Sorry, Apple.. "The Notch" is DEAD!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,824 words · ~9 min read
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single bloody phone around here that doesn't have a notch in it
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Shami me mix three
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all screen nice
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no not sweet
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snapdragon 855 processor oh
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nope looks like they're reserving that for the 5g model but it's got a slide
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it's so satisfying what an innovative
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idea having the phone slide like that why didn't anybody ever make a slider
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phone before
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feels good
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smart deploy allows IT departments to reimage unlimited computer models from
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one golden image search their library and grab your exclusive free licenses
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worth over $600 at smartdeploy calm slash Linus
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the meme x3 is xiaomi's newest flagship
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and it is readily apparent as soon as you open the box we even get this note
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from Xiaomi CEO Li Jun on the road of
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exploration we will constantly invest constantly strive and constantly break
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through we are willing to devote an
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additional 100 percent even if we only
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improve by 1% be friends with our users be the coolest
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company in the hearts of our users
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yeah sure it flows a lot better in
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Chinese next we've got the phone itself and then finally in the last compartment
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of the box you get a shockingly complete accessory package the headphone dongle
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kind of sucks it's a little thin and the case is unexceptional at best but they
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included a 10 watt wireless charger it's like a $50 value now on to the phone
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this thing is pretty it's got smooth
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curves a rear that's surprisingly easy
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to hold on to and a thicker profile that
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tickles me and exactly the RET sorry what was i talking about right phone
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sorry so one thing you'd expect in a
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device that is shoes the modern thin is in design trend is a bigger battery but
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the mix 3 actually loses 200 million powers of rated capacity
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over its predecessor on the right edge we've got our volume buttons and a lock
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button and then on the Left we've got an AI button that can be set up to launch
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pretty much anything you want through a combination of single press double press
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and long press activations
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I'm gonna let that sink in for a moment Samsung are you guys listening that's
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how simple it is to make proper use of an extra button so the thickness
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actually makes room for the slide but
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we're gonna get into that later first let's talk about the screen it's a 19
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and a half by 9 aspect ratio 1080p AMOLED panel that gives the mix 3 a
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staggering 9 3.4% screened to body ratio
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that means that it is unmatched by all
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but the Oppo find X which also used a
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sliding mechanism for itself you can the
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difference here is that unlike the motorized find X the mix 3 is all manual
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but in actually a good way it feels a
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lot like those old slide phones with the built-in keyboards and it's both
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satisfying in the hand and solid with no
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wobble or anything like that to feel concerned about it now I was worried
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about the motorized design on the find X so honestly I'm actually happy to see
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this more pragmatic approach show up even if it doesn't quite have the sex
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appeal so the way it works is it gives you this visual cue when you slide it by
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pulsing along the screen edges and it'll emit a configurable audio tone just in
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case you need your phone to sound like you've unsheathed disord when you're
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taking a selfie for some reason what's cool is that it isn't all for show so
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you can actually turn the slide into a gesture that performs an action of your
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choosing Samsung are you guys taking
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notes on this though this approach does
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have its flaws so if you like using your phone for more than one thing like say
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for example taking selfies and also
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engaging NVIDIA calls chances are that you'll find Auto launching an app as
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annoying as it is helpful and it would be nice to have a black list of apps
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where when they're open it doesn't just take over what you're doing now on the
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plus side if you choose to take a selfie option which is what I've got going on
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here it will even work without unlocking
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your phone pretty nice speaking of which the mix 3 does have face unlock but
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unlike the find X and the iPhone 10 for that matter the whole experience does
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feel a little less magical and seamless
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because you have to manually slide the phone in order to expose the sensors the
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good news is that unlike the iPhone 10
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Xiaomi didn't feel the need to remove
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the rear fingerprint sensor so if you prefer that way well then you've got
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good old-fashioned fingerprint sensing that is virtually instantaneous and
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pretty darn accurate so much so that it's actually possible to accidentally
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unlock the phone just by brushing against it in your pocket and that level
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of responsiveness is system-wide even though the writing is
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on the wall for the snapdragon 845 SOC that our mix 3 is equipped with now on
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our 6 gig model everything that's butter smooth and even opening apps from a cold
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start is quick and painless and it can
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only get better from there if you spring for the top-end model you get a whopping
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10 gigabytes of RAM to make sure that there's always some memory available for
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task switching though that's most of the
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nice stuff that I can say about the software experience it's no secret that
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me UI is not my favorite Android skin
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but its latest iteration did at least get a couple of things right the system
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theme is consistent feeling it looks reasonably pleasing and jemmye
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apparently didn't get the memo that and rape I dropped the quick access to
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system-wide audio sliders which is just
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fine by me and actually while we're at it the camera app is pretty competent
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too there's plenty of manual shooting options here to control things like
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exposure ISO and white balance along with a number of shooting modes you got
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your night mode your 9 60 FPS slo-mo and a bunch of what Xiaomi calls AI modes AI
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portrait AI beautify AI studio lighting AI scene detection and AI background
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music that's a weird one the cameras
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themselves are arranged in a two front-to-rear configuration with the
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primary front camera using the new sony IMX 576 sensor that's set up to make use
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of super pixels essentially simulating a
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larger physical sensor with its massive resolution to reduce the incidence of
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noise and improve low-light performance as for our testing well it I don't know
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sort of worked it's a little weird so
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our low-light photos weren't especially noisy but there was definitely a lot of
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smoothing going on more than you might expect even on an Asian phone that's got
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all the beauty enhancement that you would expect from it as for the rear
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shooter well it's kind of the usual Xiaomi experience if you're a full
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manual operator then there's plenty of options but if you just want to pick up
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and snap and get something usable every time you're still gonna want a pixel or
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an iPhone or if you're on a budget I guess a 1 plus interestingly it does
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seem to handle highlights very well as seen in our living room shot here but
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it's processing tends to over brighten the image beyond what looks natural I
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mean these days when it comes down to is that software processing is far more
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important than the specs of the camera and that's an area where Google and
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Apple still stand out though I am rooting for the s10 to be a big leap
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forward for Samsung's processing also I've got some more bad news along with
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the lack of headphone jack is another missing feature that I've come to expect
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on high-end smartphones stereo speakers
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why have all of this screamed for
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watching YouTube TV shows and movies on the go if you're just gonna put a single
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downward firing speaker without an
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amplified earpiece speaker and it's not
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even a fantastic one now with that said you are getting a bit of a discount at
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between five hundred and sixty to 600 bucks on gearbest the mix threes main
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competitor is the oneplus 16 and it doesn't give up much in comparison at
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least on paper specs are very similar now the front fingerprint scanner on the
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60 is a BFD and 1 plus as oxygen OS is
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in my humble opinion miles ahead of me UI but that's almost a
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completely separate video and anyway to counter that Xiaomi not only supports
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wireless charging which one Plus does not they even throw in the
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aforementioned charger so I think for a lot of people it's gonna come down to
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style which is I guess how Samsung and
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Apple keep managing to charge a lot more for phones that frankly don't have much
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on their Chinese competitors at this point
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the iFixit protec toolkit is designed to
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help you tackle almost any electronics repair challenge it includes over 13
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different tools including their 64 steel screw driver bit kits the Jimmy a steel
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flexible blade that allows for powerful prying and a small suction cup for
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removing glass panels from a phone or tablet all I fixed the tools are backed
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by a lifetime warranty so if something breaks they'll replace it for free
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that's how warranties work and you don't need to be a genius to fix your tools
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you just need the right tools over at ifixit.com they've got tons of guides so
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pretty much anyone can repair their devices go to ifixit.com forward slash
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Lynas and get your protec tool kit today so thanks for watching guys if you
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disliked this video well you know where that button is but if you liked it hit like get subscribed or check out the
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link to where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description also linked in the
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description is our merch store which is updated all new ltd store comm which has
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cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally
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join really as satisfying isn't it