[Intro Music]
Hey, how's it going, Dave2D here.
So 2017 was just packed with really good smartphones choices to choose from.
Basically, every manufacturer out there delivered some really good stuff this year.
And it was really hard to make videos on them, because every time I would find a phone and make a video on it,
a month later, some other company would come out with another phone that was just as good.
It was really hard for me to just be like: “Hey, this one’s good. That one’s good. No wait, that one’s good.”
So, these are the favourite ones. These are the ones that over the course of the year were, like, my top picks.
Any phone that is in this pile was a phone that I really enjoyed using and it kind of surprised me to how good it was.
So, I’m just gonna kind of go through them...eventually I’ll go down to my very favourite phone of 2017.
So I’m going to start off with the Note 8.
This phone was...this thing launched at almost $1000 dollars and when I first learned about its price tag,
It was super disappointing because it was so much more expensive than I felt like it should be.
The S8 and the S8+ were really similar in experience, but this thing was just so much more (expensive) than those two.
Now it’s down to like $750 - $800, which is way more reasonable.
It still isn’t my favourite phone right now because if you buy it right now–if I bought this right now–
I’d still be paying for things that I don’t use, things I don't particularly like.
So the pen, I’d never use it.
The telephoto lens on the back, it’s just not stuff that I’d ever use.
And same with the software, I'm not a fan,
of the whole Samsung software
So... Solid phone just not my favorite phone.
Ok. Moving along.
We have the LG V30 and this a phone that functionally
I enjoyed more than any of the Samsung phones.
It's the same kind of idea like thin bezels, but just ergonomically,
I love the way this phone feels, and I love the use of its secondary lens.
This is a wide angle lens, and I just much prefer this
type of focal lens. I just find them more useful for the type of photos that I take,
but that being said, I still don't love the software.
Now I actually ran mine with the Google launcher,
and eventually tried the Nova launcher,
But, I could never make mine feel stock enough.
It always just had this kind of "LG vibe" to it.
I mean, some people will love that stuff but... It's just not my thing, so...
Not my favorite phone in the year.
Next up is the Razer Phone, and
this is a phone that really impressed me at launch.
It had a lot of unique features that just, really stood out,
120 Hz screen, really good speakers - probably the best speakers in the industry,
but the price tag, $700, I mean it's fair for what you're getting,
it's not like super overpriced or anything,
but it just felt like it wasn't a compelling enough purchase for me.
A lot of the features in here were geared towards media consumption
and gaming, which were cool, but it didn't have a headphone jack,
which was just, really backwards to me like, on a device like this,
where you'll constantly have this thing plugged up,
because you're just draining battery really quickly,
it would be nice built to have this thing to be able to be charged,
while having headphones connected to it, which was... impossible.
So... yeah. Good device, just not my favorite.
I just think a lot of the headlining features are really really nice,
and good for a lot of people,
just not ideal for me.
Okay, next up let's go with the Pixel 2.
Pixel 2 XL.
This is a phone that I really liked.
And, when this thing launched,
so many people complained about the screen,
but I've never had any real issues with it.
I mean, it's not as awesome as the Note 8's screen,
but I was always happy with the screen.
I've never had burn-in, didn't have really bad blue shift or anything,
but the price tag was steep.
$850 is a lot of money for a Pixel device.
It does have the best camera in the Android game right now,
I just... Cameras aren't that important to me -
they're important, just not the most important feature.