Every year, popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee (better known as MKBHD) holds his own Smartphone Awards, where he picks the best smartphones in different categories. While last year the iPhone was awarded in three different categories, Apple’s smartphone lost prominence to its competitors in this year’s awards.
Like last year, MKBHD has established various smartphone award categories. They are:
- Best big phone
- The best small phone
- Better camera system
- Better battery
- The Design Award
- Valor Award
- Bust of the year
- MVP (Phone of the Year)
Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of Android smartphones vying for the awards, while Apple currently only sells eight different iPhone models, and only five of them were released this year. Of course, while the awards are based on MKBHD’s own criteria, it took into account both the technical aspects and its personal experience with each device competing for the awards.
But how does the iPhone compare to other Android smartphones?
Best big phone
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is definitely a big phone with its 6.7-inch screen. However, MKBHD chose Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra as the best large phone of 2022. According to the YouTuber, the S22 Ultra takes advantage of the large 6.8-inch display with the stylus combined with software optimized for the large screen, the 5,000 mAh battery and four camera lenses on the back of the phone.
MKBHD also praised the ASUS ROG Phone 6, which is considered a gaming smartphone, in the same category for having “amazing and massive stereo front-facing speakers” and a headphone jack. The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 also got an honorable mention for being the same thickness as a regular phone when folded.
The best small phone
Last year, Apple won the Best Small Phone category with the iPhone 13 mini. After all, there aren’t many small phones left on the market, and the iPhone 13 mini was essentially an iPhone 13 with premium hardware in a body with a 5.4-inch display. But this year, Apple killed off the iPhone mini and replaced it with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.
So the winner of the Best Small Phone 2022 was the ASUS Zenfone 9. It’s certainly not as small as the iPhone 13 mini since it has a 5.9-inch screen, but it’s still considerably smaller than most of today’s smartphones. With flagship specs, a “stunningly great camera”, a headphone jack and good battery life, MKBHD says the Zenfone 9 is “easily the best phone of its size”.
Oppo Find N2, which is a foldable phone, got an honorable mention in this category for looking extremely compact when folded.
Better camera system
Choosing the best camera on a smartphone can be extremely subjective, especially since there are different criteria for photos and videos, and each person has their own preferences when it comes to the level of color and sharpness. A few days ago, MKBHD shared the results of its blind smartphone camera test, in which Google’s Pixel 6A took first place, while the Pixel 7 Pro came second.
But what about MKBHD preferences? While it praised the photos taken with the Pixel 7 and Vivo X90 Pro+, the iPhone 14 Pro Max won this year’s best camera system.
The YouTuber says the iPhone has a stronger camera experience, including how fast it is to open the Camera app and take a photo, consistency across all lenses, and how good the device is at shooting video in compared to all Android smartphones.
Better battery
The winner of the best battery of 2022 is the ASUS ROG Phone 6. Since it is considered a smartphone for gamers, ASUS put a 6000 mAh battery inside the phone. At the same time, it supports fast charging up to 65W, which allows users to recharge the battery from 0% to 100% in less than an hour.
Last year, the iPhone 13 Pro Max won the award for best battery, and many other reviews also praised the battery life of last year’s iPhone despite the addition of the 120Hz display . However, the iPhone 14 Pro Max couldn’t deliver the same battery experience as the iPhone 13 Pro Max, as Apple kept the battery the same size and added an always-on display.
Interestingly, Marques praised the battery life of the iPhone 14 Plus, which beats the iPhone 14 Pro Max, as it has a regular 60Hz display without the Always-on feature. As a result, the iPhone 14 Plus consumes less power than the Pro model.
The Design Award
The design category is also quite subjective, and even MKBHD agrees with that. And the smartphone that won The Design Award in 2022 is the Nothing Phone. Looking from the sides, the Nothing Phone is reminiscent of one of the latest iPhones. However, the Nothing Phone has a transparent back full of LEDs that can be used for various things like notifications and flash light while you’re filming.
“It definitely straddles the line between gimmick and feature. […] I find it very clean. I think it’s great that you can see how much battery there is while charging. […] Little things like that. You don’t see many phones trying new things.”
The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 got an honorable mention in the design category for being a flip phone that looks much more solid than other flip phones.
Valor Award
Last year, Google’s Pixel 6 won the Value Award, and this year the award went to the Pixel 7. MKBHD argues that the Pixel 7 is the best in its $599 price range, and even everything beats some more expensive flagship products with their specs. “It’s so good that he did the [Pixel] 7 Pro doesn’t seem like such a good deal,” he added.
ASUS Zenfone 9 once again received an honorable mention, this time in the Value Award category for offering a “truly unique combo” that includes a 120Hz display for $699.
Bust of the year
The Bust of 2021 was Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2, which has two separate screens and launched at a price of $1,500. This year, however, MKBHD chose the OnePlus 10T as Bust of the Year for having a “fairly large delta between expectations and possibilities versus actual results.”
MVP (Phone of the Year)
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra was the winner of phone of the year 2021. But what about this year? The 2022 winner is Google’s Pixel 7. As mentioned before, MKBHD says the Pixel 7 is a great value with its good cameras, display and battery, plus a “flagship software experience,” while costing significantly less than other smartphones. premium smarts.
With similar arguments, ASUS Zenfone 9 also won an honorable mention as Phone of the Year. In third place, MKBHD chose the Galaxy S22 Ultra for this category, which it defines as “boring” and “expensive”, but at the same time one of the best phones you can get in 2022.
Wrap
From three categories in 2021, the iPhone has now been awarded in only one of the categories in 2022. And yet, MKBHD noted that it prefers the iPhone’s camera for its excellent video recording quality.
As for photos, MKBHD has already said in his videos that the iPhone 14 Pro camera overdoes post-processing effects like HDR, which makes some photos look very unrealistic, and I personally agree with that .
What do you think of the results? Would you have a different MKBHD list for the best phones of 2022? Let us know in the comments section below.
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