My Daily Driver.
I thought that since we’re having a fresh start, we could begin by having a quick glance over my base EDC collection of items that I generally have on me when I leave the house. Generally this is the stuff in my pockets or the items I may throw in a small sling. It’s also a good time to look at this as I recently made some big changes.
The Phone
There’s going to be a few items on this list that are more or less brand new to me, and this is the first. I recently switched from an Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max to the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. I’d been an Apple user for quite some time, but not forever. I had used Android phones a lot before I got my first iPhone and I’d also dabbled with whatever convoluted OS that was on the Nokia Lumia phones. I know it was Windows at heart, but it was the weird phone version.
So far the switch back to Android after so long away is going well. It’s interesting to see what’s changed whilst I’ve not been keeping up with Android. I didn’t even realise that Samsung were still doing their S series. I probably have quite a bit more to say about the switch, and I’ll probably say it in another post, but it’s not the hell some people seem to think it is.
The Headphones
Another item I’ve switched recently. Along with my iPhone I was also using the Airpod Pro 2 headphones. They went hand in hand and I think as long as you’re using an iPhone, they’re very good at what they do. As soon as you move away from the Apple Ecosystem however, you lose functionality and some quality of life stuff goes out the window. You can’t see the battery life, you can’t use spatial audio etc.
Due to my switch to Android I thought it best to fully move away from Apple completely. For this reason I ended up opting for the Sony WF-1000MX5 ANC earbuds. They’re great. I really can’t fault them. I think the only thing that’s causing me an issue so far is that I keep reaching for the stem to press the button, like I would have done on my Airpods. I’ll get used to that over time I imagine, and whilst I’d prefer a physical set of buttons to use, it’s not a deal breaker. The Sonys have great sound quality, the ANC is really good, but maybe falls short of greatness, and the controls are at least fairly intuitive, if not overly user friendly. I definitely feel like I’ve made the right decision.
The Watch
Having ditched Apple, I waved, happily, goodbye to my Apple Watch. I have replaced it with the Samsung Watch 7 and what a breath of fresh air that thing is. I don’t fully know how to use it yet, but already I’m happier with it. It’s way more customisable, you can set it up pretty much however you want. The complications are better places, there are way more faces to choose from outside Apple and their dictatorish ways.
The default strap it comes with is maybe not the best but it’s comfortable enough that it hasn’t bothered me at all yet, but I do still plan to replace it. I think as times goes on and I learn about everything it can do that I don’t know about yet, I’ll only end up loving it more. I’ve half inched these pictures so I’ve no idea whose hand that is. Maybe it’s David Duchovny’s!
The Flashlight
The first thing that hasn’t changed from Apple. I’m a big fan of Olight and everything they do. I think I have at least 8 of their torches now and I carry at least 3 of them with me most days. There’s only one of them that’s in my pocket when I leave the house every day though and that is the Arkfeld EDC Light.
The reason I chose this one over the Pro or UV version is that it’s more in line with what I want it to do. Firstly it has a deep pocket clip so I can comfortably carry it on me all day without it getting in the way of my hands accessing my pockets. It has a max output of 1000 lumens which is all anyone really needs day to day, and whilst situations arise where you may need something brighter, I have something brighter in my rucksack, but for work and around the house, 1000 is plenty. It also has a green laser pointer, which, you know, is just for fun.
The Wallet
I moved away from a traditional wallet many moons ago, and recently decided to also ditch the shitty card holder type thing that’s become more typical nowadays. I didn’t like it at all. It could only carry a few cards and little else. I don’t every really use much cash but I do have other things I’d like to have on me. I now use the Chums Surf Shorts Wallet, which is more of a small pouch made of ripstop nylon. I went for one from the Aquaflauge range as I liked the bright colour of it.
One of the main problems I had with my card carrier is that the RFID blocking nature of it meant I had to take out my building keycard every time I wanted to use it. The Chums wallet has solved that by not having the RFID built in but instead letting you only block off a portion of the wallet. Now I can get in the building by just pressing my wallet against the pad. I also carry in it some ibuprofen, a couple of antibacterial hand wipes, some plasters, and in the ID window I have a picture of Momo from DanDaDan, and it’s all no bigger than my card carrier was more or less! For the first time, here is a picture of the actual thing I use rather than a promotional picture!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick flick through my general EDC setup for when I go out. We haven’t covered everything, but maybe we’ll take a more in depth look sometime and we can go through my whole backpack!
Take care!
