Tag Archives: Technology

Power Banks Make You Pick a Size, Trozk T3 Lets You Build One

Posted on by

Most power banks force a single decision at checkout: buy the huge one for peace of mind, or the tiny one for your pocket, and live with whichever tradeoff you picked. The Trozk T3 Module Power Bank refuses that choice entirely, building a charging system out of three separate pieces that snap together or peel apart depending on what the day actually calls for. Capacity becomes something you assemble, not something fixed at the factory.

Each piece plays a distinct role instead of just being a smaller copy of the whole. Module A holds the control button, the ports, and a charging cable that’s already built in, acting as the brain of the system no matter how many other pieces get attached. Module B adds a hefty 10,000mAh reserve for a full day of use, while Module C packs 5,000mAh into something closer to a lipstick tube than a battery pack.

Designer: Trozk

That size difference in Module C matters more than it sounds. On a day when a bag feels like overkill and a phone just needs a quick top-up before heading out the door, Module C alone plugs directly into a device without any cable dangling from a pocket. Add Module B back in for a commute or a work trip, and the same system scales up to 10,000mAh without buying a separate product for each scenario.

Stack all three together, and the full setup climbs to 15,000mAh, enough to get a phone through repeated charges during a long travel day or a weekend away from an outlet. Every configuration still charges at up to 22.5W over PD and QC fast-charging protocols, so swapping modules never means swapping down to a slower charging speed. The system scales in capacity without asking anyone to compromise on how fast a device actually fills back up.

Inside Module B and Module C sit automotive-grade 21700 battery cells, the same cell format used in electric vehicles, chosen here for the higher energy density that keeps output steady rather than tapering off as the charge drops. A flame-retardant PC housing rated UL94 V-0 wraps around that battery core, paired with overcharge, over-discharge, and short-circuit protection working together as a layered safety net rather than a single point of failure.

None of that hardware stays hidden behind a plain status light either. Module B carries an animated color display that shows total battery percentage alongside the status of each connected piece, turning what’s usually a boring number on a phone screen into something worth glancing at on a desk. Connecting different module combinations even triggers its own visual response, giving the display a bit of personality most charging bricks never bother with.

Owning one system that reconfigures itself changes how you think about packing a bag in the first place. Instead of choosing between a bulky charger you rarely fully use and a small one that runs dry too soon, the same three pieces cover both extremes and everything between them, snapping together only when the day actually demands the extra capacity.

The post Power Banks Make You Pick a Size, Trozk T3 Lets You Build One first appeared on Yanko Design.

Screens Got Louder, These 5 E-Ink Gadgets Went Deliberately Quiet

Posted on by

Screens have gotten loud, and most of them are fighting for the same six to eight inches of attention in your pocket. E Ink is quietly answering that fatigue by shrinking instead of growing, going deliberately narrow instead of chasing every feature possible. These five gadgets carry that spirit into pockets, fridges, and phone cases, each one claiming a job so specific that trying to be anything more would ruin it.

That range runs wider than you’d expect from a single display technology. On one end, a screen gets stripped down to nothing but page-turn buttons, refusing every upgrade that isn’t necessary. On the other, a screen becomes the front door to a full computer, complete with an app store and a voice assistant baked right in. Everything else in between quietly picks its own lane instead of trying everything.

Xteink X4 Classic

The X4 Classic doesn’t look like an upgrade so much as a refusal to change. It keeps the same 4.3-inch E Ink panel, the same button-only interface, and the same $79 price tag as before, resisting the urge to bolt on a touchscreen or a camera just because it could. What’s new sits underneath the shell: a reinforced magnetic backplate, a faster processor, and a noticeably bigger battery than before.

Designer: XTEINK

That combination changes how the device actually gets used day to day. The magnetic backplate snaps onto any phone case, MagSafe included, turning the X4 into a companion screen that rides along instead of competing for pocket space. Pull it off during a commute or a museum visit, and it fills the in-between minutes a phone usually swallows, no unlocking, no notifications, no excuse to open anything else at all.

BOOX Picco

Picco’s whole personality comes from how small it actually manages to be. BOOX shrank a real E Ink touchscreen down to 3.97 inches, closer in size to a stick of gum than an actual book, and paired it with a stripped-back Linux-based interface instead of the full Android build found on its bigger siblings, trimming away anything that would even slow that simple page-turn experience down.

Designer: BOOX

That shrinking act pays off the moment you actually try to carry it somewhere new and unfamiliar. Picco fits flat in a coat pocket or a wallet, slips into a bag without adding bulk, and swaps storage through a microSD card instead of locking you into whatever space came in the box. There’s no algorithmic feed hiding behind the home screen, just books, waiting patiently to be opened.

reTerminal Sticky

Sticky solves a problem every household already knows all too well: paper notes fall off the fridge, and group chats bury reminders under a dozen other messages before anyone actually reads them. Seeed’s answer is a display that magnets onto any metal surface in the kitchen, runs for up to a week between charges, and turns the fridge door into a genuinely shared notice board again.

Designer: Seeed Studio

Getting a note onto that screen doesn’t take any real effort at all these days. Press a button and speak, and Sticky transcribes it instantly, no typing on a tiny keyboard required. Anyone away from home can send a reminder remotely through the Seeedash app too, so a parent stuck at work can still get milk on tonight’s list without starting a whole text thread over it. And yes, it can read eBooks, too.

Flowtica Verso

Verso takes a completely different bet on where a small screen actually belongs these days. It’s a panel barely thicker than a couple of credit cards that clips onto the back of a phone, sitting quietly against a five-microphone array that listens through an entire meeting. By the time everyone’s packed up, it’s already turned that conversation into a clean, readable summary, no notebook required at all.

Designer: Flowtica

The same panel keeps working long after that particular meeting actually ends. Calendars and pending to-dos stay visible on that always-on e-paper face, readable even in direct sunlight where a phone screen would wash out completely. Battery life stretches to 72 hours, so it becomes less of a gadget and more of a permanent fixture riding quietly along on the back of a phone.

DuRoBo Krono

Krono sits at the opposite end of that whole spectrum entirely, and it doesn’t hide it. The 6.13-inch Carta 1200 display lives inside a mechanical-looking body built around a tactile Smart Dial that handles page turns, brightness, and volume with an actual click. Underneath all that hardware runs full Android 15, complete with access to the Google Play Store, a leap the other four devices here don’t attempt.

Designer: DuRoBo

That openness changes what a reading session can actually turn into. A built-in speaker and Bluetooth pull in music or a podcast between chapters, while an on-device assistant answers quick questions without ever breaking focus on the page. It’s the same E Ink material that Xteink stripped down to page-turn buttons, just handed every tool a full operating system can offer, closing the spectrum this list started with.

The post Screens Got Louder, These 5 E-Ink Gadgets Went Deliberately Quiet first appeared on Yanko Design.

Hisense E7SF packs MiniLED, 144Hz, and Fire TV into a seriously affordable big-screen TV

Posted on by

There used to be two ways to buy a TV. Go cheap and squint through a mediocre picture, or spend enough that your banking app sends a concerned notification. Hisense’s E7SF exists to blow up that choice entirely. It runs a native 144Hz MiniLED panel, Hi-QLED color, and as many as 260 local dimming zones, paired with Fire TV and Alexa+, across six sizes from 50 inches up to a genuinely massive 100. The 50 inch model has already been spotted selling for under $400.

That price point used to buy a TV that struggled in daylight and looked worse the second a game turned on. MiniLED is the technology that fixed most of that, and until recently it was reserved for sets that cost real money. Hisense’s approach over the past few years has been to move formerly premium display technology down the price stack faster than the rest of the industry, and the E7SF is that philosophy in its most direct form. The brand’s role as the Official Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and its standing as the number one brand globally in 100-inch and larger TVs gave it a huge stage this year, but the bigger takeaway is simpler: everyone now wants a bigger, brighter screen at home, and far more people can actually afford one.

Designer: Hisense

Click Here to Buy Now: $697.96 $799.99 (13% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

MiniLED backlighting replaces the standard LED array behind an LCD panel with a system that improves how light is managed across the screen and brings out more detail in every scene. More zones means tighter control over which parts of the image are bright and which go dark, producing better contrast, deeper blacks, and more vivid highlights across the panel. On the E7SF, that backlight scales to up to 260 dimming zones depending on the screen size selected. Hi-QLED color technology layers on top of that foundation, designed to keep every shade, scene, and skin tone looking true to life, rendering every scene convincingly real, just as the creator intended. The result is a picture that competes meaningfully with displays that cost significantly more just two or three years ago.

AI Picture runs continuously in the background, reading what’s on screen and instantly fine-tuning the picture so colors pop, details shine, and everything looks natural and clear, without any manual settings required. The E7SF supports Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+ Adaptive, HDR10, and HLG, covering every major HDR format, which brings brighter highlights, deeper contrast, and richer color in every scene no matter what’s on screen. Dolby Vision IQ adjusts the picture based on ambient lighting in the room, keeping the image calibrated whether the curtains are open or the lights are off. Filmmaker Mode preserves the original aspect ratio, color, frame rate, and sound so viewers watch movies exactly as directors intended. The full HDR stack future-proofs the set against whatever content the studios push out over the next few years, which matters more than any single format badge on the box.

Sports content gets dedicated handling, with the TV automatically recognizing sports content and adjusting picture and sound settings for the action, delivering smoother motion, clearer details, and boosted crowd audio that recreates the excitement of being in the stadium. Dolby Atmos handles the immersive audio experience more broadly, pulling picture and sound together so viewers see, hear, and feel like they’re right in the middle of the action. The E7SF carries a 20W 2.0 multi-channel system on the 50 to 85 inch models and steps up to a 50W 2.1 system with a dedicated woofer channel on the 100 inch. Bluetooth Audio rounds it out for wireless headphone setups, and the whole audio package scales sensibly with the screen size it’s attached to.

Native 144Hz on a TV at this price tier does real work, particularly in gaming, where many competing sets still pad the marketed refresh number through motion interpolation rather than delivering it natively from the panel. Two HDMI 2.1 ports run at full 4K at 144Hz, keeping the signal chain from a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X completely uncompromised. AMD FreeSync Premium matches the TV’s refresh rate to the connected graphics card, delivering reduced lag, minimized tearing, and fluid motion for a more immersive gaming experience. Dolby Vision Gaming and HDR10+ Gaming keep HDR active during play without requiring a manual mode switch. Game Booster 240 and ALLM, which switches the set into game mode automatically when a gaming device is detected, round out a feature set that sits well above what most TVs at this price level bother to include.

Hisense spent the World Cup cycle positioning itself as the brand for communal, big-screen viewing, and the E7SF still feels like the clearest expression of that idea after the tournament dust has settled. Fire TV manages the smart platform, with Alexa+ built into the voice remote for cross-app content search, smart home management, and watchlist sync, all handled through natural speech. Six sizes span from 50 to 100 inches, and a 100-inch MiniLED television at a mainstream price point is genuinely new territory. A screen that size used to require a custom installation budget. Now it’s an off-the-shelf decision. That shift is arguably the bigger story the E7SF is telling, and at the price Hisense is asking, it’s a hard argument to walk away from.

Click Here to Buy Now: $697.96 $799.99 (13% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

The post Hisense E7SF packs MiniLED, 144Hz, and Fire TV into a seriously affordable big-screen TV first appeared on Yanko Design.

Virtual Pet That Won’t Let You Waste Your Life Scrolling

Posted on by

Most of us know the feeling. You pick up your phone to check one notification, and forty-five minutes later you’re three hundred posts deep into content you didn’t choose and can’t remember. It isn’t a willpower problem so much as a design problem. The apps on your phone are built by teams whose entire job is to keep your eyes on the screen a little longer, and they’re very good at it. Screen time limits and app blockers try to fight that with rules, and rules are easy to ignore when nobody’s watching. That’s the real gap. We need something that makes the cost of scrolling feel immediate and personal, not a stat buried in a settings menu.

A YouTuber who goes by brenpoly figured out a clever way to do that, and it involves guilt-tripping you with a tiny plastic creature. The project is called PolyMO, and it works like a 90s Tamagotchi with a very different agenda. Feed it, talk to it, keep it company, and it thrives. Doomscroll for too long, and it gets visibly sick. Keep ignoring it, and it can die. If that sounds a little dramatic for a hunk of plastic and code, that’s kind of the point. Nostalgia is doing real emotional labor here, and it works because most of us who grew up with a Tamagotchi still remember the specific guilt of killing one.

Designer: brenpoly

What makes PolyMO worth paying attention to isn’t the emotional trick alone, though. It’s the engineering underneath it. The device runs on a cheap ESP32 board tucked into a friendly 3D-printed shell, paired with an Android phone that handles the heavier computing. Brenpoly calls it a split-brain setup: the phone quietly runs a local language model, a Whisper speech recognition model, and a Piper text-to-speech model, while the ESP32 manages the pet’s face, its animations, and the Bluetooth link between the two. None of it touches a server. Every conversation, every mood swing, every “my tummy feels yucky” moment happens entirely on your own hardware.

That detail matters more than it might seem at first glance. We’ve spent years handing our data to companies in exchange for convenience, often without thinking too hard about where it goes. A project like this refuses that trade entirely. There’s no subscription, no cloud account, no company harvesting your screen habits to sell you something later. You build it once, for around fifty dollars in parts, and it belongs to you in the fullest sense of that word.

The personality layer is where it gets genuinely charming. You can pick from a handful of pet moods, set quiet hours so it isn’t nagging you at 2 a.m., and even flip on a dark mode for the display. It’s a small, playful layer on top of something that’s actually addressing a real problem, and that balance is hard to get right. Too preachy and people abandon it in a drawer. Too cute and it does nothing. PolyMO seems to land in between, closer to a companion than a scold.

I don’t think a virtual pet is going to single-handedly fix anyone’s relationship with their phone, and brenpoly doesn’t claim that either. He’s been open about the fact that this comes on the heels of real conversations about social media addiction, including recent lawsuits that put the industry’s design choices under a spotlight. A device like this isn’t a cure. It’s friction, and sometimes friction is exactly what a habit needs to break.

What I appreciate most is that the whole thing is open source. Brenpoly posted the build files, the code, and the assembly steps on GitHub, so anyone with a soldering iron and a free weekend can make their own version, or tweak it into something better. That’s a very different model from the apps we’re trying to escape, where the incentive is always to keep you inside a walled garden. PolyMO hands you the keys instead. It’s a strange kind of comfort, being kept honest by something smaller than your hand and dumber than your phone. But maybe that’s exactly why it works.

The post Virtual Pet That Won’t Let You Waste Your Life Scrolling first appeared on Yanko Design.

103g Over-Ears That Actually Disappear Into Your Outfit

Posted on by

When I listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks outside my house, earbuds are usually my go-to. But sometimes I switch to headphones because they feel more immersive. I like the sensation of shutting out the world completely when I put a pair on. Plus, let’s be honest, they look cooler. My issue has always been that most headphones I’ve tried are heavy and uncomfortable, even the ones that sound noticeably better than my everyday earbuds.

StillFrame Headphones seem to solve that problem. At 103 grams, they’re one of the lightest over-ear headphones on the market today. The stainless steel headband and overall design give them a clean, minimalist look, with no logos, no exposed hardware, and no decorative flourishes anywhere on the frame. It comes across as a confident design decision, not a shortcut taken to cut costs.

Click Here to Buy Now: $245.00

StillFrame was designed by Tatsufumi Funayama as the third chapter in a series built around his philosophy of “Music in Every Way,” the idea that listening should be something you see and touch, not just hear. That mindset shows up in the shape itself. The squared-off audio housing sitting above round, fabric ear cushions echoes the quiet geometry of CDs from the ’80s and ’90s, and it shares a visual language with the ClearFrame CD Player, almost like a companion piece from the same era of music culture. The styling isn’t only for show, either. Resting on your collarbone or shoulders when you’re not wearing them, StillFrame doesn’t feel like a burden or look out of place. It was built to disappear into your outfit rather than stick out.

StillFrame also runs up to 24 hours per charge, so you won’t have to worry about low-battery anxiety if you forget your cable before heading out. The 40mm drivers deliver a wide, open soundstage, and you can toggle Noise Cancelling mode when you want to tune everything out or switch to Transparency Mode with a tap when you need to stay aware of your surroundings. It connects over Bluetooth 5.4 for a stable wireless signal, and it includes a USB-C cable if you’d rather plug in for high-resolution, low-latency listening. For calls, dual microphones with noise control keep your voice clear even in a noisy room.

One of my favorite touches is the ear cushions. They attach magnetically, so swapping them takes seconds and gives a satisfying little click when they snap into place. Every white model ships with an extra light gray pair and a turquoise pair, so you can match your headphones to your mood instead of settling for whatever color happened to be in stock.

It’s hard not to think of Sony’s WH-1000XM6 when a new pair of over-ear headphones shows up, since Sony has more or less set the standard for noise-canceling headphones for years. The WH-1000XM6 are excellent, with some of the best active noise cancellation available and about 30 hours of battery life. That performance comes at a cost, though. They weigh around 253 grams, more than double StillFrame’s 103 grams, and typically sell for $429 to $459. StillFrame, at $245, trades a bit of that top-tier ANC muscle for a headphone that’s dramatically lighter, more distinctive to look at, and still delivers real noise cancelling, Transparency Mode, and all-day battery life. If your priority is blocking out every bit of noise on a long flight, Sony still wins. But if you want something that feels effortless on your head and looks intentional even when it’s sitting on your desk, StillFrame makes a strong case for itself.

At the end of the day, the StillFrame Headphones aren’t trying to win a spec-sheet battle. It’s aiming for something more personal: a pair you actually want to be seen wearing, and one you don’t mind leaving out on your desk between tracks. For anyone who’s had to choose between “sounds great” and “feels light,” or between “looks minimal” and “looks cheap,” this might be the pair that finally doesn’t ask you to compromise. At $245, it’s priced like a considered upgrade rather than a flagship splurge, which makes it an easy recommendation for anyone ready to trade their earbuds for something with a little more presence and a lot less weight on their head.

The post 103g Over-Ears That Actually Disappear Into Your Outfit first appeared on Yanko Design.

A Speaker That Clips to City Poles and Leaves No Mark

Posted on by

Walk down almost any street in an American city without your headphones in, and you will notice how little of that walk actually belongs to you sonically. The traffic has its own noise, the storefronts have their looped playlists, and if you want communal music, you generally have to buy a ticket, walk into a bar, or wait for a permitted block party. Public space in this country is loud, but it is rarely shared, and shared sound almost always costs something.

That is the quiet problem sitting underneath Mariami Kurtishvili’s graduate thesis at Berlin’s Universität der Künste. Public sound, whether staged in ancient amphitheaters, Renaissance opera houses with their tiered balconies of privilege, or today’s private venues, has always been organized around who gets to listen and who pays to host the listening. In ancient amphitheaters, the best seats were reserved outright for the political and religious elite, a hierarchy of hearing built directly into the architecture. Building anything permanent on a public street, meanwhile, means permits, city approval, drilled holes, and money most students and artists simply do not have. So how do you hand a city communal sound without owning a wall, renting a stage, or damaging a single streetlamp?

Designer: Mariami Kurtishvili

Kurtishvili’s answer, developed under architect Gustav Düsing at UdK Berlin, is the Orchid Sound System, a set of stainless steel high frequency horns clipped onto galvanized steel buckles, the same kind used to hold together scaffolding or shipping crates. She presented the project, titled “Sound Systems: Building Sonic Territories,” as her master’s thesis in the design-build track this past October, advised by Düsing alongside Dr. Susanne Hauser and Julian Schubert. Instead of speakers bolted into walls or drilled onto poles, these horns wrap around whatever the city already has standing, light poles, traffic signal posts, exposed pipes, and hold on without a single screw or drill mark. When the installation ends, the pole looks exactly as it did before anyone arrived.

The name is not decorative. Epiphytic orchids grow on trees but never draw nutrients from them the way a parasite would; they simply use the tree as a place to exist, giving nothing back but their presence. Kurtishvili’s horns behave the same way toward a city’s infrastructure. They borrow a pole’s height and stability for a few hours, and in exchange they hand back sound, message, and a kind of temporary meaning to a piece of street furniture nobody usually looks at twice.

I like that the project refuses to be monumental. It would have been easy to design a sculptural, permanent object meant to announce itself as art. Instead, the horns are meant to disappear once the show ends, and the listening sessions Kurtishvili staged around Berlin worked because of that restraint. People did not gather to admire an object. They gathered because sound had, briefly, become public property again, attached to a pole a few dozen strangers happened to already be standing near, and that shared presence is exactly what she says the project was chasing.

Americans already understand a version of this instinct, the boombox on a stoop, the car stereo at a cookout, the speaker someone drags to the park. What Kurtishvili adds is intention, plus an actual design solution to the cost and damage those informal gestures usually require once you try to scale them into something organized. Nobody has to own the pole. Nobody has to rent a venue. The horns simply attach, perform for an evening, and disappear.

Whether the Orchid Sound System ever leaves the thesis stage for actual manufacturing is still an open question, and student design-build projects rarely make that leap cleanly. But the underlying claim, that a city’s existing bones can host culture without a single new structure being poured or permanently bolted down, is worth borrowing regardless of who eventually builds it. Public space keeps getting more commercial and more watched. A speaker that clips onto a lamppost, plays for a night, and vanishes without a trace is a small, hopeful answer to that drift.

The post A Speaker That Clips to City Poles and Leaves No Mark first appeared on Yanko Design.

Huawei FreeBuds Neo Review: Style, Comfort, and a Strong Feature Set

Posted on by

PROS:


  • Exceptionally comfortable fit

  • Great overall performance for the price point

  • Nebula Pink gives the design real personality

  • Pleasant, well-rounded sound

    CONS:


    • Some Huawei smartwatch features were not available during testing

    RATINGS:

    AESTHETICS
    ERGONOMICS
    PERFORMANCE
    SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
    VALUE FOR MONEY

    EDITOR'S QUOTE:

    The FreeBuds Neo are not about chasing flagship bragging rights. They are about getting the everyday essentials right, and doing it with a bit more style than most.
    award-icon

    Huawei has been on a bit of an audio expansion streak lately. It now offers everything from traditional in-ear earbuds to open-ear and clip-style designs, and the company has openly said it wants to become the number one audio brand. In many ways, it feels like Huawei is trying to repeat the kind of success it has already had with smartwatches, building out a wider ecosystem instead of relying on just one or two standout products.

    That bigger push has also made the lineup more crowded. On the in-ear side, Huawei already has the premium FreeBuds Pro, the comfort-focused FreeBuds, the more affordable FreeBuds i, and the entry-level FreeBuds SE. The FreeBuds Neo feel like the pair meant to fill the gap in between, offering something a little more polished and feature-packed without tipping too far into premium pricing.

    Designer: Huawei

    That alone makes them interesting. I went into this review with fairly high expectations because the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 are still one of my favorite earbuds for ANC and sound quality. The FreeBuds Neo are clearly not trying to play in that league, but they do feel like an important part of Huawei’s bigger audio plan, and a pair that could end up appealing to a much wider audience.

    Aesthetics

    The Huawei FreeBuds Neo brings a bit more personality than the usual square or pebble-shaped earbud case. The case has an elongated oval shape, almost like a small American football, which gives it a more distinctive look than most budget rivals. It feels a little more sculpted than the norm, while still fitting nicely in the palm.

    Nebula Pink is easily the most interesting finish in the lineup. Most of the case is a soft pink with a muted metallic sheen, while the bottom fades into a pale light green with a gentle gradient between the two. It adds more depth than a flat single-tone finish and helps this version feel less generic than the plainer Stellar Silver, Ice White, and Starry Black options.

    The earbuds themselves follow a familiar stem-based design, but the stems are relatively short, which helps them look tidier in the ear. They are finished in the same pink tone, with light green accents that tie in neatly with the case. In this color, the FreeBuds Neo feel more expressive than many affordable earbuds, while the other finishes are much more straightforward.

    Ergonomics

    The case is easy to live with. Its elongated oval shape sits nicely in the palm, and the smooth curves make it easy to slip into a pocket or small bag. It is compact without feeling fiddly, which is exactly what you want from something you will be reaching for throughout the day.

    The earbuds are also very light at just 0.17 ounces, or 4.9g, each, and that helps a lot with comfort. The short stems are not just there for looks. They improve weight distribution, so the earbuds feel more balanced in the ear instead of hanging downward like some longer-stem designs. The downside is that they are not quite as easy to handle when adjusting them or placing them back into the case, simply because there is less stem to grab.

    For me, these are among the most comfortable earbuds I have used. I actually found them more comfortable than the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5, even though that is the more premium model in Huawei’s lineup. The short stems make a bigger difference than expected, especially when lying back or resting your head to one side. On an overnight flight, I could lean against my neck pillow without them digging in or becoming annoying, which is not something I can say about every pair of stem-based earbuds.

    Huawei includes extra silicone tips in XS, S, and L sizes, which is about what you would expect for in-ear earbuds. The companion app also includes a tip fit test, which can tell you whether the seal is good or not. It is a simple feature, but a useful one if you are unsure about fit.

    Performance

    The FreeBuds Neo are tuned for easy everyday listening rather than showy first impressions. They sound clean, balanced, and generally pleasant across music, videos, podcasts, and calls. Vocals come through clearly, there is enough bass to give tracks some weight, and the overall tuning avoids sounding too sharp or tiring over longer sessions. They also support LDAC and Hi-Res Audio, which is a nice bonus on a pair of earbuds at this level, especially for listeners who want access to higher-quality wireless audio.

    The ANC is good for the price. It does a solid job softening the usual background hum of travel or public spaces, though it does not match the stronger, more complete effect you get from premium models like the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5. For everyday commuting or working in mildly noisy places, though, it is useful enough to make a real difference.

    Awareness mode works well too, and it feels genuinely useful rather than just included for the sake of it. I especially liked the voice mode within Awareness, which seems to let speech through more clearly. That made it easier to catch announcements or have a quick conversation without taking the earbuds out.

    Controls are another area where the FreeBuds Neo do well. Even with the short stems, gesture controls worked reliably for me. You get double tap, triple tap, press and hold, plus swipe up and down, which gives you a fairly complete set of controls without constantly reaching for your phone. Head controls are here too, letting you nod to answer calls or shake your head to decline them.

    Dual device connection is one of the more practical features. Being able to stay connected to two devices at once makes the earbuds much easier to slot into daily life, especially if you switch between a phone and a laptop or tablet. They also support Bluetooth 6.0, which helps keep the overall feature set feeling current.

    Huawei also says that if you have a Huawei smartwatch, you can control music playback from the watch, hear workout notifications through the earbuds while listening from your phone, and adjust settings like ANC and EQ from your wrist. In my testing, though, those extra features were not available with the Watch GT 7 Pro.

    Battery life is solid. Huawei rates the FreeBuds Neo for up to 10 hours with ANC off or 6.5 hours with ANC on, with up to 38 hours in total when you include the case. That should be more than enough for most people, especially since these are the kind of earbuds that will usually be topped up in the case between listening sessions anyway.

    Overall, the FreeBuds Neo gets the important things right. The sound is easy to enjoy, ANC is useful, Awareness mode works well, the touch controls are reliable, and dual device support adds real convenience. They may not feel as polished or as powerful as Huawei’s more expensive earbuds, but for everyday use, they offer a well-rounded set of features without becoming complicated.

    Sustainability

    Sustainability is not a major part of the Huawei FreeBuds Neo story. Huawei does not make any notable environmental claims here, and like most true wireless earbuds, they are built in a compact, sealed form that is not really designed for easy repair.

    The main durability point is the IP55 rating for the earbuds themselves, which adds some protection against dust and splashes. That should help them hold up better in daily use. As with most earbuds in this category, the best way to get long-term value is simply to take care of them and keep them in use for as long as possible.

    Value

    At £119.99 (approximately $160), the Huawei FreeBuds Neo sit in the middle of the market, but they offer a fairly complete package for the price. They are not exactly cheap, though they still come in below more premium earbuds, so the value is less about one headline feature and more about how well everything comes together.

    What you get is a strong all-rounder. There is good ANC, a useful Awareness mode, reliable gesture controls, dual device connection, LDAC support, and a design that feels more distinctive than many rivals, especially in Nebula Pink. In markets like the UK, Huawei is also offering a £20 discount before October 26, which makes them even more appealing.

    They may not be the first choice if you are only chasing the strongest ANC or the absolute best sound for the money. But as a stylish, comfortable, and easy-to-use pair of everyday earbuds, the FreeBuds Neo offer solid value and feel like a well-judged package overall.

    Verdict

    The Huawei FreeBuds Neo get a lot right for a pair of everyday wireless earbuds. They are comfortable, easy to use, and come with enough useful features to feel like a well-rounded option. The short stems, lightweight fit, and palm-friendly case make them especially easy to live with day to day.

    Nebula Pink also gives them more personality than most earbuds in this price range. Add in good ANC for the price, a useful Awareness mode, reliable gesture controls, dual device connection, and strong battery life, and there is plenty here to like.

    The ANC does not reach the level of Huawei’s more premium earbuds, but that is easy to accept given the price. Even so, at £119.99, or about $160, and less if you catch the early bird discount in some markets, the FreeBuds Neo are an easy pair to like and an easy pair to recommend for everyday use.

    The post Huawei FreeBuds Neo Review: Style, Comfort, and a Strong Feature Set first appeared on Yanko Design.

    Caviar’s $15,990 iPhone Duo contains a piece of Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck

    Posted on by

    Caviar is taking pre-orders for iPhone Duo starting at $15,990, well ahead of the official availability of the new phone form factor Apple unveiled earlier this month. Apple gave us a glimpse of its first foldable iPhone on September 9, with deliveries slated to start in mid-October. But Caviar already has a Jobs-inspired take on the iPhone Duo (as the foldable iPhone is called), and it’s really a peach to behold.

    For this one, Caviar has gone a little ahead of leather and other trims it usually uses for pimping up the smartphones, borrowing a scrap from Steve Jobs black turtleneck. Making it more than a collector’s item: a piece of historical significance that you would want to own as an Apple and Jobs fan.

    Designer: Caviar

    As you would have guessed already, this is not a run-of-the-mill creation. It’s a limited-edition build, and the company says only nine of these Jobs iPhone Duo editions will be made. Each of them will be made to order and will be shipped with a personalized international certificate of authenticity. Production of the iPhone Duo will start in the Caviar workshop only after the full payment has been received against the device. The order will then be fully crafted and completed by technicians before being dispatched your way within four days of your order.

    Caviar suggests its customized iPhone Duo is for collectors and those who appreciate artifacts and historic memorabilia. But if you’re a Jobs fan with a deep pocket, I don’t see why you would need another reason to get hands on this Duo engraved with the autograph of the man himself: Steve Jobs, if you will.

    Each iPhone Duo with Caviar antics will cost at least $15,990, almost eight times the price of the otherwise expensive iPhone Duo, which Apple confirmed it will sell starting at $1,999. A tribute to Jobs and his lasting influence on Apple as a company, the device wears a three-dimensional Apple logo in the middle of its back panel, while a fragment of Jobs’ black turtleneck sits on it.

    This rare detail is complemented by Jobs’ engraved signature in metal just below the letters reading 50 Anniversary Edition. The surface of the central panel is black in color and is made from PVD-coated titanium. The upper panel, the frame, and the decorative elements are made from polished titanium and feature guilloché engraving, Caviar notes.

    Caviar refrains from making any changes to the hardware of the iPhone Duo. So, despite the Jobs-inspired Caviar treatment, the phone still has the same (displayed) 5.4-inch Super Retina XDR screen on the outside and an inner display, which folds out to become a 7.6-inch slate. It’s the biggest display on an iPhone ever. The Caviar Jobs iPhone Duo comes with specially designed “Supreme Packaging.” This comprises a lockable outer case with 24K gold plating and a blue gift box made from leather and wood. It includes a Caviar coin plated with 24K gold.

    The post Caviar’s $15,990 iPhone Duo contains a piece of Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck first appeared on Yanko Design.

    Phone Photos of Materials Lie, This Scanner Reads the Surface Itself

    Posted on by

    Every designer has a folder full of phone photos that were supposed to capture a specific shade of oak or a particular matte finish, and every one of those photos looks wrong the moment it’s opened back at the studio. TRA:CE, a pocket CMF scanner concept, treats that failure as the actual problem worth solving: building a device that reads color, material, and finish directly off a surface instead of trusting a camera sensor to guess.

    The shape gives away the intention before you even use it. TRA:CE is a flat, coin-like disc with a glossy display on top and an optical scanner built into the bottom face, so the entire interaction comes down to setting it down and pressing a button. That’s a deliberate contrast to snapping a photo, which still depends on ambient light doing you a favor.

    Designer: Seongwook Jin

    Placing the disc against a surface and pressing the side button starts a scan, and a radiating animation on the circular display counts up as the sensor reads what’s underneath. That readout isn’t just a color value either. The scan captures material type, texture, and finish characteristics in the same pass, treating a swatch of oak or a painted panel as a full dataset rather than a single hex code pulled from a photo.

    That distinction actually matters once you’re standing in a furniture showroom trying to remember if a tabletop finish was satin or something closer to matte. Lighting shifts color perception constantly, but the scanner reads the surface directly rather than interpreting reflected light through a lens, which is exactly the inconsistency that photos and memory both fail at. A quick press replaces a mental note that would’ve degraded within the hour anyway.

    Every scan gets logged as a reference card in a companion app, breaking a single surface reading into HEX, RGB, LAB, and CMYK values alongside the closest Pantone or RAL matches. Material grain, pore size, and a numeric gloss reading round out the same card, so a design team pulling reference weeks later gets the same fidelity as someone standing in the room during the original scan.

    None of this asks a designer to change how they already work through a space. TRA:CE fits into a pocket, clips onto a bag, or hangs from a neck lanyard, so it’s present at a material library, a client’s showroom, or a job site without becoming another piece of equipment to remember. That kind of portability turns a scanner from a specialized tool into something closer to a pen, always within reach when a texture or shade actually needs capturing.

    Field notes about color have always been approximate, filtered through whatever light happened to be in the room and however well a memory held up hours later. TRA:CE swaps that approximation for a saved, measurable record, turning a fleeting glance at a material into something a design team can actually build from later.

    The post Phone Photos of Materials Lie, This Scanner Reads the Surface Itself first appeared on Yanko Design.

    The Clock That Works Like a Music Box, With Dice Instead of Bells

    Posted on by

    Most clocks either sweep hands around a dial or flash numbers on a screen, and neither option feels particularly satisfying to watch. OVODYO skips both approaches entirely, telling time with two rolling, dice-like balls that physically tumble into position every few minutes. It’s a clock built around a small mechanical performance rather than a passive glance at the wall.

    Each ball is shaped like an icosahedron, a 12-sided solid closer to a fat die than a sphere, with one ball dedicated to hours and the other to minutes. The hours ball carries all 12 hour marks across its faces, while the minutes ball splits into 5-minute intervals, so together the two objects can display any time of day using nothing but which face happens to be sitting on top at that moment.

    Designer: ekaggrat singh kalsi

    Getting those faces to land correctly took real mechanical problem-solving rather than a simple motor and a timer. A differential mechanism drives each ball forward in fixed increments, tumbling it forward until the correct face rotates into view, then holding it steady until the next update is due. Watching a rigid geometric shape tumble like a die and settle on the exact right face reads more like a magic trick than a timekeeping mechanism.

    Behind that motion sits a fairly modest set of electronics for what the mechanism achieves. An ATmega8 chip runs the control logic, paired with a pair of DRV8833 driver boards handling the stepper motors that push each ball forward. Three Hall effect sensors track motor position in real time, giving the system enough feedback to know exactly when a face has rotated into the correct spot and stop turning at precisely the right instant.

    It definitely wasn’t a walk in the park to get that precision. An early prototype of the mechanism suffered from rough printed surfaces and enough friction that the small motors struggled to turn the balls at all. Adding bearings to both shafts solved that problem, smoothing out the rotation enough for modest motors to reliably drive a solid printed ball without stalling partway through a cycle.

    Solving the mechanism turned out to be the easier half of the project. A later prototype had both balls fully working inside a plain, solid base built purely to test function, and it looked the part of a lab bench rig rather than an actual object worth keeping in a living room. That gap between working and looking finished pushed a redesign of the base itself, treating the enclosure as its own separate design problem once the moving parts finally behaved.

    That order of operations tells you something about what makes a project like this hold together. The mechanism has to work before anyone can judge whether the object looks any good sitting out in a room, and OVODYO nails the harder half first. A desk clock built on two tumbling dice sounds like a novelty right up until you watch it settle on the correct hour with mechanical certainty, at which point it just looks like the obvious way a clock should have worked all along.

    The post The Clock That Works Like a Music Box, With Dice Instead of Bells first appeared on Yanko Design.