Thread: Chinese Gadgets

If you've heard of sites like DealExtreme, you've seen the stuff I'm about to talk about such as those iPod lookalikes, all kinds of tiny gadgets, and even some alternatives to $100 electronics for like $10 or $20 as well as some relatively unique stuff.

Anyone own any? I've had a few items and for the most part have been satisfied but am weary of spending more than $20 on a particular item unless the alternatives are much more pricier. For example I bought an adapter for video conversions for like $60 and the "quality" brand was like $100+ so took a chance and so far, don't regret it. However, if the quality alternative is just a few bucks more expensive, I'll stick with that to avoid the issue of the cheaper gadget breaking down after a few uses.

Prepare for a long post, because I'm a somewhat regular customer of DX. It's a great place to get random crap, especially considering gadgets sometimes only cost a couple of dollars, and when you consider the free shipping from Hong Kong you've got to wonder how the hell they can afford that. Whilst some gadgets are at great prices, others seem a bit expensive. Anyway, I'm going to have to go through my order history and find some of the better things (though some are absolute tat) I've bought from there. They're ordered by price, low to high, although many of these may have been cheaper/more expensive when I ordered:

Apple-Shaped Memo Pad ($1.81): Well, what can I say? It's pretty cheap and handy to have around for taking quick notes. It's easy to pull one of the apple "slices" off. I have nothing bad to say about this.

Plush Mario Mushroom ($1.88): I actually bought five of these, and I still own them. That's because they had a purpose, but I never put them to use. When I was at university I was planning to organise a gaming event, but it never materialised. Funnily enough, I received five 1-UP mushrooms, so I was going offer them to the winners of some tournaments I had planned (including a few retro ones) with the prospect of "getting a life". They look so much like an original Nintendo product, I wouldn't be surprised if they are. A+! Now I'm just wondering what to do with them.

Virtual 5.1 Surround USB2 Sound Card ($2.14): Truly an amazing concept. If you haven't figured it out already, this little USB2 device provides sound for your system, even if it doesn't have sound drivers for its own sound card, or even if it doesn't have a sound card! Incredible. Now building your own system is even cheaper. Except, well, it isn't really that good. Actually, it's shit. Really shit. If you're okay with your Sound Blasters sounding like Ass Blasters, maybe you'll like this. Perhaps it could come in useful on very odd occasions for diagnostic purpsoes, but honestly, it sounds awful. Any sound is like a 32kbps MP3 or something. Avoid!

Novelty Dippy Drinking Bird ($3.99): When I stumbled upon this, in a Homer Simpson fashion I said "Ooh!" Honestly though, this was a pretty good purchase. Sadly it broke after a few months. That was my own error though. It fell and smashed, and the red liquid is pretty good at staining things. Still, the bird worked really well for the time it was bobbing.

Stylish Black USB2 Bar Hub ($6.81): Top product. Seriously, this is amongst my favourite DX purchases, hands down. It's cheap but it's very durable, USB2 speeds are fast, and it looks great. Best of all, the bar shape comes in very useful. I've stuck it to my wall and to my desk using Blu-Tac, and since it's so light it's stuck in place perfectly for months. Buy it! I've been using it for not far off two years now.

Translucent LCD Clock/Thermometer ($8.90): This was okay, but not great. I really liked how it slowly changed colour, but at certain angles the display was hard to see and the alarm sounds were terrible. May as well have been Crazy Bus!

Stereo Foldable Headphones ($10.92): Crap, rubbish, terrible. Actually, mine are slightly different than these. Instead of red, they're blue, but they were at a similar price. The design is the same, but the listing for mine has disappeared. I must say that the speakers are actually very good, nearly crystal clear. I was quite impressed. However, the build quality is awful. Perhaps they were designed with Asian heads in mind, but mine snapped shortly after use. Since it was too expensive to send them back and they couldn't be repaired (I didn't particularly like the style either), when I got my hands on some Sugru, I figured I'd start a small DIY project since I didn't want such quality speakers to go to waste.



Yes, I know my laptop is looking horribly messy and needs a good clean. The flash on my camera just makes it look even messier. Anyway, this is the beginnings of my project since I stopped working on it, but I can continue anytime. It's hard to explain how it will work, but basically I'm trying to turn these dismantled headphone speakers into over-the-ear earphones. The Sugru already attached to the speakers will link with some other Sugru, which will be shaped to fit my own ears. Sugru is a bit like Blu-Tac, but you have to leave it to "cure" for quite a few hours, and after that it's extremely durable. I look forward to completing the project.

Ocean-in-Room Relaxing Projector ($19.83): The product itself? Quite amazing. The build quality? Horrible, which is very disappointing. The one I received died shortly after use, and I couldn't be bothered sending it back. A friend at uni helped me inspect it, and it turned out it was terribly soldered. I've bought a soldering kit and I'm going to work up the courage to get that soldering iron out and try and fix it myself one day soon, because the ocean effect it projects is very relaxing. I bought it to help me wind down after stressful days whilst listening to some chill-out music. It certainly seemed like it would have done the job. It also has speakers to play music from an MP3 player, but disregard those; the quality is abysmal.

Air Ioniser/Purifier ($27.74): I wouldn't be surprised if you've never come across one of these before. They aren't that common. And they aren't very cheap, either. Well, back at university, I'm not exactly sure why, but sometimes I found the air in my student accommodation very stuffy and somewhat suffocating. I searched around online and learned about these ionisers. I was sceptical, but I figured it was worth a punt. And guess what? It actually worked pretty well. Soon after use, the air genuinely seemed very fresh. Certainly a very useful purchase, in my experience.

Zune 30GB ($52.90): Probably my best purchase from DX. This is a genuine product, and it's a great MP3 player. The user interface is fantastic. It beats the iPod by miles. It's also very easy to play music from it in-game when playing my Xbox 360. I actually bought it for an ex-girlfriend (at-the-time-girlfriend) as a birthday present, but she never used it despite asking for an MP3 player. When we broke up, I bought it from her. What a bitch, geeze. She never used it once, yet I had to buy it back. Anyway, a highly recommended player. These are early Zunes, so they're pretty old now, but tend to be very cheap second hand. And they can even play Doom, or a Space Invaders-like game that involves blasting iPods.

I also purchased a Nintendo DS flash card for about five dollars. It played any DS game and I modded it so it worked even better and could read my 16-gigabyte SDHC card. All in all, I highly recommend DX. You might get a few bad eggs but the reviews are usually enough to go by, and I'm sure you'll find a few items you'll be very happy with.

In regards to the licensed merchandise lookalikes, I'd be weary of them as far as using them for more legit contests etc. as from what I've read, the reason why they look like the authentic ones are basically because the manufacturers steal the molds/plans from the originals and then produce their own without Nintendo's (or whoever else they're knocking off) permission and generally they do use pretty much the same stuff but with some cheaper replacements in some cases. This could pose as a problem as I'm not sure if they would be considered counterfeit goods as one thing is to own a handmade mushroom toy and another, a professionally produced knockoff. Not sure what the laws in the UK are. Granted, I'd be surprised if you got in trouble for it as far as getting a fine or sued over it but I do know that generally schools are stricter about using unlicensed stuff in their environment so you could get in trouble with them in particular.

I want to get some Dr.Dre beats from Dealextreme, I know they're fake but I hear they're almost like the authentic ones and did I tell you they're pretty cheap?

The ones I got (which had terrible build quality in my experience, but that might just be the design) were Koss knock-offs, which apparently are quite popular. But I've heard even the official Dr. Dre Beats are terrible. Hmmm.

Originally Posted by Mantis

The ones I got (which had terrible build quality in my experience, but that might just be the design) were Koss knock-offs, which apparently are quite popular. But I've heard even the official Dr. Dre Beats are terrible. Hmmm.

Dr.Dre Beats aren't worth the money they are, they should be a bit more cheaper, people buy them for the brand and not for the sound. I mean they're better brands out there such as Seinheiser.

The only thing I liked about Beats were the fact that they were tangle-proof which I thought was awesome and something that all headphone providers should hop on. But besides that, I'll stick with $10 headphones lol.