Joined on 11/27/05
Convergence of Cell and Landline
Pros: Bluetooth and speakerphone feature are very handy for conference calls when working from home. Standard AAA rechargeable batteries are easy to replace if needed. More than enough handsets. Full functionality from base.
Cons: Navigating features is a pain. Switching from Cell to Handset requires coordination and several button presses. Slight lag when dialing numbers using the handset connected to the cell line.
Overall Review: I use this phone primarily for when I am working from home because the mute button and the speakerphone features are handy. I prefer to use my cell phone to dial because I have unlimited and most people recognize my cell number when it shows up on caller id. It's painful to call the conference line and enter a pin because there is a slight lag, so I end up using my cell phone to dial in, then switch to the handset. It takes a few key presses to connect then switch to speakerphone, so I need to make sure no one is talking, otherwise I will miss a few words.
Slow
Pros: Slick interface. Low price
Cons: Slooooow. Button press on remote took a while to register. System was lagging a bit too. Sometimes, the system would just hang. Also, limited uses: Hulu, NetFlix, DLNA streaming, weather app.
Overall Review: I was looking for a low cost, low power alternative to a full HTPC. I have XBMC running on a Atom based small form factor PC, but it seemed like it was overkill to stream a few movies from a NAS drive. The WD Play was a good price, but it just didn't cut it. I think I need the WD Live instead.
image is outdated
Pros: Remote works as expected. Fully windows 7 MCE / XBMC compatible. I can even use it with my other rosewill IR receiver. Remote is narrow and buttons are in much more comfortable location on the remote than the other model.
Cons: There is a giant red "Rosewill" logo at the bottom of the remote which is not in the online images for this remote.
Overall Review: I was planning to replace my 1 year old, fully functional Rosewill remote with this one because it did not have the ugly logo at the bottom. When I opened the box, I was surprised to find that this one now has the logo as well. Newegg should update the images. I took off one egg for this.
dropped connections
Pros: Cheap. Gigabit (kind of).
Cons: A lot of dropped packets. File transfers take a while and sometimes get corrupted. Streaming video fails sometimes and requires a restart.
Overall Review: PCI doesn't really support Gigabit, although this card pushes the limits. I used this on a FreeNAS server and found that some files were getting corrupted after I transferred it to the server. Also, videos would stop and buffer when reading from this server. Sometimes the system would just hang for a long time and not accept any new connections. I set a weekly reboot, but still needed to reboot if the server was used heavily for extended periods of time.
Network scan feature is nifty
Pros: I got this for the document feeder and to use as a stand alone copier. Both features work well. I also used it to scan a few photos as 600x600 dpi jpegs.
Cons: Comes with a lot of software. I had to use the "brother" print/scan center software since it was a network scanner. Normally, I would just install the drivers and use photoshop. But the software works well. Nuance PDF generator is required to save as PDF format and it overrides all my Adobe plugins, but not much choice.
Works well if your laptop supports it
Pros: It can output full HD, assuming your source supports it. All in one design allows you to push Audio and powered through USB.
Cons: Short wires makes it difficult to connect everything. Depends where all the ports are on your source.
Overall Review: My main issue was that my laptop/netbook did not support 1080P output from the VGA source unless I disabled the built in display. Weak video card. This was not an issue with the device, so I did not list it as a con. Just be aware that you might have a "combined" limit for resolution.