Best upcoming phones of 2016

By Alex Angove

Last updated 31 March 2016

We've already had some great phones hit shelves in 2016; the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, and the LG G5 is right around the corner.

That being said, the 2016 party is just getting started. There are plenty of big names who are yet to make an entrance. So, what are the upcoming stars right now?

Tired of waiting around?

If you're up for a new phone already, it's usually best to just go with whatever is on the market. After all, there's always a new device just around the corner, so you may end up delaying indefinitely. Check out some of the newer phones that previously held pride of place in this article, until they finally came out.

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

Expected Sept 2016

It’s a bit early to know anything about the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus. Of course, rumours abound, but we’re going to have to wait until sometime around September to find out what’s really true, and what’s wishful thinking. That being said, let’s take a look at some of the more popular bits of goss’ floating around right now.

The craziest bit of buzz is that neither of the new iPhones will have a standard headphone jack. That means none of your standard headphones will be able to plug in to the phone without some sort of adapter. We're seriously hoping this one isn't true.

Probably second on the weird list is the dual-lens camera. This wouldn't be the first phone with two lenses, just recently the LG G5 debuted with a similar setup, but it doesn't seem very "Apple" to adopt this approach. Still, leaked images have surfaced in multiple places, which at least lends a little credence to the tale.

One that hasn't been 'leaked' but has to be a no-brainer right now is storage space. If Apple doesn't ditch the 16GB starting model, and kick things off with 32GB, there are going to be a lot of unhappy campers out there, considering it's 2016 and all.

Other than that, expect a new design, general hardware improvements, and the same two different screen sizes (4.7 inch and 5.5 inch).

Samsung Galaxy Note 6

Expected August 2016

Not much is confirmed about the Note 6. It will probably hit shelves in August, just like the Note 5 did last year, but rumours abound that it could be even earlier.

One bit of goss suggests a huge 6GB of RAM – a 50% rise on the current Note 5.

Expect Samsung to stick with the 5.7 inch display. While it might be bigger, thanks to the introduction of the 5.5 inch Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has proved reluctant to go bigger than this with previous phones. Correctly so, 6 inch phablets always seemed destined for failure.

The camera will probably be some minor improvements over the one found on the S7 and S7 Edge. As such, it’ll probably be one of the best, if not the best shooter on the market at the time of its release.

HTC One M10

Expected super soon

HTC’s next flagship is right around the corner, so much so that HTC has started teasing it on their Twitter account.

Year after year, the only thing that has held HTC’s flagship phones back has been the camera. The One M7 had a decent shooter, but not as good as its contemporary Samsung competitor. The M8’s camera had barely any discernible improvements (making it a good year behind the pack), and last year’s M9 was somehow a step backwards.

This time around, HTC is boasting “World First, World Class, Front and Back” for the M10’s camera. If true, the HTC M10 stands a chance of being one of the best phones on the market, but can HTC deliver?

New Motos

Expected... at some point

This one is a giant “who knows?” All that seems certain is that we’ll see a new suite of phones from Moto this year and that they’ll probably be scandalously affordable. All we can do beyond that is extrapolate from past models.

In 2015, Moto finally started putting decent cameras on its phones. Until then, photo quality had been the number one flaw in their otherwise fantastic approach to phone design.

Hopefully, this means that Moto realised its problem, and has continued working towards better cameras.

Last year we saw one Moto G and two Moto X phones, with no Moto E. There’s no way to tell if this trend will continue, but we hope to see the return of the plucky little budget model in 2016. It really was a great device for folks on a tight budget.

Sony Xperia Z6

Take a seat and pour out a forty. Reportedly, Sony is getting out of the smartphone game. Chances seem high that we’ve seen the last of the ill-fated Sony Xperia line.

Rest in peace.

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