Well, this is one overdue, VERY overdue but now the weather is getting more summer, it feels like now is the time to finally review this of the second crowdfunded project I've ever invested in and actually the second that's ever been fulfilled since the 3rd turns out it was a scam. . So we finally get to have a look at ICEY and see what it can do, this might not cover the long time use of this of the advert for it, but it can see what the instructions say for 1 hour of use. Costing me $45 aka £32.29 back in Jan 2021. Things will see how they go in the end.
The Packaging.
This was actually in a very basic box of orange and white, which gives the tone of the logo and also represents the summer and the orange might represent that. But not much imaging or other notes to make of. Even the small print was not very much shown, but crowdfunded items are a bit like that really.
The front of the box
the Top of the box
One of the sides of the box
The left side of the box
The right side of the box
the bottom of the box
Which gives it the tone for a small approach or minimal advertising. When it comes to inside the box, it's very basic, with the Foam and the box. Then it shows the contents of what is to be done such as the icey itself and the manual.
The Contents: Icey
So this is a look at the machine, which is a glass jar with a plastic top and the silicone in blue as well as how it looks with the plastic blades. the Batter compartment is always the nice part but has a tricky section to it since it can easily fall inside the holes for the battery, which yes it takes 2 AA but at the same time, especially as it does not come with batteries but it also seems like it can be hard for them to place inside.
The Icey with the glass and the machine itself
A look at it from the other side with the max line
The blades and the silicone
A look at the battery compartment when closed
The top of the icey with the button
Removing the Battery cap
The battery cap
The holes for use of AA battery
The Silicone can be a bit of a struggle to put on and make sure it's nice and tight. which is the vital part to make sure it does not leak when in the jar.
The contents: The Manual
Actually, this has its good clear stance for how ther documentation is presented, since it is a small manual but it is clearly typed out in a nice format with not too much small text and some nice diagrams and also has the modern logo design for the front and the back.
The front of the manual
Contents and the disclaimer
The safety instructions are very clear and some interesting points made for sure
The more the safety section
How to use icey for the first time
The back of the manual
The Preparation:
The Batteries to fit and operate:
So this actually is the maybe hardest bit of setting it up to get the batteries in as well as seeing how it spins. The battery flap is the hard one to fit inside and eventually, the batteries were in as well as the flap so it was ready to spin.
The batteries in the ICEY
The Jar is to be rinsed and drink made.
So this is the easy part, to make sure it can be ready to drink from. As the instruction says, to rinse the jar out since its still from the packaging from the shipment from china back in 2021 which can indicate virus risk. So we end up getting it rinses in the tap and then it was a drink made of
PEach Sparkling Water
Green Apple Gfuel
Raspberry Vitamin C tablet
Lemonade Diet
Which was then made and ready for the ICEY to be attempted to be firmly placed on it. Then it was a bit of a push for the icey to be capped in and ready to go....in the freezer
The Drink ready
Ready for the Freezer
The Preparations: Freeze
Wel,l it was then pressed to turn on and then placed in the freeze for the next hour while I went for a dogwalk, which gives about 1 hour or so to see how cool it gets, it was placed upright so it had less chance of leaking.
The freezer with ICEY is shown in there
The Preparation: Time to check on it,
So exactly 1 hour later, it was time to see if it was made to slush or if it just kept cool, but it ended up very cold and chilled but not frozen. So it will need a longer time for it to happen.
The End result
On the table ready for a glass
The Taste Test:
Well it was then time to pop it from Icey to the glass and it did not leak, so that's a bonus, it's a special glass that does not crack when frozen apparently. So for the hour, it was safe at least, and then when poured in and it was nice and chilled, like no rush for it. I think it will need to be a fair few hours for the ice to freeze and then it will feel like a better slush maker.
The Conclusion:
So let's be honest, this is one of these niche possible ideas and actually, it is done in a better way than some of the Slush puppies makers. The delay for it imported can take its time, but once it's out of kickstarted/Indiegogo stage, shipments will be easier for it to be there. All in all
omracer's Rating: 7/10
The good points:
A simple way to make cold drinks
An interesting concept
Easy to create your own drinks
Battery-powered
Clear instructions
The Bad Points:
Hard to source yourself,
Can be expensive since of the concept
The battery connector can be hard to fit
The Silicone gets loose
And that sorts that, another crowdfunded project reviewers and it was overdue but ideal for the summer weeks and days ahead in all honest, sure things might end up getting out of control, some good and some big scary changes but some reviews I'll try to keep going with then over the time.
Well this was overdue on an upgrade, 16GB on the Redmi 4 doesn't cut it and with new things to vlog, new apps to use and also people hating the quality of the food pics, it was time to get a good phone for the right price, this was actually close to get depending on the Redmi Note 8T or this but the pricing was almost the Same for the 8t as it was the Note 7. But Mi.com has the better sales compared to the Mi Store in London, so enjoy the review. Enjoy the review below:
Packaging and Contents
Well actually is a simple box with simple designs on, Orange and White with black text. I think it really brings out the simple colours. But It made it Apple-eqsue as well.
This was what i got it with, actually the rest of it was from work but well worth it for later on
The front of the box
Each side of the Box
The bottom of the Box
The top of the Box
The back of the box
But as i opened it up, (well actually opened up much earlier to get it unlocked so I am more prepared about it) and it was nicely packed with the Pin and the Silicone back first. Which is a nice firm fit once the phone is in there, But can be easy to tear as well.
The Pin
The slilicone Case
The Phone and the Case
Then it was for the Phone, The metallic blue design and the nice large screen that was at work here. The weight its a heavy one so you can feel it on you, there is the Type C jack and also the headphone jack at the top. The does support audio over the type C as well. But it feels good.
The front of the Phone
The back of the phone
The side of the phone with the power buttons
The top back of the phone from the finger
The Type C Port
Then it was the Sim Card, its a nice way to actually get it out, no teeth required. But its a Nano ONLY Sim card slot exept one of them is a slot for a microSD.
A look at the side of the panel with the Sim Card Slot
The Sim Card Tray
Then we have the warranty and the quick start guide. its small and no instructions on how to use android at all. But thats how they cover their legal issues.
The manual
But then we have the last part of the Charger, which is a nice simple apple-esque usb type c cable and a very slim standard usb charger but has 2A on it.
The Type C Cable
The Charger.
Then it was time to set it up
The parts in the phone packaging
The Tests
As i put the sim cards in then held the power button down. It turned on and then it was time to setup the PHone, since it was Unlocked bootloader wise. But MIUI has always its curious ways, but We got setup and apps installed. So it was time for the testing. I'll be honest and my stuff will NOT be copied on here during the review period. But Google account was signed in and then apps installed to test.
GPS:
Now actually this was not too bad. I mean installing GPS Test and it managed to get me a fix that was reasonable accurate. It does take some time if i did Clear the A-GPS, like it would never get a fix.
The Fix in 3m
Now for games like Pokemon Go (Later in Review), this would mean easier to catch pokemon for sure. For Mi Fit, we will see how it goes later.
Network Coverage:
Well now since I've been told this supports Band 20, it should mean Cuniq should now be 4G and well, The App i used told me BOTH were 4G, which is perfect, well for when Data gets cheaper for me anyway. I might be doing the £3.99 a month FP plan to get extra data.
The stats for the Signal where I am at home.
So that means it will work for me, I can now get it to do do some wifi testing. Now i did get no signal on parts of my garden in the places i DID get signal with the redmi 4, so sadly the wifi might be weaker. But i can always upgrade my Router eventually to get some extra speed, its done me well for nearly 3 years. But it works is the main thing.
Also I did add a Grabtab on top to help with the grip of a 6.3" phone. Now This i got someone special, her mum, my mum and myself one which will help with using it and less damages i Hope.
Insert Pics here
Camera,
MIUI Camera App
Theres loads to mention on the Camera. But there was an annoyance that the App did not let you add a custom watermark, well since i did a reset of MIUI 11 before the review, that seems to have been FIXED. So i can now do some amazing pics and add watermarking. Here is some of the quality taken with the MI Camera App.
Bless the cat
While Filming
Outdoor selfie
The blurred effect with the cat Eating
Banana cake
The details of the Above Banana cake picture
Another blurred selfie
The pet mode
the blurring is cute
The settings for the MIUI Camera App
This custom watermarking means i don't really have to use open Camera anymore but actually the features in Open camera are quite good I will admit.
Open Camera
Now actually there was alot of settings to use, Now with HDR Working and also no issues recording with the Camera2API. So more resolutions given to me to use.
The cat eating with OpenCamera
Banana Cake with Open Camera
Back Camera Resolution Settings
Video resolution on the back camera
The framerate
The front camera resolutions
Details of the Banana Cake Pic
All in all it means I can have a good chance to carry on where i left off. It might make it hard to upload to insta and even the blog, but we shall see.
The photo at night
Night mode
Charging and USB
So there was a good surprise here which the charging light at the bottom of the device. Since its type C the speed is better than others, I think it took 20 minutes to go up 10% which is pretty good, I mean i started off at 76% when I setup the Phone. Battery Life i will find out soon.
Charging the Phone with the USB Power Socket
But with USB type C, it means you can do extra things, such as the USB Drive and even a USB Ethernet Adapter. Now The Type C Drive is going to work for sure and will be needed for a tutorial on making a windows 10 usb drive without Windows. But as for the Ethernet Adapter, sadly it does not affect this and it did NOT work.
The Phone
But when connecting to the Steambox.
MacOS 10.15.2 STILL has the error with importing the videos and photos,
MacOS 10.13.6 Works fine with importing via PTP mode.
Windows will work in MTP and PTP mode
The Redmi connected to the Laptop
So it means I can still use this for Vlogging.
Sound.
Now this actually is quite loud but only the vibrations from the right hand speaker, the quality is very loud i will admit.
The sound settings and they are loud
Even when you put your finger over the speaker, you feel the vibration on it to get it to work. But it works fine none the less. The ringtones are nice and traditional.
Now then we have the next bit of the Performance in Games.
Performance in Games.
Game Booster
One good thing about MIUI in this one is that there is a Game boost features. This actually makes it more boost. Games were running smoothly.
The Performance Tab
The Game Booster App
The settings
Then see how it goes:
Pokemon Go:
Well this was actually really smooth, there was a slight start of loading and delays in certain cut scenes of bits and things. The AR+ Worked fantastic and even Finely was not impressed but it was really good, i might miss this when the phones fully setup.
Evee and Finely
Cant remember and finely
The GPS was pretty accurate as well. But there was no issues on the way it works.
Built in Games - Bubble Shooter and the like
Well these are smooth free 2 apps that work, cheese but smooth play and the sensitive touch as well. I mean the adverts are really smooth as annoying as they are.
PlayStation Remote Play:
This was actually very smooth, it was still a bit of delay with using the Dualshock 4, but it made things work out quite nicely to play CTR with, shooters and CTR might push it to its limit but it was worth it in the end.
But When i played Ring Rally it did show the lag but maybe that was the Poor Wifi even with the PS4 to the bottom right of the above picture. Then again its the first time with the Drift Mechanic and also the first time with Ring Rally. In all this will handle even Fortnite really well and powerful but we can try that eventually/.
Fitting & Protection
So one question is that due to the big screen, will it fit in my pocket, well actually i was surprised to say, yes it fitted in 2 pairs of jeans i have but they did have deeper pockets. They do outline it pretty clearly, but well that mostly how things go.
The jeans from the front
The phones in the back
It can be comfortable for wearing it but Tighter jeans will cause the phone to pop out. That is for sure what i can say but we will see how long it lasts for since there is a risk of accidents to happen. Also to check on the protection, I purchased a Grab Tab, this is a improved version of a Pop Socket.
Fitting the Grab Tab on the back of the Note 7
Conclusion:
So we finally have it, a decent phone, sure the screen is larger and that is a risk of the phone, but the power it contains, the quality of the camera and the price is making it very competitive, especially when there are some incredible Mi Offers that happen. With that in mind
omracer's Rating: 8/10
The Good Points:
Amazing Value when offer
64GB Storage
Fast and responsive
1080p recording on the Front Camera
The metallic Blue
Dual 4G and it works with o2
USB Type C to make it easier for connecting things
Very loud
The Bad Points:
6.3" Screen
Not easy to source in the UK (7 days delivery for DPD)
Only choice between the Micro SD or 1st sim Card slot
Speaker only strong on the right hand side
And there we have it, the review of the Redmi Note 7, its a nice phone and a good concept, there will be some good times and a chance the screen will crack but I will have to be careful. But this is one of the Reviews Sorted and done
