The smartphone industry is already poised for a competitive year ahead. A number of big launches happened in January, setting the bar pretty high for new brands looking to enter the cutthroat mid-segment market. The trend is that now, big brands too are upping their game with handsets that offer great performance at affordable prices. Listed here are the latest phones by three of the biggest names in the industry, Honor, Samsung and Xiaomi. Whether these would prove to be game-changers for the industry, or would pass by largely unnoticed, we’ll find out in the coming weeks.
Honor View 20
By Honor
This is Honor’s new flagship device, which was launched in China in December last year. It had its India launch earlier this week and Honor is expecting a good response here as well. The phone has a 6.5-inch “punch hole design” display. Its 91.8% screen-to-body ratio and 4.5mm ultra-small in-display camera are entirely new additions to Honor’s smartphone template. Apart from great design, Honor’s phones are known for their excellent cameras. The Honor View 20 has a 25MP front camera and a 48MP rear ToF (Time-of-Flight) camera, perfect to taking highly-detailed photographs. The phone is powered by a 7nm Kirin 980 processor, which in turn is paired with a dual NPU for more advanced AI functions. It comes with preinstalled Android 9.1 + Magic UI2.0.1 operating system. View 20’s 4000mAh battery and 8GB RAM make it a good choice for gamers.
Honor View 20 is priced at Rs 37,999
Galaxy M series
By Samsung
Samsung has dominated the global smartphone market for a good many years. But today, the South Korean giant seems to have ceded ground to Chinese players. To old-timers like Samsung, the changing landscape of consumer technology is posing new challenges every day. And to be sure, Samsung has taken up these challenges with gusto. The brand has just launched its pocket-friendly Galaxy M series, which includes two handsets, M20 and M10. Both these smartphones sport the “V Infinity” teardrop notch, with the M20 being slightly bigger in size (at 6.3 inches) than the M10 (6.2 inches). The M20 is powered by the latest Exynos 7904 octa-core processor and 4GB RAM; while the M10 has an Exynos 7870 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM. An 8MP front camera with in-display flash, plus a set of dual real cameras (13MP+5MP) are the common features in both handsets. So is the 5,000mAh battery—which is way above the market standard for these price points.
Samsung’s M20 is priced at Rs10,990 and the M10 at Rs 7,990
Mi Mix 3
By Xiaomi
Xiaomi has without a doubt emerged as one of the major players in the smartphone industry. The brand has had a massive impact on the Indian market, transforming the mid-segment space with its affordable yet performance-oriented devices. The latest addition to the Xiaomi family is the Mi Mix 3, which sports a sliding display, the first of its kind. This 6.39-inch display, equipped on a phone with a 93.4% screen-to-body ratio, can be moved with a slight push of the thumb to reveal the dual selfie camera (24MP+2MP). The two rear cameras (12MP+12MP) are slightly are low-res but great at capturing colours. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and 3200mAh battery, the Mi Mix 3 comes in three colour variants—Sapphire Blue, Jade Green and Onyx Black. The phone, already out in China, is expected to be launched in India in the first half of February.