Maximum possibilities: flagship smartphones of 2017

An easy way to save money on purchasing a flagship device is to turn your attention to the products of the ambitious Chinese brand Xiaomi. The proof of this statement is the Xiaomi Mi-6 smartphone.

The manufacturer's serious approach to his brainchild can be traced only in the appearance of the gadget. And if the front is easily confused with some other smartphones (for example, Huawei P10 Plus 64 GB / 4 GB ), then the Xiaomi Mi-6 backdrop is made in its own unique style. The entire rear part of the model is covered with glass rounded around the perimeter of the case, which also has a high-quality oleophobic coating. The only thing the glass backdrop is afraid of is damage.

The smartphone case has got splash protection. However, for her sake they sacrificed a 3.5mm jack for connecting headphones. As compensation, an adapter from the USB Type-C port to the miniJack is placed in the gadget box. You can also listen to your favorite tracks via a Bluetooth connection (see the article "Freedom from Wires: TOP 5 Bluetooth headphones"). But the IR port, which is traditional for Xiaomi smartphones, is present in the arsenal of the device.

Advanced hardware (high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, as much as 6 GB of RAM, powerful Adreno 540 graphics accelerator) and the current version of Android 7.1 OS give very high results in the performance test. But in real conditions, sometimes there are interface freezes and incorrect operation of some applications, which is associated with the raw version of the proprietary MIUI shell. At the start of sales, it often needs to be finalized.

The smartphone received a 5.15-inch IPS matrix with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. An optical fingerprint scanner is located under the screen, and an 8-megapixel selfie camera is located at the top. But more interesting is the combination of two rear cameras with a resolution of 12 MP each. The differences between them lie in the focal length — a 27-mm module with 4-axis optical stabilization and a maximum aperture of f/1.8 is designed for shooting everyday subjects, and a 52-mm object with an aperture of f/2.6 is more suitable for shooting portraits. And let Xiaomi have not invented anything radically new, but it managed to put all the best in one bottle very well.

After the experiment with modularity, which did not find popularity, which the engineers of the famous South Korean brand tried to pull off with a smartphone LG G5 32 GB / 4 GB , it was decided to start writing the book from scratch. As a result, the focus in the sixth generation of the flagship was put on the screen and camera.

The 5.7-inch display of the gadget was stretched to an atypical aspect ratio of 18:9, significantly reducing the frames on all sides. Thanks to this design, it occupied almost 80% of the area of the front panel. But this is not all the charms of the screen — a separate line pleases its high resolution (2880x1440 pixels), as well as support for HDR 10 technology. However, the picture in the extended dynamic range is currently displayed only from Netflix and Amazon Video applications.

Following the popular trend of a dual camera, the smartphone got at its disposal the main photo module with two "eyes". The first of them allows you to shoot with a viewing angle of 71 ° and a maximum aperture of f / 1.8, and the other object captures even more space in the frame — its field of view angle is 135 °. A selfie camera also has a wide field of view, which is capable of making "shots" with a viewing angle of 100 °.

The flagship device is supposed to have top-end hardware. And although "under the hood" LG G6 has a processor not of the latest generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, it still belongs to the family of high-performance chips that provide lightning-fast responsiveness of the gadget when performing any tasks. In addition, the internal hardware of the smartphone features a built-in DAC, thanks to which the sound through the headphones shines with high detail.

The smartphone case is invulnerable to dust and water — its security meets the requirements of the IP68 standard. Additional attributes of the flagship are support for fast charging technology, an accurate and fast fingerprint scanner and a two-way USB Type-C port. With such a rich decoration, it will not be difficult for a smartphone to win an army of fans around the world.

HTC's next attempt to rehabilitate itself before the brand's adherents for the loss of its former glory was the announcement of the HTC U11 smartphone. As befits a device of the top division, it has top-end hardware, a bright and juicy display, and some branded "buns" have also found application.

Perhaps the main highlight of the smartphone is the sensitive side faces that recognize three levels of compression force. With their help, you can quickly launch the camera, turn on the flashlight or take a screenshot of the screen — this is only a small fraction of the capabilities of the branded "chip". It is possible to customize it to your needs in the options menu.

Much more useful from a practical point of view is another strong side of HTC U11 — the best camera among smartphones as of mid-2017. At least that's what the authoritative DxOMark resource claims, there is no reason not to trust it. According to the test results, a 12-megapixel sensor with a maximum aperture of f/1.7 gets a higher rating than the cameras of phones Samsung Galaxy S8 64 GB / 2 SIM and Google Pixel XL 32 GB — recognized leaders in mobile photography. To help the photographer come: nimble autofocus, optical image stabilization system, HDR Bost function, and when zooming video — acoustic focus (increasing the volume of sound when changing the focal length up).

The gadget's hardware platform is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip and 4 GB of RAM — one of the most powerful bundles of modernity. Does not graze the rear and the smartphone screen with a resolution of 14x1440 pixels with a diagonal of 5.5". That's just the 3000 mAh battery is not always enough for a day of model activity — the display is still inferior to SuperAMOLED solutions in terms of "voracity".

The smartphone is ready for the beach season right out of the box — its protection from dust and water is confirmed by compliance with the IP67 standard (there is a possibility of a half-hour immersion of the device to a depth of 1 m). Due to the security, the gadget lost its 3.5 mm connector. Instead, headphones with active noise reduction and a sound tuning system for each ear, connected via a USB Type-C port, are included with the phone.

It would be useful to mention the glossy backdrop of the model, which can replace a mirror. It looks very nice, but at the same time actively collects fingerprints and small scratches. However, they will not be visible on some body colours, and in this regard, the Taiwanese manufacturer provides 5 colour schemes at once at the discretion of the public.

The flagship of the 2017 model inherited the main design features from its predecessor — Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 32 GB . At the same time, much of his appearance has changed beyond recognition. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and consider the updated version of the top-end device in more detail.

The first thing that attracts attention is the huge screen of the smartphone — with a diagonal of 6.2", it occupies about 84% of the area of the front panel, bending to the side faces. But this does not make the gadget a giant, since the minimal frames around the display contribute to a comfortable grip of the smartphone in the hand. The screen is built using the well-proven proprietary SuperAMOLED technology, which is famous for the depth of black colour and low power consumption when displaying black pixels, which made it possible to display the current date and time values on the locked display.

The hardware used as a hardware platform has a significant reserve of power not only for the near, but also for the long term. All existing games and applications will launch on a smartphone with maximum graphics parameters. No less flattering words deserve the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus photo — the main camera module of the gadget deservedly puts it in the light of the best camera phone on the market. The selfie camera also gives a very good result, and there is a fast autofocus in its equipment.

There are so many strengths of the smartphone that you can list them indefinitely. These include identification of the device owner by fingerprint and iris, full dust and water protection of the case (compliance with the IP68 standard), support for fast and wireless charging, the presence of a USB Type-C connector and many other advantages. But the only serious disadvantage of the model is the inconvenient location of the fingerprint sensor, which has moved from the front panel to the back of the smartphone. When groping it blindly, the finger tries to dirty the "eye" of the camera, located side by side with the fingerprint scanner.

Music lovers will be pleased with the equipment of the device with high-quality AKG headphones. Also, many will like the built-in voice assistant Bixby, whose vocation is to facilitate the interaction of the smartphone user with applications and settings, as well as search for the necessary information by voice request. Finally, I would like to highlight the attractive appearance of the device — no wonder the label "style icons" stuck to it from the first days since the announcement.

Each new generation of iPhone sets the pace of the smartphone industry at least until the release of the next version of the mobile phone from Apple. So it happened this time — immediately after the announcement of Apple, the iPhone 7 Plus rose to the top of the evolution of modern smartphone construction, which it shares with several Android-based devices.

In the larger version of the "seven" is installed5.5-inch FullHD display with 3D Touch force recognition technology (more about it is described in a separate material). Moreover, the updated "Home" key has acquired support for this technology, which in addition has become touch-sensitive. And a fingerprint scanner is built into the button, which makes it truly multifunctional.

The innovation in the smartphone has become a dual main camera. One of the modules takes photos and videos at a focal length of 28 mm (35 mm equivalent) with an aperture value of f/ 1.8, and the second allows you to double the shooting object — the focal length of the object of the additional camera is 56 mm. Despite the lower maximum aperture (f/2.8), the portrait lens blurs the background behind the model no worse than mirrors with high-power optics.

Among the innovations, it is also necessary to record the absence of a 3.5mm audio output on board the smartphone. It was removed for the sake of providing dust and water protection according to the IP67 standard, thanks to which the Apple iPhone 7 Plus can withstand diving to a depth of 1 m for half an hour without negative consequences for electronic components. As an alternative to "jack", the Cupertino company actively promotes wireless headphones Apple AirPods .

In comparison with its predecessor in the person of Apple iPhone 6S Plus 16 GB the smartphone immediately became 40% faster, the merit of which was the transition to 4-core Apple A10 Fusion chips. The power reserves of the hardware of the gadget more than cover all the needs of users in a comfortable pastime in front of the smartphone display. But this is exactly what is required from a flagship-level device.