The Mpow Seals are a set of sporty Bluetooth headphones from the company. Boasting Bluetooth 4.0, IPX4 certification and memory wire to keep the earbuds … Read more
The HiMedia Q10 Pro is a new Android TV box interestingly powered by the quadcore Hisilicon Hi3798C V200 SoC, feautures a 3.5″ HDD slot and runs Android 5.1.1.
I want to say thanks to Himedia for sending me a sample to review.
Unboxing the Himedia Q10 Pro, I was surprised at the unit’s MASSIVE size. I’ve seen a number of chunky Android TV boxes but this is a beast at 226x180x50mm. I’d probably put it on par with a Playstation 4 in terms of size.
The Q10 Pro definitely puts its large frame to good use. The front panel features a large LED display and a set of touch controls plus the power button.
The right side has the open button to access the 3.5″ internal SATA bay. Sliding the release switch allows you to pop open the whole top of the case and reveal the 3.5″ HDD bay.
Jumping over to the left, you’ve got a USB 3.0 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports and an SD card slot.
Most of the ports are on the back though. From left to right, you’ve got USB 3.0 Type B port, optical audio out, composite video out, ethernet, HDMI out, an firmware upgrade button and DC in.
The included remote is pretty nice too. It’s got a full suite of controls, a mouse mode and several buttons that can be learned from other IR remotes so you can control your TV from the Q10 Pro’s remote which is nice.
Booting up the unit takes around 25 seconds with a keyboard and mouse connected. Standby unfortunately doesn’t seem to be supported so you’ll have to leave it idle or power it up every time.
The Android launcher is essentially identical to that seen on the Himedia Q10, with its bright multicolored tiles and comprehensive skinning for everything including the Settings.
There’s a few preinstalled apps, including Facebook, Skype, Kodi 15.2 and Happy Cast for AirPlay support. You can also use the device as a fileserver using the built-in Samba server too which is nice. Google Play works as expected. The box isn’t rooted out of the box.
The Hisilicon Hi3798C V200 handles Android well and I didn’t experience any slowdowns at all.
A quick media test with the latest Kodi 16.1 from the Google Play store (it automatically updated when I logged into my Google account) saw both my 1080p H.264 and H.265 samples play back perfectly.
Automatic framerate switching is supported but you’ll need to set up Kodi to use Himedia’s internal player as it doesn’t work using Kodi’s native player. Thankfully, there’s a Himedia Wrapper APK that can do the config for you.
Video streaming via wifi seems to be good. My 4K H.264 videos streamed from my NFS share without any buffering so networking performance seems respectable at this stage.
The Hisilicon Hi3798C V200 comes with a Mali-T720 GPU so I expected decent gaming performance and the Himedia Q10 Pro performed well. Beach Buggy Racing played back perfectly at maximum settings whilst maintaining a fairly solid 30fps.
In terms of benchmarks, the Himedia Q10 Pro scored 37326 on Antutu 6.0.4 whilst it scored 687 and 2187 on GeekBench 3’s Single and Multi-Core tests respectively.
Verdict So Far
I’m impressed with the Himedia Q10 Pro so far. Though its massive frame may not be for everyone, its performance seems to be solid at this stage and the 3.5″ bay is a massive plus for those wanting to store all their media in one place.
Xiaomi are at it again with a new Bluetooth speaker sporting a stylish new cylinderical design, improved audio specs and an incredibly elegant control system.
I want to say thanks to Everbuying for sending me a sample to review. Use coupon EXMSP to get it for $27.59.
Xiaomi have kept up their tradition of keeping inclusions to a minimum and their new speaker is no different.
Inside the box, you’ll get the Xiaomi Bluetooth speaker, a rubber band to keep the controls from spinning and a Chinese instruction manual. I’m disappointed that Xiaomi didn’t include a micro USB cable for charging as it feels like an inclusion that really should be in the box.
Xiaomi Bluetooth Speaker Review: Design
Xiaomi’s latest Bluetooth speaker sports a brand new cylindrical design. It’s a sleek, matte- finished tube with the speaker located on the top of the unit.
Both black and white versions are available, but I’ve opted for the black variant.
The front of the unit sports a small dual-color power LED whilst the rear has a micro USB port for charging.
The top of the unit is actually the controls. It’s one of the most minimalist yet elegant control systems I’ve seen in a long time.
Pressing and holding down the top will turn the speaker on or pause the current track if you’re already listening to music. Turning the top section controls the volumes.
The entire unit feels incredibly well made, as is par for the course for Xiaomi speakers.
Xiaomi Bluetooth Speaker Review: Using It
Powering up the speaker is done by holding down the top of the unit for a few seconds. The device automatically jumps into pairing mode.
Pairing is a matter of selecting the speaker in your phone’s Bluetooth menu. The speaker’s name is all in Chinese but it should be easy enough to figure out which one it is.
When it pairs up, there’s a spoken confirmation (in Chinese) and you’ll be ready to go.
Music playback is essentially controlled entirely by your smartphone. You can pause/play the track by pressing the top of the speaker.
The speaker’s volume is tied to your smartphone rather than being independent like some of the speakers I’ve tested recently. Thus, turning the control of the speaker will adjust the volume on your smartphone too.
Battery life was good, with 3-4 hours of playback leaving me with 50% battery remaining so I feel comfortable with Xiaomi’s estimate of 7 hours.
Xiaomi Bluetooth Speaker Review: Audio Quality
Xiaomi’s Bluetooth speakers are rarely a slouch in audio quality and their latest is no different.
The Xiaomi Bluetooth speaker offers excellent low and mid performance. Bass is impressive too though it does tend to dominate when you hit maximum volume.
Volume is pretty impressive from such a compact speaker. It’s plenty for a small or medium room but it won’t compete with a proper stereo system. I didn’t experience any distortion at all during testing either.
Verdict
Xiaomi’s latest Bluetooth speaker is another winner. It brings their usual excellent build and sound quality with stylish design.
The lack of aux in may be disappointing for some but the design, quality and unique control method more than make up for it. Thoroughly recommended.
Getting One
The Xiaomi Bluetooth Speaker is available from Everbuying for under $30. Use coupon EXMSP to get it for $27.59.
The Mpow AquaPro is a rugged IPX7-rated Bluetooth speaker. This means that you should be able to submerge it to 3ft for 30 minutes without any issues – making it the perfect beach companion.
I want to say thanks to Mpow for sending me a sample to review.
Mpow have included a good set of inclusions in the box:
1x Mpow AquaPro Bluetooth speaker
1x micro USB charging cable
1x 3.5mm-to-3.5mm audio cable
1x English Instruction Manual
There’s no power adapter in the box, but the Mpow AquaPro charges via micro USB so pretty much any USB charger should do the job.
Mpow AquaPro Review: Design
The Mpow AquaPro is a surprisingly compact Bluetooth speaker. At around 100x100mm and being reasonably lightweight, it’s the ideal size to chuck into your bag to take around with you.
The unit’s square design is dominated by its large speaker grill, its grey contrasting with the bright green casing. The grills and rear plates feature panel detail and fake screws adding to the rugged aesthetic.
Pretty much everything is hard plastic though so it does feel a little on the cheap side.
The top of the unit houses the device’s four buttons: power, play/pause and skip tracks. To keep the unit waterproof, the buttons are embossed in the plastic frame. This gives the buttons a cheap feel but it’s an understandable design decision.
A rubber flap on the right side hides the unit’s micro USB and Aux in ports. There’s also an SOS button which activates an incredibly loud alarm if you need it.
On terms of build quality, the Mpow AquaPro feels well made though its heavy reliance on plastic does cheapen its feel. It’s designed to be waterproof not ultra-rugged like the Mpow Armor Plus so I can’t image it’ll stand too much physical abuse.
Mpow AquaPro Review: Using It
Charging the internal 800mAh battery via micro USB takes around a couple of hours.
After powering up the unit by holding down the power button, it’s ready to pair. Just select Mpow AquaPro from your smartphone’s Bluetooth menu. The speaker will reconnect automatically to the last paired device quickly.
Music playback is controlled via your smartphone or the onboard controls. The volume buttons also pull double-duty. Holding them down skips tracks.
Aux in works as expected. Just plug the included 3.5mm cable into the speaker and your phone and you can play your favorite tracks from devices that don’t support Bluetooth.
The SOS function is impressively loud, sounding a siren after holding down the button for a few seconds. However, it can only be triggered when the speaker is switched on which is frustrating. If you were in an emergency situation, I hardly doubt you’d want to both power up the speaker and trigger the SOS function when needed.
The Mpow AquaPro is waterproof, capable of being submerged under 1m of water for up to 30 minutes. It’ll also float so it’s also easy to fetch if it falls into a swimming pool or river. That’s an impressive feat that makes the AquaPro an excellent candidate for those with an adventurer streak.
The in-built 800mAh battery should be good for around 8 hours of usage according to Mpow. After a week of regular usage, this seems to be about right.
Mpow AquaPro Review: Sound Quality
The Mpow AquaPro’s audio quality is impressive, particularly when you take into account its waterproof status.
At low to moderate volumes, the speaker sounds fantastic. Audio is nice and clear with good mids and highs, though bass may be a little light for some users. I personally liked how it sounded as I prefer more balanced audio than drowning my tracks in bass.
When you hit maximum volume though, the bass can’t quite keep up, with audio sounding harsher due to dominant mids and highs. Overall clarity is maintained however and I didn’t experience any distortion at all.
It’s important to note that audiophiles aren’t the target audience though, so the waterproofing will be worth the audio quality tradeoff.
The Mpow AquaPro’s volume is independent from your smartphone’s volume. By maxing out both your phone’s and the speaker’s volume, you can output an impressive amount of sound from the unit’s 3W speaker. It’ll be plenty for a small to medium sized room.
Mpow AquaPro Review: Microphone Quality
The Mpow AquaPro also features a built-in microphone. The function is a “nice to have” but the tiny microphone isn’t sensitive enough so the person on the other end tended to have difficulty hearing me. Audio quality when receiving a call was excellent though.
Verdict
The Mpow AquaPro is a great little Bluetooth speaker. It’s compact, well-made and sounds great. Couple that with it’s waterproof design and SOS features, it’s a solid package if you need the extra durability it affords.
Though the plastic feels a little cheap, the Mpow AquaPro is great value and the perfect speaker to accompany you on your adventures.
The Doogee P1 is a tiny portable Android projector that outputs 70 lumens of brightness and includes a 4800mAh battery. I’ve gone hands-on to check out this … Read more
The Zeblaze Cosmo is the latest smartwatch from the company and a followup to the excellent Zeblaze Crystal which I reviewed last year, opting for … Read more
The BlitzWolf BW-LT1 is an 48 LED lamp from the company that offers a range of lighting modes, touch interface and a USB port for charging your gadgets. Is it a useful gadget or waste of money? Read our BlitzWolf BW-LT1 review to find out!
I want to say thanks to Banggood for sending me a sample to review
The lamp itself comes in 3 pieces that need to be assembled. It only takes a few seconds. Insert the lamp into the base and attach it using the screw cap.
BlitzWolf BW-LT1 Review: Design
The Blitzwolf BT-LT1 definitely follows modern stylings, using a minimalist design with clean lines.
The whole unit is made of glossy black plastic that looks fantastic out of the box. However, if you’re handling it regularly, expect it to be covered in fingerprints.
The lamp is designed to be as flexible as possible. When not in use, you can fold it down onto itself, collapsing down to a fraction to its size.
There’s actually three separate hinges, allowing a remarkable amount of flexibility. The bottom hinge allows for 40 degrees, the middle allows for 140 degrees whilst the top lamp section itself can also rotate 180 degrees.
The whole lamp itself can rotate a 180 degrees on its base, allowing you to get the light where you need it.
The angled control panel is located at the bottom of the unit. It features a touch interface, with “buttons” for brightness, the four lighting modes, power and the sleep timer.
It also houses a 2.1A USB port for charging your gadgets around the right side but more on this later.
The lamp’s base is heavy and the rubber and foam padding protects your desk and makes sure the unit doesn’t move.
BlitzWolf BW-LT1 Review: Using It
The lamp comes disassembled in the box. Putting it together is easy. Just slide the lamp body into the base, using the screw-on cap to lock it into place. Plug in the power and when the red power LED is on, you’re ready to go.
The touch panel is quite responsive and I rarely had any issues. Though I did notice that the power button occasionally didn’t respond if I was pressing the power button in quick succession. Given that you’re unlikely to try and use the lamp for a rave, it’s not really a big issue but worth mentioning nevertheless.
There’s four lighting modes on offer here, called Read, Study, Relax and Sleep. It’s clear that BlitzWolf have been paying attention to the recent studies on light temperature. Whilst the Study mode uses a cool white light, believed to improve focus and energy, the sleep mode opts for warmer tones. Similar ideas have shown up in the popular F.lux application and Apple’s new Night Shift Mode.
Clockwise from Top-Left: Read, Study, Relax and Sleep
Each light mode offers 5 brightness levels offer enough flexibility to get a comfortable amount of lighting.
There seems to be a built-in memory for each light mode so the lamp will actually keep track of the brightness per mode which is pretty awesome, particularly if you like it bright for working but dim if you’re wanting to go to sleep. It only works whilst plugged in though so be aware that unplugging it will reset it.
There’s also a 60 minute sleep timer for those that need it which is handy if you want to use it as a side table lamp, though it would have been nice to have shorter times available as I felt 60 minutes was way too long.
Blitzwolf claim that their LEDs offer a CRI (Color Rendering Index – a measure of how accurately a light source reveals colors) of above 90, suggesting that the light should be able to reveal colors faithfully. This makes the light perfect for those working with colors regularly, such as photographers, videographers and graphic designers.
The USB charging port worked but I wasn’t able to achieve the 2.1a current draw that Blitzwolf claims the lamp is capable of outputting but this could be due to the various devices I tried to charge. My USB power meter only registered a draw of 0.95A when my iPhone 6 was connected. Voltage output generally hovered between 4.9-4.95V which remains within USB’s 5V specifications.
Verdict
I was impressed with the BlitzWolf BW-LT1. It’s a little pricey for some, but the amount of flexibility on offer here, combined with a stylish design makes it a solid contender.
From the 48 LEDs that sip power to the various lighting modes that let you tailor the lighting to your needs, if you’re wanting a lamp that does more than just provide light, I’d strongly recommend taking a look.
Getting One
You can purchase the BlitzWolf BW-LT1 from Banggood.
The Blitzwolf BW-MP1 is a small LED projector with a variety of intelligent features built in for under $100. Sporting an 800×480 pixel resolution, 1200 lumens of brightness and built-in wifi, is this the ultimate budget projector?
I want to say thanks to Banggood for sending me a sample to review.
Blitzwolf have given you everything you need to get started:
1x Blitzwolf BW-MP1 LED Projector
1x IR Remote
1x Composite Cable
1x Power Cable
1x English User Manual
Blitzwolf BW-MP1 Projector Review: Design
The Blitzwolf BW-MP1’s design keeps the standard projector stylings. It’s a medium-sized rectangle with some raised geometric features that add character.
The front sports the unit’s large projector lens – protected by a rubber lens cap that’s only held in place by friction. As such, it has trouble staying in place and won’t grip unless the lens is fully retracted. I wish the company opted for a more robust system, particularly given that they’re positioning it as portable.
Just above the lens is two dials for focus and keystone correction to get the best image possible.
There’s also a set of controls on the unit for navigating menus and controlling media playback.
Ports are located on the right and rear sides. The right side features a 3.5mm audio output jack, composite video output, HDMI In, an SD card slot and two USB ports, although one can only be used for charging devices whilst the other can be used for media playback.
The back of the unit has an IR sensor and VGA port (tucked under the rear vent).
If you can’t mount the projector directly in front of the screen, there’s a small riser that will allow you to angle the projector up. It’s a pretty handy solution to a common problem, particularly if you’re using it portably.
Blitzwolf BW-MP1 Projector Review: Using It
The projector is switched on via the post button at the top of the unit. It takes a few seconds to boot up before you see the menu.
The first thing you’ll notice is the sound of the fan that keeps the unit cool. It’s not exactly quiet so prepare to hear it during quiet scenes. However, it’s quieter than other cheap protectors such as the UNIC UC40.
The UI is exactly the same as the one seen in projectors such as the UNIC UC46. It’s bright and colorful, with separate tiles for movies, photos, music and text.
The file browser is functional but nothing special. Icons represent files and folders, though I wish the file/folder icons were more distinctive to make it easier to tell them apart. One thing that was frustrating (and was the same with the UNIC UC46) was that you need to press the play button to start playing a video as the OK button just adds it to the playlist. It feels like either OK or Play should be able to start the video.
The unit’s media player handles the most common codecs well. I was able to play 30fps H.264 videos, MPEG2 and the like, though don’t expect more demanding videos to work. 4K H.264, H.265 and Hi10p samples didn’t play at all.
Also note that Dolby audio isn’t supported so those files play without audio. If you need Dolby audio, you’ll either need to transcode the files or add a dedicated media player.
Blitzwolf BW-MP1 Projector Review: Image Quality
As with my other budget projector reviews, I’ll prefix this section by saying that it’s important to remember I’m talking about a sub-$100 projector and image quality won’t be as good as a proper home theatre projector. That said, they also cost significantly more so it isn’t really fair to put them face-to-face.
The Blitzwolf BW-MP1 claims to offer 1200 lumens of brightness but it isn’t enough to produce a bright image in a well-lit room.
Turning off the lights makes a massive difference however, with a bright image with colors that are fantastically vivid.
I was able to project a fairly large image too. At around 2.5m away, I was able to project an image equivalent of a 90+ inch screen which is great for an immersive viewing experience.
Out of the box, picture quality is average with everything looking awful and oversaturated regardless of which image preset you choose.
However, after adjusting the picture settings playing with the settings, I was able to get a really nice looking image, with lots of detail.
The projector’s 800×480 pixel resolution is on-par with DVDs. Most of you will be used to glorious 1080p so the drop in image quality can take some getting used to but there’s enough detail for movies or gaming.
The image sharpness does soften towards the edges of the image and using keystone correction makes this worse (due to how these units do the keystone correction). The effect is particularly noticeable where fine detail is involved such as on the menu but it’s not significant enough to make it unreadable.
Blitzwolf BW-MP1 Projector Review: Audio Quality
The Blitzwolf BW-MP1 features a tiny 1.5W downward firing speaker, making the unit pretty much plug and play. However, the speaker performs about as well as you’d expect, lacking bass and sounding tinny. I’d strongly recommend hooking up a good quality speaker such as the Blitzwolf F1 Bluetooth speaker via the projector’s 3.5mm audio output.
One of the biggest features of the Blitzwolf BW-MP1 is “BW-Link”. This is a wifi-based streaming solution that allows you to stream content via Miracast, DLNA and Airplay without any wires.
Setting it up is simple. Just connect to the SSID on the screen and then navigate to the provided IP address to get to the projector’s web interface.
The web interface itself is hideous and really hurts the device’s presentation. It looks like something you’d expect to see on Geocities, complete with terrible GIFs and a lack of design consistency. It’s the same as the one on the UNIC UC46 but I’d hoped Blitzwolf would have fixed this up.
In it, you can set up wifi, switch between DLNA and Miracast streaming and use a web-based remote. That said, I couldn’t wait to never use the interface again and you really don’t need to once you’re hooked up to your wifi network thankfully.
The actual streaming part worked really well. Video streaming from my server using BubbleUPNP worked flawlessly. 720p and 1080p H.264 videos streamed via WiFi without any buffering.
Miracast worked fine with my Samsung Galaxy S4, allowing me to mirror my screen easily.
AirPlay and AirPlay mirroring also worked well on my iPhone 6 running iOS9. I did have the occasional issue where the next video wouldn’t play but this is sadly common with most unofficial Airplay implementations.
Should You Get One?
The Blitzwolf BW-MP1 is a great budget LED projector and a steal at its sub-$100 price tag. For such a low price, you’re getting a unit that’s capable of outputting a nice and large picture in addition to a variety of useful features such as the in-built media player and wireless streaming functions. Whilst an awful web UI and disappointing image presets let down the package, you’re getting a great source of entertainment for a reasonably small outlay.
Getting One
You can get the Blitzwolf BW-MP1 from Banggood for around $99.
