Last updated: Tue Jan 20 11:32:10 AM UTC 2026

device reviews

this is for notes on various devices i have used over time, most because enshittification robbed us of any organic notes

googling for something you will just get advertisments or stupid opinions

like I just check what xah lee thinks, cause I might disagree with him, but at least it is organic

so, these are human written notes. noting here my favourites, and least favourites and anything in between that I either am using or recall using

digital audio players

s1 mp3 player (~2005-2008) - ?

my first mp3 player, forgot the exact brand, but now I know this was an s1 mp3 player like all budget mp3 players in late 2000s

it was exciting and fun but i was a child, so cannot judge. it had whooping 2 gigabytes of storage and supported mp3s. fun times.

sansa clip+ (~2014-2015, 2023-now) - ~$40

probably the best portable music player ever made. compact, unpretensious, just works sorta deal. nice sounding DAC, very smooth sort of warm sound (not scientific, just guessing lol)

supports rockbox, battery decays really slowly, but it does at some point. my current one, which was bought used (the one from 2014 i lost quite quickly regretably) still can do multiple days of usage completly fine.

sd card support is also pretty good, it glitched out once, but it was due to a buggy Rockbox version

sound quality is very good, nothing really to complain about, the only complaint is that there is nothing to replace it and people are slowly learning about it which raises the price which sucks

my has a small issue where backlight stops working but bending ti a bit diagonally fixes it which is nice

but i see slowly that dap people are figuring out new things, so maybe when mine dies i'll get something sensible

iPod Mini 2nd Gen, Nano 3rd - ~2021 - free,$30

i tried these out of curiosity. very sterile DAC, probably great reproduction but needing to fight with either Apple/iPod related software makes it way too much of a faff for me. but they do look good and it feels very cool to mod an ipod mini. gave it to my ex

Famue BF01 - (2025) - $50

i bought this one out of curiosity as i am both into e-ink and mp3 players

sadly, its not very good. fascinatigly, it has same type of chipset (action semiconductor) as ancient s1s, just a modern version

very jittery sound (i mean it sounds okay if you are not sensitive), bluetooth, but the ui is very slow, and eink screen is also not very good

tag support is still on the level of original s1s, so it takes bunch of tag data and just messes it up with splitting it at 10 character point

just not really worth anyones time, but made me appreciate clip+ more

phones

here I am only mentioning these which had some meaning to me, I generally hate smart/phones and the fact they are part of our daily life

i had some other more boring androids in between, but really these things have no personality so nothing worth writing about

SPV C500 - (~2010)

had bubbles game - very cool

Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman - ~(2014)

my first smartphone, remember it very fondly, but nothing really interesting to say about it, just early smartphone coolness

Nokia N9 - ~(2015)

Strangely enough I got into getting strange phones very early. Nokia N9 was an awesome device that we still see marks of today. MeeGo was a nice Linux based OS, and had terminal and everything.

bunch of dumbphones - ~(2017-2020)

I quit smartphones when I started university. Before the analog fashion, hence I probably messed up, but messing up is my nature

All were pretty much S1 equivalent

the only exceptions were KaiOS Nokias, but I am going to be open - KaiOS was one of the worst phone OSs ever created and was half-assed from the start. absolute waste of time. i hate unresponsive UIs.

Unihertz Jelly 2 - (2021-2025) - $160

very cool tiny smartphone, it was very tiny, and allowed me to integrate into society without getting enmeshed into bullshit

everyone treated it as conversation piece but it was very nice and allowed to kept stuff

so why do i not use it now. no software support. none whatsoever. even hackers do not really care about it. sadly people who are into minimalist phones buy like 6 phones every year. addiction replaces addiction. i just don't like phones man

[iPhone SE 3rd gen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhoneSE(3rd_generation) - (2025-now) - $140

after dissapointments of Jelly 2 i have decided to step onto the dark side.

apple is a shifty company that will do anything to take your money. it's really fascinating to step into that ecosystem

but it's a well polished phone with extremely short battery, especially after newest iOS upgrade. it's a great device for keeping your goverment spyware as it is pure spyware and shows how open you are to spyware. do not plug it in anywhere besides power banks.

i hope this is my last phone. hope is always good.

it was exciting to have a normal phone for like 2 months, but since it is just a liability with it discharging, but GPS works real well

laptops/pcs

toshiba satelitte ~490cdt - 2005-2006

my first laptop, it did run heroes of might and magic 2. a lot of fun, i programmed pascal on it. god were computers fun when you were a child

noname 266 mhz pentium 2 pc - 2006-2007

it could run tony hawk pro skater 3 badly and an early MAME emulator

noname pcs/built ones - 2007-2012

pure guessing here, were okay pcs, i just played games and modded games there and enjoyed the lovely days of windows xp and windows 7

netbooks - 2012-2014

for some reason last of the pcs died and i moved to a netbook. still had a fun time

Lenovo Thinkpad X220 - 2014-2017,2023-now (sporadically) - ~$100

god, what an epic laptop

probably the most epic laptop of all time

it never dies (besides the one that died)

my first real linux device (besides a compal laptop that had terrible ATI drivers)

same as sansa clip+ i wish they just kept making this one and update the motherboard.

the only case of me downgrading the laptop and now it is my poland laptop

honestly, don't buy it so you don't raise the prices

but god, is it a nice machine, nice keyboard, awful dac, truly a machines machine

Lenovo Thinkpad X230 - 2017-2022 - $120

it just thinkpad x220 2 but worse

i destroyed one of the screws opening it up so often

may it rest in pieces

Dell optiplex 7040 - 2020-2023 - $160

my first usff pc, and honestly, great computer. matter of fact, i am writing this on a machine that has same cpu at this one

the disk controller died in 2023 so maybe not that great

Lenovo thinkentre m700 tiny (2023-now) - $20

bought an empty unit with no motherboard

put in innards from dell optiplex, saving money and keeping my setup working

it also just works

annoying bit is the m.2 slot which is NOT nvme. very infuriating, but hey

this thing works and eats up all the dust

Lenovo Thinkpad X13 gen 2 (2025-now) - $120

Just a dissapointing machine. It works, but after X220 it is just a sad sad sad machine.

I really do not see any serious computing done on laptops until somebody figures out to do 2012 level of manufacturing.

e-readers

kindle paperwhite gen 7/iii - 2016-2025 - gifted

one of the best gifts i ever got - given it to dad

jailbroken and installed koreader in 2020, only missing thing was buttons really

very good battery, and after jailbreaking, very good software

pretty much perfect

kobo elipsa 2e - 2025-now - $300

decided to upgrade for reading philosophy, still sadly missing pageturn buttons

but being able to do notes using added pen is very nice, and i still want to test more advanced features, but that will be done in due time

not sure still if i would recommend it over paper books though

peripherals

just here keeping notes of things which I either use now, or were of memory,

monitors

nec multisync ea244WMi - 2015-now - $80

very good monitor, been using it for past 10 years its very good 10/10

speakers + earphones + headphones

Presonus Eris E3.5 - 2024-now

before getting this one i was using retro stereos towers, and frankly, these work pretty much at same quality with much less bulk, so i am happy

of course they are not as good as one technica set i've had, but i do not have space for such bulk in my life

Venture Electronics Monk - 2015-now - $10

I have used a lot more expensive ones, but these pretty much beat anything in terms of 'just werks'. They are very light, good enough for me.

I think the best electronics are always these which are impossible to really upgrade

keyboards, mice, trackballs

Filco Majestouch 2 - 2021-now - $110

I know some people nerd out on keyboards extremely. I used some very nerdy keyboards (at friends places, not mine), and frankly, once again - this one is good enough for me. It seems to be a tank, and pretty much resists most daily damage.

But keep note, I do not even recall what switch type do I have

Microsoft Pro Intellimouse - 2024-now - $40

Frankly, this mouse has replaced and has been more reliable than all of my previous pointing devices.

My previous pointing devices (to put them quickly):

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