How time flies. In 2006, a small-scale speaker manufacturer launched its first electronics product.
The Tucana integrated amplifier, alongside the partnering Antila CD player, established Leema Acoustics as a purveyor of quality hi-fi electronics. The brand has hardly looked back since then.
Over the past decade the company’s range has expanded considerably, taking in more affordable electronics, high-end products and a wider range of speakers.
But the Tucana has continued to be one of the highlights of the company’s output. To celebrate those first 10 years, Leema has released an Anniversary Edition of the amplifier, and we couldn’t resist having a listen.
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Read full post here: https://www.whathifi.com/leema/tucana-ii-anniversary-edition/review
OPPO has made a huge splash when it decided to focus on the growing number of people who enjoy taking selfies with their smartphone. So much so that when they released the OPPO F1s in August last year, the Chinese company had been reported to be the 2nd best selling smartphone brand in the country. Four weeks ago, they quietly released the A39; a phone that features the same internals as OPPO’s selfie expert, but with a few of its features left out. We gave you the live unboxing for the OPPO A39 on Facebook last night, now its time to jump in for its initial review.
Initial Impressions: The OPPO F1s without the Cameras
As mentioned above, the OPPO A39 is pretty much identical to the OPPO F1s with a few of its features left out. In fact, looking at the device from the rear, it would be pretty hard to tell the A39 and F1s from each other; apart from its screen size, of course, because even its camera placement is the same. We initially thought that the A39 was made of polycarbonate plastic, but it has a thin, lightweight body made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy. It doesn’t have a unibody build, but it’s built as solidly as its siblings in the F1 series.
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Read full post here: https://www.unbox.ph/editorials/oppo-a39-initial-review-oppo-f1s-lite/
Photokina 2016 proved to us, with the announcement of the a99 II, that A-mount isn’t dead: it was just waiting for the right tech to show up for its next big release, like the 42MP BSI-CMOS sensor that debuted in the a7R II. So much more than an a99 with a new chip, the a99 II’s improved specifications aim to put it in the same company as DSLRs like the Nikon D810 or Canon 5D IV, and full-frame mirrorless cameras like Sony’s own a7r II.
The weather-sealed body features a dedicated PDAF sensor separate from the imaging sensor that has light directed to it via a mirror, like a traditional DSLR. Unlike a DSLR, this mirror doesn’t ever flip out of the way. Instead, it is semi-transparent and sends only part of the light to the dedicated AF sensor, and lets the rest of the light pass through to the imaging chip. The camera can use both of these AF systems where they overlap, creating a Hybrid Cross Type AF system that should deliver both speed and accuracy that Sony hopes will match the best systems out there.
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Read full post here: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-slt-a99-ii
The best just keeps getting better. Although it has very little competition, Logitech’s Harmony Elite remains the best remote control you can get for managing not only your entertainment system, but all of your smart home devices, too. At $349, it’s not cheap, but you’ll never want — or need — to use another remote again.
Editor’s Note: This review was updated on Feb. 1, 2017, to reflect additional smart home compatibility.
Design
After keeping roughly the same shape for the past two generations of the Harmony Elite, Logitech redesigned the device. Now, the remote is much more square, and it lacks the softer edges and curved underside of the Harmony Ultimate. I prefer the shape of the older remote, as it fit more comfortably in my hand. The new Elite is also markedly heavier, at 5.85 ounces — more than an ounce heavier than the Ultimate (4.8 ounces).
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Read full post here: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/logitech-harmony-elite,review-3129.html
Let’s make one thing clear right off the bat: DirecTV Now and Hulu are apples and oranges. The former is a live TV service intended to replace a cable or satellite-TV subscription; the latter is an on-demand streaming video service intended to deliver TV shows and movies whenever you want to watch them. However, many viewers are trying to determine which one will best suit both their habits and their budgets, and want to see how the two stack up.
Because the two services are so different, this isn’t a traditional face-off. Instead, consider it an informational jumping-off point. Read on to discover some of the major differences between DirecTV Now and Hulu, and which one might better fit your viewing habits.
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Read full post here: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/directvnow-hulu-face-off,review-4147.html
After enduring months of news, speculation, and leaks, HMD Global finally made Nokia’s return official with their first smartphone release, the mid-ranged Nokia 6. The device made its way on to our shores and onto Lazada, courtesy of Hellotronics, who allowed us some time with the first Nokia branded smartphone to be released in awhile. Has the brand reclaimed its former glory? Or does it fall short of being a contender for the throne amongst its stiff competition? Let’s find out out in our full review for the Nokia 6, but first a quick reminder of its specs.
A Far Cry from the Microsoft Era
There’s simply no denying it. We love the design of the Nokia 6, and its a far cry from the Lumia smartphones we’ve seen in the past. While the phones that Microsoft produced under the Nokia name came in bright, vivid colors wrapped in polycarbonate plastic, the Nokia 6 follows today’s standard for mid-ranged devices — a full metal build. Its metal body comes in an elegant, matte black finish that hides the antenna bands on the top and bottom portion of the device and the chrome accents along its frame do a lot to make the device stand out in a crowd.
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Read full post here: https://www.unbox.ph/editorials/nokia-6-review-return-of-the-king/
The D-Link DCS-8200LH HD Pan & Tilt Wi-Fi Camera is a fantastic option for monitoring large spaces or tracking active kids and pets.
Most home security cameras are adequate to monitor a single room, but that doesn’t mean they see the whole room. In all but the smallest spaces, there will be blind spots. Cameras with sound detection mitigate this by alerting you to action happening off camera, while those with mechanical pan-and-tilt let you look at different areas of the room by changing the camera’s viewing positing on the fly.
Paradigm’s PW Amp can stream high-res audio while correcting your speakers’ and room’s acoustic shortcomings.
Canada-based Paradigm has a long, respected pedigree in the high-end audio world, where it has marketed high-end speakers priced from a few hundred dollars to north of $20,000. Over the past few years, however, Paradigm has quietly brought its audiophile expertise to portable audio and music streaming. That latter category is where the Paradigm PW Amp comes in
PW stands for Premium Wireless, a collection of higher-end audio components that use DTS Play-Fi technology for wireless multi-room audio. Play-Fi is a direct competitor to Sonos, but with two key differences: First, Play-Fi can support high-resolution audio files—up to 24-bit resolution with sampling rates as high as 192kHz—where Sonos is limited to 16-bit/48kHz tracks. (But before you get too excited, know that the the PW Amp will only stream high-res tracks over wired ethernet connections; it will automatically downsample high-res tracks you send over a wireless connection.)
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Read full post here: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3153229/speakers/paradigm-pw-amp-review-a-dts-play-fi-amplifier-that-will-bring-out-the-best-from-your-speakers.html
Tech is getting more expensive. Apple, Tesla, Nescafe and just about every other company out there has either already put up prices in the UK, or is planning to do so.
That makes laptops like the Acer Spin 5 all the more important. Normal folk who were on the cusp of buying a MacBook last year are being priced out like Brixton flat buyers, so more affordable laptops such as this are there to take care of the wounded.
The Spin 5 is flexible, has a great screen, is powerful enough and has the price we’re after. But it’s not built like a MacBook. Does that matter for the money?
Acer Spin 5 review: Design
Plastic body, metal lid
19.7 x 329 x 229mm; 1.62kgs
Dealing with the worst bit first: the Acer Spin 5 doesn’t feel expensive, or all that tough.
Everything but the lid is plastic, and even that one bit of metal doesn’t instantly look like the stuff because it uses a cross-hatched pattern finish. There’s a reason why Asus and HP haven’t nicked this idea. Plain anodised or lightly brushed metal looks better.
This cross-hatched style is used on the plastic bottom too, but the plastic inside, around the keyboard, is faux brushed metal.
Polarising mixed finishes aside, the Acer Spin 5 is actually a very neutral-looking laptop. All-black, you only really notice the textures when you get up close.
Using plastic rather than metal might lead to you assume the Spin 5 is going to be light, but at 1.62kgs it’s actually only just light enough to fit in the slim and light category.
However, at the price the big rival is the HP Pavilion x360, which is only fractionally thinner and lighter. If you want something truly slim and light, look for a laptop with a standard hinge or prepare to pay more.
The one Acer Spin 5 build element that continued to annoy us after the first five minutes is the flex-happy keyboard surround. Where, for example, most mid-price HP laptops feel built to withstand being punched, this one bends when you press moderately hard around the trackpad or keyboard.
It does seem to only be this one panel of plastic that’s a bit weak, though. The lid isn’t too bendy and the underside plastic seems much tougher too. You don’t need to worry about the Acer Spin 5 falling apart in your rucksack, it’s just a pity the weakest part of the laptop is the one you touch most often.
Acer’s own Swift 3 has a much more impressive build for slightly less cash. What that laptop doesn’t have is the Spin 5’s flexible hinge. Like a Lenovo Yoga 11 710, the hinge flips all the way around to meet the keyboard’s backside. It’s the most homely of hybrids, ready to sit on your kitchen worktop and act as a digital cookbook, or sit on your paunch to let you watch Netflix when you’re in bed, feeling literally too lazy to move.
Acer Spin 5 review: Screen and connectivity
13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution screen (800:1 contrast)
1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, microSD card ports
Given the hinge makes this a modern kind of laptop, we’re a little surprised to see Acer leave out a USB Type-C port, fast becoming the norm for all but the cheapest of laptops. You get one USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, an HDMI and a microSD slot (why it’s not a standard SD we have no idea).
The Spin 5’s screen is fairly tablet-like; it has a touchscreen, a glossy finish and decent-if-not-remarkable 1080p resolution.
It’s a very good screen for the price, with contrast better than some much more expensive laptops (at 800:1) and colour performance on-par with many of them too. Sure, a new MacBook, Razer Blade Stealth or an OLED laptop is going to make colours pop a lot more, but if you’re after a normal colour laptop rather than a super-saturated wide gamut one, the Spin 5 fits the bill.
The screen is fairly bright too. We tried using it at a sun-soaked end of a pub (we don’t work outside when the temperature hovers around 1C) and didn’t have to use full brightness to see what was going on.
For the nerds out there, its max brightness is 303cd/m. That’s pretty bright, if not supernova enough for Acer to claim it as a key feature.
Acer Spin 5 review: Keyboard and trackpad
Shallow press keys
Built-in backlight
Plastic trackpad
As long as you’re not too bothered by the plastic feel, the Acer Spin 5 makes a good roving worker laptop. The keyboard is good, with the same high-quality feel we’ve seen in Acer’s other recent mid-range laptops. Keys have a soft action and are typical of the classic ultrabook design in their shallow style, but are comfortable to type on for hours.
There’s a backlight too, making it easier to work in the dark. That’s something you don’t even get on the top-end Acer Swift 7.
Other Acer laptops like the cheaper Acer Swift 3 feel better still, though, because you don’t have to deal with the slight flexing of the plastic plate in which the keyboard is mounted. It makes a keyboard feel that bit less well-defined.
The trackpad is solid aside from the issue that we’ve already raised what feels like a dozen times already elsewhere: it’s plastic. This means when you glide your finger back and forth, it won’t feel as smooth as a high-end glass pad. Most laptops around this price use plastic, though.
After using the Acer Spin 5 for a couple of days, the only part of the pad that continues to grate is the button layout. This is a pad with integrated buttons, but still gives the left and right a 50-50 split of the pad’s width. We find relegating the R button to the bottom-right works better. It’s a tactic HP uses in its similarly-priced Envy laptops.
Acer Spin 5 review: Performance
Intel Core i5-7200U (2.5GHz dual-core)
Built-in Intel HD 620graphics
8GB RAM; 256GB SSD
Pay more and you can get a nicer frame and fancier trackpad, sure, but the Spin 5 has almost exactly the same power as many more expensive ultraportable laptops. Our particular model uses an Intel Core i5-7200U, a fairly recent CPU for January 2017.
If you already have a last-gen laptop with a Core i5, the improvements are nothing to get too excited about, but the Acer Spin 5 does have enough power to make Windows 10 sing. As the laptop uses a 256GB SSD there’s no hard drive to slow things down either.
The 8GB RAM gives you room to open up a bunch of programs without the system slowing to a crawl. Right now that’s the amount we recommend to any laptop-buyer on a budget.
Unless you’re a hardcore gamer/video editor/power user, you’ll have no problems with the Spin 5’s performance. It’s not laggy, and in general use feels close enough to as fast as Windows machines get. For the basics, anyway.
Like almost every slim and light laptop, the Spin 5 does not have a dedicated GPU, relying on the Intel HD 620 baked into Kaby Lake processors. These integrated graphics chipsets aren’t completely useless, but by the standards of the PC gaming elite, they are. You can play The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim just fine (1080p, low/mid settings), but you probably shouldn’t even bother approaching The Witcher 3 as you’ll get sub-15fps, and not even at 1080p either.
This stands for every slim laptop bar the Microsoft Surface Book, though, which has a bit more going on under its magnesium surface. Under pressure the Acer Spin 5’s fans do make a bit of noise, but as it’s not a high-pitch whine we don’t mind too much.
Acer Spin 5 review: Battery life & sound
Around 10-hours battery per charge
Battery life is great too. When using the default power management software, working on the laptop for an hour with the brightness at around 65 per cent, typing away as we usually do, ate just 10 per cent of the battery.
Feed the Spin 5 an easy task and you’ll get around the 10-hours of use. There’s definitely a good chunk of performance management going on, though, because Skyrim runs much slower away from the power adapter using the standard battery saver plan. It doesn’t ruin Windows 10’s feel, mind.
The last of the Acer Spin 5’s little compromises is speaker quality. They don’t sound bad, aren’t harsh or paper-thin, but also don’t have the sheer volume or middy bulk of the best mid-range laptops.
Treat the Spin 5 as a portable laptop and the positioning can be an issue too. The driver grilles sit on the flat underside of the bottom rather than at the curve of the edges, meaning you tend to partially block them when using the laptop on your knees. Even in other positions thanks to the hinge they’re not ideally placed.
Verdict
If you’re in the US, you can grab the Acer Spin 5 at a great price right now: at $499 for the entry-level model it’s highly competitive for this sort of laptop; at the time of writing you’ll even find the 256GB SSD version for that price. It’s a bargain.
In the UK you’ll pay £629 for the 256GB version though. It’s the old awkward US-to-UK price problem magnified thanks to the diminished pound. However, even with this considered the Acer Spin 5 is a good-value buy – as long as you don’t mind living with the less-than-impressive build.
In context the Spin 5 is £250 cheaper than the Asus ZenBook Flip and £20 less than the HP Pavilion x360. It can’t quite outsmart the Lenovo Yoga 11 710 in terms of price though and while the 2016 version of the HP is more solid, the Acer has a much better screen and a more neutral look. All that makes it a solid, affordable contender.
Acer Spin 5: The alternatives to consider
Lenovo Yoga 11 710
£549/$823.5
If power isn’t the be-all and end-all of your purchase then the silent and fan-free Core M processor inside this flexible and affordable Yoga might be the perfect purchase.
HP Envy x360
£779/$1168.5
A little pricier than the Pavilion x360 option, the Envy ups the build quality compared to the Acer. If that’s important then this is a viable alternative.
Blu is one of the smaller phone brands that’s impressing around the world with phones that mix high end specs and a lower price.
The new Blu Life Max is a handset with fairly impressive specs on paper – including a fingerprint scanner and a large battery – especially when you consider its price point.
We’ve loved the Lenovo P2 and Moto G4 Plus in the budget space, but this phone is around a third cheaper and offers a lot of the same features, so is it a better buy?
Blu Life Max price and release date
You can buy the Blu Life Max in the US right now for $109.99 – that’s an impressive price considering what you’re getting for your money here.
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Read full post here: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/blu-life-max
Tablets are quietly proving to be a decent alternative to laptops, especially in the enterprise world and for niche sectors that require something solid, powerful and mobile.
Oh and forget about consumer tablets or those that come with rugged or hardened cases as they haven’t been designed from the ground up to survive the sort of battering that some of these devices undergo.
The Xplore iX125 R1 (sold in other markets as the XSlate R12) is an example of how far mobile computing has come over the past decade, featuring hardware that competes with and often exceeds what’s available on laptops with a comparable volume.
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Read full post here: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/xplore-ix125-r1
In many ways the Linksys WRT 3200 ACM is a refreshing router. While some device makers – including router manufacturers – go for sleek, stylish and minimalist designs that are supposed to appeal to customers besotted with the Apple design ethos, there are drawbacks. The main one, perhaps half inched from Apple themselves, is that the more simple and minimalist the design, the less features, customisation and flexibility the end product has.
The Linksys WRT 3200 ACM admirably shuns those pretensions. This is a router that’s not ashamed about what it is. It looks like a router that’s more at home in a small to medium sized office than a San Francisco stylish apartment, but it’s big, brash design allows Linksys to pack in some pretty meaty specifications. The antennae jutting out the body might make Jony Ive break out in a cold sweat, but they help the Linksys WRT 3200 ACM to broadcast its Wi-Fi networks across houses and offices, with the positional antennae allowing you to hone in the network to your devices for the best possible of speeds.
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Read full post here: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/linksys-wrt-3200-acm-router/2
A fair assumption is that the Onkyo X3 wireless speaker is the bigger brother to the little Onkyo T3.
And it is, undeniably, bigger, but the two models don’t immediately scream ‘siblings’. We’re thinking more ‘cousins’.
Build
Eschewing the ingot-like look of the little’un, the Onkyo X3 adopts an elliptical form. In the process, though, it loses the visual charm of the little T3.
It’s sleek, yes, but it’s also a plain-looking Bluetooth speaker – especially when pitched up against rivals, such as the UE Roll 2 and JBL Charge 2+.
The larger chassis – the X3 weighs 620g more than the T3 – naturally isn’t as handy as its cousin’s but allows the Onkyo to remain in the ‘portable’ category.
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Read full post here: https://www.whathifi.com/onkyo/x3/review
If you remember back in the 1990s, Harley-Davidson offered the “49-95” Sportster . It was a no-frills entry-level bike priced affordably at $4,995 — hence the clever in-house nickname — and it let a lot of folks stick a toe in the water, as it were, into the motorcycle scene. The Street 500 and Street 750 are the new generation of that concept. The cost is little more than $4,995, though in today’s market, $6,849 is still considered affordably priced. The Streets have that same no-frills, no-nonsense approach to an entry-level bar-hopping café racer .
Powered by a Revolution V-twin engine, the bikes are premium Harley. Just because the price is low doesn’t mean they skimped on quality. The Street siblings come with a steel teardrop tank and fenders covered in the deep, rich color and flawless finish that long ago made Harley-Davidson the benchmark for premium paint on a motorcycle. The cherry on top is the chrome tank badge — not a decal, as you might expect in a budget-minded bike, but a three-dimensional tank medallion — as Harley’s pledge to you that you are riding a premium quality machine.
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Read full post here: https://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/harley-davidson/2016-2019-harley-davidson-street-500-street-750-ar171008.html
Ready for just one more headphone review? Bad puns out of the way, the 1more C1002s are interesting because they come from a company we’re not too familiar with.
But that isn’t the only way the 1more C1002 distinguish themselves. They look rather unusual too.
Build
The C1002 structure is like an earphone aperture glued into a giant medicine pill. Their earpieces are a bit bulbous. It’s designed to fill the backside of your ear cartilage but makes the 1more C1002s an unusual fit.
Eschewing the ingot-like look of the little’un, the Onkyo X3 adopts an elliptical form. In the process, though, it loses the visual charm of the little T3.
The C1002 structure is like an earphone aperture glued into a giant medicine pill. Their earpieces are a bit bulbous. It’s designed to fill the backside of your ear cartilage but makes the 1more C1002s an unusual fit.