swemoney's stats
- Review count268
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- First reviewMay 14, 2016
- Last reviewNovember 2, 2025
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- Average rating3.9
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- First answerJune 10, 2016
- Last answerApril 18, 2021
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Customer Rating
3
Good camera. Bad business practices.
on November 2, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
I'll front load this review and say my biggest issue with the Arlo ecosystem is being hit over the head at every turn inside the app with advertisements to buy more and subscribe. The cameras work well and are easy to setup. Just their business practices in the app you need to use to control the device you just bought feels so icky.
Setup was simple enough. The biggest problem I had was it didn't appear to have any way to connect to an existing Arlo smart hub. So I had to connect to my own wifi. This could actually be good for you if you're planning on having this camera closer to your router than the smart hub normally is. Could be bad if you don't have good wifi coverage, though.
The camera quality is pretty good. It's not as crisp but really isn't too bad next to my Arlo 4K cameras. HomeKit is easy enough to set up so you can view your camera straight from Home in iOS (I'm not sure about Android support). No HomeKit Secure Video support, though, so you'll need to navigate the Arlo app to access your recorded clips.
And there's the app. While the setup process in the app is pretty nice as it takes your through the process step by step. Using the app (especially without a subscription) is kind of painful. Before I activated my trial subscription, there were ads EVERYWHERE in the app. A huge banner ads just always on the top of the app. Banner ads while scrolling through events. Large square ads wherever they could squeeze them. Just constantly being yelled at to buy more stuff or subscribe. It just made me feel icky using the app. Navigating the app was also not super intuitive and just not a fun experience in general.
Speaking of the subscriptions, there's two main flavors you can purchase (which do get rid of the ads in the app). $30/mo and $20/mo. The extra $10 gets your 24/7 home monitoring and emergency services as well as their Arlo Safe Family app subscription. Both subscriptions do cover unlimited devices which is nice and give you a bunch of AI detection features as well as expanded cloud storage for your clips. But if you're looking for continuous 24/7 recording... That'll cost you! Only another $15/mo... PER CAMERA! Everything about these business practices just made me feel gross.
Bottom line, these cameras are good enough for most people. They aren't going to blow your mind or anything. They're easy enough to set up and they do their job pretty well. But all of the shady upselling just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If you're fine with this, maybe consider these cameras. But I think I'd recommend at least shopping around a little bit first.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Advanced protection and crystal-clear visibility with a high-performance outdoor security camera for your home and loved ones. Capture crystal-clear 2K HDR video that lets you positively identify people, vehicles, and animals and see more of your yard with a wide 160~ Field of View. A 1-Month Arlo Secure plan trial is included. Your trial provides 60-day video history, Custom Detections to create personalized notifications like whether your garage door is open, sprinklers are on, or if your side gate is left open, and call immediate help with one-tap Emergency Response. Get alerts when motion is detected, watch live video on your phone. Set up easily with Bluetooth and stay connected with Dual-Band Wi-Fi, which automatically connects to the 2.4 or 5GHz network, whichever is stronger. No wiring hassles for a wireless DIY install anywhere around your home and the removable battery is easy to recharge or swap out for a fully charged one. Brilliant Color Night Vision has a sophisticated low-light filter and a more powerful Integrated Spotlight, so you can easily distinguish critical details like the color of a shirt, car, and facial features. You can also charge less often and save battery life with Low Power Mode for all day surveillance.
Customer Rating
3
Good camera. Terrible business practices.
on November 2, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
Upfront, I'll say the biggest pain point for this camera system is the app. It shoves ads down your throat if you're not subscribed and just isn't very much fun to use. The camera itself works well enough. Even at 2K quality, the picture is nice and everything is easy enough to set up. I just hate the app a lot.
Setup was straight forward. The Arlo app walks you through the whole process pretty well. If you have a smart hub already, you have the option of connecting this camera to it or to your own wifi network. Since I already had a hub, it was nice to be able to connect this to that as well.
The app is not fun to use at all. Before I activated the subscription trial that comes with this camera, there were ads everywhere trying to get you to buy more stuff or subscribe to one of their plans. Like an banner ad was just always on top of the app. Then in your events, another banner ad would show up while scrolling through events. I'm pretty sure I remember a couple of large square ads as well. Navigating the app, in general, is not incredibly intuitive either and it was just not an enjoyable experience. That was just soured even more by being hit over the head at every tap with "BUY MORE!".
Speaking of buy more, there's two subscription tiers you can subscribe to. One for $20/mo and another for $30/mo. They both include unlimited cameras which is nice if you have a bunch of Arlo cameras. The extra $10/mo gets your 24/7 monitoring and a subscription to their Arlo Safe Family app. But wait, there's more! If you want continuous, 24/7 recording, that's going to cost you extra as well. Another $15/mo... PER CAMERA. Your camera also needs to be always plugged in and support continuous recording. I'm pretty sure this one does but I'm not subscribing to find out.
The camera itself is pretty good. It's 2K resolution still looks pretty nice next to the Arlo 4K cameras I have. Battery life is nice and if you have charging station (sold separately or included with the 4K 3-camera bundle) you can always have an extra battery waiting to get swapped when the camera starts to run low. It's a little strange that there's a setting for color night vision but you can't use it if you turn the spotlight off. So, essentially, their idea of "color night vision" is just "shine a bright, visible light on it".
Homekit is also supported so you can add this camera (or your whole hub) to your Home app on iOS. HomeKit Secure Video isn't supported, though, so you only have access to the live feeds. You'll still have to navigate the app when you want to check some clips.
Overall, I think you can shop around a little bit before pulling the trigger on this one. I was really turned off by all of the ads inside the app I need to control this product I already bought. If this doesn't bother you, maybe you'll be fine with these cameras. They do work pretty well and are simple to set up. But maybe look around for some other cameras that don't appear to want to squeeze every last dime out of you first.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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The Ultra Security Camera 4K HDR (3rd Gen) Bundle is a $675 value if purchased separately at regular price. Advanced protection and crystal-clear visibility with a high-performance outdoor security camera for your home and loved ones. Get picture-perfect detail, ultimate peace of mind, and protection with advanced wireless 4K HDR video. The ultra-wide 180~ Field of View provides an expansive view of your property while Auto Zoom and Tracking automatically focuses on moving objects. A 1-Month Arlo Secure plan trial is included. Your trial provides 60-day video history, Custom Detections to create personalized notifications like whether your garage door is open, sprinklers are on, or if your side gate is left open, and call immediate help with one-tap Emergency Response. Get alerts when motion is detected, watch live video on your phone. Easily set up using an Arlo SmartHub, which securely connects your camera to the Internet on either the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band, whichever is stronger. No wiring hassles for a wireless DIY install anywhere around your home and the removable battery is easy to recharge or swap out for a fully charged one. Premium Wind & Noise-Canceling 2-Way Audio gives you clear communication with visitors, the Integrated Siren lets you quickly deter threats by triggering it in the app, and the Integrated Spotlight lights up the night and helps to ward off unwanted guests. Brilliant Color Night Vision has a sophisticated low-light filter, so you can easily distinguish critical details like the color of a shirt, car, and facial features. You can also charge less often and save battery life with Low Power Mode for all day surveillance. Ultra 3 has 15% more battery life when compared to Ultra 2.
Customer Rating
3
Way too much upselling. Decent cameras.
on November 2, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
I'll just say up front that most of my mediocre response to these cameras had to do with how many ads and other upsells you have to deal with and weed through in the app. The cameras are decent enough and they're pretty easy to set up. It just, already, annoys me how many ads I have to look at in the app while already owning Arlo cameras.
Setup is easy enough. The biggest issue I ran into is that this bundle contains two power supply cords but doesn't label which one goes to which item. The jacks are the same size and looking at the quick start guide I kind of thought the larger supply looked like the one they had in the tiny picture for the hub. After wondering why the charger station wasn't working for a while, I realized I had them switched around. If you squint a lot, you can barely make out the power requirements for each item and then squint some more to find the specs of the power supply unit. A simple sticker that was easy to peal off would have been wonderful to give you an indicator about which power supply goes with which item.
After you get that sorted out, plugging the hub in to power and ethernet powers it up and makes it discoverable in the Arlo app. The app walks you through all of the categories of items you can add and even does a pretty good job at helping you know which version of the equipment you have by telling you which type of USB port it has or where buttons are located. Connecting cameras to the hub was just as simple. Everything just took a little bit of time for firmware updates on the initial setup but otherwise it was all straight forward.
The app is just not fun to use. In order to add these cameras, I was told I needed to "upgrade" my app. It didn't require a new download on my phone or anything, the app just paused for 10 seconds saying it was upgrading and then it was done. But the new "streamlined" interface just doesn't flow very well at all. It feels like things aren't in intuitive places and it takes some real thought to figure out how to navigate it. I'm sure if you use the app enough you can get used to it but it just doesn't feel good to use in general. And that's before even mentioning how many ads you have to wade through in just regular use. There's a big banner across the top of the app what seems like at all times. There's banner ads mixed into your feed of motion events. Every screen just screams at you to buy more Arlo stuff or purchase one of their subscription plans. This is in an app for controlling a not inexpensive set of hardware you already bought. Just leaves a real icky feeling all over.
Then there's the subscriptions. There's a $30/mo and a $20/mo subscription. They both include unlimited cameras which is nice at least. The $30/mo plan includes "Home Insurance Discount" and "Arlo Safe App Family Subscription" as well as "24/7 professional monitoring" and "Emergency response" on top of all the AI detection features and expanded cloud storage that the $20/mo plan includes. I will say, I got a trial subscription with another Arlo camera I got and that did seem to clear up the ads (until the trial expires). So you can add that as another perk to being a subscriber, I guess. If you're looking for 24/7 continuous recording, there's a separate subscription that costs $15/mo... PER CAMERA. So right back to the icky feeling here.
As far as the cameras go. They're nice enough. The 4K quality seems pretty good. I really like ultra-wide lens to get more of the room or outdoors in the frame. You can even adjust how wide the FOV is if you're looking to keep an eye on a smaller area. Everything is fairly basic and standard with most cameras that I've used. I do find it funny that there's a setting for color night vision, but you can't use that setting if you turn the spotlight off... so their idea of color night vision is just shine visible light at your scene. The standard infared night vision is fine too. Another strange decision is that they included 2 magnetic mounts and 1 standard screw in mount in the box. Couldn't spring for 3 of each so you could decide which way you want to mount all 3 of them, I guess.
The cameras aren't really a thing I have a problem with. They aren't mind blowing or anything but they get the job done. The quality looks good enough if you have a good signal. The battery life is pretty good and it's awesome that it comes with charging station so you can have two batteries (this bundle contains 1 extra battery, so you'll need to buy another one if you want two extras) on standby ready to swap in whenever one of the cameras starts to get low.
Homekit is also supported out of the box but no secure video. So you can view your cameras in your Home app but you won't be able to review clips or anything like that.
So all in all, I don't dislike this camera system. It works well. It's easy enough to set up. If you have your hub in a good spot to get good coverage on all of your cameras, you should have some smooth sailing. Being able to watch cameras in Home is a big plus as well since navigating the Arlo app just isn't fun for me. I feel like I will dread the time when my subscription trial expires and I need to review a clip in the app. If the app's functionality isn't a dealbreaker for you and you don't mind being yelled at constantly to buy more stuff, then maybe this system is for you. But I feel like you can shop around and find something that doesn't just want to squeeze you for every penny you have.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Ideal for travel days or the keys you regularly misplace around the house, this Insignia Locator Tag for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS with Apple Find My App (4-Pack) will help you quickly find the items you~ve attached to it. It uses Bluetooth and Apple network technology to show its location on the Find My app and plays audible alerts when you~re within range to help find a missing bag or keys.
Customer Rating
3
Good for what they are. But they're not AirTags.
on October 22, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
If you're looking to track your items across large distances and ping off of other phones to extend the range, then these aren't for you. If you're looking for something cheaper that can track your things inside your home or make sure your kids don't leave something important at a pitstop on a long trip, these could be a good choice.
Setup is really easy. You pull the strip from the tag and add the device via Items in Find My on your phone (I don't know if they also work with Android phones, but I don't believe they do). Connection happened quickly and it was setup. I could give it a name and an emoji to identify it and it was ready to rock.
Something threw me off because we put one in my daughters backpack and the first day she went to school with it, it actually registered her location at school and then even the bus ride home updated a couple times. But since then, it seems like this will only track when the tag is nearby your phone. The specs say 65ft indoors or 165 outdoors (or something similar to that) and it works well when we're near by. The tags make sound so you can ping them from your phone so it makes noise to help you find it as well.
I'm not sure if the rogue ping the first day was it finding a phone it liked nearby and broadcasting it's location from that. But it seems like it eventually just stopped tracking when it leaves the range of mine or my wife's phone, now.
This makes these great for things like finding your keys in your phone or your kids backpacks (inside or around your house). If the location hasn't updated in a bit and says the item is still at home (but you know your kid left it at school somewhere), you just need to get your phone close enough to reach again and you'll be able to track it again. I agree, it limits what these can do compared to AirTags. But they are much cheaper and they do still have uses if you forget where you left your keys or your phone a lot.
If you want a cheap, short range locator tag, look into these. If you're looking into something to track items over distances or find stolen items, you might want to stick to AirTags.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Model O3 Wireless pairs ultralight ergonomics and radiant RGB with our InfinitePlay swappable battery system for true wireless freedom and zero downtime ~engineered for nonstop competitive play
Customer Rating
4
Super smart power management
on October 7, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
I normally stick to the bigger names when it comes to my mouse needs, but this mouse stuck out for it's clever power management abilities. When you would normally need to plug in or set your mouse on a dock to charge it up, this one falls back on an internal battery while you swap the battery with an extra one that's been charging for you. Your mouse never loses power and the urgency to charge is completely gone. I'm a big fan.
Setup is pretty easy. There's a "dock" unit that you plug into your computer which charges your extra battery. The dock also contains an input for the wireless transceiver. Plug in the transceiver and hold the power button on the bottom of the mouse to turn it on and everything should just work for you.
The dock has four status lights that keep your updated on the status of various things you would need to know. I really like this information being on the dock because the dock sits on my desk. It wouldn't work quite as well if you try and hide it, but since it also charges your extra battery, I feel like having it readily available is pretty important. The status of the battery being charged is displayed along with the status of the battery that's in your mouse. You also have lights that indicate which polling rate and DPI you currently have set. The lights change color based on the setting so you'll get to know which color stands for which setting over time (the colors are displayed in the application as well).
The coolest (and frankly, simplest) idea that makes this mouse stand out is that there's a third, internal battery in the mouse. The "guardian" battery's status is displayed in the app (I think an extra led on the dock would have been nice for this). This extra battery means you can swap out the battery in your mouse without it ever disconnecting. It also means that there's no scrambling to do it when your battery is dead. Finish up your task and swap out the battery the next time you have 10 seconds of free time in your game. It's rare enough to find a mouse with a hotswappable battery (that isn't a AA), but it's crazy with how simple this idea is that an internal backup battery isn't more common.
The application is fairly lightweight and didn't ask me to sign in to anything (which is always appreciated). Updating firmware does require you to plug in your mouse but the whole process takes about 2 minutes so it's not a huge deal. The application also saves your settings to the actual mouse so you shouldn't need to keep the app running at all times. You have up to six DPI settings you can adjust as well as polling rate, a liftoff maximum distance, "debounce time" and standby time. Lighting settings are fairly basic but you can still adjust quite a bit. And then you can rebind every button on the mouse. It all works pretty intuitively and I'm a big fan after being forced to use software from Razer and Corsair and Logitech for so long.
The mouse feels good if you like this style of mouse. Doesn't feel too heavy or light for me. Clicks feels nice. Movement is smooth without any stutters or wireless issues. The only thing I would have loved to see is a smooth scrollwheel option (I've grown very used to having a clicky scroll wheel that switches to smooth if you scroll really fast) and being able to "click" the scroll wheel to the left and right. Other than those two things, this mouse has everything you could want.
If you're in the market and this mouse feels good for you, I'm finding it to be quite nice. If it fits your budget, give it some consideration.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Aware and in tune. Push 720 Open redefines the way you experience audio, seamlessly blending your digital and physical worlds. Enjoy music or podcasts all day while staying tuned-in to what~s going on around you. Push 720 Open is lightweight, waterproof, comfortable and extremely stable, so you can chat, take calls, play outside and even work out without ever pressing pause.
Customer Rating
3
A little awkward with an alright sound (sometimes)
on October 2, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
These are very different than a lot of headphones I've used and tested. I was drawn to this pair for it's unique design. After using them for a little bit, though, I'm not so sure I prefer this style. That's a fairly subjective opinion and I still think there's room for them even with me, but they aren't my favorite things.
Setup was a little more of a hassle than usual. It wasn't a huge thing but connecting them to my phone was a little weird, initially. Then I had a constant random dropout on the left ear so I worked on resetting them and that took a little bit of work too. Eventually, I got them working right.
The app is fairly light weight and doesn't make you create an account (which is always a plus for me). There's a handful of settings you can adjust. I found the low latency mode really nice to eliminate latency while playing a game. You can customize what the button on each bud does when you press them 1, 2 or 3 times or when you hold them for 1 second. By default, each bud is the same but the app lets you customize them on a per bud basis which is nice. Multi-point pairing is actually really cool and allows you to connect to pair and connect to two devices at the same time and get audio from both of them without needing to disconnect and reconnect.
The fit is pretty nice but it's a little bit awkward getting it right. Maybe you can really get used to it but I haven't found that spot yet. It feels like it takes me a few seconds to find the spot on my ear to wrap the bud around and then situate it properly to get good sound. When it IS situated, it stays put pretty good. It also feels good. There's not a lot of pressure on the ears where it's clipped but it's strong enough to keep it in place. My biggest gripe is just removing and replacing the buds. They're also a little awkward to get out of the nice, fancy carry case/charger too.
Sound is... alright. Like many headphones, you can get different sounds based on how they're positioned. These have a really wide range from my usage. I've found it easier to find the sweet spot over a little bit of time but it takes some maneuvering when putting them on. When you get them into a really good position, they sound pretty good. Not the best earbuds I've used for sure, but they sound good enough. If they're off a bit, they sound like they'd work great for audiobooks or podcasts. This isn't a knock on them at all, it's usually the first position I get them into when I put them on and it's mainly just because the actual speaker is a little further from actually going into my ear. This position also offers more awareness of your surroundings.
The charging case is really cute. It's a little clutch looking thing. Very fancy. I like it. It's easy enough to put the earbuds away for charging but they're a little awkward to get back out again.
Overall, I like the headphones mainly for podcasts and audiobooks. I'm not a huge fan of the sound of these for music. But I do like the comfort for long audiobooks and podcasts, though. If they fall into your budget, give them a wear first if you can.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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The Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded is the next evolution of the award-winning modular Pro BFG wireless controller, designed for elite gamers who demand precision, customization, and versatility on PlayStation and PC. At its core are customizable modules with built-in Hall-Effect technology, ensuring drift-free precision for consistent and reliable input accuracy. With three modules and eleven interchangeable components you can customize your controller for optimal comfort and performance. Modularity meets precision with four mappable back buttons, dual rumble motors, impulse triggers, 5-stop Hall-Effect Clutch Triggers with Hair-Trigger mode, and a lifetime subscription to Sony 3D Audio spatial surround sound. For the fighting game community, the ergonomically enhanced 6-button Fightpad module with Kailh microswitches delivers tournament-level accuracy for flawless combos. With pro-level customization and tournament-grade performance, the PlayStation officially licensed Pro BFG Reloaded is the ultimate weapon for PS4, PS5, and PC gamers.
Customer Rating
4
Good feeling controller with a nostolgic vibe
on September 26, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
I really liked the concept of this controller. Just being modular and being able to change things up based on your needs. I've been able to change thumb sticks and D-Pads in the past but never been able to swap and flip full parts of the controller before. On top of that, it's a pretty solid controller too.
Setup could be a breeze in most circumstances. The exception being if you want to update the controllers firmware. Plug in the dongle to your PC, PS4 or PS5 and switch the controller to that mode and you should be all set to go. You can also switch the controller into wired more if you'd rather use a cord. I really like that all the modes have physical switches instead of some button combination and looking out for a certain number of flashing lights to see what mode you're in. It's all very clear.
You might run into an issue, though, with running the actual official software for the device on your PC, though. It takes some real doing to get the software to actually recognize that you have the controller connected. The support page they tell you to click when they tell you there might be a driver conflict somewhere doesn't exist and a little bit of Google says this has been an issue for well over a year so I have no idea why they haven't done anything about it. Results may vary since people seem to have found different solutions, but I had to disable the Xbox driver support in Steam and disable everything in the controller settings aside from "Generic Controller Support". After a reboot, the software was finally able to see the controller so you can update, customize and test everything out. That was a fairly small hiccup but it was quite annoying to have to find my own solution so early into owning this controller. And to see the issue has existed for so long, it doesn't give me a lot of hope for hope maintained their software is and is going to be in the future.
Using the controller is actually quite nice. It's got the right amount of weight to it so it doesn't feel cheap. The D-Pad (with the cross cap) feels really good. The standard buttons are nice and quiet and feel nice to press. The analog sticks are hall-effect so they aren't going to suffer from any stick drift and feel really smooth and accurate. The touchpad feels fine, if a tiny bit small. The click of the touchpad might feel a little too soft but it's not bad. The back paddles are defaulted to the standard 4 face buttons so you might want to change those because I accidentally hit back paddles all the time. Triggers are lockable but do maintain some analog-ness if you press them hard enough. The process for locking and unlocking the triggers is a bit strange (you have to hold the springloaded switch on the back and press the trigger down to unlock it). All in all, everything about the function of the controller really does feel premium and very good to control.
If I had to find a downside (aside from the PC software issue), it would be a pretty superficial one. While the controller doesn't "feel" cheap. All of the components feel good to use. The overall design of the controller definitely screams of the old school third party controllers from the 90's and early 00's. It just looks like there's a lot going on. The start and select buttons are taking up a whole side of the touch pad. Then all the switches for mode selection (which I said I liked). The extra button under the touch pad, The 4 paddles. All of the screws on top. It's very busy looking and reminds me of the old school controllers that tries to throw every gimmick at the wall to sell to you. I'm not a huge fan of the overall design is what I'm saying. But that doesn't speak towards the actual function of the controller which is one of the best feels I'd had.
Swapping out and rotating modules is super easy. There's a tiny screwdriver included in the case and you just undo 2 screws (that don't fall out when they're unscrewed) and pull the module out. Put the new one in or rotate so the analog sticks are on the other side. Whatever you like, and then screw the screws back in. I don't see myself swapping or switching modules all that often but my only concern is if you DO intend to do that, I hope the screws don't eventually start to strip and get loose. I haven't had any issues with the dozen or so swaps that I did while testing, though.
Overall, I really like this controller. I think it will be my new daily driver just based on how nice the analog sticks and buttons feel. Being able to rearrange things is just a nice bonus. I am not able to tell you if you think these perks are worth the sticker price of this item, but I can say that I'm a big fan and controllers aren't cheap these days.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Achieve new levels of productivity with the LG gram Pro, designed for those who demand both power and portability. Weighing just 3.3 lbs and measuring a mere 0.6 inches thin, this ultra-light laptop is built for effortless mobility without compromise. The 17~ display delivers ultra-vivid colors, deep blacks, and exceptional contrast, making everything from detailed projects to streaming content look vivid, vibrant and immersive and lifelike. At gram Pro~s core, the Intel Evo Edition Intel Core~ Ultra 9 processor (Series 2) ensures seamless performance for AI-driven tasks and demanding workloads. This LG gram Pro laptop is powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, GeForce RTX 50 Series~ Laptop GPUs bringing game-changing AI capabilities to gamers and creators.
Customer Rating
4
Nice and light but powerful
on August 29, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
After using this computer for a little bit, I can say that it really does do a good job being a nice computer while also being very light weight and portable.
Setup was fairly standard for a Windows setup. Nothing crazy or new. There wasn't a ton of bloatware or anything to uninstall but I did have to immediately uninstall McAfee.
LG's included apps are pretty light weight as well. There's an app for updating and maintenance. A link/app for their streaming TV service which was a bit surprising. Then there's this Glance app that uses the camera to do some pretty neat things. I'm not sure if it'll be a crazy game changer for everyone but some of the features are nice. It basically augments your basic mouse usage by adding in what you're looking at on the screen to figure out what you might want to do. Like snapping windows between different monitors by glancing at them. Locking windows when you aren't at the computer (or not paying attention long enough) or notifying you if someone is snooping in the background. It also notifies you of wellness check things like 20-20-20 and posture checks if you get too close to the screen. One thing that seems really useful is an overlay notification if it sees you speaking while your microphone is muted. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do since it feels like one of those gimmicky apps that gets thrown in.
Build quality of the laptop is quite good. It feels sturdy enough go being so lightweight and thin. The trackpad is nice and large and feels nice to use. The keyboard is full sized and feels ok to type on. It's not a mechanical keyboard or anything so you might feel some finger strain if that's what you're used to but it works well enough. There's also a numpad which is always nice to have.
Port-wise, you'll find two USB-A ports on the right side along with a 3.5mm jack for audio (the speakers on this machine are actually pretty ok for a thin machine). Then on the left side, you have two USB-C ports and an HDMI port for an external monitor. The biggest complaint I have here is just the lack of USB-C on the right side so you have the option of charging the computer from either side of the computer.
The screen looks very good. It's a good size for a lightweight option. Colors feel good and the variable 144hz is greatly appreciated.
Sadly the camera doesn't seem very great at the Windows Hello that I've seen from other computers. It works about 65% of the time. But the option is there. I think it has to do with lighting for the most part.
Processing power is pretty good on the CPU side. I don't see this as a gaming machine so that's the important part. If you have real work to get done, this should be pretty capable.
Even though it's not a gaming machine, there is an RTX 5050 in here so it's able to do some gaming. I tested out the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark and on low raytracing settings, I got 24fps. Not great and things looked a little jerky. Turning on 2x frame generation got the average up to 35fps but I still saw some dips below 30. 3x frame gen got the frame rate to stay above 30 with an average of 41. All of the raytracing options still looked a little jerky at times but using a simple high setting got me a pretty stable 35fps without the jerkiness. You're not going to be running games on ultra max settings with this but to be able to run Cyberpunk on some great looking presets already, you shouldn't have any issues playing most games as long as you tweak some settings for them.
Bottom line on this machine is that it's really well made and nice to use and carry around. I have other gaming laptops and powerful machines but I really think the portability of this one is going to win out and become the laptop I carry around with me to get work done on the go just because of how light and easy to carry it is. If you're in the market for something portable and light but also powerful enough to do most anything you throw at it, this might be a good one to look into.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Ideal for the home, office, or dorm, Seagate Expansion desktop drive offers enormous desktop storage for photos, movies, music and more. Backing up and transferring content is incredibly easy ~ just drag and drop! To get set up, connect the USB hard drive to Windows or Mac ~ no software required. For Apple Time Machine, simply reformat. Included is an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable and 18W power adapter. Plus, Seagate Expansion comes with Rescue Data Recovery Services for additional peace of mind.
Customer Rating
4
Great for backups and media files
on August 18, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
In 2025, this isn't a daily driver kind of device. NVMEs are cheap enough that you're running your day to day tasks on that. But for bulky files that don't need to be accessed at lightning fast speeds, that's where a drive like this is going to shine.
Setup is as easy as most any external hard drive. Plug it in (including the external power supply which contains what I have to assume is every adapter used in every country) and it's ready to go. It's already formatted in exFat so no matter what kind of system you're using, you can probably access this thing. You could always reformat it in any type of filesystem you'd prefer.
Usage is pretty good for an external drive like this. When it goes to sleep, there may be a handful of seconds that it hangs your system while it boots up again. Not ideal but I've seen it in most of these externally powered hard drives. Speeds are perfectly fine for a 7200RPM platter drive. You're not (hopefully) editing videos on this thing but if you're running backups overnight or accessing media files, you really don't need anything more. I also expected more noise but it's really not that bad.
The build quality is really nice for me. I like more minimalist designs and the enclosure for this is fairly sleek. Just some rounded corners and a slanted line pattern on the top. It's got ventilation on 3 of the 4 sides. I do wish the interface was just USB-C instead of the extended USB micro plug you find on a lot of older hard drives, though.
My usage for this is going to be predominantly storing media files on my media server and it can do that just fine. I don't need massive read and write speeds. I just need a lot of space and this ticks that box perfectly.
Bottom line, if you're looking for a device that can backup all of your devices overnight or something to just store media on for playback, this is going to be a good fit for you. It's huge capacity is what you're buying here. If you need speed, look at some NVME drives but you'll be sacrificing a lot of storage space. It's a tradeoff. The best option is combining both and using them for their specific use cases.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Redefine your viewing experience with cutting-edge visual technology that brings stories to life~introducing the state-of-the-art Home Cinema 980 projector from Epson. Featuring an impressive 4,000 lumens of color brightness (IDMS rated) and 4,000 lumens of white brightness (ISO rated)~, the Home Cinema 980 delivers a display size up to 300" for immersive entertainment~even in brightly lit spaces. With Full HD 1080p resolution and data processing designed for fast-moving sports, gaming, and beyond, you~ll never miss a moment of the action. Whether you~re watching your favorite TV show or enjoying the big game, this powerful projector provides a stunning, larger-than-life viewing experience with true 3-chip 3LCD technology. And with versatile connectivity and built-in speaker, you get captivating HD entertainment right out of the box.
Customer Rating
3
Great picture. Not much else.
on August 15, 2025
Posted by: swemoney
After trying and using a handful of smaller form factor projectors over the last year or two, this one is certainly the nicest in terms of picture quality and brightness. But that's sadly about it. This projector is just missing features that I've come to just expect as standard on all home entertainment screen equipment or things that I've experienced and enjoyed on extremely cheap projectors in the past.
Setup was just OK. Plug it in and you're off to the races initially. But then you need to find that good spot on your wall or screen and do all the adjustments and the menu for this projector is.. old. Like I've seen more sophisticated and organized menu systems on 25 year old digital cameras. Finding all the settings and figuring out what they mean (included instructions are fairly lacking) and how to use them wasn't a fast process. I eventually got to a point where I was comfortable enough mounting it upside down and trying to nail down all the dimensions.
The hardware zoom/focus/skew settings are fine. Again, I've used much cheaper projectors that had really good autofocus and autokeystone features, but that's all clunky and manual here. I figure, with mine mounted on the ceiling, we shouldn't need to adjust things like focus and keystone all that often, though, so that's fine. Since the projector is so bright, when setting up the keystone, you can see some "black" projections of the full projection screen around your actual image which can be distracting if you focus on it.
I'd love to tell you about connecting this to wifi, but I can't. Because there's no way to enter a wifi password greater than 32 characters and I'm not about changing my password and reconnecting every device in my house just because of this one terrible design decision. The network settings menu is also very crude. You have to enter your SSID (there's a button for scanning but I couldn't figure out how to select it). I'll harp on this again, everything about the software for this projector feels like it was designed 30 years ago and never updated.
Then there's the audio. It does not sound great on it's own. And it doesn't support BlueTooth (like every crazy cheap projector I've ever used does).
Another thing I've had on every other crazy cheap projector but not this one is some kind of interface with some of the major "apps" built in. Now this wouldn't have mattered to me anyways because I can't even get it on wifi, and I still use a FireStick or AppleTV over the built in systems but it's usually nice to have at least.
And lastly, while on the topic of FireSticks and AppleTVs, a feature I just assumed was standard across any display technology in this day and age, is somehow a lack of HDMI-CEC support. There's one option in the menus that sounds like it's supposed to do something like HDMI-CEC but I couldn't get it to work with my FireStick. I was really baffled by this one.
But the picture quality. It does take a minute to "warm up" to it's full brightness, but when it does, it's bright. Without even using a screen and projecting on a greyish-white wall, the picture was incredibly bright and very crisp. All the shortcomings listed above, I won't knock it's image quality and brightness one bit. Depending on the room you're projecting in, you can tinker with the Eco settings. I normally throw all eco settings out the window in home entertainment products but I turned them all on with this projector and the picture did get noticeably (but not a lot) less bright. More importantly though, the crazy jet engine fan that was blowing non-stop while the eco mode settings were off, turned down to imperceptible levels. So if you're using the projector in a smaller room where you might hear the fan noise, consider the eco settings to cut down on the noise without losing much in the way of brightness.
All said and done, I know this is a "Home Cinema" product but I think the software leans way too far into the "cinema" side of that and not nearly enough into the "home" side. The biggest complaint I have is the incredibly ancient looking and functioning software. The picture is fantastic but without some of the bells and whistles I've grown accustomed to (bluetooth and HDMI-CEC especially), I have to recommend looking around in this price point for something a little more feature rich if you can find it.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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With no wires in the way, Bose SoundSport Wireless Sports Earbuds keep you moving with powerful audio. Perfect for exercise and running with a sweat and weather resistant design and StayHear+ tips designed for comfort and stability. The Tile app makes your headphones easy to find if they ever go missing.
Is it possible to remove that clip on the wire?
Clip is formed plastic around the wire, so not unless you break the clip. You can move it up and down the wire. I barely noticed it, myself.
9 years, 4 months ago
by
swemoney
With no wires in the way, Bose SoundSport Wireless Sports Earbuds keep you moving with powerful audio. Perfect for exercise and running with a sweat and weather resistant design and StayHear+ tips designed for comfort and stability. The Tile app makes your headphones easy to find if they ever go missing.
Is this earphone compatible with Andriod phone?
I didn't test them out on an Android device, but they're bluetooth headphones. So if your Android device supports Bluetooth audio, they should work fine.
9 years, 4 months ago
by
swemoney