My Favorite Phones Of 2022, Ranked

After a two year hiatus, I am back with my year-end “favourite phones of the year” list. For those who are new to this, allow me a brief re-introduciton. I am a consumer tech reviewer focusing mostly on smartphones, and I cover the mobile scene from a global perspective, meaning I not only cover Chinese brands that don’t sell in the U.S., I also review phones that are only available exclusively in China.

This means my list isn’t so much a general buyer’s guide, as some of these phones will simply be unavailable for purchase for most readers. Instead, look at this as a recap of the smartphone scene, coming from someone who has tested virtually every flagship phone that saw a release. Do note that this list consists of my “favorite” phones of the year, not necessarily the “best” phones. I make this distinction so I can rank my list focusing on areas that I feel are important (innovation, value, camera prowess) instead of (in my opinion) meaningless metrics like raw benchmark numbers. Without further ado, let’s begin.

7: Oppo Find N2

What’s good: Oppo’s just-released foldable is a petite phone that doubles as a small widescreen tablet. I love the faux-leather finish and the lightweight. In fact, weighing 233g, it is the lightest foldable phone on the market. The phone is a bit thick compared to thinner foldables on the market, but the hinge is well built and can stay in place mid-fold.

Oppo’s ColorOS software is also extremely intuitive, filled with customization options and shortcut gestures. Animations are among the most fluid in any smartphone, too.

 

What’s not: I find the Find N2 a bit too small, with the 5.5-inch outside screen feeling cramped, and when unfolded, the landscape orientation results in a lot of app scaling issues. Battery life is also below par due to the small size not being able to accommodate a larger battery. This is the rare foldable that would benefit by being a bit larger.

6: iPhone 14 Pro Max

What’s good: The iPhone 14 Pro Max at first glance appears to be a minimal upgrade over its predecessor. Other than the new pill-shaped cutout at the top of the screen, the 14 Pro Max looks almost identical to the 13 Pro Max. But use it for a bit and you’ll notice some major improvements. For one, the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 6.7-inch OLED display got a major brightness boost to 2,000 nits, which makes it the brightest screen I’ve ever seen, anywhere. Even under direct harsh sunlight, the iPhone 14 Pro Max screen retains its brilliance and color accuracy.

But that’s not all, Apple also got rid of the notch as mentioned, and while the new pill-shaped cutout still eats into a chunk of the screen, it is a cleaner look aesthetically in my opinion, and Apple designed this clever software UI that wraps black pixels around the hole punch depending on context, giving the illusion that the hole can shift in size. These animations add a bit of practical use, but it’s mostly done to make the phone’s UI feel alive, like it has its own character. I know many people who find this to be a gimmick, but personally, I love it.

Add in the usual iPhone strengths like best-in-class video recording and super powerful silicon, and we have another highly polished iPhone. But the problem for me is, it still has the usual iPhone limitations.

What’s not: Anyone who has read or viewed my previous phone reviews may know that I have long held the opinion that the iPhone cameras, while great at video, are actually below par in still photos compared to top Android phones. I find Apple’s color science too warm, and the smaller sensor used in iPhones relative to Android rivals means there’s shallower depth-of-field. The iPhone 14 Pro Max improves on this a bit with a larger and more pixel-dense sensor, but it’s not enough. The iPhone 14 Pro Max can snap great looking photos, but I much prefer the photos captured by all the non-folding phones on this list. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra and Vivo X90 Pro Plus, in particular, uses a 1-inch sensor that just pulls in so much more image information.

5: Xiaomi 12S Ultra

What’s good: The Xiaomi 12S Ultra drew plenty of attention at the time of its release because it was the first phone to use Sony’s 1-inch IMX989 sensor, which has a sensor size equivalent to some entry level Sony point-and-shoot cameras like the Sony RX100.

The IMX989 was, in fact, co-developed by Sony and Xiaomi—the latter provided 15 million in funding to help development of the lens. And the investment paid off. The larger sensor pulls in significantly more image information than other smartphone sensors, and also produces a shallow depth-of-field for natural bokeh. It’s as close to a DSLR quality lens as we have seen in a smartphone yet.

But that’s not all, the 12S Ultra also uses lenses designed by Leica, owing to a new partnership between Xiaomi and the German legacy camera maker. Throw in a very good 5x Periscope zoom and a solid ultra-wide lens, and the Xiaomi 12S Ultra was easily the most capable camera phone at the time of release in mid-2022, and it would hold the title all the way until the number three phone on this list.

What’s not: The 12S Ultra was released in China only, despite the previous model (11 Ultra) selling internationally. This means the 12S Ultra ran Xiaomi’s China software, which is noticeably inferior and lacks some native Google Assistant features. The selfie camera is also very hit and miss.

4: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

What’s good: The original Samsung Galaxy Fold topped my 2019 list, and the vastly-improved Fold 2 would have topped my 2020 list if I had written one (I did not). The Fold 4 improves on the Fold 2 (and 3) even more, with a slightly wider outside screen that makes the phone easier to use, and a significantly improved camera system headlined by a 50-megapixel main camera with a respectable 1/1.5-inch image sensor, and a legit good 3x telephoto zoom lens. The hinge is even more sturdy than before, so much that the phone requires a bit of force to open and fold close. The core reason why I loved the original Fold is still a major selling point here: the Fold 4 is both a phone and a small tablet in one device.

What’s not: Samsung is the pioneer of the foldable phone, and while the first Fold had some first-gen problems, Samsung quickly ironed them out by the second generation Fold 2, which would have won my favorite phone of 2020 list by miles. But since then, Samsung has become complacent in my opinion, merely giving the Fold 3 and 4 subtle refinements over the past two years.

The reason Samsung could do this and get away with it is because up until now, the company has a monopoly on the global foldable phone scene, as Chinese brands have so far only limited their foldable releases in China. But I am someone who has no problem sourcing and testing China-only phones, and once I saw what Chinese brands were doing with foldable hardware, it’s hard to look at Samsung’s and not see compromise.

For example, a lot of the hardware gripes that we had with the first Fold, such as the deep crease that runs down the middle of the screen, or the thickness of the device in folded form, have not been fixed by Samsung. These issues are still here in the Fold 4. Xiaomi, meanwhile, fixed both with its second foldable, the Mix Fold 2. I’ll have more on the Xiaomi foldable further down this article, but I’ll say this here: it has much superior in-hand feel than Samsung’s Fold 4.

3: Vivo X90 Pro Plus

What’s good: Beginning with the Vivo X70 Pro Plus (which came out fall of 2021) to the Vivo X80 Pro (released June 2022), a Vivo device held the title of “best smartphone camera” for 10 months, losing only to the Xiaomi 12S Ultra on the strength of its 1-inch sensor. Now Vivo is back with a new X90 Pro Plus, which adopts the same 1-inch sensor along with Vivo’s existing excellent camera setup. The result? As expected, this is the new camera king.

It’s not just all about that 1-inch main camera with the X90 Pro Plus. The two zoom lenses also saw major improvements in aperture and sensor size, this combined with Vivo’s arguably best-in-class image processing results in some of the best portraits I’ve ever snapped. Video performance is also jaw-dropping, topping even the iPhone in color vibrance and sharpness, but falling short in audio and stabilization (so the iPhone is still the video king by a hair).

The phone is also jam packed with the most bleeding-edge components, including the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and UFS 4.0 storage. This phone has all the latest tech in the smartphone industry right now.

What’s not: I find the back design very garish with the bright red vegan leather back, off-center camera module, and garish over-branding including the slogan “Xtreme Imagination” engraved onto the aluminum bar. The phone is also only sold in China for now so it runs a China software that’s not 100% suitable for western users. But the good news is a global variant of this phone should launch in early 2023.

 

2: Google Pixel 7 Pro

What’s good: The Pixel 7 Pro has a very, very good camera system that gets my vote for second best camera in a phone right now, behind only the Vivo X90 Pro Plus. The reason I rank the Pixel 7 Pro ahead is due to superior software, particularly all the intelligent Google bits like real time transcribing and ability to detect music playing nearby on the fly. This is the smartest phone on the market, which is to be expected considering Google’s all knowing AI.

I also adore the Pixel’s design language, with the giant visor bar that runs across the back of the phone.

What’s not: The Pixel 7 Pro’s OLED display, while very good, is a bit behind the best displays on this list (iPhone 14 Pro Max and Vivo X90 Pro Plus) in terms of maximum brightness or viewing angles. The custom Tensor G2 chip, while great at handling Google’s machine learning, is also relatively less powerful than the best Qualcomm and Apple silicon in other phones on this list. The Pixel 7 Pro mostly performs fine, but sometimes things feel a beat slower than a 2022 flagship phone should.

1: Xiaomi Mix Fold 2

What’s good: The Mix Fold 2 is an engineering marvel. It is the thinnest foldable phone ever made, measuring an unbelievable 5.4mm when unfolded, and just 11.2mm when closed. This is the first foldable phone to feel almost like a “normal phone” when it’s folded close, instead of feeling like two phones stacked on top of one another like Samsung’s Fold 4. It’s also relatively light at 263g, meaning one of the biggest complaints of foldable phones—its bulkiness—has been addressed here.

Elsewhere, the phone has two gorgeous displays, and a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip that is not only powerful but energy efficient. This is the rare foldable phone that can last me a full day of use on a single charge.

Whats not: Perhaps due to its thinness, the Mix Fold 2’s hinge cannot stay in place mid-fold like Samsung’s or Oppo’s foldable. This means the phone loses a crucial functionality of foldable phones: the ability for it to double as its own tripod.

The Mix Fold 2’s cameras are also just fine, falling far short of the best cameras phones on this list. But that’s the compromise if we want an ultra-thin foldable phone, I suppose. I still hope for a day where we can have foldable phones without a compromised camera system.

Still, overall, the Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 is the most jaw-dropping and technically impressive phone of 2022 for me, and because I am a firm believer of foldables and all the benefits it brings, I can say this is my favorite phone of 2022. But the Pixel 7 Pro and Vivo X90 Pro Plus are very, very close.

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