Most Anticipated Smartphones 2017!

Smartphones these days are everywhere. People use them more and more everyday to a lot more things. A few years ago, it was easy to spot a really bad smartphone. Through the years, smartphone manufacturers copied and stealed ideas from one another. Now, it’s really hard to find a bad smartphone. Unlike before, there are a lot of good choices and they are harder to replace than before.

Despite that, smartphone vendors are always looking for ways to make you buy a new smartphone every year or 2 years. There are still places like India where most people are still getting their first smartphone. You may be looking for your first smartphone. Are you waiting for this year’s newest phones? Have a friend who’s looking to get one? Then check out my list of Most Anticipated Smartphones 2017! This is in no particular order.

LG G6

LG has been on a dud lately. The LG G5 didn’t sell well because people didn’t buy the “modular phone” concept. It became the reason to ditch the concept entirely and go for a more traditional smartphone.

According to The Verge, the G6 will have a large 5.7″ screen with a weird 2:1 aspect ratio. It will focus on having a bezel-less screen, a trend started by Xiaomi with the Mi Mix. Rumors say that it will be the first non-Google phone to have Google Assistant. It is also rumored to ditch the removable battery for water resistance and will support Amazon’s Alexa as well. The G6 will use the Snapdragon 821 processor instead of the newer Snapdragon 835. This is simply because one manufacturer scooped up most of the 835 chips. And that manufacturer is Samsung.

Good thing we won’t have to wait longer as LG will announce the G6 during the Mobile World Congress on February 26th.

Samsung Galaxy S8

Speaking of Samsung, they had a bad 2016. Despite putting out the best-in-class Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, they had a big Galaxy Note 7 battery debacle to deal with. Good thing they said sorry and laid out their plans to avoid this from happening again. One of the things they also mentioned was that their latest flagship wouldn’t show up at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

The Galaxy S8 is rumored to come in two sizes: a 5.8″-screen Galaxy S8 and a 6.2″-screen Galaxy S8 Plus. Like the G6, the Galaxy S8 is also going for the bezel-less screen. It will be the first smartphone to have the Snapdragon 835 chip from Qualcomm. Thanks to Samsung, NO OTHER smartphone before the S8 can get the chip.

Other features include a rear fingerprint sensor, better battery life, and a new voice assistant “Bixby” from the original creators of Siri.

It is rumored to be announced on March 29th and released in major markets on April 21st.

Huawei P10

The Huawei P9 is one of the best smartphones to come out last year! Jewel of Jewel Clicks and Pam of Hey, Miss Adventures! are just two bloggers that I know who own the P9. With Huawei and Leica continuing their partnership, there’s a lot riding on the P9’s successor. Enter the Huawei P10.

To be honest, I’m starting to like the phone’s look thanks to the leaked photo above. (Black phones always look good.) Besides the dual-camera, the phone is said to have two models: one with a curved display, the other flat. Like its recent phones, Huawei will be using their HiSilicon Kirin chipset to power this bad boy.

According to an article in GadgetMatch, there might be new colors this time around. Huawei may be the next phone maker to set a trendy new color. The P10 might come in green and purple, along with the usual black, gold, and gray. There may be a P10 model with 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage! I just hope it wouldn’t be too expensive.

Like the G6, we may see this popping up at the Mobile World Congress later this month.

ASUS’ Next ZenFone

The ZenFone 2 was a smash hit for ASUS when it was released. It’s a smartphone that has high-end specs but was affordable when it came out. A year later, the ZenFone 3 came out. It was still popular, but Chinese manufacturers like Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo overshadowed what ASUS had to offer.

Now, ASUS is poised to put out another hit with the ZenFone 4 (or whatever they’re gonna call it). Rumors say that the next ZenFone will come out at Mobile World Congress this year. The phone might have a 5.7″ QHD (2560×1440) display and 6GB of RAM. Although we don’t know what processor it would be using, the ZenFone 3 and its variants used Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm. We’ll see when ASUS makes an annoucement about this.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

 

Since all eyes will be on Samsung’s next Galaxy S model, there isn’t much to go on with the Note 8. After Samsung went through the Galaxy Note 7 battery fiasco, I thought they would ditch this brand for good.

Unlike most companies, Samsung said that they are sticking with this brand. Not much has been rumored for the Note 8 right now though. Don’t be surprised if a lot of reporters get word on what the Note 8 will have.

Google Pixel 2

The Google Pixel is a pleasant surprise. After a slew of good Nexus devices, you would think that they’ll keep doing it.  As it turns out, Google decided to double down on hardware and made the Pixel. Despite this being an admission to how Apple’s strategy is right, they managed to go toe-to-toe with the iPhone’s camera. This is exactly what someone from The Verge said, and Google took it to heart. Now they’re about to do it again with the next Pixel phone.

Google’s next Pixel may have a better camera and CPU, but the price may also go up. This is why Google may also put out a budget Pixel phone, codenamed “Pixel 2B”, to ease the pain of people who dearly missed the Nexus phones.

One wish from me about this? BRING THE PIXEL PHONE TO THE PHILIPPINES! You have a BIG market here! The Philippines is the FASTEST growing smartphone market in the ASEAN region. Just think about that. There are telecom carriers you can partner with to make it happen. You just need to make sure you can make enough Pixel phones though.

iPhone 8

A “Most Anticipated Smartphones 2017” list is not complete without an iPhone. Despite the iPhone 7 selling well the past quarter, some people I know are holding off from upgrading. Apple’s latest flagship still carries the same design since 2014 with the iPhone 6. With the iPhone 8, that’s about to change.

These iPhone 8 rumors started going out as soon as the iPhone 7’s launch! What’s weird with these rumors is that there would be at least three new models. Two of them would carry the name “iPhone 7s” (if you haven’t known by now are obviously incremental updates) and the other one would be an iPhone 8. The iPhone 8 could have a 5.8″ OLED edge-to-edge display and require a new 3D Touch pressure-sensitive sensor to work with the display.

It is also rumored to have better waterproofing (IP68), new ways to secure the phone, and wireless charging (even on the iPhone 7s!). Most of the rumors that come out at this stage are still probable at best. We’ll see which ones will persist come WWDC time.

Honorable Mentions

These phones are also worth waiting for. There’s just not enough buzz for these as the ones before this list. These are my honorable mentions:

• The next HTC flagship (NO, not the HTC U Ultra.)
• The successor to the Moto Z
• The next Xiaomi flagship phone
• The OPPO F1s successor (since we like them selfie phones)
• The Vivo V5 successor (even though the V5 Plus just came out last month)

---

And that was my list of most anticipated smartphones for 2017! Did I miss anything on this list? Do you disagree with some of the phones on the list? Do you still hate the iPhone after all this time? Leave a comment down below! Thanks for reading!