TOP SMARTPHONES 2016 | Articles | Phones

2016 has once again made a huge step for­ward in the devel­op­ment of tech­nol­o­gy. What just did not show smart­phone man­u­fac­tur­ers in the past year. But we have cho­sen only the best smart­phones, those that sur­prised, impressed and delight­ed.

iPhone 7 Plus

The best iPhone avail­able today.

The weight: 188g; The size: 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3mm; OC: iOS 10; Dis­play: 5.5 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1080 x 1920; CPU: A10 Fusion; RAM: 3GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32/128/256GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 2900mAh; Main cam­era: 12MP+12MP; Front-cam­era: 7MP.

Not sur­pris­ing­ly, the lat­est mod­el of the most famous smart­phone released in 2016 wins in terms of char­ac­ter­is­tics of its pre­de­ces­sors.

Apple has tak­en a huge leap for­ward in per­for­mance out of habit, this time mak­ing the iPhone water­proof and adding a sec­ond main cam­era on the back. To say that the iPhone 7 Plus flies is like under­es­ti­mat­ing it.

Apple kept its design clas­sic, remov­ing only the head­phone jack. This is what stirred up the fans of the com­pa­ny. How­ev­er, Apple has­n’t missed a beat by giv­ing its sig­na­ture Ear­Pods an iPhone-friend­ly Light­ning input. In addi­tion, they are releas­ing wire­less Ear­Pods very soon, so fans have noth­ing to lose and can safe­ly trust their favorite com­pa­ny.

iPhone in the sev­enth gen­er­a­tion does not for­get about the cam­era, con­tin­u­ing to improve it and offer bet­ter and bet­ter pic­tures.

In short, if you want to touch the future, Apple is always the right choice.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

A work of art among smart­phones.

The weight: 157g; The size: 150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7mm; OS: Android Marsh­mal­low; Dis­play: 5.5 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1440 x 2560; CPU: Exynos 8890; RAM: 4GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32GB/64GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 3600mAh; Main cam­era: 12MP; Front-cam­era: 5MP.

The Galaxy S6 Edge was good, but not per­fect. The only thing he con­tributed was a curved dis­play. Oth­er­wise, it was no dif­fer­ent from the Galaxy S6.

The S7 went even fur­ther, mak­ing the dis­play even more curved, increas­ing per­for­mance and, most impor­tant­ly, grad­u­al­ly reduc­ing the price. It is such a smart­phone that can com­pete with Sam­sung’s eter­nal rival — Apple.

The design of the Galaxy Edge S7 is a com­bi­na­tion of glass and met­al that feels good to hold. A step for­ward has been made both for the cam­era and for Touch­wiz tech­nol­o­gy. The lat­ter, by the way, final­ly acquires clear func­tions and becomes very use­ful.

The increase in bat­tery capac­i­ty was also pos­i­tive­ly received by Sam­sung fans.

In short, Sam­sung is ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion in many ways and offers a great smart­phone.

Huawei P9

Dual cam­era for bet­ter pho­tos.

The weight: 144g; The size: 145 x 70.9 x 7mm; OS: Android Marsh­mal­low; Dis­play: 5.2 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1080 x 1920; CPU: HiSil­i­con Kirin 955; RAM: 4GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 3000mAh; Main cam­era: 12MP; Front-cam­era: 8MP.

For the price, Huawei smart­phones always offer max­i­mum fea­tures and the P9 is no excep­tion. Mix­ing the max­i­mum of the lat­est nov­el­ties is the main goal of this brand. Fash­ion­able design, a fin­ger­print scan­ner, a spec­tac­u­lar line­up — all this is present in the nov­el­ty from Huawei.

The proces­sor and RAM of Huawei P9 allow you to per­form any tasks that are assigned to a smart­phone. So, in dai­ly use, it does not lag behind the leader of the Android plat­form — Sam­sung. The built-in mem­o­ry of the smart­phone is also quite enough.

The P9’s dis­play proves that you don’t have to stuff your device with an infi­nite amount of pix­els to get the pic­ture qual­i­ty.

Enlist­ing the sup­port of Leica, Huawei P9 put empha­sis on the cam­era. Now there are two of them on the back pan­el, and the image qual­i­ty can eas­i­ly com­pete with the main mar­ket lead­ers. Those who love tak­ing pho­tos with the P9 will def­i­nite­ly have a lot of fun.

Xiaomi Mi5

Com­bi­na­tion of func­tion, aes­thet­ics and price.

The weight: 129g; The size: 144.6 x 69.2 x 7.3mm; OS: Android 6; Dis­play: 5.15 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1080 x 1920; CPU: Snap­drag­on 820; RAM: 3/4GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32GB/64GB/128GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 3000mAh; Main cam­era: 16MP; Front-cam­era: 4MP.

It is very dif­fi­cult to choose the best smart­phone from a com­pa­ny that pro­duces them in such quan­ti­ties as Xiao­mi. And while atten­tion is riv­et­ed on the “con­cept smart­phone” Xiao­mi Max, which is inac­ces­si­ble any­where except Chi­na, in 2016 it is worth not­ing Xiao­mi Mi5. This smart­phone has become a real com­peti­tor to the iPhone and Sam­sung. Any­thing they can do, Xiao­mi can too (the Mi Note 2 with a curved dis­play proved it).

Mi5 can be described in one word — “impres­sive”. Both the per­for­mance and pow­er of this smart­phone are amaz­ing, espe­cial­ly when com­bined with its price. The cam­era cre­ates pic­tures that are not so easy to dis­tin­guish from those tak­en on expen­sive smart­phones. In addi­tion, Mi5 is very light, but it looks expen­sive and impres­sive.

Unlike many man­u­fac­tur­ers of bud­get smart­phones, Xiao­mi does not com­pro­mise: Snap­drag­on 820, 3–4GB of RAM and 32/64/128GB of built-in mem­o­ry — every­thing a mod­ern user needs is present in Mi5.

LG G5

Update of the best smart­phone from LG.

The weight: 159g; The size: 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm; OS: Android 6; Dis­play: 5.3 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1440x2560; CPU: Snap­drag­on 820; RAM: 4GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 2800mAh; Main cam­era: 16MP+8MP; Front-cam­era: 8MP.

LG, as a rule, tries to offer some­thing new and diver­si­fy the mar­ket. From curved dis­plays to leather cas­es, LG has tried every­thing. This time the com­pa­ny applies the mod­u­lar assem­bly prin­ci­ple. Addi­tion­al mod­ules come to the res­cue imme­di­ate­ly — Cam Plus and HiFi Plus. Of course, the poten­tial has not yet been ful­ly revealed, but a con­fi­dent start has been made.

Oth­er than that, the G5 does­n’t bring any­thing new, but it’s well worth the price: the proces­sor and RAM make the LG G5 great at every­thing from email to gam­ing. The dis­play is ide­al for watch­ing movies.

The two main cam­eras are also a nice addi­tion, improv­ing the qual­i­ty of images and keep­ing up with the mar­ket lead­ers.

Google Pixel XL

Rival iPhone 7.

The weight: 168g; The size: 154.7 x 75.7 x 8.5mm; OS: Android Nougat; Dis­play: 5.5 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1440 x 2560; CPU: Snap­drag­on 821; RAM: 4GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32GB/128GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 3450mAh; Main cam­era: 12MP; Front-cam­era: 8MP.

It would be sur­pris­ing if Google did­n’t make smart­phones and the Google Pix­el XL is a smart­phone to try at least once. It has unique per­for­mance, user-friend­ly inter­face and high-qual­i­ty cam­era. In addi­tion, this smart­phone has all the char­ac­ter­is­tics for using VR glass­es. Google Assis­tant, Sir­i’s main com­peti­tor, also looks very promis­ing.

But the main advan­tage of smart­phones from Google and, in par­tic­u­lar, Pix­el XL, is undoubt­ed­ly sup­port for oper­at­ing sys­tem updates.

One Plus 3

Com­petes with flag­ships.

The weight: 158g; The size: 152.7 x 74.7 x 7.4 mm; OC: Android Marsh­mal­low; Dis­play: 5.5 inch­es; Per­mis­sion: 1080 x 1920; CPU: Snap­drag­on 821; RAM: 6GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 64GB/128GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 3400mAh; Main cam­era: 16MP; Front-cam­era: 16MP.

One­Plus 3 came as a sur­prise. There are few changes in it, but fans of the brand were def­i­nite­ly pleased that their opin­ion became the focus: high­er per­for­mance. The pre­mi­um design has­n’t suf­fered, either: it’s still metal­lic, with a 5.5‑inch AMOLED dis­play that deliv­ers bright­ness and deep col­ors. In addi­tion, mod­ern fea­tures such as a fin­ger­print scan­ner, the speed of which can­not fail to impress.

But the main dif­fer­ence for the One­Plus 3 is the upgrad­ed chip and bat­tery. Oth­er­wise, the spec­i­fi­ca­tions are very stan­dard — the mod­el is pre­sent­ed with 64 or 128GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry, with 6GB of RAM, OC Android Marsh­mal­low. Both the main and front cam­eras have a res­o­lu­tion of 16MP.

In its price range (around $30k) One­Plus is one of the best options that were released to the mar­ket in 2016.

HTC 10

The best smart­phone for music fans.

The weight: 161g; Dimen­sions: 145.9 x 71.9 x 9 mm; OS: Android Marsh­mal­low; Dis­play: 5.2inch; Per­mis­sion: 1440 x 2560; CPU: Snap­drag­on 820; RAM: 4GB; Built-in mem­o­ry: 32GB; Bat­tery capac­i­ty: 3000mAh; Main cam­era: 12MP; Front-cam­era: 5MP.

After the suc­cess of the HTC One 8, fans of the brand were eager­ly wait­ing for the next ninth mod­el. How­ev­er, it did not make the expect­ed impres­sion. But the next smart­phone in the line con­fi­dent­ly took the place of the flag­ship. By increas­ing the bat­tery capac­i­ty and improv­ing the cam­era, HTC intro­duced the HTC 10 to the world.

The HTC 10 is anoth­er great-look­ing smart­phone, but it makes the biggest impres­sion as soon as you plug in your head­phones. Absolute­ly stun­ning sound of the high­est qual­i­ty can­not be com­pared, per­haps with any­thing oth­er than vinyl. That is why it is worth at least a test dri­ve of this smart­phone wor­thy of atten­tion.