The smartphone industry took a major detour from being feature-loaded to what is believed to be a hardware overdrive. We saw some of the best-looking, as well as oddly unappealing smartphones in 2018.
On one hand, there were smartphones, such as Vivo Nex, Oppo Find X, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, and the coveted Palm Phone, that set a benchmark to how fascinating smartphone’s form factor can be. On the other hand, industry stalwarts such as Samsung, Apple, and Google did a meagre job of emulating the design of their own creations from last year, namely Galaxy S9+, iPhone XS Max, Pixel 3 XL.
2018 is closing and so is the chapter for smartphone manufacturers to start afresh. But before that, let us take a look at the smartphones that were overwhelmingly popular for whatever good, bad, or bizarre reason.
Picking a handful of smartphones from a lot is not easy, especially when you consider a market like India, which is more driven by the ‘value for money’ factor than showing loyalty to more established smartphone brands. We have brands such as Xiaomi, Infinix, Coolpad, and Realme that reign over the entry-level and budget price categories for smartphones in India. On the other side, the premium segment, which makes the buyers put a lot of thoughts into, is filled with the likes of OnePlus, Samsung, Apple, Google, and Huawei. Read | Round-up 2018: Most watched ads on YouTube in 2018 Here are the top picks from the assortment of smartphones available across price categories, in no particular order: Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 Pro – Xiaomi has made really great strides in India’s smartphone market to become the #1 smartphone seller after it dethroned Samsung that has had an unshakeable stronghold among the Indians. The company has been restlessly releasing smartphones, both in China and India, at a rapid rate. The superhit mid-range smartphone series, Redmi Note, saw four new members added to its family this year – the Redmi Note 5/ Note 5 Pro and Redmi Note 6/ Note 6 Pro. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro was launched towards the beginning of this year and sold like hot cakes. However, it was soon succeeded by the Redmi Note 6 Pro that brought in good news for the company. Over 6 lakh Redmi Note 6 Pro units were sold in the first sale that was conducted on Flipkart. The smartphone comes with a 6.26-inch full-HD+ LCD display with an aspect ratio of 19:9, with a notch at the top. It has a dual camera setup at the rear comprising a 12-megapixel sensor and a 5-megapixel sensor. On the front, a dual setup is present as well – a combination of a 20-megapixel sensor and a 2-megapixel sensor. Read | 5 WhatsApp features that were insanely popular in 2018 Realme U1 – Launched towards the ending months of 2018, the Realme U1 comes as the stoutest contender to the Redmi series. Realme said in October that it sold over 10 lakh smartphone units during the Flipkart Big Billion Days sale. The company is essentially a spinoff of Oppo that was earlier its sub-brand. The Realme U1 comes with a 25-megapixel Sony IMX576 sensor on the front while a dual setup is given on the rear – a 13-megapixel sensor and a 2-megapixel sensor. It has got a 6.3-inch full-HD+ display with a ‘waterdrop’ notch on the top. The smartphone is backed by a 3500mAh battery under the hood. Xiaomi Poco F1 – The Poco F1 was birthed after a long pursuit that involved Xiaomi mulling to penetrate through the ‘budget flagship’ category in India and elsewhere. The idea was to take on the OnePlus that outsold the likes of Samsung in sub-Rs 40,000 price range. Offered at a price of Rs 20,999, the smartphone went on to become the ‘most affordable’ smartphone with the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. It has a combination of a 12-megapixel sensor and a 5-megapixel sensor on the rear while a 20-megapixel camera is equipped on the front. The Poco F1 is currently available at a much lower price, more so because of many incoming speculations about the smartphone’s successor, Poco F2 in the making. OnePlus 6T – The OnePlus 6T was launched in the month of October as a variant of the OnePlus 6. While most specifications were the same on both, the OnePlus 6T sports the ‘waterdrop’ notch display, a shift from the wide notch available on the OnePlus 6. It also has an in-display fingerprint sensor for the first time on a OnePlus smartphone. Apart from the regular variants, the OnePlus 6T was launched again in December in a new avatar on lines of the company’s partnership with F1 team McLaren – the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. It boasts of a 10GB RAM and Warp Charge technology that is touted to deliver a day’s power in 20 minutes of charge. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 – The Galaxy Note 9 (Review) is Samsung’s most ambitious and featured-loaded smartphone to date. Samsung’s decision to stay off the ‘notch’ bandwagon has indeed been fruitful – and the retention of the 3.5mm headphone jack is icing on the cake for a flagship smartphone. The smartphone packs the most capacious battery ever found on a Samsung flagship device – a 4000mAh battery that provides juice for nearly a day. The yellow-coloured S Pen is the highlight of the smartphone, along with the control button that offers various productivities on the device. With the Galaxy Note 9, Samsung has been able to quell the concerns around battery fires almost completely. Read | The tech hits and misses of 2018 Google Pixel 3 XL – Continuing the tradition, Google launched the iteration to its Pixel smartphone series this year with rather a different approach. While Pixel smartphones have always been considered to be the pinnacle for mobile photography, its hardware has comparatively been criticised. The 2018 Pixel models – the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL (Review) – come with spruced up design and build quality and, of course, the specifications. In our review, we said Google has kept things simple yet subtle with the Pixel 3 XL, which makes it one of the good-looking smartphones in the premium range as well. Google Pixel 3 XL outperformed many other premium smartphones, this time again, but managed to take on the iPhone XS Max only by a thin margin. Powered by Android 9 Pie and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, the smartphone is a powerhouse. Although, some early issues with the phone’s memory management turned the experience sour. The Pixel 3 XL is also a member of the smartphones that have a notch display. However, the notch design on the Pixel 3 XL is rather a disastrous attempt at taking a potshot on 2018 iPhone models. iPhone XR – Before we justify why we chose iPhone XR and not its bigger siblings, let us understand the value it brings for the money charged. At Rs 76,990, the iPhone XR offers the exact experience that the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max give. While the iPhone XR has an LCD display, called Liquid Retina Display, it manages to render the same experience while watching Netflix shows and other videos. It houses the same Apple A12 Bionic processor that powers the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The 2018 iPhone models come with support for dual SIM cards – a physical SIM card and an eSIM. The iPhone XR has a single 12-megapixel camera on the rear and a 7-megapixel selfie camera. Despite being the cheapest of the lot this year, Apple is struggling to compel customers to spend the dime for even the iPhone XR, let alone the pricier iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max models. However, the iPhone XR has performed better than the other two iPhone models. Vivo Nex – If there’s an award for the most innovative smartphone, it will definitely go to the Vivo Nex (Review) for essentially revolutionising how smartphones should be designed in a particular manner so that the full-screen display stays intact. To achieve this, Vivo introduced a motorised slider in the smartphone that houses the front camera, thereby, maximising the display real estate. Vivo Nex is the world’s first smartphone to have thought of such a workaround. In our review, we found the Vivo Nex exceptionally well-built and sturdy while having a similarly good-looking display. Oppo Find X – The Oppo Find X seeks the same retort for the selfie camera as for the Vivo Nex. However, Oppo took the smartphone designing up a notch with Find X, which finds its place among the best-looking smartphones of this year. Crafted with a metallic finish, the Oppo Find X has an entire slider incorporated into the smartphone – it equips both selfie and rear cameras. The Oppo Find X comes with a 6.42-inch full-HD+ display with very thin bezels. It is also Oppo’s first smartphone that is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. Palm Phone – Last and also the least, Palm Phone is this year’s handiest and beautifully designed smartphone. The Palm Phone is not the regular smartphone that serves all purposes of having one – it’s rather a minimalistic approach to cut down the prolonged usage of smartphones in general. The Palm Phone runs Android Oreo and supports nearly all the apps from Google Play store – but in a display that’s twice as small as a regular Android smartphone or an iPhone. Its dumbed-down form is enough to keep the users engaged only when the requirements are as basic as making a call, sending a text, or just browsing some websites. Unlike the regular smartphones, it is just the size of our palm, something that is the baseline for curbing the engagement with smartphones. The Palm Phone is not available in India.
Source: financialexpress.com