Top five best smart phones of 2019

We are coming towards the end of 2019, and what a year it's been for smart phones. We've had so many good smart phones this year, and i'm gonna be putting together a list of my absolute top five.

Now a few disclaimers before we start. I've, of course, used a lot of smart phones this year, but I've not used every single one, so this is my personal top five list. It might be different for  yours. That's absolutely fine. Also, this list is not going to be in any particular order. These are just my top five. Let's get straight to it.

Samsung Galaxy S10

The first device on my list, is the Samsung Galaxy S10, as well as the S10+, i'm combining them because they are both very, very similar and these are some of the best all-around devices that you can buy this year. The S10s are also some of the only devices left this year that have 3.5 mm jack, as well as expandable storage. This is something that we're really not seeing  much of in this Smartphone space, but that aside, these are great phones. Amazing displays with a punch out, which i actually don't mind, so you do maximize that screen-to-body ratio.

You've got a great built-in design, the water and dust resistance, fast charging, fast wireless charging, reverse wireless charging, great all-around consistent cameras with good overall performance. Now, they're not perfect. I have talked about the differences between the Exynos version as well as the Qualcomm version, so you will be getting a different version of the S10 they did differ quite a bit, especially when it came to battery life. Now, they might not have some of the other fancy features. That other devices on this list have, such as the high refresh rate screen, fast charging, faster storage speeds, but nevertheless the S10s are very, very good devices and i can definitely recommend them.

iPhone 11 Pro Max

The next device on my list is a device is the iPhone 11 Pro Max. I'm also gonna include the iPhone 11 Pro because they're very, very similar. Now, although we might not have a drastic design change, especially from the front. The other devices on this list might have smaller bezels and better displays overall, but the iPhone 11 Pro Max is such a good device, especially for the cameras. I've said this before, but it shoots the best video on any smartphone. I do find it the best all-around camera package when it comes to video, the versatility of images, the consistency between the images, low-light performance, stabilization. All of these things I think the iPhone does very, very well. But aside from that, you've got amazing improvements in terms of battery life. Apple are now including a fast charger, which they haven't done traditionally. You've got wireless charging. You've also got better water and dust resistance compared to any of the other smartphones on this list. I also like the speed of performance. The A13 has been super, super fast and very, very smooth with iOS. There are a few things that I'm not a huge fan of on the new iPhones. I would've liked to have seen a more updated design. I would've liked to have seen a larger base storage option, which still starts at 64 gigabytes. Also the price. The iPhone 11 Pro Max is the most expensive smartphone on this list, so it is quite pricey, but nevertheless a very, very good overall smartphone.

OnePlus 7 Pro or the OnePlus 7T Pro

The next device on my list actually comes in at quite a reasonable price point in my opinion and that is the OnePlus 7 Pro or the OnePlus7T Pro. Although the price of OnePlus devices has been increasing year on year, OnePlus has been giving us more and more features year on year and this year the highlight has to be that super smooth 90 hertz display. That, along with the pretty much bezel-less design, makes it one of the best displays on the market right now, and it is definitely fast and smooth, like OnePlus say. You've got UFS 3.0 storage, you've got the 855 or the 855 Plus, and all of that combined with Oxygen OS makes this one of the fastest smart phones out there easily.

 Now, some of the areas where OnePlus devices do fall back a little bit firstly has got to be the cameras. Although they're pretty good for most situations, they're definitely not as good as the competition, which, in my opinion, shoot much better images and video. It might not be a good deal to you. But OnePlus just seems to be concentrating on fast charging but really putting aside wireless charging, which pretty much every other device on this list has.

 Samsung Galaxy Note

The next device on my list is a device series which I’m sure a lot of you guys know that is the Samsung Galaxy Note series. The Note10 and the Note10+ are very, very good devices. Now, although we might not have a high refresh rate screen, these are still some of the best displays because of the minimal bezels. We have that punch out. But the main thing that separates the displays of the Note series versus others is that these displays are very, very bright. They're some of the brightest displays out there and that's a compromise. Aside from that, you of course have great internals overall, as well as the S Pen. The S Pen is something that I don't use every single day but it's so, so useful when need it for signing documents, remotely triggering the camera, and the cameras are really, really good. They're similar to the S10+s, so great overall cameras, lots of versatility between all of the different lenses. An amazing build and design. In my opinion, one of the best looking smartphones out there this year.

Huawei P30 Pro

Now, the final smartphone on my list, once again in no particular order, is the HuaweiP30 Pro. This is a very, very good smartphone. It has, I believe, the first five time optical zoom on a smartphone and it's really amazing how they've achieved this through periscope technology. An amazing build and design. The gradient look that Huawei introduced a few years ago is now being copied by lots of other manufacturers and it looks absolutely beautiful.

 This is something that Huawei is very, very good at, along with 40 watts super fast charging. That charger comes out of the box. You don't have to buy it separately, like you have to do with some devices. Very fast wireless charging as well, personally I’m not a huge fan of the display, it's pretty good but, there's lots of other better displays out there. And the cameras, although I do like them, especially for low light, they're not amazing for video. I do still find that they tend to smooth out your skin, even if you have beauty mode completely switched off and this is especially the case for the front-facing camera.

That is my top five list, but it's not finished as yet. I do want to pick a bonus. A smartphone which I was super, super excited about. And the reason why it's a bonus and not part of this top five is because it's something that I think not everybody is going to buy because it's so, so expensive and that is the SamsungGalaxy Fold. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm fully aware that it's not perfect. It's very fragile, the front display is also very, very small, but I hadn't been this excited about a new smartphone in a long, long time. And in my opinion, this is the biggest innovation that we've had in the smartphone space for a long time. It's so amazing to have that large display, which I can just fold and pop in my pocket and I think Samsung have implemented this really, really well. It's still only the proper foldable smartphone that you can buy, and aside from the folding factor, it's a really, really good smartphone.

You get 512 gigabytes of UFS 3.0 storage, which is massive, so technically speaking, you'll probably be spending a lot of money if you try to buy a 512 gigabyte smartphone anyway. It has very similar cameras to the other Samsung devices, so we've got some very good overall cameras. It has great battery life and the battery's actually split across the fold, which is really interesting. It has fast charging, fast wireless charging, reverse wireless charging. It's just a really, really exciting smartphone that we've had this year. And, once again, I know it's not for everybody and it's a first-generation product but it gets me really excited about what's to come. Now, there are a few honorable mentions that I'd like to highlight.

These just didn't make the top five list but nevertheless are very, very good smart phones overall. Firstly, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, a great overall device, but because of the issues with the Google Play Store, it's a device that you’re not been able to fully utilize, and fully been able to use because i just didn't have that smooth experience. Hopefully this is something that's gonna be sorted out very, very soon. There was also the Redmi K20 Pro. Unfortunately, this came very, very late to the UK and it's something that I didn't personally get a chance to test out. But for the specs that you're getting on that device at that price point, it's a very, very impressive device, no doubt about that. And in the gaming space, the ASUS ROG Phone II by far in my opinion, hands down is the best gaming Smartphone you can buy. It's great to see a Smartphone built from the ground up for gamers and if you are somebody who's into gaming, that is the phone that I would recommend.

So that is my top five list, as well as a bonus and some honorable mentions. What are your top five smart phones of the year? Definitely drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts. Do you agree with my list? Do you disagree?

Thanks for reading.