IFA 2018 round-up, all new smartphone announcements
As we know, the biggest European tech show, IFA has started on August 31 and will end on September 5. The Event takes place in Berlin every year. So, let’s see this time what the IFA 2018 have brought for the smartphone lovers.
Blackberry, Huawei, HTC, LG, Lenovo or Motorola, Sony, and ZTE has participated in the IFA 2018 congress. Some other brands also revealed the launch date of their upcoming smartphones. Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi had launched their mobile phones ahead of the IFA congress. However, the largest mobile brand, Samsung didn’t take part in this show.
Here is the list of smartphones announced at the occasion of IFA 2018.
Sony Xperia XZ3
Sony Xperia XZ3 is now the star in the IFA show 2018. It is one from the high-end smartphones of the year. The handset has launched with Android 9.0 (Pie), 6.0 inches OLED Display, QHD+ resolution, Snapdragon 845 chipset, Adreno 630 GPU, 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, 19MP rear camera with 5-axis gyro EIS, Super Slow-mo Full HD videos at 960fps, 13MP Selfie Camera, Face ID, and a 3300mAh battery with Fast and Wireless Charging Support. Sony Xperia XZ3 Price starts from $800 which is at least hundred dollars expensive than the previous Xperia XZ2.
ZTE Axon 9 Pro
ZTE Axon 9 is still rumored while the Axon 9 Pro has launched at IFA 2018. It is another big launch. The Pro smartphone gets a 6.21 inches AMOLED Display, FHD+ resolution, Dual Rear Cameras, 20MP HDR Selfie Camera, Snapdragon 845 chipset, Adreno 630 GPU, 6GB RAM, 128GB ROM, and 4000mAh battery with both, fast and wireless charging options.
Blackberry Key2 LE
Blackberry launched the cheaper option of the Key2 smartphone, the Blackberry Key2 LE. It comes with a 4.5-inch screen, QWERTY keypad, IPS LCD Display, FHD resolution, Android 8.1 (Oreo), Dual 13MP + 5MP Rear Camera setup, 8MP Selfie Camera, Snapdragon 636 chipset, Adreno 509 GPU, 4GB RAM, 32GB ROM, and a 3000mAh battery. Blackberry Key2 is priced at $650 whereas the Key2 LE price starts from $400.
Huawei Mate 20 series and Honor devices
Huawei made official Mate 20 Lite for the global market. The device has a 6.3 inches display, 19.5:9 screen aspects, FHD+ resolution, Android 8.1 (Oreo), EMUI 8.2, Quad Camera Setup (dual rear and dual front), Kirin 710 chip, Mali-G51 GPU, 6GB RAM, 64GB Storage, and a 3750mAh battery with Fast Charging Support.
Huawei announced the Kirin 980 chipset for the incoming Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro. The brand has also confirmed that the Mate 20 series would be unveiled on October 16, 2018. The Kirin 980 is the first HiSilicon’s 7nm processor chip which supports Dual NPUs (Neural Processing Units), LRDDR4X RAM, Cortex-A76 CPU cores, Mali-G76 GPU, and LTE Cat.21 modem to deliver up to 1.4Gbps higher download speed.
Huawei sub-brand Honor released Honor Note 10 and Honor Play for the international market. The former first is a flagship smartphone while the later one is a budget-friendly device. Huawei also teased the Honor Magic 2 which would have Slide-out Camera setup and FullView Display.
HTC U12 Life
HTC introduced the U12 Life at the stage of IFA 2018. It is the downgraded version of the HTC U12 Plus which was released in June, 2018. The device has a 6.0-inch FHD+ Display, Dual Rear Cameras, 13MP Selfie Shooter, Snapdragon 636 chipset, Adreno 509 GPU, 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, and 3600mAh battery.
LG G7 One, G7 Fit and LG Candy
LG launched three new smartphones at the IFA congress 2018. LG G7 One and G7 Fit are the flagship phones whereas the LG Candy is a cheap device. The G7 One and G7 Fit have Snapdragon 835 and 821 chipsets respectively while the LG Candy has a Mediatek SoC.
Motorola One and One Power
Lenovo unveiled Motorola One and One Power in this Berlin tech show. Both are Android One smartphones running on Android Oreo which would be updated to Android Pie later on. Motorola One sports 5.9 inches display, SD625 chip and 3000mAh battery. On the other hand, Motorola One Power has 6.2 inches display, SD636 chip and 5000mAh battery.
Motorola One Power is launched as Moto P30 Note in China. The only main difference between One Power and P30 Note is ZUK 4.1 user interface. Motorola P30 Note is also called the successor version of the Moto P30.
Other Devices that launched in August ahead of IFA show 2018
Oppo Realme 2, Realme 2 Pro, Oppo R17, R17 Pro and Oppo F9 Pro are the nice affordable smartphones, sadly which couldn’t participate in the IFA congress. Xiaomi Pocophone F1 is the ever best budget smartphone with Snapdragon 845 chipset but it missed the 2018 IFA event. Vivo Y83 Pro is also a nice mid rang device. Lenovo Tab P10, Tab M10, Tab E7, Tab E8 and Tab E10 are the cheaper tablet options, even the Tab E7 starts with a price tag of $70 with Android Go (Oreo Edition).
Apple, Meizu, and Oneplus didn’t attend the IFA event, as they often launch their flagship phones in a separate event in September or October. The possible upcoming high-end smartphones by the aforesaid brands are iPhone XS, iPhone XS Plus, Meizu 16X, and Oneplus 6T or Oneplus 7.