BEST SMARTPHONE 2017

Best new phones | 30 best new phones coming in 2016 & 2017

New phones coming in 2016 and 2017. We look at the best new phones that you must see before you upgrade, including the best new Android phones, best new iPhones, best new Windows phones, best new Samsung phones, best new Sony phones, best new HTC phones, best new LG phones and more.

By Marie Brewis | 11 Oct 16

Share

Tweet

Send

Comments

New phones coming in 2016 and 2017. We look at the best new phones that you must see before you upgrade, including the best new Android phones, best new iPhones, best new Windows phones, best new Samsung phones, best new Sony phones, best new HTC phones, best new LG phones and more. Also see: The best new tablets you can't afford to miss in 2016.

Update 11 October: Samsung has now officially discontinued its Galaxy Note 7 in light of the battery problems. If you're looking for a large-screen Android phone we instead recommend the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge or Google Pixel XL. 

Best new phones 2017:Apple iPhone 8 & iPhone 8 Plus

iPhone 8 UK release date: September 2017

Apple is set to go big on the iPhone's 10th anniversary, which could go some way to make up for this year's relatively minor upgrade. A combination of design and hardware changes should make the iPhone 8 the most radical new iPhone to date.

The iPhone 8 could be the iPhone with which Jony Ive finally gets his own way: an iPhone that resembles a single sheet of glass with an edge-to-edge OLED screen. According to an Apple supplier, at least one of the company's new iPhones for 2017 will have a glass body. The TouchID scanner is thought to be hidden within the glass, while the physical Home button will be gone.

Other rumours suggest the iPhone 8 will feature wireless charging for the first time, and possible biometric features such as facial recognition or iris scanning. It'll run the Apple A11 processor and motion co-processor, and be devilishly fast.

Click here for more iPhone 8 rumours.

(Image via ConceptsiPhone.)

Best new phones 2016: Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL 

New Nexus phones UK release date: 4 October 2016 (launch), 20 October 2016 (on sale)

The first phones 'Made by Google' (and actually made by HTC, but we won't worry about the details) are the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL. The Pixel XL will be especially interesting now that Samsung has discontinued its Galaxy Note 7 after it was unable to rectify the battery issues.

The Pixel and Pixel XL are in many respects the same phone, with a larger, higher-resolution screen, a higher-capacity battery and the price tag separating the two. 

Headline features include the new Google Assistant, which allows for natural dialogue between Google and a user to get the information they need, a 12.3Mp camera that has won the highest ever rating from DXOMark Mobile and is supported by unlimited cloud storage for your original resolution (even 4K) video and photos, support for VR built-in and the new Google Duo video-calling app. 

Read more about the Google Pixel and Pixel XL here.

Best new phones 2016:Lenovo Phab2 Pro

Lenovo Phab2 Pro UK release date: Autumn 2016

Announced at June's Lenovo Tech World, the Phab2 Pro won't hit the UK until the Autumn (at $500 in the US, with UK pricing TBC). But when it does, it should be the first Project Tango phone.

Project Tango is, in essence, a Google project that allows a smartphone to detect, map and learn its position relative to the room/world around it without the use of external signals such as Wi-Fi or GPS. It can also detect surfaces and obstacles within your environment, and can recognise known environments.

This means it opens a whole new world of possibilities: developers could create apps and experiences previously impossible on a smartphone, including real-time 3D mapping, measurement of physical spaces and augmented-reality gaming. 

There's a 6.4in Quad-HD screen, an octa-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage (plus microSD support). The battery is huge at 4050mAh, but probably also necessary given the large screen. Oh, and there are four cameras on this beast of a phone