As 2021 begins, it’s time for my traditional look back from the last twelve months to decide on my personal “Smartphone of the Year” choice here at Forbes. Suffice it to say that 2020 was not on the plan for everyone. How the market adapts to COVID-19 has changed what many were looking to find on their phone.
My choice of smartphone rarely deals with the larger screen, larger number or imposing specs, although some of the options here come close to that. It is the phone that reflects the world of 2020, which includes the largest ecosystem of smartphones and stands out exclusively for what it is and represents.
With that, let’s go over several phones I considered before revealing who I’m giving my rosette to.
There are no spoilers about the winner, so here’s a photo of Edinburgh Castle.
PA Images using Getty Images
iPhone 12 Pro Max
The iPhone 12 Pro Max arrived in late 2020 and Apple’s offerings include a large dose of specs and capabilities.
For one thing, that’s all you could want in a modern iPhone; two-day battery life, an improved camera for images and video, a large docked screen (finally) with support for widgets on the home screen, several years of compatibility with the operating system and tightly integrated ecosystem of Apple (although as always, community closed with velvet).
On the other hand, since the iPhone 12 Pro Max has everything you could want in a modern iPhone, you’ll have to deal with two major issues. The first is size; this is a large phone that is almost impossible to use with all functions with one hand and, for several reviewers, is simply too large to be “a phone”, although it is an improvement in terms of convenience compared to the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
The second number the price. While there are more expensive phones (usually those that push the envelope with folding screens), the Pro Max is a big investment. You’re looking for $ 1400 for the model with 512GB of storage, which you really need given the camera features and video features on offer.
There is no doubt that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is a technological marvel. But the price, especially in an economy that has been severely weakened by the coronavirus pandemic, puts it out of the reach of many. This is not an annual Top Trumps Specifications game, my phone of the year should have a wider appeal than the top ranks of geekerati.
Google Pixel 4a
Google essentially avoided the premium phone market this year, bringing the Pixel 5, Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 4 to the mid-range market. Of these three, I think the Pixel 4a represents the best value for money in this space.
There is almost nothing showy on this phone. The battery will see you all day, but you need a night charge; compared to other 2020 Android phones, the 5.8-inch screen is relatively small; and the design is simple with a screen on the front and a polycarbonate back.
However, Google has increased the RAM and storage of the Pixel 3a. The single-camera lens may not win any specs, but it does benefit from Google’s image processing to deliver great photos. And, being a Google phone, it is one of the few phones that can have the security that Android updates and security updates will arrive in a timely and fast manner.
If you need an Android phone that offers a “that’s good enough” experience, it’s hard to look at the price, value, and capabilities of the Pixel 4a.
OnePlus North
The release of the OnePlus North, after the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro the previous month, was a key phone for OnePlus. The pace of a unique model was updated every six months to keep up to date with specifications and offer a good value for money phone with flagship specifications.
OnePlus North had a value for money proposal along with a set of features close enough to the main specs. This was a turning point for OnePlus. Although the company had been dedicated to supplying Pro branded phones, there was always the feeling that they came from the same manufacturing stock and that they were basically two views of the same phone.
This was not the case with the OnePlus North. Here was a new phone that was released separately from the major summer versions, which had a different point of view than what it meant to be a OnePlus phone and managed to annoy the fan base to such an extent that it literally redefined OnePlus.
Whether this redefinition of what OnePlus offers will allow the company to achieve new success in 2021 or whether bridges with the community have been burned will be one of the stories of the next twelve months. The North is a key phone for OnePlus, but perhaps the impact on the entire smartphone ecosystem is less.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition
Although the Galaxy S20 family launched in February, it took about six months for the favored brother to arrive. Aside from the difficult nature of the name, Samsung managed to find a great balance between price and functionality in the flagship Fan Edition, and much of that feels like a response to COVID-19.
The three models of the Galaxy S20 that led the charge came to earlier times. The Galaxy S20, S20 Plus and S20 Ultra, packaging features say they were of great benefit to the road warriors who were constantly on the move around the world, who needed power and were happy to pay a premium. In 2020 it gave a good fulfillment to this approach and, like many other manufacturers, Samsung had to look at its portfolio through a set of new circumstances.
The result is the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition, a phone that cuts the fat of the S20 formula. The large strokes are the same, but a keen eye will notice that the glass is replaced by a plastic one, a more square design around the flat screen, and a camera with 3 12-megapixel lenses (telephoto, wide, and ultra-wide) that drop a little by little less than the higher priced flagships.
Still, this is a package that works. Offering Samsung’s software experience, the Qualcomm 865 Snapdragon has performance and doesn’t feel particularly compromised. Whether you see $ 700 as the top of the mid-range or the bottom of the flagship markets, the Fan Edition feels like the flagship of the people. I wonder what the reaction would have been if this version had been released alongside the other three models? I suspect Samsung would have seen a lot more unit sales, but with the associated turnover
Apple iPhone SE (2020)
In 2020, the dynamics of the smartphone market changed. The coronavirus pandemic affected the entire ecosystem, from supply and manufacturing, to launch and marketing, to consumer needs and demands. The priorities for 2019 did not remain constant.
All phones looked a slightly different prism than expected. For me, a phone felt very relieved. 2020 update on the iPhone SE. With almost the same specs as the current iPhone 11, but at a much lower price, the SE felt like a mounted iPhone not for the Cupertino geekerati, but for the rest.
Why not the iPhone 12 Mini? For me there are two reasons. The first is that it has simply not captured the imagination of the public; a look at the pace of Christmas Day activations shows the iPhone SE between the top ten and the 12 Mini isn’t even placed.
The iPhone SE captures the mood much better than any other smartphone in 2020. Designed before the pandemic began, the launch and subsequent marketing changed to better reflect the mood of the world. . The launch became one of the first notable virtual technology releases; it was one of the first smartphones to be sold to consumers who understood the impact of a lock and work from home. He found success in a world that wanted power on a smartphone, as well as affordability and practicality.
That’s why the iPhone SE is my 2020 smartphone.