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00:00Now normally I'd be making a video on what we could expect with the upcoming Note 21 Ultra, all the new features,
00:06speculation, rumors, all that good stuff.
00:08But sadly, it looks like we may not even be getting one. And the weirdest part is that it's not that Samsung doesn't want to
00:14make it, but they're not sure if they can, because you may be aware
00:17there's a bit of a crisis going on in the world at the moment, not even coronavirus,
00:22but it's the lack of semiconductor chips, this chipageddon we're in.
00:26There's a shortage, and it's affecting everyone, from cars,
00:29I mean, VW, Honda, Toyota and GM have all reduced production, as well as game consoles,
00:35CPUs and GPUs for PC builds, as I'm sure you know if you've tried to upgrade your PC this year. Getting an RTX
00:413000 series graphics card for anything like retail price, it's just impossible. And now we're being warned of shortages for
00:48smartphones, and Samsung's mobile chief, DJ Ko, has said that there's a serious imbalance in supply and demand of chips globally, and that new
00:56high-end models might be difficult to release, and it could be a burden to unveil two flagship models in one year.
01:02So he was very careful not to completely rule it out,
01:06but it does seem like we're not going to get a Note 21 or Note 21 Ultra, and instead, at the earliest,
01:12we'll be looking at a 2022 release of presumably the Note 22, which is a real shame.
01:17So as you guys know, Samsung usually launches their new Galaxy S range at the beginning of the year,
01:22this year was actually a month earlier than we're used to back in February,
01:25so we've got the S21 Ultra here. And then usually around August time, we see the updated Note series.
01:31This is the Note 20 Ultra, and it usually builds on the S series by adding a slightly more powerful processor, if one's available.
01:37This year, we'd be looking at, say, the Snapdragon 888+, along with a slightly bigger screen, more squared-off corners,
01:43although following a similar design from the S series.
01:47Potentially, they would have kept in the microSD card slot and paired that with maybe up to a terabyte of storage internally,
01:52plus in terms of RAM, we've just seen the ROG Phone 5, the Ultimate Edition, pack 18 gigabytes of the stuff.
01:59So on the Note series, which is always the all-seeing, all-dancing, over-the-top flagship from Samsung,
02:05we could have seen maybe 16 or 18 gig RAM options.
02:08We also usually see some camera upgrades, in fact, the Note 20 Ultra still is a triple camera setup compared to the quad camera of the S21,
02:16so we've only got the single periscope zoom lens on here,
02:19so we would have expected a similar setup on here with the two zoom lenses.
02:24But what's really interesting is that the staple of the Note series is, of course, the S Pen,
02:29which, as you guys know, is also now compatible with the S21 Ultra.
02:33Not to quite the same extent, with this, we are missing some features like Bluetooth and the air gestures,
02:38although a proper S21 Ultra S Pen Pro, lots of Ps there, is coming out, which will fully work with it.
02:45So maybe that was Samsung thinking ahead of time, if we're not going to get a new Note phone,
02:50let's put some of that functionality on the S series.
02:53So if we're not going to see a new Note 21 this year, where does that leave us?
02:57Well, DJ Koh did suggest that it would just be a temporary hiatus and that we would still look forward to a Note 22 coming next year,
03:05which is great, so it's not just killing off the Note series completely.
03:09And of course, we've also got the new Galaxy A series, the A52 and A72 has just been launched,
03:14or at least unveiled. We've also got the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 3 to look forward to.
03:19And some recent rumors have been suggesting that Samsung wants to kind of pivot away from your traditional rectangular slabs of glass,
03:26these smartphones, where it's harder and harder to stand out.
03:28And we're seeing even better budget phones and to sort of go more towards these different form factors,
03:34because the Galaxy Flip and the Fold are actually genuinely really good phones.
03:38The Z Fold 2 was one of my favorite devices of last year, so I can't wait to see what they can do with a new one.
03:45And I think for me, if I had to pick between a new Fold or a new Note phone, I think I'd be more excited about the Fold.
03:52But what about you? Let me know in the comments below which one you'd rather see this year.
03:57So never say never.
03:58But with what DJ Koh has said, he's the chief mobile officer of Samsung.
04:02I don't think we are going to see a Note 21 this year.
04:05But this also could just be the start.
04:07I don't think this chip again crisis is going to go anywhere anytime soon.
04:10I mean, it's caused by a whole bunch of factors, but a lot of it is the pandemic last year affecting manufacturing.
04:16Factories had to shut down.
04:17Also, companies were ordering less because they were seeing fewer sales.
04:21And so the delay of that is now affecting us.
04:23And we're seeing the shortage.
04:25Not only that, but shipping containers are in the wrong places around the world.
04:28Cryptocurrency mining.
04:30And of course, everyone is just at home and working from home.
04:33So the demand is higher than ever.
04:35And so altogether, we have this perfect storm of demand being sky high and supply being low.
04:40So prices are going to go up or indeed, as we're seeing from Samsung, they're just going to cut products out this year.
04:46One company reported that we may actually be seeing a 5% drop in smartphone reduction this year, which doesn't sound like a lot.
04:52But when you consider last year, 1.38 billion phones were sold.
04:57That amounts to about 69 million fewer phones this year.
05:01So right now in March, things aren't looking too bad for smartphones.
05:05There's about a million releases this month, including the new Redmi Note 10 Pro, OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro.
05:11We've also got the Oppo Find X3 Pro, new Realme's, new Poco phones.
05:16But I think it's going to be in the second half of the year from the summer onwards that we are going to start to see some cutbacks and maybe some delays.
05:22And it is going to be tricky for Samsung because while they've had a great S21 launch, come September time when the new iPhones come out, usually they've just come off the launch
05:31of the latest Note series.
05:32But this year, if we're not going to get one, aside from maybe the Z Fold 3, Apple's going to pretty much dominate the latter half of the year.
05:40So kind of scary times, not just from a health perspective, but also from a tech perspective.
05:45Hopefully it's not affecting you guys too much, although I know if you're looking to buy a PS5 or upgrade your PC, it already is because of the bloody scalpers and Bitcoin miners as well.
05:55But would you be sad if we didn't see a Note 21 this year?
05:58And as I say, would you rather see if you had to choose a Note 21 Ultra or a Z Fold 3?
06:04Let me know in the comments below.
06:05And if you did enjoy this video and want to see more of me pretending like I know what's going on in the world, give me a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button and I'll catch you next time right here on The Tech Jab.