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the-jellicle-duelist · 4 years

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Ryan’s Top 10* Video Games of 2019

I don’t write blog posts but it’s time for Video Game Top 10 Lists for 2019 and I have no where good to put it! So congrats tumblr you get it. I’ll also tweet about it but in a much smaller scale. Anyways if you don’t care that’s fine! But if you do! It’s under that read more baby!!

*there’s always more than 10

First, some honorable mentions.

Dragon Quest 1

Dragon Quest 1 is the oldest JRPG (I won’t check if this is true) and I finally got around to it this year when it come out on Switch. The nice thing about Dragon Quest 1 is that it is masterful in its simplicity: you are one person. You fight one monster at a time. You go to one town at a time (mostly). You are on one quest (again, mostly). There’s only a few handfuls of anything like weapons, items, spells, monsters. They all work really well in concert with each other, and the package as a whole is this cozy, comfy less than 20 hour JRPG experience that I really enjoyed.

Best MMO I Refused to Get Addicted to in 2019

Final Fantasy XIV

I sure did hear a lot about Final Fantasy XIV this year. From podcasts to people just talking about it on twitter it seemed to be in the cultural zeitgeist this year. I downloaded the client and put about 15 hours into the base game. If I would have had the right combination of time/money/depression at that time I know I would have gotten deep into it. I’m fine that I didn’t, I think. But the potential was there.

Okay list time here we go:

10. Baba is You

Baba is You is this a coding game? You’re manipulating verbs that are represented by blocks, and pushing them next to noun blocks, to make the objects in the world do things, so that you can get Baba to touch the win object, usually a key. It’s great fun! It got really difficult around the third world and I had to put it down but boy did I like messing around. There were several wonderful “YOOOOO” type moments, and the puzzles when you solved them were great for making you feel very cool and smart.

9. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is From Software doing From Software shit in a way I wanted to like way more but ultimately it’s Here on this list. I liked Sekiro fine but it didn’t click with me like Dark Souls 3 or Bloodborne has in the past. The best parts of Sekiro for me were nailing difficult and tight blocking windows, which gave me an absolute rush every single time. I only got to what I assume was about half way through the game, so I don’t know if this changes later, but for a From game where the bosses were for the most part A Person, the boss encounters were interesting and varied. Also the world design was stunning.

8. Dragon Quest Builders 2

Dragon Builders 2 rules, first off. I wanted to put it higher on this list but I think it fell short because it was so heavily iterative and didn’t do a whole lot to progress itself from the first game. But, there were several quality of life improvements, and there was a big cool area to build in that was permanent and part of the story. I think if they added some more cool things, and made the dialogue not be such a slog to get through, this could have been way higher up on this list.

7. Kingdom Hearts 3

God, Kingdom Hearts 3. I was convinced for about 7 years that KH3 would not only never come out, but it would keep getting bad handheld games until I died. But they finally did it, they made the thing. It felt like a PS3 game which is the wildest thing. (It probably was a PS3 game for a while). It was very fun to play mechanically; the part of KH that was always pretty good was the action RPG stuff. The story is bad tho! The reasons you go to the different world’s is the thinnest it’s ever been, and there’s almost no real lore until the last two hours where you get all of it at once. KH3 was clunky, but I still liked swinging the keyblade and shooting fireballs.

6. Judgment

Shout outs to Judgment: I own it. I never played it. It is number 6 on my list. This probably says more about how I felt overall about games this year than it does about Judgment. Judgment comes from the Yakuza studio, and by all accounts it was so close to that vein, that I am confident and comfortable putting it at this number 6 spot without having ever launching the game. I have second hand accounts that it slaps, and will do for me everything Yakuza does for me, which is fine. I just ran out of time.

5. MiSTer FPGA

I love MiSTer. Wow do I love MiSTer. It’s got everything: old games, tinkering, assembling parts. If you are unaware of the MiSTer device, it’s a custom FPGA board with add-on boards, that developers have written Cores for classic consoles that all run in this FPGA environment. As opposed to emulators, an FPGA as I understand it is mimicking real hardware and then running games ontop of it. It’s a great device, and plays the things it plays (NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, NeoGeo, loads of Arcade games,and more) really well. I have really enjoyed playing games on it, and tinkering with it this year. I spent a lot of my time this year with it.

4. Slay the Spire

This is where the list starts to get Real. Wow does Slay the Spire rule! Holy shit. Rogue like, deck building, choice making, hard as fuck, big time strategy, unique characters. It’s really got everything. And it’s dense. This was absolutely my “just one more X” game this year. I put hundreds of hours into it. The way all of the cards interact with each other, the way you can really craft so many kinds of specific decks in each character, in each run, really worked for me. The ever-growing engines you could make, and the way that, even if you have a not great deck, it never feels bad. It’s one of the few rogue likes where you feel like when you’ve lost it’s your fault in a good way. It’s tuned to feel good no matter what. It’s tuned to feel tense. God Slay the Spire rules. And there’s a new character on the way? fuck.

3. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

I loved coming back to Monster Hunter so bad y’all don’t even know. They added a ton, so many good monsters that I love to fight. Tigrex? yes. Zinogre? Yes. Velkhana? YES. The variant monsters are great, too. I just love Monster Hunter World so much. The clutch claw rips ass. This game is so good, and chunky, and feels good to play. I really mastered the bow this time around, but I started off with Hammer again because I will always have a torrent love affair with Hammer. Clutch Claw Grab with the Hammer is the best feeling you can get from video games.

2. Pokemon Sword/Sheild

Good Pokemon games! They’re good! It was nice to go through all the motions of a new pokemon game this year: rumors, leaks, having a reaction to all the starters and their evolutions, getting my hands on it, catching them all. It’s just a good Pokemon game. It’s not the best one (Black and White still got that crown) but it’s good. And I like a majority of the new designs. I like how they culled the dex to a nice, satisfying but manageable number. Anyone who’s mad please fuck off.

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING. Anyone who follows me on twitter, you know. God where do I start. So, I played all the way through Three Houses six times. I did two runs of Golden Deer, two of Black Eagles, one Blue Lions, and one Church of Seiros. I love all of my students. This game hit hard for me for a few reasons: they did Fire Emblem again, but its bigger and there’s more moving parts. More need for spreadsheets, which is stuff that I eat up. Yum yum good. Adding an overworld even in the scope that was as small as, the Monastery School, to this Fire Emblem was a BIG risk because they have been down this road before, and have not really nailed it. But I think with Three Houses they struck a really good balance, and it never overwhelmed me. They took a big page out of Persona’s book here which did wonders for me. You have this big map and it LOOKS scary, but in reality with fast travel and the limited number of actual activities/quests, you can do everything you want very quickly.

The thing that shined that brightest was the characters. I love them all, even the ones that aren’t cool, and even the ones that are Bad. I love all my kids. I have a lot I could say about how having all of these story routes, with their inconsistencies and their only slightly subtle variations bummed me out, but I did think if you take a macro look at the plot, this is one of the only well-written Fire Emblems ever. There was like, magic and dragons and things like this, but the thing that worked for me was their commitment to keeping the story grounded in the people that were in it? It was a story about three lands, vying for power in their own ways, and the actions/consequences that would follow. They really leaned in to the human part of it. It was not as much Kingdoms doing Politics, it was people doing things, and I think that worked for me.

Honestly the weakest parts of FE:3H was the Fire Emblem parts. The classes are just okay, and they took out a lot of the limitations of weapons/magic and so it was really a class change system about skills mastery, which I think they didn’t hit a home run here, but it was fine. And I liked doing it, clearly. The maps were a little samey in, especially in the first Part of the game.

All of this said, FE:3H slaps so much fat juicy ass and it is absolutely my game of the year for 2019.

#video games #top 10 #top 10 video games 2019 #dragon quest #final fantasy xiv #baba is you #sekiro #dragon quest builders 2 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #judgment #mister fpga #slay the spire #monster hunter world #monster hunter world iceborne #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #fire emblem three houses

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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Can You Build a Successful Bourbon Brand by Trolling the Taters?

The labels are colorful, cartoonish, comical, and a bit grotesque.

There’s Tater Bait, depicting a woman with a massive head of 1980s hair cascading over a visor.

Smash Bill shows a poor man’s Rambo, armed to the teeth with an M60 machine gun.

While Waxx Dippz displays a bald-pated man with a Van Dyke beard, seemingly staring into your soul.

Though you might not understand the joke, each of these (and six others labels) seem to be blatantly mocking the modern bourbon geek, that sometimes vile species of obsessive who covets Pappy, clears store shelves of formerly mid-tier stuff like Weller and Eagle Rare, and even adulterates bottles with silly stickers and post-purchase wax coatings, often with a total lack of awareness for their inherent absurdity.

“I deal with these people all the time. Sometimes their lack of a sense of humor is a little alarming,” says Matthew Colglazier, a longtime liquor merchandiser and marketer. “Taking a piss (out of them), that’s part of the fun, I think.”

Catch ’Em All

Colglazier has regularly found himself in the orbit of these whiskey collectors after more than a decade in the spirits industry in various capacities. The Indiana man has been buying single barrels for liquor stores for years and been making trips to nearby Midwest Grain Products (MGP), the massive, former Seagram’s distillery in Lawrenceburg for nearly a decade — well before most drinkers were aware that it was supplying upstart craft distilleries like WhistlePig, High West, and Smooth Ambler with much of the bourbon and rye they were bottling.

Scouring store shelves, looking at the thousands of non-distiller bottlers, as well as the countless craft distilleries that have emerged, all trying to get a piece of the perhaps $10 billion pie, Colglazier began to wonder how a new American whiskey brand could possibly set itself apart.

“When it comes to creating something new and different these days, that’s really a challenge,” says Colglazier.

Feeling confident in his industry acumen, however, Colglazier and some partners decided to branch out with their own brand in 2018. A family member had alerted him to Krogman’s, a whiskey and brandy distillery that had existed in Tell City, Ind., from 1863 until Prohibition, and then ran on fumes until the 1960s. Searching through trademark filings, Colglazier realized that no one owned it anymore. And, just like that, Krogman’s was his.

“We don’t own a distillery, we don’t own a license or anything,” says Colglazier. He sources all his “juice” and lets partners like Cardinal Spirits, a top craft distillery in Bloomington, do the bottling.

Early Krogman’s releases would include Krogman’s Bourbon and Krogman’s Rye, sourced from MGP and packaged at 90 proof in opaque black and red bottles depicting a drawing of the old distillery that no longer stands. It’s a typical way to launch a new brand, by evoking an esteemed history that isn’t necessarily your own and has nothing to do with the liquid in the bottle. These releases sold all right, but they certainly didn’t become a sensation among consumers. Colglazier knew he would have to start tackling his branding in a different way.

“How much innovation is there in the bourbon category today?” asks Colglazier. “I started to think: It doesn’t just have to be about the blocking and tackling of history.”

Around then, Perry Ford, MGP’s sales manager and an old industry connection, sent Colglazier an inventory list of the single barrels he currently had available. Looking over the menu, Colglazier noticed that all nine of MGP’s whiskey mash bills were available in single-barrel form, everything from four bourbons and three ryes to a corn whiskey and even a light whiskey. The MGP mash bills you’ll most often see in single barrel form these days are the ubiquitous 95 percent rye or the “high-rye” bourbon favored by Smooth Ambler and recent darling Smoke Wagon.

As a whiskey drinker himself, Colglazier wanted to try them all, but he needed a good excuse. His first thought: What if he created a unique single-barrel release for each and every mash bill, and then turned all nine into a set? Since the whiskeys were all 3 years old — a little youthful for your average bourbon enthusiast — he knew he’d have to make the labels novel, interesting, and highly collectable if he wanted to sell them.

That would start with what he called each release, naming them after the insider slang (so often intentionally misspelled) that had become popular on secondary market buy/sell sites, private Facebook groups, and message boards over the last decade.

“I tried to pinpoint relatively specific things that people would know,” Colglazier says.

Thus, there’s Tater Bait, a reference to neophyte collectors who do exceedingly embarrassing things in pursuit of rare bottles. Flipperzz refers to people who buy allocated bottles at retail costs only to immediately “flip” them for bloated, black-market rates. Dusty Hunterzzz is a nod to those who comb through off-the-beaten-path liquor stores for vintage bottles that have lingered on shelves for years gathering dust.

“Your civilian bourbon drinker would have no idea what these things meant and would just think, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting label,’” adds Colglazier.

He tapped local designer Aaron Scamihorn for the label art. Scamihorn specializes in a bold, vintage comic book style, perhaps more befitting the skate decks and even craft beer labels he also designs than the sort of staid, regal branding we typically see in the bourbon industry.

“When we first discussed this project it was the first time I’d heard the word ‘tater,’” recalls Scamihorn. His labels are inspired by the beat-up VHS box covers for campy, ’80s movies you would have seen stocked on the bottom shelf at Blockbuster (Buyy it Noww! was surely spawned from 1980s “Harlequin”). That era tracks with the late-30s/early-40s demographic of guys that Colglazier sees as most into bourbon collecting right now.

At the least, these are the dudes who already have a deep familiarity with the most online and underground parlance of the American whiskey world (Unicorn! Maxx Profitzz!) needed to get many of these jokes.

“Some were really on the nose, others were a stretch,” says Colglazier. “Some barely make sense.”

Of course, whiskey fans have long had the “gotta catch ’em all” mentality that, in many people’s eyes, has turned the industry into a game of liquid Pokemon, and Colglazier is well aware of that. But Krogman’s reminds me more of another set of trading cards: Garbage Pail Kids, the 1985 series of depraved and deformed characters meant to mock the then-frenzy surrounding Cabbage Patch Kids.

“It pokes fun, but honors [these people] at the same time,” says Colglazier. “It makes it recognizable to that consumer. It’s kind of a tightrope, and I’m not sure everybody understands.”

No BS!

The trickiest part of the tightrope, of course, is that the same people the labels are mocking are inherently the only people who might possibly desire having these crazy bottles in their collections.

“Looks like they are poking some fun at the bourbon world in general, but actually just bottling ALL 9 MGP recipes at cask strength with no BS!” wrote one man on Reddit. “Kind of better than all the other brands who make up a bunch of back stories. [sic]”

And that’s exactly Colglazier’s point. Yes, the Krogman’s labels may be satire, but the whiskey is no joke — it’s all non-chill filtered and bottled at cask strength, catnip for the whiskey cognoscenti who don’t really care about a brand’s nonsense “origin” story.

The set was first released starting in late summer 2020, mostly at big box liquor stores in Indiana, though Tater Bait made its way onto Seelbach’s, an online whiskey retailer that has plans to sell a complete set of nine in the future. There were three to four barrels each of most releases, so fewer than 1,000 bottles per SKU. (For the completists, bottlings made for the Kentucky market had variant labels meant to poke fun at all the Booker’s Bourbon releases like Country Ham.)

They sold for just $32 a bottle, a remarkably reasonable price in an era that has seen other sourced whiskeys cost many times as much. Smoke Wagon’s 8-year-old MGP single barrels, for instance, sell for upwards of $700 per bottle on the secondary market. That’s why another Redditor agreed that it was an “exploitable niche” to sell barrel-proof MGP so cheaply, calling the entire series a “slam dunk.” “The Whiskey Vault,” a popular YouTube channel, praised the series as well, loving its execution and transparency.

“Not subtle!” joked co-host Daniel Whittington.

A Collectible in the Making?

You could argue that Krogman’s is the most honest bourbon brand of this crazy era. It may seem like a troll — and, of course, it partially is — but it’s one of the few MGP-backed bottlers offering unique releases and not trying to dupe consumers and generate high demand based purely on hype. While other bourbon and rye brands pretend they exist in a vacuum, clueless to online discussions and tater-driven market forces, Krogman’s has a keen self-awareness of the hyper-obsessive culture it is being released into.

Colglazier isn’t sure where the series will go next, but a part of me feels that while leaning so heavily into the scene, he’s unwittingly created something that, in a few years, might end up being one of the biggest collectibles of the era. Krogman’s may be seen as an economically priced prank right now, but could it one day be the American version of Ichiro’s Malt Card Series released between 2005 and 2014 — of which a complete “deck” of the 54 bottles in the Japanese series sold for $1.52 million in late 2020?

Probably doubtful, as Ichiro’s came from the shuttered Hanyu distillery and Krogman’s is certainly not as well aged of stock. But sometimes it takes a few years for these ahead-of-their-time ideas to pick up steam. Even the Malt Card Series had initially been consumed by buyers, not squirreled away and collected.

“People really want to see themselves reflected back in the things they buy,” Colglazier says of his bourbon. “In many ways, what we buy, what we collect, these are validations of who we are. People have used lots of consumer goods to validate themselves. This is just taking it to the next level.”

The article Can You Build a Successful Bourbon Brand by Trolling the Taters? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/krogmans-bourbon-trolling/

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isaiahrippinus · 3 years

Text

Can You Build a Successful Bourbon Brand by Trolling the Taters?

The labels are colorful, cartoonish, comical, and a bit grotesque.

There’s Tater Bait, depicting a woman with a massive head of 1980s hair cascading over a visor.

Smash Bill shows a poor man’s Rambo, armed to the teeth with an M60 machine gun.

While Waxx Dippz displays a bald-pated man with a Van Dyke beard, seemingly staring into your soul.

Catch ’Em All

“When it comes to creating something new and different these days, that’s really a challenge,” says Colglazier.

“How much innovation is there in the bourbon category today?” asks Colglazier. “I started to think: It doesn’t just have to be about the blocking and tackling of history.”

“I tried to pinpoint relatively specific things that people would know,” Colglazier says.

“Your civilian bourbon drinker would have no idea what these things meant and would just think, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting label,’” adds Colglazier.

“Some were really on the nose, others were a stretch,” says Colglazier. “Some barely make sense.”

“It pokes fun, but honors [these people] at the same time,” says Colglazier. “It makes it recognizable to that consumer. It’s kind of a tightrope, and I’m not sure everybody understands.”

No BS!

“Not subtle!” joked co-host Daniel Whittington.

A Collectible in the Making?

The article Can You Build a Successful Bourbon Brand by Trolling the Taters? appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/krogmans-bourbon-trolling/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/656790305151057920

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cutiecrates · 5 years

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Cutie Reviews: Kawaii Box March 19

Whenever I review a box and really like it, I always have high hopes for the next box. So now it’s time to find out if I liked it too :D

Word of the month: Sakura - Cherry Blossoms

Sakura Stickers

Our first item is this set of really cute puppy and sakura themed stickers by Mind Wave. Something I find interesting about this set is that all the stickers have a light texture through them, and against the plain backdrop, they have a slight raise giving them a very slight 3D effect. Many of the pieces also have a shiny gold accent, which I tried to catch in the picture.

If you like sakura/flowery/or just cutesy stickers, Blippo.com has tons of sheets. This specific sheet is $1.54.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

These stickers are very cute~ I love how colorful they are, and how there are petals to go with the flowers; although I wish they had made them as colorful to match. They definitely give me a spring vibe- I almost feel like I have to wait to use them now.

Sakura Neko Notebook

Our next item is this really pretty looking notebook, featuring a flowery kitty in soft pastels. This notebook is by Tree in Art Interiors and features a unique string binding.

There is a variety of styles this notebook comes in but as far as I know they all have blank pages. Each one is currently on sale for $4.83.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

As pretty as this is, I had a concern over how “tight“ the binding would be, by that I mean how stiff the notebook would be from it and if it would make the one side difficult to write on. It is a little bendy, but you shouldn’t try to test your luck by bending it to the point of ripping. You can shift the notebook a little, making it easier to write on the problematic side though.

By general preference, I try to avoid notebooks that have the glue binding because they are like this one. Not impossible, but they kind of get annoying to me. However, I don’t entirely hate this one, the paper is really smooth to write on. I do have some concerns the string binding could weaken over time or snag something though...

Neko Wooden Clips

For $2.73 on Blippo, we have this cute set of neko wooden clips. There is 10 in total with 5 designs. These are small clips purrfect for decorating a wall, or even if you just wanted to add a cutesy little touch to something else.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The quality appears... handmade? I want to say. Like, each design has small differences if you compare two of the same. Some of the clips want to shift when using them, one of them is a bit gnarled (the kitty with the red yarn), and I noticed a tiny amount of glue on the side of one. I’m not sure if these were handmade or if its a quality issue from the factory, but I kind of like that detail. They are sturdy, and the set even includes some woven string, which I thought was a nice touch.

When I was little I loved to paint the larger variant of these at my grandmas, because of her large clothes line outside she had a whole bucket of them!

Cute Animals Pill Box & Aiko Card Purse

Next up we have these two adorable, handy-dandy, practical pink items! First is a little pill box that features 3 sections for storage, two small and one big, and a silver ballpoint chain to hang it from various things. Besides medicine or vitamins, this could also be used for other small items, like jewelry, small erasers, change/money, etc.

They have a big colorful and various shaped collection of these on Blippo. This specific one is currently $2.24.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I use things like medication and vitamins, so this would come in handy for me if I didn’t want to bring the pill bottles or packaging wherever I went. I think it’s very adorable, and it seems pretty sturdy.

There is one very tiny issue bugging me though, you can’t see it in the picture, but I noticed the handle of the umbrella doesn’t connect to the umbrella... I’m thinking it’s a tiny oversight, but if tiny details like that bug you....

<3<

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We also have this exclusive Kawaii Box card purse featuring the brands mascot Aiko. It has a chain to connect it to things, but you could also put it in your pocket or just carry it. Besides having a zippered pocket it also has a slot for an ID card on the back. It’s $3.43 on Blippo right now.

Besides cards, I’m sure you could also use it for things like money

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

For being an exclusive item the quality is very good. I only found one tiny issue, this being the card slot being scratched up. I’m not sure how it happened because I kept it in the box this entire time- but it’s not a huge deal or anything, and it isn’t a hindrance.

Pastel Heart Pen & Lipstick Eraser

To go with our cute pastel notebook, we have some cute pastel stationery tools :3 First up is the Pastel Heart Pen, featuring a light pastel tube that has magic written on the side and a fancy metallic clip with a glittery winged heart on it. The cap can also be placed on the pen butt to keep it from vanishing.

There is 4 lovely pastel colors available, each is $2.03.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It’s a typical fine-tipped pen essentially. It writes very well, it also looks cute and there is minimal smudging. I noticed that it didn’t seem to bother the notebook pages (except for a few tiny dots, residue maybe?) and I had to rub my finger over it to get anything.

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To go with the pen, we also get a really cute eraser shaped like a lipstick :D These must be kind of popular lately because I keep seeing them nowadays. On Blippo there is a few different sets, each with multiples to collect or choose from. This specific set is currently $2.03 on Blippo and includes 4 colors in 2 different themed designs. There is pink or peach ribbons, and blue or turquoise sail boats.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I think it’s very cute and fun to look at, but in saying this... I don’t think I’ll get very much use out of it. I know it’s a waste, but I loved collecting erasers when I was younger, and the ones I really liked I hated to “ruin“ by using them (the others I ruined, punctured, tore apart, chewed on, etc).

But to be fair I did try to use a very small section of it to see how it worked. It did pretty well, but the eraser is a little wobbly, so you kind of need to be gentle with it or else you might make a mess or tear something.

Neko Dango Sakura Plushie

Of course to go with Sakura season we need an equally adorable sakura plush! Whenever people go cherry blossom viewing, dango is a popular snack item to make or purchase and enjoy while out. So this kitty was made to represent the hanami dango, featuring 2 of its 3 colors (the 3rd is green if you were curious).

There is 4 kitties available, each with slight differences in coloring style and sakura flowers. They’re also made with plush and small beans. Each costs $3.43.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This is a perfect little cuddly representation for the season, and they feel very soft~ The stitched detail is perfect, and it sits well because of the beans in the bottom. It’s also fun to squish and squeeze.

Puchitto Fruit Grape Candy

The Puchitto Candy series is fairly popular and a long-time running series by Kracie. They all feature a pull apart fluffy gummy-type texture and a variety of fruity flavors and fun shapes. Besides just fruits, they also have stars, peach aliens, etc.

For this entire pack its 93 calores, and on Blippo its available for $2.00. Blippo gets these in on occasion, but right now they only have the grape ones in. But these are one of those “common Japanese candies“ you can find on a lot of websites.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Besides being fun to play with, they have a lovely texture for anyone who doesn’t like harder, rubbery gummies. The flavor seems common grape gummy to me, but not grape medicine, and it’s not too harsh on the taste buds. But I’m not sure you would like these if you dislike grape flavors.

DIY Jewelry Magic Wand

The inner magical girl fangirl in me freaked out seeing this for the first time! Not only that but look at those gorgeous beads; they’re translucent, like gems! The piece also includes some translucent, wire-like string to use if you want.

There is 4 colored variants of this piece, but only the case and images on the packaging is different as far as I know. Each one costs $3.43 right now on Blippo.

This is only an example of what I’m making. Initially I had planned on a bracelet, but I thought it might be more fun to go for a whole necklace since I usually just make bracelets with these. Young or old, I like kits like this because they kind of force you to sit down and relax. You don’t have to think while you put them together, your brain just sort of goes on auto pilot.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Given how stressed out I’ve been this past week, this was a much needed break from all the drama surrounding us moving. I love the beads, and the clear string is nice- but that’s where I had a little concern. It’s pretty flimsy and bendy, unless you pull it tight, so I’m kind of concerned that once its tied it might end up looking cheap rather than cute. But I’m hoping that with more beads on it, the less messy it’ll look.

Also, just a side-note but I think the packaging is kind of click-baity. By that I mean it has images on it of beads not even in this set...

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - ♥ ♥ ♥ As usual, I had very tiny little detail complaints, but in general I did like the items. I loved a few of them, but I didn’t hate anything.

Price - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Everything comes to $27.69, which is about a dollar more than last months box. But keep in mind a handful of items were on sale, so this probably would have been closer to 30-something originally.

Theme - ♥ ♥ Only 3 really items fit the cherry blossom theme, but there was a couple of items that could fit the pink theme color often associated with it (if you got the color that is). I think in comparison to the previous one, this one dropped the ball a bit...

Total Rank: 6 out of 10 Cuties. Items and price wise the box did good, but I had higher expectations for the theme given how well they did last month and I feel like that played a part on why this one felt a bit lackluster to me. They could have done a lot more with the theme and I wish I did because this one pretty much felt like a normal box. In fact, I had a really hard time figuring out which items I liked more than the others because it felt so... the same to me. I wish they would start coming out with some more unique items, rather than the same old stickers, stationery (not that I don’t love the pens), notepads/notebooks....

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Puchitto Grape Candy - As delicious as this was, I’m a little disappointed that this ended up being my favorite item. Food/snacks shouldn’t be when you get a box like this, but...

2. DIY Jewelry Magic Wand - It’s so cute and I love looking at the pretty gem-like beads~

3. Pastel Heart Pen - It’s fairly simple but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m just happy it can clip onto things, and the cap fits on the bottom.

4. Pill Box - It’s so cute, and pink! I definitely think I can use this, it’d definitely come in handy when we move and pack up everything.

5. Sakura Neko Notebook - While I am a little iffy about the style, I love how pretty the cover looks.

6. Neko Wooden Clips - I like their homemade quality and general cuteness. I’d really like to use these, but I don’t take very many pictures so I’ll have to think of something to do with them...

7. Sakura Stickers - Very cute and pretty. I love the gentle colors and slight 3D look.

8. Neko Plushie - It’s small but it’s still huggable and cuddly~

9. Card Purse - Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s very cute. It has a summery feel to me so now would be a good time to use it, but I have so many of these (and so little change, and cards honestly) that getting out of the house to use it isn’t a priority right now.

10. Lipstick Eraser - As much as I love how it looks, I put this here because I know I won’t use it. It’s to cute for me to want to use.

#cutie reviews #kawaiibox #sakura #cherry blossom #neko stationery

0 notes

itsluluboxdownloadlove-blog · 5 years

Text

YoWhatsApp Latest Version v7.90 APK Download [YoWA Update]

Are you searching for another WhatsApp MOD for dual WhatsApp? If yes, then we are here back with another APK. This is the YoWhatsApp for Android by Yousef Al Basha. The YOWA app is getting better and better day by day.

Now you can download Yo Whatsapp latest version APK for free. Enjoy the new refreshing features no lag by downloading the YoWhatsapp v7.90 Apk MOD. Let’s discuss in detail about it.

yowhatsapp 2019

Most of us use WhatsApp messenger every day. Let me ask you a simple question. What is the best messenger app for Android? The obvious answer is WhatsApp. We all love the app for its simplicity of UI and features. It comes with many features those are very helpful in case of messaging. But many of us need some extra features over the standard ones. After seeing the demand, many developers made modified WhatsApp Apk files. One of the early comers was OGWhatsApp apk. WhatsApp blocked all its users’ account.

Download (Yo WhatsApp) That is the news of those old days. But now, there are many Apk mods like GBWhatsApp, Fouad WhatsApp, WhatsApp Plus and others. All of them comes with some premium extra features in their package. You can call YoWhatsApp being one of them, but I love it over any other WhatsApp Mod apps out there. To find the reasons, please keep reading this post.

Key Contents [show]

About YoWhatsApp MOD I think you may don’t know the Yo Whatsapp before. Because most of us now using the WhatsApp Plus 2019 by GBMods. That is an app modified for extra features over the standard features of the official WhatsApp. The YoWhatsapp is no different. It also has got some super exciting features with zero lag. So, go and do YoWhatsApp Apk download latest version 7.90 now. Experience tons of excellent features with material design. Customization, styles, conversation lock, themes, and more features update are available.

YoWA APK Latest Version Info

App Name YoWhatsapp APK Version 7.90 Last Updated March 4, 2019 Android Version Requires 4.0 and above Total Downloads 6,000,000+ App Size 44.35 MB Developer Yousef Al Basha

Changelog Of Features In YoWhatsApp 7.90 APK (Updated) Exclusive: Know Deleted Status (next to time). New: Custom Online toast! Enable for specific people (find it in Contact Profile). Added: Option to pin group description to chat (Chat 3-dot menu > Group Description). Added: Change Deleted msg icon color (Option 3.1.17). New: Support to download themes with home wallpaper from YoThemes Store. All problems Fix in YoWhatsapp v7.81. Base updated to 2.19.34. Exclusive: Add custom Stickers from Play Store to all packages (com.yowa and com.yowa2). Available now: Stickers and New Emojis. Disable option for “Forward” tag(YoMods > Privacy > Disable Forwarded). New: In-App language change (supports Android 8.0+). Improved: WhatsApp AppLock and reduced lags. PiP: Watch YouTube Videos directly (no need to leave WhatsApp). Fingerprint/PIN/Pattern change option for Hiding chat. Fixes for Download text status and contact name font. 2nd package: com.yowhatsapp2 MOD APK for running 3rd YoWA number. Many minor and important bug fixes and improvements.

Download YoWhatsApp Latest Version Apk Files Here is the download link of YoWhatsapp latest version apk. So, download it by clicking on the below button. It will take you to YoWA download page.

Download YoWhatsApp Apk Download YoWhatsApp Apk

YoWhatsApp 7.90 (Download Now) With Emoji Changer/Variants: Download Without Emoji Changer/Variants: Download YoWhatsApp2 (Emoji Changer/Variants: Download YoWA2 (Without Emoji Changer/Variants): Download Coming Soon: YoWA v8.0 (Very Cool Update)

Download older versions of Yo WhatsApp Apk:

Here in this section, find most of the popular versions of YoWhatsapp. These are old APK releases but is popular. Because of users demand, we always try to keep the popular MODs download links here. So, try downloading any YoWA older version if you need.

Download 7.70 – click here 7.60 by Yousef al basha – click here YoWa v7.51 version – click here Baixar Yo-WhatsApp 2018 version 7.35 – click here YoWa_7.20 for Android mobile – click here Yousef MOD version v7.15 – click here WhatsApp Yousef Al Basha Modded v7.10 – click here

RC YoWhatsApp IOS Theme Edition Many people love iOS style WhatsApp. So, here is the YoWA iOS Theme Edition by Richar Correa. Yes, it is RC YoWA iOS Apk.

Latest version is v7.81. So, download it by clicking here.

Benefits: Exclusive Drawer clean design, iOS Style UI with many iOS 11 and 12 Themes. So, download now.

How To Download YoWhatsApp V7.90 Apk And Install On Android? Before starting with installation, first of all, you need to get the YoWhatsApp apk file from the download link provided below.

Use the above links to download the latest YoWhatsApp MOD v7.90 APK for free. Optional download links: Without Emoji Changer / Variants | With All Features. Make sure on Install from “Unknown Sources” Settings is turned on. To turn it on, go to Settings in your Android Mobile > Privacy / Security > switch on the Unknown Sources. unknown sources installation

After the download is complete, go to the file manager and open the apk file. Now tap on install button to start installing the app. After installation is complete, open YoWhatsApp. Tap on “Agree and Continue” on this screen. Now enter your mobile number and confirm, then click on ok to receive OTP. Like WhatsApp, it will automatically verify OTP code received on message. Now start using YoWhatsApp and explore all of its features.

How To Update YoWhatsApp To The Latest Version Many users have complained about losing Chats data while updating YoWhatsApp. That is real. Because if you don’t update in the right way, Chats will be removed.

Update for YoWA mod doesn’t come in Google Play store. So, the steps to update to a new version are different from other apps.

Please follow the below procedure (step by step) carefully to update Yo WhatsApp mod app easily without losing any data or chats.

Step 1: First, open YoWhatsApp, Tap on menu icon and go to “YoMods”.

Now, tap on “Other Mods”. Some settings will be there.

Step 2: You just need to tap “Backup WhatsApp data” (5.0.6). That’s it. YoWA backup will be successful within seconds (depends on backup size).

backup yowhatsapp data

Step 3: Now, uninstall YOWhatsApp directly from the app drawer or app manager.

Step 4: Come to Yo WhatsApp download page on HackTricks. Download the latest version YOWA apk file. Then, install it.

Step 5: Open app, now tap on “RESTORE” (red button – very important).

restore yowhatsapp data

Depending on the backup size, your chat backup is restored within seconds.

That’s all. Hope we have solved your query regarding updating YoWA without losing any Chat history.

Enjoy new features of the latest update.

Watch YoWhatsApp New Features Video

Best Features Of YoWhatsApp 2019 I have described all the features in details below. Please check them all before installing Yo WhatsApp. This will give you an overall idea about the capability of YoWhatsApp. These exclusive features you find on YoWhatsApp are not available on official WhatsApp.

Call Blocking: This is one of the essential features of YoWhatsApp. Often, we get irritated while we receive a call from an unknown number. With the help of advanced call blocking feature, you can block unwanted call in many ways. It has the option of allowing everyone, only your contacts, choose specific contacts from the contact list, exclude people from your contact list or block call for everyone. This setting is so flexible when it comes to Call blocking. Themes Store: YoWhatsApp comes with an inbuilt theme store. Here you will find many cool themes. Using these themes, you can change the look of YoWhatsApp. Customize the layout of WhatsApp. So now get over with that dull green color old look of WhatsApp. Enjoy fresh look every day with different themes and colors. yowhatsapp themes

Message anyone: Yes, you heard it right. Now you can message any number using YoWhatsApp. You do not need to save the number to your contact list before sending the message on WhatsApp. So, this comes handy when you need to message someone quickly. Also, useful while you want to message someone just one time or don’t need his number later.

More Features Of Yo WhatsApp Official Original Quality Image Sharing: While sharing photos on WhatsApp, eventually it loses its quality. WhatsApp compresses the image while it is received. However, with YoWhatsApp you can send the image with original quality. When your friend receives the image, it will be the same quality when you sent. WhatsApp Lock: If you want to prevent others from sneaking into your private conversation, then this will be a great feature for you. You can lock the YOWA app with pin, pattern or fingerprint. So that whenever someone tries to open it, it will ask for the password or pattern. This solves the issue without even using any third-party apps. yowhatsapp update download

Send any file type: You can send almost all the file types through YoWhatsApp. Be it Zip, exe, apk, jpg, png, psd, pdf or any other file you can send them all. Privacy Settings: Hide your last online status using privacy settings. You can do more with it. Now hide second tick, blue tick, typing status and recording status as part of privacy options. Prevent message deletion: With new WhatsApp update now, people can delete chats you already received. However, with YoWhatsApp settings you can prevent it. Even if they delete message for both, you can be still able to see the message. Pin Conversations: Now pin your favourite conversation to the top. It helps to find important chats quickly. You can pin up to 1000 chats. Tick style options App launcher icon change (11 icons) Send video file up to 700 MB Change notification bar icon (22 icons) Set your name in the main screen and much more

How To Move To YOWA For Without Losing Chat History This section will help you with move entirely to YoWhatsApp from official WhatsApp without losing your old chats. Most of the people often don’t want to move to YoWhatsApp, because they think they might lose all their old chats. However, you no longer need to worry about that from now. Because if you follow our guide, you restore your old chats with just a few taps. So, let’s check below, for all the steps that will help you with easy migration to YoWhatsApp.

First of all, open WhatsApp, go to Setting > Chats > Chat Backup. Tap on backup to back up your chats. This will back up your chats to google drive as well as on local storage. After the backup is complete, install YoWhatsApp on your mobile. Now open YoWhatsApp and tap on “Agree and Continue”. On this screen before providing the mobile number, tap on “Copy WhatsApp Data”. This will restore all your old chats. Now go ahead and provide your mobile number and verify with OTP. After OTP verification is done, you can see all your old chats in YoWhatsApp. So this procedure is super easy to migrate to YoWhatsApp without losing old chats.

FAQ About Yo WhatsApp Mod Can I use YoWhatsApp as dual WhatsApp?

Yes, you can use YoWhatsApp with the official WhatsApp with no issue at all as dual WhatsApp. It is the best option when you want to use WhatsApp on a second number.

Do I need a rooted device to use YOWA?

No, you do not need to root your device. You can simply use this on any non-rooted Android mobile.

yowhatsapp apk

There are many mods available on the Internet. Is YOWA is better than those?

Every mod comes with some features exclusive to them. Like any other WhatsApp mods, Yo WhatsApp Apk also comes with some exclusive that you can only find on it. So it makes it one of the best mods to date. However, you can try yourself other WhatsApp mods and decide yourself what feature you like in them.

Is it needed to uninstall Official WhatsApp before installing YoWhatsApp?

No, as I said before you can use it with WhatsApp without any issue.

Is YoWhatsApp APK Safe to use?

Yes, Yo WhatsApp is 99.99% safe to use. It is only a mod of official WhatsApp.

In fact, it comes with more advanced features than WhatsApp. You will find all the core functionality of WhatsApp present in it. The main thing on YoWhatsApp Mod is that it eliminates the restriction on many popular features like file size, text length and many more.

Most of the time people assume that it is not safe because of these features. However, I assure you YoWhatsApp is safe to use. So, download and use it without a second thought.

Ending Lines So, this is an awesome version for enjoying dual WhatsApp. If you have the question that GBWhatsapp or YoWhatsApp, which is better? Then, my answer is that both are good. With the super features, the experience of running two second Whatsapp account is more joyful. So, update to the most recent version. Enjoy all the features.

For any problem or feedback, leave a comment.

0 notes

davidmartinezus · 4 years

Text

JustForMe - Custom Script Earrings

Vendor: skeenly Type: Accessories Price: 27.99 - 29.99 (84 variants)

Make Someone’s Holidays Extra Special This Year!

The only thing that says I love you more than jewelry.. is CUSTOM jewelry! Luckily we’ve got you covered this holiday season with JustForMe our patented gold plated custom script earrings!

Have a custom made pair of earrings made specifically and uniquely for your one and only.. when they think about the thought and effort you put into it they’ll instantly know just how much you really care

JustForMe is the perfect pair of earrings for special occasions or casual nights out.. with its rose gold plating you can count on class out the ass, turning heads, and making haters jealous all night long!

These custom script earrings make a perfect gift for that fashion-forward young man or woman in your life.. help them look their best this holiday season.. they’ll absolutely adore you for it!

So if you’re looking for a custom set of earrings, or you’re just looking for a perfect gift idea, grab JustForMe and fill those stockings this year with something that says I Love You all year round!

Benefits

A Gift That Shows Just How You Feel - toss the tube socks and get something that says “hey you’re my world and I love you”.. every time they put these earrings on they’ll think of your devotion

A Present Fit For a Princess - rose gold plated with custom engraved calligraphic lettering, this is no blow-off gift.. this pair is the timeless meaning they’ll look good and turn heads for years to come!

Makes a Perfect Holiday Gift - this pair of custom earrings make for an amazing gift during the winter season! Any lad or lady will absolutely love these earrings and absolutely adore the person who gave them!

Features:

Customized products require a production period of 5-10 days.

Material is stainless steel, not alloy!

Bathing and swimming can be worn, the product will Never Fade! Never Allergies! Reliable Quality!

Shipping takes 10 to 24 days

Notes: Due to the screen difference, the color maybe a little different from what you expect, please allow it. Attention: According to Brazil’s policy, all packages will be required include CPF(Cadastro de Pessoa Fisica). So PLEASE write down CPF in the Company bar if you are from Brazil. We won’t ship those orders which don’t include CPF until you confirm the correct information.

OUR GUARANTEE

We truly believe we make some of the most creative inventions and we back that up with an Iron-Clad 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee. If you don’t have a positive shopping experience for any reason, we will do whatever it takes to make sure you are 100% satisfied with your purchase.

Shopping online can sometimes be a daunting task, so we want you to know there are absolutely zero risks in purchasing something and trying it out. If you don’t like it, no hard feelings, we’ll make it right.

Limited Time Only This item is NOT available in stores. We ship worldwide!

Orders usually ship from our store between 5-15 business days (sometimes this can take longer depending on how busy we are).

Once your order is shipped, we will not be able to refund you.

Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery due to high demand.

Once you received the product and if found any problem with it please take a photo and send us via email.

Guaranteed safe check out: PAYPAL | VISA | MASTERCARD All payments are accepted via PayPal. If you don’t have PayPal, you are still able to pay via credit card by clicking on the PayPal icon at checkout. When you’re ready to check out, choose PayPal as your payment method. Paypal accepts all payment credit cards. Just select “Paypal” and click the “Pay with Debit or Creditcard” button. You can pay with your credit card without creating a PayPal account. All transactions are secure and encrypted. Credit card information is never stored. Click here to see the steps on how to pay with Credit Card through PayPal without PayPal Account. Order Yours Now!

Click the green "BUY IT NOW“ Button to claim yours.

Thank you for your patience and for being a customer.

Over 1,789,465 Successfully Shipped Orders.

We made as many happy customers as many orders we shipped. You simply have to join our big family.

from skeenly https://skeenly.com/products/justforme-custom-script-earrings from skeenly https://skeenly.tumblr.com/post/190124377221

0 notes

skeenly · 4 years

Text

JustForMe - Custom Script Earrings

Vendor: skeenly Type: Accessories Price: 27.99 - 29.99 (84 variants)

Make Someone's Holidays Extra Special This Year!

The only thing that says I love you more than jewelry.. is CUSTOM jewelry! Luckily we’ve got you covered this holiday season with JustForMe our patented gold plated custom script earrings!

These custom script earrings make a perfect gift for that fashion-forward young man or woman in your life.. help them look their best this holiday season.. they’ll absolutely adore you for it!

Benefits

Features:

Customized products require a production period of 5-10 days.

Material is stainless steel, not alloy!

Bathing and swimming can be worn, the product will Never Fade! Never Allergies! Reliable Quality!

Shipping takes 10 to 24 days

Notes: Due to the screen difference, the color maybe a little different from what you expect, please allow it. Attention: According to Brazil's policy, all packages will be required include CPF(Cadastro de Pessoa Fisica). So PLEASE write down CPF in the Company bar if you are from Brazil. We won't ship those orders which don't include CPF until you confirm the correct information.

OUR GUARANTEE

Limited Time Only This item is NOT available in stores. We ship worldwide!

Orders usually ship from our store between 5-15 business days (sometimes this can take longer depending on how busy we are).

Once your order is shipped, we will not be able to refund you.

Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery due to high demand.

Once you received the product and if found any problem with it please take a photo and send us via email.

Guaranteed safe check out: PAYPAL | VISA | MASTERCARD All payments are accepted via PayPal. If you don't have PayPal, you are still able to pay via credit card by clicking on the PayPal icon at checkout. When you're ready to check out, choose PayPal as your payment method. Paypal accepts all payment credit cards. Just select "Paypal" and click the "Pay with Debit or Creditcard" button. You can pay with your credit card without creating a PayPal account. All transactions are secure and encrypted. Credit card information is never stored. Click here to see the steps on how to pay with Credit Card through PayPal without PayPal Account. Order Yours Now!

Click the green "BUY IT NOW" Button to claim yours.

Thank you for your patience and for being a customer.

Over 1,789,465 Successfully Shipped Orders.

We made as many happy customers as many orders we shipped. You simply have to join our big family.

from skeenly https://skeenly.com/products/justforme-custom-script-earrings

0 notes

wineanddinosaur · 4 years

Text

VinePair Podcast: Fall Drinks Trends LIVE From Tales of the Cocktail

Although New York City is somewhat solemnly celebrating extended outdoor dining through winter and year-round, Covid-19 is still threatening restaurants, bars, and the public across America. With fall officially here, most of us will soon face the end of outdoor dining and drinking, or at least a greatly limited version of it for the next four to six months, if not longer.

On the flip side, that means the trend toward home bartending we saw in spring and early summer will undoubtedly accelerate — perhaps with new, seasonal focuses. Instead of the Margarita and its many variants being the most popular drinks to make at home, will bourbon-based drinks like the Manhattan or Old Fashioned stake their claims at the top of the DIY drinking list? How can bourbon producers and beverage brands, bars, and bartenders alike find ways to contribute to — and potentially profit from — this emerging trend?

What flavors, spirits, and emotions will color fall and winter drinking habits? That’s what Adam Teeter, Erica Duecy, and Zach Geballe discuss on this week’s special episode of the VinePair Podcast, recorded live as part of Tales of the Cocktail’s virtual conference last week.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or check out our conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Erica: From Jersey City, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is a live Tales of the Cocktail edition of our podcast. Guys, what’s going on?

E: Hey. Excited to be here. I see you guys on video now. Usually, we’re just doing audio.

Z: I know. And I’ve long wanted to go to Tales of the Cocktail, so now I can say I’ve been, even though it does not involve going to New Orleans or necessarily doing more than putting on a shirt. You don’t even know if I’m wearing pants — which may have been the case if I had gone to New Orleans.

A: Zach, have you never been?

Z: I’ve never been.

A: Erica, what about you?

E: Yeah, I’ve been several times. I’ve presented a couple of times, and it is very hot but so much fun.

A: I actually can’t imagine what it would have been like this year if they would have done it this time of year, because I’m sure it would have been lovely. July in New Orleans is definitely super warm, but it’s always a great time. There are so many people that you get to meet, so many connections that you get to make, so many amazing bars that you get to sample cocktails from which are doing pop-ups across New Orleans. It’s a pretty amazing experience. It’s hard to replicate almost anywhere else, I think, given New Orleans’ attachment to cocktail culture and the fact that the United States is the birthplace of cocktails. Let’s be real: It fits there in a very different way than other conferences in other parts of the world. It’s a very cool experience, and I obviously can’t wait to get back to Tales next year in real life.

Z: I can’t wait to sweat my ass off with you all next year.

A: Before we kick into everything, I know we all made cocktails because it is Tales of the Cocktail. Zach, what are you drinking?

Z: I got back in the house just in time for our recording, so I had to settle for just grabbing something off the shelf. But fortunately, I have some selections back here and I’m drinking my favorite, which is also what I named my dog. This is Willett Bourbon, a classic Kentucky distillery — and it’s delicious all the time, including right now, in the middle of the afternoon here in Seattle.

A: Definitely a lot of Willett is consumed during Tales. Or just a lot of bourbon in general. Erica, what about you?

E: I have a very cool new liqueur from Forthave Spirits. It’s a small Brooklyn distillery. Dan Daylon, who owns it, is someone I’ve known for about 20 years. And it’s been so cool to see this distillery come out and make a bunch of amaros and digestifs. This new product that they just released that I’m drinking is called ‘Yellow.’ It’s yellow, and it’s a really gorgeous liqueur that you can drink yourself. One of the things that I find tough about aperitif culture is sometimes there’s so much sweetness. But this is a really incredibly well-balanced liqueur that I actually have just been drinking over the rocks and it’s gorgeous. It has some bitterness and some floral qualities. I received it in the mail a couple weeks ago, and I’ve just been drinking it over ice pretty consistently. So cheers to Forthave Spirits.

Z: What about you, Adam?

A: I’ve got this awesome new tequila called LALO that is actually made by the grandson of Don Julio. It’s a pretty cool tequila. It’s out of Austin. It’s the only place it’s available right now. It’s a group of three guys who started it. The grandson, whose nickname is Lalo, he was making tequila for fun in Mexico and then was going to visit friends in Austin and kept bringing what he was distilling and all of them were like, “This is really good.” His whole idea is sort of returning to blanco as the premiere place to showcase tequila. While reposados and anejos are interesting, he really feels as if the pure form of tequila is blanco, so that’s all they do. And they do it really well. And they take the agave they’re harvesting really seriously, so they want old agave that’s at least seven years old, they’re not going for the really young stuff that a lot of people are using just to keep up with demand right now. And they really want all of those floral and herbaceous notes from the agave to really come through. Their belief is that when you get to reposado and añejo, you lose a lot of the flavor of the true agave and it gets covered by wood. So they’re really just trying to highlight agave because tequila wouldn’t exist without it. It’s a super-cool spirit. And I love the packaging, I think it’s just gorgeous. I’m drinking Ranch Water because it’s still too early in the day.

E: I was so excited when I was just looking through our cocktail recipe database and I saw that Ranch Water is now in our top 50 cocktails.

A: I know it’s crazy. It’s a cocktail that has come out of nowhere. It’s blown up.

Z: I also want to put in a note that if you are interested in LALO, Adam did an interview with the guys who founded and it is available on the VinePair Podcast feed.

A: Before we kick off today’s topic, which we’re super excited to get into, a quick word from our sponsors. The 2020 Sherry Wines Mixology Challenge is on. That’s for everyone here at Tales. If you love sherry, get in on this. Sherry, as we all should know, is a fortified wine from southern Spain that has become the secret ingredient of many innovative cocktails for its versatility and complex flavor profile. We’re looking for all mixologists out there to show their skills and enter to win by submitting your very own sherry cocktail creation. There’s going to be prizes of $3,000, $1,500, and $500 that will be awarded to the top three winners. All you have to do is go to vinepair.com/sherry-mixology-challenge for details, inspiration, and how to enter. It’s super easy. Give us your best sherry cocktail. You have a great chance. There’s an awesome slate of judges. I think everyone should get in on this. I love sherry cocktails, and I’m sure a lot of people do as well. Enter at vinepair.com/sherry-mixology-challenge. And now for this week’s topic. I figure because it’s live we wouldn’t do as much of our banter — we kind of did it already. So this week’s topic is cocktail trends coming into the fall. For those who are aware of the VinePair Insights product, a few years ago we started tagging in a very specific way all of the content on VinePair in order to truly understand where the industry was headed. And we then took that data and created an algorithm that’s able to rank an index of spirits, serves, et cetera to see where trends are moving in the world of cocktails. We thought this was a perfect topic to talk about for Tales, because not only are we coming out of Covid (and kind of still in it, which is terrible) but we’re also looking to the fall in terms of what we think the next big cocktail trends are going to be and where we are headed. With that in mind, guys, you want to kick it off? Erica, where are we headed?

E: It’s really interesting, when we look at the data — and I will say that when we started analyzing the insights data from VinePair a lot of it is also supported by what we’re seeing in Nielsen, in IWSR, and other data sources, so there’s a lot of context for some of the trends we’ve been seeing. I think the biggest trend and the real trend to focus on for brands who are listening, as well as producers and bartenders, is the at-home cocktail trend. We are seeing that spirits, liqueurs, vermouths — everything that supports the evidence of the at-home cocktail trend — has just been going up, up, up, up throughout the Covid-affected period. And I think we’re really going to see that continue into fall. One of the biggest trends that we saw this year is during the Covid- affected period is tequila. Tequila blew up, and it continues to keep going. I think bourbon is now starting to take its place back rivaling tequila. But throughout the entire summer, we saw a massive growth in tequila that was supported in off-premise sales data. When you look at VinePairs cocktail recipe database, for example, a lot of those top cocktails are Margaritas and Margarita variations. So I think tequila had a lot going for it going into Covid.

A: Absolutely.

Z: And I think an important thing to note here is when we’re talking about at-home cocktails, we’re talking about two distinct appeals for people. And I think this was the same thing when we did this same topic talking about what we thought summer would be like, and I think, not to toot our own horn too much, but I think we f***ing nailed what summer 2020 was going to be like from a cocktail perspective.

A: Maybe we did.

Z: You can go back and listen, folks, if you don’t believe me. But I think what we identified was that people are going to want a couple of things. They’re going to want comfort, and I think fall and winter is going to be even more about that, and that’s where bourbon and those sort of warm brown spirits are going to come into play even more. But people are also going to want the ability to feel transported. And that, to me, is the place where whether you’re a brand, whether you’re a bartender, whether you’re a bar, you have that opportunity to take people on a journey. And while I think that for the certain kind of home bartender who is interested in comfort, that I think is going to express itself in the classic cocktails. It’s going to express itself in Old Fashioneds and Manhattans and bourbon served neat. But I think that, for people who are looking to do something else, and especially when people are looking for either unusual products or they’re looking for prepackaged cocktails, where that’s going to go is: How can you take someone on a journey while still sticking with the flavor set that people expect in the fall? Tiki is a great place to look. I think bourbon cocktails are a great option or whiskey-based tiki cocktails. I think we’ve talked a lot about Cognac in the last couple of months. I think that’s another opportunity where if you do something a little bit unfamiliar to people, put a spin on it that they may not be familiar with, while still touching those classic flavors. That is a great opportunity. And I think that’s what people are going to want. They’re going to want to be able to feel like they can go on a journey without leaving their house, or at least without going too far out of their comfort zone. But they are going to want to do something other than what they can usually do at home. So if you can step into that void, that’s a huge opportunity.

A: I think there’s definitely a lot of people still doing to-go cocktails and things like that. I do think that the other thing we’re going to see is there’s going to be a lot more interest in the drinks that include vermouth. We’ve seen vermouth sales explode, and what we’re seeing on VinePair is a massive amount of traffic to all of our content about vermouth. So people are saying, “OK, I bought this because of a Negroni and I was told I had to have this because I want to make a Negroni, and now what are the other uses for it?” How do I use this in a Manhattan? I think the Manhattan is going to have a big fall. I think the Martini is going to have a big fall and into winter, because these are actually pretty easy cocktails for the at-home consumer to make. But they are also going to be looking for bartenders and brands to give them information to make them better. So if you have a personality online and you’re on Instagram, whatever, you can provide these tips, especially as a bartender, for how someone can really perfect the at-home Martini or how they can change it up a little bit. “Oh, I recommend that you should add dashes of orange bitters, and it gives it a different flavor profile.” Or, “With your Manhattan try these brands of cherries.” Or, “Try this brand of vermouth, or this rye, or this bourbon.” I think this is what people are really going to be looking for. Because we’re now seeing that they are trying to get comfortable with those ingredients and they’re playing with them more at home. So I think this is a time for a lot of bartenders, especially, to build a profile amongst consumers in their area and become a resource for those consumers. There’s a lot of other things going on in the world of drinks right now in terms of just even being worried about survival, so the first thing you may not be thinking about is also what you can do to serve people who are making drinks at home. But if you do have that extra time I think there will be a lot of wins for people that are able to provide that kind of knowledge, because I think there’s going to be more people making cocktails at home. And then, Zach, you’re completely right, looking for the more advanced cocktails out. OK, so I figured out how to make the Martini, what can I buy out of the home that feels like a treat? And I think tiki is a perfect example. It’s something that I’m not going to try to make at home.

Z: Erica will.

A: It’s a hard category. I think tiki is really difficult to master, and a lot of consumers feel that way. I think tiki is really hard to master, but people still view it as a true treat. And there’s a lot of other cocktails like that as well. And at least in New York, it feels like people are going out to the bars when they can. They’re feeling more comfortable to be outside. They’re feeling comfortable about going to pick up the cocktail and bring it home. And I’m hoping that continues through the fall.

E: A couple good points there. I was just looking through our recipe database to see what are the highest-performing cocktails. Totally fascinating. The top 50 cocktails during the Covid-affected period, even more so than before that, are made with two to four ingredients. So I think for brands, for bartenders, all of them were two-to-four-ingredient cocktails. Those are the cocktail opportunities that you have to put tweaks on. Change them up a little. So that was the top 50 cocktails, and they really were the classics. There are even things that aren’t even that popular normally, such as the gin sour, whiskey sour, things like that, in addition to the ones we all know and love, like the Martini, Aviation, Negroni, Old Fashioned. But then you look at the next 50 most popular cocktails, they are slight variations. So we’re talking the Lemon Grapefruit Martini, Espresso Martini, Paloma. Just adding in one more ingredient. And so I think that’s where there’s another level of opportunity for brands and bartenders. “OK, you’ve mastered the Margarita, let’s take it to the Paloma,” or, “You’ve mastered the Martini, here’s a couple variations.” And that’s the opportunity. I think for rum, I also agree with you that there is an opportunity there with escapism. I think the biggest challenge for tiki is really all of the ingredients. I was talking with a writer today and she is a well-known tiki mixologist and she was pitching some different ideas for tiki drinks, and I said, we have to go to the simple ones. Like grog, for example. Grog is an unheralded, delicious drink, made with dark rum, lime, simple syrup, Angostura bitters — done. That profile of tiki, but make it simple. I think that’s going to be the opportunity for tiki cocktails. What are the simplest variations that you can give so that people can actually embrace rum. And they want to embrace rum. I think they really do. And we saw rum getting some traction this summer as well.

A: I think it’s funny, every time I hear Erica talk about cocktails, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, that’s right. She wrote a really successful cocktail book.” So she actually knows what people want to read and make at home, which I think is really worth explaining. I think about it in terms of even the recipe books that I get where there’s some 20 steps in the ingredients to make the recipe and I think, “This looks delicious, but I’m just not going to do it.” And I think the same is true for lots of cocktails when it comes to at-home mixology. But people are looking for experts. They’re not going to do it on their own. They’ll come to sites like VinePair, they’ll read our recipes, but they also are looking for people they can interact with on all these different social media platforms. I know we have this as an episode coming up in a few weeks, talking about what’s happening on TikTok with everything in the cocktail world and all the people that are creating these really massive followings by showing you how to make drinks. If you look at the drinks that most people are making on TikTok as well, they are super simple. No one is going after these really in-depth drinks. No one’s fat washing. No one’s making Milk Punch, because it’s just too much for the consumer to understand. But I think a lot of people are going to have great personalities coming out of Covid, and we’ll be able to do things because they built these followings, which is really interesting.

Z: I also think the other possibility here and the other opportunity for a lot of brands and bars is to look at how you can interact with the reality for a lot of people, which is a lot of people over the course of spring and summer and into fall did a lot of stocking up. People bought lots of booze. They were like, “I don’t know when I’m going to be comfortable going to a store. I don’t know when there’s going to be shortages.” I mean, fortunately, most of those things have proven to be not such a big deal. But there’s lots of people I know who have lots of bottles of booze kicking around their house. And if you give them an “everything but the booze kit” essentially, I think about this a lot, we probably all have really bad impressions of sour mix or Margarita mix or Bloody Mary mix. But that’s just because what was typically available was crap. It was really mass-produced, not made with quality ingredients. But if you as a bar or you even as a bartender can offer someone an option where all they have to do is stir in or shake in the booze that they already have, they might not want to buy a $15 cocktail from you, but they might want to buy a $5 “everything but the booze” cocktail kit. And you can capitalize on your ability to produce a lot of those difficult-to-make, or time- consuming, laborious ingredients like syrups and stuff for tiki cocktails. I think that’s another possibility. Now, maybe that’s not as big an opportunity as some of what else we’re talking about. But I know that I’ve been approached by bars in the Seattle area who are interested in my thoughts on what to do. And that’s one thing that I’ve offered, is if you offer something like “here’s a Mai Tai, and all you have to do is add the rum.” That’s a lot more approachable than “here’s a $15 Mai Tai.” Some people are out there doing that but a lot of people are not going to go down that route all that often. And it’s also a lot more approachable than “here’s a recipe for a Mai Tai, have fun.” Those kinds of cocktails are, for me even as a relatively confident old bartender, a lot to take on. You can bridge that gap for someone and work with the knowledge that they probably have. They probably have a base spirit at home but maybe not all the other components. That’s, I think, a huge opportunity for bars and a way that they can stay more relevant in people’s lives than the occasional treat.

A: Yeah, I totally agree. It’s funny, before I decided to make the Ranch Water, I can’t remember the brand now but it’s one of these fresh juice cocktail brands that I think was serving the bar industry and then in Covid pivoted, and so you’ve already seen some of these brands do that and they’re going on to Amazon and they’re letting you buy them there. But I think what to your point, Zach, a lot of people, especially in cities, have a great bar in their neighborhood, and if I knew that I could go out and walk to the Rockwell Place — which still hasn’t opened — I could go there and I could get a bunch of different mixers that I could then take home because I already have alcohol, and then can also make it at my leisure. There’s also this pressure when you get that cocktail to-go that it’s to be consumed right now. I think people would be into it because, again, it’s just another way to get into what’s going to happen this fall. This celebratory time, OND (October, November, December) matters for every spirit’s brand. Everybody in this space really is very much focused because we know that people drink more. And we’ve already seen the level at which people drank when Covid happened. And I think it’s just going to come to massive extremes and you’re going to see what we saw in the spring, which was that tequila has always been popular and it just went a thousand times more popular. I think bourbon has always been popping, and in the fall we’re going to see has become a thousand times more popular. And so how do you take advantage of that as well? And think about that when it comes to what you’re serving to the community and how you’re staying present so that when all this blows over, you have a platform to be able to reopen again.

Z: And I think if you’re a producer, if you’re a distillery — and we have distilleries all over the country, so it’s not just for bourbon, it’s not just in Kentucky — I think one thing that you can really think on is how can you give someone a complete package? I don’t think it’s sufficient these days to say, “Here’s the bottle of spirits, and here’s a recipe.” The recipes are great, but as we pointed out, people have a ton of resources for recipes, including VinePair. And if you’re not checking out our drinks catalog, you really should. It’s an amazing repository. I’m an experienced bartender, and I go look at recipes on there all the damn time. I’m probably the one responsible for the Aviation being so popular. But I would say that I think that if you’re a producer, not just the bar or other kind of purveyor of spirits, it’s good to think about how we can channel our ability to produce things at some scale, and maybe you put together three or four. I think cocktail kits are a little played out, but I think if you have “here’s the bottle of spirit and here’s the bottle of mixer” people are going to eat that s**t up because most people, as Erica was alluding to, they don’t want to do more than combine two or three ingredients, stir or shake, and drink. And if you can give them a complex, interesting, pretty-to-look- at, or at least super-tasty kind of cocktail in a couple of packages — especially one that they can, as you said, Adam, access whenever they want, that they can go back to over a period of a few days or weeks — you have an opportunity there to capture some attention and some sales that just doing spirit sales or just doing cocktails may not afford you.

E: It’s shocking to me that people still buy simple syrup. But apparently that is a growth opportunity in many liquor stores right now. Those types of things, people are looking for those small variations that they just don’t have to make it themselves. They don’t want to put some lemon peel into some sugar and water and make an infused syrup. So I think that’s another area we as publications, brand ambassadors, whatever it is, just giving people the tools to help them figure out how to make a couple simple drinks. I think that’s actually one of the biggest opportunities I see with Cognac. Which I know we have been blown away by seeing how much it has grown off-premise. Nielsen just released some numbers showing that over the summer, it’s up 61 percent year over year. And a lot of that is the volume shifting from on-premise to off-premise. But I think the bigger point is that there have been so many successful collaborations and spokespeople with people from the sports world, from the music world, but I still think that a lot of consumers have no idea what to do with Cognac. And so we’re still 100 percent giving them some ideas of, “Hey, here’s a product and here’s a couple of ways to use it.” It could be as simple as a French Manhattan, Cognac-based Manhattan, a Sidecar, a variation on an Old Fashioned. These things do not have to be difficult. But I think brands and ambassadors and bartenders just giving those small variations can really make a difference and help those people find a following. And I think that’s one of the big opportunities for drinks professionals right now. Using social media and or newsletters or other platforms to try to build an audience when you can’t have that audience in person.

Z: I think the other piece is, and this is a great opportunity where, whether it’s on social media or just in home education opportunities, one thing that’s really cool is you can really showcase technique when and where technique is appropriate. All of us have smartphones, most of us have a computer that can record a video. Show people how to do this stuff. It’s amazing to me — it’s also not surprising, on the other hand — that my dad doesn’t know how to make a Manhattan. Every time he wants one, he calls and goes, “What exactly goes in it?” And my dad is not an unsophisticated person in some senses, but it’s true that there isn’t that retained knowledge for a lot of people if you’re not doing it all that often. And it’s something as simple as, how do you actually shake or stir a drink? If you can arm people with that knowledge, let alone how to make a drink with an egg white or something like that. That’s getting up there, but just the basics. People are super interested in mastering those skills, but are also very unsure of themselves. And so the more you can give them the ability to feel confident, engage with content that you’ve created, they’re going to be loyal because this sucks, and so we’re all looking for fun, and points of connection, and people that we can feel connected to, even if we can’t see them in person.

A: Yes, I agree. And I think I’d be remiss if we didn’t say we know this is an industry we love, a lot of you are our friends, we’re all hurting from what’s happening right now, and if there’s any other way that we can be helpful, please reach out. You know, you can email us at [email protected] and tell us what we can do. There’s obviously lots of things that we’ve tried, initiatives we’ve started already, but we would love to highlight things that you might be doing if you’re doing really creative things in your city. Or your brand is doing interesting things to give back. We’ve tried to do that through highlighting different interviews throughout the week in addition to this roundtable we do every Monday. So please let us know. Shoot us an email, and we’ll do our best to get back to you and try to shed light on as many people as possible in the industry and how everyone can be helpful.

Z: Absolutely. We love that we’ve been able to be a resource in these times. We hate that it’s come to that, but it’s been really powerful for all of us. I think that we’ve been able to shine some light and hopefully offer some suggestions, solutions, and opportunities for all of you.

A: 100 percent.

E: Definitely. And we are definitely dedicated to highlighting people from the BIPOC community, women, voices that are not often heard or have not had platforms. I think that’s one of the most successful things that we’ve been able to do, is use VinePair as a platform for good in the drinks industry, and we’re dedicated to that. It’s a pillar of our editorial and something that we are dedicated to throughout our programming. So if your voice has not been heard and you are looking for an outlet either to write or to be a source, please do reach out.

A: Yeah. Again, the email is [email protected], it’s the easiest way. Or [email protected] for writing and to be a source in some of our articles. We really would appreciate you to reach out. And guys, my Ranch Water is done, so I think that means the podcast is over.

Z: Oh yeah, I’m going to have my last sip.

E: I’m still sipping.

A: I’ll read a word from our sponsor again. The 2020 Sherry Wines Mixology Challenge is on. Again, I don’t think I need to educate you on what sherry is, but just in case, sherry is a fortified wine from southern Spain and has become the secret ingredient of many innovative cocktails for its versatility and complex flavor profile. Again, if you’ve attended Tales multiple years, you already know this. Show your mixology skills and enter to win by submitting your very own sherry cocktail creation. Prizes of $3,000, $1,500, and $500 will be awarded to the top three winners for the most innovative sherry cocktails. Visit vinepair.com/sherry-mixology-challenge for details, inspiration, and the instructions to enter. And with that, we wish everyone a good Tales. We hope to see you in person next year. And thank you so much for listening. And Zach, Erica, see you next week.

E: See you next week.

Z: Sounds great.

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now, for the credits. VinePair is produced and hosted by Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Fall Drinks Trends LIVE From Tales of the Cocktail appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/fall-drinks-trends/

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johnboothus · 4 years

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VinePair Podcast: Fall Drinks Trends LIVE From Tales of the Cocktail

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or check out our conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter.

Erica: From Jersey City, I’m Erica Duecy.

Zach: And in Seattle, Washington, I’m Zach Geballe.

A: And this is a live Tales of the Cocktail edition of our podcast. Guys, what’s going on?

E: Hey. Excited to be here. I see you guys on video now. Usually, we’re just doing audio.

A: Zach, have you never been?

Z: I’ve never been.

A: Erica, what about you?

E: Yeah, I’ve been several times. I’ve presented a couple of times, and it is very hot but so much fun.

Z: I can’t wait to sweat my ass off with you all next year.

A: Before we kick into everything, I know we all made cocktails because it is Tales of the Cocktail. Zach, what are you drinking?

A: Definitely a lot of Willett is consumed during Tales. Or just a lot of bourbon in general. Erica, what about you?

Z: What about you, Adam?

E: I was so excited when I was just looking through our cocktail recipe database and I saw that Ranch Water is now in our top 50 cocktails.

A: I know it’s crazy. It’s a cocktail that has come out of nowhere. It’s blown up.

Z: I also want to put in a note that if you are interested in LALO, Adam did an interview with the guys who founded and it is available on the VinePair Podcast feed.

A: Absolutely.

A: Maybe we did.

Z: Erica will.

A: 100 percent.

Z: Oh yeah, I’m going to have my last sip.

E: I’m still sipping.

E: See you next week.

Z: Sounds great.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article VinePair Podcast: Fall Drinks Trends LIVE From Tales of the Cocktail appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/fall-drinks-trends/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/vinepair-podcast-fall-drinks-trends-live-from-tales-of-the-cocktail

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dipulb3 · 3 years

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The 2021 BMW M3 finds redemption through performance

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/the-2021-bmw-m3-finds-redemption-through-performance/

The 2021 BMW M3 finds redemption through performance

Look, I hate BMW’s huge new grille as much as the rest of you, but there are way more important things to talk about with this brand-new M3. This is the sport sedan by which all other sport sedans are judged, and once you get past those unfortunate nostrils, I promise there are plenty of redeeming qualities.

In fact, botched nose-job aside, I think the M3 looks pretty hot. It’s 2.4 inches wider than a base 3 Series, evidenced by bulging front and rear fenders, and the big exhaust tips stick out from the diffuser like a freshly polished brass quartet. All M3s get staggered wheels and tires, with standard 18s up front and 19s out back, though my tester has the optional 19-/20-inch setup. Oh, and as for this new Isle of Man paint job, when we’re allowed to be in contact with other humans again, I owe the person who green-lit (heh) this color a high-five.

If the sedan body style isn’t your thing, there’s also the new M4 coupe, which is basically the same car only a little uglier and a little more expensive. Both the M3 and M4 are available in base and Competition specs with rear-wheel drive, and later this year, all-wheel-drive versions of the Competition models will join the party.

Every M3 and M4 uses BMW’s S58 3.0-liter twin-turbo I6, which is a nice upgrade from the old S55 engine. The base tune offers 473 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque and you can get it with either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission. The Competition upgrade bumps those figures up to 503 hp and 479 lb-ft, though it also locks you into the automatic gearbox.

The vast majority of M3 and M4 buyers will undoubtedly choose the automatic transmission regardless of engine output, but I’m nevertheless glad to see BMW keeping the manual alive. It’s a good transmission, too — the clutch is heavy with a predictable take-up point, and while I’ve heard other people describe the M3’s gearbox as rubbery, I dig the notchy, precise action to the stick.

The 3.0-liter twin-turbo I6 engine produces 473 hp or 503 hp, depending on spec.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

Besides, the more powerful, auto-only Competition cars aren’t that much quicker. Despite their extra oomph and quicker-shifting transmission, both the M3 and M4 Comp will do the 0-to-60-mph dash in 3.8 seconds; the base/manual cars will do the same sprint in 4.1 seconds. The only time you’ll notice that discrepancy is at a drag strip, or as my photographer correctly points out, while ripping between stoplights on Melrose in Hollywood at midnight.

The manual is nicely paired with this turbo I6, too. The S58 is surprisingly rev-happy for a turbo engine, but because there’s so much low-end torque, you don’t always have to drop a gear or two to call up necessary passing power. Speaking of which, the manual gearbox will automatically rev-match on downshifts, though you can disable this feature if you want. I’m sure the real manly-men drivers will scoff at this, but I actually love the auto rev-matching tech, only because you get guaranteed smooth downshifts 100% of the time, and sometimes I just don’t freaking feel like heel-and-toeing in traffic.

You know what else is great? The chassis. The standard G20 3 Series’ setup is pretty good, and extra braces and an aluminum subframe only make the M3 stiffer and stronger. Every M3 comes with electronically controlled adaptive dampers, which can react instantly and individually at each wheel, providing excellent composure over smooth and nasty road surfaces alike. I can genuinely feel a difference between the suspension’s Comfort, Sport and Sport Plus modes. And while BMW’s larger M cars are sometimes crashy even in their cushiest settings (lookin’ at you, M5 and X5/X6 M), the M3 is supple enough that I wouldn’t hate driving it every day.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

The S58 is surprisingly rev-happy for a turbo engine, but because there’s so much low-end torque, you don’t always have to drop a gear when you need to make a pass.

A standard limited-slip differential keeps power managed at the rear, and the 275/35ZR19 front and 285/30ZR20 rear Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires offer plenty of grip. There are 10 different traction control levels to choose from, which is totally overkill, though it means you can really have a greater handle on just how much leeway you have in terms of slip. The M3 will totally pull off controlled slides, too, and there’s even a feature called the M Drift Analyzer, which records the distance, duration and angle of a drift and then scores your performance so you can step up your game. That’s cool, but please don’t be one of the morons who tries to use this on a public road.

Sweet as the chassis is, the M3’s steering is a mixed bag. The speed-sensitive, variable-ratio setup means the M3 turns in quickly and instantly responds to changes in direction, but the whole experience is lifeless. The wheel is nicely weighted yet it’s also flatline numb, and weirdly, bordering on twitchy in its most aggressive Sport setting. It’s a shame to see BMW still struggling with steering after all these years.

Likewise, the brakes are hit or miss. The standard steel brakes have 15.0-inch front discs with six-piston calipers, and 14.6-inch rear discs with single-piston floating calipers. That’s a perfectly robust stopping setup, but the M3 uses a version of the brake-by-wire system that you’ll find in the 8 Series, where you can change between Comfort and Sport settings, neither of which actually feel all that different from one another. BMW says the benefit to this tech is consistent braking feel in all situations, but that isn’t what I experienced on the road. There’s an artificial buildup of weight that doesn’t always correlate to stopping force, and that’s hard to get used to. Credit where credit’s due, however: This is one of the better brake-by-wire systems when it comes to low-speed modulation.

The orange leather looks great against my test car’s green paint.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

If you’d prefer stronger, carbon-ceramic brakes, they’re available for $8,150 and are set apart with classy gold-painted calipers. Given how strong the stock setup is, unless you’re using the M3 as your track car, I’d skip the carbon-ceramic option. Eight grand is a ton of money.

The base M3 comes with a decent list of standard driver-assistance features, including parking sensors, traffic sign recognition, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and more. Unfortunately, things like adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist and BMW’s Extended Traffic Jam Assist (that combines those aforementioned technologies) are hidden behind a $1,700 package that’s only available on the Competition models. It’s kind of lame to lock that tech into the more expensive Competition trim, though I suppose these are features I could theoretically live without. But you do you.

Every M3 has the same cabin tech: BMW’s iDrive 7 software, with a 10.3-inch center touchscreen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. This is exactly the same as what you get in the basic 3 Series, as well as pretty much every other new BMW. iDrive 7 has a pretty steep initial learning curve, but I appreciate the screen’s quick responses to inputs and the fact that you can control it via a knob on the center console or through voice commands. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included, as well.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

The new M3 is both better to drive and easier to live with.

Most of the interior touchpoints carry over from the 330i and M340i to the M3, save for some M-specific badges and colors and a thicker-diameter steering wheel. You can add BMW’s wild-looking carbon bucket seats to any version of the M3 or M4 for $3,800, and I hear they’re seriously supportive. My test car has the standard sport seats, which are perfectly fine and look great done up in Kyalami Orange leather. For $2,550, you can extend the leather color to the lower dashboard panel, too, so yeah, go nuts.

The base M3 starts at $70,895 including $995 for destination. All done up with special paint and interior colors, the carbon-ceramic brakes, upgraded wheels and an Executive Package (heated steering wheel, head-up display, wireless charging, those dumb gesture controls, etc.), the M3 pictured here costs $90,295 — again, nearly 10% of that price is just from the brakes. As for the rest of the range, the M3 Competition comes in at $73,795, the M4 starts at $72,795 and the M4 Competition is the most expensive variant at $75,695.

See? It looks great from the rear.

Jonathan Harper/Roadshow

In the same way the normal 3 Series is an improvement over its predecessor, so too is the M3. This sport sedan is better to drive and easier to live with, and the M3 continues to stack up nicely against the well-rounded Audi RS5 and V8-powered Mercedes-AMG C63 in terms of price and performance. Ultimately, deciding which one to get comes down to which brand you like best or which car you think looks the coolest.

Oh, crap. Maybe that grille is more important than I thought.

Now playing: Watch this: 2021 BMW M4 Competition: A true M car through and through

13:19

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cutiecrates · 5 years

Text

Cutie Reviews: Kawaii Box Oct 18

Hello! Welcome to the October 2018 Kawaii Box review :3

Before I begin I wanted to let you guys know that I will finally be making a purchase at Blippo.com -the official shop relates to Kawaii Box- this upcoming month. I don’t really have any plans in mind as to what I’ll be getting, but my goal is to spend over $25.00, as this is the limit needed to obtain a “free gift” and I’m curious to see what it pertains. I’ll be making a follow-up blog post about the whole experience, items, etc, when it comes.

Without further ado, let’s get on with the review!

This months theme: Kawaii Halloween!

This months word: Kabocha - Pumpkin

Kawaii Neko Pocket Mirror

Our first item is this ultra-cute pocket mirror with an adorable kitty in a cup with Please written on it. I’m not sure what the writing on top translates as- but isn’t this the cutest thing ever~?

From the book and Blippo website, I assume there was various alternate designs/colors you could receive, I couldn’t find this exact model on there but they had a bunch of cute ones like it ranging from $3.90-$4.90.

The mirror is very clear and easy to clean, and because there’s two sides of it you can easily see whatever angle you’re trying to get.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Besides being really cute, I was actually surprised by this. In the past, a long time ago I’ve gotten a couple of folding, flimsy, plastic mirrors. They got the job done and they were really cute too- but there was always that risk they would break you know?

This mirror is perfect! The outside feels very sturdy, I’m not sure what type of material it is but I’m not nearly as worried about it breaking in comparison to my others. I’ll definitely be putting it in my purse and taking out the other one.

Kawaii Neko Bag Charm & Kawaii Onigiri Plush Charm

(they look a bit alike, right?)

Our first item is the neko bag charm, the perfect little companion to cutify the day (and your purse/bag/pouch/pants loop/etc). These are available in 3 different styles, and each costs $4.50 <_< I was a little surprised to find that out, I assume it’s a material thing?

Besides being an adorable charm, there is also a big slit on the back. Now, the booklet nor Blippo mention this, but usually that means the charm can be used to discretely hold change!

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I just want to mention that as a warning if you would try to use this or something similar to hold coins, BE CAREFUL. While feeling around I discovered a sharp pointed piece on the inside of the top area, which is connected to the keychain. That makes it really sturdy- but it’s not worth using if you’re worried about harming yourself. It’s perfectly safe as a charm though.

Anyway, I think it’s very cute (I love its cheeks x3) and the detailing is really good. This would be ideal if you prefer smaller, non-plush charms but still want the appeal of a cute character.

Next to go with the neko charm, we have a plush onigiri (rice ball) charm. It came in 4 various expressions, and each costs $2.90.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I love rice, so this would be the perfect charm for me ♥ It’s also very soft, and the details are stitched on and look very clean (except for one little strand on the one blush). It’s just precious~

I should have bought the other three, then I could’ve swapped them out to fit my mood.

Halloween Ghost Squishy

This little cutie is perfect if you’re an avid squishy collector and want something for the holidays :P It was available for $4.90 on the Blippo website, but it’s no longer listed. This doesn’t seem like a hard squishy to find though if you’re interested in it; and they did have some other cute Halloween squishy (and ghosties) there.

It’s mentioned to be scented and it is- exactly like most other squishy. I think it would have been adorable if it smelled like vanilla, or pumpkin.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It’s very cute and ultra-soft. But I noticed mine has a bunch of shedding areas, the “lining“ is very messy and could use a trim, and there are a few tiny coloring issues, but I have seen way worse squishy and it isn’t really that bad; especially if you just want something soft to squeeze. This is amazing.

Halloween Stickers

Continuing our adorable ghost and Halloween trend, we got an adorable family of ghost stickers! On Blippo these were available for $1.90, they kind of remind me of dollar store stickers.

The sheet was full when I got it, don’t worry. I used some of the stickers to seal some wrapping in a package I was preparing for my friend because I was in a position where I didn’t have the time to look for my tape and I had to hurry up.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

They’re very cute and I love the various poses and styles. I’m not too crazy about repetitive sticker sheets like this- but when this happens it’s at least nice knowing I don’t have to feel sad for using a sticker I liked.

I’m not the only one who gets like that right...?

I wish they were a little big bigger, but at the same time there is something to be said for adorable little stickers, although they can be a tiny bit hard to get off the sheet. Stickiness is 10 out of 10.

Kanahei Sticky Notes

I’ve noticed the Usagi and Piske duo beginning to show up a little more often in the boxes as of late. I don’t mind though, they’re pretty cute.

These are available in both sticky note format or the one I got which is called “foldadble message fusen notes”, both types for $2.90 in a few different styles.

I finally understand how these work because of the “tutorial“ on the back. Basically you write something in the middle, then you take the paper and fold it so the middle is hidden by the top and bottom of the image to create a seamless note that looks like there isn’t anything there. Then you open it to find the note.

Unfortunately... by the time I got mine folded properly, the note was so beaten up I decided to trash it. For such an easy concept it’s actually a little hard >3<

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Despite that issue, I still think these are ultra-cute~ Especially this breakfast themed one, it would be perfect for inviting someone to breakfast or wishing them a good morning x3

Sanrio Sticky Bookmarks & Ciara Unicorn Card Protector

(In hindsight I should have put the sticky bookmarks with the message notes...)

Our first item in the picture is a set of Sanrio themed bookmarks based on a specific character. Each set costs anywhere from $1.90-$2.90 and includes 2 thin bookmarks, 2 mediums, 1 large, and 1 horizontal one, for a total of 90 bookmarks!

There was a huge variety of sanrio characters these were available in.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I usually don’t use these as I have bookmarks for the novels I read and I don’t have any sort of files or binders or anything in need of organization. BUT these come in handy for make-shift labels, which I have been putting them to use for :3 I love the variety of colors and sizes these come in too, usually I don’t see too much variety in one pack.

The other item is an adorable Unicorn Card Protector, available in 4 adorable pastel colors, each with it’s own unique unicorn drawing. Beneath the Ciara logo is the words “Make a girl more kawaii somewhere on a rainbow”, and on the back is a single chibi wing drawing. The front has tiny wings and stars covering it.

The protector has a flap on both the back and front, but the back flap is translucent. Each one costs $1.90.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I love unicorns, and the second I saw this I knew I would need to use it for my cards, which I will be doing after I finish this review. The one I’ve been using is pretty old and beaten up, so I figured it was time for a change.

It’s very easy to put the cards in and out of the two sides, and I was able to put about 5 cards in there with little effort. I feel like I may have been able to put in one or two more, but I didn’t have anything else nearby.

Halloween Umaibo

Our snack/food item for this box is an Umaibo, which I have no complaints against. I love these x3 although this one was extremely broken up... I’m not really sure if it was like that before I got it or after, but I’m going to assume before because I don’t throw my boxes around and beat them up like this stick was.

I wouldn’t ever turn down an Umaibo (unless it’s an intimidating flavor...) though, and it was still perfectly edible. It was corn/corn potage flavor, my favorite!

They can be bought on Blippo for $2.50 and you get 5 per purchase! But I saw a handful of them were sold out right now, I’m sure they will get more in soon though.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I’ve already made it clear that I’m obsessed with this umaibo flavor. It’s my #1 favorite, I wish they sold them in large boxes~

I also like that they gave us a Halloween packaged one... but I sorta feel like this might have been a missed opportunity. They should have chose a fall flavor, or something more associated with Halloween like pumpkins, squash, etc. I’m sure I saw something like that before.

Korean Okitoki Stationery Set

(Note the upside down pencil sharpener and toppers above it :P)

This is a nice little stationery set that provides the essentials needed for writing or a day at school. This is produced by the brand Caramel Popcorn; I’ve gotten a few items from them before. But I couldn’t find this exact set on Blippo, I did see a handful of variants, including a few bigger sets.

This set includes 2 pencils without an eraser or tip (I guess so you can pick?), 2 pencil caps, 1 glittery blue eraser with a non-taped or glued wrapping, 1 pencil sharpener, 1 Ruler with a numbered side and a bumpy side.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I actually didn’t expect very much with this set. Looking at the items and the packaging just gives it a cheap quality, but I was pleasantly surprised. The pencils and sharpener work like normal (I got very long strands from the sharpener :3 very satisfying), and the eraser is pretty to look at. You barely need to press to use it too. Ruler is flimsy but works with no problem.

My only noteworthy thing is that the pencil lids don’t seem to want to stay on if you put it on the sharpened side, but it stays fine on the other side. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose though?

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ It was a typical case of me being unsure if I liked the box much besides one or two items. I wasn’t very crazy over the abundance of stationery it seemed like we got this time, but I’ve come to enjoy it for what it is by the time I finished the review. Sometimes it’s just how it happens.

Price - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ I didn’t count the Umaibo since it’s for a set of 5 on the Blippo website and we only get 1. I’m not good at math so there was no way I could figure that out... I also didn’t count the stationery because I didn’t see it. Without them the box is worth about $24.00, so I imagine it’s around $30.00 in total. Which is really nice since we pay around $20.00.

Theme - ♥ ♥ ♥ They could have done better. Like it was obvious the theme was Halloween, and we only got 3 Halloween items out of 10. Unless you count the 2 neko things, which kind of associate with Halloween...

Total Rank: 6 out of 10 Cuties. I appreciated the box and enjoyed it, but I wish they would strongly follow themes more. I understand they probably don’t want to force it on people who might not celebrate the holiday, but I think it’d be better not to try to enforce a theme if you don’t plan to follow it. The design of Aiko-chan on the front is adorable, but it would imply the Halloween gimmick is stronger than it actually is.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Neko Pocket Mirror - it’s my favorite shade of pink and includes a super-squishy looking adorable kitty~

2. Unicorn Card Protector - very sweet and delicate looking, and I needed a new one so it was great timing x3

3. Ghost Squishy - it might have some faults, but it’s super cute and perfect for Halloween!

4. Umaibo - I’m living for the Halloween exclusive design x3 they make really cute Holiday packaging.

5. Halloween Stickers - They’re so kawaii, I just wish there was more variations on it.

6. Neko bag charm - it’s face is so sweet and adorable, I just wish it was cuddly.

7. Onigiri Plush charm - So soft and squishy. Do you think it’d be rude to eat Chinese food in front of it?

8. Usagi & Pitske Notes - I love the adorable pancake themed image x3 but it might just be because I’m really hungry right now. . .

9. Sanrio Sticky Bookmarks - I love the pastels and the designs~

10. Stationery Set - It’s very cute, but I’ve never been a blue girl, and the designs are extremely repetitive.

Well, that will be doing it for this review :3 Up next will be the October Tokyo Treat, and hopefully soon my first, official order from Blippo.com. As I said on top I’ll make a post about it to give you guys a look at how it goes and what I got.

Until next time remember to keep opening a box of cuteness every day!

#kawaiibox #onigiri plush #neko accessories #usagi piske #umaibo #halloween squishy

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reyankinng · 5 years

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Anyone looking for a well-equipped smartphone for under $200, will probably first look at Xiaomi. But Lenovo has recently introduced the S5 (also known as Lenovo K520) a mid-range smartphone for starting at $170, which in theory can easily compete with the current Redmi smartphones. In addition, the Lenovo S5 also offers advantages in some places. We have the Lenovo S5 subjected to a detailed everyday test for you while trying to uncover all the strengths and weaknesses. What we think of the Lenovo S5, you will now learn in this review. Have fun while reading! Currently, the Lenovo S5 (4GB+64GB) is available at Gearbest which costs only $179.99…

Buy Lenovo S5 (4GB+64GB) From Gearbest

Packaging & Delivery

The Lenovo S5 you can order in three different variants. The basic version has 3GB RAM and 32GB memory. There are also two variants with 4GB which offer either 64GB or 128GB internal memory. The Lenovo S5 is available in two colors: red and black. The model we tested is the Lenovo S5 in red with 4GB RAM and 64GB memory.

The Lenovo S5 is delivered in a classic smartphone carton in white. That’s why there’s a red wrapper with the Lenovo S5 print on it. The scope of delivery is relatively narrow:

1x Lenovo S5

1x quick start guide and warranty card

1x SIM needle

1x power supply (Chinese plug, adapter required)

1x USB Type-C cable

The power supply supports Quick Charging. Unfortunately, Lenovo does not share what technology is being used here. But we’re pretty sure it’s Quick Charge 3.0. Thus, all corresponding chargers should be compatible.

Build & Design

Here you have done a damn good job on the Lenovo S5. The handset does not seem like a device that costs less than $200. The main features of the design remind us a bit of the OnePlus 5 / OnePlus 5T. The case is made entirely of metal and makes just in the beautiful color red visually quite a lot and has proven in the test as a real eye-catcher. Amazingly, we find how thin the Lenovo S5 is built. 7.52mm case thickness is a value you rarely see in this price range. The camera module is, however, something out. Including the camera comes to a value of 8.5mm. This causes the unit to wobble a little when operated on a table. What suffers from the small thickness is the stability. With moderate effort, the smartphone bends slightly through.

The case, which almost tapers towards the left and right side, further enhances the impression of a very slim smartphone and ensures an unfamiliar but pleasant hand feel. At times, it may seem a bit insecure. Here, everything depends on personal preferences. If you like slim devices, you will love the design. If you like something in your hand and prefer a grip, you probably will not get warm with the design of the Lenovo S5.

As far as the quality of workmanship is concerned, the Lenovo S5 convinces right down the line. Everything really fits here, including the metal hardware buttons. Also on the SIM slot shows that Lenovo has paid attention to details here. The panel of the drawer closes very clean with the rest of the housing and also the drawer itself leaves a valued and very accurately fitting impression. All holes are set very neatly and do not show the slightest flaw. The connections were provided with plastic edges to protect the metal from damage by connectors. The elegantly curved antenna lines blend in almost seamlessly with the metal and are virtually unnoticeable. CNC and Nano Injection Molding make it possible.

It is really a pity, however, that the focus on elegance has been forgotten on the front. Immediately after first powering up, the Lenovo S5 has quite thick bezels compared to most other smartphones in 18: 9 format. To the left and to the right of the display they hit with 2.54mm. But the upper and lower margins are also pretty wide at 10.5mm, so you can not talk about “Full View” anymore. Functionally, this certainly has no effect, but it makes the front look a bit old-fashioned. In addition, of course, that the device bottom line is not as small as it could have been. Specifically, the Lenovo S5 comes in dimensions of 154 x 73.4mm. This comes close (especially in height) to devices with 5.99 inches 18: 9 display, although the Lenovo S5 has a 5, 7 inches display features.

An RGB status LED is located on the front above the display. For notifications, the LED will turn solid blue. Other colors cannot be set. When charging, the LED lights red. Green when charging is completed. For data transfer and charging, a USB Type-C 2.0 port is used. It also supports OTG, which allows you to use eg a keyboard or USB sticks with a suitable adapter.

Display

Lenovo saved on the display. The 5.7-inch display in the Lenovo S5 offers good sharpness thanks to its high resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels and the viewing angle stability is fine, but it can not be much more. In terms of color, the image looks a little washed out, so that the picture lacks liveliness. In addition, there is a lack of contrast, which stands out especially when relatively light text is displayed on a light background. The lack of contrast adds to the washed-out look of the picture. The presentation is by no means so bad that you are not used to it, but who is used to better displays, will be disappointed right at the beginning. An additional drawback is a brightness, which is too low for use in direct sunlight.

Surprisingly, the Lenovo S5 has a 10-point touch screen that does a decent job. In everyday life, we never had problems with it. The accuracy is sufficient for fast typing. There were no dropouts when playing. There is a slight input delay, but it is not strong enough to disturb. Lenovo does not provide information on the display glass used in the S5. But it is definitely hardened because in everyday life and also in the scratch tests it was free from damage. The display glass is slightly grease repellent. Although impressions settle down, they are easily wiped off. Slightly better could be the sliding properties of the glass.

Hardware & Performance

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 has gotten a bit old in the meantime. Nevertheless, it does not belong to the old iron and is still used with pleasure. For example, it is also used in the popular Mi A1 by Xiaomi. In the Antutu benchmark, the chip achieves around 77500 points in the Lenovo S5 – not a bad value. What does that mean for everyday life? Well, those who do not need high-end performance will be satisfied with the chip. Yes, you notice a clear difference to newer midrange chips like the Snapdragon 636/660, but that does not mean the Lenovo S5 would be too slow. In everyday life, there were a little longer waiting times here and there and in apps like Facebook when reloading times one or the other stuttering, but on the whole the performance in the test was satisfactory. That which one notices most in everyday life is the slightly longer loading time of apps compared to devices with newer chips. When playing it does not look much different. Challenging tracks such as Unkilled or Asphalt Xtreme may occasionally experience slight stuttering or skipped frames on the highest graphics settings, but the titles are still playable.

For memory, the Lenovo S5 uses either 3GB or 4GB LPDDR3 RAM. We’re testing the 4GB version, and are somewhat surprised to see that Lenovo has excellently optimized RAM management. Nobody should be afraid of the 4 GB of RAM, because here too it is easy to keep more than 12 apps open in the background. The internal memory is quite fast even with the 64GB model and can be extended with Micro SD maps. The Lenovo S5 also offers the possibility to merge the internal memory with the SD card. Thus, can be installed on the smallest model very many apps and games.

Larger prints are available for the Lenovo S5 on the sensors. Looking at the alleged equipment (eg with AIDA64) everything looks good. But more detailed tests reveal large gaps. The supposedly existing compass has no function. There’s nothing moving either in Google Maps or in any compass apps. In addition, the Lenovo S5 lacks a gyroscope. This makes any types of VR Apps or YouTube 360 unavailable. The fingerprint sensor works well but does not deliver perfection. Unlocking usually takes a second and with wet fingers, it often takes several attempts until the S5 unlocks.

Software

The Lenovo S5 runs a slightly more customized Android 8.0. The surface is reminiscent of earlier ZUK devices and indeed it is the same surface called ZUI. Thus, the hotkeys to enable Wi-Fi and Co. are not called by a swipe from top to bottom, but appear with a swipe from bottom to top (like the iPhone). Some menu items are still in English and the language for screenshots is Italian. Unfortunately, the system also comes with some bloatware which can be uninstalled to 90%. Only a few system apps are retained. The scan for malware, however, was inconclusive. In itself, the system is well thought out and who wants to get rid of the stupid on-screen buttons, can fall back on U-Touch. This allows the smartphone to control purely by swiping gestures, which is fluid after a short acclimatization phase of the hand. Except Tap-to-Wake is unfortunately no more special feature on board and just the 3-finger screenshot I missed. However, that’s a matter of taste.

Otherwise, the navigation in the system is very fluid and apart from some special features leaves nothing to be desired. A bug has unfortunately been noticed during the test room, for which there is currently no solution, except to use an external app. This affects the setting of the display time-out, which by default is 30 seconds. If you want to change this option, you will be thrown out of the menu, so a change is not possible in the system itself.

Camera

For the main camera, Lenovo uses a dual camera setup with 2 x 13 MP and an f2.2 aperture. The second sensor is a monochrome sensor and turns out to be real. This also real Bokehaufnahmen are possible. In pure black and white images, the Lenovo switches completely to the second sensor. The images of the camera are ok, but the Lenovo S5 delivers unsteady results. The white balance does not always work correctly, which means that a picture taken from the same position with the same focus will show significant differences. In normal mode, both focus and shutter speed is fast. An HDR or bokeh shot But it takes much too long, so with the first a shake is almost inevitable. The bokeh shots work well, but you can see the result afterward, there is no live preview. A separation between foreground and background succeed but without problems, except the object is transparent in some places. In general, colors seem somewhat inescapable, but the HDR mode can compensate for that. A quick recording but as I said in this mode is not. In low light conditions, the camera will fail completely, the focus will not be held or adjusted properly, and the exposure time will be far too long. Images are blurred and have hardly any details.

Video recordings in 4K and 30 FPS, as well as slow motion and time-lapse recordings, are possible with the Lenovo S5. Unfortunately, there is no EIS, let alone an OIS, which makes the recordings constantly wobbly. In addition, focus loss and artifact formation are more common. Time-lapse photography is a complete impossibility, it’s full of artifacts and the videos are useless. The front camera resolves with 16 MP and delivers beautiful selfies, which are also relatively colorfast. The triggering time is minimal and the pictures have enough details.

Overall, the camera of the Lenovo S5 is acceptable, but nothing more. For one or the other snapshot, it is quite suitable, the lack of colors, the long trigger time in bokeh and HDR recordings are unacceptable. 4K and time-lapse are virtually useless in my eyes.

Connectivity

The Lenovo S5 supports most of the 4G, 3G and 2G frequencies, but not the band that’s important to us. The reception was still very good at all times and even here in the country, I had mostly LTE. The smartphone can either have two Nano-SIM cards or a Nano-SIM and a Micro-SD card. It is, therefore, a hybrid slot and the dual-SIM function must be abandoned for memory expansion. The voice quality is quite good, so I understood each excellent and my voice was not dull nor transmitted with interference.

For Wi-Fi, the Lenovo S5 supports both dual-band ( 2.4 & 5 GHz ) and standard a / b / g /n. Again, there’s nothing wrong with the reception. Also on board is Bluetooth 4.2, which has caused no problems. A connection to the speakerphone, to other smartphones and my Bluetooth box, ran flawlessly. In addition to the 3 standard sensors (nutrient acceleration and brightness sensor), the Lenovo S5 only has a digital compass and a fingerprint sensor. A gyroscope for VR glasses is not available. The compass works quite well in itself, but is often not very sure about the direction and varies from time to time. When navigating on foot but there were rarely problems. The GPS also did a very good job at this point. The fix was there within a few seconds and the navigation was always accurate, both on foot and by car. The fingerprint sensor on the back unlocks the phone in 10 out of 10 attempts, so there is nothing to complain about here.

Voice Quality & Audio

The Lenovo S5 comes with a single media speaker in the lower frame. The speaker reaches a high volume but sounds anything but pleasant. Acceptable but even for the price range by far not perfect it sounds up to about 70% of the maximum volume. As so often, the bass is missing here. Of course, the sound is much better on the headphone jack. Yes, you read correctly: The Lenovo S5 actually has the good old 3.5mm jack port on board. This delivers excellent quality without compromise. We are disappointed by the quality of the phone. The conversation partner sounds rather dull and you arrive at the other end relatively quiet and noisy. Strangely enough, VoLTE has only slightly improved the quality, and completely useless is the speaker mode.

Battery

The Lenovo S5 surprised despite the slim body with really good battery life. A cargo has usually lasted two days with us. Our statistics app specifies a running time of 41 hours for combined use (Screen On + Standby). The achievable standby time is about 150 hours. Theoretically, in continuous operation, a screen-on time of 8 hours is possible. But you have to be patient when charging. From 20% to 100% pass just over two hours.

Conclusion

With the S5, Lenovo has created a beautiful and, above all, sleek smartphone in the lower price segment. However, optics are not everything and that is the pitfall for the Lenovo S5. The numerous existing bugs and vulnerabilities (moderate display, missing sensors, poor voice quality, non-functioning dual camera) you do not have to accept today for $170. For the money, you get now the Xiaomi Mi A1 or even a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5. For us, the Lenovo S5 has, therefore, turned out in the test as a flop. Potential is here again massively available, it is not used. To be honest, we also find it a bit scary that a manufacturer like Lenovo manages to shoot a device in this condition on the market.

You can find this amazing Lenovo s5 (4GB+64GB) in the GearBest.com at a price of $179.99 with an incredible discount. If you want to appropriate this Lenovo Smartphone you just have to enter from the following link:

Buy Lenovo S5 (4GB+64GB) From Gearbest

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Lenovo S5 Hands On Review: Solid Budget Phone with Android 8.0 and Snapdragon 625 Anyone looking for a well-equipped smartphone for under $200, will probably first look at Xiaomi. But Lenovo has recently introduced the S5 (also known as Lenovo K520) a mid-range smartphone for starting at $170, which in theory can easily compete with the current Redmi smartphones.

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techprolonged · 6 years

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Just another day with another smartphone launch by the Chinese tech giant, Huawei. The company announced the availability of its new mid-range, Huawei Y9 2019 recently in Pakistan. We have brought to you the unboxing session already with quick impressions. Now this review brings to you all the bits about the new smartphone. It would be enough for you to make a decision about buying.

Huawei Y9 2019 costs PKR 37,999/- in Pakistan and pretends to be a successor to the company’s last year’s Mate 10 lite. The phone packs with many features that we have seen in the company’s Nova 3i smartphone a couple of months ago. The latest proprietary chipset Kirin 710 is the major common factor. With 64GB internal storage the phone keeps a lower profile than the Nova 3i along with its camera configuration. However the Y9 2019 comes with larger battery and larger display.

If you consider the price tag, than sure it looks expensive than it should actually be. But that’s the case with every other smartphone today in the market. Two factors involve in that price hike – first the rupee value that you don’t need any explanation about, second is the increased taxes. So you have to deal with it as you are going to face this kind of higher price tags for most of the phones out there.

Huawei Y9 2019 is available in three colors – midnight black, sapphire blue, and aurora purple. The one we got here for review is the black variant.

Let’s have a look at the key features of the Y9 2019 before we go into details.

Quick Features and Specifications

Huawei Y9 2019 SoC Chip: Kirin 710 CPU: Octa-core (4×2.2GHz Cortex-A73 + 4×1.7GHz Cortex-A53) GPU: Mali-G51 MP4 Memory RAM 4GB Storage: 64GB OS / Software Android 8.1 / EMUI 8.2 Display 6.5-inch 2340 x 1080 Full HD, 19.5:9, Pixel density: ~396 ppi Screen-to-body ratio: ~82.8% Rear Camera Dual 13MP f/1.8 + 2MP f/2.4 Front Camera Dual 16MP f/2.0 + 2MP f/2.4 Battery 4000mAh Size/Weight 162.4 x 77.1 x 8.05 mm /173 grams Sensors Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, Ambient light, Compass Fingerprint Connectivity Wi-Fi: 2.5GHz (802.11 b/g/n)

Kirin 710 has performed really well in all the devices it has been shipped with. The Y9 2019 is no different and has performed equally good as a little expensive Nova 3i did. And if you have not forgotten, Nova 3i performed better than the competitors from OPPO and VIVO.

PROS CONS

Attractive design

Impressive display

Powerful battery timing

Nice camera

Adequate gaming

No USB Type C

No Fast Charging

No Video Stabilizer

A separate unboxing session of Huawei Y9 2019 was already done last week, you might want to check that but here’s the list of things which you get with the retail package.

Huawei Y9 2019 Box Contents

The device – Huawei Y9 2019

Connectivity/Charging cable

Travel charger – 5V+2A

Stereo headset

SIM eject tool

User guide

Add-on silicon back cover

Add-on screen protector

Build and Design

Huawei’s build quality never let us down and the company has maintained it for years. Huawei Y9 2019 is no different even when it’s all plastic. If it’s a good plastic, it makes you love it but afterall it is plastic and is always prone to attract scratches far quicker. On the other hand it’s a good shock absorber it won’t break or dent as easily as a glass or metal would.

Huawei Y9 2019 has a full back cover of plastic with dual edges on the sides. The mid-frame is also plastic and joins right between the screen frame and the back panel. The strange thing is that the plastic couldn’t make this phone lighter in weight than the glass built Nova 3i. The phone weighs 173 grams which is pretty good weight.

Once again, the branding and labels are at the side of the phone following the most recent releases from the company. There is no logo design with leaves but only “HUAWEI” written in bold on the left side of the back. Some light labeling is on the opposite side.

The rear side hosts the dual-camera module on the top-left corner and prints the camera labels below in the same direction as logo. It reads “AI CAMERA” with no camera or lens specifications. Below the camera module you can also see an LED flash.

This camera labeling is just a gap filler thing as we have seen the same “AI CAMERA” label on the expensive Nova 3 model while the cheaper Nova 3i printed only “DUAL-LENS”

Then, there is a fingerprint scanner right on the back. It also keeps the tradition of being one of the most fast fingerprint sensors among smartphones.

Components and Ports

The Y9 2019 has no different layout of these components and ports than any other smartphone. micro USB port is on the bottom of the phone along with the speaker grill. The mouthpiece (aka mic) is also down there as well as 3.5mm audio jack.

The top side of the phone only hosts a secondary mic for noise cancellation and stereo recording.

The power button and the volume buttons are on the right side of the phone, while on the other side the hybrid SIM slot is available.

With the dual-SIM support you can use a microSD card along with a SIM card, or you can use all space with two SIM cards instead.

Coming towards the front, the notched cut-out follows you in this new mid-ranger as well. This smaller notch hosts two cameras with an earpiece between them.

Front and Display

We have seen even further cut-down versions of the display notches from Vivo and OPPO that only hosted a single camera unit. They moved the earpiece between the glass and the frame. But when Huawei wants to put two cameras, they sure need a little wider notch. But it’s still far smaller than we have seen in Nova 3 series recently.

The bezels around the phone are not as thin as we have seen from Vivo. Even Huawei’s has given thinner bezels around its phones recently. Android smartphones have not yet vanished the bottom chin and it’s also present on the Y9 2019.

The full front profile features a 6.5-inch display with aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The full HD+ display resolution 2340 x 1080 pixels serves with the pixel density of around 396 ppi and 82.7% screen-to-body ratio.

Above six inches, the display is little extra large for many but thanks to the slimer bezels which have made the overall profile little less bulky. Oleophobic coating available out-of-the-box – which is a good thing. It indeed makes the display clear from fingerprint smudges and it makes the experience smooth.

Huawei Y9 2019 also packs with an IPS panel like, the Nova 3i but it has deeper blacks than the Nova 3i. Still it doesn’t matches the black we have seen in Vivo’s recent smartphones with IPS in-cell technology.

The IPS display on Y9 2019 is not bad at all – it’s sharp and crisp with its resolution and outdoor visibility is also impressive. While overall bright user interface helps in outdoors but some dark interfaces doesn’t impress due to lower contrast ratio.

If you are not fond of the notch on the top of the display, you can just hide it from the settings. Well you don’t actually hide it, but just enable a dark status bar covering the notch from both sides so it won’t stand out of the top edge. You can go to settings and simpy hide the notch.

There are scenarios when the phone software will cover the top area when any incompatible app is running on the front. That’s due to the non-standard aspect ratio which is turning out to be the most recent trend.

Software and UI

Huawei Y9 2019 runs Android 8.1 Oreo operating system out-of-the-box with the proprietary EMUI 8.2 software layer on top. It’s just like the most mid-range smartphone Huawei has shipped recently including the Nova 3 and Nova 3i.

The new software of Huawei packs AI features that come right at the hardware level with its latest chipsets, including the Kirin 710. The dark theme of settings, Huawei first brought in P20 Pro, never appeared in its mid-range smartphones. I really believe the company can bring it to its mid-range devices as well.

The display notch as we noted above that could camouflage with a software based top bar – The best thing about it is that it keeps the information intact including all those statuses and notification icons.

Lock, Unlock and Home Screen

First of all, the lock screen comes first after you have setup your phone, with the same Magazine style by default as always. You can change the categories to load wallpapers from, in this specific style. Just in case if you didn’t know, this style loads a new wallpaper every time you press power button to wake up the phone. Some quick options are also present on the lock screen.

The home screen can be configured as always to have different layout of icons. Folders and context menu is there that you can initiate by tap and holding an icon – you can still drag the icon that way by ignoring the menu and continue with dragging.

App Drawer

Default home screen style is just old without the app drawer but you can turn it on by going through Settings > Display > Home screen style > Drawer. Huawei must move this option to the home screen customize settings, it will be more quick and easy that way.

Variety of Navigation Styles

In addition to common three-key navigation that you have seen in above screenshots – recent apps, home, and back keys, the new Y9 has two more navigation options. Single-key navigation, and navigation dock.

Navigation Dock. When enabled, a dock is appeared floating on the screen which you can simply tap, tap & hold, hold & stretch and drag to respectively navigate to back, home, recent tasks view or move the dock itself.

Smart Screen Resolution

The new Y9 2019’s native resolution is 2340 x 1080 pixels which is also default resolution. The system allows you to set the resolution down to 1560 x 720 pixels which will consume low power. In addition, there is a Smart resolution option; when turned on, the system will automatically adjust the screen resolution when needed. Specially when the battery is low.

System Performance

Huawei Y9 2019 is not the first smartphone to feature Kirin 710. The company’s latest mid-range system-on-chip was previously featured in the Nova 3i and Mate 20 lite. This chip replaces the Kirin 659, but it has more power than usually a successor does. The Kirin 710 outperforms its predecessor with a significant margin.

Huawei Y9 2019 was good at its performance which was most similar to the experience that we recently had with the Nova 3i and Vivo V11. Daily standard usage was quite good without any kind of lag. Everything was smooth and responsive without any objection. It did almost everything we threw at it.

With respect to gaming, while it’s a mid-range smartphone, it did really good. PUBG Mobile picked up the “balanced” graphics with “medium” frame rate. This default configuration gave me a pretty nice and lagless experience. Setting it on one step further would lag the experience.

Other titles such as Asphalt 8/9, Asphalt Xtreme, Tekken, Need for Speed – No Limits also worked great on Y9 2019. The phone gave a wonderful experience with most of the games we tried. You can always use the Game Suite built-in to boost the experience of your favorite games. This feature also supports “Do not disturb” mode that prevents any incoming notifications while you are playing.

Game Suite

The new Y9 also comes with the Game Suite just like the recent Huawei releases. It allows users to add certain games in a list that will provide the users with uninterrupted gaming experience. In addition the system will optimize the settings for better performance in selected games. This may also consume more power and you may experience heat up.

The chip supports company’s GPU Turbo, hence the Y9 2019 can give you “2x the GPU efficiency and a GPU performance increase of 1.3x to deliver a powerfully immersive gaming experience.”

If you are waiting for the benchmark scores, then they are right down there. Y9 performed pretty much equally as Nova 3i did. Kirin 710 is somewhere between the MediaTek’s Helio P60 and Snapdragon 660 with regard to graphics, however the Kirin 710 leads in overall performance.

Battery Performance

Huawei Y9 2019 has a superb battery timing. After having the similar experience with Nova 3i, I can say that Huawei has optimized its software with its proprietary chip really well. Do not forget the Kirin 710’s 10nm manufacturing process as well.

The new Y9 packs with a large 4000 mAh battery and it lasted with me for up to three days with one full charge. During this face I used the phone with standard calling, texting, little internet surfing, little camera usage, only a few minutes of YouTube, less frequent Facebook and Twitter and likes.

Little moderate use with social networks, in-browser video playback and YouTube, a couple of minutes GPS navigation, and little gaming, would give a full day very easily with a good use of camera too.

Excessive camera usage and GPUS navigation may take some battery juice but it’s much better than most in this class we have tested recently. Last but not least, gaming is something that will take most of the battery juice but I am talking about some graphically vigour titles.

Camera – Photos and Videos

Huawei Y9 2019 features four cameras – two on the front and two on the back. After last year’s Mate 10 lite, the company has provided this quad-camera setup most recently with Nova 3 series. The dual rear cameras features a 13MP primary sensor with a 2MP secondary sensor for depth mapping. It helps producing bokeh effect in portrait mode or aperture mode. On the front, Y9 has 16MP primary sensor paired with a secondary 2MP sensor.

Even though the Y9 comes with the same chipset and same AI features as Nova 3i did, Huawei wants to keep some appealing camera features away from Y9. Some are related to camera itself, such as Slo-mo as the Y9’s camera is little less performer than the on in Nova 3i.

Overall the camera UI is pretty much similar, but the AR Lens feature, introduced with Nova 3i, has been moved to the “More” tab. It doesn’t have the 3D emojis and 3D live objects in Y9. In fact, anything labeled with “3D” is not present, including 3D panorama.

The new Y9 2019 offers all the features that Huawei has previously provided in most of its smartphones – Pro-mode with probably all manual settings, a specific “Night” mode helps taking shots in most darker environment. The mode can work impressively when hand-held if you try to keep yourself steady. It takes a 5 sec exposure at lowest possible ISO sensitivity according to the scene. You can choose your own exposure time and ISO as well in this mode.

The Y9 also features company’s AI algorithm that can “recognize 22 categories of 500+ scenes and provides optimized settings instantly.” Initially the company provided the option called “Master AI” hidden into the camera settings menu. Later with the launch of Nova 3i that carried the chip-based AI, the option moved directly on the viewfinder with a simple switch “AI”.

Camera Performance

Huawei Y9 2019’s camera worked well in bright sunlight. The colors are less vivid and dynamic range was ok and the highlight clipping easily captures the frame if you got a little bright background. AI performed well again identifying the scenes and setting up the right color scheme for the photo but it also seemed to involve HDR functionality along with color manipulation.

Overall the Y9’s camera was good but isn’t that impressive as Nova 3i’s was. Noise was handled nicely but only in less dark areas. Low light conditions were difficult for the Y9’s camera however if you want to take portrait shots, flash might help in some cases.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157697590270630″]

Portrait and Aperture Mode

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157697590270470″]

Front Camera

The 16MP camera on the front also has a support of system’s AI features and the beauty mode is way better than before. However, I don’t like to take selfies in beauty mode, it’s good to use a bit of it on the scale.

Quality and performance wise, the front camera also struggles in low-light conditions. Thanks to the screen flash that could help with an improved selfie quality. However it’s good for selfie lovers as the camera would do its job pretty well.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157697590270440″]

Conclusion

Huawei Y9 2019 is a good looking phone with impressive display and smooth performance in this price – well do not count the price hike as it’s a fact that has affected every phone on the shelves. Being little heavy with plastic gives some second thoughts as why it would be like that but don’t forget it’s little larger with 6.5-inch screen. For this price tag, I really think companies should bring USB Type-C but that’s the case most other devices as well.

With the similar price tag, Infinix Note 5 Stylus indeed has a metal build with an impressive stylus too. But that phone performs way lower than Y9 2019. Currently if you compare the Y9 with company’s Nova 3i or Vivo’s V11, it’s not only performance you’d see, there are other elements such as large internal storage and better camera which come with some extra thousands.

One option to try is the Honor 8X which brings you more similar features with Huawei in less cost. But I haven’t tested it so can’t really recommend. Y9 2019 is a good option to buy indeed among many others. I liked everything about it including its polished design but the plastic build that could lead you to carry it in back case.

Huawei Y9 2019 Photo Gallery

Huawei Y9 2019 Review – The Shiny and Glossy Just another day with another smartphone launch by the Chinese tech giant, Huawei. The company announced the availability…

#Huawei #Huawei Pakistan #Huawei Y9 2019 #Huawei Y9 2019 Price #Huawei Y9 2019 Review #Huawei Y9 2019 Price Pakistan #Huawei Y9 2019 Review Pakistan #Huawei Y9 2019 Full Review #Huawei Y9 2019 Detailed Review #Huawei Y9 2019 Camera Review

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pkansa · 6 years

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What comes to mind when you hear the words, Helm Khuraburi? If you’re like me, probably very little. However, if you’re an avid diver who travels the globe looking for the best dive spots on the planet, you may immediately think of a small coastal town in Southern Thailand called, you guessed it, Khuraburi. A quick boat ride from Khuraburi are the Surin Islands – an archipelago of five small islands offering some of the best diving in the Andaman Sea.

In keeping with the tradition of naming their offerings after diving-inspired locales, Helm released the Khuraburi in July of 2017, following on from their first release in October of 2015, the Vanuatu. While the Vanuatu was more traditional in terms of the dive watch aesthetic, the Khuraburi takes Helm’s design in a bolder direction.

Before I dive into the watch (no pun intended), I wanted to give the reader some context around Helm as a brand. After fifteen years spent in product development and sourcing in the bicycle industry, Helm Founder Matt Cross was looking for a change. He packed his bags in North Carolina and moved himself to China in search of new opportunities. Several months (and many interviews) into his new life, but with nothing peaking his interest, it suddenly dawned on him that he was now living in the heart of the largest watchmaking industry on the planet. As a long-time watch enthusiast and collector with a preference for affordable divers, his new opportunity was found. Enter Helm Watches. Taking a watch design that had been floating around in his head for some time, he started reaching out to various manufacturers until he found one willing to bring his vision to life. Matt’s idea of a cool, affordable, high quality diver was about to become a reality, and the Vanuatu was born.

The first suppliers that Helm contracted with weren’t up to delivering on the quality that Matt was looking for in his pieces, so he went in search of new suppliers, and landed on a manufacturer who shared his own passion for quality. The second run of the Vanuatu was at a quality level that Matt was proud to stake his reputation on. With each subsequent run of product, the QC process is tweaked and modified to ensure his standards of excellence are continually met. In addition to developing the QC process in close partnership with his suppliers, Matt was also insistent on ISO 6425 certification for his watches from Day One. That testing is performed in-house by Helm, ensuring that each piece they sell meets the rigorous standard. Believing in the traditional route to product development, Matt has avoided the various crowd-funding methods, preferring to take on the risk himself in developing a product worthy of building its own loyal customer base.

And that brings us to the topic at hand, the Helm Khuraburi. Let’s get this out of the way right now: This is a big, burly, rugged dive watch. It’s certainly not in the gigantic class, but if your tastes gravitate towards sub-40mm watches, or if you just won’t wear anything larger than that, this may not be the watch for you. However, if you understand and embrace the modern dive watch aesthetic, read on.

At 42mm wide (43mm including the bezel) and 16mm thick, this is a sizeable watch that offers significant wrist presence. But, with a lug-to-lug measurement of 49mm, and stubby, steeply curved lugs, the case hugs the wrist nicely, especially on the metal bracelet (more on that later). The brushed center case has a slight bulge to it, and tapers to a smaller diameter at the base, which also helps the watch to wear smaller than it actually is. My 7 1/2” wrists have no trouble pulling off the Helm Khuraburi, and even those with smaller wrists will find that the lugs do not extend past the edges of their arm, as evidenced by the fit on my wife’s six-and-a-half inchers.

The solid, screw-on case back concealing the Seiko NH38 movement, which averaged -6 seconds per day with normal wear, has a deeply engraved Helm logo, and at 22mm, the common lug measurement makes fitting alternative straps a breeze. The lugs themselves have a matching brushed finish on all surfaces (this ain’t no shiny party queen), and are drilled to assist with quick and easy strap swaps. The aggressively knurled 8mm screw-down crown with engraved Helm logo is easy to grip, and can be had at the buyer’s choice of either the 4 o’clock or 10 o’clock position.

The uni-directional bezel, with the same knurled pattern as the crown, operates at 120 clicks with little to no back play, and is…wait for it…sapphire! Sapphire is not exactly a common bezel insert at this price point. One look at the lume shots clearly demonstrates why it was chosen over steel, or even ceramic. The Helm is a veritable light show at night, and the glossy sapphire bezel insert just adds to the spectacle. This particular version sports two lume colors. The first is a nice aqua-hued BGW9 that covers the dial’s indices, as well as the bezel numbers, hour hand, and arrowhead shaped pip about halfway up the seconds hand. The second is a bright orange lume that lights up the first 16 1/2 minutes on the bezel, as well as the minute hand, the stick extension on the seconds hand, and the minute markers on the chapter ring. Topping everything off is a double-domed sapphire crystal with an internal anti-reflective coating. It really is a spectacular display at night, and owners will undoubtedly find themselves frequently charging the lume with an artificial light source just to admire the show. The second version of the Khuraburi is a bit more subdued, with a standard green C3 Super-Luminova covering everything.

On the matte black dial we find pentagon-shaped applied indices, with double markers at 3, 6, 9, and 12. The raised chapter ring contains the aforementioned minute markers in orange, with small square pips every five minutes above the main indices. Other dial markings are minimal. Below the 12 o’clock index is a slightly raised, dark grey-colored Helm logo, while at six, “Diver’s 300m Automatic”, again in a dark grey color, is found in a simple and easy-to-read font. Per the aforementioned ISO 6425 certification, the use of the word “Diver” is permitted on the dial. The entire effect is very nicely understated given the propensity for many manufacturers to “over brand” their dials these days. Completing the cohesive look are thick, sword hour and minute hands that perfectly complement the big burly indices.

The Helm Khuraburi ships with a robust, 22mm brushed three-link bracelet, tapering to 20mm at the clasp. The clasp itself has six micro-adjustment holes and a safety fold-over containing an engraved “HELM”. The links have nicely beveled edges, and the end-links are solid and perfectly contoured to the lugs. The adjustable links are held by solid tubular pin screws, just as you’d find on a Rolex bracelet costing more than this entire watch! No cheap split pins or collar-and-pin style links here folks. If I had to find a negative in this package, for such a robust tool watch I’d like to see a diver extension on the bracelet, but that’s a minor gripe considering the overall quality of the bracelet.

Included in the quite affordable price is a choice of one of five 3-ring Zulu-style nylon straps, including solid black, solid orange, solid black extra long (17 vs. 11 inches), black with orange center stripe, and a five-stripe Bond-style grey and black. I also popped for the five-link jubilee-style bracelet that comes standard on the Vanuatu. The end-links are different between the two watches, so make sure and order the Khuraburi-specific end-links. The jubilee bracelet is of the same quality as the three-link, with identical solid screw-in adjustment pins and beveled links.

The Helm Khuraburi is available for $300 in the two varieties mentioned above, including the three-link bracelet and your choice of Nylon strap. Both variants are currently out of stock, but Helm expects to replenish inventory by mid-February of 2018. And for all you blue dial lovers (we’re looking at you, Patrick), this next run will include stunning blue and blue/orange models in addition to the two original variants. Overall, you get a tremendous amount of value in Helm’s pieces. Elements like the high quality bracelets and sapphire bezel inserts just aren’t seen at this price point. These guys clearly sweat the details and it shows. If you’re a serious diver, or just go for the occasional desk dive, I highly recommend giving Helm a look before they start charging what these pieces are really worth! As Matt subscribes to, “Buy what you like, keep what you love.” This one’s certainly a keeper in my book. helmwatches.com

Late breaking news:

With the Vanuatu and the Khuraburi under his belt, Matt is setting his sights on a third model release for the summer of 2018. The Komodo will be a 200m diver with a slightly smaller case diameter for those that prefer a more vintage-sized watch. Following on from that release, he’s targeting a dress diver that can hit the reef in the morning, and then slip under the cuff of a dinner jacket for a night on the town. At their current rate of design and production, Helm is targeting a new model release every year. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing what Helm has in store for dive watch aficionados in the years to come.

Reader Review submitted by Eric Boucher

Watch Overview

Brand & Model: Helm Khuraburi

Price: $300 (as tested, plus $30 shipping worldwide)

Who we think it might be for: Serious divers, or anyone who appreciates a big, bold diver aesthetic

Would I buy one for myself based on what I’ve seen? I already have!

If I could make one design suggestion, it would be: The addition of a diver extension on the two steel bracelets

What spoke to me the most about this watch: The crazy lume light show, subtle dial markings, overall quality and fit and finish

Technical Specifications from Helm

CASE

Material: Brushed 316L stainless steel

Size: 42mm x 16mm (43mm w/bezel)

Weight: 225 grams w/bracelet (at full length), 125 grams with nylon strap

Crystal: Sapphire, double-domed, anti-reflective coating inside

Case Back: Stainless steel, screwed, special engravings

Water Resistance: 30 atm/300 m/990 ft (Tested in accordance with ISO 6425:1996)

Interlug Width: 22mm

MOVEMENT: Seiko NH38 Automatic Mechanical, 24 jewels

Functions: Hacking and Manual Winding

Accuracy: -20/+40 sec/day

Beats Per Hour: 21,600

Power Reserve: 40 Hours

DIAL

Color: Matte black

Luminous Material: BGW9 + Orange or Super-Luminova C3

BEZEL

Material: 316L Stainless steel

Insert: Flat sapphire with luminous markings

Diameter: 43mm

Removable/Replaceable: Yes

Rotation: Diver compliant Unidirectional, 120-Click

Reader Review: the Helm Khuraburi #diver #divewatch #affordable #under$500 What comes to mind when you hear the words, Helm Khuraburi? If you’re like me, probably very little.

#dive watch #diver #Helm #Khuraburi #Seiko NH38

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