PhoneRadar Awards – Best Smartphones of 2018 (Vote Now for User Choice Awards)

2018 has been an excellent year for the mobile industry, we have seen a majority of smartphone manufacturers stepping up in the competition showing off their innovations in smartphones. There were definite radical changes regarding design elements in smartphones that raised eyebrows for mobile phone enthusiasts.

Every year, all those innovative smartphone manufacturers have one flagship smartphone, which is pretty evident and that smartphone decides which company has nailed it in the industry for that year. So, we at PhoneRadar have decided to give away awards to the respective smartphones, in return to what they have offered considering their design, performance, durability and other compelling features.

Here are the different categories of the #PhoneRadarAwards 2018:

• Best Flagship Smartphone of 2018 (24th December, 2018)
• Best (High-end) Midrange Smartphone of 2018 (25th December, 2018)
• Best Midrange Smartphone of 2018 (26th December, 2018)
• Best Budget Smartphone of 2018 (27th December, 2018)
• Best Camera Smartphone of 2018 (28th December, 2018)
• Best Bezel-less Smartphone of 2018 (29th December, 2018)

(We have selected the nominees based on our testing from the time they’ve been with us)

Best Flagship Smartphone of 2018

The following are the Runner-ups we have shortlisted for our PhoneRadar Awards Best Flagship Smartphone of 2018.

LG G7 ThinQ

Back in May, LG had launched its premium flagship phone – the LG G7 ThinQ. On paper, LG brought the top-of-the-line specifications that include Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with Adreno 630 GPU and 4GB of RAM/64GB storage option. It also featured dual cameras (16MP+16MP) on the rear and an 8MP front-facing camera. Despite the flagship specifications, the LG G7 ThinQ delivered a 6.1-inch LCD display, which is certainly a poor selection for a flagship phone, considering the contraries offering LED displays. The G7 ThinQ has also underperformed in terms of the battery as well; the phone was fueled by a 3,000mAh battery, which could have been better, considering the flagship specifications henceforth ended up as the runner-up in our Smartphone awards.

Asus Zenfone 5Z

Asus has unveiled its flagship Zenfone 5Z smartphone with a 6.2-inch notch LCD display. Similar to the G7 ThinQ, the Zenfone 5Z also packs in powerful specifications including the latest Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor along with Adreno 630 graphics. As for the cameras, the Zenfone 5Z featured dual cameras (12MP+8MP) on the rear along with 8MP on the front. Although the specs of the Zenfone 5z are flagship worthy, still, the design doesn’t appeal much when compared to the competition, and furthermore, there’s a room for cameras improvement as well. Notably, this flagship has some top features packed, let us hope the successor does well in that department.

Pixel 3/3 XL

The successor of Pixel 2/2 XL, which already had the most incredible camera in any smartphone, has been released by Google – the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, this year. There’s no denying that these are amazing smartphones with powerful specifications and exceptional cameras with Google AI & Machine Learning capabilities. But, a flagship phone isn’t just about the camera, the Pixel 3/3 XL devices, both have faced a lot of bugs, overheating issues, unexpected shutdowns in a span of two months after the launch. The software related issues alongside the not so appealing design overshadowed the goodies offered by the Pixel 3 devices, like the better camera, wireless charging, for instance. Henceforth these great devices haven’t made up to our final top 3 flagship smartphones list in PhoneRadar Awards 2018.

Let’s get to the exciting part – the winners of Best Flagship Smartphone Award of 2018:

#3 Winner – Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Huawei has been in the spotlight ever since the launch of its first triple camera smartphone – the Huawei P20 Pro, early this year. Later, not long ago, the company had come with its new flagship phone the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. This phone has certainly raised eyebrows in the smartphone industry by bringing a beautiful glass design, top-of-the-line specs, triple camera setup with a different design approach and this is undoubtedly the world’s first smartphone for bringing both 3D Face Unlock along with the in-display fingerprint scanner. The Mate 20 Pro has a one of a kind high-end camera that brings you different modes of lenses, not just a portrait mode, but also a wide-angle lens. Apart from the great camera, the battery performance on the Mate 20 Pro is remarkable as well, featuring a 4200mAh battery that is indeed hard to kill. Furthermore, it has a unique reverse wireless charging, that helps you charge any other Qi wireless supported device by placing it on the rear of the Mate 20 Pro smartphone. Despite being a significant smartphone with Kirin 980 processor and smarter utilization of Triple Leica cameras, a better front facing camera and a better software experience would have certainly made the Mate 20 Pro the best flagship of this year; hence it settles for the #3 position in our Best Flagship Smartphone Awards of 2018 category.

#2 Winner – OnePlus 6T

OnePlus, the Chinese brand has nurtured to be one of the significant trusted brands in India. This year, OnePlus has brought its two flagship killers within a span of the conventional 4 months that happened to be – the OnePlus 6 and the OnePlus 6T. While the specs don’t differ that much between these phones, there are minor noticeable changes in terms of design and the prominent battery department as well. OnePlus is known to bring killer specs in its affordable price range and the 6T isn’t any different it packs in the latest Snapdragon 845 processor alongside 6/8GB of RAM and Adreno 630 GPU. On the camera front, the OnePlus 6T features 16MP+20MP cameras and the selfie camera brings in a 16MP sensor. The Android 9.0-based Oxygen OS 9.0.5 on the 6T is considered to be the best way to experience the pure version of Google’s Android after the Pixel devices. The OnePlus 6T is indeed a powerful phone at the most affordable price, and the perks of the 6T would be the Oxygen OS, the new in-display fingerprint scanner and an exclusive physical hardware switch – the Alert Slider. Well, the OnePlus 6T isn’t entirely perfect as well, it lacks the headphone jack, the cameras need more improvements when compared to other flagships out there. And, the display on the OnePlus 6T is still 1080p, which doesn’t match up with other flagships. We hope OnePlus looks into these elements next year and brags the #1 award with its next phone in our PhoneRadar Awards best Flagship Category.

And the PhoneRadar Awards – Best Flagship Smartphone of 2018 goes to the Samsung Galaxy Note 9

As per our testing, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 checked all the necessary boxes for being a perfect flagship smartphone. The Note 9 offers a beautiful Super AMOLED Infinity Display, which is the best display in any smartphone, period. The big 6.4-inch display has a pixel density of 516ppi that works great in the outdoors as well. It is powered by an Exynos 9810 octa-core processor, which handles the day-to-day tasks effectively and the notable S Pen is undoubtedly an added convenience, which helps you interact more with the bright display. The dual cameras capture one of the most beautiful images. The battery backup is substantial with the built-in 4000mAh battery. It still has the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is gold in today’s flagships. Adding all the required boxes that are needed for a smartphone makes the Galaxy Note 9 – the Best Flagship Smartphone of 2018 in our PhoneRadar awards.

Coming up tomorrow: Best (High-end) Midrange Smartphone of 2018

Vote for your favorite smartphone and get a chance to win Amazon India Gift Cards worth a total of Rs 50,000

The post PhoneRadar Awards – Best Smartphones of 2018 (Vote Now for User Choice Awards) appeared first on PhoneRadar.