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2020 has been an unusual year in many ways. The global pandemic threw a setback in the execution of plans by smartphone brands, especially in countries where a total blockade of all forms of non-essential economic activity was imposed. However, these barriers were not enough to contain the strong momentum of the smartphone industry that witnessed an almost usual launch schedule, even though production and sales around the world were indisputably affected. Despite this downside, the smartphone industry saw great innovation and some of the best smartphones to buy in 2020. If you had to pick your absolute favorite smartphone for 2020, what would it be? Let’s discuss!
CES 2020, which was the first and last big tech event to take place this year, kicked off the damn year with some great launches. At the tech gala, OnePlus showed the Concept One, a revised version of the OnePus 7T Pro McLaren Edition but with an invisible camera module on the back. Samsung dived into the affordable flagship stream with the Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite.
In February, Samsung announced its first vertically folding phone, the Galaxy Z Flip, along with the Galaxy S20 series that featured Samsung’s 108MP cameras and up to 100x hybrid zoom with the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s periscope camera. Meanwhile, OPPO, the largest company of China’s BBK Electronics Corporation, announced Find X2 and Find X2 Pro with impressive screen and cameras. Soon after, Huawei announced its camera-centric flagships of the year: the Huawei P40 series.
At the same time, budget-friendly brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus left their flagship killer comfort zone and moved closer to actual flagships with devices like the Mi 10 Pro and OnePlus 8 Pro. Meanwhile, relatively affordable brands jumped on the 5G train. with devices like the Realme X50 Pro and the iQOO 3. Xiaomi’s beloved POCO brand finally resurfaced with the POCO X2 and launched POCO F2 Pro after almost two years of waiting.
As the doomed year progressed, smartphone brands relentlessly advanced and announced some great devices. Samsung released its flagships for the second half of 2020, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, as well as the next-gen folding phablet – the Galaxy Z Fold 2, which happens to be the best phone in my opinion.
Google released its second affordable Pixel: the Pixel 4a. A few months later, the tech giant also revealed the greatly improved Pixel 4a 5G alongside the company’s first flagship Pixel without a flagship chipset: the Pixel 5.
And, in case you missed it, XDA also released its first phone and it runs LineageOS or Ubuntu Touch OS out of the box. Developed in partnership with F (x) tec and called Pro1-X, the smartphone exceeded the crowdfunding target by 10 times.
Reaching out to major brands, OnePlus made headlines and dominated the marketing scene with OnePlus Nord, their first non-flagship device since OnePlus X. Later in the year, they released the OnePlus 8T with a more conservative flagship design and great performance. Meanwhile, Samsung released its upgraded flagship killer – the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition) to compete with OnePlus. Vivo, at the same time, brought Gimbals-inspired optical image stabilization with the Vivo X50 Pro.
Technologies, especially fast charging, also received a lot of attention in 2020. While 65W fast charging became common with devices like the OPPO Reno 4 Pro, Realme X50 Pro, and the OnePlus 8T, OPPO also announced its 125W fast charging GaN technology while sister company iQOO became the first brand to launch a smartphone with 120W fast charging technology. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) technology was also seen in devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. All of these are great choices for people’s favorite smartphone.
Of course, many other amazing smartphones were released this year and we haven’t even started talking about Xiaomi’s obsession with the number 9. But if you could pick just one phone out of all of them, what would it be?
Comment with your favorite smartphone in 2020 and tell us why.
