Luxury Tech: The $80 vs. $1,000 Power Bank

This is a pretty high-end $80 power bank from Anker. But this is a $1,000 luxury power bank from French fashion house Hermes. So Anker can go into this phone. Hermes can go into this phone. And let’s see which one has more charge in 20 minutes.

When most people buy power banks, they think of Ankor. When most people buy earphones, they think of AirPods. When most people buy smartwatches, they think of Fitbit. But this video is not about most people. This is tech designed for the uber rich, going all the way up to a, no joke, $139,000 set of headphones that I’m a little scared to even touch.

The $300 Steam Box Lunchbox

Now, I would guess that a lunchbox isn’t what you’d normally associate with luxury. You kind of imagine Jeff Bezos has his meal hunted fresh in front of him when he hits his lunch break. But if you were to use one, it would be the $300 steam box because this steams your food when you’re ready to eat.

So, I started the steaming 20 minutes ago. You just empty this water container into the heating base and then control it using the app on your phone. And it has just finished. Woah. We weren’t kidding about the steam. Freaking hot. Like actually surprisingly hot. But when we’re talking about the ability to reheat your lunch, that is a very good thing. I’m really curious how this compares to just reheating in a microwave. Oh wow. It actually has that this was just cooked right now feeling to it. That’s amazing. It’s completely evenly heated. The meat hasn’t gone super firm. They kind of cooked with this one.

I mean, clearly this is a niche product because you got to fit a battery and a water tank and a heater. The actual space you’re getting for your food isn’t massive. And most offices will have microwaves anyway that do most of the same job. But if you’re somewhere that doesn’t, I would way rather have this than a soggy cold sandwich that’s been in my pocket all day.

Comparing Mice: Logitech vs. Luna Artifacts

Anyways, back to work. Because anytime someone asks me for a computer mouse recommendation, I will always tell them go for the Logitech MXM, it’s expensive. The new Master 4 is $120, but it’s basically perfect. And so, I am fascinated to see if $365 can buy you something even better.

I mean, I’ll give it this. It is definitely a more indulgent unboxing experience. Comes with its own real leather mouse mat and then the mouse, which completely matches it. It’s a lot of space for such a small product, but I guess that makes it feel even more exclusive. Wa! The thing’s freezing cold to the touch.  Which is thanks to its gold tone plated solid aluminium. Is that just like the most elaborate way of saying it’s not actually gold? Send it back. I do really like the way it looks though. This is full grain French calf leather on top. I feel like there’s a direct correlation between how much you’re being charged for something and how many words are used to describe its leather.

It’s actually a little bit strange to hold. The mouse is completely symmetrical, which is good in the sense that you can use it with your left hand or your right hand. Doesn’t matter. But kind of makes it a little awkward to use with both for me. It just doesn’t cup your hand in the same way that something tailored for that hand would. So, if I go to here, oh, Logitech have absolutely mastered the shape, but also every click is cushioned and soft touch. And there’s even haptic feedback baked into this.

Whereas this Luna Artifacts mouse feels like it’s kind of material above all else. This is the only way that my fingers naturally fall on the mouse, and it doesn’t feel right. Also, it’s pretty clear the difference in usability between the really expensive fancy mouse mat and the actually $9.99 one from Amazon. I mean, this cheap one is bigger, it’s less scratchy, and it also doesn’t rock when I move the mouse around. Now, this thing does have a couple of nice tricks to it, like you can swap this top section for any other color, and you can even stick it on a chi charging mat to wirelessly charge it, which is absolutely amazing. Does it make it a better mouse? No. This is the Logite Cole choice.

The $759 Novium Hover Pen Future

Now, while we’re sitting in our executive office with our fancy leather mouse and our now rapidly calling lunch, we also need a pen. Not for writing, just for stunting on anyone we call into our office. And nothing feels more fitting than the $759 Novium Hover Pen Future. Good to see that at the very least they provide the ink.

And then this is the pen itself. So there’s a couple of unique things about this guy. The first is that it’s convertible. So this is the fountain nib. Let’s open up my dream journal. You do have to clutch it a little harder than I’d like because it’s really heavy at the back and it’s kind of smooth but not completely. There is still some drag against the paper. But then I can also swap the fountain nib for the roller ball. [Music] Ooh, I think I like this better. It’s smoother than the fountain. But then again, that’s a bit of a weird one because this is just using a very standard generic cartridge that you can buy for not a lot of money at all. So, not that impressed so far.

But then you’ve got the mag lev pedestal. So your pen goes into the middle there and then it just holds. Can I spin it? Wow, that’s really cool. I’ve messed around with quite a few levitation devices in the past and they’re always extremely finicky. This surprisingly isn’t. It has quite a large sweet spot and it’s fairly stable. Oh, I also like the fact that this is not an electromagnet, so it doesn’t need any power at all to keep holding your pen like this. that is actually scratching up the base pretty badly considering I’ve like barely used it right now.

The biggest thing that is making this version of the pen $759 instead of more like $170 is the nib. This is an 18 karat solid gold nib. And it is very pretty, but I really feel like instead of having a pen for which 80% of its worth is concentrated in the tip, they should have put that money into just making the rest of the pen feel more premium. Like this lid is far too squeaky for a pen that costs as much as a flagship smartphone. And it shouldn’t be getting damaged when you’re using it for its intended purpose.

Nike Hyper Boots: $900 Recovery Shoes

But speaking of products that are often mega expensive just for the sake of flexing, we got shoes. Except the $900 Nike hyper boots should actually do something to back up that diabolical price tag. [Music] Now, to my slight disappointment, that thing is not fly around the city saving humanity like Astro Boy, but they do apply compression and heat to aid your foot recovery.

Ooh, these are also really comfy. They fit like a glove, but then also really squeaky, too. Kind of sounds like they’re wet. Now, hold down the power buttons and that’s going to kick into max heat and max compression. And in theory, I can just be standing around going about my day while that’s happening. WA. Okay. Couple of very immediate thoughts. It’s a lot louder than I was expecting, but it’s also a lot more powerful than I was expecting. I had this idea in my mind that it would be like going to a foot spa, but my feet are getting crushed in a good way. And it is boiling hot. My skin feels right on the periphery of getting singed.

I’ve actually started playing football once every couple of weeks, and my feet come back a wreck. It really does feel like 15 minutes of this a day is going to burn them back into place. You can turn it down. I’m doing this to myself technically. The only thing that’s missing is it doesn’t have coverage of this top foot area here. Everything else is being very thoroughly compressed. I love the fact that luxury here is actually buying me convenience. The fact that you could just be walking or cooking or working and having that recovery is amazing. I would actually use this around the house instead of a pair of sliders. Maybe turn the heat down a little bit.

The Grams28 152 Transit Bag

There’s another pretty extreme way to spend your hard-earned $900, though. The Grams 281 152 Transit bag. I must have been through 30 of the top rated backpacks at this point, trying to find the perfect ones to recommend in my EDC videos. But value has always been a key factor there. So, it’ll be interesting to see what a bag that doesn’t have that limitation looks like.

I would like to make a statement. I’m in love with this bag. It feels so phenomenally premium to like touch, to squish. Like these shoulder straps, they feel like a stress toy. There’s not a single bit of rustling on the inside. It’s almost like they’ve got a a gel interior. And the entire thing, everything you can see is 100% Italian leather, so it’s also really durable. The thing I would say I like about this the most is that this is not a big bag. It’s actually the opposite of bulky, but they’ve just planned it out in such an intelligent way that there’s space for everything.

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Like, first of all, it opens up completely flat, which I love to see in backpacks cuz it allows you to pack it fully like a suitcase. It actually comes with a packing cube that has an extra zip that you close to tighten it, so you can viably pack a weekend’s worth of clothing in here. There’s these optional camera bags, and again, they’ve just really thought about how it fits together. Like there’s actually a designated Velcro section on the bottom of this bag that these just attach onto. I can’t think of a single box that it doesn’t tick. You can still fit a 16-inch laptop in the back. You can stick your passport in the secret compartment over here. You can put your sunglasses for easy access here. And the felt inside will clean them if anything. It’s got an elasticated suitcase pass through flap so you don’t even need to carry it when you’re going through an airport. There’s even this tiny little secret pouch on the inside designed for an air tag.

So functionally, it doesn’t really do anything extra compared to the $300 bag that I use that is already premium priced. So I wouldn’t call this GS28 bag good value. But is this a way for someone who wants to spend a lot more to be able to use that money to get something that is even better? Something that keeps all the functionality, but now with topshelf materials, with a much cleaner silhouette, and even a lifetime warranty. I would say yes. I would say this is like dream bag territory. You do not need it, but I would totally understand wanting it.

Montblanc Digital Paper

But now, let’s upgrade the dream journal to something digital because I’ve looked at digital notebooks before on the channel, but I have never paid the best part of $1,000 for the pleasure. So, the brand new digital paper by Mlanc has a lot to prove. This packaging design is so sick. And then on the inside is the pen. And then the paper itself.

So I feel like this product is actually a pretty big deal. You know, MB Blanc is often considered like the Rolex of physical pens. You can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on one from them. So, the thing that I’m extremely curious about is what is their vision for the digital writing experience. This is like if Rolex made a smartwatch. First things first, it’s a lot heavier than it looks. It’s great that you can use it for reading if you wanted to. And the screen looks incredibly sharp and detailed, but it’s so much heftier than a normal e-reader that I think you’d be making a mistake if you were using it for that.

So, what about the writing? I got to say, not that impressed with this pen. For a company who prides themselves on craftsmanship and materials, there sure is a lot of shiny plastic here. The way the pen works is kind of interesting because they’ve customd designed three different types of tip. They’ve got linen, which is the roughest one, and then it goes matte and then smooth. So, let’s try the linen. Ooh, does actually feel really nice. It’s got a little bit of scratchiness to it. That does make it feel a lot like dragging a pen across paper. If I close my eyes right now. Wow. Yeah, that really could just be me writing on a piece of paper with a rollable pen. Something has been translated from the physical writing experience to the digital.

If we now try the smooth tip, can I tell the difference? To my surprise, yes, I actually can completely. It kind of feels like drawing on glass. It’s got that silkiness to it, which is kind of nice in its own way as a tool for writing. I’m a big fan of this. I love how the pen just snaps onto the side. Doesn’t wiggle at all. I love how it wirelessly charges automatically while it’s sitting in that spot. It’s really cool how almost instantly the moment you finish a note, it will appear in the fairly swanky looking Mont Blanc app on your phone.

Power Bank Charging Results: Anker vs. Hermes

Okay, it’s been just over 20 minutes since we put these phones on charge. So, the anchor is on, but you’re kidding me. Exactly 69%. So, that’s an $80 brick. Amazes $1,000 brick has done 27%. I didn’t have high expectations. That still hasn’t met them. Honestly, I’m kind of gutted. I actually really wanted to love this. It’s just so pretty. It’s aluminium all the way around the sides. It’s calf skinin leather on the front and the back. The fact that you have this actually working physical dial to show you how much battery the pack has left is really unique and charming. Plus, if you flip it around, it can also wireless charge. So, you rest your phone on the H in the middle here if it’s just sitting on your desk.

But, it’s not MagSafe compatible, so it’s going to be super inefficient. I just feel like power banks specifically are such a function first product that you would have to be crazy to trade having nearly three times the charging speed and about six times the battery capacity just for aesthetics. It’s still going to take up the same volume in your bag either way. So, would I choose to carry this even if it was the same price? No.

The Ice Breaker Keyboard

But now it’s time to break through the $1,000 threshold with the ice breaker keyboard. That is such serious business. It comes presented like a boweapon. But the crazy thing here is that this thing is milled from a single solid block of aluminium. So, as expected, the weight of the thing is immense. Like, it almost makes me want to recheck the loadbearing capacity of my desks.

The first impressions are kind of nice. I love the lighting. It’s very vibrant. And there’s so much space here. feels like we’re at a level of pricing where the keyboard comes with its own desk. And it’s kind of cool cuz it gives you basically unlimited area to rest your wrists against. And it also creates room for a very satisfying rotary encoder. And this is programmable, but right now mine just lets you do the very basic volume up and down. They’ve even gone as far as to forgot how damn heavy the thing is. microperforate these metal key caps, which are also completely custom made, by the way, so that the backlighting actually bleeds through. The effort that’s gone into this is hard to dispute.

Okay, moment of truth. I don’t like it. The slant is too steep for me. It feels like a stretch, and every time you press one key, part of your finger keeps touching against the key directly beneath it. And I was kind of expecting it to have a really unique metallic thunk, but in reality, it feels quite ordinary. My hands are particularly sensitive to non ideal typing conditions, and this is one of them.

The $1,699 Gray Alter Ego Phone Case

Did I use this video as an excuse to buy the phone case that I’ve been wanting to try for almost a decade? Maybe. This is the $1699 gray Alter Ego case. Um, little concerning that the insert is upside down. It’s a small thing, but it’s an indication of a lack of attention to detail. So, the thing that captivated my attention all those years ago was this is the most expensive phone case I’ve ever seen and yet it has the least material. And yeah, we have seen a couple of cases more recently that have also jumped on this bandwagon, but this is the original and it looks kind of cool. I mean, I do like the fact that there’s a cutout for the Apple logo, but they’ve kept it in their very sharp angular style.

But wow, that is not nice to hold. Some part of me was thinking it would feel really freeing to not have a case covering every surface of your device, but it actually feels like some sort of medieval slow torture device. But at the very least, it should be pretty protective. This is made of two slabs of titanium that are screwed together and then layered onto a softer thermoplastic sheet, which is what stays in contact with the phone. So, the titanium is the exoskeleton, and then the plastic is what’s absorbing the impact, which means we have to do something that I don’t really want to do.

Luxury phone case versus normal phone case. So, this was a $10 first thing that comes up on Amazon kind of deal. Each case has the same phone and a brand new version of it inside of them. Normal case. 3 2 1. And now the alter ego. 3 2 1. It’s a very strange feeling being more worried for the case than the actual phone. So, do we have any damage on our standard phone? Yes, some. Although it’s not significant, but more importantly, the phone is completely unlocked. Fair enough. And so, actually, the uber expensive case, I would say, has fared worse. The phone’s fine on both, but there’s very obvious permanent damage in every corner of this thing. So, as you probably assumed, this is not the way to go.

Apple Watch Hermes Edition

Now, most of the gadgets you’ve seen so far are from pretty niche companies or even companies that are fashion brands more than they are tech brands. But now it’s time for an official Apple product, the Apple Watch Hermes edition, which is actually really strange. I had no idea until this video that Apple on their site has a whole separate section where you can buy the Hermes version of whatever their latest Apple Watch is and be massively upcharged for the experience.

To be fair though, you feel the difference when you’re unboxing it. This is a step up from any consumer tech unboxing I’ve seen, which is kind of expected when you bring together two companies who know how to do this, right? So, the first thing is the way heavier than expected Hermes Grand H metal strap. This is hefty. [Music] There’s another insert over here and that’s a second sports band silicon this time but matched to the Hermes orange. And then finally the watch body. [Music]

So this is the Hermes watch series 11. This is the Apple Watch Series 11 which is literally a quarter of the price. So what’s actually different? Well, the Hermes does come in polished titanium by default. So, this is a lot heavier. And yeah, it is the more premium hardwearing material, but that’s also not really a perk considering you can also upgrade the normal Apple Watch to titanium and it’s still way cheaper. Oh, it does say Hermes on the back just in case you fancy taking it off every now and again to check.

So then I guess the only thing that you will notice day-to-day is the Hermes watch faces, but honestly, this is very strange to me. You get the radial collection, but it’s just so generic that it could be from any company. There’s a couple of other similarly forgettable faces. And then all the company’s actual signature ones. They look so odd to me. Obviously, there’s a heavy dose of subjectivity in here, but all I see is 1980s video game pixel art and a not quite finished drawing of a horse. Only appeal I can see is gifting. The unboxing is different and it does make it feel exclusive. And the Omese Watch is the best version of the Apple Watch with the titanium body. So, it’s not worse. I just kind of wish it was better considering how much more it costs.

Louis Vuitton Lightup Speaker

But now, at almost double the price of that, the Louis Vuitton lightup speaker has an unboxing experience that truly delivers. This is exactly what you want Uber Luxury to feel like. Every part of this is made of really high quality materials, but it’s also designed to give you everything you could possibly want.

So, there’s one bag here which has this quite nice leather wrist strap. Over here, there’s a that’s actually kind of wild. A charger, but with like an adapter for every possible country. Another bag which has not one but two Louis Vuitton branded cables, a 1 m and a 3 m depending on how far apart the sockets in your mansion are. Mini envelopes that has the cleaning cloth inside. Then a novel for your instructions. That’s maybe the first instruction manual I’ve seen that you could also use as a coffee table book. There’s the base of the speaker, which in itself is already super weighty. And then the speaker itself, which also comes in its own custom protective case. It’s actually quite cool that the handle of the speaker sticks out through it so that you can hold it easily. [Music]

I got to say, when I heard light up speaker, I was kind of getting the vibe of those kids shoes that come with a little toy car inside the sole. But thankfully, that sentiment disappears pretty quickly. It’s quite clear that this is at least trying to be a proper piece of tech. It’s got an app which is quite simple but very premium where you can pick a gradient or an animation to display on all the lights around the thing that can also sync to the music it’s playing. I do really like when you change the color of the LEDs, it changes the color of every single part of the UI of this app to match obviously high-end materials everywhere. It’s a very expensive cocktail of polish and matte stainless steel. The whole mesh is silver perforated leather and then this LED ring all the way around is protected by tempered glass and it’s all accompanied with what can only be described as one of the greatest knobs of our lifetime. This is how you change volume and style.

So, does it sound luxury? [Music] Uh, no, not really. The problem is for the money you pay, it’s a tiny speaker. And clearly all the engineering inside has gone into cool LEDs and fancy materials, but not on tech that’s going to allow it to defy those dimensions. So, they have squeezed good sound out of this small size. Like this sounds distinctly better than a $50 Bluetooth speaker you’re going to buy on Amazon, but it doesn’t sound good for the price.

Anker Nebula X1 Projector

So, do you remember I mentioned Anker as one of the companies you think of when you want a good mainstream class tech product? Well, there’s one exception, the $4,999 Anker Nebula X1 Projector, our sponsor. And luxury here buys you a freaking transformer cuz this thing has a telescopic handle baked inside of here, power cable that can retract itself, control panel at the top, remote and microphones that rest inside which automatically connect by the way for karaoke. It’s got lights so you can find your way around in the dark. But then you press one button here and two speakers flank out from the sides. There’s two more speakers inside of here and each one is charged by the machine itself. You can take them out. They’ve got their own legs baked in and they connect instantly for 7.1.4 for surround sound, Dolby Atmos. We are the princesses. And 400 W of power. Sorry, Lou. Why are we still here?

And then the projector itself. It’s 4K. It’s 3,500 lm of brightness. It can fill a 200 in screen. But the thing that I really rate about it is the fact that you don’t even need to move the thing. It’s got a gimbal, so you can pan it up and down from one spot. It focuses by itself. It corrects for its own angle. And the thing is currently $2,000 off with the Kickstarter early bird offer in the description.

The $139,000 Headphones: Jacob and Co x Louve

The time has come to unbox what can only be described as the big daddy of this video and maybe my whole life. So, there’s two headphones here. There’s the $119,000 Noir Rainbow, and then the $139,000 Ice Diamond. They’re both made as part of a collab between Louve, who’s brought the tech, and then Jacob and Co, who’s brought the materials. And oh yeah, each of these are one of five in the world. Someone has had to hand deliver these from Germany to our house. They’re still upstairs.

So, let’s start with the rainbow. I always get a little bit nervous with these expensive products. It’s not very often you get to see the behindthe-scenes unboxing of something this insanely valuable. Do they actually put cleaning cloths over every surface of the internal box? The production cost for the packaging of these headphones is €1,500. It’s so slippy. Okay. Wow. I could sleep in that. So, there’s the main compartment and then there’s a drawer underneath. Oh my god, that’s leather. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can smell that. It’s not one of those things everyone likes, but I love it. Oh, and also at the bottom, you’ve got two different cables. Both look goldplated to me.

Oh, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. You know, we’ve seen a lot of products already that are fancy materials, but they don’t feel as nice. This ain’t one of them. That is like uber plush. Then inside the case, wait, more gloves. Did we buy these for no reason? Well, there’s $6 on Amazon I’m never getting back. Another cleaning cloth. Certificate of authenticity. [Music] This looks like some sort of international declaration. What’s this? Is that a bag for the case for the headphones? These guys in the packaging.

All right, let’s get to business. The Noir Rainbow headphones. Oh my god. Limited edition. One of five. That is actually beautiful. So, this is a 14 karat rose gold ring, but the crazy part of it is it is set with 204 multicolored sapphires. I mean, just the way that it interacts with light is phenomenal. And shockingly, it’s actually tastefully done. This is the first obnoxiously expensive product that I actually think looks better than just about any consumer grade one. Oh, it’s got gold lettering on the top. Look at that. Although there is something amusing about the fact that the one product they chose for extreme bedazzlement is like the one product that you fully cannot see when you’re using it.

Now Ice Diamond. So I imagine most of this unboxing experience is going to be the same. So we’ll just do the headphones. 3 2 1 That’s actually even better. Somehow that’s actually even better. This one’s a little different. This ring is 14 karat white gold, but with 456 brilliant cut diamonds. If you’ve ever shopped for a wedding ring before, you will immediately understand why this thing costs so much. But wow, the design of the enclosures and the individual claws holding each diamond is so intricate. It is dazzling to look at.

Let’s have a listen, I guess. Wo! You can tell they’re really big 50 mil drivers. You’re getting really powerful, deep bass, but in a way that the headphones don’t feel like they’re exerting themselves. Noise isolation is crazy, too. I I can barely hear myself, to be honest. It’s also absolutely crazy to me that this is your volume control, and this is how you skip tracks. So, your dials are basically $70,000 each.

This is kind of the life right now. I’m not going to lie. Honestly, one of the best wireless headphones I ever listened to. I mean, it’s $140,000. That’s not a surprise, but it’s good to see that it’s not sacrificing on the tech just to look pretty. There’s something nice about knowing that if you are going to spend uber amounts of money, then at least you are getting the best sound quality, too. Even if that sound quality might cost $1,000 instead of well, this. Although, I do feel like I would be absolutely terrified to actually wear these and use these outside the house or inside the house.

As for the Hall of Fame winner for this Reading, there’s a couple of close contenders, but I think it has to be the backpack.