Top 10 Smartphones We Reviewed This Year

We started off the year with the review of one of the best flagships of 2023, the Galaxy S23. It is our pick for being an all-rounder compact flagship for this year with an amazing screen and a minimal yet premium design. Despite being a small 3900mAh cell, the Galaxy S23 was consistently impressive with its battery backup along with one of the smoothest software experiences Samsung has ever given with OneUI.

The Galaxy S23 also had a decent set of cameras but could have been better with low-light shots. The only major con with it was the 25W charging speeds which are quite low compared to other flagships at that price. Overall, we cannot complain of how good the device was in most aspects. We also want to mention how excellent the Galaxy S23 Ultra was during our review with the exceptional cameras it had and how high the productivity quotient of the device is.

Next up is the Vivo T2 5G. Despite being priced along similar lines as the iQOO Z7 5G, a smartphone from Vivo’s own sub-brand, the Vivo T2 5G was a considerably better product than iQOO’s handset, especially when it came to performance. It was a very balanced smartphone if we consider overall price to performance ratio.

Lava Blaze 2 was one of the best budget segment products from Lava in 2023 in our opinion. It had an impressive construction and a glass-sandwich design. While it did struggle with its cameras, the overall performance of the phone and it’s build quality made it stand out from the crowd.

Keeping aside the fact that the Galaxy A54 5G had an Exynos Chipset which fails to compete with the competition in the price segment, the handset did do well in other areas such as cameras, display, software and build quality. With all these pros plus a set of eye-catchy colours the handset was available in, the Galaxy A54 5G was indeed one of the top smartphones we reviewed in 2023.

When Agni 2 5G launched, it looked like a product too good to be true but once we reviewed it, we knew it had potential. There were definitely some bugs in the software and the cameras weren’t its strongest point. However, what impressed us the most is how well built the Lava Agni 2 5G was, and the curved display it brought with it which was nothing short of impressive. It also excelled in the battery department, both in terms of charging speeds as well as backup time.

The iQOO Neo 7 Pro deserves to be in this list at all costs, thanks to the aggressive pricing the value it offered for its price. With a flagship Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 under the hood and a starting price of Rs 34,999, the iQOO Neo 7 Pro turned out to be a versatile smartphone that could handle almost everything you throw at it. It can truly be considered a flagship killer.

Then came in Nothing Phone (2), the direct competitor to the iQOO Neo 7 Pro. While it did have some inferior specifications compared to Neo 7 Pro, it’s the software experience, the design and the build quality where the smartphone managed to impress us the most. For its price, especially now when it is selling with heavy discounts, the Nothing Phone (2) can be your pick without any second thoughts.

Infinix hasn’t always managed to impress us with its smartphones but it’s GT 10 Pro turned the tables. It proved to us that Infinix is also capable of launching handsets that stand out from the crowd. The GT 10 Pro had a good amount of power under the hood and for a gaming phone, it checked most of the boxes.

The third smartphone from Samsung in the list of top 10 smartphones we reviewed is the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Samsung did make a decent set of devices this year and the Z Flip 5 is the one where it finally made a major change in design. The handset got a cover display that was not only better looking but was way more functional than what we saw on Galaxy Z Flip 4 or the Z Flip 3. It still needs improvement in terms of battery life and Haptics but for a flip phone, the Z Flip 5 is a product you cannot go wrong with.

We ended the year with the iQOO 12 review and it is a proof of how the year ended with a bang. The iQOO 12 had a shocking price tag of Rs 52,999 and for that, the handset is offering a lot. Apart from some bugs in the software, the iQOO 12 is as good as it can get in its price range.

So here were our top 10 smartphones which we reviewed in 2023. We are excited and looking forward to 2024 as to how brands follow up to their previous offerings and what else they have in stores for us.