Goodnight, My Old Friend

Another year, another disappointing Google phone release. In 2015 the 5X and 6P came and went, and weren’t enough of an upgrade for me to consider a switch. The OnePlus Two and the Moto X Pure arrived, and I sighed. The OnePlus X was tempting, but not enough. My Nexus 5 was still plenty for what I needed. 2016 came and went, and we saw a departure of what Google used to stand for. The Nexus brand was retired in favor of the premium Pixel devices, and I was unenthusiastic about dropping $900+ on a phone, no matter how attractive the device. I knew, however, that it was getting to the point of taking the Nexus 5 out behind the barn.

A brief history first. The Nexus 5 was initially purchased by me about a year after release to replace my aging, but reliable Galaxy Nexus. I’ve been madly in love with the Nexus 5 since I’ve owned it. For all intents and purposes, it has been my perfect device, with a few reservations. Like any piece of hardware, it ages overtime. The screen size and resolution are practically perfect. The build and design, although not perfect, are practical and durable. The cameras are serviceable, and even the aging internals are still relatively quick.

Now, as you’ve probably determined from reading this blog, I tend to lean more toward being a geek - A power user and an enthusiast. Though the aging hardware is still relatively quick, I’ve been craving something that stands up to current day multitasking. I would be wrong to say the Nexus 5 can keep up with my day to day heavy demands. To top it off, the battery life has been suffering more and more. I don’t believe it’s a fault of the device or the aging battery by any means, but instead just what I use for applications. Sitting at 25% currently remaining at the end of a slow day, I’ve had just over an hour screen on time. I haven’t been on anything but WiFi, and most of that access has been various social media platforms, snapchat, web browsing, etc. On a work day, I’ve been needing to top up mid day, with less usage.

My frustration with the Nexus 5 lead me on a bit of a search. I really, really liked the Pixel devices, but the price tag left a sour taste in my mouth. For the past many years, Google has offered affordable and impressive hardware in the form of the Nexus lineup, but felt the need to shift into a new brand to better align themselves against the market. Don’t get me wrong, these units are premium, and have just about everything I want for features - Pure Android released really quick, super fast hardware, premium build quality, and even the perfect size with the regular Pixel. But the price tag just feels like too much after spending so little on such a nice device as the Nexus 5.

Other options explored included various other manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. Unfortunately, they all had some form of problem. No stock android, poor speed to update, middling build quality, poor battery, too large, too expensive, etc… After crossing everything off the list, I returned to my previous runner up when deciding on my Nexus 5 - The upstart OnePlus.

OnePlus formed in 2013 as a subsidiary of Oppo, a large Chinese based smartphone brand. OnePlus wanted to build devices that balanced a high quality, flagship level phone, with a low and affordable price. Their slogan? Never Settle. At the time of purchasing my Nexus 5, the OnePlus One was my runner up. My major concerns were screen size and availability - It was very hard to get a OnePlus off the invite system they had in place, which ultimately led me to buying the Nexus 5. OnePlus has however dismissed their invite system and made device availability much better. The November released OnePlus 3T ended up being the best phone for the price point as of the beginning of March which matched up well with my planned retirement of the Nexus 5.

The OnePlus 3T is above and beyond an upgrade from my 3 year old Nexus 5, and I can happily say I’m pleased with my purchase. Before getting into it’s improvements, a quick spec rundown.

• Snapdragon 821 CPU (2x2.35GHz, 2x1.6GHz) w/ Adreno 530 GPU
• 6GB RAM
• 64GB Storage
• 5.5” Optic AMOLED display (1920x1080)
• 16MP OIS f/2.0 rear camera, 16MP f/2.0 front camera
• 3400mAh battery
• 158g weight

The phone is currently running OxygenOS 4.1.0 at the time of writing (Android 7.1.1) and has so far met all of my wants and needs in a smartphone for 2017. Where the Nexus 5 was starting to struggle with maintaining a silky smooth 60 FPS in day to day operation, the 3T seems to always have more power to spare. The radios, much like with the transition from Galaxy Nexus to Nexus 5, are improved. The cameras are absolutely fantastic, even if they aren’t the absolute best on the market. Low light and selfie performance are in a completely different league than the Nexus 5. If anything though, the biggest improvement is the battery. I have yet to have to charge in the middle of a day, and even on the heaviest use days I’m still making it to the end with juice to spare. For comparison, a heavy use day on the Nexus 5 might have netted me 1.5 hours screen on time before crawling to a charger or my powerbank. The 3T can eek 4 hours or more on the same workload. With lighter tasks, I’m guessing it would be pretty capable of hitting 6 hours of screen time without breaking a sweat. Did I mention that a fingerprint reader is probably one of the biggest game changers too? More apps adopting it means less PINs or passwords on the phone. I’m in love.

If I was to give any negative marks to the 3T, it’d come in the form of screen size. This is more personal than anything, and the 5.5” screen size is now the most common on the market, however 5.5” is bordering on almost too large for my hands. I will in time get used to it, however it won’t ever really rest in my hands like the 5 did. On top of that, the alert slider is usable, but I would like a bit more customization in regards to what each position does, and the ability to completely adjust the rules for each position would be fantastic.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I’m going to miss the Nexus 5. It was the perfect, size, the perfect weight, and the perfect price at the time, and it continues to kick ass, even in 2016. For a regular user, it’s an absolutely killer phone. For power users who yearn for the return of the affordable, powerful, and minimalistic Nexus line, you can find a great home with OnePlus.

New Etymotic HF2s

After about 5 years of use, my old Etymotic HF2s kicked the bucket. The IEMs were stripped down to bare wire and still working! Of all the things to fail, the cable strain reducer at the 3.5mm connector was the failure point - arguably the best looking part of the old things. Anyway, once they died, I ended up rolling my Apple dual drivers (With foam supertips!) for a good couple months, the entire time wishing I had a new pair of Etys. Bonus time came around, and bonus was good! So the first thing I did was order some new Etys. I was very close to getting the ER4s, but I couldn't stomach the price difference, considering my source (Google Play Music).

Upon receiving the new HF2s, I replaced the stock brain-ticklers with a pair of medium Shure olives (My new favorite tips for these), and I've been in audio nirvana ever since. A lot of people would be turned off by Etymotic's sound signature - Most describe it as cold and lacking in low end resolution. I however find that it's amazingly accurate! The highs are extended, but not harshly bright. The mids are very revealing - Lots of microdetail - with excellent separation even in the busiest of tracks, and the low end hits are very well represented, with a fantastically quick decay. While I can agree that the vibrating bass you'd expect from a dynamic driver isn't there, the quality of the bass, along with the accuracy is unmatched. Listening to anything from dance pop to mellow indie acoustics is an absolute treat. To top it all off, the isolation, even with the Shure olives vs the brain tickler triple flanges is exceptional. Expect the world to melt away with a nice deep insertion.

As always with Etymotic, highly recommended if you're looking for a fantastically analytical and clean sound. Bassheads beware - These will give you quality, but not ear shaking quantity. Etymotic products like the HF lineup will always be a top choice in my books! On a side note, shout out to the Apple IEMs for being what they are. If you're strapped for cash, and can find a pair in the 30-50 dollar range, I found them very similar to the Etymotics, with less microdetail/clarity in the mids, and a bit more thump in the low end. On a tight budget, they're probably the best analytical IEMs out there!

2016 Mobile Setup

My first taste of good notebooks, and my first taste of thin and light was with my Acer Aspire Timeline X 3820TG, which I feel was essentially the precursor to the Ultrabook. Extremely slim (for it's time), packed with a Core i5, loads of RAM and storage, a switchable GPU for extra performance, lots of connectivity, and an absolutely killer battery life for the time, it was a mobile workhorse and carried me handily through my 2nd year in college with lots of back and forth travelling. I fondly remember using it all day in class un-tethered from the wall running virtual machines, web browsing, writing, only to hop on the bus and blog for an hour during my weekend trips back and forth to Amherst. I'd get home to Amherst and connect it to an HDMI monitor and a wireless mouse, and it was like I never left my rig at my apartment.

Of course, with notebooks from that era (2010! Six years ago!) build quality, although pretty alright, was mostly plastic. Only business models like Thinkpads, or Apple products like the Macbook Pro were built to any extremely high standard. The Timeline was falling apart by the end of it's life in 2014. Had it still been in my hands at the time, it may have lasted longer, but that's in the past now. What we do see, and thanks to the Macbook Air, is a big push for higher quality, thin and light devices, all backed by Intel and their Ultrabook format. I decided in 2016, I wanted to finally get a notebook that would meet my needs for a high quality travel companion. My requirements are below:

Good screen: 13.3" or lower IPS LCD screen, 1920x1080 minimum.
Thin and light: Under 2cm thick.
Good build quality: Aluminum unibody, or very high quality plastic build.
Good keyboard: Typing shouldn't be a chore.
Adequate daily performance: It doesn't need to be a monster, but being able to handle my workload is a must.
Killer battery life: Seriously, I want that feeling the Timeline X gave me.

The choices very much came down to the Dell XPS 13 Skylake Edition, a loaded Thinkpad x260, or the above pictured device, the Asus UX305CA. I went with the Asus.

13.3" 1920x1080 matte IPS LCD
Intel Core M3-6y30 @0.9GHz
8GB DDR3 1866MHz
256GB SSD
Intel dual band 7265 AC wireless
3x USB3.0, MicroHDMI, SD card slot, combo headphone jack
45 Wh battery

Build quality is extremely good. The device is 12.3mm at it's thickest point, and constructed of aluminum. This makes it less thick than the 12 inch Macbook! It's not quite as light however, weighing in at 2.6 pounds. There's no real flex in the keyboard tray, or on the screen, and when open the screen doesn't wobble. It's amazing what 6 years can do for differences in build quality and engineering. The Aluminum build also helps a lot with heat dissipation, which is necessary because this is a fanless computer. For usability, the keyboard has a surprising amount of key travel for such a thin device, but there is no backlighting. This isn't a dealbreaker for me, so I won't complain too much about it. The layout of my model is the bilingual version, so it is a bit different than my keyboard at home, but I'm used to it. The trackpad is large and responsive, but they clicks can be a bit loud. Not a dealbreaker though.

For performance, the Core M3-6y30 is a device designed for low TDP devices like tablets and fanless notebooks. You may think this automatically makes this device slower than a ULV CPU or a regular CPU, but it's surprisingly zippy! From my research, it's not that far off burst performance wise from current generation Skylake ULV CPUs, which is helped along by the fact that this is a hyperthreaded dual core with a 2GHz turbo. Considering the aluminum build is great for heat dissipation, extended operation at 2GHz isn't an issue. I would easily put this on par with the Timeline X I had performance wise daily, but with the added benefit of solid state storage and more RAM. I won't lie, I was skeptical going into this, but spending some time doing my daily stuff such as installing and running virtual machines, web browsing, listening to music, and even playing some games (AOEII HD and Minecraft) I can say I've been very pleased with the performance overall! I still have some stuff to try out like basic photo editing, but I'm confident this is going to handle any mobile blogging needs necessary.

The screen is very impressive. The UX305CA also has a QHD touchscreen flavor, but the hit on battery life and system performance wasn't worth it in my opinion. On top of that, the matte screen on the 1920x1080 model makes this pretty usable outdoors too! Color accuracy should be good considering the IPS display, and although not professionally measured, I can say nothing looks off. Viewing angles are great as expected too. The adaptive brightness does a good job regulating, and maximum brightness is pretty eye-searing which should be awesome if I do any outdoor work with it. I find 1920x1080 on a 13" screen is a bit much at 100% scaling, but I did find that 125% was readable while still feeling like it was displaying a lot of information. 150% felt a bit too cramped in comparison. UI scaling in Windows has a ways to go, but it's mainly developers coding static UIs. At 125%, there are some applications that look fuzzy, but I can live with it. Anything I tend to use daily looks great.

For battery life, after testing for a few weeks, depending on workload, I can expect anywhere from 6-11 hours on a single charge. If I'm just browsing the web in bed, it's closer to 11 hours, where if I'm actually doing something like playing games or working with virtual machines, or watching a lot of YouTube, it's closer to 6 hours. This is still very much on par and even exceeding my Timeline X's battery performance. I'd love to see even longer battery life, but heck, the thing has a larger screen and still has better battery life than my tablet! Color me impressed.

If I was to list a weakness of the thing, it'd probably be the speakers. They're not horrible, but they're downward firing and a bit uninspiring. They're loud enough to fill a small room, but don't expect any real depth or richness from them, although clarity is on point. I would have also loved to see the M7-6Y75 model more actively available with my current configuration, but the M3-6Y30 is still plenty fast for my use case.

For accessories, I grabbed an MX Anywhere 2 from Logitech. I used to have a VX Revolution, but I recently discovered it's dead. I did what I could to clean the battery leads, and I even opened it up to ensure everything was connected correctly and there was no corrosion on any of the cables, but alas, it just would not power up. The MX Anywhere 2 drops a few buttons, and there's no middle click, but it does offer what I want in a mouse: Hyperscroll, side scrolling, forward and back mouse buttons, USB rechargeable, and a Bluetooth connectivity option. I've been pleased with the performance of the MX Anywhere 2, however my unit does have a defect. To switch between regular and hyperscrolling, you need to press down on the scroll wheel. This doesn't work 50% of the time, and requires fiddling with the wheel to get it to function. I would have liked to replace through Best Buy, but they're currently out of stock. I'll keep my eyes open, and if they don't get any stock anytime soon, I'll just RMA through Logitech, which always had great support in my past dealings with them.

I also ended up grabbing a notebook sleeve, as although the build is robust on the UX305, I'd still like to keep it separated from other things in my backpack. I don't have any current pictures of the sleeve, but I found a Kapsule branded one on sale at the Source which also included a few nice deep zippered pockets on the sides to store stuff like the tablet, mouse, charger, and any extra cables/drives I might need to take along. It's half decent looking too, so I may have photos up eventually.

Overall, this is a fairly impressive thin and light mobile setup that meets my needs for daily use! I'm pretty happy with my choices, and I hope they keep impressing me as I use them further.

Watch You Got There?

It's been a few months with the G Watch, so I figured I'd finally share my experiences with Android Wear, and the OG G Watch. For the basics, I'll start with the tech specs.

1.65" IPS LCD
400Mah Battery
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz CPU
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
Bluetooth 4.0, 9 Axis sensor (Accelerometer/compass/gyro)

Yep, that's right, watches now have processors and RAM. The great thing about Android wear is that it's pretty well regulated across the board, and even newer devices coming out these days have similar base hardware as the LG G Watch. The only real difference is stuff like speakers, additional sensors, screen tech, and design. Otherwise, pretty much everything you get will have the same internals. I'm happy to say although the G Watch is one of the oldest Android wear devices, it's still receiving regular updates, and recently just received 6.0 Marshmallow, adding doze functionality, along with some other tweaks affecting devices containing speakers, and it added some new gestures.

The adjustment period for the watch didn't take long. I was used to wearing my BM8180, so other than a slightly larger case size, and a larger strap, it wasn't a huge deal. It does take a standard 22mm strap, so it was very easy to find a replacement for the horrible white thing that was included. If I was able to obtain a black model for the same price as the white one, I likely would have kept the strap. I do still have it in it's box in case my new one ever fails. More on that later. As for similarities to my BM8180, well... It tells the time, and shows the date. Other than that, it's essentially just notifications on my wrist. It's very good at a few things - lists in Google Keep (Groceries!), controlling Google Play Music, setting timers, alarms, and reminders with voice. I even find myself occasionally replying with short messages using the thing. The voice recognition is surprisingly good, but that's to be expected from Google. I'll check the weather with the Google Now cards, get ETAs to and from specific places of interest, but most importantly, it's a fantastic notification filter.

For performance, it's always zippy. The 1.2GHz snapdragon, although rather old, is plenty fast for what the watch is doing. The interface is pretty constantly running at 60FPS, with very little stutter or lag. I've had one instance since starting to use the thing that it actually locked up on me, but it quickly recovered itself. For battery life - It really depends on daily workload/notifications. If I'm getting a lot of notifications, or checking things a lot, or heck, even playing a bit of Ingress, battery will usually end at around ~35% with screen always on and the basic digital watch face you see above. If it's a slower day, I can sometimes hit bedtime with 60% or more remaining. A 2 day stretch on battery is definitely possible, but would require minimal use or a low number of notifications. Overall, daily charging doesn't bother me, as I do have the dock right next to my phone's charger, which also gets thrown on the charge when I go to sleep. Charge time is about an hour.

For my replacement strap, I decided to reach out to Popov Leather again. I am still absolutely in love with my wallet I got from them, and the watch strap is no different. I did end up having to trim my strap and add an additional hole, but I don't think you can really tell. (I have what feels like dainty, un-manly wrists, and anything Popov Leather provides should fit the general population just fine!) Shoutout to Popov Leather, they provide a high quality, Canadian made product for a decent price. The strap also looks a heck of a lot nicer than the white one included.

Anyway, for anyone looking to check out Android Wear, find a watch on the cheap and give it a try. If you look hard, you can probably find a G Watch for around 100 bucks like I did! It's well worth the try if you enjoy any form of geekery. I hope to be posting a bit more over the next week or so, as I do have a few other new things to showcase, and some possible future plans to throw onto the internet as well!

Nexus Player, Ultrawide, G Watch?

We've had a Chromecast in the house for a while, and it's been awesome. Really easy to put stuff on the TV, and cheap too! When I noticed the Nexus Players received a price cut though, I couldn't resist. My one real complaint about the Chromecast was the fact that it only had 2.4GHz wireless. Wireless N helped a little bit, but unfortunately we live in a 16 unit apartment, which has a 2.4GHz wireless router in each unit... For something as sensitive as streaming media, that's a recipe for disaster. Although most of the time the Chromecast was good, you'd get good hiccups with HD content in the evenings when everyone was online. The TV we have has 5GHz wireless N, but it was still really slow and not at all a pleasure to operate. The Nexus Player however supports up to Wireless AC (2x2 MIMO), which is fast as hell, provided we have an AC router. (At the moment we don't but we'll take advantage of the 5GHz wireless N anyway). So, the Nexus player is basically a beefy Chromecast, with built in and downloadable apps and games, and voice search. It's a nice replacement, looks good, feels good, operates quickly. Let's just hope that Google doesn't plan to wrap up the idea of Android TV.

Also back to 3 monitors! I ended up getting a 25" LG Ultrawide for ~200 dollars as a birthday gift for myself. My GTX670 still pushes 2560x1080 about as well as 1920x1080, judging by game performance in Battlefield and Borderlands, and the extra screen real estate is absolutely awesome for EVE online. I'd love to add an additional one, but I really don't have the desk space. I'll likely end up just switching my 19" for another 21.5" and keep things like that.

Last but not least, I ended up scouring the internet over vacation for a G Watch. Yes, it's one of the first Android Wear devices released, but guess what? The internal specs really haven't changed, even with the newer, higher end watches. They all run on the same chipset, with similar battery sizes, and similar sized screens. The only real difference is the quality of the screen and watch case, and if it does or doesn't have GPS/heartbeat sensor built in. Considering the 100 dollar price tag, and the fact that wear has been receiving pretty regular updates, I figured it's time to see what it's all about. I hope to have some pictures and a quick review up sometime after it's arrived.

Long Time, No Update?

It sure has been a while since posting anything. I figured since I'm on vacation I may as well update a few things here. First off - The Nexus 5 is still an absolute monster of a phone. I fall deeper in love with it every day. It's now ~2 years old and I'd still consider it a flagship. Running 5.1.1, stock to the bone, it's absolute butter when it comes to the interface and day to day use. I can see myself being happy with this phone for at least another year or so. Battery is meh, but it does last a day. We'll see what Android M brings! By the looks of things, the Nexus 5 should be one of the first devices to receive it, and battery life improvements seem positive already.

The Shield tablet received Lollipop 5.1, which improved performance a ton - No more random lags in Chrome, or when switching apps. I likened the Shield to a truck prior to 5.1 - Slow to get up and running, but a beast once it started moving. Now it's more like a sports car - Super quick and super powerful. I can say the tablet is a pleasure to use, a pleasure to hold in hand, and it fills the hole that the Nexus 7 left when I gave it away. Maybe one day I'll get the controller and cover for it as well, but for now it's been great as just a media consumption device/web browser/kitchen assistant.

I've also started playing EVE Online. I think at some point I ranted about how I detest the idea of pay to play titles, but I can see the advantages now. EVE is fantastically complex and absolutely hilarious - The entire game is essentially PVP. It doesn't matter where you're at, there's always a risk of getting killed by another player. I do have a bit of an interesting take on the game as I got a fairly well developed character from a friend who stopped playing a while ago. You can check out my adventures by clicking this link here - I'll be updating it from time to time, hopefully with pretty screenshots. (Now dead)

My EDC hasn't really changed a lot. I've changed from the mechanic's ring to a dangler type system as I was finally able to find some cheap ones on eBay. I love supporting communities, but at 20 dollars for two P7 suspension clips? I'll have to pass. The cheaper knockoffs seem built just as well and I was able to get 5 for about 10 dollars, which is probably more than I'll ever use. The nice thing about the dangler is that it prevents things from just turning into a ball in your pocket and looking awkward. It's a lot easier to just pull out your key chain as well!

I was also considering switching out my MiniChamp for an Alox version, but thinking now, the most commonly used pieces on it are the blade, the file, and scissors... Which all exist on the Classic SD. So I might end up just grabbing a Classic SD in plain silver Alox and retire the MiniChamp to a first aid kit or something, where it might get a bit more usage. Silver is definitely a must though! It seems silly, but most of my other stuff that I carry in my pockets now is silver (Everything else on my keychain), and so is my Cadet. There's a lot else I'd like to add or change in my carry, but it's really not a necessity.

Anyway, that's about it for right now... I'm going to get back to enjoying my vacation, maybe play some EVE.

Popov Leather Card Holder

I did say I was replacing my Fossil wallet with something else. Here it is! It's a Popov Leather card holder in royal blue with cream stitching. They use a nice thick leather and high quality hand stitching. I couldn't resist grabbing this beauty when I saw they had a discount on top of their already clearance pricing for the older leather models. The wallet holds 5 cards in the main compartment and has a wrap around pocket for cash, notes, or smaller key fob loyalty cards. If you're looking for a quality hand made leather wallet, I can recommend Popov Leather.

Goodnight, My Old Friend

I first purchased my Galaxy Nexus in February of 2012 as a hardware upgrade from my HTC Desire Z. I was really tired of the small issues with the Z, and found myself not using the hardware keyboard all that often. It was a big toss up between the Nexus and the Galaxy S II, however the newer, stock software and the HD screen ultimately won me over. From that point on it was my constant daily companion. Pictures? Handled. Scheduling? No problem. Games? Sure! The list could go on in regards to what functionality that phone provided me, but let's keep it short. The phone was hands down the best smartphone I've owned in my lifetime, though that doesn't say much.

In late 2012, the Nexus 4 was released. Although I wanted one, I couldn't justify it over my then speedy Galaxy Nexus. The glass back had durability issues, and the camera, battery, and screen weren't really much of an upgrade over what I already had. In late 2013, the Nexus 5 was released. This was what I could consider an upgrade, but again, the Galaxy Nexus was functioning fine, and I couldn't justify the additional cost, even though just about everything would be considered an upgrade over the Galaxy Nexus. Once again, my Galaxy Nexus was getting slower and less shiny, but was still a satisfying device.

Over the years many software upgrades were seen. The jump from 4.0 to 4.3 brought a slightly slower device, but more fun features. When 4.4 Kitkat hit, I was flashing the latest custom ROMs, as Google's support stopped at Jellybean. But things were slower. There's only so much that can be done with a now unsupported dual core processor from a now non-existent company and a gigabyte of RAM. In 2014, discovering Ingress, I found the phone was functional for the game, but overall the GPS performance wasn't great, and the battery was definitely suffering. Day to day performance wasn't spectacular for me either, with newer apps causing lag, and an overall poor multitasking experience.

In late 2014, the monster known as the Nexus 6 was released. Although Android 5.0 Lollipop was attractive, and the specs on the phone were amazing, a 6 inch device is a bit too big for me. So again, the Nexus 6 didn't cause me to leave my Galaxy Nexus. What did cause me to abandon the phone is failing hardware. The power button appears to have suffered from some water ingress, causing it to intermittently work. I could only take this for so long before deciding an upgrade was finally necessary. But what to upgrade to with the Nexus 6 being too large, and none of the common flagships supporting stock Android? I'd love to have a Play Edition Galaxy S4 or HTC One M8, but they're expensive and not easily available in Canada. Everything else felt like it had bloated software or silly features. Look at Sony's Z3C - The phone is perfect hardware wise, but the dated manufacturer's skin makes it less of a pleasure to use.

I quickly narrowed my choices down - I needed a phone that was affordable off contract (Forget a hardware upgrade through Bell... I'd be shafted by the pricing on the new plans), and one running stock, or close to stock Android. Ultimately, my choices came down to the OnePlus One, and the Nexus 5. The OnePlus One was a very new and very affordable phone, with flagship specs. Unfortunately, it's hindered by most things a new company has trouble with - Supply, quality control, and poor/slow support. They work (Or did at the time I was considering buying one) off an invite system. You need an invite to buy the phone, which most are either giving away sparingly, or selling. This is a bit hard to get a hold of, so one needs to hunt a bit to be able to buy the phone. On top of this, if you receive a poor device (screen problems, camera issues, etc), chances are you're going to be fighting with poor/slow support just to get a replacement. To top it off, the screen is 5.5", and after handling a Galaxy Note III (Approximately the same size), I determined it'd be foolish for me to own a phone that couldn't fit in my pocket.

So, process of elimination, the Nexus 5 was my choice. It's an upgrade in every way to the Galaxy Nexus, and I can openly say I'm pleased with my purchase. It may be over a year old now, but I can easily say it's one of the best performing budget smart phones on the market. A quick rundown of the specs:

• 2.3GHz quad core Snapdragon 800 CPU w/ Adreno 330 GPU


• 2GB RAM


• 16GB storage


• 4.95" True HD IPS+ display (1920x1080)


• 8MP camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and LED flash


• 2300mAh battery


• 130g weight

As soon as I received the phone I sideloaded the Lollipop update and was happily on my way. I feel I should have unlocked and rooted at the same time, but for now, stock is treating me well. Performance is better as expected with multitasking being very fluid - There's no noticeable lag switching between apps or opening games, and all the animations run flawlessly at 60 frames per second. Reception is definitely improved as well - The radios are much better than the Galaxy Nexus. I get better reception in areas at work that I never did before, and I rarely lose signal in our basement apartment. The camera, although not as good as some other flagships, still performs well for me. Color balance is natural and low light performance is decent, but not great. This still puts it way ahead of the Galaxy Nexus when it comes to shooting photos. To top it all off, it's thinner and lighter too, while maintaining the same approximate size. This means it still fits in my pocket great, and doesn't add any more weight to my pockets.

My only issues with the phone are the same that most have had with it. The battery life is a bit mediocre, although this definitely should improve when developers start implementing the project Volta API into their apps. The phone still gets me through a whole day, and on WiFi I can probably expect about 5 hours of screen time. On mobile data, depending on signal quality, 3 hours seems to be the norm.  Poor signal drives that number down of course, and even with the improved radios, signal quality isn't great at work. It's definitely enough to get things done though, and I'm never too far from a power outlet or my Anker. My other issue can't be fixed, that being headphone port placement. It's on the top of the phone, which makes placement in my pocket a bit odd. A minor nuisance, and I'll get used to it over time. My final small problems are software related, but should easily be patch-able in the near future. One being the current issue with Lollipop memory leaks, and the other being the camera/LED flashlight going non-responsive if the light is left on for too long. Reboots resolve this issue, and they don't come up too often, thankfully.

Overall I'm pleased with my decision. It's an affordable device that should last me at least another year or two, until a better sized Nexus comes out. I like it so much however, that it might end up staying with me until I wear it out.

Citizen EcoDrive BM8180: My Review

Watches have become a bit of a fascination for me. After reading into the subject more and learning the basics, I learned there's a lot more out in the world other than the digital Timex watch of my childhood. This research lead to a need to further study the subject, and perhaps start another collection of sorts.

My checklist for a watch was pretty simple. I wanted something that was minimalist and rugged, quiet, and most of all small, due to my wrist size. I definitely gravitated to Military/field style watches, with their simplified faces, basic date functionality, and Arabic numerals. Being my first real watch too, I wanted to keep the entry price fair, so I limited myself to under $150. I quickly narrowed it down to two. The automatic Seiko 5 SNK809, and the Citizen EcoDrive BM8180. After looking at how well each one kept time, the Citizen came out the winner.

The BM8180 is a very handsome watch with a black face and silver housing, which can work well with a variety of straps from metal to NATO. Depending on the strap, one could use this as a dress watch as easily as one does casual. The 37mm size fits well on a smaller wrist and the watch can accept any standard 18mm strap. The strap included is leather backed green canvas with brushed steel buckles and holes. Overall the strap fits well and wore in quickly. As for the watch itself, the build is superb. No loose crystal, no play in the crown, overall solid feeling. The watch is water resistant and should be fine for light submersion such as swimming, dishes, showering, etc. I have yet to try this, however I have no doubt it'll be fine. If there are any issues, Citizen does cover the watch for 5 years with their manufacturer's warranty.

One of the big draws for me for the BM8180 wasn't just that the watch met all of my above requirements, but also the fact that it's powered by Citizen's Eco Drive. The watch uses barely visible solar panels behind the watch face to charge the battery of the watch in natural OR artificial light. This means as long as you have a light source, the watch will continue ticking. Once the battery is fully charged, the watch will tick for a good 6 months in complete darkness before it goes dead! I'm not sure about anyone who reads this, but I normally see some form of light within a 6 month period. As for keeping time, the quartz movement has been exceptional, and I don't really notice any loss or gain in time after approximately 2 months of ownership.

The watch face is very minimalist. The hands aren't overly obstructive, except when they travel over the date, which is not a huge issue. The face does have basic lume on anything white, so all of the numbers will stay lit pretty well throughout the night, provided you've had a good day in natural light. The hour and minute hand are also very well illuminated, however the second had can leave a bit to be desired with just the tip containing lume. The second hand is ever so slightly off on my watch, however it's definitely livable. The movement is practically silent as well, unless you have it in your ear in a quiet room.

Overall, this watch does exactly what I wanted it to do - tell the date and time - and it does it well. It's a piece of tech that's been perfectly integrated into my life - I don't need to constantly remind myself that I have a watch on. I don't pull out my phone as frequently for time checks. It's a "fashion accessory" on top of that. It can function well for both my day to day and anything business related that may come up in the future with just a quick change of the strap. Knowing I have something on me that will just function without intervention is almost comforting in a sense. I have a feeling this is my first of many time pieces, but it's a hell of a nice first.



Here's a link to where I bought it - I did have some really steep discounts though, thanks to all of the promos that shop.ca has going on.