New platforms and flexibility to operate ... this is how major technology companies faced the latest pandemic!

He started in 2020 and began our current crisis with him, to reflect with him the flexibility of global technology companies in dealing with crises, as many companies began implementing precautionary measures early, as a result of the presence of branches in China, the epicenter of the epidemic.

In the beginning of the crisis, technical companies also took many different precautions to protect their employees and contribute to solving the crisis, whether by spreading the correct news and fighting false and false information.

In the forefront of which are Facebook, Amazon and Google, we will review the most important of these measures for you, and we will try to monitor the reactions of these companies and their flexibility towards crises.


Facebook and false news
facebook
As the most used website in the world, Facebook is a fertile platform suitable for spreading many false theories and news, and this is what happened during the last epidemic period.

Among the most important updates that Facebook made to face the recent epidemic crisis, is the establishment of a website for the site, to control all posts related to the crisis, and according to BBC NEWS in the event of violating the credibility standards, Facebook starts to reduce the percentage of the appearance of that content, and if it is found that A mistake that is deleted next.

The most famous step for users is that, once the word “Corona” is written in the site’s search, the first result is the official page of the official health authority in the user’s country, as the most reliable source in dealing with the crisis and obtaining data and information.

Also read: How did the recent pandemic help introduce self-driving vehicles in China?

Twitter and the new business model
Twitter.
It can be said that Twitter has taken all the above-mentioned steps in the face of the crisis similar to Facebook, but Twitter has presented a different model that is an important starting point in facing the current crisis, as the company announced that it will allow workers to work from home to those who prefer this for life, without being affected The company's internal operations, as the company discovered its ability to manage all its important and vital operations through working from home, without this being a major problem in the work system.

According to the BBC NEWS network, the company announced that it will pay compensation to those who work with the fixed hours during the day, so that they can configure their own home office system to continue to perform well, and pay salaries to cover standard working hours.

Google and YouTube .. How do the giants succeed?
Google and YouTube
Both Google and YouTube were able to present one of the most successful models in the face of the current crisis and the ability to deal with it successfully, as Google launched an information center on the search platform, in order to avoid publishing false and false information regarding the crisis, and YouTube put a distinct tag below any section Video on the crisis, to provide a reliable, safe and effective way to follow up on reliable news about the crisis.

According to the BBC News network, the site has banned all videos that dealt with conspiracy theories in Britain about the relationship between the last epidemic and the fifth generation networks, which caused the suspension of the formation of the fifth generation networks in the cities of Britain and the Netherlands.

Also read: Collecting and storing the Internet on your PC can become a reality with Web Scraping!

Google also participated in launching a famous tracking platform to follow up on cases of infection, as the program that the company launched in cooperation with Apple, is supposed to inform millions of users if they have recently dealt with cases of corona infection, in one of the largest tracking platforms in the world, which She received a lot of criticism during the announcement period, fearing it could be a way to track users.

China has not controlled this sector .. Smart phones worthy of acquisition from outside China, know it now!

In the last decade, China has emerged as a leading brand in the mobile phone market thanks to its devices manufactured by various companies such as Huawei, Opo, Xiaomi and other Chinese companies that fulfill the desires of broad categories of consumers. China also collects iPhone and many famous mobile phones.

Despite the well-known Chinese genie in this sector, there are many options for smartphones manufactured in other countries as important as the first, such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and India, so if you are dear reader who prefer to own mobile phones made outside China, this article will fulfill your desires Through the best wonderful options around the world.

ASUS ROG Phone II “Taiwan”

ASUS released its latest smartphone in late 2019, when the ROG Phone II for gaming was announced, featuring a 6.59-inch screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz - available on the device a few months before the current cell phones equipped with this technology - supported by the Snapdragon +855 processor With 12/8 GB RAM and a wide internal storage from 128 GB to 1 TB.

The phone has a dual camera on the back of 48 and 13 megapixels and a 24 megapixel front camera, the front dual speakers amplify the sound in your face while playing with controls, which gives fun and thrill in games.

It also has a massive battery with a capacity of 6,000 mAh to make you play games for hours without worrying about the battery charge level, the ROG logo lights up behind the device with a variety of colors during gameplay in addition to vibration, and game accessories are available to improve the playing conditions on the phone.

Also read: How has the fashion industry changed recently? Is technology the only solution to maintain the industry today?

Phone LG G8X ThinQ “South Korea”

While Samsung has made a great effort in its foldable Galaxy Fold device, it is very expensive, as the phone costs $ 2000, and despite the size of its large screen measuring 7.3 inches, the experience of dual applications is definitely affected by the size of the screen, but the LG G8X ThinQ The foldable dual screen cover provides a great performance experience at a lower price than the South Korean giant Galaxy Fold.

The phone was released in 2019 and contains two dual screens measuring 6.4 inches each with a Snapdragon 855 processor and a dual camera at the back of 12 and 13 megapixels, while the front camera is 32 megapixels, and contains 6 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage It is expandable, and it has a 4000 mAh battery, shock-resistant metal frame, high-quality dual speakers, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

LG Stylo 5 “South Korea”

The LG Stylo 5 is a class of mid-range cell phones and comes with a built-in stylus similar to the S pen in the Galaxy Note family. The phone is available with a 6.2-inch screen with the Snapdragon 450 processor with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage expandable, the battery with a capacity of 3,500 mAh, a 13-megapixel rear camera while the front camera 5-megapixel.

With the pen you can write notes manually, draw and color, it also supports animated text messages, GIF creation tools and many other pen features.

Phone LG V60 ThinQ “South Korea”

The LG V60 ThinQ 5G phone also consists of two dual screens with a metal frame to resist the shock, the phone screen has a 6.8-inch OLED panel, with a Snapdragon 865 processor and 8 GB RAM while the internal storage memory is 128 GB expandable.

It also has a 5000 mAh battery, and through the triple rear camera system you can record 8K videos in addition to other advanced camera software on the phone, in addition to focusing on video capture technologies, the phone also provides great audio performance through the speakers, as well as It has a 3.5mm headphone port.

Trying AT&T’s Fake 5G 2020

- Hey guys, this is Austin. After years of using 4G,5G networks are just starting to roll out. And with that, we should be able to see proper gigabit-class speeds. But if you owned a flagship in the last couple years you might have noticed something strange, a 5G E logo. So, have you been using a 5G phone this entire time without realizing it?Yeah, no. Like 4G before it, 5G is not as straightforward as it might seem. There are several competing 5G standards being built out right now. For example, here in LA, you can sign up for Verizon's 5G home service. This is using an early version of 5G, which according to Verizon is good for up to 20 times the speed of LTE. And in the real world, delivers about 300 megabits per second down. Although theoretically, it can go up to940 megabytes, completely wirelessly. That's actually pretty good. And it shows how 5G can be used, not only for your phone and for your laptop and tablet, but also it can be used to completely replace standard home internet line. So putting aside for a second that this isn't true 5G just yet, there is a ton of potential here. The final 5G spec calls for a theoretical maximum of 20 gigabits per second. Although realistically, it's going to be much closer to one gigabit. But that is still a huge huge bump over what we have today. That brings us to 5G E. Now this is short for 5G Evolution and it is what AT&T is calling 5G. Although spoiler alert, it's not 5G. So to give you a better idea of what 5G E is, we have a little bit of an example. So, this is Pikachu. And for this reference, we'll call him 5G. As you can see, he's very cheery, he's very happy. All good, right?Well, this is Mimikyu. Now, on the service looks very similar to Pikachu, except that he's really LTE with some weird drawings on his face. Clearly not the same thing. Are you following?Maybe I should explain this little bit better. So if you take a look at the AT&T site, they describe 5G E as quote,"The first step on the road to 5G. "So it does support some additional technologies that come with LTE Advanced. Such as four-by-four as well as some better streaming and better compression. But generally speaking, this is not 5Geven though they're slapping that 5G badge all over it. And if this all sounds familiar then you would be right. Back with AT&T was transitioning from 3G to 4G, they sent out an update to their phones to change the badge to say 4Gwhen it was actually still on 3G. Yeah, they're doing that one again. So based on all of this, it seems pretty clear to me that 5G E is not going to deliver a truly next-gen experience. But to be fair, I think it's time to put it to the test. So let's see if we can actually track down a 5G E phone and see how it actually performs. That was fun. So, did not get a phone. But we got some interesting information. They did confirm that it does support 5G. So I think the main phone I'm looking for is the V40. Everything that I've read up until now seems to show that that actually is one of the phones that does show the 5G badge. Unfortunately, the store didn't get many V40sand they shipped them all back because they didn't sell them. Oh thank you, I appreciate it. So, we have an LG V40 that supports full 5G E, at least I hope it does. Now, I have to put a SIM card in here and hope that 5G shows up and I can actually test to see if it's any good or whether I just spent $950 on a phone that won't work. So, it is time to put AT&T's 5G network to the test. So the first bottleneck is that we actually might not have5G E service here at the office. I'm hopeful that we will but they don't really exactly have a whole lot of information about it. So I'm gonna put a SIM card in with actual data. All right, so it shows we're on AT&T on LTE, which is the correct thing because we should be on LTE. But I wanna see if this actually will show us 5G E. This V40 does have an update released on January 4th. Oh, excellent, here we go, what's new. 5G Evolution indicator support added. Okay, so there is an update for the phone that specifically changes the indicator to 5G Evolution. Now the question is, why doesn't it wanna download?So we got the phone up to date but, unfortunately, it still shows 4G LTE. Now, this should theoretically show 5G. The main issue is that there's not5G service here at the office. So the next step is to track down 5Gso we actually can test to see, even though it's probably gonna be the same. This isn't going to be a definitive test, but all I want to know is this. Does 5G E make any difference whatsoever?So after taking a closer look at the 5G E coverage areas, one of the major sports that they do have listed, Los Angeles. So we're here in Hollywood to see exactly whether or not this is going to work. Oh, oh, 5G E, we got it. I actually legitimately did not think that was gonna work. So what's really interesting if you look at the actual network page, what you'll see is even though it says 5G It still says LTE here because that's what it really is. I guess the first test is just to see how fast it is. So, 4. 6 down and 16 up. Hardly a gigabit like they had promised. Now on the other side, I have the iPhone 10R. Now, this is a phone which actually is listed on AT&T's site as 5G E compatible. But if you take a look, I have four bars of LTE, not 5G. It's the same thing. But let's see if there's actually a difference. Oh wow. (laughs breathlessly)Are you serious?(laughs breathlessly)Are you trying to tell me that 5G is slower?To be clear, these phones are both on AT&T. There's no difference in any way, except that this one is like 10 times faster on the download. 29, 31, 35. Are these settings the same?Now we've gotta try like another site or something. So because that seems very suspicious, I'm going to try the standard Google Speed Test just see what we get. All right, what have we got?Oh, there we go. Okay, that makes a lot more sense. We're seeing way faster speeds on 5G E, which makes sense if you think about it. The 10R has a two-by-two LTE antenna versus the four-by-four antenna on the V40. Okay, let's do it one more time. Ready, set. There we go, yeah. It's consistently pulling ahead, this time actually by a lot more. So the iPhone still does have a little bit of an advantage on the upload. But I mean the download is a big difference,5G is delivering almost double the speed. Now whether or not that's worthy of the 5G badge, I'm not so sure. I mean realistically the goal for 5G, proper 5G, is over 10 times this speed. So the fact that it's a little bit faster than LTE, it makes sense. So, what did we learn?5G E is just another name for LTE Advanced. And while it is faster, you shouldn't go drop everything to buy a 5G E-enabled phone. True 5G is right around the corner.

These iPhones Cost Less Than $200

- Hey, guys, this is Austin. iPhones are becoming a lot easier to pick up. So, I was able to get each one of these three iPhones for less than $200 on prepaid carriers. But are they worth it?I did a video on this iPhone 5S the last year where it cost me $150. However, today, you can easily find these availablefor only $129 but even as low as $99 off contract. It's the same story with the iPhone 6. While some places have it listed for 300or even as much as $450, I was able to pick this one up for only 200. The iPhone SE is also available for cheap. So, while it still cost $400 unlocked straight from Apple, I was able to pick this one up for only 160. The prices are definitely going to vary depending on what sales are going on and the big downside is that these are going to be locked to a prepaid carrier but I'm curious, what kind of iPhone are you getting for $200?To start with, we have the iPhone SE. Even though this is a little bit of an older design, this is actually a pretty new phone, it only came out about a year ago. What's cool with this is it's actually not even a base model, so this guy's going to be rocking 32 gigs of storage. The unboxing experience is pretty straightforward. So, not only do we have our Apple stickers and paperwork right here, but there's also going to be the old-school Apple EarPods, we have our USB power adapter, as well as a Lightning cable. Put it side by side with the iPhone 5Sand the SE looks very, very similar. So, what you're getting here is a pretty small phone. Now, to be fair, it's kind of rare to actually geta decently specced small phone these days, but it's small. It's definitely really small. It still feels premium though. So, not only do we have the chamfered edges as well as the nice metal and glass design, but most importantly than that, it feels sturdy and that's not something that you can always say about budget phones. Moving over to the iPhone 6, just like the SE, we're going to be getting a 32-gigabyte phone which is going to make this a lot more usable. With the iPhone 6, we're getting something that'sbasically the same design as the current iPhone 7. So, while things have been tweaked just a little bit in the last couple of years, for the most part, you're really not gonna be missing out on much. Arguably, there are actually some design improvements here. So, not only does the iPhone 6still have the physical home button, but it also does still have a headphone jack. You're getting some nice upgrades with a 6, most notably, Apple Pay support. So, this is actually something I useon pretty much a daily basis. You're also getting a much larger 4. 7 inches display compared to the smaller four-inch panel on the others. So, while this is still a little bit small by most flagship standards today, it feels a lot more usable. The specs are pretty interesting. So, the iPhone 5S is the oldest phone here, it is rocking an Apple A7 processor with one gigabyte of RAM. Whereas the iPhone 6 has the Apple A8and the iPhone SE has the newest Apple A9with a full two gigabytes of memory. All three feel reasonable snappy but the 5S is starting to show its age a bit. With only one gigabyte of RAM, it does get a touch slow sometimes when you're doing a lot of multitasking, but it really is not bad. It's the same story with the iPhone 6. In real use, it feels almost the exact same as the 5Sand a lot of it does have to do with the fact thatit also runs one gigabyte of RAM. On the other hand, the iPhone SE is super quick. So, it has the same specs as the iPhone 6S, which absolutely puts it on par witha a lot of current flagships. To put things in perspective, all three iPhones are going to be more powerful thana budget option like the Moto G4but it really is the iPhone SE that takes the win here. All three are up to date on iOS 10and they're all getting the iOS 11 update later this year. That's especially impressive when you look at the iPhone 5Swhich came out all the way back in 2013. I've gotta give big props to Applefor supporting a phone like this for five years. Pretty much no one else does that. The biggest issue is just the smaller screen sizeson the 5S and the SE. You know, I get it, a lot of people do like a smaller phone, but as far as I'm concerned, it just feels a little bit small and cramped. To be fair, you're not really losing any functionality, everything is just a little bit smaller than usual. But if you're used to a bigger phone, these are gonna get a little bit hard to get used to. When it comes to cameras, the iPhone 5S and 6have a very similar looking eight-megapixel camera, whereas the SE bumps that up to 12 megapixels thanks to the iPhone 6S, which it basically stole all its parts from. First, we have the 5S. This was probably the best camera on a smartphone when it came out but today, that's actually not bad. The dynamic range is not quite there, but this is a really, really difficult shot. These all look pretty nice. So, I'd have to give a slight edge to the SE here, but really, I would be happy with any of these phones. While smartphones have definitely advanced a lot over the last few years, what's impressive is just how decent these iPhones feel to use even though they're three, even four years old. What's really impressive is the camera on the SE. While it's about a year old at this point, it really is only topped by flagships like the Galaxy S8and the iPhone 7. Video on the SE also looks nice. So, it shoots in full 4Kand while it might not be a RED, the stabilization means that it actually looks really nice. The iPhone 5S hides its age surprisingly well. For just a little bit more and less than half the price it was when it launched, I think the iPhone SE is an obvious upgrade. But only if you're down with a smaller phone. Which leaves us with the iPhone 6. While it might not be the most powerful phone in the world, I think the larger size more than makes up for that. So, would you guys pick up a $200 iPhone?And if so, which one would it be?Let me know in the comments belowand I'll catch you in the next one. 

This Galaxy Note 7 Won't Explode (Probably)

- Hey guys, this is Austin. The Galaxy Note 7 was one of the hottest phones of last year. Exploded onto the scene last year. By far the most lit phone of all time. But after less than a month on sale, it was recalled. But now it's back. The issue with the Note 7 originally was that the battery was slightly too large for the actual phone which meant that in some cases, the Note 7 would literally explode in your pocket. After recalling the nearly two and a half million phones they had sold, Samsung spent most of the last year reminding people that not all of their phones are fiery death machines. However, the Note 7 is officially back with this, the Galaxy Note Fan Edition. What's interesting is, this isn't even called the Galaxy Note 7 anymore. It is just the Galaxy Note Fan Edition. Now right now, it's only on sale in South Korea, but with millions of these phones sitting around in a warehouse somewhere, I assume that we're probably going to see more of these sooner than later. So even though Samsung promises that this will definitely not explode totally for real this time, I feel like safety is sorta the name of the game. I'm gonna make sure that I don't die here, we're gonna unbox the Galaxy Note Fan Edition. Ken picked this gear out, I don't think this isgonna be protective at all, I don't think. . . This is a bad idea. Careful. (tense music)(loud noise) Oof, okay. We're good, we're good, we're good. It's fine. Alright, alright, we're in. We have the phone, we have the phone, it isit's here, so I'm just gonna be very gentlewith this right now. Just tease it out. Okay. Alright. The phone's out of the box. It's interesting to think that the Note 7 designis nearly a year old at this point. Don't get me wrong, it's still a very nicelyput together phone with the glass and metal build. You've got the curves on either edge of the display. But when you look at it compared to something likethe Galaxy S8, it really does feel a little bit behind. What this means is that while the Galaxy S8is a physically smaller phone, it actually has a very slightly bigger screen than the Note 7. Now that the danger has passed, let's see what else we get in the unboxing. It does come with this case which is actually kind of cool. It's a little bit weird that it covers up the screen but as Savage Kenny so rightfully points out, no one really wants to be seen with the Galaxy Note 7so maybe hiding it is your best option. I'm curious whether this is an actually new phone or not. So, Samsung does have a couple million Notes sitting aroundthat I'm sure they're going to dosomething with at some point. But if I had to take a guess, I would say that this is a brand new phone. Not only is it super clean on the outside but it really wouldn't surprise me if Samsung still had extra parts to build Notes, just with a couple minor internal changes. From the outside, this looks pretty much exactly the same. The big difference is instead of having a 3500mAh battery which may or may not explode, this guy has a smaller 3200mAh battery. Now, this is very similar to what you're getting with the Galaxy Note 8. Not only do you have a couple of additional thingsthat are mostly because this is a Korean model phonebut you also get the wonderful Bixby pre-installed. I keep coming back to how nice the Galaxy S8 feelsin comparison to the Note. Don't get me wrong, like I said, this is an amazing looking phone with glass and metal. But when you look at how big the screen is on the Galaxy S8with the rounded corners and everything, it really does make this feel a lot older. One thing you're not really giving upwith the Note are specs. So this is going to be the Exynos 8890 versionwhich is the international Note 7. And not only is that going to be a fairly powerful processor, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. But compared with the Galaxy S8it is very, very similar in performance. This is also rocking a very similar 12MP camerato what you'll find on boththe Galaxy S7 as well as the S8. Well sure, it's a little bit old at this point, it is still one of the best looking smartphone cameras you can get today. (camera snaps)The more I think about it, the more the Note Fan Editionjust doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Not only is this a phone that is essentially the exact same as what came out a year ago, but with a smaller battery, but it does not come cheap. In Korea, this cost the equivalent of $610. Almost the same price as a new Galaxy S8. Don't get me wrong, the Note 7 was a great phone, and this sort of solves the whole exploding and not being allowed on planes thing, which is cool. But at the end of the day, I can't see a lot of people wanting to buy one of these in 2017besides for the novelty. So, would you guys want topick up a Galaxy Note Fan Edition? Let me know in the comments belowand I will catch you on the next one. 

How is the Google Pixel 2 Worth It?

- Hey guys, this is Austin. This is the Google Pixel 2 and this is the Pixel 2 XL, but the question is are they worth it?There's a lot new this year, but one of the biggest differences is in price. So the Pixel 2 is going to cost you $650, but bump up to the Pixel 2 XL and it is $850. Want 128 gigs of storage?Then this guy's going to cost you $950. Jump inside the box and there's actually a fair but that comes with the Pixel 2. So the first thing we'll find is the actual smartphone itself, but beyond that, get a little bit deeper, we get a "Yay welcome to#TeamPixel" bit, which I'm sure has all our paperwork, SIM tool, that kind of thing. There's also a USB-C to USB-A adapter, we get what looks to be a whole bunch of extra cables!Oh boy. When Google announced the original Pixel last year, something they were really big on is the idea that it still has the headphone jack. Now fast forward to the Pixel 2 and it's nowhere to be seen. Now I get the idea that by dropping the headphone jack,you're going to free up more space inside the phone for sensors or batteries, or whatever, but the problem is unless you're fully on the Bluetooth headphone train, USB-C is a bit of a mess right now. Say what you will about Apple dropping the headphone back last year, but at the very least there are some decent Lightning headphone options available. On the Pixel, you're pretty much limited to either using the adapter that comes in the box, or a very limited selection of USB-C headphones. It's not all bad with the Pixel 2 hardware, so while yes, it does look fairly similar to the last generation, including the pretty large bezels, but in return, we're now getting IP67 water resistance, as well as some pretty solid front-firing stereo speakers. Move over to the Pixel 2 XL, and it is a surprisingly large change. So up front, it's rocking a six inch AMOLED display, and while I wouldn't call it bezel-less, the bezels are a lot thinner than on the standard Pixel 2. Even though the Pixel 2 is made by HTCand the XL is made by LG, the hardware is very similar. So they're both still rocking a two-tone design and while it looks nice, I actually do definitely prefer the way that the original Pixel looked with the very blue color, because you know, yeah, I want all my smartphones to look like this. Even though this is a glass and metal phone, the metal part actually has this sort of coating on it, which kind of feels like plastic. Now if you check out JerryRigEverything's durability test of the Pixel 2, you'll see that this coating is not particularly durable. I actually kind of like the way that the Pixel 2 feels, but multiple people who've tried it immediately thought that it was made out of plastic, so take that for what it's worth. Take a look at it in Geekbench, and while it's fast, it is absolutely no match for theApple A10X in the iPhone 8, however, thankfully benchmarks aren't everything. What stuff like Geekbench doesn't get across that this is an incredibly snappy phone. Animations are smooth, the responsiveness is quick, and it always feels like it's one step ahead of what you actually wanna do. Honestly, this is one of the fastest Android phonesI've tested and it is right up there with the iPhone 8. Part of that is thanks to an incredibly clean build of Android 8. 0 Oreo. So there are some custom features, including Google Lens, and this is actually built inside Google Photos, it would be nice to see it in the camera app, but what it's allowing you to do is scan a photo and try to figure out what it is. For some things, it's not that accurate, but for others, it is surprisingly good. Although just not that useful to me. What's a little cooler is Now Playing, now once you enable this, essentially the phone will always be listening for music and if it detects it, it will actually give you a notification. This is kind of creepy, but it works surprisingly well, especially if you're in something like a restaurant, you might be able to actually pick up the song that's being played over the stereo. The Pixel 2 also has a squeezable frame, so if you actually squeeze it on the bottom half, it will trigger Google Assistant. So, what does the fox say?- [Assistant] Ring ding ding ding ding a ding wop pop pop pop pop pa-pow, or so I've heard. (laughs)Roll a 20 sided die. - [Assistant] You got it. (die hits table)It's a 19. - Flip a coin. - [Assistant] Okay. (coin lands on a table)You got tails. - However, not everything is perfect. Some of my biggest issues with the Pixel 2 is the display. So on the standard size Pixel 2, it's fine. It's a five-inch AMOLED panel with a 1080p resolution. Yes it could be a little bit sharper, and the bezels could be a lot smaller, but it's totally usable. However, when it comes to the Pixel 2 XL, that display is garbage town. I mean it. Garbage town. Garbage town. This reminds me of really early AMOLED panels from years ago. When you're looking at it straight on, it's okay, although honestly a lot of the colors, like especially the reds look awfully brown, as soon as you move it even a little bit off axis, it goes super, super cool. This is okay on a cheap smartphone, but when you're charging $850, it's basically a deal breaker. It really is a shame, because the Pixel XL 2should be able to compete with stuff like the iPhone and the Galaxy Note 8, but right now, the screen holds it back, which to me actually makes the normal Pixel 2 a much easier sell. Yes, it has the much larger bezels, but to my eye, is a way better screen, and it's the phone that I've been using the last few days. Thankfully the giant bezels of the Pixel 2dodon't go to waste. It does have some very nice sounding front-firing speakers, those pretty much blows away any other flagship that's out today, with really the only exception being the iPhone 8. And to my ears, they sound very similar, way better than pretty much anything else you can get right now. One of the biggest upgrades on the Pixel 2is that 12-megapixel camera. Now that might not sound impressive, but these are some of the best smartphone imagesI've ever gotten period. Some of the stuff is really crazy. There is a ton of detail on these images, and they've actually done a really good job of getting even more dynamic range than most of the the already great flagships that you can buy in 2017. Color is also good, maybe not quite as saturated as some Samsung phones, but the low-light performance has seen a huge bump up on the Pixel. Now a part of that is because they finally added optical image stabilization, and that paired with their awesome image processing means that you can get some surprisingly usable shots in very low light. The portrait mode is also really good on the Pixel, so while it doesn't have any kind of dual camera setup, using software, they're actually able to get a very similar sort of result, and the upside is this also works with the selfies. Now the Pixel 2 does shoot 4K video, and you guys can actually look to see and hear what that sounds like right now, but as far as I'm concerned, this is one of the best smartphone cameras that you can buy right now. Although if you're using a Pixel 2 XL, taking a look at these pictures on screen might not give you too much confidence, but believe me, the colors and the image quality is absolutely there. Last year's Pixel was a very, very good phone with a couple of major compromises. This year, Google basically nailed it, almost. You might not mind the screen on the Pixel 2 XL, but it is just simply not in the same league as other flagships, and when you're paying $850, you should expect the best in everything. I really like the standard Pixel 2. Yes, the screen is a little bit small, and the bezels are big, but the rest of the phone is so good that it's kind of worth it. It is absolutely one of the best smartphones that you can buy. So what do you guys think about the Pixel 2and the Pixel 2 XL?Let me know in the comments below, and I will catch you on the next one.

The 2017 Smartphone Starter Kit

- Hey guys, this is Austin. 2017 has been an interesting year for smartphones. Gone are the days of having a headphone jack on every device. Screens are getting bigger while the bezels are shrinking. Instead of having a removable battery,you're oftentimes getting something like fast charging or wireless charging. But if you are picking up a flagship this year, what do you actually need to get up and running?The first thing you're probably going to want to have a pair of wireless headphones. And a big shout out to Sennheiser for sponsoring this video and sending over their HD 4. 50 to me to take a look at. What makes this really interesting is that not only are they going to be the wireless pair of headphones with Bluetooth support, but you're also getting active noise cancellation. Now in a pair of headphones that costs less than $200, this can actually be really helpful especially if you spend a lot of time on stuff like trains, buses, or planes. You should also expect a good battery life, anywhere between 20 to 25 hours depending on if you have active noise cancellation on. And they also do fold up if you wanna make them just a little more portable. And in addition to Bluetooth 4. 0, they also have support for apt which deliver even better sounding audio. And of course, it's the Sennheiser, you should expect quality. Man, it is always such a trippy feeling when you put on the active noise cancellation. Like, it just feels like the whole room just got super dead. What is that I hear actually?Oh, it's a plane!I couldn't hear it 'cause I had my awesome active noise cancellation headphones on. It's crazy. I actually didn't realize that I had been listening to these on an iPhone before, and they sounded good. But actually being able to take advantage of aptX on something like the Pixel, there's actually a noticeable difference in audio quality. It really does sound like I'm listening to a wired pair of headphones. Okay so before Ken has to watch me dance any more, these sound good. These sound solid but one of the nice things is, in addition to being wireless, you actually do have the option of plugging in a standard3 1/2 millimeter headphone jack or a headphone cable. Cable. To be fair both the iPhone and Pixeldo come with a headphone adapter in the box, but the issue is is that if you want to plug the headphones and also do something like charge your phone, you can't do that at the same time until now. Companies have started making adapters that not only allow you to listen to your music but also to charge your phone at the same time. So let's start with the USB-C adapter which,"special bear high-temperature design?"The superficial dent design,"maintain the best conjunction. "I mean you do need the best conjunction after all. Oh wow, that's actually really terrible looking. Wow, the first step, will this catch our phone on fire?Oh, that's not a good fit. It's time for me to plug it into the phone. It is not charging. Okay, so, in theory, you can pick up a USB-C adapter that actually works, but in this case, confirmed garbage town. Let's try the iPhone now. I do at least like the design of this one a little bit more. So you can plug it into the phone on the top, and then on one side you have lightning, on the other, you have a headphone jack. Plug it into the phone. Okay, nothing's on fire yet, just saying. So it actually does show up as a USB 2. 0 Device. So this actually might just work. It sounds about like a normal headphone adapter so you're not expecting any kinda like hi-fi DAC or anything, but the real test is can we actually plug this in and it not catch on fire?Alright here goes nothing. Oh hey charging and the light just turned on. Hey, guys, this is Austin and welcome to using a smartphone in 2017. Basically, everything that supports wireless charging this day using the Qi standard. Now thankfully this has actually been around for a few years. There are plenty of accessories to choose from. So the first is really straightforward. It's the PowerPort Qi 10 from Anker. Now it might not look too impressive. What you're getting here is something that not only supports standard wireless charging, but it also supports fast charging. It's also super thin. None of the iPhone 8 and 10 support wireless charging. Something like this could work not only for these devices but also for other phones that support up to 10 watts. But the idea is we just drop it on, and in theory, it will start charging. In theory, charging will happen. Oh!It helps when you plug the charger in, pro tip!So I'll drop the phone and it immediately starts charging. So with this, you can prepare for the 2018 future of having zero ports of any kind on your phone. There are also some cool options like the MobilePal wireless charging bank. The idea here is that not only is this a portable battery that will charge your phone via Qi wireless charging, but you can also use Qi to charge the battery bank. Meaning that in theory, you could never plug this thing in. Oh, interesting, so not only can you, if you want, use USB to charge it, but you also can use a lightning cable. That's actually really unique. I don't think I've ever seen that before. So the first step is to see if we drop our phone on, there we go, immediately starts wireless charging. That's actually kinda cool. One of the problems with carrying around the battery banks that you have to keep all the cables, it becomes a mess, but this, this is pretty easy. But if you have a wireless charging pad, not only can we drop the charger onto start charging in it, then you'll pass current up to the phone. So essentially we have a Qi sandwich. This is cool though. This is really cool. I mean maybe not the most practical thing but I can actually imagine a scenario in which, so you have this by your bed, you leave the battery on it at all times. You just drop your phone on top. And when it comes a time, you take your phone, but if you also wanna take the battery, take it too. Super simple. As always links to everything I talked about including those Dope Sennheiser headphones will be linked in the description. I'm curious, what would you guys put in your smartphone starter kit?Let me know in the comments below and I will catch you on the next one.

 

What's the Best Smartwatch?

Hey guys this is Austin.  So what’s the best smartwatch? To find out I gathered the 2ndgen Moto 360, Samsung Gear S2 and Apple Watch.  Even though they look similar each takes adifferent approach.  Samsung was one of the first to tackle smartwatches with the originalGalaxy Gear but with the Gear S2 they’ve basically started from scratch.  With a bright,fully round OLED display it looks more like a traditional watch than most, in black it’spretty stealth looking although there is also a Classic option which comes with a classierleather band and different housing.  The normal S2 comes with a pair of rubber bands whichare fine but it feels a bit on the cheaper side.  One of my favorite features is the bezel,the touchscreen works but most things are much faster to do just by rotating the bezel. There are also home and back buttons along the side which all adds up to make one ofthe easiest to use smartwatches out there.  On the other end of the spectrum is the AppleWatch.  This is the stainless steel version but it’s essentially the same as the Sport,you’re looking at a much more traditional rectangular display.  The OLED screen is justas good as the Gear S2 with deep blacks and solid colors but while options and menus workbetter without a round screen it just doesn’t look as cool.  Like all smartwatches the touchscreenworks but with such a small display it can be a bit awkward which is where Force Touchcomes in.  Unlike the others which often rely on long pressing the Apple Watch can pullup extra options by pressing harder on the screen and it works well.  There’s also theDigital Crown which is how I interact with the watch 90 percent of the time, I slightlyprefer the rotating bezel on the Gear S2 but the Apple Watch is one solidly designed smartwatch. Come over to the Moto 360 and there’s no plastic or rubber to be found.  Instead there’sa solid metal chassis and a real leather band which gives a nice premium feel, the onlything that slightly holds it back is that it feels oddly light for such a beefy watch. Like the first Moto 360 we’ve got a round display which looks good but there is a smallwindow on the bottom where the sensors live.  I don’t really mind, in normal use I quicklyforget about it and the slimmer bezel is nice.  Where the 360 really loses out is in usability,you’re limited to the touchscreen and a single button.  It’s fine but having a quickeroption to navigate the software like on the Apple Watch and Gear S2 would be a welcomeaddition.  When it comes to picking a smartwatch one of the biggest deciding factors is whatphones they work with.  It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the Apple Watch only workson the iPhone and the Gear S2 works on Samsung phones but it also supports some other Androiddevices with a few exceptions.  I did have some issues getting it to work with my Note5 as it needed a firmware update that wasn’t out yet but it worked out in the end.  Thereal winner for compatibility is the Moto 360, not only does it work on Android butit also supports iOS as well.  Android Wear has made big improvements in the last yearbut it does feel a bit unpolished as if it’s too heavy to run smoothly on a watch.  Whilethe 2nd gen 360 is faster than before you’ll still get some slowness from time to time. In comparison the Gear S2 feels lighting fast, the animations are quick and it’s easy tofly through the interface with next to no slowdowns.  The Apple Watch is fast as wellbut it can take a while to open some things, especially when it comes to more hardcoreapps.  Smartwatches are most useful for notifications in my opinion but all support third partyapps, I’m not sure how many people want to read CNN on their wrist but the optionis there.  Being able to navigate especially with walking directions is nice but most ofthe utility is very similar on all three watches.  Things like voice search work well althoughthis is where Android Wear on the 360 does best but asking Siri a quick question alsoworks just fine.  Unlike a normal watch you’re pretty much going to have to get used to charginga smartwatch every night.  It’s not the end of the world but it’s one more device you’llhave to remember to plug in every night.  Most of the decision really comes down to whatphone you use.  The Moto 360 is the safest choice and with the ability to customize thedesign in Motomaker you can really make it your own.  If you use an iPhone the Apple Watchhas the best integration and the design is the most premium here, it’s a bit more priceybut you do get what you pay for.  The biggest surprise is actually the Gear S2, while thehardware is a bit on the cheaper side the screen is great, the bezel works well andit’s seriously fast.  If Samsung brings support for the iPhone the Gear S2 is going to be hard to beat. 

iPhone 6s Plus Review!

Hey, guys, this is Austin and today I’m here with my review of the iPhone 6s Plus.  Put the new iPhone 6s Plus side by side with the 6 Plus and not much has changed.  It’s a tiny bit thicker which is no big deal but it is noticeably heavier.  This is mostly due to the new 3D Touch display but Apple also switched to 7000 series aluminum this generation thanks to Bendgate.  UnboxTherapy put the 6s to the test and surprise surprise, it holds up much better than the 6 Plus.  Another change is the addition of a new Rose Gold color which joins the same Space Gray, Silver and Gold options from the last gen along with a shiny new S badge which is the best way to tell the new model apart.  It is a little bit heavier think, that’s the only noticeable difference when I pick up the phone and hold it in the hand so it’s a little bit of a heavier phone, especially because I use the 6s Plus.  Otherwise, it's a pretty simple, understated, clean, familiar design.  It’s a nice design but beside phones like the Galaxy Note 5 it’s not too impressive, it does have a nice feel in the hand with a seamless curve but that also makes it a little slippery.  I dropped my 6 Plus a few times and if anything the extra heft makes the 6s Plus even easier to get away from you.  With a 5. 5 inches 1080p screen the Plus dwarfs the normal 6s.  If you're willing to give up someone and ability you’re getting a nice screen, it can’t match the terrific AMOLED display on the Note 5 but it’s got the nice color, great viewing angles and plenty of resolution.  One of the big new features of the 6s is the addition of 3D Touch. I was a little bit on the gimmick train with 3D Touch at first but the more I use it the more I find myself liking it especially when you get into apps like Instagram or Safari, just being able to preview a link or profile is something that I found really useful.  Unlike normal long press, this allows you to use varying levels of force to pull up different options.  This is useful in a few places, 3D Touch the side of the screen and you'll open the multitasking and by 3D Touching the keyboard you’ll pull up a cursor.  The TouchID fingerprint scanner has also seen improvements.  It’s now so fast that it’s hard to get to your lock screen but I guess I can live with such a horrible problem.  iOS 9 is largely the same as on other iPhones but it runs noticeably faster here which leads me to one of the best features of the 6s: performance.  On paper, the Apple A9 looks fairly tame with a dual-core 1. 8 gigahertz processor paired with two gigs of DDR4 memory but this is one seriously fast phone.  I went in-depth in a video recently which you guys can check out but the 6s is approaching laptops when it comes to performance, you should have no problem playing any game out there for the foreseeable future.  Performance wise it’s what you would expect, it's snappy, it’s quick, it handles whatever you throw at it.  All this power means the6s Plus does get a bit warm under gaming though, nothing too crazy but it’s noticeable next to a phone like the Note 5.  In real use, you’ll notice the speed but the biggest difference is the extra memory.  Older iPhones had to reload apps all the time where the6s does a far better job of keeping things in memory.  Where Apple didn’t improve with storage, the base iPhone still comes with 16 gigs which just isn’t enough.  It's almost like the base model purely exists to get people to spend the extra $100 to upgrade to 64 gigabytes.  At least it is fast storage though, Anandtech dug into the hardware and found the 6s is using what’s essentially a full SSD like in the 12 inch MacBook.  One of the biggest improvements are the new cameras.  The rear shooter has been bumped up to twelve megapixels and while it’s not a huge leap it’s still a rock solid performer.  There extra resolution which is helpful for cropping and the color remains nice and natural, Apple’scamera app doesn’t give as much manual control as a lot of Android cameras but it’s quick and reliably takes solid shots.  The ten frames per second burst are still here which is great for capturing action and it has a smart timelapse mode that can make for some very cool shots. The 6s Plus has optical image stabilization which is helpful for low light but where it really makes a difference is in a video.  I mean it’s almost revolutionary in terms of what they were able to do, I mean footage almost looks like it’s on a Steadycam like it looks really great.  Alright, so 4K in my opinion on an iPhone has been a long time coming. This entire video has been shot on a 6s and as you can see it holds up really nicely, with a mix of digital and optical stabilization the footage looks nice especially as it’snow capable of 4K.  You’ve also got solid slow motion options, you can shoot at 120frames per second or even 240 FPS if you don’t mind bumping the resolution down to 720p. The new front-facing camera has also been bumped up majorly in quality, it now has five megapixels.  Paired with Apple’s new Live Photos which records a bit of video before and after you snap a picture it’s a solid upgrade.  It’s a far better-looking camera than the last generation and it can use the screen as a surprisingly usable flash.  One of the biggest advantages of the 6s Plus over the normal 6s is battery life.  There’s just no comparison, where I struggle to get through a full day of heavy use with the 6s the Plus hasn't let me down yet.  Even with using navigation and shooting 4K video the 6s Plus holds up really well on the battery front.  While it’s not a massive upgrade the Plus improves on a lot of the smaller issues with the last generation.  It might be pricey but the iPhone 6s Plus has definitely earned its spot as my new daily driver. Did you just kiss your camera

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iPhone 6s vs 1st Gen iPhone!

Hey, guys, this is Austin.  With eight years of evolution, how does the new 6s compared with the first gen iPhone? The first thing you’ll notice is just how little things have changed.  It’s clear Apple settled on a basic design back in 2007 and have focused on tweaks since which makes the first gen surprisingly familiar.  The newer iPhone is bigger and thinner but they both share the same curve, it’s like someone flattened original iPhone to make the 6s.  Something that isn’t as impressive is the 3. 5 inch320 by 480 display, it’s still totally usable but side by side with the newer iPhone it clear just how far smartphone screens have come.  There are a few weird quirks like a headphone jack that’s recessed enough to make some headphones not fit but compared to other phones of the time it’s held up remarkably well.  What I really want to know is can you even use an original iPhone these days? The first thing is to get it on a network. With the help of a Nano SIM adapter, the iPhone jumps right onto AT&T.  It’s limited to an edge but you can still text like any other phone and the smaller size of the iPhone actually makes it nice for phone calls.  Data is slow over 2G but if you’re patient it does work and you can connect it to Wi-Fi as well.  One big advantage of the 6s are the apps.  The first iPhone was only updated to iPhone OS 3. 1. 3 which means the vast majority of apps in the store aren’t supported.  This includes basically everything from the last few years, there are a few old-school apps and games that will run but you’ll be forced to use the browser for the most part.  Most default apps work like Google Maps but you’ll have to use the web player for YouTube which is a little sketchy sometimes.  Apps aside, the biggest difference between the 6s and the original iPhone is speed.  Certain parts of the original iPhone actually aren’t bad, scrolling through a webpage in Safari is actually pretty smooth and pinch to zoom works just fine.  When it comes to actually load site though there’s a massive difference, the 6s is just night and day faster than the2007 era iPhone.  While iOS at its core is very similar to the iPhone OS days there are tons of features missing like multitasking.  Notifications are also straight out of the stone age and simple things like changing the background hadn’t been added yet.  With a whopping two-megapixel camera the iPhone won’t set any records for the best smartphone camera but it is usable.  There’s no manual control so what you get is what you get but with decent light, you can get an okay shot.  A lot of the shots look like they’ve just got a really questionable Instagram filter on and compared to the 6s it’s, well there’snot much to compare.  There might not be video but I’ve got to say, working with such a limited camera is actually kind of fun.  Looking at how far things have come in the last eight years the 6s is undoubtedly a better phone but what’s impressive is just how well the first iPhone holds up.  The design is on point and it can do basically everything a modern smartphone can, just much more slowly.  If you’re interested in something slightly more up to date my buddy Jon from TLD did a comparison between the iPhone 6 and 6s which you guys can check out in the card right up here.  Anyway, what do you guys think about the original iPhone and the iPhone 6s? Definitely be sure to let me know in the comments below and I will catch you guys in the next one!

iPhone 6s: How Fast?

Hey guys, this is Austin.  So how fast is the iPhone 6s? To find out I gathered a few of the highest end phones out right now, the OnePlus Two, Moto X 2015, Galaxy S6 edge along with the last gen iPhone 6.  Apple claims the 6s is 70 to 90 percent faster this time around and taking a look at the specs not only does it have twice as much memory at two gigabytes but it’s also seen a pretty decent bump in clock speed.  First up is Geekbench 3, this is mostly a test of the processor and a high score here shows how fast the phones are for normal use. With only two cores the 6s can’t match the sheer power of the eight core Galaxy S6 but it does easily win the single core test.  To put things in perspective the 6s has essentially the same CPU performance as the base twelve inch MacBook.  This is one fast phone.  Next, we have GFXBench which is all about the graphics performance, that includes things like how smoothly the phone runs and how it handles intense gaming. Factoring in screen resolution it’s clear the 6s is packing a serious GPU, even running the test offscreen at 1080p for apples to apple comparison the iPhone is still able to pull out the win.  Moving on we’ve got the Google Octane test, this relies on a fast processor and a well-optimized web browser. Safari on iOS has always been well optimized which definitely gives the iPhones a leg up here but even so it’s hard to argue with both the 6 and 6s in this one.  Putting both graphics and processing power together we’ve got 3DMark.  The normal Ice Storm Extreme test is actually not demanding enough to properly tax these phones at 1080p but by running the offscreen Unlimited test the 6s pulls out the win over the OnePlus Two and Galaxy S6and especially embarrasses the last gen 6.  It should be no surprise that the new iPhone is faster but there’s no real competition here, the 6s is hands down the most powerful phone you can buy today.  Now whether it can stand up to the mighty first gen iPhone though a question for another video so stays tuned. 

Is a $50 Smartphone Worth It?

Hey guys, this is Austin.  Can you get a decent smartphone for $50? For this one, I picked up the Microsoft Lumia 635 along with the second generation Moto E.  At this price you shouldn't expect a crazy unboxing but you do get what you need out of the box, the Lumia has a MicroUSB power adapter, some paperwork, and the battery.  Move over to the Moto E and it's the same story, you have a power adapter and plenty of manuals for you to never read. The Lumia has a removable back but it’s a little tricky to take off, it’s essentially the entire shell.  Inside you’ll find the SIM slot and your MicroSD expansion on top of being able to install the removable battery.  The Moto E uses a swappable bezel which is a lot easier to remove.  There’s no swappable battery but you do have slots for a SIM and MicroSD.  For $50 you shouldn’t expect crazy build quality but there’s not a lot to complain about.  The Lumia 635 actually looks a lot like the iPhone 5c which isn’t a bad thing, it’s rocking a glossy plastic shell which might be a fingerprint magnet but it feels pretty decent.  There’s a surprising sense of quality, everything is nice and tight and it's noticeably thinner than the Moto E.  The E is no slouch though with a curved back that fits nicely in the hand, it’s a little pudgy but the ridged bezel gives you a solid grip.  Personally, I prefer the brighter colors and thinner build of the Lumia but neither phone really feels its’ price.  Get to the screens and it’s a slightly different story. Both have 4. 5-inch screens and here the Moto E has the edge with a higher res 960p display compared to 854 on the Lumia.  The E edges out the Lumia in brightness and color as well but in real use, they’re totally fine, compared to flagship things look a little rough butI’ve seen far worse screens on budget devices.  The Moto E has a front speaker where the Lumia has a rear speaker and they’re not bad at all.  The 635 gets surprisingly loud although with such a tiny opening for the speaker it’s a little too easy to accidentally block your music.  One of the biggest differences is in software, the Lumia runs Windows Phone where the Moto E uses Android.  While Windows Phone hasn’t progressed as quickly as iOS andAndroid it still has a lot going for it.  Even on fairly low-end hardware, it’s downright snappy, things like Live Tiles are unique and features like multitasking and notifications have come a long way.  The biggest downside is apps, you’ll find the basics like Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify but generally, the quality can’t match Android.  Most apps aren't updated as often and a lot just aren’t here at all, the biggest of which being Google apps.  There are workarounds but unless you’re deep in Microsoft’s ecosystem the app selection is going to be a problem.  On the flip side, the Moto E runs Android 5. 1 where app support is definitely not an issue.  Motorola takes a light touch to Android, giving you a near stock build with a few useful additions like Active Display to show notifications.  If you've ever used an Android phone you should be right at home, something simple like having an official youtube app makes a big difference.  The Moto E also has slightly better specs with a newer quad-core Snapdragon 410 vs 400 and double the memory but to be fair Windows Phone seems to be perfectly happy to run on the lower specs.  Each phone has eight gigabytes of storage but once everything is the setup you’re looking at roughly three gigs left, for anything besides the most basic use you’ll definitely want to pick up a MicroSD card.  Both phones are rocking five-megapixel cameras and this is one of the biggest places where the budget is noticeable.  You can pull off a decent shot with each camera but you’ll want to have plenty of light, with such tiny sensors color and dynamic range just can’t hold up to higher-end smartphones.  The video is the same story, they both max out at 720p which is fine for a quick clip to share but won’t be useful for much else.  There are some cool features like a double twist to open the camera on the Moto E and the surprisingly solid Lumia camera app which is so much better than the Motorola Camera app.  One thing the Moto G does have going for it though is a front facing camera, it might not be a great one but at least exists.  As much as I like the Lumia the biggest issue is app support.  If you can live with Windows Phone it’s hard to argue with the 635 but for most people the MotoE is a safer bet.  Regardless of which way you go through it’s incredibly impressive just how good $50 smartphones can be. 

The Best Gaming Phone Is Asus ROG Phone

- Hey, guys, this is Austin. Between the ROG Phone and the Razer Phone, 2,2018 is shaping up to be an awesome year for gaming smartphones. So with both of them on the desk at the same time,why, I think a good old-fashioned comparison is in order. First up we have the Razer Phone 2. Now, a couple weeks ago, we were able to get our hands on this, but it was a very brief hands-on,whereas this, this is going to be a little bit more of an in-depth feature comparison review gaming benchmark. Are there other words I can put in the title?Do you see how shiny this glass is?It'll never be this shiny again the second I put my dirty fingerprints on it. Not only do we have a fast charger included in the box, something that a certain fruit-themed company might want to take note on, but we also have a series of cables and dongles. But what's actually kind of interesting about the Razer Phone is that we have USB-C headphone adapter. Now this might not sound impressive. In fact, it's included on most phones that don't have a headphone jack, which is basically everything at this point. But this actually does support full hi-fi audio and supposedly has a pretty good DAC inside. Next up we have the ROG Phone,and I actually don't know to open this box. (Velcro crackling)Oh, wow, okay, that's, all right, that's a box. All right.  (chuckling)First up, we have the phone itself. So the ROG Phone's kind of unique in that not only does it have a USB-Cand a headphone jack on the bottom, but it has two more USB-Cs on the side which are meant for accessories. So the last time I tried the ROG Phone,it was still a fairly early prototype,and I've gotta say, immediately, this feels really nice. We do have that,actually, is that aluminum?That's gotta be aluminum. It's incredibly heavy, though, wow. It really feels nice, and it's got such a heft in the hand, and unlike the Razer Phone, which is basically a giant squared-off brick, this is much more rounded and a little bit more of a hand-friendly shape. Something unique about the ROG Phone is that unlike basically every other gaming phone out there, there's a wide range of accessories that are either included in the box such as this fan, or other things that'll be available for purchase. You know what I feel like right now?I feel like ROG is trying to make the ultimate ROG Phone, right?Like, when we do Building the Ultimate,we try to find the ridiculous and crazy accessories,but they're just selling all of the accessories. You could literally get everything you need to build the ultimate ROG Phone straight from the store. Not only does it have the RGB,but it also has a fan, USB-C, headphone jack,all that stuff, which is rearranged to the bottom. This is cool. I really appreciate that they put this in the box. I don't want to get too into the dock right now,but the idea is that when you're using the phone in landscape mode, your hand is naturally covering up not only the headphone jack but also the USB-C,so in addition to be able to get a little bit of cooling,you also have those ports on the bottom of the phone so you can easily plug it in, plug your headphones in,and you won't get in the way of your hands. (box thumping)Wait, what'd you, what are you doing?A Black Shark?Wait, are you trying to add another phone to the comparison in the middle of the video?"You're Gamer, Let's Shark!"Oh boy, this looks exciting. What's the deal with this?Oh. Oh, this is not the original Black Shark at all. Okay, this is an unprecedented move that there's a brand-new unreleased smartphone on my desk and I literally don't know anything about it, except that it looks kind of cool!That's something to know about it, right?So it's got a kind of combination of aluminum on the sides but it still does have that glass back panel, and I'm assuming that looks kind of like an RGB logo?Oh, wow, that's quite the gamer skin,and, oh yeah, we do have a RGB logo on the back. I like how we have this great comparison:look, it's the ROG Phone versus the Razer Phone. It all makes sense. And now, I'm like, wait a minute,there's this totally new phone that I have no idea about. I have to figure it out on the fly. This is cool, though. I guess they've definitely upped the RGB game. I mean, that's a look right there. So it looks like you can individually change not only the logo color but also the little Shark Mode thing on the side. "By pressing the Shark button,"your phone will become a game console. "What, a game console?In a smartphone?That's crazy!So after spending some time with the Black Shark,a few things come to mind. First of all and probably the most important for the video is that this is not a final phone and it's certainly not final software. There are definitely some tweaks that are going to need to go on before this is released. And also, a lot of the benchmarks and stuff don't even work yet, so we're gonna take some of this with a grain of salt. There's also the controller,which actually doesn't attach to the phone. It attaches to the case that comes with the phone,so it's maybe not the most elegant way of doing it,but it's sort of like you would expect with a Joy-Con. The only problem is that the controller only works wirelessly, so even though you can slide it on, something like this, it actually doesn't attach with any kind of wires or whatever, so you still need to separately charge not only the controller but the phone itself. The big problem is that this is a Chinese market phone,which means that here in the United States,well, it doesn't have the Google Play store,or any kind of Google apps at all. Now there will be a global version of this phone,and hopefully that will include, you know,the fundamental apps that you would expect like YouTube,but for now, it's kind of hard to get apps on this,unless of course you wanna playa little bit of Fortnite by chance. All three phones have the very familiar Snapdragon 845 inside. So the ROG is slightly clocked higher, but the main difference between the three is that the Black Shark has an optional10 gigabyte of RAM option, whereas the others only top out at a measly eight gigs of memory. Coincidentally, they all have the exact same size4,000-milliamp-hour battery, which is a good thing for gaming, but from here, the differences start to stand out just a little bit more. The first big difference is with displays. The Black Shark has a perfectly respectable six-inch 2160x1080p panel. It's good but nothing spectacular, especially when you compare it to both the ROG Phone as well as the Razer Phone. Move over to the ROG Phone, and while it does have that same size as well as a resolution of the Black Shark, it is an OLED panel running at a full 90 Hertz. Now, as far as I know, this is the first time that any phone has hit 90 Hertz with an OLED panel. The Razer Phone has a slightly smaller 5. 7-inch display, but it is a much higher resolution at 2560x1440, and importantly, it runs at a whopping120 hurt refresh rate. Hertz, not hurt. It doesn't hurt to refresh, it Hertz to refresh. The only real downside is that this is a very wide phone, specifically when you put it side by side with the Black Shark and the ROG. It's just not quite as comfortable to hold, but that screen is really well-optimized for video. Let's talk about these screens for a second. The ROG Phone has a very accurate OLED panel, and even though it's not the most well-calibrated thing in the world, it looks nice to the eye. The Razer Phone thankfully is much, much brighter than the original version of the Razer Phone. Again, it's not quite 100% there, but it is a lot better than the previous generation. And the Black Shark looks nice, but again, it's not quite final, so it's hard to run any kind of real tests. It looks goods, but I really feel like the winner here is the ROG just purely based on the looks. Where these phones really shine with the higher refresh rate, so it's really hard to show on video, but even the 90 Hertz of the ROG Phone really does make a big difference in small things like scrolling through a webpage or moving between menus. It really does seem a lot more fluid, and that definitely does apply to the Razer Phone. Now, to my eye, I actually can't really see the major difference between 90 Hertz and 120 Hertz. Theoretically, this is a little bit smoother, and I will say it looks maybe a little bit sharper when you're moving between things,but realistically, both these phones are a big step up over the Black Shark, or, well, every other 60 Hertz phone out there, which is basically all of them. All three have dual front-firing speakers, but there's a clear winner as far as which one sounds best. - [Phone] Hey, guys, this is Austin. The Microsoft Surface line has been growing a lot lately, with everything from a desktop all-in-one with the Surface Studio all the way down to the cheap and tiny Surface Go, there's a lot to like. - I guess the ROG Phone wins by default here. That's not what I was expecting. So the problem with the Razer Phone is at least with my specific unit, even though it is very loud and very clear, there's definitely a little bit of distortion on the very high volume. Something the ROG Phone definitely does right is the extra features and accessories that come along with it. One of the main ones is the squeeze feature. This is somewhat to what you'll find on the Pixel where if I squeeze it, what happens is it turns intoROG Gaming X Mode. The thing with X Mode is you actually can customize it to do whatever you want, but I just like going X Mode, not X Mode. X Mode!It's just kind of fun to do. But it's not only just for show, so if you flip the ROG Phone over, on the top are the AirTriggers. This essentially adds physical controls to the top of the phone, giving it a little bit more of a controller kind of feel. The way it works is that each of them can be mapped to a specific button on the screen. The way it works is that inside the X Mode software, you can adjust the actual touchpoint of where you want it, so for example, my right triggers the actual trigger in the game, and my left is to go on to the sights. You can do it however you want, but the thing is, this is a really, really nice addition to give you a little bit more of a physical control on a phone without having to carry around, like, you know, a controller, or accessories. One downside to the ROG Phone is that this is one of the hottest devices that I've ever tested. Now it doesn't get uncomfortably warm, but after a few minutes of gaming, it does get a little bit toasty, which is where the included fan comes in. So what you do is snap this on to the USB-C portion the bottom of the phone. As soon as you clamp it on, not only will the RGB logo light up, but it will start a pretty easy little fan which will cool the back of the phone. Now in testing, this doesn't make a massive difference to performance. What it does do is cool off the back of the phone to make it a lot nicer for when you're, you know, doing extended Fortnite gaming sessions and not sweating your fingers up. Can you sweat your fingers up?Is that, I can't say that can I, that's weird. So what's the best gaming phone of 2018?Well, I really like a lot of what Razer has donewith the Razer Phone 2. I gotta give it to the ROG Phone. Not only does it have great performance, but it also looks nice. It's got a lot of really cool features, but really, what kind of sells this to me over everything else is this is the first gaming phone that's not only good at gaming, but it's also good at being a phone, and that, that kind of means a lot. (electronic static)(screen humming)(deep breath)Hey, guys, this is--(electronic music)