Redmi Note 8T Review - Introduction: How the NHS made me decide to get a Xiaomi
An introduction to what brought Majid to purchasing a Redmi Note 8T.
Xiaomi has really hit it out of the park over the last few years. Coming from relative obscurity in the West 5-6 years ago, to now being one of the biggest consumer electronics brands in the world. There have been major successes such as the Mi 9T, the Mi A Series, as well as sub-brands like Redmi and Pocophone. They have brought innovation, great features at amazing prices to audiences worldwide.
I have owned a number of Xiaomi devices in the past, from the original Redmi Note to the Mi 9T (Redmi K20). Every time I have been wowed by the design, the features and the value for money.
But… (there is always a but)
MIUI, Xiaomi’s version of Android, is not my favourite android skin (sorry Matteo, I mean distribution). I am not a “Stock” Android purist, I have had many different devices over the years, and things like One UI (from Smasung), LG UX (from, you guessed it, LG), EMUI (from Huawei), and others, each bring their own value and features to each device. I even wrote an ode to Samsung’s old TouchWiz once! (https://www.coolsmartphone.com/2016/08/24/an-ode-to-touchwiz-surprisingly/) and really liked One UI on my (stolen) Galaxy Note 9.
Just for clarification, I say “Stock” in quotes as there is really no such thing: there is the Android Open-source Project (AOSP) on which OEMs build their own experiences, Google included. My personal favourite is Oxygen OS from OnePlus which is fast, configurable and updated regularly.
MIUI is a bit too much for me. It looks and behaves too much like iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system). I think MIUI feels heavy, bloated, and full of unnecessary apps. I couldn’t disable or hide, let alone uninstall, the apps or services I didn’t want in most cases. MIUI 10 on the Xiaomi 9T (Redmi K20) has improved a lot in this space, but basically after using the OnePlus 7 Pro, I just couldn’t deal with MIUI, and so like many of my previous devices it got sold or passed on to someone who would benefit more from it.
I’m not a professional reviewer or influencer at Tech Travel Geeks yet, so companies haven’t sent me stuff to review recently. I have use my hard-earned cash when choosing and purchasing devices. So having made that clear, why did I end up purchasing a Redmi Note 8T?
The reason is my employer, the national institution which is the National Health Service also known as the NHS.
Now before you ask “what in the world of all that is holy in the Linux kernel”, I need to provide you with some context.
The NHS is a cash-strapped organisation, this isn’t big news to nobody. IT support and software vary widely round the country due to the nature of the regional organisation of the NHS and procurement being different and varying between Trusts and Hospitals. This is in part due to limited oversight from the Department of Health when it comes to the day-to-day running of the NHS. In this environment, its not surprising that IT has its challenges. Most machines with desktop operating systems are only just getting updated to Windows 10. Much software in use feels like it could have been written by an 8 yr old with Amiga BASIC, and there are also considerations around legal requirements of Information Governance and patient confidentiality in the mix.
There have been some successes withing the English NHS as well: I would like to give a shout out to Dr Li (https://twitter.com/ywl197) for his work in integrating patient records. There have also been successes in electronic patient observations and even tele-medicine. But these differ from hospital to hospital and do so wildly sometimes.
As a junior doctor, IT support wasn’t really front and centre for me. I was rotating around hospitals frequently, doing night-shifts, all while sitting professional Royal College exams. As long as I could do what i needed to do at work, then that was enough for me. That’s the sort of background to how I got my Lenovo Miix 510 (https://www.techtravelgeeks.com/blog/2018/10/10/the-perfect-travel-laptop-which-doesnt-break-your-wallet) which fulfilled my needs, and I had a desktop computer at home for when i needed to make presentations/write papers and needed a full desktop experience.
Now that I have been a consultant for almost 5 years and am a permanent employee of the NHS, my outlooks on matter have changed. When I look at my friends working in (non-healthcare) companies, i see they get company laptops, company phones, company cars and anything else they need to do their job.
Me? I just have my trusted Lenovo Miix and use whatever phone I own at that point. I could try and get a Trust-certified device, but I’m not sufficiently up the management food-chain for that yet.
I have at many times decided to use multiple devices at once, hence the hashtag #Dr2Phones, but I’m nowhere near our Chief Mobile Opinionist’s levels. This is probably because I’m a tech enthusiast (and seem to have no interest in paying enormous mortgage according to my wife). I like to try out different things and see what form factors and software experiences work for me. Having said that I have never reached the stage where i needed 6 phones (looking at you Matteo).
This all leads me to the situation where my personal phone and SIM card is what I use at work. I’ve always had some reservations about this, but as a Doctor it is what I have been doing for the 17 years. I just get it done. Most of my colleagues are in the same situation, and don’t seem to be having issues around this.
Recently this was now starting to have an impact on my personal life. I found myself replying to work emails when out on a Saturday night with friends or answering clinical queries via a WhatsApp from junior colleagues in the evening.
This situation has ramifications: I find difficulty switching off and detoxing from tech. I also found this was causing disruptions to my family-life and blurring of professional boundaries. Generally, this could have caused trouble.
Therefore at the beginning of this year (and decade), i resolved that it was time to compartmentalise fully. It was time to make a clear separation between my work and personal life. This meant that my personal phone number would be separate from my work number. I tried this on a dual SIM device, but again that was a non-starter as I just kept on getting “dragged back in” as Al Pacino said in The Godfather 3 because notifications still popped up.
I decided it was time for a new smartphone. Unfortunately, my stolen Samsung Galaxy Note 9 had left me severely out of pocket. I could have gone for a carrier provided device and SIM, but I couldn’t seem to find the right fit (is it me or has carrier choice/value in the UK decreased significantly?). Plus I already had another SIM and you always tend to save money buying outright over a couple of years.
As an NHS England Consultant Anesthesiologist what do I need from a work phone? Well, the same things you want from a good travel phone (see what I did there?).
The list is like this:
Good battery life
Descent performance
A reasonable camera (for scanning documents)
A nice screen to facilitate editing files
That’s basically about it. I also want a work device to be inexpensive. I am very conscious that I am lugging around almost £1000 worth of equipment in my bag at work, and security is a problem in some hospitals. I also work in operating theatres where there are communal areas outside the theatres themselves lockers are limited. The whole point of this exercise is to enable me to be contactable, especially in an emergency. There is no point in making the upgrade if your phone is sitting in your tiny locker and not getting used for what it’s for.
I thought of just getting something like the Nokia 1 or current equivalent budget smartphone. Frankly I needed and wanted a bit more horsepower, and whatever I thought of MIUI (Xiaomi’s Android distribution) I knew that Xiaomi was a brand I could trust with quality and security/OS updates rather than other branded devices. Yes I could have gone the whole hog and spent more and got something with enterprise-grade security (e.g. Samsung with Knox, Pixel with the Titan M chip or the recently departed Blackberry KeyNumber device) but the price factor always came back into play. Remmber, this was my own money I was spending.
I shopped around, and came across the Redmi Note 8T. It looked good on paper, the symmetry of having had the first Redmi Note in 2015 and now have the 8th one appealed to my sentimental side… And what I got for £150 astonished me.
This has been a bit of a long intro, thanks for reading all the way here if you made it. I hope the scroll indicator on Tech Travel Geeks caught your eye while you read.
And on that (Redmi) Note (8T), I’ll leave you dangling: Part 2, where I actually review the device, is coming soon to Tech Travel Geeks!
Tesla Model 3 Performance First Impressions (UK Right Hand Drive)
The Tech Travel Geeks Chief Aperture Officer finally took delivery of his Tesla Model 3. These are his first impressions and the video he poured his soul into.
Wow! What a crazy month it has been! After almost 3 years of waiting, my dream came true and I took delivery of one of the first right hand drive Tesla Model 3s here in Scotland.
Watch the Tech Travel Geeks video I poured my soul into here:
Delivery experience
It all started on the 29th of June, when I picked up Matteo in my 15 year-old Ford Fiesta on my way to pick the brand new ride. We arrived at the Tesla service centre and experienced a super smooth delivery - no waiting, no unnecessary sales pitches, no basic "here is the steering wheel, the pedals, and to open the glove compartment, you need to use the screen". My delivery specialist knew that I spent the last 3 years watching YouTube videos and doing research about the car, so we focused on my questions only. Matteo and I also got some time to film some footage for you at the Service Centre.
Tesla Edinburgh Service Centre
To take delivery of the vehicle, all it took was a single signature on a fruity tablet, the handing over of the two key cards, and off we went!
I spent the rest of the day enjoying the car with my close friends. We sure had some great fun. We drove around the hills and forest roads nearby, checked how much horsepower the car has, went to the beach and got the only fuel we needed that day - some fried chicken.
Pure performance
The configuration I picked was the 2019 dual motor all wheel drive Performance version, which is rated at crazy 3.2 seconds to 60 miles per hour, around 450 horsepower, and can go as fast as 162 miles per hour (according to Tesla). The acceleration is impossible to describe, but my friends compared the feeling to riding a roller coaster. It's definitely great fun.
Tesla Model 3 Performance acceleration - first reaction
But more importantly, it makes the car one of the safest on the road. Whenever something is happening and you need to quickly accelerate and fit somewhere, or you're overtaking and don't have much time to do it, you always have enough power to do it. With great power comes great responsibility though, and because it's easy to accelerate and the car is very quiet because of the super quiet electric motors, you need to be careful to avoid speeding.
Self-driving features
The other major stand-out feature is self-driving. Some of the functionality is included with all new Tesla cars: adaptive cruise control adjusts the speed of the vehicle based on the situation on the road without controlling the direction, while Autosteer assists the steering of the car within the lane. It works great on highways and is truly impressive. This, just like all the other self-driving features at the moment, requires full attention of the driver, who has to keep the hands on the wheel and be able to take the steering back at any time. Still, I managed to use it even on a winding one-lane road here in Scotland - the clip you’re watching has the car on basic Autosteer controlling both the speed and turning. It’s not perfect though, as it can’t make some sharper turns, change lanes or direction.
This is where full self driving comes in. It uses Tesla’s 8 cameras, a front-facing radar, 12 ultrasonic sensors and image recognition assisted by artificial intelligence to allow the car to follow the navigation and enter or leave the highway, recommend changing lanes if the current one is too slow and navigate some interchanges. It currently doesn’t support roundabouts or bigger crossroads, and it doesn’t read signs or traffic lights just yet, so driving fully autonomously from A to B or freely within the city is still a future development. However, while Elon and his team are working on enabling those features, the car already takes care of almost all of the effort of driving on highways and longer road trips, which to me already feels like science-fiction.
I’m still learning how those features work, and I haven’t had a chance to test some other ones like auto parking and Summon, which basically changes the vehicle into a giant remote controlled car which you can park or summon without sitting in the car itself. If you’re interested in learning more about those features, let us know in the comments below.
The looks
Tesla Model 3 in North Berwick, Scotland
As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I’m completely in love with the Tesla Model 3’s looks. I chose the Midnight Silver Metallic colour, and it looks just great. The front of the car might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but seeing it in person sold me completely, especially with the licence plate installed. I also love how the front lights look. Since it’s the Performance version, it comes with 20” Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, which look great, especially with the red Performance breaks and the Tesla logo.
The door handles require a bit of getting used to, as you need to open them using your thumb and then by pulling them towards you, but I got the hang of it quickly. On the back, there’s a carbon fibre spoiler installed on top of a surprisingly spacious boot. It also has an additional compartment for charging equipment or whatever else you need it for. Finally, storage space can get extended with the frunk at the front, which is very handy and is a bit of a shock if you aren’t prepared to see it there.
The minimalist interior
For the interior, I opted for the premium black and white finish, and it's just stunning. The white vegan leather seats look amazing and are very comfortable, and are fully adjustable - my cousin managed to take a decent nap on our road trip after he just got off a transatlantic flight. This is probably thanks to the comfy seats and how quiet the vehicle is while being driven. The tinted glass roof is just lovely, and I was told by my friends that it’s a must-have feature if you have kids, since it’s great to keep them busy. However, they quickly noticed that white leather might not be the best choice if the kids like chocolate. Oh well…
Tesla Model 3’s minimalist interior
The interior design is very minimalist, with almost no knobs or buttons - just a single button for emergency lights and a few interior light buttons, two knobs on the wheel for controlling music, mirrors, autopilot etc, two sticks for indicators, drive modes and autopilot, and that's basically it. Everything else is controlled through the massive 15-inch screen in the middle, even climate control. The built-in satellite navigation is really good on such a massive screen and it supports voice control. The fact that you have to look to the side to see the current speed takes a bit of getting used to, but I feel like I’m quite used to this now.
The premium package I opted for also comes with a great sound system: it has 14 speakers, 1 sub-woofer, 2 amps, and immersive sound. Watch the video above to hear a quick sample (at 9m26s mark).
In the UK, you can now also use Spotify, in addition to TuneIn Radio, streaming from your phone or from a USB stick. The sound is fantastic, especially since the car is otherwise so quiet, so it’s just pure joy to crank the music up.
Some people have complained that the car has some issues, and sure, it’s not perfect. Opening the doors from both inside and outside is not the most intuitive, so each time someone new comes in, you have to explain how to do it. The centre console is a fingerprint magnet, etc. Still, even though this might not be the most luxurious car you can get, and there are a few quirks here and there, for what you pay and all the extra features no other cars have, I’m not going to complain, especially since I'm a fan of modern design.
Charging
Tesla Model 3 charging
When it comes to charging, I'm currently only using a normal outlet in my garage. It allows me to charge just 9 miles per hour, which adds up to more than 30 hours for a full charge, but since I don't drive much and can keep the car charging overnight, it's not a problem. The first few days added up to a bit of driving, but I never felt any range anxiety, and always knew that I can easily find a charging spot on the navigation. I'm currently looking into getting a proper wall charger installed, which should be around 5 times faster and allow me to go to full charge overnight. I haven't tested the Tesla Superchargers yet, but they can apparently charge your car to 80% in just 40 minutes, just enough time to play some Beach Buggy Racing 2 on the big screen.
Driving experience
Tesla Model 3 Performance at a beach in North Berwick, Scotland
Finally, the driving itself - it’s just pure joy. The instant acceleration and torque are something you can’t live without. The steering is very responsive and feels great. The low centre of gravity and the fact that the batteries are in the floor make the car stick to the road like the glue. I kept on finding myself just smiling to myself all the time while cruising around the Scottish shores.
At the time of preparing this article and Tech Travel Geeks video, I've owned the car for almost a month have and driven it in the city, on highways and on some winding roads in the Scottish Highlands. So far, it's been an absolute pleasure and joy, and there’s still a lot for me to discover about the vehicle and get acquainted with. I've never been a car person myself, but I've already been converted by Tesla. I couldn't recommend the car any more than I already do, so if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend trying one out.
Thanks for reading and watching the video. It's been an absolute joy making it, with the help of Matteo and some of my friends. If you enjoyed it, please leave a like and share with others, and if you want to see more similar content, please subscribe to Tech Travel Geeks on Youtube.
My UK Tesla Model 3 to be delivered on 29 June!
Excitement and expectation are building! My Tesla Model 3 is going to be delivered soon!
The long-awaited Right Hand Drive Tesla Model 3 is finally coming to the United Kingdom, and I was lucky to be among the first people invited to pick one up on the last weekend of June.
The Model 3 was officially announced back in March 2016 and started first limited deliveries in the US in July 2017. The deliveries continued in the US and Canada in 2017 and 2018, expanding to continental Europe in early 2019. However, the British order holders had to continue waiting patiently.
The first glimmer of hope came with Elon Musk’s tweet on 25th April, indicating that the order page would go live in May.
The things progressed from there, with the order page indeed opening on 1st May and full order details gathered on 17 May. A month later, CleanTechnica shared photos of a semi truck with a bunch of RHD Model 3s pictured in England and heading for distribution towards London.
Finally, a couple of days later, some reservation holders started getting invitations to pick their deliveries on 27th June. I originally ordered mine in November 2016 and received an invite to join the first batch of cars, but a friend of mine ordered in early 2017 and hasn’t received the invitation yet. Both orders are for Performance versions, so it looks like the priority is on the initial order date and reservation number.
Tech Travel Geeks will be there, so ensure you follow our news here and on YouTube. Expect a first impressions video and a full review coming soon.