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Imagining A Perfect Frankenstein Phone With Existing Flagship Parts

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Ben Sin

Last week I compiled a list of my favorite smartphones of the year. Because I am a diehard fan of the NBA, I ranked the phones in order of greatness (it's what us hardcore sports fans do -- argue about who ranks above who).

Much to my surprise, the article has been attracted quite a bit of media attention from Chinese media in China and Hong Kong.

Apple Daily, which western readers may know as the company behind those goofy animated news bits,  even called me today for a quote to explain why I ranked so and so over so and so.

As I made clear in my original article -- the list was by no means meant to be a definitive "best smartphones" list, instead it is my personal favorites based on various factors. I also mentioned that the top four sports were very, very close -- there isn't much of a gap between the number one and number four phone, for example. 

And even though I gave the top spot to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, this doesn't mean I find the phone flawless, or that it beats, say, the fifth ranked Note 8 in every aspect. In fact, each of the top phones are such magnificent pieces of gadgetry that I struggle to decide which to make as my daily driver (aka main phone) for over a week before making the purchase.

So as I explained to Apple Daily today about why I ranked certain phone ahead of others, I started thinking "wouldn't it perfect if I could combine these top four or five phones together into one perfect phone?"

We're venturing into fantasy territory here -- I'm essentially playing the role of Doctor Frankenstein and putting together a monster of a phone with specific parts of other devices -- but it's a fun little exercise (for gadget geeks, at least). So I spent the afternoon brainstorming; I even whipped out the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro and drew some sketches.

I thought I'd share that here. If I could build my perfect smartphone using current top flagships, this is how it'd look:

Display panel: Samsung Galaxy Note 8/S8+, with Razer Phone's refresh rate

Ben Sin

Some have declared the iPhone X's OLED panel as the industry best due to its color accuracy, but I am giving the "best display on earth" championship belt to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. It gets the brightest, with the punchiest colors, and that subtle curve on the left and right side make for a very cool "images spilling off the edge of the phone" effect (not to mention it makes the phone ever so slimmer).

Ben Sin

I'm combining both the Note 8 and S8+ here because although I want the Note 8's superior brightness, I like the S8+'s rounder corners.

Finally, I want the phone to have 120Hz refresh rate like on the Razer Phone because, damn, that display is smooth.

Overall front of device: iPhone X, but with the notch filled out

Ben Sin

I want the front of the phone to have that near all-screen look of the iPhone X (including virtually no bottom bezel), but instead of that notch that looks like it's cut into the screen, I'd rather just fill the rest of it like a traditional top bezel. The reason I'm going with the iPhone X's top bezel instead of the LG V30's slimmer top bezels is because I want that row of sensors that make up Apple's TrueDepth Camera system, which is what allows for Face ID and Animojis. Without the notch, apps can look normal even without optimized, and crucial information like battery percentage can be fully visible at all times unlike on the X right now. But as mentioned in the display panel portion, I want the left and right side of the display to curve a bit a la Samsung phones.

Back: Huawei Mate 10 Pro's entire back

Ben Sin

Totally personal opinion here, but I think the Mate 10 Pro's back is more refined and attractive than other phones' this year. For one, there's barely any camera bump on the Mate 10 Pro, unlike on the iPhone X. What adds to the pleasing aesthetics, however, is that both lens on the Mate 10 Pro are completely symmetrical in position and shape and size. Look at the LG V30 and the Galaxy Note 8 by comparison, and you see cameras that not fully symmetrical ( the V30 has one lens that's noticeably larger/wider than the other, and the Note 8's cameras are a bit off center to make room for that terribly-placed fingerprint reader.

Ben Sin

I also like the dark silver finish on the Mate 10 Pro with the subtle visor over the lens.

Internal hardware: Either Mate 10 Pro or iPhone X

I want either Kirin 970 with its dedicated NPU or Apple's A11 chip with a "neural engine" built-in. Both are more powerful and capable than Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835.

Camera: Mate 10 Pro and iPhone X again

As mentioned, I want the X's TrueDepth camera set-up up front, but on the back I'm going with the Mate 10 Pro's dual camera set-up and all the software goodies that come with it. I've gone in depth as to why I like Huawei's cameras in my previous reviews and articles here, here and here.

Software: Google Pixel 2 XL with Nova Launcher Prime over it

I want the latest and newest Android update, which one can only get from the Pixel series, but I find stock Android too lacking in customization and vanilla (for example, the Pixel 2 forces the Google search bar to sit above the dock on the phone and it can't be moved anywhere else ... what type of controlling, restricting nonsense is this, Google? You trying to turn into iOS or what?)

The solution is to slap Nova Launcher Prime on it so I can fill out the homescreen anyway I see fit and have access to things like being able to swipe down from anywhere on the screen for the notification panel or double tap to lock the phone.

Battery: Mate 10 Pro

One of the key reasons I put the Mate 10 Pro number one on my list is because it has the best battery life by far of any phone. The 4,000 mAh cell could power me through an entire day, which Samsung and LG phones definitely cannot. Even the iPhone X, which in previous versions have great battery life, couldn't really last me a full day consistently.

Additional software features: LG V30's various unlocking methods and Always On Display

Now I'm loving this new trend of phones going all-screen up front, with fingerprint reader going to the back (or in Apple's case, completely removed), but one downfall is that this does make these phones more of a hassle to unlock when it's sitting flat on a desk. For Apple's phone, you'll have to either lean over the phone in an awkward manner so it can scan your face, or just suck it up and use the PIN code unlock, which requires you to press the power button, swipe on the homescreen, wait for the phone to stop scanning for a face, and then input a six digit PIN code. The entire process takes at least five seconds, which is absurd if you think about it.

On a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or Huawei Mate 10 Pro, you don't have to wait for Face ID to get out of the way before you input your PIN, so the process is cut down to maybe three seconds. Still a hassle though.

On the LG V30, however, I'm able to unlock the phone with my voice, or one of the lowkey best software features of any smartphones, the Knock Code, which allows me to unlock the phone with a sequence of taps anywhere on the screen. Because I can begin tapping the code without first turning on the display, this shaves another half a second or so off the total unlock time. I can usually unlock an LG phone on a desk in under a second, while other phones take three to five. Think this is nitpicking? Try doing this 60 to 80 times during the course of a workday.

As for the Always On Display ... it's one of those features that nobody ever asked for before it existed, but now that we've experienced it, it's hard to go back. I can't tell you how many times I wished the iPhone X had an AOD during my time using the phone as my daily driver.

The Mate 10 Pro, my overall favorite phone of the year, has an AOD, but unfortunately it only shows the time and notification from first party apps, which means it might as well not show any notifications. Both Samsung and LG phones have great AODs on its phones, but the V30's is slightly superior because it offers shortcut toggles to WiFi, Bluetooth, flashlight too in addition to time, calendar, and notifications.

Finally, there's one last element I would like to give to my Frankenstein phone: OnePlus 5T's $499 pricing. One can only dream, right?

 

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