Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred Aang Samsung unpacked is tomorrow and it seems like we've got a handle on some of the big stories coming out there's a lot of products to unpack here haha various leaks point have to at least a mainline Galaxy S 10 phone a Galaxy S 10 Plus this rumored budget for the Galaxy S 10 e we're hearing and potentially a 5g model and we'll probably hear more about the the foldable phone which this morning Evan blasts put on Twitter saying it'll it'll likely be called the Galaxy fold very creative it's unfortunate that the foldable phone is not the main event here I really wish this was an event for that I I'm sure a lot of people are more buzzed about the foldable phone than they are about the s10 itself considering all the leaks that have happened yeah I think I think you make a great point it's a little weird that you know the foldable phone will likely be jammed into the s10 event because Samsung will obviously want you to focus on the s10 and the phone that you can buy now but I imagine a lot of folks will be more captivated by the foldable device yeah I mean everyone's talking about foldable phones this year this is like the big piece of gadget innovation that everyone's been looking for and to see it being tucked away and this kind of event is kind of you know discouraging for me but at the same time I mean we'll we'll see how they presented maybe it'll be there you know one more thing maybe it'll be maybe it will get the the kind of spotlight that it deserves but you're right it's a little weird they're jamming everything in we've got rumors of wireless earbuds as well there was a leak about their smartwatches from from Friday I mean it's they've got a really big show coming up is Dec still a thing that senseless decks is a thing okay I mean what we don't know if they'll talk about it tomorrow but the last several presentations they Dex has made an appearance yeah I'm curious cuz I haven't seen any leaks for four decks or anything like that but I I'm always surprised when they bring it back is like hey check out this thing that we're really really into that no one uses but Scott Stein big fan of Dex I loves using it I mean I wish like where people use it it seems cool but you know for for that to be somewhere like popular I don't I don't really see people using it or anything like that yeah that's definitely more of a of like a workplace yeah type feature so it's it's not it's not quite as sexy as are there any rumored prices on this budget phone yep like is it how is it like the iPhone 10 are where the budget price is 750 no I mean there are a bunch of prices floating out but it's I imagine somewhat in life now the little bit less than the the 10 are Samsung kind of likes to keep parity with apples pricing scheme so I don't see and this 5g monitors is like 5 g 5g or is this like it's 5 g LT yeah no I mean you know Qualcomm and Samsung back in December made a big deal of having one of if not the first 5g phones I think Samson is gonna do this right this is gonna be a 5g device we've had you know I talked with Verizon CEO who you know who claims he's got the first Samsung 5g phone this is likely it so if you just sort of parse the warning chances are this is a phone that will have will be exclusively a verizon phone for a couple of weeks months we don't know and they don't it'll go to the other characters and you've talked about 5 G's capabilities a lot you know people using it to do like surgery with VR yeah but something like that I mean is this foam really gonna unlock those capabilities or is this one of those things where it's like everything is just faster for no reason surgeons will be able to perform their operations with the phone I'm gonna be a little clunky at first but 5g won't really make no this is a taste of 5g presumably if you're in the market to take advantage of those 5g speeds your connection was going to be blazingly fast but in terms of all those big revolutions the big stuff with 5g that's gonna come down line yeah a taste of 5g sounds like the worst Restaurant Week ever but I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow yeah for a full coverage on Samsung tomorrow because I've seen it I'm Roger Chang I'm out for dang thanks for listening it's got four stars of yep it's okay I'm with Alfred on this one taste of 5g is a terrible idea but then I've always hated five g's we're on determined reasons you order the food and then it comes out like a year or two later so you just gotta sit and then you get like some appetizer that's not really we are getting in some some deep concepts here but a everybody out there still watching and listening for whatever reason is wrong with you thanks for joining us go ahead and send in questions in comments so we can keep the conversation going a little bit of trivia today before we move on to the rest of the show where we take your questions today is the nicolaus copernicus birthday yeah that's kind of cool yeah and as a reminder there will be no show tomorrow since we're gonna be live covering Samsung's unpacked so we'll see you again on Thursday for regular 3:59 coverage so anyways you guys can take the day off tomorrow I mean come make sure to watch the Samsung show but in the interim let's go and take some questions and comments from mass Killa 469 great name get rid of the big speed button please yeah we don't think that's probably gonna happen yeah I imagine the big speed button is is here to stay I mean they really really want to use big feet same reason they want you to use Dex I mean Samsung just wants people to use like there's content even though no one's using at the time TouchWiz is still a thing it's still the thing on their devices yeah I guess they call it touchwood I mean it's not TouchWiz it's not as bad as it used to be sure sure it used to be terrible just wish you were able to get rid of at least at least give me that option yeah all right here's a great question from our old friend Michael Brown do you think Samsung has been the most innovated company over Google and Apple at scale ooh that's a good question at scale I mean yeah you can make the argument for it I don't has a fair question though only because like Samsung I mean are you talking about just phones or are you talking about if you're saying at scale that would include like everything right so that would include big TVs and I was thinking when he meant at scale like volume phones like sewing hundreds of million as opposed to like so Wow you know like a nice player like an oboe or like a 1 plus yeah I mean yeah you can be like I guess really there's only a couple players like that right that you've got Huawei Apple Samsung maybe LG no I mean if we're talking about just phones I still think Google it has been doing a really great job the last like few years since coming out the pixel I mean like they like historically have not made devices and then they come out with this focus on software instead of hardware and like their cameras are already like some of the better cameras out there without like medicine yeah that's true the camera tech is hard to be for Google I would say Samsung has an edge at least in hardware the devices look great I mean the the curved screens now this foldable thing like if they're able to actually execute upon it I mean you could you can kind of give them a lot of props for their ability to innovate yeah I wouldn't say that that's Samsung doing that though I mean isn't that like what's that random Chinese company that like came out was like we're the first one yeah yeah they're the most innovative well here's a thing it's so I tried it and it does work it's like awful is it it's not great yeah so that's the thing we're we're still not sure how the Samsung photo things gonna actually yea work but then there was Shara and Jessica dual quartz scoop over the weekend with TCS yeah yeah there's a watch they're not working on I mean those those products aren't gonna be coming out to at least next year mm-hmm so they're yes the the scoop from Shara was a was a nice piece that kind of showed that everyone's doing phones but Samsung's the first actually get it to market in a bigger way yes there's the the flex Python yes but that's actually also not quite available yet you can order it it's on sale technically didn't show me try something at last year's CES with that other foldable phone or a little screens or something yeah they well they try to pop out just yeah yeah and then ZTE has that weird dual screw down yes you're right there are a couple others that they're trying this stuff at I don't fit that scale but they're definitely trying different things but in terms of like innovating and making like a polished product I think Samsung yeah you could make an argument so they've done a pretty good job with that we have some questions and comments regarding the design and over ascetic of the new phones Ironhide said that phone suck and ugly Zac boxer though as a really good point says that the pill shape notch on the new note is hideous at least put it in the middle instead of on the right I don't mind the shape of it but symmetry come on Samsung I imagine that's for a logistic purposes he usually has to know the note rumored he said the note but cut out okay well look I mean the cut out that's rumored for the s10 is the one that sort of kind of floating there on the right or something that's not a notch it's just like kind of yeah I think that's what a pill yeah yeah yeah I think that's what they mean but I think the idea is like instead of having it on the right like they want to like get in the middle yeah I don't know like I'm like looking at my phone right now with the with the little like notch there and I'm imagining if it was in the middle I would kind of hate that look even if it was symmetric yeah also I feel like yeah maybe it's better that way like if it's like it wouldn't block like your time or anything like that or like your notifications I don't know yeah we'll see I will to see how they actually implement that like if the status bar is above the cutout I think that's the general logic of companies though is we don't care if you hate it you get used to it kind of thing where yeah I mean that's definitely been apples yeah right yeah everyone hated the notch and now everyone's copy yep yep although a few companies are able to can't do that right Apple was able to shift the industry when Samsung went to curved displays or like the curved edge displays no one else decide to fall right yeah but I still look at that curved edge display and I just think you know what is this like extra space for nothing it just looks cool yeah iconic Joseph asks do you think that the Galaxy S 10 will be more expensive in terms of retail price and will the retail price of the S 10 be retail retailing more than the original s9 price oh good question I'm not entirely sure but the fact that there is a budget like a rumor budget model suggests that the prices are probably prices for like the main line phones are probably gonna be a little bit higher I imagine like the plus will be higher if they could be around the same level they were pretty expensive last year the plus it's a top tier right yeah the plus is top tier well there's a beef there's also the rumored 5g phone which would probably be more expense I am so mad at this industry trend of every phone getting more and more expensive people just go out and buy it and it doesn't stop them because like people are paying for it you know they're just gonna keep raising the prices stop buying really expensive phones and ruining at first cheap wads that budget phone is not gonna be cheap I'm like willing to bet on that sheep is yeah it's gonna be somewhere like the $700 range I'm sure yeah what you think it's cheap anymore though yeah I hate everything there you go all right more questions hang on I'm digging them up right now Mohit Bansal says what is expected from samsung's new rumored OS oh they showed off the OS during their developer conference I mean it just seems like it's a little bit more streamlined so hopefully not TouchWiz esque but yeah well we haven't really had a chance to get like a I haven't had a chance to get that hands-on so I can't really all bixby all the time baby let's go every button is a Bixby button now the entire screen is just a giant every time you touch it Bixby's like hello how can I help you hunter Lee asks will there be any other design compromises with the budget version oh it's I mean you look up the rumor roundup in terms of I think it's I would imagine things like camera memory the you know there's certain configurations that are available to you and the higher end specs the easy places to kind of cut the corners on it but as far as design and look go they're pretty uniform yeah I'd imagine aesthetically it's gonna look very similar uh here's a really fun one one night tonight asks how much to repair that folding screen I'm interested in this too just because the one thing I noticed in some of the demo videos of the concept and all that we've got floating around when they fold it if somebody touches the screen it still messes with the UI there's no disconnect there so you could accidentally tap something activate something yeah and that's one of the things I hate most about my edge-to-edge screen phones I've know where to safely put my fingers you know like to handle the thing what happens if you start like activating crap accidentally locked the phone you know what if they sell phone cases to like block out that area so you can put your hands there you get like a little finger tab thing you have to put on nullifies your finger so it can't feel it so it's like a dead space so be so awful but yeah it's great Samsung accessory right now $19.99 no I look I would say the in terms of like the repair ability of these things I think that's gonna be a real issue a real question most of the handset makers I've talked to still haven't really got a handle on the wear and tear samsung says they've got you know special proprietary technology that allows their device to fold and been thousands of times without that kind of wear and tear issue but it's gonna be it's gonna be a challenge the particular because at least the concept they showed off the screen folds inward mmm like a clamshell and from everything I've heard that because the radius of that is tighter than say the screen being on the outside that is there's a lot more wear and tear possibilities so I mean we're not gonna know for a while whether or not these break down but it's definitely something I that's that's a question for me that that and I'm pretty sure the replacement material for a lot of like repair shops yeah like that is not going something easy to get your hands on especially like that type of class that they've been experimenting with I mean right now like if you try to get your phone at least for me my phone screen repair was like 80 bucks right it was like a static screen you know for that kind of material I imagine it'd definitely be more than that I mean it's probably most things where you have to send it back to them right yeah it's not you just can't go to a repair store and get that thing fixed anyway let's take a leak for a second do you think that the leaks have ruined the excitement of new products that's from Kenneth Timothy branches off says why are we still surprised by the leaks before the phones announcements nowadays you know it's their marketing department that's leaking it just to drive up the height some of it is some of it I think is incompetence you know and some of it is just you know journalists and bloggers like doing their jobs and and uncovering stuff that they you know that Samsung didn't really want them to uncover yes I would say that does suck out some surprise I would imagine given just how jam-packed this shows is shaping up to be there's gonna be a lot to it and I think even if you've seen the products you know and these screen caps you mean if you've seen the leaks getting the full story game the context behind some of these products is just as important I I disagree with the getting rid of the excitement part of it like leaks was I feel like more devices should go through with this kind of strategy that like video game companies do a lot where it's like you know short updates every few months like what Nintendo did with like Super Smash Brothers right where I think that like by providing more information as it gets closer to the release date like you actually build up excitement that way as opposed to you know everything just coming on like one day all right well yeah the third point and these leaks have actually helped me build up excitement for the s-10 because it's like oh cool they have like this feature in this feature and this feature which I haven't seen before okay so there you go I only trickle more thing else it definitely helps Samsung stay in the news yeah like if there was nothing else you know we'd have there'd be preview storage or whatever but the fact that these leaks have come out in a fairly consistent flow I'm sure some of it is is marketing controlled but some of it is again incompetence but either way it sort of helps Samsung stay in the news cycle here's a question coming in from Brian that's me you say that the show's gonna be jam-packed we have an idea what the rough run time is gonna be considering I'm gonna have to camp here and push buttons for like four hours oh I don't know these things usually go about an hour I'm guessing this one will be like 90 minutes or so okay that's a fair assumption back onto leaks mark dybul asks have any leaks resulted in legal action none that I'm aware of has anyone tried it alone not just Samsung you like in general yeah yeah I mean I know there were leaks what was it take two didn't they thin they sued they suit some this is a video game leaked though I forget which UK publication like released information on a rockstar Rockstar yes not take too doesn't take two : rocks that could be out on them anyway I did I mean I know that happened in the video game world just last year which is kind of bad precedent generally I would say it's pretty rare unless it's something really egregious but I think for the for the consumer electronic company trying to try to sue a news outlet it just it's bad it's just gonna blow up in their face actually if it's true information yeah right I mean they I mean the the Rockstar case that I mean it was it was true right they got proprietary information ahead of time it's just in general its it sets a bad precedent in terms of freedom of speech and it's really just bad PR for a company to go after a news outlet for reporting the news so regardless of the circumstances behind it so we don't see a lot of that coming in from mouse' sefar do you think they will go with a 4k resolution display ooh my guess is no but then he asks why not well 4k really works well if you've got a big display if you've got a look at a tiny one the the benefits are pretty minimal for the costs are putting in to to have a 4k display I know Sony does this with some of their phones but you know they they really push 4k across a whole library of product so it kind of makes sense but I don't know why would need it though to watch the 3:59 in 4k on your mobile device all right I really actually would prefer they watch it in low res then over 4k cuz you can see all that we don't do anything here's no makeup this is all natural better worse so this is the real 3:59 no res please okay we got just enough time for a couple more questions Michael Brown hey Roger what would it take for you to switch to a Samsung phone take a lot of like am i I did actually have this thing I had a Samsung phone I had a s6 edge and it wasn't the greatest experience so I've kind of opted away from using Samsung phones they're fine hardware wise are great software wise I think I before prefer a cleaner Android experience like something you'd find on a pixel or even a one plus you know I like the hardware just sometimes the the software are you only using iPhones now no I've got a white console yeah I was wondering what your wait seriously running free at the same time like not right now but yeah usually Jesus all right let's take a couple more if you're to pinpoint the reason behind smartphone prices rising who would you say is truly at fault here Apple yep now you've got it yeah it's definitely Apple Apple came out and Samsung said well if you're opening the door that we're just getting again I mean like think about before the the 10 was announced there all these articles on the rumored pricing you know Apple is gonna sell a thousand dollar phone and then all these annals like no one's gonna buy that it's gonna pay them and then their earnings came in is like Oh everyone is behind that and then you know that's when it really like started skyrocket I mean look there is also something we said about the more sophisticated equipment being thrown these devices you know Samsung is rumored to have this ultrasonic fingerprint sensor obviously with Apple there's a face ID although the infrared camera that technology at least initially it was expensive but maybe have just opposed justified some of that price point but now it's at this point Apple's open that door and everyone's just taking advantage when we see the S 10 come out how much do we think the note 9 is gonna drop oh um they're gonna drop by that much like their old models yeah I mean I imagine they'll be deals yes like 100 or like $50 yeah well I think it's especially for the note 9 and for the note line like you kinda have to wait for that note cycle yeah and before you get the discount they're like I'd imagine the GS 9 will get a decent discount in their coming months but the note I just came out of the summer and/or the fall and you know it's it's still several months before we get a new note okay we're closing in on the end here from Mohit is this the right time to upgrade to a new phone seeing that there are so many new design upgrades especially in the last year when we went to from the knotch or to the notch from the slider what if I invest now and it immediately becomes outdated I feel like that's the question of the decade right now with the way everything is gone I think if you think like that then you're never gonna update your phone just because yeah there's always gonna be some new thing that comes out within the next like four or five months I mean especially if you're an Android fan there's just a new better phone out seemingly every other month so you know after a Mobile World Congress is sort of a good time because at least you get a sense of what some of the flagship devices are but keep in mind you know always launching their phone after Mobile World Congress you know one plus usually has their event a little bit later in the the year so you know it's like I said at some point you just have to make a decision on the phone you want to buy you just have to be aware that like a newer better phone is gonna come right around the corner how does it feel like it depends on like when the last time you upgraded was like if the last time you upgraded your phone was like four months ago yeah this is not a good time don't do that why why I have an upgrade in my phone since the s7 so like I'm you know pretty much in position to like get a new phone now so yeah it really is all about timing and what you're looking for I implore you to adapt my philosophy which is to wait until the device you have starts belching fire and then throw a dart at whatever is currently out on the market and then wait till the next time it belches fire you literally did that yeah like that's not a joke no I'm not exaggerating in the least okay we got time for just one more mohit asks is buying 5g actually useful and let's go ahead and take that from the perspective of a consumer um I had like five five g's please I would say at least this year it's gonna be mile your mileage may vary it really depends on whether or not you're in one of those initial 5g markets because the rollouts gonna be kind of slow and it's gonna be selective and even if your market has 5g your particular neighborhood may not have it so but 5g is great to have for early adopters and folks who want to be on the cutting edge but just keep in mind that like it's gonna be buggy it's gonna be buggy it's gonna be spotty it'll be like one four kind of rolled out initially it's it's not everywhere there are issues with I suspect there will be issues with size with battery with keeping a connection to 5g and so it's the early experience may not be as smooth as you you know you've had with 4G LTE early adopting is always a roll of the dice but without you early adopters the rest of us don't get to reap the benefits so thank you for that let's read our reviews on it or that there you go that's probably a better answer frankly and ingredie net reviews and in closing thoughts this is a bit off topic but I thought this is a nice one to go off go out on Michael Brown asked uh what does Roger and Alfred enjoy most about doing the 359 show whoa well obviously taking quite meta you guys yeah that's my favorite part too and all in all seriously I don't know what's your favorite part Alfred I like going back after the show and just like doing like mashups and like cuts of me and saying like ridiculous things have a lot of water this shows all about me basically so I'm looking forward to seeing like fan versions of it sometimes where it makes me say things that I've definitely never said oh my god that's a challenge get out there plenty about from clips to work with definitely but as we mentioned before no show tomorrow but make sure to stay tuned to see net for the Samsung unpacked live coverage thank you for joining us today we'll see you back here for the 359 on Thursday Roger the 39 is available in iTunes tuna and Feedburner stitcher google play music google podcast the amazon echo of course cnet.com will see you all on Thursday take care folks looking forward to talking about whatever they unveiled tomorrow you