Top stories of 2019: Q2
As the year winds down it’s a great time to reflect on the top stories of the past 12 months. This is the second of four installments where we look at the stories that shaped this year. Here are the top stories of Q1 in case you missed those.
It’s now time to look at the second quarter of 2019, which had a good amount of capable smartphones released and also a good amount of drama that is still not resolved.
The reasonably-priced flagship segment got a kick in Q2 with the release of the ubiquitous OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro and the Redmi K20 and K20 Pro from Xiaomi.
OnePlus was first and its 7 Pro was more than just another never-settling flagship killer. This was OnePlus’ own premium phone and it had the Quad HD HDR10+ 90Hz curved display and triple camera to prove it.
The OnePlus 7 Pro was a true all-out effort but it didn’t mean OnePlus had given up on the reasonable flagship. It announced the OnePlus 7 alongside the Pro with the same Snapdragon 855 but no ultrawide or telephoto cameras.
Xiaomi laid its claim to the budget flagship slice with the Redmi K20 Pro – the spiritual successor to the Pocophone F1. Specs-wise it was more of a match for the OnePlus 7 than the Pro but had better battery life, faster charging and a better price.
And then there were the motorized cameras. First came the Samsung Galaxy A80 with an upward-moving flip-out camera module with a 48MP main camera and 8MP ultrawide. The notch-less 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen was great and the device was no slouch thanks to a Snapdragon 730 and 8GB of RAM. Its 3,700mAh battery had a 90 hour endurance rating and was capable of 25W charging.
The Asus Zenfone 6 offered its own take on the flip-out camera a month later. Its 48MP regular and 13MP ultrawide module flipped outward from the rear. It was an amusing sight and and interesting way to avoid a notch. The Zenfone 6 was a proper flagship with a Snapdragon 855 chipset with up to 8GB of RAM. What made it stand out, however, was the 5,000mAh battery.
A true year-defining event happened in Q2 as the US put Huawei on its Entity list, effectively banning US companies from trading with it. That led to Google revoking Huawei’s license to its services, which resulted in a crippling blow to its 2019 smartphone plans. Without Google services on its future phones, Huawei would lose on lucrative markets like Europe and instead would need to rely solely on China.
Huawei has since gotten a temporary license to use US-originating technology but it has still not been able to get Google Services back onto its Android phones, which explains the limited release of its H2 flagship and generally lowering presence in the international smartphone market.
Qualcomm announced the upper-midrange Snapdragon 730 and 665, which would go on to power a lot of the most successful phones of the year.
It was during Q2 that we got our first whiff of the upcoming Galaxy Note10 thanks to renders and two screen protectors. The leaks hit quite close to home, revealing the centered selfie punch-hole camera and general squarish design.
Google released the Pixel 3a and 3a XL with the same great cameras as the Pixel 3 and 3 XL, 3.5mm headphone jacks and a $399 starting price that was hard to beat.
Xiaomi made its Mi Band 4 official with a larger, colored screen and NFC for contactless payments.
That’s it for Q2. Stick around as the recap of July, August and September is coming.
This edition comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage.
Redmi K20 also makes an appearance with SD730; both phones to have sweet price tags.
The vanilla will have dual cameras, the Pro variant will have a triple setup.
OnePlus went all out on the Pro, but didn’t completely neglect the 7.
If the OnePlus 7 Pro is too pricey, this offers the same performance (including UFS 3.0 storage), stereo speakers too.
It comes with a pop-up selfie cam, HDR10+ QHD screen and stereo speakers.
It will flaunt a notchless display having a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels.
Asus was careful with the compromises it made to build what some will consider a dream phone.
The smartphone will come with a slider mechanism along with rotating cameras.
And we get confirmation regarding the Mi 9T branding as well (sort of).
Chip companies, including Intel and Qualcomm, also begin to cut supply to the Chinese maker.
This affects more than just Huawei – consumers, Android, Google, even competitors will have to deal with the fallout from this.
In the short span of a week, key Huawei partners have cut ties with the company in what could be a devastating blow.
Reports claim that Huawei is already testing a Sailfish-based OS on its devices.
The “Demon King” will offer top-notch performance.
Reverse wireless charging will be faster – 10W over 5W.
Asus was careful with the compromises it made to build what some will consider a dream phone.
Once the slider goes up, the rear camera can be rotated 180° to become a selfie camera.
The pop-up mechanism lifts the rear camera and rotates it to face forward. This leaves the 6.7″ AMOLED screen free of notches and holes.
The 730 is up to 25% faster than a 710, but the G version disappoints despite higher clocks. The 665, meanwhile, struggles to beat the old 660.
The 665 is the successor to the 660, while the 730 comes to replace the 710, presumably.
It’s identical to the Galaxy Note10, except that it has a larger screen and an extra camera at the back.
The punch hole design is coming to the flagship Pixels.
However, Huawei doesn’t blame Google.
The new Mi Band 4 brings plenty of new features at an affordable price.
The upcoming Galaxy Note will come in at least two sizes.
The Chinese company might soon be officially taken off the entities list entirely as well.
The renders confirm the rumors of Samsung ditching the headphone jack on the Galaxy Note10.
The exclusive summer color is now on sale for Chinese users.
The 3.5mm audio jack makes a comeback!
