Spring finally arrived but Tech Trends has been closeted indoors testing and reviewing all sorts of cool gadgets and thingamabobs for you lucky readers!

Sphero Mini

The Sphero Mini follows in the line of the original Sphero, Sprk+ and the popular Sphero BB-8. The new Mini takes much of what its previous models so successful and shrinks it down to a smaller – and more economical – package.

Sphero Mini packs tons of fun into a tiny, app-enabled robotic ball. drive, play games, learn to code, and more.

The new Mini takes much of what its previous models so successful and shrinks it down to a smaller - and more economical - package
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Now the size of a snooker ball the Sphero Mini comes in a range of robust-coloured shells which open to reveal its components within (a gyroscope and accelerator). A few fun accessories are also enclosed in the package – including half a dozen colourful mini skittles and some cones so you can layout your own course and steer your Mini through it.

Initially, a little slow to charge -especially if you have children eager to play – the app intel is easy to download and boot up and once launched is quick to get going with a colourful simple interface which is very child-friendly and easy to navigate.

Packed with teeny tiny tech such as a gyroscope, accelerometer, and LED lights and almost an hour of play time, Sphero Mini is the next big thing.

The app intel is easy to download and boot up and once launched is quick to get going with a colourful simple interface which is very child-friendly and easy to navigate
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In the app you can choose between a variety of control methods: standard joystick, tilt control, slingshot and face driving – which although may prove fun for younger players is actually quite a frustrating experience. Apart from the standard tech toy drive modes, there are also a few arcade style games tucked within the app wherein you can use the Sphero as a controller. They’re a fun little distraction but compared to what kids can play on their phones nowadays they won’t amuse them for long.

Drive Mini using different modes with the Sphero Mini app, or just by using your lovely mug. This Ball is also a Video Game controller! Use Mini as a controller to shoot your way through space, race through a tunnel, or to destroy a polygon of bricks.

The app is a great introduction to the basics of programming and with a simple drag and drop approach even younger players can make their own programs or adapt provided templates
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But it’s the Sphero Edu coding app that raises this tech toy above that of your average remote control car. The app is a great introduction to the basics of programming and with a simple drag and drop approach even younger players can make their own programs or adapt provided templates. Once you’ve become familiar with the paths and blocks that represent code you can then write your own JavaScript text programs.

Program the Mini with Javascript. If you’re feeling extra clever, download the Sphero Edu app and program your robot using JavaScript. The SPRK+ robot was built for programming. What’s the difference?

Overall the Sphero Mini is a solid reasonably priced tech toy
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Overall the Sphero Mini is a solid reasonably priced tech toy. In some ways, it suffers from the general failure of many of the interactive educational bots in that you really have to encourage the child to explore its capabilities or they will just become an expensive remote control car and have a very limited replay value. Given proper guidance, however – if you have the patience – they are a great way to encourage a basic grasp of coding.

RRP: $49.00

Review by Ashley Thorpe, Animator & Filmmaker at Carrion Films and Film & Games Correspondent at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @CarrionScreamin

Dell Visor Windows MR Headset

The first thing that hit me when I popped on the Dell Visor was its weightless comfort. It is similar in design to the PS4 VR headset and puts the weight of the device on the top of your head but is just a bit easier to get used to wearing and less front-heavy.

The first thing that hit me when I popped on the Dell Visor was its weightless comfort
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After trying some VR headsets that clamp the screen onto the front of your face with straps I have been left in physical pain (especially around the nose and ears) and so have become a connoisseur of VR comfort (or lack thereof) and the Dell design gets top marks.  Read the full review here.

Carlton AR Children’s Books

Carlton Books are at the forefront of early stage, educational AR books and I can’t think of a better use for mobile AR tech. Visually exciting and interactive technology paired with real-world play and learning should draw kids into new subjects and areas of study in a new and exciting way. It is important to note how early stage this technology is but Carlton have thrown themselves behind AR with exciting results.

Carlton Books are at the forefront of early stage, educational AR books and I can’t think of a better use for mobile AR tech
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It is important to note how early stage this technology is but Carlton have thrown themselves behind AR with exciting results
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Last year I was very impressed with their more adult-focused Alien: Augmented Reality Survival Manual, it had some very engaging AR content and is still my benchmark for this hybrid publishing format, so I was keen to try out this new series of educational AR books Tech Trends picked up at the 2018 London Book Fair. I was particularly keen to see how easy they made the process of linking the technology, the AR content and the physical books as the interaction between paper and digital needs to be seamless, immersing the reader (or user?) in the content with minimal UI friction.

First up was iExplore Bugs, off the bat this should be good as who doesn’t love creepy crawlies! The first page had clear instructions showing you how to download the app and use it. The App icon and the printed AR activation symbols were the same, making it really clear how it worked but there was no printed QR code to take you straight to the app in the iOS or Android app stores, why not? I had to open the app store and search for the app, luckily the printed instruction had the correct app name so this was not too hard but it should have been much easier.

Flying the Dragons around the room was serious fun and the quality or the AR was excellent
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After activating the AR there was a clear prompt on what to do next, look through the phone's camera and point it at the app symbol on each page to bring the bug to life
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The app is pretty large and took a while to download and install but when opened offered a taste of what was to come with a friendly animated cricket, instructions and links to other apps in the publisher series. After activating the AR there was a clear prompt on what to do next, look through the phone’s camera and point it at the app symbol on each page to bring the bug to life. My Galaxy S8 would not focus the camera inside the app and so detecting the symbol was a bit tricky, everything was permanently out of focus so the camera was not quick to activate the AR. However when it popped up the AR quality was great and the in-app bug controller, information and mini test were well designed and fun to use. The only niggle was the juddery bugs, when they were standing on the page they juddered constantly as the app calculated the ground level. This was a bit distracting but when the bugs took off and flew around the room under my control it improved a lot. This was serious fun and the quality or the AR Dragons was excellent.

The flying creatures got even better in Dragons Come to Life (so cool) where the Dragons from Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon leap off the page and let you fly them around the room. The book’s instructions and app were just as clear and the AR dragons and little human characters were really very cool. You could also swat up on the Dragon’s special powers and its Top Trumps style, abilities followed by a little knowledge test. Again the S8 camera would not focus in the app so it failed completely to activate some of the dragons, even in very bright light, quite annoying.

Carlton Books have done a really good job here and the books and apps are fun to use and very reasonably priced considering the background work this AR tech requires
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All in all Carlton Books have done a really good job here and the books and apps are fun to use and very reasonably priced considering the background work this AR tech requires. The books absolutely must have printed QR codes to take you to the right app or Carlton need to issue one app that works across all their books in a series. The friction of looking for the right app to go with the right book is simply unnecessary and easily fixed. The in-app camera failing to focus was a big issue but an app update should fix this and my only other minor niggle is the visuals and text in the books, particularly the covers. They are overselling the concept with too many images and too many mixed up fonts and bold graphics, it all looks too busy and hectic on the page. However, with publishers like Carlton pushing the Print & AR format I can see other publishers getting onboard but for now, none match the quality on show here from Carlton.

RRP: Individual books £9.99 and the Carlton AR range is here.

Aukey Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

If asked to sum up Aukey’s products I would have to say ‘best bang for your buck’ is the phrase that comes to mind. They are invariably much better quality than the price suggests, solidly built, practical and reliable. In the case of this 16W, SK-S1 wireless Bluetooth speaker I can also add, attractive.

The SK-S1 is surprisingly solid for its size. When you first pick it up gives off a feeling of quality and confidence, and the sound is very good
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There are some wacky and expensive looking portable speakers out there but this one just looks smart and modern, blending into my office, kitchen and garden. It is also surprisingly solid for its small size and when you first pick it up gives off a feeling of quality and confidence. The curved metal grills and the brushed steel top ooze a stylish simplicity and the silicone base promises to keep it clinging to any surface. Read the full review here.

ZeroWater Filter and TDS Meter

This 12-cup water filter jug from ZeroWater looks much like every other water filter out there but what makes it a more high-tech drinking solution is its patented, 5-stage Ion Exchange Filtration system, which removes virtually all dissolved solids from your water. These solids may include minerals, salts, metals, chemicals and runoff. Mmmm runoff, my favourite non-specific dissolved solid!

It removes virtually all dissolved solids from your water. These solids may include minerals, salts, metals, chemicals and runoff. Mmmm runoff, my favourite non-specific dissolved solid!
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The ZeroWater filter is also the first in its class to benefit from a sealed lid and reservoir, which allows filtered water to be poured while water, which hasn’t yet been, filtered remains in the reservoir. This adds a further 2 cups of capacity to the 10 cups of filtered water in the jug. It also features a very cool one-handed, pull and pour button spout for easy pouring from the fridge or for filling bottles. Four additional stages of water filtration ensure larger particles and other impurities are removed.

Well, I used the laboratory-grade Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) meter provided on our unfiltered tap water and got a reading of 078. I then filled up the jug and measured the filtered water and… dum dum duuuum! Got a reading of 000. So this seems to do a fine job of removing those unpleasant impurities from your water, and that can only be a good thing. Our water normally tastes fine if a little chloriney and after filtering through the ZeroWater tasted very different. It’s difficult to describe the taste but it is not unpleasant and definitely better than straight out of the tap.

I used the laboratory-grade Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) meter provided on our unfiltered tap water and got a reading of 078. I then filled up the jug and measured the filtered water and got a reading of 000
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• Certified* to reduce Lead, Chromium, & Mercury
• Premium 5-Stage Dual-Ion Exchange filtration system
• Ion-Exchange system that removes virtually all dissolved solids in your water
• The FDA requires the TDS level in PURIFIED bottled water to reach 000-010ppm. ZeroWater is the only filter in its class to achieve this level.

RRP: £39.99

Dell Precision 7720 VR-Ready Mobile Workstation

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 VR-Ready Mobile Workstation last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna. She was over £7k of laptop and I was a drooling geek, palms sweaty at the prospect of an Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 server processor, Nvidia Quadro P5000 and a Samsung SM961 M.2 SSD. My shaking hands slowly peeled off her cardboard clothes, plugged her straight into the mains and turned myself on So how was it? Well, it was sweet while it lasted but she soon left me and drove away with the same cheeky UPS driver! Read the full review here.

Aukey Powered USB 3.0 Hub

Like Apple, PC motherboard makers seem to be on a crusade to limit external connections. I suspect this might be due to the variety of new superspeed connections users expect every board to have pushing out the more practical and proven connections such as USB 3. I have never had the need for an expansion card or hub like this one from Aukey before but with only six USB 3 ports on my PC (four on the rear and two on the front) and a wealth of USB dongles and devices I was struggling. Sure I tried a few small two or three port extenders that did the job but a mains powered, six-port hub like this provided a much-needed connectivity boost.

I have never had the need for an expansion card or hub like this one from Aukey before but with only six USB 3 ports on my PC and a wealth of USB dongles and devices I was struggling
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The hub adds six SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to your laptop or desktop computer, plus Aukey threw in one Smart Quick-Charging Aipower port and a Gigabit Ethernet port capable of accessing superfast network speeds of up to 1000Mbps. With the palm-size and lightweight design the CB-H17 Powered USB hub retains high-speed access to all of your devices without overloading your pocket or desktop. With USB data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, you’ll be able to sync files and interact with your Mac or PC more efficiently than ever.

This hub adds six SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to your computer, plus one Smart Quick-Charging Aipower port and a Gigabit Ethernet port capable of accessing superfast network speeds
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This is a very robust little hub from Aukey and is a worthy addition to your home computer, you won't know how you survived without one
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Powered by a 12V/3A mains adapter you can use your all external USB hard drives and even charge your smartphone or tablet when your computer is turned off (except for the iOS system), that could come in pretty handy! This is a very robust little hub and is a worthy addition to your home computer, you won’t know how you survived without one.

• Compact and slim design effectively saves your desk space and expands your connectivity
• One 2.4A output smart charging port provides full-speed and sufficient powers to charge all Apple and Android Smartphone, tablets and other USB charged devices
• The Ethernet port supports 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet. Support WinXP/ 7/ 8/ 10, Linux, Mac OS
• Package Contents: AUKEY CB-H17 Powered USB Hub, 3.3ft USB Cable, 12V/3A Power Adapter, User Manual, 24 Month Warranty Card

RRP: £19.99 reduced from £24.99 on Amazon UK

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post April 2018 Tech Trends Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

Like Deckard in Blade Runner; I am in love with a machine and I just don’t care!

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna. She was over £7k of laptop and I was a drooling geek, palms sweaty at the prospect of an Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 server processor, Nvidia Quadro P5000 and a Samsung SM961 M.2 SSD. My shaking hands slowly peeled off her cardboard clothes, plugged her straight into the mains and turned myself on 😉 So how was it? Well, it was sweet while it lasted but she soon left me and drove away with the same cheeky UPS driver!

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna
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Check out the Specs below:

• Windows 10 Professional (x64)
• 17.3″ UHD IPS Narrow Border (3840×2160) Wide View with Web Camera and Mic
• Intel Xeon E3-1545M v5 (Quad Core Xeon 2.90GHz, 3.80GHz Turbo, 8MB 45W, w/Iris Pro Graphics P580)
• 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Class 40 MPWS
• 64GB, 4x16GB, 2400MHz DDR4 Non-ECC SDRAM
• NVIDIA Quadro P5000 w/16GB GDDR5 + Onboard Intel(R) HD Graphics P630
• Palm Rest with touch fingerprint reader, smart card and NFC
• 6 Cell (91 Whr) Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery

It is large and heavy but still, much more portable and versatile than a PC tower while every bit as powerful
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Obviously, any laptop packing this kind of heat is going to be rather big and not a ‘pop in your bag and take to a meeting’ kind of computer:

Height: (front) 1.12″ (28.5mm) Height: (rear) 1.36″ (34.49mm) | 2. Width: 16.42″ (417.04mm) | 3. Depth: 11.08″ (281.44mm) Weight: (starts at) 7.55lbs (3.42kg) You can see that it is large and heavy but still, much more portable and versatile than a PC tower while every bit as powerful. Should you take it out and about though, the soft-touch, tough-looking carbon fibre shell is very sturdy and as Dell claims,

The brilliantly designed chassis is subjected to and passes MIL-STD 810G testing, ensuring durability and reliability for wherever your job takes you.

Anyone spending this much on a Laptop will be using some serious software for the kind of creative jobs that make the UltraSharp UHD (3840×2160) screen on my test unit an essential option, but for when 4K is not enough there is an HDMI 1.4 out and mini DisplayPort 1.4 out that supports third-party screens of up to 8K!

Anyone spending this much on a Laptop will be using some serious software for the kind of creative jobs that make the Ultra Sharp UHD (3840x2160) screen on my test unit an essential option
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The keyboard is really quite nice to use, with a pleasingly soft key feel and minimal travel, but I don’t think it will see much action as this is not a machine for writing. Disappointingly the touchpad is a miserable flash back to the 90’s and is basically useless, truly awful! However this would only be a real issue if users planned to move the 7720 around like a notebook on a daily basis, but it’s just not that kind of machine. Creative power users working on video, graphics or VR dev jobs will most probably plug in a mouse or pen and tablet for controlled cursor control and happily bypass the build-in touchpad altogether.

As you would expect on a gargantuan beast like the 7720 connectivity is excellent. Four USB 3.0 A ports with PowerShare technology for charging peripherals, one super fast Thunderbolt 3 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.2 will get you further connected and a side-mounted SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-II port will gobble up all your digital media. The 7720 also sports dual, integrated, noise-cancelling, digital array microphones, and stereo speakers powered by Waves MaxxAudio Pro plus has a good old headphone jack to boot!

Four USB 3.0 A ports with PowerShare technology, one super fast Thunderbolt 3 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket, plus an SDXC UHS-II port, 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 will get you connected
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As usual, there are a few bundled pieces of software, some useless like Candy Crush Soda Saga (why?!) but the Dell Optimizer 4.0 app might actually be one of the rare useful ones.

The Dell Precision Optimizer 4.0 takes the guesswork out of customizing settings and automatically adjusts them. It automatically tunes your workstation to run the most popular Independent Software Vendor (ISV) applications at the fastest speeds possible for the fastest results. Featuring enterprise smart alerts for processor, storage, memory, and graphics utilization all in an elegant, new UI.

Seven hours, real-world battery life is a very useful feature and the 7720 lasted longer than any other workstation-level laptop I have used
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When not on mains power the 6 Cell (91 Whr) Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery kept me going for a solid seven hours of video editing and a little light rendering. This is a very useful feature and the 7720 lasted longer than any other workstation level laptop I have used. I would normally expect no more than four hours of serious use on battery power, but I’d recommend staying glued to the mains for any serious rendering as the 7720 is a real monster and gets pretty hot under load. As workstation classification demands cooling is taken seriously and Dell have done a good job, the fans are not too loud and are quite effective at cooling it down during render-heavy tasks.

Dell’s patented 5th generation dual cooling fans provide a brilliant approach to thermal cooling, taking performance and comfort to levels never before seen on a task-intensive laptop. No matter how high-powered your project, your processing and graphical applications will work within turbo frequencies and your system will stay cool.

Security is another plus point for the 7720 and it comes as standard with a smart card reader with TMP encryption but an optional fingerprint reader and NFC sensor offer more options for keeping international spooks out of your machine. I didn’t test the fingerprint reader on my sample but it looks the business and is placed nicely, out of the way in the right corner.

Security is another plus point for the 7720 and it comes as standard with a smart card reader with TMP encryption but an optional fingerprint reader and NFC sensor offer more options for keeping international spooks out
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VR is our specialist area here at Tech Trends so I was very happy to see the 7720 claims to be VR-ready. That is quite a claim so I plugged in Dell’s own excellent Windows Mixed Reality Visor Headset, hooked up the accompanying Bluetooth handsets and gave it a spin. I was very impressed and after Windows updated a few of its MR components I was straight into the Cliff House, teleporting around, using apps and having fun. There was no lag or judder and the hand controls were super fast. Yes, I was using the top spec version of the 7720 and am sure that less well-speced versions might not be as slick with VR so users would need to make sure they choose the appropriate VR-capable options for maximum graphics and processor power.

I was very impressed and after Windows updated a few of its MR components I was straight into VR, standing in the Cliff House, teleporting around, using apps and having fun
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Get the best of work and play. Dell’s first VR-ready mobile workstation is optimized for gaming and content creation in addition to all your mainstream professional ISV applications. It’s so powerful it can handle complex VR work flows—so you can game or create in immersive virtual reality.

The Nvidia Quadro P5000 is an awesome GPU built on NVIDIA Pascal GPU technology and with 2560 CUDA Cores and 16 GB GDDR5 memory, it does an incredible job with VR and pretty much any resource-heavy, VR, 3D graphics or 4K video editing jobs you throw at it. It gave a smooth and faultless user experience and lent its considerable muscle to CUDA compatible applications.

The Nvidia Quadro P5000 is an awesome GPU with 2560 CUDA Cores and 16 GB GDDR5 memory. It does an incredible job with VR, giving a smooth and faultless experience and lent its considerable muscle to CUDA compatible applications
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Now we come to the negative, as yes, there was one thing that caused me serious annoyance with the 7720. It was slow. What!! I hear you scream, how can a machine with specs like these be slow? Well, I wondered this too, and can only place the blame on the slow speed, low cost, Samsung M.2 SSD and its drivers. Windows 10 was just sluggish, opening browsers, folders and utilities took two to three seconds and I felt like I was wading through treacle.

Try as I could, I couldn’t find newer M.2 drivers online to test my theory so I can’t really be sure what the problem was and the bundled Dell Precision Optimizer 4.0 was no help. This issue didn’t totally undermine the power and usability of the 7720 and didn’t affect VR at all but irritated me to the point of screaming at it while I waited for new windows to open and Win10 to do basic tasks. I am sure a service call to Dell and some fiddling around with drivers would fix this but for £7k+ I expected lightning speed out of the box and I didn’t get it. I am sure this is just a glitch so can’t hold it against the 7720 which overall is an incredible workstation and well worth the price tag for creative professionals working in cutting-edge Graphics, Video or VR.

RRP: £7263 on Dell UK

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Product Review: Dell Precision 7720 Mobile Workstation appeared first on Tech Trends.

The Visor is Dell’s offering to the stable of Windows Mixed Reality Headsets but is it a thoroughbred or a nag?

The first thing that hit me when I popped on the Dell Visor was its weightless comfort. It is similar in design to the PS4 VR headset and puts the weight of the device on the top of your head but is just a bit easier to get used to wearing and less front-heavy. After trying some VR headsets that clamp the screen onto the front of your face with straps I have been left in physical pain (specially around the nose and ears) and so have become a connoisseur of VR comfort (or lack thereof) and the Dell design gets top marks. I found concerns about light leaks to be irrelevant and not once was it an issue for me.

After an hour I felt no ill effects, and after three more hours can safely say I would wear this all day! And when you take into account the convenient flip-up display, for those moments when you want a slurp of tea or a quick biscuit, Tech Trends can happily give this the comfort stamp of approval.

I would wear this all day and when you take into account the flip-up display, for those moments when you want a slurp of tea or a quick biscuit, Tech Trends can happily give this the comfort stamp of approval
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It is also a good-looking bit of kit and the design puts the focus on the two inside-out tracking cameras built into the sides of the headset. This promising tech tracks the area around you and monitors how it changes as you move rather than tracking the position of the headset in relation to external sensors like most of the HMD competition does.

Inside-out tracking cameras tracks the area around you and monitors how it changes as you move rather than tracking the position of the headset in relation to external sensors like the HMD competition does
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The Visor also contains a set of gyroscopic sensors, an accelerometer and a magnetometer that all help monitor your position in relation to surrounding objects, very clever. The cameras sit a little further apart than your eyes on the front of the HMD and make you look a bit like a confused Pixar robot or a happy manta ray. Importantly the visor has dual 1440 x 1440px screens that run at 90 Hz and with a pixel density of 706ppi are a step up in resolution from the Rift and Vive.

The hand controllers are made of cheap looking plastic and with little contouring for the hands so style-wise they let down the package a bit
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The hand controllers are a bit less attractive, made of cheap looking plastic and with little contouring for the hands. Each boasts a touchpad, thumb joystick, trigger and three other buttons, one of which is a Windows button! Very old school but the Visor is, of course, a Windows Mixed Reality device. More on the hand controllers later but style wise they do let down the package a bit.

Yes, the Visor can be used with a variety of apps and services such as SteamVR but as an official Windows Mixed Reality Headset, we will limit this review to the hardware and its capabilities on that platform. Set up in Windows 10 was a doddle, easily one of the most misery free VR setups I have done yet but please note you do need to ensure your Win10 machine is current with the latest Microsoft MR capable updates or it simply won’t work.

Set up in Windows 10 was a doddle, easily one of the most misery free VR setups I have done yet
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My laptop was up to date but still downloaded and installed some new bits and bobs when I first plugged it in so make sure you are online for the setup. After that, the built-in Windows Mixed Reality program whizzed me through the rest of the process and dumped me into VR with a silky-voiced lady telling me what was happening and running me through a few basic functions before leaving me to mess about on my own.

Standing in the Cliff House (Microsoft’s VR version of a universal desktop) I got used to the tools and functions on offer and was pleasantly surprised that the flimsy-looking hand controllers worked as well as any other I had used. After teleporting around, popping in and out of a few apps and a quick training session to be a Halo Master Chief I couldn’t fault them. They’re not super-comfortable, and getting to all the buttons is a bit of a faff, but that’s a problem all such controllers have, and these had a nice weight and worked perfectly.

Standing in the Cliff House I got used to the tools and functions on offer and was pleasantly surprised that the flimsy looking Dell Visor Hand Controllers worked as well as any other I had used
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The image quality was not really a clear advance over the competition I have tried but was very comfortable to use and I had no eye strain or dizziness after a long session
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The image quality was not really a clear advance over the competition I have tried but was very comfortable to use and I had no eye strain or dizziness after a long session. When the next gen of much higher resolution, fast-refreshing screens become available, immersive experiences will really make an impact on the public who quite rightly have been a little underwhelmed by what is on offer today. No matter how good the game or the environment you are immersed in, poor screen quality holds the user back from buying into the whole thing. The Visor has good screens and among the most comfortable to use for long periods that I have tested so no actual complaints, for once!

The Visor has good screens and among the most comfortable to use for long periods that I have tested so no actual complaints, for once!
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The Visor doesn’t have built-in headphones which is a shame
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The Visor doesn’t have built-in headphones which is a shame as it would make putting it on and off a bit easier but it’s not a huge deal for me, the short cables are annoying though. If you are connected to a laptop on a desk and are seated it works OK but the usable area – the area for you to walk around in while hooked up to the computer – is only about 2.5 meters square and if you are plugged into the back of a PC that gets a bit smaller as the cable goes under the desk and round the back of the PC. I can’t see why they are so short and that is probably the worst thing about this kit. One extra meter of cable wouldn’t have cost much and would have reduced VR friction massively.

I can’t understand why the cables are so short and this is probably the worst thing about this kit
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Expected the hand controllers to talk straight to the headset via Bluetooth but found that they actually need to connect to your computer
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Another oddity that will present a problem for users with less advanced computers is the lack of a Bluetooth adaptor in the headset. I expected the hand controllers to talk straight to the headset via Bluetooth but found that they actually need to connect to your computer and if you don’t have Bluetooth built into your laptop or PC then you will need an adaptor.

Coming in at £100ish cheaper than the Rift and less than half the price of the Vive, Dell is offering a very good product at the right price
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If this is a cost saving issue for Dell then it becomes a cost boosting issue for users who have to shell out for a more advanced computer or a separate Bluetooth adaptor, not great. However, it works perfectly when set up in Win10 but note that the Bluetooth pairing buttons are hidden under the handset’s battery covers so you will only want to pair them once as it is a bit fiddly.

I found the Dell Visor to be simple, comfortable and in terms of functionality, only a few steps behind the big boys Oculus and HTC and then only really in terms of in-game response times, it is a little slower
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All in all, I found the Dell Visor to be simple, comfortable and in terms of functionality, only a few steps behind the big boys Oculus and HTC and then only really in terms of in-game response times, it is a little slower. As a low-cost entry point into the world of Windows Mixed Reality, and VR in general, it is excellent. Coming in at £100ish cheaper than the Rift (here in the UK) and less than half the price of the Vive, Dell is offering a very good product at the right price, I want one.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Product Review: Dell Visor Windows MR Headset appeared first on Tech Trends.