The year 2016 saw some revolutionary changes in smartphone trends. Mid-range smartphones have adopted the metal unibody design, large battery, the fingerprint sensor is now common, the dual camera has been adopted, the bezel-less display has already been into testing by few companies and modular phones. There are been many great phones this year. Galaxy Note7 was one of those great phones but it also created history by becoming most dangerous phone for consumers. If I talk about few best phones of the year, we have a long list. Most of the smartphone companies tried to bring something innovative for consumers. Few failed while few tasted the success.
W considered various factors and based on those factors, here is the list of best smartphones of 2016 chosen by our team Techlomedia. You may have a different list of best smartphones of the year and we will love to see that. So, don’t forget to leave the comment below.
5 Best Smartphones of 2016
1. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
With Samsung Galaxy S7 / Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has improved the smartphone experience a lot. You can go with Galaxy S7 if you are not interested in the curved-edge display, but beauty is with Galaxy S7 Edge. This phone is awesome in most of the things including display, performance, camera, software experience and battery life.
This phone shows how a good software experience can make your phone great. While we saw the minor lag in TouchWiz, this phone still have the best experience due to various interesting software features.
This phone has brilliant Super AMOLED display and nice camera experience in all conditions. We have many smartphones with great camera experience, Galaxy S7 Edge offers best low-light camera experience.
The phone is water and dust resistance to make you comfortable with the phone around swimming pool and rain.
2. Google Pixel / Pixel XL
This year, Google killed Nexus series and came with Pixel series. With Pixel, Google is finally into the smartphone business with its own name. The Pixel and Pixel XL are the “phones by Google” and impress us all.
These phones offer amazing camera performance in most of the conditions. Though it lacks OIS, it uses the combination of the gyroscope and software to steady your videos. Low-light photos were not as sharp but the camera does a good job
It comes with Google Assistant built-in that allows you to get answers, find files and photos faster, manage your daily tasks and more. Pixel users also get unlimited storage for photos and videos.
The only drawbacks are the lack of OIS in camera and lack of water resistance capabilities. In our opinion, Google has finally managed to give the world an alternative to iPhone and Apple should worry.
3. OnePlus 3T
OnePlus 3T is at the third-place for so many reasons. OnePlus 3 is the upgraded variant of OnePlus 3 with improvements in performance, battery, and camera. OnePlus is known for its flagship killer smartphones.
This phone comes with powerful specifications. With Snapdragon 821 and 6GB RAM, it gives the awesome performance and nice gaming experience. With 16 megapixels cameras both on the front and back, you get good camera experience. It has 3400 mAh battery that is awesome with Dash charging tech.
It comes with low-price tag but offers specifications and performance similar to other flagship devices that are almost double price of its price.
This smartphone is a true flagship killer and deserves the place in the top 5 smartphones of the year.
4. iPhone 7 Plus
The iPhone fans will surely think of killing me for putting the iPhone 7 Plus below OnePlus 3T. This year, Apple did lots of changes in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus but I am just talking about the iPhone 7 Plus. The dual camera is the primary reason for that. Apple’s’ iPhone always come with powerful performance and good software optimization but it always lacks many software features that are already in Android phones.
This year, Apple made iPhone water resistant and improved the music with loud dual speakers. Apple has also improved the home button and changed it from a clickable entity to something that responds to pressure. While the design remains the same, Apple added two more interesting colors.
The battery life has been improved and on Plus model, it is better. Still, it is not as good as in other phones.
Lack of headphone jack disappointed many and iPhone users are still waiting for wireless charging. The iPhone 7 Plus is good and it is worth to be in the list of the top 5 smartphones.
5. LG V20
This could be the surprise for many people, but this phone is worth to talk about. I also think that LG V20 is one of the most underrated phones of the year.
It has the nice display and the secondary display is actually useful. The phone offers Snapdragon 820 for faster performance and even managed to beat Galaxy S7 Edge and Pixel XL in few Benchmark score.
The camera is the good and notable thing is its wide-angle selfie that lets you capture up to 135 degrees. The auto-HDR mode in camera is amazing and impresses even in low-light.
This is the only phone with the removable battery in this price segment and also offers nice battery life.
It got great audio experience. It has three high AOP microphones that capture lossless, hi-res 24-bit clips. This quality makes this unique in the list. This phone also has four digital-to-analog converters (DACs) inside. Plugging the headphones enable the Hi-Fi Quad DAC setting to give you amazing music experience.
This phone got great design and is durable with military-standard drop resistance. We also did drop tests and it survived in all drop tests with no visible damage . The only drawback in the design is that the phone is not waterproof.
Final Words
There were many other smartphones including HTC 10, Huawei P9, Moto Z, Mi 5, Le Max 2, ZTE Axon 7 and more. We took various factors before deciding this list. If you have the different opinions, we will love to see your list. Don’t forget to leave the comment below.
