Best Tech Under 30$ on Amazon— May 2019
Headphones — Samsung’s “tuned by AKG” (IG955)
ou may find these labeled “AKG headphones”, don’t be fooled by the marketing, they are tuned by AKG but manufactured by Samsung. (Note, AKG is a subsidiary of Harman-Kardon). That being said under 10$’s, right now they are 8$s, you could not find better all-round headphones. They are comfortable, well-built with braided cables, includes a microphone for calls, inline controls for music, and sounds (almost) excellent. They do great on the mids and highs, but sound flat on the low notes, pass on these headphones if your Spotify collection is bass heavy. Although the microphone does excellent indoors, it’s useless in a crowded environment. That being said, you can’t do better for the price. I’ve got 3 of these lying around in random places and I use them mostly in the office, I also don’t mind losing them :D
I’ll be giving away a pair of these, keep reading to see how you can win.
Smart Bulbs — Xiaomi Yee-Light II (Color)
These are 27$, 10 watts, smart Wi-Fi connected, color-changing LED bulbs which will plug into your standard (E26) sockets and really give the more expensive Philips Hue offering a run for its money. Unlike the Hue, Yee-lights don’t require an additional hub as it connects directly onto your home’s Wi-Fi router and you can organize and set them up using the Yee-Light mobile app. Out of the box, the Yee-Lights are compatible with both Google-Home and Amazon-Alexa. They don’t get as bright or dim as the Hue but I genuinely can’t see the need for one. I have had 4 Yee-Lights in my bedroom for 6 months now and have had 0 issues. The popular argument is dedicated hubs offer faster more reliable controls, but I disagree (Responsiveness of these lights are almost real-time). You can set cool scenes as well, but Hue bulbs offer the feature to change according to your music / movies, and this is a feature missing here.
If you’re not into the changing colors, the same bulb is offered in a single-color variant (Tunable white), for just under 20$ https://amzn.to/2Iijb6XIf I were to re-do my set-up I’d go for the tunable white ones instead.
Also, if you have never heard of Xiaomi as a company, they are known for producing incredibly high-quality electronics sporting a budget friendly price-tag. Their packaging is incredibly apple’esque and I can’t recommend their products enough.
Wall Charger — Anker PowerPort Atom PD1
This isn’t just any other charger it’s a 30W charger built into the footprint of a 5W charger. For comparison sake this is 40% the size of the 12” MacBook 30W charger. The reason it can be so small is because this replaces its silicone (Si) chipset with one built with Gallium-Nitrate (GaN). GaN is supposed to be 1000x more efficient at conducting electricity than silicone and this could really be a game changer, faster charging, greater efficiency, lower heat. Anker is at the top of their game here and I can’t wait to see manufacturers adopt this technology. Note: I haven’t noticed a change in charging speeds with my Samsung Note 9 except that the charger does always remain cool to the touch, but my wife’s iPhone charges about in half the time compared to her factory charger. Note: if you have a MacBook Pro, this just isn’t going to charge your computer as fast as the factory charger, and you should avoid it! It’s good for pretty much any phone, tablet (including iPad & iPad Pro), and ultra-books with USB-C.
For a chance to win the Headphones,
- Follow me on Twitter @TaHaque2
- Follow me on Medium https://medium.com/@tahaque
- Leave a comment on this article
…and I’ll pick a random winner at the end of May, and announce it on Twitter
