Best and worst products I purchased in past one year
There are couple of products that I had purchased last year. While some were ‘meh’ and some were downright bad, there are many that were extremely good and worth every rupee. Here is the list of the best products and the worst products that I had purchased over the past year. Most of these cost less than 5000 rupees and are worth every rupee.
Unigen dock
Price: ₹2,999/-
I had used Samsung Galaxy S7 since September 2017. This phone had wireless charging but in these 4.5 years, it never sat on a wireless charger. When I purchased the iPhone 13 and the Apple Watch, I thought of trying all in one wireless charger. Instead of going Apple/Belkin way and splurge 10k+ for 2-in-1 charger, I purchased the Unigen Unidock 3-in-1 wireless charging station. Once I got this dock, I stopped using cables to charge my iPhone, watch and even the S7. If you have more than one product that can use wireless charging, I seriously suggest you to get one. Yes, it is lot lot slower than almost every fast charger. You will not get 50% charge in minutes. What you get is absolute convenience. With this on your desk, you do not even have to try to charge the phone. Keep it on the dock and use it like a phone stand. In the last one month, the only time I used a wired charger for phone was when the phone charge went too low and I had to rush in 30 minutes. Believe me, these things are absolute worth buying. I paid ₹2,999/- for this but it should cost less now.
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08D6NP4SB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Wipro 16A smart plug
Price: ₹969.00 (during offers)
The first two days, this was in ‘worst product to buy’ list. That was mainly due to the bad Wipro’s application where you configure the smart plug. If you have non-IoT devices at home like geyser, AC etc that draw power from 16A plug, this Wipro 16A smart plug is so so convenient. We connected this to Geyser’s point. There are countless instances where we turn the geyser on when we are outside. But that is not the best feature. Like most smart plugs, we can setup schedule to turn on and turn off. My schedule is to turn it on twice for 20 minutes between 5:45am and 8am so that we have hot water by the time kids wake up and by the time I need a bath. Thanks to this plus, we do not even think of turning on the geyser every morning. Very rarely we had the issue where the geyser did not turn off, say once in two months. If you are going out of time, make sure to turn the switch to the plug off to avoid accidental on.
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08HN9Q2SZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Ather 450X
Price: ₹1,55,657
The iPhone of scooters. Wife purchased this scooter as we thought it is better to have a two wheeler that she can ride (I have Pulsar NS and she is not at all interested in using a geared bike). As our maximum daily ride is far less than the max range of 450X, we went with this one. We did not like the other scooters from Bajaj and TVS and other cheaper alternatives are absolute no go.
Like most who ride a 200cc+ super stable bike, I hate riding a scooter. I hate the lack of grip, I hate lack of balance and lack of stable braking in scooters. The 450X absolutely won me over. The acceleration is bloody impressive that I hit 40kmph before I cross the third house. Thanks to amazing chassis, super low center of gravity (battery pack under the driver foot board) and sharp dual disc brakes, this things is ridiculously stable while cornering and while stopping. I still prefer my Pulsar NS. One major change that this scooter has brought is that our usage of car came down drastically (when we go around with two kids). Another great change is that we need not pay for petrol, we need not waste time in bunks.
Urban kings dock
Price: ₹1,899.00
This very very simple dock did one amazing job. Make my desk clean and provide a stand for two devices. This also helped me free lot of space on my desk. At first, I was doubtful. How can it hold two laptops without toppling over. Then I saw how bottom heavy it is and it also has thin padding inside each compartment so that your laptop body does not get scratched.
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08GBYJRSL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Philips Twinglow LED tube
Price: ₹1,115.00
The Philips Twinglow has two pairs of LEDs. The white LEDs throw light down and yellow LEDs hit the wall at the top of the tube. Why do we need this kind of tube? Yellow light in the room at night is so much easy on eyes. Same is the case when you wake up. A white light is harsh on eyes when you wake up and yellow light is gentle. I switch to yellow light from sunset till sunrise and then I use the white light.
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B085P2D5KS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Keychron K2 V2 with Hotswap switches
Price: ₹9,000 usually.
I do touch typing. In English, I type without looking at the keys (like how one types on a type writer). Generally, those who are very good at touch typing prefer mechanical keyboard. At first, I just thought of buying one from Logitech or Razer. Then, as I started looking for that perfect keyboard, I understood that there are brands that make lot better keyboards than Logitech and Razer. Few such brands are Glorious, Keychron, Ducky One, Redragon and Royal Kludge (budget mechanical). I decided to go with 75% layout. At first, I was skeptical about the size. But then, a week after using it, I will not be able to go back to full size keyboard. Thanks to smaller size, there is more room for me to move my Logitech mouse. This keyboard can connect with up to 3 devices over Bluetooth at click of two keys. It also comes with USB cable that can be used to connect to PC as a USB keyboard. It also has a built in battery, RGB lighting and Mac keys layout. I got it with Gateron brown switches that I can hot swap. If I want to go with silent keys, I can just remove these brown switches and insert Gateron red switches. Same is the case with keys. I can just remove the keys and add different color/style keys. K2 is one of the few mechanical keyboard featuring Mac layout media keys. It allows you to use all the same media keys as conventional macOS. Every K2 keyboard comes with 3 specific keycaps for Mac and Windows, respectively.
Logitech G29
Price: Around ₹22,000 usually.
I love playing racing games and I am crazy about F1. For more than two decades, I used keyboard or a game controller. Recently, to help my wife get to learn car driving better, I purchased this amazing racing wheel (with pedals and gears). Once I started playing F1 21 with this wheels, I was like ‘how did I miss this for so many years?’.
https://www.logitechg.com/en-in/products/driving/driving-force-racing-wheel.941-000143.html
Hario grinder and filters
Grinder: ₹4,450.00
I love my coffee pure and black. I always order pure coffee powder (usually from Blue Tokai and offline at Starbucks). But I always get it ground into powder. The problem with this is that by the time I finish 70% of powder, the remaining powder barely has any flavor left. To fix this, I went with this simple yet very effective Hario grinder. Now, I get fresh coffee every single day, with every single bean. To make my coffee taste better, I went with Hario’s paper filters to remove remaining coffee mud in my coffee (that I make using Moka Pot).
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0029PVRXS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01LXZACFB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Apple Watch and iPhone 13 combo
It is just perfect. No need to say anything more.
uGreen USB 3.0 sharing switch
Price: ₹2,489.00
I have two work laptops and a desktop. Earlier, it was a mess to switch input between these devices as Bluetooth is disabled in work laptops (don’t ask why!). My display has three input ports (2 HDMI + 1 DP). With this uGreen sharing switch, I can switch keyboard and mouse between the two work laptops at the press of a button. For desktop, I have Bluetooth enabled so I just switch k/b and mouse to Bluetooth if I have to use my desktop. This has also allowed me to dock my laptops, saving lot of space on my desk.
Here is a short list of products that were really bad for me
Apple Pencil
Apple Pencil is not at all a bad product. It is a great product but it not meant for those who do not draw. After the first week of enthusiastic drawing (embarrassing sketches), it just lies in drawer now. If you are not someone who do not have a real need for a stylus/pencil, do not buy one. If you still want to buy, try the cheaper ones that cost 1/5th the price of Apple Pencil.
Amazfit GTR 2e
I went against my gut feeling for this smart watch. I do not understand why this is called smart watch. It is just a huge circular fitness tracker. The main headache for me with this device is that the heart rate sensor was highly inaccurate. When I go for cycling or workouts, heart beat data is crucial to know how many calories are burned. More often than not, the sensor just wont work and it keeps on saying ‘please place your watch on your wrist’. Sometimes, the data is so bad that while I am huffing and puffing, HR sensor would show 60-70bps pulse which is atrocious.
This is called a smart watch but it barely shows notifications, you cannot take calls on the watch, you do not get notifications from apps. You mainly get SMS notifications that here as well, many are missed.
LG Tone FP5
I purchased this one mainly for noise cancellation and microphone quality. I should have known that one cannot provide clean noise cancellation and excellent mic quality for a TWS that costs 5k rupees. I fell for this when I saw the MRP on LG site as ₹19990 and I thought that the offer price of 5k is a steal. The noise cancellation is average at best, Ambient mode makes things too loud rendering it useless. The mic quality too was average at best. If you are looking for TWS that can excel at these, do not fall for offers. Stick to products that are known to excel at these features.
