Celebrating The Weirdest Phones Of 2021!

this video is sponsored by hellofresh america's number one meal kit look you knew i wasn't going to do a rundown of regular phones and while i would have loved to do a best foldables list not every video can be about folding phones sadly so to close out 2021 what do you say we get weird [Applause] [Music] flip phone so what durable flip phone seen it durable flip phone that bears the brand of heavy industrial machinery and also runs android okay now you got my attention it's not just that the s22 flip is one of the first cat phones to come stateside it's that it's one of the only phones that doesn't make you sacrifice smarts for simplicity bullet group which builds phones under the cat license crammed in a ton of tactility here when it's time to tap out texts but that 2.8 inch display is also a touch screen and instead of your typical dumb phone os it's running android go google's stripped down version of android 11 for phones with lower end specs that means you still get google applications like maps you can still sync all your google accounts and you still get the play store so you can load up on most of the apps you're likely to need on the go i get it this phone isn't meant to stand in for a smartphone it's built for the job site but as cool as digital detoxers make it seem to just unplug man it can also be debilitating if you can't get things done like i don't know call an uber the s22 flip lets you do that or ask google assistant a quick question or even fire up a 4g hotspot to connect a tablet or laptop now it doesn't do any of those things particularly quickly and the lack of a fingerprint sensor is a bummer but for 234 bucks i think it's the smartest dumb phone around if i didn't need a quality camera so badly i might even consider using it to disconnect during the holiday break but now then again i already have a flip phone you know what i also have a smart watch gives me a second screen on my wrist so i don't have to pick up my phone to check every notification but what if someone bolted my smartwatch right to my smartphone [Music] yeah leave it to unihertz to make something like this these are the same folks behind some of the world's tiniest android phones and some of the last to offer physical keyboards and now like so many young people today they're turning to tick-tock no add a couple cs there there we go yeah the tick-tock is uh it's ridiculous it's it's too big even considering it's 6.3 inch display too heavy even given its six thousand milliamp hour battery i mean on the bright side it's got the same ip68 dust and water resistance as the cat phone nearly as many buttons and the full fat version of android 11. but the reason the tick tock exists is this it's literally a smartwatch display with the exact same size and resolution as something like the ticwatch e3 and you can use it in many of the same ways preview notifications frame up your 48 megapixel selfies control your music or build some custom watch faces so you can while away while someone counts the minute the only question left is why well unihertz tries to answer that question on its kickstarter page for this product the company says it offers more diverse choices in smartphones because it believes that everyone deserves to have different choices in other words it makes phones that are different for the sake of being different and you know what even if i personally would never find a use for it at about 300 bucks plus or minus a jackson i'm still glad that tick-tock exists for somebody who does like this kind of thing now number three is actually something you've seen before but i wanted to give it an honorable mention because of the improvements it's made since launch when i reviewed the surface 202 back in october i found that microsoft had yet to correct many of the problems that doomed the duo one software lag unfinished features random bugs poor cameras and worst of all a touch response issue that made fast typing incredibly uncomfortable that led to my duo 2 gathering dust in a drawer until december when microsoft released a large software update that finally addressed some of those issues the duo 2 really is faster than before and some of those annoying bugs really do seem to be squashed of course you can have the white one but you're going to cost you like three of your cell phones so hit me up i don't mind that jungle [Music] the button on the pen now does something you can draw in emails as promised back in october and should you want to type those replies instead your keyboard is a lot more likely to keep up with you now look i won't sugarcoat it the cameras still aren't very good and the phone is still more prone to odd behavior than it should be for fifteen hundred dollars but at least now it behaves well enough that i'm not constantly being distracted from microsoft's vision for a dual screen device a foldable but not heck a smartphone but not one more update like that a little more camera tuning and by the time this thing comes down to a thousand bucks i might actually be ready to recommend it all that takes us to the final boss at our weird phones fight a device i'll blow the lid off of right after this 663 dollars that's how much i've saved on food this year thanks to hellofresh and that's not counting the free meals i get because they're my sponsor see i pay for hellofresh and i'm happy to do it because it also saved me 20 hours that i'd have spent at the grocery store in 2021 of course none of that matters if the food they send to your door doesn't taste good a hellofresh has more five star recipes than any other meal kit and in the past 12 months it's given me everything from classic steak and potatoes and burgers to calorie smart fish and chicken to some of the best soup i've ever had actual reaction and thanks to idiot proof instructions and perfectly portioned ingredients i made every meal myself usually in about 40 minutes but the best thing about hellofresh is how adaptable it is not only can you skip a week or add a meal whenever you want you can also add extras like a cheese and charcuterie board for those holiday parties oatmeal and lattes for those rushed mornings or ready to bake focaccia pizza when you're really in a time crunch at dinner go to hellofresh.com and use code mr mobile14 for up to 14 free meals and three free gifts again go to hellofresh.com and use code mr mobile14 for up to 14 free meals and three free gifts as always thanks to hellofresh for sponsoring this video when qualcomm loaned me this lights phone one at the snapdragon summit earlier this month i wasn't sure that i'd review it i mean the whole reason i was at the summit was to cover qualcomm's new snapdragon chipset which will replace the older one that powers this phone add to that the phone i filmed at the summit with was the sony xperia pro i whose main camera sensor is a generation newer than the one fitted here a day late a buck short i thought i would report nothing because it was just too dated but then i got to actually using the thing and this is one of those devices you really have to use to understand [Music] the lights phone one takes its name from the founder of leica camera whose brand graces the back corner and also the lens cap of this delightful anomaly yet you heard right it's an honest ernst metal lens cover the removal of which takes some getting used to when you're out and about though it also has a tendency to stick to metal tables so keep an eye out for that now if that sounds needlessly anachronistic another thing to keep track of another thing to lose yeah it's all of those things but it's also exactly the kind of affectation a phone like this calls for together with the textured silver chassis and matte black back the only way this thing could look any more like a camera is if that back plate was covered in leather instead of gorilla glass or if it had a shutter button instead of the dedicated google assistant button that's actually here strange choices power it up uninstall the metric megaton of bloatware that took me four minutes just to disable and you'll actually find some pretty cool stuff the gallery widget on the home screen showcases photographs shot on leica cameras normally don't like this kind of thing but this is really well done and the photos are of course gorgeous the display is also gorgeous delivering beautiful liquid blacks and deeply saturated colors at a refresh rate that peaks at 240 hertz the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor beneath the screen is huge and can be programmed if you want to unlock only upon recognizing two simultaneous authorized thumbprints and there are some useful features i haven't seen before like the mode that'll automatically scroll a feed for you it's a potent package it's almost enough to forgive the total lack of palm rejection on the screen's curved sides which is a real usability pain and finally it's all built around a camera that takes the single one-inch sensor from the sharp aquos r6 and layers on some leica processing that takes the color out if you like and leaves it in if you don't now this isn't a review i've only used this thing for like a day and so i can't speak to longer term testing like battery life or really give any buying advice on this 1700 phone that you still have to import from japan but i i found an old interview with ryan johnson where he said that leica is a really specific thing in that it's an object that lends itself to being fetishized and while i haven't owned uh like a camera having used this even just for that one day i get it and i really want to review it let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a full review of delights phone one and if i can find a suitable destination for a road trip review to fill the gaping hole in my schedule left by my cancelled ces plans i'll try to make that happen for you this video was made possible by review samples from microsoft unihertz cat and qualcomm but as always no manufacturer had any editorial input copy approval or an early preview of this video and no one besides my sponsor hellofresh provided compensation for its production until next time i've been michael fisher thanks for watching and stay mobile my friends

Channel: MrMobile [Michael Fisher]

Views: 358,938

Keywords: unihertz ticktock review, cat s22 flip review, surface duo 2 review, leica leitz phone 1 review, surface duo 2 update, surface duo 2 long term review, leica phone review, leica phone, android flip phone, cat phone, cat phone flip, mrmobile, weird tech, fun phones, cool phones

Id: MB5fDulexjo

Length: 11min 46sec (706 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 23 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/gadgetluva]

That leica phone looks pretty cool - really nicely designed device. And he says it has a 240hz refresh rate display - would love to see a longer review on it.

[u/standbyforskyfall]

There's no way that leica sells more than a few thousand units.

[u/lastjedi23]

I love the cat phone. As someone wanting to reduce smartphone addiction but needing WhatsApp and Spotify is between this and the AGM m7

[u/se7enseas]

That Leica phone is gorgeous. But please tech companies never make a phone with curved screen if you cant make a perfect palm-rejection. Just make the screen flat. It looks better anyway, even on a thicc phone.

[u/RelyingWOrld1]

FYI: Leica phone is just a rebranded and still Japan only Sharp Aquos R6

[u/ivanoski-007]

I wonder if the Leica phone actually takes better pics