The Bad: Battery life, while improved and better than Samsung's phones, isn't on the level of iPhones or Chinese phones. Still one of the few phones out right Android Nougat right now. An actually useful "always on" display that shows third party notifications, not like the Galaxy S7's version. The best audio playback if you've got the right files and wired headphones. Double tap to wake/turn off the screen and "Knock Code" (unlock the phone via a sequence of taps) are ingenious software features that every phone should have. Much smoother UI than Samsung's laggy TouchWiz. The Good: The only flagship phone left on the market with a removable battery. Fun wide-angle lens that take cool, different looking photos. I find the V20's second screen quite useful. Probably the best build quality of all the phones I've tested this year. The Good: The dual-cameras lets the P9 take some very fun "trick" shots that are simply not possible on another phone, such as light graffiti, light trail or forcing light into a room that's pitch black. Its M3 Max, at just $250, is excellent value. The Ugly: Despite the strong build quality, there's no denying the design is a bit uninspired, looking like an iPhone.Īdditional Notes: Meizu's phones are, dollar for dollar, the best value on the market. The Bad: The lack of app drawer or ability to hide apps mean the home screen is always cluttered unless you start like 12 folders. Quad HD AMOLED display is a first for Chinese phones. Ingenious hardware/software feature that combines the home and back button into one. Quality metal build that feels just as good as an iPhone, at less than half the price. The Good: The Exynos 8890 chip is probably the second fastest chip on the market behind Huawei's Kirin 950 (it's definitely faster than the Snapdragon 820). Value matters to consumers.Īnd so, after that overlong setup (sorry), here goes my list of best phones of 2016. Nah, that's not gonna fly here. To me, if phone A costs $700 and phone B costs $400, but phone A is only slightly better, then I have to knock points off phone A in my review. Most reviews, however, overlooked this crucial detail and gave a wholehearted recommendation to the Note 7 anyway (this was before the fires, of course). For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was a slightly better phones than the OnePlus 3, but it was also more than twice as expensive. To me, those are hugely important factors to the average consumer. My biggest problem with many phone reviews from non-tech specific publications is that its reviewers tend to judge the phones in a vacuum, without considering things like value and price. I am aware that missing the Pixel is sort of a huge deal, since that phone got so much press, so by no means is this a "definitive list." Though, to be honest, the Pixel's hideously huge bottom bezel would have never received a pass from me, because it suggests that Google rushed the product out by relying on old HTC models ( Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica made a very compelling case for this). Rest assured, all the phones I'm listing below, I've used as a my daily driver for at least two weeks.Ģ. Other than these three phones, I've tested phones by just about all other major companies this year - Apple, Samsung, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, HTC, Meizu, Oppo, Vivo, Motorola/Leonovo, etc. I also didn't try the ZTE Axon or OnePlus's recent (minor) upgrade to the OnePlus 3. I was not able to get my hands on the Google Pixel. And so I figured I'd give my take on my personal favorite phones of 2016.Ī couple of things I want to state up front:ġ. I've been fortunate enough to try most of this year's releases, including the very obscure ones from companies like Gionee and Freetel. I also got my hands on several Oppo and Vivo phones this year too but the software on these phones. ![]() This is why it bugs me so much that mainstream media in the west (I'm talking about the general news sites, not the dedicated tech sites, which mostly do a great job) write about Apple and Samsung phones as if they're the only two players in the game. Back in, say, 2012, you could only trust the big names for a quality phone, but not in 2016. The thing is, this is not necessarily a bad thing to consumers, because just about every company has gotten really good at making smartphones. ![]() I say "supposedly" because as much as Google's marketing want to spin it, the phone is still made by HTC and contains many of the Taiwanese phonemaker's DNA), etc.īut the market has also become so saturated that it seems like there's a new phone release every other week. We got a major PR/business disaster that also shone light on the dangers of lithium batteries (Samsung Galaxy Note 7) the first real bezel-less phone (Xiaomi Mi Mix) a "new" iPhone that scrapped the long-used headphone jack (iPhone 7) Google's first supposedly self-made phone (the Pixel). This year has been a particularly eventful one for smartphones, in terms of both good and bad.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |