2021 mobile of the year 🤯

INTRODUCTION

And I've tested a lot of smartphones this year, as you can see, but I've not tested every single one. There's just one of me, guys. I know I'm SuperSaf, but there are so many smartphones that I can personally cover and thoroughly test.

So if there are any smartphones that you think should have been on this list, which I haven't tested, then again, drop those in the comments below. Final disclaimer, this list is in no particular order, I'm just going to be giving you my top five picks, but I will reveal my daily drivers of 2021 in the upcoming SuperSaf style collaboration with all of my friends.

That's currently in the works, and it's going to be live very soon. So make sure you do subscribe, and hit that bell icon so you don't miss it. And with all of that out of the way,

let's get to it.

So the first smartphone on my list, once again, in no particular order, is a smartphone that I believe was the first to release this year. And it really sets a benchmark for every other flagship that came out, And that is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Now, Samsung did a complete redesign for the S21 Ultra, and we've got this very unique looking camera module, which melts into the sides. And this is a flagship that ticks off all of the boxes.

You've got an excellent display, you've got a really good battery life, some of the best cameras out there with the best zoom camera, in my opinion, and arguably some of the best video recordings on any Android smartphone. Now, this was the first Samsung smartphone that did not ship with a charger out of the box, setting a bit of a trend.

And Samsung also got rid of the micro SD card slot, which was something that a lot of people were disappointed about, but nevertheless, this is still an excellent smartphone, and it really does compete evenly year on.

Now I do have to give some honorable mentions here to the Samsung Galaxy S21, as well as the S21 Plus, which offer a lot of the features that the S21 Ultra does, just not quite there. And they do come in at a lower price compared to the S20 series last year, so some more great options from Samsung.

Moving on to the second pick. And I think this one's going to be pretty obvious for a lot of you guys. It is my iPhone of choice, of course, the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Now I'm going to include the iPhone 13 Pro in this as well because it's practically the same smartphone, just smaller with a smaller battery.

And although the design is pretty similar to what we had last year, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is an absolute beast. We have a pro-motion, 120 Hertz display this year, very consistent cameras, and, in my opinion,

the best overall camera package for photos and videos of 2021. And for me, one of the biggest pluses has been the amazing battery life.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max, in my opinion, has some of the best battery life on any smartphone this year. And it's my go-to when I'm traveling because I don't have to keep worrying about getting it topped up. Now, of course, there is room for improvement.

As much as I like face ID, in the era of masks, I would have liked to have had touch ID in addition. And although the notch is smaller compared to what we had last year, it is a lot more intrusive compared to the punch-up design that many of the competitors have opted for.

Now we, of course, have to give some honorable mentions to the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Mini, arguably these are incremental updates, but the iPhone 13 Mini is still considered the best small smartphone you can buy.

And although we don't have the same level of updates that we've got on the iPhone 13 Pro, and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the 13 and 13 Mini do have some improved cameras, and they are priced lower compared to what we had last year, which will make them the go-to iPhones for most people. Next up on my list is the Google Pixel 6 Pro.

Now, Google did a complete redesign and I'm a huge fan of the Pixel 6 Pro design. It looks really unique with the visor. It also makes for some really fun thumbnails. We've got some excellent cameras overall. One of my favorite selfie cameras.

Yes, some may think that the Google look is a bit over-processed, but a lot of people do like it. And this is the first smartphone with Google's custom Tensor chipsets that, along with Android 12, gives you some unique features that you're not going to find on any smartphone, such as a magic eraser, as well as some excellent speech to text.

Now, having said that, the software has been pretty buggy in my experience, with lots of app crashes, in particular on Google apps, which is super weird. And although the cameras are generally really good for photos, they're still not up there for the video. Having said that, the Pixel 6 Pro does come in at a very competitive price, and, overall, it's an excellent smartphone.

Now, an honorable mention has to go to the Google Pixel 6, which comes in at an even more competitive price, offering a lot of what you have on the Pixel 6 Pro, and it's such an easy smartphone to recommend.

Right, so we've gone through the top three, which I'm assuming a lot of you had probably already guessed, but the next two were very, very difficult for me to pick, but I've narrowed it down to two smartphones, which I've really enjoyed using this year.

The first might be a bit of a surprise for you guys, and that is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3. That's right, the flip. Now you guys know I've been a huge fan of foldable smartphones, with the Fold 1 and Fold 2 being some of my favorite smartphones of 2019 and 2020. But the flip really surprised me this year. And that's because, in my opinion, this is the first foldable smartphone that appeals to the masses coming in at under $1,000.

We've got a really good display, with 120 Hertz refresh rate, as well as a secondary cover display, which could be a little bit larger.

And Samsung has somehow managed to give this an IPX 8 water and dust resistant rating, which is still mind-blowing to me that you can have a folding smartphone that can have water and dust resistance. Now, there is still some way to go for foldable devices.

The battery life on the flip three is really not that great. I've not had battery anxiety on a flagship smartphone for some time, but I did have with the Flip 3. And the cameras, although they're pretty good overall, they don't quite meet up to the competition. However, this is a big step for foldable smartphones, and it gets me really excited that these are now so much more accessible to a lot of people.

Now I have to give an honorable mention to the folding king, the best smartphone that falls out into a tablet. And that is of course the Samsung Galaxy Z. I hate the name of it. The Fold 3, I'm just going to call it the Fold 3.

The Fold 3, although it might seem like a bit of an incremental update to Fold 2, it's such a joy to use with some beautiful displays, both inside and out, a really good battery life, software that's optimized to take advantage of the larger display. An IPX 8 water and dust resistant rating,

like we've got on the Flip 3. And, for the first time on a foldable, support for the S Pen, something really important, especially considering that we did not have a note device this year. Now, the Fold 3 still comes in at 1600 pounds, which is pretty high.

And that's the reason why it didn't quite make my top five list. Now the final smartphone on my list, again, is in no particular order, but this was so, so difficult to narrow it down, but I think it's going to be the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra.

This was a smartphone that really tried to go all out. And although it's got the biggest camera bump on any smartphone that I've seen, it does have a purpose with a secondary display, which you can use to take selfies from the rear-facing cameras.

Arguably one of the best displays out there with the 120 Hertz and a 1700-nit-peak brightness, a very premium ceramic build with 67 Watts wired as well as 67 Watts wireless charging, which I believe makes it one of the fastest wireless charging smartphones of this year. Now, it's not perfect, of course, the cameras didn't quite live up to my expectations.

And although they're really well overall and have improved as well, I really don't like the fact that they've plastered 120X on the back, when it's a five-times optical zoom camera, big stretch all the way to 120. I mean, definitely not a fan of that, but apart from that, it really does tick all of the boxes for a premium 2021 flagship smartphone.

Now I have to give an honorable mention to the Xiaomi 11T Pro as well, which came out a little bit later in the year. This is much more affordable, coming in at around 600 pounds with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipsets, 108-megapixel primary camera, and 120-watt charging included out of the box, at that price.

I mean, most of the smartphones on this list don't come with a charger included out of the box. So, you know, it's pretty impressive. So that is my top-five list, but don't go anywhere yet, guys. As mentioned, there are lots of my favorites, which just didn't quite meet that top five, but I think do deserve a mention.

The first is the Oppo Find X3 Pro, which kind of got forgotten, I would say, it released very early in the year, and it did tick up a lot of boxes, it's got an excellent display, some great cameras with the same sensor for the primary, as well as the outright camera, and something completely unique to the Find X3 Pro, and that is the world's first microscope camera.

Now I'm going to put my hands up, I initially did consider this a bit of a gimmick, but after using the Find X3 Pro, I found myself using the microscope camera more than the other cameras because it was just so much fun. We then have the OnePlus 9 Pro, which I think also deserves an honorable mention. This is very similar to the Find X3 Pro,

it almost looks identical from the front, because, you know, Oppo OnePlus, but the OnePlus 9 Pro is a really, really good smartphone, comes in at a lower price compared to the Find X3 Pro, and has a very fast and smooth software experience.

Now it did have the Hasselblad partnership, which did result in improvements for the cameras, but I do think it was a little bit too over-hyped and I think we'll be seeing the fruits of this partnership at a later point after a few generations.

I also have to give an honorable mention to Realme. I mean, they released a lot of smartphones this year, maybe a bit too many, but the one that really stood out for me was the Realme GT. Realme seems to be taking the place of what OnePlus used to be, offering a flagship device with all of the flagship specs that you would expect, but at a very competitive price point.

The Realme GT has a 120-Hertz display, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipsets, 65-watt charging included out of the box. And all of that started with an early-bird offer of just 369 euros. Now, sure, it's not going to live up in terms of the cameras to a lot of the $1,000 flagships out there, but realistically speaking, having those amazing specs at that low price makes it the ideal smartphone for spectrum keys.

Now, Sony also released some solid smartphones this year, but the one that really stood out for me was the Sony Experia Pro I. With a one-inch sensor for the camera, they've gone full out on the hardware.

And although the software processing from Sony may not be the traditional HDI look that you get from other smartphones, if you're somebody that's really into photography and video, having all of those manual controls with the amazing hardware is absolutely excellent. You've also got a 4k, 120-Hertz display, and this is a really nice smartphone, which is still for the niches, I would say. And that's because it comes in at 1600 pounds.

Now, Vivo came out with some excellent smartphones this year as well, the X60 Pro, the X70 Pro as well as the Pro Pluses, it's a lot of pros, but the X70 Pro Plus, an excellent smartphone with some Zeiss optics. This is a smartphone with that, unfortunately, I got a little bit late,

so I didn't get a full chance to test, but Vivo is producing some excellent devices, and I'm really hoping that I can spend more time with Vivo smartphones in 2022, Asus released some great contenders. The Zenfone 8 was a bit of a surprise for me.

Although the design is pretty standard, it's, in my opinion, the best compact Android smartphone you can buy with no real compromises because of its size. You've still got the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset. You've got a 120 Hertz display, and you've also got a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. I mean, how many smartphones have one of those these days?

This all comes in as a very competitive price point as well. And let's not forget the gaming monitors that we have this year. The Asus ROG Phone 5 Ultimate was a standout for me, with its unique design, 144-Hertz display with one millisecond response time. It was the world's first smartphone with 18 gigabytes of LPDDR5 RAM.

And it also has a massive 6,000 milliamp power battery. And we also had the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2, which came in at a much lower price point. And this is more of a gaming device with a smartphone attached, rather than a smartphone that can do gaming.

And that's because it's a kind of built landscape. And that includes the 44-megapixel, live streaming pop-up camera, which is actually placed on the side, lots of gaming triggers that you can customize, as well as dual turbocharging, which completely blew my mind.

The fact that you can connect two cables to the smartphone at the same time and charge with them both, absolutely insane. And those are my top five smartphones of 2021, along with all of the honorable mentions.

What are your favorite smartphones of 2021?