Notebookcheck's Top 10 Phablets (>90cm²)

The Huawei P20 Pro mainly creates a wow-effect with its powerful triple camera, but we also like the colors with some extraordinary choices. Huawei completely changed them for the current P-series and now uses large display and big batteries. It is also the first P-series smartphone where the cameras are not sitting flush with the rest of the chassis. The technical specs are very similar to the Mate 10 Pro, but Huawei uses a Natural-Tone display for the first time, which will automatically adjust the picture based on the environment. The MIMO antenna technology for the Wi-Fi is now also available on a Huawei smartphone and enables high transfer rates, but the Wi-Fi performance was not very consistent. We also have some expectations for a smartphone that retails for more than 800 Euros, like modern Bluetooth and at least a 1440p screen. The latter is not really an advantage in day-to-day usage, but important for VR applications.

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.

The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has a 6.4-inch Curved-Dynamic AMOLED display, and the front glass is only interrupted by the holes for the two front cameras. Depending on the SKU, you either get a ceramic or glass rear (Gorilla Glass 5). The frame is always made of stainless steel and gives the smartphone a very sophisticated impression.

The Galaxy smartphone is powered by a fast Exynos 9820 combined with up to 12 GB RAM and 1 TB internal storage, and the latter is also expandable via microSD. Fast LTE and Wi-Fi 6 are included as well, and you can transmit data via Bluetooth 5.0 with dual-audio, MST, Ant+, and NFC. The list of features is pretty much complete and wireless charging in both directions is supported as well, so you can also charge other devices with the smartphone via induction. We like the cameras and their features, but they are not perfect.

Samsung's Galaxy smartphone does not reveal many drawbacks. The battery runtimes were not convincing during the review, but Samsung should be able to improve the performance via updates in the future. The facial recognition is not really secure and the Koreans still do not include aptX HD for their high-end device. 

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.

At 6.1 inches (15.49 cm, 13:6, 91.34 cm2, 14.16 sq in) the LG G7 ThinQ’s display is very large. It is based on MLCD+ technology including HDR, and can get incredibly bright. Pixel density is high thanks to its 3120 x 1440 resolution. The remaining hardware matches the device’s high-end ambitions perfectly: a very fast Snapdragon 845, LTE Cat. 18, ac-Wi-Fi with MIMO, a Hi-Fi DAC, and last but not least wireless charging. Storage size is nothing to write home about but rather average for its class, and it can be expanded via microSD.

Compared to its predecessor, the OnePlus 6T is not much different, but that is not surprising considering the half-year release cycle. The notch is much smaller, the fingerprint scanner is now sitting underneath the glass and the stereo jack was removed. The fingerprint scanner was not 100 % convincing in our review, though.

Otherwise, the 6T is a fast smartphone with a very responsive UI, great battery runtimes, a good camera as well as great communication features. You have to make a compromise in terms of the speakers. There is also no storage expansion via microSD and there is no special protection against dust or water.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is once again a really good business phablet. The Korean manufacturer upgraded the battery to 4000 mAh on the new Note model, so the runtimes are much longer compared to the previous model. The S Pen now supports Bluetooth and offers some new features. Samsung's new smartphone also turns out to be a serious storage device at up to 512 GB internal storage, which can be doubled via microSD card. All in all, the Note 9 can store up to 1 TB of data.

The smartphone is powered by the latest high-end SoC from Samsung in combination with up to 8 GB RAM, fast LTE with many bands, fast WLAN, a huge number of sensors, good stereo speakers, a great camera, as well as a brilliant Super AMOLED screen.