These days smartphone market has become a lot like Hollywood. It delivers similar formulaic stuff over and over again. Occasionally though, a few smartphones tend to stand out in the crowd. Last year, it was the Oppo Find X that set itself apart from countless phones with a "notch" design. Another unique device worth a mention is the Huawei P20 Pro with a stunning camera comprising of a three-sensor setup. And let’s not forget Vivo's X21, which introduced the in-screen fingerprint sensor to the smartphone market. This year is no different, and we have seen a fair share of interesting hardware so far. Without further ado, presenting the most unique mobiles from 2018:
Samsung Galaxy A9
Move over P20 Pro, as the Korean giant has unveiled a smartphone with a quad-camera setup. Dubbed the Galaxy A9, this phone's camera arrangement comprises of 24 MP main lens, 5 MP depth sensor, 10 MP telephoto lens, and an 8 MP wide angle sensor. As a result, you can expect superior bokeh effect, wide shots, and 2x lossless optical zoom. We all know that the smartphone cameras can't compete with the standalone ones due to the smaller optics. But that hasn’t stopped the innovators from trying. it is great to see the manufacturers using multiple optics to make up for the size of the optics. Undoubtedly, the Galaxy A9 paves the way for future mobile phones.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
The Mate 20 Pro is the most loaded smartphone in the market. The phone is powered by Huawei's in-house 7 nm chipset Kirin 980. It has Dual NPU (Neural processing Unit) to help developers make most of the on-device AI. You get a 6.4-inch QHD+ OLED panel for perfect blacks and vibrant colours. Huawei has embedded a fingerprint sensor in screen. The company has also got rid of the speaker grilles by placing the speakers behind the USB-C port. The Mate 20 Pro boasts of Leica's triple camera optics. It comprises of a 40 MP main RGB lens, 8 MP telephoto lens, and 20 MP wide angle lens. With software trickery, you can grey out the background in video mode. The phone comes with 40 W charger that can refuel the battery up to 70 percent in half an hour. The most unique feature is the 'Reverse Charge', which lets you power up other smartphones by turning it into a wireless (induction) charging pad.
Mi Mix 3
The Oppo Find X and Vivo's Nex pushed the envelope for full-screen design with a mechanical selfie camera. However, both these designs rely on complex engineering, which shoots up the handset costs. This is where Xiaomi comes in to make a difference. The company known for offering quality stuff on a budget price, has opted for a manual slider mechanism to get rid of the 'notch'. Instead of a motorised system, the Mix 3 slaps the front facing cameras and sensors on a magnetic slide. As a result, the base model of the Mix 3 costs RMB 3,299 (approx. Rs 34,800), which makes it significantly cheaper than the Find X. Moreover, the slider can be assigned for answering calls, starting screen recorder, or even hide notifications.
Black Shark Helo
Black Shark, a start-up backed by Xiaomi has released proper gaming smartphone. Called the Black Shark Helo, this device is absolute monster in terms of power. Not only it packs in Snapdragon 845 chipset, the phone comes with up to 10 GB RAM. To achieve sustained performance the phone uses two liquid cooling pipes to prevent the CPU from overheating. And of course, it has a colourful LED strip and glowing logo on the back. Any gaming gear is incomplete without such LEDs. Ditching the backlight bleeding LCD panels, the Black Shark Helo features a 6-inch FHD+ OLED screen. The top end variant also comes with two gamepad attachments to give you an edge in PUBG.
— by Chandrakant Isi.
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