Smartphone Awards 2020!

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's more videos more reviews than

ever this year

and there's 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 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 really big

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 milliamp 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 mkbhd 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 really big

features they fit the stylus on the side

of the phone again

4 500 milliamp 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 rg 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

see often 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 a 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

really good 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 of all 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

zenfone 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 best battery this should be a

pretty easy

objective award to give basically the

phone that nets you the best overall

battery life

is gonna 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 milliamp 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 milliamp 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 milliamp 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

i just wanted something that had a matte

option 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 really

ugly 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 really big 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 of all 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 not 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

you 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 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 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 comparables out there plus a

headphone jack it's really good

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 gonna 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 nord

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

nord 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 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

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 bit of an improvement

each year maybe a faster chip

maybe a little bit of a better camera

maybe it's got a little

refreshing the design you see some 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

bezeled 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 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