The year started out pretty strong thanks to Samsung. The company wasn't the first to introduce a smartphone with a minimized bezel design, but it certainly grabbed the lion's share of attention thanks to that Infinity Display. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ marked a big rebound for Samsung following the debacle of the Galaxy Note 7, and it was a good sign for the Android market in general.
HTC U11 saw the return of shiny phones again in a big way. The LG G6 was actually on the market before the Galaxy S8, and it earned plenty of attention when it launched. However, the Life's Good crew wouldn't see some major time in the lime light until later in the year, when they launched the V30.
We saw Nokia, along with HMD Global, launch a ton of Android-based smartphones. BlackBerry is now in full swing, working with TCL to bring a host of new handsets, some of which harken back to the glory days of BlackBerry and physical keyboards. We've got a new flagship from OnePlus this year, too, which earned positive reviews.
And of course we can't forget about the likes of Huawei, or Xiaomi, in those regional markets.
We saw brand new smartphones, the first of what's clearly a new push into the smartphone market. The first was the Essential Phone from Essential, which took the minimal bezel design cue and ran away with it. And then we've got the Razer Phone from a company that has been building Windows-based PCs and accessories for years, launching a "phone for gamers" and not caring about small bezels at all.
We can't forget the Galaxy Note 8. That deserves an honorable mention. Oh! And we definitely can't forget the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Google's own efforts had its troubles out of the gate, but it looks like it has bounced back for the better.
Okay, so all that to say: There's a lot of reason to like Android this year. It was a strong year for the mobile operating system (like it has been for many years already). And now I'm going to ask: Did you make the jump to Android this year?
Of course, if you did, it probably means you switched from iOS -- unless you were really holding out and were still using something like Windows Mobile/Phone/10/etc. And if you did switch from iOS this year over to Android, was it the iPhone X that was the deciding factor for you? If you made the leap, I want to hear which device you went to and why. Let me know!