It’s been a wild year in the smartphone world so far, but we’re hardly done. While we may be more than half way through 2012 at this point, there are certainly a nice chunk of smartphones that we’re eagerly awaiting. We’re going to take you through our top 5 picks in the list below, so read on!
New iPhone
Odd that I didn’t call it iPhone 5? Well, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple decided to go the way of the New iPad and call its next handset the New iPhone. But that’s not even half the story.
The next iPhone is rumored to be rocking a 4-inch display, along with a new docking connector, and somewhat new design if the “leaks” turn out to be right on the money. Easily the most anticipated phone in the world right now, the New iPhone tops the list, but it’s certainly not alone.
Google Nexus
We recently highlighted that the Galaxy Nexus will soon turn a year old in the next couple of months, which means that Google is likely getting ready to unleash the next handset of the Nexus family. While rumors have been swirling around that the search giant could indeed launch multiple Nexus devices by the end of the year, we at least know that we can expect one Pure Google handset come our way soon.
It’s hard to peg what the next Nexus will bring to the table, but we tried, and came out with a reasonable (for today) set of specs that the device might bring along. We could see an even bigger screen than the Galaxy Nexus’ 4.65 inch display, as much as we’d like it to stay the same, along with an NVIDIA Tegra 3+ or Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, and more. Of course, we still have to wait and find out, but we wouldn’t be mad at all if these specs made it into the next Nexus.
Galaxy Note II
So you thought a weird tablet hybrid would interest no one? Well, Samsung has proved the world wrong with the original Galaxy Note, and the next iteration of the device is destined to grab even more attention.
Said to ship with an even larger display, the Galaxy Note II will fill the gap between your smartphone and 7 inch tablet. The display, which could end up getting boosted to 5.5 inches might be rocking a 1680×1050 resolution. That kind of resolution would give the Galaxy Note II a whopping 360 ppi. Hell, the device may even ship with a flexible AMOLED display.
Droid RAZR HD
While it might be the 3rd Droid RAZR handset to come out in less than a year, the Droid RAZR HD is the one to get excited about. Said to keep the big battery from the RAZR Maxx, and boost the CPU and display, the HD version of Motorola’s latest flagship handset could certainly win over quite a few people.
We can’t say we’ve ever been in love with Motorola’s software, but judging from recently released devices like the Atrix HD, Motoblur, or whatever you choose to call it , it’s more usable than ever.
Nokia Lumia ( Windows Phone 8 )
While existing Windows Phone handsets won’t get the bump to Windows Phone 8, die-hard fans (if there are any) are probably looking forward to Nokia’s next flagship hands running the upcoming mobile OS.
We don’t exactly know what to expect from Nokia, who could announce the upcoming handset (s) next month. We definitely liked the design of the Lumia 900, but we do hope that’s not the only nice looking handset Nokia can come up with.
Windows Phone 8 will be quite a nice upgrade from previous version and it, with the combination of Windows 8 for computers, will likely boost sales of the currently floundering mobile OS.
Honorable Mentions
HTC One X+
While there’s nothing official about the handset, rumors have been floating around pertaining to a HTC One X refresh for T-Mobile. Said refresh would include NVIDIA’s Tegra 3+ quad-core (4 PLUS 1) processor, with a clock speed of 1.7GHz.
Word to RIM: BlackBerry 10 would probably be in this list if it wasn’t delayed until next year. Just saying.
So those are our tops picks, what about yours? Leave down the phones you’re most excited for in the comments below!