iPHONE 12 VS. THE BEST ANDROID PHONES: IT'S TIME TO CONSIDER SWITCHING
Along with the rest of 2020, it’s been a wild and unpredictable year for smartphones. Samsung started the year by shipping its most expensive phone ever in the S20 Ultra and finished with one of its best bargains in the Galaxy S20 FE. Google dropped its flagship Pixel 5 to the midrange and delivered its best design ever, while a OnePlus phone topped a grand for the first time. Plus Apple shipped its smallest iPhone since the iPhone 5. And everything came with 5G on board.
But amid all that, which phone emerged from the chaos as the champion of 2020?
THE PHONES
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is Samsung’s best phone to date even if it has a slightly inferior camera and a smaller battery than the S20 Ultra.
OnePlus 8 Pro: OnePlus went all out on its phones this year, attacking both the high end and the low end with more models than ever before. Even with the 8T arriving months later, the 8 Pro is my pick of the litter, especially at its newly reduced price tag.
Google Pixel 5: Google did an about-face with its smartphones this year, but the Pixel 5 is still among the best Android phones, thanks to Android 11.
iPhone 12: You can make an argument that the $999 iPhone 12 Pro is worth the extra money, but unless you’re taking a lot of zoomed shots, the iPhone 12 is the sweet spot.
DESIGN
The phones here might not fold or swivel, but that doesn’t mean they don’t each have their own unique identities. Their respective wheels most certainly haven’t been reinvented, but each phone has enough little touches to both separate it from the others and raise it above the rest of the pack.
First, let’s look at the size and screen proportions.
DIMENSIONS
Note 20 Ultra: 164.8 x 77.2 x 8.1mm
OnePlus 8 Pro: 165.3 x 74.3 x 8.5mm
iPhone 12: 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.4mm
Pixel 5: 144.7 x 70.4 x 8.0mm
SCREEN TO BODY RATIO
Note 20 Ultra: 91.63%
OnePlus 8 Pro: 90.79%
iPhone 12: 87.45%
Pixel 5: 86.75%
The Note 20 Ultra is unmistakably Samsung, with a giant curved Infinity Display, hole-punch selfie cam, and very skinny bezels above and below the screen. Like previous Notes, it has a very squared-off aesthetic that makes it seem much taller than it is, while the camera bump in the left corner is quite a bit larger and way more bulbous than the other phones here.
The best color is the new matte Mystic Bronze that’s a cross between gold and rose gold. But you’ll probably want to put it in a
