Google turned the Android market on its head with the launch of the Pixel smartphones yesterday.
After years of pushing the Nexus devices as a ‘pure Android experience’, Google has finally decided to take things in its own hands and enter the smartphone hardware game.
This presents a very interesting situation for the rest of the manufacturers. OEM's like Samsung and HTC are under threat from Google's first hardware, but so is Apple. The Pixel and Pixel XL truly represent a pivotal turning point in the Android vs iPhone battle. (You can see hoe the Pixel compares to the iPhone 7 here)
The Pixel smartphones will be available from October end in India. However, if you can't wait that long or the Pixel smartphones don't excite you, we have it covered. Here we present the 5 best alternatives to the Google Pixe. (And yes, we have included the iPhone!)
Also read : Here’ how much Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL will cost in India; When you can get them
5 Best Premium Smartphones in India.
1/5 Samsung Galaxy S7
The Galaxy S7 is equipped with a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display, the Exynos 8890 octa-core chipset and a 3,000mAh battery.
For many years, Samsung was known for making plasticky handsets with mediocre build quality and uninspired designs. All this changed though with the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge, ushering in a svelte metal and glass design that stunned many. The design of the S7 is an evolution of the same and is extremely premium.
The Galaxy S7 comes with a 12MP ISOCELL and a 5MP front camera. Both cameras are one of the best cameras on any smartphone to date. The rear camera is great for low-light photography and excels in well-lit situations.
Both cameras have an aperture of f/1.7 and the rear camera features dual-pixel technology for faster auto-focus in low light conditions.
The device runs on Samsung’s own TouchWiz UI running atop Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Finally, the S7 brings back water resistance and microSD card support which was missing from the Galaxy S6.
2/5 iPhone 7
Apple's latest spin on the iPhone rocks an aluminum body, much like the iPhone 6S.
The ugly antenna lines are a thing of the past now with Integrated Antennas and the iPhone 7/ iPhone 7 Plus also come with a new 'Jet Black' finish that looks incredibly suave.
The Camera on the iPhone 7 received a complete overhaul and now comes with a new 6-element lens, a wider aperture of f/1.8 that absorbs 50 per cent more light, and an all new high speed 12-megapixel sensor that is 60 per cent faster than the iPhone 6S.
Apple has upgraded its A-series processor to the A10 Fusion. It's a quad-core setup that is said to be 40% faster than the A9 and two times faster than the A8 seen in the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6, respectively. The GPU looks to triple the performance of the A8 and will be more battery-friendly than previous iterations.
As expected, Apple has done away with the headphone jack, and audio is routed digitally through the lightning port. Apple also launched a new version of the EarPods which connect through the lightning port.
The Phone 7 costs Rs 60,000 for the 32GB model, 70,000 for the 128GB model and 80,000 for the 256 GB model.
3/5 OnePlus 3
Featuring a gorgeous full metal uni-body design, OnePlus 3 finally doesn't just pack flagship level specifications, but also looks the part.
OnePlus has truly gone all out with the OnePlus 3, packing Snapdragon's most powerful processor - the 820, 6GB of RAM, a 3,000 mAh battery and 64GB internal storage.
Additionaly, the OnePlus 3 packs a 5.5-inch full HD 'Optic' AMOLED display, runs on Oxygen OS running atop Android Marshmallow and on the imaging side, features a 16MP rear camera with a Sony PDAF sensor and a 8MP front camera.
Realizing its mistakes, the company has packed NFC and QuickCharging (Dash Charge, in OnePlus speak), both of which were missing in the OnePlus 2, in the One Plus 3. Basically, we have everything and the kitchen sink packed in a gorgeous and svelte chassis.
4/5 Moto Z
The Moto Z, which is undoubtedly Motorola’s most exiting smartphone in recent years, comes packed to the gills with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera with OIS and 4K recording, a 5MP front shooter and a 2,600mAh battery along with TurboCharging support.
The ‘Worlds thinnest premium smartphone’ comes with a 5.5-inch QuadHD display protected by corning gorilla glass, a sleek and suave metal/glass body and unlimited feature expansion through Motorola’s Moto Mods.
Talking about the camera setup in detail, the 13MP rear camera has an aperture of f/1.8, zero shutter lag, optical image stabilisation, a dual LED flash and laser auto-focus. The front 5MP camera is shared with the Moto Z Play and Motorola claims has improved low light capabilities.
5/5 Xiaomi Mi 5
Until the launch of the OnePlus 3, the Xiaomi Mi 5 was considered the best handset in its price range. However, even today the Mi 5 is an extremely competent smartphone and is worth the buy.
It features a 5.15-inch fullHD display, a 1,3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of non-expandable internal storage and a 3,000mAh battery.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 comes with a 16MP rear camera, with optical image stabilization and a 4MP wide-angle front camera. On the software front, the device runs on Xiaomi’s own MIUI 7 running atop Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 supports 4G LTE, 3G, 2G, GPS/A-GPS, Bluetooth 4.1, USB OTG and comes with a USB Type C port for charging and data transfer.
