Pocket-lint would have to admit to being a little suspicious of the Jawbone Jambox when the postie came knocking on the door, device in hand. Part of this suspicion was to do with its size in relation to the claims of its ability to "deliver such shimmering highs and massive low frequencies that they can literally be felt from feet away", as it really is very small.

The other source of our wariness was the claim by Jawabone that its Jambox was "intelligent", a rather bold statement and one that hinted at a rather over-zealous marketing department.

So could this wireless Bluetooth speaker with speaker phone functionality deliver on the maker's bold claims? Needless to say we've given the Jambox a thorough testing in order to separate the marketing spiel from the device itself...

As suggested above the Jawbone Jambox has very portable dimensions, measuring 151 x 57 x 40mm, with a weight of 347g - meaning it's light enough to carry around in a bag (a pocket would be pushing it) but heavy enough that it feels like a quality piece of kit. In the box you'll get the device itself, as well as two USB cables (different lengths) a 3.5mm jack and a rather svelte sleeve which fits tightly over the Jambox. 

The device itself has a very minimalist design, with just three buttons on the top and Micro-USB, 3.5mm and on/off/pairing switch down the side. The three buttons on top consist of two for volume and a talk button, used to answer and end calls, get battery status and access voice dial.

Materials used consist of a rubberised matte finish for the top and bottom with wire-type mesh wrapping around the middle, and hiding the speakers beneath. The rubberised finish meant that the device had decent grip in the hand and on the desk and wasn't affected by fingerprints, although it did have a tendency to pick up dust.

We have to say that despite our initial reservations, pretty much everything about the Jambox says quality - there are no bends or flexes from the body, and after we tested for unwanted rattles the only discernible noise was from the on/off/pairing switch on the side, this wasn't overly alarming, however, and didn't detract from the overall quality feel. So on first impressions the Jambox impressed: very portable, nice design and a quality feel.

On powering up the device, the Jambox thumps into life and tells you it's ready to go. Bluetooth pairing was also an absolute breeze and we were listening to music within a couple of minutes - more on how pleased we were with the quality of the sound later.

A large part of the Jawbone Jambox "experience" comes from its MyTalk website which allows a degree of customisation for the device, including the ability to choose a range of different voices. These include names like The Bombshell, The Rogue and The Thinker - something which is a bit of fun and may appeal to some.

Perhaps more importantly, the site allows you to update the device, and giving access to voice dial and voice email functions. Some sites of this ilk, which aim to support and update hardware, can be buggy but our experience of MyTalk was good and frustration free.

Moving on to the sound quality and we're pleased to say that the Jambox not only met our expectations but exceeded them - it really is a power house considering its diminutive dimensions. We tested a variety of different music genres, and Jawbone seems to have managed to get a good balance with an excellent all-round sound being produced. The bass, although distinct, doesn't overpower and mid to high ranges are equally audible.

The device in our tests was free from distortion, although at times the voice alerting you to a call was rather loud and jarring - and as you're likely to have your own ringtone going on in the background it can get be a little confusing.

It's all well and good testing the sound when indoors, but we can see this being used in the summer at picnics and the like, so testing this outside was critical. We have to say that sound still maintained much of its indoor clarity and meatiness. We can easily see this being a hit in the park with friends, as despite our tests being outside in the cold, thin air - sound still impressed.

In terms of its battery life, and therefore its usefulness as a portable device, we found it lasted around the makers stated 8 hours. However this is bound to vary depending on the way you're using it.

The trick we found is to make the source device work as hard as possible, meaning the Jambox doesn't have to; turning the source up to maximum meant that we could listen to tunes at low volume on the Jambox whilst retaining music definition. Clearly the quality of the file will make a difference, but feed the Jambox decent content and it'll impress delivering sound comparable to a larger speaker set-up. The speaker phone function was good, if not excellent, and most people we tried it with said we were clear although a little tinny.

So is there anything that can stop this great portable speaker getting Pocket-lint's coveted Hot Product Award? Well, unfortunately, yes. It is, to our mind, a little bit pricey. For the privilege of carting this around for your tunes, you'll be paying £160, if the RRP is anything to go by. As ever the price-point is critical, it's a great piece of kit but that's a lot of cash to lay out for what is essentially a small speaker - although a damn fine one at that.

Tags: Audio Speakers Bluetooth Bluetooth speakers Jawbone Jawbone Jambox Aliph

Jawbone Jambox originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:28:00 +0000

Following in the footsteps of any successful game can be a tricky task, especially one as much-loved as Fallout 3. However, that is the task that developers Obsidian and publishers Bethesda have given themselves. Much hyped, much anticipated - we get exploring the Mojave Desert in our Fall Out: New Vegas review. Is it more of the same or worthy of new-game status?

As there has been so much talk of the title already, if you've been following its progress you'll have an idea of the story and the setting, but for those unfamiliar we'll give a very brief recap. Set around 3 years after its predecessor, Fall Out: New Vegas is set in the Mojave wasteland, which can be roughly split into Nevada, the Mojave desert and Las Vegas. There are two main factions in the game: the NCR (New California Republic) and The Legion (a nasty bunch).

You are placed in the role of a courier, who after being shot in the head, is rescued and treated for his/her injuries. Cue your mission to find out who shot you and your entry into the game. Incidentally, this game is easily as big as Fallout 3, so on that basis alone you can be sure you're getting a certain amount of value for money, even if many aspects appear similar. There's also a huge amount of content and variation separate from the main plot, so exploration is still the name of the game.

One quick note on the storyline: we liked it and even preferred it to that of Fallout 3. The reason is straightforward - it takes itself far less seriously and rather than giving you a role to fit into (growing up with your father in a vault) there's far less to go on, which in turn helps to make the character yours. There's even a touch of the who-dunnit/mystery about the story (when you see the opening cutscene you'll see what we mean) - but to its credit, it never dominates proceedings.

The forming of your character runs very much the same as in Fallout 3, introducing variations on a theme; a Rorschach inkblot test, rather than the G.O.A.T. - however as you travel around the wasteland you'll notice lots of other little touches to both the environment and innovations in the gameplay mechanics that have been tweaked to produce something that's familiar and yet different enough to make you feel it is worth the purchase.

The first thing to strike you as you walk out into the wilderness, is what appears to be improved visuals despite the graphics engine used for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas being the same. Seeing as the Mojave wasteland has not been affected by the nuclear devastation you'll also see clear blue skies, which in turn makes the surrounding area a lot more interesting - gone are the often dreary visuals of its predecessor and in its place (although still often pretty barren) is a far more vibrant world. And this vibrancy, to our mind, is the first improvement. Signs blow in the wind, dust clouds come and go and this all helps to create a far more immersive environment.

This change also extends to the society in which you find yourself, the characters you meet give the illusion of having a far greater interest in their town/settlement, meaning your actions feel as though they have a far greater consequence - which is precisely what they do have. This is due, in part, to the return of traits from Fallout 1 and 2 (bringing special abilities along with certain drawbacks. An example of this is the four eyes trait: plus 1 perception when wearing glasses, but minus 1 without) and also the in-depth reputation system.

Split into three main headings of good, mixed and bad, your reputation is refined further by sub-groups within these headings. When you consider the numerous factions within the Fallout world and the reputation system changing in relation to each one, it's clear that character development is at the forefront here.

This isn't the only factor that determines how you're treated by the various groups; find yourself meeting the wrong faction whilst wearing clothing of a rival group and a shoot-out is almost guaranteed. The new companion wheel also works well, making the interaction with your chosen buddies far less arduous.

Another excellent addition is the way the work benches, and now campfires, add to the crafting of weapons and ammo as well as chems. The detail is staggering and although initially a bit daunting it doesn't turn out to be too complex - just different. An example of this is the way guns can be broken down into constituent parts in order to make, perhaps more vital, ammo. There's even a designated position on the D-pad for changing ammo types without going into your Pip Boy, yes it's one less slot for a weapon, but vital for choosing the right ammo - such as hollow point or armour piercing -  against certain types of enemy/armour. There's also weapon modding, which adds even more complexity to proceedings.

The degree to which you'll use the crafting mechanic is down to how involved you like to get into your games, as we found it's possible to get by without delving too deeply - still it's a very nice touch. Again it's all things we've seen before, just revamped, and for our part made a little better - nearly everything can be used to make your character and what he/she is carrying that little bit more personal.

So we come to the much talked about hardcore mode - enter at your own risk. The mode can be turned off and on at your convenience, but only if you see the game through from the very beginning in this super-hard setting will you get the reward. We at Pocket-lint probably aren't the best gamers in the world, but we're no slouches either and playing Fallout: New Vegas on normal is certainly a challenge, as you really do reap what you sow.

On hard it's a whole new level of tough, and it won't be for everyone. Things you probably already know about hardcore mode is that ammo has weight, stimpaks don't heal straight away, environmental factors play a larger part with H2O, Food and Sleep all being a consideration - all of which are monitored in your status bar - making surviving on a day to day basis that much harder.

What you might not be so aware of is how this affects the way you interact with NPCs in the game. Because just staying alive is that bit more difficult, you want to be absolutely certain about your actions before upsetting anyone  - especially the NCR or Legion factions - as staying alive will become far more difficult.

Again this is where juggling your reputation with the various factions becomes a fine art. For our part anyway, hardcore mode led to a short life and a rather brutal death, however it's a great addition for those who want to go deep and get fully immersed.

However, it's not all great for Fallout: New Vegas. Although the graphics look slightly tweaked the character models are very similar and can look a bit dated - with combat looking especially clumsy at times - heads still fly off the shoulders of enemies when shot, making it look as if they've just had a fight with Connor MacLeod, rather than you and your hunting rifle.

A lot was also made of the third-person mode being tweaked; well if it has it hasn't been tweaked very much, as despite an added over the shoulder cam (you can't see the feet) it still looks shoddy and should be avoided - very poor as we were quite looking forward to it.

There's also been a bid to make the fighting slightly more FPS-esque by way of a down the barrel aim mode, which uses the gun's sights. This, although interesting at times, was a little difficult to use when facing multiple enemies and felt a bit clumsy, subsequently we ended up using VATS the vast majority of the time.

But the biggest issue whilst playing the game (on the PS3) was its tendency to freeze. Mainly happening whilst out in the open (presumably struggling with the new and improved vistas) Fallout: New Vegas suffered with pretty persistent frame rate issues, sticking on a frame for a fraction of a second before carrying on. This never ended in a full-on crash, but was irritating to say the least, and became very bad at one point when access was finally gained to the New Vegas Strip. We'd be interested to know whether you have the same problem, as this will no doubt vary between consoles, it looks like a patch of some kind is certainly in order.

Despite these grumbles, Fallout: New Vegas is thoroughly enthralling and if you were a fan of the first two games, and for that matter the third, this is pretty much a must-have title for you. It's a shame Obsidian, with all the problems it had with the previous Fallout 3, couldn't get it right first time, but we're sure with a few updates this should become another classic.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Xbox 360 Fallout New Vegas RPG

Fallout: New Vegas originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:00:00 +0100

One thing the world doesn't need any more of are iPod docks, with what seems like every man, woman and their particularly talented dog having a go at bashing a unit out. Saying that, owning one certainly makes all the difference in terms of enjoying your music on your Apple-made device - the problem is choosing the right one.

So when we received the Equaliser Sound Bar speaker we hoped it might offer up something that we hadn't seen before, and if not, at least prove itself worthy of a place in your home.

In the box you'll get the basics, which includes a 3.5mm audio cable for playing tunes other than from you iPod, an AC/DC adaptor, and a remote as well as the main unit. An instruction manual is, apparently, included although we didn't get one ourselves, however features are sparse and controls are basic so we don't think you'll need to refer to them much.

In terms of looks, the unit is rectangular with a front mounted VFD display, whilst the touch sensitive controls along with the dock sit on top. The side firing speakers, flush with the body, are situated at either end of the unit making for a neat if somewhat minimalist look. Mostly made out of hard plastic the top of the Sound Bar is in fact aluminium which gives a solid feel, but does pick up prints relatively easily.

Around the back and it's basic fare with just a line in and antenna out to keep the on/off switch and DC in company.

Dimensions for the dock are around 32 x 9.7 x 11cm, so as well as being relatively compact its rectangular block shape means that it's pretty efficient in the space it does take up. As such the unit will just about fit on a standard bedside table.

Set-up of the Equaliser Sound Bar was straight forward enough, though using the unit's interface initially was a bit of a chore as the device's touch controls did not seem as responsive as they might have been. As ever with these things technique was honed and we were skipping through menus easily enough, although it still retained that hit and miss feel. Access to your iPod is fair with the whole of the touchscreen real estate being available with only the Home button partially covered. However, due to the wide berth in which it nestles, there wasn't as much support as we would have liked and touching the screen moved the iPod on its connector.

The menu options consist of iPod, AUX, Radio, Clock, SRS, VFD (allowing you to change graphic equaliser style) and Temp - with SRS (Sound Retrieval System) being the key audio feature here, widening the the area in which the music can be heard at its best. More on whether it does this effectively later.

As mentioned the controls were a bit of a faff, something which made the remote an absolute essential, and even though we got better results with the remote - every press producing a response - the user experience is blighted by the fact that individual presses are required, as opposed to being able to simply hold down the button. This is a minor detail when increasing/decreasing the volume but when attempting to tune the radio it became very arduous indeed. Whatever you do don't lose the tiny remote or RSI is assured.

So, we come to the burning question on whether the sound is actually any good. We tested a variety of music on its two 12-Watt speakers and came to the conclusion that on the whole the Sound Bar does the job in the tunes department. It's certainly loud enough, and a faint crackling only started to come in at the high end of the scale, if you have neighbours then this will certainly get them banging on the wall. There was a marked difference in sound when activating the SRS system, giving definition to the music and an altogether bigger bang - best results were produced at a medium volume with SRS on.

Related links:

• Buy - I Want One Of Those

Tags: Audio Docking stations iPod docks iPod speakers Equaliser Soundbar Santok

Equaliser Sound Bar iPod dock originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:08:45 +0100

Can Bizarre Creations win this summer's racing crown with Blur? A real mashup of a racer, inspired by Project Gotham and power-up-friendly titles such as Mario Kart (we'd also be very surpprised if some of the developers hadn't played a fair amount of Roll Cage Stage II on the PS1). Does it grab pole position? Or does it blow a tyre, career off the track and explode into a fiery ball. We get shunting, barging and nitrous oxiding to find out.

Let's get one thing straight, Blur is a whole lot of game with both single player and online modes laying out a veritable banquet of cars, mods and rewards to keep you interested for some time - and incidentally both, for the most part, are distinct with progress in the single player mode not giving you an easier time in the online racing.

The gameplay is hectic and a huge amounts of fun - perform well and you will either be rewarded with lights, awarded for winning races, which open up new events, or fans which you accumulate for your in-game actions and will earn you new motors.

The single player consists of working your way through levels, each with their own set of challenges. These include 20-car racing, a timed checkpoint affair, a destruction challenge, and one-on-one event which becomes available when you've earned enough lights and fans to take on the end-of-level boss. All are fun and the difficulty pitched just about right, although later on it does get pretty tough.

There are also other challenges to occupy you when racing, other than smashing your fellow drivers. These take the form of gaining points for destroying opponents in a certain way or driving through fan checkpoints - make them all and you'll get a fan bonus.

Online, and there is just as much to keep you entertained with plenty of mods and cars to be had as well as lots of race modes to unlock by levelling up. To achieve any of this you'll obviously have to get to grips with both the racing and the power-ups. The racing is good for the most part, the handling of the cars changing depending on whether you go for something drifty or with better traction. Bizarre has kept to the idea of real-world cars, something it is good at, and Blur in this respect is no disappointment. Cars give good feedback, and while there is an arcade feel to the vehicles they are distinct - players will have to get to know each one if they are to get the most out of racing.

The gameplay is fast and keeps you on your toes as you'll not only have to make sure you keep the racing line, but also deal with the power-ups. There are eight in total and all can be modded in some way to suit your driving style. We had mixed feelings about the the power-ups and their impact on the gameplay. On the one hand it certainly adds something dynamic, with a real sense of satisfaction when you nail your opponent with a well timed bolt along with a message telling you how many point/fans you've just earned yourself. However there was a real sense of frustration when all hell's breaking loose and your attempts to come first are continually thwarted by, what seems at the time, a lucky shot.

The power-ups although well executed felt too numerous to really value - players firing them off with reckless abandon making for a somewhat messy gaming experience. When you have a power-up you want to feel as though you have something precious at hand. And although skill and timing is required in order to effectively use them we felt at times it detracted rather than enriched the racing - Blur is definitely not one for the purists.

With time however, this frustration subsides as you learn the ropes and find different offensive a defensive manoeuvres, the rear view mirror becoming an essential tool as you fend off attackers coming up behind you.

So there's a lot of nice touches within the game and clearly it has been developed with some care, and choosing the right mods and cars to fit the track you're going to be racing on makes all the difference. The trouble we had was that all these nice touches don't seem to gel together into the great gaming experience we'd hoped for.

Admittedly, this lack of gelling is more pronounced in the 20-player mode where things quickly become chaotic; to get the most out of the game stick to the 10-player, team-based and battle modes. The four player split screen option, although fun, lets itself down, as the rear view mirror is removed to make way for extra screen real estate - as mentioned this is somewhat essential to success in Blur.

However, the more you play the more you realise that there are plenty of other ways of getting an ego boost and progressing within the game even if you're not coming in first. This is done through the post-race rewards; such as furthest jump, most successful rams and longest without being hit, to name but a few. And in a slightly perverse way, because of all these extra achievements are available, you end up content to finish somewhere in the middle of the field; even when you lose there are rewards to be had to keep your interest. 

Graphics are good, but not stunning and damage models on the car evoke an appropriate mixture of dread and anxiety as you see smoke billowing out of the bonnet - though more spectacular crashes would have been nice when you wreck or career off the track.

Tags: Gaming PS3 Xbox 360 Bizarre Creations Blur Activision Racing games

Blur - PS3 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:28:46 +0100

It was a stroke of luck that the Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000 dropped through onto the doormat of Pocket-lint Towers, just as the Chat Roulette phenomenon of 2010 was hitting the Internet. However our interest soon wore off as the fifth male member in a row graced our screen, and after a group counselling session we finally managed to turn our attention to the webcam itself.

Aimed at the budget conscious and what looks to be a follow up to the LifeCam Cinema, the HD-5000 sits alongside its counterpart the 6000, the former supposedly designed for desktops and the latter for laptops. The 5000 that greeted us was a small, highly portable device with the outer casing entirely made out of plastic; which included the lens. However, despite the cheaper materials the HD-5000 retained an air of quality and would certainly be able to withstand a few knocks in the bottom of a bag.

The LifeCam's black body gets a silver bezel surrounding the lens, with key features being a rectangular button (flush with the body) on top of the device for firing up Windows Live Messenger, and a flexible stand/strip.

The Messenger button carried out its task dutifully and launched Messenger whenever pressed - incidentally it'll also cope fine with Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Skype. In attempting to use the flexible stand to attach it to both a desktop and laptop screen we were a little perturbed at its apparent instability. However, after a couple of goes, and rather vigorous twists of the strip it seemed to sit aloft our chosen device in a secure manner.

The LifeCam HD-5000 proved very easy to set-up, with us slotting it into our laptop via the USB connection and firing up the disk included in the box. The interface was very straightforward and we doubt anyone would need to even glance at the instructions to make use of the various options on offer.

You'll get two windows: one which displays your image, with a LifeCam folder on the bottom left along with Photo Capture, Audio Capture and Video Capture icons. A mouse click away is the main effects and settings panel. The effects panel gives you options to play around with an image a la fairground Hall of Mirrors, as well as effects such as sepia, negative and watercolour. Whereas the settings gives you resolution, mic volume and the option to turn "truecolor" on and off.

In use we found the LifeCam to give some excellent detail, with some very clear images. However our biggest gripe was with the auto focusing which had a tendency not only to refocus a lot, but at odd moments. This was especially annoying when holding up objects close to the camera or changing settings, with the auto focus taking a good few seconds to readjust.

We also found the truecolor feature (which aims to give a better representation of colour, even in low lighting) to be a bit of a mixed bag; although it did appear to improve colour rendition when there was an even spread of light, when light was coming in from a window behind our head, turning the feature on created a bleeding effect which washed out background detail.

Capable of widescreen 720p HD, the webcam has plenty of other resolutions available to suit your system requirements. A digital zoom is also available on the lower resolutions. A word of caution, however, as in use the 720p option seemed to use up a good chunk of our laptop: if you're on a low specced PC and buying purely for the HD capability you might want give it a second thought.

Tags: Hardware Laptops PC accessories Peripherals Webcams Microsoft Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000

Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000 webcam originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Laptop bags can be thought of as the unsung hero of the laptop world, carrying (pardon the pun) out an invaluable task in the transport of our latest netbooks and laptops. So when we were sent the Exspect MiBag we set about to find out whether it could do this with aplomb.

The bags come in sizes for 13-inch (400 x 350 x 100mm) and 17-inch (380 x 450 x 150mm) laptops and are sold as "customisable laptop bags to make you stand out from the crowd". This claim is based on the fact that the covers are interchangeable - meaning if you're bored with the same old black fascia you can swap it for a more vibrant colour.

The bag is effectively two-in-one with an outer "protective bag", which in fairness could be used in its own right, housing the inner sleeve itself. This inner sleeve features a variety of storage areas meaning you'll be able to carry around a multitude of pens and notepads, as well as your MP3 as there is the obligatory rubber lined hole in one of the pockets for a headphones cable. The outer bag has less pockets, but the ones it does have are bigger and more suited to files and the like.

Both inner and outer bags have protective rubber feet and the material is of a padded nylon mix, which we have to say, apart from the bag's size (we looked at the 17-incher), made it feel a little on the bulky side.

To the performance then and it fared pretty well on the whole, the lining of the inner bag was nice and made you feel that your pride and joy would be safe inside and the carry handles on both bags were comfortable, with the included shoulder strap feeling fairly sturdy. Everything seemed to fit, lock and zip together nicely.

The bulk was a bit of a problem, however, especially when cycling as the rigidity of the material didn't allow it to sit nicely on the hip - we ended up just using the inner sleeve for riding. Walking around and the bag was far more at home. It was also quite conspicuous, which a vibrant colour would have only added to - the logo was also very large and detracted from the uniqueness that the company was obviously trying to aim at with the changeable covers.

And it was these interchangeable covers that, for us, were the biggest issue, to our eyes they were a bit - well ugly and uninspired.

When you buy a laptop bag, if aesthetics are a consideration to you, you choose the pattern, colour and stick with it, customisation comes with scuffs, scratches, cigarette burns and coffee stains. If you really want to go crazy maybe even a badge or two.

The swappable fascias just seemed to add unnecessary bulk to an already bulky product as well as an extra zip - which it certainly doesn't need. The advantages of the fascias are further put into question as you'll be forking out £9.99 for each on top of the £34.99 for the 13-inch version and £39.99 for the 17-incher.

This is a shame since the bag has some nice touches such as a zip on the top and bottom on one of the pockets, making retrieving documents easier if you are not in a position to take the bag off, and magnets within the lining of the front flap for when you don't want the buckle option.

Tags: Laptops Laptop accessories Bags Exspect MiBag Exspect MiBag

Exspect MiBag customisable laptop bag originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +0000

It was with some trepidation that the Remington F5790 was received as previous attempts with electric shavers have always proved rather ineffectual when compared to the close cut you'd receive from their wet counterpart. Seeing as this review conveniently coincided with Movember, hope was high that this would be the exception to rule, so as not to end up a resident in the manor of un-groomed moustache shame. 

Out of the box you'll find provided one Remington R5790, a 2-pin mains lead (so be aware you'll need an adaptor if you don't have a 2 pin socket in your bathroom), cleaning brush, a plastic guard for covering the foil head and the all important instruction manual.

On first inspection the razor itself seemed weighty enough to feel like a quality product without giving the impression that you're working out. On the underside of the unit you get the on/off button and power indicator bar, with the back housing the flip-up trimmer. The business end with its "Flex and Pivot technology" seemed sturdy enough, however on closer inspection the head of the unit as well as the trimmer seemed a little light and plasticky.

As far as the tech goes the "Flex and Pivot" feature basically means that the foil guards which move against the skin flex down and the head on which they are seated pivots - all in a bid to give you a more comfortable shave. It also has titanium-coated foils that are supposed to give "long-lasting cutting performance".

On with the shave then and first impressions weren't great as we found we needed to press uncomfortably hard in order to achieve even a rudimentary shave which looked decidedly patchy after completion. So, instead our attention turned to the trimmer - this seemed to give slightly better performance, only needing a few attempts for the required effect, but because of the way the trimmer pops up - flush with the razor head - it was sometimes difficult to see the hair line. Admittedly not such a problem when dealing with sideburns but proved tricky when trying to achieve that all important shaping of the 'tache.

In the manual it does state that you should use the shaver daily for up to 4 weeks to allow your beard and skin to become accustomed. We didn't have this long, however in fairness there was an improvement in performance after we had used it consistently for a week, whether this was because technique was becoming more polished isn't clear but it did redeem itself - providing pretty decent, if not spectacular performance.

Charging times were reasonable with a full charge taking 2 hours with the 5 minute quick charge feature being of particular interest. This claims to give you enough juice for one full shave - giving a second chance to anyone who has not heeded the power bar's red hue and needs to look half decent for work. Despite its rather vague claim (the time taken for one full shave clearly depending on the recipient of said shave) this performed pretty well and due to the razor's improved performance meant that our faces were left more or less bristle-free by the time the razor started to slow.

Cleaning wasn't too arduous, with the top blade guard just popping off enabling you to rinse, whilst the blades need to be run under cold water. The main body, however, isn't waterproof and so there was a certain level care required during the operation. It would have been nice if it was fully submersible to allow a carefree bathroom routine.

Tags: Home And Kitchen Bathroom gadgets Shavers Remington Remington Titanium 360 F5790

Remington Titanium 360 F5790 shaver originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:34:05 +0000