2020 has been an unusual year in many ways. The global pandemic has affected the execution of smartphone brand plans, especially in countries where a complete block has been imposed on all forms of non-essential economic activity. However, these barriers were not enough to stem the strong momentum of the smartphone industry, which witnessed an almost normal launch schedule – although production and sales worldwide have been undoubtedly impacted. Despite this drawback, the smartphone industry has seen great innovation and some of the best smartphones to buy in 2020. If you had to choose your absolute favorite smartphone for 2020, what would it be? Let’s discuss!
CES 2020, which was the first and last major technology event to take place this year, opened the damn year with some major launches. At the technology gala, OnePlus presented the Concept One, a revised version of the OnePus 7T Pro McLaren Edition, but with an invisible camera module at the rear. Samsung plunged into the flagship affordable stream with the Galaxy S10 Lite and Note 10 Lite.
In February, Samsung announced its first vertically foldable phone – the Galaxy Z Flip – along with the Galaxy S20 series that featured Samsung’s 108MP cameras and up to 100x hybrid zoom using the Galaxy S20 Ultra’s periscope camera. Meanwhile, OPPO, China’s largest BBK Electronics Corporation, announced the Find X2 and Find X2 Pro with impressive screens and cameras. Shortly thereafter, Huawei announced its camera-centric flagships of the year – the Huawei P40 series.
At the same time, pro-budget brands, like Xiaomi and OnePlus, have left their comfort zone of flagship killers and have moved closer to real flags with devices like Mi 10 Pro and OnePlus 8 Pro. Meanwhile, relatively affordable brands entered the 5G movement with devices like the Realme X50 Pro and the iQOO 3. Xiaomi’s beloved POCO brand finally resurfaced with the POCO X2 and launched the POCO F2 Pro after almost two years of waiting.
As the doomed year progressed, smartphone brands advanced relentlessly and announced some excellent devices. Samsung launched its flagships for the second half of 2020, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, as well as the latest generation foldable phablet – the Galaxy Z Fold 2, which becomes the best phone in the my opinion.
Google launched its second affordable Pixel – the Pixel 4a. A few months later, the tech giant also unveiled the much improved Pixel 4a 5G alongside the company’s first main Pixel without a main chipset – the Pixel 5.
And if you missed it, XDA also launched its first phone and runs LineageOS or Ubuntu Touch OS out of the box. Developed in partnership with F (x) tec and called Pro1-X, the smartphone has exceeded the crowdfunding goal 10 times.
Coming to conventional brands, OnePlus made headlines and dominated the marketing scene with OnePlus Nord – their first non-flagship device since OnePlus X. At the end of the year, they launched the OnePlus 8T with a more conservative and killer design Great performance. Meanwhile, Samsung launched its improved flagship – the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition) to compete with models like the OnePlus. Vivo, at the same time, brought optical image stabilization inspired by Gimbals with the Vivo X50 Pro.
Technologies, especially fast charging, also received a lot of attention in 2020. While 65 W fast charging has become common on devices like the OPPO Reno 4 Pro, Realme X50 Pro and OnePlus 8T, OPPO has also announced its fast charging of 125W GaN while sister company iQOO became the first brand to launch 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 of this is a great choice for people’s favorite smartphone.
Of course, many other amazing smartphones were launched this year and we haven’t even started talking about Xiaomi’s obsession with the number 9. But if you could choose just one phone from the whole lot, which one would it be?
Comment with your favorite smartphone in 2020 and tell us why!