We have listed the Top 10 premium and Top 10 Budget Smartphones in 2020. But, before we present the list of top smartphones in 2020, you must know what features we looked for to pick out the best smartphones for you. When the economy is not doing great because of COVID-19, it is wise to be a little extra careful while investing in a smartphone.
Here is the list of the top 20 factors that we should consider before buying any smartphone this year.
- Processor and Ram. Look for Apple, Snapdragon, Exynos, MediaTek, or Kirin processor. RAM should be at least 4 GB. Bigger the better.
- Design, Build, and Ergonomics. We all look for premium and ergonomic design.
- Brand Name. Manufacturer’s reputation matters. You can trust names like Apple, Samsung and Nokia.
- Software Version and Future Updates. Look if the phone supports the latest Android version and are ready for future updates.
- Camera Quality for Selfies. We all love to take selfies. Go for a phone that has a good quality front camera for selfies and video calling.
- Storage Space. Dedicated Expansion slot. If you take a lot of selfies or download a lot of music and audio books, you definitely need at least 64 GB of internal storage. Also see if the phone supports bigger size memory cards.
- Audio and Sound Quality. 3.5 mm headphone jack. Definitely you need to check if the audio quality is excellent because the main purpose of buying any phone is to make and receive calls. A 3.5 mm jack will help you to use various types of devices.
- Call Quality and Data Connectivity and Speeds. This is, we think, the most important because if you cannot connect fast when you really need it, what’s the point of buying a smartphone.
- Dual 4G, Dual Sim, VOLTE connectivity, NFC, USB Type C Port. When 5G is knocking at the door, we cannot think of anything lesser than 4G. If not NFC, a Dual SIM phone with USB Type C Port is the standard these days.
- Display and Screen Resolution. We all love to watch videos and play games in HD. Go for the phone that offers crystal clear video and images.
- Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Our hectic lifestyle demands a well built phone.
- Sensors such as a gyroscope, accelerometer. These are basic features for any premium smartphones. Therefore, don’t settle for anything less.
- Battery Life and Fast Charging Support. Our busy schedule and need to travel a lot demands longer battery backup and performance. A 5000mAH battery in the standard.
- Fingerprint Scanner and FaceUnlock features. These features are convenient for those who need to keep their phone secure all the time.
- Gaming. Will you buy a premium phone that doesn’t support PUBG or similar action games? No. Check is the phone offers superior game graphics and game live streaming.
- Heating Issues. We like hot cakes but not hot phones. Do your own research using Google to see if the phone you are going to buy has heating issues.
- Accessories Supplied With the Phone. Many companies are not offering fast chargers, or earphones. If you are paying a premium price you deserve to get a fast charger and a good quality wire or wireless earphones.
- Size and weight of the device. Who wants to carry a brick in his or her pocket all the time. A premium quality smartphone should be well built yet lightweight in design.
- After Sales Service and Service Center Network. Undoubtedly, this is a priority for any smartphone user.
- Wireless Charging, Water and Dustproof, Stereo Speakers. These are the features that you expect from premium quality smartphones and not pocket friendly devices.
Now, let’s dive straight into the world of smartphones 2020. Here is a list of our favorite premium quality smartphones in 2020:
Table of Contents
Samsung Galaxy S20/S20 Plus
The Samsung Galaxy S20/S20 Plus, is definitely the king of Android smartphones. It packs superior cameras, stunning display, dlitchfree performance, but needs improvement in some areas. What you will appreciate is its stunning display, powerful camera system, intuitive UI, and smooth interface. You may not like the design, may find the in-display fingerprint scanner a bit slow, and perhaps the battery life could be longer. The Exynos processor is not really powerful when compared to other processors in the market.
iPhone 11 Pro/11 Pro Max
The Mac Pro and iMac Pro use server-grade chips, ECC RAM and top grade components to become the emperor of the smartphone market. The faster chipset offers glitch free performance levels that other smartphones simply cannot achieve. The iPhone 11 and the iPhone 11 Pro duo are unique in many ways. Their displays and battery life are jaw-dropping, and Max has an additional telephoto camera on the rear. You may not appreciate the look of the phones at first, but when you buy, any one of them, you will truly feel like a Pro.
OnePlus 8 Pro
The OnePlus 8 Pro more or less looks like OnePlus 8 but is definitely unique. The camera and performance is superb. Unlike a curved glass display, it has a rounded display on its sides and this design makes the display even more appealing. This feature is cool if you don’t mind opening some apps accidentally because your fingers are almost always touching some parts of the screen whenever you hold this phone. A bundled case helps you to handle the smartphone in a better way.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus
A powerful processor, engaging display with prismatic Aura Glow color, and hi-tech camera system with state of the art features, Galaxy Note 10 Plus has it all. It is the phone that Android lovers will genuinely love to use. The magnificent 6.8-inch display is perfectly paired with the S Pen and an extra-big battery that lets you work for 24 hours. Although there’s no headphone jack and you may need to relearn how you use the power button to turn off the phone and take screenshots, this the best phone in the market for Android fans.
Oppo Find X2 Pro
With a 6.7-inch display, a standout quad-camera setup, supremely fast charging, 5G capability, a 120Hz screen refresh rate and the most powerful Snapdragon processor, the Find X2 Pro is definitely something that Android lovers will love to use. The 13MP tele-camera offers a whopping 5x optical zoom factor and optical image stabilization, but the f/3 aperture is slower than other flagship phones in the market. It’s water resistant and unsurprisingly, the headphone jack is missing. The phone is reliable and its premium pricing will definitely attract many Android fans.
iPhone 11
Although an iPhone XR lookalike, iPhone 11 is definitely much more advanced than iPhone XR. It is powered by Apple’s brand new A13 Bionic chip that has two performance cores, making it up to 20 percent faster than the A12 Bionic which powered the previous-generation iPhone models. The processor also uses up to 30 percent less power than its predecessor. The phone has Face ID capabilities for unlocking in a fast and secure manner. The Face ID system works flawlessly in all kinds of lightning conditions, even when it’s pitch dark. It is the phone that gadget freaks will love to use.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
S20 Ultra is truely big, powerful and of course, expensive. Its size enables it to have everything that you can imagine from a premium Android phone. Moreover, it is the first phone that will receive the July 2020 Android security patch. With 108MP photos, a 100x camera zoom, 40MP selfies, and a 6.9-inch 120Hz display, this is really a huge smartphone that many people will think twice before buying one. The bezels are super thin, and they are barely noticeable. With dark mode enabled, the AMOLED display gives you an out of the world user experience.
iPhone SE
The small, yet powerful SE, are for those people who want a very compact but reliable smartphone, and people who do not like change. When bigger displays are a norm and consumers are getting used to 6.5-inch screens, the compact size and single camera of iPhone SE may raise eyebrows. There are no smartphones in the market that are as compact as the 4.7-inch iPhone SE (2020). The design is simple and the price is high when compared to other feature packed Android based phones with equal capabilities. You will love to own an iPhone SE if you are a diehard iPhone fan.
Sony Xperia 1 II
The Xperia 1 II smartphone runs on Android v10 (Q) operating system. The phone is powered by Octa core (2.84 GHz, Single core, Kryo 585 + 2.42 GHz, Tri core, Kryo 585 + 1.8 GHz, Quad core, Kryo 585) processor. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Chipset, 8 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage, sets a new bar for speed in a smartphone market. It packs the all latest smartphone technologies and 5G1 connectivity. The camera system creates stunning images. And with a 21:9 CinemaWide 6.5” 4K HDR OLED display you can watch everything in stunning cinema quality.
Google Pixel 4 XL
The Pixel 4 XL is the best camera phone in the market. The face unlock support has improved with upgrades. The hardware is high performing and reliable, and the software upgrades give you unthinkable user experience. But the battery life is not something we can appreciate and the display is not bright enough. The oleophobic coating on the screen gets worn off fast and many experts think that the specs are low for the price you pay to own one. An octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, a 6GB of RAM, Android 10 and a 3700mAh non-removable battery makes it attractive to Pixel lovers.
Now lets list all the budget smartphones that you can buy in 2020.
Oppo A5 2020
A 6.50-inch Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Processor, 8MP Front Camera 12MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP Rear Camera System, a 3GB RAM, 64GB Storage, a 5000mAh Battery and the user friendly Android Pie, what more can you expect from a budget smartphone in 2020. The body is made of plastic and the phone is relatively thick, 9.1mm. The A5 2020 is one of the latest phones in the budget-to-mid-range segment of the smartphone market, and it proves that Oppo is capable of making compelling devices that offer value for money.
Moto G7 Power
If you have used premium smartphones before, the camera and design of G7 Power may not excite you. But the massive battery and some hi-tech specs make it a great choice for users on a budget. The design is intuitive and the phone has good gaming performance. It has fast charging capability. A 6.2 inch display, single 12-megapixel camera, 32GB of storage, a Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 632 processor, a 3GB RAM and a 5000 mAh battery makes it one of the best budget smartphones in the market. The Motorola logo on the back works as a fingerprint sensor. The phone has a USB-C port for charging.
Huawei P Smart (2019)
The P Smart offers more for a very low price. It has a 6.21-inch 1080 x 2340 screen with a pixel density of 415 pixels per inch. It boasts a tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio, a tiny teardrop notch at the top and a slim strip of bezel below the screen. Powered by a mid-range Kirin 710 chipset clocked at 2.2GHz and four at 1.7GHz, it is paired with 3GB of RAM and that allows apps to function smoothly. But the phone is not really good for hard jobs like gaming. But there is a GPU Turbo mode which kicks in on supported titles, boosting the phone’s performance. The camera system is just good enough for a budget phone.
Honor 10 Lite
The 10 Lite comes in three different glossy colours: Sapphire Blue, Sky Blue, and Midnight Black. It has a 91 percent screen-to-body ratio thanks to its big display. The budget smartphone is powered by a Huawei Kirin 710 SoC, an octa-core processor based on a 12nm process and is clocked at 2.2GHz. It also boasts a 4GB RAM and 6GB RAM 64GB storage.The flashy colors, a dual rear camera bumps, volume and power buttons, speaker grills at the bottom and the notch on the top of the display, easily make Honor 10 Lite a headturner.
Motorola One Macro
A MediaTek Helio P70 SoC powers the Motorola One Macro. This is an octa-core processor with four ARM Cortex-A73 cores and four Cortex-A53 ones. The graphics is handled by a Mali-G72 GPU clocked at 900mHz. A hybrid SIM slot on the left edge that can hold two nano-SIM cards or a single SIM card and a microSD card. There’s a USB-C port along the bottom edge, and the headphone jack is on top. It has a 6.2-inches, IPS LCD display, a dedicated macro camera and a big 4,000mAh battery and fast charger for uninterrupted mobility.
Realme 3 Pro
‘Pro’ means that this phone is performance oriented. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC which has superior integrated graphics capabilities and more power-efficiency, the phone comes in two variants, a 4GB RAM with 64GB storage and a 6GB RAM with 128Gb storage. It supports microSD cards up to 256GB
It supports dual 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, FM radio, USB-OTG, GPS, and the standard suite of sensors. What’s more do you want from a budget phone that is perfect for selfie loving, PUBG players.
Redmi Note 7
The phone has a big 6.3-inch display. The LCD panel has a full-HD+ resolution, and its brightness is good enough to see in daylight. The Redmi Note 7 features a Snapdragon 660 SoC, which is a chip that’s become increasingly common in the sub-Rs. 15,000 smartphone segment. There are two variants, one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and another with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. A P2i nano coating makes this phone splash-proof. You get a single tray for either two Nano-SIMs or one Nano-SIM and a microSD card.
Moto E6 Plus
This phone is perfect for those who don’t want to spend a lot of money on technology, and those who are serial phone smashers. The phone features a 6.1-inch 720 x 1560 LCD ‘ultra-wide’ screen, a dual-lens camera, a reasonable, splash-resistant design and a fingerprint scanner but no NFC. A 2MP ‘depth sensor’, helps you to capture more accurate portrait shots.The Moto logo on the back is the fingerprint scanner and the camera housing. The phone is powered by MediaTek Helio P22, 2GB RAM 32GB Storage, a 3000mAH battery and Android 9.0 Pie OS.
Nokia 4.2
5.71-inch (720×1520) Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 Processor, 8MP Front Camera, 13MP + 2MP Rear Camera, a 3GB RAM, 32GB Storage, 3000mAh Battery and Android 9 OS – what’s more can you expect from a pocket friendly phone from a reputed brand like Nokia. With good battery life, nice design and build quality, notification light, NFC, dedicated Google Assistant button, and Android One with 2 years of fast updates, this phone is perfect for those who like Nokia and needs a sturdy phone that really performs as expected.
Redmi 7A
The Redmi 7A is the first phone in the entry-level Redmi ‘A’ sub-series to pack an octa-core processor. Although the phone has a 2GB RAM, it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC which has eight ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2GHz. The phone comes in two variants with 16GB and 32GB of internal storage. The camera quality may not satisfy consumers who are looking for a phone with a good quality camera. The phone has been designed for one-handed use, has a good quality screen, a long battery life, but does not have enough RAM for apps to function smoothly.
Smartphones, in 2020, are an integral part of our lives. We use them for communication, taking pictures, saving documents on the cloud, internet browsing and even as a power bank to charge other smartphones. Because of COVID-19, students are using them to attend online classes. Therefore, if you are buying a smartphone that will support various softwares for online education, go for phones with at least 4GB RAM, Wi-Fi/4G connectivity, a high resolution front camera and good quality display.
