Dope Tech: STILL so good!

Summary

In this “Dope Tech Revisited” episode, Marques Brownlee returns to the beloved Dope Tech series after more than a year to examine successors to products previously featured on the show. The video covers four products: the Logitech MX Master 4 productivity mouse (featuring new haptics and improved durability), the Devialet Phantom Ultimate speaker (now available in 98dB and 108dB versions with stereo pairing), the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra (an impressive iPad competitor at 5.1mm thin with a 14.6” display), and the groundbreaking Nikon ZR camera - a collaboration between Nikon and RED that delivers cinema-quality R3D video in a compact mirrorless body for just $2,200. The theme throughout is evaluating whether these iterative product updates remain “dope” or have lost their appeal.

Highlights

”The Porsche 911 of computer mice”

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“I feel like this is becoming like the Porsche 911 of computer mice… This is not changing very much from generation to generation. It keeps the same silhouette, the iconic shape that everyone knows. But each time they improve a little bit and iterate over and over to the nth degree.” — Marques Brownlee, 3:43

”Thinner than iPad Pro, thinner than iPhone Air”

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“That’s not just thinner than most tablets. That is thinner than the iPad Pro, thinner than the iPhone Air, and just about anything this big with a screen on it.” — Marques Brownlee, 8:51

”Two companies merging and the consumer wins”

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“In the long, long history of people’s favorite tech companies getting purchased, how many of those are a story that ends with everyone being happy other than people getting paid? Not very many.” — Marques Brownlee, 12:42

”The tool should enable creativity”

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“Philosophically, I feel like it should be the other way around. The tool should enable whatever creative thing you want to make.” — Marques Brownlee, 14:54

”Devialet speakers in Newark airport”

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“Fun fact, I now mostly see these in Newark airport. Next time you’re in Newark airport, look up in the corners of the little kiosks and the tiny stores they have in between gates, and I guarantee you’ll start seeing tons of these little speakers from Devialet.” — Marques Brownlee, 6:41

Key Points

Logitech MX Master 4 (0:00)

• 1:01 - New plastic finish replaces rubberized coating that degraded over time
• 2:27 - Horizontal scroll wheel moved higher for better video editing ergonomics
• 2:47 - Biggest new feature is haptic feedback motor for convincing button clicks
• 3:41 - Logitech Options Plus app offers extensive customization including macros
• 3:43 - Compared to “Porsche 911 of computer mice” - iconic design with iterative improvements
• 4:16 - Priced at $120 with 120Hz polling rate (not for gaming)
• 4:33 - Now includes USB Type-C dongle

Devialet Phantom Ultimate (4:41)

• 5:11 - Available in two sizes: 98dB and 108dB versions
• 5:26 - All-in-one speaker with dramatic moving membrane woofers
• 5:55 - Each speaker weighs almost 25 lbs
• 6:08 - New app allows stereo pairing of two speakers
• 6:41 - Fun fact: Older versions visible in Newark airport kiosks

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra (7:11)

• 7:56 - Continues the iPad killer narrative from 2020
• 8:38 - 14.6-inch 3K AMOLED display, bigger than any iPad Pro
• 8:51 - Only 5.1mm thin - thinner than iPad Pro and iPhone Air
• 9:03 - 11,600mAh battery, up to 16GB RAM, microSD support, up to 1TB storage
• 9:22 - Starts at $1,200 ($100 less than iPad Pro)
• 9:37 - Flexible windowed apps, intuitive window management, multiple desktops
• 10:01 - Phone linking for calls and texts on tablet
• 10:16 - Good anti-reflective properties (though not nanotexture)

Nikon ZR Camera (12:11)

• 12:37 - Historic context: Nikon acquired RED
• 13:37 - Full-frame mirrorless with 24MP stacked sensor
• 13:55 - Specs: 6K60 video, 7.5 stops IBIS, 15 stops dynamic range, shoots R3D
• 14:10 - Competes with Sony FX3 ($4,000) at just $2,200
• 14:27 - Smallest RED camera with best autofocus
• 14:54 - Philosophy: tools should enable creativity, not limit it
• 15:32 - Limitations: R3D NE format (compressed RAW), weak ergonomics, no EVF, micro HDMI, mixed card slots
• 16:19 - Rare example of merger benefiting consumers

Mentions

Companies

Products

People

Software & Services

Surprising Quotes

“I feel like this is becoming like the Porsche 911 of computer mice… This is not changing very much from generation to generation. It keeps the same silhouette, the iconic shape that everyone knows. But each time they improve a little bit and iterate over and over to the nth degree.”

— 3:43 on the Logitech MX Master evolution

“Fun fact, I now mostly see these in Newark airport. Next time you’re in Newark airport, look up in the corners of the little kiosks and the tiny stores they have in between gates, and I guarantee you’ll start seeing tons of these little speakers from Devialet.”

— 6:41 on unexpected Devialet sightings

“That’s not just thinner than most tablets. That is thinner than the iPad Pro, thinner than the iPhone Air, and just about anything this big with a screen on it.”

— 8:51 on the Tab S11 Ultra’s 5.1mm thickness

“In the long, long history of people’s favorite tech companies getting purchased, how many of those are a story that ends with everyone being happy other than people getting paid? Not very many.”

— 12:42 on tech acquisitions

“Philosophically, I feel like it should be the other way around. The tool should enable whatever creative thing you want to make.”

— 14:54 on how cameras should serve creativity

“It is a result of two companies merging into one and the consumer actually getting a win out of it. I feel like that never happens.”

— 16:19 on the Nikon-RED merger success

Transcript

Introduction (0:00)

All right, welcome back to Dope Tech. It has been too long. It’s been more than a year since the last Dope Tech video, but I love this series. I’ve made more than 30 of them. I’ve shown off more than 100 products in various ways through Dope, and I just feel like we should be getting back to this.

So, something I’ve noticed while we were heads down in busy season and all the smartphones and all the brand new stuff is there are a couple things that I missed during this year, but those things were often successors to previous gadgets that I’ve also already talked about on this channel, things that I’ve had in dope tech before.

So, this is Dope Tech Revisited. Everything that I’m showing in this dope tech is a follow-up to something that I have previously showed some older version of on dope tech in the past. So, we can see if it’s still dope, if it’s gotten better since it came out or worse, and how it measures up. Also, thanks to Google for sponsoring a portion of this video. More on that later.

Logitech MX Master 4 (1:01)

So, first up, the goated productivity mouse, the Logitech MX Master. Now, I’ve personally been using the MXM since the first one and actually even before that when it was called the Performance MX, but it first appeared in Dope Tech 6 years ago as the MXM 3 with a bunch of other stuff, but it was actually the most replayed part of that video. Since then, they’ve also come out with MXM 3S and then this is MXM 4.

So, the benefit of having such a popular mouse is Logitech basically gets tons of data on how we use our mice, the things we like about it, the things we don’t like about it, and then they can make iterative improvements over and over again on each one. And so, this one, the four, I’ve noticed has some bigger changes, but still keeps that formula and feels familiar.

So, it’s still a great size, still a great shape for righties anyway. But, you know, a lot of older MXM masters you might see end up looking kind of crummy after a few years because of the rubberized finish that they all have. Well, Logitech noticed that. So, this one should avoid all that because it’s an entirely new plastic finish.

Now, obviously, plastic has a negative connotation, but in certain products, it just makes sense, like headphones and computer mice. So, there’s no finish to wear off. It’s just texture. It’s lightweight. It’s recycled. And the little micro texture they’ve put on this middle part gives you a little bit of extra grip. So, I’m pumped that it should have a much longer life of looking basically new.

But then there’s also a whole bunch of other little things like the horizontal scroll wheel is moved a bit higher up, which is awesome for me because I use it all the time while video editing. The mouse click is also now with the last two generations super silent, which is nice in a studio environment like this. There’s also a third button added up at the front here in front of the forward and back buttons that can be customized.

And then the biggest new addition is actually haptics. And so that’s kind of a bold thing to try. Obviously, you have mouse clicks already, but they’ve added a haptic motor for even more clicks. It’s in the middle of the mouse, kind of like right by your thumb, kind of like a smartphone’s vibration motor. So, when you press this silicon gesture area down here, you can feel it click. Even though it’s not actually moving, it’s a very convincing click.

And then you can turn that up or down in settings along with tons of other stuff like setting that to be a quick launch shortcut ring for any of your favorite apps or spaces or mission control on a Mac. Or you can even make your own macros. So the Logitech Options Plus app is just a fantasy land level of playground for people trying to maximize their productivity. It’s kind of like this little Grand Theft Auto weapon select but for your computer mouse.

I personally don’t use a ton of these like quick launching features because I am a keyboard and raycast shortcut person on the Mac anyway, but I can see how people would love this. I feel like this is becoming like the Porsche 911 of computer mice, maybe. Like, hear me out. This is not changing very much from generation to generation. It keeps the same silhouette, the iconic shape that everyone knows. But each time they improve a little bit and iterate over and over to the nth degree and it’s the most important product for that company.

So they don’t want to change it too much. But also it’s just like the ideal enthusiast daily driver and it’s still expensive and doesn’t have the best numbers on paper. Like this is still a $120 computer mouse with a 120 Hz polling rate where like there are mice out there with a thousand Hz, 2,000, 8,000 Hz polling rates, but it’s not a gaming mouse. It’s just a rock solid, pricey, but ideal daily. It’s about the most stable, reliable thing you could ask for. And it even now has a USB type-C dongle, which I’m shocked we actually don’t see more of. But yeah, this mouse is absolutely still dope tech.

Devialet Phantom Ultimate (4:45)

All right, next up is a YouTube legend in its own right. This is the new Devialet Phantom. So, I feel like there was a whole era of a couple months on YouTube where a thumbnail with the Phantom in it was like an automatic million views and everybody had to check this thing out. I’ve actually already covered it twice on Dope. First in the white and gold version, then the Phantom 2, which was smaller but a bit more reasonably priced, so it was a natural follow-up to the expensive first one.

And now they came out with this which is the Devialet Phantom Ultimate. And so there’s two sizes of it. There’s a smaller 98 decibel version and then there’s this which is the bigger, louder, more powerful 108 decibel version. So the idea has not changed at all. It’s an all-in-one speaker system with a tweeter and woofers that not only gets crazy loud and sounds really good, but it also has this big dramatic moving membrane for the woofers and kind of looks like an alien head if you ask me.

They’re definitely a conversation starter, but there are also new drivers and a new internal circuitry to make them more efficient and continue to sound even better. But yeah, this is the larger 108 decibel version here. And on this stand, which is kind of the best way to get it close to head level. They’re pretty awesome. They’re kind of more dense actually than you would expect. Picking up each one, it’s almost 25 lb.

But yeah, apparently this is the amount of space you’ll need to deliver 108 dB versus the significantly smaller 98 dB version. And there’s also a new app that lets you play with more modes and even pair two together in stereo mode, which is what I have over here by this TV. There’s another one over on the other side. And two of them paired together is just crazy. They get ridiculously loud if you want them to, but also just in normal volume. They sound really good. There’s an incredible amount of bass. It fills the room. Whatever size room you’re in, it’s going to fill the room. And the stereo separation now of having a left right channel with these things, it’s mad. It sounds crazy.

And fun fact, I now mostly see these in Newark airport. I think it’s the older version, but next time you’re in Newark airport, look up in the corners of the little kiosks and the tiny stores they have in between gates, and I guarantee you’ll start seeing tons of these little speakers from Devialet, and you’ll never be able to unsee them again. At least if you’re like me and spend probably too much time in Newark airport. Anyway, cool overall obviously, but not a ton of change, still very expensive, and not as hype as they used to be.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra (7:16)

So, I covered the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus in 2020, and it was the third highest viewed dope tech episode that we’d ever made. And once again, it was the highest viewed part of that video. So, it feels right to revisit the monster Samsung tablet since we don’t get the chance to do this every year, and they do refresh it almost every year.

Now, back in 2020, the angle for what made this a potential iPad killer was just this incredible hardware. A massive OLED display in a razor thin case in your hands. It barely feels real. It looks crazy. Looks like a movie prop. It’s awesome.

So, 5 years later, this is a Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, and it’s still pretty ridiculous. Now, you might think that the iPad with all the improvements that it has made has eliminated this rivalry cuz they’ve done like a lot of the things, right, that this used to do. It has that super super thin build now. It has Apple silicon and it has iPad OS, which has done a lot of cool things with software. But if you’ve been paying attention, the Samsung tablets have done a lot of that stuff, too. And some new stuff. So, it’s keeping that rivalry alive.

So, the Tab S11 Ultra now has a ridiculous laptop size 14.6 inch 3K AMOLED display. That’s still bigger and higher resolution than any iPad Pro with plenty of brightness and pitch blacks. And it’s also now even more thin than ever before at, get this, 5.1 mm. That’s not just thinner than most tablets. That is thinner than the iPad Pro, thinner than the iPhone Air, and just about anything this big with a screen on it.

And yet, it still has a bigger battery, an 11,600 mAh battery. There’s also still up to 16 gigs of RAM. There’s still micro SD card support for expandable storage, but there’s also still up to a terabyte of built-in storage. It also supports the new S Pen. And it starts at 1,200 bucks for the big one, which yes, is $100 less than the big iPad Pro.

But maybe the most interesting is all the software features that Samsung added to this tablet to keep it competing with iPad OS, which just got that big makeover with iPad OS 26. So on the S11 Ultra, you can have apps automatically load in windowed form every time. You can resize windows to whatever size and shape you want, like literally any size and any shape. The window management features are all super intuitive. You can throw a window over to the side of the screen, throw it up to the top to go full screen, and then you can have multiple different desktops saved with these specific window layouts to come back to. Easy.

You can also link it to your phone so that you can make phone calls and send texts on your tablet. Plus, it’s still crazy good at all that media stuff that it’s always been great at. It’s still a wider aspect ratio than any iPad. The contrast ratio of AMOLED is still incredible. And another thing, this isn’t nanotexture by any means, but it does have pretty good anti-reflective properties, which make a difference to me in this light filled studio. So, this screen looks good all the time.

So, yes, the iPad has gotten better, but these Samsung tablets have definitely also gotten better. Not perfect. There’s still, you know, the Samsung quirks and this one also is not a Snapdragon chip, but still really good. And it’s clear that they’ve positioned this right alongside the iPad as a viable alternative and even a killer for some people. Still dope tech.

And I would also say check out the video that I made on switching between iOS and Android because there are a lot of things that these companies do to try to steal users from each other. And it’s fascinating and it was worth an entire separate video. So, I’ll link it below.

Sponsor: Google Shopping (11:05)

Now, a quick word from today’s sponsor. All right, thanks to Google and Best Buy for sponsoring this portion of the video. So, the holiday season is upon us, and getting gifts for loved ones is always a tough dance to do. Like, is this something I actually want or is this a good price for this thing? Where do I even start?

But the Google Holiday 100 can help you make sure you’re finding the best gifts because they’ve taken all of the search and trends data from the past year and put it together into a one-stop shop to find anything that anyone’s interested in. And then alongside Google Shopping, you also get a bunch of other tools to help you sort through everything. Probably the best of which being price insights, which literally gives you the price trends of a thing you’re going to get over time, so you can make sure it’s really a sale when it says it’s a holiday sale.

And all the products are sorted into collections and categories, so you’ll always have an easy jumping off point to find something you’re interested in. And it’s as easy as that. Switch 2 is one of the biggest tech trends of 2025. And rightfully so. Got a bunch of big upgrades from the last one. Bigger screen, higher refresh rate, and of course, the new Mario Kart.

So, when you go to look for gifts this holiday season, check out the Google Holiday 100 at the link in the description. And thanks to Google Shopping and Best Buy for helping me unwrap the holidays and be a better gift-giver.

Nikon ZR Camera (12:16)

All right, back to the video. So, 9 years ago, I did an 8K Red camera on Dope. And even longer ago at CES 2016, I did the Nikon D500 in Dope. And the reason I bring this up is in the meantime, you know, each company has released several other cameras, but then something really interesting happened. Nikon bought RED.

Now, in the long, long history of people’s favorite tech companies getting purchased, how many of those are a story that ends with everyone being happy other than people getting paid? Not very many. But with this one, there was at least a chance. There was an opportunity for something really cool because Nikon had been toiling away in maybe a distant third place to Canon and Sony for a while and they’ve been looking for a way to just break into this mirrorless camera space and RED has been making incredible high-quality cinema cameras and patenting tons of technology for a while but never really coming down to an affordable price.

So the question is what are they going to do? Like why did Nikon buy Red? Are they finally going to join forces and create something that can compete with Sony and Canon in the mirrorless space? Are they finally going to break out and make an affordable, high-quality camera that can actually sell?

So, we waited and we waited and this year our patience was finally rewarded because they came out with this thing. This is the Nikon ZR and this is a full-frame mirrorless camera. A collaboration now that Nikon and RED are one with a 24 megapixel stacked CMOS sensor, Nikon Z-mount, 6K 60 video, 7 and 1/2 stops of in-body image stabilization, 15 stops of dynamic range, it shoots R3D, and with this huge 4-inch swiveling touchscreen on the back, this camera really comes out swinging.

The spec sheet is awesome, and so it’s less of like a Canon R5 competitor and more of like an FX3 competitor. FX3 is very popular, but that camera is $4,000 and this thing is about $2,200. So, this thing immediately becomes very interesting, especially to me, someone who’s been shooting RED for a while, because it becomes right away the smallest RED camera, and it becomes the RED camera, probably with the best autofocus by a mile.

And something I’ve talked about before is so many videos are actually shaped by the tools in subtle ways, but if you make videos, you kind of notice this stuff. Like MKBHD videos, for example, because I shoot them on mostly RED cameras, are all manual focus all the time because they don’t really have very good autofocus. But philosophically, I feel like it should be the other way around. The tool should enable whatever creative thing you want to make.

So, as much as I love the quality of a RED camera, I’m always interested in more flexible cameras, ones that I can go around and shoot in more flexible spaces and more scenarios, but the footage still looks really good. That’s like the dream. So, I obviously don’t need this to be a picture taking camera by any means, and it kind of isn’t. I just need it to be able to travel more easily than this and shoot video that can match to it pretty well.

And thankfully, it does do that. It’s not without its quirks. It also definitely has some little asterisks. So, it’s not exactly the same R3D, but it’s R3D NE, which is still compressed RAW and still pretty good, but a little bit different. But also, as a video camera, the ergonomics are kind of weak. There is no EVF. There’s no top handle. Even the side grip here is pretty small for a video focus camera. There’s also a micro HDMI port instead of full-size HDMI. There is a single CF Express Type B slot and then a micro SD card slot instead of another full-size slot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that on a cinema camera.

And at the end of the day it’s Z-mount, which means Nikon lenses fit natively, but the Z-mount thankfully is very adaptable. So, that isn’t some horrible downside. But yeah, that’s about it. I really like this thing. It is an awesome camera with an awesome screen for an awesome price.

But more amazingly, it is a result of two companies merging into one and the consumer actually getting a win out of it. I feel like that never happens. So, I’m happy to see that. This obviously isn’t a full review of this camera with a ton of sample footage, but I will link some of my favorite reviews from other creators down below. So, if you want to check that out, take it from me or take it from them.

Outro (16:40)

But, yeah, another fun little random dope tech thing that’s new versus what we’ve seen in the past. And this has been a fun retro type of dope tech video. Thanks for watching. Catch you in the next one.

Video Chapters (from description)

• 0:00 Logitech MX Master 4
• 4:41 Devialet Phantom Ultimate
• 7:11 Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
• 12:11 Nikon ZR

Links from Description

• Logitech MX Master 4: https://geni.us/KwXNrho
• Devialet Phantom Ultimate: https://geni.us/Yn3t0v
• Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: https://geni.us/EfAPH
• Nikon ZR: https://geni.us/lB31jGc
• Nikon ZR review from Becca F: https://youtu.be/uK7duSgRTg4
• Gerald Undone on Nikon ZR: https://youtu.be/RmEyP7j6P_8
• Google Holiday 100: http://g.co/shopping/mkbhd