Carry-on Digital Wind Instrument 2 Plus - White

Sounds good and instruments as I expected

It's lightweight and well presented in it's box and comes with a carry pouch.
Sounds-wise it's OK, the different voices offer variety

Arrived on schedule! The flute is very nice and functional.

As I expected, this is full of features and great instruments

TLDR: This is a useful and very flexible EWI. The sounds are OK through the built-in speaker and very good through headphones or an external speaker. It is simple to play. The only thing I don't like is that the battery isn't replaceable.

Rationale:
I'm getting on a bit now and can no longer play my beloved banjo due to Parkinson's. I still enjoy making music, though. I originally tried the clarinet, but it takes years to master ... and I haven't got that many more years left. An EWI produces a decent, in-tune sound immediately without having to spend years learning the embouchure and intonation. Another advantage is that I can practice silently with headphones.

I enjoy playing along to karaoke and midi files I've written on my computer and playing solo for my own pleasure.

Playability:
This is very simple and intuitive to play. Hold all the buttons down to get the lowest note. Each finger you take off gives you the next note on the scale. When you run out of notes, start again on the higher or lower octave. So you have a total range of 3 octaves ... enough for most tunes you'll ever want to play. There are two more buttons allowing you to go up and down a semitone, so accidentals are easy.

If I have any complaint, it would be about the octave selectors: it's quite easy to miss your position and suddenly jump or drop an octave. This might be due to my Parkinson's, so it's not something most will be concerned about. I'm finding that I am getting better at controlling this.

Sound:
There are 10 built-in sounds which are easily selected. They sound OK but a bit tinny through the built-in speaker, but really quite good through headphones or an external speaker. No one in the next room will think you're playing a real clarinet (for example) but they will recognise what it's supposed to be. The sax sounds are pretty good and the flute is very pleasant.

I usually play it through a small Bluetooth speaker connected through a 3.5 mm jack cable. The sound is remarkably good.

Very useful is the ability to transpose. So if you learn a tune in F but your buddy plays it in Eb, you can simply transpose down a full tone and you're both playing in the same key. I've found this useful for playing along with karaoke as well.

Flexibility:
The instrument is fully diatonic, so you can theoretically play in any key. Most people will naturally gravitate to C, F or G as these are the easy keys. When you add the transpose function, you have immense flexibility. And by transposing up a tone. folkies can play in D, G and A easily (although you'll need to tune down again to make Am, Dm and Em easy).

Playing sharps and flats is very easy; the two buttons on your left hand little finger perform this function. You can also use cross-fingerings similar to a recorder; they're all given in the manual. This gives you an additional level of flexibility. You'll find that you use different fingerings of the same note on different tunes ... they just flow better.

Unlike a wind instrument, you cannot slide from one note to another, but you can put in grace notes very easily.

A feature that I haven't seen on any other EWI is a special fingering that enables you to play an octave and a half in the same octave selector position; it's explained in the introduction manual.

You could use this for playing anything from simple Morris dance music to Mozart flute concertos. The only limit is your imagination and skill. Buskers, folkies and church band players might find it very useful.

Sustainability:
This is the reason I've given 4 stars rather than 5. There is no way to replace the battery once it fails ... as it inevitably will. I find it distressing that I will have to throw away perfectly good electronics and plastic for no other reason than the manufacturer hasn't taken on their responsibilities. I know that it would add a little to the initial purchase price, but what about the price to the planet?

Slight gripe: I'd really prefer to have the headphone socket on the underside. Having it on the side makes the instrument twist a bit and gets in the way of your right hand when playing.

Summary: It sounds OK and it plays OK and it's reasonably priced.