Audio Dynamix - S-Wave speaker

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent speaker

Audio Dynamix sent me this speaker for review and I think it is excellent.  At the time of writing it costs under thirty quid and for build and sound quality I think it is the best speaker I have tried in this price range.

The Swave is nicely proportioned, with a solid plastic case and it looks very good.  Control buttons are on the top and work well: volume up and down, skip forward and back and a multi-function button for pause/play and controlling hands-free calls.  There is also a button to scroll through the input modes.  On the back are the on/off switch, input ports for an AUX jack lead, USB and microSD card, plus a micro-USB port for charging.  Bluetooth pairing was very simple (conventional only – no NFC).  Everything works very well and I find this speaker a pleasure to use.

The sound is excellent for a speaker of this size and price. Trebles are very sharp, middles are very nice and the bass is surprisingly solid.    I have tested this with a lot of music including my standard playlist of Test Tracks and it does well on everything from Tudor Polyphony to modern high-production music.  It's very well balanced with very good articulation; string quartets and orchestral music both sound very good, rock comes over very well, acoustic music sounds very fresh and even things which really test the bass response sound good, like a solo theorbo or London Grammar's Hey Now.  (You don't get the real resonant depth of bass that you find in the ADX Pulse V4, for example, but that costs twice as much and is quite exceptionally good.)

Scrolling through the different inputs is just a little slow, but it's not a problem for me, and I like the voice with an English accent which tells you the status.  The FM radio is, to my slight surprise, excellent even without an external antenna, although with no presets, scrolling upwards through every channel to find the one you want can be tedious, especially with no display to let you know what you are tuned to.  Similarly, trying to navigate a micro-SD card full of music with just skip-forward and skip-back buttons is pretty hopeless, but that's a problem with all speakers.  All the external inputs give very good sound.

ADX are developing a very well-deserved reputation for  high-quality speakers.  This is a worthy addition to their range.  I don't think you can do better at this price; it's solid, durable and stylish with very good sound and I can recommend it very warmly.

ThorFire Wind-up/Solar Torch

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good wind-up/solar torch

I was sent this torch free by the distributors for my unbiased review and I think it is very good. It's an excellent idea to make a torch which is charged by winding up or solar panel and this one is well made and practical.

The torch is reasonably bulky in order to house the mechanism, but fairly light so it would make a very good camping torch, especially on a long trip where batteries or recharging might be a problem. It seems very solidly made from metal and tough plastic and it will stand up well to being knocked about in a backpack or car – or anywhere else, for that matter. It is reasonably comfortable in the hand and has a hole for a lanyard or clip if you need.

In use, it just does exactly what it says. You wind it up for a minute or so and the torch works for around an hour. If you live somewhere with bright sunlight the torch will also charge via a solar panel, which I can't test during a London winter but which I'm sure works fine. There are three settings to scroll through with 1 or 3 LEDs on and a strobe setting (which all torches have and I wish they didn't!) It gives a good light, especially on the high setting, and the low setting is good for not spoiling night vision.

I have a number of Thorfire torches and I have found them all excellent, so I have confidence in the quality and durability of this, too. It's a really handy (and comforting) thing to have around in a car, when camping or just for domestic emergencies. I'm impressed with the idea and the torch itself is very good, so I can recommend this very warmly.

Pinwheel e-Reader

Rating: 3/5

Review:

Good for reading, but serious access problems

This is a very basic e-reader which was sent to me free for review.  It does some things very well but has severe limitations for my use because I can't get any of my Amazon e-books books onto it.

The reader arrives in very basic packaging – wrapped in bubble wrap inside an unmarked cardboard box, but it's perfectly functional.  You get the reader and a mini- (not micro-) USB lead for charging and data transfer.  That's it – not even an instruction manual.  The distributors tell me that the manual is on the reader itself, but I haven't been able to find one.  If you're familiar with Android this shouldn't be a problem, but do be warned.

In use, it's fine in many ways.  It is neat-looking and sits nicely in the hand.  Navigation around the menu is pretty easy, and it comes with quite a few classics like Moby-Dick pre-loaded.   Wi-fi connection is OK; although I had some trouble at first, the connection has been fine once it was eventually established.  The screen is good and clear, and I find reading easy and unstrained.  (There is no built-in light, by the way.  This isn't a problem for me, but I know some readers prefer one.)

You transfer books to the browser by downloading to a computer and then loading them onto the reader by a simple drag-and-drop.  There is a basic browser and you can presumably download books from some sites, but – and this is a real problem for me – you can't log into your Amazon Account and download from there, and books from an Amazon account can't be copied onto the reader either.  So, unless I'm missing something vital, I can't get any of my books onto the thing, because they're all either bought from Amazon or sent from Netgalley to my Kindle via Amazon.

So – if you can get your books onto this reader it's fine and will work well for you.  However, if, like me, you are tied to Amazon for your books, it won't work at all, so do make sure you check!

Umi Rome smartphone

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent value and very good specs

I was sent this phone free for my unbiased review by Phonect:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019H3A9S8
(Phonect also inform me that this code applied at the checkout on Amazon will give you a £10 discount:  WXNXE8T9 )

I think the phone is very good.  It is well made, it looks good and has very good specs for the price, so I think it is outstandingly good value.

When reading this review, do bear in mind that I am in late middle age and that my use may not reflect yours. I don't game or tweet, for example; I use the phone for phone calls and texts, music, checking email sometimes, some catch-up TV, occasional photos and occasional web browsing. This means that I cannot advise on comparisons, lots of technical specification and so on, but for what it's worth:

The packaging is solid and rather stylish.  You get a charger and a good-quality micro-USB lead for charging and data transfer.  I think the phone itself is very attractive: it is slim, stylish and has a very nice, robust case which is comfortable in the hand.  The frame is metal and the back is plastic but very solid when in place.  The screen is very good to my eyes; it's a generous 5.5" and a pleasure to use.  Video, TV catch-up and so on look very good and with 3GB RAM it all runs smoothly and quickly.  The OS is Android Lollipop 5.1, and everything seems very quick, simple and pretty intuitive. The internal memory is big at 16GB and you can expand with a micro-SD card of up to 64GB capacity (I use a 32 GB and it works fine).  It is a dual-SIM phone and, can take two SIM cards and a micro-USB card at the same time.

Set-up was very easy, but there is no manual available. The overview (printed on the packaging) is OK but very basic.  You remove the back (very simple) for access to SIM and micro-SD card slots, and installation is easy.  The battery is separate on arrival and is also very simply installed – which means it's replaceable, of course, which is an excellent feature.  Battery life is OK but not brilliant – about 6 hours continuous use for me, although I'm hoping this may improve with a few more charging cycles.  It holds its charge very well on standby.

In use, the Rome has been is great for me and everything I want just works very well. Wi-fi connection was very straightforward as was syncing with my account.  I don't think the speakers are very good, but through headphones or via Bluetooth the sound is excellent.  There's no NFC, but normal Bluetooth pairing is very quick and simple, and stable up to a decent range. The rear camera is excellent with a very good 13mp resolution. Other functions also seem very good.

Plenty of apps are pre-installed, including Google Play. Note that SuperSU is installed and the phone arrives rooted. I had no idea what this meant until one of my apps wouldn't work because of it, but it's simple to unroot the phone via SuperSU if you need to, even for a bit of a numpty like me.

In summary, this is a very stylish phone which does everything I want. It is simple to use, seems robust and works well. It has very good specs for this price and I am very happy with mine.  I have tried a number of Umi phones now and I have been impressed - I've been using the Umi Iron as my main phone for several months now and it's been great.  This looks just as good and I can recommend it warmly as an excellent-value, good quality phone.

DBPower - BX-900 Bluetooth speaker

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good little speaker

I was sent this speaker by DBPower free for an unbiased review and I am impressed.  It's not hi-fi, obviously, but it is a very nice little unit at this price.

The speaker is very well packaged in a smart, sturdy box and comes with a micro-USB charging cable, a jack-to-jack lead.  (There were no instructions included with mine, but I see that other reviewers had them, so that's obviously just a packing error.)  The whole thing has a nice, durable feel to it, and the speaker itself is very well made. It is solidly built with a faux-leather finish giving a nice retro feel. The inputs, micro-SD card port and on/off switch are on the back so they are accessible but unobtrusive and the controls are on the top. They are clear, neat and work very well, giving volume up and down, skip forward and back and a multi-function phone button to take calls via the inbuilt microphone. Bluetooth connection was straightforward and solid with a good range of at least 8m and the jack input allows connection to non-Bluetooth devices.

In use, I found the sound very good indeed for such a compact speaker. I have listened to a lot of music through it, from Tudor choral music to London Grammar and it all sounds pretty good. The top is very sharp, the middles distinct and full and the bass is very decent for a unit like this.  If you want a real bass kick, you'll find it a bit weak and things like the low strings in Sibelius's Karelia Suite or thedeep bass in London Grammar's Hey Now don't come over that well, but it's quite adequate for most things.  It goes loud enough to fill a medium-sized room without audible distortion and battery life seems to be around 4 hours, which is fine for me.

I have tried a lot of speakers in this sort of price range, and I think this is good value at this price. I can recommend it.

NAT 16GB anti-copy flash-drive

Rating: 5/5

Review: 
A very good secure flash drive

I was sent this secure USB drive by the distributor for review, and I think it is very good.

The drive comes nicely boxed with good instructions (although they are printed very small). It's a nice size at about 6cm long and 2cm wide – not too big but not so tiny it gets lost. It has a shiny metal frame and a sort of faux-leather on the flat surfaces which looks quite nice. It has a ring to attach a keyring or lanyard, and seems pretty robust.

In use, it's very good. Installation is quick and simple (it's just plug-and-play) and you then have access to a menu of security settings. You can password protect the stick, but it's possible to leave it unlocked as well. You can set different security modes – hide files, save files as read-only, restrict times and length of storage and so on. That’s far more than I need - although it may be useful for others – but I'm very glad to have a securely password-protected drive.

Do make sure you keep your password, by the way, because if you forget it you've had it. There's a little recovery file which you can keep on your computer which will restore the drive to factory settings if you lose the password, but you'll lose all your data if you need to re-set.

Transfer speeds are pretty good without being spectacular; I get around 10MB/s with my USB2.0 Windows 8 laptop (I hate Windows 10!), which is a little slower than some, but perfectly acceptable.

I can recommend this drive. Obviously, it's too early to comment on long-term reliability but it works well and seems very durable. If you are looking for a secure USB memory stick, this should serve you well.

SunrisePro Knife sharpener

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good knife sharpener

I was sent this knife sharpener by the distributor for review and I think it's very good.

The sharpener is quite light in weight but seems pretty solidly made. I like the design very much. It sits firmly on a surface and it is non-slip so it feels very solid when using it. It also has a good flat end so you can store it upright, which I find very handy.

It does a very good job on my knife blades. You need to be careful with the "Coarse" sharpener because it takes a fair amount of metal off the blade – after three or four passes there is a significant sprinkling of filings on the worktop, so if you do this too often you won't have much of a blade left. However, it is very effective at giving a blunt knife a new lease of life, and the "Fine" sharpener really gives knives a keen edge.

I now use this pretty well every day and it has been great for keeping my knives sharp. I use kitchen knives a lot every day, so a good sharpener is important to me. I like this one very much, and I can recommend it warmly.

Auna BNC-10 noise-cancelling headphones

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Very good noise-cancelling headphones

I was sent these Auna noise-cancelling headphones free for an unbiased review. I think they are very good, although there is a quirk in the sound when the noise-cancelling is off.

The headphones are very well made and accessorized. They seem to me to compete well with Bose noise-cancelling headphones, in that they come in a similar hard carry-case with a jack-lead, a micro-USB lead, a ¼" jack adaptor and airplane adaptor, all of which are very good quality with gold plated plugs and robust build. The headphones themselves are of similar build quality: they are quietly stylish, robust and well made with pivoting earcups for comfort and easy storage and a good, strong adjustable headband. The padding is good and I find them very comfortable.

Functionally, they are excellent. The noise-cancelling is remarkably good; I find that even quite strong background whines and rumbles are completely silenced, while sudden noises and voices are audible but comfortably quiet. Bluetooth pairing is very simple and stable up to at least 5 meters. The controls are excellent and work very well. I especially like the volume control which is a wheel on the right-hand earcup. The normal phone and music controls are on the left earcup and work very well.

Sound quality is…interesting. Without noise-cancelling I find it OK but a bit muffled, cotton-woolly and bass-dominated. However, as soon as I turn on noise-cancelling, it comes alive as though I'd made a major EQ adjustment. Trebles and middles are far brighter and richer, while the bass remains strong. In this mode a string quartet sounds very well balanced, the deep bass in London Grammar's Hey Now (an excellent discriminator) sounds very good and everything from 16th Century choral music to rock sounds very good. Bluetooth 4.1 means a very good sound, too, and it's equally good in wired mode. Articulation is good, although not the very best I've heard, but I like listening to these a lot.

All this means that I always listen in noise-cancelling mode. That's fine with me, but do be aware that they don't sound great to me in passive mode. Everything else is excellent, though, I have used a set of Bose QC-2 for many years now, and I think the noise-cancelling in the Auna BNC-10 is better. The sound isn't absolutely top-quality, but it's very good and for quality noise-cancelling headphones I think these represent good value. They should serve you well for years and I can recommend them warmly.

Venstar Bluetooth speaker

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Disappointing sound

I was sent this speaker without charge for my unbiased review: in my unbiased opinion it isn't very good. It's well made and functionally perfectly adequate, but the sound is pretty poor and there are far better speakers in a similar price range.

The speaker is nicely designed and robustly made, with a good set of controls on the top which work well to control volume, phone calls and music playing. There's a simple on/off switch on the back and a jack input so you can play music from a non-Bluetooth device as well. You also get decent-quality micro-USB and jack-to-jack leads for charging and AUX connection respectively.

All of that is fine. The problem is the sound, which I find poor. I have tried it using two different phones using Bluetooth and wired connection from both, and with my Sansa Clip+ mp3 player: it's the same problem on all of them. I see that other reviewers here think the sound is great, so I contacted the seller to ask whether I just have a rogue product, but I have had no response, so I'm reviewing what I have in front of me:

The bass is weak and there is very significant hiss at all volumes. This occurs when connected both by Bluetooth and AUX input, although the hiss disappears after a few seconds on pause in Bluetooth mode – but returns the moment playing resumes. I also notice an odd high-pitched, almost distortion effect when in AUX mode, which I find hard to describe but which can be irritating. The overall effect of all this is to make the sound thin, tinny and unsatisfying; it's better than phone speakers (which, let's face it, isn't saying a lot) but I would expect significantly better at this price. The standard of small speakers has improved a great deal in the last few years and this doesn't really match up, I'm afraid.

So…I can't really recommend it. Even though it's well made and looks good, the sound is the vital thing in a speaker, and this doesn't come up to scratch for me.

(There are lots of good speakers at this sort of size and price. A favourite of mine is the August SE30, which is only about half the price of this and which has served me excellently for a couple of years now.)

Thorfire pocket flashlight/keyring

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent little torch/keyring

This torch and keyring was sent to me free for my unbiased review, and I think it's a cracking little product.

It's beautifully presented in a tin with a Perspex window, and the torch itself is excellent.  It is tiny – about 6.5cm long and 1cm in diameter – and is made of robust brushed stainless steel.  It is unfussy and looks very nice, and the attached keyring is good and sturdy.   The torch takes four LR44 watch batteries (supplied with the torch) which are readily available and very inexpensive.  I can't say how long they last yet, but replacing them won't be a problem.

In use it's very simple.  There's a button on the end which toggles between on and off…and that's it.  No scrolling through half-a-dozen modes of brightness or strobe, which is ideal for this; you just need to be able to see where to put your key without a lot of fuss.  The light is quite tightly focussed and easily bright enough for close work, and it will give a decent illumination at a few metres, too.

I know it's just a little, low-cost item but I really like this a lot.  It's one of those things which just makes life a bit easier, it's very solid and well-made and it looks very smart.  If you need a little torch to fit in a pocket or handbag, don't hesitate – this is excellent and warmly recommended.

Divoix DV99 earbuds

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very decent everyday earbuds

I was sent these Divoix DV99 earphones for review and I think they are very good - and at the current price of under a tenner they are excellent value.

The earphones are very neatly packaged in a small, stylish tin, which makes a good, portable carry case. There is a choice of three sizes of silicone tips so you can position them comfortably in your ears.  They fit well into my ears and are stable and comfortable for pretty long periods.  They are well made in a red and black rubberized material which looks and feels good to me.  The red-and-black flat ribbon cable is also stylish, it doesn't tangle much and the friction noise isn't bad.  They also have a proper gold-plated plug and decent strain relief so I'd expect them to last well.

Functionally they work well, with a microphone and a basic control button for the phone on the lead for accept/reject calls and pause/play.

The sound is good for earphones at this price.  They're not high-end earphones, obviously, but they do very well, with good, clear articulation, no distortion and very clear treble and middles.  The bass seemed a bit weak when I first tried them, but I found it developed significantly after a few hours playing time, so make sure you give it a chance. It's still not the strongest I've heard, but the overall sound is pretty well balanced for me. I have a Test Playlist which I use for audio products beginning with 15th Century choral music, ending up with London Grammar and going through most things in between; these performed pretty well throughout, although anything which needs a really powerful bass response, like Sibelius's Karelia Suite or London Grammar's Hey Now do suffer a bit.

(If you're looking for a real bass kick you may prefer the Divoix DV110s which are a similar price.  They deliver amazing bass for the size and price, but I found trebles a bit flat and articulation not so good in classical music.  It depends on what you're looking for.)

In summary, these are very good earphones at this price, giving generally good, balanced sound with a slightly de-emphasised bass.  If that's a sound profile which suits you, these will serve very well as an everyday set of earbuds – you'll struggle to do much better at this price, I think.  I can recommend them.

VicTop Wireless doorbell/motion alarm/motion activated light

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good doorbell

I was sent this doorbell for review, and I think it is very good. It looks good, it is well made and it does the job very well.

The whole thing is wireless, so it's dead easy to fit. The bell-push attaches to the door frame either using screws or an adhesive pad (both are provided – although the screws seem far too long for the job). It takes a small battery which is supplied with the unit. The ringer needs 3 AA batteries (not supplied)…and that's it. There's a holder which can be attached to a wall if you like (again, screws and adhesive pad are supplied) or, like me, you can just use it free-standing and carry it around if you need to. It works very well. Range is good so I can take it outside at the back of the house and it still rings; there's a large choice of ringtones although personally I just stick to good old "bing-bong" and you can adjust the volume to your needs. It's just what I want as a doorbell and I'm very pleased with it.

The ringer unit has two other functions if you need them. It can be set as a motion-sensitive alarm, and as a motion-activated light. Personally, I'm unlikely to use either, but I've tested them and they work very well, so they could be very handy extra functions if you need them.

I'm very pleased with this unit. It is plainly good quality and it does the job simply and without fuss. Warmly recommended.