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00:00Alright, so you've watched a whole bunch of iPhone 11 videos and you're seeing all the
00:05cool innovation that Apple brought this year.
00:07They got some cool notch displays, some nice lightning ports, it's all very exciting stuff.
00:12But can your iPhone 11 do this?
00:15So this is a video on what I think is true innovation.
00:18This is the fixed Galaxy Fold, and I think this is going to be one of the most innovative
00:23phones we see of all of 2019.
00:25This is the fixed version.
00:26They've tweaked a couple things, they added some plastic tabs to prevent dust from getting
00:29in on the sides here, and they've also tucked the plastic surface sheet underneath the trim
00:35just so you can't peel it off, and they've tightened up the gap on the spine just to
00:39minimize the amount of dust that can get into this device.
00:42So this video is going to be a conversation about just the whole idea of foldable phones.
00:46This isn't going to just be like a piece where I rattle off the features and stuff of this
00:50thing because I feel like that's been done a thousand times.
00:52I've used this for a week at this point and I feel like there's just stuff that I gotta
00:56share with you guys.
00:58So okay, let's start with the crease.
01:01The crease isn't the most important thing, but this was something that I was concerned
01:05about before.
01:06So when I first played with this device with Lou from Unbox Therapy, I remember going to
01:12that studio and just being really tunnel visioned on the crease because I think media at that
01:16point had really just brought attention to the fact that there was a crease on the Galaxy
01:21Fold.
01:22But this time around, because I kind of expected it to be there, it wasn't nearly as noticeable
01:26for me.
01:27My brain just kind of tuned it out.
01:28I do think for some people, even for the entire ownership of this device, they may focus on
01:33the crease, but I think for most people, they just learn to ignore it.
01:36I do think though that for Samsung's marketing team and sales teams, it will be very difficult
01:41to convince people that this crease isn't a big issue.
01:44The very first time you see this, your brain just thinks there's no way you're going to
01:47learn to ignore that, but I think for most people, they will.
01:50Okay, enough about the crease.
01:52I want to talk about usability.
01:53This is probably the most important discussion to be had about folding phones.
01:58During Samsung's presentation, I remember them showcasing the usability of multitasking.
02:02It was a thing that they tried to showcase as one of the main features of a foldable
02:06phone.
02:07Now, having used this for a little bit, it is very capable of multitasking, sure, but
02:12I think the issue comes with just the manipulation, the constant manipulation of the windows and
02:17panels.
02:18If you use your phone, you don't want to set up a layout each time you do something different.
02:22On a desktop or a laptop, there are shortcuts, right?
02:25You just kind of open windows, maximize them, minimize them, and it's very quick to kind
02:29of set things up around.
02:31On a phone, it's all through your finger.
02:33You're constantly manipulating and moving the panels left and right.
02:36It is not a particularly fluid experience.
02:39I think what most people will gravitate towards is just using the phone with a large screen.
02:43It is a really nice experience with that large screen, but I don't think people will be multitasking
02:48as much as they'd like to.
02:49Now, the large screen experience is excellent for browsing the web or reading books, looking
02:53at spreadsheets, texting, emails, like anything that can take advantage of a large screen,
02:58and that's a lot of things, is great on such a large display.
03:01But the one thing I thought it would be really good for, media consumption, it actually isn't
03:05all that good because of the aspect ratio.
03:07So like most videos and stuff will just take up a portion of the display.
03:11A lot of the screen real estate is just not all that useful when it comes to modern video
03:15formats.
03:16And it's not terrible.
03:17You can fill up that negative space with something else that you could look at on a Reddit while
03:21you're watching a YouTube video, but it's not a better media consumption device just
03:25because of this larger screen.
03:27The one thing that it's excellent for, like straight up excellent for, is gaming.
03:32I'm not a huge mobile gamer, but having played a few games on this thing, it's a very different
03:36experience to play on such a large screen compared to something like a phone.
03:40And I would even consider it to be a better game experience than a lot of tablets just
03:43because of the particular size of this thing.
03:45So normally on a regular phone, it doesn't matter if it's a gaming phone or not, your
03:49hand covers the vast majority of the screen.
03:51Like your fingers are on the screen, it just gets in the way of whatever game you're playing.
03:55On this device, it's something else.
03:57It's just a way better experience.
03:58The screen is bigger so you're just seeing stuff in more detail.
04:01Your fingers are off the main area of the display.
04:04And it's cool.
04:05It's just a really fun gaming experience.
04:06Now I will say that for developers, they do need to tweak their games to really optimize
04:10the use of a folding screen like this.
04:12So as an example, in Vainglory, I'm seeing less of the game terrain on this big screen
04:17than I would on a more rectangular display.
04:19But the overall gaming experience is just awesome on a Galaxy Fold.
04:23However, most people who are playing mobile games are not going to be dropping $2,000
04:27US dollars on a phone.
04:29And I think that is probably the sore spot when it comes to this device.
04:33The fact that it is a $2,000 smartphone.
04:36It is really expensive to the point of opening it up to attack just because of its price tag.
04:41Now I gotta be honest, I feel like for Samsung, they have to price it at this ridiculous price
04:46point right now.
04:47They have to.
04:48Like no self-respecting company would make one of the world's first foldable phones,
04:53like this is crazy innovative stuff, and sell it for anything less than that.
04:57Because they want to keep this thing as a high margin product right now.
05:00This $2,000 phone is meant for the person who can easily and comfortably and willingly
05:05drop $2,000 on a phone this year and then just replace it next year with another $2,000
05:10phone.
05:11Maybe it'll be like the generation 2 of the Galaxy Fold.
05:14So there's people out there that have that kind of money, Samsung knows it, that's why
05:17they're charging this kind of money, because that's who this phone is for.
05:20Not for us.
05:21Okay, I kind of want to wrap up this video with kind of a step back from this whole thing.
05:26So the current market right now in smartphones is just filled with stale options.
05:31We have bigger notches here, smaller notches there, an extra camera here, it's all minutia.
05:35And for a company like Samsung to make something that's truly innovative, to make something
05:39that's just fundamentally different from everything out there, is cool.
05:43Like it's far from perfect.
05:44I think the average user would just not enjoy this phone in its current state, regardless
05:48of its price tag.
05:49It's just, it's not, it's not refined.
05:52But this is like step one.
05:54And sometimes I see in the comments, not even sometimes, quite often, I feel like people
05:58want to see this fail.
06:00People want to see Samsung crash and burn on a product like this.
06:03Like are you kidding me?
06:05You want this thing to crush it.
06:06You want it to be super successful so that we can get a $500 version of this in a few years.
06:12Like that would be the best case scenario.
06:14But if this was $500, would you buy it?
06:16Like if foldable phones were the same price as a regular phone, would you actually prefer
06:21it over regular phones that are lighter and easier to hold?
06:24I'm curious what you think.
06:25Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video.
06:26Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
06:28See you guys next time.
06:36Bye.