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Steven6282
 
 
 
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  • Review count
    9
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    171
  • First review
    October 4, 2010
  • Last review
    June 4, 2017
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Steven6282's Reviews
 
Capture studio-quality audio for gaming, streaming, podcasting, YouTube videos and more with the popular Snowball USB microphone. Snowball utilizes a unique two-capsule design that produces a crisp, clean and natural sound. Cardioid and omni pickup patterns (with an optional -10dB pad in cardioid mode) give you the versatility to capture all sorts of recording and streaming projects. Snowball’s adjustable metal stand lets you position the microphone in relation to the sound source, improving sound quality. Simple USB plug 'n play operation means you don’t need any extra gear –just plug in and start recording and streaming with amazing quality.
 
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  • Tech Insider Network
Customer Rating
2 out of 5
2
Descent mic but overpriced for it.
on June 4, 2017
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
This microphone sounds ok, nothing amazing. It barely sounds better than my cheap $20 dollar 16 year old logitech that I was trying to replace. The only thing it really does better than that mic is pick up a little less background noise. The vocal quality is pretty close.
The problem though is that it's pickup range is junk for a desktop microphone. At 2 feet away with the levels maxed out, normal conversation level voice is quite low on this mic. Definitely not suitable for VOIP applications where you actually want the other participants to hear you. And that is my primary purpose for a microphone. I wanted a mic that would pick up my voice but not so much of the background noise.
This this is also huge for a microphone and an eye soar on my desk. To top it off, it has a bright red LED on the front that is rather distracting.
If this mic was priced at around 30 maybe 40 dollars I'd give it 4 stars, but at 70 dollars no way.
My Best Buy number: 0744933893
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
 
Use your Daydream ready phone to experience a whole new reality with this Daydream View VR headset, which features a lightweight headset for comfortable wear. This headset has an intuitive controller for hands-on experience of your VR adventures. Featuring a soft, washable design and an easy-load system, this Daydream View VR headset immerses you in amazing views by turning on your phone.
 
Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Subpar VR experience, but it's cheap
on February 8, 2017
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
I'm going to start off by saying, I'm only giving this device 3 stars instead of 2 because of the price. If it were over $100 dollars I would give it 2 stars. I bought it today on sale for $50 dollars, and at that price I'll give it a 3.
This is a very low level barely even entry level VR headset. It lacks many features you'd want on a real VR headset. The image quality is pretty poor also, that is partly due to the phones having low resolutions, and partly due to the low quality lens on this headset.
So lets go a little into detail about some of the key areas.
Comfort, I'd give this a 3. The headset is soft with padding across the brow so that is good. However, the strap is poorly designed IMO. It is placed so it puts all the pressure on the brow making the bottom of the headset feel like it's about to flip up. And you have to wear the band fairly tight due to how you have to wear the headset to get the picture in focus (more on that later). The only adjust-ability in anything is how tight the strap is. To loose, and the headset will slip down to your nose and the image will be out of focus. To tight and the bottom lifts up off your face. I will say on the plus side that the headset feels to be weighted fairly well.
Focusing: I'd give this a 1. The lenses have absolute no adjustments. You adjust the focus of the image by moving the entire headset around on your face. This adds to the comfort problems and why you have to wear the headset fairly tight to make sure it stays in place. It really could have used some adjustments of the lens alone instead of requiring the entire headset to be moved around.
Picture quality: I'd give this a 3, and only because part of the problem is the low resolution of phone screens. The lens themselves are very poor quality. You can tell this by putting something other than your phone in the post where the phone goes and look at it. Even when move around to provide the clearest image of the object that you can get, there is still some distortion. And the edges, wow they are horrible. Try to use just your eyes to look anywhere other than straight ahead and it will be out of focus. Add to this that the side of the headset allows light bleed from any light sources behind you and you start getting color wash as well.
Available Apps: 2 There just aren't any good apps available on android for VR. And many of the ones I did try had problems. Even Google Play Videos crashes when you try to start it from the Daydream app.
Controller: 5 This is one of the few things I feel they really did a good job on. The controller tracks very well, is comfortable and easy to use.
Head tracking: 4. Again here they seem to have done a pretty good job with the head tracking. Although, this isn't really a design aspect of the headset, more of the software programming in the phone.
Obviously, overall I'm fairly displeased with this product. I expected a lot better from all the good reviews it got. I really don't consider this device any better than a 20 dollar jView VR headset that I got on Amazon. It might be slightly more comfortable, but it lacks the lens adjustments that device has. Even at $50 dollars I'm debating if I'm going to return it or not.
My Best Buy number: 0744933893
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
-1point
1of 3voted this as helpful.
 
Fitbit Charge HR Wireless Heart Rate + Activity Wristband: This heart rate and activity tracking wristband is built to capture your movements and health patterns all day long. Easily monitor your heart rate so you can maximize your workouts, learn about your sleep quality and monitor progress on your goals.
 
Customer Rating
2 out of 5
2
Extremely inaccurate for most stuff
on May 9, 2016
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
I'm very disappointed in this device. After reading the reviews I decided to go with a Charge HR to be a companion tracker in my new get fit journey. But the inaccuracies of this devices are completely awful.
First lets look at the steps counter. The few days I've been wearing it now each show me having over 1k steps before even getting out of bed!!! Any slight movement of the arm you are wearing the device on gets registered as a step. It's way over sensitive and not a true measure of the steps you take. The distance traveled is also inaccurate due to this, and I also can find no way to try and calibrate the device based on your real steps or traveling distance per step. So if you have a shorter or longer stride than whatever magical number they use to calculate that, it's going to be wrong.
Next the calories burned counter. They use a base BMR based on your height, weight, and age, but there is no way to customize it for your fitness or metabolism level. Meaning for people trying to use this as a tracker to get in shape / loose weight, it's going to be largely inaccurate as well. Me as a 33 year old 6' 1" male at 231 lbs, it shows me with an average BMR of just over 3k calories per day. I rarely eat more than 2k calories a day so if this were anywhere near accurate, I should be shedding weight without even trying! It really needs a way to customize the BMR for your fitness / metabolism level.
The sleep monitoring is inaccurate as well. All 3 nights I've worn the thing so far it has shown me awake for 2+ hours in the middle of the night, when I most certainly have not been. Last night I slept a good 8 hours yet it only shows me getting 4 hours 23 minutes of sleep lol. I don't know if it's basing sleep off not moving or having a low heart rate or what, but whatever it is, I apparently do not conform to it. I could understand some restlessness in the sleep throwing it off, but 4 hour of sleep missing due to it yet I feel rested?
And finally we get to the only aspect of the device that seems to be somewhat accurate, the heart rate monitor Using a timer and manually counting my heart rate for one minute while comparing to the device yields counts within a couple of beats per minute. So the heart rate sensor on this device is the only one that actually works fairly well IMO.
I most likely will be returning this device by the end of the week if I don't find some aspect of it that makes it feel extremely useful to me. I don't know if a heart rate monitor alone is worth the cost of this device. I have not used it during an actual work out yet, going to attempt my first work out at a gym today. So maybe I'll see if it gives me any useful information today during an actual workout. Other than hitting a target heart rate though, I don't know who what else it would really be good for in this situation.
My Best Buy number: 0744933893
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+1point
1of 1voted this as helpful.
 
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Tablet: Mix play and productivity with a tablet able to open 2 apps or windows at the same time. Important documents are kept safe with a fingerprint scanner, and a low-power mode helps your tablet stay functioning for as long as possible.
 
  • My Best Buy® Elite Plus Member
Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Beautiful screen, average tablet
on September 7, 2014
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
Overall, I'd call this tablet average at best. The screen is truly beautiful. It has one of the best looking screens available on the market right now. This however is offset by poor battery life and a badly designed layout.
The 8.4 device is made as if they expect it's primary usage to be in portrait mode. I'm not sure how many people regularly use a tablet in portrait mode unless they are reading something. But you aren't going to pay 400 dollars for an e-reader, that would be crazy. So, they put the touch sensitive hardware buttons at the bottom in portrait mode. If you are using the device in portrait mode this is fine, but if you are using it in landscape mode which I would wager is the most common usage, then holding the tablet without pressing the buttons and opening up the recent apps menu, or hitting the back button is tedious. Also, the speakers are positioned on the edges of the tablet at what you would consider the bottom in landscape mode (since you would tend to put the power button on top), meaning when holding the tablet in landscape mode you are going to often cover up one or both speakers, muffling the stereo effect. Again.. poor design choice there.
This tablet also comes with a lot of samsung bloatware. Why do I need yet another backup solution when I'm using an android tablet and google already does backups to google drive for me. Why do I need yet another app store other than the play store. Why do I need some useless calendar widget forced onto one of my main screens and unable to be removed. In my opinion, google should change the rules to using Android and require anyone that uses android to offer a Google play addition that is completely free of all the extra junk that manufacturers like Samsung like to add.
Next on my list is the battery life. Samsung claims 10+ hours... maybe if the screen is at 20 or 30% brightness and you are just browsing the web. If you are doing anything that needs to use the bigger of the two quad core processors, you can expect more like 3, maybe 4 hours of power. The screen is also a HUGE battery drain. It easily is responsible for draining 50%+ of the battery (depending on what you are doing). In one test of playing a game, I managed just over 3 hours of battery life, and looking at GSAM battery monitor the screen was responsible for 53% of the power usage. This was in a dark room so the brightness setting was low. This is the price you pay for such a beautiful display I guess.
So, I've talked about the bad, a little more about the good. That battery hogging screen truly is beautiful when you can take advantage of it. The pixel density gives it and amazingly sharp picture. The colors are very vivid, blacks look black instead of greyish. The tablet is one of the thinnest and lightest I have ever held. It is very comfortable to hold, and feels very solid. I almost feel like I could just toss this thing around / onto the desk because it feels so solid (although, I wont try doing that lol). Also the processors are very responsive. I have not observed any lag while doing anything. When playing videos, they seem to play well without choppiness (tested with 1080p videos). When you aren't covering up the speakers they sound descent for a small tablet. Nothing amazing, a little tinny if you are listening to music, but good stereo sound when in landscape mode.
Overall though, I would only recommend this tablet if you are using it for very light duty stuff and want to enjoy an amazing screen. Emails, web browsing, e-reading, those sort of things. Watching videos is probably about the most intensive task I could say this tablet would make a good tablet for. If you are wanting to play android games and cpu intensive things of that nature, you are going to be better off with a lower end tablet that doesn't have such a battery hogging screen and cpu. Most games aren't configured for this high of resolution yet, so the sharpness of the screen while still good looking is not nearly as impressive. The faster of the two quad core CPUs really isn't that much faster than other current gen quad core tablets, so not really worth the battery sacrifices in my opinion. If you are looking for a business tablet, you probably want a Note or something that has pen support, or at least a dockable / cover keyboard like a 10 inch+ model.
My Best Buy number: 0744933893
What's great about it: Screen, thinness, weight
What's not so great: battery life, bloatware, layout
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Ease of Use
3 out of 5
3
Features
2 out of 5
2
+12points
17of 22voted this as helpful.
 
With a 5 ms response time, this LG 27EA63V-P 27" IPS LED HD monitor maintains clear images during rapid scene transitions. Super Resolution+ technology and a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio deliver sharp visuals while reducing blur and degradation.
 
  • My Best Buy® Elite Plus Member
Customer Rating
4 out of 5
4
Nice monitor with some downsides
on August 10, 2013
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
First I'll take note of the good sides of this monitor. It's a very nice size, but that isn't anything specific to this monitor. In general a 27" monitor is just a nice size for sitting back and still being able to see things easily and / or watch movies on your monitor.
Specific to this monitor the colors are very nice, and seem to hold true for the most part. Sharpness is great. The screen has a great viewing angle, and no easily visible glare. Response time is good but standard.
Now to the bad side, and I almost returned the monitor out right for these things, and may still decide to. The stand is pathetically weak. The slightest vibration to the desk (someone walking by) will make the monitor wobble. Just playing music loud with my subwoofer hitting on bass is enough to make it wobble. Horrible design here.
Also the plug, now normally I wouldn't consider the plug worth mentioning on most devices but this plug struck me as one of the most idiotic things I've seen on an electronic device in a while. It doesn't use a traditional monitor / computer plug for one thing. Ok, I can somewhat understand that, they are moving the power brick out of the monitor in order to make it thinner. However, they decide to put the power brick at the outlet end of the plug. And they made it so wide that it takes up two to three spots on a standard battery backup depending on if you plug it in at the end or not. Seriously LG? I mean if I was plugging this thing directly into a wall outlet the design would be fine, but who doesn't at least have a surge protector these days? The problem would be exactly the same with a surge protector versus a battery backup. If I keep this monitor, I'm going to have to see if I can find an alternate power brick for this device because of this idiotic design.
One more feature that I absolute hate on this monitor. It has a power usage reduction feature that if nothing is actually displayed on screen it turns off the back light. This is probably fine for your average user, but for someone like me, I run 3 monitors and am very active. This monitor is serving as my middle monitor. So if I happen not to have something on the screen and want to move across my monitors, the back light flickers on as the mouse crosses the screen. And it is a noticeable delay also, I can have the mouse all the way across the screen before it becomes visible. This is highly annoying and I cannot find any way to disable this behavior. I'm going to have to leave a window open on this screen at all times just to not have this annoying distraction happen.
My Best Buy number: 0744933893
What's great about it: Size, picture quality
What's not so great: Stand, plug design, power features
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Features
4 out of 5
4
Design
3 out of 5
3
+11points
16of 21voted this as helpful.
 
MOTOROLA XOOM has a super-powerful dual-core processor and Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) -- the Android platform designed specifically for tablets. With its 10.1-inch HD widescreen display, you'll enjoy HD video in a thin, light, and powerful tablet. Motorola XOOM 00001NARGNLX 32 GB Tablet - Refurbished - Wi-Fi - Black
 
Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Good tablet, but still needs work
on April 10, 2011
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
Overall the tablet is nice. It's fast, the screen looks good, the speakers are loud enough to be heard, the battery life is excellent.
But then we get to the Honeycomb software. This software still needs a bit of work from google. It was not ready for release imo and I think google only pushed it out to beat the IPad 2 to the shelves. With the Xoom being out for nearly 2 months now, they have only released one minor update that supposedly prepared it for flash coming out (which wasn't out at release, showing how much it was rushed).
Flash itself runs bad on the system, but this is partially Adobe's fault. Flash is somewhat bloated and not really made for mobile devices, the latest version Adobe released was supposed to be for mobile devices, but it still needs more work.
After nearly 2 months, the SD Card slot for additional storage on these is still non functional. Granted the built in storage is large enough for your average persons needs, but if you start using the camera a lot or putting other pictures / videos on here, you are going to run out of space fast.
Web browsing on the device is somewhat annoying. The UserAgent string still says Android in it, so most websites treat it as a mobile browser like a phone browser so you get really small mobile webpages on the nice big 10" screen. There are ways around this if you follow some simple instructions on the web, but you have to set the browser to debug mode every time you start it which is simply annoying.
All in all, I'd say wait a few more months before buying this when Google has actually released some updates and gotten the kinks worked out.
What's great about it: Battery,screen,size,processing power
What's not so great: Honeycomb OS needs work
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+40points
45of 50voted this as helpful.
 
This amplifier features a bridgeable design that operates on multiple configurations and setups for quality performance. The switchable 3-position bass boost delivers impressive sound.
 
Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Descent amp but not really designed for subwoofers
on April 3, 2011
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
I bought this amp primarily to push two 8" subwoofers I was putting in my truck. Reading the specs on the amp it sounded great. Using it in bridged mode it matched the RMS / Peak watts of my speakers at my speakers ohm load perfectly.
So I bought it and installed it. After playing with it for a few minutes I soon discovered some serious drawbacks to using this amp in bridged mode for two subwoofers (or for two normal speakers that you want more bass out of).
In bridged mode, one bridge uses the front channels, the other uses the rear channels. Thats all fine and dandy, but the front channel does not have a low pass filter on the crossover. This seriously limits it's usefulness. You'll end up having a lot more high output coming from the speaker wired to the front bridge than the speaker wired to the rear bridge if you are trying to filter it for bass. If it was not for this serious flaw I would've rated this amp at least a 4.5 star.
As it stands, I'm keeping the amp, but only because my head unit is capable of performing the filtering for me. I had to set the amp cross overs to full and let the head unit filter out the high end output so that the subwoofers only received bass and not high pitched music which sounded really bad coming out of the subs I had.
What's great about it: Bridge capabilities, price
What's not so great: Lack of low pass filter on the front channels for when using it in bridged mode.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
3 out of 5
3
Ease of Use
2 out of 5
2
-16points
9of 34voted this as helpful.
 
Expand your home or office network with this high-speed wireless router that features 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for rapid connection and data transfer.
 
Customer Rating
3 out of 5
3
Great hardware, limited firmware
on October 30, 2010
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
The hardware for this router is great. True dual band, great transmit power. With no external antennas I do not have a problem getting a signal even outside in my yard. Has nice features on it, the USB sharing, gigabit switch, and it looks fairly sleek.
The bad, the firmware for this thing sucks for an advanced user like myself. You cannot easily release an IP address that has been assigned through DHCP. In fact, I gave up trying to figure out how to do it in the router. You cannot forward external ports to alternate internal ports. You can only forward say port 80 to port 80. So if you run a web server or something on port 10000 internally but want to use port 80 externally to go to it, you can't. No port range forwarding, you have to sit there add each and every single port that you want forwarded.
What I did (and I do not advise doing this if you do not have the technical know how) is load up DD-WRTs firmware on this. It is fully compatible with this model and fixes all my problems plus gives me access to a lot more advanced features such as running a VPN directly on the router. With DD-WRT on the device it is rock solid and a great router.
What's great about it: Hardware, dual band, great range and speed
What's not so great: Firmware is very simple and does not allow advanced configuration
I would recommend this to a friend!
Ease of Use
3 out of 5
3
Performance
4 out of 5
4
+7points
7of 7voted this as helpful.
 
Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball Mouse: Easily use your computer for long periods of time with this trackball mouse, which allows you to precisely navigate features with minimal wrist movement. Enjoy lasting comfort thanks to the sculpted shape, which supports the curves of your hand.
 
Customer Rating
4 out of 5
4
Finally a trackball refresher
on October 4, 2010
Posted by: Steven6282
from Lexington, SC
Overall I'm happy with the new trackball. It could have been done better but it's nice to finally see a new one and have best buy actually carry wireless versions of it.
The pointing accuracy of the mouse is good. The track ball movement is nice and smooth. The grips on the bottom of the mouse are sturdy to prevent the mouse from slipping around on you. The wheel feels smooth as well. The additions of the forward and backward buttons (can be programmed as well) are fairly convenient. And the mini USB receiver is a major improvement over the old clunky wireless receiver for the last model.
The bad: The mouse is slightly smaller than the old trackball. It's barely noticeable and I'm sure for some people with smaller hands than mine, it will be great, but the new one doesn't fit my hand quite as nicely. I'm left with my fingers arched slightly more, but it still feels comfortable.
The wheel does not have 4 way scrolling.
They went with another RF receiver instead of bluetooth. Bluetooth woud've drained the battery more but it would've been so much nicer since a lot of notebooks these days have built in bluetooth receivers which would have prevented the need for an additional receiver pluged into a USB port.
Overall though it's a great replacement to the old trackball, and as an avid lifelong trackball user I'm very happy for the upgrade.
What's great about it: Smooth movement, programmable buttons
What's not so great: Slightly smaller, RF signal instead of bluetooth
I would recommend this to a friend!
+75points
75of 75voted this as helpful.
 
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