- All Right, welcome to the Smartphone Awards 2023. A Lot of smartphones come out every year. And This year is no different. We Got all kinds of shapes and sizes, and features, and budgets.

Just A Ton of phones. And So like clockwork,, at the end of the year, you can count on me to pick some favorites in each of the categories that I break it down in. So This is a summary of the best and some of the worse phones of 2023. And These are my picks.

I Always know I'm gonna get some push back on some of the categories. I'm sure I'll hear in the comments, and I'm fine with that.. But These are my picks, so I'm sticking with them. So The way this works is, I'm gonna break this down into the usual categories.

Every single category is going to have one winner. And Then of course, there can be a runner-up, and maybe some honorable mentions if we're feeling generous. And Every single category, we've actually had custom trophies made to give to the winners. And Lately, the companies that win these actually do request them, and sometimes end up displaying them in their headquarters, whatever they're into,, which is super-cool for the recognition.

So, we're doing it again. So Without any further ado,, let's get started with our first category. Best Big Smartphone. So This is a phone one, because smartphones have been growing over the years, and they've started to get bigger and bigger.

But At the point we're at now,, it does kind of feel like they've stopped growing. Am I The only one who feels this way? I Feel like everyone sort of agreed that we're not gonna go past seven inch screen size. Everything Over That is ridiculous. And So all these big companies have their giant, best smartphones pushing right up against the seven inch screen size.

And Trying to fit as much as possible in that phone. So, there's a lot of competition in this particular category. And My winner for the Best Big Phone, the best use of that space in 2023.... That's going to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Once Again,, the phone that comes out at the beginning of the year, kind of a sleeper, but it holds steady the entire year. The Design is obviously pretty understated,, which I think is why it goes under the radar these days. But It has all the hardware you could possibly want. It's got that corner-to-corner 6.8 display that's super-bright, quad HD, LTPO, 120 Hertz.

It's also got quad cameras on the back. It's got a 5,000 milliamp power battery. It's got the second latest generation Snapdragon ship. Again, it came out in January.

And, it also has room for a stylus inside, without really sacrificing anything. Yeah, this thing is full of hardware. And, it's also gotten software updates all year, with a bunch more promised. It's hard to pick if there's one standout feature.

It might not be the huge 1440 P screen. It might not be the 200 megapixel main camera. But I Actually think it's the massive zoom. For Anyone that cares about shooting subjects really far away, this camera system basically still feels unmatched.

It feels kind of boring. But It does feel like that's a pretty clear pick for me for Best Big Phone of 2023. But I Do have a runner-up. And This one's not-so-obvious.

Because Again,, you kind of get to blur the lines a bit with these new phones that have been coming out.. But, I'm giving my runner-up for Best Big Phone to the One Plus Open. It definitely deserves a mention because when it's open, becomes almost an eight inch square display. This Phone, even this new folding form factor has all the hardware you could possibly want.

And All the software features to match. And I Really enjoyed using this phone this year, despite how gigantic it is. But I Do also wanna give honorable mentions for: Best Big Phone to Asus ROG Phone 7. And Oppo Find S6 Pro.

Not These phones are lacking anything. Again, the boring one won. But Maybe if this one had wireless charging, or if this one had more zoom, it could of been in contention. But These are two also excellent giant phones that came out this year.

So Then, next up category, Best Compact Smartphone. Best Small Phone. This One, I Swear the pickings get slimmer every single year. Because Not only are smartphones getting bigger and bigger,, but also even the smallest phones are getting further and further from small.

Like The smallest phones from the biggest companies are still, do you wanna call a pixel 7A small? That's a 6.1 inch screen. Or maybe Galaxy S23, the baseline one, that's also a 6.1 inch screen. It's tough to find a truly small phone that brings all the flagship features down. But There's one that really did it.

And So, it definitely deserves this award. The Best Small Phone, you saw this coming already. It's the Asus Zenfone 10. This is the flagship that packs everything you need and more, in an actually one handable phone, with a 5.9 inch display..

So, it deserves to be the winner. And I'm so glad that this phone exists. When I Reviewed the Zenfone 9 last year, I said it was pretty close to perfect. It was just missing a couple of things.

It had a couple of small nitpicks. When I Reviewed the Zenfone 10 this year,. they fixed those nitpicks, they added wireless charging. They made the back of the phone more durable, some software tweaks.

It's literally nearly perfect. If You are thinking about buying a small phone, honestly, it feels like this may be one of the last good ones you ever get to buy. If You're in the age of wanting a mini phone, speak now, or forever hold your cash. 'Cause They're going away.

The Only other phone that I think could technically qualify for this, would be some of the folding phones. Or Flipping phones, I should say. Chief Among them being Samsung's Z Flip 5. Now When you open up the phone, you're still getting a pretty big screen.

It's as 6.7 inch screen, when you actually use a Z Flip 5. But, as many of you have pointed out,, you can fold it down and stow it in a much smaller form factor than the others.. So Even though it's not the most one handable thing in the world,, it's smaller. So, shout out to the Z Flip 5, Honorable Mention.

So Next category: the Best Camera in a smartphone in 2023. And This one I have a soft spot for, just 'cause I like cameras, and you guys already knew that. But There has been a lot of really interesting stuff pushing the boundaries for smartphone cameras. In the past year, especially.

A lot of it optically with really cool hardware. A lot of it with software, with processing, with AI, with all the stuff... I Mean,, I might end up making an entire video on just how crazy it's gotten, because there's been some really interesting stuff lately. But, my pick for best camera for 2023, ruffles feathers every time for some reason, but I really believe in this one.

You Already know, it's iPhone 15 Pro. This is my camera king. And I Have absolutely no regrets about it. Now, it's a simple fact that many people love to point out is yes,, there are some smartphones, even ones on this table that can produce better photos than the iPhone in certain situations.

Especially Zoom. But When it comes to just the totality of performance across the biggest variety of situations, and ease of use for photos and videos,, the iPhone is still king. Especially with a video. I Feel like it's still not particularly close.

See iPhone takes the best, most consistent, usable videos in the biggest variety of situations of any smartphone by a long way. They Also added log recording to the Pro iPhones this year. They can also record directly to an external SSD. There was an Apple keynote earlier this year that turned out to be shot completely on the iPhone, and it looked incredible.

But Some of you may already remember, and I've pointed this out, that's not the first time that's happened already. Samsung Years ago did a keynote that was live, that was actually already shot. And They announced it on the phone. But You could tell, like it wasn't nearly as good.

You really could tell. So This thing has been producing incredible results. Basically If you told me I could only have one smartphone camera for the next five years, I think I would pretty quickly just go. "All right.

"Let's just send it with the iPhone 15 Pro." I Do also wanna give an honorable mention, though. To The Galaxy S23 Ultra. This thing, especially because of how well it does with the zoom, has been an awesome stills camera for a long time. Really good.

It Also, I did a whole video on it, reviewing it. The 200 megapixel thing, didn't turn out to be a big of a difference versus the 100 megapixels as you might of though.. But in general, really good. And Then, a shout out to the winners of our Scientific Blind Smartphone Camera test that we ran online again this year.

We Collected data from 20 smartphones that came out in 2023 and the overall most popular winner for the standard photo was the Pixel 7A. Then The winner for low light photos was the iPhone 15 Pro. And The winner for portrait photos was the Pixel 8 Pro. So Next category, next winner is Best Value.

Sort of shifted over the years. It used to be Best Budget Phone. But I sort of expanded it, Best Value Option here. And This is actually I think the hardest one for me to pick.

Believe it or not, which I think is a good thing, and a bad thing. It's a good thing, because it means there's some competition in the high value options. But It's also not that good of a thing, just because a lot of phones have gotten price hikes this year. There have been base prices going up.

Things that used to win budget awards are more expensive now. So I Gotta make that decision on what qualifies as best value. Like We all think a $1,000 phone should not Win Best Value, right? Even If it's a great phone. But, how high is too high? But After much deliberation,, I eventually landed on what feels like a sweet spot.

A Phone with basically no stand out features, but also basically nothing wrong with it. The Phone can be found consistently for well under $400. It's the Samsung Galaxy A54. It's everything you need, and nothing you don't.

Like You could go more premium and get more features, and feel like you're enjoying the phone more. But You could also go a little cheaper, and start to notice a little bit more corner-cutting. But This does a really good job of striking the balance right in the middle. You Know how when someone asks you like how your day's been and you just kind go, "Oh, it was fine." "Nothing really happened, "it was all right, nothing notable." That's this phone.

Cameras are fine. Battery, it's fine. The screen, it's fine. The Design is fine.

Everything is fine. So, for $400 bucks, you'll be just fine. I Also wanna give an honorable mention, though. Because There is a phone that dipped way down below what I thought a really good phone could be.

And that is the Moto G Play. I Reviewed this phone as it came out at $169. And To be honest,, I was very impressed with it. And Kind of evaluating the whole idea of how a phone could be decent at this price.

90 hertz and everything. But Also, give a shout out to the Pixel 7A. As You probably remember, the price went up this year, all the way up to 500 bucks. But It did gain some stuff.

It has a 90 Hertz display now. It has better specs, and it still does all the stuff that you expect from a Pixel. So, it deserves a shout out for being a good phone at that price.. So Then, next up.

Best Battery. Best Battery Overall in a smartphone. This doesn't necessarily go to the one that just has the highest battery capacity. I'm more giving Best Overall Battery Experience award.

Ideally, you also have some decently fast-charging, or wireless charging. Or, it's just convenient that it lasts for so long. It might not actually be the biggest sell. I Don't know that anyone's actually buying a phone just because it has the absolute best battery life.

But If you do live that life, that no worries away from a charger life, you'll probably care about the winners of this category. So My winner, who's getting a trophy for best battery this year is iPhone 15 Plus, specifically. This Thing just goes and goes, and goes. The Bigger battery, in general, has a lot to do with it.

The 60 Hertz display, also has a lot to do with it. But, if you want a risk-free no-brainer great battery life, that's definitely gonna get it done for you. I'm also gonna give a shout out to the ROG phone. 7.

It doesn't have wireless charging, but it does have pretty fast charging. And It has the biggest battery capacity of any phone I've used this year. 6,000 milliamp powers. And If you drop it down to 60 Hertz, it will also just go, and go, and go..

And Also,, another Asus phone, which is the Zenfone 10. This one kind of feels like wizard-like. I don't know how, because it's not the biggest battery. It is pretty aggressive at killing background apps, and it's probably missing some bands in the U.S.

So, that might have something to do with it. But This phone, this small 5.9 inch display phone, it's killer battery life. It Can be a two day phone. And You can drop it down to 60 Hertz, as well.

So, whatever Asus is doing over there, keep it up. Because Battery life is great. I Recently talked about this in my Hot Takes video about how phones are getting more and more powerful. But Generally, the average battery life hasn't really changed that much.

It's just been all day is good. So It's good to see some phone actually pushing that envelope, and they deserve to get rewarded for it. So Then, Best Design. This One is so tough every time.

Best Design. Because First of all,, design is subjective. Like Something I find pretty, you might find ugly. Fine.

But Also, just in general,, it feels like every phone has some flaw, some reason why, and I can't give it to that one. Like Think about it,, if you're in my shoes, you gotta give a design award, right? First Of all,, a lot of phones look pretty similar to the way they did the previous year,, right? So I Can't give it to one that looks exactly the same as last year. But Also,, I can't give it to one that has some fatal flow, if it's missing a camera it should of had, or if it's missing, it has a crazy bezel. I Can't give it to the one with the biggest notch, or dynamic island, can I? I Can't give it to the one that's made of plastic, or the one that has a curved display on the edges.

Like What is an actually flawless, Maybe it's the most boring design. But, you don't wanna give the design award to the most boring design. This is a hard one. And Then it hit me.

There was a phone this year that basically made headlines just for its design. In A good way, and I agreed with them. And It absolutely deserves a trophy for design this year. It's the Honor Magic V2.

This thing right here. This Phone legitimately shifted the way I think about phone hardware. It was like a gear shift in the world of foldable phones. A Think a lot of us didn't even realize that you could make a phone like this.

That has, first of all,, it's under 10 millimeters thick, when it's closed. Which is the same thickness as plenty of regular phones. It has a full-sized screen on the outside. It has a corner-to-corner foldable display on the inside.

It somehow also fits a 5,000 million power total battery. Which I think is the biggest I've seen in any foldable. Toss in 60 plus watt charging, a triple camera setup,, a terabyte of internal storage. I think a lot of us didn't realize this was possible.

So Even though the rest of the phone might be a little questionable, maybe some weird software that I wouldn't wanna use,, the one thing that nobody could question is the design. Everyone I've shown it to universally is impressed in some way by it.. But That actually brings us to our first new category ad in a long time in the Smartphone Awards, and that is Best Foldable Phone. So This is the first time genuinely separating out, and considering all of the folding phones that came out during the year..

And The reason it's getting its own category this year is because there's genuinely a large variety of shapes and sizes and versions of foldable phones, and flippable phones that we can choose from.. So I think in general, I made a video talking about this already. But Folding phones are quite on the doorstep yet. Like, they're close, but they're still mostly thicker and more expensive than normal phones.

But, I Do wanna reward the ones that are pushing the boundaries in some way towards that revolution. So, winner for best foldable phone in 2023, Yeah,, that's the OnePlus Open. Man, this phone is good. When I Was thinking about what I would personally daily drive from the folding phones bunch, this is the one that bubbled to the top.

This is folding phone I would be most likely to use. When It's closed, it feels the most like a normal phone. Mostly because the aspect ratio on the size of the screen is normal phone-ish, flat sides. But Then you open it up, and it's a nearly eight inch, almost perfectly square folding screen with a very minimal crease..

Awesome Specs, really good software, and a lot of fun features to back it up.. I Think my favorite part is just the way you can move around multiple windows and keep them full-size. And have them overlap sort of the edge of the screen. It's a fun and unique, like actually new way of multi-tasking on a phone.

And It actually works. This was the best phone with a folding screen that was released during 2023.. No Doubt about that. It's also basically the exact same hardware as the Oppo Find End Three Fold.

So, shout out to that one, as well. But I Also wanna give an honorable mention here. I'm gonna actually say it's the runner-up in this category of best foldable. To The Pixel Fold.

And That's just because this one specifically is my favorite foldable to use closed. Because The outside screen is so good. The Outside screen is nice and compact. It's the most reachable, it's the smallest, also.

But It's wide,, it's big, it's super useful to use closed. And For whatever reason, I Love that about it. I Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, that I opened it way less. But It's the best to use closed.

And, I'm gonna give an honorable mention as well to Samsung's Z Flip 5. I Mentioned it earlier in this video. But, a couple of things about this. One is, it feels like it's leading the pack for the flipping phones.

I Think it's better than the Razer, I think it's better than some of the other flipping ones. But Also as far as build quality, and just quality control, Samsung in general, is at the top of the heap. Basically Every other folding phone has had some level of quality control issues at some point and some rate.. And Samsung Ironically,, the ones that had the biggest issues at the beginning, have ironed it out the most over time.

So That's their reward for jumping in early. Also, I Have to give that honorable mention to the Honor Magic E2, just purely for the design. I Still can't believe they made this phone. Super-impressive.

So, next award, Most Improved. The Most Improved Award. Hmm. It's interesting because again,, lots of phones play it safe.

Lots of phones are just a slight evolution from last year. They're a slight spec bump. And I Can't get mad at that if they're already a good phone. Like Zenfone, for example.

I'm happy they kept a lot of things the same. But Then, that makes the Most Improved Award a little more of a quirky pick. Maybe Not the most obvious pick in the world. But I'm gonna go with the Nothing Phone 2.

Most Improved Phone 2023. So This is part hardware story, and part a software story. So Obviously, they didn't change the hardware a ton from the first. Nothing Phone.

Because They're literally brand new, so they're just getting their identity set. So Yeah, there's a newer, higher resolution LED pattern on the back. There is a slightly curved glass now to feel a little better in the hand. But Generally, it still looks like a nothing phone.

But They also did a lot with the software, specifically moving to Nothing OS 2.0 and then 2.5. Which Now on Android 14. Which gets a lot of new stuff with this phone. There's a focus on efficiency and smoothness, and then adding all these features.

And There's also been fantastic. So You combine that with the new specs, the slightly bumped design, and then a bunch of the new features that unfortunately the Phone 1.0 isn't getting, like the better glif controls, and clone app feature, and monochrome theme and stuff. It just adds up to a pretty big improvement. To The point where in this world with most people just being able to buy last year's phone and be totally fine.

With This phone, I would actually say, don't buy last year's phone. You should just get the Phone 2, over the Phone 1. Plus You can send blue bubbles to, oh, wait, sorry never mind, you can't do that. But Still,, Phone 2, much improved.

It's probably gonna steady out after this. And This was nice to put them on the map. But Now, they'll have to stabilize and become a real company. And You know what? Honorable Mention.

Just Because I Don't know if anyone else can say they technically made this big of a change in their phone as much as switching the iPhone 15 to USB type C. So, Honorable Mention to the iPhone. All Right, next up. Bust of the Year.

The award you don't really wanna have to give, but one of these phones on this desk is gonna win Worse New Phone of 2023. Look, I Do have to preface this basically every time by saying, it is actually genuinely hard now to get a bad phone. Like Most phones, no matter what price point you're at, are either gonna be really good for the money, or okay for the money. It's hard to get a bad phone.

But There was one bad phone this year. And So, it's gonna win a trophy for it. And that would be Solama Saga Cryto Phone. Bust of the year.

There is actually no price that I would recommend anyone buys this phone. Buying This phone is like buying a timeshare. It might seem like a good idea for two seconds. But The second you actually do it, you realize how horrible of an idea it was.

And, this is just a bad phone. The One redeeming quality is actually it does have this nice build quality. It's got ceramic, and it's nice and weighty and heavy. But Yeah, that was wasted on this phone.

You could tell because of the story behind it. That It wasn't going to go well. I'll leave a link below to the full video I did about it, if you have any itch to just hear about something horrible. But That's a pretty clear one for bust of the year.

I'm also gonna give an honorable mention to all of the concept phones that were announced this year and never came out. And never will. You know who you are. So That brings us to the biggest trophy of the night,.

well, it's the same size as the other trophies, but it's the most important, it's the best one. It's the one you wanna win, the MVP. The Most Valuable Phone. Well, Not actually valuable value-wise, but it's really just my favorite phone of the year.

At The end of the day, it's come down to like, there are really good phones. They are the ones that have the biggest impact on the industry. They're the ones that are the most fun, the most unique, the most innovative, the ones that have the best features. And This one sort of just combines all of that into one trophy of recognition for the MVP, the Phone of the Year for 2023..

So, what's it gonna be? I Mean,, there's been some really interesting stories. There's been some disruptive phones. There's some great phones that I've enjoyed using. My winner for MVP, for Phone of the Year 2023, is going to the Pixel 8.

Well-deserved, big shout out to the Pixel 8. It has stepped it up over last year. So There's a bunch of things about this phone that are genuinely different from last year. But The headlining one, the one that matters the most, is it's a $100 more expensive than the Pixel 7, so it's really gotta deliver and be a great phone to be worthy of that.

And it does.. This phone has a great camera. Not miles ahead of the rest like previous years, but still and incredible stills photo camera. It has a dramatically better display.

It's stepped up to a 120 Hertz. It's got this flagship class, 2000 knits. Super-bright. It also has the same tensored G3 chip as the Pro Phone, which is several hundred dollars more, and also a flagship.

And Then,, just a ridiculous amount of software features. Again, matching the more expensive Pro Phone, which makes it harder and harder to justify the Pro Phone, which I use daily and love. But Still,, for the hundreds of dollars less,, this is the way you should probably go. And, it's promising now.

Seven years of software updates. Seven Years of software updates, which is pretty incredible for a phone. So Just among all the things that came out this year, as far as a well-rounded package for impact,, for price,, for stepping it up, and being a really good phone,, Pixel 8. Now, I do have a runner up.

I Really Again,, super-love this phone this year. And It's not gonna be a popular phone, either. But I Love it anyway. It's the Asus Zenphone 10.

Some of you already know, because of what it did last year, how good these phones are. And It does it again in this weird physics-defying package of basically being nearly perfect. Small, compact, reachable, surprisingly-good cameras. Excellent Performance, shockingly good battery life.

Just, I Don't have a lot of bad things to say about this phone. Zenphone 10, it's really good. You should watch the full review. And, I'm also gonna give an honorable mention to iPhone 15 Pro.

Specifically for basically now feeling like we've reached peak iPhone. I Know you could of said this about a lot of previous iPhones. But, now that it is USB type C, and now that the notch has been gone for a bit, and is a dynamic island. This just feels like a finished phone.

There's not a whole lot of other things that I'm expecting to land with a bang on the iPhone. Maybe a fingerprint reader, or fast-charging. Maybe That's about it. But, this is the best iPhone ever, clearly.

And I Feel like it's finally hit that stride of "All Right, you've done it." Two Other quick mentions. I Do have to give a shout out, an honorable mention to the ultra-boring S23 Ultra. Just Because this is that phone that is,. it doesn't have any flaws, it's just a rock-solid phone all around..

And It consistently gets buried when you think about the December videos. The Phone that came out 12 months ago, but I Have to. This is a really good phone. And, I Wanna give a shout out to the One Plus Open for being the foldable phone that I think I could actually recommend to real people.

Not That most people are gonna spend 1800 bucks on a foldable phone, anyway. But If you're going to for one of them, this is the phone that I would daily, if you had to tell me to pick a folding phone today. So Shout out to the One Plus Open. And, that's it.

That's my Smartphone Awards for 2023. So Let me know how all of you are feeling. I Know there's gonna be comments down below, and I Can't wait to hang out and see which ones you would of picked for your awards. Maybe Other people will make their own awards, too.

But, I'm pretty happy with my list. So, until the next one, catch you guys later. Peace.