- Hey guys this is Austin.
A little while ago, I made a video
on why you should not buy the iPhone 11 Pro.
And yet, here a couple months later,
I may or may not have switched
to daily drivering an iPhone 11
Pro.
Look, there's a great reason for this; let me explain.
Because there's a lot of things
that have happened in smart phones
over the last 12 months.
- You lied?
- That did happen actually. I was wrong.
You know what I'm not wrong about?
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Now, you might look at the table and think,
"Isn't this just a poor imitation
"of Marques' Best Smart Phone of the Year Awards?"
- Well, you are wrong.
- You were actually kind of right,
but this is not an awards show.
We are not choosing any kind of awards here.
What we're doing is giving a better look
at the different phones that we've taken a look at this year
because obviously it's easy
to review something when it comes out,
but there's always more stuff coming out.
So this is a good recap.
And honestly, a lot of things have changed,
especially since we've done videos on some of these phones.
Case in point, the iPhone 11.
- [Ken] I mean, this thing is proper cool.
- [Austin] I still stand by what I said in the video
that the iPhone 11 is the iPhone to buy right now;
however, I think I was a little bit harsh on the 11 Pro
because while this phone, at $300 more,
doesn't really make sense for most people,
it is actually a better phone.
Last year, this was a much harder comparison to make.
We're in a very privileged scenario,
where we have a wide variety of phones
that we can choose from at any time.
- Absolutely. - And yet,
what I really kept coming back to with the XR
was that battery life; it was so much better.
I actually do like the Pro more.
The screen is better,
although the iPhone 11's screen is just fine.
And having that third camera is nice.
But I legitimately still absolutely recommend,
anyone who's considering an iPhone,
to buy the iPhone 11.
- Coming from a XS Max last year,
the battery life is insanely good.
- The battery is the killer thing on this.
Especially on the Max,
I'm sure you've seen the benefits on the 11 as well.
11 Pro. - All of the iPhones
of this generation have great battery life,
which is a really nice thing to say.
However, that's not something we can say
about some of the other phones that we'd
like to talk about, including
the Pixel 4.
What did they do wrong? (sighs)
Why is this...
Look,
Like no.
This is my biggest disappointment of the year.
Now, you may have noticed,
we actually have not done a video
on the Pixel 4, here on the channel.
And that's for one very simple reason.
I start working on the video,
I got about three-quarters of the way through writing it up,
putting all of my notes together,
then I was like, "You know what?
"I just don't like this thing very much,
"and everyone's going to have the same opinion."
- I mean, it certainly didn't help that
the wind was taken out of the press event.
We already knew everything about this phone
before it was announced-- - Six months before.
- Yeah, six months before.
- There are major problems with the Pixel 4,
even that aside.
- That aside.
- Yeah yeah yeah. - That aside.
- [Austin] So the battery life,
specifically on the smaller Pixel 4,
is a complete and total deal breaker in 2019.
When you're charging $800 for a phone,
you do not need to deal with compromise.
You shouldn't have to deal with compromise.
Because of that kind of money,
you can get a great all around phone,
such as the iPhone 11 Pro,
such as the iPhone 11,
such as the Galaxy S10;
there are a lot of phones that don't drop the ball,
and the battery life is unacceptable on the Pixel 4.
It's worse than the 3 and has a 90 hertz display.
And that's not even to get into the other issues
with the phone.
The 90 hertz display is great
when it works.
Which is like half the time it feels like?
- I know they're working on it but like--
- It works when it likes.
- It's stupid.
And then no ultra wide?
I mean the Pixel has always had the best phone,
or at least for the last couple years
it's had the best camera on a phone period.
Now I would argue that I do think that the standard
wide angle is a bit better than the iPhone 11 and
11 Pro,
but beyond that?
The ultra wide and especially the video capabilities
of the iPhone?
Pushed it over the edge.
This is the best camera on a smartphone as far as the
full package for me right now.
- I mean, for me personally,
I actually do like the telephoto a lot on the Pixel.
I mean again,
same reason why I like the telephoto on this,
I feel like I use it a lot.
I think they do telephoto a lot better
than most of the other phones out there.
- But the thing is,
they so heavily pushed this radar function.
It's like "look how cool it's going to be."
And yet realistically,
it's not really that useful.
And in fact I remember we were in Japan recently,
and I got a notification saying the radar was
turned off like those functions were turned off.
It's just like okay,
Cool.
Like obviously it's a little bit of an edge case,
but there's so many issues with the Pixel 4 this year,
that I can't recommend it
Like I straight up
I cannot
easily recommend a Pixel 4,
when there are other phones that I think do
a better job.
- I mean especially...
Yeah, especially this phone right here,
which I mean,
Austin will also talk about way more.
But the OnePlus 7T
is probably one of our favorite phones.
If not our favorite phone of the year.
- [Austin] So first of all,
the 7 Pro was the first time they stepped out
of their sort of comfort zone,
and made it a little bit more of an
expensive flagship.
Has a killer display,
90 hertz which aw...
It's so good.
So unlike the Pixel,
which runs at 90 hertz sometimes,
the OnePlus 7 Pro as well as the 7T,
ran at 90 hertz all the time.
And it makes such a difference.
That paired with the fact that this is a killer
looking OLED screen?
This is like my favorite overall screen of the year.
With that faster display
I find myself picking up the OnePlus a lot more
than I had ever picked up something like
the Pixel 3,
which is my previous Android daily driver.
Purely because something as simple as scrolling
through Twitter is so much snappier,
so much more responsive.
And for me,
that makes all the difference.
I love how fast this phone is.
- I mean on the topic of this getting timely updates,
I mean you're really reaping all of the benefits
of the Pixel 4 at this point.
Arguably with a better build of Android,
but on a phone that's just way better.
- I mean it's got-- - It's cheaper.
- It's cheaper.
It's cheaper by what?
$200?
- $200.
Now the OnePlus I'll actually usually pick up
for most tasks,
except anytime I need to take any kind of
photo or video.
iPhone's gotta beat hands down.
Now at $600?
I'm willing to make that sacrifice,
especially considering how good the
rest of the phone is.
But it is a better camera system away from being
the greatest phone
of 2019.
- I don't think this camera,
as you said goes head to head with the Pixel or
the iPhone.
But I like that this is a step in the right direction.
What they did with this camera was essentially
make the ultra wide and the telephoto
the two cameras that people are probably not going
to use, you know, primarily.
They made those two cameras better.
The telephoto is incredibly sharp.
Sharper than something you get on this.
It's
probably head-to-head with the Pixel I still have to,
you know, actually compare these two to be
- Safe for sure. - It's good though.
- [Ken] But it's
It's really good.
They just need to get that main camera set,
that's all.
And
then this would probably be the perfect
smartphone otherwise.
- However,
let's say you want to spend a little bit less money.
Don't we all?
- I don't have that problem.
- I'm talking to the wrong person.
You shouldn't spend our money.
Anyway so the Pixel 3A was a little bit of a
surprise this year.
At $400 this is by far the cheapest Pixel around.
And the most important selling point of this guy,
is the fact that it has the same camera from the
excellent Pixel 3.
Except that they made a few
questionable decisions shall we say?
- I mean, the plastic build's probably the first one.
Feels a little cheap.
- It's a little cheap,
but the performance for me.
- Oh yeah.
- Like the Pixel 3 was not a super fast phone.
The 3A sort of had not quite that issue out of the box,
but has significantly worse specs.
In an age where you can get very very powerful phones,
for two, three, $400?
The fact that they had,
pretty much seemingly,
put all of their money in the camera and sort of skimped
in everything else?
Makes this kind of a little bit of a harder sell.
But you know what also has a better value than
this in my opinion?
Is this guy
which is the Razer Phone 2.
Now this is actually technically cheating,
this came out last year.
While it does have a lot going for it,
I think a lot of people are probably going to be
put off by the size.
It's kind of a little bit too big I think for
most people,
but it has great 120 hertz display,
it's got killer audio,
but at $400 I actually think the Razer Phone is a
good pickup.
- Yeah.
- You know what else deserves an honorable mention?
Samsung.
- Yeah - No straight up,
The Galaxy S10
it's probably
it's easy to say,
especially how early it came out in the year,
this is one of the best phones of the year because
it really didn't sort of
they didn't cut any corners, right?
So you have the notchless display,
you've got the triple cameras,
you got the wireless charging,
the great display.
You've got the headphone jack.
I mean yes, this phone came out early,
but it really kind of paved the way everything
else this year.
- [Ken] I mean, it also,
because it's been out for quite a bit,
you can actually catch it on sale at points.
- [Austin] Yes! That's a really key point.
- I think one of our favorite phones of the year actually,
on the note...
On the note.
- On note of the... - No.
S10
is
is the S10e.
The S10e is a fantastic value and at points in the year,
we actually saw that phone hit 350, $400.
I mean, you know,
you'd have to hunt around for those prices,
and you could even find those refurbished,
you know, for that price.
But, honestly like,
you know, if you find this lower than retail?
Absolutely go for it.
I think it's genuinely like one of the best phones
that we've looked at this year.
- [Austin] Absolutely.
What is your favorite of this year?
- Ooo.
Okay, so I mean,
aside from the one that I know I'm gonna get every year,
let's be real.
No I think my favorite phone...
I'm on your camp on this,
I actually do think that this is my favorite phone
of the year.
The OnePlus 7T.
- [Austin] Awesome.
- This hit all the right notes for me,
way better than I thought it was going to.
You know, before,
you know, this phone actually came out and
you know, when it was just all rumor and speculation.
This really surprised me.
I love the screen,
I love the other two cameras on it.
The performance is great.
There's just so much to love about this phone.
- What do you think?
Which iPhone should I have recommended,
and which Android phone are you using right now?
Because obviously that's what
What--
That's--
No.
I still stand by my original statement.
You really shouldn't buy this phone.
It is pretty good though.