FEBRUARY 2020 PCWorld 83think). It might not be all that useful beyond
unlocking, but I’ll still take it over an in-display
fingerprint sensor any day.
AUDIO: LG G8
As the assault against the headphone jack
continues—Samsung removed it from the
Galaxy Fold and the Note 10 this year—audio
continues to be a bright spot on LG phones.
And the G8 has it in spades: Crystal Sound
OLED, which uses vibrations and the display
to create an all-over sound without a visible
speaker, Boombox audio, and a 32-bit Quad
DAC headphone jack, not to mention top-
notch equalizer presets and noise filters.
OS: ONE UI
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the best
implementation of Android in 2019 didn’t
come from Google, it came from Samsung.
With its One UI overhaul
update, Samsung
radically changed the way
it approached its
interface, bringing bold
changes that departed
from stock Android while
still respecting Google’s
vision. In it, we got a
stellar dark mode,
excellent gesture
navigation, an emphasis
on one-handed
operation, and an overall
beautification of the interface, with bold fonts,
clean menus, and smart controls. Android 10
on the Pixel 4 is great, but One UI is smarter,
bolder, and more modern.CASE: LG G8X
This is more of an honorable mention pick,
but after a year of folding phone hype that’s
only going to grow, I felt it needed some
attention. You won’t find any folding displays
on this list because I’m not yet sold on their
value proposition, but the LG G8X convinced
me that a dual-screen smartphone could
work. The Dual Screen case made exclusively
for the G8X is literally that: a second display
for your phone. So you can write an email on
one side and watch a video on the other. It’s
the kind of thing that feels like a gimmick but
actually works, and I’d love to be able to pop
any phone I wanted into one.One UI on the S10+ is one of the best Android skins I’ve ever used.