Gadgetory

and on this episode of pocket now a wild tailor Martin appears I thought about that on the ride over it's great to see you back man I will give you your introduction in a second hello everybody and welcome to episode number 326 of the weekly brought to you by pocket now and xda-developers on Friday the 5th of October 2018 from LG to Microsoft and a bit of Nokia as well let's get talking about everything that had to be and had to be announced this week everything just had to be this week so much stuff going on and if you can't hear it in my voice already I am you're slightly under the weather cross-country podcaster it's Joshua Vergara what's going on everybody have a cup of tea here give me a second we just throw the bag out while I let well jaime is not here yet but let's go ahead and get some words from Brandon minimun house this week treated you since you didn't have to travel anywhere solid and I have a new microphone that's cardioid which we learned is the shape of the sound field it's kind of like a heart or a peach as Joshua said but I'm gonna call it a heart because it's more heart shaped so hopefully I sound nice and crispy well I think I didn't know what a heart looks like Brandon oh man it's your first day back man come on Oh credit credit where credit's do I think the peach comment actually came from Taylor Taylor Martin rejoining pocket now our best damn everyday carrier Taylor Martin have you been I've been great I've been busy and all set up you have by the way it's great I spent my whole week fixing this office still gonna paint but yeah it's been so nice it feels good to be back to in the next podcast we're gonna have to talk about your beard because I have a lot of questions about it I have nothing to add alright and our our podcast producer extraordinaire Jules Wong is in the booth I am probably going to pull him into the podcast once or twice given certain circumstances because we're talking about so many things this week all right we're hitting the ground running we were in New York over the last number of days Jaime and I were because there were certain meetings that we can't talk about as usual hashtag and can we do that can we make that a hashtag can we just like tease everything and just go hashtag in da all the time so we haven't we have that at stuff and then right after it was an evening event on the LGV 40 thing queue yeah there you go there a the sneakers are coming from Brandon over there alright so LG's brand new device that has 5 cameras counting 1 2 3 4 5 2 of them on the front three of them on the back and now there is a telephoto zoom on the rear along with wide ankles not only on the rear but also on the front-facing camera so you can get more people in your shot or if you're like me and you're a bit of a vlogger it's gonna look a little bit more like the kind of lenses I would use as a vlogger perhaps now there are a number of caveats with this one but let's go ahead and jump into it a little bit Jaime did do his review already of it and with that in mind I actually have his v40 at this point because I'm gonna do some content on it as well but let's go down the spec sheet a little bit the snapdragon need 45 six point four inches OLED screen it's a quad HD plus panel and six gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of on-board storage but it does have an micro SD card slot talking about those cameras we have a 12 megapixel 45 degree F 2.4 so that's your wide angle you have the normal angle one which is a 12 megapixel F 1.5 and then you have a 16 megapixel F 1.9 at o 45 is zoom sorry about that whole 45 degree okay I'm getting my numbers up I'm getting my numbers mixed up 107 degree okay let me start over 12 megapixel 45 degree 45 45 is room 45 millimeters see it's just a millimeter here that's the reason why I got a little bit way no 45 degree angle of view that's the reason why it's that okay in any case there's a telephoto a regular sue there's a zoom a regular tell i'm sick right now there's a zoom a regular and a wide and then on the front there's an 80 degree an 80 degree camera and a 90 degree camera now this is one of those hot takes i want to get from you guys does 10 degrees more field of view mean wide-angle to you guys these um these cameras sound really good on paper when when i'm a was here last week it was like a day after he got the v40 and i was playing with it and i was switching but you know the wide angle of the regular camera and the telephoto just back and forth and the difference was so minored I was expecting like you know with the g7 and the other dual camera LG phones when you go from regular to wide-angle it's just dramatic but between these three cameras they're so close it's kind of disappointing on I think yeah Taylor he had I thought well I was gonna say that it's hard to know exactly what they are in terms of millimeters because focal length is how I think of these cameras I haven't seen a lot of this stuff and you guys are gonna have to forgive me because I've been out of the game for four years now so all of this is very new to me I don't even I was trying to remember what the last phone I reviewed was and I think it was the iPhone 6 plus whoa yeah that's a throwback for sure it's been awhile it was just caught it was just cut off of Apple's support now because what that the event they're like seven eight nine ten I mean seven eight ten tennis yeah so it's it's been a while and I don't know how those field of view or the angle of you translates few millimeters yeah as far as focal length goes so I'm to know if ten degrees is a big difference but I think as far as front cameras on a phone go like I don't see why you would need to why not let's make them all wide like well that's a dream for for a front-facing camera I remember one time it was LG and I think also HTC that put one camera on the front and what they would just do was crop in if you want its certain like fields of view the only the only downside of that is with a wide lens if you hold it really close to your face it's gonna you know stretch your nose out and make you yeah gonna distort your head yeah it'll-it'll worth you around it'll warp e around a little bit there's obviously distortion on the ends and the thing is I remember when I was using the v40 for the very little amount of time that I have so far when I went to the 90-degree frame of view of field of view I should say it did look better like it's a lot of front facing cameras on smartphones are to narrow their way to narrow their made that they're there just for like this just right here and just like area yeah thank you as a little chest area and up you know it's not you it's you they're trying to make sure that your face takes up as much of the frame as possible but the thing is we're in the vlogging generation now we want to be able to share the rest of our environments you wanna get any minute Orioles in there right yeah exactly that's right depressing I've been mentioned I've been mentioned it's all good I'm trying to get ready for but yeah the what I used to do with LG phones with the white angle on the rear is just hit record and then turn it around like this that's what I that's what I generally would do and it usually worked really well even though you could see a lot of my arm it was a great like secondary vlogging camera by five cameras I mean yeah Taylor like you said you you've been certainly have Josh froze a little bit oh well what's been what's been your what's been your thought on all that so far now we're up to five total I missed about ninety percent of what you asked oh really did I love it freeze oh my bad I was asking you Taylor um what are your thoughts on how the camera game in smartphones has been going like we're up to five now yes so it's interesting because the the time I've been away I've put a lot of effort into video quality camera quality stills taking photos I've upped my video game and the videographer photographer niece says you know if you should be a okay with just using a phone for general purpose but the gearhead and me is like man I don't like it I don't like the the quality of the phones that we've got and or the cameras and the phones that we have and I'm not totally blown away about anything anymore and it's just because you know I just got a full-frame camera and it's like mind-blowing yeah spoiled yeah super spoiled but at the same time you have fun stuff like this yep and I think this this is a better option to me than having two three four lenses in a phone or camera is built into a phone the depth sensors are great but if you take a look at like the second camera on an iPhone the zoom lens or camera on the iPhone is such lower quality than the main camera they generally are yeah yeah and that's the problem is that it's cool but you're sacrificing part of what makes having really great cameras in a phone great yeah there is the argument of the TT yeah there is that there's an argument that people are making especially with this phone that you want to have everything built-in that way you have those options and it is a bit of a shame though that because for example moment that you just mentioned them they do make lenses in cases for the note 9 so you can put those lenses on either one of you get you can put those big lenses on either one of the pieces of glass on the back of this phone it'll be great if we're able to take advantage of that with the three different cameras on the back of the LG I mean that's kind of cool right and you can with with the iPhone 10 yea I'm assuming that newer ones you can move the lens between the cameras yeah exactly so I'm Wallace Lee but yea I'm a big fan of moment as well that's great I may just cut in so there is I'm so glad you're here Jaime you're gonna help talk for about a lot of stuff because my throat is killing me right now you don't have oil of oregano not yet I have yet to go grab some I have tea though I apologize but I had issues with my coffee machine and priorities you know coffee when you guys asked me if I could be on today I was like I gotta go oh my God look at Taylor Martin with a fancy microphone man good he's really matured I know look at Brandon minimun with a fancy mic like it this happened what's happened oh my god I'm liking this pocket now a lot alright I mean you you can give us the most information on our main topic right our our current topic right now which is of course the LGV 40 you have my unit I do I was saying I have the unit I haven't set it up yet I plan on doing some cool stuff this weekend you can look forward to a vlog I'm looking forward to it but yes let's talk about v40 yes um we were on the cameras we haven't gone to the battery yet so if you want to bring that up go for it so here's the thing there are a lot of things that LG does really well I would say that better than other companies for example their hardware design ever since the g6 has been on point there's there's something about the v40 that's interesting it doesn't feel like the b30 it's taller and there's this like bevel in the screen that makes it feel I don't know it almost feels like all glass and no no metal anywhere it feels really really nice I felt that the weight distribution was great I obviously I despised the the software but then again as much as I despise the approach to the user interface it had great battery life for me sorry I I tested it on AT&T had great battery life I then swapped some cars to t-mobile great battery life no problems whatsoever it's an eight forty five so the speeds are great as well but then when we jump to the camera I don't know two things number one the design of the camera at the back I'm not I'm not a fan of it not exactly it's so weird out of all things you know for me honestly it wasn't really like the design of the camera hump but it was like where they put the flash all the way to one end and so it looks asymmetrical like why not put the flash below the camera lenses and then below that is the fingerprint scanner and that would have looked probably better balanced and then they made some sacrifices that they didn't really tell people and like the first one if you notice there is no laser autofocus you know LG has had laser autofocus since the g3 ah yeah they killed that and you can totally tell when you're taking photos one of the things that I like the most about LG phones prior to the v40 is just that like focusing was snappy immediate and so you had the advantage of face detection autofocus lest the laser-focused and so it was on point all the time not with the v40 and so there are certain features that I wouldn't consider gimmicks like for example you've got three cameras and it's got a mode where you're able to take the three photos at the same time and at the same time it'll also record a video and so I find that to be genius like all cameras at the same time it takes a little it takes a little bit to jump from one to the other but you get to capture the moment without fumbling with the controls I find that to be fantastic you know the problem is you know what the problem is that the last shot the telephoto shot always comes out out-of-focus yeah what was that you saying real quick Taylor I was gonna ask if it if it shot them all at once like all sensors are firing in time no it's not all just not I'm not all right so it's like a slow HDR it's like a it's not just the slow HDR but it's like when you're taking have you ever seen night mode on the Huawei p20 Pro it's okay so the moment you hit the shutter the moment you hit the shutter it starts it sounds like it starts like a countdown and so it's like shot one shot two shot three and so it's done I let the idea I just the implementations not good which was odd because I was it you that noticed Josh that the units that they had on display at the event those could do Oh Danny was the one that noticed that the in those units had worked just fine but then in the units that we had for review and I mean I had the unit for about a week and a half that the implementation was not good there well that's that's LG's song-and-dance every single time right is pre-production software but then they're so good about their pre-production software and then their production software sucks which had on it is just the weirdest thing like when the g5 launched their hardware on the on the demo units was fabulous but then when we got the final units that sucked and then in a case of the g6 the heart that my pre-production unit performed far better than the final unit that I got from from the carrier and so that was just so weird and then the third thing is in the case of the you know just photography as it is um so I feel that photography is of overexposed I like the results they'll get me wrong like LG really punches saturation to the limit and the blend of that Olin where they finally got the old at right on this v40 like I had some burning issues with the V 30 with the be 35 and what the V 30-plus not the B 30 um no issues on this V 40 it was great but the and the photos look great on the phone but once she pulled them out to the computer they're good it's just like for example they're in their version of night mode which is pixel binning and you know grabbing a 16 megapixel shot and turning it into four yeah it wasn't fabulous like I I noticed nothing no improvements between that sort of pixel binning and what Samsung would do with their galaxies on a typical photo without the binning whereas if you look at a p20 pro and they'd do that pixel binning from 40 to 10 it is crazy great yeah and so I feel that LG still needs to work a little more but all these again these are software issues these are things that they can fix just the hardware's there like the the slot the size of the microns is there the focal the focal length and the and the sorry not the focal length but the like everything that's necessary is there it's just they need to tune in their software a little bit that's my opinion they need a partnership much like what Huawei has like why not just go for the competitor like Zeiss or some yes yes and and oh and one thing that I did like wow like they finally figured out the sharpening of their video I hated sharpening on LG phones I remember there was this one time where I did a trip to the Vatican with a g7 because I was like oh yeah this is like the perfect good no with the beat 30 idea this is the perfect video camera no when I see the results like they were not on par with an iPhone just nothing not even close even with it doesn't it doesn't really matter you've got all these amazing manual controls and all these amaze all this amazing hardware and those great microphones if the resulting video that just the codec and just the way everything was delivered which was crappy yeah for sure um okay so oh sorry go ahead Bren I was gonna say Jess you you you mentioned perhaps LG you should partner with Zeiss to help improve the processing and so forth and then of course that brings to mind the Leica partner ship with Huawei him you know and do you guys know what that actually means like what did like a do oh so we were at the wall we were at the like Factory do you want to do that Josh sure yeah so we rent the like a factory was an incredible experience the entire campus looks like a camera in certain ways and to resemble a camera camera lens yes yeah and what they basically told us was that while Leica does not actually manufacture all of the bits and pieces that go into the huawei phones they worked really closely with Huawei to tune them so all of like--is expertise goes into that and then it goes off to China and gets made by a bunch of like people out there so the so so Leica has has a real big hand in how the quality of pictures comes out from those cameras it may not be full it may not be glass because like is all about that glass it's it's not actually glass in there obviously because I would make it a little bit dangerous but they have a hand in every little piece of the tuning of those cameras so so maybe they should partner with red because red is really 11 coming they're not gonna make a phone let's just face it like it's just married you just get together well but here's the thing like um you know Sony's got their partnership with sites when it comes to their cameras it that's right sony has ice and then we've got Nokia what's ice on phones you know we saw that Nokia 7.1 that was just recently announced and I'm glad that that's back happening by the way I hate the fact that there is nobody by the way it is the Sony Xperia z3 for those of you that hadn't seen it it arrived a couple of days ago I hated these phones I mean they the build the sensors are made by Sony and yet their best work like the best work from Sony sensors is not on Sony phones it's in others the biggest irony so hit me with these companies but I'll give you an example when it comes to what why do I like photography from Huawei phones and this doesn't include the p20 Pro actually I think the beats when he Pro is like a means to an end it's like they're experimenting with new things and the pits when he throw pros step in that right direction so probably the make 20 Pro will be the phone that will deliver but like one thing that I like about taking photos with Panasonic cameras that are tuned by Leica is just their the way they handle low-light it's like a micro 4/3 sensor is not good for low-light and then they do a way of handling grain in like skin tone and just you know products for I don't know what it is but it looks really really nice and the same goes with Huawei phones previous to the p20 cuz I feel that the p20 was just too oversaturated whereas if you took a photo with the mate 10 with the main 10 pro you would notice this like interesting grain and like taking photos at like a flower or something like that and it looked really good the other phone it does that with no partnership whatsoever is the note 9 and there's like no big dimension any differences in tuning well they did mention that there were enhancements in the algorithm and one thing that I noticed with those note 9 photos was that there's this grain that looks really nice okay so other things about the v40 that I want to make sure you touch on I have one main question and then we're gonna move on to LG's other product which by the way Taylor if you have a browser up I would say go ahead and take a look at LG's other product well before we talk about cuz I'm really interested to hear with you or you just me or do you sound in slow-mo Josh I have to restart my mic sound like if you're in slow mode dude alright so it's so funny keep coming great all right well you guys talk real quick about the battery well am I going to have a trouble with that battery running out on me when I'm trying to vlog all day the v40 no no I was very satisfied with the battery life on that phone zero problems whatsoever like like I feel that LG gets that right and I just find it so odd with the amount of blow that they include in their hardware in their software's sorry I can't remember the last phone that I used that didn't get me through the day in battery life and that's great and I know Jaime you're having problems with the 10s and but layout of the tennis is not delivering for me I it's this oh the tennis I guess I love that Josh was like I want to have my tennis max review first that was like ride great cuz I really don't want to trash this boat so badly yeah but I just I feel so disappointed at the 10s because you know Apple like every s year the battery gets worse and a lot of things get better and sure photography is better but I just got I feel that it's not an upgrade it's like literally why don't they just launch the tent for another year with a different it's like a different color I mean while you're at it why not just launch the damn thing in red or something like that probably that but it's just it's the most disappointing battery life on a phone right now that's my opinion I've tried it with both t-mobile and AT&T in different parts of New York and it's the same stuff Wow same stuff that's disappointing what do you what are you rocking Taylor by the way iPhone 10 and Galaxy s8 plus I really just carried I felt in though ooh how's it how's that life with the 10 oh it's great yeah ever the only time I actually started having problems with the battery life on the tin was when I started using tile trackers ooh Bluetooth connection like I have a Keith art bag with the title built in and a wallet from Nomad but see that's such an irony cuz I I had tile trackers connected to my iPhone 10 and I was fine I have no tile trackers connected to the 10s and it's terrible I don't know I think it might be a lack of optimization from some new tile trackers for me I don't know sounding a little bit better alright alright cool I had to restart the the mic so one one couple last things on the v40 the software I know you already said that the software Jaime is not great I mean LG just had historically has not really had very attractive software and III do tend to agree are there any changes to it in the v40 that anyone can actually look forward to though same thing literally the same the same unpolished version of their user interface that looks like 20 a 2009 probably I don't know oh wow yeah that's pretty far back and then how about audio did you did you work with audio hold on no no no so I'm actually using the headphones that are bundled in the box I'm sorry but I did not so it's funny that they didn't do any B&O partnership this year but yet you know the quad DAC is there and it's just it's fantastic yeah it's fantastic like that that on its own like that quad deck for you know from from the perspective of listening to audio is fabulous and then again like if if you ever forget out your microphone somewhere and you have to go anywhere you could use a V 40 as your microphone as your dedicated microphone it is that good and then the boombox speakers it's interesting if you notice the video it's like listen it doesn't have dual firing speakers but don't worry about it I mean because it uses the body of the phone as a residence chamber it sprinkles bringing em just bringing it to cardboard box with you everywhere exactly like no or you know set it on a wooden table and it sounds like like like another product that's that good is like the iPad pro the 12 inch iPad pro sounds fantastic the new macbook the new MacBook Pros they have great audio and so this will this is pretty much the phone that provides that audio and it doesn't matter if you cover the speaker it'll spill you could still hear clearly what's coming out it's it's so fun I was when using the g7 it's so fun to see what you can turn into a speaker you can literally hold it against a wall it will vibrate the wall as to cause sound waves it's just so cool that boombox exactly exactly these are things that LG does really well like from the perspective of a creator I felt that the last thing that was missing on that phone was you know for them to fix their vivid their video algorithm they fixed it the it's it's just like for example there is no stabilization at 4k at 60 things like that that's hard to do though there is optical there is optical stabilization and so it doesn't look bad it's it's just if you've got a gimbal using gimbal what I use that would go for it but how good does 4k 60 look so they here's the thing it's gotta be like they're bitrate is really good it's really good it's it's so LG was the first company to provide high bit rate for for video recording and the snapdragon 845 has the capability of supporting it the the problem with LG was again they supported higher bitrate but then the quality of the video there was like there was color shifting like the load when it when it starts getting becoming low light like like if you're in a gloomy day like this color will shift horribly on any phone before this one like the video on this phone is very warm and very detailed I liked it I really liked it's just the need stabilization should you use gimbal you know alright we have to we have to go to our break in a second but I want to make sure that we get a couple hot takes on the LG watch w7 rogue link I don't to be sure that we get this all right so Taylor if you were looking at that photo mechanical arms it is a timepiece but then there's an OLED behind that quick thoughts on that I think it's not sold like I used to be the SmartWatch guy for Pocket now like I was the one that was like these things are great these are gonna be amazing and everybody else out like I have a feel that I could send you right there dude I stopped wearing a SmartWatch like a year and a half ago and I've not ever looked back I've never missed it well this is the most hybrid of smartwatches we've ever seen you know Withings but what things was just like oh yeah I'm wearing one too so oh my god so keep going teller and then I'll tell you about the watch that I'm wearing so if I were to wear one it would it would have to be a hybrid again I think personally for me but this style I'm not doing it I'm not doing the style oh man because I was I was I was so I was so into it to be honest what do you think Josh I mean you saw it more than I did because I barely made it to the to the ending of the demo area I think everyone should just like calm down and just let LG experiment like isn't this where LG shines is when they try something kind of radically new and the in the interface looks great because they changed it up so that it so that a sort of goes around the the two mechanical arms but I will admit that app developers need to keep that in mind as well they need to make sure they need to know that things might be covering their stuff I feel that it needs work but I think it's a genius idea I'm so cool it's I think it's a genius idea the thing about a watch like especially for me is the style and the aesthetic of it and that's something about watches that I think smart watches have I've got really missed yeah oh my god is a style thing it's it's very much style so it's a blending of style and tech which is not any kind of secret it's not in use this isn't my style so immediately I don't even care because it's not something I would wear I wear all black face watches and by in my cursor let me let me tell you about some things so I'll hold on hold on I mean I do want to make sure we get to our break because do it yeah Jules is itching to read that ad and all right let's go business support from casa de Bie Lutron pioneers in smart home technology with cocina you can schedule your lights to come on at dusk so your family always comes back to a well at home coz-theta smart dimmers work with almost any smart speaker be it Apple's home pod or one with Google assistant or Amazon Alexa and lets you control your lights just by asking out loud and you can adjust your lamps at the same time as your security camera knows thermostats and music systems too and because it's from Letran and the company behind the first electronic dimmer with nearly 60 years of experience you can trust that it'll work now I've been given some switches to test down and even in a small condominium Cocina works wonders for example here's one thing I regret about living in a small condominium I have a whole bunch of stuff in between my entryway and my living room light switch so when I get through the door after her say a night out there's a lot of fumbling I've got stubbed toes multiple stubbed toes and it's not a good look mainly because it's dark but since I have casa de baile Tron dimmers and speakers from Amazon and Google I just call either of them up tell them to turn on the living room lights and boom there's light simple as that get smart lighting and get it the smart way with Casa de baile Tron can search CAS ETA or head up Lutron comm for more information can say that by Lutron welcome home to peace of mind all right cool thank you for that Jules we are back and okay so we do have a bit of a check-in I'm a stepped-up for a second so while Jaime is out I do want to ask one quick thing Taylor since we have you back now that you're back after like three four years of being out of the game what is something that's actually like truly jazzed you recently in tech what's something you're really looking forward to looking at now that you're back with pocket now I think it's gonna be nice to step back into the world of Android because I got the galaxy si plus was okay I mean it was just another phone for me and I've not really I've been using phones as tools I think as the general public normally does for the last four years versus you know sitting down and actually criticizing something through and analyzing it and saying but isn't that the best way to do it isn't that the best way to do it because for you it's a utilitarian approach this is what people will actually do with the product and what they won't do with the product exactly my perspective has changed so much because when I was here before I was I was a 22 year old punk who thought he knew what he was talking about you know and you're still Punk but yeah going back and looking at these these advancements having been away for so long because when I left one of the reasons I left was because things were starting to stagnate we were getting a bunch of phones every single year and very few new things were being introduced and those things that were being introduced were mainly really just like snapdragon iterations one after another and it was the the the the changes between phones was so incremental that i just got over it i was so tired and yeah now having been away for four years looking at how things have improved is really the only thing I'm super interested in looking at and seeing well apparently apparently this is apparently this is right in line with something that Brandon wanted to talk about here on our check-in so I'm gonna go ahead and let Brandon come on in so well what thoughts did you have for today yeah it's it's interesting Taylor mentions how smartphones were becoming the same and I actually think we're getting out of this rut and Jaime and I were talking about this lassie moment when he came to visit for a long time phones were becoming commoditized they were all about the same and the there was really very little change but this year something changed we're getting actually some movement some innovation triple cameras AI big screen to body ratios face unlock in screen finger fingerprint sensors why what yeah that's actually kind of a little bit of an innovation because you're getting a bigger screen in this in a same size footprint and the reason that phones are becoming a little bit D commoditized is because companies are now incentivized again to do research and development because their margins have increased as phone prices have tipped to $1,000 and above and it sucks for us but at the same time these companies now are able to put more money into research and development and come out with innovative features which we're seeing we've seen this year I think what do you guys think yeah I think I think it's great like we we've hit we've hit a point in time where manufacturers had to like sit down and brainstorm like every single day because they're like what the heck are we gonna do with this next one like I don't get it now we have things like three cameras on the back with different configurations we have freaking mechanical arms on top of an OLED screen I mean like who thought that would be a great idea but once I looked at it I was like this is just different enough to make me love it you know I mean like this is just I just want I want that reaction because like in the world of entertainment if the reaction is may it's like no reaction at all basically then you failed people either have to hate or love your stuff and even if I were to put on that watch and people were like oh that's like so ugly like why would you even do that I'm like yeah I did though I did so yeah I don't know I have a feeling and yeah we were having this conversation with Brandon Oh what what has made the seer special and I I have to admit it's the thing that I hate the most about the mark the smartphone market right now and it's that phones are getting more expensive sadly if you if you know there are only two companies that make money out of smartphones and that is Apple and Samsung that's it there are the only two companies that make money and then the rest of the companies are actually selling they're focusing on the mid to low end because that's where they can make more margin whereas Apple has the advantage for that they can make money out of their app stores and that they are in charge of the services and they own these things and so they have different ways to differentiate the way that they make money not just focused on hardware but obviously because Apple has you know Apple has raised that tier of price it's allowed companies to be like alright fine we're not going to necessarily charge as much as Apple but this means that if we're pretty much doing the same thing and charging a little more we could get a little more margin and therefore you know we can get into making other product launches and I feel it it's just jump-started the market I I'm not saying that it's the best thing to happen to the industry I don't think so but I feel that it's been what's been responsible to jumpstart the market because what we've seen this year was not what we saw last year or the year before like we're seeing phones like crazy right now like my schedule is horrible yeah just with all the products that we're getting at them you know I'm not complaining it's like what Joe Levi used to say it's a great time to be alive you know it's it's great to see the industry flourish the way it has and I like the companies are going back to the roots like Akbari like this we're gonna remain true to what we were you know like Nokia we're gonna remain true to what we were we're not gonna try to reinvent the wheel and this is what we're good at and stuff like that and yeah you know I I feel that there is I'm not I don't feel that it's heading in the right direction I'm just glad that it's jump-started the market again yeah before we know that's right my answer just a little bit and say that if there is a single product that I'd like to try and tell ya it's probably black period yes I can send you one no problem I got my start in the know done I'll send you a key to I have one there that's where I started was blackberry and I did I did not want to give up blackberry even when Android came around webOS iOS I was just like no blackberry OS is life and oh my god when we're all that going in the box do it when we're all that when we're all that CES together you're just gonna hear clearly clackety it's gonna be me and Taylor and Michael Fisher oh oh yeah oh yeah the mr. blackberry not be mr. Mobile is what I call alright uh before we get into all of the Microsoft stuff so quick teaser I do want to make sure Jaime you had other quick thought on your SmartWatch there oh so you can give us that real quick and then we gotta get into our Microsoft stuff so jewels jewels was awesome enough to hook me up he went to a Garmin event that I couldn't participate on and he was nice enough to hook me up with the SmartWatch of my dreams I have always always wanted a Garmin Phoenix always ever since I saw the first one I have been I'm like I'm not willing to pay $100 for a watch but this would be it I have wanted a Garmin Phoenix for so long it's just Garmin as you know bear in mind from the Aviation days like Garmin is Garmin this is what powers it's either a garment or a Honeywell to power the GPS is on airplanes so yeah I've trusted Garmin this is like the gold standard for Fitness watches guess what the problem is battery I've know it's a it's a two week battery life it leaked and literally see where you are on a map and like there's so much advancement in this watch and then when I started to try to do this oh wait it doesn't have a touch oh wait you're liberated Jaime you liberated right oh wait the screen doesn't know when I raise it it I actually have to press a button to turn the light on and the screen is not it's not a bright enough for me to be able to see it without pressing the button they've got to do something because I was like I was like I guess I have become so spoiled by the stupid little things that smartwatches do now that I'm having a really hard time remembering what the og generation the smartwatches was like I'm not saying this is bad I'm just saying wow we've come a long way since the first time I saw the Garmin Phoenix three smartwatches back then were cracked and so you know it was like the first generation of Android where Apple had not like Samsung was doing their first watches and they were terrible like the pebble was like my first ever it was like B watch back then and so I was like okay that the pebble compared to this is is okay they're comparable there's no touchscreen but the screen is like this and the battery life and so I was like okay so who's like the perfect Fitness watch but now smartwatches have evolved so much in just a few years that now I find this to be archaic oh let's not say that I think there's there's there's something to be said about being not only minimalist but there was a great quote that I listened to you last week that kind of ties into this power used to be measured by how much people could do now power is being measured by how if I won't pay attention to yeah but what we pay attention to because we are distracted by so many things and and what we are given like we have power in our lives based upon what we know to ignore so if if that watch is gonna be a huge distraction for you because all of those features are in there then more power to you because now it is something it's a tool it's not it's not a distraction it's a tool no for me the problem is that it's got five buttons for example and I forget what each button is for you'll get there it's fine you know it's that that minimalistic concept has to apply to everything one thing what did I like about the pebble three buttons sample sound and control up-down and control it was and back it's genius and I hate that the tailor actually met the CEO if Evelyn had no clue who he was interviewing moment when he got to see the pebble the pebble steel I mean I knew who I was interviewing I was just cringy all right guys all right before we go too far into this let's get back into our main topics for today all right so I will not be able to talk too much about this but I was told by our friends and and Ne Win jet that this is stuff that I have to like be getting into a little bit more because I I'm working on and I'll use the word archaic MSI laptop I have a sixth gen Intel processor in here which is just not what I need if I want to get into like 4k video editing and all that stuff but with all that in mind computing is going to be stepping forward a little bit with Microsoft's new surface pro six and surface laptop two with a gen Intel cores which oh man I want to get in on this I mean are you were there correct so let's get some info on these two in particular before we move forward the good part of the bad part let's start with the good all right so the good part is yes definitely the surface pro continues to be my favorite lineup I just love their versatility everybody was like no the surface laptop was my favorite but the designs didn't change and that's not necessarily bad I wouldn't I wouldn't change the designs as they were you know what I would change the whole irony of USB a like USB a in a 20-18 computer that's gonna pretty much last for another year where you have the surface go that's USB see where they launched the surface hub does what is the driver do the surface to do that has USB see and that was another part that was weird because that has USB CD but it has last year's processors for some reason I don't know why oh yeah yeah the service studio has last year's processors whereas the new servers book sorry the the surface pro and the surface laptop have the newer ones but them those are you USB a it's like if these departments don't talk to each other and then they launch this pair of like surface headphones which I don't understand why they called them surface but fine but those were really cool I think that the probably the coolest part of the event were those headphones nobody was expecting them so they've got this thing or they've got two dials on the on the ear cups and so one dial controls how much noise cancellation you want and then the other one has control for volume and everything and then they've got touch controls and they looked really good I didn't look so bad what do you if the reason they call it surface though because they have the surface dial true it's vital and you got basically the same interface on your headphones right right wait I mean what do you know about the secret project for the mini portable surface that sounds awesome doesn't it what do you mean or any portable service I haven't they're working on like a tiny clamshell surface oh I remember I remember that so that there there's a lot of experimentation that I've heard of it and you know one of the things that I've gotten to know about Microsoft since Satya Nadella took over is they're taking hardware seriously I like their approach they're focusing on just making products that feel you know they just do what they're supposed to do I threw me the Microsoft Surface pro has been probably one of my favorite computers because it just delivers on what it says that it will do are using right now you're not currently using the MacBook Pro so the I don't have the service with me right now but it still is one of my favorites like for a lot of reasons that thing has has the so it's it's obviously a convertible by didn't it have a dedicated graphics card as well in the case of the surface pro no you need a dedicated set the dedicated graphics card comes comes on the surface book or the book that's and so the book and so the book has like the you know the keyboard case and that there you go that's the one discrete graphics which is one thing they didn't update the surface book did they do not they didn't I you know it's just hilarious when I am I worked very closely with Microsoft in a project two years ago and so they were like what computer do you want and I you know I wanted that surface book so badly and even the people at Microsoft we're like now new buggy no really yeah they didn't recommend it and so I wondered that it's just think about it there's a lot of there's a lot of boldness in that design and just the whole approach to having the graphics card be separate and then you know I think that it's genius but it just needs work and they just haven't been able to get it to the level that they want is why it's still a little early for that it's gonna be awesome like five years is gonna be amazing he's super lightweight there'll be huge battery in the screen it'll be so cool yeah and but the general consensus like David Cogan like yesterday we had drinks with Cogan with Michael Fisher and they were like no the surface laptop I want the surface laptop every Theater everybody wants that computer well because you're thinking of it from the work perspective you know cuz it has the graphics card we can edit on it and whatnot I'm I was just about to say I'm into that man I really want if only the pixel books or the pixel whatever the laptop was if only that came with this yeah basically if only that came with a dedicated card I would just I would just put Windows on there and then because I love the look that's the best-looking laptop in my opinion you know you want to know what I want on this keyboard ah dear Google the caps lock key can we just have it be a caps lock key why what is it also it's uh what is it that you press that button and a jump in and launches your app controls and so far lock you have to practically you have to press alt show something like oh I'll touch it that and so it's funny for somebody that's been typing on a keyboard since 1997 even even prime know 1992 like for me to get used to the fact that that button is not a caps lock is the most annoying thing ever that's one it's rude to talk in all caps anyway so you don't really need to use that there are a couple of things that drills jammed in with so both the pro and the laptop apparently don't have they have the same dam virtually the same specs and no I oh yeah no I what okay that's uh see this a thing dongle life is getting into everything these days it's what is this about no USB see like it was and so here's the problem they have a display port but I believe that it's not thunderbolt capable and so it's like that's the moment where I'm like no I can't like what was the just give me two USB C ports and make them Thunderbolt three capable and will be happy like we're not gonna lose our friendship over that just do this oh come on like I you you think I don't you think I don't you think you're the only guy that's updated mr. Martin like really HDMI dude does yours it's just like the peripherals are the one thing that keep me from looking at this the peripherals and and integrated graphics like yeah yeah it's always the point of contention because right now I'm looking at for a laptop that has at least a 1070 with an H and Intel Core i just wanted want like cuz I know well if I were to while we made book X Pro buddy but does it that it doesn't have dedicated though not a 1070 oh no it doesn't have the graphics but you it is compatible with EGP use I mean oh that's true it's got the portability and then you can connect the new GPU yeah but then I have to put a huge like thing in my bag like when you're like when you're on the move you don't use that and whenever you need to you know it's you can leave you can leave it on your check bag just leave it in the hotel whenever you need to rather you just come back and you know export like for me the whole concept of EGP use it made me seriously consider a 13-inch MacBook Pro now that they're quad core because like I don't need all that graphics power when I'm mobile I need the portability but then I want to come back to the studio and I want to hit export and just connect what I need and you know deal with it whenever I do yeah Jules is chiming in over here it's like it has the MX 150 I'm like yeah but let me let me add another layer that makes 450 it's like exactly I wanted to add another layer to that like I want to be able to do I want to be able to do a video editing on it as well but it'd be kind of cool if I could fire up like you know shadow of war on it and just play once in a while you know I mean I'll tell you I'll tell you this much like leave this much like The Verge Senate and we and I'm gonna say it like if I had to be if I was asked what is the best laptop of the year huawei mate book X Pro I mean III can I can totally see why such a good computer such a good computer like I don't think I've ever been delighted by a product so much simply because it's so it's what the MacBook Air should have always been no yeah it's it's a powerful MacBook Air is literally what it is so would you say okay so coming back to the Microsoft stuff would you say are you so you want the pro but like what is it what but okay you want the pro a lot of people like the laptop and then of course the studio we already talked about I don't know I just want to do one more thing on the headphones like how do we feel about all of these tech companies kind of moving into it's the audio space it's their first wearable like the drivers were like top-notch I forgot the specs of them what did it really sound good they sounded fantastic dude really and just that whole okay so the noise cancelling thing is really cool because like if you go from most noise cancelling it's obviously you can't hear anything around you but then as you move into allowing ambient noise it'll actually at some point start using the microphones to feed it audio it's it's like very seamless it is so cool that you know and Jules is chiming in real quick just saying that the Microsoft band was technically the first wearable so Microsoft band actually such a bad product these right here actually have a very similar feature it's not a dial but oh you have that you have to mark 3's and it actually amplifies the ambient noise I think those are the mark twos you have bad those are threes oh yes I have those threes those are my favorite dude they're awesome they're so good they finally got the design right out I don't look like a pizza face with perfect okay so it was not let's go this way then would you say that these headphones at 350 are going to rival the likes of the mark 2 we're talking about the Sony noise canceling they have to they need to make a name for themselves in audio and that's the reason why I feel that there was a missed opportunity in branding than a surface products I feel that they should have just come out with a new lineup of something a specific brand for wearables and use that instead of calling them the Microsoft service something because we have to understand like the service has been around for what six generations and they're still not popular products they're just not oh you don't see them in the wild no you don't see them in the wild it's very hard to see them there no MacBooks they're you know they don't have a name for themselves and so you don't see the MacBook Air pods you know you don't see the MacBook Air or nuts if people are looking to buy a laptop that's in a fourteen fifteen sixteen hundred dollars you're usually looking in the MacBook realm they're not a surface right right and and so that's that side surface but it's a big ask for something you know yeah for sure all right Brennan last thought now we'll move on yeah before we move on from Microsoft I've read a headline the other day which is just perfect and it represents Microsoft very well and why they they're starting to see some success it was from the verge and it says Microsoft is embracing Android as the mobile version of Windows and I totally agree with that and it's brilliant headline but how was the article I mean it just talks about you know the stuff that they're doing to kind of go away from it had words in it but like it's really true instead of resisting and trying to do Windows Mobile Windows Phone it's like everything is an Android phone so we're gonna make more so did you guys see the dieter bone video about the history of Android as on the verge it was an awesome video because he's like Android was never designed to compete against iOS it was designed to compete against Windows Mobile it is so true mmm that is so true and Google like even the original version of Android that we remember before the dream the dream version which is literally what came out a year later to compete with iOS which was back then iPhone OS it literally the whole concept was buttons the whole concept was navigation through a d-pad and everything which is literally the way when those mobile works so it's that is a that is a very genius article it's true Android is literally a successor to Windows Mobile yeah look at the the original what was the the phone the g1 the g1 with the keyboard as the flames when androids obviously come a long way and you could say that it one on top of on top of Windows Mobile in that case but it does allow a lot of resurrections to happen you were talking about blackberry earlier Taylor we also have Nokia they've already made a bit of their comeback but now we were able to take a look at their latest devices again this is another phone that I did not get to take a look at so Jaime's gonna have to say little bit more about our Nokia's here the 7.1 the number one thing that I find really interesting I'm looking at the article right now I love the fact that this is going to be made for pre-order today via Amazon B&H and Best Buy this one's coming this it's coming man like it's not just China it's not just the the East it's coming here no I like that you know when Nokia reached out about the briefing and everything obviously we start a relationship with them after they did the move to its HMD yeah and I like I love the team at hmd like they are very professional it reminds me of the old Nokia they're trying to bring elements of nostalgia to the brand in addition to bringing phones that are not expensive and that are well done so they don't complicate themselves we do end so I love their pillars its design its performance and it's the best of Google so you don't deal with bloat at all it's literally Android one as its intended they're focusing mainly on design and so this phone obviously yes a lot of people in the comments were like yes but it has a notch yes but it has a chin like every phone does right now like can we just move on from the topic of the knotch like really like just fine you know just continue buying just go buy our iPhone 8 it's still there I mean you only want to phone without a notch do it's by that thing I just want out Jaime that you perpetuate the hate for the notch because every time you mention it in the daily you like roll your eyes or have a negative reaction oh I perpetuate my hate for the notch on the pixel because that thing looks like that thing looks like the size of Long Island like question recording that has to do whatever actually bothered anybody in in real world views nobody that's the thing it's just it don't does the animated suffering Taylor do it it's stubborn it does on the iPhone does on the iPhone that Huawei 1 + + LG do it best where if you go into full screen to watch a video I'm sorry if you go into you know watching a video in landscape it'll obviously cut off whatever portions because it's sixteen by nine and this is nineteen by nine but then when you zoom in what the phone does is it'll create the effect of having bezels and pretty much delete the existence of the knotch because that's one thing that I feel that the iPhone does terribly if you maximize the full screen the natural cover part of the video I find that to be stoop but yeah going back to the 7.1 it's got a notch it's you know it's a $350 phone guys and I saw some comments where they were like yeah but the poco phone and this yeah I try to make a poco phone work in the United States that's exactly yeah it doesn't work only it works in the United States where you won't get full LTE you won't get a lot of things and you know what I guarantee you if the Pogo phone came to the US it will not be priced $300 it wouldn't be a hard price it would probably be 350 you probably just like this exactly and so we've got 350 snap 966 not the newest processor but again I just from my experience using nokia nokia phones this is like that utilitarian phone I'm like damn this is like the phone that I want to give as a gift to like my dad or or probably one of my younger kids because it's very well built very sturdy phone they're focusing a lot on the optics of the camera I like that they're back in their relationship with SycE obviously I need a phone and I need to test it further to be able to see if the photography is as good they've got things like listen I could care less about them both these but I find them to be genius for Instagram stories because I hate having to be like you know I start filming myself and then I have to flip the camera to show what I'm doing but then if it's a both I feel I find that to be cool is that a photo or video also it's video it's Vinny okay it's in the cart is like you there are some phones in China that can do that but you can't control like if it's 50/50 on the screen like and this one you can control it with seventy eight seventy thirty or what these trailer looks so excited yes you know modern outdoor dweller it starts with modern you know that right so both these as a term you're the Millennial here not me [Laughter] we need a video we need a video of Taylor reacts epic picture that's what's supposed to be called right turn I didn't come up with the term don't look at me I'm the old guy I'll I'm liking this and you know the Nokia devices that I did get too at MWC that are not here in the US this will be but those devices were sleek they looked really awesome and I think what a lot of people need to remember about the Nokia 7.1 is that point 1 that means Android 1 like so that point 1 means Y it means to me Android 1 because I'm excited but but I like I like the way they're naming things where it's not like the iPhone tennis Maxx and then the iPhone no it's like it's the 7 that's the lineup and the original will be the seven and then iteration the second generation would be 7.1 the third generation would be 7.2 okay that's know on and so forth I find that to be cool that's so much they need to find good ways of naming their stuff I just love that Android ones on here because I'm really into checking that out honestly because I have an Android one device that I have yet to check out by its you know to see it on a phone like this that I'm excited for I'm jazzed about like that's awesome because yeah just very Spartan Android like you said those pillars that Nokia is trying to put into their phones like that's a great idea that's it's awesome like like stick to what you got okay so we were able to go through all of those we do want to give a couple of teasers in our final thoughts section of this there's a lot of stuff that's coming up ahead so why don't we talk a little bit about what we're excited about just for a quick second next week Jaime I'm seeing you again in new york in new york in LA yeah and then in LA yeah so you're coming yeah okay so next week on the nine we should just go on all the flights because we're doing New York LA London yeah exactly and then probably and then potentially in New York again afterwards so we can't say for what yet but so what we have here is next week we'll talk about next week in particular whatever comes after that we got other podcast for it whatever next week on the 9th pixel I'm looking forward to whatever else is gonna be coming out alongside the phone if we see pixel buds to maybe they'd fix a couple things there if we see a new chromecast you know even though someone already bought it from Best Buy and you know that that event I I have to say just you know just putting it out into the universe that's how grateful I am that I even got an invite to go to that so I'm really excited Jaime and I are gonna work together at that event it's gonna be awesome looking forward to it yeah and then the next day we fly right back to LA everyone's coming to my hood for once I'm so excited everyone's gonna be in LA cuz no one visits me I was like really come on and so a bunch of our buddies are gonna be back and actually just to give everyone a bit of a teaser we're trying our best to plan out one of our special monthly recordings where we have a live video and we have our guests and our friends on as well so a lot of people are coming next week for Razer and whatever Razer can do in a second phone I don't know but bring it on I want to see what you got because the first phone the first phone made a splash it maybe petered out a little bit in the ultimate scheme of things but you know what that got me paying attention and I'm just looking forward to seeing what they know they literally created the concept of a gaming I just feel the razer phone one but like you know I think that it's it's a good point to make that every first iteration is never great and so I think that the Razer phone was greater than the fact that it was a first iteration and now you know where we're getting there second gen so let's see what we get yeah totally and then we'll figure out Taylor which one of these were going to send your way and as you back you're gonna get that blackberry though so we want to hear your thoughts on the BlackBerry for sure do it do what color do you want Taylor like Italy know nothing about anything he wants black alright alright then I'll have to get you black I'll work on that awesome and on that bombshell and on Taylor Martin's return we're gonna go ahead and call it for now the weekly is just as much a conversation as it is a show so make sure you make your voices heard either in the comment sections or by emailing us at podcasts ad Jules I got it podcast at pocketnow.com you can also tag the cast on Twitter with the hashtag P and weekly I made a Vetta is of course at high mate underscore Rivera remember that underscore Brandon mini man is at Brandon mini man and the returning tailor Martin is found at Casper Tech that's Tek at the end he also has a couple of YouTube channels himself mod and the best damn EDC tailor I apologize I never got my EDC to you I am so sorry we will work on it together we'll get it done Jules our podcast producer extraordinaire is at Point Jules and I can always be found at JV tech T you know me by now I love tech and I love drinking me some tea especially when I'm straining my throat to its absolute limits I also have one quick shameless plug to give I did do not only an iPhone review for Pocket now but you can also check out my sort of spin on the review process by checking out my review over at youtube.com slash Josh or for Gaara just search for love I loved your videos fantastic rate oh thanks guys all right pocket now is that pocket out on Twitter Facebook Google+ and YouTube in English and espanol where you can find more news on the pocket now daily and parking out add audio every single weekday we're also on pocket now calm for all your mobile tech needs we would love your feedback through Google Apple stitch or pocket cast or wherever you might be streaming us because without you we wouldn't have been able to make this show for your eyes and ears for now 326 episode straight with that we're gonna call it on this edition of the weekly stay tuned the pixel 3 and the razor 2 are on their way and so are we to all of those places so we'll see you next week