Best Smartphones Of 2021

 BEST SMARTPHONES OF 2021

2021 has been a year of real surprises

when it comes to smartphones we've had a

significant push for foldable 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 2021 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 closes

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 these polarizing designs

they do also have a couple of standouts

like the mi11 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 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 the 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

the 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

The iPhone 13 pro is also really strong it's

basically the same phone but instead of

the 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 the 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 pixels 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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 my name is KHAN

and I'll catch you in the next one