Support NeoGAF

[Days like these...]

Ben Sin is tech reviewer and youtuber he does really good cell phone reviews. He doesn't seem too bothered by ad dollars, upsetting fan boys or losing subscribers like your superstar youtubers MKULTRABDSM and Mr. What's his name to name a few.

My Favorite Phones Of 2023, Ranked

I’m going to wrap the year by ranking my top seven favorite phones of the year

www.forbes.com

I'm personally thinking about importing the Xiaomi 13 Ultra

 

[Ribi]

No headphone jack no buy

 

[Days like these...]

No headphone jack no buy

Yeah I hate that headphone jacks were removed. I think Sony phones might still have headphone jacks but their cameras sucks

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Have a pixel 7 and can't fault it. Dirt cheap in comparison to a lot of the "premium phones" and does everything I need with an excellent camera.

 

[Ribi]

Yeah I hate that headphone jacks were removed. I think Sony phones might still have headphone jacks but their cameras sucks

I have the Xperia1 mark 3, the camera is goodish. Colors are natural.

At the time it was between the asus and redmagic

 

[Days like these...]

I have the Xperia1 mark 3, the camera is goodish. Colors are natural.

At the time it was between the asus and redmagic

The crazy thing is that the best cellphones camera sensor on the market is the Sony IMX 989 which all Chinese flagships use.

 

[Days like these...]

Have a pixel 7 and can't fault it. Dirt cheap in comparison to a lot of the "premium phones" and does everything I need with an excellent camera.

Yeah pixels take really good photos s little too overprocessed for my taste but still great phones at a good price

 

[DGrayson]

No headphone jack no buy

Just get a USB C converter, you should be running a DAC anyways if you really care about sound quality. Or are you often charging and using headphones at the same time?

 

[Con-Z-epT]

Sony Xperia 1 Mark V

 

[Con-Z-epT]

I think Sony phones might still have headphone jacks but their cameras sucks

So you don't even know about the general technical equipment from Sony smartphones but you weren't hesitant to speak against their capabilities on taking high quality pictures.

 

[Ribi]

Just get a USB C converter, you should be running a DAC anyways if you really care about sound quality. Or are you often charging and using headphones at the same time?

All the time in bed l. The heck with the dongle when I can charge with a battery pack and listen to my iems at the same time. It's also out of principle because it's just lies to stop having a a headphone jack. Smaller phones my ass

 

[DGrayson]

All the time in bed l. The heck with the dongle when I can charge with a battery pack and listen to my iems at the same time. It's also out of principle because it's just lies to stop having a a headphone jack. Smaller phones my ass

I agree with you on the lies part!

 

[Ribi]

I agree with you on the lies part!

Also the Sony has built in dac anyway and it's really thin

 

[Days like these...]

So you don't even know about the general technical equipment from Sony smartphones but you weren't hesitant to speak against their capabilities on taking high quality pictures.

I know their cellphone cameras aren't the greatest. But go off Queen

 

[Pagusas]

No headphone jack no buy

Surprised to see this sentiment in 2023. I just couldn't imagine having wires connected to my head again. Are you that against wireless headphones or is there something you specifically like about wired headphones?

 

[Con-Z-epT]

I know their cameras aren't the greatest.

Who told you?

 

[Days like these...]

Who told you?

I meant cell phone cameras. Look up any YouTube cellphone reviewer you like. No one is saying Sony has the best cellphone camera and their high price tag isn't doing them any favors.

 

[Fbh]

Have to renew my phone next year and I don't really know what to get (looking in the $300-500 range)
The Pixels seem kinda cool but Google doesn't sell them in my country (you can import them but that makes them more expensive and I think 5G doesn't work),and buying a phone from google feels a bit like "yes please spy even more on me".

I don't trust the Chinese brands

So maybe a 2 gen old Samsun flagship or something (S21-22?)

 

[Ribi]

Surprised to see this sentiment in 2023. I just couldn't imagine having wires connected to my head again. Are you that against wireless headphones or is there something you specifically like about wired headphones?

Better sound quality

 

[Days like these...]

I don't trust the Chinese brands

Was waiting for this comment don't worry the cccp has no use for your bleached butthole pics and the US government has them too

 

[_Justinian_]

I use my cellphone for phone calls (Remember those?) and text messages. Also for google maps and YouTube Music while driving. I just don't have a need for all that extra stuff.

 

[Days like these...]

I use my cellphone for phone calls (Remember those?) and text messages. Also for google maps and YouTube Music while driving. I just don't have a need for all that extra stuff.

You don't care about quality pics from you cellphone? Cool thanks for letting us know.

 

[Con-Z-epT]

I meant cell phone cameras. Look up any YouTube cellphone reviewer you like. No one is saying Sony has the best cellphone camera and their high price tag isn't doing them any favors.

Well between "not the best" and, i quote:

I think their cameras sucks.

...there is a great margin for objectively acknowledging that Sony is pushing hardware like non other. They where first in using a stacked CMOS sensor and while others might be on the frontier of pushing artificial image enhancing software, Sony still does try to deliver on the premis of having a natural high quality picture without some AI shenanigans.

But feel free to quote your favorite YouTuber...

 

[_Justinian_]

You don't care about quality pics from you cellphone? Cool thanks for letting us know.

I prefer to enjoy my experiences rather than constantly photograph them. Enjoy your $1500+ camera.

 

[Tams]

None. Smartphones are boring as fuck these days. Even the foldables are copies of each other with slight differences and incremental improvements.

The 00s were the best for mobile phones. So much choice and innovation.

 

[Fbh]

Was waiting for this comment don't worry the cccp has no use for your bleached butthole pics and the US government has them too

Eh, it's not because I worry about them spying on me.
I just don't trust the quality control and durability of Chinese products in general, specially for something I'll be using every day for 4-5 years.

This is all just anecdotal but when I worked retail the place I worked for carried 1 Chinese phone brand (Huawei) and they were by far the phones with the most amount of returns and warranty cases we got. Similarly a lot of friends who have gotten Chinese phones gloating about how they "have the same features as an iphone or high end Samsung for half the price" have ended up running into issues within a year.

Most reviews are unreliable in this sense too because most reviewers will test out the phone for a couple of days and give their veredicts.

 

[Renoir]

can you really feel the difference when upgrading phones now a days. Im from the droid era

I really had that device once upon a time. Now I have a new Pixel 5, Before the Pixel 5 i had and Essential Phone.

When I upgraded my phones i felt the difference in power, the screen pixel density, the power of running power apps. Taking waaaay better pictures.
What is a phone now that you can buy and actually feel an advancement in the technology?
Pixel has good pictures, good QoL tech like the call screening. I wanted to get a Sony Xperia 5 V. But it looks like it does the same thing my phone does now.. It does look sexy af though.

 

[Days like these...]

I prefer to enjoy my experiences rather than constantly photograph them. Enjoy your $1500+ camera.

I didn't know taking a photo instantly sucked all the enjoyment out of something. Ive never paid more than $900 for a phone. Enjoy your potato cam.

 

[Days like these...]

Eh, it's not because I worry about them spying on me.
I just don't trust the quality control and durability of Chinese products in general, specially for something I'll be using every day for 4-5 years.

This is all just anecdotal but when I worked retail the place I worked for carried 1 Chinese phone brand (Huawei) and they were by far the phones with the most amount of returns and warranty cases we got. Similarly a lot of friends who have gotten Chinese phones gloating about how they "have the same features as an iphone or high end Samsung for half the price" have ended up running into issues within a year.

Most reviews are unreliable in this sense too because most reviewers will test out the phone for a couple of days and give their veredicts.

I've imported and owned multiple Huawei's never had any issue. I have a P30 pro from 3 or 4 years ago still working perfectly.

 

[Days like these...]

Well between "not the best" and, i quote:



...there is a great margin for objectively acknowledging that Sony is pushing hardware like non other. They where first in using a stacked CMOS sensor and while others might be on the frontier of pushing artificial image enhancing software, Sony still does try to deliver on the premis of having a natural high quality picture without some AI shenanigans.

But feel free to quote your favorite YouTuber...

I acknowledged that they have the best cellphone camera sensor on the market but for some reason they don't use it in their own phones.

If you don't trust youtubers DxOmark doesn't rank their phones very highly either.

 

[YCoCg]

Tl;dr version, American Kid/Teen? It's the iPhone, it's always the iPhone, don't question it, you don't want to be a filthy green bubble do you?

 

[Con-Z-epT]

If you don't trust youtubers DxOmark doesn't rank their phones very highly either.

They don't even have a review for the Xperia 1 V. And the 1 IV does achieve decent results in categories that matter to me.

In addition their whole audio test process revolves around measuring the speakers and the microphone. Not a single word about dedicated audio hard or software. I get that it is the same process for all the phones but for a place that prides itself in "The World-Leading Quality Evaluation Laboratory" and especially in hindsight of the audio capabilities of the Mark IV and V i find this incredible bad. Like purposely leaving out a key aspect of the device.

While a review might be a baseline for discussion, it will only take me a minute to find two tests for most phones, featuring both ends of the spectrum. Sure, it's impossible to test every phone on your own given the market saturation but you should always try to make up your mind and not sprout something like "but their cameras suck" when you obviously have no clue. I understand that picture quality might be your focus and that Sony phones are not up to your personal standard, but still.

You asked for best cell phones of 2023 and the Mark V sure is up there in my eyes for many highly subjective reasons.

 

[EviLore]

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So you don't even know about the general technical equipment from Sony smartphones but you weren't hesitant to speak against their capabilities on taking high quality pictures.

Sony phones are known for inexplicably having photo quality lower than Apple, Google, Samsung, etc. even though they make the actual sensors that go into all those phones. It turns out computational photography matters when a camera sensor is smaller than a fingernail like on smartphones and Sony just doesn't do that. Their actual full-size cameras are fantastic.

The point is largely moot, Sony is a tiny minority player in phones these days. They basically only really exist in Japan as a phone manufacturer, sure you can buy a Sony smartphone in other regions but you'll pay a massive premium for pretty middling hardware specs, depending on where you are the phone won't support all the bands needed to work on your local carriers, and Sony has by far the worst software support in all of the Android world. They will literally sell you a US$2000 phone and only give it 1-2 years of software support and Android updates before abandoning it. Thanks but no thanks, Sony.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I'm personally thinking about importing the Xiaomi 13 Ultra

Enjoy the CCP surveillance.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Tl;dr version, American Kid/Teen? It's the iPhone, it's always the iPhone, don't question it, you don't want to be a filthy green bubble do you?

I would much rather take the iPhone and blue bubble than have a totalitarian regime data mining my stuff.

 

[Mihos]

I am digging my fold 5

 

[YCoCg]

I would much rather take the iPhone and blue bubble than have a totalitarian regime data mining my stuff.

But my totalitarian regime is better than your totalitarian regime.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

But my totalitarian regime is better than your totalitarian regime.

US is a totalitarian regime?

 

[Synless]

iPhone 15 Pro for me. I don’t like the max sized phones, honestly I wish most phones were smaller overall.

IF I was going to buy and android phone though, it would have been the new Razr.

 

[YCoCg]

US is a totalitarian regime?

It's all still billion dollar companies spying on you and selling your data either way, in the end multiple governments already have access to you regardless of who's in charge so it's always hilarious when people pull this point out about Apple when their phones are still made in China right next to the rest of the other brands.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

It's all still billion dollar companies spying on you and selling your data either way, in the end multiple governments already have access to you regardless of who's in charge so it's always hilarious when people pull this point out about Apple when their phones are still made in China right next to the rest of the other brands.

I wish you will never discover from the comfort of your freedom seat what does it mean to live in a totalitarian country. Till then enjoy making an ass of yourself with shit analogies of a first year social sciences student.

P.S. Do you have Che Guevara tshirt?

 

[Days like these...]

Enjoy the CCP surveillance.

From earlier in the post

Was waiting for this comment don't worry the cccp has no use for your bleached butthole pics and the US government has them too

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Was waiting for this comment don't worry the cccp has no use for your bleached butthole pics and the US government has them too

The CCP doesn’t care about your butthole, but for sure it will use the fact to show butthole pics to the whole generation of your impressionable teens.

Really, Gen Z being the dumpster fire of a generation is not making you question where things are going?

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Most cellphones are good these days, just dont buy one from a Chinese company.

 

[Days like these...]

The CCP doesn’t care about your butthole, but for sure it will use the fact to show butthole pics to the whole generation of your impressionable teens.

Really, Gen Z being the dumpster fire of a generation is not making you question where things are going?

I don't want to get political so spare me all the pearl clutching. I'm sure your government has access to all your info through your cellphone too.

 

[Con-Z-epT]

Sony phones are known for inexplicably having photo quality lower than Apple, Google, Samsung, etc. even though they make the actual sensors that go into all those phones. It turns out computational photography matters when a camera sensor is smaller than a fingernail like on smartphones and Sony just doesn't do that. Their actual full-size cameras are fantastic.

The point is largely moot, Sony is a tiny minority player in phones these days. They basically only really exist in Japan as a phone manufacturer, sure you can buy a Sony smartphone in other regions but you'll pay a massive premium for pretty middling hardware specs, depending on where you are the phone won't support all the bands needed to work on your local carriers, and Sony has by far the worst software support in all of the Android world. They will literally sell you a US$2000 phone and only give it 1-2 years of software support and Android updates before abandoning it. Thanks but no thanks, Sony.

These are certainly not phones that reach their full potential in a basic snapshot mode, which pretty much all the manufacturers seem to have their focus on. The Xperia line has incredible in depth software, very close to what an Alpha camera has on offer and in order to get the most out of it you will have to fine tune each setting for each picture individually. I for one find the pictures to be much more natural and not as artificial saturated.

I wholeheartedly disagree with "pay a massive premium for pretty middling hardware specs". I see no difference in prices for major flagship phones throughout all manufacturers. At least in Europe. In fact if you go for higher storage models you will end up with even higher prices compared to Sony which still allows for custom SD cards. And the hardware specs don't need to shy away from any other modern high end phone.

Android support is the worst, i'll give you that.

 

[YCoCg]

I wish you will never discover from the comfort of your freedom seat what does it mean to live in a totalitarian country. Till then enjoy making an ass of yourself with shit analogies of a first year social sciences student.

P.S. Do you have Che Guevara tshirt?

All this coming from a guy with a Cyberpunk avatar and with the name "Cyberpunkd"

 

[22:22:22]

All i need is a basic model with a good/great camera and headphone jack kinda optional.

Doenst need to be big or with oled and features i dont care about.

Researching this gives me a headache =/

 

[InterMusketeer]

This year's the first time I bought an expensive phone, and I'm pretty happy with it. I use my phone all the time so I think it was worth it. I ended up with the Samsung Z Fold 5. I know there's other options but I don't know about those Chinese brands. Those names are foreign to me so I'm hesitant to take the plunge.