This year has seen an unprecedented level of competition in the smartphone market, with new contenders emerging and old giants falling off the radar. In light of this, we have custom designed 10 different trophies to award to the winners of our 10 different categories, all leading up to the single best smartphone in the market right now. Let’s start with the Most Improved award, which goes to Google. When their Pixel 6 launched last year, it gave us a glimpse of something special, but the phone was plagued with reception issues, bugs and glitches, a wonky fingerprint scanner, and some pretty grainy video recording. However, considering all of that, we are genuinely shocked that in one year, Google fixed all of those issues with the Pixel 7, allowing us to focus on what actually makes the phone special, like the lively animated software and the incredible photo processing.
Moving on to the Most Timeless Phone award, we believe that the iPhone 13 holds up the best this year. It is still a solid phone that is fast, has good battery life, and has four more years of full-on software support. Its replacement, the iPhone 14, is almost the same phone, so for an extra hundred dollars, you would only be getting a camera that is very slightly better, a chip that is basically the same, and a battery life that is actually slightly worse. This makes the iPhone 13 the prime discounted sweet spot phone right now.
If you prefer a smaller phone, we have the Best Small Phone award, which goes to the Asus Zenfone 9. It is not just even smaller than other great small phones like the Pixel 7 and the Samsung Galaxy S22, but it is also a top-of-the-line flagship that has the fastest chip you can get, up to 16 gigs of RAM, a really responsive screen, and even a six-axis gimbal-stabilized camera, which lets it take some of the smoothest video available on a smartphone. On top of everything else, it has a headphone jack, which is a feature that is increasingly rare among smartphones.
For those who prefer foldable phones, the Best Foldable award goes to Oppo. As of right now, Oppo is the only one who currently has a shape that makes sense in both folded form, where it is basically a slightly podgy but pretty normal feeling phone, and unfolded, where it is a tablet that is actually widescreen and you can watch videos on whilst almost eliminating the crease. Samsung has the best foldable software, and really, if you are going to spend over $1,500 on hardware, nothing is more important than software that lets you best take advantage of it.
Moving on to the Gaming award, we have the ROG Phone 6 Pro. It is pretty much halfway between the philosophy of the Red Magic 7S Pro, which is let’s just throw some stupidly high-end specs together and see what happens, and the iPhone, which is meticulously planned out and highly optimized. What that leads to is really powerful hardware and great cooling that’s also had some care put into it on the software front. This makes it one of the only gaming phones that doesn’t feel like gaming is its sole purpose; it’s just a general multimedia powerhouse with also the best speakers and the best battery of any mainstream device.
For those on a budget, the Best Budget Smartphone award goes to the Poco X4 Pro. It’s got the specs, the design, and it also prioritizes battery life, which is just one of those consumer-friendly moves that we want to see more and more companies doing.
Now, let’s move on to the best phone for battery life. For this category, we have to take a look at some phones that are known to have longer battery lives than others. One of the phones that stands out in this category is the Samsung Galaxy M52. This phone comes with a massive 7,000mAh battery, which is one of the biggest batteries on any smartphone. This means that the phone can last for an entire day with heavy usage and can go up to two days with moderate usage.
Another phone that deserves a mention is the Xiaomi Poco X3 GT. This phone comes with a 5,000mAh battery that can last for up to two days with moderate usage. The phone also supports fast charging, which means that you can quickly charge your phone and get back to using it.
Moving on to the best camera phone category, we have to talk about the iPhone 13 Pro. This phone comes with a triple-lens camera system that includes a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 12-megapixel wide lens, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens. The phone also comes with a LiDAR scanner, which helps with low-light photography and augmented reality (AR) features. The phone can take stunning photos with great detail and color accuracy, making it a top contender for the best camera phone.
Another phone that stands out in this category is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. This phone comes with a quad-lens camera system that includes a 108-megapixel wide lens, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 10-megapixel periscope telephoto lens, and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens. The phone also supports 100x zoom, which means that you can take photos from a distance with great detail.
Moving on to the best phone for gaming, we have to talk about the Asus ROG Phone 5. This phone is designed specifically for gaming and comes with a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate. The phone also comes with a Snapdragon 888 chipset and up to 16GB of RAM, which means that it can handle any game you throw at it. The phone also comes with AirTrigger 5, which are ultrasonic buttons that act as triggers for games that require precise control.
Finally, let’s talk about the best overall phone of 2023. For this category, we have to consider a phone that excels in every category and offers great value for money. After considering all the contenders, we have to give the award to the Google Pixel 7 Pro. This phone offers a great camera system, long battery life, and fast performance. It also comes with a simple and intuitive software experience that is easy to use for anyone. Finally, the phone is priced at $899, which is $100-$200 cheaper than most flagship phones. This makes the phone a great value for money option.
In conclusion, the smartphone market is constantly evolving, and we are seeing new contenders every year. It is important to consider all the categories before making a purchase to ensure that you get a phone that meets all your needs. With the information provided in this article, we hope that you can make an informed decision and get the best phone for you.
While I think the S22 Ultra is a better phone and better pick for best android flagship than the Pixel 7 Pro, I respect your decision and it’s actually impressive to see the Pixel become so good now and become the ‘default’ android. Finally, Google has made the Pixel phones the default android option, a bit like iPhones. Purest form of android, great cameras and awesome google features.
It was quite easy to predict pixel 7 pro because it is quite literally the best smartphone in existence right now. Absolutely phenomenal.
I’m still using my pixel 6 from last year and honestly never had any issues that everyone else complained about it. The only thing that bugged me was the slow fingerprint reader but after a year I just got used to it.
Definitely huge shout-out to Asus tho. With their Zenfone 9 compact they really gave the compact scene a good competitor. Literally a flagship phone in a tiny package. And with their ROG phone 6 lineup, best battery best speakers surprisingly good quality cameras, amazing software , it just feels so worth the price. So many kids cry about the price but its worth it, justified asf. A word of advice to anyone who’s looking for a gaming phone to buy: as someone who’s owned them all, you are much better off getting a used ROG phone off eBay then a new red magic or anyone else. Also the rog phone 6 is easily the coolest phone I’ve held, quite literally, it never heated up in regular daily activities, only in intense gaming.
The pixels have improved so much and I bought one this year. I really like how far they have come and how they are working to make a great phone for a more reasonable price than other companies.
Haven’t heard of the Asus Zenfone. That actually looks pretty solid. I’ve been using OnePlus phones for years but am switching off of them with my next upgrade since I don’t like the direction they’re hearing. Maybe I’ll check into Asus, I dig the design and my Asus Zephyrus G15 laptop is excellent.
I know it’s not on the lists for a reason, but I am incredibly thrilled with how my Redmi Note 9 Pro is performing, and from what I’ve heard, its other cousins in the Note Pro line are just as good.
This year has been kind of lacking from the bigger manufacturers, and I agree that the pixel is the only phone that really deserved the top award this time because of the improvement and price, even though I myself am not a fan of Google phones.
I’ve been really rooting for Google Pixel. I’m so happy that in a brand oriented market, you really went with the right choice of recommending the overall best that also goes with budget rather than going for the typically desired iPhones. Also Google Pixel winning two years consecutively really shows their vast improvement and foreshadows a future pixel trend.
After 10 years of using iPhone , finally made the switch to Android. Got the pixel 7, for free lol and I’m loving it and then 2 weeks ago I got the pixel 6a on sale and I like even better. Can’t wait for th pixel 7a and pixel fold. I had use Android before but only for a short period of time.