This week on The Wrap, we’re joined by two of Australia’s best phone reviewers, Alex Choros and Alex Kidman, to talk the best phones of 2020. Which phone is the best this year? Find out in five.
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Transcript
It’s the end of 2020, and you’re tuned into The Wrap, Australia’s fastest technology round up, and while you’re possibly looking forward to a new year, before we get to that point, we need to look at the year that was.
Specifically the year of phones that was, because there was quite a bit this year. The world saw five new iPhones, several Samsungs, three Pixels, a few new foldables, and enough choice to make anyone’s head spin.
I certainly have my favourites, but I’m not the only reviewer around, so like we do every year, we’re going through the best phones with two of Australia’s best phone reviewers.
And that starts with the flagship, because there was a lot happening there.
Alex Choros, Managing Editor of WhistleOut
When it comes to 2020 devices the iPhone 12 Pro Max is easily my favourite flagship phone. It’s the only true 2020 flagship that doesn’t make compromises. Most high end Android phones are marred by poor battery life this year thanks to 5g, while the iPhone 12 Pro just lasts forever. An incredible camera is a nice bonus too.
That’s Alex Choros, Managing Editor of WhistleOut, who shared our opinion on the iPhone 12 Pro Max being the best flagship, a phone sporting a big screen, big battery life, and based on our tests, one of the best cameras of the year.
It is a pricey phone, for sure, but it hasn’t been the decider for everyone, as freelance writer and host of Vertical Hold, Alex Kidman, told us.
Alex Kidman, Freelance Tech Writer & Host of Vertical Hold
So 2020 was a weird year for flagship phones especially. And that’s basically because the mid range has gotten so good, it makes it very hard to justify some of the best phones, things like the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, or the iPhone 12 Pro Max, great phones, but very, very expensive, and not as much of a stand-out as they used to be. So I think the best flagship phone actually falls to the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Yeah, it’s very, very expensive. But if you’re paying flagship money, you should get some kind of flagship feature, this has that: it’s a folding phone, it fixes the problems the original Fold had. And so it’s kind of almost the winner by default.
While we don’t share the opinion that Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold is necessarily the best flagship, we have called it the best foldable of the year, and it’s definitely a mobile that stands out, with other reviewers impressed by it, as well.
Alex Choros, Managing Editor of WhistleOut
I was also really impressed by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, which improves on its predecessor in so many meaningful ways. The external display is no longer painful to use while Samsung got rid of the dreaded slot on the internal. It’s sort of a phone I’d recommend to most people, but the Fold 2 represents a meaningful evolution of a foldable form factor and I’m really excited to see what’s next.
While the Z Fold 2 shows what the foldable can do, at near three thousand dollars, it won’t be for everyone.
Fortunately, that’s where the mid-range comes in, and in 2020, it became even more competitive. It’s in this category, you’ll find brands such as Oppo, Realme, Nokia, Vivo, Samsung, Motorola, TCL and even Apple with its reinvented iPhone SE, but there are some models that really stood out.
Alex Kidman, Freelance Tech Writer & Host of Vertical Hold
I think the best mid range phone this year is going to be the Google Pixel 4a 5G. It’s a bit cheaper than the Pixel 5 and you don’t get mmWave. But you get a bigger screen, you get a headphone jack, it does everything it needs to do and it does it pretty well.
It’s an opinion we share, and have called it the best value phone of 2020, marrying great features with 5G for under $800. While we think the Pixel 5 is a better phone, the Pixel 4a with 5G nails the formula in a way that delivers value, and it’s not alone.
Alex Choros, Managing Editor of WhistleOut
The Pixel 4a also deserves praise for once again featuring a top tier camera at an affordable price point. At $599, it’s the kind of phone that makes you ask why spend more.
Alex is right on this one, too. At $599, the Pixel 4a is a lovely phone that nails the balance on price point, missing out on two cameras and 5G, but winning on practically everything else.
So what’s next? What will 2021 hold for phones?
Alex Choros, Managing Editor of WhistleOut
I would love it if Apple could somehow cram the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera and battery life into the body of iPhone 12 Mini because it turns out small phones are kind of great.
That’s something we’re hopeful for ourselves. It turns out that Apple’s iPhone 12 Mini was one of the standouts, delivering a great feeling phone with the power of a great phone. It’s like the Goldilocks of phones — it’s just right — but we’d love a better camera, which right now the 12 Pro Max has above all.
Alex Kidman, Freelance Tech Writer & Host of Vertical Hold
What I really want to see is new form factors. I want to see people doing things with foldables with new things that a mobile phone could do or new ways they could work. I think we’ll see a lot of that out of Apple, of course, now that the MacBooks are all on Arm so that there’s this whole app family that they can play with.
As to whether Apple will deliver the same sort of power from its new M1 MacBooks to its phone, that remains to be seen, but with 2021 kicking off shortly, it may only be a few months before we start to see something like that happening, so stay tuned.
For now, you’ve been listening to The Wrap, Australia’s fastest technology round-up. Thanks to both Alex Choros and Alex Kidman for appearing on this special yearly wrap. You can find out about these phones and more at thewrap.com.au, and a new episode normally goes live every Friday at Podcast One, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. For now, have a great rest of the year. Stay safe, stay sane, and take care.
