Smartphone Awards 2020! By Marques Brownlee

All right welcome to probably my favorite video to do every year. Welcome to the smartphone awards 2020. , so 2020 was, of course, a very different year. A lot of crazy stuff happened, but you know what tech didn't really stop. Even events didn't really stop. We kept having these virtual events and there was constant new product announcements, there are more videos, more reviews than ever this year and there are more shapes and sizes than ever before on this table of 2020 smartphones in front of me.

So that's why, at the end of the year, we like to look back over everything and give out some awards for some of the best, some of the most interesting, some of the most influential stuff that came out during the year. It's always like late during the year, there's even been other YouTubers putting on jackets sitting in front of tables full of stuff and giving out trophies to their favorite products, which is actually kind of flattering. I love that. That's actually a thing that's happening now, but this is it. This is the one you've been waiting for.

Let's say this is the smartphone awards 2020. , so for those who are new here, the way we do this is we've got a bunch of categories and for each category there's going to be a winner and then, if there's any worthy, maybe a runner-up and some honorable mentions, but really we'll focus on that winner. All the categories are time stamped below. If you want to skip around, but maybe just grab the popcorn sit back, relax and enjoy the show. So let's get right into it with the first category, which is the best big smartphone.

So most phones are pretty big already nowadays, but I like to reward what I would call the best use of space. So if you're going to carry like a genuinely huge phone, you want it to have the best use of that extra space. You've got to have a big screen. It's got to have a big battery and a lot of big features, taking advantage of that space and there's a lot of competitors in that category this year, a lot of huge phones, but the winner overall for the best big phone of 2020 is gonna. Go to this guy right here.

This is the Xiaomi me 10, ultra so congrats to Xiaomi on their first smartphone award. Ever they made an absolute monster phone this year. This was like the 120 phone. It had a 120x zoom on that camera, a 120 hertz display on the front and 120 watt fast charging included in the box. That's the fastest I've ever seen in a phone.

That's supposed to get you 40 battery in five minutes of being plugged in which is ridiculous, and it's also got a bunch of other high-end top-end features like 50 watt, wireless charging. It's got a 4 500 William hour battery, half a terabyte of storage and pretty much every other high-end spec. You could imagine now they also made a nice little one of one MHD edition. I don't know if you can see that that is pretty cool, but also this phone is only sold in China. So there's a little asterisk on that.

If you have to import it to get it, that's maybe what you're into, but there are some runner-ups that should definitely be recognized. Now. I think a no-brainer for this category is also Samsung Galaxy. Note 20 ultra another huge phone with a lot of huge features. They fit the stylus on the side of the phone again 4 500 William hour battery huge camera system, huge display and a notorious competitor in the big phone category.

I'm also going to give a shout-out a little mention to the ASUS. Where is it on the table? The ROG phone 3? Oh? No. I can't find it there's. So many phones here yeah here it is okay, kg phone three we already know this phone's got a gigantic battery. It's also got a huge front-facing speaker system, which you really don't often see in most phones this year, and so you have to give it props for that.

If it's using the extra space. The way big phones should that's worth recognizing all right on to the next category, all right. So next up is the best compact phone of the year. This is kind of like the opposite, so most phones are big. It's actually kind of rare to see a great compact, small flagship level smartphone and so because there's still a market for it.

We like to reward when that's done well, this one, I think, is actually a little closer than you might expect, but the winner for best compact smartphone of 2020, is the iPhone 12 mini. So I feel like this is the no-brainer pick right. It's the same as all the rest of the other iPhones, but smaller so same cameras, same display, tech, same chip, same ram same software, same pretty much everything materials, just a smaller phone, so it's a flagship but smaller, and that's what this is all about to some way. It kind of represents a sort of little mini rebirth of this category of compact flagships, and hopefully others will follow. There's people with small hands and small pockets out there give them a great phone.

They deserve to have a small great phone. Now. Why was this closer than you might expect? Well, there's! Actually, a flagship phone that came out this year on this table in front of me, that's smaller than the iPhone 12 mini quick pop quiz. You might be looking around like what is he talking about? How is that possible? And that's the runner-up, which is the Samsung Galaxy z, flip 2. , this little guy right here.

Folded up is obviously a much smaller phone than when it's open, but it is a compact phone and it's so it's the big phone in a small body theory, it's kind of the whole point of a folding phone, and this alternate form factor movement is enabling things like this, and the z-flip 2 was one of the most well-liked folding phones. Ever it has a normal aspect ratio when it's open, and it opens up to be a pretty big phone actually 6.7 inches, but when it folds down and fits in your pocket or your bag, it is smaller than anything else. I love that, and I'm really looking forward to seeing other future versions of this that'll, inevitably have even better specs higher fresh rate display better durability. All that fun stuff, so gotta mention that z-flip, two all alright, so cameras we like cameras here. So if you're talking cameras, you want the best overall smartphone camera turns out.

There's actually a lot of perfect smartphone cameras on this table here to the point where the difference between them could come down to preference, as we showed with the blind smartphone camera test. But if you had to ask me if I'm going on a trip, remember those if you're going on a trip- and you can only take one smartphone camera for all of your photos and videos. There really is still just one winner here and that is the iPhone 12 Pro max. That is the winner for best smartphone, camera 2020. So look a lot of people care about camera.

The best smartphone camera of the year this year, just from its prowess across the board with photos and videos and versatility, goes to this highest end iPhone, and they've reclaimed their crown. It's just hard to beat overall, and I will say- and I've definitely said in the past. I do like some photos from some other phones, almost just as much and sometimes even more than the iPhone shots, but the iPhone takes great editable photos consistently in the addition of pro raw in the last few weeks with a software update, took it to another level as far as image, manipulation and then in the video world, the iPhone leveled up again they've always had the best video quality in any smartphone and now there's more HDR options, better stabilization and a bigger sensor in the 12 pro max. So it's a no-brainer. This is the best overall smartphone camera package.

My runner-up, shout-outs are going to be. First, you might see this coming as I've mentioned, the pixel 5 still often takes photos that I prefer over the iPhone's photos, and if I had to only take one for stills photos, I would take pixel 5. So I definitely want to mention that, and I want to give a shout-out to the blind, smartphone camera test winner for 2020, which was the ASUS before 7 pro. If you watched that video, it was a bit of a surprise winner, but not so surprised. It's got a new triple camera system on the back that just so happens to swivel over and become, I think, the best selfie camera system in any phone.

So shout out to those two runner ups, but we definitely have a clear winner for the cameras, which is that iPhone all right the best battery. This should be a pretty easy objective award to give basically the phone that nets you the best overall battery life is going to win, although this year, there's a little more to it. There's some fast charging to consider there's charging technologies, but basically the winner here is going to be the one that combines the best battery with the best software. The best features and the winner is in fact the thick boy himself without even needing wireless charging. It's the ASUS ROG phone 3.

, this phone just won't die. So it's one of two phones. I tested this year with the biggest battery I've ever held in a phone 6 000 William hours, and then the software optimization was on point. I had no problem using it at high frame rate mode, 144, hertz and getting two days of battery, but then, of course you could clock it down to 120 get a little more. You could clock it down to 90 hertz get a little more.

You could clock all the way down to 60 hertz and I never felt the need to do that. But if I did, I would not be shocked if this was a three-day phone, so major props to that sort of modularity and the battery experience, but I'll also give a shout-out to the other phone I tested this year with a surprisingly thin body and still a six thousand William hour battery, which is that Poco m3 again fantastic battery life, and you know not the same charging tech as the fast charging in the ROG phone, but then also another quick honorable mention shout out to the Samsung m51. I didn't get my hands on it this year it was released exclusively in India, but that phone dropped with a 7 000 William hour battery, and it was somewhere under 500 bucks. So I haven't tested it, but I'm pretty sure that one would also be a battery chain. Good looks all right the design award.

So this is an interesting one. We've gotten a lot of interesting designs, of course, in 2020, and this is probably the most subjective, highly competitive award on one hand, most phones kind of look somewhat the same, but on the other hand, they're all very different in all kinds of color and finish and material ways. This used to be just like the best build quality straight up, but then it went to being my favorite overall design, which includes build quality so for 2020 I don't know it was tough. I couldn't pick a phone that had a mirror finish. I mean you've seen a lot of fingerprints in this video already, so I just wanted something that had a matte option.

Furthermore, I couldn't pick a phone that curved the screen too far over the sides. That's been something I'm not a fan of, and I couldn't pick a phone that had a hideous camera bump to my eye, but they kind of all have crazy camera bumps. So anyway, my design award for 2020 is gonna, go to the Samsung Galaxy note, 20 ultra so yeah. This was easily the most subjective award this year and I think I could be swayed to any number of the runner-ups that I'm about to mention, but I was just a huge overall fan of the hardware choices that went into this phone this year. Obviously the sweet satin finish on the back and this gold color, I like it's pretty sweet but also Galaxy Note, has always been pretty boxy, which is my preference.

They also flattened out the display on the front, so it doesn't curve over the edges so much like previous Samsung phones and, of course, it's now 120 hertz and then, with the cameras on the back, they added laser autofocus to fix the issues with the s20 ultra, and it's a top-notch camera system. Of course, you might not like the bump, but I honestly didn't like almost any camera bump this year, so this one hardly stuck out from the others, and at least it's stuck in line with the boxy theme so yeah. I ended up landing on this. As my design award winner for 2020. , I was just drawn a lot to the hardware of this phone, even though I'm not the biggest fan of Samsung software.

I would just keep coming back to wanting to use this note.20 ultra, so that's a great design uh, but there's a couple honorable mentions. First, I have to give a shout-out to my favorite back of a phone, I think of all time, which is pretty high praise, but Huawei p40 pro every time I pick up this phone. It's got this nice soft touch back. It's this, like iridescent silver, look to it uh I love the back of this phone. I wish every phone had some sort of version of this material.

Uh yeah, it's great, couldn't mention it, and I also want to give a little mini award. There's no trophy for it, but a little mini award to a new recognition for 2020, which is best hinge because hinges are so important in all these alternate form factors we had swiveling. We had vertical hinges. We had backwards hinges, forwards, hinges, there's a lot of hinges happening on this table. Uh, but my favorite hinge of 2020 is the one found in Microsoft: Surface Duo with the magnets and this thin form factor this body, this it's for all the things this phone didn't get quite right.

The one thing they absolutely ace nailed was the hinge and the weight of it, and this folding experience, and just for that reason alone, I'm really looking forward to the next version of this thing and then favorite crazy design, just kind of your kind of have to give it the recognition. I don't even have it on this table. It didn't ship, it wasn't even a real phone, but I'm going to mention it anyway. Xiaomi's mi mix alpha that thing kind of took it to the next level. This is the one with the crazy wrap around display.

Like all right. You want to start curving the display around the sides of the phone. Let's just fast-forward a couple of years and see what it looks like with the screen wrapping all the way around the back. We got to actually see what that was like this year, and we learned a lot from it. So yeah lots of great designs this year, like I said it was pretty subjective, could easily go to any others that are maybe a little more subjective to your taste, but I gave it to the one that I think made the best most overall correct decisions, all right best budget phone of 2020, this category heated up a lot.

I mean there's a lot of phones on this desk here that really earn their spot because of their price to performance ratio. And you know everyone has a different definition of budget for some, it's a certain price range for me. I want to reward a winner that really brings a good amount of stuff from the high-end expensive experience down to a phone, that's lower in price. That's what makes a good budget phone for me. It's got to be an overall good experience for the buyer at the end of the day, so the winner for best budget phone of 2020, that's gonna, be the Google Pixel 4a.

This was a killer phone. It was kind of a surprise hit actually that google found with this a line starting with a 3a from last year. Now you get the 4a at 349, and it gets you that world-class camera, the a1 google software experience for android and overall decently, well-built phone for literally less than half of the price of a lot of comparable out there plus a headphone jack. It's perfect. This turned out to be easily one of the best phones to recommend anywhere under 400 bucks.

So that's quality. My runner-up is also a phone that was a budget version of an expensive line, so again you're seeing high-end stuff brought down in price and uh. I'm going to give a shout-out to the iPhone SE solid runner-up here. So this was 400 bucks, and it was rocking the same world-class chip, the same spec as the flagship iPhones at the time and the same familiar iPhone software experience but again decently well, built the design is a bit dated, of course, as they move away from phones with fingerprint readers. But you do get metal and glass here, but they did get rid of the headphone jack and I feel like I can't give a winner of best budget phone to a phone that got rid of the headphone jack out of principle, but I do also want to give a quick shout out to a runner-up in the best budget space and that's going to be OnePlus word.

This phone was a little less of like trying to bring something bleeding edge from the top down in price, but more of being a quality overall budget experience. So I think they made a great set of choices to keep price low, but deliver a consistently really nice phone. So a lot of people are going to like the word. For that reason, no headphone jack on this phone either, but again solid bang for the buck. But, like I said off the top, it's really hard to go wrong in this category heat it up a lot.

You've got the Moto G series, the Samsung, a series: we've got the Poco phones, there's a lot going on. Cheap phones are getting good like I've said. Let's keep that up: okay, so the biggest bust of the year. The trophy you hate to have to give, but I don't know, there's always something every year that feels like you're rewarding the ones that do good things, and this is sort of a slap on the wrist of the bad stuff. I mean you already know if your phone's bad when it comes out, but we've had some notable losers in the past winners losers, we had HTC ultra, you had red hydrogen.

You had pixel four this year. It goes to a phone that actually wasn't that bad of a phone. It just had a horrific launch strategy and a terrible price. You probably know where I'm going with this. This is a Samsung Galaxy.

Note 20. This is the bust of the year for sure now, Samsung is usually pretty good at putting together a compelling package for a smartphone at each price point. But the note 20 launching at a thousand bucks seemed very out of character, basically launching it, alongside the note 20 ultra to kind of justify its higher price, but note 20 with its plastic back with its 1080p 60hz display with its non-expandable storage, like this phone was absolutely never worth a thousand bucks, and it deserves the nope 20 title couldn't recommend it now today you can go on Amazon and get this phone for 7.99, which is closer to about right, but yeah. When this guy launched it was definitely a miss pretty uncharacteristic from Samsung, but that's why it's uh the bust of the year just never really landed. Also, honorable mention to the Escobar fold 2, which I also don't have on this desk, because it is in the possession of the FBI someday I'll, be able to tell that story, all right, most improved award, MIP 2020 and there's really only one phone.

If I'm being real, that actually deserves this one see phones. Typically, we get a little of an improvement each year, maybe a faster chip, maybe a little of a better camera. Maybe it's got a little refreshing. The design you see some cool stuff year over year, but sometimes this most improved award goes to the biggest jump from a terrible phone the year before. This is none of those things.

This is just a straight up significantly better phone than last year. Let's just get to it most improved phone of 2020 is definitely Samsung Galaxy, z, fold 2. This is the epitome of 2nd gen games. Generation.2 of a new form factor is when you expect to see the most improvement and Samsung definitely delivered that here. Huge improvement on the front display going from a candy bar bezel afterthought to a real usable, full screen phone and huge improvements on the inside display, going from a notched, slightly ugly setup to this thinner, beveled notchless 120hz display that's just a joy to use it's one of my favorite phones of the year for sure, and it's a clear, runaway favorite for the 2020 most improved award.

But I do want to give an honorable mention, though, to a phone that didn't really actually get better, but you could argue delivered a better experience. Pixel 5 right so last year was pixel 4's bust of the year. Pixel 5 turns around comes back, gets you a same camera, a worse processor, arguably and removes some features like project solely and the image processing chip. But for some reason, pixel 5 landed at a sweet spot in price and was just a more understood package. It didn't have to compete against the crazy high-end ultra stuff in the same way, and for that reason I'll give it a little recognition.

The phone isn't necessarily dramatically better than last year, it's actually worse, but it was much better marketed, and it landed the right way, good work. So that brings us to our final award of the night, the biggest award. It's the MVP, the big one uh. This is drifting back into subjective award territory instead of objective. You know this could be my favorite.

Overall phone doesn't necessarily have to be the one that puts up the biggest best numbers, but it's the phone that maybe had the biggest impact on what happened this year. It's the phone that maybe was the best overall combination of things. Maybe it's the phone that was in my pocket, but it's the MVP, and it deserves to be recognized to sort of represent the year in phones, and so with that my MVP for 2020 smartphone of the year is going to the Samsung Galaxy s20 Fe the fan edition. This is an award for its impact on this new premium, mid-range tier that really broke out this year and for absolutely nailing it. So when you look back at this phone, the way it launched and the way it was reviewed, it was pretty quiet.

You know not super flashy, it's a Samsung flagship launching somewhere in the middle of their range, with a pretty nice feature set right, but now that we've sort of collectively realized that this awesome price category has gotten so good this. This premium mid-range, like 700 things happening. You know, iPhone 12 drops right in their pixel five slots right in there, one plus eight pro slot right in there's a lot of action at this new price, this phone with its spec sheet and its features, is virtually indistinguishable from a flagship. It nailed it. This phone's 6.99, and it has 120 hertz OLED, display flagship spec, and it's flat, which is great. The phone has a high-end triple camera system, which is great.

It has a snapdragon 865, a flagship chip and six or eight gigs of ram. That's awesome, and the phone has a 4500 William hour battery toss in ip68 water resistance toss in 5g toss in fast charging toss in wireless charging. I mean it's complete really. The only thing you could complain about is this back: it's a plastic back, but it is a matte finish. It's less likely to shatter.

I think, a lot of people love to complain about plastic, but this had a couple new colors and was actually a pretty nice implementation of it. This phone's launch made the Galaxy Note.20 look stupid like this was an actual, an actual flagship killer, more of a flagship killer than a lot of the other stuff. That's claimed to be over the years. This was the shining light of this new premium. Mid-Tier breakout category of the year and uh pretty much nailed everything about it.

Galaxy s20 Fe! Well done! I guess that's what you get when you're, you have a Samsung. You know in this whole category they throw a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Some of it really sticks in the form of a MVP. Some of it really doesn't stick in the form of the bust of the year, but they have a most improved. They have all kinds of stuff going on, but I don't know, I think it all kind of comes down to a lot is still happening in the smartphone world and next year is shaping up to be well, maybe even more interesting than this year.

We get a lot of generation twos next year we get a lot of potential most improves next year and uh with any luck, we'll see a bunch more matte phones too. Of course, I do like to give my honorable mentions to the MVP category, so I will mention the phone that I have kept in my pocket the longest this year, which is the OnePlus 8 pro since it came out early in the year. This has been sort of my steady phone that I returned to great camera system. Great battery. The only thing I really don't like about it is this screen curving over the edges, but software experience battery life wireless charging.

They finally made a flagship- and it turned out great love that and my iPhone 12 Pro has been in the other pocket but yeah. That's that's the smartphone awards for 2020. So with that, it's been an honor to be your host for this year enjoy the rest of your evening good night. You.

Source : Marques Brownlee