Eono EBC100 10×42 Binoculars with Smartphone Adapter

These are the first binoculars I have tried that came with a smartphone adapter, and so I was keen to give them a try.

The binoculars arrived packaged in an attractive mid-range display box which adds to the appeal as a gift. Inside aside from the binoculars themselves was a semi-rigid carry case, neck strap, eyepiece and lens covers (both prefitted), cleaning cloth, user manual and the smartphone adapter.

The build quality seems fine to me. There was no sign of any production problems, no chaff or swarf left over adhering to the binoculars and from top to bottom the construction seems first rate. The binoculars are slightly lighter at 470g than my usual ones but I soon got used to the reduced weight and bulk. The carry case is slightly padded and is tough enough to protect the contents from liquid and scuffing. The binoculars are finished in a silk-finished rubberised skin and this both looks and feels good. The eyepiece lens covers are soft and flexible but are not fixed to the binoculars as some are and so are liable to be lost. The covers for the big objective lenses are also soft, flexible and easy to fit but are secured to the body by removable bands. The User Guide although basic is relatively large, well written and unlike those with many imported products actually easy to read. I don’t you will need to use it.

The binoculars use BAK-4 Prisms, an improvement evidently on the lesser BAK-7 variety although how evident this is I cannot say but it does mean that obvious corners have not been cut when constructing these binoculars. There is a right adjustable diopter eyepiece – used after focusing the main wheel for the left eye to adjust the right eye focus to balance it – which I found on my review unit it worked perfectly well. The eyepiece rubber cups will fold back to make life easier for us spectacle wearers and when viewing I found the image to bright and sharp with no colour fringing or other obvious optical aberrations. They are light enough for easy use but weighty enough to give a quality feel and to hold easily to the eyes for sustained periods without trembling.

The included smartphone adapter is cleverly designed although does not feel quite so well made as the binoculars themselves. The adapter clips over the camera lens of your phone and then over one of the binocular eyepieces to produce a circular image on the camera screen. The binoculars can then be focused in the usual way to produce a sharp and bright image. Getting this set up can be a bit tricky but it should work with pretty much any phone given time.

This is a good quality pair of binoculars fine for general purpose use. The current £36.79 price is fine for the quality of the product and it is hard to find a reason not to give them a good rating.

The Good
Good build quality
BAK-4 Prisms optics
Suitable for glasses wearers
Good User Guide
Nice packaging
Padded carry case

The Bad
Smartphone Adapter Fiddly To Use
No Tripod Mount

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OYIB RS7 Bluetooth 5.3 Wireless Earbuds

Featuring the latest Bluetooth 5.3 technology, IPX7 water resistence, USB-C charging as well a case design new to me, this has to be one of the most technically advanced sporting headsets I have tried yet. But is it any good?

I am not usually a fan of the over ear design but it usually does make for superior sound quality as well as a more secure fitting and this is the case here too. This new headset is larger in size, both the buds and case, then the in ear rivals but the larger case and buds are more difficult to lose and fitting them into the case is easier.

There was a time when you had to pay plenty to get decent quality True Wireless Earbuds but the introduction of Bluetooth 5.0 seems to have changed all that. Before Bluetooth 5.0 all but the most expensive TW earbuds would continually drop out, crackle, pop and generally prove more trouble than they were worth. As technology develops each headset is better than the last and this new set which features the latest Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and USB-C charging has some of the hardware on board.

In the box were the over ear buds together with a short USB charging cable, three pairs of gels (one fitted), a slightly larger than normal mat black finished charging case, and a well written and easy to read User Guide. The case is lighter in weight than you might expect but everything has a quality look and feel to it.

First time pairing could not be simpler and took just a few seconds. Simply remove the two buds from the case and pair in the usual way to your phone looking for the device name RS7. Subsequently, taking the buds from the case powers them on, they connect to each other and to the phone automatically, returning them to the case turns them off and begins charging.

The Lithium-ion case battery can recharge the buds around 5 times, giving a total of around 40 hours of music. A full charge will give around 8 hours playtime from each bud, with one hour from a ten minute charge. There are displays on both the buds and case bud to show charging and connection status with the buds will charge automatically when placed into the case. The case features an unusual design with the case battery status shown inside the case next to that for the buds. These over ear format buds are easy to remove from the magnetic case and holding the stem prevents accidental button presses, for me a major selling point.

The earbuds use the latest Bluetooth 5.3 technology which is supported by the latest high-end smartphones but of course, they will also work with older Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth 5 adds a longer range of up to 15m, reduced latency and greatly improves both the stability of the wireless connection and battery life.

The buds are neat and comfortable to wear and are far less intrusive than many over ear rivals. Sound quality is excellent for a sports headset with a very decent level of bass together with clean mid-tones and a sibilance free high end. Calls were clear to hear and easy to make. I found call quality to be fine at each end of the conversation with no dropouts or excessive background noise.

Each bud has a single soft touch button on it which can be used to end/reject calls, play/pause music, navigate tracks, alter volume and invoke your phone’s voice assistant. This works well and is easy to use. The buds are IPX7 water resistant rating and should be fine in the rain or at the beach but not for swimming.

Currently discounted from £39.99 to just £23.99, they are incredibly well priced for the technology available, indeed this headset compares very well with the high-end rivals I have tried as regards sound quality and features. You would need to go a long way to find a better sporting wireless for anywhere near this price.

The Good
Lightweight
Comfortable
Good Audio Quality
Good Build Quality
Auto On/Off
Bluetooth 5.3
Magnetic Case
PPX 7 Waterproof

The Bad
No Apt-X Codec

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Lovcoyo Handheld Vacuum Cleaner

Priced on Amazon at just a penny less than £30 this lightweight but powerful rechargeable handheld cleaner has to be one of the most powerful I have so far tried in the sub £100 price bracket. This vacuum comes with a set of tools and accessories, can clean wet or dry spills and has a suction power of 6000pa from a 120w motor.

In the attractive but deceptively small product box was the Vacuum cleaner itself, extension hose, crevice nozzle, brush head, small cleaning brush, HEPA filter (fitted), storage bag, USB charging cable, and a short but well-written User Guide. No carry case or wall mount are included, which is a pity.

Although the device feels lighter than others I have tried and is smaller at 9.5 x 10.5 x 8.5 cm with a weight of 700g and bin capacity of 500ml, nevertheless, the build quality seems OK with nothing apart from the very flimsy extension hose looking likely to fail anytime soon.

When it came to testing the cleaner I was not expecting too much as previous handheld vacuums I have used have not performed well. In fact, the cleaning power was excellent and exceeded my expectations. I found the device more than capable of handling minor spills and spillages in the kitchen as well as doing a decent job in the car. The built-in HEPA filter can deal with particles as small as as small as 0. 3 microns in size. Don’t throw your Dyson away yet, this little cleaner is not in that league, but for the size and money, it did an excellent job. Quiet in operation it can cope with wet and dry spills and it comes with a washable filter which just snaps free from the dust bin to be washed. I was impressed by the extra cleaning heads included and using them did not seem to reduce the suction power in any way, again, unlike with previous rivals. A bonus is the switchable front-facing LED lamp which is handy when cleaning in corners or under worksurfaces.

Charging the device’s 2000mAh lithium-ion battery takes two to three hours and gives around twenty-five minutes of cleaning time. It charges from any USB A power source, so finding a charging point should be no problem. An LED on the charging cable changes from red to green when charging is completed.

This is a decent quality device for the budget price, lightweight and compact sized, it is powerful enough to deal with minor spills and upsets at a price that will not break the bank.

The Good
Great Price
Lightweight
Powerful Suction
Good Accessories
USB Charging
Washable HEPA Filter

The Bad
No Wall Mount
No Carry Bag
Poor Extension Tube
Non Standard USB Cable

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Amisglass Whiskey Decanter And Glass Set

I was expecting too much here but in fact, I was pleasantly surprised by this new three piece decanter set from Amisglass for the price of a touch under £30.

The set itself, which consists of a 9 x 21.5 cm 700 ml decanter and two 8.3 x 9.5 cm 300 ml glasses, has got some weight to it, the engraving feels like it has been cut and not moulded and the lead free glass is crystal clear. This does not feel like a high end glassware set but neither does it feel cheap and nasty. It is a perfectly decent decanter fit for use in the home bar or at the dinner table

The only letdown with the set is the presentation. It was very well protected in heavy-duty cardboard with thick foam protection. The box itself was plain brown cardboard when a tastefully designed themed lightweight outer box should also have been used.

Nobody is going to think this is Waterford crystal, but this is a nice enough set and you would be doing well to find anything better for the price.

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Eono ETP25 Flexible Tripod Review

There are a vast number of flexible leg mini tripods out there but this one is better than most and at £15.99 discounted from £19.99 will certainly not break the bank. The price is pretty typical for this type of tripod but this one has a quality professional feel to it that many of the others lack.

In the box were the tripod itself, phone mount, smartphone adapter, and a simple but well written user guide. Build quality seems fine and better than expected for the price.

The sturdy tripod legs are fully flexible and completely waterproof with tough anti-slip rubber skin, a big improvement on the plastic tiles too often used. The camera mount is a standard ball and socket type which will firmly hold any small to medium-sized camera or phone with a standard 1/4-inch mounting screw thread. The included smartphone clamp takes phones between 1.9 and 3.9 inches wide and I was pleased to see the clamp has threads for horizontal and verticle mounting. The tripod can support weights up to 2.2 lb, enough for a DSLR with a medium telephoto lens in place.

The octopus style legs can be bent and folded to almost any position to allow the tripod to be clamped to any object they can fold around. The legs can be quickly folded together to serve as a handgrip for a mounted camera. Due to their size, they are a little stiffer to use than some others but the rubber skin and thicker core ultimately give them a firmer grip when in place. The sealed skin on the legs means there is no danger of water getting inside, as often happens with lesser rivals. The inner core is made from aluminium alloy for strength and additional corrosion protection.

There is a built-in ball and socket head giving 360° coverage for any mounted camera or phone with an easy access knob to lock it in position. There is no quick-release plate here which is probably no bad thing as the small sized ones are usually poorly made and unstable. The build quality of the head is equal to that of the tripod itself and has a reassuring professional feel to it.

This is a well made mini tripod that comes with all the adapters you are likely to need and is a step up from the no-name budget rivals which cannot last the course. For the budget price seems a decent buy.

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OYIB MD058A Bluetooth 5.3 Wireless Earbuds

The tech inside this headset seems to be the new norm for budget priced true wireless earbuds, as I have found it in multiple headsets I have tried. That is no criticism as all these new era headsets works well, sound good and are easy to use and this newly updated model from OYIB is no exception.

Featuring the latest Bluetooth 5.3 technology, USB-C charging as well as no less than 4 microphones this has to be one of the most technically advanced true wireless headsets I have tried yet. But is it any good?

I am not usually a fan of the AirPod style stem design but it usually does make for superior sound quality as well as a more secure fitting and this is the case here too. This new headset is compact in size, both the buds and case, with a glossy black finish that is otherwise similar in design to the many rivals out there.

There was a time when you had to pay plenty to get decent quality True Wireless Earbuds but the introduction of Bluetooth 5.0 seems to have changed all that. Before Bluetooth 5.0 all but the most expensive TW earbuds would continually drop out, crackle, pop and generally prove more trouble than they were worth. As technology develops each headset is better than the last and this new set which features the latest Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and USB-C charging has some of the hardware on board.

In the box were the two buds together with a short USB charging cable, a compact sized glossy pink charging case, and a well written and easy to read User Guide. Despite the light weight, everything has a quality feel to it but without the weightiness of some rivals.

First time pairing could not be simpler and took just a few seconds. Simply remove the two buds from the case and pair in the usual way to your phone looking for the label MD058A. Subsequently, taking the buds from the case powers them on, they connect to each other and to the phone automatically, returning them to the case turns them off and begins charging.

The Lithium-ion case battery can recharge the buds around 4 times, giving a total of around 25 hours of music. There are displays on both the buds and case bud to show charging and connection status with the buds will charge automatically when placed into the case. The case LED display shows the current battery status of both the case and individual buds. These stem format buds are easy to remove from the magnetic case and holding the stem prevents accidental button presses, for me a major selling point.

The earbuds use the latest Bluetooth 5.3 technology which is supported by the latest high-end smartphones but of course, they will also work with older Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth 5 adds a longer range of up to 15m and greatly improves both the stability of the wireless connection and battery life.

The buds are small, neat and comfortable to wear and will deliver up to 5 hours of music per charge. Sound quality is excellent for a TW headset with a very decent level of bass together with clean mid-tones and a sibilance free high end. Calls were clear to hear and easy to make. I found call quality to be fine at each end of the conversation with no dropouts or excessive background noise. Sound quality is enhanced further for calls by the use of twin microphones in each bud.

Each bud has a single soft touch button on it which can be used to end/reject calls, play/pause music, navigate tracks, alter volume and invoke your phone’s voice assistant. This works well and is easy to use. The buds are IPX7 water resistant rating and should be fine in the rain or at the beach but not for swimming.

Currently discounted from £29.99 to just £17.99, they are incredibly well priced for the technology available, indeed this headset compares very well with the high-end rivals I have tried as regards sound quality and features. You would need to go a long way to find a better True Wireless Headset at this price.

The Good
Lightweight
Comfortable
Good Audio Quality
Good Build Quality
Auto On/Off
Bluetooth 5.3
Magnetic Case
PPX 7 Waterproof

The Bad
No Apt-X Codec

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TBHATFY TB1001 Computer Soundbar

This is not a soundbar designed to work with your TV, it is a computer soundbar which sits on your desk in front of your monitor, is, although it will work with any Bluetooth or 3.5mm jack connected sound source. The stying of the unit is certainly designed with the computer in mind with large top-panel controls and with the speaker output at an angle facing the user. It looks good too, positioned below my PC with the main controls and arm’s reach away.

In the box were the SoundBar, micro-USB charging cable, audio cable and a well written and easy to read User Guide. Build quality seems fine, the device seems very robust with nothing looking likely to break or fail. The whole soundbar has a very subtle smooth silk black finish which is attractive to the eye and the touch.

The front of the device is plain with nothing visible other than the speakers dimly behind the grill covering the whole front panel. On the rear is a bay with ports for 3.5mm audio, TF Card, USB-A, and a standard micro-USB power-in port with next to it the power on/off turret switch. I was pleased to see that a standard USB power cable can be used, a pleasing change from rivals using a non-standard and hard to replace card. On top are large, easy-access buttons for mode selection (USB, TF Card, Aux, Bluetooth), track selection and play/pause/Calls. The small microphone aperture and charging status LED are here too.

The unit is rechargeable with a two hour charge given multiple hours of use with a small status LED confiming charging status. The speaker can operate normally when charging, so there is no need to unplug it.

Bluetooth pairing is quick and simple. Turn the speaker on and it will default to Bluetooth mode, turn your phone to pairing mode and connect to ’TB1001’. A voice prompt will confirm the connection as it does with any change of operating mode.

The unit packs quite a punch from the two polypropylene drivers, with a decent bass level even when limited by the size of the device at 2.7 x 17.5 x 2.7 inches with a weight of just a touch under two pounds. For the size, it must be said the sound output is pretty impressive. That may be in part due to the clever 15-degree oblique angle sound propagation design which drives the sound forward and upwards towards the listener.

For me, the main feature is the use of Bluetooth 5 technology, one of the first I have tried in a soundbar. Bluetooth 5 is a big step forward and gives easier pairing, reduced lag, greater range and a more stable connection. Certainly, I found pairing could not be easier and with none of the usual latency found with older Bluetooth devices.

This new soundbar, currently available for $49.99 before discounts, will make a very decent addition to your home computer office setup.

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Eono EBC70 10 x 25 Compact Binoculars

Priced at just £23.99 before discounts, you have to wonder just how Eono can make a profit. It is not like these are cheap and nasty binoculars, they are not, they are well made and have a premium feel to them. If they were on sale in a specialist shop I would expect to see them priced much higher. And these are not even the cheapest out there.

Inside the branded product box were the binoculars themselves, a lanyard cord, a small cleaning cloth, a soft carry bag, and a small but well-printed User Guide. I enclose a scan of the key pages of the User Guide in my unboxing video, but it does not really tell anything you do not already know.

Build quality seems first-rate. The binoculars are solidly made with a tough rubberised skin with the lenses made from FMC blue film coated optical glass with light transmittance of 99.5%. They feel robust, well made and unlikely to fail anytime soon. The multicoated lenses have a magnification of 12x with an objective lens diameter of 25mm, a Bak-4 roof prism with a field of view of 294ft/1000yds and an Angle of Field of 7.5°. There is a focusing wheel in the centre and the right eyepiece has a dioptre focus ring to allow for variations between the eyes.

Weighing in at 276 grams the binoculars are 6 x 9 x 12 cm in size and sit well in the hand and nicely in the pocket even when in their case, which has a belt loop for those with small pockets. As with all miniature binoculars getting used to the small apertures can take time but the eyepieces have a rubber surround to make using them with glasses easier. Image quality for the price is excellent with little sign of chromatic aberrations, or colour fringing. Due to the limited 25mm lens diameter, which means they pull in less light, the image can be a bit dim in certain conditions as would be the case with any similar binoculars.

These binoculars are great for medium distances objects in daylight rather than for large vistas and certainly not for astronomy. They can also be used in the theatre, as what used to be called opera glasses, to get a better view. They are small and discreet enough to be kept in the pocket or car glovebox to be on hand for when needed.

To focus the binoculars, close the right eye and rotate the centre knob until the image is sharp and in focus. Then close the left eye and rotate the knurled ring on the right eyepiece until it is sharp and in focus also.

I still find it hard to believe that a decent quality set of binoculars can be produced for this price. If you need a set of mini binoculars for occasional use then these would be an excellent buy.

The Good
Great Price
Good Build Quality
Good Optics
Soft Carry Case

The Bad
No Hard Carry Case
Limited Low Light Performance

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DBPOWER 17.9″ Portable DVD Player Review

DBPower is a name well known in tech circles for the range and quality of their products and this new stand-alone DVD player is no exception.
It can play multi-region DVDs and audio discs, along with a wide range of files on SD cards or USB drives.

In the large but attractively designed box can be found the player itself, a UK power adapter, remote control, remote control battery set, car power adapter, RCA cable set, and a nicely printed and easy to read user guide.

Build quality seems fine, the DVD player is far lighter at 2.6Kg than might be expected for the 17.9″ size but it feels well made and robust. The remote control is fairly small with a large number of tiny and hard to decipher buttons but the build quality is good and it feels well made enough.

Looking at the player itself, it has a large and bright 15.6″ LCD screen with a 1200 x 800 pixel resolution. The discs are loaded into a top opening panel on the inside face of the unit and is surrounded by a range of controls, all with large buttons and a positive clicky operation. On one side is a port bay containing a USB A port, full sized SD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack port, RCA in and out ports, a Power On/Off slider and a power in port.

On the left of the disc bay are buttons for Mode, Subtitles, Audio, Mute, Rewind, and Fast Forward. Next to it is a jog wheel for Volume and Forward/Back with in the centre a button to call up the Settings menu. On the right of the disc compartment are buttons for TFT On/Off, USB/Card input, Setup, Stop, Play/Pause, and Up, Down, Right, Left navigation. Selecting Settings gives access to a wide range of options to allow for almost every situation, but probably most users will not need to go there.

The remote control is well made with a good positive feel to the buttons. It has no less than 44 buttons and allows almost every feature to be selected and controlled but the small size of the buttons make this a difficult and confusing task. In any case, I doubt many people will want to use this device with a remote. The cables and accessories are pretty much standard and of decent quality.

The region-free unit can play DVDs, CDs and most types of audio and video files on disc, SD card or external USB drive. It can also connect to external devices using the supplied RCA cables but sadly there is no HDMI port or Bluetooth connection option. However, you can connect external source devices and view the output on the DVD player screen.

I have to say the video and audio quality are better than I expected, previous players I have tested have not been good, Video is good and bright, sharp and with well saturated colours. I did find the angle of view to be quite tight and it is best to sit directly facing the screen for best results. The screen is ball and socket mounted and can be swivelled and rotated to almost any position to make viewing easier.

This is a nice device, well made and easy to use and target, I suspect, at no techy users that will not mind the absence of HDMI and Bluetooth and will use this to revive and enjoy their collections of old DVDs and CDs.

Not a bad buy, I think, for a penny under £100

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Torchtree Solar Watering Can Light Review

I was not expecting too much from this novelty garden light, but in fact in the right setting, it is rather nice and not a bad buy for just £13.99.

In the plain unbranded box, you get the 720g, 21 x 14.5 x 20 cm, watering can in three parts – the body, the spout and the handle, all seem to be made of lightweight brass and clip together for use. Included is a large ground spike hook from which the watering can is suspended in use, the ground spike is made from lightweight metal in four parts and screws together. The solar panel/battery box unit is made from plastic and forms the lid of the unit with the on/off power switch on the underside. A thin wire from the battery box connects to the trailing LED light strips which emerge from the watering can spout. The kit comes with a credit card sized remote control with 28 dedicated and clearly marked soft-touch buttons. Finally, a rather poorly printed two page user guide is included which explains the use and operation of the unit.

Build quality is lightweight, as to be expected for the price, but it all fits together well enough and looks the part when in place. Although it is waterproof and designed for outdoor use nevertheless I would suggest taking it indoors for the winter to be on the safe side.

Care needs to be taken to get the best from this light. Make sure to locate it where it can get the maximum amount of sunlight for the solar panel and then take time to position the strings from the spout in as natural a way as possible to give the effect of a flow of light.

Operation is simple enough. Turn the switch on the underside of the solar panel to On – the unit will then charge during the day and come on at dusk if left unattended. The remote control can be used to activate a timer, vary the brightness, select a colour or chose one of eight multi-colour operating modes.

The overall effect is as good as you chose to make it and in the right setting when properly configured it can be remarkable and far better than can be expected for the budget price.

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