Full hands-on reviews of gear I bought or was sent, with the pros, cons, and whether it is worth your money.
For three years I used a S$60 Taobao desk, but COVID-driven work-from-home and a wish for better posture pushed me toward a height-adjustable one. This review covers my upgrade to the Omnidesk Pro 2020 standing desk.
The TP-Link Tapo C200 is a pan/tilt home security Wi-Fi camera retailing for S$75. Notably, it comes with a three-year warranty, likely the only Wi-Fi camera to do so. It records 1080p with pan/tilt coverage and night vision.
WYFY is a local Singaporean IoT company making designed-in-Singapore smart devices with local certifications. Its WYFY Beam is a smart IR blaster I got from Automate Asia, discounted to S$39 from S$49.
The Philips SpeedPro Max Aqua is a cordless vacuum with an integrated mop function, a market first. It retails for S$799 at most stores, with an online promotion. I kept the unit after this unpaid review.
The Huawei P30 Pro launched in Singapore on 6th April 2019, in four colours including Amber Sunrise and Breathing Crystal. It comes in 256GB at S$1,398 and 512GB at S$1,698, available on Huawei's official Lazada store.
igloohome seemingly granted my exact request: two years ago, reviewing their Smart Lock, I wished for a smart padlock for my main gate. The igloohome Smart PadLock came from an Indiegogo campaign funded in November 2018.
The Atmotube Pro is a portable air quality tracker, the company's fourth product. Pre-orders opened in February 2019 at US$131, shipping that April, with a US$189 retail price thereafter. It's now on Amazon.sg for S$215.
Sandbox VR is the latest immersive VR gaming experience in town, arriving after Zero Latency and making Singapore its sixth city, alongside San Francisco, Hong Kong, and others. The Singapore branch sits on level 5 of Orchard Central.
The Synology Mesh Router MR2200ac launched in Singapore at S$199, with stock initially constrained. It can run as a standalone router covering about 185 square metres, or you can add more units to form a mesh network.
A key gripe with the Linksys Velop (Tri-Band) was its price, S$349 to S$749 across packs. The Linksys Velop (Dual-Band), launched 28th July 2018, solves that by being roughly half the price, making mesh Wi-Fi far more wallet-friendly.
Three years after the EA8500, Linksys's first MU-MIMO router, comes the EA8100 Max-Stream AC2600, the brand's first DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) router. DFS is its main draw, opening up extra Wi-Fi channels.
The BenQ EW3270U 32-inch 4K HDR Monitor retails for S$899. A big brother to the EW2770QZ 27-inch I reviewed, it pairs 4K resolution with HDR10, which most 4K monitors lack, plus 2W stereo speakers.
Following my unboxing post, a few weeks with the Huawei P20 Pro left me recommending a case. The glossy back is a fingerprint and dust magnet, and the camera bump makes the phone wobble when tapped face-up.
The Huawei P20 series has two variants, the P20 Pro and the P20. The difference is the P20 Pro's triple Leica camera versus the P20's dual. The Pro also adds IP67, a 6.1-inch OLED, 6GB RAM, and a 4,000mAh battery.
Airtame plugs into any display's HDMI port and wirelessly streams content from a computer or mobile device, like a business-grade Chromecast. I call it 'business' because its price is steep for average consumers, being aimed at offices.
Soul Electronics began with the Soul by Ludacris headphone line before evolving into a broader audio company. The Soul ST-XS is its second true wireless earbud product, after the Soul X-Shock, bringing compact wireless audio to Singapore.
The igloohome Smart Mortise Lock is the brand's third door lock, after the Smart Deadbolt Lock 01 and 02. Priced higher because it includes both lock and handle, it retails for S$849, dropping to S$649 during the promotion.
Bragi arguably made the first truly wireless earbuds with The Dash, a 2014 Kickstarter that raised US$3.4 million but shipped over a year late. This review covers its successor, The Dash Pro.
The Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart Electric Toothbrush launched on 28th September 2017, timed for World Heart Day, with Philips a World Heart Federation partner. The smart toothbrush retails for S$399 in Singapore.
The Synology DS918+ is the flagship 4-bay NAS in the Plus Series, announced at Computex 2017 and released that October. Retailing for S$811 at Fuwell, it costs S$100 more than the DS418play, adding a quad-core processor and 4GB RAM.
Zero Latency, a free-roam multiplayer virtual reality gaming experience, has landed in Singapore as its 14th branch worldwide, after cities in Japan, the US, Spain, and Australia. It's brought in by Tomorrow Entertainment, who also own Bounce Singapore.
Following my unboxing post, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro scored 173,824 on AnTuTu, about 44% faster than last year's Mate 9, largely on 3D and UX gains. I'm glad Huawei shrank the top and bottom bezels.