Now, there is no such thing as the best phone. It’s quite possible that the best phone for one person would be completely different for another. That’s why we have divided the phones according to categories and tried to identify the best phone in each. Furthermore, clicking the link on the phones will take you to their respective review.
The categories we have selected are: Best Camera phone, Best Budget phone, Best Mid-Ranger Phone, Longest Battery duration phone, Best Gimmicky Phone and the All-rounder ultimate phone.
Camera
Every year, we see improvements in camera, from adding more lens to adding more pixels. We see it all, and rightfully so, because most of the pictures an average person takes are from their smartphone. We were pleasantly surprised that the best performing camera phone of the year was the Google Pixel 2. Amazingly enough, the phone only has a single lens, unlike its competitors that are equipped with two lenses. The Pixel 2 does most of the processing in its software, and the portrait mode features is by far the best on the Pixel 2.
Of course, the Pixel 2 isn’t the only phone with an amazing camera. There are other phones too, though the iPhone X’s 4k Video record in 60 FPS (Frames Per Second) alone is good enough for us to rank it second.
Budget Phone
There is a huge demand for budget or low-cost phones in Pakistan. Maybe you are rocking one yourself. Major reputable brands don’t really make budget phones, and, when they do, they make you feel like you’re losing more on features than you’re gaining. The Moto Z2 takes the cake at being a very special budget phone. The gadget has amazing specs, a decent camera, a large battery, and the ability to attach modules to itself. One can use any of the large selection of modules Lenovo offers for this phone. This phone is definitely one of the best budget phones on the market, along with a few party tricks up its sleeve.
Mid Ranger
Having a cheap or budget phone can be cumbersome at times. It’s easy to run into battery issues, poor part replacements and an overall sluggish interface. If you cannot bring yourself to buy a $500+ phone, mid-ranging phones are the best. They offer the best of both worlds, being moderately cheap yet having an amazing spec list. The Essential phone has all the ‘essential’ features one would expect out of a well-built smartphone, a ceramic design and wireless charging with no branding at all etc. It has an interesting back-story: the phone was made by the inventor of Android, Andy Ruben, and he launched it as a premium smartphone, but due to lack of sales, the company reduced the price tag. Now the phone only costs $500, $200 less than its original price tag. Sales occur all the time, and with CES and MWC coming up, the phone will probably drop even more in price. Did I mention it has a modular design as well, with the world’s smallest 360 camera? Yep, it deserves a look if you’re looking to buy a new smartphone.
Of course, the Essential with its ceramic design and yet the poor camera is not going to be for everyone, so the One Plus 5 comes as the runner-up. It is one of the best mid ranging phones, beating out the big players in the market as well. It has a fantastic camera, which also works good under low light conditions, and provides awesome performance, just falling short due to the newly released Razor phone. Being the first phone to have 6 GB RAM, it is only to offer such amazing specs under $500.
Battery
Some of us usually have a charger all the time, whether be in the office, in the car or at home. But some of us also spend most of the time on the road or just are power-users who like using their phones a lot. Battery life is a crucial need for them. Razor is known for making PC gaming devices and peripherals, but no one expected them to make a ‘gaming’ phone. The Razor phone is meant to be for gaming, with front-facing speakers, top of the line specifications, a large display and all sorts of other amazing features. The gadget has the best specs on the market for a gaming phone and it does everything even better when used as a normal use phone. It comes with a 4,000 mAh battery, lasting for more than a day, even for power-users. If you use it sparingly, you could even go up to three days without a charge. The best of the best it is in all aspects of a smartphone. It just falls short because it neither has a headphone jack nor a modern bezel-less design. It’s equipped with huge and stunningly loud front-facing speakers instead, quite a rarity in smartphones nowadays.
The iPhone 8+ also has amazing battery endurance, not because it has a large one, but because it has a small display. One of the most power-demanding components of a phone is its screen, and due to the top, chin and side bezels of the 5th year-in-a-row unchanged design of the iPhone, it does help with the battery. Though you never know, Apple might slow it down a year later.
Gimmicky Phone
This category is a bit of a weird one but deserves a mention in 2017. We see companies having ‘ambitious’ designs for their phones, and this category is for them. Keep in mind that all these ‘gimmicks’ are completely different from each other, so it’s difficult to grade them that manner. There isn’t any winner for this category and we leave that to your own preference.
Moto Z line-up: The Moto Z line-up of phones was the big ‘unusual smartphone’ design of 2017. They are completely normal but retain a special feature of being equipped with modules that Motorola offers. These modules can be anything from a speaker to a battery extension to even a projector. Imagine having a projector on the back of your phone, that’s just insane.
ZTE Axon M: This is one of the more revolutionary/ visionary phones of the year. With its book-like design, it reveals two screens when it opens, turning a 5” phone into a 10” tablet. The device is a prototype first and a smartphone second indeed.
Razor Phone: As amazing this phone is, it is still pretty ‘unconventional’ to say the least. Gaming on a phone? It just seems like an absurd idea in itself, considering that we are in an age where even console gaming is looked down upon by the PC elitists, who rule the gaming industry. Nonetheless, the Razor phone is at its best and proved to be one of the top-notches on the market.
Underrated
There aren’t many ‘underrated’ phones in the market, as every good phone is praised for being good, and every bad phone is treated equally, if not worse. There is only one contestant for being unappreciated this year and that’s the LG V30. The handheld is still a beast with a rugged design, waterproofing, amazing specs and an overall amazing offer from a reputable brand. However, for some reason, it didn’t make it through to be a popular phone. It could be due to the debacle with its predecessor, the LG G5, which was a major flop, and encouraged LG to completely change their design team.
The Ultimate Phone of 2017
This was a really hard choice. From all the brands out there, we wanted to assess which phone would all types of users the best. Mainly, a phone with extra features! Now, the iPhones are known to have minimal and easy to use design and software alike, and it already marks out a huge number of people who like to mod their phones, play with the software and also don’t need accessories to fill the gaps that the phone left out etc. Thus, we had to rule out the iPhones. Then, it was a battle between the Android flagships. From gaming phones to long battery devices to camera phones, we needed to pick one that ticked every box, and offered even more. The Note 8 was the first to come to mind. The Samsung product has the best screen on the market, comes with a stylus whilst being completely water and dust resistant besides having a headphone jack, an iris scanner, a fingerprint scanner, dual cameras and a highly customizable UI, which is one of the major drawbacks of pure, stock Android. The Note 8 just falls short of $1000, but it is really worth it.
