To me, 2023 felt a little behind the times. Last year I was excited about some midrangers, but this time I couldn’t find any midrangers that stood out. Even the premium segment didn’t really impress me, which is why I chose only four phones for my top list.
One brand not on my list is Samsung. I’m not a huge Samsung fan, but I’ve always liked the S Ultra series, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra feels the same way to me. The same applies to the Galaxy Z Fold5. It’s good, but not exciting.
Xiaomi 13 Ultra
Let’s start with my daily driver, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. After using Xiaomi 11 Ultra and 12S Ultra, the 13 Ultra feels much more refined than its predecessor. Despite the weird design with all the sloped backs, for me the 13 Ultra is the closest thing to a “zero compromise” smartphone you can get in 2023.
The first thing I look for in a phone is software, and the latest version of MIUI is great. All three Ultras I’ve used offer a very smooth and snappy experience from day one. I remember my first few years with OnePlus smartphones. It was a fluent experience from the beginning to the last day.
Second is the camera and the Ultra certainly covers all the features. For me, the perfect telephoto combination is 3x + 5x or 3x + 6x, but luckily the Ultra adds a very powerful 3.2x telephoto camera, giving me a good reason to upgrade from the 12S Ultra. I did.
To be clear, chipsets, displays, fingerprint readers, charging, batteries, etc. are somewhat similar across all flagship phones, so there’s no need to double-check the spec sheet. It’s a great phone, nothing to complain about.
xiaomi 13
I’ve always been interested in small premium smartphones and would like to track this fairly niche segment in 2023. And we believe the vanilla Xiaomi 13 is the best small flagship smartphone this year.
Most of what I said about the 13 Ultra also applies to the vanilla 13. It has all the bells and whistles and doesn’t even skip telephoto, which is unusual for a compact phone. The Galaxy S23 is another exception to this rule.
For example, the Asus Zenfone 10 and Pixel 7 both lack proper telephoto cameras.
There’s something about holding a small yet powerful cell phone, especially when it’s well made. And the Xiaomi 13 certainly feels great in the hand.
one plus 11
Although a long-time fan of OnePlus, I haven’t been impressed with the manufacturer’s phones for a long time, especially since management decided to discontinue OxygenOS. The company has lost its competitive edge in a sense.
However, the OnePlus 11 felt a little different. I had a chance to review it, and aside from the unimpressive 2x zoom camera, I found the device to be a good all-rounder.
While this may be due to the general increase in smartphone prices throughout 2023, the OnePlus 11 was actually a great value even at launch. In fact, the camera performance is excellent and the hardware is worthy of a flagship, as always.
Even the software felt nimble, feature-rich, and welcoming. We were disappointed to see many of the older OxygenOS features being discontinued, but as they say, you win some, you lose some.
vivo X Fold2
That’s clearly the future we’re heading towards, so I felt compelled to choose the best foldable for me this year. As I mentioned earlier, 2023 felt outdated even in the foldable segment. But the vivo X Fold2 stuck with me. Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 also won the prestigious award due to its outstanding design and powerful camera setup.
What I liked most about the vivo was the design (I really like the synthetic leather back), the almost wrinkle-free inner screen, the easy-to-use outer screen (it didn’t feel like an afterthought), and probably the best It was a function. The horizontal folding smartphone comes with dual ultrasonic fingerprint readers.
I personally really dislike side-mounted fingerprint readers. That’s because you have to use your phone with your right hand and it’s difficult to unlock it if you put it on your desk, for example. The vivo X Fold2 solves all these problems with two fingerprint readers: one on the cover screen and one on the main folding screen. You can unlock your device any way you like, and the two scanners make it much easier to use. I’m curious why other manufacturers don’t do this with foldables since it makes so much sense.
This concludes my message for this year. We hope to do more exciting things in 2024. I hope to see more mid-rangers in 2024 with better cameras (I’m tired of his outdated 8MP ultrawide shooter) and new chipsets that make more sense. We also expect to see significant progress in the foldable segment.