Welcome back, everybody. Now today I'm taking a look
at four phone accessories to see if they really work. That's today's video. (introduction music) So today's video is kind
of a mixed bag. Some were requested. One was advertised on Instagram. A couple I found on Amazon. So let's get started
with the first one, the iFLEX. (chill music) Let's take a look at iFLEX. Originally, it was just called
the FLEX, they added the "i" later. But, let's check it out. These are also available
at Walmart and Amazon. I believe I saw Amazon
for about $8.90. We've got a whole bunch
of different types here. So this is basically a cellphone
or tablet stand for home work, travel. It's heat resistant.
Can even be used as a trivet. They have different sizes,
and these can be bent for a lot of different configurations. I'm not, I'm going to get
into it more later, but you can do things like, like that for your phone or two phones.
I don't know. You can also curve one side
and hook it somewhere, like in the back of a headrest, put your device there. There's a lot of uses for it. You know, I was out
running errands earlier and I thought I was going
to do my first iFLEX test. I was out and about,
but I left the iFLEX at home. So I'm in my garage here. Let's just pretend like
I'm not in my garage and I, a passenger sit
in the backseat of the car on the road trip and let's see how we do
with the iFLEX as a phone holder in the backseat of the car. Now, I'd say the most common use
for the iFLEX from people using it
and from the promotional videos would be in a hook format
holding up a phone. Sometimes, it's over a headrest, some people might use it
on an exercise machine, but right now, I'm going
to put on the back of this seat and see
how it actually holds my phone.
All right. That seems pretty sturdy.
Let's see. Is that going to hold? That seems like it's much
sturdier than I anticipated to be. That's very solid. I'm going to have to take
this out in the car and drive around
and see how it holds up. Another good thing
about this test is that I can't cheat, because I can't hold it in place. If it falls, it falls. There's no stopping it. There's no preventing it. If it falls, I can't stop it. I'm in the front seat.
I can't even see it.
But, I haven't heard it
fall down yet, so that's a good sign. Another use they for it
is in the cabinet. I think what they were showing is
to have a hook like this. A hook on the bottom. Just kind of, kind of
close the door on it. And then you can put
your phone right there while you're using a recipe. I guess that'll work. You could put it here
by your stove if you're looking at a recipe while you're cooking. After perusing their website,
I was looking at some other ways
that they suggest using it. Let's try a few of them. One of them is kind of like this. I guess you put your phone
in there like that to keep it out of the heat. Maybe you can rest
your glasses on top.
I guess? All right. That's one. They kind of did one like this. Where they had two phones. I guess if you're sitting
across from each other you can each use one. I guess that might work. How about this one? I, I guess you could.
It's, it's kind of stretching a little bit, because you have to kind of squeeze it together. I think it's a bit of a stretch. Maybe something
like the iFLEX mini would be better. Let's see. Oh maybe. I don't feel like I have
to squeeze it as hard. It kind of still works. I guess if you're going
to get multiple iFLEX and you have a mini,
that could be useful for it. I guess? It does seem to not get
completely flat after a while. You can get it kind of flat-ish. But it is sturdy. It's very sturdy. Last test I want to try on this
is the, is a heat test with a pan. See how it works as a trivet. And then wrap it up.
All right. iFLEX is supposed
to be heat resistant. I've got this Hexclad pan here. Just currently about over 400°. The iFLEX is 78°. Let's see. Just going to put it
right on there for a little bit and see what happens. I'll come back in a couple minutes
and see what happens. All right. Here we go. Oh, it kind of stuck to a little bit. That's hot. It's very hot. But no worse for wear. It didn't even change shape. I thought maybe it
would flatten it out and didn't flatten it. I guess that's good? I do see how people
would like something like this.
There's quite a few uses for it. Next up, this has been requested
quite a bit. These are magnetic
phone charging cables. Let's check it out. (chill music) By request, these are magnetic charging cables. I'll just pull one
of these out here. There seem to be a lot
of brands selling these. These… I have the JSTH brand. The price varies anywhere
from about $14-$20 for multi-pack of them.
As you can see, it comes with three different tips, you have the USB,
USB-C, and iPhone. These have been
advertised online a lot. I've been requested these
quite a bit. They supposedly allow you
to leave this connector in your phone. And it's much easier to connect
your cable to your phone. So, we'll see how that goes. Looks like this particular pack
has multiple lengths. This is a short one.
This is longer. I can get one more in here.
I'll have to… There's not much label here. I might have
to go back and look at the listing on Amazon
and see what I actually bought. I know I bought a multi-pack, I just didn't remember
all the exact sizes of it. All right. I've had some requests
for these. Now, it comes
with three different tips.
And they're definitely magnetic. These would be easy to lose.
I, I fear that would be easy to lose, but let me see here. So I think this just goes
into your device. So, get my iPhone XS Max. I just stick in there like that. And then, we attach
the, the magnetic cable. That's, that's really
all there is to it. It seems pretty strong.
It's holding it up. There is something
oddly satisfying about that. The cable itself feels average quality. It looks like it's already tangled. It came tangled. But like with these tips,
what am I going to do about these tips? And I guess the other problem
is like say I want to listen some headphones
that are not Bluetooth, I'm going to have to take this out.
Which… Okay. It's not too hard. All right. So let me plug this in and make sure it actually works
as a charging cable. I had to move on to the floor, because I couldn't reach
from the table. All right. It is charging. So they definitely work. Oh and it's very attractive. It lights up
a very attractive blue color. Let me turn the lights off
and see how that looks in the dark. Oh, very nice. Well, even when
it's not plugged in the phone, it's still lit. (chuckles) I guess it doesn't tell you
when it's charging.
It just tells you
when it's hooked up to power. All right. Seems pretty
straightforward. I'm just going to keep using it
and see if I can come with any additional pros and cons. There's not much to it.
It just magnetically attaches your phone. We'll see if this becomes
a pro or a con being permanently input
into your phone. I don't know. We'll see. All right. So after using
these cables for about a week now, I do have one significant
observation. If you use the port on your phone
for anything but charging, this might not be for you.
Because you're going
to be taking these little connectors in and out and they are
easy to lose. I still listen to old school
wired headphones sometimes on my iPhone. That means I have
to take that connector out, put it somewhere, easy to lose. If you only use the port
for charging, it's actually very handy, quite useful. I think it might be something
to consider.
This is not 70s wall paneling.
This is actually a phone screen magnifier. Let's take a look. (chill music) All right. This is
a mobile phone screen magnifier by this brand, which I'm not
even going to try to pronounce. The way it works
is you open the cover, you fold it backwards, pull out the lens, adjust you angle. I'm not sure what that step means. Mobile phones silicone pad base. And then you experience
different video effects.
This is a 12-inch screen magnifier. It's a very
attractive-looking piece. So I think the way it works
is that you roll this up and there's
a magnet that holds it in place. Or not. But you basically roll it
in place, put your phone there, and then it magnifies it. Supposedly doubles
your screen size. Obviously, no batteries required, because it's not electronic. This is… I paid $22
on this for Amazon. There's a lot of these like this.
There aren't many that are very highly rated. This was about the
highest rated one I could find. People on Amazon
seem to either love this or hate it. Kind of reminds me
of the Magnivision I did several years ago. This I was not a big fan of.
A much smaller screen though. So I might have
to compare these two as well. So in this folded position,
it actually looks kind of nice. But does it really work? It's a pretty low-tech device.
All you have to do is roll this out. Life the screen and there's
a little piece of fake wood right there
that goes into this notch. And this also prevents it
from sliding. You cannot adjust the angle. That's… There's one angle
and that's it. And then you just rest
your phone right there. And the problem is
you got to get just the right angle to actually get the full benefit. If I sit pretty far back,
it actually looks kind of large. But I also have a lot of these… there's a lot of streaks in there.
Look at that.
It kind of has a magnifying glass
look to it and the edges, it seems like the edges
are a little bit out of focus compared to the center. Let me compare it
to the Magnivision now. Magnivision's much smaller. The Magnivision does have
a little bit of adjustment, it's also a much smaller screen. Here's the Magnivision. That's how much,
that's how much you gain. Here's the Amazon screen magnifier. I feel like the Amazon one is
a little bit better. They both have streaks. You can actually see out
in my backyard in both of these. So they're both pretty streaky.
With the Amazon,
you got to sit right in front of it to get the full benefit. Same with the Magnivision. Even though you can adjust it,
you still kind of have to sit at the same angle. I can see how some people
would like this. It's better than a magnifying glass holding your hand. Let me go into a darker area
and see if these streaks are minimized. Because I'm not liking
that too much. All right. Here we go. A darker room. The Amazon is bigger. I'm still seeing streaks
on both of them though. I mean it's not too distracting. I do think that the screen,
it looks larger depending on how far back you get. When you get pretty far back,
it actually doesn't look too bad. I'm about an arm's length
away right now and it does fill the scren pretty well. Even the Magnivision
is, is better from this distance I think. You still have the streaks
and, and the edges of the screen seem
like they're a little bit out of focus, but…
I don't know. I think
that there are people who are probably wouldn't
like something like this. I'm not sure I'm one of them,
but I, I think that there are people
that might like this. The Amazon version
is a little bit further away from the glass
than the Magnivision. So maybe that helps it
actually fill the screen a little better.
The screen is much larger. But other than the screen,
I think that they both seem to be about
the same quality of glass, the same quality of magnification.
I wouldn't expect it
to last a long time, but it does look pretty good. Magnivision folds up nicely. Amazon folds up nicely. See how much bigger
the Amazon is than the Magnivision. Seems to have almost
like a vinyl LP kind of curvature to it like almost
has grooves in it. That might help
in the magnification, but it doesn't help
in the reduction of streaks. It's very streaky. Let's try it out as
if I'm just lounging on the couch watching
some videos here. Easy to set up. That's a good thing. You know, I have to admit,
that from this angle, the phone looks huge. But the only other problem
is I see every light source in the area is
all reflected on here.
It's, it's a bit distracting. I mean if you can sit
far enough back, the phone does look very large. Look at all these light streaks
on there though. This can be distracting. Look how big that is. Oh. I'm kind of torn. I like the magnification.
I don't like the streakiness on the, on the glass. I don't know. They can look
from the phone's perspective. That's kind
of weird looking, isn't it? Very strange. And finally, one I saw
advertising a lot on Instagram. This is the Pocket Tripod. (chill music) This is the Pocket Tripod Pro.
This has been advertised online as well. I pay $35 for this
direct from the website. I guess there's a lot
of knockoffs floating around, so I have to be careful about that.
I haven't even opened it up yet. Get that out of there. It does come with this fit card
which helps you measure out your device,
but I'm looking for the actual unit itself. Important. Never bend
the two halves. Good to know. They have multi-color,
multiple colors available. This is the one that I chose.
I thought it looked kind of nice. They have adapters
that can basically fit almost any phone.
In fact, if you don't get the adapter that fits your phone,
they will send you one for free. At least as of this writing. It has carbon fiber legs. An angle indicator. Soft contact grip.
Fluid tilt adjustment. Thickness of two credit cards. It's pretty thin. It has interchangeable
adapters right here.
180° of tilt. And large devices can go up to 45°. Can be used with
or without a phone case. It can be folded
in a variety of different ways to hold your phone with or without a case. With a case. Without a case. To use it, all you do
is rotate among the center axis. I also pulled out
the Desk Call which I actually been using lately, which is a desk phone holder which they're not quite the same thing,
but I wanted to kind of do a comparison. I've also got my Red Shield
which we'll compare to as well. You're supposed to measure
your phone using this, which is included. You're supposed to look
at these little measurements in here which corresponds
to which adapter you're supposed to use.
See my iPhone 7 Plus, how it fits. Too big. Too big. Too big. Too big. We're getting closer. Closer. Oh, that feels pretty good. That's too tight. So I'm going to be on this one. Seven and a half, which is not included
in this package. So if I want to six
to a seven and a half, I have to, I have to get an adapter which I'm not going to do. All right. Let's, let's try
to take two here. Let's try this XS Max here with a case on it. Too big. Pretty close. That feels perfect right there. That would be a nine and a half. Let me pull this out of here. So replacing these is pretty easy. All you have to do is grab that, rotate it out. Comes out pretty easily. There's a notch right there
that these go into. I wouldn't say a smooth as silk,
but after doing it a couple times,
it does seem to get easier. As far as rotating,
then you can put it this way to kind of leave it in place.
It's not going to go back anymore.
Or you can turn it this way and tilt it back. They san you can 180°. Let's see. Oh, that's not going
to stay like that. 45°, yeah, maybe. Up to… How about 90°? All right. Let me try
filming myself here. If I can get the right angle. Let me try the Desk Call here
with the other phone. See, the problem
that I had with the Desk Call is it really didn't lean,
tilt forward enough. This one, Pocket Tripod, you can
tilt it a little bit more forward. And in fact, you can get pretty… Have a pretty good selection
of angles with it between using it this way and using it that way. I think. Yeah. I'm feeling it. I use Desk Call sitting at a desk and the angle's a little better. So you get out of here, Desk Call.
All right. So let me try
the Red Shield. You may remember
the Red Shield from a much earlier video. This one, I actually keep
in my wallet. I usually use this like
when I'm traveling on a plane which I really
haven't done much lately. But I can just stick it right here. I don't want
to use it like this as much. It's not nearly as stable, look. Nope. Not going to work. I use the Red Shield more
for typing into my phone on an airplane or something. Not as much in the portrait mode,
so I think that the Red Shield actually
is not doing so well in that configuration either. So let's, let's bring the star
of the show up here now. Try a little bit more
of the angles here. I don't know why you'd want
to film at this angle, but you could if you wanted to. So there is another way
you can use this. What you do is you turn it to this configuration, pull them apart. Now you have two halves
you can actually place further apart.
So you have a more stable base
for your, your phone. This is really good
for an extreme angle like that, because when it's together,
it's just not stable enough. Here, it's pretty stable. You can pretty much
lay this, lay flat. Putting back together. Just do reverse. Pretty interesting. So in the end, I've kind
of grown to enjoy the Pocket Tripod, not just as a tripod
but just almost as a fidget device. I find myself sometimes
just kind of enjoying the oddly satisfying
different combinations you get from that. I think this is worthy
of putting in my wallet. I'm going to take the Red Shield
out for a while and see if I actually
like this one better. I think I might. The only thing I'm not sure
I like about it is the price.
The Red Shield,
I think I paid $8 for. This is $35. I'm not sure
if it's worth the difference. I'm going to leave them
in my wallet and I'll give you an update if anything changes. (chill music) So there you have it. I got some pretty good ones
in this batch. I'm not sure I'm going
to keep using the screen magnifier, although I do think
that some people have some use for it. But overall, it's a pretty fun batch. I hope you enjoyed watching it
and I'll see you next time..
