Best Android Smartphones Of The Year 2020: Round-Up

When it comes to choosing the best among the best smartphones, making the ultimate choice can become very difficult. While every OEM has been adding more and more smartphones in their portfolio at an unprecedented pace, only a few of them have won our hearts.

Every smartphone that managed to impress us has been made to this list, but there can only be one winner of them all. Not only flagships, but there are two mid-range devices too in the list, which proved to be the game-changers of the Indian Smartphone Market. 

Also Read: Top 20 Value-for-Money Smartphones in 2020

Factors Which Influenced our Decision in Choosing the Best Android Smartphone of 2020

Let’s be honest here. We all are aware of the fact that no smartphone can be perfect. It’s just that each manufacturer tries its level best to reach as close as possible to that level of perfection. However, none of them has been able to check all the boxes right. 

From high-resolution cameras,  zooming capabilities, smooth and crisp displays to fast charging speeds, gaming performance, and user experience, we have taken every factor into consideration before bringing you this list. We start from a mid-range killer from Poco that occupies the 5th position, go all the way up to the runner up from Samsung, and finally reveal the ultimate winner of them all. Without further ado, let’s get started. 

Fifth Place: Poco X3

A major step up from its predecessor, the Poco X3 has got all the features that anyone expects from a mid-range device, along with some flagship-grade elements. 

Pros

The device has a large 6.67 inch IPS LCD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. It packs a hefty 6000mAh battery unit paired with 33W fast charging with support for MMT technology. The X3 is probably the most powerful smartphone in its segment, thanks to the all-new snapdragon 732G chipset that sits on board.

Not only performance but the device also shines in the optics department too. With its IMX 682 64MP primary lens, the Poco X3 offers a set of pro-grade cameras at an affordable price point. The biggest USP of the Poco X3 is not anything related to its specifications, but the price tag. The entire package gets delivered at just Rs. 16999 making it an excellent value proposition. 

Cons

Coming to the negative aspects of the device, you can notice a not-so-premium build quality, along with its polycarbonate back panel. Moreover, the big battery cell adds to its design, taking its weight to 223 grams. 

Also Read: Poco X3 Review 

Fourth Place: Oneplus Nord 

Oneplus created an insane amount of hype before re-entering the premium mid-range segment with the Oneplus Nord. And guess what, it lived up to our expectations. 

Pros 

It is the only device to date in its segment to feature an AMOLED panel along with a high 90Hz refresh rate. Running on the latest Oxygen OS 11, the Nord delivers arguably the best user experience for the price. Its decent 4115 mAh battery is paired with Oneplus’s 30W Warp Charge 30T, which is another great addition to its specs-sheet.

Also, there’s an 8MP ultrawide secondary camera on the front camera setup, to take selfies with a wider FoV. The 5G ready smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G chipset along with up to12GB of RAM. The clean UI paired with a powerful SoC is enough to provide you with a rich user experience. 

Cons 

The Oneplus Nord is highly inconsistent in its camera performance. The 64 MP quad-camera setup isn’t optimized well with the software, owing to which it fails against the likes of some cheaper smartphones such as the Realme 7 Pro. 

Also Read: Oneplus Nord Review

Third Place: Vivo X50 Pro 

The Vivo X50 Pro is the only device from the brand in the flagship segment. Priced at Rs. 50,000, it could have been the winner of all but lost the battle for the sake of its low-end performance. 

Pros

The camera centered smartphone features a 6.56 Inch  curved AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. Vivo surprised the entire world with its all-new gimbal stabilizing technology, which is a massive upgrade from the traditional OIS (optical image stabilization).

The device has got a beautiful matte textured rear panel, adding to its premium look and feel. It is capable to give a tough fight to smartphones that cost almost double their price, such as our runner up smartphone. 

Cons

The Vivo X50 Pro packs pretty much every top tier element but lacks a flagship chipset. Being powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G SoC, the device can get through daily tasks and multitasking but doesn’t match the level of performance that its competitors offer. 

Also Read: Vivo X50 Pro Review

Second Place: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra

Samsung’s ultimate flagship of 2020, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, was one of the most impressive devices this year. Wonder why it isn’t the ultimate winner? Let’s find out. 

Pros 

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra arguably has the best display on a smartphone ever. The insane numbers consist of a 120Hz refresh rate, a QHD+ resolution, ultra-thin bezels, and mind-blowing color saturation. The cameras, too, are packed with great features.

The 108MP sensor captures great images, the 12MP telephoto lens can zoom up to100x, and the 12MP ultrawide lens is capable to shoot cinematic shots. Moreover, the S-Pen has been upgraded to a whole new level, where its latency has dropped to just 9 ms. The device packs a large 5000mAh battery but still does not hamper the in-hand premium feel of the phone. 

Cons

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra was readily a winner in our list, only if Samsung had decided to sell the Snapdragon variant across the globe. The western countries have got the Snapdragon 865+ SoC onboard for the Note 20 Ultra, whereas the Asia-Pacific region is offered with the much inferior Exynos 990 chipset. Although the performance on both the variants is very similar, the Exynos variant is vulnerable to heating issues and poor battery efficiency. 

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Review

Cashify’s Editor’s Choice 2020 Winner : 

Oneplus 8T 5G 

In the second half of 2020, Oneplus was entirely focused on the vanilla Oneplus 8T smartphone, owing to which the brand didn’t release any Pro model. But, was it a correct decision? Well, we think it was. See, the Oneplus 8T 5G delivers each and every feature of a top-tier flagship smartphone that costs twice as much. 

Pros

At a glance, the Oneplus 8T appears to slot nicely into the flagship killer category with its Rs. 42999 price tag. On the front, it has a 6.55 inches FHD Fluid AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone’s 4,500mAh battery is paired with the insanely fast 65W Warp Charge charging brick, which can fuel up the device within 35 minutes.

Being powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, the Oneplus 8T delivers a wholesome flagship experience along with the clean and feature-rich Oxygen OS 11 on top of Android 11. Other features include a set of dual-speakers, glass sandwich design, LPDDR4X RAM, and UFS 3.0 storage type. 

Cons

As mentioned earlier, every device isn’t perfect in every aspect. So, where does the Oneplus 8T lag? 

The device has a quad-camera setup, with the primary sensor being a 48 MP IMX 586 lens, along with an 8MP ultrawide and 2 other auxiliary lenses. While these numbers might seem sufficient for an affordable flagship, the overall camera experience is not up to the mark.

However, you can get the most out of the camera hardware by installing a well-known GCam Mod for Oneplus 8T, which is readily available on the web. Therefore, the average stock cameras can be ignored, and the Oneplus 8T can be helmed as an overall flagship and a great value-for-money device. 

Also Read: Oneplus 8T Review 

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