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2022 has been a year of real surprises
when it comes to smartphones we’ve had a
significant push for foldables we’ve had
complete flagship experiences in tiny
footprints we’ve had budget phones that
have literally changed my entire
perception of value so
it’s time to declare some winners we’ve
got 10 categories all leading up to the
single overall 2022 champion a phone so
good i’ve even got a special trophy made
just for it okay let’s start with design
what is the most impressive phone from
the outside
and there are a couple of close
contenders i’ve spent almost the entire
year raving on about samsung’s s21 ultra
how it’s striking but at the same time
somehow also understated i was really
close to giving this to xiaomi because
while they do make some
how do i put this polarizing designs use they do also have a couple of standouts
like the me11 light which is so thin
that it barely feels real and the mix 4
with its completely even uninterrupted
screen
made possible by an actually decent
in-display selfie camera but the winner
of best phone design of the year
i’m going to give to the vivo x70 pro
plus this phone is supremely comfortable
to hold they’ve designed a finish that
you literally cannot get fingerprints on
even if you try to the buttons feel
distinctly luxury and while i wouldn’t
say i particularly love this glossy
section on the back it can also double
as a mirror to be able to take rear
camera selfies with now we can’t have a
best
without a burst so welcome to a bonus
round of who has made the ugliest phone
of the year and there’s a few strong
candidates asus zenfone 8 was notably
devoid of character kind of looks a bit
like a wish.com phone this smartphone
for snapdragon insiders yes that’s the
real name made by qualcomm the chipmaker
themselves also feels very much like a
prototype but the winner of ugliest
phone of the year has got to be
this special edition version of the
honor 50.
the only way i can think to describe
this phone is it’s a bit like someone
just vomited the alphabet all over it
but there’s another side to design
because as well as making a phone look
and feel premium the other challenge
that a lot of companies are starting to
face is the size constraint how do we
fit all the things that people are
starting to want into a phone while
keeping it compact and there’s one phone
that i think has done this better than
any honorable mention to the asus
zenfone 8 which boring design aside is
90 of the capability of the big ones
achieved into 60 of the footprint
a lot of things had to be re-engineered
to make this possible and also
props to samsung’s z flip 3. as a tech
person this is a hard phone to recommend
to someone it’s a thousand dollars but
it has the specs of a 500 phone
however excuse my french it just feels
flipping fantastic
super premium really nice materials and
the fact that it folds in half means
that we’re not just talking about
fitting in your trouser pockets this can
fit into your shirt pocket
but the winner of best compact
smartphone of 2021 i’m giving to the
iphone 13 mini no gimmicks no one
particularly groundbreaking feature it’s
just the complete latest iphone
experience smaller and now thanks to
huge battery improvements this 13 mini
lasts longer than last year’s full-size
iphone 12.
speaking of battery though there is a
limit to how much you’re going to be
able to get from a small phone if
endurance is a high priority
you are going to need to look bigger and
the winner of this category is
not the phone i expected see battery
life is a very complex specification
most reviewers including myself we just
generally try to keep it simple by
referring to how many milliamp hours of
capacity that a phone has
but the truth of it is it depends on
display technology how well the phone
regulates temperature massively on
software and how efficiently it’s able
to allocate resources but also things
like battery voltage and so in 2021
we’ve ended up in a situation where even
though we have phones like the galaxy
s21 ultra and the xiaomi 11 ultra with 5
000 million power capacities oh hell
even the rog phone 5s pro with a 6 000
million power capacity they’re all
beaten by a phone with less than 4500
the iphone 13 pro max this phone’s
battery life is so unbelievably healthy
i have sometimes finished days using it
with over 70 left
i mean you can technically get a phone
that lasts even longer you know those
ones that are effectively just a dialer
with a power bank taped to them but this
is the best battery life in a form
factor that’s somewhat palatable then
hey if you find my videos palatable then
the sub to the channel would be
prized
what if you don’t want something
palatable what if all you wanted was an
absolute beast a speck monster a phone
designed to play the most demanding
games you can get on a mobile platform
well you’re in luck gaming phones have
never been as competitive as they are
now in 2021 they’re getting so good that
it’s almost frustrating that developers
aren’t making games that properly take
advantage of them
anyways there’s three main companies
fighting in this space you have red
magic who’s making such high-powered
hardware-rich phones for literally 500
but you do genuinely wonder where their
profits coming from ridiculous value but
the phones do feel a little rushed with
arguably half-baked software
then you have the other extreme with
asus whose rog phone 5s pro hits 1500
but hey if you have 1500 and you like
games there is nothing quite like it in
fact this thing basically takes a 2021
flagship and tops it in almost every
regard it doesn’t have a 5000mah battery
it has 6000. it doesn’t have a
snapdragon 888 it has an 888 plus it
doesn’t have a 120hz refresh rate it has
144.
and we’re not talking 8 or 12 gigabytes
of ram
18.
also quite importantly for a gaming
phone a reliable accessory ecosystem
whether that’s earphones or controllers
or external calling attachments you have
options but in my opinion the best
gaming phone sits somewhere in between
these two with the lenovo legion dual 2.
it avoids the software pitfalls of the
red magic it gets very close to the
performance of the asus and it starts at
700
kind of funky looking though and finally
just before we get to the best overall
phones in each price tier i just want to
touch on foldables because while i don’t
think these flaccid book style open
closed phones are the final destination
they do still feel a bit like a
half-baked idea in some senses
2021 is the first year where i have seen
some mainstream conversation about them
so
it’s time to analyze if a foldable is
what you want the only company it makes
sense to buy from
is samsung there is microsoft who makes
the surface duo nice looking but far too
many compromises to recommend it there
is huawei but no google services makes
it a really dicey option and there is
royal the company who actually made
world’s first foldable but i wouldn’t
trust their software support as they’re
primarily a display company their
foldables are more of a tech demo than
actual consumer-ready phones so
that leaves us with two choices
samsung’s z-fold 3
or samsung’s z-flip 3. and between them
i would award best foldable phone
to the z-fold 3. it’s the only foldable
that does deliver a tangibly expanded
experience compared to just a normal
flagship the potential for extreme
productivity is here you’ve just got to
decide if you’re in the minority who’s
willing to look past all its compromises
to be able to take advantage of it
alright so those are all the specialist
phones done the winners for people with
specific needs but now it’s time to look
at the overall winners
so we’re gonna have best budget phone
best mid-range phone best flagship phone
best super phone and then finally the
overall best value phone across all of
these categories the one that will be
taking home this very fancy trophy that
i’ve had made for it
alright so i’m classing budget phone is
anything around or under 300
and to be honest every realistic
contender in this segment is either a
spin-off company of xiaomi or oppo and
it’s not hugely surprising the main
profits to be had in the smartphone
market
are not here honorable mention too the
real me eight this company is quite
consistently bringing out some of the
most extreme price to performance ratios
i’ve ever seen and also the poco x3 pro
and the just announced poco m4 i know
there’s a lot of different names here
but these two are pretty special
however the winner of best budget phone
on the market
is xiaomi’s redmi note 10 pro i
genuinely think and i don’t say this a
lot for budget phones this is a
beautiful device and for about 250
it is shockingly well-rounded good
battery life good stereo speakers fluid
120 hertz display and importantly for me
also a really good camera for the price
my only slight reservation is that
xiaomi have literally just announced the
redmi note 11 pro which is china only
for now but based on past history i
would expect a global release probably
early next year
now then we’ve got the mid-range
category the 300 to 600 sweet spot all
phones i recommend here are phones that
feel complete even though they’re half
the price of the top tier and in this
category there is one clear winner which
is almost a shame because of how many
good options there are like the oneplus
nord 2 which is a 400 phone that you
could very easily mistake for a 700
phone screen battery camera the polish
just makes it that little bit more
premium that said there have been a
reasonable amount of people who have
said that their nord twos have exploded
we are only talking a handful but that’s
still enough to suggest that it might be
a fundamental problem with this
particular handset so i’m gonna hold off
on saying you should buy one
the poco f3 though if 400 is all you
want to spend i can’t recommend it
enough it’s got the flagship feeling
and finally
the real me gt this is the highest end
phone realme makes and so given how much
this company manages to pack into 200
phones you can probably imagine that for
500
this thing is stacked
but specs aren’t everything and based on
the experience of actually using them
one phone takes the cake here
google pixel 6. the pixel 6 is not just
a phone that can kind of keep up with
its more expensive offerings
there is a magic to it the way it feels
to use is not good or great
it’s delightful and the camera while not
without inconsistencies is really
powerful
and really fun
so what about flagships the best phone
in between 600 and 900
at this kind of price we’re talking
luxury we’re talking things you don’t
need but you might want potentially
quirky extra features and also you can
demand extreme reliability
okay a couple of honorable mentions one
to xiaomi’s me 11 an all-round
technically tremendous package one to
the oneplus 9 which had mixed reception
at launch but that was mostly due to
over hyping then the phone actually
being bad and multiple updates later it
now stands as a really good option and
also
the samsung galaxy
where are you
s21 which is not what i’d call an
exciting phone it’s definitely not
breaking any technological records but
it is a neat practical package that you
can trust and even though the camera
hardware is about as exciting as
watching paint dry i’m constantly
surprised by how much samsung’s managed
to push out of it
but the winner at 899
only just qualifying for this category
is the google pixel 6 pro just like the
6 the 6 pro just
it just feels alive it’s lifted by like
really fun intuitive customizable
software and quite an underrated screen
too i wouldn’t say it’s the best phone
money can buy mostly let down by some
not too stellar video recording and some
good but not great battery life
but it is the best until you hit a
thousand dollars plus
but what if you do what if you just want
the best phone and money is no object
here’s where things get interesting in
this category you’ve basically got each
company’s top tier offering they’re no
holds barred innovation crammed hero
phones huge cameras big batteries
gorgeous screens all the extras
okay
two runners up first is that vivo x70
pro plus i mentioned at the start it’s
just it’s one of the most fun phones
i’ve ever used with an emphasis on the
camera it’s a treat comprised of top
shelf hardware and really powerful
software and it’s so good that in a fair
few scenarios i would say this is the
best phone for photos
and secondly the samsung galaxy
there we go
s21 ultra this was the first major
flagship to come out in the entire year
and it’s so well-rounded that it’s still
now considered by many a benchmark for
others to strive for
worth also mentioning is sony i feel
like they’ve come a really long way in
the last few years and for certain top
level pros
no one does it better but they don’t
quite make my default recommendation to
most power users
there’s two phones that do
first is xiaomi’s me 11 ultra this is a
really similar spec to samsung’s s21
ultra but it feels like it’s almost been
built
to beat it it takes the already extreme
and dials it up just a little further
with one of the most obvious examples
being the second screen on the back it
lets you check for time without turning
your phone over it lets you take photos
using your main rear cameras they’ve
even added a feature that means you can
just use this second screen and it will
boost your battery to no joke
14 days on a single charge
the second winner
it’s got to be the iphone 13 pro max on
the face of it a very similar phone to
the 12 pro max and aside from one thing
it would be pretty easy for me to write
this off as a small iterative upgrade
but that one thing the battery life
improvement makes this so unbelievably
reliable but it’s changed the way i use
my phone combine that with cameras
speakers and a screen that are very
close to best in class
now is a good time to be an iphone user
and to upgrade said iphone the normal
iphone 13 pro is also really strong it’s
basically the same phone but instead of
extraordinary battery it’s more like
excellent
okay
that leaves me with one final decision
to make if i had to pick one phone out
of every single one on this table what
would it be which is the most surprising
best value experience you can get
well here is our super heavy custom
obsidian black trophy
and it is for smartphone of the year
2021 the google pixel 6. it is crazy to
me that a phone costing just 599
can actually get me excited to use it in
almost all cases with these kinds of
phones it normally boils down to which
one makes the least compromises versus a
flagship but the pixel 6 has almost the
same hardware and almost the same
experience as the 899 pixel 6 pro and
even at 899 that phone feels pretty
special and while for 899 i would rate
the pros camera is very good not the
best at 599 with almost the same
experience the normal pixel six becomes
pretty much the best value camera system
you can buy and i’m not just talking
about on a phone
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interesting indeed links for the old
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horrifying click here my name is aaron
this is mister who’s the boss
and i’ll catch you in the next one