AUKEY Wireless Indoor Security Camera, Full HD 1920 x 1080p
I’m totally gobsmacked by this AUKEY Wireless Indoor Security Camera; I honestly had no idea that you could get this quality and these many functions on a security camera for under £70!
This camera is a really neat size at only 12cm high and 8cm diameter; the casing is made from plastic with a piano black finish and almost looks like a little person wearing a helmet, it’s actually quite stylish looking and very unobtrusive. I've got mine on the coffee table, but it does come with a mounting bracket if you want to put it on the wall.
The camera is mains powered and needs to be plugged whilst in use, but it sends the images wirelessly through your internet connection. The instruction booklet is well written and very easy to follow; you have a choice of initially setting it up wirelessly or using the Ethernet cable that comes with it. I used the Ethernet cable, purely because my modem can be a bit temperamental and it was all set up within a matter of minutes.
The camera takes a micro SD card, which is can save footage to if you want. You can choose the picture quality, including the option of Full HD 1920 x 1080p; the camera shoots if full colour in daylight and also has night vision, which is captured in black and white. The time and date is clearly displayed at the top of the screen.
To me, the amazing thing about this camera, is once you download the app for it onto your smart phone or tablet, not only can you view footage from wherever you are, even if you’re in a different country… but you can actually operate the camera with the app!!! By swiping the screen you can rotate the camera 360°, you can move the view upwards and downwards, as well as zooming in and out. There’s a 2-way mic on the camera; so not only can you hear what’s going on, but they can hear you if you want. You can set the camera to automatically record or record on demand, you can set it so it’s motion activated and also get it to send you alert messages.
This is so much more than just a security camera; it’d be great to check on children or a sleeping baby, or an elderly relative who lives on their own or even pets. I’d definitely recommend this indoor wireless camera to anyone, the quality and features are outstanding and as with all Aukey products, it comes with a 2yr warranty.
Only £69.99
AUKEY LED Ultra Bright Rechargeable Flashlight with 4 Brightness Levels
I use a torch a lot, either for checking on wildlife in the garden at night or when I go out in the garden to replenish the food or separate fighting hedgehogs. And this torch is perfect for my needs; it’s waterproof so it doesn’t matter if it’s raining when I use it, even if I have to leave it on the ground and as it’s also shockproof, so it doesn’t matter if I drop it either, as I’ve killed a few torches by dropping them.
The torch is rechargeable, which is great as it saves on batteries and you get continuous 8.5 hours usage at low brightness and 3 hours continuous use on max brightness. It has 4 levels of brightness with the white light and even what they class as ‘low brightness’ is incredibly bright; there’s also an option for using the strobe function.
The torch is a neat size to hold at under 6” long and about 1” in diameter, it also comes with a lanyard that can be attached to the end and then hung from your wrist or a bag. The power / brightness button is fluorescent, which makes it easier to see at night and the recharging port is securely covered by a rubber bung. All in all, I can highly recommend this great little torch, especially as it comes with Aukey’s 2 year warranty.
Only £18.99
AUKEY Super Wide Angle Lens with 238°Lens for smartphones & tablets
Only £21.99
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in the case of this lens, it’s certainly true… So for this review I’ll cover the basics, then I’ll show you exactly how impressive this lens is.
This Aukey wide angle lens gives you an extended view of 238°, which is pretty impressive. It comes with a plastic clip that slots behind a groove in the lens and simply clips over the top of your mobile phone. It’s as simple as that, no settings to mess about with at all, if you want to extend you viewing angle, you just clip the lens on and hey presto you have a wide angle lens on your camera phone. If you are using it on something close up, it can give a very slight fish-eye effect; but I doubt if this will be an issue the majority of the time, as the main premise for a wide angle lens is to extend your view for scenic distance shots.
You can see from the attached photos how well it works… Both before and after photos were taken from exactly the same position; the photo in the garden was done on a 3x zoom with and without the wide angle lens and the one in the road wasn’t taken using any zoom.
The lens comes in a nice presentation box, so would make a lovely present. It also comes with a lens cap to protect the lens when it’s not in use, a little drawstring bag to keep it in and even a small lens cloth. This lens works really well and I’d happily recommend it, especially as it also comes with Aukey’s 2 year warranty.
AUKEY VR 3D Headset Adjustable Compatible with 3.7 - 5.5" Smartphones
I’ve fancied a virtual reality headset for a while now; I got one a few years ago but it was complete rubbish, so when I saw how substantial this one looked online I thought I’d give it another go. When it arrived I definitely wasn’t disappointed, as it was certainly up to Aukey’s usual high standards.
The first thing I noticed was the great build quality. The elasticated head straps are wide (just over 1” wide) and are really soft; they’re in a T shape and the centre of the back where they meet has a padded leather effect section. Both side straps and the one on the top of your head are adjustable with Velcro, the ends of which again have the leather effect padding on; it’s the little touches like this that take Aukey products to the next level, especially when you’re only talking about a £16.99 item. The part of the headset that goes against your face, again has a thick leather effect edging for comfort and a recess for your nose.
The headset I had a few years ago had some funny suction thing to hold your phone in place, needless to say it was totally useless! The front of this Aukey headset has a magnetic catch and when you flip it down there’s a spring loaded adjustable holder for your phone, which keeps it tightly in place and adjusts to hold phones between 3.7” to 5.5”. Once the phones in position you can adjust the distance from your face (as different people will focus at a different distance) by twisting little knobs on the side and there’s a small wheel on the top of the headset that allows you to adjust the gap between the lenses, as obviously not everyone’s eyes are positioned the same distance apart.
I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy J5, which for some reason unfortunately isn’t compatible with Google cardboard that many of the virtual reality apps use; but if like me your smartphone isn’t compatible with Cardboard, there’s lots of really good 3D movies on Youtube that you can use the headset with. I watched a great one about sea life and you really felt that you could reach out and touch the fish, the headset was amazing! The headset even comes with a little cloth for you to clean the lenses and of course Aukey’s standard 2 years guarantee. I’d definitely recommend this headset, it’s well made, really comfortable to use and works perfectly, and in addition it’s half the price of many virtual reality headsets out there.
Only £16.99
AUKEY Mohawk Drone, One-key Returning, Headless Mode, Colorful LED
You hear so much about drones these days, I really wanted to have a play with one, hence me ordering the AUKEY Mohawk Quadcopter. I’ve never used any remote controlled flying device before and as only have a small garden, I decided to get to grips with it in the dining room, before I ventured out to a nearby playing field. It took me a while to get used to the controls; but repeatedly crashing it into walls, furniture and the wooden floor definitely proved that it is built to last. I’d strongly recommend taking it outside to get used to it; because although the plastic blades aren’t overly long, they’re very strong and will probably wreck your home before they break.
This rechargeable drone comes with everything you need; a well written and thorough user manual, rechargeable 780 mAh battery and USB cable to charge it, spare blades, a screwdriver and a good sized remote control / transmitter… the only thing that wasn’t included was the 4 AA batteries needed for the remote. The drone will fly for 10 minutes on a full charge.
I’m generally not one for reading instructions, but this is one product where you really do need to read the instructions. Place the charged battery in the battery slot under the drone and connect the cables, this automatically turns the drone on and you’ll see the green & red LED lights flashing... now put the drone on the ground, making sure it’s facing away from you. Turn the remote control / transmitter on – push the throttle lever (left lever) all the way up, wait a few seconds and then move it all the way down... this will pair the drone and the remote and the blades will start up. After that, you just experiment and play with it! It won’t take long at all before you’re familiar with all the buttons and functions. I really like the return home button, being that the drone flies up to nearly 400ft from the controller; it’s great that you can automatically get it to come back to you, instead of having to go and collect it. There’s also another button on the controller that gives you the option of using it in headless mode if you wish. This quadcopter/drone is great fun and goes surprisingly fast too. It’s really responsive, it’s fun to be able to do rolls with it instead of just flying it straight and I love the LCD display on the controller and the LED lights on the quadcopter itself.
Overall I’d happily recommend this, it’s great fun to use, well made and has lots of functions built into it, which many other more expensive quadcopters/drones don’t have; plus it comes with Aukey’s 2 year warranty.
Only £39.99
AUKEY Lens Kit 2 in 1 Clip On with 0.45X Wide Angle + 15X Macro Lens
This AUKEY Lens Kit 2 in 1 Clip On with 0.45X Wide Angle + 15X Macro Lens is brilliant; so simple to use and yet so effective. I’ve already got a clip-on wide angle Aukey lens that gives 238° view and the quality of that one is so good I really wanted to get a macro lens too.
With Aukey, it’s not just the high quality of their products; it’s all the little extra touches that make the difference. For under £20 many companies probably would have just put the lens in a box, but Aukey give you a semi-hard protective case to store the lens in and a soft bag, if you want to take it out protected in something less bulky. In addition you also get a lens cap, a cleaning cloth and an hook fastener to attach the case to your belt or bag.
The lens consists of 2 different lenses; the larger 0.45X Wide Angle lens and then inside that is the 15X macro lens… The macro lens screws onto the clip that you put on your phone or tablet, then if you want to use the wide angle lens, you simply screw that on to the macro lens.
Both the wide angle lens and the macro work really well; once you ensure that they’re correctly positioned over your phone/tablet camera lens, they give a great crisp photo. The macro lens really magnifies close up things and the wide angle lens just gives you that little bit extra view to the side. These are a great buy and I’d highly recommend them, they also come with a 2 year warranty.
Only £19.99
AUKEY colour changing LED Bluetooth Speaker Bulb with remote control
This bulb is brilliant and so much better than my other Bluetooth light bulb, as it’s not totally reliant on a Bluetooth enabled device. The bulb has a E27 fitting, which is the fatter screw type fitting; unfortunately my lights are all B22 fittings (bayonet type), but I bought an adapter from Amazon for about £2 and it works perfectly.
Because this bulb comes with a remote control, you don’t even need a Bluetooth enabled device to operate the colour options with this bulb. The remote is very intuitive and neat, it easily fits into the palm of your hand. At the top there are 3 power buttons; an overall on/off button, one that turns the speaker on/off and one that turns the bulb on/off. Which means the speaker & the light can be used completely independently of each other; you can have music from the speaker and no light on, or the light on and no speaker or you can have them on together.
The speaker paired really easily with both my phone and my MP3 player, which I’m happy about as I wasn’t able to use my other bulb with my MP3 as you needed to have a downloaded app to operate it. There’s buttons on the remote to change the volume up & down and also to skip backwards or forwards with the tracks. The music being played by the bulb is good quality and goes up fairly loud. The Bluetooth part of it will work up to about 30ft from the device: I’ve put my bulb in the bathroom, so I can have nice relaxing atmospheric colours and listen to my music without having to worry about my phone getting wet or damaged by steam.
There are different options for the light functions, all of which are selected from 4 mode buttons on the remote, similarly there’s 2 buttons to adjust the brightness. You can have the light fixed on any of the 6 colours, or having it flashing or pulsing in time to the music or kinda fading in and out of all the colours. All in all, this is a brilliant little device.
Only £19.99