The year 2017 is about to end. In this year we have seen a lot of good smartphones but not any groundbreaking innovations. Though, we have prepared a list of best smartphones of 2017, based on our experience and reviews from the users.
Sony Xperia XZ Premium
With a 4K display, latest high-end specs under the hood, Sony’s professional photography heritage, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium is one of the best smartphones you can buy right now.
The screen resolution of 3840X2160, stretched over 5.46 inches gives you a stunning pixel density of 807ppi, which is massive compared to Galaxy S8 manages 570ppi and LG G6 gives 456ppi only. With such specs inside, dual front-facing speakers, a 4K display, Xperia XZ Premium is a serious heavy multimedia machine too. Playing games, watching movies, listening to music, etc. gives a top-notch premium feeling to the user.
Let’s talk about the camera, with the 19-megapixel camera at the rear, featuring HDR, face detection, Electronic Image Stabilization, laser autofocus, etc. the users can enjoy one of the best Sony made the camera on a phone. Furthermore, the user also can enjoy the super slow motion at 960fps, compared to iPhone 7/7Plus and Galaxy S8/S8 Plus only record at 240fps.
Though, when it comes to design part, Sony Xperia smartphones are always one step behind its rivals. Even though the XZ Premium has a Gorilla Glass 5 front and rear, but the sides of the phone is still a plastic, which gives you a cheap feeling.
Major Specifications
- Display– 5.46 inches IPS LCD touchscreen
- Chipset– Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835
- CPU– Octa-core
- GPU– Adreno 540
- Memory– 64 GB of internal storage with microSD Card(expandable up to 256 GB), 4 GB RAM
- OS– Android 7.1 (Nougat)
- Primary Camera– 19 Mega-pixel with f/2.0, 25mm, laser autofocus and LED flash
- Secondary Camera–13 Mega-pixel with f/2.0, 22mm and 1.12 µm pixel size
- Battery– 3230 mAh non-removable with quick charge
- Sensors– Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass, color spectrum
Xiaomi Mi 6
Though the Xiaomi smartphones are regarded as the flagship killers, when it comes to Nepal, the prices are hiked as it’s a premium one. However, the phones are still cheaper than any other premium flagships.
Talking about the Mi 6, probably it is only Android flagship to stick with small 5-inch display and still keeping the phone manageable in size. The compact size might be the reason for Mi 6 has made it a little bit heavier. Being a small phone, the weight is very same to iPhone 7or 7 Plus. If you hold Mi 6 in one hand and iPhone 7 in another, you barely feel the weight difference.
Similar to iPhone 7 and above, the Xiaomi also ditched the headphone jack form Mi 6. The company says this is the result of compact size and in order to fit the bigger battery and splashproof rating.
With the resolution of Full HD only, it packs 428 ppi of pixel density, and inside it has a Snapdragon 835 chipset and 2.45 GHz octa-core CPU with Adreno 540 GPU.
The newest feature of this phone is Bluetooth 5, which has better range and speed of data transfer. The latest technology can top the file transfer speed of 1000 Kbps when two devices are within few meters of range. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, FM, 3G, and 4G. Sensors on the phone include Compass Magnetometer, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor and Gyroscope.
Major Specifications
- Display– 5.15 inches IPS LCD touchscreen
- Chipset– Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835
- CPU– Octa-core
- GPU– Adreno 540
- Memory– 64 GB of internal storage with microSD Card(expandable up to 256 GB), 4 GB RAM
- OS– Android 7.1 (Nougat)
- Primary Camera– Dual 12 MP (27mm, f/1.8, OIS 4-axis & 52mm, f/2.6), 2x optical zoom, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash.
- Secondary Camera–8 Mega-pixel with f/2.0.
- Battery– 3350 mAh non-removable with quick charge
- Sensors– Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass, color spectrum
- Price – Rs. 54,999 only
OnePlus 5
Even though the OnePlus 5 is not cheap as its predecessors, still it is one of the best phones of 2017, available in Nepali market.
Talking about the phone, it is the thinnest phone from OnePlus at 7.25mm and feels very light in hands. With 5.5 inches Full HD AMOLED screen and 401 ppi of pixel density make the phone display look great. On the top, the phone has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 to ensure that the screen is fully protected and to ward off scratches.
The OnePlus 5 is powered by the latest 2.45GHz octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor with Adreno 540 GPU. The RAM depends on the storage size you, with 6GB of RAM on 64GB version and 8GB of RAM on the 128GB version. As far as the cameras are concerned, the OnePlus 5 packs a 20-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 16-megapixel front shooter for selfies. The OnePlus 5 runs Android 7.1.1 and is powered by a 3300mAh nonremovable battery. It measures 154.20 x 74.10 x 7.25 (height x width x thickness) and weigh 153.00 grams.
Major Specifications
- Display– 5.5 inches AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
- Chipset– Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835
- CPU– Octa-core
- GPU– Adreno 540
- Memory– 64 GB, 6 GB RAM or 128 GB, 8 GB RAM
- OS– Android 7.1 (Nougat)
- Primary Camera– Dual 16 MP, f/1.7, 24mm, EIS (gyro) + 20 MP, f/2.6, 36mm, phase detection autofocus, 1.6x optical zoom, dual-LED flash.
- Secondary Camera–16 MP, f/2.0, 20mm, EIS (gyro), 1.0 µm pixel size, 1080p, Auto HDR
- Battery– 3300 mAh non-removable with fast charge
- Sensors– Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass,
- Price – Rs. 59,500 for 64GB variant and Rs. 69,5000 for 128GB variant
Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus
The regular galaxy s8 with have 5.8in display whereas the plus variant will have the 6.2in display. The new display will have an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 with 2960×1440 pixels. The physical home button will no longer be part of the gorgeous display of the Samsung Galaxy S8. The fingerprint scanner is also at the rear right next to the camera lens which seems in the odd position. It’s still how the Samsung fan will react to this. And there won’t be Samsung logo on the front. With the removal of the physical button, there will be soft keys. The navigation bar is customizable, even down to the background color and the order of the function keys.
There is also a layer of Bixby built into the camera, where Samsung’s own software can scan and translate through dozens of languages or pull up product information for just about any item.
To power the phone, there is a 10 nm octa-core processor that is likely to be a choice of the latest Snapdragon or the latest Exynos depending on the region, 4 GB of RAM, expandable storage, a headphone jack, a 3,000 mAh battery for the S8 and a 3,500 mAh battery for the S8 Plus.
Aside from the Bixby layer, the camera is also quite familiar and sticks to the tried and true setup of previous years. 12 MP for the rear camera at f/1.7 aperture gets some post-processing enhancements that seams together multiple versions of the same frame for better detail. The camera is quite familiar and sticks to the tried and true setup of previous years. The front-facing camera is 8 MP at the same aperture, with some smart autofocus capabilities now built-in.
Major Specifications
- Display– 5.8/6.2 inches AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
- Chipset– Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 83 Exynos 8895 Octa5
- CPU– Octa-core 2.3GHz
- GPU– Mali-G71 MP20
- Memory– 64 GB, 4 GB RAM and 128 GB, 6 GB RAM
- OS– Android 7.1 (Nougat)
- Primary Camera– 12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash.
- Secondary Camera– 8 MP, f/1.7, autofocus, 1440p@30fps, dual video call, Auto HDR
- Battery– 3000 mAh / 3500mAh non-removable with Quick charge 2.0
- Sensors– Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass,
Huawei P10 Plus
The phone is 5.5-inch tall and has a screen resolution of 1440X2560 pixels display. Talking about the internals, it has HiSilicon Kirin 960 chipset, Octacore CPU, and Mali G71 MP8 GPU.Talking about the storage, it has 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM or 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. And both models have an option for storage upgrade up to 256GB via microSD card.
In the optics department, it has dual 20 megapixels + 12 megapixel at the rear and 8 megapixels for the selfies. P10 Plus is an innovative and stylish smartphone co-engineered with Leica and brings professional studio-like effects to enhance portrait photography.
Major Specifications
- Display– 5.5 inches 1440X2560 pixel resolution
- Chipset– HiSilicon Kirin 960
- CPU– Octa-core 243GHz
- GPU– Mali-G71 MP8
- Memory– 64 GB, 4 GB RAM and 128 GB, 6 GB RAM
- OS– Android 7.1 (Nougat)
- Primary Camera– Dual 20 MP + 12 MP, f/1.8, OIS, Leica optics, 2x lossless zoom, phase detection and laser autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash.
- Secondary Camera– 8 MP, f/1.9
- Battery– 3750 mAh non-removable with Fast Charging
- Sensors– Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, compass,
Honorable Mentions:
- iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
- iPhone 8/8Plus and iPhone X
- Samsung Galaxy Note 8
- HTC U11
In the above list of smartphones, we have missed some of the best ones because of their unavailability in Nepal or we didn’t get a chance for hands-on.
Discussion about this post