FreeBuds 3 and FreeBuds 3i are wireless earphones sold by HUAWEI.

Since FreeBuds 3i came out after FreeBuds 3, it might seem like the 3i is more powerful, but it feels more like a power-down in features other than noise cancellation.

The price also reflects this; as of writing this article, the 3 costs around 20,000 yen on Amazon, while the 3i is around 13,000 yen. This also suggests that more effort was put into making the FreeBuds 3.

I had been using FreeBuds 3 for a long time, but I recently purchased FreeBuds 3i, so I compared them to the FreeBuds 3 I had been using.

Comparisons of various features and specs have been done in many places, so it feels a bit late, thus this comparison is based on my personal impressions.

For details on the two products, please see the official pages below.

HUAWEI FreeBuds 3, HUAWEI Kirin A1 Chipset, Intelligent Noise Cancelling | HUAWEI Japan

HUAWEI FreeBuds 3i - HUAWEI Japan

Comfort

First is the difference in wearing comfort when put in the ear.

In this regard, FreeBuds 3 was a complete victory for me.

Please note that this aspect is highly dependent on the individual, so take it as a reference.

First, there is a major difference between these two models: open-fit and in-ear canal type. Therefore, their appearance is also significantly different, as shown below.

Because of this, the FreeBuds 3 fit gently into the ear, whereas the FreeBuds 3i need to be pushed in firmly.

Putting on the 3 after wearing the 3i feels really light, with less burden on the ear and a gentler feel.

However, this might change depending on the ear shape, so not everyone might have the same impression.

Looking at various reviews, some people say the 3 “falls out of the ear easily,” but I can use them even when running without them falling out at all, so they seem to fit my ears quite well.

Case Portability

A point that bothers me quite a bit is carrying the case.

In the photo below, the left is FreeBuds 3 and the right is FreeBuds 3i.

As you can see, the 3i is thicker.

I usually put it in my left pants pocket, and the thickness of the 3i is quite noticeable then.

My impression is that I wish they had reduced the thickness even if it meant making it a bit wider.

Noise Cancelling

Both of these models have active noise cancelling features.

Comparing the noise cancelling, the in-ear 3i wins hands down.

Comparing the rattling sound on a train, FreeBuds 3 reduces the sound by about 20% subjectively, whereas FreeBuds 3i reduces it by about 60-70%.

Given that the 3 manages to put noise cancelling on an open-fit design is amazing in itself, so this difference is understandable.

For the 3i, the noise cancelling effect changes considerably depending on the angle it’s worn in the ear, so it’s best to test which angle is quietest initially for better use.

Also, a minor point: the 3 resets to noise cancelling OFF each time you use it, but the 3i remembers the previous ON/OFF state, which is another difference.

However, I’ve come to think that it’s not necessarily clear which is better.

This is because if some time has passed since the last use, I might not remember if I ended with noise cancelling ON, and I’ve already found myself wondering which state the 3i is in (noise cancelling ON or ambient sound passthrough) several times after putting them on.

With the 3, it’s always OFF, so you just need to perform the routine of double-tapping the earphone to turn it ON, eliminating any confusion.

Also, the 3 requires adjusting the noise cancelling via an app, but the 3i doesn’t need it, or rather, it wasn’t in the app menu.

Connection with Smartphone

I use a HUAWEI P30 Pro as my smartphone.

Personally, I find Bluetooth devices that frequently disconnect incredibly stressful, so I prefer to stick with the same manufacturer as much as possible, which is why both are HUAWEI now.

However, I felt there was a significant difference in connection stability between these two models.

First, I don’t feel any difference in the time it takes to connect to the smartphone after taking them out of the case. Both connect instantly.

However, while playing music, the sound cutting out abruptly is something I rarely encountered with FreeBuds 3, but with 3i, it happens about once during my daily commute.

This is quite noticeable and a minus point for the 3i.

Perhaps this is influenced by the fact that only the 3 uses the Kirin A1 chipset for Bluetooth?

Sound Quality

I’m not an expert on this, so I lack the knowledge and experience to comment in detail, and don’t have much to say.

Personally, I don’t think either is bad.

Charging

FreeBuds 3 supports wireless charging, but 3i does not.

This isn’t a problem as I carry a type-c charger anyway, but wireless charging is convenient, so it would have been nice if the 3i had it too.

(I once tried charging the FreeBuds 3 using the P30 Pro’s wireless reverse charging feature, and it was convenient!)

Final Verdict

For me, the FreeBuds 3 I bought first will likely be the one I use daily from now on.

Overall, they are more user-friendly, and I really like how gently they fit my ears.

So what about the 3i? My current workplace has quite a bit of noise from air conditioning and various machines, which significantly drains concentration. So, I’m thinking of using the 3i specifically when I want to concentrate at work, letting the noise cancelling help me.

Therefore, I want to utilize both effectively according to the situation.

Bonus

The day after I bought the FreeBuds 3i, a model called “FreeBuds Pro” was announced…

This one has even more powerful noise cancelling than the 3i, and its appearance is cooler than the previous two models.

However, the price is also Pro level (around 25,000 yen on Aliexpress), so I’m debating whether to buy it…

Last year’s reflection is here:

Looking Back on the Year and Resolutions for the New Year - AYU MAX

What Did I Do?

VR Development

A major event this year was starting VR development at work.

VR isn’t that rare in the world anymore, but it was the first attempt at our company, so I heard various things (expectations, anxieties) from those around me, but I was able to achieve certain results.

How far this can be expanded in the future is still a challenge, so I will continue to work hard next year.

AR Development

This year, I also started AR development with UE4 and ARKit. This is still at the stage of tracing the basics of developing with ARKit in UE4, but I’m satisfied because I was able to do everything I wanted to do.

I’d like to think about how to incorporate it into work from next year onwards.

I also want to try not just mobile devices but also HoloLens and Magic Leap.

Also, I want to do something in personal development.

UE4 Marketplace

As for private activities, listing on the Marketplace was a big event.

At the beginning of the year, I wondered if I could list things myself, started researching, and somehow ended up releasing four code plugins.

I put my soul into making all of them, so I’d be happy if many people could use them.

Also, some projects are open source, so interacting with others on GitHub was fun. Since it’s in English, conversations wouldn’t work without the help of Google Translate, but thanks to that, I feel like my ability to generate Japanese that’s easy to translate has improved!

The ratings on the Marketplace are also very encouraging, so I’m grateful.

A point of reflection is that I got carried away and released four plugins, and maintenance hasn’t kept up.

There are ideas I want to implement for each plugin but haven’t been able to, so I want to work on those next year.

Presentations

This year, my initial goal was to give presentations somewhere twice, but in the end, it was only once.

But I’m grateful just for getting such an opportunity, and I think I grew a little, so I’d like to continue doing it if I have the chance in the future.

For that, I need to keep gathering material regularly.

Summary

For me, it was a very rich year compared to previous years.

I want to do even more various things next year than this year, so I’ll do my best!

This was a local event for “.NET Conf 2019” held on October 5th. I participated this time and gave a lightning talk (LT).

Presentation Content

Since this was a .NET Core 3.0 event, I thought content related to Core 3 would be better, so I decided to talk about WPF, which was added in .NET Core 3.0.

The materials for the presentation I gave are below.

Also, the presentation content from the day was made into a video. Thank you, @kekyo2.

I thought I should reflect on my presentation, so I tried watching the video that was shared, but watching a video of myself speaking is incredibly embarrassing!!

I was so embarrassed I haven’t been able to watch the whole thing yet.

I want to watch it again later after composing myself.

About Theme Selection

I don’t have enough knowledge to talk about the deep parts of .NET, so I thought it would be better to present practical experiences rather than discussing language specifications.

Thinking about what to do, I remembered trying out WPF using the .NET Core 3 preview around Golden Week this year, and thought, “This will be good presentation material!” so I chose WPF as the theme.

.NET Core 3.0のWPFを試している進捗です。
HoudiniみたいなノードベースUIを作成中。なかなか面白いのでこのまま作りこむ予定。#WPF #dotnetcore pic.twitter.com/C9TNKZOUHS

— ayuma (@ayuma_x) May 6, 2019

So, I first listed the content I wanted to talk about for this theme in bullet points to create a foundation for the presentation materials.

Then I realized one crucial thing.

It’s not interesting…

I tried writing plainly about how WPF became usable in .NET Core 3.0, but the content was thin and uninteresting.

At this point, I worried, “Was the theme a bad choice??”, “Would talking about C# 8, which I tried at the same time, have more content??” But I decided that since I use WPF regularly, I could answer questions if something came up, so I stuck with it.

Therefore, although not specific to WPF, I added topics that seemed highly relevant, like being able to include the Runtime in the application and creating a single executable file. I also made a video showing how it actually works to let people see it in action.

After writing everything and practicing the presentation a few times, it came out to be about 13-14 minutes, so I decided to go with it.

I still felt the content might be a bit thin, but I couldn’t add more at that point, so I decided to brace myself. (Now, a few days after the event ended, I have more ideas for Core 3 + WPF. Well, that’s how it goes.)

Presentation Day

My turn was towards the end, and until then, I listened with great interest to the talks by the other speakers.

@kekyo2’s talk on asynchronous programming personally hit home, as just a little before that day, I had been working on eliminating Task.Wait from code I wrote long ago.

I’m very interested in async iterators, so I definitely want to try writing them soon.

This was my second presentation, following an LT last year, but today I felt calmer than last time and was optimistic, thinking, “Maybe I won’t panic today.”

However, my turn was right after a break, so there was some waiting time. As I prepared my PC and waited, I gradually got nervous, and my stomach started hurting lol.

But today, my goals were “Don’t speak too fast, speak slowly” and “Look at the faces of the listeners while speaking,” so I tried my best to stay calm and speak bit by bit, ensuring I could at least keep those promises.

There was an accident, though; the video output of the MacBook I brought that day was acting up, and the projector turned to static several times, causing me to panic slightly. But in the end, the timing was just right, and I finished, which was good.

Self-evaluation: I think I presented better than last time!

The stomach ache also disappeared after the presentation ended w

Reflections for Next Time

Listening to the other presentations, I felt that everyone deeply understood the content they were speaking about.

For my own content, I had researched and tried things out, but I wasn’t speaking with perfect confidence everywhere. There were parts I wasn’t sure about, and although I actually had more material, I cut out those parts I lacked confidence in.

I felt that to give a confident presentation, a vast amount of knowledge backed by everyday technical practice is necessary.

I can’t change the time I’ve spent so far, but I feel that from now on, when learning, I want to delve one step deeper into the content than before and gain knowledge I can confidently share with others.

This time too, I learned a lot, and finishing the LT boosted my confidence, so I felt glad I participated.

Bonus

After the event ended, there was a rock-paper-scissors tournament, and incredibly, I received a Kinect V1 from matsujirushi-san!!!

I tried it immediately, and it’s fun! Motion capture was a first-time experience for me, so it opens up possibilities.

I’m currently considering what to create with this.

Kinect V1を動かせた。
何これ！控えめに言って面白い！ pic.twitter.com/RzjbdSIXbR

— ayuma (@ayuma_x) October 7, 2019

The Razer Blade laptop that arrived at my home late last year is a very welcome presence, as it allows me to use UE4 even at home.

However, I had been troubled by the loudness of its fan for some time.

At home, I use an Oculus Rift for VR development, and the fan noise when starting Oculus is intense.

However, I can tolerate that because I understand the load is high. But even when doing nothing, the fan occasionally spins at high speed when a single external display is connected.

This is a bit stressful during quiet nights, and since the PC itself gets quite hot, I’m also concerned about its durability.

So, I purchased this item.

Cooler Master Laptop Cooler NOTEPAL X-SLIM II

The price wasn’t too high, and with a 20cm fan, I bought it hoping that the cooler itself would be relatively quiet.

This is how it looks with the Razer Blade on it.

It’s powered via USB connection from the PC.

The power USB connector itself has a USB pass-through port, so the port used by the cooler isn’t wasted.

After actually using it, perhaps because the fan is large, the noise from the cooler itself wasn’t noticeable.

The sound of the air conditioner running in the room is louder.

As for the crucial effect on the laptop, it’s not just my imagination; the fan noise has certainly become less noticeable.

Even with one external display connected, a situation where the fan would normally spin up occasionally, it now maintains a quiet state.

Also, perhaps thanks to the constant airflow from below, the area next to the touchpad, which usually gets hot, doesn’t get hot anymore.

Naturally, the fan still spins up when launching UE4 or similar applications, but even then, I can feel it’s quieter than before.

One point of caution is that there’s no power switch, so it’s better to connect the USB to a port that stops supplying power when the PC is turned off.

If you’re troubled by laptop fan noise, consider giving it a try.

Since the end of last year, my craving for a keyboard had been growing, and after agonizing over what to do for a long time, I finally made a purchase.

買ってしまった。
買う前はAll 30gにしようと思ってたけど、なんか軽すぎる感じがしたので45gのやつに。
やっぱり触ってから買うようにしてよかった。#realforce pic.twitter.com/giz3G0Weva

— ayuma (@ayuma_x) February 10, 2019

The Trigger

It all started last year when my development environment PC at work was replaced, and the keyboard became a REALFORCE.

The one at work is probably the one below, which can be purchased together with a Mouse Computer PC.

Product : REALFORCE 108UG-HiPro | REALFORCE | The pinnacle of Japanese premium keyboards

I didn’t know much about keyboards and had used them without much preference until then. Before that, I used the Magic Keyboard that came with my iMac.

So, since I was used to thin, space-saving types, I couldn’t get used to it at first.

It felt big, took up space, was heavy, the keys were much deeper than the Magic Keyboard, and it just felt difficult to use.

However, after using it for nearly a year, I suddenly realized how pleasant it was (late, I know).

Then, the desire to change my home keyboard emerged.

At home, wanting something similar to the Magic Keyboard at the time, I was using the Microsoft one below.

Designer Bluetooth Desktop | Microsoft Accessories

Although I liked its appearance, being Bluetooth, there was a delay before typing registered, and the key layout was also a bit awkward for me.

Also, my desk at home is small, so I was dissatisfied that a keyboard with a numeric keypad took up space.

So, I decided to buy a good keyboard for home as well and started considering options.

REALFORCE or HHKB?

First, I considered REALFORCE, which was the trigger.

Wanting to save space, I first narrowed my search to tenkeyless models, but then several other parameters emerged to agonize over, such as “Silent or Normal,” “APC available,” and “Key input weight,” and I worried/agonized for quite a few days.

Also, whether to stick with a JP keyboard as before, or switch to EN. I thought EN looked cooler, but decided on JP because I thought my head would get confused if it wasn’t consistent with work.

Also, sites writing about REALFORCE often mentioned HHKB, so I researched that too. I was ignorant before and didn’t know, but HHKB uses Topre keys, right?

Also, I sometimes saw people at study sessions using small keyboards placed on top of their laptops, and I realized that the ones I saw, thinking “they must have strong preferences,” were likely HHKB.

The major differences between HHKB and REALFORCE are the number of keys and weight. Honestly, I started thinking the HHKB, which eliminates waste to the extreme, was also good, making it even harder to decide what to buy.

I think the decision criteria were probably:

• Use at home only, no carrying & prioritizing the same environment as work → REALFORCE
• Carry it for work outside & can manage even if the environment differs from work → HHKB

I summarized it like that, but couldn’t decide.

Unable to Decide, Went to See Them in Person

Lately, I often buy things online, but for this, I thought I really needed to touch the real thing, so I went to a store.

First, I went to Yodobashi, but only one full-size REALFORCE was on display, and no tenkeyless models.

When I asked the staff, they brought out two tenkeyless EN keyboards from the back. Unfortunately, there were no JP tenkeyless models.

However, wanting to try more types, I went straight to Tsukumo.

Thinking they might not have them here either, I got excited when I found a dedicated REALFORCE section!!

I tried the tenkeyless models one by one from the end, and there were many things I wouldn’t have known without actually touching them. Specifically, knowing the following two things was significant:

• There's really quite a difference in sound volume between the normal and silent models (or rather, the sound quality? is different)
• Before touching them, I thought the light ALL 30g would be good, but it was too light for me and didn't suit me

I couldn’t find HHKB at Tsukumo, and although I wondered what to do, I feared that touching it would make me hesitate and unable to decide, so I stopped searching further and decided on the REALFORCE R2TLS-JP4-BK right there.

The price was around 25,000 yen including tax.

Previously, it was an amount I would never spend on a keyboard, but I convinced myself with the strange excuse, “It’s cheaper than the HHKB Type-S, so I’m lucky,” and bought it.

Trying It Out

I’m writing this article on the day I bought it, so typing this article is essentially the trial run.

That’s why it ended up longer than expected.

Using it, the “thock thock” feeling when typing is really pleasant. The key layout is the same as the one I use at work, which is convenient, so I’m glad I chose this one.

It’s compact in size, but quite heavy, so carrying it seems tough, but I only take my PC outside about once or twice a month, so it seems acceptable.

I’ll try writing on the blog again after using it for a longer period if my feelings change.

It’s 2019, and it feels like about a year has passed quickly since I started blogging.

Here, I’ll try writing down my reflections on 2018 and my resolutions for 2019.

Reflecting on 2018

Looking back now, this is how it feels. Looking at it this way, I’ve dabbled in many different things. This year, I want to narrow my focus a bit more and develop my strengths.

Also, a big thing for me was speaking in front of people for the first time in August. That experience was significant.

Additionally, due to a confluence of good timing at work, I got the opportunity to do VR development, which I had wanted to try!! It really pays to speak up about what you want to do.

Resolutions for 2019

Succeed in the VR Development Project at Work

Since they bought me high-spec machines and several VR headsets, I really want to achieve some results. I strongly feel like using this opportunity to increase the amount of work I want to do.

Increase Blog Update Frequency

I didn’t give up after three days, but in 2018, the pace was about once a month, so the goal is to make it once a week.

Give Presentations

Last year it was only once, so the goal is two or more times.

During the Amazon Prime Day sale a little while ago, the Essential Phone (PH-1) was being sold at a super low price on Amazon.com. At that time, I hesitated and the sale ended before I could buy it.

This device has acquired the technical conformity mark (Giteki) and supports Android 9 Pie, making its specs very appealing.

(Update) Essential Phone on sale for $223.99 on US Amazon

Today, while browsing Twitter, I saw information that it was being sold for $279.99. I hesitated, but when I checked again in the evening, the price had dropped to $223.99.
Including shipping costs, it comes out to about 30,000 yen, which is incredibly cheap considering the specs.

I immediately clicked “buy”.

I was just thinking that I wanted an Android device to test the Xamarin app I’m currently building, so the timing was perfect. If I hadn’t found this, I might have bought something like the HUAWEI P20 lite. I think that’s a very good device too, though.

I chose the fastest shipping option, so I should be able to get my hands on it by the weekend.

I started this blog at the end of last year and have finally managed to write 10 articles.
I’m not very good at keeping up with things that require continuity, so I think I’m doing quite well for myself.
To mark this occasion and as a declaration of my intention to “keep writing properly from now on,” I upgraded the blog to the paid version and set up a custom domain.

I acquired a domain name several years ago, but it’s been so long that I had to look up various things again.

While I was at it, I also changed the design slightly for a fresh start.

So far, it’s been 10 articles in 8 months, so I’d like to pick up the pace and write more articles from now on.

Last time, due to [first time attending] + [first time seeing Qt (excuse)] + [setup failures causing many errors], I mostly just panicked and it ended. So today, I decided what I wanted to achieve and participated.

The result of the day is this.

今日のQt勉強会で作ったソフト。
C++使った開発環境でこんなにスムーズに作れるとは感動した。Qt Quickすげー。 pic.twitter.com/UpbV1nQKXx

— ayuma (@ayuma_x) June 16, 2018

By the way, the image shown in the video is borrowed from ImageNet.

I wanted to try implementing MVVM in Qt like in WPF, so I tried creating a mechanism to bind list-formatted model data to the View.

On the C++ side, I gathered image files from an arbitrary directory, created a list-formatted property using QQmlListProperty, and bound it to the View.

For the View, I set the left side as a ListView and the right side as a GridView, and plugged the same QQmlListProperty mentioned above into the model for each. I also deliberately synchronized the selection state of the ListView and GridView via a C++ property.
Putting aside the appearance, functionally, I think it turned out quite well for me.

Since I went through a lot of trial and error, the source code is too messy to publish, but I plan to rewrite it all and upload it to GitHub eventually.

Today was fun.

I’ve been working as a programmer for quite a while now, but looking back, I haven’t really shared much information with the outside world. In 2018, I want to start sharing more by posting on my blog and Qiita. I’d also like to participate in study groups and meetups.

Motivation

Recently, I’ve realized that I’ve spent most of my time in a closed environment, rarely interacting with other engineers. I now feel that it’s important to connect with people outside my usual circles. Doing the same kind of work for a long time has made me feel a bit stagnant.

I want to learn things I don’t know by being exposed to the knowledge of others, and I want to be inspired by new ideas.

What I’ll Write About

I’ll use this blog mainly for my personal thoughts and ideas. For technical topics, I’ll post on Qiita. Since writing about my work could violate confidentiality, I’ll focus on things I do outside of work.

It took me about four months from deciding to start writing to actually publishing this blog. From now on, I’ll try to post more regularly!