The BEST Smartphones of 2022!

 It's 2022. And let's be honest, smartphones have never been as confusing as they are right now.We've got flagships, we've got midrange just pretending to be flagships. We've got foldables rollables, minifones massive phones. So I'm just going to lay it down as it is. 

I'm gonna show you the best phone for each of the seven different kinds of user leading up to the best overall phone of the year so far. And then topped off with the worst phone, which we're going to punish on camera. 

So let's start with the design conscious user. For those of you who really value the look and the feel of a smartphone, 2022 has been a great year. I really like how Samsung streamlined their S 21 ultra. With the new S 22 Ultra, the Xiaomi has had a similar blow up their Mi Twelve Pro. 

It looks way cleaner than last year's Mi Eleven, but I think the most design conscious device is actually from Sony. The Sony's new Xperia One mark four. From a hardware perspective, at least, it's an absolute pleasure.

It's narrow enough that it fits perfectly in your palm. It's got a matte finish that says goodbye to fingerprints, a dedicated camera shutter button, and even a SIM card and micro SD card tray that you can access with just your fingers.

All right, brand new category time, because this year, I also want to award the most ecoconscious phone. No, not getting points for excluding the charger. There are three companies that stand out here. One is Nokia, who've started doing a lot of different things to play their part. Like they give good software support and large batteries so your phone lasts as long as possible. 

They give at least two years of warranty for repairs in case something goes wrong. And they even plant trees for every single purchase. One is Apple, whose latest devices are made from about 20% recycled materials, like even used water bottles. Plus, Apple is ahead when it comes to offsetting the pollution caused by its manufacturing with other green projects that they invest in.

And their phones also have the longest lifecycle when it comes to updates. But if you wanted to go all in on the EcoFriend, there is only one phone for you. This is kind of like a run of the mill $500 phone, but with its screen and specs downgraded and then all of that extra budget used to make it as sustainable as possible.

 I mean, even its presentation is about as own lateral as you can get. They built it such that the entire thing can be taken apart with your fingers and a simple screwdriver, so it's extremely repairable. The company promises that for every phone they sell, they'll recycle an equal amount of electronic waste.

Plus, the thing doesn't come with like, one year or two years of warranty. It's almost not fair to the other phone. Now, what if you've got smaller hands, though? Don't know why I'm doing this minor. Enormous. It is a genuine problem though. You have the budget, you want the best phone you can get, but most good devices are the size of your face. Well, thankfully, Samsung has actually done a really good job with their base, Galaxy S 22. 

It isn't anything special in the hardware department, but it is cheaper than last year's S 21 and it's just so polished for such a dinky little device. Plus there is also the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Three, which, because it folds, is even more compact. Both of these are capable phones for their size. I would just be a little careful if you're a real enthusiast and you want your top tier battery life. The other good option is the iPhone 13 Mini.

Apple has also released an updated iPhone Se this year, which is also small, but it's just so far behind when it comes to the screen quality and the camera quality that it doesn't really feel worth two thirds of the asking price of the 13 minutes, which, dare I say, is actually quite good value. But if you want the absolute best value compact phone of the year, dance away too little, because I think there is a very strong chance that it's going to be the Google Pixel Six A. It's releasing in July,

so I haven't used it yet. But Google's as so far they have smashed it every single time. They are affordable, clean, intelligent phones that also happen to take some of the best photos that money can buy. And so it's looking like the Six A is going to make quite an impact for around $450. OK, we need to talk about gaming. I feel like we are on the cusp of a smartphone gaming Grenada. 

After years of the top trending games being subway surfers and cookie clicker and text or die, we're finally about to get some heavy hitters. We've just had Apex Legends, the most streamed game in the world right now. Zamarin To Cumming, the second most streamed game. We're even getting a Call of Duty war zone for smartphones. And so when you combine this influx of titles with the fact that most top end mobile chips, they now require significant cooling to actually retain their best performance, there is increasing merit to having a gaming phone which can focus on that.

And there are three really good options right now, each one more extreme than the last. So for starters, we have the Poco S Four GT, which for around $600 is just straight up flagship power slapped onto a phone with insanely cool retractable triggers and very fast charging. Hard to argue against this one, but then you have the Red Magic Seven probe, which for around $800 is somehow even more powerful. 

It comes with a physical fan on the inside and even an underdisplayed selfie camera for a completely uninterrupted screen. One of the main caveats with these Red Magic phones, it used to be their janky. Not very pretty software skin, but given that that's improving too, this is becoming a really easy phone to recommend. And then at the highest end, you have the ROG phone from Asus. Every year, this company comes out with the most stacked gaming phone that we've ever seen. The only thing is,they haven't released this year's version yet. 

So if your budget does stretch all the way to $1,000 plus, and you do want the absolute best gaming phone that money can buy, then it is worth waiting to see the Origin Phone Six, which will probably be out this summer. And on the subject of immense levels of power, what about power users? Those of you whose number one priority is just battery life, we've got to be a little bit careful here because batteries are one of the cheapest components. You do get a lot of companies who just throw these enormous sized cells inside their devices. They market them as having an endurance of like, two and a half days, and then they heavily skimp on the other parts of the phone, and that's no good. 

So the question that I'm actually going to answer here is not which phone has the best battery life, but instead which is the best phone if you want a lot of battery life? And the answer to that question is still, hands down, the iPhone 13 chromax. Even though its actual battery capacity is less than 4500 mah, it by far beats out every Android phone with even 5000 mah sells. 

I had to sit there for 10 hours straight waiting for this phone to die in my battery test, so sub to the channel would be triumphant. It doesn't come cheap, though. Let's see if we can make this set up a little more budget.

Right. If you're someone who wants to make sure that every single penny that you spend is being put to good use, there are two phones that I think absolutely smash it the first being the OnePlus Nord Ce Two. Now, I've definitely noticed OnePlus losing a bit of their fandom over the years.They've very quickly gone from this smalltime, community driven phone maker to this huge corporate spewing out more devices than we can keep track of. But if you put all of that aside, the Ce Two, it does stand out as a particularly strong value sweet spot for around $350.

It just feels accomplished, like no corners have been cut and that it's exactly what it's set out to be. There's no obvious weak points, there's no glaring caveats except for the chin at the bottom, but that's pretty much par for the course at this price, and it's just a really smooth experience. And then if your budget is even tighter, the Paco X Four squeezes every last drop of value out of the $250 that itcosts. 

It has the fundamentals,like a decent processor, a great battery, and a very functional camera. It has a full set of nice to have like a headphone jack and irblaster, a micro SD card slot, and it even manages to cram in a couple ofl uxuries like fast charging and a genuinely beautiful high refresh rate display. Now, it's also worth considering the Redmi Note Eleven series for a slightly more camera centric option. 

And you pretty much can't go wrong with Realme, who feel like they're in an expansion phase right now where they're selling everything super cheap to just try and get more market penetration. But Apocalypse gets my vote. And finally. Just before we get to the best and of course. The worst overall phone.

I want to touch on foldables because it's taken its sweet time. But this market is finally starting to get to the traction we've had a really solid foldable from Oppos. Which has some of the best foldable fundamentals on the market. A sturdy hinge of palm friendly size and a screen that isn't creased by the constant folding and unfolding.

 Vipers joined the game with their xFold, which supposedly gives you the best camera system on a foldable. But while I do think that we should watch these companies, the simple fact that Samsung has had practically a two year head start in the market just means that they're foldable. The Zfold Three, which will soon be updated to the Zfold Four in August,is just currently ahead when it comes to the software that maximizes all the extra real estate.

 Plus, it helps that it's the only one that's globally available. Right, time to get serious. While the foldable and the gaming and the compact phones they're all very interesting niches to look at, the best phone for most people is the all rounder, which is the best all rounder. I've had multiple sleepless nights debating this because on one hand you've got the Vivo X 80 Pro, which is in a lot of ways the pinnacle of smartphone photography, but it's let down by a lack of availability. 

You've got Sony's Xperia One Mark Four, which did win my design award, but in my opinion has weaker software compared to its peers, especially when it comes to cameras. You've got the OnePlus Ten Pro, which actually launched at a lower price than last year's Nine Pro and does have a genuinely beautiful finish. But this isn't winning it either. I don't think this company lowered the price because they're feeling extra generous this year, more because the company is repositioning their Prophes to make them noticeably less good than they're soon to release Ultraphones. And it's the same story for Xiaomi.

The company has basically confirmed that a Mi Twelve Ultra is coming and it's seemingly going to be quite a big step up from the current Mi Twelve and the new Twelve Pro. And so this process of elimination has left me with the best of the best. And it of course does depend what ecosystem you want to be in if you decided that you want an iPhone, then it's really simple actually. Just get thelatest iPhone. 

You can take this video as a reassurance that if you do so, you're not missing out on any game changing features on Android's end. Plus, if you go for the Promax, you are getting battery life that would make every other phone jealous. But then when it comes to Android, there are two phones that I'm completely 50 50 on. The first being Samsung's S 22 Ultra, which has probably the greatest, brightest screen on any smartphone. It has one of the best camera systems with stupendous levels of zoom.

Plus for the first time on an S series phone, an S Pen, which, I mean, if this is important to you, then there's no question about it, this should be your phone. But if you decide that you're not going to use it, then I would start to side with our second winner, the Oppo Find X Five Pro. Now, I never got around to making a full review of this phone, but the long and short of it is this. 

This is a flagship spec, supremely refined and really comfortable to hold a smartphone with a good chunk of design personality,

I guess we could say. For me, this phone's camera and screen, they are very slightly weaker than sometimes, but it's a cheaper phone. It comes with more Ram, it's less prone to scratches thanks to the ceramic material, it has super fast charging, and more importantly, actually comes with that charger. 

And that leads us to the end,or at least the end of this phone right here. This is the Huawei p 50 pro. And in some parallel universe where Huawei hadn't had the US ban and they could keep innovating like they used to, this could have been the phone of the year. But as it stands, you should almost definitely avoid it. 

It's only just launched here in the UK in March 2022, and for a price of £1100 or $1,300, it's rocking a camera from a year ago, a chipset from two years ago, and of course, no access to the Google Playstore. It is really genuinely sad that I have to say this, because if you followed for a while, you'll know that I was a huge fan of the momentum that Huawei brought to the smartphone market.