Bren's stats
- Review count187
- Helpfulness votes1,645
- First reviewDecember 27, 2016
- Last reviewMay 10, 2024
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4.8
Reviews comments
- Review comment count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First review commentNone
- Last review commentNone
- Featured review comments0
Questions
- Question count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First questionNone
- Last questionNone
- Featured questions0
- Answer count11
- Helpfulness votes1
- First answerDecember 27, 2016
- Last answerNovember 4, 2021
- Featured answers0
- Best answers1
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!
Share this review:
+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!
Share this review:
+14points
14of 14voted this as helpful.
BlueParrott S650-XT is our first 2-in-1 convertible headset from stereo to mono sound, engineered to give you superior call and sound performance both on and off the road. An ultra noise cancelling mic removes 96% of background noise giving you crystal clear calls wherever you are. Focus on your calls with powerful Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and keep the roar of the road at bay. Get the best of both worlds and switch from stereo to mono sound with a removable second earcup. The S650-XT has a battery life that can go the distance with up to 36 hours of talk time on a single charge. It also includes the customizable BlueParrott button which allows you to personalize your experience with Speed dial, Mute or Push-to-Talk. Hands-free voice controls let's you control the headset with just your voice so you can focus on the road. With the IP54 rated protection against dust and water, the S650-XT is truly roadworthy.
Customer Rating
5
A truly adaptable and convertible headset!
on July 5, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I am really impressed with this headset from Jabra. Anyone who works in a secretarial position, call center, or other busy and loud environment where multitasking and phone calls are required should conider this most excellent headset.
This headset is truly convertible to your needs. You have the ability to take one headphone attachment off and run this as a mono-speaker set up, or you can run it dual. You also maintain the ability to have this hooked up to two different Bluetooth sources and switch between (i.e., your phone and your work desktop), and it also includes a 3.5mm axillary cable so you can hook up to a wired 3.5mm jack as needed.
This headset is extremely comfortable, I cannot emphasize that enough. They are quite adjustable and are padded in all the right places to where your head feels supported with this headset on but no smothered by too much hot, sweaty foam over time.
I have been using this headset quite a lot for taking and making phone calls and since I first fully charged it up, I have not reached the end of is advertised 36 hours of battery life after hours of use.
Altogether, I am really impressed with this headset and you should definitely consider it if you need something that can isolate and cancel external sounds but also adapt to allow noise to pass through as need, all while being highly adaptable to your needs. Thanks for reading and good luck with your purchase decision!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+3points
4of 5voted this as helpful.
Designed to meet the needs of small offices, the MAXIFY GX6021 delivers high-quality, low-cost printing, and outstanding wireless connectivity. Get serious print productivity with a high page yield of up to 6,000 Black / 14,000 Color pages per full ink bottle set7 and a combined 350 sheet plain paper capacity. Save up to 80% on the cost of ink compared to high-yield laser cartridges with a low cost per print of less than 2 cents per page.7 Each printer comes with a full set of ink, plus 2 bonus black ink bottles, and a 3-year or 80,000 pages* limited warranty so you can print with confidence. The MAXIFY GX6021 is easy to setup and maintain and delivers superior versatility thanks to an auto document feeder for scanning and copying — plus, print on a variety of media types and sizes, including labels, envelopes, and banners. Produce crisp, colorful documents quickly and cost-effectively thanks to fast print speeds and a 4-color pigment-based ink system. Easily connect and print through high-speed USB, Ethernet, or wirelessly5 from computers or mobile devices.
Customer Rating
5
Excellent home office or high volume printer
on June 24, 2022
Posted by: Bren
Excellent home office or high volume printer
This printer is an excellent choice if high volume print jobs are your forte along with the need to scan documents. Faxing is not available in this model. It comes with all the ink you need plus a couple of bonus black ink bottles which I think is excellent on the behalf of Canon! The supply of ink with all the extra black ink is very encouraging, knowing that we won’t run out for a long time.
Setting up the printer was easy, as most of them are nowadays. I like to use Air print with my apple devices, and I ran a USB connection to my desktop PC just for ease of simplicity. The printer practically spits out all black pages and is very reasonable with colored pages as well. The figures advertised are up to 24.0 ISO ipm in black, up to 15.5 ISO ipm in color.
I have been very happy with the performance here. If your home office needs do not involve the faxing of documents, than I think that this printer should be one easily selected by anyone looking for excellent economy out of a printer that is overall not that large and space consuming. Thanks for reading and good luck with you purchase decision!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
Design meets function with the BESPOKE Cube Air Purification System by Samsung. This visually appealing, virtually silent Air Purification System traps large dust particles, helps remove unpleasant odors, and captures ultrafine dust, providing clean air for your home.
Customer Rating
5
Makes allergy and fire-season air breathable again
on June 13, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I am really impressed by the air purifier Samsung has put together here from two facets: one is the app connectivity and smart readouts; the other is mechanical and structural components of the filter itself.
This filter has many layers and filter mediums which increases its odds of actually filtering the nasty stuff out, including pet allergens! When you set this filter up, you will find as I did that it is a somewhat lengthy process because you have to take out various layers of the filter and unwrap them from plastic and then replace them. Included are 5 disposable pet filters that are placed over one of the layers. I appreciate that they included 5 of them.
The app controls are great. Hooking up the SmartThings app was easy and getting the air purifier connected to wifi didn’t take too long at all. The amount of control you have with the app is awesome, I only wish the same could be said of the smart assistant connectivity.
I really like this air purifier, but I am hoping eventually for more Smart Assistant control features to be added in future updates. For example, right now I seem only to be able to ask Alexa to turn it on and off. I would like to be able to change the air purification settings from “Smart” to “High” for example with Alexa.
The instructions are complicated in my opinion but are important because a filter like this needs to be used with care and not just flippantly plugged in and forgotten about. The instructions have portions, for example, that tell you not to turn the filter on when cooking fish or other extremely smelly foods.
Altogether, this is an incredibly well-featured air purifier that I know is going to bring lots of users great relief during the allergy and smoke seasons. Thanks for reading and good luck with your purchase decision!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+7points
7of 7voted this as helpful.
The low-profile Signa S4 certified with Dolby Atmos 3.1.2 sound bar comes with a 5.9" wireless subwoofer that delivers powerful, crystal-clear, cinematic 3D surround sound with any HD TV, even the latest 8K Ultra-HD TVs, with single-remote connectivity. At just over 2", the sound bar does not block your TV's sensor whether you wall mount it or place it on the shelf. Features Polk's patented Voice Adjust technology, which lets you customize voice levels without affecting the soundtrack, so you hear clear dialogues every time! The Bass Adjust Technology gives you the power to control the bass on both the sound bar and the subwoofer simultaneously and give you deeper bass impact. Experience True 3D surround sound, whether it is added warmth in your music or special effects like gunshots or realistic whirring of helicopters flying overhead, the Dolby Atmos Certified ensures you are virtual height effects elevated right to your listening area. What's more - stream your favorite music wirelessly through Amazon Music HD, Apple Music, Roon, Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal and more. The HDMI eARC output gives you uncompromised, flawless sound reproduction. A great sound bar that comes a value never imagined before!
Customer Rating
5
Simple setup, complex and amazing sound!
on June 2, 2022
Posted by: Bren
This soundbar is meant for people who want ease of setup. Plug it in, set it, and forget it. We utilized the HDMI hookup to the HDMI eARC port of our TV which allows the LG TV remote to control the volume! Easy, one remote operation as advertised.
Included in the box are the soundbar, remote, batteries for the remote, an HDMI cable, optical audio cable, the power cable, startup manual, and the subwoofer.
The bar itself is the perfect size for the fireplace mantle we have it on. At less than 4 inches deep, it should work for even the slimmest mantle places. It has a pleasing, low profile appearance with its black mesh wrap. The indicators on the front are very unobtrusive and notify you of your volume changes and other setting changes.
The sound is excellent and worthy of its Dolby Atmos certification, which is incredible in such a low priced and small package! Utilizing the HDMI cable hooked up to the soundbar and plugged into your HDMI eARC port on your TV allows you to get the full Dolby Atmos audio experience this soundbar can provide. The delivery of clear vocals, mids, and trebles is all in the favor of this soundbar. We also like the top firing speakers as they do help to create more overhead audio dynamics as advertised.
The 5.9" wireless subwoofer delivers impressive bass notes for its size and appears very well built. Of note, I really like the rubber-bottomed feet of the subwoofer enclosure, as it is anti-slide and works really well on the wooden floors in the living room and they also elevate the subwoofer which helps to minimize rattling of nearby objects. Some subwoofers have a tendency to slide around overtime, but these anti-slip feet prevent that. The punch bass notes come through nicely as well as low vocal tones. A feature we like with this soundbar though it the nighttime mode that can be utilized on the fly with the soundbar remote, which dampens down the bass notes and increases vocal clarity so you can use the soundbar at night and have a lower chance of disturbing your neighbors or partner if they are asleep in a room nearby.
Altogether, I have no reservations in recommending this soundbar to anyone looking for a compact, affordable soundbar and subwoofer setup that includes Dolby Atmos certification. Thanks for reading my review and hope this helps to encourage you in your purchase decision!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+21points
21of 21voted this as helpful.
With the Immersion TV Backlights, your gaming world and movie nights will never be the same. Enhance your home entertainment with splashes of vibrant colors dancing around your TV, mimicking what's on-screen.
Customer Rating
5
My living room is now a movie theater!
on June 2, 2022
Posted by: Bren
These lights have added a whole new level of immersion to my home movie theater experience. This is absolutely a kit you should consider purchasing if you are a movie buff or audiophile and would like to enjoy getting into your shows, movies, and music from a whole new visual standpoint!
I really like Govee. Prior to this review, I have had experience with some of their other smart products like their Bluetooth thermometers/hydrometers and I find that the ease of use with both the products and the Govee Home app is among some of the best I have experienced. These Dreamview Strip lights are of a very high build quality and were very simple to get set up. No troubleshooting or online research was required to get these set up. I would recommend a second person to help you install the adhesive light strips, as it is much easier to have one person in charge of unrolling the reel of lights and removing the red backing to the adhesive while the other person presses the lights to the back of the TV while you are unrolling. The lights also came with some reinforcement adhesive tabs that I used at the corners of the light strips where they terminate into small lengths of wire (allowing for adjustability between 55”-65” TVs).
The only sticking point I had in my set up was the camera. It would really have been nice if Govee had made the camera mount with a clamp instead of simple adhesive due to the difficulty with thin TVs like my Vizio OLED 65. I ended up going for a less than elegant solution of using packing tape to tape the back of the camera to the TV to minimize its risk of falling or moving position. This works and is not visible from the front, but it does slightly bother me to know the tape is there. Otherwise, the setup following the included setup pamphlet from beginning to end went over without a hitch!
I have attached pictures, but these LEDs are BRIGHT on max brightness. Even in a daytime lit room, there is still enough brightness to enhance the immersion on the screen and bring amazing immersion to your entertainment. I watched the famous bridge battle between Gandalf and the Balrog of Khazad-Dum in Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring, and my jaw actually dropped as I exclaimed with delight over the LED lights capture of the fire vs light battle! Explosions of red with strikes of white were all perfectly captured by the camera of the Dreamview and made the experience truly the most memorable I have had since seeing the theatric release originally in 2001 as a young kid.
Altogether, at this price I feel that this light set up is practically unbeatable. It is simply bewildering to me why people would pay for HDMI-connection based light strip setups that cost 5 times as much as this when you can have the same experience on a device that requires no input to your TV. I am utterly impressed and give this 5 out of 5 stars. Thanks for reading and buy this right away!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+12points
13of 14voted this as helpful.
With the Razer Huntsman Mini Analog, the highest level of control now competes on a different scale. Meet our first 60% gaming keyboard with Razer Analog Optical Switches—a compact, portable weapon that offers the finest degree of execution.
Posted by: Bren
I am really impressed with Razer and their ability to churn out keyboards like this that feel as good to type on as they look. This 60% Huntsman keyboard provides an excellent option for hardcore gamers or typists who prefer a smaller keyboard, are space limited, or like to take their keyboard on the go. 60% is an interesting experience if you have never used one before. 60% are the embodiments of practicality when it comes to keyboard usability, and they leave you so much room on your desk.
This keyboard departs from the previous Huntsman Mini model given that it comes with Razer’s new analog optical switches which allow for scalable levels of input. This allegedly provides more accurate button presses and more precise movement of the key through the keystroke. I have owned and test nearly a dozen keyboards now, and I am just going to say in perfect honesty that I have difficulty telling the difference between the keystrokes on this other red switch linear keyboards I have had in the past. I would say that if anything, I am noticing finer, more precise movements when I play my favorite competitive shooter, Hunt Showdown. I am able to “wiggle” the character side to side while peeking windows with greater ease and finer side to side movements than on my current daily driver Roccat Pyro keyboard. That does add a competitive advantage and I can honestly directly say the keystrokes on the Huntsman Mini analog are directly responsible for that.
Other aspects of this Razer keyboard go along familiar Razer product experiences. The packaging is excellent and feels premium and you get a detachable, braided USB-C cable. The keyboard itself shows attention to detail with a nice matte finish, and the RGB is fully controlled with Razer Synapse software which has markedly improved over the years since my first Razer Keyboard in 2018. The only comment I will make is that the RGB on this keyboard is quite dim on full brightness compared to my Razer Goliathus Chroma mousepad that sits right next to it in my current gaming setup.
Altogether, I think this keyboard is going to appeal to the hardcore, minimalist PC gamers who want the build and precision of a Razer keyboard without giving up on the precision or control of the actual keystrokes. I would give this keyboard 5 stars for that genre of user, but I would say for anyone that isn’t in need of a 60% keyboard with as fine of switches as these, you will find better, more featured options at this price point. Thanks for reading and good luck with your purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+17points
17of 17voted this as helpful.
Aerox 5 Wireless combines dazzling RGB with industury-leading design. Victory is in your hand with a lightning-fast 74g build shielded from dust and splashes with AquaBarrier. Easily connect with lag-free Quantum 2.0 Wireless enjoying superb 180-hour battery life, aiming using ultra-precise, 1-to-1 tracking with the TrueMove Air sensor.
Customer Rating
5
Fast, precise gaming mouse great for FPS
on May 6, 2022
Posted by: Bren
I love first person shooter games. While I in no way belong in the competitive class of players, I do like to think I get along pretty well playing games like Hunt Showdown online and I enjoy Doom Eternal and many other shooters as well.
This mouse possesses many qualities that make it excellent for FPS games. It is a palm style mouse, which I approve of as opposed to a claw style mouse for faster and more aggressive movements that help you get your sights on target faster. This is a right-hand oriented mouse and its contours on both the thumb grip region and the mouse buttons themselves feel excellent for maintaining grip during frenetic movements. At first, I thought the ventilated build of this mouth was a little gimmicky, but I am having noticeably less occurrences of needing to dry my palm from sweat during extended gaming sessions. Somehow, in spite of this open build, this mouse still manages to be IP54 rated for moisture resistance; awesome! The matte finish of this mouse, while not the most premium feeling, is better for grip on sweaty, high intensity gaming circumstances.
The RGB of this mouse is really awesome out of the box and comes with some really great built-in features I haven’t seen to often on other wireless mice. One is that, out of the box, the RGB upon wake up of the mouse indicates how much battery life you have left. Red (flashing) is 0-5% battery, yellow is 6-10% battery, and green is 11-100% battery. It actually has a color assigned to each of the 5 built-in CPI profiles too! Purple for 400, blue for 800, green for 1200, yellow for 2400, and red for 3200. I actually very much prefer this over other options competitors have used like an annoying pop up on the screen. I prefer 1200 CPI for my FPS shooters, and it is nice to verify by pressing mouse button 4 (the one below the scroll wheel) which one I am on.
The RGB of this mouse is really awesome out of the box and comes with some really great built-in features I haven’t seen to often on other wireless mice. One is that, out of the box, the RGB upon wake up of the mouse indicates how much battery life you have left. Red (flashing) is 0-5% battery, yellow is 6-10% battery, and green is 11-100% battery. It actually has a color assigned to each of the 5 built-in CPI profiles too! Purple for 400, blue for 800, green for 1200, yellow for 2400, and red for 3200. I actually very much prefer this over other options competitors have used like an annoying pop up on the screen. I prefer 1200 CPI for my FPS shooters, and it is nice to verify by pressing mouse button 4 (the one below the scroll wheel) which one I am on.
For further RGB settings, it is all in the SteelSeries GG software for you. Of note, I also like that there are settings to turn the RGB off during mouse movement and it also has great settings for battery conversation if you have your computer on all the time like I do and don’t want to worry about having to constantly charge the mouse due to it waking up and staying awake for too long all the time.
Something I really liked here is that a firmware update was ready to go when I first installed the software and the update was able to be connected over the 2.4Ghz dongle connection. Another one my high-end wireless mice insisted that you connect the mouse to the computer via the USB-C cable before it would update the firmware. This made things very effortless and easy for the update on the Aerox 5 wireless.
It should be noted that this is utilizing a USB-C 2.4Ghz dongle. I was happily able to plug this directly into the USB-C port on my motherboard. If you don’t have a USB-C port as part of your PC build, an extender cable and adapter are included that will allow you to plug the cable into a traditional USB-A port, attach the adapter, and then plug the dongle into that.
Altogether, I feel that this is a premium priced mouse, but most definitely offers premium features. The only knock I think I can give it at this point was the SteelSeries GG software for setting up and update the mouse was initially slow to install and update. Also, the mouse is sometimes slower to wake up then other wireless mice I have tested. Nothing too noticeable for the average user, just something I noticed given how many mice I have had now over the years.
Thanks for reading this review and I hope it helps to encourage you to purchase this excellent, wireless mouse!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+21points
21of 21voted this as helpful.
Our smallest-ever earbud just got harder to lose and even easier to love. Dime 2 is loaded with all the features that made Dime famous PLUS Tile finding technology. Habitual bud losers rejoice — Dime 2 has your back. We built Dime 2 with a small, efficient battery that cuts its carbon footprint to less than half that of other earbuds. It delivers 3.5 hours of listening time in the bud and 2 full charges in the case for a full 12 hours of battery life.
Customer Rating
5
Buy these buy these buy these!
on May 5, 2022
Posted by: Bren
from Oregon
How Often Used:3-5 times a week
Immediately upon opening the packaging for these wireless earbuds, I am very impressed by the packaging and the contents! Included is a very unique USB micro charging cable that is not the traditional full USB-A plug but is just the necessary, thin slotted portion to stick into a USB-A port and charge these air buds. This cable is likely not capable of data transfer (unnecessary for these earbuds), it is just purely for charging. The packaging includes additional ear tips, some instructions, and a little lanyard to make it so you can clip the case to some keys or makes it easier to fish out of your pockets or purse if it gets buried deep in there.
The instructions very specifically stated to charge the case and earbuds first before use. I decided to follow these instructions, but thankfully had the foresight to open the case and examine the earbuds first. The charge conductors on the earbuds were covered with a white peel off sticker that likely would have prevented them from charging in the case. Good for protection during shipment, but could cause confusion to some users if that is not pointed out. I removed the stickers, put them back in the case, and started it charging.
The case itself is built nicely for this price! I like the unique design of how the stalks of the earbuds are exposed while the slotted case drops over it. Could it cause additional wear and tear? Sure. But at this price I find it artistic and unique. Additionally, the case has the earbuds oriented in such a way that the earbuds can’t be confused or misplaced inside. The case appears to have a light spring that does help to shut the case with some snappiness, but the case is not kept shut by the magnets higher end wireless earbud cases use, but some plastic snap tabs that in likelihood will eventually wear out. At this price though, this is hardly a concern as these are well valued!
The earbuds themselves seem to be built quite nicely at this price! I am happy with the size as they come out smaller than original airpods and are smaller than the LG FP9’s an Apple Airpod Pros. The case is smaller than an airpod pro case as well. Altogether, nice build and size for the price here. Not the oversized airpod copycats that some overseas designed and built earpods have ended up being.
Now why you came to this review, the sound. The sound puts to shame earpods I have used that are three or even five times the price of these! These have no right to sound as good as they do for the price. At 80% volume on some of my favorite test songs like Bullseye by KDrew, I found the high’s to be crisp, but perhaps a bit staticy, the mids to be full and present, and the bass to be surprisingly full and defined without any annoying garbling or humming at that volume. I was actually rocking out to the song with these earbuds! Podcasts and audiobooks sound great through it too. These earbuds do not actively noise cancel, but are noise isolated pretty well with a good fit of the eartips in your ear canal. The one’s that came on the Dime 2’s out of the case fit me perfectly.
The downside of these earbuds, that the price reflects and is fair in consideration, is the battery life. It is short. These won’t last as long as higher-end competitors higher priced offerings. On earbuds this inexpensive though, I am not upset by the battery life I am getting, which has been about three hours of continuous listening at 75% volume on one charge of the earbuds. Unlike the previous Dime earbuds from skullcandy, these Dime 2’s do have a standby mode which helps them to conserve battery life when they are out of your ears and have your audio paused.
The support for tile tracking on these earbuds is something I find to be very impressive. For as inexpensive as these earbuds are, having this feature is a welcome addition that might encourage parents who have kids begging them for airpods to first supply them with these as a “trial run” to see how responsible the kiddos can be with keeping and taking care of these earbuds. Also, happily present here are some basic controls on the stalks for controlling your music, answering calls, etc.
Altogether, what Skullcandy has done with update are make some fantastically well priced, well-featured earbuds that most anyone can afford on even a modest budget! Thanks for reading and hope this helps guide your purchase!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+27points
33of 39voted this as helpful.
Bren's Review Comments
Bren has not submitted comments on any reviews.
Bren's Questions
Bren has not submitted any questions.
The HP Smart Tank 7001 supertank printer makes printing seamless from start to finish for the whole family with a high-capacity refillable ink tank and wireless connectivity. Create outstanding-quality color documents at a low cost with up to two years of Original HP Ink included in the box.
Is it supported by Big Sur Op System? Does it work with airprint?
It does work with airprint! I am having no problems on my Apple MBP currently :)
2 years, 6 months ago
by
Bren
The Canon imageFORMULA R10 portable document scanner is simple to set up and easy to use, anywhere. Easily convert paper documents to searchable digital files, using the built-in software, to get and stay organized.
Does this product scan both sides of a document? Is this user friendly? Thank you
Yes, it does scan both sides of a document and a card! I found it to be extremely user friendly, I just had to be patient with the updates to the software and firmware upon first setting it up :)
2 years, 6 months ago
by
Bren
The Apex 5 gaming keyboard has hybrid mechanical switches that combine the smoothness of a membrane switch with the added durability, performance, and satisfying tactile click of a blue mechanical switch. It also has per-key RGB customization, OLED Smart Display, aluminum alloy frame, premium magnetic wrist rest, and more.
Can the key caps be switched out with other key caps
Yes! They are compatible with most Cherry MX keycaps! From Steelseries' Blog post on the hybrid mechanical switches, "Like a blue switch, it registers a keypress with a click at 2mm, bottoms out at 4mm, and requires 50cn of force to press. Because it is a mechanical switch, you can even put aftermarket keycaps on them"
4 years, 1 month ago
by
Bren
The PRO headset from Logitech G is designed with and for esports pros. Aluminum forks, steel headband, and memory foam and premium leatherette head and ear pads keep you comfortable through marathon training and competition sessions. Pro-G 50mm drivers deliver incredibly accurate audio with improved bass response. The advanced USB DAC has a five-band onboard EQ that can be programmed via G HUB software with settings from your favorite esports pros. Pro-tuned, detachable boom mic with wind screen and pop filter ensures your comms are crystal clear. Designed for PC.
do these work for ps4?
Yes, the cable will plug into your PS4 controller and be good to go for use for audio and microphone use, no problem!
4 years, 9 months ago
by
Bren
With its Bluetooth interface, this Logitech MX Anywhere 2 910-004373 wireless mouse enables you to pair with up to 3 Bluetooth Smart Ready devices simultaneously. Darkfield Laser Tracking technology allows operation on most surfaces, including glass.
Does this product work for gaming?
Extremely well, depending on your needs. I use it for battlefield 1 and Doom and I love it. The programable buttons work awesome. For RPGs you may want a mouse that has more programable buttons, depending on your style :) If that is the case, I recommend the one's below:
Products from my answer
Razer - Naga Epic Chroma Wireless MMO Gaming Mouse - Black
(315)
Razer - Naga Hex V2 Wired Laser Gaming Mouse with Chroma Lighting - Black
(188)
Razer - Naga Chroma USB MMO Gaming Mouse - Black
(903)7 years, 2 months ago
by
Bren
Razer Blade Laptop: Developed in partnership with Intel and NVIDIA, the Razer Blade delivers performance to run the most demanding games of today. Powered by an Intel Core i7 quad-core CPU, NVIDIA GeForce graphics processor and a 14" LED display, you'll be blown away by the immersive visuals of your games in crisp high definition 1080p.The Razer Blade features 6th Gen. Intel Core i7 quad-core processor. This ensures your games and media playback run with powerful processing performance anywhere, anytime.The Razer Blade features a high-performance NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. This means you play games the way they were meant to be played, with fluid frame rates and rich DirectX 12 graphics, and in VR.With NVIDIA Optimus technology, the Razer Blade combines great performance and great battery life by intelligently delivering power only when you need it, and conserving it when you don't.
Is this with QHD or Full HD?
Razer Blade Laptop: Developed in partnership with Intel and NVIDIA, the Razer Blade delivers performance to run the most demanding games of today. Powered by an Intel Core i7 quad-core CPU, NVIDIA GeForce graphics processor and a 14" LED display, you'll be blown away by the immersive visuals of your games in crisp high definition 1080p.The Razer Blade features 6th Gen. Intel Core i7 quad-core processor. This ensures your games and media playback run with powerful processing performance anywhere, anytime.The Razer Blade features a high-performance NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. This means you play games the way they were meant to be played, with fluid frame rates and rich DirectX 12 graphics, and in VR.With NVIDIA Optimus technology, the Razer Blade combines great performance and great battery life by intelligently delivering power only when you need it, and conserving it when you don't.
is this the newest one razer blade?
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.
How long does the battery last and can the ram be upgrade
Battery has averaged 2.5 to 3 hours under normal use and 1 hour or so with gaming (as should be expected in any gaming laptop, really). The RAM can be upgraded given you are patient and careful when you unscrew and pry open the back. 8GB of 2133Mhz RAM is what it has stock in one of the two available slots.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Bren
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.
will programs be installed on the ssd before the hdd
Yes, they will be. By default to allow quick bootup and accessing times. You can select the 1TB "D" drive though when you are downloading. I keep all of my games on the 1TB drive and it has worked perfectly.
7 years, 4 months ago
by
Bren
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.