CGM Monthly Top 10 Reviews: April 2022

“The movie’s winning ingredients are plenty. But nothing tastes as bittersweet as Joy’s relationship with her mother. It’s rooted in a complicated clash of values. Evelyn struggles to be a loving mother with traditional, but overbearing forms of affection. The film effectively hits this note with Joy, an American-born Chinese, being shaped with repercussions and extra growing pains. For the record, Hsu and Yeoh’s best scene is delivered without uttering a syllable. It’s brilliant.”

“HUAWEI has put the money and attention to detail where it matters most, and delivered a stunning laptop that rivals most other brands on the market today. It is powerful, fast and beautifully designed. While I would love to see some more attention to the webcam and offer Thunderbolt across all SKU’s of the laptop, these are minor gripes on an otherwise flawless victory for the tech brand.”

“Bluesound players are devices you buy when you demand quality along with the joys of multiroom audio. There are plenty of options currently on the market, but few boast the same level of features, compatibility or pure audio quality. That is why I can’t recommend Bluesound enough, it brings that all to the table all the while making the experience painless and a joy to indulge in. The Bluesound Node feels like the perfect evolution of an already fantastic product, and a must-have for anyone already invested, or looking to invest in the Bluesound ecosystem.”

“Middle-Earth is calling in The One Ring: Section Edition and the One Ring Starter Set. This second edition of the award-winning RPG system was first published in 2011 and, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, is now once again available. If you have even the slightest interest in Lord of the Rings and like RPG’s this is a great buy.”

“Priced at $144 Canadian, the WD_Black SN770 is a DRAM-less M.2 drive and an affordable middle-ground solution that doesn’t compromise performance. Due to its DRAM-less nature, which bottleneck speeds slightly, coupled with the rated speed of 5150 MB/s, I wouldn’t recommend the WD_Black SN770 for PlayStation 5 owners. Instead, the SN770 is a better fit for those looking for blazing-fast performance and storage when it comes to their library of existing PC games, making the SN770 a hard-to-beat piece of kit.”

“The $329 price tag of the DJI Mic is comparable to the competition, but its sleeker look and more intuitive design (especially with the receiver), give it a number of advantages. Also giving it an advantage is its simplicity. There is no app to set up, control or extract audio from the devices. The receivers are recognized by a PC as a USB drive, so you can just drag and drop your .WAV files directly and all the controls are handled through the receiver. The DJI Mic is worth every penny.”

“The price tag of $899.99 USD for the ViewSonic Elite XG271QG is, for some, not worth it on paper. The features that add to the price are geared towards gamers, so if that is not a part of your plan, finding another monitor without the proprietary G-Sync will save you some dollars. It will appear on the high end of the price point in most searches for similar monitors, but the competition all seems to fail to check all the boxes that this monitor checks. Some max out at 1080p, some are missing G-Sync or any other specs that make this monitor truly elite.”

“The Rode PodMic was my microphone of choice for years as a podcaster and streamer and, truthfully, the only reason that I don’t still use it is that I moved to a multi-microphone USB solution for simplicity (and symmetry as I wanted two matching microphones). Multiple XLR microphones require either a mixer or a pair of USB XLR interfaces that cluttered up an already crowded desk. The first company that releases a small XLR interface that accepts 2 XLR inputs will likely convince me to bring them back out of retirement.”

“Overall, I think the team at Blurams offer a cost-effective security device that can be used for any security or caretaking tasks. There are also 2-pack and 4-pack bundles for the cameras that could be great for setting up at multiple locations around the house—I may snag some more later. This item is great for those who can be like me or Kristen Bell’s character in the Netflix series,The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window. While I had some issues with the app at first, the setup and use of the Dome Lite 2 was easy to use, and the interface made sense for my not-so-super-techie mind.”

“Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition brings back the magic so many fans have been enamoured with upon the original release. Beloved characters return with brand-new artwork, graphical design, and quality of life improvements that aim to make the title better. The Radical Dreamers inclusion is icing on a well-done cake that just adds more content to an already sprawling hours long storyline. All fans need now, is a Chrono Trigger remaster to finish the series up with a flourish.”