SamG's stats
- Review count149
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- First reviewOctober 20, 2016
- Last reviewApril 21, 2024
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- Average rating4.4
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- First answerOctober 20, 2016
- Last answerMay 20, 2018
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TCL QM8 Class Smart TVs combine stunning 4K HDR and Mini-LED technology in a bold, brushed metal bezel-less design for a true flagship TV experience. QLED Quantum Dot technology and the HDR ULTRA with Dolby Vision IQ you can enjoy enhanced contrast, vivid colors, and fine details. TCL’s High Brightness ULTRA Direct LED Backlight produces up to 2,000 nits peak brightness for dazzling specular highlights, perfect for any viewing environment. MINI-LED ULTRA with up to 2300+ zones adapt to on-screen content for deep blacks without image blooming powered by TCL's AIPQ Engine Gen 3, an advanced processor optimizing each scene with machine learning for an unrivaled cinematic experience. 120Hz native panel refresh rate with Motion Rate 480 focuses on best-in-class motion clarity producing smooth video playback. With Game Accelerator 240 and Auto Game Mode gameplay is blistering fast keeping you ahead of the competition. For a no compromise experience the TCL Q Class Smart TVs are the ultimate 4K Mini LED TVs.
Posted by: SamG
The QM8 from TCL is a great value that ticks just about every feature box I can think of it. It gets insanely bright and the mini-LED backlight provides excellent local dimming. I’ve seen some issues with Dolby Vision and I have not yet been able to achieve a 4K 144Hz output, but I’m hoping these issues can be fixed with firmware updates (hopefully soon). I wouldn’t consider the issues deal-breakers at this point because they do feel like problems that can be fixed through firmware, but it’s something to keep in mind.
The design of the TV is nice. The bezels are thin on 3 of the 4 sides and it extends out just a bit more at the bottom with a small additional bar at the center that has an LED and what I presume is the IR sensor. It’s black throughout and while it’s far from cheap-looking, I wouldn’t say it has the premium ‘look’, but that’s not really an issue for me as long as it performs well. The TV is thin and the power and video ports are hidden very nicely by some plastic covers and can be routed through the stand as well if you use it. I am not using the TV stand as I have a wall mount, but it’s a single large metal plate that sits at the center of the TV and I have no doubt it would have an issue keeping it stable. Not having legs at the edges like other TV’s also allows this to be placed on media consoles that might not otherwise be able to fit a 65” TV.
For ports you get 4 HDMI’s, 2 of which are capable of 4K/120Hz and 1 that supports eARC. There’s an AV adapter port for connecting analog video devices, but the adapter itself is not included. You also get a coax for over the air, an Ethernet port, and a USB port. The USB port can be used for media but can also apparently be used to connect a webcam. I don’t know if the Ethernet port is gigabit or not as I have been using the built-in Wi-Fi.
In terms of the other TV specs I won’t re-list what TCL already has on their product page, but the important part is you’re getting support for all of the HDR formats (Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HLG) and mini-LED local dimming on a QLED panel. TCL lists the QM8 series with ‘up to 2300+’ local dimming zones, but this is only for the 98” model and the 65” model has something in the neighborhood of 1000. That’s still an insane amount of dimming zones and a 5x increase over the relatively higher-end TV I was coming from. TCL also advertises up to 2000+ nits of brightness and I can definitely see that too.
Getting the TV setup was pretty familiar territory for me. As a regular user of the Chromecast with Google TV I was excited to have that built-in natively to the QM8. The setup and joining process was pretty simple and I was able to preload most of my streaming apps from the setup. The interface is exactly what I have been accustomed to coming from my Chromecast and the overall performance in terms of loading apps and menu navigation is MUCH smoother.
The default picture mode from setup is ‘low power’, I assume to comply with Energy Star. The colors by default are on the cool side to my eye, but setting the picture mode to ‘Movie’ seemed to offer an accurate picture out of the box. The default brightness in Movie mode is 80 and that was WAY too bright for us even in our very bright living room. We ended dialing back to 50 or 60. Depending on whether you are watching SDR, HDR, or Dolby Vision, the TV will have different settings menus that do vary slightly from one another and unfortunately you can only access it for that type of content while that content is on the screen. I also found some of the settings to be a little confusing. I have seen settings for ‘Dynamic Contrast’, ‘Local Contrast’, and ‘Micro Contrast’, all in the same menu and the descriptions don’t do very much to really tell you what these things are. I did find my best results were to have Local Contrast set to High and the other 2 set to off, for whatever that is worth.
Over the past week we’ve watched a ton of different content on this TV and it all looks fantastic. Colors in the movie mode all render accurately and look natural. The TV does a great job of handling and displaying motion in all types of content without any weird soap opera effects or judder. In HDR everything pops without looking blown out or oversaturated. Gaming on my Xbox Series X was very fast and responsive while not degrading the picture quality. Console gaming at 120Hz is a real treat I haven’t been able to experience on a TV until now. The ‘Game Master’ mode is especially useful for displaying stats and making sure things like high refresh rate and VRR are working properly. The contrast with the mini-LED array is superb and I did not spot any blooming or halo effects at all. It feels close to watching an OLED, but you don’t have to worry about burn-in with this TV.
One issue that we did have was with Dolby Vision. We watched the entire 3rd season of Ted Lasso and there was one episode where the luminance change from cut-to-cut was extremely erratic. The camera would cut from one person to another in the very same scene and all of a sudden be extremely dark. And sometimes it would be the other direction of being overly bright. It was the 2nd to last episode where we really noticed this and I don’t think it happens all the time, but from what I’ve been able to find I’m not the only person experiencing this issue. I would also sometimes notice something of a ghosting effect in Dolby Vision on cuts where you can see the previous scene/angle for a fraction of a second.
Another issue I had was trying to achieve 4K 144Hz via my RTX 3070 Ti laptop. 4K 144Hz is supposed to be supported on HDMI 1, but I was not able to get beyond 4K 120Hz, which is still very good but when the port on the TV specifically shows 144Hz on the label it makes me wonder. After digging into the quick start guide (no full manual that I can find exists unfortunately), it does seem that 4K 144Hz will only work through a VRR signal. I was able to enable G-SYNC on my laptop for the QM8, but the image was not stable and I’d have it completely cut out on me several times during a Halo match. VRR on my Series X worked flawlessly, so I’m assuming this is an issue of the TV not playing well with Nvidia GPU’s, which is a little disappointing. I was able to enable both 4K 120Hz and 1080p 240Hz, but while the 1080p image does not look bad, I definitely preferred the sharper 4K output.
One last note for those that are interested in speakers; they sound fine. Better than average even with the built-in subwoofer, but if you are springing for something like this I would highly recommend investing in an external audio system.
Besides my 2 issues with Dolby Vision and my PC, I’m really happy with this TV. My previous TV from 2019 was already a fairly high-end model and I didn’t think I’d notice too much of a difference in terms of picture quality but I absolutely did. Having the gaming features is also a huge plus. The Dolby Vision issue I really hope they can solve soon. You can keep an eye on forums or something if you want to wait it out, but this TV had a pretty substantial sale just 2 weeks after its release and if you can find something like that again it’s a steal and a bargain even still at its normal price.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router with blazing-fast Wi-Fi speeds up to 19 Gbps. Every device in your home network runs at top performance. The brand new 6 GHz band provides exceptional bandwidth and congestion-free channels exclusive to your devices.
Customer Rating
4
Great Standalone Router, Spendy
on May 29, 2023
Posted by: SamG
I’m using The BE800 to replace a 3-node Linksys Atlas Pro setup and while overall coverage isn’t quite on par, it’s very close for a singular device and I’m pulling down much higher speeds over Wi-Fi in all but the farthest corner of my basement and the high-speed Ethernet ports are great to have. There are Wi-Fi 6E routers that offer a lot of what the BE800 has and Wi-Fi 7 is a ways off from being mainstream, but even taking Wi-Fi 7 out of the equation I think the BE800 has enough performance and features to mostly justify its cost, though you might want to wait for a sale.
Some background: I live in a 2-story split-level home. My internet comes in on the edge of my main floor and from there has to cover the living room, 3-bedrooms, and my basement. Originally I had a Wi-Fi 6 dual-band mesh system from Linksys that worked well, but in general I wasn’t reaching the speed of the 940 Mbps CenturyLink fiber plan I paid for. I had previously tried the RAXE500 from Netgear and while the speeds were great in the same room, they fell off at range and I ended up returning it. So far that seems to much less of a problem with the BE800.
The BE800 is a very large device; larger than I was expecting even from the pictures, but it’s mostly tall and deep and should fit on the edge of most end tables or shelves without taking up too much space. On the back there are 6 Ethernet ports, 2 of which are 10G, and the other 4 are 2.5G. One of the 10G ports is used for the internet connection and there’s even a fiber combo port on one of them. It’s nice to see better than gigabit speeds on all the ports and it makes this great central networking device if you are wiring Ethernet through your home. The router is advertised with a speed of 19 Gbps, but that is spread across the 3 bands and most of that speed (11.5 Gbps) lives on the shorter-range 6GHz band. It’s still plenty of capacity for larger networks though. There’s also a USB 3.0 port you can connect a network storage device to. I would describe the overall design as inoffensive; it reminds me of some kind of video game console concept. It’s not the prettiest router out there, but at least it doesn’t have a thousand antennas sticking out of it like some other high-end routers.
The setup process was great. I setup via the web interface and not the Tether app and I was able to configure my CenturyLink internet connection with my special username and password right from the initial setup instead of having to dig into the manual settings after the fact like I’ve had to do on previous routers. I was connected to the internet within a few minutes and updated to the latest firmware (1.0.2 currently as I write this).
I usually have around 20-25 devices on my network at any given moment. Most of them are all on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band, but I do have a few Wi-Fi 6E devices. Testing the speed in my living room where the router is located I got extremely high speeds and was generally able to hit between 850-900 Mbps of my 940 Mbps connection on both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E. The Wi-Fi 6E connections are especially fast, but I was able to travel more than a bedroom or two away before it dropped off to the point of being unreliable. Sticking to the 5GHz band and testing on various devices, I was able to pull down around 650-700 Mbps in the farther bedrooms and 500-600 Mbps in most of my basement except for the farthest corner where my speeds dropped down to 100-200 Mbps. It’s still usable, but on my mesh system I was able to get 200-300 Mbps in this area. I plan on running an Ethernet cable to this portion of my house eventually and I think if I were able to get the main router placed more centrally within my house that I wouldn’t even need to do that. The BE800 also supports EasyMesh and can be transformed into a mesh system with another compatible router or range extender, which I plan on investing in the future for my basement using an Ethernet backhaul. I’ve seen earlier reviews complaining about stability, but my experience has been rock solid so far and even the slowest portions of my house still offer a relatively stable connection.
The Tether app on my phone helps manage all the settings and is organized and works well. The web interface also offers a lot of configuration options. It’s good to see in a high-end router as a lot of this flexibility seems to be going away on mesh systems.
As a final side-note, the LED screen was fun to play with for about 20 minutes, but became something of an annoyance to me and I ended up turning it off.
Overall I’m very happy with the BE800. Its performance for me has been great and I really don’t have much to complain about it for the product itself. It’s definitely something for the early adopters though and a lot of the features could go underutilized and thus not really justify the price for everyone. It’s important to consider your specific needs when picking a router or mesh system, but if you want it all the BE800 has it.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Whether you love entertaining friends and family or just like to keep your favorite drinks chilled and ready to go, this 48 12-ounce can beverage cooler has the storage capacity to stock all your favorites. Its touch controls make it easy to keep drinks cool within a range of 34° F to 50° F. It has one removable shelf, letting you organize this cooler to your exact preference. If there’s a power outage, an automatic memory function restores the same settings. And automatic defrosting helps the cooler stay free of ice
Posted by: SamG
It's a decent mini fridge and well put together. The black/stainless steel look is attractive and fits in well where we have it. The door opens smoothly and seals up well. And it's quiet; I had to almost put my ear up to it to confirm it was working. Out of the box it opens from left to right, but it can be modified to open in the other direction. The second shelf can be positioned near the top of the fridge, though I wish there was one or two more increments of adjustability. We have this by our coffee station and are using the bottom shelf for alternative milks, but they're a little too tall to sit upright. The controls are easy to set and use. And it keeps our drinks cold down to 34 degrees. The plug for anyone who is curious is a right angle, which makes it nice for an outlet with something pushed up against it but potentially problematic for a power strip.
Besides a few minor quibbles we're pretty happy with it. Nothing mind blowing here but it works and that's about all I can ask from it. There’s no shortage of choices when it comes to mini fridges, but I don’t think you’d be unhappy with this one.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The Alienware 34" Curved Gaming monitor features QD-OLED technology and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Featuring infinite contrast ratio, 165Hz refresh rate and VESA DisplayHDR TRUEBlack 400 for an incredible front-of-screen performance.
Customer Rating
5
Near Perfect Gaming Monitor
on May 20, 2023
Posted by: SamG
To me this is the best monitor you can buy for gaming today in this size/form factor. The near-infinite contrast ratio of OLED means you can get a true HDR experience on PC, which is something most other monitors will claim but fall short on. OLED means the risk of burn-in does exist, but as long as your primary use is gaming and content it shouldn’t be a problem and Dell includes a 3-year warranty for this.
Opening the box, you’ll first find the stand and accessories. The stand comes in 2 pieces and assembles via a thumbscrews. In the second later is the actual monitor, which can be lifted from the box by installing the stand and lifting with that. It’s a smart way to get such a large screen out of the box with minimal risk of damage. For cables you get a power cable (no power brick), a USB-B to USB-A cable for the built-in USB ports, and 2 DisplayPort cables. The DisplayPort cables consists of one with a full-size connectors on both ends and another with a full-size DisplayPort connector on one end and USB-C on the other.
For ports there are 2 DisplayPort (1.4), 1 HDMI (2.0), 4 USB-A 3.2, and a headphone jack. The monitor itself is VERY large, even larger than I was expecting coming from a 32” monitor. This is especially true when connected to the stand. The stand is very stable and has height, tilt, and swivel adjustments. It’s also got a great cable management system that, along with the plastic rear cover, almost completely hides the cables. That being said, it adds a ton of depth, mostly to the rear of the display. This means putting the monitor somewhat flush to the wall is not possible unless you replace it with a monitor arm (a 100mm x 100mm VESA mount is built-in). To get sense for how big this 34” ultrawide display is, it’s roughly the same height as a 27” monitor, but about 34% wider. The display is curved, which I typically don’t prefer but seems appropriate for this size of display and is not something I notice at all during regular use.
Getting connected to my PC, my first order of business was to go to Dell’s website and download the latest firmware, as I heard there was some issues with HDR on earlier revisions of the firmware. Once that was done setup was easy since I already have an Alienware PC and the lighting and other effects are managed through the same Alienware Command Center. The monitor settings themself can be accessed and adjusted via a joystick at the bottom of the display, which was relatively easy to navigate, though I will likely download the Dell Display Manager to further manage this in the future. There are several preset display options, though I ended up settling on ‘Creator’ for SDR and ‘DisplayHDR True Black” for HDR as these appeared to be the most ‘accurate’ picture settings. I found the that while the display is 165Hz, it was automatically set to 60Hz by Windows when I first plugged it in, so something to check.
With all this dialed and getting into some games, I was astounded mainly by the difference in contrast to my previous IPS display. The ability to display the full range of bright and dark scenes without having the blacks go gray makes such a big difference in my enjoyment of all my games, but especially ones that feature a mixture of both bright and dark scenes like The Last of Us. Colors are vibrant and appear accurate in both HDR and SDR modes (Dell also ships a calibration report in the box, which is a nice touch). I definitely noticed the response times while playing Halo as well and I felt a lot more connected to the actions I was taking in game. The resolution of 3440x1440 is just sharp enough at this display size and has the added bonus of putting less demand on my GPU. The AW2423DWF is not G-SYNC Ultimate certified like the more expensive AW2423DW, but it’s still G-SYNC Compatible and in general all of the games I played were smooth.
A little background. I game in my basement away from any windows. I’ve heard comments that the curve of the screen and the coating can result in raised black levels from other light sources and I do notice that somewhat with my overhead lights turned on, but it’s personally not an issue for me. I’ve also read about some issues with the monitor specifically relating to it’s HDR 1000 mode that were supposedly addressed in the latest firmware update. I did briefly try this mode and found it just seemed to raise the brightness of the whole image up, which I did not prefer. The HDR 400 mode was plenty bright for me in the room that I’m in.
The nature of OLED technology means there is an inherent risk of burn-in, which can occur when a static image is displayed on the screen too long and is then permanently retained on the screen, usually taking the form of a shadow. Dell has tools built into the display to help mitigate this, including a ‘pixel refresh’ that is prompted to run after every 4 hours of cumulative use. The panel refresh takes less than 10 minutes, though depending on what you’re doing the notification may interrupt an important game. It fortunately does not need to be run immediately and if you are currently using the monitor you can set it to run the next time the display goes to sleep. Dell does offer a 3-year warranty that DOES cover burn-in, so that is nice peace of mind at least. All this just means you have to be mindful about not displaying the same content onscreen for too long and productivity/work is not a good use case for this display. Another downside of this panel is the unique subpixel layout results in subpar text rendering compared to LCD displays. It’s not awful by any means and the larger text used in game menus do not show this issue, but it’s again another reason not to get this monitor for productivity/work. I’d also recommend setting Windows to turn off the display after 5-minutes.
Overall I’m really happy with this display. I can’t think of a single thing I’d want from it that it doesn’t have. I know I’m going to stress about the burn-in thing, but I’ll accept that trade-off or the experience I get and I think with my usage gaming a few times a week it’s not really going to be an issue for me anyway.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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This new generation of the home line-up has an even wider soundstage than its predecessor, re-engineered for a more immersive experience. This new generation has tweeters angled outwards and updated waveguides to deliver a consistently solid sound that is so wide it chases you around the room. Experience a balanced sound, with crisp, soaring treble and controlled, rumbling bass. Built-in Dynamic Loudness adjusts the tonal balance of the sound, ensuring your music sounds brilliant at every volume, while Placement Compensation corrects for any nearby reflective surfaces that may affect the sound. Marshall has taken its signature rock ’n’ roll home speaker line-up and given it a stripped-back look that makes a loud statement. Its iconic design knocks all other speakers off the shelf. Generation III is ready for the future of Bluetooth technology and has been built to deliver next-generation Bluetooth features the moment they are available. Over 55 years of sound knowledge is combined with future-proof technology to completely immerse you in your music.
Customer Rating
4
Lots of Style, Most of of the Substance
on May 5, 2023
Posted by: SamG
It’s hard not to love the Stanmore III speaker. It’s got a style and quality to it that just begs you to interact with it. And it sounds great to boot. The fact that it doesn’t include any sort of Wi-Fi-based streaming is a letdown for a home speaker in this price range, but I think it has a lot of qualities that a lot of people would be really happy with (myself included).
Unboxing the speaker I was immediately drawn to the build quality. The vegan leather that wraps the side feels great to touch and the buttons and knobs across the top are the highest quality I can remember in any speaker I’ve owned. I normally prefer to interact with most of my speakers via my phone, but I’m constantly drawn to the Stanmore. It’s got a such a cool timeless aesthetic that is backed up by the build quality and looks fantastic.
For sources you get Bluetooth 5.2, a 3.5mm input, and an RCA input. The sources are swapped via a button on the top of the speaker. The controls on top offer 3 knobs for volume, bass, and treble, a play/pause/skip control, and a power switch (which is VERY satisfying to use). There’s no AirPlay or Cast built-in, which is a shame, and while you’re getting the (mostly) latest Bluetooth 5.2 built-in, there isn’t any support for hi-res codes like aptX or LDAC. This is consider a home speaker, so no built in battery. There’s no power brick to contend with, just a regular power cord, which is nice.
Getting connected to the Stanmore III via my Pixel 7 was dead simple. I switched it on and almost immediately got a notification to connect to the speaker via Android Fast Pair. Marshall doesn’t seem to advertise it on the box, but there is an app you can download for the Stanmore, though it only offers some basic room correction controls and firmware updates in addition to the audio controls already present on the speaker itself. It’s likely you won’t be accessing the app much and that’s actually fine with me - everything seems to have an app these days and I appreciate the simplicity here while still being able to apply the occasional update to the speaker firmware. It would be nice if Marshall added more granular EQ adjustments to the app in the future, but I could see this clashing with the treble/bass controls.
I listened to the Stanmore III mainly through Bluetooth via my Pixel 7. I was a little worried the volume/bass/treble controls on the speaker wouldn’t be synced via Bluetooth, but they are and you can adjust volume on your phone or the speaker. In general I found myself leaving the bass/treble controls at their default 50% values, though they do make a noticeable difference without completely destroying the audio if you find either of them to be lacking. Music sounded really great through the speaker and felt clear and balanced to me. I could pick out lots of detail in all the tracks I played and while the bass isn’t room-shaking it’s still very present and not muddy at all. I don’t mind listening to music over Bluetooth and sound quality is not an issue here, but one thing I don’t like about listening to music via Bluetooth is that I’m more-or-less tethered to the area the speaker is in if I don’t want the audio to drop out and the music is potentially prone to being interrupted by my alerts and phone calls. This is the main reason I would have liked to see AirPlay or Cast built-in, especially since this is considered a ‘home’ speaker. I was able to travel around my living room and kitchen with my phone with no issues though. The Stanmore III is advertised with a 30ft Bluetooth range, which seems about right to me not factoring in walls.
I think the Stanmore III offers a unique set of features. It sounds great and has the looks to match. Without Wi-Fi it does feel like an incomplete home solution, but if that’s not a factor to you there’s a lot to like.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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All hail the new king. The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro Multiplatform Wireless Gaming Headset brings the best premium features to your gaming multiverse for Xbox Series X|S & Xbox One, PlayStation, Windows PCs, Mac, Nintendo Switch and mobile. Featuring the most versatile noise cancelling system ever in a gaming headset, with the ability to control noise-cancelling levels from anywhere. Experience ultimate audio immersion with powerful, hand-selected 50mm Nanoclear drivers for a vast soundstage; and the TruSpeak noise-cancelling boom mic or dual built-in microphones offer ultra-clear comms. Our softest memory foam ear cushions enhance noise isolation and provide all-day comfort, and the Stealth Pro is built to last with a durable steel-reinforced headband and frame.
Customer Rating
4
The Be-All Headset That Mostly Nails It
on April 21, 2023
Posted by: SamG
I really like what the Stealth Pro has to offer. I’ve stayed away from Turtle Beach in the past as I was never a big fan of their headset’s aesthetics, but the Stealth Pro takes things in a new direction. It’s got the features to be the be-all-end-all headset for your PC, console, and phone and it delivers pretty well on all fronts. It’s not perfect and spending $300+ is a big investment, but besides the similarly priced SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro there aren’t really any other headsets that offer this many features.
The box includes the headset, 2 different lengths of USB-C to USB-A cables (1m and 2m), the receiver base with a spare battery, a removable boom mic, and a cloth carrying case. The headset has an understated look that’s really different from Turtle Beach’s previous headsets and could easily be worn out in the world or in an office environment. There’s no gaudy RGB anywhere either. The build quality feels good, though some of the band and ear cup adjustments out of the box felt a bit stiff - I imagine this will improve over time as I use the headset more though. It’s not the lightest headset by far, but it fits on my head comfortably and snugly and in the 6 or so hours I’ve spent so far gaming with it haven’t experienced any fatigue wearing it.
The on-headset controls are intuitive with different textured buttons that are pretty easy to get to by feel. I do wish the wheel was a little bit thicker like Microsoft does on some of their headsets. The main button turns ANC on and off by default and holding it down can trigger a secondary function that is programmable via the app.
The sound quality is excellent and I felt really immersed in all the games I was playing. The bass on the default ‘Signature Sound’ profile was a bit boomier than I was used to on my other headset, but I got used to it pretty quick and the EQ can be adjusted in the app. I found the sound to be great both via the USB receiver and via Bluetooth and gaming on my Pixel phone there was a little bit of lag in the sound over Bluetooth, but not too much. It also gets plenty loud and I was able to run my PC/Xbox audio and Bluetooth audio simultaneously with no issues at all. I did notice that the volume adjustment on the headset adjusts independently of your PC/Xbox/mobile phone audio, so it’s best to set those devices at their max volume and adjust using the wheel on the headset.
It is clear that while you can use this as a dedicated headphone/headset for your phone, it’s definitely a secondary use. As previously stated the volume wheel does not control the system Bluetooth volume and both must be adjusted unless you max out one or the other. The built-in mic also does not unmute automatically when placing calls and has to be unmuted via holding down the Superhuman button for 3 seconds. It’s by no means terrible and if you only want to carry one headset/headphone around it’s still a good option, but there are better dedicated Bluetooth headphones out there. From what I can see there also isn’t any support for higher-resolution Bluetooth codecs like AptX or LDAC.
The noise canceling performance is pretty good though not the best; I have a fan that I run behind me and it doesn’t really cancel that noise out so much as it changes how it sounds slightly. Honestly the sound isolation without ANC is pretty good as it is, so it’s not such a big deal to me.
There’s a Superhuman hearing mode that you enable that’s supposed to help in competitive games and while I did notice a difference playing Halo, it wasn’t significant enough for me to have it on all the time and it tends to diminish the rest of the game sound in lieu of bringing up the footstep/bullet sound.
The microphone quality is pretty good using the built-in mics on the headset itself and it should be fine for taking phone calls or Zoom meetings, but it does bring in a lot of background noise and the boom mic is by far the superior option and the test recordings I made with it sounded about on par with my current Corsair HS80 headset that is known for its excellent microphone. The boom mic also has a flip-to-mute function that is really handy compared to the 3-second button hold you need to use to mute and unmute the built-in mic.
The app is available on mobile and for PC, though up to this point I have not been able to get my PC to detect the headset and have only been able to adjust settings through the app on my phone. Not sure if it’s a bug with the headset or the software; as far as I can tell I’m on the latest firmware version. On my phone the app is easy to use though and settings adjustments happen very quickly.
The battery life so far has been okay. I’m at about 50% after around 6 hours of use with ANC usually turned on, but I don’t have any anxiety about the battery because I know I always have a freshly-charged spare at the ready for when this one finally runs down and can charge the original battery in the receiver base so that I never have to plug in again. Swapping out the battery is really easy and the earcup that houses it pulls off magnetically. The headset does turn off while you are swapping the batteries, but it’s powered on and reconnected in less than 30 seconds.
The receiver on the Xbox version has a mode switch to allow you to use it with Xbox or PC. The Xbox switch obviously is for Xbox and the PC switch is for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and pretty much anything else. There is a PlayStation version where everything is the same except it omits the Xbox support, but it seems silly to buy that version when it costs the same amount to get the Xbox version and have more flexibility with where you can use it. There also isn’t any difference in the color schemes either, so there’s not reason to go with one over the other for aesthetic reasons.
Overall I like the Stealth Pro a lot. It does fall down a bit in the software and the mobile experience isn’t perfect, but it’s a fantastic sounding headset with just about every feature you could ask for and essentially never ending battery life with the swappable batteries. I don’t think everybody necessarily needs everything that’s on offer with the Stealth Pro, especially if you’re only gaming on a single platform and already have headphones for your phone that you like, but if you do want it all it’s just about got it.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Achieve high-quality visuals on every play with this Panasonic Ultra HD Blu-ray player DP-UB154P-K. Deep color HDMI output and 4K upscaling delivers immersive enjoyment of your favorite movie titles, showing images at their very best. Featuring Dolby Atmos and HDR10+ compatibility, this Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player immerses you both in lifelike sound and images.
Posted by: SamG
The Panasonic DP-UB154P-K is a decent 4K Blu-ray player, but for me it skips out on too many features to make it worth buying. At this point in my mind, anybody buying 4K Blu-ray discs is getting them in order to experience the best quality the movie has to offer and no support for Dolby Vision is a letdown for me. The lack of Wi-Fi is disappointing as well, though historically the apps built into Blu-ray players have been subpar so I can somewhat forgive that. Another strange omission is there is no HDMI cable in the box, so you'll need to order one or make sure you have one that's compatible. As a Blu-ray player it's dead simple to use and I appreciate that about it. There's a single HDMI output for video and an Ethernet port for wired internet to update the player firmware and access BD Live features. The remote is compact and all the buttons are laid out intuitively, but there's no volume controls on it, so you'll need to utilize a second remote for that (or if you have one you can program for the player). Image quality and playback is smooth and despite the lack of Dolby Vision support HDR10+ still looks just as good if the movie supports it.
Overall it's not a bad 4K Blu-ray player, but it feels like an incomplete package and there are options from Sony that have Dolby Vision and Wi-Fi support that don't cost that much more.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Trim, edge and shave any length of hair. Designed to cut hair, not skin. Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Pro Face & Body is a revolutionary hybrid styler that can trim, shave and create clean lines and edges, on any length of hair- on your Face or Body. Forget about using multiple steps and tools. OneBlade does it all. Philips Norelco OneBlade has a revolutionary blade technology designed for facial styling and body grooming. Its dual protection system – a glide coating combined with rounded tips – makes shaving easier and comfortable. Its shaving technology features a fast-moving cutter (200x per second) so it's efficient - even on longer hairs. The innovative 360 Blade can flex in all directions to adjust to the curves of your face. Trim your beard to an even length with the included adjustable precision comb. Dial up one of the 14 lock-in length settings to get everything from a 5 o'clock shadow, to a tight trim, to a longer beard style. Use the additional body blade with click-on skin guard and 3mm body comb for a fast and even trim on your body and below-the-belt. OneBlade is water resistant, so it is easy to clean: just rinse it under the tap. You can shave wet or dry, with or without foam. The blades are designed for lasting performance. For optimal performance, you will only need to replace each blade every 4 months (For best shaving experience. Based on 2 full shaves per week. Actual results may vary.). An eject icon will appear on the blade when it's time to consider changing the blade for the best shaving experience. Rechargeable Li-Ion battery delivers 120 minutes of constant styling power after a 1 hour charge.
Posted by: SamG
I’ve used a OneBlade Pro for a couple of years now. Not much has changed on the new version, but I’m loving the new 360 blades and I like the inclusion of the body shaving attachments. It works well as a shaver and the 360 blade helps maintain good contact with my face and different angles and I don’t get any irritation after using it. The small blade also makes it really easy to maintain my beard and the edges. The battery life is great and I can shave every day for months before I have to charge. I don’t generally use a trimmer on my body, so I can’t comment on those specific attachments, but I can say that the adjustable comb works well for maintaining the length of my beard, though I do find that I need to make a few passes to make sure everything is cut evenly compared to a dedicated trimmer. The OneBlade Pro can be used in the shower and bath, so no worries about getting it wet; it’s also very easy to clean and only requires a quick blow and rinse. I’d recommend the OneBlade Pro to just about anybody. Even my wife will be using my old one as she asked to borrow mine once to shave her body and it worked really well for her too.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The innovative 360 Blade can flex in all directions to adjust to the curves of your face. The design enables constant skin contact and control. Easily trim and shave hard-to-reach areas — with fewer strokes and greater comfort. Fits with all OneBlade products.
Customer Rating
5
Nice Improvement Over the Original Blades
on February 19, 2023
Posted by: SamG
I've been using the OneBlade Pro as my primary razor for almost 2 years now with the standard blades and I've been happy with the blades and the level of precision I can achieve with them. Taking the 360 blades out I honestly didn't feel much difference just flexing the blades, but I noticed the difference immediately once I swapped them out. The addition of the side-to-side pivoting makes it a lot easier for me to make even contact with my face at various angles. If you're using the standard blades now I would definitely recommend making the jump to the 360 blades when it's time to replace them. The packaging notes that these will last up to 4 months and only time will tell on that one, but in my previous experiences with the standard blades I've seen the wear markers really start to show clearly after 2-3 months. I think it'll be a your-mileage-may-vary situation, but I also think the cost for replacements is very reasonable and only having to be 3-5 per year isn't too bad of a deal.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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32” UltraGear™ UHD 4K Nano IPS with ATW 1ms 144Hz HDR 1000 Monitor with G-SYNC Compatible. See the game as it was meant to be seen—with vivid color that you can experience on an ultra-large 32” UHD screen for an even bigger gaming experience.
Customer Rating
4
Good Monitor for Gaming and Productivity, Okay HDR
on December 21, 2022
Posted by: SamG
The 32GQ950-B has been on my list ever since it came out earlier this year and seemed like an ideal monitor for me with the bright screen, wide color gamut, high resolution, and high refresh rate. The price always kept me away though and while I don’t think it’s a slam dunk (HDR leaves something to be desired), if you can get it for under $1K it’s a great monitor if you need something that’s good for both gaming and work.
Getting the monitor unboxed and assembled was a straightforward process and didn’t require any tools. The stand assembles in 2 pieces with the V-shaped base screwing into the neck via a thumbscrew and that then snaps into the back of the monitor. The whole thing is a bit heavy once it’s put together, but it’s very stable. The stand offers height, tilt, and pivot adjustments and can also be used in a portrait orientation. The overall aesthetic of the monitor is nice; it fits into my setup well and while the back has a certain ‘gamer’ look to it, it’s not overdone and the lighting looks great up against a wall. The ports around the back consist of 1 DisplayPort, 2 HDMI 2.1 ports that can support full console bandwidth, and 2 USB-A ports along with a USB-B upstream port. It’s a good selection of ports and I’m especially happy with HDMI 2.1 support with many monitors still sticking to just 2.0. The underside of the monitor has a joystick for navigating the OSD and a 4-pole 3.5mm jack for a headset (note the microphone input only works if you have the USB-B port connected to your PC). I briefly used the headset jack, but most of my headsets are wireless and/or USB anyway. Still, I found the volume output at 100% to be a bit lacking compared to the headset port on my PC and probably would not use it regularly.
Navigating the OSD with the joystick works well and I didn’t have any frustrations with accidentally selecting something or clicking out of the interface (unlike with the HP monitor I was previously using). I’m not a huge of the look of it, but everything is laid out clearly and adjusting the picture settings is easy to do. The 160Hz mode is not enabled out of the box as it is an overclocked refresh rate, but it can be enabled within the OSD. I enabled it briefly and it worked fine for me, but ended up switching back to 144Hz to avoid any potential instability.
The 32GQ950-B occupies a crowded space in gaming monitors. At the $1300 MSRP I think it’s a borderline bad deal, but if you can find it for $1000 or less (and you often can) it’s a much more reasonable proposition. At this price you could also opt for a small OLED or Mini-LED TV from LG or Samsung, but at this point even the smallest 42” screen size is too large for a lot of desks. I think the 32 inch screen size is a good sweet-spot for bigger screen PC gaming and the 4K resolution fits the screen size a lot better than it would for something like a 27” monitor. The monitor also advertises wide color gamut support, which should make it a good choice for creative/productivity work as well. I was disappointed to find out the 32GQ950-B doesn’t use full array backlighting and instead opts for an edge-lit setup. Samsung has a couple of 32” monitors that use full array mini-LED backlighting, but they are also curved displays unfortunately, which is not my preference. HDR1000 is nice to have, but if the monitor is just bright and doesn’t deliver in contrast department it doesn’t have the same impact.
Getting the monitor setup and connected to my desktop, I was immediately impressed with how bright this monitor can get compared to the previous ones I’ve used. Colors look fantastic in both SDR and HDR and the monitor ships with a factory calibration report as well so you can be sure that everything is inline. LG also has some calibration software you can use to further dial things in if you have a compatible color sensor. I was happy using the monitor with the response time set at its default ‘fast’ setting and didn’t feel the need to turn that up at all or notice any ghosting. The display supports both Freesync and G-Sync. I can confirm G-Sync works great and helps smooth out gameplay a lot especially for games that fall under 60fps that you’ll likely encounter trying to run them at 4K. Being an IPS panel and only having edge-lit backlighting, you are not going to get the deepest blacks, but for me they were mostly fine and I’ve typically used IPS monitors in the past so I did not notice it too much.The native contrast ratio is around 1000:1 and the local dimming doesn’t help that by much; in HDR it’s pretty easy to spot where one zone ends and the other begins if you’re looking for it and there’s a lot of blooming on scenes with varying levels of bright/dark areas. For SDR picture modes the local dimming is turned off by default and I’m content to leave it that way there. Overall the HDR experience is still better than all the monitors out there that advertise the bare minimum HDR400, but if you are mainly looking at this monitor specifically for HDR I think you’ll come away disappointed. Gaming in HDR is still decent, but not as good as it could be.
Some miscellaneous notes:
- The monitor ships with both DisplayPort and HDMI cables. The HDMI cable is HDMI 2.1 certified.
- The monitor uses external power brick, which considering the size of the monitor I had hoped the power supply would be built-in. I was able to hide it under my desk though.
- The color for the lighting on the back of the monitor can be changed via the OSD and they give you a rainbow of different color options, but it doesn’t appear you can set your own specific RGB value or control it via software. I found a cyan color that matched my setup pretty well though.
- The monitor supports a VESA 100x100 mount if you don’t prefer the stand, though if you are doing your own mount I’d recommend getting something that’s of a higher quality and can support the weight of this larger monitor.
- The monitor ships with both DisplayPort and HDMI cables. The HDMI cable is HDMI 2.1 certified.
- The monitor uses external power brick, which considering the size of the monitor I had hoped the power supply would be built-in. I was able to hide it under my desk though.
- The color for the lighting on the back of the monitor can be changed via the OSD and they give you a rainbow of different color options, but it doesn’t appear you can set your own specific RGB value or control it via software. I found a cyan color that matched my setup pretty well though.
- The monitor supports a VESA 100x100 mount if you don’t prefer the stand, though if you are doing your own mount I’d recommend getting something that’s of a higher quality and can support the weight of this larger monitor.
Overall, besides the just okay HDR performance I’m happy with this monitor. The main items for me were the wide color gamut, 32” size, 4K resolution, and high refresh rate, as well as flat screen instead of curved and this checks all those boxes. It seems like a lot of really great monitors are coming out these days though and it’s getting harder and harder to decide, but I’d still recommend this for somebody looking for a monitor that can pull double duty for gaming and work.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Complete your HT-Z9F surround system with this Sony rear speaker. Place it on a stand or shelf, or mount it to your wall for unobtrusive performance, and connect to other components wirelessly to keep unsightly cables out of your space. This Sony rear speaker's S-Master amp outputs 50W for powerful rear audio.
Will these work well with the ht-nt5?
They're only listed to be compatible with the HT-Z9F.
5 years, 11 months ago
by
SamG
Leave no dirt behind with this Shark APEX vacuum. Its DuoClean operation uses a soft brush roll and powerful suction to pick up large debris and stuck-in dust, and its Powered Lift-Away technology provides extended reach underneath furniture. This Shark APEX vacuum prevents captured irritant particles from escaping thanks to its Anti-Allergen Complete Seal technology.BR>
How much does it weigh?
Work and play online with less interruption. This Linksys router comes equipped with technology that zeroes in on each laptop, tablet, smartphone and computer in your home, for a clearer, faster Wi-Fi signal every time you log on.