Neat Bumblebee II: One-minute review

The Neat Bumblebee II is proof that there are many options our there for those looking to get into streaming. It’s not a budget model but is quite affordable at around $100 / £100. Unfortunately, there’s also enough competition out there, making this solid but flawed USB mic hard to recommend. If I were to recommend it though, it would be strictly for streamers.

It’s not a bad mic. It’s very easy to use and doesn’t come with a steep learning curve that more fully-featured mics have. And, it can sound good as long as you keep the mic volume on low. But, with its one polar pattern and tendency to distort when the mic volume is up, podcasters and musicians should look elsewhere.

While I don’t think the Neat Bumblebee II is going to give the best USB mics a run for their money, it is worth a look for novice streamers, especially when there’s a sale.  

Neat Bumblebee II: Price and availability

• How much does it cost?  $99.99 / £89.99 / about AU$141.04 
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US and the UK

The Neat Bumblebee II, which goes for a reasonable $99.99 / £89.99 / about AU$141.04, is reasonably affordable. While there are more budget options like the JLab Go Talk, which at $49 / £49 (about AU$70) is just half the price, the real alternatives are similarly-priced USB mics such as the JBL Quantum Stream and the AKG Ara. 

Unfortunately, they’re pretty stiff competitors. The JBL mic covers a lot of the same ground performance-wise but adds a polar pattern and has an LED that dims or brightens when you adjust the controls. Meanwhile, the AKG Ara is the better sounding mic of the bunch, even if it’s a bit more traditional in its presentation and controls. On top of that, the Bumblebee II isn’t available in Australia.

That said, it’s still competent enough that if it’s your only option. If there’s a deal to be had, it’s worth it for novice streamers.

• Value: 3.5 / 5

Neat Bumblebee II: Design

• One control dial to rule them all
• Hard to tell setting levels
• Yolk-mounted stand is mountable

Though I don’t find the Neat Bumblebee II to be particularly striking, looks-wise, it’s still somewhat sleek in a utilitarian kind of way. This all-black USB mic has a half grill, half aluminum enclosure with just two controls and a logo forming a column down the middle. It’s held in place by a yolk-mounted stand with a U-shaped plastic base. All together, it’s not going to turn any heads. But, for the price, it comes across as well-built and well thought out.

In particular, I appreciate how Neat managed to pack all the necessary controls into just a physical control dial and a mic mute button. That dial can do quite a lot. By pressing on it, you can switch between headphone volume, mic volume, and chat mix, and then turning the dial lets you adjust to the level that you want. When plugged in, an LED ring surrounding this dial lights up and changes color depending on the setting you’re on. 

The only thing that I wish Neat would improve on here is that there’s no way to know your level just by looking at the mic. The JBL Quantum Stream does something very similar control-wise, but it also has an LED indicator ring that dims or brightens as you adjust the settings. On the Bumblebee II, you’ll have to rely on your software to give you that information.

To maintain its minimal look, the ports are hidden on the bottom of the mic body. While that does keep things a little cleaner, there’s not a lot of clearance if you’re using headphones with a large or stiff input jack. This was also a problem when I reviewed the JBL Quantum Stream. The Neat Bumblebee II does make its ports a little more accessible since the mounting thread is not next to the ports, unlike on the JBL.

In fact, if you want to mount the Neat Bumblebee II, you’ll only remove the base to do so. The yolk-mounted stand is permanently attached to the mic body so you won’t be able to use a shock mount. However, it does come with a mount adapter so you’ll be able to use most boom arms or mic stands with it.

• Design: 4 / 5

Neat Bumblebee II: Performance

• Only has one polar pattern
• Sounds good as long as you keep the mic volume low
• Susceptible to bumps and vibrations

Since the Neat Bumblebee II is a plug-n-play affair, getting started is straightforward. There’s no app for fine-tuning as you might find with some other mics. However, since there’s only one polar pattern, it’s not really necessary. The only difficult part of using this mic is knowing your levels, particularly that chat mix.

In terms of audio quality, the Bumblebee II is a somewhat mixed bag. Yes, it can reach a bit and sample rate of 24 bit/96 kHz, but I find this mic only appropriate for certain situations. The mic has a lot of gain on tap, so I have to turn it down to about 30% to avoid voice distortion. That’s especially true as I get closer to it as it’s very susceptible to proximity effect. Because of that, I wouldn’t recommend using it for recording instruments outside of just sketching some ideas for later use. Since it only has the one polar pattern, it’s not ideal for podcasting, either.

The good news is that I didn’t find it too noisy. While cheaper mics may come with similar features, they can have a high noise floor whereas the Neat Bumblebee II isn’t too bad. There’s no background noise rejection or any processing to minimize background sounds, but the mic itself operates quietly enough that using it is not an issue unless you’re in a noisy environment.

The Neat Bumblebee II unfortunately does too good of a job picking up vibrations and bumps, whether it’s on the desk or the stand. The capsule is supposedly internally shock-mounted while the mic body is yolk-mounted; yet neither does much to minimize those sounds. If you move around a lot while streaming, I would suggest investing in a boom arm to use with it.

• Performance: 3 / 5

Should I buy the Neat Bumblebee II?

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Neat Bumblebee II: Report card

• First reviewed February 2023

How I tested the Neat Bumblebee II

I started my testing of the Neat Bumblebee II by checking out the controls to see how easy or difficult it is to navigate through the different settings. I then recorded myself on each side of the mic from various distances and at various volumes so I could hear what the end product was. Finally, I recorded myself tapping on the desk, mic stand, and mic itself to see how it registered vibrations and bumps against the desk.

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

DrayTek Vigor2865ax: Two-minute review

DrayTek continues to impress us with its wide range of business-focused networking options, as well as a commitment to ongoing improvement with the latest features and upgraded performance. Today we're testing the DrayTek Vigor2865ax, which is the highest-end model in the larger Vigor2865 series.

These DrayTek routers are aimed at small to medium businesses, with VDSL2 modem, WAN port, and in some models, Wi-Fi support. The higher-end Vigor2865ax is equipped with Wi-Fi 6, but there are also models without wireless, others with VoIP options, or even built-in LTE connectivity. The Vigor2865 series is a multi-WAN router, so a key ingredient is its ability to maintain multiple internet connections for improved performance and/or redundancy.

All models include a VDSL2 modem, which supports 35b Supervectoring, as well as being backwards compatible with ADSL2+.  With a suitable VDSL2 connection, the 2865 series can handle speeds up to 300Mbps. Of course you can also use a non-VDSL option via the Gigabit WAN port, or even configure Wi-Fi WAN connections. You also get five Gigabit LAN ports, and further connectivity is available via the USB ports, which can support 4G modems.

The 2865ax model includes ultra-fast AX3000-spec Wi-Fi 6. This is provided by 2x2 MU-MIMO radios and 2402Mbps of bandwidth on the 5GHz band, while the 2.4GHz band can do up to 574Mbps. While not the very fastest Wi-Fi available, this still offers excellent performance. For those not needing quite so much wireless bandwidth, or wanting to use the Vigor2865 series with existing Wi-FI APs, there is an AC1300-spec model, as well as one with no Wi-Fi at all.

Multiple high-speed WAN connections are not much use without enough performance to actually share it out over a wider network, so importantly the Vigor2865 includes hardware acceleration options. It can be configured in different ways, but makes for a big improvement in overall throughput – especially when running multiple WANs. For companies that use SSL-VPN tunnels for remote access, hardware acceleration can give a huge 2.8x boost to throughput.

Some key Vigor2865-series features are support for up to 32 VPN tunnels, 16 VLANs, the ability to handle 1,022 IP addresses, eight LAN subnets, a robust firewall, filtering and QoS options, failover and load balancing management and Wi-Fi hotspot options. The 2865 also supports managing up to 20 Vigor Access Points, and 10 Vigor switches. Management can be done via the 2865 interface itself, or using the DrayTek VigorACS network management software. With the latest VigorACS 3, the 2865 even supports SD WAN.

Getting the Vigor2865ax set up and managing our network of other DrayTek devices was fast and easy. Performance of the wired side was top notch, and while exact Wi-Fi speed will of course depend on the connecting device, we managed 549Mbps at close range, which dropped off to a respectable 399Mbps at 10 meter range. Importantly, the 2865ax handled multiple high-bandwidth devices at the same time. It will come as no surprise that such a feature-packed modem router has a rather dense interface, but it's generally well laid out and quite intuitive to use.

All in all, we can’t fault the DrayTek Vigor2865ax in any way more than a quibble, and it's a respectable option for a small-to-medium business network.

DrayTek Vigor2865ax review: price and availability

• How much does it cost? $300 / £330 / AU$699
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in most major markets including the US, UK and Australia

It’s especially important to shop around for DrayTek Vigor products, because they tend not to be stocked as widely as residential gear, and pricing can vary a lot. The Vigor2865ax will set you back $300 / £330 / AU$699.

While comparatively easy to find in Australia and the UK, the Vigor2865ax is harder to buy in the US. American buyers may need to resort to sellers willing to ship internationally. Buyers Down Under get the worst of the pricing, while the UK and US, with their larger markets, are a bit more competitive.

There’s not a huge amount of competition in the Wi-Fi 6-capable VDSL2 modem-router space, but generally speaking the Vigor2865ax is fairly price competitive with alternate options.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

DrayTek Vigor2865ax review: design and features

• Feature-packed interface
• Multi-WAN support
• Excellent VPN options
• Mesh network ready

The main drawcard for the Vigor2865ax over similar DrayTek models is the VDSL2 modem. A key feature is that it supports 35b Supervectoring, which allows for faster VDSL speeds up to 300Mbps. While a fiber connection is ideal, many smaller or retail business locations are limited to VDSL for internet, so it’s important to be able to maximise the bandwidth available. For those locations where ADSL2+ is still in operation, the 2865 series is also backwards compatible.

For those who need extra redundancy, handily the 2865 series can also connect to broadband via the WAN port and an external modem, as well as being able to use a (BYO) 4G cellular modem via USB. Importantly, these options are supported by extensive software features such as failover, load balancing, bandwidth limiting and the ability to prioritise specific traffic, such as for VOIP.

The Vigor2865ax we tested includes AX3000-spec Wi-Fi 6, but the models with lesser Wi-Fi, or no Wi-Fi at all, are great for businesses who just want the 2865 as a VDSL modem and network management hub.

Networking is what DrayTek is all about, so it’s important to acknowledge that many of the most useful features of the 2865 series involve the use of other hardware. The 2865 models with Wi-Fi can be part of a mesh network, or even access the internet via a wireless WAN. You can also use the 2865 to control a wider network of Vigor products, such as wireless access points and switches. This is ideal for growing businesses, as it makes expanding a network relatively easy. The USB ports can be used to add external devices, such as 4G modems or temperature probes.

Performance is key, and compared to the previous generation router, the Vigor2865 series much improved throughput thanks includes hardware acceleration. This can be used to provide increased performance in a range of areas. For example, using hardware acceleration, dual WAN use can avoid bottlenecks, with up to 1.6x the unaccelerated throughput.

The 2865 series also has a long list of other business focused features. For example it can host a quite advanced hotspot web portal, including a customised landing page with loads of template options available. The router also includes a comprehensive firewall, and other security and content options, such as web page filtering.

Overall the Vigor2865ax has a varied but useful mix of features, without going overboard with unnecessary options that would drive up the price. Don’t take our word for it either – Draytek have online demos available for their hardware, and you can log in and look through the interface and features before buying. Check out the 2865 series at https://eu.draytek.com:12865/.

• Design and features score: 4.5 / 5

DrayTek Vigor2965ax review: performance

• Multi-WAN failover and bandwidth allocation options
• App-based wireless management
• Mesh networking support

It’s hard to do justice to all the ins and outs of the Vigor2865ax with just words on a page. To better understand the router and interface, we highly recommend checking out the excellent DrayTek demo mentioned above, where you can investigate and test the interface and features up front. You can also do the same for other DrayTek devices. The product page is also a good port of call, and makes it easy to check out the manual, guides and other resources.

Getting the 2865ax up and running is straightforward, and can be done completely through the web interface. For more complex configurations the interface can seem quite dense, but DrayTek does an excellent job of providing comprehensive guides, manuals and other help online. There’s also DrayTek phone apps for wireless management, which is much improved from previous versions, and generally works pretty well.

For testing, we added the Vigor2865ax to a network populated with a range of DrayTek access points and switches, as well as other gear, such as a NAS and IP cameras, as well as a bevy of smart devices and computers. We included a 4G USB modem as a backup WAN source.

We didn’t uncover any surprises in testing, and the 2865 was more than capable of handling all the network throughput we could give it. VPN links, bandwidth allocation and WAN failover all worked as described, and the 2865 made it easy to manage other networked Vigor devices. On our Vigor2865ax model, Wi-Fi gave excellent performance up close (maxing out at 549Mbps) and through obstacles such as walls. At longer range performance was decent, but nothing spectacular, due to the relatively low-gain antennas – we achieved 399Mbps at 10m distance. DrayTek does have higher gain and directional patch antennas available as an optional extra for those who want to tweak the Wi-Fi experience. Mesh setup with other DrayTek devices was reasonably quick and easy, and handover between mesh nodes worked well.

Of course getting everything set up just so requires significant time, but that’s a reflection of the depth of features, rather than a failing on the router's behalf.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

DrayTek Vigor2865ax: network management

• Remote management direct from router interface
• TR-069 remote management compatible
• SD-WAN supported via VigorACS software

One of the key features of the Vigor routers for business use is the ability to manage a wider network made up of DrayTek devices. The 2865 series can control 20 Vigor wireless access points (seven in a mesh network) and 10 Vigor switches right from the inbuilt interface.

Of course such a setup can start to become unwieldy to manage – often long before hitting a high number of network devices. While you can use existing TR-069 management software options, DrayTek has a paid server-based TR-069 solution called VigorACS. The latest version, VigorACS 3, enables the DrayTek SD-WAN solution on compatible hardware, which includes the Vigor2865 series. This is a great inclusion, as SD-WAN is a fantastic option for businesses with remote workers who need secure, easily configurable access to the company network while at home or on the road.

DrayTek makes it pretty easy to give VigorACS a try, and buying a compatible device means you get a free 30-day trial. There’s also an online demo. While it's not the only option for TR-069 management, VigorACS is a great match for DrayTek hardware, and for many will be worth the cost for the time savings alone. There’s also a large VigorACS knowledge base of articles that make using it much easier.

Should I buy the DrayTek Vigor2865ax?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

DrayTek Vigor2865ax review: final verdict

The Vigor2865ax is a relatively affordable business VDSL modem router, and combines a useful array of features for small to growing businesses. It has a decent amount of flexibility and future-proofing to scale with a business' needs, as well as plenty of options for more advanced functionality such as SD-WAN support.

The inclusion of hardware acceleration is of key importance, and takes the 2865 series from a pretty standard option to one with enough throughput to make it viable to hold off from upgrading to a 2.5GbE or faster solution.

While it is very capable on its own, the Vigor2865 series really performs best when paired with other DrayTek devices, as well as the VigorACS software. The hardware itself is excellent, but it's also important to note the relative abundance of support options to help get the most out of the router. The software side is also top notch, and DrayTek is committed to frequent upgrades and improvements over time.  

It’s hard to fault the Vigor2865ax from a technical perspective, and most of our quibbles are really a wishlist of extra features that would inevitably drive up the price. It’s not perfect, but does what it says on the box with little fuss, at an appropriate price. For those businesses who can make use of its unique set of features, the Vigor2865ax is a great choice.

[First reviewed February 2023]

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD : Two minute review

Western Digital has divided up the branding of its products into sub-brands, and the SanDisk Professional brand is specifically aimed at supporting customers with specialist needs.

In this grouping are external RAID enclosures, desktop G-DRIVE products and various flash drive readers, along with the subject of interest to us today, external SSDs.

Existing SanDisk customers will be familiar with its Extreme PRO portable drives and how they offer excellent value for money for ordinary users. But the SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 isn’t cheap, moving it from something home users might consider into more of a business solution.

There are two aspects to this design that aim to justify its cost over an Extreme series drive, and those are its resilience and its performance.

On picking it up, it’s evident that the exterior of the PRO-G40 is much more refined than the Extreme PRO products, which are primarily plastic. The PRO-G40 combines a metal form with a rubberised coating on the underside and sides, delivering up to 4000lb of crush resistance and the ability to survive up to a 3m drop.

It’s also IP68 dust/water resistant, which means it can handle getting wet or dusty without it destroying the drive, although we probably wouldn’t take it swimming.

SanDisk has high confidence that the rugged enclosure on the PRO-G40 should keep the NAND technology inside safe and demonstrate this with a 5-year limited warranty.

Being rugged is good, but the more significant selling point here is the performance of this external drive, which matches some internal SDD storage.

Exactly how fast it operates is dependent on the speed of the system it is connected to and the connection technology that is used. The PRO-G40 works with both USB and Thunderbolt interfaces, with the fastest transfer speeds achievable with Thunderbolt.

The quoted performance is 2700MB/s reading, and 1900MB/s writes over Thunderbolt (40Gbps), though this drops to closer to 1000MB/s over USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbit).

By using Thunderbolt, it is possible to copy a 50GB file to the PRO-G40 in around 30 seconds if the internal SSD can keep up.

This performance hints that if you only have USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, then it probably isn’t worth the extra expense over a SanDisk Extreme Pro, Crucial X8 or similar. But for those with Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4.0, a significant performance benefit might make it worth the extra investment.

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $279.99 / £297.99
• When is it out? It is available now
• Where can you get it? Widely available from the larger online retailers in most regions.

But even by Thunderbolt-connected SSD standards, this cost is expensive, and those wanting something more affordable with a similar capability should look at the Plugable product range

We’ve noticed that the price of this drive has been reduced recently, reflecting the reduced cost of NAND modules and high levels of competition in this sector.

Bought directly from the makers, the 1TB and 2TB models are £297.99 and £495.99 in the UK. In the USA, they can be bought for $279.99 and $399.99.

Therefore they are more expensive outside America, by between 20% and 30%.

Prices in the rest of Europe are slightly lower than UK costs, but not by much.

For those curious how the cost is divided between the enclosure and the NVMe drive inside, these drives utilise the SN750 SE SSD. That module costs just $95.99 for the 1TB model.

That makes the PRO-G40 enclosure over $200, assuming the retail cost of the module inside, a price that SanDisk almost certainly doesn’t pay internally.

This reveals that this is an overpriced product even with the recent cost reductions, as it is twice the price of a good USB 3.2 Gen 2 design, like the Crucial X8, for the same capacity of storage.

• Value: 3/ 5

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD: Design

• Tough enclosure
• No carry case
• Lacks USB-A adapter

As external SSDs go, the PRO-G40 might not be the smallest one we’ve looked at, but it feels remarkably sturdy. And, although we never drove a vehicle over ours, it can probably withstand the 4000lb of crush weight that SanDisk claims for it.

The rubberised TPU used on the sides and back of the drive helps prevent it from scratching other hardware if it is placed in the same bag, like one used for a laptop.

That’s a good thing because out of the box, even at this price, SanDisk doesn’t include a pouch for the drive and USB-C cable. An omission that third-party case makers are probably already working to address.

The other item that is missing, and really should have been included, is a USB-C to USB-A cable.

What you get with this drive is a short 20 cm cable that works for both Thunderbolt and USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection, but no means to connect the drive to a USB-A, only USB-C ports.

These adapters aren’t expensive. Crucial includes one for free with the X8, and the PRO-G40 box doesn’t include one is unfortunate.

We didn’t try to open our review hardware, but there are four visible screws on the top that might help open it for those willing to void their 5-year warranty and negate the dust and water resistance of this device.

• Design: 4 / 5

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD: Features

• Only 1TB and 2TB options
• No hardware Encryption
• Apple Pre-formatted

The most significant flaw of the SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 is that the biggest capacity available is only 2TB. Whereas the SanDisk Extreme series drives come with 500GB and 4TB options, the PRO-G40 is either 1TB or 2TB.

The issue here is that the designers of the PRO-G40 evidently decided that the NVMe inside would be the SN750 SE, and that doesn’t come in 4TB.

A quick scan through the Western Digital range of retail SSDs reveals that the biggest NVMe drives they make are 2TB, with the one exception being the WD Black SN850X.

Crucial, Sabrent, Corsair, Seagate and others make multiple M.2 4TB designs, but more confusingly, SanDisk has 4TB SSDs in its SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD V2 range.

Not sure how the PRO-G40 only gets a maximum of 2TB, but that’s what it got.

The performance of external storage is dictated by the bandwidth of the NAND modules onboard and the controller/bridge chip configuration.

In this design, the bridge chip is an Intel Titan Ridge chip, the JHL7440 Thunderbolt 3 controller that first appeared in 2018, designed for PCIe Gen 3 operations.

But that silicon doesn’t handle USB, so a secondary Asmedia ASM2362 is used for a PCI Express(downstream port) to USB3.1(UFP) bridge.

The maximum speed of the JHL7440 is 40Gbps over Thunderbolt, and the Asmedia ASM2362 can shift 10Gbit/s over USB.

For those purchasing the PRO-G40 for their Apple Mac, all they need to do is take it out of the box and connect it to an Apple-branded computer, as the drive is pre-formatted with APFS.

Microsoft Windows users will discover that the drive doesn’t appear if they connect it, sadly.

They will need the technical knowledge and confidence to use the Windows management console to delete the existing partition and create a new NTFS or exFAT volume for it to work.

This choice seems odd since other drive makers deliver drives with a dual boot model that allows both Apple and PC owners to get a drive configured without needing specialist knowledge.

SanDisk includes no software of any kind for this drive on the device and seems to have assumed that it will be used exclusively with Apple Time Machine on that brand of device.

It’s also worth noting that the SN750 SE drive that is used here doesn’t support hardware encryption. While it is possible to use with software encryption, like Microsoft BitLocker, this doesn’t offer the same level of protection that hardware-encrypted storage has.

• Features: 4 / 5

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD: Performance

• High speeds on Thunderbolt
• Good speeds on USB

It’s interesting to note that when we first saw the PRO-G40, we only tested it on a PC with Thunderbolt 3 interface, and we got good but not exceptional performance.

We’ve reviewed several external SSDs that support either Thunderbolt or USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, and the increase in bandwidth that these interfaces offer has a dramatic impact on the speeds of reading and writing.

On the Thunderbolt 3 PC, the speeds topped out at around 2,770MB/s reads with 2,570 MB/s writes, and under USB-C, those numbers dropped to around 1,000MB/s in both directions.

That’s better than the 2700MB/s reading and 1900MB/s that SanDisk quotes, but it isn’t as quick as this drive can go.

Plugging it into a recent Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 Gen 1 laptop, with its USB 4.0 ports that are backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 3, it received a significant speed boost.

Over this interface, the PRO-G40 managed over 3,150MB/s reads and 2,700MB/s writes using the 2TB model.

That makes the PRO-G40 the fastest external Thunderbolt drive we’ve tested recently by some margin. The only drive we’ve seen that is close to this is the OWC Envoy Pro FX, and that costs even more than the PRO-G40.

Over USB, the best performance we attained was around 1,000MB/s for both reading and writing, but that’s the interface, not the drive.

The speed of this drive over Thunderbolt might justify the cost in some quarters if they have Thunderbolt or  USB 4.0. But for users with only USB 3.2 Gen 2, there are cheaper choices that can match the physical resilience and USB performance for a substantially smaller outlay.

• Performance: 5 / 5

If you want the very fastest Thunderbolt external SSD, then the PRO-G40 is probably wearing that crown for now.

But the maximum capacity is only 2TB, and the exorbitant cost compared with comparable USB devices like the Corsair X8 or other SanDisk options make it a little less compelling.

SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD: Report card

Should you buy a SanDisk Professional PRO-G40 SSD?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider