Style Icons: TOP 5 Trendy Smartphones

 

Excellent software optimization, mTouch touch key with built-in fingerprint sensor, 2.5D glass front and rear, affordable price.

 

 

Noise in photographs when shooting in poor lighting conditions, the back panel actively collects fingerprints.

 

An affordable representative of the U line from the Chinese company Meizu looks elegant, stylish, and also much more expensive than it actually costs.

The design of the smartphone clearly traces the features of the "style icon of 2010" — Apple iPhone 4. However, Chinese engineers went further and equipped the phone with a rounded 2.5D glass in the wake of fashion trends in 2016-2017. And not only from the side of the screen, but also on the back of the gadget. Thanks to the glossy backdrop, the smartphone deservedly received the title of "stylist".

The hardware for the smartphone was borrowed from the popular Meizu M3s 16 GB / 2 GB . Nevertheless, excellent software optimization allowed the U10 model to get ahead of the "donor" in synthetic tests — the glass gadget receives about 40K points during performance testing by the AnTuTu application. In reality, the interface responds to all user actions smoothly and predictably, and the smartphone handles well with demanding games on average graphics settings.

The display of the model does not cause complaints either in terms of colour rendering quality or in terms of brightness margin. The screen resolution is 1280x720 pixels, which, with a 5-inch diagonal, creates a pixel density of 294ppi — individual pixels can be seen only if you look specifically. The mTouch touch button with a built-in fingerprint sensor, which instantly reacts to the touch of a finger, is traditionally located at the bottom of the display.

With good lighting, using both smartphone cameras, it is possible to get sharp pictures with good colour reproduction. With the deterioration of the lighting quality, noises appear in the photos. A number of manual settings for self-selection of exposure values, ISO and other shooting parameters will help to slightly correct the situation.

A battery charge with a capacity of 2760 mAh is enough for a day of battery life of a smartphone at medium loads. An older alternative to a model from the same line in the person of Meizu U20 16 GB / 2 GB has similar indicators of battery life, even despite a more capacious battery. His charge "eats" a FullHD screen with a diagonal of 5.5" and a more powerful "filling" are the key differences between the two representatives of the U family.

 

Responsiveness, separate slots for a memory card and two SIM cards, fingerprint scanner, attractive design.

 

 

There is no backlight of the touch buttons, there is no auto-brightness sensor.

 

Updating a low-cost smartphone Samsung Galaxy J5 2015 8 GB / 1.5 GB it was a success. Its modified version has got a stylish all-metal case with a rounded 2.5D glass on top of the screen and in addition to the "beautiful wrapper" offers excellent responsiveness in everyday use.

The location of the controls on the phone case, as well as the menu items of the TouchWiz branded shell, are well known to anyone who has ever dealt with Samsung smartphones. According to the latest fashion trends, the "Home" button turned out to be combined with a fingerprint scanner, and separate slots for SIM+ microSD and another SIM card were hidden on the left side of the gadget.

Instead of the usual SuperAMOLED matrix for most smartphones of the South Korean brand, a PLS screen is installed on board the model. Being a kind of IPS solutions, it is also characterized by natural colour reproduction and wide viewing angles on all fronts. The resolution of the 5-inch screen is 1280x720 pixels. For maximum ease of use, the display lacks only an auto-brightness adjustment sensor, which is why you will need to manually adjust this parameter to the current lighting conditions.

The gadget is more focused on supporters of the aesthetic component, so its hardware platform does not shine with high performance. The bundle of the Exynos 7570 chip and 2 GB of RAM scores about 37K points in the AnTuTu test, which indicates an average level of performance in resource-intensive applications. In fact, the smartphone shows itself very well in ordinary tasks (surfing the Internet, watching online videos, social networking, etc.), and in heavy games (for example, Apshalt 8), it is expected to slow down.

The functionality of the "Home" key, flanked by two more touch buttons without backlight, includes the ability to launch the camera by double-clicking. J5 Prime offers a main camera with a resolution of 13 MP and an aperture of f/1.9, as well as a darker 5 MP front camera with an aperture of f/2.2. During the day, photos are detailed and saturated, but along with the deterioration of shooting conditions, the quality of the footage also deteriorates.

The smartphone is suitable for those who are looking for an inexpensive and stylish solution from A-brands. Yes, he cannot turn heavy games, but under normal conditions of use, the Samsung Galaxy J5 Prime 2016 shows itself exclusively on the positive side.

 

High performance, dual camera, fast fingerprint scanner, IR port for controlling equipment, 2 radio modules, fast charging, the backdrop effectively shimmers in the light.

 

 

It tries to slip out of your hands, mediocre sound quality.

 

According to all the canons of the genre, the smartphone from the Honor sub-brand, which is run by Huawei, was supposed to be a simpler version of the flagship Huawei P9 32 GB / 3 GB . In fact, it turned out to be more interesting than the popular camera phone.

The eye is attracted to the smartphone by a glass backdrop with a voluminous texture, effectively shimmering in the light. A dual camera from an older brother is neatly built into it, deprived of any mention of the Leica brand, which participated in the development of the photo module. Both camera eyes have a resolution of 12 MP and are equipped with Summarit 27mm f/2.2 ASPH objects. One sensor captures colour information at the same time, and the second takes pictures in B/w mode. When shooting during the day, it's a sin to complain about the quality of the pictures, but with the deterioration of lighting, the detail of the photos drops. But the dynamic range of frames always remains high.

A powerful "filling" is responsible for the performance of the smartphone, which is an 8-core Kirin 950 chip, Mali T880 graphics and 4 GB of RAM. "Synthetics" gives high scores for such a bundle, for example, during the AnTuTu test, the model falls just a little short of getting 100K. "points". With this result, you can safely count on launching any games or applications, and even with a margin for the future.

Huawei Honor 8 has one important feature hidden in its cache — its nimble fingerprint scanner is simultaneously a mechanical button on which certain functions are set in the settings. The key responds to pressing, double-clicking, as well as pressing and holding. In addition, 2 radio modules are installed on board the model, and an IR port for remote control of equipment is installed in the upper face.

The payback for the spectacular design of the gadget was that the phone constantly tries to slip out of your hands. Therefore, it is desirable to put it in a case. And another not the strongest side of the smartphone is the sound. Both disadvantages are not so significant against the background of a whole horde of positive aspects of the model, which should also include support for fast charging technology — in just half an hour at the outlet, the smartphone replenishes battery energy reserves by as much as 47%. Anyway, it is worth paying attention to a mobile gadget, because a priori it is impossible to label a mediocre device to the leader of the Honor line.

 

High performance, optimal size, advanced autofocus in the main camera, IP68 dust and water protection, textured metal housing.

 

 

Short battery life, too cold tones of the image.

 

Top smartphone modification Sony Xperia X Dual 32 GB / 3 GB with the Performance console, he turns the heaviest games and applications without hesitation. In addition, she has a memorable appearance, and is not afraid of dust and moisture at all.

The textured metal case of the smartphone confidently fits into the hand of any size, which is facilitated by the optimal 5-inch diagonal of the screen. On the front side, the phone is covered with 2.5D glass flowing down to the side faces. A bright FullHD display is installed under it, built on the basis of an IPS matrix of Sony's own design. Among the competitors, the screen stands out for its excessively cold colour temperature, which can always be adjusted with the help of manual colour adjustment sliders.

The flagship phone is supposed to work on top-end hardware. And here it did not disappoint: the powerful 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with Adreno 530 graphics and 3 GB of RAM leaves no chance for glitches and slowdowns even in the most demanding applications. The "filling" has a significant margin of performance for the future, so it will remain relevant for at least another year or two after the purchase of the smartphone.

The strength of Sony smartphones has always been cameras. The 23-megapixel main module with a maximum aperture of f/2.0 has acquired an advanced autofocus system with the ability to work in tracking mode and the ability to predict the trajectory of objects in motion. A front-facing camera with a resolution of 13 MP and an aperture of f/2.0 provides high-quality selfies, which is assisted by a facial recognition system.

Against the background of such a rich configuration, the battery of the model with a capacity of only 2700 mAh is knocked out of the overall picture. During active operation, the battery charge is not enough until the end of the day, which is why you either have to use the services of external batteries, or chain the phone to an outlet. Support for Quick Charge 2.0 fast charging technology will allow you to replenish the battery's energy reserves by half in just 30 minutes.

 

High-performance platform, large volume of built-in memory, progressive sound transmission technology, huge screen, ceramic housing, long-term battery life, frameless design.

 

 

It tries to slip out of your hands, the back panel actively collects fingerprints.

 

The futuristic design of the concept smartphone from Xiaomi hides a real storehouse of innovations — frameless design, piezodynamic sound transmission technology and many other equally interesting "chips" have been used in the model.

The dimensions of the device body are almost comparable to Apple iPhone 7 Plus 32 GB . But thanks to the frameless design, the gadget's screen has a 6.4-inch diagonal and occupies a record large part of the front panel — as much as 84%. With an atypical aspect ratio of 17:9, the display resolution is 2040 x 1080 pixels. There is no usual space for placing the speaker on top of the screen. But what about voice calls? Here lies another innovation: sound transmission to the user's ear is carried out on the basis of piezodynamic technology by means of screen vibrations.

The lack of space above the display also forced to change the location of the front camera to the lower right corner. If there is a need to take a selfie, it is enough to turn the smartphone upside down. The main camera is located in its proper place at the back, and a fast fingerprint scanner is installed under it. In the version of a smartphone with a 256 GB storage capacity, both of these elements have a real gold edging, which looks very cool against the background of a black all-ceramic case. However, ceramics cannot be called practical, because it actively collects fingerprints and tries to slip out of your hands.

The smartphone does not take up performance. He got a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip and a combination of 4 GB RAM / 128 GB internal storage. In tandem with the Adreno 530 graphics accelerator, all games and heavy applications are flying, which will not change over the next year or two. Complementing the pleasant experience is the flexible MIUI 8 shell, rolled over Android 6.0.

In terms of battery life, Xiaomi Mi Mix also does not graze the rear ones. A large screen and a performant platform require a large amount of energy resources, which is more than provided by a built-in battery with a capacity of 4400 mAh. Its charge is enough for a day of active use or for two full days of operation at medium loads.

The smartphone creates a real WOW effect for others. After all, such an unusual gadget instantly attracts the attention of the public. It will not become mass, but the adherents will undoubtedly like the model to stand out from the crowd.