Smartphone Awards 2020!

The Smartphone Awards for 2020: A Year of Innovation and Disappointment

Last year was the Pixel 4's worst, but this year is a different story. The Pixel 5 turns around and delivers a better experience, despite having a worse processor and removing some features like Project Solo. However, it lands at a sweet spot in price and becomes a more understood package.

The phone isn't necessarily dramatically better than last year's, but it was much better marketed, and that's what matters. It didn't have to compete against the crazy high-end ultra stuff in the same way, which made it a more acceptable option for consumers. This approach allowed it to land in the right place, making it a good example of how marketing can make all the difference.

The Biggest Award: The MVP

The biggest award of the night is the MVP, or Most Valuable Phone. This is a subjective award that recognizes the phone that had the biggest impact on what happened this year. It's not necessarily about putting up the best numbers, but rather finding the perfect balance of features and performance.

Drifting Back into Subjective Territory

This award gets back to subjective territory, where personal opinions come into play. The MVP could be anyone's favorite phone, depending on individual preferences. However, in this case, it represents a phone that had a significant impact on the smartphone industry as a whole.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE: The Unlikely MVP

After careful consideration, the winner of the 2020 Smartphone Award for Most Valuable Phone is the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. This fan edition of the flagship phone nailed its category and set a new standard for premium mid-range devices. Its impact on the industry cannot be overstated, as it broke out the new premium mid-range tier that has become increasingly popular.

A Quiet Launch

When the Galaxy S20 FE was first announced, it was relatively quiet. It didn't make a big splash like some of its competitors, but that's precisely what made it stand out. The phone launched with a feature set and specs that were virtually indistinguishable from a flagship device. This was a bold move by Samsung, as it showed that they could create a top-tier phone without breaking the bank.

Flat Display and High-End Specs

One of the standout features of the Galaxy S20 FE is its 6.99-inch flat display with 120Hz refresh rate. This is a feature typically found in high-end flagships, but Samsung has made it available at an affordable price point. The phone also boasts a high-end triple camera system, a Snapdragon 865 processor, and up to 8GB of RAM.

A Package Deal

The Galaxy S20 FE's package deal includes fast charging, wireless charging, IP68 water resistance, and support for 5G networks. It's an impressive list of features that solidifies its position as a flagship killer in the premium mid-range category. The phone's design is also noteworthy, with a matte finish back that's both stylish and practical.

A Flagship Killer

When the Galaxy S20 FE was first released, it made the Galaxy Note 20 look like an also-ran. This was a bold statement from Samsung, as they aimed to outdo their flagship rivals in terms of performance and value. The phone's success is a testament to its well-rounded design and impressive feature set.

Honorable Mentions

While the Galaxy S20 FE takes home the MVP award, there are other phones that deserve recognition for their achievements this year. One such phone is the iPhone 12 Pro, which has been a staple in my pocket since it was released earlier in the year. Its camera system and battery life have been consistently impressive, making it a reliable choice.

The OnePlus 8 Pro

Another phone that deserves an honorable mention is the OnePlus 8 Pro. This phone has been my go-to device for extended periods, thanks to its excellent camera system, long battery life, and fast charging capabilities. Its only drawback is the curved screen edges, which some users may find annoying.

A Year of Innovation and Disappointment

The smartphone industry has always been a place where innovation meets disappointment. This year was no exception, with both outstanding achievements and underwhelming releases. The Galaxy S20 FE's success is a reminder that sometimes, it takes bold moves to create a new category or break the mold.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall 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'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 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 thing happening you know iphone 12 drops right in there pixel five slots right in there one plus eight eight pro slot right in there 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 milliamp 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 an 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 youall 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'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 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 thing happening you know iphone 12 drops right in there pixel five slots right in there one plus eight eight pro slot right in there 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 milliamp 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 an 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 youall 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'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 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 thing happening you know iphone 12 drops right in there pixel five slots right in there one plus eight eight pro slot right in there 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 milliamp 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 an 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\n"