Purchase on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1rM2PHt
I've been wanting to do simple LED ambient lighting for my YouTube channel (stay tuned for this in upcoming videos). I'll still probably get some LED strip lighting down the road, but this was a simpler solution for now and gives me the desired effect for the most part.
The overall construction is much better than I anticipated and has a nice heft to it, which for a Bluetooth speaker usually translates to better sound. There really isn't much else to say about the construction and quality other than it's good and satisfying. Though, it was a little bit bigger than I was anticipating, but not a big deal.
The connectivity was super simple, just add the "1byoneBulb" and you're off to the races and ready to play music and switch up them LED lights like you're a DJ at the club. (That's how I feel with it most of the time anyways.)
Now, it will play music, but I was having trouble getting it to play through the 1byOne App and would get an error, though I'm pretty sure it was because I use the Apple music streaming service. However, if I go from the Apple Music app and play directly from there it's no problem. The sound quality isn't the greatest and there is noticeable crackling and some distortion at louder volumes. It works well as a basic bluetooth speaker but don't expect anything beyond that, it get's the job done and that's about it, which for a light bulb, is perfectly fine. :-)
Where this thing really shine (pun intended) is the lighting. Though, I will say this up front, the default lighting was a bit cool (bluish) for my taste, but it's easily adjustable. Though the downside is you have to keep re configuring to that different shade each time you turn it on as the blue-cast white is the default.
Changing the lights is easy and a lot of fun. It's incredibly flexible and since it's RGB and dimmable, there are loads of options. You are greeted with several default color options as well as a color wheel where you can pick whatever color/shade/hue you want. The only other thing that would have been nice would have been savable custom presets as that would make some of my favorite combos more accessible. I would also liked to have seen a couple of options for effects, such as breathing, dancing to music, and walking through all the colors, as well as blinking. I think that would have upped the cool factor by quite a lot. I'm sure this could be added via a software update though and look forward to having those changing.
Overall, it's a great multi-color LED lightbulb that's just plain fun. I use it for ambient lighting for my YouTube channel and just works well. It's well made (the app needs some work still and some polish) but the color changing works as expected and works well. I would definitely recommend this LED bulb.
This is a fun keyboard set for the price, and I will review it as a set since that's how it came.
Keyboard:
The thing that stands out most isthe lightning design and LEDs. The design is striking enough (no pun intended) while not being as noisy looking as I thought it might from the pictures. I'm not a great typist, but I can say that I didn't encounter any issues in my regular use. I did do some light gaming on it (couple rounds of CS:GO) and managed just fine. The keys are easy to read and everything is how you would expect. Keep in mind that the Return key is an odd shape for the states, but I've gotten used to this by now so not a big deal for myself. There are seven different colors of LED with 5 levels of brightness and off. There's also another LED option where it cycles through each color, though I felt it was a tad fast for my personal taste, but still cool none the less. The keyboard has a good feel to it, just don't expect it to be a tank, but that's not the target for this anyways. Overall, it's a very pleasant keyboard to use and would recommend. I also appreciate the braided cabling to give it a more premium feel and look.
Mouse:
This is my current mouse of choice as it not only looks cool and feels natural in my hand, it also has the added benefit of being a very quiet mouse so it doesn't wake up my wife, which she appreciates. Happy wife, happy life right? :) There are 4 different colors and just does a slowbreathing pattern on the chosen color. I could nitpick and say I wish there was a couple more colors, like green and white for example, but that's just being picky. Overall it's easy to use and doesn't hinder any computing experience.
Overall, I would recommend this set for anyone looking an affordable and great looking casual LED keyboard and mouse set.
Reviewing as a set...
Keyboard:
This is a really good keyboard for the price, it's not a mechanical keyboard and you can tell right away, however I don't think that's how it's marketed anyways. I was looking for a good all-around keyboard for light gaming, looked and felt nice, and for a good price. This definitely fits the bill. Build quality is a little better than I expected at the price point. It feels solid and the keys feel pretty good. Bear in mind this is the keyboard style with the funky return key and backslash in the middle row, which if you're not used to can be frustrating at first, but since you can see that beforehand you'll know what you're getting into and does require some getting used to. Fortunately, my work has these kind of keyboards so it wasn't a problem for me. In fact, I'm using this keyboard for this review.. If you're not used to that I really like the colors, they are vibrant without being too bright. There are several options: first, you can just have it stay a solid color and can rotate between the 3 individually(green, light blue, dark blue), you can have it pulse on one color, or have it pulse between all 3 colors. I tend to just pick one color and go with it (green being my personal favorite).
Mouse:
The mouse has a great feel to it. I like the braided cabling and the length is just right. The clicking feels good and the DPI is good enough for causal gaming and day-to-day use. I really like the colors and design. I do not believe there's a way to stay on a single color from what I have seen, but I prefer it going through all the colors anyways, looks really cool.
Mouse Pad:
It's a good size and really accommodates the bundled mouse. The mouse glides on it smoothly and I have not had a problem and I don't realize it's there (which is a good thing). However, the sharp edges on the mouse will catch on the outside stitching occasionally and this would be my only minor complaint.
Besides the minor complaint about the stitching getting caught on the mouse occasionally, this is a great casual gaming set for the price. It looks awesome with my Alienware Alpha and really completes the look. I love the colors and the overall feel. Honestly, it just looks awesome. I would highly recommend this set.
