top 5 smartphone in 2021

 - What's up, guys?

   Time really does fly.

And, so far th

is year

we've had some amazing smartphones already.

Now, like I've been doing for the past few years,

halfway through the year

I do give you my top five personal picks of the year so far.

Now, before we get into the list, a few disclaimers.

I've tested a lot of smartphones this year, but obviously

I've not tested every single one.

So there may be a smartphone that you think

should have been featured, which hasn't been.

That's absolutely fine.

Please drop that in the comments below

and I'll try to test it out and include it

in the final end of year list.

Second disclaimer, this is my personal top five list.

It might be different to your list.

That's absolutely fine guys.

We can still be friends. There's no need to fight.

Please drop your top picks down in the comments below.

This list is in no particular order.

I'm just giving you my top five.

And because this list is of devices

released in 2021, there are no iPhones

in this top five list.

Yes, we did have the purple iPhone 12,

but that's just a different color.

It doesn't really count as a different smartphone.

If you must know, the iPhone that I use most

is the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

I've had it since the day it was released.

I really like the cameras, they're very consistent.

It's got some of the best video

on any smartphone right now

and it's got excellent battery life.

Now there's definitely room for improvement.

We don't have the best display on the iPhone.

There's lots of other smartphones, this year especially,

that do overtake the iPhone in terms of

display with high refresh rates.

And the iPhone that I think most people will opt for

is the iPhone 12.

I've covered both the iPhone 12 Pro Max

as well as the iPhone 12 in separate reviews.

I'll link those in the comments and the description.

And if you are thinking

about buying an iPhone, personally speaking,

I would recommend you wait a few months.

September is likely when we're going to be hearing

about the next new iPhones, the iPhone 13s.

So it might be worth just waiting a little bit longer

unless you get a great deal.

Now, with all of that out of the way,

let's go ahead and get to the 2021 top five list.

So, the first smartphone on my list

in no particular order, is the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Now the S21 Ultra came out very early this year

and it has been the Android smartphone that's been

in my pocket for the longest period of time.

And that's because Samsung really did take a lot of feedback

from users on the S20 Ultra and pretty much

improved everything that we had asked for.

So we've got an excellent display with 120 hertz.

We've got a very unique design, which we don't really see

on any other smartphone, with a camera module

really blending into the sides.

And I'm a little bit biased

but the matte black version looks absolutely stunning.

We've got excellent overall cameras with, in my opinion

the best zoom on any smartphone right now.

10x obstacle zoom, which can be extended quite a bit.

Now, we no longer get a charger included out of the box

which isn't great for a smartphone of this price.

And the charging is also not the fastest out there.

It's only 25 watts wired charging.

And this year we no longer have a MicroSD card slot.

Something that a lot of people are used to

on Samsung Galaxy devices.

But, regardless, it's an excellent smartphone

and I can easily recommend it.

Right, moving on.

The next smartphone on my list

was also a smartphone that came up pretty early

but has kind of got forgotten a little bit

and that is the Oppo Find X3 Pro.

Now Oppo really did try to tick

all of the boxes with this device.

We've got an excellent display.

We've got some great overall cameras

and what's quite unique is that we have

the same sensor for the primary

as well as the ultra wide camera,

which you don't really see on many of the devices.

And we also have the world's first

microscope camera on a smartphone.

Now this is something that I initially thought

was a bit of a gimmick,

but after using it, I actually found I was using it

more than the telephoto camera.

Just kind of getting my camera close up to things

and really being able to see the details

is just so, so much fun.

There's also 65 watt charging included

out of the box with 35 watt wireless charging.

And it's also quite compact for a full size flagship.

It's only around 8.26 millimeters thin,

which makes it a lot lighter and a lot easier to use

compared to some of the other flagships out there.

Now, of course it's not perfect.

There's definitely room for improvement.

I think the selfie camera could be improved, it's only 1080p

and with the design, although the way the camera module

rises up is quite unique, the overall design does

look very similar to the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

I also think the device is priced slightly high,

especially if we compare it

to the next smartphone on this list

and that is the OnePlus 9 Pro.

Now OnePlus and Oppo are partner companies

so we do see a lot of similarities,

especially from the front.

The displays look almost identical.

This is not a bad thing.

We do have 120 hertz on both displays

and they're very good.

The OnePlus 9 Pro, however

does come in quite a bit cheaper

compared to the Oppo Find X3 Pro.

And for that, you're not really missing out on too much.

You do get a premium built design

Warp Charge 65T included out of the box with support

for wireless charge 50T, which is very, very fast.

And although the internals are very similar

to other flagships out there,

what you find with the OnePlus 9 Pro

is that, thanks to OxygenOS,

it is very, very fast and smooth.

We also have some big improvements

for the cameras this year on the OnePlus 9 Pro

with the ability to record 8K from both the primary

as well as the ultra wide camera.

And we have this massive Hassleblad partnership

which in my opinion, didn't fully live up to the hype

and although the cameras have improved with time

with software updates, I still think that the Hassleblad

partnership fruits will be seen a few years down the line.

Now the front facing camera is still not good

as with the Find X3 Pro, it's just 1080p

but overall, the one plus nine pro is a great package.

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Right, now the next smartphone on my list

I mean, it's complete overkill,

it ticks pretty much all of the boxes

and that is the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra.

Now this device arguably has one of the best displays

on the market right now.

Definitely one of the brightest displays

out there with 1700 nits.

You've got 120 hertz refresh rate

with 480 hertz touch sampling.

It's got a very premium ceramic build.

You've got 67 watts wired charging included

but you've also got support for 67 watt wireless charging,

some of the fastest wireless charging

you're going to find out there.

You also get a secondary display on the back

which can be used as a viewfinder

for the rear facing cameras,

which means you can get some very high quality selfies.

Now, the cameras overall, in my experience

did not live up to the hype.

Yes, they have been improved over time,

but things like the 120X at the back on a zoom camera

that only has five times optical zoom capability

in my opinion, was just bad at marketing.

I mean, sure, the Zoom's good,

but it doesn't not compare to the zoom

on something like the S21 Ultra.

Now moving on, the final smartphone on my list.

This was definitely very difficult to choose,

but I think it's going to have to be

the best compact Android smartphone out there, in my opinion

and that is the ASus Zenfone 8.

Now this was a bit of a surprise from ASus.

Traditionally we've had the flip, which we still have

but the Zenfone 8, for me, was a device that comes in

at a very competitive price point

with pretty much all of the internals

that you have on any other flagship.

There's really not many compromises made.

You've got 120 hertz display.

You do have a respectable 4,000 milliampere battery

with 30 watt charging included out of the box

and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack

which you're not going to find on

any other smartphone on this list.

So, very impressive there.

Now, you don't get wireless charging included

and it can seem like a pretty basic phone.

It's not got any bells and whistles

but if you are after a compact flagship smartphone,

then the Asus Zenfone 8 is an easy recommendation.

Now, I do have lots of honorable mentions

because there's so many great smartphones that I have used.

We do have the gaming smartphone,

such as the ROG Phone 5, the pro

the one that I liked best, which was the ultimate edition

144 hertz display, 6,000 milliampere battery

with lots of triggers for gaming.

And then we also had the Legion Phone Duel 2,

which, in my opinion,

is more of a gaming device than a smartphone.

And that's because it's really been built

for gaming completely in landscape,

including the pop-up selfie camera,

144 hertz display, a built-in fan

to keep your device cool after long gaming periods,

as well as two USB ports,

which you can use simultaneously for dual turbo charging.

This just absolutely blew my mind.

The ability to plug in two USB-C cables

to up to a 90 watt charger

which give you some very, very fast charging.

We also had the ASus Zenfone Flip,

which allows you to use the rear facing cameras

as front facing cameras with 8K video recording.

Overall, a great smartphone.

The S21 as well as the 21 Plus,

which offer a lot of features that the S 21 ultra offers,

but at a lower price, even compared to last year.

We've also had the Vivo X60 Pro

as well as the X60 Pro Plus.

Very promising devices, which

unfortunately, I have not had

a massive amount of time to play with.

And let's not forget some of the budget options

that we've had this year, such as the Realme 8 Pro

which I was very impressed with.

108 megapixel camera, 50 watt dock charging included

out of the box, all for under 300 pounds.

We also had the Poco F3

with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor,

120 hertz refresh rate,

again coming in at around 300 pounds,

which is absolutely insane.

And then I also got to test out the Infinix Note 10 Pro

which is a device that retails for around 259 dollars,

has a 90 hertz display, 256 gigabytes of storage

with 8 gigabytes of RAM

at that very competitive price.

I mean, I could potentially do a separate video altogether

for the top five budget smartphones.

Definitely let me know in the comments below

if you'd like me to do that.

And that is my top five list with the honorable mentions.

What are your favorite smartphones of the year so far?

Do drop those in the comments below.

THANKS