Awei T10C Review: Awesomely Cheap, Undeniably Great

With so many bad examples of cheap truly-wireless earbuds throughout the past year, we are not afraid to admit that upon receiving the Awei T10Cs, we had low standards in mind. After putting them through strenuous use however, we are happy to report that for less than $30, we may have just found the best truly wireless earbuds around.

Initial Impression

Upon initial unboxing, nothing about the Awei T10Cs felt truly special. From its plastic build to the overused AirPods-esque design, these headphones don’t bring anything new to the table. To redeem itself however, you quickly notice upon unboxing that with this product, features come before looks.

With features such as having Qi wireless charging to multiple interchangeable earbud tips, the Awei T10Cs bring more to the table than any other competitor at its price - setting forth a prime example of a moment when one should really not judge a book by its cover.

Experience

Cheap construction aside, the Awei T10Cs are extremely comfortable, allowing for more than an hour and a half of usage before we felt any sort of discomfort. Furthermore, the sleek battery case - which rapidly recharges the earbuds once its 2.5-3 hours of playtime are done - meant that the entire package was as minimal as it should be, making usage outdoors painless.

The controls make this truly wireless earbud a solid contestant. Being able to control your tracks, pause them and adjust the volume without ever having to take your phone is truly what these products are meant for, and at just $30, the Awei T10Cs get this just right.

Sound is entirely subjective, but in our experience, the Awei T10Cs sound best when put against modern pop songs. Not only is the bass really good here, but the lack of detail makes it pretty challenging to enjoy older sounds that require a lot of detail at a certain pitch.

Unfortunately, if there is one area where the T10Cs simply collapse it would have to be its microphone. To conserve costs, Awei used a very cheap non-multidirectional microphone, making taking calls and recording video outdoors a really hard task.

Conclusion

With rather flimsy designs and unimpressive features, It is often hard to recommend truly-wireless earbuds under the $30 price-point. The Awei T10Cs however, while not necessarily spectacular, achieve a certain level of quality where we can be certain that the average media consumer will be more than satisfied.

MIUI 11 Initial Impressions: A Refreshing New Step

It’s the holiday season for Xiaomi fans, with the company’s annual refresh of their MIUI, smartphone users all across the globe can finally get reasonably excited for something new. After spending a bit with Xiaomi’s latest MIUI 11, we are happy to say it is a refreshing new step.

New features first, MIUI 11 while not having any massive features that will completely change your phone experience, does contain enough small tweaks that when added up make this a worthwhile revision. Firstly, Xiaomi has greatly tweaked how notifications are shown both when the phone is in its always on display mode - which can now display quotes - to when the phone’s screen is on, by neatly lighting up the sides of your screen to warn you of incoming notifications.

Furthermore, Xiaomi has also implemented their version of “digital wellbeing” which conveniently let’s you know what apps are being most used, allowing users to be more in control of their digital experience.

On the visual front, MIUI 11 has kept many of the same elements that made last year’s version so visually appealing, all whilst making small adjustment that go a long way towards polishing your phone’s overall aesthetic. From the flat square design found within some options in your settings, to the many visual designs Xiaomi has used to replace simple toggles, MIUI 11 has a more materialistic design language that feels familiar yet different.

Where battery and performance are concerned, Xiaomi has built quite the reputation throughout the years in terms of ensuring noticeable upgrades with each software update - this is no different here. In our brief time testing MIUI 11, we have not only noticed that the K20 Pro’s battery life has maintained its amazing 8+ hours of SOT, but that the device’s RAM management has been slightly smarter - resulting in an ultimately more enjoyable user experiences.

Great things aside, MIUI 11 is not exactly bug free, with some of its new options such as the on-screen light for notifications often not working as well as it should. With that mentioned, this is simply the initial release of this software, and it is expected that Xiaomi will continue to work hard to ensure that their software is fleshed out with each version update.

All things considered, MIUI 11 isn’t an update that will entirely change how you use your phone, but with the righ set of improvements, it succeeds in ensuring that the user-experience is more enjoyable than year’s past, making it a worthwhile update to any Xiaomi user.

Our Thoughts On The Iphone 11: Tangible Upgrades

It’s that time of the year again, crowds raise their cheers as Tim Cook sets foot on stage, millions of cameras twist and turn as if the entire world is watching - it’s Apple’s yearly keynote, and we are all patiently waiting to see what they’ve got in store for us this time around. It’s like this every year, but in 2019, Apple has gone on stage with one mission: provide customers with visible improvements, and after taking a deeper look at the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pros, here’s our two cents on Apple’s 2019 flagships.

An Uphill Battle & Tangible Upgrades

After the release of last year’s iPhone, Apple was caught on a battle against their sales figures - numbers that were often used as proof by many that the company could no longer innovate the same space they created.

Because of this, Apple seems to have largely changed their approach to the way their iPhones are presented this time around. Instead of sticking with the small improvements that plagued the iPhone XS and XS Max, Apple has instead focusing on providing upgrades that could easily and visibly be noticeable by any smartphone owner.

This phenomenon can be seen through the cameras, screen, processor and battery life, all aspects that are not only very important to the everyday smartphone experience, but aspects that Apple made sure to provide numbers and live examples to back their new impressive technology. Seeing the capabilities of their new night mode, or how the triple camera setup allows for 4k 60fps video across all three cameras for example, were both moments in which even an iPhone XS Max user could look on and at least acknowledge that Apple was bringing forth a better product.

Where this new attitude may matter to most is again with battery life, where Apple claimed a 5 hour increase when compared to the previous generation of iPhones. On the processor front, seeing an easy to understand chart that made Apple’s new A13 bionic chip simply destroy the entire competition is another of the plentiful examples where the Cupertino company simply brought silence to other smartphone manufacturers.

These may all seem like small, and mostly expected improvements when looked at individually, but it is when you start to bundle these upgrades all together that it quickly becomes evident that the iPhone 11 is a substantially more usable phone than its last generation.

From Android to IOS?

If you’ve been following our content for a while, you may have quickly caught on to the fact that we are quite vocal about our appreciation for Android. Needless to say however, this hasn’t stopped us from admiring Apple for the amazing value they bring to the table.

At $699, not only is the company sending a message that flagship smartphones don’t always need to cost $1000, but the company is also communicating that it still has room to innovate. This is to say that though we wouldn’t necessarily switch from our Android smartphones to IOS, we admire the fact that Apple is able to step up and provide tangible upgrades in categories that matter the most to consumers, instead of focusing on the nitty-gritty details that most wouldn’t notice - as is often seen in the Android side of the competition.

Would you get an Iphone 11? Let us know down below!

Folding Phones Such As The Samsung Galaxy Fold And Huawei Mate X Have No Place In The Market

Every few years the technology market feels the need to rejuvenate itself. Now, after the single screen smartphones have been perfected, the jump to dual screen technology has finally started - and in its current state, we think it doesn’t have space in the smartphone market.

First introduced to the mainstream masses by Samsung and Huawei, folding phones aim to combine the portability of the everyday smartphone with their opportunities provided by a larger tablet screen. As seen with the recent Galaxy Fold, the concept includes the mending of two screens, which can be bent in half or opened depending on just how much screen real-estate a user may require.

In concept, combining two everyday technology products into one could be quite brilliant, but in actuality, the product shows more than a few flaws. For starters, combining two products that were always meant to be used separately creates what ultimately doesn’t achieve the perfection of either or. This is especially true in the age of the iPad Pro, where tablets have started adapting into work machines instead of the media giants they were always treated as.

Samsung has resorted to their own custom skin in the form of DEX

This issue is especially true when software is taken into consideration. On the tablet side of the spectrum, more desktop based experiences have been the driving force of allowing tablets to be more than media consumption devices. Apps such as the full version of Adobe Photoshop have now been made for the iPad, making this multi-tasking centric interpretation of what a tablet can do feeling very archaic.

But for those that think that this first generation technology can progress just as easily as smartphones did, think again. Earlier this year, Google announced that it was shifting its focus from Android tablets entirely to its Chrome OS platform. Though this could be subject to change as folding phones amass popularity, from the get go the platform is disadvantage in terms of support.

Google has moved to Chrome OS for large screen devices

Lastly, but certainly not less important than software is hardware. If the failure that was the first batch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold is to be taken as an example of what this technology can achieve in its first generation, we have quite few things to worry. From the flimsy build quality to the natural bend in the middle of the flexible OLED used for its tablet functions, dual screen phones are not only more expensive, but come with a significant higher risk attached to them.

At the end, what this entails that whilst slowly progressing what seems like a slowing industry, folding phones are not only fundamentally broken, but disadvanted in both their hardware capabilities and future software - leaving them at what can only be described as an awkward space in the current smartphone market.

Xiaomi Unveils Mi Mix Alpha, A $3000 Phone Not Many WIll Ever Own

Xiaomi has always been reputable for incredible devices offered at budget price tags. As the cliche goes however, all things must change, and with Xiaomi’s latest unveiling of its Mi Mix Alpha, a $3000 smartphone that not many will ever own.

Packing the latest and greatest technology, a 180% screen to body rate and a 108MP camera, the Mi Mix Alpha is Xiaomi’s first attempt to settle itself as a competitive figure in the flagship smartphone space.

According to the company’s Lei Jun, the Alpha is the company’s first step towards reinventing Xiaomi as a smartphone company. “Actually, we want to get rid of this reputation that our phones cost less than 2,000 Yuan. We want to invest more and make better products” Said Jun as a response to many of the company’s fans complaining about the lack of ingenuity that came with Xiaomi’s latest releases.

Furthermore, Jun also stated that “In the future, our phones might get more expensive - not a lot, but a little more expensive,” hinting towards Xiaomi slowly abandoning the space it once dominated, and instead entering a crowd where it never has competed.

The change in market has left many Xiaomi fans wondering what is next for the company, with some speculating that its Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 will release with many features of the Alpha, but instead hinting towards the $1000 price tag, placing Xiaomi right next to Apple and Samsung’s flagship offerings.

Despite not having a clear release data, the limited quantities announced and its more than expensive price-tag make it almost clear that the Mi Mix Alpha may a technological joy that never leaves China.

Here’s What You Should Do If Your K20 Pro Has a Fake Global ROM

A few weeks ago, we reported on a aliexpress seller that was falsely commercialising Chinese K20 Pros as if they shipped with a “Global ROM”. Despite our fair warning, the internet is vast, and as such, what to some is an obvious scam, to others was a tempting buy. With that in mind, here are some options that you can explore if you bought a K20 Pro with a fake Global ROM.

Look On The Bright Side

Having a fake Global of the K20 Pro, though surely unwanted, is not all bad news. With a non-official ROM coming installed by default, you can rejoice safely knowing that not only is your device legitimate, but it comes with the bootloader unlocked by default, a process that could otherwise take you two weeks to manually do.

Flash An Authentic ROM

There is nothing wrong with wanting a stock Xiaomi experience, and thankfully, Xiaomi provides its user base with just enough resources to successfully achieve just that. Through the Mi flash tool, users are able to easily and safely install a verified authentic ROM, be it China’s or an international ROM, providing what is seemingly the safest and easiest way to ensure your device’s stock legitimacy.

Install a Custom ROM

Perhaps our favorite option, the world of custom ROMs is simply massive. From the Google Experience ROM to the Xiaomi EU ROM, developers have put a lot of effort to provide stable experiences that can fit anyone’s preferences - so have fun!

Though this method may seem daunting - and a lot of prior research on the ROM is required - once you master the art of downloading and installing a custom ROM, your Xiaomi experience is bound to change for the better.

With these options in mind, we hope that the pain of buying a fake device has been lessened. Do any of these options sound appealing, let us know down below!

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