Casio W-217H Camouflage Face Watch

With many of the basic features and a fairly unique camouflage face, as far as cheap digital Casio's go, the W-217H is one of those watches that will appeal to Casio collectors, and your average watch wearer also. With this watch you get something a slight bit different. This watch ticks many boxes in the cool and practical department. It has a brightly lit illuminator light which glows yellow / light orange, 12 / 24hr Time choice, date display, stopwatch, alarm, and is water resistant for up to 50 meters. Do note that this model does not have a countdown timer.

 

The original stock strap is of course resin. But like all Casio's, it can be changed to an after market strap quite easily. Looks great with a nato / cord style wrist strap. The watch overall is quite wide, but also fairly slim. However if you like a smaller watch like I do, there are other Casio's like the W86 and F105 to consider. All in all, the Casio W-217H is a cool looking watch that is easy to live with, and surprisingly cheap to buy.

#retrotimepiece #chronograph

Sennheiser HD400S Foldable Headphones

Sennheiser are well known for excellent sound quality, and while I've never owned a pair of Sennheiser headphones before, I have to say that when comparing the sound quality to all my cheaper headphones the Sennheiser HD400S are better. These are one of the cheapest pairs of Sennheiser I believe, but still, I can tell the difference with both bass and treble. It's clearer. I make music using music software, and these headphones are quite good for picking up certain nuances, including resonance that's too high, and parts of the song that are too loud or overpowering that may need turning down a little. I sometimes miss these when wearing my other headphones. Which at the moment is a pair of Betrons.

Other than the sound quality, here's what else I like

The foldable design is quite good. But I'm not sure how that will fair over time with someone like me, who is quite clumsy and unintentionally heavy handed. Time will tell.

Noise containment is really good. The headphones are like bins, they have a very deep, thick and well fitted ear pad cushions that really do a good job of cancelling out a lot of outside noise, and keeping the sound within where it should be without much leakage. This changes though once they are taken off if the sound from the headphones is still running / playing. Then they are just as loud as any other pair of headphones in terms of noise leakage.

What's Just OK

The microphone. It's just okay. If you're a gamer, and you want to talk to people online while playing a game, I wouldn't really recommend these headphones for that. It's not terrible, but there are much better gaming headphones available that offer much higher, clearer sound mic quality when communicating online through gaming servers. Then again, the majority of purchasers don't buy these headphones for the mic, so most people will probably never use it anyway.

What I don't like

The headphone jack. As in the actual part that goes into the external device. I say this because the Sennheiser HD400S also have a jack connection that attaches to the headphone cup itself [see the pic below], albeit a smaller one than the usual 3.5mm. See the first picture below. This smaller jack is used for attaching the connecting wires / cable to the headphones themselves, and it can be replaced but the design is not as generic as the average jack connection. It has a little groove cut out on the side that twists and locks into place. 

So some people are not aware that the smaller jack that attaches to the actual headphone cup needs to be inserted and twisted / locked into place. If it isn't locked in, the headphones will only work through one ear, and some new users may think they are broken. But its just the design. This isn't good though, to have a specialised jack like this. 

I would imagine a replacement would have to either be purchased directly from Sennheiser themselves, or you may be able to find someone selling these jacks with a side groove. I don't know how popular this design is. The headphones really should have been hard wired to the cups to avoid annoyance and confusion.

I know someone who recently sold a pair of these headphones on eBay, and this exact issue popped up. Headphones were sold and all seemed well. Then, the buyer contacted the seller and said they only worked in one ear. The seller explained that it was just the design and the headphone worked perfectly, but the buyer didn't want to listen, and the explanations what needed to be done to lock them into place fell on deaf ears. Pardon the pun. 

He had become concerned because they appeared to only work through one ear. That spooked him and he didn't want the headphones anymore. All he really had to do was twist / lock the smaller jack into place and they would have been perfect. But no, he wouldn't or couldn't seem to figure it out despite the seller even sending him a review video which showed the exact silly "feature" being talked about and demonstrated. 

The headphones were sent back and the buyer received a refund. The buyer later apologised, acknowledging that he was wrong about them being faulty and it was the design.

But back to the normal 3.5mm jack that attaches to an external device [last picture below]. For most things the headphone jack seems to work fine, but with a smartphone it does not appear to fit well. Maybe its just the smartphone I was trying to use them with, I don't know.

Not the best fit when used in a smartphone

Casio GBD-800 G-Shock Watch

I know. The G-Shock Illuminators are one of Casio's most popular models. Most people seem to like them. And while I don't think they are completely terrible, I don't share the love that everyone else has for them. Maybe its just personal preference. But isn't everything a personal preference when it comes to watches. Anyway, that brings me to the Casio GBD-800 G-Shock. This model is available in many colour variations (The beige / sand military model is cool) and has a dark digital face. This is quite appealing due to it being a bit different in appearance to most watch faces.

However, this watch does have its share of annoying issues. At least for me. First off, the light. Indoors in low light and outdoors on dull cloudy days, the screen lights up quite well when the light is activated and the time is easy to read. But in brightly lit rooms indoors, and especially outdoors on sunny days, the light is close to useless. I like to think I have good eyes, but I struggled to tell the time on this watch under bright conditions. I think anyone would though.

Another thing I don't like is the strap. Don't get me wrong, it's fairly thick and comfortable when worn. But there are two retainer type pieces of resin / plastic at the joints of the strap where they connect to the watch pins that restricts the watches ability to be laid flat on a surface. That's why one of the pictures in this post shows the watch on its side. See below. I find this feature quite annoying. The lack of flexibility seems a bit restrictive to me. But I guess that's what the strap is like on most G-Shocks, and people who have previously owned one of these watches are probably used to it.

The Bluetooth. Never used it, but I was reading that its main use was so the watch can be paired to a Smartphone and give the watch wearer an alert when their phone is not near enough to their watch. Working as a kind of protector of the lost phone, or preventing a person from leaving home without their Smartphone. Seems a bit over the top to me, and as if Casio failed to make the best use of the Bluetooth options in this watch. Surely there are many more functions that could have been implemented. Perhaps Casio will add more in the future.

I've talked about some of what I dislike about the the Casio GBD-800 "G-SQUAD", so what about the good points. Well, one thing is for sure, it's a tough, well built watch. But all the genuine G-Shocks are. Battery life is almost always a good selling point with Casio watches, but this model seems to last a little less than other Casio models I've had. Casio state the GBD-800's battery [CR2025] will last around 3 years. Which is quite a short period if time compared to other models not G-shock, such as the W800H with its 10 year battery life. 

The acceleration sensor(s) in the GBD-800 means it can be helpful for sport / exercise. Giving the watch the ability to track steps, which can be linked to the G-Shock connected App. I haven't used this so can't confirm how well it all works. Water resistance is 20 BAR, which is the equivalent of 200 meters. More than enough for most people. I also like that it has a stopwatch, a timer, 5 alarms and an optional hourly chime sound. 

Overall, the GBD-800 is not a bad watch for fans of G-Shock models who love things like the futuristic Smartphone connected to the watch technology, counting how many steps they take each day and never being further than arms reach away from their Smartphone or the watch will tell them off. Although for me it has a few too many features that I have no real use for. But even for people like me who just want a normal watch without all these extras, it can still be used perfectly fine without using them at all.