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After a month with this keyboard phone I don't want to go back — Transcript

by Shane Craig · 4,167 words · 576 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I have been using the Unihertz Titan 2
0:03Elite [music]
0:04now for over a month since around
0:07mid-April and while during that time I
0:11have certainly come across a few more
0:13pain points, a few more little quirks
0:16and things that maybe I would change. I
0:18have to admit my affection for this
0:20device has really only grown. Now, like
0:24I've mentioned in some other content,
0:25there have definitely been times where I
0:27have been going out on a trail or
0:29something and I have thrown a different
0:31phone in my pocket to serve as that zoom
0:34camera or maybe I've sat down on the
0:36couch and wanted a larger canvas for
0:38media consumption or something like
0:41that. But by and large, the vast vast
0:44majority of my time has been spent with
0:47the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite and my SIM
0:50card has not left this device save one
0:54instance. You guys know that I have the
0:56Moto Razr Fold coming in for review and
0:59my shipping information told me that it
1:01was going to be delivered within like a
1:03couple of days. So, I moved my SIM into
1:06my Moto Razr Plus to get things all set
1:08up and ready to just transfer over to
1:11that phone and pretty quickly after
1:14doing that, I'm just kind of noticing
1:16that I really am not enjoying using such
1:18a tall phone. Not enjoying typing on
1:21glass. I found myself going to YouTube
1:24shorts and scrolling through them like
1:26absent-mindedly, something I had not
1:28done in weeks with the Titan 2 Elite.
1:31And then when I saw my shipping, my
1:32tracking information updated and the
1:34Razr Fold wasn't actually coming for a
1:36few more days, it got pushed back for
1:39whatever reason,
1:40I caved immediately. My SIM came out and
1:43it went back into the Titan 2 Elite.
1:46Some of you may have noticed this little
1:48sign back here that shows how many
1:49subscribers I have. I've just hit 81,000
1:52subscribers. If you'd like to help me
1:54hit 100,000 subscribers, please do
1:57consider hitting that subscribe button
1:59down below. I don't know exactly what it
2:02is, but there's something about this
2:03phone that scratches that gadget itch
2:06more than, or I guess I should say
2:08better than, like any phone I have used
2:11since the original Surface Duo. It is
2:14just so incredibly unique and different,
2:17and everything about it is just kind of
2:19novel and and fun, enjoyable. Obviously,
2:23this is super subjective, but I think
2:25this is like one of the best-looking
2:27phones on the market. I think that this
2:28thing looks absolutely fantastic.
2:30There's just something about this design
2:32that I adore. Obviously, the back is not
2:36quite as nice to look at as the front.
2:38I've I've heard rumors that they might
2:40be getting rid of that little NFC label
2:43on the back. Please do that. I don't
2:44know what they were thinking with that.
2:45That's that's really bad. The back is is
2:47just a little kind of just plain Jane.
2:50But man, I don't know. You call me
2:51crazy, and I probably am, and some of
2:53you probably agree, some of you probably
2:55disagree, but I adore I adore the way
2:58that this phone looks. And what's really
3:00interesting to me is that like I mean
3:02you guys know, I've been using folding
3:04phones for a long time, since the Z Fold
3:062. I have never carried a phone that has
3:09elicited more "Oh my god, what is that?"
3:13responses and reactions from people who
3:16I have encountered out in the world. And
3:19what's so funny about that is it's like
3:21not just that they're like confused
3:23about what it is. They see it and they
3:26go, "What is that?" And I go, "Oh, it's
3:27just this this weird little keyboard
3:29phone that I'm testing." And they go,
3:31"Wow, that reminds me of my old phone."
3:34And then they like inevitably, they let
3:37out like a sigh, and they go,
3:39"I miss that old phone." Like people
3:41have a weird nostalgia for these
3:44these sorts of phones and like this
3:46simpler time that they are associated
3:49with. Now look, do I think that these
3:51people, most of them or even many of
3:54them who reacted that way, if I took
3:56their iPhone and I gave them this that
3:58they would be happy with this? No, they
4:00would want to go back to their iPhone,
4:01to their big screen for media
4:03consumption and things like that. But
4:05it's just interesting to me how people
4:07react when they see this phone. One of
4:10my favorite aspects of this phone is
4:12just how small it is. As someone who has
4:15been carrying these folding phones for
4:18so long, having something like this in
4:21my pocket instead, I swear it almost
4:23feels more like carrying a set of
4:25earbuds than it feels like carrying a
4:27phone like this. It's only about 170 g.
4:30As you can see, I mean it's over an
4:32inch. I'd say maybe like an inch and a
4:33quarter less in terms of the height.
4:36Yes, it is a little bit on the thick
4:38side, but I mean, look, here's the Honor
4:40Magic V6 with an aramid fiber case on.
4:44Is that really that big of a deal? Is
4:46that really that thick? I'll just tell
4:47you for my use, this thing in your
4:49pocket feels radically, radically
4:52different than like any other slab phone
4:54that you can put in your pocket. And
4:57it's it's so easy to just like use. I
4:59kind of like I have this weird habit of
5:01like holding it like this sometimes if
5:03I'm just like holding onto it. And this
5:05is something that you can't really do
5:07with like a normal I don't know why. I
5:09don't know why I do that. Sometimes I do
5:10this if I'm like talking to Jim and I or
5:12I'm I'm on the phone or something like
5:14that. But it's just funny to me that I
5:15can't. It's so small. It's so compact. I
5:18do not have large hands. And look at the
5:21difference in size between these two
5:23things. It's it's just Yeah, it's just
5:26nice. And then heaven forbid I pick up a
5:28foldable like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold that
5:31literally feels like a brick by
5:34comparison to this thing. It just It
5:36feels like it's a completely different
5:38class of device.
5:40And it is. And for me, that is a huge
5:42part of the appeal. It is a completely
5:45different kind, different type of device
5:48for a different sort of thing. It's been
5:51refreshing. Camera performance continues
5:53to be just good enough for me. I made a
5:57video talking about how the stock camera
6:00app is really bare-bones and the
6:02processing is basically non-existent.
6:04So, what you can do is you can install a
6:06G Cam port. This takes the Google Pixel
6:08camera software and puts it onto various
6:11different devices. I managed to find a
6:12port that works well enough. And with
6:14that installed, photos look better than
6:18you might expect them to look. The only
6:20caveat that I will really give you is
6:21that sometimes the white balance things
6:24get or I guess I should say like the
6:25color temperature, things get a little
6:27orange, a little bit too warm. You might
6:29want to go into Google Photos and you
6:31can actually just use that quick like AI
6:34edit button. I think it says AI enhance
6:36and it will generally fix that for you
6:39very, very quickly.
6:40Even if generally speaking editing in
6:43Google Photos is a bit of a pain because
6:46it the UI just does not work well. The
6:48image you can see that you're editing is
6:50absolutely tiny.
6:52But again, you can fix that color
6:54problem. And that doesn't happen very
6:55often. Just every now and again.
6:57Normally the white balance and the color
6:59temperature is really, really good with
7:02G Cam. The G Cam app doesn't have access
7:04to the 2X telephoto. That can be a
7:06little bit of a bummer and video in the
7:08G Cam flashes. It does some really weird
7:11things. So, you're going to kind of end
7:12up using both camera apps for different
7:14things. What I've done is I have mapped
7:17the G Cam port to a double click of the
7:20programmable uh that red button there
7:22and the normal camera to a double tap of
7:25the power button so I can quickly use
7:27either one. Big shout out to Unihertz
7:29for leaving the programmable button. I
7:31love that. It is really, really useful.
7:34Like I was saying though, back to that
7:35camera performance. It's better than you
7:37probably think it's going to be. Other
7:39than the color sometimes occasionally
7:42being a little bit off. The other thing
7:44that has annoyed me is just it sometimes
7:46is very difficult to focus on an object
7:48that is relatively close. I like taking
7:50sort of macro style photos of flowers
7:52and insects and things like that.
7:54Sometimes it just does not want to focus
7:57on stuff that is up close and you have
7:58to like sit there and kind of do this
8:00thing and you're trying to get it to
8:01focus. You normally can, but it
8:03sometimes it can be very, very annoying.
8:06But if you're just out and about and you
8:08need to quickly take a shot of something
8:10to just preserve a memory or something
8:12like that, it's absolutely fine. If
8:14you're going out to some beautiful place
8:16where you might need zoom or something a
8:18bit more capable, you want to shoot a
8:19lot of video, you might want to bring
8:21something else with you. In general, the
8:23software experience is one that just
8:25kind of mostly stays out of your way.
8:27It's a very basic launcher that doesn't
8:29really try to do a whole lot. One
8:32annoyance for me is that your quick
8:33settings are a down swipe on the right
8:35side, your notifications are on the left
8:37side and you can't actually swipe back
8:39and forth between these. That's such an
8:41oversight for me. Another oversight is
8:43that your quick settings icons do not
8:46theme. They are always blue no matter
8:48what your material you color is, it's
8:51always going to be blue. Talked about
8:54that camera app and, you know, there's
8:55just not much in there. It's very, very
8:57bare bones. There's not even like a
8:58portrait mode in there. So, you're going
8:59to want to use, like I said, something
9:01like this LMC Gcam port. And there's
9:04another example of something kind of
9:06like that. The built-in keyboard
9:07software called Kika is just really,
9:10really bad. Text correction is bad. It
9:12does really weird things sometimes. But
9:14the good news is, you can install
9:16something called Pastiera, which I've
9:18talked about in the past, and it is
9:19going to allow you to fix a lot of these
9:24issues. You can see this little bar down
9:25here at the bottom as you're typing.
9:27That is Pastiera doing its thing. Text
9:30correction is instantly, instantly much
9:33improved. It's so improved that the fact
9:36that this keyboard will every once in a
9:38while, I might see this once, maybe
9:40twice a day, I'll hit a letter and it
9:42will put that letter in twice. It's
9:44almost like there's a little lag there
9:46and it thinks I held the key or
9:47something.
9:48But the text correction in Pastier is so
9:50good that it took me a while to even
9:53realize that was happening because I
9:55would get a little vibration saying that
9:56a word had been corrected and I'd be
9:58like, I thought I typed that correctly.
9:59I started paying attention. It was just
10:01fixing the double letter. That's
10:03just it's like a bad thing, but it's a
10:06good thing that you notice because of
10:07the bad thing. But it also adds a whole
10:09bunch of other cool features. Lots and
10:12lots of customization, lots of settings
10:15you can get into to kind of get this
10:16thing exactly where you want it. And let
10:19me just tell you, it is transformative
10:22when it comes to this device. And there
10:23are a couple of features, I think three
10:26features, that I really want to call out
10:28specifically that make this thing so
10:30much better. So, the first one is your
10:32enter key behavior. You can customize
10:35that. If you want to hit enter to send
10:36your text message and shift enter to do
10:39a line break, you can do that. You can
10:41set it to app default if you want to do
10:43that. But I really like being able to
10:44hit enter to send a message. It feels
10:47great. How about the quick launcher? So,
10:49by default with the built-in system
10:52settings, I can kind of show you this
10:53here very quickly. If we go into the
10:55shortcut keys, you can map all these
10:57different keys to be different things
10:59and you can do letters. You can actually
11:01map each letter to be something that
11:03will launch an application and that's
11:05really useful, but it's actually faster
11:08inside Pastier. If I go home and I hit
11:10T, it's going to open up Threads. Let's
11:12just go ahead and close everything.
11:15We'll just close everything. I'll get
11:16Pastier loaded back up again and then
11:18I'll go back and hit T and you can see
11:20how fast it's going to launch that
11:22application. If you launch an app that
11:23you don't have mapped, I guess I should
11:25say you hit a key you don't have mapped,
11:27it's going to give you this little
11:29launcher that's going to allow you to
11:30map an application. And then from there
11:32on, you can do exactly that, and it is
11:35super fast and super responsive. If
11:38you're already in an app, you can hold
11:40down symbol and do the same thing. It's
11:42really, really good. But there is, like
11:44I said, one more back in customization,
11:47and it is nav mode. So, what this does
11:49is it allows you to hold down a control
11:51key and then use these other keys to
11:54move your cursor around as well as doing
11:57other things. Now, there is one
11:58prerequisite. We do need to have a
12:00control key. So, if we go back into the
12:03shortcut key section, what I've done is
12:04I've mapped my FN key, my function key,
12:07to act as control. And there are lots of
12:10really good advantages there, right? So,
12:11you can do control all, control C to
12:14copy, control V to paste, control X to
12:16cut, control T to open up a tab, control
12:18W to close that tab in your browsers.
12:21That alone is really, really good. But
12:24when you pair it with this,
12:26it just, like I said, it's
12:28transformative. I'm going to type just a
12:29bunch of random characters here so that
12:30I can show you this. And if I hold down
12:33control, I can now hit S and move that
12:35cursor around one at a time. We've all
12:39been in this situation where we're
12:41trying to get our cursor in that exact
12:43spot, and we can't quite get it where we
12:45want it. Guess what? Now, you can. You
12:48can do all sorts of cool things like
12:50that. That is such a like gadgety thing
12:52to be able to do, but man, oh man, is it
12:55so incredibly useful. If you have this
12:57phone, if you have any keyboard phone,
12:59you're thinking about getting a keyboard
13:01phone, install Pastie Era. It is so
13:03worth your time. And speaking of time,
13:06let's talk about how long this device
13:07lasts on a charge. This is a place
13:09where, kind of like the camera,
13:11it's just barely good enough. My normal
13:13routine, I'm going to wake up 6:30,
13:156:00, 6:30. It's going to be unplugged
13:18at that point, and I'm going to use it
13:19throughout the day until around 9:00 or
13:21so. And by the time 9:00 rolls around, I
13:24am normally on fumes. And this thing
13:26does have a 4,000 mA power battery and
13:29it does have a 4-in screen. It's a
13:31Dimensity 7400 processor and I think a
13:34lot of you, like myself, probably
13:36expected the battery to last longer than
13:39it does. I think that there might be
13:42some optimization needing to be done
13:44with this software. Just going to get
13:46you a general idea.
13:48You guys watching my channel, a lot of
13:50you probably are familiar with the Z
13:51Fold 7. I made a lot of content about
13:53that. It's one of my favorite foldables
13:54and a lot of people complained about
13:55that battery life. It's a 4400 mA power
13:57battery, but it's like an 8-in inner
14:00screen or something like that. That
14:02device lasts quite a bit longer for me
14:04than the Titan 2 L8 and that really just
14:07does not make any sense. The screen is
14:09way bigger. It is a way more powerful
14:11processor and I'm doing a lot more like
14:14intensive stuff on it, but it lasts
14:16longer and the reason is because it's
14:18just a better optimized device. One big
14:21piece of evidence
14:22that this device is not well optimized
14:24is how strangely warm it will get. Now,
14:27don't get me wrong, I've never had an
14:28overheating moment where something's
14:30popped up and said, "You got to stop
14:32doing what you're doing. We're shutting
14:33this app down. We're shutting the phone
14:34down." Nothing like that. Not a true
14:36overheat, but it definitely, when you're
14:38using it for an extended period, you are
14:41going to notice that this thing gets
14:43strangely warm and what does that mean?
14:47It means that your phone is turning the
14:49potential energy in your battery into
14:52thermal energy that is being released
14:54into the air around. That is
14:57inefficiency by definition. So, there's
14:59something going on here that I think
15:01hopefully could be fixed. Now, I am
15:04still technically running pre-release
15:06software. So, like let's cross every
15:08finger we can that that stuff can be
15:11fixed. Generally speaking, though,
15:12performance has been surprisingly good.
15:15If I just start launching applications,
15:17I think you can see it and I mean, a lot
15:19of these are launching for the first
15:20time. They're not running in the
15:21background. You can see that it's it's
15:24quite smooth. It's maybe smoother than
15:26than you would think that it would be.
15:28And even when you're in some of these
15:30heavier applications like YouTube, you
15:32can just kind of freely scroll and it's
15:34not really dropping too many frames. I
15:36did have some instances at one point
15:39where the frame rate definitely would
15:41drop. The refresh rate was staying
15:43consistent. I checked in developer
15:44options. You can pin the refresh rate up
15:46there and that was staying consistent,
15:48but the frames were dropping. That seems
15:50like mostly kind of sorted itself out.
15:53I'm not really sure what happened there,
15:55but I've been like pleasantly surprised
15:57with the performance itself, thermals,
16:00and battery life notwithstanding.
16:03Something else that I've started to
16:04experience that maybe you could qualify
16:06or classify as a as a strange quirk is
16:10that I've seen several times over the
16:12last couple of weeks where maybe I was
16:13just in an application and that
16:15application would start to kind of
16:17scroll on its own. Like sometimes it's
16:19just very slowly with this kind of like
16:22jittery up and down thing kind of
16:24working its way up or down. Usually it's
16:27up now that I'm thinking about it. Not
16:29sure what's going on there if it's
16:31something to do with the touch digitizer
16:33freaking out or if it's the ability to
16:35scroll with the keyboard, something. I
16:37suspect it's probably that. Something
16:40freaking out there. Definitely not a not
16:42a deal breaker, but it's something that
16:44I've I've seen a few times now and every
16:46time I see it I'm like that's very
16:47strange to watch the phone sort of just
16:50out of your hand on a table just
16:51jittering around and trying to scroll.
16:53You can usually just kind of scroll back
16:55where you want to go. Sometimes I'll
16:57just lock it and unlock it and that
16:58seems to to fix it, but
17:01several things do point towards the a
17:03few things needing to be addressed uh in
17:06that software.
17:08In terms of like a basic question like
17:11your your cell service, I do use Mint
17:13Mobile which uses T-Mobile towers and I
17:15will say that my signal is a little bit
17:17weaker than it is on some other phones.
17:19And this is this is how I would how I
17:21would describe that. If I'm using my Z
17:23Fold 7 and I go to a place where my
17:25signal is weak, I have a signal but it's
17:27slow and it's weak. Put my SIM into the
17:30Titan 2 Elite, I might not have any
17:31signal at all. It's not a huge
17:34difference and
17:35generally speaking, when I'm out and
17:37about, I don't notice anything. I'm able
17:39to stream music and you know, to my car
17:41and things like that, no problems. But
17:42again, if I go to these places with a
17:44weak signal, places I'm used to having a
17:46weak signal, probably not going to have
17:48a signal at all with this device. I got
17:51to tell you, reviewing a phone like this
17:53is just really weird because it's
17:55difficult to to properly get the idea
17:58across. A lot of people are going to
17:59watch this and they're going to be like,
18:01remind me like, why does he like this
18:03phone so much? Like the camera's okay,
18:05the battery life is okay, performance is
18:08okay, but I'm sitting here telling you
18:10how much I love the thing. I think it's
18:12such a fantastic phone and it's because
18:15you can't really judge it the same way
18:17that you judge a normal phone because
18:18it's not for the same things a normal
18:21phone is for. This device
18:24is different. It's categorically
18:26different from an iPhone or an S26 Ultra
18:29or a Z Fold 7. It's just a completely
18:32different thing. And look, I'm not here
18:35to tell you what you like or what you
18:37need. But when you look at this phone,
18:39you're either going to see it and you're
18:40going to go, oh, I know exactly what
18:43that's for or you're going to see it and
18:44you're going to go, I have no idea why
18:46anybody would want that. You can sort
18:47yourselves into one of those two
18:49categories, I think,
18:51pretty easily. And if you're in that
18:53first category, you're looking for a
18:55phone that might curtail that doom
18:57scrolling, that isn't going to suck you
18:59in to that black hole, that attention
19:02span black hole that many phones will
19:05attempt to to suck you into. A phone
19:07that you're going to pull out of your
19:08pocket, you're going to quickly do the
19:09thing you need to do and then you're
19:10going to do this amazing thing where you
19:12put your phone back into your pocket.
19:14You're looking for something to break
19:15those habits. You're looking for
19:17something that gives you that tactility
19:19that is kind of old-school. Maybe you're
19:21one of those people who saw that phone
19:22and thought, "Oh my god, what is that?"
19:24And you think, "I really miss those
19:25days." And it goes deeper than just the
19:28phone. You miss the days when your phone
19:30wasn't an end-all, be-all, do-all thing.
19:34You kind of want to go back to something
19:35that the word I've been using is more
19:37bespoke. A certain device for a certain
19:39thing. Maybe you want to carry an
19:41e-reader alongside your phone rather
19:43than reading on your phone. If you're
19:45one of those people, this is the best
19:49one of those things that I have used
19:52in a very, very, very long time. It's
19:55the best one you can buy right now. If
19:58you are not one of those people, thanks
20:00for making it this deep into a video
20:01about a phone that you have no intention
20:04on buying. I do appreciate it. Guys,
20:07it's a fun phone. It's completely
20:09different. It's novel.
20:11I'm going to be switching to the Razer
20:12Fold here in just a matter of days, and
20:14I genuinely don't know what that's going
20:17to be like. Am I going to want to go
20:18back to this phone? How am I going to
20:20feel using one of these highly
20:22homogenized, do-all devices? I have
20:25enjoyed using a device that isn't good
20:28at everything because that means there
20:31are times that I could do a thing, but I
20:34go, "No, I can't do it on this." And I
20:36end up putting the phone away. And
20:38there's something quite powerful about
20:40that. I have no idea. But, you can
20:42subscribe to the channel to find out how
20:44that's going to go, guys. Thanks for
20:45watching. Subscribe for more content
20:47just like this. And until next time,
20:49stay nerdy, my friends.
20:51>> [music]
20:55[music]

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