Best Upcoming Smartphones of April 2016 – Expected Specs & Features

Last month at the MWC 2016, Samsung and LG had unveiled their latest flagship smartphones. Now in the April, we are going to see even more flagships from the Chinese brands. There are also few interesting smartphones from the Chinese brands that will be launched in the Indian market. While almost all the below-mentioned devices will be launched by the end of April, we can’t guarantee the availability of the devices in the same month.

• OPPO F1 Plus

OPPO has announced the high-end OPPO F1 Plus alongside the OPPO F1 in January. While the F1 is made available within the next few days, the F1 Plus is said to be launched in April. Now the company scheduled an event on April 5th where we expect OPPO to unveil the F1 Plus smartphone. The OPPO R9 that was launched on March 17 in China will be launched as OPPO F1 Plus in India, Indonesia, and few other Asian markets. The device will be priced at Rs. 26,990 and sports all-metal unibody design. It features a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) AMOLED display. Under the hood, the F1 Plus is powered by the MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz.

It has a whooping 4GB of RAM and includes 64GB of internal storage. There is an expandable storage option upto 128GB via provided MicroSD card slot. In the camera department, the F1 Plus comes with a 13MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and PDAF for fast focusing. For the selfies, it has a 16MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture and screen flash option for capturing selfies even in dark light conditions. The device is backed by a 2,850mAh battery and includes VOOC flash charging for faster charging speed. It also supports dual SIM dual standby and offer 4G LTE VoLTE along with other basic connectivity options.

• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) & Galaxy J7 (2016)

Samsung has recently launched the Galaxy J5 (2016) & Galaxy J7 (2016) in China as the successors for 2015 launched Galaxy J5 & Galaxy J7. As seen with the earlier launched Galaxy A5 (2016) & A7 (2016), we can expect the Galaxy J5 (2016) & J7 (2016) to be made available in India within the next few weeks. The device comes with a metallic frame around the device with a plastic back cover. Both these devices seem to be more focused on offering better smartphone photography. There is a laser focus rear camera and the selfie camera on the front is accompanied by an LED flash.

The J5 (2016) comes with a 5.2-inch HD Super AMOLED display while the J7 (2016) comes with bigger and better 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display. On the camera front, both the devices sport a 13MP rear camera with laser autofocus and a 5MP front camera with LED flash. The new Galaxy J7 comes with 3GB of RAM while its smaller sibling is limited to 2GB of RAM. Both the devices include 16GB, and there is a MicroSD card slot for storage expansion. Talking about the price, the Galaxy J5 (2016) costs 1398 Yuan (approx $215 / Rs. 14,300) while the Galaxy J7 (2016) comes with a price tag of 1898 Yuan (approx $292 / Rs. 19,500).

• Apple iPhone SE

Apple had finally launched the 4-inch iPhone called as iPhone SE in the developed markets. The India launch of the device is expected in the next few weeks and might also be made available in the market by the end of April. The device features the same design as iPhone 5S that was launched in 2013 but packs almost same internal as the latest iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Apart from the 3D Touch, most of the specifications remain same as in iPhone 6S and iPhone SE. It is powered by the Apple A9  processor which makes it three times powerful than the iPhone 5S. The latest iPhone includes 2GB of RAM and comes only in 16GB and 64GB storage variants.

It sports the same 12MP iSight camera that is also found on iPhone 6S which can record videos in 4K resolution. On the front is a 1.2MP FaceTime HD Camera for selfies and video calls. Even though the device lacks 3D Touch, it can capture live photos. It runs on the latest iOS 9.3 and the Home button below the display also sports the TouchID. The 16GB variant of iPhone SE is priced at $399 in the U.S and in India the same device will cost Rs. 39,000 at the time of launch. It will be available in space gray, silver, gold and rose gold color options. Few rumors also suggest the iPhone SE to be launched on April 8th in India.

• New Apple iPad Pro 9.7

Apart the above mentioned 4-inch iPhone SE, Apple also launched the smaller version of the largest iPad from Apple, the iPad Pro. While the original iPad Pro came with a 12.9-inch Retina display, the latest iPad Pro Mini will sport a smaller 9.7-inch retina display. Apart from the smaller form factor, there are no major changes in terms of design. The new iPad Pro also includes quad speakers and smart connector as on its larger sibling. The 9.7-inch Retina display comes with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels. It is powered by Apple A9X dual-core processor and includes just 2GB of RAM which is half of what 12.9-inch iPad Pro offered.

Along with 32GB and 128GB storage variants, Apple also launched the new iPad Pro with a whopping 256GB storage. For the first time, Apple has brought the 4K video recording capabilities to the iPads with this 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The 8MP rear camera on the earlier iPad Pro in upgraded to 12MP on this new iPad Pro while the 1.2MP FaceTime HD camera is replaced with a 5MP sensor. With the integrated Touch ID in the home button, it can be used for virtual payments through Apple Pay. The 32GB variant of new iPad Pro costs $599 in the U.S while in India; it is expected to be priced at Rs. 49,900.

• Meizu M3 Note

Meizu has scheduled an event on April 6th where the company is expected to launch its budget smartphone Meizu M3 Note. It will be the successor to Meizu M2 Note that was launched last year in China and India. The company still launching the device with a polycarbonate while the metal variant might be launched later as M3 Metal. As seen with the earlier devices, the Meizu M3 Note will be the larger variant of Meizu M3, which might also be launched at the same event. The device sports a 5.5-inch display with Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution.

It is powered by Helio P10 octa-core processor that was also used in the recently launched flagship smartphone Gionee S8 and also the Gionee W909 clamshell phone. There will 2GB of RAM available on M3 Note and will be available in 16GB and 32GB storage variants. The device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop with customized Flyme OS overlaid. It is backed by a 3,200mAh battery that can easily pass through a single day of usage. The 16GB variant of M3 Note will be priced at 799 Yuan (approx $123 / Rs. 8,200) while the 32GB variant costs 999Yuan (approx $154 / Rs. 10,250).

• HTC 10 (One M10)

HTC will be launching its latest flagship device HTC 10 (a.k.a One M10) in London, New York, and Taipei on April 12th. The leaked images suggest a changeover of the design compared to its predecessor One M9. From the front, the device looks more similar to the HTC One A9 and One X9, but the major change is the removal of HTC logo from the bottom front of the device. The home button placed on the front of the device houses the fingerprint sensor. The HTC 10 will be launched in two variants powered by Snapdragon 652 and Snapdragon 820 processors respectively.

Apart from the processor, RAM, and storage; the rest of the specifications remain same. The device features a 5.15-inch Super LCD 5 display with Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution. It has a 12MP rear camera with laser autofocus and dual tone LED flash. There will be 3GB and 4GB RAM variants with storage options ranging from 16GB to 128GB. The device runs on Android 6.0.1 Lollipop with the latest Sense 8.0 UI laid on top. It is said to be backed by a 3,000mAh non-removable battery. The leaked Antutu score of the HTC 10 outperformed all the recent flagships by a scoring 1,56,091.

• Vivo V3 & Vivo V3Max

Vivo will be launching the all new smartphones Vivo V3 & V3 Max in India on April 5th. Both the devices come with metal build unibody design and will feature a fingerprint sensor. According to the company, the fingerprint sensor on this device can unlock in just 0.2 seconds.  Along with India, the devices are also expected to launch in Indonesia and Malaysia. The V3 comes with 3GB RAM and 16GB internal storage while the V3 Max has 4GB RAM and 32GB storage.The TENAA listing of the V3 Max confirmed the MicroSD card slot option for expanding the storage.

Both the are variants will be powered by the 64-bit Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor. The devices will be running on Android 5.1 Lollipop with FunTouch OS overlaid. It comes with dual chip fast charging that is said to give two hours of music playback with just five minutes of charging. We expect the device to sport 13MP rear camera with PDAF and dual LED flash that can focus in just 0.2 seconds. With the optimized FunTouch OS, the camera app opens in just 0.7 seconds. For complete details of both the devices, stay tuned on our website on launch date.

• Huawei P9

From the last couple of months, we have seen many leaks about the Huawei P9 series smartphones. Recently Huawei has announced the launch date of Huawei P9 as April 6th. The device will be launched in four variants – Huawei P9, P9 Lite, P9 Max, and P9 enhanced version. While the device are expected to launch in the month of April, the problem in the dual camera made the company to delay the launch. All the variants expect the P9 Lite are said to sport dual camera setup on the back. The enhanced Huawei P9 comes with the Kirin 955 SoC along with 4GB of RAM.

The Huawei P9 and P9 Max might come with Kirin 950 Soc, while the P9 Lite is rumored to be powered by Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor. All the devices will be running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box with customized EMUI laid on top. Like the recent Huawei Nexus 6P, the P9 series also comes with a USB Type-C port and includes a fingerprint on the rear. Based on the recent leaks, the P9 series devices will be made available within a week after the launch.