Tag Archives: smart ebike

The Gadget Man : Parrot Bebop 2 Drone with “Follow Me Bebop”

I’ve finished testing the Parrot Bebop 2 camera drone. A fully review is coming up shortly. In the meantime here is a selection of footage I have taken over the last couple of weeks.

The Gadget Man – Episode 30 – Gadget Review of the Year 2014

It’s been a great year reviewing such a wide range of gadgets from smart watches to high end sports cars. It’s been quite a ride, I’ve really enjoyed the whole experience, so thank you to all involved from BBC Radio Suffolk to the PR agencies and companies that have been so generous allowing me to try out all the wonderful tech!

This morning I spoke to Mark Murphy about my favourite gadgets of the year and the Gadget which won the gadget of the Year.

Smart Watches

We have a lot of fun reviewing some smart wear. We reviewed the Samsung Gear 2, Sony Smartwatch 2 and Sony Smartband. My favourite was the Gear 2, purely for James Bond features. However we have been asking to review other watches, but none have been sent out. Let’s hope this improves next year.

Samsung Galaxy Gear 2  – Wearable of the Year 2014
Sony Smartwatch 2
Sony Smartband

Smart Phones and Tablets

We were never short of phones and tablets which is not surprising given the size of the marketplace. HTC, Samsung, LG, Asus, Nokia and Motorola all supplied us with review units.  HTC phones exhibited the best built quality and screen sharpness. LG had the best screen of the two Quad HD displays (the other being the Galaxy Note 4). Motorola was the best value for money with it’s Moto G.

Overall, our favourite handset started and remained the Nokia Lumia 1520. A six inch incredibly vibrant screen, superb battery life and exquisite  camera. Although very large, it was by far the nicest of the all the handsets we reviewed

We also reviewed three tables, the Samungs Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, the Nokia Lumia 2520 and the Asus Transformer. The Tab Pro 12.2 was our favourite with massive 12.2 inch screen with better than HD quality, the Nokia 2520 with Windows 8.1RT on board was close behind.

HTC One M8
HTC One Mini 2
Nokia Lumia 1520 – Smart Device of the Year 2014
Sony Xperia Z2
Moto G
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2
Nokia Lumia 2520 Tablet
Nokia Lumia 630
Asus Zenfone 6
Asus Transformer
LG G3
Asus Zenfone 5
Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung Galaxy Alpha
Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Cameras

We reviewed a number of cameras this year, as expected the GoPro models come ahead of most others for their durability and quality of movies and photos. The Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 was excellent and was a fully functional Android device to boot. The Sony Actioncam was good, but kept fogging up which spoilt most of it’s footage. The Autographer was…. weird.

GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition – Camera of the Year 2014
Samsung Galaxy Camera 2
Sony Actioncam
Autographer
BT Homecam
GoPro Hero
Selfie Stick

Electric Bikes

I loved reviewing the electric bikes this year. I started out with the mindset that electric bikes would be a welcome relief from simply reviewing mobile phones for a year, but I ended up extending my ‘E’ vehicle reviews to cars. It was thoroughly interesting and liberating to get out in the Suffolk countryside and off the beaten track to test out these bikes. The Sparta is not really designed for off-road, but was capable and fast used for travelling to work. The Smart Ebike was fabulous and I loved every minute of using it, especially off-road.  The Batribike was excellent in every area, I only marked if down for off-road use, but this was a little unfair as it had road tyres.

Sparta Ion/RX+ 
Smart Ebike – Ebike of the Year 2014 – Joint Winner
Batribike Granite Pro – Ebike of the Year 2014 – Joint Winner

Electric Cars

This was an amazing experience from the beginning. The Renault Twizy was small and exciting to drive, but really only designed to replace moped type use. The Renault Zoe was an excellent car, out of all, this was the one car which could truly offer and alternative to fossil fuelled cars both in size and price. The BMW i3 was interesting and very fast. Design wise it hardly resembled an standard BMW but it was high spec and beautiful to drive. The BMW i8 was outstanding to look at and drive. It was like sitting in Red 5 at the end of Star Wars Episode IV, and the most exhilarating drive so far (electric car wise). I didn’t get to test the Tesla Model S this year, but in a week or so, I am looking forward to reviewing it.

I also got to experience 3 AMG ‘normally’ aspirated vehicles. I say normal, there was nothing normal about these vehicles. I experienced the G63 (G Wagon), the S63 and the C63 Edition 507. The C63 was simply mind shattering. When a manufacturer electronically limits to the top speed to 171mph, you know something is afoot.

Renault Twizy
Renault Zoe
BMW i3
BMW i8 – Car of the Year 2014

The Rest

I got to test out other gadgets and gizmos, ranging from domestic gadgets to toys and drones. The drones were fun, but in some cases difficult to control. The Ankidrive was fun and the Samsung Smart TV with Soundbar was very cool indeed. However, by far the best gadget we tried out was the iRobot Roomba 880. This is a fantastic vacuum cleaner and has remained in use at least three times a day since July this year. It does a brilliant job of vacuuming up just about any type of debris on any surface. It was fantastic!!

iRobot Roomba 880 – Winner
Samsung Smart TV and Soundbar
Ankidrive
Parrot AR.Drone 2.0
Parrot Jumping Sumo

Overall Gadget of the Year 2014

The Gadget Man - Gadget of the Year 2014 - iRobot Roomba 880
The Gadget Man – Gadget of the Year 2014 – iRobot Roomba 880

We’ve certainly tried and tested many gadgets this year. Some were disappointments, some were surprising successes. But at the end of the year, you simply have to hand the Gadget of the Year award to a recipient that deserves it for providing above and beyond expectation. With this in mind, we simply have to award the Gadget of  the Year Award 2014 to iRobot Roomba 880. It’s a fantastic piece of equipment which has genuinely helped us around the house.

 

Gadget Man – Episode 7 – Smart Ebike from Mercedes Benz

This week we talk about Matt’s seven days with the Smart Ebike from Mercedes Benz.  The bike is built from the ground up to be an pedelec bike, with futuristic looks and amazing features. A true ‘gadget’ for the 21st century.

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Special thanks to Carl Beer at Ipswich Mercedes for arranging the loan of the bike and for being incredibly helpful and informative prior to picking the bike up!!

The Smart Ebike from Mercedes Benz – Update July 2020

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Smart eBike Support in the UK – 1 July 2020

I get quite a large number of messages in the UK requesting assistance with the Smart eBike. Whilst I am also an eBike owner, I also fall into the category of everyone else with regard to problem-solving and troubleshooting issues with our bikes. I have actually reached out to Mercedes Benz and highlighted the issue of ongoing support from them on these bikes, which of course cost all of us a fairly hefty sum of money at the time of purchase. 

Personally, I have struggled to get support with my bike and had to bend several peoples eardrums to get a result after feeling left high-and-dry in the event of needing assistance. I personally was successful getting the repair work done on my Smart eBike whilst also having a Firmware update to boot. The technician at Smart was very helpful and in fact, was excited to be involved in the maintenance of a vehicle that was no longer manufactured. This involved the installation of software on his PC and connection directly to the bike. It might well be a good time for Smart to release this software into the public domain to allow for their customers to continue to maintain their bikes for years to come.

This does continue to feel unfair as I have (like many others) approached bike repair shops for assistance and have got absolutely nowhere! So indeed the only port of call continues to be Mercedes Benz themselves.

So, the official line is that in event of any issues with your Smart eBike, you should contact Mercedes-Benz Customer Care on the following email address [email protected].  I am reliably informed that you will be assisted with your query.

You can also view the Smart eBike Owners manual online using this link. Now read on!!

Matt Porter – 1 July 2020


Last Saturday I visited Lancaster Mercedes in Ipswich, an hour later I left with a beautifully designed and engineered German machine. But this wasn’t an AMG SLK, this was the ‘smart e-bike’.
Continue reading The Smart Ebike from Mercedes Benz – Update July 2020