The crown of evolution: TOP flagship smartphones at the end of 2018

Traditionally for Xiaomi, the new flagship provides the buyer with almost all the best that is on the market, but at a price almost 2 times less than the flagships from Samsung or Apple. On the one hand, it's wonderful. On the other hand, Xiaomi does not offer anything new, limiting itself to compiling other people's ideas. For example, the appearance of a smartphone repeats Apple iPhone X 64 GB with its bangs, extremely thin side frames and a glass and metal body.

Almost the entire front part of the smartphone is occupied by a screen with an impressive diagonal of 6.21" (resolution 2248 x 1080 pixels). An AMOLED matrix is used with excellent colour reproduction, contrast and a reserve of brightness, which is enough even for the sunniest days. To be honest, looking at such screens, it is not entirely clear how to make them better. In the case of Xiaomi Mi 8, this is Always on mode, which is able to display the time, date and notifications when the smartphone is locked. And this does not affect the battery life in any way. Checkmate Apple iPhone X 64 GB .

Xiaomi Mi 8 has the best processor available on the market — an 8-core Snapdragon 845 with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. Therefore, there is nothing much to say here, he scores a lot of points in synthetic tests, and games that will make him slow down have not yet been invented. At the same time, the interface, as they say, flies — not only in native applications, but also third-party ones, in which optimization may be lame.

The new flagship Xiaomi has a main camera with a dual module. In standard mode, the smartphone takes pictures perfectly during the day, but loses a little in quality when shooting at night or in poor lighting. In this case, the artificial intelligence mode comes to the rescue, which adjusts the exposure, white balance and colour settings, embellishing the picture. In 90% of cases, such embellishment benefits the image, which comes out more "juicy". The authoritative resource DxOMark rated the camera's photo capabilities by 105 points, this is one of the best results on the market.

The smartphone is equipped with a 3400 mAh lithium polymer battery, which at first glance may seem like a minus. Still, many smartphones for $ 200 are equipped with 4000 – 4500 mAh batteries. However, in the case of flagships, this is not entirely relevant, because an important role in the battery life of the smartphone is played by the processor, software optimization and AMOLED display, which consumes less resources than cheaper IPS matrices. In fact, Xiaomi Mi 8 with moderate use is able to last from one charge to 2 days, which is commendable. If anything, quick charging Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0, capable of charging up to 60% of the battery in 30 minutes, will help to quickly revive the smartphone.

If you add up the above with a low price tag for the flagship, Xiaomi Mi 8 is asking for an oxymoron like the king of affordable flagships.

The company Meizu makes healthy smartphones of a low-cost and medium level, but it does not work very well with flagships. But there is every chance that Meizu 16th will be an exception. Let's see why.

First of all, the design catches the eye: no bangs and the usual iPhone copying for Meizu. The device seems very neat and compact compared to competitors: the lower face is the same as the upper one, and all sensors are hidden so as not to break the facial symmetry. At the same time, it is also one of the lightest flagships of this year — only 152 grams of weight with a body thickness of 7.3 mm. The body itself is made of chrome—plated aluminium, while the back is made of impact-resistant glass.

The Meizu 16th is equipped with a Super AMOLED display with a diameter of 6" and a resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels. What can I say here, the screen is excellent in all respects, the colour rendering is set up correctly, there are no blockages in one shade or another. Someone might say that the resolution for such a diagonal could be made larger, but it would not be very reasonable — the pixels are still not visible, and the load on the battery would increase.

A fingerprint scanner is hidden right under the screen. With such dimensions, this is a big plus, since not everyone has enough finger length to reach the scanner on the back panel, holding the smartphone with one hand. It seems that by the end of 2018, this technology has finally ceased to be exotic, and this is wonderful.

In Meizu 16th, the company decided not to chase dubious trends and leave the 3.5mm headphone jack in place. Considering that many music lovers have developed a love for certain models of headphones over the years, this is definitely a plus. The smartphone is also equipped with stereo speakers with a volume at the level of a small portable speaker. It plays loud and clear, like a small Bluetooth speaker.

Instead of ambiguous chips from MTK or Exynos, the most powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor of 2018 was installed in Meizu 16th. The smartphone is also equipped with 6 GB of RAM and a 128 GB drive. The volumes are impressive, in principle, and it's not scary that there is no support for memory cards. Naturally, this hardware is enough for any tasks and the most demanding toys like PUBG.

The device is running Android 8.0 with a proprietary Flyme shell. There's nothing unusual here. But what cannot be ignored is the convenient configuration of the system management methods. At the user's choice, you can switch from the three buttons familiar to Android to a gesture control system a la OnePlus or a branded Super Swipe strip, which you get used to in a couple of minutes.

The only thing that spoils the pleasant picture is the absence of the NFC module. Why it is not in the smartphone for 500 with a tail of dollars — even the management of the company cannot answer. Therefore, if you are already used to using a smartphone in stores instead of a card, then Meizu 16th will not suit you. But even so, taking into account all of the above, the Meizu 16th is almost close to the perfect flagship, but it costs almost 2 times cheaper than flagships from famous manufacturers.

Before the release of the XZ2 Premium Dual, Sony complained that there are professional photo and video cameras, but there are no professional smartphones that can replace a portable camera. That's why they made the XZ2 Premium Dual.

In terms of design, Sony remained true to itself and did not follow the fashion for framelessness and bangs-cutouts. The XZ2 Premium Dual case is not as sharp-angled as previous Sony flagships, but the frames on top and bottom seem quite large, which is why the smartphone turned out to be massive (158x80x11.9 mm). Fans of the brand should like such loyalty to traditions, the rest is unlikely. The smartphone also has a spectacular chrome back cover with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass, which reflects everything almost like a mirror, but at the same time quickly collects fingerprints.

Sony says that the thickness and weight of the device are due to a massive dual camera module that connects a special AUBE processor. According to the manufacturer, thanks to the extended ISO 51200 range, both cameras should help in low-light conditions. That's right, night photos on a smartphone turn out great. But according to Sony tradition, positive impressions are lubricated by proprietary software that can twist the white balance when shooting during the day or unnecessarily overdo it with noise reduction, which will smear the details. Therefore, the overall quality of the XZ2 Premium Dual is no better than that of other new camera phones like Samsung Galaxy Note9 128 GB / 6 GB Price from 10 441 up to 12 520 ₴ or Huawei Mate 20 Pro 128 GB / 6 GB .

The smartphone really starts to shine when it comes to shooting videos. The smartphone shoots really cool videos in 4K resolution with support for the HDR format. And everything gets even better when it comes to shooting in low light — for example, shooting at night in the rain. If this is not entering the territory of professional cameras, then at least it is very close to it.

Another feature of Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium is an IPS display with a very high resolution of 4K (3840x2160) for a diagonal of 5.8". In order not to waste battery power, the display works in Full HD in standard mode, and switches to 4K while working with photos and videos. In general, the quality of the display is at a very high level with unusually good colour rendering for IPS. Plus, the screen supports the HDR format and, accordingly, is able to play colorful and high—contrast YouTube videos in this format.

Otherwise, it is a strong flagship with modern hardware (Snapdragon 845 + 6 GB of RAM) and buns like NFC, fingerprint scanner, aptX, DLNA support, Quick Charge 3.0 wireless charging and IP68 water protection.

The Pixel smartphone series was conceived by Google as a reference. They say, look how we did, and now you can repeat after us. But neither the first nor the second Pixel, for various reasons, could become the perfect flagship. Did the perfect come out of the third series?

Considering that the hardware in the Pixel 3 XL is identical to most of the new flagships, the main distinguishing feature of the smartphone are the cameras. Firstly, Google got everything mixed up and made a dual front-facing camera instead of a dual main camera.

And this is why it was done: the second module of the front is equipped with a wide-angle object, which allows you to accommodate more people in a group selfie or cover more panoramas with a self-portrait. According to Google, the front-end allows you to capture 184% more space. In general, there are 5+ for resourcefulness.

And the main camera has only one module, but the camera shoots perfectly. Or rather, not just great, but GREAT. Google has always believed that software optimization plays no less important role than the camera itself, so the second Pixel is still among the top ten camera phones from DxOMark.

The main feature of the main camera was the ability to take pictures at night, which remains beyond the control of the cameras of even the most expensive smartphones. Google has quite cleverly solved this problem: when Night Sight mode is turned on, the smartphone takes several pictures in a second and combines them into one frame with the help of artificial intelligence. Thanks to this skill, the Pixel leaves even the vaunted camera far behind Apple iPhone Xs 64 GB Price from 11 400 up to 24 083 ₴. It is also worth highlighting the Top Shot mode, which takes several pictures before and after the shutter is released, and then selects the best one — where no one blinked or was closed by an extraneous object.

As for everything else, compared to Google Pixel 2 XL 64 GB , the third version of the smartphone has retained approximately the same dimensions, but the screen has noticeably increased. This was achieved due to the frameless design with proportions of 18:9 and the already familiar bangs-a cutout at the top of the screen. As a result, the display diagonal of the Pixel 3 XL is 6.3" at a resolution of 2960x1440 pixels. It's good. But the size of the bangs is not very. It's big here, even by the standards of a trendsetter Apple iPhone X 64 GB .

As in any other flagship of the fall of 2018, the Pixel 3 XL has the most powerful processor currently available — an eight-core Snapdragon 845 with a maximum operating frequency of 2.5 GHz. The size of the built-in storage in the basic configuration is 64 GB. Apparently, this stock is enough for most users behind their eyes, so there is no slot for a memory card. But what surprised me was that it was only 4 GB of RAM. Now this is more than enough, perhaps it will be enough in a year. But what if it doesn't? Buy a new Pixel? It's not for nothing that all the other flagships of this fall are equipped with at least 6 GB, so that there is a margin of safety.

For the first time in the Pixel series, support for wireless charging (Qi wireless charging) has been introduced. The battery itself is slightly smaller in capacity than in the second generation — 3430 mAh. Subjectively, the working time is at a good level: with a network connection, maximum display brightness and loads in the form of constant updates of social networks and browsing, the smartphone holds up to a day.

In general, Google has turned out to be not an indisputable smartphone with an excellent camera, a waterproof case (IP68 standard) and a pack of unique photo modes, so first of all it is worth paying attention to those who are looking for a top-level camera phone.

Huawei has turned out to be a smartphone that manages to stand out even by the standards of technologically sophisticated flagships.

Externally, the Mate 20 Pro is a rather attractive smartphone with a large full—view screen that occupies almost the entire front part. At the top "flaunts" a cutout-bangs of rather large sizes, in which the front camera and sensors of the facial recognition system are hidden. If you don't like bangs, then you can hide it in the system settings. Then the top panel is slightly compacted, giving the smartphone a pleasant symmetrical proportions.

But the rear panel made of impact-resistant glass with several layers of lamination and a matte finish stands out great. The gradient effectively shimmers in the light, creating the illusion of different colours, and in the very centre there is a square camera unit with three modules and a flash.

And that's where the fun begins. The optics for each of the modules were created under the wing of the renowned photographic brand Leica, and the camera itself is controlled by a brand new Kirin 980 processor with advanced artificial intelligence (AI). It helps to automatically recognize the scene, adjust the brightness with white balance, adjust the depth of field or adapt the camera settings for shooting at night. As a result, a record 109 points in the authoritative DxOMark rating and the unofficial title of "camerophone of the year".

In addition to the camera, the AI processor helps in other aspects. For example, it optimizes the operating power of the smartphone depending on current tasks, so as not to waste battery power.

Mate 20 Pro is equipped with an OLED display with a diagonal of 6.4" and WQHD+ resolution (3120x1440 pixels). The screen has excellent viewing angles, colour reproduction and calibration. The screen itself is rounded at the edges (which resembles Samsung Galaxy S9 64 GB / 4 GB ), creating the illusion of no side frames.

We don't know if the engineers had a task to create the most advanced smartphone on the market, but they obviously tried here. The Mate 20 Pro has the latest Bluetooth version with support for aptX HD codecs, a Wi-Fi module with MIMO, VoLTE, IP68 dust and water protection, an advanced 3D Depth Sensing Camera facial recognition system, an under-screen fingerprint scanner, Android version 9 and Huawei Power Up wireless charging.

Moreover, the latter allows you to turn the Mate 20 Pro into the most expensive power bank in history and distribute the smartphone charge to other gadgets. Fortunately, good system optimization, an energy-efficient processor with a screen and a 4200 mAh battery allow you to share energy without looking at the outlet. For comparison, most flagships of autumn 2018 have a capacity reserve of 3000 – 3400 mAh.