Upcoming smartphones 2016:
- Samsung Galaxy S7 - February
- Sony Xperia Z6 - February
- LG G5 - March
- HTC One M10 - March
- Huawei P9 – April
- Samsung Galaxy Note 6 – August/September
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge+ – August/September
- Nexus 5 (2016) – October
- Nexus 6 (2016) – October
Samsung Galaxy S7 & Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
It’s rumoured that
the Galaxy S7 will be revealed at a special global event in February 2016, with
it going on sale two to four weeks later. The past two years have seen Samsung
launch its new flagship phones at special events hosted at the Mobile World
Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona. Expect this to continue.
Leaked details are
currently pretty thin on the ground for the S7, but we’ve managed to unearth a
couple. Perhaps the biggest rumour of all is that Samsung is set to copy the
iPhone’s 3D Touch feature and equip the S7 with a pressure-sensitive screen.
More modest advancements are expected to be a new USB Type-C charging/data port
and either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 or an Exynos 8890 processor.
Things aren’t
expected to change much elsewhere. Storage will be available in multiples of
16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 124GB, with RAM expected to stay at 3GB.
Head over to our Galaxy
S7 rumours round-up page to find out more about the phone.
Sony Xperia Z6
Sony used to
release a new flagship smartphones every six months. The thinking behind this
was it wanted to show off how innovative it was as a brand, and the best way to
do this was to update its flagship smartphone regularly. However, this strategy
caused confusion rather than excitement and has now been scrapped.
It’s now
understood that as of 2016, Sony will revert to launching a new flagship every
12 months, starting with the new Xperia Z6 at MWC in February.
A 4K UltraHD
screen is set to be the Z6’s killer feature, borrowing tech from the recently
launched Sony Z5 Premium. Also, Sony is keen to promote its smartphones as
having the best cameras on the market, so expect to see new camera
features/tech to solidify this position. Expect all of your favourite Xperia Z5
features - waterproof, fingerprint sensor, big battery - to be rolled over into
the Z6 also.
LG G5
LG is likely to
follow the pattern of the past few years and produce a smartphone that offers
something ever so slightly different. This is usually a bigger and brighter
screen than the competition – although to the detriment of the handset’s
battery life.
Expect a full 4K
screen in the LG G5, backed up with a few quirky design tweaks, à la the
leather back of the G4.
Historically LG
hasn’t offered much more in terms of spec breakthroughs – instead, it offers a
point of difference in its asking price. The LG G5 is likely to undercut the
competition by around £30.
HTC One M10
HTC has built up a
solid reputation with its flagship One phones. Why? Good question. On paper,
the phones are pretty standard high-end Android devices that don’t offer
groundbreaking features. However, HTC considers the design of the phone to be
the USP. The One’s large front-facing speakers and overlaying Sense UI software
are very popular.
With that in mind,
predicting the specs of the next-gen HTC flagship phone isn’t overly
challenging (providing it sticks to the same formula). Expect a big, bright
screen similar to 2015’s Galaxy S6, a fast processor (either a Snapdragon 810
or the newer 820), 2-3GB of RAM, two large front-facing speakers and a metallic
frame.
Huawei P9
The Huawei P9 has
the potential to be one of the most exciting phones of 2016. Huawei has huge
ambitions for its brand to be a force in the West, and as you’d expect it’s
aiming to win people over with its flagship smartphone.
The rumoured P9
specs are pretty incredible too. It’s reported Huawei is working on its own
Kirin 950 processor, which leaked benchmarks suggest will be faster than
Samsung’s Exynos 7420, making it one of the fastest Android processors to date.
Other rumoured features suggest it could have two
front-facing cameras, a rear-facing fingerprint sensor and 4GB RAM.
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