2017 has been the year that smartphones got smarter (hello AI), smaller – but with larger displays, and continued the war on the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Huawei P10 Lite
2017 saw the release of Huawei’s flagship “P” series handsets – the P10 and P10 Plus. Both handsets come with dual rear-facing Leica lenses and a sleek design – albeit without the nearly bezel-less display that’s become the new standard on flagship smartphones.
With its range of colours and premium features, the P10 and P10 Plus are fantastic handsets, but they also come with a premium price tag. If you want a Huawei handset that forms part of the P10 family but costs a bit less then you might want to consider the P10 Lite. It doesn’t come with the same front-facing fingerprint scanner / home button / navigation “trackpad” that the P10 and P10 Plus have, nor does it have the Leica lenses, but it’s still a great handset despite not having all the high-end features.
The P10 Lite features:
- 5.2-inch full HD LCD display
- Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner
- 3000mAh battery
- Fast charge
12MP rear-facing camera and 8MP front-facing camera- SD card slot
iPhone 8
Apple announced three new phones in 2017 – the iPhone, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X.
While the iPhone 8 Plus has a rear-facing dual camera setup, and the iPhone X is the future of iPhone, the regular iPhone 8 has been largely overlooked. This is due to the fact that the iPhone 8 is almost identical (in terms of looks) to the iPhone 6, 6S and 7.
It sports the same design, no 3.5mm headphone jack and the same camera bump on the back that we’ve all become used to.
Having said that, there are some notable differences with the iPhone 8:
- Glass body which allows for wireless charging
- New A11 Bionic chip
- 12MP rear-facing camera with OIS
- 7MP HD Facetime camera
- Bluetooth 5.0
Huawei P9 Lite
Huawe’s P9 Lite continues to be a firm favourite amongst Android users. The lower spec’d, budget friendly version of Huawei’s 2016 flagship P9 range has all the things you’d expect in a modern day smartphone – fingerprint scanner, good camera and good battery life.
It does not have the Leica dual camera setup found in Huawei’s flagship smartphones, nor does it have a USB Type C port, but that doesn’t detract from the overall greatness of this phone.
P9 Lite features:
- 5.2-inch full HD display
- Rear mounted fingerprint scanner
- Expandable storage
- 13MP rear facing camera
- 8MP front facing camera
- 3000mAh battery
Samsung Galaxy S8+
Samsung’s smartphone design has improved enormously over the past few years, with the Galaxy S8 and S8+ proving to be the best designed smartphones ever made by the South Korean company to date.
The nearly bezel-less AMOLED Infinity Display, glass body and IP rating and inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack have made these handsets some of the best this year.
The S8+ has an enormous 6.2-inch Quad HD+ display in a body that’s slimmer than that of the iPhone 8 Plus.
Other than the gorgeous display, the S8+ has other great features:
- 3500mAh battery with wireless charging and fast charging
- Dual Pixel 12MP OIS (F1.7) rear-facing camera
- 8MP AF (F1.7) front-facing camera
- IP68 rating
- Expandable storage
iPhone 7 Plus
2017 saw the release of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X, but it appears that 2016’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are still firm favourites with the Apple crowd. This isn’t surprising considering that the differences between the 7/7 Plus and the 8/8 Plus are mostly incremental, under the hood upgrades.
The iPhone 7 Plus sports a great number of features when compared to the 8 Plus and only lacks the improved camera and wireless charging.
iPhone 7 Plus features:
- 5.5-inch Retina display
- A10 fusion chip
- 12MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras (rear-facing)
- 7MP Facetime HD camera
- IP67 rating
