This means that you have more freedom to buy a new phone.

Theyll come out onMarch 11th.

If youre more interested in Samsungs Galaxy Note line, youll have longer to wait for the newest version.

The most recent version, the Note 5, was released in August of last year.

Typically the Notes are updated between August and October.

LG(April):The newLG G5, which is absolutely insane, comes out in early April.

According toour friends at Gizmodo, the phone is a stark deviation from its predecessors.

The G5 should go on sale aroundthe beginning of April.

However, HTC usually releases their phones in mid-spring.

Look for the new version of HTCs flagship to launchsometime around April or May.

Plus,theyre first in line to get Android updates, so theyve got longevity to them.

These arent the only phone manufacturers, but they make up the bulk of the US market.

The major flagships also tend to set the bar for the lower-end phones.

However, there are a few trends worth paying attention to.

Fingerprint Sensors Finally Hit the Mainstream

Last year, Google added fingerprint sensor support to Android Marshmallow.

Now, nearly every manufacturer is getting on board.

you’re able to also expect that phones coming later this year will also have fingerprint scanners.

Samsungs not the first to create a feature like this.

Motorolaintroduced Active Displaywith the original Moto X, and still uses it on the Moto X Style and Play.

Then Google started shipping Nexus phones without them.

Several manufacturers followed suit, much to our dismay.

Now, a few companies are getting the hint that people want these features.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are bringing back SD cards.

Meanwhile, the LG G5 has a removable battery.

How can that be when the phone is made entirely of metal?

Because the G5 has atotally nuts removable bottom.

The G5 also has an SD card slot as well.

The S7 still doesnt have a removable battery.

If youre excited to play with it, Samsung is probably going to hold your attention.

The Gear VR uses the Samsung phone as a display for virtual reality apps.

Meanwhile, HTC has announced its own$800 VR headset, made in collaboration with Valve.

In some ways, theVive is even better than the Oculus Rift.

Its equipped with cameras so apps and games can see the real world in addition to the virtual one.

Plus, it comes with a couple of controllers.

So if you like VR and love HTC, that might be something to keep in mind.

The phones are also water resistant, while most major phones still arent.

The Galaxy Note 5 was released in August of 2015.

It has a 5.7" QHD Super AMOLED display.

It comes with 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage.

In many ways, its guts are very similar to the newer S7s.

However, it uses Samsungs own Exynos 7420 octacore processor.

It hastworear cameras: one is a standard-lens 16MP and the other is a super wide-angle 8MP lens.

As we mentioned before, the G5 has a removable battery slot that isalso used for add-ons.

It uses the new USB punch in-C style connector, so youll need new cables.

Our friends at Gizmodo found the camera wasokay at its best.

However, the Moto phones are perhaps best understood asreallyhigh quality mid-range phones.

The Moto phonesusuallyget Android updates quicker, since they only lightly customize Android.

However, last year Motorola caughta lot of flak for abandoning several high-profile phones too early.

Its unclear if this will affect future models going forward.

The most recent crop, released in late 2015, did thisamazingly well.

The Nexus 6P is about as high end as you might get at the $500 price point.

It also has a little brother: the Nexus 5X.

HTC…well, right now their most interesting gadget isnt a phone at all.

Its a VR headset.

But well see what happens in a few months.