Amazon UK Tech Roundup: August 2016

Geega S207 Bluetooth Speaker Review

These speakers are stylish, sound very good and come in at a very reasonable price.  It’s got a nice boom-box style design and the red speaker grill is fairly striking. The control buttons across the top are functional and allow you to answer phone calls as well as being media controls.

Sound-quality wise these sound very good for such a small unit. Reproduction is very good, even over Bluetooth. As other reviews mention they could be lacking a little bit of bass, but personally I didn’t find this to be too much of an issue. Obviously the way speakers sound is a matter of personal preference but if you are going to be buying these speakers you are not expecting top of the line sound reproduction as these are a small, Bluetooth set.

Having Bluetooth speakers opens up many possibilities, but my favourite part about using these is taking them out and about with me. These are small, light and therefore very easy to carry around with you to places such as the park – so you can enjoy some of your music while hanging out in the great outdoors. The charge on these lasts a very good while so you don’t have to stress too much about running out of juice.

Overall these speakers are very nifty and great for the price – so I’m giving them 5 stars.

Venstar S209 Bluetooth Headphones Review

Overall this is a really nice set of headphones that really reminds me of the ‘Beats by Dre’ series of headphones. There is a focus on style and presentation, even with the product packaging. On top of this the headphones are also fairly bass-heavy, much like the Beats’ offerings. However, they don’t carry the inflated price tag like Beats which is an area the company draws a lot of criticism from.

The black and red colour scheme gives the headphones a sleek, stylish look. The included carry case features the same colours and is nice and solid making it a very welcome addition. The controls on the right ear cup are quite handy once you get to learn the positioning of them so you can change tracks and the volume whilst they are still on your head.

The earphones are very comfortable, which for me is probably the second most important thing on a pair of headphones, after sound quality. I have worn these for long periods of time and not experienced any issues. The ear cups are large enough to surround your entire ear without squashing them and have a nice amount of padding. Now these are advertised as having ‘passive noise cancelling’, which is true but this is probably not the noise cancelling you are thinking of. Passive noise cancelling is essentially just using the material of the headphones to block external noise – so in this case, the big foam earcups.

Sound-wise as I mentioned earlier these are bassy headphones. Obviously this suits certain genres of music over others but remember that you can always adjust or lower the bass levels on your device. The sound is crisp and clear and I was very satisfied with the performance. Over Bluetooth the headphones utilise AptX to provide better quality transmission.

Havit Mechanical Keyboard HV KB378L Review

This is cheap for a mechanical keyboard and to be honest when I received this I did not expect it to this good. I was expecting a decent keyboard but the Havit really surpassed this. You would expect a budget keyboard to be flimsy, the Havit is definitely not. It has excellent build quality, is a very solid unit and even the wrist support is well made (which is where most budget keyboards suffer).

Some other reviewers have mentioned that this keyboard is loud, but it is a mechanical keyboard so that is a given. It has blue switches, now these are not Cherry switches but I have not been able to notice a difference. They are lovely and responsive while both typing and gaming and the keys have a nice amount of resistance.

The RGB lighting on this keyboard is amazing, there are countless possibilities. As this is a plug and play keyboard there is no option to save profiles, but the overall lighting definitely makes up for this. There are numerous modes with lots of little quirky lighting effects I haven’t ever seen on any keyboard before. Havit have been fresh and inventive with their lighting patters and customisation options and it is really refreshing to see.

This is a budget keyboard, but its performance is up there with the best of them. People often say once you try your first mechanical keyboard you can never go back to a regular one – well I would highly recommend this – it’s cheap and really a pleasure to use.

iMice V8 Gaming Mouse by Bengoo

The Bengoo gaming mouse is an iMice V8 and its price puts it firmly in the budget category. It is advertised jam-packed full of features, such as 4000DPI and the 6 multifunction buttons.

The mouse has a nice weight to it and feels pretty solid. It is comfortable to use, although I have big hands and this means my pinky finger hangs off this mouse a little more than I would ideally like it to.

RGB lighting is very popular amongst gamers PC enthusiasts at the moment and I feel that this will probably be the major attraction for most people purchasing this mouse. The mouse has four colour choices that change as you adjust the mouse’s sensitivity (DPI). These colours are red, blue, green and purple and these lights ‘pulse’ whilst the mouse is connected. Aesthetically the mouse has a typical ‘gaming’ look, futuristic and spaceship-esque.

Performance wise the V8 seemed perfectly adequate. It is responsive and very easy to adjust DPI on the fly with the toggle on the back of the mouse. Personally I didn’t like using this mouse straight onto the desk, but with a mousepad it was a much more pleasant experience.

I am used to using high-end gaming mice and the differences between these and the Bengoo V8 is definitely noticeable. However this mouse is a lot cheaper and for the price it performs well. I think this is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a gaming mouse on a budget – it has all of the key features you would want and the lighting is a major draw.

ieGeek OTG USB cable

It’s hard to get excited about a USB cable but this really does add a lot of functionality that you might not have considered before as the majority Android devices don't come with OTG adapters included.

As well as supporting the standard data transfer and fast
charging this cable also adds the OTG (on the go) capabilities. This allows you
to charge device to device which is particularly handy for accessories, such as
charging wireless headphones while you’re out and about. On top of this, the
cable also allows you to connect a phone or keyboard to your device which is
nice if you have to type long emails or documents on mobile or tablet.

However, my favourite capability of the cable is that it
gives you the ability to connect external USB storage to your device. This
opens up so many possibilities. For example connecting an SD card reader and
uploading photos straight from your camera’s memory card to social media sites.

I travel a lot and prefer to travel light and so don’t
travel with a laptop. The lack of a laptop poses certain issues, but the OTG cable
solves many of these. You can back up photos from your phone straight to a USB
or external hard drive, both of which are much easier to transport than a
laptop. Perhaps my favourite part is being able to access the media from a USB
stick on your phone. This allows me to watch films or listen to music without
having to sacrifice valuable storage space on my device.

This cable really does add a lot of functionality and at £6
it’s not that much more expensive than a standard cable – so definitely worth a
look. However I would say that the cable was a bit stiff going into my devices
and you had to give it a bit of a shove. I would have liked that action to be a
lot smoother as it is a crucial part of the operation.

Huion H610 Graphics Tablet 2016 Review

I have uploaded a Youtube video review of the H610 Graphics Tablet which I feel is a great way of getting a feel for the product – I think it would definitely be worth your while to take a 2 minute look at it if you are considering buying this tablet (PC4Free Huion H610 Review).

I’m going to start off with my conclusions before going into more detail. First and foremost this a budget tablet and is priced very reasonably in comparison to its competitors. However for a budget price this performs excellently and offers great value for money.  The tablet does everything you need it to do and at a great price. My only gripe is that the stylus is battery powered (1x AAA battery) but at this price point it is inevitable that sacrifices would have to be made in some areas.

The tablet itself is sleek and lightweight.  The 8 physical buttons down the left hand side and the 16 ‘soft’ buttons along the top are all programmable through the driver software provided with the tablet. This driver software also allows you to adjust the pen’s pressure sensitivity and map the drawing area of your tablet. This is very easy to set up and the instructions included are surprisingly detailed, giving you advice on how to optimise the performance of the device. As several other reviews have mentioned the surface has a slight grip to it when drawing with the stylus. I’m a big fan of this as it replicates the sensation of drawing on paper.

The stylus is also light and very comfortable in the hand – it feels like you are holding a normal pen. It does require a battery as I mentioned earlier and I would really have liked to seen a USB charging function instead.

Overall the experience of setting up and drawing on the H610 is very pleasant and as a budget table it does everything it needs to do and it does it well.

How to create a recovery USB for Windows 8 and 10