Gearburn’s top 10 smartphone features of 2017

Yes yes, every website and their mum is doing a yearly roundup article — we’re just joining the party.

But we had plenty of solid (if we may say so ourselves) smartphone features in 2017, ranging from the best budget wares to an interview with then HMD CEO Arto Nummela. Check our picks below.

Huawei Mate 9, P10: a few interesting camera tidbits

The Chinese firm has come a long way with its camera capabilities, virtually tied with leading players when it comes to all-round photographic capabilities. We fired off a couple of camera-related questions to the company, covering hybrid zoom, the lack of OIS on the monochrome camera and more. Check this out if you want a few technical details.

5 good 2017 smartphones that just missed out on greatness

From the LG G6 to the vanilla iPhone 8, we take a look at a few smartphones that were good but not quite great.

Whether it’s a hit-and-miss camera experience (LG G6) or a lack of a dual-camera setup and ho-hum endurance (the smaller iPhone), these phones will leave you satisfied but wanting.

9 ridiculously safe smartphone predictions for 2018

The result of frustration as Apple calls their new iPhone the best one ever, we decided to take the obvious/sarcastic route with these predictions for 2018. Who knew that photo quality would get better, right?

5 more great smartphones under R2000

Sure, flagship phones offer speedy performance and amazing photos, but what if you just need a no-frills bargain-priced smartphone? We’ve got you covered, looking at devices that excel below R2000. Furthermore, if you’re looking for a phone that can run WhatsApp and don’t care about anything else, check this list. Looking for our favourite budget phones of 2017 as of September? Simply click here.

Buying a second-hand smartphone? Use these tips

Our Tech Savvy series is an attempt to deliver concise, relevant information for the average South African. Our latest piece is a guide to buying a second-hand smartphone. From meeting areas and inspecting the phone to everything in between, you might want to read this before visiting Gumtree.

6 fascinating smartphone features enabled by AI chips

We’ve all seen the hype and marketing around AI chips in smartphones, as Apple, Huawei and Google jump on the trend in a big way. But what kind of features could we see as a result? We take a look at six features that are enabled by AI silicon.

Gearburn’s guide to Huawei’s Kirin processors

We’ve previously created guides to Mediatek and Qualcomm smartphone processors, so it only seemed natural to do the same for Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin chips. From budget to flagship territory, use this guide to help you tell all their chips apart.

Interview with HMD CEO Arto Nummela

The South African launch of HMD’s Nokia smartphones was also attended by then CEO Arto Nummela — we naturally jumped on the opportunity to interview him. It was a wide-ranging interview, covering Stephen Elop conspiracy theories and the actual devices.

Interview: Mobile kingpin ARM on what’s next in 2018

ARM’s hardware tech power all Android smartphones on the market right now, but what should we expect from the company in 2018? We interviewed Laurence Bryant, covering their new CPU cores, budget smartphones, machine learning and more.

4 flagship phones released in 2016 that are worth buying now

In the market for a flagship phone but don’t want to spend five figures? 2016’s flagship phones are ideal in this regard, so we chose four older contenders.