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burnouts3s3 · 6 years

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Bully, a game review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 14.99 USD How much I paid: 36 USD (10 for the PS3 version and 15 for the Steam Version and 11 for the PS4 version while it was on sale). Rated: T for Teen How long I played: 10 Hours on PC while 2 hours on the PS4 version. Microtransactions: None! What I played on: PS3, PS4 and PC Performance Issues: Bully might be one of my favorite games and it might be one of the WORST PORTS EVER! Holy Shit! If the PS3 version isn’t bogged down with glacial framerates, it has pixelated graphics which are not done service on HD. (The PS3/PS4 versions are merely upscaled and have not been updated). The PS4 version runs much better with no crashes, but has been upscaled rather than remastered. The PC version, while looking better, constantly crashes and will inevitably result in lost progress as you must save manually at specific locations. And of course, that cursed plague returns, as Bully’s PC version is locked at 30 frames per second. My Personal Biases: Bully was one of my favorite games growing up during the PS2 era. So, I’ll probably be biased toward this game. CAVEAT: Bully comes in 2 versions: The original game and the Scholarship edition. The Scholarship edition contains all the content from the original game and adds features such as additional classes/mini-games, more outfits and extra story missions not found in the base game. I believe the anniversary edition is the same as the Scholarship edition only it’s released for mobile phones. (I could be wrong) Please be aware which version you’re getting. My Verdict: There’s no denying that Bully is at times juvenile, immature, naughty and that favorite word, problematic. But, if you can look past the surface, you can see, much like the protagonist Jimmy Hopkins, there’s much more underneath the surface. Buy it! Bully, a game review

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"So here I am, at probably the worst school in the country, whose alumni are nothing but arms dealers, serial killers, and corporate lawyers. Real scum. And that old creep thinks he can tame me? We shall see, my friend. I only give people what they have coming to them." — Jimmy Hopkins I don’t know how I can describe Bully in a way that fascinates me and makes it so near and dear in my heart. I was never really a Grand Theft Auto fan. Even, when I was old enough to legally play the game, I always felt detached from the main characters. It wasn’t until GTA IV came out that I really fell in love with the story, only for GTA V to come out and make things go back the way they were. Bully was released during a controversial period in the United States. When Jack Thompson was legislating heavily against game developers and video games violence, Rockstar was releasing Bully, a kid version of Grand Theft Auto. Early footage shown at E3 showed the protagonist doing heinous crimes like giving other kids wedgies, putting a kid’s head in the toilet and defying authority. Parent groups were outraged and a debate occurred whether the game went too far. The end result? Probably one of my favorite games of all time. Jimmy Hopkins is a 15 year old delinquent being sent away by his cold-hearted, gold digging mother and her fifth husband. Jimmy, having been expelled from multiple schools faces his last chance at the boarding school of Bullworth Academy. After he’s dropped off, he soon meets Gary Smith, an intelligent student who might not have the best of intentions, and Pete Kowalski, a shy boy who can’t even make friends with the geeks. Jimmy plans to get the bullies off his back and rule the school by taking out the Bullworth Cliques, the nerds, the Preps, the Greasers and the Jocks. But as Jimmy helps his fellow students (and a dysfunctional staff member or two), he learns that Gary doesn’t have his best interests in mind. What’s interesting about Bully is that Jimmy, unless dictated by the player, isn’t usually inclined to cause harm. Rather, he attempts to get payback from the various cliques who do cross his paths. (There’s been a long standing rumor that says that Bully changed its story and premise after the reaction from E3, changing Jimmy from a villain protagonist to more of an anti-hero). A lot of the criticism the game received was how small the world was and how limited Jimmy’s actions are, compared to the ground breaking Grand Theft Auto 3. Jimmy won’t be able to steal cars or kill any NPC’s. Instead, he can commit petty crimes such as shooting people with his slingshot, tagging on walls or pranking people he comes across. The delinquency meter shows the various amounts of trouble Jimmy can get into. Should he commit minor crimes such as being out of uniform or ditching class, he’ll be in minor trouble. But, violence against students, disrespecting authority or trespassing into the girl’s dormitory will send the local authorities (Prefects and teachers while in school, police officers out of school) after him. If Jimmy gets caught, he’ll be sent to the Principal’s office. Detention consists of mini-games such as using the school mower to mow lawns. But, there’s a benefit to attending class. Should you go to class, you’ll be treated to a mini-game. Completing a course will earn you benefits in the outside game world. For example, passing chemistry class allows you to make have a chem set in your room where you can create ‘weapons’ such as firecrackers, while going to English Class helps you apologize to authority figures for committing various crimes. My favorite is Art Class, where in the bonus is being able to get an extra bar of health when kissing girls. Should Jimmy complete all of his coursework (that is to say, finish all 5 difficulty levels of the mini-games), he’ll be excused from class be given free time. But it’s not all schoolwork and Frenching cheerleaders. There’s a variety of mini-games in the world such as Boxing, bike races, Carnival Games and of course, a huge number of collectables found throughout the game. If Jimmy’s strapped for cash, he can always take up a paper route. The strangest thing about Bully is that it’s a very small game. Even games like Grand Theft Auto III had a variety of environments and locations to explore with its small size. But Bullworth Acadmey and the town of Bullworth are small to explore. It creates a sense of intimacy. I can’t get lost in the world of Bullworth but I can become so intimate that the NPCs become familiar to me. That’s something special a lot of games don’t do. I’d rather have the familiarity of Bully over the vastness and at times emptiness of the Grand Theft Auto games, especially the modern ones. I should mention that the composer for the game, Shawn Lee, gave some of the most memorable music I’ve heard this side of some of the best soundtracks. Where Grand Theft Auto had licensed songs from various artists, Bully only has an original soundtrack, but it’s so alive and varied that I caught myself listening to it again and again.

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Tying it all together is Gerry Rosenthal as Jimmy. While it’s great to hear familiar voice actors, such as Martin Mull as the Headmaster, Rosenthal’s performance just manages to combine that weird teenage angst that makes the main character so relatable. Kudos to him. What really sold me was the story. I surprisingly found myself relating to Jimmy’s struggle to get through his school days and how he acts and reacts to the world around him. While Jimmy is no saint or perfect student, it does show that the world Jimmy inhabits is a flawed, corrupt and outright dirty society. All the cliques that Jimmy faces, whether it’d be the classist preppies, the posturing Greasers or the testosterone-filled Jocks, are shown to be bullies but in different ways. Meanwhile most of the adults and authority figures are two faced hypocrites. When Jimmy sees his gym teacher trying to sneak dirty magazines out of a pornography store, it becomes apparent why Jimmy doesn’t have any respect for authority. At the same time, I found certain NPCs not only memorable but also rather likable. There’s something about Jimmy helping out the strange homeless man in the Junkyard or spitting food with Edna, the lunch lady, that brings a smile to my face. So while the game holds up in terms of mechanic and I still find the characters and story charming, it pains me to say this has some of the worst ports to date. The PC version constantly crashes. I don’t know who was responsible for it, but given the number of crashes I experienced (as well as the frustration having to save your progress manually), I nearly broke my screen in frustration. Worse yet, Bully is locked at 30 Frames Per Second. The PS4 remastered version is more playable, but only features the vanilla version of the game. Closing thoughts: There’s a lot to say about bullying, the role of bullies and how our society now views bullies. And while I can’t comment on Jimmy’s reactions to the various groups of the schools will look like 50 years from now, I will say I had a blast firing my slingshot, riding my bike and getting into as much trouble with Jimmy Hopkins. It’s not what a game is about, it’s how it’s about it. Verdict: As long as you don’t get the PC Version, go buy it!

#bully #rockstar #jimmy hopkins #gta #grand theft auto #game reviews #v #/v/#vidya #video games #gaming #gamers #review

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thelionshoarde · 6 years

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sunblock

What should have been a four hour drive had quickly turned to six thanks to Mitsuhide’s travel itinerary – it would probably have taken them all day if Zen and Kiki hadn’t pinned Mitsuhide to the wall outside of Zoinks! The Whackiest Tackiest Stuff! Museum while Obi stole the keys from his pocket and strapped himself into the driver’s seat.

“You’re not the only one who can drive manual,” Obi glowered out the cracked window as Mitsuhide tried, futilely, to open the locked door. “If we have to stop at one more kitschy landmark I will drive us into the ocean, so help me.”

Mitsuhide said, forlorn, “But it’s my jeep.”

Zen patted him on the back, entirely cheerful. “You gave up your right to be an adult after we spent half an hour at the petting zoo.”

“You cannot hold baby animals against me,” Mitsuhide grumbled, crossing his arms and glowering back at Obi. “They are so tiny. How are they so tiny?!”

“They were alligators, Mitsuhide. All that petting zoo had was baby alligators.”

“All right,” Obi piped in through the half-inch of open window, “I did like the baby alligators, I’ll give you that. Tiny, sharp tooted babies ready to devour you, I was a fan.”

The front door tinkled as Kiki emerged from the cool interior of the building, and threw a shirt at Mitsuhide’s head. It fluttered out of its neat folds as it slid down his face, and Mitsuhide caught it by the shoulders, holding it out to read: Zoinks! I’m so whacky and tacky!

“Thanks,” he said, ever so dryly.

Kiki grinned, sliding her shades back onto the bridge of her nose. “Any time. Also, I call shotgun.”

“Damn it,” Zen hissed at the same time Mitsuhide yelped, “But it’s my jeep!!”

By the time they made it to the beach house it was late afternoon, the sun still bright overhead. “Not quite the full day I was hoping for,” Zen observed, arms hooked over the open door and the hood of Mitsuhide’s ancient jeep, to peer down the sandy path between clumps of stubborn grass to the beach just beyond. He grinned. “But I’ll take it. Man, this was a good location.”

“Not bad at all,” Obi whistled in agreement, swinging Mitsuhide’s keys around his finger.

The door to the beach house opened, and Ryuu stood framed in the cool shadows of the arched entrance way. He looked reedy and awkward standing there in nothing but baggy, blue-and-yellow swim trunks. And a lot of sunblock smeared across his nose. He squinted into the light at them.

“Good, you’ve arrived. Now you can deal with her.”

And then Ryuu was off, flip-flops slapping against his heels as he bolted past the four of them and down the path to the beach as quickly as his coltish legs would carry him.

“The hell was that about?” Obi asked.

Shirayuki answered, stumbling out the open door and waving a foam visor – like the kind you could buy cheap from little novelty stores – and a bottle of sunblock in her other hand. “Ryuu!” she yelled, “I wasn’t finished. And you forgot your hat!”

“Oh,” said Zen.

“Oh, my,” breathed Obi.

Mitsuhide said, “He really should wear the visor, at least.”

Kiki slammed the back of the jeep shut, brandishing their brightly colored umbrella at the lot of them. “Get out of my way unless you want to become collateral damage. Shirayuki, do me first. I want in that water.”

“Damn it,” said Zen, “why are you so good at that?!”

Obi breathed out, “Oh, oh, please do me, too, babe. Yes, my body is ready for protection against those pesky UV rays. I surrender to your tender mercies!”

“Nope,” Zen said, jumping down from the jeep and looping an arm around Obi’s neck. “You can settle for my tender mercies instead.”

“Babe,” Obi leered, sunglasses slipping down his nose so that Zen saw the clear, golden shade of his eyes peeking impishly up through his lashes, “I can work with that too, trust me.”

Propping the umbrella on the stucco wall outside the entrance, Kiki followed Shirayuki inside, already shimmying out of the t-shirt she’d been wearing. Mitsuhide tripped on flat ground, cursing, as Kiki’s toned, mostly bared back disappeared. “Shit,” he grunted, catching himself against the cooler full of beer and gatorade. Then, “Oh, we need ice, still.”

“Are you – are you writing something on my back?!”

“Shh,” Zen hissed, sounding focused. “Do you want sunblock or don’t you?”

By the time they were all ready for the water Kihal had arrived, bike spitting sand as she skidded to a stop. She tipped her visor back and grinned at them all, shouting, “There’d better be cold beer in that cooler!”

“I got ice!” Mitsuhide promised, waving.

“Excellent,” she crowed, taking off her helmet and smoothing out her hair. She slung a long, tanned leg over her bike, boots digging into the dirt as she trudged toward them. “Gimme one, that was a long ass drive.”

“Jesus,” Zen wheezed, half-hiding behind Mitsuhide.

“Mm,” came Kiki’s hum of amused agreement.

Leather shorts really should not exist if they were going to be that distracting. Zen covered his face with his hands as Obi snickered, patting his shoulder.

“Want me to wait for you?” Shirayuki asked, overly full beach bag clutched in her arms and six plastic buckets full of miniature shovels and rakes looped onto her forearms. “Suzu and Yuzuri are still going to be a couple of hours.”

“Nah,” Kihal said, unzipping her leather jacket and shimmying out of it. She accepted a beer from Mitsuhide, laying it against the nape of her neck. “I think I want a nap. You guys go have fun, I’ll catch up.”

“Are you sure?” Shirayuki asked. “I don’t mind waiting, I could –”

Kihal looked pointedly at Obi. Obi grinned.

“Babe, no one believes you for a moment,” he said, swooping down from behind her and picking her up, arms wrapped tight around Shirayuki’s bare thighs. She squealed, buckets flying, and then Obi was off, down the steps and the path, toward the beach.

“Beach,” Kiki said, insistently, picking up one end of the cooler and staring at Mitsuhide.

Mitsuhide blinked, picked up his end, and agreed, “Yes, beach. Shall we? I – oh, hey, whoa!”

“He’s gonna break his neck,” Kihal snorted, popping the tab on her beer as she and Zen watched Kiki drag him along at a fast clip.

Zen grinned. “She’d catch him if he fell. Of course, then he might pass out from – hnn,” he cut off, having glanced toward Kihal and finding himself distracted by the long line of her throat as she guzzled down her beer.

“Ahh,” she sighed, licking beer off her lips with a smirk. “Much better.”

“Uhm,” Zen said, blinking.

“Care to join me for a…nap, Zen?”

“Yes,” he said, following her inside and shutting the door behind them.

Later, as evening set in, everyone milled about in the living room, taking turns with the single shower. Obi came out in just a towel slung low around his hips and a surprised expression on his face to see them all sprawled on the couch, staring at him.

“Oh, goodness,” he drawled, “why, if I had known you all were waiting for a show I would have left the towel!”

“Please don’t,” Mitsuhide said, sounding pained.

Zen made a considering noise. “It’s not a bad view, really.” When Shirayuki stared at him, wide eyed and red as her hair, he blushed, hurrying to add, “I mean – he doesn’t bother with a towel in our dorm! He just – it’s not like I have a choice, all right!”

“Hot,” Kihal decided, eyes squinting as she no doubt imagined it. “I’m down.”

“Mitsuhide, cover your ears,” Kiki said.

“I can’t,” he mourned, hands over Ryuu’s ears where the younger boy was sitting on the floor, slumped back against the couch near him. Obi winked, and turned to go into the room claimed by him, Zen, and Ryuu upon arrival.

Half the couch gasped in unison.

Zen’s grin took up his entire face. There was no hope in restraining it.

“What?” Obi asked, pausing just at the threshold of the room. He glanced over his shoulder at them, patting at his ass with the hand not holding the towel up. “No, everything covered. What, what? What’s wrong?”

“Your – your back,” Shirayuki whispered, her face now an alarming shade.

“Uh, yeah,” Obi said, brows arching up in confusion. He turned back around to face them. “What about it? Did I get some new scars or something when I wasn’t paying attention? Please tell me if it’s like, in the shape of a dick because that could be embarrassing and more permanent than a sharpie.”

“No,” Shirayuki whispered even more quietly, sounding strangled. “Uhm!”

“It says –”

Kiki slapped her hand over Ryuu’s mouth. “Don’t ruin it, kid,” she murmured, smirking.

“Zen,” Obi said, voice rumbling low as his eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”

Zen shrugged, still grinning. “Nothing really. Just…being helpful?”

Kihal held out her hand for a high-five, which Zen gleefully returned. The sound of it caused Shirayuki to jump, startled. She sucked in a breath and lunged for her beach bag where it had spilled half its contents by the coffee table at their feet.

She came back up with a big bottle of aloe clasped desperately in her hands and determination written across her face. “You’re sunburned,” she said, still a little breathless. “Here, let me – uhm, I can – just –”

“Uhm, sure,” Obi agreed, allowing himself to be herded into the room, eyes wide. “You can – uh, totally put – that – on me?”

The door slammed shut behind them.

When Yuzuri burst into the house, hollering, “We have arrived! The fun may now begin!” most of the group was half-collapsed, still laughing. Pursing her lips, Yuzuri put both hands onto her hips and said: “Okay, what did we miss? What happened? Wait – where are Shirayuki and Obi?”

Ryuu was the only one seemingly unaffected. He looked up at Yuzuri and Suzu with a forlorn expression on his serious face, and explained: “Zen wrote with sunblock on Obi’s back.”

“Oh?” asked Suzu, tucking his chin over Yuzuri’s shoulder. “What’s it say?”

“Shirayuki,” Ryuu intoned, “kiss me, already.”

Yuzuri immediately began cackling. Suzu jumped back, arms in the air as he watched his girlfriend slowly collapse to the ground, still cackling with glee. “Best springbreak,” she gasped, “ever!! Well done, Zen!”

“Thank you,” Zen grinned, looking smug.

A thud came from behind a closed door, followed by another, like someone getting pushed up against a wall, and –

“Maybe we should go see about that bonfire,” Mitsuhide said hurriedly, ushering everyone off the couch and out the house. Just in time, too. Mitsuhide winced as he shut the front door, the thin walls of the beach house doing very little to disguise the low, drawn out sound of Obi’s moan. He turned, started down the steps to where Kiki was waiting for him, beautiful with the setting sun lighting her up.

He paused with a foot in the air, then turned, bounding back up the steps to open the door and stick his head back through. “Don’t forget to use protection,” he hollered, as loudly as he could, and grinned when he heard what sounded like a body falling off the bed. The muffled oath let him know it was Obi.

“You’re still bitter about him driving the jeep, aren’t you?” Kiki asked, reaching for his hand.

“Only a little,“ Mitsuhide admitted, grinning as he curled his fingers in with hers, heart jumping into his throat. “Race you to the water?”

Kiki was running before he’d even finished the sentence, but Mitsuhide was only a step behind, her grip on him sure and strong and effortless.

#ans #gen #obiyuki #zen/kihal #the whole gang #kiki/mitsuhide #suzu/yuzuri #ryuu #beach house #spring break #college au #asks #sabraeal #my fic #AHAHAHAHAHA I DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ANYMORE

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bentonpena · 5 years

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Hitting the Books: We can engineer the Earth to fight climate change

Hitting the Books: We can engineer the Earth to fight climate change https://engt.co/2ZtjP9J

Welcome to Hitting the Books. With less than one in five Americans reading just for fun these days, we've done the hard work for you by scouring the internet for the most interesting, thought provoking books on science and technology we can find and delivering an easily digestible nugget of their stories.

End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World by Bryan Walsh

Grow out your apocalypse beard and strap on your doomsday sandwich board, we're all gonna die! Humanity has always lived on knife edge, our species perpetually one war, one plague, one eruption, one meteor strike away from extinction. But should our species kick the bucket during the 21st century, it may well be through our own actions.

End Times by Bryan Walsh takes an unflinching look at the myriad ways the world might end -- from planet-smashing asteroids and humanity-smothering supervolcanoes to robotic revolutions and hyper-intelligent AIs. In the excerpt below, Walsh examines the work of environmental researcher Klaus Lackner and his efforts to combat climate change by sucking carbon straight from the air.

It might be the German accent, but Klaus Lackner has a way of speaking that lends an air of authority to his statements, even when what he's suggesting seems to be science fiction. "If you asked me fifteen years ago," Lackner told me from his lab in Tempe, Arizona, "I would have said we need to figure out how to stabilize what we're doing to the atmosphere by reducing carbon emissions. Now I'm telling you we're way past that. We have to change carbon levels directly."

Lackner is the director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University and an academic leader what will be one of the most important fields of the future: carbon capture. Lackner is working to build machines capable of capturing and storing carbon dioxide in the air, a process called carbon sequestration. While most climate policy focuses on cutting future carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuel energy consumption with zero-carbon renewables or even nuclear power, Lackner aims to reduce current levels of carbon dioxide directly by sucking the gas out of the air. If it can be done -- and if it can be done affordably -- it would be nothing less than a technological miracle. And as Lackner himself says, we're at the point where we need miracles.

Emissions of greenhouse gases lead to warming because over time they add to the carbon concentration in the atmosphere. During humanity's pre-industrial history -- when the climate was like Little Red Riding Hood's last bowl of porridge, not too cold and not too warm -- carbon levels were around 280 parts per million (ppm). By 2013 they had passed 400 ppm and will only continue to rise. Even if future emissions are vastly reduced, the time lag of man-made climate change means that carbon concentrations will continue to grow for a while, and the climate will continue to warm. But if Lackner's invention works, we could bring carbon levels down, perhaps closer to that original 280 ppm -- even if it proves politically and technologically difficult to reduce carbon emissions from energy consumption.

This would be geoengineering in action -- using technology to manually fine-tune the climate, the way we might adjust the picture quality on a television. And in some form it will be necessary. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has considered more than a thousand scenarios for future climate change. Of those, only 116 actually see us keeping warming below the 3.6 F red line -- and of those 116, all but eight require carbon removal, or what's also called negative carbon emissions. That's in part because we've already baked so much future warming into the climate with the carbon we've already emitted, and in part because the fossil fuel habit is so hard to break, especially for those parts of the developing world that depend on rapid economic growth and the energy use that accompanies it. The only way to square that fact with the equally pressing need to keep warming below 3.6 F is to bake in a technology that doesn't yet exist commercially.

In 2011, a team of experts reported that pulling CO2 from the air would cost $600 a ton, which would make the bill for capturing the 37 billion tons of CO2 emitted in 2017 -- one year's worth -- a cool $22 trillion, or more than a quarter of total global GDP. But progress is being made -- in June 2018 a team of scientists from Harvard and the start-up Carbon Engineering published research indicating they might be able to bring that price of capturing a ton of CO2 down to between $94 and $232. That would mean it might cost between $1 and $2.50 to capture the CO2 generated by burning a gallon of gasoline, less than the amount of fuel taxes British drivers currently pay. Lackner believes that if he could get 100 million of his carbon capture machines running, he could reduce carbon levels by 100 ppm, taking us out of the danger zone.

If that price keeps going down -- a big if -- we might be able to save ourselves. And effective and cheap carbon sequestration would have the added effect of sweeping away many of the moral and political conflicts around climate change. If emitting the carbon that causes climate change is a crime, then we are all criminals. But if carbon dioxide is just another form of waste that can be disposed of safely, then we wouldn't feel any worse for emitting carbon than we would for producing our garbage bag full of household trash. Treating carbon emissions as waste to be removed defuses the psychological dissonance that can hinder climate policy -- the guilty gap between all that we know about climate change and the little that we actually do about it.

"I would argue by making carbon emissions a moral issue, by saying that the only way to solve the problem is by donning a hair shirt, you actually invite people to resist you," said Lackner. "They just stop listening to you."

Let's hope that carbon capture becomes a reality, although a recent study in Nature Communications estimated that it could take a quarter of the world's energy supply in 2100 to power enough air carbon capture machines to keep warming below dangerous levels. And that's assuming that carbon capture ever becomes a feasible product -- many would-be world-changing technologies have expired in the valley of death between the lab and the market. We'll need to continue developing low and zero-carbon sources of energy to reduce the risk -- including the existential risk -- that climate change presents.

Yet I believe we have no choice but to move full steam ahead on air carbon capture, for the simple reason that the strategy fits who we are. We are not a species that plans deeply into the future. We are not a species that is eager to put limits on ourselves. We are a species that prefers to stay one step ahead of the disasters of our own making, that is willing to do just enough to keep going. And we are a species that likes to keep going. Carbon capture won't answer the question of what we owe the future, or prove that we've somehow matured. But it will provide an insurance policy against the worst, most catastrophic effects of climate change, that fat-tail risk that could bring extinction in its wake. It will prove we're just smart enough, even if that means we might yet prove too smart for our own good.

Tech via Engadget https://engt.co/2N4ekI3 August 24, 2019 at 11:12AM

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droneseco · 6 years

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Lenovo’s Watch X Is An Attractive But Terrible Smartwatch

Our verdict of the Lenovo Watch X: The Lenovo Watch X is an affordable and well-equipped hybrid smartwatch. However, given its poor overall performance, your $70 would be better spent elsewhere. 310

High prices and a lack of compelling, unique features have meant that smartwatches never really became a mainstream product. Hybrid smartwatches have begun to fill the void, combining some of the best smart features with a traditional timepiece at a fraction of the cost. Lenovo’s latest, the Watch X, is an affordable entry in the hybrid smartwatch market. So, how does it hold up?

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Read on as we take a closer look, and at the end of this review we’ve got one shiny new Lenovo Smart X watch to giveaway to one lucky reader.

Specifications

Display: 1.5 inch OLED

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0

Sensors: Optical Heart Rate, Pedometer, Sleep Tracking

Battery: 600mAh

Watch Casing: Zinc alloy

Band: Stainless Steel, Milanese

Weight: 0.0810 kg

Dimensions: 9.65 x 1.67 x 0.48 inches

Waterproof Rating: Unspecified

Price at time of writing: $70 from GearBest.com

Design

Based on initial impressions, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the Watch X with a regular wristwatch. The only obvious hallmark of a smart device is the stainless steel Milanese strap with a magnetic clasp often bundled with fitness wearables. However, because the watch itself has a metal back, the strap continually gets stuck to it. This isn’t a problem when it’s actually on your wrist, but is quite annoying when attempting to store or charge the watch.

The main watch face has just four hour-markers at 2, 4, 8, and 10. There are also a few significantly smaller ones for minutes 5, 25, 35, and 55. There are no second hands to be found, with two reasonably clear hour hands. These hands are shorter than usual to make way for the OLED digital display towards the bottom of the watch face.

The grayscale digital display is minimal, with a width of just 0.5 inches. Lenovo does a reasonably good job of fitting everything into that small space. The text is readable and sits alongside easily distinguishable icons. As with many wearables, the watch has a ‘raise to wake’ feature, so moving your wrist will light up the display.

Where you’d usually find the stem of the watch (the knob on the side for adjusting the time), is where you’ll find the Watch X’s single physical button. While it might look like a stem, you can’t use it to set the time. Press the button, and the display will turn on. Multiple presses cycle through the various menu items. The rear of the watch is where you will find the charging connection and the optical heart rate sensor.

Features

The Lenovo Watch X doesn’t have many of the features we now view as standard with smartwatches. There is no color screen, music playback, GPS, or SIM card support. But, for the price, the Watch X is well equipped. For the health-conscious, there is sleep tracking, continuous optical heart rate measurement, and a pedometer. Some of this data is accessible from the watch itself under the Activity, Heart Rate, Sleep, Alarm, and Run.

Activity

The first menu option on the Watch X gives a brief overview of your activity that day. Once you’ve selected the Activity option, the watch will begin cycling through your stats. Your total step count, kcal burnt, total active minutes, and distance are all displayed.

As a regular Fitbit user, I have a rough idea of how many steps I do on an average day. Rather than wearing the Watch X and comparison device at the same time, I gathered data with the watch over a few days and compared it to past Fitbit data. For the most part, the two correlated. The steps and distance of my regular walks were more-or-less consistent across both devices.

Heart Rate

Optical heart rate sensors have been a standard feature on most wearable devices released in the past few years. That said, they don’t often pop up on devices as affordable as the Watch X, so it’s a welcome inclusion. Their accuracy is debatable though, and so shouldn’t be relied on for medical decisions. The heart rate sensor on the Watch X was broadly in line with my historical Fitbit data. Although there were sudden spikes in heart rate, these were caused by a chronic medical condition, rather than an error on the device.

Sleep

The science of sleep is still in its infancy, so while there are many products out there that claim to aid or monitor your sleep, you shouldn’t rely on them as definitive. In this case, it does require wearing the watch to bed every night. I’ve used my Fitbit and phone-based apps to monitor my sleep for quite some time, and the data gathered by the Watch X broadly matched.

Alarm

Fortunately, the alarm feature is nice and straightforward. Using the app, you can set multiple alarms on your watch. The alarm syncs to the watch via Bluetooth. When it’s time, you’ll be alerted with a pulsing vibration and the text ‘Alarm’ on the watch. You can even schedule recurring alarms for getting you out of bed in the morning. Fortunately, the Watch X performs this relatively simple task with ease.

Run

Like many activity trackers, you can use the Watch X to track your run. However, as the watch doesn’t have in-built GPS, all it does it track your steps and place the run into a separate area in the app. Still, if monitoring your runs from one device is important to you, then the Watch X may be the hybrid for you.

Setup

For all the hype around the Watch X—it reportedly sold out within 15 seconds—its specifications are incredibly tough to nail down definitively. Every site says something slightly different, and the watch itself only comes with a small leaflet, all in Chinese. It’s seemingly just there to encourage you to scan a QR code to download the companion Android or iOS app. Incidentally, the site linked to the QR code failed to load, so I had to find the correct app from the Google Play Store manually.

Unlike many gadgets which are pre-charged to a point, the Watch X arrives with no charge. With no instructions on how to use the watch, it wasn’t clear if I hadn’t turned it on, it wasn’t charged, or didn’t work. After charging for three and a half hours, the watch was fully charged. Following some experimentation, pressing down and holding the stem button turns the watch on.

After powering on, the watch didn’t display the correct time. As you’re not able to manually set this on the device, you have to turn to the app. The app’s calibration settings state “When the hands stop rotating, please enter current time to calibrate.” Not only did the hands not rotate, but entering the current time did absolutely nothing.

After multiple attempts and some online research, it turns out that you don’t enter the current time. Instead, you enter the incorrect time currently displayed on the watch itself. Counter-intuitively, the watch then syncs to the correct time. It’s so obvious! Fortunately, you don’t have to set the watch up more than once. But the initial experience of the watch is less than ideal. In many ways, it is the absolute antithesis of Apple’s “it just works” philosophy.

Lenovo Watch App

The companion app is undoubtedly the weakest part of the Watch X experience. Even once you’ve managed to find and download the correct app, the on-boarding and initial setup is a mess. Every time you open the app, a full-screen advert for the Watch X Plus (a pricier edition of the watch with barometric pressure sensors and Roman numerals) displays for five seconds. A smaller banner ad is permanently placed inside the app too.

You’d expect an app named Lenovo Watch to deal exclusively with features and data generated by the watch. Instead, the app is a fitness tracking app, which also happens to include watch data. But that’s not made clear anywhere, with the Workout section prominently displayed on the first screen. Workout options include run, climb, ride, and something called Details but with a swimming icon. Run data can be generated by the watch, while the swim data is only for the Watch X Plus. The other two options are phone-only.

Under the watch settings, there is a section named Funny Function. Included under that banner are: remote shutter, heart rate, smart alarm, and smart reminder. Smart alarm is the previously mentioned recurring alarms function. The Smart reminder feature is actually about receiving notifications on your Watch X. There are options for both call and message reminders. Despite many attempts, I could get neither to work.

The most confusing options are remote shutter and heart rate. Remote shutter supposedly allows you to operate your phone’s camera from the watch, but also never worked. You’d expect the heart rate option to allow you to access the heart rate data from the watch. Instead, it activates your phone’s flash and asks you to place your finger over the light to measure your heart rate. This didn’t work either.

Performance

The Watch X is apparently waterproof, but after some research, I found that it is variously listed as: waterproof, not waterproof, waterproof up to 8ATM, and potentially IP68 rated. With no clear answer, I wore the watch in the shower to put it to the test. After total immersion, it had no apparent damage and still functioned as expected. The Q&A section on the Gearbest website even suggests the Watch X is suitable for swimming, contradicting the in-app statement that swimming data is only available on the Watch X Plus. Or perhaps it’s safe for swimming, but you won’t get any data out of it? Who knows.

Similarly, the battery specifications of the Watch X are up for debate. While some say that it includes a CR2302 watch battery, the fact that you have to charge it suggests otherwise. It’s possible that the watch battery would provide backup power to time-keeping part of the watch. However, when it was initially out of power, the watch hands didn’t move either.

Lenovo claims 45 days standby time on a full charge, but you’re likely to get closer to five days real world usage. This isn’t terrible and is a far cry from charging it every night. However, the Ticwatch S—a fully featured Wear OS device—lasts a full two days too.

Is The Lenovo Watch X The Hybrid Smartwatch For You?

On paper, the Lenovo Watch X is an intriguing device. Hybrid smartwatches dial down the tech, but bring affordability to a mostly high-price market. The Watch X is waterproof and can theoretically replace your fitness tracker with its inbuilt heart rate monitor and pedometer. Even more surprisingly the Watch X actually looks stylish. You can’t ask more of a smartwatch that only costs $70.

However, the great design is let down by infuriating and, at times, downright sloppy software. Most of the Watch X’s features are found on equally affordable fitness trackers. Until Lenovo addresses the app’s shortcomings, you are probably better off avoiding the Watch X and opting for a straight up budget fitness tracker like the Mi Band 3. That is unless you like the Watch X’s timepiece design. In which case, save yourself the hassle and just buy a normal watch.

Enter the Competition!

Lenovo WatchX Giveaway

Read the full article: Lenovo’s Watch X Is An Attractive But Terrible Smartwatch

Lenovo’s Watch X Is An Attractive But Terrible Smartwatch published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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batterypowercentre · 6 years

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6 Tips for Easy Caravan Battery Replacement, Installation and Charging

Great! Vacation time has finally rolled around.

Only a week to go and you’re off to explore the wide yonder with your caravan in tow.

There just time to check everything out and make sure it’s in working order – nothing like a fault appearing when you’re back of beyond, with the nearest mechanic 200km away!

And then you discover …. … the electrics are not working.

You’ve had the van for a while, but never even thought about what powers it, it always just worked.

Now you think, where is the battery, and what do I need to get?

There are all sorts of things in a caravan or RV that the battery needs to power: lights, small appliances, maybe a heater/aircon, TV (really?) and other electrics. And don’t forget it has to charge your mobile phone!

So what do you need to consider when choosing and installing a new caravan battery?

1. Caravan Battery Vs. Car Battery

Many people think that you can simply grab any old car battery off the shelf (probably the cheapest you can find) and stick it in your caravan. But that’s simply not the case.

A car battery is designed to provide an electrical charge to start your motor. That’s it. It’s not designed to be drawn on continuously.

A caravan battery (also known as a leisure battery or recreation battery) is a completely different beast.

It’s designed to power 12V appliances and other electronic devices for an extended period of time – lights on at night, watching TV, electric blanket … you know how it goes!.

And although a car battery can be used in emergencies to provide power in a van, it is not the ideal choice on an ongoing basis for a number of reasons.

2. Types Of Caravan Batteries

Now that you know you need a caravan battery, what type should you get?

There are basically 5 different types of batteries on the market, all of which have their own benefits and shortcomings.

Gel batteries

AGM batteries

Calcium batteries

Lead Crystal batteries

Lithium batteries

That probably doesn’t mean a lot to you, so let’s look at each in turn, so when you’re out shopping you can make an informed, rational decision.

– Gel Batteries and AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) are a safer option, especially in the event of an accident. They are ideal for caravans and RV’s due to their nonhazardous chemistry. Meaning if you do crash you will not find acid running all through your van. And under normal charging conditions these batteries also do not release any gas.

Their lifespan is much longer than conventional lead acid car batteries. In other words, they can withstand a greater number of charging cycles.

Conversely they are also much more expensive. So you’ll have to weigh up the value of a longer life battery over the added expense. Even though a gel or AGM battery might be more expensive to begin with, over the lifespan of your caravan they may well work out cheaper.

– Maintenance Free Calcium batteries are sealed batteries that do not require checking and refilling of battery water. They are the least expensive caravan or RV battery you will find.

– The unique Lead Crystal® battery boasts a number of special features you won’t find in any other battery, including: a micro-porous super-absorbent matt (SAM)

Whilst they can be used in any situation where you might use an AGM or Gel battery, they are also more expensive. What you’re paying for is the ability to accept charge faster (perfect for pairing with a solar panel) and a much longer shelf life.

That means your caravan can sit around for longer without use, and when it does see the daylight, you’ll be up and going much quicker.

– Lithium-ion batteries are the new kid on the block. If you want to save some weight (and thus substantial fuel costs) on your long outback sojourn this is your best bet. A lithium ion battery provides the same amp hours as an AGM or Gel battery, but at half the weight.

They do however have some specific charging requirements, different to your more standard batteries. So if going this route, make sure you’re kitted out with the right gear.

Victron Energy provides some excellent solutions for Lithium battery charging. Check them out here.

3. Battery Safety And Maintenance

Unless you have opted for a sealed battery, regular care and maintenance of your battery will ensure that it lasts longer and preven such hazards as the leaking of highly corrosive acid.

If you’re at all concerned about these kind of hazards, steer away from purchasing a standard lead-acid battery.And instead make your life easier with a Gel, AGM or Lead Crystal battery, the least hazardous kinds of batteries on the market.

However, if you do continue with a lead-acid battery, find a good safe position for it in your van and fit it securely. Doing that will minimize the risk of leaking acid.

4. Battery Fitting And Installation

Installing a battery in your caravan or RV should be a simple matter of reading the instruction manual for your vehicle and following instructions.

However, there are some additional factors you should keep in mind:

Store or position your battery in a well ventilated area as it releases gas both while in operation and during charging. While AGM and Gel batteries do not vent gas under normal conditions, they still need to be in a ventilated area. If your charging equipment fails and over-charges the batteries, they will vent gas out of a one way valve. These type of batteries are also referred to as valve-regulated batteries.

Keep your batteries in a cool and dry area.

Mount the battery with fittings suitable for permanent installation. You don’t want your battery bouncing around because you only tied it down with an octopus strap!

5. Battery Capacity

How long any given battery will provide power for your van is a function of its capacity in relation to your power consumption. Figure out your maximum time between battery charges, then calculate an estimate of how much power you will use in that time.

Then go and choose a new battery based on the result you just got – after all, you don’t want to suddenly lose power in the middle of a Home & Away episode! But make sure there’s plenty of reserve capacity in the battery – see “Charging” below.

Think about how many appliances you need to run and for what length of time. How many lights are you running, what type and for how long? For example LED lights use a huge amount less power than incandescents.

What other electrical equipment might you have that’s not so obvious? Charging 3 phones and an iPad every night, perhaps even a laptop, will use power that you need to cater for.

At the end of the day, your travelling lifestyle might be such that you only run a few lights and one or two appliances for a short time each day. So there’s no use installing a caravan battery with a large capacity for that usage, it’s simply not necessary.

And you’ll be able to save weight and fuel with a smaller battery.

6. Battery Charging

It’s simple, right?

Just hook up the cables from your battery charger to the battery terminals, turn on the power and away you go.

Not so simple, if you want your battery to last.

Charging your battery incorrectly can cause damage that impacts performance, or even reduces its lifespan.

Never allow your caravan battery to run entirely flat before hooking up the charger. You’ll achieve a much better lifespan for your battery if you begin charging when the battery drops to about 50% charge. So make sure you allow for that when calculating your battery capacity.

Contrary to popular belief, trickle charging is not bad for your battery.

If your battery is constantly in use it’s better for it to remain on a trickle charge rather than recharging it when it reaches a 50% charge level.

When you do trickle charge, make sure your charger is fully regulated and switches off when your battery is fully charged or you could end up causing damage.

How about when your van is put away for the winter and the battery is not being used for a good while?

All batteries lose charge over time even if they are not being used. So to keep your battery happy and maximise its lifespan, hook it up to a smart charger while not in use.

If your battery is allowed to run flat and remain that way it will allow sulphation to occur, which is a white deposit that forms on the plates. Once this happens, your battery is essentially useless.

**Warning** DO NOT overcharge your battery!

When it’s fully charged, disconnect it from the charger to prevent reduction of electrolyte levels. If your battery is a maintenance free or sealed battery you will not be able to top up the electrolyte levels and your battery will die sooner.

If you’re going to be away from charging opportunities for an extended period or find your battery is simply not lasting long enough, add another battery as a back up or to run in parallel with the first battery.

With your new battery(ies) firmly in place and charging equipment ready, we wish you happy camping!

Still not quite sure what you need? Talk to our knowledgeable experts on 03 9793 6655 or drop in to one of our stores and we’ll get you sorted out.

The post 6 Tips for Easy Caravan Battery Replacement, Installation and Charging appeared first on Battery Power Centre.

#car battery #truck battery #motorbike battery #4wd battery #scooter battery

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thesleepstudies · 6 years

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Best futon mattress – based on statistical analysis of 4,200+ reviews – 2017 update

The Top 5 picks among futon mattresses you'll see below are a result of over 7000 work-hours, in-house testing, and statistical analysis of over 4,200 user reviews.

We initially put together this guide towards the end of 2015, and it's seen about 2 dozen updates since.

Without much ado let’s get to the results.

Best futon mattress - Top 5 compared

DHP Premium

Serta Cypress innerspring

Serta Chestnut

Home Life Premium

Signature Sleep Essential

DHP premium 8 inch futon mattress

Product details

Dimensions 58.5×12×12 inches

Weight of the mattress -approximately 70 pounds

Material of the core -coils,, independently encased

Thickness 15 gauge

Materials of the filing foam and poly-fiber

Materials the finish -microfiber

Frequently asked questions about the DHP 8-inch

The specifics of the foam

The foam used here is free of any potentially harmful chemicals -Polybrominated Biphenyl Ethers (PBDE), TDCPP (1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate, which is a known flame retardant, and TCEP (tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine).

The manufacturing also includes no ozone-depleting agents, lead, mercury or traces of heavy metals.

Emissions and off gassing

This DHP has a very low admission level of volatile organic compounds (under 0.5 parts per tri-million, which is some standards set by the CentriPut-US).

Foam filling used for the DHP meets standards of flammability set by CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) in their laboratory test manual for flammability as per the last update.

Is it washable?

It doesn’t include an additional cover and arrives as you see it in the images. To protect the mattress you probably need some set some sort of fitted cover that you can machine wash.

Is it comfortable for heavy people?

It’s pretty firm, so you will not see a lot of sinking, but the foam is thick enough -to the point that you don’t feel the coils if even if you’re in the heavier side or arresting sleeper.

With that said, heavy person who’s a sidesleeper and prefers a loftier, soft surface might not find it uncomfortable for long term sleep.

The bottom line is that it is not as comfortable as a regular mattress, especially goes for a heavy person. If you’re looking for something truly comfortable you can see our guide best mattresses for heavy people here.

What kind of frame to use?

We would recommend a metal frame with a minimal incline for the backrest.

It’s an innerspring mattress and, as you can see in the product specs, is pretty heavy and works best with the metal frame.

The most important part about this is that this type of frame will keep that safety in place.

An important consideration here is choosing a frame with slide-guards (these are usually placed on the front of the frame).

Is it comfortable used as a bed?

Among the products we looked at, this DHP is the closest as it gets to the comfort of a regular mattress - 91% of people, according to our stats, described it as comfortable when used for sleeping.

Choosing the cover

The cover that comes with DHP is part of the mattress but company makes covers for specific sizes. With that said, if you don’t want to spend any more money, pretty much any cover that fits the height of the mattress will do.

Another option that will work well are deep-pocketed fitted sheets.

If you go with the later, we would recommend going a size up and getting a Queen cover. This will give you the versatility to use a topper or a pad if you want to make it more comfortable.

The versions available

Apart from the 8 “ that were talking about here, there is also a thinner model (a 6-inch).

For most people the 6-inch version will be the better choice if the futon is used as a couch most of the time, simply because it’s easier to fold up.

But people who will be frequently using it as a bed will find the 8-inch model more comfortable.

Arrival and boxing

As most mattresses these days, it’s sealed in a plastic bag to make it more compact for shipping.

It’s only expands when you open the bag.

We would recommend being careful when cutting the plastic so that you don’t cause any damage to the mattress.

Once opened and expanded, in becomes pretty firm and sturdy so the answer to the one of the more commonly asked questions (which is whether you can fold it up and store it) is probably a “no.”

What colors can you choose from?

It comes in seven colors: tan, cobalt, merlot red, chocolate brown, charcoal and black.

If you want more color options you can always get an extra cover.

The loook without the cover?

It looks pretty stylish so even if you don’t get an extra throw for it, the mattress itself paired with a good frame is still pleasing to the eye and will work with most spaces.

Can it sleep two people?

The answer to that depends on your weight and size -for 2 people of average build we would say yes.

For those on the heavier side (over 400 pounds combined) it still might be good to sleep on, but we don’t have enough data to judge whether it will retain shape under this weight in the long run.

Can be used without a frame?

Some models are designed to be “broken” into three parts so that they can be placed in the floor with the lower two parts used for sitting and the top third used for your back.

In this case we don’t think that’s an option, becauseit’s an innerspring mattress designed with comfort in mind (over versatility).

Weight limit

We have seen no listed weight limit with this DHP. But, based on our experience and analysis of the materials we would say that you’d see no problems with the structural integrity in the weight range of up to 400 pounds.

In terms of sleep, yes, it can be used without a frame by placing it directly on the floor.

Is it waterproof?

The finish is microfiber so if you spill something on it you would have to react quickly and remove the liquid -to make it water resistant we would recommend getting an extra waterproof cover to protect it.

Is there a tie or some other type of fixture to keep it in place?

There is no fixture like added straps of fabric that you would tie to the frame, but based on our tests, it’s less prone to slipping towards bottom side compared to similar products.

With that said, if you do see the issue it might be smart to use a linen on the frame -this will further minimize the chances of slipping.

The simplest way to make sure that it stays in place is to use it with a frame made by the same company -a good example of that the DHP Aiden metal frame.

We’d go as far as saying that this is the perfect frame for this DHP -it comes in brown or silver, which complement the colors.

More importantly, it features two metal plates at the bottom that will prevent any slipping.

Is it resistant to cats and dogs?

Having in mind that the finish material is microfiber we wouldn’t describe it as resistant to pets and you’ll probably need extra protection. If you’re looking for a cat-proof couch you can see our full guide here.

Maximizing the lifespan

Since the bottom and the top are identical, it’s adviceable to flip it occasionally to minimize the wear and prolong its lifespan.

Runner up - Serta Cypress Innerspring futon mattress

Details

Materials of the core -the core and innerspring, 288 Bonneill coils

Finish -the coils are wrapped in foam and fiber, and then tufted using lace

Dimensions and weight of the Queen -80 x 60 x 8 “ / 68.7 pounds

Full-sized -75 x 53 x 8 “ / 114 pounds

Size of the package on-arrival

The Serta Cypress arrives in a box that’s about 6 x 2 x 2 “

FAQs

Firmness on our scale

Based on what we’ve seen and the measurements that we we’ve done after 1, 3 and 6 months of use we would give it a seven out of 10 on our firmness scale.

A bonus tip for improving support

Since this is a durable mattress and will probably be with you for a long time, it’s only common sense to take some extra measures to minimize potential structural issues.

Our tips here would be is adding a few slats beneath the bottom surface or, even better, using a piece of plywood between the base and the mattress.

Volatile organic compounds, off gassing

From all the products we looked at the Serta Cypress probably had the lowest initial odor and off-gassing is practically nonexistent.

Subjectively speaking, we would say that the Serta Cypress has the most natural “feel” from all the models we reviewed.

Compacting

The initial thickness is 8 inches but, like any innerspring model, it will slightly compact with prolonged use.

To lower the effects of material compacting, we would recommend both flipping and rotating it every now and then.

This will even out the wear and tear and increase longevity.

3rd best futon mattress -Serta Chestnut

As per our stats and tests the second best foot the mattress in the Serta Chestnut.

For most people the main advantage of Serta Chestnut will be the fact that it’s made in the USA.

On our scale of 1 to 10, one being extremely soft and then being extremely firm we would place this Serta at 7.

Details

Thickness -8 inches

Material of the core -foam

Colors available the Serta Chestnut comes in six colors -natural white, khaki, brown, gray, green and black.

Finish -the outer cover of the Serta Chestnut is 100% cotton batting

Dimensions for the twin -75×53×8 inches, the weight is approximately 47 pounds

Dimensions of the Queen -80×60×8 inches, waiting at 54 pounds

Frequently asked questions about Serta Chestnut

Off gassing

We have seen a slight odor that lasts about a few hours after opening the package and we wouldn’t say it’s a significant issue.

Simply air it out for an hour or two after un-boxing and the odor goes away.

Ideally, you would give it a day to fully “plump” and set.

Shape retention

According to our measurements and tests we’ve seen no significant sagging, which is common with models that are not innerspring-based.

Yet, the ratings in shape retention are lower than the top 2 best futon mattresses (the DHP and the Cypress).

Our current rating of the Serta Chestnut futon in the category of shape retention is 88 out of 100.

What kind of base to use?

Both metal and wooden frame will work, as long as they are bi-fold.

We would not recommend it for tri- fold frames. Although it is pretty soft and yields well when folded, it’s not soft enough for a tri-fold.

What you might see initially is a slight gap (between the armrests of the frame and the edges of the mattress).

As it sets in and expands, those gaps will be filled.

Used as a couch

Compared to other products, the Serta Chestnut is a bit thinner, which makes the folding easier.

With sub-par models, we often see “breakage” in the middle of the mattress (when folded up and down on daily basis) but we’ve seen no similar issues with this Serta.

Storage

As opposed to innerspring models, this Serta is easier to fold and pack for storage. You can even fold it into a role and use a vacuum plastic bag.

Is the cover removable removal and machine-washable?

No, the cover is fixed, it doesn’t feature any zippers so it can’t be removed or machine-washed.

Sliding

Since the coils are pretty sturdy and there’s many of them (close to 300), it will be more difficult to keep it in place when, especially while it’s new.

What might help is adding a sure-grip material to the top of the frame or going with the frame that features slip-stops.

Keep it in place gets easier after a few weeks or months (depending on how often you use it).

Support

It’s our opinion that the support could be improved a few extra slats on the base.

Home Life Premium futon mattress

Details

Core -15-gauge independently pocketed coils Size - full Weight - 60 pounds Material of the core combination of poly-fiber and foam Material of the cover - plush microfiber Size of the packaging – 8 x 6 x 4 “

Signature sleep essential

Info sheet

Coils of the core -13.5 goat, 5 inches high

Material used for the top -foam, 1 inch thick

Finish guilt that the card fabric

Colors available -black-and-white

Sizes available -twin and for

Weight - the twin size weighs 64 pounds, while the full weighs 74 pounds

Both between and full-size our 6 inches thick

Safety - third-party certified by CentiPUR-US to be free of any harmful chemicals.

Honorary mention - Classic Brands Brown

This mattress fell short from being included in the top 5 by the thinnest of margins, so we felt it’s only fair to give it a place as an honorary mention.

It features a coil innerspring structure, with each of the coils being wrapped individually - this kind of inner design places it, in our opinion, in top 3 of the category of "best futon mattress for sleeping."

The finish is microfiber, and we feel like it’s sturdier and less stretchy than the microfiber we’ve seen used in sub-par products.

It’s the thickness of the material that makes it easier to clean and maintain.

The bottom line is that, in terms of quality it stands its ground compared to any of the above listed models.

The fact that the overall rating is slightly lower is mainly because of the fact that it’s the most expensive option of listed, so its rating in the category of value for money is 84/100.

Reference tips on choosing the best futon mattress

Adjusting the size

We don’t mean to sound cliché, but this one comes down to your purpose and needs.

Most common sizes are twin and full and not many companies make them in queen-size.

If you already own a frame

The most likely scenario if you’re a long-term user will be that the lifespan of the frame will be longer than that of the mattress

If you need a replacement you’re faced with a choice.

You can either keep the frame you own, if you’re satisfied with it, or you can start from scratch or choose both a new frame and mattress.

Feel of the cover

With most modern pieces, the cover that you made of cotton, microfiber or micro suede.

The products we looked at are not water-proof and if that’s a factor you’ll probably need to a water-resistant add-on.

The good news here is that this provides you with a chance to choose the colors and patterns that will tie-in with the color scheme and the style of the space.

Choosing the right thickness

In terms of style, wooden frame will look better with the more substantial, thicker mattress. On the other hand, metal frames are better paired with a lustrous mattress that’s not as tick.

Types of futon mattresses explained

Shape retention

This one is fairly subjective and we did mention that some of the coil-based models will hold shape very well, but you shouldn’t take that at face value.

Generally speaking, a one piece, foam-based products will be better in terms of shape retention.

Frequency of use

For a guest bed, one that will be used occasionally for weekend sleepovers, you might save a few bucks by getting a cheaper model.

These will usually be filled with cotton, which tends to compact and form lumps with frequent use, but will do just fine for a guest bed.

If the futon is one of the centerpieces and used daily as a sofa and nightly as a bed , we would recommend going with something better and more durable, like the DHP or the Serta Cypress.

Best futon mattress for sleeping

As you could see in the ratings, we think that the most comfortable and the best futon mattress for sleeping is the Serta Innerspring. It's at the sweet spot between the support of the Bonell coils and the plush layer of the foam, which is the most important factor for sleeping on a futon mattress.

The balance is just right to keep your spine aligned and that goes for most body types, since it has just enough "give" to make the pressure points in the shoulders and hips minimal.

For kids

The choice here will be easier and will not make a significant dent in your budget since you can go with lighter, less expensive mattresses.

The cheaper options here are wool or cotton-filled.

For wooden frames

Wooden frames are the most popular choice because they look more stylish than metal.

Hardwood

A frame made of hardwood like cherry, maple, hickory or oak will call for special considerations.

If you make the mistake of pairing them with a thin mattress you will likely end up feeling uncomfortable with the hard wooden slats “protruding”.

To make sure you don’t feel the hardwood compressing against your body while sleeping, go with the sturdier innerspring mattress that’s at least 7 inches thick.

Conclusions

Initially, it took about 5 months to put it to put this guide together.

From that point on, we made sure to stay on top of things by updating it with new relevant information on quarterly basis.

We do it because the market is volatile and we see new arrivals practically every month, but it’s our policy to wait until the product has “aged” and we have enough information to go on.

If you have a specific situation we haven’t addressed above, feel free to use the comment sections to ask us anything - we reply to all comments within a day.

The following article Best futon mattress – based on statistical analysis of 4,200+ reviews – 2017 update is republished from The Sleep Studies By Bob Ozment

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