Batlacit's stats
- Review count251
- Helpfulness votes929
- First reviewFebruary 13, 2016
- Last reviewFebruary 4, 2026
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4.5
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- Answer count55
- Helpfulness votes100
- First answerSeptember 21, 2016
- Last answerJanuary 21, 2022
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Style your beard easily with this Philips Norelco beard trimmer. It has 10 adjustable lock-in length settings in 1mm increments for precise trimming, and its Lift & Trim comb effectively targets low-lying hairs. Enjoy up to 90 minutes of wireless use thanks to this Philips Norelco beard trimmer's rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Customer Rating
5
Another great trimmer from Philips
on August 5, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
This is my second Norelco beard trimmer. The last one went for over ten years before the battery finally gave out - and I'm very pleased to say that it looks like this one is no less durable. There are a lot of metal parts, it seems decently sealed against small hairs, and it's easy to clean. And, while this probably goes without saying, it does a pretty good job of trimming your beard too.
The only real issue I found after a week of use is that the guide isn't quite as precise as advertised. There's just a little play in the mechanism, meaning that the lowest two length settings (1 and .5mm) have no perceptible difference. But apart from that, I have to say that this delivers exactly what is promised.
The only real issue I found after a week of use is that the guide isn't quite as precise as advertised. There's just a little play in the mechanism, meaning that the lowest two length settings (1 and .5mm) have no perceptible difference. But apart from that, I have to say that this delivers exactly what is promised.
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Plug in and light up your outdoors. Simply plug in and connect to your existing Hue bridge to enjoy the 16 million colors available to enhance the beauty of your yard or create any ambiance you like. This base kit provides three light points and all cables/power supply you need to get started. Lily landscape spots are fully weatherproof. Hue bridge is not included.
Customer Rating
5
Smart lights in a smart package
on July 10, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
I've started to lose track of how many times I've left reviews for Hue products where I enthusiastically endorse the system, but I know it's more than three and I'm running out of superlatives. As you might be able to guess from this decidedly first-world problem, the Lily spotlight kit has once again demonstrated the strength of Philips's approach to smart lighting.
The biggest thing I was worried about getting these was the build quality. I’ve worked with lawn lights before and encountered innumerable woes with fragile wiring, cheap plastic parts, dirt-attracting lenses, and holes large enough to let bugs build nests inside them. The Lily lights, however, don’t appear to suffer from any of these flaws. The lights may be small but they’re surprisingly hefty, with a solid metal frame and a thick glass lens protecting the fragile LED element from the elements. Both the screw base and the included lawn spikes are solid metal, rendered in the same unobtrusive black as the spotlights rather than the weirdly easy to spot green that I’ve seen in other similar fixtures. And I can confirm that it is indeed able to stand up to the worst that local wildlife (in my case, a “helpful” wiener dog) can throw at it without difficulty.
The build quality extends beyond the fixtures as well. Rather than hard-wiring everything into a single power supply, they’ve instead opted for a terminal system which allows you some flexibility in how you hook up the lights. You get two junctions and three extension cables to play with to set up the lights as needed, and they might be the beefiest cables I’ve encountered for outdoor lighting. While I haven’t found explicit confirmation of this yet, my guess is that they’re heavy duty enough to stand up to being buried for years to provide protection against any wandering lawnmowers that might do them harm. Screw terminals at each junction point provide a durable watertight seal (though given the expense of the units I’m very much tempted to add an additional layer of silicone just for paranoia’s sake.) And power is provided via a low voltage DC power supply intended to be plugged into an exterior outlet. It’s rated to drive a total of five of the spotlights, so there’s a bit of room for future expansion or a very comfortable cushion against wear and tear, depending on how you look at it. The control signal, like with all hue lights, is handled over the 2.4gHz band with each light capable of serving as a repeater to help make sure that the control signal makes it out to the furthest bulb.
With all that being said, there are a few things you should watch out for. The biggest one is that control signal. The lights are next to useless if they can’t daisy chain their way back to the Hue bridge. And 2.4gHz signals can sometimes struggle to get through exterior walls depending on how they’re built. So before you commit to this particular system it might be a good idea to just do a quick check with your cell phone to make sure that your yard isn’t a complete dead zone. If it is, there’s a good chance that you’ll need to either exercise clever bulb positioning both inside and outside to get a clear signal through or install a Hue security light to keep the signal going.
The other thing to be aware of is that unlike most of the Hue starter packs, this one does not come with the bridge needed to coordinate the smart functionality. So if this is going to be your first time using Hue lights, you’ll need to factor the cost of buying either a starter pack or a separate bridge into the overall package.
All in all, the system is a great way to add a little extra color to your lawn or garden!
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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NordVPN is a VPN (virtual private network) ~ it encrypts your internet data and hides your virtual location. What~s more, the advanced Threat Protection feature helps you avoid trackers and ads, scans URLs to make sure the websites you visit are safe, and inspects downloaded files for malware.
Customer Rating
5
Great VPN for experts and amateurs alike
on July 1, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
These days, securing your online activity against anyone who might be interested in exploiting it has become an increasingly difficult task. VPNs have long been recognized as one of the more effective ways of doing this, as when used correctly they can provide nearly completely anonymous browsing, but finding a good one is a lot harder than you might think. Some keep their own logs of user activity, which can end up being sold off to the exact same people you're trying to avoid having that data. Others can suffer from unreliable or highly congested connections thanks to not having enough servers to meet demand. And some are fine, but require too much technical knowledge for a layman to use properly.
NordVPN, through use of sometimes gratuitous technical overkill and a surprisingly straightforward interface, seems very well protected against all three of these concerns. The box advertises that setting it up is as simple as creating an account and flipping a switch on an app, and they aren't lying. And yet it still provides a wealth of advanced tools for the more technically inclined to set up the precise VPN setup they need for specific applications. And it does all of this without maintaining any logs whatsoever of your activity.
There are a few hurdles to overcome when using it, mostly related to the fact that it's somewhat overzealous by design when it comes to security. Any website or service which checks against the physical location of the servers making login requests as a security precaution is likely to flag your activity as suspicious when you login through the VPN, and unless you take steps to make sure that you're always using the same proxy it's likely that you'll get these repeatedly since it tends to rotate you around whatever country you happen to be in. It'll also try its best to block anything which it thinks might be trying to redirect you somewhere it shouldn't, and it does throw up a fair amount of false positives which can shutdown even major sites. And while it does its best to minimize the increased lag time inherent with any kind of proxy routing, it's really not hard to notice the loss in performance you get with the VPN turned on. I certainly wouldn't advise using it for much 4K streaming, particularly if your goal is to stream content from another country.
That said, these are problems you are going to have with any VPN service worth having. And if you've already decided that you need a VPN to provide yourself with some added security, having one this overzealous is probably a feature. The only real downside I can name is that it provides so many options that it's very hard to imagine anyone making regular use of all of them, so you're probably going to be paying more for extras you don't need. But speaking for myself, if I'm going to be using a VPN for anything I want it to be one that I could use for everything. And NordVPN is by far the most impressively comprehensive consumer grade option for that I've seen thus far.
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Capture and share special moments with Google Clips. Engineered to recognize faces and expressions, this clever camera automatically takes several-second-long audio-free motion photos, leaving you free to focus on the occasion. Enhanced with Super Res mode, the Google Clips device syncs data with your phone and lets you save any frame as a high-resolution still photo.
Customer Rating
3
Interesting idea, but poor execution
on June 10, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
As someone with a dog who routinely does meme-worthy things and a nephew who you need to take at least 50 pictures of to get one where he's smiling, I REALLY wanted this camera to live up to the promise of a device capable of finding that perfect moment to hit the shutter so that you don't have to. But, after spending a week trying to train this thing up on what I'm interested in taking pictures of, I'm forced to conclude that Google's engineers have some work to do or that my own photos are so bad that it's learned the wrong thing.
It does do some things very well. The app and pairing experience are both pretty good, the hardware is a lot better than I was expecting in a unit this size, and the facial recognition system does seem to work. What I can't find is any indication that it's actually looking for optimal lighting, framing, or any of the other things it's supposedly considering when deciding when to take a snapshot. Rather it seems like it'll start snapping photos whenever it spots something it recognizes, producing a rather extensive slideshow of blurry photographs and animations of the back of my own head or the top two inches of my dog's scalp. Maybe one in every twenty shots is of something you'd actually want, and of those most aren't particularly good photos.
That said, I'm giving it three stars because I do think there's still room for it to get better. As I mentioned earlier, the hardware is quite decent. All the shortcomings of the device really have to do with software - and software can be updated. Given some more time for Google's dev team to refine it (or perhaps just more time for it to learn from my photos) the Clips might yet be able to live up to the lofty goal the marketing team has set for it. And, in its current form, there are still some use cases where it's nice to have. I was pretty pleased with the results when I clipped it onto my pack and took it on a hike, for instance (though I'd definitely recommend a battery bank for any prolonged outdoor use) and it did produce some pretty good photos of my nephew that probably wouldn't have been possible with my phone. I'm just not quite sold on the idea that the Clips as it currently stands is the smart camera for the masses the marketing materials make it out to be.
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: False
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Listen to your favorite playlists with these Sony wireless noise-cancelling headphones. They're equipped with the Google Assistant for instant help with a range of tasks, and their silicon support fittings keep the headphones in place while you're active. Use these Sony wireless noise-cancelling headphones' Ambient Sound Mode when you need to stay aware of your environment.
Customer Rating
4
They really do mean sport in this case
on June 2, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
My feelings on these headphones ended up being a lot more complex than I was expecting. On paper, they seem to do just about everything I could want. They’re compact, wireless, offer both ambient audio passthrough and active noise cancellation, and have enough battery on board to easily last all day. Plus, they’re built by a brand known for quality audio hardware. But after using them for about a week, I’m not entirely sure that they'll end up being my new daily driver as I’d originally planned.
To make it clear, there's nothing really wrong with the headphones. In fact for the most part they're pretty great. The NFC pairing makes connecting it to your phone as close to effortless as possible, the earbuds are surprisingly comfortable to wear while still offering the kind of rock solid fit you need for a device ostensibly to be worn while jogging, and the battery is great. They even offer good bass response. If we just go by that, they’re some of the best wireless headphones I've ever tried.
The problem is that there are just a bunch of littler things in the design which make carrying them around with me all day a bit more of a hassle than I'd expected. To start, the charging case is very large and thick compared to most similar pod style headphones, making it somewhat uncomfortable to carry around in my pocket like I'm used to. My usual response would be to just throw it in a bag, but the swivel lid they use is very thin and a bit fragile. Just one day in my bag left it with a few dents and scratches which make me concerned that it might not be able to survive a week. It's also still using micro-usb for charging. While I know USB-C isn't the most common cable out there yet, the writing is on the wall at this point that it's going to be in a couple of years. Even Sony has it in their phones at this point, so I’ve got to carry a separate micro-usb cable around for charging.
I'd probably be able to look past this all if not for the last thing on my list of things to look at: the active noise cancellation. Overall, this was the one thing I was most excited about with these earbuds and also the thing that left me most underwhelmed. It's not that it doesn’t work so much as that it can't. The earbuds simply aren't that effective at blocking exterior noise, so even with noise cancelling working you get a lot of sound filtering in.
Overall, I’d still recommend them for their intended purpose. The fit and pass-through quality alone would be enough for me to suggest them to anyone who wants really good wireless earbuds to use when exercising. But I'm not sure these are the ones I’d bring with me to block out the noise if the train or the engine roar of an airplane.
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: True
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Keep track of your nutrition intake with this NutriBullet Balance smoothie blender. It calculates the nutritional data of the smoothie ingredients you~re using and sends the information to your smartphone via Bluetooth. This NutriBullet Balance smoothie blender comes with two 32-oz. blending cups with lip rings and to-go lids for versatility.
Customer Rating
3
Good hardware, bad software.
on May 8, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for smart devices of almost any type. But when I saw that NutriBullet Balance had produced a Bluetooth connected blender, I was dubious. The description they gave made it seem like the blender was essentially only serving to replace the equals sign on an app-based calculator. But, being a smart device sucker, I decided to try it anyway.
The first thing I discovered is that the product description does not do nearly a good enough job of selling this thing’s strengths. The best feature of the system is most definitely not the nutrition tracking (which I do find to be very dubious – more on that later) but rather the fact that they’ve built a highly precise digital scale into the thing. Which means that when you go to assemble a recipe, you can skip the measuring cups and simply add each ingredient to the cup until it tells you that you’ve reached the right amount.
I know it doesn’t seem like much, but the effects of this are huge. The Nutribullet parts, designed as they are for frequent use and small batches, are engineered for easy cleaning. When you don’t need to use two or three different measuring devices, the total time to clean everything up drops to just a couple of minutes. For someone like myself who isn’t always the greatest at staying on top of these things this alone makes me far more likely to use the Balance, which hopefully will translate to me eating healthier in the long run.
Speaking of, I also must give this thing serious points for build quality. In addition to being easy to clean (most of the parts are dishwasher safe) every single part has a satisfying heft and has been engineered to surprisingly tight tolerances. They’ve also thought of a lot of things that I’ll admit I wouldn’t have. For instance, the threaded tops of the cups can be covered over with a smooth plastic lip to make for easier drinking and easier cleanup, as the threads are protected from most things that might gum them up.
I only wish that I could say the same for the app that comes with it.
This, sadly, is ultimately the downfall of the Balance. Smart devices live and die on the quality of the app their paired with, and this one is only barely usable. It’s slow to run (even on my modern flagship smartphone) quick to crash and only marginally reliable when it comes to tracking your nutrition. The first day I had it, I used it for all three meals to test it out for this review. For two of them I used the built-in recipes (which are okay, but nothing too special) and for the third I created my own concoction out of the leftovers from earlier in the day.
The next day, all of that was gone. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but the app managed to delete everything I’d stored in it. I can’t say I was too surprised though, given that it had frequently failed to respond to basic button presses, aggressively demanded that I log back in multiple times even though I never logged out, and froze up at least half a dozen separate times when I attempted to search for recipes. Oh, and if you want to add some simple granulated sugar to your recipes without anyone knowing, the Balance has your back. Despite having an encyclopedic collection of ingredients that I’ve never even heard of in its database, “sugar” is apparently not one of them. I understand that this is intended primarily for healthy living, but I’d rather have an accurate accounting of my dietary sins all the same.
This leaves me in somewhat of a frustrating position. Overall, I like the Balance. And when they worked, I could see there was some real potential in the smart features which I feel could end up being more widely adopted to make cooking as well as blending easier. But with the app in the state that it is, you’re not getting all the features that you’re paying a premium for. In the state that it is now I could only recommend getting this over a regular non-smart version of the NutriBullet if you’re willing to play the early adopter game and wait however many months or years it takes for them to sort out the problems with the app.
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: False
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Navigate your desktop precisely with this Corsair Dark Core gaming mouse. It uses low-latency Bluetooth for syncing with compatible devices, and its 16000 DPI optical sensor provides high accuracy performance during game play. This Corsair Dark Core gaming mouse has a contoured shape and interchangeable textured side grips for a comfortable feel in hand.
Customer Rating
5
Quality hardware with tons of customization
on April 18, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
I’ve long been a fan of Corsair’s hardware for my gaming PC builds, but I’ve never really checked out anything that goes outside of the case. I’m happy to say that their reputation for quality remains intact. The Dark Core RGB is a tastefully understated (by RGB standards) design which doesn’t boast overly aggressive styling or massive arrays of macro buttons, but still manages to squeeze everything that a gamer really needs into a highly versatile and extremely accurate optical mouse.
Your choice in mouse is ultimately going to come down to personal preference more than anything else though, and if you can’t try one out yourself it can be difficult to tell how much one person’s preferences line up with your own. So I’ve done my best to compile a list of pros and cons as I see them so you can hopefully figure out how it does in the areas you feel are most important.
Your choice in mouse is ultimately going to come down to personal preference more than anything else though, and if you can’t try one out yourself it can be difficult to tell how much one person’s preferences line up with your own. So I’ve done my best to compile a list of pros and cons as I see them so you can hopefully figure out how it does in the areas you feel are most important.
Pros:
The mouse manages to find that sweet spot between heft and lightness. You can zip this around your desk nearly effortlessly, but never feel like you don’t have control over it.
Tons of options to fine tune and customize the performance within the Cue software allows you to switch quickly between speed and precision modes, a boon not only for gamers, but also artists, designers, and anyone else who needs to engage in high precision work with their mouse.
The RGB effects are cool without being bright enough to light up a room, and very customizable.
The optical sensor really does seem to work on just about anything. Even dachshunds (though the wiener dog in my test case was less impressed by this feature than I was.)
Tons of options for connectivity and remarkably good wireless response with virtually no lag, even over Bluetooth.
The exchangeable side grips can be used to keep the mouse’s profile small or provide a more solid base for added control and comfort.
Overall build quality just feels solid and it’s very comfortable to hold.
The RF receiver comes with an adapter that allows you to plug it into the braided USB cord intended to be used for wireless mode. Not only does this help get the receiver out in the open where you’re least likely to get interference, but it makes it very convenient to switch between wireless and wired modes on the fly depending on what you need at the time.
Onboard memory allows you to store macros and settings within the mouse and bring it with you rather than needing to set things up on each computer.
Cons:
As far as I can tell, the only way to get the most advanced features out of the mouse is if you use it in wired or 2.4 ghz wireless modes. Which is somewhat disappointing if you’re planning to use this for a laptop and don’t want to bring the dongle with you.
In that vein, no internal storage space for the dongle like you get with some other models of mice. Again, very useful if you plan to use this with a gaming laptop.
Your hand ends up covering most of the RGB lighting effect areas during normal use, so there’s some question as to how much anyone’s ever going to see the cool lighting profile you whipped up for it.
The forward and back buttons are a little awkwardly placed around the sniper button. It’s very easy to miss the forward button thanks to the concave shape of the buttons, which leaves you only a small sliver to press down on.
No support for horizontal scrolling. I missed this feature very early on when using the mouse for non-gaming tasks.
While it does have 9 buttons, half of those go to controlling the mouse rather than being usable in game. While they can be remapped, you will end up losing some of those features.
The mouse manages to find that sweet spot between heft and lightness. You can zip this around your desk nearly effortlessly, but never feel like you don’t have control over it.
Tons of options to fine tune and customize the performance within the Cue software allows you to switch quickly between speed and precision modes, a boon not only for gamers, but also artists, designers, and anyone else who needs to engage in high precision work with their mouse.
The RGB effects are cool without being bright enough to light up a room, and very customizable.
The optical sensor really does seem to work on just about anything. Even dachshunds (though the wiener dog in my test case was less impressed by this feature than I was.)
Tons of options for connectivity and remarkably good wireless response with virtually no lag, even over Bluetooth.
The exchangeable side grips can be used to keep the mouse’s profile small or provide a more solid base for added control and comfort.
Overall build quality just feels solid and it’s very comfortable to hold.
The RF receiver comes with an adapter that allows you to plug it into the braided USB cord intended to be used for wireless mode. Not only does this help get the receiver out in the open where you’re least likely to get interference, but it makes it very convenient to switch between wireless and wired modes on the fly depending on what you need at the time.
Onboard memory allows you to store macros and settings within the mouse and bring it with you rather than needing to set things up on each computer.
Cons:
As far as I can tell, the only way to get the most advanced features out of the mouse is if you use it in wired or 2.4 ghz wireless modes. Which is somewhat disappointing if you’re planning to use this for a laptop and don’t want to bring the dongle with you.
In that vein, no internal storage space for the dongle like you get with some other models of mice. Again, very useful if you plan to use this with a gaming laptop.
Your hand ends up covering most of the RGB lighting effect areas during normal use, so there’s some question as to how much anyone’s ever going to see the cool lighting profile you whipped up for it.
The forward and back buttons are a little awkwardly placed around the sniper button. It’s very easy to miss the forward button thanks to the concave shape of the buttons, which leaves you only a small sliver to press down on.
No support for horizontal scrolling. I missed this feature very early on when using the mouse for non-gaming tasks.
While it does have 9 buttons, half of those go to controlling the mouse rather than being usable in game. While they can be remapped, you will end up losing some of those features.
One final note: I’ve seen a lot of other reviews for this product mention bad experiences with the Cue software. I kind of lucked out in this regard, as just a day before I got the mouse they released an updated version on their website. While I wouldn’t call it perfect, it does seem to be a noticeable improvement and I haven’t run across problems with stability or adjusting the settings. It still does require some basic knowledge about what you’re adjusting, but I didn’t see anything in the latest revision that I’d call a deal breaker.
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The Turtle Beach Stream Mic is the first professional desktop microphone created for gamers streaming directly from their Xbox One and PlayStation 4, as well as from a PC or Mac. The Stream Mic features Adaptive Mic Patterns, customizable software, a dual-capsule mic array with advanced digital processing, and a zero-latency headphone output so anyone can stream like a pro.
Customer Rating
4
Great product marred by poor software
on April 15, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
For the longest time, I've really only wanted one thing from a desktop microphone. The ability to sound good while also filtering out the sound of a dachshund frantically alerting me to the fact that he's spotted a neighbor.
A pipe dream? Probably. But this mic came closer than anything else to actually living up to it.
While most of my recording is a little more casual these days, a few years ago I did a lot of VO work and narrated a few audio books. As a result, I happened to have a reference for what I sound like using a high end condenser mic in a recording studio handy when I sat down to see how this mic measured up. It's not quite up to par with that, but I have to say it came astonishingly close to it. The audio quality in cardioid mode is phenomenal, and while it might not perfectly emulate my voice or block out all the fan noises from my computer it makes it sound pretty fantastic all the same.
The only thing that keeps me from giving it the full five stars is the software which comes with it. As great as the hardware is, the software is just a chore to use. To start, it refuses to even recognize the mic is present unless it's been switched to XBox mode. But in XBox mode, Windows refuses to properly recognize it and I can't get anything at all out of most of my recording software. Perhaps I was just using the wrong software combination, but even so it seems rather ridiculous to require this. Fortunately I didn't miss it too much, as there isn't much in the software that's any good. The hypercardioid and supercardioid modes are the only things that really look useful - the rest is a somewhat over the top echo effect and a few equalizer presets. Personally I'd recommend that you skip the software and just run it straight out of the box. It's much easier.
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The Xperia XZ2 Compact is designed to be the ultimate entertainment device. Whether you're recording breathtaking videos in 4K HDR, or watching films in HDR, the Xperia XZ2 Compact delivers big screen entertainment in the palm of your hand.
Customer Rating
5
Flagship performance in a tiny package
on April 15, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
For the past few years, phones have been getting harder and harder to tell apart. Sony, apparently, found this to be a problem and set out to fix it with the XZ2 Compact.
The biggest thing you’ll notice when taking it out of the box is how big it isn’t. Rather than going the usual route of a large screen on a thin glass slab, the phone is trying its hardest to keep its footprint as small as possible. The result is a phone that’s very easy to use one-handed (even if you have somewhat smallish hands.) For some, small still sells, and I don’t think that you’re going to find another phone of this size with modern hardware anywhere on the market. What’s even more impressive is how little they’ve had to compromise to achieve this. Yes, it’s a fair bit chunkier than a lot of phones, but the curved case still fits easily in your hand and looks suitably flashy.
And I imagine that some people will stop right there, but there’s quite a bit more to see in this phone than that. In addition to being small, this phone has more unusual features and gimmicks than I think I’ve ever seen in an Android device. This is probably the best and worst part of the device. One example is a physical button specifically for the camera. This is one of the better quality of life features on the thing – as it makes using the very nice camera much faster and more natural than most phones. Unfortunately, it’s also placed in such a way that you can very easily hit it by accident. Likewise with the back-mounted fingerprint scanner. It’s very accurate and fast to respond. But placed almost in the center of the backplate it doesn’t feel very natural to use. Usually when I go to try and unlock it I end up jamming my finger up against the camera lens instead. I wouldn’t call it a deal breaker, but it’s definitely something I hope that Sony can improve on in future models.
A lot of the other key features are nice, but really do fall more in the line of gimmicks. The camera has a variety of special modes that let you record video at 960fps, take 4K HDR videos, or videos where you shoot fire out of your mouth. And these are fun, but not the kind of thing that you’re likely to use frequently. The sensor isn’t really good enough to get great results from the HDR mode, and the extreme high speed mode can only record at that speed for a fraction of a second, making it very difficult to use effectively. The 3D scanning feature is cool, if you can manage to get the ideal light conditions and have VERY steady hands. If you’re looking to pick it up specifically for these features, you might want to keep in mind that they’re really intended more for playing around with than anything else.
Fortunately once you get past the gimmicks, the fundamentals are very solid. Sony made a wise choice of keeping their version of Android very close to stock, producing a highly responsive interface with very little in the way of visual clutter. The build quality might not quite match what some people define as “premium” seeing as much of it is plastic, but I’d wager that this is a phone that could survive a lot of hardships that your average glass and metal device couldn’t. They even included expandable storage – a feature I had sorely missed in the last few generations of devices. It’s also got what might be the best sounding set of stereo speakers I’ve heard on a cell phone (though, sadly, no audio jack.)
It’s not a phone for everyone. Rather it’s a phone for a very specific type of customer who cares more about size and quirkiness than they do having the biggest screen space or the thinnest profile. And for once, you won't have to sacrifice having flagship performance or durability to get it.
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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3of 3voted this as helpful.
Clear dry and wet dirt off the floor with this ECOVACS DEEBOT OZMO robot vacuum. Its automatic mopping system uses an electronically controlled water pump to dampen and clean hard floors, and its Smart Navi technology ensures precise mapping for an efficient cleaning path. This ECOVACS DEEBOT OZMO robot vacuum automatically switches modes to clean carpets.
Customer Rating
4
Smarter than the average puck, but not perfect
on April 12, 2018
Posted by: Batlacit
from Madison, WI
I’ve been an avid fan of robotic vacuums for a long time, having started with one of the earliest Roombas and upgraded every few generations from there. And for a long time no matter what manufacturer you went with, the basic premise behind how they work has stayed the same. The robot will keep moving until it hits something, then turn around and go off in a random direction from there. Eventually, it covers the entirety of your floor.
The most recent designs from several manufacturers have been starting to change that though. While random navigation worked well enough, it was slow and meant that you tended to get uneven coverage over the floor. Now, people are starting to use advances in tracking technology to create robots that can intelligently map out and navigate through their surroundings. The Deebot Ozmo 930 (or Ozmo, as I’ve named mine) does this using a LIDAR system on the top of its standard hockey puck shaped body to help it build a complete map of the area you want it to clean so that it goes over every area twice using the same kind of pattern you’d use yourself with an upright. And if that isn’t enough, it also features the ability to tell what kind of floor it’s on and use a wet mop to clean it.
With all that it seems like it would be the perfect robotic vacuum. Unfortunately, I have to say that while I do like the product overall, it’s got a lot of rough edges that keep it from being everything that it’s advertised to be.
To start with the good, the mapping system does mostly work. It constructs a very detailed map (which you can see on the Ecovacs app) which you can use to designate where it should and shouldn’t clean as well as setting up a schedule that allows it to tackle large areas in several attempts rather than running out of battery half way through. What’s even better is that the robot is very good at updating the map to account for minor changes to the positioning of certain landmarks such as chairs or pets.
The only problem here is that while the map works great, I can’t really give it full marks because of one serious flaw in the design. Whenever the robot becomes confused about its location (which seems to happen whenever I go to clean the brushes) it will happily delete the map, along with any instructions you’ve given about where not to clean, what certain areas are called, or what schedule it should use to clean those areas.
Next, we have the cleaning performance. The Ozmo has two vacuuming options: a standard beater brush and a direct suction mode intended for homes where hair can be a problem. Since I live in a home with two pets and a long-haired woman and have had brushes literally shredded by tightly wound hair before, I started out with the direct suction option which the instructions said were best for daily cleaning. It worked well enough in that it didn’t produce any tangles. But as anyone who’s used these vacuums can tell you, there’s a world of difference between the suction that you can get with an upright and the suction you can get in a tiny robot. Overall I found that the direct suction wasn’t very good at picking up hair or much else. Switching to the brush produced far better cleaning performance, and it would generally fill up the bin and leave the floors looking visibly cleaner. The mop was a little harder to judge. Admittedly I don’t have a ton of hard floors that need wet mopping in my environment, but my kitchen floors are usually always in need of some attention. On the default setting it didn’t do much at all, but when I raised the water output to high it did a decent job of picking up small messes. Only thing I really noticed here was that it’s best to run through multiple cycles, as it takes a little while for the robot to dispense enough water to the cleaning pad to do anything.
Finally, there’s the overall build. I’m mostly happy with this except for one thing: the height. For whatever reason, this robot sits a little higher off the ground than most, which makes it adept at climbing on top of things. At one point it managed to climb on top of a plate and rode around the living room on top of it, thinking that it was cleaning a ceramic tile floor. It’s far from the only robot that can do things like this, but it’s worth mentioning as you’ll want to watch out for it. It’s also unfortunately quite easy for the robot to become stuck on its own charging base if it moves too far forward for some reason, in which case it’ll simply spin its little wheels trying to disengage until eventually giving up.
Finally, there’s the overall build. I’m mostly happy with this except for one thing: the height. For whatever reason, this robot sits a little higher off the ground than most, which makes it adept at climbing on top of things. At one point it managed to climb on top of a plate and rode around the living room on top of it, thinking that it was cleaning a ceramic tile floor. It’s far from the only robot that can do things like this, but it’s worth mentioning as you’ll want to watch out for it. It’s also unfortunately quite easy for the robot to become stuck on its own charging base if it moves too far forward for some reason, in which case it’ll simply spin its little wheels trying to disengage until eventually giving up.
There are a few other features that I haven’t been able to try out yet, such as the integration with Alexa and Google Home which is apparently coming in an upcoming software update. Hopefully that update will also address the map issue and give it a warm-up period for the wet mop to help it do a better job on its first pass. But I’m anticipating liking them if the implementation is in line with the rest of the features.
Overall, my impression of the vacuum is positive. It’s quieter and faster than any of the previous models I’ve owned, and its cleaning performance is satisfactory. But I think that a lot of the most ambitious features such as the smart navigation and wet mopping might take a few more tries to perfect. It’s more a glimpse of where the tech is going rather than a fully functional example of it. Just understand that you’ll still need to provide some oversight to keep it running at its best, and you should find that it greatly cuts down on the amount of day to day cleaning you need to do!
My Best Buy number: 2187428738
Mobile Submission: True
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+13points
15of 17voted this as helpful.
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