My thirst and curiosity for new smartphones has diminished over the years: after reviewing my share of models and using a handful of them personally, I’ve reached a point where the excitement has mostly left the room. That said, there are still a few areas where the developments manage to strike a spark in the heart of this otherwise emotionless reviewer – not enough to motivate a purchase, but just enough to keep him going.
Always eager for more types, I’m still looking for the right foldable to offer the most tablets in the smallest amount of smartphones and we are getting closer to that goal. Meanwhile, a lingering fascination with photography despite the now-abandoned quest to master the craft means that even the unusual smartphone cameras are at least a little endearing. And then ultimately there are the phones that I buy to use, and that group has traditionally had no overlap with the previous two. Let’s try to make a list.
Oppo Find N2
At about 40 grams less than the previous generation, the weight of the newly announced Find N2 is now at the normal level of a large smartphone. The latest of the foldable packages includes a small smartphone with a reasonable form factor at the front and a compact tablet once the Flexion hinge is open. It’s a game of proportions with these designs, and discoveries bring them closer together Right than anyone else.
A common tradeoff with foldables is to sacrifice the latest advances in photo shooting simply because there’s no room for the hardware in these necessarily thin bodies. This is of course still the case with the Find N2, but this generation’s specs are a little less lacklustre – larger sensor telephoto and ultrawide, more AF on the latter – furthering the Find’s viability as an all-rounder a notch above the N. (1)’S.
Now, all that’s left is an “international” firmware and official availability outside of China. All in due course, I guess.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is in a similar limbo unavailable to Westerners, but it still makes it into this list, because it’s possibly the best cameraphone out there. Unlike the Mi 11 Ultra, the 12S is aimed at its Chinese home market and we Europeans will have to wait a little longer for a fully functional phone with a (fully usable) 1-inch camera sensor.
But it’s not just the main camera here: the ultrawide and telephoto, repurposed as well as they may be from the previous generation, are also tough to compete, making for a truly remarkable trio. Perhaps Xiaomi will only release the odd-numbered Ultras to the world – one can only hope for a global 13 Ultra, when the time comes.
ZTE Axon 40 Ultra
Which brings us to the ZTE Axon 40 Ultra. A solid phone in its entirety, it’s not here because it’s such a complete package – no, the reason is more specific. In a world of 24mm (equivalent) main cameras, the Axon opts for a 35mm one and it makes a substantial difference in the kind of images it takes. The altered perspective, the extra bokeh, the natural portraits – that camera is a unique selling point.
A camera doesn’t make a phone, however, and for all its overall integrity, the Axon 40 Ultra can’t be everyone’s phone, in the same way a Galaxy or an iPhone does. All that’s left now is for one of the bigwigs to make a 35mm (or so) large-sensor camera, either as the “main” camera or alongside a more conventional 24mm unit.
TecnoPhantom X2 Pro
There is another amazing one-trick pony camera phone will be released in 2022, and it is the Tecno Phantom X2 Pro. As difficult to swallow in terms of user interface as any other Tecno or Infinix (at least from the point of view of this particular reviewer), and not quite great in many other respects, the Phantom X2 Pro features a unique pop-up 65mm vertical camera.
We’ve explored it in detail and found that it produces results unmatched by the smartphones of the day – for quite specific tasks and rigorously compared to smartphones, but it’s the smartphones you carry in your pocket and not that 85/1.4 or whatever other optical monstrosity that dreams at night.
So yeah, another entry in the category of “intriguing single camera in a phone you wouldn’t end up getting.”
Google Pixel 7 Pro
What I got was the Pixel 7 Pro. A phone without a particularly impressive single camera, the slowest charging, the network limits where I live (since it’s not officially sold), and the feature limits where I live (read above) as well as what is a somewhat bland version of the UI to begin with.
Those are not new… peculiarities. But despite all of them (and a number of well-documented hardware problems over the years), the Pixel, as a concept, has had an enduring appeal to me. I still fondly remember the last one I had, the small-sized Pixel 3: they don’t make them like they used to. Strangely, no intermediate model has managed to capture that intangible attraction (inexplicable too much, some colleagues would say) and promote it to a moment of change of hands.
Well, this one did, and a certain discount can claim some of the responsibility. But a lot hinges on whether the sum of the Pixel 7 Pro’s goodness this year and the appeal of #teampixel ultimately outweigh its flaws (which I’m not blind to and accept). Sure, a weird way to culminate a top 5 list, but hey, it is what it is.
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