Two years ago, in What Are Your Recent Gadget Purchases? I braggadocio-ly wrote about the gadgets I bought on a trip to the UK, all of which I still use, except the Amazon Echo Dot and the Samsung Galaxy A25 cell phone I’m about to sell. More on that later…
Cell Phones
I’ve had a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra since August 2020, and it’s been faultless – until I dropped it! As a result, it’s developed an annoying vertical green line.
I was very surprised because the Spigen Tough Armor case is supposed to protect it from drops. Anyway, I’ve been considering upgrading for some time because it can no longer be updated, and last week I saw a 53% discount on a new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, so I snapped it up.
The new S25 Ultra runs the latest Android 17, One UI 9, has 5G, 512GB of storage, and 12GB of memory, so it’s quite a beast! My Note 20 only receives security updates now and is only 4G, but it’s worth repairing, so I took it to a specialist the other day. Once it’s fixed, I’ll give it to my wife because the Galaxy A25 we bought a couple of years ago is crap and keeps dropping off Wi-Fi, so we’ll sell it. Also, she’s not bothered about gadgets with all the bells and whistles, unlike me, so it will suit her just fine. Anyway, it has 256GB/8GB, a fast processor, and a lovely 6.9″ screen, so she’ll be good. I also have a Galaxy Note 8, which I decided to keep as a backup and generally use it to stream YouTube music through the JBL Flip 7, which my wife bought me for my birthday in June – that’s instead of using the Amazon Echo Dot, which I have now disconnected because it used to drive me nuts with its stupid Alexa announcements.
Some Night Reading
My wife likes to read before going to sleep, but the bedside light drives me nuts, even though I fitted the dimmest bulb I could find.
Anyway, yesterday I spotted an Energizer Book Lite and handed it to her just before turning in. I was impressed and was in the land of nod in seconds. This morning she said it was brilliant, so that’s a result!
My New RX 9070 XT GPU Is A Year Old!
I can barely believe that the Gigabyte Aorus graphics card is a year old in my system and it still performs superbly. It has a very efficient cooling system and never goes above 65C in any game I play.
I don’t plan any major computer upgrades in the near future due to the prices as a result of AI, but someday I will have to upgrade from AM4 to AM5, which will be an expensive business. Watch this space!
—
