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Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Review: Immersive sound at premium price

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 22:05:05 +0000

For the last few years, I relied on my trusted Powerbeats wireless headphones for everyday use. While it performed well overall, it fell short at the gym, where I felt the need for an over-ear noise-canceling headphones to block out the loud hum of fans and treadmills. I explored various flagship models from Bose, Sony, Sonos, and Sennheiser but ultimately chose the Bose Ultra headphones. My decision was influenced by my positive past experiences with Bose products, strong online customer reviews, the premium design, and intriguing new features like Immersion Mode. Beyond the using it at the gym, I paired it with my Blue Yeti microphone for editing YouTube videos. Furthermore, I have been using it to watch TV shows on my tablet and to take online lessons.

About

What's in the box	Bose Ultra Headphones, Carry Case, 3.5mm audio cable, USB-C charging cable
Type	Around the ear
Modes	Quiet, Immersion, Aware
Manual	Bose Online Manual
Launch Year	2023

Design

The Lunar Blue variant I own is nothing short of stunning, exuding a premium look. In terms of comfort, these headphones deliver; they are lightweight and free from pressure points, making them ideal for extended use.

Bose did not skimp on details either—the included protective case is top-notch, ensuring safe storage. Although these are wireless headphones, I appreciate the thoughtful addition of a wired option for versatility. The matching blue USB charging and audio cables add a touch of uniqueness compared to the standard black or white cables often included with other brands. Overall, the design and build quality live up to the high expectations of a flagship product.

My Experience

Device Integration – As an iPhone user, coming from Powerbeats, I was surprised by the absence of Apple AirPlay support, which seems a standard feature. Bluetooth works well but definitely the added convenience AirPlay is a definite downside that Apple users should consider. Beyond the basic connectivity to a device, the headphones different features such as selecting a mode or adjusting sound equalizers can be performed using the Bose App. The app also provide short helpful tutorials to fully utilize all the features of the headphones.
Ease of Use – The intuitive controls make these headphones easy to use right out of the box. However, I suggest reviewing the manual or app to fully understand all the available features. One pleasant surprise is the auto-pause feature: removing the headphones pauses your music, and placing them back resumes playback. However, there is a minor hiccup—during workouts, grimacing or intense facial expressions occasionally trigger the auto-pause feature, which can be frustrating.

I also found the slider volume control on the headphones easily accessible and intuitive to use, replacing the need to reach out for my phone to control volume. The other buttons took a little time to get used to. But after using it for a week, I can also comfortably use the button to skip or pause music.

Modes – As a parent, I have come to value the Quiet Mode and Aware Mode:
- Quiet Mode is fantastic for drowning out distractions, whether it is the sound of my kids watching TV or gym equipment.
- Aware Mode, on the other hand, amplifies ambient sounds, allowing me to stay alert to my surroundings. Having this option, lets me use the headphones even when I am the one watching the kids. The downside of the aware mode is that some sounds, like the sound of running water, feel overly amplified and can be unnecessarily exaggerated.

In addition to the quiet and aware modes, the headphones also has an Immersion Mode that provide noise cancelling while simulating an in-concert-like sound experience. In my opinion, it comes pretty close to providing such an experience. Furthermore, this Immersion Mode is also an excellent option for watching a tense live game when you are on the go.

Call Quality – Quality of the mic in these headphones is top-notch. I am heard clearly on voice and WhatApp calls. That said, I personally find it hard to use over-ear headphones for calls as I feel I am shouting to hear my own voice. If I put the headphones in Aware Mode, then my voice seems way exaggerated and unnatural. This would be a space for old Powerbeats earphones to shine.
Battery – One important thing to note is that the auto-pause feature only puts the headphones into sleep mode rather than fully turning them off. They remain in this state for up to 24 hours before shutting down completely, but the battery continues to drain during this time. To prevent unnecessary battery drain, be sure to long-press the power button to fully turn them off.

On the plus side, the headphones have impressive battery life between charges. Bose claims they offer up to 24 hours of use on a full charge. However, charging from a low battery can feel extremely slow—fast charging has not been implemented for these headphones.

Conclusion

The Bose Ultra Headphones deliver an impressive combination of style, comfort, and immersive audio quality, making them a worthy contender in the high-end headphone market. In the US, the MSRP of $429.00 seems a little too high for a gadget that was launched in 2023. However, these headphones often are discounted at $349.00, at which point it seems like a good buy. While minor issues such as the lack of Apple AirPlay and the auto-pause quirk during workouts exist, its overall performance, noise-canceling features, and versatility justify the premium price for anyone seeking a flagship listening experience.

The post Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Review: Immersive sound at premium price appeared first on Tech Gadgets Finder.

Is Shark AI Ultra cleaning robot RV2502AE worth it in 2024?

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 22:33:00 +0000

Any technology gadget that automates a manual and monotonous task is always fascinating. Two of the most boring chores are mowing the lawn and vacuum cleaning the floors of the house. Although the price of robot lawn mower is still high, the price of robot vacuum cleaners have come down considerably. I decided to purchase one of these cleaner robots as Mother’s day gift to my wife in 2022, hoping it would take one of the task off her plate.

Unfortunately, my wife did not want to use the robot vacuum in the living room as she feared that vacuum could destroy the kids toys. However, we agreed that our basement level with my home office and the main basement area would be a great place to test the robot. Vacuum cleaning the basement is often lower on the priority list and hence gets skipped when we are short of time. Our hope was that with the robot vacuum we can consistently get the floors cleaned without spending our time and energy.

Key specs and features

Bin Capacity	0.27 gallons
Key features	LiDAR Navigation, Self-Cleaning Brushroll, Edge Cleaning, Obstacle Avoidance, Bagless, Self-Emptying
Dock in box	Yes
Voice assistant	Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant
Owners manual	Download RV2502AE manual
Launch Year	2021

Design

The Shark AI Ultra cleaning robot has a minimalist design. As such the robot looks similar to most other cleaning robots. The robot itself is very robust with a front bumper to prevent damage to the robot. The bumper moves to absorb some force when the robot crashes against any objects. As such the 360 LiDAR technology ensures the robot does not crash into objects but it can only see if those objects are tall enough. After two years of operation, I do see many scuffs and marks on the robot. The top front of the robot has two buttons that would request the robot to start cleaning and to return to the dock. Near the buttons are light indicators for Wi-Fi and battery status. The robot is little taller and might have trouble to enter inside if it does not have enough clearance.

The dock is sturdy and robust as well. There are no bags in the dock or the robot. The bin that holds the debris in the dock is decently large, easy to pull out, and easy to open.

My experience

The setup was fairly straightforward. Assembly was easy as it involved putting together a few things only. I used the SharkClean app on my iPhone to register for an account, give a name to the robot, and run the initial mapping. The robot goes through the different areas on the floor and generates a fairly precise map using its LiDAR technology. Once this step is complete, the map can be edited to label a room and to add no-go zones. Shark recommends to place the base with its back against the wall and to have 3 ft of empty space to its either side and 5ft of empty space in the front. There were times I did not have this clearance in the sides but did not notice any issue. However, it is best to adhere to the manufacturer’s recommendation to avoid running into unexpected errors.

When it comes to cleaning, I only run the robot in max power level because the last thing I want to see is the robot going over the strand of thread on the carpet without picking it up. In this setting, I found the robot does clean up really well. Specifically, if I am wrapping gift in my office or basement without running the robot, I invariably get a few hair stuck to the gift wrap tape. Running the robot, ensure that the carpets are clean and ready to work for wrapping gifts. The volume of the robot while running is fairly reasonable. However, it does make a loud sound when it gets back to the dock and transfer the debris from the robot to dock.

SharkClean - Schedule

SharkClean - Edit Map

SharkClean - Home Menu

SharkClean - Home

SharkClean - No go zones

SharkClean - Cleaning report

The robot can be controlled through the phone app, even though there are few buttons on the robot itself. The robot needs to be connect to a Wi-Fi network for the app to be able to control robot.

The app is fairly intuitive to use. Mainly you can trigger the robot to clean, set schedule for cleaning, adjust label the map, and set no-go zones. Furthermore, the app sends push notification when something goes wrong. I have received notifications few times when my robot was not charging properly. The app also indicates the battery level of the robot.

That said the robot is not perfect. One thing I noticed is that when my main basement area has too many things lying around and I am trying to just clean my office room, the robot, which is docked in the main basement room, will move forward look around and go back to dock, even though you can tell that the robot has enough room to get to the office. In general, the robot expects the floors to have enough space and any kids / dogs toys to be picked up before a cleaning session. Although the robot can avoid taller obstacles using the 360 degree LiDAR navigation, if obstacle is smaller the robot will bump into them. I have caught it dragging some wires around when I missed take it off the floor. Lastly, I wish that the app would let you carry the robot and dock to a different level and generate a map without deleting the existing map. Then it would be up to the user to just select the right map before running the robot, when multiple maps are available. Unfortunately, multimaps are not supported. The only workaround is to delete an existing map and remap. From the company’s perspective having a multimap feature would be an excellent marketing tool. Once a user is happy with the functioning of the robot in multiple levels, they will get tired of moving the robot to different levels and eventually buy a new robot for different level.

Because I have limited run time for the robot in my basement, I have not performed any maintenance activity on the robot other than emptying the dustbin in the dock. However, looking at the owner’s guide, the maintenance looks to be fairly straightforward.

Verdict

The Shark AI Ultra cleaner robot has excellent suction power and does an incredible job picking up dirt from the carpet and hard floor. It sells around $369 (USD) in Amazon.com at the time of writing, while its MSRP is $599.99. Considering its cleaning prowess and the deep discount, the robot vacuum cleaner is still an excellent choice, if mopping capabilities are not required. Furthermore, the robot comes with a self-emptying dock that can hold debris for a few weeks. The LiDAR navigation has some glitches and does not have advance features such as poop avoidance that might be a necessity for a house with a not potty-trained dog. In general, for a house that needs a simple robot cleaner without these advance features, it is still a great choice even in 2024.

The post Is Shark AI Ultra cleaning robot RV2502AE worth it in 2024? appeared first on Tech Gadgets Finder.

Ecobee Premium Smart Thermostat: Beauty with brain

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 04:40:32 +0000

After moving to my new house in 2016, I had to change both heating systems and air conditioning system in the next two years. I hate that the company did not give me the option to put a install thermostat when they installed a new HVAC with a new thermostat. Since I saw a Nest thermostat, I wanted to upgrade from a dumb thermostat to a smart thermostat. The biggest deterrent was not knowing whether the existing wiring supports a smart thermostat and what it would take to install it without hiring a pro. In this post, I provide my experience researching for a smart thermostat, preparing for installing the Ecobee Premium smart thermostat and experience using it for the last three months.

The need for a smart thermostat?

One of the most annoying things about Michigan fall and spring is that at night the temperature falls while it becomes hot during the day. With the manual thermostat, we would often find ourselves waking up feeling cold in the middle of the night because we turned the air conditioner on during the day and forgot to switch back to heat before going to bed. It seems that this should not be an issue with any thermostat in 2024, but at least my previous manual Honeywell thermostat couldn’t handle it. The auto-mode on a smart thermostat takes care of the problem. Furthermore, we often would forget to turn down the heat or turn up temperature of air conditioning before leaving the house, leaving us only the option to turn around or pay the higher utility bill. A smart thermostat lets you quickly adjust from the app on your phone or watch even when you are not at home.

Ecobee Premium vs Nest learning thermostat

When I started to look for a flagship smart thermostat, Google Nest learning thermostat was my natural choice. I love the dial style of the Nest thermostats. Before I started looking, I have not even heard about Ecobee. The Google Nest learning thermostat states that I might be able to install it with the four wires without a c-wire. Unfortunately, I saw my friend who did not have a c-wire, work initially but later needed to unplug it from the wall and charge it. The more I looked, I felt Ecobee would look great on my wall and the power extender kit (PEK), which is needed without a c-wire, is easier to install given the amount videos and information available on the internet. Google Nest also sells an adapter similar to the power extender kit for systems without a c-wire. In general, I feel that both of them are excellent choices and both look great.

Purchase and installation

As mentioned initially, the installation of the smart thermostat can be a challenge especially, if you do not have a c-wire already connected. If you do not have the ability to run a c-wire from the thermostat end to the HVAC system, you can use the provided power extender kit (PEK).

You will still need four wires to connect the smart thermostat. The thermostat also comes with sticker label tags to tag different wires during installation. In the YouTube video, I walk through how to install a power extender kit at splice in the HVAC system.

The phone app provides a step-by-step walkthrough to help identify whether the Ecobee Premium is supported by the HVAC system and how to go about installing the thermostat. Even before I purchased the thermostat, I contacted the support through WhatsApp and got a good understanding of how and where to install the power extender kit (PEK) and the thermostat. Furthermore, the Ecobee support also confirmed that purchasing a new / sealed pro unit from eBay will be covered by factory warranty. However, I ended up purchasing from BestBuy as I wanted the flexibility to be able walk-in and exchange, in case I get a defective unit. They also explained installing a pro version of the unit yourself will give you one year of warranty, but when installed by a pro will give you three years of warranty. That said, I highly recommend to contact support to confirm the latest policy before pulling the trigger on a model from eBay.

Once the thermostat is successfully installed and it powers on, setting up the thermostat using the Ecobee phone app is fairly straightforward. Furthermore, pairing the remote sensor is easy too. After the initial setup, some tinkering with the different setting is required to get the desired temperature in the home.

Design

The 4″ black LCD touch screen and silver bezel design provides a premium look to the thermostat. The new thermostat was noticed by visitors, who commented on how much better it looked compared to the previous thermostat. If your thermostat resides in your living room like mine, the thermostat will most likely improve the aesthetic appeal of your room. However, you might want to check whether the thermostat mounting plate covers any previous holes and unpainted surface on the wall. Ecobee does provide a white trim plate to cover up such holes and unpainted surface, but in my opinion the white trim plate on a black LCD of the thermostat looks totally hideous. You can purchase an aftermarket black trim plate that would make the setup look better but not as good as not having a trim plate at all.

Phone app and on screen usage

Ecobee premium thermostat is easy to operate directly through it is touch screen. It provides an easy way to change the current temperature settings and put a temperature settings hold by quickly adjusting the temperature. I also love that a blue or red ring on the screen shows whether air conditioner or heat is currently running. In addition to providing easy access to day-to-day functions, it also provides access to some advanced settings that are not available on the phone app such as changing the temperature threshold between heat and cold.

On the other hand, the Ecobee phone app puts a lot of features on your phone. The app is fairly well designed, intuitive and stable. The app can access the thermostat even when you are not in your home network, assuming both the phone and the thermostat are connected to the internet. That said the phone app does not have all the controls such as changing temperature threshold or adding a new comfort settings. I feel that Ecobee tried to leave out complex and uncommon tasks out of the app to keep the app simple and user friendly.

Temperature control effectiveness

The Ecobee premium addresses some of the pain points that I mentioned such as an auto mode, and phone app for remote control. It provides options such as away mode and vacation scheduling to help reduce the utility cost and the carbon footprint. Furthermore, the thermostat comes with one remote sensor that can provide input to the thermostat. You can buy more remote sensors and add to different rooms in the house. I also like that you can control the minimum minutes per hours that you want the fan running. With my old thermostat, it was always on or on when the heat or cold was running. Overall, there are many great features that help to control the temperature effectively.

With that said, I want to highlight that there is a learning curve to moving from a manual thermostat especially if have a room setup like mine. My home does not have great duct work, hence the rooms on the top floor do not get good air flow from the HVAC system. There is always a good two to five degree difference between each levels. Just because you have remote sensors in each room, it does not mean you can control the temperature of each room individually. Previously, the thermostat installed in the living room was the only input source for temperature reading and we had an understanding of what a particular temperature would mean to the rest of the house. So when I tried to cool kids room upstairs for bedtime, the temperature of the basement and living room became way too cold. To add to the learning, I noticed that the remote sensor occasionally is a two or three degrees off. If it is consistently way off, you can reach out to Ecobee support to request a replacement. Ecobee does provide an option to control the temperature based on average of all sensor readings but again takes a few days to figure out what the average means for each room in the house. It took a few weeks of trial and error to get the best possible setting for the spring and summer. I might have to do some tinkering of the setting during fall and winter to get it setup. Unless you live in a ranch-style house or have an impeccable ducting system that delivers almost same temperature to all rooms, expect some time spent to experiment and zero-in on the best settings after installation.

Beyond temperature control

Other than the temperature control, I love that the thermostat screen provides a outside temperature and can be clicked to view the weather forecast for the next few days. I also like the air quality sensor that would notifies when the air quality in the home deteriorates. This feature in conjunction with the air filter reminder helps to change the filter when it is due.

The smart thermostat can be used to stream music through Spotify or Air Play. Even though the speakers in the thermostat will not blow anyone’s mind, it is a nice to have option if your thermostat is in a place without any speakers.

The thermostat can also be controlled by different smart assistants such as Alexa, Siri etc. Unfortunately, for Siri it needs an Apple hub device such as Apple HomePod Mini or HomePod to control the commands. You cannot directly speak to the thermostat to control it with Siri. Other than that the thermostat can also integrate with Ecobee’s smart security devices if you are in the Ecobee ecosystem.

Final thoughts

The Ecobee premium smart thermostat and the phone app seems matured over years of continues research and development. The remote control ability through smartphone and smartwatch, and settings such as away mode and vacation scheduling, in the long-run should provide a return on investment through reduced utility bills. Furthermore, the premium look of the thermostat enhances the appearance of the room in which it is installed. However, the smart thermostat is definitely not plug-and-play. Even after installation, it needs trial and error to get the temperature settings precisely to your liking. Over all, the Ecobee premium smart thermostat is definitely worth the money especially if you are replacing a manual thermostat.

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Garmin Venu 3: Smart fitness tracker with excellent battery life

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sun, 05 May 2024 22:46:59 +0000

A month back I wrote why I decided it was time to upgrade from Polar M430 watch. Six years later, my wife again got me for my birthday the watch that I wanted: the Garmin Venu 3. I plan to do an in-depth review of the watch as I found there are many fascinating features. I have been using the watch for the last four weeks during which I tried to experiment with the different features of the watch and the related Garmin app on iPhone. My experience with the watch is limited to using with iPhone. Furthermore, I have not tried all the features yet. But I plan to add to the post, if I find new features that would dramatically alter my view of the watch.

My Use Case

Feel free to check my previous post that details my requirement for a fitness tracker. As a quick recap, I absolutely did not want to charge my watch everyday. I wanted it to be modern looking with color screen and touch capability. Ability to track naps and play music without a phone would be greatly appreciated. Any new features not available in my old polar watch would be great.

About Garmin Venu 3

Design

From a pure aesthetic sense, the watch looks great. I wondered whether, the large diameter of the Venu 3 would make it appear too big for my small wrist. But it does not look odd. It has a beautify AMOLED touch screen. The screen looks very bright even when viewing outside on sunny days.

Garmin Venu 3 - Back View

Garmin Venu 3 - Front View 2

Garmin Venu 3 - Front View 3

Garmin Venu 3 - Front View Screen On 1

Garmin Venu 3 - On Wrist Screen

Garmin Venu 3 - Microphone and Speaker

Garmin Venu 3 - Side Buttons

During my initial days with the watch, I kept hitting the screen against something, hence I decided to install the IQ shield screen protector before getting a scratch. Around the screen is a metal rim that is used when measuring ECG reading.

There are three buttons on the right. The bottom works like a back button. All the three buttons support long hold to pull different options. Coming from Polar watches, these three buttons seems totally chaotic. For the first few weeks, I was still hit multiple buttons to get what I wanted. It got better once I started remembering the options each button pulls up.

The default watch strap that comes with the box seems to cover many different sizes as many holes are available to buckle the strap. I also like the easy pull out and replace strap design, unlike the struggle I experience with my older Polar M430. The watch comes with a USB-C type charging cable that plugs into the watch. The end that plugs into the watch is proprietary. I like the Apple watch design of having a wireless magnetic charger end that snaps onto the watch better. Furthermore, I wish that a charging block were provided but I guess those are becoming a think of the past.

Overall, the watch design seems well designed and premium. It also feel comfortable to continuous wear without any irritation to the skin.

My Experience

As someone new to Garmin watches, the sheer options and features can easily be overwhelming. Also, initially it was hard to find some the options that would be considered basic. Such as changing the watch face – I installed different watch face from apps and it would automatically change the watch face. I was not sure how to go back to the initial watch face without uninstalling the watch face app I installed. Finally, figured out that long hold on the lowest button pulls up the option for watch face. Of course, as simple google search for any such question always seem to pull up with the Garmin support that showed how to do it. That said anyone coming from a basic fitness tracker without needing all the bells and whistles that this watch brings might feel frustrated.

I will go over the different areas and features of the watch that I have tried so far.

iPhone Integration

Garmin Venu 3 - Sleep Score

Garmin Venu 3 - Sleep Coach Recommendation

Garmin Venu 3 - Sleep Coach

Garmin Venu 3 - At a Glance

Garmin Venu 3 - App In Focus

Garmin Venu 3 - App Fitness Age

Garmin Venu 3 - HRV Status

Garmin Venu 3 - App Tennis HR Chart

Garmin Venu 3 - App Home

Venu 3 connects to the iPhone using a Bluetooth connection. Once connected many of the data and features can be accessed using the Garmin Connect app. The Garmin ConnectIQ app, lets you install apps for music, watch face apps and mapping apps from the Garmin store. It also lets you create custom watch faces on the phone and upload to Venu 3.

By long holding on the middle button, the watch can connect to Siri. You can speak into your watch with the commands for Siri and the Siri will respond back through the speak on the Venu 3. There is not reply option to text message when connect to an iPhone. However, the Siri on the watch can be used to response to text and WhatsApp messages. Furthermore, the watch can also make a call or pick up calls on you phone. In a way, the watch acts a client to the phone connected through Bluetooth. The app can be also used to setup the Garmin pay. Once setup through the app, Garmin pay can be used to pay by holding the watch near a card reader, even when you do not have the connected phone near by. The watch can also be used to find the connected phone, using the ‘Find my phone’ feature that is accessible by long holding the top button. This a great feature, if you keep your phone on silent and often search for it around the house.

One area of the iPhone integration that I am disappointed with is notifications. All notifications on the phone comes on the watch. Initially, vibration or sound for each notification was too overwhelming. Hence, I turned off the sound and vibration on the watch. But, since the watch mirrors all the notifications from the phone to watch, there is no easy way to select few apps for which to get the notification on the watch. The options to control notifications are based on text, calls and apps. For example, you can set the sound and / or vibration for calls and texts but not for apps, so that all the app notifications go to the notification center. Unfortunately, there is no flexibility to control notification sound or vibration per app. This could be a limitation because of the closed nature of iOS, however, it would be nice to have such app level control.

Activities

There are many activities available in the watch by default. It also provides option to add new activity. I added mowing as an activity as I seem to burn enough calories mowing my front and backyard. I have tried, tennis, walking, running, threadmill running, strength training and cardio so far. It does a fairly good job of tracking the workouts. Strength training is little weird. It lets you add the number of reps and weight per set. I could not find a way to group the three sets of a particular workout. So when I strength train, I mark each set of any workout separately. So in the end, I may have 18 sets in the workout summary, even though those are three sets of six different workouts. On most of the workout, it did a good job of tracking the number of repetitions per set but it always can be overridden. In the workout statistics, I noticed that it shows what muscles I worked out. It was correct in many instances. For some reason, when mowing, the watch had a hard time tracking my steps. The first time that I mowed without starting an activity, the watch figured out that I was doing some activity and guessed I was biking. It was surprising it could not track the steps though, as even my old Polar M430 would track the steps during mowing, even though the steps may have been little inflated.

Sleep and naps

The sleep tracking seems to be fairly accurate in terms of sleep time. It also provides a commentary about you sleep and how it helped you or not help you. Like with most of the data provided by the watch, it provides a break down of you sleep in terms of deep, light, REM and awake. It calculates and provides a sleep score based on all these data points. The watch also has a sleep coach that recommends hours of sleep each night adaptively based on your activities, stress and previous night sleep. I felt that the recommended hours are often not realistic. The quality of sleep metric seem to be mostly right. On one occasion when the watch mentioned I did not have enough REM and hence I will feel tired and irritable. I was not convinced with the feedback as I felt the great in the morning. I did not feel irritable but around noon I felt very tired and getting through the rest of the day was a drag. Occasionally, I would feel totally opposite to what the watch would predict based on my sleep. Overall, I feel that I can trust the sleep rating provided.

The watch has the ability to track naps. It says it can automatically detect a nap greater than five minutes. The preferred approach is to start a nap and optionally set an alarm, so that the nap does not turn into sleep. In the first week, the nap tracking acted funny. On a few occasions, it did not pick up my nap, even though the nap was more than five minutes. On another day, it said I took two naps and scolded me for taking too many naps, even when I did not take one. My work involves sitting and working on the computer and I assume it seemed from all the data points that I was napping. I wonder whether this happened because the watch did not have enough data points to make a good judgement. I haven’t had this issue since then. I mostly let the watch automatically track my naps and it is fairly accurate.

Body battery

The body battery feature treats the human body as a phone that charges and discharges. Garmin has kept the feature very simple. When you sleep or take naps, your body gets charged. Stress on the body causes the battery to drain. I tried to understand what type of stress Garmin measures, physical or mental.

By reading the help section, it seems the key determination of stress using HRV (Heart Rate Variability). Higher the HRV, lower the stress levels. The help link on the stress section of the app, has detailed explanation. I believe that Garmin attempts to measure both mental and physical stress though I did not find it explicitly stated. I believe so because by the the end of my work day, the watch will often tell me how I had a stress free day and hence I have enough battery left for a workout or activity. In reality, I feel that my work is mentally stressful but not physically demanding. In addition to stress, the workouts and activities also drain the body battery.

As such the body battery feature works good to get a sense of how your body is doing before a workout. It is especially helpful because I workout later in the evening or at night. That said, the premise of the body battery does seem to have a few holes. Obviously, the human body is more complicated that a simple charge and discharge. Other factors such as hydration level, quality of food intake, emotional state may all impact your body battery in someway. Overall, the feature is helpful to do a quick pulse check on your body situation, even though it might be best to listen to your body!

Other fitness features

The watch comes with the general fitness features such as steps, floors climbed and intense minutes. The user can select a fitness goal that would provide targets to achieve each day and each week. One another feature that I like is the fitness age. The watch estimates personal fitness age based on the different parameters such as weight and workout information. The accuracy will be better if you can enter a BMI. While calculation might be an estimate, it has been motivating to notice that working out consistently and achieving the targets has been helping my fitness age move below my actual chronological age. The watch can also be used to measure oxygen levels, VO2 Max and to take ECG.

Conclusion

Following the success of the Venu 2, Garmin has launched another great watch with the Venu 3. Even though some of the fitness features might not be perfect, it motivates enough to get you moving. In the current age, when you are expected to charge all your devices overnight, it is joy to have a watch that can go almost for a week without a charge with normal use. The smart features thrown into the fitness tracker are very handy, even though the integration with the iPhone could be much better. Of course, there are other smart watches that has better integration to phone and other fitness trackers that are for fitness geeks and runners. But, for anyone looking for a great fitness tracker with decent smart watch features, the Garmin Venu 3 is a excellent choice. Almost one month of using the Garmin Venu 3, I feel that it has certainly lived up to the expectation that I had from the watch.

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Logitech MX Anywhere 3 review: perfect mouse with buttery scroll

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 19:23:43 +0000

Over the period of time, I have purchased many different mouse. However, to this date the MX Anywhere 3 is one of my favorite mouse. I bought the it in 2021. I currently also own the Logitech Pebble M350 and Logitech triathlon m720.

MX Anywhere 3 - Right Side

MX Anywhere 3 - Bottom View

MX Anywhere 3, Pebble M350 and Triathlon M720 - Picture 1

MX Anywhere 3, Pebble M350 and Triathlon M720 - Picture 2

MX Anywhere 3, Pebble M350 and Triathlon M720 - Picture 3

MX Anywhere 3 - Back / Forward buttons

MX Anywhere 3 - Scroll front view

My Use case

I was looking for a mouse in 2021 as I had too many devices and had to constantly move the mouse dongle around. Hence, I specifically wanted a mouse with an ability to connect to at least two devices, if not more. I wanted the mouse to last for a long time. Since, I was going to start going to school in spring of 2021, a smaller footprint would be good too to carry it in my backpack while travelling to University.

I was mainly considering the Logitech Pebble M350, which was available at a cheaper price point. I decided to purchase the MX Anywhere 3 as it had a far superior and ergonomic design. I felt that I can invest in a better mouse as I spend lot of time on the computer for my day job. Furthermore, the MX anywhere 3 was able to connect to one more device than the Pebble M350.

That said a year later, I also purchased the Logi Pebble M350. I used the Pebble mainly when I was travelling to school. The MX Anywhere 3 is my daily driver when I work from my home office, connecting mainly to my work laptop, and my Mac Mini.

About MX Anywhere 3

The MX anywhere 3 has an impeccable design. Its ergonomic design makes it comfortable to use even when using it for the whole day. In believe that the scroll wheel is the crown jewel of the MX Anywhere 3 mouse. It is noise free. It can scroll through hundreds of lines of code or many pages of a document with just a flick of the finger. Just below the scroller, there is a button to toggle between a traditional ratchet feel and a free-spinning mode. In the bottom, there is a button to turn off the mouse. Furthermore, there is a small button that can toggle between the three connected devices. The light indicator shows which device is currently active. For connecting to a different device in a particular slot, click the button till the number changes to the one you want, then long hold the same button and the light will start blinking, indicating it is ready to pair. My mouse came with a USB receiver but there are variants of this mouse that do not come with a receiver. The mouse can be charged with a provided USB-A to USB-C cable. The mouse also has two button on the left side that can be used as forward and back buttons. Most of the buttons can be configured by installing the Logitech software. Furthermore, the buttons can also be configured to work differently in different apps. For example: the back or forward button can be configured to mute the microphone using Zoom app. I have used this mouse on Windows, Mac and Samsung Galaxy Tab in DeX mode and works well.

I personally prefer the AA or AAA batteries that can be replaced, as I hate to discard any gadget just because it cannot hold a charge. However, Logitech did a good job making sure that battery run for a long time with each charge, potentially increasing the life of the inbuilt batteries due to reduced number of recharges. It almost feels as if the mouse does not need a charge for months. I use this mouse and the MX Mini Keys keyboard as my daily driver for work. Roughly, I estimate that I have to charge the MX Mini keys twice before I have to charge the MX Anywhere 3. The MX Mini keys easily seem to not need a charge for two weeks at least. Moreover, I love that even when the red light starts to blink indicating the battery is low in between my work day, I can connect the mouse to charge and continue to use it.

Should you buy MX Anywhere 3 in 2024?

Given that Logitech has pulled off creating an almost perfect mouse, the answer would be a resounding yes even in 2024! One reason not to pull the trigger would be to see what’s new in the next version of the MX Anywhere mouse. However, I am curious to see what incremental improvements Logitech can bring to it.

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Bose Soundbar 900 review: Elegant looking with good sound

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 23:42:53 +0000

Soundbars are a wonderful way to improve on the deficiencies of the TV speaker without putting obnoxiously large speakers all over in the living room. In addition, their ability to pair with subs and rear speakers wirelessly is a dream. The beautifully designed Bose soundbar 900 makes it not only bearable but aesthetically pleasing to have it sit next to your TV.

Bose 900 remote vs Yamaha RX-A780 receiver remote

Bose soundbar 900 remote

Bose 900 logo and front metal grille

Bose 900 full on side view

Bose 900 on entertainment center from side

Bose 900 - LED lights and touch buttons

Bose 900 on Entertainment center

Bose 900 Optical cable port

Adaptiq ports and others

Bose 900 Power port

My Use Case

I have been working on building a traditional home theater system in the basement for years. My desktop monitor is serving as a TV. After realizing that my basement is full of kids toys and I might have to continue with the current arrangement for many more year, I started looking at the soundbar options for my living room. I needed it took good, sound good and have minimum wires as possible. I understood that a soundbar system cannot compete with a traditional dedicated channeled home theater system. Finally, I wanted it to be easy to operate as anyone using the TV will be interacting with it.

Early October 2023, I purchased the Bose soundbar 900 because of previous positive experience with the older Bose lifestyle system. Furthermore, since I expected the sound to be thinner than a traditional home theater system, I wanted to buy a flagship soundbar. It was also selling at a good discount because newer Bose Ultra soundbar was newly launched at that time. The potential of adding a wireless sub and wireless surround speakers was perfect to complete the home theater system in my living room, while keeping my spouse happy.

About Bose 900 Soundbar

The soundbar design is beautiful with a glass top and metal grille. The corners are rounded. The backside has the ports for HDMI, ethernet cable, power cable, and optical input. I was surprised to see the soundbar was pretty long at least for my entertainment system. Luckily, no part of the soundbar was hanging out. There are two buttons on the top left that are hardly visible. One is to mute the mic and another is to activate voice assistant. There is also a LED indicator that flickers and glows in white or red color to indicate the status of the soundbar. The soundbar comes with a minimalist remote. I was surprised by how little features the remote has considering the previous Bose Lifestyle home theaters and most A/V receivers have huge remotes. Do not throw away your other remotes, this little guy might not be able to able to operate all the other connected devices.

Setting up the system was fairly easy. I used the Bose Music app on iPhone to complete the setup. Adding the Bose 700 bass module to the home theater setup with the Bose Music app was a breeze. I strongly recommend running the ADAPTiQ especially after pairing with a bass module or surround speakers. I feel that ADAPTiQ calibrates the system to function as a coherent system rather that disparate sounds coming from different speakers.

Date of release	September 2021
Dimensions	2.29" H x 41.14 W x 4.21" D
Weight	12.68 lb
Available Colors	Black and White
What's in the box?	Soundbar 900, Remote control with batteries, ADAPTiQ headset, HDMI, Power cord, optical cable

Over all, I found that the Bose Music app to be good and covers most of the functions such as turning TV on, pairing bluetooth devices, running ADAPTiQ calibration and playing music using Airplay 2. When I could not find my Bose remote, I was able to accomplish most of the task using the Bose Music app.

My initial sound test with Terminator 2 was little underwhelming. As a caveat, I was watching the movie at night without blasting the volume to prevent my kids from waking up. The main thing I felt missing was the rumble of a dedicated subwoofer. My retest with the Bose 700 bass module was way better and made the home theater system sound more complete. That said for listening to music on the Bose 900 soundbar has always been enjoyable both with or without the bass module.

My setup of the soundbar is on an older Samsung TV from 2012. The TV only has an ARC HDMI not an eARC connection. eARC HDMI is required for Dolby Atmos output. Talking about the HDMI connection cannot be complete with mentioning the HDMI CEC issues. The HDMI connect is supposed to wake up the TV, this way you can use the Bose remote to turn on both speaker and TV. However, this feature is very glitchy and hasn’t been resolved with any software updates. Sometime, the TV will turn on with loud volume coming from the soundbar, while the other time there won’t be any audio. Bose has multiple setting to resolve these issues, unfortunately, none of the options have solved these issues for good. At this time, I have disconnected the HDMI connection from the TV to soundbar for everyday TV use to keep my wife happy. I connect the TV to the soundbar before a movie. I highly recommend potential buyers to be aware of this issue and test it out during the return period, if these issues surface with their TV and if it does whether any of the workarounds work for you. Another minor feature that I miss is the ability to stream music on my network. However, it can be worked by having the tablet or laptop access the music on the network and play over Airplay or bluetooth.

On a positive note, I want to give a shout out to the Bose chat support. When I reached out to them that my Open Box Excellent condition Bose 900 from Best Buy arrived without a HDMI cable, they immediately shipped me one free without even any shipping fee.

Competitors

The Sonos Arc one of the main competitor of Bose soundbar 900. In a way when I did my research, it seemed like Bose is playing catch up in this segment. The other systems I was considering were the new Bose Ultra, Yamaha True X Bar 40A, and Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus.

The Bose Ultra seemed like an incremental update to Bose 900. That too the update seemed mostly on the firmware and not the hardware. With sound systems you almost want a hardware update to make it seem like an true upgrade. Most of us would keep a music system for a decade, if not more. Hence, an upgraded hardware in new systems, provide a compelling reason to purchase a newer model. In all, I felt the price differential was not justified considering the discounts available on the Bose soundbar 900.

Yamaha True X Bar 40A seemed like a great soundbar at a lower price point. Unfortunately, I couldn’t demo it and very limited information was available online as it was newly launched when I was planning to buy the soundbar.

Comparing the Bose soundbar 900 against Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus might not be fair considering the AMBEO plus was selling at more than double the price of Bose 900. The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Mini might be a fair competitor. While I strongly considered Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar Plus, I felt that I could use the extra money saved to complete the home theater system by adding Bose 700 base module and surround speakers, while still buying a flagship model.

Is it worth buying?

Considering the discounted price point and the sound quality, I would say it is worth it even in 2024. That said if you want to setup the system once and expect everything to work perfectly, this might not be the product for you. If you are still feeling adventurous after knowing about the quirks, it might be worth buying it with the intension of testing it out during the return period. I hope that Bose does listen to its consumers and resolve these issues through an firmware update or at least in the future versions of the soundbar.

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Lenovo L15 Review: A portable second monitor easy to carry around

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 03:10:58 +0000

School assignments needed multiple websites and documents to be opened the same time. Having more than one screen was a timesaver!

My search for a portable monitor started when I realized it would be great if I can take the monitor to a different room in my house rather than being stuck in my home office with multiple external monitors.

My Use Case

Although my initial requirement was to have a portable extended display that I can use anywhere in my house, I used the monitor in my other scenarios since I got the monitor back in 2022. Below are a few other use cases:

Working from university before my school started – great portable second screen that improved my productivity
Temporarily setup my Mac Mini in my bedroom or living room when I felt I did not want to be confined to the four walls of my home office

Design

You will not feel any awe when you pull the Lenovo L15 monitor out of the box unfortunately. It seems that the product was design to get the job down, at a relatively lower cost. The aim of the manufacturers was not to generate excitement. That said the product sits stably on a table. It is relatively lightweight and lives up to the portability standards. The monitor has two USB-C ports. Hence, you do not have to give up one of the USB-C port on your laptop. You lose one USB-C port when you connect the monitor to the laptop, but the 2nd USB-C port on the monitor can be used for charging the laptop when you plug the laptop’s charger into the USB-C on the monitor. The monitor can passthrough power to the laptop when the monitor is plugged into power via USB-C. The USB-C cable is provided out of the box, so no need to run to Best Buy looking for the connector! The monitor does not require any external power adaptor, which is great for a portable monitor. It is powered by the laptop. The monitor also has a power off button to turn on/off the display. It also has way to turn on / off bluelight emission for night time viewing. However, when I tried to use it initially the brightness went up. The monitor does not have an inbuilt speakers, a design that is understandable given the need for portability.

Although my Lenovo L15 has survived may trips, the design do not feel as sturdy feel as the display screen of my laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga Gen 6. The provided case is fairly flimsy and will only protect the screen against scratches. I would advice anyone to carrying the monitor to store it in the padded section of the backpack to keep it safe.

My Experience

Lenovo L15 has definitely got the job done for my use cases over the years. It has fantastic portability, a requirement that was not compromisable.

Below are a few things I would wish the product could improve on in the next iterator:

Considering the portability of the L15 monitor, a high quality padded sleeve shipped out of the box is in order
When I use my ThinkPad Yoga X1 Gen 6 and extend using the Lenovo L15, I prefer to do most of the reading on the X1’s display rather than on the L15. My X1 Yoga’s display is not WQUXGA (3840×2400) but it still feel way better
The aspect ratio of the 16:9 on the L15 feels weird when you are working on 16:10 laptop. It is a minor inconvenience but noticeable nevertheless.

Competitors

When I was researching for a portable monitor, I found different monitors that were very similar to the L15. Lenovo’s ThinkVision M14 was supposed to be a premium version. Honestly, I do not think Lenovo did enough to target different audience for ThinkVision M14 to command a higher price. Not surprisingly that is not much of a difference in the price after discounts at the time of writing. Almost all I came across had the same aspect ratio of 16:9, which made me go with Lenovo L15. The ASUS – ZenScreen 15.6” IPS FHD 1080P USB Type-C Portable Monitor with Foldable Smart Case would be another portable monitor from a different brand that is very similar and worth considering.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the Lenovo L15 is definitely worth it for anyone seeking a portable second monitor. Especially, at the price point of $149.99 in the US that it is selling at the time of writing this article. That said the product can definitely use some improvements that will give a premium feel to it. Hopefully a next edition of the L15 will be the one!

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Logitech MX Keys Mini for Business: Portable keyboard with an ergonomic design

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 03:10:26 +0000

Logitech MX keys mini for business and MX keys mini were released in major markets towards the end of 2021. The keyboard look very similar to the laptop keyboards but feel very different than most laptop keyboards. The business version can connect through a Logitech Ubolt USB connector provided, in addition to its ability to connect using Bluetooth. The keyboard can be configured to connect three different devices.

My Use Case

I recently purchase a Mac Mini M2 pro as I wanted to learn iOS App development. Although I had a few keyboards, I constants had to swap devices. I also wanted to be able to pack up my Mac Mini, a keyboard, a mouse and a portal monitor. Hence, I was looking for a keyboard with a smaller footprint. Since I already was enjoying experience with my Logitech MX Anywhere 3, I started looking at the Logitech MX keys but it felt insanely pricey. However, the joy of using the MX anywhere 3 kept the keyboard contention. The Logitech K380 was the top choice not just because of its price but because it also offered connectivity with three devices just as the MX keys mini. However, when I saw the MX Keys for business that was priced around $69.99, I went with it. My rationale was that the MX keys seems to have better feel that would be enjoyable to work. Furthermore, since I was planning to use the keyboard on multiple devices for a

The two models MX Keys for consumer and business are very confusing. It looks like two same products with only a few differences:

- Packaging – Consumer version having better packaging

- UBolt USB receiver – Business version having one but not the consumer version

Logitech’s pricing strategy seems to be little weird, especially when the business version is available for consumers. The business version provides a little more but at a lower price point. The only reason I can think is that Logitech has recently opened to sell the business variant to the consumer because of too many unsold inventory. However, this is just my speculation.

My Experience

Pairing the devices was fairly easy. I remember the Windows laptops quickly prompted the whether I want to connect to MX keys. It prompted me to enter a pin number and followed by enter. I was able to connect to multiple devices on the first attempt. The Bluetooth pairing with MacOS, iOS and Android all worked first attempt without any glitch.

For a week after receiving the MX keys for business, I used it only for a few minutes and pulled a full-size keyboard. The main reason that I wanted to use the full-sized keyboard was because I had a hard time typing. Eventually, I forced myself to use the keyboard. Once I started using it, I was able to function well with it. The feel of the keyboard exceeded my expectation as with the MX Anywhere 3 mouse. Beyond the feel of the keyboard, I appreciated the MacOS specific keys as I am new to the Mac. Furthermore, the keyboard does not need any batteries. It has internal battery that can be charged through a USB-C connector that is provided in the box. So far I have found that the batteries seem to hold the charge forever similar to that of the MX Anywhere 3 mouse.

The downside that I noticed was the missing ‘Home’ and ‘End’ key. Only after using this keyboard, I started realizing how often I hit ‘Shift + Home’ or ‘Shift + End’ to highlight lines for copying or deleting. After searching, I realized I found that you can use below key combination for the missing keys:

Fn + Left -> Home
Fn + Right -> End
Fn + Down -> Page Down
Fn + Up -> Page Up

I still find it a pain to remember to use these combination that I need them. Another minor annoyance is not having the ability to turn off the keyboard backlit. I often like to turn the backlit and use it only when I am working in the dark, which is very rare. Furthermore, the backlit comes on and go off without any good reason, at least I could not figure out the true logic behind it.

Over all, I am please with my purchase. I look forward to type on this keyboard as often as I can. While it is not the cheapest mini keyboard in the market, I believe it serves my use case well and will be one of my favorite tech gadget for a while to come.

Competitors

Mini keyboards by default finds its use as an alternate keyboard that will be used for a short time during travel. They generally are look for daily use. Because of such a use case, the cheaper mini keyboards will give a stiff competition to the Mini Keys. Logitech’s other mini keyboards such as K380 and K480 are comparatively cheaper and provide lot of benefits that the MX keys. Amazon.com also has many other less reputed branded mini keyboards, which are almost one fourth the price of the consumer version of MX keys. Some of the keyboards even seem to have similar key design as the MX keys. Hence, the MX keys relies heavily on the brand reputation of Logitech to compete amongst the competition. Although I haven’t tried all these keyboards, I am pretty sure that because of the premium design and feel of the MX keys, Logitech targets to sell these keyboards to the high-end consumers, who are brand loyalist and relatively less price sensitive.

Conclusion

Overall, the MX keys mini is well worth it. Well, at least at a discounted price. If you are making a switch from a full-size keyboard to MX keys mini, it will have its own challenges as getting used to a mini keyboard as a daily driver at work took some getting used to. But if you are looking at this keyboard for occasional use during travel or a backup, there may be many other alternate options available that should be considered. Some of these options are also from the same brand, Logitech.

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Yamaha MusicCast 20 Review: Wireless speaker with stereo and rear surround capabilities

Tech Gadgets Reviewer — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 02:59:30 +0000

The Yamaha WX-021 MusicCast 20 wireless speakers were first introduced around August 2018. Shortly there after, Yamaha also introduced its larger cousin Yamaha MusicCast 50. These speakers are fairly compact and can blend in seamlessly in most any place that you want to put them. These speakers still fairly pack a punch especially when they are used as stereo speakers. In this post, I will share our thoughts regarding how these speakers perform in 2023.

My Use Case

In 2018, I was planning to build a 5.1 home theater system. I planned to buy different speakers in a phased manner. Having previously use a Bose 5.1 home theater system without wireless surround, one of my major pain points was running wires to the rear surround speakers. When I was researching, I found that the Yamaha Music Aventage series and these speakers are the solution to my need. I purchased the Yamaha Aventage RX-A780 AV receiver and two Martin Logan XT35 bookshelf speakers. I started using my two bookshelf speakers in my office. Eventually, the plan was to get a center speaker, two rear surround speakers and a subwoofer and setup the home theater system in our basement. I ended up getting two of the Yamaha MusicCast 20 at different times and using them as wireless speakers in our living room. So far I have used these speakers individually and as stereo speakers but never as rear surround speakers as the rest of my home theater setup is not yet completed in the basement.

Design

The top face has many led indicators such as power, wireless, bluetooth and alarm. It has a nice glossy face with touch buttons. The speakers can be connected to wired network using CAT cables in RJ45 slot. The base has a rubber grip to prevent the speaks from vibrating. There is a port for power cord. Only the power cord is required to drive the speakers. It also has a USB port but it is for servicing purpose only.

My Experience

I found the sound quality of the speakers to be good. Especially, when you pair them as stereo speakers they provide a decent output. I recommend to use the bass booster mode, by setting it through the MusicCast app, sound settings option. Comparing with other speakers that I have used such as Bose 5.1 home theater system and Martin Logan 35XT, I feel the sound quality is decent although not better than the other speakers. That said the comparison is not apples to apples, but just wanted to give a reference to the speakers in which I listen to music. Of course, these speakers are not loud enough to fill a large room, especially when it is used individually. I generally play FLAC format music from my desktop that works as a server. I also play music on my iPhone or through YouTube app through Apple Airplay. I have not run into any issues, while playing music in any of these way.

The accompanying MusicCast App works great on both Android and iPhone. I mainly use it for controlling the volume, turning the speakers on/off, performing OTA updates, and playing music from server. You will also need to use the app for setting up the speakers in stereo mode or as rear surround. You can play music via Airplay or bluetooth without using the app. The setup for stereo or rear surround mode may be a little complicated. Last time when I was trying to pair the two speakers in stereo mode, I was able to pair them without any issue, but I had a hard time to rename the two speakers. It is just a minor annoyance. I have not tried to use these as rear surround speakers yet, but I have read other user reviews that call out that the process is complicated.

The speakers get OTA firmware updates frequently. These updates needs to be performed through the MusicCast app. Most of the time these updates happen without any issues. However, there was one time when one of the speaker seemed dead after the update. The speaker will turn off few seconds later after I turned the power on. After multiple failed attempts to revive it, I turned off and unplugged the speakers and let it sit for a while. Restarting the speaker after a while resolved the issue. It seemed like for some reason the firmware update did not complete even though there was no known power or internet outage. I experienced this scary incident only once during my time using these speakers.

Competitors

Looking through the wireless speakers market in 2023, you will quickly see that there are multiple Sonos speakers that the Yamaha MusicCast 20 competes. Although I personally do not use Alexa or Google Assistant, some of the speakers such as Sonos One and Sonos Roam both come with built in these personal assistants. Furthermore, the price of these speakers are lower compared to the Yamaha MusicCast 20. With that said, the Yamaha MusicCast 20 gets a leg up when you want to use it as a wireless rear surround speaker with a compatible Yamaha AV receiver.

Conclusion

To summarize, the Yamaha MusicCast 20 is still a great wireless speaker in 2023. Other than its larger cousin MusicCast 50, Yamaha has not released a newer version of the speaker yet. If you are shopping for one of these wireless speakers, look no further if you already own a compatible Yamaha AV receiver or need to use the wireless speakers as rear surround sound speakers. But if you are starting from scratch, it might be worth to listen to other wireless speakers and compare the sound quality yourself.

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