Community Update: We are a Writing a Book!

The Mitchell Millennial channel has gone through impressive growth over the last year, with thousands of unique readers joining us every month, and thousands new subscribers on the YouTube channel. For this reason, we feel as if we are ready to begin a long road of meaningful projects that will help us achieve the channel’s true purpose: help create informed consumers - to do this, we are very excited to announce that we are expanding our work to a new platform: E-books.

From the Xiaomi Mi Dots to the countless wireless headphones that have since followed its legacy - we have had the opportunity to engage with products coming from all sorts of different manufacturers - all with different standout features and price tags. As Mitchell, the channel’s creator and host states: “I have been testing and reviewing truly wireless headphones for over a year and I am deciding to share what I’ve learned,”

Because of our experience and passion for these products, we are excited to announce that we will be releasing the channel’s first e-book on this very topic! This work will allow our community “the ability to support what we do in this channel for next to nothing and get a valuable guide that will hopefully save your money in the long run.”

To ensure this work gets in your hands on time, we are in constant and rapid development of the important factors and trends that really make a difference when first diving into this ever-expanding field of consumer technology. Recognising the field’s swift growth, Mitchell says that he is “committed to updating and reciting this guide over time and updating it with your feedback.” Ensuring our promise to the guide’s value in the future.

For now, a release date for this project is uncertain, but we will ensure to write other community updates as we get closer to the project’s completion.

Haylou GT1 Plus VS Haylou GT2: Differences that Matter

With so many truly-wireless earbuds now entering the budget sphere, it is becoming increasingly hard to decide which is worth of our money. In our channel, we are strong advocates of the Haylou line of products, as we believe they offer a strong midpoint between value and audio performance. To no surprise however, Haylou has now also fallen victim to the multiple-model issue, which brings us to a core question: Which is worth your cash, the Haylou GT1 Plus, or the Haylou GT2?

Firstly, let’s quickly mention a very important similarity: both of these earbuds sound great, in fact, they are essentially identical. This is important to note, as it means that the differences to which we will discuss will simply come down to preference - meaning that Haylou has essentially created two similar products for two different sorts of consumers.

The out and about customers, are who we believe will much prefer the Haylou GT1 Plus. Featuring a more compact case that packs more juice than its counterpart, as well as a generally lower price in online markets, the Haylou GT1 Plus simply fits into your pocket and becomes one with your outdoors gear.

Meanwhile, those who prefer features over convenience will find the Haylou GT2s a great set of truly wireless earbuds. This mainly comes down to the product’s main selling feature: its charging cable included with the case. By simply lowering a flap, you have essentially reduced the need to bring around one extra cable with you. This comes at the cost of a larger, and less-battery packed case, but we find that to some the added benefit of having an all in one package may be worth it.

Furthermore, those who like physical controls will find no luck with the Haylou GT1 Plus, again going to testify how the Haylou GT2, whilst a larger earbud to bring around, makes up for the inconvenience by packing everything you could ever need from truly-wireless earbuds in one.

To conclude, for those looking for better battery, and a better price of entry, the Haylou GT1 Plus is the obvious winner. But for those looking for out of the box convenience, the better charging case and physical buttons bundled with the Haylou GT2 could very well be a selling point. For our money, go with the GT1 Plus, but everyone’s needs vary, and what is truly important is that no matter your personal pick, you will have a great listening experience.

BUY THE HAYLOU GT1 PLUS ON ALI EXPRESS

BUY THE HAYLOU GT1 PLUS ON GeekBuying

BUY THE HAYLOU GT1 PLUS ON BANGOOD

HAYLOU GT2 ALI EXPRESS

HAYLOU GT 1 AND HAYLOU GT2 ON GEARBEST

HAYLOU GT 2 ON BANGGOOD

Combating the System: Europe's New Take on Tech Monopolies

From flashy billboards to the uncontrollable wave of adverts constantly flashing on our TV screens, the tech we use every day has come to dominate us. Take Amazon for example, a company that is at first sight harmless, and indeed very helpful at being a mediator between consumers and sellers, but owns much of what we use every single day: Twitch, Whole Foods, Ring, Zappos just to name a few. It comes as no surprise then, that this Wednesday, the European Union has come together to discuss growing concerns of international monopolies being a danger to the potential European technology market.

As a report by the New York Times states, “Officials said the effort was a “generational project,” and the ideas reflect a growing concern among European leaders that countries in the region are overly dependent on services provided by companies based elsewhere.” And this is of course, understandably so. Apple, Huawei and Samsung are the three biggest players in the smartphone space - and as you may quickly see, none of these companies are based in Europe.

Picture from The Economist

Understanding Europe’s current dependence on international brands for everyday technology, Ursula Von Der Leyen, the European Commission’s president stated that ““We want to find European solutions in the digital age,” But Europe’s strategy to reach this goal, with an emphasis on data ownership, is perhaps the most interesting part of Wednesday’s meeting.

“A.I is not good or bad in itself,” said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission Vice president, hinting at Europe’s biggest concern with today’s modern technology market: With only a few companies owning an ever increasing amount of what we own, data that can be used to improve technology products is held by only a few key players.

To respond to this issue, Europe proposes more government intervention in technological data collection, providing companies and researchers in Europe with key information that will, in Europe’s optimistic views, give the Union a chance to participate in tomorrow’s technology market.

With Europe’s repetitive internet regulation policies, including the infamous Article 13 copyright laws, the proposition of these laws seems like yet another step in an ongoing chain of events where Europe gains exclusive control over its own information.

UiiSii BN80 First Impressions: Price King

With many “truly wireless earbuds” releasing in the past few months, we still maintain the opinion that neckband style Bluetooth earbuds are better - but as companies dropped their focus on this sort of headphone, they’ve become less and less common. Thankfully, the UiiSii BN80s not only revive a style of product we love, but also create a product that for its price is simply unmatched.

Featuring dual drivers, sound is the BN80’s top priority: being fantastic for all sorts of songs that you may listen to in your day to day life. This technology, which brings great change to audio fidelity, simply cannot be found in similarly priced pairs of truly wireless earbuds - as those generally focus their resources in other features such as their charging case.

Another great standout feature of this headphone is its 15 hour battery life - the equivalent of many truly wireless earbuds once you have completely drained their charging case. This means being able to go for a long trip without the need of bringing the charging cable along, or taking breaks from your listening experience because your earbuds “just need a quick top up”.

Furthermore, these headphones are the prime representation of what makes neckband headphones our favourite style of Bluetooth headphones: magnets. By making sure that the earbuds connect to one another, this pair of headphones is low-profile, comfortable to wear, and won’t be so easily lost as is the case with truly wireless earbuds.

As for latency, whilst we haven’t used these headphones sufficiently at the time of this writing to fully test out its latency, our first impression watching video content has been more than positive - allowing for media consumption that is fully in sync with your phone despite the Bluetooth connection.

Lastly, and just as important, for only 50 dollars, these earbuds come with a great variety of ear tips in the box - ensuring a great deal of customisability that ultimately ensures that your purchase will serve you no matter how your ears may be shaped.

5 Reasons I am Not Upgrading from the K20 Pro to the K30 Pro

It is no news to anyone that the K20 Pro was a device we loved using in 2019. With so many awesome features on offer, we were staggered to see what Xiaomi would have on offer for the sequel of this great device. Unfortunately, it is not always that the company’s interests and ours align, and with the recent release of the K30 Pro, we have been less than excited for what it has on offer.

The Display

Taking a step back in screen brightness is never a good idea, in fact, it’s this feature alone that makes our phones usable where we desire them the most: outside. With the K30 Pro however, Xiaomi has receded about 100 nits of brightness from its predecessor, a significant amount considering the K20 Pro’s outdoors visibility was on the line of what we would consider “visible” in outdoors situations - making the K30 Pro a phone that should just stay at home.

Lack of OIS

The triple camera setup was a great feature of the K20 Pro, and whilst we took some great photos with it throughout the year, we have always been disappointed by the lack of OIS in the video department. In our list of features we wanted to see in a potential K30 Pro, this was on top of our priorities, as we hoped Xiaomi would see the community’s positive reaction to the device’s photography abilities, and improve on it.

Sadly however, this was simply not the case, and as well featured as the K30 Pros set of cameras may be, it has still left out this very important feature, making video stabilisation less than desirable in a phone that in 2020 has some worthy competition.

Back to Plastic

With last year’s K20 Pro, Xiaomi sent a message that it cares about design just as much as it cares about performance. For a device claiming to be the K20 Pro’s successor, such downgrade in built seems a bit odd at best. Not only is glass prettier, but often times more resistant, and it allows for the addition of extra perks such as wireless charging.

Controversial Design Choices

Whilst the pop up selfie camera was a design quirk we had a range of thoughts about last year, we truly appreciated the K20 Pro’s bezel-less look, which made video-viewing experience better, and gave the phone a more futuristic look overall. Copying the design trends popularised by the Samsung S10, the K20 Pro features a camera hole that takes away from the beautiful viewing experience first brought to us by its predecessor.

Walking Backwards

As all these points may have shown, the K30 Pro takes many fundamental ideas of what made the K20 Pro a remarkable device, and deviates from it entirely. In this path, not only does the K30 Pro lose a great deal of identity, but it also creates a device that is ultimately superior to its much beloved predecessor. With this idea in mind, we do not think that the K30 Pro is a worthy purchase, and believe that many customers would be happy sticking with their K20s for the meanwhile.

Will you be picking up a K30 Pro? Let us know in the comments below!