April 2018 has witnessed the launch of some flagship smartphones. While the flagship pie is always ruled by Samsung or Apple, we saw a new entrant in the market in the form of Huawei P20. There is also another smartphone on this list that should be on your consideration list and that's last on our list. At News18 Tech we get you our top picks among flagship smartphones that you should consider if you have the money in excess of Rs 50,000 to splurge on a smartphone. The top 5 list is in no particular order, all the devices are champions in their own way.
1. Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus
Samsung's flagship phones are always on this list and you really can miss to have, the latest Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus out of this list. The Galaxy S9+ is powered by a 10nm, 64bit, octa-core Exynos 9810 (4x 2.9GHz + 4x 1.9GHz) with 6GB of RAM and support for up to 400GB microSD card. The device is available in 64GB and 256GB internal storage variants. The Samsung Galaxy S9+ offers a 6.2-inch Quad HD+ curved display with an aspect ratio of 18:5:9 (Infinity Display). There’s a dual-lens camera setup in the bigger Galaxy S9+ with 12MP telephoto and 12MP wide-angle lenses with an aperture of f/2.4 and f/1.5 respectively.
Watch: First Impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus
There is of, course, autofocus and Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) on both the lenses. Samsung says that the camera is built for low lighting photography with dual aperture and multi-frame noise reduction. It’s claimed that the new phones offer 30% less noise than the older Galaxy S8. On the front, there is an 8MP f/1.7 A/F camera for selfies. There is a wide-angle mode along with other features too. Other camera features include super slow mode at 960 FPS. Interestingly Samsung has added an “auto slo-mo" feature which automatically detects motion in a still frame and records a slow-motion video of the moving object in the frame. You can also use these slo-mo videos as a GIF or even as a desktop wallpaper.
Read the full Review of the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus here.
2. Apple iPhone X
The second smartphone on this list is undoubtedly the Apple iPhone X. This is a smartphone that faced a lot of flack for having a display with a notch and in 2018 now it's kind of a trend among Android smartphone makers. The iPhone X is the first smartphone from Apple to feature a bezel-less design. It offers a 5.8-inch Super Retina display and is powered by an A11 Bionic chip. The iPhone X also comes with wireless charging and an improved rear camera with dual optical image stabilisation and of course facial recognition enabled by a TrueDepth camera. On the security front, the iPhone X offers Face ID facial recognition to unlock the device. It is achieved by using a new TrueDepth camera system made up of a dot projector, infrared camera and flood illuminator, and is powered by A11 Bionic to accurately map and recognise a face. Face ID can be also enabled for Apple Pay and Apple claims that it works seamlessly in the dark as well.
Watch: Apple iPhone X Review
The cameras on iPhone X are custom tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. The A11 Bionic CPU handles world tracking, scene recognition and the GPU enables incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers can take advantage of the TrueDepth camera and the rear cameras to create games and apps offering fantastically immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.
Also Read: iPhone X Review: If You Don't Have an iPhone(X), Well You Don't Have an iPhone!
The Apple iPhone X's A11 Bionic features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion. A new, second-generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70 percent greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving users more power while lasting two hours longer than iPhone 7.
3. Google Pixel 2 XL
The Google Pixel 2 XL is the first stock android smartphone option without any bloatware as seen on Samsung's flagship device. The Pixel 2 XL sports a 6-inch P-OLED screen with an aspect ratio of 18:9 and a resolution of 1440x2880 pixels, protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass on top. The smartphones come with an Aluminium unibody and carry IP67 water and dust resistance. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and runs the latest Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box. The smartphone carries a 4GB LPDDR4x RAM and comes in two storage variants – 64GB and 128GB. In addition to this, Google is also offering unlimited cloud storage for photos and videos to Google Pixel 2 users. The Google Pixel 2 XL also comes with a 3520 mAh battery.
Also Read: Google Pixel 2 Review [Video]: Should You Buy it Now For Rs 42,000?
In terms of optics, the Pixel 2 XL carries a 12.2-megapixel primary camera with f/1.8 aperture and with features like Autofocus with laser + dual pixel phase detection and Optical as well as electronic image stabilisation are standard. The rear camera is also capable of producing videos at 1080p @ 30fps, 60fps, 120fps and 4K @ 30fps. The selfie shooter comes with an 8-megapixel secondary camera with f/2.4 aperture, fixed focus and 1080p @ 30fps video recording capability
Also Watch: Google Pixel 2 Review
4. Huawei P20 Pro
The lastest entrant on this list is the Huawei P20 pro that was launched in April 2018. This is the first smartphone to feature three camera's at the back, one with an RGB sensor, one with a Monochrome Sensor and a third telephoto camera. Huawei P20 Pro sports a 6.1-inch Full HD+ OLED display with 2240×1080 pixels resolution and 19:9 aspect ratio and a notch at the top. It is powered by a similar Kirin 970 octa-core SoC that also comes with a neural processing unit (NPU) for AI-based enhancement on features like selfies, video calling and face unlock. The device carries a 6GB RAM coupled with 128GB of internal storage. It is backed by a 4000 mAh battery with SuperCharge support. It also offers IP67 water and dust resistance.
Connectivity options on the Huawei P20 Pro include dual SIM card slots, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and 4G VoLTE. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 on top and also supports Project Treble. The camera setup on the Huawei P20 Pro includes a 40-megapixel RGB sensor, an 8-megapixel telephoto sensor and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor for enhanced low-light photography. The entire setup allows 5x hybrid zoom, background defocus effect and ISO 102400 light sensitivity which, as per Huawei, matches that on a Canon Mark 5D IV camera. The camera sensors also offer laser auto-focus, slow-motion (720p) video recording at 960 fps and Master AI for scene detection for optimum settings for an image. At the front, the P20 Pro comes with a 24-megapixel selfie shooter with 'Light Fusion' feature.
Also Read: First Impressions Review of Huawei P20
5. Nokia 8 Sirocco
The last phone to feature on our top 5 flagship phone is the all-new Nokia 8 Sirocco that's all set to go on sale on April 30, 2018, in India. Nokia 8 Sirocco is a smartphone that's also a part of Nokia's Android One family and is priced at Rs 49,999. We have been using the Nokia 8 Sirocco and loving the dense experience of a stainless steel body. Nokia 8 Sirocco comes as a flagship offering by HMD Global in its recently launched series. The smartphone comes with a curved glass finish in a stainless-steel frame, which the company claims to be 2.5 times stronger than the 6000 series Aluminium.
Also Watch: Nokia 8 Sirocco First Look
It sports a 5.5-inch curved edge-to-edge pOLED display protected by a 3D Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and runs Android 8.0 Oreo operating system. On the optics front, the smartphone comes with dual rear sensors with ZEISS optics. The setup includes one wide-angle primary sensor coupled with a secondary 13-megapixel sensor with 2x optical zoom.
So what do you think about our list, tweet to us here your thoughts.
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