The 3 best phones of 2016?

The smartphone market is made up of two big players, Samsung and Apple. Recently, however, Google has joined the ranks.

The smartphone market has largely been dominated by two big players, Samsung and Apple.

This, in turn, has split users among two OS camps, namely iOS and Android.

With Samsung having suffered a recent stumble and Apple’s iPhone 7 less impressive than people were expecting, there was finally the possibility of a third name to step into the spotlight. Many people would’ve expected that to be the world’s third-largest handset manufacturer, Huawei. But surprisingly, it’s turned out to be Google.

The Google Pixel

The search giant (which also happens to own the Android OS) has tried its hand at making hardware before. But it has never reached the same level of success as Apple or Samsung. Its previous range of Nexus devices were a partnership between Google and Android OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) intended to show off the full potential of the Android OS.

That didn’t quite work out as expected. So Google finally took matters into its own hands and created the new Pixel, which forms part of its “Made by Google” strategy.

The phone itself was made by HTC, but Google controlled the entire design process.

The result? A phone that international tech reviewers are hailing as the best phone ever made.

That’s quite a lofty claim for a phone that bears a striking resemblance to Apple’s iPhone and whose main drawcard is its AI (named Google Assistant).

Pixel vs Samsung vs Apple

In a pure head-to-head specs comparison, here’s how the Google Pixel XL stacks up against the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the iPhone 7 Plus.

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