8 minutes
Stuff I use - 2019
Devices
Phone : Google Pixel 3 XL
Having tried a number of phones last year (Samsung Note 8, OnePlus 5, Pixel XL 2) I was most impressed by the Pixel XL 2, it offered me a no faff Android experience and when the Pixel XL 3 came out it was natural to make the step up from the 2, You probably won’t believe how much the dedicated Bixby button annoyed me on the Samsung, especially as I don’t particularly use digital assistants.
Saying that, I do like the ‘squeeze to activate’ feature on the Pixel, so I have been using Google Assistant more than I’ve used any other in the past.
I’m a big fan of the camera on the Pixel XL 3, but other than that, the differences between the 2 and the 3 weren’t really enough to justify the cost of upgrading.
Given that I like to get a new phone each year and the reason I stopped buying iPhones is because they jumped up to £1000 for them, I think I would most likely opt for the next offering from OnePlus, they are by far the best value of the top end handsets.
Tablet : Huawei MediaPad M5 10.8”
For most of last year I was using the Amazon Fire HD 10, it was a fairly decent, good value tablet, however, for some reason, updating to the latest version of FireOS caused the Bluetooth to crackle, I contacted Amazon who swapped the device out with little fuss, it came with an earlier version of the OS and Bluetooth was clear, updated it and it was all crackly again, very frustrating, also, as I was using it more, I started to notice the lack of power the device had, particularly with games, so I looked for an alternative.
Having previously had a Lenovo tablet I considered the Tab 4, however after reading a fair few reviews, I settled on the 10.8” Huawei.
It has been great, I’m not a major fan of the EMUI software vs a stock Android experience, but function wise the tablet does exactly what I need and I’ve had no issues with the performance.
Also, adding in a 128GB SD Card gives me plenty of space for a lot less money than an iPad of similar capacity, definitely worth checking it out if you’re in the market for a new tablet, also, the fact that this one was USB-C means I can carry fewer chargers/cables when travelling.
Fitness Tracker: Nokia Steel HR
Having had a number of trackers over the years (Apple Watch, Fitbit etc.) I became tired of charging every couple of days, so I wanted one I didn’t need to charge often.
This claimed a 25 day battery life which I thought I’d get 3 weeks out of at the most (given that battery life claims are always exaggerated), however, this lasted 27 days on it’s first full charge, very impressed.
I’ve had this almost a year now and Nokia and Withings have caused and resolved a number of problems during that period, overall, the Steel HR is a fantastic device.
If you’re not pedantic about the tracking offered and would just like a general overview with minimal charging commitment (it takes less than an hour to fully charge, really impressive), then this is the device for you, however, for me, the steps and the sleep tracking do appear to be a little on the under-recorded side, so I think I will switch back to a Fitbit in the not too distant future.
Also, one thing that should be mentioned, is the band that comes as standard on this is very comfortable, I’ve had irritation issues with Apple and 3rd party Fitbit bands in the past and over the year I’ve had none of that with the band on the Nokia Steel HR.
Desktop: Chuwi HiGame
I caught a glimpse of this on Twitter before they started their Indiegogo funding and it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, a decent spec, mini Windows PC.
GIven that I spend most of my time working on laptops, I only really use a Desktop at home for gaming/video editing.
It took about 3 months longer than estimated to arrive, but so far so good, it does all I need it to and everything else is as advertised, my only grumble with all these small computers (Mac mini, Dell Optiplex Micro included) is the fan noise, it’s not a major issue, but when the majority of other devices I use are silent, it’s noticeable.
Laptop: Lenovo X280
Having previously used a Carbon X1, I was keen for something of similar power, but a smaller footprint.
This fit the bill and is now my daily machine, does absolutely everything I need, running Ubuntu 18.10, the battery life is decent, it’s light at 1.2kg, as with all my other devices, it uses a USB-C charger, has 2 x USB-A ports and an HDMI port.
My only gripe, switching from Macs is that no other manufacturer can come close to the Mac trackpad, so I use a small Logitech mouse with this, but having done that with the X1 Carbon previously, I’m used to that by now and it’s no bother popping that in the carry case with the laptop.
If you’re interested, I like this case for it - Lenovo X280 Case
There aren’t linux drivers for the fingerprint reader, but that worked pretty well with Windows 10 that was pre-installed.
Console: PS4/Xbox One
I don’t really get much time for gaming now that I’m old, but when I do, I like to spend a bit of time on Star Wars Battlefront 2 on Xbox One and usually something along the lines of the Uncharted series on Playstation
I am keen on a Nintendo Switch, but given the lack of time for gaming, I think I’ll wait for the price to come down a bit first.
Car: Nissan Leaf 30kWh
In 2016 I was driving a Mini Cooper SD to work (great car!) and it was costing roughly £5k a year in fuel and Congestion Charge (covering 20,000 miles), so I looked at alternatives, the most sensible option seemed the 30kWh Nissan Leaf, but could it be trusted to cover the approx. 90 miles that I do each day, thankfully, Nissan were doing a promotion whereby you could get a 5 day test drive, so this would be ideal for testing the range.
The first thing that you notice when driving an electric car is the quietness, it’s so relaxing driving one (when others aren’t trying to drive into you), anyways, for our test drive period, the car did all we needed, so I put in an order, about 8 weeks later, the car was ready for collection, annoyingly, 1 day after we collected it, Ecotricity removed the free charging option from their Service Station rapid chargers, but that shouldn’t be a problem, we normally got home with about 15-20% battery remaining.
Winter is Coming - Game of Thrones was actually just warning Leaf drivers, it turns out that the range and battery performance is quite different once the temperature drops below around 8 degrees centigrade. This meant that we had to alter our route home to make sure we stopped off for a top up charge, this is becoming easier, we now have about 11 possible locations for a charge on our way home, with 5 of these being rapid chargers, at the rapid chargers, particularly the Polar ones, we only need to stop for 7 mins and that gets us the extra 20% we need to get home safely. Tesco and Pod Point have signed a deal ensuring that the Tesco ‘Extra’ stores will get the free 7kw chargers and some paid for rapid chargers, which will give us much more peace of mind in the colder months.
In general, I have been very happy with the Leaf and will more than likely be switching to their newer model, I am just hanging on for the 60kWh battery one, at the moment, their current offering has a 40kWh battery, which in my experience, should mean that we wouldn’t have to stop off for a charge on the way home in winter, but if a larger battery option is imminent, then I would prefer to wait for that, but so far, with 45,000 all electric miles on the clock, there hasn’t been anything that would put me off driving electric only cars for the rest of my days.
Headphones: Apple Airpods
I got these back when I was all Apple and these are the only things I’ve kept, they’re great, battery life is excellent, sound quality is great, I’ve never been into the over the ear headphones that block the world out, also, pretty much every other headphone brand I haven’t got on with, the wired Apple ones were the first that were comfortable for me, so when they released some wireless ones it was a no-brainer for me.
1523 Words
2019-01-05 23:37 +0000