As the year 2018 draws to a close we are hoping 2019 will be an interesting one. We are also taking the chance to remind ourselves what the past twelve months brought. We'll go about it chronologically, starting with the most interesting stories from the first quarter of 2018.
The first three months of the year set the tone for what’s to come. There’s CES in early January, the MWC in late February and a variety of one-off events in between. Here are the 30 most-read news article we published between January and March.
The Galaxy S9 duo launched at a Samsung Unpacked event, but not before a torrent of rumors came out of the rumor mill. One leak proved fairly accurate in revealing the S9/S9+ memory configurations. The leak also predicted that there will be no 512GB model, Samsung left that for the Note9. The first photos we saw showed few design changes from the S8 and it looked like the screen to body ratio would remain essentially the same.
Notches were a major concern this year and people groaned at the sight of early Huawei P20 renders. Those got the notch right, but not the fact that the company kept the fingerprint reader on the bezel below the screen for both the P20 and P20 Pro (which this leaks called “Plus”).
We handled the vivo APEX at the MWC and were wowed by its in-display fingerprint reader and pop-up camera – vivo’s answer to the notch problem. But that was merely a prototype, we didn’t expect the vivo NEX S to launch just months later.
Speaking of notches, we rounded up all notched phones at the MWC for a photo shoot. Looking back at our sarcastic tone it’s clear we were still getting used to the taste of the notch. We wonder how we would have reacted if we had seen the Pixel 3 XL in February.
A mostly-accurate OnePlus 6 spec sheet sparked a lot of interest. At that point we already knew about the notch.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro made a big splash by selling 300,000 units in under 3 minutes, just two weeks after the phone launched. The interest in an extensive spec leak the day before launch already hinted this phone will be a hit.
It’s easy to forget how young New Nokia is – it was only in February when we were looking at images of the Nokia 7 plus. This would the HMD’s first 18:9 phone and it would prove to be one of its most popular models (and it already has a successor, the Nokia 8.1).
There were Nokia 8 Pro schematics that hinted at a five-cam setup. This device was rumored as “Nokia 10” first, then “8 Pro” and most recently “Nokia 9”. But rumors is all we got – the year is over and HMD’s flagship is still nowhere to be seen (the 8.1 is really more of a “7.1 plus”).
Here’s the list of the Top 30 news article from Q1 this year (in chronological order).
The Galaxy S9 will be available in 4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage options, while the Galaxy S9+ will come in 6GB RAM and 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB variants.
The company says the device is ready for mass production.
CPU performance becomes significantly lower after installing the iOS 11.2.2 update.
The phone will have two versions with different chipsets - one with SD630 and another with SD636.
The devices are expected to go on sale on March 16.
The battery capacity of the upcoming flagship will be 4,480 mAh.
Xiaomi could take the edge-to-edge display concept to a whole new level.
Redmi Note 5 is the Redmi 5 Plus; Redmi Note 5 Pro is coming with SD636 and iPhone X-like dual camera.
Will the new Samsung flagships have better StB ratio? We try to give an early answer based on leaked images.
18:9 displays and 4000mAh battery are common features but the Pro gets a dual rear camera and the new Snapdragon 636.
First photos, taken right after the announcement in New Delhi.
The phone will have advanced camera features, backing previous rumors of a penta-lens camera module.
Press renders and most specs leak six days ahead of the official announcements.
The new flagship will not be unveiled until Sunday, but new leaks are coming faster and faster.
The company says 300,000 units sold out in under three minutes, fans claim it took just several seconds.
There's a good chance that we'll see this - HMD's first 18:9 phone - will be unveiled at the MWC in a few days.
The flagship line gets a new design language to match its new 18:9 screen. The super slow-motion camera is getting an upgrade too.
So far it has been a Pixel-exclusive feature.
The photos feature the S9 and S9+ side by side and shows three of the color options.
In it, Samsung promises "up to" 4 years of security updates for enterprises.
Perfect timing to get your mind off Samsung's S9 duo and everything else that's happening at MWC.
The stills apparently originate from a trial production run at an LG factory and offer some idea regarding proportions.
The back is different too, with a repositioned camera and a new fingerprint reader compared to the 5T.
Check out the awesome tech which vivo has implemented into its all-screen Apex concept smartphone, which was revealed in Barcelona.
We've decided to do a quick shootout between the two flagships while we are still in Barcelona.
Wouldn't you know it, Apple started another design trend in the mobile world - screens with a bit cut off the top.
The naming is uncertain, but the model numbers suggest it - SM-A600 and A605. The 2018 edition of the A-series is made up of only the A8 for now.
The phone with model number A6000 will arrive with notched display and Snapdragon 845.
It's the Indian Redmi Note 5 Pro but with additional features and improvements.
The Kirin 970 is now six months old, but is it still relevant?
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