The new year is less than a week away, and for the smartphone enthusiast, that means new phones are just around the corner. Also just around the corner is the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, which takes place in Las Vegas between January 9th and 12th (with press-only events taking place on the 7th and 8th). Although CES is a place where a plethora of electronics are showcased, it isn’t uncommon for some smartphones to make a debut as well. Smartphones rumored to debut at CES 2018 include a Sony Xperia flagship, possibly a “bendable” phone from Samsung, and maybe some phones from LG and Lenovo.
But CES is just a small glimpse at what we can expect to see next year. Obviously, there are many phones worth getting excited about.
Samsung has been on a winning streak lately with their Galaxy S flagships. Both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8 were universally acclaimed, but will the Galaxy S9 give Samsung a third year of prosperity? It’s difficult to say, considering the rumors surrounding the S9 predict that the design will be very similar to the S8. We know keeping a similar design didn’t work out for some manufacturers like HTC; however, one reason to be excited for the S9 is that the headphone jack is rumored to stick around. Kind of sad that a once standard feature would be something worth getting excited about, but I guess that’s just where we are.
Along with the Galaxy S flagships, this year proved that Samsung’s Galaxy Note line didn’t suffer much long-term damage from the crazy Note 7 debacle of 2016. The Note 8 saw a successful launch with no recalls, which means that there’s likely to be a Note 9 on the way. Good thing, too, because nobody else has been able to nail the stylus in a smartphone quite like Samsung has with the S Pen.
It will be interesting to see where LG goes this next year. Both the G6 and V30 were pretty great devices, and I’d argue they both gave LG a little more limelight than usual. LG boldly introduced the G6 last year ahead of many flagships, which seemed to work out well for them, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw whatever LG is cooking up sooner rather than later.
HTC is a brand I still keep an eye on, despite that I haven’t owned an HTC device in about 3 years. I also wasn’t impressed with the design changes in the U11 from the 10, but the U11 is still an overall solid device. HTC isn’t exactly the household name it was just a few short years ago, but I still hold out hope that it will one day make a real comeback here in the States.
HMD Global’s Nokia handsets are another brand that I’ll be looking out for. I think the company did a good job reintroducing Nokia to the smartphone market this year, and I look forward to seeing what’s in store for Nokia next year.
Most of all, I think I’m excited to see what’s in store for the iPhone. Well, maybe the term “excited” is pushing it; I’m intrigued. Apple surprised me this year by switching things up and releasing three flagships alongside each other, one clearly leagues ahead of the other two. I don’t know if they did that because they wanted to ease into the iPhone X’s design by offering something more familiar like the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus alongside it or if this is just the way things are going to be from now on. What I do know is that I don’t know what to expect for once, and that’s sort of refreshing when it comes to the iPhone.
There are a lot of phones expected to debut next year, but the aforementioned are the ones I’m most looking forward to. In retrospect, 2017 was a pretty good year for mobile. No life-threatening recalls and screens became bigger without increasing the actual sizes of smartphones. Not a bad deal, at the end of the day. But I think 2018 can still do better.
Readers, which phone(s) are you looking forward to seeing most next year? Let us know in the comments below!
