The best upcoming phones for the rest of 2022

 

The best upcoming phones for the rest of 2022

 

Huawei P60 Pro

Launched last year, the Huawei P50 Pro was a bit of an odd one. A photography powerhouse, it benefited from a quartet of capable cameras with plenty of megapixels between them – including a periscope lens which offered a stellar 200x digital zoom. Trouble was, ongoing trade restrictions meant the flagship took an age to make it out of China.

Will its successor fair any better? Only time will tell. The Huawei P60 Pro and Pro Plus are expected to arrive in the middle of 2022, with recent rumours indicating a September release date. Based on the evolution of previous Pro mobiles, the P60 Pro will probably pack some properly powerful camera kit, plus a sizeable full-screen experience.

But little is known about firm specs for the P60 Pro, let alone when – or if – it will ever make it to Blighty (or beyond).

Google Pixel 7

Google’s Pixel 6 saw the search giant return to making genuine flagships, after its predecessor’s mid-tier detour. And following an official teaser at Google I/O, the Pixel 7 looks set to follow suit.

Official specs are still thin on the ground, but Google did give a sneak peak of the seventh-gen Pixel on stage. Promo pics revealed a device evolved from the Pixel 6, with curved glass on the front and a metallic camera bar on the rear, complete with three lenses and edges which meld to the chassis.

We also know that the Pixel 7 will come equipped with a new, next-gen Google Tensor chip. Its performance chops are unknown at this stage, but if its predecessor is anything to go by, the Pixel 7 should offer a top-tier smartphone experience.

Due for release “later this year”, we’d expect to see the Pixel 7 arrive in October, which is when Google’s flagship phones have traditionally broken cover. Pricing remains anyone’s guess, although we’d hope to see it undercut the competition from Apple and Samsung.

Motorola Frontier

Motorola’s recent mobiles have offered high-end specs for mid-range money. Its next handset looks set to take that a step further: early leaks show the Frontier – rumoured to be arriving this summer – equipped with a huge camera housing, home to what’s alleged to be a whopping 194MP main sensor. Those same sources indicate that it’ll be flanked by 50MP ultrawide and 12MP telephoto cameras.

Other specs are no less impressive, if the rumours turn out to be true. They point towards a 6.7in OLED panel up front, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus chip inside, as well as 125W fast charging and support for 5G connectivity.

Latest intel indicates that a July launch is possible, but there’s no word yet on pricing. Motorola’s recent devices have tended towards the mid-range, but if the cost hike from the Edge 20 Pro to the new Edge 30 Pro is anything to go by, the Frontier could have a price tag to match its massive megapixel count.

Google Pixel Fold

What about the elusive Pixel Fold? Depending on who you ask, you’ll hear a whole range of answers. Some thought the Pixel 6 would be bendable. Others predicted a separate Pixel Fold device would launch by the end of 2021. Now, the latest info indicates that Google won’t launch the Fold at all – at least, not in its current form.

Does that mean we won’t see a folding Pixel phone in 2022? Not necessarily. More likely, it means that Google has canned its first attempt at a foldable, in order to focus on a fresh handset for release later in the year. That would certainly fit with industry intel that claims Google won’t launch a foldable in the first half of 2022.

What will the spec sheet of Google’s foldable have in store? That’s even less certain – although if it follows the mould set by the Pixel 6, you can expect a neat, premium design with a vanilla Android interface that’s optimised for a folding setup.

Nokia 10 PureView

Rumours about a Nokia 9 Pure View replacement have been circulating pretty much since that device launched at MWC back in 2019. Despite the long wait, there’s still little certainty about if, when or how the multi-lens mobile might be succeeded.

Nokia 9.3, 10, X50, X60…various names have been suggested for the elusive device. But one thing unites the soothsayers: the hope that it will set a fresh bar for Nokia. We’d certainly expect a PureView follow-up to pack all kinds of clever camera tech. The new device would also need 5G connectivity to keep pace with its competitors.

Four cameras, massive batteries, powerful processors: rumours about the Nokia 10 PureView abound, but firm specs are nowhere to be found. Some sources suggest the silence is due to difficulties sourcing suitable silicon. Whether that’s true is anyone’s guess.

In fact, it’s not clear if the device is actually in the works, let alone how much it might cost (smartphone pricing has escalated significantly since its predecessor launched at £549 / $699). As you can tell, this isn’t one to bet on – but we’re still hoping to see a new Nokia flagship in 2022.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 & Z Flip 4

An early and eager advocate for foldable phones, Samsung shows no sign of staying flat in 2022. Having launched the hugely expensive Z Fold 4 and funkier, marginally more affordable Z Filp 3 in 2021, there’s every chance we’ll see successors to both devices arrive this year.

There’s little concrete intel circulating about the specs or design of either smartphone, but we’d hope to see Samsung focus its efforts on reducing the visible crease that currently plagues the centre of its foldable devices. Improved cameras would also be nice, as would somewhere to stash the S Pen on the Z Fold 4. What we’d like most? A lower price tag, at least for the Flip.

If we do see two new folding Z phones from Samsung, we’d hazard a guess that autumn 2022 would be the most likely launch window, given that previous Galaxy Fold devices have launched in August or September.

Apple iPhone 14

Like clockwork, Apple is expected to unwrap a fresh batch of iPhones in 2022. And like both the iphone 12 and iphone 13 before it, the iPhone 14 family is likely to include a standard, a Mini, a Pro and a Pro Max model.

Traditionally, Apple only gives its flagship iPhones a major upgrade every other year. That trend was continued with the iPhone 13, which retained broadly identical dimensions and designs from the iPhone 12, while also tweaking the camera hardware and performance.

Iphone 14 preview: Everything we want to see from Apple’s 2022 flagship phone.

 

So we’d expect significant shooting and performance upgrades with the iPhone 14. But could we also see a substantial design overhaul? Besides a shift to flat-panel aluminium edges for the iPhone 12, Apple hasn’t strayed too far from the design language established with the iPhone X. At the very least, we’d hope for the long-overdue removal of the selfie camera notch – while some early leaks indicate that Apple might also flatten the rear camera bump.

When will the iPhone 14 (and its siblings) break cover? Apart from 2020, when its schedule was disrupted by the global pandemic, Apple routinely launches its latest flagships in September – which is exactly when we’d expect to see the iPhone 14.