I previously owned the Tic Watch Pro 4G. It was a good Wear OS, but it was not the “Best.” After the 2020 pandemic started, I started to learn and realize how crucial monitoring your vitals were. While the Tic Watch 4G had a variety of sensors to measure heart rate and more, other watches in this segment had more sensors and better tracking. When the Apple Watch Series 6 was announced, I looked to see if I could find a Wear OS that was comparable to it. Luckily, the Tic Watch 3 was announced with all the features I was looking for and more.FIT AND FINISH: I received the Tic Watch 3 not too long after release and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was thinner than the Tic Watch 4G. The thinness makes a significant difference as I used to hit the Tic Watch 4G against stuff all the time due to me not giving my arm enough clearance. With the Tic Watch 3, I have not had that problem at all. The Tic Watch 4G’s included watchband was extremely elastic and worried me that it would snap easily. The new Tic Watch 3’s band is far better and seems more durable. I was disappointed to see that the holder-shaped charger from the Tic Watch 4G did not make a return. Instead, a new clip-on-shaped charger with an inset head was included. The pinout for the two watches looks the same, but the chargers are incompatible with one another.BATTERY LIFE:During my first few days of use, where I was using all the features often, I got an extended 2-day battery life with enough charge left to take me into the morning of the third day. Under my normal “stop-and-go” usage, I was able to achieve 4-days with still a 50% charge at the beginning of day 4. My Tic Watch 4G would get 1-day under the “frequent use” and 3-days under my typical use, where it would barely last the third day. I would not be surprised if I only needed to charge my Tic Watch 3 once or twice a week. The sensors do use more power, so it will vary depending on how often you use those sensors.ESSENTIAL MODE / LCD MODE:The most notable feature of the Tic Watch Pro series, the LCD is one of the reasons why I recommend this watch over the competitors. While it does offer the benefit of saving power, I find it to be ‘essential’ for students and test-takers. While the rules are changing to prohibit watches during an exam, the ability to have a “dumb” watch on-demand is essential. One edge that the Tic Watch 4G has over the 3 is the fact that the 4G’s LCD had a brighter background. While the Tic Watch 3 now has a backlight to make up for its darkness, the old watch was more readable, and that I now must use the light during the day. I have included pictures so you can see the difference. The design of the new LCD is also far more attractive and includes more measurements that were usually unavailable on the old Tic Watch 4G.WEAR OS / SCREEN:The screen on the new Tic Watch 3 is brighter and more vivid. The improvements make daytime readability better than before, which was already great. Wear OS feels fast, and notifications synchronization is much better. My Tic Watch 4G had problems where it would not like to connect to Wi-Fi. The new watch has no issues connecting to Wi-Fi. The new launcher for the watch is better than the stock Wear OS launcher, but you can still revert to the earlier version if you prefer. I am disappointed to see that a scrolling crown still has not been implemented, but the touch screen works fine. The speaker is loud and clear and sounds as good as my phone speaker. The microphone is also better, and phone calls are well received. I have had no issues or glitches with the interface yet.GOOGLE FIT / TIC HEALTH / SENSORS:With the Tic Watch 4G, I preferred to use Google Fit over Tic Health, since both had supplied the same benefits, and Google Fit was more informative. Mobvoi has improved Tic Health significantly. Tic Pulse is a wonderful way to get your heart rate and see a graph without having to look for it. Tic Sleep is interesting. It can monitor how you sleep, analyzing the times you were lightly sleeping, in a deep sleep, in the REM state, or were awake. It also graphs your pulse and blood oxygen over your rest. The information was surprising to see. I believe it is a great app to use if you struggle to get a good rest. Tic Zen analyzes a variety of health data to give you a stress level. It is a little slow but informative. This feature will be useful for those who struggle with stress and want to see how they can improve their mental and physical health. Tic Oxygen is the Blood Oxygen Monitoring app. It takes like 10-20 seconds per reading, but it gives you a confident measurement. As we have seen from the COVID-19 outbreak, we must keep our Blood Oxygen Level above 94%. This sensor is the most useful sensor on any health wearable during this time. With consistent tracking, you can learn the warning signs early. Tic Hearing tracks noise level. I am not entirely sure that it is a needed tracking feature, but it exists and reports accurately. Tic Exercise is a great tool to help you record exercises and get relevant health data based on the activity selected. Tic Breathe is a breathing app that is comparable to the one available in Google Fit. It works well.Overall, I am impressed with the improvements that the Tic Watch 3 GPS brings! It does everything one could think of and more. In the past, I could only recommend Wear OS watches to those who were technical or could deal with small inconsistencies. I can now recommend a Wear OS watch to everyone and feel good knowing that it is just as good, if not better than the Apple Watch Series 6. I know this was a long review, but this watch deserves all the praise.

I'll mostly focus on what makes this camera different. Besides those looking for a fine all-around camera with excellent image quality--Digital Photography Review's Midrange Camera of the Year--there are three groups who might be especially interested in the M6ii:1. Those who want to shoot some kinds of action, sports, birds in flight and such with a smaller and/or less expensive setup than with a DSLR.2. Those who want compact high resolution, and at a reasonable price.3. Those who already have EF-M or EF/EF-S-mount lenses they want to use on a leading-edge APS-C mirrorless body, or whose lens plans can be fulfilled with less expense via the EF-M mount, whose current lenses are all under $500.This is an enthusiast- to pro-level camera, and some of the terminology reflects that, but I hope most of it's intelligible to new enthusiasts.According to Canon, the M6ii is the replacement for both the M6 and M5, so I'll address the removable EVF.1. Action, pre-buffering, AF/AE, EVF speedIt's still early days, but the M6ii looks very promising for action. Several things contribute to good action shooting, one of which the M6ii leads its class in, and others it's very good at.It's the APS-C mirrorless with by far the most frames per second, has a pre-buffer mode, Servo (what most call continuous) autofocus mostly fast enough, and very little screen/EVF lag. I don't have the best lenses to test some of this, so part of what I'll say is based on reports in reviews and at forums.It has a 14fps mode for full-size RAW, JPEG, or both in bursts up to 25-48 shots. This mode uses the mechanical shutter, so no rolling shutter artifacts. There are also 7fps and 3fps modes.There's a 30fps mode for cropped 18MP C-RAW in up to 84-shot bursts (highest I've seen is 71). The crop leaves 75% x 75%. This mode uses electronic shutter, so there can be rolling shutter artifacts, though it seems to scan fast enough to usually avoid those. And it's quiet.Pre-buffering is available for the 30fps mode. When selected, pressing the shutter button halfway starts recording at 30fps, temporarily storing the most recent 15. When you fully press the button to start shooting, the previous 15 frames are saved along with the new shots. Gives an extra half-second of reaction time.For action when you know where it will be, such as birds taking off or cars at a finish line, you can set up with AF lock and let fly with prebuffering to be sure to get the perfect frame.Servo (continuous) autofocus is fast, can be good even at 30fps. Naturally, as subject speed increases or size decreases, the number of keepers may go down. Tracking is good once locked in. For cars rushing along (large target), it's remarkably good. Good results have been reported for motorsports, hockey, basketball, footraces, and birds in flight. Some who own both still consider the 7Dii better for action overall, but in some ways the M6ii can match or beat it, and some prefer it for action.There's no setting to require focus acquisition before the next shot in burst modes.AF is good in low light, down to -5EV (full moonlight) at f/1.4 for stills, -2.5EV for 4K video. The on-sensor AF is reportedly actually better than most DSLRs when lenses are stopped down much.Auto exposure can also be set to adjust during burst modes, should your bird fly into shadows.The screen/EVF has live view between shots for the 7fps and 3fps modes. In 14fps and 30fps modes it shows the shot just taken between shots, a new image every .07 or .03 seconds, so it looks live and you can tell if you're tracking right.There's some extra post-processing required for the 30fps mode. The shots in one burst are stored in one file that only Canon's free Digital Photo Pro app recognizes. You have to extract shots you want one at a time, after which you can process normally. I expect that will change as other software catches up.The M6ii isn't weather sealed, so it's not ideal for use where it might get very wet or dirty.(There's no uncropped electronic-shutter burst mode, but you can trick the camera into shooting 7-9 fps that way by selecting focus bracketing, which uses the electronic shutter, and flipping the focus switch on the back or lens to manual before shooting. You can set up with AF, but it's only manual focus once you flip that switch. The sensor scan rate is slower than for the 30fps cropped mode, so rolling shutter may be more of a problem. Credit to R2D2 at DPReview forums.)2. Resolution, noise, diffraction32.5MP resolution is the highest among APS-C mirrorless cameras, about 25% more pixels than the next highest (26.1), about 12% more along one side. There are a few EF-M-mount lenses with resolution to match, making a compact, moderately-priced high-resolution package.A potential downside of more pixels is more noise. In challenging circumstances the M6ii can be a little noisier than some lower-resolution alternatives, at least if you're using that extra resolution, but it cleans up nicely, still quite usable for many purposes up to 6400-12800. In-camera JPEG noise reduction is impressive.An effect of higher resolution is that diffraction starts reducing sharpness sooner as you stop down the aperture. The effect is barely noticeable compared to the M5 and M6, about 1/4-stop sooner. Compared to some others it's more like a full stop. Worth keeping in mind to get the most resolution out of the sensor.3. Lenses (including the kit lens), EF/EF-S adapterThe M6ii is the most advanced mirrorless APS-C body that will accept the most Canon EF-M or EF/EF-S lenses with the fewest compromises. I put it that way because EF/EF-S lenses can be used on non-Canon bodies with adapters, but with varying degrees of success: some function normally, some not nearly as well as on the M6ii.The lenses that best preserve the size advantages of this camera are EF-M. There are seven from Canon, plus three with EF-M mounts from Sigma, covering 11-200mm (18-320mm equivalent), with excellent fast (f/1.4) primes at wide, standard, and portrait focal lengths. There are also numerous EF-M-mount lenses, mostly manual, from budget manufacturers. And more are on the way. And all EF-M lenses are under $500.There are EF/EF-S-mount lenses that serve every imaginable purpose. For those you need an adapter. No glass or chip is involved, and full functionality is preserved. (I use the Meike adapter, cheap and very light because it's plastic except for the business ends, sold under several names here. Works fine.)My main camera has been a Sony A7, but most of the lenses I've bought to use with it have EF/EF-S mounts, because of cost. So for now I'm using the famous EF 50mm (80mm equivalent) f/1.8, the EF-S 55-250 (88-400mm equivalent) IS, and some third-party ones, a motley but effective budget crew for most purposes.With the viewfinder (essential for me), the M6ii body is similar in size and weight to my A7, but the difference in the size and weight of the equivalent kit zoom lenses makes me laugh. It's like the difference between having a lime and a large orange in front.That lime, the 15-45mm (24-72mm), is a good, inconspicuous walk-around lens. 24mm is wider than most kit lenses, which I like. It's not fast, f/3.5-6.3, but the image stabilization, over 3 stops worth, allows it to be used at slow shutter speeds. (The slowness allows it to be compact.) Sharpness and color are fairly good. Bokeh can be a little edgy.That kit lens and EVF cost $500 total separately, and this kit is only $250 more than the body, so it's a good deal.The other six current Canon EF-M lenses, all with STM AF, all compact and inexpensive for what they do:11-22mm (18-35mm equivalent) f/4-5.6 with IS18-150mm (29-240mm) f/3.5-6.3 IS (also a kit lens)22mm (35mm) f/228mm (45mm) f/3.5 Macro (1.2x) IS32mm (51mm) f/1.455-200 (88-320mm) f/4.5-6.3 IS.The three EF-M-mount lenses from Sigma, all f/1.4 with AF: 16mm (26mm), 30mm (48mm), 56mm (90mm).Viltrox is reportedly about to release three more, all f/1.4 with AF: 23mm (37mm), 33mm (53mm), 56mm (90mm).There are also some useful cheaper lenses sold with EF-M mounts from brands like Samyang/Rokinon, Meike/Neewer, Tamron, etc. Mostly completely manual, but not always.Among the primes, the performance stars for sharpness that matches the high resolution of this camera even wide open are the Canon 32 and Sigma 56. The Canon 22 also deserves notice for its combination of speed, pancake compactness, and fine image quality.For the zooms, the 11-22 is a favorite for good sharpness and overall performance.The M6ii's competitors have an advantage in being able to use their brand's full-frame mirrorless lenses without an adapter, which the Canon M cameras can't do even with a adapter. (The smaller M mount does allow the lenses to be a bit smaller than they would be if they shared the R mount.)Removable EVF, touch-and-drag AFNot having a built-in viewfinder makes the body smaller, lighter and less expensive, and you can still add the EVF when you want it. It's quite sturdy, normal use isn't likely to hurt it.The removable EVF makes it easier to use the touchscreen to set focus points/frames while you're looking through the EVF, a feature Canon calls touch-and-drag AF. With a built-in EVF your face gets in the way of your finger and may move the focus point accidentally. This removable EVF sticks back away from the screen enough to make touch and drag more practical.If you get the EVF with one of the kits, it's essentially free.But you do have to take it off to use the hot shoe for a flash, which I don't like.Video, vloggingVideo is uncropped up to 4K at 30fps (or 25, 24 is due via firmware update in 2020), FHD up to 120fps. You can shoot half-hour clips.It looks good. AF, including tracking, is accurate and smooth, even in low light. City night street scenes are easy. Color is good across changing light sources. Reviewers say the 4K isn't quite as sharp as what you can get from some competing cameras, though I haven't noticed when casually watching vids from both.There's digital image stabilization that I haven't tried yet, but it should be especially handy with lenses lacking IS. It applies about a 10% crop so the image gets a bit larger (still 4K). People say it's effective.For vlogging, you can tilt up the screen so you can see it from the front. There's a 1/8" (3.5mm) microphone jack, but no provision for headphones.Fv modeThis has the usual exposure modes, plus Fv mode (Flexible-value or Flexible-priority). By default, it's just like P (Program or Auto) mode. What's different is that you can use two of the top dials to quickly control shutter speed, aperture, ISO and/or exposure compensation via a menu at the bottom of the live screen/EVF, so you don't need to look away from what you're shooting. You can control things fully manually that way; whatever you don't change remains in auto mode. Settings stay as you last had them when you turned the camera off. Pressing a certain button on the back returns you to full auto.Battery life, third-party batteriesThe battery life spec, 305 shots, isn't even close, common for this kind of camera. I haven't made a good battery test yet, but I've read two reports of over 3,000 shots with power still left using drive modes, and one of over 1,200 using bursts of 2-3 shots and EVF. One person says he often shoots 400-800 shots without the battery indicator moving from full.Unlike the M6 and M5, the M6ii treats third-party batteries the same as Canon brand, including showing the battery level. (Canon recommends using only Canon brand. I've always used third-party batteries in my cameras, after reading reviews, and have never had any trouble.)FlashRated for 15 feet and 15mm focal length (24mm equivalent), able to be angled upward for bounce flash, 3.4-second recycle time.Silver vs blackThe color options are mostly about looks, but if you'll be shooting in hot sun a lot, the silver color might absorb less heat. Cameras can overheat in heavy use.Some find the silver color looks retro. Some find it less professional, which can be an advantage or disadvantage. Many find black less conspicuous, or stealthier.FutureThere's concern about how long Canon will continue the M series. The number of Canon EF-M lenses remains small, and recently Canon introduced its full-frame mirrorless R system, which has its own mount incompatible with the M system. Canon could introduce an APS-C R series and make M obsolete. It would have the advantage of allowing their APS-C and full-frame mirrorless models to share lenses. It would have the disadvantage of making the APS-C lenses and/or cameras a bit bigger to fit the larger mount.As an owner of the Nikon V1, part of the discontinued 1 series, I think this is a legitimate concern. The best argument against it may be the M6ii itself, which represents a clear commitment to significantly upgrading the M series. And there are rumors of another M camera next year.Other pointsThe grip and button positions are great for my smallish male hand; some with larger hands find it crowded. Some complain about using large lenses with a small body, but I always put a hand under large lenses anyway. Has a nice textured, grippy surface.This is customizable in a zillion ways, including what you see on the screen/viewfinder and what you can assign the buttons and dials to do. You can have two sets of custom settings.The downloadable manual is 600 pages, and that's all in English. I don't think it will be a bestseller. Despite the level of detail, I often find it hard to follow, with an over-reliance on symbols. Some parts are hard to find, some points not explained, and it was easier to look some stuff up with Google. But it's still very useful for stepping through most of the incredible array of things that are packed into this little device.

Wow these are expensive for such basic functionality but actually I’m very impressed. If I was only to rate them based on sound quality, comfort and secure fit then they would get 5 stars. I personally think they nailed it as a sport focussed earbud... except for the lack of EQ but I have no complaints about the frequency response.If you’re only going to use these for sports then I can highly recommend them but as an allrounder they are good but there are options out there with a lot more features.Case====This is nicely made and has a button which releases the sprung lid to open. At the rear is a USB-C port and on the front are 5 LED indicators. Unfortunately the LEDs continuously flash while charging so you wouldn’t want them charging by your bed.Sizewise it’s relatively huge. Much bigger than all of the cases I’ve come across and while it will fit in your jeans, you’re certainly going to know it’s there... as will other people. It’s too big in my opinion.As soon as you open the case, the earbuds turn on and start to connect. By the time you have both in your ears they have usually finished connecting and ready to play.The earbuds are held in the case by magnets so you shouldn’t have an issue with them falling out. It’s easy to place the earbuds back in the case.Controls======The earbuds both have a touch panel. By default only the right earbud allows you to play/pause with a double top and the left does nothing. In the app you can enable the “shortcut” which allows you to assign “Hear battery level” or “Skip forward”. That’s it! You can’t customise the right earbud or assign any other controls. Fortunately, in practice this is the bear minimum of controls and is just about acceptable for this product placement. You see, if you’re into sport and have the money for these then it’s probably likely you also have a smart watch to control the volume. They’re also so feature limited that you don’t need controls say for noise cancellation, passthrough etc.Noise isolation===========These do not have active noise cancellation and I wouldn’t say they have good noise isolation either. That’s not necessarily a bad thing and I don’t think they’re designed to have the same isolation or seal that other earbuds rely on to give you a good bass response. They only muffle surroundings a bit and depending on your volume level you should be able to hear a good deal outside which can be a good thing. I see this as a strength, not a weakness. You get great sound quality without becoming completely disconnected.Comfort and fit=======This is a major plus although I’ve heard these don’t work for other people for some reason. For me, I couldn’t fault the comfort and fit.These buds are designed to fit further out of your ear canal than other earbuds so there’s less chance of them causing issues with wax buildup and of course this means you don’t get pain that can build up from the constant pressure. I don’t believe they create a complete seal by design and therefore you don’t have the problem where air gaps can compromise sound quality.Together with the fin, the buds fit extremely securely without causing any discomfort whatsoever. Shaking my head cannot dislodge them and gently pulling and twisting they also feel extremely secure. Despite being so secure, they manage not to create any pressure points that slowly become painful over time. I’ve worn these for four hour stretches no problem.Sound quality==========I’ve tried all kinds of earphones and headphones including 5 driver balanced in-ear monitors so I think I have a good grasp on sound quality. I have to say I’m very impressed. Despite the lack of EQ I think the tuning is great, it’s not flat with a strong but not overly strong bass response which should be enough for bass lovers and great to exercise to. At this price point I don’t think you can find a better sounding pair of truly wireless earbuds unless you’re looking at older high end tech whose price has come down but then you’re going to have to put up with micro-usb and they’re probably not going to be anywhere near as secure or comfortable. What you lose in functionality, you make up for in sound quality with these.Calls/Microphone=============I won’t go into depth here because these aren’t really designed for calls.Suffice to say, they only have microphones on one side but in calls on my phone or computer I had no complaints and everyone said I was clear and sounded good. I’m just not sure if these would perform well in a noisy environment.Bluetooth=======I never had any issues with bluetooth and I found range fine although it was very slightly less than other truly wireless earphones I’ve reviewed. I found this strange seeing as the buds stick out further from your ears than others.Battery life========Earbuds: 4hTotal: 17h 30min including case.About 1h 30min to rechargeConclusion=========These buds are clearly focussed on sport and exercise. They get full marks for sound quality, comfort and secure fit and therefore I think they’re a great buy if this is what you’re looking for.As a general pair of earphones, you’ll again be happy with the sound quality if you’re not looking for more features. Also if you have a smart watch then then lack of controls (beyond play/pause and skip) may not be an issue for you.But that huge case is not great if you’re trying to travel light. I would not want to use these on a tube train or any other very noisy environment.Smaller case and more customisable controls would probably take these up to 5 stars. Oh and please turn off those LEDs after say 10-20 seconds of charging.

Update 7-14-2022 - Firmware 0.36 is out! Finally the speaker is where it should have been at release. The harsh 6 KHz bump has been tamed and this should be a good sound for almost anyone even in "signature" EQ mode. I can't say with 100% certainty but I seem to hear a lot less distortion at high volume as well. Yeah the bass gets pulled still but it's real clear now when I crank it to 100% outside. I am going to keep an eye out for a new custom EQ from Alan Ross for 0.36 as well.Also, I bought a second Motion Boom Plus when it was on sale for Prime Day. I am finding myself getting sucked in to Soundcore's Party Cast eco system. So yeah, this doesn't take out the JBL Boom Box 2 but the more I listen to it with 0.36 the more I realize that's kinda not what this speaker is. It really is more what its odd name suggests, a child of the Motion Boom and Motion Plus that is more than the sum of those two.The more I own this, also it really grows on me the benefit of the neodynium drivers and the resulting low weight. Not just for travel (Fits perfectly sideways in a typical 28" suitcase btw) but even just around the house. What was surprising is that I don't find myself lugging the Boom Box 2 around the house much anymore for daily listening.-----------------------Update 7-8-2022 - I received my replacement Motion Boom Plus direct from Anker and can confirm it does not have the problem with heat and the passive radiators. I put it out on the pool deck for a half hour in the full sun. The radiators were showing at about 115 f and no distending or distortion. Good to go. Anker told me that all units purchased from Amazon now should also be fixed.--------------------------------Update 6-24-2022 - My god, what a rollercoaster. There is a fatal flaw with this speaker if you use it in the sun in the summer. Once it gets to a certain temperature, the rubber used for the passive radiators loses its flexibility. Yep, I am not even kidding. The result is the woofers cannot travel like they should and the speaker sounds blown.So, if you ever would want to use this on your pool deck, on your boat deck or at the beach without an umbrella to shade it, DO NOT BUY NOW but wait until they fix the issue. I will attach a video of the speaker sounding like hot garbage after being in the sun for 4 minutes and then it playing fine when cool. It may sound like the first bit is the camera distorting but I used the same A77 MKii and had the MB+ at 60% volume for both, it really sounds that bad when hot. I couldn't find the same royalty free track to play on youtube after it had cooled off but really, it would have sounded even worse with the one I did pick!---------------------------------Update 6-21-2022 - I got an email this morning saying there was new firmware out addressing the frequency response issues. I updated that sucker first thing and thank the lords, most issues are fixed enough. I ran the "signature" built in EQ. They reduced the mid/upper bass boominess and also seemed to have somewhat addressed the harsh tweeter issue. Also, they seem to pull the bass back better now as the volume gets high and I have not been able to get it to blat on deep hits. Of course, the deep bass is pretty non-existent over 70% volume or so but I will take that over ugly distortion.I feel that it is absolutely worth the money now but the Tribbitt Max may still be a better buy if you want deep bass with high volume like a Boom Box 2. I don't have that speaker personally so I cannot say for sure. I will say that this Boom PLus stays pretty clear at high volume now though and isn't nearly as fatiguing at normal listening volumes now thank godI am going to remove the picture of the frequency response mess that was with the old firmware.----------------------------------------------Update: This doesn't change my rating but I put mine on my bed in the middle of the room and measured with a calibrated microphone from about 3.5' away. I did 3 measurements, dead center then about 25 degrees off-axis. This was with a custom EQ completely flat. Attached is the combined and smoothed SPL graph. Ew! I used REW to get a correction and a list of PEQ settings and loaded them into Poweramp EQ on my android phone. It made quite the difference! I still get the blatting low end distortion if I turn certain songs up too loud but it really helped tame the harsh upper end. Because of that and the other benefits, I am keeping the speaker.Also, I saw a review on here telling people to ignore the bad reviews... The real funny thing was, it was day one and there were no bad reviews... That's not good advice and a little sus. Take a peek at Alan Ross on youtube. He does a lot of in depth comparisons and analysis. He is a huge fan of the Motion Boom but has pretty similar concerns with this Plus. Don't get me wrong, for many people this will be an awesome speaker right out of the box.-----------------------------------------------This could have been so much better. Let me start by saying that I have an OG Motion Boom and a JBL Boombox 2. I had no expectations that the Boom Pluss would go toe to toe with the BB2 but I was hoping for it to contend a little. It had a lot going for it: More powerful than the Motion boom, larger and it has tweeters.I will start out by saying that YES, this sucker is way louder than a motion boom and holds together pretty well up to about 90% volume. After that it goes to trash though, dropping the low bass and compressing like crazy. It's like they were dead set on getting a high loudness DB reading and all else be damned. But, other than one glaring issue, it does sound great up to about 80% or so even though, like the motion boom, it will blat and distort on heavy bass music like reggae. The only two speakers I have owned that did not do this to some extent are the JBL BB@ and the Bag of Riddem 2 from HOM.What is the glaring issue? Well, it's the nasty harsh bump around 6 khz that makes this speaker rather fatiguing, especially inside. It has a real DSP though so I thought maybe I could EQ it a bit and get it under control. Well, the two closest bands are 5khz and 9khz so there are some tradeoffs in clarity and it still sounds a little harsh. All I can think is maybe the titanium silk dome tweeter was a bad idea or it is a really bad implementation. Or they are just cheap... Maybe a parametric EQ could get them under control or maybe it's just the timbre or the driver. Maybe firmware can play with the crossover and help, who knows.So let's touch on the good points though! Yes, this speaker blows the motion boom away in terms of loudness and interestingly, the tweeter really helps the sound even though the harsh 5khz bump hurts the sound. It's an odd conflict.At around 5lbs, this speaker is only 2 Lbs heavier than the OG motion Boom. That may not matter to a lot of people but I often take a speaker with me when flying and only going up 2lbs for the massive increase in loudness is very nice.One thing that many would overlook is actually the company and their amazing warranty support. Anker is absolutely the best and I say that from personal experience with my motion boom.So, in conclusion, if I were taking a speaker to the beach where a lot of us were going to enjoy a party-style get together and I could only pick between the Motion Boom and the Motion Boom Plus, I absolutely would spend the extra money for the plus. I am just very disappointed in a few aspects of this speaker and think that the Tribit Max might actually be a better buy but I can't say from personal experience.ANKER, can you please do something about the harsh sound??? More bands on the EQ maybe?

I couldn't decide between the Sony WH1000XM3 and Bose ANC 700 headphones so I got a pair of each and tested each for a month before deciding which I liked best. I also briefly tested a pair of Skullcandy Crushers and while those were fun for a short while, they're not in the same category as these two.BackgroundI was coming off using a pair of Beats Wireless Studio 3 for a few years and was tired of constantly replacing parts to keep those working. I had to replace the headband twice and the ear muffs once within three years.My testing was mostly conducted while paired to a Galaxy S9 with additional testing from a Macbook and a Fire TV. I listen to a wide-range of music from hip-hop, R&B, rock, indie electro/pop, blues, and jazz. I also occasionally listen to podcasts and tested with Netflix/YouTube content.Summary (Winner: Bose...by a hair)Can these two headphones make a baby? I don't consider myself indecisive but choosing between these two was very difficult. My heart wanted the Sony's but my brain wanted the Bose. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Both do things very well and have some room for improvement.I found the Sony's to be more comfortable and have better audio quality. I love that they can fold and how lightweight they are. Their case is great and I love that they stayed with the 3.5 mm jack for when you need it. But I just couldn't overlook the fact that they cannot pair multiple devices at the same time. It's a feature that I use almost every day and in the end, I chose the convenience that the Bose headphones provide.The Bose are just simpler to use. They're faster to turn on. They're faster to pair new devices. And they seamlessly connect to and switch between multiple devices. Overall, their design is top-notch. The other factors were so close that the ability to pair multiple devices was the deciding factor for me. I considered waiting to see if Sony would release another pair soon but it seems like headphone models are released once every three years or so and we're only one year into the XM3s.Sound Quality (Winner: Sony)Out of the box, I had a difficult time picking a clear-cut winner in terms of audio quality. I'm not an audiophile but I tried my hardest to distinguish the differences between the two and ultimately felt it was a wash. If I would have tried these blindfolded, I don't think I could have told which was which judging solely by the audio quality.That being said, Sony is better for one important reason: they let you customize the sound profile through the equalizer in their app. Again, I'm not an expert but I played around with the EQ sliders to optimize the sound to my liking and from that point on, I had a hard time putting the Sony's down. A knock I had on both of these headphones was the lack of bass (especially since I listen to hip-hop). However, the Sony's have the bass...they're just not configured for it out of the box.Noise Canceling (Winner: Tie)Just like the sound quality, I found both of these devices to have equally superior noise canceling. I tested them back and forth under the same situations and couldn't decipher a significant difference. I even looked up some frequency test videos on YouTube and while Sony performed slightly better, it was negligible.I noticed that the Bose tended to perform better in windy conditions while I was out walking though. The Sony's have a separate mode for wind reduction that performed well but you have to go into the app and change your noise-cancelling profile while the Bose just worked in all conditions.Overall, I think both do a fantastic job of noise-canceling. Especially since I'm coming from using Beats which had no active noise-canceling. Both of these knock it out of the park.Call Quality (Winner: Bose)I tested call quality over several phone calls to different people and the consensus was clear: Bose is superior. I tested while walking in busy downtown streets and in the quiet of my home and under all circumstances, I was always told I sounded better while using the Bose. Callers on the other end sounded fine to me on both headsets and both give you the option to control how much of your voice you hear and how much ambient noise you hear.Comfort (Winner: Sony)This will be subjective but I found the Sony's to be more comfortable. The earmuffs are a traditional foam-based earmuff wrapped in a premium leather and there wasn't a lot of pressure put on my ear. They felt very good to put on and wear. I wore these for 4-5 hours consecutively on several occasions and they were mostly fine. One or two times I started getting ear-fatigue and soreness and had to take them off but it wasn't too bad.I was excited to try the Bose because I found their old QC35 to be very comfortable. Unfortunately, they made some changes that compromised the comfort. The earmuffs feel more firm and almost rubbery. Maybe this will translate to better durability and a longer lifetime but time will tell. As for now, they're just not as comfortable as the Sony's are. They create a good seal but it grips to my skin behind my ear and creates an uncomfortable friction. I find myself needing to take more breaks with these headphones in comparison to the Sony's.Design (Winner: Tie)Both of these have pros/cons in terms of their build quality. The Bose feel more premium while the Sony's feel more plasticky. The Sony's aesthetic design, however, is great with their microphone appearance and use of gold accent colors. The Sony's can also fold for portability/storage while the Bose can't. The Bose adjust by moving the ear cup along the headband instead of extending the ear cup like Sony and most other headphones do. I'm not sure if that's the reason Bose decided against the folding design but I value the ability the fold/store the headphones more than how you adjust them.Each headphone also rotates their ear cups in opposite directions. When you have the headphones around your neck, the Sony's ear cups rotate towards your body while the Bose rotate outwards. As a result, if you take your headphones off and place them around your neck while audio is still playing, the Bose will leak more sound out towards someone in front of you whereas the Sony's would direct that sound towards your neck/chest area. However, when you're taking the Sony headphones off and placing down on a table in front of you, you have to turn them upside down whereas you can grab the Bose headphones and place them down directly in front of you with the ear cups facing down towards the table. It's hard to explain but it was somewhat annoying on the Sony's. I'd call it a wash though because, in my opinion, Sony does a better job when it's around your neck but the Bose is easier to put down or pick up.The Sony's have two buttons: one for power/Bluetooth and another for noise-canceling/voice assistant. The Bose have three buttons: power/Bluetooth, and then they dedicate a button to noise-canceling and another to the voice assistance of your choice. I thought I'd appreciate the simplicity of Sony's button design but quickly found Bose had done a much better job.Not only is it nice to have separate buttons for noise-canceling and your voice assistant, but the feel of the buttons and how you interact with them is much better on Bose. It may seem like a nitpick but on the Sony's, you have to hold the power button down for several seconds to turn it on and off whereas on the Bose, you just tap the button and you're up and running right away. Additionally, if you want to pair a new device to the Sony's, you have to hold that power/Bluetooth button for long time (maybe 7-8 seconds). In comparison, the Bose takes about one second to go into pairing mode. In fact, I'm pretty sure you can get the Bose in pairing mode before you can even turn on the Sony's.This may not seem important but it ended making a significant difference for me, especially when you consider that the Sony cannot pair with more than one device at a time but I'll discuss that in more depth in the Functionality section. One final thing I'll add about the buttons is that the Bose button placement isn't ideal. Naturally, I'd find myself accidentally placing my fingers over the buttons and clicking them when I grabbed the headphones to put them on or take them off. It's ironic because if Bose had better button placement or if you had to hold them down like you do on the Sony's, this wouldn't be a problem. Nonetheless, I prefer the Bose design and will probably learn to grab them differently with time.One final thing I want to call out in the design is Bose's use of a 2.5 mm jack. Sure this is visually appealing by occupying a smaller space but who wants to carry around a 2.5 mm adapter or look for one when they're traveling? Sony gets the points in this department by being normal and using a 3.5 mm jack.Functionality (Winner: Bose)Functionality definitely goes to Bose. Bose lets you simultaneously pair two devices while Sony can only connect to one device. I listen to music on my phone on my way to work and then switch to listening from my laptop. And when I leave work, I switch back to my phone. When I get home, I'll occasionally pair the headphones with my Fire TV.This functionality is absolutely seamless with Bose. It'll automatically connect to my laptop when I get to work. I can then pause music on my phone and start playing music from my laptop and I'm good to go. That's it. Just pause your audio on one device and you can immediately play audio from another device.On the Sony's? Forget about it. You can only connect one device at a time for audio (you can connect a second device but only for phone calls). Remember when I talked about having to hold down the Bluetooth button for 7-8 seconds on the Sony's? That got annoying very fast. When I would get to work, I would have to go into my phone settings and turn the Bluetooth off and then go into my laptop and manually connect it to the Sony's. Alternatively, I could leave the Sony's paired to my phone and then hold the pairing button down for 7-8 seconds and then manually connect my laptop.This was so annoying. What annoys me most about this is that Bose has had this same functionality on the QC35 that was released in 2016!!! Sony didn't release these headphones until Dec 2018/Jan 2019. Why they overlooked this is beyond me.I also enjoy that Bose announces the name of the device it pairs to so I could easily tell when I'm paired to my phone, laptop, or Fire TV. The Sony's just announce that they paired to a device but you don't have context about which device.Another thing that Bose did better is the touch control on the ear cup. I thought Sony would have the edge because they have a bigger surface area to work with but in practice, it didn't help. They both function very similarly but the biggest difference is how you control the volume. On the Sony's, you have to swipe up/down once to get the volume to increment by +/- 1. That means if the volume is all the way down and you want to turn it all the way up, you have to swipe up however many times it takes to get there (maybe 10 times).By contrast, the volume control on the Bose headphones operate as a slider so one swipe can take me as far as I want to go. The Bose headphones have a smaller surface area for touch control because the headband comes down the middle and you only get to use the front half of the ear cup. However, I found that the headband acted as a good tactile reference point and my swipes were more accurate. I'm not sure if that's because I was more accurate or if it's because Bose recognized my swipes better but regardless, I had a better experience with touch controls on the Bose.One final thing I want to call out is how you temporarily stop noise-cancellation. On the Sony's, as long as you place your hand over the ear cup, it'll pause your audio and turn the noise-canceling down to allow you to carry a conversation without removing the headphones. I thought this was really cool until I learned how Bose accomplishes this. On the Bose headphones, you can hold down the dedicated noise-canceling button for about a second and it'll do the same thing. The benefit of the Bose is you don't have to keep your hand held to the ear cup so you effectively have both hands to use as you wish. When you're finished and ready to resume your audio and full noise-canceling, just tap the noise-canceling button again.Bose really nailed the convenience/practicality features. Kudos.App (Winner: Sony)This one is a no-brainer. Bose has a clean and simple to use app but that simplicity comes at a cost. Sony on the other hand features a ton of customization options without compromising simplicity and usability. Like I mentioned before, the Sony app lets you customize the EQ and even save multiple custom profiles in addition to the pre-set profiles they provide. Sony's app also let you control the sound stage and can even dynamically control the noise-canceling and ambient noise by detecting your activity (walking, sitting, etc). I found myself rarely ever using the Bose app but I would spend time exploring the Sony features and configuring it just how I liked it.Sony takes this one easily.Accessories (Winner: Sony)I'm actually not someone who uses the provided cases all that much but I must say that Sony's case is gorgeous. The fabric looks and feels fantastic and it made me want to use it. On the other hand, the Bose case is black leather and looked like a case you'd find with a pair of $10 wired headphones. I do appreciate the storage compartment inside the Bose case and the use of magnets to keep that compartment closed but the overall look and feel of the case is not something I liked all that much. Not a big deal either way for me but just my two cents...

I ordered both the Yoluke 20x and 5x PTZ cameras to put on my home after a very long and exhausting search for security cameras, and after a couple months with each I have been very happy although with a few minor quibbles. Bottom line is if you have a way to power these (i.e. if you don't absolutely require a wireless option), then I cannot recommend these cameras enough! Prior to this I had tried the Reolink brand wireless camera that I had very high hopes for, but I ended up returning it because it was very disappointing and unable to meet my needs on a number of points (very short range motion pickup, often wouldn't pickup motion at all, no constant record, short range night vision).This review is for the 20x model. I hope the details might be helpful for anyone going through the long security camera struggle that I had endured.First off the image clarity is excellent, and the auto focus optical zoom is just awesome, as hopefully the attached files demonstrate. The night vision is most excellent and very long range compared to the other camera I tried. When zooming in with the night vision sometimes the autofocus can take a little while to resolve the image but this hasn't been any sort of a major issue. Even when fully zoomed out the field of view is not large, so depending on your application this might be an issue for you, although the "cruiser" setting where the camera pans between preset locations can somewhat help alleviate this. Motion sensitivity is very good and decently ranged (can pickup cars coming up my driveway approximately 75 yards away on max sensitivity, but this setting also causes a lot of false alarms), and has a decently sized continuum for adjustment. The "humanoid" mode is alright, it helps prevent a lot of false alarms from blowing branches and zooming birds and such, but also prevents pickup of vehicles and it still does pickup occasionally on wildlife as well as my chickens (especially my rooster, who walks like a little person!); but that is not all bad because I like to see what's creeping around my house besides nefarious humans. There is a neat feature where it puts a yellow box around a detected humanoid form, but I ended up disabling the feature as I could see how it might potentially obscure the face of a person enough to hinder identification by the authorities.With a 128 gb micro SD card (purchased separately) it has tons of space, it seems to be enough to store 2-3 weeks of constant record video on the highest quality setting, and it seems to just automatically overwrite the oldest previously recorded data which is great. The audio out (when I talk to someone through the camera) is surprisingly loud and with good-enough clarity, which was not what I was expecting and a nice surprise. The audio-in (someone talking to me through the camera) is somewhat variable, and seems to greatly depend on the orientation of the microphone-pickup. Sometimes I can hear conversation clearly from 40 yards away and sometimes it is indiscernible from only 10 yards depending on the relative orientation of the camera, but so far has been plenty good for my purposes. The recorded audio-out, that is listening to the playback of recorded video in which I am talking out through the camera, is very poor (although loud, it is very distorted), I usually cannot understand what I am saying in a recording, but I do not consider this very important at all.Customer service is fantastic! I had no issues with my 20x, but with the smaller 5x camera, after a couple weeks the motor inside must have broke as I could no longer pivot the ball turret. I reached out to customer support and "Joanna" (she seems to be everywhere all the time) got back to me very promptly and with pretty good English. Within a very short time of describing the problem as best as I could, she said she "consulted the engineers" and they suspected it was a hardware issue, and they express shipped me a new camera out ASAP which I have had no issues with since. They didn’t even need to wait for me to send in the old broken one first. They definitely standby their product which is refreshing in my experience when dealing with overseas manufacturers. I was a very happy customer!The Camhi Pro app that is used to operate the camera is a little wonky, but very workable with my Android based phone. Again the Chinese-to-English translations aren't perfect, and controlling the camera especially on high zoom can be a little ungainly and takes a little practice. But once you get the hang of it, it works well enough. The functionality allows you to adjust motion sensitivity, adjust picture settings, set preset locations, and set a cruiser mode where the camera continuously pans between preset locations, along with other more advanced settings giving you a great amount of control. I have not installed the desktop software although I suspect it works a little better than swiping on the phone touch screen. I can stream live video to my phone from anywhere, and as long as I am connected to my home wifi I can stream in the full HD setting without any issues. But because my home internet is really poor with a bandwidth between 2-6 mbps (most people living in the country can relate), streaming while away from home requires excellent broadband to compensate, and if all I have is 4G mobile data then I can only really stream on the standard definition setting, and even then it can be a little choppy. However no matter how I stream video, it is constantly recording on the maximum HD setting for later review.Setup was fairly easy although a bit more involved than the completely wireless Reolink brand model I had tried earlier. For power, I had located my cameras near to exterior outlets around my home using the provided screws to drill them right into the wooden eves. I will say the screws provided are a very soft metal, so be careful as they seem to strip out very easily. I then tacked up extension cords that matched my home's color to underneath the eaves and running down behind the gutter drains to maintain a nice clean look. Theoretically a criminal could spot them and just unplug the cameras, but at that point they would have given me an alert to my phone as well as have been recorded on the cameras up to that point for later use in a criminal case. I just tied and tacked up the unused Ethernet cord and security system cord out of the way since I was using the wifi function instead. I had no issues connecting the cameras to my wifi and performing the initial setup, the instructions were fairly simple and sufficient. The wifi range is good, one camera about 20 yards away is connected to the main wifi, and another one on the opposite corner of my home is connected via a range extender in the garage I already had and I have had no issues with that. My biggest worry when ordering these was if my slow internet connection would be enough to function, which has proven to not be much of an issue at all.All in all, I am very happy with the cameras for the price. Longevity is still in question, but assuming they work for many years to come I can fully recommend this camera to anyone looking for a great Pivot-Tilt-Zoom model.