Everybody loves pixel art.
It is reminiscent of old video games, and it has an undeniable charm to it, even if
you weren't around when those games were popular.
If you're a fan of pixel art, like myself, then you may have considered incorporating
it into the design of your setup, somehow.
Well, recently it seemed like Best Buy was trying to get rid of this particular item
that I'm about to talk about, because I haven't been able to find it on their website ever since.
There was a sale and it was going for a very reasonable price.
So, let me introduce to you, the DOTTI.
So, the DOTTI is a pixel matrix, made by a small company called WITTI.
I haven't ever heard of WITTI, up until I discovered the DOTTI, but they have a handful
of really cool products.
The DOTTI here sports a minimalistic design and that really allows it to let your pixel
art shine through.
The pixel matrix itself is an eight by eight grid, and it spans a total of 6.5 by 6.5 centimetres;
it's a perfect square.
The unit itself is an inch thick.
So, it is in no means, a bulky product.
And it [will] look great on any shelf.
One thing I really like about it is the fact that it's battery powered and it can be charged
via micro USB.
Everyone has micro USB cables nowadays.
The battery itself isn't huge or anything.
It is a really small unit after all.
It will drain on you, even if you're not going to be using it regularly, or at all.
I had to charge up the DOTTI before making this review video.
And I hadn't turned it on for weeks!
But that isn't too big of an issue.
If you want to the DOTTI to be on 24/7, you should just keep it plugged in.
[Just] find a way to hide the cable.
So, to interact with the DOTTI, there are actually touch buttons across the top, which
aren't visible.
So, the controls themselves don't subtract from the design.
To turn it on, all you have to do is hold the top for a few seconds, and it should turn
on by itself.
There we go.
So, the touch buttons aren't super responsive and that's one of my gripes with this unit.
While I really like the clean look of no buttons on any part of the unit, I would rather have
some small physical buttons that are easy to interact with.
Rather than some fidgety touch controls.
What really surprised me was the fact that they managed to fit gestures into this small
space across the top.
So, to cycle across modes on the DOTTI, all you have to do is just swipe across the top.
There we go.
Again, it's not super responsive.
By default, the DOTTI comes with a number of presets.
It begins with the default image, which is the DOTTI logo.
And then, you have 8-bit creatures which cycles through as an animation.
There is a clock, which is kind of hard to read, but I guess kind of neat to have that
feature anyway.
I wouldn't use the clock feature.
There is a dice feature; the dice feature seems like a bit of a gimmick.
Essentially, you can shake the unit, and it rolls a dice for you.
And then, finally, there is a battery indicator to indicate the battery level of your DOTTI unit.
Now, what really makes this product shine is the fact that there is an app that you
can download.
And using the app, you can design your own pixel art, and upload it straight to the unit.
The app itself only comes with eight presets, and that's the amount of images you can actually
save to the DOTTI.
You can't save any more than eight.
However, the app does give you the option to save the images straight to your phone,
so that's also available to you.
But, not only are you able to design your own images and upload them to the DOTTI, you
can also design your own animations by drawing out every single frame.
There aren't a whole lot of frames you can add to it, but it is a nice feature and it
adds a whole new dynamic to this [decoration] piece.
When the DOTTI is connected to the app, you'll also have an option to enable notifications.
And it can notify you whenever you get a new tweet, a text message, phone call, email...
Those features seem pretty cool and I can kind of see myself using them.
Another cool feature that might get you to actually buy more DOTTI units, is the fact
that you can actually pair multiple units together, and create a bigger image that way.
The app lets you group multiple DOTTI's together.
Now, I don't have another DOTTI unit here to test this, so I don't know how smooth the
experience is.
The result of grouping multiple DOTTI's together is a nearly seamless image.
That is enabled by the really small bezels on the pixel matrix.
There isn't a whole lot I don't like about the DOTTI.
It's a nice little box, and for what it's supposed to do, it does its job really well.
My biggest gripe would be the fact that you can't actually cycle through the saved images
on the device itself.
You need to connect it to your phone.
That, and the fact that the touch buttons are pretty unresponsive.
But, I guess that doesn't really matter as much because you're mostly going to be controlling
the DOTTI through your phone anyway.
So, that brings us to the verdict of this video.
In my opinion, this little product is definitely worth the money if you find it on sale.
At regular pricing, you would have to really want a pixel matrix to dish out this much
for a small box.
But, I think I found mine for about C$25, so it was a really good price for this thing.
This little product can add a nice charming splash of colour to your setup.
I imagine it would make a really nice gift item.
I know I personally will be using the DOTTI in B-roll shots in upcoming tech videos on
this channel.
So, that's it for this video.
Thank you for watching, let me know in the comments, if you think that you would be able
to find room for such a product in your setup.
And, I'll see you in the next one!
It is currently 1:34 AM, I have a college quiz tomorrow.
But I'm going to go ahead and push this video, and I would also like to take this moment
as an opportunity to thank everyone who has subscribed to me on my YouTube channel.
We have just surpassed 750 subscribers.