Bose The QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones - Product Review

Bose The QuietComfort 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones

My previous Bose noise cancelling headphones died on me during a trip to Canada. For me a set of good noise cancelling headphones is extremely important due to the amount of time I spend travelling and because I work in a very enclosed environment around 10 other people all talk at the same time on occasion. 

My previous Bose where over ear headphones which were fantastic, however Bose had decided to discontinue them.

I did a fair bit of searching on the internet to find some new noise cancelling headphones, during the search I was brought back to these, the Bose in-ear QuietComfort 20 noise cancelling headphones. 

Sound Quality: 8.5  out of 10.

• The sound quality is excellent.
• Like my previous Bose the bass and treble are very good, clear and good for all types of music. 
• The noise cancelling is very good, on planes I can hardly hear any of the drone from the engines or people talking around me. When I am at work I can hardly hear people talking around me even at low volume. 
• It can also be used with your phone to answer calls. This works very well and the sound is clear and crisp.

Comfort: 8.5 out of 10

• Very comfortable
• Unlike my previous headphones being in-ear they are extremely comfortable. The ear buds are adjustable. They are soft and very comfortable
• The fit in the ear nicely and can be using for running and walking without a problem.

Cost: 7 out of 10

• They will cost you about 229 pounds, from Bose's website link below, but I am sure if you do a quick search on google you will be able to save a few quid:

https://www.bose.co.uk/en_gb/products/headphones/earphones/quietcomfort-20-acoustic-noise-cancelling-headphones.html#v=qc20_samsung_black

• Other noise cancelling in-ear headphones are available but for me these offer the best sound for the a reasonable price. Others maybe cheaper, but if you ask me the sound quality and comfort of the bose won me over.

Durability and Longevity: 8.5 out of 10

• Not had them very long, but so far so good. They get thrown in my bag on a daily basis, get used in the gym and when running. Never had a problem.
• The battery last for a very long time, days in fact of constant use. You can charge it using a micro usb, the same as you use for most phones, which is extremely handy. Saves carrying around loads of cables.
• A strong and sturdy product.

Bad Points:

• The battery is too close to the jack, it is a pain when you have it connected to your phone or music device when it is in your pocket. It would be better if they had made it further up the cable, so you could connect it to an item of clothing or something. Also for some reason makes me worried that I could damage it being so close to the jack.
• Controlling your music using the mic buttons. You are able to adjust what music your listening too using the buttons on the mic. It is helpful though it doesn't work all that well. For example a double tap will skip the song, a single tap will pause it and a triple tap will take you back a song. I constantly find myself pausing the songs when I am trying to skip one. 

Overall Review: 8.5 out of 10

I would recommend them: 

• Yes definitely 
• Great sounds
• Great quality
• Great design
• Very comfortable
• A very good overall noise cancelling headphone.

Samsung S5 (Rooted) to Sony Z5 Premium

Background:

Before writing this review I decided that I would use the Sony Z5 for a while to get a really good feel for it to allow me to write a clear and concise review.

Samsung S5:
When I got this phone I was really happy with it, the size, functionality and hardware etc, also really liked the fact that it was waterproof and the ability to change the battery.
I did find it a bit slugish on the software side so I decided to root it (that and I hated the fact that every time I opened the charging port there are pop ups tell you to remember to shut it). Once rooted (easy to do, did a search online) the operating system I used sped up things nicely, and with the addition of a few apps like Greenify and Tasker made the phone really fast.
So if anyone is looking for a slightly older phone for their children or someone I would recommend the S5 (for now)

However as time went on I decided that it was time for a new phone

Sony Z5 Premium 

Before going for the Z5, I looked a good number of phones and didn't really find anything that I like and as I did own a Z3 Compact and loved it, although it was a little small (hence the reason to get the S5) I decided to give the Z5 premium a go.

The Review:

Style/Hardware. 

• The phone is nice in your hands, it has a solid feel.
• I my opinion it is a good size for your pocket, fits in jeans and jackets pockets perfectly. Although for running bands etc remember to try them out first.
• With the 3 GB RAM, Up to 32 GB flash memory and the 64-bit Octa-core processor, Quad-core 2.0 GHz+ Quad-core 1.5 GHz  is has more than enough power for any app that I have come across.
• You can add an external micro SD card as with all the Sony phones, which are cheap enough and can hold more than enough data for the average users.
• It has full 4G capability, Bluetooth 4.1 wireless technology, Wi-Fi MIMO etc.
• The sound quality is great, but you have to expect that from Sony. 
• Camera 23 MP Sony Exmor RS main camera and a 5 MP front camera Sony Exmor R both are great, the quality is amazing and can record in HD, which with the screen look amazing.
• There are a lot of other specs I could throw at you regarding the style and hardware etc but at the end of the day this is one of Sony's top end phones at the moment and internally it is up there with the best of them. If you do want to see the full spec here's the link http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/products/phones/xperia-z5-premium/specifications/

Screen. 

• The screen is 5.5'' 4K UHD (3840x2160), 806 PPI
• It looks great, pictures are clear and crisp. I don't think anyone could complain about it. It is the best screen that I have seen on any phone on the market today and that includes the new Samsung's and iPhones.

Apps and functions. 

• The fingerprint scanner on the side works great (a lot easier to use than the front fingerprint scanners found on say the iphone etc). 
• The waterproof feature is great too. Use it all the time from listening to music in the shower, having it in my pocket the beach, to just washing it when it is dirty. One things that is slightly annoying is, if you decided to have the double tap function to activate the phone, when water hits it, it does open it up. You don't have to have this function activated and if you don't it does solve the problem.
• The in built apps on the Sony are very subtle, they don't interfere with the function of the phone and unlike the Samsung, don't tell you to do things that you would do anyway.
• Not had a single problem with connecting to anything with either the bluetooth or the wi-fi.
• The apps are easy to navigate, and you can set up your interface in anyway that you want really.
• Sound quality of both the calls and music is again excellent. 

Speed. 

• Excellent - never had a problem not once, with any app. I would recommend cleaning it up every once and a while. Use something like Greenify or AVG or something similar.

Battery. 

• This is also very good.
• Sony say that it can last for 2 day, I really don't think this is the case. I would say that I am an average user of a phone and it will last for an entire day. But 2 I really don't think so.
• However saying that it is an achievement to have such a good battery life with such a top end phone with such a good screen.

Conclusion.

• I do really like the Sony Z5. 
• Yes it is a bit expensive at around £600, but for a top end phone the price is about average.
• It feel and looks top end, and will easily last you a couple of years, without you needing to get an upgrade.

• Overall the only question that matters is would I recommend this phone to a friend. The answer is unequivocally YES.

Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones - Product Review

Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones.

Sound Quality: 8.5  out of 10.

I have had these for a while now about 3 years and I have to say that they are a great mid-range (as I have been told mid-range by a friend who is really into his headphone) set of headphones. The bass and treble are very good, clear and good for all types of music. I have tried many different headphones over the last few years including the Beats Audio, but in my opinion these are and have been the best.
The noise cancelling is very good, on planes (which I travel on a lot) I can hardly hear any of the drone from the engines or people talking around me. This is the same for everyday life. When I wear them when travelling around cities I have to remind myself to be more observant around roads.

Comfort: 9 out of 10

As a glasses wearer it is hard to find over the ear headphones that don't push against the glasses frame. Not only does this start to hurt after a while, it also desegregates the sound quality. As these have been designed to sit on the ears and not around them, they are great for me and other glasses wearers.
Also they use memory foam which mold into your ear in a soft comfortable way. I often wear them on flights lasting longer than 10 hours, having little to no discomfort.
Not only take the foam ear things (whatever they are called) can be replaced when needs be, as I did earlier this year and it is very simple to do.

Cost: 7 out of 10

They will cost you about 299 pounds, from Bose's website (http://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/home-and-personal-audio/headphones-and-headsets/acoustic-noise-cancelling-headphones/quietcomfort-3-headphones/ ) but like anything nowadays I am sure that you could find them cheaper with a little searching online.
Yes there are other headphones out there that are cheaper, but personally for the whole package these are the right ones for me.

Durability and Longevity: 9 out of 10

Had them for a long time and never had a problem, not once with them.
The battery last for a very long time, days in fact of constant use. The battery can be replaced, along with most of the parts.
A strong and sturdy product.

Bad Points:

Well there aren't too many bad points to say about these but:
1. I wish there was an adapter to allow them to become wireless. Bose do, do some that are wireless, but they are over the ear ones and well no good for me a as glasses wearer.
2. The carry case is a little large and I wish that the UK plug adapter would fit into the case more easily.

Overall Review: 8.5 out of 10

I would recommend them to anyone, which I have done.
Great sounds
Great quality
Great design
Very comfortable

Transferring data and content from an iPhone 6 to Samsung or other Android phone. (July 2016)

Here are a couple of ways of transferring data from the iPhone to a Samsung phone.

1. Use the Smart Switch transfer - This is a Samsung application that you can uses out of the box. Not sure what it is like, but I am assuming that it would be good.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/smart-switch/iphone-hub.html 

Each company: Sony, LG etc will have their own version of this type of software. Normally when you first get the phone and plug it into your computer it will either have it pre-installed into the phone, which will ask you if you wish to do a transfer or you can just go to the companies website and do a search. 

They are all relativity simple and will guide you through the process. 

In some cases this is very good, although in my experience, they always leave something behind which you have to enter manually at a later date. 

I would always give this a go first though.

2. The other way is to use a 3rd party software. It would do the same thing as the Samsung/Sony etc one but maybe a little better. An example for a Samsung S7 is listed below.

https://www.wondershare.com/samsung/icloud-to-samsung-galaxy-s7.html

If you want to link your calendar events and stuff like that because you use a mac calendar (I don't think you would do that as you don't have a mac, but maybe you use an ipad calendar) there are a number of apps on the google store, things like isync etc. What this does is if you do use a mac or ipad etc and want to continue to sync all you contacts with itunes, icloud, etc this will transfer any updates on a regular basis. 

Like I said though for you I would just transfer everything to your phone and use the google calendar etc and get away from the itunes/apple.

Some apps that I would recommend that you get:

To maintain your phones memory etc:

1. Greenify - Once you set this up it will close any apps that are not being used.

2. Clean Master - If your phones are slow this cleans the memory.

3. AVG Anti Virus or any antivirus (do get an antivirus, there are loads on there and if you don't want to pay just google the best free antivirus for android)

To back up your phone:

Titanium backup or Easy Backup (these are a bit like icloud back up, but you can store the backup to an sd card or to a computer.

Document editing and creation:

1. Dropbox

2. Office Mobile or OfficeSuite

3. Adobe Acrobat

File Browser:

File Commander - This app is a bit like windows explorer, allows you to go into all the files and folders on your phone, both sd card and the phone itself.

Notes and Reminders:

1. Evernote - This app stores any notes that you make to a cloud and on the phone. Good for general notes etc and you can log into it from any device.

2. Tasks - Its a reminder app. Good for work and personal stuff.

Some apps you can pay for, although if you don't think you would use it then don't pay, there are loads of free alternatives on google store. 

The samsung transfer will also allow you to sync apps that you have on your iphone too. I am sure that Sony etc have added this feature to their software as well.

There are loads of other apps that you may want for music, pictures, games, social media, fitness, etc But this is very individual and easy to find with a quick look on the app store.