2020 was in many ways an unusual year. The global pandemic has placed a key in the execution of plans by smartphone brands, especially in countries where a total exclusion has been introduced for all forms of non-essential economic activities. However, these barriers were not enough to limit the strong momentum of the smartphone industry, which had an almost normal release schedule – although production and sales around the world were undeniably affected. Despite this shortcoming, the smartphone industry has seen great innovation and some of the best smartphones to buy in 2020. If you had to pick your favorite smartphone for 2020, which one would it be? Let’s discuss it!
CES 2020, which was the first and last major technological event to take place this year, inaugurated the accursed year with some great launches. At the technical gala, OnePlus unveiled the Concept One, a revamped version of the OnePus 7T Pro McLaren Edition, but with an invisible camera module on the back. Samsung has plunged its feet into the affordable flagship power with the Galaxy S10 Lite and the Note 10 Lite.
In February, Samsung announced its first vertically foldable phone – the Galaxy Z Flip – along with the Galaxy S20 series featuring Samsung’s 108MP cameras and up to 100x hybrid zoom with the periscope camera on the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Meanwhile, OPPO, the largest company of the BBK Electronics Corporation in China, announced the Find X2 and the Find X2 Pro with a beautiful display and cameras. Shortly after Huawei announced its camera-centric flagship of the year – the Huawei P40 series.
At the same time, budget brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus have left their comfort zone of flagship killers and are moving closer to real flagships with devices like the Mi 10 Pro and OnePlus 8 Pro. Meanwhile, relatively affordable brands have jumped on the 5G bandwagon with devices like the Realme X50 Pro and the iQOO 3. Xiaomi’s beloved POCO brand has finally come up with the POCO X2 again and then launched POCO F2 Pro after almost two years of waiting.
As the condemned year progressed, smartphone brands continued tirelessly, announcing some amazing devices. Samsung has launched its flagships for the second half of 2020, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra as well as the next generation foldable phablet – the Galaxy Z Fold 2, which I think is the best phone.
Google has launched its second affordable Pixel – the Pixel 4a. A few months later, the technology giant also unveiled the much improved Pixel 4a 5G along with the first flagship Pixel without a flagship chipset – the Pixel 5.
And in case you missed it, XDA also launched its first phone and it has LineageOS or Ubuntu Touch OS out-of-the-box. The smartphone, developed in collaboration with F (x) tec and named the Pro1-X, exceeded the crowdfunding goal by 10X.
In the mainstream brands, OnePlus made headlines and dominated the marketing scene with the OnePlus Nord – their first non-flagship device since the OnePlus X. Later that year, they introduced the OnePlus 8T with a more conservative flagship killer design and great achievement. Meanwhile, Samsung has introduced its improved flagship killer – the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition) to compete with people like OnePlus. At the same time, Vivo brought optical image stabilization inspired by Gimbals with the Vivo X50 Pro.
Technologies, especially fast charging, also got a lot of attention in 2020. While 65 W fast chargers are made everyday by devices like the OPPO Reno 4 Pro, Realme X50 Pro and the OnePlus 8T, OPPO has also announced their 125 W GaN fast charger. technology while sister company iQOO became the first brand to introduce a smartphone with 120W fast charging technology. Variable refresh rate (VRR) technology has also been seen on devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. All these things offer good choices regarding people’s favorite smartphone.
Of course, many other amazing smartphones have been introduced this year and we have not even started talking about Xiaomi’s obsession with the number 9. But if you could just pick one phone out of the whole lot, which one would it be?
Comment with your favorite smartphone in 2020 and let us know why!