Top Smartphones of 2021? ft. MKBHD

okay virtual collabs this is how we do

it in isolation so we've got mkbhd on

the other end and just before I dial him

in the reason we're making this is that

marques and I I think we're the only two

youtubers to go hands-on with xiaomi's

meanings alpha and that fern got me

thinking we're in a time when we've got

360 degrees wraparound displays we've

got foldable phones we've got rollerball

phones this smartphone mark it looks

like it could go in a hundred different

directions so I'm kind of excited to see

where marques thinks we're headed and

then we'll bring it back to the present

what's the best current 2020 smartphone

[Music]

Marcus welcome can you hear me hello

darkness my old friend yeah got ya how

you doing Marcus I'm great I take it

you're alone

yeah empty studio so we're gonna break

down the different ways that future

smartphones could go so one option is

wraparound displays so we've both used

the mimics alpha in your video you can

round it off by saying it's cool there's

a cool charging animation but that's

pretty much it so having had time to

think about it do you think there's ever

a possibility of like a wraparound

screen being useful yes it could be

useful the idea of like how do you

improve on the current smartphone wrap

the screen around the back what does

that get you versus what are the

sacrifices is is a really tough one

because there's a lot of challenges so I

don't necessarily think that's the

future that all smartphones will have I

think it's a cool idea that could be

useful but I don't know if that's the

the ideal future part of what I said in

my video is I talked to the public and I

kind of showed them the phone and I said

what do you think and the general

consensus was that it is cool but why do

I need apps on the back shortly I could

just flip to the right which I was like

fair point

yeah a lot of the usefulness is like the

screen wrap around the back like the

only advantages we saw were flipping it

over and having like the separate space

but yeah you can just swipe over and

then this sort of wraparound animations

which are very cool and hard to

replicate but also not necessary so it's

that's more of a form over function type

thing for sure and with you and so we

can put the wraparound screen as a

probably not yeah yeah okay so what

about foldables last year we had our

first look at foldables it wasn't

anything like one killer feature and

there were a lot of problems but we

forgave it because first generation it's

fine they're experimenting but now we're

starting to see second generation

foldables has that given you like more

or less over hope for the future I think

so the main feature of foldables this is

where I have like a little more optimism

is the general concept of just fitting

some bigger screen but there's as we've

seen like 900 ways to do that whether

it's like a regular-sized phone that

flips down into smaller thing in your

pocket which is kind of refreshing or

just like a huge tablet size that you

normally wouldn't pocket but I think

it's gonna take a couple more

generations to really get that down okay

so like you said the easy flip you like

so which is your favorite style you know

the flipping or the the kind of folding

so I haven't played with the mate xs yet

I want to but as of right now my

favorite folding style is the regular

galaxy fold I think having it like a

real tablet size versus closing it up

and having like a regular phone yeah I

completely agree

you probably face the aspect ratio

problem as well right that kind of you

don't really need a square for a lot of

things right yeah I only people talked

about that enough like a square is weird

it is where is weird but yeah if you

could open it up to like a 16 by 10

tablet but then when you fold it what is

that like that's why it's weird cuz what

how do you answer that question do you

sacrifice the outside of the inside was

there ever a point when you thought you

know what can someone make a triple fold

because then you could actually open it

into like a an actual widescreen you

know I didn't think about it until I saw

it so that does solve the aspect ratio

problem is 16 by 10 16 by 9 tablet that

folds up into a regular sized phone I

could see it super earlier though yeah

okay so so so where do we stand on

foldable thin is it like the same kind

of cautious optimism that you had before

they started or is it more than actually

it's more looking like probably not what

we thought it was no I'm definitely

still optimistic that affordable I would

put them in wait and see I think when we

see like the next couple attempts next

couple ideas and we start to get a

couple generations in that might be

where it's at the reason I ask is that

TCL showed off a rollable phone and

that's completely rocked my confidence

in foldables because it's one of those

things I looked at and for the first

time I was like holy cow that makes

sense yeah yeah so you could put that in

I guess that's like a different category

it's not folding it's just using the

flexible display differently and and

sort of rolling it out same idea of like

having two different form factors

accessible to you in one device but you

don't have to worry about a crease

anymore so it seems like an advantage

but then how does the rollable thing

last over time where is the tech on that

but I think I think things like that

like things like durability that stuff

gets ironed out if the form factor makes

sense

things will progress right yeah and I

think that's a form factor that does

make sense so a lot of things that could

potentially be a problem but this is

kind of this is a this is a hopeful yeah

yeah I'm very curious about this again

all we have is the one

TCL paper prototype so cautious optimism

but I like the idea and I suppose what

that leads to is as soon as you can

start shape-shifting like this do you

not think that opens like a whole other

can of worms like what if my smartphone

was my SmartWatch and like I could just

clip it round and all of a sudden the UI

changes or what if my smartphone was

also my laptop do you have any ideas on

what the future phone form-factor could

be in 5-10 years when I ever I think

about this I feel like maybe I'm gonna

be that old guy that's like not

forward-looking enough but I don't see

phones also being other things I feel

like I'm just always gonna want to have

a thing that I use and then put away and

stop using and then use you're gonna be

that you've got to be that old guys like

get off my lawn maybe I'm scaring me I

hope I'm not but like that's that's how

I see it at the moment with the

limitations of the tech so okay so just

before we get to kind of the end of it

which is the top current smartphones

there's a couple of things that I kind

of just thought I want to ask you just

misc questions so Escobar so we both

made videos on Escobar for two and we

kind of said a similar thing we

explained the background we peeled off

the stickers we kind of said we didn't

recommend it but in your video you went

hard were you at all worried about

security because I was I was the first

person to make a video on it and to be

frank about it like I wanted to make it

clear I wasn't recommending it but I

didn't want to get shot that's there I

don't think I ever really had any

genuine security concerns

than them now having my address but I

think I said what I felt needed to be

said okay so moving on so your iPhone 5s

review it just popped up on my feet your

videos have a weird way of doing that

they just just free up there yeah

they've got me thinking every year it

feels like we use phones that are the

biggest they've ever been and yet

somehow the year after they get bigger

do you ever kind of wish that like you

could have the best phone that isn't a

7-inch you know tablet almost yeah this

is why I made a best small phone

category in my smartphone Awards is cuz

like five years ago

that exact question you just asked me

was still a huge question like phones

just keep getting bigger like what about

the small flagship I still think people

like small flagships like when we get

the new small iPhone I think that's

gonna be pretty popular but yeah I think

we're also still gonna keep getting

bigger and bigger phones but it's like

it's crazy because like a lot of women a

lot of kids they can't use flagship

phones but obviously they still want

flagship battery life best cameras do

you think it's companies like being a

bit negligent like what do you think's

going on well I think fundamentally

people feel like they're getting more

for their money when they got a larger

thing a bigger screen especially so I

think people are gonna feel like they

want a bigger screen more often and it's

great for the user experience and

everything but miniaturization is also

really hard if you call it negligence oh

you could just call it a challenge to

make a really good small phone so like s

20s which was your favorite size that's

such a good question I really like the

s20 ultra but using the regular s 20 was

sort of refreshing to have a flagship

phone be smaller and it was still a 6.2

inch screen but it was smaller the ultra

is my favorite size but I really like

having smaller phone ok so last thing is

the best current small phones and I'm

curious about your answer because I

think a few months ago you would have

said iPhone 11 Pro but now that we're

starting to see like the new wave of

2020 Android flagship do you think that

they're doing enough enough - well what

is enough mean enough to kind of earn

your recommendation does let's say

someone who's coming from an outsider

ecosystem like a blackberry phone well

if the answer is is it gonna be a good

replacement for your blackberry yes

there

phones like the galaxy s 20 are looking

pretty sharp like that's quintessential

refined Samsung I don't think they're

all doing great I think there's there's

some others that have been a little

lacking but yeah we got some good ones

already this year you know friends like

find x2 Pro you think these phones are

really like top-tier um hardware was yes

again if you're if you're talking about

like whether it's a good replacement in

this market that's like now you got a

look at the OS and the software support

but if you're just looking at the tech

they're they're right up next to Apple

with the tech that's what I was a little

worried about like I watched the the

Oppo livestream and I was just kind of

thinking in my head this phone is the

ultimate spec sheet but at the same time

it could be just software not being

tailored to like a Western market yeah

it's although that's a big problem for a

lot of these companies that have such

big customer bases in other markets

frankly it's an afterthought trying to

sell a lot of phones here and if you are

trying to compete here you're up against

Apple and Samsung so that's tough yeah

markets are actually super important

when it comes to competition okay so

just so we can get like a clear answer

so person coming in owns no smartphone

what would you recommend them so they

don't have any any foot in an ecosystem

at all no fee do you have a budget let's

say they could afford any phone out

there but you know their value matters

okay I would start with galaxy s 20 and

then you could sort of figure out what

you like or don't like about that and go

from there so if you're like oh I love

galaxy s 20 wish it was bigger well we

have the plus we have the ultra or if

you wish it was a better camera like we

can go pick so we can go other other

phones okay so you only see choosing a

smartphone it's like a journey you want

to send them down a path it's uh yeah

it's one of those like we call like a

choose-your-own-adventure like there is

no one answer there's like 17 different 

answers depending on how you answer the questions if it was like someone like me and like you said no allegiance no budget restriction go for whatever phone you want I'd probably say just get an iPhone 11 Pro max and like that's a good phone for like two years probably but yeah there's a there's a lot of good stuff out there that's pretty much it thanks for joining yeah thanks to isolation isolation exactly okay these markers

okay so that was that was pretty cool

that was mkbhd I'll drop this channel in

the description if for some reason you

haven't heard of him and yeah that was

our thoughts on current and future

smartphones let me know what you think