The American Smartphone is Falling Behind...

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]This is China's answer to what an ultra phone should look like. America America stopped building phones like these. This is experimental, aggressive, unapologetically overbuilt, camera obsessed. In fact, they actually still care about a hardware. Meanwhile, America, all we care about is uh AI.

[00:00:22]>> AI is about making your life more. The >> world is responding and adopting AI faster than ever before. Galaxy AI takes care of the rest.

[00:00:29]>> Google's AI AI into AI.

[00:00:34]>> I feel like you guys are going to hate me, but I've been having a bit of a dilemma the past few days. And it's pretty much uh keeping an Android phone as my main phone, but having an iPhone as my secondary phone. Not with a phone number, but more for uh taking videos and photos. And I'll talk a bit about that in this video as to why I'm doing that. And it has to do with Android really more than anything. But this however, you guys have been asking for it and I got a fine X9 Ultra that I'm going to be rocking as my daily for the next few days. So technically no more S26 Ultra for now.

[00:01:31]That's that's what Chinese phones feel like to most North Americans. But you see this? This is the S26 Ultra. And this is my favorite phone yet because it's more of a computer first and then a phone with a camera. Although for the past 3 years, Samsung has kind of run out of ideas when it comes to hardware. In fact, every year and every event has all been about AI. And whenever we do get a tiny hardware change, we we freak out over it like it's the greatest thing in the world. But in reality, we've been conditioned to think of that like this, right? The privacy display. Samsung built this new privacy mode that makes the display almost invisible to everyone around you. One UI, which is Samsung's OS, allows you to very much go within its control center in order to turn privacy display on. And this feature also allows you to condition it for different use cases like different apps, different prompts, and this includes notifications. For me, it's it's been a very important addition to my life.

[00:02:45]However, the biggest difference between the S26 Ultra and the S25 Ultra really is that since the uh S23 Ultra, we haven't really seen proper advancements to this phone. Everything is more or less refined, but at the end of the day, it's familiar. And now, of course, everything feels software AI first. And don't get me wrong, it all works really well. Honestly, I'd argue software optimization matters more than raw hardware now. But at the same time, we can't forget about hardware either. And I think in America, we kind of have. And Google is clearly moving towards uh becoming an AI first phone company.

[00:03:28]Deeply tied into Google's ecosystem.

[00:03:30]Apple although extremely behind in AI barely change their phones anymore. And even when they do redesign them, they still feel almost the same year after year. I will say though, iPhone 17 Pro Max battery life is incredible. I will give them that. But then comes uh my favorite phone lineup, a phone that used to feel revolutionary every single year.

[00:03:57]But now it's like I'm not even excited for what's next anymore because Samsung, Apple, and Google basically control the entire North American phone market. And all of these companies pretty much have the same future. Um AI everywhere and smaller and smaller hardware changes every year. Here, however, is where I feel like I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I'm currently on my way to go get an iPhone 17 Pro. I do want to say though that I am running a battery life test because these phones are insane when it comes to battery life. You see, social media on iPhone has been conditioned to work better and a lot of it has to do with the fact that Apple can control their own hardware to optimize their software unlike Android, right? I mean, Android have tons and tons of different phones, brands, manufacturers to take care of. Apple, well, they only have one, which makes native support significantly better. And the nearest example of this is Instagram. When it comes to photos and videos, photos and videos on Instagram are slowly becoming uh iPhone graded.

[00:05:02]Those dark moods that you see on the app are all taken with an iPhone. And that, well, that cannot be replicated with any other phone. Camera setups like these always end up blowing up online. And even though the FX9 Ultra is a phone with a better post-processing, better sensors, it's backed up by Hasselblad, it's even got the world's first 15 megapixel 10x telephoto lens. It cannot deliver the style of photography you'd want for your Instagram feed. And it sounds ridiculous, but recognizable design is a huge part of Apple's philosophy. Apple wants you to feel cool, like uh you're part of something, right? Because they are different.

[00:05:43]That's why you've got the blue bubbles.

[00:05:45]Group messages are so much better regardless of RCS. You've got FaceTime.

[00:05:49]You've got the Apple ecosystem. AirDrop was a big feature for them. Now, luckily supported by Samsung. But Apple Apple deliver an experience like no other. And it literally is just FOMO. Plus, it just works. And this is something you will see and read everywhere. Apple just works. I don't care about specs. I don't want to customize my phone. It's clean, luxurious, premium. It's for the mass market. This, however, well, it's it's not familiar. Although it feels way more premium than an iPhone and honestly has a much better camera, it doesn't fit within the social constraints that Apple have created in America. And I well we we are currently victims of that as we are trying to grow our car dealership because sadly for us to get attention we need to fit within those social constraints. However whether I'm using an iPhone or not I don't need to depend on the Apple ecosystem. The cool thing about being an Android user I've been an Android user for the past 4 years. Well, it's allowed me to create my own ecosystems to the point that, you know, I have the freedom of trying new tech like like the Whoop, like these even reality glasses, like my framework laptop, which I'm currently dailying for you guys. It it's been able to open so many doors for in fact, I'm always ordering tech. Like, check this out.

[00:07:17]Even if I was to rock an iPhone, I'm so independent from from the Apple ecosystem that I am able to try things like these. the Fitbit Air for another video because right now the whole point is that I'm going to be showing you my Android workflow with this phone. Sorry, supposed to go to the track and I need to give the track guy my my information.

[00:07:37]Anyways, let me let me try to put you a bit into my mindset so you guys can uh maybe relate a little bit more. My goal here is to show you, okay, what what my Android workflow usually looks like. So, right now I'm on this fitness journey, which is why usually I use the Whoop.

[00:07:52]But no, now I'm using the Fitbit Air.

[00:07:56]That means a new app. A new app I got to install on Color OS and manage. I do love how Color OS allows you to stretch icons, by the way. That's pretty cool.

[00:08:06]So, yeah, Google Health now part of the workflow. I did uh push my main apps to sort of live within a column on the UI.

[00:08:15]And if I need extra apps, I can have them within the drawer. So, that's awesome. In fact, um this is what allows me to easily multitask and open apps all simultaneously, which I will get into in a bit. Aside from this, I use my phone to send voice notes instead of texting.

[00:08:33]I think that's so much easier. Uh I also consume a lot of YouTube, like like a lot of YouTube. Uh, I also track my workouts. Uh, I stop listening to music while I work out because I now have a personal trainer to listen to. I text in between sets, you know, like the usual stuff. What I'm trying to get at, okay, is that like you, I use my phone in the same manner and I never close any of my apps. Uh, I actually never ever close my apps. I often leave them open because, well, I'm lazy. However, my productivity life on my phone is a bit different now.

[00:09:13]And let me explain, okay, it's not what it used to be. And no, it's got nothing to do with consuming content, but rather the way I now am able to multitask. One UI is actually amazing when it comes to multitasking. Color OS, uh, on the other hand, seems like they are still sort of trying to figure it out. With Color OS, I don't have the the same shortcuts I used to have on my S26 Ultra. Like remember all my swipe triggers to make multitasking happen or trigger different apps menus? Well, they don't exist here.

[00:09:47]In fact, the entire split screen system is uh quite different now. The way you are able to split screen or even use pop-up views is not the same as one UI.

[00:09:59]Don't get me wrong, this OS is really, really smooth and it's good when it comes to interacting with UI elements, but it feels a tiny little bit behind. I don't find Color Wise to be as powerful or as customizable as One UI in that manner because really One UI is well, it's actually really really good at getting stuff done. On top of that, depending on which apps you are going to be splitting, sometimes the UI can be funky. One UI actually allows you to play with scales, but ColorWest, well, it it doesn't. And the drawer, which is very useful as much as it exists on Samsung, you can't really open more than two apps as pop-up views, which is a bit limiting on Color OS.

[00:10:53]The rest though is the same. Same same but different. You've got the same volume controllers. Uh meaning you can control individual app volumes. Android apps don't all behave the same. Like for example, I still have this YouTube Premium glitch where I can still use picture and picture mode from time to time even though I don't pay for YouTube premium. Anyways, for the most part.

[00:11:17]Okay. Transitioning from an American OS to a global OS is a very similar experience. However, I do think that America has the slight upper hand when it comes to software and South Korea.

[00:11:33]Yeah, because I mean Samsung is made in in South Korea. This morning when I woke up, I actually saw had an alert and it makes me quite happy because I've realized that Color OS they're very active with their updates. Um the they're constantly releasing updates update after update and I really like that. Um Google Play system update available. That's good. Update your device. 16 color OS uh update. Let's see. Integrates the April 2026 security patch to enhance system security. So this is all about security, which is good because uh I mean we had that security popup that I've never really had on Android before. I don't know what that was about, but uh I guess that's that's good that they're enhancing security. Anyways, definitely an update to to be done. Also, that's that's max screen brightness. It's pretty freaking sunny right now. You guys see that's max screen brightness. It's really good outside. It really is. Like, look, it's incredibly sunny outside. And this is what you can expect from this screen. In real life, it's even brighter. So, I guess that's that's good. But yeah, it's it's even brighter in real life.

[00:12:41]>> As I daily this device, um I think the Android experience is very much there.

[00:12:46]Like phones like these are definitely easy to live with in North America. Of course, as long as you're not too deep into an ecosystem, but uh I'm not. I use a framework laptop as my daily. I use Linux with it. And for me, regardless of what I'm doing, whether I'm copying and pasting files from my server to my phone or posting content on Instagram for my socials, the experience is very much an Android like experience, which is less polished than iOS. I think we all know that by now. Now, that is not to say that it's sluggish or it's bad, but the UI is quite different compared to iOS.

[00:13:25]the way things flow with an iPhone, I don't know, they just build things to be a lot more digestible. And no matter which Android device you are using, the UX will always be the same. Now, one thing I've realized lately is that AI tools are pretty amazing at handling repetitive stuff in the background.

[00:13:46]Like, I've realized the challenge is is mainly knowing when they actually need you. And that usually means constantly checking your phone, unlocking it, reopening terminal sessions, making sure nothing stalled. So, with my Android phones, like the Findex 9 Ultra, I've been rebuilding a lot of my workflow around my own server instead of uh cloud ecosystems. Every photo I take on this phone automatically uploads into image running on my Linux server. You guys have probably already seen my server videos. I got tired of paying memberships just to store my own life.

[00:14:18]But what's interesting is that a lot of this setup is now being managed by AI agents. I use tools like codecs and cloud code running inside terminal sessions on the server. Basically AI systems that can build, refactor, organize, and automate things while I'm doing something else. And this is where the even G2 glasses got really interesting for me. Even also has this uh terminal mode for the G2 glasses that lets you connect directly into live AI agent sessions running on your server.

[00:14:49]So inside even hub I connect my server IP port and off token to the codec session running on my machine and then uh the glasses can monitor the AI agent in real time. And the cool part is they stay almost invisible until they actually matter. If codeex is working normally the glasses stay subtle. You'll just see tiny little updates like executing, thinking, processing.

[00:15:13]Meanwhile, I can literally leave my desk. I can go make a a coffee, cook something, sit at a cafe, go outside for a walk. The AI keeps working in the background while I keep uh well, pretty much living my life. But the moment the agent needs me, action required, waiting for input, error detected, it instantly appears inside the glasses. So instead of constantly pulling my phone out to babysit terminal sessions, I can glance once, approve something, redirect it, and continue whatever I was doing. And honestly, I think this is where all of this tech is heading. The phone captures the content. Image organizes it. My server will process it. AI agents automate parts of the workflow. And the glasses, well, they become this tiny passive layer between me and the machines where the agents work in the background while we get to actually live and do other stuff. It's almost like I've made it so simple for myself because I don't depend on any ecosystem really. In fact, currently I'm well, I'm using my Linux laptop. First time I actually bring it home, so I needed the password of my Wi-Fi. Now, the way I was actually able to get that through Color OS is actually pretty simple, believe it or not. Um, if you go into more settings and then you go into your current Wi-Fi, you can very much click on share and then sorry, bam, super quick. And then you have the password right there. So, that's that's awesome. That's how I get the password for my Wi-Fi because well, believe it or not, I actually don't remember it by heart. So, yeah. And then my workflow is so simple. I use local send a lot to copy and paste uh from one machine to the next. As you guys can see, you can see the framework, you can see the S26 Ultra and then I use, you know, WhatsApp messages, Google Drive, Parseek to connect to the computer at the office. Let me actually show you guys. If I click here, connect, I'll connect to my uh computer at the office.

[00:17:03]As you can see, the Vinci is currently on my screen. So, that is super super cool. I can disconnect right away. Bam.

[00:17:11]and everything works like super seamless. I have VS Code, the terminal, and then I have Google Chrome for whatever uh work I need to get done on on the internet. But yeah, it works really really well. I don't mean to get too nerdy, but uh with Tailscale, which I have installed on my phone right here, I can connect through Tailscale. The same thing goes with my framework. and then I can connect uh to my server at the office and actually access Casa OS image and all the services that uh have installed on that server. Today being the fourth day I've been charging this phone. I've only had to charge it once.

[00:17:45]I think you need to charge this phone like every 2 days. As you guys can see, last time I charged it, uh was at around 1:00 p.m. yesterday, and I'm still at 35% apparently. Uh this can last me about 10 hours and 53 minutes. I've had a screen time uh of six hours and two minutes and screen off of six hours and 21 minutes with Instagram being the biggest consumer in battery and YouTube messages even reality. Uh WhatsApp, Android Auto, Superhum which is my emailing app. Um Yahoo Finance which I use for stocks anyways. So that's pretty good. I will consolidate uh all this information and talk about battery life because this phone delivers a battery life like no other. A and this this to me is peak hardware really. And it starts with this insane 200 megapixel main camera system. It's it's a camera system you won't see on any of the North American phones. You see, in the past, I've personally asked Samsung when we were going to see a collab with a legitimate camera company, and I more or less got uh crickets. So, yeah, Hazelblat partnered up with Oppo for this phone. Hasbel is basically the reason photos on this phone feel more like a real camera instead of a overly processed smartphone pictures. And it's all because they are a true camera company. Yeah, they allow OPPO to experiment with hardware in ways Apple and Samsung and even Google Pixel, well, they just simply don't anymore. Oppo have in fact uh introduced a 200 megapixel 3x telephoto camera, which is literally the biggest telephoto sensor we've ever seen in a phone. You've got that 50 megapixel 10x camera with great sensor shift stabilization, of course, a 50 megap ultrawide, and all of this is paired with a 3.2 megapixel spectral sensor, which basically helps the phone understand uh realworld lighting and color more accurately, making skin tones and photos look way more natural. So, that's the point of this thing. This though goes beyond just having uh the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 doing all of its AI post-processing. These are actual hardware advancements. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of computational photography under the hood. However, this phone upgrades its hardware to allow for better photos to happen. So, we don't just depend on software. Um, does does that make sense? This phone is also one of the few phones with a silicon carbon battery. Uh the battery in here has a capacity of 7,50 milliamp hour, which is which is good, very good because meanwhile you've got like Google, Samsung, and Apple still mostly sticking to traditional lithium ion batteries. Uh I feel like, you know, companies like OPPO, Jaomi, and Honor are willing to take more aggressive hardware risks. In America, we we do care more about reliability, which is good, and that's fine. However, we care a bit too much about ecosystem and software over experimental hardware. I feel like in China, like these brands, they have to fight for attention so much that they need to like put cool things on the phone in order for them to like stand out. So, they end up like innovating super aggressively. You know, you've got like the silicon carbon batteries, uh, insane charging speeds, crazy thermal systems, displays with 144 hertz. Yeah, that that's where we are at now because this this has a 6.82 in QHD plus with up to 3600 nits in HDR brightness pushing 144 hertz. Mia, that's a lot. I think it's almost safe to say that I have like 24-hour battery life. It's currently 12:55.

[00:21:45]We are at 1%. What I am going to do, however, is that I'm going to use my Anchor battery pack uh to charge it. So, uh yeah, let's do that. Really, I was just at the Lambo dealership because well, my main sales guy, Ferrari, went from Ferrari to Lamborghini, and I just wanted to pass by and say hi and uh just, you know, see how he was doing.

[00:22:05]He's a really cool guy. I actually really like him. Anyways, I got 60% on this battery pack. I don't know if you guys can see that. And I think the phone's charging at 40 42 watts. So, that's good. I believe it's charging at ultra fast charging. Yeah. So, that's that's great. So, I guess consider this a battery charging test, I guess. Yeah, that makes sense. This was actually a second test I ran, except this time with a battery pack. And regardless what I use to charge it, the phone gets really hot. In about 30 to 35 minutes, the X9 Ultra can reach about 50%. This while being connected to Android Auto, uh, reading my vitals through the Fitbit Air and being connected to my glasses. So, a lot of stuff running in the background, you know, that's what I mean. And in an hour, I managed to get the phone to 85%.

[00:22:54]Now, my last charge lasted about uh 22 hours total. The phone says it can last a day and 6 hours, but because I've been using it quite a bit with all sorts of apps, as you can see, I was able to get 5 hours and 7 minutes of screen time with apps like uh Instagram, YouTube, and the camera being used the most. Like I said, the first time I ran this charging test, I got very similar numbers. In fact, with a 45 watt brick, I went from 1% to about 100% in an hour and a bit. My first 100% charge did not last as much as my second one, but that's because the phone slowly gets used to your workflow. So, with time, I do expect this to be close to around 24 to 30 hours of use. One hell of a battery. Yeah, last night though, I went through my battery. Uh yeah, I had to dog sit and between just doing research, watching YouTube videos, playing with my Fitbit Air, and using Notion along Chat GPT, my battery actually got to 1% this morning. Yeah, but again, I was doing so much on my phone last night. Really though, um America doesn't want you to buy a phone like this. And uh the main reason as to why that is a thing is because, well, think about it. That would mean that Google, Apple, Samsung would have to invest so much money on R&D in order for them to keep up with phones like these. Because in China, well, you've got all these brands trying to keep up with each other and they need to push hardware advancements in order for them to gain market share. And that's not something that's going to happen here because we are so focused on AI and so focused on software that we completely forgot about hardware and we don't want to bring competition here because that would mean more money that we would need to spend. If this video gets 10,000 likes, I will definitely do a week in the life with the Oppo Fine X9 Ultra. So yeah,