Minority Editorial Team's New Gadgets: Cuktech Power Bank Card, HomePod mini 2, Sonos Beam Ultra, and Guyán Prepared Dishes

October 29, 2026 · 12 min read · New Gadgets 254 | What did the editors of SSPAI buy recently? Lead author: SSPAI Editorial Team, SSPAI member, official account of the SSPAI Editorial Team. SSPAI Editorial Team, SSPAI Editorial Team, SSPAI member, official account of the SSPAI Editorial Team. Co-authors: SSPAI Editorial Team, SSPAI member, official account of the SSPAI Editorial Team. SSPAI Editorial Team, SSPAI Editorial Team, SSPAI member, official account of the SSPAI Editorial Team.

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Editor's note: Many readers are curious about what the editors of SSPAI actually buy in their day-to-day lives. Through "New Gadgets from the Editorial Team," we hope to introduce the novel products that editorial team members have been using recently, and let them talk about what the experience of using these new gadgets is really like.

Content disclosure: If an entry in the "New Gadgets" column contains commercial content, it will be marked "Advertisement" in the corresponding item; if marked "Provided by manufacturer for review," the product was not purchased at our own expense, but the brand had no involvement in the content. The editors' sharing is for reference only; everyone is welcome to share their experience with the same products in the comments, whether positive or negative—we welcome honest opinions. Please follow the SSPAI community rules when posting: express yourself civilly and chat happily.

@WhaleFish: CUKTECH No. 6 Power Bank Card Air Three-Body Collaboration Edition

Reference price: 127.71 yuan

During the National Day holiday trip, I brought a three-port charger that I'd snagged from a holiday gift box I received at the office. But its bulky size and roughly 200g weight were really not what you'd call "portable," and after it fell out of the wall outlet several times, I finally decided to buy a thin, lightweight, portable charger to replace it. After a quick look around, I ordered the CUKTECH No. 6 Power Bank Card Air Three-Body Collaboration Edition, and it turned out to be much better in practice than I expected.

On the left is the nice-looking packaging box

The collaboration edition uses a translucent design, with the shell decorated with patterns of the Three-Body Problem and the dual-vector foil; through the shell you can faintly see the internal components, giving the whole thing a strong futuristic tech feel. The collaboration patterns blend naturally with the translucent white shell—even if you're not a fan of the books, you don't need to worry that the collaboration patterns will look out of place, and buying it purely for the translucent design is completely justifiable.

Its functionality is also quite strong. It has 2 Type-C ports and supports up to 90W output power, which is basically enough to charge phones, tablets, watches, and other devices on short trips. When using the C1 port alone, it can deliver up to 65W output power, so temporarily charging a laptop is no problem either, and it supports AVS fast charging—the iPhone 18 Pro series can charge to up to 50% in 15 minutes.

What satisfies me most is its size. The front area is a bit smaller than a bank card, and it's only about 1.5cm thick; with the prongs folded, it easily fits into all kinds of small bags, and even stuffed directly into a clothing or pants pocket it won't look bulging. More importantly, being thin and light doesn't mean it easily comes loose when plugged into a wall outlet—in daily use it hangs securely in the socket, so you don't have to worry about it falling out all the time like the previous charger. At around 80g, it's barely noticeable, so carrying it every day is basically no burden. A few days ago, when we went with Lao Mai to the Tomorrow Park event, a colleague asked to borrow a charger, and I pulled this "power card" out of my thin little bag—colleagues around me were all amazed. In that moment, I even thought of the classic scene of Steve Jobs pulling the MacBook Air out of a manila envelope.

Now I'm willing to carry it with me every day—it has to look good, work well, and be easy to carry for it to have a chance to come in handy when you really need it.

@waychane: HomePod mini 2

Provided by manufacturer for review

I got the HomePod mini 2 early, so here's a quick rundown of my experience.

Compared with the previous generation, the HomePod mini 2, updated after a six-year gap, has changed quite a bit in terms of specs: the chip jumps from S5 to S10, the China-market version's Wi-Fi connection spec is upgraded from the previous generation's 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) to 802.11ax, i.e. Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth is upgraded to Bluetooth 6.

But in terms of experience, the HomePod mini 2's improvements aren't actually that noticeable. As for the most core audio streaming capability, even calculating at uncompressed 24-bit / 48 KHz two-channel audio, only about a few Mbps of throughput is needed, and the actual requirement after using ALAC encoding is usually even lower. Therefore, I think this generation's upgrade in wireless connection specs can be considered a routine hardware iteration, with no obvious impact on the daily experience.

According to the information on the official website, the HomePod mini 2 still uses a full-range driver unit + dual vibration-canceling passive radiators, so the internal speaker architecture should be unchanged; the S10 chip, which handles computational audio and voice processing, thus becomes an important factor affecting the listening experience. From my actual listening, I think the gap between the two generations of HomePod mini is extremely small: the HomePod mini 2 reaches a bit deeper in the bass and has slightly better vocal envelopment, but in everyday listening you'll hardly notice a difference. One rather regrettable point is that this generation of HomePod mini, like the previous one, still doesn't support spatial audio.

The core change is that after upgrading the device to the 27.2 system version, the latency when using the HomePod mini 2 via AirPlay has improved significantly. Whether playing local audio files, listening to Apple Music, or watching streaming content in Safari, the audio delay is negligible; even when repeatedly dragging the timeline in editing software, the sound keeps up with the operation. This is also why Apple says the HomePod mini 2 can be used as a Mac's default audio source.

However, this is not an exclusive capability of the HomePod mini 2. After actual testing, even on my first-generation HomePod, the latency when playing the same content is extremely low and no different from the HomePod mini 2—one can only say the first-generation HomePod is still impressively capable.

In terms of other features, the 27.2 system version also adds Sound Halo and Lock Controls. The former lets the lights on top of the HomePod display colorful animations based on the music cover and playback content, while the latter can disable the top touch controls for play, track skipping, and volume to prevent children, pets, or everyday accidental touches from interrupting playback. However, these two are likewise not entirely exclusive to the HomePod mini 2: the first-generation HomePod mini and the second-generation HomePod both support Sound Halo, and Lock Controls covers all models, including the first-generation HomePod.

Finally, a purchasing recommendation: as can be seen, the HomePod mini 2 does not offer much that is new in the everyday experience. If you are already using a HomePod mini 1 or a second-generation HomePod, there is really no need to rush to upgrade. Of course, as an Apple smart home hub and speaker product with a relatively low barrier to entry and a sufficiently complete experience, if your main need is controlling your smart home, or adding one or two relatively compact speakers to spaces such as the bedroom or study, the HomePod mini 2 is undoubtedly the more reasonable choice at present.

@Microhoo: Sonos Beam Ultra

Reference price: 6,013 yuan (after Double 11 coupon)

What has always attracted me most to Sonos is that it has built a complete modern audio system. But for a long time in the past, "system" was more like an implicit bonus that came with buying the speaker, until not long ago, when Sonos officially named its underlying architecture the "Sonos 27" audio operating system. This move actually appealed to me quite a bit; I think it means that "audio system" is no longer just an additional feature of Sonos products, but has become the core purpose of Sonos in creating a product.

Among the two first-launch new products unveiled alongside Sonos 27, besides the over-ear headphones Sonos Ace Ultra, the other is the compact soundbar Sonos Beam Ultra. This generation has made quite a few upgrades in hardware and ease of use—in addition to acoustic specification upgrades, this time it also adds a USB-C port on the back for connecting external audio sources such as vinyl, and Trueplay also supports "quick tuning," which is friendlier to Android users.

This hits the spot for me, because my first-generation Sonos Arc has become a bit "unwieldy." The Arc itself has no problems; the main thing is that it has been with me for almost six years, and over these six years the Apple TV and game consoles in the living room have gone through several rounds of replacement. I'm not sure whether cross-brand HDMI handshake protocols have gradually developed a generation gap through constant iteration, but recently it occasionally disconnects from the TV when powered on and has to be unplugged and replugged or restarted to recover. Second, it's to optimize the surface space of the TV cabinet—over the past few years the surface has gradually filled up with an Apple TV, Switch, wireless AP, and PS5, and the Arc, over a meter long, lying across the middle is really a bit cramped. I've always wanted to lighten the load on the surface and switch to a more streamlined product.

Actually, when I bought a soundbar years ago, I had already agonized between the Arc and the Beam. At the time I always felt the Beam didn't have enough channels and lacked physical height channels, so I gritted my teeth and chose the Arc with richer channels. When I first switched down from the meter-plus-long Arc, I was somewhat worried whether the Beam Ultra, with its reduced size, would be out of its depth, but after using it for a while, the actual listening experience has not degraded. Thanks to the 9 drivers packed into the compact body, it can achieve 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos on its own, and its built-in bass is much more solid and warm than expected; the vertical sound field supported by 2 physical height channels is quite expansive; plus the redesigned center channel and AI voice enhancement technology, when watching movies with heavy background scores, even in large dynamic mix passages, the actors' dialogue remains clean and transparent.

Some of the thoughtful features you get used to are all there too—for example, the "Night Mode" that keeps the peace with the neighbors when you're watching a movie at night. The system lowers loud sound effects like explosions while appropriately raising quieter sounds, so dialogue is easier to hear when watching at low volume. Overall, although this is a "model downgrade," there's no difference in the user experience—in some specific scenarios there's even a slight improvement—so if you're like me and are upgrading from an older model, and your living room is under 20 square meters, then there's no need to worry at all about whether the Beam Ultra will be out of its depth.

Especially under the Sonos 27 system, it also supports the "portable rear surround" feature. If you add two portable speakers, the Sonos Play, you can usually just put them in the kitchen or bedroom to listen to music, and when watching a movie, carry them directly behind the sofa; the system will use spatial positioning technology to automatically identify the left and right positions and form a complete physical surround sound together with the Beam Ultra, and when it's over you can take them away at any time.

In fact, what I find most interesting isn't the sound quality, but the Sonos 27 MCP. Although geeky users have previously tinkered with MCP bridging for speakers locally through Home Assistant or GitHub open-source projects, Sonos is the first audio brand to directly step in and offer a native cloud MCP service. You don't need to set up your own server; just add the official interface address to the AI you normally use, log in and authorize, and while working at your computer you don't even need to touch your phone—just issue commands in the chat box to arrange speaker playback. Rather than building its own closed AI voice assistant, it opens control to the AI tools users use most, which really fits the "audio operating system" positioning.

As for the Sonos 27's headline feature this time—using two Sonos Plays as temporary rear surrounds—and seamless switching with the new Ace Ultra headphones, I'll have to leave those to experience slowly if I get the chance to buy them in the future. And apart from watching movies and binge-watching shows, during most of the time when the TV is off, the Beam Ultra actually serves as the main music speaker in my living room. There's no need to turn on the TV screen; whether I'm AirPlaying spatial audio tracks from Apple Music or directly streaming from the app, it can team up and link with the Sonos speakers or HomePods in other rooms at any time.

Thinking back to more than a decade ago, when smart speakers weren't everywhere yet and internet speeds weren't even 100 Mbps, Sonos was widely regarded as an "oddball," tagged with labels like Silicon Valley geek, nonconformist, and doing hardware with a software mindset. At the time, the traditional Hi-Fi circle even looked down on it somewhat, feeling it was "not traditional acoustics enough."

But Sonos still paid no heed and insisted on its proprietary wireless network, simplified body controls with heavy reliance on the mobile app, and even used the phone microphone for acoustic calibration—and now these have gradually become standard features among those so-called "acoustic giants." Now in the AI era, Sonos has first thrown out an MCP interface to test the waters, and plans to launch user-customizable agents next year, which feels familiar. Although it has already been transformed by the internet era, the true "intelligent era" is already on the horizon, with conversation becoming the most natural form of interaction. As the best carrier for that, speakers now inevitably seem a bit "old-fashioned," and I very much look forward to Sonos continuing to bring some new changes.

@Lu Zhongnan: Guyin frozen prepared meal kits (calorie-controlled meals + Chinese cuisine meal kits)

Reference price: Reference price: light calorie-controlled meals nearly 20 yuan/box, Chinese cuisine meal kits average five or six yuan/bag

I saw an episode of Xiao Xiangge's video where he ate them with gusto, and he kept stressing that the hygiene standards for prepared food from such a big manufacturer are extremely high: "If you order their prepared meals, you should even count yourself lucky." That got me interested right away—if an industrialized assembly line can be hygienic and reassuring while also saving effort and money, why not give it a try? So I placed an order on the Tmall flagship store for two Guyin products: one is the "light calorie-controlled meal" focused on fat loss, which works out to nearly 20 yuan a box; the other is Chinese home-style meal kits averaging five or six yuan, and buying ten bags turned out to be a bit cheaper than three light meals.

On the day it arrived, I first opened a box of "Hawaiian-style Pineapple Shrimp." The heating instructions on the packaging were truly a bit absurd—steaming in a water bath was recommended for 40 minutes, and the microwave needed 10 minutes. For a frozen prepared meal that emphasizes convenience, that time is almost as long as cooking from scratch. Fortunately, in practice it wasn't that extreme: I poured it into a plate and steamed it for just over 20 minutes and it was thoroughly cooked, and the next meal I took the seafood version with its packaging to heat in the microwave for about 7 minutes and it was ready to eat. I don't know how the 40 minutes was measured—probably a conservative figure starting from frozen with cold water for steaming.

However, its appearance really can't be called good; after steaming it turned soft and mushy into a single plate, and the portion of ingredients was on the small side. The seasoning wasn't bad (maybe six or seven out of ten), and the ingredients were fairly varied, but in terms of proportions there was too much staple food—a very thick layer of mixed-grain brown rice was spread underneath, which would definitely fill you up. Protein was given rather stingily, so I later added three eggs myself to supplement it. For the second meal I took the seafood version with its packaging to heat in the microwave, and the squid inside was the most rigid-textured I've ever eaten, with a stiff chewiness. The whole box is about 500 kcal—for reference, jogging for an hour burns about 500 kcal, and McDonald's also has a 500-kcal meal set, so fellow Pai users can compare for themselves.

Spending close to the 20 yuan of a takeout light meal, you can make a meal directly in the microwave. In terms of portion size and ingredient variety, it should be slightly better than Hema Workshop, and the taste is fairly ordinary—doesn't it sound like the value for money is a bit lacking?

You can zoom in yourself to look at the ingredient list.

As for that box of Chinese-style meal kits averaging a bit over five yuan each, the experience was even more subtle. I tried the preserved vegetable pork belly, braised pig trotters with soybeans, and Taiwanese braised pork one after another. This kind of prepared dish is more accurately a sauce packet for rice bowls; the seasoning is heavy-handed, and the overall flavor is noticeably on the sweet side—a sweetness that even I, as a southerner, find hard to accept. Especially that Taiwanese braised pork one—at least I have never ordered a Taiwanese braised pork rice from any takeout place that looked like this; you'd need a big bowl of white rice to barely suppress that thick, viscous sauce. All three packets contained fatty meat, and none of it was stewed to the point of being fatty but not greasy—it was just fatty, just greasy, just impossible to chew through.

There was a fried egg placed underneath the braised pig trotters with soybeans.

Looking at the cost, a five-yuan seasoning packet can't possibly contain more than five yuan worth of meat. Converted at current raw meat prices, the actual amount of meat is probably worth only one or two yuan. Even if production is compliant, clean and hygienic, and backed by a major manufacturer, being high in sodium and sugar and lacking dietary fiber and sufficient protein means it has nothing to do with being healthy. If you add extra meat and vegetables to eat comfortably, the cost per meal likewise heads straight toward 20 yuan. Having eaten both types of products, they overall carry a kind of rough, canteen-style seasoning feel, and I most likely won't repurchase these particular items. Maybe I'll try some slightly more expensive products? Or I'll just make some prepared dishes for myself.

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