I THOUGHT THEY WERE DEAD!

JerryRigEverthing

I'm a HUGE fan of smartphones that break out of the normal glass slab box. Would you rock a keyboard? Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code JERRYRIG at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/JE...​ The new Unihertz Titan 2 is very similar looking to an old school Blackberry smartphone.  Blackberry had its own operating system and hardware back in the day - but the ship started sinking once the iPhone came out. I thought the iPhone destoryed keyboarded smartphones forever - but here is the Titan 2 making a comback!

Transcript

00:00So you might not believe me, but there was a time back in the day when it was really cool

00:05to have a full blown QWERTY keyboard on your smartphone. Then the iPhone came out,

00:11and it was all over pretty quickly for keyboarded phones after that. Things happen,

00:16times change, and now the only smartphone in existence with a complete keyboard installed

00:21is this one. The Unihertz Titan 2, and it's surprisingly inexpensive.

00:26About half the cost of a modern flagship, currently sitting at $380. And it has a

00:32secondary screen on the back just like the Xiaomi 17 Pro. Today we'll be finding out if this new

00:38Titan 2 is as durable as one of the mythical Greek Titans or, you know, as durable as the Titan

00:44submarine. Too soon? Each of the 35 buttons on the keyboard are backlit. It's called a QWERTY

00:49keyboard since QWERTY are the first six letters in a row at the top left of the board itself.

00:55It's a chonky dude, stubbier than my S24 Ultra while being much wider. It's almost as tall as

01:01the iPhone 17 Pro. And it's definitely smaller than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, even though they both have

01:07the square 1 to 1 screen aspect ratios in the center. Same, same, but different. Commencing the

01:12durability test, the Titan 2 does have a soft rubbery screen protector on top of the square screen.

01:18I'll remove that. I owned a Blackberry Pearl back in the day before they went out of business,

01:22and it wasn't a very good phone, which explains a lot. This Titan 2 more closely resembles the

01:28Blackberry Passport. And just like on the old Blackberry Passport, we see scratches at a level 6

01:33with deeper grooves at a level 7. The rear screen also has a screen protector install. This guy also

01:40appears to be protected with tempered glass since again we see scratches at a level 6 with deeper

01:45grooves at a level 7. The right side of the phone is made from aluminum. We have a plastic fingerprint

01:52scanning power button and a metal volume rocker. Up at the top we have an IR blaster and two antenna lines.

02:00Hopefully these don't come back to haunt us later. The left side of the phone has two red

02:04anodized programmable buttons that can be set to launch an app or start up the camera. The bottom

02:09has our singular mono loudspeaker, a 33 watt USB-C charging port, and a dual sided SIM card tray,

02:16which does not have any expandable storage nor any rubber rings since unfortunately the Titan 2 does

02:22not come with any water resistance ratings. We do have a front facing 32 megapixel camera protected by

02:28the front glass, a large metal unihertz logo underneath the tiny plastic earpiece speaker,

02:34but the plastic grill above the metal logo does seem to be super secure and will not be falling out on

02:39its own. Making our way down to the physical keyboard, the letters look to be printed on

02:43top of the plastic and can be rubbed or scraped off, which might be problematic in the future for

02:48long term use. The letters we find on the Nintendo Switch controllers have had the white plastic inlay

02:54throughout the plastic button so they will never rub off. But to be fair, Nintendo only has 4 letters

02:59to work with while the Titan 2 has 35. The keyboard is using a rubber membrane to both attach and rebound

03:05the buttons after getting clicked. They do feel super nice to press. But more importantly, the membrane

03:11will help keep the buttons from exploding off when it gets dropped, like Sonic the Hedgehog. So thumbs up

03:16for that. Making our way to the back of the phone, Unihertz has inlaid their shiny chrome logo into the

03:21fake leather of the rear panel. The glue holding these inlays in place though is ridiculously strong

03:26and I don't see the letters coming off on their own. The fake leather is rather scratch resistant,

03:31unless you have a razor blade. Obviously the blackberry brand is pretty dead at the moment.

03:36But one fun fact about blackberries is that each of the little nubs on a blackberry fruit is called

03:41druplets. And the druplets are actually tiny individual fruits that make up the berry. And it

03:47turns out that we've been lied to our whole lives because blackberries aren't even berries. They are

03:52aggregate fruits. And maybe that's why blackberry went bankrupt because their whole name was based off a

03:58lie. Anyway, we have two cameras on the back next to the rear screen. The top 50 megapixel main camera

04:04and 8 megapixel telephoto camera lens below that. Both protected by glass with a dual tone LED flash

04:10below them both. Flipping the phone back around, we can see what helps keep the Titan 2's price so low.

04:16While most smartphone screens these days like the iPhones and Samsungs are using AMOLED displays,

04:21the Titan 2 has a 1440 x 1440 4.5 inch LCD that goes black after about 8 seconds under the heat from

04:29my lighter, but does fully recover. LCD displays aren't quite as vibrant, but they are way less

04:36expensive so I'm not complaining. Finally, the bend test. With the thick aluminum frame and stocky square

04:42design, the Titan 2 holds its own extremely nicely. No flexing, no kinks, no cracks, not when bent from the

04:49front, the back, the left, or the right. The Titan 2 is pretty much a tank and easily survives my

04:55durability test. But that doesn't mean we can't still see the insides. See, I have a particular set

05:01of skills. Skills that I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for

05:06smartphone companies everywhere. I can take a phone apart and usually put them back together again.

05:11Most of the time. Tell the truth. Some of the time. One thing I do appreciate all of the time though

05:17is how much time today's sponsor, Incogni, saves me in my everyday life. See, if you spend any amount

05:23of time on the internet, you know that sometimes legitimate companies that you give your information

05:28to turn around and sell your information to other companies or groups that then use your email and

05:33phone number for telemarketing scams, or your physical address for copious amounts of junk mail.

05:39And it's near impossible to delete your information from these scam websites. Lucky for you and me though,

05:44Incogni has a database of all of these dubious information resellers and can automatically go

05:49through and delete your personal information for you and keep it off the internet forever.

05:53For example, Incogni has personally saved me over 200 hours worth of work. Time is money and it took

05:59me less than 10 minutes to sign up for Incogni. And saving about 5 weeks worth of work is totally worth it.

06:05You can try Incogni risk free for 30 days and get 60% off the annual plan with the link in the description.

06:11They can even do custom removals if you need your info removed from some exterior portion of the

06:16internet. The only way to keep the robots from calling is to have robots on the defense.

06:21Incogni.com slash jerryrig and I do appreciate their work. I find it's far easier to remove the

06:27flexible non-glass back panels. The plastic and leather is far more forgiving than glass. Inside the

06:32Titan II we have a visible NFC coil, but no wireless charging even though there is plenty of room.

06:38I'll turn the phone off and grab my 32 bit precision tool kit. Link is down in the description.

06:43With 15 black colored normal Phillips head screws removed, the metal NFC plate comes off from over

06:48top of the battery. The rear screen unplugs just like a little Lego and the top plastics can be

06:53removed from over the motherboard. The lower plastics include the singular loudspeaker as well as a small

06:58coin style vibrator motor. It is rather minuscule though, so I imagine the vibrations inside the Titan II

07:04will leave something to be desired. There also does not appear to be any balls inside the loudspeaker,

07:10and if you know, you know. There is a mesh over the loudspeaker opening, but since nothing else on

07:15the phone is protected from ingress, I would still keep the Titan II far away from liquids. I'll unplug

07:20the battery connector, the golden extension ribbon, and the black extension ribbon from the main board,

07:25along with the fingerprint scanning power button. They all unclip like little Legos. The battery on the

07:30Titan II is mounted sideways and does have pull tabs, but they appear to be more for decoration than

07:35anything else since the adhesive is still holding strong. I'll add some isopropyl alcohol to help

07:41dissolve the adhesive under the battery, and then all 5050 milliamp hours can lift up and away from the

07:46phone. Not too shabby. The motherboard comes out next. There are two tiny silver Phillips head screws

07:55holding it in place, and the front facing 32 megapixel camera does not have any physical

08:00optical image stabilization. The rear cameras want to stay in the phone as I lift up the Titan II main

08:05board. The main board itself is rather uneventful, just a single stacked classically green normal

08:11looking circuit board with no thermal paste or vapor chamber. There is blue thermal foam still left in

08:16the phone frame that helps transfer heat away from the processors, but it also looks like neither the

08:2150 megapixel main camera nor the 8 megapixel telephoto have any optical image stabilization of

08:27their own, which is a pretty big deal if you use your phone a lot for video, and something to keep in

08:32mind. But in a mid-range smartphone that costs half as much as a flagship while still coming with a

08:37complete keyboard, some sacrifices have to be made. The lower 33 watt fast charging USB-C port and sim card

08:43tray is still left in the phone, and overall I'm a pretty big fan. I like that Unihertz is still out here

08:49being creative. Even though the world has shifted towards glass slabs and away from physical buttons,

08:54there's still a solid chunk of the population who's probably pretty good with their fingers,

08:58and I hope they find this Titan II. The Titan II gets a thumbs up from me, and look at that,

09:03everything still works. I knew you could do it. Let me know down in the comments if you could rock a

09:08phone that has a full keyboard, and thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended