Editor’s note: Many readers are curious about what the editors of SSPAI actually buy in their daily lives. Through “Editorial Team’s New Gadgets,” we hope to introduce the novel products that editorial team members have been using recently, and let them talk about how these new gadgets actually perform in use.
Content statement: If the “New Gadgets” column contains commercial content, the corresponding entry will be marked “Advertisement”; if marked “Provided by manufacturer for review,” it means that although the product was not purchased at the editors’ own expense, the content was not interfered with by the brand. The editors’ sharing is for reference only. Everyone is welcome to share their experience with the same products in the comments, whether positive or negative—we welcome candor. When posting, please follow the SSPAI Community Rules, express yourself civilly, and chat happily.
@WhaleFish: Cuktech No. 6 Power Card Air Three-Body Collaboration Edition
- Reference price: 127.71 yuan
During the National Day trip, I brought a three-port charger that I had grabbed from a holiday gift box I received at the company. But its huge size and weight of around 200g really had nothing to do with “portability,” and on top of that, it fell off the wall outlet several times, so I finally decided to buy a thin, light, and portable charger to replace it. After a quick selection, I ordered the Cuktech No. 6 Power Card Air Three-Body Collaboration Edition, and unexpectedly, it turned out to be quite a bit better than expected in actual use.
The nice-looking packaging box is on the left
First, the appearance. The collaboration edition uses a translucent design, and the shell is decorated with patterns of the Three-Body Problem and the dual-vector foil. Through the shell, the internal components can be faintly seen, giving the whole thing a strong futuristic tech feel. The collaboration patterns blend naturally with the translucent white shell. Even if you are not a fan of the books, you do not need to worry that the collaboration patterns will look out of place—buying it purely for this translucent design is completely justifiable.
Its functionality is also quite strong. It has 2 Type-C ports and supports output power of up to 90W, which is basically enough for charging phones, tablets, watches, and other devices on short trips. When using the C1 port alone, it can deliver output power of up to 65W, so temporarily charging a laptop is no problem either, and it supports AVS fast charging—the iPhone 18 Pro series can charge to up to 50% in 15 minutes.
What satisfies me most is definitely its size. The front area is a circle smaller than a bank card, and the thickness is only about 1.5cm. With the prongs folded, it can easily fit into all kinds of small bags, and even if you just stuff it into a clothing or pants pocket, it will not look bulging. More importantly, being thin and light does not mean it easily loosens when plugged into a wall outlet—in daily use it also hangs steadily on the socket, so you do not need to worry that it will fall off at any moment like the previous charger. Its weight of around 80g has even less noticeable presence, and carrying it every day basically imposes no burden. A few days ago, we followed Lao Mai to the Manana Park event. When a colleague borrowed a charger, I pulled this “power card” out of my thin little bag, and the colleagues around me were all amazed. In that instant, I even thought of the classic scene of Steve Jobs pulling the MacBook Air out of a kraft paper envelope back then.
Now I am willing to carry it out with me every day. Only if it looks good, works well, and is easy to carry does it have a chance to come in handy when truly needed.
@waychane: HomePod mini 2
- Provided by manufacturer for review
I got the HomePod mini 2 in advance, so I will briefly talk about the experience.
Compared with the previous generation, the HomePod mini 2, updated after six years, has quite a few changes in terms of specifications: the chip jumps from S5 to S10, the Wi-Fi connection specification of the China-market version is upgraded from the previous generation’s 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) to 802.11ax, that is, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth is upgraded to Bluetooth 6.
But in terms of experience, the improvements of the HomePod mini 2 are actually not very obvious. Speaking of the most core audio streaming capability, even calculated according to uncompressed 24-bit / 48 KHz two-channel audio, only about a few Mbps of throughput is needed, and after actual use of ALAC encoding the requirement is usually even lower. Therefore, I think the upgrade in wireless connection specifications of this generation of HomePod mini 2 can be regarded as a routine hardware iteration and will not have an obvious impact on the daily experience.
According to the information given on the official website, the HomePod mini 2 still uses a full-range driver unit + dual vibration-canceling passive radiators, and the internal speaker architecture should not have changed. The S10 chip, which is related to computational audio and voice processing, thus becomes an important factor affecting the listening experience. From my actual listening, I think the gap between the two generations of HomePod mini is extremely close. The HomePod mini 2 reaches a bit deeper in the bass and has a slightly better sense of envelopment in the vocals, but when listening to music daily you will hardly feel the difference. One rather regrettable point is that this generation of HomePod mini, like the previous generation, still does not support spatial audio.
A more core change is that after upgrading the device to version 27.2 of the system, the latency of using the HomePod mini 2 through AirPlay has been greatly improved. Whether playing local audio files, listening to Apple Music, or watching streaming content in Safari, the sound latency can be ignored; even when repeatedly dragging the timeline in editing software, the sound can keep up with the operation. This is also why Apple says the HomePod mini 2 can be used as the default audio source for a Mac.
However, this is not a capability exclusive to the HomePod mini 2. After actual testing, even on my first-generation HomePod, the latency performance when playing the same content is extremely low and no different from that of the HomePod mini 2. I can only say that the first-generation HomePod is still too strong.
In terms of other functions, version 27.2 of the system also adds Sound Halo and Lock Controls. The former allows the light on top of the HomePod to present colorful animations according to the music cover and playback content, while the latter can turn off the top touch controls for playback, track skipping, and volume, avoiding children, pets, or daily accidental touches interrupting playback. However, these two are likewise not entirely exclusive to the HomePod mini 2: the first-generation HomePod mini and the second-generation HomePod both support Sound Halo, and Lock Controls even covers all models including the first-generation HomePod.
Finally, a purchasing suggestion: as can be seen, the HomePod mini 2 does not have much new in the daily experience. If you are already using a HomePod mini 1 or a second-generation HomePod, there is actually no need to rush to upgrade. Of course, as an Apple smart home hub and speaker product with a relatively low threshold and a sufficiently complete experience, if your main need is to control smart home devices, or to add one or two relatively compact speakers in spaces such as the bedroom or study, the HomePod mini 2 is undoubtedly the more reasonable choice at present.
@Microhoo: Sonos Beam Ultra
- Reference price: 6013 yuan (after Double 11 coupon)
What has always attracted me most about Sonos is that it has built a complete modern audio system. It is just that for a long time in the past, the “system” was more like an implicit bonus that came with buying the speakers, rather than the point. Not long ago, Sonos officially named its underlying architecture the “Sonos 27” audio operating system. This move actually attracted me quite a bit. I think it means that the “audio system” is no longer just an additional feature of Sonos products, but has become the core purpose of Sonos in creating a product.
Among the two first-launch new products unveiled simultaneously with Sonos 27, besides the over-ear headphones Sonos Ace Ultra, the other is the compact soundbar Sonos Beam Ultra. This generation has made quite a few upgrades in hardware and ease of use—in addition to acoustic specification upgrades, this time it also adds a USB-C port on the back that can connect external audio sources such as vinyl records, and Trueplay also supports “quick tuning,” which is more friendly to Android users.
This played right into my hands, because the first-generation Sonos Arc I have on hand has already become a bit “unusable.” The Arc itself has no problems; the main issue is that it has been with me for almost six years, and over these six years the Apple TV and game consoles in the living room have gone through several rounds of replacement. I’m not sure whether it’s because cross-brand HDMI handshake protocols have gradually developed a generation gap through constant iteration, but recently it occasionally disconnects from the TV when powered on, and I have to unplug and replug it or restart it to recover. The second reason is to optimize the countertop space of the TV cabinet—over the past few years the countertop has gradually filled up with an Apple TV, a Switch, a wireless AP, and a PS5, and the Arc, which is over a meter long, lying across the middle really feels cramped. I’ve always wanted to lighten the load on the countertop and switch to a more streamlined product.
Actually, when I bought a soundbar years ago, I had already agonized over choosing between the Arc and the Beam. At the time I always felt the Beam didn’t have enough channels and lacked physical height channels, so in the end I gritted my teeth and chose the Arc with richer channels. When I first switched down from the over-a-meter-long Arc, I was somewhat worried whether the Beam Ultra, with its reduced size, would be able to punch its weight, but after using it for a while, the actual listening experience hasn’t degraded. Thanks to the 9 drivers packed into its compact body, it can achieve 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos even on its own, and its built-in bass is much more solid and warm than expected; the vertical sound field supported by 2 physical height channels is quite expansive; plus the redesigned center channel and AI voice enhancement technology, when watching movies with heavy background scores, even in dynamic mixing passages, the actors’ dialogue remains clean and clear.
Some thoughtful features I’ve gotten used to are all there too, such as the “Night Mode” that’s good for neighborly harmony when watching movies at night—the system lowers loud sound effects like explosions while appropriately raising quieter sounds, making dialogue easier to hear when watching at low volume. Overall, although it’s a “model downgrade,” there’s no difference in the user experience, and in some specific scenarios there’s even a slight improvement, so if you’re like me and are upgrading from an old model, and your living room is within 20 square meters, then you don’t need to worry at all about whether the Beam Ultra can punch its weight.
Especially under the Sonos 27 system, it also supports the “portable rear surround” feature. If you buy two additional portable speakers, Sonos Play, you can usually put them anywhere in the kitchen or bedroom to listen to music, and when watching a movie just carry them behind the sofa, and the system will use spatial positioning technology to automatically identify the left and right positions and form a complete physical surround sound with the Beam Ultra, and you can take them away anytime after it’s over.
In fact, what I find most interesting isn’t the sound quality, but the Sonos 27 MCP. Although geek players have previously tinkered locally with MCP bridging for speakers through Home Assistant or GitHub open-source projects, Sonos is the first audio brand to directly offer a native cloud MCP service officially. You don’t need to set up your own server; just add the official interface address to the AI you commonly use, log in and authorize, and when you’re working at the computer you don’t even need to touch your phone—just issue commands in the chat box to arrange for the speaker to play. Rather than building its own closed AI voice assistant, it opens control to the AI tools users use most, which really fits the positioning of an “audio operating system.”
As for Sonos 27’s headline feature this time of using two Sonos Play as temporary rear surrounds, as well as seamless switching with the new Ace Ultra headphones, I can only leave those to experience slowly if I get the chance to buy them in the future. And besides watching movies and binge-watching shows, during most of the time when the TV isn’t on, the Beam Ultra actually directly takes on the role of the main music speaker in my living room. Without turning on the TV screen, whether I’m AirPlaying spatial audio tracks with Apple Music or directly streaming on demand in the app, it can team up and link with the Sonos speakers or HomePods in other rooms at any time.
Looking back more than a decade ago, when smart speakers weren’t everywhere yet and even internet speeds were under 100 Mbps, Sonos was recognized as an “oddity,” labeled with tags like Silicon Valley geek, going against the grain, and doing hardware with a software mindset. At the time the traditional Hi-Fi circle even looked down on it somewhat, feeling it was “not traditional acoustics enough.”
But Sonos still paid no attention and insisted on a proprietary wireless network, simplifying the body’s controls and loading them onto the mobile app, and even using the phone’s microphone for acoustic correction—and now these have gradually become standard features for those so-called “acoustic giants.” Now in the AI era, Sonos has first thrown out an MCP interface to test the waters, and plans to launch user-customizable agents next year, which feels familiar. Although it has already gone through a round of transformation by the internet era, the true “intelligent era” is already emerging, dialogue has become the most natural interaction method, and speakers, as the best carrier, now inevitably seem a bit “old-fashioned”—I’m very much looking forward to Sonos continuing to bring some new changes.
@路中南: Guyan frozen pre-made meal kits (calorie-controlled meals + Chinese cuisine meal kits)
- Reference price: Reference price: light calorie-controlled meals nearly 20 yuan/box, Chinese cuisine meal kits average five or six yuan/bag
I saw an episode of Xiao Xiang Ge’s video where he ate it quite heartily, and kept emphasizing that the hygiene standards of pre-made meals produced by such big factories are extremely high: “If you order their pre-made meals, you should even count yourself lucky.” I got interested right away—if an industrialized assembly line can be hygienic and reassuring, and also save effort and money, why not give it a try? So I placed an order on the Tmall flagship store for two Guyan products: one is the “light calorie-controlled meal” focused on fat loss, which works out to nearly 20 yuan a box; the other is Chinese home-style meal kits averaging five or six yuan, and buying ten bags actually cost a bit less than three light meals.
On the day it arrived, I first opened a box of “Hawaiian-style Pineapple Shrimp.” The heating instructions on the packaging were truly a bit outrageous—steaming in a water bath was recommended for 40 minutes, and the microwave also needed 10 minutes. For a frozen pre-made meal focused on convenience, this time almost matches cooking from scratch over a flame. Fortunately, in practice it wasn’t that exaggerated: poured into a plate and steamed for just over 20 minutes it was thoroughly cooked, and the next meal in the microwave took about 7 minutes before it was ready to eat. I don’t know how the 40 minutes was measured—probably a conservative value starting from frozen with cold water for steaming.
However, its appearance really can’t be called good—after steaming it turned into a mushy plate, and the portion of ingredients was on the small side. The seasoning wasn’t bad (just six or seven out of ten), and the ingredients were quite varied, but in terms of proportions there was too much staple food—a very thick layer of mixed-grain brown rice was laid underneath, which would definitely fill you up. Protein was given rather stingily, so I later added three eggs myself to supplement it. For the second meal I took the packaging and heated the seafood version in the microwave; the squid inside was the most rigid-textured I’ve ever eaten, with a stiff chewiness. The whole box is about 500 kcal—for reference, jogging for an hour burns about 500 kcal, and McDonald’s also has a five-hundred-calorie meal set, so fellow Pai users can compare.
Spending nearly 20 yuan, close to a takeout light meal, you can make a meal directly in the microwave, and the portion and ingredient variety should both be slightly better than Hema Workshop, with a mediocre taste—doesn’t it sound like the cost-performance is a bit lacking?
You can zoom in yourself to look at the ingredient list
As for that box of Chinese cuisine meal kits averaging just over five yuan, the experience was even more subtle. I tried braised pork with preserved mustard greens, braised pig trotters with soybeans, and Taiwanese braised pork one after another. This type of pre-made meal is more accurately a seasoning packet for rice bowls; the seasoning is heavy-handed, and the overall taste is noticeably sweet—a sweetness that even I, as a southerner, can’t quite accept. Especially that Taiwanese braised pork—at least I’ve never ordered a Taiwanese braised pork rice from any takeout place that looked like this; you’d need a big bowl of white rice to barely offset that thick sauce. All three packets contained fatty meat, and none of it was stewed to the point of being fatty but not greasy—it was just fatty, just greasy, just unchewable.
A fried egg was placed underneath the braised pig trotters with soybeans
From a cost perspective, a five-yuan seasoning packet can’t possibly contain more than five yuan of meat; converted at current raw meat prices, the actual amount of meat is probably only worth one or two yuan. Even if production is compliant, clean and hygienic, and backed by a big factory, being high in sodium and sugar and lacking dietary fiber and sufficient protein means it’s not healthy either. If you add meat and vegetables for a comfortable meal, the cost per meal also heads straight to 20 yuan. Having tried both types of products, overall they both carry a rough, canteen-style seasoning feel, and I most likely won’t repurchase these flavors in the future. Maybe I’ll try some more expensive products? Or I’ll just make some pre-made meals for myself.
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