Form variability: TOP 5 smartphones with an unusual design

In order to achieve the maximum possible display area, smartphone manufacturers have begun to actively experiment with the location of the front camera. One of the interesting solutions was a retractable, periscope-like front panel. One of the first smartphones of this kind was the mid-level P Smart Z from Huawei.

The front camera module is hidden in the upper part of the case and most of the time it is not visible. He leaves only when there is a need for him. To make a call, you need to briefly hold down the camera button. Before the presentation, many had doubts about the convenience, suddenly it will take a long time to leave? As it turned out, there is no need to worry, the camera moves out in a little less than a second.

The quality of the front-facing images at 16 MP is quite high, there is proprietary support for artificial intelligence, which helps to optimize the depth of the scene and make an easy retouch. It's hard to say anything about the quality of the main camera at 16+2 MP — this is a good medium—level camera that shoots great during the day, but gets lost when the lighting deteriorates. If you are not spoiled by the level of shooting of Huawei flagships, then the quality of the P Smart Z camera will definitely not disappoint you.

The solution with a retractable camera allowed us to come to a truly frameless display. It is large here (6.5") and occupies 84% of the available area. The side frames are barely noticeable, only a slightly thickened chin with a conversational speaker stands out. The display itself is made using LTPS technology and boasts a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The picture is very clear, dense and bright. Considering that this is a middle-class smartphone, the display turned out to be 5 plus, watching your favorite movies and TV shows on such a solid pleasure.

The eight-core Kirin 710 processor with an operating core frequency of 2.2 GHz is responsible for the performance of the smartphone. RAM 4 GB, built-in 64 GB. Plus there is support for memory cards. In synthetic tests, such a bundle gets a score slightly above average. This means that it will be enough for everyday use (surfing, social networks, applications), but it will not be enough for demanding games. Of the additional functions, everything is without frills: there is an NFC chip and USB-C, a fingerprint scanner is hidden behind the case.

Considering the price of $300, Huawei has turned out to be a very interesting mid-level smartphone. In addition, it looks stylish and at first glance does not differ much from the top models of the company, which cost 2-3 times more expensive.

The Galaxy A8s became the company's first model with the so-called Infinity-O screen. In it, the cutout for the front camera is actually in the screen itself, in the upper left corner. What's even more surprising, it's not a muscular flagship of the caliber of Samsung Galaxy S10 128 GB Price from 9 700 up to 28 217 ₴, and a representative of the middle class from the A series.

Judging by the comments on the network, not everyone will like the option with a hole in the screen. To someone it resembles a bullet hole, to someone a door peephole. To make the cutout less conspicuous, Samsung immediately released a pack of wallpapers for the desktop, in which the eye of the front camera is used as a decorative element. It seems to us that it looks more interesting than a large monobrow like a watermelon merchant.

The smartphone received a high-quality PLS display with a diagonal of 6.4" and Full HD resolution. The screen is surrounded by small side frames. The percentage of framelessness, according to the company, is 84%. At the same time, it's even funny that the novelty is a little more compact in all respects and lighter than the "four-chamber" Samsung Galaxy A9 2018 64 GB / 4 GB with a diagonal 0.1" smaller — that's what miracles holes in the screen do.

The back of the model looks moderately original and very trendy in 2018, a surface with a gradient colour that shimmers in the sun with all the colours of the rainbow. But if the cheaper models of the company have a body made of plastic, then here we are dealing with glass and plastic. Therefore, the device feels nice in your hand.

The front camera has a sensor with a resolution of 24 MP and a wide-angle object. Samsung says that they had to tinker with the fact that the camera did not interfere with the backlight of the screen. In general, selfies turn out to be completely normal, we did not see any overexposures or white balance distortions. As for the main camera, it is triple here, with sensors at 24, 10 and 5 MP. It is gratifying that triple modules have descended so quickly into the middle price segment, and now for more than $ 300, you can actually get a high-quality camera at the level of two-year-old flagships.

Inside the smartphone case, a mid-level Snapdragon 710 processor with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage is installed (plus there is a microSD card slot). Naturally, there are no performance problems with the Galaxy A8s, the system works smoothly, demanding games run without problems. Plus, there is a small reserve of power for the next year and a half.

Of the additional chips, we will highlight USB-C support, a fingerprint scanner, fast charging, an NFC chip and protection from dust and water according to the IP68 standard. That is, it is not worth drowning it on purpose, but in case of falling to a depth of one and a half metres, the smartphone can swim a little and then it will work normally.

Thinking over a new design concept, Sony decided to come in from an unusual, but rather obvious side. The fact is that smartphone screens have stretched out in recent years, but when watching videos, there is still a lot of unused area in the form of stripes on top and bottom. Therefore, Sony decided to release a smartphone with an elongated screen (proportions 21:9 instead of 19.5:9), which the Japanese called "cinematic".

The Xperia 10 Plus uses IPS with a 6.5-inch diagonal and FullHD resolution as the screen matrix. It is very bright (up to 500 cd/m2) and quite juicy, although the factory calibration is somewhat cold. It is really more convenient to watch videos on Youtube or your favorite TV shows with such proportions, since the video is practically not cropped. It turns out a kind of IMAX in miniature.

At the same time, the smartphone has quite large frames on top and bottom, like all Sony smartphones. Apparently, the company is not ready to give up this chip for the sake of fashion, and do not want to lose their identity. Because of this, the smartphone turned out to be elongated (height is almost 17 cm), which is why I want to call him Uncle Stepa. But they could just make the frames on top and bottom a little thinner. Therefore, we are not even talking about one-handed control here. But there are no cutouts in the screen.

The case is completely plastic, no glass, ceramics and metal. However, it is pleasant to the touch and it can be solved only by a subjective feeling. Because of the thick frames, the engineers did not have to hide the cameras somewhere, so they are located as usual. The cameras are decent (the main dual + front 8 MP), but without any zest or interesting chips. Taking pictures, well, okay.

As a driving force, the new product from Sony uses the Snapdragon 636 chipset, the Adreno 508 graphics processor, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. To be honest, in a smartphone for $ 400 I would like to see a more performant chipset of the Snapdragon 712 caliber. The younger Snapdragon 636 quite takes out the work of the system and games, but it does not have a margin of safety, and demanding toys can slow down and sink in FPS.

But Sony did not save on small things, providing the Xperia 10 Plus with an almost flagship set of USB-C (plus a separate headphone output), an NFC module, a fingerprint scanner and fast charging. In general, like all Sony smartphones of recent years, Xperia 10 Plus has its own identity, but is far from perfect. Therefore, the calculation is primarily aimed at loyal fans of the brand and fans of watching videos on a smartphone.

In search of fresh forms, Samsung tried to revive rotating cameras. In the new Galaxy A80, the camera unit is located in the slider module, which is used both as the main and front camera. When the second option is needed, the slider goes up, and the optics turns to face the user.

The approach is undoubtedly interesting, with its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that the quality of selfies is now as high as that of the main photos. Plus there are no cutouts in the display. Of the minuses, we note the slowness of the turn — switching takes several seconds. Plus, there are questions about the durability of the mechanism, how will it behave after a year or two of use? Although, Samsung assures that everything will be fine.

The camera itself is triple and includes a 48 MP sensor with an ultra-wide-angle object (123 degree viewing angle, f/2.0 aperture), an 8-megapixel auxiliary module and a 3D module for determining the depth of the scene. There are no questions about the quality of the photos, if not the highest level, then very close to it is an excellent camera phone.

Samsung positions the A80 as a near-prototype smartphone, a kind of younger brother of the flagship Galaxy S. The level of performance is appropriate: a double-glass case with an aluminium frame on the sides, an excellent Super AMOLED display, performant hardware and a rich functional set including an NFC module, fast charging, an under-screen fingerprint scanner. The price tag for all this stuff is appropriate — a little more than $ 700.

The performance of the novelty is provided by the eight-core Snapdragon 730. Samsung intends to abandon the top processor in order not to create internal competition with the Galaxy S series. We should also thank the developers for 8 GB of RAM. In synthetic tests, it gives out the average of last year's flagships, you can download it in full, the lack of performance can only occur in the most demanding games at maximum graphics settings.

Perhaps the main controversial point of the filling is the volume of the built-in storage. On the one hand, 128 GB is not so small. On the other hand, the device is designed to record photos and videos in high quality, so the built-in storage can fill up quite quickly. And there is no support for memory cards. As there is no option with a more capacious amount of memory.

In the last couple of years, Huawei has completely outplayed Apple, Samsung and Google in the field of mobile photography. What is even more surprising, the company arranges coups almost on schedule: first Huawei P9 Plus 64 GB / 4 GB launched a wave of dual-camera smartphones, then Huawei P20 64 GB popularized the camera with three modules (and how it shot in the dark!), then Huawei Mate 20 Pro 128 GB / 6 GB showed a class on the part of wide-angle shooting. And with Huawei P30 Pro, they did it again, combining the achievements of past models and putting mobile photography on a step higher.

Huawei P30 Pro cameras have several innovations at once. The wide-angle 40-MP module uses the RYYB pixel layout, which allows more light to pass through the filter (up to 40%), thereby improving the quality of images in poor lighting. Therefore, the Huawei P30 Pro wide-angle camera has a fantastic ISO level, as for a smartphone. Simply put, if you take a photo with ISO 409600 settings in complete darkness, the picture will look as if it was taken in broad daylight. And if there is at least some kind of light source, then you can fully unlock the camera's capabilities.

At the same time, the P30 Pro camera can do many different tricks, such as stitching pictures with different exposures, optical and hybrid zoom, manual angle change, etc. The artificial intelligence of the camera has also improved. If in previous models he sometimes acted too aggressively, then here we have a fine filigree work. In general, you can devote a separate material to the camera of this smartphone (or better yet, look at the photos in the reviews yourself), so let's just say that the P30 Pro has become the new leader in the rating of camera phones from the authoritative DxOMark resource.

As for the atypical design, instead of the traditional cut-out bangs, the P30 Pro uses a tiny drop-cutout from the top in the centre of the screen. Well, we have already seen the rounded side edges of the screen in previous Samsung and Huawei flagships. Thanks to this combination, the diagonal of the smartphone was increased to 6.5", although the proportions remained at the level of last year's P20 Pro. Glass and metal with gradient painting are used as materials.

The Huawei P30 Pro case has received protection from water and dust according to the IP68 standard. This means that the smartphone can be submerged under water, but you should not abuse it. The fingerprint scanner is located right in the display. In addition, the manufacturer has not removed the infrared port from the device, which allows you to turn the P30 Pro into a remote control. Of the other buns, we have a USB-C connection, an NFC chip, and wireless charging. Plus, instead of a conversational speaker, Huawei used technology that allows you to emit sound through the display. However, only in mono, which is not very convenient if you are used to watching movies on your smartphone.

The OLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 and a wide colour range looks somewhere between "gorgeous" and "excellent". You don't expect anything else from such a premium smartphone. Well, as for the hardware, we have a full hardware: a top-end processor of our own production Kirin 980, a ten-core Mali-G76 video chip and 6 GB of RAM. In the latter case, I would still like 8 GB. This is not a necessity, but flagships are accustomed to the best of the best. And the margin of durability will not be superfluous.