Best Android phones
With so many Android phones, it can be tricky finding the right handset. Here are our top picks.
It seems barely a week goes past without a new Android handset being announced with ever flashier features. On the one hand that’s fantastic news for consumers, but on the other it makes finding the right model difficult. What size screen should you get, what about the storage and will the battery last you a full day? Thankfully we’re here to do all the hard work for you. We’ve tested all the best new models, and over the following pages we reveal our top Android picks.
1. OnePlus 7 Pro Price: £699 inc VAT from fave.co/2Iiqzgf
The near-meteoric rise of OnePlus has in large part been thanks to a pretty clear strategy: offer the most important features of the year’s biggest flagships, minus the flashy fluff, at a fraction of the price. With the OnePlus 7 Pro, that all changes.
The 7 and 7 Pro phones mark the first time that OnePlus is releasing two phones at once: the 7 is the natural next step from last year’s 6T, while the 7 Pro is a step up from that. It’s a full-blooded flagship, OnePlus throwing the gauntlet down and trying to prove once and for all that it can make phones to rival the likes of the Galaxy S10 or Huawei P30 Pro
if it wants to. And on the strength of the 7 Pro, the company clearly can.
I’ve been using the 7 Pro for awhile now, and I have been seriously impressed. The core OnePlus ethos is still present, but backed up by better specs focused on two of the areas of the phone people really use the most: the camera and the screen.
Display
Easily the first thing you’ll notice about the 7 Pro is the display, which excels in just about every way it is possible for a smartphone screen to excel.
Size? A whopping 6.67in. Refresh rate? A smooth 90Hz. Resolution? QHD+ – or 3,120x1,440 to be precise. I could go on: colour range, pixel density, curved edges, HDR, Gorilla Glass 5 – on paper this is one of the best panels you’ll find in a smartphone today, and it’s entirely uninterrupted by a notch.
The 90Hz refresh rate is perhaps the most welcome new feature. Mostly limited to gaming phones such as the Razer Phone or Asus’s ROG Phone II before now, higher refresh rates smooth out animations across the board, leaving every interaction with the phone feeling faster and more fluid.
It’s a change that’s hard to put your finger on at first, but flick between the 60- and 90Hz options and you’ll quickly realise that just about everything you do with the phone feels smoother – not to mention the benefits it brings when playing games or watching content that can make the most of the refresh rate.
There’s a battery drain, of course, so if you prefer you can drop down to 60Hz – and smartly, even while
on this mode the phone will still jump up to 90Hz when you’re, say, playing a game that can make the most of it before dropping back down to 60Hz for your day-to-day stuff.
There’s once again an in-display fingerprint sensor hidden below the surface, though it’s improved from the 6T. OnePlus says it should be almost twice as fast thanks to an upgraded lens and larger sensor area, and it definitely feels it. It still failed to spot my thumb a few times too often, but it feels like this is almost as good as a dedicated physical scanner, which is the highest praise it could hope to get.
Throw in the giant resolution, curved edges (with palm rejection to avoid accidental presses) and support for HDR10+ across both YouTube and Netflix and it’s clear that this screen is something special indeed.
Those curved edges help the phone feel slim – though at 8.8mm it’s not the absolute thinnest device around – while the Gorilla Glass 5 protection extends to the rear as well. It comes in one of three finishes: Mirror Grey, Nebula Blue (pictured above), and Almond. The blue in particular is stunning, with a slightly matte effect to the gradient design, while Almond is a creamier take on Apple’s Gold iPhones.
Of course, I can’t talk about the display or the design without addressing the notch – or rather, the lack thereof. The 7 Pro is one of the latest proper full-screen phones to hit the west, in this case by shifting the selfie camera into a small slider that pops up when needed, and retracts just as quickly.
Fall detection means it withdraws if you accidentally drop the phone, and naturally OnePlus assures us it’s tested the mechanism hundreds of
thousands of times for durability’s sake. It works for face unlock too, and is astonishingly quick there – the camera retracts almost as soon as it’s opened, so it is still a split-second process.
Cameras
The selfie shooter isn’t the only exciting camera here, though. Beyond the novel design, that one isn’t all that exciting otherwise: it’s a similar 16Mp camera to the one found in the 6T, just in a new spot.
More interesting are the cameras you’ll find when you flip the phone over (after briefly pausing to admire that blue gradient for the umpteenth time, of course). For the first time OnePlus is offering a triple camera setup, and one that could rival the best around.
Let’s take it one lens at a time. The main camera is 48Mp, f/1.6 with optical image stabilization (OIS). It’s powered by the same Sony IMX586 sensor you’ll find in a few other similar smartphones, but the actual lens is an entirely custom design.
Sitting above the main camera is a 16Mp ultra-wide lens, with an f/2.2 aperture and a 117-degree field of view. There’s a very slight fishbowl effect, which actually looks worse than it is thanks to the curved screen, but otherwise this does a good job.
Finally, and more excitingly, the bottom camera is an 8Mp telephoto, with OIS and up to 3x optical zoom – while you can go up to 10x hybrid optical and digital zoom. This isn’t quite into the 5x optical zoom territory of the Huawei P30 Pro (in fact this whole rear camera setup is almost identical to the regular P30), but it is capable of some sharp zoomed in shots.
The software underlying all that hardware has had an update too, and the newly dubbed UltraShot algorithm is clearly an attempt to catch up with the competition – it’s fair to say OnePlus has never been renowned for its photography flex.
Photos process more quickly, despite additional computational work as the camera makes more use of multiple shots to extract more information and enrich images – especially in a revamped take on Nightscape, OnePlus’s take on a flash-free low light mode. This is now in the same conversation as the P30 Pro and Pixel 3 for low light photos, with astonishing sharpness and colour drawn out of even the darkest environments.
In general, photos are crisp and I’ve been impressed by the dynamic range the camera is capable of, while colours tend to be fairly accurate. That can mean photos look slightly muted if you’re used to the heavily saturated shots taken by Huawei and Samsung’s latest, but will deliver if you prefer something that looks more true to life. The optical zoom is comparable to the results in the P30, and actually yields a little more detail than some shots from that phone – though at the cost of slightly more noise.
As for video, the rear cameras can shoot up to 4K at 60fps, while the selfie lens will record 1080p at 30fps, and you also get the option of super slow motion from the rear cameras – either 1080p at 240fps, or 720p at 480fps.
Performance
It’s probably clear by now that OnePlus is really leading on the display and camera when it comes
to the 7 Pro – two areas where the company has never previously made a name for itself, no doubt not by chance.
Still, it hasn’t exactly skimped elsewhere. The processor is the flagship Snapdragon 855, and it’s backed up by some meaty memory options, with up to 256GB storage and 12GB of RAM available – though there’s no support for microSD cards, so what you get is what you get.
That storage is special, too: the 7 Pro uses UFS 3.0 – universal flash storage – which is a fancy way of saying that it should be able to save and access files much quicker. That means faster app opening, game loading, and file transferring – it’s the equivalent to plugging an SSD into your computer. It’s also the only phone on sale right now to boast the tech, though technically not the first – the Galaxy Fold uses UFS 3.0 too, but we all know how well that launch went. It’s not clear yet how much of a difference the new drive is making in and of itself, but it’s contributing to silky smooth performance across the board.
I’ve been testing the 12GB RAM, 256GB storage model, and unsurprisingly all that power has seen it sail through most of our benchmarks, with results up there with flagship rivals – though not blowing them away, and surprisingly it drops below the 6T on some of the graphical tests, where the extra RAM doesn’t really contribute. This is on pre-release software though, which can complicate things, and I’d expect software updates to refine the hardware performance.
Either way, this thing is fast, and it’s at the point where it’s so fast that minor variations in individual
benchmarks really don’t reflect anything to worry about unless you’re absolutely obsessed about maxing out your frame rate in Fortnite.
The 4,000mAh battery just about stretched out to 48 hours of usage, so if you charge every day you shouldn’t ever have to worry about running out – again, this is pretty much in line with similarly priced rivals. The inclusion of 30-watt Warp Charging also means it’ll top up fast – it managed to get 64 percent of its battery back in just half an hour when charging from empty.
That charging is USB-C (still no support for wireless here, OnePlus says it just isn’t good enough yet), with a USB 3.1 port. There’s NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 (with aptX HD support), and stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
– they sound good for a phone, but y’know. There’s even a new haptic motor – something previous OnePlus phones have struggled with. These still aren’t the best vibrations out there, but how many people really worry about that?
Finally, waterproofing. OnePlus says getting an official IP rating is a waste of money that drives prices up, so there’s no official measure of how waterresistant the phone is. The company itself says the phone can survive a splash (there’s even an extra layer of liquid protection around the sliding selfie cam), but doesn’t recommend you take it swimming.
Ultimately, an IP rating offers peace of mind that the 7 Pro just won’t offer in that regard, but as OnePlus is quick to point out, no smartphone manufacturer covers liquid damage in its warranty – even those with industry-leading IP68 ratings. So basically this should keep working if you drop it in the bath, but I’m not about to risk the phone and this review to find out.
Software
Let’s wrap it all up on a high note. As ever, OnePlus excels on the software side – Oxygen OS is probably our favourite Android skin, and the only one that’s arguably better than Google’s own efforts on the Pixel phones.
The look is close to stock, but with usability tweaks across the board and subtle UI tweaks to smooth over some of Android’s rough edges. Not everything is perfect – swiping up for back remains one of the less intuitive gesture controls out there, and the lack of a true always-on display is still a
frustration, but for the most part this is about as good as Android gets. Tweaks this year are mostly minor, but welcome. There’s a built-in screen recorder in case you want to share footage direct from your phone, which lets you record for as long as you want, pausing and resuming at any point, and record either internal or external sound.
The full-screen means no room for a notification LED, so instead OnePlus has turned to a software solution: the sides of the display will pulse with light when a notification comes through, with the colour actually determined by the app in question. It’s a nice touch, but still actually easy to miss, as the light only pulses once – it won’t keep flashing after the fact,
as a normal LED might. That could get annoying of course, not to mention drain the battery, which is likely why OnePlus opted to avoid it.
Gaming mode has had an upgrade to give more granular notification controls, and there’s even an enhanced version – branded by the e-sports team Fnatic – that not only blocks any and all notifications but also reroutes almost all of the phone’s processing power and network signal towards your game.
If that all sounds a bit intense, Zen Mode is its chilled out counterpart. This also shuts down every notification, but goes even further: it basically locks you out of the phone entirely, leaving you able only to receive calls, phone emergency services, or use the camera. This lasts for 20 minutes – no more, no less – and once activated it’s impossible to turn off. Yup, even if you turn the phone off and on again – this is the nuclear solution to terminal procrastination.
Verdict
I went looking for reasons not to give the OnePlus 7 Pro full marks, but I’ve struggled to find much to fault. The display, camera, and core specs are essentially all best-in-class – or close enough to count – while the few shortcuts (wireless charging, an IP rating) are easily explained away by a price point that still undercuts the closest comparable rivals by some way.
Yes, this costs a bit more than you’re probably used to from OnePlus, but it delivers on enough of its promises to justify that price hike – and if you’re not convinced, the regular OnePlus 7 is always there (outside the US at least), at the same old price
OnePlus has been hitting for the last year or two. In a year that’s already seen both Samsung and Huawei drop pretty phenomenal flagships, OnePlus has still managed to drop a device that might just be the phone to beat in 2019. Dominic Preston
Specifications
• 6.67in (3,120x1,440; 516ppi) Fluid AMOLED capacitive touchscreen • Android 9.0 (Pie); OxygenOS 9 • Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 (7nm) processor • Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 485, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 485, 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 485) CPU • Adreno 640 GPU • 6GB, 8GB, 12GB RAM • 128GB, 256GB storage • Three rear-facing cameras: 48Mp, f/1.6, (wide), 1/2in, 0.8μm, Laser/PDAF, OIS; 16Mp, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide); 8Mp, f/2.4, 78mm (telephoto), 3x zoom, Laser/PDAF, OIS • Front-facing camera: Motorized pop-up 16Mp, f/2.0, 25mm (wide), 1/3.0in, 1.0μm • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD • A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, SBAS • NFC • Fingerprint scanner (under display) • USB 3.1 Type-C 1.0 reversible connector • Non-removable 4,000mAh lithium-polymer battery • 162.6x75.9x8.8mm • 206g
2. Xiaomi Mi 9 Price: £469 inc VAT from fave.co/2naQgIv
Go back a couple of years and few people in the UK had heard of Xiaomi, but looking into our imaginary crystal ball we’re convinced that in a couple more years it is going to have completely transformed the smartphone market.
Xiaomi is a huge – but still pretty young – Chinese mega-brand and its smartphones, which are now officially available in the UK, undercut the global leaders in a way with which they simply cannot hope to compete. The only company that comes even remotely close is OnePlus, with its 6T, but that phone’s still not a patch on Mi 9.
Mi 9 is Xiaomi’s brand-new flagship phone for 2019. It undercuts the Samsung Galaxy S10 by more than £300 – the iPhone XS by more than £500. And what do you really lose – waterproofing? A few extra pixels that you can’t actually perceive? No-one of sane mind has any business overlooking the Mi 9 in the search for their next smartphone. It’s not only one of the best Chinese phones, but the best phones full stop.
New features
The most obvious difference when you pick up Mi 9 is the display, which is now larger and taller than on Mi 8 and covers a greater surface area, with a reduced chin and a significantly smaller notch. It builds in an in-display fingerprint sensor, previously seen only on the Mi 8 Pro, and adds some customization options to the Always-on Display.
Naturally this means the previous sensor has been removed from the rear, but there’s yet more change here with the LED flash moved to below the camera assembly and the addition of a third lens within. The arrangement is narrower but also taller, and juts out more than before. When you see the specs you’ll understand why, since Xiaomi has crammed in an incredible 48Mp lens.
Around the edges the new Mi 9 looks to be much shinier, with a highly polished metal frame that is narrower at the edges with glass that curves in not only to the left and right but also top and bottom. The IR blaster has been reinstated along the phone’s top edge, and on the left is a new button for calling up Google Assistant.
There are new colour options, too, and though our review sample is sadly the standard Piano Black there are also two ‘holographic’ (read: iridescent) designs in Ocean Blue and Lavender Violet. We caught a glimpse of these versions at MWC and they were stunning.
Some changes you can’t see, and inside Xiaomi has swapped out the 2018 Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (a 10nm chip) for this year’s 855 (7nm). This offers improvements of up to 45 percent in general processing power, and 20 percent in graphics.
It’s also added in wireless charging, which was previously found only in the Mi Mix line. But for something with which it has come late to the party, it has stolen everyone else’s thunder with top speeds of 20 watts. A charger that can actually output this much wireless power is not found in the box, however. Wired charging is faster, too, at 27 watts.
Design
For a company once accused of being ‘China’s Apple’ and yet another copycat brand, Xiaomi has come a long way in design. So much so, we have to ask: why would any company want its devices to look like iPhones when they could look like Xiaomi phones?
While Apple remains stuck in monolithic-notch hell, Xiaomi has followed some of its fellow Android device makers in getting away from the “Hey, we’re cool, we’re forward-facing, look at our notch” conversations to listening to what its pretty impressive fan base actually wants. And they want screen. Screen, screen and more screen. Masses of screen. All the screen.
On Mi 9 the previously in-your-face notch has been replaced with a subtle waterdrop, centred at the top of the display. It houses only the selfie camera, while the speaker has been moved to a blink-andyou’ll-miss-it position at the extreme edge where the screen meets the frame.
Xiaomi has also enlarged the panel, now up from 6.21- to 6.39in. Yet the phone’s size and weight has barely changed, with Mi 9 still just 7.6mm thick (though it feels thinner with its curvier frame) and actually weighing a few grams less.
It’s achieved this impressive design feat in three ways: first by reducing the phone’s chin by some 40 percent to just 3.6mm; second by increasing the aspect ratio from an already tall 18.7:9 to a slinky 19.5:9; and third – unfortunately – by shaving 100mAh off the battery. The result is a super-high screento-body ratio of 90.7 percent, and a design that is not only significantly better looking but also more comfortable in use.
All this glass remains a magnet for fingerprints, though in our testing with Mi 9 we found it less notable than on the Mi 8 Pro we use day in, day out. Xiaomi has also taken steps to rectify two of our biggest gripes with that phone, enhancing the in-display fingerprint sensor and making some improvements to the Always-on Display.
Xiaomi claims this new fingerprint sensor works 25 percent faster than on the Mi 8 Pro, and it did seem a little better in use. There’s still some way to go here in making the fingerprint sensor work effortlessly every single time, however, and we often found our impatience prompting us to punch in the PIN code instead.
But that screen – it’s something to behold. Xiaomi uses a Samsung AMOLED panel, allowing it to offer the mix of vibrant, punchy and saturated colours we love with deep blacks and crisp whites. The
2,340x1,080 resolution is on point, if below what Samsung et al are capable of offering when pushing their handsets beyond the default settings.
It offers a typical 430cd/m2 brightness (we measured 414cd/m2), up to 60,000:1 contrast, and version 2.0 of Xiaomi’s Sunlight- and Reading mode features. And it’s protected with Gorilla Glass 6, which Corning claims is two times better than Gorilla Glass 5.
Looking around the edges there’s still no headphone jack (a 3.5mm adaptor is in the box), but there are two new features as well as improved audio from the integrated loudspeaker, which now features deeper bass and uses dynamic gain to amplify sound by 100 percent.
A button on the left edge by default wakes the Google Assistant. (If you’re buying the Chinese version of this phone you’ll instead have access to Xiaomi’s own AI client.) This can be changed to quick-launch
the camera, flashlight or the previous app, or to turn on Reading mode or trigger a Google search.
The second addition is an IR blaster, which used to be a common feature of Xiaomi phones but was removed in Mi 8. Now reinstated, this sensor works in tandem with the preinstalled Mi Remote app to control various appliances in your home. We got it working with our Sony TV and DVD player, but sadly it does not currently recognize our Roku media streaming box.
On the rear Xiaomi has refined the edges, which are now curved on all sides. This makes the Mi 9 more comfortable to hold in one hand, despite its larger screen, but the glossy mirror-like surface is incredibly slippery, with nothing but the extruding camera assembly to aid grip.
Though we’d prefer the camera to lie flush with the phone’s body, we appreciate how difficult a task this would be to achieve with a 48Mp sensor on board. The new assembly sticks out further than previously, but the unit is protected from damage with tough Sapphire glass.
A halo ring around the top lens adds a touch of class, and is something we’ve seen previously from Xiaomi with the red outer rings on Mi 8 Pro and 18K gold detailing on Mi Mix.
Aside from these few quibbles – the slippery surface, the prominent camera bump, the fingerprints, the sub-Quad-HD resolution and the in-display fingerprint sensor that fails to work 100 percent of the time – the only thing we can really call out as a criticism of Mi 9’s premium design is a lack of waterproofing. But when you consider that adding
such a feature would add to the price we’re more than happy to not have it. Maybe one for Mi 10.
Performance
In the smartphone world there are really just a handful of processors sitting at the top of the pile. Apple’s A12 Bionic leads the group in terms of synthetic benchmark performance, and is followed by the Kirin 980 used by Huawei and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 that is used by just about every other flagship phone on the market. All three are 7nm processors, and all three produce a level of performance with which no-one could reasonably find fault.
(Samsung also has its own processors, with the Exynos 9820 found in the UK version of the Galaxy S10. And then there’s MediaTek, but its cheaper chips are in a different league.)
In Mi 9 Xiaomi has specified one of those top-tier chips, the Snapdragon 855, but it has done so with the X24- rather than X50 modem which means this phone isn’t capable of supporting 5G. (And neither are most of the world’s phone networks, so that’s a moot point.)
This Snapdragon chip is clocked at 2.84GHz and uses the Kryo 485 core. It’s integrated with the Adreno 640 GPU and paired with 6GB of RAM and 64or 128GB of non-expandable storage.
The Mi 9 is capable of some mind-blowing performance, if falling below those phones with a greater allocation of memory (such as the China-only Mi 9 Explorer, which has 12GB).
We ran it through our usual benchmarks and have charted its performance in comparison with
some of today’s top smartphones. Unsurprisingly, it is significantly faster than Mi 8 and the 4G Mi Mix 3 with its newer processor, but the fact it was able to smash Galaxy S10 and S10+ out of the park is something to be proud of for a phone that is little more than half the price.
We also ran the Geekbench battery life test on the Mi 9, in which it recorded 9 hours, 57 minutes. That’s significantly higher than Mi 8 (7 hours, 10 minutes) and also above competitors such as OnePlus 6T (7 hours, 26 minutes) and Galaxy S10 (4 hours, 47 minutes). In the real world, this means getting a full day’s life from Mi 9 shouldn’t be a problem.
When the battery is depleted the Mi 9 supports up to 27-watt wired or 20-watt wireless charging, but Xiaomi supplies only an 18-watt European (two-pin) plug in the box so we did not test this. The company claims you’ll get up to 40 percent in 30 minutes wirelessly, or up to 100 percent in 90 minutes.
Mi 9 also covers all connectivity bases with dual-frequency GPS, the aforementioned IR blaster, NFC, OTG, Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi. It’s a dualSIM, dual-standby phone, with both SIMs able to connect to 4G networks.
Cameras
In common with Mi 8 there’s a 20Mp selfie camera at the front of the Mi 9, though we were kind of expecting the 24Mp selfie camera from Mi 8 Lite to make an appearance. No bother – it’s a great camera, and good for selfies and video chat, though as on previous models the various beautifying features
were so subtle it was often difficult to tell if they were doing anything.
Mi 9 is Xiaomi’s first smartphone to support a triple-lens AI camera at the rear. It uses the same 48Mp lens we saw in Redmi Note 7, a budget handset announced in China in January, but combines it with 16Mp wide-angle and 12Mp telephoto lenses, all hidden behind Sapphire glass. It’s a huge upgrade over the 12- and 12Mp dual-lens camera in Mi 8.
The first is a Sony IMX586 1/2in sensor that supports 0.8μm pixels and has a f/1.75 aperture. This camera can also increase the pixel size to 1.6μm at 12Mp, with its ‘4-in-1 Super Pixels’ allowing
in four times more light than a single pixel.
The 12Mp telephoto lens has a 2x optical zoom, while the 16Mp wide-angle supports a 117-degree field of view and 4cm macro photography. Both have 1.0μm pixels and f/2.2 aperture.
The resulting quality of images in our test was superb, with excellent lifelike colouring and detail that is sharp right to the edges of the shot. It’s difficult to fault for a £1K phone, let alone one half that price.
In low light quality steps down a notch, with some noise visible in the shot. But overall, the Mi 9 did a fantastic job of lighting the scene, and it sets itself apart from less capable camera phones by clearly defining text and easily distinguishing between the various shades of black in the scene.
For video super slow-mo at 960fps at 1080p and 4K at 60fps are supported.
Software
The Mi 9 runs MIUI 10, which is a custom version of Android 9 Pie, most obviously different in the lack of an app tray, the custom drop-down notification bar, the reordering of the Settings menu and the various Xiaomi apps and features preinstalled on the device.
There are a couple of ways MIUI 10 is different on the Mi 9 than on other Xiaomi phones that run the software. For starters, there’s Dark Mode. This is one of the trendiest software features of late, reversing the screen colours and reducing its drain on battery life by up to 83 percent. It can also be easier on the eyes than a bright white display. While Google’s talking about adding a system-wide Dark Mode in upcoming Android 10, Xiaomi’s already there with MIUI 10 on Mi 9.
The other new feature here is something we mentioned earlier in this review, the customizable Always-on Display. You still don’t have nearly as
much control over it as on the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy phones, but it now supports colour and some preset background images. If you like you can schedule the AOD to turn on and off only at certain times of the day.
In other respects this is MIUI 10 as we know it and, though it will feel unfamiliar to Android users who have never played with a Xiaomi phone before, there’s a lot to love here that you don’t get in standard Android. A couple of our favourites are Dual Apps and Second Space, allowing you to run multiple versions of apps on the phone and even wall off some for selective viewing.
During the setup process you get the chance to choose between a full-screen display that supports gestures for going back, home or accessing open apps, or you can display these navigation
options as buttons on screen. A Split Screen mode is available within the multitasking menu, allowing you to interact with two apps at once. You’ll also find things like One-handed mode (shrinks the size of the usable screen area) and Quick ball in the Settings.
Verdict
Devilishly fast, insanely beautiful and offering the best value for money you’ll find in any smartphone, anywhere. So should you buy it? You’d be mad not to. Marie Black
Specifications
• 6.39in (2,340x1,080; 643ppi) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen • Android 9.0 (Pie) • Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 (7nm)
processor • Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 485; 3x 2.42GHz Kryo
485; 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 485) CPU • Adreno 640 GPU • 6GB, 8GB RAM • 64GB, 128GB storage • Three rear-facing cameras: 48Mp, f/1.8, 1/2in, 0.8μm, Laser/PDAF; 16Mp, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/3in, 1μm, Laser/PDAF; 12Mp, f/2.2, 54mm (telephoto), 1/3.6in, 1μm, Laser/PDAF, 2x optical zoom • Front-facing camera: 20Mp, f/2.0, 0.9μm • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 5.0 • A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS • NFC
• Fingerprint scanner (under display) • USB 2.0, Type-C 1.0 • Non-removable 3,300mAh lithium-polymer battery • 157.5x74.7x7.6mm • 173g
3. Asus ZenFone 6 Price: £499 inc VAT from fave.co/2I7Vv2i
Asus’s ZenFone 6 offers something different to most flagships on the market. It has a gorgeous all-display design with a camera array that flips between the back and front to cover all your photography needs.
Cameras
There have been many different attempts from manufacturers to achieve a bezel-less display while
still providing access to the all-important front-facing camera, from notches to pop-up cameras, sliders and, with the introduction of the Asus ZenFone 6, Flip Cameras too.
The reversible nature of the camera module is interesting; rather than featuring a front-facing camera that would encroach on the display, the phone’s rearfacing cameras can be flipped to face forwards.
The module has a 48Mp Sony IMX586 sensor, with 1.6μm pixels and an aperture of f/1.79, alongside a 13Mp 125-degree wide-angle camera, laser autofocus and a dual-LED flash. The flippy nature of the camera module provides users with incredible-quality front-facing lenses, and allows users to access advanced shooting modes previously exclusive to rear-facing cameras. Photo quality is generally great, with impressive detail and clarity, and the
HDR+ mode produces gorgeous, detailed images in challenging lighting conditions.
Take a look at the below image of St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel; even when zooming in, you can make out fine details such as the brickwork of the building and street signs. The level of detail somewhat negates the need for a telephoto lens, as cropped images taken by the 48Mp sensor generally look great.
The 48Mp sensor performs well in low-light environments too, although the phone’s dedicated Night Mode simply can’t compete with that provided by the likes of Huawei, Samsung and Google. There’s a decent level of light, but there’s a slight sacrifice to overall clarity.
The 13Mp 125-degree wide-angle camera is great for group selfies, especially when combined with the flippy nature of the phone. It performs well in welllit environments, but sadly, photos taken in low-light environments are noticeably dimmer than those taken by the 48Mp sensor.
Of course, there is a range of shooting modes that allow you to get creative with your photography. One of the highlights is the Portrait mode, complete with post-shot refocusing. It’s also impressively accurate when it comes to edge recognition, even in pointand-shoot situations.
Oh, and the ability to take a panorama without actually moving the smartphone is a novelty that we will personally never get over.
One of the cool features of the Flip Camera is manual control; you can adjust the angle of the camera using the volume button, allowing you to find the perfect angle for your shots. It makes taking photos of animals and children easier too, as you can position the camera at a 90-degree angle and take photos from a horizontal position.
If you’re worried about durability, don’t. The housing features a G-Sensor that’ll flip the camera back to its original position if it detects a fall, and the gear system should be good for over 100,000 flips – that equates to 28 selfies every day for five years. And a short video shown at the announcement showcased a child actively trying to force the camera open using a screwdriver, pins and more, and the module still functioned properly.
We haven’t even mentioned the impressive suite of video tools at your disposal on the ZenFone 6. The highlight is the ability to record 4K at 60fps with electronic image stabilization. Videos are smooth, high quality and produce cinematic sweeps instead of wobbly pans, although the EIS does come at a cost; a rather cropped shot. You’ve also got access to a slow-mo mode that offers 480fps at 720p, or 240fps at 1080p. The promise of 480fps slow-mo is a little hollow though, as we noticed frame drops and jumps during slow-mo testing. We’re glad to report that the same wasn’t found when shooting at 240fps, suggesting that the camera and on-board tech isn’t up to the task of processing 480 images per second.
There’s also a cool tracking mode that utilizes the flippy nature of the camera to keep the subject
in-shot. Simply tap on screen to select your subject, and the camera will follow it even as it approaches the edge of the capture area. It’s the ideal shooting mode for filming fast-moving subjects such as children and animals, and works surprisingly well, although you can make out the whir of the motors in the background of quieter videos.
Design
Aside from the camera module, the Asus ZenFone 6 is a sleek bit of kit, featuring a completely bezel-less 6.4in display covered in Corning’s sixth-gen Gorilla Glass and a curved rear that fits the contours of your hand, making it comfortable to use one-handed. On the rear, you’ll find a standard fingerprint sensor below the reversible camera array, along with Asus branding.
It’s admittedly a little chunkier than other smartphones, measuring in at 159.1x75.4x9.2mm and
weighing 190g, but the curved rear helps negate this to a level where we barely notice the difference.
You’ll also notice a ‘Smart Key’ on the side of the smartphone. This, by default, can be used to summon Google Assistant with ease, but it can be customized to perform a variety of actions, from opening the camera to enabling the torch.
The phone comes in two variants; a rather generic Midnight Black (see opposite), and a more eyecatching white-to-blue gradient nicknamed Twilight Silver, with matching metal band. Oh, and rather importantly, there’s not only a 3.5mm headphone port but a notification LED too.
Performance
The ZenFone 6 is certainly a good-looking phone, but it doesn’t stop there. Let’s talk about that gorgeous HDR10-enabled FHD+ display; it measures in at a whopping 6.4in and offers a tall 19:5:9 aspect ratio. It’s bright, crisp, detailed and has an incredible 92 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Most importantly, it’s free of any thick bezels, notches or hole-punch cameras, giving you an uninterrupted viewing experience that simply isn’t offered by the likes of Apple, Samsung or Google. That didn’t stop Asus from including stereo speakers to complete the premium experience, though.
Beneath the display, you’ll find Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 processor alongside an Adreno 640 GPU, either 6- or 8GB of RAM and 128- or 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage, depending on the variant that you opt for (there’s also a cheap 6GB/64GB variant, though
it’s not available in the UK). If the built-in storage isn’t enough for you, you can expand it by up to 1TB via the microSD card slot.
That should be more than enough to power pretty much any app or game on Android with little-tono lag, and we must admit we’ve not experienced any during our time with the 8GB/256GB variant. It’s also backed up by our benchmark results, with the ZenFone 6 producing similar results to top-of-the-range smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus and Huawei P30 Pro.
The ZenFone 6 also looks to stand out from the crowd in the battery department, has an incredible 5,000mAh battery that Asus claims can provide either two days of standard use, 26 days on standby, 33.3 hours of talk time or 21 hours of web browsing. We’ve
found that we can get through a 15-hour day with standard usage (browsing, snapping, texting, and so on) and go to bed with around 40 percent battery remaining, and in 2019, that’s the dream.
When it does need a top-up, Quick Charge 4.0 can provide users with a speedy charging experience, though, unfortunately, the 18-watt charger isn’t included in the box.
The ZenFone 6 is also a powerhouse of connectivity, offering USB-C connectivity with reverse charging alongside the likes of 4G LTE support, Bluetooth 5, dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, a suite of GPS systems and even FM Radio functionality, although the increasingly-common wireless charging isn’t present here.
Software
And, like most other Android-based smartphones being released at the moment, the Asus ZenFone 6 comes with Android 9.0 Pie, though it separates itself from the crowd by guaranteeing an update not only to Android 10, but Android 11 in 2020, too. It’s also a part of Google’s Android Beta programme, allowing users to sign up to experimental builds of Android months before release.
Though it may not look like it, the smartphone actually features a custom ZenUI. While it keeps the stock Android look and feel, there are enhancements available to users including the ability to double-tap the display to wake, automatically adjust volume based on the environment, enable a system-wide dark mode and, our personal favourite, the ability
to access the notification shade with a swipe of the rear-facing fingerprint sensor.
Verdict
The ZenFone 6 is one of our favourite smartphones of 2019; rather than following the trend of notches and hole-punch camera cutouts, Asus has implemented an innovative Flip Camera system that provides a high-end shooting experience on the rear and front, without compromising on screen real estate. Images captured are detailed and vibrant, and although the Night Mode doesn’t perform as well as some rivals, it’s a small gripe in an otherwise impressive camera system. The range of video modes and the ability to record at 4K at 60fps with EIS is a nice touch, too. Beyond the camera setup, the ZenFone 6 is a
stunning bit of kit; it has a curved rear that fits nicely into the palm of your hand, a glossy design and most importantly, a 6.4in full-screen display free of bezels and notches. And with a 5,000mAh battery that comfortably provides all-day usage, there’s not much to complain about. Lewis Painter
Specifications
• 6.4in (2,340x1,080; 403ppi) PS LCD capacitive touchscreen
• Android 9.0 (Pie); ZenUI 6
• Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon 855 (7nm) processor
• Octa-core (1x 2.84GHz Kryo 485, 3x 2.41GHz Kryo 485, 4x 1.78GHz Kryo 485) CPU
• Adreno 640 GPU
• 6GB, 8GB RAM
• 128GB, 256GB storage
• Dual rear-facing cameras: 48Mp, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/2in, 0.8μm, Laser/PDAF; 13Mp, f/2.4, 11mm (ultrawide)
• Dual front-facing cameras: Motorized flip-up main
camera module • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
• A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS
• NFC • Fingerprint scanner (rear mounted)
• USB 2.0 Type-C 1.0 reversible connector
• Non-removable 5,000mAh lithium-polymer battery
• 59.1x75.4x9.2mm
• 190g
4. Google Pixel 3 Price: £739 inc VAT from fave.co/2RDX8sL
Google’s Pixel 3 was one of the most leaked smartphones of all time, with images appearing all over the Internet. We attended the phone’s London launch and have spent solid time with it. Read on for our thoughts.
Design
There’s not a huge design change from its predecessor when it comes to this phone as on the whole Google has stuck to the same style and look. The Pixel 3 has a distinctive style at the back with its two-tone effect, which not everyone will like. The iconic glossy
section at the top houses the camera with the lower part containing the fingerprint scanner. This time around, it’s a fully glass design, with the lower section offering a matte finish, which looks and feels luxurious. It’s not as grippy when compared to a typical glass back, but feels nicer and won’t show fingerprint marks as much. Importantly, this change also enables wireless charging for the first time on a Pixel phone. We’ll talk about this in more detail later.
It’s the front that you’ll see the biggest change due to a change in display aspect ratio – an industry-wide trend. Smaller bezels not only look better but mean you get a larger screen in a body that’s essentially the same. Whatever side of the fence you’re on, the regular Pixel 3 is the model without a notch. The Pixel 3 XL, for the first time on a Google phone, has the divisive feature. Both have a camera bump on the rear, but it’s small and not a big deal.
Much of the elements we’re used to are the same, so you get a USB-C port, no headphone jack, and waterproofing – the latter is now IP68 instead of IP67. Our main worry is dirt collecting in the speakers on the front as they are slightly recessed.
Colour options are once again Clearly White, Just Black and the new Not Pink (which has a peach tone in real life) – each, apart from the black model, have a difference accent colour on the side button.
Display
The most obvious change is the display, which as we mentioned is now using an on-trend tall aspect ratio. It’s 18:9 to be precise and sticks with a Full HD+
resolution (2,280x1,080) and AMOLED tech. Many might be Quad HD, but 443ppi is plenty.
On the spec sheet it’s listed as ‘flexible’, but this doesn’t mean it has curved sides like a Samsung Galaxy S9. We believe it’s to achieve smaller bezels.
Jumping from 5- to 5.5in gives you more real estate to play with. If you want even more, then the XL has a 6.3in display, albeit with a larger than average notch. Either way you’ll need to get used to the Android Pie’s gestures, which we’ll talk about later.
The display has an always-on feature, so it can give you handy information such at the time, date and weather without having to switch it on. You can also opt to have notifications appear as well, and switch on Now Playing to see the track and artist when music is playing nearby – no need to Shazam it.
We find the display looks great in the default adaptive mode, but you can head into the settings menu and try other colour modes. There’s also natural and boosted.
Processor, memory and storage
When it comes to the core specs, there’s a predictable upgrade to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 – the firm’s flagship processor for 2018. Memory remains at just 4GB (despite rumours of a 50 percent increase). You need to choose from 64- or 128GB of storage. Pick wisely as there’s no microSD card slot as usual.
The Pixel 3 might not be setting any records in our benchmark tests, although 61fps in T-Rex appears to have gone beyond the limit, but the phone is super smooth in real life, so you needn’t worry on this front.
We’ve not found any noticeable lag, partly thanks to the high-end components and the pure Android software. We’ve compared it to the Pixel 2 and a selection of rivals, but don’t read too much into the figures – after all, they are synthetic tests.
Cameras
Where other manufacturers force you to buy the large model out of two phones to get enhanced photography, normally an extra camera, the Pixel 3s have the same setup.
Interestingly, neither phone has dual cameras at the rear. Google is confident that it can offer excellent photography and video capture with just a single rear lens. The specs look the same as last year at 12.2Mp,
an f/1.8 aperture, OIS and dual autofocus (phase detection and laser).
Google’s software, namely HDR+, is the reason why it only needs one lens. A new feature called Top Shot will take multiple shots so you can choose the best, rather then end up missing that key moment. Night Sight is also new and aims to help you get great results in low light without using a flash with machine learning.
There’s also Motion Auto Focus, which can lock onto moving object, it worked well in our macro test with the plant blowing around a lot in the wind.
Overall, we’re very impressed with the results from the camera, which takes great photos with minimal fuss. The portrait mode is particularly impressive and lets you control both background and foreground blur after you’ve taken the shot.
There are plenty of other modes to check out, including the usual selection of Panorama, Photo Sphere, Google Lens and Slow Motion. Playground, which is similar to Sony’s AR effect, plonks characters, including Marvel and StrangerThings, onto your desk or wherever you want them.
Oddly, then, the new tech is at the front where there are two cameras. Both are 8Mp with an f/1.8 or f/2.2 aperture, and like on LG’s V40 one is a standard focal length, while the other is wideangle (107 degrees instead of 75), so you can fit more people into the frame.
The quality is good and you can easily switch between the two cameras almost seamlessly with a slider within the camera app.
On the video front, the Pixel 3 can shoot in up to 4K resolution, but at 30fps. Whereas, Full HD can do 60or even 120fps. The footage is nicely detailed and the stabilization is excellent, so you can even walk around while filming, but avoid a headache inducing result.
Connectivity and audio
There’s plenty more about the Pixel 3 that essentially remains the same as before, with similar connectivity (dual-band 11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and the like) and the rear fingerprint scanner. That means there’s no fingerprint scanner embedded in the screen (or face unlock either). This is a shame as it has arrived on the OnePlus 6T, which is a cheaper rival. During our tests, we found that the Pixel’s scanner works well, plus you can use it pull the notification bar down if you switch this gesture on – this is a bit temperamental, though.
The phone offers excellent audio, despite the lack of a headphone jack. This means you’ll have to make use of the USB-C Pixel earbuds or the included adaptor. We’d recommend the latter since the supplied headphones are, like the Pixel Buds, uncomfortable.
The main audio feature is the front-facing stereo speakers, and they’re good but not flawless. They are certainly capable of going louder than most, but when you get to the upper third of the volume things get pretty distorted and there’s not too much bass to speak of. We found around 50 percent to be a nice sweet spot of velocity and clarity.
It’s a small thing, but we like how Google has decided to make the volume rocker default to
media volume rather than ringtone, since this is something you’re going to adjust far more often.
Battery life
A new feature, although it’s nothing new in the grand scheme, is wireless charging. It works with any Qi charger. It’s a welcome addition and the battery capacity is a little larger, too, at 2,915mAh. That’s a little below the average for a phone this size, and although the battery life is okay, it’s nothing special really. Like so many smartphones, you’ll need to charge it regularly.
Fast charging will help that, as will the new Pixel Stand if you choose to buy one.
Get the Pixel Stand (£69 from fave.co/2OPrJpC) and the phone will turn into a sort of smart display, where you can control it with your voice or handy on-screen icons. It will also do clever things such
as connect to your Nest doorbell to automatically show you who’s at the door, while the Sunrise Alarm slowly brightens the screen to help wake you up.
Software
It’s no surprise that the phones come with Android 9.0 Pie, although it wasn’t not the first to market with this version. We previously reviewed the Sony Xperia XZ3, which ships with this OS.
The main change here is that you’ll have to get used to gestures for navigation that are akin to the iPhone XS. The usual three-button navigation bar is now just a single icon.
Swipe up a long way and you’ll open the app draw, which at the top offers suggestions for both apps and actions. Do a shorter swipe and you’ll get the new
recent apps screen, which still offers the same app suggestions at the bottom along with the Google bar.
Recent apps are now displayed in a horizontal list rather than the older vertical Rolodex style. You can fling apps off the top of the screen to close them or swipe down (or tap) to open one.
An easier way to switch between apps is by using the navigation bar at the bottom. It works like the iPhone X/XS so swiping to the right will switch to the previously used app. Swipe and hold and you can scroll between all your apps, then simply let go when you’ve found the one you want.
It’s all very different, especially if you’ve become accustomed to the old way of doing things on Android. You will get used to it, and you’ll have to as there’s no option to switch the old navigation buttons on.
Otherwise, it appears that you generally get the same pure Google experience with the Google Assistant a swipe away from the home screen and, of course, no bloatware.
There are a number of new (sometimes hidden) elements though, including the ‘At-a-Glance’ section at the top of the home screen, which provides handy information such as upcoming calendar events and more. Tap on any to get more detail.
Android Pie also monitors how you respond to notifications. If you clear certain ones a lot, then it will suggest to turn them off.
Active Edge remains, too, so you can squeeze the phone to trigger different things. It’s a sort of hidden feature since the design of the phone doesn’t indicate it’s there.
As we’ve found on other phones with this feature (and others like Apple’s 3D Touch), you’ll either use it all the time or completely forget it’s there. You can set how sensitive it is to stop it happening by accident.
The problem here is that you can’t customize it, so it only summons the Assistant or silences alarms, incoming calls and the like. It would be far more useful if you could choose to use it for other things such as launching the camera, as you can on HTC phones with Edge Sense. You can launch the camera by double-tapping the power key, but that’s more awkward.
Something we’re still trying out over a longer period is the Digital Wellbeing feature hidden in the settings. This which shows you how much screen time
you’re giving to different apps and does various thing to help you disconnect with your phone, including setting app timers and a wind down mode combines the Night Light, Grayscale and Do Not Disturb to help you with your bedtime routine.
Verdict
Google once again sets the standard for Android phones with the Pixel 3. It’s an unassuming device, partly due to its similarity with the Pixel 2 and the overwhelming amount of leaks.
It gets the basics right, rather than trying to add a load of new features people don’t actually need. The Pixel 3 offers excellent and compact design with solid core specs and smooth performance.
While you can buy cheaper Android rivals that have features such as a headphone jack and microSD card slot, the Pixel 3 is likely to win you over with it’s amazing cameras and the handy features within Pie.
If you’re looking for a no-nonsense Android phone that you can rely on, then the Pixel 3 is a top choice. It’s worth bearing in mind the XL model offers a very similar experience, but with a larger screen (including a notch) and bigger battery. Chris Martin
Specifications
• 5.5in (2,880x1,440; 443ppi) P-OLED capacitive touchscreen
• Android 9.0 Pie
• Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10nm) processor
• Octa-core (4x 2.5GHz Kryo 385 Gold, 4x 1.6GHz
Kryo 385 Silver) CPU
• Adreno 630 GPU
• 4GB RAM
• 64/128GB storage
• 12.2Mp rear-facing camera: f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.55in, 1.4μm, OIS, dual pixel PDAF
• Dual front-facing cameras: 8Mp, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), PDAF; 8Mp, f/2.2, 19mm (ultra wide), no AF
• 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0
• A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
• NFC
• Fingerprint sensor (rear mounted)
• USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector
• Non-removable 2,915mAh lithium-ion battery
• 145.6x68.2x7.9mm
• 148g
5. Samsung Galaxy S10+ Price: £1,099 inc VAT from fave.co/2TNnA7O
It’s something of a perfect coincidence that Samsung’s Galaxy S10+ went on sale the same day Captain Marvel landed in cinemas. Both were once the most powerful members of their respective universes. Both are struggling with an identity crisis spurred by a larger-than-life existential threat. And both have a gorgeous shimmer when the light hits them just right.
And in many ways, they’re both the last of a dying breed. The Galaxy S10+ may represent the culmination of 10 years of Samsung’s Android engineering, but it’s also the phone that doesn’t fold. Much like 2017’s iPhone 8 Plus, which existed in the shadow of the button-less and OLED iPhone X, the Galaxy S10+ no longer represents the pinnacle of Samsung innovation. That honour now falls to the Galaxy Fold, arriving soon.
But even with the forces of change closing in on all sides, the Galaxy S10+ more than holds its own. It might have a sky-high price tag at £1,099, but the S10+ is also a massive improvement over its predecessor, pushing the limits of conventional smartphone design just about as far as they can go. And just like Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), it’s not about to fade into irrelevance without a fight.
Design
Even without straying too far from the Infinity Display formula that began with the S8, the Galaxy S10+ is a completely new device. Most notably, Samsung has trimmed its empty spaces even further, leaving slivers of black above and below the screen. That brings the size of the S10+ down to 157.6x74.1x7.8mm, a touch smaller than the Note 9 despite sporting the same 6.4in display dimension.
There’s not much to quibble with when it comes to the design. The return to chrome along the sides reflects a sophistication over the colourized aluminium of the S9, right down to the classic five-holed speaker grille along the bottom edge. The same chrome
accent also lines the triple-camera array, which has been rotated to give your chosen colour even more room to breathe. With so much glass, the S10+ tends to be a little slippery, but because Samsung’s new ‘prism’ palette of iridescent hues is so gorgeous, you won’t want to cover it up. I suspect clear cases will be extra popular this time around.
The receiver has been pushed as high as it can go, so it abuts the top edge rather than floating in the bezel, and as a result, it’s barely visible now. My only complaint is the power button, which is both shorter and higher than it is on the S9, making it that much more difficult to reach. The Bixby button is now in a much better spot, and it’ll get a lot more use this time, as Samsung is finally letting us remap it to
launch an app or perform an action. And once again, the S10+ has a headphone jack, making it truly among the last of a dying breed.
Display
To achieve a near 90 percent screen-to-body ratio, Samsung had to push the front camera down into the display in the form of a hole in the right corner of the screen. Just like the controversial notches in its competitors’ screens, the hole in the Infinity O display wreaks havoc on the status bar, upsets full-screen images, and draws your eye in the worst way. Despite Samsung’s bold claim of “no notches, no distractions”, the hole is even more apparent on the S10+ because Samsung needed room for two front cameras.
This is why all of the stock wallpapers Samsung created for the S10+ have a clever bit of black in the corner to cover up the hole. It’s the same trickery Apple uses to cover up the notch on the iPhone XS, and it speaks to the inherent compromises of so-called all-screen phones.
I prefer a notch to the uncentred hole because I dislike the indented status bar, but neither of the solutions are very elegant. (Although some of the wallpapers available are pretty darn creative.) Maybe the future is in slide-out cameras or the complete elimination of the selfie cam like Chinese companies Xiaomi and Vivo are proposing. But for now, holes and notches are just a fact of life. And the S10+ will remind you of that every time you pick it up.
Hole complaints aside, the display on the Galaxy S10+ is stunning. Samsung has always excelled at displays, but out of the box the colours have always been a bit too oversaturated for my taste. Well, that’s not the case with the Dynamic AMOLED here. Samsung’s colour gamut is clear, crisp, and remarkably bright without requiring any adjustments, and colours are realistic without looking too dull or muted.
The display also hides one of the S10+’s tricks: an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, which uses sound waves rather than light to read the whirls and loops on your skin. Samsung’s fingerprint sensor has been a bone of contention ever since it moved to the rear of the phone precariously close to the cameras, and it’s no less of an issue here. In the age of Face ID and time-of-flight cameras, fingerprint scanning tech feels antiquated, and the hit-or-miss nature of the
S10+’s sensor doesn’t help it feel any more modern, despite its under-the-glass hiding spot.
A mid-review biometric update improved the accuracy tenfold, but it’s still not an ideal solution for security or privacy in 2019. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a step backward from the S9’s physical scanner (which had its own placement issues), but it’s not much an improvement either (though I do like the ripple animation even if it is a millisecond slower).
What is a downgrade is the loss of the iris scanner, leaving the fingerprint sensor as the only secure biometric option on the S10. That needs to change with the S11, and I hope the S10 5G’s time-of-flight sensor is a sign that 3D facial unlock is on the way.
Battery life
With the Snapdragon 855 processor and 8GB of RAM, the S10+ is every bit the beast it should be. Every benchmark I ran represented a significant jump over any 845 phone, and daily performance
was stutter-, lag-, and slowdown-free. Here’s how it compared to the Note 9:
Geekbench 4 (Single-core/multi-core)
Galaxy Note 9: 2,294/7,714 Galaxy S10+: 3,448/10,803
PCMark Work 2.0
Galaxy Note 9: 8,227 Galaxy S10+: 9,549
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme
Galaxy Note 9: 4,659 Galaxy S10+: 5,456
Of course, off-the-charts performance is basically table stakes for a £1,099 phone. Battery life is far more important. The S10+ packs a 4,100mAh battery, bigger than the ones in both the S9+ and the Note 9. The larger capacity makes a big difference. In benchmarks, I was able to top 11 hours of runtime, about 10 percent longer than with other 4,000mAh phones I’ve tested.
In the real world, the S10+ is even better than the benchmarks indicate. Samsung’s new phones have Android 9’s Adaptive power saving mode, which uses machine learning to intelligently shut off unnecessary apps and processes to conserve battery life. Switching it on makes the S10+ seem like it has a larger battery than it does. I easily powered through a day of heavy use without needing to turn on the battery saver. A few percentage points might not seem like much, but over the course of a day it adds up.
And that extra battery life comes in handy when you want to use the Galaxy S10+’s coolest party trick: reverse wireless charging. It’s not the first phone to include the feature, but it’s the most mainstream one. Using it is simple – just tap the Wireless PowerShare button in the quick settings, flip over your phone, and viola, it’s a charger – but it’s probably not something you’ll use much after you try it out or show it off to your iPhone-using friends. But it’s definitely the kind of thing that’ll be great to have on the rare occasion that you need it.
Software
New Galaxy S phones traditionally usher in the latest version of the Samsung Experience, but the phone maker actually first pushed its massive One UI overhaul to the older S9 this year. I’ve previously about what One UI means to Samsung’s family of devices,
and on the S10 it truly feels like the software and hardware are finally in unison.
The most obvious change is the switch from tap to gesture navigation, but Samsung isn’t quite ready to embrace it wholeheartedly. I was surprised to find that full-screen gestures were switched off by default when I powered on the S10, and without a prompt during setup, I wonder how many people are going to find its hiding spot inside the nav bar settings.
That’s a shame, because gesture navigation is nearly perfect on the S10+. With ultra-slim bezels, the swipes for back, home, and recent are natural and easy to reach. The extra few millimetres of space afforded by the elimination of the navigation bar
gives the phone a real full-screen feel. I’d like to see Samsung experiment with more advanced gestures as One UI evolves, but the simple approach works. My only question is: why’d we have to wait so long?
Night mode is a standout feature. Like a light switch for the S10+, Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED display generates deep blacks that accentuate text and buttons even more than on the S9. The curved corners of boxes and windows reflect the refined design, and the barely-there bezels make phone and the UI blend like never before. Even Bixby Home is better, with smarter card selections and engaging animations.
Speaking of Samsung’s digital assistant, Bixby has learned some new tricks on the S10 in the form of if
this-then-that-style commands. A powerful and useful system of shortcuts, Bixby Routines isn’t so much about voice commands as it is about intelligence. For example, you can set your S10 to conserve battery by turning off the always-on display if you forget to put it on the charger at night. Or you can limit autorotate to certain apps, such as YouTube and Netflix. Samsung provides a few routines to get started, but the combinations are basically endless, especially when compared to the relatively limited options with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
Cameras
Samsung has returned the S10 and S10+ to photo parity after making the dual lens an S9+ exclusive. Both gain the new triple-camera array that finally lets you capture ultra-wide images. Here are the specs:
Camera 1: 12Mp telephoto Camera, f/2.4, OIS Camera 2: 12Mp wide-angle, dual f/1.5-f/2.4, OIS Camera 3: 16Mp ultra wide, f/2.2
The result is a camera that can take different photos than the S9 does, though not necessarily better ones. That’s not so much a criticism as it is a recognition that the Galaxy S9+ already offers one of the best smartphone cameras you can buy, and Samsung is basically in refinement mode at this point.
The biggest upgrade is in field of view. When switching to the ultra-wide camera (accessible via a button above the shutter), the viewing area increases, from 45- to 77- to 123 degrees. That means you’ll
capture more of the scene without having to back up as much, as you can see in the comparison photos below, all taken from the same spot.
The S10+ also performs great when capturing a range of colours, particularly when ample light is available. Images were consistently sharper, brighter, and more detailed when compared to the S9, and the S10+ even held its own against Google’s incredible processing engine on the Pixel 3. In the image of the candy below, the S10+’s auto white balance results in clearer definition and less saturated images, with less muddiness at the low end. When dealing with different shades of white, the S10+ wasn’t fooled into unnatural adjustments.
Night-time and low light are a different story. While I was extremely impressed with the S10+’s
ability to focus quickly in extremely low light, the pictures I snapped had far less detail than the ones I took with the Pixel 3. In some instances, it looked as though Samsung’s post-processing engine applied a smoothing filter rather than even trying to suss out finer details that were clearly visible with the Pixel 3. I’d love to see a Pixel-style Night Mode for Samsung phones at some point, maybe even later this year as part of the Note 9’s feature set.
Around the front, Samsung has augmented the standard 10Mp f/1.9 lens with a second 8Mp RGB depth camera with a wider 90 FOV. If you take a lot of selfies you’ll appreciate the edge detailing and depthof-field adjustments, but there’s nothing here that isn’t also available on the S10’s single front camera.
I didn’t have a standard S10 to compare it to, but the S10+ definitely outperformed the S9’s front camera in basically every facet, as you can see opposite. However, as it stands, the second front camera seems like a missed opportunity. I would have rather seen an ultra-wide second camera like on the Pixel 3 or a 3D camera for facial recognition.
Verdict
There’s no denying that the Galaxy S10+ is the absolute cream of the premium Android phone crop right now. It has the fastest processor, the most RAM, the most storage, and the best display money can buy. And it’s all wrapped in a beautiful package that’s hard to find much fault with.
But there are definitely places where it falls short. The fingerprint sensor remains a point of contention,
and it’s the phone’s only biometric security mechanism. The hole in the display for the front camera is inelegant. The cameras are less impressive than in Samsung’s past efforts – a point underscored by Google’s processing abilities in the Pixel 3.
Then there’s the elephant in the room, the Galaxy Fold. The S phone has enjoyed flagship status for the better part of a decade, but suddenly it needs to figure out where it fits in Samsung’s smartphone hierarchy, at least in terms of wow factor.
Still, even without the newest specs and features, the S10+ could very well still end up being Samsung’s mightiest hero. It might not deliver the sci-fi sizzle of the Galaxy Fold. But like Captain Marvel, sometimes
old school is all you need to properly defend the Galaxy. Michael Simon
Specifications
• 6.4in (3,040x1,440; 526ppi) Dynamic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• Android 9.0 (Pie), One UI
• Exynos 9820 Octa (8nm) processor
• Octa-core (2x 2.7GHz Mongoose M4, 2x 2.3GHz
Cortex-A75, 4x 1.9GHz Cortex-A55) CPU
• Mali-G76 MP12 GPU
• 8GB, 12GB RAM
• 128GB, 512GB, 1TB storage
• Three rear-facing cameras: 12Mp, f/1.5-2.4, 26mm (wide), 1/2.55in, 1.4μm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; 12Mp, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.6in, 1μm, AF, OIS, 2x optical zoom; 16Mp, f/2.2, 12mm (ultrawide)
• Dual front-facing cameras: 10Mp, f/1.9, 26mm (wide), Dual Pixel PDAF; 8Mp, f/2.2, 22mm (wide), depth sensor
• Dual-band 802.11ac/ax Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0
• NFC
• Fingerprint scanner (under display)
• USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0
• Non-removable 4,100mAh lithium-ion battery
• 157.6x74.1x7.8mm
• 175g, 198g (ceramic)