KARAPAX Rise Case for iPhone 8 Plus

Yet another review of an awesome Anker product! This time it is the KARAPAX Rise Case for iPhone 8 Plus.

I enlisted my buddy Zeke to help out with this one, he isn't much for cases so his insights are quite interesting. As luck would have it this case also fits well on the iPhone 6+, 7+ and 8+, he has tried it on both a 7+ and a 6+ and it fits quite well.

As with all Anker products I've ever tested, the KARAPAX Rise feels very well built and not cheap in any way. Though we didn't test it to find out, it feels and looks like it would do a good job of protecting the phone if dropped. Zeke had no issue passing his phone to his 2 & 4 year old boys without worrying about the phone getting damaged, something he would never have done without the case on.

Zeke also found himself really enjoying the kickstand. "When I first saw the kickstand I thought it wouldn’t be functional, but it was. I like how it can snap back into the case, and also has adjustable levels." With the stand in the closed position the metal loop sticks out of the bottom of the case which is a bit odd, but didn’t bother him.

He really liked the bright red edge as well, saying it gave it a bold look, setting it apart from all the other glossy black phones.

His only gripe is his favorite stand/charger made by Belkin did not fit or charge the phone with the case on, and removing the case just to charge seems like a miss.

Anker SoundBuds Curve Wireless Earbuds

Wow! Anker must have liked my review of their Dashcam because almost as soon as I posted it they emailed asking if I wanted to review their SoundBuds Curve Wireless Earbuds!

They come in this neat little zipper pouch. I'm not sure I'd call it a hard case, but it does hold it's shape much better than a simple bag would. It is just large enough to hold the SoundBuds and a charging cable and it comes with a small Carabiner style clip so you can attach it to a backpack or belt if you don't want to wear the SoundBuds the whole time.

 

As with most earbud style headphones, the SoundBuds come with several different size pads so you can find the best fit for you. I personally like to wear the smallest ones that seem to make a complete seal in my ear. After finding the right set I have been able to wear them comfortably for several hours at a time. They also have a few different sizes of the secondary pad that helps hold it in place better when you are active.

I wear glasses so I was a little concerned that the over ear section would conflict with them. At least with my glasses the SoundBud's were soft and flexible enough to form around the earpad and not conflict with my glasses.

I'm still testing to see about how many hours I actually get per charge, but based on the size I hadn't expected the battery life to be as good as it is. In a normal day I use them for a good 3-4 hours and I routinely get 2-3 days per charge. As you can see in the photo below, there isn't a large battery anywhere in the unit so I was impressed.

The sound quality is up there among the best of the earbuds I've tried. My previous daily driver was the LG Tone Pro S750 and it has at least as good sound quality as the LG does. I also like that there is more fine tuning on the volume level than my Tone Pro has. I almost always have to go one notch louder than I really want on the LG so the extra volume levels are very nice.

Honestly, I think the only thing that I found lacking is that it doesn't have a microphone so I can't actually replace my LG headset. Otherwise it is a solid headset that I would definitely recommend to a friend.

Anker Roav Dash Cam C1

Hey everybody!
I'm resurrecting my blog for an exciting reason! I've been given the opportunity to review Anker's ROAV C1 Dash cam!

The provided power source is Anker's dual port PowerDrive 2, the product page only shows a white variant, but the one that came with my C1 was black. The nice thing about this charger is that you don't have to dedicate a 12v power port to powering the C1, this allows you to charge another device while powering the C1. Also, having a power supply that is based on Micro USB is a huge plus, having multiple devices each with their own chargers is always a pain.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the adhesive, the interior of my truck often reaches 120°-140° when I'm parked in the sun and I was afraid that it would be too hot and not stick to the windshield. So far I haven't had any issues and it seems to be a very strong adhesive. I have even tried grabbing it and yanking on it a bit when I first get in my truck and it holds firm.

The app to interact with the camera is simple and intuitive. I really like the ability to change settings on the phone app and not having to make changes on the camera it's self. However I would have liked the setting to activate the wifi to be higher up in the menu since that is the main way I interact with the camera. That or maybe a physical quick connect button. Under normal use I wouldn't be interacting with it that often so it wouldn't be as big of an issue.

I wanted to get a good variety of tests in different lighting and road conditions to test how the camera handled them. All video is shot in 720p 60hz, however 720p 30hz and 1080p 30hz options are also available.

Below you see 2 videos of me driving home into the sun. I was testing both the highway road noise as well as the glare from the sunset. I was pleased with the C1's ability to show the road without the glare from the sun distorting everything.

I also did some testing of rough roads, I wanted to see how much the camera bounced and if the mounting bracket was loose. The mounting bracket holds it tightly so the camera doesn't bounce around much, but there does seem to be a noise coming from the mounting kit somewhere.

Finally the night test. Checking image quality and glare from street lights/vehicles. There seems to be a reflection off my dashboard, other than that I was pleased with the color quality and the glare handling.