- What's up, guys?
Saf here on SuperSaf TV, and in this video,
we're going to be taking a look at my personal top five
favorite smartphones of 2018.
It's been an absolutely awesome year for smartphones.
There's been so many great smartphones,
so it's been even more difficult to put this list together.
A few disclaimers before we start.
This is my personal top five list.
It may be different to your top five.
That's absolutely fine, we can still be friends.
Drop your favorites in the comments below.
Also, this list is in no particular order.
I'm just giving you my top five favorites,
and I'll be revealing my overall favorite
in an upcoming collaboration video, SuperSaf Style.
If you want to see that first with all of my friends,
then make sure you have subscribed and hit that bell icon
so you don't miss the notification.
This video is sponsored by Skillshare.
The first 500 people to sign up with the link
in the description, will get two months for free.
Right, so now, let's make a start, shall we?
The first smartphone on my list once again
in no particular order is the OnePlus 6T.
Now this is still the best bang-for-buck flagship device
that you can get out there, starting at around 500 pounds
or around $550 in the US,
which is great for what you're getting.
You've got a great AMOLED display
with a very small notch surface,
so if you're somebody who doesn't like notches,
this shouldn't be too much of a problem.
You've also got an in-display fingerprint scanner.
And the thing that I like most about OnePlus devices,
is the speed.
The tagline is the speed you need,
and they definitely deliver.
That is thanks to the powerful internals,
plenty of RAM, and OxygenOS,
which is very light, and very, very smooth.
There's great battery life and although you might not have
some of the features that other flagships have,
such as wireless charging and stereo speakers,
for this price point, it is a great buy,
and that is why it's made my top five list.
Now the second smartphone in this list is actually
on the other side of the pricing scale,
and that is, of course, the iPhone XS Max.
Also the iPhone XS, which is very similar.
And if you are in the Apple ecosystem, the iPhone XS Max
is the best smartphone you can buy right now.
It's got an amazing display, and one of the areas
where I think Apple have really improved is on the cameras.
You've got great cameras this year.
Smart HDR does wonders,
both on the front and rear-facing cameras.
And when it comes to video recording,
I would go as far as saying that the iPhone XS and XS Max
have the best video recording on any smartphone right now.
Dynamic range is so, so good.
In addition to that, you do have the Apple A12 Bionic chip,
and because of the optimizations with iOS,
the iPhone XS and XS Max
are some of the fastest devices out there.
I've done lots of speed tests, and they beat pretty much
every other Android competitor.
Now, as mentioned, you are going to be paying quite a bit
for the iPhone XS Max,
especially if you go for the 512 gigabyte version.
And you don't get some of the basic things
that you get on other smartphones, such as the fast charger,
which really should be included.
If you can get over those facts, however,
then it is a great, great smartphone.
Moving on, third on my list is the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro.
HUAWEI have really upped their game this year,
especially with the Mate 20 Pro, and it ticks so many boxes.
You've got three cameras at the back,
and this means that you're covering all bases.
The main camera is great, but you've also got
a telephoto camera which I would say has the best zoom
on any smartphone right now.
Three times optical zoom, and five times hybrid zoom.
But you also have the ultra-wide camera,
which I really, really like.
Now, my favorite thing about the Mate 20 Pro
is the battery life.
It's got absolutely amazing battery life.
I'm a very, very heavy user,
and even towards the end of the day,
I've still got 40% left, which is really, really good.
And if you do want to top-up, you've got HUAWEI's SuperCharge,
which is the fastest charging on a smartphone
that I've tested.
HUAWEI claim around 70% in 30 minutes.
Realistically speaking, I usually get around 65%
in 30 minutes, which is still faster
than anything else that I've tested.
Now I'm still not a huge fan of the EMUI software
and I know the Mate 20 Pro is not available in the US.
But nevertheless, it is an absolutely great smartphone.
Moving on to my fourth pick off the list,
and that is the Google Pixel 3 XL,
as well as Google Pixel 3.
Now there's two main reasons
why the Pixel 3's made this list.
The first is the cameras and the second is the software.
Now I think unanimously
you must have heard lots of people saying
that the pixels have the best cameras on any smartphone.
And I would definitely have to agree with that
for images, not for video unfortunately.
Video definitely needs some improvement, in my opinion,
when it comes to the Pixels,
but images are absolutely great.
You've got amazing, dynamic range.
And the front-facing cameras, I can tell you hands-down,
the Pixels take the best selfies,
and that is because you've got
dual front-facing cameras as well.
So you've got a standard angle of view,
as well as a wide-angle view.
And they do an absolutely great job
thanks to Google's Pixel visual core,
and all of the machine learning on software processing.
Speaking of software, the Pixels do have Google's
native UI on there, and that means are going to be getting
updates straight from Google.
You're not going to have to wait around,
and it gives you a very, very smooth experience.
Now you do have a massive notch.
The biggest notch that we've seen on a smartphone.
And I know this is something that
a lot of you guys don't like.
It is something that I got used to after using it for a bit.
But I still think there's improvements
that can be made to the Pixels,
especially in the area of battery life and RAM.
I think Google made a bad decision
by going with four gigabytes of RAM.
They should've gone with at least six
because of how demanding apps are,
and how much multitasking we do on a regular basis.
But despite that, the Pixels are some of the best
smartphones you can buy this year.
Now the final pick in my list,
once again in no particular order,
of course has to be the Samsung Galaxy Note9.
Now, this for me is one of those devices
that is a great all-rounder.
It might not do everything perfectly,
but it does everything very, very well.
It's the only device in this list that doesn't have a notch
and has a 3.5 mm jack,
something that we don't see much of these days.
But in addition to that, you have what I would call
the best display on a smartphone right now.
You've still got expandable storage.
You've got the S Pen,
which you don't have on any other device,
and it does open up lots of possibilities.
You've got an amazing design and build,
personally my favorite, because of those curved edges.
Something that lots of other manufacturers
are now starting to copy.
Samsung has been doing it for quite some time now.
And you have really good cameras, overall.
Although I'd say that the cameras in the Note9
are not as good as something like the iPhone XS Max
and the Google Pixel 3 XL.
So those are my top five picks,
but we do have to give some honorable mentions.
Firstly, to the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+,
which are very similar to the Note9, minus a few features.
But overall, they are some great smartphones,
and they would've made the top five list
if it wasn't for the Note9.
We also had some very interesting smartphones
from companies like OPPO and Vivo,
in the form of the OPPO Find X and the Vivo NEX.
And these devices really did maximize
the screen-to-body ratio
by coming up with some mechanical and motorized solutions.
There's also the LG V40 which is a great all-around device,
but did fall short in some areas when we compare it
to some of the other flagships out there.
And finally, we also had some great gaming smartphones,
such as the ROG phone and the Razer Phone 2,
which really target that gaming audience.
That's what I think, anyway.
What are your favorite smartphones of 2018?
Definitely drop those in the comments below.
As mentioned, I will be revealing my overall
favorite smartphone of 2018 in my upcoming SuperSaf Style
end-of-year collaboration video,
which will be coming very, very soon.
If you want to see that first, make sure you have subscribed,
and switched on notifications by hitting that bell icon.
And as mentioned towards the start,
this video is sponsored by Skillshare.
Skillshare is an online learning community
with thousands of classes in design,
technology, and much more.
Their premium membership gives you unlimited access
to high-quality classes on must-know topics,
so you can improve your skills,
a lot of new opportunities, and do the work you love.
A lot of people ask me how did you learn video editing?
And the answer is through online video classes.
I've been checking out some Skillshare classes
on Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X
to improve my video editing skills,
and you can do the same on many other topics.
Skillshare is also more affordable
than most learning platforms out there.
An annual subscription is less than $10 a month.
Furthermore, you can get two months for free
using the link in the description below.
However, this is limited to the first
500 people who sign up.
I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful.
If you did, then do hit that thumbs up button but for me.
Thanks for watching.
This is Saf on SuperSaf TV, and I'll see you next time.
(rhythmic synthesized music)
Also, this list is in no particular order.
(claps) Mother!