I don’t tend to switch phones like others out in the world that need to have the latest and greatest devices. If I want it right then and there, I’ll buy it, but most of the time I tend to wait a month or two and see how the phone is doing after it’s been out some time. I don’t look for specs as much as I used to long ago, but on how the build quality is and the design. I sound picky, but I’m really not. Take the Asus Zenfone 2 for instance, the specs are great, but in my opinion it’s not a great looking phone. Today, I’m going to share my top five smartphones I’ve personally used; five being the lowest and one being the best.
5. HTC One M7
HTC came out with their newest flagship back in 2013 by showing a whole new design, camera, and Sense 5. This was the first phone that I thought was a beautiful piece of technology, phone wise. With it’s aluminium body and front facing speakers, this phone was the bomb. The phone came with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 SoC, a quad core processor clocking in at 1.7GHz with an Adreno 320 GPU. There was the option of either getting 32 or 64GB of onboard storage and the colors came in black, silver, red, and blue. The camera on the other hand was HTC’s new Ultrapixel that was only 4 megapixel, but took decent photos. Getting rid of this phone was tough as I loved it so much.
4. Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Though the phone is a year old, this was my favorite of the five. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Note5 a lot, but it isn’t something I’d like to use as my daily driver. The Note 4 came with a metal body and a nice design. Though it was released in October of last year, the specs on paper are still great. A 5.7″ 2k Super AMOLED display took screens to a whole new level. Though the Note 4 may not have been the first to have a 2k display, it sure was the nicest looking one. The rear facing camera was 16 megapixels and took some pretty awesome photos. Processing power was thanks to the Snapdragon 805 clocking in at 2.7Ghz. 3GB of RAM was also there making switching between apps nice and easy. The S Pen had an upgrade like usual making the pen act like… a normal pen.
3. Motorola Nexus 6
The Motorola/Google phone was something new to the Nexus lineup and not everyone was a big fan of the Nexus 6 (battery life), but I had no issues with it. Yeah, it was a big phone for its size and sort of odd when holding it in you hand, but after a while I ended up getting used to it and couldn’t give it up for anything. Having a 5.96″ screen with a 2k resolution was nice to look at, but it seemed to be slightly darker than other 2k displays. Combining the Snapdragon 805 with 3GB of RAM was great, and same thing I said before with the Note 4, switching between apps was easy. The camera on the other hand was 13 megapixel and did OK with photos. Depending on lighting, I could take some pretty great pictures, but nonetheless, the camera didn’t always work out when I needed it to. Battery life on the other hand got me close to a day. I’d come home after work and wouldn’t have to charge it up just yet, but when 7pm hit, that’s when the phone was needing to be charged. Having a 3,220mAh battery, you would think you would get more than less than a day’s worth of usage. Especially with it being stock Android.
2. LG Nexus 5
This was my first Nexus device I’ve ever used and probably the best one to this day. The was LG’s second go around with Google on creating the Nexus and they have done another good job. With a sleek build and a 5″ screen, this phone was perfect. I ended up getting the 32GB version which came in white because I knew 16GB wasn’t going to be enough especially with no expandable storage. The camera wasn’t the best, but it did the job. I’m not the kind of person to take photos of everything I see, so 8 megapixels in this phone was good enough to me. Battery life on the other hand was a hit or a miss. I’d either get close to an entire day or plug in the phone half way through the day. Google and LG could have done a better job with the battery, but it is what it is. I used the Nexus 5 up until the day I got the Nexus 6, months after it initially being released.
1. OnePlus One
Coming in at number one, the phone that took marketing to the next level and caused so much commotion, the OnePlus One was the best phone I’ve used and am still using today. Running Cyanogen OS 12.1, I finally have a phone where I can pick and choose a theme I’d enjoying using. Don’t get me wrong, I love using Google’s launcher, but mixing in themes on a phone makes it that much better and more personal. The camera is what gets me every time I take a picture. The quality of the photos are amazing considering the phone has a 13 megapixel camera. The phone runs smooth with the Snapdragon 801 SoC and 3GB of RAM. The battery gets me through more than a day even with notifications coming through constantly. I’m a heavy user now, so this phone getting me through an entire day and more is great. None of the phones I’ve used in the past could do that. Even the Note 4. I’m using the LG G4 theme with Elementary icons, hexagon blue navigation bar, Techaeris status bar, and HTC’s Sense 7 controls. A great mix if I do say so myself.
Well, there you have it the my top five favorite smartphones I’ve used. Feel free to leave a comment about what your favorite phones are down below, or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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