Powerful state employees and top flagships: the top five smartphones of the summer

Somehow it so happened that not a single top smartphone is complete without models from Xiaomi. And almost always, these are relatively inexpensive models that offer more than they ask for in return. With the new Mi A3, the same story: pure Android without a bunch of unnecessary applications, a frameless screen with a waterdrop notch and an integrated fingerprint scanner, an excellent camera, a glass and metal case and a bunch of additional goodies for a price of just under $200. It is difficult to argue with such arguments.

At the same time, the smartphone has a good filling, which looks adequate in a more expensive one: 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of built-in storage, an Adreno 610 video accelerator and a new eight-core Snapdragon 665 processor, in which Qualcomm engineers focused on artificial intelligence and photographic capabilities.

The Mi A3 takes really cool photos, as for its price: there are no blurs, reduced detail, overexposure and other sores of low-cost cameras. Even at night it shoots pretty well. Although, the dual camera itself can hardly be called a low-cost one, because one of the modules in the Mi A3 has a super-wide capture angle. Again, until recently, such modules were the prerogative of exclusively top-end smartphones.

Among the other features of the model, we highlight support for fast charging, a high-quality 32 MP front camera, support for aptX HD, Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, a capacious 4030 mAh battery and a fashionable back cover with an iridescent gradient fill. Moreover, the lid is glass, not plastic, like many competing models. NFC would be here for complete happiness, but it would be quite a fairy tale.

Oh yes, the screen here is not the usual IPS, but AMOLED, which is found mainly in flagship smartphones with biting price tags. Unlike IPS, it produces a slightly more juicy and colorful picture and saves battery life. The only pity is that the resolution is only 1560x720, which is not so much for a 6.1 diagonal.

Well, the fingerprint scanner of the Mi A3 is built under the screen, although less than a year ago such devices were found only in smartphones 3-4 times more expensive. True, it is not the fastest here (it takes 1-2 seconds to unlock) and occasionally does not work, so after the usual smart sensors you will have to get used to it.

Flagship Xiaomi Mi 9 128 GB / 6 GB turned out to be so successful that Xiaomi launched three variations of it on the market. The Mi 9T looks like the most interesting of them - it's actually a premium smartphone with powerful hardware, NFC, fast charging, fancy features like a retractable camera and a "delicious" non-flagship price tag of $400.

The main feature of Mi 9T is a completely frameless AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 6.4 inches. Where is the front camera? It was made retractable, as was already the case in some Vivo and Huawei models. It extends quickly and has protection against accidental drops and damage. According to the passport, the mechanism itself must withstand up to 300,000 opening and closing cycles.

The frameless display itself visually looks very good, does not fade in the sun, boasts rich colors, high contrast and HDR support. According to subjective feelings, the quality here is no worse than displays in more expensive flagship models from competitors. But to say something about the appearance is difficult, frameless displays have made any reasoning on this topic meaningless. Therefore, we note only a nice back cover made of textured glass. Each color option has its own texture: carbon on the black model, haze on the blue one, etc.

Unlike Mi 9 SE, Mi 9T is built on a more recent processor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 730, which boasts factory overclocking, support for Wi-Fi version 5 and the ability to record 4K HDR video. It is complemented by Adreno 618 graphics, 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. In general, the filling is quite a flagship one, and the only thing missing here is a slot for a memory card.

As far as the camera is concerned, the characteristics differ little from the Mi 9 SE, and the quality of the final shots too. In short, everything is good, but not great. Somewhere on the Huawei P20 64 GB . Not "excellent" because the triple camera often misses at night and indoors with poor lighting. In general, models like Huawei P30 Pro 128 GB / 6 GB / Dual raised the bar for mobile photography to new heights.

At the same time, the Mi 9T has no obvious weaknesses. The only thing that will have to get used to is the leisurely unlocking of the smartphone. The fact is that for unlocking there is a face recognition function, but for this you need to wait until the front camera leaves. Or use the fingerprint scanner hidden under the screen, which does not work as fast as conventional scanners in the button and on the back cover. And periodically "sticks". If you have to unlock your screen 50 times a day or use contactless payments frequently, it can be pretty annoying.

Huawei Honor 20 has a long-suffering fate: the presentation of the smartphone took place in the midst of a conflict between the United States and China, which caused big questions about its future. Fortunately, the conflict was partially resolved and the smartphone did reach the store shelves.

Why fortunately? Because for a little less than $500, the potential buyer was actually offered a complete mincemeat, which is usually found in much more expensive Huawei smartphones. The device received a top-end Kirin 980 processor, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of internal storage, many cameras for all occasions, a capacious battery, fast charging and a high-quality IPS screen with a diagonal and a resolution of 2340x1080.

At the same time, it has two original features: a front camera in the display, an additional macro camera and an unusual fingerprint scanner, which is built into the power button on the side. At the moment, the latter looks like an perfect solution: it is always at hand, you do not need to fumble around the back cover in search of it, and at the same time it works much faster than scanners mounted directly on the screen.

The Honor 20 camera was made according to the principle, the more modules, the better. There are four of them here: normal, wide-angle, blur module and macro module.

The quad camera takes great pictures that fall slightly short of the Huawei P30 64 GB / 6 GB . You can only find fault with the poor quality of night shots, always-on HDR and macro quality. The 2MP sensor resolution is not enough at all, so cropped shots from the main camera usually look better than photos taken with a macro lens. As for HDR and night mode, these issues are likely to be fixed with a firmware update.

In terms of additional functions, we did not find any compromises: there is NFC, fast charging, modern wireless interfaces and a well-assembled metal and glass case with a fashionable gradient fill. We can say that with the release of models like Honor 20 and Xiaomi Mi 9T 64 GB / 6 GB in 2019, the border between $400 and $1000 smartphones has blurred to a barely noticeable outline and buying an expensive flagship is only worthwhile if you need some specific things like a stylus Samsung Galaxy Note10 256 GB / 8 GB / LTE Price from 11 929 up to 14 079 ₴, wireless charger or top camera.

OnePlus smartphones are habitually called "flagship killers", although in fact they have long grown out of these panties. Not so long ago, the company entered the TOP-5 premium smartphone manufacturers, comprising Apple, Samsung, Huawei and OPPO. And the face of the brand was none other than Robert Downey Jr., familiar to everyone for the roles of Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes.

Unlike the younger model OnePlus 7 256 GB / 8 GB , the Pro version has changed a lot. Instead of a cutout for the front camera, here we have a truly frameless display with a retractable camera and a fingerprint scanner built into the screen. Moreover, the scanner turned out to be quite fast and not much inferior in speed to conventional scanners.

And instead of top-end hardware, the OnePlus 7 Pro has some kind of absolutely prohibitive bunch of the flagship eight-core Snapdragon 855 chip and 12 GB of RAM. We don’t know why so many, but purely by numbers, it looks more powerful than many modern laptops. Although, of course, it is not entirely correct to compare mobile and stationary hardware. If we put it on a par with competitors, then OnePlus 7 Pro is the most powerful smartphone of the summer according to the Antutu benchmark, leaving behind the gaming Black Shark 2 128 GB / 6 GB and top Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus 128 GB / 8 GB Price from 12 328 up to 28 106 ₴.

Other interesting features worth noting is a chic QHD + display with a diagonal of 6.67 inches and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. Also, the “flagship killer” boasts Warp Charge 30 fast charging (50% in 20 minutes), loud and high-quality stereo speakers, NFC, fast UFS 3.0 memory (256 GB) and a triple main camera with a 48 MP Sony IMX586 main sensor.

The camera here is one of the best on the market with chic quality for both day and night shots. It’s not for nothing that the smartphone scored an impressive 111 points in the test of the reputable DxOMark resource and ranks fifth in their ranking of the best camera phones, slightly behind the Huawei P30 Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note 10+. That being said, the OnePlus 7 Pro has no flaws. Here at all. Therefore, in the reviews it is rightly called one of the best, if not the best smartphone of 2019.

Unexpectedly for many, the Korean giant Samsung started the year by releasing new flagship smartphones Samsung Galaxy S10 128 GB Price from 11 319 up to 24 510 ₴ and Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus 128 GB / 8 GB Price from 12 328 up to 28 106 ₴. Usually the company updated the range in the fall to impose competition on Apple. But six months later, as expected, improved and enlarged versions of the smartphone under the flag of Galaxy Note appeared on the market. In this review, we will look at the older Plus version.

Externally, the Galaxy Note 10 Plus does not look like its predecessor Samsung Galaxy Note9 128 GB / 6 GB Price from 10 449 up to 11 334 ₴: The thin bezel at the top has been replaced by a circular cutout for the front camera, borrowed from the Galaxy S10. Only now it is in the middle of the screen. The screen itself has a size of 6.8 inches, a resolution of 3040x1440 and belongs to the Dynamic AMOLED class. A matrix of this class proved to be excellent in the recent Galaxy S10 +, and here it seems to have become even better: it is able to display content in HDR + and the DCI-P3 color space and, in general, using such a screen is a real pleasure.

A brand new Exynos 9825 processor (8 cores, 2.73 GHz) is installed inside the large case, which was introduced in early August and which is essentially an analogue of the Snapdragon 855. Usually, the company installs these processors in smartphones for the US market, but this time, according to rumors, it did not have time receive the required batch of chips from Qualcomm. There is 12 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, plus there is a hybrid slot for a memory card. In general, the numbers here are actually laptop hardware and it would be interesting one day to look at a full comparison of their performance in some similar tasks.

An integral part of the Galaxy Note series is the signature S Pen stylus. Its functions have also increased over the year. They can still activate the camera, switch tracks and take a picture using Bluetooth. But now you don’t even have to drag the stylus across the screen: Galaxy Note 10 recognizes the movements of the S Pen at a distance of up to 10 meters. As a result, you can select photo modes with gestures, zoom in or out of portraits, and adjust the camera.

Plus, the smartphone received a fingerprint scanner built into the screen, NFC, AKG stereo speakers and a housing with protection against moisture and dust (IP68 standard). Of the unusual, we note support for Wi-Fi of the sixth generation and wireless reverse charging, like the Galaxy S10. It can charge smartwatches, headphones and other gadgets. At the same time, according to the test results, charging turned out to be the fastest on the market.

Finally, about the most interesting - the triple camera module. Immediately after the release, the smartphone fell into the hands of specialists from DxOMark, who conducted a large-scale test and called the new Galaxy the best camera phone on the market. No one has yet scored 113 points in their top, not even the breakthrough Huawei P30 Pro (it has 112 points). Equally interesting is that the front camera of the Samsung Galaxy Note10 Plus also became the leader in the selfie camera ranking.

The whole controversy lies in the price of the smartphone. Yes, in all categories here we have a solid five plus, but at the same time there is nothing that we would not have seen before. But the price of almost $ 1500 turns out to be very biting. For comparison OnePlus 7 Pro 256 GB / 12 GB with more productive hardware, the same gorgeous screen and almost the same camera will cost 2 times cheaper. True, there will not be such support for the stylus.