Notebookcheck's Top 10 Phablets (>90cm²)

The Huawei P30 Pro has a 6.47-inch (16.43 cm, 102.8 cm²) OLED panel with 2340 x 1080 pixels, which is very good in our review. Both the maximum luminance as well as the color accuracy are on a very high level. The Huawei smartphone is powered by its own high-end SoC in combination with 8 GB RAM and 128 or 512 GB internal storage, which can even be expanded via Nano memory card. The remaining specs of the P30 do not leave anything to be desired, either.

The highlight of the smartphone is its Leica quad camera. The main lens captures a lot of light, you get an ultra wide-angle, a 5x optical zoom as well as a TOF camera. The hybrid zoom is expanded to a 10x enlargement and the digital zoom even supports a zoom factor of 50x. The camera performs very well in our test, but there is still room for improvements in terms of video recording. Huawei has already announced a corresponding feature update.

The Mate series is the technological pinnacle from the Chinese manufacturer. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro definitely meets this claim. It features a fast SoC with 6 GB RAM, a powerful Leica triple camera, a brilliant and bright 1440p OLED screen, a rapid quick-charge mode as well as wireless charging, it is dust- and waterproof, is equipped with an IR blaster, has rapid MIMO WLAN with HT160 and the fastest modem you can currently find in a smartphone. The Mate is slim, despite its big 4200 mAh battery. 128 GB internal storage is adequate for this price range.

It is, however, unfortunate that Huawei does not offer other storage versions in all regions. Huawei's new Nano memory card does not really compensate for that since it occupies the second SIM slot. Implementing one of the speakers in the USB port is a smart idea, but not always ideal.

Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G is the largest currently available Galaxy S smartphone, and offers a 6.7-inch Curved Dynamic AMOLED display with a cutout for the two front-facing cameras. The frame is made of stainless steel and adds a certain unmistakable quality. Front and back are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6.

The Huawei Mate 20 X must be the largest smartphone ever reviewed by us. The massive 7.2-inch OLED display offers a whopping 131 cm² (20.3 square inches) of screen real estate. Google’s popular Nexus 7 tablet from 2013 offered a 7-inch 16:10 display with 150 cm² (23.25 square inches) at almost double the footprint.

The Google Pixel 3 XL features a 6.3-inch (18.5:9, 16 cm, 100.73 cm²) OLED display with the 1440p resolution. It is powered by the current high-end SoC from Qualcomm supported by 4 GB RAM as well as 64 or 128 GB internal storage, which cannot be expanded. The highlight of the internet giant is definitely the single camera, which was further improved thanks to new algorithms.

Otherwise, however, we miss innovations and many modern features are missing. The Pixel 3 XL still offers a strong overall package including good speakers, a better display compared to the predecessor, fast LTE, wireless charging, long update cycle, and infinite storage for pictures in the Google cloud.

The Asus ZenFone 5Z was delayed in some regions and is still not easy to get. The easiest method is certainly Asus' own online store. The smartphone features a 6.2-inch LC display with the FullHD+ resolution. Subjectively, the colors looked brilliant, but the black value is too high and the screen utilizes PWM. Still, the latter are the biggest drawbacks of the ZenFone, and there is no criticism for the other features.

Besides a Snapdragon 845 you get 6 or 8 GB RAM as well as 64 or 256 GB UFS storage, respectively. Contrary to many rivals in this price segment, you can also expand the storage via microSD card, and Asus does not drop the 3.5 mm stereo jack. An FM radio is integrated, too. We also liked the cameras during our review.

The Apple iPhone XS Max is the bigger sibling of the iPhone XS and equipped with a slim-bezel 6.5-inch OLED screen including notch. The two Apple smartphones are identical except for the size, but the iPhone XS Max offers more pixels due to the larger screen and a bigger battery. The new SoC is very fast and the camera was optimized as well. Thanks to new software algorithms, you get higher dynamic range and the low-light performance was improved. The protection against fluids was upgraded and is not only limited to fresh water anymore. There is a new 512 GB storage option.

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is a powerful smartphone with high-end ambitions for a very good price. It does not only offer a very big 6.39-inch AMOLED screen (16.23 cm, 100.2 cm²), but also a bright backlight and well-balanced colors. If you select the global ROM SKU, you also get the required DRM certification to stream corresponding contents in HD, which was not a matter of course for previous Xiaomi smartphones. 

The Mi 9 is shipped with powerful hardware including a Snapdragon 855, 6 GB RAM and 64 or 128 GB internal storage. However, you cannot expand the storage, so you should not save money at the wrong end. We also liked the camera during our review and the battery runtime is okay, despite the comparatively small battery.

The Chinese company closes the gap even further to all the high-end rivals with the new OnePlus 7 Pro, which is unfortunately also the case for the price. The highlight is the 6.67-inch (16.94cm) Super AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of 90 Hz and HDR10+ support. The 1440p resolution ensures high pixel density of 515 PPI and is neither interrupted by a glory hole camera, nor a notch. OnePlus uses a retractable front camera in the upper frame instead, which does not only extend and retract very quickly, but it can also recognize drops and will automatically retract.

The OnePlus 7 Pro is powered by a Snapdragon 855, which is supported by six, eight, or twelve GB RAM. You get 128 or 256 GB internal storage, which cannot be expanded. Otherwise, there are not many things the OnPlus smartphone does not offer. Besides wireless charging, you also have to waive a certification against the intrusion of dust and water. The battery runtime is very long. The camera is very versatile thanks to its three lenses and delivers good results, but cannot keep up with the high-end products.

The LG G8s ThinQ offers a 6.2-inch POLED display with a native resolution of 2248 x 1080. It is powered by a Snapdragon 855, 6 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of internal storage memory that can be expanded via microSD. At the rear we find a triple-camera that performed very well in our tests. The true highlight, however, is the ToF camera at the front that not only allows for a very fast and reliable face recognition but also touchless operation of LG’s latest smartphone, albeit at somewhat limited capacity.