Xiaomi Populele 2 test

Számver old vördöréjnbo

test sponsored content

written by: mollusk
2019-10-09

If you can't play music, with Populele 2 you'll know in 2 days, and if you can, you'll have a great time. So everyone should buy two, because learning music has finally matured. The Populele is a smart ukulele that flashes the frets to indicate where to play them, and with the help of its application you can learn the art of playing the ukulele through popular songs. And the best thing about it is that, to my surprise, it is also an "offline" instrument. For all this, we have to pay HUF 30 GB $ 98PLB with a coupon code that includes VAT-free EU Priority Line delivery.

According to your order

reliability: 7
design and material quality: 7
equipment, functions: 9
ergonomics: 9
price/value ratio: 8

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I can play the guitar, but I've only tried the ukulele once in my life, so I was really excited about the Populele. On the first test day - after watching a few basic chords - I played almost all the ukulele play along tracks on YouTube sitting in front of the TV, I was completely hooked. I hitchhiked at home for a few days, then brought it to the office, and since then 1-2 "sámver óverdöréjnbos" have gone down every day. Let's say Marci sings this for everything, no matter what we play on it, so it works the other way around for us 4 chord songs theory.

So you can see that, regardless of musical inclination, this ukulele theme is very suitable for everyone, and it is a relatively easy instrument, at least at the campfire singing level, which can be learned in a few days without any prior training. Since it only has 4 strings, the chords are easy, the strings are soft, the bundos are close (the small transverse bars behind which you hold the string to make it sound different), so it is not tiring to play at all, and the application is really played teaches. Moreover, not with Beethoven's hits or folk songs from the 88th province of China, but with music from last year's radio charts, so you can't mistake your ignorance for the fact that you hate classical music.

Gallery

The body of the Populele 2 is made entirely of plastic, which is not usually a good omen for an instrument, but it sounds surprisingly nice. It comes with factory-fitted nylon strings, which are very gentle on the fingers, not tiring to play on them. I am not so satisfied with the tuning keys anymore, the instrument goes out of tune quite quickly, but luckily, each string is similar, so that it is approx. it remains clear, we just slip out of tune. The tuning function can be pulled up quickly in the application, so this is not such a problem, but it would still be nice if you could keep tuning for at least a couple of days. At first I thought it was just the new strings still stretching, but after several weeks the problem persisted.

The smart functions can be activated by inserting two AAA batteries and pressing the power button, then we immediately see a dance of white LEDs under the fingerboard that puts Christmas lights to shame. There is an LED under each fret of each string, which indicates where we should place our hands on which string.

The application for Android and iOSis available on , I tried it on both a phone and a tablet. On a tablet, the microphone may be more insensitive, as it often did not hear that I strummed the requested chord, but on the phone there was no problem. Before using it, you need to pair Populele via Bluetooth, which the app offers when you start it for the first time. It consists of three main parts: learning mode, joyful music playing and toolbox. The tools include a tuner, a chord collection, light settings, and you can also specify a unique light pattern, which means that you can turn any LED off and on manually.

Gallery

The learning mode is the main part of the app, starting from the basics, you can get smarter with English-language instructional videos, and then after completing various chord exercises, you will become more and more skilled through songs. You have to imagine a kind of Guitar Hero game, the chords come on a rope, and you have to pluck them in time to get a point, which is acknowledged by the Moon Bear sitting in the corner with a big smile. It uses the device's microphone for listening, so you should play loud and close, and of course always keep the instrument in tune. The ukulele also shows the chords to be played on its fingerboard with the help of LEDs, so we can even play without looking at the phone. The menu includes a tuner, a metronome, and you can also slow down the tempo of the music to practice.

In the happy music mode, we can cover well-known hits, but here there is no Guitar Hero mode, and the app doesn't even monitor what we're playing, it just shows the chords and a very basic rhythm that we have to follow. The background music is the Nokia ringtone and the shittyflute it moves somewhere between levels, the vocal part is often completely out of place, so it is quite difficult to find exactly when to strum. Depending on the setting, the instrument can also show the chords here, plus the brightness of the LEDs pulsates according to the rhythm, so it's easier to feel this too.

You can see the two game modes live in the video below from 3:35 and 5:22 (the chords were not turned on in the happy music mode):

If you are not a complete beginner to Populélézés, then the factory rhythms will quickly become confusingly easy, but you can always use your own beard, so you can get by with it just fine. However, I was very disturbed by this "swimming away" in the music, I think it can completely confuse beginners and does not help the development of a healthy sense of rhythm. Unfortunately, the situation is the same in learner mode: based on the melody, you should always strum a little later than the graphics would require. I always played according to the music, and the app accepted it 99% of the time, even though the graphics have already reached the point of tapping, so the performance is not affected by keeping the right rhythm, but it is still confusing, especially for beginners.

Summary

Populele 2 is perfect as a learning instrument even without the smart functions, because even though it has a plastic body, it sounds nice. The only problem is that the strings are easily out of tune. The application is good, but there is still room for improvement, the musical background is a bit crappy, and the synchronization of the sound and image is not perfect, so it can easily fall out of rhythm. The app builds the tutorial completely from the basics, so even absolute beginners can learn to play the ukulele while singing by the campfire relatively quickly and easily, which is also helped by the LEDs under the instrument's fingerboard. If they release an update for the app that fixes the mentioned errors, I would wholeheartedly recommend Populele 2 to everyone. However, I strongly recommend it, because it's great for both beginners and advanced users, and the price isn't bad either: the GB $ 98PLB with a coupon code for HUF 30.000, VAT-free (with EU Priority Line delivery).