A while back I was listening to a podcast from Aifou, and one line stuck with me: “I think the most impressive thing about Lei Jun is that he can push prices down so low that nobody else can match him.” In that context, judging by the standard of “pushing prices down,” Lei Jun really is impressive. Whether it’s Xiaomi or Redmi, they’ve definitely driven down the price of a lot of things. But is that what “impressive” really means—driving down the price of something expensive so it sells cheap? Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Isn’t it far more impressive to take something worthless and sell it at a very high price? By that standard, the “Big Monster Block Bluetooth Earphones” are a very “impressive” product.

In recent years the term “open-source handheld” has basically drifted away from what it originally meant. Originally “open-source handheld” referred specifically to retro handhelds running open-source systems. Some were commercial products flashed with third-party firmware, like the early Subor RG97; others were open by design from the start, like the later Odroid Game series. But what comes to mind now when someone says “open-source handheld”? Generic molds, RK3566 SoCs, and a pile of messy emulators. Lately Android comes standard. Never mind whether the shell infringes on anyone’s design—the SoC’s own attitude toward the open-source community is questionable. That’s why overseas these products were never called “Opensource Handheld” but “Retro Handheld.” A handheld for playing retro games, so retro handheld. Makes sense. Today I’m talking about two retro handhelds you could call “closed-source handhelds”: the RG35XX from Anbernic (Zhou-ge), and the Miyoo Mini Plus from Miyoo, Zhou-ge’s nemesis.

Preface: my history of buying Windows handhelds The first Windows handheld I bought was probably back in 2015 — also the industry’s first Windows handheld, the first-generation GPD Win. I backed it on Indiegogo. Honestly, I knew it was made by a company in Shenzhen, China, but I had no idea it would later go on sale in the domestic market. I paid in converted USD, and the shipping date was half a year out. What happened next a lot of people probably know already: GPD brought the machine into mainland China, put it up for preorder on JD.com, created a Discord group, and kicked off all kinds of shameless marketing. I was in the first batch of people to join the Discord group, and I even added the two founders on Discord — one was “Wangcai,” the other “Lao Zhu.” I told them I was an Indiegogo backer but physically in mainland China, so could they just ship domestically. Lao Zhu said no problem, and sent it by SF Express. The machine arrived quickly and I wrote a short review. I was actually fairly satisfied with it — mainly because it was small and had everything you’d expect. There were some QC issues, but nothing major. What dissatisfied me most was the screen’s severe color shift, basically no calibration, and the low resolution — a lot of Galgame couldn’t show the full picture. Later I backed the first-generation GPD Pocket. That product’s build quality was far better than the Win’s: all-metal body, genuinely nice to use as a tiny computer. But I have to say, for performance’s sake GPD set very aggressive power limits on many of its products, which made battery life pretty poor. After that I went on to buy GPD Pocket 2 MAX, Chuwi minibook, GPD Pocket 3, and recently even picked up an Ayaneo Air Plus at a low price… So I’ve used a fair number of portable Windows devices, and they always had something unsatisfying. Even with the GPD Win, I never actually finished a single game on it — too hot, battery life too bad, and too much fiddling required. Many times I’d spend a whole day getting one game to run, and by the time it worked I’d lost interest in playing. There was a time I thought Windows handhelds — or X86 handhelds in general — would just always be like this. Then I met the Steam Deck, and it got me to finish several AAA titles, even got me willing to spend a decent chunk of money buying games on Steam. It also cemented one belief and opinion of mine: The Steam Deck is currently the only X86 handheld worth buying.

I’ve said before that ChromeOS tablets might be the future of “productivity”. But the Duet’s performance and RAM were just too weak, so I eventually sold it. Not long after, I saw this new product: HP Chromebook X2 11 A 3:2 screen, 8GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 7c processor, a detachable keyboard, a magnetic charging stylus… This was exactly what perfect “productivity” looked like. Doesn’t that seem cool… I forgot the rest.

Last year I messed around and bought a FiiO Q7, barely listened to it, then sold it. Honestly I can’t be bothered with this portable DAC business anymore, but then I noticed the Chord Mojo 2 had come out, and the price had dropped quite a bit, so I got tempted again. I have a deep fondness for the Mojo series, mainly because I think it’s a DAC made from an FPGA design, fundamentally different from the traditional parts-stacking of domestic “DAC+AMP” units. After all, FPGA counts as “hardware simulation,” and in theory it has far more unlimited potential. Don’t you think that’s cool? As a loser guy, I think this is way too cool, perfectly in line with my imagination of future life, technology with a bit of fun.

A while back I wanted to get my dad a computer so he could chat on Discord and check stocks. I originally planned to pick up a ThinkPad and upgrade it myself, but then I spotted something unexpected on Xianyu: DELL Latitude 7370 Intel Core M5-6Y57 8G RAM 256G SSD The seller said it was in 9/10 condition and wanted 900 yuan, shipping included. By any reasonable measure, 900 yuan is a bit much for this. But I looked closely at the screen and asked the seller what the resolution was. Turns out the seller didn’t even know how to check… So I tried a different angle: is the screen a touchscreen? The seller said yes, it’s touch. That’s when things got interesting. On the DELL Latitude 7370, a touchscreen version can only mean one thing: the same 3K wide-gamut touch panel as the top-spec XPS 13. If it really was that screen… then 900 yuan is a fair price, because the screen alone is worth more than 500.

A while back, I got this sudden itch to buy a tablet, but my requirements were a bit unusual: Cheap enough Has a Type-C port Screen preferably 4:3 — I don’t game, just reading and videos Speakers have to sound good As few ads as possible, ideally none or stock Android 8 inches It’s not like tablets meeting these specs don’t exist. The Xiaomi Pad 2 and 3 series are all over Xianyu, for instance — but those are e-waste that’s been hacked to hell and back… Then I stumbled on something magical: the JD Tab, the tablet JD.com put out back in the day: 4:3 high-quality screen Flyme OS, no ads 8-inch size Harman Kardon speakers Type-C charging Going for just over 200 yuan on Xianyu, brand new Holy crap, brand new? That’s gotta beat all that e-waste, right? So I got carried away and bought one. Little did I know that was the start of a whole series of adventures.

Right after I sold my FiiO Q3S, I happened to see the announcement for the FiiO Q7, and there was a launch discount, so I got carried away and bought it. Then I barely listened to the thing before hastily selling it off. Maybe I just didn’t like it. Or maybe I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. I remember the Q7 arriving around October 14, 2022. As FiiO’s new-generation flagship DAC, the Q7’s packaging can only be described as “lavish,” and its spec sheet as “extravagant.” 3.5/4.4/2.5 balanced outputs Dual DAC chips Independent amp stage Large battery Supports bypassing the battery to run on wall power Works as a desktop unit or as a portable DAC/amp combo A display in the middle showing the current status It also came with a pile of accessories: a genuine leather case, a screen protector already applied, and even a cooling stand so you can use it as a desktop unit.

Buying the Pixel Buds Pro was decided from the start, and its release was completely expected. Because the first-gen and second-gen Pixel Buds had no noise cancelling and mediocre battery life, they looked like half-finished products in every way. So I bought the Pixel Buds Pro not long after it came out. Worth mentioning: I bought it through Wellbot, and it was actually $50 off at launch — a pretty big discount. My expectations for the Pixel Buds Pro were simple: the noise cancelling just had to work, and it must not do what the previous Pixel Buds did, where one ear’s battery suddenly died. When it arrived, the box was smaller too — no idea if that’s to go along with the so-called “environmental friendliness.”

Back in the summer, bored out of my mind, I was poking around online and found out you could actually buy a Pixel 6 Pro case on Etsy. I got hooked pretty fast on these wooden cases from a brand called HARDWOOD. There are plenty of similar ones on eBay, but this grain pattern was just too unique. The price wasn’t bad, so I bought one just to see if it would even arrive. They shipped it out quickly enough. What I did not expect was that it was coming from Ukraine 🇺🇦, followed by nearly a month of total silence. Ukraine is still fighting Russia, right? I was half convinced my package’s plane had been shot down. Then after a bit over a month it suddenly showed up in China, and I had it in hand.