What Are the 5 Best Smartphones Coming in 2019?
2019 is shaping up to be a highly disruptive year in the world of smartphone innovation. A variety of trends, such as foldable phones and 5G connectivity, have been bubbling on the back burner for quite some time, and 2019 will be the year when it all boils over.
Many of 2019’s smartphones will feature dual rear cameras, but whispered rumors indicate that certain models won’t stop there. Bezels will continue to shrink, and the price to purchase 2018’s premium phone features will slim down as well. While the coming year’s smartphone forecast is still rife with speculation and deficient in details, here are five trend-setting smartphones that you can look forward to seeing in 2019.
Samsung Galaxy S10
Tech investors and savvy consumers alike take comfort in Samsung’s steady introduction of new, reliable models into the Galaxy smartphone family. However, this company’s additions to the 2019 smartphone market will break with convention in a significant way; instead of two Galaxy S10 models, Tom’s Guide suspects that Samsung will release three smartphone models simultaneously.
Rumor has it that these phones will feature 5.8, 6.1, and 6.4-inch screens, and the smallest phone in the bunch may have a flat rather than a curved display. The high-end Galaxy S10 models are expected to have three rear cameras, and every phone in the S10 line will likely have in-display fingerprint sensors.
According to Gizmodo UK, the 5.8-inch S10 Lite will cost £669 ($759 USD), the 6.1-inch S10 will cost £799 ($907 USD), and the 6.4-inch S10 Plus will cost £899 ($1,020 USD). This trio of phones is expected to drop sometime in the first quarter of 2019.
Samsung Galaxy F
In 2019, Samsung is expected to go where few smartphone manufacturers have gone before. Rumors regarding Samsung’s first foldable phone have been swirling for years. With 2017 and 2018 gone by without a peep regarding this innovative addition to the market, some tech enthusiasts practically gave up hope.
As 2018 draws to a close, however, seemingly legitimate news regarding the Samsung F has arrived on the scene. Tom’s Guide reports that a Dutch blog named Lets Go Digital has got its hands on a report on the future of foldable phone technology produced by the Korean CCS-CIMB Research tech analysis firm.
According to this report, the Samsung F will cost $1,800, and it will have a 6,000-mAh battery. It will sport a top-range Exynos or Snapdragon processor, and it will have a 2152 x 1536-pixel screen when unfolded. It’s expected that the Galaxy F (or Galaxy Fold) will be announced in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. So, we’ll just have to wait and see if this bold move pans out.
Pixel 3 Lite (Bonito)
Google just released the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL, but if Apple’s usual trendsetting mojo is any indicator, it’s likely that we’ll see a lite version of the Pixel 3 in the coming months. The production codename “Bonito” has been thrown around for quite a while, but it finally appears that this nickname is tethered to an actual device as leaks acquired by Tom’s Guide indicate that Bonito is a real thing and that it will be hitting shelves sometime in 2019.
Interestingly, it appears that the Pixel 3 Lite will feature a headphone jack, which most tech bloggers insist has gone the way of the dinosaur. This affordable Google smartphone will also feature a Snapdragon 670 system-on-chip and Adreno 615 graphics, and it is expected to have 4GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch full-HD+ LCD panel. At 32GB of internal memory, the Pixel 3 Lite will certainly be packing light, but we still don’t know anything about this smartphone’s expected price.
Nokia 9
If the word “PureView” gets you excited, you’ll be pumped to learn more about the new Nokia 9 as its release date gets closer. Rumors regarding this latest addition to the Nokia smartphone family have indicated that the Nokia 9 will have either two or three rear cameras, but the latest intel from Digital Trends suggests that this phone will feature no less than five rear camera lenses.
That’s right. The Nokia 9 may be the first penta-lens smartphone to hit the market, and it’s likely that Zeiss will supply the lenses that justify this phone’s “powered by light” promotional tagline. The Nokia 9’s low-light camera will probably be its star feature, and it’s expected to have an edge-to-edge 3G glass display with no touch buttons.
While the announcement of the Nokia 9 was expected by the end of 2018, it’s most likely been pushed back to early 2019. Plus, nothing is known yet regarding the pricing of this photography-oriented smartphone.
2019 iPhones
Even though the iPhone XS and XS Max were just released in the third quarter of 2018, tech addicts are already speculating about what will come next from one of the planet’s biggest companies. Practically nothing is known about what the next Apple smartphones will look like or when they’ll drop, but, according to Ars Technica, we do know that 2019’s iPhones won’t be 5G-enabled.
Apple has always been one of the most conservative smartphone manufacturers, and the designers of each generation of iPhone like to stick to the basics and deliver quality devices that focus more on function than form. But Apple’s slow entry into the 5G market might not just be because 5G networks won’t get into full swing until the end of 2019 at the earliest. Qualcomm, which is the world’s preeminent smartphone modem manufacturer, has recently been at odds with Apple, and Intel, which is Apple’s first choice for connectivity technology, won’t be ready to produce 5G modems for quite some time.
Nobody knows how much the new iPhones will cost or how they’ll differ from the XS series. However, Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities suspects that Apple might ditch 3D touch for the “iPhone 11” and continue with the dual-camera lens setup that’s an iconic feature of the iPhone X and iPhone XS.