OCDAY Gaming Headset G3300

This new headset from OCDAY is a rebranded model I have used before and it emphasises comfort and sound quality rather than flashing lights, novelties and gimmicks. This is a headset designed for extended gaming sessions and for this it works well.

In the box can be found the headset, cable splitter, and User Guide. Build quality seems fine and although the headset is quite lightweight, build quality is good and nothing seems likely to fail anytime soon.

Lightweight and designed for extended comfortable wear, nevertheless the headset seems robust, strong, and more attractively designed than most gamer headsets I have tried – which is not saying much. It is nicely padded with PU leather and memory foam earcups, which are of the over-ear type and on the headband which is wider than most. It is comfortable and easy to wear even for long gaming sessions. The headset has separate 3.5mm plugs for audio out and microphone but an adapter is included to combine the signal for use with computers or other devices with a composite socket. The braided audio cable is longer than normal at 2.1m. There is no in-line control pod but the large volume thumbwheel and mic mute switch are on the headset itself, a faster and more intuitive solution. The non-detachable microphone rotates up and down when needed but does not get in the way when folded back.

Although this headset does have LED lights, the only purpose of the USB plug as there is no vibration engine, they are subtle and discreet and not annoying. For me, this is far better than the glaring and garish in your face type.

The compact hard-wired microphone stalk is can be flipped up out of the way and unlike with some I have tried the microphone audio is clear and easy to hear the other end.

How does it sound?
The audio quality is good and worth paying a little more for at the £29.99 price tag. There is good bass, although not overpowering, with the mid and higher frequencies being clear and well defined without being sharp or abrasive. When both gaming and listening to music it is becomes a very immersive and enjoyable experience. From a pure gaming viewpoint the lack of direct talkback through the console is a drawback but the fine sound quality and ease of use for general music playing more than makes up for it.

This is a comfortable and well-made set of headphones described as being for gamers but really they are fine for general purpose listening with a full and rich sound not often found at this price. If you are a serious gamer, particularly a console user then you might wish to look elsewhere. If you are looking for a well priced good quality headset for music, PC Gaming and general use then this would be a very worthwhile buy.

The Good
Good sound
Good price
Good build quality
Comfortable to wear
Cable Adapter
Adjustable mic position
Passive noise reduction

The Bad
Non-Detachable Mic
No Carry Bag

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JB London Face Shield – Pack of 5

In these troubled times, we are all wearing face masks but people in high-risk areas or those seeking additional protection are wearing plastic face shields or ‘splatter masks’ such as this set of five from JB London,

The masks arrived simply presented in a heat-sealed robust heavy-duty plastic bag inside of which was just the five masks, no instructions or other paperwork was included.

Each mask consists of a 33 x 22 cm transparent shield made from plastic, thick enough to cut with scissors but not tear it, thick foam headband and a non-adjustable elasticated strap. Before wearing first remember to unpeel the protective film on both sides of the shield, you cannot see through it properly without. The shield will attempt to splay out at the bottom when first worn and so you will have to bend it into shape first to get maximum protection. It can be folded flat for storage. This is not a visor type shield and cannot be flipped up when wearing, I would be happy to pay a little more for a splatter mask with a hinged shield.

The shield sits away from the face and so there are no problems wear glasses or a facemask with it. The shield is lightweight in construction and not too intrusive when worn but those needing regular all-day protection may prefer to find a heavier and more robust alternative. This face mask is better suited for occasional casual use, shopping trips or other visits to higher-risk locations.

The face shield can be washed and disinfected after use and each shield with proper care should last a good length of time. The price of £6.99 for this five pack is very reasonable and the per-unit price drops still more when larger packs are purchased. That said, there are many rivals at or around the same price which may be equally well specified.

What level of protection does it offer? I am not qualified to judge and cannot offer an opinion but I would be happy to wear it myself when necessary.

If you need a lightweight face shield for occasional use, this pack would be a good buy.

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Teselife 3m Bluetooth Music Sync LED Strip Light – 2 Pack

Low voltage stick-on LED lighting strips are increasingly popular and this kit from Teselife contains all you need to get going and allows room for expansion later and for year-round use.

In the attractive box, large enough to return the contents to for storage, were two 3m LED light strips, UK power supply, 44 key remote control, a control box with two output plugs, and a single sheet user guide. The User Guide is large, well printed and easy to read and I include a scan of it on my unboxing video.

The control box included with this kit will support up to two LED strips connected to it from the single power supply and cut strips can be daisy-chained to it. The remote control is larger than most and a step up from the simple and unresponsive credit card size remotes often used.

To use the kit with each strip then simply align the arrow on the plug of the LED strip to that on either of the output ports from the control box, connect it to the power supply and turn it on. You can trim the LED strips to length being careful to cut with scissors along the indicated points every few inches on the LED strip. You can also connect both strips to make one long 6m strip which can be powered by either of the control box outlets. Additional strips and connectors can easily be found online to expand the setup.

The fitted LED strips if discreetly mounted can be left in place for all year use, otherwise, they can be carefully removed and returned to the box for next year.

Once mounted the lighting can be controlled through the supplied remote control and a vast range of colours and colour changing sequences can be found. The control box also has three physical buttons which can be used to turn the lights on/off, switch between static colour and dynamic modes, and to turn the music mode on or off.

The large remote control offers the full range of static colour as well as multiple light patterns an sequences with a timer option if needed. You can save your favourite sequences to three programmable key sets, or even use the four music keys to link the patterns to music detected by the microphone inside the control box.

Unlike many rivals, this LED set offers full app control over Bluetooth using the Ehome Light app available on for Android and Apple. In many ways, this is the easiest way to control the lights.

One of the main features of this lighting set is the built-in microphone which allows the lights to be synced music or any external sound and is very effective when the light strip is positioned behind the TV.

Everything you need for a home lighting display is included here and at a very attractive price too of£17.99. A x2 6m set is also available for £25.99

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ZOUYUE Electric Pedicure Kit

All you need for your feet is here. In the attractive mid-market box is the two-speed electric hard skin remover and a fully complete pedicure set.

The heart of the set is the electric hard skin remover and that seems well made and robust although rather lightweight. It has two selectable speeds, comes with three heads each of a different level of abrasion, and is battery powered with a non-standard USB charging cord included. A single three-hour charge giving around two hours of use. The rotating exfoliating head is pressure sensitive and will turn off if applied too hard. The device has a built-in light to illuminate the treatment area, a locking switch to prevent accidental use and a large LED battery status display. A comprehensive user guide is also included.

Also included is a comprehensive pedicure set consisting of three handheld exfoliators, two scalpels for cuticle and hard skincare, an emery board and a nail brush.

Build quality seems fine, if lightweight, and the electric exfoliator or rated IPX7 water-resistant, which means it will be fine for bathroom use. The pedicure set is also well made and seems robust enough for everyday use. It is a pity no case is included either for the electric exfoliator or the pedicure kit.

You certainly get a lot for the £19.99 price and although there are many similar rivals out there I doubt if you will find a better one for less.

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DUTISON Adult Hula Hoop

his new Hula Hoop from DUTISON is no toy, although bigger children could certainly use it. In fact, it is a serious piece of health and exercise equipment and could be a key tool in your weight loss program.

In the attractive branded product box are the eight Hula Hoop sections, a set of eight memory foam bungs and a colour illustrated user guide. Build quality seems first-rate with the core of the hoop made from heavy-duty stainless steel with a thick exterior rubber padding. Sadly, no storage bag was included.

The hoop assembles easily enough with a small hole on the inside of each section connecting with a retractable metal pin on the next one. Just depress the pin slightly with your nail, line it up with the hole, and slide it in place. This can nip the finger if care is not taken, so take care. Disassembling the hoop is easier than I expected as the metal pin protrudes slightly under the exterior hoop padding and can be easily felt and seen, just depress the pin, pull the two hoop sections apart and repeat for the other hoop sections.

The assembled hula hoop weighs in at 1.2Kg but weight can be added to each section to aid the training process, to a maximum of 2Kg in total. Sand, rice or other powders can be used. The kit comes with eight memory foam bungs which can be used to seal weight hoop sections from the rest. The bungs just push in place and have an attached string to make removal easier.

The hoop feels quite heavy and satisfying to use and is clearly no toy. It is a long way from the plastic hoops of my childhood but is just as much fun to use. The hoop is large and quite heavy so be sure to keep a good space around you when exercising.

Priced at 37.99 Euros this is not cheap, but the price is not bad considering this is clearly designed for extended and serious exercise use.

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Victure PC440 1080P Security Camera

The PC440 is part of a new range of smart security cameras from Victure, a fast-growing name in the tech world, but for the budget price of £24.99, what do they have to offer?

In the well designed mid-market box are the camera, UK Power adapter, USB cable, double-sided sticky mount and a short but well-written user guide. Although compact and lightweight, everything seems pretty robust and well made.

The camera is small-sized and follows the square format used by many new budget cameras with on the front the lens, microphone, and status LED with the reset button, micro-USB power port and speaker grill on the back. On one side is the micro-USB card slot and on the other the mounting hole to reposition the camera base.

To use this and other Victure cameras the new and well designed smartphone app Victure Home is needed. The app is designed to be the heart of the new Victure ecosystem and can also be used with plugs, lights, home gadgets and appliances the company plan to produce. The app integrates with Alexa and Google Home to allow full voice control. Using the app to configure the camera could not be simpler and the app walks you through the whole procedure with visual and auditory confirmations. Two setup methods are offered, the first and easiest has the camera scanning a QR code generated by the app containing your wifi details, the alternative method is to connect your phone to a wifi hotspot generated by the camera and input the wifi details that way. My video shows the first setup method in use. A wide range of detailed settings are available and it is worthwhile delving deep into the app to find them.

Once configured the camera offers good quality 1080p video with audio at around 15-20fps. It supports two-way audio to allow for intercom use. It can be motion or audio-triggered and saves video to the Victure cloud, the smartphone or to a micro-SD card of up to 64b in the camera. The camera offers motion detection and this can be set to operate both with user-designed zones within the 120° field of view of the camera and to a schedule.

This new camera from Victure has a lot to offer for the low price but is entering a market already crowded with budget-priced cameras, however, this one is at least as good as any other I have tried and well worth a second look.

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Vistefly VXB Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

The new Vistefly VXB Cordless Vacuum Cleaner comes with a range of interchangeable heads, an extension tube, wall mount, UK power adapter, replaceable battery, spare filter, and a well written and easy to read user guide, all presented in a plain but robust cardboard box.

The device of necessity is lightweight at just 2.5Kg, but seems well made and robust and can be almost fully disassembled for cleaning. It has a 5 Stage Filtration system including two replaceable washable filters, one with HEPA filtration. The unit is battery powered with a replaceable Li-ion 2200MaH battery which can be charged in place or removed from the cleaner. It has three power levels with a maximum 23.6Kpa powerful suction performance. It defaults to the middle power setting which gives around 32 minutes of use, the eco setting giving up to 50 minutes and around 13 minutes in high power mode following a charge of three to four hours from flat. Select the power level using the red button on the motor unit.

It has three interchangeable cleaning heads:

Floor Head.
This is a pretty standard floor cleaning head with a motorised rotating brush and LED lights. The head can swivel side to side as well as forwards and back which can give it something of a mind of its own at times but it works well when used with the extension tube.

Brush Head
This is smaller than the Floor Head, with a pivoting front face to maintain a close seal for maximum suction and again has a motorised rotating brush. This works great for handheld use on stairs, furniture, bed covers and other locations where maximum power is needed.

2 in 1 Combination Tool
This small head is not motorised and is more like a brush in operation but the brush head can be retracted give reveal a broad open nozzle.

Also included a standard crevice tool and this like the other heads just clicks on and off with a large easy to see red locking button.

The cleaner has been designed with ease of use in mind and with that in mind cleaning the device could not be simpler. The main dust container has an easy access release button on one end and can be upended and emptied when attached or separated from the motor module. For more thorough cleaning the dirt container can be removed from the motor with a simple release button for rinsing under the tap. This reveals the filter pad on the motor end which can again be removed for cleaning under the tap. On the other end of the motor unit is the washable HEPA filter which can be simply removed by rotating the black end panel of the motor unit.

The cleaner comes with a simple wall mount which allows the device to be stored neatly for charging, with the extension tube and one cleaning head in place with the other two heads in brackets next to it.

This is perhaps the most powerful battery cleaner I have used in the price range and although it does not equal a premium mains powered unit it can certainly cope with most household tasks. We use it for daily cleaning top-ups and to supplement our high-end cleaner for full cleaning sessions. The ease of use and light weight makes it almost a pleasure to use!

For the current price of £159, this is an excellent buy.

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Cumay Super Absorbent Non Slip Doormat

There is not much to say about a doormat other than it does or does not do the job. This one does.

Supplied in a plain unbranded vacuum-packed bag the mat came with no paperwork or instructions, which is good as none are needed.

Build quality seems fine, the mat looks and feels like a 50×80 cm rectangle of a good heavy-duty carpet of the sort used in offices or public places. The mat has a pile depth of around 1cm with a seamed binding around the edge to prevent fraying or splitting. The reverse of the carpet has a thick ribbed rubber surface to prevent the mat from skidding on smooth floors, this works well and once in place the mat shows little sign of moving when walked upon.

We have our mat positioned on the inside of the conservatory door to protect the carpets inside the house from mud and worse on the feet of our two dogs. As the video shows, this does seem to work as the dogs like to pause (!) on the mat before fully entering the house.

The mat can be cleaned when needed and it is recommended to do so with a hand wash only in warm water and then to drip dry without ironing – who would want to iron a doormat?

Priced at £17.66 this is not particularly cheap but it is a good size, well made, and seems to get the job done. Hopefully, it should prove to be a good long term buy

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Honneeo 2.0 Litre Glass Pitcher

This very attractive 2Ltr jug from Honneeo arrived attractively presented in a branded box with useful product information printed on it. Inside the box was the jug itself, lid, two foam pad cleaning tools and a wooden stirring implement.

Build quality is first-rate with jug made from 2.5mm Borosilicate glass, which is lightweight and strong and very tolerant to extreme temperature variations. The lid made from stainless steel with a silicone seal. The inside lip of the lid has an opening to freely pass through liquids, and a grilled section to filter the output, handy when consuming coarsely blended fruit juices. The stirrer is made from a single piece of wood, the cleaning pads from lightweight plastic and foam.

One of the main selling points of the jug is wide tolerance to temperatures. The jug can be used on the stovetop (do not heat it when empty!) and taken directly to the freezer, or vice versa and in fact, can withstand temperatures between -20°C ~150°C.
Other selling points are the presentation, the attractive packaging and the inclusion of accessory items add to the appeal of the item as a gift.

This is a well-designed product strong and robust enough for use in the kitchen yet elegant enough for the dinner table. Priced at just £12.99 this would be a useful buy for the home or as a gift.

Features
Attractive Design
Great price
Accessories Included
Temperature Tolerant
Filter Option

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TOPYIYI 10M 80LED Globe String Lights

Priced at just £14.99, this set of indoor/outdoor globe lights have robust construction, seem built to last and hopefully will not need to be replaced every year. They have an attractive design with 1.7cm globes housing each of the 80 LED’s which are warm white and add a pleasant effect to the summer garden.

Presentation in a plain unbranded box is disappointing and makes the product less attractive as a gift. Anyway, inside the box is the 10m length 80 LED string set with hard-wired battery/control box, remote control and a surprisingly informative User Guide. The little globes are very attractive and far better than bare LED’s and although made from some form of plastic or resin, they do look like they are made from glass.

The control box houses the three AA batteries which should be enough to allow the device to run many nights, winter as well as summer – although the I would recommend, as with all lighting sets, that this be brought indoors for winter storage with perhaps a brief outing at Christmas. True, the lighting set is IP65 water-resistant, enough to keep it protected from everything short of water immersion, but you can never be too careful.

Controlling the item is easy enough and can be most easily done using the remote control. The remote control can be used to set the timer, lighting pattern and brightness level with the control box button allowing just the pattern to be set and the device turned off.

Once in position, the warm white lighting set does look good, aided perhaps by the large size of the glass effect lighting globes. Certainly, when correctly positioned they can add some real style to your garden or patio. If you need a set of decent quality robust indoor/outdoor globe string lights then this would be a very good buy.

The Good
Good Build Quality
Good Price
Remote Control
8 Operating Modes

The Bad
No External Power Option

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