Technology – On T' Internet

HP Spectre x360 13″ OLED review

Almost perfect for me, just a couple of minor compromises

I bought this convertible laptop after my previous purchase of a Dell XPS 13 9350 died and had to be returned to the manufacturer. This laptop had the slight compromise of no USB type-C port, and only 8GB of RAM, rather than 16, but had the benefit of a convertible OLED screen.

The OLED screen is just amazing – the colours just pop from the screen, and it’s so bright, that even with the glossy screen it’s perfectly usable outside. Inside, in a dull room, you really don’t need it on any brighter than 20%. You can also view the screen from almost any angle, but you get a yellow tinge when you’re almost level with the edges. It’s a quad HD screen, and no matter how close I get, I still can’t make out a single pixel. It’s also always nice when you power on a laptop for the first time and you can see that there are no dead or stuck pixels.
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Dell XPS 13 9350 Review

A noisy machine that will mutate into an expensive paperweight

I’m very sad to report that my Dell XPS 13 9350, with core-i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD has had to be returned to the manufacturer (at their insistence, I’d rather have had it fixed under the warranty I bought with it). Most of this review was written in the first few days, when the problems I saw I’d put down to other issues such as my external display lead or Windows. After the motherboard was replaced though, it lasted less than 24 hours, before Dell support insisted there was nothing they could do other than collect the machine and issue a refund. Note that I am an IT consultant with well over 20 years in the field – this is a review from a seasoned professional, who understands that computers don’t always work first time!
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Plunc – Recycle your old iPad

Mrs Zoo Keeper has not used her iPad mini (1st gen, 16GB, white) for a number of months now, so she decided to start the process of offloading it. Apple products tend to hold their value well, so selling it seemed to be a good idea.

Having had not too great an experience with fleaBay recently, when selling an old Apple iPhone 5S, we considered some of the various recycling sites. After trying a few companies, and getting pretty poor prices compared to the auction sites, we came across https://www.ipad-recycle.co.uk/. They were offering £15 more than their closest rival, and not too far off the expected selling price on fleaBay. They had some great TrustPilot reviews, so we thought we’d give them a shot. Continue reading “Plunc – Recycle your old iPad”

VicTop 3.5mm FM Transmitter Review

This review appears in its original form here, and is for this product listing.

Neat little design, still good if you use a case!

This item arrived in a nicely designed, solid cardboard, printed protective box. The box opened nicely to show a well laid out interior, with the transmitter protected in a plastic packet, with plastic sheets protecting the glossy front and back of the unit. Inside the box were the unit itself, a micro-USB cable, and a car cigarette lighter USB power adapter, along with a basic instruction manual.

I think it’s a nice touch that the power plug has a standard USB socket, so you can use it to either power your phone, or power the device. The device has a battery, and there is a battery level indicator in the display, so you can use it without it being constantly plugged in.
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BestFire Kitchen Scales Review

This review appears in its original form here, and is for this product listing.

Excellent, versatile scales in a very small package!

This item arrived in a glossy, retail style box, inside a strong, protective, brown cardboard box. Inside the box(es) was the unit itself, a pair of batteries (nice!), and two protective caps that double up as measuring trays.

Pop in the included batteries, and take off the covers, and you can power on the machine. There’s a really easy to read screen, with large digits and an awesome blue backlight. I was so surprised at how small this unit is – if you’re using large mixing bowls, you’ll probably want to be looking elsewhere, but if you’re just looking to weigh heavy things (up to 3kg), not necessarily large, then these will suit you just fine.
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