Which $150 smartphone? - Poco M3 & Nuu Mobile G5
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2021-05-05
·
2,079 words · ~10 min read
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- I can't get this box open. What the hell is going on here?
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Oh, look at the shape of the sleeve.
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We're off to a bad start here Nuu Mobile. Now it's easy to say,
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why would you spend a thousand dollars on an iPhone when you can get an Android phone
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that does everything you needed to do for less than $200.
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But most of the time when people say that, they're not actually citing
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specific models of Android phones that will legitimately give you a good user experience
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for less than $200. So today we went and got our hands on to hopeful candidates
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for your sub $200, the Nuu Mobile
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what is this thing called? G5 and the Poco M3.
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This one right here is $200, but on promo for 160, and this one from Poco
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is just 130 US dollars.
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That is absolutely flipping incredible.
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Especially when you consider that it comes with a charger
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and a live strong bracelet and a other more different bracelet, three whole bracelets.
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How the hell are they doing this for $130? You know, we originally set out to make a video
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about this Nuu Mobile G5, but then we were like,
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oh okay yeah, on its own, that might not justify a full video. So why don't we compare it to the Poco M3
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and then now I don't even want to talk about the Nuu Mobile G5.
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For $130 this thing is fricking nuts.
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Do they even think to charge these before we started? Oh wait, hey, wow.
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Just has a super long delay.
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This flipping nuts. Poco even includes like a cheap, crappy case with it.
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Screen protector, look at that. Like everything you need.
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They say nothing you don't, but I actually did not need these bracelets.
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So I'm gonna have to call out that lie in their marketing.
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Accessories for the Nuu Mobile G5 you got also a cheap crappy case.
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Oh yeah, we got this dark plastic cover to put over.
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Oh, that's yeah, that's awful. All right.
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Headphones though, along with not a particularly
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fast charging adapter, just a five volt, two amp
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and screen protector. All right, well, sorry, Nuu Mobile,
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but you're falling behind the Poco phone here
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and that is just the start of what's to come.
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Now these are AirPods plumes, look at that, shameless. One thing some people will be happy about though
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is those are three and a half millimeter headphone. So yes, the Nuu Mobile G5 has a headphone jack.
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It also uses type C charging. Got your speaker down here, got a fingerprint sensor
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on the back, got a four camera system.
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This is on $160 phone.
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So those are a 16 megapixel, eight megapixel
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and then dual two megapixel cameras. You got your volume rocker over here.
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I'm going to take this case off. This is, this is horrendous.
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You got your lock button right there and over on the other side you got your SIM tray,
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actually kind of curious, does it have my crusty expansion?
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Yes. SIM card tray and micro SD right there
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and then on the top whole lot of nothing. The screens nice and vibrant actually surprisingly bright
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like I'm gonna have to turn that down in order to capture it on camera.
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Okay. Is that okay, Brian? Yeah, there you go, that looks pretty good but don't expect it to be particularly sharp.
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This is a 1600 by 720P display.
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And I've talked a lot about how the difference between 1080 and 1440 on a mobile device
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is really not earth shattering but 720 is low enough pixel density
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that even with my aging eyes, I can easily tell the difference
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between that and a 1080P class display. Also the rest of the specs
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are just kind of like a step down. It's got four gigs of RAM, 64 gigs of storage.
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It uses a MediaTek Helio A25 Octa core processor
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and it's got a 5,000 milliamp Hour battery. It's actually pretty respectable,
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especially with that relatively power sipping chipset.
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I would expect this thing to last for quite a long time on a charge and fire up the camera,
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and I remember when like 250 $300 phones
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could barely take a picture better than a potato. This is like completely usable,
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like just reasonable, you know. Obviously we're not trying to evaluate it
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for like, you know, top tier low-light performance or anything like that.
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But if you're trying to capture a memory, it'll certainly do it.
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And that speaker's so horrible.
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Yeah, 720P. Oh.
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That may actually change with LG's new 48 inch CX OLED.
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Yeah, if you turn it up any higher than like
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sort of minimal listening volume in a quiet room,
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it really doesn't sound that great. Overall it's reasonably responsive.
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It's not a high refresh rate display obviously but feels pretty smooth to use
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or at least that's what I would have said
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if the M3 wasn't also part of this video today.
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Okay, just like the other one, let's lose this ugly case. I'm sorry, you just, I can't blah.
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This thing looks and feels absolutely unbelievable for $130.
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I mean, yeah, the back is unapologetically plastic
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or whatever but they've done a really good job of putting a finish on it
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that feels more like, like the, like it's, it's a texture.
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It's got character, as opposed to just being
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just a a flat glossy piece of plastic. It's got a 48 megapixel main shooter.
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It also has a headphone jack and check this is that IR meter?
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I think it is. Man I love that so with the right app,
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you could actually use this thing as a universal remote control.
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Let's see if it has expandable storage. I love going into these things totally cold
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because it's just so exciting to explore them. Freaking awesome.
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This thing was one ups the poor G5, in every possible way.
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Not only does it have micro SD on it's SIM tray,
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it's got dual SIM. Over on the right, we've got our lock button
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with oh, interesting. Does it not have a fingerprint sensor?
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Oh, nice, it's built into the lock button. I actually really liked that.
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Here we go. Unlock time, oh, hold on a second.
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Is it that fast?
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Oh, not bad. That's really good oh.
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Not only that, but it features a Snapdragon 662 processor,
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four gigs of LPDDR4x memory,
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a 1080P class display and a 6,000 milliamp Hour battery
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instead of a 5,000 milliamp Hour battery. Oh yeah and it's got an FM Radio
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because like, why not, I guess? Remember radio.
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What is Mi Music. Okay, I have a confession.
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That's how I always think of like, Xiaomi's Mi branding
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in my head. Mi Mix, Mi Ultra
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(laughs) I know they're like not, not Italian at all, I get it.
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Now you'd think $130 phone is probably heavily subsidized by ads.
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So having a look at what's pre-installed on it. We've got Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon.
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Although in fairness that's probably stuff that most people will install in it anyway.
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Google Assistant, a couple Mi weather notes.
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Nothing kind of crazy there. Oh, they're hey, there's the FM radio app.
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No headphones detected. Oh, that makes sense 'cause it probably uses
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the headphones as, as the antenna. Okay, well, oh God, it's still playing one second.
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Stop. Is that the pause button? Stop oh, oh God.
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How do I, are you kidding me? Oh, there's a power button in the top left.
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Well that's, that's intuitive. Sure, thank you for that. It's got out of the box access to the Play Store
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and other Google services. That's something you can't take for granted with these cheap phones
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and it's actually got the more stylish teardrop style
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hole punch up here. Whereas this one used the like hole punch, hole punch,
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bullet wound one. Wisely, they just disabled the haptic motor
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right out of the box so when you're typing, it just doesn't feel awful
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'cause I'm willing to bet it feels terrible. That's one of the things that is always gross on cheap phones.
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Actually this is a lot better than the other one. It's not great to be clear.
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It's not, not amazing. Let's see if it's got stereo speakers.
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It does. - [Brandon] Those are a lot better. - Oh, noticeably better like immediately noticeably better.
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Your watching the very first Linus tech tips video in high dynamic range.
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Save your money graphic artists, buy a TV influencer gamers.
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So no HDR display, no wireless charging,
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but guys let's be somewhat reasonable.
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This is a freaking ton of phone for your money.
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It's actually just take a couple quick snaps with the camera. 16 megapixel front facing camera as well.
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Hey John, how you doing? You know what?
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I think the G5 might have something
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it's legitimately better at.
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Definitely a lot of noise in the Poco M3 photo
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compared to the G5. Very interesting.
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Part of that appears to be a processing choice though. They both have very, very similar dynamic range.
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You can tell from these bright filming lights and sort of what gets lost in the details back here
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versus getting lost in the highlights here, but they've gone for a more boosted look.
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Obviously this isn't a full camera analysis and you're not buying $150 a class phone
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for its, you know, outstanding camera, but I will say that if you want a less grainy image,
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just, just, you know, point and click then the G5 might actually be the better performer here.
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So that's interesting, if you don't take a ton of pictures though
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that's not your highest priority this looks like it's not stabilized at all.
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So that would be, that would be my guess as far as video recording goes.
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I can't say that it's any different on the other one. If you mostly consume content
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as opposed to creating it though, man, M3 $130 US
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that is extremely compelling. Yeah. This one seems to at least have
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some electronic stabilization or something like that. You can, you can see it there.
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It's a little, little floaty, whereas this one, if I try to just freehand it here
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it's like all over the place and if I do my best.
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One last thing for the M3 is you get Corning Gorilla Glass three on the front
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for a little bit of extra shatter and scratch resistance compared to just regular generic tempered glass
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and that's pretty much it. So if you were wondering, you know,
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what is the response when someone says, well what Android phone can you get
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for an eighth of the price of a top tier iPhone
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that kind of does everything you need. The answer is one of these two and probably this one.
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Dang, that's compelling. If you like either of these we're going to have links down below.
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If you liked ShortCircuit, make sure you subscribe. I will see you all later.
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You know, I could get used to this bracelet look, what do you think, Brandon, should I start wearing like lots of bracelets?
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Just have that be part of my shtick. Do like an LTT Store bracelet. - [Brandon] Like you live in the 2000's.
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- Yeah.