ReviewedByPhil

Buy it at Amazon: Shekoo 1.5 Inch Flat Iron Hair Straightener [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Heats up quickly, straightens fast and efficiently. Easy to use, safe for close to the scalp/skin hair straightening.

The flat iron measures 11" long and has a 9 ft long power cord. The spring hinge is pretty easy to squeeze and the iron has a max opening of 2" between the ceramic plates. The plates are 1.5" wide and 3.5" in length. The iron has a soft-touch silicone rubber exterior so that your hand will have a good grip on it and it won't slip.

Between the handles just under the paddles is where the controls are so you don't accidentally change the settings while you're straightening your hair. There's a power button, temperature adjustment keys (+ and -), and max heat button (M) which will set it to 450 degrees F.

To turn the unit on, just click the power button and you'll see the temperature on the LCD panel start to increase immediately and very quickly. By default the target is 350° F. Clicking the temp adjustment keys adjust the temperature by 20° F and there are 11 levels of temperature. Pressing the M key sets it to 450° F. It only takes 60 seconds from the time you press the power button for it to reach 350° F.

For safety, I use wear a heat-proof glove on my other hand as I feed my hair through the iron and I work in small sections at a time, smoothing my hair from the scalp towards the ends. With this iron, I can get pretty close to my scalp without worrying about burning my skin and I can use it even if my hair is short. If you straighten often you may want to consider using a heat protecting spray for your hair, but never straighten your hair when it is wet or damp and this damages its structure. It makes quick work of straightening my hair and is safe and effective.

Buy it at Amazon: Shekoo 1.5 Inch Flat Iron Hair Straightener [Affiliate Link]

Learn more about the prize: iLive's ISWF576 Multiroom Speaker [Affiliate Link]

Contest ends 4/28/17 @ 12:00 AM! Enter here: https://reviewedbyphil.blogspot.com/p/giveaways.html

Buy it at Amazon: iLive's ISWF576 Multiroom Speaker [Affiliate Link]

Buy it at Amazon: SymaToys Quadcopter X5UW Drone [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Great toy grade drone; stable, easy to control, camera better than expected, 720p video/photos.

You'll receive the drone, remote control, two sets of replacement fan blades, two batteries, a USB battery charger, 720p camera with included 4 GB microSD card, a USB card reader, 4 blade guards, a mini screw driver, the instruction manual, and a cute little build your own model helicopter (like erector set pieces).

The drone is made of a lightweight plastic and is a medium size measuring 12" square and 3" tall. There is some assembly required but it's pretty straightforward. The instructions are very poorly translated though. Assembly consists of snapping the four blade guards around each propeller into place, loading the battery, and attaching the camera (optional). I like that the battery uses a simple slide in/slide out connection rather than trying to fit a small plug on delicate wires into a tiny port. This is the first toy grade drone that I've used that had this feature. The remote control requires 4 AA batteries which are not included.

Connecting to the drone via the Syma Go smartphone app for first person viewing of the camera was quick and easy. I was able to use the camera and video buttons to toggle on and off video recording and snap photos too. However, I wasn't able to get the on-screen flight controls to work so I'm assuming that those are for use with a different model. What I really liked about this drone is that it has a one-click take-off and landing key (top right shoulder button). This makes it easy to lift off to start the flight and take the drone down for a soft landing if you get into trouble. The drone takes off pretty smoothly and is easy to control once you get the hang of it. It's very stable compared to earlier model toy grade drones. It can hover with minimal movement indoors and can achieve high speeds. But outdoors, it can't fight the wind very well and there is no auto return on this drone. The range of the controller is 30-40 ft, so if it goes outside this range you could lose control of it. If you lose connection with the controller, you won't be able to bring the drone back to you so don't let it get too far away from you. The drone is also capable of doing 3D flips which is does nicely.

The camera footage doesn't have any sound but has HD 720p resolution and I was impressed with the quality of the video and photo footage compared to some of the other drones I've used in its price range (those typically have 2 MP or less resolution that's choppy and grainy). The camera performs best outdoors in bright conditions and dark environments may cause the image quality to degrade. Other than that, the drone flies pretty well and having the first person view from the camera on the phone is pretty cool. With two batteries fully charged you can get about 15 mins of flight in a single session. If you remove the camera and don't utilize the WiFi, you'll be able to squeeze an extra minute or two out of each battery. The caps on top of the propellers do pop off easily though, and I've already lost one in a crash, so I wish it had come with some spares.

Buy it at Amazon: SymaToys Quadcopter X5UW Drone [Affiliate Link]

Buy it at Amazon: Winexpert Piesporter White Wine Homebrew Kit [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Delicious white table wine, easy to follow instructions. Semi-dry profile, light body, fruity nose, and smooth mouth feel.

Get everything you need at Amazon (Affiliate Links below):
Wine Making Equipment/Kits: https://geni.us/vYsG
Home Brew Stirring Spoon: https://geni.us/Fm91P
Star San Sanitizer: https://geni.us/ookTbXg
Piesporter Wine Kit: https://geni.us/lQPU0b

The kits comes with all the ingredients you'll need to make the wine. They only things you need to provide are the fermentation equipment (e.g., bucket, siphon, airlock, carboy, sanitizer, bottles/corks etc.). This kit contains a bag of white grape juice, bentonite, potasium metabisulphate, potassium sorbate, isinglass, a Lalvin yeast packet (EC-1118), a satchel of dried Elderflowers, a set of instructions and a smaller juice bag for finishing.

The whole process took about 4 weeks and following the directions was super easy. The only problem I had after the first racking was that the elderflower bits jammed my siphon so that the discharge nipple wouldn't close and seal. I had to use tweezers to pull out a dried stem from the nipple. Since I started the fermentation in the winter, I used a few blankets/fleece jackets and temp controlled heating mat to keep the fermentation in the 72-75°F range. The wine cleared up fine after the addition of the isinglass. As I mentioned in the video, I corked my bottles with the Ferrari double-lever corker, but couldn't get them to go in all the way or without tearing (even after a short soak). Perhaps I had a defective unit as my hand corker never gives me this problem (I had misplaced it for this batch). This kit made 29 bottles of wine.

We waited 6 months to crack open the first bottle for dinner. The wine came out excellent, with a semi-dry profile, light body, fruity nose, and smooth mouth feel. It reminds me somewhat of floral Reisling. We serve this wine at our parties and have shared it with friends and family and everyone really enjoys it. I would make this one again. It's been 1 year since bottle and we've got 7 bottles left.

Buy it at Amazon: Winexpert Piesporter White Wine Homebrew Kit [Affiliate Link]

Buy it at Amazon: UiiSii T8 Dual Dynamic Driver Earphones [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Rich, detailed sound, lots of dimension, bright trebles and good bass but muddy mids; comfortable to wear.

You'll receive the earphones, 5 additional sets of ear tips, a snap open vinyl carrying case, and an instruction manual. The earphones have a unique design with dual mesh vents on each ear piece, one for each driver, and soft rubber ear stabilizer, that's this little nub here, and thick strain relief at the bottom of each earpiece. The total cord length is 50". The ear tips are also unique because they're not completely smooth. There are two textured areas on the pre-installed medium-sized bullet silicone tip which help it grip and stay in your ears better. The other ear tips you receive are a large and small size in the bullet style, which have a narrow opening, and a set of small, medium, and large bowl tips with a wider inner diameter. Just choose the tips that are most comfortable for you and give you proper isolation for external sounds.

Coming off the right earpiece there's a set of in-line controls with volume up, play/pause/call answer, and volume down, however, they are unmarked. The button closest to the earpiece is the volume up key. Interestingly, the manual has pretty specific tempering instructions for these earphones. In order to get the best sound quality, you can't just start blasting music through them. Instead it recommends 12 hours of use with soft, gentle music, 12 hours of use at 2/3 volume, 72 hours at normal listening levels and 24 hours at 130% normal volumes. Now I'm not sure how many people are actually going to go through all that or attempt to listen to music at volumes above normal listening levels which could be harmful to your ears. However, if you do go through the trouble of exercising the diaphragm of the earphones, you'll notice that they sound way better than they do out of the box. You'll probably just notice this over time through regular use.

Once properly tempered, the sound from the earphones is warm and balanced. It has crisp highs and impressive bass response. For example, when listening to Unfinished Symphony's Massive Attack the opening bass drum beats rumbled deeply and had a nice long roll off, though the attacks weren't as tight as they should've been. The vocals ae balanced up top without sounding too forward, however, the midranges can sound a bit muddy depending on the track, especially for live performances. At the loudest volumes it's largely free from distortion and at moderate volumes the isolation is pretty good. Overall, the sound is rich and detailed given the price point of the earphones. It re-creates the sound stage surprisingly well with plenty of dimension and is all in all enjoyable to listen to and comfortable to wear.

Buy it at Amazon: UiiSii T8 Dual Dynamic Driver Earphones [Affiliate Link]

Buy it at Amazon: AmazonBasics Toslink Digital Optical Audio Cable [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Sound transmits fine, clear w/o distortion; connector is large, not great for tight spaces.

The cable has a heavy gauge with a thick, soft rubber coating. The length was accurate to 6' long. It is pretty flexible but make sure not to fold until it pinches to avoid damaging the glass fiber core. The connector is on the large size, measuring 1.5" to the edge of the collar, so it might not be great in small tight spaces. On the end of the connectors are rubber caps that need to be removed before use.

I used it with my soundbar and connect it to my TV. The cable plugs into the optical port pretty easily and snaps into place. It's pretty secure though there's a tiny bit of wiggle room. It doesn't fall out on its own, and I have to pull firmly to remove it. On the TV side, it clicks into place but has a little bit of play as well. The audio plays correctly from my TV. The cable transmitted the signal fine, and I didn't notice any garbled audio or pops and crackles. Works well and simple to use.

Buy it at Amazon: AmazonBasics Toslink Digital Optical Audio Cable [Affiliate Link]

Buy it at Amazon: Zeuste 5 ft Braided Nylon Lightning Cables [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Nice length, metal connectors and fabric cord feel durable; plastic under the connector is weak though and not impact resistant.

UPDATE: One of the cables no longer works. To be fair the phone fell off the table while plugged in because the cat thought the long cord was a neat toy. The Lightning connector end bent pretty badly and wiggles now so it doesn't connect anymore. As a counterpoint though, I've dropped the phone while charging with the Apple cable before and it's survived such treatment. However, the vendor shipped me a replacement cable anyway, which was awesome. The replacement works fine, but I'll be sure not to treat it as rough this time.

I've had these for a couple weeks now and they've been working fine (all 3). I have an iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 that we charge with these cables every day at least once. The cables charge both phones at comparable speed to the OEM Apple cable. The connectors on the cable are made of aluminum which is a bit nicer than the plastic of the original Apple cable. The connectors are about the same dimensions as Apple's Lightning cable which make them compatible with most iPhone cases too. I like that the cables are long because it's easier to access outlets that are far away. The fabric wrap is more flexible and moderately more tangle resistant than the rubber cable. Overall, I'm happy with this purchase, but will update the review if/when any fail.

Buy it at Amazon: Zeuste 5 ft Braided Nylon Lightning Cables [Affiliate Link]