@Xige: OpenRock X in Vibrant Orange

• Reference price: ¥599

As the weather gets warmer, I wanted a pair of Bluetooth earphones for work, as well as for running or walking. After some thought, I narrowed down what I needed: first, no over-ear headphones—they’re too heavy, stuffy, and hot; second, nothing in-ear, since blocking the ear canal gets uncomfortable over time and becomes unstable when sweating; third, the sound quality should be decent, but without blocking out ambient noise. After searching around, I settled on the OpenRock X.

This is already a 2024 model, and it’s not exactly cheap. The OpenRock X uses air conduction, transmitting sound through the air. Earphones like this are usually ear-hook style, and the sound unit only loosely covers the ear canal rather than sealing or inserting into it like traditional earphones.

Each earbud weighs 12 g, which isn’t the lightest among Bluetooth earphones. At first, wearing them for half a day caused slight discomfort, but after adjusting the curvature of the ear hooks to avoid clamping the ears too tightly, it became much more comfortable. The ideal way to wear them is lightly and loosely—no pressure on the ears, just hanging naturally while still delivering sound.

In terms of sound quality, the OpenRock X claims stronger bass, and it does perform better than typical Bluetooth earphones. However, since it’s neither in-ear nor over-ear, it’s not directly comparable to those categories. In actual use, the sound quality is somewhat better than expected—solid overall, while still allowing you to hear external sounds.

The charging case isn’t the usual pebble shape seen on most earbuds, but a rectangular box. With a metal clip attached, it works quite well as a bag accessory. I even added a small logo using a UV laser printer.

@Clyde: OnePlus 15T

• Review unit provided by the manufacturer

I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard “OnePlus fan,” but I’ve definitely been a long-time user¹.

So when my sixth-generation iPad mini kept suffering from frame drops in games across multiple versions of iPadOS 26.x²—it’s not that I had to “buy dumplings just for the vinegar,” but the OnePlus 13T had already tempted me back then—I immediately volunteered to get my hands on the newly released OnePlus 15T.

We Pixel and iPad mini 6 users were not used to this level of luxury.

As someone who once chose the Pixel 5 in Sorta Sage, I naturally have a soft spot for the OnePlus 15T’s “Relaxed Matcha” colorway. The matte metal frame, the “metal cube Deco” camera module design, and the frosted AG glass back create a layered, cohesive look within the same color palette. It feels smooth and refined in hand. OnePlus still lives up to its old reputation for “great hand feel”—the 15T is one of the few phones I’ve used that sits flat without wobbling and doesn’t feel top-heavy when held. Another detail worth noting is that the “Relaxed Matcha” finish intentionally mimics the granular texture of matcha powder on the back glass. Up close, it can look slightly “dusty”—if that bothers you, check out the “Healing White Chocolate” color, which I also like.

But for people like me who were tempted by the OnePlus 13T and only decided to try the 15T now, the main draw is still the front. As early as 2025, I’d often tell friends and colleagues a rather extreme take: any Android phone above ¥3500 that doesn’t have symmetrical bezels on all four sides is committing a crime. And this time, OnePlus delivered. Sure, the starting price has inevitably gone up, but if you’re genuinely looking to upgrade and can take advantage of subsidies or trade-in deals, I’d still recommend buying sooner rather than later—price increases are likely the norm in the coming years.

Back to the display. Beyond the ultra-narrow symmetrical bezels, the OnePlus 15T also comes with a 165 Hz high refresh rate panel. It’s been years since I last used a OnePlus phone, and while I’ve heard about its current positioning under OPPO as a performance-focused brand, I still find it amusing—those extra 45 Hz over 120 Hz essentially equal the gaming frame rate of a Google Tensor G-series GPU… competition has really gone overboard, while Google seems to be taking it easy on the other side of the ocean.

Naturally, I’ve spent the past few days gaming on the OnePlus 15T. Looking back, the experience can be summed up with a line from “Kung Fu Hustle”: this is what you call professional. Features like esports Zen mode, bypass charging, floating notifications, and instant launch all sound like gimmicks from flashy “gaming phones” with over-the-top designs and cheap sci-fi UI—but ColorOS 16 somehow packs every tool I could think of (and more) into the OnePlus 15T.

While the 6.32-inch 165 Hz display is likely unique at this size, game compatibility leaves nothing to complain about. Beyond popular titles like Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Delta Force, even League of Legends: Wild Rift—which often gets overlooked in platform-level optimizations and happens to be my main game—supports a full 165 Hz mode here.

Speaking of gaming, the best part about the OnePlus 15T is that despite its clean and understated look, it’s one of the few small phones in recent years that can truly handle heavy gaming. Beyond bypass charging, the 7500 mAh battery and 100 W wired fast charging make for an endurance experience that’s hard to beat. Even with 165 Hz enabled and gaming heavily over Wi-Fi, it only gets mildly warm and the battery barely drains—unlike many similar devices that technically support high refresh rates but don’t really encourage you to use them.

Finally, the OnePlus 15T’s LUMO imaging system and periscope telephoto camera are genuinely refreshing, giving the sense that the long-standing “impossible triangle” of small phones may finally be broken.

The 50 MP main camera and 50 MP periscope telephoto also reinforce one of my long-held takes: if the main camera is wide enough, you don’t really need an ultra-wide (laughs). With a large sensor, OIS, and full-pixel omnidirectional autofocus, the hardware foundation is solid, and LUMO strikes a great balance between computational photography and optical character. Slightly lowering exposure in default mode produces images with natural lighting and clear detail, while both 3.5× and 7× zoom avoid the over-sharpening and smudging I personally dislike. For those who don’t want to edit photos, the built-in Master Mode is far from a gimmick—it delivers both usability and strong straight-out-of-camera results. All of this gives the OnePlus 15T another standout strength beyond its compact size, battery life, and gaming performance: it’s also a very capable camera phone.

@Microhoo: Panasonic Bread Maker PM1002

• Reference price: ¥1599

Making bread is all about patience. Kneading, resting, kneading again, adding ingredients, proofing, kneading again, proofing again, shaping, baking—even a simple loaf of toast easily takes 4–6 hours. While I’ve developed enough skill that failures are rare and the process has become second nature, my time shouldn’t be spent on this, so I decided to let technology take over.

I had owned a bread maker before, but the touchscreen controls stopped working after long periods of disuse. So my top priority when choosing a new one was: no touchscreen. On that note, I’ll add that our dishwasher at home has also started having occasional touchscreen failures after a few years—although power cycling fixes it, it’s still a lesson learned. For appliances meant to last many years, I now prefer physical buttons whenever possible.

There are plenty of options on e-commerce platforms, especially with many domestic brands focusing on small kitchen appliances. But after much deliberation, I still chose Panasonic. On one hand, many of my home appliances are Panasonic, and I’ve come to appreciate how well they handle products that require precision and refinement; on the other hand, the world’s first bread maker was also made by Panasonic, so although it’s more expensive, it’s unlikely to go wrong. And indeed, it didn’t—compared to my previous Midea bread maker, it’s on a completely different level.

Among Panasonic’s current lineup, the two most popular models are the PS100 and PM1002. The key difference is that the PS100 features steam baking, which gives a better crust, while the PM1002 offers more menu options, including homemade yeast and additional dough programs, and uses physical buttons instead of a touchscreen—so I chose the latter.

The PM1002’s design is also more minimal than the PS100—a simple rectangular box, nothing more. I like it. Hopefully those manufacturers obsessed with odd-shaped appliances can learn something from this.

The PM1002 also comes with an ice cream container. You can make your own ice cream in summer, though I bought it in winter, so I’ll have to try it in a few months. The machine itself doesn’t freeze anything—the “ice cream container” is just a mixing accessory that needs to be frozen beforehand before adding the mixture.

I haven’t tried most of the other programs yet—I’ve used it several times, mostly for making toast, and it’s been excellent.

I use Program No. 2 (“Soft Bread”) and select the “Light” crust setting. In about four and a half hours, fresh bread is ready. I’ll also share my recipe here—it uses the tangzhong method, which makes the bread extremely soft and keeps it from hardening even after a few days at room temperature.

• Tangzhong: Mix 25 g flour, 5 g sugar, and 1 g salt, then add 25 g boiling water and stir until smooth with no dry flour visible. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Dough: tangzhong, 120 g ice water, 50 g light cream (I’ve also substituted it with Nestlé evaporated milk for Hong Kong-style milk tea, with no noticeable difference), 15 g honey, 15 g condensed milk, 15 g sugar, 3 g salt, 225 g bread flour, 2.5 g yeast, 30 g butter.

Ideally, the butter should be added about 30 minutes after the program starts, once the yeast has activated. But I’m lazy and just throw everything in at once—it makes no noticeable difference, so feel free to adjust as you like. One important tip: bury the yeast in the flour to avoid direct contact with salt.

Another lazy habit of mine is making a large batch of tangzhong at once. Following the same proportions, I refrigerate it overnight, divide it into ~56 g portions, and freeze them. Since cream or evaporated milk doesn’t keep well after opening, I also portion them into 50 g servings and freeze them. From experience, freezing doesn’t affect the final result at all—so if you’re as thrifty as I am, go ahead and freeze with confidence.

Eating freshly baked bread you made yourself is one of life’s greatest joys. With the help of technology, that joy is doubled. Cheers to the modern age.

1. The OnePlus One with the bamboo back cover—the device that first opened the door to ShaoXiaPai—is still sitting in my closet. ↩︎
2. This manifests as a game that was previously running at a stable 60 fps suddenly dropping to 30 fps; bringing up the Control Center or other system interfaces and then returning to the game temporarily resolves the issue. ↩︎