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  • - This video is sponsored by Clash Royale.

  • Hey guys, this is Austin.

  • With flagship smart phones costing

  • in excess of $1000 sometimes,

  • it really got me thinking.

  • Is it possible to get yourself

  • an actually decent smart phone for less than $200?

  • Which brings us here.

  • So in front of me I have four phones

  • all costing less than $200.

  • So I just took a look at the Nokia 2

  • as part of my why does Nokia exist in 2018 video,

  • and my verdict on it was actually really positive.

  • So for $100 you're going to be getting

  • some premium build quality features

  • like an actual aluminum chassis,

  • a giant 4100mAh battery.

  • So there's decent software, a nice screen.

  • There really wasn't a lot to complain about,

  • besides the performance.

  • Move up to the BLU and for another $40,

  • you're getting a much larger phone.

  • So this actually looks a lot more modern in a lot of ways.

  • I feel like the main thing

  • that you're gonna immediately notice

  • is the 18 by 9 aspect ratio on the screen.

  • There's still going to be bezels

  • but they're a lot smaller than on the Nokia.

  • One thing that is added on the BLU, though,

  • is a rear facing fingerprint sensor.

  • Something that's really nice to see

  • on a budget device like this.

  • Spend another $30 though

  • and you can get yourself the Doogee Mix.

  • Now this phone easily feels like it could cost

  • twice it's price.

  • So the first thing you notice is the near bezel-less design.

  • Yeah, there's gonna be a tiny bezel up top.

  • And there is a fairly big chin

  • but it looks very distinctive and that,

  • combined with the heft as well as the nice metal build,

  • the glass front and back,

  • this really does feel like a phone

  • that could easily cost $500.

  • Of course it's not going to be perfect,

  • so with that chin comes a fingerprint sensor

  • that's going to be down here.

  • Unfortunately you still have on-screen Android keys

  • which feels like a little bit of a waste.

  • And also, very bizarrely the front facing camera

  • is on the bottom right side.

  • But I guess they didn't really have anywhere else to put it?

  • With the NUU G3, you're getting something

  • that looks very, very similar to a certain series

  • of Samsung Galaxy devices.

  • But that's actually not going to be a bad thing

  • in my opinion.

  • So around back, it's got that same sort of

  • curved edges, you've got the dual cameras

  • as well as the fingerprint sensor.

  • But interestingly, you're also going to be getting

  • a tapered glass finish on the back,

  • as well as even on the display.

  • It does curve a little bit on the edges.

  • And bizarrely, even though they did add a USB-C port,

  • the only of these phones that actually does have USB-C.

  • They removed the headphone jack.

  • Which, weirdly, the Galaxy S9 actually was able

  • to keep this generation.

  • As far as the screens go, all four phones

  • actually do have decent displays.

  • So the Nokia 2 has a five inch, 720p panel.

  • Step up to the BLU and you're getting that taller

  • 18 by 9 aspect ratio, with a 1440 by 720 resolution.

  • However it's going to be stretched on a six inch display

  • which does look a little bit soft sometimes.

  • The Doogee is rocking a 5.5 inch 720p panel

  • and interestingly this is actually going to be

  • a Samsung AMOLED panel.

  • Now the colors, to my eye, are going to be

  • a little bit over saturated.

  • But it's a good looking panel.

  • However, my favorite is actually going to be on the NUU.

  • So this is still a 5.7 inch 720p panel.

  • Same as basically all of these.

  • However, the color, the brightness, the contrast,

  • and especially the viewing angles really do set this

  • a slight bit above the rest of the other phones.

  • When you're spending $200 on a smart phone,

  • you shouldn't expect any kind of crazy performance.

  • However, two of these phones

  • actually do perform pretty well.

  • One of the phones that does not, however

  • is the Nokia 2.

  • And this is honestly a case where I feel like

  • Nokia made a lot of the right decisions

  • when they were designing this phone,

  • but I think they cheaped out just a little bit too much

  • when it comes to performance.

  • So inside, you're going to find a Snapdragon 212 processor,

  • which is a very old and very slow quad core chip.

  • And that is going to be paired

  • with a mere one gigabyte of RAM

  • and eight gigabytes of storage.

  • Now the eight gigs of storage you can kinda get around

  • because you do have a microSD card slot.

  • But only one gig of RAM and that slow CPU

  • just makes Android feel not great.

  • Move up to the Vivo and you're going to be getting

  • an upgraded Snapdragon 425 processor.

  • That's still going to be quad core,

  • however there are going to be updated Cortex 853s,

  • which is pretty much shared with the rest of these phones.

  • And importantly, you're going to be getting

  • three gigs of RAM as well as 32 gigs of storage.

  • That's going to be plenty to run pretty much

  • any kind of Android app or game right now.

  • And on top of that, what you're going to be getting

  • is a pretty decently sized 3000mAh battery.

  • Interestingly, both the Doogee as well as the NUU

  • are rocking very similar specs.

  • So they each have the MediaTek 6757 eight core processor.

  • They're both paired with four gigabytes of RAM.

  • And they both also have 64 gigabytes of built in storage

  • with microSD expandability.

  • The biggest difference here is that while the NUU

  • has a 3000mAh battery,

  • the Doogee is going to have a slightly bigger

  • 3380mAh cell.

  • That was a lot of words.

  • Use these phones in the real world though,

  • and you'll see this is one of the best examples

  • of why specs and benchmarks aren't everything.

  • So inside Geekbench what you're going to find

  • is that the Doogee and the NUU

  • are going to be significantly faster.

  • But in practice, that's actually not the case.

  • So the BLU actually feels really nice.

  • Sure, on paper, it's not going to have quite

  • the same spec and quite as much memory

  • but it's fairly snappy.

  • It's going to be responsive.

  • And it is going to have the power to do some gaming.

  • However, when you step to the Doogee,

  • what you're gonna find is something that feels

  • really, really old school.

  • There's one clear reason for that.

  • This software is straight garbage town.

  • Now I think what it is, is it's going to be a really

  • poorly optimized build of Android

  • paired with a pretty heavy skin.

  • So when I'm scrolling around here,

  • what I feel is just the frame rate is slow.

  • It doesn't feel responsive.

  • It really feels like I'm using a phone from five, six,

  • seven years ago, and that's totally not okay

  • at any price, especially when you consider

  • that cheaper phones are going to perform

  • and feel much, much better.

  • The best of both worlds though, is going to be

  • the NUU, so not only do you have the

  • on paper specs and the potential of those specs,

  • but you also have a build of Android

  • which is going to be fairly clean

  • and you know, not laggy and slow.

  • Sure, if you put this side by side

  • with something like a Pixel,

  • it's not going to be able to hold up

  • but for a normal person just to pick up the phone and use,

  • it is going to be totally respectable.

  • And of course, what better way to take advantage

  • of those awesome specs than by playing some

  • Clash Royale, the sponsor of today's video.

  • Don't you love my super clean segue?

  • I've had a lot of travel lately,

  • which has given me a lot of time

  • to play some mobile games.

  • And I've found that Clash Royale has legitimately

  • taken up almost all of my phone gaming time.

  • Clash Royale is a free to play game

  • where you can duel players in real time

  • while unlocking arenas, cards, and collecting treasure.

  • Now I gotta say, I'm not usually into freemium mobile games,

  • but Clash Royale is really well done.

  • So it's really simple to be able to get into a match,

  • and once you get in there, while it's easy to learn,

  • there's plenty of depth to make it challenging.

  • And you can still play with your friends as well.

  • And if you really wanna get into it,

  • they released a new feature called Clan Wars,

  • where you could assemble a clan and compete against others

  • in a series of battle modes to see who's the best.

  • So if this looks cool to you, you can check it out

  • in the link in the description.

  • Or you can just search up Clash Royale

  • on Google Play as well as the App Store.

  • While it might be slow, the Nokia 2 has the cleanest build

  • of Android here.

  • Now right now, it's running on Android 7

  • although it will be getting an update to Oreo pretty soon.

  • But even though this isn't an Android One device,

  • it really does feel like it.

  • There's essentially no bloat, and actually

  • Nokia's been good with updates, too.

  • The NUU G3 isn't far off.

  • Now yes, there are a couple of apps

  • and they've done a little bit of tweaking,

  • but for the most part, you are getting a stock build

  • of Android.

  • What you're not necessarily getting though

  • is any real guarantee of solid Android updates

  • in the future.

  • But, right now, seems to be working out okay

  • if you don't mind taking the risk.

  • Come over to the BLU and well,

  • we've got some software issues.

  • First of all, it is a pretty offensive skin.

  • So not only do you not even have an app drawer,

  • but there's a lot of bloat on this guy.

  • Now I get it, they've gotta make some sacrifices

  • to be able to hit this price point,

  • but if this is me, I would put some serious work

  • into cleaning up as much as I could,

  • changing the launcher because right now,

  • yeah, not good.

  • Whereas the Doogee has well some straight

  • garbage town software that I've already complained about.

  • But, yeah, it's just not good.

  • But what could be good are the cameras

  • on all four of these phones.

  • Or they might not be good, actually.

  • They are less than $200.

  • So, yeah.

  • So to start with, let's give the $100 Nokia 2 a try.

  • Now this guy has a single eight megapixel

  • rear facing camera.

  • So as with a lot of things on the Nokia 2,

  • the performance is not going to be fast

  • when it comes to taking photos.

  • And to be fair, this is a really challenging shot,

  • which it really doesn't hold the highlights well in.

  • That's a very white sky.

  • There's some detail there, although

  • it almost seems like the processing is a little bit

  • soft.

  • Although I say processing, most likely it's the

  • less than stellar optics on this tiny, tiny little camera.

  • Stepping up in the budget range to the $140 BLU

  • we do get a 13 megapixel camera.

  • And well, it looks bigger so it must better right?

  • Allow camera to phone.

  • Why, yes, I want my camera to phone.

  • That's definitely something I want.

  • Alright so let's throw that

  • really contrasting shot at it.

  • So there's definitely more detail with the BLU shot

  • however, I actually feel like

  • there's even less dynamic range.

  • It really does have a hard time with those highlights

  • whereas the Nokia actually did a better job

  • at keeping them in.

  • Here's gonna be a shot that's a little bit more normal.

  • Get an excellent closeup of one of Ken's waifus.

  • Yeah, that's actually not bad at all.

  • It's actually fairly sharp.

  • The dynamic range really isn't as big of a problem here

  • with the less contrasting shot.

  • I'm actually pretty happy with that,

  • especially for 140 bucks.

  • Now a lot of smart phones have some sort of beauty mode

  • in the camera.

  • But something I've never seen is on this BLU

  • we have a beauty video mode.

  • Alright, so this is a test of beauty video mode.

  • So you guys can be the judge for yourselves,

  • on whether I am more beautiful or I look exactly the same

  • and there's a stupid softening filter on my face.

  • Step up to the $170 Doogee

  • and we're going to find dual cameras.

  • Now here we're going to be getting a 16 megapixel

  • main sensor paired with a 8 megapixel telephoto camera.

  • You know that's actually not bad.

  • So it does still have issues with the dynamic range,

  • but there's a lot of detail, it's nice and sharp,

  • and importantly, it kept exposure of the main subject

  • pretty much all in here.

  • Let's try blur mode.

  • Oh, wow, let's not try blur mode, are you serious?

  • That's a photo I just took in 2018.

  • Some quality Doogee images right there.

  • That is wow.

  • Well last, but certainly not least we have the NUU G3

  • at $200.

  • Now this guy's also going to be rocking dual cameras,

  • however what's different about this one

  • is that while they're not only

  • going to be slightly lower resolution,

  • 13 plus five as opposed to 16 plus eight,

  • but that secondary camera

  • actually doesn't really function as a telephoto option.

  • It's just going to be there for extra depth data,

  • for stuff like the portrait mode.

  • First thing I notice is that the processing

  • seems to be a lot faster.

  • When you take a shot, there really isn't that huge

  • shutter lag that there was on some of the other phones.

  • Oh man, this portrait mode's not good.

  • Oh, I can tell already this is not going to be pretty.

  • I think you could do something

  • a little bit creative with this

  • but, yeah, portrait mode,

  • not really gonna be the strong suit

  • of sub $200 smart phones.

  • Comparing the selfies, the first thing that jumps out to me

  • is the Doogee.

  • The color is just really, really washed out.

  • Sure there's detail there but it just looks terrible.

  • The Nokia actually has very vibrant rich colors.

  • I think it's a, maybe a little bit soft.

  • There's definitely some sort

  • of chromatic aberrations going on.

  • Or it looks like there's some weird filter almost.

  • It's passable.

  • The NUU doesn't do a terrible job of getting detail

  • and there's plenty of dynamic range.

  • But the color just looks off.

  • It just looks very sort of, cool, very

  • de-saturated?

  • I'm not, not a fan.

  • What should be no surprise is that

  • the BLU takes the best selfie.

  • Now a big part of that is that not only does it have

  • a front facing flash,

  • but also has a 16 megapixel selfie shooter.

  • Something that's way beyond any of these cameras.

  • Alright so it is conclusion time.

  • Now coming in at number four is the Nokia 2.

  • Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot

  • that I like about this phone.

  • The build quality is nice,

  • the battery is going to be massive

  • and the software is really clean.

  • However what really undoes it, is going to be the

  • super low end internals.

  • Now I can kinda get by the low end processor,

  • but with only one gig of RAM it really makes this

  • almost unusable, especially when you consider

  • that for only a little bit more

  • you can get a ton more phone.

  • A solid third place goes to the Doogee Mix.

  • Now there's a lot to like with this phone.

  • The idea that it has a nearly bezel-less design

  • really does make it stand out.

  • I love the heft, the way that the phone feels.

  • And the hardware is great.

  • But what undoes it is the software.

  • I said it before and I'll say it again,

  • it is a straight up deal breaker for me.

  • A very solid second place goes to the BLU Vivo XL3 Plus.

  • Now there is a ton to like with this guy.

  • $140 price tag feels like it's right in the sweet spot.

  • You're getting a solid build.

  • You're getting a nice size screen.

  • You're getting decent performance.

  • The cameras are decent, the selfie camera is great.

  • Really the only major problem

  • is that the software is going to need some tweaking.

  • Now if you don't mind putting a little bit of time

  • into your phone to customize things like your launcher,

  • then the BLU is really worth a look.

  • If you're buying a phone under $200 though,

  • I really do like the NUU G3.

  • It pairs an awesome build

  • that really is very similar to phones

  • such as the Galaxy S9, which costs three, four, five times

  • as much with a really nice screen.

  • You're getting that taller aspect ratio.

  • The camera's going to be decent

  • but importantly, the software is clean

  • and the performance is top notch.

  • It's a close one, I feel like a lot of people

  • might be happy with the BLU but if it's my money,

  • I'm going to spend a little bit more

  • to get a much nicer overall package.

- This video is sponsored by Clash Royale.

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