TechSmart 121, October 2013 TechSmart 132, September 2014 | Page 18

REVIEWS

Philips NTRX100 DJ Speaker

T

AS A POWERFUL
HI-FI SPEAKER THE
NTRX100 SHINES,
BUT FALLS SHORT OF
THE INTRICACY AND
SPEED DJS REQUIRE.

he sleek sound stylings of a portable
speaker or home entertainment system
certainly have their place, but ask any
audiophile and they will tell you that sometimes
only the loud and raucous bass of large Hi-Fi
will suffice for a house party. To that end, Philips
has debuted its new NTRX100 speaker locally,
which incorporates a unique DJ mixing table to
showcase your skills, or lack thereof.

Hey Mr. DJ
Armed with two mixing decks, each with its
own inputs for a 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB
port or NFC enabled Bluetooth connection, the
NTRX100 can be paired with a plethora of music
playing devices. Added to this, is a crossfader
for switching between each mixing deck, along
with two microphone and one headphone
inputs. If you’re standing behind the NTRX100,
the independent decks are able to rotate a full
180 degrees to face the DJ, but controls like
volume, mic and headphone inputs and sound
mode buttons face away from its user. This may
take some time to orientate to, and impedes the
desired speed required for any would be DJ.
Measuring 70.4 cm wide and weighing in at 14.5
kg, the NTRX100 generates 380 watts of total
speaker output and has enough presence to take

BlackBerry Z3

centre stage within a room.
Housed within its dual bass
reflex speaker setup, is a 2”
tweeter and 5.25” subwoofer,
which is paired with four
digital sound control modes
and an NX bass amplifier to
add some oomph.

Lacking intricacy
As a powerful Hi-Fi speaker the NTRX100 shines,
not to mention the strobelight-esque effect
integrated into the front speaker units. For mixing
it performs admirably, but falls well short of the
intricacy and speed that DJs would require,
compared to entry-level stand-alone decks from
Numark or Pioneer. If, however, a booming Hi-Fi
speaker with a few enhancements to keep your
party going is what you’re after, the NTRX100 is
certainly worth a listen. RRP: R5 500. [RLC]

BlackBerry’s new entry-level Z3 smartphone
marks a solid effort to woo back some of the local
customers it has lost over the years.

D

esigned to reignite BlackBerry’s local
entry-level smartphone presence and
win over some former BB users, the Z3,
priced at a good R3 000, has a tall order to live
up to. Pushing that to the side however, if you’re
looking for a solid performing and well constructed
device without having to break the bank, the Z3 is
certainly worth a look.

Bang for buck
First off, it features a 5” (540x960) display, which
is quite generous in entry-level terms. With 220 ppi
pixel density, the screen is far from class leading,
but provides enough brightness and sharpness to
make everyday use pleasant. On the rear, one will
find a 5 megapixel camera encased in a textured
plastic back cover. The camera itself is adequate
enough, and takes decent images in good light
conditions. Conversely it struggles when shooting
in darker indoor conditions and renders grainy
images in zoom.
Internally, BlackBerry has opted for a 1.2 GHz dualcore Snapdragon 400 processor, with 1.5 GB

16

Philips’ new NRTX100 Hi-Fi speaker with DJ mixing table
won’t turn you into Armin van Buuren, but will certainly add
a new dimension to your next house party.

THE BLACKBERRY Z3 IS ONE OF
THE BEST ENTRY-LEVEL
SMARTPHONES CURRENTLY
AVAILABLE IN SA

of RAM for a device capable of handling quick
switching between web browsing, app usage
and messaging. Fitted with 8 GB worth of internal
memory, it also has a microSD slot for up to
32 GB of additional space. From a hardware
perspective the Z3 performs well, our only sticking
point is BlackBerry’s 10.2.1 OS, which could take
some time to get use to. An example of this, is
the lack of a conventional back button, instead
forcing users to swipe up from the bottom of the
screen instead to exit an application.

Right track
Flagship it’s not, but the BlackBerry Z3 is one of
the best entry-level smartphones available in SA.
Whether it can revive BlackBerry’s local reputation
still remains to be seen, but if the Canadian
manufacturer can design more offerings like the Z3,
it will certainly be on the right track. [RLC]

September 2014 | TechSmart