We at SnappyReviews love playing football – not only for the social aspect but also for keeping fit and staying in shape. We could almost hear the relief from footballers up and down the country when UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that as a part of the UK’s roadmap out of the restrictions, Outdoor organized sports and activities can return from March 29th, subject to guidance.
Like most footballers at any level, I immediately thought back to the pain of pre-season, having to get into shape, match-fit and sharp before my teams first organized friendly on Friday 16th of April. Previous pre-seasons have been grueling – but how can technology help me get to – or even exceed – previous seasons levels? How can I be at my best going into the season ahead?
I wanted to get hold of a device that could accurately track my distances, sprints and other valuable statistics during pre-season training and games so that I could actively monitor my improvement over the weeks from the beginning of training up until the season start. Statistics don’t lie, especially when built up over a certain period where you have a visual of your performance data. With these criteria set, I searched for performance GPS trackers to help me get the data that I want. I am convinced that as long as I have a refence point for my performance, I can analyze this data to help me improve.
I wanted this case study to cover GPS tracking tech from three different price categories. After some research, I decided on the tech below:
Under £50> Adidas GMR PLYR Pack
Under £100> Zepp Football Tracker
Under £200> STATSports APEX Athlete Series
I will be posting a full unboxing of each selected tracker, write up and full case study within the next few weeks! Keep up to date with the blog and Insta page for full updates!
Fancy a tech bargain? Here are some of our recommended deals over the last month.
(Disclaimer – some of these deals may have expired or the price may have changed since we originally scouted these deals. Some magnet links may lead to us making a small profit through Amazon – all profits will be reinvested into the blog to bring you more and more up-to-date tech reviews (everyone wins!)
Laptop of the week priced less than £400
Lenovo ThinkPad T440 Laptop (via Amazon)
This well specced, Windows 10 Pro laptop is perfect for home working or your office working needs. Lenovo are a well-known brand in computing these days, so you’ll be picking up great deal here. Device spec includes 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD for storage & an Intel i5 processor, so you’re certain of a speedy device which will read/write docs and load applications very quickly indeed. This model is a renewed model but do not let that put you off picking up a lot of laptop for less than £400.
Dell Inspiron 3000 15.6-inch FHD LED Backlight Laptop (via Amazon)
Specification of this laptop isn’t far off the Lenovo above – but you are paying for a brand new, Dell modelled laptop who are arguably market leaders in laptops/computing. With Dell, you are guaranteed a robust, well designed laptop. This laptop has the AMD alternative to the Intel i5, but this shouldn’t be considered a negative. The laptop also has a very good LED screen and Radeon Vega 8 graphics card, so should also be able to handle most PC games at a decent level.
This laptop is a very good spec and extremely powerful – featuring 16GB of RAM, a great NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB graphics card, a great 1444Hz display and a 512GB SSD for storage of apps, files and games. The screen is full 1080p, so you can be assured of a very clear gaming experience. Medion claim that this laptop can run games such as Battlefield V and Wolfenstein: Youngblood at a crystal clear rate with no risk of lag, which definitely puts this laptop in a category that you must consider if you are in the market for a reliable gaming or all-round laptop.
Rapoo Mt750s High Performance Multi-mode Wireless Mouse (via Ebuyer)
It’s always nice to have a trusty, solid mouse that you can use whether working from home or gaming. The Rapoo MT750s is specifically designed to assist with gaming, but also has a very strong bluetooth connection which makes it a good shout for all round laptop or PC working. This model is Ex-Display, but it’s a great opportunity to pick up a great all-category mouse. The mouse is rechargable and ergonomic, which add two extra strings to this devices’ bow.
A wireless, self-charging, easy to setup and use outdoor security camera, I hear you ask? Yes – this fantastic device by CTronics comes recommended by SnappyReviews staff. Amazon also have a discount on this product, so snap one up as soon as you can. Check out our full write up of this camera here.
You can pick up this security camera by clicking here.
We’ve reviewed these wireless earbuds and we were impressed. Whether you’re in the need of a soundtrack for a workout, walk or even to add some inspiration whilst working from your desk (disclaimer – we are not authorising you to do this – we can’t be responsible for you bursting into song mid working day) these seem to be a great all-rounder. See our full test and review here.
You can purchase these earbuds here – Amazon also have a discount coupon available.
We hope you’ve enjoyed following our bargains for this month – check back this time next month for some renewed products! As always, if you have any catergories that you’d like for us to cover, feel free to drop a suggestion in the comments box below.
New website, new branding and now a new feature! Aren’t you a lucky bunch…
Tech or not – everyone loves a deal, especially when you have the opportunity to purchase something rated as a high end product for a lot less, saving some well earned dosh in the process. We’ll be covering the below categories with Tech that we feel you can pick up for a bargain:
Laptop of the week priced less than £400
Laptop of the week priced less than £600
Gaming laptop of the week priced less than £1000
Our top mobile phone deal – pay monthly.
Our peripheral of the week.
Our Smart Home Tech of the week.
Our bargain exercise tech of the week.
Posts will be up every Friday at 2pm! Check out our first batch of recommended products from 19/03/21 and leave us some feedback with some of your suggestions on how we can improve. Do you have any specific products you’d like us to help you with? Drop us a DM on Instagram – @snappydotreviews or email us at hello@snappy.reviews!
Do SoundsPeats brand new addition to the wireless earbuds market stand out and make a case for a “true” budget option?
I haven’t been surprised at the speed of the SoundPeats brand growth, since panic buying my first pair of SoundPeats TrueWireless earbuds at the beginning of March 2019. I’d been very impressed at not only the sound quality of the buds, but the presentation and packaging is something that most budget brands usually neglect. SoundPeats clearly ensured that the design budget remained healthy. Thankfully, this previously successful model has not changed and SoundPeats have yet again produced a very considerable option to the True Wireless bluetooth earbuds market.
Inside of a very well presented box, you get warranty paperwork (24months worth of warranty), a USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 to provide power to the charging case, the charging case with the two wireless earbuds inside & a few different earbud sizes to ensure that you are comfortable with true earbud seal and to provide that secure hold to make sure that the buds do not fall out. Rule #1 when using any truewireless buds is to make sure that the seal is as good as possible to make sure that the sound does not “escape”. I can’t obviously speak for everyone but the provided replacement buds certainly did the trick for me.
Bluetooth pairing was very easy – take both buds out of the box and scan for the device on your phone. Done. The well built charging case shows you the remaining charge via the three clear LED’s on the front of the product case. Strangely, SoundPeats claim 30hrs playtime via their website but only 25hrs are shown on the box – either should ensure that you’re good to go whether using the buds to provide the soundtrack to your lockdown walk or helping meet your exercise goals. SoundPeats promise a quicker 10hr charge when using a USB 3.0 to 3.0 charge, this brings the charge time down to 10hrs. The case and buds both take 2hours to fully charge. The buds also feature a IPX6 waterproof rating, so no need to worry about getting caught out in the rain.
The earbud touch system does take a little bit of getting used to, but with experimentation and little bit of patience, you’ll learn how to flick through the earbud modes – the product manual takes you through all of the controls, but the most anticipated feature for me was the Active Noise Cancelling which I’d rate at 8/10. The feature most certainly makes a difference to filtering out background noise but some louder noises do creep through. Music quality is always the bread and butter for all headphones/earbuds etc and SoundPeats do provide a good quality of sound for a sub £60 price.
The buds do link to a SoundPeats app which you can control on your Smartphone, but testing the iOS version proved to be disappointing. You can’t proceed without registering for an account but the verification email never came through. I will update this post when testing again, but for now I can only go by the feedback from friends who have also tested this product and the general concensus is that the app “needs some work”.
In Conclusion, SoundPeats have yet again provided a good quality product for a very affordable price. The build of the product is top notch, product is easy enough to use once you’d had a chance to get used to the earbud touch system and the sound quality is very good. You have to consider the price here, these cost a lot less than any leading brand but the SoundPeats T2 TrueWireless earbuds definitely have a crack at attempting to challenge the big boys. Amazon do provide discount codes for these from time to time – so I would put these buds in the category for best truewireless buds available for less than £50.
As these have been so impressive, I will be reviewing these against my Cambridge Audio Melomania Touch wireless earbuds as a quick comparison in the next few weeks.
Score: 8/10.
3 things I like about the product are:
1) Professional styling and packaging
2) Good sound quality
3) ANC feature works well
3 things that could be improved are:
1) Would be great if the smartphone app was easier to set up.
2) Touch controls could be a little bit more responsive.
3) *No third negative thus far!*
You can buy the SoundPEATS T2 Hybrid Active Noise Canceling Wireless Earbuds by following the link below:
(Disclaimer: We may make a slight profit from Amazon for any direct sales made from accessing the short link below, but these profits will always be used to promote and improve our website and provide us with new tech to review, to help you and others in the future.)
We spotted the Doqaus Care 1 headphones on Amazon with generally positive reviews. With the cost of the headphones being set at sub £40, are these a worthy budget buy?
As lockdown has increased the need of a variety of in and outdoor keep-fit activities, the need for fitness tech has also rise . Having movement & heart rate stats is almost essential but having an uplifting soundtrack to keep you going is almost as important.
Doqaus present their headphones with a USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 charging cable, a protective storage pouch, a 3.5mm to 3.5mm AUX cable and a user manual. The weight and general quality of the headphones is actually quite impressive considering the price. They can fold away very nicely for storage and the over ear cushions feel soft and flexible – the stitching seems secure so the cushion shouldn’t start to come away any time soon. The general build and feel of the headphones is impressive.
The Bluetooth 5.0 connection and microphone both connected very well during our testing, but as with any sound tech test, we’re especially interested in the sound quality, noise cancelling and the 3 EQ modes.
Straight away we noticed that the noise cancelling is disappointing over all three EQ modes and over a variety of different music genres. The “heavy bass” mode EQ is too powerful and massively affects the quality of the track. The first and second EQ’s are fine, with the first being a Normal “Local” mode and second being an “Equilibrium” mode that increases treble. We’re not sure about these EQ’s and they could have done with some further refinement.
The 3 Pros:
Decent, solid headphones for less than £40 – reduced further by Amazon vouchers/offers.
Doqaus claim over 52 hours playtime.
Reliable Bluetooth 5.0 connection and clear microphone when making or receiving calls.
The 3 Cons:
Disappointing EQ Modes
Poor noise cancelling
Buttons on the side feel a little bit cheap/flimsy, which lets down the all round feel of the product.
One extra special thing that stood out for me was: Build Quality. Solid headphones and well made for the price.
Score out of 10: 6/10. As mentioned, the build quality is very good but the main thing about a great pair of headphones is the audio quality. The EQ modes and poor noise cancelling bring the score of these headphones down to a 6. Would we take them out on a run or walk? We would, but with the vast amount of budget electronics competitors around, other options may be better placed as a budget headphone choice.
You can buy the Doqaus Care 1 headphones by following the link below:
(Disclaimer: We may make a slight profit from Amazon for any direct sales made from accessing the short link below, but these profits will always be used to promote and improve our website and provide us with new tech to review, to help you and others in the future.)
I must admit, I’d never heard of CTRONICS so when I’d unboxed the camera, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Added home security is never a bad thing & I’d kept my eye out on Amazon for home security systems by brands such as Hikvision, Nest or Arlo – all brands I’ve worked with in the past. To give myself a heads up on what to expect, I’d searched up the brand on social media and found that reviews were generally quite positive.
The box contains an instruction manual, a prize voucher (great idea, but the support team never got back to me with my “prize”*enter thumbs down emoji* here), the Camera, a Solar Panel/14400MaH rechargeable battery & a mounting kit. Instantly I’d got into the configuration of the camera, which is done through the CTronics app available via the Apple Store & GooglePlay for Android. The app itself is very easy to use and the camera is relatively easy to set up after connecting to your home WiFi.
I went with the option to insert a 64GB MicroSD card to save my recordings. The slot is tucked neatly behind the camera so is out of view and is protected from the elements. Data is automatically deleted from the SD card so saves you the task of clearing any space. You can download footage and images from the card onto your device at your leisure.
Mounting the device was easy enough – make sure you are high up enough to ensure you have the correct field of view for the area you are trying to monitor. A metal backing plate is first drilled to the surface you’d want to mount to & the camera is affixed to the backing plate and screwed on using the provided kit. The panel is secured to the top of the camera to allow for solar panel use. I must say – the solar panel and not having to run additional cables certainly adds a feather into the CTronics cap.
We’ve had the camera mounted through rain, snow, wind and sun and the quality of the image and ruggedness of the device have not changed since installation. Impressively, the videos are very clear. The cameras Smart Motion Tracking capability pings a message to the owners’ phone (app installation required) and records a clip of the motion it has detected. The owner can decide on the length of this detected video via the presets selectable via the CTRONICS app. Night vision works a treat but I haven’t got on with the 2-way voice audio – it just isn’t clear enough for me & you end up sounding like a Dalek & scaring off Amazon delivery drivers. Not cool.
The Verdict:
The 3 Pros:
Solar Panel/Battery allow for an easy installation without the need to run cables into your home.
Very clear picture quality, both in the day and at night.
Ruggedness of the device means peace of mind within all types of weather.
The 3 Cons:
Although the app is easy to use, it does have a slight cheap and amateur feel compared to the bigger names.
2-way voice audio quality could be better.
Customer support and lack of response left me frustrated. Hope that this doesn’t happen for customers experiencing tech difficulties.
One extra special thing that stood out for me was: the price. It’s a lot of kit for sub £150 – and Amazon even offer special deals which bring the cost closer to the £100 mark. Very good value for money.
Score out of 10: 7/10. Worth buying in my opinion. Very easy to set up and mount & the features such as 360 degree view give you granular control on the field of view you choose to monitor. I can vouch for the weatherproof feature, the camera hasn’t skipped a beat. Maybe a couple of extra professional touches like the look and feel of the app would raise the rating, but this product is definitely worth the asking price.
You can buy the CTronics Outdoor Solar Powered Security Camera by following the link below:
(Disclaimer: We may make a slight profit from Amazon for any direct sales made from accessing the short link below, but these profits will always be used to promote and improve our website and provide us with new tech to review, to help you and others in the future.)
SnappyReviews 