Cygnett Aviator iPhone 4/4S Case Review

Posted on by
Reply

There are numerous iPhone 4/4S cases out in the market. You can get them from eBay for less than $5, while the more expensive ones can cost closer to $100! The Cygnett Aviator is a dockable hard case for the iPhone 4/4S.

The case has a brushed aluminium finish and comes in either silver or blue with the bottom section in a darker grey. This particular case will work with both the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S. Please note that the iPhone 4S is slightly different to the iPhone 4 on the left side only where the mute/volume buttons are located. The iPhone 4S has these buttons slightly lower and so cases designed for the iPhone 4, with fixed positions for these buttons will not work with the iPhone 4S. Keep this in mind when searching for a case for your iPhone 4S.

Overall, the case is a looker. It is finished in two-tone brushed aluminium while providing access too all buttons and ports on the iPhone 4/4S. It has a rubber inner lining to protect the glass back and the sides of the iPhone. The front and all port/button cut-outs are also lined with rubber. This rubber layer not only gives the case a unique appearance but it also doubles up as an impact layer to protect the iPhone somewhat from bumps and knocks. Handling the brushed aluminium case will not leave any smudge marks on the back, so the case is always looking clean.

Here are some pics of the case. More pics of the case on the iPhone 4S will follow shortly:

The dockable hard case is a two piece design which when opened you slide the iPhone into the top half and then insert the bottom half into the top half section and this will fully enclose the edges, back and front side edges of the iPhone. The Cygnett Aviator Case comes with one screen protector and micro fibre cloth. The screen protector does not come out or is affected in anyway by the design of this case when sliding the iPhone into and out of the case.

The case construction seems sturdy, like it will last some time and can take a few bumps. Just today we managed to bang it pretty hard and the case has a slight dent in the back, but nothing happened to the iPhone. This is what its designed for and if it protects the iPhone, then its doing its job! The case is light and you will not notice too much the extra weight in your pocket, although it does make the iPhone slight bigger in all directions.

The retail price of the Cygnett Aviator iPhone 4/4S case in Australia is $39.95. You can get it cheaper in shops and at online retailers, although online don’t forget to take into account shipping. We found it hard to locate the Cygnett Aviators in stores locally, so we got ours online and 3-4days later it was sitting on our desk.

Overall, we would definitely recommend this case, its clean, simple and does its job of protecting the iPhone 4/4S and comes with a screen protector to prevent scratches to the touch screen.

-Random Reviews iTeam-

*UPDATED* – It has been a month since the review and the case has been overseas and on daily commutes to work etc.. Second impressions about the case….its still a great buy!! It has been dropped twice, no damage to the iphone 4S. It also has a nice dent now, for unknown reasons, but it is still looking good and people still ask me what case it is when they see it. One month in and our verdict is still the same, definitely get the Cygnett Aviator if you are after a sleek, solid case that protects your precious iPhone 4/4S.

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 Motherboard Review

Posted on by
Reply

The Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 is a mid-range motherboard based on the latest Z68 Intel chipset. The Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 was eagerly anticapted by the Random Reviews. We heard many good things about this motherboard and were all excited by the many onboard features all of which came at an extremely good price point.

We were not dissapointed when we recieved the GA-Z68XP-UD3. It came as described with motherboard, 4 sata cables, sli-bridge, motherboard backplate and the usual manuals/warranty documents.

We quickly went ahead and started assembly our newest motherboard, with an Intel  i7 2600K CPU, 16GB Kingston HyperX 1600mhz DDR3, an older graphics card (GTX 260) – since we don’t use this machine for gaming, followed by 5 hard drives and one optical drive.

Everything ran well and smoothly. We installed Windows 7 64bit, no dramas. Temperatures were low (~33°C) and stable.  Then after windows had finished installing, we found that the system kept restarting every 10mins. It was at about this point that we started getting worried. So we quickly checked in bios and found the computer was set to overclock, straight out of the box! The 3.4Ghz Intel i2600K  was running at 3.7ghz, non boosted and on boost jumped up a lot higher! We had not touched any of the bios settings and were exteremely suprised to see this.

We then started searching through discussion forumns and found that many people had problems with Gigabyte motherboards, in particular the P67 chipset boards. They would restart unexpectantly, do boot cycles (non-stop booting) etc.. Which naturally got the team worried. We then tried a few things and nothing. 5 Days later, we had all given up and it was being packed to be returned to the computer shop it was bought from.

Here the news gets more exciting! The computer shop would not take our motherboard back, stating that there was one bent pin and one slighlyt bend pin on the motherboard socket, which was not present when we checked (suspicous..hmm). With this, they would not accept a return on the motherboard, but only a RMA, which meant we are stuck with this motherboard, that did not work and gave us headaches and nightmares for nearly 5days. We are awaiting to hear back from the computer shop regarding if this is going to be fixed or not. They mentioned that if it is fixed, they won’t take it back, but if it is replaced, they will refund us our money.

This whole process has been very frustrating to the Random Reviews Team. We had to deal with the computer shop (PLE Computers) who were very rude and having tried Gigabyte after such a long time, we were left overall very dissapointed.

After dropping off the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 for RMA, we promptly bought a ASUS P8Z68-V PRO motherboard. You can see the review for this motherboard here.

*Note* – About PLE Computers, we have nothing against them, we have bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of computer parts from them and we love their prices and sales service. But after going to their service department for the first time in nearly 10+years, we have to say, a companies true colours sometimes shows through  their service department and we were well and truly dissapointed. We later went again to return another item and had no dramas, but the first impressions on service has made a big enough negative impression for the whole team and will be remembered for many more years to come.

- Random Reviews Team -

RELATED REVIEWS:
- Intel Core i7 2600K Review
- Asus P8Z68-V PRO Motherboard Review
- Kingston Hyper X 8GB 1600mhz DDR3 Review
- Corsair HX1050 – 1050W PSU Review

*UPDATE* – We received our money back from the online store, PLE Computers. The motherboard was replaced and hence they refunded our money. Overall not a pleasant experience. We can’t fault Gigabyte, they replaced the motherboard and PLE held up their end of the bargain. All we can say is that we got a lemon of a motherboard, which has unfortunately left a sour taste in our memories when thinking about Gigabyte.

Samsung PS51D6900 – 51″ of Plasma Goodness!

Posted on by
Reply

The Samsung PS51D6900 51″ Plasma is a Series 6 Samsung TV that came out in 2011 as part of Samsungs Smart TV range. It has many bells and whistles that the series 8 models have. The most noticible difference will be the design and the lack of a web browser in the Smart TV Hub. The recommended retail price of the PS51D6900 is AU$2099.00 but most shops will sell it closer to $1700.00 and some places will go less. We found a good online shop that was selling this Samsung at a bargain and despite being less than one year after being released, we snapped up this TV online for nearly $800 less than retail at $1285.00!!

After the TV arrived we quickly unpacked the box straight away. Unpacking reviealed the following goodies, the TV itself, remote control, stand, 1 pair of 3D glasses (which are the newer bluetooth model but not-rechargeable), manuals and a converter for analogue connections. The setup was relatively straight forward, although we needed a second pair of hands for the stand assembly. We then started connecting our devices. The PS51D6900 has 4 HDMI ports, which is great, but unfortunately, we overlooked that we had two older connections in RCA cabling because of an older satellite and foxtel system. So for the time being, the satellite and Foxtel is being switch manually as need. This is not the TV’s fault, mostly ours as it was an overlook with regards to the input specfications.

Some photos of the Samsung PS51D6900 (sorry for the image quality – they were taken with my mobile phone):

We then went ahead with the easy on screen setup prompts when we switched the TV on and in no time we had scanned for all local digital channels and connected the TV to our Wi-Fi network. Once on, we all fell in love with this TV straight away, the picture clarity was fantastic (coming from a 6year old LG plasma and having seen friends/relatives Sony Bravia’ TV’s). We played normal TV for a while, using 2D and later trying the onboard conversion to 3D. Both were great! We then popped in Avatar in Bluray (not the 3D version) and that was completely stunning!! We then switched on 2D-3D conversion and enjoyed the vibrant 3D image which was just as stunning as the 2D image. We have not tried any native 3D movies as we don’t have any avaiable for testing, when we get our hands on one, it will be updated on here.

The Smart Hub is decent. It works as its supposed to and the content will be specific to your country. We were able to use youtube through the Wi-Fi with no problems and watched an episode of At home with Julia with the ABC iView app. There are many apps and Bigpond movies is already set up on there. One thing to note is that the Samsung TV’s might not support free downloads or usage-free downloads for content like ABC iView through the TV. It would be wise to check with your internet service provider before queing up tv shows or watching any movie marathons.

We would definitely recommend the Samsung PS51D6900 plasma to anyone in the market for a TV. It is such good value for money with soo much realestate at 51inches, which is 1″ more than most in its class. The picture quality is great, the features are astounding and the did we mention the price?!?

Special Mention to the online store we bought it from – BigBrownBox.com.au who never put a foot wrong. Ordered the TV on Monday morning and they delivered it to our door the next day at 9am. They had great service, fast delivery and a cheap price!!

If we needed to recommend a large TV to family or friends, this Samsung PS51D6900 plasma would be very high on our list of recommended TV’s for 2011.

- Random Reviews Team -

Holden Commodore SS-V Review

Posted on by
Reply

The VE Holden Commodore is the latest in Holden’s long history of big cars. It was released in 2006 and in mid 2010 the Series II was released with minor cosmetic changes. The major change from series one, is the addition of the Holden IQ system, which includes navigation/bluetooth/Stereo controls via an LCD screen which brought the commodore up to 2010 technology levels.

This review will be about the Series One (2006-2010) Holden Commodore SS-V. The SS-V is the top of the range Commodore and comes with a 6-litre V8 that pumps out 270kW (~360bhp). Fuel economy is  about average for a V8 in city  traffic, while the big engine likes longer drives. Usually a full tank can get you about 650-700kms (running 98Ron fuel) on highway driving, while city driving will get you closer to 400km.

Outside the car is a decent looker, with mean lines and an aggressive stance. The interior of the series one is just nice, although after seeing the series II, you might be a little disappointed. The quality of the interior is good and the car seems solidly built. All the interior parts fit well and does not rattle. The car we are reviewing is nearly 4 years old (2007 model) and has been driven for nearly 2years , everyday. back and forth to work. Despite this, the car is showing only minor aging problems (small things that are fixable) and nothing major mechanically.

The car is very spacious and can fit 3 adults comfortably in the back, while 2 taller adults can sit peacefully in the front. The boot is very big, as expected from a car in this class and can accommodate 2.5 suitcases with ease. The visibility out the front is good, while the rear visibility is some-what reduced by the rear spoiler. and the high boot. The standard Holden sound system (Blaupunkt) is very nice, with a 6-CD changer , 11 speakers  (10 satellites + 1 sub-woofer) and the audio is crisp & clean.

The handling is very good for a car of this size. It tackles corners well, while maintaining comfort levels similar to a luxury sedan. The front seats are slightly bucketed which gives you added side support and keeps you snug while driving.

The car comes in two transmissions, either a 6-speed, tip-tronic auto or a 6-speed manual. Personally, we prefer the manual as it gives good feedback while driving the muscly V8. Acceleration in this car is breathtaking. It will shoot you from 0-100km/hr (60mph) in less than 6 seconds. Officially Holden has not claimed any times, but unofficially other journalists/reporters are claiming closer to the 5.5 seconds mark. It definitely feels that quick :) .

Overall the car is well built and a pleasure to drive, while keeping a smile on you face in any driving conditions. We rate this car 8/10.

Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type Review

Posted on by
Reply

The Nokia X3-02 is a unique mobile phone. It sports both a touch screen and a physical keypad. The X3-02 is part of the Touch and Type range from Nokia. It aims to bridge the gap between keypad and touch screen phones.

The X3-02 is visually very appealing, with its slender body (9.6mm!) and feather lite weight (77.5grams!). The phone comes in five different flavours, Black (Dark Grey) / White Silver / Petrol Blue / Pink / Lilac. The keypad buttons are all easy to press and seems firm enough. The touch screen is very responsive and the tactile feedback (the vibrations you receive after touching the screen) is extremely accurate and very reassuring. The phone over feels very solid in your hand and does not seem like it will break that easy.

The X3-02 is a good bridge or starter phone to slowly introduce consumers to touch phones who are more comfortable with keypad based mobiles. This is the case for this review, it was intended for a user who did not want a completely touch phone, but insisted on getting a keypad. In the end the user was very happy and has loved the phone ever since buying it.

The phone is packed full of features, like Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) / Bluetooth (2.1) / Quad Band GSM & HSDPA (3G). The las feature is good for us in Australia, it basically means it will work with all carriers in Australia and even with Telstra “Next-G” and Optus “Yes-G” spectrum’s. Which is an added bonus for a phone in this price segment. The battery life is reasonable for a touch/type combination. The phone will do about 3.5 hours of talk in 3G while 2G will give you just over 5 hours. In standby this phone will give you over 400 hours.

One point to note, is that the camera while being 5 mega-pixel it is fixed focus and so will be a little more limited than you may expect from a 5MP camera-phone. It has 50mb of internal storage and accepts micro-SD cards up to 32GB. The X3-02 also comes with Facebook and Twitter built into for the social media addicts out there (or for those of us who just want to check our updates).

This phone was released in September 2010 at RRP of  AUD 399.  Nearly one year later and you can get this phone on sale for less than half  its original retail price. We bought our Nokia X3-02 for AUD 169.00 and have never looked back since.  We rate the Nokia X3-02 a 8/10.

The Nokia X3-02 is a great phone for all types of users, it  has many features of a high end phone with a very modest price tag.

Kung Fu Panda Review

Posted on by
Reply

Kung Fu Panda was released in 2008 and was a huge success for Dreamworks & Paramount pictures. The story is set in olden day China and evolves around the dream of a Panda called Po (Jack Black). Po works in his dad’s noodle shop but dreams of fighting along side the furious five, the greatest ninja of his era. One day the announcement of the Dragon Warrior, who is the “chosen” warrior, is made and the whole village, including Po , make their way up to the Kung Fu temple to witness the ceremony.

Po,  being the son of a noodle shop owner, was asked to bring the noodles up to the top, but because of his lack of fitness, does not make it on time. He misses the furious five’s showcase and as the Dragon Warrior was about to be selected, he comes up with a plan to use fire works to enter the arena. With this, he fumbles and makes a grand entrance and falls into place in front of the grand master, master Oogway. He is now the chosen warrior and must embark on his journey to become the Dragon Warrior, despite oppositions from master Shifu, who trains the furious five.

The story then follows master Shifu and Po as they battle to train Po to be the Dragon Warrior that he is destined to be. Mean while, the villain of the story, Tai Lung, is in a high security prison, which he escapes on hearing the news of the selection of the Dragon Warrior. In this rage, he breaks free and fights his way through to the village and fights master Shifu. At this point, Po has already unravelled the secrets of the Dragon Scroll, which is the power of the whole universe handed only to the Dragon Warrior. A fight breaks out between Po and Tai Lung and so the story of the Dragon Warrior is written in history and in our minds as one of the most enjoyable animated movies of 2008.

Another point to note, is that we watched Kung Fu Panda recently, as we wanted to go watch number 2 which was released in the end of May, in both 2D and 3D. A review of Kung Fu Panda 2 will follow shortly.

- Random Reviews Team – (aka Master Random)

Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 16GB Review

Posted on by
Reply

Corsair is famous for their memory products. The latest in their USB Flash drive line up is the Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 series. This series comes in three flavours, a 8GB / 16GB / 32GB. The 16GB (model no.: CMFVY3-16GB) will be our focus in this review.

Firstly you can’t go pass the looks. The Corsair USB drives in general are good looking and maybe a bit flash (no pun intended). This model is teal green/almost blue on the sides, with the rest of the body in black and the writing in yellow and white. The finish is the usual Corsair rubberized finish, which is easy to grip and will not get dirty as fast. This outer casing is also used to absorb bumps and knocks, which makes the Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 shock resistant (to a certain degree). Here are some photo’s of the Voyager in its original packaging and unpacked:

The recommended retail price for the drive in Australia is $79 (yes we know, it’s expensive!), but you can pick it up from most stores (online and retail) for around $38 to $65. We picked ours up for $45, which was the cheapest (and closest to home :P) in Perth, WA.

The first thing to note about this drive is that it is USB 3.0. This is the newest version of the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard. The drive is backwards compatible with USB 2.0. I am not sure if it is backwards compatible with USB 1.0 as there is no such claim on the corsair website. The speeds are claimed to be 4 times faster than USB 2.0 drives. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm this as at the time writing this review as we do not have any USB 3.0 capable PC/Laptops to test these claims. Based on this, we will state the speeds using the older USB 2.0 (which most of us should still have).

The flash drive has 16GB of storage, which equates to approximately 15.GB of usable space (because of the way memory/usb/hard drive manufacturers state their total space in advertising). The drive comes formatted, as most devices do now days and as soon as we plugged it into Windows 7, it was automatically detected and the correct drivers installed.

After a few hours of testing, the drive is definitely faster than the previous USB 2.0 standard drives. We have a Corsair Flash Voyager GT 16gb prior to this, which was USB 2.0 and had died (well, we accidentally broke it… :) ) and this newer  Flash Voyager USB 3.0, despite being used on a USB 2.0 computer was faster in reading and writing compared to the old Voyager GT 16GB usb drive. The drive would fly through any large files, with continuous reading or writing while the smaller files, like for most drives, it slowed down a bit but was still faster than my old 16GB Voyager GT.

In conclusion, I would recommend this drive, if you are looking for a good mix between performance and price. It is fast enough to use as a regular back up device and transferring smaller files (larger files are very fast) while at the same time will keep your data secure with its shock proof design.

- Random Reviews Team -

Apple iPad 2 Review

Posted on by
Reply

The iPad 2 is the 2nd generation tablet from Apple. The new iPad is slimmer (33%), lighter  (15%) and faster (Apple A5 1Ghz  dual core) than the original iPad while maintaining 10hours of battery life. There are 6 models available, three Wi-Fi and three 3G+Wi-Fi. Each variant has a 16GB / 32GB / 64GB model, available in either white or black.

Other than being lighter, smaller and faster than the original iPad, the iPad also now has dual cameras which supports FaceTime and Skype. While the camera is not the high resolution version that everyone was expecting, it does a decent job of capturing pictures and videos. There is no flash on the camera but this is not missed too much, unless you are using the camera in very low light conditions.

The form factor, is the same as the original, with a 9.7″ (not quiet 10″) screen and a aluminium back  (despite which colour you choose).

Apple also released an official cover, the Smart Cover. It is a magnetic cover,  which serves more than one purpose. Firstly it acts as a screen cover and protects the iPad when not in use. Then, it can be folded to be used as a stand in a more elevated position for viewing horizontal or turned on its side for viewing videos. The only downside is that the smart cover does not cover the back, corner or sides of the iPad. You will have to get some other cover for this. There are many available which vary from plastic hard cases, skins to rubberised plastic. Also I would recommend buying a screen protector to protect the screen from scratches.

I have been using the iPad for nearly 2months and have found it is great for catching up on emails or even checking things online while on the go (you will need the 3G version with a mobile data plan – I used a Telstra iPad plan which I have also reviewed). I have setup my office email (Microsoft Exchange), gmail and another email account. All were done quickly and painlessly. Having the Apple App store with its thousands of apps that are download-able for the iPad, keeps the iPad continuously fresh and exciting. I would rate the iPad 8.5/1, only because there are other tablets out there with “better” specifications.

The iPad 2 is available at most big department stores, from your local Apple store or from the Apple store online. I bought mine nearly two months after launch in Las Vegas (I was visiting at the time) and I still had to wait 1.5hours in line to get an iPad 2! I hope the lines are smaller now :-)

- iRandom Reivews Team -

Logitech Harmony 300 Universal Remote Review

Posted on by
Reply

The Harmony 300 is Logitech’s answer to your remote control problems. It is a universal remote that will replace up to 4 remote controls and combine them into the one remote. The Harmony 300 is well a designed remote which has many options and customizable features (not as much as the others in the Logitech family, but more than enough at this price!).

I had bought this remote for my parents, who lost one of their remotes. We found an original remote replacement but that would have cost nearly AU $85, while we managed to get this remote on sale at $25 (RRP $49).

The setup was relatively straight forward, just make sure to get all the serial numbers of the devices you want to control before hand, and took about 5-10mins. The setup is done via myharmony.com. The remote can control up to four devices. The preset four that they say you would control are TV, DVD player, Cable/Satellite & VCR/Aux. In my case I had 5 devices, but just connected the four most popular. They all worked straight away and had no issues.

I did notice, unlike the Harmony “One” remote from Logitech, this remote acts like the remote you tell it to act like. So if you select cable, the remote now acts like your cable/Foxtel remote. The volume controls, by default, are set to the tv’s while the channel buttons change the remote device you are currently controlling. Which is a nice default setting from Logitech.

The build quality of the remote is surprising good and seems like it will last for some time. I have noticed the remote to be more responsive than the more expensive Logitech Harmony “One” remote, which was very surprising. Another point to note is that there is two versions of this same from Logitech. The other model is the Harmony 300i The only difference between the 300 and the 300i is that the 300 has a matte finish while the 300i has a glossy finish.

Overall I would rate this remote a 7/10. It has all the features you would expect from a universal remote, the extremely easy to use Logitech setup and all at a price point that is very hard to beat!

- Random Reviews Team -