The Best Bang for the buck flagship

Xiaomi MI 6[Runner Up: One Plus5t] {Honorable Mention: Apple iPhone 8}

I have a little different procedure defining a smartphone at the best bang for the buck one. Should cross off all the requirements like the flagship performance, an on-par camera and a premium build along with a good price to performance score. Regarding the price to performance score, I have a table below.

Can see that the Xiaomi MI 6 and the OnePlus 5t with the amazing build and performance deserve the award, but the MI 6 with its low price gives it the first spot.

And unexpectedly with the extraordinary performance of the A-11 bionic chip, the iPhone 8 gets to the top with its price to performance ratio.

The Best Underdog Flagship

Essential PH-1 [Runner Up: Xiaomi MI Mix 2]

The essential phone was unveiled with a lot of Expectations on his head which it could not live up to due to its sub-par camera at the price it was launched. But, with the price drop to $500, the phone now, with its extraordinary build and design is one of the best phones out there but due to the lower sales and the small marketing figure, it gets an underdog status.

The Best Cameras

Google Pixel 2/XL [Runner Up: Apple iPhone X]

Google single handedly slew others in the camera department with its amazing image processing and the great portrait mode (using a single lens itself owing to its extraordinary machine learning algorithms). Google pixel 2/XL are such phones that you can click a picture blindly and expect the shot to be awesome.

The iPhones released this year at no slouch either since having introduced video capture at 4K@60 frames per second and 240 frames per second slow motion@1080p which are unrivalled frame rates today at those resolutions. If you are focusing on videography and (photography too if exposure metric is not an issue for you), the iPhone 8 or X could be better for you.

The Best Industrial Design

Apple iPhone X [Runner Ups: Samsung Galaxy Note 8, S8 and S8+]

Hands on the iPhone X bags the design award. Most of the people forget the fact that no other phone could yet get away with the bottom chin bezel the way iPhone did. With the idea of curving the OLED display panel to place the driver module for the display underneath instead of within the bottom chin like other manufacturers, Apple win over others with the attention to detail it gives.

Samsung flagships for this year aren’t too far behind with its infinity curved displays but the positioning of the fingerprint scanner really becomes a let-down in its case.

The Best Ergonomics

Apple iPhone X [Runner Ups: Apple iPhone 8, Google Pixel 2 and Xiaomi MI 6]

The Ergonomics of a phone is characterized by the feel and comfort of the phone in one hand and the software enhancements to make the phone a part of you itself. With the fluidity and ease by the software gestures of iOS 11 and the one-handedness of the phone despite its 5.8” display gives the iPhone X an edge over all others in terms of ergonomics.

As for runner-ups, any phone with sub 5” display would be the best in case of ergonomics naturally, thus the Apple iPhone 8, Google Pixel 2 and Xiaomi MI 6 tie up together here.

The Most radical smartphone feature

Face ID [Runner Up: Video recording at 60 frames per second in 4K resolution]

Apple by far made headlines by bringing on the successor of its Touch ID in the form of Face ID. Consisting of a sensor with two modules, the infrared module projecting 30,000 dots across the user’s face and other being a camera reading those to compare/create the 3D face map. With the incredulous machine learning within the chip and smaller details like not working with the eyes closed are what that makes it one of the best Biometric authentication on a smartphone. (Its 5 times more secure than Touch ID, with 1 in 1,000,000 chances of the wrong authentication compared to 1 in 50,000 for touch ID).

With the camera set up recording videos in 4K resolution at 60 Frames per seconds and Slo-Mo capture in 1080P resolution at 240 Frames per seconds, the iPhone 8 and X stepped into the territory that no other smartphone camera wandered into; and with that in effect, it becomes one of the most revered features in a smartphone.

The Best smartphone (Overall)

Apple iPhone X [Runner Up: Samsung Galaxy Note 8]

This was a really tough fight, owing to the state of smartphones in 2017. With the Google Pixel 2, LG V30, Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone X as the biggest contenders for the top spot it was really nitpicking while deciding the best smartphone. The Galaxy Note 8 with its awesome Infinity display and the amazing industrial design was in no way a slouch but it kind of lost its glam when an iPhone X comes with the completely radical and unrivalled features like the face ID or the 4K camera at 60 frames per second or the Samsung produced “super”- retina display which gave it the points Samsung had with them.

Though if you really want an amazing Android device and a complete package you definitely hit the target with the Galaxy Note 8.