6 phones to look forward to in the first half of 2018

LG is expected to announce the successor to its well-recieved G6 phone shortly after MWC, with some speculating a March or April announcement. 

Rumors surrounding LG's upcoming flagship suggest that it'll be different to the G6 in a big way: Raw power.

The G6 ran on an older Snapdragon 821 chip, while its contemporary competitors ran with the more powerful Snapdragon 835. However, the G7 is said to run on Qualcomm's latest and most powerful chip offering of 2018 – the Snapdragon 845. That means LG's 2018 flagship phone is likely to match or even outclass its smartphone rivals. 

Little else is rumored about the LG G7, apart from an update to its trademark slim bezel design. We expect that LG will continue to adopt modern smartphone features, like water resistance and a dual-lens camera that could offer LG's signature ultra-wide angle lens. 

Motorola's "G" series offers our favorite mid-range smartphones: it doesn't come with a heavy layer of bloaty software that runs on top of Android, like most phones in its class. And the more recent models have come with a near-premium design that can almost match the look and feel of a pricier flagship smartphone from premium manufacturers. 

"G" series phones don't run the fastest chips, but they're perfectly capable, and the phones are inexpensive, too. The G5 Plus launched at $230, and it's a fantastic bargain. 

With the Moto G6, rumors point to another near-premium design and a display with an 18:9 aspect ratio that's in line with other flagship Android smartphones. Otherwise, we also expect a general boost in performance and camera quality.

Lenovo-owned Motorola is likely to announce the G6 during MWC, like it did with the G5, and the device itself will probably release in the Spring of 2018.  

Nokia has already released entry-level and mid-range Android. devices. Next, at MWC 2018, Nokia is expected to unveil a high-end Android phone.

Some are calling it the Nokia 9, and rumors are suggesting it could come with a five-lens camera system. Only Nokia knows how that might work, and we'll have to wait until they make an announcement to see what it's all about. 

We're also expecting to see high-end specs in the Nokia 9, inlcuding the latest Snapdragon 845 chip, an OLED display, and a premium design. It's also said to come running a near-stock version of Android, which we'll always prefer over the custom and extremely bloat-heavy versions favored by some other companies.

OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau confirmed to Forbes earlier in January that the company will release a new smartphone in the second quarter of 2018, which could mean the same month the OnePlus 5 was released: June. 

There are very few details, but we generally like OnePlus devices because they usually run a near-stock version of Android, they come with incredible performance, and they can't be beat for value. The OnePlus 5T, which the company released in November 2017, is a truly excellent $500 phone that easily competed with other flagships that cost nearly twice as much. 

We haven't heard much about the Hydrogen One smartphone since it was first announced by the ultra-high end professional camera company RED in 2017. But pre-orders are shipping this summer, and it should be an interesting device.

For one, we expect the camera to be utterly stellar. RED makes cameras that are used for blockbuster movies, so we're really not accepting anything less than class-leading here. 

Its camera is also modular, in the sense that you can attach new lenses or other gadgets to change how you use it for filming.

It has an unusually chunky design that could look out of place among the ultra-sleek stalwarts of the smartphone industry. But it's also packing "holographic" display technology, which is said to make video pop out of the screen. We have yet to see for ourselves. 

Check out Marques Brownlee's hands-on video with the Hydrogen One smartphone from RED: 

We're expecting new phones to be announced in the second half of 2018 and we'll update this list when we discover new rumors about them.

Some of the phones we anticipate:

- New iPhones

- Samsung Galaxy Note 9

- LG V40

- The Razer Phone 2