Why 2017 was a smartphone year we’ll remember

What a year it’s been. From the ten-year day of remembrance of the iPhone, that helped outline smartphones as we all know them, to Samsung bouncing back from its 2016 problems, and each OEM delivery their best; this year the smartphone business became the foremost competitive it’s ever been.

We all expected smartphone brands to boost up their portfolio in an exceedingly massive way. android phones area unit usually beaked as iPhone-killers (though they’re typically designed a lot of to be Samsung-killers), and this stayed true at the top of last year, because the impending launch of the iPhone X crept into each conversation. Apple was expected to bring a significant shift to the iPhone towards the top of this year, and each android whole had to bring the simplest they might. Most of them delivered.

The year in recap

While android continues to dominate the smartphone market share, the elusive iPhone owner remains the target for every android OEM, and for good reason. These customers area unit a number of the foremost loyal and most willing to pay a lot of on a phone. to stand any probability of capturing these users throughout an enormous year for the iPhone, every brand required to do one thing. within the end all of them delivered one thing that helped them stand out.


Think android and plenty of immediately suppose Samsung Galaxy — in some markets, these terms are interchangeable — and this year, Samsung showed why it's the world’s leader in smartphones. The Galaxy S8 and S8 plus pushed the smartphone business towards the taller kind issue and therefore the Galaxy Note eight tested that even an exploding flagship couldn’t stop Samsung’s juggernaut phablet line.

LG stepped up its efforts this year with each the G6 and V30, wonderful devices in their title. the same goes for Huawei. The P10 and P10 and found success, however the important star was Huawei’s Mate 10 pro, that launched late within the year and won our coveted Phone of the Year award.

Those are the massive ones however trying round the remainder of the business, each whole brought their best. Even firms that have traditionally struggled managed to search out one thing to supply this year. Motorola expanded its Moto Mods device line with the Moto Z2 Force and others. Sony continuing its re-emergence as a smartphone player.

HTC’s U11 and launched last month, and looks a flagship that would very deliver in each space. It’s nonetheless to be wide on the market, however it’s got the potential to be HTC’s savior. The phone was really meant to be the pel a pair of XL, and will have done plenty for HTC (and Google too, for that matter). pretty much as good because the pel a pair of XL is — and its camera is unimaginable — it had been still one amongst the largest disappointments of the year, a minimum of on behalf of me.

This year additionally saw devices coming back from some new players. Andy Rubin came to smartphones with the Essential phone. it's going to not be good, however it’s recouping with regular updates. Razer bought Nextbit and fleetly discharged a gamer’s paradise within the Razer Phone, that offered one amongst the simplest recreation experiences on a mobile device.

Then there was Nokia, a whole nonheritable by HMD international last year. the corporate hit the market during a huge method. The Nokia eight brought with it a partnership with Zeiss, that ought to bring even higher smartphone cameras in 2018 similarly because the somewhat distinctive “bothie” feature. The phone was spectacular and caught North American nation swiftly most it solely narrowly lost the possibility to be topped best bang for your buck smartphone to the OnePlus 5T. And what of OnePlus? This was a year wherever the corporate continuing its wonderful flight over the past four years, giving wonderful flagships at exceptional price for cash.

Looking back on this year, one issue very stands proud. historically there area unit solely a number of devices that really matter by the top of the year. This year it’s straightforward to argue that almost all, if not all, devices matter for various reasons.

Take BlackBerry. A year past several would have aforesaid the KEYone was a failure, however it’s an overall sensible device with a particular target market that even had a number of our team switching over. Not each brand had a superb year, however as technology advances, even devices with flaws provide enough to be worthy contenders.

    As technology advances, even devices with flaws provide enough to be worthy contenders.

Devices at a more cost-effective value aren't any completely different, and plenty of even follow the most recent trends. At $199, the honour 7X is extremely reasonable, however it still sports twin cameras, smaller bezels and taller 18:9 ratio of this year’s flagships. In previous years, the reasonable flagship market has been behind the curve once it came to options. currently the gap has contracted to a minimum.

This year competition was a lot of intense than ever, however what will 2018 hold? With below show fingerprint sensors not expected till the half of the year a minimum of, and no alternative doubtless breakthroughs expected within the hardware market, 2018 can doubtless be associate unvaried  year.

We might nonetheless see some code innovation, as AI-based assistants become more refined. Bixby might finally see a far wider international rollout, Siri can hopefully gain a much-needed overhaul, and Google Assistant can doubtless get a lot of advanced in understanding you. Amazon launched its Alexa on a number of mobile devices this past year. Next year it's going to finally go head to move with Google Assistant on a lot of devices, even as their battle heats up within the good home.

Whatever the future holds, i feel we’ll all reminisce on 2017 as a definitive year. What area unit you most excited for next year? allow us to apprehend within the comments below!