Office Equipment Reviews

Coming in a small package, just 10″ x 1.7″ x 1.4″, a single Hue Play Light Bar can fit behind your monitor or TV to provide a little ambiance. Its slim design also makes it easy to hide away.

Made from quality plastic, the bar feels pretty sturdy, but what sets this one apart from the others is the mounting options and the possibility to place them vertically and horizontally. However, if you don’t want to mount them anywhere, it’s possible just to place them on the table and face them toward an area you want to illuminate since they have angled bases.

They are most usually sold in pairs of two, but if you one just one, that is also a possibility. It comes in black and white colorways, so you can choose which one fits your area better.

This light bar is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. It works with iOS and Android devices, and it features Bluetooth connectivity that makes it easy to control with your mobile device.

Once connected, you can use your phone to change the color of the light bar. Simply open the Hue app and tap the light bar to see the various colors and choose which one you want. You can also use it to change the brightness, and set it to a timer to turn the light on or off at specific times, which is great for energy saving.

With its simple setup and operation, you’ll be able to control the Hue Play Light Bar with ease, and there’s no fiddling around required.

Let’s now go over the good and the bad about the Philips Hue Play Light Bar. Like any product, it has its pros and cons. Let’s start with the good:

The positive side of things is that this is a very compact light bar and can be placed almost anywhere in the room, without being too noticeable. The initial setup is extremely simple, and the Hue app works seamlessly.

It also has an interesting feature that allows you to sync the light bar to Spotify and therefore making it react instantly to the music you are listening to.

We love the fact that there are many mounting options and the fact that you can connect three bars to one outlet, cutting down on cords and making the area around you better looking.

The two biggest issues we have with the Hue Play Light Bar are its price and the obligation to purchase the Hue Bridge in order for the light bar to work. Sure, the new-gen Hue Bridge works great, but purchasing it separately raises the cost of an already expensive product.

It also lacks any physical buttons and a battery, making it more difficult to move the bar in different places in the room where you are not close to a power outlet.

Similar Products

If you are looking for a light bar that will add more atmosphere to the room, and control it via an iOS or Android device, and a higher price is not an issue for you, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar is a great option.

The many mounting options and app full of interesting features do make a difference ambiance-wise, but the high price point will set a lot of people back.

Let’s start with the features of the Giantex Ergonomic Office Chair. It has an adjustable seat height, reclining backrest, adjustable headrest, adjustable lumbar support, along with adjustable armrests.

This high-back office chair features a full mesh back for maximum breathability, along with a padded seat. Our opinion is that the combination of a mesh back and a mesh seat would’ve worked better, but the seat is fairly comfortable, although it’s more on a firmer than on a softer side.

What makes the difference with this chair is definitely the excellent lumbar support it has. It’s easily adjustable with a small wheel found on the back, and it can move 2.2″ up/down and 1.6″ front/back, so you can easily find the right position for your spine.

The headrest is an extremely important part of the chair, and we were very happy to see it on this one. Not only that it compliments the overall design of the chair very well, but more importantly, it serves the purpose of keeping your neck from getting strained over long periods of time.

It’s also adjustable, which is another plus. You can adjust it 45 degrees to the back, and move it 4.5″ up and down.

It’s a great feature to have in high-back office chairs, and it allows you to adjust the chair from sitting to reclining. You can recline from 90 to 135 degrees, and it’s pretty easy to do.

The whole chair is pretty well built and it gives off an impression that it will stand the test of time. While you could hear squeaks or rattles from time to time but it’s nothing serious to worry about. Overall, it feels sturdy enough and we were pretty impressed by it.

Like most office chairs nowadays, this one is also very easy to assemble. The process is nothing that will concern you, as it’s a pretty straightforward and short assembly.

We would highly recommend this chair to anyone looking for a high-back office chair with a good price tag. It has plenty of ergonomic features, and its build quality is pretty good too.

For someone who is looking for a more expensive option, feel free to read our review of the Nouhaus Pallete Office Chair here.

As we’ve mentioned in the introduction, the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 has a couple of great features that can save you time. For starters, it has an automatic duplexing feature, so if you want to print on both sides of a paper, you don’t need to do it manually. It works for scanning, as well.

It also has a document feeder, which can host 30 pages. That is great for businesses that print lots of documents. The input tray can hold up to 250 sheets.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530, as an all-in-one printer, allows you to print, scan, copy, and fax documents with ease. One of the more important things about this printer is that it’s so easy to change the cartridges when they are running low.

On the front panel, you can see a lot of physical buttons, but also a 2.5″ screen that lets you see the settings of the printer.

• 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi
• Automatic Document Feeder
• Auto-Duplex
• Wi-Fi and Ethernet Connectivity Option
• Epson Connect™

Let’s talk about its connectivity options now. Epson provides a wide range of connectivity options with their printers, and the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 is no exception.

It can connect to your home or business network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and with Epson Connect™, you can also print from your smartphone.

But, what we’ve found strange is that the WP-4530 doesn’t feature a memory card reader, which is a slight downside for us.

Performance-wise, the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 is very versatile. It offers an amazing printing speed, but an exceptionally fast copying speed. It also has great output quality, so in the end, you get the best of both worlds.

However, this printer has its fair share of problems which are common for Epson printers; printhead nozzles can get clogged and ink can leak, which is a big downside.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4530 is a great all-in-one printer that will surely impress everyone around you. It has great features and performance, but you definitely should be careful about the printer’s lifespan.

Let’s start with the design and the quality of the construction of both lamps. While the design of both lamps has its similarities, it also has some differences. The Philips Hue Go has a round shape with a tiny base and the outer shell of the lamp is translucent.

That isn’t the case with Hue Bloom. Bloom has a hard plastic outer shell that is not translucent, so you can only see the emitted light from the lamp’s head.

Now the biggest difference between the two regarding their design is that the Go can be placed parallel to the table or at an angle, while the Bloom only has one position.

The newer version of the Hue Go made that placement possible by adjusting the place for the cable. Philips Hue Bloom’s cable placement is rather strange. It has a cut-out on the front of the base that tries to hide the cable, but that could’ve been done more successfully.

There is a major difference in the lumen output between the two, as the Go has 300 lumens and the Bloom has 120. But, both of them act as a pretty good ambient light for the room, and they distribute the light very well.

They are not designed to act as desk lamps or overhead lights, but as a supporting lighting source for a particular area, but the difference is noticeable.

This is where we have the biggest difference between these two, and it’s the portability of these smart lamps. Philips Hue Go was designed to be used as a portable lamp, and the new generation increases the battery life from 3 to almost 8 work hours.

The Bloom, on the other hand, is intended to be a fixed table lamp, and its main purpose is to serve as a decorative accent. The Go also has a button by which you can control the device, without the use of the app, while the Bloom doesn’t have that option.

Both of these can be controlled by the Philips Hue app and they can be connected via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

If you are on the lookout for a portable ambient lighting solution, the Philips Hue Go is your best choice. While it comes at a high price, Philips Hue Go is a superb choice if you are looking for something that you can take anywhere with you.

The lamp has a wireless connection that allows it to be connected to the home Wi-Fi network and works with your other smart devices such as the Apple HomeKit or Amazon Alexa.

The Philips Hue Bloom is a good choice if you want to step into the world of smart lighting. It doesn’t have as many features as the Go, but its affordable price tag makes it an attractive option for many people.

You can also use the Hue Bloom to create interesting effects, such as dimming the lights in a room to a certain level.

As you can see, the differences between the two are quite noticeable, but both the Philips Hue Go and the Philips Hue Bloom are great options for those who want to start using smart lighting.

While the Go is more expensive, its portability means that you can easily place it wherever you want, and its improved battery life just adds to the advantages of the Go.

The Bloom is cheaper than the Go, but it still provides you with a lot of features, and if you are not looking for a portable smart lamp, the Bloom is the way to go.

The Philips Hue Bloom lamp has an immaculate and modern look. A rounded lamp head is made from a high-quality hard plastic as well as the lamp’s base. The lamp also has some metal parts.

On the base, you can see a small cut-out for the cable which tries to hide the cable, but it could’ve been done a bit better.

The whole design of the Bloom makes this lamp very sophisticated, and not a lamp that will stand out in the room. It’s designed to blend in with its surroundings and looks great with almost any type of decor.

Its compact size allows it to fit anywhere you wish, and it doesn’t take up much space on your desk or nightstand. We’ve found a place for it behind a TV, and it really accompanies the surroundings of the room without looking too out of place.

That compact size brings us to the more important factor regarding lamps – how bright it is. The Philips Hue Bloom has a brightness of 120 lumens, which was expected since this is a lamp used for ambient lighting in a small area.

Now, where things get interesting is the 16 million color options that Philips Hue Bloom offers. It can never get boring to change colors and brightness levels because the options are limitless.

The Philips Hue app is what controls the brightness, color, and everything else that the lamp offers. It’s a very well-designed app that comes with a big color wheel that lets you choose your preferred color and brightness. It also comes with some preset scenes if you don’t know where to start.

Whenever you find a color you like, you can save it so you don’t have to search for it every time. You are also able to sync your Bloom to Spotify so it can react to the music you are listening to.

Setting up and installing Hue Bloom is quite simple and straightforward. When the Philips Hue Bridge is plugged into your router, and the Bloom is connected to the power source, pairing the Bloom via an app is simple and it takes just a couple of minutes.

If you are experiencing some issues with the connection or want to sell your Hue Bridge, learn how to factory reset it here.

• Cable length – 2 m
• Height – 3.9 inch
• Length – 4.96 inch
• Width – 5.08 inch
• Controlled via Philips Hue App
• 16 million color options
• 120 lumens
• 7.1 watts

● Color control

● Variety of colors and brightness

● Great app

● Easy setup

● The cable is hard to hide

When it comes to smart table ambient lamps, Philips Hue Bloom is one of the best. It comes with a lot of features that make it worth the price and you can play with colors and brightness easily.

So if you want to add more ambient lighting to your room, then you should consider getting a Philips Hue Bloom for yourself. If you are interested, see how the Bloom performs against Hue Go here.

While you can’t expect a ton of features from a scanner that is this small, the Brother DS-640 has a couple that will make your work easier. One of the more important ones is the automatic color detection/adjustment feature which is especially helpful when you are scanning several different types of documents at once.

The scanner also comes with great built-in OCR and document management software that allows you to make edits to your files. What this scanner lacks are the automatic document feeder and duplex scanning. So, you will have to manually feed the two-sided documents, which will be more time-consuming.

Some other compact scanners like the Epson WorkForce ES-50 have an ADF and a slightly more expensive Brother DS-740D has a duplex scanning option.

When you look at most compact scanners, you can see that many lack the Wi-Fi connectivity option, except the likes of the Epson Workforce ES-60W Doxie Go SE. This scanner also lacks the Wi-Fi connectivity option, but the great thing is that it supports USB 3.0, as opposed to many others that only support 2.0.

In terms of OS compatibility, like most scanners, the Brother DS-640 is Windows, Mac, and Linux compatible. 

If you want a fast compact scanner, the DS-640 is not for you. Scanning longer documents with the DS-640 takes a lot of time, especially the color ones. Its speed is one of this scanner’s downsides, but we didn’t expect blazing fast scanning speeds at all.

On the other hand, the scanning quality with the maximum resolution of 600 dpi is surprisingly great and can compete with much more expensive scanners. All of this makes the Brother DS-640 a great option for those who want precise scans, but are willing to sacrifice the speed.

Overall, the Brother DS-640 is a great value for the money for someone who is looking for a lightweight and portable scanner that doesn’t plan to scan a lot of documents. It’s economical and simple to use, but for a slightly higher price, the Epson WorkForce ES-50 is a better choice.