These are my thoughts about the 2023 Xiaomi Poco F5 Pro.
On this page:
I bought the phone a few months after it was released and paid £409/€467/$508 directly on Xiaomi’s UK website (prices have since dropped).
If you use Docker on a Mac running Windows (BootCamp), you’ll eventually get the “Docker Desktop is unable to detect a Hypervisor” error.
For whatever reason, sometimes the hypervisor is disabled when we restart the machine. Even if you don’t restart it, Windows itself might do it to apply updates, so when you try to run it again, it won’t work.
The fix for this is simple: reboot to macOS and then reboot to Windows again by selecting the Windows “Startup Disk”. This will re-enable the Hypervisor allowing Docker to run without problems.
Since this is likely to happen again, you need to have physical access to the machine or remote access to both Windows and macOS in order to re-enable the hypervisor.
I changed phones this summer. I got a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and my trusty OnePlus 8 Pro went to my father. He was using my old OnePlus Nord, but after two years it was getting to the point where wear and tear was apparent. He drives for Uber, the display is ON for hours almost every day, the phone is always charging… you get the idea (this is the screen burn-in, even system icons are there [WTH OnePlus?]).
With the phone he also received some of the accessories I had. I do most of my work on a desk, so I don’t need a lot of protection on a phone. My cases (mostly for grip) were thin and the screen protector – when used – was one of those soft plastic ones which are good enough for scratches, but don’t do much against big hits. It’s also hard to find a good rigid screen protector for a curved display that doesn’t lift, doesn’t affect gestures, and covers the whole display, so I always avoided them. He needs more protection than me though, so after looking around we managed to find a kit with a screen protector + glue + UV light and ordered it.
Unfortunately the hard plastic screen protector and ticker case I ordered from AliExpress took longer than expected to arrive and on a cold, rainy day his phone fell from his coat pocket while leaving the car:
The hit shattered the top left corner of the display. While the display and touch was still working, there was a few cracks right on top of the camera and one long circular one that goes from the top left to the middle left part of the display (not very visible on the picture above).
With my sister going to university, we both agreed that it would nice to have a small fridge in the room she’ll stay in. Something small and low noise with enough space to keep a drink (or something like that) cold.
There are many options out there, from proper refrigerators with a lot of space, to very small ones where we can only fit a 33ml can. We ended up getting a Subcold Classic4, which has enough space to store 6 cans inside or “4 litres” of space and should be enough for what she’ll use it for.
I should mention that there are other very similar mini fridges and that this isn’t the cheapest one available. I paid £39 GBP on Amazon UK, (same price on eBay UK, but refurbished costs £30 on the brand’s store) there’s also the AstroAI Mini Fridge 4 Litre that currently costs £34. I didn’t have time to wait for the delivery, but on Aliexpress we can find alternatives like the VEVOR 10L Mini Fridge which looks nice and costs £40 (also a little bit larger) or a very similar copy of the Subcold Classic4 for just £34, although I don’t know if it works as well. Anyway, my point is, there are many similar products to choose from.
Among the reasons we picked the Subcold was its ability to cool and heat up. Another thing that caught my attention was the ability to run from a USB port. I wasn’t sure about how well it would do on that mode, but it’s nice to be able to run it with a powerbank. I think some of the others can also do this as long we have the cable, but they don’t promote it or include the cable. They’re usually sold as something that needs to be plugged into the wall or a car’s 12v socket.
This thing is so simple that there isn’t much to say about it, but a few points:
Regarding the noise, how audible it is will depend on what’s around the fridge, how close we are to it, and if we’re easily annoyed by these low noises or not. It’s probably not something I’d want to have next to my bed, but it’s probably fine a few meters away.
I’ll just say that they probably could have done better. The fan seems to be similar to what we can find on a computer tower and those can be pretty quiet. I’m not going to upgrade it, but yeah, it could be better.
