CraigB's stats
- Review count172
- Helpfulness votes2,720
- First reviewFebruary 11, 2013
- Last reviewMay 12, 2024
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4.2
- Review comment count7
- Helpfulness votes6
- First review commentNovember 29, 2013
- Last review commentJanuary 31, 2017
- Featured review comments0
Questions
- Question count0
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- First questionNone
- Last questionNone
- Featured questions0
- Answer count43
- Helpfulness votes53
- First answerMarch 24, 2015
- Last answerNovember 6, 2021
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If all-out advantage is more your speed, arm yourself with responsiveness that’s second to none. Meet the Razer Huntsman V2—an optical gaming keyboard with near-zero input latency and fully geared out with other high-end features to make it the complete package.
Customer Rating
4
Solid performance with minor quirks
on October 1, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Aluminum top plate
Four on device spaces for profiles
Keys nearly silent
Quick response
Keycap labels don’t wear off
Customized keycaps available directly from Razer
Adjustable sensitivity for typing and gaming
Magnetic wrist rest
Adjustable backlight brightness
Allows guest access to Synapse
Aluminum top plate
Four on device spaces for profiles
Keys nearly silent
Quick response
Keycap labels don’t wear off
Customized keycaps available directly from Razer
Adjustable sensitivity for typing and gaming
Magnetic wrist rest
Adjustable backlight brightness
Allows guest access to Synapse
Cons
Keycap backlight inconsistent
Key sound inconsistent, some rattle
Activation point feels deeper than normal
Typing mode causes missed keys
Media keys activation feels cheap
Keycap backlight inconsistent
Key sound inconsistent, some rattle
Activation point feels deeper than normal
Typing mode causes missed keys
Media keys activation feels cheap
Design and Appearance
One could be forgiven for thinking the Huntsman V2 is entirely plastic as the finish on the top deck makes it appear plastic, but it is metal. The keys are made of PBT instead of regular ABS which should mean better wear, but only time will tell. One thing that should stand up over time are the keycap labels. Unlike some keycaps where the pigment is just on the surface and wears over time, the “Doubleshot PBT” keys are two parts model together where the top shell is molded over the keycap labels. This should mean even as the keycaps wear down, the labels will not change as they are the actual color of the material. The downside of this is it means the backlight uniformity of the keys is inconsistent. The surface has a slight texture and is dished left to right curve. In previous generations, you could swap out switches if you wanted. On the Huntsman V2, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of the ability. The wrist rest is soft faux leather and attaches magnetically to the keyboard. The magnetic design makes installing and removing a snap and thankfully means you won’t accidentally break the thin retaining clips on tradition style wrist rests.
One could be forgiven for thinking the Huntsman V2 is entirely plastic as the finish on the top deck makes it appear plastic, but it is metal. The keys are made of PBT instead of regular ABS which should mean better wear, but only time will tell. One thing that should stand up over time are the keycap labels. Unlike some keycaps where the pigment is just on the surface and wears over time, the “Doubleshot PBT” keys are two parts model together where the top shell is molded over the keycap labels. This should mean even as the keycaps wear down, the labels will not change as they are the actual color of the material. The downside of this is it means the backlight uniformity of the keys is inconsistent. The surface has a slight texture and is dished left to right curve. In previous generations, you could swap out switches if you wanted. On the Huntsman V2, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of the ability. The wrist rest is soft faux leather and attaches magnetically to the keyboard. The magnetic design makes installing and removing a snap and thankfully means you won’t accidentally break the thin retaining clips on tradition style wrist rests.
Setup and Performance
Setup is straightforward. Shortly after plugging in the Huntsman V2 you are prompted to install Razer Synapse if you don’t already have it installed. Of course, Synapse isn’t unique to the Huntsman but one thing different is that you get 4 on device storage slots for custom profiles. Within Synapse you can configure a profile, then drag to a panel on the right where it shows you the onboard storage. This way, if you bring your keyboard to another computer without synapse you can still bring your four favorites if you upload them before moving.
Of course, there is too much to cover in a short review and a lot is like other Razer products. The important question is how it feels and performs. The linear operation of the switches is very smooth and consistent between keys. However, keycaps do exhibit a bit of wobble as you press on them. The corner you press dips a lot more the opposing corner. That said, if you have never experienced a keyboard can press even a long key like the space bar and it depresses perfectly flat, regardless of where you press it, you will likely never notice this effect on the Huntsman. The activation point is consistent while feeling slightly deeper than average. If you have a light touch on the keys, you may have to adjust slightly as you may initially miss button presses. If type heavy, the Huntsman V2 is pretty forgiving with long key travel before bottoming out. To a point, you can adjust the responsiveness by changing the default profile from typing to gaming. The polling frequency is also adjustable from 125Hz to 4000Hz. While activation feels consistent, noise is a bit more of a mixed bag. Overall operation is noticeably quieter, but some keys have a plastic sound, and some others have a metal spring sound. It’s subtle but it does detract slightly from the overall experience.
Setup is straightforward. Shortly after plugging in the Huntsman V2 you are prompted to install Razer Synapse if you don’t already have it installed. Of course, Synapse isn’t unique to the Huntsman but one thing different is that you get 4 on device storage slots for custom profiles. Within Synapse you can configure a profile, then drag to a panel on the right where it shows you the onboard storage. This way, if you bring your keyboard to another computer without synapse you can still bring your four favorites if you upload them before moving.
Of course, there is too much to cover in a short review and a lot is like other Razer products. The important question is how it feels and performs. The linear operation of the switches is very smooth and consistent between keys. However, keycaps do exhibit a bit of wobble as you press on them. The corner you press dips a lot more the opposing corner. That said, if you have never experienced a keyboard can press even a long key like the space bar and it depresses perfectly flat, regardless of where you press it, you will likely never notice this effect on the Huntsman. The activation point is consistent while feeling slightly deeper than average. If you have a light touch on the keys, you may have to adjust slightly as you may initially miss button presses. If type heavy, the Huntsman V2 is pretty forgiving with long key travel before bottoming out. To a point, you can adjust the responsiveness by changing the default profile from typing to gaming. The polling frequency is also adjustable from 125Hz to 4000Hz. While activation feels consistent, noise is a bit more of a mixed bag. Overall operation is noticeably quieter, but some keys have a plastic sound, and some others have a metal spring sound. It’s subtle but it does detract slightly from the overall experience.
The media keys at the top right of the keyboard feel slightly out of place in operation. They feel rigid with almost no movement and a hard click. After using keys with deep travel, linear, silent switches the short travel buttons with a loud click just seems odd. That said, they get the job and will be used much less often so it really depends on how picky you are. The volume wheel has a nice feel and can be adjusted without looking. Just place your hand on the right side of the keyboard and you can feel the dial which can be operated from the side or top. The center of the dial is also a mute button which glows red when you are muted.
Gameplay is harder to quantify but in Doom Eternal movement felt more predictable. Key switches are forgiving enough to allow you to lay your hand on WASD to rest and ready to press quickly. This is nice because some keyboards are overly sensitive requiring you to hover your fingers above and eventually the tiredness hits, your hand twitches and who knows what you selected and where you moved. While maybe not so helpful for typing situations, the long travel came in handy here.
Final Thoughts
While there are some minor cosmetic issues, gameplay is consistent and enjoyable. Overall, if you have liked Razer products in the past you will find the Huntsman V2 to be very familiar and enjoyable. If you haven’t used Razer products and are in the market for a new near silent gaming keyboard, the Huntsman V2 is worth taking a look.
While there are some minor cosmetic issues, gameplay is consistent and enjoyable. Overall, if you have liked Razer products in the past you will find the Huntsman V2 to be very familiar and enjoyable. If you haven’t used Razer products and are in the market for a new near silent gaming keyboard, the Huntsman V2 is worth taking a look.
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The Farenheit Flame is great for the backyard or for your outdoor adventures. This easy to transport fire pit will add warmth and atmosphere. Designed to reduce smoke so you can cozy up and enjoy yourself.
Customer Rating
3
Sturdy portable fire pit
on September 25, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Stainless Steel
Base store in pit for smaller size
Carrying bag
Vent holes on bottom help burn wood better
Doesn’t require tending to fire
Has less smoke
Stand doubles as ash tray
Works with pellets
Base isolates heat from ground improving safety
Stainless Steel
Base store in pit for smaller size
Carrying bag
Vent holes on bottom help burn wood better
Doesn’t require tending to fire
Has less smoke
Stand doubles as ash tray
Works with pellets
Base isolates heat from ground improving safety
Cons
2 obnoxiously large logos on small fire pit
Low smoke free design only works for part of burn
Ashes only partially drop to ash tray
Fire pit is tricky to get in bag
No tool included to tend to fire if needed
Says not to use logs over 10” which is smaller than standard
Double wall noticeably reduces heat output from sides
Still requires storing in dry place to prevent rust
2 obnoxiously large logos on small fire pit
Low smoke free design only works for part of burn
Ashes only partially drop to ash tray
Fire pit is tricky to get in bag
No tool included to tend to fire if needed
Says not to use logs over 10” which is smaller than standard
Double wall noticeably reduces heat output from sides
Still requires storing in dry place to prevent rust
Design
The fire pit is a two-piece design. The base fits inside the pit to reduce size during transport. The base has ventilation slots to improve airflow from the bottom and serves as an ash tray and. The burn pit portion is a double wall construction with holes on the outside bottom and at the inside top to increase ventilation and presumably burn the fuel more completely with less smoke. Both the top and bottom portion have two comically large Fahrenheit logos cut out, so everyone nearby knows how made it. Included is spring loaded tool for carrying the pit when not in the bag. While the spring-loaded function seems unnecessary, it gets the job done. The carry bag is made of canvas with a slightly rigid bottom.
The fire pit is a two-piece design. The base fits inside the pit to reduce size during transport. The base has ventilation slots to improve airflow from the bottom and serves as an ash tray and. The burn pit portion is a double wall construction with holes on the outside bottom and at the inside top to increase ventilation and presumably burn the fuel more completely with less smoke. Both the top and bottom portion have two comically large Fahrenheit logos cut out, so everyone nearby knows how made it. Included is spring loaded tool for carrying the pit when not in the bag. While the spring-loaded function seems unnecessary, it gets the job done. The carry bag is made of canvas with a slightly rigid bottom.
Setup and Performance
Setup of the Fahrenheit Flame from the bag is easy enough. Just grab the spring-loaded handle and lift the unit out. Remove the handle and pull out the base. Once you have the base in place you can reinstall the spring-loaded handle to lower pit onto the base. You must make sure the locating ring on the top matches with the base to ensure stability, but that isn’t very difficult. Once done you remove the handle and get started.
Setup of the Fahrenheit Flame from the bag is easy enough. Just grab the spring-loaded handle and lift the unit out. Remove the handle and pull out the base. Once you have the base in place you can reinstall the spring-loaded handle to lower pit onto the base. You must make sure the locating ring on the top matches with the base to ensure stability, but that isn’t very difficult. Once done you remove the handle and get started.
You can load it up with pellets or logs, but the logs should be no more than 10” long. This is a bit odd because standard logs for fireplaces or even logs at campsites are normally cut much longer than this. This means starting with logs will require cutting down standard sized logs after purchase or awkwardly placing the logs standing up in the pit higher than recommended. This reduces performance of the low smoke design as smoke will increase if the logs are above the rim.
Lighting in calm conditions is easy as the ventilation holes allow good airflow to stoke the fire. It gets a litter trickier with even a moderate breeze as the flow through design tends to try to put out the flame initially. If you have worked with fire pits before the process is still easier and quicker than normal. Once things get going it doesn’t really require much, if any, tending as the airflow ensures a complete burn.
The design and double wall construction is both good and bad. The good is it reduces the amount of smoke greatly, particularly with green wood. It also makes tending unnecessary. The downside is the low smoke function only works when the fire is at it’s hottest. At the start and end when heat is lower it smokes like a standard pit. It also means that the sides insulate from heat causing most of the heat to be directed up. You can certainly get more heat the sides by added more fuel in the form of wood or pellets, but this just causes it to burn through logs extremely fast.
Once you are done, you just leave the pit to burn through the remainder of the fuel and collect the ashes. The base is supposed to act as an ash tray. While it does do this a small amount, most of the ashes stay in the burn pit portion. Not a big deal as it is easy to lift, but not quite the easy empty solution you might think.
Putting it back in the bag is a little trickier and more easily done with two people. First, you put the base back in the pit and replace the spring-loaded handle. Putting it in the bag is where things get more awkward. While the bag is slightly stiffer on bottom, the sides are soft. A single person can put it in the bag, but you might be chasing around portions of the bag that keep falling as you put the pit back in. Hopefully if you are using it, you have friends with you anyway and they can help hold the bag open.
Final thoughts
The Fahrenheit Flame is a well-built product that is easy to use and hopefully should last. The main question to determine if it is the right one for you is how you would like to use it. If you want a fire pit for larger groups of people, need it to heat the area, and don’t care if it is portable then this isn’t the one for you. If you are looking for a portable fire pit that is compact, easy to carry, easy to maintain, produces less smoke, and ambience is more important that absolute heat then the Fahrenheit Flame could fit the bill.
The Fahrenheit Flame is a well-built product that is easy to use and hopefully should last. The main question to determine if it is the right one for you is how you would like to use it. If you want a fire pit for larger groups of people, need it to heat the area, and don’t care if it is portable then this isn’t the one for you. If you are looking for a portable fire pit that is compact, easy to carry, easy to maintain, produces less smoke, and ambience is more important that absolute heat then the Fahrenheit Flame could fit the bill.
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Are you ready for next-gen performance? The Crucial P5 Plus SSD delivers remarkable speed and data protection with sequential reads up to 6600MB/s1 for transformative computing. Engineered by Micron with the latest Gen4 NVMe technology, the Crucial P5 Plus includes advanced features like full hardware-based encryption, dynamic write acceleration, and adaptive thermal protection to keep your data safe while enhancing system reliability. Designed specifically for intensive workloads, high-quality creative content, and hardcore gaming, the P5 Plus is also backward compatible with most Gen3 systems for ultimate flexibility. The Crucial P5 Plus meets the performance and form factor requirements for Sony PS5 when used with a heat sink; heat sink sold separately.
Customer Rating
4
Fast, but inconsistent performer
on September 2, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Hardware based encryption
Fast
Thermal protection built in
5-year warranty
Backward compatible with PCIe 3
Keeps temps reasonable
Includes Storage Executive to check SSD health
Hardware based encryption
Fast
Thermal protection built in
5-year warranty
Backward compatible with PCIe 3
Keeps temps reasonable
Includes Storage Executive to check SSD health
Cons
Middle of the pack performance
Inconsistent performance
Acronis doesn’t recognize drive as official Crucial
Middle of the pack performance
Inconsistent performance
Acronis doesn’t recognize drive as official Crucial
Crucial products usually don’t stand out as the top performer but instead as the most reliable and compatible. The P5 Plus seems to follow this same design mold.
Design and Features
Packaging is kept minimal with just the SSD and an extra screw if you happened to lose yours. The look is minimalistic with the drive nearly blacked out except the name. No heatsink is included, so for consistent performance you would want to plan for a heatsink or heat spreader. Otherwise, the built-in thermal management will throttling the drive if temps climb too high. The drive works with the regular Windows drivers, but Crucial also offers their own drivers which are mainly for troubleshooting performance and enabling certain features of Storage Executive. Storage Executive is their own software, available for download on their website, which allows checking on SSD health, drive testing, and firmware updates as well as some other features. If your system either has a battery or battery backup, you can also use their Momentum Cache to further enhance performance. It doesn’t prevent you from using it without a battery but just warns of possible data loss. If you are more security conscious, the P5 Plus includes integrated hardware-based encryption so you can fully encrypt your drive without any performance hit. For migration to the new drive, you can download Acronis for free from the website although as of writing this it doesn't recognize the drive as an official Crucial drive and prompts to purchase.
Packaging is kept minimal with just the SSD and an extra screw if you happened to lose yours. The look is minimalistic with the drive nearly blacked out except the name. No heatsink is included, so for consistent performance you would want to plan for a heatsink or heat spreader. Otherwise, the built-in thermal management will throttling the drive if temps climb too high. The drive works with the regular Windows drivers, but Crucial also offers their own drivers which are mainly for troubleshooting performance and enabling certain features of Storage Executive. Storage Executive is their own software, available for download on their website, which allows checking on SSD health, drive testing, and firmware updates as well as some other features. If your system either has a battery or battery backup, you can also use their Momentum Cache to further enhance performance. It doesn’t prevent you from using it without a battery but just warns of possible data loss. If you are more security conscious, the P5 Plus includes integrated hardware-based encryption so you can fully encrypt your drive without any performance hit. For migration to the new drive, you can download Acronis for free from the website although as of writing this it doesn't recognize the drive as an official Crucial drive and prompts to purchase.
Performance
For background, the drive is installed on a Ryzen 9 3950X system in a PCIe 4 slot with integrated heat spreader. Under ideal conditions the drive is rated up to 6.6G/s read, and 5GB/s write. In a real-world file copy of 47GB of files, it averaged a respectable 1.5GB/s with files of all sizes. CrystalDiskMark measured close to the rating coming in just shy of 6GB/s read and nearly 5GB/s write. Strangely, the read and write speeds seemed to vary more than other drives, but not enough to notice in daily use. With each benchmark test, the same variability was seen where results were just slightly less consistent than the average drive. When testing game launch times, the same variability could be measured, but was too small to notice. For example, on the original SSD, launch time of a Doom varied by 1.24 seconds. When the library was moved to the P5 Plus, launched times varied 2.78 seconds. Considering that in both cases Doom took nearly 40 seconds to launch, a 2 second difference is hard to spot. It’s hard to say if this might be noticeable elsewhere. Trying this out with other games yielded similar results.
While speed has some variability, thermals seem to be more consistent. With repeated use, the drive never went above 67 degrees Celsius, and throttling is listed to activate at 80. This is nice for thermals, and possibly longevity, but doesn’t answer the question of consistency. In daily use, the difference was imperceivable so it’s up to you how much this matters.
For background, the drive is installed on a Ryzen 9 3950X system in a PCIe 4 slot with integrated heat spreader. Under ideal conditions the drive is rated up to 6.6G/s read, and 5GB/s write. In a real-world file copy of 47GB of files, it averaged a respectable 1.5GB/s with files of all sizes. CrystalDiskMark measured close to the rating coming in just shy of 6GB/s read and nearly 5GB/s write. Strangely, the read and write speeds seemed to vary more than other drives, but not enough to notice in daily use. With each benchmark test, the same variability was seen where results were just slightly less consistent than the average drive. When testing game launch times, the same variability could be measured, but was too small to notice. For example, on the original SSD, launch time of a Doom varied by 1.24 seconds. When the library was moved to the P5 Plus, launched times varied 2.78 seconds. Considering that in both cases Doom took nearly 40 seconds to launch, a 2 second difference is hard to spot. It’s hard to say if this might be noticeable elsewhere. Trying this out with other games yielded similar results.
While speed has some variability, thermals seem to be more consistent. With repeated use, the drive never went above 67 degrees Celsius, and throttling is listed to activate at 80. This is nice for thermals, and possibly longevity, but doesn’t answer the question of consistency. In daily use, the difference was imperceivable so it’s up to you how much this matters.
Final Thoughts
While the P5 Plus might be a bit finicky on consistency, it was always up to the task. If you are looking for a PCIe 4 SSD and saving money and having a stable rig are more important that absolute maximum performance, the P5 Plus is worth considering.
While the P5 Plus might be a bit finicky on consistency, it was always up to the task. If you are looking for a PCIe 4 SSD and saving money and having a stable rig are more important that absolute maximum performance, the P5 Plus is worth considering.
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The Ninja CREAMi transforms frozen solid bases into ice cream, sorbets, milkshakes, and more at the touch of a button. From healthy to indulgent, the Ninja CREAMi can create frozen treats as unique as you are!
Customer Rating
4
Versatile frozen dessert maker
on July 15, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Versatile
Dishwasher safe
Easy to use
You can make your own custom flavors
Multiple pints containers allow options
Versatile
Dishwasher safe
Easy to use
You can make your own custom flavors
Multiple pints containers allow options
Cons
Has a bit of a learning curve
Warnings of damage might prevent trying new combinations
Base must be frozen perfectly flat to prevent damage
Has a bit of a learning curve
Warnings of damage might prevent trying new combinations
Base must be frozen perfectly flat to prevent damage
Design
The Ninja Creami resembles narrow, tall coffee maker more than a blender. At first glance you would think it would hold a large picture but with the motor housing and blades that plunge down there is only room for a pint-sized container. The picture comes in two portions. There is an outer container which appears to be mainly for safety to lock it into the machine and then the inner removable container houses the frozen treat base which you will process. The overall design is distinctly Ninja where most of the unit is black and gray with chrome accents for buttons.
The Ninja Creami resembles narrow, tall coffee maker more than a blender. At first glance you would think it would hold a large picture but with the motor housing and blades that plunge down there is only room for a pint-sized container. The picture comes in two portions. There is an outer container which appears to be mainly for safety to lock it into the machine and then the inner removable container houses the frozen treat base which you will process. The overall design is distinctly Ninja where most of the unit is black and gray with chrome accents for buttons.
Usage
The recipe book has many recipes to start you off, including lite options. Some recipes even have regular and lite options combined into one, such as replacing sugar with a combination of stevia and agave.
The recipe book has many recipes to start you off, including lite options. Some recipes even have regular and lite options combined into one, such as replacing sugar with a combination of stevia and agave.
One thing that may cause concern is there are several warnings of damage when using the machine, such as with certain ingredients, or if the base is frozen slightly off level, or if the base is frozen too cold. Also, typically the base will refreeze hard when you put it back in the freezer. This means if you want to run it through the Creami again later, you must smooth the top flat before putting in the freezer or risk damage. While this problem is easy to avoid, this might cause a new owner to be concerned that is seems too easy to damage the Creami. If you have owned Ninja products before you will be familiar with the adjustment period where at first you feel overwhelmed with the features and options before you realize they are all very familiar. Once you understand the basics, its simple to use and without damage.
With nearly every recipe, you start with a few ingredients and mix them and add them into one of the three included bases. Just don’t fill it past the line in the container and you will be good. Put it on a level shelf in a regular freezer and around 24 hours you can run it through the Creami. This is essentially the process for most frozen dessert options. The main difference, besides the ingredients, is how the Creami processes the base you have frozen. For ice cream the blending sounds a bit slower where a milkshake blends fast nearly the entire time. Regardless of which option you choose, the progress will be displayed as 4 lights at the top of the control panel. When all four are lit up, you are done and unless adding more ingredients you are ready to enjoy.
Performance
With the right ingredients you might be pleasantly surprised with the results. While not identical to store or restaurant style desserts, the results are arguably better as you can tailor things to exactly what you want. You can make what you want, the way you like it, while saving money. Gelato comes out with the consistency of soft serve and very smooth and rich. Ice cream also comes out heavy and thick but smooth. Unlike ice cream purchase at the store, scooping out ice cream the next day requires letting it sit out or reblending. Overall, it’s worth the wait. Milkshakes are one of the few things that don’t require waiting the customary 24 hours. All you need is 1 ½ cups of ice cream and a ½ cup of whole milk and a couple of minutes later you have a milkshake. Consistently is soft enough to drink easily with a straw. If you like thicker shakes, there doesn’t seem to be a way to choose a thicker option, but the default seems perfect for most.
With the right ingredients you might be pleasantly surprised with the results. While not identical to store or restaurant style desserts, the results are arguably better as you can tailor things to exactly what you want. You can make what you want, the way you like it, while saving money. Gelato comes out with the consistency of soft serve and very smooth and rich. Ice cream also comes out heavy and thick but smooth. Unlike ice cream purchase at the store, scooping out ice cream the next day requires letting it sit out or reblending. Overall, it’s worth the wait. Milkshakes are one of the few things that don’t require waiting the customary 24 hours. All you need is 1 ½ cups of ice cream and a ½ cup of whole milk and a couple of minutes later you have a milkshake. Consistently is soft enough to drink easily with a straw. If you like thicker shakes, there doesn’t seem to be a way to choose a thicker option, but the default seems perfect for most.
Final Thoughts
If you have been considering a machine to make frozen desserts at home and you like Ninja products, the choice is easy. You will enjoy it. For everyone else, the question is if you want a versatile machine that’s easy to use, easy to clean up, and give you the choice to make it the way you like then the Ninja Creami is work a look.
If you have been considering a machine to make frozen desserts at home and you like Ninja products, the choice is easy. You will enjoy it. For everyone else, the question is if you want a versatile machine that’s easy to use, easy to clean up, and give you the choice to make it the way you like then the Ninja Creami is work a look.
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Why can’t laptops be more like phones? They can when you turn your work-life balance completely around with Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360. It’s a premium PC that quickly converts to a top-of-the-line tablet and is Intel® Evo™ platform certified. Precisely draw out plans and write down notes with our S Pen and Samsung Notes — both redesigned for the best experience possible. Then instantly flip to having fun, and get lost in your favorite movie and more, all with 120% color volume on an advanced AMOLED screen and the surround-sound technology of Dolby Atmos audio. Top it out with the power of the latest Intel® 11th Gen Core™ processor, up to 16GB of RAM and an entire TB of storage — all running on the fast and familiar Windows 11 OS — and you get all the space and speed you need. Plus, with Wi-Fi that’s up to 3x faster, you’ll discover a new era of mobile computing. It’s not a laptop. It’s a Galaxy Book.
Customer Rating
4
Great convertible for Samsung ecosystem
on June 5, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Super amoled inky blacks
Sturdy chassis
Extremely thin and light
Includes USB-C and a Thunderbolt
Charges with USB-C
Included charger is Gallium Nitride
Lid automatically turns system off and on
Good keyboard
Includes number pad
Good touchpad
Some provided apps are useful
Touchscreen
Extremely small bezels
Stylus included
Fast fingerprint scanner
Stable screen during usage despite thinness
Tons of features compliment a Galaxy phone
Switchable cooling profiles for performance or silence
Super amoled inky blacks
Sturdy chassis
Extremely thin and light
Includes USB-C and a Thunderbolt
Charges with USB-C
Included charger is Gallium Nitride
Lid automatically turns system off and on
Good keyboard
Includes number pad
Good touchpad
Some provided apps are useful
Touchscreen
Extremely small bezels
Stylus included
Fast fingerprint scanner
Stable screen during usage despite thinness
Tons of features compliment a Galaxy phone
Switchable cooling profiles for performance or silence
Cons
Anemic downward firing speakers
Battery life much shorter than stated
Drivers still not stable
Screen has a lot of glare
Blue finish is a fingerprint magnet
Includes bloatware with separate app store
1080p resolution on large screen reduces sharpness
No storage for stylus
Rubber tip on stylus doesn’t feel natural and catches dirt
“Pro” version comes with Windows 10 “Home”
16:9 ratio feels extremely long in tablet mode
Large bottom chin
Lackluster webcam
No Windows Hello Camera
Poor touchpad palm rejection when typing
Zero key in non-standard place on number pad
Minor OLED PWM screen flicker
Anemic downward firing speakers
Battery life much shorter than stated
Drivers still not stable
Screen has a lot of glare
Blue finish is a fingerprint magnet
Includes bloatware with separate app store
1080p resolution on large screen reduces sharpness
No storage for stylus
Rubber tip on stylus doesn’t feel natural and catches dirt
“Pro” version comes with Windows 10 “Home”
16:9 ratio feels extremely long in tablet mode
Large bottom chin
Lackluster webcam
No Windows Hello Camera
Poor touchpad palm rejection when typing
Zero key in non-standard place on number pad
Minor OLED PWM screen flicker
The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 looks to have chosen to compete in the upper range of 2-in-1 Ultrabooks. Samsung’s focus with this seems to be thin and light with heavy integration to add value if you have a Galaxy Phone. It’s not to say you can’t use those features without one, but their functionality is enhanced when you do.
Design and Features
The design is extremely thin and deceptively light and very understated with only the Samsung logo embossed and two removeable stickers below the keyboard. In fact, it’s so thin it would be near impossible to house a standard USB port. Instead, it has 2 USB-C ports, one USB-C/Thunderbolt port, and a micro-SD card slot. If you still have standard headphones, you will be happy to hear it still has a headphone jack. Despite being so thin, the metal chassis makes it feel stronger than it you would expect. There is some minor deck flex in the keyboard, the center of the bottom panel flexes, and the bottom center of the screen also flexes but those areas don’t seem to be noticeable during regular usage. You can pick it up from a corner and it will hold it’s shape without warping. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader as the webcam does not support Windows Hello. In the box is a stylus which has a slightly rubbery texture, USB-C charging cable, and power adapter. The power adapter is so small it seems to be gallium nitride which means even though it is 65 watts it is nearly the same size as a standard cellphone charger.
The design is extremely thin and deceptively light and very understated with only the Samsung logo embossed and two removeable stickers below the keyboard. In fact, it’s so thin it would be near impossible to house a standard USB port. Instead, it has 2 USB-C ports, one USB-C/Thunderbolt port, and a micro-SD card slot. If you still have standard headphones, you will be happy to hear it still has a headphone jack. Despite being so thin, the metal chassis makes it feel stronger than it you would expect. There is some minor deck flex in the keyboard, the center of the bottom panel flexes, and the bottom center of the screen also flexes but those areas don’t seem to be noticeable during regular usage. You can pick it up from a corner and it will hold it’s shape without warping. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader as the webcam does not support Windows Hello. In the box is a stylus which has a slightly rubbery texture, USB-C charging cable, and power adapter. The power adapter is so small it seems to be gallium nitride which means even though it is 65 watts it is nearly the same size as a standard cellphone charger.
Setup
Once logged in you will find a lot of added apps. Some are bloatware, but a lot are Samsung’s own apps to extend functionality for Galaxy devices much how they do to Android on their phones. Many are nearly identical to their Android counterparts. Some apps are useful, such as a screen recorder or the creative app to go with the stylus while others are questionable at best such as the webcam beauty filters. The good thing is you can fully remove any applications you don’t want. That said, if you daily drive a Galaxy phone many of these apps will enhance the overall experience as you get Dex, Flow, Notes, Gallery, Voice Notes, Nearby Share, and others which directly tie into the Samsung ecosystem. The good thing is if you don’t use them, Samsung seems to have done a good job preventing them from bogging down the system.
Once logged in you will find a lot of added apps. Some are bloatware, but a lot are Samsung’s own apps to extend functionality for Galaxy devices much how they do to Android on their phones. Many are nearly identical to their Android counterparts. Some apps are useful, such as a screen recorder or the creative app to go with the stylus while others are questionable at best such as the webcam beauty filters. The good thing is you can fully remove any applications you don’t want. That said, if you daily drive a Galaxy phone many of these apps will enhance the overall experience as you get Dex, Flow, Notes, Gallery, Voice Notes, Nearby Share, and others which directly tie into the Samsung ecosystem. The good thing is if you don’t use them, Samsung seems to have done a good job preventing them from bogging down the system.
Performance
Initially, performance was hit or miss with random errors and slight instability. After a round of firmware and driver updates the speed and reliability has improved noticeably. Overall performance feels snappy with no unexpected slowdowns. A nice touch is by default. The lid action shuts off the system versus standard sleep so you shouldn’t have it waking up in your bag later. The moment you open the lid the startup feels as instant as if it were in sleep mode. You can quickly log in with the fingerprint scanner, although a Windows Hello Camera would have been nice.
Initially, performance was hit or miss with random errors and slight instability. After a round of firmware and driver updates the speed and reliability has improved noticeably. Overall performance feels snappy with no unexpected slowdowns. A nice touch is by default. The lid action shuts off the system versus standard sleep so you shouldn’t have it waking up in your bag later. The moment you open the lid the startup feels as instant as if it were in sleep mode. You can quickly log in with the fingerprint scanner, although a Windows Hello Camera would have been nice.
The keyboard provides a good travel for the thickness. Keys have a distinct activation point with minimal wobble in keys and some extra travel after activation. Even in long typing sessions it feels comfortable. The main adjustment was the size of the keyboard. Key spacing is a bit different causing a small adjustment period to adapt while the number pad is a different story. If you bought this for the separate number pad and are proficient in 10-key touch, the offset of the 0 key will be frustrating. Instead of 0 being below the 2 or a long button between 1 and 2, it is only under 1. Often when you want to press 0 you end up hitting the decimal point instead. The trackpad inertia is well done feeling very natural making for pleasant usage with no unexpected gesture or click activations. There is a noticeable “rattle” on a tap click. It does cheapen the overall feel, but the consistency suggest it is by design. If there was any criticism about the touchpad, it would be the palm rejection. While updates have improved it, you can still occasionally cause unwanted movement while typing as the system registers your wrists resting on it typing as actual movements. Hopefully, Samsung will improve this during updates but as it stands now the issue is minor.
Tablet use is, unsurprisingly, a compromise. The size and 16:9 aspect ratio makes tablet usage workable but not great. The huge chin to one side gives an odd offset feeling and if you put your fingers in that area to hold it you can feel the bezel flexing taking away from the premium feel a bit. While it would be nice if the S-Pen had a way to store it, the extra thickness is appreciated as it makes using the pen more confident. However, the rubberized tip has a bit too much grip. It seems Samsung was trying to provide friction for a more natural writing experience, but the stylus tip rubs enough to catch anything on the screen hindering the overall feel and the rubberized tip doesn’t glide as smoothly as a pen or pencil. What it does offer is a battery free experience with the same menu found on the Note lite that comes up with you click the S-Pen button. While nice, the button is very sleek making it hard to feel exactly where it is located. At 15 inches, using the convertible as an easel would seem a better use case. In that scenario, the main issue is the thinness means you will need to support the screen as your write or draw.
Speakers feel like and afterthought on the 360. They are downward firing, but worse is that they don’t even get very loud. In quiet rooms this could be ok, but if you are trying to watch a video and there is any ambient noise it is sometimes impossible to hear particularly on some videos where the gain is set very low. In most cases the audio is good enough, but any Galaxy phone can easily outperform in sound quality and volume. The screen seems the exact opposite. While a 16:10 or 4:3 aspect ratio would have been nice for productivity and tablet mode, the 16:9 is well suited to watching videos. The Super Amoled produces inky blacks. It still exhibits some PWM flicker in certain lighting conditions, but the effect is mild. However, some might think their screen is failing because if this. Areas of the screen can become as dark as the surround bezel and just disappear. Light colors on the black background remain crisp with no unwanted blooming. Colors are accurate but just like Galaxy phones you can set your color profile to your liking. You can choose punchy and vibrant, subtle and accurate, or auto mode which determines the setting for you based on what you are doing. There is a light sensor which can help keep the screen from being too bright in dark rooms or crank the brightness all the way up when outdoors. Outdoors is where this panel struggles the most. While Samsung doesn’t seem to list the maximum brightness, the screen does seem to get bright, but any hope of overcoming bright light or sunlight is diminished by the heavy glare caused by the screen. While the glossy screen looks nice, it means that even in a moderately lit room you effectively have a mirror. In some cases, changing screen angles can alleviate this but just be prepared to accept the glare or possibly add an anti-glare screen protector.
Speakers feel like and afterthought on the 360. They are downward firing, but worse is that they don’t even get very loud. In quiet rooms this could be ok, but if you are trying to watch a video and there is any ambient noise it is sometimes impossible to hear particularly on some videos where the gain is set very low. In most cases the audio is good enough, but any Galaxy phone can easily outperform in sound quality and volume. The screen seems the exact opposite. While a 16:10 or 4:3 aspect ratio would have been nice for productivity and tablet mode, the 16:9 is well suited to watching videos. The Super Amoled produces inky blacks. It still exhibits some PWM flicker in certain lighting conditions, but the effect is mild. However, some might think their screen is failing because if this. Areas of the screen can become as dark as the surround bezel and just disappear. Light colors on the black background remain crisp with no unwanted blooming. Colors are accurate but just like Galaxy phones you can set your color profile to your liking. You can choose punchy and vibrant, subtle and accurate, or auto mode which determines the setting for you based on what you are doing. There is a light sensor which can help keep the screen from being too bright in dark rooms or crank the brightness all the way up when outdoors. Outdoors is where this panel struggles the most. While Samsung doesn’t seem to list the maximum brightness, the screen does seem to get bright, but any hope of overcoming bright light or sunlight is diminished by the heavy glare caused by the screen. While the glossy screen looks nice, it means that even in a moderately lit room you effectively have a mirror. In some cases, changing screen angles can alleviate this but just be prepared to accept the glare or possibly add an anti-glare screen protector.
In today’s time talking about the webcam seems to be a must. If there was one word to describe the webcam it would be passable. Samsung knows how to make good, compact cameras and the one in this system seems an odd miss. They add beauty modes that seem more of a gimmick but the camera struggles in anything but very bright light and even though only looks workable. It would be fine for video conferencing but not much else. The microphones do work rather well, so that seems to confirm their focus. That said, the poor quality camera does tarnish the overall polish of the otherwise solid system.
Final Thoughts
There is so much more that could be said about this 2-in-1. Samsung added a ton of features, mostly useful, to enhance functionality and customizability to what is already a nice system even considering the odd compromises. The best way to describe it is if you have ever used a Galaxy phone. While they duplicate features, it’s often because they are improving them. Much like their newer phones, the additions on the Galaxy Book Pro 360 don’t seem to come with much, if any, performance hit. If you own a Galaxy phone that you are happy with and you are in the market for a laptop or 2-in-1, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 would be a nice fit. For others, it should be on your short list of choices as Samsung has done a nice job of making a solid, high performance 2-in-1 Ultrabook.
There is so much more that could be said about this 2-in-1. Samsung added a ton of features, mostly useful, to enhance functionality and customizability to what is already a nice system even considering the odd compromises. The best way to describe it is if you have ever used a Galaxy phone. While they duplicate features, it’s often because they are improving them. Much like their newer phones, the additions on the Galaxy Book Pro 360 don’t seem to come with much, if any, performance hit. If you own a Galaxy phone that you are happy with and you are in the market for a laptop or 2-in-1, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 would be a nice fit. For others, it should be on your short list of choices as Samsung has done a nice job of making a solid, high performance 2-in-1 Ultrabook.
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Record and view clear 4K video resolution, which provides a heightened level of detail and definition. Security is now smarter with Lorex 4K Smart Deterrence cameras. Smart Motion Detection Plus provides the option of Face or Person and Vehicle Detection. Keep tabs on what’s important with Safeguard, which notifies you when an object is placed within or removed from a selected area. Experience what true 4K has to offer, providing you with superior resolution and an added level of clarity. With Smart Deterrence, you can set the motion-activated warning light to only be triggered when a person or vehicle is detected. Hear and speak directly to visitors on your property using 2-way talk through the Lorex Home™ app. As part of the Lorex Fusion™ collection you can tailor your security system to your needs – simply add wired and Wi-Fi security cameras, video doorbells, floodlights and sensors. Thanks to smart home compatibility, enjoy seamless viewing by syncing your system to your smart home device. Be confident that your security footage is private and securely stored with the built-in security grade hard drive and never have to worry about any hidden monthly fees. Safeguard features missing and left behind object detection, giving the ability to select up to 3 fields of view. Receive notifications if items in these areas go missing or are left behind, such as a package. Quickly locate Smart Motion Detection events and filter by area, time/date, person, vehicle or person's face with Smart Search, saving time when reviewing footage. With 4K resolution, Fusion™ capabilities, smart home compatibility and Smart Motion Detection, this systems performance is unmatched.
Customer Rating
3
Lots of potential with improved software
on May 26, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Metal housing for cameras
Smart alerts to reduce false positives
App can stream high quality on cellular easily
App is quick
App works on AppleTV
More up to date NVR interface
15fps even on 4K
Limited ghosting in color night vision
2-way audio
No subscription fees
No internet required
Works with motion sensors and door sensors
Supports wired and wireless cameras
Continuous recording
H.265 support saves space
Metal housing for cameras
Smart alerts to reduce false positives
App can stream high quality on cellular easily
App is quick
App works on AppleTV
More up to date NVR interface
15fps even on 4K
Limited ghosting in color night vision
2-way audio
No subscription fees
No internet required
Works with motion sensors and door sensors
Supports wired and wireless cameras
Continuous recording
H.265 support saves space
Cons
Can’t turn off active deterrence lights
Night vision has noticeable ghosting
Object recognition at night is only about 30 feet
App zone configurations conflict with NVR
Most configuration still requires NVR access
Push notifications sometimes fail to show preview image
Motion clips sometimes have no video
Resolution seems much worse than old 4K model
Adjustment screw difficult to tighten in certain orientations
Headlights shining into motion zone can trigger vehicle alert
Some trees and animals can trigger person alerts
Can’t turn off active deterrence lights
Night vision has noticeable ghosting
Object recognition at night is only about 30 feet
App zone configurations conflict with NVR
Most configuration still requires NVR access
Push notifications sometimes fail to show preview image
Motion clips sometimes have no video
Resolution seems much worse than old 4K model
Adjustment screw difficult to tighten in certain orientations
Headlights shining into motion zone can trigger vehicle alert
Some trees and animals can trigger person alerts
The Lorex 4K UDH NVR focuses on modernizing a traditional design with hardwired cameras and local storage that can still get the video without any internet. What is new is the NVR has an updated interface and adds the functionality to work with other Lorex Fusion products including wireless cameras, video doorbell, motion sensors, and door sensors.
Design
The NVR has a more modern appearance as a white box with rounded corners. Included in the box is a small, wired mouse, 90Ft of Cat 5E cable for each camera, and the 4 cameras with mounting hardware. A wireless mouse would be a good first addition to make adjustments easier. The cameras are almost completely cast aluminum with a small section of plastic.]
The NVR has a more modern appearance as a white box with rounded corners. Included in the box is a small, wired mouse, 90Ft of Cat 5E cable for each camera, and the 4 cameras with mounting hardware. A wireless mouse would be a good first addition to make adjustments easier. The cameras are almost completely cast aluminum with a small section of plastic.]
Setup
Setup requires you to have access to a TV, ideally 4K, close enough to connect to the NVR. A wizard guides you through the basic choices and will automatically update if the system is connected to the internet. Setup is done directly on the NVR where you can set up your motion zones and schedules as well as make camera adjustments. You can remotely view the cameras via the app and get alerts. Setup of the app is easy. After creating a Lorex account you just scan the QR code on the side of the NVR to add it to your account. The cameras include screws, anchors, and drilling templates for installation. After mounting and adjusting, you lock the settings by tightening a single screw. While convenient, a hex head would have worked better as it can become difficult to access in some orientations and the phillips head screw can be easy to strip. This leads to possibly not tightening the lock screw enough where hex head would work easily in tight spaces, not require you to press to tighten, and would allow you to more tightly lock the adjustment.
Setup requires you to have access to a TV, ideally 4K, close enough to connect to the NVR. A wizard guides you through the basic choices and will automatically update if the system is connected to the internet. Setup is done directly on the NVR where you can set up your motion zones and schedules as well as make camera adjustments. You can remotely view the cameras via the app and get alerts. Setup of the app is easy. After creating a Lorex account you just scan the QR code on the side of the NVR to add it to your account. The cameras include screws, anchors, and drilling templates for installation. After mounting and adjusting, you lock the settings by tightening a single screw. While convenient, a hex head would have worked better as it can become difficult to access in some orientations and the phillips head screw can be easy to strip. This leads to possibly not tightening the lock screw enough where hex head would work easily in tight spaces, not require you to press to tighten, and would allow you to more tightly lock the adjustment.
The app does allow for some camera adjustments but, at least at the time of writing this, you should not make any camera adjustments through the app. The reason is the NVR has distinct zones for motion, person, and vehicle detection where the app only has one zone. If you configure the zone in the app it ignores any person and vehicle detection and all alerts become for motion causing a lot of false alerts. It seems Lorex hasn’t updated the app to mirror the NVR so your best bet is only make setting adjustment directly on the NVR. For each type of motion, the NVR allows you to create two zones to monitor. Each of the zones has four corners which can adjust and doesn’t allow adding more to refine the shape further. Also, for the vehicle zones you have to be careful about headlights. In some cases, headlights of passing cars can trigger the vehicle detection even if the vehicle never actually enters the zone. If you check video clips directly on the NVR, you can have it highlight what actually triggered the alert to help you fine tune your zones. If you were thinking to only use the active deterrence lights on some cameras, you are out of luck. Unlike previous generations of active deterrence cameras there is no option to turn off the lights. You can set them to 5 seconds on but there is no off option. There also isn’t an always on option or on during motion option. It only allows it to be a set time that is triggered with AI events. Also, any additional devices you wish to view video on requires setting up another Lorex account with another unique email address. This isn’t a problem for family members with their own phones but let’s say you want to view the cameras on your tablet or Apple TV. Even though you likely use the same account and email address on your tablet or Apple TV, Lorex will require you to have or create another email address for each and add them as authorized users.
Performance
Out of the box, video quality is decent but washed out. Most of the camera adjustments also aren’t described in the manual so you will need to find the definitions from third party websites to understand how they work. It is just worth noting as more people are expecting to just plug in cameras and have them not require anything further. However; default audio quality is near useless. It defaults to a lower quality mode, presumably to save storage space. The result is it sounds like you are listening through water which is most likely caused by heavy compression. The good thing is you can adjust the quality setting and on the highest setting it is very clear and two way talk is respectable and works well.
Out of the box, video quality is decent but washed out. Most of the camera adjustments also aren’t described in the manual so you will need to find the definitions from third party websites to understand how they work. It is just worth noting as more people are expecting to just plug in cameras and have them not require anything further. However; default audio quality is near useless. It defaults to a lower quality mode, presumably to save storage space. The result is it sounds like you are listening through water which is most likely caused by heavy compression. The good thing is you can adjust the quality setting and on the highest setting it is very clear and two way talk is respectable and works well.
Video quality is hit and miss. This newer version handles strong light source better than previous versions while increasing the speed to 15fps versus the 7fps of the older versions. Unfortunately, noise is dramatically increased with far more grain as the light drops off. During the day, the higher frames per second equates to catching more detail in motion but then overall clarity and sharpness of details is markedly worse than previous generations of Lorex 4K cameras as a whole. In fact, the overall video quality appears to be more along the lines of something between 1080p and 2K. Moving objects, such as people, tend to have a halo ring around them of blurriness. It’s possible this is related to the new H.265 compression but support was not able to assist in reducing this effect. In the end, people were still recognizable, just less clear. During daylight, people are recognizable to about 50 feet. Once the sun goes down, this drops to about 30feet. At about 50 feet, if there is no strong ambient light then people walking at a casual pace become unrecognizable blobs with only their audio captured. This occurs with or without night vision on as the IR doesn’t reach much beyond 30 feet as the IR isn’t very strong. On a positive note, this weaker IR means less chance of blinding the camera from reflections. Ghosting in color night vision has also been reduced. Overall, it seems to be a tradeoff. Older generations of Lorex 4K cameras favored clarity over speed resulting in losing video if someone was moving faster whereas this generation seems to favor catching faster motion at the expense of some clarity. You could improve both with bigger cameras with larger sensors but then it would increase the price of the system and who this is for.
Once you have everything set up, day to day usage is fairly reliable and you shouldn’t have too many false positives once you work around headlights and certain trees. It would be nice to see further improvements to the AI in the future so these workarounds weren’t necessary but overall detection is decent but not as accurate as the cloud based versions. Strangely, if you have good internet then AI detection locally on the NVR won’t seem any faster than the cloud based versions but connecting to view cameras does seem faster. Detection events take about 5-10 seconds to reach your phone regardless of if you are on wifi or cellular. Motion events usually work but on occasion the app didn’t provide the thumbnail in the notification. Also, a small number of motion events would end up being empty clips. Lorex support has been notified of these issues so hopefully they will be corrected soon. Unlike older NVRs, the new app doesn’t require the old method of manually choosing between main stream and substream. You just open it and if you want higher quality just tap the SD button and it will switch to HD. With good internet viewing cameras in HD on cellular was fairly quick. A nice touch is as long as you are still in the app you can swipe between cameras and you won’t have to wait for them to relaunch. Pinch to zoom is a slow to respond and zooms back out each time you restart the video and wont’ stay when paused. The 2-way talk, if set correctly is clear and both sides can talk at a normal volume and be understood without issue.
There are also features such as the ability to automatically zoom in and follow people or vehicles by cropping in but the feature only works when you are front of the NVR, is very jerky and hard to watch, and typically ends up zooming in on the torso instead of the face. There is also a face detection which can be used on up to two cameras, but you have to turn off other smart features, mount the camera lower, and yet again adjust it directly from the NVR.
Final Thoughts
Build quality with metal components is very good, video quality and AI are decent, and app and NVR software have a lot of room for improvement. It is definitely a step up from traditional NVR’s but nowhere as easy to use as cloud based cameras. This could be a great system with further software and app improvements. So the big question is who is this system best suited for? If you want local storage, with continuous recording, alerts with low false positives using AI, don’t mind getting a little technical in setup, can accept that most functions besides viewing will require you to be in front of the recorder, and want a package with all parts required without spending tons of money or pay for a subscription this Lorex 4K UHD NVR could be for you.
Build quality with metal components is very good, video quality and AI are decent, and app and NVR software have a lot of room for improvement. It is definitely a step up from traditional NVR’s but nowhere as easy to use as cloud based cameras. This could be a great system with further software and app improvements. So the big question is who is this system best suited for? If you want local storage, with continuous recording, alerts with low false positives using AI, don’t mind getting a little technical in setup, can accept that most functions besides viewing will require you to be in front of the recorder, and want a package with all parts required without spending tons of money or pay for a subscription this Lorex 4K UHD NVR could be for you.
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VP83F LensHopper Camera Mount Condenser Shotgun Microphone with Flash Recording
Customer Rating
4
Solid sound, slightly dated design
on May 12, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Long battery life
Uses regular AA batteries
Can record to microSD
MicroSD recording bypasses preamp issues
Can dual record to camera and microphone
Includes audio monitoring passthrough
Can record audio independently
Low-cut filter option filters out camera noises
Excellent off axis sound rejection
Excellent RF protection
Integrated shock mount
Long battery life
Uses regular AA batteries
Can record to microSD
MicroSD recording bypasses preamp issues
Can dual record to camera and microphone
Includes audio monitoring passthrough
Can record audio independently
Low-cut filter option filters out camera noises
Excellent off axis sound rejection
Excellent RF protection
Integrated shock mount
Cons
Small, recessed screen can be difficult to read
Using click buttons on isolated microphone is awkward
Battery door latch is hard to release with larger fingers
Battery orientation graphics are hard to see
Screen and button design feels antiquated
Screen is angled an inset making using at or near head level hard
Small, recessed screen can be difficult to read
Using click buttons on isolated microphone is awkward
Battery door latch is hard to release with larger fingers
Battery orientation graphics are hard to see
Screen and button design feels antiquated
Screen is angled an inset making using at or near head level hard
Shure was around long before vlogging was a thing. While there are an increasing number of new vlogging products and microphones, the Shure VP83F is a seasoned offering in camera mounted condenser microphones with the design going as far back as at least 2013. It is uncertain if any changes have been made over the years. It seems unlikely as even the firmware hasn’t progressed beyond 1.0.9 during this time. This might be concerning except that Shure has been designing microphones for so long they have mostly worked out the general design. It has an integrated shock mount system and includes a foam windscreen. Unfortunately, the Windjammer (dead cat) isn’t included.
Setup and Performance
Getting started is pretty straightforward. Just add batteries and, in most cases, attach it to the hot shoe mount of the camera. The main choice you have is if you want to pass the audio through to the camera for recording or use an SD card to store recordings and bypass the in-camera preamp. If you decide to record the audio in camera, others have recommended turning gain as far down as possible on the camera an only use the gain control on mic. Others have said it is possible to pass audio through as well as record it to the SD card at the same time but it’s hard to find a use case to do both. That said, having the option is nice. In either case, the base of the camera has an audio monitor out so you can hear exactly what the microphone is picking up.
Getting started is pretty straightforward. Just add batteries and, in most cases, attach it to the hot shoe mount of the camera. The main choice you have is if you want to pass the audio through to the camera for recording or use an SD card to store recordings and bypass the in-camera preamp. If you decide to record the audio in camera, others have recommended turning gain as far down as possible on the camera an only use the gain control on mic. Others have said it is possible to pass audio through as well as record it to the SD card at the same time but it’s hard to find a use case to do both. That said, having the option is nice. In either case, the base of the camera has an audio monitor out so you can hear exactly what the microphone is picking up.
The controls are traditional tactile buttons which require a fair amount of force to activate. This might be good for preventing accidental changes, but it has a downside. With the integrated shock mount, button presses either require you to hold the body or press the button until the shock mount binds and can’t move. While operation is reliable, the interface feels dated with a tiny, angled screen set deep into the body. This means not only are changes to gain during recording a bit tricky, seeing the screen without holding it below your head is a bit of a challenge. If you are vlogging solo, you are going to need a have a camera that has a forward-facing screen, hopefully you already do, that can show audio levels.
A bonus of having integrated storage is you don’t have to actually use the VP83F on the camera. You can even hold it in your hands if needed as a makeshift microphone. It might seem a bit odd, but it can be really helpful to have one less thing to carry with you.
Performance is very good. Off axis noise rejection means you can record audio even with a significant amount of background noise. One setting you must turn on if you are going to be using it mobile is enable low-cut. If you don’t, any adjustments or movements while holding the camera will be recorded as well as some wind and motor noises. Sensitivity is excellent with speech being very clear and rich. In fact, if you have the gain on the higher side, you could inadvertently create an ASMR video as it will pick up breathing and mouth sounds of the subjects you record so some initial setup is a must.
Final Thoughts
If you are a vlogger looking to improve your audio quality, don’t ignore the veterans of audio looking only at the new kids on the block. Shure might not seem as interesting, possibly even dated, but the functionality is definitely there. Having built in recording also makes getting clean audio far simpler. While the interface could use some modernization, once you get your setup dialed in and just use it, you will find the feature set and audio quality hard to beat.
If you are a vlogger looking to improve your audio quality, don’t ignore the veterans of audio looking only at the new kids on the block. Shure might not seem as interesting, possibly even dated, but the functionality is definitely there. Having built in recording also makes getting clean audio far simpler. While the interface could use some modernization, once you get your setup dialed in and just use it, you will find the feature set and audio quality hard to beat.
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Enjoy astonishing sound with this breakthrough portable speaker. Stream music and more over WiFi at home and listen on the go with Bluetooth. Get up to 10 hours of battery life. Easily control the sound with the Sonos app, your voice, and Apple AirPlay 2. Create a whole-home sound system with multiple Sonos speakers.
Customer Rating
5
Balanced sound, small package
on April 22, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Well balanced sound for the size
Surprising bass for the size
Trueplay works with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Waterproof
Clickable buttons work even when wet
Charges with USB-C
Charges wirelessly
Sound swap makes transitioning quick
Can be paired for stereo sound on Wi-Fi
Auto switches between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Works with Google Assistant and Alexa
Well balanced sound for the size
Surprising bass for the size
Trueplay works with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Waterproof
Clickable buttons work even when wet
Charges with USB-C
Charges wirelessly
Sound swap makes transitioning quick
Can be paired for stereo sound on Wi-Fi
Auto switches between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Works with Google Assistant and Alexa
Cons
Auto switching didn’t switch within the app
App kept prompting to go through tutorial
Google Assistant took several attempts to pair
No carrying bag or pouch included
Auto switching didn’t switch within the app
App kept prompting to go through tutorial
Google Assistant took several attempts to pair
No carrying bag or pouch included
Portable speakers have been around for a long time but, until recently, Sonos had no fully portable option. The Move offered great sound and battery life but wasn’t practical to toss in a bag and go. If you are invested in the Sonos ecosystem and have been wanting a truly portable speaker, just save the time reading. The Roam looks, feels, sounds, and operates just the same as the rest of your Sonos equipment. No surprises here and it will suit you well. If you are more open to other options in the market, then hopefully you will find the rest useful.
Design
The style is understated. No odd protrusions, stylized panels, or flashing lights. It’s just a simple, matte black triangle with rounded corners. The only color besides matte black is the white Sonos logo. The power button and charging port are located on the corner opposite the speaker grill. There are four rubberized feet that allow you to place it flat and also the ends are rubberized allowing it to stand vertically. The Play/Pause, Volume Up, Volume Down, and Microphone mute button are all on the end of the speaker. Included in the box is a usb-c cable but no charging block. Wireless charging is built in. You can use any Qi compatible charger or purchase the custom designed magnetic wireless charger. It would have been amazing if Sonos just included the wireless charger similar to how they include the charging ring with the Move. A carrying case would also be a good addition.
The style is understated. No odd protrusions, stylized panels, or flashing lights. It’s just a simple, matte black triangle with rounded corners. The only color besides matte black is the white Sonos logo. The power button and charging port are located on the corner opposite the speaker grill. There are four rubberized feet that allow you to place it flat and also the ends are rubberized allowing it to stand vertically. The Play/Pause, Volume Up, Volume Down, and Microphone mute button are all on the end of the speaker. Included in the box is a usb-c cable but no charging block. Wireless charging is built in. You can use any Qi compatible charger or purchase the custom designed magnetic wireless charger. It would have been amazing if Sonos just included the wireless charger similar to how they include the charging ring with the Move. A carrying case would also be a good addition.
Setup and Performance
Setup was different than other Sonos products. When you add it to your account you just have to tap the back of the speaker and it will pair automatically. There is also a Product Tour included in the app, but for some reason it didn’t show up until the speaker was in Bluetooth mode and it was tapped on. Running through the product tour and tapping done also doesn’t prevent it from coming back up which is odd. You can configure Google Assistant or Alexa but the setup was a bit finicky. While trying to configure Google Assistant an unknown error occurred several times before it worked. The error occurred when it switched to Google Assistant so this may not even be related to Sonos and eventually it started working.
Setup was different than other Sonos products. When you add it to your account you just have to tap the back of the speaker and it will pair automatically. There is also a Product Tour included in the app, but for some reason it didn’t show up until the speaker was in Bluetooth mode and it was tapped on. Running through the product tour and tapping done also doesn’t prevent it from coming back up which is odd. You can configure Google Assistant or Alexa but the setup was a bit finicky. While trying to configure Google Assistant an unknown error occurred several times before it worked. The error occurred when it switched to Google Assistant so this may not even be related to Sonos and eventually it started working.
Of course, being a Sonos product, it can be included in speaker groups with other Sonos speakers with one caveat. The speakers must be visible in the new S2 app. It will not work with speakers in the S1 app. A handy addition is called Sound Swap where if you press and hold the play button while near another S2 speaker the other speakers will play an inaudible high frequency sound. Based on which sound is loudest it will switch to the audio to that speaker without any need for opening the app. There is also a feature in which it passes the audio to the entire group, so it takes some practice to make sure you press the button the correct way for what you want to happen. Once you get it down, it becomes a handy feature.
Once you have everything set up and start to hear it is where it surprises you. You do have to keep expectations in check with such a small driver, but it did have a surprising amount of bass for its size. While there are other portable speakers that are larger and have more bass, the Roam seems more balanced. The size does favor more acoustic and vocal music, but it still does a reasonable job with electronic music and bass heavy tracks. It can produce rumbling or droning bass but if what you listen to has more dynamic bass, this speaker can’t work miracles. Hard thumping bass needs a big speaker. That said, you can improve range by placing it on a bookshelf or other surface where it can resonate. If you really wanted to, you could pair two in a stereo pair but the use cases are limited. First, it only works on Wi-Fi. Second, if you can only use stereo on Wi-Fi then it is worth considering a pair of Sonos One speakers as they barely cost any more and their sound presence is much larger.
Like the Move, the Roam has Trueplay where it can adjust based on where the speaker is placed. Unlike previous versions, it is said to work in both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi mode. It doesn’t work miracles but there was a subtle difference where when it was moved into a bathroom that echoed it was able to prevent the music from echoing.
Unlike the Move, the Roam can automatically switch between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth without user interaction. This is a nice touch although in use it did have an issue. While the speaker switched to Bluetooth automatically, the app did not and required manually switching from the Sonos S2 app to YouTube Music and back again as the speaker transitioned between connections. When out of Wi-Fi range the S2 app would go blank and say it couldn’t connect to Wi-Fi. Videos show the S2 app switching automatically and showing a large Bluetooth icon so hopefully it’s just an app update in the works that will improve this. That said, it’s not a huge problem to switch music apps for now.
Battery life so far has been good. On standby it last for the better part of a day. If you need to preserve the battery or are going to be carrying it in a bag you have to remember to long press the power button for at least 5 seconds to fully turn it off. It feels very sturdy so hopefully it will survive any accidental drops. The IP67 waterproof is definitely welcome in such a portable speaker. You can literally put it into water and so long as it can still get a wireless signal it will continue to play. A fun party trick is to either partially or mostly submerge the main driver in the water. Depending on how submerged it is the water will either dance to the music or spray out. It will sound a little muffled at first until the water is driven back out when you play music as you take it out of the water.
Final Thoughts
If you are a Sonos fan in the market for a small portable speaker, you have likely already made the decision. For anyone else, you mainly miss out on sound swap but all the features are still there in what is a very competitive speaker. If you are in the market for a small portable speaker and value balance sound over excessive bass or gimmicky features, the Sonos Roam is worth a look.
If you are a Sonos fan in the market for a small portable speaker, you have likely already made the decision. For anyone else, you mainly miss out on sound swap but all the features are still there in what is a very competitive speaker. If you are in the market for a small portable speaker and value balance sound over excessive bass or gimmicky features, the Sonos Roam is worth a look.
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Designed for a life with less cleaning, the DustMagnet 5210i air purifier catches 99% of airborne dust before it settles on floors and surfaces. Independently tested for performance as part of the AHAM Verifide Program for room air cleaners, for a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 154 cfm for smoke, 173 cfm for pollen, and 153 cfm for dust. Recommended for small to medium rooms like a guest bedroom, home office, or dining room, the 5210i completely filters room air about every 12 minutes (approx. 5x an hour at 238 ft) on the highest speed. Patent-pending DustMagnet technology powerfully attracts airborne dust particles like a magnet. Two air intake points and a unique airflow pattern create a vortex effect in the room to capture dust before it settles. A stream of negatively charged particles clusters airborne dust particles, making them easier to capture. Once inside, the particles stick to the positively charged pre-filters like a magnet. Equipped with HEPASilent™ filtration technology to kill germs and effectively trap 99.97% of airborne particles like allergens, dust, pollen, pet dander, viruses, and more down to 0.1 microns. Plus, activated carbon is integrated throughout the filters to absorb light household odors from cooking, smoke, and pets. Air purifier not tested against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). DustMagnet delivers more clean air using less energy and less noise. The 5210i quietly cleans the air with noise levels less than a whisper (29 dB) on low and less noise than a normal conversation (45 dB) on high – while using less energy than a light bulb (5-22 watts) on all speeds. Designed to blend into your home like a great looking piece of Scandinavian-style furniture, the dual-use design features a convenient top surface to double as a side table and air purifier. With a design worth showing off, there’s no need to hide your air purifier, place it prominently in the room where it will be most effective. DustMagnet is equipped with proactive features such as Auto mode, Welcome home, and a five-color air quality indicator light. Set to Auto mode and the air purifier will auto-increase fan speed when pollution levels creep up (when cooking, vacuuming, etc.) and returns to a lower speed when cleared. The Wi-Fi-enabled model can be controlled from almost anywhere with the Blueair app and voice-control via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant-enabled devices. Includes one set of ComboFilters with a maximum of 1-year filter life and two permanent stainless-steel pre-filters. DustMagnet proactively monitors filter use and pollution levels in real-time to accurately determine when you need a filter change. At Blueair, our Swedish heritage inspires sustainability and quality at the heart of everything we do. All Blueair purifiers are AHAM Verifide for Clean Air Delivery Rate and room size, ENERGY STAR certified and tested by the California EPA Air Resources Board (CARB) for safe ozone emissions.
Customer Rating
3
Great filter, average smarts
on March 8, 2021
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Quiet
Blends in with furniture
Doubles as a small table
Air quality indicator light
Easy control and scheduling via app
Automatic mode can take care of itself
Night mode turns off lights and minimizes noise
Can be controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant
Quiet
Blends in with furniture
Doubles as a small table
Air quality indicator light
Easy control and scheduling via app
Automatic mode can take care of itself
Night mode turns off lights and minimizes noise
Can be controlled by Alexa and Google Assistant
Cons
App is extremely basic
Graphs in app can’t be expanded for more info
App only shows PM 2.5 inside
Scheduling doesn’t allow an off option
No air quality information indoors for allergy sufferers
Did not sense smoke from cooking or aerosol spray like other filters
App is extremely basic
Graphs in app can’t be expanded for more info
App only shows PM 2.5 inside
Scheduling doesn’t allow an off option
No air quality information indoors for allergy sufferers
Did not sense smoke from cooking or aerosol spray like other filters
It is getting harder to stand out with so many air purifiers on the market. Many now can be controlled via an app, can be scheduled, and even monitoring air quality is becoming more common. The Blueair DustMagnet attempts to be different by designing their filter to look more like a piece of furniture and using negatively charged ions.
Design
Even though it is an air purifier, it’s still nice that Blueair worked to make it blend more in with the décor. The marketing suggests using it as an end table but in all honesty very few people would likely use such a small top as an end table. That said, it is nice to have the option. On the front is a small led strip that shows the air quality with blue being the cleanest and red being the worst. On the right front where the fan inlet is are the power button, fan mode button, and status lights. The filters are accessible via the back. Both the top and bottom filter have a metal screen you pull out first and then you can remove the HEPA filter.
Even though it is an air purifier, it’s still nice that Blueair worked to make it blend more in with the décor. The marketing suggests using it as an end table but in all honesty very few people would likely use such a small top as an end table. That said, it is nice to have the option. On the front is a small led strip that shows the air quality with blue being the cleanest and red being the worst. On the right front where the fan inlet is are the power button, fan mode button, and status lights. The filters are accessible via the back. Both the top and bottom filter have a metal screen you pull out first and then you can remove the HEPA filter.
Setup and performance
Out of the box, basic setup is very easy. All you have to do is screw on four legs and make sure to remove the plastic wrap from the filters and you are ready to go. However, connection to the WiFi via the app wasn’t quite as smooth. To start, after creating your BlueAir account, the app prompts you to install a new filter. The issue is when choosing the BlueAir DustMagnet from the list to pair. It searched for the filter via Bluetooth but did not find it. It took power cycling the filter several times before it showed in the app to pair. After pairing, you configure the filter to connect to the internet via your WiFi. The connection to the WiFi was pain free but during the cloud setup, the app or filter hung at 80 percent set up for 20 minutes with no feedback. The app warned this could take some time but after closing the app and reopening it was discovered the filter had finished setting up, but the app never showed it complete.
Out of the box, basic setup is very easy. All you have to do is screw on four legs and make sure to remove the plastic wrap from the filters and you are ready to go. However, connection to the WiFi via the app wasn’t quite as smooth. To start, after creating your BlueAir account, the app prompts you to install a new filter. The issue is when choosing the BlueAir DustMagnet from the list to pair. It searched for the filter via Bluetooth but did not find it. It took power cycling the filter several times before it showed in the app to pair. After pairing, you configure the filter to connect to the internet via your WiFi. The connection to the WiFi was pain free but during the cloud setup, the app or filter hung at 80 percent set up for 20 minutes with no feedback. The app warned this could take some time but after closing the app and reopening it was discovered the filter had finished setting up, but the app never showed it complete.
At this point, you can set your location as well as the location of the filter. The app shows you the overall outdoor Air Quality and the PM2.5, PM10, CO, and SO2 for your area. The filter is shown below and shows the basic Air Quality. Tapping on it brings you to the settings and the PM2.5 levels your filter has measured. Unfortunately for allergy sufferers you can’t see your indoor PM10 levels. It also doesn’t allow you to see the historical PM2.5 levels in any other way except a small graph that cannot be expanded. Both graphs show very little information and cannot be expanded. The current design seems to be more targeted at showing people it’s doing something rather than providing relevant information to people with allergies. The filter media can filter pollen, but it is uncertain how it will know to ramp up the speed for pollen to filter if it shows no measurement of PM10. BlueAir makes more references to smoke and pollution than pollen, even though it claims to be able to filter 99% of contaminates including pollen. The documentation doesn’t state what kind of sensor it has, but it does say the app is always improving. Hopefully, the sensor is more capable than is shows and this information could be added in the future. As it stands now, if you are worried about pollen you are going to have to watch your local pollen levels and adjust the fan speed manually.
The scheduling system allows you to schedule modes between manual fan speed, auto fan speed, and night mode. Night mode reduces fan speed and also turns off nearly all status lights. Auto mode only allows you to set the scheduled time. Manual speed mode allows you to change fan speed and the brightness of the light. Scheduling also would be great for when you aren’t home. It doesn’t make much sense to run an air purifier to clean the air in your house while you are away or at work, and this is a great place where scheduling could come in handy. Unfortunately, the scheduling only allows you to change power on modes. You have to manually put it in standby mode, and this also means that until you manually turn it back on the scheduled modes won’t work either. If you prefer not to waste expensive HEPA filters cleaning an empty house, you are going to have to manually turn it off. Of course, shutting it off while you are gone diminishes the ability to catch dust in the room before it has a chance to settle but unless or until filter prices drop most people would likely opt for the savings. This could be easily improved by a firmware and app update so hopefully BlueAir will add this functionality in the future for those who prefer saving money over absolute cleaning.
So, the app functionality can use some further refinement, but the big question is how well does it do? That’s going to be harder to answer as even though dust and pollen is currently high, no one in the family is currently reacting even when outside. Thankfully the allergens currently in the area aren’t the kind that cause us problems unlike fall. What can be said is the app shows overall air quality outside as good even though dust and pollen are high. It is uncertain if this is because pollutants are low and offset this or if only pollutants are factored into the air quality and not allergens. What is also uncertain is what exactly causes the filter to respond in auto and speed up. In a family of allergy sufferers our house has a variety of smart filters throughout. While cooking in the kitchen, some food was accidentally burnt. You could smell it throughout the house. Every other smart filter in the house registered a spike and ramped up filtering accordingly. The BlueAir DustMagnet was in the room immediately adjacent to the kitchen and the monitor barely showed a difference and the fan never changed speed. The original smart filter that was in the room always caught this and would ramp up to clean. Within a short time, any smoke was removed, and the odors would be gone with our old filter. However, the DustMagnet just carried on as normal and didn’t seem to notice the smoke at all. Another accidental test was fragrances. While cleaning up and purging old perfumes and room deodorizers the family was spraying in the bathroom attached to the room the DustMagnet was in. The previous filter which had been in the room would always ramp to clean the moment it detected the fragrances. Thinking maybe it wasn’t strong enough near the filter, the DustMagnet was moved directly into the bathroom where some family members had been too liberal in spraying to test. The smell in the bathroom was overwhelming and you could feel an itchiness from some of the spray. The DustMagnet was left in the room for about an hour and the air monitoring graph barely registered a change and the filtering never increased fan speed.
While automatic monitoring is currently uncertain, the DustMagnet does have some bright points with noise being a standout. While other smart filters in our house might seem more sensitive, they also make more noise. One is just much louder while the other makes a high-pitched sound while running. The DustMagnet is barely audible while running and even at full speed is comparatively quiet while still having similar performance ratings.
Final Thoughts
A good quality HEPA filter is really all you need, which the DustMagnet has. Charging the air to improve cleaning is something that was proven a long time ago to boost effectiveness. The question of if the DustMagnet is right for you really depends on what your priorities are in a filter. If you want the most sophisticated air monitoring filter that is specifically targeted at allergy sufferers, you are either going to want to look elsewhere or wait and see how the app matures. If your primary need is an attractive, quiet air filter that gets the job done and gives you simple information on the quality of your air this could be a good option.
A good quality HEPA filter is really all you need, which the DustMagnet has. Charging the air to improve cleaning is something that was proven a long time ago to boost effectiveness. The question of if the DustMagnet is right for you really depends on what your priorities are in a filter. If you want the most sophisticated air monitoring filter that is specifically targeted at allergy sufferers, you are either going to want to look elsewhere or wait and see how the app matures. If your primary need is an attractive, quiet air filter that gets the job done and gives you simple information on the quality of your air this could be a good option.
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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.
Posted by: CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Clean Appearance
Solid build
Responsive
Musical reproduction
Very tunable, doesn’t color the audio by default
Allow you to feel certain sounds
Magnetic mesh covers leave front clean when off
Support for bi-amp or bi-wire
Good bass for the size
Foam port plugs for tuning
MDF enclosure snubs any hint of vibration or distortion
Clean Appearance
Solid build
Responsive
Musical reproduction
Very tunable, doesn’t color the audio by default
Allow you to feel certain sounds
Magnetic mesh covers leave front clean when off
Support for bi-amp or bi-wire
Good bass for the size
Foam port plugs for tuning
MDF enclosure snubs any hint of vibration or distortion
Cons
Magnetic covers fall off easily
Need tuning to fully appreciate
Long break in period
Magnetic covers fall off easily
Need tuning to fully appreciate
Long break in period
This review is written from the perspective of a novice audiophile with experience of some high-end audio brands, but not quite the ear of a seasoned audiophile and a preference towards speakers that are slightly bright. During usage, the speaker was driven by a Yahama RX-V685 and used in combination with the B&W 600 Series Anniversary Edition bookshelf speakers speaker. This review is very similar to the matching bookshelf speakers as this center channel was testing in combination with them.
Design
The cabinet has a very understated appearance with a flat black finish. The grill cover can be left off without leaving unsightly holes as they are held on by magnets. That said, the magnets are very weak, and a gentle touch or bump can easily knock them off. Binding posts are solid metal and heavy, possibly stainless steel, and support bi-amping or bi-wiring by removing the bus bar connecting them. Stick on rubber feet are included, but not installed. Bass can be tuned using the included bass port plugs.
The cabinet has a very understated appearance with a flat black finish. The grill cover can be left off without leaving unsightly holes as they are held on by magnets. That said, the magnets are very weak, and a gentle touch or bump can easily knock them off. Binding posts are solid metal and heavy, possibly stainless steel, and support bi-amping or bi-wiring by removing the bus bar connecting them. Stick on rubber feet are included, but not installed. Bass can be tuned using the included bass port plugs.
Setup
Hopefully if you are looking at speakers in this class, you know that placement and room acoustics can affect overall performance. Besides choosing single pair of wiring, bi-amping, or bi-wiring, a quick scan of the manual could save you from poor setup and losing performance. Besides tips on placement, a big tip missed at the beginning is that the break in period is a week at the temperature you will use them as well as 15 hours of break-in usage. If you miss this, you might too easily give up and return them. Also, much like other Bowers & Wilkens speakers it takes time to tune them to your preference. They not only respond well to tuning, they require it to fully appreciate them. Amp selection seems to have a large impact as some claim B&W can be slightly bright but combined with this Yamaha they seem to be closer to neutral.
Hopefully if you are looking at speakers in this class, you know that placement and room acoustics can affect overall performance. Besides choosing single pair of wiring, bi-amping, or bi-wiring, a quick scan of the manual could save you from poor setup and losing performance. Besides tips on placement, a big tip missed at the beginning is that the break in period is a week at the temperature you will use them as well as 15 hours of break-in usage. If you miss this, you might too easily give up and return them. Also, much like other Bowers & Wilkens speakers it takes time to tune them to your preference. They not only respond well to tuning, they require it to fully appreciate them. Amp selection seems to have a large impact as some claim B&W can be slightly bright but combined with this Yamaha they seem to be closer to neutral.
Performance
Since the surrounds are smaller speakers, they were disconnected during testing and only the B&W center channel and front left and right were connected via a single wire pairs. Testing was performed with the subwoofer both on and off for comparison. The receiver was tested in Auto Decode mode, Straight passthrough, and several presets. Since there was adequate space between the speaker and the wall, the foam port plugs were not used.
Since the surrounds are smaller speakers, they were disconnected during testing and only the B&W center channel and front left and right were connected via a single wire pairs. Testing was performed with the subwoofer both on and off for comparison. The receiver was tested in Auto Decode mode, Straight passthrough, and several presets. Since there was adequate space between the speaker and the wall, the foam port plugs were not used.
Starting off with music, Silent Lucidity by Queensrÿche, is a good test of sibilance and overall range in male voice. These speakers were able to faithfully reproduce Geoff Tate’s voice thankfully without overemphasizing his habit of hissing at nearly every S sound. Another good test of excessive sibilance is A New Day by Céline Dion which, thankfully, the 600 Series kept in check and as natural as the actual performance.
The Sound of Silence, sung by David Draiman of Disturbed, is different from his normal style and showcases his range of singing ability and training. You could hear the subtle sounds of him carefully controlling his breathing to minimize the sound of his breath. The tightly controlled wavering in his voice and later the carefully controlled gritty sound he makes, that if performed improperly destroys a singer’s vocal cords, is cleanly reproduced as if you are hearing him live. With an uncompressed recording of his performance, slight accidental clicks and pops produced by the mouth can be heard, which gives more of an impression of a live performance which is often missed by lesser speakers.
Switching focus to instruments, the unplugged version of Tears of Heaven sung by Eric Clapton was up next. As much as artists try to minimize guitar string scratching, it does give a more realistic feel the performance as its almost impossible to hide in a live performance. The 600 series was able to reproduce the subtle sounds of Eric Clapton moving his hands across the guitar and the strings giving a stronger sense of a live performance.
Trying out Every Day I have the Blues by BB King really showcases the soundstage. Particularly when paired with the center channel, placement is precise. If feels neither forward nor laid-back. Close your eyes and you could be forgiven for thinking you are at a live performance.
Overall, the B&Ws are very musical and has even made me reconsider my preference towards slightly bright. If there is any deficiency in the music reproduction, it would be in songs that require punchy bass, but you wouldn’t expect bookshelf speakers to handle this job. If you need this kind of bass, it is easily filled by a separate subwoofer.
If you have good speakers, why not put them to use to make your movies more immersive and not just music? The first thing that must be mentioned is how fast the speaker can respond and provide a feeling of impact. It gives a realness to the sound of a kick drum but even more surprisingly is the sense of tension in a movie. During the break-in process the family was watching a Lord of the Rings and everyone jumped when a door was slammed. Even the ones who don’t normally jump, jumped with surprise. If you think back to the sound of a door slamming and how a hard slam almost seems to register that you felt it as much as heard it. Well, these speakers, when playing at sufficient volume, can reproduce that feeling. It will be interesting to see in the future what other movies this capability can enrich. The same as with music, droning or rumbling bass sounds can easily be reproduced and fill the room but for punchy bass, you are still going to want a dedicated subwoofer. A pleasant surprise is that, while you can turn them up for greater impact and immersion, there is no need to turn them up simply to hear parts of the movie. Dialog and action are both well represented regardless of volume. No muddy dialog requiring you to turn it up to hear.
Conclusion
There is really too much to share in such a short space. Even if there was room, the speaker continues to get better the longer it is used. The center channel, while made the similar to the bookshelf speakers, is really more of a compliment to them and completes the package. It highlights the voices much better even if only used for music. If you are looking to explore deeper into the audiophile world B&W is a good start. Just make sure to do some research to make sure get the right wiring and amp, spend some time learning setup and tuning, and then be patient and give the break in time. If you are willing to do this, you will be rewarded with a pleasant and immersive listening experience.
There is really too much to share in such a short space. Even if there was room, the speaker continues to get better the longer it is used. The center channel, while made the similar to the bookshelf speakers, is really more of a compliment to them and completes the package. It highlights the voices much better even if only used for music. If you are looking to explore deeper into the audiophile world B&W is a good start. Just make sure to do some research to make sure get the right wiring and amp, spend some time learning setup and tuning, and then be patient and give the break in time. If you are willing to do this, you will be rewarded with a pleasant and immersive listening experience.
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CraigB's Review Comments
Watch your favorite movies, TV shows and sporting events in crisp 1080p resolution with this Samsung UN65FH6001FXZA HDTV, which features Clear Motion Rate 240 to preserve picture detail during fast-action sequences.
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5This is an awesome TV for the cost
By Korom
from Raleigh, NC
First, this is a fantastic monitor. If you have a receiver for your HDMI switching and watch TV with the sound through that receiver then this is the PERFECT TV for you. I use it with my Denon e300 receiver, all my HDMI inputs go into the receiver with one HDMI cable going to the TV. Minimal fuss and muss. The picture quality is truly incredible for a LCD TV, the blacks are very very good, almost as good as my Panasonic Plasma but its understandable that its not that good as LCD cannot show true black like a plasma can. I checked 3 bars for the sound quality but honestly I never used the internal speakers. I gave this 5 stars and would have given it 6 stars if I could have (on a 5 star scale) because the picture quality is just that good.
Bottom line: Fantastic TV for the price.
CraigB
Texas
An LED TV is a type of LCD TV
November 29, 2013
Folks. For those of you telling this reviewer that he is talking about the wrong TV because he calls it an LCD, it is an LCD. LED TV's are still LCD TV's. The difference is the backlight behind the LCD is LED's instead of CCFL(fluorescent). Both still have and LCD screen that you actually look at up front.
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Microsoft Band 2 (Large): Keep track of your health and fitness goals throughout the day by monitoring your heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, sleep quality, hours slept and other helpful metrics. Just pair with your Windows Phone, Apple® iOS or Android device via Bluetooth to receive alerts at a glance.Discover how the technology of Microsoft Band 2 can assist you in a healthy, productive lifestyle. Learn more ›
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5Best fitness tracker for the money
By CraigB
from Texas
When choosing high end fitness bands, my choices went back and forth between the Microsoft Band 2 and the Fitbit Surge. Fitbit has been in the business for fitness wearables for longer but I chose the Band 2 for what I felt was better value for my money. I purchased during a $50 off sale making it even more attractive and $50 less than the Surge. My main phone for this review is a Lumia 1520 with Windows 10 Mobile. I assume others will write reviews of the phone for other platforms and that is where this review starts. This fitness wearable is by far the most compatible. It supports iOS, Android, and Windows Phone/Mobile. Fitbit does as well but support for Windows Mobile is more limited. Comparing it to the Surge, it has more customizability, color screen, and a partially metal build. It feels more premium than the Surge. The metal does have 2 downsides. The first is that the finish used shows scratches extremely easily. See included picture. The second is that sweat and soap cause a foul smell very quickly requiring regular cleaning.
The Band 2 can be worn in two positions. The first is with the screen facing outwards like a watch. I tried this but it felt uncomfortable and viewing the screen was awkward particularly considering the screen doesn’t have a vertical view. This leads me to my preferred position which is with the screen facing inwards. It is much more natural to view and operate. It also feels more comfortable and is in fact the recommended way to wear the device. If there was any concern it is that wearing it inward the screen is always contacting surfaces when you lay your arms down. It uses gorilla glass but it still concerns me that I might scratch the screen. Every fitness wearable wasn’t completely comfortable to wear for one reason or another but this one starts to feel about like a watch after an adjustment period. Before you get the size right you might put it a place that binds you wrist or hits a nerve. I also learned it can get the heart rate just fine without tightening it down so far you hit nerves. Just like a watch it will take some fiddling to find your perfect tightness. Fortunately, the latching mechanism feels strong and has more adjustments than a tradition watch as well giving you more flexibility. Just make sure you use the sizing guide on the size of the box to choose the correct size. It shows wrists sizes with the wrist sideways.
Now the big question is how it works for tracking vitals. I haven’t worked with VO2 Max so I can’t comment on that but after getting the fit correct, the heart rate seems pretty close. Checking manual it was usually within about 10BPM or less from actual. Tracking steps seems a little different. It is difficult to verify but it seems to be a little high on the number of steps sometimes compared to my old hip worn pedometer. It just seems like I can reach 5,000 steps fairly easily. I am not a runner so I have not tested the GPS but I have read that some units have come from the factory with a bad GPS. What’s really nice is with all the vitals it gathers, more than just heart rate, it should be a fairly accurate color estimate. It has guided workouts you can add but I used the generic color tracking and added my own workout types to track. You can add things like HIT and weight training for your own purposes but it uses all the sensors to estimate the color burn instead of estimating based on the workout type. I feel this is more accurate but cannot verify. When you start workout mode, by default the screen stays on showing your workout time and heart rate. I suspect it is not as accurate as a chest band but it seems pretty good. After your workout is done you can see the entire workout on your phone or the website with your heart rate the entire time and your max marked. If there was any gripe it would be that you can’t have it vibrate when you hit your target or max heart rate. That would have been a great feature but, who knows. Maybe they will add it in the future. You can even use the website to compare your vitals to others in your height, weight, and age category. It’s all anonymous and very informative.
When not working out it still tracks your heart rate all the time but the other useful time to check is when you are sleeping. It can detect your sleep but if it gets it wrong you can only delete the time, not edit. You are better off starting your sleep tracking yourself. While sleeping, it will monitor you and in when you wake up you can see what your resting heart rate was overnight to get an even better picture of your health. It also has a smart alarm you can activate. If you want to wake up at a set time, just set the alarm and it will vibrate to wake you up. What I really like is if you activate the smart alarm and set it for 7:30am it will wake you up somewhere between 7:00am and 8:00am when you are most awake. That means you don’t wake up to an alarm feeling like you haven’t rested. You can even set the strength of the vibration.
Since this is a little bit of a smart watch you can add some apps. Since the phone doesn’t have any memory though, expect to only have them work when around your phone. It can control music on your phone and even use voice recognition with Cortana. I am running a prerelease build of the phone software so on occasion the connection dropped but it wasn’t hard to get back. I have found the notifications actually quite nice. I can leave the phone in one place in the house and still get notifications and respond to basic texts. I can also connect my phone to the stereo and change tracks and turn the volume up or down. It’s a standard feature for a smart watch but this is a fitness wearable and much cheaper than a smart watch. There are even some extra apps you can add and some third part utilizes to customize it further but if you want a smart watch more you might want to go that route. If you want a smart fitness tracker, this thing is hard to beat.
Pros
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Cons
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
CraigB
Texas
Additional Findings
January 9, 2016
I just wanted to add an extra observations to my original review.
For those of you who want to view the display outside in sunlight, it doesn't seem to get that bright. For me that is not a big deal because outside exercises are typically the type where I don't use real time tracking but if you are the type who needs to read the display in direct sunlight, you might find it difficult. I will be checking further and report back if I find anything because indoors it is so bright that I wonder if I have done something wrong in the setup. Even with this finding I still feel it is the best for the money.
Also, if you happen to swap between phones or get a new phone you will have to factor reset the band. I periodically switch phones and discovered this. The system is designed to easily replace your band while using the same phone but if you move the band to any phone, even one that was restored from a backup of your original you will have to factory reset the band and set it back up. Not a huge deal because little is actually stored on the phone.
One other huge bonus for Windows Phone/Mobile users. If for some reason you either forget or choose not to wear your band and have a Lumia that is capable you can use it to augment your Band. Sometimes for different reasons I don't want to wear my band and only need to track steps. If I just keep my Lumia 950 in my pocket, it will track my steps and add them to what the band couldn't track. That particular feature is one I really love. The only caveat to that is while it updates the steps on the app and portal, the extra steps from your phone don't get transferred back to your band. This means if you took 2,000 steps with your band and phone and an additional 5,000 with only your Lumia the app will report 7,000 steps total which is correct but your band will continue to report 2,000 steps. Minor quibble though for a great additional feature for Windows Phone fans.
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ecobee ecobee3 Programmable Touch-Screen Wi-Fi Thermostat: Maintain a comfortable home with this programmable thermostat, which is Apple® HomeKit-enabled, so you can control the temperature remotely using your compatible device. Home IQ helps you conserve energy.
Overall
1 out of 5
1 out of 5cant set custom temps..sensors are glitchy
By annaj
i was trying to get this thermostat to set 4 or 5 different temps automaticly per day. an ecobee tech couldnt help me get this done on my web portal account . the sensors dont read the occupancy after being in the room for hours like being in a bedroom all night when u wake up the sensor will read unoccupied or sitting in the living room all day the same thing will happen after a few hours. a regular programable thermostat would have been a better choice.
CraigB
Texas
Did you try IFTTT
February 7, 2016
I was just wondering if you have looked into IFTTT to set those custom automatic temps. I haven't tried your exact scenario but the Ecobee3 can be connected to an IFTTT account to extend it's functionality.
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Your household wants to play, stream and work online all at once. With this Linksys router, you can do it all without buffering or other interruptions. Use the Smart Wi-Fi app to get started, control, and monitor your home network from anywhere.
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5Solid router with good range and speed
By CraigB
from Texas
I am posting this review after about a week of use. If I find anything more significant after posting I will add it as a reply to my original post. Be sure to check there for additions.
I needed to upgrade my WiFi because the internet service in my area was about to be upgraded to exceed the capacity of my current wireless N solution. This router seems as if it was marketed towards moderate power users as well as people with less technical skills who need an upgrade. Packaging is minimal the same as most routers today. It comes with a CD for documentation but it is not used for setup. This is a good thing because as an AC router most people upgrading to this would have newer devices, few of which have an optical drive.
I needed to upgrade my WiFi because the internet service in my area was about to be upgraded to exceed the capacity of my current wireless N solution. This router seems as if it was marketed towards moderate power users as well as people with less technical skills who need an upgrade. Packaging is minimal the same as most routers today. It comes with a CD for documentation but it is not used for setup. This is a good thing because as an AC router most people upgrading to this would have newer devices, few of which have an optical drive.
For the non-technical
This is not very hard to set up. You plug power into the only spot it fits. There are three antennas that screw into very noticeable spots on the back. And the internet plug is clearly labeled. The instructions tell you what to do in a few steps to get the device to take care of the rest. It also has the wireless already set up if you are afraid to do it and even comes with a sticker with the information so you will know what the password is to get on the WiFi. It already has a guest WiFi too but there is a separate login so someone can’t just borrow your internet without you giving them the password. If you feel more comfortable there are apps for iPhones and Android phones to control the device. Speed and range are very good but if you can it is always recommended to install it as close to the center of your house and avoid metal. The router can pretty much take care of itself after that and it shouldn’t require any further work.
This is not very hard to set up. You plug power into the only spot it fits. There are three antennas that screw into very noticeable spots on the back. And the internet plug is clearly labeled. The instructions tell you what to do in a few steps to get the device to take care of the rest. It also has the wireless already set up if you are afraid to do it and even comes with a sticker with the information so you will know what the password is to get on the WiFi. It already has a guest WiFi too but there is a separate login so someone can’t just borrow your internet without you giving them the password. If you feel more comfortable there are apps for iPhones and Android phones to control the device. Speed and range are very good but if you can it is always recommended to install it as close to the center of your house and avoid metal. The router can pretty much take care of itself after that and it shouldn’t require any further work.
For the technical people
If you are looking for a device with tons of granular settings, this might not be the device. Of course the power users I am referring to would probably be better suited sticking with the WRT series. I doubt this device will ever see an aftermarket firmware. It attempts to have a clean interface but that means it will feel slower than a power user router for some settings changes as transitions and animations run their course. Setting changes that require a reboot happen nearly as fast as the fastest routers out there. Although the stock firmware attempts to look fancy and simple it still has a decent amount of settings for all but the most extreme power users. The antennas use a standard connection so if you wanted to upgrade to larger ones later that is possible. Hardwired speed has been very good. I’m just a casual gamer but this hasn’t slowed me down at all and I cannot tell the different hardwired from my old gaming router. Wireless speed is actually very good as well although I was never able to achieve the 1300Mbps link speed advertised even right next to the unit. I maxed out at 900Mbps and it is possible that is related to my AC devices. My old router would drop down to the 39Mpbs on the opposite side of my house whereas this one can maintain at least 177Mpbs and often more.
If you are looking for a device with tons of granular settings, this might not be the device. Of course the power users I am referring to would probably be better suited sticking with the WRT series. I doubt this device will ever see an aftermarket firmware. It attempts to have a clean interface but that means it will feel slower than a power user router for some settings changes as transitions and animations run their course. Setting changes that require a reboot happen nearly as fast as the fastest routers out there. Although the stock firmware attempts to look fancy and simple it still has a decent amount of settings for all but the most extreme power users. The antennas use a standard connection so if you wanted to upgrade to larger ones later that is possible. Hardwired speed has been very good. I’m just a casual gamer but this hasn’t slowed me down at all and I cannot tell the different hardwired from my old gaming router. Wireless speed is actually very good as well although I was never able to achieve the 1300Mbps link speed advertised even right next to the unit. I maxed out at 900Mbps and it is possible that is related to my AC devices. My old router would drop down to the 39Mpbs on the opposite side of my house whereas this one can maintain at least 177Mpbs and often more.
So far during my ownership the stability of this device has reminded me of the old Linksys routers how even the cheap ones never locked up. I’m hoping it stays this way. If you want to change settings, you can do so the standard way most technical people do via the IP address or it has a built in URL. Thankfully it doesn’t require some odd application for initial setup. Unlike standard routers, this one is cloud connected when you choose so meaning remote access is passed via the cloud. It does support some dynamic DNS options but they seem more to push you towards connection via their cloud. Fortunately, this is optional except if you want to take advantage of the built in USB ports and access files remotely. I don’t have a spare drive to test right now so unfortunately I could not test the NAS performance. It does have a very basic QoS which allows you to set up to 3 services or devices as high priority but that’s pretty much it. It has some newer options but then oddly has more old services, such as Real Player and Rhapsody.
Pros
Large, replaceable antennas
Great Range
Reliable
Gigabit Ports
Fast Processor
Status lights can be turned off
Decent amount of features for all but the heavy power users
Doesn’t require a special application for setup or CD
Has USB ports for attaching a hard drive
Offers automatic firmware upgrades to keep security up. Good for keeping non power users safe (Can be turned off)
Documentation is thorough if you need help. You just click help on the top bar
Major changes that require a restart are almost unnoticeable to users as it restarts fast
Has WiFi secured by default and requires a password to be configured during setup. This is good if you are buying one for family and just want it secure without needing to help them. It even has a handy sticker with device specific WiFi passwords so someone can’t just look up a default WiFi password for the unit and borrow internet.
Large, replaceable antennas
Great Range
Reliable
Gigabit Ports
Fast Processor
Status lights can be turned off
Decent amount of features for all but the heavy power users
Doesn’t require a special application for setup or CD
Has USB ports for attaching a hard drive
Offers automatic firmware upgrades to keep security up. Good for keeping non power users safe (Can be turned off)
Documentation is thorough if you need help. You just click help on the top bar
Major changes that require a restart are almost unnoticeable to users as it restarts fast
Has WiFi secured by default and requires a password to be configured during setup. This is good if you are buying one for family and just want it secure without needing to help them. It even has a handy sticker with device specific WiFi passwords so someone can’t just look up a default WiFi password for the unit and borrow internet.
Cons
Interface tries too hard to be attractive slowing it down with animations
Only supports 2 Dynamic DNS providers.
QoS settings seem to cater to power users but offer little customization
QoS rule changes require moving service or devices boxes around and the interface jumps quickly between sections. This often causes you to accidentally move something you didn’t intend to.
Included “Apps” are of limited usefulness and only work on iOS and Android which leaves out anything Windows (No Windows 10 Universal Apps) and no Mac. No configuring your router with touch, like via a Surface, using a Windows App.
Interface tries too hard to be attractive slowing it down with animations
Only supports 2 Dynamic DNS providers.
QoS settings seem to cater to power users but offer little customization
QoS rule changes require moving service or devices boxes around and the interface jumps quickly between sections. This often causes you to accidentally move something you didn’t intend to.
Included “Apps” are of limited usefulness and only work on iOS and Android which leaves out anything Windows (No Windows 10 Universal Apps) and no Mac. No configuring your router with touch, like via a Surface, using a Windows App.
Final Notes
Higher end units near this price point I have owned have had large aluminum heatsinks to dissipate heat. This one has one very small heatsink. I suspect heat stress will be higher on this unit and might be why this case has such a large open cavity you can easily see straight through the vent holes. I suspect longevity will be lower but only time will tell. So the unit has not felt very warm so fingers crossed.
Higher end units near this price point I have owned have had large aluminum heatsinks to dissipate heat. This one has one very small heatsink. I suspect heat stress will be higher on this unit and might be why this case has such a large open cavity you can easily see straight through the vent holes. I suspect longevity will be lower but only time will tell. So the unit has not felt very warm so fingers crossed.
CraigB
Texas
Longer term observations
February 22, 2016
Adding to my original review I have found some new observations to add to this router. I switched to using it as an access point, which takes a little digging, and found out that once you do so you lose a lot of features that should still work but are removed. For example, as an access point you get no guest networks. You can only have 1 2.5GHz WiFi and 1 5GHz. All features such as WMM and QoS are completely gone. Remote administration is turned off. I have also experienced an odd condition where my Xbox One cannot connect using the exact same key as my old router that my Xbox was connected to. I have also experienced 1 lockup where the unit just completely stopped responding and had to be power cycled. Over all it's still a good router but it feels like it could use a little more firmware refinement.
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Microsoft Band 2 (Large): Keep track of your health and fitness goals throughout the day by monitoring your heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, sleep quality, hours slept and other helpful metrics. Just pair with your Windows Phone, Apple® iOS or Android device via Bluetooth to receive alerts at a glance.Discover how the technology of Microsoft Band 2 can assist you in a healthy, productive lifestyle. Learn more ›
Overall5 out of 5
5 out of 5Best fitness tracker for the money
By CraigB
from Texas
When choosing high end fitness bands, my choices went back and forth between the Microsoft Band 2 and the Fitbit Surge. Fitbit has been in the business for fitness wearables for longer but I chose the Band 2 for what I felt was better value for my money. I purchased during a $50 off sale making it even more attractive and $50 less than the Surge. My main phone for this review is a Lumia 1520 with Windows 10 Mobile. I assume others will write reviews of the phone for other platforms and that is where this review starts. This fitness wearable is by far the most compatible. It supports iOS, Android, and Windows Phone/Mobile. Fitbit does as well but support for Windows Mobile is more limited. Comparing it to the Surge, it has more customizability, color screen, and a partially metal build. It feels more premium than the Surge. The metal does have 2 downsides. The first is that the finish used shows scratches extremely easily. See included picture. The second is that sweat and soap cause a foul smell very quickly requiring regular cleaning.
The Band 2 can be worn in two positions. The first is with the screen facing outwards like a watch. I tried this but it felt uncomfortable and viewing the screen was awkward particularly considering the screen doesn’t have a vertical view. This leads me to my preferred position which is with the screen facing inwards. It is much more natural to view and operate. It also feels more comfortable and is in fact the recommended way to wear the device. If there was any concern it is that wearing it inward the screen is always contacting surfaces when you lay your arms down. It uses gorilla glass but it still concerns me that I might scratch the screen. Every fitness wearable wasn’t completely comfortable to wear for one reason or another but this one starts to feel about like a watch after an adjustment period. Before you get the size right you might put it a place that binds you wrist or hits a nerve. I also learned it can get the heart rate just fine without tightening it down so far you hit nerves. Just like a watch it will take some fiddling to find your perfect tightness. Fortunately, the latching mechanism feels strong and has more adjustments than a tradition watch as well giving you more flexibility. Just make sure you use the sizing guide on the size of the box to choose the correct size. It shows wrists sizes with the wrist sideways.
Now the big question is how it works for tracking vitals. I haven’t worked with VO2 Max so I can’t comment on that but after getting the fit correct, the heart rate seems pretty close. Checking manual it was usually within about 10BPM or less from actual. Tracking steps seems a little different. It is difficult to verify but it seems to be a little high on the number of steps sometimes compared to my old hip worn pedometer. It just seems like I can reach 5,000 steps fairly easily. I am not a runner so I have not tested the GPS but I have read that some units have come from the factory with a bad GPS. What’s really nice is with all the vitals it gathers, more than just heart rate, it should be a fairly accurate color estimate. It has guided workouts you can add but I used the generic color tracking and added my own workout types to track. You can add things like HIT and weight training for your own purposes but it uses all the sensors to estimate the color burn instead of estimating based on the workout type. I feel this is more accurate but cannot verify. When you start workout mode, by default the screen stays on showing your workout time and heart rate. I suspect it is not as accurate as a chest band but it seems pretty good. After your workout is done you can see the entire workout on your phone or the website with your heart rate the entire time and your max marked. If there was any gripe it would be that you can’t have it vibrate when you hit your target or max heart rate. That would have been a great feature but, who knows. Maybe they will add it in the future. You can even use the website to compare your vitals to others in your height, weight, and age category. It’s all anonymous and very informative.
When not working out it still tracks your heart rate all the time but the other useful time to check is when you are sleeping. It can detect your sleep but if it gets it wrong you can only delete the time, not edit. You are better off starting your sleep tracking yourself. While sleeping, it will monitor you and in when you wake up you can see what your resting heart rate was overnight to get an even better picture of your health. It also has a smart alarm you can activate. If you want to wake up at a set time, just set the alarm and it will vibrate to wake you up. What I really like is if you activate the smart alarm and set it for 7:30am it will wake you up somewhere between 7:00am and 8:00am when you are most awake. That means you don’t wake up to an alarm feeling like you haven’t rested. You can even set the strength of the vibration.
Since this is a little bit of a smart watch you can add some apps. Since the phone doesn’t have any memory though, expect to only have them work when around your phone. It can control music on your phone and even use voice recognition with Cortana. I am running a prerelease build of the phone software so on occasion the connection dropped but it wasn’t hard to get back. I have found the notifications actually quite nice. I can leave the phone in one place in the house and still get notifications and respond to basic texts. I can also connect my phone to the stereo and change tracks and turn the volume up or down. It’s a standard feature for a smart watch but this is a fitness wearable and much cheaper than a smart watch. There are even some extra apps you can add and some third part utilizes to customize it further but if you want a smart watch more you might want to go that route. If you want a smart fitness tracker, this thing is hard to beat.
Pros
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Solid (premium) build quality. It often gets looks and people asking what it is
Tracks more vitals than any other fitness wearable
Comfortable after figuring out your preferred fitment
Bright, sharp screen with auto brightness
Smart Alarm
Customizable workouts
Workout coaches
Customizable with smart watch type features
Solid latching mechanism
Good battery life for its functionality (2 days with no GPS and auto on screen)
Fast charge time (30 minutes to 80%)
Gorilla glass screen
Works on iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and Web. The web is the most feature rich
Integrates with Health Vault
Constant heart rate
Portal to compare health
Rich sleep stats including restful sleep, times awake, resting heartrate, and recovery
Cons
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
Cannot change band because electronics are built in
Metal area is a trap for sweat and soap requiring regular cleaning to prevent odor
Cannot change screen orientation
Awkward wearing screen outward
Metal finish is easy to scratch
No build in memory to bring music and store GPS while leaving phone behind for a time
Water resistant instead of waterproof
Possible to scratch screen with it facing downward
Sync is a bit slow
CraigB
Texas
Band split after serveral months
May 23, 2016
As others who have discovered after owning the Band 2 for a while, the band itself tends to split. Even if you are gentle the rubberized material just doesn't seem to hold up. The good news in my case is I leave reasonably close to a Microsoft Store. I brought it to them and as always they took great care of me. The assistant store manager was the one who assisted me and he said that Microsoft is aware of the problem and is already working to fix the issue. I had the same problem with the first generation Type Cover for the Surface. Back then they took care of me and ultimately Microsoft corrected the issue. It's unfortunate this kind of thing gets through but at least it doesn't seem to be a hassle to get it resolved.
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Enjoy powerful performance with this compact HP Pavilion Wave computer. The Intel i3 processor provides fast data handling, while the 1TB hard drive lets you store plenty of files. This HP Pavilion Wave computer has 8GB of RAM to run the latest applications and four USB ports for connecting multiple accessories.
Overall3 out of 5
3 out of 5Still can't get the speaker/microphone to work.
By Murphdad013
from New York , ny
The HP help line is terrible and Best Buy was no help at all. In fact I spoke directly ....finally...with someone at HP who said that my Paviliion Wave needed an external microphone headset for montonaccess Cortona. WRONG!!!!
CraigB
Texas
It has a built in microphone
January 16, 2017
I own this unit and it has a built in microphone. I use it for Cortana regularly. Sounds like the support person got it wrong.
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Arlo Pro takes the worrying out of life with the 100% Wire-Free indoor/outdoor home monitoring system. Arlo Pro includes rechargeable batteries, motion and sound-activated alerts, 2-way audio, a 100+ decibel siren, and 7 days of free cloud HD video recordings. Arlo covers every angle to help keep you safe and protected.
Overall4 out of 5
4 out of 5Good system with lots of potential
By CraigB
from Texas
Pros
Extremely Quick setup (A 2 camera system takes roughly 30 minutes)
Very easy set up. It comes with basic instructions but the app nicely walks you through each step
No need to run wires
Compact
Discreet cameras easily blend in with lighter color homes
Good daytime video quality for the price
Includes microphone and speaker
Flexible mounting options. Included option is easy but other fixed mounts can be used
Large rechargeable batteries
Motion trigger is supposed to get an update to determine if the motion is by a person
All devices get regular security updates. Even the cameras get updated wirelessly. Nice considering cameras are a new target for hackers.
Inanimate objects don’t seem to cause false motion triggers
Standard external hard drive can be used for local storage
Basic plan included for free
Easily expandable
Extremely Quick setup (A 2 camera system takes roughly 30 minutes)
Very easy set up. It comes with basic instructions but the app nicely walks you through each step
No need to run wires
Compact
Discreet cameras easily blend in with lighter color homes
Good daytime video quality for the price
Includes microphone and speaker
Flexible mounting options. Included option is easy but other fixed mounts can be used
Large rechargeable batteries
Motion trigger is supposed to get an update to determine if the motion is by a person
All devices get regular security updates. Even the cameras get updated wirelessly. Nice considering cameras are a new target for hackers.
Inanimate objects don’t seem to cause false motion triggers
Standard external hard drive can be used for local storage
Basic plan included for free
Easily expandable
Cons
Support for Windows is poor for the new touchscreen devices.
No Windows app for Windows 8 and 10 devices of any size.
Video quality, mainly night time, is probably not good enough for legal purposes.
Night video quality makes recognition near impossible past approximately 10 feet
Easy to steal or move regardless of mounting
Camera speaker is not very loud
Provided screws use too fine of a thread and the metal head strips out easy
All videos are public if someone can intercept your emails on the way to your inbox. (Email delivery by design is not encrypted so if someone intercepts your emails on the way they can see any of your videos with audio)
Recording time is fixed so even if motion or sound is still occurring you can miss recording
Web interface has some bugs such as freezing on zoom, Live play button disappears, and touch doesn’t work.
Sound recording doesn’t occur until a few seconds after video recording
At least one camera exhibited a noticeable “ticking clock” sound when recording audio
Connecting them hardwired defeats the weatherproofing
Instructions do not give tutorial about advanced features but rather let you discover them
No organizer for hard drive recordings
Dependent on good upload internet speeds. The more cameras you have, the faster the upload speed you need. This can be a limiting factor for some.
Long lag time to start live viewing even with very fast connection
Support for Windows is poor for the new touchscreen devices.
No Windows app for Windows 8 and 10 devices of any size.
Video quality, mainly night time, is probably not good enough for legal purposes.
Night video quality makes recognition near impossible past approximately 10 feet
Easy to steal or move regardless of mounting
Camera speaker is not very loud
Provided screws use too fine of a thread and the metal head strips out easy
All videos are public if someone can intercept your emails on the way to your inbox. (Email delivery by design is not encrypted so if someone intercepts your emails on the way they can see any of your videos with audio)
Recording time is fixed so even if motion or sound is still occurring you can miss recording
Web interface has some bugs such as freezing on zoom, Live play button disappears, and touch doesn’t work.
Sound recording doesn’t occur until a few seconds after video recording
At least one camera exhibited a noticeable “ticking clock” sound when recording audio
Connecting them hardwired defeats the weatherproofing
Instructions do not give tutorial about advanced features but rather let you discover them
No organizer for hard drive recordings
Dependent on good upload internet speeds. The more cameras you have, the faster the upload speed you need. This can be a limiting factor for some.
Long lag time to start live viewing even with very fast connection
Setup was very easy, particularly for a security camera system. The entire process is achieved by following the steps one by one as the app tells you. Install the app, set up your Arlo account, plug in the base unit to power and internet, sync the cameras, hang the cameras, and you’re done. A two camera system only took approximately 30 minutes. The kit includes metal bases, screws, and wall anchors but the screws are small and easy to strip. The metal bases work with a strong magnet included inside the camera. Although convenient, the metal bases allow someone to easily steal or move these expensive cameras so placement is important. Netgear offers screw in mounts for a more rigid and secure mounting. The entire hardware and software process has had a lot of thought put into making it easy. There are no complicated router changes needed to be made at all or complicated programming. Oddly some features, like changing the recording quality, must be done on a regular computer for which there is no app.
There is one strange feature omission from Netgear. This system has a Pro designation and yet support for regular, more modern computers, is limited. Businesses by and large use Windows computers and the most popular type of Windows computers selling today are Windows 2-in-1 convertibles with touchscreens this trend is forecasted to increase and yet this system is barely even useable by any touchscreen Windows device. This is also odd because what better way to check out a security video than on a large screen. You are forced to use a browser to view videos which the experience varies based on browser. Simple things like moving a slider don’t work because the website doesn’t work with touch. Browser administration has other bugs, such as the Live Video button disappearing. If this was an app you wouldn’t have to worry about how the end user’s choice of browser affects the experience. Not having a Universal Windows app is a missed opportunity. I have seen a large increase in clients that are buying Windows 2-in-1 systems instead of desktops or Android/iOS tablets for their primary system. A Windows Universal app they could support such systems, or any other form factor of Windows for that matter. Imagine if the app was on Xbox One in your living room and you want to check on things outside. Just say “Hey Cortana, open Arlo” and you could see your video feed or videos quickly and easily from the convenience of your couch on a big screen. That would be great. If you have smaller Windows devices, the website is unusable. It tries to get you to use an app that doesn’t exist. Oddly enough if you have a link to a shared video the same website will serve you the video in a mobile optimized format. Smaller Windows devices and Windows Mobile devices are left unsupported. Future updates and app releases could easily alleviate this but for now Windows support is poor.
The base unit comes with a Sync/Siren button, network port, and two USB ports for storage. The siren is loud and sounds like newer smoke alarms. It can be trigger locally, by the app, or via configurable rules such as motion or audio sensing. You can switch the base unit to modes for recording for motion and/or audio, no recording, or armed or disarmed based using Geofencing. You can also define your own custom modes allowing specific cameras and audio for each to be on or off. Due to battery restrictions, there is no continuous recording. Recording time from motion is a default of 5 seconds regardless of if the motion continues. Cameras include built in IR for night vision, motion sensor, microphone, and speaker and are weatherproof assuming the charging plug cover is on. One large difference with the Pro version is the inclusion of large rechargeable batteries which should last quite a long time between charging. When video is recorded, it is uploaded via your internet connection to your account meaning a good upload internet speed is important. Videos are stored in a calendar format and can be viewed, shared, or deleted from the interface.
Overall performance when factoring in the price for features was good. Shuddering and lag was minimal with surprisingly good wireless range. Remote viewing of live video is reasonably quick although it still took several seconds and is highly dependent on your internet upload speed. Audio took about 2 seconds to start every time after a motion trigger recording or manual live viewing and had a slightly audible tick-tock sound. The built-in speaker is barely audible at max volume. As with all security systems, there is a loss of some detail to do recording compression. Daytime recordings show signs of video compression but subjects are still reasonably recognizable at approximately 25 feet. Nighttime viewing brings recognition down to approximately 10-15 feet before subjects hard to recognize. Although not official, friends in law enforcement said it is not good for legal purposes as they must have a definitive, recognizable face to use the video. Motion detection was generally good but people moving fast could often elude the recording. Due to the fixed recording time, the system could also miss recording an event if it ran past the configured time.
A big concern is the video sharing feature. Arlo by default emails you anytime it records. It conveniently sends you a screenshot of what it recorded. However; the email sends a direct link to the video that can be viewed without logging in. This would be even more concerning if you had cameras in your house. By definition, is sent unsecured between providers. Although the industry is trying to improve that, you should always assume your emails have no encryption when sent to you. This means that it is possible and relatively easy for criminals to eavesdrop and see your videos with audio without ever knowing your account info. The good thing is that is easy to remedy turning off the feature that emails you when it records a video. That way the link to the video won’t be sent out on the web unsecured and your videos are still stored in the cloud without being shared openly. Hopefully, Netgear will remedy this in the future.
Overall, it is a nice system for the price point when compared to the competition. Compared to legacy DVR and NVR security camera systems this makes the whole process a lot more accessible for the average consumer. As long as you keep your expectations in line it is a nice system. All security camera systems, particularly ones costing less than $2,500 have limitations.
Overall, it is a nice system for the price point when compared to the competition. Compared to legacy DVR and NVR security camera systems this makes the whole process a lot more accessible for the average consumer. As long as you keep your expectations in line it is a nice system. All security camera systems, particularly ones costing less than $2,500 have limitations.
A standout feature, even comparing to high end systems, is this system will automatically get updates for security. Anyone who watched the news in late 2016 saw that the biggest hack was perpetrated using devices, such as camera systems, that weren’t updated. That is something still lacking in the “professional” security camera world. You also won’t have to hire someone to come pull wiring through your house or small business. Cameras can be placed wherever you can mount a base. If for some reason, such as poor signal, the place doesn’t work they are easy to move. It not be a real high definition security camera system but it also costs nowhere near as much. Just be sure you can accept the Cons before buying. The overall system is well thought out and with continued improvement of the listed cons this could be the best system for nearly any price.
CraigB
Texas
New developments after extended use
January 31, 2017
I have discovered some new elements to the system with more use.
The first is that I did find a way to adjust video quality via the app and not just the website. It turns out the way it is displayed is as one of 3 choices instead of a slider.
Next is that the cameras only work with Netgear's proprietary charger. Even though it uses USB both the manual an other say it only works with the Netgear one.
Finally I discovered that the motion detection does sometimes act strange. I purchase one additional camera and for some reason no matter the sensitivity of the motion it records a motion even every 30 seconds at night. I have observed that it seems to happen more if my neighbor has a light on but even that is not consistent.
+4points
4of 4voted this comment as helpful.
CraigB's Questions
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Can photoshop Elements 2022 edit both video and photos? Thanks,
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eufy eufyCam 2, 2-Camera Surveillance System: See everything that happens around your home in 1080p HD with this eufy eufyCam 2 kit. Quick and easy to set up, two wireless cameras and a home base provide all that you need to get started, while smart integration ensures you can easily connect to other smart devices. This eufy eufyCam 2 kit provides 365 days of use from a single charge for continuous observation.
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Hi, I bought this laptop. I don't know how to activate windows 10 included. Thanks
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