Best and worst smartphone trends of 2018

The rise and fall of the smartphone makers in 2018

A lot has happened this year and the smartphone landscape has shifted for good. Some companies rose, others fell. Some hit the jackpot, others faded to irrelevance. Some surprised us, other disappointed us.

Samsung, one of the biggest smartphone makers in the world, launched some of the best Android flagships, no two words about that. The Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy Note9 are among the best-selling Android phones this year and they delivered on all their promises. Some of the updates turned incremental and we doubt many Galaxy S8/Note8 owners found practical reasons for an upgrade, but this can't take away the greatness the ninth series achieved.

But while doing great in the flagship bracket, Samsung completely failed to understand the budget and mid-range market. People are no longer loyal to brands when it comes to their hard-earned money. Not in times when OnePlus is selling flagships cheaper than Samsung's mid-rangers, while Xiaomi's Mi A phones cost a third of what the Koreans are asking for the most current Galaxy A phones. Sure, Samsung is trying to push a triple and even a quadruple camera setup on its mid-ranges, but the latter costs north of €600, which is yet another proof of the unwitting Samsung strategy.

Sony, on the other hand, had a rock-solid lineup but it didn't translate into amazing sales. All Xperia flagships were very good, especially the Xperia XZ2 Premium and the AMOLED-packing XZ3, but they didn't ring well with the consumers. The Xperia XZ2 Premium was too expensive and a bit out of touch with the modern smartphone design trends. The XZ3 was a step in the right direction design-wise but it only provided incremental upgrades over the XZ2 and it came later than it should have.

Sony also released a few XA2 mid-rangers, which turned out quite nice, but they also failed to leave a mark.

HTC and LG made flagships we liked - with good designs and specs, but both companies failed to make a real difference. Once giants in what they do, now those two makers are slowly fading into irrelevance. Their upcoming flagships no longer generate the excitement we've seen in the past and leave the consumers indifferent. They also lacked memorable midrange offerings so 2019 is really going to be challenging for them.

LG was often late for the game or simply behind the competition, while the interest in HTC phones has just dried out. We still have our fingers crossed for those two and hope to see them back in people's wish lists - we will all benefit from richer competition.

HMD, which sells phones under the Nokia brand, seems to be doing quite well across the board - especially in the upper midrange. The Nokia 7.1 with HDR screen and ZEISS lens is enjoying some very good reception in various markets, probably because of its nice design and tempting features. Meanwhile, the rumors suggest the Nokia 9 might have a six-camera on its back, which will add some points to HMD's popularity, which it deparately needs because regardless how good their midrangers are, they could use a more inspiring phone in their lineup.

Xiaomi is probably the one maker that not only understands the entry-level and midrange segments pretty well, but it writes its own rules there. The Redmi Notes have been a popular choice for the entry-level, the Mi A1 and A2 are among the best mid-rangers you can get, while the Mi 8 flagships were quite feature-rich and yet affordable. The Mi Mix series has progressed very well, too and remains desirable.

The Pocophone F1 by Xiaomi turned out to be a proper market disruptor, as it offered a flagship performance and features at a jaw-dropping price. We suspect Xiaomi had to do find unorthodox methods to subsidize the phone's price such as showing ads in the UI or they even selling at a loss for the sake of establishing the new brand. But it is what it is, this one made real splashes while the rest were only producing ripples.

Realme, Oppo's ex-subsidiary, had a great year doing what the Pocophone did with the flagship class, but with mid-rangers. The Realme 1 and 2 Pro are excellent mid-rangers sold at bargain entry-level prices and its pretty much the one company that can aggressively compete with Xiaomi. And that's great, the more the merrier we'd say!

Oppo has come up with some great phones this year, too. The Find X was a true gem with that motorized slider, while the R15 and R17 models turned out quite powerful and attractive. Vivo impressed with the quirky NEX phones, too.

Huawei has been on a roll churning out great phones across all segments. It had two memorable flagship launches - those of the P20 and Mate 20 series. Its midrangers have improved significantly this year with the migration to the new Kirin 710 chip. And its Honor sub-brand is thriving, too, with the Honor Play leaving almost as big mark in the upper midrange as the Pocophone F1.

Meanwhile Apple, Google, and OnePlus offered us some great flagships, though none of these makers took any risks, so we pretty much got more of the same, but faster amd slightly better.

We also lost one smartphone maker this year - Gionee. The company was struggling for some time but as the story goes, its money troubles were exacerbated when Liu - founder and chairman - lost a CNY 1 billion bet ($144 million) in a casino! He claims he didn't use company money but admits he may have borrowed company funds. Regardless whether that's a true story or not, Gionee owes a total of CNY 20.2 billion (around $3 billion) to 648 creditors so its bankruptcy is as real as it gets.

Wrap up

As we already said, 2018 was a very interesting year in consumer tech. Aside from reviewing the devices which we experienced first-hand, it was most amusing to observe the trends which seemed to be a lot more dynamic than usual driven in their large part by Chinese companies.

We expect to see even more of that in 2019. CES is just behind the corner, and MWC is not far into the future either so we're eagerly waiting the new announcement of the season.