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.
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.
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.
This year was filled with great hardware. Some of it came out in 2021, some before, but I was able to get it only this year. Nevertheless, here are some of my favourite things this year.
iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 mini
As I mentioned in my review – good became even better. The best thing about iPhone 13 Pro, in a day-to-day use it’s unnoticeable, which is always a good sign. My wife got an iPhone 13 mini, and it is a beast. Small, yet powerful, and improved battery life compared to the last year model is noticeable.
Apple Watch Series 7
When bigger is indeed better. The battery on my Series 5 wasn’t good at all, and by the end of year 2 it was close to unusable. So, Series 7 was a welcome improvement. Bigger screen, brighter always–on display and better battery makes this an outstanding upgrade from whatever generation you are on.
Honda e
This is a big one. We had a need for a second car and going electric was quite a choice. Many habits had to change, as well as thinking about range. But after three months with the car, I’m still in love. It is small, fun, and a bit eccentric – just perfect for a city car.
LG C1
I’ve had C9 for almost two years and loved it, but as we’ve moved to a much bigger space, 55” TV wasn’t big enough anymore. From the distance of our couch, it looked like a postage stamp. I knew I wanted an LG OLED and the bigger, the better, but 77” was drastically over our limit, so we’ve had to settle for a 65” one. It is noticeably bigger and paired with Vogel mount, you can bring it closer. The LG C1 is great from the picture standpoint, but the software is a massive step back. It tries to be smarter, but it is not. It’s slow, buggy, inconsistent. And why, for the love of god, they removed play/pause button. I had to plug my Apple TV, which is now the only interface I use. On the bright side, it is completely ready for the next–gen gaming, which is a big deal.
Sony PlayStation 5
Speaking of which, I’ve waited long enough for a PS5 from the official Sony dealer. But I don’t think it will happen in the nearest future. So one day I decided to pay a bit more and buy from scalpers on eBay. It now seems like a smart move, since I overpaid less than 20% and prices since went up. The best thing about this generation of PlayStation is DualSense controller. In games that have support it feels outstanding. The games themselves are not yet there, unfortunately. It feels like 2022 will be the year we’ll finally see at least something for the next generation.
Dyson v15
Surprisingly, in a list of phones, cars, and gaming consoles, this is one of the best purchases made this year. It is small yet powerful. Simple yet technological. It makes vacuuming fun.
MacBook Air with M1
This is the best laptop I’ve used in years. It’s actually the best computer I’ve used in years. It is fast, powerful, has a great battery. Not only that, but it is almost the perfect laptop, especially considering the price. If you need to buy a laptop right now, seriously consider this one.
Honorable Mentions
There are two devices I like, but not used long enough to form a full opinion, but still, they are worth mentioning.
Oura Ring 3
My wife gave me it as a gift. I wanted to track sleep for a long time, but wearing an Apple Watch was a no–go. It is big, heavy and has a massive screen. Oura Ring is perfect for that. Although most of the things I already knew – you shouldn’t drink alcohol before bed and should have a sleep schedule, there were still a couple of surprises from the data.
I have to mention one thing – their support is probably the worst I ever encountered.
Keychron K2
I’ve long wanted to try a mechanical keyboard and finally pulled a plug during the Black Friday sale. I love typing on it, but it needs some adjustment. The change in travel is massive compared to MacBook Air or iPad Pro keyboard.
Since the Apple Watch updates are very iterative, I’m very comfortable in updating every other year. This was such a year. I’ve had Series 5 and by the end of the second year the battery was bad. Taking it of the charger at around 7 AM, it would go to Power Reserve mode at around 10-11 PM. Even without workouts. But I waited for a new one, since Series 6 didn’t add anything major. And although somereviewers would tell you that Series 7 is not much different, I believe this is a substantial update.
Design and Screen
I am a fan of big watches. Not bulky, but with a larger watch dial. So, a bigger display was a welcome change. And considering that it didn’t much change the size of the watch itself, I would say it is a big win.
By the end of year two with my previous watch, I started thinking how big the bezel was around the screen. It feels much more like an all–screen face now, especially if you go for a Contour watch face.
Series 7 is noticeably larger
The screen is also much brighter in the always–on mode. This was improved in the Series 6, but lucky me – I get two years of improvements instead of one.
On the other hand, colours this year for aluminium model are just bad. Not that blue, green, or red don’t look good. They do. But they are very opinionated. If you are ready to rock the red watch the whole year (or two), more power to you. I just think those watches won’t go with many clothes and watch bands. Recently, I realised that it’s too boring having every technology in black (just look at my car, laptop, or a phone). Moreover, Midnight Aluminium is not black, it is almost very dark blue. So, I was excited to buy a silver aluminium model, but they didn’t make it in this colour this year. Instead, there is Starlight. Which, honestly, looks like … nothing. When I saw it in the store, it is so dull.
That left me with a choice between Titanium and Stainless Steel. I went for the Stainless Steel, as it was a bit shinier. I couldn’t choose between Gold and Silver for a long time (believe me, I got the looks from the Apple Store employee). But in the end settled for the Silver one with the Milanese Loop (finally, had an opportunity to get this band, always wanted one).
I love how it looks. Surprisingly, it goes with every watch band I own, even colourful ones.
It is noticeably heavier. But in an enjoyable way. It feels more substantial. Just a bit closer to a real watch. I already have a couple of scratches after a month of use, and I am careful with my watches. The good news is – you can polish stainless steel, and it will look almost like a new one.
Battery and Charging
As I mentioned before, my Series 5 got terrible battery life by the end of the year two. It actually was never great, barely good enough. Series 7 is much better. I have always–on display turned on at all times and without workout will have around 50% by the end of the day. Not comfortable for a 2–day use, but more than enough for one.
But the main improvement is fast charging. You have to use the new charger for this, but it is spectacular when you need it. Recently, someone messed with my wall charger, I didn’t notice it in the evening. When I woke up, my watch and phone weren’t charged at all. For a phone I have chargers everywhere, so it wasn’t much of a problem, but what do you do with a watch? I’ve got the new cable from the box and in about 30 minutes it was almost full. This is the must–have feature if you track sleep with your watch (I don’t, it’s just too big).
Software Features
There are just two features that are exclusive to the Series 7 Apple Watch – two watch faces and a keyboard.
The faces are Contour one, I already mentioned, which shows how small the bezel is. It has many colours, I like the light grey with the Milanese Loop band and pride with everything else. The second one is Modular Duo, which had so much potential when Apple presented it, but it is bad. It tries to flex the bigger screen, but there is just not enough information. I could try to forgive it, if there was at least a date above the time, like in an old Modular, but alas.
Not even a date
Looks amazing
Another software feature is a full–size keyboard. Yes, you can type on a watch now. It is surprisingly good. Mostly not to type, but to swipe. As always with Apple, there is a catch. The feature works only with English keyboard. Yes, in the year 2021. And, why, for the love of God, is it not available on older devices? If that’s because of the size – it is available on the smaller size of the current generation, which is smaller than the larger Series 6.
A whole keyboard on a watch
Again, I’m not the one to give the advice whether to upgrade, but don’t let anyone fool you – Series 7 is a very noticeable upgrade even from the previous model. The screen is bigger, and it shows in the day–to–day use. If you wish to skip a year – you also won’t go wrong. Just don’t let anyone dictate what should be your decision.
Stainless Steel looks great. Sorry for tha hairy hand
It’s hard to write nice things. If I had to write a TLDR version of the review, it would have been – it just works, except for speakers. This laptop is so good, you don’t even notice. It is powerful, it has a great battery life and what’s even more surprising, this machine doesn’t have a fan. I’m not entirely sure this laptop is even legal.
It’s so good I have two of them at home. I finally exchanged my Lenovo Thinkpad at work for a MacBook Air.
What it replaced
The one and only MacBook I owned was my Early 2015 MacBook Pro with Intel Core i3, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD. I bought it 6 years ago as a reward, for finishing my master’s thesis. At the time, the only upgrade was SSD, but that was only because they didn’t have 128 GB available. I also wanted a MacBook Pro instead of Air, because of the Retina screen.
Over the years, this Mac got slow. It got so bad, I tried to reinstall the OS and delete everything because I thought something must have gone horribly wrong for it to be so slow. But it’s just time. Retina display, entry-level processor and 8 GB of RAM are too basic even for a casual browsing now.
That is why for the last two years I considered my iPad Pro 12.9” to be my primary computer. When M1 Macs came out, I was tempted, but wasn’t sure if I ever need another Mac, or will I become iPad only? It sure felt like it. But the more I read and watch about the new Macs, the more I wanted one, maybe even to replace my iPad.
So half a bottle of whiskey later, I order a M1 MacBook Air with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD.
Design
Lately, I have a tendency to choose unusual colours, so the model I bought was Gold. I was intrigued, but not sure about my choice. After getting it out of the packaging, I immediately fell in love. It’s just beautiful. The colour plays nicely in different lightning. It changes from gold, to rose gold, to pink and to just light, almost silver. Now as I type it looks more like a copper. I also like how thin and light it is.
For work, I chose dark grey and … I don’t like it. It is too boring. Too computery. I’m hoping rumours are true and Apple will introduce a colourful MacBook Air.
I would like for a screen bezel to be smaller, which would make a whole device smaller. Not only that, but I also don’t like that there is “MacBook Air” written under the display. I know what I bought and use, and it feels very Samsung-y to stick the name wherever you can. It seems that the early 2015 MacBook Pro was an odd one, as it didn’t have the name written.
Dongletown
For the last 5 years I’ve read, watched and listened to everyone whining about MacBooks having only USB-C and some of them only 1 or 2 ports. I thought everybody is just nuts and tries to find a problem where there is none. That is, of course, until I bought such a laptop myself. MacBook Air has 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Typically, that is more than enough for me. And this is when it got to me – most of the time, that is what everyone is talking about. I need to connect a display through HDMI and Logitech keyboard using their USB type-A dongle. Something I didn’t even think about before, gave me pause.
After some consideration, I bought an Apple dongle for HDMI, USB type-A and USB type-C. It’s a small, light dongle which should be enough for me. I also use microSD cards from my camera, but I transfer photos to the iPad Pro, so I already have a USB-C card reader from Apple.
That’s not the end of the world, but it is added cost and an inconvenience. But I’m more than 100% sure, many MacBook Air buyers won’t have such problem. They’ll use it without anything connected to it and charge with the brick and cable that comes with it.
Touch ID
Using biometric authentication in modern computers is genius. All joking aside, I like having Touch ID on a Mac. Unlock with Apple Watch never worked for me on my previous MacBook, so having fingerprint sensor built-in is much faster and easier to use.
It’s just a little convince for logging in, but a massive quality of life improvement for using 1Password.
There is not much more to add, but it’s just so good, to warrant its section.
Keyboard and Trackpad
There is little to say about the trackpad. I thought that the one I had on my MacBook Pro was big, but this one is just massive, and I like it. If there is space – put the biggest one you can. Since it’s not mechanical, and you can press wherever, I don’t see any problem. Moreover, the size doesn’t add the issue of accidentally touching it while typing, so thumbs-up from me.
Keyboard, on the other hand, is a very controversial topic. I was lucky to buy the last laptop with non-butterfly keys and didn’t have any difficulties with it. But I loved how butterfly keyboard felt. The scissor-switch one is a bit wobbly for me. I loved Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Pro much better. But I enjoy the keyboard on this MacBook Air quite a lot. It feels nice. For my taste it could’ve been a bit clickier, but I could see how many would hate it.
Sound
Speakers are the weakest point of this laptop. There is nothing remarkable about the sound. It is quiet. Even in a smaller room it is not comfortable to watch a TV show with sound turned all the way up, it’s just hard to hear things. I would rather play through iPad Pro or use headphones, not even talking about dedicated speakers.
Speed
This is a quality of life improvement. When you open the lid, and it instantly turns on, and you can place your finger on the fingerprint scanner and in a second you’ll see an unlocked computer. This is something you expect from iOS, not macOS laptop. It seems too good to be true.
Of course my comparison is to the entry-level laptop from 2016, but still, the speed blew my mind.
Battery
I started the part about battery life by writing the time I took it off the charger, how I used it during the day, etc. But I quickly realised how pointless it was. It’s just a full-day battery. Even better than an iPad. The feeling I get with this laptop – sometimes I remember to plug it in. This laptop is meant for charging overnight, working all day and charging after you are done, and it works for me this way.
MacBook Air with M1 re–introduced macOS to me. As soon as 2018 iPad Pro 12.9” came out, I fell in love. My first Apple device was iPhone 4, so iOS was always much closer for me. I like that the main interaction with the device are apps. That they open instantly, and you don’t have to manage them. That it is simple.
My MacBook Pro was underpowered for everything. It was entry-level configuration, so video editing, programming, or playing video games was not a fun experience, but also just using it as I was for writing, browsing, lightly editing photos – iPad was much faster and easier for that. So quickly, after buying an iPad, my MacBook Pro started gathering dust at home.
Now the tables are turned. I’m selling my iPad Pro because this MacBook gives me everything I want and even more. One might say, it is almost a perfect laptop.
As I wrote in the iPhone 12 Pro Max exit interview — it was a great phone. So, imagine that, but a bit better in almost everything. That is how you get iPhone 13 Pro.
This year I decided to go for a smaller one, since everything except for the screen size and battery is identical. Although I sometimes wish for a bigger screen in a day-to-day use, Pro Max is too unwieldy.
You can see how much bigger the Pro Max display really is
As it is not too different from the last year model, here are the things I’ve noticed the most.
Design
Last year, after a lot of consideration, I decided to go with the Gold phone. I still think that was the right choice. It is a fantastic colour, which goes with many accessories. This year I went with an updated colour – Sierra Blue. I preferred not to have the same colour two years in a row, and I don’t care for a silver one. If I was buying a phone now, I would go for a Gold colour again. It is so much better. You are very confined in colours you can pair your phone with. Choosing cases or skins is much harder now.
Although I went for a smaller phone because it is almost impossible to use Pro Max with one hand, it didn’t solve the problem. Whilst 13 Pro is great in terms of the size, it is very heavy. So using it with one hand for a bit longer time is still tricky.
Screen
One day my phone asked me if I wanted to turn on Low-Power mode, since the battery got below 20%, I did. After a couple of minutes, I’ve tried using it and scrolling felt really janky. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I tried restarting it, since I thought there might be something killing the processor. After the restart — the same thing happened. That is when I realised — Low-Power mode turns off ProMotion. So for me, whatever anyone tells you — 120 Hz screen is legit. I didn’t have such realisation with a iPad Pro because I never put it in Low-Power mode, so the ProMotion works all the time.
The notch is a bit smaller – narrower. It feels like it is actually taller, and for a couple of weeks I was noticing it a lot.
Camera
12 Pro Max had a remarkable camera. So much so, I decided to sell my “real” camera. Here, the ultra-wide got improved, and it is noticeable, so did the main camera, but I’ve started to enjoy 2.5x telephoto a lot, so I was hoping for an improvement in the 13 Pro. Unfortunately, the new telephoto lens is very hit or miss. In a very bright light it is good, but the moment sun goes away the quality is just not there. After getting used to the telephoto on the previous phone, I’m regularly saddened by the results now.
Although, everyone was talking about Macro mode, I still have to make one photo with it. Maybe it’s just not my thing, but I’m forgetting it even exists. I know in the future iOS version they’ll put a dedicated button, possibly that will prompt me to use it more. And whenever I look at the photos made in Macro mode, most of them are low quality.
I also had to read another iPhone 13 review to remember that there is a Cinematic mode. Perhaps it is more of a me problem, but I have yet to shoot a video with it.
It was not necessary to replace the year–old iPhone, but I wanted to get a smaller phone. Only after getting one ProMotion and a better main camera got me. It is a no-brainer update for a 2–year old or older iPhone. If you don’t need to change a phone because of size or weight, I would skip upgrading from the 12 series. Unless you want to. Don’t let people on the internet dictate you what to do.
I never thought I would write a review of a vacuum cleaner, but here we are. I was looking at Dyson vacuums for a long time, but always wanted something more for that price, something special. And boy they delivered. In the newest version, they literally added lasers. Honest to god laser. How cool is that?
It actually has a purpose — it shows you where the dust is. First time you clean the house, it is quite shocking. When you thought the floor was clean, it shows you how wrong you are. After the novelty wears off, it starts to feel like a game. Try to find the most dust in the room.
Here is perfectly clean floorWhat happens when you use lasers
I know it sounds weird, but it is so much fun. Imaging accidentally vacuuming the whole house while cooking. I had some time to kill, so decided to vacuum the kitchen and the living room, but it was fun looking for dust, so I’ve done the entire house.
The other thing it does — it shows you the type of dust/particles you are gathering. From the allergens and pollen to dust mites and particles the size of sugar. It shows it on a little screen (which is surprisingly hard to take a photo of, it looks bad, although in real life it’s quite nice).
You’ll have to believe me that it looks much better in person
It is also surprisingly powerful for a cordless vacuum. We usually use it on an Auto-setting, so it lasts around 45 minutes. It is definitely not the most powerful setting, but when it detects a lot of dirt, it turns it up, so you still gather it with one swoop. You almost don’t need to got back and forth at all, it vacuums everything in one go.
I also think it’s not too heavy, although you have to carry the whole vacuum in your hand, I don’t feel any discomfort after cleaning an entire house. As I mentioned, on Auto-setting, the battery will last around 45 minutes (which is more than enough for us). If your house is a bigger one, there is the outsize version with a bigger battery. Alternatively, you can buy an additional battery to this one, they snap on and off easily — with just a click of a button.
There are also numerous brushes. The one with lasers which is mostly for hard floors (but you can use it on carpets also, and we do), the one specifically for carpets, the small motor-driven one for long hair and pet hair and much more. It is so versatile, it is now our only vacuum for everything.
The one downside for me is the charging situation. It comes with a charger that you can plug, but the vacuum doesn’t stand on itself. There is a base in the box, but it is one you attach permanently to the wall. I’m not a fan of such solutions. So, we’ve bought a stand, which is another 150 EUR. I would’ve loved if it was included in the box.
Much better with a stand
We’ve had a Phillips cordless vacuum before and a couple of traditional ones before (both big and small), but this one is the favourite I’ve ever used. It is adequately powerful, has lasers, so it can show you all the dirt, looks interesting and gives you some information and what you’re cleaning. If you can swallow the price, I definitely recommend getting one.
With my wife getting back to work and daughter going to the daycare, we’ve realised it’s time to buy a second car. We quickly decided that it has to be something small, not absurdly expensive, but had to look good. The odd dealbreaker for me was Apple CarPlay. Oh, and it also had to be new, I didn’t want for it to spend any time in the repair shop. That way we’ve narrowed it down to Hyundai, Peugeot, and Fiat. All of them had good entry-level options. But after some searching, we’ve started thinking about going electric. We still don’t have any subsidies by the government if you buy an electric car, but there are a couple of perks you can enjoy:
free parking in Riga
using bus lanes
no registration fee or car tax (which would be around 50-150 euros, depending on the car)
free entrance to Jurmala (which will go from being seasonal to the whole year starting in 2022).
Moreover, recently banks started giving very low-interest rate for a lease and using an electric car seems to be cheaper than a petrol or diesel one (will check on this point at a later date).
After seeing some options, we’ve driven by the Honda dealership and that is where I saw it — Honda e. I saw some photos a couple of years ago, when they presented the prototype. I loved it, but seeing it in person only made those feelings stronger.
We were offered a test-drive and I couldn’t look at any other car after that. I mean, just look at it.
How It Looks — Attention Grabber
You won't miss it anywhere
The first evening I drove to the city, I was surprised to see everyone looking at me. People were literally stopping and pointing fingers. Cars were driving slower or faster just to drive close and look. Although electric cars are nothing new in Latvia (there are about 1700 of them, mostly BMW i3, Teslas and e-ups), but this one looks like a prototype. Honda even has a tagline for e — “This is not a prototype.” Furthermore, what “helps” is that there are only 3 of them on Latvian roads.
One day, I stopped at the red light and behind me was a Tesla Model X. Someone in the next row was going out of his way to see inside my car, totally ignoring Tesla. That felt weird.
If you like being a centre of attention — this is a car for you. If you want to drive like a madman, ignoring rules and picking your nose — look elsewhere, since you will be very noticeable.
Range
Charging in the autumn could be a bit poetic
This could be either the biggest weakness of the car, or it will not bother you at all. While making an electric car, Honda looked at the statistics and realised that only 1% of the trips in the UK are longer than a hundred miles. So, in making a city car, they’ve decided — why put a lot of batteries that wouldn’t be used? The result — this car will go somewhere between 160-220 km on a single charge depending on the version, weather, and the wheels you get.
We live a bit outside of town, so our drive to work is about 22 km, with around 8 km on the highway (which kills the battery, by the way). We consistently get 170 km of range, without economy or shutting everything off, just a normal driving with a regenerative braking.
What that means for me personally — I wouldn’t buy this car as the only one in the family, since on a road trip, you won’t get far. But it is perfectly adequate for a drive around a city — going to and from work, running some errands, etc.
It actually changed my thinking about the range already. Our main car is a BMW X3, and it easily can do 1000 km on a full tank, probably that was why I felt nervous when I saw only 200 km left and started looking for a gas station. Now I’m relaxed driving both cars almost to an empty tank / battery. I think it’s a positive change.
Charging
Still a looker
Surprisingly for a Japanese car, it comes with a Type 2 plug, which is the same as in Tesla, Jaguar, VW, BMW, and a lot more. That means that there are plenty of chargers around.
The car itself comes with a home charger — Type 2 on one side and 220V plug on the other. Yes, you just plug it in a normal socket at home and charge it. I don’t know about you, but it blew my mind the first time I plugged it in, and it worked.
Charging from the outlet is the slowest there is. It will take around 19 hours to charge from 0 to 100%. Luckily, you don’t really use it until the battery is empty, so after a day of use, you can charge it in about 5-9 hours.
You can install a wallbox at home, that way you’ll have Type 2 connectors on both sides, and it will allow you to charge from 0 to full in about 6 hours. For cars with larger batteries it is a must-have, but for this one, the outlet charger suffices.
Charging at night
Outside the house there are a couple of choices. There are different chargers, which differ in power and whether they have a plug. We have 2 big chains — Elektrum (from the biggest electric company in the country) and e-mobi (from the government). The first one charges by the kWh charged (no pun intended) and the price is similar to the electricity price at home. The second charges for minutes used and so depending on the power of the charger the price for the full battery will wary very much. Furthermore, to charge with Elektrum ones you’ll have to bring your cable, while e-mobi chargers have them built-in (like a gas pump). I’ve used only e-mobi chargers and the fastest ones available (50 kWh, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use them at the full potential — 0-80% in 30 minutes). It takes about an hour to fully charge Honda e. And the less juice you have left, the faster it will charge.
There are also some free chargers (at the malls, for example), but they are slow (similar to the home charger) and also need a cable.
Screens and technologies
Good thing it was produced before chip shortage
There are 6 screens in the car — 2 for side mirrors, 1 in front of you, 2 entertainment system screens (each 12.3”) and with a flick, a back mirror becomes a screen.
What’s also important for me is, although there are a lot of screens, most of the typical controls are still manual buttons (heating, wipers, etc.). For now, this is the best combination in my opinion. I don’t like how Tesla puts everything on the screen, and I also can’t look at cars that don’t have screens or have a small one for the entertainment system. This is the best of both worlds.
The screens are fine. They could’ve been a better quality or more responsive, but in a day-to-day use I mostly don’t notice. I always have battery information on the farther side and CarPlay on the closest screen.
By the way, although this car supports both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, only CarPlay is wireless and my god it is outstanding.
The process of getting in the car and driving is like non-existent, almost. You come to your car, the handle pops out, you open it, sit, choose D or R on a transmission and just drive. You don’t have to start the car, connect your phone. I know some things have been in cars for years, but the combination just gets you. I was surprised by the wireless CarPlay, since not a lot of cars have it, especially at this price point. But if you can get one — do, it’s not a dealbreaker, but a very nice touch.
Mirrors are perfectly visible even in the heavy rain
There are a lot of cameras in this car, including two instead of mirrors. It took about a day to learn to live with them and one rainy drive on the highway to enjoy and value it. Because the cameras are a bit inside and covered in some water-repellent, the picture in rain stays spotless, you won’t think there is rain just looking at those screens. If your windows are fogged up, you can still see the mirrors. And most importantly — you adjust them once and the picture stays the same however you change the position of your head or whole body. The mirrors are replaced by cameras, mostly to reduce the drag. Since you can make cameras much smaller, it is more efficient, which is important for an EV.
The Advance model also has a 220V outlet (with power of 1500W) in front and HDMI port, so you can plug a TV box or even game console (like PS5) and it will run it with no problems. Although PS5 is an overkill for such small screen, I can see myself plugging a laptop to charge or some classic console to play while charging.
Yes, you can play PS5 in the car
There are also 2 USB-A plugs, one for charging only, the second is for connecting to the entertainment system. Unfortunately, there is no wireless charging, which would be great with the wireless CarPlay.
Driving
The only season it blends in – autumn
It is surprisingly fun to drive. As with all electric cars it instantly goes from the start, unlike many others it keeps going. The Advance version does 0-100 km/h in 8.3 seconds, which of course is no match for Tesla, but still very competitive. Also, according to Honda it has 50/50 weight distribution and since the batteries are all down, this car holds the road like no other. It even has different wheels — the back ones are wider. I’ve gone into some corners with the speed I couldn’t even think of, especially in my SUV.
If one would find a road where it would be legal, one might find out that the top speed is capped at 150 km/h, which is more than enough, since it is actually a city car and such speed will deplete the battery in front your eyes.
Turning radius blew my mind. It is considered one of the smallest there are, losing only to London cabs, but you can definitely feel it on the narrow streets of the Old Town.
Space
Shock content if you open the trunk
This is a good news — bad news type of situation. First, good news — this car is very comfortable for those sitting in front. Because there is no transmission, although the car is small, you have a free space for your knees to go, while driving. Riding in the back is a bit trickier. First, it has two seats (technically 3 people can seat there, but there is no belt in the middle). Second, there is not a lot of legroom, but still, it’s not the smallest one, so for a drive around the city, even passengers in the back will feel okay. It is perfect for children.
What is lacking is a boot space. There is no storage space in the front, since Honda decided to put a charger in the hood and “engineering room” under it. So if you pop the hood, it will look like a normal car without the engine.
The boot itself is small. It holds about 5 shopping bags with groceries the most. You won’t be able to put any kind of stroller there (I actually found only one, by Cybex, which is made for travel, and it folds in a cube).
But again, it is a city car, it has enough space for going to work, shopping and home.
Verdict
Just an amazing little car
I love this car. Occasionally, I just get out of the house in the evening, after getting daughter to bed, and drive to the city. Just for fun.
But it is definitely not for everyone. Before you buy this car, you’ll have to check if it is right for you. This is a city car, mostly for commuting and some short drives. I would say this is a perfect second car. That is how we use it. My wife and I both have hybrid work, so every day one of us goes to the office and the other stays working at home. Whoever goes to the office takes the Honda, since you can get there faster and park for free. And for that, this car is just perfect.
I started writing this after listening to the ATP episode (where I got the idea) which was after Apple announced the iPhone 13 lineup and had a bit of trouble. I could have put it in a tweet — the iPhone 12 Pro Max is good, with some caveats. But after I got my iPhone 13 Pro, transferred all the data, used it for a couple of days and picked up my previous phone — I had a bit of nostalgia. I wasn’t regretting the upgrade, but I’ve had this feeling — it was a superb phone, which helped me get through the year, and I love it.
After a year, I can definitely say — the Pro Max is a different kind of beast. As I mentioned in my review it is big and so for me, it meant I’ve used it a lot — to read, watch videos, play games, even write. Now that I’ve used a smaller phone for a bit, I use it differently. It almost feels like Pro Max phone can be your only computer.
Design
I love it. After a lot of going back and forth between Midnight Blue and Gold, I chose Gold and bought my first non-black iPhone, and I still love the colour. I love the edges, the substantial weight. What I actually don’t love is the size. With those edges and going a bit bigger, Pro Max is finally too big.
Camera
I’ve upgraded to the 12 from iPhone XS Max, which, although I didn’t think at the time of my review, in hindsight had the worst camera comparatively of every other iPhone. The photos were over-sharpened, there were many details lost. While looking through the photo library, I can easily spot photos taken with XS Max (and not in a good way).
So updating to the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera system was marvellous. This was the first time I was genuinely surprised while looking at photos taken with the phone. And as a result, I’m selling my Olympus camera. Don’t get me wrong, the “real” camera still takes better photos, but the hassle of taking it with me, transferring and editing photos is not worth it anymore for me. Photos became truly “good enough” with that revision of the iPhone.
Battery
As is every year with a phone, it starts with an astonishing battery. iPhone 12 Pro Max was not an exception. I would start my day at around 7AM and end it at 11PM, and it still would have 40% battery left with normal use. After a year, it is not the case, unfortunately. With battery health at 95%, I find myself charging the phone in the middle of the day or ending it with less than 10%.
Verdict
All in all, I think iPhone 12 Pro Max is one of the best iPhones to date. The camera is so much better, the design is great. There are not a lot of things lacking. I’ve enjoyed using it a lot and will even miss it.
