11 gadgets that are constantly in my pockets and backpack

Today I decided to make a small overview of what is almost always with me. That is, talk about your personal devices, and not about those that are currently under review. I think that many of you are interested in knowing which devices are held in high esteem by the browser.

Let's start with the contents of the pockets.

iPhone X 64 GB in original leather case

Cost: 60,000 rubles

Unlike my Moscow colleagues, it is rare to take smartphones for review, so you have to use your personal smartphone to communicate with the world. Since November 2017, that is, for more than a year and a half, my main device is iPhone X, purchased by pre-order and received on the very first day of world sales. I had such an “idiot's dream” even before working for Mobile-Review – to buy a new one iPhone on the first day of world sales, and on November 3, 2017 it came true.

To this day iPhone X remains a nimble device, which in most parameters is not inferior to either the new generation iPhone, or even the freshest Android flagships. After a year and a half, the battery life is still at 90%, so I also do not experience any problems with autonomy – almost always enough for the whole day. There are no problems with the screen either, no signs of burnout (pah-pah) OLED – the matrix is ​​not observed.

In fact, the main complaint about iPhone X is the camera, and then only at night. When shooting in the evening and at night, you constantly have to “play” with manual exposure settings or pull out pictures after the fact in a photo editor. At the same time, there are no questions at all about the quality of the photo during the day and in portrait mode – they are close to ideal. There is still not enough “shirik”, and it is because of it that I keep looking at Android – flagships, but I am not going to seriously change the smartphone until the fall.

Since the device is my personal and bought for serious money, I treat it carefully and from the first day of use I wear it in an original leather case. At first it was a blue version, which had worn out pretty much over the course of a year, now it is a red one, bought for a share in Beeline for only 1,500 rubles. No matter how much I tried other cases, I still returned to the original Leather Cases, I really like them.

Flagship overview Apple iPhone X

AirPods 1st generation

Cost: 12,000 rubles

Another long-lived device is the first generation AirPods, also bought almost immediately after they went on sale. These are excellent utilitarian headphones for working with a computer and smartphone when you do not want to disturb others with certain sounds from the external speaker, as well as a decent headset for short phone calls while driving or long conference calls on Skype at the workplace.

Despite the fact that many people scold these headphones for the sound quality, I quite often listen to music in them, in particular, in the office or at home while performing any work or household tasks. On the street and in noisy places, I still prefer full-size headphones with ANC, which we will talk about below.

For almost 2.5 years of constant use, the headphones have seriously lost their autonomy. Now, without a case, they are enough for about 2.5 hours, that is, exactly half of the declared work. But for my use cases, this is quite enough. I'll start thinking about buying a new generation or other alternatives only when they stop holding for at least 1.5-2 hours.

One and a half years with Airpods Five reasons to buy and five reasons not to buy new AirPods The most common “breakdown” AirPods and how you can fix it

Car keys

Car cost: 500,000 rubles

The third thing that I keep in my pocket all the time is the car keys. At the moment I am driving Kia Soul of the first generation – it comfortably accommodates my not the smallest family, and the machine itself pleases with its reliability and quite adequate prices for its maintenance.

I decided to include the car in this list for such a curious reason. Recently, thanks to Sergey Stillavin and his YouTube car show, I found out why the Kia Soul looks the way it looks. It turned out that the American designer (the appearance of this car was invented by the Americans, since the car was originally created for the US market) was inspired by the image of a wild boar running with a backpack! Have you ever seen, even in pictures, a wild boar running with a backpack? So I have not seen. So let's note the creativity of the American designer, he is a great fellow.

I don't plan to change the car either, but if there was such an opportunity, I think I would have switched to a C-Class from Mercedes – Benz.

Apple Watch Series 3 42 mm

Cost: 20,000 rubles

Although the watch is not in your pocket, but on your hand, it is wrong not to mention it in this article. In an article dedicated to this watch, I said that I bought it exclusively as a gadget capable of showing the time, and the additional functionality was just a pleasant bonus.

Actually, I use them only for a very modest range of tasks:

• watch the time and weather forecast;
• looking through notifications;
• I pay for purchases through Apple Pay (including storing bonus cards in the Stocard app and showing their barcodes on the watch);
• I set up an alarm clock so as not to wake up my spouse and children in the early morning;
• I manage the music and sometimes “shazamlu” the tracks I like.

And with these tasks Apple Watch Series 3 cope one hundred percent. The only thing that annoys them is to put the watch on charge every two days. There were thoughts to change them to Amazfit Bip, but I did not dare to such a downgrade, even due to the autonomy of the latter. So I continue to use this watch and don't think about buying something for a replacement, because there is no need.

Smart watches are useless, but I bought them anyway

Moving on to the contents of the backpack, but it is logical to start with it.

Mi Business Backpack

Cost: 2,000 rubles

After two years with backpacks Meizu (gray and black) I recently switched to a business backpack Xiaomi. The choice fell on him because of the pleasant price, more spaciousness and more strict appearance compared to Meizu – you can wear this with a jacket, if necessary.

There are plenty of pockets and compartments, except for the missing rear hidden document pocket found in Meizu. Also, I don't really like zippers clinking against each other, but after a couple of weeks of wearing socks, I got used to it. The rest is top for its money, although the model is already quite old.

Backpack Xiaomi Business

MacBook Air with Retina display in basic configuration

Cost: 95,000 rubles

The main occupant of my backpack is the MacBook Air with the highly anticipated Retina display. It is a very light and mobile work machine that I carry everywhere and everywhere with me. It has great autonomy, an excellent display, a comfortable keyboard, excellent sound from the speakers and performance sufficient for my tasks.

There are two problems with him. The first is the ill-fated keyboard, because of which I have already contacted the service, and this helped only partially. The second one is just two USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports, with which most of the time you can't cook good porridge.

But with all this, I don't see any alternatives yet. Recently I had the experience of dealing with a powerful and expensive Windows – Ultrabook that costs one and a half of my MacBook Airs, and it did have a lot of interesting features like a built-in LTE modem, a touch screen and all kinds of ports. But despite this, it was scary, heavy, with a very bad FullHD display for 150,000 rubles, with mediocre sound (despite the badge of a cool audio brand) and a cooler that was constantly on and off. Yes, and out of the box when I pressed the backlight adjustment keys, it gave some kind of error with the drivers. So for now I will live with “air”, despite its problems, I was very much upset by that Windows – ultrabook.

MacBook Air 2018: answers to top 10 questions about a typewriter for 100 thousand rubles Experience of buying a MacBook (PCT) at the price of the “gray” market and subsequent keyboard repair

Apple 1st generation Magic Mouse

Cost: 5,000 rubles

You can call me an Old Believer or even worse – an oldfag, but I could not refuse to use a mouse. I have mastered the best trackpad in the world in a MacBook, and I feel comfortable using it. But for some tasks, for example, for working with photos or text, it is more convenient for me to use a good old mouse.

A life hack for those who want a branded mouse Apple, but are not ready to part with a bill with the image of Khabarovsk for this. Just look for such a mouse from your hands – prices for mice in excellent condition start at 2,000 rubles. As a rule, if they are sold, it means that they were either not used, or they were used for a short time. And given that the first generation of the mouse runs on batteries or AA-rechargeable batteries, you shouldn't worry about battery life at all. Otherwise, Magic Mouse is very reliable. I have been using the same mouse for about 5 years now, and there is no sign of an impending demise. Only the batteries have to be recharged approximately once every 1.5-2 months and the paint under the fingers has come off.

Apple Magic Mouse Review

Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2

Cost: 13,000 rubles.

At the beginning of last year, in the wake of the popularity of headphones with active noise cancellation, I went with firm confidence to buy a Sony WH-1000XM2, but at the time of payment I changed my mind, because it became quite scary to give 30,000 rubles for headphones. Arriving home, I ordered a simpler model for Amazon for the action – Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2, they then cost me about 8,000 rubles. Yes, their noise cancellation power is not as chic as in top-end Sony headphones, but for its money, BackBeat Pro 2 has excellent sound, pleasant materials (abundance of eco-leather) and a comfortable fit.

I charge these headphones once a month, listen to them on trains, planes, on noisy streets and in the office when I want no one and nothing to distract from my work. They also save when working in the “field” conditions: in cafes, airports, train stations and other noisy places. In general, they work out great in cases where AirPods are no longer enough.

Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 operating experience

Xiaomi Powerbank 3 Pro (20,000mAh)

Cost: 2 500 rubles

Just last week we published a detailed review of this portable battery on our website. In my opinion, this is the ideal device in terms of price, quality and support for all kinds of technologies. He knows how to quickly charge my smartphone 6-7 times, once save the MacBook Air from a power outage, and faster than the complete power supply (45 W via the USB-C port), and without any problems will power all other devices, both mine and people who find themselves nearby. 20,000 mAh is not a pity for anyone.

There are only a couple of complaints about him. Firstly, it is its size and weight. Not everyone will agree to carry such a large and heavy (440 g) bar with them. Secondly, it uses far from the best lithium-polymer battery cells, which can swell over time, so you have to monitor this. Otherwise, everything is fine.

In the next year, I will not think about buying a power bank, if it does not have any critical problems.

Review Xiaomi Powerbank 3 Pro (20,000mAh): The best battery for everything

Seagate Expansion Portable Drive 500 GB

Cost: 3,000 rubles

The thing that I carry with me just in case, because the disc is taken out of the backpack about once every 2-3 months. It was bought in addition to one of my first MacBooks, since I mistakenly thought that a 128 GB disk would not be enough. Surprisingly, 128 GB is quite enough, considering that all archived data such as photos and music from my 2007th, which no one will ever return, is stored on a network drive at home. Thus, an external HDD acts like a big flash drive, but since it is rarely used, I can't say anything useful about my operating experience. It just works and does its job well.

4G / Wi-Fi router ZTE MF90 +

Cost: 2,000 rubles

This device was bought “in reserve” a couple of years ago during the next campaign in Beeline, when these routers were sold at some very attractive price. Most of the time he lay idle, but when he moved to a new office he needed it – the reason for this is the slow and unstable local wired Internet. In addition, I noticed that it is much more practical to use just such a thing outside the home and office than a smartphone in modem mode. And now I have connected unlimited Internet on my smartphone, because the need for distributing the Internet has disappeared.

By the way, I recently spent a whole evening teaching him to work with any SIM cards, not just Beeline ones. This will allow me in the near future to objectively test the quality of LTE with all operators in the region and choose the best one for myself. I won't tell you about this experience, since hardly any of our readers are interested in how things are with LTE in Kursk.

In 4 cases out of 5 ZTE MF90 + works stably, well and quickly, but from time to time it hangs – the connection seems to be there, but nothing is loaded. And it's not about the signal, because it shows that the reception is there and it is good. It is treated with a reboot. The battery lasts for 4 hours, but if you have a good power bank, this is not critical. I have no more complaints about the router.

Router Beeline ZTE MF90

Conclusion

In this material, I did not touch on the contents of my workplace, as well as various small things like cables and adapters – we will talk about this in future materials, if you are interested. And now is the time to ask questions about the devices listed here – I will be happy to answer them.