The premium flagship smartphone category saw some interesting trends this year, with a focus on performance combined with immersive entertainment experiences.
The year 2018 has marked an interesting shift in the flagship smartphone arena. While Android flagships saw a stabilization in their prices, the iPhone set a new benchmark for what is considered the “Apple Premium.” Thankfully, Zero1 awards is all about pure, raw performance, price no bar. This year’s flagship segment saw the solidification of new features and set the bar much higher when it comes to performance. Let’s meet this year’s nominees for the best flagship smartphone of 2018.
Apple iPhone XS Max
Apple made some huge claims when it comes to their new A12 Bionic chip manufactured on the 7nm process. iPhones were always known to squeeze out performance that’s borderline unreal even with lesser RAM and given this year’s new processor and the speed-focused optimisations of iOS12, the Apple iPhone XS Max (Review) is looking like a really strong candidate for evaluation in the Zero1 Awards. Click here to buy.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9
Samsung’s flagship device for 2018 isn’t one, but three smartphones and we’ve picked the one with the most to offer, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (Review). Running Samsung’s own Exynos 9810mated with 6GB of RAM, or 8GB if you are considering forking out the premium for the 512GB storage variant. The Note 9 embodies the best of what Samsung had to offer this year, making it an ideal candidate for consideration in our Zero1 awards.Click here to buy.
Google Pixel 3 XL
Nothing gets the most out of a smartphone processor like stock Android and thus, the Google Pixel 3 XL (Review) finds itself in our list. Google’s operating system has a reputation for not just delivering blazing performance speeds, but also the incredible longevity of the device. Not to mention, the Pixel 3 XL manages to do with one camera what most smartphones can’t do with two. There’s definitely a lot that the Pixel 3 XL aces in terms of performance, making it an ideal candidate for the Zero1 Awards. Click here to buy.
LG G7+ ThinQ
The LG G7+ ThinQ (Review) is somewhat of a surprising entrant in the Zero1 Award’s best smartphone category, but the fact of the matter is, it rocks every premium flagship feature you could ask for. Additionally, it has high enough performance numbers to make it qualify for consideration in the Zero1 Awards. In case you’re wondering, there’s the Snapdragon 845, 6GB RAM, a 2K HDR display, Quad-DAC and a whole lot more here worth looking at. Click here to buy.
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Finally, to the last smartphone in our list, which makes its debut in India at the very end of the year. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro (First Impressions) isn’t just about the Leica branded triple camera setup, but also about the 7nm Kirin 980 chipset which pushes the Mate 20 Pro into the same league as every other Snapdragon 845 powered smartphone. This is a smartphone that offers a boat-load of features, but can they all come together to make the Mate 20 Pro the best smartphone of 2018?
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Swapnil Mathur
Swapnil was Digit's resident camera nerd, (un)official product photographer and the Reviews Editor. Swapnil has moved-on to newer challenges. For any communication related to his stories, please mail us using the email id given here. View Full Profile
