Well, this was only 1 part of a bundle that as Ordered from Maibenben for a laptop which would hopefully fulfil my goals for streaming games better. But that will be for another time. But for this, its a needed thing to have due to the number of visits and phone calls I'm having lately makes things needed to well work. This review is to partly see the potential of these Earphones for £30.11 (£8.58 for the earphones and £22.52 for the customs fee).
The box of what this review has a part of
The video is below:
The packaging:
The outer box:
This one has a very tablet feel to it and also very modern. It has the styling and colour scheme of maibenben in there as well as a front picture of the earphones. It just reminds me off the onda tablet in a way.
The front of the box
On the sides does not have much minus the Zimai logo. But the back has a unique thing where the label is upside down which is odd but works in its own style like when you flip the box upside its easier to read.
The back of the box which is upside down compared to the front of the box
The inner box
Then we open the box up and see the lovely layout of the foam around the earphones and a small box in the middle for the charging cable and the earphone cap. The manual was on top and its pretty detailed but all in Chinese for this one.
The box with the manual to the left and the mini box inside
The front of the manual
The inside specs of the manual
The guide to the buttons
The charging port
A quick 2 page of how to wear the headphones
Safety and warranty
The last 2 pages
A clearer image of the box and the earphones
The shape of them is well like ahead which is fitting for the name but it also shows a bit of how the earphones will fit on you. But then it was to look at them and actually it was a bit of rubber based cable. The actual plugs themselves are magnetic the other end which is a clever composition to make it easier to cable table.
The earbuds are magnetic.
then we have the panels on the earphones, with a microphone a control panel with the charging port. Now that is the key since this is charged via micros USB as well as the 3 buttons for Power, Volume up and Volume down.
The charge Port in the flap
The Buttons to control the earphones with the - , Power/pair/call and the + buttons
The top of the battery if i recall
The bottom of the battery with the Zimai logo
Then we have the inner box with the cable, and the earpieces to make sure that #allearsizesmatter so that people can make sure they are comfy as they wear them for long term use. There was a Micro USB cable as well as a genuine certificate card ot make this known they are the real deal.
a detailed look at what's inside the small box
But then it was time to get these going. How we charge it up and make sure it pairs to the Phone. Due to the time, this was only tested with the Redmi Note 7, but will work on other devices like the Vita TV and the PS4 and PS3 and any PC with a Bluetooth 4.1 device.
Time to set it up:
1: The First charge:
Well, this was a tricky one to try to pull the tab out in the correct way to let the Micro USb Cable fit in this properly. In the end, it turns out I did not pull the tab properly. So this means it might not have gone in but With the EE powerbar, I did get it to charge.
A view of how it looks to be charging
A closer look at how it charges
Then once that was done, it was to leave it to make sure there was a charge. The manual mentions a 9H standby time and a 1 to 2 hour talk time. So quite low in mode cases but I will explain the battery life later on. Now it was time to pair it
2: The Pairing and setup:
For this, I had to just how the middle button-down and a lady says welcome or turning on and then the LED was flashing Red and blue, then it was going to the Settigns and then Bluetooth to then tap on the SB101 in the list and then it was paired.
The settings to show it has been paired.
With that all done it was time to really test to see how they were.
The Testing:
1) fitting on the ear.
This one is more complex than I thought since there are only small markings for L and R as well as both each of the rubber. But it was making it curl into my heart the right way which was there a tricky part of all this. It managed to get in my ear correctly in the end. There is a nice feature of the rubber strrewthci9nbg over the front to make it fit say if you have larger ears or something along those lines.
How it looks in the my right ear
How it looks on my left ear
But it was sometimes that tricky issue of making sure it was in the right way around so it does seem like the cable was crossed and the ears around the wrong sides. But the benefit here is that they were staying in without much hassle and it also has a strap around the back.,
How it looks when crossed over
The strap around the back
When I was running it did not drop out, when I was walking it did not drop out. But when cycling there was a chance it was dropping out at least 3 times but only after putting the helmet on and not randomly when cruising down hills or puffing my way up a steep street
2) Sound Quality.
No word of a line, this is actually better than I expected. it really does give off a good sound with Base on some songs tested Via Youtube and it was loud too since the video did pickup the music playing from them
3) Recording Quality.
Actually, this was very good, I mean recording from the headphones with the phone placed away from mean means it was recording from it and that I know it means I can keep it working without any hassle. I mean even when I had to record something for future reference I know it works.
4) Phone calls.
Well, this was the main issue with the reason i wanted to get this. Actually, it did make things work better for calling, I could press the middle button once to answer the call, which only 2 calls did not work. The signal was okay with it, I mean only on 2 Bares of 4G using VoIP/Sip then I did get told the word "incomprehensible" But I could hear the other end crystal clear, which means it was safer and comfortable to actually use these when travelling.
5) Battery Life
Now actually for this, the battery life says 9hrs standby and 1 to 2 hours talking, but for what I had used them for, I did not have to worry about losing battery, i mean for what i used on 2 day of work, it did not actually use more than 20% of the battery life
Conclusion:
These earphones are much better than I was expecting them to be and they pulled through for what was needed, they easily paired to my Redmi note 7. The quality of the sound is good, the volume is loud if put on the max volume and also the call quality is good if the signal is strong and its comfortable to use and there is less of a chance the battery will die when i really need it. But the customs charge and the hard to fit the rubber bands in makes this not as amazing in other regards.
omracer's Rating: 6/10
The Good Points:
Good value if it was not for the customs
Nice design
Good sound quality for playback
the Mic sound quality is good too
A strap around the back of the head
Micro USb Charging
Easy to pair to a phone or device
Stays in the ear for most of the time
Good battery life
The Bad Points:
The customs charge can be a nightmare which means these cost £30 normal
The rubber straps are hard to fit on in the correct manner
Can be easy to get it the wrong way around or cross over the neck
The Tab for the micro USB port can make it a tight fit
And there we have it , a review of something useful I need in my life really. But more review from the Maibenben bundle is out soon on top of work but that will be a hard one to work with for time-wise. But see you then
Well, this was a surprise review to appear, this comes as a unique circumstance of A broken broadband connection which was not origins fault but trigger by Vodafone. In all respect, Origin was very good and well during the delay for an engineer cabinet visit and the face I had to reset routers while naked before changing to a customer on the Friday before last aka 26th June. But by pure coincidence, I was on the way home on that Friday after work and went to Tesco and saw this archer for a £45.00 End of life clearance. So well I went for it.
a £52.50 shop in tesco. a TP link router for £45, £2.00 each for fruit creations, £1.50 for hoisin sauce, £1 for pepper sauce, £1.00 for 6 pack of twirls pic.twitter.com/FpVipBLnlW
Now it was time to finally get this reviewed with some time to me and well this was a surprise. Note this was a basic review for my needs and not of the full potential of the router. But you can watch the video below:
The packaging:
In true TP-link Fashion, the box is the new style light blue which has been their branding for about the past 2 to 3 years. This shows the features of the box to really shine and make it clear about what the router is and whos it for. Since the Yellow Sticker on the right for VDSL and ADSL as well as some boxes have an Extra sticker for BT connections or BT infinity connections. The top of the box shows a clear sticker of 3 Year warranty.
The front of the box
The top of the box
Then we look to the sides, which actually is more of the amount of text on there instead of real images on one of them but the other is a nice small advert of the TP-link Tether app. As well as the interface of the router or how easy it is to set up. The main thing with this brand is that most of the features are written on the packaging,
The router and the interfaces
The list of everything on the router
Then we have the back and the bottom, mostly with infographics about Beamforming and the plan with how things work with the router and the important features of the router as well as the behind of the router itself. The bottom has the small print and serial number and that.
The back of the box
The bottom of the box hiding the serial number
We then have to open the box and the nice design of this makes it easy to take apart, like the eggshell case and the wrapped parts to make it easier.
Included in this was the
The router itself x 1
Power cable x 1
CAT5 cable 1m x 1
RJ11 cable 1m x 1
ADSL filter x 1
The insides of the box
The power adapter
The tip of the power adapter
the ADSL filter
The top of the router
The front of the router
one of those top side angles
The back of the router
underneath the router
The collection of documents and all
The RJ11 Cable
The front of the Quick Install Guide
The part of there manual
The back of the manual
The RJ45 CAT5e Cable
Time to setup:
Plugging in:
Well, his was actually very easy, just replace where I put the Previous TD-W9970 and using he same power cables, Ethernet Cables and the RJ11 cable into the router and then turn it on, it was as simple as that.
Plugging in the cables
Once that was done, time to just turn it on via the button at the back, then the lights were to appear.
The lights appearing, note the connection was not set up on the router
Then it was time to turn a PC or mac on and login to the outer, yes this can be done on smartphones but the bigger screen and I was in a bit of a small rush on this one. But it was pretty much login to the 192.168.1.l IP.
The Router Setup:
Now if you do want to see all of the menus you can use the TP-link emulator. Also, I would not recommend the TP-link tether app due to the fact it's just signing up for online accounts. But Well I went to the IP address of 192.168.1.1 on safari and then ran the quick setup and it lets me insert the details for the ISP and well after that it was pretty much connected to the internet and time to make the wifi setup the SSID. I mean that was easy to split the 5Ghz and the 2.4 GHz as well, which is vital for games to work. You can tell if the 2.4Ghz and the 5GHz wifi is on from the box itself too.
Before the quick-setup was done
The Settings to fill in
After the internet was connected
This was then connected
Then there were some of the settings, one which I wanted to check but was not mentioned on the box was the 3G/4G Settings and judging from the interface, I did actually see that Which if the internet goes down can tether to a whole house if needed.
How to make a server or Tether
So with that done, it was time to do tests to make sure this was an improvement and not a replacement.
Speed + Distance Test
Actually, this was a shock to have most times almost full speed from the Google speedtests on Wireless and Wired. Even from a distance, the speed was better than I expected it to be. The connection speed was not boosted from the router so it was reasonably accurate.
Multi connection above
Single Connection below
But then it was to test the wifi and actually well this was impressive. I mean before with the WD9970 I was just getting a signal near the end of the shed where I put my bike. So when I walked there, I saw a strong signal on the 2.4Ghz but the 5Ghz did not leave the house or just outside the house signal dropped. But that is expected of 5Ghz...
The signal just as the end of the house by the door
Testing wifi in the greenhouse
But here some test using the Google Speed Test, both Indoors and the Greenhouse.
The speed test on wifi in the house
The speed test #1 in the greenhouse
another speed test in the greenhouse
This told me that actually, the wifi is more powerful in the house and from what I've also noticed the buffering has been a slight reduction but due to the low speeds beforehand there has been no change in internet speed in general, This is fine in the most cases I mean the upload speed is about the highest it can be according to BT Wholesale, sure for the download, I'm still 15mbps from good speed but that is probably outside wiring related.
Conclusion:
All in all, this actually does improve signal that little bit more and gives a good speed from the router over wireless close to the original speeds from the Phone socket to the Router itself. Well, only not under load. Especially if you use to have loads of devices connected to the 2.4ghz wifi in most cases. The good is that the same wifi SSID and password made switching an easier ride and not having to re-connect everything to it as well
As far as I can tell :
omracer's Rating: 7/10
The Good Points:
For this clearance cost - incredible value. If the normal price, maybe reasonable value.
Nice sleek design
Powerful wifi distance
Easy to setup
Speeds are nearly the same as the router in a short distance away
3g/4g Tethering from the Phone/wifi is supported - September 2022 - Even better when tethering from a router like the MR6500V which is a LTE based one since of Dynamic IP
The Bad Points:
Can be hard to find at a good price like that
Can be quite big if you have a smaller shelf
The TP-link tether app is not worth to have or sign up for
Not all ports are Gigabit, just the one
Thanks for waiting for this one to be released, work has been busy and eventually, it will have to come out as well with delays happening as things take over. But for now, see you for more videos and reviews soon. I have at least 3 more to get done for the summer.,
