Rarely does a product come out that redefines the category, or makes you fall in love from the first sight. Maybe not surprisingly, but for me multiple such products were produced by Apple.
I’m not even talking about moving to the M1 processors. I’ve bought that MacBook Air and loved it to bits, but it was still the old design, only now it was fast as hell and the battery life was more than amazing.
For me, the first such device was the iPhone 4. It was the first Apple presentation I watched and when Steve Jobs showed it and explained I immediately fell in love with a design and Retina display. This new display changed the standard for phones and later all other screens.
Then came the iPhone X. I remember as I got it and took it out of the box, my wife, watching me, smiled and said, “we don’t experience such genuine love of technology, everything mostly is taken for granted”. I loved that phone.
More recently, it was the new iPad Pro with M4. It’s so thin and the display is just gorgeous. When I watch some high-quality content, it feels like I’m holding the movie or the TV show in my hands. Sure, there’s always room to grow (meaning to shrink, of course), but occasionally, I just hold it in my hands and look at how thin it is.
And now, during the week of Mac announcements, it was introduced. The new Mac mini. It is stunning. It just looks like a perfect computer. I know there are Raspberry Pis and Intel NUCs which are smaller or whatever. But the Mac mini looks so sleek, it feels just perfect. I wasn’t planing on buying one, but loved looking at it.
On Friday, November 8th, I went to the store to buy a USB-C Magic Trackpad, since it was day one of sales in our country. And just asked if they had the base Mac mini (I actually looked at availability on their website and knew they didn’t, but wanted to ask regardless). As it turned out, they actually had one in the back, and it was the first time in my experience and in the experience of the store employee that they’ve had a mistake on the website. She went to check and came back with the box in hand. I couldn’t say no. How anyone could?
So now, I’m the proud owner of this perfect computer. I have a couple of ideas how to use it, mostly headless, but I just can’t put it in the attic to connect to the router directly for better performance, I want to keep it on my desk. I mean, just look at this combo. Mac mini – the perfect computer.
My other hunch is that the Magic Mouse’s designers actually see the inability to use it while plugged in as a feature, not a bug.
Let me start by saying I get it—Apple’s Magic Mouse is incredibly popular. People buy Apple products partly because they trust the brand, and Apple’s design has a certain allure.
I agree that it is a feature. It is meant to gather the attention of the critics, and nobody talks how actually bad this mouse is as a mouse. It’s heavy and one of the least ergonomic options out there, making it uncomfortable for prolonged use. It’s just a plainly bad mouse. But everyone is focused on the charging port. Feature.
We’re excited to share that Omnivore is joining forces with ElevenLabs, the leading AI audio research and technology company. Our team is joining ElevenLabs to help drive the future of accessible reading and listening with their new ElevenReader app.
Next, all Omnivore users will be able to export their information from the service through November 15 2024, after which all information will be deleted.
Sometimes things just work out. While getting all my productivity tools in order, I’ve been exploring different read later apps in place of Readwise Reader. At one point, I actually chose the Omnivore app. It looked okay, it was fast, and free. I know everyone loved it because of the text-to-speech engine, but I don’t consume my articles like that. It still felt like a good fit for me. Until it wasn’t. I opened the app on the plane without an internet connection, and none of my saved articles were available. I was just happy that I didn’t migrate the whole list of articles. That was the end of my story with Omnivore. I picked Matter at the end and couldn’t have been happier. Especially now, after receiving this nice email. Sometimes free is not the best option; more often than not, you have to think about the sustainability of the service and company.
Just look at this computer! I’ve been a fan of laptops powered by Apple silicon, my M1 MacBook Air is still a perfectly fine computer. I now have M2 MacBook Air and M3 Pro MacBook Pro for work. Since day one that chip changed my experience with mac. It is fast, it has an amazing battery life. And now the M series chips can offer incredible performance in such a small package. I’ve been waiting for an update to the Mac mini; I want to set one up as a home server that will last at least 10 years, and I feel like this is the one. It will probably be overkill, but fun as hell.
I’ve had a lot of questions for Apple recently, but sometimes they just deliver a perfect product.
Unfortunately, last year, despite finally getting my hands on a new phone (god it was in limited supply), I neglected to write a review for the first time ever. Nevertheless, after a year of use, I want to maintain at least one tradition: conducting an exit interview for the phone I’ve relied on over the past year. It’s quite fitting to publish this the day before new models are released.
Design
As you might know, I’ve been going back and forth between the Pro and Pro Max models over the years. During my use of the 14 Pro Max, I was once again leaning towards the smaller model because it was just too heavy. Fortunately, Apple has addressed the issue. The new phone is made from titanium, which makes it lighter. Though the difference might not be striking on paper, it is a night and day difference in hand. The Pro Max is now comfortably usable.
After the presentation, I was immediately drawn to the Natural Titanium color. While there’s been considerable criticism for not offering more colors in the Pro line, I find the Natural Titanium stunning. It changes beautifully under different lighting conditions.
I initially bought a couple of cases during the first week, but they quickly found themselves unused. The phone feels and looks so exquisite that I couldn’t bring myself to cover it with a case.
USB-C
This is one big finally, albeit with a small caveat. The convenience of having a single charger for all devices cannot be overstated. However, Lightning connectors are still a part of our lives—I’m eagerly waiting for my AirPods Pro to give out so I can upgrade to a USB-C model (and what’s going on with the AirPods Max, Apple?). Additionally, the mouse and trackpad still use Lightning connectors. Nevertheless, while traveling, the reduction in the number of cables I need to carry is definitely a plus.
The caveat? I’m not particularly fond of the USB-C connection. One of the nice things about Lightning was the satisfying click it made when connecting to a device. USB-C lacks this feature. I know it might seem trivial, but that small detail made a noticeable difference.
Camera
The other big feature that pushed me towards the larger size is the 5x telephoto lens. It is almost perfect, and I love using it. This is probably my favorite lens on an iPhone ever. The shots you can get are amazing. Maybe it just suits my style (I’ve been reading different opinions), but I couldn’t ask for a better lens in terms of crop, of course. I would welcome improvements to the lens itself anytime. Previously, I barely used the ultra-wide lens and didn’t care much for the digital 2x, as the quality is just not there.
Battery
This one actually surprised me, and not in a positive way. Typically, when I get a new phone, I’m reminded how good life with a 100% battery is. However, this time, the battery life of my new phone was disappointingly similar to that of my year-old device. I can’t recall a single day when I didn’t have to recharge it at least once. It’s interesting how I would use the 15 Pro, but this year, the battery has really been a problem for me.
There Was One Other Thing…
As I was wrapping up the conclusion, it struck me that I hadn’t mentioned the Action Button. This oversight is actually quite fitting, as I often forget it exists. After giving it some thought, I decided to assign a Shortcut for adding tasks to the Inbox of Things. Now, whenever something comes to mind, I simply press the button and jot down the thought, idea, quote, or whatever it may be, to deal with later.
Conclusion
The iPhone 15 Pro Max takes one of the top spots in my iPhone ranking, right up there with the iPhone 4S and, more recently, the iPhone 12 Pro Max. It feels much better in hand due to the weight reduction. The addition of USB-C has made life a bit easier. The 5x camera is great fun. Oh, and there is a new button…
The iPhone 15 Pro Max secures a top position in my iPhone rankings, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with classics like the iPhone 4S and the more recent iPhone 12 Pro Max. The weight reduction makes it remarkably more comfortable to hold. The inclusion of USB-C has made life a bit easier, while the 5x camera is just great fun. Oh, and there is a new button…
Recently, I’ve been on a maddening quest to find a new notes app. I will share more about that later, but one in particular piqued my interest – Tana.
The idea and the promise are that you write and add supertags (yes, Tana comes with a huge amount of vocabulary specific to it) and the app just links everything and organises content for you. There are multiple options for the type of content you can add: plain text, to-do items, images, videos and much more.
In Notion and Craft the smallest unit is a block, in Tana it’s a node, which is basically a bullet. I was actually reading “The Bullet Journal Method”, and my mind immediately started thinking about parallels in both approaches. What makes it so powerful, is you can create anything with those supertags. The easiest way to describe is – think about databases in Notion, but they are created dynamically based on the nodes scattered all over the space.
I first installed Tana a couple of weeks ago, went through the tutorial, tried to make some notes, and uninstalled it, thinking it was one of the worst software products in the PKM space. But I’ve kept seeing people using it and even being fans, so I’ve decided to give it another try. This time, something clicked. I started small and for about a week, I just kept writing in the daily note. I’ve added supertags to all the nodes to add some structure. It became a bit clearer, but this steep learning curve, I think, will discourage most people from using it.
The other huge issue is the lack of mobile apps. There is Tana Capture, but it is just that — a tool for capturing notes on the go (it is good at that, but still extremely limited). Since Tana wants to be almost everything, including your to-do app, it is unimaginable to have it only on a PC.
Lastly, it is still in invite-only beta, so they still have to prove themselves to the public at large. If they don’t change the whole vocabulary and maybe streamline the number of features a bit, I think it will be difficult to break out. I’m confident they’ll have a vocal minority of super fans, but not a big audience.
You also can’t export your notes. And looking at the structure, I don’t think it would be an easy problem to solve for the developers, or you might not be able to import this data somewhere else.
For now, I’ve decided to go with some different tools as my PKM, but I’ll be closely following the progress of the company and checking the app from time to time.
I’ve been following Humane since its inception. This company, founded by ex-Apple veterans, intrigued me, but I must admit, I harbored skepticism from the start. And with every update they released, my doubts only intensified. However, I love technology and I always want to try out new things. As a regular ChatGPT user, I feel squarely within their target demographic.
So, when I got back home from work yesterday and saw that the announcement video has been dropped, I immediately started watching (the 10 minute length helped, of course). Despite my growing skepticism, which only deepened after a second viewing, I noted several key points.
1. Form factor and weight
The device’s weight is noticeable, stretching even a thick sweater in the demo. I wonder about its effect on a regular T-shirt. There is an accessory for delicate fabric, but it would automatically compromise battery life. It seems more suited for short-term use rather than all-day wear.
2. Voice recognition
This being a 10 minute introduction video, one would hope for a packed and checked video, but in the very beginning this quote stood out for me.
“There are no wake words. So it’s not always listening or always recording. In fact it doesn’t do anything until you engage with it and your engagement comes through your voice, touch, gesture or the Laser Ink display.”
If it doesn’t listen to you, how would engaging with your voice help it do something? It seems like a poorly worded phrase, but they’ve had a lot of time to prepare.
3. Humane network, connected by T-Mobile
It seems like they’re launching as an MVNO on top of T-Mobile infrastructure, which explains the initial US-only release. But scaling up internationally seems challenging, especially considering data usage for photos and videos. How will roaming work? Will you be charged extra or it won’t work outside the US?
With this model, they’ll need to go country by country and make deals with the operators? Good luck getting it anywhere other than US and a couple of major countries.
And last and the most important issue on this topic – it has a dedicated phone number. The different one from your phone. So in the year 2024 they want you to ditch your iPhone and use only the ai pin. This doesn’t sound promising.
4. Ultra-Wide camera
In the video you can see how the pin shakes on the jacket. The image stabilisation must be insane to take useful photos most of the time or you need to hold the device still when you take a photo.
Although, later they show that camera is just bad. I know the best camera is the one that is with you, but god this is a bad photo and you are better off with iPhone (duh).
5. Trust Light
An interesting feature, but it raises privacy concerns for those around the user. Unlike the indicator lights on MacBooks or iPhones, which alert the user, this light offers little control to bystanders.
6. Laser Ink Display
Its real-life performance remains to be seen, but in the video the laser display doesn’t look very legible. Especially on the homescreen – if I really look, I can get what is written under the time, but I can’t make out the word above and that’s while on pause, how would it work in real life, on the go? What about really bright light?
Also gestures looked really interesting. He was moving his hand veeeery slowly. Again, there is hope that it’s to make a point, so we understand, but it doesn’t look promising or comfortable.
7. AI performance
X users already discussed some mistakes, but still. There are just a couple of questions and AI got wrong some of them. In the demo. Demo that is showing the device for the very first time. Pre-recorded demo.
First one is the eclipse question. The answer the ai pin gave is plain wrong. Not in the details, totally wrong. The mentioned eclipse won’t be visible anywhere near Australia. It will happen mostly above America, that’s why some are calling it the Great North American Eclipse.
AI lies to you and very confidently at that. Google Search really deteriorated recently, but you’ll get a good result if you ask it the same question and if there are multiple conflicting answers – you’ll see all of them on the screen. Here you just receive the wrong answer and no additional context. They also didn’t care to check the answer for the first introduction of the product. Where is the attention to details?
Apart from the cringy prompt “make it more exciting”, the message is just grammatically incorrect.
The presenter asks for the gate code he received from Andrew before, which looked cool and useful, but then added: “Before I’d have to scroll through a long text chain to the last time I went to Andrews house”. I’m sorry, I know you are excited about the product, but did you hear about the new and amazing technology called SEARCH?!
Wrong information about the eclipse probably won’t kill anyone, but the later example is a bit frightening. Allegedly it can help you with your diet, but it got it wrong, again.
The weirdest thing is that GPT-4 provides correct information if you just show the screenshot from the video (the same is true for the eclipse question):
After the eclipse and almonds example, how can I be sure it bought the correct book? “This”, it didn’t even say the name of the book to confirm. The presenter then said “great, buy it” and didn’t receive the answer. The most logical explanation – it can’t do that yet, so why show it? If it can – where did it buy it from? There were no book stores on the partnerships slide, as far as I know.
8. Web portal
One of the issues could be a bit of a nitpick. When he asked for the total protein amount he had today, the pin answered – 22 grams. But below we can see that the protein is full for the day and the amount is 56 grams. And a second slide shows that the information is taken from the presentation (there is a book, a call and a song from the examples before).
Why does it show the same information 2 times? Just to fill the screen? Or Yanirs call and note about Notes are so important?
There is a lot of potential in AI. As I said in the beginning I use ChatGPT daily and I love it. It helps a lot throughout the day. But nor we, nor ChatGPT is ready for such a device. The mission of Humane is “To build for the world not as it exists today, but as it could be tomorrow” and it could be true, but that tomorrow is still long way ahead.
I’m sure they’ll devices to the early adopters and enthusiasts, but I think it won’t make a dent. This is not it. This is not the next smartphone.
I would probably love it as a part of Apple ecosystem (or Android, if that’s your cup of tea). You have all the information there – notes, reminders, camera, photos, mail, texts, calls. Everything. And here is a new company asking you to ditch all of that and use their pin. Impossible.
When Apple first announced the Apple Watch Ultra, my first thought was – thankfully, it’s not for me. I’ve bought Stainless Steel Series 7 last year, thinking it would last two or even three years, so paying another €900 after just a year seemed a bit too much.
When it came out, I still went to the store to try one out, just out of curiosity. And again, thankfully, I didn’t like it. The main negative surprise was how light it was for the size. I was really expecting something much heavier.
But then I started seeing them on people’s wrists, and it didn’t look bad at all. As I’ve seen even more while on a trip to London, I started thinking of buying one. After getting on my wife’s nerves for a couple of days, she finally sent me to the Apple Store, just to shut me up.
What I’ve done is put my current watch on my right wrist and Ultra on my left, seeing them side by side made me realise how much I don’t like… both of them.
Ultra looked good, but I like watch faces that are filled with color and if you use those the bezel just stares at you, looking old. And if you look at a regular watch, it’s apparent how much better it looks.
But at the same time, the regular Series looks… old. I’ve said previously, that people are wrong saying that there is not much change between Series 4-6 and 7-8, but on the whole they are similar. The main difference is in the screen and especially compared with Series 3, the newest one looks much better, but the case design, is indeed almost the same. And it’s here for 8 years. It’s time to change.
I’ve bought my first Apple Watch in 2017, when Series 3 came out, and wore one every single day for almost 6 entire years. First 3 years, I’ve been closing all 3 rings every day, but afterward realised that although it is good for my physical health, it’s not that good for my mental health and stopped doing it. And now, I’ve put my Apple Watch for sale with an expectation not to buy another one.
I want to start with a disclaimer – since I upgrade my phone every year, the delta of improvement is much smaller than for most people who upgrade every 2 years or even less often. Despite that, I still think the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a fabulous device worthy of an upgrade.
Coming Home – Again?
I’ve named the iPhone XS Max review – Coming Home. After that, I’ve stuck with larger iPhone models until iPhone 13 Pro. Since the difference between Max and non-Max models was only in the screen size, I decided to get a smaller phone. The main issue was – it was not possible to use Pro Max phone with one hand. After a year of use, I’ve got mostly disappointment out of that decision. The smaller size means also a smaller battery and with a heavy use, the Pro phone would last half a day for me. What I also realised during extended use – it is not only the sheer size, but the weight that prevents me from using even Pro phone one-handed. After a couple of months, I was certain that the next phone will be the bigger one again, since it’s mostly worse in numerous instances and doesn’t solve the only problem I have with a Max size.
Dynamic Island
It is almost a mantra in the tech review space – you shouldn’t buy a hardware product based on the promise of future improvements. iPhone 14 Pro is partially such a product. The main hardware feature – the Dynamic Island, that is very neatly combined with the software, is still not fully used by the app developers. And it’s considering me receiving a phone a month after it went on sale and using it for another month.
The situation is much better than on a launch day – there are a lot more apps that use Dynamic Island in some way, but they are mostly independent apps from indie developers or startups. They are also very 1.0. I didn’t see any surprising use still.
Flighty live action in Airplane Mode
The ones I use daily are, of course, media apps like Apple Music and Overcast, as well as food delivery app – Wolt. Actually, the most I used the Dynamic Island was during vacations. It was nice seeing the navigation while using the phone, and Flighty live activities were wonderful, working even with Airplane Mode turned on.
I’m still waiting from someone to find an interesting and creative use, but still, it is a great feature already.
Always-On Display
My current lockscreen
There are plenty of takes regarding this. People are mostly used to the Android style always-on display, which is black with time and some icons for apps or notifications. What Apple has done is entirely different. After seeing it in a presentation and later reading first reviews, I’ve had a thought – was it done just to be different, and will I also turn it off like so many people? After some time using it, I can confidently say that it is a remarkable feature and I love using it.
On my lock screen I have time, 4 complications below it (two from Oura ring, Carrot Weather and Activity) and Fantastical complication above the time showing my next event. This allows me to more freely choose Apple Watch complications, since some of them are on the phone screen, so I can more easily use fullscreen California face. It also allows me to glance and see the mosts important information for me.
While traveling in Europe, I like using Apple Maps for navigation by foot and now more so, since the always-on display is … always on. I mean, even when you click the Power button to dim the display, the map stays there instead of the lockscreen.
I have two issues with the new display. First, it’s quite difficult to figure out the situation with sleeping. I have a Belkin charger where the iPhone is attached magnetically in standing position, so when the display dims, in the dark it illuminates the whole room and that is a problem. The only easy way I found to turn off the display was to turn on Sleep Focus, which is fine, but not easily discoverable.
The second issue, I have is constant accidental unlocking and touching in the pocket, and I strongly believe the always-on display is somehow at play here. I didn’t have this issue before, I don’t have this issue with iPhone 13 mini in another pocket, but with this phone, it accidentally unlocks itself so much, that I noticed.
Still, all the positive things outweigh the concerns, so I keep using the Always-On Display and recommend everyone to try to stick with it for some time.
Camera
I love the new cameras. The main sensor was great, so I don’t think plenty of people will notice the change to 48 MP sensor. Although, if you use RAW, you will see much greater results. The update I love the most is the new 3x lens. I was in love with a telephoto lens on the 12 Pro Max and used it all the time. But after upgrading to 13 Pro, I was very disappointed. It was just bad, constantly giving me blurry low-quality photos. I only later realised, and then read an explanation of my theory in the Halide review of the phone, that you had to wait before shooting with a telephoto lens. What happened was, if you turned on the telephoto lens and immediately shot a photo, the phone didn’t yet change the lens, so was shooting with the main one and cropping the shot, which resulted in a low-quality photo. So, you had to choose 3.5x, wait a second or two (you could even see the lens switching on screen) and then shoot. That solved most problems, but it still wasn’t as good as 12 Pro Max telephoto lens. This year, though, it is back in play. I started to enjoy the telephoto lens again, it’s such great focal length, that I use it almost daily.
Conclusion
It is a great upgrade, even after just a year. I fell in love with the telephoto lens, again. I love the always-on screen and live activities together with the Dynamic Island.
Likewise, I also love my return to the Max size – the battery lasts the whole day, much more information or video fits on the screen. It’s easier to edit photos on the bigger phone.
Oh, and this year I went with a silver color – I’m mostly done with black tech, had a gold one before and didn’t care for a purple one, since it’s mostly not a color, in most lighting it looks brown, grey, but not purple. So got a silver/white one. It looks nicely with all the cases or skins and matches my silver Apple Watch, but next time I would probably return to gold.
This was supposed to be a post about the first 10,000 km in a Honda e, but life happens. So, here we are on a 1-year anniversary to the day. Together with my wife, we’ve driven 16,100 km in this small electric car. Both during the hottest days of summer and the coldest winter days. We’ve mostly used it to get to work and get around the city, but also for some farther drives.
I still haven’t done a proper road-trip in it (the idea was to drive to Vilnius), but maybe next summer. We’ve done a 150 km trip each way and it was fun and not stressful at all.
Charging at the hotel, free of charge
We both love this car and drive it not out of the necessity, but because we want to, I would say that is the biggest compliment.
Real Range
Every electric car owner knows by now not to believe the advertised range, so every time you say someone the range, there is a question “no, but really, how far can you drive?”.
The only reasonable and truthful answer is – it depends. And it depends a lot. Putting 1” smaller wheels will give you an extra 10% of a range. Fast speed kills the battery, so does the cold weather. It is cheaper for a battery to run AC, than to run a heater (around 5-6 times cheaper).
My usual daily drive (getting a kid to a daycare and going to work) is about 57 km, of which 35 are on a highway and 22 km are in a city. So, I’m getting lower range than you would’ve had just driving around the city.
During warm weather the normal range I can expect is 180 km, if you turn on AC, around 6-8 km less. During the coldest days (we’ve had a couple of days with -25ºC this winter) the range was 100 km (135 if you turn off heating, but I wouldn’t recommend doing it). Although 100 km seems like not much (and it’s not), but this is if you drive normally, have a heater turned on and to a comfortable temperature (so I could drive in a T-shirt), preheat the car from home and again, consider that most of my drive is with a speed of around 100kmh. I think for a small city car, it is an ok result. In the “normal” winter temperatures (+/- 7ºC, the range is about 120 km).
Honda says that the range is 220 km (200 km for an Advanced version, which I have), so I can only confirm that it is very true to real results, considering my driving.
The Expenses
The second most popular question after the range is the price. And here again, everything very much depends on your driving style, weather and speeds. For the whole 16,100 km, my average consumption was 18.1 kWh/100 km. You then calculate this according to the price of the electricity at home. I’ve mostly charged the car at home, and starting from February the electricity cost me €0.14/kWh (it was a bit cheaper before that). So, even if I count it at the latest price, 100 km costs me €2.53. Which I consider to be a very fair price. Of course, if you charge mostly outside or you have higher tariff at home, your price will wary very much.
To drive 16,100 km, I’ve spent around €400 on fuel. Which is not even 3 full tanks of fuel in my diesel BMW at current prices (of course you can drive almost 3,000 km on 3 tanks, but it’s still a lot less).
Apart from the lease itself, during the year I’ve spent:
MOD (KASKO) – €523.80
MTPL (OCTA) – €73
Car Wash – €84
Some small accessories/liquids etc. – €86
Yearly checkup at a dealer – €210
Parking – €5
2 summer wheels – €210
I’ve had to park a car once in a place that didn’t have free municipal parking, otherwise enjoyed free parking in the city for the whole year. Regarding the wheels, I had one blow up while driving and during the changing saw a bump on another one, so had to throw it out. I blame our roads here in Latvia and the size of the wheels (it has a pair of 205/45R17 and a pair of 225/45R17), so that combination cost me 2 wheels in a season.
All The Little Things
As I said in the beginning, overall, I’ve enjoyed the experience. It is a small, nimble car. It drives well, it has a remarkable corner radius for the city. Although considering the size of the car it is on a bit of expensive side (but not compared to other electric cars) its running costs I would say are low. There are still benefits in Latvia, like using bus lanes and most importantly for me – free parking in Riga.
Chances are you won't have problems finding your car
It’s still an attention grabber. I’ve had numerous people asking me questions when I was leaving the car or coming to it. I’ve had to wait for an American woman to take a photo of the car. I’ve had one driver from Germany, who stepped out of his SUV just to tell that he liked the car. I’ve had a nice conversation with a tourist from Belgium, who was considering buying the same car at home. And numerous other conversations with locals. This also brings some responsibility, since the car is so memorable, you won’t get away with doing something bad on the road.
The one big downside during this time we have found is an amount of trunk space, which is almost none. Sure, it is enough for groceries and some small things, but you won’t be able to fit a stroller (only a travel one). Because of that, sometimes, even if the drive was manageable in terms of range, we chose the diesel because we needed to take a stroller with us.
This is also the first car with CarPlay for me, and I wouldn’t even consider getting another car without it. It’s so comfortable and easy to use, you don’t notice when you have it, but instantly miss it when it is not there. If you can get a wireless CarPlay, like we have, I would suggest it.
Of course, I’ve connected PS5 to it, since it has a proper outlet and an HDMI port, that was just for fun, but why not?
Just because I could
Winter Problems
Although overall, I would say it went through the winter with grace, there were a couple of things that I didn’t like and that could’ve been solved.
Door handles. I don’t know what is a deal with car manufacturers, but as soon as they decide to make an electric car, they try to do something clever with door handles. In Honda e it is the most common one – pop-out handles that are flush with a door when closed. Honda says it is done to improve airflow and not loose range due to resistance, I’m not an engineer, so can only agree. But during the winter, they can sometimes freeze. One time one of the handles froze and I couldn’t open the door (thankfully the one on the other side worked fine). But more often they wouldn’t close. So, you had to manually close the handle or drive with handles popped-out, removing the advantage promised by Honda.
Windows. Another pain during the winter – windows without the edge. They look nice, but they start malfunctioning under freezing temperatures. So much so, I had to go to the service once because of that. Of course, applying some silicone to the edge of the window helped, but it is still the weak point of the car.
Charging port. At first, when I saw the port, I was worried about the rain, since it looks like a bucket. I was reassured that there are holes and water doesn’t stay there. All was good until the first snow, when after a night I came to a car with a full “bucket” of what is a charging port with snow. It is hard to get snow out of there, so after a while it is a bit of a mess. There is snow, ice, thankfully it worked perfectly all the winter, but I think the port on the side is a bit more practical.
I know most of the problems are solved with keeping a car in the garage, but it is a city car, where that is not an option, so I do think those are real problems in our climate.
The manual says (and yes, I did read it) that the car won’t even start if the air reaches a temperature of -30ºC, but we came close to that only a couple of days and it worked all the time.
Multimedia screen. When you get into a car in freezing weather, it is slow. Like a minute reacting to a touch slow. After it gets warmer, it starts working normally. And if you preheat the car, it works perfectly from the beginning.
I loved using preheating, it is very aggressive in turning everything on – heating, seat, both front and back window and a steering wheel warming. So, when you get into a car after 10 minutes in freezing temperature, it is completely warm and you can take off your winter coat.
In the end, I still love the car. I love looking at it and driving it. If I had to buy a small electric car today, I don’t think my choice would’ve been different. Even though the market is much bigger. If you understand the purpose of the car and are okay with all the deficiencies, I can’t recommend it enough.
