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Admin | February 19, 2015

Samsung Tab S8.4 overview!

Yeah, it's that time when considering a new tablet. I was looking in the sub 8inch range, a bit larger than my Nexus 7 but still portable enough to carry around in your pocket. My first pick was the Sony Xperia Z3, it was a fairly good tablet, but it did led to one disappointment and that's the screen it's an IPS display and all that different from my Nexus 7. Compared to one of its competors the Tab S display did seem like a more promising tablet.

I returned the tablet to the shop and traded it for the Samsung Tab S 8.4. First off there's alot good things to say about Z3TC and there's only one bad thing to say which is the screen. There's are alot more bad things to say about the Samsung tablet although those are software issues mostly.

Sony Xperia Z3TC
Pro's

  • PS4 remote play
  • Excelent battery life
  • Good/premium build quality
  • Frontfacing speakers
  • Thin and lightweight
  • Snapdragon 801 @ 2.5Ghz

Con's

  • Price
  • Color display

The color display isn't very impressive with the Sony tablet. White balance is oftenly to blueish. It's still a fine looking IPS display, it's very bright, but if you put all 8 inch competers together it's clear who's the winner.

It's CPU is very fast, it has no problem multitasking like opening apps one after another it performs flawlessly with the Snapdragon 801 chip clocking at 2.5Ghz.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
Pro's

  • Gorgeous Super AMOLED display
  • Outstanding battery life during video consumtion
  • Thin and lightweight

Con's

  • Lag and performance issue
  • TouchWizz drains the battery
  • Bloatware

The colors of the Tab S are really outstanding, the colors are very vibrant, punchy and suturated. They are definitely not accurate colors, but they do look gorgeous and one of the main selling points of this tablet. It is really the best looking display on any handheld right now.

The Sony's cons are just a minor setback compared to the Samsung. For the average consumer the Samsung has some very noticeable setbacks. The Tab S has a very good battery at 4900mAh, but the battery's life is very disappointing, there's sometimes lag swiping through menus, pulldown menus or switching apps. This is an high end flagship tablet and that's simply inexcuseable. That being said, I'm a thinkering kind of person so what I did is flashing a stock Android based ROM namely CyanogenMod 12.

After cleaning the entire tablet and doing a fresh CM12 install, all these software issues were solved. No more lag, tablet performs just beatifully, buttery silky smooth. Tablet is very snappy and fast. The battery life has also improved ever since getting rid of Samsung's TouchWizz and bloatware.

Conclusion
In the end with tweaking Tab S wins over the Xperia Z3TC or nVidia Shield. With no tweaking I would pick the Xperia Z3 over the Tab S. The Xperia Z3TC performs very smooth and fast with the super fast Snapdragon 801 CPU.

I personally would not recommend the Tab S to the average consumer it has many set backs the only positive trade off is its beatiful gorgeous Super Amoled display. Most setbacks are software related, but it's no secret either that Samsung is fillled with BloatWare and that TouchWizz is resourceful. But despite of all these setbacks if the screen is still drawing you the Tab S might still be for you. If performance is your main priority and you don't want to go through the trouble flashing a custom ROM to the Tab S Xperia Z3TC or nVidia Shield Tablet would be a better choice for you.

Lastly, Tab S is still an excellent tablet and has an amazing Super Amoled display. Its minimal bezels and a 8.4 inch display makes it really the botherline of being a portable tablet that fits in your pocket. If you are a poweruser this tablet requires tweaking and a custom ROM to unlock its full potention and to get the best experience out of this tablet. The nVidia Shield and Xperia Z3 tablet don't because they're pretty much stock Android already and have tons of good features without bloatware and will be getting 5.0 very soon.


Admin | February 13, 2015

Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact

My impressions of the Z3TC.

 

Pros

Thin and premium build 

Fast CPU clocking atm2.5ghz

Good battery life

PS4 remote play and DS4 pairing without rooting.

 

 

Cons

No QHD

Screen white balance is off

IPS display is inferior to its 8 inch competor Tab S 8.4


Admin | February 07, 2015

Why MP3 store downloads are a ripoff.

These days displays are getting alot of attention, people do not settle anymore for 720p they want HD, QHD (2k) or even UHD(4k). Pixel density is more demanding the past years on tablets, phones and displays and such. 720p has become the borderline of being unacceptable quality. If that's unacceptable, why accept it in audio?
 
These days MP3s are very convenient and supported by many devices such as Apple devices, audio cars and so on. However no matter how high the bit rate of an MP3 file, it's still a lossy format, meaning some of the sound quality is lost during the conversion from a CD. 
 
Then there's FLAC (Free Loseless Audio Codec) which a lossless audio codec that doesn't lose any sound quality during its conversion, but is much bigger in size than MP3 files. FLAC files usually vary between anything from 20-40 but some can range up to 80MB per file.  It is also not as widely supported in devices as compared to MP3s, but there are many more of them than just a few years ago. If sound quality is your highest priority, then converting CDs to a lossless codec like FLAC might be worth considering.
 
Online stores sell "digital" albums for the same price as a CD in a physical store. Except most stores sell them as MP3 which is a lossy format as discussed above. So essentially you're buying an item that is weaker quality compared if you were buying the physical CD in a store. More online stores start to offer FLAC, but it's still quite limited. I have an high end headphone, so getting the best quality is always my priority. It is noticeable when songs are peaking at high or low frequency and it's a MP3 file. There's a slight distortion/creeking in the song which is not the case with FLAC when listening to the same song. For example one of the bigger music stores, iTunes does only offer MP3, but what's confusing is that they don't even offer AAC (Apple's Loseless Codec). iTunes doesn't support FLAC, but Apple has made their own format, but you don't see this back in their store which is confusing.
 
I have high end headphones and quality is definitly my prioirty, if it's possible to get a song as FLAC or MP3 I'd pick the best quality. So, I would never buy anything from an iTunes store, because I wouldn't settle for inferior audio quality.
 
And with that ends my rant.

Admin | January 30, 2015

My demand list for a compact tablet

Yes, it's that time of the year and considering a new tablet, but you also don't want to settle for a subpar product so you're setting some demands. For me I've used ten inch tablets but I really have been prefering the 7-8 inch range tablets with 8 inch being the max, for eBook reading and general reading. The beauty about 7-8 inch tablets that they can be used in portrait mode and have about the same size as an average book. In portrait mode you have alot more room since it's a 16:9 resolution mostly. You can hold it with two hands while chatting with two thumbs. 

At some point I plan on buying a new tablet, I have a nexus 7 (2013), while I still like this tablet a lot there's some shortcomings like outdated 2 year old hardware, battery feels a bit on the low side since nowadays 8 inch tablets have 4-5k mAh batteries.

Anyways, here's the demand list

  • Front facing speakers
  • Atleast 1920x1200 or 2560x1440
  • IPS or amoled display
  • 7 to 8 inch with 8 inch being the Max
  • Snapdragon 801 (2.5GHz) chipset or better
  • At least 3GB ram
  • Good build quality
  • Waterproof is a plus
  • Android, OS of choice
  • Stock Android is a plus
  • Or a popular manufacturer so CyaNoGen will most likely be available
  • 4.5k mAh battery or better
  • HDMI mini port is a huge plus

All I can think of right now.


Admin | January 29, 2015

Hatsan MOD 90

My newest purchase, the Hatsan MOD 90. I quite powerful spring operated break-barrel rifle. The guns recoil is quite nice, being used to co2, and one side springer the Baikal MP61 this one shoots very different that takes abit of practice to get use to.  Also bought a suitcase for my air rifle, this is useful when traveling too as well good way of storing guns..

The Hatsan Striker 1000s caught my eye first, but the shop I visited recommended me the Hatsan MOD 90 for 7 euro more it has a better triger which is a quantum trigger. Accuracy wise is pretty good, I was getting fine accuracy shots at 20yd. I got this gun in .22 calibur, .177 calibur goes way to hard to the point the pellet becomes unstable. I got about averagely 799-800 fps in .22 with dome and flatheads.

 

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/qwoji3t.jpg

 


Admin | January 08, 2015

Red dot sight + Multishot magazine

Some upgrades for my rifle, first off due the size of the magazine it clock blocks my iron sight so I ordered a red dot sight for close ranged shooting, for long ranged shooting I can still use my Nikko scope :)

My rifle is currently a single shot bolt action, but I fixed that by getting a mod for my rifle. Multishot magazine, holding 10 shots, pretty happy with it. Maybe I'll paint it black it looks abit ugly. Or maybe get a red dot scope 1/2-2x zoom that goes over the magazine, we'll see!


Admin | December 29, 2014

Nikko Stirling 4-12x50 AO

My new scope for my rifle!


A comparison with my previous shitty scope



Admin | December 16, 2014

Narconia QB78 co2 Rifle

My lasted air rifle purchase the Industry Brand QB78 imported by Narconia. I am quite pleased with this air rifle, it's pretty accurate and suprisingly well built for its price point. The handle is fully wood and the rest is steel, the plastic used is very minimal. The trigger and cocking handle is made from Brass.

Abit of history on this rifle, it's actually an inspired imitation of the Crossman 160/167 (which is no longer in production) and the was demand for the Crosman 160 so this Chinese brand took it upon theirself of making a rifle that basically is an imitation of the Crosman 160.

This gun goes for  roughly 100-110 euro, and most guns at that price point are made out of plastic. I dislike plastic build guns myself although there are some pretty good airguns that are plastic like the Baikal IZH MP-61. But this gun feels really nice in the hand and weights about 2.5kg so makes you feel abit like you're holding a real rifle.


Admin | December 13, 2014

DIY pellet trap board

Do it yourself. Making a pellet trap powered by a reinforced board to catch the pellet. Surely not an overkill at all.

The plate itself covers 7 hardboard plates on a thin steel markboard.

Once mounted on eachother it's time to hang it on the wall!

several layers of cardboard before this fine piece of reinforced pellet board. Tested it first on my Crosman 1377 with a velocity at 600 fps and doesn't go through the first layer of the hardboard plate.

 

Reinforced pellet board success!


Admin | September 15, 2014

I beat FFXIV

I beat FFXIV, fuck you too Novus. Finally it's over.

 


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