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 mid-ranges

pretending to be flagships we've got foldables rollables mini phones massive phones so

i'm just going to lay it down as it is i'm going to 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 gonna punish on camera so let's start with the design conscious user for those of you who really value the the look and the feel of a smartphone 2022 has been a great year i really like

how samsung streamlined their s21 ultra with the new s22 ultra xiaomi's had a similar blow-off their mi 12 pro it

looks way cleaner than last year's m11 but i think the most design-conscious device is actually from sony sony's new xperia

one mark iv 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 eco-conscious phone no

not giving points for excluding the charger there's 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 life cycle when it comes to updates but if you wanted to go all in on the eco front there is only one phone for you the

fairphone 4. 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 it's about as lateral as you can get

they built it such that the entire thing can be taken apart with just 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 this thing doesn't come with like one year or two years of warranty

it comes with five it's almost not fair to the other phones

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 s22 it isn't anything special in

the hardware department but it is cheaper than last year's s21 and it's

it's just so polished for such a dinky little device plus there is also the

samsung galaxy z flip 3 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 it's

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-minute which dare i say is actually

quite good value

but if you want the absolute best value

compact phone of the year

you're gonna have to wait a little

because i think there is a very strong

chance that it's going to be the google

pixel 6a it's releasing in july so i

haven't used it yet but google's a

series 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 6a

is going to make quite an impact for

around 450

okay we need to talk about gaming i feel

like we are on the cusp of a smartphone

gaming renaissance 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 valorum is coming the second most

stream game we're even getting a call of

duty warzone for smartphones and so when

you combine this influx of titles with

the fact that most top-end mobile chips

they now require significant calling 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 f4

gt which for around 600 is just straight

up flagship power slapped onto a phone

with insanely cool retractable triggers

and very fast charging it's hard to

argue against this one

but then you have the red magic 7 pro

which for around 800 is somehow even

more powerful it comes with a physical

fan on the inside and even an under

display 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 a thousand dollars plus and you

do want the absolute best gaming phone

that money can buy then it is worth

waiting to see the rg phone 6 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 pro max even though its actual

battery capacity is less than 4 500

milliamp hours it by far beats out every

android phone with even 5 000 milliamp

hour cells i had to sit there for 10

hours straight waiting for this phone to

die in my battery test so a sub to the

channel would be

triumphant

it doesn't come cheap though let's see

if we can make this setup 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 ce2 now i've definitely noticed

oneplus losing a bit of their fandom

over the years they've very quickly gone

from this small-time 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 ce2 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 point 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 poco x4 squeezes every last drop of

value out of the 250 that it costs it

has the fundamentals like a decent

processor a great battery and a very

functional camera it has the full set of

nice to haves like a headphone jack an

ir blaster a micro sd card slot and it

even manages to cram in a couple of

luxuries like fast charging and a

genuinely beautiful high refresh rate

display now it's also worth considering

the redmi note 11 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 the poco 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 subtraction

we've had a really solid foldable from

oppo which has some of the best foldable

fundamentals on the market a sturdy

hinge a palm-friendly size and a screen

that isn't creased by the constant

folding and unfolding vegas joined the

game with their x-fold which supposedly

gives you the best camera system on

available 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 z-fold 3 which will

soon be updated to the z-fold 4 in

august is just currently ahead when it

comes to the software that maximizes all

that extra real estate plus it helps

that it's the only one that's globally

right time to get serious well 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 so

which is the best all-rounder i've had

multiple sleepless nights debating this

because on one hand you've got the vivo

x80 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 iv

which did win my design award but in my

opinion has weakest software compared to

its peers

especially when it comes to cameras

you've got the oneplus 10 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 pro phones to make

them noticeably less good than their