What to buy on Amazon : Kindle Reader

Good news for book lovers. Amazon is currently running 2 offers for the Kinder.

• Purchase the Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High-Resolution Display (212 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers or Kindle Voyage, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Adaptive Built-in Light, PagePress Sensors, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers and save $40 on Amazon Prime subscription
• Purchase the Kindle, 6" Glare-Free Touchscreen Display, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers and save $39 on 6 months of Kindle Unlimited subscription

However, do note that Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited are primarily US only services. This is not a bad deal actually, especially if you are already looking to buy one.

Update : It's even better today (27th Nov). Kindle is $49 while the Paperwhite is $99. And still comes with the above mentioned offers! Amazing!

Amazon Prime : Updates

A quick update to the previous Amazon Prime article I wrote. Since then a few things have happened. The first and foremost is of course the price is now $99/yr.

Amazon added Prime Photos where you have unlimited storage for your photos. This is stored on Amazon's Cloud Drive and you can access them from any of your devices, be it your phone, tablets or PCs.

The other new addition is Unlimited Music Streaming. It works the same way as Prime Instant Video and Premium Spotify. You have access to a huge library and is able to download tracks offline (although you can only do this on the Amazon Music App). If you know Prime Instant Video, Netflix and Spotify, yeah, that's how it works.

Lastly, Amazon also includes Prime Early Access to Lightning Deals. Now, this is a killer feature. For the first time, if you're a Prime Member, you can get a 30-minute early access advantage to selected lightning deals! This will usually decide if you actually get that popular deal or not, especially for the perennial popular items like external disk and SSDs.

Besides these, you still get the usual 2-day shipping with no minimum, Prime instant Video and Kindle Owners' Lending Library. This is starting to look even more attractive. If you're not too sure about forking out $99/yr yet, you can actually try it for free here - Join Amazon Prime - Listen to Over a Million Songs - Start Free Trial Now. Just remember to cancel it after your 30 days is up.

Or if you already have it and love it so much you might want to consider gifting it to your family members or a good friend - Shop Amazon - Give the Gift of Amazon Prime

Happy shopping and enjoy all the current Black Friday deals going on.

What to Buy on Amazon : HP Stream 7

Not too long ago, HP introduces this nifty little 7" tablet, HP Stream 7 32GB Windows 8.1 Tablet (Free Office 365 Personal for One Year), at an amazing price point : $99. Now you might wonder, there are a couple of Chinese made tablets that also can be had for $99 so what's the big deal here.

First, this tablet runs Windows 8.1. The full version, not the still-born RT in the Surface RT. Second, it has a decent and nice IPS touch screen running at 1280x800 resolution. Most importantly, it came bundled with Office 365 Personal 1yr Subscription. This subscription is valued at $69.99. That alone makes this bundle an excellent value proposition.

That aside, there are a few things you should take note and while the price tag is attractive, we need to keep things in perspective. It is unlikely to run graphics intensive games or do any kind of heavy lifting smoothly, you know, like Lightroom or Photoshop. I exaggerate but you get the idea. Most of these limitations come from the fact that it only has 1GB of memory and a quad core Atom based CPU. We know the Atom is not the fastest and you probably couldn't multi-task very well. However, it should serve you well with the occasional emails, small and straight forward Word and Excel documents, web surfing and Skype.

One other thing to consider is that it's a small 7" screen and without a physical keyboard, you might not find this a very productive tool. You might also have an issue with the small on-screen control elements where you might not be able to say select the menu items easily.

You are unlikely to be able to install a lot of programs due to the small on-board 32GB eMMC. You can, however, expand up till another 32GB via the onboard micro-SD card slot (hidden underneath the back shell). I've seen reports saying that the micro-USB charging port is USB-OTG compatible so there's a chance that you might be able to stick another thumb drive to it.

Read the reviews posted on the Amazon's website to get some more details. I might pick one up and play with it at the end of the day. :)

Parting ways with my Mid-2011 13" MacBook Air

I am selling my mid-2011 13" MacBook Air, simply because I have upgraded to a Pro instead. The Air is purchased on Dec '11, together with AppleCare since day 1. Warranty ends 20th Dec 2014.

The complete specs of this lovely machine can be found directly on Apple's Support website - Mid-2011 13" MacBook Air. Mine is the 128GB SSD with 1.7Ghz core i5 Intel Processor.

Working condition is 10/10. Physical outlook is probably 7.5/10. There are unfortunately some blemishes (likely caused by the palm guard which I have peeled off) on the corners of the palm rest. Pictures at end of post.

I have done a factory reset and it has OS X 10.9.5 on it. It comes with its original packaging as well as all accessories. The power adaptor shows sign of use while the extension is mostly new. I have only used it maybe a couple of times.

Battery condition is good with less than 70 cycles on it and approximately 85% health. The battery has been replaced once under AppleCare sometime last year.

Along with it, I have the Transcend JetDrive 500 480GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit for Macbook Air SSD (Late 2010 - Mid 2011) TS480GJDM500. I have since taken this out from the Air and restored it back to its original configuration.

Pictures follows -

The MacBook Air itself.

The blemishes :(

Full accessories included.

The box itself.

Thank you. I hope it finds a new home soon.

What to Buy on Amazon : Newer Panasonic Eneloops and AmazonBasics NiMH LSD

In a previous article, I have penned down my thoughts on NiMH LSD batteries and specifically recommended Sanyo Eneloops. Today, Panasonic should have completed the take-over of, at least the battery division of Sanyo. As a result, you won't be able to find Sanyo branded Eneloops offered by Amazon anymore. There are still Sanyo Eneloops offered by 3rd parties but they may be old stocks.

The latest generation of these great batteries are now Panasonic branded. The 8-pack, Panasonic BK-3MCCA8BA eneloop AA New 2100 Cycle Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries, 8 Pack, now cost slightly more. On the bright side, they are now rated for 2100 cycles. The previous generation is rated for 1500 cycles.

The Eneloop XX are now known as Eneloop Pro - Panasonic BK-3HCCA4BA eneloop pro AA High Capacity New Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries, 4 Pack. Again, there seems to be a slight price hike over the older version.

With the launch of these newer batteries, Panasonic also introduces a new bundled charger. From the reviews on Amazon, this charger is now capable of charging individual batteries. This means you do not have to charge in pairs anymore! The charger is available for purchase as a standalone - Panasonic BQ-CC17KSBA eneloop Advanced Individual Battery Charger with 4 LED Charge Indicator Lights, Black, or you can buy the bundle pack - Panasonic K-KJ17KHCA4A Eneloop Pro Individual Cell Battery Charger with 4 AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries, 4 pack.

There is a white colour non-pro version of the charger. But as far as I can tell, the only difference is just the colour. The white version is a few cents cheaper but I think the black one has a cool factor to it.

If you find the prices of these batteries too high, Amazon offers you a low cost equivalent, which is probably just as good. The AmazonBasics range come in 2 flavours as well, the standard white coloured cells and the higher capacity black coloured ones. These don't ship to Singapore in the past but now they do.

• AmazonBasics AA High-Capacity Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries (8-Pack) - 500 cycles (Typical 2500mAh, Min. 2400mAh)
• AmazonBasics AA Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries (4-Pack) - 1000 Cycle (Typical 2000mAh, Minimum 1900mAh)

I'll buy the high cap cells just for the cool look factor alone :)

What to Buy on Amazon : SD/SDXC Cards

There seems to be a slew of deals for SD cards, both the standard sized and the micro version. The major brand would be Sandisk and the most bang for the buck would be SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 UHS Memory Card Speed Up To 30MB/s With Adapter, Frustration-Free Packaging - SDSDQU-064G-AFFP-A at $37.99 currently. This card is rated Class 10 and Sandisk claim it can do 30MB/s.

Those who wanted more speed will have to go for the Extreme version,SanDisk Extreme Plus 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10/U1 Memory Card Speed Up To 80MB/s With Adapter, Frustration-Free Packaging - SDSDQX-064G-AFFP-A. Sandisk claimed up to 80MB/s and will set you back $69.99.

Transcend is another reputable brand in the States and they currently have a very good offer for the Transcend 64GB MicroSDXC Class10 UHS-1 Memory Card with Adapter 45 MB/s (TS64GUSDU1E). Transcend claimed 300x for this card and at $29.99, it seems to offer the best value.

Lastly, Samsung recently introduced a brand new line of SD cards sporting a bright orange colour. The Samsung Electronics 64GB EVO Micro SDXC with Adapter Upto 48MB/s Class 10 Memory Card (MB-MP64DA/AM) is currently going for $39.99. Samsung claimed a slightly higher speed at 48MB/s.

Before you rush out and buy these, do note that if the 64GBs are SDXC cards and you do need to have a compatible SD card slot on your devices (smartphone, camera or laptop) in order to utilize them. If you're going to feed them to your laptop/PC via a card reader, you'll also need a USB3 capable one to realize the claimed speed.

Current Deals : Kindle Reader

Thanks to Mother's Day (We all love you Mom!), Amazon is running a promo on all the Kindle Reader lineups which starts at just $49!

• Kindle, 6" E Ink Display, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers (Black) - $49!
• Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High Resolution Display with Next-Gen Built-in Light, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers - $99!

The Kindle Fire lineups get the same treatment too!

• Kindle Fire HD 7", HD Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers - $119
• Kindle Fire HDX 7", HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 16 GB - Includes Special Offers - $199

I must say these are very attractive prices. On top of that, you also get 20% off selected Kindle accessories.

On the Mac : Macbook Air and Macbook Pro SSD Upgrade Kit

Good news fellow Mac users. A couple of days ago, Transcend announced a series of SSD upgrade kits for some of the Macbook models. Specifically -

• Late 2010 and mid-2011 Air - JetDrive 500
• Mid-2012 Air - JetDrive 520
• 2012 and early 2013 rMBP - JetDrive 720

The JetDrive 500 comes in 240/480GB while the 520 and 720 comes in 240/480/960GB versions. For more details on the specifications and compatibility, you can refer to the Transcend JetDrive Product page. In short, all the non-PCI-e SSD based Macs will find one model which suits it. Transcend said you'll have to wait a while for the PCI-e version for the mid-2013 Air and rMBPs.

The kit comes with all the tools that you need to open up your Mac, be it the Air or rMBP. It also includes a nice little housing where you can pop in your original SSD and turn it into an external drive with a USB3 connector. Follow the video posted on the Transcend page for the installation instructions.

When you're done, do remember to set your spanking new drive as the boot disk and also install the Transcend toolbox software that comes with the kit. This toolbox software will enable TRIM on your new SSD. For those who are wondering why we have to do this - because Apple does not like 3rd party SSDs and will not enable TRIM on them. SSD without TRIM is not the wisest of choice to make.

Initial reviews from some early adopters are very positive, including ease of installation and better performance than the stock Apple SSDs.

Transcend made all these models available on Amazon -

• Transcend JetDrive 500 240GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit for Macbook Air SSD (Late 2010 - Mid 2011) TS240GDJM500
• Transcend JetDrive 520 240GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit for Macbook Air SSD (Mid 2012) TS240GJDM520
• Transcend JetDrive 720 240GB SATA III SSD Upgrade Kit for Macbook Pro with Retina display (Mid 2012 - Early 2013) TS240GJDM720

At this point, all the base models list at $189.99 and some models has a ship time of between 2-4 weeks. All qualifies for free international shipping to Singapore. Take note that only the 240GB versions are GST exempted while the 480/960GB version attracts import tax.

This is definitely going to give my 128GB mid-2011 Air some new lease of life.

What's New : Amazon Fire TV

Amazon has finally released their much anticipated TV product, known as Amazon Fire TV. It is essentially a beefed up Roku 3 and Apple TV. The unique feature I can see is probably the Amazon Fire Game Controller. They will set you back $99 and $39.99 respectively.

The channels included are the usual suspect : Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Crackle, Vevo and of course their own Amazon Instant Video, available as part of Amazon Prime. We shall see how well this guy will sell.

What to Buy on Amazon : SSDs and HDDs - Updates

In a previous article about SSDs, I list out a few options of the possible value-for-money SSDs you can buy. The scene has changed somewhat. It looks like Crucial is going the offensive and keep lowering the pricing of their M500 series. As of today -

• Crucial M500 240GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT240M500SSD1 - $114.99
• Crucial M500 480GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT480M500SSD1 - $229.99

If you check the camel3 price tracker data, you'll realized that the prices have been hovering around this level. I can only postulate that there is a somewhat downward price pressure on the SSDs. The Crucial M500s are good enough for your average workload and is now more affordable than ever. Also, there's no reason to buy locally anymore. If you went to the most recent show, you'll realize that the local pricing are a total rip-off.

Let's turn our attention to Intel. Previously, the Intel 530 Series 240GB 2.5-Inch Internal Solid State Drive (Reseller Kit) SSDSC2BW240A4K5 is attractive because of their strong 5-year international warranty. However, if you consider the price differential today, I will probably just go for the Crucial ones. Also, recently Intel introduced the 730 series as a brand new in-house designed enterprise-classed SSD. Now, before you rush out and buy this spanking new drive, do note that it draws power from the 12V rail, making it unsuitable for mobile use. Don't ever think of putting this drive in a USB-powered case. It will not work. In any case, I'm sure you'll be put-off by the initial pricing as well.

Lastly, Seagate NAS HDD 4TB SATA 6GB NCQ 64 MB Cache Bare Drive ST4000VN000 is now at it's lowest price point of $169.99. It's a pretty good deal at this price point. My guess is that it's priced similarly to the standard 5900RPM 4TB locally.

Amazon Prime Price Hike

OK, for the very first time, Amazon is hiking the Prime membership fees from $79 to $99. I have a write-up on what it is. At this juncture, you can start your free Prime Membership Trial to 'lock' in the old price of $79 for the first year. Do remember to cancel the auto-renewal if you don't have the intention to pay.

Is it still worthwhile to sign up at the new price? Well, it very much depends on what you're going to do. Personally, if the Prime video library agrees with you, it's probably ok to sign up. Even so if you like the free 2-day shipping.

Good luck.

Current Deals : 2nd Mar - Lord of the Rings BD Set

It's been a while since The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King Extended Editions) [Blu-ray] had a price drop. As of today, the price is $44.96 for the one sold by Amazon. However, it is temporarily out of stock so you have to wait.

I spotted this compilation The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music going for $3.99. I happen to have this and it's good value at this price. It contains most of the more well-known pieces and it's performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. For casual classical listeners like me, you should add this to your collection.

While I'm at it, I noticed there's a recent release by the Bach Guild, Little Big Box of Romance, for the literally next to nothing price of $0.99. Then again, most of their compilations are being offered at this price. I have personally bought quite a number of their releases. For $0.99, you can't really fault it for anything.

Lastly, from now till 10th March, All You Need Classics is offering their releases at $0.99 as well. I haven't tried these so I don't know how they fare. Then again, it's $0.99...

Happy downloading!

On the FileServer : The Disk Drives

In the first part of the series, I briefly touched on some of the hardware that are either necessary or good to have in order to build your own NAS. Right now, I'll go on to talk about the disk drives.

There are many types of disk drives (appreviated HDD from now on) and are mainly differentiated by the following parameters -

• Form Factor. Either 3.5" or 2.5"
• Interface Type. Either SATA or SAS.
• Spindle Speed. How fast the disk platters spin.
• Capacity. How much the disk can store.

Form Factor

This mainly tells you how big (or small) the disks physically are. Most desktops use the 3.5" form factor. If you opt for this, you don't have any other physical parameters to worry about. All 3.5" HDD comes in the same height of 1" today.

If, for some reason, you want to use 2.5" HDD, then you need to be aware that they comes in several different heights. The most common today will be 7mm and 9.5mm. A few high capacity ones come in 12.5mm height. Lastly, some enterprise drives, such as the Seagate Constellation 2 series comes in at 15mm height. You have to take note of the height, especially if you want to use a hot-swap cage.

You might have also heard of 1.8" HDD, primarily manufactured by Toshiba. I'll suggest you leave these alone.

Interface Type

This describes the interface the HDD supports when connecting to your computer. The mainstream today is Serial ATA (SATA). We are at its 3rd revision, supporting 6Gbps link speed. Version 2 supports 3Gbps and the first version does 1.5Gbps. The later versions are usually backward compatible with earlier versions.

HDD today are mostly SATA3, supporting 6Gbps link speed. If you have the unfortunate task of connecting these HDDs to a computer that only supports SATA2 running at 3Gbps, your HDD will then run at the same link speed of 3Gbps. However, you don't have to lose sleep over this. 3Gbps is the link speed between your computer and your HDD. None of the HDDs sold today is able to saturate a single SATA2 link. The only devices that can transfer at more than 3Gbps today are SSDs, SAS/SATA expanders and SATA port multipliers. If you don't know what these are, it's fine as they are not that common and their use is pretty specialized.

You will also have to think about how your computer can support these HDDs. When the SATA standard was first ratified (sometime in the early part of the 21st century), there is a need to slowly transit from the older ATA/ATAPI/IDE/EIDE interface to this new one. As a result, most computer during that time run your SATA interface in the dreaded 'IDE' mode. This basically means the computer is still speaking the older language of IDE despite the HDD is using the new connector. You can find out which mode your computer is using by going into the BIOS and see what mode the BIOS is using. If it's using 'IDE', then you're being short changed. If it's running in 'AHCI' mode, then you're all good. You might also see 'RAID', which means your controller is capable of running some form of RAID. All the newer Intel ICH can do RAID.

The other type of interface which you might see is Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). This is mostly reserved for enterprise deployment in servers. The link speed today is also 6Gbps. I wouldn't recommend this for your home setup since the feature might not benefit your type of workload at home.

Do note that SAS is considered a superset of SATA. If you have a SAS controller, you can connect both SAS and/or SATA drives to it. However, if you have a SATA controller (like most Intel based consumer motherboards), you will not be able to connect a SAS drive to it.

Spindle Speed

This describes how fast the disk platters are spinning. The faster it spins, the higher the performance of the HDD. This is the direct result of the fact that a faster spinning disk takes a shorter time to get to the data. This is known as the disk latency. The lower it is, the better.

Mainstream HDDs today sold over the counter spins at 7200 revolutions per minute (RPM). Some higher performance consumer class drives and entry level enterprise drives spin at 10000 (10k) RPMs. The highest performance drives spin at 15000 (15k) RPMs. You are not likely to see 15k RPM drives sold over the counter.

That said, there are some drives that spin at 5400/5900 RPMs. These are slower than the mainstreams. However, they have 2 clear advantages. First, since they spin slower, they make less noise and vibrate less generally. Second, they almost always consume less electricity.

Capacity

This is the easiest to understand. The highest capacity today (Feb 2014) is 4TB. Only 3.5" form factor drives is capable. 2.5" drives maxed out at 2TB. Also, the higher the spinning speed, the lower the maximum capacity available. You won't find any 2TB 15k RPM Cheetahs anytime soon, maybe never.

OK, so what's best? As a NAS, I want it to be as cost effective as possible. That means I go for the best GB/$ metric. I don't care if the drive spins at 5400 or 7200 RPM. But usually the faster the HDD spins, the more costly it will be. These are the drives I use personally

• WD Green 2 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD20EZRX
• Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB SATA III 64 MB Cache Bare/OEM Desktop Hard Drive - WD30EZRX
• Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST4000DM000

So basically, I picked big capacity drives. The 3TB and 4TB are at the best price sweet spot today. Lastly, I'll like to touch a little bit about the WD Red (WD Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD30EFRX) and Seagate NAS ( Seagate NAS HDD 4TB SATA 6GB NCQ 64 MB Cache Bare Drive ST4000VN000) drives. What set these apart? Apparently, these drives are tested to run correctly in those off-the-shelf NAS products (like Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS412+ (Black)). One of the feature most advertised is that it has a shorter error timeout. The technical intricacies of this is quite complex and I won't go into the details. Suffice to say that if your normal consumer drives developed a problem, say a bad sector, and the OS attempts to read this sector, it will take a very long time (sometimes forever) for the drive to come back and say 'Sorry, I tried but I couldn't read the data.' This cause mayhem in RAID controllers and sensitive OS. I have had Windows Server totally crashed when it attempts to read a flaky consumer class drive.

Happy hunting. In the next part, I'll talk about the software that links all these parts together.

The Ultimate Budget Phone : Redmi by Xiaomi

I can't believe I'm writing this but I'm impressed enough by this phone that I thought I'll pen down my first impression. First thing first, Xiaomi is the company and Redmi is the model of the phone. This is the first phone to be sold officially by Xiaomi in Singapore. If you follow the mobile space, I'm sure you would have heard of the China-based company called Xiaomi (literally means small rice, and Redmi literally means red rice).

So on 21st Feb 2014, Xiaomi launched the very first online sale for this phone in Singapore at 12 noon. According to news, the phone was sold out within 8 minutes. I'm not so sure about that since I actually placed my order on the 22nd Feb, exactly 1 day later. And the phone arrives at my doorstep today. I must applaud the UPS guy who made this possible.

It came in a nice little brown box. On the left is the box containing the phone itself, and the stuff on the right is the 'bundle' which I bought together at the same time. The bundle consists an extra battery, a desktop charger, screen protectors and a silicone case. Xiaomi also bundled 2 pieces of SIM adapters in the whole package. All these for the unbelievable price of $197 Singapore Dollars. That is approximately USD $156. 

Here you are with all the stuff taken out from the box. The biggest box in the center is the phone itself and it comes with just the battery and a standard micro-USB cable.

Notice the little silver foil covering the camera lens? I think that's a nice little touch. Despite the name of the phone, the color is grey, not red. However, you can buy additional back covers easily, including the red color one. Next, I need to insert the battery and SIM card. The instructions says I have to pry from the lower left corner of the phone (yes, I read the quick start guide!). There's a little groove on the back case where you can pull the cover off. It came off pretty easily and it does feel a little flimsy. You know, the kind of feeling that everything will fall apart.

A good buddy help me cut my data SIM from the standard form factor down to the nano SIM form factor. And now I have to use the adapter to put it back into this phone. What irony. Due to the way the orientation and the position of the SIM slot, you do require a little effort to get the SIM+adapter securely fitted into it. And then the moment of truth. You press the power button on the right side and waited for the phone to power up for the first time.

It took quite a while and that actually scares me a little. But the result is the setup screen greeting you

It's very straight forward. Pick your language, choose your Wifi (oh it doesn't do 5Ghz 802.11n by the way) and you're almost done. As part of the setup, you have the option of synchronizing the phone to Mi Cloud, as well as the standard Google account. Yes, Google services are available on this one! I setup both. Lastly, I notice my Starhub data SIM is not working. So I have to figure out where the APN settings are and change the APN name to match. And when all's said and done, here's the final home screen.

Not bad for a $169 phone. The bundle cost $28. Total damage $197. I played with it for a while. The build quality is exceptional for a budget phone. It feels... hefty and solid in the hand. The screen looks good and the UI is responsive for what is considered a budget processor from MediaTek. It runs MIUI v5, which is based on Android 4.2. At least I don't have to worry about the WebView bug.

Enough of fiddling. I have to apply the screen protector. It stated on the packaging that there are 2 pieces. Pleasant surprise there, I was only expecting one. When I open up the package, even more surprises.

There are 3 in fact. However, the 3rd piece is termed as 'practice'. You can see it in the picture. For those who don't understand Chinese, I'm sorry. The one on the left is the 'practice' piece while the one on the right is the 'real' piece. I've been buying screen protectors from China all my life and this is the first time I've seen this. Nothing much to say about the protectors, they... just work. I got the clear type, which I don't really like but when I ordered, they ran out of the anti-glare type. I guess something has to give...

I said that prying open the back cover feels a little flimsy. You have to do this if you're going to swap batteries unfortunately. From that single experience, I'm not sure if I really want to swap the batteries now, or just use those portable chargers which are literally everywhere.

Lastly, there's the silicone case. I picked the black color and it looks like this

It fits snugly and barely covers the sides when fitted. So that's it. I have yet to try out the camera and the various multimedia functions. So far, it has performed well surfing the net over Starhub 3G and wifi.

It's amazing Xiaomi can packed so much into this $169 phone. I think this is going to dominate the budget smartphone segment for at least the next couple of months. For those comparing this with the Samsung S5, don't be silly. And those comparing this to the Moto G, you may have a tough choice there.