Joined on 04/02/06
Informative display, still good 3 years later
Pros: I have been happy with this UPS for almost three years. This unit has a very informative display, showing important information such as % battery remaining, load in watts, VA, and % of UPS capacity, and best of all, estimated run time. It served me well during Hurricane Sandy in NJ, keeping me informed of how much longer I could keep recharging my laptop and cell phone. The battery is still healthy after almost three years. As a test, I unplugged it from the wall while it fed my 27" monitor and high-wattage desktop PC with about 250 watts. After 15 minutes of simple web browsing, the battery was at 10%. It seems it will take a very long time to recharge, increasing only 1% every 10 minutes or so. Overall, I'm glad to have this sturdy, informative unit. Being informed is a huge advantage over simpler major-brand UPSs I've owned in the past.
Cons: None that I can think of.
Poor design, poor function
Pros: Decent fit in ear. On/off switch is faster than press-and-holding a button. Few features, not overly complicated.
Cons: The whole outer surface is the button, so it's impossible to handle without pressing it. Try to put it on while not on a call, you'll long-press the button, redialing the last caller. Try to put it on to answer a call, you'll hang up on the caller. And forget about trying to carry it in your pocket. The on/off switch is so tiny that it's hard to operate. In the process of trying to turn it off, you'll probably long-press the button and redial the last caller. The auto-volume adjustment is a disaster. The volume level of the caller's voice fluctuates between medium and loud ONCE PER SECOND. The volume change isn't even gradual, it's either medium or loud. Is it trying to account for volume fluctuations in the speaker's voice? Lastly, when you try to manually adjust the volume, it takes a full one second before you can press the volume button again. It plays two tones to demonstrate the current volume, then pauses. It should respond with a single tone and no pause, allowing you to quickly drop or raise the volume. Maybe I'm just using it wrong. I think I have it set at full volume because I couldn't hear the caller. Then, the phone's system sounds blast at full volume (ie: the end call sound). So if I turn it down, will it boost the caller volume? That's just messed up. Keep it simple!