- Hey guys, this is Austin.
2018 has been a great year for smartphones.
The Pixel 3 is killing it on the camera side.
We've got the OPPO Find X,
which might be the coolest design yet,
and we have the good old Pocophone,
which at $300 has kinda changed the game.
I just realized that this is a blue phone
on a blue background.
Does that look weird?
Wait, I'll hold it in this hand.
The Pocophone, it's changing the game.
For real though, this phone has changed the way a lot
of smartphones are being sold right now.
Previously the OnePlus really was kind of like the standard
of the, sort of, benchmark phone
at a much cheaper price, right?
So you get all the flagship specs,
but usually at a couple hundred dollar discount.
However, this year the Pocophone
is doing the exact same thing,
but it's something close to $300.
While most phones at this price point
have significantly slower internals than the flagships of the world,
that's where the Pocophone definitely differs.
Inside, it has the exact same Snapdragon 845 processor
as in the $1,000 Galaxy Note9.
The battery, again, the exact same size as that Note9,
and when you take a look at the design,
it's fairly similar to the notch on the iPhone.
And while yes it is made of plastic,
when you consider that all of this is coming in a phone
that's just a little bit over $300,
it is seriously impressive.
That's where this comes in.
The brand new Nokia 7.1,
which at $350 might just be able to go head to head.
The biggest difference here is in build.
So the Pocophone does come in a couple of configurations.
This is the Armored Edition with the aramid fiber back,
and you also have the cheaper plastic.
But neither of these really can hold up
to the glass and metal of that Nokia.
This looks so much nicer.
Not only does it have that glass,
but it's also made out of aluminum,
and personally, as far as I'm concerned,
it feels a lot nicer, right?
Sure they definitely spent a lot more of the budget
on the build quality versus the internals,
but you spend all day holding the phone.
I do think that's an important consideration.
Of course, though none of this really matters too much
if you put these phones in a case.
As much as I like the feeling of the Nokia,
it is a lot more fragile right?
If I drop the phone,
I'm gonna shatter the back more than likely.
Whereas with the Pocophone, might be plastic,
but if I scratch it whatever.
I guess not whatever,
but I don't have to replace the entire phone
as apposed to this guy.
Considering that both phones are pretty cheap,
the screens are not bad at all.
The Pocophone is a little bit bigger.
Although, they're about the same resolution.
The main difference here is with the speakers.
Neither of these phones sound all that great.
So the main issue is that they both
have a single bottom firing speaker,
which is a little tinny and easy to cover.
But the good thing is that they both
have our friend jack, headphone jack.
That headphone jack is useful
for the sponsor of today's video,
Massdrop and their excellent AKG M220 Pro headphones.
Do you see how smooth that was?
- [Ken] Wow!
- I know right.
Headphone Jack approves.
These have quickly become some of my favorite headphones,
especially when you consider that right now on Massdrop,
they're only $35.
With a wide soundstage thanks to the semi-open design,
not only do they sound way better
than you would expect for the price,
but on top of that they're comfortable.
They're fairly lightweight.
They have replaceable ear cups as well as a cable.
It's a really, really solid package.
Really, really, not just really solid,
really, really solid.
Because I know adjectives and adverbs and thesauruses.
Massdrop wanted to make a deal just for you guys,
so for the next 30 days, you can pick these up for only $35.
If you've been in the market
for some decent audiophile grade headphones,
definitely be sure to go check them out
at the link in the description of this video.
The real difference between these two phones
is in performance.
Run them through Geekbench, and you will see
that there is a massive lead for the Pocophone.
It is really playing in a different league.
It also has the advantage of a heat pipe
to help keep the phone cool while you're gaming,
and on top of that, the Pocophone has more RAM,
six gigs versus four.
There isn't as big of a real-world difference
in performance as you might expect,
but it is very clear to me that the Pocophone
is a superior performer.
And that goes a long way,
especially if you wanna use this phone for a few years.
It should be able to keep up.
It also helps that the Pocophone
has a significantly bigger battery.
4,000 milliamp hours versus 3,000 on the Nokia.
Now at this point it might seem like the Pocophone
is the very obvious winner,
but there's one key area that the Nokia has over it,
and that is software.
So this is using Xiaomi's MIUI on top of Android 8.1,
which is a little bit of skinned version
of Android shall we say.
Whereas this is completely stock version of Android 9.0 Pie,
and it is Android One
compatible, which means that this is guaranteed at least two years
of solid software updates.
Whereas the Pocophone, it's got an update so far,
but who knows how long that will last.
Now software can be a subjective thing,
and maybe you might like some of the extra features
or the way that they've skinned the Pocophone,
but as far as I'm concerned,
I will definitely take stock Android any day
and the very least,
I would wanna put a launcher on the Poco.
Around back, both have a similar setup
with a 12 megapixel main camera as well as a depth sensor
for portrait mode and for looking like you have two cameras
on the back of your phone.
Honestly, both are totally usable,
but I will give a slight edge to the Pocophone.
Not only does it consistently give really nice results
right out of the box, but on top of that,
I think a lot of people just will prefer these slight tuning
of the image that Poco is doing.
The Nokia looks fine,
but I do feel like I trust the Pocophone
just a little bit more,
and that goes especially in low light.
The Nokia does have a little bit of an advantage
when it comes to selfies,
but as far as video goes, again,
I'm gonna give it to the Pocophone.
That 4K video actually looks really impressive.
At least here in the U.S. both of these phones
are easily available on Amazon,
links in the description.
But the main difference here is that
while the Nokia does come with a warranty here,
the Pocophone actually doesn't have any U.S. warranty.
Your results will vary based on what country you're in,
but that might be a deal breaker for some people.
The build quality and especially the software
is really impressive on the Nokia,
but I have to give this one to the Pocophone.
Not only is it a great overall package,
but with the hundreds of dollars you're gonna save
versus a bigger, more expensive flagship,
you could even buy yourself a pair
of shiny new Massdrop headphones,
available right now (laughing) link in the description.
(funky music)
Link in the description.
Go check (laughs).