Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus smartphone

Rating: 5/5

Review:

A very nice phone at a very good price

This is a very nice 5" phone, with good performance and solid build quality.  It compares well with rivals at this price like the Umi Super or Elephone P9000 and it's good to see a British company producing good quality, reasonably priced phones.

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 calls and texts, music, checking email, some catch-up TV and video streaming, occasional photos and occasional web browsing, and I don't use data. My ordinary user's take on the Wileyfox Swift2 Plus is this:

The packaging is very stylish and you get a Type-C USB lead for charging and data transfer and a quick-start guide. The phone itself is very attractive: it's slim, stylish and has a very nice, robust aluminium case. It's quite heavy, but not excessively, and I find it very comfortable to use. There is fingerprint security (but I prefer to stick to PIN locking). The 5" screen is excellent to my eyes; it's a pleasure to use with bright, true colours and very tolerant of viewing angle. Video, TV catch-up and so on look great and everything works very nicely for me. The phone runs Android version 6.0.1, and with 3GB RAM everything is very quick and smooth and pretty intuitive.

The internal memory is 32GB but you can expand with a micro-SD card of up to 128GB capacity (I use a 32 GB and it works fine). Set-up was very easy, but there is no manual available. The quick-start manual is adequate but basic, access to SIM and micro-SD card slots is very easy using a pin to release the tray and if you're familiar with Android the lack of a manual may not bother you, but for some users it might be a drawback.

In use, everything I want works very well. Wi-fi connection was very straightforward as was syncing with my account. The battery lasts for several days with my use. The speakers aren't bad for smartphone speakers (which isn't saying much, I know) and through headphones or an external speaker - both wired and via Bluetooth 4.0 - the sound is excellent. Both NFC and normal Bluetooth pairing are very quick and simple, and stable up to a decent range. The rear camera has a very good 13mp resolution and the front camera is OK at 5mp. I have found both to be fine for my use, and other functions also seem very good.

In short, this is a really good phone with excellent specs for the money.  I would suggest checking out the Umi Super and Elephone P9000 which are also excellent phones at a similar price (but both are 5.5") to make sure that the specs suit you best, but I can recommend this one.

Amazon page HERE

Boostek E7 Bluetooth & Wired headphones

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Very nice sound

They were sent to me for review and I think they are functionally very good, with impressive sound.

The headphones are very nicely packaged and come with a standard mini-USB charging lead, a good jack-to-jack lead for wired connection and a decent User Manual in pretty good English. The headphones look good, I think, in black and silver and don't go in for a lot of flashy "design" which is just fine by me. They fold up for transport and storage. They have both Bluetooth and wired connection, and I noticed no difference in sound quality between the two modes. You can use wired connection to connect to non-Bluetooth devices, of course, and also use it if the headphones are out of charge.

These are on-ear headphones; they are fairly light and, as long as you get on with on-ear pads, very comfortable. The ear pads are good and have enough movement to sit comfortably and give a good sound seal. They have a good firm grip but aren't too tight, and I find them fine for prolonged listening. Bluetooth pairing is very simple both via standard pairing and NFC, and I found both the battery life and range good. The controls are a feature, in that the volume and skip controls work by swiping a finger in the desired direction. It took a couple of goes to get the hang of it, but they work very well. There are also standard basic phone controls and a perfectly decent built-in microphone.

Sound quality is very good. I test all headphones and speakers (and I've tested a lot now) using a playlist of test tracks which give all aspects of the sound a thorough trial. It starts with 16th Century choral music, it ends with London Grammar and it has most things in between - orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber music, classic rock, acoustic music and so on. I thought these performed very well on everything; articulation is very clear, tops are bright without being harsh and the middles are rich and full. The bass is very good; it's not over-dominant but it's all there so the sound is very nicely balanced, and the bass responds very well to a bit of EQ boost if you want it. Instruments and voices in classical music are distinct and sound very good, rock really rocks when it needs to, acoustic music sounds bright and airy…I'm impressed, and the rolling deep bass in London Grammar's Hey Now, which really tests bass response, comes over very well.

There is now a crowded market in headphones in this price range, but I think these hold their own very well. You can get headphones with a more dominant bass, but for balanced, clear sound these seem excellent to me. In short, these are a good quality pair of versatile, mid-range phones which, if anything, out-perform their price. I can recommend them.

Amazon page HERE

Dikete Flexisoft heads for Braun toothbrushes

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Very good toothbrush heads

I was sent these toothbrush heads for review and I am impressed.  I have used Braun electric toothbrushes with Oral-B heads for many, many years, and it has never occurred to me to try another brand, but these are very good indeed.

The main thing to say is that they seem almost identical to the Oral-B equivalent in both design and quality.  I simply can't tell the difference when I'm using them, and at £8 for an 8-pack at the time of writing they're less than half the price of Oral-B.

I will update this review if I have any problems with durability, but after several days' use they're performing very well and I'm not expecting any difficulty (and even if they do turn out to have a slightly shorter life, they're still very good value).

So, buy with confidence, I'd say.  These do the job as well as Oral-B at a fraction of the price.  Recommended.

Amazon page HERE

Archeer 32GB flash drive

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A good flash drive

Archeer sent me this 32GB flash drive for review and I think it's very good.  It is a standard swivel design and is USB 3.0, and it does the job very well.  I only have USB 2.0 devices to test this on, but it gives up to about 22MB/s write speed on a single large video file and around 15MB/s when writing music with fairly standard length tracks, which is a good speed.  Media all play perfectly well from the drive.

There's not a great deal more to say about a flash drive.  It's not the cheapest available, but it's good quality.  It is too early to assess durability definitively; I will update this review if I have any problems later, but I'd expect this to last very well because Archeer make good quality stuff and it has an 18-month warranty.  So far, I've had no problems at all – which, with decent speeds, is all I really want from a flash drive. Recommended.

Amazon page HERE

Umi BTS-2 compact Bluetooth speaker

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good compact speaker

I was sent this Umi BTS-2 speaker for review.  I think that as a small unit for under twenty quid (at the time of writing) it's pretty good.

The speaker is very nicely packaged and comes with a micro-USB charging cable, a jack-to-jack lead and an adequate manual in comprehensible English. It has a good, durable feel to it and seems solidly made with a stylish look.  It is very compact - I measured it as 17.5cm (l) x 5cm (max width) x 6cm (h).  The AUX input and charging port (and a reset hole) are on the back so they are reasonably accessible but unobtrusive. The controls are on the top; they are stylish (but not that clear) and work very well, giving volume up and down, pause/play and skip forward and back, plus the power button and a "mode" button if you want to change input modes without unplugging the AUX cable, or change the Bluetooth pairing. Hands-free phone calls via the inbuilt microphone are simply controlled by the pause/play button. Bluetooth connection was straightforward; it is solid with a good range of at least 7m and the jack input allows connection to non-Bluetooth devices.  I noticed no difference in sound quality between the two modes.

In use, I found the sound pretty good for such a small speaker. I have listened to a lot of music through it, including my Test Playlist from Tudor choral music to London Grammar and it all sounds pretty good. The output is clear and hiss-free, the tops and middles are very good and it goes surprisingly loud (to me) without distortion. The bass is not great – for a small unit at this price it's not bad, but don't expect hi-fi depth: things like the low strings in Sibelius's Karelia Suite or the deep bass in London Grammar's Hey Now get rather lost. Battery life seems to be around 8 hours and may possibly improve to the manufacturers' claimed 10 hours after a few cycles.

I think the speaker is good value at this price. It's a very nice-looking object which is well made and has decent sound as a desk or bedside speaker, for example.  Recommended.

Amazon page HERE

Accuweight Digital Bathroom Scales

Rating: 5/5

Review: 
Very good scales

I was sent these Accuweight scales for review and I am impressed.  They are robust, very elegant and do a good job.

The scales are powered by a standard CR2032 coin battery which is supplied and readily available when replacement is needed.  They have three display modes: kilogrammes, pounds and (hurrah!) stones and pounds which are simply selected by a switch on the underside.  They are dead simple to use: you step onto them and they come to life and register your weight in a couple of seconds.  The display is large and clear so you'll be confronted with the truth even on the bleariest of mornings, and they turn off after 10 seconds.

The scales are a good size – easily large enough for my Size 11s but not so big as to be cumbersome.  They look great – slim, simple and elegant – and seem very solidly made with a sturdy frame underneath and a thick, tough glass surface which is very easy to clean.

In short, these are just what I want in bathroom scales: they weigh accurately in the units I want, they look very good and seem built to last.  At this price I think they're very good value, too, and I can recommend them warmly.

Amazon page HERE

August WR320 Wi-Fi Receiver

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent, flexible unit

August kindly sent me this unit for review, and I think it's excellent.  It's a neat little box which turns any speaker system, including a full stereo system, or even headphones into a Wi-Fi enabled device.  It also allows normal Bluetooth and wired connection, so it's very versatile.

It comes neatly and simply packed with good quality connecting leads: two jack-to-jack leads (one for input and one for output), a jack-to-phono lead for output to a stereo system or similar and a standard micro-USB lead for powering the unit. 

Wi-fi set-up was pretty simple.  The app downloads and installs without difficulty and connection is pretty easy after that.  (I already have an August Wi-Fi speaker and this uses the same app.)  Once connected, you can stream from internet sites or play your own music via the app and it's excellent. Because it's wi-fi, lossless really means lossless so music from places like Tidal sounds great – and I love having my full TEAC stereo system Wi-Fi enabled.

The app gives real flexibility. If you have more than one speaker you can put them in different rooms and choose which to play (including all at once if you like), configure them to act as left and right channels to give wireless stereo and so on. It just works, and once I'd got used to the app (which didn’t take long) it was all very simple.

Use as a Bluetooth receiver is also simple and gave a good solid connection up to at least 8 metres. AUX wired input also works fine from my Hifiman music player, so it's a cracking unit which is simple to use and gives real flexibility to my stereo.

I'm delighted with this unit.  August make good quality products so I'm sure it will be durable and I can recommend it very warmly.

Aplic vertical mouse

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good mouse

I was sent this mouse for review and I like it very much.  It is well made, works very well and is extremely comfortable to use.

I have been using a (different) vertical mouse for some time now.  It has made a big difference to my hand, which used to get quite painful at times due to using a conventional mouse, so I know the idea is sound and this one seems very good so far.  Plug and play genuinely works with Windows 10; just plug in and it is fully functional within a few seconds.  All the buttons and scroll wheel work fine and are well positioned for easy use and there's a good long lead.  It's comfy in the hand and I like the removable "palm rest" which allows you either to rest your entire hand on the mouse and move it effectively from the elbow, or remove it to rest the heel of your hand on the desk and move the mouse from the wrist.  Probably the best thing I can say about this mouse is that after a few minutes use, I forgot about the mouse itself and just used it without thinking – which is what I want from a mouse.

It must be said that it's a bulky and rather ugly thing – but that's just a hazard with vertical mice.  For me it's well worth it for the comfort and lack of any hint of RSI.  I will update this review if I have any durability issues, but it seems very well made and I'm not expecting any.  If you want a right-handed vertical mouse, I can recommend this one: it's very reasonably priced and does the job very well.

Amazon page HERE