Not many people use three smartphones like I do, but in addition to covering mobile devices as an industry analyst, I’ve been a device tester for a long time and love looking into new electronics. So, just like I did. Last year, here I share my opinion on my favorite phones that I used in 2024, in several categories.
I had the excitement of taking a look at all the phones of this diversity (and reviewing most of them), and here are how I used them in 2024. These evaluations are based solely on my personal opinion. experiences with those devices, as well as many of its competitors, over the past year. It is important to note that this is a list generally founded in the US. And it would probably be very different if I had more time with Chinese-made phones. through brands such as Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor. Heck, I’d take a look at Huawei if I could get my hands on their triple device, but this one is very hard to get outside of China.
With those caveats out of the way, let’s dive in.
Every year, I want to think that someone will finally unseat Samsung’s top device for overall experience, and every year, no one does. In 2024, Samsung once again delivered a really well-balanced phone; I enjoyed the improvements in the Galaxy S24 Ultra in terms of design, chipsets and performance, even though it wasn’t a huge departure from the S23 Ultra.
That said, I wrote about how the company reduced the optical zoom from 10x to 5x while upscaling the resolution of that sensor to compensate for it. I’d say that in the zoom range of 10x to 30x the upgrade is hard to notice, but up to 100x there’s a difference. Apple still can’t compete with Samsung in zoom, but the new sensor has advanced low-light functionality, which is a smart thing to do. The 5G and Wi-Fi functionality is still unmatched, and the biggest improvement has been the battery life, which is much longer than the S23 Ultra.
My biggest complaint about this phone is that the stressed charge may be faster than 45 watts, but it’s still significantly higher than Apple’s or Google’s 25-watt load. I was also surprised to see that Samsung didn’t adopt the Qi2 wireless standard, but I hope the company will adopt it for the S25 series. To finish off this big winner, I’d like to point out that when I upgraded from the S24 Ultra to the Pixel nine Pro Fold, I realized how smart the connectivity was, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, the battery life. I missed the battery and camera. of the S24 Ultra. Formation
The iPhone 16 Pro was a very welcome addition to Apple’s new lineup. While Apple looked to other people for its AI offering, Apple Intelligence, in its purchasing decisions, the truth is that Apple Intelligence hasn’t yet added much price to the device. In fact, I’d say that the new Circle to Search feature on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Google Pixel 9, and Moto Razr series was probably the most productive AI feature on smartphones in 2024, and Apple didn’t have it.
Like lots of other people, I moved to the iPhone 16 Pro from the iPhone 15 Pro Max and enjoyed the smaller-sized body without any real compromises, especially because the battery life on the 16 Pro is roughly the same as the 15 Pro Max. The camera on the iPhone 16 Pro is great, following the same design concept we saw from Google of putting the top-end pro camera in the same-sized body as the standard model. This means not having to go up to the bigger-body phone to get the full-size 5x optical telephoto lens. Apple also added features like undertones to enable users to shoot photos with the preset color profiles that match their style.
Thanks to iOS dominance, the iPhone 16 offers arguably the most productive video of any smartphone, as well as countless third-party apps that augment the capabilities of the camera hardware, adding Blackmagic’s ridiculously detailed video camera app. Ironically, Apple has added the camera control button. to the phone, but most people, myself included, don’t find it as useful as it deserves to be.
Beyond the camera itself, Apple’s adoption of the RCS generation of cellular messaging has also made the iPhone particularly better at interacting with Android users, security, and image and video quality.
After using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold for a few months, I really enjoyed the innovations over the first-generation Pixel Fold. The new style is by far the thinnest foldable I’ve tested and it actually incorporates the software side, I think OnePlus may just have a better interface for foldable devices with OnePlus Open. Aside from that, I thought the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was a more competitive offering than the Galaxy Z Fold6, which brought some physical innovations and arguably has a faster processor, but also has a smaller camera that Samsung deserved to be updated generations ago.
Cameras are vital to me, even on foldable devices, and I feel like Google understands that, even if this phone didn’t hit the same mark in terms of camera functionality as the rest of the Pixel nine Pro’s offerings. While I’m not the only one praising the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it ultimately failed to update the S24 Ultra as the number one Android phone.
I enjoyed the Moto Razr+ 2024 so much because it leans into what makes it a great device — its large outside display and minimalist software — while also increasing the camera specs and display specs in a meaningful way and shipping with a powerful processor and Wi-Fi capabilities. I also think that Moto priced this device exceptionally well. Put it all together, and it’s not surprising that the Razr+ continues to be one of the rare Android phones that converts iPhone users to Android.
I believe Motorola achieves this through design, marketing, and software. Although in my review I state that there is room for improvement in the software, especially on the outer display, this is still my favorite among foldable smartphones. Hopefully, the battery innovations we’re seeing in Chinese phones will be incorporated into next year’s model.
OnePlus continues to refine the design and camera features of its phones. The OnePlus 12 is a snappy, well-designed phone that fixes some of the Wi-Fi functionality issues I’ve had with OnePlus devices in the past. I found this phone to be more expensive than Samsung’s Galaxy S24 for about the same price and with the same resolution screen and camera setup. The OnePlus 12’s camera was probably the biggest wonder for me because, unless it was because of the zoom, I felt that regardless, the camera was world class and would impress anyone who saw it. ‘I would try. You can read everything I think about the OnePlus 12 in my review.
I think that OnePlus offers better storage and RAM specs than Samsung — which is odd when you consider that Samsung manufactures its own storage and RAM chips. This has always perplexed me about Samsung, but it seems that OnePlus understands that people want better storage and RAM, and that, with the growth of AI, those aspects are more important than ever. The OnePlus 13 is already on the market in China and will have a global launch very soon; I’m excited to get my hands on it so I can find out how the company has improved on the 12. I hope to see even more improvements across the board, with a continued drive towards value at the high end.
The Redmagic 10 Pro is one of the most productive gaming smartphones on the market and the one with the longest mobile gaming pedigree. It is also among the first phones to hit the market with Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which also makes it one of the fastest phones on the market. One of the Redmagic 10 Pro’s biggest competitors is the ASUS ROG Phone nine Pro, which has the same processor and many of the same capabilities. None of them will be winning a photography contest anytime soon, but Redmagic has rightly focused on battery life and fast charging.
While Redmagic’s phone comes with a larger battery and faster charging, the ROG Phone 9 Pro has a superior demo refresh rate (185 hertz vs. 144 hertz). Redmagic’s 10 Pro also tops out at $999 for the 12GB RAM and 1TB edition. of storage, while the ASUS ROG Phone nine Pro retails for $1,500 with specs.
I also think Redmagic’s interface is more mature, even though ASUS has made a lot of progress and is enjoying significantly more gaming activity under the ROG brand, adding the ROG Ally series wearables. It would be appealing to see Redmagic try its hand at a gaming laptop as it continues to expand its brand offering into other gaming products, adding gaming headsets, monitors, keyboards, and mice.
My time with the Pixel 8A was fairly short, mostly because I didn’t get my hands on it until months after its release. Even so, the Pixel 8A was my default recommendation to many people looking for a well-priced Android phone with most of the best specs while also not breaking the bank. Even now, the Pixel 8A can be had pretty much anywhere for $399, and that’s a great price when you consider that it will get most of the software updates straight from Google for many years to come.
The camera on this phone is pretty smart for a $399 device, and the processor is overpowered for what the average Pixel 8A user will need to do with it. That is, it will continue to work well for generations even if it is just a Tensor G3 processor. Every time Google Pixel A series devices come out, they regularly make the entry-level Pixel irrelevant and Google’s overall volume for the Pixel line. We’ll see if that’s the case in 2025 with the Pixel 9A, but I suspect Google will continue down the path of offering great value with the A series after fully developing the main Pixel series.
Of course, the OnePlus Buds 3 pro are a smartphone in themselves, but I’ve used them to the max with every single smartphone (except the iPhone) I’ve used in 2024, and they’re still smart earbuds. For the price charged through OnePlus, those headphones deserve to draw more attention. The active noise cancellation is smart, as is the overall sound quality. While those earbuds are a bit larger than Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2, they’re also much cheaper. At the time of writing, OnePlus is selling buy them outright for a cool $120 (compared to $180 at retail) and from what I’ve seen, they’re universally loved, even with the higher price. These are the headphones that appeal to me the most, although there are probably better ones. alternatives (although much more expensive).
Many of these phones leaned into AI in one way or another, but I believe most of them fell flat in delivering an experience that was deeply integrated with AI or enhanced greatly by AI. I believe that AI will continue to be prominent in smartphones, and perhaps the introduction of AI agents will help smartphones become more useful and take advantage of the AI capabilities on-device.
I also believe AI will drive demand for 5G with the need for more hybrid AI features driven through smartphone AI apps. I also believe that foldable devices will continue to evolve and that we will make more innovations in foldable devices that will make them more accessible. I don’t expect anything earth-shattering for smartphones this year, the Snapdragon 8 Elite processors will put many Android devices in a fest with Apple in terms of functionality and battery life. It can also give us incredibly rugged smartphone cameras, in general. probability sum functions we have not yet realized. And possibly it would be foreshadowing something I’m already trying, but who knows?
Moor Insights & Strategy supplies or has provided payments to generation corporations, such as all survey and research companies in the generation sector. These come with research, research, consulting, benchmarking, acquisition comparison, and video and convention sponsorship. Among the corporations analyzed in this article, Moor Insights & Strategy has (or has had) lately paid business with Google, Motorola (Lenovo), Qualcomm and Samsung.
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