I have the luxury and privilege of being able to test just about every single flagship phone that goes on sale. I’m not talking about just the major brands that dominate North America like iPhone and Google Pixel; I get to test rare phones that are only sold in China or Japan too. And so, at the end of the year, I think it’s worth to rank my favorite devices. A key word to notice is these are my “favorite” phones, not necessarily the “best” phones, although the list usually is about “the best phones” because I am a power user who want the best camera and hardware.
I’ve been doing this list since 2016 — though I did skip 2020 and 2021 due to work reasons — and usually I would say the gap between the rankings were “very close.” Not this year — the number one spot, a tie between two similar devices, are heads and shoulders above the rest in terms of being my personal favorite. I’d say there’s a pretty big gap between number two and the phones below it too. Without further ado, here are my favorite phones of 2024:
7: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
I have been quite critical of Samsung phones over the past few years because I think the company has been on cruise control ever since U.S. imposed sanctions knocked Huawei out of the global phone scene (before the sanctions, in 2019, Huawei was slated to overtake Samsung as the world’s largest phone brand by market share).
And while the Galaxy S24 Ultra does not bring much new in terms of hardware (it looks almost exactly the same as the last three S Ultra phones), it is still an extremely polished and well-rounded device that is excellent at being an on-the-go businessman’s phone. I say this because, between Samsung’s excellent suite of office-related software (Samsung Notes is very good), a great multi-tasking system, and the included stylus, this phone is just better at doing things like signing digital contracts and annotating documents.
Add the latest Qualcomm silicon, actually useful AI features and an excellent anti-reflective matte display, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra is a very functional, do-it-all phone, even if it has the “same ol’ same ol’” feeling.
But why isn’t it higher?
The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s cameras, while pretty good for a phone in North America, falls short of the Chinese phones ranked that will be mentioned later. The latter offer larger and newer image sensors, and better color processing as well.
6: iPhone 16 Pro Max
This is another safe and “boring” choice. Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max, like Samsung’s flagship, brings back almost the exact same look as before, with mostly the same camera and display hardware too. But it does introduce a new image processing engine that drastically improves iPhone photos, in my opinion.
I’ve never loved iPhone’s image and color processing in years past, with shots looking too flat and digital. But this year’s new engine and “Photography Styles” aim for a “real camera” look, producing shots with deeper shadows and texture.
Elsewhere, the iPhone of course still runs on the most powerful chip on all phones, and has the best app and accessories ecosystem on the market. Even as an Android guy, I still must keep an iPhone near me at most times, and that says a lot.
But why isn’t it higher?
First of all, I just prefer Android phones. I like the extra customization, app drawer, multi-tasking system, and superior notification system (remember, this article is about my favorite phones). But also, objectively, most of the phones ahead of it have better camera hardware.
5: Oppo Find X8 Pro
The Find X8 Pro is Oppo’s return to the global stage after taking a couple years away from the European market, and the company has crafted a sleek and stylish phone with perhaps the best in-hand feel of any phone right now.
Just like the iPhone, the Find X8 Pro also introduces a new dedicated camera button, but I like Oppo’s implementation better because it doesn’t require as much force to trigger, and also has a more straightforward menu for controlling camera UI.
Oppo’s ColorOS is also the fastest software around with the smoothest animations — even basic actions like exiting out of an app just looks and feels better here than on, say, a Google Pixel phone with occasional stutters.
But why isn’t it higher?
I don’t love Oppo’s Hasselblad-inspired color science. And most of the phones to come just have better camera hardware.
4: Xiaomi 14 Ultra
I need to give Xiaomi credit. Most of the recent smartphone camera trends have been, in my opinion, started by Xiaomi first. For example, the push for using larger image sensors? Xiaomi’s 12S Ultra from two and half years ago got the ball rolling with that 1-inch sensor. The way every Chinese phone has a watermark feature that adds a white border to photos snapped, with some slightly pretentious image data information listed? Xiaomi’s 12S Ultra also offered that first. A zoom lens that can double as a telemacro lens with close minimum focus distance? The Xiaomi 13’s floating telephoto lens were among the first to do that too.
Heck, even looking beyond the cameras, the current Chinese phone trend of using displays that are mostly flat but with very subtle curves on all four sides, the Xiaomi 14 Pro from last year did that first too.
The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is currently Xiaomi’s absolute best camera phone, and the hardware is impeccable — one of the few phones to offer two zoom lenses. I also love the phone’s leather back side, and Leica-inspired portrait mode.
But why isn’t it higher?
Even though Xiaomi’s 12S Ultra is arguably the phone that started the current trend of camera-centric Chinese phones, I must say that Vivo’s image processing is generally superior to Xiaomi in both subjective and objective ways. On the subjective front, I personally just find Vivo’s image colors to look better. But that’s opinion. What’s not opinion, is that Vivo’s portrait mode is more capable. I can snap a portrait with a Vivo phone and then change focus point later. I can’t do that with Xiaomi’s portrait mode. Vivo’s portrait mode can also use all of the phone’s lenses, while Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s portrait mode weirdly does not use its 5X Periscope camera.
3: Honor Magic V3
A major reason I said earlier that I think Samsung has been cruising is that, despite pioneering the foldable phone form factor, Samsung’s foldable phones now seem a generation behind Chinese offerings such as the Honor Magic V3.
The Magic V3 is the thinnest and lightest foldable phone in the world. Measuring only 9.3mm thick and weighing 226g, it makes Samsung’s Z Fold 6 look like a brick by comparison. Despite being thinner, the Magic V3 still somehow packs a larger battery than the Fold 6. And a better Periscope zoom lens.
The Magic V3 essentially solved one of the earlier dilemmas of foldable phones — that they’re essentially two devices stacked together, so thickness is an issue. Early foldable phones bulged out of my pant pockets, and looked chunky in the hand. The Magic V3, when folded, honestly feels like a normal phone.
But why isn’t it higher?
Because the next phone on the list has on extra fold.
2: Huawei Mate XT
The Huawei Mate XT is only sold in China, it’s ludicrously expensive (official retail price is $2,800 but to this day it’s out of stock and can only be purchased from resellers at $3,500 or more), and it cannot run Google apps natively. But with that said, almost every techie I’ve met have expressed great interest in this phone — because it’s the world’s first double folding phone, meaning the phone folds twice, turning from a conventional 6.5-inch phone into a near full-sized tablet.
I only got my hands on this device for about an hour, but I came away smittened, and I really thought about buying one. As a digital nomad, the idea that I can have a fully functional large screened work machine in my pocket is mesmerizing.
Durability is a concern, however, because one side of the phone’s foldable display is exposed when folded up. But Huawei does include a free case that covers the exposed screen.
Ultimately, if you care about mobile tech at all, the introduction of a double folding phone is very exciting. Imagine one day when your iPhone can double as an iPad? As usual, Huawei is doing this first before everyone else.
But why isn’t it higher?
The phone is very very pricey and has some software limitations due to U.S. sanctions. And the phones above it have better cameras.
1: Vivo X200 Pro & X100 Ultra
I am putting two phones together for this top spot because they are very much close sibling phones. The Vivo X200 Pro and X100 Ultra were released only five months apart, run on the same software, and share the same main selling point: an epic 200-megapixel Periscope zoom lens with an industry-leading 1/1.4-inch image sensor.
The latter part — that zoom lens — is the biggest reason I have been in love with the phones and unable to leave my SIM card out of them for too long. The zoom lens in the X100 Ultra and X200 Pro is the best on market, capturing very detailed 3.7X (roughly 85mm) images with natural bokeh that almost feels like a real camera.
Vivo’s image processing is also my favorite, producing shots with stunning colors and a vintage vibe that I adore. Just look at the photo samples below, snapped with the X200 Pro. They almost look like they were snapped with a “real” camera, right?
Both Vivo phones also run on powerful silicon, with excellent battery life. And Vivo’s China software, OriginOS, is the rare China ROM I actually like: it’s got lively animations and plays nicely with Google apps.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra from two years ago got me started on street photography, and the Xiaomi 13 Pro got me to love shooting with telephoto cameras. But the Vivo X100 Ultra and X200 Pro took that to another level. I snap dozens — sometimes up over 100 — photos a day whenever I’m outside. These phone cameras are so good, they’ve turned me into an aspiring photographer.
2024 was a great year for phones, and I wonder about 2025
I wonder if next year’s batch of phones can make the leap in photography and videography that phone from Vivo and Xiaomi have made in the last two years. I have a sad feeling camera hardware on phones have reached its apex, and that 2024 was about as good as it gets. Instead, phones in 2025 seem to focus more on AI (ugh), battery efficiency, and perhaps going even thinner, especially foldables.
