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MagyarThe Best Smartphones
Smartphones are destroying everything else in terms of sales in the mobile market. These incredibly versatile devices outstripped normal cell phones ages ago. With even stronger processors and growing display sizes, the so-called "phablets" are now encroaching on tablet territory. The line between these devices is growing increasingly blurry - at least at the upper end of the market. These smartphone-tablet crossbreeds have taken many of the top spots in our smartphone Top 10 list. As a result, most of the top models in our list are occupied by very recently released devices. Still, here and there a brave old soldier has clung on to the top of the ladder. Besides the ranking of the high-end smartphones, the following charts might be interesting as well:
The Best Smartphones
Pos. | Date | Rating | Image | Model | Height | Weight | Size | Resolution | OS | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11/2020 | 90 % |  | Huawei Mate 40 Pro HiSilicon Kirin 9000 ARM Mali-G78 MP24 8 GB Memory, 256 GB | 9.1 mm | 212 g | 6.76" | 2772x1344 | Android 10 | |
| 2 | 02/2021 | 90 % |  | Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Samsung Exynos 2100 5G ARM Mali-G78 MP14 12 GB Memory, 128 GB | 8.9 mm | 227 g | 6.80" | 3200x1440 | Android 11 | |
| 3 | 12/2020 | 90 % |  | Apple iPhone 12 mini Apple A14 Bionic Apple A14 Bionic GPU 4 GB Memory, 128 GB NVMe | 7.4 mm | 133 g | 5.40" | 2340x1080 | Apple iOS 14 | |
| 4 | 11/2020 | 90 % |  | Apple iPhone 12 Pro Apple A14 Bionic Apple A14 Bionic GPU 6 GB Memory, 256 GB NVMe | 7.4 mm | 189 g | 6.10" | 2532x1170 | Apple iOS 14 | |
| 5 | 02/2021 Neu | 89 % |  | Samsung Galaxy S21 Samsung Exynos 2100 5G ARM Mali-G78 MP14 8 GB Memory, 128 GB | 7.9 mm | 169 g | 6.20" | 2400x1080 | Android 11 | |
| 6 | 02/2021 | 89 % |  | Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra Samsung Exynos 990 ARM Mali-G77 MP11 12 GB Memory, 256 GB | 8.1 mm | 208 g | 6.90" | 3088x1440 | Android 10 | |
| 7 | 04/2020 | 89 % |  | Huawei P40 Pro HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G ARM Mali-G76 MP16 8 GB Memory, 256 GB | 8.95 mm | 209 g | 6.58" | 2640x1200 | Android 10 | |
| 8 | 09/2020 | 89 % |  | Asus ROG Phone 3 Strix Edition Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 8 GB Memory, 256 GB | 9.85 mm | 240 g | 6.59" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 | |
| 9 | 04/2020 | 88 % |  | OnePlus 8 Pro Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 12 GB Memory, 256 GB | 8.5 mm | 199 g | 6.78" | 3168x1440 | Android 10 | |
| 10 | 04/2020 | 88 % |  | Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Qualcomm Adreno 650 8 GB Memory, 256 GB | 8.96 mm | 208 g | 6.67" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 |
The table above contains an overview over the best smartphones reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.
Editors' Comments
The Galaxy S21 is yet another member of Samsung’s S21-series of smartphones on this top 10 list, and it represents both itself as well as the S21+ that scored identically in our test.
With 87 % each the Xiaomi Mi 11 and Lenovo Legion Phone almost made this list as well.
1st – Huawei Mate 40 Pro
With its 6.76-inch OLED display the Huawei Mate 40 Pro offers a huge amount of screen real estate. It is powered by a blazingly fast Kirin 9000 with built-in 5G modem. The rest of the hardware leaves nothing to be desired: optional memory expension (NM card), IP68 certification, 3D face detection, wireless charging (two-way) and last but not least excellent GPS accuracy.
Given that battery capacity was reduced slightly battery life was mediocre at best, especially with all communication modules enabled. In return, its triple camera performed exceptionally well, and it is one of the best smartphone cameras currently available. The dual speakers have also been upgraded noticeably, and now offer a good sound quality and soundscape. The biggest drawback are the missing Google services. Apart from that, the Huawei smartphone is an incredible device.
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2nd – Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra features a 6.8-inch extremely bright Super AMOLED display running in WQHD+ resolution with support for an adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate. It is powered by an Exynos 2100 with at least 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128 GB of internal storage and 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage in the high-end SKU. MicroSD expension is no longer supported.
Its quad-camera features a 108 MP sensor, an ultra-wide angle lens, and two zoom lenses with 3x and 10x optical zoom, respectively, and support for up to 100x digital zoom. Supported communication standards include 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC. Battery life was decent overall.
In our review, the S21 Ultra managed to prove its value. However, VHT160 Wi-Fi turned out to be rather poor, and the lack of Bluetooth audio codecs can be frustrating at times.
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3rd – Apple iPhone 12 mini
The Apple iPhone 12 mini is the new and highly anticipated iPhone SE while outperforming the latter at the same time with ease. It is also very similar overall to the larger iPhone 12. Next to other high-end smartphones, the small iPhone 12 mini seems incredibly tiny in comparison. Its 5.4-inch OLED display is very sharp, and the built-in Apple A14 is supported by 4 GB of RAM and either 64, 128, or 256 GB of storage space.
Compared to its Pro sibling the mini’s rear-facing dual-lens camera lacks the telephoto lens, the LiDAR scanner, and support for ProRAW. Apart from that we noted its bright and color-accurate display, its accurate location services, and its Sub6 5G with a wide range of supported frequencies. Due to the smaller capacity battery life was on the short side yet still acceptable.
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4th – Apple iPhone 12 Pro
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro is a well-made upgrade to last year’s devices with a design language reminiscent of iPhones of yore. The 6.1-inch display turned out to be excellent, and its triple camera is now supported by a LiDAR sensor for 3D modelling as well as portrait mode assistance in low-light situations. The rear-mounted internal magnets are new and support much more than just the brand-new wireless MagSafe charger.
We did not find too many flaws on the iPhone 12 Pro. Its peculiarities are not going to bother long-time iPhone users, and there are almost no annoying limitations worth noting. Except for maybe the lack of Bluetooth High Res Audio support and the fact that 5G is not supported in Dual SIM mode.
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Platz 5 - Samsung Galaxy S21 und S21+
The Samsung Galaxy S21 features a 6.2-inch OLED display running at between 48-120 Hz and it is powered by an up-to-date in-house high-performance SoC with access to 8 GB of RAM and either 128 or 256 GB of non-expandable internal storage. The Galaxy S21+ comes with a 6.7-inch display and 12 GB of RAM but is otherwise identically equipped, save for its larger battery (4,800 mAh vs. 4,000 mAh) making for longer battery life despite its larger display. In addition, its rear cover is made of glass while the S21 features a plastic rear.
Both phones come with triple cameras featuring a main 12 MP sensor accompanied by an ultra-wide angle and a telephoto lens. The latter features a giant 64 MP sensor but no optical zoom capabilities. Instead, it offers a nearly lossless 3x hybrid zoom as well as a 30x digital zoom.
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6th – Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra features a 6.9-inch dynamic OLED display with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. Not only does the panel support HDR10 and HDR10+, it is also the brightest smartphone display we have ever seen. The Note 20 Ultra is powered by an Exynos 990 with 12 GB of RAM and features a whopping 256 GB of microSD expandable UFS 3.1 storage. Its fast USB 3.2 port supports connecting external displays as well as DeX, among other things. The latter is now also supported wirelessly. Like before the Note includes Samsung’s S pen whose slot has been relocated from the right to the left-hand side.
The tripe-camera setup performed very well and includes a depth-of-field sensor. Samsung’s Note 20 is furthermore IP68-certified against ingress of dust and water and supports 5G and Wi-Fi 6. Too bad the display will only run at 120 Hz in FHD+ resolution.
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7th – Huawei P40 Pro
The Huawei P40 Pro features a 6.58-inch OLED display running at a native resolution of 2640 x 1200 and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. It is powered by Huawei’s current flagship SoC, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage space. The latter can be expanded via NM card.
Its highlight is without a doubt the incredible camera with an improved main sensor. It stormed our charts with ease. The P40 Pro’s focal length ranges from ultra wide angle on the one end to a 50x digital zoom on the other.
The main setback to this incredibly powerful device are the current restrictions imposed on the Chinese by the trade embargo. Accordingly, the smartphone lacks Google’s services, various certifications, and some audio codecs.
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8th – Asus ROG Phone 3 Strix Edition
The Asus ROG Phone 3 is a full-fledged gaming thoroughbred. Its 6.59-inch FHD+ AMOLED display runs at a refresh rate of 144 Hz and a touch-samping rate of 270 Hz. The rear features a configurable LED logo. The air trigger buttons can be freely configured in compatible games to support either gestures or macros.
The phone is powered by either a Snapdragon 865 (Strix Edition) or a Snapdragon 865 Plus and between 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage without support for microSD storage expansion. It supports dual Wi-Fi 6 in addition to 5G and features a powerful 6,000 mAh battery guaranteeing long battery life. In our review, we particularly liked the ROG Phone 3’s great connectivity, great performance, and really good stereo speakers. Unfortunately, it lacks an IP certification and support for wireless charging.
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9th – OnePlus 8 Pro
The OnePlus 8 Pro features a 6.78-inch large OLED display with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. It is powered by an up-to-date flagship SoC made by Qualcomm and equipped with either 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of UFS 3.0 storage or alternatively 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage with various color options at your disposal.
The quad-lens camera features two 48 MP sensors, one of which sits below an ultra-wide angle lens. It is furthermore equipped with a hybrid zoom and a color filter lens. All things considered the photos turned out good but not great. Nevertheless, the camera’s usability spectrum is very wide.
The list of shortcomings is fairly short, among others for example the slow USB 2.0 port and its merely average call quality.
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10th – Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro
Compared to its predecessor, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro comes with a much larger battery, and despite the 90 Hz display battery life was improved significantly thereby. The 6.67-inch OLED display runs at FHD+ resolution, and the device is powered by a Snapdragon 865, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of UFS 3.0 storage for an overall high level of performance.
The quad-camera’s main lens features a 108 MP sensor. Additional cameras include an ultra-wide angle, a portrait lens, and a zoom lens. The spectrum covered by the Mi 10 Pro’s quad-lens camera array is thus fairly wide, and in addition it also supports recording videos in 8K resolution. Our only gripe with the camera was its lens arrangement.
Other downsides include the slow USB 2.0 port as well as the lack of IP certification against ingress of dust and water.
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Best Smartphones in Comparison
Test Results
| Huawei Mate 40 Pro Mali-G78 MP24, Kirin 9000, 256 GB UFS 3.1 Flash | Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Mali-G78 MP14, Exynos 2100 5G, 128 GB UFS 3.1 Flash | Apple iPhone 12 mini A14 Bionic GPU, A14, 128 GB NVMe | Apple iPhone 12 Pro A14 Bionic GPU, A14, 256 GB NVMe | Samsung Galaxy S21 Mali-G78 MP14, Exynos 2100 5G, 128 GB UFS 3.1 Flash | Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra Mali-G77 MP11, Exynos 990, 256 GB UFS 3.1 Flash | Huawei P40 Pro Mali-G76 MP16, Kirin 990 5G, 256 GB UFS 3.0 Flash | Asus ROG Phone 3 Strix Edition Adreno 650, SD 865, 256 GB UFS 3.1 Flash | OnePlus 8 Pro Adreno 650, SD 865, 256 GB UFS 3.0 Flash | Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro Adreno 650, SD 865, 256 GB UFS 3.0 Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 3.6 (2, 1.6) | 3.2 (1.6, 1.6) | 4.4 (2.4, 2) | 4 (2, 2) | 9.6 (4.8, 4.8) | 8.8 (4.4, 4.4) | 3.2 (2, 1.2) | 3.6 (2, 1.6) | 8 (5, 3) | 2.4 (1.2, 1.2) |
| Response Time Black / White * | 2.4 (1.2, 1.2) | 2.8 (1.2, 1.6) | 4 (2, 2) | 3.2 (2, 1.2) | 3.2 (2, 1.2) | 3.2 (2, 1.2) | 2.8 (1.6, 1.2) | 2.4 (1.2, 1.2) | 7 (3, 4) | 2.4 (1.2, 1.2) |
| PWM Frequency | 367.6 (99) | 250 (99) | 250 (99) | 277.8 | 240.4 (99) | 245.1 (99) | 365 (99) | 255.1 (99) | 258 | 373.1 (99) |
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 778 | 910 | 623 | 822 | 790 | 860 | 584 | 625 | 796 | 753 |
| Brightness | 782 | 913 | 623 | 820 | 793 | 878 | 576 | 630 | 779 | 762 |
| Brightness Distribution | 95 | 98 | 98 | 99 | 97 | 96 | 95 | 88 | 94 | 96 |
| Black Level * | ||||||||||
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 * | 1.4 | 2 | 1 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 4.5 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 0.68 | 0.9 |
| Colorchecker DeltaE2000 max. * | 3.5 | 3.1 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 10.4 | 2.3 | 4.5 | 1.55 | 1.6 |
| Greyscale DeltaE2000 * | 2.5 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 1.5 |
| Gamma | 2.22 99% | 2.06 107% | 2.21 100% | 2.18 101% | 2.13 103% | 2 110% | 2.16 102% | 2.22 99% | 2.237 98% | 2.24 98% |
| CCT | 6530 100% | 6512 100% | 6258 104% | 6337 103% | 6497 100% | 6466 101% | 6355 102% | 6750 96% | 6310 103% | 6415 101% |
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 31.6 | 37.9 | 30.1 | 34.2 | 35.3 | 33.8 | 30.2 | 36.9 | 46.7 | 33.1 |
| Maximum Bottom * | 29.5 | 36.6 | 29.1 | 33.5 | 35.8 | 31.1 | 30.6 | 36.8 | 46.9 | 30.7 |
| Idle Upper Side * | 29 | 26.9 | 28.8 | 27.8 | 28.1 | 27.1 | 28.3 | 27.6 | 33.1 | 30.4 |
| Idle Bottom * | 26.7 | 25.9 | 26.5 | 26.6 | 26.6 | 24.9 | 27.2 | 26.2 | 32.1 | 27.8 |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| Reader / Idle | 1255 | 1408 | 1537 | 2091 | 1713 | 1223 | 1474 | 2104 | 2103 | 2133 |
| H.264 | 999 | 1310 | 968 | 1117 | 941 | 993 | 1137 | 1674 | 1023 | 973 |
| WiFi v1.3 | 609 | 702 | 655 | 781 | 544 | 644 | 743 | 964 | 923 | 865 |
| Load | 270 | 304 | 316 | 311 | 267 | 338 | 198 | 336 | 296 | 198 |
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 1.01 | 1.06 | 0.62 | 0.64 | 1.1 | 0.65 | 0.92 | 0.91 | 2.2 | 0.61 |
| Idle Average * | 2.12 | 1.19 | 1.18 | 1.22 | 1.61 | 1.06 | 1.41 | 1.47 | 3.3 | 1.19 |
| Idle Maximum * | 2.15 | 1.2 | 1.21 | 1.24 | 1.78 | 1.49 | 1.47 | 1.49 | 3.7 | 1.23 |
| Load Average * | 3.94 | 6.46 | 2.1 | 3.04 | 6.47 | 4.91 | 3.35 | 4 | 5.9 | 4.18 |
| Load Maximum * | 6.53 | 10.76 | 5.71 | 3.86 | 10.12 | 10.29 | 6.37 | 9.55 | 8.3 | 8.53 |
* ... smaller is better
Benchmarks
| Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal - offscreen Overall Score (sort by value) | |
| Huawei Mate 40 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra | |
| Apple iPhone 12 mini | |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro | |
| Huawei P40 Pro | |
| Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro | |
| AImark - Score v2.x (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra | |
| Apple iPhone 12 mini | |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy S21 | |
| Huawei P40 Pro | |
| UL Procyon AI Inference - Overall Score (sort by value) | |
| Huawei Mate 40 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra | |
| Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra | |
