Awesome Smartphones

The mid-range BlackBerry Key2 LE has the key features of the $649 Key2, including the same improved physical keyboard (although you can’t use it as a trackpad), and the security features. Its 3,000mAh battery lasts up to 22h per charge. It will be available for $399.

Samsung’s latest phablet has a much needed 4,000mAh battery, either 128GB or a crazy 512GB capacity, microSD slot and USB-C port. Like the S9 and S9+, it’s water- and dust-resistant and has a variable aperture camera. Its stylus can also be used as a remote control.

The first phone to offer an upgrade path to 5G, which promises speeds up to 10x faster than LTE. In addition to its upcoming 5G Moto Mod, it packs all-day battery life, dual 12mp depth-sensing cameras, fast charging, and a bright 6″ AMOLED display. Drops 8/16/18 at Verizon.

LG’s much-hyped flagship the G7 may have a high resolution display, but it’s LCD. If you want more vibrant colors and deeper blacks, check out the new V35. It has a 6″ 1440×2880 OLED display, the same two 16MP cameras as the G7 and has water and dust resistance.

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo is breaking into Europe and North America with a one-of-a-kind Android flagship. The front of the Oppo Find X is taken up almost entirely by its 6.4″ OLED screen, thanks to a pop-up module that houses both the rear and front cameras.

The BlackBerry Key2 has a significantly wider and flatter keyboard compared to the one on its predecessor, making for a better typing experience. It also has a new shortcut key so you can swap between apps much faster, and a battery that lasts up to 2 days per charge.

The ASUS ROG Phone has a 6″ AMOLED 1080 x 2160 screen with HDR, a 90Hz refresh rate, and 1ms response time. It comes with a cooling fan attachment, but you can also get other modules such as a second screen/battery, a gamepad and a desktop dock.

The HTC U12+ carries over the squeeze gestures from the U11 and adds a convenient double tap gesture that can also be remapped. The phone also has a 6″ 1440×2880 screen, IP68 water- and dust-resistance and a 12MP and a 16MP camera at the back.

In a world where high-end smartphones cost almost $1,000, OnePlus sticks to its guns with a flagship that costs less than $600. It has a 6.28″ 1080p nearly bezel-less screen, water resistance, a Snapdragon 845 CPU, 6GB or 8GB of RAM and more.

The LG G7 ThinQ has a 6.1″ 3120 x 1440 IPS display that takes up nearly all of the phone’s front face. It also has two 16MP rear cameras, one with a standard angle and one with a super wide angle. The G7 also has a headphone jack, a microSD slot and a Hi-Fi quad DAC.

The new red and black colorway of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are part of Apple’s partnership with (RED), an organization that gathers funds for HIV and AIDS programs in Africa. Part of the proceeds from these smartphones are donated to (RED).

Co-developed with Leica, the P20 Pro boasts THREE rear cameras: a 40MP RGB, a 20MP monochrome, and an 8MP RGB sensor with a telephoto lens. It also has a 24MP front-facing camera, a nearly bezel-less 6.1″ AMOLED display, and dust- and water-resistance.

Vivo’s Apex concept smartphone manages to stretch the screen to nearly the entirety of the front with clever workarounds. The phone’s fingerprint sensor and speaker are both beneath the display, while its front facing camera pops up from the top.

Caterpillar’s Cat S61 is an Android phone that has an air quality sensor, a FLIR infrared temperature sensor and a laser rangefinder for calculating distance and area. It’s dust-, water- and shock-resistant. It runs Android Oreo and has a USB-C port.

The S9 and S9+ have a camera that can switch between f/1.5 for low light or f/2.4 for daylight, and can capture 960fps slow-mo video. The S9+ also gets the Note 8’s second wide angle camera. They still have the borderless display, headphone jack and microSD slot.

Razer’s Project Linda is a laptop dock for the Razer Phone. It has a 13.3″ 2560×1440 touchscreen, 200GB of storage, a USB-C port, a USB-A port, and a headphone jack. It charges the phone, while the mobile device can act as a second screen or a touchpad.

The upgraded version of the OnePlus 5 has a larger AMOLED display – 6″ vs. the 5’s 5.5″ – a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, an unnervingly fast facial recognition lock, and a second camera geared for low light photography. Drops 11/21/17.

Razer’s Android smartphone has a 5.7″ 1440×2560 IPS display with a crazy 120Hz maximum refresh rate, 8GB RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD slot, stereo speakers and a 4,000mAh battery. It doesn’t have a headphone jack, but it does come with a USB-C DAC.

The Pixel 2 and 2 XL have a 12MP f/1.8 rear camera with both optical and electronic image stabilization, an OLED screen – 5″ 1080p on the Pixel 2 and 6″ 1440p on the 2 XL – and will be the first Android phones to have Google Lens, an object recognition feature.

Bezel-less phone pioneer Xiaomi stops pushing the boundaries in favor of an actually usable phone. Unlike its gigantic predecessor, the Mi Mix 2 has a more practical 6″ 1080 x 2160 LCD screen, a rounded frame and a good old earpiece. It lost the headphone jack though.

The iPhone “ten” has a nearly bezel-free 5.8″ OLED HDR display, dual 12mp cameras with OIS, Qi wireless charging, Apple’s most powerful mobile CPU, the A11 “Bionic,” and a facial recognition system that replaces TouchID. Pre-order on 10/27/17. Compare models here.

The definitive version of BlackBerry’s 2017 flagship smartphone doesn’t just have an all-black exterior. Its RAM has been upgraded from 3GB in the standard version to 4GB, and its storage from 32GB to 64GB. The upgrade makes for a snappier and more reliable device.

Sony’s Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact phones come with a 3D scanning app, which can capture images of faces, heads, food, or other objects along with a 3D depth map, resulting in impressively detailed 3D models which can be used in other apps, or even output to a 3D print.