Believe it or not, we have already passed the halfway mark of 2016 and are well on our way to reaching the end of the year. Â In terms of Android, we’ve seen big steps taken by manufacturers to further push smartphones to their limits. What we’ve seen so far could be considered impressive.
Some notable, albeit possibly disappointing, devices that have featured prominently so far in 2016, include the:
- Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge
- Nexus 6P
- HTC 10
- OnePlus 3
- LG G5
I think it’s safe to say that we had a great first half in 2016 (regarding phones at least!).
But enough talking, let’s cut to the chase: Here’s what phones we’re looking forward to this half of 2016.
Samsung Galaxy Note7
The Galaxy Note 5 successor was unveiled on the 1st of August at a much-anticipated event in New York City.
We saw Samsung unveil what the offspring of the S7 and Note5 would look like. The Note7 offers an Iris scanner, improved S-Pen and the typical bump in specs.
It arrives with a very similar design to the Galaxy S7 edge, offering a curved glass front and rear. The Note 7, however, adds a few tricks to the party. It has a slightly larger, squarer build that flaunts a 5.7-inch Quad HD display while still being comparatively compact.
This is one of its largest launches yet, and while we weren’t exactly awed at what we saw, Â it was by no mean a disappointment.
The Note7 is available for pre-order now with shipping varying by carriers and respective retailers.
Why are we excited about it?
The Note line has been a prominent part of Sammy’s mobile lineup since its launch, along with the S-series. It defines who Samsung is while asserting its dominance in the mobile industry. It’s on the list of legendary devices that have made a name of themselves yearly, and that droves of people show interest in.
It’s possibly the most known mobile range out there.
LG V20
LG has confirmed that they have been working on and will be releasing a successor to the LG V10. It’s rumoured to have a smaller 5.5″ screen and no secondary display, along with a respectable 4,000mAh battery.
The V10 is a significant design in LG’s mobile range: it replaced the struggling Flex range and offered a unique design found no where else. The secondary ticker display was a useful gimmick that made the large size a bit unwieldy, while the hardcore design featuring metal edges and an industrial back cover was quite attractive.
As Josh Noriega said in our review, “The V10 is not a perfect phone. Samsung’s S-AMOLED screen is superior technology. I’m not convinced on LG’s rear button and fingerprint scanner placements (at least for a phone this size). And although the UX software is fast and functional, I’m just not feeling why it needs to be there.”
Why are we excited about it?
The LG V10 had a lot of potential. But it also had a lot of problems like poor battery life and, as mentioned, an almost unmanageable size. We wanted more of the V10.
The V20 is obviously the way in which LG can deliver the V10 in a better package. It’s an opportunity to make up for the lacklustre G5 sales, while showing us that it is no fool in making phones. In fact, we recently wrote about how LG can outshine the Note7 in terms of sales if it’s a successful phone.
If LG does the job right, it could certainly make the V20 a contender for phone of the year.
2016 Nexus
Although the logical name for the Nexus 6P’s successor would be Nexus 7, it turns out that the name is already taken by the Nexus 7, a four year-old tablet released by Google in 2012.
HTC is building a pair of Android N devices for Google internally dubbed M1 and S1 #nexus
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) April 27, 2016
While we’re not sure what it may be called, that’s certainly not going to prevent us on speculating about why we’re looking forward to one of the hottest annual phones.
The phones in the Nexus range are a critical part of the Android ecosystem as they are one of the very few devices that comes with pure stock Android. They showcase what Android really is and are much appreciated by the majority of the community.
Why are we excited about it?
Well, it’s a Nexus, first of all. On top of that, Google will release its Android Nougat on it, and with Nexus, you always get the software updates first and directly from Google. Not only will we be able play around with cool features, but we’ll also get a glimpse of where Android is moving. I mean, you could just read about it, but it’s a lot more fun when you actually have it in your hand, if you know what I mean.
2016 Moto X Play and Moto X Pure
We were impressed when seemingly-dead Motorola Lenovo unveiled two competitive Android phones, the Moto X Play and Moto X Pure Edition. With stock Android, superb pricing and a reasonable spec sheet, they came back to life in the market. Our reviews about them pays homage to the fact that we quite liked them.
In the Moto Z series, Lenovo did not want to prove that they can cram the best specs into the thinnest phone. They did not go all-out to try beat the competition. Instead, they stuck to what they knew worked. The result was an affordable Android device that worked without a hitch.
Why are we excited about it?
We want Lenovo to deliver another flawless device that doesn’t try to be the best. We don’t care much if it has a Snapdragon 621 and 3GB of RAM, as long as it’s affordable and offers a stock Android experience, especially for the less demanding users.
That’s not saying we don’t want to see a high-tier device coming from Lenovo, but we believe that the X series fills in a gap that many manufacturers neglect, and would love to see it continue to do so.
That’s our list of phones we’re exciting about this half of 2016. We hope to see something that no one expected: the phone industry has gotten a bit dull and predictable over the past year or two.
What phones are you excited for?
