The Vivo v23 pro

This is the Vivo v23 pro 

vivo's newest premium mid-ranger is quite the looker and in comparison to its non-pro sibling it's a little bit bigger has a more powerful chipset and has a high resolution main camera on the back so should this be your next phone i'm angie for gsm arena and this is my review of the vivo v23 pro the vivo v23 lineup has a singular design aesthetic with a recognizable camera island and a unique sunshine gold paint job its special uv reactive dye changes the phone's color from a golden color to a blue green hue when exposed to uv rays the process can take from under a minute to a few minutes depending on how much ambient light there is you can also play around with the process and stick a stencil on it but it'll fade relatively quickly in any case it's a fun design element if you prefer a more subtle variant the v23 pro also comes in stardust black other than that the v23 pro has a curved amoled display and thinner and curvier sides it's already a thin phone so this curve makes it both look and feel even thinner than that the v23 is rather light for its size too on the front vivo is using shot sensation alpha glass which is said to offer a similar level of protection to gorilla glass victus unfortunately there's no formal ingress protection rating at the top of the display there is a notch housing a dual selfie setup there are two dedicated led selfie lights to its sides too the notch's size is reasonable and it doesn't clash with the rest of the design a little further down you'll find an optical under display fingerprint reader that is snappy and reliable while the curved display looks very striking the amoled panel itself is decent but not spectacular the 6.5 inch panel has a full hd resolution and a good pixel density of around 398 ppi the v23 pro has a few refresh rate options too you can set it to a static 60 hertz a static 90 hertz or use the auto refresh rate we don't really recommend the auto option as it worked randomly and if you want to enjoy high refresh rate gaming your best bet is to select the 90 hertz option well the panel gets decent though uninspired 463 nits of max brightness with the slider the auto brightness gets you an excellent 798 nits of brightness this means it's very usable outdoors color accuracy is all right but not amazing the phone has three color modes and while professional is the most accurate of the three all of them have a colder bluish tint the vivo v23 pro has hdr 10 plus supports and the highest possible widevine l1 drm certification while there is no hdr content from netflix yet youtube was fine the phone has a single bottom firing speaker it had average loudness and okay sound quality while the phone supports bluetooth 5.2 it doesn't have nfc which might be important to those who use it for easy wireless connectivity or contactless payments the phone has a 4 300 milliamp hour battery and though it's not the biggest surround the v23 pro got a respectable 110 hours of endurance the 44 watt flash charger the phone comes with is excellent it got the phone from zero to sixty five percent in half an hour and it needed a little less than an hour to get a full charge the phone comes with a mediatek demensity 1200 and either eight or twelve gigs of ram the chipset is one of the best media tech has to offer and while the snapdragon 870 outpaces the dementia 1200 consistently it's not by a lot it's comparable to qualcomm's newer chipsets like the snapdragon 780 or the 778g the phone gets warm after longer gaming sessions but it doesn't get uncomfortable to hold there were also no sharp drops in performance rather the phone gently dials it back overall we have no complaints as far as performance is concerned the phone can readily handle both gaming and day-to-day tasks on the software side of things the v23 pro has funtouch os 12 now on android 12. it's a fluid and snappy os and you can see touches of the new android core like the green notification dot indicating when the camera or mic are in use and the increased animations on most ui components that said fun touch is far from stock android and it offers you its own flair and tons of customization options you can choose between a myriad of always on display settings multiple customizable aspects of your home screen and lock screen and various animation effects you can hold down the volume key to either launch the camera app turn the torch on or off or start recording audio some of the new fun touch elements are very useful like the system menus being tailored for more single hand use the default widgets being more intuitive and easier to use and the app drawer having expanded recommended apps categories other things are more subtle like the revamp notification shade which now has square shaped quick toggles there are so many features that honestly it can get a little overwhelming vivo should have organized them a little bit better so that they're easier to find and so that you know that they're there the v23 pro comes with a potent triple camera setup on the back it has a large 108 megapixel main camera and 8 megapixel ultroid and a 2 megapixel macro cam it's clear that vivo is focusing on videography pro is but it's disappointing that there's no ois or fancy autofocus on the main camera only phase detection autofocus during the day photos with the main camera are great they have plenty of detail and wide dynamic range shots are vibrant which makes them lively but they might be a little too saturated for some tastes there is no dedicated tele camera on this phone but two time zoom shots look quite good as long as you don't inspect them from too close the ultrawide camera produces nice photos too with similarly boosted colors the level of detail is not the same and there is some over sharpening going on but it's still okay in low light the v23 pro has plenty of detail and suppresses noise well color saturation is nice and everything looks nice and sharp shots with it don't differ too drastically from the regular low light snaps that the v23 pro captures but they are just a tad sharper and clearer the ultroid shots have a nice dynamic range as well and color saturation is well preserved too the photos however are overly soft with night mode on the photos look cleaner and the exposure is brighter however a closer look reveals somewhat heavier processing and over sharpening in particular the macro camera had decent detail for its resolution and gets the job done but it's nothing special in comparison to many other companies which tend to slap a weak camera on the front of their phones you can tell that vivo takes selfies seriously the phone has a 50 megapixel main camera on the front and a secondary 8 megapixel wide camera the 50 megapixel snapper takes excellent stills detail and dynamic range were great colors look natural and there's even some nice natural bulky in the background at night this camera has excellent performance there's plenty of detail dynamic range is wide and noise is absent everything is sharp too you can also use the spotlight leds near the notch they're great for illuminating your face and boost the quality of photos taken in low light skin tones come out quite nice with them the 8 megapixel camera has a fixed focus plane that is fairly wide it has washed out colors and a narrower dynamic range but if we weren't comparing it to the main selfie camera we'd still consider it a solid yet unimpressive front camera the main selfie camera takes fantastic videos this makes the v23 pro a stellar vlogging device however footage from the ultra right on the front is less thrilling videos with the main camera on the back had plenty of detail nice colors and balance processing autofocus was a bit slow but reliable overall full hd videos with the ultrawide camera on the back are a little too soft detail isn't too bad for the resolution and the dynamic range is alright there is a super steady mode of the main camera that's capped at full hd it smooths out the video but it's not perfect we prefer the regular eis the vivo v23 pro is clearly a unique device that is targeting content creators with those great front-facing cameras it has fantastic looks a good display great charging and good battery life and a good ship set unfortunately price wise the vivo v23 pro is anything but cheap and there are more well-rounded premium mid-rangers out there like the xiaomi 11 if content creation for social media is your thing then the vivo v23 pro might actually make sense to buy but if you're after the best overall value then you might want to take a look at some other phones first thank you for watching everyone stay safe and i'll see you guys next time you.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE

This is the Samsung galaxy s21 fe or fan 

edition and has finally come out after a year of hype teasers leaks and delays the release is a bit later than what people expected so does the s21 fe have what it takes to stay competitive in 2022.The s21 fe is now released about a year after the s21 and brings the design language that appears to be a mix between the s21 phones and the a-series mid-rangers it has a plastic bag with a soft matte pastel finish but at the same time the camera bump has the same wrap-around shape as the s21 although instead of being part of the metal frame here is actually an extension of the back panel the s21fe is thinner and lighter in the hand than the previous fan edition which is nice and as you'd expect from a high-end samsung you get ip rated dust and water resistance here too the full hd amoled screen is a little smaller than the s20 fes at 6.4 inches but it does bring gorilla glass victisprotection this time around you again get a fast 120hz refresh rate too for smoother swiping and scrolling it isn't adaptive to save energy but the s21fe is able to provide a fast 240hz touch sampling rate in gaming mode and another improvement over the previous model is hdr10 plus support content looks excellent on the s21 fe and this display can also achieve great color accuracy based on your color settings the s21 fe does brightness control a bit differently we measured the max brightness at about 790 nits and unlike other galaxy phones you can get it not only in auto mode but also manually with a slider like the rest of the s21 series you get a pair of stereo speakers for your audio they're well balanced and scored a good mark on our loudness chart quality is good too with nice highs though the bass is underwhelming one of the freshest things you'll find on the s21 fe at least at the time of this video is samsung's new one ui4 based on android 12. this is the first phone that arrives with this interface out of the box and overall it's similar to what we saw in the previous version but there are a few new features one of the most obvious is something built into the new android system-wide color palettes which can match your quick toggles shades and even your icons to the home screen wallpaper you also get plenty of options for widgets on the home screen they're a lot more customizable now improved control over your privacy settings is also a feature of one ui for there's now a dedicated privacy dashboard in settings there are new options in the gallery for photo editing with the magic eraser you can get rid of something you don't want in the shot it's not perfect but it's fun to play around with and finally you can wake up and unlock the phone using an under display fingerprint reader which is fast and reliable these features are powered by either one of two chipsets a snapdragon 888 for the international version of the phone or an exynos 2100 for select markets ours the snapdragon version and performance is excellent as you'd expect right up there on the charts with last year's flagships and even though we will see a new top chipset pretty soon this year the s21 fe delivers more than enough power for your daily tasks and heavy games the s21 fe has a milliamp hour battery just like the previous model but battery life isn't quite as good here that's not to say it's bad though it scored an endurance rating of 92 hours in our proprietary tests as is trendy these days the phone doesn't come with a charger in the box but there is support for wireless charging and 25 watt wired charging with such an adapter we were able to charge from zero to 51 percent in half an hour another thing you won't get this time around is expandable storage but you do get 128 or 256 gigs on board alright moving on to the cameras the s21 fe brings the same setup as the previous model a 12 megapixel main cam with ois a 12 megapixel ultra wide with fixed focus and an 8 megapixel three times telephoto again with ois photos from the main cam are excellent with plenty of resolved detail high contrast low noise and natural looking dynamic range the colors are quite pleasant too if a bit on the warmer side photos from the ultra wide cam are incredibly good for this type of camera there's enough detail good contrast and reasonable sharpness as well as slow noise the dynamic range is commendable too even though the telephoto cam has an 8 megapixel sensor its photos come out at 12 megapixels the sharpness does take a small hit from the upscaling but besides that these three times zoomed shots are quite nice with high resolve detail as well as contrast colors and dynamic range that match the other two cameras this telephoto cam is different from the one on the galaxy s21 so we compared the two in broad daylight the fe is the better shooter there's slightly better sharpness and contrast and in our opinion more likable colors but these are only noticeable if you look from up close in low light photos from the main camera are superb they're rich in detail and contrasty with excellent color saturation the dynamic range is wide too although the overall exposure and look remain quite realistic looking turning on night mode will get you a brighter photo with improved exposure more detail appears in the shadows and highlights and any noise is cleaned up shots from the ultra wide at night have good color saturation and exposure but they're soft and noisy with night mode on though the noise is improved and you get better exposure and dynamic range if you zoom at night in auto mode in most cases you'll get a digital crop from the main camera that is soft and lacking in detail but turning on night mode will switch things over to the actual telephoto lens the results are decent with satisfactory detail contrast and exposure you do still see the effect of the upscale from 8 megapixels to 12 though selfies are taken with a 32 megapixel front facing cam that produces 8 megapixel photos by default these shots are natural looking with low noise and excellent colors contrast and dynamic range however the fixed focus sweet spot is not ideally tuned for shooting at an arm's length so selfie sharpness is less than stellar videos can be captured with the main cam and up to 4k resolution at 60fps these are very good with above average detail great colors low noise and outstanding dynamic range the only area in which it falls short a bit is sharpness 4k videos from the ultra wide are capped at 30 fps and the quality is not that good they do have nice contrast likable colors and superb dynamic range but the videos are soft and the detail is mediocre in contrast the videos from the telephoto cam are quite nice they have a lot of detail and are plenty sharp and have colors contrast and dynamic range that are similar to the main cameras so that's the galaxy s21 fe you get features worthy of a high-end samsung phone like a waterproof build a high refresh right amoled display stereo speakers a flagship chipset a fluid software experience and a great set of cameras all in all it's a great showing a clear upgrade over the previous model but there are a couple of problems first the fan edition took its sweet time to come out and now the hype has turned to the new s22 models so then the s21 fe could be a more budget-friendly option over the new flagships except that for now it's actually more expensive than the regular s21 while offering very similar features so while the s21 fe is a great phone it's tough to recommend until this price does go down a bit.

Thanks for watching guys stay safe and see you on the next one.

Top 5 Best Smartphones Coming Early 2022

 We've got the top 5 upcoming phones in 2022 for you today.

(Number 5).

Reality gt2 pro.

Realme confirmed that soon they would unveil the flagship realme gt2 pro it has a large 6.8 inch super ammo display for multimedia additionally the display either comes with full HD plus or qhd plus resolution and will have a 120-hertz high refresh rate it will use a Qualcomm snapdragon 8 gen 1 processor for powering the phone it will have up to 12 gigabytes ladder 5 random access memory and ufs 3.1 storage the phone boots real me UI 3.0 based on the Android 11 operating system for imaging the upcoming phone will have a triple camera module at the rear carrying a 50-megapixel primary camera a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens and an 8-megapixel telephoto snapper lastly the phone packs a 5 000 milliamp hours battery with a 125-watt ultra-fast charging support.

(Number 4).      

Xiaomi mi 12 ultra and ultra enhanced.

The Xiaomi mi12 ultra is the upcoming flagship mobile from the Chinese conglomerate there are reports that Xiaomi can launch two premium smartphones in the second half of 2022. the two phones are my 12 ultras and my 12 ultras enhanced edition based on the leaks both the phones will be powered by the upcoming Qualcomm snapdragon 8 gen 1 also called snapdragon 898 the smartphone will be a camera-centric device and will likely come with a 50-megapixel gn5 sensor made by Samsung additionally there are three more 48-megapixel cameras one of which is a telephoto lens with 120 times zoom and another is a wide-angle camera Xiaomi is also working on a next-gen under-display fingerprint scanner that will debut in the upcoming Xiaomi flagship lastly the series is expected to have a large battery 100-watt fast charging support the pro model will have an up display with a variable refresh rate and 2k resolution.     

(N(Number 3).

Huawei p50 pro.

Outside of china 

the Huawei p50 pro comes with a curved display with 6.6 7 inches panel with 1228 by 2700 pixels resolution the Olin display supports hdr 10 and also offers a 120-hertz refresh rate powering the p50 pro is the kirin 9000 octa-core processor made from 5-nanometer technology and offers a significant boost in performance there is a mali g78 mp24 GPU that is crazy fast and provides an excellent gaming experience in some regions Huawei uses the Qualcomm snapdragon 888 processor and the Adreno 650 lastly the 5g smartphone comes with a 4 360 milliamp-hour capacity battery and has a 65 watts charger and will also have 50 watts wireless charging support.

(Number 2).

Oppo finds n.

The oppo find n is a tough competitor for the previously launched Samsung z-fold 3. as per the brand the device is the result of their four years of research and development the oppo find n comes with two displays including a large 7.1 inch inner display and a 5.49 inch external display along with an 8.4 by 9 and 18 by 9 aspect ratio it has a 120 v refresh rate 1000 nits brightness and corning gorilla glass victim protection powered by Qualcomm sd 888 chipset power the phone is paired with 12 gigabyte of random access memory and 512 gigabyte storage it carries a triple rear camera setup 50 megapixel sony IMX 766 primary sensor 16 megapixel ultra-wide lens and a 13 megapixel telephoto lens with three times optical zoom and a 32 megapixel for selfies there are stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support for an immersive audio experience it has a 4 500 milliamp-hour battery that supports 33 watt super boot charging 15 watts wireless charging and 10 watts reverse charging this was already on sale on December 23rd.

(Number 1).

Samsung galaxy s2 ultra.

Samsung galaxy s22 is the upcoming premium smartphone by the brand and will be the successor of the galaxy s21 which was launched earlier this year the samsung galaxy s2 is due for launch in february 2022 but we already have some specs and links that hint about the features we can expect from the top-notch samsung mobile the most significant change we can expect from the upcoming smartphone is its camera we can expect that the galaxy s22 will have a 200 megapixel camera sensor at the rear and it will also support up to 8k video shooting support samsung galaxy s2 ultra is expected to arrive in multiple colors black white red green and rose gold they will have a matte texture and sport a 6.8 inch ltpo super amoled infiniti o display with a 120 hertz refresh rate powering the device will be the successor to the snapdragon 898 processor and usually samsung is the first one to get the latest flagship qualcomm processor it will also come with the s pen support like the galaxy s21 series smartphone there are a few things that we will see on this phone like 5g connectivity and a usb type-c port furthermore the galaxy s22 may come with a 4 500 milliamp hour battery with fast wireless charging support of up to 65 watts  you

BEST SMARTPOHNES IN 2021

Good, I've even got a special trophy made just for it okay let's start with the design. what is the most impressive phone from the outside there are a couple of close contenders I've spent almost the entire year raving on about Samsung's s21 ultra how it's striking but at the same time somehow also understated? 

I was really close to giving this to Xiaomi because while they do make somehow do I put these polarizing designs they do also have a couple of standouts like the me11 light which is so thin that it barely feels real and the mix 4 with its completely even uninterrupted screen made possible by an actually decent in-display selfie camera but the winner of best phone design of the year. 

I'm going to give to the Vivo x70 pro plus this phone is supremely comfortable to hold they've designed a finish that 

you literally cannot get fingerprints on even if you try to the buttons feel distinctly luxurious and while I wouldn't say I particularly love this glossy section on the back it can also double as a mirror to be able to take rear camera selfies.

 Now we can't have a best without a burst so welcome to a bonus round of who has made the ugliest phone of the year and there are a few strong candidates Asus zenfone 8 was notably devoid of character kind of looks a bit like a wish.com phone this smartphone for snapdragon insiders yes that's the real name made by Qualcomm the chipmaker themselves also feels very much like a prototype. 

But the winner of the ugliest phone of the year has got to be this special edition version of the honor 50. The only way I can think to describe this phone is it's a bit like someone just vomited the alphabet all over it but there's another side to design because as well as making a phone look and feel premium the other challenge that a lot of companies are starting to face is the size constraint how do we fit all the things that people are starting to want into a phone while keeping it compact. 

There's one phone that I think has done this better than any honorable mention to the Asus zenfone 8 which boring design aside is 90 of the capability of the big ones achieved into 60 of the footprint a lot of things had to be re-engineered to make this possible.

Also, props to Samsung's z flip 3. as a tech person this is a hard phone to recommend to someone it's a thousand dollars but it has the specs of a 500 phone however excuse my french it just feels flipping fantastic super-premium really nice materials and the fact that it folds in half means that we're not just talking about fitting in your trouser pockets this can fit into your shirt pocket.

But the winner of the best compact smartphone of 2021 I'm giving to the iPhone 13 mini no gimmicks no one particularly groundbreaking feature it's just the complete latest iPhone experience smaller and now thanks to huge battery improvements this 13 mini last longer, than last year's full-size iPhone 12. Speaking of battery though there is a limit to how much you're going to be able to get from a small phone if endurance is a high priority you are going to need to look bigger and the winner of this category is not the phone I expected to see battery life is a very complex specification most reviewers including myself we just generally try to keep it simple by referring to how many milliamp hours of capacity that a phone has but the truth of it is it depends on display technology how well the phone regulates temperature massively on software and how efficiently it's able to allocate resources. 

But also things like battery voltage and so in 2021 we've ended up in a situation where even though we have phones like the galaxy s21 ultra and the xiaomi 11 ultra with 5 000 million power capacities oh hell even the rog phone 5s pro with a 6 000 million power capacity they're all beaten by a phone with less than 4500 the iphone 13 pro max this phone's battery life is so unbelievably healthy i have sometimes finished days using it with over 70 left i mean you can technically get a phone that lasts even longer you know those ones that are effectively just a dialer with a power bank taped to them but this is the best battery life in a form factor that's somewhat palatable then hey if you find my videos palatable then the sub to the channel would be prized what if you don't want something palatable what if all you wanted was an absolute beast a speck monster a phone designed to play the most demanding games you can get on a mobile platform well you're in luck gaming phones have never been as competitive as they are.

Now in 2021, they're getting so good that it's almost frustrating that developers aren't making games that properly take advantage of them!

Anyways three main companies are fighting in this space you have red magic who's making such high-powered hardware-rich phones for literally 500 but you do genuinely wonder where their profits coming from ridiculous value but the phones do feel a little rushed with arguably half-baked software then you have the other extreme with Asus whose rog phone 5s pro hits 1500 but hey if you have 1500 and you like games there is nothing quite like it, in fact, this thing basically takes a 2021 flagship and tops it in almost every regard it doesn't have a 5000mah battery it has 6000. it doesn't have a snapdragon 888 it has an 888 plus it doesn't have a 120hz refresh rate it has 144. and we're not talking 8 or 12 gigabytes of ram 18. also quite important for a gaming phone a reliable accessory ecosystem whether that's earphones or controllers or external calling attachments you have options but in my opinion, the best gaming phone sits somewhere in between these two with the Lenovo legion dual 2. 

It avoids the software pitfalls of the red magic it gets very close to the performance of the Asus and it starts at 700 kinds of funky-looking though. 

And finally just before we get to the best overall phones in each price tier i just want to touch on foldables because while i don't think these flaccid book style open closed phones are the final destination they do still feel a bit like a half-baked idea in some senses 2021 is the first year where i have seen some mainstream conversation about them so, it's time to analyze if a foldable is what you want the only company it makes sense to buy from is samsung there is microsoft who makes the surface duo nice looking but far too many compromises to recommend it there is huawei but no google services makes it a really dicey option and there is royal the company who actually made world's first foldable but i wouldn't trust their software support as they're primarily a display company their foldables are more of a tech demo than actual consumer-ready phones so that leaves us with two choices samsung's z-fold 3 or samsung's z-flip 3. and between them i would award best foldable phone to the z-fold 3. it's the only foldable that does deliver a tangibly expanded experience compared to just a normal flagship the potential for extreme productivity is here you've just got to decide if you're in the minority who's willing to look past all its compromises to be able to take advantage of it. 

Alright so those are all the specialist phones done the winners for people with specific needs but now it's time to look at the overall winners so we're gonna have best budget phone best mid-range phone best flagship phone best super phone and then finally the overall best value phone across all of these categories the one that will be taking home this very fancy trophy that i've had made for it alright so, i'm classing budget phone is anything around or under 300 and to be honest every realistic contender in this segment is either a spin-off company of xiaomi or oppo and it's not hugely surprising the main profits to be had in the smartphone market are not here honorable mention too the real me eight this company is quite consistently bringing out some of the most extreme price to performance ratios i've ever seen and also the poco x3 pro and the just announced poco m4 i know there's a lot of different names here but these two are pretty special however the winner of best budget phone on the market is xiaomi's redmi note 10 pro i genuinely think and i don't say this a lot for budget phones this is a beautiful device and for about 250 it is shockingly well-rounded good battery life good stereo speakers fluid 120 hertz display and importantly for me also a really good camera for the price my only slight reservation is that xiaomi have literally just announced the redmi note 11 pro which is china only for now but based on past history i would expect a global release probably early next year now then we've got the mid-range category the 300 to 600 sweet spot all phones i recommend here are phones that feel complete even though they're half the price of the top tier. 

And in this category, there is one clear winner which is almost a shame because of how many good options there are like the one plus Nord 2 which is a 400 phone that you could very easily mistake for a 700 phone screen battery camera the polish just makes it that little bit more premium that said there have been a reasonable amount of people who have said that their Nord twos have exploded we are only talking a handful but that's still enough to suggest that it might be a fundamental problem with this particular handset so I'm gonna hold off on saying you should buy one. 

The poco f3 though if 400 is all you want to spend I can't recommend it enough it's got the flagship feel.

And finally;

The real me gt this is the highest-end phone realm makes and so given how much this company manages to pack into 200 phones you can probably imagine that for 500 this thing is stacked but specs aren't everything and based on the experience of actually using them.