GTO recently shared this with other enthusiasts:Products That Punch Above Their WeightWe have frequently discussed cars that punch above their weight – XUV700, XEV 9e, BYD Seal, Innova Hycross, Kodiaq….but what about things in your daily life that punch above their weight?. Whose cost price is far beaten by the 1000X value you derive from it? Am sure there are many you have, including a 60,000-rupee Macbook that can beat Windows PCs costing twice as much. To a stockbroker, a 4-lakh rupee large screen might punch above its weight because of the value it brings him via market analysis charts. But there is no fun in that – anyone can list game-changing expensive stuff. Here, let’s discuss the really cheap game-changing stuff as that will surely require some introspection. What gadgets or products in your life are dirt cheap yet indispensable? We can set an upper limit of 5 grand. I’ll start with my little Jabra Talk 15 SE Bluetooth earpiece. It was so cheap that I don’t even remember the exact price I paid for it…about 2000 rupees or so, a couple of years back. Why does it punch above its weight? 1. My family is an “Apple” household, with me being the sole outlier who uses Android & Windows. We have Airpods in the house, along with Macbooks in all colours & sizes, iPads, iPhones (all colours & sizes), Apple TV 4K, Apple TV music and more. But compared to the Airpods we have in the family, I much prefer the Jabra for calls. 2. The Jabra costs 10% of what the Airpod Pros did and I still use it everyday. Do note that I am not a price sensitive person at all. If the Airpod Pros were that much better at calls, I would use them, but they aren’t. I prefer my light & easy Jabra. Just a simple clip-on for your ear and you are all set. 3. The Jabra’s battery life is fantastic (with 7 hours of actual talk time and 14 days of standby, I charge it once in 10 – 15 days or so). Unlike Airpod Pros which run out of juice after only 4 hours. 4. The charging is fuss-free; I plug it into the cable connected to my laptop’s USB port. I prefer this arrangement versus having a separate case for the Airpods. 5. The Jabra is so cheap that I don’t even care if I lose it (but like a cockroach, it always resurfaces, no matter where I dump it). This is surely not the case with pricey Airpods where losing either of the pods, or the case itself, results in a big loss. 6. The call clarity is fantastic and this one is my primary call piece! All my big & major deals have been successfully closed on this little 2000-rupee device, be it real estate or investments or cars. That’s why it’s the ultimate “cheap yet indispensable” tool to me. After my laptop & smartphone, this device is no.3 on my “must-have-to-work” list. What are the cheap yet indispensable things in your life that you absolutely cannot do without? Take a close look at both the pictures and you’ll see the battle scars: Here’s what BHPian Roy.S added to the discussion:For me it this 11 year old pair of good old fashioned wired Sennheiser Momentum on ears. Picked it up from amazon for Rs 5k back in 2014 and I prefer it to any other headphone for indoor listening. I’ve been through three pairs of ear pads and Sennheiser does not sell them anymore. Fortunately they are available on amazon. These are what we would call aftermarket but almost as good as the originals Edit: Just checked my order history on Amazon and I paid Rs 5999 for them. Breaches GTO’s upper limit unfortunately.Meanwhile, BHPian saket77shared this with other enthusiasts:Wifi Plugs and smart lights. Brings whole lot of convenience and automation to home by remote controlling devices, scheduling appliances, making routines etc. A 16A wifi plug that we bought in multiples a few years ago cost us about Rs. 1K each. Smaller 5A/6A ones cost a little less. Smart lights cost anything between 350 (for bulbs) to 800 bucks (for tubelights). These implementations were the first step we took to partial home automation that we enjoy. Perfect for this thread I guess.Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
