I got a Xiaomi Poco M3 and this is what I think of it

 

I wouldn't go into the specs of the phone, you can easily find it online, like Gsmarena.

Anyway, I know nuts about phone (like their chipset and all the technical stuffs) so it's no point I write about them and pretend like I know what I'm saying...LOL 

But I do know what kind of user experience I expect from a phone. So I'll just be sharing about my user experience.

This will be a brief one because I've just mainly used the phone as a music player and for light gaming (Kairosoft games if you know about them). 

I must say I love the look of the phone. The bright Yellow back cover is very attractive and is highly anti-fingerprint. It's good to hold and seems to be anti-slip as well. I know its loud and more "cute" design may not be for everyone, but it does comes in Blue and Black too if you like things "toned down".

The audio jack is at the top of the phone with the dual SIM card + MicroSD card slot at the left side while the volume button and On/Off button on the right side.

Yes, shameless Advertising again :p
Note: Photo is blurry because I didn't get the focus right.

There are speakers both on the top and bottom of the phone. Poco M3 uses a USB C charger and comes with 18W fast charging. I didn't use the power brick as I usually charge my phone overnight, so I can't comment on how efficient it is.

However, it is advertised to charge 25% of the battery in 30 minutes and 46% in one hour.

Starting Up and MIUI OS

I can't say I like the starting up of the phone. It took way too long to boot up the phone. Say a 20-30 seconds just to boot the phone to Home screen. 

The MIUI OS seems to be very heavy on the phone, taking up to 13.43GB and there are a whole load of "useless" (at least to me) apps pre-installed on the phone. They really just take up space and slows down the booting.

The phone also comes "pre-installed" with Ads, they are not intrusive but are kinda annoying. There are ways to toggle them off, and I found a good tutorial >> How to remove ads from Xiaomi phones with MIUI

Fingerprint Unlocking

The fingerprint sensor is on the On/Off button which actually makes it quite difficult when registering my fingerprint but when it comes to unlocking, it's lightning fast.

I actually don't enjoy the sensor being at the side because it slightly hard to reach and also not as convenient as iPhone 7 whereby you just put your thumb on the "Home" button. I ended up still having to pick up the phone to unlock it versus I can just unlock my iPhone while it's on the table.

Display and Brightness

Though limited, there are some option to customise the display like - the "colour scheme" and colour temperature. I thought it's a nice touch.  

I think the screen brightness is good for day to day use, especially for using indoors but if there is some sun, you might need to adjust the brightness level. 

So far, I haven't face a situation whereby I can't see the screen due to being outdoors.

Update: I realise the Poco M3 doesn't have enough brightness in some shows (like Kingdom) with a lot of dark or dimly lighted scenes. You'll have some problem with them even on high brightness. Sometimes, 100% is not enough still.

Music and Video

I enjoyed listening to music on the phone. I've all my audio files saved on the MicroSD card and there is no lag when reading from it. And I love that there are many options for music players - I got a player called "Black Player" which comes with a whole lot of functions like editing the meta-tags, setting the equalizer ...etc.

I also used the phone for YouTube and I must say its great. I feel its no difference from my iPhone, except that I won't be needing an adaptor!

The speakers are loud enough in most conditions even not at max volume. They are a little less energetic in the higher range but they're good in almost all other ranges. Bass is boomy and enjoyable.

Gaming

I didn't actually game intensively on this phone. I've played one round of PUBG (which I finished 11th). I must say, there will be some lag, but not that kind of lag that makes the game unplayable. I've faced worst lag on my iPhone to be honest, so much so that I thought I'm playing the game in 0.5x speed. Also, my iPhone heats up much more than the Poco M3 when playing PUBG.

I've also played hours of "Ninja Village" by Kairosoft and I'm surprised by how smooth the gameplay was. I always have problem with my iPhone heating up after hours of playing any Kairosoft games and then there will be noticeable lag. But I don't seems to have this problem with the Poco M3. 

But let's be fair, my iPhone is quite old already and it has been "abused". 

Updated: Played Mobile Legend on Medium setting and gameplay is mostly smooth (played 2 continuous game), however character introduction animations lags quite badly. No heating problem.

Downloaded Fire Emblem Heroes and Genshi Impact. Took a long time to download and install all the files on initial setup (didn't know why it's so slow as I'm very near to my router and internet connection is good). Phone gets warm to touch after the initial downloading completes.

Genshi Impact runs pretty well but stutters once in awhile. Still playable in my opinion but I didn't progress further into the game (I deleted it after completing the first 2 mission. I don't really enjoy this genre of game). 

I've completed more than 10 of Fire Emblem Heroes story maps already and I enjoyed every part of the game. No stutter and no lag. I've no problem with phone heating up thus far.

PPSSPP works very well on the phone (with slight stutters on some demanding parts of game, but so far I only get stutter in 1 game I played) with no heating problem. I'm talking about playing 3-4 hours straight with games like Gungnir and Itsuka Kono Te ga Kegareru Toki ni: Spectral Force Legacy)

Camera

The Poco M3 have a 48MP rear camera and I must say I like the image quality. Well, I compared it to the iPhone 7 plus and I think the photo is more appealing and vivid. But both the phones have problem with low light - even with the night mode on.

iPhone 7 Plus

Poco M3 "Normal" Mode

Poco M3 Night mode

Battery

I guess the "selling point" of this phone has to be its battery - 6000mAh battery!!

I didn't really keep track of how long the battery can last but I can safely assume that if you're just listening to music for 3-4 hours a day, it can last about 2 or more days on a full charge.

I've on a day, listened to music for 4-5 hours, watched 1-2 hours of YouTube and 1-2 hours of light gaming and I still have more than 65% of battery left. (And No, I don't have the habit to kill app).

Conclusion

Pros		Cons
+ Cool, colourful design		- MIUI OS
+ Anti-slip and fingerprint cover		- Slow booting up
+ 6000mAh battery		- Not for heavy gaming
+ 3.5mm Audio jack		- Annoying Ads (unless toggle off)
+ 48 MP camera		- Unwanted apps preinstalled
+ Cheap		- Fingerprint sensor position
+ MicroSD card expansion

I must say Xiaomi Poco M3 is a really great budget phone. It's slightly under SG$200 (for 4GB Ram and 64GB ROM) and if you add another SG$20-30, you can get the phone with 128GB ROM, which I think is quite worth it, especially if you're a heavy user. Alternately, you can choose to expand the storage with a MicroSD card, up to 512GB. This should be enough for most users.

However, do note that this is a budget phone and there will be trade-offs. You can't expect it to run like the high-end phone that cost twice or more. The Poco M3 works just fine as a day to day phone and qualify as an entertainment device, if you're into music, social media, dramas/movies and light gaming.

Check out Poco M3 on Amazon: Poco M3 Unlocked Cell Phone - International Version

Benjie Nuo Bi Xing v3 Audio Player Review

 

Nuo Bi Xing v3 audio player

Battery: 

500 mAh

(About 4.5 hours of music on loud speaker, volume 25/31)

Functions: 

FM Radio, music player, dictionary, 

voice recording, e-book, video player, 

image viewer, alarm, bluetooth

Audio Formats:

MP3, WMA, DRM, OGG, APE,
FLAC, WAV, ACC-LC, ACELP

Video and e-Book Formats:

- Not mentioned -

I just got fed up with the dual lightning adaptor for my iPhone! They just seem to stop working after like within 2 weeks, some get passed the 3 weeks mark but almost none made it pass the 4th week! It's annoying!

So I decided that I should just get an audio player, maybe a mp3 or mp4. I didn't do much of a research but I wanted something with touchscreen so I don't need to be pressing button after button just to get to a song I wanted to listen.

But mind you, audio players with a touchscreen and decent screen size (say 2" and above) are not that cheap. I mean if you get a "non-branded" one with buttons control, it'll cost you around SG$9-15 but a 2" touchscreen audio player can easily cost twice as much or more.

I just happen to come across this audio player from Nuo Bi Xing which cost only SG$16 during the 12.12 sales. It's selling under Shopee Mall and has a 15 days return policy whereby I can return it if I didn't like it. All fees to return the item are covered, so I don't need to fork out a single cent. So I thought, "Why not?".

Accessories 

There is nothing fanciful about the packaging - just a simple box with the accessories and player inside. Funny enough, I've a hard time finding any information about Nuo Bi Xing and when I turned the box around, I saw that it's actually under the company "Benjie" and the website provided is also that of Benjie. 

I headed over to the website only to find nothing about Nuo Bi Xing. The only product on the site which resembles the v3 player is the Benjie A36, which specs is much better. (better battery, built, material used and functions) But of course the price is also much higher.

However I'm quite impressed with the accessories included. There is the MicroUSB charging cable, a screen protector, a soft rubber casing and an OTG cable.

There is also a Product manual which is... not helpful at all. 

The Player

The player is surprisingly thick and heavier than I thought it to be. It's screen to body ratio also ... well, I've included the photo being shown on Shopee below, you can make the comparison yourself ... 

Image Source: Shopee.sg

It's obviously that the photo is misleading... and the screen is much smaller. What was advertise as 2.5" full touchscreen turned out to be a 2.3-2.4" screen with a thick border around. -_-"

The switch and volume button is on the right side of the device while the micro SD card slot is on the left. There is no information on how much capacity can this player takes up to, I've used a 32GB card and it works just fine. Tried a 128GB card, it detects the card but somehow it wasn't able to read everything on the card, so only half the songs are loaded. Weird

The 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port is on the bottom. The loud speaker is at the back of the player, which sometimes could be accidentally blocked.

The player can also be used as a flash drive or card reader for the microSD card. But mind you, it's read and write speed is quite slow.

Functionality and Performance

Touch Screen

I'll first start with the touch screen. It's pretty smooth in the main "home" menu, however it does gets a little laggy and less precise as you navigate deeper into the functions menus. (or is it my fat finger?)

The player doesn't have the function to scroll down by swiping, so when you need to scroll through a list of long items (say "All songs"), you'll have to use the arrows at the bottom of the screen to go through one item by one item. It's kinda inconvenient but at least it isn't laggy ... most of the time.

Image Viewer

The image viewer ... well, you know you cannot expect much from a player with LCD screen. The image are well, not appealing and some of the images are heavily pixelated. Not to mention that, you can't view the image full screen if you let the music run in the background.

Dictionary

If you get passed the small keyboard, the dictionary function is pretty cool. It function as a dictionary/English to Chinese translator and the pronunciation/read function is very handy. 

FM Radio

The radio works but it has quite a lot of interference, which is not exactly ideal for listening.

Voice Recording

Unfortunately the microphone doesn't pick up sound too well. I need to get quite close to have a clear and loud enough recording. 

e-Book Reading

I've managed to figure out the format which the device could recognise and it's the ".txt" format. There is 2 font size to choose from "Original" and the "Large". The large is really huge and should be clear for most people. However, you cannot drag and scroll by lines as you would on your smartphone, you can only do a page flip, so it may not be that ideal if you're using it to view lyrics.

Sadly, I didn't get to try the video function. I've tried varies format but wasn't able to find one that could work on the player. I also didn't try out the bluetooth as my only wireless earphone went missing -_-

Music Player and Sound Quality

The player seems to lack the ability to show lyrics or perhaps it's me not saving the meta tags correctly but anyway, I've not succeeded in getting the lyrics to show up in the player. You also cannot forward or rewind the song, it'll just play from start to end. There is however a really interesting function of AB repeating whereby you can set and loop a segment of a song.

The navigation can be quite a headache if you've a long list of songs. However, if you do fill up the meta tags of the songs correctly, you'll be able to filter by "Artist" or "Albums". Alternatively, you can also create a playlist. 

To be honest, the built-in loud speaker is not very impressive. It's a little on the dull side (lacking the boom factor in the bass) and also tends to crack at certain frequency especially on higher volume. (25/31) If the song gets "complicated", it tends to crack even more. 

The audio via the 3.5mm audio seems to be slightly better but when compared to the audio quality of the iPhone 7, it just seems to be duller and less energetic. The lack of boomy bass is also disappointing. 

Overall, the player is acceptable for the price but of course, if you want something better (or iPhone quality), you need to get something else. This player is not for bass-head. 

I almost got scam into giving my credit card details!!

It's really scary!

Ok, let's me explain why I find it so scary.

I just recently ordered an item on Carousell. The seller sent the item out 2 days before I've received the above phishing email. I actually believed what was written on the email and I did click the link, typed 1/3 or my credit card number... ...

But somehow, I suddenly remembered that the seller actually sent me a photo of the package prior to sending it out and she had got my address correct. I did double check so then the parcel couldn't be sent to the wrong address.

I did a quick search online and found out that this is a common phishing trick scammers use to get your credit card details.

I'm so glad I didn't fall for it... but then ... the scary part is ...

How the hell did they know that I'm anticipating a parcel? 

Is it coincidental or is it that somehow, they can see everything I'm doing? 

Rant: No accident is temporary

Image Source: EHS Daily Advisor

Today I am going to "talk" (rant) about accident... Wait, I think that is not specific enough... I'm actually going to talk more of the "make-do" attitude in safety measures.

There are many areas under construction in my neighbourhood. They're expanding the MRT lines and my neighbourhood was one of the lucky ones. However, for the same reason, our area have become more dangerous.

We've a lot of reroutes, uneven and narrow "temporary roads" and sudden blockages on the roads. And many of them, there are no signs or warning beforehand. It's definitely not very safe for cyclists and I've seen some elders struggle with their "push carts" on the uneven roads.

However, whenever, I talked about the various blind-spots and danger lurking areas in the neighbourhood, I always get this response "It's temporary". I even got similar respond from LTA when I feedback to them about one of the blind-spot.

So yeah, that is the attitude towards the safety of the pedestrians and cyclists. And that is SCARY to me. I mean, there is NO temporary accident or even deaths. It's not like someone will miraculously revive or heal just because its a "temporary measure". 

If something is dangerous, it is dangerous, it won't suddenly become "temporary safe".