LAHORE — With each passing day tech giants are coming up with inventions to have an edge over their rivals. In this way, leading smartphone companies introduced several innovative models and trends in the year 2018.
Those innovations included bezel-less screens, smaller notches, in-display fingerprint scanner, fast charging, triple/quad camera setup, fast computing processors and much more.
The last year was mostly dominated by Chinese manufacturers OPPO and Huawei rather than Korean and American – Samsung and Apple Inc. – because of their unique and mind-blowing features.
Here we have a list of the most amazing smartphones and technologies of 2018.
OPPO Find X
Key Features: Bezel-less true all-display, VOOC Flash Charge and motorized camera module
Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO in July 2018 launched its all-display smartphone, Find X.
The smartphone features a 6.4-inch OLED panel in 19.5:9 format and a resolution of 1080×2340 pixels, which results in 401 PPI. The display occupies an impressive 93.8% of the front panel.
The best feature of the Find X is its stealth camera, the smartphone had dual 16 MP, f/2.0, 1/2.6″, 1.22µm, PDAF, OIS + 20 MP, f/2.0, 1/2.8″, 1.0µm back and 25 MP, f/2.0 front camera, that pop out with a motorized sliding module.
For security, the company equipped a 3d sensors right next to the front camera.
The company ships the Find X Lamborghini edition with a 50W SuperVOOC charging that juice up the battery in just 30 minutes.
Other specifications include a Snapdragon 845 processor; 8GB RAM and 256GB Internal Storage.
Huawei P20 Pro
Key Features: Triple Camera Setup, AI computing, Multi-tone Twilight Colour
Huawei in April 2018 launched the world’s first smartphone P20 Pro that features a triple camera setup on the back and includes unprecedented AI advances, combining technology and art to bring to life a groundbreaking smartphone experience.
Huawei P20 Pro features a 6.1-inch AMOLED display with the notch on top, 1080 x 2240 pixels resolutions and 18:9 aspect ratio (408 PPI).
The smartphone is powered by octa-core Hisilicon Kirin 970 processor, Mali G72, 6GB RAM, 128GB of Internal Storage.
The triple camera setup consists of 40MP (f/1.8) + 20MP (B/W, f/1.6) + 8MP (f/2.4) on back and 24MP (f/2.0) front facing camera which declares best camera technologies in any smartphone so far by DxO, a French company that reviews camera technologies.
To Power the SoC there is a 4,000 mAh battery with fast charging support.
OPPO F9
Key Features: Water-drop notch, VOOC Flash Charge, AI Camera, Unique colour design
Oppo in August launched its best mid-range smartphone F9 that change the idea of conventional display notch. The smartphone was the industry’s first to house a water-drop notch (tiny notch).
The smartphone features a 6.3-inch and features an IPS LCD panel with Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) resolution.
It has a fingerprint sensor on the back, with dual cameras in a horizontal orientation.
The smartphone is powered by MediaTek MT6771 Helio P60 Octa-core Processor and Mali-G72 GPU, along with 4GB RAM or 6GB and 64GB of internal storage.
F9 features dual cameras on the back with a 16 MP f/1.3 + 2 MP f/2.4 depth sensor, phase detection autofocus, LED flash. On the front, it has a single 25 MP AI-powered camera.
For the battery, OPPO added a 3500 mAh unit for the F9 which is equipped with VOOC flash charging that boost your smartphone in less than 1.5 hours.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Key Features: world’s first 7nm processor, 40W SuperCharge, triple camera setup, in-display fingerprint sensor
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei in October 2018 launched its flagship smartphone Mate 20 Pro that houses industries first 7nm chipset — Kirin 980.
The Kirin 980 is the world’s first 7nm process Cortex-A76 architecture chipset (integrates 6.9 billion transistors in an area of less than 1 square centimetre) coupled with dual NPU (Neutral-Network Processor Unit).
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro features a 3D 6.39-inch AMOLED display, which gives 1440×3120 pixels resolution, 19.5:9 ratio with curved edges and notch on top.
The SoC is coupled with 6GB RAM and 128GB Internal storage expandable up to 256GB (uses SIM 2) with Huawei’s Nano-Memory Card.
For camera, there is a LEICA triple setup on back 40 MP, f/1.8, 27mm (wide), 1/1.7″, PDAF/Laser AF + 20 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.7″, PDAF/Laser AF + 8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm (telephoto), 1/4″, 5x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF/Laser AF and 24MP, f/2.0 lens, 26mm (wide) front facing camera.
The smartphone comes with 40W Huawei SuperCharge power brick that juices up the battery of 4,200mAh to 70% in just time span of 30 minutes.
Royole FlexPai Foldable Smartphone
Key Features: 7.8-inch OLED foldable display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
A relatively unknown tech company Royole Corporation in November last year launched its world’s first foldable smartphone FlexPai.
FlexPai features a 7.8-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1920×1440 but when folded up, it presents three separate smaller screens with a ratio of 16:9, 4:3 and 18:9 – on the front, rear and spine of the device.
The Royole FlexPai is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, the very latest version of the 800 series.
That chipset is paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of internal storage. The smartphone is also upgradable to support 5G when the next generation network becomes available this year.
The Royole FlexPai has a dual-camera setup, with a 16MP wide-angle camera alongside a 20MP telephoto snapper housed in the chunky bezel to the left of the screen.
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
Key Features: Quad camera
South Korean tech giant Samsung has unveiled its world’s first quad-camera setup smartphone Galaxy A9 (2018) in October.
The smartphone features a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED with the resolution of 1080 x 2220 pixels and aspect ratio of 18.5:9.
The SoC on the Galaxy A9 is octa-core processor (4x 2.2GHz + 4x 1.8GHz) Qualcomm SDM660 Snapdragon 660 coupled with Adreno 512 GPU, 6GB or 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
For camera department, there’s a main camera of 24MP with a bright f/1.7 lens, suitable for daylight and nighttime shots and 10 MP tele camera that offers 2x optical zoom.
The 120° ultra-wide angle camera sports an 8MP sensor. The Intelligent Scene Optimizer is an AI that automatically adjusts the camera settings based on the scene. Finally, there’s a 5MP depth sensor for shots with artificial bokeh.
There’s a 24MP selfie camera (f/2.0) above that screen.
The smartphone runs on Android 8.0 Oreo and to power SoC, there’s a 3,800 mAh battery.
