlemech up the hill toward the city and adjoining spaceport. I expected to feel the chair rumble uncontrollably when walked through a collapsing building. I expected to feel the recoil from my weapons file in time with pulling the trigger. I did, to a point, but it was anemic. The drop ship’s engines should have been enough to launch me from my chair. But, here too, the haptic feedback was anemic. Upping the haptic feedback to 5 or 6 did not resolve the issue. But wait, I promise you a happy ending.
The Sensa app has four profiles for any game I want to configure. Controlled, Balanced, Dynamic are static, predefined profiles that can be used with any game or content. Custom, the fourth and last profile, allows a user to adjust the frequency and gain responses for a specific game. I cycled through Balanced and Dynamic with Mechwarrior: Clans. Balanced got me more of what I was looking for. Dynamic dialed everything up to 11! With Dynamic, everything from walking to shooting to walking through collapsing buildings had my chair jumping all over the place. It was a lot of fun until I realized that I was simply over saturating my feedback experience. Meaning, there was no isolation between what was happening on the screen and what was happening in the chair. Balanced provided the best overall experience. Once I found what worked for me, I then set about tuning the profile for the experience I wanted. I was able to balance the game so I could feel the feedback I desired while also minimizing the chaos I experienced with the Dynamic experience. Smily face time!
The same is true regarding Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. Even though the experience between Mechwarrior: Clans and Mechwarrior: Mercenaries are similar, Mercenaries does require a little extra fiddling to get an equally satisfying experience. The good news is that each game can be configured separately in the Sensa app. And the Sensa app will automatically choose the correct profile for me. This is like how keyboard, mouse, headset, and lighting can be configured, per game, in Razer’s Chroma and Visualizer today. The Sensa HD App has an Add Games & Program button which allows me to pick any game or application that I want to link a Sensa profile to.
Finally, I fired up my bread-and-butter Mechwarrior game, Mechwarrior Legends, aka MWO. This is where the Freyja really shined for me. The Dynamic profile worked best for this game. This is most likely due to the limited sonic experience compared to the other Mechwarrior titles. And that is a good thing. My mech’s footfalls were 100% isolated and easy to feel through the Freyja. Auto canons, such as rotary auto canons, were a meaty, satisfying punch to my back and seat. So meaty in fact that I had to turn down the haptic feedback after about an hour because I was physically feeling fatigued from the constant vibration. I played a few matches with my buddies and had a great time. The feedback did not interfere with my game or play style. It simply added a layer of immersion that I did not have before.
Diablo IV:
I did not spend all my time completely focused on Mechwarrior. Like Mechwarrior, the Freyja and the Sensa App do not have pre-built profiles. In this case, I used the Controlled preset. The very first feedback experience with Diablo IV was the opening splash screen where a sub-bass note is played while the Diablo logo is revealed. The whole seat vibrated sufficiently to make me feel as if I were part of the opening logo. I had to turn down the haptic feedback because the music itself kept overwhelming my senses. Once in game, the music was less of an issue and combat took center stage. Generally speaking, combat moves that include ground pounding, earthquakes, and explosions can get visceral depending on the haptic feedback settings. What really impressed me was how well the Freyja isolated the hoof falls of my horse as I road around the map. Overall, the haptic feedback was not overdone. It was just right to keep me engaged in my play while also not distracting me from the game.
Voice Communications:
My Mechwarrior team uses Discord for voice communications. The Razer Sensa HD Haptics app warns that speech may trigger the Freyja while using Balanced and Dynamic Audio profiles. And I’ll tell you that male voices will absolutely trigger the Freyja’s haptic feedback. It is an odd sensation when your chair is vibrating as men with deep voices are speaking. It became less of an issue during game play where the sound effects would drown out the haptic feedback associated with speech. This was not isolated to Discord. In game comms and even in game dialog were translated via Sensa to the Freyja. Unfortunately, there is no “dialog” filter in Sensa.
Music:
Music sucks with the Freyja. Simple music with a clearly defined beat, and nothing else competing with that beat in the low end, is good thought out of phase. Meaning, there is latency between when the beat is played through the speaker and headphone and when it is reproduced by the Freyja. I noticed this in my game play as well though I did not find it as important with gaming. If the piece if complex, for example the title theme for Pacific Rim, then the Freyja simply jumps all over the place and feels like a complete mess. Meaning, I would not watch the movie, “Pacific Rim”, sitting on the Freyja because the movie uses a lot of bass and sub-bass frequencies to reinforce the music, sound effects, and the onscreen action. For me, I’ll give this Freyja a pass when it comes to music.
Comfort:
How comfortable is the Freyja? The Freyja is comfortable enough for short gaming sessions. For me, two to three hours max before I need to get up and move around. I may even remove it depending on how I feel. The seat cushions are made of soft foam, but each cushion has a transducer in it. Which is hard. Eventually, I need to stand or add a cushion to my chair.
Second, there is no lumbar support. My chair has a lumbar support pillow which is still popular with many gaming chairs. I put the pillow behind the Freyja to add lumber support. Unfortunately, this pushed the middle back transducers into my back while pushing the upper back transducer away from my back. If I put the lumbar support pillow in front of the Freyja then I would have the opposite problem of losing contact with the middle back transducers.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am glad I added the Freyja to my gaming rig. I am satisfied with the additional immersion the cushion adds to some of my favorite games and franchises. It is not perfect. In game voices, voice communications such as Discord or TeamSpeak, and voice in cut scenes that have deep bass will translate to the Freyja. It will also not make you a better gamer. It does increase the immersion of my favorite games.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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With faster read/write speeds of up to 7,250/6,300 MB/s*, larger storage capacity of up to 4TB with TurboWrite 2.0 and 73% ** greater power efficiency compared with the 990 EVO, the 990 EVO Plus makes large editing, file transfer or gaming tasks go smoother and faster. It~s the perfect productivity boost helping you tackle a busy day full of work (or play).
Good for gaming, good burst data rates
Customer Rating
4.0
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I set up the Samsung 990 EVO Plus as a second hard drive in my Asus ROG G814 gaming laptop.
The G814 shipped with a WD PC SN740 SDDP 1TB drive which closely matches the performance of the 990 EVO Plus. Hence, I did not feel it was worth my time to clone my boot drive to the 990 EVO Plus. It did not take me long to fill the drive up with games, applications, and files. I did already have a Samsung 980 1TB drive as a second drive which was replaced by the 990 EVO Plus.
The G814 shipped with a WD PC SN740 SDDP 1TB drive which closely matches the performance of the 990 EVO Plus. Hence, I did not feel it was worth my time to clone my boot drive to the 990 EVO Plus. It did not take me long to fill the drive up with games, applications, and files. I did already have a Samsung 980 1TB drive as a second drive which was replaced by the 990 EVO Plus.
Installing the 990 EVO Plus was straight forward. First, I offloaded my files from my older Samsung 980, removed the old drive from the laptop, replaced it with the new drive, and then rebooted the system. The Bios recognized the drive, asked me to accept the new settings, and then the system booted to Windows. Windows detected the drive and allowed me to partition and format the drive. I chose to partition the whole 2GB as a single drive.
Performance:
The max performance for my laptop appears to be between 5.5GB. At least that is the max benchmarked read performance reported by Samsung’s Magician built in benchmarking tool. Real world performance is a more complicated story. Burst data reads and writes range between 2.5GB/s and 3.5GBs for about a minute. After a minute then the drive takes a dive to between 400MB/s to 700MB/S. The performance can drop again If the read or write is sustained. I ran a few torture tests that lasted upwards of 10 minutes. Essentially, extended read/write operations are terrible. This will not impact my games, photo editing, or documents I work on. Load times will seldom exceed the burst data rate window. If I were doing video encoding, then this would move up to the non-EVO version of the 990.
I created three folders: 3GB Video files, 800MB video files, and 30K photos and files. Each folder contained at least 100GB of data. I did a drive-to-drive copy and an inter-drive data copy with each folder. Moving data from the 990 EVO Plus to my boot drive had the best sustained performance than any of the other tests. Moving the same folders from the boot drive to the 990 EVO Plus showed a bit slower sustained performance but good enough for my needs.
Folder to folder copy was a different story. Making a copy of each of the three folders followed the same pattern. Burst data rate of 2.5GB/s to 3.5GB/s was sustained for about 60 seconds. Then the data rate would nosedive to 400MB/s to 500MB/s. The step down in sustained data rates dropped twice during the 30K file run. I included a photo with the Windows Explorer file copy graphs for reference.
My conclusion is that burst data rates are excellent. Loading games, game levels, and swapping other content from the drive to memory are excellent. This is mostly due to the short transactional nature of the content. I played the likes of Diablo IV, Mechwarrior 5: Clans, MWO, Fortnite, and several other games from Xbox Game Pass, Steam, EA, and Blizzard without any stuttering or other odd behavior. Load times were really good.
Some Numbers:
I posted a photo of the file transfer tests I conducted using Windows Explorer. There is some overhead to Windows Explorer file copy that would explain some of the performance results but not all of it.
My Asus ROG Strix 18 has two full sized SSD drive slots. The primary drive space has a WD PC SN740 SDDP 1TB drive. My second drive was a Samsung SSD 980 1TB drive. The 980 was replaced by the 990 EVO Plus.
WD PC SN740 SDDP: Sequential Read MB/s 3514, Sequential Write MB/s 2820, Random Read IOPS 191894, Random Write IOPS 103271.
Samsung SSD 980: Sequential Read MB/s 4277, Sequential Write MB/s 4166, Random Read IOPS 195556, Random Write IOPS 109130.
990 EVO Plus: Sequential Read MB/s 5500, Sequential Write MB/s 5066, Random Read IOPS 148925, Random Write IOPS 105957.
Conclusion:
I think the 990 EVO Plus is a good choice for gaming, storage, and photo editing. The drive should work for video editing but not in instances where sustained data rates are required.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Elevate your aerial photography and videography skills with the F28-Premium Foldable GPS Drone featuring a 4K Gimbal Camera and advanced 2-Axis Gimbal for smooth, stable footage, even in challenging conditions. Its 4K Full HD Time-Lapse feature and panoramic shooting technology allow for stunning, crystal-clear visuals with adjustable angles from -90 to 0 degrees and an 85-degree field of view. Enjoy precise GPS control, multiple intelligent flight modes like Follow Me and Orbit Mode, and a flight range of 3600 feet with up to 30 minutes of flight time. Compact and portable, this foldable drone is equipped with dual-frequency connectivity, supports SD cards up to 128 GB, and is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The F28-Premium Foldable GPS Drone is your gateway to professional-grade aerial creativity~buy now and take your shots to new heights!
Solid Package. Great starting point.
Customer Rating
4.0
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The Contixo F28 is a great beginner drone for those who want to get into arial photography or are looking for an entry point into the hobby. The kit comes with everything needed to get started: Drone, lithium ion battery pack, controller, instructions, spare screws, spare props, screw driver, charging cable (wall charger not included), launching and landing pad, and a hardish case to carry everything around in. The quality of the unit is great for a drone that weights .55 grams. The controls are responsive. The F28 does a decent job of stabilizing itself as it transitions from motion to hover. Takes good photos.
Quality:
The Contixo drone and controller is made from lite-weight plastic. The only metal I can find are the joysticks, screws, and electronics. There are rubber pads strategically located around the control box to assist with a strong grip. The camera is suspended by a free floating armature that does a good job of keeping the camera level and vibration free during flight, during acceleration and deceleration, and while rotating the camera head. The motors and props push some serious air. I blew the landing pad away with every takeoff. I could also feel the turbulence as the F28 took off and flew away from me.
The F28 includes a black, cloth covered protective shell case. The case includes a molded interior to keep the F28, remote, and up to two battery packs safe and secure during transport. The case has a mesh lining with a zippered pocket allowing the secure transport of documentation, extra parts, and anything else that may be required to operate the F28. There is a bright orange, fold out landing pad for take-off and landing. Unfortunately, the landing pad is not heavy enough to prevent it from blowing away on takeoff or landing.
The included USB charging cable does not include a matching power supply. A standard phone charger, like an iPhone power adapter, will not be power enough to charge either the battery or the remote. You need a full 5V 2A power supply. A power supply capable of providing more than 5V 2A will also not work. It needs to be just right or the battery will simply not charge. Finally, the F28 battery is very finicky regarding which cable is used for charging. I could only get the battery to charge with the included cable and with a USB cable that shipped with my Corsair gaming keyboard. This is a real head scratcher because I have some very well made cables. Lesson: do not loose the cable that ships with the F28.
Flight:
Once properly setup and calibrated, the F28 is easy to control and very responsive. Calibration for the F28 only seems to work with GPS mode on and then only if there is a GPS connection. My first flight was with an uncalibrated F28 due to the heavy cloud cover interfering with GPS. I was eventually able to put the F28 into ATTN mode for manual flight. Unfortunately, weather has been a real issue for me during my time with the F28. As such, I was not able to take advantage of the GPS feature due to the heavy cloud cover and poor GPS signal. Regardless, my first flight, once air born, went pretty smooth. Both manual and auto take off were very smooth. Manual landing, however was rough for me. Thankfully, there is also an auto landing function built into the app. If GPS is active, then the F28 will return to it’s original take off spot when commanded to auto land.
My flight started with the speed set to Normal. Vertical lift and drop is fantastic. This drone will pop and drop instantly. The F28 does a good job compensating for momentum when dropping. There were a few times I caught the drone falling some after popping it up to my desired altitude. Any kind of turbulence will also impact the ability to the drone to maintain altitude. There were a few times where the drone would be pushed up or down depending if it caught an updraft or a downdraft. Once this happened the drone would continue in the direction it was pushed until I tapped the controls to course correct. This was also true if the F28 caught a breeze after moving left, right, forward, or backwards. The F28’s natural preference is to come to a complete stop and hover when the commands stop. This proved less of an issue for me when running the drone in Photo speed mode.
Photo speed is the slowest flight speed for the F28. If you are new to drones, like I am, than photos speed is the right level of training wheels. The F28 lumbers along providing a steady platform for photography. I was able to zoom around my yard, snap a few photos, and hit a few tree branches, side of the house, a bush. Doh! But no damage!
Racing speed is crazy fast; especially for a novice. I tried this in my backyard and ran into a tree before I knew what happened. Thankfully, it was a decorative fir tree which is nice and soft. I did try to zoom the F28 around my backyard on this mode but was unable to get any kind of fine control. I ran the F28 around my local soccer field. Man, does this thing cruise. The controls also felt a bit clunky and stiff for me achieve any level of finesse at this speed. The control sticks have a smooth four way motion but are really stiff on the diagonals. Smooth eight-way control is possible when controlling the F28 using thumb and forefinger on the control sticks. However, the ergonomics of the controller work against me trying to control the F28 in this way.
In addition to what I said above, there can be a bit of skating from side to side when the F28 gets caught up in any air movement. However, in still air, the F28 can start and stop on a dime. When the control sticks return to their neutral position the F28 will pull back in the opposite direction to force a hover. And it does a pretty good job. The camera also does a good job of remaining level when the F28 is compensating for momentum and leveling out.
Photos:
The F28 photos are ok. I was expecting much better than what I got. These are transmitted directly to my phone for storage. However, every time I take a photo, the app asks me for permission to store the photo on my phone. Major pain since this splits my attention between the drone operation and asking an obtrusive question on my cell phone screen. The F28 has an SD slot for local photo and video storage. It is worth investing in an SD Card for 4K video. The drone will not transmit 4K video to the app for storage on the phone. I included a few photos with my review for your inspection.
Camera
The camera is level with the horizon. The onboard sensor does its best to keep the camera level during flight, transmitting video, and with stills. Sometimes, the camara did tilt along the y-axis. This mostly happened if I landed roughly or <cough> <cough> hit something. There does not appear to be a mechanism that allows the F28 to recenter the camera. So, I was left rotating the camera by hand a few times to tease it back to center.
I witnessed a neat feature while holding the drone. When I was handling the drone, I noticed that the camera gimble continued to auto correct to remain level with the horizon. This was easy to see on my iPhone while trying to fly by camera. I was taking this for granted until I saw what the drone was doing in real time while in my hand. For clarity, the drone was powered on but the rotors were powered down. Safety first!
Finally, the F28 comes with a camera cover to protect the camera and camera assembly during transport. The camera cover also falls off after removing and replacing it a few times. It does a good job of protecting the camera and camera assembly when in storage. Just be sure to account for the camera cover when removing or storing the F28. It is a simple friction fit.
The F28 can also see through the cover. I do not recommend flying with the cover attached since the camera is designed to auto level as the drone flies and hovers. Also, as stated above, it will probably fall off and get lost.
Controller:
Like the F28, the controller is mostly plastic. Only the controller sticks are metal. The controller fits in my and like a game controller but without the ergonomics. The shape of the controller forces me to fly with my thumbs on top of the sticks instead of allowing me to comfortably control the sticks with my thumb and forefinger. My thumbs are like hammers compared to the fine control I could apply with thumbs and forefinger. The camera dials, in my opinion, are difficult to use. They only activate at the edges of their movement and nothing in between. They would be much easier to use if the rotation of the dials was shortened.
Battery life is good. I was able to get several flights before needing to recharge the controller. The top of the controller doubles as a phone holder. In combination with the Contixo app, the phone becomes part of the controller displaying video, maps, drone position, and other important metrics. It will hold up to a normal sized iPhone. The larger iPhone like Pros, Maxes, whatever the supersized screen iPhones are called these days, will not fit. The controllers LCD is bright, clear, and easy to read.
The control sticks are very well machined. The tips are covered in sharp ridges that will bit into your thumbs or gloves. The sides of the control sticks are also textured but are less aggressive. The sticks can also be unscrewed and replaced.
Final thoughts:
Overall, I think the F28 Premium is a solid package for those looking to get into the hobby of flying drones or aerial photography. The kit comes with everything needed less a power supply. The construction may be plastic but has proven to be durable enough to take a hit or two. The F28 is stable enough to take some steady photos. Phone integration is excellent.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Bring paper into your digital workflow with reMarkable Paper Pro. Ultraslim and portable, but with a full-size 11.8~ color display, adjustable reading light, and an unmatched paper-like writing experience.
Very nice E-Paper notebook
Customer Rating
5.0
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I have been using the reMarkale Paper Pro with the Marker Pro for the past week. I designed a simple home theater, updated my resume, and jotted down my notes for this review as ways to get familiar with the Paper Pro and Marker Pro capabilities. The quality of the Paper Pro is fantastic. The body is metal with a slightly textured glass writing surface. The metal body has four anti-slip pads that do an excellent job of keeping the Paper Pro from slipping while writing or drawing. The Marker Pro charges wirelessly when magnetically attached to the right, long edge of the Paper Pro. The writing surface provides tactile experience that simulates a writing instrument dragging across the grain of paper. It is not an exact duplicate, but good enough to remind me that I am not writing on a traditional tablet. The Marker Pro pencil is slightly heavier than a #2 pencil, it is as long as a #2 pencil, and it fits and moves in my hand like a #2 pencil.
Setup:
The reMarkable Paper Pro’s quick start guide is a total of three instructions. 1. Power button, 2. this is where the USB charging cable goes, and 3. here is where the Marker Pro attaches to the Paper Pro. The Quick setup for the Marker Plus directs that the Marker be attached to the Paper Pro prior to powering on the Paper Pro for the first time. This allows the Paper Pro and Marker Plus to sync.
I was directed through a series of setup instructions the first time I powered on the device. I was then directed to a Getting Started notebook once setup was complete. Read this notebook! The six pages are extremely lite reading but do offer some key information on how to change writing instruments, pick colors, use highlighting, and how to make a straight line. Unfortunately, the level and amount of information is inadequate to get the most out of the Paper Pro. I spent a lot of time experimenting with the different icons found along the left-hand side of my notebooks and with the icons used to manage the Paper Pro.
I was directed through a series of setup instructions the first time I powered on the device. I was then directed to a Getting Started notebook once setup was complete. Read this notebook! The six pages are extremely lite reading but do offer some key information on how to change writing instruments, pick colors, use highlighting, and how to make a straight line. Unfortunately, the level and amount of information is inadequate to get the most out of the Paper Pro. I spent a lot of time experimenting with the different icons found along the left-hand side of my notebooks and with the icons used to manage the Paper Pro.
A reMarkable account is required for features such as OCR, cloud folder synchronization, and integration with the reMarkable application. The reMarkable will function both with and without the paid subscription. The free account will get you OCR, cloud storage access with certain providers, and integration with the reMarkable app. The $3.14 a month (The site says $2.99 until you check out) will get you unlimited cloud storage, extends the warranty, and adds advanced data sharing features between the Paper Pro and your other devices. The Paper Pro comes with a 100-day demo period so that you can decide for yourself if the subscription has value for you.
Writing Experience:
Using black ink with the different pen, pencil, marker, and brush tools is clean, accurate, and immediately makes a mark on the tablet surface. Wherever the tip of the Marker Pro touches the writing surface is exactly where the mark is made. The different writing tools do interact with both the writing surface and the Maker Pro in unique ways. For example, using the pencil tool allows for pressure sensitive writing. It also allows me to use the writing tip at an angle so that I can shade in objects or make specialized marks, just like a real pencil. Not all writing tools have special features. At least nothing that I discovered.
Please note that reMarkable’s documentation and website are overly simplistic and do not provide much content or instruction. There is a support section to the site which is equally spartan.
Color writing and drawing is a neat feature but can be disruptive. All of the writing tools can use most colors that the Paper Pro screen supports. However, the mark on the page starts as black. After a brief pause, the line refreshes four to five times until my chosen color appears on the page. Sometimes the whole page refreshes multiple times if I am using multiple colors or layers. This is not a big deal if using a color over here or a color over there. But if I am drawing with multiple colors or using multiple colors to organize a lot of information then this becomes really annoying really fast. For example, when designing a home theater system, I need to measure and calculate angles. Using different colors to represent different layers of associated data goes a long way to allow me to express my ideas in a clear and easy to understand manner. But if the screen is going through four or five refreshes after every color line I make then I am fighting the tablet as much as I am trying to exercise my creativity to express my ideas.
Drawing Tools:
The Paper Pro ships with a wide range of templates. The templates can be applied per page. Meaning, page one can be wide lined, page two can be a daily planner, and page three can be covered in hexagons. However, I make a lot of organizational charts and business workflow diagrams. I draw out home theater and room design projects. And the Paper Pro does not have any tools that assist me with these activities. For example, to draw a straight line, the Marker Pro’s tip must touch the surface, pause for a second, draw my line, and then pause the Marker Pro’s top at the end point. This tells the Paper Pro that I want a straight line between the two points. That is the entirety of all the special tools available to drawing. Drawing a box is completely manual. If I want lots of boxes, then I can select my drawn box and copy it as many times as I want. Which is what I did with my sample home theater. There is no tool to make a perfect circle, triangles, rectangles, or other shapes. I had to raid my art supplies to find a stencil in order to make a perfect circle to represent a tower style subwoofer in my home theater design. I would like to see reMarkable add some drawing tools including shapes, arrows, indicators, and other quick features that support business, process design, and types of shapes that make drawing and collaborating much easier for how I will use the tablet. I would also like a shape filling tool so I can easily fill a shape with a pre-determined color. I realize that this is not an art tablet, but I consider these bare bone functions that that fall right in line with the Paper Pro’s design goals.
The good news, however, is that I can use stencils, protractors, rulers, and other drawing tools with the reMarkable. The edge of the remarkable is level with the writing surface which means oversized tools such as rulers are flush to the writing surface. And the four non-slip pads on the bottom of the Paper Pro ensures that the tablet does not move while using these tools. This is great if I need to make precision drawings.
No Distractions:
The Paper Pro has no ads, no web browser, no app store, no games, no sound, no pop ups, and nothing else that I would consider a distraction. It is a work tool. What a refreshing experience.
Back Lighting:
The Paper Pro has five levels of backlight and backlight off. The backlight is excellent in different lighting conditions. I am more inclined to have the backlight off in a bright room and then the backlight on in a darker room. The e-ink display does not cast any light of its own like an LED, LCD, or an OLED. I also noticed that the vibrancy of the e-ink colors is dependent on lighting conditions and backlight intensity. For example, the colors black, blue, red, and grey all look like the same color in a poorly lit room with no backlight. The colors resolve as the backlight is turned up.
Battery life:
I got the Paper Pro on Friday afternoon. I have used the Paper Pro on and off for four days now. Backlight on and off. As of this writing, I am down to 21% battery. I estimate that I have used the Paper Pro for about 20 hours total. This will most likely get me through multiple days of use before it needs to be charged again.
Marker Pro:
As mentioned before, I find the Marker Pro very comfortable and easy to use. The marker ships with a box of additional tips. This should keep me going for a good long while. The top of the marker acts as an actual eraser on the Paper Pro’s surface. It is just one of three different eraser functions. I appreciate this functionality because I instinctively flip my pencil around to the eraser when I need to erase a mistake. The pen is also used as a stylus and a mouse depending on the chosen function when working in a notebook. For example, copy/paste functions is completely controlled via the marker.
Final thoughts:
I do not have the room to write about everything that the reMarkable Paper Pro does or how I have enjoyed using it. This is not a perfect product full of limitations and opportunities to expand it capabilities via further software development. At least I hope there is more coming. This is not a computer tablet in the traditional sense. The Paper Pro is a paper notebook replacement product that offers all the benefits of a traditional notebook with the added functionality that modern technology affords. The Paper Pro and Marker Pro are excellent in this space. I would like to see reMarkable to increase the number stencils and other drawing tools. I would also like to see e-book tools like global font sign reassignment that other e-readers have. I can pinch and zoom but that becomes tiresome on an e-ink screen that is not as instantly responsive as other screens.
Overall, I think this is a great product. I am having a great time with it. And am looking forward to where else I can integrate this device into my personal and professional life.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Bowers & Wilkins - Pi6 True Wireless Noise Cancelling In-Ear Earbuds - Cloud Grey
Experience unparalleled audio with Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 True Wireless Earbuds, featuring a true 24-bit connection and aptX Adaptive technology for dynamic, high-resolution sound. The 12mm bio-cellulose drivers, adapted from our Px7 S2e headphones, reduce distortion and enhance high-frequency details, delivering lifelike clarity. Great for commuting, these earbuds boast advanced active noise cancelation and three microphones for crystal-clear calls. The noise cancelation adapts to your environment, ensuring uninterrupted sound. Crafted with premium materials, the Pi6 offers an ergonomic fit and features an intuitive single-button control, supporting multiple functions. Stay powered throughout the day with quick charge support, providing an extra 2 hours of use with just a 15-minute charge. Enjoy up to 8 hours of earbud battery life and an additional 24 hours with the charging case. These durable and versatile earbuds come with an IP54 rating for protection against water and dust, making them suitable for a range of activities, from running and working out to enjoying music outdoors. Use the Bowers & Wilkins Music App, compatible with iOS and Android, to stream music from services like TIDAL, Pandora, Qobuz, Deezer, and SoundCloud, ensuring you always have your favorite tunes at your fingertips.
Amazing Audio, Comfortable, Clear Calls. Almost 5*
Customer Rating
4.0
Initial Impressions:
The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 earbuds are great with music, good with phone, about average with noise cancelation, have terrible wireless range, and are the most comfortable B&W earbuds I have had the pleasure of using. The touch controls take a little getting used to but are fully functional and easy to learn. The B&W app is disappointingly basic for such a capable product. The battery life is excellent. And the charging case fits easily and comfortably into my pocket. Overall, I think these are excellent ear buds for the money.
Music:
Musically, these earbuds are excellent! It is what the Pi6’s does the best. Bass is clear, sharp, and not bloated. Mids and highs are detailed and balanced. I started with Indigo Girl’s “Closer to Fine”. I was listening for the strums on the guitars, the decay of the notes, and guitar separation. I could even pick out some knocking on the side of one of the guitars towards the end of the song. Each string, the decay of the chords, and the separation of each guitar was excellent, clear, present in the sound stage, and much better than what I hear from most ear buds. I moved onto Air Supplies, “Every Woman in the World” for their wonderful male vocals. And the Pi6’s delivered the goods. Male vocals were clear, crips, well balanced, and simply fun to listen to. I then moved onto Megan Trainer’s, “Made you Look” the acapella version and not that gross, watered down version she released a while back. What a vocal delight. The Pi6’s did an excellent with the male and female harmonies while also doing an excellent job of properly resolving each voice. For example, there are moments when the male voices join the female voices in harmony. They sound amazing together while at the same time resolved enough that you can still pick out each voice in the sound scape. And they sound wonderful.
From here I moved onto the title piece on the original soundtrack for Pacific Rim. This is one of my new audio testing tracks. This piece has everything from screaming guitars, brass horns, drums, synthesizers, violines, and layers upon layers of musical themes all weaving in and out of each other. This is what a movie soundtrack should sound like! And it sounded every bit like the movie with the Pi6’s. This was not as big of a sound as what over ear headphones or a proper stereo or home theater system can replicate. But it’s still really good and engaging. “Drift” by Blake Periman featuring RZA is the closing credits song from the same movie. The female vocals are full of ghostly yearning and pain. The bass beat is so heavy that I could feel it in my head. Again, the Pi6’s can really deliver the bass.
For fun, I threw on Boney M’s Rasputin. What a fun song this is. It starts out with an amazing drum solo. Then is joined by what I am guessing are Turkish guitars. Followed by male and female vocals. Then by chanting men followed by a rocking 70’s rock track. I have used this track for many headphones and earbuds. Fantastic!
I finally wrapped up my musical audition with some classical music, heavy-fisted club music, and even some organ music. The Pi6’s supplied enough bass to both build a foundation and then support the rest of the music. And this was demonstrated beautifully with Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. The Pi6’s handled everything wonderfully.
Voice and phone calls:
Phone calls were handled very well by the Pi6’s. Receiving voices were clear and without any audible artifacts. Transmission was a bit of a mixed bag. One caller described me as sounding far away. Other callers described me as sounding natural. Overall, I got more compliments than complaints.
Noise Canceling:
Noise canceling is also a mixed bag but seems on par with most earbuds I have owned. Steady, white noise kinds of sounds were handled the best. I work from home most days. My home office is just off the kitchen. One afternoon I had the dish washer running, a air purifier running at medium speed next to me, and my laptop’s fan blowing at full speed. The noise was slightly muted with just having the earbuds in with no noise canceling on. The noise was mostly muted with noise canceling turned on. And I heard nothing with the music on.
The Pi6’s had a more difficult time in a less steady environment such as a school bus. The noise of people talking, bumps in the road, the general groaning of the bus it bounced down the road were only slightly muted with noise cancellation turned on. I noticed that the Pi6’s overcompensated with hard hitting sounds such as the bus hitting a pothole. I eventually turned off the noise cancellation because the effect was very uncomfortable.
Pass through:
The audio pass through is good. Everything around me sounds natural. However, my own voice does take on a slight, “fingers in my ears” quality that has the effect of making me speak slightly louder than I should. Otherwise, I find it quite good. I can hear everything going on in the house with the music and voice off. Some sounds, like fan noise, are a bit off and sometimes over exaggerated. But, for the most part, I can hear what I need to hear. The pass through will allow sounds to penetrate the ear while listening to music. The Pi6’s can play loud enough to drown out the pass through. There is no function in the B&W app to adjust the volume of the pass through.
Final note. Noise cancellation increases the sound pressure in the ear. This is something that I can feel. Turning off Noise Cancellation takes me from pressure to plugged ears. Turning on the pass through strangely provides some relief to my ears from the other two settings. It is like I took my fingers out of my ears.
Wireless Range.
Wireless range is the perhaps the worst I have ever experienced with ear buds. I normally use the Pi8’s in my home office. My kitchen is the next room over. Not even 20 feet. I can risk disrupting my connection to my phone while refilling my water glass at the refrigerator. I will have disruptions if there is a wall between the Pi6’s and the phone. And I will lose connection if I move outside of 20 feet with an obstruction between us. I do not live in a big house. With clear line of site, I cannot stand at one end of my home with my phone on the other end without experiencing some audible connectivity issue. The solution to this issue is simple. Keep the phone on my person, or with me at my desk, while using the Pi6’s. However, grabbing my phone to take with me is not always top of mind or practical.
Touch Controls:
Touch controls are limited but work well. It takes no pressure to activate the touch control. Tap on either ear bud will start/pause music or answer/hang up a voice call. Tap and hold is programable between Noise Cancellation/digital assistant and volume controls. For some reason the Pi6 cannot handle both. Double trap will skip ahead on the play list and triple tap will drop back to the previous musical track.
Comfort:
I personally cannot wear earbuds, regardless of shape or comfort, for more than two hours. I get ear fatigue from most earbuds at the thirty-minute mark. I can wear the Pi6’s for the full two hours before I need to take a break.
The Pi6’s also does an excellent job of staying in my ears. I wore these for housework, moving furniture, and doing yard work for two days without any slips. They didn’t even get loose in my ears, which I find amazing since they do not have little flanges or stabilizers to speak of. The little rubber tips are just the rights size to keep these in my ears. Chewing is one action that often pushes earbuds right out of my ears. They stayed in my ears and maintained a great seal. At no time did I need to re-adjust or tighten the Pi6’s to remain in my ears. I’m not sure what Voodoo magic B&W pulled off here but it’s working.
Conclusion:
I could probably go on another few pages about the Pi6’s but I don’t have the room. Bottom line: fantastic, full range audio at all volumes and with all genres, great fit, solid noise canceling though situation dependent, solid sound pass through, clear calls, poor wireless range, and anemic but serviceable app. For ear buds, these are a lot of fun to own.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Bowers & Wilkins - B&W PI5 True Wireless Headphones with Adaptive Noise Cancellation, Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX - Charcoal
B&W PI5 true wire-free headphones are attractive, well-built, and they deliver a refined sound quality. Featuring Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX technology these earphones ensure reliable connectivity whether you are streaming from your smartphone, tablet or PC. Allows connection of up to two devices at the same time, however, only one device can be used to play or make a call at a time. Download the Bowers & Wilkins free headphone app, available for Apple and Android for further control of the sound and noise cancellation, right on your phone. The PI5 headphones feature the latest innovations in adaptive noise cancellation along with 4 built-in microphones that pick up ambient noise and cancel it with an equal, but opposite, audio signal and enhance the call quality. There are three levels of Adaptive Noise Cancellation ~ High, Low and Auto, that can be controlled either by the multi-functional button on the left earbud or via the app. Similarly, the touch-sensitive button on the right earbud allows you to enable voice assistance. The buttons also allows you to control playback and phone call functions with single (play/pause, answer call), double (skip forward, end call), or triple presses (skip backward). Another stand-out feature of these headphones is the intuitive detection sensors that put the earphones on standby or reconnect them depending upon whether they are removed or put back on. The PI5s come with a sturdy and attractive charging case for charging the earbuds when not in use. The case is equipped with two 350mAh rechargeable batteries. Each earbud has a rechargeable battery which provides up to 4 hours of wireless playback. Including the charging case, the PI5 can provide up to 12 hours of continuous playback.
Is there an App to set the equalizer?
App version 3.1.3 does not have EQ functions.
5 years, 5 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon
With the 10th Gen Intel~ Core~ i7 processors enabling up to 8-cores and 16-threads of multi-threaded performance, the latest generation of Alienware m17 goes beyond its predecessor. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with Ultimate performance for gamers and creators. Realistic ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated DLSS. Our latest thermal technology, Advanced Alienware Cryo-Tech, is an engineering approach where an Alienware system~s gaming performance is never compromised by means of electrical and mechanical methods while maintaining system stability during the highest performance states.
Is this a per-key RGB keyboard or a 4 zone?
Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon
With the 10th Gen Intel~ Core~ i7 processors enabling up to 8-cores and 16-threads of multi-threaded performance, the latest generation of Alienware m17 goes beyond its predecessor. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with Ultimate performance for gamers and creators. Realistic ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated DLSS. Our latest thermal technology, Advanced Alienware Cryo-Tech, is an engineering approach where an Alienware system~s gaming performance is never compromised by means of electrical and mechanical methods while maintaining system stability during the highest performance states.
Is the display having G-Sync?
For the 300Hz screen:
From Alienware's site:
"15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) 300Hz 3ms 300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut"
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-m15-r4-laptop?~ck=mn
I do not see any indication of G-Sync on/off in the nVidia driver settings.
From Alienware's site:
"15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) 300Hz 3ms 300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut"
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-m15-r4-laptop?~ck=mn
I do not see any indication of G-Sync on/off in the nVidia driver settings.
5 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
Alienware - m15 R4 15.6" FHD Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 512GB Solid State Drive - Dark Side of the Moon
With the 10th Gen Intel~ Core~ i7 processors enabling up to 8-cores and 16-threads of multi-threaded performance, the latest generation of Alienware m17 goes beyond its predecessor. Featuring the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with Ultimate performance for gamers and creators. Realistic ray-traced graphics and AI-accelerated DLSS. Our latest thermal technology, Advanced Alienware Cryo-Tech, is an engineering approach where an Alienware system~s gaming performance is never compromised by means of electrical and mechanical methods while maintaining system stability during the highest performance states.
Is the ram upgradable?
From Alienware's user's guide:
Onboard system memory
NOTE: The memory is integrated to the system board and
cannot be upgraded after purchase.
You can find the user's guide on Alienware's support site.
Onboard system memory
NOTE: The memory is integrated to the system board and
cannot be upgraded after purchase.
You can find the user's guide on Alienware's support site.
5 years, 6 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB SSD - Mica Silver
HP OMEN Gaming Laptop: A thin and light premium gaming experience in an elevated design so you can play everyday. With an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics and cooled by OmenTempest Cooling, it makes you think how it all fits into such a tiny little package."
Can this output 144Hz over hdmi?
Yes it can. I am using the HP Omen X 25f over HDMI as an external monitor.
Just be sure to use a HDMI 2.0 or newer cable.
Just be sure to use a HDMI 2.0 or newer cable.
Images for this Answer
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6 years, 3 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 7 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB SSD - Mica Silver
HP OMEN Gaming Laptop: A thin and light premium gaming experience in an elevated design so you can play everyday. With an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics and cooled by OmenTempest Cooling, it makes you think how it all fits into such a tiny little package."
Does it have Gsync?
This is not a Gsync monitor. At least I cannot find any information online or in the system drivers that tell me otherwise.
You can connect the laptop to a Gsync monitor and take advantage of all the features of Gsync with that monitor.
You can connect the laptop to a Gsync monitor and take advantage of all the features of Gsync with that monitor.
6 years, 3 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
How many cores are there in this pc
8 physical cores. This processor does not support 16-way multitasking.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
Is there a gtx 1660ti installed or not? What size pwr supply?
It says in the name that it is a GTX 1660ti. I can confirm that the video card is exactly as described. It is the 6gb version of the card. The Power Supply is 500Watts.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
Does this computer have a memory card reader built in?
HP OMEN - Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-9700 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 1TB Hard Drive + 256GB SSD - Shadow Black
HP OMEN Obelisk by HP Desktop: Play graphically intense games with this HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer. You can easily store large amounts of media and other data on the 1TB hard drive and install games and programs on the 256GB SSD for fast access. This HP OMEN Obelisk desktop computer has 16GB of memory for multitasking effectively, and the Intel Core i7-9700 processor handles resource-intense programs efficiently.
What is the operating system for the pc, and does it come with a virus protection app
Windows 10 standard. It ships with 30 days of McAfee.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim