Readers have commented that SuperBoost WiFi advertised ‘on GadgetGuy’s website’ is a complete and utter failure. Well, we have nothing to do with this product or company.
Update: read our update SuperBoost Wi-Fi Booster is a SCAM – WARNING do not buy it that also reveals a lot more scams from this company.
First, let us shout – we have nothing to do with SuperBoost WiFi repeater (or any other products) and have never reviewed it. GadgetGuy.com.au (this website) was established by Hawaiian shirt-wearing Peter Blasina in the mid-90s. We have been a source of 100% independent Australian lifestyle tech news and reviews since then. We do not sell any products!
TheGadgetReviewGuy.com is a similarly named site registered in 22/1/19. From what we can find it is owned by Think Tech Enterprises Limited in Hong Kong and is used to promote Super Boost Wi-Fi and a host of other tech gadgets around the world using subdomains like /AU etc.
About SuperBoost WiFi
Now back to SuperBoost WiFi – it is nothing more than a cheap, highly ineffective, slow, single-band 300Mbps 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi repeater. Its privacy agreement is a shambles and basically means that the company can use and sell your data as it pleases, including selling to social media.
It is not as claimed ‘blazingly fast’ (more a geriatric snail’s pace) and it’s certainly not worth the 50% off $66.58 ‘if you hurry’ plus $8.95 shipping. You can buy it (since 2017) for $16.57 from eBay and many merchants with free delivery.
A repeater takes the signal it gets and retransmits that. If the signal is weak to begin with, no amount of rocket science or voodoo magic can improve it. This just means that you get the weak signal a little further away from your main router.
And Wi-Fi A/B/N is half-duplex meaning that at best you will get up to 75Mbps – not 300Mbps if SuperBoost receives a strong signal to start with. The problem is that most use Wi-Fi repeaters to try and extend weak signals in the first place.
The ratings
By the way, Fakespot gives SuperBoost Wi-Fi a big ‘F” for fake reviews. The rating is based on hundreds of substantially similar reviews all put up in a few months in late 2018 and early 2019. The company is aware of this and frequently sets up new review sites to get better ratings.
And as it is a foreign company, it does not comply with Australian Consumer Law warranties. It limits returns to 30 days regardless of whether it works – or not. Our readers say it does not work!
Would we buy SuperBost WiFi?
Absobloodylutely not!
SuperBoost Wi-Fi has been hijack marketing via programmatic advertising on our, and we presume, other tech webpages. We actually ‘disallow’ their ads but they keep popping up under different companies. If you see it, please click on the little X and report it to Google as inappropriate.
We have complained to SuperBoost’s domain registrar. Attempts to contact the company directly have failed. And if you have slow Wi-Fi, read our tutorial on Mesh routers
Hi, I have an NBN connection with 3 points in the house, 1 point is connected to the modem, how can I use the other 2 points to make the WiFi faster through the house?
Regards
Neil
First not by buying SuperBoost – it is rubbish!!! It is really hard to know what to suggest as it is all about your existing gateway modem, its power and where it is placed. You can’t use the phone points to distribute Ethernet IP. If you want to email me on news@gadgetguy.com.au with a few more details like modem/router type and I can make specific recommendations.
Neil, my recommendation is to use a powerline extender. It basically uses the house internal power cables instead of a signal or an Ethernet cable. I have it at home and it works great. It’s also cheap.
Yep..I bought a powerline extender…works well providing you are on the same electrical circuit as the router. That is vital to get right.
Thank you for that review Ray. I’d spotted the fake reviews from Ipswich, Southampton etc. The language used didn’t match up with the fake profile pictures. Nice try though.
Thanks again Ray and I’ll be coming back to you for trusted reviews. #staysafe
Great article, I was really thinking of buying this, but I was suspicious and luckily I found this. Thanks, you saved me money!!
There are many companies which offer fake solutions. I am surprise nobody check them from the technical point of view (false adv.). At this moment I work (try to expose) with one of this incredible companies who offer super fast internet access all the time. I sent few emails with request about some technical details and wait for the answer. What’s funny – Company registered in Hong Kong, office is in Tallinn, Estonia, but there are given 2 phone numbers : Brasil and UK (of course VOIP or cloud pbx). THERE IS NOT A SUPER DEVICE SUCH WIFI BOOSTER WHICH WILL WORK AS PRESENTED IN ADV’s. Only proper network (star’s constellation cabling ) and proper end – access points will give you full network’s potential. All cheap devices are offering (as it was written) 2.4Ghz band and max. standard N (up to 300Mbps) however this is max speed in duplex mode what gives max effective speed up to 150Mbps in perfect, laboratory/controlled environment. In practice it will be 50-80 Mbps when booster is close to router and you are close to booster. It has one antenna so it can not be so effective as presented. Access points have 2/3/4 and more antennas for increasing efficiency as well frequency bands (2.4/5GHz) and standards. 2.4G BGN is a relic and super booster is a scam (eventually misleading presentation)
When I saw the presentation I quickly realized it was a scam.
It is just a WiFi repeater, which might yield some benefits to people needing a repeater, but has absolutely no influence on the companies throttling your connection at will. They can still limit your connection however they want. And a WiFi extender can cost nowadays 17-18€, not 50€ as these thieves want.
It is a pity you cannot sue such scammers for misleading advertising.
Anyone can report them? Paid for it , but after 2 weeks, no goods received. All my queries have gone unanswered. Can someone in their country lodge a report?
Hi Ben
Go to your bank and provide them a link to my article. You can stop payment. It is a scam!!!
Ok Darius is better then zolpidem. What gaget ii any do you recommend? If you can keep it in English and preferably around $50. Here’s hoping!
Hi Jack, there is no device that can amplify Wi-Fi (a weak signal becomes a weaker signal) so no cheap device can improve black spots. Have a read of this article first. http://www.gadgetguy.com.au/wordpress/product/d-link-exo-dap-1820-smart-mesh-extender-is-a-great-black-spot-choice/
My best advice is to move your router the best location in the centre of most Wi-Fi devices and then use a pair of Ethernet-over-Power adapters to get a low-cost AC1200 (or faster) WI-Fi access point like the $149 https://www.dlink.com.au/home-solutions/DAP-1620-AC1200-Wi-Fi-Range-Extender. Sorry there is no magic cure – but once you pay for the right stuff it is great.
I just wanted to say thank you for saving me from wasting my money.
I live in a motorhome on my buddies dealership. I have AT&T and am told that I get bad service because I am located in-between two towers that are facing away from me. The office has wifi. It is a strong signal, but it’s about 30′ short of reaching me. Is there any device I can get that will extend it’s reach even if the signal weakens some, so I can use the wifi instead of mobile service when I’m home?
Do not buy SuperBoost – its a total con. The answer is easy and you can do it two ways. You need to get Ethernet (either by running a cable from the office Wi-Fi router to your motorhome (runs up to 100ft – the best way but you may need to pay an electrician to do it) or use a pair of Ethernet-over-Power adaptors from Netgear (if your power is on the same circuit as the office). Next, get a low-cost AC1200-AC1900 speed router to put at the other end of the Ethernet cable in the motorhome. All fixed.
There is nothing you can do in the motorhome or at the office that will fix it apart from the above.
i purchased (from trendy tech media) a”superboost wifi” from ad on Komando.com which i believe was sponsored by you. It has been a terrible experience and i have written to Komando.com and would like to copy you on the email – but apparently your email is nowhere to be found. I do want your customers to know this was a big mistake – and apparently you agree because of the above article. Why would you then advertise it?
Hi Elli
We ban the company from buying excess ad inventory from third-party sellers but they simply change the company name and get back onto our site. We do not support them, we ban them every time we see them. That is why I wrote the article and why it is one of the best-read articles on our site. Our email and phone numbers are clearly on our site under contact and most fo the time I answer the call! If you paid by credit card get your money back from the bank. It is rubbish.
Most people would have an old modem/router sitting in a cupboard somewhere. With a google search it is easy to use one as a “wifi repeater” that will at the least give a better boost signal than this piece of crap.
Absolutely right. SuperBoost is worse that crap.
Hello! What can you say about TP-LINK RE650?
TP-link is a reputable brand and makes no rubbish claims about ‘boosting’. It is an extender or access point and will likely have a different SSID. its not mesh.
As long as you can place it within 10 metres line-of-sight from your main router then it should be pretty good. Or run and Ethernet cable to it. If you want to continue this offline email me at admin@gadgetguy.com.au
Nice write up, but it would have been even better if you had specified what charger you had used to charge the Alogic 27000mah power bank.
Its maximum charge rate is 15V/2A or 20V/1.5A (30W) so all you need is a 30W or more USB-C PD capable charger.
I used a Moshi 65W http://www.gadgetguy.com.au/wordpress/product/moshi-progeo-usb-c-65w-charger-plenty-of-power/ or an HP x360 Spectre 65W charger. These are both PD 3.0 and the Power-Z electrical monitor showed 15V/2A (30W) being drawn.
It does not matter as long as its above 30W.
Seems the article was sponsored by Arlo. Haha.
I wish – could use some extra income in COVID times. Why did I write it? I was sick of several PR companies around the world sending me information and requesting reviews. I kept responding with the same statement.
We won’t be covering this for a few reasons.
While the gear looks OK and the website is quite well done, it is just another Chinese brand owned by yet another Chinese Government company. We try to give preference to known retail brands like Arlo, D-Link, Swann, Uniden, Ring, Nest etc.
EZVIZ does not have an Australian brick and mortar retail or distribution presence. We don’t count Amazon or eBay as a retailer.
We understand that it is a 100% subsidiary of HIKVISION https://ipvm.com/reports/ezviz-=-hikvision-=-chinese-government which has been banned in the US, much of UK, and no longer welcome in Australian government or for enterprise or federal agency use.
Third, its privacy policy is way too far-reaching for an IoT product. It is more about data harvesting than we consider necessary for an IoT device. We would have to make it clear in any review that Australian’s should not agree to it. Certainly, under the present climate, they should not agree to any storage of security footage stored in Chinese based cloud.
And finally, our readers don’t appreciate us reviewing ‘old’ tech and FHD camera’s fall into that category.
Sorry if that sounds rough and I assure you it is not in any way an anti-China sentiment. We, above all, understand that China is the maker of most of the worlds consumer tech, and we go to great lengths to give fair coverage.
Ray
If your phone is not and iPhone or a Samsung you have next to no chance of getting any accessories, especial quality items because they command up to 85 – 90% of the Australian market. Go to a Mall and look for Pixel, Oppo, LG, Huawei, Motorola accessories. You won’t find much.
Totally agree with you. That is why I covered what we call ‘soft’ news (we usually don’t) because phone makers should accept the obligation of supporting their brand with an ecosystem. Too many just sell and forget. Good move for OPPO and its users.
We need to stop this. After learning how much data Google collects about its users, I’d never use Google Android anymore. I have a Samsung with /e/ OS installed, which is ungoogled android and doesn’t share my private data, and my location with Google.
Hi Lee
Thanks for the comment. The more we can get people talking, the faster we will see action. Unfortunately, 99.9% of people don’t have the ability to root and load a ‘clean’ version of Android – hmmm there could be a great industry there. But no matter how good /e/OS is you can’t run any local apps that rely on Google Mobile Services (GMS) such as your bank app etc. It is for that reason we no longer cover Huawei as people want GMS convenience.
Again I pose the question – what if laws made Google (or Apple or Microsoft that are just as bad) offer you the choice at purchase time? Buy a clean version or install an ad-supported one.
I use Google Android and Windows and I lock them down tightly to reduce data leakage – but again that is beyond most users ability.
OPPO seems to be “playing funny buggers” with ColorOS version numbering, not that other vendors such as Microsoft haven’t done the same (skipping from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10)!
My Reno Z got updated from ColorOS 6 to ColorOS 7 (packaged with Android 10) only a month or two ago, yet I see that you referred to ColorOS 10 — the first time I’ve seen a mention of it — so whatever happened to ColorOS 8 and 9? When will version 10 become available (if at al), since version 11 is slated by OPPO as “starting from Q2, 2021” (which might well turn out to be months later in Australia?
Comparing ColorOS 7 with Samsung’s One UI version 2.1 on my recently-purchased Galaxy Tab S6 tablet (both with Android 10) I must say that I have a preference for OPPO’s approach to operating system features and packaging.
And I hope that OPPO will branch out into tablets, because they certainly come out with product models that are a combination of excellent quality and features at exremely competitive price points.
And Samsung went from S10 to S20 overnight. What happened to readin, writin, and rithmetic?
Canon 200D Mark 2 is really good camera, it’s worth the price. I have one with 80mm kit lens. Your article is very helpful, I know more specifications by reading your article.
I have tinnitus really bad and having to do yard work doesn’t help. So I need something that’s going to help me here. Are these truly worth buying?
I feel for you. Tinitus comes from inside the head so this won’t help. In fact, any noise-cancelling headphones or earphones will probably make it worse as they exert sound pressure on your eardrums.
Far better to get ear muffs or ear plugs that simply block noise.
Thanks for the review. Do you have any information about input lag for this model? It’s obviously an absolute deal-breaker for gaming and if it’s not pretty low then it just writes it off completely for gamers. Cheers.
Hi JJ
Hisense doesn’t reveal Input Lag specs (and way too many other specs are secret too) but as I understand it the 65Q8 has ‘lower’ input lag that the rest of the 2020 series. It has a games mode that focuses the TV on games input via HMDI 2.0. Its Education manager uses it for games.
I am not a gamer but I know what you mean.
LG 2020 range has HDMI 2.1, VRR, ALLM, HFR and more and are universally regarded as the best gaming sets. OLED is 14ms and NanoCell (not sure which model) is as low as 9ms). I would be looking at the LG CX OLED and the LG Nano90 series.
https://www.whathifi.com/au/advice/vrr-everything-you-need-to-know-about-variable-refresh-rate
Hi, thanks a lot for that great reply, it’s much appreciated!
Did this post get deleted?
No its here and worse than ever
https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/is-superboost-wifi-repeater-a-scam/
???
I just got one claiming to be from Telstra. Same pitch “Your line is about to be disconnected press 1 to “. Um, not sure what telstra has to do with anything but OK scammer.
Look guys, just dont ever answer any form of robocall. If theres reason to believe it might be legit, hang up anyway and phone the company from the phone number on the website. Anyway, if its anything remotely important , they’ll send a human after you.
Could not agree more. Pressing 1 is just to scam you to give account holder details.
What makes you say no Android 11 for Pixel 3a? Google Support’s website shoes that it will get Android version updates until May 2022 😅
At the time the OS update was for 4 and above. Since then I have found the following are compatible. If it is it will come via an over the air update. I will fix the article.
Google Pixel 2 / 2 XL.
Google Pixel 3 / 3 XL/ a/XL
Google Pixel 4 / 4 XL/a
I’m confused – you wrote Pixel 3a now? So that’s all Pixels (bar the original model, which is well beyond it’s 2 years of OS update promise).
https://9to5google.com/2020/09/08/google-android-11-pixel-launch/
The Android 11 launch kicks off today for the Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, and Pixel 4a. Visit Settings > System > System update and click the “Check for update” button
Do you happen to know if this supports USB PD PPS?
Yes it does
Maybe you should look at the xgimi projectors. Same form factor but brighter and better resolution. The resolution on this is a joke.
xgimi does not have an Australian presence so we can’t review it. There may be better but these are genreally unknown companies with no Australian ACL warrrantty or support.
Hi
With reference to this paragraph “For that, I attach via Ethernet an ASUS/D-Link/NETGEAR AC router (whatever I have on review test) to the Gateway and then attach all the IoT to it. These routers can handle 40+ devices easily and just pass the internet traffic to the Gateway – problem solved.”
Can you recommend a (not too expensive) router to attach to the Gateway, and point me in the direction of instructions to set it up in the manner you suggest please?
Many thanks
M Nash
Hi Marianne
Sorry for the overly tech review but that is what we do. First, you want a better router than the Telstra Gateway. Better in signal strength and in processing power. I recommend the D-Link EXO AC3000 https://www.dlink.com.au/home-solutions/DIR-3060-AC3000-Smart-Mesh-Wi-Fi-Router and you attach this to the gateway LAN port via an Ethernet cable from the D-Link WAN port. Its RRP is $399 but I yhave seen it for $299 online. If you place it in teh right position (centre of all your Wi-Fi devices) that may solve everything.
If not you can add one or more D-Link smart mesh extenders DAP-1820 https://www.dlink.com.au/home-solutions/DAP-1820_EXO_AC2000_Smart_Mesh_Wi-Fi_Range_Extender RRP $249.95 to cover any blackspots.
Brand-wise D-Link is great but if you can’t get that then Netgear has an R8000 tri-band AC3200 router and AC2200 X4S range extender.
Thanks for the info. Not entirely sure that a tri-band would help..
I have 53 smart lights, 2 robot vacuums and 1 robot mop, which all can only run off 2.4ghz. These have to be on the same network as my phone and google devices to work with each other, so not sure if I would be better just with a faster dual band instead? I do have quite a few other devices too TV’s, phones, laptops, even my solar inverter!!
Thanks
What you need it something with maximum 2.4Ghz bandwidth and great signal strength. Wi-Fi 5 routers generally have a maximum of 600Mbps x 2.4Ghz. AX routers can have upto 1200Mbps. Netgear Dual Band RAX120 with 1200Mbps and 12-streams is $769 from Bing Lee. It would handle the smartlight load easily. It can also use Netgear Mesh extenders to cover dead spots. You won’t easily find such a big 2.4Ghz bandwidth but the TP-Link Archer AX6000 may work (not testedZ)
Modern routers can present as one SSID and the device selcts 2.4 or 5Ghz on joining the network. So you will get the best of both worlds.
What wont work is mesh as the bandwidth is too small for so many devices.
Hi Rayzor
So just to clarify, my issue is actually when trying to connect a new device, and sometimes when running existing devices, I either get a warning that the “access point is temporarily full”, or the device loses the connection with the modem and I have to reboot the device to try and connect it – sometimes that work, sometimes not!
I have fixed wireless NBN using the Telstra Gateway Modem.
If I was to purchase one of your suggested routers, would that still need to be connected to the Telstra Gateway, or would I just connect straight to the NBN and throw the Gateway out of the window!?
Thanks very much
Hi Marianne
The error means the Telstra Gateway access point is overloaded. Wow, that is a lot of load! If you have FTTN (copper and phone cable coming from the wall) you need the Telstra Gateway to connect (or you would have to get a VDSL+ compatible modem/router and these are too lower powered). If you have HFC (coax to an ARIS box then Ethernet to the router) or FTTP (ethernet from wall to router) then you can connect any router that has a WAN port on it.
In any case, the Telstra Gateway can be kept (especially if you are using the landline) and you connect an Ethernet cable from one of its 4 LAN ports to the routers WAN port. Then you connect everything to the new router – the Telstra Gateway does nothing apart from taking the router traffic to/from the internet.
Does it print duplex? For me, this is a feature that is essential for any printer that I might buy.
You need the G6 or 7 series for that. Auto 2-sided printing : Yes
Thanks, Ray.
I think you should double check details of the external antenna. You say:
The unit can have two external TS-9 antenna ports for better 3/4G reception only – not for 5G.
ZTE Website (Specifications) says:
External Antenna port Dual TS9 antenna ports for Rx Diversity – 4G / 5G(N78) supported
It would be interesting to know more details, since the 5G specifically mentions N78 supported does that mean 5G Sub 6 signals on the n7 (2600MHz) and n5 (850MHz) bands are not received through the antenna, only n78 (3.5GHz) is? If that is true it’s still a massive oversight on behalf of ZTE and Telstra for not picking that up. What’s the point of a device with external antenna ports if the antenna ports are hobbled or useless for the signal that is most likely to need to be that little bit better so that it guarantees adequate 5G reception whereas the need for better signal for 4G and even more so for 3G is going to be negligible. That said one would assume that getting adequate/good N78 signal is where you 5G speed is mostly going to come from so assuming you are not somehow unable to receive N78 signal due to line of sight & interferance issues etc it is the one that’s going to make the notable difference to speed.
Hi Kevin
At the time of review, the ZTE site and manual stated the external antenna were for 4G only. That has changed to add sub-6Ghz n78. That does not surprise me as NSA 5G uses 4GX equipment and probably does not need a better antenna. As far as I am aware external antennas are tuned to specific frequencies (3G or 4G). But ZTE also have to pay licencing fees to Qualcomm for more bands so its likely only to do that in countries that use n5 and n7 instead of n78. I don’t have enough experience with mmWave yet to comment there. I wil do some digging and see if I can find more.
Oh so we are censoring comments directly related to the correctness of your information now, and ignoring the provided correct information. How positively impartial of you.
No comments were censored. We do moderate and dont always do that daily.
Any site that insists on getting your phone number before giving you results loses my business. You listening Flight Centre?
I hear you!
Looking at the picture of the headset I see it suffers from the same (to me at least) problem that is general through all pricepoints. That is that the buttons are way too close to each other. Unless you are using them all day / everyday then you spend time feeling for the buttons, and we don’t all have small Asian hands.
Agree but touch controls are even worse with false touches and having to remember to tap once, twice, three times and stroke up/down/sideways.
just wanna know if i should buy it or not
Definitely not. If you have Wi-Fi blackspots read here https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/?s=black+spots
500nits is brighter than a Sony x90h TV can go. I would guess its more like 100 to 150nits.
Great explanation, cheers we just made up our mind and you made it easy.
Thomas, some 15 months later (October 2020) and you’ve just reviewed the Bose QC Earbuds, which are also pretty good. What in brief do you consider to be the pros and cons of each? Would you consider the Sony WF-1000XM3 worth purchasing? (Note that I like classical/symphonic and jazz and big band music, don’t listen much to songs.).
Hi Tony
Will pass this to Thomas – sorry for the delay
From Thomas
Tastes vary. Me? I’d go with the Sony buds. Better sound quality, especially for your kind of music.
A week ago, I would have agreed with you on “what’s wrong with a single tap?” Since then, though, I’ve worn my Human headphones, with their beautifully sensitive single tap touchy system, while working out. Once I had worked up a good sweat, damp hair and sweat drops constantly caused unwanted taps. Single tap controls are great for sitting quietly on an aeroplane, terrible for working out. I wish the new Bose earphones were more configurable, though.
Hello Raysor, we have Telstra Gen 2 smart modem.
When we installed it a few months ago the signal is my bedroom was 100% constantly.
In the last week, it drops out with a low signal regularly and I can’t use the internet very well. It has 2 bars all the time now.
I have an online business so it’s critical to have a strong signal.
Nothing has changed in regards to location of devices or furniture blocking the signal.
The family’s devices work with strong signal in their bedrooms through walls.
We have 3 laptops and 3 phones only on Wifi.
Could it be the modem is now faulty?
In regards to an extender, couldn’t I just use an ethernet cable from router to my bedroom?
I would need one at least 40 metres long and not sure where to buy one.
Then I have to tape it down all the way to my laptop (looking horrible on floorboards and carpet).
Your description of an extender mentions having an ethernet cable anyway in some situations which I find confusing!
I like the Telstra deal for paying off an extender with refund if just getting a long ethernet cable or new modem doesn’t work.
PS: I think it’s ridiculous all of us have to go to these lengths + the cost! for a good signal. What’s wrong with Telstra’s network and promises of service?
They are not delivering it.
We stick with Telstra because when things go wrong we get freebies, replacements and discounts for their ineptness.
Thanks in advance for some expert advice!
Hi Deborah
The question is a little complex as there are so many issues. No, I don’t think the Gateway is faulty.
No 5GHz WiFi signal will reach more than about 30 metres radius from the Gateway by then its useless. A 2.4Ghz signal may go further but it is a fraction of the 5Ghz speed. As the signal passes through walls, cupboards etc you can cut the distance by half again. I would be surprised if your signal went 5-10 metres.
Solutions:
Best: get an electrician to run a CAT 5e Ethernet cable from the Gateway to your room. They can run it via the wall/ceiling and put a wall plate. Cost – appro $300 if there are no issues. You can then use shorter an Ethernet cable to your laptop. But this is where I would use the Telstra extender. Plug it into the bedroom and it will transmit a full-strength signal for another 20-30 metres radius.
Next Best: Get a Telstra extender and place it no more than 10-15metres from the Gateway – as close to halfway as possible to your bedroom. It will retransmit the signal it can get another 20 metres or so.
Next best: Officeworks has a 40m cable for $79 https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/comsol-rj45-cat-6-patch-cable-40m-blue-coc6400blu
If you want to continue this offline send me an email admin@gadgetguy.com.au.
Where does the audio to digital conversion take place when I feed in spdif? Is it already reading digital and sending the same out on USB? What if I feed in line-level analog, does it convert it or does it send out analog on the USB? Then there are the USB in / spdif or line out possibilities. It all sounds OK, but none of this “where-the-conversion-takes-place” stuff is very clear in the specs or user guides.
I will send this to Thomas for an answer.
Hell no. Just watched Gemini Man and yes it makes for a great Demo disc for my 4K home theater setup but it looks like Video Game cut scenes and not a movie. It does not respect the medium at all. I felt the same way about the Hobbit movies. 24fps 2.35:1 Any deviations to that should be part of telling the story Like Wes Anderson does with The Grand Budapest, changing aspect ratios to represent periods of time.
does this phone work well in country areas or is it only for the suburbs?
Hi Rob
It is definitely a city/suburbs phone. Sadly no low-cost phone is very good. Telstra Tough Max 3 is about the lowest price we for a Bluetick or a Samsung A51.
We now measure Femto watts signal strength and compare that to Telstra Bluetick phones for rural use.
thanks for that, I appreciate it
I reckon that “un-installable” should instead be “non-removable” or “non-uninstallable” (considering that “uninstallable” is an accepted word).
On the point of people not trusting hardware made in China (smart devices such as phones, tablets, whitegoods, TVs), it would very interesting having a list of brands assessed as trusted versus untrusted. ow is the man in the street to know the good from the bad? For example, I recall that Gadget Guy has mentioned in a product review that OPPO can be regarded as trustworthy because it’s a private company not aligned with the CCP, but how does one really know in any particular case?
Not sure what you mean by “Price may be linked to a Telco plan”. The price is $499 on Motorola’s website for the phone outright with no strings attached. It’s the cheapest 5G capable phone in Australia and it should be recognised for that to push prices down from other vendors.
Keep up the great work.
Cheers
Motorola has the retail dual sim version. The telcos have a single sim version.
Hi, Thanks for the review.
Please clarify the availability situation as it appears you can buy direct from Motorola AU online without a telco contract: https://store.motorola.com.au/product/moto-g-5g-plus/
I’m also curious if the detail here about the dual-sim is true:
https://www.motorola.com.au/smartphones-moto-g-5g-plus/p
SIM Card
Retail – Dual Sim (2 nano SIM + 1 microSD)
Carrier – Single Sim (1 nano SIM + microSD)
So does the version direct from Motorola online come with a proper dual sim + microSD capability?
It’s something that has gone missing from so many phones over the last year and is essential to me in having separate work and personal numbers and only 1 phone!!
Thanks!
The retail version ex Motorola is dual sim. We are investigating the Telco version and if its plan only.
The retail version ex Motorola is dual sim. We are investigating the Telco version and if its plan only. The retail is a hybrid – one sim and one mico SD or two sims.
You must have missed all the internet research which demonstrates how well activated carbon does to adsorb bacteria and viruses. No, it does not kill them, but it does hold them until they die or the used carbon is disposed of. Of course, an activated carbon air filter with a fan to force air through it does not capture 100 percent of the pollutants which move through it, but it captures a good portion of them. With enough carbon and enough air flow (say a CFM rating equivalent to four or five room replacements an hour) indoor air with microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses will have greatly reduced numbers of both.
Another technology which is most definitely known to safely kill bacteria and viruses is Photocatalytic Oxidation (PCO). It combines UV light with a catalyst of Titanium Dioxide. PCO uses broad-spectrum UV light which reacts with a thin film of titanium dioxide, which, in the presence of water, creates hydroxyl radicals and super-oxide ions that “burn” VOCs and microorganisms absorbed on the catalyst’s surface. This technology is long been licensed by the FDA to kill bacteria in meat processing plants and is now commonly available in many low-, and not so low-cost home air filters. It produces no ozone.
It stands to reason the the best option is to use a filter which combines both technologies. There are many to choose from.
Why dissuade people from taking measures which will clearly improve their chances of breathing healthier air and possibly save them from a case of Covid 19?
Hi Bob
The article you refer to was written at the beginning of COVID and was right at the time. And we were innnundated with dozens of CHinese made devices making outlandish claims.
We received advice from the TGA (Therauputic Goods Authority) not to publish any COVID killing claims.
SInce then we understand that lengthy exposure to UV light and Titanium Dioxide can kill the virus. Some newer purifiers place this tech around the filters to kill any virus trapped there. We will revisit this when the TGA says its safe to do so.
While we may have been inundated with outlandish Chinese claims, a long and deep body of evidence says activated carbon adsorbs viruses (Not all types. Not all amounts. But surely, the more carbon you have, the more virus that gets adsorbed.) Also, one great advantage of Photocatalytic Oxidation over plain UV lighting is that it works virtually instantaneously. The created hydroxyl radicals exist for only a very brief moment. In that time they destroy VOCs, and microorganisms passing by. While it may be prudent to CYA, the science remains. It’s really not hard to properly qualify a claim. These devices do get rid of a good amount of many types/all types microorganisms in the air. People should know that.
Hi, thanks for the review.
Re the dual sim capability – are you able to comment about the two options listed on the Motorola website specs: https://www.motorola.com.au/smartphones-moto-g-5g-plus/p
SIM Card
Retail – Dual Sim (2 nano SIM + 1 microSD)
Carrier – Single Sim (1 nano SIM + microSD)
I cannot find confirmation of the option to actually have 2 sim + microSD – which would be better than the “hybrid” setup you mention above?
Thanks.
The retail version ex Motorola is dual sim – one sim and one micro SD or two sims.
We are investigating the Telco version and if its plan only.
Sounds like an honest non-scripted review. What screen did you use to test the laser TV?
The screen is provided ‘on redemption’ with the Laser TV. It is an ambient light rejecting screen that minimises reflection but at the expense of a wider viewing angle. Let’s just say that the laser is tuned for it and it will provide the best viewing experience.
Thanks and it looks like on the test shots you have used an ALR screen. Was it the one provided by Hisense?
Thanks @disqus_efggYTzUvJ:disqus. Given you didn’t have a lot of time for this test are the pictures taken from the supplied ALR screen or did you use your own? The picture looks quite washed out underlining your point about the need for a controlled environment
Yes, the photos were mine (from the HDR Segment onwards) using the Hisense screen. The test room was heavily light controlled as you would expect! The only options I had were to turn on the office overhead lights (400-500 lumens) and open the door to a larger office area with natural light coming in from about 10 metres away.
Fine in a controlled environment but not for a typical lounge.
If you want more privacy, then private browsers and VPNs are the things you should be looking into. Quite recently, I started using Surfshark VPN myself, and I also use Tor private browser. Of course, I can’t see the difference and the impact all the time, but I feel much safer.
In my opinion, a VPN is mandatory for everyone. I use Private Internet Access and others use NordVPN which seem to have the best response times in Australia with local servers. But the key message is to use a PAID VPN. Many of the free ones are spyware. We don’t review apps as a rule so have not used Surfshark.
at least in my experience Kogan has been good and on time with deliveries, they are a big company now so of course there will be complaints, call me an evil tyrant being sympathetic to the headaches that would be involved running the QC department though, ive only bought TV’s off them though but i honestly cant complain, so i wont lol
It is great that these forums can allow for positive and negative experiences. Facts don’t change that Kogan is the king of the NSW Department of Fair trading reports.
LOL. Aussie Broadband to the rescue, just last week for us. I spent 3 hours on one chat with a Telstra representative about our NBN, lots hello are you there after 20 mins waiting in between scripted questions. They advised the matter would be escalated and would contact me within 24 hours. That did not happen. Tired of Telstra’s poor customer service too.
I feel your pain. The champagne I popped when I broke all ties to Tel$tra tasted even better. What more the switch is painless. Ring Aussie (or any decent CSP), give them your details and Telstra bill number and next morning I woke to find my Telstra NBN was now with Aussie – did not have to do a thing and could even use the Telstra Gen 2 modem I had. I still have not had Telstra contact me despite numerous messages since September. Give me real people to talk to any day.
Switched to aussie 6 months ago despite fears of nbn itself being poor. Their support is 10/5 which says something for an ISP. Compared to Telstra and foxtel which stand at 0.0000015/5 on a good day. Am now an AussieBB shareholder.
Yes, it is an urban myth spread by crap CSPs that it is all NBNs fault when things go pear-shaped. I have nothing but praise for NBN service during my TIO complaint about Telstra.
BTW – shares. Aussie shares should be a good long term investment but they are not paying dividends for the forseeable future so it is really just a way to raise low cost capital. The first rule of investing is to look for something that creates more value.
WTF is CSP?
It’s really annoying when special interest pieces do not explain tech terms for the poor peasants who aren’t in the club.
You are 100% correct and I am sorry – will update the article. CSP is Carriage Service Provider and replaces ISP (Internet Services Provider). The NBN provides the base level internet connection. The CSP overlays its billing system, back-haul, international and national ‘pipes’ (links to other countries) and routing to suit its level of expertise. Most CSPs are virtual, online-only, and just rent a ‘white-label’ version from a major CSP. Telstra, Optus and Vodafone use mostly their own infrastructure. Aussie Broadband has a lot and is building more.
So when someone complains about the NBN internet chances are that it is not NBN but the CSP. As I found with Telstra. Two years of arguing and ultimately 10 secounds to fix the routing issue.
So it’s CSPs now, is it? And here’s slow old me thinking they were called RSPs (Retail Service Providers, as contrasted with NBN Co which is the
wholesaler). Oh well, I just lost another battle in the Acronym Wars!
So it’s CSPs now, is it? And here’s slow old me thinking they were called RSPs (Retail Service Providers, as contrasted with NBN Co which is the
wholesaler). Oh well, I just lost another battle in the Acronym Wars!
Whatever happened to good old ISPs?
Here is the legislation
CSP means a carriage service provider who supplied a legacy service to a consumer at the relevant premises under a consumer contract using a legacy network immediately prior to the consumer attempting to migrate to the NBN.
But what really concerns me are the huge number of virtual CSPs that simply use a white lable product and have no staff at all.
Thankyou for these reviews. My priority is the LTE rankings. I live 20km away from the nearest tower (probably 3G signal). My mobile broadband dongle registers at about -95dBm to -115dBm RSSI (I check nearly never). My current Nokia 3310 works fine most of the time. Just.
The Vivo Y12 rates at -93, and recommended for rural, so I thought, OK, good. But the Mint A5 rates at -106dBm and is recommended for city/suburbs.
Some other LTE recommendations confuse me also (like the Oppo A52/A72 at -101 dBm, it is a city phone where there is usually strong signal), but I think that is a good example.
Is the difference just in the extra towers factor? Are there a couple things going on here?
Multiple towers rarely exist in rural Australia (often lucky to have just a single one) that I am aware of, so I’m wondering what rural/city/suburbs means rather than signal strength – because that is what matters.
Why wouldn’t the Mint A5 be better for someone 20ks away from the only available tower if, as I understand it, it can detect a signal that is only barely there? Thanks again.
The lower the -dBm rating the stronger the signal is. But we are now also measuring femtoWatts to ascertain antenna strength. vivoY12 at -93 is better than the Mintt A5 at -106. Telstra hjave a Bluetick program and its cheapest rural phone is the Tough Max 3. Its signal strength is -83dBm – excellent finding next two towers at -85 and -101 – a good stable signal but we did find it was more often 3G than 4G. No other reviews test signal strenght – nice to know its useful to rural readers.
Brilliant read, totally agree, I’ve also been wedded to Telstra even longer than the 45 years, their customer service is the worst, in fact it’s just disgraceful and they should be embarrassed but then robots don’t have feelings, R have a contract but when it’s over that’s it!!
So you were happy with Telstra when they treated you well, but the rest of us like dirt? But now you’re telling us how bad they are because you’re not a VIP to them any more. Wow, talk about late news. I left Telstra in 1991 when Optus came in. I am now very happy with iiNet for internet and Amaysim for mobile. Baffles me that anyone deals with Telstra. Most people just winge and do nothing.
Well done. More people need to divorce Telstra to teach them a lesson. I to divorced Telstra just a couple of months ago due to the lack of being able to communicate to a communications company. I had moved house and arranged online to have my NBN moved two and a half weeks prior. The change did not happen at all. Trying to contact them was all but impossible. Ended up on the SMS chat rubbish and had one SMS chat that took 23 hours to conclude, and still they did not do what I needed. Ended up calling Aussie Broadband who had it organised immediately and operating in a couple of weeks with exceptional customer service. Lesson to everyone, DITCH TELSTRA.
I spent 12 hours on their chat thingy on Friday because my cable internet was down whilst trying teach and online workshop tether to my phone.
The best the 4 people I ended up chatting with could offer me in that time was turning it on and off and checking my cables were properly connected. It is now day 3 with no resolution (or contact). I too will be divorcing Telstra this week.
The people responsible for the woeful lack of service at Telstra deserve to be jailed for life and forced to listen to all the customer service recordings over and over.
Talk about Chinese water torture – a painful process in which cold water is slowly dripped onto the scalp, forehead or face for a prolonged period of time allegedly making the restrained victim insane.
I think I went insane listening to the horrible Telstra music on hold!
Is this just an elaborate Aussie Broadband ad?
Hi Ben
I assure you that we have received no money or favours from Aussie Broadband. We are 100% independent and you can’t buy a review. On deciding to leave Telstra I had to determine what is important to me. Aussie ticked all those boxes – real local call centre, it is not a virtual CSP (like most) and it has its own infrastruture. Quite independently GadgetGuy owners, loyal to Telstra for ever, got so sick of it and the time wasting that they switched to Aussie. A single phone call ended years of pain.
I am sure there are other good CSPs out there and readers are welcome to let me know.
Hmmm, I think not?
[snip- you wrote]
Booster – FAIL – I think not
I take issue with the term ‘Booster’. By law, you cannot amplify/boost any RF signal like 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz Wi-Fi. The Government sets Wi-Fi power limits so as not to annoy the neighbours!
[snip]
Unless this ‘booster’ works differently to almost all other ‘boosters’ on the market, it does indeed ‘boost’ the attenuated/reduced signal strength that it receives back to the original routers transmission strength (or its own max anyway) and retransmits at full strength from its own location (granted, this may be garbage if the signal received was attenuated/degraded to the point of data loss). They do not claim that it generates a ‘stronger’ signal than the original router transmitted, just that it ‘boosts’ what it receives. This would indeed meet the definition of ‘booster’ would it not?
booster
/ˈbuːstə/
noun
1.
a device for increasing electrical voltage or signal strength.
2.
the first stage of a rocket or spacecraft, used to give initial acceleration and then jettisoned.
Definitions from Oxford Languages
Sorry, but we have to agree to disagree. This device and all other so called ‘Boosters’ recevives a weaker signal from the gateway and then retransmits that signal over 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz channels.
We have tested this device thoroughly aand that is exactly what it does. For example, if it recevies a 300Mbps signal at 10 metres from the gateway (and remember Wi-Fi is half-duplex so its really only 150/150Mbps) then the 150Mbps signal is retransmited in half-duplex at 75/75 up and down. That is the science and the math.
The ACMA has banned any device that amplifies (boosts) RF signals of any wavelength apart from a select few that work with Telstra/Optus/Vodaphone and these are essentially small CELL repeaters.
Why did the ACMA ban these devices? Wi-Fi is a home product with an transmition radius of about 10-30 metres (a little more distance line-of-sight). Any ampliification would interfere with the neighbours. The key to using eny extender is to get Ethernet cable to it from the gateway so it can retransmit 1Gbit full-duplex.
I am with ABB after years of being an Optus HFC customer. Been with MVNOs with outright handsets. Can’t agree more with this article.
Shows what lack of real competition in Australia means to consumers
The article’s prime purpose was not to slag Telstra (that is too easy) but to say to rusted on Tel$tra, Craptu$ and Vodafail customers that there are far better alternatives that understand the value of service.
I can relate to this article. After leaving the big city having the luxury of NBN I find myself out bush using ISDN as I enjoy drop out and latency of a pathetic network 🙁 🙁 Yet, Telstra tell me it is working well (for dark ages) and after sending screenshots I still wait for that elusive reply. Recently, I had issue with my phone being cut off as I could not contact Telstra as there was zero defaut access to establish why!! Wonderful feeling of isolation out in the back of beyond 🙁 In spite finding the only local phone box the senseless frustration of there high school AutoBot creations ruled with no a real human anywhere!!! Worse of all Telstra is the only carrier out here I know off as foolish me believed this is 2020 a time of equal up to date technology and providers throughout this country given all those dollars spent!!!!
Hi – Pain, I can feel it in Sydney all the way from WA. If comms is vital to you look at a satellite sleeve https://www.optus.com.au/enterprise/networking/satellite/thuraya-satsleeve
Thanks for the quick reply and posting my comment Rayzor.
I appreciate your argument but have to respectfully point out that your argument is fatally flawed. You have confused and combined two totally different terms. Those being ‘Signal Strength’ and “Data Rate’. Full/Half duplex ‘Data Rate’ has nothing to do with ‘Signal Strength’. Saying 300Mbps ‘Signal’ is incorrect, the correct term is 300Mbps ‘Data Rate’.
In the world of digital communication, full-duplex means that a system or circuit is capable of both transmitting and receiving data at the same time. In contrast, half-duplex means that communication can only go in one direction at a time.
Whereas signal strength in layman’s terms is the amount of oomph/power that the data travels within.
Here’s a simple way for anybody with a Wi-Fi booster to visually see that ‘boosters’ do indeed ‘boost’ the ‘signal strength’… NOT the ‘Data Rate’ (Mbps).
With your mobile phone connected to your home network via a Wi-Fi booster, turn off your booster at the power point and wait for your phone to connect directly back to the main router (you may have to move closer to your router). Next, walk away from the router in the direction of your booster until you loose one or more bars of signal strength on your phone (most phones will have a signal strength indicator at the top of the screen). Now, leaving the phone where it is, go and switch the booster back on. Finally return to your phone and you should find that the number of bars, indicating the signal strength, have increased.(possibly after a short wait as the phone needs to switch back to the booster).
Note. Just to make life a little trickier. Depending on whether you have an ‘extender’ or ‘repeater’ type booster, your booster may have a different ‘network name’ than your router and you will have to switch networks manually in your phone… although I don’t really think you actually need to perform this test in order to believe that this is what boosters really do! (what would be the point of them otherwise??).
Where we do agree is that a booster does NOT boost the ‘Data Rate’ (Mbps). However, in both your article above and your reply to my original comment, you have mistakenly confused ‘Data Rate’ with ‘Signal Strength’. Again, these are two very different things.
A ‘half duplex’ booster (which most are!), only allows data to flow in one direction at a time (not simultaneously in both directions, which is ‘full duplex’). So there will indeed be a drop/reduction in the amount of data (Mbps) flowing through it (over a given time period) by anywhere up to 50%. In order for it to be 50% there would have to be exactly the same amount of data, and overhead, flowing in both directions. As this never actually happens in the real world, it will be a varying drop somewhere between 0~50%… But nevertheless, there will be a drop in ‘Data Rate’ (Mbps).
So in short, a ‘booster’ WILL indeed ‘boost’ the ‘Signal Strength’. However, it will NOT boost the ‘Data Rate’ (Mbps)… In layman’s terms that means that you will be able to receive a signal further from your router than you previously had been able to before (internet will be available in previous black spots), BUT, the amount of data rate (Mbps) you receive over a given time period (how fast a web page loads) at that distant location, will always be slower!
Thanks for the opportunity to try and clarify this information to your readers Rayzor. This stuff can get pretty confusing at times.
(p.s. I’m an electronics engineer from the early eighties. Some of your readers may actually be using various electronic equipment that have some of my circuitry designs imbedded within).
Yes, you are correct on data rate versus signal strength. I have to figure out better measurements. For all readers lets simplify the issue. An extender (I still won’t call it a booster – its an access point sharing the same SSID) transmits 2.4 and 5Ghz Wi-Fi bands so, for example, you can get an apparent speed to the extender of say 5Ghz/866Mbps. To use a hose and water analogy that is a fire hose but the extender may only have a dribble of data coming down it. I am doing more work/reviews on extenders and mesh in the next few weeks.
Wow, I went through the same experience with spintel. Aussie broadband came through with the help from the gods!, Honestly the help was amazing.
I would love to end my contract with Telstra with my mobile😡😡 horrible contract and getting out of it, I would have to sell my arms and maybe a legs.
The days of lock-in contracts are numbered with so any great phones below $500. I think its disgusting that you can no longer talk to Telstra.
Hi Rayzor. I’m a fan of your articles and enjoy the way you explain how things work simply enough for most of us to understand.
I think that you and Starbug are both correct in your comments but you are talking about different things. Starbug is talking about signal strength which is measured in -dBm and you are talking about data transfer which is measured in Mbps = Mega bits per second.
The problem is that you have repetitively used the wording signal and signal strength in your article when you should have been using the wording data transfer or data rate. Signal strength isn’t effected by half duplexing which has an effect on data transfer speed only. So this may be where the confusion lies and could use some clarification.
Could you also please clarify your comments on the ACMA regulations as from my understanding the prohibited devices are MOBILE PHONE boosters. Mobile phone boosters are much more powerful than wifi boosters and are banned because they might interfere with someone trying to make an emergency call from their mobile phone. Wifi boosters are much less powerful and provided they fall within the allowable power range are exempt from having to be registered.
A wifi booster located on the Northern side of your house and transmitting at the same power level as your router wont effect your Northern neighbour any more than your router located on the Southern side of your house effects your Southern neighbour. So I don’t see the problem with boosters amplifying a received weak signal back to the original strength provided the power level remains within the allowable range.
I do get that your article is talking about Mbps duplexing losses and we have now fully strayed into -dBm signal strength losses but I want to keep you on your toes. lol.
Thanks for all your help over your many great articles Rayzor. Keep up the good work mate!
Working on simplifying this.
OMG! This resonates with me, EXACTLY my own experience with Telstra. But there’s MORE pain to come:
The Telstra Shop provided a human interface but now we have to communicate with a “chatbot” on a mobile device, inside a tiny little window. After years of being a loyal customer I noticed that they were charging me a SPEEDBOOST premium, although this had become defunct when NBN rolled out. And the mobile charges weren’t competitive either. No response from T so I switched everything to Aussie Broadband, great service, human contacts, problems resolved quickly. No chatbots.
BUT, Telstra kept on charging me for internet, speedboost and mobile services, my chatbot experiences achieved nothing, they just don’t care.
I am still waiting after more than 10 attempts to use the chat system from September. Not a peep out of Telstra. And when I tried to cancel the service – guess what. There is no option in the app or chat to do so.
Oh please. This spyware CPU pushed by Apple has an undisclosed instruction set, multiple back doors riddled throughout the closed source firmware, and it runs on a proprietary operating system with little support from application developers… More than 87% of the worlds software companies do not support Apple operating systems. More recently even speciality software vendors within the MacOS space have decided to abandon Apple products outside of the mobile phone niche. Apple is dead in the CAD, and Publishing pre-production space.
Apple hardware is not even repair friendly and hence is nothing more than landfill for the environment. Apple marketing loves to virtue signal a green image yet all their hardware still contains a host of hazardous materials that could have been replaced, the company persists with using Foxcon slave labour & it openly operates an anti-competitive supply chain practice where Apple themselves effectively set the price at retail and then uses rebates and access to supply to enforce it. Morally & ethically they suck. Seriously. They are horribly over priced as a result. But they dodge paying taxes in the markets they operate. Parasites.
When all is said and done, this “M1” processor is much slower in every performance metric when compared with any modern CPU’s from AMD such as current generation Zen 3 which all offer vastly more computational power, offers a larger memory footprint, can support more threads and each core can operate at higher clock speeds, is more energy efficient, and is full compatibility with past system chipsets allowing for older computer motherboards to be upgraded to these new CPU’s and is backward compatible with all x86 / x64 software from all vendors going back 30+ years…
Seems you know a lot about the M1 being a “spyware CPU pushed by Apple with an undisclosed instruction set” and that it has “multiple back doors riddled throughout the closed source firmware.” Can you cite a source for this? Also, I am not defending Apple but you claim it uses “slave labour” (i.e Foxconn) and “openly operates anti-competitive supply chain practices” is a bit out there. If this is true, why has the ACCC or FTC not stopped it? And are you saying that other tech companies don’t manufacture in China with Foxconn or similar, and none undertake any sort of shady supply chain practices, just the big bad Apple?
If you cared to learn a little more about the M1 you would understand that it’s pitched as an entry-to-mid tier processor and that’s why it’s not in Macs that require more than 16GB of memory or higher processing performance. It is the first of a family of processors so there will be others. Also, I don’t recall that the clock speed has been disclosed, and it actually adjusts is performance based on thermal conditions – so in the fan-less MacBook Air, it ticks slower than in the 13in MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, which have active cooling. You also compare it to the AMD Zen 3 – where are the benchmark scores you are drawing this from, and what’s the AMD’s Performance per Watt rating? A big part of the M1’s focus is efficiency – so while it’s great and all to light up all cores and max out clock speeds, how will that impact battery life? We don’t even have real-world M1 performance tests yet but you seem to have all the answers. And why should Apple support the x86 instruction set if it doesn’t need to? I doubt Apple cares much about a niche markets – especially those that need to run 30 year old software. And lastly, you say that Apple is ‘horribly overpriced’. Well, this may be true depending on what you value, however, people still buy Apple products despite many cheaper alternatives being available, and their computer market share is growing.
Hi Sony
A great many of the IT media have expressed similar feelings about the M1 claims. I am not an Apple person so I won’t comment but I think the days of Apple fleecing its sheep are fast coming to an end. Or go buy Apple Shares if you don’t want to belive me!
I’m on Boost and I don’t think it’s capped to 100Mb/s. I get about 140Mb/s on Speedtest. It’s also stated here: https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/boost_mobile
That article is a little out of date. Boost uses Telstra’s retail network and Boost support/call centre is provided by Telstra. That includes band 28 and can achieve higher speeds. Othe MVNOs use the wholesale network and are capped at 100Mbps.
Boost is one of the better providers but we have to say we are highly impressed with Woolworth (at gives you 10% off one shop per month), Aldi (just great value) and recently Aussie Broadband that have real people in real Aussie suport centres.
That’s great info thanks! I since tested Boost on my new phone and got 250Mb/s, so quite impressed. Will definitely keep the others in mind though.
A CPU does not run on an Operating System, an Operating System runs on a CPU.
Programs will not need to written in a ‘new language’, Apple will provide a compiler to target the new instruction set architecture.
Yes it says that in the article. “Using a new compiler, developers can now create what Apple is calling a ‘Universal’ version of their software to run on both platforms.”
Great indepth review. umidigi has just released a new model called the umidigi bison. Would love to see a comprehensive review of that one – they claim water resistance, shock proof, bosch features and more.
Hi Uami
Unfortunately, Umidigi is not certified for Australian carrier networks and are not C-Tick approved. Otherwise, we would love to review more from this brand.
I bought one anyway.
Three issues:
1. When using camera flash, flash fires after photo taken, resulting in black photos.
[other people also report this issue: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D1009153&prev=search&pto=aue%5D
2. When connecting to wifi, mac address is not retained when reconnecting to the same wifi, even after changing the setting to retain.
[other people also report this:
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D1009153&prev=search&pto=aue
https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=1009153&st=900 ]
3. The phone is advertised as having two customisable buttons, but only one is.
[see https://community.umidigi.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=19520%5D
Haven’t tested it’s claim to be water resistant yet.
Yes, we reviewed that in May 2019 and during the two-week review it was fine. But we later found that it did not have Australian certification as promised and we have had no involvement since.
The problem of buying unknown brands is after-sales support so we stick to those with feet on the ground here.
wait so it doesnt have emojis?
Sorry but my review unit has gone back. All Android devices have emoji as part of the Gboard. Or am I missing something?
Hold it, be careful. I’m being ripped off. In America, the peak power is 1400 watts, here it’s 1000 watts, which is not enough for what I’m making. I waited a while for this to come, and have had it sitting in its box while I was sick, from May. Now, I find a very mediocre wattage staring back at me. I had to use to make thick liposomal vitamin C treatment. The last soup blender I bought would overheat after 5 minutes. I could have bought the Sunbeam.
I am not sure of your issue. The review clearly states that it consumes up to 1000W when blending and heating and up to 800W heating. There is even a power use graph. It also states that it is not the US model that uses 110V/1400. Can I suggest that you contact Ninja Australia on 02 8801 7666 and have a chat to see if the product is suitable for the task. I have found their support very good.
It is possible to connect a chromecast with atmos (for example the latest from Google) to an HDMI port to allow the bar to encode the atmos direct from the streaming device and send the video signal to the TV through the HDMI ARC port. This because my tv does not have atmos.
If the video/audio stream has Dolby Atmos metadata in it then any HDMI device (Blu-ray, NVIDIA Stream etc) should be able to connect to the HS512 and it will give Dolby Atmos sound. From CNet – includes high-end streaming like 4K resolution, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
I will ask Thomas Bartlett to test but it may take a while.
Using google tv from chromecast, if it is certified for atmos, on netflix for example
Hi, I have an LG OLED C7 65″. it supports dobly atmos apparantly but has ARC. I’m about to buy an LG atmos setup but just trying to figure if my TV will support it or even will it get the compressed version? if so for compressed do you know what the downside of compressed is?
cheers
The TV decodes/downmixes Atmos to whatever speaker it has. The C7 OLED 2017 was ahead of its time and has HDMI 2.0a so it will pass Dolby Atmos via it’s ARC port to a soundbar. ARC versus eARC should not be a major issue as long as you have the right HDMI 4K cables https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/hdmi-because-you-are-going-to-need-to-know/
By all means buy a 5.1.2 system – at worst you may not quite get the full Atmos height experience.
right on! I’ve been looking at the LG SN11RG… being a 7.1.4 would that be a waste of money compared to going for a 5.1.2?
The SN11RG is the pick of the crop. I am not sure how much more it will add to listening pleasure but its the best current consumer soundbar and not a lot more if you shop around.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is a major major go! I love this watch.
Is the rechargeable battery in this earphone replaceable? If not, how many years would it survive, assuming 3 hours daily use?
They use a Sennheiser designed battery so you may have to ask Sennheiser about replacement – I don’t see why not. I know its over-the-ear phones are replaceable.
They have a 120mAh battery for up to 6 hours use. Assuming the battery is reasonable quality (as it should be) then 500 full cycles (0-100%) should be achievable. This means the batteries should give your 3000 hours use. At 3 hours a day x 365 that is about 3 years.
But as these are on special for $297 from David Jones the battery life becomes less of an issue.
Thank you for the information,
Tempted but seeing as I had a lemon camera on my current Note 9 (and my previous Note 4) – my old Galaxy SII camera took better photos – so have been bitterly disappointed over the last few years. I’m thinking best to go non Samsung 🙁
Its hard to refute your experience except to say that I have owned every Note and Galaxy S since 2015 and without exception the camera tech was leading class for the time. I am using the S20 Ultra 5G now for camera work and it is superb.
OPPO Find X2 Pro is really the only worth competitor in the camera field.
I have had all these issues with helstra, two years ago I hat NAT issues with a ps4 and was told by the Telstra person on the phone to just get a ps5, that was my final straw and I made the switch as fast as I could. Then trying to get my final bill credit back was a nightmare with all the we are shut because if covid crap. Never heard anyone in fed or state government say that Telstra had to be shut because if the pandemic.
They will be screwed once the boomers all die and they don’t have mum and dad investors anymore
I hear your pain. Today (Friday) I got an overdue notice from Tel$tra threatening action if I did not pay. Never mind that I cancelled the service and moved to Aussie Broadband. But I have never had a credit issue so I diligently called 13 22 00 and was told I could only use the Tel$tra App or they would send me a link to chat. So for the 13th time I tried via chat to tell Tel$tra that the bill was wrong and the fourth time that I had cancelled.
So started a long chat with Josefina and I quote, “Much as I want to accommodate your request knowing its easier to resolve your concern over the phone we do not have that option.”
I responded “Well get someone to call me who can help”.
I promptly entered all the details again for the 13th time only to get an error message “The site can’t be reached. Mytelstra.onelink.me’s DNS address could not be found – diagnosing the problem”.
To add insult to injury going back to the link did not work either – its one time use only!
So Tel$tra – sue me! I have all the evidence of a communication breakdown on your part.
Now is the time for everyone to vote with their wallet and Divorce Tel$tra.
Australians hate terrorists. But we hate Telstra more.
I am glad we have an avenue to vent. Some of the horror stories emerging including Telstra’s $50m fine for unconscionable sales tactics in teh indigenous community are just the start.
This is basically what I have to put up with.
I seperated from iinet and I cannot recommend them to anyone anymore, I find all the big Telcos are running on old mindsets and frankly couldn’t give a rats arse about you.
I switched from iinet to Launtel. In the early days Launtel had a few growing pains that have been resolved now. Now they aren’t cheap but they provide awesome service (like the 4 days I upgraded to Gigabit before going back to 250/100). I have had issues with ipv6 (which was an issue on my end) and they helped me get that sorted. Heck they changed my ipv6 prefix size to a smaller one on request becuase unifi had a weird bug at the time.
My sister and a few friends are on ABB and they love it. My sister told me the other day “I just realised we haven’t had a single internet issue in 3 months” 3 months ago they signed up with ABB. I never hear from my parents who are with Launtel. It goes to show if you make a network that actually functions you probably could reduce call centre costs.
I’m with Telstra on my mobile phone, I purchase the phone out right and I’m on a month to month plan thats because my employer pays most of my phone plan
#Divorce Tel$tra and probably Craptus and Vodafail has never been more important. The way I feel is that they don’t give a crap about consumers. And our broadband has been totally reliable on Aussie.
I too have been having problems with Helstra since I moved from cable hfc to NBN , with their billing, I negotiated $80 unlimited premium speed but they continue to bill me $110 each month, i continue to pay $80, so late fees and extra charges keep getting added, Finally received an email saying my service will be cut off, got on to webchat for the umpteeenth time, finally got someone who looked through my account and nulled and voided it all, and then it starts again every month billed $110 again, they are hopeless!!
Nick I feel every pain. Do your self the biggest favour and try Aussie. Get out of the useless Telstra lack of service trap.
Aussie just dont have the bandwidth at the backend like Telstra do, my bill $ also would go up, I can deal with billing problems every 2 months, my fantastic connection makes up for it (at the moment)
Aussie now do up to 1000/400Mbps ()$429 per month) so I am not sure your comment about backend is correct. As for billing problems – well they should not happen and Telstra’s refusal to have a human contact call centre stinks.
Arc on its own is 5.0.2. the 5 being the front left, front center, front right. Rear left and rear right. The rear left and rear right are the side speakers on the arc. They bounce the sound off the side walls to try make it sound like its coming behind you. The ‘2’ in 5.0.2 is the two upfiring speakers. They add height for Atmos.
If you add a sub it becomes 5.1.2.
If you add the two rear speakers it actually stays a 5.0.2 (or 5.1.2 with sub). Because in this case, the arcs rear side firing speakers are reallocated to just play midbass tones to help reinforce the front channels bass response.
Similarly, if you play non Atmos content, the upfiring speakers are also reallocated to playing midrange tones to help reinforce the arcs bass response. This works for the side and up firing channels because the mid bass is not nearly as directional sound.
I am sorry but even Sonos admits it is a 5.0 system – 5.1 with the sub. Adding two rear speakers does not make it 5.1.2 UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.
The rears take over two the two upwards firing faux rears (Psychoacoustics trickery) simply reinforce the front speakers. To be clear ARC only has 5 amps – not 7 as 5.1.2 requires.
Having said that and tested with the optional rears we can say that apart from lack of the spatial height it sounds pretty good.
Please see our Dummies Guide to Atmos here https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/dummies-guide-to-dolby-atmos-and-dts/.
I could not agree more. I had the worst customer support experience of my life several months ago! Our NBN box was faulty and it took almost 5 weeks to replace it. The replacement had to be arranged by Telstra because that was the protocol, which many of their staff were unaware of. The whole experience was very stressful and took a huge amount of time and effort to resolve, when all that was needed was a replacement box. I made a formal complaint and was assigned a contact person who said she would investigate and get back to me but never did. I am planning to leave Telstra as well. The customer support is appalling.
Yet another Telstra travesty. But it is not alone in poor service. Craptus, Vodafail, iiNet and many more score 1-star ratings for service. I have to say that I am incredibly impressed with Aussie Broadband. A friend decided to switch and did not have all the details handy so Aussie offered to call back at a nominated time and did – spot-on service. Said friend still did not have the info they needed so they asked her to nominate a time and guess what – again they called back exactly on time.
Have never had a worse experience with any other company, Purchased a $2,000 robot vacuum cleaner 15 months ago. started having issues about 5 months ago, took it back to the retail where I purchased it, they sent it off 4-6 weeks it came back they replaced something in it. came back home still didn’t have any suction power, for a vacuum I would hope that’s all it does, took it back a week later advised still not fixed, they sent it off again, received a phone call from the repair man who yelled at me, talked over me whilst I was trying to explain what the issue was, he told me it was impossible to feel the suction strength by putting your hand underneath the head, 8 weeks later got it back, nothing was said about the error or my complaint about the machine. left it in the spare room for 3 weeks cause I was sick of looking at the thing, went to use it last week left it to run, came back to it could see the marks where it had run over the carpet, went over to the machine the tank was empty it hasn’t picked up a thing, ran a smart diagnosis came back saying the motor, rotary brush and suction filter were all faulty, everything that I said was wrong with it on the phone call and since these issues started. I called to complain, just received a call back advising that it will need to be sent for 3rd time for “repair’ and if they find nothing wrong with it too bad no replacement or refund. I cannot express enough how much you shouldn’t buy from here, I have two roombas for my tiles, vacuuming and mopping they are amazing can’t wait to be done with LG. Will never buy anything from them again.
I am sorry to hear that. LG usually make good products and has good after-sales service. But it shows that there is more to a purchase than price.
We only usually have review products for 4-weeks and did not experience any issues.
Write a complaint to them https://www.lg.com/au/support/email – at least it may make you feel a little better and they will know they have lost a loyal customer for their ineptitude.
Bought a Max 2 exactly one year ago, Nov ’19. Suited my useage but became increasingly frustrating, some things were an outright annoyance. Not a day passed without google having to update the payment app which I don’t use, or some other app, always seemed to be deleting unwanted sms’. Volume control buttons too sensitive, easily bumped and volume level disturbed. Swipe to answer often ineffective with “missed call”. No protective cover available.
Only compliment I could give it were good long range performance. Couple months ago lost my cool with it, Max 2 no longer an operational unit. Fell back to using dear old T90.
T90 getting long in the tooth, mother boards not available. Had no choice, ordered a new Max few days ago, noted it is now Max 3. Hope it’s an improvement over 2/T85. Shall take the phone to a leather-worker friend and design up a wallet for it.
Bought a Max 2 exactly one year ago, Nov ’19. Suited my useage but became increasingly frustrating, some things were an outright annoyance. Not a day passed without google having to update the payment app which I don’t use, or some other app, always seemed to be deleting unwanted sms’. Volume control buttons too sensitive, easily bumped and volume level disturbed. Swipe to answer often ineffective with “missed call”. No protective cover available.
Only compliment I could give it were good long range performance. Couple months ago lost my cool with it, Max 2 no longer an operational unit. Fell back to using dear old T90.
T90 getting long in the tooth, mother boards not available. Had no choice, ordered a new Max few days ago, noted it is now Max 3. Hope it’s an improvement over 2/T85. Shall take the phone to a leather-worker friend and design up a wallet for it.
I never reviewed the Telstra Max 2 but it struck me as ZTE put an existing smartphone in an IP67 case which is never really successful. The TM3 is more a smartphone built around the case and its much more rugged – especially corner protection. But I am way more impressed with the Cat S42 review here https://www.gadgetguy.com.au/product/cat-s42-is-a-rugged-smartphone-for-clumsy-people/ that seems even better.
I bought the Blue Yeti Nano a few days ago and I’m delighted with the sound quality. I do wish they would produce a Linux version of the Blue Sherpa software.
About to buy one. I still have a JVC QL-A7 that’s excellent, but bulky for the room I’m getting this for.
Hi Please confirm that Bloatware FB cannot be deleted as you have suggested? the online manual does not agree, you can only disable. Moto you have done it again, destroyed a good product
My original review stated FB could not be deleted. Motorola contacted me and said it could bne removed via Settings, Apps. By that stage I had returned the phone so I could not check.
FB pays big bucks to have it app factory installed and in general its not removable on other brands.
Its something I will check more closely in future.
That said the new Moto phones are pretty good – a significant design change from earlier models.
Thanks for your response, much appreciated
Pleasure
Have the Oppo on my shortlist of 5 phones from your reviews for use in rural Western Australia now that its only $379. I, however, note it only earned a “Pass” for 87 dBm in 3 bar zone versus EXCEEDs for Realme 6 ($343) at 104, Realme pro ($479) at 98 and Moto G8 Plus ($279) at 89. Is this an anomaly or is OPPO A91 reception really not that good. Given rural reception is most critical to me the G8 seems best current value at $279 given much higher dBm’s for Realme 6 and Eealme 7 Pro, but little tempted for Realme X3 12/256gb at double the price of $599 with its EXCEED for 83dBm and other specs. Just looking to confirm if OPPO should still be considered.
Hi Greg
We measure -dBm (lower the better) and have just started measuring femtowatts and picowatts power (higher the better) which is even more accurate. Now our PASS and EXCEED are even more accurate. I don’t have the phones to retest (we don’t get to keep them) but looking back over my notes:
Moto g8 PLUS (now on runout) -89 and three towers (unusual and reflects good antenna design)
OPPO A91 (also at end-of-life) -87 and two towers (probably the best for you)
Realme 6 -104 and one tower so forget it for rural use
Realme 7 Pro -98 – forget this
Avoid any 5G phones – the antenna is optimised for 5G and 4GX.
Awesome response. Thank you. Wife has already ordered herself a Moto G8 Plus for $279, which seems good value despite old runout model, so long as cellular reception proves Good. As a comparison her very old Moto 4G Plus continued to give Great reception, whilst the G5+ and G5S+ of my son and I give Poor to Extremely Poor reception. The various sales discounts of the OPPO A91 are currently far less than many other brands like Realme, Moto, Xiaomi etc and I could be tempted into a Realme X3 12Gb/256Gb for A$599 if the reception is “Great or much better than OPPO A91” but from what your saying the OPPO seems to satisfy my main 3 of above average reception, screen and camera quality, backed up with liveable battery life, recharge time and performance. Greatly Appreciate you having taken the time to answer my query. Thanks again.
My pleasure
And BTW the Moto 9 series we have tested are back to being city phones.
Part of the problem with Telstra, like any large organisation, is that they are run by accountants like Andy Penn (he actually is an accountant), and their only answer to “raising productivity” is cutting staff, and outsourcing them. As a consequence, they lose vital technical skills, and eventually the whole company is de-skilled, and is run into the ground. They don’t seem to realise that raising productivity actually means an ever increasing level of complexity and technical specialisation, and that needs to be done in house, it cannot be outsourced. When I left Telstra in 2018, and after 11 years there – in a round of staff cuts, I said to others Telstra likely won’t be a viable enterprise within a generation – it will be eclipsed by the likes of TPG… I think the general proposition remains true, but I think now it will be Aussie Broadband that eclipses them… Provided they do not prove to be a sell out to large shareholders that want “productivity gains”.
More broadly, we might also ask, what skills does an accountant actually bring to the table when it comes to running a highly technical enterprise?
Love your response. Is it true that accountants have a mandatory personality reduction? Penn’s T22 plan to reduce costs makes no sense to me. It abandons consumers for high-end enterprise and government revenue. What Penn seems to overlook is that there is over 2M small business in Australia and 26 million consumers who will all spend around $100 per month on NBN and mobile ( Aussie and Boost/Woollies/Aldi). He looks at the average revenue per unit (ARPU) and decides to abandon the little guy because we are low hanging, low-profit fruit.
Reminds me of an old joke.
A shoe salesman goes to Africa (a long time ago), sees all the barefoot natives and telegraphs back to the office, “No business here – coming home.”
A second shoe salesman arrives and sends a telegraph, “Send more shoes”.
At least Aussie Broadband sees Australia as an untouched, underserviced market. I can only pray it stays that way because I am impressed.
Mr Penn – remember the old adage. Get shit service tell ten people. Get good service – tell everyone.
Love your response. Is it true that accountants have a mandatory personality reduction? Penn’s T22 plan to reduce costs makes no sense to me. It abandons consumers for high-end enterprise and government revenue. What Penn seems to overlook is that there is over 2M small business in Australia and 26 million consumers who will all spend around $100 per month on NBN and mobile ( Aussie and Boost/Woollies/Aldi). He looks at the average revenue per unit (ARPU) and decides to abandon the little guy because we are low hanging, low-profit fruit.
Reminds me of an old joke.
A shoe salesman goes to Africa (a long time ago), sees all the barefoot natives and telegraphs back to the office, “No business here – coming home.”
A second shoe salesman arrives and sends a telegraph, “Send more shoes”.
At least Aussie Broadband sees Australia as an untouched, underserviced market. I can only pray it stays that way because I am impressed.
Mr Penn – remember the old adage. Get shit service tell ten people. Get good service – tell everyone.
Love your response. Is it true that accountants have a mandatory personality reduction? Penn’s T22 plan to reduce costs makes no sense to me. It abandons consumers for high-end enterprise and government revenue. What Penn seems to overlook is that there is over 2M small business in Australia and 26 million consumers who will all spend around $100 per month on NBN and mobile ( Aussie and Boost/Woollies/Aldi). He looks at the average revenue per unit (ARPU) and decides to abandon the little guy because we are low hanging, low-profit fruit.
Reminds me of an old joke.
A shoe salesman goes to Africa (a long time ago), sees all the barefoot natives and telegraphs back to the office, “No business here – coming home.”
A second shoe salesman arrives and sends a telegraph, “Send more shoes”.
At least Aussie Broadband sees Australia as an untouched, underserviced market. I can only pray it stays that way because I am impressed.
Mr Penn – remember the old adage. Get shit service tell ten people. Get good service – tell everyone.
How does this compare to a soundbar with rear speakers like LG SN11RG or Samsung Series 9 HW-N950?
There is no real comparison – the Ambeo is $3999.95 versus the LG SN11RG on special at $1274 and a similar price for the Samsung HW-N950.
To a large degree, it depends on your room setup.
The Ambeo is superb in a dedicated media room where it uses psychoacoustic trickery to bounce signals off the walls and ceiling – the sound quality is amazing and it is the type of soundbar you can listen to hi-res music on. If you have $4K and a Dolbly Atmos passthrough eARC HDMI 2.1 passthrough it perfect.
The LG SN11R is a 7.1.4 and its the perfect pick for Aussie open space lounges with dual rear left/right/forward/up-firing speakers. It does not rely on psychoacoustic trickery so you can place the speaker behind you and get true 7.1.4.
The Samsung is 9.1.4 but uses psychoacoustic trickery so it needs left and right walls close by and a 2.4-3m ceiling. I have only briefly heard it and I own its predecessor but I suspect the LG is the right one for you.
How does this compare to e soundbar with rear speakers like the Samsung Series 9 HW-N950 or LG SN11RG
I should have heeded the warnings but couldnt afford any of the other brands. Glitchy from the day we got it, colour very washed out (our old TV has better colour!!), slow, laggy, freezes often sometimes meaning we have to turn it on and off. Beyond frustrated as TV repair cant find a fault (in the short time they’ve had it) and so Kogan wont refund. What a waste of $650! We live on 1 wage as I have a chronic illness. Don’t know what we will do now.
Libel laws make what I want to say difficult! Just as America got the President it deserved (both times) Kogan is not where you should be shopping – under any circumstance.
Sorry, but I would love to say they are a bunch heartless rip-off bastards but libel says I can’t.
Just brought one of these phones and I’m very happy with it. Ok, i know it will not be in the same league as a top iphone, but for $239.00 it does everything I want. I think most people are brained washed thinking everyone needs a top of range iphone. This phone will do 98% of what you need, so you can save up to $1400, can’t complain about that.
It is an excellent phone for the price. No one has money to throw away.
Hello there,
I have a question for you.
I currently own a TV That is not supporting dolby atmos. However has an ACR HDMI is 4k and HDR.
I bought a sound bar that provides dolby atmos(Sony HT-X8500).
When I try to watch a movie on Netflix That supports dolby atmos, instead of getting a the dolby atmos logo on the top left side a get 5.1.
This specific sound bar provides among others: S-Force PRO,Vertical Surround Engine (Dolby Speaker Virtual/DTS Virtual:X).
My question is, do I get s force pro and vertical surround engine although I my TV is not supporting dolby atmos?
Thank you in advance
If the TV does not support Dolby Atmos the sound bar won’t either.
My complaints is that it needs to be the new android USB-C connection instead of the retired Micro-USB android connection
Agree but that is quite an old review
Definitely interesting reading, I actually bought the phone I presently have, a HTC U Play, from Kogan about 4 years ago and have had no problems with it, I did, however, check the specs to make sure it had all the Australian 3G & 4G bands on board before I went ahead and bought it, now seriously considering upgrading to the Google Pixel 4a 5G and after reading this, I think i’ll be buying direct from Google, at least I know i’m getting the real deal.
I’m with Optus and have got very good speeds on both their 4G & 4G Plus (700 MHz) networks around Melbourne, the other reason I went with them is their plans are cheaper than Telstra.
You are an educated reader. Band 28 is the key
You get a discount from Kogan if you sign up a friend, so someone you know probably did put your email address in there. But holy hell do they send some spam! Like ten a day if you so much as look at their bloody website.
Thanks – with friends like that who needs enemys?|
Absolutely shit service and customer support from Dick Smith, KOGAN and Australia Tech Gears, deceptive practices, fake postage quotes, lengthy delivery – never ever again will i do business with any of these entities, KOGAN brings nothing but shame to what used to be an outstanding business with a solid reliable reputation……
I feel your pain. Boycott Bogan – err Kogan
I don’t ever want to buy from Kogan ever again no matter how good their deals are. The flood of emails was insane. I unsubscribed from everything except the deal of the week and were still receiving 2-3 emails a day instead of the usual 7-8. I reached out to them to and was told:
“Upon looking into these further, the email preferences only applies to our main marketing emails.
The other emails are automatically generated and are based on your recent viewing/shopping habits with us.
At this time, due to a system limitation, it is not possible for us to separate these types of emails.
As a solution to this, it should be possible to set up a filter for all the emails labelled “Price Drop” for example.
My apologies for the inconvenience caused by this, it is certainly not our
intention to inconvenience customers with our marketing emails.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know”
So I requested to unsubscribe from everything and my personal information be removed from their system. This took quite some time but the emails eventually stopped and then the SMS spam began. I unsubscribed each time and forwarded them to the ACMA. They need a hefty fine for this irresponsible behavior.
Kogan rhyms with Bogan. While I love Bogan Aussies I will never, repeat never, trust Kogan. A fish rots from the head.
Thanks for another great review. I’m super keen to know if the cheaper Neo and Lite versions have the same great 4G reception until 5G more available.
The Find X2 Pro has a Qualcomm SD865+ and a new 360° antenna scoring -74dBm (excellent – lower is better) and finds the next tower. The X2 Neo and Lite use an SD765G. In tests, the Neo got -82dBm. We have not tested the Lite but it should be similar.
My guess is that the Pro will be strongest but the Neo/Lite are still well ahead of most other phones.
I’m interested in buying the lg sn11rg. I’ve read tons of reviews, mostly positive but one issue keeps appearing – that dialogue during movies can be unclear and hard to make out, that it can get lost with so much going on in the surrounding sound around you.
What are your opinions on this??
The LG SN11RG has an independent adjustment for speakers. See page 12 of the manual http://gscs-b2c.lge.com/downloadFile?fileId=udQbGRAaE6ICWZKGZh5pQ that allows you to increase Centre +/-6dB as well as reduce or increaseTreble and Bass. The issue is that 99% of the free to air content is PCM mono or 2.0 and streaming is 5.1 (Not Atmos). Here it upscales using AI Sound Pro (as does any Atmos device with discrete speakers) to all 5.1.2 speakers and the effect can be to0 muddy clear voice. When listening to that content disable surround sound.
I find increasing centre works well for me.
So in particular, watching movies with an atmos source doesn’t have issues with dialogue, especially in action packed loud scenes?
And increasing the center channel, can that effect the overall feel for a movie?
Out of interest which sound setting do you prefer?
Dolby Atmos content is pre-determined – whatever the maker intended is what you get. If dialogue is important to that scene it will be there.
99% of the content is PCM mono, 2.0, DTS and Digital 5.1 allow customisation. Here you can customise and ramping up the centre channel (dialogue channel) really makes a difference.
Note all custom settings revert to defaults on all soundbars after power off.
Ok thanks for advice
And I think this soundbar represents the best performance and value of all.
Okay, I am not the brightest crayon in the box but I really want to get DA while watching Netflix. So I have an X900h with earc and a HT-RT40 home theather 5.1. What else do I need to get for DA. Will I have to ditch my home theater system for something else which pumps DA. Thanks. Just need to know what else do I have to get.
The TV will decode DA and downmix to its 2.0 stereo speakers. It will pass through DA to a DA soundbar over eARC and HDMI 2.1. BUT the HT-RT40 is not an Atmos soubndbar – it only has 5.1 (no 3D spatial height) to it downmixes to that.
So yes you need a DA sounbar. At present the LG SN11RG 7.1.2 is the pick.
I’ve just seen this on clearance again today at goodguys for $499. Model LMG810EA.AAUSMB Do you still think that’s good value versus recent releases from others around that price pint (<$599) and at 95dBm is it ok for rural use and Optus. Thanks again.
It is a great phone although getting a little long in the tooth. Our LTE measurements changed this year to measure wattage (femto and nano) as this is a better indication of signal strength. It beat the Note9 (that had Bluetick) so it should be fine.
It’s worthing noting that if you want 4k60hz, the USB port can only be in usb 2.0, and the Ethernet port will be limited to 480 Mbps as well.
Alternatively, you can build a simple media PC. It can game better than any console, it could have a sound card with multiple HDMI 2.1+ (released 2017) outputs that could even be dual-linked to maximise bandwidth (2x 48gbps) or even use DisplayPort 2.0 released over 1.5 years ago with it 80gbps.
The issue is VESA, Sony and others not getting their act together. Not allowing sound card manufacturers to have HDMI outputs and when it was done back in 2008 they raised the license fee per card to an unholy amount of dollars.
Simply put, HDMI cables all look the same but certainly do not perform the same. Manufacturers of Televisions, AVRs, Video Cards and the licencing jerks are releasing 8k+ TVs and the audio and video market is being strangled and we as consumers are getting lied to. For instance – buy a 4K HDR TV with all the gear. However, only has HDMI 2.0b ports for max of 18Gbps. All the new audio formats, unless streaming via netflix at of course a faster connection will sacrifice as an 8K TV @ 120hz + with HDR, Dolby Vision etc needs more bandwidth.
Instead of allowing the use of dual-link cables or software updates to say, combine two of the (4) 4k@60hz HDMI 2.0b inputs on the back of the TV with an active Displayport 1.4+ to HDMI 2.1+ cable or what ever, they are releasing junk. AVRs that are using the same Panasonic chip unable to provide the requirements of HDMI 2.1. Promising a compromised firmware update at some point. -:> meaning will have to compress audio and reduce quality in other areas because idiots are running the licensing and distribution. With the new consoles, video cards and TVs already out how the heck have they yet to have authentic cables that are guaranteed to provide the bandwidth required and not to mention HDMI 2.1 is old tech and there is a lack of output and input sources as it is.
I am pissed as my soundbar for instance is plugged into my TV. I am forced to run an HDMI 2.0b cable directly to the input of the TV which then only sends 2 Channel Stereo to the soundbar. If I plug the video card directly into the Soundbar it picks up the 6 channels (1 being the subwoofer) and it displays on my TV. Great right? No. The “4K Passthrough HDR etc etc) does this but at a much lower quality HDR, washed out, input lag and every 10 minutes or so there is a blank screen for a good few seconds.
The point is. People use new consoles, PCs, AVRs etc and plug them into the TV in order to Stream and do everything. The most simple fixes to not providing the hardware for them to jive correctly are only slowly coming out, but as new hardware. Rather than say, doing simple Firmware updates to allow. say 1 HDMI 2.0b cable go into the TV directly and another into the Soundbar Directly (as a video card has at least 4 outputs) and utilise Active cables to combine feature sets and cables to get the bandwidth. r
There is a lot more to it, but if I just bought a new Xbox or Playstation or a PC with HDMI 2.1 outputs to plug into my fancy 8k TV.. then finding out it only has HDMI 2.0b ports.. You will be lucky to get 30fps.. Or a 4k TV that has plenty of 2.0b ports but no firmware update incoming, nor solutions. This goes for AVRs also. With buggy 2.1 support or minimal input and outputs with not even the thought of cheap cable fixes.
Piss poor
You say: “At the right is a slider control which allows you to alter the turntable speed. I’ve never really understood the purpose of this, but there it is.”
It’s for beat-matching bpm when mixing, DJing, mashing, merging continuous playback or a plethora of other artistic endeavors.
Finally! Free of the Telstra Bastards! I posted previously about my problems with them, switching to Aussie Broadband, failing to get Telstra to stop billing me despite having no Telstra service and getting no action from their chatbot robot. The billing went on for 4 months. Problem solved by going to my bank with all the records, STOPPING Telstra Debits forever, and lodging a dispute for all the crooked deductions. It took a few days but all the illegal withdrawals have now been refunded.
Finally! Free of the Telstra Bastards! I posted previously about my problems with them, switching to Aussie Broadband, failing to get Telstra to stop billing me despite having no Telstra service and getting no action from their chatbot robot. The billing went on for 4 months. Problem solved by going to my bank with all the records, STOPPING Telstra Debits forever, and lodging a dispute for all the crooked deductions. It took a few days but all the illegal withdrawals have now been refunded.
Here’s to a Tel$traless world.
well I am moving and gave telstra 4 days notice and I have to wait till Jan for the tech guy to come around for myphone connection. It’ll them I will not pay my bill if they don’t fix it up. It took all day and the next day it took optus 4 hours as I have a landline phone as my husband does not know how to use a mobile phone andit is handy when telsta goes down I have a optus mobile phone.i will see if telstra does what’s says as I will tell the telcommations obaerman my complaint.there is always curre t affair that’s what I told telstra. We live in Australia in the 21st century
While my MINO connects nicely to my iPad, my iPhone will not recognize the device. I have turned off and on the phone, I have plugged in the phone, I have turned on and off the Bluetooth & I am out of ideas. Would love to give these to the kids for Christmas, but if I can’t make this work on my phone, I’m reluctant. It seems like a fantastic gift.
There are lots of reported Bluetooth incompatibilities with the iPhone 10/11/12 series. It appears that they won’t connected to older BT 4.0/4.1/4.2 chipsets.
If the Mino works on older devices it means it is likely one of those. Contact Mino support for advice https://support.lexon-design.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
But apparently the SD888 chip won’t support the new AV1 compression technology (developed by Google, Netflix and others) thus missing out on data efficiency and streaming quality improvements. Qualcomm said they couldn’t include AV1 technology in the new chip “because of schedule and cost considerations.”
I will have to look into that Tony. Here is a brief overview and it appears to be more of a Windows 10 thing for PCs and laptops.
Windows 10 PC must have the 11th generation Intel Core processor and an integrated Iris Xe GPU to take full advantage of the AV1 Codec.
The AV1 Codec is better than the H.264 video codec and the VP9 Codec. It relies on hardware acceleration wherever available but will software emulate. Its primary use is to reduce power in laptops and portable devices.
From what I can tell the SD888 was too far along in development to support it and we won’t see ARM support until 2022 although the Dimensitiy 10000 series may support it sooner.
I thought VVC was the future..
If dash cams and GPS devices are so good in the heat, Why do they warn you not to use them in direct sunlight? Very hard to find a spot out direct sunlight on the windscreen of a car. 😀 This is actually a warning from the user manual.
The extended temperature range glass is not as bright as most smartphones – 200 nits at best. Anything under 400 nits is unreadable in direct sunlight – in fact, anything under 600 nits is barely readable.
In August 2018 after 40 loyal years with Telstra, I gave them the “Flick” (which took 1hr 11minutes) on the phone to divorce them. I immediately joined Aussie Broadband for for all our needs, which by the way were $20 per Mth cheaper for same services. Aussie’s Support and Service is amazing and I’ve never been happier. Thank you Aussie Broadband, and good bloody riddance Telstra 👎
That header image is not yours and YOU HAVE STOLEN IT from NCrypt Cellular. I’m politely requesting that you take it down.
Our apologies – not sure how that happened but its removed
Thank you, appreciated!
Kogan marketplace provider decided Kogan had underpaid them and now want me to pay them $18 to release my items. The “Sydney” number is actually on overseas call centre wanting my credit card details. I’ve now lost $800 from original transaction with Kogan and they won’t reply to me. KOGAN IS FACILITATING CREDIT CARD FRAUD
OH NO! NOT YET FREE OF THE TELSTRA BASTARDS!
Today’s Email from Telstra Credit Management, who are pursuing me for payment for services not rendered. (I DIVORCED TELSTRA MONTHS AGO). This is a situation straight out of KAFKA:
“We appreciate the details provided.
Upon review, account has an overdue balance of $398.000 that was due on 15/12/2020
Unfortunately, this matter is something that we are unable to action due to limited resources as we are from collections.
Please be advised that the validation of charges for the Premium Speed Boost should be discussed with our Billing department.”
Billing department is manned by bots who make promises of credits but never get around to doing it.
Thanks for the alternative
I have been waiting for this, must thank google for reading my mind again .
Telstra conned me 2 years ago giving me a free I pad and a Samsung tablet which was for being a loyal customer for over 20 years
So they told me (by an overseas representative of telstra )
Turned out they signed me up for 2 years paying for the tablet and I pad which I never wanted or needed
Absolute nightmare to deal with as for the texting service for a fault ,forget it
I would have more chance of contacting the dead .
So the 2 years are up and bye bye telstra .
What a load of double speak…trying to sell dedicated GPS units are you?
I have used a cheap$70 Tablet as a Phone and GPS for 3 years, every day, and when needed, music as well.
It is a perfect as the day I installed the special (my design & made) height mobile hands free stand and bracket.
Do the install correctly = no issues, Same as driving, drive correctly,= no issues.
Operate the vehicle and equipment correctly = no issues.
As for GPS with your speed and map issues, where the hell do you drive? Google Maps has Roadwork map and info updates in under 24 hours here on the Sunshine Coast, for example, and the speedo is in your instrument cluster, no where else.
Now to be fair, Google Maps and the El Cheapo Tablet is NOT perfect, but it does not suffer any issue you state. On the other hand, I have had two dedicated and different NAME brand GPS units, which were both rubbish in more ways than one, within a year of way less use than I need now.
Where has common sense, simple logic….and pure fact gone….?
The article is 100% factually correct. By the end of 2000+km trip at over 30+° temp, the $399 smartphone we used for comparison was cactus.
Users are always welcome to add to an article and I am glad that the ‘tablet’ worked for you.
Remember that we don’t charge for reviews, we don’t sell anything and we have no particular axe to grind.
Your phrase “Where has common sense, simple logic….and pure fact gone….?” is insulting but we will live with that as we don’t censor comments unless they verge on personal slander. Yes, we are proud of what we do.
I see my comment sorta throwing your story in the bin…has been binned.
Give me a break – its Saturday night at 8.28 PM and I am on Xmas holidays. You comment has not been binned – its just that I don’t have the time to answer it just now.
@GadgetGuy, this is a terribly researched article.
Electric scooters and other forms of electric Personal Mobility Devices have been legal for both sharing companies like Lime, and individual owners since 2018. It is totally legal to own your own and ride them on roads where the speed limit is 50kmh or less, footpaths bike paths and other areas unless they are specifically prohibited – like in Queen St Mall. They are legal on this basis throughout Queensland.
They have also been legal since December 2019 in the ACT under similar conditions.
The Australian Federal law permits the legal import, sale and ownership of eScooters and other complying ePMDs including skateboards, uniwheels, etc. Regarding eScooters their is no power restriction under Australian law – it is a speed restriction – imported PMDs cannot operate at more than 25kph under their own power.
Australia’s National Transport Commission released new “model” National laws which all AUstralian states approved in November. Formal legislation is being written for presentation back to States in May 2021. This is likely to see eScooters and other SPMDs approved for private ownership in most states by the end of 2021.
Email me if you would like to be better informed. stephen@zipidi.fun
Dear Stephen
The article is not terribly researched. It is the result of several days of independent desk research and phone confirmations with the NSW Department of Roads and Maritime Services and Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. Yes, these motorised wheeled vehicles can be imported and sold for use on private property only.
The trials have been exempted after long negotiations with the governments and the respective companies. These devices have a GPS that disables the motor at 10 or 25kph (private ones don’t) and cease to work outside strictly designated areas.
But you also have conflict between the State Road Rules – one says no and the other says limited access.
Lets keep the discussion going.
I have verified all links in the research and softened the section on Queensland and ACT.
Your article is still not reflecting the facts of Australian law and is very misleading regarding the injury research you site.
Our business Zipidi is the Convenor of the Asia Pacific Micromobility ALliance. Wea re working with Government at Federal, State and Local level here and overseas. We know all major manufacturers, retailers and operators of e bikes and escooters and are fully across what’s going on. We also consult on insurance for micromobility and have much local and global data regarding injuries and accidents – and more importantly the relative number of accidents of scooters versus bikes versus cars, etc. isolated figure are quite useless – every form of transport has crashes – it is the comparison which is far more revealing. The injury data you rely on n this article is very outdated and not reflective of current trends or vehicles. I am happy to brief you personally – email me at stephen@zipidi.fun and I’ll share contact information.
You’ll also find, Switchable glass is a smart living wow factor for homes. Just a flick a button, or by voice command, the glass will change into privacy or transparent on demand in instant.
Sound Quality was unreal, I was expecting a not so great sound quality from my glasses.
Even phone calls voice quality were really clear, my only complaint is it starts to get hurt a little bit after wearing it for 1+ hours. Only time I wear these are when I take my dog for walk.
Tenor do looks really great.
Agreed – get some black felt adhesive nose pads from the optometrist t help the nose issue.
This was a day 1 purchase for me, unfortunately after the last update my casting is not working properly.
Or else everything is working fine, love how easy it is to control sound/TV with just a single remote.
Install Kodi but when streaming it start to show up how much storage it have, When tried 4k content or anything above 1.5GB it comes up with not enough storage message.
I will pass this on to Thomas Bartlett for a response.
chip also comes up with Wi-Fi 6E built-in.
Yes – we will do more when we have full specs. It also marks the beginning of Project Treble compatibility for 4 years of Google Android support.
Oh wow 4 years will be great..
I am still holding onto my XZ1 from 3 years ago, just to make sure i get another phone which can at least serve for next 3 years..
Flagships are really expensive now a days and with all cameras it do reminds me of a spider.
This article is all about opinion and seems to misinterpret facts. According to the QLD government site personally owned e-scooters are not illegal unless they are rated at travelling more than 25 KPH. https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/safety/rules/wheeled-devices/personal-mobility-devices
Hi Sam
In the spirit of trying to get everything right can, I simply say that that link is at odds with the link quoted in the article. We have sought comment from the Department of Main Roads and will continue to update as we get more information.
It also appears that the speed issue is wide open and the interpretation of what is a road.
The underlying issue is not whether e-scooters are good or not. its that you can buy them everywhere and in most states be fined for their use.
“No, I did not consider running the car into a wall to check that the collision detection system worked okay” Pffft, amateur!
Speaker doesn’t sound
Magsafe doesn’t work
Screen wont work
Emoji bar is nuisance
Swiping an app is a problem
Which iphone did she upgrade from?
Did she really buy an iPhone?
Connectivity issues, software bugs are there. But most of the reasons doesn’t seem like she’s a IT Vet!
First the article makes it very clear that Laurie is a ‘he’ – you obviously did not read it ‘fan girl’. The writer is a dyed-in-the-wool Apple user and I suspect has more technical experience than you. Upon checking the upgrade was from a mid-2015 iPhone 6 which is no longer supported with iOS upgrades.
Let’s be clear – there is no GadgetGuy in this article. We triple checked every claim to make sure it was relevant. All are reported faults.
Any I suspect that you did not read the ‘Annoyances’ heading that were his comments compared to older iOS versions.
I have had the 43PUS6101 for about three years now and must say that it has not disappointed. I bought it on a day-sale for about $340. Be sure to use the HDMI-2 port for the full 60Hz refresh rate. I think for an office desk, a 43 inch version is a better choice in terms of desk-viewing distance and 103 ppi. IMO.
Such a great budget watch… Running for <$200AUD in China – why does the Australian/WearOS equivalent cost over $500?! Insane.
I can’t answer the price issue except that we are now hedging imports at .80 USD and air freight is at least five times what it was a year ago. I agree its one of the better Android War OS watches from a good company with local support.
Hi I noticed that the link to the 65NANO91TNA at Videopro isn’t correct and the price consequently isn’t either.
Thanks for all your work.
can the treble / bass be adjusted on blueant x1 spesker
can bass / treble be adjusted on blueant x1 speaker
Finally it will be justifiable to pay for a flagship or Pixel.
Still more than $1K is a lot of money.
can you keep this plugged into mains as you would a normal modem/device? or will that just destroy it?or should I unplug intermittently?
Android TV OS that’s a good decision. I wish they also have WIFI 6 like samsung 8k Tv’s
My Moto G4+ Is still going strong (Back in India as a spare phone).Planning to get G9 power soon.
Hi Deborah
Given all the concerns, the question is a little challenging. No, I don’t believe that the Gateway is broken.
A 30 metre radius around the Gateway is the maximum distance a 5GHz WiFi signal can travel before it becomes ineffective. Although a 2.4 GHz signal may travel further, its speed is much slower than a 5 GHz transmission. You can again reduce the distance in half because the signal can pass through objects like walls and cabinets. If your signal only travelled 5–10 metres, that would surprise me.
Solutions:
The best option is to have a CAT 5e Ethernet cable run from the Gateway to your room by an electrician. They could run it through the ceiling or wall and install a wall plate. Cost: $300, assuming no problems. Then, you can connect your laptop with a shorter Ethernet wire. I would, however, utilise the Telstra extender in this situation. It can send a signal at full strength for additional 20 to 30 metres when plugged into the bedroom.
Next Ideal: Purchase a Telstra extender, and install it as close to your bedroom’s centre as possible—no more than 10-15 metres from the Gateway. The signal will be retransmitted if it can reach another 20 metres or so.
I’m not sure if this is a scam or not, but it seems like a good deal.