- 08/05/2025
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TechTranscript
00:00These are seven of the strangest smartphones to ever exist.
00:03Each phone here has one thing about it that is completely unique.
00:06And so it's our job to find out which of them are game changers that other phones need to start copying
00:11and which of them are game overs that no one should ever try to make again.
00:15Let's get stranger as we go.
00:16Starting with the brand new minimal phone, which is a bit of a trend in recent years,
00:21like phones that are purposefully stripped back to become less distracting.
00:25But this is meant to be the king of them.
00:30Because while it might look on the surface like every other minimalist phone,
00:33with its e-ink display and its text-based user interface,
00:36this device also runs full Android 14 with complete access to the Play Store.
00:41And that is fascinating.
00:43Because either you could say,
00:45oh my god, the peace of mind of a minimalist phone,
00:47combined with the full perks of a normal smartphone, sign me up.
00:51But then on the other hand, if you now have access to every single app,
00:54hasn't this just become a normal smartphone, but now with a laggy black and white screen?
00:59I'm so curious, what is Instagram like on this?
01:02It feels like just enough to be able to catch up with what your friends are up to,
01:05while feeling pared back enough that I don't feel like I'm going to get lost in it.
01:09Okay, what about a game?
01:11So you swipe up and then you can search for apps here.
01:13I do think this physical keyboard was a good decision.
01:16Like, I'm not normally a fan of the idea, but typing on an e-ink screen,
01:20because of the slow refresh rate, is usually one of the biggest turn-offs.
01:23So it's a really good way of getting around that.
01:25Oh, this is actually so cool.
01:27So when you start typing, as soon as it realizes that there's only one app
01:30that you could be wanting to open, it just opens it.
01:33So, P-O for Pokemon, and we're in.
01:36Damn, that was fast.
01:37So this game is my current weakness.
01:39Ah, okay, we have a bit of a contrast problem here.
01:43And while you can tune the display,
01:45there isn't actually a setting that's going to make this work perfectly.
01:48You can set it to a low refresh rate, which makes it really clear,
01:51but then any moving object will consistently pulse like this.
01:53So you kind of have to set it to the fast refresh rate option,
01:56but then it becomes pretty hard to read.
01:58That said, I wouldn't knock this too hard.
02:00This is the closest I have ever seen an e-ink phone feel like a normal smartphone.
02:05And they have also told me that they are working on updates to make this more balanced.
02:09And then there are also cameras.
02:10There's a front one right in this bottom corner,
02:12and then a 16-megapixel autofocus camera on the back,
02:15which is kind of trippy, because while the photos look like this while they're on the phone,
02:19upload them to a computer, and it's actually this. Not great, but not bad.
02:23So is this a game changer?
02:26I actually think that it is.
02:28Like, I'm not the target market for a minimalist phone.
02:30I need to be able to check our videos in full color before I post them.
02:33I'm very attached to having a high-end camera system.
02:36But if minimalism was what you were searching for,
02:39then I really like that this lets you have minimalism,
02:42but in a way that you can decide what minimalism means to you.
02:45You have the flexibility to pick and choose what you'll let yourself do on it,
02:49and pretty much everything can work.
02:51I mean, the thing's even got a side-mounted fingerprint scanner,
02:53supports fast wireless charging,
02:54it's got a headphone jack, it's got expandable storage.
02:57I'm a big fan.
02:59So that was a niche product from a niche company.
03:01But what happens when you get a niche product from a mainstream company?
03:05This is the Samsung Galaxy A80,
03:07and it has hands down one of the coolest hardware features of any smartphone.
03:15Because, can your phone do this?
03:19I didn't think so.
03:21I actually remember going hands-on with this A80 at the launch event in 2019 thinking,
03:26this needs to become a thing.
03:27I mean, think about it.
03:28This system means that you just need to build one set of cameras,
03:32and you get to use that set of cameras on both the back and the front of the phone.
03:36And that makes it such a good selfie camera that this 2019 phone is still, like,
03:41better than my iPhone 16 Pro Max from 2025.
03:44Doing the camera like this also erased the need for a selfie camera on the front,
03:48making this phone completely notchless,
03:50which Samsung was so proud of that they even named this the new Infinity display technology.
03:55It's pretty clear why, from 2019 to 2021,
03:58motorized camera systems exploded in popularity,
04:01very quickly becoming a standard, expected smartphone feature.
04:04They were building and building and traction, and then suddenly they stopped.
04:08Motorized camera systems are actually, generally, a pretty bad idea.
04:13But why?
04:14Well, moving parts equals less protection from the elements.
04:17Like, there's just so much more room for stuff to get inside.
04:19There's more things that can break.
04:20And actually, as a very good demonstration of this,
04:23we bought this phone refurbished,
04:24and you can see when the camera flips around that it's not actually flipping to the completely
04:27flat state like it's supposed to.
04:29It's very slightly slanted up.
04:30The whole thing adds waiting time.
04:31You know, it's cool the first hundred times you do it,
04:34but after that, you are just adding an extra two seconds every time you want to use the thing.
04:37The mechanism for this movement in itself takes up space,
04:40which companies have now realized that people would rather spend on just having bigger batteries.
04:44But I think the single most important thing,
04:46a mechanism like this one that flips the whole set of cameras,
04:49gets harder and harder to pull off the bigger the cameras that you're trying to flip are.
04:53And so if you actually wanted to keep up with the camera quality of other phones,
04:56you can't realistically even pull this off.
04:59So, a pretty cool case study of an idea that you can see why
05:03Samsung wanted to try.
05:04But you can also see why Samsung decided that it needed to die.
05:10So how do you get stranger than a phone that can change its camera?
05:13Well, a phone that can change everything.
05:15This is the LG G5, which while still not actually the strangest LG phone in this video,
05:21is still pretty odd.
05:22Because this is one of the first proper attempts at a modular smartphone.
05:28Which means this is kind of like a piece of Lego.
05:32Just to be clear, I have just pulled off the bottom third of this phone.
05:36This is charging port.
05:37This is speakers.
05:38This is battery.
05:39If I just want the battery,
05:42now we got that.
05:43And I can even put that battery into a different style of bass.
05:46So I could stick it into the Bang & Olufsen Hi-Fi module,
05:48which adds a headphone jack and a 32-bit DAC that upscales any audio going to it.
05:53Or I stick it into the camera grip, like so.
05:57That slots back into the phone, and suddenly my smartphone has a two-stage shutter button,
06:02a zoom dial over here, and a built-in grip for my hand, and an extra 50% battery capacity,
06:08which is pretty sick.
06:09In a lot of ways, this modularity conversation is exactly the same as the motorized and rotating
06:15cameras conversation.
06:16In that the first time you look at this, you think, oh my god.
06:19The ability to tune my smartphone to my exact preferences and my exact budget.
06:23To be able to swap out my battery as simply as this, instead of having to throw my whole
06:27phone away when it gets older, of course this makes sense.
06:30I mean, this is a massive part of why PCs are so desirable.
06:33You pick the exact parts that you want.
06:35And so it's not surprising that this idea of a modular phone
06:38almost became like the holy grail that companies were scrambling to try and make happen.
06:42With even Google themselves stepping in to try to create a device in which
06:46you could just slide out the components you don't want and slide in the ones you do.
06:49But it never caught on.
06:51See, unlike a PC, for which pretty much every PC case has tons of space inside so you can
06:56freely swap components even if they are different sizes, with a smartphone,
07:00everything has to fit exactly.
07:02Which creates two problems.
07:03A. That how do you create one phone body that is so flexible that someone could choose anything
07:08from a camera this big to a pro-level camera this big?
07:11And then if you are only going to use a camera this big, why would you pay for such an expensive
07:15body that has specifically costed more because it has all the connectors and image signal
07:20processors needed to support the higher end camera that you're not even taking advantage of?
07:24And then B. How do you make it so that all of these pieces, they don't just become e-waste the
07:29second that a new model comes out?
07:31Like with this LG G5, either LG decides that all their future phones are going to have this exact same
07:37dated shape, this size screen and the exact same connectors, or these modules become useless the
07:42moment that you upgrade your phone. Thus actually creating even more waste than if they just built
07:48three different versions of this phone which each had one of these bases fixed inside of them.
07:52And you as the buyer would then just pick the one that you wanted.
07:56So I think it's fair to say that the idea of a modular smartphone being something that any company
08:00in 2025 should be striving for is not a good idea.
08:04The only situation that modularity has kind of worked for is the Fairphones and the CMF phones.
08:10But that's only because for the Fairphones the swappability is not there so that you can upgrade
08:14things, it just lets you repair what you have more easily. And for the CMF the things that you're
08:18swapping are accessories as opposed to core system components.
08:22But the craziness is not reserved for just old phones.
08:24Like this is the new ZTE Nubia Music Phone 2.
08:29And there are two things that are kind of cool about it.
08:32A. That it's got not one, not two, but three speakers around it.
08:35And B. It's only around 90 dollars.
08:42My goodness.
08:43Now that is how you stand out.
08:45Is it premium?
08:46Questionable.
08:47Is it fun?
08:48Hell yes.
08:49Like this, the ultra speaker as they call it, is designed to look like a record player.
08:55There's lighting effects specifically for when you're playing music, which are not very good,
08:59I'll be honest.
08:59And there is also a headphone jack.
09:01This is what we're here for though.
09:02This speaker is apparently so powerful, the ZTE says it can hit volumes 600% louder than your
09:09average phone speaker.
09:10They are so proud of this, that there is actually a setting here that turns this phone
09:15into a Bluetooth speaker that other phones can connect to.
09:18What's also very unique is that this thing has a max volume,
09:21but then specifically lets you further dial it up two more stages.
09:25So this is my iPhone 16 Pro Max, max volume.
09:33I promise this is not my playlist.
09:34Now this is the Nubia.
09:44I'm sorry, but no, that's not it.
09:46The thing is on max volume, and if it was even close to 600% louder than a normal phone,
09:51I would absolutely be able to tell, but it literally sounds the same volume as my iPhone,
09:56but just like worse.
09:57You can just tell that it's got so much less precision and control over how the music is
10:02coming out.
10:03Well, that is just a massive bummer, because in concept, I was ready to love this.
10:08A smartphone that prioritizes speaker quality and does so in a way that it's not really sacrificing
10:13on the price or the size of the battery. This still has a big 5,000 milliampere cell,
10:18but actually listening to it, the illusion is shattered. It kind of proves in a way that
10:23good sound needs more than just a big unit at the back, but also that the big unit at the back
10:28isn't really adding much. It could just be that because phones are so thin that even though the
10:33speaker has a lot of area, it still doesn't have the depth to be able to push large volumes of air
10:38to make any kind of base impact. So until I use a phone that executes on this idea a lot better
10:44than this one does, music phones are not really speak-ing to me.
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11:42But now we are getting to one of the most absurd phones that I have ever gotten my hands on.
11:47Because this thing, the Essential Phone PH2 announced in 2019, technically never even actually released.
11:55And so as you can imagine, actually getting hold of it was like a wild goose chase of browsing forums,
12:01following up on rumors, until eventually we tracked the thing down thanks to this lovely chap here.
12:06So, the Essential Phone PH1 released in 2017, headed by Andy Rubin, one of the lead creators of Android itself.
12:12The main selling points were A, a largely bezel-less display that was not at all standard at the time.
12:17This was actually THE phone that introduced the idea of a camera notch, funnily enough.
12:21And B, a click connector for attaching modular accessories, like a 360-degree camera.
12:27It did not do very well. It only sold about 150,000 units.
12:31Which is why the company's next phone, this, was cancelled.
12:35But it's just so intriguing that I knew I was going to have to find a way to get it anyways.
12:40It's got this super weird, tall, thin shape, which results in a probably never-before-seen resolution of 2160x560.
12:49Like, actually feels amazing. Like a really ergonomic TV remote.
12:54And that's intentional. This phone was designed to reinvent how we interact with our devices.
12:59From two thumbs and two hands, to one.
13:01What's the dialer like?
13:04It's got really nice haptic feedback.
13:06You can tell this was designed to be a premium product.
13:08There's also a game installed called Wind-Up Nights 2.
13:12It feels like a miniaturized version of playing games on like a triple monitor PC setup.
13:20It's so wide.
13:21And it's actually shockingly playable on this screen.
13:24But bear in mind that this game has been specifically optimized to work on this phone.
13:28You would not be able to expect that just any game you download will work fine.
13:32How do you type on this thing?
13:34Messages.
13:35New message.
13:36Oh my goodness me.
13:38Have you seen this?
13:39It's a completely diagonal keyboard, which is really strange.
13:46But actually, in a way, kind of intuitive.
13:50It uses the vertical height of the phone way better than a standard keyboard layout would.
13:55But it still makes sure that every letter is within the natural arc of your thumb.
13:59Why is this actually good?
14:00And then as far as like general navigation is concerned,
14:02you swipe up from here to go back and then you swipe up from here to go home.
14:06I did not expect to like this nearly as much as I actually am.
14:10Now obviously, use something like this and you would run into a very obvious content problem.
14:15In that, unless the entire population suddenly decides that they want to start producing videos
14:20like this, most media that you consume is only going to fill a tiny portion of your screen.
14:24There is something in this.
14:25This ultra tall screen feels almost designed for efficient feed scrolling.
14:29It gives your thumb tons of room to maneuver,
14:32but without being so wide that it can't reach all parts of it.
14:35But I wouldn't call it game changer.
14:38Because I think for the vast majority of people,
14:40a better phone would just be one that's a little bit shorter and a little bit wider.
14:44Or in other words, just a high-end compact phone.
14:47If you are even slightly trippophobic,
14:49that irrational fear of things with patterns of holes in them,
14:52this is not the phone for you.
14:54This is the Nokia 9 PureView.
14:56And it kind of looks like a spider face.
14:59Why?
15:00Well, because this is a Penta camera system.
15:03Also a 2019 device, by the way.
15:05Like, was there something in the water that year?
15:08But it's stranger than that.
15:09Because unlike every other phone that has multiple cameras,
15:12where those multiple cameras are each designed to be different,
15:15to give you access to different levels of magnification,
15:18the multiple cameras here will each capture almost an identical photo
15:22at the same time every single time you press the shutter button.
15:26Three of them are monochrome sensors, which capture no color and focus solely on light and detail.
15:31And then two of them capturing color.
15:32And then all of that data from all five cameras is merged together into one super photo,
15:37which will have extreme levels of dynamic range,
15:39because each camera is shooting at different levels of exposure.
15:42So the phone has a very complete understanding of what your scene looks like.
15:46It should have very balanced colors, taking the info from both color cameras,
15:50and 1200 layers of depth to allow for full refocusing after you've taken your shot.
15:55And so as you would probably expect, this can take incredible photos,
15:59with pretty much a limitless ability to edit the shots after.
16:02But it wasn't a good phone.
16:03Having five of the exact same lens means you don't get an ultrawide camera,
16:07you don't get a zoom camera.
16:08It was the first time that any smartphone company was doing anything like this,
16:11so it was pretty buggy.
16:13And most importantly, the lack of processing power at the time meant that every photo was
16:17essentially combining 60 megapixels of raw data and took a full 10 seconds to process.
16:23And the phone got really hot doing so.
16:25But here's what I think is really interesting about this.
16:27I think the concept here should not be disregarded.
16:30In fact, I could totally see how a 2025 reimagined version of this
16:34could become the most pro-grade camera on a smartphone today.
16:38We've got way faster chips now that could process photos like this
16:42and wouldn't get hot doing so.
16:43And we've got AI that would be way better at extracting the most detail
16:47and dynamic range out of these multiple separate images.
16:50I would say that this failure of a phone actually has the potential to be a game changer.
16:56I think what it was trying to do was just ahead of what the tech at the time was able to pull off.
17:01But nothing is weirder than what LG has done with the wing.
17:04In a world where every phone looks like a glass rectangle playing it safe,
17:07LG said, screw it, we're going to be a helicopter.
17:10Let's see if there was actually any merit to it.
17:12I have never actually seen or used this phone in person.
17:18The entire concept centers around this.
17:22That's freaking cool.
17:23This literally looks like something I would have doodled as a child
17:26thinking I'd revolutionized smartphones.
17:28And in theory, this is a great concept.
17:31Because in one phone that's, you know, a little thicker and a little heavier than a normal phone,
17:36but not by much at all, they have managed to fit two displays to do two things at once.
17:41We are very much in the generation of the second screen experience.
17:45Who doesn't want a movie playing up here with a little bit of shopping action
17:49happening on the bottom over here?
17:50Can I just sit here opening my Pokémon packs?
17:53The answer to which feels like a very resounding yes.
17:57Oh, this feels good.
18:03That is weird.
18:04But it does. It's true. It's true.
18:06It's not just the ability to do two separate things.
18:08Like, there are plenty of instances where you can just use
18:11the second screen as kind of an assist to either give you controls to operate
18:15what's on the main screen or even what they've done in Asphalt.
18:18Use the second screen as a mini map, which is extremely unique.
18:22This is the craziest thing.
18:23So let's say I'm in the middle of messaging someone.
18:25I open up the keyboard on the bottom screen.
18:27I flip the whole phone over and you give it like a second.
18:31Your main screen is going to become your full size keyboard.
18:35That is special and like actually tangibly makes the typing experience way more comfortable.
18:41So the way that I'm looking at this is this whole idea of one mini screen, one full size screen is
18:46very close to what you would get on a flip smartphone.
18:49And for some people, I would actually say this could be better than that.
18:52Because unlike a flip phone where you can only use one of those two screens at once,
18:56here you can actually use two.
18:58However, the hurdle that you would run into is not the flip phones.
19:01It's the bigger fold phones.
19:03Because those are very similar to this in terms of body size when they're folded up.
19:06But it's just because they open with a hinge instead of a swivel,
19:10they're more space efficient.
19:11And so their main inner display will just have more space to do stuff
19:15than actually both LG wing screens put together.
19:18Plus, even though it's definitely not as cool as this,
19:21I would definitely trust a hinge's long-term reliability more than a swivel mechanism.
19:26So I like this.
19:27I like it a lot more than I thought I was going to.
19:29But its functionality has been basically absorbed by the big foldable.
19:34So it's just not needed.
19:37See if we can make it fly.
19:40It's got wings.
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