Best phones of 2020: The Winners

Time to pop the champagne – here are the best phones of 2020 as determined by you after two rounds of voting. Thank you to everyone who participated, now without further ado allow us to present the winners in each category and the runners-up.

Best Flagship of 2020 – Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G

Congratulations goes to the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, which won with a commanding lead. It’s a successor to the 2019 winner, the Note10+, and the 2018 winner, the Note 9. This winning streak is no accident, the Note series has proven itself to be a market leader. Which is why Samsung refuting rumors of its death is great news to hear.

The Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max is a worthy runner-up. The 11 Pro Max narrowly missed out on second place last year, so the changes Apple made for 2020 have paid off.

Best Flagship Killer of 2020 – Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

This feels like the plot of a fantasy novel – one Galaxy rules as king, its brother sets out to kill it. That would be the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G, whose victory is perhaps a clear indication of how people feel on the Snapdragon vs. Exynos matter. Or it won because it’s just a great phone. Either way, it brings home the title of Best Flagship killer.

The OnePlus 8T is the runner-up, after outdoing competitors from larger brands. The 8 Pro didn’t quite make it to the top two steps in the flagship category, but the 8T is one of the best flagship killers of 2020.

Best Camera phone of 2020 – Huawei Mate 40 Pro

The company has emerged as a market leader in this category, so Huawei Mate 40 Pro’s victory comes as no surprise. Sony sensors, Leica know-how and Huawei engineering have proven to be a winning combination, it’s a shame that the politics of 2020 will prevent the Mate from becoming as popular as it could have been.

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G is not only a great all-rounder, it’s one of the best camera phones to come out in 2020. It narrowly beat out the iPhone 12 Pro Max, a second victory over the Apple phone.

Best Mid-ranger of 2020 – Poco X3 NFC

This January Poco declared its independence and won the category that was a Xiaomi stronghold – the Poco X3 NFC is the best mid-ranger of the year, a title previously held by a Redmi Note. In fact, the new Redmi Note barely made it to fourth place, showing that Poco can capture market share currently held by its former parent brand.

The Samsung Galaxy A51 (the original 4G version) came in a close second, a far better showing than the A70, which was 2019’s runner-up (but a very distant second).

Best Affordable 5G phone of 2020 – OnePlus Nord

It was a gamble, but it paid off – the OnePlus Nord is only the company’s second mid-ranger and the story of the first one is infamous. And yet the Nord won its category by the widest margin of any phone, thus proving that “Never Settle” never meant “only flagships”.

The Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite 5G managed to build a strong following in only a couple of months – it easily defeated its sibling, the Mi 10 Lite 5G (no T), in the preliminary round and topped the Galaxy A51 5G in this round to become the runner-up in the affordable 5G category.

Best Gaming and Trailblazer phones of 2020

In case you missed it last week, the Asus ROG Phone 3 ZS661KS was elected the Best Gaming phone while the LG Wing 5G was chosen as the Trailblazer phone of 2020.

These are the winners and the phones that came close, you can check out the previous article if you’re curious to see how the rest of the Top 5 phones performed in each category.