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AT&T NetGear "Nighthawk" LTE Hotspot REVIEW
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May 29, 2025
NetGear Nighthawk LTE Hotspot? Definitely. Need an Internet hotspot for when you're out and about or on the road? Do you find the idea of high-speed access from anywhere appealing? Of course you do, and secure access via your own hotspot too? What's not to like! Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ tests out the new Netgear Nighthawk 4G/LTE Mobile Hotspot from AT&T Wireless and finds it quite impressive. A best-in-class product, it offers a surprising number of features and capabilities, but don't get too confused: It doesn't offer 5G, nor does any product at this point: 5G won't even begin to be deployed until mid-to-late 2019. Tests include speed tests while driving 80mph through Wyoming and parked in the middle of nowhere in Montana, along with an exploration of many of its other features. Learn more about the hotspot at https://www.att.com/ #netgear #nighthawk #hotspot
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0:00
is this the best mobile hotspot on the
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market let's check it out
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[Music]
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Dave tail here and this time I'm looking
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at a mobile hotspot from AT&T this mouse
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is from neck here this is the neck gear
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Nighthawk LTE mobile hotspot and it's
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pretty amazing actually it does
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everything you'd want in a hotspot and
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more its gigabyte LTE so it's kind of 5g
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ready but no one's actually deployed 5g
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yet in the United States couldn't test
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that but it does support the AT&T 4G LTE
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network and 4G and 3G UMTS and you can
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connect ready for this up to 20 devices
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and it speaks 802 11 B and G and N and
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AC that's a lot going on now it's pretty
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big for a hotspot as you can see so its
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dimensions are 4 and a bit inches square
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by just under an inch thick and it's
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eight and a half ounces not super heavy
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but you know what's crazy has a really
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good battery in it too so it has a 5000
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mega amp hour battery which gives you 20
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hours of active use but not only that
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you can actually use this to charge
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other devices now it seems like a lot of
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devices with big batteries have that
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feature now I don't use it myself but in
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a pinch in a crisis it could be very
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beneficial now the interface is kind of
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interesting because they've put a round
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screen on it now what's frustrating is
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the screen isn't actually touch
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sensitive which is like the only
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criticism I have of this is there's a
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control and power button on the top and
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that's how you step through different
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views now to manage it and to set it up
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thankfully you can use an app so it
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connects to an app on your Android or
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iPhone and that gives you all the
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configuration options which is very nice
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and of course do I need to say this if
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you're gonna use this as a hotspot you
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need to have it has to have its own
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cellular plan has to have its own SIM
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card and you need to actually have that
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working so you're gonna have to pay not
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just the price of the unit but you
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have to pay for some sort of service
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plan or you'll have to piggyback this on
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your existing AT&T service plan as
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another device now inside it's running
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the Qualcomm Snapdragon x16 LTE modem
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CPU which is kind of state-of-the-art
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right now and on the bottom here's a
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close-up you can see it has a USB 3.0
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which lets you charge other devices it
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charges itself by a USB see you can also
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use that for tethering which we'll get
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back to in a second and it has an
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Ethernet port now the Ethernet port
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super interesting because its input only
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so you can't actually plug in via
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ethernet to another device like this
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handy computer but you go to a hotel you
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plug this into the Ethernet jack and
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this becomes a Wi-Fi hotspot even if
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you're not going to use it cellular even
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if you're just going to use the hotel
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network this will let you connect 20
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devices to that hotel single IP now that
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can be really nice when you're in places
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like Vegas
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where they do goofy things like count
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how many devices you connect to your
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network so you have one of these and now
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you have your own mobile hotspot and it
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actually has a fully functional router
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inside so you can do port forwarding you
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can set up DMZ s you can utilize DL DL
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and a you can whitelist and blacklist
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devices so that guy in the next room
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over isn't borrowing your connectivity
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obviously you can set up a password and
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all that sort of stuff
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it's crazy feature full but I'm not done
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believe it or not it's also a media
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server so in the battery area in the
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back not only is there a battery but
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there's actually some pop it out there
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is space for a micro SD card somewhere
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in here and so you can actually put in a
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micro SD card or you can actually plug
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in a flash drive via the USB connection
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and you can use this as a media server
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even wirelessly this is insanely
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powerful and there's so much versatility
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to this that I just find it in a really
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pretty amazing device for this category
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now let's see what else can I tell you
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well let's show some testing so one of
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the things
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I think most fun where the hot spot is
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to try it when you're on the move so
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here's a couple of speed tests I did
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with this now it's not going to be 5g I
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told you no one can do 5g yet but here's
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what I did is so this first test is I
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was parked just outside Billings Montana
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now that's pretty far away from any big
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network connectivity hub or anything and
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you can see I got a 30 megabit per
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second download speed that's not bad
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more interesting is this next one this
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next one was while driving 80 miles an
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hour
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just north of Casper Wyoming now you
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want to talk about middle of nowhere
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Wyoming like most of Wyoming the state
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is in fact the middle of nowhere that I
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think is their state motto we're in the
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middle of nowhere maybe not maybe that's
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not their state model but you can see 80
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miles an hour driving along using this
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hotspot and we were getting a pretty
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decent 28 megabits per second that's
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good enough that we were watching
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Netflix I as the driver was not watching
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Netflix just to be clear but my
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passenger was able to actually bring up
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Netflix a good resolution on the
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computer using this as the hotspot now
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streaming video through a cellular
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hotspot eats a vast amount of data so be
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careful with that and don't eat up your
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whole plan in the first hour but I was
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very impressed with the performance now
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here's what's funny though is that when
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we got into town and I was trying this
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in places like Denver I was often
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getting really good speed and then
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sometimes that get very poor speed so it
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seems like it really depends on where
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you are on what towers are available on
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what kind of handshake it does so it's
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not guaranteed reliable 30 megabits per
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second or faster it really depends and
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obviously if there's no cell signal this
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is not going to do any magic it's not
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going to just find a really fast
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internet connection for you but all in
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all we tested this extensively and I'm
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very impressed I'm impressed with its
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features as a media server as a Wi-Fi
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hotspot and most especially as a 4G LTE
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/ 5g hotspot this is absolutely one of
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the very best
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mobile hotspots that you can buy on the
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market right now so really good job
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Netgear and nice job AT&T plugging this
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thing into your network now having said
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all of that the only thing left to talk
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about is the price and the price is not
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actually too bad I'm just turning it
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back on so we can get the screen to come
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on there we go so for the price but well
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actually before we get there can I ask
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that you subscribe to my channel I
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appreciate that
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cool now in terms of the price this is
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the Netgear Nighthawk LTE mobile hotspot
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and it will run you a hundred and
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ninety-nine ninety-nine at att.com
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plus your plan or if you sign up for a
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two-year contract you can get it to $10
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a month plus the contract fee so depends
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on how you want to pay for it you can
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sort of do the math yourself and figure
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out which one's gonna be more cost
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efficient but if you're looking for a
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great hotspot with a lot of versatility
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this is really really an impressive
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device so props to you nut neck ear and
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AT&T this is Dave Taylor I think I'm
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gonna go back on line and I'll catch you
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in my next video
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[Music]
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