2015, in general, has been an amazing year for camera’s in Android phones because it’s the first time in nearly 5 years, where top Android devices have arguably leap frogged iPhone which has always been a benchmark for smartphone cameras, but it’s not all smooth sailing with exception of Samsung who used their own Exynos chipsets while most other flagship ended up with Snapdragon 810 and were mostly, if not all, plagued with overheating issues which have been the main story of 2015 so far, with many companies like LG having to settle for a weaker Snapdragon 808 for their G4 just to avoid the 810 chipset.
LG & Samsung all geared to launch their flagship devices the Galaxy S7 and LG G5 and rest assured other top companies like Sony, HTC, Xiaomi, Motorola etc. won’t be that far behind in their own hero devices, which are definitely already in final stages, if not in mass production stage already.
Just before the frenzied launch time of these devices, year on year we get to see many news, articles, leaks and speculation on what groundbreaking new technology will these new devices bring, but one thing which has always been constant is a great device. But in reality rarely do any manufacturers come up with some ground-breaking new technology or feature. In most cases it turns out just improvements over current generation device or gimmicky features which are forgotten few weeks into launch.
In 2016, the fingerprint scanners should be a standard feature across the board in every flagship along with many companies opting for USB type-C ports. Keeping that in mind let’s take a look at some of the upcoming flagship devices and what we can expect from them.
Samsung Galaxy S7:
One of the most sought after series of devices in Android ecosystem has been the Galaxy and for a good reason. Samsung has consistently put out devices with best in class screens and cameras.
As you can see from the Images below thanks to the leak from VentureBeat’s Evan Blass of Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge it seems Samsung is retaining the Galaxy S6 design language but in a more ergonomic manner with rounded corners and edges.
Processor: Internals of the new Galaxy S7 should be quite straightforward this time with no real surprises.
Powered by either the latest Snapdragon 820 chipset which is a massive improvement over the 810 and with early testing suggesting top notch performance with no heating issues and improved battery consumption.
Memory: The standard 3GB ram or max 4GB and 32GB internal memory as a base model. Samsung took a lot of flak for the omission of SD card from the S6, it’s still to be seen if that might be included again in the S7.
Camera: Choice of the camera seems to be the most talked about topic of the S7 with all rumours and leaks pointing to a new Samsung BRITCELL technology and megapixel has been dropped to 12MP this year and it’s the first time as Samsung has taken a step back in megapixels from the launch of Galaxy series.
This doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Considering how Samsung has always delivered when it comes to cameras, we can expect a great camera this year also and if we have learned anything from iPhones year after year is that megapixels don’t translate to a great smartphone camera.
Battery: All rumours point to a bigger around 3000 mAh battery, which should be a welcome change after all the complaints from the subpar battery life on Galaxy S6.
Bigger battery coupled with newer more efficient processor should result in great battery life.
LG G5:
LG has been on of my personal favourite OEMs right after the launch of LG G2.
They deserve a little more credit for always trying to come up with something new in their flagships. Their bezel is the enemy approach to making phones and the infamous love it or hate it back buttons.
G5 at the moment seems to be a hot topic right now with the rumours of hardware slot and how it might work being the big discussion. LG Mobiles with the LG G4 has proved again that they are still one of the best companies when it comes to making brilliant screens and camera. G4 with its full manual mode and a great camera with f1.8 aperture is one of the best smartphone optics in the market right now.
Also seems like LG might take the V10 route for the G5 this year with a metal body or frame and also make the phone thinner, in the 8mm range.
Processor: There should be no surprises here powered by the latest Snapdragon S820 processor should ensure it will be one of the fastest devices in the market and no compromise this year unlike 2015 where LG had to settle for Snapdragon 808 for the G4 because all of the heating issues on 810.
Memory: Again, the standard affair of 3GB to 4GB Ram with base storage of 32GB and an SD card slot.
Screen: Top notch 5.3 to 5.5 inch Quad HD LCD panel. Rumours still point to 5.3-inch primary display and maybe a 5.2-inch ticket display just like the LG V10 this might be the biggest change to the G series from LG this year along the hardware expansion slot.
Camera: FThe front-facing camera will have 8 MP but the rear camera will have dual lenses and 16MP according to early leaked image and report from Droidlife, as you can see in the leaked prototype image.
Also, the report says “In between the two lenses is a circle with a quartet of elements in a square configuration, according to the briefed individual, who was also shown images of the upcoming flagship. Two of those are LED flash bulbs while another one is a laser for assisting with autofocus, first deployed on 2014’s LG G3. The fourth element is also found on G4: a so-called RGB sensor to further assist with autofocus and other scene-recognition functions.”
Battery: Early leaks point to a 2900 mAh battery which 100 mAh lesser than the LG G4 ideally it should have been at least 3000 but then again with newer and better-optimized screen and processor this shouldn’t really be a big issue especially with Quick Charging.
So it will be quite interesting to see who might win out the camera battle between Galaxy S7 and LG G5 or if it will end up like 2015 where it was too close to call and just ended up being personal preference.
Xiaomi Mi 5:
Xiaomi’s Mi 5 was held back for a whole year, since the launch of Mi 4 in August 2014, there has been no major update to the same from Xiaomi as its flagship device in all its markets. Finally the Mi 5, pegged to be announced in February, would give something to look forward to purely because the hardware to price ratio provided by Xiaomi would be unbeatable at launch.
But as far as the actual device goes there should be little no surprises from the Mi5 and the only thing which remains to be seen and the biggest thing to look forward to is how aggressively it will get priced.
Processor: No surprises here it will be powered by a Snapdragon 820.
Memory: 4GB RAM, 16GB and 64GB storage variants. I really hope Xiaomi bucks its own trend and bumps the base model to 32GB because no companies flagship device in 2016 would come with a base model of 16GB Storage.
Screen: 5.3 inch Quad HD LCD Panel
Camera: 16MP with OIS, will be a great camera for most Mi Devices with semi Manual control also thanks to MIUI 7 camera software should ensure its one of the better ones, if not the best camera at its price point at launch.
Battery: A 3030mAh battery should ensure a days usage even for some of the heavier users, coupled with quick charging. It should be great thanks to new processor and screen even with Quad HD resolution.
Latest image posted by Hugo Barra, Vice President of Xiaomi, also confirms that it would be a dual SIM device.
Other Big OEM’s have just launched their latest devices, like Sony’s Xperia Z5 and Motorola’s Moto X-Force meaning their new flagships would be somewhere in the Mid 2016 around the Mobile World Congress with LG G5, Galaxy S7 and Mi5 getting announced in February and March.
This is a guest post by Naman Sarawagi from findyogi.com.
