Arctic Home Charger 4500 Review

In this day and age, technology surrounds us from every angle, tablets, smartphones, iPads and many other devices fill our rooms and entertain us to a point where they have become an integral part of our lives.

Unfortunately with so many features, applications and technology crammed into such tiny gadgets, their battery life is not always great, even if the battery life is above average you always want them to recharge faster and hopefully more efficiently.

With the aforementioned ideas in mind, today we have for review a very simple product, the Arctic Home Charger 4500. A piece of equipment that will probably change your life, even if just a tiny bit.

The Home Charger 4500 comes packaged in a small white and blue box, while it's nothing too fancy, it does list a few of the main features and technical specifications of the product while also displaying a couple of important pictures in order for you, the consumer, to understand the possibilities available when using the charger.

Once you open the box you will find tucked inside only a couple of items, the charger itself wrapped in plastic and a small user manual, like I mentioned previously, the Home Charger 4500 is a really simple product.

In terms of visual design there's little to talk about in regards to the Home Charger 4500, it's mostly black (piano black, fingerprint magnet) with a few details in white and orange, simple but elegant nonetheless. For such a small device, it does feel like it's well built, our particular review unit has been used on a daily basis for the last couple of months and it still looks like it is brand new.

Four usb slots rest at the top of the Home Charger and are well identified in order for you to properly differentiate between them, orange for tablets and iPads, black for smartphones. Aside from that, there's also a few LED's used to indicate which ports are currently being used at the moment.

Besides the function of recharging your batteries quicker, the Home Charger 4500 also has a few extra features that will certainly come in handy.

For starters, Arctic claims that it is 86% more energy efficient, this not only means a smaller energy bill at the end of the month but also that your charger does not heat up as much. During testing I found the charger to remain mostly at room temperature at all times, so good job there Arctic.

Another important little extra is the thermal, short-circuit, over-currents and over-voltage protection, this will help you out not only at home but also when traveling, since it will shield your devices against defective, unreliable energy sockets or just plain bad weather.

Final Thoughts

Arctic certainly did a fine job with the Home Charger 4500, besides being extremely useful, it also looks good and is affordable (around 20€ at the time of this review). 

The difference that such a small device can make in a household is really astonishing, for starters it frees up a ton of space, since it basically condenses four chargers into one. Secondly, the time it takes for devices to (re)charge is reduced by a lot. Finally, it will protect your super expensive devices against severe cases of bad luck.

The Good
+Well built
+Elegant
+Efficient
+Protects your devices

The Bad
-Fingerprint magnet

Thanks to Arctic for providing the review sample

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KontrolFreek FPS Freek Phantom Review

As the gaming industry grows so does professional gaming, because of that it's no surprise that gamers, from the most hardcore to the casual one, always look for ways to get the upper hand over their opponents. The FPS Freek Phantom that we'll be reviewing today is the latest of an extremely large family of KontrolFreek products that aim to deliver gamers a wider range of motion to their analog sticks and because of that also increase their overall accuracy.

There's little to see inside the puny little casing that encloses the Phantoms, besides the two sturdy looking and beautifully designed sticks, there's only a small piece of paper with the Phantom and KontrolFreek logos, the paper also has a few indentations that hold the Freeks in place. Very minimalist to say the least but it certainly does the job, proof of that is the mint condition in which they arrived after having traveled a ton of miles/kilometers.

Much like the SquidGrips we reviewed earlier this year (Link), the Freeks not only improve a controller gaming performance but also its looks. These thumbsticks come in a nice white and are inspired by "Infinity Ward’s latest iteration", Call of Duty: Ghosts. The laser etched design looks really detailed, especially when you consider the small sized "canvas", according to KontrolFreek this "rugged" motif also contributes to the thumbsticks overall grip, but more on that later.

Looks are great and everything, but they only get you so far when it comes to gaming accessories, what really matters is the actual performance and in that department unfortunately the Phantoms are a mixed bag.

But let's talk about the positives first, the promised 40% extra range of motion really works, aiming, overall accuracy and precision are aided by the little thumbsticks, shortly after "equipping" your controller with the Freeks you will be dishing out more headshots than ever before.

The Phantoms do indeed add a nice amount of height to your controller joysticks, that means that your thumbs will usually be able to just sit there very comfortably, the fact that the thumbsticks are concave also aids in the comfort department.

Finally let's talk about the negative aspect of the thumbsticks, grip. I can't really point out why did the FPS Freek Phantom disappoint in that area, maybe it's the rubber that they're made of or maybe it's the Call of Duty design that doesn't work, whatever the reason may be, the fact is that I found my fingers slipping and sliding all over the place when gaming. I actually got a few friends to test them out, just to be sure it wasn't my imagination or something, they all came back with the same answer, they're really cool but the grip leaves a bit to be desired.

Final Thoughts

KontrolFreek has been delivering a lot of quality products in the last few years, the FPS Freek Phantom is probably one of the best when it comes to visual design, unfortunately it's a bit of a let down when it comes to the actual gaming performance. While the increased height really helps out with precision and comfort, the grip is not the best, because of that you end up slipping and sliding a lot when sudden joystick movements are required.

If you're serious about getting KontrolFreek products, I would recommend that you look at some of their other options on the market before opting for the FPS Freek Phantom.

The Good
-Comfortable
-Increases precision and accuracy
-Very good looking design

The Bad
-Lack of grip

Thanks to KontrolFreek for providing the review sample

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SquidGrip for the Xbox 360 Review

Today we bring you a review of the SquidGrip, a very interesting product with an attractive design and an even better price ($15), especially when compared to some of the alternatives that come in the way of modded controllers that can easily cost up to more than $100.

For those that may not know this product or brand, SquidGrip is a sort of special padding or protection that you manually apply to your Xbox 360 or PlayStation controller. It has a moisture-wicking technology that absorbs sweat, this way not only is your grip improved but your controller remains a lot cleaner and sweat-free.

The grips are also really comfortable, adding a layer of soft material between your hands and the plastic from the controller is definitely a good idea. They are also antimicrobial and latex-free which is always good news for people that are allergic to that stuff.

In terms of design let me start off by saying that this product comes very well packed, easy to open, attractive colors and lots of information about what you're actually buying.
The package is also extremely thin making it perfect for shipping to any part of the world, gaming stores shouldn't have any problems in displaying them as well.
In regards to the contents of the box you can expect to find besides the grips and badges, a very detailed manual and a really cool sticker with the SquidGrip logo.

When I got this product my biggest concern was definitely how hard/easy would be to actually apply the grips to my 360 gamepad, it's a process in which a few things can go wrong, so I was glad to see that the manual included is extremely detailed and makes the whole process go very smoothly. For those that prefer a bit more of a visual tutorial a few links are available both in the product website and in the manual as well.

Final Thoughts

I was kind of skeptical when I first heard about the SquidGrips, they just didn't seem that relevant or reliable and their "installation" was something that worried me.
Now, after testing them for a few days, I can safely say that my worries were unfounded, I am very satisfied with the performance of the little Squids that are now attached (hopefully forever) to my Xbox 360 controller.
The sweat absorbing technology works well and besides the fact that the Squids are pretty functional, they also look really cool, adding a bit more personality to your controller thanks to the customization options available through the vast selection of badges that you can use.
All in all the SquidGrips are a high quality/ low cost product that I totally recommend.

The Good

-Sweat absorbing technology works

-Looks great

-Easy to customize and "install"

-Well packaged

-Great value($15)

The Bad

-Might not work with 3rd party controllers

Thanks to SquidGrip for providing the review sample

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Maxwell 2 Review

Maxwell 2 is a tablet designed and built by a Spanish company called bq, they mainly focus on the production of E-Readers, Tablets and more recently Smartphones.
The majority of their devices have a clear focus on the low to mid-range market, usually providing well built products with good quality and decent performances, all of this while keeping the retail prizes very acceptable.

This 7 inch tablet is a nice solution for those consumers who are interested in a versatile product that can pretty much do everything expected from a tablet while keeping a nice level of performance throughout.
Thanks to a nice dual core CPU running at 1.6 ghz and a quad core GPU running at 400mhz, the Maxwell 2 can run most, if not all of the games currently present on the Google Play market. Those technical specs when combined with the very nice IPS screen make the Maxwell 2 a real option when it comes to mobile gaming.
At this price point (around 120€), getting the attention of gamers who are entering for the first time in the world of mobile gaming is crucial, it's something that might help distinguish the Maxwell 2 from the fierce competition that exists in the 7 inch tablet market.

One of the things that keeps this tablet from being the perfect and affordable Android gaming machine is the sound speaker, it is clearly out of place when compared to the general quality of the device, the sounds are usually too low or get distorted when you crank up the volume, of course that if you're planning on using the Maxwell 2 for gaming, music or movies, you should probably consider getting some nice headphones anyway, so it's not a big deal. On this department, the 3,5mm earphone plug alongside the mini-hdmi connection are great options to avoid the use of the terrible sound speaker.

The battery life while not being the greatest, is certainly adequate when taken into consideration the price of the tablet. The 4300 mAh battery does its job in a competent fashion, when using the power saving modes that the tablet offers, you can expect 1, 2 maybe even 3 days of activity before recharging the tablet again. Very interesting numbers for those users who mainly browse the internet, check the e-mail and news. For someone who plans on using the tablet heavily and for more demanding apps like games and hd movies, you can easily expect at least one daily recharge.
It could be somewhat quicker to get all of its juice back, but since you can still use it when recharging, the uptime on this little beast is pretty high.

The other major flaw with the Maxwell 2 is the placement of the connections, they are located exactly where the palm of your left hand should rest(when holding it sideways), certainly not ideal. It becomes very uncomfortable to use, especially when you have the charger and headphones plugged in. Some kind-hearted apps allow you to turn the tablet upside down and that fixes the problem, others don't, and your poor hand suffers for it.
Aside from that "detail" it's a pretty comfortable device, the back is matted black and made of a nice, smooth material which allows you to firmly grip and hold the tablet in place, the front is the usual fingerprint magnet piano black.
In terms of sturdiness, so far I had no problems with it, all the materials seem very resistant, nothing feels loose, even the buttons on top for power and volume feel well made.

For those of you who are interested in knowing how well this small machine performs in the Antutu Benchmark, the screens above show you the most important values.
The screens below are some of the games that got tested in the Maxwell 2.
 

Redline Rush

Wind-up Knight

Final Thoughts
Like it was said before, the 7 inch tablet market is a fierce and very competitive world, and while this offer from bq is definitely not a Nexus 7, the Maxwell 2 has proven to be a nice alternative to its direct competitors, establishing itself as one of the better options in the price range that it represents.

The Good
-Quality-Price Ratio
-IPS screen and high resolution
-Technical Specs
-Mini-Hdmi
-GPS

The Bad
-Connections Placement
-Sound Speaker

(For obvious reasons this product has been reviewed mainly from a gamer's perspective)

NRLB would like to thank bq for providing a review sample

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