Bren's stats
- Review count265
- Helpfulness votes1,766
- First reviewDecember 27, 2016
- Last reviewJuly 2, 2026
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4.8
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- Answer count11
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- First answerDecember 27, 2016
- Last answerNovember 4, 2021
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Neato D10's 300 minute runtime, covering 2,700 square feet on a single charge, makes it ideal for large homes. You can't use circles to clean a square corner. Neato's D-shape allows for a 70% larger brush than those found in round robots along with an industry-leading 0.70 liter dirt bin that holds more dirt between cleanings. Neato D10 offers corner-to-corner and edge-to-edge cleaning in a short amount of time and its unique Helix multi-surface brush is now 50% quieter on hard surfaces. Neato D10 offers 60% greater dirt pickup than D3 & D5. The powerful performance is combined with an easy-to-clean true HEPA filter that captures up to 99.97% of allergens and fine dust particles as small as 0.3 microns. Equipped with energy-saving Eco Mode for general vacuuming to high-performance Turbo Mode and D10's exclusive new Max Mode means Neato's D10 gets the job done. The Neato D10 uses LaserSmart powered by LIDAR, same technology used in self-driving vehicles, to map and navigate your home with precision, leaving your carpets with those satisfying straight vacuum lines in no time. Because it uses lasers, not cameras, to navigate your home it works just as well in low light conditions like under furniture and never records images of you and your belongings. It also doesn't have microphones on board and features state-of-the-art encryption both on the robot and in the cloud. With regular software updates sent automatically, you can feel confident you're getting the latest features as soon as they're released. Get cleaning in minutes with Neato~s hassle-free setup using the MyNeato app. Create Zones to target trouble spots more often~like crumbs under the dining table. Create No-Go Zones to avoid spaces such as a pet dish or child~s play area. Clean where you want, when you want~on demand or scheduled in advance. Available in a premium, high-gloss brushed silver finish that fits in with any d~cor. Let Neato D10 take care of the dirty work. You've got better things to do.
Customer Rating
5
Vacuuming automation for my dusty home!
on September 26, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I have really come to enjoy and appreciate this robo-vacuum. Having had a pretty jaded experience with another brand of robot vacuum years ago (let’s just say it had to do with the smearing of my dog’s waste matter, yuck!), I was feeling skeptical about if these vacuums have come along far enough for me to trust them in my home again. This D10 from Neato seems to do very part of its job in cleaning carefully and thoroughly and so far, no gross incidents have occurred!
The setup of the vacuum was simple. I followed the included instructions, got the MyNeato app installed and followed the promptings to get the vacuum hooked up to it. In no time, I was up and running and the vacuum was going full speed ahead in cleaning my kitchen and living room! These areas are particularly high traffic areas for my family, so I really wanted to start by seeing how it would respond to the ever-changing positions of objects like dog toys in the rooms and to the constant influx of dirt and debris in the laundry room that is the entrance from my garage. This little go-getter of a vacuum has held up to all of it so far!
Altogether, I would keep an eye out for sales on this vacuum and pick one up if you are on the fence! I have been impressed with it so far and I think based on my research that it might be the upgrade over older models in the Neato lineup that many would-be customers are looking for! Thanks and good luck with your purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Enjoy the versatile headset for Hybrid work and beyond with the Voyager 4320 Wireless Noise Cancelling Stereo Headset with mic. It's everything you need to stay productive and connected to all your devices whether at home or in the office. Long day of calls made easier with all-day comfort and dual-mic Acoustic Fence technology that eliminates background noise. Phenomenal flexibility, connectivity, and freedom.
Customer Rating
5
Incredible audio and microphone quality!
on September 26, 2022
Posted by: Bren
When it comes to headsets used for work from home and remote calls, what comes to mind often for individuals is the quality of the microphone and the ease of setup and use of the headset itself. This headset possesses all of those qualities in spades, but what I did not expect here for a pair of on-ear headphones is such excellent audio quality! The audio quality here for music is actually worthy of many higher-end headsets I have tried and reviewed!
The actual set up was easy. I have this paired with my phone for remote calls via Bluetooth, and that setup was as easy as accessing my Bluetooth settings and pushing up on the hardwired Bluetooth/power button on the headset for 2 seconds and seeing the prompting for the “Poly V4320 Series” pop-up. The headset also comes with a USB-A dongle in order to employ a 2.4ghz connection to your PC if that is your preferred connection method. Included in the packaging is a USB-A to USB-C adapter though if I need to hook it into a USB-C port. You can also run this headset wired utilizing the included USB cable directly into your PC! That is excellent in terms of versatility.
The headset itself is built in a very high-quality fashion. I enjoy the softness of the ear-pads on my ears, while the plush headband also keeps the headset from feeling like it is pinching my head with long use.
I have had excellent feedback from callers about the audio quality of this mic. It does indeed seem to live up to its marketed features of eliminating background noise. When I am not using the mic, it easily flips up and out of the way and automatically mutes.
Altogether, I am thrilled with this headset! I think you are definitely going to want to check it out if you are on calls or in zoom meetings a lot, and this headset also is custom tailored to work extremely well with Microsoft Teams! This is great as this appears to be growing more and more in the remote work business sector. Thanks for reading and I hope this review helps give you confidence in your purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Play your way with G735 Wireless Gaming Headset from The Aurora Collection from Logitech G. Logitech Gaming Headset intentionally designed to maximize comfort for all players inclusive of smaller headsizes. Play, stream, or listen comfortably all-day, this computer headset features an adjustable headband, breathable materials, and cushy, rotatable cups. This headset is even designed with glasses and small earrings in mind, so no more pinched ears. Long-lasting, this gaming wireless headset allows you to take your gaming to go (and bring the fun with you) with up to 16+ hrs of wireless playtime (at 50% volume with lighting on, 56 hrs at 50% volume with lighting off) and multi-platform connectivity.
Customer Rating
5
Perfect headphones for gamers who love music too!
on September 1, 2022
Posted by: Bren
These Logitech 735 headphones are incredible. They have such incredibly powerful drivers for gaming-oriented headphones that I could not help but exclaim out loud a couple times when I was first trying these out. As happy as I am with these for gaming with games like Hunt Showdown that are dependent on excellent sound for position and movement, I am actually thrilled to finally own a headset that crushes music and other media as well.
Between the highly adjustable EQ settings, available surround sound and Dolby Atmos certification, you can enjoy music and videos with Dolby Atmos settings with this headset! I am actually amazed with the clarity and depth of the bass notes and the power these drivers deliver on surround sound mode when changed in the Logitech PC software. I am also impressed that I can use these via Bluetooth with my phone at the same time and have a phone call or music coming in from the phone while gaming. There are buttons on the headset to allow you to adjust the audio volume mix between your different sources.
I want to encourage someone and say that with the long battery life with the RGB turned off (56 hours per the website), I would be unafraid to make these my primary headphones for music and entertainment while on the go with my phone. The microphone boom of course would be an impediment to using this daily as a regular set of headphones if you use your headphones for phone calls regularly. For just standard music and multimedia use, this is one of the first gaming headsets I have used that I would consider for everyday non-gaming uses! The versatility of this headset further encourages this as I am finding that it works great with 3.5mm axillary cable connection, the Bluetooth connection, and the wireless 2.4ghz dongle connection as well.
The headset is extremely well built and feels and looks like a premium headset. The materials are all high quality, and the headset is incredibly well featured without being heavy. I enjoy all of the soft-touch materials and the ear cups feel great and seem well ventilated, so your ears stay cool. The buttons all articulate well and, as usual, Logitech’s button assignment is intuitive and easy to use. Another benefit of this headset is that I and other reviewers have noted that this headset feels really comfortable for glasses wearers and seems to be built with us in mind! It is always disappointing as a glasses-wearer to get a headset only for them not to fit around your glasses, but that is not the case here!
Altogether, I am extremely pleased with this gaming headset. This is going to be my new daily driver gaming headset for sure for my PC gaming and dual use with my phone when needed!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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From across the room or across the country, Sensi makes it easy for you to remotely control and schedule your home comfort - Anytime. Anywhere.
Customer Rating
5
Bringing my home up to 2020+ year standards!
on August 28, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I am really excited about this thermostat. As frequently as my wife and I are traveling and on the go, I never paid much attention to what the thermostat was doing during the times we weren’t occupying the house, my old thermostat was always set it and forget it.
In this inflationary age we are in, I learned that a Smart Thermostat is a good way to save on energy costs as it allows you to adjust the temperature of the thermostat with the app while you are out and about. This means that while we are on a road trip for example, we can have the house on these hot summer days sitting at 78-85 degrees while unoccupied, but then set the house to cool down to a comfortable temperature when we are a few hours away from being home. This means we don’t have to sit around for hours waiting for the house to cool down when we get home, while we are still reaping the energy savings of allowing the house temperature to be higher in the summers while we are gone.
This Sensi ST55 is a really great smart thermostat in that I found the instructions with the app to be clear and obvious as to what steps were needed for the install. Additionally, as you can see in my pictures, this thermostat attached precisely in the same position as the back plate of my previous thermostat, so we didn’t even have to drill new holes or use new wall anchors! This was about as plug and play as a piece of equipment like this can be!
Altogether, I am highly impressed and think that you should consider this thermostat if you are looking into getting into Smart Thermostat. Thanks for reading and hope this review helps to encourage you!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Hearing is believing. Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro pack a studio-worthy listening experience into our most comfortable design yet ~wear them as long as you want. Stimulate your senses with enhanced 360 Audio that surrounds you in your favorite beats like never before. Feel every note like you~re there with Hi-Fi sound quality. Stay focused on the sounds you love with Intelligent Active Noise Cancellation that quiets even the loudest outside sounds. Work out worry-free with moisture resistance that stands up to rain. Pair your Buds2 Pro with the rest of your Galaxy for new ways to enjoy pro-quality sound wherever you happen to be. If it~s a podcast, a call or your favorite playlist, listen blissfully with Galaxy Buds2 Pro. Whether on a call or during face-to-face conversations, hear real-time translations through your Buds with Galaxy AI.~
Customer Rating
5
A strong competitor in the micro-earbud space!
on August 25, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I am quite impressed with these earbuds; my initial impressions began with the packaging. Samsung, like Sony and some other companies, is moving towards sustainable packaging and there is little if any plastic utilized here. Clever use of various paper and cardboard-based materials is used to secure the earbuds, case, USB C cord, and ear tips inside of the box.
Continued impressions were when I opened the earbuds case, placed the earbuds in, and found that active noise canceling (ANC) immediately began and that, with the case open, it was already querying for a Bluetooth connection. This made connecting my iPhone a cinch. They also have the Galaxy connect feature where they can connect to compatible Galaxy devices with just opening the earbuds case.
The audio experience with these earbuds is excellent and is on par with many others I have tried including my Apple Airpod Pro’s and LG FP9’s. As a matter of face, the bass presence and detail here may surpass the others entirely. An additionally impressive aspect of these earbuds is their ability to block wind noise. I went for a bike ride on a very windy evening and with these headphones on transparency mode for safety, I found that these headphones blocked out the wind admirably well to the point where I could hear my audio with no problem. With the additional assurance from Samsung that these are IPX7 water-resistant, I feel that these would be a great choice for athletes or outdoors-oriented audiophiles.
The controls on the earbuds themselves are intuitive and easy to use. The only trouble is that I find that like other earbuds that lack controls on a stem, I often find myself inadvertently performing actions with the earbuds like pausing my music when I pressed the bud to adjust it back into my ear canal. The earbuds do have an excellent fit, but every earbud requires adjustment once in a while, especially while in the middle of activities.
If you are not an Apple ecosystem devotee, these are very good earbuds to consider. They have a strong, simple to set up Bluetooth connection and just sound absolutely excellent. Additionally, their battery life is going to attract many users to them over some of the competition’s offerings. Altogether, I have no issue recommending these to anyone seeking not only an excellent, refined audio experience, but one that is really made to excel with Galaxy devices.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Brother - MFC-J1170DW Wireless Color All-in-One Refresh Subscription Eligible Inkjet Printer - Black
The Brother MFC-J1170DW is the perfect color inkjet all-in-one printer for your home office and small office needs. The MFC-J1170DW is easy to connect and operate along with being compact and economical. This printer~s multiple flexible connection options include a built-in wireless(2) interface for sharing with multiple users on your network, Wi-Fi Direct, Ethernet or connect locally to a single computer via a USB interface. This printer delivers robust features, business-centric functionality, high-quality output, two-sided (duplex) printing and fast inkjet print speeds ~ up to 17 ppm black and white and 16.5 ppm color.(3) Its generous 2.7~ color touchscreen provides easy navigation and simple icons for accessing powerful features along with print-from and scan-to popular cloud services including Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive and more,(4) directly from the printer. Users enjoy reliable printing, copying, scanning and faxing plus wireless printing from a desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet.(2) Featuring the Brother Mobile Connect(5) App, a user-friendly interface that gives you the freedom to print and manage your printer from virtually anywhere. The MFC-J1170DW features the unique Brother Page Gauge(6) which estimates remaining ink and page levels, so you always know how much ink you have left and how many pages you can print.
Customer Rating
5
Best entry level printer I have found!
on August 12, 2022
Posted by: Bren
So, this little printer is a highly impressive specimen. Not only was it incredibly easy to set up and get going with the easy-to-follow instructions, but it prints like a bat flying out of hell! I actually swore with surprise the first time I printed off a text page and it just shot out of there like a high velocity rifle round--printed with perfect accuracy.
This is a compact, user-friendly printer—highly economical this inflationary day of age, with ink that according to my research is actually rather economical to replace too! That is a huge win for me all around. The size means that this printer is friendly on most workspaces and is honestly perfect for the occasional printer like me who wasn’t looking for something crazy fancy or high-volume. What I really wanted that this printer has, is the ability to scan documents easily to my Onedrive account.
I upload manual timecards to my company via scans, and my old printer lost its ability as it is so old to connect to my Onedrive account to upload scans directly to the Onedrive folder I had selected. Getting this Brother printer set up to do it was easy and now I have that ability back again! I am very pleased with this.
Altogether, I can’t think of a better entry-level printer at this time. I do miss when entry-level, beginner printers were cheaper, but this printer seems to have the ability to do it all while being user friendly and compact, and I don’t know if I can give it a better recommendation than that! Thanks for reading and hope this review helps you feel confident in your purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Sharpen your senses and prepare for your match. Our INZONE H9 headset immerses you in the zone with 360 Spatial Sound for Gaming and noise cancelling for supercharged hearing and super sharp reflexes. Take performance beyond your best, detecting enemies before they see you.
Customer Rating
4
Versatile headphones for the multi-device gamer!
on August 11, 2022
Posted by: Bren
As the title of my review says, these are headphones that one can truly expect to be able to enjoy multitasking with on multiple devices. I am impressed with the versatility present here. These headphones are able to connect via Bluetooth to devices like your phone and play audio from that source while simultaneously playing the audio from whatever device you have hooked up with the 2.4ghz USB-A dongle. I can confirm that this headset works excellently with the USB-A dongle with both my gaming desktop PC and with my PS4 Pro! Although this is advertised for use with the PS5, this will indeed work with the PS4 from my testing! The dongle has a switch on the side the moves from PS5 to PC in selection, and there is a nice LED light on the top of it that indicates whether it is turned on and connected to your headset.
This headset is an example of the gaming industry moving forward in my opinion. Present here is a device that delivers many features that gamers will benefit from, such as active noise cancellation and the versatility to work between multiple devices at the same time. For example, I found that I can be talking to my friends on our Discord server on my phone with this headset while at the same time gaming independently on my PS4. I love this ability to have my game and my private conversations going on at the same time. This headset takes into account this audio split with hardware buttons on the headset that lets you control the balance of audio between the two sources. On the right ear cup, you have two buttons labeled game and chat that let you direct the balance of your volume including totally muting one audio source or the other. You have a master volume controlled on a scroll wheel on the left ear cup.
The build quality present here is great---as it should be for a headset of this price. The plastics all feel solid, the foam headband feels comfortable, and there appears to be plenty of adjustability in the size of the headset from small to even very large heads. The flip away mic articulates nicely, and the buttons and other hardware inputs of the headset all feel solid. The color is, of course, a perfect match to the PS5 white console color scheme and would like great as part of that set up. In general, this headset feels a little on the bulkier side, but I am not surprised as this comes with so many features including the ANC and ambient noise setting and involved mics and the various antennas and hardware needed for both Bluetooth and 2.4ghz wireless connection.
The audio of this headset I would say is average to above average. Out of the box, present here are excellent, full mids, trebles that sound crisp but sometimes at higher volumes come out as rather tinny sounding, and then bass notes that are present and accentuated, but could certainly be more robust and powerful for headphones of this price and size. I would, in honesty, expect better audio quality in general from headphones of this price, but I am willing to give some allowances as this is such a well featured headset. EQ settings are present on the Inzone Hub app for PC and for the phone app, including the spatial audio settings. I think the spatial audio is really great for videogames and some music and will become even more useful as more media sources utilize spatial audio. There is a YouTube video from Sony called “360 Spatial Sound Mapping Demo” that really demonstrates how impressive the 360 Spatial audio can be.
Altogether, what you are getting here is a great entry from Sony into the wireless gaming headset market that comes with features that are bound to make some audiophiles and audio-gear nuts drool. If one’s interest is purely in a gaming headset to work with their one dedicated gaming device, I would not pressure them into spending this much for a headset. The audio quality is not reflected in the price, but rather the features are.
Thanks for reading and I hope this review helps you with your purchase decision!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The Apex Pro Mini is the Incredibly fast Mini Keyboard, featuring OmniPoint 2.0 Adjustable HyperMagnetic Switches with Rapid Trigger, total adjustability of actuation points, and 2-in-1 Action Keys.
Customer Rating
5
An excellent mini keyboard with unique abilities!
on July 30, 2022
Posted by: Bren
This is the third mini keyboard I have tested, and I am quite enjoying it! This Apex Pro Mini, descended from the award-winning Apex Pro full-sized gaming keyboard, stands up well to that reputation. This keyboard has a great amount of customizability, including the ability to change the actuation of each keystroke via the SteelSeries GG software. It also provides the ability to set dual actuation actions, where for example a single key like W can be set to walk at partial actuation and then sprint at full actuation. These Omnipoint adjustable switches evidently are the first of their kind and could prove quite competitive to the right users.
The switches themselves present here feel like basic linear switches: smooth keystroke with a small tap at the bottom to let you know full actuation has occurred. The build quality of the keyboard is right in line with my SteelSeries Aerox 5 mouse I use in complement with it: plastic, matte finish with a tactile texture. This is suitable in my opinion to maintain good contact with the keys during frenetic keystrokes in an FPS or MMORPG games without the sweat or grease of your fingertips slipping on the keypads.
As regular typing experience goes, I don’t mind this at all. If you have not utilized 60% mini keyboards before, there is some time needed to get used to the absence of a function row of keys or arrow keys. Once one becomes acquainted with this, old home-row typing habits return and it is off to the races with typing like normal again. Plus, the amount of desk space this saves you over a regular sized or TKL keyboard is tremendous. There is a lot more room for me to multitask on my desk now with this keyboard present.
One of the things I like about this keyboard is the little easter egg the put on the backside of the keyboard. Behind a rubber peel away cover, there is a handy little keycap pulling tool in the customary SteelSeries brand orange color! That is really cool and shows they care about users’ ability to customize or clean the keyboard on the go.
Altogether, I am highly in favor of this keyboard. If you are in the market for a well-made, highly featured mini keyboard, this one would be an excellent choice to consider! Thanks for reading and hope this review has helped encourage your purchase decision.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The G5 gaming laptop powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU combines gaming, entertainment, work and more! Its powerful 11th Gen Intel Processor allows you to effortlessly handle multiple tasks at the same time. It features a 3 screen display output, built-in SD card slot, and next-gen Wi-Fi 6 technology; with a tool for every task, this laptop provides great balance between gaming, entertainment, and work capabilities. Welcome to your new go-to laptop.
Customer Rating
5
Excellent laptop for gamers and students alike!
on July 29, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I have always been quite impressed by Gigabyte hardware. The attention to detail from this gamer-built company is highly evident in every product they produce. This Gigabyte G5 MD laptop is no exception. Found here is an excellent value in the gaming laptop space absent of the bloatware and other irritations of buying a gaming laptop from a larger company like HP or Dell.
The build quality of the laptop as a whole feels excellent and is right on par with its price point. The metal deck of the laptop is comfortable to rest your wrists on while typing. The finish throughout does appear to attract oils, but those can be easily wiped away with a cloth. The edging of the laptop is a sort of faux-carbon fiber weave made of plastic that was unexpected and looks quite nice (a nice large microfiber cloth is included). There are no annoying RGB light strips or logos on the outside of the laptop; it is business on the outside and party on the inside. There is no flex in the keyboard deck and the screen does not wobble or shake at all while typing. This laptop weighs 4 pounds 6.7 ounces and the charger for this laptop is quite small and weighs just a smidge over one pound. This is an excellent, lightweight gaming laptop package that could easily be taken on the go.
A full size, 15.6” 1080p resolution screen with accurate colors and fast 144hz refresh speed adorns this laptop as its forefront feature. I am loving this screen in its entirety. The chin bezel of the screen, while large, is part of the geometry of its laptop and actually places the screen at a height that does not require hunching your neck over to see depending on the laptop placement. The side and top bezels are not overly large and a webcam is placed in the center of the top bezel. I might notice the smallest amount of backlight bleed, but nothing so bad as to detract from the usage experience. Altogether, this is an excellent screen that compliments the capabilities of the laptop’s GPU and CPU.
The full keyboard here including a number pad is an extremely welcome inclusion for me. I use excel a lot for my budgeting spreadsheets and a number pad makes much quicker work where calculator and number entry is concerned. Pleasant, all-keyboard single color backlighting is welcome here and minimizes distraction while working. The color, timer, and brightness settings can be accessed by holding the fn key while pressing a key directly to the right of the number lock button. The keystrokes are quiet and would be unoffensive in a quite library or lecture hall setting. The trackpad is so-so for me. I don’t know that I can ever appreciate a trackpad as much as force touch trackpads from apple, but the drivers used for this trackpad seem accurate and the analog left and right mouse click buttons are not unwelcome for those who like positive feedback when performing mouse clicks.
The full keyboard here including a number pad is an extremely welcome inclusion for me. I use excel a lot for my budgeting spreadsheets and a number pad makes much quicker work where calculator and number entry is concerned. Pleasant, all-keyboard single color backlighting is welcome here and minimizes distraction while working. The color, timer, and brightness settings can be accessed by holding the fn key while pressing a key directly to the right of the number lock button. The keystrokes are quiet and would be unoffensive in a quite library or lecture hall setting. The trackpad is so-so for me. I don’t know that I can ever appreciate a trackpad as much as force touch trackpads from apple, but the drivers used for this trackpad seem accurate and the analog left and right mouse click buttons are not unwelcome for those who like positive feedback when performing mouse clicks.
The I&O of this laptop is like a refreshing drink of water in this desert of tiny laptops and tablets that offer such minimal I&O. The built in full size SD card slot is extremely welcome (the laptop comes with an SD card slot blank you can place in the slot to protect it from ingress of dust particles). My only slight criticism about the I&O is in the placement of the USB-C port. I would rather this be on the rear of the laptop with some of the other ports instead of the right hand side. The reasoning is that some people might want to run external displays off of the USB-C port or a USB-C dock, and having those cords protruding on the right hand side of the laptop where the mouse will be for most right hand gamers is annoying.
Wifi 6 is delivered on this device via a Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160Mhz chip and it performs excellently, allowing smooth streaming and gaming anywhere in my house with my Wi-Fi 6 mesh network system. Bluetooth 5.2 is also present in this laptop, so you are getting the latest standards in wireless connectivity on this laptop.
I am absolutely blown away by the speeds of the SSD present in the laptop. This is going to make anyone interested in productivity work very happy. This SSD is the ESR512GTLG-E6GBTNB4 model which is a mid-range PCIe Gen4 NVME SSD and the speeds are insane for a person like me coming from previous Gen 3 PCIe SSDs. I recorded a 4655MB/s read speed and a 2244MB/s write speed. Comparatively in a Dell G15 I reviewed, I got 2206 read and 503 write speeds. That is double the read and more than quadruple the write speed in a similar laptop in this price range. This entry-mid level gaming laptop has the SSD speeds of the flagship productivity laptops from a few years ago like the Dell XPS 15!
The Intel i5 11400H of this laptop delivers a buttery multitasking experience on this laptop and seems to hold up its performance well. In HW monitor, I have noticed some cores getting pretty toasty up into the low and mid 90 degrees Celsius range, but no throttling or frame drops were noticed mid gaming. Geekbench 5 gave this a 1259 single core score and a 5236 multicore score. This is a reasonable CPU when paired with this GPU. The 8GB of single channel 3200mHZ RAM here meets the bare minimum in my opinion. I would have much preferred to have seen dual channel RAM with at least 16GB in a gaming laptop. There is one open SODIMM slot for adding another stick of DDR4 3200mHz laptop RAM later if you desire. Regardless, I am having no issues with productivity work on this laptop and my gaming performance has been great as detailed next.
The Nvidia 3050ti is an excellent, entry level laptop discrete graphics processor. It outperforms the laptop 2060 cards of the previous generation and provides an excellent all-around 1080p gaming experience. I am playing games like Hunt Showdown on medium-high graphics and getting 60-90FPS stably. With better optimized games like Doom 2016, I got a silky smooth 90-130FPS experience on Ultra graphics settings with drops only to the mid 60’s during the most frenetic fights. The temperatures on the GPU at highest reached 93.8C in the hotspot and 84.3C overall while playing Doom. Truly not bad for a laptop. This is excellent for a AAA title that is still considered demanding. While there is a 3060 version of this Gigabyte laptop available, I think that this 3050ti model might be the sweet spot for performance-to-dollar value. Gamers who stick with less demanding games like Valorant or Apex Legends are going to be blown away by the performance on this machine. If you are into the most demanding AAA title games with desires for the highest graphics and framerates, you might consider the 3060GPU model of this laptop paired with the available 240hz screen.
The cooling of this laptop is a place where I would say a tweak could be made Gigabyte. The Windforce cooling exhausts of the computer are on the sides and the back, but the side exhaust ports seems to be where the fans blow most of the hot air. For a gamer using a mouse, this can make it a very toasty usage experience. The air intake is from the bottom of the laptop, you can actually see the fan intakes from the bottom. Therefore, this is a gaming laptop that could benefit from a cooling pad and is definitely one that should be left on fabric surfaces like a bed or couch while in use for long periods of time as this could choke off the air intake.
The battery capacity of this model is a 47160mWH model per HWmonitor. This is by no means a large battery. Accordingly, battery life on this laptop is not spectacular. Battery optimization settings are your friend on this laptop. Windows 11 makes it easy to go in and adjust your power settings. I admittedly love using Google Chrome and have been known to leave many tabs open at once which is quite taxing on the battery. I am always hesitant to say exactly how long I expect a battery on a laptop to last, but I was looking at getting about 3-1/2 to 4 hours of use on one charge with the screen at 50% brightness, the keyboard dimmed down almost to off, and power management settings set to best power efficiency. This is during a mix of multitasking through chrome tabs, watching Youtube videos, and doing some Word and Excel processing.
The battery capacity of this model is a 47160mWH model per HWmonitor. This is by no means a large battery. Accordingly, battery life on this laptop is not spectacular. Battery optimization settings are your friend on this laptop. Windows 11 makes it easy to go in and adjust your power settings. I admittedly love using Google Chrome and have been known to leave many tabs open at once which is quite taxing on the battery. I am always hesitant to say exactly how long I expect a battery on a laptop to last, but I was looking at getting about 3-1/2 to 4 hours of use on one charge with the screen at 50% brightness, the keyboard dimmed down almost to off, and power management settings set to best power efficiency. This is during a mix of multitasking through chrome tabs, watching Youtube videos, and doing some Word and Excel processing.
Overall, this is my favorite sub-$1000 dollar laptop I have ever used. There is so much quality present here and most of all, the use of the actual laptop is seamless. With no anti-virus distractions or bloatware on this laptop, I feel like I am not having to fight at all when I use this as opposed to my experiences with my past laptops like the Dell G15.
Altogether, if you are considering buying this laptop and are aware of the different GPU offerings in the model lineup and what your needs are, I would say just go ahead and buy this and get ready to be blown away! Thanks for reading and good luck with your purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+39points
57of 75voted this as helpful.
The CORSAIR K70 PRO MINI WIRELESS RGB 60% Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is big on both performance and customization, connecting with hyper-fast, sub-1ms SLIPSTREAM WIRELESS, Bluetooth, or USB. CHERRY MX SPEED mechanical keyswitches are easily swappable with any MX-compatible switches for a customized gaming and typing experience. Durable PBT DOUBLE-SHOT PRO keycaps and an aluminum frame are illuminated by per-key RGB backlighting with a 360~ LightEdge. CORSAIR AXON Hyper-Processing Technology transmits keystrokes up to 8x faster over USB wired mode. With up to 200 hours of battery life, the K70 PRO MINI WIRELESS delivers customized performance, no strings attached.
Customer Rating
5
I am now an official convert to mini keyboards
on July 14, 2022
Posted by: Bren
The best way I can go about describing this keyboard as I type on it right now is that unlike several other mini keyboards I have tried like the Razer Huntsman Analog, this keyboard actually feels like a full sized keyboard with the typing experience, yet retains a truly compact and usable footprint in a tight space or for clean desktop space organization.
Initial connection and setup was literally plug and play. I took the 2.4ghz wireless dongle and plugged it into a random USB-A port on my PC, switched the power on the keyboard, and boom, I am typing and playing games.
The initial rolling rainbow RGB on the keyboard is gorgeous, and I am absolutely in love with the LED strip that runs all the way along the bottom of the keyboard. This is a high-dollar keyboard that looks and plays the part. The RGB is some of the brightest I have seen on a wireless keyboard.
I am a big fan of the speed RGB silver switches. They are linear switches that are easy to press and result in a nice tap at the bottom of the stroke, nothing too loud or annoying other. Also absent here is any annoying metallic pinging when tapping.
I am a big fan of the speed RGB silver switches. They are linear switches that are easy to press and result in a nice tap at the bottom of the stroke, nothing too loud or annoying other. Also absent here is any annoying metallic pinging when tapping.
This software rendition of iCUE solves past irritations I have had with iCUE. It is reasonable and straight forward in its user interface and makes customizing this keyboard easy.
Altogether, if you are looking for an excellent mini wireless keyboard option and enjoy Corsair products, this is a perfect selection in my opinion. I am very happy to have this keyboard and I am sure you will be too! Thank you for reading and hope this review helps boost your confidence with this purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+14points
14of 14voted this as helpful.
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Only at Best BuyPlay your way to the top with this HP OMEN notebook. The Intel Core i7 processor provides lightning-fast response times, and the 1TB hard drive is enough for all your favorite games and apps with room to spare for music and video files. This HP OMEN notebook has a full-size backlit keyboard for fast, easy typing.
What is the RPM of the 1 terabyte hard drive?
7200rpm, much better than the 5400rpm hard drive found in my $1600.00 MSI Stealth Pro :(
9 years, 6 months ago
by
Bren