Tag Archives: Inateck

Inateck Bluetooth Speaker Turns It Up to Eleven

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Inateck BP2001 Bluetooth Speaker 05

There’s a long way from boomboxes to Bluetooth speakers, but hey, humankind made sure that no matter what happens, it can always take some music on the go.

Inateck, the German company that tries to cover as many options as possible in terms of accessories for computers (both in the desktop and notebook varieties) and mobile devices, currently has seven Bluetooth speakers in its portfolio. This number is bound to grow in the future, as the manufacturer is continuously looking to improve the quality of the materials, the functionality, and the design of its products. BP2001, the subject of this review, is a Bluetooth speaker that’s meant to be used in tandem with smartphones, tablets, and even older MP3 players.

Contents of the Box

The black cardboard box pictured below didn’t have much inside. The speaker comes in a plastic shell that protects it during transportation. Other than that, there’s an audio cable with 3.5mm jacks on both ends, an Instruction Manual in English (that you can download from here, in case you misplace it), and a USB to microUSB cable for charging the speaker.

Design and Build Quality

Most of the speaker’s body is made of plastic, but because Inateck has used some very high quality plastic, and great materials in general, the product doesn’t feel cheap at all. The sides, bottom and back side of the speaker are glossy and very elegant, but there’s also a downside to that. Glossy plastic is a fingerprint and dust magnet, but as long as you have a microfiber cloth around, you’ll be just fine. The only thing you should worry about is how easy it is to scratch the plastic. The rubber feet on the bottom will prevent the speaker from moving around.

The speaker has a horizontal orientation, and can only sit in one position. Its upper side acts as a stand for mobile phones, tablets or mp3 players, provided that they are thin enough to fit there. In that aspect, the Inateck BP2001 really comes up with something that distinguishes it from the competition.

The stand is able to hold a 5.5″ phablet without any problems, even when the smartphone is positioned vertically. However, a tablet is a wholly different matter, as it is much larger, but also heavier than a smartphone. Because of that, some sort of leg needs to be deployed from the back of the speaker.

Also on the back of the speaker there are a 3.5mm port for auxiliary input, an On/Off switch and a microUSB port for charging the speaker using the included cable (or any other USB to microUSB cable, for that matter). In the above picture you can also see how the leg is hidden into place when not needed for additional support.

The front is dominated by a silver round button that’s surrounded by a black circle. On the button there is the Inateck logo along with symbols that suggest what the buttons if for. In a few words: ending calls and controlling playback. Unfortunately, the only options available are Play and Pause. I would have loved to see some Volume Up/Down buttons, or even some for skipping tracks. Maybe the company will implement that in future models. The black circle surrounding the silver button includes three backlit symbols: AUX, a battery indicator and a Bluetooth connectivity indicator.

Sound Quality

Since this is a 10 Watt Bluetooth speaker, it can get pretty loud. It wouldn’t be impossible to throw a small party using one of these, especially if we’re talking about a picnic or something of the sort. The 5W speakers are positioned to each side of the central button, and provided that the mobile device is in range (it is a Bluetooth v2.1 device, after all), they should blast the sound right into the ears of the listeners.

The smartphone/tablet/mp3 player can be positioned either in portrait or landscape mode. As far as the type of audio being played back, Inateck’s Bluetooth speaker makes no discrimination. You can listen to music, watch movies or even play games, and any corresponding audio will be driven through the two speakers.

While the sound is not as crisp as when using a fully-fledged speaker, and lacks a punchy bass, it is still great for occasional listening. After all, Bluetooth speakers are built with portability in mind, and should be regarded as portable devices. A sort of hiss is audible at low volumes, when standing close to the speaker, but that seems to be the case with many other Bluetooth speakers, and its definitely not noticeable at a higher volume. Sound doesn’t get distorted at maximum volume, but its overall quality will depend on the music you’re listening to and the equalizer settings. In a few words, the sound quality is impressive for a device at this price point.

Don’t own a smartphone or a tablet? This speaker will work just fine with older MP3/MP4/MP5 players, and even with portable CD players. All that you need to do is connect the source to the speaker using the AUX port and the included audio cable.

Battery Life

Charging the internal, non-removable 800mAh battery takes two hours and a half using a 1A charger, suggesting that the input current is much lower than 1 Amp. I managed to get about 6 hours of continuous playback out of it, so I’m satisfied, from that point of view. If you have a power bank with you while you’re on the road, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Price and Availability

As with all its other products, Inateck has chosen Amazon as its distribution channel for the BP2001 Bluetooth speaker. Consequently, it can be found on Amazon US ($29.99), UK (£28.99), Germany(EUR 29,99), France (EUR 34,99), Italy (EUR 37,99), Spain (EUR 36,99), Japan, and Canada (CDN$ 35.99).

Conclusion

There are several aspects that could use some improvements, including the battery life and playback control. Sound quality could also be tweaked a little bit, but other than that, the BP2001 from Inateck is a great option for anyone looking for an affordable Bluetooth speaker.

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Super Charge Your Gadgets with Inateck’s USB Wall Charger

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Inateck UC4001 4-Port USB Travel Wall Charger 06

The number of devices that charge via USB has increased dramatically over the past few years, so it’s no wonder that chargers with multiple ports, such as Inateck’s 4-port USB wall charger, have become so useful.

When you own a tablet, several smartphones, eBook readers, wearables and a power bank, charging all of these devices using the desktop PC or notebook’s USB ports is out of the question. Computer USB ports have a small amperage that barely makes them suitable for powering external hard drives. If you want to charge multiple devices in as little time as possible, you have to rely either on the original chargers of the devices, or on a wall charger with multiple ports and an amperage suitable for both smartphones and tablets. Inateck’s 4-port travel USB wall charger, codenamed UC4001, seems to be the perfect solution while on the road, especially since the alternative is to take multiple chargers with you.

Contents of the Box

The Inateck 4-Port 30W USB wall charger comes in a plain cardboard box with a sleeve over it detailing the specs of the product.

On the back of the sleeve there are some technical details, the product’s main features and the certifications and standards it respects.

The cardboard box includes Inateck’s logo, fact that makes it easily distinguishable, in case you’re deciding to pack it away, and have several similarly-shaped boxes with you while traveling.

Inside the box you will find the USB charger itself, a piece of cardboard that prevents it from moving around while being transported, and an instruction manual.

Specifications

Inateck offers the UC4001 charger in two versions, depending on the continent you live in, and consequently, on the type of power plug that’s used. Hence, there’s a version for North America, and one for Europe (as well as parts of Asia and Africa). The one in question comes with the EU plug, and knowing how bulky the UK and Australia power plugs are, I’m not surprised that Inateck has decided to make it this way.

The charger itself is very compact and feels really solid, which indicates that it was built using high-quality components. The two ports that are the farthest from the power LED are Super Charger/S ports using a current of 5V/2.4A. On the other hand, the Universal/U ports charge devices using 5V/1A. However, the total output is of 6,000mA instead of 6,800mA, which means that the overall amperage drops slightly when all the four ports are in use.

The manufacturer points out that Apple and Samsung chargers cannot be used interchangeably, but that won’t be a problem with the UC4001 USB wall charger, as its Super Charger ports have a smart USB charging port controller that detects the attached devices and adjusts the right current accordingly. In addition to that, the Inateck charger includes a surge protector that delivers reliable power to all of the connected devices, and prevents them from getting damaged due to over-current.

Performance

Over the past seven weeks, I’ve tested the charger with a first-gen Nexus 7 tablet, two Samsung smartphones and a new 16,000mAh Xiaomi Mi Power Bank, both at home and while traveling. Knowing that the batteries of the mobile devices weren’t exactly new, and thus, not at peak performance, I decided that the power bank would be the most adequate for assessing the efficiency of the charger.

I used both the Super Charger and the Universal ports to test how fast the power bank charges, and taking into account that the Xiaomi Mi Power Bank accepts a current of up to 2.0A while charging, I obtained the following results: the batteries took a bit over 8 hours to get to 100% when using the 2.4A ports, and double that using the 1A ports. That’s a major improvement over the computer’s USB 2.0 ports, which deliver a current of 500mA (or 900mA for USB 3.0, unless your motherboard has Super Charge ports, too).

Price and Availability

Inateck sells its products on Amazon to several markets across the globe. At the time of the writing, the UC4001 4-port USB wall charger was available on Amazon US ($13.99), Germany(€13.99), France (€16.99), Italy (€13.99), Spain (€17.99), and Canada(CND$ 18.99).

Conclusions

Having tested other Inateck products in the past, I got used to the high quality this German company delivers. The UC4001 4-port travel USB wall charger does not fail to impress either, and considering its usefulness and its compact design, I’m sure that it will a home in the backpacks of many geeks out there.

One thing I could complain about is the blue LED that indicates that the charger is plugged into a power outlet. The LED is quite powerful and the light it’s emitting can become distracting at night, so it would be nice if it lit up only when the charger is in use. Considering that it features multiple ports, turning off the LED when finishing charging each device is not really an option.

I would like to thank Inateck for sending me a product sample, and for making this hands-on review possible.

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Boost Transfer Speeds with an Inateck USB 3.0 PCI-e Card

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Inateck KT4007 USB 30 PCI-e Card 01

The USB 3.0 standard has been around since November 2008, but low-end motherboards motherboards didn’t feature it until recently. If you own an older system or simply need more USB 3.0 ports, Inateck’s USB 3.0 PCI-e cards may be one of your best options.

Inateck is a German company that manufactures USB 3.0 hubs, chargers and PCI-e cards, along with many accessories for iPads, Macbooks and Kindle e-readers. There are several USB 3.0 PCI-e cards in the company’s product portfolio, and consumers are encouraged to pick the one that’s most suitable for them, depending on the number of ports they need. The card in question is a dual port USB 3.0 PCI Express card with internal USB 3.0 20-pin connector, codenamed KT4007.

Presentation

The card comes in a compact cardboard box that’s large enough to store its components. Besides the card itself, which is placed in an antistatic bag, there is a low-profile bracket, two screws, a CD with the drivers and a PDF manual, as well as an User’s Guide (with instructions on how to install and uninstall the drivers) in physical format.

I found the label on the box a bit misleading, as the box of the KT4005 has the same thing written on it, and that card provides you with 4 USB 3.0 ports at the back of your case. The label is not entirely wrong, as besides the two external ports, the KT4007 also features an internal USB 3.0 20-pin connector that enables you to connect front panel or bay USB 3.0 ports to the computer, in case your motherboard doesn’t have support for this.

CD Contents

The window pictured above appears right after inserting the driver CD in the optical drive. The interface provides quick access to the drivers and the manual, but also to the online shop, should you be interested in buying other Inateck gadgets.

As you can see, you are given the option to visit the manufacturer’s website to get the latest drivers (this is also what I would recommend you to do), but in case there’s no Internet connection available, you can install the drivers provided on the disc, depending on the color of the PCB. Inateck took the right decision to color-code the cards depending on the USB 3.0 that is used. The only other mention that the KT4007 comes with a NEC chip was on the barcode on the product’s foil.

Installation

Inateck KT4007 is wired for PCIe 1x slots, but it works equally fine in PCIe 4x, 8x or even 16x slots. Just push it in one of those ports and install the driver provided on the CD.

Test bench

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9Ghz (overclocked at 3.625Ghz)
RAM: 4GB Kingmax KLDE88F-B8KU5 Dual-Channel DDR2 800Mhz (overclocked at 833Mhz)
SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 120GB
USB Flash Drive: Corsair Flash Voyager GT v2 32GB
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

Software:

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64
ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.47

The computer used for testing the Inateck KT4007 USB 3.0 PCI-e card matches the manufacturer’s system requirements (Windows XP/Vista/7/8 and one available PCI Express slot), and is an old enough of a platform to emphasize the benefits of adding USB 3.0.

Benchmarks

Using the two aforementioned pieces of software I performed a comparison between the motherboard’s USB 2.0 ports and the USB 3.0 ports on the KT4007 card. In theory, USB 2.0 has a transfer speed of 480 Mbps, while the 3.0 standard comes with 5 Gbps. In practice it’s pretty difficult to achieve such results, but that doesn’t mean there’s no actual difference between the two.

The results obtained using ATTO Disk Benchmark are even more conclusive and somewhat closer to the rated speeds.

According to Corsair, the 32GB Flash Voyager GT 3.0 should reach read speeds of 240 MBps and write speeds of 100 MBps. Of course, you can opt for faster USB flash drives or even SSDs that connect via USB 3.0, if you need to boost transfer speeds even more.

Conclusions

Making the jump from USB 2.0 to 3.0 is the proper thing to do in this day and age, if you can’t afford a new motherboard that comes with 3.0 ports, getting yourself a PCIe card such as Inateck’s KT4007 is far more affordable.

The speeds achieved with this card are nothing short of impressive, but using different drives could lead to different results. There are a few things I would like Inateck to add in their future products, even though such changes could make prices go a bit higher. First of all, seeing how many motherboards and computer cases are black nowadays, offering USB 3.0 cards with black PCBs would reduce the discrepancies in color. Secondly, I would love to see an USB 3.0 expansion card that also comes with SATA III (6Gbps) ports. Most hard drives and SSD nowadays are manufactured using this standard, and an expansion card with both USB 3.0 and SATA III would mean an even better upgrade.

Inateck sells the KT4007 expansion card via Amazon US for $15.99. In Europe, you can find it on Amazon UK / Germany / France / Italy and Spain. Not at last, the card is also available on Amazon Japan.

I would like to thank Inateck for sending me a product sample for this hands-on review, and I’m looking forward to testing more of their products.

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Give Your eBooks a Cozy Home with Inateck’s Kindle Paperwhite Felt Case

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Inateck Kindle Paperwhite Felt Case 04

As great as Kindle’s eBook readers may be, they are very fragile, and even the slightest drop could deem them unusable. Inateck’s Kindle Paperwhite felt case provides them their much needed protection so that you can carry on with reading without having to worry.

Leipzig, Germany-based Inateck is a company that specializes in computer peripherals and accessories for Apple products, Android devices and Kindle e-readers. There’s a entire line of Kindle cases that includes book-like covers in various colors and the KPB-GR felt sleeve. Each of these has some advantages over the other, so it’s nice to see that Inateck has considered covering all the bases.

Measuring 20x14cm, this felt sleeve is marketed towards Kindle Paperwhite 1 & 2 owners, but it will fit the basic Kindle without any problems, as the size differences between these models are really negligible. The design is simple, yet attractive, with just white seaming and a narrow leather strap adding a touch of color to the otherwise gray mass. Another aspect that’s worth mentioning is the discreet Inateck logo that’s embossed on both sides of a piece of rubber attached to the sleeve’s bottom right side. I’m glad the manufacturer intends to attract attention with the product itself, and not with a logo that covers an entire side, as is the case with other companies.

So how does Inateck’s Kindle Paperwhite felt sleeve work in a real-life scenario? The case is snug, which means that the eBook reader won’t be able to slide out not even when you’re holding the sleeve upside down and the leather strap is not attached with the Velcro. To get the eBook reader out of the case you don’t need to insert your hand inside it. Just pull the leather strap gently (the company advises against pulling it too hard, as it might detach) and grab the reader by the bezel.

Inateck takes pride in having created a sustainable and renewable product from a plastic-free, metal-free, and thus environmentally friendly material. Personally, I think that the company has done a great job at creating a fashionable cover for the Kindle Paperwhite. That is not to say that the KPB-GR felt case doesn’t have its drawbacks, though.

The sleeve may offer better protection than its book cover counterparts, but it doesn’t provide quick access to the eBook reader the same way those do. Besides that, the book cover Kindle cases can turn the screen on or off, so you don’t have to press the power button each time you’re in the mood for reading. These problems are addressed in the other Inateck Kindle cases, so you cannot blame the company for not thinking about them. It’s just that different readers have different needs, and while some may find the KPB-GR sleeve more attractive, others will go for the book cover cases.

The Inateck KPB-GR Kindle Paperwhite felt case is available on Amazon US for $12.99, as well as on Amazon UK / Germany / France / Italy / Spain / Japan and Canada. Kindle Voyage has been out for a couple of months now, but the basic version and the Paperwhite won’t be discontinued any time soon, especially since Amazon upgrades them each year, so if you’re considering buying an eBook reader, you should also think of ways to protect it.

Not at last, I would like to thank Inateck for sending me a product sample for this hands-on review. Stay tuned, as more will follow!

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