ITJim
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ITJim's Stats
- Review Count145
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- First ReviewNovember 23, 2013
- Last ReviewJune 29, 2025
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- Average Rating4.3
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- Answer Count18
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- First AnswerNovember 23, 2013
- Last AnswerMay 22, 2021
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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.
Potential to live up to the name. Just not yet...
Customer Rating
3.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
Bower and Wilkins PI5 Review (3 Stars)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
Setup – What did I test with?
The PI5s are easy and quick to setup. I synced these earbuds with my iPhone 6s, gaming laptop, and work laptop. The PI5s need to be in the charging case to make the initial sync relationship with your device. The connects with the PI5s are stable with all my devices. The True Wireless feature appears to be working as intended. However, I have had a few instances where the PI5s were forced off my device by a competing headset. This is probably due to wireless management rules on the device itself and not the fault of the PI5s.
Managing Sync Relationships
I will save you a lot of time. Use the B&W Headphone app to manage the PI5s sync relationships if you plan on using the PI5s with multiple devices. It is a pain to go into the Bluetooth app on the device you are leaving, disconnect the PI5s, go into the Bluetooth app on the receiving device, and press connect. Do this a few times and you will understand quickly why this is not the preferred method.
Open the B&W Headphone app and go to the “Connect” screen for the PI5. You can manage which device you want the PI5s to work with easy-peasy. It took me a week to figure this out. Why? Because the 3x7 pictural guide and the App’s helper text is inadequate. B&W does have a link to a user’s guide on their marketing page. Neither the included paperwork nor the App have a link to the user’s guide. The online guide does go deeper into some of the features of both the PI5s and the App. There is still plenty of room for improvement.
Sound:
These earbuds rock the bass. If you are the kind of person who enjoys feeling your music, then the PI5s will easily accommodate you. The PI5s also handle high volume with ease. I would caution listening to music at ear bleed volumes for long due to the strength of the bass. My preferred listening experience is moderate to low volumes. Even at low volumes bass is strong and present.
The PI5s strength is also its greatest weakness. The bass is so pronounced that the midrange gets lost with bass heavy content. For example, while listening to Meghan Trainers “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”, the bass notes and Ms. Trainers highs are front and center. But most of the mid-range felt like it was fighting for attention. Sturgill Simpsons vocals in Sound & Fury has an obvious auto tuner applied to it but these details are completely lost due to the heavy bass. If you are a bass head, then this is great! For example, Blue Man Group’s “The Complex” is a lot of fun due to the heavy reliance to PVC Pipe rhythms, drums, and screaming guitars. I even pulled up some random African drum pieces and they sound great; right in the sweet spot for the PI5s.
Pieces that do not have heavy bass tracks, or a strong beat, sound great. Classical music, for example, sounds great. Bach’s Double Violine Concertos, Mozart’s Piano Concertos, Vivaldi’s Four Season, and others were clear, full, and evenly spaced across the whole range of frequencies at any volume. But that evenness and clarity was lost when I switched back to something bass beat heavy like Electro Swing or K-Pop. I had to turn down the volume so as not to drown in the bass. This had the affect of reducing the rest of the content to a whisper.
Manual EQ and EQ presets would go a long way to solve this problem and allow the PI5s to shine across a variety of content. Unfortunately, this is not a feature in the B&W app. You can manage this somewhat if your music app has a built in EQ. Not all music apps have EQ. And B&W should offer this feature since they know the characteristics of the PI5 the best. I know that I would have enjoyed a greater variety of content if EQ, and in extension bass management, were made available.
Phone:
Phone calls are crystal clear on my end. The people I spoke with reported that my voice was clear but tunnelly. The earbuds have two microphones each. One facing the ear canal and one facing outward. The internal microphone is used to record voice. I own other earbuds that pick up my voice from inside the ear canal and do not suffer from this issue. I will not be using the PI5s for phone calls. Maybe this is something B&W can address through a software update.
Noise Cancelation:
What ANC? I could not tell the difference between ANC on or off. The biggest factor in noise cancelation for me was filling my ear canal with the proper sized silicon tip. Otherwise, ANC had zero impact on my listening and room experience. I could still hear my typing, the road noise outside my window, and the constant hum of my gaming laptop’s fan. Turning ANC “on” produces some white noise that I can only hear in a completely quiet room. Which, at that point, I do not need ANC. In my opinion, the ANC on the PI5s is inadequate.
Ambient Pass-Through, however, did work. There are three options: High, Low, and off. External noises sound a bit muffled due to the earbud and silicon tip filling my ear canal. Ambient High allows the external mikes to pick up everything in the room at a volume equivalent to what I would hear if I were not wearing the earbuds. Ambient Low performed the same task at roughly half volume. There is a bug with the Ambient volume control in the app. Several times the app reported an error communicating with the PI5s when I tried to move the Ambient Pass-Through from Low to High. Restarting the app resolves this issue.
Comfort:
B&W did a fantastic job making the PI5s and charging case look and feel like a premium product. The coloring, styling, look, weight, and absolute smoothness of all edges and connections are fantastic in my opinion. The last bit is the most important to me. There is nothing that kills the experience of an ear bud more than sharp edges in my ear. The PI5s are glass smooth everywhere the surface touches your ear.
The earbuds are designed to be twisted into the back of your ear just above the ear lobe. This keeps them in place. Activity such as eating, talking, moving your jaw around will loosen the PI5s just like other earbuds that rely on similar anchoring styles. Several times I had to check and adjust the PI5s in my ear. To B&W’s credit, the touch control surface is not sensitive enough to activate the touch control by touching the sides of the surface. This means that I will not accidently drop a call if I accidently activate the touch surface when adjusting the earbud in my ear.
There are three sizes of silicon tips that come with the PI5. The tips are soft and comfortable in the ear canal.
I can only wear the PI5s comfortably for about an hour. The PI5s place pressure on the cartilage on the top of my ear canal. This causes pain and discomfort within about an hour of wearing the earbuds. This is exasperated when I am talking or eating. I have the same issue with other earbuds I own that assert pressure on this same part of my ear. This may or not be an issue for you.
Controls:
The touch controls on the PI5s are simple. Play, pause, next, answer phone, hang up is about it. There are no volume controls on the touch surfaces. The touch surfaces are small. Thus far, I have had no issues accidently pausing music, jumping ahead to the next track, or dropping calls when adjusting the earbuds in my ear. This is an issue for me with other earbuds I own.
App Controls:
I have covered the App throughout this review. There are a lot of great features here that require additional instruction or helper text to get the most out of the PI5s. The user manual is available online on the PI5s marketing page. When I received the PI5s for review the user manual was not posted to B&Ws site. So, I had to figure out on my own what impact the different features had on my PI5s listening experience.
I would also like the ability to control the volume of the indicator sounds. They are simply too loud.
Final thoughts:
At time of this writing, I feel that the PI5s are a solid middle of the road earbud. As is, these earbuds are not for everyone. The PI5s need EQ and status volume controls. Call quality needs to be addressed. And please include the User Manual with the product. I should not have to accidently discover it. I truly feel the PI5s have the potential to be a great product, but, as it ships today, I would not recommend these.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Mobile Submission: False
-2points
2out of 6found this review helpful.
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RAYCOP - RS Pro UV+ Handheld Allergen Vacuum - White
The first handheld allergen vacuum to use Steamless Heat Technology.
It cleans like it says it will clean
Customer Rating
4.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
The RAYCOP RS Pro UV+ Handheld Allergen Vacuum is a unique combination of a handheld vacuum and clothing iron. The body of the device resembles a diamond shaped robo-vacuum with a long handle running half the length of the device. This vacuum is uniquely designed to clean your mattress and pillows. It is designed to collect dust, dead skin, dust mites, and other contaminates that make it into your bedding while it sanitizes using heat and UV light.
Does it work?
I change my sheets, blankets, and pillowcases every weekend. I do not spend much time in bed. I close my eyes at bedtime and, what seems like seconds later, its morning. How much of a mess can I make just laying there all night? And, like you, I am more concerned with flies and mosquitoes buzzing around my head at night than I am about the millions of microscopic bugs feasting on my dead skin cells while I sleep. Occasionally, I will use my vacuum cleaner on my mattress. But, most household vacuums are designed for floors, furniture, and pet hair removal. The RS Pro is designed specifically to clean and sanitize your mattress and pillows. The attached photos are images of the dust box after cleaning my mattress and after cleaning my pillows. What looks like a white screen is naturally a black screen with wider holes. Yeah, gross.
Just for kicks, I used the RS Pro on a towel that my cat has slept on for the last two weeks. It is a tiny one foot by one foot square. I collected enough hair and dander to prompt me to clean the dust box. So, yes, I would say this works.
Does this remove and kill dust mites?
I have no way to test dust mite concentrations before or after using the RS Pro. I also cannot tell you how many dust mites, or the concentration of their dander, I captured in the RS Pro. I can tell you that that UV light and heat sanitize. And the RS Pro does both. The UV light is located directly behind the brushes and vacuum opening. There are air vents that blast the mattress and pillows located towards the back of the RS Pro. The UV light auto shuts off when the unit detects it has been removed from your cleaning surface. I put my hand under the hot air blower. It is not air drier hot but it does get hot. The instructions indicate that you should slowly move the Pro RS slowly back and forth across your cleaning surface. And they mean slowly. If you give your cleaning surface the once over, like you were pushing a floor vacuum, then you will miss out on all the benefits the Pro RS purports. So, functionally, the RS Pro does what it says it does.
Use:
Using the RS Pro is super easy. I must give a big shout out to whomever wrote the RS Pro user’s manual. Usually, with devices like these, you get a quick setup card, a URL to the companies website, and maybe a URL to the product user’s guide in micro print. Half the time there is no user’s manual to speak of. The RS Pro’s user’s guide is well organized, thought out, full of easy-to-follow pictures, and accessible for pretty much anyone. The guide shows how to clean your mattress and pillows. It also guides you to where you should focus your attention: head and foot positions. The manual clearly shows how to remove and clean the filters, clean the roller, and replace the UV Light. The manual is exclusively written in English. You will want to check with the manufacture’s website for additional languages.
The RS Pro is heavy for its size. Most of the weight is at the front of the unit. I did not find the weight an issue. There are two fins on the front bottom of the unit to keep it up off the mattress. There is also a wheel at the back of the unit to facilitate easy movement across the mattress. The unit is designed to allow for your pushing force to go into this wheel. My wife did comment on the weight being a factor for her. She could see her arm or back getting tired if she had a large mattress or a lot of pillows to clean. Otherwise, weight was not an issue.
My only other issue with the unit is the placement of the power button. It is located at the top of the handle. This forces me to keep my thumb to the side of the handle where I have less control over my grip and control over the unit. I must bend my thumb at the knuckle if I want to keep my hand in the optimal position. But, if I shift my grip, or lower my thumb to increase my control, then I risk shutting off the unit. I would have preferred the power button be located somewhere else on the casing so that I would not have to modify my grip when operating the RS Pro.
Maintenance and care:
You will clean the dust box every time you use this RS Pro. The dust box is easily removed from the RS Pro by pulling it straight up. The Micro HEPA filter is hidden behind a small door on the rear bottom of the RS Pro. And the filter is easy to pull out. The protective grill, roller, an UV lights are easy to access, remove, and service. The maintenance and care of the RS Pro is well thought out and accessible for anyone willing to take a moment to review the easy-to-follow instructions in the manual.
I would have liked to have seen the including of cleaning brushes. The instruction manual recommends cleaning the filter in the dust box with a toothbrush and the UV Light cover with another kind of specialized brush or cloth. It would have been nice if they included the optimal tools instead of leaving me to guess if a soft toothbrush is better or worse than a stiff bristled toothbrush. Are they both equally suited or am I risking something using one over the other?
Final thoughts:
Overall, I am satisfied with the RAYCOP RS Pro. It does pull a lot of nasty material out of my mattress and pillows. I was grossed-out when I saw what I was sleeping in every night. UV Light kills bacteria and other micro-organisms that do not tolerate UV Light. And the heat kills everything else. The proof is in the dust box. I have a few minor issues with the RS Pro that I think RAYCOP can fix in a future revision of their product. My final thought is I think I found a suitable replacement to using my regular vacuum to clean my mattress and pillows.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+5points
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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.
Eating performance for breakfast!
Customer Rating
5.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
Initial Impressions:
This is the most powerful laptop I have ever owned.
The laptop has a very impressive look. The keyboard, for this model, is full RGB per key assignable. The default keyboard layout is bright teal. The top and bottom of the case have a honeycomb pattern that serves as passive cooling for the CPU and GPU. Under the vents are a black mesh that hides the laptop components, filter out dust, and give the honey combs an attractive dept that I have not seen on other laptops. The Alienware logo shaped power button, LCD cover logo, and heat vent LEDs are also 100% RGB assignable.
The Alienware m15 R4 body is made from a magnesium alloy with a nice, fingerprint and smudge resistant flat black finish. The finish is also has a nice texture. From Alienware’s website, “This stain resistant paint formula is a High-Performance Clear Coat…” The mouse pad and keyboard keys are also fingerprint resistant. I have not seen a single fingerprint or smudge after a week of ownership. The finish is well done.
Gaming:
Gaming is awesome. This system ate all my test games, at max settings, without any trouble. I also saw an increase in framerates for some of my older, more difficult to drive games that are based on CryEngine. The games I tested are Mechwarrior online, Mechwarrior 5, Titanfall 2, Star Wars Squadrons, Middle Earth Shadows of War, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, and Battletech. All games played at 60 frames or better for the whole gaming session. It was very playable and without any graphics tearing or stuttering. I also tested a few of these games on my external 32” G-SYNC enabled gaming monitor running at 240Hz at a 1ms pixel refresh. Everything ran perfectly.
The LCD screen can operate at 300Hz and 60Hz, has a 3ms response, 1000:1 contrast, and, according to Alienware’s website, can do “300-nits 100% sRGB color gamut.” It does not look as good as my dedicated gaming monitor, but it is impressive for a laptop.
I did run into a few issues. I noticed a significant slow-down while playing Titanfall 2. Large objects in the foreground caused the game to go from silky smooth to sluggish until the large object passed into the background or off screen. It is possible that the older game is having an issue with the 300Hz panel.
I also noticed a green after-image when scrolling text or images in MS Word or on the web when Windows “night light” mode was active. At first, I thought my eyes were tired and playing tricks on me. Nope. Maybe this is something Alienware can address in a future driver release.
The keyboard is very responsive and comfortable to use. According to Alienware’s website, these keys were co-developed with Cherry. The keys feel very solid with a healthy amount of resistance. They keyboard does not have the same feel as a dedicated gaming keyboard with Cherry keys but it is really good for a laptop. The RGB lighting is as intense as other Cherry keyboards I have used. The lighting intensity is strong enough to prevent the keys character cutouts from looking anemic like I have seen with other gaming laptop lighting attempts. The gaming laptop industry is getting better as a whole. Alienware is leading the pack in RGB lighting.
Benchmarks:
Let me put my performance claims where my mouth is. In addition to the m15 R4, I own a home-built gaming desktop, a mid-range gaming laptop, and an entry level gaming laptop. Below are the processor, GPU, and 3DMark Time Spy scores for each system. Brand names and models left intentionally absent.
(Alienware m15 R4)…………………....Intel Core i7-10870H, nVidia RTX 3070……. Score: 10624
(Gaming Desktop)……………………..AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, nVidia GTX 1660 Ti…. Score: 6609
(Gaming Laptop)….……………………AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, nVidia GTX 1660 Ti…. Score: 5688
(Entry level gaming laptop)…….......…AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, AMD RX 560X………..Score: 1945
(Gaming Desktop)……………………..AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, nVidia GTX 1660 Ti…. Score: 6609
(Gaming Laptop)….……………………AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, nVidia GTX 1660 Ti…. Score: 5688
(Entry level gaming laptop)…….......…AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, AMD RX 560X………..Score: 1945
The Time Spy benchmark targets the GPU more than the CPU. I did run PCMark 10 on all systems. This targets the CPU more than the GPU. The top three systems are all 8 core, 16 thread processors. The Intel and Ryzen 3700X scored close enough to call them statistically the same. My conclusion is that the m15 R4 has some serious GPU processing power. Also of note is that the other systems come in at different price points below the m15 R4.
Cooling:
Gaming gets loud and hot. Not hair dryer loud but loud enough that you will want to game with headphones on. For heat, I measured 125℉ at the base of the blower bezel after 30 minutes of playing Mechwarrior 5. The spot I sampled is located dead on the blower bezel directly below the LCD screen. Trace your finger from the space between the F7 and F8 keys all the way to the base of the LCD screen. You’ll feel the heat before you hit the screen. The cooling system in this system is significant. The system pulls air from two large vents on either side of the laptops. The system also has a passive cooling system with a large vent on the bottom of the laptop and a small exhaust between the top of the keyboard and the LCD screen.
The keyboard got warm but not uncomfortable. The system will manage cooling for you. However, you can create a profile for your game themes that will set power draw and cooling per game. That way, if you are playing Mine Sweeper, the cooling system is not trying to cool itself like it would if you were playing the latest Call of Duty game.
How is the system during normal computing tasks? The system generates quite a bit of heat for tasks like web surfing and MS Office. Heck, the system got hot while editing the keyboard RGB assignments. The system will rev the fan up or down based on thermal load. In my case, the fan silent for normal, low power activity. I measured 108℉ while doing nothing more than type this review in MS Word. This is an area I feel Alienware can make some improvements with power handling. There is no reason the system should be this hot for relatively lower power applications.
Alienware Software Suite:
The software suite allows you to set keyboard themes and power profiles for your games. You can set your games from High Power/full power cooling to low power/silent operation. For me, the most exciting, and frustrating, part of Alienware’s software suite is the RGB profile system. The fun part about this is that you can set each key, including the Alienware logos and exhaust port LED, to any color you want. There are some nice shortcuts to select popular key groupings: WASD, Numbers, Function Keys, QWER, and “All Keys”. If you select “All Keys” then you can assign one of six default color profiles: Spectrum, Rainbow Wave, Scanner (Night Rider), Default Static Blue, or a solid color of your choice. However, if you want to combine one of the default profiles with some custom key color combinations, such as WASD, then you are stuck in static, per key color land. The reason is Alienware does not allow you to build your lighting profiles in layers like Razer and Corsair. I found this a little frustrating. Flexibility is limited to static key color assignments. For my default color pattern, see attached photo, I set a static color to the whole keyboard and then assigned colors to each key one at a time. I used the above key groupings everywhere possible. The issue here is if I do not like the base color then I have to start all over again. Even more frustrating is that I cannot select more than one key at a time via either a left-click and drag of my mouse or by holding down the Shift or CTRL key while selecting keys. The last color used also does not remain persistent. For example, if I want to assign a certain shade of red to a group of individual keys, I have to click the key, chose the color red, choose the next key, and select the color red again. Preferable behavior is the color is applied to any key I press until I change the color. This would speed up my workflow in the absent of group key assignments.
I do need to be fair here. This keyboard is the brightest, most vibrant, and most configurable keyboard I have seen on any laptop. There is room for improvement, but I must give Alienware credit for making this keyboard available at this price point. If they are serious about gaming, and they obviously are, they will take this feedback and improve upon the software side of their RGB experience.
Finally, the Alienware Command Center sallow you to overclock your laptop through Fusion. I have never been comfortable with overclocking my equipment. You will want to get familiar with Fusion if you are into overclocking your equipment. The home page is a good place to view your CPU, GPU, and Memory metrics. There are two pre-configured power overclocking profiles with the option to create your own.
Final thought:
I have never owned an Alienware product before. After a week I can tell that Alienware is about more than just raw gaming power. It is all the little things that add up to an amazing computer experience. I could discuss the amazing wireless network performance, sound, and experience. But I do not have room. Overall, I am really enjoying my first Alienware laptop. I think they did a great job.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+11points
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CORSAIR - K65 RGB Mini Wired 60% Mechanical Cherry MX SPEED Linear Switch Gaming Keyboard with PBT Double-Shot Keycaps - Black
The CORSAIR K65 RGB MINI 60% Mechanical Gaming Keyboard combines top-level performance with portability. PBT double-shot keycaps deliver exceptional durability with a premium look and feel. With 8,000Hz hyper-polling enabled by AXON hyper-processing technology, CHERRY MX SPEED RGB Silver mechanical keyswitches, and expansive onboard shortcuts, the K65 RGB MINI offers big performance and functionality in a compact design. Vivid per-key RGB backlighting is fully customizable through CORSAIR iCUE software, alongside key remaps, custom macros, and immersive integration with select games. Save up to 50 profiles to take with you anywhere with 8MB of onboard storage. Full N-key rollover, Windows Key Lock mode, and a detachable braided USB Type-C cable make the K65 RGB MINI a high-performance gaming companion at home and on-the-go, so you can win in any space.
Mighty Little Keyboard
Customer Rating
5.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
Initial impressions:
I thought my Corsair K65 LUX RGB keyboard was small. The K65 Mini is only five rows high, does away with the traditional dedicated F-keys, Arrows keys, media player controls, any key that traditionally exists to the right of the Enter key, and any programmable macro keys that you find on some gaming keyboards. The keyboard has a rear facing USB-C connection. You can have this disconnected from your rig and in your travel back in seconds. I cannot do with my larger K65 LUX.
What do I lose by having such a small keyboard? Answer: a number-pad. That is it! Everything else has been worked into the keyboard as a Function key. FN+ (U,H,J, and K) are your arrow keys. You can refer to Corsair’s instruction manual for a full list of FN+ functions. The feature set of this keyboard is dense. There are FN keys to control mousing functions.
Corsair chose to print the alt-function graphic on the side of the each key. Not an issue in a well-lit room. It is an issue in a darker room. The RGB backlighting does not solve this issue. This is because the keys cast their own shadows up the sides of the keys. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to see the side graphics without the aid of an external light source.
The keys shape, texture, and actuation will be familiar to anyone who has used a Corsair gaming keyboard before. The keyboard I received uses the Cherry MX Speed keys. I do not know that exactly actuation force for these keys. However, I can tell you that the actuation force is more than Cherry MX Red keys that are on my K65 LUX keyboard. The good news is that it will take more force to commit an accidental key press. The downside is it may take a while for your fingers to get used to the increased force necessary to depress the keys. The keys themselves feel solid and actuation is smooth from top to bottom of keystroke. I do notice a strange metallic ring when depressing a key. The keyboard, like most gaming keyboards, is loud. But this is the first I have used that rang. It is not annoying. Just odd. There are key cap kits available for Corsair keyboards that include O-rings for that quiet the keys. If this is annoying, then maybe this is an option for you.
Gaming:
For my tests, I plugged the K65 Mini into my gaming computer that also hosts my K65 LUX. iCUE recognized both and treated each as an independent keyboard. My goal was to have another keyboard to compare to if I so wish. I ultimately ended up comparing RGB profile between the two keyboards so that I could sync up my game profiles for both keyboards. I did not do any gaming on my old keyboard during this period.
First, I loaded up Mechwarrior Online. This is my most robust gaming profile that I personally configured. About half the keys on the keyboard have specific color assignments and, in some cases, animations. To my surprise, the K65 automatically adopted as much of the profile as was possible. I had to remap a few keys in game because certain F-keys do not exist on the K65 Mini. The profile automatically activated when I loaded the game. I had to re-map a few in game key assignments to align with the limited keys on the K65 Mini. I was good to go within a few minutes. My in-game performance was as expected. All keys depressed were presented in game instantly. At no time did I notice any missed key commands or ghosting when depressing multiple keys simultaneously.
For FPS games, I turned to Titanfall 2, Fortnite, and Middle-Earth Shadows of War. I also chose to repurpose some iCUE profiles I downloaded from Corsair’s website instead of making my own custom profiles. There are a few reasons I did this that I will cover in the iCUE portion of this review.
For TitanFall 2, I chose a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 iCUE profile I downloaded from Corsair’s site. I used FN+Z to cycle through the iCUE profiles until I landed on this one. Responsiveness was instantaneous. I did not notice any ghosting or missed key presses as I was running through the map, wall running, or Titan piloting. For Fortnite, I used a Fortnite iCUE profile that I also downloaded from Corsair’s website. The colors are light blue, purple, and include Rain and Type Lightning special effects. Again, gaming was smooth and without issue. I spent some time in the Easter lobby world jumping around and doing general silly stuff just to see how responsive the keyboard was. I did play a single multiplayer deathmatch game.
I was the first to be forced into spectator mode; if you know what I mean. Watching the remainder of the match made it clear to me that the path to victory was Macro creation and Macro management. I do not play Fortnite enough to make it worth my time to make macros. However, if you want to be competitive in games like Fortnite then you will want to invest some time writing macros. iCUE makes macro building relatively easy and pain free. You will find macro building under “Key Assignments” and “Hardware Key Assignments” in your K65 Mini gaming profile. Corsair should just call it “Macro” to avoid confusion. You can build these macros to live in your iCUE profile or build them directly into the keyboard’s hardware. That’s some nice flexibility if gaming on the run are and find yourself using a computer that does not run iCUE.
Next, Middle-Earth Shadows of War. For this, I created a new profile by copying the Fortnite profile. I also adjust the polling rate to 4000hz. The game played smoothly and without any issues. This game slower pace for me but still requires anti-ghosting. For example, I press W+D+L-Shift to sprint at an angle to my enemy. Then, while depressing all three, hit the spacebar to jump. Everything worked as expected.
Finally, I chose to see what 100% anti-ghosting and the new AXON processor could handle. As a non-gaming test, I loaded up MS Word to have a keyboard smashing exercise. I loaded a blank document in MS Word, picked a key for each finger, and then proceeded to simultaneously smash down all ten keys as quickly as I could. Word printed out every key, strangely in an exact repeating pattern, of all my keys for as many times as I smashed down on the keyboard. I think Corsair met their 100% anti-ghosting goal with their new AXON controller.
Comfort level:
The keyboard offers a comfortable typing experience. As mentioned earlier, the actuation force of the Cherry MX Speed keys are more than the Cherry MX Red keys. My fingers are still adjusting after a week of typing. It serves as a good reminder to take breaks during long gaming sessions.
I ran into a few challenges. My first challenge was keyboard size. I did not realize how much I visually depended on seeing the edges of my “normal” sized keyboards for an activity as mundane as finding my home typing keys. My second challenge was the use of FN+ (function) to navigate with arrow keys, the delete key, and access to my F-keys. It will take time to build muscle memory. The final challenge is the exclusion of a wrist rest. Many other gaming keyboards include a wrist rest. It may have reduced the portability of the keyboard but, if detachable, not by much. It is a comfort I have grown accustomed to. Otherwise, this feels like any other Corsair keyboard I have owned.
iCUE software:
Corsair makes rock solid keyboards. What makes them special is the iCUE software. This is a powerful programming suite for all your Corsair devices. iCUE manages all your Corsair products. My gaming PC consists of 6 Corsair RBG fans, the H100i CPU cooler, ST100 RGB headset stand, the MM800 RGB gaming mouse pad, K65 RGB keyboard, and the Carbide Spec Omega RGB case. I can customize each LED individually, as a group, or across the entire group of devices. For example, I can assign each light on each device individually or I can assign all devices to do a rainbow wave in sync. This includes customer color profiles for each game. For example, when playing Battletech, all my fans turn green, my keyboard theme activates, I have a chase light running along the mouse pad, and my computer case has a blue light chasing a red light from the bottom of my case to the top. The K65 Mini integrates perfectly into this ecosystem. Working with iCUE will take some work and experimentation. You can get some great results with little effort. For example, my default profile is a dim red color assigned to every key with a secondary layer using the pre-defined Type Lightening 1 lighting effects. This results in a keyboard with red lit keys that explode with multi-colors when I depress any key.
The iCUE software is also where you have access to adjust the pooling rate of the keyboard, setup macros, create and upload new hardware color profiles to the K65 Mini, disable certain key functions such as the Windows Key or Alt-Tab combinations, and many other functions.
Finally, you can leverage exported profiles provided by the community for some great affects. Sometimes it is easier to use someone else’s profile. It is also a good way to learn by seeing what others have done. There are also helpful videos in the iCUE help section. I recommend watching these.
Final thoughts:
I have not come close to scratching the surface on how feature dense this keyboard is. All I have done is list a few high points and a few places where I feel Corsair can improve the experience. Bottom line, Corsair did a stunning job of shrinking their already amazing keyboards into an ultra-portable package. If you are looking for an ultra-portable keyboard that has all the power and flexibility of a full-sized gaming keyboard, then I encourage you to give the K65 Mini a try.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Bowers & Wilkins - 600 Series Anniversary Edition 2-way Center Channel w/ dual 5" midbass (each) - Black
The HTM6 S2 Anniversary Edition delivers clear dialog and power in a compact form for Home Theater. Continuum mid-bass drive units provide make it easy to hear actors and robust bass lines for action films while Decoupled Double Dome Tweeters create an enveloping sense of space and clarity. Featuring upgraded crossovers for even more transparency and a unique trim-ring to celebrate this milestone, the HTM6 S2 Anniversary Edition is the most sophisticated, affordable center channel Bowers & Wilkins has ever made. The HTM6 S2 Anniversary Edition is the matching center channel for the 600 Series Anniversary Edition range of products. Over the last 25 years, the 600 Series has been our most affordable performance range of loudspeakers, and we’re celebrating our love of sound with acoustic improvements to the crossover network for overall greater levels of clarity and smoother high frequencies so you can enjoy a compelling listening experience across the range of products.
Sounds Great, Looks Great
Customer Rating
5.0
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(click to see full-size image)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
Looks:
The speaker is beautiful with the front grill off. I do not normally display my speakers with the grills off. I normally cannot stand the look of center channels in this price range with the grills off. I cannot say that about the HTM6 S2. I cannot imagine displaying this with the grill on. Look at the attached photo to see what I mean. B&W put a lot of thought into the visual experience for of the Anniversary 600 series speakers. See attached photo.
The HTM6 S2 is obviously made to fit into smaller spaces such in an entertainment center or on top. If you have a soundbar today then the HTM6 S2 should fit comfortable into your entertainment center.
Setup:
I have the HTM6 S2 connected to a Pioneer Elite VSX-90 receiver. It has enough power to drive my 5.1 surround sound bookshelf home theater system. The theater space is contained to a 10 foot by 9 foot space closed in by three walls. The back of the room extends all the way back to 15 feet but opens to the rest of the house on one side.
The system is calibrated using the Pioneer’s MCACC Pro room calibration and correction software. Most receivers these days have some form or room correction built in. Be sure to use it as part of your setup of the HTM6 S2. In my space, the speaker was overly bright until I ran room correction. This helped tame the speaker for my room acoustics. I further corrected the center by reducing the treble slightly.
Female Voices:
First, I must mention that I spent two weeks using this center channel with a variety of content. Below are a few highlights.
Overall, the center sounds great. It is better than any sound bar I have heard. The tweeter is clear, crisp, and reproduces the female voices pitch perfect. I watched Netflix’s anime series, “High-Rise Invasion”, which has a female driven cast, and was very impressed with the purity of the character’s voices. A few times the female voices hit those ultra-high squealy notes that only anime can give you. I did not notice any break-up or harshness. These high-pitched frequencies can really show off the breakup point of a speaker’s tweeter. The HTM6 S2 reproduced the high pitches with ease.
The HTM6 S2 shares the same tweeter as the rest of the Anniversary Edition speakers. This means that you will receive the same clarity with the same voices, or frequencies, as the voices and action pans around your listening position.
Male Voices:
For male voices, I chose Star Blazers 2199 and Netflix’s newly released, “Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan” as my test subjects. I chose Star Blazers because this anime puts the dialogue front and center in most scenes. There are also some nice spaceship flybys that sonically pan from the front left/right speaker, across the center, and exits through the opposite front speaker. The mammoth sounds of the spaceships sounded rich as they were handed off from speaker to speaker. Female voices sounded wonderful. Male voices were clear and concise. The series has very few low male voices. Overall, the programming was fun and engaging with this speaker.
I chose “Age of Samurai” because the series is almost exclusively male dominated narration. The narration is also shared between multiple male scholars with different types of voices. The higher pitched male voices sounded natural, full, and alive. The lower male voices showed a bit of constraint. I think this is because the speaker does not dig deep into those lower frequencies that give deep male voices their power. This did not get in the way of fully enjoying the content.
Up until this point, I had the surround speakers unplugged, the subwoofer powered off, and the crossover set to 50hz at the receiver. The center only goes down to 72hz before rolling off. I am guessing this is why lower male voices were struggling. I turned on the subwoofer, plugged in the surrounds, and then reset the crossover to 80hz. This solved my issues.
Final impressions:
The HTM6 is a capable, compact center channel. The sound reproduction is crisp, clear, and detailed. You will not be disappointed if you are building a system for a small to medium sized room. Be sure to run your receiver’s room correction software to get the best performance. The HTM6 S2 matches perfectly with my B&W 606 S2 Anniversary Edition speakers. The HTM6 S2 will also blend perfection with the other speakers in the line. I also recommend a subwoofer to get the most performance out of your theater. I could look at the front of this speaker with grills off all day long. If you are ready to move up from a sound bar, or TV speakers, and want to build an affordable 3.1 or 5.1 home theater solution, then you cannot go wrong with a full B&W 600 series Anniversary edition speaker solution.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Bowers & Wilkins - 600 Series Anniversary Edition 2-way Bookshelf Speaker w/6.5" midbass (pair) - Black
The 606 S2 Anniversary Edition combines outstanding power and clarity in a compact form for when space is at a premium, but you need big sound. Continuum mid-bass drive units provide clarity for singers and driving bass lines while Decoupled Double Dome Tweeters create an enveloping sense of space. Featuring upgraded crossovers for even more transparency and a unique trim-ring to celebrate this milestone, the 606 S2 Anniversary Edition is the most sophisticated, affordable bookshelf speaker Bowers & Wilkins has ever made. The 606 S2 Anniversary Edition is the largest bookshelf speaker in the 600 Series Anniversary Edition range of products. Over the last 25 years, the 600 Series has been our most affordable performance range of loudspeakers, and we’re celebrating our love of sound with acoustic improvements to the crossover network for overall greater levels of clarity and smoother high frequencies so you can enjoy a compelling listening experience across the range of products.
Nice update from 685 S2
Customer Rating
5.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
Calibrate your system:
The listening space I used to test these speakers was calibrated for an SVS bookshelf speaker home theater system. During setup, I simply replaced the SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers with the B&W 606s. They sounded overly bright. What is the lesson here? Calibrate your system when you replace components! It will have a real impact on how your speakers sound. Most receivers today have some form of room correction calibration software built into them. Use it. It is not the silver bullet that will solve all your speaker and room acoustic issues. In my experience, it will get you 80% of the way there. The room calibration software reigned in the tweeter brightness and evened out the mid-range. Running MCACC Pro calibration software, built into my Pioneer Elite receiver, did a great job of taming the brightness of the 606s. I finished the job by reducing the treble.
To test, the speakers were 7 feet apart and toed slightly inward towards my listening position. I powered off the subwoofer, adjusted the receiver’s speaker configuration to “Small”, and set the receiver’s crossover frequency to 50Hz. This ensured that the speakers would not be treated as full range speakers. Which they are not.
How do they sound:
I auditioned several CDs: Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet”, Sturgill Simpson’s “Sound and Fury”, Meghan Trainor’s “Title”, Stix “Greatest Hits”, Loreena McKennitt’s “Live in Paris and Toronto”, and several classical music CDs. I am going to speak generally about my musical experience to help keep this review short.
I own a pair of B&W 685 S2 bookshelf speakers, an earlier iteration of the 606s, and found that the vocals were clearer and more detailed than the 685s. The most notable difference is where the 685s tweeter and woofer are well balanced, meaning the tweeter does not out volume the woofer, the 606s are forward sounding. For example, when listening to the Imperial March from Star Wars, the drums and violins fit nicely into the midrange. The trumpets were right in my face. Where the 685s would try to maintain an evenness between the woofer and the tweeter the 606s place the tweeter front and center over the woofer. Hence, why I needed to reign these in a bit with the room correction and treble control. I did get close to a more even sound but was not able to completely align the two. This is not bad. It is simply different and can be appealing depending on the content you are listening too. Slightly forward trumpets during the imperial march gave the piece more presence and power. However, before room correction and treble control, the trumpets were to much.
The 606s are detailed. I could hear the scratchiness of Loreena McKennitt’s fingers brushing past the strings during the opening piece, Prologue, from “Live in Paris and Toronto”. I could also make out some scuffing of feet and a cough. Maybe those details per present on the 685 S2 and my SVS Ultra bookshelf speakers but I have never heard them with the same level of clarity as the 606s.
The tweeters handle high pitched sounds like a champ. Dennis DeYoung’s vocals on Styx’s “Lady ‘95”, meaning this was re-recorded in 1995, sounds amazing. His vocals were clear and authoritative. The 606s handled Loreena McKennitt’s shifts from highs to lows and back again with what seemed like no effort at all. And Meghan Trainor’s song “Like I’m Gonna Loose You”, featuring John Legend, is beautiful. The vocals were clear, detailed, and without any sign that the speakers were struggling to reproducing the sound.
What about midrange and bass? The mids are just as detailed as the highs. I found a few times where the high-mids and lower highs fought for control of the sound stage. This was abundantly clear with Sturgill Simpson’s “Sound and Fury”. The album is a complicated mixture of sounds, textures, instruments, and distortion that really pushes these speakers hard. I feel that the 606’s struggled with the album. It is possible the CD transfer is garbage. I base this opinion on the fact that streaming this album over Apple Music or playing the cartoon/movie over Netflix far outshines the CD. It would not be the first time that a CD recording sound awful on quality gear. I also base this opinion on the fact that everything else I played on these speakers was pleasing to listen to.
Bass is there and completely dependent on the programming material. Meghan Trainor’s album had the most bass of any of the music I listened to. It was punchy and tight. The base will not punch you in the chest like a subwoofer. You can adjust the amount of base output by moving the speaker closer or further away from the wall. You can also use the phase plugs to reduce the amount of base output from the speakers. I left the 606 rear ports open because I felt I was getting the right amount of bass.
Home Theater:
I used the 606s as my main left and right speakers. I used the matching 600 Anniversary Edition center channel; the B&W HTM6 S2. I have a separate review posted for the HTM6 S2 on Best Buy’s product page. The rest of the home theater gear are SVS Prime bookshelf speakers for surround channels, SVS PC-4000 subwoofer, Pioneer Elite VSX-91 A/V Receiver, and the Sony UPX-X800 4K player.
I auditioned several movies but chose to focus on the Anime Series “Star Blazers 2199.” The first seven episodes were auditioned with the surround speakers unplugged and the subwoofer powered off. My goal was to audition the B&W speakers on their own merits. I chose “Star Blazer 2199” because, unlike a triple A blockbuster movie, the soundtrack for this show is not a saturated sonic wall of excitement. The series surround soundtrack is more even, purposeful, and isolated to the scene and not always focused on driving up the drama from scene to scene to scene like a Marvel superhero does.
Star Blazers 2199 is the re-imagining of Space Battleship Yamato, known as Star Blazers in the US, from the 1980. The show focuses on earth’s last-ditch effort to save itself from a ruthless, Alexander the Great type of military society, bent on galactic conquest. How do the Human’s respond? The resurrect the mighty WWII battleship Yamato as a space battleship and charge into unknown space for high adventure and the hope for humanity’s salvation. The English soundtrack is Dolby 5.1. The animation, story, and seriousness of the show has also been updated. This series rocked my 685s last year when I acquired the series. I was not disappointed when I applied this content to the 606s.
The highs and midrange are beautifully reproduced and isolated enough throughout the scenes that it is easy to pick them out and simply enjoy them. The bass, on the other hand, really surprised me. With most popular modern music the bass is relegated to keeping the beat; thump thump thump. However, in a movie, the bass can jump out at you, build and diminish, or reverberate throughout the space. This is the sound that fills a room! A spaceship slowly enters the right side of the screen and builds up bass as it approaches. And then slowly dissipates as it leaves the left side of the screen. The audio queues are to denote the leviathan size of the ship. And it works! Firing the WWII style main cannons of our hero’s ship were explosive and satisfying. In episode three, a super weapon’s destructive power is unleashed both on screen and from the 606s! I had to check my subwoofer to make sure it was turned off. It was. The bass, for that one scene, was strong enough to be felt. Not as powerful as a dedicated sub. Powerful enough for me to take serious notice.
Integration:
These speakers integrated well with my SVS PC-4000 subwoofer. Even the SVS Prime speakers sound good in a supporting roll as surround speakers. My preference, for home theater, is to use matching fronts, rears, and center from the same speaker line. In this case, I would prefer that all speakers are B&W 600 Anniversary Edition speakers. Running the MACCA Pro room correction did a good job with integration. I had to make a few manual adjustments to individual speaker volumes to get everything to meet my personal, subjective preferences. Overall, pretty good mix.
Looks:
I am not going to dwell much on looks. In my opinion, these are at the top of the budget speaker category. As such, there were compromises made. B&W upgraded the tweeter, added a larger bass port to the back of the speaker, updated the midrange cone, and updated the front grill from pegs to magnets. The cabinet finish was downgrade from a nice ash black wood veneer to flat black. However, the bezel is beautiful to look at. This is the first pair of speakers that I am proud to run with the grills off. The 25th Anniversary ring, the protective tweeter grill, the silver Continuum cone, and the clean presentation are a delight to look at in my listening space. See attached photo.
Final Thoughts:
These speakers are bright straight out of the box! If your primary listening preference is “live sound” then you may find the brightness appealing. I do not. But I was able to solve the issue quickly and found the results satisfying. I feel these speakers will shine as part of a small to medium sized room stereo system. They also make great home theater speakers for a small room.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Nothing about your personal style is standard. So why should your appliances be? Created for those who want to reflect their true style in every room of their home, Café is distinct by design. Backed by showstopping features, every Café appliance gives you the form and the function you've been craving. Now you can bring that exceptional style to your countertops thanks to elegant and innovative drip coffee makers from Café, which are as intelligent as they are beautiful. All Café coffee makers are WiFi enabled and feature Voice-to-Brew capabilities, connected through the SmartHQ app and compatible with Alexa and Google Home. Precision Temperature Controls and Select Brew settings allow even the most discriminating coffee connoisseur to enjoy the ideal amount of coffee at the ideal brew, without ever sacrificing flavor or performance. The modern, clean cord storage beneath the coffee maker keeps countertops clutter-free and pairs perfectly with the signature Café copper accents that truly mark these as stylish appliances.
Makes a fantastic cup of coffee!
Customer Rating
5.0
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
This is the best cup of coffee that I have ever brewed. This is quite possibly the best cup of coffee I have ever had. This includes restaurants, name brands and others, and traditional home coffee makers. My go to for the last twelve years has been the k-cup style coffee maker. I have used everything from name brand pods, flavored pods, supermarket branded pods, and a refillable pod for use with flavored coffee not available in pre-packaged pods. Over the years, I have noticed the pre-packaged k-cups have gradually lost their flavor. I do not know why. I have also become more concerned with the wasteful packaging associated with k-cup coffee makers. I was delighted when given the opportunity to review, and revisit, a drip style maker such as the Café Drip 10.
Setup:
Unpacking the Café Drip 10 was easy. The box opens like clamshell, unwrap the coffee maker, and place on counter. Setup was a little more complicated than that but not much. The app was also easy to setup and link to the coffee maker. I did run into a slight issue entering my password. It took almost ten minutes for the app to tell me that it could not connect to the network because the password was bad. That is just bad programming and needs to be addressed in an update. First time prep was also simple to perform following the directions in the included manual. I recommend that you fill the reservoir and run at least a full 10 cups, coffee-less, cycle on Gold setting before you brew your first cup of coffee. This will ensure that the system is properly flushed out from anything that may be left over from the factory.
The packaging is cardboard and Styrofoam bound together with glue and fabric. This is not the most eco friendly packaging that GE could have used. I will always accept a little inconvenience if it means I can easily recycle all the packaging.
One of the reasons I moved to k-cups was to help limit my coffee consumption to 20 ounces a day. I could not do that easily with a traditional drip coffee maker. The more coffee I have the more coffee I drank. The Café Drip 10 changed that for me. First, the reservoir is labeled in easy to read cups and ounces. Second, I can simply fill the reservoir and program the amount of coffee I want using both the SmartHQ app and the controls on the coffee maker. Third, Café Drip 10 will use exactly the amount of water to brew the exact amount of coffee I programmed. Fourth, if the reservoir runs dry mid-brew, the coffee maker will stop the brewing process, flash an error message (H2O), and send out an audible chime to get my attention to add more water to the reservoir. Therefore, if I am a two-cup-of-coffee-in-the-morning drinker then I can program the machine to make exactly two cups of coffee. Or, if I have a travel mug then I can program to the exact ounces to fill that travel mug.
The Café Drip 10 is fully programmable. The flexibility is beyond anything I imagined a coffee maker could do. The coffee maker can be programmed to brew coffee every day of the week at different times each day. Yes! I can program it per day instead of the traditional “every day is the same day” timer. During the week, I want my coffee maker to auto brew at 7am. On Saturday, I want to sleep in so start brewing at 8. Oh, and instead of 20 ounces of coffee make 30 because I bring my travel mug with me when I volunteer on Saturdays. That is amazing! Different schedules, amounts, and even temperatures for each day of the week! This can be programmed via both the SmartHQ app and via the coffee maker’s knobs and buttons.
There is so much more I can say here but simply do not have room. The flexibility of this machine is amazing.
Making Coffee:
Traditional drip coffee makers focus the water on the center of the brewing compartment. But what about most of the coffee grounds that make up the perimeter? The Café Drip 10 has a solution. It uses a shower head that evenly disperses the water over the coffee grounds to maximize coverage and saturation. The results? An intensely flavorful pot of coffee. This was especially true with Target’s brand Buttered Caramel flavored coffee that I made the morning before in my k-cup pod. The difference was night and day. It was like I finally got the corrective glasses I needed enjoy my morning coffee!
Filters:
You can use a #4 filter if you want. I chose to use the included reusable mesh basket filter. In my opinion, the included filter makes a better cup. There is also a carbon filter that rests in the reservoir. One of the reasons I switched to k-cup is because the carbon filter makes the coffee taste better. And up until now, I have never seen this on a drip coffee maker. Plus, this is the same filter that is used with k-cup style machines. This is a good thing because it is common enough that I will be able to find it anywhere.
Water:
The instruction manual states that coffee with chemicals in it, such a chlorine, should be avoided. Purified water, such as reverse osmosis water, should also be avoided. Chlorine will color the flavor. And filtered water does not have the minerals that will enhance your coffee. I am not one to purchase mineral water. However, I do not live in a part of the country where my water is not heavily chlorinated. My advice: test your machine with different types of water and go with what is best for you.
The instruction manual states that coffee with chemicals in it, such a chlorine, should be avoided. Purified water, such as reverse osmosis water, should also be avoided. Chlorine will color the flavor. And filtered water does not have the minerals that will enhance your coffee. I am not one to purchase mineral water. However, I do not live in a part of the country where my water is not heavily chlorinated. My advice: test your machine with different types of water and go with what is best for you.
The Café Drip 10 does have a descaling mode. This will clean and flush build-up out of the machine. I have not owned the machine long enough to test this yet.
Temperature:
I went straight for the “Gold” setting. I only drink flavored coffee. The coffee came out at just the right temperature for me. The flavor popped! The machine is capable of brewing at a range of 185
to 205°F. You can also choose the strength of your coffee: Light, Medium, Bold. This is great for those of you who want to experiment with temperature and flavor extraction. If you are like me, and want to keep most mornings simple, then the pre-sets that make up Gold will be perfect. If, however, you live above 5000 Feet, then you will want to refer to the user’s manual. The manually specifically states not to use Gold over 5000 feet.
to 205°F. You can also choose the strength of your coffee: Light, Medium, Bold. This is great for those of you who want to experiment with temperature and flavor extraction. If you are like me, and want to keep most mornings simple, then the pre-sets that make up Gold will be perfect. If, however, you live above 5000 Feet, then you will want to refer to the user’s manual. The manually specifically states not to use Gold over 5000 feet.
Brewing the right amount:
For whatever reason, the Café Drip 10 believes a cup of a coffee is 4.5 ounces. Maybe this is the size of little cappuccino cups. I would not know because I do not drink cappuccino. Just a bit too strong for my liking. My coffee mugs are eight ounces. My travel mug is larger still. I recommend using the ounces setting when programming the coffee maker either through the controls or through the SmartHQ app. This allows for greater accuracy.
The measuring scoop:
I am glad that GE included a measuring scoop. It is a bit of a letdown that the measuring scoop is plastic and not of an equal grade stainless steel as the coffee maker. Maybe include one that matches the coffee maker’s accent color? I think GE missed a great opportunity to maintain that premium experience for the whole product. Unpacking is super easy. Setup is super easy. Everything about the coffee maker screams “premium experience!” And then there is this plastic measuring scoop. Why GE, why?
The Carafe:
GE engineers did an amazing job with the carafe. It is as functional as it is beautiful to look at. I love the stainless steel with nickel highlights. The carafe will also keep your coffee hot all day long. I tested eight hours with a full ten cups of freshly brewed hot water. I do not drink coffee late in the day so did not want to waste good coffee grounds on a temperature test. I touched the carafe throughout the day to see how much heat was escaping. The top of the carafe was comfortably warm to the touch but not hot. The side walls were cool to the touch. Using a temperature gun, I recorded 145 degrees in the mug after eight hours in the carafe. My wife pulled out a meat thermometer. Same reading. Finally, I stuck my finger in the cup. The water was hot but not scalding hot. I could see enjoying a late afternoon cup of coffee at this temperature.
Final thoughts:
I love this coffee maker. My coffee tastes great. I have the flexibility to program a unique time, temperature, strength, and amount for each day of the week. I go with the optimized default of “Gold” but I do have the option to take a more hands on approach to my coffee making. The filter system is great. I think the shower head does an excellent job of evenly distributing the water through the grounds. The Café Drip 10 has a real premium presentation that looks great on my counter. The carafe keeps my coffee hot all day long. With the exception of the product packaging, there is less landfill waste than with my k-cup style machine. And my coffee tastes great. Did I already mention that?
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Samsung - Jet™ 70 Pet Cordless Stick Vacuum with Lightweight Design - Airborne with Violet Filter
The Samsung Jet™ 70 Pet Cordless Stick Vacuum features a lightweight and maneuverable design plus a removable battery that can be easily swapped* for a spare extended cleaning time up to 40 minutes. Compatible with Samsung Clean Station™ for mess-free, automatic emptying of the hygienic dust bin.
Light weight and smartly designed
Customer Rating
4.0
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I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
The Samsung Jet 70 is lightest stick vacuum I have owned. This is very important to my wife because she does most of the vacuuming in our home. Before you hit that hate mail button please note that my wife loves vacuums and vacuuming – of her own accord. An indication of a good vacuum, for her, is a combination of weight, maneuverability, versatility, and ease of maintenance. The Samsung Jet 70 wins all these categories.
Cleaning experience:
After cleaning the first floor, which is a combination of hard surfaces and rugs, my wife reported that she loved the weight and the maneuverability more than our previous vacuums. She also loved the freedom that came from being cordless. Swapping out most of the attachments was a snap. Unfortunately, removing the pet cleaning head takes a bit of strength and coordination. It is difficult to depress the latch, hold the motor unit, and pull on the pet cleaner accessory all at the same time. Emptying the dust bin was also a easy. Press the button on the dust trap, pull straight down, remove the filter, and dump over the trash barrel. Over-all, she likes this better than previous stick vacuums we have owned.
I tackled the basement. The basement has a combination of tile, concrete, and rugs of various sizes and thicknesses. The basement builds up with the same kind of dirt as the first floor with the bonus of arts and crafts debris. I put the vacuum on medium power and tore through all the surfaces in my basement in about 10 minutes. I noticed two things. First, the Samsung Jet 70 had a harder time maneuvering on rugs than on a hard surface. I believe this is because the brush roller does not double as a drive mechanism like similar vacuums. The thicker the carpet the more difficult it was to control. It was not bad. I could still vacuum the carpet and reach the whole floor. I just had to put more force behind my strokes than other vacuum cleaners in its class.
Second, depending on the dirt I was trying to capture, I would have to make multiple passes before the vacuum would capture it. This was most noticeable with the bits of paper left over from craft. In these instances, I had to turn the vacuum up to full power and make another pass. Lesson her is to use the right amount of power for the right job. I included a before and after photo of my rug.
Controls:
Controls are digital, simple, and conveniently placed on the handle. It takes zero effort to quickly fly through the power settings with my thumb. I do not have to stop vacuuming to adjust power. Press the center button to turn the Samsung Jet 70 On and Off. The buttons to the bottom left and right of the power button will turn the power up and down between Low, Medium, High.
Pet hair remove:
I am impressed with the pet hair clean-up accessory. I enlisted my rabbit, a jersey wooly, to assist me a test. I placed him on the chair, encouraged him to run around, and then brushed him with my open hand. The chair looked awful when we were done. I then applied the hair removal tool to the chair and started cleaning. The chair was clean in seconds without any leftovers. Please see my before and after photo.
Dirt Cup and air filtration:
The Samsung Jet 70 contains dirt to the dirt cup. I have owned a few stick vacuums over the years that had superior air filtration systems but the seals around the dust cup were poor; allowing dust to re-enter the room. I do not see the Samsung Jet 70 suffering from this issue. The seal for the Jet 70’s dirt cup is tighter fitting and has overlapping air seal rings. There are two seals behind the filter. This is the part of the dust cup that clicks into the drive unit. The third seal ring is between the dust cup container and the filter. The sub-assembly also overlaps each other which allows for the Jet 70 to have a tighter seal than I have seen on any other vacuum I have ever owned. Samsung is serious when they say their vacuum will remove 99.9999% of particles from the air. This starts with containment. And Samsung did a great job with containment. There were no strange smells in the room after vacuuming.
Wall installation/Charging unit:
I recommend hanging the charging unit near a power outlet. The charging cord is a few feet long. This will allow you to hang it near an outlet if you do not have room directly next to an outlet. Be sure to attach the power cord to the back of the charging unit before screwing it into the wall. There is no way to plug in the charging until once it is mounted. You could charge the vacuum on the floor. My wife did this directly after unpacking the Jet 70. I do not recommend that you do the same. The Jet 70 is incapable of free standing let alone free stand with a multi-pound charging until attached to the battery.
The charging unit has two mounts that securely store two of the three attachments that come with the Samsung Jet 70. The pet hair removal tool does not attach to the charging base. The other two attachments clip into the charging unit using the same snap and secure method used on the vacuum body and stick. They will never fall off. Remove them from the charging unit is equally simple.
Noise:
The vacuum is quieter than any vacuum I have ever owned. This includes operation at full power. It is quite impressive considering how much air is moving through the vacuum.
No lights:
Finally, you are probably wondering why I did not give this vacuum five stars. I am disappointed in Samsung for not incorporating lights. One of my tests was to clean the cobwebs from the corners of my home theater. I used the Extension Crevice Tool for this. The lighting in the room is poor by design. Which immediately brought to my attention how useful a light would be in this type of situation. My previous stick vacuums have lights. I did not realize how useful this was for cleaning hard to reach places, and even some surfaces, without lights. Samsung, why did you not include lights to this entire product line!? This is the only reason why I am giving this a four-star review. This is a design miss and I encourage Samsung to revisit lights on next year’s models.
Conclusion:
This is a quality vacuum cleaner. It is light weight, quality components, and smartly designed (less the lights). My wife loves it. Setup and installation are easy. It does take a bit more effort to move over carpet than other vacuums I have owned. It captures a lot of dirt. Please see included photo for my fifteen-minute cleaning session. It looks and feels like a premium device. And there are no ugly cords to pick up, keep straight, or trip over. If the lights are not an issue for you then I say give the Samsung Jet 70 a try.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Compex - AYRE Wireless Rapid-Recovery Compression Boots - Black
Feel relief aid anywhere, anytime with Compex® Ayre™ compression boots. Designed for therapists, coaches, elite and recreational athletes on-the-go, Ayre is a therapeutic product using intermittent pneumatic compression. When exercising, the body builds up lactic acid as a biproduct of muscle contraction. Ayre compression boots work to break up these small molecules and send stimulus to your nervous system. These compression boots are designed to help improve blood flow and circulation in the legs by mobilizing lactic acid, access fluids, and other toxins. Compex Ayre uses a dynamic pulsing compression up the limbs in waves for the duration of its use, which helps promote quick healing. Sit back, power up the boots, and enjoy your recovery for up to 60 minutes anywhere on a single charge.
Great product I can use anywhere
Customer Rating
5.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
I need to start this review by stating that I am not offering any medical advice. I am only relaying my experiences with the Compex Ayre Wireless Rapid-Recover Compression Boots. Compex markets these boots to coaches, therapist, athletes of all levels, and to a lesser extent, to people with medical issues that may require external assistance moving fluids trapped in the legs. My needs are medical.
I got this device for a member of my family who normally wears compressions sleeves on her arms, legs, and hands to help stabilize her body’s inability to quickly adapt to changes in atmospheric pressure. She also asks me to squeeze her feet and hands during these episodes. The symptoms she is fighting are pain in her extremities and an inability to self regulate changes to pressure. Her symptoms can be debilitating. The symptoms are also predictable. I can tell you when her symptoms will flair just by watching the weather report.
I got this device for a member of my family who normally wears compressions sleeves on her arms, legs, and hands to help stabilize her body’s inability to quickly adapt to changes in atmospheric pressure. She also asks me to squeeze her feet and hands during these episodes. The symptoms she is fighting are pain in her extremities and an inability to self regulate changes to pressure. Her symptoms can be debilitating. The symptoms are also predictable. I can tell you when her symptoms will flair just by watching the weather report.
The compression sleeves squeeze her legs and arms and offer enough relief that she can achieve some measure of normalcy. She had high hopes for the compression boots. She felt that this was the product that she's been waiting for.
I charged up the boots, downloaded the manual, and she gave them a try. Her quote, not mine:
“A few minutes using these boots is equal to an hour wearing my compression sleeves. I love this!”
She has used these boots every other day for the last two weeks and loves the results. She gives these boots a five-star rating.
Setup and Use:
Setup is easy. The lower boot surrounds the foot and is open to the top of the ankle. The foot slides into the bootie. The lower boot is secured by a zipper that zips up to the knee. The thigh is secured by three Velcro straps. The control box faces outwards. There is a separate power button on each control box. You can put these boots on from a standing position standing, sitting in a chair, or sitting on the ground. For me, the best way to put the boots on is standing. I slide my foot into the bootie, secure the Velcro straps around my thigh, and then zip the bootie up to my knee.
The unit powers to the default F1 mode including my last pressure setting. F1 mode fills the four air bladders (C1, C2, C3, C4) in each boot one at a time in sequential order. The default pressure is 50 mmHG, or 50 millimeters of mercury. You can program the device to fill each bladder from 00 mmHG to 120mmHG. Each control box needs to be programmed individually. The unit takes about 10 to 30 seconds to fully inflate. The target pressure is then held for 10 seconds. The boots will then deflate over the next 10 to 60 seconds from the target pressure to zero.
The F1 mode inflates in the following order:
1) C1 is the bladder surrounding the foot.
2) C2 bladder surrounds the lower calf.
3) C3 bladder surrounds the upper calf.
4) C4 bladder surrounds the thigh.
2) C2 bladder surrounds the lower calf.
3) C3 bladder surrounds the upper calf.
4) C4 bladder surrounds the thigh.
You can manually kick off the cycle as many times as you want up to the maximum runtime of one hour. My family found that two or three cycles were enough to get the benefits we were looking for.
Mode F2 fills all the bladders at the same time. We used this mode a few times. Personally, we found F1 more to our liking. I think maintaining the pressure on the feet for a longer period of time is really why F1 was a hit for my family. This is most likely important because squeeze her feet is an activity that alleviates her symptoms. So, it makes sense that this is her preferred mode.
What about “these are wireless”?
These boots do not have an accompanying mobile application. “Wireless” is referencing that each boot is self-contained and does not require direct connection to either power or a vacuum pump. Also, the control boxes do not communicate with each other. I found that, to keep the boots in sync, I had to operate the control box on each boot at the same time. There may be a reason for this. I would have liked to have seen an option, switch, or something that would allow me to operate both boots from the same control panel. This would allow both legs to inflate and deflate in tandem. I can achieve the same affect by pression the go button on both control boxes at the same time.
Finally, these boots are open at the knees. This allows you to walk freely, sit on the floor, sit in a chair, and get yourself back to a standing position without much difficulty.
Instructions:
First off, these are super easy to operate. The operating instructions are three pages long. And there are two buttons on each control box to control the boots.
There are no recommendations, examples of operation, no nothing to help you figure out what will work best for you. For example, my wife asked me if she could use these on the floor or if she must stand during operation. The instructions did not indicate an optimum position. Through experimentation, I found that standing does work but you sacrifice foot compression. If you sit on the ground with your legs straight out, then you get the full benefits of compression. However, you may want to sit up against a wall. After a while, your back will ache from the stress of holding the position.
Second, there are several disclaimers on why you should not use these boots. These are listed on the external packaging under the heading: Contraindications. See photos. This is important information! Compex chose to use the smallest font they could reasonably print to list these out. I think these are rather important and should take more of a prominent position on the packaging. It is not like Compex ran out of white space on the packaging to post this information. As a business, why would you want to create a condition that could prompt a return? It makes no sense to me. And I think minimizing the information is unnecessary.
Looks:
Yes, these are super ugly! They look like someone over-engineered hip boots used for fly fishing. They will not win you any rewards at a fashion show. Get over it.
Over-all impression:
I think this is a great product. I have an athlete in my family and a person who has a medical condition. They both report positive result using these boots. I do not like the documentation as written. I also believe the reasons not to purchase this product is not only warranted but should be in larger font on the back of the packaging. This really is important for a product that acts like a medical device. The documentation, as written, is a cross between instructions, intended purpose and intended use, and language to satisfy an FDA regulator. Some of this is nit-picking. This product is having a positive impact on my family. There is room for improvement. But nothing that will prevent me from recommending this product for its intended use.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Chefman TurboFry Touch 4.5 Qt. Digital Air Fryer
Create healthier versions of your crispy, fried favorites with this 4.5-Qt Chefman TurboFry Touch Air Fryer. Cook your restaurant favorites easily with the advanced digital display, simple capacitive control, convenient LED shake reminder, and 60-minute integrated timer. Clean up even quicker with the nonstick, dishwasher-safe fry basket. Cook for the whole family with the XL capacity, with the sleek square design that stores beautifully on any countertop.
Basic air frying for the simple cook
Customer Rating
4.0
Images for this Review
(click to see full-size image)
Use:
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
This is my third air fryer. Second from Chefman. There are those time, uh Football Sunday, where cooking up wings, fries, and other tasty treats loses there magic if I must cook each dish one at a time.
My overall impression is that this is a basic air fryer that will allow you to make great wings, crunchy fries, and will give you a nice crunchy crust to non-wet batter covered anything you that you would normally use a deep fryer to cook up. I call this “basic” because everything about this air fryer is bare bones simple. The LED controls allow you to adjust cooking time and change the cooking temperature from 200 to 400. That is everything! The LED panel allows the changing of temperature and cooking time only when cooking is paused. Adding time while the fryer is blowing hot air is impossible.
The basket is wide but shallow compared with other air fryers I have used. There is an arrow on the bottom inside of the basket that points towards the back of the unit. This arrow corresponds with a duplicate arrow on the crisping tray. This indicates how the crisping tray should be aligned inside the basket. The crisping tray has three rubber like spacers that protect the sides of the non-stick coating on the basket when you insert or remove the crisping try. The crisping tray also has two finger holes in the center of the tray for easy removal. Finally, the basket has several air slits at the back of the basket to allow air flow. This will make it impossible to fill the basket with hot soapy water for soaking. I was not aware of this the first time I filled the basket with hot soapy water and ended up getting water all over my counter. Don’t be me.
This unit shares the same factory new chemical stink that all air fryers seem to share these days. It will take about a week to burn off. I recommend opening some windows or turning on an exhaust fan for that first week of use. The smell will eventually go away.
Cooking:
The instruction manual has more pages on what you should not do with the air fryer than what you should do. I am not joking. There are four pages, 25-line items, of safety guidelines. All particularly important. But there is not a single page, paragraph, or sentence suggesting how long, and at what temperature, you should cook frozen chicken wings or onion rings. These are common things you would use an air fryer for! There are tips on how to maximize your cooking experience. Tips such as do not use wet batters. Do not overcrowd the basket. Do not fill the basket with oil. Please do not fill your basket with oil!
There are also tips on how to cook your food evenly. There is a total of eight cooking tips. I would have preferred a short cooking guide to give me a general idea of how long, and at what temperature, to cook different kinds of common air fryer foods. Other companies usually dedicate a few pages, or a web page, to this. My advice is read your food’s packaging for convention oven tips and follow those until you find what works for you.
It took me a few tries, but I found what worked for me. I cooked up several dishes. French Fries, Waffle Fries, home-made chicken strips, home-made crispy steak strips, broccoli potato puffs, chicken wings, and ravioli with turkey meat balls. I included a few pictures of the foods I cooked.
I chose to cook the fries, waffle fries, and frozen chicken wings at 400. I checked and shook the basket every five minutes or so. I used silicon covered tongs to flip the chicken. I recommend that you get some silicon covered tongs. It will save you a lot of time and frustrating working with any air fryer basket. Flipping the food every five minutes promotes even cooking. It also allows you the opportunity to judge how well your food is cooking. The Chefman will audibly remind you to shake the basket if you allow it to cook uninterrupted for a set period. The fries, waffle fries, and chicken came out crispy. I did not add any oil to the food. The left-over oil from the frozen fries and the fat from the chicken were enough to make the food crispy.
Next, I cut up some chicken into strips, rolled in white flour, rolled in beaten egg, and then rolled in Panko mixed with some seasoning. I cook this at 350 for about 20 minutes; turning every 5. The chicken came out great. The crust was firm and crispy. It was not the nice golden brown that you get form an air fryer. But it was tasty and a heck of a lot healthier for me. I did the same with some steak strips. Same results. The downside to steak is that the coating does not stick to the finished steak like it does the chicken. Not a big deal. It still tasted good and gave a nice crunch when bitten into.
Finally, I boiled up some raviolis on my stove, lightly covered them in olive oil, and then tossed them in breadcrumbs. I put these in the air fryer along with some tiny turkey meat balls. The meat balls came out crispy. The raviolis did not come out as crispy as I thought they would. The pasta was a bit rubbery. For now, I am assuming that I have not found the best way of making this work. However, the meal was better than I expected for a first attempt. I will try this again until I have proven I can get the results I am after. It was a worthwhile lunch experiment. You can see the results in my attached photos.
Cleanup:
The Chefman is a snap to clean. At least for now. Food slides off the non-stick coating without too much fuss. Over time, however, grime will build on the basket and the crisping tray. This will make clean up slightly more challenging. This has happened with my other air fryers. Let the basket soak in hot soapy water and you are good to go for your next air frying dish. You will also need to clean the inside of the air fryer, including the heating coil, from time to time with a damp cloth. Please be sure to unplug the unit before cleaning. My recommendation is to unplug the unit when you are done cooking.
Final thoughts:
This is a basic air fryer. It is a great way to get into the world of air frying to see if this is something for you. I think the digital controls or overly simplistic. I would like to have seen some per-programmed functions such as bake, air fry, and warming. I would also would have liked to have the ability to change time and temperature while the air fryer is cooking. I think Chefman missed an opportunity by no including a cooking guide. Chefman’s competitors do this today.
The air fryer does exactly what it sets out to do. It makes good dishes without any fan fair. If you are looking for something simple to use and easy to maintain then I recommend that you give this Chefman air fryer a try. Personally, I expect to get some give this air fryer a healthy workout this football season.
Thank you for reading my review.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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3out of 3found this review helpful.
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ITJim's Questions
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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.
4 years, 1 month 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.
4 years, 2 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.
4 years, 2 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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4 years, 11 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.
4 years, 11 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
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.
6 years 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
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.
6 years 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
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
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.
6 years ago
by
Posted by:
ITJim