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Stay tuned to find out more.
I'm Andru Edwards, and you're watching Gear Live.
2019 was an incredible year in the world of smartphones.
Everyone from Apple to Samsung to OnePlus, Xiaomi,
Motorola and more all stepped up in different ways.
With that said, which phones stood above
the rest of the pack?
In this video, I tell you about my picks for the best
iOS and Android smartphones of 2019.
(upbeat music)
What's going on tech squad, Andru Edwards here
editor and chief of GearLive.com.
And as I mentioned today I'm gonna reveal my two picks
for the best Android smartphone of 2019
and the best iOS based smartphone aka best iPhone of 2019.
So if you haven't upgraded yet
and you're looking to pick up a new phone,
you just want to get the best out there,
I'm gonna give you my opinions and tell you why
these are the phones that I'm choosing.
So let's get started,
let's jump into the iPhone side of things,
because that is a much smaller pool to choose from.
Here in 2019, Apple released three new iPhones.
The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Now if you watch videos and read articles online,
you're gonna see a common theme.
People are gonna say the best iPhone for you
is probably and most likely the iPhone 11.
Not the iPhone 11 Pro, not the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
It's the least expensive iPhone.
It is the most consumer friendly iPhone.
It's the mass market iPhone.
But I personally don't think it is the best iPhone,
even if it's the best iPhone for you.
The best iPhone in my opinion is the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
And there's a few reasons why.
You've got the (muffled), the three matte glass finish.
Better water resistance, insane battery life,
and a new display.
iPhone 11 Pro picks up the new ultra-wide lens
in addition to the wider and telephoto ones.
One cool thing here is that you can capture
portrait mode shots with either the telephoto
or wide camera now, giving you greater (muffled) choices
when taking your pictures.
Apple is using (muffled) photography to fuse data
from all three lenses in order to improve image detail.
Now I did also mention water resistance.
Well iPhone 11 probably be okay at being submerged
up to four meters for 30 minutes.
Talking about battery life, the iPhone 11 Pro Max
offers five more hours of battery life
than last year's iPhone 10S Max.
Now that (muffled) increase in battery life
from one generation to the next.
And I have to applaud Apple for making that happen.
iPhone 11 Pro also has a new super retina XDR display
that offers a two million to one contrast ratio
and 1,200 minutes of brightness when watching HDR content.
So once again, if you want the best iPhone out there,
it's not the iPhone 11, it's not the iPhone 11 Pro,
get yourself the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
There's no features that the other phones have
that the Pro Max doesn't have.
Now before we get to my pick
for the best Android smartphone of 2019,
I wanna give a big shout out
to this video sponsor "The Expanse".
Now I've been talking about the arrival of
the "Expanse" season four on Twitter and Instagram.
And I'm a big fan of this show.
In fact, I've already binge watched the entire season four.
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And while season four has been getting rave reviews,
I might just be even more excited about the fact
that they confirmed that a season five is coming as well.
Now if you want to check out "The Expanse"
and you absolutely shivered, I will leave a link
down in the description below.
All right, on to my pick for the best Android phone of 2019.
If you're in the market for an Android device
and just wanna pick up the overall best phone in my opinion,
that honor has to go to the OnePlus 7 Pro.
The OnePlus 7 Pro is fast, has a cool pop-up camera
and a triple rear camera system
that takes fantastic pictures all at $80 less
than its closest Android competition.
The OnePlus 7 Pro has a starting price of $669.
But if you shop around
you can actually find it for under $600.
And with the exception of something like a foldable display,
the OnePlus 7 Pro has enough features
to keep Android fans enticed.
OnePlus packed this phone
with pretty much every trendy phone feature
that we've seen over the last year,
including a pop-up selfie camera,
an in-display fingerprint reader
and multiple rear cameras on the back.
While most phones have a display with a refresh rate
of 60 hertz, which means the display can update itself
60 times per second, the OnePlus 7 Pro
has a 90 hertz display, which is super-impressive.
It's also got a crisp 1,440 pixel resolution.
By refreshing 90 frames a second,
things like scrolling through webpages and apps
just feels really, really fluid.
Overall, the phone looks fantastic,
and because the front facing camera sits at the top edge
and the left and right sides of the display
just spilled to the edges, the viewing experience
feels more immersive.
The display is tack sharp and thanks to that pop-up camera,
there's no need for a cut-out tab or a notch
or a hole-punch, or whatever it is you wanna call it,
that we've been seeing on smartphones
over the past couple of years.
This one is just all display.
Now if I had to throw out any negatives,
the OnePlus 7 Pro was a little heavier than other phones.
It has no headphone jack
but going into 2020, I think that battle is lost forever.
But it does also lack wireless charging
which I know more and more people are getting into.
And that said, the OnePlus 7 Pro's camera performance
and price, make this my go to premium
Android phone for 2019.
Now I wanna know what you think?
What were the best smartphones of 2019?
Did I miss the mark somehow?
Was there better iPhone released in 2019?
Is there a better android device that you'd recommend
over the OnePlus 7 Pro?
Leave your thoughts down in the description below
and I will meet you there for further discussion.
If you wanna hear even more of our 2019 thoughts
and wrap pose, be sure to check out the Geared Up podcast.
That's a weekly podcast I do with Jon Rettinger,
where we talk about the latest in tech, gadgets and games.
Again, each and every week search for Geared Up
in your favorite podcast player or you can subscribe
to it here on YouTube.
And I do leave a card somewhere around here
to make it easy to find.
Thank you so much for watching as always guys,
I appreciate your support,
we have a ton coming in 2020,
it's gonna be an exciting year in tech.
But until next time, I'm Andru Edwards
and I will catch you in the next video.
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