Inmotion V10

So I got my Xiaomi M365 e-scooter a few months, and it quickly started to show quite some disadvantages. The most annoying was the weak motor : going up some long hills quickly forced me to step off as the e-scooter came to a grinding halt. The autonomy was low which required a daily charging session of 4 hours. Another issue was the bulky form factor which made the transportation on the train a bit cumbersome. And last but not least : an e-scooter still looks like a childs toy. I know I'm a grown-up child, but that doesn't mean I want to shout it out to everyone.

In the mean time, I've encountered some information on monowheels: they are single wheeled devices with pedals on the side. It looks quite daunting to use one, but when I received my Inmotion V10, I was immediately sold. This kind of device is really revolutionary : powerfull motor, great range and looks. It is compact enough to easily take it on the public transport, and has a maximum speed of 40 kph.

It however took me quite a few days to learn to ride this thing : only after a week with a daily exercise session of half an hour, things finally 'clicked' inside my head, and a week later, I found myself confident enough to ride in traffic. So a steep learning curve indeed, but when you persist, the reward is immense : riding this thing feels like you're flying !

M365

No, this isn't a post about Microsoft, judging by the title. I'm talking about the Xiaomi M365 electric step. I've been looking lately to use my car way less, partially due to the fact that parking space is very limited at the train station. Getting fines for not parking at designated places surely doesn't help either. It took me a while to obtain a M365 before summer, but eventually I got it. The e-step has an autonomy of 20km (in my case), and this just suffices for the round-trip from/to the station. The step has a maximum speed of 25km/h, which is 'acceptable' : I would have preferred a bit faster, as taking over bikes sometimes takes a while.

This e-step is quite high-tech : it features cruise-control, ABS and KERS, which makes me hardly use the brakes. Cruising at 25km/h really is a blast, and I have really become quite fond at my daily ride with it. Additionally, it allows me to explore different routes, is more versatile than a bike, and can be taken with me on the train (although the size, even when folded, is quite large).

There's a quite active group of 'developers' around this e-step, creating custom firmware which allows to change different parameters such as maximum speed or KERS control. I've tested out a few, but additional speed comes with too much impact on the battery, so that I decided to stick with the official firmware.

Oneplus 5T

I'll take back anything I said about the Xiaomi Mi Mix. Well, at least about the slippery part : 5 months after my purchase, I placed the mobile phone onto a pile of papers on my desk. Five minutes later, it must have seen it wasn't 100% horizontal placed, and decided to go for a walk. Fell on the floor, cracked screen. This thing *is* slippery as soap.

I still find the design of the phone the most beautiful I've ever seen, and the large screen just is gorgeous ! But you cannot use this phone without a cover, and that just breaks the beauty of the phone. That, in combination with the fact that mobile reception is zero without band 20 support, and the fact that putting a light sensor at the bottom of the screen is just irritating, were enough reasons for me not to reorder another Mi Mix again.

I've switched to a Onplus 5T as a new phone. The design just pales in comparison with the Mi Mix, but the development support is fantastic, and my Oneplus One was brilliant. I hope I'll can say that again within 3 to 4 years about the OP5T.

The bezelless beast

I'm using my Oneplus One phone since 3 years, and my god, what a pleasant device this has been. And also a testimony to the rise and fall of Cyanmod Inc. It is currently the most used device with LineageOS, and will probably the first one to receive LOS15. People were laughing 3 years ago with OnePlus 'flagship killer' theme, but now, 3 years later, new mid- and highrange phones still carry 3 GB of RAM. So finding a worthy replacement was hard.

As I commute by train nowadays, I wanted to breach the 6 inch barrier to have a nice big screen, and battery life was extremely important. To make the jump from my Oneplus One reasonable, it should have at least 4GB of RAM. And only 2 devices seem to fit the above : the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 and the Mi Mix. I was lucky that the Mi Mix 2 was announced, as most webshops were dumping the Mi Mix at affordable prices. I quickly ordered one, and received it some weeks later.

This device has a surprisingly low footprint, as it's not much larger than a 5.7 inch phone, so it's quite portable. The ceramic glass is slippery, but not the bar of soap most of the web reviews make of it. The real problem is that the phone is slippery and heavy, so I'm a bit reluctant to use it without a case. Luckily, it comes with a nice leather premium case as well. The screen is fantastic, and it really is the star of this mobile phone. Viewing angles are great, vibrant colors, and nice outdoor readability.

So fantastic hardware, what about the software ? It came to my surprise with an unlocked bootloader, and with the MIUI Global ROM installed. TWRP installation was unsuccessful, as the touchscreen didn't worked, and I had to install a customized TWRP in order to get it working. Quite shocking, and being used to the openess of OPO, rather an unpleasant experience. I quickly installed the Xiaomi.EU ROM, as it sports full Dutch language support, and decided to try out MIUI during a week. MIUI is something people either love or hate, and after one week of usage, I must admit I fall into the latter group. I kept loosing myself into the settings screens, and could not live with the MIUI quirks. Especially notifications - you must enable notifications per application in 3 different settings screens - madness ! Notifications are broken in MIUI, but I'm convinced they are broken by design, to maximize battery life. And gosh, battery life is really impressive. I got 9 hours SOT with 3 days on a single charge with medium to heavy usage.

After a week, I wiped everything in favor of LineageOS. So, what do you loose when installing LOS onto the Xiaomi Mi Mix ? Battery life, camera functionalities and reduced fingerprint scanner accuracy. I guess I've lost 2 hours of SOT, while still having 3 to 4 days on a single battery charge with medium usage. Still impressive. Camera has lost 4K recording and slow-mo, though some camera mods re-enable them. LED seems brighter on LOS than in MIUI. Fingerprint scanner is slower and misses more scans - I regularly need 2 to 3 attempts to unlock the device.

So far, I'm really happy with the Mix. A tad too heavy, but really beautiful, and with lots of custom ROM support. After the Galaxy Nexus, the Oneplus One, the Xiaomi Mi Mix will be again a legendary phone I will enjoy using.