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00:00What's up guys, today we're going to be talking about five awesome smartphones that you can pick up for the $200 price point range.
00:07And guys, this is a slightly updated version of the one I did last month.
00:11We actually got quite a few price changes here.
00:14First off, I want to kick it off with the Galaxy S21.
00:17So, this phone on eBay, it's $239 for a refurbished one.
00:22On Amazon, $250, so you can sort and choose which one you like better.
00:26But, the S21 is a fantastic phone.
00:29It goes way under the radar for some reason.
00:32A lot of people forgot about this phone, I guess because Samsung did put the plastic back on here.
00:37But guys, this phone does not feel cheap.
00:39Nothing feels cheap about this phone.
00:40It still feels like a flagship phone.
00:42And the specs are, you're getting crazy specs for the price that you're paying for this phone.
00:47So, you got the aluminum frame, you got the plastic back.
00:50Yes, it doesn't feel as premium as a glass phone.
00:53But guys, it still feels premium.
00:55It has the metal rails.
00:56Also, the design still looks great.
00:58It's IP68 dust and water resistant.
01:00This phone has a beautiful dynamic AMOLED display.
01:03120Hz HDR10+.
01:05Gets up to 1300 nits peak brightness at 6.2 inches.
01:091080p 421 for the PPI.
01:11It's a beautiful flat panel, and I think anybody will really appreciate the panel.
01:16And what's awesome about this phone, it has Android 13.
01:20And this phone will have a pretty long life cycle since it's running the Snapdragon 888.
01:24It launched with Android 11, so when this phone is done with major updates,
01:28I believe this phone gets five years of security patches as well, too.
01:31So, very long lifespan.
01:33The Snapdragon 888 processor is still extremely fast when you're gaming or pretty much doing anything.
01:39Emulators, whatever you want to do on this phone.
01:41But my only thing with this phone is I think it gets a little bit hot doing more intensive stuff,
01:46like maybe video recording and playing games for hours.
01:50It does get a little bit hot to me.
01:52That's my only complaint about this chipset.
01:54128GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM.
01:58You also have pretty good stereo speakers on this phone as well.
02:01NFC is on board.
02:03The under-the-display fingerprint sensor.
02:05All of your additional features like Samsung desktop support and all that good stuff is all on here.
02:10And it's just a fantastic phone when it comes to the price that you're paying.
02:14You're basically getting a flagship phone.
02:17You really can't tell the difference from an S21, from an S22, S23, really, for the casual person.
02:23This phone still has awesome cameras.
02:25A 12-megapixel standard, 64-megapixel telephoto lens.
02:28And then you have a 12-megapixel ultra-wide.
02:30It can shoot in 8K24.
02:32And then you have a 10-megapixel selfie cam that shoots in 4K60.
02:35I still think this phone takes fantastic photos, guys.
02:38Color science is still pretty good.
02:40Dynamic range, detail.
02:42I think it just takes fantastic photos if you're just out point-and-click.
02:45I think it does still pretty decent in low light.
02:47Honestly, the pictures, they look a lot similar.
02:50Like if you look at it from an S22, even the S23, it's not a massive, massive difference.
02:55So it still takes fantastic photos.
02:57The battery life on here is pretty decent.
02:59It's a 4,000 milliamp battery, 25-watt charging, wireless and reverse wireless charging.
03:04Again, for a light user, you can kind of get through the day with this phone if you're not doing anything too intensive.
03:10But the battery experience for me was pretty decent.
03:14So overall, this is a fantastic phone.
03:16There's nothing bad about this phone for this price point if you go ahead and pick it up.
03:19I think you will really like it.
03:21Next is the Pixel 6a.
03:23Now this phone, I seen it on Amazon for $170, but that was locked Verizon.
03:28Unlocked, refurbished, it's like $260, which I think is still a fantastic deal.
03:33And this phone is awesome.
03:35I typically don't like recommending mid-range phones.
03:38But this is an exception because this one has a fantastic camera.
03:42So let's go ahead and just dive into that one.
03:4412.2-megapixel lens on here, 12-megapixel ultra-wide.
03:49Shoots in 4K60 and 8-megapixel selfie cam.
03:52Shoots in 1080p30.
03:53This phone takes the best deals on the list.
03:56And what's funny is this phone won MKBHD's smartphone blind test.
04:01It actually beat all the other flagship phones.
04:03So it's pretty crazy.
04:05This phone takes phenomenal photos, guys, especially for the price.
04:08Just beautiful images.
04:10Google's image processing is here.
04:11Now this one is using the older sensor, so it's not using the sensor that's in the 6 Pro and 7 Pro.
04:17It's using the older one.
04:18I kind of like the way this takes pictures too.
04:21I've always really liked their older sensor that they was using.
04:24But, man, this phone takes fantastic photos.
04:26If you're looking for an excellent still taker, excellent in low light as well too.
04:31It's just overall a great phone to take pictures on.
04:35The video is pretty decent on here too, but the color signs and the image processing is awesome.
04:40I think on the 6A.
04:41And this phone, it's got an aluminum frame.
04:43Now it does have a plastic back, but honestly, when this phone first came out, a lot of people thought it was glass, including me.
04:49It kind of felt like glass, but it's not.
04:51It's plastic, but it still feels very premium.
04:54I think it still looks good as well too.
04:56It is IP67 dust and water resistant.
04:58It does have the 6.1 inch OLED display.
05:01HDR, 1080p, 429 for the PPI.
05:04The only downside with this display is that they didn't add any type of 90 hertz or 120 hertz with the screen.
05:10Now, while the screen is still pretty smooth at 60 hertz, that is, I guess, one minus about this phone.
05:16It is a flat display as well too, which is nice.
05:19But, again, I would have liked to see 120 hertz on this phone, or at least 90.
05:24Now, the good thing about these Pixel phones is they run a pure stock version of Android.
05:28So, when Android 14 comes out, you'll be one of the first to get it.
05:32You're the first to get the betas.
05:34So, that's a really nice experience.
05:36And it's just very clean, no bloatware, just a very Google experience that I think a lot of people will come to appreciate.
05:42This does have the Google Tensor chip, which does a pretty good job.
05:46It's plenty enough fast for, I think, the average person, bouncing in and out of applications.
05:50Casual gaming, I have a gaming test if you guys want to check that out.
05:53It does a pretty good job at doing those things.
05:56So, I played Call of Duty, PUBG, it ran them fine.
05:59So, if you're trying to do casual gaming, it can definitely do that.
06:02You also have 128 gigs of internal storage and 6 gigs of RAM on here.
06:07NFC is on board.
06:09The fingerprint scanner is an optical one, and it works fine.
06:12You just have to apply a little bit of pressure to it, but it does work.
06:16And the battery life is actually pretty good on the 6A.
06:18It's a 4,410 milliamp hour battery, 18 watt charging.
06:22There is no type of wireless charging on here, though.
06:25But this definitely will last you all day.
06:27You actually get pretty good battery life with this phone.
06:30So, the 6A is also a great option to think about.
06:33Next, we got the LG V60.
06:35Now, this phone is just awesome.
06:37You can find it well under 200 bucks, actually, these days.
06:40And it's just an awesome device, one of my favorite devices on this list.
06:44And also, we are expected to get the Android 13 update.
06:47This phone is actually still getting security patches, so that's really good.
06:51So, any day now, we should get the Android 13 update.
06:54This phone is built like a straight-up tank.
06:56It's got an aluminum frame.
06:57It's got a glass back.
06:58It's IP68 dust and water resistant.
07:01And it just feels excellent in the hand.
07:03You also have a 6.8-inch P-OLED display.
07:07It's HDR10+, 1080p, 395 for the PPI.
07:11Now, this is an overall beautiful display.
07:13I think it looks really good even for a 1080p panel on this size display.
07:18It's plenty bright.
07:19Like I said, big display, water drop notch here.
07:22But the cool thing about the V60 is that if you go on eBay, you can get a $100 dual-screen case with this phone.
07:30And you can basically turn it into two phones or do true multitasking.
07:34They also have games that are compatible, like you can see the map on PUBG and stuff like that.
07:38So, it's a very cool, you know, little additional thing with this phone that I absolutely love.
07:43And like I said, it's really not that much, not really that expensive because if you get the phone for, you know,
07:48$190, $180, get the dual-screen case, you're not spending that much.
07:52And you get a really powerful multitasking experience.
07:55This phone also has the Snapdragon 865 chip.
07:58I did a gaming test if you guys want to check that out.
08:00It still pretty much plays anything in the Play Store that you can throw at it.
08:03PUBG, Call of Duty, anything I threw at it, it was able to play at a pretty high frame rate.
08:08So, I was really happy about that.
08:10Not only that, but this phone also has microSD card support, 128GB of internal storage, and 8GB of RAM on the base model.
08:17You also have stereo speakers, which sound great, really good bass, very loud.
08:21But, you also have a headphone jack with the quad DAC on this phone as well.
08:25So, for people who are diehard headphone lovers, not only do you get a headphone jack, but you get the quad DAC,
08:31which makes the experience overall better for people who have, you know, a high-quality pair of headphones.
08:36You also have on here pretty good cameras.
08:39It's a 64-megapixel standard, 13-megapixel ultra-wide, 0.3 depth sensor.
08:44It can shoot, actually, in 8K30.
08:46And then you have a 10-megapixel selfie cam that shoots in 4K30.
08:50The shots on here are pretty good, I still think.
08:53Especially if you're out in good lighting, I think it takes phenomenal photos.
08:56Really good color science on here as well, too.
08:59I even compared it to some of the newer phones, the 14 Pro, the S23.
09:05So, if you guys want to check that out to see how it does compared to newer phones.
09:08But overall, the image quality, I think, for the average person is going to be more than good.
09:14So, you have an under-the-display fingerprint sensor on here as well.
09:17And also, guys, don't forget, this phone actually has pen support.
09:20So, you can use a stylus with this phone, which is really nice as well, too.
09:25And battery life is actually pretty good on this device.
09:285,000 milliamp battery.
09:30You also have wireless charging as well, too.
09:32And the battery life is great.
09:34It lasts all day for me.
09:36And, yeah, the standby time is also awesome, too.
09:39So, this is overall just an excellent choice.
09:41Next is the iPhone XS.
09:43This time last year, this phone, I had picked it up for around $300.
09:47Now, it's literally at like $215.
09:50You can find it for $200 even now.
09:52So, this is still an excellent phone here, guys.
09:56It's got the glass back, stainless steel.
09:58I still think this is one of my favorite iPhone designs.
10:00It looks very classy still.
10:02It's IP68 dust and water resistant.
10:05What's awesome about this phone is it does have the Super Retina OLED display.
10:09And it does have a 5.8-inch display.
10:11So, it definitely is a little bit more comfortable for people with smaller hands.
10:15It also has a 1080p Plus display, 458 for the PPI, which, believe it or not, is even better.
10:21The display on here is better than the iPhone 11's IPS panel that's 720p.
10:26So, this is just still a really nice display.
10:28You also have iOS 16.3 on this phone.
10:31So, it does have the latest version of iOS.
10:33The Apple A12 chip on here as well.
10:36This phone is plenty enough fast for me.
10:38I really don't see too much of slowdowns or anything like that, animation glitches.
10:43It's still a very fast phone.
10:45Not only that, but I did do gaming on this phone.
10:48I was able to play PUBG HDR Extreme just fine on this phone.
10:51So, it still does pretty good with gaming.
10:53I will say it does get a little bit warm when you're gaming for long periods of time.
10:58So, that's one thing I noticed.
10:59But, other than that, the overall speed of this phone really is still great.
11:04Now, this phone also has Face ID, which works really well.
11:08Stereo speakers, which are plenty loud.
11:11They sound really good.
11:12Really good bass quality.
11:13Now, the camera's on the XS.
11:15You have a 12-megapixel standard and a 12-megapixel telephoto.
11:18The only thing that's kind of aged about this experience is the secondary camera.
11:22For most people, they prefer ultra-wide.
11:25This does not have that.
11:26It does have 2x optical zoom, but there's no ultra-wide on here.
11:30For a phone that's $200, I think it takes pretty decent pictures for this price point.
11:35It shoots in 4K60, 7-megapixel selfie cam that shoots in 1080p60.
11:40Video is still pretty good on the XS as well, too.
11:43Overall, I think the camera's in good lighting.
11:46It's perfectly fine.
11:48You also have on here the battery situation.
11:51So, most refurbished phones will have to be over 80%.
11:55Now, I did a drain test when I got this phone,
11:57and you can squeeze about close to 6 hours of screen on time of regular use.
12:02For gaming, I was getting around like 4 hours of straight gaming or something like that.
12:06So, the battery life is pretty decent depending on your battery health.
12:09It has a 2,658 mAh battery, and then you also have wireless charging on this guy as well, too.
12:15So, overall, the XS is a great option, and it's super cheap now.
12:19And last is the OnePlus 9.
12:21Again, this time last year, this phone was actually close to almost like $350,
12:27but the price has come down on this phone, you know, pretty much to the $200 price point.
12:31It's around like $230, $250, and I think it's phenomenal.
12:35This phone is awesome, guys.
12:37So, this one has the glass back, but plastic frame.
12:40It still feels pretty good as well, too.
12:42You also have IP rating, but only on specific models.
12:45The screen on here is beautiful.
12:47It's a fluid AMOLED display, 120Hz HDR10+, really bright at 1100 nits peak brightness at 6.5 inches.
12:551080p panel, 402 for the PPI.
12:58Completely flat display as well, too.
13:00This phone is running Android 13 with Oxygen OS 13 as well, too.
13:05One of my favorite skins, or used to be before they made such dramatic changes.
13:10But the Snapdragon 888 processor on here is very fast.
13:14You can pretty much play anything in the Play Store.
13:17It's extremely fast, very efficient.
13:19And again, this phone, with all AAA phones, they sort of heat up if you sort of do intense stuff on it.
13:25You also have 128GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM on here.
13:29And you also have very good sounding stereo speakers on here.
13:32Very fast under the display fingerprint sensor.
13:35What I thought was pretty cool with this phone, the camera experience.
13:39So, you have the Hasselblad, you know, collaboration here.
13:43And I thought this phone, when it came out, it took some phenomenal shots.
13:46And I still think it takes great shots.
13:4848MP standard and a very high resolution 50MP ultrawide.
13:52So, it takes very detailed ultrawide shots.
13:55And then you have the 2MP monochrome camera, 8K30 video, and a 16MP selfie cam that shoots in 1080p30.
14:03And again, image quality is pretty good on here, especially at this price point.
14:08I think Hasselblad color, you know, science, and just the overall image processing here.
14:13I think it still takes really great shots.
14:15And for this price, I don't see anyone really complaining about the photos.
14:18I think it's just a great camera.
14:20So, this phone also has very good battery life.
14:234500mAh battery.
14:25Not only that, but you get a 65W charger in the box.
14:29Or if you, you know, get it refurbished, it does have 65W capability.
14:34So, it charges from like 0 to 100 in like 29 minutes.
14:38So, it's very impressive.
14:40You also have 15W wireless charging as well too.
14:43So, this is a fantastic phone.
14:45I love recommending this phone to people.
14:47So, be sure to let me know what do you guys think, and I'll catch you guys in the next one.