Google Pixel 4 Smartphone

The fourth iteration of Google's home-cooked Android handset, the Pixel 4 is both a worthy successor and a worthy competitor for the Apples and Samsungs of the world. It comes in standard and XL versions, with either a 5.7" Full HD+ or 6.3" Quad HD+ OLED screen, each with variable refresh rates up to 90Hz. A small bezel at the top of the screens houses the selfie camera, face unlock sensors, and a Motion Sense radar module that allows for gesture controls. The Pixel 3 was lauded for its camera, and the 4 builds on that, with 12-megapixel Dual-Pixel and 16-megapixel telephoto rear cameras. To take full advantage, there are improved portrait and Night Sight modes, with the latter gaining astrophotography-specific skills. Powering the phone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor paired with a Pixel Neural Core, 6 GB of RAM, and up to 128 GB of storage. Both models will be available in three colors: black, white, and orange.

Microsoft Surface Duo Phone

Long-rumored, Microsoft's first post-Windows Mobile phone isn't really a phone at all. Sure, it makes calls, but that's just one feature of the Surface Duo. This book-like device has a pair of thin 5.6-inch screens that unfold to form an 8.3-inch computing surface. It can be used as a tablet, like a mini-laptop, or as something altogether different when the 360-degree hinge is bent so both screens face outwards. It runs Android, instead of Windows 10X like its big sibling the Surface Neo, and will available for the 2020 holiday season.

Nokia 800 Tough Phone

Old Nokia brick phones were known for their toughness. The Nokia 800 Tough builds on that legacy. Heavy-duty rubberized buttons, anti-slip coating, and rubberized edges help to give it an IP68 rating against drops, dust, sand, water, and even extreme temperatures. It runs kaiOS, and comes pre-loaded with Facebook, WhatsApp, and Google Assistant. It has 4G LTE, and while the 2.4-inch QVGA display, 4GB of storage, and 2-megapixel camera won't win over many skeptics, the 43 days of standby time just might.

Supreme BLU Burner Phone

Never mind the reasons behind it — having an unlocked phone is never a bad idea. The Supreme BLU Burner Phone stands to be the ultimate "bat line". Available in red or black, it's a fairly standard 3G GSM affair, with a camera on the back, a color screen, a 16GB memory card pre-installed, and dual SIM capability so you can swap numbers at will.

Samsung Galaxy Note10 Smartphone

Since its inception, Samsung's Galaxy Note has been known for its boundary-pushing screen and pen-based interaction. The new Note10 offers both, in a somewhat smaller size. 6.3-inches is the size of the Dynamic AMOLED display in the standard model, while the newly-named 10+ has a 6.8-inch screen more in line with past models. Both offer edge-to-edge coverage, a re-designed, uni-body S Pen, expanded DeX capabilities, and improved cameras, including a 3D-scanning DepthVision camera in the 10+. A vapor chamber cooling system helps boost gaming performance, and 5G-capable versions provide access to the fastest possible cellular data speeds.

Boringphone

We all know the story by now: our smartphones are amazing and are also destroying society. Boringphone is the latest answer to the question of how we get a phone that's useful but not an attention drain. To do so, they've built a custom OS on top of Android, and given the phone only the most essential of features, including calling, messaging, photos, maps, audio playback, and tethering. Noticeably missing: email, a web browser, and apps. Not only does it not have them, but it has no way to install them, making it a happy medium between a true dumbphone and the latest piece of Silicon Valley magic glass.

OnePlus 7 Pro Smartphone

Flagship specs, midrange pricing: that's the promise of the OnePlus 7 Pro Smartphone. Its 6.67-inch, QHD+ bezel-free Fluid AMOLED screen — made possible by a pop-up selfie cam — runs at 90 Hz for buttery smooth animations. On the back, a 48-megapixel main camera is joined by ultra wide-angle and 3x telephoto lenses. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 delivers plenty of power, helped along by up to 12GB of RAM, and Warp Charge tech lets the 4,000 mAh battery hit a useable charge in just 20 minutes. Available in Mirror Gray or Nebula Blue.

Google Pixel 3a Smartphone

Its body isn't any smaller than the Pixel 3 — but its price sure is. The Pixel 3a is a more affordable alternative to Google's flagship that manages to pack in more than enough tech for many. Most importantly, its 12-megapixel rear camera gets its big brother's Night Shot mode that can capture images in the dark, a powerful portrait mode, and an automatic selective color mode, as well as unlimited photo storage via Google Photos. Spec-wise, you get a 5.6- or 6-inch OLED display, 4GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 670 processor, USB-C quick charging, and active edge sensors, or nearly everything that makes the much more expensive Pixel 3 so great in the first place.

Moto Razr 2019

Most companies are using folding screen tech to make book-like gadgets. Motorola has other plans: to use it as the key component in a resurrection of one of most beloved phones ever. The Moto Razr 2019 has yet to be formally introduced, but these renderings — based on patents filed with the WIPO — give a good idea what to expect. It retains the flip-phone form factor that made the original such a success while dedicating the entire interior surface to a folding display that should provide roughly as much screen space as most modern smartphones. In the renderings, it also gets a large camera mounted below the exterior screen, but details such as specs and storage will have to wait to be confirmed.

Photos: Sarang Sheth / Yanko Design

DarkMatter Katim R01 Secure Smartphone

Field agents don't just need a secure phone — they need it to take a beating, too. Even if your idea of clandestine operations is more party planning than espionage, the DarkMatter Katim R01 has you covered. It runs a customized version of Android that ties into a hardware-based cryptosystem, with secure apps for voice, video, and email. A dedicated side button cuts off the mics and cameras for top-secret meetings, and the device keys will automatically delete should it detect forced physical tampering. None of this does any good if it breaks, of course, so its five-layer mil-spec case is resistant to drops, water immersion, and crushing while protecting a battery that ensures you don't run out of juice in the middle of a mission.

Sony Xperia 1 Smartphone

Sony supplies the cameras for many of the world's best smartphones, so it's worth paying attention to what they put in their own flagship. For the Xperia 1, it's a trifecta of 12-megapixel shooters, with 16, 26, and 52mm equivalent lenses for various conditions. Borrowing from the company's Alpha cameras, it's also the world's first smartphone with Eye-tracking Auto Focus. Nearly as impressive is the 6.5-inch 4K HDR OLED display that adopts a 21:9 aspect ratio to better fit ultra-wide movies in your palm and let you run two apps side-by-side.

Nubia Alpha Wearable Smartphone

Based around a flexible OLED screen, the Nubia Alpha Wearable Smartphone blurs the line between phones and watches. The device's 4-inch, 960 x 192 screen sits inside a metal band that closes around your wrist, with a 5MP camera housed in the middle, along with its Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, 8GB of onboard storage, 500mAh battery, and heart rate monitor. It runs a custom version of Android that supports everything from photos and phone calls to texts and movie watching and will launch later this year in both Bluetooth and standalone eSIM versions, the latter in both black and gold.

Huawei Mate X Smartphone

It's a shame to hide your flagship feature away — so instead of placing its folding OLED screen on the inside, the Huawei Mate X keeps it on the exterior. The result is a logical design that lets both 6.6-inch "sides" of the screen function when folded, yet serve as an 8-inch tablet when unfurled. It also promises high-speed 5G wireless connectivity, excellent image chops thanks to the Leica-engineered camera, and plenty of battery life thanks to a purpose-designed 4500 mAh cell.

Nokia 9 PureView Smartphone

Borrowing technology from Light and its L16 Camera, the Nokia 9 PureView Smartphone takes mobile photography seriously. It uses an array of five 12-megapixel, f/1.8 Zeiss-developed cameras — two color, three monochrome — to shoot different exposures at once, merging the results for added detail, more accurate color, and post-processing depth control. Nokia has also partnered with Adobe, so those edits will be made in Lightroom and not some no-name photo app. The phone is otherwise a solid yet unremarkable affair, with a 5.99-inch 2K OLED screen, a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and Gorilla Glass on both the front and back.

Samsung Galaxy S10 Smartphone

The tenth iteration of one of the world's best-selling phones, what Samsung's Galaxy S10 lacks in wow factor it makes up for in sheer competence. It has a triple camera system that lets you switch between wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses with ease, and a scene optimizer that can suggest ways to improve your shots. An ultrasonic fingerprint scanner secures the phone through the 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen, and its specs are class-leading, as usual, with a Snapdragon 855 processor, up to 12GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and larger batteries with the ability to charge a second device — like the Galaxy Buds wireless headphones — through the back of the device. Also available in a 6.4-inch Plus model.

Meizu Zero Portless Smartphone

Bluetooth audio. Wireless charging. We're moving towards a future where our phones don't have any physical buttons or openings at all — and the Meizu Zero aims to get there first. In addition to the above technologies, it takes advantage of electronic SIMs, a "wireless USB" base, in-screen sound technology that uses the entire display as a speaker, and an in-display fingerprint sensor to rid itself of any unnecessary bumps or valleys. As you'd expect, this helps towards its IP68 water and dust resistance rating, and for those worried about the absence of a power button, pressure sensors on the sides of the ceramic unibody enclosure serve as virtual buttons for both power and volume.

Caviar iPhone XS Tesla Edition

The iPhone XS is a dense object, packed with all the technology Apple could fit inside. Caviar thought they could do even better. Their Tesla edition (no relation to the car company) integrates a thin, solar-powered battery into the back of the phone, letting you charge the device anywhere there's ample light. The extension is made from carbon fiber, with a gold-plated plate at the top displaying the name of the phone and the charging indicator, and a solar panel underneath. Needless to say, you won't be walking into an Apple Store for service on this, so the company matches Apple's standard one-year warranty with one of their own.

Royole FlexPai Folding Smartphone

With Samsung and LG rumored to be unveiling their own in the coming weeks, Royole has beaten the Korean giants to the punch with the announcement of the world's first folding smartphone. Dubbed the FlexPai, it has a 7.8-inch display and a footprint that's roughly half that. It's powered by the yet-unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 processor, has 16-megapixel wide-angle and 20-megapixel telephoto cameras in its sizable bezel, and runs Water OS on top of Android 9 Pie. Available for order now, with deliveries beginning in December.

OnePlus 6T Smartphone

It doesn't have a home button, and there's no telltale circle 'round back. That's because the fingerprint sensor on the OnePlus 6T is inside the 6.41-inch Optic AMOLED screen that nearly stretches corner to corner. It's powered by a Snapdragon 845 processor with up to 8GB of RAM, charges quickly over USB-C, and has a dual camera system with studio lighting and improved low-light capabilities. It runs the lag-free OxygenOS, built atop Android 9 Pie, and is certified for use on Verizon, a first for a OnePlus handset.

Kyocera KY-01L Card Phone

Business cards remain an important tool in Japan. NTT Docomo is taking advantage of this with the release of the Kyocera KY-01L Card Phone. Hailed as the thinnest and lightest phone in the world, it's designed to fit in a business card holder. It weighs just 1.66 oz, is just 5.3mm thick, and has a 2.8-inch e-paper screen and LTE connectivity.

Palm Phone

Envisioned as a companion device for your "real" smartphone, the Palm Phone is meant to provide just enough connectivity to keep you sated while encouraging you to focus on the world around you. It's roughly the size of a credit card, so it's lighter in your pocket, uses Verizon's NumberShare so it doesn't need a separate line, and has a "Life Mode" that automatically mutes all notifications anytime you turn the screen off. It has 12MP and 8MP cameras on the rear and front and runs Android 8.1 on a 3.3-inch screen, so while it might be meant to get you off your device, you can still ruin the effect by loading it up with apps and games if you want.

Samsung Galaxy A9 Smartphone

Doubling down on the idea that two cameras are better than one, the Samsung Galaxy A9 Smartphone is the world's first smartphone with four cameras on the back. The main camera is a 24-megapixel, f/1.7 affair, and is joined by 120-degree, 8-megapixel ultra wide and 10-megapixel, 2x optical zoom telephoto shooters. Both of those have f/2.4 apertures, while the final sensor — a depth camera — is 5 megapixels and has a f/2.2 lens. The phone is otherwise a pretty typical midrange model, with Snapdragon 660 processor, 6GB of RAM, a 6.3-inch display, and 128GB of storage.

Google Pixel 3 Smartphone

Now in their third generation, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are the latest examples of Google's vision for the future of Android. Most notable are the upgrades to the camera, which was already considered by many to be the best in any smartphone. Thanks to a new Pixel Visual Core chip, it can automatically take a bunch of photos at once, combine them for HDR, and identify the best one. That's called Top Shot, while an AI-driven zoom mode — necessary because of the single rear camera — merges multiple exposures to create extra resolution. A new low-light mode is also present, as is Google Lens integration, a wide-angle selfie lens, and some new AR stickers. The screen sizes have been increased to 5.5 and 6.3 inches, but thanks to smaller bezels they're about the same size as the prior models, and for the first time, they charge wirelessly, with a whole different UI displayed while sitting on the charger. Oh, and Google Assistant can now answer suspected spam phone calls for you, letting you see what they have to say before deciding whether to block them or call back. Available on Verizon or unlocked directly from Google.

Apple iPhone XS

Apple's iPhone X redefined smartphone design, so it's little surprise that its follow-up, the iPhone XS, looks much the same. Built around the new 7nm A12 processor, it has an improved Face ID-capable TrueDepth camera system, and a dual-camera system on the back, with dual 12-megapixel shooters and larger sensors, powered by a new image signal processor that works with the neural engine for even better photos. It'll be available in Gold, as well as Space Gray or Silver, in capacities up to 512GB, and, most notably, with a 5.8-inch OLED screen, like last year's, or as a 6.5-inch OLED model dubbed the "iPhone XS Max" — a name so awful it surely has Steve Jobs rolling in his grave.