Brandon Whitehead's Tech Blog

Quick gallery of unboxing images and the stand arm/mount attached to my monitor before we hop into the review. VIVO STAND-V101H Rating ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) Pros Easy assembly Good build quality Securely holds 20+lb monitor (AOC U4308V) without issue Included 200x100 VESA mount bracket is nice (for my use case especially!) Easy adjustment of height, spring tension and monitor position Built in cable routing Cons None Other Thoughts Full Review I bought this arm/mount to replace a dual 32" (inch) monitor arm/mount I was using. I moved my secondary 32" (inch) monitor onto its included stand and I wanted something that would be tall enough and could handle the weight of a heavy 43" (inch) 4K monitor (the AOC U4380V). The monitor I wanted to mount supports 200x100 VESA so I liked that VIVO included an adapter in the box. With the included adapter, the overall price was comparable and in some cases cheaper than other options which required buying an a...

This is the last fitness wearable/smartwatch post in a while. I swear this time! Before getting to the meat of this review, check out the gallery of images below. Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Build and Design Lightweight and unobtrusive Universal 20mm quick release watch bands Waterproof (5 ATM) Battery Lasted about 4 full days on a 90% charge even with 1hr and 20mins of GPS usage Charges very quickly Display Always on without significant battery drain Customizable Easily readable in sunlight and in darkness with the backlight Training Configuration Ability to create and schedule custom workout plans Automatic rep counting (inconsistent but it's there and will hopefully get better) Metrics 24/7 wrist based heart rate tracking with stress level tracking Very detailed tracking information. Garmin really does provide some of the most detailed information when it comes to fitness and wellbeing tracking.  GPS and al...

Check out this small gallery of unboxing images before we jump into the review. Rating ★★★☆ (3 out of 5) Pros Build/Design Metal and glass construction with some plastic 5 ATM water resistance Vibrant screen Rotating bezel still has a very satisfying tactile feel The blue color is nice on the watch itself and the band is eye catching Customization Tons of watch faces to choose from Widget customization App layout customization Fitness app Integrations Under Armour app suite integration is nice. This includes installing the apps directly on the device. Cons Battery Life With continuous HR enabled, about 60% of the battery was drained in 24 hours so it doesn't fare much better than the Gear Fit2 Pro did When the watch seems to not "sync" with my phone for a while the battery dies extremely quickly Sometimes an app somehow is continuing to run in the "background" and chews through battery like a mower cutting grass Functiona...

Recap If you haven't already, I highly recommend checking out part 1 of this story for more details:  https://tech.brandonwhitehead.com/2019/01/why-i-switched-to-using-2-desktop.html A quick summary of part 1 is that I switched to using 2 desktop computers because when I had everything on 1 computer I was without a usable computer for several weeks while troubleshooting. To prevent that from happening in the future I decided to pick up a secondary PC to use primarily for light duty tasks. Originally I picked up a Intel NUC8i5BEH with the hope that it would be the perfect fit for my needs. It was a good fit until I experienced several issues with using a USB device KVM/hardware switch which forced me to return the NUC. Part 2 Returning the NUC I ended up returning the NUC for a couple of reasons. Whatever USB controller they were using had a major compatibility issue with USB device switchers even when I purchased and tried utilizing a  native USB 2.0 accessor...

Back again with another Razer product review, check out this gallery of unboxing images below... Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Physical characteristics Build quality The keyboard feels very solid and the material choice (mostly hard plastics) is sufficient Size The design is very compact with not a lot of "wasted space" for the frame of the keyboard. Wrist wrest  By far THE BEST included wrist wrest I've seen. It is soft but still firm enough to supply plenty of comfortable wrist support Lighting The lighting is very vibrant, customizable and clear Design The design is very clean and definitely not anything I would consider to be "gamery" in my opinion. The overall aesthetic is really muted and tastefully executed in my opinion Switches The Razer Orange switches are quite comparable to cherry mx browns in my opinion. This makes for a great typing experience as well as a great gaming experience. Software Razer synapse 3...

Razer... you either love them or hate them it seems. I've personally never used Razer products in the past so this mouse has been my first experience with them and I have to say that I am quite pleased with my purchase. Before we hop into the review, check out this gallery of unboxing images. Rating ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5) Pros Shape/Design Very reminiscent of the G502 from Logitech except a little bit wider which is more comfortable for my large hands Pretty clean design with all the essential buttons and no extras Scroll Wheel Very satisfying feeling and I love the fact that you can adjust the tension of the scroll wheel Click feel All of the mouse buttons (aside from the scroll wheel) have a satisfying click to them, including the DPI clutch button Sensor/Tracking The tracking is very smooth and doesn't have any acceleration from what I can tell Software The software has a lot of features and allows you to highly customize the mouse. I will most ...