The first thing you do when you wake up is probably grab your smartphone. You are not alone, many people actually do this and it is more common than you think. According to a Bank of America Trends in Consumer Mobility Report, 71% of respondents say they sleep with or next to smartphones and 35% of respondents say smartphones are the most important things on their minds upon waking up.
So how much are we attached to our phones? According to Deloitte, the average American checks his/her phone 46 times per day, up from 33 times per day in 2014. If you are looking at your phone that often, why not have the latest and greatest! To get you started, here is a list of the 5 best smartphones released in 2016 so far.
The new Galaxy S7/S7 Edge from Samsung is a powerhouse. The device is IP67 water resistant which means that the device can be submerged in water up to one meter for 30 minutes. Expandable memory is great for people who store a ton of information on their smartphone. Instead of carrying a hard drive or storing information in the cloud, the S7/S7 Edge allows you to expand the memory via microSD card up to 200GB.
The next generation LG G5 is unlike any other smartphone. Companies claim this all the time but the G5 has a unique modular design. The slide out battery allows you to attach the LG CAM Plus which adds an extra 1,200 mAh battery and camera-like features such as zoom wheel, tap-to-record and shutter button. LG is trying to make you stay connected by offering various accessories that can be paired with the device. This ranges from LG 360 CAM (which allows you to shoot spherical photos and videos without rotating the device), LG 360 VR (portable VR headset), LG Rolling Bot (built-in camera to control and monitor your home) and LG Tone (Bluetooth headset).
The all new metal uni-body HTC 10 design is similar to the predecessors but has more of an aesthetic appeal. The corners look rounder; the edges look smoother, making the design of the device look simply beautiful. The camera is one of the world’s first OIS front and back facing camera which packs laser auto focus and 12 million UltraPixels. The camera is paired with stereo speakers for sound quality. The woofer and tweeter and have their own amplifier which makes the HTC 10 sound better than any other smartphones.
The smartphone which is co-engineered with Leica (camera manufacturer) that aims to please the photographer. It is paired with a dual-lens camera that allows you to capture light and gain better clarity for photos and videos. It does this by having two sensors (one RGB and one monocrhome). The body of the phone is manufactured with aluminum and 2.5D glass giving it an elegant design.
The iPhone 5SE is a revamp of the iPhone 5/5S for people who enjoy smaller phones but want the power of newer handset. The iPhone 5SE mimics characteristics of the iPhone 6S but in a smaller frame. The phone has the same A9 chipset which is placed in the iPhone 6S making it a little snappy device. It claims to have 2x faster CPU performance and 3X the GPU performance of the iPhone 5S.