I sold my year-old Google Nexus 9 and, as a replacement, imported the latest Google Pixel C. The reason was honestly that I wasn’t all that satisfied with the Nexus 9—screen too small… build quality so-so… maybe that was it. More than that, though, I think the Pixel C just appealed to me more. The import went smoothly, but Google still shipped the keyboard and the tablet separately, which meant I had to deal with two forwarding orders. The keyboard ended up getting taxed too. I don’t think it should have been, but the forwarding company declared it proactively. They had a tax receipt, so I let it go. I’ve used the Google Pixel C for a fair amount of time—not short, but not long either. I’ve honestly written quite a bit on it: reports, and every blog post from the last one of last year up to now. I figure that gives me the right to have an opinion on this thing.

As a handheld, the Surface Pro 3 kept me company for a long while. But eventually the newer Surface Pro 4 came out. Not a huge upgrade, but considering I spend more time with this thing than with my desktop, I figured I should treat myself. So I upgraded. On the whole the two machines aren’t that different. Most of it is a spec bump.

Originally I just wanted a Nexus 6. After a year and change with a Sony, I’d decided Android is better off with something close to stock. But this time around they announced the Nexus 9 and Nexus 6 together, so I got carried away and bought both. The Nexus 6 is still on a plane; the Nexus 9 arrived a week ago. Here’s roughly how it went. I bought straight from the Google Play store. Lots of people say that if the credit card billing address you register with Google Wallet doesn’t match the forwarding company’s receiving address, Google will cancel your order — and that Google cancels orders like a maniac. From what I can tell, most of those people had never had a Google Wallet account, maybe not even a Google account. They rushed to sign up through some temporary proxy just to buy a Nexus, then rushed to place an order, so of course Google figured them for scalpers or a sketchy account. So basically: if you’ve bought things with Google Wallet before, or you’ve had a Google account for ages, Google will let the billing-address thing slide. Mine went through fine. Google Play doesn’t ship directly. You can buy the Nexus 9 from Amazon with direct shipping, but there’s $70 in tax, so forwarding is cheaper. I used Benniao (笨鸟海淘) as the forwarder — partly because I couldn’t get registered with 转运中国, and the other forwarders were either backed up or banned electronics. Benniao was just okay, honestly. Not what I’d call fast: 25 days from shipment to delivery. Four of those days were bad luck landing on a weekend when they’re closed, so I had to wait until Monday for shipping and customs to continue. I got the 32GB black version. Forwarding cost 70 RMB, and customs hit me for 200 RMB on the electronics. Work out the total yourself if you care.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro kept me company for quite a while — probably the electronic device I’ve used most in recent years, second only to my MP3 player. I watched videos on it, browsed the web, played all sorts of visual novels. But as my needs grew, the god-awful performance, the unsatisfying resolution, and the rough build quality started to bother me. So I sold it and picked up a Surface Pro 3. I’d read online that the i3 version’s performance might actually be worse than an Atom, that battery life was bad, and that while the US version was cheaper, the domestic warranty had been cancelled. So I gritted my teeth and bought the China-market i5 128G. Reviews are everywhere online, so I’ll just talk about the stuff that tends to get overlooked.