Gadgetory

we've shared our first experiences with HTC's next flagship will be you eleven help this company rebuild is Apple giving up on the iPad Mini maybe Steve Jobs was right about smaller tablets after all and we'll take a closer look at Google Lenz announced at Google i/o so make sure you're charged and ready for Episode two five three of the PocketNow weekly recorded Wednesday night 9:45 p.m. on the west coast this weekly podcast is where we dissect and discuss those gadgets that make our lives mobile smartphones tablets and wearables it's all the stuff you wished existed when you were a kid and lenses were things that you used to use to melt your action figures with I'm Juan Carlos paganella senior editor pocketnow.com blasting the signal from a late-night Southern California joined this week by plucky podcast producer mr. Jules Wong who's still out on location around the the New York area how's it going out on the East Coast buddy boy hey hopefully the wind isn't cutting me out and the noise isn't cutting me out and hopefully I don't have to cut out of this segment just like I was cut out of Joel's segment I really wanted to talk with him for a little bit about that you love it but unfortunately you'll have to get in with the right kind of people in order to do that yeah yeah Jules is giving us a little time travel is I'll be will be bringing on a special guest at the the second half of this podcast to talk about the HTC u 11 you give yourself a discount because you say it's 9:45 Pacific time you have to remind yourself that it's also 12:00 I don't need to remind myself I know exactly what time it is out on the East Coast which is this this was not my choosing to record the podcast at this time not with relation to East Coasters I should say who needed to record on a Wednesday night at midnight their time so this is not ideal for me either I got I got plans tomorrow that's BAM whole damn day and between that and IO which we'll talk about in just a second as we will that has been a major effort upper what's been going on in my life so apologies for all of this we'll try and get back on track here as best as we can but before we get to that do you want to remind you that we still would like your feedback on everything that is mobile tech we want your questions so send them over to podcast at pocketnow.com you can do that through email just send a few questions over heyse and send a million we'll get to them as soon as possible and also that p and weekly hashtag that's also pretty useful for us too because I will be able to go through any sort of you know shorter I guess questions all during the span as well all right so on that note let's jump right into some news I'm going to switch over to looks just here let's jump right into the website view that does not mean that my microphone is falling off of a bench so that's very lovely once you try to edit that out but I'm just going to go on and charge on because we're professionals hello let's pretend to be a theist so IO happened today was the big day that it started and start off with the big keynote one of the main features that was teased out from you know AI that's what we want to go through student sundar Pichai his last two letters with his name's AI it's important to him as well and she's been going through all the server backside issues backside haha to make these services possible and one of those services is google lens and that basically comes up to a bixby vision kind of competitor so it's going at it right against Samsung it has the power to do so I would think in the ingenuity it's just about incorporating that kind of and visualizing all these data plots on objects that your camera sees and then putting on the good use so you put it to Google assistant instant translation of course now we already have instant translation but it's getting wrapped into Google assistant so that you can actually build upon what's going on on that stuff you're looking for like a translation to this food sign and you want to ask what that whatever that's what it wasn't what come a what is welcome a about you'll find out through another Google search a Google systems what's going on with what coming oh look at see we I think so there you go other sort of issues going in like a Google photos those shared albums as well there's a whole bunch of integrations that you can check on at pocketnow.com for that as we move on for the rest of the news we also see that the Galaxy Note 8 is going to be the best phone ever we always look better anyways dual camera potentials are climbing ever so slightly higher with another reports today from I believe it is it's just I guess it's just the Chinese or so uh we owe it's Korea Herald excuse me about that we have three times zoom so pretty much like the iPhone 7 plus it had a dual camera module going on there what through two times in on the second of them so three times I don't know it is that going to make any difference in terms of getting a clearer sharper image that much closer boss to see what we're playing with and over to our next story here which is about that iPad Mini that sort of in-between between the iPhone plus size so 5.5 inches and we also have the standard 9.7 inch iPod and between that nothing is really God in between since 95 94 which was believe a 2015 model we did get a reset on those memory options this year but I'm like you know we don't have any developments that I mean that's a pretty minor iteration and when we're talking about twelve point nine inch I play I've had pros and even a ten point five inch iPad pro rumored to come along soon it's not really building well there's rumors or talk from a source and Apple that this is not it's basically being eaten out of its size category and want to see what happens maybe it's gone it'll get a complete revamp we don't know at this point we would like to find out so hopefully there's so much please tell us what's going on I'm not pulling out my hair about it because I have a handful so okay oh man this is crazy um risings it's it's not good it's doing terrible at supporting devices so LG I in an earlier take of our other podcast we talked about the LG watch urbane second edition LTE and how that ways of failure at launching because it was pulled out by LG for some reason we never really got the reason this time it's the opposite side the carrier side of things Verizon said it would hold a it would carry the LG watch sports the LTE version for Verizon um we don't know why it has dropped it but that's the word it has a disruptive just gone so all you get now is maytee and teachers are named unlocked I guess wears an or bluetooth to say at least this is a disappointing news for Friesland users who are into the SmartWatch thing and Verizon has been though well it's been behind the ball in terms of IOC kind of pushing that time as a deal so I want to see where that goes finally Legend of Zelda coming in to the smartphone field yeah we're pretty happy about what it already has done for this switch Nintendo switch but it seems that Jordans that's not far enough we're gonna have to go little bit further for its 25th birthday and that means a more coming in next year so 2018 and well actually there's going to be a limited show starting around the holidays but all come fully in 2018 you don't have any real detail about the game itself just sound so there's something sure about right yeah as so long is that the the Zelda move for smartphones isn't just like run and jump link game like Mario was now you're gonna have to really parse that out because smartphones have never really been built for that kind of like you have the I know your family's future fight from one as well and I've been passed along several releases some time about you know features right - and all that but you know it's kind of free well dude it has it's a roaming course game it doesn't let you go along and play actual goons and stuff that's cool I mean it's hard to imagine a free roaming game a Zelda esque kind of deal going on smartphone because that requires a lot more polygons and you know render distance and all that stuff going on even with Vulcan I'm not even sure oh you know I I still think there's an opportunity for Nintendo too so I think Zelda would be a game that would translate very well if you were to take sort of a graphics repolish of the original top-down map panel Legend of Zelda I think there's an opportunity there for some of those older titles to kind of get that modern day you know sprucing up and I think they would actually translate really well to a smartphone experiment use you're right if we were to develop like the n64 Zelda that wouldn't work at all but you know there are other incarnations like Game Boy style incarnations a Zelda that I think people would love to play on on a phone directly without hefty having to use an emulator well is Nintendo fighting oil there's that but I'm kind of really fighting those devs who are creating we want to do that kind of thing reskin HD eat and just go for that kind of thing or is it is it just concerned more about going with the verticals it is dealt with and just being able to make money off of that I mean we've seen it in several iterations I don't know if you've done it done Fire Emblem what but uh no just like that's our story does let well see what the smartphone barbecues do well I think there's their RPG things I also wouldn't put put it outside the realm of possibility of some sort of like Zelda world building game or something like that you know again taking the IP and maybe it's not a direct translation of what might of what Nintendo might consider competing against their console solutions maybe it's a watered-down gaming experience but it's still set within the world of Zelda I just mean no the Super Mario run thing was novel and kind of interesting for a minute and I I don't need another run and jump game that's not what I wanted I know title so I don't know that it's kind of a countervailing those expectations where you kind of just expect okay so it's it's in mobile and this is probably the process they can modify it to fit you know to actually be enjoyable while you're in a kind of a smartphone gaming situation you don't have much time or something like that whereas if you don't want to be left disappointed if they do try to um how shall we say it's full ass that's right I'd then have it be an experience where it's just you know it ends up being choppy or jarred because of how has to be delivered per you know mobility smartphones and whatnot I mean yeah totally totally different so I wanted to kind of track back to google lens for just a minute you something into my depth finally well but I mean just like it it's funny we're going to call this like a big speed competitor but is it that's just getting Google back to where we were with the early camera experiments with Google Goggles and the other apps that were trying to scan images and do visual search directly from our phones I mean Google has dipped their toe into this type of into this type of solution and a number of times since Android has been really I mean I think it's just convenience kind of merging announcements because you know sooner bhishan was all about the teeth you know talking about TPMS don't time art EDM time division multiplexing niche you know if you can explain that to me I know you know it's used in CDMA situations but there's just a whole bunch of you know it's all about having the server's be capable of handling Google what Google ins wants to do and I think in the you know the earlier cases in Ellen's kind of a case built situation where you had be sorter servers set up for exact situation whereas you know okay let's have all the Google servers be able to just be able just plant these boards in and then everyone can do lens everywhere and just have it accessible from the assistants so I don't know it's a it's an announcement of convenience yeah I guess maybe that that was what was holding goggles back originally was that back-end infrastructure for moving images and doing that kind of processing as efficiently and as quickly as possible it's just I I guess I just have to question from what I've played with on big speed I I guess I just don't see where this needs to be such a precious part of the phone experience like I don't search for things with the camera you look at everything through your phone right well you like I'm always just holding phone cameras up in the front you know everywhere I got to walk around and do this on your house because I mean it makes a lot of sense like you were saying that the idea of real-time visual translation for different languages that's awesome but that that has already been working really well you know I don't know that having yet another sort of branded Google assistant lens bixby solution thing really elevates that experience significantly unless it's just that branding exercise of we'll call it something new so that people will go out and try it because it's a new service and then they'll see that really this was just Google Goggles all along but it's just been phenomenally improved since the last time it had a proper brand name I mean if there's anything that people want it's time it's for fun right seriously like that's that's going to make it happen so we'll see we'll see I'll be really curious to see now what this means for competition because I I haven't been completely sold on Bixby has a standalone competitor to what Google is already doing with Android so yeah if this causes no need to fight back then that's great yeah there's also a bunch of other eye our announcements frequency to assistant photos as well as a couple of nitty gritty Android Oh stuff that you can check out on the site as well yeah the Android oh stuff doesn't really seem like the needles moved much from that very very early Developer Preview that we we wrote up okay like so I want to try and see if I can do this little jig again because if and also the screen brightness on this I have my Nexus 5 here running the second version of the preview you got it to set up I mean Tony sending me angry emails right now like why haven't I installed it here like I haven't had time to sideload it and it's all I know if I'm not getting my OTA you're about getting the OTA because if you flashed a previous image you're automatically signed out of the in a program you have to sign back on life alright then I'll go today that's what I had to do to get mine and you know they switched it up the dark means gone now it's light and there's also yeah of course you got to change up the color it's some light little stuttery on my size X I'm sure that's a it's not going to be probably at all but you know there are other little features like a notification dots it's less annoying than the how you see the number like on the on an app icon badge right having that grow but you're able to actually just hold on the app icon on the home screen and be able to individually act on those aggregation but you gotten a notification shade like really what I just I'm you know just the fact that you said that you know there is still no dark theme that that makes me so crazy cranky I was like The Dropper dirt they changed everything they changed all those the UI elements from grey and black to white like that's but I don't care I miss I miss holo theme holo theme was this a rate you know low power dark theme it was great for AMOLED screens I I switched over my Galaxy s8 almost instantly different artwork that's that's what I said basically but I want it Jules I want it give it to me um lastly just because you know I'm the camera nerd what do you think about a dual camera Note 8 if we get an optical zoom do you really think that moves the needle on an image processing at all i I kind of feel like people like the zoom on the iPhone but it's not really a primary or I hope you're getting the goose I hope yeah that sounds awesome oh yeah I don't really think it's something that people on their iPhone 7 plus is like they use it I'm sure but it's not like this major I don't think many people regarded as being a major component sig okay feature you know what I'm saying yeah get it now yeah yeah get it how it suppose to old anyways uh yeah I'm not sure how much farther this takes us I mean three times I was arguing originally for a four times lens on the iPhone 7 because I would think I think that we would save enough between one and four just to get in and you know do that variable zoom and whatnot ah qua way is making a room it's not they're still now I don't I don't know how to feel bringing this up but they're DXL mark schools are still kind of there is a pretty good but there are a few points behind against the s8 which scored in 88 so and with that and that didn't change much for the s7 edge they didn't change it all actually you know going if this is going too well I'm a little less concerned with the XL mark scores just because they completely missed the significant lens flaring on the pixel and still managed to give the pixel dar their highest score of all time when lens quality is supposed to be one of their metrics if we're going to say it's image processing then yeah I can I can appreciate that but I guess I'm just kind of I think I find it kind of curious that zoom is becoming you know so Apple went for zoom like reach like zooming into your subject where the LG went for zooming wide and I think if a lot of people were to compare the usefulness of a wide angle lens versus a zoomed in lens I think more people would probably lean towards the wide angle lens because the software our op zoom is okay and then you've got your normal field of view and then you have this ultra wide field of view for getting more into each shot I find a counter is that Samsung followed apples move there I'm gonna say just first and then I'm going to do it I want a flexible telescoping lens so that it goes you know zooms out of the module and goes all the way around to that time you actually get the view that you want from wherever you are but even with just like if it's in module you got motors to you know inch it this way or inch up that way if you can't really you should try and get a shot but you can't really part even better if you're trying to shoot out of a window and the reflection of the light it doesn't work out because it's just looking too much of the interior that can really help so I don't know I mean yeah that's one of the little gimmicks that I can think a second well I won't take it it has some value to it oh no I'm not I'm not saying there's no value and and there are definitely pros and cons for every solution you know you touched on huawei the cons are there is no focal length flexibility at all no like you've got your one field of view with those two camera sensors but the pro would be I think you've got some of some of the most photographic image processing I've ever seen when you merge the output from those two sensors there is definitely a call for having a higher quality when zoomed in but unless Samsung has figured out a way to give us a longer lens on a comparable image sensor without degrading image quality then we're kind of stuck in the same situation that we were with the iPhone 7 where once you don't have perfect light the phone is already starting to struggle with that zoom sensor because it's a smaller sensor so that it can take up less space and you can use you can kind of gimmick the focal length of the lens to make sure that you're getting as much reaches your advertising and that's where I think LG actually did something really cool with the g6 where the wide-angle and the standard view have the same sized image sensors and so you face a little less degradation of your image when you switch back and forth between normal field of view and wide field of view so that's just kind of what I mean like I think wide seems to be the more flexible edition and that's where I'm kind of curious like if Samsung really does do this with the note 8 why why I think it's kind of interesting like they would follow in Apple's footsteps instead of looking at maybe some of the other consumer researchers and you know put it in front of focus groups or something like that all the funnier focus groups on photography photography yeah out of focus groups on fricative right ah no like um I mean I don't really know where to go in terms of just focal lengths here I mean we got wide we got you know I mean the only real solution I guess for me is you know you find a way to uh put some distance between those sensor on the lens which is already hard to deal with it is you can make those you know you don't have you can you can be able to produce a flatter of lens and still get a fairly wide feel but other than that you know zooming in is like I don't know how to do it it takes more in spot than just trying to talk about it on a podcast as well and especially when we're speculating about rumors because I mean there are other solutions to already like it's just it's just you know three and it's pretty it's pretty straightforward so far so unless Samsung decides to you know keep one little detail very closely guarded we're going to know about it eventually anyways so and and we're going to say that it's a guarantee that this is going to have a quad camera array for zoom wide and dual lens photography with an 8k screen and a sixteen thousand milliamp hour battery so you heard it here first folks galaxy note I will go further on bail it's over 9000 you heard it here first folks the Galaxy Note 8 will be the phone of the future today yeah I'm going to throw my knee 20 elinoz and right after this call as soon as we're done I'm going to take all of the other phones in my collection of review devices and run over them with my car with their little vineyard the other I kind of wish I added Miata that would be a fun hard to drive but we also had a one of the big news stories this week coming the HTC you 11 we got our first hands-on from mister hi may be betta and I think it's time that we brought on our special guests to unpack that news so if you want to wrap us up here Jules we can we don't let you go find shelter out in that beautiful I shall and to do that all I have to say is you can find details on these stories and more just go to pocketnow.com search the podcast section for this episode and it's going down also check out Jaime Rivera he hosts as said before the pocket now don't know he talked about in for the 11 so I pray that well but yeah we can still say he's the host of the day we have the pocket now daily and we can find that on a two page okay okay baba ah bye-bye ladies and gentlemen boys and girls it is my pleasure to introduce you to the gentleman that's on your screen right now if you're watching the the video version of this or the voice you're about to hear if you're listening to the audio show and that's one mr. Joel head flop Joel thank you so much for joining us tonight sotell thank you at both Juan Jules actually it's not with us right now but thank you so much for having us I'm happy to be here and joining you and the PocketNow family here it's been fun keeping up with you guys in your channel personally and excited to be jumping in with some video work with you guys yeah I'm Adam glad you brought it up that way you know talking about family because we've been having a lot of conversations internally a pocket now as to how we could expand that family and when we were in those early conversations you were absolutely an individual that I had at the top of my list I've been a big fan of the work that you've been doing on your own personal channel so I wanted to bring you in to start help us fill in some of the gaps in our lineup from some of the products that we haven't been able to review we've are be giving you a phone that you're going to be posting a review at the end of the week right yes this is your quick update that means you saw that then you know for watching the video then you know which one was other than that you know your news you got away or if yes so so drop a comment the first person who can identify that phone you get no prizes we're not giving any comments yes you get a virtual high five from Joel and and definitely hold on to that I think that that high five will probably be worth something in the coming years it could be so we're going to be expanding on the HTC u 11 you've had a chance to check out some of the videos and stuff that have been put out on this I may actually did our primary hands-on but before we get to that I wanted to take just a minute to sort of sort of talk about your background a little bit where you're coming from helped introduce you to our audience like like I said and I mean this I really liked going through your channel and seeing that you won you weren't afraid to be critical um you know that there were phones that I could tell that you liked but that you were still trying and working to to make sure that you were showing off the pros and cons of a specific device I'm you use a V 20 so I know you've got good taste obviously I've said this before but one was right when they were originally announcing it PocketNow covered a lot on the b20 and i was between a couple phones and hey video reviews work because one convinced me because of you 20 and I haven't looked back it has been great so coming high praise when I hear that he likes my videos high praise to him for his work we're talking out and some gadget guy but but more than anything else one of the things that really struck me and and if you can drill just scoots just a teeny touch to your right perfect yeah I know you've got some light there I know you're gonna be a little bright but just uh because I like to move around to not lift yeah I was like I was starting to lose you on my side there to your to your left um but but one of the things that I was I was really happy to see on your channel um you know in addition to you not being afraid to be a little critical and you I think you taking your response commentary very seriously with it you are also just approaching it with some enthusiasm and and you know we've had conversations about this offline just I get why there's a certain vibe in tech reviews but I'm a little tired personally of kind of crafting around the notion of everything's cool and chill and I'm kind of over it because you know I see all these things all over the place and I'm super tech savvy so whatevs and I personally want to like show people when I'm excited or show people when I'm concerned like that little bit more emotion as we're talking about these things and I really like that you had a sense of that with the community you were building on your own channel yeah I love that I will say though on my resume does say cool and super tech savvy so you got me on that no but I love I love what you're saying there I love as much as I can to get through every comment talking connect with people that are watching my videos I really want to throw off that vibe of this like uber tech reviewer and just say hey this is my experience this is what I see the goods the bads if I'm getting bad battery life I'm not going to you know show this building well I got 10 hours of screen on time now I got three and a half on a good you know like I wanna make sure that people are are seeing the experience that I am and if it's different for someone else let's have a conversation about it and you know I'll use the tech expertise that I've learned over the years and things like that to walk through with people and hopefully give them a better experience they can help make some good informed decisions then we'll have some fun along the way so that's how I approach it and so it's fun having conversations like this and getting to talk to these phones and new devices and really just jumping in together that family aspect I always want to look at the positive and then see a critical eye of what we can maybe improve with those things and you know give people the best experience they can with watching a video review right on and and and I've also just sort of appreciated the fact that I think you bring a pretty high level of expertise to your video editing so that that I think your videos look good in addition death that you could well thought Apple not yeah I enjoy that and part of that was college background of doing video editing in college and just more picking it up in the last couple years just dig it in and and chopping and swiping and putting things together it's fun I enjoy it I'm more enjoyed being on camera than editing but I do like crafting a good story and script and just ro seeing it from start to finish and then really being like this is my work let it be free let's get out the world and getting those first likes and comments and people appreciating like I like that shine like I worked on that later that wouldn't occur while then edit took a lot like stupid edits that should I don't need to spend this long on them but I'm like if you really cool add this tracking in here this edited you know now I'm just wrapping up a video this afternoon going like I don't really need to do this I don't need to do this and yet I still couldn't help like I've got to get this macro shot I've got to get up here like I need my action figures in the background it's visually interesting for the frame and I totally appreciate that everywhere well it's one thing you'll do for sure well yeah I think that's another reason why I had to bring you on - it's like a compliment my Transformers collection I needed some limited sci-fi and Star Wars in there so yeah so person Zelda are the majority in here but there's a plethora of afraid of things around the room that people pick up on and comment really oh you like Dragon Ball Z or are you like it's like hey alright so you know I don't want to jump the tracks too much but Dragon Ball Krillin has got to be the most powerful human in the show right I would think so yeah I mean as far as humans go because it's either like Crillon or TN and and I don't think and it's definitely I'm sure nothing that's deep enough we don't need to go any any any dorkier on our anime god right there I think enough people have seen my Vegeta wall scroll up in the side of my room and that set on this shelf over here you can't see also I have a couple Benghazi figures there so so let's let's jump in so I really wanted to chat you eleven with you especially knowing your v20 owner and one of the things that I think sold you want to be twenty like I can see you're wearing your sin II cans like I've got the the 599 so those the 598 eight mmm-hmm so yeah you know you know as part of our gadget personal area network of accessories and stuff I I know you have an appreciation for higher quality audio that that kind of a multimedia experience and a company that I think the company that was most responsible for elevating the conversation with HTC and so there are some steps that I think are really interesting about the U 11 I think there are a couple moves here by HTC which might be a bit concerning in kind of going through a lot of these first impressions videos or first hands-on videos what did you think of the well first of all let's start with the design and then you know we from there I think we can we can move out to some of the other hardware features but the look of the phone this seems to be HTC's new design language is is this something that you think is going to resonate with the smartphone buying public that's that's hard to see yeah with the HTC you ultra you know that was kind of they're dipping their feet in the water so to speak with it and they had some weird hardware choices with that so we'll put that aside that's not their flagship this is so that aside this is how they're moving forward and I mean the the glass and the glosses is a big deal and that's you know we see that now g6 and the the s8 and I I mean it's interesting I haven't gotten to hold the different colorways but like the red yellow one where you can kind of turn it and it like looks like a solar flare almost like generate the color ways how they change I think it's an interesting approach and it's a kind of flashy but but it'll be interesting to see I mean the definitely new fingerprint magnets and will be a bit of bear to keep clean but hey feel good in the hand in there you know that I think they look solid enough and most people would would enjoy would enjoy a device that looked like this for sure and I think the looks are gonna turn anybody away I know I definitely don't think that looks are going to turn anyone away I'm curious if we've actually managed to find the peak of this glass back experiment though where from all the different experience you know like have you seen an honor rate where it's got like those sort of different reflective surfaces to make like laser laughs that cut through the back or a phone like well I really think the note 7 was in a terrific example of design for glass back obviously the Galaxy s8 sort of following in that footsteps but now getting this sort of colour infused purposely mirrored surface yeah have we have we kind of peaked on both like the look in the practicality this is a design achievement I think this is something which looks really stunning and yet I know this is something that I'm gonna probably not enjoy holding and as soon as I have access to one I'm going to be telling it into a case right yeah a case or skin or something just yeah because I feel like it is it is a big deal well HTC has always kind of been big on their their design and their manufacturing with the aluminium body originally you know how they were huge on that they're like how it looks how it feels and so they wanted to push that forward and they've kind of done the same thing over the years and so this departure here yeah this big trend with the glass is a big deal but the the mirror it is I don't know it's pretty little for videos chuckles but on everyday use it's like is this going to be what I really want on my phone and you're totally right I might but I would put a case on that bad boy right away yeah because no I think it's really funny you know the notion is like it looks really cool but even in a talking with highmane and a part of his video was like this thing is really difficult to shoot yeah so even be like really good for videos like it's almost like again is the same thing that I've said about the galaxy si it's like I just want to put it in a glass case under museum lighting yeah right exactly I this isn't sort of limit leo not the phone I think I would recommend to my wife as her purse sort of eat gadgets for breakfast right I'd maybe not you know maybe not recommend this one actually right now she's most interested in the BlackBerry so we're going to see if she's going to take my review unit for me see that's why I like the key one to be twenty other phones sure they don't look great but they're functional and I just I could throw it around and I have any issue like I know it's going to do what it says it's going to do and not let any flashiness get in the way and I kind of met the practicality is is a big deal to me I mean sure if it looks nice that helps but you know we'll see if that we'll be able to straight people it's going to be a hard sell I think because it's a solid device and there's lots of great things going for it but with the s8 in the g6 in this crowded space right now is a mirrored finish is that the biggest differential I don't know I mean I'm looking at stats but you know that doesn't always tell the inhale and how the device is going to run I love HTC's launcher and what they do with their you know custom overlay but I think you know it's real tasteful and simple compared to you know TouchWiz and some others but we'll see yeah I'm always excited about new phones so well and before we completely leave before we completely leave this notion of design I mean we can say like a phone like you know the v20 is I think it's sort of diesel truck charmingly ugly you don't exactly I'm good yeah but I look at a phone like the key one and one of the things that I really like about the key one is the feel in the hand and the look of the phone it feels like it was made for grownups right it feels like it's designed to go with a nice attache or a high quality corporate bag of some kind the cases that Blackberry picked people heard me talk about this with Stephen shank on a previous episode of the podcast but like they partnered with to me which is a company that's very well known the respected bag manufacturer and you know that's the branding that would be on the back of your key one and it was something that even my wife responded to where it's a phone that recalls a gadget like the note for you know the network got pan for not being the sexiest phone but it was metal in a grippy back which had sort of an executive feel to it and so the more I start looking at glasses an experiment and I don't want to trivialize this you know like oh it's a phone for girls or something I mean that at all it goes down on one Oh technically I'm right on the cusp which makes me yeah yeah curious as to who's getting to decide that I think that calendar right but when when we're looking at looking at sign design can we go to in Washoe to flash yeah I know what you mean yeah and the the 3d Gorilla Glass that edges over the corners I would like to I want to see how that feels in the hand cuz that looks solid it makes it look you know like it melts in it's not a curved edge necessarily like the s8 is but it is the form factor lends to that and to me I like the sa and I think it feels great in the hand but I really this could be just me but I like the note 7 better and the way it melt in the hand it was a little more subtle of a curve but it had on the curve on the back and on the front yeah but not as harsh as the si is and yeah it was kind of like the good sweet spot between it not too much of that but you know each their own maybe people laps maybe people absolutely love that but I'm fine with 16 9 18 and 1/2 by 9 is cool and I'm sure a lot more phones will do that but the you alter that of the 11 still 69 correct yeah it still going to be that 2 by 9 in and I'll be I'll be really curious to see what other companies pick up on that but I'm real quick now let's jump into let me see if I can find just the specs here that we can put up on camera so uh we're looking at a snapdragon 835 4 gigabytes of RAM 64 gigabytes of storage with micro SD card expansion the 3000 milliamp hour battery a new 12 ultra pixel 3 camera I'll be really curious to dig into that 16 megapixel front-facing camera ip67 uh water-resistant and quick charge 3 dot oh so these all feel like like the requisite flagship specs for phone this year that's why they even bumped down to the 1.7 aperture to even less time with the larger pixels and that's always that's been HTC sting for a long time even you know way back in the one day when they're like oh you could get by with 4 megapixels cuz they're all true out big so everybody was like here you I was I was completely on that experiment I was completely on board it was it for me though that year the top two phones were the Lumia 920 and the HTC One m7 in that order yeah until the next year when my one aim m7 fell prey to the Purple Haze and then I was like no I'm done with you I had this is dead to me he I remember that yeah that was such a bummer because yeah we're getting really really good shots with it yeah I was yeah I was gonna buy I was actually going to buy it around the time that they all started getting purple haze and I was like he never money I don't need that it was shocking to me that I had a phone that operated great for about a year and then uh just went like completely Barney the Dinosaur it was just terrible yeah well and that's a good testament to HTC they had a super solid the devices with those and so I'm Rob rooting for them because they've they've had a little bit of a kerfuffle so to speak you know a little bit of a bump in the road here and this this is looking like a good solid entry I don't think they took too many risks to go over the top with it but they definitely check some good marks here for a really solid flagship that that should get some attention so yeah I think it's interesting because we've we've also been having this conversation with LG and I think you know LG means maybe been a little bit more successful in the transition so from a g4 era of LG's to now we've gone through some weird experiments some odd design choices and we arrived at the g6 and the g6 we hold it in your hand is a phone that feels like it makes sense now HWC it's interesting because I don't think HTC's had quite the same kind of teething pain like they didn't have a weird modular phone they didn't have a really hard stop they just had a slowdown I guess just a mediocre couple phones well I think they were definitely affected like in HT c + LG we're both I think ravaged by the Qualcomm 810 series of processors though yeah yeah so the one m9 from a design standpoint is a killer phone it's a great phone but it's wildly inconsistent performer same thing with the LG G flex 2 you know both of those phones being out early using that chipset very I mean like moments where those things are screamers and then most of the time the phone is throttling itself or the yoga the full benefit of that performance but their their response you know the HTC 10 was on point and I think we had just gone through so many the one the what was the one a9 was another sort of just mediocre halfway step in trying to make a mid-rare and and then the the you ultra just an odd phone to release so we don't have a lit doesn't seem like we have a lot of confidence in brand right now especially from the carrier standpoint that yes is a this isn't a phone that's being widely embraced right now it seems like the only carrier that's on board is sprint for getting this phone into showrooms outside of if you guys seem to make you happy there I'm on spread yeah we do they might get acquired by t-mobile soon but we'll see always seen what I mean you know what honey Devin that could be great for a sprint user though right yeah I mean it could because they could they could really get some more expansion although they are they are pushing right now um you know the Ltd 5g there's they're saying that they're going to be the first to expand out you know everyone's saying that though but we'll see each carrier has their big thing that they will be the big next and and they're going to get a new spokespersons that's going to crack on the other guy there's a big battle but it wouldn't hurt to have three big leads instead of just the two big leads and then two minor leads right you know because t-mobile is definitely growing and they're getting into that space but a teensy and Verizon are just kind of overtaking things but didn't me to derail things no no no because you know this was also one of the other top stories about the you 11 was this sort of carrier because it's not even like a carrier exclusivity it's sort of akin to what we went through with the pixel you know Verizon was the official only carrier exclusive a place to stock the phone but then t-mobile would also like well you could just go buy a pixel and use it on t-mobile and we'll cut you a deal and then sink to a lot of normal consumers for sure right so why do people talk personally they're like oh no I can't get the pixel it's only on Verizon I'm like oh and all wrong the I this this will be curious to see can HTC see one of the biggest problems and we've we've cracked on LG a lot for this - but HTC is maybe even worse at this is can they get that message out to consumers it's not enough anymore to make let's say that the U 11 is the best phone of the year and maybe we get it and it turns out that this is just an amazing combination of technologies of hardware of software and somehow this phone is like the absolute best all-rounder all consumers should be using it so they actually get that message out to consumers you know it hard because Samsung and Apple and just kill it on marketing it's just destroy other people and in HTC you know they have Robert Downey jr. fer was at the nine of the ten oh god it was so like and then LG had Jason Statham there like with the five and if they're not doing well I hire me I love this mic Wellner you they can't now because you're a part of the pocket now family that would be okay are you sure they couldn't possibly pay you well enough to leave pocket it is I'm just like who's making these decisions and like how it is passing through sometimes because I'm like these are some silly silly things and Samsung's just crushing it and an Apple sister I would say Samsung has probably the best phone marketing like Apple just has the brand that wins right now to the solid brand and they have more people but as man boy do I ever see people switching over Samsung in droves just because of the marketing and they're like oh that display oh you know it's what you know so especially with the seven that was waterproof that's Evan and that's when a lot of people were like oh the galaxy phone is a great device it's waterproof and that was like and glass so so that's when I saw a lot of people regular consumers say oh yeah this samsung galaxy thing could be an iPhone alternative totally um I mean it really did and like Samsung to their credit actually did put themselves out there you know this was a threshold that now every other manufacturer is stepping up to to match or it used to be like we would get these really weird Japanese one-off phones because Japan has different regulations on things like device durability so you know Japan got the LGV 34 and they are the only ones to core that phone yeah because it was water-resistant and so now I think manufacturers are sort of getting hit to the fact that like this is something that consumers want to pay for across the worker hold not just because a government holding they had to there was a bunch of people that were commenting on my videos saying Joel please review the the LG 34 I'm like I can't like I guess I can import it but well anyway for us like you were pretty you we've got pretty good relationships with different you know our people and stuff and you're like no it's a Japanese only phone you're like well people watch our videos in Japan it and they're like yeah I'm not gonna have it so uh before before we leave this off I wanted to get your thoughts as another fellow v20 owner I'm going to see I'm scanning through the video right now so no headphone jack HTC the company that that brought us boom sound killer speakers and really high quality headphone audio is now playing the USBC audio game and I was just wondering what your thoughts on that might be given your really expensive Sennheiser headphones that you're wearing right now single-tier because of people that happening no yeah I know it's somewhat inevitable at this point with the given fact that how mobile is going and you're somebody manufacturers ditching it but I really thought HTC would hold on to it longer just because the innovations with the boom sound and their DAC and everything is sounding so good and when they first didn't put the front boom sound speakers a little my heart just just fell a little bit and then whenever I you know saw them do this I was like HDC I mean one redeeming fact is they do have the USBC noise cancelling headphones in the box which which okay that's nice and I'm looking forward to a real audio via you but and I don't know how good the DAC is in here if it still as good as the 10 was that's something to look forward to but man that's a bummer I really want them to hold on to it and I think there will be people that will be a little bummed out about it I'm Mike and I can hear that this is an idea that's potentially one generation of Android ahead of its time yeah as we know from the Android Oh beta some of the news that's been coming out of Google i/o and then just like we've been working with some of the developer previews on Android Oh pocket now behind the scenes we haven't done a lot of coverage on it just because there actually hasn't been a ton to cover as of yet but one of the focuses of Android Oh seems to be finally delivering on the promises of jellybean of improving Android audio and one of the major one of the major I mean obviously they're looking at Bluetooth including aptX and aptX HD and Sony's codecs for wireless I don't know there you go okay but a major problem with Android has always been its USB audio support you know this Linux kernel is fine it should be fine for supporting USB i/o for audio but it just really hasn't been implemented well on an android level some phones have executed editor than others and so we're fingers crossed again that Android Oh will be the operating system that enables this if that's true then we can finally start moving over like for example you're wearing a her Sennheiser headphones I would love to take the DAC out of the hands of smartphone manufacturers where some of them do an amazing job but most of them just put in the bare minimum this will drive an audio signal to regular consumer headphones and just imagine what we do with a Sennheiser designed USB DAC for their headphones oh and all we're waiting on is something that will work universally so that it's not like it'll work on some Samsung phones and some you know wah wave it's it has to be consistently supported across all of Android or else USB see audio is a non-starter and I think this is going to be a small misstep for HTC if this works like the HTC bolt or the HTC you ultra where they're USB C headphones only work with that phone right work with another phone or they don't work with my laptop it's buggy it's kind of a waste yeah and that's that is frustrating and maybe HTC knows something about fuchsia that we don't ah yeah that's hilarious they're building this for an operating system that's still in like the get high definitely not definitely not but yeah that's that when I heard there you know the headphones didn't work with other things I was like how how hard is that well that's so a little bit different but USB see in general that's why the surface laptop that Microsoft came out with the reasoning they said they didn't put USB C on it was because of the confusion of cables you know that people have for charging cables and they didn't want somebody to grab a USBC cable and throw it in the bag and it be a 2.0 and not be able to power their their surface laptop and so they said we're doing the proprietary surface charging cable and you get one USB 3.1 a and you're like wait what I feel I feel it was Koni in response to the potential of consumer confusion because I think they were like let's pat ourselves on the back for our great business you know I don't know but now that was that was it it's true there's just a lot of confusion and USBC it's definitely future it's it's it's so great but they really need to fix the playing field with audio with synching with you know and just Thunderball everything with it could be so much more healing with lines what's frustrating here is that I think that we've got the right beginnings for a spec from us BC from from the consortium of us B I'm a huge fan of thunderbolt unfortunately it looks like Thunderbolts maybe not going to win as a proper standard for our computers because of an USB C on peripherals to me doesn't make any sense if I were Microsoft I would say well we've got Thunderbolt ports on this computer and they'll work with anything USB or Thunderbolt so it shouldn't matter that would be my solution but I'm not a multi-billion dollar company I think this is where I'm probably more inclined to throw shade at HTC and Motorola where they have come up with proprietary solutions that use a standard plug and that to me is one of the most frustrating aspects of talking about a phone like the bolt or the the moto Z we add we have a standard but there's no interoperability is it so if we're going to tag Apple for getting rid of the headphone jack and like oh I can't take my lightning connector ear pods and plug them into my macbook well yeah there's no port on a MacBook which accepts lightning it's very clear that felt ear pods will not work on your MacBook but if I have a USB C port on or a thunderbolt port on my laptop and I plug in my HTC headphones and they don't work why why would you do that to me and now it was I've got a care my headphones from my laptop and my headphones for my phone or I've got to invest in some kind of wireless solution which people may or may not be inclined to do well I thought it was so funny the right when the axon 7 came out you know no headphone jack and they're like included headphones in the box can't be used with your macbook break you then you're like duh don't have a Lightning ports USB see they're not the same thing but I just thought it was funny some like a bunch of videos and things were like okay bring it time I'm like no that's not doing that really that's not a rant about our situation hello and and especially and especially that I I've yet to sign my get HTC or Motorola include both headphones and a 3.5 millimeter adapter and again you're you're rocking a great pair of headphones there's no reason why you should have to buy different headphones or even use like if they came included in the box when a 50 cent cable right maybe it's a dollar a dollar Donnell will get you plugged in so I'm hoping that HTC recognizes that there are other things that people are concerned with you can give me great earbuds in the box and I will be happy to have great earbuds the bolt earbuds are very nice but I don't like them as much as I like my in-ear monitors I don't like them as much as I like my Sennheiser's I don't like them yeah which is even I don't even like them as much as I like my V Moto's and I'd rather use my V motives and if I can't do that then you've given me a legitimate reason to consider a competing device yeah and that's a bummer because I mean if you're the like a tech of gear and you have a wall of 15 headphones I don't support it work style I was just I was going to say yeah it's a century you know you have all of those on the back behind you and you're like I can use one of these yeah look like yes I'm using these again today well I go out and I know my usage not typical because I have earbuds that I like for music I have earbuds that I like for gaming I have headphones that I like you know I have a pair of headphones that I like for movies you know because you know movies are mixed in a very you know very different ways especially action films so you know I'm not expecting people to use or to you know accessorize their phones like I am but the thing I can point to is to say like when I'm using my phone with this pair of headphones I'm having this kind of an experience and so whatever you feel is most important to you maybe that's how you might want to buy it if you pick up an HSE you can't do any of this ha ha ha ha and that to me is worrisome for a company that maybe will sell you a Down go like ah well you know even if they want to sell me I just don't know that there is one and I might be wrong there and someone will absolutely correct me in the comments I was not aware of a good HTC dongle solution so I don't know if they're using additional pins on USB C to carry an audio signal from a DAC that's in the phone I don't know if I directed to put a built into the into the headphones and into a dongle adapter like Apple does I just don't know and that's one of those things like right I would be very curious to see I'll be very curious to see how the the UL Evan handles that hey what's that for sure oh the dongle life is on your life it so it's it's legit these days we're definitely all sort of in the same boat there so Joel final thoughts um HTC u11 what are you what are you thinking is this is this the direction HTC should be building upon or do you think we might see another sort of experiment from them kind of like we did after LG went from the g5 to the g6 well I it's tough to see because we definitely want to see how the market takes it but I think it's going to be hard for them with the g6 and s8 this could be the most incredible phone that HTC has ever produced and it and it get lost a little bit in the crowd yeah I've already seen some tech reviewers saying I don't know if I'm going to pick this up and I'm like ooh that's harsh when you know you have these big markets so we'll see I think that it could really be a big win for them if they get a really solid device and it's going to check the marks and from everything I've seen it looks great it but it is is it going to get lost in the crowd like the ten did you know like that was a great device and I see people doing the you know the one year reviews and like this is still a great device you can still get it really cheap but but it's it's hard when when you're you're up against such a great competition so it'll be interesting for me to see six months from now three four months from now if they decided okay let's scrap that all glass was a great idea or this wasn't a great idea let's go with the 89 and make a more sleek phone yeah I don't I I'm not a definitive answer for you on this one it's well unclear right now yeah it doesn't have anything like we're going to be in I think this will be a little bit of an iteration on them testing out if this is what's best for them and then they make a change in the future that's my leaning is this is an iteration they'll test it out and move forward with it I'm rooting for him come on HTC bring back the headphone jack right now before I report for it well I was definitely feeling that way about the 10 when I went to revisit it I got to do the after the buzz and it really I think it really was one of the most underrated phones of last year it was it was so much out but also a great performer all over um that that's the thing you said this before I think he might have even said it near s8 Plus talk is like a phone does everything well but like what is its main goal in the phone and with the s8 it's kind of like look at this display you want to buy a new one at my command with HTC you know 110 it was like it's great DAC you know the stereo speakers that they have with the earpiece and that sound good they sound solid you know everything was really good about it but it wasn't like wowing you with this one big thing and it was really similar to him nine in a lot of ways with design and so it was like you people didn't really take to it the same way but man if you just want to recommend like a good phone to people that would be a great one to do still today I would say I'm sure you can pick it up pretty cheap at this point I've seen some some budget clearance on it recently so yeah totally well Joel I want to thank you for jumping in man this was this was a great chat yeah well tell you have a have we'll definitely be looking to have you on more regularly you're your first video again we're kind of keeping that phone under wraps but your your first video is going to be out on Friday right yeah pretty I'm finishing the Edit and sending it out that willing that all the powers that be think it is a good at it it might be a little bit later than that if if some other things get changed around so we'll see what that yeah how long as they edit through I'll be one of the people critiquing that edit so you better you better bring your a-game don't slack off now that I've been saying all these nice things about you well I'm starting over back to the drawing board because it's all it's all on the timeline and I feel a little bit more chops down for time mostly the contents all there so glad to hear it and people can catch your Twitter handle is at Joel Hess lot yeah just my name and then just HG slfe is the last name and Twitter Instagram all that fun stuff and I'm also going to throw out just that vote that people should go out and check your personal channel just so they get a sense of what you're going to be bringing the pocket now because we're I'm hoping to have have some solid videos from you of regular legal and I want to know what it is that you bring to the table because I like your style and anyone who says otherwise is a fascist and a communist and has no business being on the internet they basically like yams yeah no good those young fans what yeah they never do well and that was a fun chat I'm really excited to be bringing Joel on this team I think he's going to be a good fit here and help us kind of shake up the energy so I hope you're all going to give him a warm welcome with his first video review out hopefully the end of this week there you have it folks another episode of the PocketNow weekly has come and gone this show is over but the conversation continues on twitter where you can find Jules as at point Jules Joel is at Joel Heslop and I am of course humbly at some gadget guy a pocket now is around the web on Twitter Instagram Facebook Google+ YouTube and our home site pocketnow.com shows like this cannot exist without your support sharing the weekly with your friends who love mobile technology and by dropping reviews on iTunes stitcher Google Play and wherever podcast reviews can be left because once again we would not have this show if it weren't for our listeners and subscribers who have kept us on the air since 2012 the pocket net weekly will be back next week with all kinds of Technology goodness so make sure you tune back in