I bought 0 Star Tech...
- I have bought nothing but zero-star tech. In the past, we've looked at stores that have some suspiciously positive reviews, but this time, we're going the other direction. Should you trust tech that has quite literally never been reviewed by anyone? Well, besides me, I guess. I tried to get a good selection of items from a variety of retailers because, you know, funnily enough, it's actually... - Yes? - I just realized that I bought a phone from a company called BLU, and it's green.
I feel like I missed (Alex laughs) the perfect joke that was right in front of me. This, my friends, is the BLU G64L. Now, this is a phone that we found on bestbuy.com that had, again, never been reviewed. So, why don't we take a closer look and see how my green BLU phone going to perform.
♪ I'm blue ♪ (Matt babbles) ♪ If I was green, I would die ♪ ♪ Blue, blue, blue ♪ - Okay, they call it a 6.8-inch Infinity Display, which is probably gonna be a bad 720P display, but whatever. We also have a little bit of an iPhoney-looking layout, but it's really weird. So, it's got one lens here, a lens down here with two cameras, and then the third one is a flash. That's an interesting decision.
Okay, just to put this in context, how much did I pay for my zero-star BLU phone directly on bestbuy.com? - [Alex] You paid $100. - Even? - Even. (Austin sighs) - Let's try it. Actually, does BLU have a number of years they promised for software updates? - [Alex] As far as I can tell in regards to software update, you get none (Austin laughs) unless you want to, you know, basically root it yourself. - So, that's a big downside.
Now, maybe we'll get some updates, I don't know. But buying a phone without the expectation of updates is bad? The reason I even know what BLU is is that, you know, maybe 10 years or so ago, they're one of the only sort of companies who are making that sort of, like, sub $200 devices that you actually could easily get at like a Best Buy or something like that. A lot of people who are looking for a super budget device, those devices could be locked to, like, Verizon or Straight Talk or TracFone or whatever. BLU sells unlocked devices, so you could theoretically put one or even two SIMs in here and call it a day. Pop if you need a burner.
I mean, an Uber driver phone (Alex laughs) or something. - [Alex] Hey, are you profiling the people who use this phone? - I'm saying I see some BLUs in some very particular places and for some particular uses, not that I would know about any of these things. - Interesting. - But, first-party Jack. You know, I've heard stories that maybe- - Interesting. You get a little sweaty over there. - I mean- - [Alex] Yeah, what do you know? (suspenseful tune) (audio beeps) I can still see this, the stain. - Oh, no!
I'm gonna now have a suspicious white stain on my shirt for the rest of this video. - Okay. - If you, too, enjoy this suspicious white stain- - No. No. - On your favorite YouTuber... (audio beeps) What? There are a few things that jump out to me immediately. This screen hurts my eyes.
Color and contrast. Automatic contrast. Yeah, that's what it is.
Okay, so let's hit Increased, or Standard. Oh, good Lord, the Standard looks so much better. Cool, all right, let's take a rear-facing photo. Cheese! (camera clicks) Oh, good Lord. Yikes.
Not so much the photo, just my face. Yikes. This is a little bit of a look what the video looks like directly off of my BLU phone.
Now, because there are three lenses, I have no idea which ones of these are real versus fake, but theoretically, you're getting some beautiful BLU image quality. Woof! There's no stabilization. For $100, it's not terrible.
I wish that they had an actual amount of software updates that they promise, and it probably does make more sense to buy a used phone as opposed to a brand new $100 phone. But you could do worse. Three stars.
- [Alex] That's honestly kinda generous - About to say, 2.5 stars. How about that? - [Alex] How about just two? - How about two stars? (Alex laughs) Great idea. Next up, let's take a look at something from Newegg.
So, this is something that I believe is new, but I'm actually not super sure of. This is the ROG Tessen, which is an Android mobile game controller. - [Alex] It's very new. It came out literally at the end of 2024.
- Now, how much do we buy this for on Newegg? - [Alex] We bought it for $90 and it was was on sale. - Whew! - [Alex] So it retails for 110. - So, this better be P-R-E-M-I-U-M-M-M. Premiummm! Anyway. Oh, I like that mechanism a lot.
That feels much more premium and obviously, it'll feel better once you have the phone in there. But like nice mechanism here. The sticks have... I mean, the sticks feel pretty average-ish, but we got a back and a home button, or I guess a menu and a home button, an ROG button, and we do have back paddles as well. Let me actually get my hands on an ROG phone and set this thing up and see how professional my gaming is about to be. Now, the ROG Phone 9 is a little unique in that it has the USB port kind of offset.
So I... Oh, oh! Initial thoughts, just holding it, I actually don't mind the fact that the ROG Phone is kind of more sort of offset to the top, because if you put, like, a regular phone in here, it'd be a little bit more centered. But without that, it actually kinda feels nice, 'cause I have like a little space for my fingers. Let me hop into a game of "ZZZ."
A very popular title that I've seen on many a Denki video that I've never played myself, but it does support a controller. The ROG Phone does run this game very smoothly. That looks real, real nice. I dunno what I'm doing in "ZZZ." - [Matt] Why did they... Did they rename "Persona"? - No, it's Zen...
What? - [Matt] That's "Persona." - If you're in the market for a premium controller, it does feel nice. I like the buttons, the sticks, and the mechanism for folding and attaching to your phone actually is pretty well thought out. I do struggle a little bit with the idea that it's worth over $100 if you don't get it on sale.
It is one of the nicer controllers I've used, but it that much better than a controller you could get for 30 bucks? I gave it 3.5 stars. - You cannot give half a star! Half a stars is through the average rating system- - I am the only average! - If someone gives a five, if someone gives a one, it's two and a half. - Three and a half stars. - [Matt] Okay. - Next up, let's evaluate a gaming PC.
This was, I will say, an item that had no reviews on walmart.com but was somewhat suspiciously affordable, given the specs that they promised, so let's take a closer look. 'Cause I mean, if we found some cool PC that's ultra cheap and a great gaming PC, then that would be great. I have some doubts, but let's find out.
I don't wanna jump to conclusions. - Oh, what's all this? - Wait, wait. - Oh. Oh, they just give you the thing. So, it's a DIY PC! (Alex laughs) No wonder it was cheap! Brother! Maybe you install the GPU yourself because they're afraid of shipping? I- - That's true. That's usually the first thing that fails. - Sure.
Still though, I feel like if there's some assembly required, it's probably something you should mention. So, it looks like what they did was they probably opened it and tested it and they took it out and put it back in the box for you. So, yeah, this is an RTX 4060 with my yummy treat attached to the side of the graphics card. Okay, so, we have some other things here. So we have ourselves a mouse pad.
I'm just gonna go through. There's a lot of stuff in this box. Well, let's see what happens when I roll it out. - [Matt] You're going to hit the GPU, probably. - [Austin] Oh, there you go. Oh, there... - There's the waifu.
- There's the waifu. - Perfect! - All right, I take it back. - There we go! - Back on target, my friends.
I'm hoping that this next box just has the rest of the PC just assembled. I'm hoping that that's what we've got here. (Austin vocalizing) - [Alex] (laughs) It's just another box. - Okay, this does look like a complete system. What an interesting case. It's all mesh on the front.
- [Alex] Airflow. - Yeah, baby! Can you remind me, how much did we pay for this lovely gaming PC directly off of walmart.com? - [Alex] We paid $880, but if you bought it now, it's lowered to 850. - This is actually not bad.
I want to take a look on the back, but this looks fairly clean. Let's take a look at the cable management to reveal. Oh, yeah, that's...
Well, about as good as it gets, I think. - [Matt] Way better than mine. Can we take a look at the back power supply? - It says something in Chinese. One moment, please, let me...
Translating, it says, "Warning, please remove the shock-absorbing foam inside the host before turning on the machine. Otherwise, the host accessories will be burned." Yeah. Oh, what the? - [Alex] (laughs) What happened? - What in the hell is this? - [Matt] That's what I'm saying.
It was weird! - [Austin] You might not think is weird or cool, whatever. You just ignore it. I'm sure it will work fine, but I've never ever in my life seen an outlet on a power supply. Let me install my GPU, get this PC set up, and we're going to dive into the Chinese internet or whatever is running on this PC, which I presume is Windows. With our graphics card installed, let's see what we've got. - Hey. - Oh, okay.
Considering what we pay for this PC, weirdness not withstanding, that's not bad, but we can't just try a zero-star PC by itself. We've got a bunch of zero-star accessories to go with it. Like... Wait, what else do we have? - [Alex] Well, why don't we start with a monitor? - To go along with it, we have a ViewSonic VX2428A, a beautiful name if I've ever heard one. Now, this is a high refresh rate, right? Is it...
180, 180 Hertz. Can you please refresh me? So, we purchased this from Best Buy ViewSonic 24-inch monitor. What did we pay for this? - [Alex] This was $110.
- Strike zone, that totally makes sense to me, yeah. Continuing, we have what I believe is our keyboard. Now, I can clearly tell that this was from Amazon, but- (Alex laughs) - [Alex] You sure about that? (mocking tune) - Did I just say Amazon with a straight face? - [Alex] Yeah, you did. (indistinct) - I can clearly tell that this is from Amazon, you know? - Yeah. - Amazon.com.
That's what that says. This is going to be our... Oh, I forgot I ordered this! We got ourselves our RadioShack keyboard. Cool. Well, I bet this could be bad. Let's take a look. How much did I pay for my RadioShack gaming keyboard with lights? - [Alex] You paid a very affordable $25.
- [Austin] That $10 too much, all right. Wait. Wait, wait, wait. - What? - Stop everything. Hold on a second. - What?
- Wait, wait, wait, everyone just gather around. (keyboard keys clicking) It's actually mechanical! I rescind my previous statements that this is gonna be a flaming pile of dog doo-doo. (keyboard keys clacking) So we've got ourselves what is looks to be a very solid keyboard for $16. Let's get ourselves a mouse. Next up what I believe is our mouse, also from Walmart.
Okay, so, we've got ourselves the Attack Shark. So, we do have tri-mode connection with a wireless charging dock, Bluetooth and 2.4. Let me prepare myself yet again. Ugh, welcome back. - All right, I can't- - Don't, just don't.
- [Alex] I mean, we know what the internet wants. - Yeah, wholesome tech content on YouTube. Available when you subscribe and ring-a-ling the ding-a-ling. Okay, the skates are fine. I mean, it's not a super high quality mouse pad, but I mean, it feels fine, fine adjacent. I dunno how much we paid, but I'm getting some vibes that this is actually like maybe not, like, super premium, but, like, we're getting some decent stuff here.
- [Alex] Well, you paid more than you did for the keyboard. - Okay, that's fine. - You paid $33. - Honestly, for something with a wireless charging dock, can I just say I normally am not a huge fan of some of, like, the graphics that they'll do, and maybe it's just because I just put it on and I feel better about it, 'cause the IKEA effect, but, like, that actually kinda looks cool.
Alex, can you do me a favor? - Yeah. - Can you gimme a price for my setup? So, PC, monitor, mouse, keyboard, my lovely mousepad. How much is this entire setup that I'm looking at right now? - [Alex] All right, so, we paid for the setup $1,048, but like I said, some of these have gotten cheaper over time.
- Sure. - So, if somebody wanted to replicate this setup for whatever reason, they could probably get it for under 1,000. - Lemme actually like fire up to make sure it all works, but I'm feeling pretty good right now. Let's go ahead and see our spec, though. Make sure they actually gave us what they promised.
So, yeah, so, Core i5-12400F, which is an acceptable processor. I'd say it is on the lower end of what I'd like to have for 2025, but it is a CPU that will get the job done for most games. We also have 16 gigs of RAM. It is slow, it is also DDR4, but fine.
It is nice to get a name brand 1 terabyte SSD. I'm not complaining about that. Our Wi-Fi adapter is...
Oh, 802.11n. Hmm. Okay, so, yeah, it said Wi-Fi 6 and that's Wi-Fi... Oh, 3- - 3.
3? 3. So, let's do this step by step here. Let's actually hop into a game and I can evaluate all of these things together.
All right, we're in game. Immediately see we are 160 to 180 FPS and this is on, like, 1080P very high setting, so... Ooh! Oh, you know what? Yeah, that is, that's not bad. Yeah. Oh, you know what we're doing? We're getting some lag, but I think it's just because we have crappy Wi-Fi.
- [Alex] Which is part of the setup. - It's part of the setup. - [Matt] Go in there, man! - No. - What is this hiding in the corner thing you're doing? - I'm our team player here. Ah, I got killed by (duck quacking)! So, the game is running.
Oh, God! I'm bad, but the Wi-Fi is actually causing problems. Like, I mean, people are literally, like, skipping, like, two frames a second or whatever. Let's start out with our mouse. For less than $40, this thing is phenomenal. The fact that it is not only wireless, it comes with the RGB dock, you can put the dongle directly into it, even the grip tape is nice. This one is an actual five-star item.
Now, moving over to the RadioShack keyboard. At $26, it's pretty solid and I'm gonna review it as a $26 keyboard, but considering that you can get on sale for a lot less than that, this thing is really pretty nice. It is certainly a low-end mechanical keyboard, but any kinda mechanical keyboard you can get for less than $20 is not a bad pickup. I'm gonna give that four stars. When it comes through the monitor, this is also pretty solid.
It's brighter than I would expect, given the price. 180 hertz is nice and you've also got good brightness and contrast, too. Like, it is actually a solid monitor all the way around. I'd say four and a half stars on that. So, for the PC at $880, it's a little bit more mixed. I wish they would've disclaimed the fact that the graphics card came included but not installed.
However, you are getting some reasonable value. A lot of fans, temperatures seem to be decent, you've got a good GPU, a name brand 1 terabyte SSD. The power supply is incredibly weird and the performance isn't massively impressive, but this is a solid Chinese gaming PC that's better than I expected. Three stars. But that is not it for the zero-star setup, because we have even more.
So, again from Newegg, we're able to purchase a zero-star reviewed MSI controller. So, this is the FORCE GC300 Wireless. It looks a little like Mad Catz-y, but let's be reasonable. Let's give it a try.
What did I pay for this? Because I think that's really gonna determine my thoughts on the positioning. - [Alex] $50. - Okay, so, not pro controller category, but certainly not super budget. Okay, 50 bucks.
All right, let's see. Okay, so it is very Xbox-y. It's a weird shape. It's like a little more, like, kind of... I feel like a normal Xbox controller kinda, like, fans out a little bit. It's a little bit more, like, narrow.
I don't know that I like it. I feel like I'm kinda, like, choking down the grip a little bit. Sticks are average, D-pad is whatever, buttons are fine.
First impressions, fine for 50 bucks. Lemme actually hop into a game that's gonna support a controller. I'm not playing "CS:GO" on a controller. - [Matt] I was gonna say- - No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that.
While "Forza" decides to compile, I do have one more additional item to complete the setup. Now, this one was from Amazon? - [Alex] It was from Target. - Target! So, we have got ourselves a Razer headset that has been... This came from Target? - [Alex] Yeah, it did, yeah.
Why? - Just read what that little thing inside says. (Alex laughs) Amazon Renewed? So, this is a Razer "Fortnite" Kraken V3. - [Matt] Oh God.
♪ Number one victory royale. ♪ ♪ Yeah, Fortnite, I'm about to get down ♪ ♪ Get down ♪ - I'm a little concerned, because I'm pretty sure this was not cheap. - [Alex] So, we paid $80 for this particular headphones. - Whoa! Okay.
We've been doing so well. Something's gotta bring us down. All right, fellow gamers, this is what it sounds like to record audio using my Razer Kraken "Fortnite" edition headset.
What do you think? Is it beautiful or is it the other B word? Jesus Christ! First impression, so, we'll start with the headset. Sounds decent. It sounds like a $40 headset, if I'm honest with you. I'm gonna leave my review. Let's start out with the Razer headset.
You should not buy this at $80. That is absolutely ripoff, especially considering that it was an Amazon refurbished item. If you were able to get it for $40, which is what the normal price of this headset is, it's fine, but honestly, two stars.
The FORCE GC300 Wireless is totally and absolutely fine. It has some nice features over something like a generic Xbox controller, but my biggest problem is the grips don't feel great. It's too narrow. It feels like it's meant for smaller hands, which I don't think is what they were intending for this. It is a completely serviceable, average, decent controller, but if it's me, I'm just gonna buy a regular Series X controller and call it a day.
2.5 stars. Now, this next item might not seem particularly exciting, but this is actually a pretty good deal. So, this also came from Target, and this should be a Lenovo ThinkPad, right? - [Alex] Correct, this is one of the few refurbished items that we got. It is the ThinkPad X13. - Well, good padding.
It's a nice start here. Wait, this is one of the good ones. I thought this was one of the cheaper models. This actually looks like it might actually be kind of decent. (Austin sniffs) - [Alex] Oh, don't smell the thing. - No, no, no.
It smells exactly like Fabuloso. (Alex laughs) It's Fabuloso up in here, which is, you know what? Top three things I could smell when I'm smelling a new product. It was built in September of 2022.
So, it's actually not that far behind. So this is probably like lived in some IT department for a couple of years and they sold it, refurbished it, and I somehow got it on Target. Quality-wise, it's pretty good. I will say that this sort of rubber finish, doesn't... It takes abuse well, but it looks like ever so slightly scuffed.
The screen also is just a little gross. It is a little bit of a chunky bezel. But again, this is the same, like, kind of design that they've used forever. Oh, okay. It's running Windows 10. All right.
I want to do offline account. Oh, thanks, sweet baby Jesus! - [Matt] It's got the best part of a ThinkPad, the nubbin! - The nubbin. Look at that nubbin. I actually think they're just starting to get rid of the nubbin on some of the more recent ThinkPads. - [Alex] No! - This was affordable, right? We did not pay a lot of money for this relatively new laptop.
- [Alex] No, we paid $350. - This was probably what? Well over $1,000 if it was new. - [Alex] Oh, yeah, it's like 14, 1500 minimum all day.
- Oh, it's 11th gen, okay. So, it's an 11th gen Core i5-1145G7, 16 gigs of RAM. We do have a 256 gig SSD. - [Alex] Keyboard is nice and quiet. Good for offices.
You don't want crazy Red switches that are- -[Matt] Kinsey. - I think a lot of people sleep on the idea of buying a corporate laptop, like a ThinkPad, on the secondhand market. I mean, this was three, four times the price just a couple of years ago, and you're not losing that much compared to a modern laptop. Yes, the screen is a little bit dated when it comes to the size and the brightness, and yeah, I guess technically, it would be nice to have a little bit more performance and battery life with a newer processor.
But for less than $400, this is a very solid pickup. 3.5 stars. (Alex sighs) - [Alex] Why do this to us? - Because I like to be a non-conformist. Now, this box has seen some better days. Now, where was this from? Was this from Amazon? - [Alex] Walmart. - All right, this stupid thing.
Okay. This is one of the items that I've been most excited to try because there's no way it's good. So, this is, like, game projector. We gotta find a good spot in here to project. Ah, we'll deal with that later. So, we have a couple of fake PS3 controllers, which is the hollowest, cheapest plastic and everything, but sure.
Remote, power, user manual, and then this is the projector itself. So, I bought it from Walmart. It was cheap, right? (Alex chuckles) - [Alex] It was, you know, 140 bucks. - This is gonna suck. So, the projector is up and running and it is definitely running Android.
Oh, actually, you know what? This stand sucks. You can't actually adjust it left and right. You're literally just going up and down. Now, this is clearly not a great wall to do this on, but it's not like the worst thing in the world. The projector does have an HDMI input. - This might be
the worst wall in the world. - Oh, it restarted again. Okay, that's the second time it is rebooted randomly. That is not filling me with confidence. Wait, there's "BB racing." Let's try "BB racing."
Now, my next question is, does the controller work? 'Cause I'm not solely sure that the controllers are actually paired or doing anything. Although this is a really long time for a game like this to be loading. It's not paired, the light's not turning on. I've tried to change the batteries.
It doesn't do anything. Oh, the controller's dead! Wait, what? How much did we pay for this? - [Alex] Oh, (chuckling) $140 - Brother. I'm not even convinced that this is a Bluetooth controller.
It might not be. Oh, it's off again. No one should buy this.
Both of my controllers are bordering on broken or non-functional. The ROMs are completely nowhere to be found. I can't even pair a controller when it does work for a minute, and it is very, very dim.
If this was 30 bucks, I would consider it. One star. Do not buy. - [Matt] The floating head has spoken.
- Subscribe to the channel and ring-a-ling that ding-a-ling. If you wanna see me do even more zero-star tech, I gotta be honest, this? This is actually really fun except for the stupid... (object thudding) - Oh, oh. - Okay, all right.
I just wanted you to know, (Austin stomping) this is the way I was sitting that whole time.
2025-03-01 03:51
