Phone Reviews

It has become harder and harder to define what constitutes a flagship phone these days. Technically speaking, any phone that becomes the brand's foremost product is considered its flagship. On a practical level, however, those are often the phones boasting high-end features that usually come with a matching price tag. It's in that latter context that Realme is bringing out its own flagship killer with a slightly different formula than those flagships. But does the Realme GT Neo 2 really have what it takes to take on those high-end smartphones, or is it just marketing-speak? We give it a good shake to find out.

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The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are Apple's 2021 smartphones for the mainstream, progressive upgrades that avoid huge changes in favor of welcome refinement. Unlike last year, though, this year's iPhone 13 family feels like it covers a broader spread, with Apple saving some of the key improvements for its more expensive devices.

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Photography has been a core focus of smartphones for the past years, with companies competing on imaging features that often revolve around pixel counts. Both consumers and manufacturers have become smarter and have started putting the focus on other aspects of digital photography, like HDR, low-light performance, and, of course, the all-famous portrait mode or bokeh simulation. Smartphone makers have even partnered with known camera or lens companies to back up their claims. Of all the major phone brands, Vivo has been working hard on raising its profile in that category, so we took the new Vivo X70 Pro+ for a test drive to see if its camera chops are all that the company makes it out to be.

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Great cameras, great performance, a great screen, and a great battery to power it all: Apple's recipe for the iPhone 13 Pro is fairly straightforward this year. Then again, like some of the best meals, simplicity can be the hardest thing to achieve. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max aren't short on fancy garnish, but the biggest question is whether, at their core, they're enough to sate your appetite for a not-inexpensive upgrade.

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The big Chinese brands are making waves in the smartphone market, but not all consumers might be aware these have sub-brands catering to specific audiences. Xiaomi's Redmi has long targeted the affordable mid-range market while OPPO's realme tries to appeal to younger audiences. iQOO, by comparison, has its roots in Vivo and has been catering to mobile gamers since it launched two years ago. That objective is reflected in the latest iQOO 7 Legend, mixing performance with the aesthetic marks of a car brand best known for its sports cars.

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The future makes skeptics of us all, and folding phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 still face an uphill battle. While the third generation of the range-topping foldable costs less than its predecessor, at $1,800 it's still a laptop-priced commitment to a form factor that remains controversial. Samsung's strategy - throwing the works at the Fold 3 in the hope that something sticks - doesn't necessarily help there.

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The Realme brand was created to specifically target a younger demographic, customers that don't always have the resources to buy the latest and greatest smartphones. More often than not, these users are willing to compromise on some things as long as they get the features that are important to them. In that context, the Realme GT Master Edition seems like the perfect compromise for such a crowd, especially with a quirky design that is meant to appeal to travel-forlorn youngsters. We take a deep dive to see how many compromises Realme had to make and if the essentials that the Realme GT Master Edition offers are enough to make up for them.

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Some ideas make sense straight away, and others need a little time to ferment: three generations in, and the Samsung Galaxy Flip 3 is a much more accessible version of foldable phones, and maybe the first time the technology feels something other than a gimmick. At $999, it's also half the price of the bigger, more eye-catching Galaxy Z Fold 3, though that seems less like a compromise than it does a question of attitude.

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Spun off from OPPO, Realme's mission has always been to cater to the younger generation of smartphone users, a generation whose lifestyles took a dramatic downward turn last year due to the pandemic. Realizing the need to blend young people's smartphone obsessions with the new normal, Realme set out to introduce the Realme GT Explorer Master Edition with a unique design meant to make people long for better days. We take the special edition premium for a spin to see if it is more than just a pretty face.

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Google's a-series phones have always been the pick of the Pixel range, and the new Pixel 5a with 5G is no different. Straying little from the recipe of minimalistic hardware and design, balanced performance, and a knock-out camera, this latest addition to the affordable end of the spectrum may not use Google's homegrown Tensor chip as the upcoming Pixel 6 promises, but it also costs just $449.

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The allure of what you can't ordinarily have is strong. The smartphone world isn't short on options, whether your interests lie in photography, mobile gaming, or 5G connectivity, and yet the idea that there could be something more, something typically out of reach, is a compelling one. How else to explain Qualcomm's Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, a $1,499 promise of the things other phone-makers wouldn't let you buy.

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Throughout all the changes that smartphones have undergone through the years, one thing that has remained constant, a least in the past few generations, has been the focus on better cameras. Almost just as important as the software user experience, the ability of these personal computers in our pockets to create a visual record of our lives has proven to be of importance to people from all walks of life.

No smartphone maker has been able to turn a blind eye on that trend and this year, Vivo has gone all out on the X60 Pro+ and we take it for a test run to see if its combination of high-end sensors and the ZEISS name is all that it's cut out to be.

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