Intro:
What's up guys, Safe here on Super Safe TV, and it's June already, which means we're halfway through the year, and as I've been doing for the past seven or eight years, it's time for my top five smartphones of the year so far.
Now, what usually tends to happen is that these top five lists and smartphone awards and things are towards the end of the year, which is all well and good, but it does mean that some amazing devices that come out towards the beginning of the year do tend to get forgotten. And what about if you want to see what the best options are right now, not towards the end of the year? Well, that's what I'm here for. Now, as always, I do have to throw out a few disclaimers before I start.
I have tested out a lot of smartphones this year, but I've not tested every single one. I'm just one guy, so there may be a smartphone that I've not tested, which you think should have made that list. That's absolutely fine, we can still be friends. Our list will be different, drop your favorite picks down in the comments below, and maybe if enough of you want me to cover a particular smartphone that I haven't done, that might make my top five list towards the end of the year.
This list is in no particular order, I'm just giving you my personal top five favorites of 2024, and guess what hasn't come out yet in 2024? A new iPhone. So, there will not be an iPhone in this top five list because a new one isn't out this year as yet. If you want to know what my favorite iPhone is, it is the...
iPhone 15 Pro Max :
iPhone 15 Pro Max it made my top five list of 2023 it's an amazing smartphone great all-rounder I like the titanium builds I like the consistent cameras which I still think take the best video out there the 5x Zoom is amazing for portraits, and finally we have USB type-c now with all of that out the way let's get to the list so the first smartphone on my list once again in no particular order is the
Samsung Galaxy s24 Ultra it came out very early and really set the bar for the flagships of 2024 it's an amazing all-rounder I like the new flat display now so Samsung has got rid of the curves it's got gorilla glass armor which is noticeably less reflective, and it's also more scratch resistant I really like the new 5x zoom camera which doesn't really compromise on that extended Zoom that we had on the s23 ultra and in actual fact it gives you better extended zoom in low lights and I also prefer it for portraits it's
Powered by the 8 gen 3 for Galaxy and no matter what region you get the s24 ultra in you will still get that same consistent chipset the Open is super useful even though I might not use it every day and Samsung has promised seven generations of Android OS updates which brings it in line with Google's actual devices now.
It is packed with a bunch of AI features which got lots of headlines towards the beginning of the year such as live translate interpreter all the AI photo editing features where you can remove people from the background and use generative AI to fill in the gaps when you rotate an image but if I'm completely honest with you, I very rarely use any of these.
AI features I guess they're nice to have, but they're not something that I personally use every day the battery life on the s24 ultra is pretty good overall, but there are other devices on this list that give you better battery life and faster charging and this is a premium PR smartphone for a premium price it starts at $1,300 or £1,250 making it the most expensive smartphone on this list having said that Samsung do have lots of great offers.
So I will leave my Philly link down in the description below right now I believe they are offering double the storage for the same price an honorable mention does have to go to the Samsung Galaxy s24 and the s24 plus excellent smartphones offer a lot of what the s24 ultra does those AI features are all there but at a lower price now the next smartphone on my list actually got overshadowed by the s24 ultra I think, and I think it's the most underrated smartphone out this year that is the OnePlus 12 now it doesn't have any fancy AI features, but it's a solid smartphone nevertheless we have to talk about the price the
OnePlus 12 starts at around £850 in the UK or $800 in the US but right now it's on for $700 now that is an amazing deal and significantly cheaper almost half the price of the Samsung Galaxy s24 Ultra in the US and for that you are getting a 120 HZ Pro display it gets super bright you've got a partial Peak
HDR brightness of 4,500 n it's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 3 and the OnePlus 12 cameras are actually very good they're perfect Flagship level cameras we've got some of the similar Hardware that we had on the OnePlus open from last year, and we have a large 5,400 battery which gives you excellent battery life with a 100 was super UK charger included out of the box and
OnePlus has promised four years of software updates and 5 years of security updates which isn't the seven years that Samsung and Google offer but still pretty respectable I would say, and we do have that curved screen I know this is something that comes down to personal preference, but I know a lot of people don't like a curved screen and prefer something flat now I do have to give an honorable mention to the OnePlus .
$500 I think it's a great deal I would say it's a bit of a cutback version of the OnePlus 12 kind of focused on gaming there's also a unique Benin impact version if you're into that, and I did do a detailed gaming battle of the OnePlus 12r versus dang from board out you can check that post out in the comment.
The next smartphone on my list is the honor magic 6 Pro this is a great all around Flagship we have the full Google Play Store which some people still ask me about honor devices have separated from Huawei a long time ago we've got a nice symmetrical design a beautiful 6.8 in 120 HZ AMOLED display which has a 5,000 nits Peak HDR brightness, and it also has the industry's highest PWM dimming frequency 4,320 HZ Dynamic dimming which makes it very easy on the eyes in low light.
Conditions we have excellent overall cameras 50 mega p primary with a variable aperture which we don't see much of these days 50 mega pix Ultra wide camerae and a 180 mega pix Periscope zoom camera which I believe is the highest resolution on a periscope zoom camera out there we still have Honor's AI motion sensing capture which is great to capture action shots, and it is powered by the.
Flagship once again the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 mobile platform now this has one of the best battery lives on a smartphone that I've tested this year it's got a huge 5,600 mAh battery, and it does support 80 WATS of supercharging or 66 watts of Wireless supercharging unfortunately this year honor do not include the charger out of the box, and we once again have four years of OS updates and 5 years of security updates which is pretty good but not as good as Samsung and Google it also has an even more Curve screen.
Then the one plus 12 because it curves on all sides I think it looks amazing but once again some people don't prefer that now honor also released a special edition of the honor magic 6 Pro the Porsche Design honor magic 6 RSR this takes a lot of the features that we've got on the honor magic 6 Pro and puts them in a very sleek package you've got an improved display improved cameras with lighter, but that is £1,600 if.
You're after something special you might want to consider that now so far on my list we've had some amazing flagships, but they do have Flagship price tags what if you are on a budget well good news is the next two picks in my list are budget friendly first up the nothing phone 2A this is one of the most.
Conclusion:
Unique looking smartphones you're going to find in this price range it has a cut down version of the glyph interface that we saw on the nothing phone 1 and two and although some people might consider it.
A bit of a gimmick you can't deny that it makes the device look unique especially with that transparent design now unlike previous nothing phones it does have a plastic build but when you look at this device from the front it looks like a proper Flagship 6.7.
