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Baseus 70W Car Vacuum review

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I’d be lying if I told you that I knew I would be reviewing a handheld vacuum for a technology website. Let alone a vacuum meant for cars. Then 2020 happened and here I am putting words together to share with AndroidGuys my review of the Baseus 70W car vacuum.

Having grown up in the late 70’s and early 80’s, my parents owned the OG cordless car vacuum cleaner, the Black & Decker DustBuster. While over 100,000,000 DustBusters have been sold since they arrived in 1979, the original design left much to be desired in terms of suction power and battery life. Fast forward 40+ years, can the Baseus 70W car vacuum out-suck the portable vacuum I remember as a kid?

Unboxing and Design

The Baseus vacuum came well packaged in typical cardboard packaging. Open the outer box and you are greeted with see-through plastic packing material allowing you to view the vacuum cylinder in all its glory.

Beside the vacuum, a secondary box contains accessories and reading material. Accessories include: storage bag, USB-C charging cable, blower hose, and 2-in-1 suction nozzle. The 2-in-1 attachment includes a crevice tool and brush. The brush can be slid forward or backwards to reveal the crevice tool.

The reading material consists of warranty, instructions and “More Benefits” folding card. “More Benefits” details contact information for support as well as a list of Basues’ social media presence. I’m guessing that this is added regionally since it is written exclusively in English while the other documents are presented in English and Chinese. The instruction manual was very difficult to read for my aging eyes, so luckily; I was able to find an electronic copy (PDF).

The Baseus vacuum takes a cylindrical shape. It’s designed like a slim travel mug or a slightly stocky MagLite. It’s made entirely of plastic but feels hefty and well made in hand. There is a single on/off switch located just off center. Turning the vacuum on activates a single LED light. On the opposite side of the switch is the USB-C charging port. The LED light blinks while charging and lights solid when it is fully charged. 

Performance

Turning on the Baseus A2 70W Car Vacuum, I immediately notice something I haven’t heard in a very long time; a motor spinning up over a few seconds. The sound reminds me of electric ducted fan (EDF) model airplanes of years ago.

Although I didn’t tear down the vacuum to confirm, I’m guessing the motor is brushed versus brushless based on the spin-up. This shouldn’t be a dealbreaker but note that it takes a few seconds for the vacuum to maximize its sucking power.

According to Baseus’ Amazon store, the vacuum boasts a 6,000mAh battery with 18+ minutes of usage. Depending on the state of your vehicle’s interior, I’m guessing that the dust cup volume is more likely to be the limiting factor versus battery life. 

Click here to watch videos of the Baseus A2 Car Vacuum in action.

But does it suck? The Baseus 70W car vacuum is advertised at 5,000 Pa (pascal) of suction power. Since I’m not familiar with suction measurements, I spent a fair amount of time trying to determine how this vacuum compares to something I’m at least qualitatively familiar with.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on Dyson or Shop Vac brand vacuums and their respective suction ratings in pascals. I was able to find that the Dyson offers 270 air watts of suction power but without a conversion to pascal readily available, I wasn’t able to quantify differences.

In my research, I found that a decent vacuum should at least be able to hold its nozzle on a wall when turned on. To be fair, this was referencing canister or upright vacuums that you would typically use to clean your whole house. In my unscientific experiment, the Baseus was not able to hold itself to the bottom of my hand when the dust cup is in place.

Remove the dust cup and it is able to suspend itself. I removed the filter from the dust cup and placed that over the motor and Baseus could still suspend itself, but barely.

I couldn’t find comparisons for suction power but Baseus vacuum advertises itself as both a sucker and a blower. So how well does it blow? I was able to convert 5,000 Pa to about .73 PSI, a measurement I’m at least sort of familiar with. After attaching the blowing hose to the Baseus, I attempted to blow dust from my computer keyboard and monitors. Some of the loose dust was displaced but this doesn’t compare to the canned air I use around my office which dispenses at around 100 PSI.

Conclusion

I don’t necessarily see myself carrying the Baseus 70W car vacuum in my cup holder as they suggest. More likely, I will keep it in my office where I can occasionally sweep the crumbs out of my keyboards as I tend to eat lunch and multitask on a daily basis. Gross, but it happens pretty frequently. 

For me, it comes down to convenience. For $45 it’s not necessarily a significant investment. I could never see myself trying to vacuum my car’s interior as part of routine cleaning but for the occasional spill, this thing would be super handy to have around.

Compared to the Black & Decker DustBuster of my youth, the Baseus 70W vacuum would leave it in its dust (pun intended) in terms of suction power, runtime and the ability to hold dirt. The only area I think the DustBuster might have performed better is in terms of vacuum opening. With only approximately 1.5 x .75” opening, even popped popcorn isn’t going to be able to be vacuumed up in the Baseus.

BLUETTI EP500: Giant 5100 watt hour solar battery lets you to cut the cord to the electrical grid

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As an innovative pioneer in the renewable energy industry, BLUETTI established its name in the off-grid power world with cutting edge, reliable power station product lineups.

In addition to medium and small size portable power stations, they are also dedicated to research and development of high-power,  large-capacity solar battery storage products.

In July 2020, Bluetti made the initial move to replace traditional gasoline generators with their groundbreaking AC200.   The AC200 features a 2000 watt rated inverter with 1700 watt hour battery capacity, a large array of outlets (including a groundbreaking 25 amp 12 volt outlet) and up to 700W solar input with advanced built-in MPPT controller. The AC200 raised over US$6.8M on Indiegogo and changed the game in the portable power market immediately upon its release.

Upon crowdfunding completion, a follow up retail product the AC200P, with increased battery cycle life and LiFePO4 chemistry kept the legacy of AC200 while adding product improvement.   The AC200P is loved by van-lifers, campers and RV travelers and people, those who are subject to frequent power outages. The AC200P has also been well received by those who want an integrated all in one solution to short or long term emergencies that result in the need for continued power supply for their homes.

6 months later, the BLUETTI Team is back with a brand new, finely engineered and crafted product with ground breaking capacity: The EP500

The EP500 contains a massive 5100 watt hour LiFePO4 battery pack that has more than 6000 charge cycles.  The AC inverter is rated for 2000 watts of continuous output power with a surge capacity of 4800 watts.  This inverter appears to be the same high quality and reliable unit being used on the highly successful AC200P.

The EP500’s elegant, minimalist design with massive capacity reminds us of the first-generation of Tesla’s Powerwall. With the four smooth rolling transport wheels, the EP500 is not meant to be large solar battery mounted on the wall or garage. The BLUETTI EP500 is designed to be a “no installation needed” plug-and-play product that can easily be moved to the desired location when needed.

Whether you use it as a seamless UPS home backup, or as an off-grid emergency power supply, all that is required is a press of the power button followed by activating the AC/DC switches and connecting the appliance(s) you want to power.

Compared to the long installation lead times of energy giants like Tesla or Sonnen, which take months or more than a year to make an appointment to install, the no-installation-needed BLUETTI EP500 is a game-changer in the large capacity solar battery market.

The rated AC inverter output power of 2000 continuous watts is high, but certainly not enough to power all of your electrical appliances. As an emergency energy storage power for the whole family, Bluetti has an option to double the AC output. For higher power loads, Bluetti is releasing its own “Fusion Panel terminal board”. With this accessory board, users can connect two EP500s in series, to double the rated 4000 watt power output.  The Fusion board will also offer the option of 220/240 volt output to power 220 volt appliances.  The high power output means you can now run your home air conditioner, clothes dryer, in-wall Electric Heater and other high power appliances with ease. No need to worry about power outages on hot summer nights or cold, bitter winters anymore.

To monitor and operate remotely, the BLUETTI EP500 now supports remote App With their exclusive B-Lynk connection technology, you can easily monitor your EP500’s status and adjust settings whether it is near you or a thousand miles away. No more having to walk to a unit to determine remaining battery or inverter capacity.

Equipped with the highest-capacity battery pack ever in the BLUETTI lineup, the EP500 also features powerful solar charging capability with up to 1200 watts input through its built in MPPT input.  With prime sunlight, it takes only 5 hours to fully charge with solar input alone.  The EP500 can be also charged at 600 watts input through and AC wall outlets. A built-in AC adapter is included so you can charge it with only a single AC power cable without needing a separate heavy power brick.

Still want faster charging?  This class leading unit can be recharged at up to 1800 watts (1200W+600W) by using the two input ports simultaneously. Charging using both ports at the same time results in fully charged batteries in only 3 hours.

Last, but not least, except for the detailed specs and an explanation of new functions, there are two more questions that many people will be concerned about: How long can I operate my items and how does the after-sales services function for the BLUETTI products?

According to official information released, the EP500 is shipped with BLUETTI’s exclusive customized, long life LiFePO4 battery cells.  The self-developed battery management system including the battery pack has a maximum 6000+ charge cycles. According to the average household electricity consumption of 3kWh per day, the BLUETTI EP500 can achieve up to 40 years of theoretical service life without using any grid energy! In addition, BLUETTI also provides a 5-year warranty and lifetime technical support for this market leading EP500.  From what we can tell with current consumers’ feedback, BLUETTI is trustworthy in terms of after-sales service and support.

The pre-order for EP500 will begin on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter at 6:00 AM PDT, March 15th. It is estimated that the price for super early bird perks will be lower than $3000.

Please subscribe via this link for more information about EP500.


EDITOR NOTE: This is a promoted post and should not be viewed as an editorial endorsement.

Mophie’s latest lets you triple up the wireless charging

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Mophie this past week introduced a new member to its family of wireless charging stands. The latest lets users charge up to three devices at one time with two dedicated charging spots and a USB-A port.

As more phones and devices pick up the ability to charge wirelessly, it makes sense to consider a platter or unit that supports multiple things at once.

Unlike the past when we would fight over the charging cord for a phone, now we can place our handsets, wireless earbuds, and other things on the same surface.

The new mophie wireless stand+ runs about $80 and features the brand’s signature dark fabric finish. As is the case with pretty much everything it offers, this one matches the décor of any environment.

Mophie Wireless Charging Stand+ Features

  • The wireless charging stand+ is compatible with Qi-enabled phones
  • Engineered to safely deliver up to 15W of power to the stand
  • Can charge your phone in portrait or landscape mode
  • Charges through lightweight cases up to 3mm thick
  • Includes an Apple Watch adapter; all you need to charge your Apple Watch is the magnetic charger
  • The dark fabric finish easily fits with any décor

One of our favorite brands in the charging space, mophie’s products are consistently built with quality and attention to detail. Moreover, they are backed by two-year warranties as well.

The Mophie wireless charging stand+ comes with a flat surface for phones and/or earbuds and an upright dock-like stand which can hold your handset in portrait or landscape orientation.

Learn more about the wireless charging stand+ or purchase one at mophie’s website.

This super-sized ethical hacking bundle is just $42.99

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For all of the scary notions and ideas that spring to mind when you think of “hacking”, there’s plenty of good that can come from it. Hacking isn’t strictly a bad thing. Done right, you can leverage hacking to better your life, automate processes, and have more fun — all without breaking any laws.

Learning to hack, ethically, is a necessity in today’s age of ever-growing digital threats. Whether your goal is to build a business or simply stop your secure data from being breached, learning the ropes of hacking can be the perfect leg up in sales or counter-measure against cyber thieves.

The AndroidGuys Deals Store has a terrific value-packed collection of training centered around the proper way to hack your life. The 18-course All-In-One 2021 Super-Sized Ethical Hacking Bundle is designed to arm you with the tools on both sides of hacking.

Featuring some 132+ hours of content, there are nearly 1,700 lessons to take you from newbie and novice to knowledgeable and learned!

People tend to fear what they don’t understand and with this collection you can put fears to rest and truly empower yourself.

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  • Hack People, Systems & Mobile Devices: Advanced Social Engineering
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  • Kali Linux Hacker Tools, Tricks & Techniques
  • Bug Bounty: Web Hacking
  • Learn Network Attacks & Security
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Proscenic M6 Pro Vacuum review

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As a young kid, I remember sitting in the living room of my parents’ house and watching as a salesman pushed a tank of a vacuum cleaner demoing its incredible dirt lifting powers. Those Kirby’s were heavy, expensive, occupied an entire closet and they didn’t even sweep the floor by themselves.

Fortunately, my parents had four children to automate their household chores. In reality, we swept about as efficiently as the original robot vacuums; in random patterns, bouncing off walls and occasionally abandoning the job when a neighbor stopped by asking us to join them in a game of kickball in the street.

Fast forward 40 years and there are numerous autonomous robot vacuums available. Alongside “famous” brands such as Roomba and Neato are multitudes of less famous brands including EcoVacs, RoboRock, etc. Announced in December 2020, I was able to test the Proscenic M6 Pro vacuum against my dog and cat, who shed fur on the daily.

Design

In the box you get the M6 vacuum, remote (with batteries), 2x side brushes, an extra HEPA filter, mopping attachment, extra mopping pad, and a mopping/vacuuming dustbin. You also get the usual quick start guides and instruction manual.

See More

    The M6 vacuum is round and measures about 13.75” wide and at its tallest 3.75”. Onboard is the usual set of sensors including fall detection, wall/bump sensor, and tilt sensor. Navigation is handled by IPNAS 3.0. I am not familiar with IPNAS and unfortunately wasn’t able to find much about it online. I’m guessing that it is Proscenic’s fancy name for lidar since it is also referenced in their marketing material.

    One thing I really liked about the charging base is that it allows you to coil the AC adapter cord so that only the necessary length extends to the wall outlet. Finally, the M6 is powered by a 3200mAh which equates to approximately 110 minutes of cleaning time.

    Performance

    The first couple of days with the M6 were not smooth to be quite honest. Setting up the vacuum was relatively easy. You need to download the Proscenic App; which I’ll cover later, in order to connect the M6 to your home’s Wi-Fi network. You add it by first connecting to the ad-hoc network created by the M6 and inputting your home network SSID and password. Once the M6 is connected, you’re ready to map your floor plan.

    The instruction manual doesn’t give much detail from a quick start perspective. The only option I saw was to tap start. The M6 makes an announcement and takes off from its charging base.

    You can watch as the M6 builds a map of your house within the app. It was really cool to see actually! A dot moves along tracing your walls as the IPNAS sensors scan objects placed throughout the rooms. It does a really good job of building the floorplan. Once the edge is determined, it begins methodical back and forth vacuuming.

    Click Here to Watch Videos of the M6 Pro in Action

    Because rooms aren’t yet defined, the systematic sweeping may fall weirdly between rooms or ½ way in a room that has no objects blocking the M6’s path. Near the end of its battery life, the M6 returned to its charging dock with a notification that vacuuming will resume when the battery is charged.

    Unfortunately, it never went back out and eventually its internal clock must have timed out and what mapping was completed was lost. Strike one.

    Strike two came the following day when the M6 attempted to sweep again and wasn’t able to find its way back to the charging dock and died. Again, the map was lost.

    On the third day, I was able to successfully map the downstairs portion of my 3,600 sq. ft. house. Finally! I was able to use the app to section off rooms of my house, as well as, place virtual barriers where I knew the M6 would likely get stuck. I scheduled cleanings through the app to start cleaning on day four.

    Day four arrives and the M6 finds itself stuck on an anti-fatigue mat I have in my kitchen. It had successfully navigated the pair of mats I have placed in the kitchen on three previous days but for whatever reason, it couldn’t on the fourth try. The app showed a “tilt” error which required moving to a level surface for recalibration.

    Unfortunately, the M6 was stuck in a weird loop where only the edge brush spun but nothing else responded. I found no way to reset the M6 despite prolonged research on both Proscenic’s website as well as their Amazon store. After about 10 hours of running, the battery finally died.

    Trying to reset the M6; I reset the device and as a result lost the map! Fortunately, the error cleared itself and I was able to start the mapping process again once the M6 was fully charged. Strike 2.5!

    Eureka! I ran the M6 in edge clean mode and after about 40-45 minutes; the lower level of my house was fully mapped. I was also able to loosely separate rooms (more in the app section) and add virtual barriers.

    Since then, I can honestly say that the vacuum has performed amazingly well. The only final hiccup was I needed to set the time on the robot itself so that it ran at the scheduled times. It ran, but it was not according to the times I set in the app. I discovered that you need to use the included remote to set the time on the M6.

    App

    The app is visually appealing. Setting up Wi-Fi was a breeze and followed the steps that other devices use to broker exchange of Wi-Fi password. The only way I think set-up could have been easier is perhaps to allow QR code scanning to add devices.

    The app allows you to remote control the M6, schedule cleaning times/days, review previous cleaning records, view/edit floor plan maps, create virtual barriers, adjust suction power, and toggle between vacuum, mop, or sweep and mop.

    Within the settings menu; you are able to change the vacuum name, set quiet mode hours, turn on/off voice guidance on the M6, memory map on/off, breakpoint clean on/off, reset map, zero calibration, and view product consumables usage (e.g. HEPA filter). While most of the settings are self explanatory, it would be helpful if there were information buttons or descriptions available for settings such as memory map and breakpoint clean. Checking the online manual doesn’t offer any clarity either.

    It would be really nice if you could import/export the floorplan maps so that you could upgrade from one vacuum to the next. Or in my case, back-up and save the map before needing to reset the device. I believe that the maps are only stored on the M6 vacuum itself.

    The only ongoing negative opinion in my review of the app and the vacuum is related to mapping. The first one is easily addressed; include a quick start tip that instructs users with larger floor plans to run edge clean mode only the first time.

    The second is separating rooms on the map can be greatly improved. For whatever reason, adding “virtual walls” to separate rooms snaps to seemingly random points. This creates weird separation in adjacent rooms where the “virtual wall” does not coincide with a real wall.

    Because I schedule my living room to be swept separately from my home office, there are two areas of my office that are cleaned at different times. Seriously, my first-world problems are brutal. Nonetheless, it slightly diminishes from what I would otherwise consider a solid hardware and software product.

    Conclusion

    Overall, I’m very happy and impressed with the capabilities of the Proscenic M6 pro vacuum. The vacuuming capabilities are fantastic. It is methodical to the extent that even those with obsessions over carpet lines would be satisfied.

    It easily transitions between carpet, tile and hardwood flooring and only got hung up once on the thicker, albeit smooth, anti-fatigue mat. To be fair, my previous Shark robot vacuum would consistently get stuck on that mat too. However, the Shark never required a complete battery drain to reset the device.

    Even the mopping feature worked well in my tiled laundry room. I honestly can’t see myself using that feature often as it would require either setting up specific areas to mop or removing all area rugs, etc. Combined with the fact the vacuum can only hold about 6oz of water, the mopping capability is limited in my opinion.

    Compared to similar robot vacuums with equal mapping and navigation capabilities, the M6 is a great deal. The M6 is available on Proscenic’s Amazon store for $369.99. A $70 off coupon brings the cost down to under $300. Or it’s available directly from Proscenic’s website for $429.

    Metro offering the Motorola One 5G Ace to switchers for just $20

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    T-Mobile on Friday announced its prepaid brand Metro has begun offering the new Motorola One 5G Ace smartphone. Indeed, the handset has a retail price of around $280 but customers who switch from another carrier can grab it for as low as $20.

    The Motorola One 5G Ace Metro’s first 5G handset from Motorola and features a 6.7-inch display, triple rear camera system, and a 5,000mAh battery. Powered by Android 10, the phone features hardware that dances in the middle of the pack of today’s devices.

    The big draw, however, is the 5G connectivity, which is built on the T-Mobile network. As the first generation of devices with 5G support were typically priced near $1,000, the $280 price tag is a breath of fresh air.

    To receive the Motorola One 5G Ace for $19.99, customers must switch to Metro and show an ID for verification. Existing Metro subscribers can pick up the phone for just $89.99 by adding a line of service. No port-in is required nor is ID verification.

    Learn to draw comic book characters with this training bundle, just $20

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    Are you a scribbler or a sketcher? Do you find yourself drawing little figures on notepads while talking on the phone? Ever thought about taking things a step or two further?

    There plenty of classes available to help beginners become solid artists; Learn to Draw online training bundle is an excellent option that focuses primarily on illustrating comic books.

    You’ll start out with a course on human form drawing, then move on to a step-by-step guide to drawing superheroes and drawing both male and female heads in comic style. And that’s just the start of it; there are 181 lessons spanning some 33 hours.

    • How to Improve Your Figure Drawing Step-by-Step: Learn How to Draw the Human Form Like a Professional
    • How to Draw Dynamic Comic Book Superheroes from Start to Finish: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Superheroes
    • How to Draw Heads Step-by-Step From Any Angle: Draw Male & Female Comic Style Heads In a Variety of Ways
    • Digital Painting Amazing Fantasy Art in Manga Studio 5: Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Illustrating Fantasy Art Elements & Characters

    Each of the four courses is taught by Robert Marzullo, a comic book artist and illustrator whose work has published in comics. Moreover, he has worked in 3D animation, and owned and operated his own design firm for over 15 years.

    For a limited time, you can purchase the Learn to Draw Comic Book Characters Bundle and snag all four of these courses for just $19.99. Head to the AG Deals Store today and save!

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    If this is your first time buying, you are also eligible for 10% discount! Just be sure to subscribe for email updates.

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    NUU Mobile G5 review

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    When it comes to smartphones, flagships get all of the attention. Sure, they’re sexy, full of new and emerging tech, and have incredible cameras. They’re super powerful, too. In fact, they’re often more phone than what the average person needs.

    To be sure, the hardware in handsets continues to outpace the demands of average users. This is the main reason a lot of people like to scoop up last year’s model instead of forking out extra money just to have the latest and greatest.

    As consumers come to better understand their needs, they often realize that they can be just as content with a phone that’s priced one-third of a flagship — or less. Motorola understood this and has found great success with its Moto E and Moto G lines. Other phone makers are starting to catch onto it as well.

    Then there are companies like NUU Mobile who have always played in the sandbox of affordability. Rather than competing with the big named brands it has steadily churned out a few unlocked phones each year, occasionally releasing a flagship of its own.

    Meet the NUU Mobile G5

    The latest in the company’s portfolio is the sub-$200 handset known as the G5. Priced about $160 as of the time of this review, it’s an unlocked model with an surprisingly impressive suite of hardware.

    Powered by Android 10, it offers up a large 6.55-inch display with an equally large battery 5,000mAh battery. Additionally, it packs four cameras on the back, features a fingerprint reader, headphone jack, and charges via USB Type-C.

    On paper this all sounds great, but what about in practice? As it turns out, pretty well. That is, once you qualify things a bit and understand what you’re getting.

    Tell us About Performance

    You know how sometimes you start watching a TV series that people tend to rave about, only to find yourself not really enjoying it on the same level? Then, after a season or so goes by, you realize that it’s charming stuff and you care about the characters? That’s sort of how it feels to use the NUU Mobile G5.

    That big screen we mentioned — well, it has a resolution of just 1600 x 720 pixels. In other words, it’s on the low end of HD, barely qualifying. The cameras? They’re pretty slow once you start tinkering with the settings.

    It took us a few solid days of using the G5 to understand what it was capable of and where it struggled. Once we knew what we had, we were quite comfortable with the phone.

    Does it punch above its weight? No. Does it have any major standout feature? Not really. It’s good at what it does so long as that means rather basic things.

    Most of us at AndroidGuys are a little more demanding than the “typical” person. While we don’t game heavily, we do like to pick up new titles once in a while and check them out. We also like to snap pictures and share them on social media. We may spend much of the day hopping back and forth between apps like Airtable, Slack, Asana, and Gmail.

    The G5 does its best to keep up with those needs but does stumble every so often. It’s not so much that it stutters or slows to a crawl, but we recognize it from using other, more expensive devices.

    The one area where we were found the G5 struggled was in the camera. In short, to get a decent photo takes a little bit of luck and a whole lot of time.

    The app itself was intuitive enough and had a decent smattering of features. The problem we saw was the taking any high-resolution or HDR photos was incredibly slow. Like, some pictures took up to five seconds to save and ready us for the next one.

    If you don’t care about snapping candid, “in the moment” photos or action shots, you’ll probably not care too much here. But, more often than not, our personal photos are taken when inspiration strikes or when things feel lively. Sadly, we missed more than a couple of potential moments where the G5 was busy processing the previous picture.

    What Else?

    One of the more common ways for us to gauge a phone is to pass it around to a few casual users. We’ll often give it to a couple of family members or friends to give a “once over” and check out the various features. We routinely found people were surprised to learn that the NUU Mobile G5 was priced as low as it is. Most expected to hear that it cost about $250.

    These types of users spend their time on social media, texting, and generally just communicating. There’s nothing here that would cause a problem for that type of person. Think of how your aunt or uncle might use their phone and you’ll get the sense of the G5 target user base. Likewise, it’s a good and inexpensive way to add multiple phones to a family with younger ones getting their first taste of smartphones and responsibility.

    We do like that the software experience is pretty much a stock Android build. It’s Android 10, which is getting a little older, but still powerful and secure. If you’ve not had any time with Android 11, you won’t miss the navigation and UI changes

    Conclusion

    We’ve said time and again that most new phones look just fine and are totally serviceable in a vacuum. It’s not until you start comparing them to other, and often pricier, alternatives that you start to see the differences and shortcomings.

    Over the years we’ve seen much pricier phones look much less interesting. The G5 is aesthetically pleasing, handles the needs of an “average Joe” type, and works with a variety of GSM carriers. The $160 price tag is right in line with our expectations.

    If you are used to a flagship phone experience, you seek that out and likely update fairly often. On the other hand, if you “just need a phone”, you probably don’t care about the frills and special features. Whether you believe it not, the latter is where a majority of today’s users reside. It’s that segment of user that would be completely happy with the NUU Mobile G5.

    The first 200 readers who sign up to Brilliant Premium get 20% off

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    Life is one long learning process, so keeping your mind sharp puts you in a better position to handle the trials that life throws at you, just as staying physically fit will prepare you for demanding activity when the need arises. If you’re ready to stay on top of your mental workout routine and commit to learning a little more everyday, Brilliant is offering 20% off for the first 200 readers who sign up for Premium access.

    With Brilliant, you’ll find over 60 courses that teach you how to view math and science in a way that excites, cultivates curiosity, sparks questions, and allows for mistakes. Each course is expertly designed by teachers and professionals from established institutions like MIT, Caltech, Microsoft, and Google, so you’ll be learning from the best.

    The courses are designed to help you visualize each concept so that they stick. No need to memorize endless facts and formulas! They cover a wide range of concepts, including Applied Computer Science, Integral Calculus, Classical Mechanics, and much more. For instance, the Mathematical Fundamentals is one of Brilliant’s most popular courses, and it contains 27 interactive quizzes and over 295 concepts and exercises that will make you see math in a totally different way.

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    Whether you are looking to learn new skills for work, or prepping for a career change, Brilliant breaks up complex topics into bite-sized understandable lessons, guiding you from curiosity to mastery.. One year of Brilliant Premium costs $12.49 per month, but you can get 20% off your membership if you’re one of the first 200 readers who sign up.

    This professional-grade home studio kit will improve your video calls and TikTok videos

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    Think back to last March when a lot of us were sent home to work because of the pandemic. At the time we believed it would only be for a few weeks. As we approach the one year mark, it’s starting to look like a new reality is setting in.

    As the number of people working from home increased, businesses began to consider the idea of adopting a permanent work-from-home strategy. Indeed, it’s quite possible that your current office may be your last one.

    If that gives you pause, it might be time to invest in new and better tools. In a world where video meetings are now commonplace, having the right equipment is vital. And it’s not just a strong PC and nice monitor, either. You’ll likely need proper lighting and an adjustable tripod or camera mount.

    The Aduro U-Stream Executive Home Streaming Studio, on sale for just $119.99, is a solid kit with an 18-inch ring light, adjustable tripod, and three articulating smartphone holders.

    The tripod extends over four feet high, letting you get the perfect height for presentations and video calls. Or, you know, for creating TikTok videos. Because yes, the pandemic has also been a boon to short form social media videos, too.

    The multi-function ring light offers three distinct lighting options: white, warm white, and warm yellow. Further, each has 10 different brightness levels which means you’ll have the perfect light conditions for the environment and needs. Moreover, it comes with a remote control and a deluxe carrying case.

    Order Yours!

    The Aduro U-Stream Executive Home Streaming Studio is a $299 value, but we’re able to offer it to our readers for just $119.99.