Year in review: Worst smartphones of 2017
If 2017 turned out to be a year when the smartphone industry truly excelled, there were some disappointing launches that literally failed to ring in joy among tech geeks.
Backed by a number of interesting phones being launched this year, the industry scaled new highs and, in turn, registered record profits. This growth, however, was a result of multiple factors. Advances in technology and, more importantly, the need for innovation forced the industry to not just focus on paper specs, but also on improving the user experience of phones. Much effort was also put into changing how the phones looked and felt in the user's hand.
Edge-to-edge bezel-less displays were widely adopted to make smartphones look more than just slabs of glass and metal, while technologies such as AR and AI were also pushed to make phones smarter than ever.
However, despite all such efforts, there were a few phones that failed to live up to the expectations. These underachievers today find their place in this infamous list. So, without further ado, here are the most disappointing phones we saw in 2017.
Pixel 2 XL
To kick things off, we have a phone that could arguably have become the best phone of the year, if not for the inexcusable issues it faces. Pixel 2 XL exposed the frailties of Google's Pixel program in its current state. Though the device absolutely shines on the spec sheet and boasts of Qualcomm's top-of-the-line 835 SoC, 4GB RAM, 64GB or 128GB internal storage, sadly its beautiful 6-inch 2880 x 1440 (QHD) pOLED display has been found to be ridden with issues that quite frankly prove to be a deal breaker.
Shortly after its launch, reports emerged that the phone's display was riddled with bugs and issues were not just posing as slight inconveniences, but likely problems that could doom its future. Reviewers found the display on the Pixel 2 XL to be muted, washed out, and have a weird blue/green tint to it, while some users even reported serious screen burn-in issues with the new device.
Google for its part, issued software updates to fix the colour issue, and even the screen burn-in caused by the navigation bar sticking on the screen for too long, but none of it came before it had already disappointed many buyers and raised difficult questions over the quality of panels that it had used on its Pixel 2 XL phones.
iPhone 8
Next up in the list is another phone that failed to light up the industry - the iPhone 8. The device overshadowed by not just one, but two superior Apple-branded smartphones ended up becoming the victim of its own hype. The successor to iPhone 7, failed to bring nothing significantly new to the table as compared to its predecessor.
In a year which saw the futuristic iPhone X making way to the market, the iPhone 8, failed to get any love not just from the fans, but also from the company itself, making it one of the most disappointing smartphones of the year.
HTC U Ultra
Be it the U11, or the 10, there is no denying that HTC is great when it comes to designing its phones. The U Ultra also falls in the same bracket. However, apart from its looks, the U Ultra had very little going for itself. The device came with a below-par spec sheet for a phone of its price, but what crippled it the most was the loss of essentials such as water resistance, a bulky form factor, a fragile glass body and the lack of a headphone jack.
The phone priced initially at Rs 59,990, tried to set itself apart with a second display, but that too failed to bring in many buyers as it eventually turned out to be nothing more than a fancy gimmick.
Nokia 2
This has been a great year for Nokia under HMD Global's leadership. The Finnish smartphone-maker has seen a great resurgence, which has seen it coming out with absolute winners such as the Nokia 8, which not only shined on the spec sheet but also in real-world usage. To top it off, the phone also came with an extremely attractive price tag.
However, if the 8 was Nokia's winner for the year, it was its budget king, the Nokia 2 that was the year's disappointment. Put in a direct fight against other budget segment biggies, including the Redmi 5A, the Nokia 2 failed to impress with its choice of internals or even its price tag.
Overall, the phone with its underwhelming specs and an asking price of approximately Rs 6,700 looks like a device that Nokia got wrong.
LG G6
Launched early in the year, the LG G6 came with a lot of promise but faltered at the basics. The device brought with it a beautiful 5.7-inch edge-to-edge display whose charm was diminished by the inclusion of an outdated 14nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC.
But that was not the last of its problems. Launched originally with a price tag upwards of the Rs 50,000-mark, the phone turned out to be riddled with bugs and as a result, suffered from lags and frequent app crashes that ruined its chances of becoming a success.