I’ve concluded that there is no such thing as a “perfect” time to upgrade your phone. Even towards the end of the year – basically where we are now – when the year’s smartphone releases come to a standstill, next year’s tech looms just around the corner at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Still, the end of the year is my favorite time to mull over the smartphones because it’s a good time to analyze the smartphones released that year.
Another reason to look at phones now is because the holidays are drawing near, which means that holiday sales are about to begin as well, and who doesn’t love a good sale? Either way, it seemed like a good time to talk about which smartphone – or smartphones, in this case – have been my favorites this year.
As you could probably tell by the title, my favorite smartphones are the LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active. I couldn’t decide a clear winner between the two because I like them both for different reasons.
LG G6
The LG G6 pretty much won me over from the day it was introduced. It has almost everything you could want out of a flagship in 2017: a bezel-less 5.7-inch QHD+ display, dual 13-megapixel rear-facing cameras, a good-sized 3,300 mAh battery, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Best of all, when you type “LG G6” into Google, the term “bootloop” doesn’t populate in the list of suggestions.
There are a couple of compromises with the G6. It features last year’s Snapdragon 821 processor, and the G6 is the first LG flagship to take away the removable battery feature (but fortunately for the company was among the last to do so). As for the Snapdragon 821, while it may not the be latest and greatest, it doesn’t have any largescale issues like some Snapdragon processors have in the past and is still a powerful chip.
Despite its small list of compromises, it all evens out with the G6’s price. Even when it was first launched, the G6 never had an exorbitant price tag at $649. Nowadays you can find it cheaper, even as low as $399 if you buy it from Amazon’s Prime Exclusive selection (and don’t mind ads – it’s $599 without). T-Mobile’s price is fixed at $500. It’s pretty easy to find a good deal on the G6, and I imagine those deals will get even better as the holidays approach.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Active
I had high hopes for the device when it was announced, mostly because it’s the only Galaxy S8 variant that didn’t have curved edges and still maintained the bezel-less display. When I received one for review last month, I fell in love with the device and its build. I was happy with the flat edges, but I was more impressed with its rugged build and grippy material. It was the first phone I had held in a long time that I didn’t feel the need to immediately put a case on.
Of course, this has always been the case with the Active series. The main difference between past Actives and this year’s is that AT&T no longer has exclusive rights to it. As news yesterday morning revealed, Sprint and T-Mobile will also sell the S8 Active, making the Active more accessible than ever.
As for Samsung Experience UI (or TouchWiz, as I’ve apparently been calling it by the wrong name for years now – oops) I’ve come to really enjoy it. Even in the Galaxy S7, it wasn’t the miserable lagfest that I remembered it for being in its earlier days. Samsung’s UI still gets a bad rap from time to time, and there are a lot of extra features and apps that I never used, but it’s become a solid experience for me.
My biggest problem with the S8 Active is the location of the fingerprint scanner. It was so inconvenient and awkward for me to use that I opted not to use it at all, which was a real bummer because I quite enjoy fingerprint scanners for convenience’s sake. Aside from that, however, I really loved the device.
The Galaxy S8 Active is on the more expensive side at $850, but it’s possible for holiday sales to help bring that price down. If price is no matter and you’re looking for a rugged smartphone that performs well, has a long-lasting battery, and doesn’t necessarily need a case to withstand a couple of bumps here and there (although a case couldn’t hurt if you’re really rough on your phones) then the Galaxy S8 Active is an excellent option to consider.
Although I’m not personally in the market for a new phone this year, these would be the two devices I would consider for myself if I were. It was tough to choose because there were a lot of great phones released in 2017, but both the LG G6 and Samsung Galaxy S8 Active ended up winning me over due to their exemplification of having the design of a 2017 smartphone without cutting too many corners in any one direction.
Readers, what is your favorite phone (or phones) released this year? Let us know in the comments below!