Xiaomi has been known to introduce disruptive products offering an unmatched cost to quality. Taking the journey forward from the cellphones, they have made a range of products right from power banks to wrist band to earphones to even air purifier.
When they introduced the first version of Piston earphones, it was an instant hit. Mass oriented sound signature with plenty of bass, excellent finish and durability most importantly it was priced much below it's class. It was sold like a hot cake. In the Piston 2, they revised the sound signature to have a more controlled bass(better quality than quantity) with added benefit of a spacious sound stage. This became the new budget favourite at Head-fi. Post this there was another leap forward with introduction of the hybrid model which was the cheapest hybrid earphone ever made. Sadly it was not a perfect implementation of twin drivers and was not liked that much. Piston 3 changed that with significant shift towards a flat sound signature(no bass bloat), using a single high quality dynamic driver. This review is about the latest edition of MI IEM which was labelled simply as "MI in ear". Only buy from official website at from Mi India. There is usually no discount on this site for these earphones and buying from any other source may be risky as there are counterfeits of Xiaomi everywhere.
The design
This IEM is a design marvel. Getting a prize from Red Dot for it's remarkable design later last year, this earphone is one of the best engineering earphones we have seen lately. It comes in a beautiful white package that opens easily once you remove the transparent round stickers holding it together. Inside that you will find a plastic case, which is another highlight of the design. You will find the earphone wrapped in a silicone organizer which sits over the array of 3 sized eartips. These tips are beside the pair of M sized ones already mounted on earphones.
The instructions to recoil the earphone on the silicone organizer is shown in inner side of the white package.
The earphone cable is made of kevlar up to the split, where there is soft silicone coated bi wiring. The right earphone cable has the microphone which is discussed in microphone section below. It is made of brushed aluminum and quality is remarkable at any price point.
The eartips are angled which are done to improve the sound staging, making the earphones sound more 'spacious'.
The diaphragm is made from a sandwich of metal(probably Beryllium) and two layers of PET. This is done to get a good response both in lower frequencies as well as higher frequencies(at least in theory). For those who think this "aerospace grade" metal as claimed by Xiaomi is out of sci-fi fantasy, it is not. However other companies such as Sony and Vsonic have been using exotic materials for making earphone diaphragms such as Bio-cellulose.
The sound
This in ear has a very flat sound. Which means that the bass, vocals and treble are all well balanced out without emphasis on one single section. Initially out of the box they sound a bit boring with touch of bass boost but using them(search for earphone burn-in) for about 30-50 hours will make them sound natural. Right now it sounds quite balanced after the initial burnin is over. The strong point of sound is that nothing is bad in this earphone signature. Treble does not hurt with sibilance, bass is not bloaty, mids are not subdued. However the minus point is that there is no particular area where this earphone shines. It may sound boring to those coming from bass heavy Piston 2 or even other earphones. There is dearth of detail in the higher frequencies which sound a bit dull. This would not be problem if you are upgrading from any bundled earphones or cheaper ones but prominent if coming from more premium earphones/headphones. Overall it gives a pleasant presentation and at this price it is as good sound as it can get. Definitely better than all mass produced earphones at this or lower price.
The microphone unit
Besides a good sound quality, this is another selling point for this earphone. In fact some testers specifically liked this because it's controls in the mic unit make it a complete android headset.
There are three unlabelled buttons which can be used for both calling as well as for controlling music player. It is extremely convenient to switch back and forth tracks(double/triple click on middle button), pause and resume(single Middle button click) and increase or decrease volume (the outer two buttons). These controls come handy while commuting.
Please note that some feature like volume control will not work in iPhone. Some android phones too are not fully compliant to volume control. This works perfectly on all Xiaomi phones.
Apart from music controls, it also controls the calls. As seen in the above image, you can recieve, reject calls, put on hold and mute microphone.
Final verdict
Xiaomi in ears are perfect companion to your phone and shall work flawlessly for a long time, given the build quality. Sound is good but beaten by audiophile grade earphones like Dunu Titan, Soundmagic E50, E80, Vsonic GR series, etc. However these are not headset with controls and cost three to eight times the price of Xiaomi.
| VFM |
4.5 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Build quality |
5 |
| Design |
5 |
| Overall |
4.6 |
In a country like India, it takes hardly a few pages of ad and some free reviews on half baked websites to create a buzz, commotion. In just 2 days, Freedom 251 phone has caused a huge upheavel in the entire country.
Laced with lavishing features like 4" screen, 1.3Ghz processor, 1Gb ram, etc, it is definitely something that everyone would be ready to have as a second phone apparently even if priced at Rs1000, it would still be a steal. Let's do some reality check.
Reality check number 1 : Domain name
Freedom251.com which is shown as the official website of the company selling this phone is as fishy as the phone. Let's not talk about the unstable and crashing website with a non functional payment gateway. Lets simply look under the skin on the domain registration details on who.is which shows the following info.
You can see very clearly that website was registered on February 10th 2016. Any professional company that registers a week before the launch of the phone rings a BIG RED signal in anyone's mind.
Reality check number 2 : Ministry of Corporate Affairs
On the official MCA website, we can see that company is barely 5 months old. 2 of the directors are registered on Nov 2. The company shows a fake address here which is different from Noida address shown in the newspaper ad and the website details on who.is
Reality check number 3 : iPhone copy or Adcom ?
Mismatch between the design shown in the ad and one on the website and samples sent to media houses. The samples sent were simply phones by in importer of Chinese phones called Adcom, with whitener added on logo. Yes you read it right. Those shown in the website and ad are also either this or alternatively an image of iPhone!!!
Reality check number 4 : Defence minister to launch a phone???
Joke of the year! What more to say about this photoshopped picture. There were headlines roping in central ministers as well as state ministers into launching this freedom for all phone at Rs 251. Someone is learning photoshop!
Reality check number 5 : the existence of logic and maths
Thankfully we still live in a world without freedom where things are governed by maths and logic. Even the IPS display of 4 inches would not come for Rs250. All of this together must retail at around Rs3000 minimum.
I think you must have got the hindsight that this is too good to be true, if not then please dont miss the chance to buy it in the next flash sale at (mind you) 6am tomorrow to avoid rush hour crashes!!!
Read about what features are claimed by this company here : http://www.techrasta.com/2016/02/so-called-features-of-freedom-251-magic.html
Ambrane Power bank 10400mAH is a budget priced high capacity power bank. Here we have tested it for the reliability and performance.
 |
| Ambrane P-1000 10400 mAh power bank |
Overall Rating : ★★★★ 4
Reviewed By: Arindra Mishra
The overall performance of the power bank is measured on these features:
- Power capacity
- Charging time
- Durability and design
Power capacity
This Ambrane power bank comes in 10400 mAh capacity which is plentiful for most of the users, even power users. They have provided a high capacity in this power bank to cater to the smartphone users who travel a lot or don't have time to charge their phones every time.
I know people who will just charge their power bank once then use this to charge their phone for a week!
| Official | Discharge test | Phone - recharge cycle |
|---|
| Capacity | 10400 mAh | 8500 mAh | ~8000 mAh |
|---|
The actual number of charges that you can do for your phone can be calculated as follows.
Use our TechRasta formula :
n= ((Power bank capacity) x 0.6 ) / (phone's battery capacity
Charging time
We charged the power bank at testing using standard high speed charger of 2A. This result provided us with a charge time of 8 hours.
You can also check out the table to find the theoretical charge times. Real charge times will be more than the ones presented and will increase depending on age of power bank.
Charging times(theoretical)
| Charger | Charging time |
|---|
| 500 mA | 20 hours |
|---|
| 1000 mA | 10 hours |
|---|
| 2000 mA | 5 hours |
|---|
| 3000 mA | 3 hours |
|---|
Durability and design
The Ambrane power bank is bare basic power bank with plastic body that looks and feels Chinese. Though they are branded as Indian company the product is made by inferior suppliers from China. The port and button quality is low and durability of the battery is doubted.
We can also see that some models have LCD displays with percentage indicators that is missing from this model to cut cost.
Also read :
The Xiaomi power bank 10400mah was launched as a smartphone accessory,not juts for the Xiaomi branded smartphones but for any phone. We checked it out with the Redmi 1s though.
Overall Rating : ★★★★★ 5
Reviewed By: Arindra Mishra
The overall performance of the power bank is measured on these features:
- Power capacity
- Charging time
- Durability and design
Power capacity
This power bank is very good in terms of the power charge capacity. While there are other power banks too, with double or more capacity but as you go higher, it becomes less and less pocketable.
One word of caution that needs to taken while choosing the power bank is that the manufacturer's claim of charge capacity may not be real one that is available for the user. Needless to say that the capacity is lower than the one printed on the box.
We checked out the Xiaomi power bank to measure the actual charge capacity. This could be done in two ways: measure the discharge time at constant current drain for the output voltage to drop around the 3.7v value. Another approach is to charge a phone again and again to see how many charges it gives.
|
Official |
Discharge test |
Phone - recharge cycle |
| Capacity |
10400 mAh |
9800 mAh |
~9000 mAh |
The phone-recharge capacity will always be lower as there is some loss in charging of the phone in the form of heat plus the discharge rate of keeping the phone ON during the charge.
So how many times can you charge your phone?
Use our TechRasta formula :
n= ((Power bank capacity) x 0.6 ) / (phone's battery capacity)
Charging time
The charging time for the Xiaomi power bank 10400mAh depends on the charger. For this test we preferred the Xiaomi charger that came with the Redmi 1s.
While a theoretical value we got was 5 Hours, it took around 7 hours to charge completely for this review. Another thing to notice here is that the charge time varies with temperature too. With a lower power output charger of Motorola, it was not completely charged in overnight charging.
Charging times(theoretical)
| Charger |
Charging time |
| 500 mA |
20 hours |
| 1000 mA |
10 hours |
| 2000 mA |
5 hours |
| 3000 mA |
3 hours |
Durability and design
The Xiaomi product looks great enclosed in Aluminum casing with good quality socket and switches.
The tiny LEDs used are non-obstrusive and give a class of Apple made product. About the durability, it is too early to comment but it can surely last 2-3 years.
Also check out :
Ambrane 10400mAH power bank at 55% OFF
Macbooks are not for everyone. If you are just looking for 'more RAM' or clock speed or for that matter any technical specifications then these top 5 Macbooks are not for you. However, there is a big 'however' here, recently, there has been a very competitive technical up scaling of the entire lineup. The strides are such that the top models of Apple's macbook lineup, mainly the pro series has become a best-buy at it's price. Needless to say, if money is not your concern then we highly recommend the model MGXA2HN/A is the best buy. We would have recommended the higher model with 512GB Solid State Drive had it not been steeply priced at almost 30k extra just for 256GB. Though a larger SSD is better not just for more storage but also because it extends the lifespan of the SSD.
This is another great feature that other than the lower model, the MD101HN/A, all others have SSD drives. Though perfect thing to have would have been a hybrid HDD-SDD system like those found on other flagship laptops but you can add external HDD anyway, as per your liking. All other specs are good too. Not to go into too much detail into the CPU clock speed and RAM, the series pack enough juice to make you happy. Moreover as far as we have tested, even 4GB RAM on OSX runs as smoothly as Windows running on 16GB RAM. So when buying an Apple product(even phones, tablets) never compare directly to other products in terms of specs.
Another aspect of Apple computers is the editing capability that provides a professional level reliability. This is the reason why it is used for photo editing and filmmaking widely. The Macbook as well as the iMac forms the backbone for entire film industry worldwide. Softwares like Photoshop came first on Macbook. Still there are many apps out there which are Apple only.
One small hiccup can be for the people who 'need' to use windows app. While you can run them from Virtual-OS simulators it can also be dual-booted. Still it is never too easy for a common user to juggle between two entirely different OSes. Also, if you have some softwares which are Windows only, then you will not be able to use them without the dual OS approach.
Anyway, here is the list of the best Macbooks out there in the market today:
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This is the best buy in the top line from Apple. It's not just a competent in this list of offering, it takes on well to the rival flagships as well. With Core i7 processor that clocks at 2.2Ghz (over clockable up to 3.4GHz using the turbo boost), it is no slouch! Add to that an ultra fast response RAM of 16GB capacity, you have a Ferrari of the computing world. Not to mention the uber cool silver design created by aluminum chassis and beautiful back-lit keyboard, it is futuristic in appeal. The screen is IPS display with 2880 x 1800 Pixels resolution screen that delivers pleasing colors with alluring brightness levels.
Playing games is a delight on this machine, given the graphics capabilities. You should not expect a desktop level performance but you can safely lower the resolution to 1080p or to 720p to enjoy more detailed gameplay or at native resolution sacrificing the detail levels.
When it comes to storage, it is second only to the Apple MGXC2HN/A, which boasts of 512GB SSD in place of 256GB, as mentioned earlier. Other than that there is no difference at all. That's why we have placed this at the top position. Talking about the USB, there are 2 ports provided, both high speed USB 3.0 ports. The large touch-pad, webcam, speakers, dual microphones are all of high quality and do the job well.
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This is a mid-level model from the lineup and is a good tradeoff between cost and performance. While the looks remain the same, the hardware gets a bit less shine. With this, you get a 8GB RAM, i5 processor along with the same 256GB SSD.
Though it is less specced than the higher models, it should fare more than enough for people who would use laptop for personal or light-duty professional work.
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Now, this model is one of the best offering from the 'Air' lineup. You get the slim design married to Maverick's smooth performance. It is a great buy if you are just entering college and even if your college course lasts for four years, your companion will not age as much as you do and it will still look and perform fresh.
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This model is the basic model in the 'Air' series and is the highest seller in the range owing to the pricing. Performance wise it is decent with i5 processor and 4GB RAM. It works well for light work like office documents, presentations, etc.
It comes with a very basic 128GB of SSD storage so be conservative about the softwares that you can install and you may need to carry around an external HDD all the time(first part is true for other models as well)
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If your sole aim is to have an illuminated apple logo to show off to people, then this is the cheapest option out there. A bare basic version. Does the job. That's it.
However, it is not bad too. Don't be fooled by the sales guy who may try to lure you into buying the expensive models. Trust me, there is not much difference between this and higher versions in terms of 'real world performance', especially if you do nothing more than watch movies, listen to music and browse Facebook 80% of time.
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