Netgear Universal WN3000RP Wi-Fi Range Extender - Manufacturer Refurbished

Netgear Universal WN3000RP Wi-Fi Range Extender - Manufacturer Refurbished..

Special Price Netgear Universal WN3000RP Wi-Fi Range Extender - Manufacturer Refurbished By Netgear

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205 of 221 people found the following review helpful.
Great Money Saver Product
By HamsaYogi
I live in a dorm / hotel situation where the WIFI connection was 2 bars at the best. I quickly figured out that my room was within the range of the router so I bought the Netgar range extender. I was sceptical at first but once I put it up in my room it was like magic. 2 bars are now solid 5 bars and I conect at 144 KBPS vs the 24 - 36 KBPS before. Only down side is that it goes to sleep and after 3-4 hours of inactivity and you have to reboot it each morning to release and renew the IP. Other that that it has been a life saver as I work from home and my VPN connections are robust now.

106 of 118 people found the following review helpful.
Great device!
By John D. Wickenhofer
Took it out of the box, plugged it in, it connected to my router automatically and was available as a wirless connection on my computer in just a few minutes. Spent about 5 minutes entering password info for my router and voila, connected with a 5 bar signal. I used to only get 2 bars on this computer with its distance from the router. Could not be simpler.

174 of 204 people found the following review helpful.
Kept Disconnecting
By Pete
I bought this Wi-Fi extender so that I could use my iPad in the bedroom, which is on the opposite end of the house from the main computer and the Wi-Fi router. At first glance, the extender works as advertised, connecting fairly easily to my D-Link DIR-655 Extreme-N Gigabit Wireless Router. The iPad picked up the extender signal at full strength all over the house, much better than the strength of the actual router unless the iPad was in the same room as the router.

Note: To make this clear up front, the extender shows up as a separate Wi-Fi network from the parent network. By default, the name will be "[Your Network Name] - EXTENDER"

So to test out the signal, I used an internet speed test app on my iPhone (I completely understand that this method will also be limited by the ISP data rate). The download speeds on the iPhone using the router were in the 10MBs range while the download speeds using the extender were roughly between 1-2MBs. On the otherhand, the upload speeds from both the router and the extender were roughly the same, around 1-2MBs, which is nice considering the difference between the download rates.

Now for the bad part, this extender kept disconnecting from the network, causing any Wi-Fi device to not "see" the extender. The only way to fix this issue was to reset the extender. As this occurred almost on a daily basis, I decided to ship it back. It is entirely possible that the unit I received was bad, but rather than send out for another one, I am going to upgrade my Wi-Fi router that hopefully has a better range.

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Kindle Paperwhite 3G, 6" High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Free 3G + Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers [Previous Generation]

Kindle Paperwhite 3G, 6" High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Free 3G + Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers [Previous Generation]..

Special Price Kindle Paperwhite 3G, 6" High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Free 3G + Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers [Previous Generation] By Kindle

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15924 of 16201 people found the following review helpful.
Amazing new Kindle is nearly perfect except for ads in the non-ad version
By Chad Bush
So far, I love my new Paperwhite Kindle. I've been using an aging keyboard Kindle 2, waiting for a version with a built-in light like this. Amazon really got it right with the light on this one.

The high resolution screen is noticeably easier to read, and the user interface is well thought out.

The form factor is also an amazing improvement. I like the tactile feel of the Kindle's back, although I'm awaiting shipment of Amazon's leather case because I like to take my Kindle everywhere and this device feels small and delicate, and I've liked the old Amazon leather case on my old Kindle.

The one thing keeping me from giving this product a 5-star review is a software issue that really irks me: I paid the extra $20 to have a Kindle without advertising, yet the entire bottom half of the home screen in cover view is taken up with Amazon's recommendations for me to buy new books. This is advertising, and it is totally unacceptable in a product that costs extra just to avoid advertising. Targeted advertising is still advertising, and there's not enough space on this screen to make any amount of advertising okay with me.

If I ever want to see what Amazon recommends for me, I'll visit the Amazon Store and look myself. The end result of this unsolicited advertising on my home screen is that I have to scroll past it to see more than three of the titles on my device, whereas if the ad was gone, I could see six titles right away on the home screen. Given the way the Kindle's user interface is designed, going to the home screen is necessary to get just about anywhere else, so this advertising block causes me to have to scroll past it over and over again, gumming up my otherwise smooth user experience on the device.

Amazon could easily make this optional with a software update, and I hope they do so very soon. At the very least, this unsolicited, mandatory advertising on the home screen needs to be explicitly disclosed on the sales pages. Had I known that there would still be advertising I could not remove on my device, I might not have paid $20 to avoid advertising.

Until Amazon gives us the option to disable these "recommendations" on the home screen, I've used parental controls to just disable the store completely on my Kindle. That does make the ads go away, but it's not really a convenient solution, because if I ever actually want to buy something on my Kindle, I'll need to type in a password and re-enable the store. I'll more likely use a different device for all purchases. This forced advertising, then, really backfires in my case because instead of enticing me to buy more books right on my Kindle, it's prompted me to shut the store down completely on the Kindle.

5750 of 5975 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Font Resolution, Love the Light, and Great Overall Experience
By Michael Gallagher
I have been using the Paperwhite exclusively for reading for two weeks now vs. my other Kindles, and I am writing this review from the perspective of being a long-time Kindle user vs. someone brand new to the Kindle experience as well as in direct comparison to the Kindle Touch, which the Paperwhite replaced.

From an overall standpoint, and considering everything you get (compact e-Reader,touch screen, lighting system), the Paperwhite is a very good e-Reader. I am amazed at how much smaller these e-Readers can become with each new generation yet still not feel like you're losing anything from a "feels like a book" experience.

To address the reading experience, I wasn't sure what to expect with the display. Needless to say, the text on the screen is much more crisp than any of the other version of an e-Ink Kindle I have used, and just to ensure I wasn't being biased I put the Paperwhite next to a Kindle 3 / Keyboard, a Touch, a "regular" Kindle, and a Kindle DX - all on the same page of a book with the covers removed (didn't want the cover to give an optical illusion or anything) - and you can clearly see a better quality in terms of the fonts.

Reading at night is a good experience with the lighting display in comparison to the other versions of Kindle because you don't need an additional light that can get in the way: it didn't disturb, for example, my wife who likes to watch TV in a dark room. It was also very convenient on a plane ride at night as I was able to see the full page of the text vs. a light attachment only reaching most of the screen: there are no impediments to the reading screen.

Turning the page backwards and forwards is as simple as a simple tap of the thumb as you hold the device or, if you prefer, a swipe with your finger in either direction. It did take a little getting used to turning with my thumb as I have been trained after years on a Kindle Keyboard and DX to press a button - it didn't take that long and after about 5% or so into a science fiction novel I didn't even notice the new turning action. This page turning experience is a significant improvement over the previous Kindle Touch and much appreciated!

Accessing the menu structure of the Paperwhite is as simple as touching the top 20-30% of the screen where you can quickly access a keyboard, hit the menu, table of contents, etc. Navigation is a piece of cake.

Web surfing speed with the WiFi feature on the Paperwhite is about the same as the other type of e-Ink Kindles. Doing a side-by-side test I tried the mobile websites of Fox News and CNN and they popped right up; the usual slow sites were still slower than Christmas. Checking email with an e-Ink Kindle via gmail is a chore with this as well as other versions of e-Ink Kindle, but none of that is really important to me as I have too many device that do that anyway: when I have my Kindle, I usually want to read a book vs. surf the web or check email.

Despite what people may say, size matters! In this case, the Paperwhite is not too small and not too large and Amazon appears to have hit the sweet spot. I would highly recommend the Amazon-branded case for it, as it fits snug and firm and automatically puts the unit into sleep mode when you close the cover, and wakes it back up when you open the cover. To see the cover I purchased, click this link: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Leather Cover, Onyx Black (does not fit Kindle or Kindle Touch)

About the only negative I have for this unit, if you could even call it a negative, is I wish I had bought the 3G version vs. the Wi-Fi only - for someone who travels a lot with my job, what was I thinking?!? Accordingly, I ordered one of those. Despite that statement, for just $119 I think this is a great unit and I enjoyed reading with it: the Paperwhite may soon be replacing my beloved Kindle Keyboard permanently!

3753 of 3961 people found the following review helpful.
Better resolution and a new lighting system combine for an exceptional e-reader
By Scott
OVERALL USE
The reading experience on the Paperwhite is excellent. The Paperwhite is much more enjoyable to use than the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Keyboard, thanks mostly to the display (more on that below). The Home button from the Touch has been removed, and you now navigate to the menus by touching the top of the screen. Like the Touch, there are no physical page turn buttons. If you want to advance the page, you either swipe, or press the middle/right hand side of the screen (most of the display area is set up to advance the page). To go back a page, you press anywhere on the left 20% of the screen. To access the menu, you press the top 10% of the screen. Contrast for the display can quickly and easily be adjusted with two taps, so it can be brightened or darkened without a lot of menu navigation. There are still eight font sizes like previous generations had, but instead of just three typefaces, you now have six (Baskerville, Caecilia, Caecilia Condensed, Publisher Font, Futura, Helvetica, and Palatino). Publisher Font lets you use the book publisher's embedded font. None of the books I have tried out yet have this option, but I can see how it can provide them with a lot more flexibility. The additional fonts, along with the ability to adjust line spacing and margins, make it much easier to read books that a publisher formats poorly to begin with (as anyone who struggled with the early edition of 'Game of Thrones' can attest to).

The menu system is a bit improved over the Touch. Instead of the basic list display for your books, Paperwhite now includes a graphical display of your book covers (like the Kindle Fire) in addition to the traditional list view. Unfortunately, it will only display three books covers, because the second row of covers are reserved for covers of Amazon book recommendations. It's clear that Amazon wants to use the Paperwhite to market their products more. Cloud integration is very easy as well. If you have more than 1,000 books, just store some on your free Amazon Cloud drive. Downloading them to the device is very quick and simple. The Paperwhite comes with Kindle Collections which allows you to organize and store your books more easily and put them into genres or collections by author/subject, however the way collections are displayed could be improved, since a list display will still show the individual books on the list, even after you move them into a collection. Ideally, I think it should work like a file system, where you sort them into a collection and then those books will only display when you open that collection folder.

DISPLAY
This is where the Paperwhite really shines. The display is absolutely beautiful. I never had a problem with the display on any of my previous kindles, and always thought there wasn't much room for improvement, but you can really tell a difference when looking at the two side by side. Kindles all use E-Ink displays to mimic printed text. The Paperwhite has an improved e-ink display, which is sharper, has improved contrast and resolution, and uses front-lit technology with its built-in light. Images look much sharper, which shouldn't matter too much since most people don't use their kindles for images, but the text looks better as well. The resolution has increased from 167 pixels per inch (PPI) and 600x800 resolution on all previous models to 221 PPI and 768 x 1024 on the Paperwhite.

The lighting is nothing like a traditional back lit screen (like you would see on the iPad or Nook). It is very even and doesn't hurt your eyes at all. I could stare at the display for hours as easily as reading a book. Reading in bright sunshine is no problem and even improved over the Touch. There are four small led lights underneath the bezel at the bottom, which carry light through a grid built into the display. This allows for very even lighting, as opposed to using a clamp on light that directs light to one area, and then spills down to the rest. There are 24 different light levels so it is very customizable, and you can change the level very quickly without having to spend a lot of time going through menus. So the great thing is, you don't need to order a separate light for your Kindle. Unless I am outside or in a bright room, I always use the Amazon cover with built in light for my Touch, which I would prefer not to do, because it adds weight to the device and doesn't feel as comfortable as holding a bare kindle without a cover. With Paperwhite, the screen is uniform and easy to read. It may sound like the glow could get annoying, but it is very pleasing to the eyes and easy to read from. It soft enough that you can read in bed with a partner and not disturb them at all (with my Touch I had to make sure I slept on the left side of the bed (the direction the light faced) because the led would blind the person on the right). I cannot emphasize enough how brilliant the screen is and encourage you to find a display model to look at if you're on the fence about it. I've used the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight and the Paperwhite display blows it out of the water. The only problem with it, is that there are four thumbnail-sized shadows at the bottom of the display where the led lights sit. They are not very dark, but they are noticeable at first and prevent perfect uniformity. I learned to ignore them after a few minutes. There is also one area on the top menu that does not completely blend into the background when you bring the menu up. Not a big deal but it is a small glitch.

FORM FACTOR
The Paperwhite is a tiny bit smaller and thinner than the Touch, but not by too much. Users of the Touch should not have any problems, but if you're coming from the Kindle Keyboard, it will probably feel a bit awkward to hold it with one hand for awhile, because you don't have as much surface to grip since you can't touch the screen. To understand what I'm talking about, try holding a paperback book in one hand, but only let your hand touch the outer 3/4" of the front of it. You can see in the ads and videos that users are just barely gripping the outside of the Paperwhite so their hand doesn't get in the way of the screen. This is actually a fairly awkward way to hold the Kindle for any significant length of time, as users of the Touch may recall (I can guarantee you that girl laying on the ground reading and just barely holding onto the corner with her thumb did not hold it that way for long). You eventually get used to it, but you still have to shift your hand every once in awhile because it gets uncomfortable. I think the perfect way for me to hold it is to cup your hand like you're holding a mug of beer, and let the kindle rest on your pinky finger like an easel.

The Paperwhite also now has a rubberized back (like the Kindle Fire) compared to the smoother back of the Touch. With the Touch, you had to rely on your palm and thumb to support it. With the Paperwhite, your fingers don't slide off so easily and can assist to support the back. Although this sounds like a small issue, anyone who has tried to hold a Touch with one hand for more than 30 minutes will appreciate this. So it's easier to hold over the Touch, but the Kindle Keyboard is still the most comfortable to grip.

Two more great additions to the form factor - since it no longer has an IR light built into it, the depth of the bezel is half the size. This makes for a smoother transition to the display, collects less dirt, and looks better. Lastly, the display screen feels different than any previous kindles. It has a very slight textured surface (almost like the page of a book) to it instead of being completely smooth. It is hard to describe, but it is much more pleasurable to the touch than the previous Kindle Touch, and swiping is more pleasant.

TOUCH RESPONSE
Kindle Paperwhite now has a capacitive touch screen. This is almost worth the upgrade alone. The Touch used an IR-based touch screen, so it would register any movement as a touch, even if it wasn't from your body. I would frequently be reading in bed and move to get more comfortable, and the sheets would hit the display and cause it to skip to the next chapter. So then I would have to bring up the menu and go back. I was always careful about closing the cover when I moved to prevent an accidental "touch." I've always been very satisfied with the speed of the page turns on the Touch and never had a problem with it, but this has improved as well, and page turns now register a bit quicker. It is too quick for me to measure the increase, but I think most people will see a noticeable change in response and appreciate it. It is very easy to type with the built in keyboard, so you can easily search for phrases or navigate to something specific in the book. Flipping pages is very quick and page turns are almost instant. Instead of having to move my finger to swipe or tap into a page turn, I rest my thumb right against the bezel, and when I want to turn a page, I just shift it very slightly so it touches the screen.

BATTERY LIFE
I haven't been able to run reliable testing on the battery, but Amazon's claim of 8 weeks battery (using for 30 minutes a day) even with the light on seems to me to likely be fairly accurate given my limited use of it. Even previous Kindle generations have had amazing batteries so this has never been a problem for me in the past.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES
The Kindle Touch came with some new features, but I never really used any of them too much. Paperwhite has several new features that make reading a more interactive experience (if you want it to be):
- BUILT IN DICTIONARY - Long press a word for about 2 seconds and you get an instant definition. I use this feature all the time and it is one of my favorite advantages of the Kindle over a traditional book.
- TIME TO READ - By far my favorite new feature. Previous kindles provide a percentage or a visual indicator of how long a book is. Paperwhite still does that, but also tells you how many hours/minutes you have to finish a book or a chapter, by calculating your average reading speed, and constantly adjusting it. I do not know if it calculates this amount based on the number of pages in a book or the number of words, but it proved to be incredibly accurate, and I had to stop looking at it because I found myself trying to "beat" it. A very fun feature and fairly useful for deciding if you have time to finish a new chapter while waiting for your plane to board or before going to bed. You can just tap it and it will switch to the percentage + the confusing "location" view instead. Some books will display Real Page Numbers to show you the actual page number that would correspond with a physical book, but none of mine had this feature built in.
- EXPERIMENTAL BROWSER - Kindle's "experimental" web browser is back, and is a little bit improved due to the higher resolution, but I still wouldn't want to use it for graphical-heavy sites. I'm not sure how fast the 3g browser will be but the wi-fi version was decent enough that I could use it in a pinch.
- SOCIAL FEATURES - Like the Touch, the Paperwhite has integration with Twitter and Facebook, so you can let people know when you're done with a book, or share favorite passages. I can see how some people might like this, but I would much rather have integration with Shelfari so I can update my account once I've finished a book and rate it. This is Amazon's own service so it seems like they are missing a huge opportunity here to promote it. Paperwhite also lets you leave a rating when you've finished a book. I have no idea what this rating is for or where it goes, but it would be great if you integrated this into product pages and had a "kindle rating" where they aggregated all of the ratings left by kindle users. This would allow people to leave a rating without having to write a long-winded (ahem) review and would also contain only ratings by people who had purchased the book. Probably unnecessary but I really think they could do more with the social features to make them useful.
- X-Ray - One of the best features IF your kindle book comes with it. It's like a built-in wiki for your book, and you can call it up at any time to learn more about people, places, and subjects in your book. My current book has 684 characters, and this is great for keeping track of who everyone is.
- WHISPERSYNC - I have a Kindle Fire, Touch, Keyboard, Kindle for PC, and Kindle Cloud Drive, and Whispersync works fairly well to sync all of my books across all devices. If I pick up my Fire to read a few chapters, I want to be able to start at the same place when I pick up the Paperwhite. Syncing is mostly accurate but sometimes it doesn't register on one of my devices for some reason.
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Amazon has announced this new feature that lets you view biographical information about the author and character summaries at the end of the book, much like a real book. None of my books had this feature yet, but it seems like a great idea to add value to Kindle books.

ACCESSORIES
I buy a cover for all of my kindles, mostly to use the built-in light, but the covers add bulk and make it difficult to carry one in a pocket, as well as adding weight to it which makes holding it for long periods a bit frustrating. Amazon's official cover is the Paperwhite Leather Cover), but with the Paperwhite display, I won't be using the cover unless I travel with the kindle. This makes it much easier to hold and feels less like I'm holding a tablet in my hands. The Paperwhite isn't scratch-proof, but it definitely is a bit more rugged than the Touch and I don't think most people will even need a cover for it. I do like the cover better than the official one Amazon produced for the Touch, and you can read my full review of it on the page for the Paperwhite Leather Cover).

CONS
- Probably the biggest con for most people, is that the Mp3 player and all audio features have been completely removed. The main purpose of this device is to read books, so I don't fault Amazon for that decision, but I did enjoy cueing up some light classical music occasionally on my Touch and Kindle Keyboard right before bed. This of course means that there is no more text to speech playback of books or integration with audio books. As such, they have dropped the onboard memory to 2GB (about 1,000 books). With integration to Amazon's Cloud service, this should be more than enough for book storage.
- I love the matte finish on the back of the device, but it does get a bit smudgy from my fingers and You can't really wipe them off without a wet cleaner. The smudging isn't so noticeable that it would bother me though.
- Slight shadowing at the bottom of the device from the LED lights.
- I also actually wish the bezel on the right side was slightly wider and offset a bit. Of course, this wouldn't help left-handed people, but it would make it a little bit easier to hold without having your hand block the screen at all. If you don't use a heavy cover on it, this also shouldn't really be a problem.
- No Power adapter. It comes with a micro-usb charging cable, but you have to have a computer or already own a power adapter from another product to be able to charge it. Amazon did this with the Touch as well and I think it is absolutely ridiculous. I know Amazon wants to charge separately for this but I think not including one is really greedy. If you need one, you may want to buy the Kindle Power Adapter although I'm sure you could probably find a much cheaper one somewhere.
- No Shelfari integration as mentioned above.

CONCLUSION
In my review of the Kindle Touch, I said that while it was a nice device, I didn't feel like it warranted an upgrade for users of 2nd and 3rd generation kindles. The Kindle Paperwhite is definitely upgrade-worthy for all previous kindle users who read more than a few books a year. A stunning display, better touch sensitivity, and software features that Amazon should have come out with years ago, finally make the Kindle the undisputed leader in the e-reader market. Previously I would go back and forth between my Kindle Touch and Fire when reading books, but the Paperwhite is such a pleasure to use that I can't imagine ever choosing the Fire over it again. If you are an avid reader and have never purchased a Kindle before, the Paperwhite will really give you an appreciation for how far these devices have come.

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Sony BDPS6200 3D Blu-ray Player with Wi-Fi and 4K Upscaling

Sony BDPS6200 3D Blu-ray Player with Wi-Fi and 4K Upscaling..

Special Price Sony BDPS6200 3D Blu-ray Player with Wi-Fi and 4K Upscaling By Sony

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65 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
Sony continue to produce solid bluray players and this is no exception.
By Adrian
The BDP-S6200 lives at the top of Sony's North American bluray players range for 2014. This player is essentially a replacement to the well liked 2012 BDP-S790 Sony BDPS790 3D Blu-ray Player with Wi-Fi with a few features removed, but a few features added. More on that in a moment.

The player keeps the familiar XMB (Cross Media Bar) interface just like its previous players. Its functional but I can't help feel its days are numbered since Sony has done away with it on their TV range. You can choose to start the player in the Sony Entertainment Network portal if you wish ... but it really doesn't offer you anything different from starting the player normally within the XMB.

This top player gets a dual core processor (like the BDP-S790) so disks load fast and app navigation is zippy. A good test is to use the Youtube app that seems pretty CPU intensive. You can normally weed out under performers with that app .... but the BDP-S6200 handles YouTube very well.

App support is solid enough, with new a new Crackle app that supports Crackle favorites. There is a new Hulu app too, but that was released across last years players too. The player also sees the new Netflix interface which is very nice too.

The player also features a new Amazon App for 2014. It's certainly more visual than the older one but I think it's going to take a few software updates to get it tweaked just right.

The player also has the Opera TV store with a bunch of apps in that too ... so you should be well supported for apps. Note, often asked but there is no HBO Go app on this player.

The player itself, I think looks very stylish ... however if you are looking for more conservative styling, you may want to pick up a older BDP-S790. It doesn't seem as solid as the older BDP-S790 ... but it seems many mass market electronic manufacturers are heading in this direction as a whole, so I'm not really surprised here.

Please note though, that despite Amazon's or Sony product description, there is only 1 HDMI output on the player !!

Now, if you already own a 2013 x100 player from Sony, such as the BDP-5100 Sony BDP-S5100 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi, what does this new player offer?

You will get the benefit of Super bit mapping (SBM) which improves color banding evident on internet video, improved DVD upscaling with additional levels of picture adjustment, IP Noise reduction pro for internet video, new audio enhancer, the new Netflix app, a new Crackle app and maybe a new Amazon app once it comes on line.

For 2012 owners that have the BDP-S790, upgrading to a BDP-S6200 they get the benefit of the new audio enhancer, the new netflix app (with 5800kbps support), a new Crackle app and maybe a new Amazon app. They also get improved codec support in MKVs with MPEG2 and VC-1 video codecs. If they have a 2013 or above Sony TV, and appropriate BD media, they can take advantage of extended color (Triluminos). They also get screen mirroring with Android phone and tablets.
They loose the extra HDMI output, Skype support and arguably less solid build.

Again the player does not include a HDMI cable so buyer be pre-warned. Also, as with new bluray players, there is no analog outputs on the player so you're TV must support HDMI. There is a digital coaxial output for receivers that dont support HDMI for audio.

If you do buy one of these and can't figure out how to get HD audio (DTS-MA or Dolby TrueHD) output from the player be sure to switch off BD-Audio mix AND the audio enhancer in the audio settings.

Overall, its another solid Bluray player from Sony with some marginal improvements over last years player ... but nothing earth shattering. Recommended.

Thanks for reading.

- update 3/22/14
The new Amazon App is now up and running, as is VUDU on the BDP-S6200. You will need to download a firmware update to enable these apps.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
A whole lot of player for not much money
By R.D. Monsoon
Sony has really pulled out all of the stops here, producing a highly versatile media unit at a pretty affordable price.

The S6200 replaces the BDPS790 to become Sony's new flagship Blu-ray player.

The only lost feature is that the 790 came with dual HDMI ports to support people who have a 3D TV and an A/V receiver that does not support 3D passthrough. And the construction of the 790 was arguably a bit better.

Not only is the 6200 significantly cheaper than its predecessor, but it comes with some notable upgrades.

Let me go through the various capabilities of the unit.

1. Blu-ray: At this point there's really no measurable difference in picture and sound quality between players -- they all produce vibrant picture and sound. The main difference is load time, and the 6200 is very fast with its dual core processor.

2. Streaming: The 6200 supports a slew of streaming apps (HBO GO is the major exception, and at the time of writing this review, Amazon Instant is not yet ready). Sony's new Netflix app is quite impressive. Not only are load times extremely fast, but it takes about a second for the video video quality to get to the optimal level. There's virtually no lag with scrubbing. Finally, the new Netflix app supports Dolby Digital Plus.

Hopefully the new Amazon will prove to be as well designed.

3. Music: Audiophiles rejoice. New to the 6200 is support for multichannel FLAC and DSD (DFF and DSF) files. As far as I'm aware, only the significantly more expense OPPO BDP-103 and 105 can do the latter.

Sony continues to provide SACD support with DSD over HDMI.

Suggested audio settings:

DSD Output Mode: On
BD Audio MIX Setting: Off (has to be off to bitstream DTS-HD and DD-HD)
Digital Music Enhancer: Off
DTS Neo:6: Off
Audio DRC: Off
Downmix: Surround

I personally turn off all of the video enhancer settings -- the video on Blu-rays is authored with assumption that no such settings will be used.

Overall, it's quite impressive everything the 6200 will do, especially at its price point. In fact, anyone thinking of buying an Oppo should reconsider, especially if you plan on using an A/V receiver to process all of the sound.

===============

UPDATE #1: Sony says the Amazon App will be available in early April.
UPDATE #2: I've now installed the Amazon App. As far as I can tell, the UI is the same as the one found in other recent devices, such as smart TVs. While it's certainly an improvement from the old Amazon App that the came with previous Sony Blu-ray players, navigation is sluggish (especially compared to the Netflix app), and the load time to get to optimal video quality is a solid 30 seconds to 1 minute. Further, my Roku circa 2009 has a superior UI and much faster load time. Given that the Sony has the processing power to load video very fast -- as displayed by the Netflix app -- I can't help but wonder if Amazon is purposely throttling speeds so to push people into buying their streaming device -- make it seem like the only way to get Amazon Prime videos to instantly load is with their box. Despite the disappointment with the Amazon app, the 6200 is still a solid video streaming unit, but depending on your needs (such as HBOGO), it doesn't quite match Roku.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Very Impressive on 4K TV
By A. Leblanc
The most impressive 4K upscaling I've viewed after using this machine
a little over a month is the playback of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA on Blu
Ray with the Sony 55" 4K TV. I've downloaded a few films in 4K with the Sony 4K Media Player
and the BDPS6200 playback is in such instances comparable to the resolution the
Media Player offers. Concerning a previous Amazon posting on the player's
app for Amazon streaming, just today I received an email from Sony saying
the Amazon app on this machine now works. Of course the app was also
on my Sony TV at the time of installation and worked all along. The most impressive
3D I've viewed on this player is GRAVITY and the fake 3D in JURASSIC PARK. If only
Warner's/MGM would release KISS ME KATE in 3D I'd be super happy!

See all 21 customer reviews...More...

Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi and GPS Body Only (Black)

Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi and GPS Body Only (Black)..

GET Nikon D5300 24.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with Built-in Wi-Fi and GPS Body Only (Black) By Nikon

Most helpful customer reviews

175 of 183 people found the following review helpful.
Stunningly Good! An Insane Value!
By 7
I got this camera as an upgrade to my beloved D5100 so the bar was pretty high and so this review is often D5100 vs. D5300. I'll be frank. The D5300 outclasses the D5100 so substantially that it has utterly obsoleted the D5100. Ignore those who say that the D5300 merely provides an opportunity to pick up a D5200 or D5100 for a bargain price. No. The D5300 is now the ONLY camera in the Nikon D5xxx line. It has changed the game. Don't bother counting pennies, this camera is underpriced at full price. The fact that I am sincerely comparing images from this $800 camera body to my D800E's images truly says it all.

Please allow me to just get into the Pros and Cons:

PROS:

1) PHENOMENAL IMAGE QUALITY! AT LOW ISO THE D5300'S IMAGES ARE ON PAR WITH THE BEST CAMERAS IN THE WORLD AND THAT IS NO EXAGGERATION WHATSOEVER. I can't believe there is still a debate going on about the efficacy of Anti-Aliasing filter removal. I'm sorry, but the difference is so noticeable there is no debate. And moire was a myth even on the D800E, which I do also own. I guarantee you that you will find more moire in a D5100's or D7000's images than you will on the D5300. Color and saturation from the D5300 are exceptionally good versus ANY camera at any price point. Now, I will still take the D800E's images over the D5300's but it is not at all night & day. They are actually surprisingly close at low ISO.

EDIT 2013-12-09: Photographing cats a lot I am catching a little false color on shiny fur. Nothing of concern to me though.

2) Focus point spread (area of image with AF sensor coverage) is MUCH greater than in FX ("full-frame" sensor size) cameras. The D5300's AF point coverage extends left-right top-bottom much farther than FX cameras. I would estimate the D5300 covers probably double the area that FX cameras do and this is an ENORMOUS advantage. I always leave my D800E's focus point glued to Center because the AF coverage is only in the center area anyway so why bother with the other 50 AF points when they just don't cover anything? I actually do use my focus points on my D5300 because they cover the frame pretty well. I'd still like to see even more coverage, but vs. the FX bodies, APS-C cameras have a tremendous advantage.

3) Minimum shutter speed in Auto ISO now has AUTO setting that adjusts based on focal length! This is SO much better than a fixed shutter speed regardless of lens length.

4) Hard to quantify but the HDR images look much nicer than the D5100's and the Extra High setting is intense and beyond the D5100's abilities. I have not been able to verify this but it *appears* as though there is now image alignment for the 2 photos used for the HDR image as my handheld HDR shots nearly never look like 2 images whereas they often did on my D5100 at full or nearly full magnification. HUGE improvement!

5) Great-for-DX and pretty-good-versus-FX ISO performance. I'll put this to bed right now; the D800E smokes the D5300 for high ISO performance. Sorry, this is a different league. However, the D5300 substantially outperforms the D5100 at ISO 1600+. The improvement in the D5300 over the D5100 is readily noticeable.

6) Much more intuitive i Menu. The D5100's i Menu being J-shaped was ridiculous and totally awkward. I never got used to it after thousands of photos. The D5300's standardized 2-lines-across-the-bottom Nikon style is a drastic improvement.

7) GPS! I don't know what Nikon was thinking with that clunky expensive GP-1A. Did anyone ever buy one? The D5300's internal GPS works great and hooks up quickly and I'm big on geotagging so I am super stoked to have this on a REAL camera!

EDIT 2013-12-09: I spent a day in the country (wide open clear sky) with this camera outside of my normal metro town area and despite using A-GPS data, it took somewhere between 30-60 minutes to get GPS lock. Surprised, disappointed. But that was the only time I have had trouble with hookup.

8) Nikon's had truly exceptional built-in flash performance since at least the D90. The D5300 does not disappoint and bests or matches its predecessors at any price point. This could be a result of image processing more than flash performance but whatever it is, using flash is a joy, not something to dread.

9) The red body paint color is super-gorgeous! It's like a candy apple red Corvette color and it is way sexy.

10) The new bigger, higher-pixel screen is REALLY nice. It is not insignificant like many reviewers dismiss it as. I like it a LOT. :)

11) EN-EL14a battery with 19.4% more capacity is a nice treat and helpful when running GPS and/or the silly WiFi. I have not spent a full day shooting hundreds of photos with the D5300 yet but I have shot perhaps 100 shots in a day with GPS on and flash here and there and a lot of reviewing and in-camera editing and not gotten below 2/3 battery level in a day.

EDIT 2013-12-09: GPS was on from about 8:45am to 5:30pm, WiFi was off all day, I shot 362 photos (almost all were 14-bit RAW+Large Basic JPEG so roughly only about 170-190 shutter clicks) and probably 15 of those photos had flash, 2 minutes of video, edited 6 photos and had a couple of review sessions during the day. Battery level fell to 1/3 remaining. Not bad but could be better. If you're a heavy shooter and will use GPS and/or pop-up flash, carry a spare battery.

12) Here's a gem for the old-school film guys like me. ;) Or a little "secret treat" for digital-era photographers with a true creative streak. In Manual exposure mode, the "T," or "Time" setting has returned! Want to take a 5-minute or 5-hour exposure but you left your plug-in intervalometer/timer at home? Lol, as if you even have one... No problem. Turn your shutter speed dial all the way past 30-seconds, past Bulb and click on into good ol' Time at the end of the dial. Press the shutter button to open shutter, let your wristwatch or phone tell you when exposure time is up and then press shutter button again to close the shutter. Seriously?! Yes, seriously. How cool is that?! I miss this so much and guess what? Even my D800E does not have T and the D5100 does not either. According to the Nikon info page for the D5200 (Yes, D5200. Not a typo), T is there but you need the ML-L3 remote to use it.

CONS:

1) EDIT 2013-12-09: I have found that focus points other than THE Center focus point are somewhat frequently inaccurate. Focus points at or near the left and right edges are rarely accurate and almost never dead-on. If you use ONLY the Center focus point, focus accuracy is quite good and consistent. As Center AF point AF-S is almost always how I shoot, this is not a deal-breaker for me but it is certainly a handicap. If you use multi-point AF tracking or regularly venture away from Center AF point, you had better experiment with different AF points at a local camera store before buying one from any store, Amazon included. I am beginning to think my camera may be defective and will likely send it to Nikon for repair or exchange it with Amazon for a new one. Honestly, I expect this to be a performance trade-off that Nikon will not remedy. Though $800 is not cheap, this caliber of image quality for $800 is going to come with trade-offs and I bet being forced to use Center AF point is one of those trade-offs.

2) EDIT 2013-12-09: I had a chance this past weekend to use Live View in some beautifully sunlit countryside. Sorry, even with truly ideal lighting Live View is horribly slow and constantly hunting. Don't use it for anything other than manual focus confirmation with screen zoomed for precise focusing. And focus VERY slowly as screen update time has substantial lag. I'm not really concerned about video, but this camera cannot focus worth a darn for video. It really is that bad, sorry.

3) When reviewing a photo on my D5100 and even the D5200, I could just press the OK button to get into Retouch Menu and then get into RAW processing of that image in another click of OK. Boom, 2 presses of OK and I am RAW processing the image I'm looking at. Well, not anymore. Now I have to press the "i" button to get into Rating/Retouch/Send Menu and then click OK to get to Retouch Menu and then another click of OK to get to RAW processing. Hardly a nightmare but takes an extra button press and, more importantly, is ergonomically awkward and more prone to mistakes.

4) Noisy Multi-Controller. I like having solid clicks, but man, clicking Up, Down, Left or Right on this Multi-Controller is literally enough to wake someone up. My gf grumbles at me for reviewing/RAW processing in bed because of that. It's also not so great in public areas as it intrudes on the conversations of neighboring tables, etc. It's really an irritating higher pitch that grabs attention. I know this complaint sounds whiny, but it truly is an intrusive noise problem.

5) WiFi is rubbish. You can't upload full-resolution images to your smart device via WiFi. And I don't believe (but I could be wrong about this) that you can WiFi upload at all to a PC. I wanted to have instant constant file backup via WiFi. Nope.

6) Slow RAW process Menu navigation. Perhaps it's the sheer file size but things like scrolling Picture Control modes in RAW processing is very slow relative to the D5100.

7) Slow photo review after taking a picture(s). Takes too long for the D5300 to gulp down one or a few RAW+Large Basic JPEG shots (my standard resolution).

8) After assigning HDR function to the BKT button (D5100)/Fn button (D5300), activating HDR now requires holding the Fn button and turning the dial until you get the setting you want before letting the Fn button go. On the D5100 you set your HDR preference one time in the Menu and then activation via BKT button only took a single press. Now it's a process. And my favorite setting (High) takes the most clicks (3 to the left or 3 to the right) to get to. The Auto HDR mode should simply be removed so we just scroll Low, Normal, High, Extra High and should be permanently Menu-set to facilitate 1-press activation a la D5100.

9) To get autofocusing you MUST use an AF-S or AF-I lens. D5300 body has no focus motor for AF or AF-D lenses. Metering requires a CPU lens.

CONCLUSION:

The D5300 is not a camera for sports, when rushed or in demanding conditions and you are gambling when you change away from Center AF point. Many consumer cameras like to claim performance in this fast-action realm, but no. If it's not pro gear it will suck at sports and tracking a subject. Always has been and likely always will be the case. However, for general photography, landscape, portraiture/still life, macro, time-lapse, etc. the D5300 creates stunningly sharp and colorful images able to be painlessly enlarged to enormous proportions. I wouldn't hesitate to print 3-foot x 2-foot (that is 36x the size of a 4-inch x 6-inch) prints. And that would be essentially pixelation-free. 6-foot x 4-foot would still look fantastic.

98 of 103 people found the following review helpful.
DRAMATIC upgrade from D5100, SURPRISING image quality improvement from D5200
By Paul Christensen
I've owned every "compact-format" Nikon from the D60 to the D5000, D5100, D5200, and now D5300. And while my D5200 is less than a year old, I chose to upgrade to the D5300 for two reasons: convenience (built-in WiFi and GPS removes 2 devices I had to carry / attach) and improved video (60fps). I chose the new grey body which is a nice departure from the traditional black, although the glossy finish is a bit of a fingerprint magnet around the back of the articulating display. Luckily, the rubber grips are still in place around the rest of the body.

What I didn't expect from the D5300, but actually blew me away was the stunning improvement in image quality over my D5200. First, and some would say finally, Nikon appears to have dramatically improved the auto white balance for incandescent lighting. Secondly, in side-by-side comparisons with the same lenses, focal distances, and shots, the D5300 shows dramatic improvement in image sharpness over my D5200. I'm not sure this can be attributed only to the lack of a anti-alias filter on the sensor, especially when using my Nikon 16-85VR (F3.5-5.6). But when viewed at 100%, the photos are dramatically sharper in both RAW and JPEG versions on the D5300 over the D5200. Given the dramatic improvement in image quality that the D5200 brought over my D5100, I wasn't expecting such a marked improvement that the D5300 brings. Although the D5300 boasts a higher ISO range than the D5200, I haven't noticed a dramatic improvement in low-light performance (the D5200 was already outstanding).

Other notable improvements from the D5200:
- new 24.2MP image sensor without anti-alias filter
- higher ISO sensitivity (100-12800) and low light performance
- new larger 3.2" articulating display is also much brighter, although still not a touch screen like others offer
- built in WiFi is much more reliable and faster with my iPhone than the Nikon WiFi dongle I used with my D5200
- built in GPS, although I found it slow (several minutes) to acquire a lock outdoors
- autofocus time in LiveView is noticeably faster, but sadly Nikon still relies on contrast detection so focus is slow
- video can now be captured in 1080P resolution at 60 frames per second
- slightly smaller and lighter camera body, without (in my experience) sacrificing handling
- higher capacity battery (EN-EL14a) provides 600 CIPA shots per charge vs 500 on the D5200/EN-EL14 (but if you turn on GPS and WiFi, the battery drains much faster)

And, if you're upgrading from a D5100, the D5300 carries over these improvements from the D5200:
- dramatic focus improvement: 39-point AF, 9 cross-type AF points, and 3D focus tracking
- Nikon EXPEED 4 image processing engine
- 5 fps continuous shooting (JPEG); if you're shooting RAW you can shoot up to 6 images at 5 fps
- stunning HD video capture, including live output of uncompressed video through the mini HDMI port
- built in stereo microphones for video capture

If you own a D5100, the new autofocus system (taken from the higher-end Nikon DSLRs such as the D7000) is stunning. With 39 autofocus points, it quickly identifies the subject and locks focus. With my D5100, I had some instances of out-of-focus shots (especially in low-contrast subjects or greater distance). With the D5200 and now D5300, focus has been perfect for every shot.

So what could be improved? The GPS sadly disappoints. Given how horrible the reviews are of Nikon's external GPS unit, I wasn't expecting much from the built-in unit. But even outside, it takes several MINUTES to get a GPS lock. And when you switch off the camera, the GPS doesn't keep its last position, so it must hunt AGAIN when you power on. I have read that there are workarounds (you can manually download GPS assist data but you have to keep it up to date every 7 days) to improve performance of the built-in GPS.

As I mentioned earlier, LiveView focus performance, although notably improved with the D5300, still disappoints. Nikon is one of the last camera manufacturers to rely only on contrast detection for live autofocus. So while the articulating screen is great, don't expect to capture an action shot in LiveView.

Finally, while the display is greatly improved in brightness and clarity over the D5200/D5100, it does not support touch, which can be useful for choosing focus points for example.

Also important to note is that some Sigma lenses are incompatible with the D5300 (no autofocus in LiveView, no optical image stabilization). Sigma has issued an advisory, and has said they will correct these problems in a forthcoming firmware update. But Sigma is not issuing updated firmware for discontinued lenses.

That being said, the negatives are easy to overlook when you consider the stunning image quality, autofocus and scene detection, shooting performance, and HD video capture. Taken together, Nikon has a real winner in the D5300. It is definitely for their target buyer - someone like me who is not a professional photographer but who demands top image quality without taking up a lot of physical space in the camera bag.

*** UPDATES:
Nikon has released updates for both ViewNX 2 (v2.8.2) and Capture NX 2 (v2.4.5) that support the D5300 RAW image format. Make sure you have installed these updates.

For a truly outstanding GPS unit, I can confirm that the Solmeta Geotagger N3 external geotagger is supported by the D5300 via the accessory port.

129 of 142 people found the following review helpful.
GPS function is useless!
By PawPawDog
The primary reason for me to upgrade from Nikon's D5100 to D5300 was new GPS location recording function. A secondary reason was hoping a sharper image without the low pass filter. After a few thousand shoots in a recent trip, I would say it is a reasonable but not necessarily compiling upgrade from the D5100 and probably even less an upgrade from D5200.

Pro:
* It is slightly lighter than D5100. I like it but others may not.
* LCD screen is bigger than D5100.
* There is an added single/continues/self-timer selection button. Although the button position could be better, but it is still better than D5100 has go through quick menu to change it.
* Day time outdoor image is marginally better with Nikon's 18-200 lens that I use as walk around lens. Night time performance improvements are more significant. Although the "Auto" and "Night scene" modes are still bad for night landscape shoots.
* Auto focus under bright light is marginally quicker than D5100 but under dark conditions it still hunts.
* LiveView although still sluggish, at least it is much improved over D5100.
* Although it includes the new En-EL14A battery, old EN-EL 14 battery still works! This means I can keep my spare batteries.
* Wi-Fi function was not important to me but with Nikon's Wireless Mobility Utility I can sync the camera's clock with my phone. This is important for using the phone as GPS logger. The utility also functions as remote with ability to turn Live View on/off.

Con:
* When I first got the D5300 three days after it was released, the GPS's performance is just awful! Then there was talk about update the camera's GPS file. With the update, the GPS function improved somewhat but there is catch that we the owner need to download and applied new updates every two weeks! Even with the update, it is still near useless in the field! First, even with the update it still take time to lock on satellite signal! To make matter worse is even with the GPS logging function on, the camera will not maintain the lock once it goes to standby mode and upon wake up, it needs to rescan and lock! Further more, even after it locks, any movement can cause it to loose the lock even by just walking a few steps! I even have many shoots just seconds apart without moving and yet the camera still could not maintain the lock! I would say the outdoor shoots managed to get GPS data is only about 50% and one can forget any hope the GPS can track indoor or inside cars.
* As the GPS not able to lock quickly not bad enough, it is also not very accurate!! While some pictures that I shoot so far are accurate, most of them are at least 50ft-100ft off and many are even more than 1,000ft off!!
* Not only the GPS is close to useless, it also drain battery much quicker! With the GPS on, the battery can be drained with as little as 200-300 shoots! When changing battery with GPS "on", sometimes the GPS came back resumed to "on", but other times it came back as "off"! I found it very frustrating as most of time I need to change battery in a hurry and do not have time to check all the status.
* D5300 has an AF assist lamp as the D5100 and it has the same problem. While this lampmay be good for some cases, it is inappropriate for others. The way Nikon implements it is not very flexible. The default setting is have the lamp on all the time for Auto and PASM mode with some pre-programmed scene modes will disable it. The only way for user to turn it on/off for PASM is to go through custom setting menu and it applied to all modes. One cannot program PASM differently that made this function less useful or even annoying.
* Wi-Fi function was not important to me but it seems I have to use it for some functions only the wireless utility offers, it matters now and I was surprised to find out it can only be connected to smart devices with either Android or iOS AND with Nikon's Wireless Mobility Utility running. It does not connect to PC or router. It is a two stages job. First to connect the two with Wi-Fi and then start the utility on the smart device. For some Android devices that supports WPS, the connection is secure. Otherwise by using SSID to connect, it is unsecured with SSID broadcast wide open that some one else can possible to connect to the camera.
* The wireless utility has a function to use smart device's GPS tag which is very good. But, my test so far seems it will only embedded the tag as picture been transferred from the camera to the device not directly to the SD card in the camera. Although I can understand the logic in view of possible unsecured link, it is another two stages job first to transfer the image to device and then to PC or somewhere else. It also made this function not very practical to use when travelling as the smart devices' memory are much smaller than the SD card and the prolong use of Wi-Fi seems draining the battery quickly.

Bottom line is if you overlook the poor GPS performance and need a DSL camera, D5300 is a good choice. If you are like me already own a D5100, it probably is worth to upgrade if you shoot a lot night scene and indoor without flash shoots. If on the other hand, the GPS is your main reason to get this camera, you should pass.

Edit 11/20/2013:

* Because of the AF assist lamp setting was so inflexible, I turned it off when I first got the D5100 and did not even remember it also has the lamp until I am comparing it with the D5300. Too bad Nikon has not done any improvement on the settings.
* Tried the GPS on another open space, it was even worse than before! It seems this GPS function is worthless as is. If GPS function is an important buying factor, I would rate the D5300 THREE STARS or less. If you are like me already have the D5100 or D5200 thinking about upgrading to D5300 for the GPS, you probably should stay with what you have.
* Added comments about Wi-Fi

Edit 11/22/2013

S. Fox mentioned SSID for Wi-Fi. Although I have seen it before, never thought I will use it because it is unsecure. But since Fox mentioned, I gave it a try and that is when I found out it can not even connect directly to PC or router!

Edit 11/23/2013

* Mercury Coach mentioned updating A-GPS data might help. Well, it did! Although the GPS is still inconsistent that took from 10s to 1 min. to lock on at same location, it is at least far more usable now. The problem is it seem we have to update this GPS file every two weeks to keep it happy.
* Tried Wi-Fi and the Wireless Mobility Utility a bit with mixed feeling.
* Although the GPS is faster now , it also seems less accurate. Those pictures taken before the update were very accurate but those taken after the update were at least 200ft off. I will test some more to see if indeed the update traded accuracy for speed.

Edit 12/1/2013

Just came back from a trip. I am very disappointed with the GPS even with the update! Most of the time it could not lock on or maintain lock to signal when we walk around a handful of cities in Germany. Not only it is useless for the trip, it also drain the battery much faster than I like or expect! I will give more details later.

Edit 12/3/2013

Added more details about the GPS.

Edit 12/5/2013

Added comments about image quality.

Edit 1/10/2014

Now that I have used the D5300 from US to Europe and Asia with multiple A-GPS file updates, there is no doubt in my mind, the GPS is less than useless because not only it can not lock on signal in reasonable time, it also drain the battery way too fast!

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Google Nexus 10 (Wi-Fi only, 16 GB)

Google Nexus 10 (Wi-Fi only, 16 GB)..

Special Price Google Nexus 10 (Wi-Fi only, 16 GB) By Samsung

Most helpful customer reviews

583 of 611 people found the following review helpful.
Phenomenal consumption tablet, but bide your time and buy elsewhere!
By Christopher Lee
Before beginning this review, here are products that I own that I have used for comparison (most of which I have reviewed on this site): the ASUS Transformer TF300 T-B1-BL 10.1-Inch 32 GB Tablet (Blue) with the matching ASUS Transformer Pad Mobile Dock TF300T (Blue), the Apple iPad MC705LL/A (16GB, Wi-Fi, Black) 3rd Generation, the Asus Google Nexus 7 Tablet (8 GB) - Quad-core Tegra 3 Processor, Android 4.1, Windows RT Surface 32 GB Tablet, the HP TouchPad Wi-Fi 32 GB 9.7-Inch Tablet Computer, and the venerable Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I love mobile devices, and have plenty of experience with Android, iOS, Windows RT, and webOS devices. Now for the review.

PROS
+ Dazzlingly sharp screen. If you're looking at the Nexus 10, you've likely seen this specification front and center. The resolution handily beats that of Apple's third and fourth generation iPads, but in practice it's hard to see the improvement. That's not because the Nexus 10's screen isn't an improvement-- if you look, it's there, and reading web pages is truly a joy-- but after a certain point, you really run into diminishing returns.
+ Rich content experience. While you do hit some diminishing returns, the Nexus 10 has quickly become one of my favorite tablets for content consumption, whether that's watching video or reading books. While both the newer iPads and this tablet (and really, a number of other excellent Android options, like the ASUS TF700T-B1-CG 10.1-Inch Tablet (Champagne)) now come with 1080p or better screens, Android tablets tend to have the edge when it comes to YouTube and video content due to their 16:9 aspect ratios (although they all do quite well, really). The Nexus 10's screen helps make web and text reading great, which is important considering many find the 16:9 ratio awkward for such tasks (more below).
+ Sleek, svelte build out of great materials. The backing is soft-touch and ever-so-slightly rubberized, and while not quite as easy to grip as a Nexus 7, the device sticks in the hand. Perhaps more importantly, it has a nice, warm feeling to it-- one complaint I've had about all-metal tablets like the iPads and premium Transformer Pads is that holding cold metal in your hand feels premium, but often uncomfortable. There's zero flex in the chassis anywhere, nothing creaks, and the slim, trim profile looks great. I personally think it looks friendlier than an iPad, but I will note that if you're fond of angular and straight-edged designs, the Nexus 10's pronounced curves may throw you. On the other hand, it's thin and light, and comfortable in the hand.

Oh, and branding is minimal. Most of the required stuff is under a neat little panel that snaps off to let you attach cases and keyboards and such (although said accessories are noticeably missing at this time-- someone dropped the ball on this one).
+ Excellent performance. Performance is really determined by both the hardware and the software, and for now, I'll look at the hardware. Powered by a new chip of the A15 "Eagle" variety, Samsung's Exynos 5250 destroys basically every Android tablet chipset out on the market (note I am not including the Snapdragon S4 Pro, as it's not really available on tablets yet outside of Qualcomm's reference build). Zero lag, zero stutter, fast and snappy graphics playback, and fluid gameplay (but take this last with caution: while every review I've seen has praised its gaming ability, I myself play relatively simple games like Steambirds or Anomaly: HD). Sometimes the tablet will run a little warm, but none of this lap/hand burning people complain about so much these days.
+ Android 4.2 under the hood. Android's come a long, long way in recent years, and even if you're a dedicated Apple user, you should at least look at Google's latest offering with an open mind. Stock Android has morphed from (what I believe! Important caveat!) a gaudy, neo-futuristic mess (Gingerbread) into a sleek, industrial, polished, and smooth system (beginning with Ice Cream Sandwich). In more recent releases, the OS has become far more understated visually, serving only to help you navigate your apps and content and getting out of your way besides. Android 4.2 has released several new features of interest to most buyers, but I'll look at two in particular. The first is multi-user support: now, you can have one tablet service multiple users, with a tap on the lockscreen switching between them. That means a "family" tablet can also hold your personal work e-mail, with no fear of other family members accessing your data. The second is a quick settings toggle. Android OEMs have long built in Wi-Fi/GPS/Bluetooth and other switches into their devices, but until recently you would need an app like Power Toggles to replicate the same on a stock Android device. While Google's implementation of settings toggles leaves a little to be desired, at least the functionality is there (unlike a certain fruit-named brand-- seriously Apple, all I want to do is toggle Wi-Fi. Do I really have to jailbreak for that?!)
+ Great connectivity. You get a micro-HDMI out port and micro-USB, and it's the latter that really opens up the device's capabilities. Buy a cheap USB OTG cable from Amazon (you can get them for south of $2 with free shipping if you look), and hey presto, your Nexus 10 can work with USB keyboards, mice, and with a little tinkering, flash drives. Good way to solve the limited storage issue (see below).
+ Sound sound sound. Taking cues from Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 10.1N designs, the speakers are now on the front panel of the device. The stereo set pushes out quite a good bit of clear, loud, audible sound. For a tablet, the only device I've seen that comes remotely close is the HP Touchpad. But as with all things, keep in mind that the device is ultimately a tablet, so don't expect too much in the way of bass. It's plenty loud though-- I can't fathom why reviewers complain about volume.
+ Dual NFC receivers, one on the front, one on the back. While NFC is just emerging as a technology, if you have another Android device with NFC, you can easily throw links and such between devices (although Chrome sync handles that quite nicely as well), or buy some NFC stickers and play around with an app like NFC Task Launcher for some automation fun.

CONS
- No microSD slot. Personally, I don't find this an issue whatsoever, but if you're a big fan of local content then I can see how this might bite you. Google has long refused to put microSD on its Nexus devices, citing a number of technical and usability challenges (both sides of which I happen to agree with, but I won't go into detail here). If you're really out of space for the road, see my above section on USB OTG cables and use a cheap flash drive to expand your storage. It looks a little silly, yes, but for movie watching on the go, it'll do quite nicely. Google's on-demand download for its streaming services (Play Music, Play Movies, etc.) has so far let me keep what I want on my device.
- New layout. Again, not a huge issue for me, but if you've used Android tablets before, you will have to relearn a few things. Navigation softkeys have been moved to the center, and notifications moved to a notification bar at the top. This change has grown on me with time, since it preserves muscle memory between my phone and tablet, but some of Google's justifications just don't sell me. For one, center navigation softkeys leave a huge amount of wasted space floating around the bottom of the screen, and I liked having those keys and notifications in the bottom corners so I could hit them with my thumbs. Good thing that screen is so magnificent, aye?
- Aspect ratio. Android tablets are notorious for being landscape-only beasts, and although this device is quite tolerable in portrait, everything about it screams to be used in landscape. While this is usually fine, when reading scrolling content (such as books, web pages, and so on), sometimes Apple's 4:3 ratio is far more pleasant on the eyes, especially as such content is usually vertical, not horizontal.
- Cameras. Pass please. Tablets do not make good shooters, and while this one has an LED flash, it's thoroughly unremarkable.
- Somewhat understated buttons makes for some frustration. Power, volume up, volume down-- three buttons with distinguishable functions. So Google/Samsung, why put them all right next to each other with such low profiles? Sometimes I sleep the device instead of turning down the volume, which is just silly.
- Battery life. Please read this one with care-- the Nexus 10 does have a great battery and it lasts quite a long time. Rigorous tests have shown it lasts just as long as its competitors (the iPad included) in usage scenarios. But I have always (subjectively) found my iPad lasts longer in standby than any of my other Android tablets. Take what you will from that, but again, ultimately it does its job quite well.
- App ecosystem for tablets is a bit underwhelming. Again, please read this one carefully-- this is often leveled as a make-or-break charge on Android tablets. While I agree that the market is a little underwhelming, let's be real-- we don't ever have hundreds of apps on our tablets, and Google Play now has more than enough to cover most of my needs. In addition, the Nexus 7's enormously successful launch saw a huge wave of new, 7"-optimized apps. I expect to see increased interest in the 10.1" form factor with the Nexus 10. I've found the apps to do everything I want to do, and with some digging, I believe anyone could.
- Consumption, not production. While you certainly can use this device for production (particularly with a Bluetooth or USB keyboard), and Android gives you real filesystem access, you can't really escape that the Nexus 10 is a content consumption device. So are the iPads. In fact, the only two tablets I've seen and used that took productivity seriously were the Transformer Pad series and the Microsoft Surface RT. The Transformers destroy most Android tablets when it comes to productivity, and (I believe) are in turn destroyed by the Surface when it comes to serious Office-work and overall versatility. Obviously this is a point for debate and contention, but this is my stance based on my experiences with these devices. Feel free to comment if you disagree!

On the whole, do I recommend the Nexus 10? Wholeheartedly. Absolutely. With one little problem. The price. The Nexus 10 is excellently priced at $399 on Google Play for the 16GB Wi-Fi variant. So why is it being sold at $549 and above here on Amazon? It's quite simple-- third-party sellers routinely exaggerate the list price so that they can comply with Amazon's "list price or lower" rule, while still turning a profit on flipping an in-demand device. You can argue it's supply and demand-- I think it's dishonest marketing. Buy from Google Play if you can, or see if you can wait just a bit for the vultures to be brought down by more legitimate resellers.

Either way, I hope this helps, and just comment if you have questions!

185 of 209 people found the following review helpful.
Nexus 10, Best In Class? Absolutely!
By Perry
Let me start by saying I have owned an iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad Mini, Asus Transformer TF300T, Sony Tablet S, Toshiba eXcite 10.1, Motorola Xoom, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10. There are different reasons I have continued looking fo the best Tablet Possible for my needs. Oh and my wife has a Samsung Ativ Smart PC Windows 8 Tablet (Great device).

BUILD QUALITY

I know a lot has been said about the quality of the materials and how it is plastic; Let me say I have seen all different builds and while the back might not be as high quality as the aluminum of the iPad, the Gorilla Glass 2 screen is miles ahead of the Apple offering and is almost completely resistant to scratching. Overall I feel that the build is very good and I like the no slip backing more than any other tablet I have used.

SCREEN QUALITY

The screen is flat out amazing! The Retina iPad has a 3 MP screen, a 1080P display is about 2 MP so, at 4 MP this screen even has your TV set beat! Contrast is good and color favors accuracy over pop. In short, you likely will not find a better screen on a tablet for some time to come but, the iPad Retina and Transformer Infinity Displays are as close to this screen as you're going to get. Still, there's not a lick of aliasing on this screen even when zoomed in.

SOUND QUALITY

For some reason most tablet manufacturers decided that the side and back of their tablets were the best place for speakers and the results have been mixed. The Nexus 10 has them bookending the screen and it delivers sharp, crisp, full sound where others fall flat. This is another area where this tablet tops the competition.

PERFORMANCE & STABILITY

The combination of a light weight OS and top notch hardware have made this possibly the fastest tablet on the market. At the very least it on par with the iPad for all around performance. For the most part the tablet is a pleasure to use but, there are times when the unit locks up for no apparent reason and yet, I don't consider this a deal breaker as the other 99% of the time it performs flawlessly.

If I cannot resolve the issues with the locks, it could become an issue quick.

Updating the Review as it appears that others were right, Google Currents is now disabled on the Tablet and all of my Lock-ups are gone! I will be bumping the review up to 4 stars until I get more familiar with it. Who knows, maybe in a week this will be a 5 star Tablet.

OS & APPS

Obviously this is a Nexus product so it will automatically be updated whenever Google releases a new version of Android, an this is a huge strength for the tablet as it will likely get at least two operating system updates per year.

Apps are scalable in Android so they will most likely scale just fine but lower quality textures will make for a slightly less than optimal viewing experience. As things mature, we will likely get some very sharp and nice looking graphics.

I have heard claims that Android is not good for Productivity but, it isn't accurate. A few of the Apps I like for Productivity Purposes are...

Kingsoft Office - Awesome Office Suite Free On Android!
Magisto - Video Editing
Mint - Financial Management from Intuit
Sketchbook Pro Tablet Edition - Excellent Drawing App
Pen Supremacy - Doodle, Jot, make Notes or Diagrams
AutoCAD WS - Autodesk CAD App
Google Drive - Cloud Data Storage
Photoshop Touch - Decent Photo Editing On The Fly
Kindle - eBook Reader
Play Books - Google eBook Reader (Best Available Period)
DeuterIDE - Supports 40 Languages And Feature Built-In Compiler
Maestro - Musical Note Taking App

As you can see, you can pretty much do anything you want with this Tablet and it might not be as powerful as a Desktop but, it is every bit as productive as a Windows RT tablet or an iPad.

Media Consumption is decent but, not great. You do have multiple music sources, movie sources, and book reading apps but, movie and TV apps tend to be lower quality than what I get from my Apple TV (This is a problem to me as I would prefer not to support Apple at all).

CAMERAS

With a 1.9 MP Rear Facing Camera and a 5 MP Front Facing Camera, this tablet does quite well, and although the front facing camera doesn't match that of the Transformer TF700 it is on par with the iPad 3 and 4.

GPS

Very solid but, not as fast as the Nexus 7. Still very good over all and there isn't an iOS device on the planet that would be as good without Google Maps.

CONCLUSION

I really like the Nexus 10 and at 32 Gigs it really is hard for me to beat at $499. With that said, I will keep it and rate the device a Cautionary 4 until Google fixes the issue with Google Currents Locking the Tablet Up. Yes it is about once a day but, it really shouldn't be happening at all and there are several complaints on the Android Forums regarding the issue. Anyway, once that is taken care of, it will be the best Tablet on the block.

Also, I walked into Staples and Bought my 32 Gig model without any waiting so, don't pay these crazy prices because they market doesn't bare the weight of this sellers asking price!

UPDATED 3-23-13

It appears that 4.2.2 has indeed fixed everything that has caused the Tablet to lock up and I couldn't be more pleased with it. This tablet is extremely fast and stable now, I would recommend this over any tablet on the market.

176 of 212 people found the following review helpful.
Great tablet, but too many small flaws to overlook
By Andy
I bought the 32G version of this tablet 6 weeks ago and have been enjoying it, for the MOST part. I will not cover anything spec-related (processor, lack of SD card slot, brilliant screen, etc) but will focus on my general user experience.

Let's start with the good. Even though there is a bit of a learning curve for 1st time Android users, multitasking and feeling in control of your experience is phenomenal. What I mean by that is you feel like you are taking the most efficient route to get to where you want to go, made possible by the multitasking button, Google Now, and the notifications bar. The tablet is also very sturdy and ergonomic and the speakers are just awesome to listen to since they're front-facing. Battery easily lasted me 2 and a half days of moderate use and no charging.

There honestly are not any huge issues with the product itself, just many little ones that accumulate and severely bring you out of the great user experience Google has provided with Android. After a day of use, my tablet froze and restarted itself. I thought I was using it wrong, but this kept happening at least once a day for the next two weeks. The restart only took 15-20 seconds but completely took me by surprise. There is a bit of light bleeding in the lower right corner of my screen. Again, not a big deal, but it makes the N10 not feel like the premium product that it tries to be. Wifi connection, when compared to my laptop and Galaxy Note 2, is inconsistent even when right next to my router. I've stopped watching youtube videos altogether because of this which is a shame since the screen is so beautiful. There are plenty of apps for Android phones, and even for tablets, but not for 10 inch tablets. Half the apps I use on a daily basis are just blown-up phone apps, especially Facebook, which looks absolutely atrocious on such a large screen. The list goes on and on, but you get the point.

As an avid Android enthusiast, I really really wanted to like the N10, even getting a replacement thinking it would fix the problems I was having with my first one. But the problems kept persisting and though they could be fixed by OTA updates, I couldn't help but feel cheated. This hardware-software combo was clearly not ready for prime-time and at the end of the day, I was the guinea pig. I will be using my replacement for the next week and will try to cling to a reason to keep it but if you're on the fence about getting this product or an iOS tablet, I would go with the latter.

---Update---: After a full month of using my tablet, I stand by my original review, for the most part (I never caved in to get an iPad). I've found that the app selection isn't as lacking as I thought and many popular apps available for iPad have near-clones on Android. What is still very annoying is the constant restarts. I don't think I've ever been able to use my N10 for more than 2 hours before the tablet either decides to freeze or restart spontaneously. So, as of right now, this is still a 3-star product.

---Update 2---: It's been a week and a half since my N10 device received the update to Android 4.2.2. The performance is slightly better with freezing being less frequent, but the problem still appears from time to time. (About once every 2 days of medium use). After using it to take notes in some of my classes, I recognize that it is not a BAD tablet. However, everything is relative, and the value proposition of the N10 compared to some other tablets (iPad, Windows 8 tablets, Note 10.1) is noticeably inferior. It's the jack of all trades but the master of none.

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Amped Wireless High Power 600mW Compact Wi-Fi Range Extender (REC10)

Amped Wireless High Power 600mW Compact Wi-Fi Range Extender (REC10)..

Special Price Amped Wireless High Power 600mW Compact Wi-Fi Range Extender (REC10) By Amped Wireless

Most helpful customer reviews

135 of 135 people found the following review helpful.
Simple and effective
By M. Laird
We needed a boost to our wifi signal after moving our router to a new location. First we purchased a new 'long range' router that didn't improve anything for us. So we returned that, plugged our old router back in, bought this, plugged it in, walked through 5 mins of set ups...and poof... we have full strength signals in every single room of our 2400 sq ft house. Perfect answer and well worth the $!

105 of 108 people found the following review helpful.
Wow. I'm impressed
By Cliff Mason
I'm an IT Consultant who is constantly researching solutions for clients. This time I needed one for myself. I rarely write reviews, but I had to write this one.

I just moved into a hundred year old brick house. The router is in my office, which is in the upstairs corner. The solid plaster walls created a serious problem getting a signal on the first floor. I had tried a wireless extender in the past in my old house with lousy results.

I researched again, and decided on the Amped Wireless REC10 Extender, based on the reviews. I was blown away. It was fairly easy to set up with a nice web interface and wizard. I played around with it and reset it a couple of times using the reset button, until I understood the settings. I also had to move it around the house to several locations to find the optimal one, which just happened to be the front stairway, which had a power outlet. The signal to the router in my office was over 75% at it's final placement. I was concerned that it was too close to the router and wouldn't reach the rest of the house. I was wrong. Not only did it reach the kitchen perfectly, which previously had almost no signal, it also works in the basement!

The power of this unit is amazing. The reach is much farther than I could have predicted. I was expecting to have to buy an antenna extender, but the small antenna that comes with it was more than sufficient. If it's too much, you can even attenuate it. Try this unit. You won't be disappointed.

102 of 125 people found the following review helpful.
Not trivial, works in many situations, but not all, so make sure you understand what this does and what it does not do
By Trailman
Before you buy this device, make sure you understand its limitations and make sure that it will meet your needs.

In situations where a single access point cannot cover a large enough area, e.g. in a large office, a variety of technologies is available to extend the coverage, either wired or wirelessly.
Repeaters are one option where it is not possible to combine multiple access points to form a mesh network. The objective is obviously to create a single large network where the individual cells are transparent to the client, i.e. where the client will switch between access points without the user noticing a service interruption. This requires that all stations share the same SSID.

This is not what this device does. The Amped support staff calls the REC10 a repeater in forum posts, but I think that it is in fact not a repeater but a range extender, and these terms are not synonymous. The difference is not just semantical, because a range extender spans up its own network, i.e. you have a separate SSID, separate security settings, and as a result have multiple wireless networks. A mobile device that is moved between the coverage areas of those networks will not be able to seamlessly switch between them, but rather require user interaction. The REC10 tries to intelligently merge the IP address ranges of the home network and the extended network by providing its own DHCP server for wireless clients. This is configurable, but not very intuitive, because the settings for the DHCP client and server are lumped together and the details are not documented ("for advanced users"). I have not been able to get my desired configuration working. I would like the device to have a static IP in the home network and serve IP addresses to its DHCP clients from a separate range, or at least forward requests to my home network DHCP server. When I set DHCP to "server" and configured the IP addresses accordingly, it did not work. "Auto" works, but then the device has a dynamic IP address in my home network and I cannot create rules for it in the firewall.
Also, this appears to be causing problems with certain types of routers or other devices in your network. Read the Amped support forum for more details. There is apparently a known set of configurations that will not work. Comcast routers are mentioned repeatedly as unsupported. The fact that Amped has not published unsupported configurations is a frequent source of criticism.

That said, for many this might still suffice. I plan to use this device temporarily to provide better wireless service in the back yard and around the pool. It will not be plugged in unless I want to sit outside or we have guests.

Setting up the device was not as straight-forward as one would hope, but this was mostly my own fault. I have a schedule on the home WLAN that turns the kids' devices off after 9pm so that they sleep and don't surf or watch Netflix in bed. Because the REC10 obtained an IP address from my DHCP server that was not in the list of exceptions, it would not connect to the home network. It took a couple of hours to figure this out - the diagnostic features are limited. Once I gave it a static IP in my wireless network, I was able to add it to the list of devices that are allowed on my home WLAN without time restrictions.

A minor annoyance is the fact that the administration website (at [...] always wants to redirect to [...] even when you access it from the home network via its home network wireless IP (a static IP in my case). This can be convenient if I want to check or change the configuration from my desktop that is on a wired connection. When I browse to the IP address, the home page briefly appears, but then attempts to redirect me to [...] which of course does not work from the home network. I had to add it to my hosts file before I was able to use the web interface this way.

The biggest obstacle in configuring the device is that it reacts to sluggishly to changes. Some things appear to take forever until they become effective, and there was at times a discrepancy between what the web interface showed and what I observed. For example, when the web interface says that there is no connection to the home network, but I am verifyably connected to the REC10 and get fresh web pages served from the Internet, then this is not good.

One potentially attractive aspect of having a separate WLAN for me is the ability to separate clients based on time restrictions. If all the kids devices use the extended network and all my devices use the home network, I don't need to manage individual IP addresses anymore for the firewall rule and can just create a schedule for the REC10's IP address. But this will require that it remains online all the time, so I will have to weigh the pros and cons.

I cannot comment on performance and throughput yet, or if IPv6 is supported.

For reference, here is my network configuration that I can now confirm works with this device:
- Verizon FIOS service
- My router/firewall/WLAN access point is a Netgate M1n1wall running pfSense 2.0.3. It is connected directly to the FIOS feed. I do not use the Verizon router.

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Belkin WeMo Switch, Control Your Electronics From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled

Belkin WeMo Switch, Control Your Electronics From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled..

GET Belkin WeMo Switch, Control Your Electronics From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled By WeMo

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359 of 386 people found the following review helpful.
Firmware and App needs a lot of work.
By Gaucho
Installed the Wemo Light Switch easily enough. As other reviewers have stated, a neutral wire is required. Also, the size of the front of the switch is the same as your regular Leviton switches, so if you are replacing one of those your face plates (including a double face plate for 2 different switches which is what I have), it will fit. The rear of the switch, is definitely bigger than the rear of a normal light switch so it does make a tight fit inside the wall box. Overall, I think it is a decent device but Belkin has some updating to do, per the rest of my review.

Pluses:
* Design looks good
* When light switch is on, there is small power light to show it is "on"
* Once it is connected to your network, the remote access via the App is a nice feature

Cons:
* When connecting to your wi-fi router, you cannot have any special characters (like: !?*&) or any spaces, in your typically already set up router password; Example: your password cannot be "john doe" and instead has to be "johndoe" without a space. If you have these, it will not connect to your router!!! Belkin needs a firmware / App update to fix this ASAP.
* When you are loading a rule to your Wemo Switch, let the App completely finish before doing anything. This means waiting...don't try and rush anything because you can bork your device. My first Wemo light switch died because of this (after just 1 day of use!), as I tried to change its name from "Wemo Light Switch" to something like "Porch Light" and it did not load right, and killed the switch where I could not access it at all from the App (after 4 + hours of troubleshooting, resetting, restarting, re-installing the App, etc.); ultimately I had to just replace it with a new Wemo light switch that is working for now.
* Timer based rules do not always work; Example - I tried to create a rule where the switch turns on at 8:30 p.m. and turns off at 2:30 a.m. Saved the rule and the rule loaded to the device. After saving, etc., the rule mistakenly says to turn off at 2:30 p.m. = it got the a.m. and p.m. reversed for the turn off setting. Tried this several times and it would not save correctly, no matter what. Instead I am just using the "sunset" to "sunrise" settings which did save correctly. Again, a future firmware update should fix this.
* On Android, the WeMo App is slow, very slow (even if on a strong wi-fi or on a strong LTE signal which I have). The Android WeMo "Beta" App has the same exact functionality, but it is a little bit faster. So if you are on Android, use the "Beta" App.
* Belkin needs to allow a computer browser interface, not just by an IOS or Android App. I am comparing this to my Nest thermostat, which does have a computer browser interface plus an App, and is generally a much more polished device.

Conclusion - for now it's just a decent device. Even though it is not the first in the Wemo line, I would consider it a first generation device. I would rate it 2.5 stars for now, and if my second switch does not fail then maybe 3.5 stars. If Belkin improves firmware and the App, then it has the potential to be a 4+ star device but it is not there yet.

See, [...] for a Wemo community forum where you can see a wide variety of issues for troubleshooting this and other Wemo devices.

277 of 299 people found the following review helpful.
Worked well for ~2 months
By Erick
I bought 4 of these light switches about a month after they were released. I had been adding motion detector lights, dusk-to-dawn lights, etc., to both improve energy efficiency and safety in my house. My purchase was designed to move further toward both of these issues, along with a new Kwikset lock and some security cameras.

Installation was relatively simple, even for someone who is not an electrician. As long as you have the proper wires and follow instructions, as other reviewers have mentioned, installation should not be too difficult (check before ordering though). Connecting to the WiFi was also not difficult for me. I have a Linksys router in the basement with a Linksys range extender upstairs and WeMo did not have any problems connecting when I followed instructions. The initial firmware update took quite a long time and the initial iPhone app version that I downloaded was *very* slow to detect the switches each time I loaded the app, but they seem to have fixed the latter issue.

Once it was all setup, I LOVED it. I used IFTTT to automatically make sure lights were turned off at night and on in the morning, among other things. I really like the look of them and changed out many of my fan switches and other switches to the decorator-style to make it look even nicer. Really, really like the look of them, although I could see it not fitting as well in certain instances (I am definitely not an interior decorator). I do wish that these would work with 3-way lights (where you have two light switches that control the same light) or as dimmers, but unfortunately they don't.

Here's the problem: two days ago, the power to the router went out for about 30 seconds, then turned back on. The internet and WiFi loaded fine and all of my devices worked fine - except two of the 4 light switches could no longer connect to WiFi! They would both just blink orange non-stop. I tried all of their support instructions on their website, which was minimal, and included resetting and restarting the device. Of course, now one of the switches started blinking green and I could no longer even turn the lights on manually. So I caved and called their support number (difficult to find, but calling the corporate headquarters 800-number routed me to support).

Here is where it got really frustrating because, among other things, the person on the line spoke very poor English. It took about 35 minutes to get through the initial questions around model number, what lights were blinking, when I purchased the product, etc. In between each question, she would tell me to "hold on a second" and mute her line, before often (at least 10 times, no exaggeration) returning and asking me a question I had already answered. Multiple times, she forgot to mute her line and I heard her joking with her friends. But, OK, I only hold Belkin partially accountable for that. After over an hour, and having me try everything I already tried, she finally said she would send me a new one. For now, I have two switches that cannot connect to WiFi and one that cannot even turn the lights on.

It is simply not worth all of this hassle just to be able to remotely turn some lights on and off. To make it worse: they only provide (poor) customer service for free for 90 days! After that, you have to pay to talk to someone. Luckily (unluckily?), mine broke after 60 days so I could get someone on the phone.

I really wanted to like the product, and I would have if there was some quality control or better customer support, but unfortunately for me it didn't work out.

195 of 213 people found the following review helpful.
A great starter pack- a demo of how it's useful for me.
By RST
I am a little bit obsessed with the WeMo world. I have a ton of them in my house, on most lights, and a few of the motion sensors. I could go through the technical specs of the device, but others have done that. I'd rather give you an example of why it is useful to me, and how I use it. I have my kit and other WeMo switches set to:

Turn one living room light on from "dusk" (definable in the iPhone/Android app) until 10:30 p.m.
From 10:30 to 11, a different light stays on
From 11 through "sunrise" if I walk out of the bedroom door, and the motion sensor senses me, it turns on two lights in the living room
If motion is detected from 10:30 p.m. through Sunrise at my front door, it turns on "ALL OF THE LIGHTS!"

I also use one of these in the winter to turn on my Christmas lights (they plug in indoors), my Christmas tree at night, and other Christmas lights on by motion if I'm around.

The kit is incredibly flexible, and once you get one set up and on your wifi, it can be controlled while you are AWAY FROM HOME! The best part.

You can drive up to your house and turn the lights on before you go inside!

That all being said, I did have a couple of them be a little difficult to get on the wifi the first time. As soon as you connect them, they want to update their firmware/software. Once that's done, they work great. Be patient if you have a little difficulty on the first go, it will work and then be 100% reliable after that.

I hope this has helped you understand how and why to use the device and how it might help you.

UPDATE:

There is now a newer or different model of the wemo outlet control that can also track energy consumption. It is smaller overall, and has a touch sensor for the wifi. If you think you might be interested in that, you can find it here: Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, Control Your Electronics and Monitor Energy Usage From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled

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