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00:00What's up guys, today we're going to be talking about some of the best $400 to $500 smartphones.
00:04I guess this is part one, we'll make a part two as well too because there's a lot of phones that
00:07fall in this category. Alright, so one of my favorites is the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. This is
00:13still an awesome phone and this phone is around $500 right now, so when I got it, it was around
00:19like $650 something, so it got a nice price drop. Also, by the end of this year, I can see this
00:24phone easily around $450 as we get closer to the new Galaxy phone. So, this phone is slowly but
00:32surely coming down in price here. I think it still has a really great design on here. It's got a
00:36stainless steel frame, a glass back on here, it's IP68 dust and water resistant. You have the built
00:42in stylus as well too, it's still very accurate. This phone also has a really massive display at
00:486.9 inches, it's a dynamic AMOLED display at 120Hz, it's HDR10+, but the 120Hz is only at 1080p,
00:56so remember that. So, it's a really nice display, it's got a high PPI of 496, it's really, really
01:03nice, very sharp and like I said, massive display. So, if you hate big phones, you're not going to
01:07like this phone. Yeah, I just really like the display as far as the brightness, the color,
01:12120Hz is super smooth on here as well too. Overall, just a fantastic Samsung display. We do
01:19have on here the Snapdragon 865 chip on here, Adreno 650. I dropped the full gaming test for
01:25you guys, so if you guys want to see how this phone performs, check that out. Basically, it's
01:29still a beast with performance, it's still be able to play games at high settings, you know,
01:34with little to no lag pretty much. This phone will get Android 13 as well too, which is something
01:39that we will be watching out for. This phone also has SD card support, so it's one of the last
01:44notes with SD card support. You have an option of 128 or 256GB with 12GB of RAM, or they do have
01:52one with 8GB of RAM, but majority of them, I believe, they have 12GB of RAM that you would buy.
01:58So, stereo speakers on here sound great, actually better than the S22 Ultra. No headphone jack on
02:04here, NFC is on board, under the display fingerprint sensor is here, and all the little
02:09bells and whistles like IP rating, Samsung desktop support is on here. Basically, all the stuff that
02:15you would find in the new Galaxy phones. And one of the awesome things about this phone is the
02:20camera setup is still really great on here. So, it's a 108MP standard, a 12MP periscope telephoto
02:27that does 5X optical, and it does a 50x hybrid zoom with 12MP ultrawide. It can shoot in 8K24,
02:35and you do have a 10MP selfie cam that shoots in 4K60. I think the photos still look really great
02:41on here as well too, so I really had no issues with image quality. I think you get some really
02:46highly detailed shots, great zoom capability on here still. The cameras are still great on this
02:52phone. You also have a 4500mAh battery with 25W charging, with wireless and reverse wireless
02:58charging. Battery life on here, you can pretty much get 6 hours of screen on time, so the battery
03:03life is still pretty good on this phone. Next is the Poco F3, which you can actually find for
03:09slightly under $400. I absolutely love this phone for this price point. So, this one has also a
03:15glass back, and a really nice design. It's got a plastic frame. It's IP53, death and splash proof
03:21as well. Now, this phone has a pretty awesome display. It's a 120Hz AMOLED display, HDR10+,
03:28at 6.67 inches at 1300 nits peak brightness, and it's 1080p, 395 for the PPI. Overall, it's a very
03:36nice panel, completely flat. Like I said, it gets really bright. It's got the punch hole in the
03:40middle. I absolutely love this display. It just looks really, really nice. Very silky smooth with
03:46the 120Hz on here. Now, this phone does have the Android 11. I think I just got the Android 12
03:53update with the MIUI skin on here as well too. And basically, you're not going to get that
03:58flagship experience like, let's say for instance, like the Note. You will have the bloatware stuff
04:03that you have to uninstall. I think that was the only thing I didn't like about this software
04:07experience. And sometimes I would have like these little minor glitches, but overall,
04:11MIUI is really not as bad as people say. But it is the Snapdragon 870 on here and the Adreno 650,
04:18which is definitely the highlight of this phone. This phone is crazy fast, especially for this
04:24price point. The benchmarks were just really nice on here. Gaming performance was pretty awesome on
04:29here. There was really nothing that this phone couldn't play. It just bounces in and out of
04:34applications effortlessly. So, I was really impressed with just how speedy the phone is here.
04:41So, you do have no SD card support, 128GB of internal storage, and 8GB of RAM. You also have
04:48stereo speakers, which honestly, they just sounded okay. Not the best that I've heard,
04:54but definitely I'm glad they're here. Now, one thing that this phone has is the infrared port,
04:58which a lot of people don't care about. Absolutely love the infrared port. I use this phone to
05:02control all the TVs in my house. Absolutely love it. It's a killer feature to have. The fingerprint
05:08sensor is physical. It's side-mounted. It's also a really, really nice addition to this phone as
05:13well, too. You also can use face unlock if you want. This phone also has actually very good
05:18cameras. It's a 48-megapixel standard, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide, then a 5-megapixel macro with 4K 30
05:25video, and then you have a 20-megapixel selfie that shoots in 1080p60. Image quality was actually
05:30pretty good, so in good lighting, it takes fantastic photos, but I was even more impressed
05:35with just your medium to average lighting. It actually still takes some very nice detailed
05:40shots on here, so I was pretty impressed with the image quality that this phone was able to
05:45put out. Also, the battery life is actually pretty good on here as well, too. It's a 4,520-mAh battery
05:52with 33-watt charging on here. This phone does lack wireless charging because it is technically
05:57a mid-ranger, but yeah, the battery life is pretty good, and it also charges somewhat decently fast
06:03as well, too, so I was really impressed with that. Definitely all-day battery life with this phone.
06:07I think this is a really, really great phone. Now, next is the Pixel 6a, so this is a very
06:13interesting phone because it comes in at around $450 here, and it's an interesting mid-ranger.
06:19I actually really like this phone. I think the only thing that I wasn't happy with was the lack
06:24of a 90Hz display or anything like that, but if you can get over that, I think this phone has a
06:30lot to offer. I really like the design on here. It's an aluminum frame. It's got a plastic back
06:35on here. It overall feels pretty solid in the hand. It's IP67 dust and water resistant.
06:40The display is actually not that bad. It's a 6.1-inch OLED HDR display. Like I said, I wish it
06:46was HDR+, but it is 1080p, 429 for the PPI, and I do like the size of this phone. At 6.1 inches,
06:55it's one of the smaller phones, so it's very easy to one-hand, so the highlight with this phone is
07:00actually the Android 12 and the stock Android experience. This phone will get Android 13. I
07:08think it already got it, and it's just a very smooth experience as far as the software experience
07:13goes. Also, this phone has a Google Tensor chip, which is very fast. You get some great benchmark
07:19scores on here. I did a gaming test, and it did a fantastic job with gaming on this phone as well,
07:25too, so I was pretty impressed with just general performance, things launching, things not lagging
07:30and stuttering and stuff like that. I was pretty impressed with performance on here. You also have
07:35128GB of internal storage and 6GB of RAM, no SD card support. The stereo speakers are actually
07:41definitely above average on here, really nice quality, great bass on here as well, too. You also
07:46have NFC on here as well, too. Under the display fingerprint sensor, it does work. I wish this
07:51phone had face unlock, but it does work. I haven't had any actual issues with that. It's just not the
07:56fastest. Now, the highlight with this phone is the cameras on here. I still think these are top-notch
08:03cameras, especially for this price point, so it's got a 12.2-megapixel standard and a 12-megapixel
08:08ultra-wide. It shoots in 4K60 with an 8-megapixel selfie cam that shoots in 1080p30. I was pretty
08:15impressed with image quality. I put this phone against even some more expensive phones like the
08:1913 Pro, my POCO F3. I put it against that. I was just taking photos just to see, and guys, this
08:27phone still takes fantastic photos. I mean, great, great image quality on here, great dynamic range.
08:34The Google processing is just spot on here. I just really like the way Google does their image
08:39processing on here. It takes pretty good photos in lower light conditions as well, too. So I think if
08:44you want a really solid camera, this is definitely one of those cameras where I think for the price
08:50point, you're getting almost pretty much flagship quality photos still. All right, so the battery
08:55life on here is a 4,410-milliamp battery, only 18-watt charging, which is kind of slow, and there's
09:01no wireless charging. So as far as the battery situation, this phone, I was able to get around
09:06six hours of screen-on time, so it does a pretty good job with battery. So overall, I have no issues
09:13with the Pixel 6a besides like I wanted a high refresh rate. I think cameras are phenomenal,
09:18and the chip is pretty powerful. All right, guys, next is the LG V60. So this is another awesome
09:23phone, and the price has come down so much. You can pick this up for like $250, and also since
09:29it's so cheap, I would go ahead and buy the dual-screen case for another $100. You can get
09:34them on eBay, and then boom, that's still under $400, and you got yourself a very, very powerful
09:41phone here. So this one has an aluminum frame. It's got a glass back. It's IP68 dust and water
09:46resistant as well, too, and it's just a tank of a design first off, and it's got a pretty big 6.8-inch
09:53display. It's P-OLED, HDR10+, at 1080p, 395 for the PPI. So overall, it's a big display. It's very
10:00nice. It's bright enough for me, and yeah, I have no issues with the display on here. So this phone
10:06did get the Android 12 update, and it's looking like this phone will get the Android 13 update
10:11as well, too, which is really exciting. You do have the Snapdragon 865 chip on here and the Adreno
10:17650 on here as well, too. So this is still a very powerful phone. Like I said, if you go ahead and
10:22get that dual-screen case, you can turn this into a multitasking beast as far as gaming, as
10:29far as basically doing whatever you want. It is a very powerful multitasking phone. You also have
10:34microSD card support on here, 128 gigs of internal storage, 8 gigs of RAM on the base model. You also
10:41have excellent sounding stereo speakers on here, and one of the highlights with this phone is the
10:46quad DAC. So this does have a headphone jack with a quad DAC, and it is very high-quality audio
10:52experience on here, not just with the headphone jack, but the speakers, like I said, and also the
10:57vibration motor on here is pretty strong as well, too. So overall, it's a really great phone for
11:01audio. NFC is on this phone as well, too, and this phone does have it under the display fingerprint
11:07sensor. That works. It's not the fastest, but I've never had any real issues with it. So this phone
11:13also has a 64-megapixel standard, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide with a 0.3 depth sensor, and it's using
11:198K30. You also have 10-megapixel selfie that shoots in 4K30. Image quality is still very good.
11:25It's very competitive, even with the best phones on the market right now. So I think detail looks
11:31good, really natural colors and stuff like that. The ultra-wide is pretty nice as well, too, and like
11:36I said, you get that 8K video as well, too, which is really awesome as well. So I had zero issues
11:42with the image quality. You can see for yourself. Still takes great photos. Also, this is one of my
11:46favorite phones as far as battery life. 5,000 milliamp battery. Excellent standby time on this
11:51phone. You also have wireless charging on here as well, too, and this is a phone that can easily do
11:57a day and a half of battery life pretty easy. So it's an excellent phone, you know, overall.
12:02Alright, last is going to be the Galaxy S21. So this is a pretty fantastic phone because this phone
12:08came down in price. It's around like 400 bucks. Absolutely love this phone when I first got it.
12:13A lot of people didn't like the plastic back, but over time, this phone has really grown on me,
12:18and I think the price is just right on this phone at this point. So it still has a premium feel to
12:23me. It's still got an aluminum frame on here. It's still IP68 dust and water resistant, and honestly,
12:27the plastic back, if you drop phones a lot and crack them and stuff like that, this is really
12:33hard. You can't crack, obviously, plastic as easy as glass. Alright, so this phone does have a pretty
12:39compact design, kinda. It's a 6.2-inch display. It's Dynamic AMOLED, 120Hz HDR10+, at 1300 nits
12:46peak brightness. It is 1080p 421 for the PPI here, and, you know, it was a fantastic display here.
12:54It's completely flat, very slim bezels on here, punch hole, silky smooth, 120Hz. The experience
13:00of watching content is just, you know, fantastic on here. Of course, this phone is going to get
13:05many updates for years to come. It actually has a Snapdragon 888 processor and the Adreno 660.
13:11Still a beast when it comes to performance, bouncing in and out of applications. Gaming
13:15performance is still, you'll still be able to play at high settings. This phone, it can get a
13:20little bit warm long periods of gaming, so that's one thing that I noticed, though. 128GB of internal
13:26storage, 8GB of RAM, no SD card support, excellent sounding stereo speakers, great bass quality on
13:32here. NFC is on here. The fingerprint scanner is super fast on here. Basically, all your bells and
13:37whistles like Samsung desktop support and all the software stuff is on here as well, too. I think the
13:43cameras are still fantastic on this phone as well, too. A 12-megapixel standard with a 64-megapixel
13:48telephoto lens. It also has 3x hybrid zoom with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide, and it shoots in 8K24
13:55with a 10-megapixel selfie cam that shoots in 4K60. Image quality is still top-notch on here.
14:00It's still flagship quality photos on here, so don't let, you know, a year passing by for you.
14:06This is still a really, really great camera for taking photos. So, you do have a 4000mAh battery
14:14on here with wireless charging and reverse wireless charging. This phone was able to squeeze
14:18around like six hours of screen on time, so even though the battery is kind of smaller, it's still
14:24able to get you, you know, pretty much all-day battery life. So, this wasn't a phone that died
14:28on me in a day. So, thanks for watching, guys. I'll catch you guys in the next one.