My top 5 phones of 2022 - Peter

2022 feels like a turning point – foldables are finding their feet, camera phones have reached a major milestone, brands are developing their unique identities. Here are five of the phones that impressed me the most this year, phones that will be used as yardsticks for what is to come in 2023. Google Pixel 7 Pro I’m not sure what is more surprising – that Google is still making phones or that it actually made a good one this time. The Pixel 6 series was close, but some hardware issues left it in the “maybe not” pile. Most issues have been fixed in the 2022 generation and here we...

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Tecno looking to partner with established lens maker for future products

Tecno quickly grew to become a Top 10 smartphone brand globally and most recently it revealed its ambitions to enter the premium market are no secret, you may not have noticed that the company is also positioning itself as a leader in smartphone camera innovation. And it's looking to partner with some of the photography industry's big names in taking the next step. We spoke with Tecno marketing director Mr. Laury on the occasion of the Phantom X2 launch: “For the Phantom X2 series we had consultation with the professional photographer, Rankin. He is well-known for having taken portraits of...

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Wiko 5G is now official in China as a rebranded Huawei nova 9 SE with 5G support

Huawei can't use its own chipsets, nor 5G ones from Qualcomm, thanks to various US government bans. And so all of its latest phones, including the nova 9 SE mid-ranger launched in March, have to make do with 4G-only versions of Qualcomm SoCs, which is obviously not ideal. Enter Wiko. Known before primarily in Europe, as it's of French origin, the brand has decided to enter the Chinese market. Its first device is simply called Wiko 5G, and it's a Huawei nova 9 SE with 5G support. Seriously, that's pretty much the only difference between the two - well, the design has been slightly...

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2022 Winners and losers: vivo

vivo was among the top smartphone players, even if Western markets once again only saw a fraction of its lineup. The company launched some impressive products in 2022, but it didn't go without missteps too. Winner: vivo X80 Pro The X80 series did not have a Pro+ variant, meaning the X80 Pro was the flagship this time around. It launched in April, and at the time, it was everything you would want from a flagship - the best chipset from Qualcomm (or Mediatek at home), four impressive cameras, Zeiss optics with T* lens coating, OIS, fast charging. Eight months later, it still is a phone...

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Top 10 most popular reviews of 2022: Q3

Having gone through the most popular reviews of Q1 and Q2 it's now time to recap what phones of the third quarter got your interest. Let's kick things off with some of the obvious entries on the list, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4. Samsung's foldables always generate a lot of hype, particularly the bigger Fold family and the Fold4 was no exception. After its announcement on August 10, we immediately got to work reviewing it and you, in turn paid a lot of attention. However, it is interesting to note that the Galaxy Z Flip4 didn't make the top ten. It was close, but still, it's...

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Redmi launches Watch 3, Band 2, and Buds 4 Lite in jubilant colors

Xiaomi introduced today the Redmi K60 top-tier smartphones and a new Redmi Note 12 Pro Speed midranger. The stage also saw the arrival of three smart wearable devices - a Redmi Watch 3 with a bigger screen, a new Band 2 with a thin and light body, and Buds 4 Lite in fancy colors at a low price. All of them are available for purchase in China. Redmi Watch 3 The new wearable comes with a square-ish AMOLED display that is 1.75” in diagonal. It is 341 PPI and supports a 60 Hz refresh rate, and Redmi said it could reach 600 nits brightness. The body has flat sides, similar to the...

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