Gadgetory

introducing huawei mate book X Pro winner of 27 global awards that now comes with Windows hello unlock your huawei mate book X Pro with a touch of your fingerprint secure fast and no password to remember for a limited time get a free $300 gift card with purchase visit a Microsoft store near you today alright we are here and it is live five cameras on the LGV 43 phones with up to three cameras on the galaxy s 10 has progress in the mobile technology industry just become a very simple numbers game we don't have any idea what to look forward to anymore as we head into the fall and into next year with the two tables but we'll talk it out plus Apple is fluttering like a butterfly over its MacBook keyboards and hey can someone and I teach check out what's wrong with a Seuss's website here thanks that and all the news from this week in mobile technology on this episode 300 of the pocket now weekly recorded live at June 29 at noon Eastern this is the podcast that talks about everything in mobile technology from smartphones to tablets to smartwatches and everything in between it's all the stuff that you wished for as a kid my name is Jules Wong news editor here at PocketNow and I'm joined by our very own editor-in-chief Anton T Raj what's it going they're in Romania Tony Thank You Jules good morning good afternoon good evening everybody it's been a while since I've been here and it's good to be here everything is fine and dandy and I can't wait to share some some thoughts on those cameras because they're quite a few cameras too many maybe know we had that light l16 once that had like 16 of those things on the back it was very weird but yeah this is going to be the most that a major OEMs short minutes time we won't like you there are social medias you can put your comments through with the hashtag P and weekly on Twitter and we'll give attractive slide we've got bones over here ready and go to read out your areas and in the off times between now and maybe the next show we'll be answering your emails too if we can get to them and that podcast at pocketnow.com again if you can't stay live on the show for now then you can just put those questions in later and we'll be able to answer them hopefully get them in I would like start off this week with the Galaxy S ten I know that we've been talking about the note 9 how there's gonna be an event on August 9th we're gonna be there but until there's actually more news to report on that because just having an event is it really enough for us to talk about it in death I want to talk about 2019 that's again but before you do do you mind telling our readers how they can win an HP and the x2 yeah that's right freaking like I should know better anyways we have an HP Envy x2 to giveaway it's why the always connected pcs that Qualcomm and Microsoft will not to give and all and I'm gonna have to add this the post on the rundown here in just after the show yes but I'm going to put in a link for you to participate in this giveaway it runs through July 4 11:59 59 eastern time and all you have to do is comment on I believe it's Adams the lanes review of the HP Envy x2 has some flaw has some advantages we want you to talk about how you know which featured like you like and also we're in perhaps you came from and if you heard about this giveaway on the podcast will just say you heard it from the part and we we apologize for our international readers or listeners this is going to be a us only giveaway it's it's beyond our control this is how we can do it this is how we will do it but we will have some other giveaways coming really really soon to market now which hopefully will be international so apologies if you are outside of the US and you cannot participant participate but you will be disqualified sadly yeah and I mean we handshake are in the agreement we have to honor them and but hopefully we will be able to marry you so back to you the guts guest 10 apparently we're gonna get three of these things not two three and kind of be about two five point eight inch sizes and then six point two very few million your sizes if you're if you know but another one saying oh it's gonna be five inches here five maybe six inches here and six and a half inches there I don't know oh yeah why not just have the it was gonna be one camera there's gonna be a mid-level with two cameras and then three cameras for the pro and I'm wondering what this one in terms of consumer choice in terms of what Samsung wants to achieve in terms of just being able to you know joke those demand in terms of okay let's forecast which ones should get the most supply I think we're talking about a flagship and since we're going to talk about a 2019 flagship I think that the market is pretty much set in terms of what we should expect what the expectations are this year we'll go with the Huawei P 20 and a B 20 Pro with the LG v 35 with the q7 and he even with the upcoming note 9 I mean for a 2019 flagship I'm not saying it doesn't make sense to have three Galaxy S nines because it really doesn't it will be basically cannibalizing each other but I really do think that a single camera galaxy s 9 would make little to no sense most of the flagships out there all of the flagships out there have at least two cameras going three makes sense if that third camera is not a gimmick and is actually useful and we can go into details out how who always doing things but I don't think that having a galaxy s 9 even if it's a 0 or a budget version with a single camera would make sense for Samsung as a business since we are going to talk about a flagship phone which defines the entire strategy for Samsung all the way through the end of 2019 and the Galaxy Note 10 that budget particular budget of Orion will end up being either a galaxy a galaxy Y or galaxy something else and the S will be as we know it today a 2 phone version e tufa move with the basic galaxy s 9 having a jewel camera setup and maybe the s9 + trying to tackle or to beat the standard which Huawei set back in March I think it was in March in Paris with the p20 pro so that long story short I think that it's going to be a 2 version thing and that third lower option single camera Bryant will end up being some sort of other galaxy that's that's what those are my two cents I think that's definitely a fair assessment of this will seem how a brand can spread its flagship brand and we saw that 2012 HTC One series it was the it'll spread there with the wide-ass 1x there were three yeah yeah but there were three of them and it was kind of weird to see all that and no one really knew what was going on with those I think maybe with Samsung where it has more of that presence all around the world at the carriers to that you know you get the hands-on time maybe they might they think they might be able to convert more people with three options that are under that very well mount galaxy s-line again I'm not sure maybe it's gonna be another one of those J things exactly my thoughts because the galaxy Brandon ever since Samsung has started pushing the galaxy brand real hard three four years ago the galaxy brand has has become very much diluted there's galaxy s which is the flagship there's the Galaxy Note which is the full flagship and the niche product and then there's a ton of other galaxies from the a to the Y you name them I can't keep condom I think introducing more fragmentation within the segment within the galaxy s segment will hurt the business probably not immediately because let's be honest whatever Samsung is going to put out there it's gonna sell like hotcakes like millions just like with Apple and it's good that they have such a good brand recognition and brand loyalty but I don't think that this is really what they want to do they want to keep up with the competition if if possible they can or they can try at least leapfrog them and right now we have 200 AP 20s we will have two iPhones or maybe even three who knows but those don't compete with the Galaxy S line up so it in my mind it just makes sense to be to go with the tradition of having two s phones and that's it I think we have your coverage on pocket now already of what the p20 offered for you but just you know go for what you thought of that triple camera thing was all about for you I am surely you know that Adam Lane has his thoughts on it yeah I even before I actually published my review so from the minute I laid my hands on the the Huawei P 20 Pro I was in love not with the phone per se but with its multimedia capabilities when I'm not managing the team I'm gonna have a multimedia consumer I watch a lot of movies Ellison's a lot of music and they're not even going to talk about the speakers which i think they're they're really good the camera on the p20 pro is so good in my opinion it could be worse in your opinion it could be worse in some other people's opinions I've heard them go both ways some people praise it something we'll say it's not a huge thing for my personal needs for what I used my camera on my smartphone for the b20 Pro offers me something that I haven't had had the chance of using since the Lumia 1020 or in general since since the good old Nokia Lumia lineup I think that regardless of the scenarios in which I'm shooting it let it be handheld let it be low light let it be portrait let it be food or anything else it just delivers the type of results that I expect from a smartphone on which I know I can depend before that I was a huge fan of the Apple iPhone 10 because of the same reasons I know the Google pixel is way beyond the iPhone I I can say yes you are right but I haven't had had the chance of using the Google pixel because here in my region it's not available so it's safe to say that the p20 pro became and it's right here with us let me take off the the case which is really ugly and I wouldn't be using a case if it weren't this option this version but I have to just make it uglier it became my go-to phone and I haven't put it down ever since yeah yeah we're down in the port with the hashtag P and weekly well far away slash honor knows everything about fragmentation would you believe it and it seems to work for them I mean I guess they're coming from a different culture Chinese is more spectrum and they're more kind of a mob kind of yes but but still translates worldwide though still if you come to look at it if you take a step back I'm not sure who comment is who I'm sorry for not shouting out your name if you take a step back and you look at the big picture WOWY is just as fragmented as Samsung is when it comes to spreading out the number number of models that they have they have low-end they have mid-range they have high-end phones just like Samsung has the galaxy ace and the Y's and the rest who are we has the light has the regular and has the pro so within the family of the products there is no fragmentation you will not see three flat ships you will probably to flagships the p20 and a p20 Pro the p10 and a p10 and the mate empro and it can go long for a long time the storytelling but what I'm saying is there are models which are low-end there are models which are mid-range and there are flagship phones and that I think is what Samsung base is going to do with that particular zero level low-end galaxy yeah that's my two cents in terms of flagship kind of fragmentation you know maybe that will be the case and hopefully we'll get a cleaner look to all this again months to go on this story so we'll keep track of it because you know we can I want to transition here with this tweet from Andrew Wallace greetings hashtag pen weekly I am excited to see if LG basically combines all the major implementations of second cameras from wide angle to monochrome depth info telephoto large sensor all the stuff so that gives us chance to talk about the LG v 40 where sources are talking about this monster of a fall time phone with five cameras and I feel like the whole five cameras headline has been kind of overplayed a little bit because we've seen dual front-facing cameras before it's mostly from LG actually and we've also seen well--we're it's kind of we're talking about it I guess triple camera setups at the back so I mean that kind of sort of makes sense if you want to drive home a very premium product in terms of the Front's we got what supposedly might be a stereoscopic facial recognition feature where the two cameras are just taking different images and basically matching that to and if the data they stored within and then it's also the second the second aspect to that which is the back LG is known for its wide angle take on the second camera we don't know what I'll do for the third one so I guess first of all what do you think Tony of that third sensor maybe just free blowing in the wind go ahead so first of all let me try to take a bird's-eye view on this entire thing I'm okay with having multiple cameras I'm okay with having four or five cameras on a smartphone if the added number of cameras is beyond a gimmick if it's actually useful there's a very thin line which manufacturers have to play or obey or there's a red line if you will which they cannot cross the more cameras you add the more expensive your phone will be but still if you are willing to take that bet and release a flagship phone which will be more expensive because of the added one or two cameras you better make sure that those cameras are bringing value to your customers you better make sure that people will find the Edit camera useful beyond bragging rights beyond the fact that you will probably use them once or twice in your lifetime and then just show it off at the bar or at a birthday party so if they're useful I'm okay with that and now going into specifics yes LG can have the liberty of attacking or tackling the face recognition topic the way they want to I mean apples kicked this off in their own way and then Samsung is going to follow suit and of course LG needs to follow suit if that means it's the risk of a camera for better 3d mapping I'm fine with it but the question is about that third camera and we've recently had an advertorial on pocket now which which pretty much discussed and outline LG's mobile strategy for this year and moving forward to next year Jules maybe you can drop a link in in yeah yeah definitely gray no actually its I'm going to drop your link so we'll have a link in the rundown and you can see I really think that LG is very much invested in AI you can see most of their phones or the least all of the flagship phones for the best 12 months have the brand they think you and I don't need to think about it but yeah they're there they're going all-in in this AI / connected / / marketing thing which is beyond marketing just just don't think about the name thank you it's a brand name which they came up with think about the concept they are willing to bet a lot on a time moving forward and they are willing to bet a lot on all of their LG consumer electronics if you will from TVs to refrigerators and washing machines to be connected so with a third camera tackles or answers an AI question an IOT question in a meaningful way then I'm totally fine with this because this is where we are headed eventually if it's going to be just another camera now that LG has a telephoto lens that maybe they will add a zoom lens it still will answer some questions but I don't think that that is that is something which LG is looking for at the moment I mean to be fair to every manufacturer all of them are using 2017 hot buzzword of the Year artificial intelligence to juice up you know this aspect of the phone maybe it's to get more services or to the tech scenes on a camera like there they're using it and they're I mean to the point of abusing and it's kind of insane how that has gone and no wondering when or where this will go to next but I'm you know I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what the actual differentiator is here in terms of how LG uses artificial intelligence what if there there will come and there's no doubt about it there will come a manufacturer there's just a question of who and when who will manage to bridge the gap between AI and a are a her I know it's another buzzword everybody's using it Apple has been embracing it for the past 12 months now but there's nothing meaningful nothing nothing useful at least to me and maybe to you it's another thing to show off but if somebody can manage to bridge the gap between AR AI and IOT in a way which enhances my life everyday beyond the fact that I'm pointing my camera towards my food and it says food or portrait something is really really meaningful don't ask me what because if I knew I would be a billionaire now I think that that's that's gonna be a win for the company and I think that I think personally that this is where LG might be headed with the three camera set up on the back on the front is pretty clear LG a are a IOT by the way this podcast is not sponsored by Campbell's alphabet soup could you say hi to me for a sec I know that you just hide to a Peter for a second happy didn't because he says Peter hatin I'm with Anton on lg cameras more cameras need to make a nice product but we need value could this become like maybe the HTC One m8 which we all kind of feel like didn't really provide value if that DLO camera or do you worry that there is a potential for all of these additional cameras to remove focus away from key areas such as battery line because everyone's if you can't get the fundamentals of a freakin smartphone right and what right do you have of giving us of promoting of driving all this R&D and like shown to those as a you know actual advantages actual differentiators III agree with Peter and I will go even beyond what he said I think that we are right now in a stage work in the industry regardless if you're talking Samsung Huawei is Sony HTC you name the manufacturer and even beyond that Apple we've reached a point where where smartphones are more or less equally fast processors are fast enough even even last year's 835 or 840 is fast enough last year's Exynos is fast enough we have four six or even eight gigs of ram and thanks to Android and its implementation battery life is good now of course it's not multiple day battery life but but most of the phones will probably give you a full day battery life having an extra camera will impact little on battery life because let's be honest the camera application you're spending the least amount of time you're probably spending time in a chat application on your web browser whatsapp is the messaging email and so on you only you the camera when the camera only uses battery when you're inside a camera application having said that if the third camera with its aia our iot implementation is something which is always on which could be something interesting if it brings value to your life again it's also something which they need to solve on a battery training side of things so the peter agreement yes so good value for the user hopefully what has proven to be a very bad value for us some users of their MacBooks and not book pros is the butterfly keyboard no mention so we've talked about a little bit about this before but it's just now this week it's come to a combination so apple's finally they're not in many anything they're just offering up a out of warranty free repair program for every MacBook and MacBook Pro model that has this keyboard with the butterfly switches which are very thin scissor switches that are not used very it's like like insect legs of plastic basically I guess you know that mechanism which goes like this yeah yeah great for the great for the listeners to do but it's guys you know scissors imagine scissors but very very you know thinned out and like we've seen a lots of reporting I mean Casey Johnston of the outline has been a great sounding board on this in terms of her editorial and her kind of just you know keeping the story the spotlight on Apple on this just going through have even as a little speck of dust and it's you know you would think that it's hard to get dust or crumbs or anything into very tightly compacted spaces but unfortunately this has disabled many keyboards and people have been complaining and it looks like Apple is listening but not really apologizing for all right so well I went and I know that you're actually looking for a MacBook or at least I'm not computer right now Tony and you actually have experience with them while these tell me about that let me try to play at least for for a couple of seconds the devil's advocate because again as a hardware manufacturer just like with any other manufacturer Apple is facing a real dilemma which is to thin down to improve to to make something better thinner faster and so on everything comes at a cost slimming down laptops means not only slimming down key components but slimming down input devices as well that being said let me ask you something back in the day when we had those those keyboards which had a key travel of at least half an inch you could ruin even those if you say you spilled some coffee on it or stuff gets behind the keys so I think there's a valid question here which goes it could go both ways both in Apple's favor and in against Apple what's what's the line between a manufacturing / designer fault and where is the user at fault for something going wrong or for something breaking because if if you look at things in a bubble that keyboard will probably last you for 10 years if you don't spill something on it if you don't drop stuff in it but on the other hand Apple for at least a price that the premium price tag that they are putting on these products they should ensure I'm not saying idiot-proof because that's that that would be that will be too much they should ensure that at least on a day-to-day usage on a regular scenario their hardware stands the test of time because things happen you and I are basically media attack bloggers I've seen most of tech loggers working from trains from from parties from phone booths from parts from restaurants from coffee shops accidents happen and to ruin something which costs two thousand dollars just because a bread crumb ended up in the wrong place is I think a deal breaker for most and I think that this is something which Apple is really trying to address right now they're trying to save the not necessarily the product line but the perception about this product because if if things are indeed as as the report claims and we've seen reports usually exaggerated I'm not saying it's exaggerated I'm seeing I'm saying that there might be an upper tier for it to be so but if it's true I'm saying that word of mouth is marketing and bad marketing hurts products so yeah there has to be a minimum acceptable life cycle for yes of the products and it just I don't see under normal user scenarios yeah yeah and you know being fair to the consumer also is that dust kind of you know is naturally occurring it's one of those things that you know it just happens to you know float on by sometimes of course and what kind of dist are we talking about because if you're going to use your laptop in a coalmine he'll probably render it useless but the regular house list or the regular city dust I don't think that that should be ever a problem and I don't think it is a problem you're probably talking about those foreign parts which are rather sizable which which you can actually see which end up being there as you said breadcrumbs or or anything else I don't have any experience with the butterfly keyboard I'm wondering how you know that gap is but you know it's it has it had enough complete consumer against it to have triggered some sort of reaction from Apple's I'm not sure whether this one I'm holding here is a butterfly keyboard but this is the latest Apple keyboard I don't see any way and I now also I don't have the latest generation MacBook so if somebody has it and has this problem please drop us a comment and let us know but I don't see any way bigger parts ending anywhere in there because there's no space you can't get anything under education yeah so this goes from the early 2015 MacBook 12 inch models all the way through but on everything at this point in terms of nuts and that pros so definitely write us in if you got any comments on this and we'll move on to one of our kind of night caps for now recurring topics least as many years past 10 years it feels like the past forever in mobile technology Apple versus Samsung is settled okay well yeah but I feel I mean this I think this it this is it they've settled it in terms it's not another verdict that can be appealed it's not something that has to go under a jury again like freakin Samsung made an appeal on its $539 million dollar damages verdict just last week and this all stems from phones you know Apple says that Samsung violated infringed upon design patents that related all the way back to new what I phone the first galaxy s2 like it's kind of amazing that that we're still looking at this so um I want any quick eulogy on this because we don't know the terms of the settlement but we know that it's over back when I when I was a news editor I wrote at least one story a week about the Samsung vs. Apple Apple versus Samsung and with the risk of repeating myself even though I will try not to do so I would ask you just one question how many ways are there to design a phone nowadays and a follow-up question or even a question which is going to try to help you in answering that no you know what actually I'm not going to help you I'm really curious about your your your response how many ways can you design a smart phone say your Samsung is there any way you can design a phone which Apple at one point can say you're copied it from me I mean we're going back to 2011 2010 it doesn't matter the old phones had buttons back then on the front and they had a scream they had an earpiece they had a lead stair case you could have a like a circle screen like dream you know there's a whole whole bunch of ways I'm not sure like they had it with freaking design time that cover it was just art like every descriptive piece of it and text it just referred to the art it was self evidence that you know this was what an eye friend looks like this is what a colorful grid of icons looks like this is what freaking you know slide John Locke looks like which got thrown out and you know there's a hope that we found out a whole bunch of stuff along the way here over the past seven years but like it's I don't think I I know think it was an argument worth having I think in the end what we got down to was you know the Supreme Court he got all the way up to the Supreme Court and then the Supreme Court tossed it back and said okay so what is the article of manufacturer that this patent applies to the parts of the product or the whole of the product and you know that's rate determined damages now you go and figure that out you know so I mean I think I was the biggest question that we were left with I am an Apple fan but I'm not a fanatic Apple fan I use an Apple computer I used an iPhone now I'm using Android so I'm trying to say this as gently as I can I think that this is a non-issue I think that Apple exaggerated with this lawsuit and they dragged it along just enough for it to make enough buzz they didn't do it for the money they didn't do it for for anything which is measurable and money I think that this was a branding / marketing campaign which was dragged out for years and years and years trying to generate trying to create a certain mindset whether this was addressing current Apple users that hey that we are so much better than Samsung / Android because they're copying us or they were trying to address future Apple owners that hey regardless of your middle of Samsung they copied from us it doesn't really matter the fact that Samsung would tell you that is just is just normal it's it's common sense when you're being dragged I'm not I'm not siding with samsung here nor am i siding with Apple and trying to explain that this was maybe in my opinion a move from which both companies benefited because of the entire media talked about this and nothing else for the past five or six years and beyond the fact that they spent millions and millions of dollars in in taxes in legal fees and attorney fees those those those are just pocket change when you come to look at the grand scheme of things it was a huge and long marketing campaign on both sides and I'm just glad to say it's it's over at least for now and on this particular lawsuit because there's plenty other lawsuits and there can always be another one a cynical but fair take on this I mean you're talking about Samsung world number one in smartphones in Apple world number two so I mean they I'm not sure if they wanted that and when they went into this lawsuit but they got it so they played along alright we'll take a quick break and we'll come right back with more news of the week they did introducing huawei mate book X Pro winner of 27 Awards at Mobile World Congress including best of show laptop best innovation best design editors choice and Readers Choice with Windows hello you can unlock your huawei me book X Pro with a touch of your fingerprint so here fast and no password to remember huawei mate book X Pro now available at Microsoft stores Amazon and Newegg comm for a limited time get a free $300 gift card with purchase visit a Microsoft store near you today and we are back with some more news of the week just wanted to cover a couple comments regarding the the keyboard issue the butterfly keyboard on the Mac books sure you're hatin that keyboard is indeed butterfly switching keyboard the one that you held up Tony and does it have a lightning point for what I yeah we're charging yes it does it's MacBook has even less ki travel than that keyboard so I mean it does use the so let me just hold it back up cuz I was holding the phone hold on Twitter it's so thin that you got to just gentle with it yeah because from what he says from what Peter says is that there's even less travel on the MacBook so I mean there's more room for more room for error more room for a disaster and it's just yeah I mean it's not good yeah so we have that and also kind of another take on this word without a report consumer electronics giving up usability durability and repair ability for the sake of design true I nobody has ever ever set a bigger truth than this who who was this commenter reports which is from the netherlands mister Laporte you are spot-on there's a saying if it never breaks you're never gonna get a new one I mean no company has whether they're making smartphones computers even car manufacturers if it never breaks if something never goes wrong you will never get a new one their intention is not to build a product which lasts your entire lifetime their intention is to build a product which fits the usual usage cycle which could be one year two year four years five years but then again something will eventually break and Murphy said if something can break it will eventually break so they're just giving it that's not that law is pretty peculiar Murphy's Law yeah we shall move on and we're going to talk about totally Google and the choices that you made and have to make come as far when we expect the pixel three and pixel three Excel to arrive and I want you to take a look at the rundown link for this story take a look at the video or not the video well you can if you want but the more importantly the pictures the picture you have to see because these are renders from on leaks Steve Harris Topher from about the pixel 3 and pixel 3 Excel and they show both 2x1 displays or extra tall displays but the XL is the one as well the pixel 3 standard one just sacrifices a little bit of bezel room for just a plain old display clean got nothing really happen over there both of them have dual cameras and the single camera at back which we have you know Google has a magic into computational photography for them going but that dual camera system that front were still kind of deciding what that is so in all of that what do you think this choice often if it's true before we go into that conversation I'm looking at the renders and on leaks is usually spot-on of course evan blesses is more spot-on but alex is spot-on as well if these it's because you don't want the beef to be coming over here okay beef on Twitter quite a lot okay I should I should be on Twitter more so I apologize if I offended anybody what I'm saying is if the phones which Google is going to put out on a market will be anything like these two I'm looking at right now they're both really really ugly and this is this is just my personal assessment let me tell you why I'm a huge fan of minimizing bezels not going to ridiculous about the lack of bezels but minimizing them to a point where it not it does not impede normal usage I'm not okay I'm probably not going to be okay with a full screen phone given that the entire reason behind the notch and this is one of the things I criticized huawei for a p20 proform the reason behind the notch is to minimize or kill the top bezel or to give you the most amount of screen real-estate possible now if you look at the pictures that I'm looking at right now you have a minimal bezel at the top and you have a huge bezel on the bottom I'm trying to zoom into the picture I can see a line there it might be a front facing speaker it might be something else I'm not saying it's it's not okay to have a button or it's not okay to have a front facing speaker I'm saying it kills symmetry now in the case of the smaller pixel which doesn't have the notch it it has huge bezels top bottom but at least it's symmetrical but in the case of the pixel free Excel it's asymmetrical and hopefully they will come with an option to just conceal the knob somehow and now after this long intro which for which I apologize for back to your question I think that via the entire topic in the entire debate behind the knotch is an on topic it's a non-issue the notch is a non-issue you get used to it eventually and it'll it won't even take you that long to get used to it aside from Apple most manufacturers are giving you options to conceal the knotch if you don't like to have those Devil's horns on the right and left side of your display you can just conceal them with a black band which comes optional if within your settings and you only have flowing text on a black bar on top which is perfectly fine again the reason behind the knotch is to give you the most amount of screen real estate and even if it's 40 or 50 or whatever pixels wide it still gives you more real estate for the applications to stretch the cameras as much as possible so in my personal opinion the notch is an on topic it's a non-issue and the conversation about the notch has to go away because they're not just here to stay yeah and oh I guess I'll play the devil's advocate this time because if you're watching movies and you're kind of you're given the option to either crop or zoom in or maybe just you know view it as it is like I don't want to be seeing all those blacks but I already have to deal with the freaking a little boxing just from the 2 by a-1 content that has been well not 2x1 content but 16 by 9 in a 2 by 1 screen or whatever the aspect ratio and the problem is is that there's more black space and it's growing and it you know if I really want to you know have an unobstructed view of whatever I'm dealing regardless of you know it being an app for pictures or just reading space like there's just a whole bunch of odd you know like odd crevices that I feel like don't offer me anything in terms of the experience let me counter that let me counter that and I'm glad to say that finally Android is is one step ahead of Apple when it comes to this it's only on the iPhone 10 where a full screen YouTube video has the cut out if you look at it landscape because of the notch because in the case of the be pony bro or in the case of the g7 thank you when you do conceal the knotch and the software applies a black or transparent PNG on the top of the screen that is basically your canvas and if you flip it landscape it won't have the cutout for the knotch the content will stop where the not stop so that will give you a rather symmetrical fullscreen landscape view with the bottom notch on the bottom on the right side and when the cutout being completely ignored on the left side I mean you tell that to our super enthusiasts that they're in our audience here and it's kind of its kind of yeah the same like I don't really you know as long as I'm able to see it and with a very decent amount of you know resolution and size like I am perfectly fine for it but it's just you know sometimes you want to be able to they want to push the the whole you know illusion of like oh this is a window on the world to something that you can't reach but it's like it's I don't know well I mean it's like it's your choice your opinions so in hashed IP and weekly on Twitter and we'll try and see if we can answer it can we can we just like five minutes or two minute brain exercise like if you were to design or any of our listeners were to design a smartphone which would eliminate the knotch but still maximize the entire display and I'm specifically referring to the top how would it be because there are physical constraints yes virtually display connector at the bottom that that is the necessity for the chin it has to connect back to the motherboard so it has to fold I'm not even going to go that far I'm going to just stop at the top where you have an earpiece which you have to have you have a webcam which you have to have and you will probably have a light sensor proximity sensor and in some models you'll also have an LED flash now where do you put these five pieces of hardware in order to eliminate the knotch and still maximize the real estate putting them on the bottom people try to it didn't work so is there any other option or at least I don't see any other option until technology gets that far or that good where you can just simply put a webcam or an earpiece behind your screen and then there's no problem they put fingerprint scanners behind the screen why couldn't they just put the webcam or the earpiece even the earpiece was completely eliminated by showing you some connection yeah exactly you know I mean they're they're getting their way there but it's like they're imperfect some some of them were in perfect solutions because you know I've experienced a boom kadesha where it's like Oh some people can actually hear my call from my vibrating cheaters I know but I want to move on because otherwise would be again we'd be sucked into talking about this all day if you're commenting please print out a certificate and of your hardware engineering degree move on with 30 xperia x ZT premium going up for pre-orders July 9th I'm talking to Tony here a falling away Sony fan who again you know loves Apple now or I guess there's always left Apple but you know has all have a spot I love I love both phones what are you saying aye aye I mean using a Hawaii p20 Pro as my daily driver all right fair but you know we always cast you as that Sony kind of yeah all days when it was very underappreciated and you know then I don't think it's pretty underappreciated we saw we heard that news this week of Sony bubble falling out of maybe Turkey Africa and Middle East markets do you think they'll be generating more losses this time around because this is the first I hate like to think about it like this but this is the first price increase for its characteristic 4k phone in like the so did the premium line has always been you know there's been two previous ones and z5 and then the x/z premium and but you know we got 4k HDR on eggsy pre now it's basically remained the same and then the rest of the phone is kind of like well we're gonna upgrade that with this you know cameras slow motion or whatever the heck and it's gonna be $1,000 that's a 25% increase from previous models what's up what's going on so there's two ways we can tackle this the difference between the z5 premium and the XZ 2 is $200 the question is is a faster processor is a secondary camera and a back mounted fingerprint scanner worth $200 I don't think so but at the same time we've been knowing Sony and I've been as you said a Sony fan and I've been following Sony since the early days you'll have to take over just work up definitely in terms of talking about a whole bunch of improvements that we saw the xperia x z2 we're talking about 960 Full HD slow motion ISO 50 1200 for photo taking which you know amazing of course you know there's always that Snapdragon upgrade that you have to consider because that's one of the bigger cost ran apps in terms of that but I think mmm perhaps this may prove out true but the display because we've seen kind of this pricing war this cold war of displays of OLED and LCD and you know just being able to get up to quad-hd levels without having it break the bank and there is some competition in an OLED market right now but in terms of that 4k not very very nice area for Sony alright there hasn't been much too many waves to talk about there so they're kind of left alone and having to support that but for that to justify a $200 price increase I I don't know if it's fair to compare that to the iPhone 10 we're dealing with a lot of the same prestige modeling going on here but you're getting face ID you're getting a much more robust system of apps and how much more robust system features that go along with the hardware provided and it's just well I don't know Sony is kind of you know getting their stuff together they're kind of mounting their stands but they don't have it i define II don't have a castle yet for that sad you're a hero Jules and I I apologize this is what happens when you broadcast at 8 p.m. from your home office and there's speeds a delivery at your door so I apologize coming back to you - what what I was saying I've been following Sony since since the really early date and Sony has always been a company just like Apple which was not afraid to charge a premium just because of its branch is because it has Sony honor the same way Apple charges for the Apple logo Sony is charging for the sony logo and it would be an understatement to say that the two companies are not doing the same thing because we know that Apple and Sony were I'm not seeing really close but Steve Jobs who always finding inspiration from Sony products so there's that Sony can charge whatever they want for a premium smartphone does that smartphone deliver does the smartphone the differentiate itself enough to justify that $1,000 price point to some it might to some I mean if there's the iPhone 10 let's be honest the iPhone 10 is not worth its price that so we are in an era where smartphone manufacturers create niche products which become status quos which because comes status symbols if you don't want to have a $1000 phone to show off we have cheaper phones as well but if you afford it or if you want to be able to show off that you are rocking a 1000 plus dollar phone we have that option as well if it's aspirational product exactly it's something which you you are not afraid to pull out in public workplace on your table and people will immediately know that you're a huge snob and if you're all right the fact that now you can go ahead and continue eating that caviar right there absolutely but nonetheless sony sony flagships were always were always great exceptional phones I always held so many close to my heart despite of all all their efforts in in trying to shoot themselves in the foot starting from the lack of us availability to us availability without the fingerprint scanner and all the other problems which they faced during the years especially the headphone volume and other multimedia stuff Sony phones are solid phones so if I win the lottery and Sony doesn't send me the next e24 review I will probably buy that phone because because what I'm a Sony fan to it looks good and three it's a Sony brother so sony brother I'm not saying Samsung or hua we are less premium products when it comes to build when it comes to quality when it comes to performance I'm saying that having the Sony phone a Sony flagship in my book at least for me personally means something to me totally fair I agree in terms of the whole a evaluation of how Sony has tripped over itself over time but you know recently they've rebuilt themselves they've gotten focused with that X or X Z whatever they want to do with that brand yeah and you know kind of built it up and involve their design it's something that need to be done I feel like they're following a trend whether it's ill-advised or not of you know prestige pricing but I feel like you know if they don't follow then it's kind of I mean just I'm looking at the render from the article you learned it's beautiful I was there in Barcelona this year I saw the presentation Isis I saw the phone but just looking at it it is beautiful now you can of course argue about the huge bezels which is a signature of Sony and they should ditch it then you can argue that the Samsung the Huawei the HTC the you name it looks better but but it is a really nice looking phone at least to me a couple more stories here as we wrap up the show talking about oneplus perhaps coming to the u.s. with carriers we already know that they sell unlocked to 133 ish markets around the world and they've recently started moving into Europe Oh - in the in the UK has been a partner for a couple of years but more that seems to be happening there's some momentum going on in peat now in a recent interview says that he might be able to bring something to US carriers by next year when 5g rolls around and of course they're on the Qualcomm train so you gotta say they obviously have the inside track on this but whether or not they're able to pull off all they want all what pete lau wants is a question here because he says that they're gonna be there's going to be no bloatware and if there's anything that's a small brand we'd like to push and if there's anything that a carrier can hold over that brands head it's gonna be pre-loaded software whatever out doing whatever services they have read it ATT directivity now or whatever the heck their plan is these days because they keep updating in like five times a week or Verizon which has its you know which recently actually announced its shutting down go 90 its own streaming services it but they still have a whole bunch of these stupid like a GPS navigation services they still do it's kind of weird but I'm wondering how realistic you think Liao's goals are here being in this business for more than 10 years in in the tech journalism sphere gives also gives me also the opportunity to be some sort of analyst even though I hate that word but I have an analytical view of what what is happening in the industry and I've learned to see beyond what companies are trying to say behind the words to be honest I don't think that oneplus really stands a chance unless they managed to get some carrier back up bear with me correct me if I'm wrong but as of the 1 plus 5 so three generations ago we are at 6 now it was the 5 T and then back starting from the 5 it was no longer about giving you a flagship killer at an affordable price the prices of these phones went higher and higher with every iteration up to a point where yes you get more bang for your buck but that buck is still going to burn a hole in your pocket now I'm not saying that oneplus is suffering in terms of revenue income turnover or units sold they are steadily growing but name one company which doesn't want to grow even more and with the prices of their phones going higher and higher which is both the trend in the market and also because of the prices of the components it doesn't really matter why a more expensive phone will probably sell less units but even if it sells the same amount of units or somewhat more units your revenues will be higher but why not sell twice or three times as much by having a carrier subsidize your phone and we know very well that in the it states if you are not a carrier if you're not the manufacturer which has a deal with a carrier you basically are going to fail to succeed Apple is always releasing its phones on carriers and only then two or three or four months down the road offering you an unlocked option so who all we have real huge problems even before the ban because no carriers weren't there to support it now oneplus might sell millions of smartphones in the US for those who are willing to pay outright five six seven hundred dollars with what if you could pay those six seven hundred dollars in 12 or 24 months installments or why wouldn't your carrier subsidize half of it which automatically makes your phone more accessible to the masses and I think that this is going to be the name of the game for oneplus moving forward they proved themselves they we know they can make exceptional smartphones sadly it comes with a cost like I said every smartphone in the past three years or two years from one plus is getting more and more expensive they're trying to counter this by concealing some of the costs which you will be paying for of course but you will be paying for it in installments to your carrier it'll be cheaper on a big per month basis so it means it will be more accessible to people that's what I think that's what I'm taking out a little is totally and he also mentions that you know hopefully that he is able to get more hands-on experiences at the carrier stores absolutely a lot of people our families go over still go over to the carrier store to feel out what they want for their next upgrade so having a very or store or a pop-up store and even within within a carrier store the placement of your products and the dedication of the sales crew of the sales team everyone main tell matter can make or break skip yeah and I just you know I mean one plus the latest carrier to not carry om - it's like the Chinese OEMs are feeling like they there's an added sense of urgency to move to the US to grow and you know hit the when the most valuable markets and smartphones because Xiaomi is talking about it they have they're saying that again 2019 ish is what they're saying Huawei and it tried and it can't because CTE as well CT as well the government Donald Trump doesn't really like them they sort of like them they don't like I don't know what's going you know without going into politics because because I hate politics and you don't have to be from Romania Hungary Europe the u.s. to hate politics we all hate politics but here's here's a question how will this new administration's policy affect other Chinese manufacturers I mean you cannot or at least in my book of common sense you cannot discriminate between one Chinese manufacturer or two Huawei and ZTE and another Chinese manufacturer the 1 plus or or Xiaomi of course you can because you're a politician but but judging by common sense either you are going to say the same speech and you're going to apply the same measure to all players in the market or you you're going to differentiate and you're going to introduce some sort of arbitrary decisions this is just a rhetorical question I'm saying that the oneplus might or might not have the same problems Huawei and ZTE have been facing in the past 12 months I mean it's all but tactical in the trade you know I guess we could call it the trade war in terms of China and the United States yeah yeah exactly steel agriculture smartphones and you know they're actually talkin tariffs application from the US well the US side talks about PCBs and whatnot so and that's in pretty much every single electronic so including apples we're paying for it that's yeah that's politics okay that's way to take the wind out of that one but anyways let's bring ourselves back up and we find him that we can laugh and point out I don't want to live I want to spend I want to spend $2,000 on this phone really want to spend more than I would spend on a niche force design smartphone $2,000 for a snapdragon 845 phone and it's not even that's but it's the Asus zenfone 5 Z it was kind of like that one of the first like big announcements that Qualcomm wanted to make saying that in oh it's the first one and yeah $1,999 this starting price says and that you should subscribe now in order to get notified of when it's gonna watch the problem is and then you find stuff here I think Asus zenfone 3 looks and feels twice its price Asus zenfone 3 crammed plenty of great features into a new glass clad chassis these are all reviews they're videos links to videos in the thumbnails of those videos are showing off zenfone 3 material which launched back in 2016 so man I mean if this is a mistake if this isn't like someone that was like too lazy to like cut from their copy paste file like I'm looking I'm looking at the official issues page which is sourced in in our article which seems yeah it seems nice and it seems finally finished I'm okay with companies doing minor mistakes if they're innocent mistakes somebody somewhere didn't do their job they probably I don't know got fired or not I don't think this is such a huge issue these and the seuss in general and the zenfone 5 is an awesome phone is it a $2,000 phone of course not did somebody make a mistake was somebody lazy did somebody not push the update or publish button absolutely but I think that the entire media us included up to this point we're making too too big of a deal out of this yeah totally and you know maybe it's gonna be like between 650 and $800 something like that let's like that's beyond the point out you and I you what I were in Barcelona when when they launched this phone yep yep and it was I don't know if they give it your value for it I don't think so I don't remember yeah but it's talking to the fact that it's a great phone it's not a $2,000 phone but it's right there in the six to seven hundred dollar price tag I guess you know if you're gonna go if you're gonna you know support your device you guys support it in marketing you don't promote the zenfone 3 when you're trying to promote the zenfone 5 Rosie and you you got to make sure that this kind of stuff because if anything if you're a smartphone if you're a tech company you have a web presence and that's the most important to maintain so come on do better bases next tools and the best let's say only three years how many press releases slash launches / official wordings with mistakes honest or not planned or not have you seen on average I don't know too many to count on my hands so I say it's it's an honest mistake and we shouldn't move on without trying to cut this hangout short this is totally just a couple more P and weekly uh talkers here from Hollywood yeah totally do we even really care about having absolutely no bezel the asinine looked perfectly fine to me just move the fingerprints under through the middle of the back and we're good we Tony and I I would say are in agreement with you Mike and I guess there's there definitely some complications as to where that fingerprint sensor could be placed there's a jigsaw puzzling components yeah behind behind the screen yes Andrew Wallace Sony should honestly bring on-the-go streaming of PlayStation content to their device word yes yes Steven steam link is not enough I love you valve but more please and also fix your freaking cross-play issues man I know II didn't Microsoft had the same problem with the Xbox and Windows Phone yeah and but like I get like fortnight I don't know if you've heard about this this online game called fortnight but now I've been living in a bubble well okay it's the biggest thing to blow up since I don't know pub G or whatever my kids oh c'mon yes yes and like they like the Microsoft Xbox account was like tweeting at the Nintendo's twitch account because Nintendo's which recently announced that that frickin fortnight was available to play for free online right now and they were like oh the wonderful things we can build together because they're able to cross play with each other but not Sony I don't know what's up with that um so damn it do better and a couple more two more the problem with one plus we ran out a report says is that every phone with the exception of the pic though an iPhone will drop prices like crazy after a few months of release here in the Netherlands you can buy already a oneplus with three of the four major carriers but still a huge device which again goes to how much progress they've made but it's still kind of the your point about emphasis about you know staffers and and placement and whatnot just getting into how much encouragement you know there's there's a love and hate there's I'm not sure let me let me check who who was this person who commented this it was uh it was renato yeah so there's a love and hate relationship with with with commenters which which are smart and i love them because they not only think the same way we do they are unbiased and and well-rounded enough to draw the same conclusions but when a commenter states an absolute truth you as a podcast host or guests or co-hosts bow down yes and it's checkmate you have nothing to say like you're right that's it done and one more from peter hatin do you think that there could be more benefit from the growth of one-plus pop-up stores where other than expanding in the carrier store because if people see something different in their city might they not be better reminded of this new brain what they lost a lot they cost a lot you know stir Xiaomi has been very crazy in terms that they opened a 24-hour store in Moscow so and that is not a you know no small change unless you're Samsung and you can buy rent or lease real estate right across the street from every or most major Apple store for your own pop-up store unless you have billions of dollars or you and sorry go ahead well I was just about to say they only have like the two like two or three stores that are like major experiences around the u.s. and again they are you know the number three or number one name the Pentagon who you ask in terms of smart phones you're it's it's dissonance your best bet is to strike the deal with a carrier and that carrier already has brick-and-mortar stores that carrier always has phones on display because it's a carrier and you want to sell you the phone so that you can use their services so if you strike the deal your best bet is to strike a deal with a carrier and have a small corner or a big corner depending on how how much you're willing to cut their check just for for them to display and promote your product but that is the cheapest and most effective option whether it's in the states in the U a show or anywhere else and if you're an informed tech reader like you are thank you for your listening and viewing the PocketNow weekly you could always just go and locked and have the freedom and the edge in the polls to do whatever you want and if there's anything that we'd like to do here it's empowering you to make your own decisions more financial power to you guys indeed and that is it for this week Tony again thank you for joining me and in discussing this week's news as always a real pleasure and I'm always saying that I don't have time I always make time so Jose please bring me along more often this was fun no definitely definitely and thank you again for listening and watching us here on hewed see wherever else that you're listening to us be sure to keep the conversation going by emailing us podcast at pocketnow.com we really want to hear the thoughts you want to get out and the question that you want answered also we're all on Twitter hashtag peon weekly for one anti D Nagy is that a and T o and D and AG y and I am at point jewels pocket now is that pocket now on Twitter Facebook Google+ and YouTube where you can find at the pocket Nell daily every weekday with Jaime Rivera we also have a lovely sight pocketnow.com for all your mobile tech news needs it certainly appreciate reviews and ratings on Apple podcasts or were you ever you happen to be streaming us for the team I'm Jules Wong and we'll see you next week thank you