– Hey guys this is Austin. A little while ago, I made a video on why you should not
buy the iPhone 11 Pro. And yet, here a couple months later, I may or may not have switched to daily drivering an iPhone 11 Pro. Look, there's a great reason
for this; let me explain. Because there's a lot of things that have happened in smart phones over the last 12 months. – You lied? – That did happen actually. I was wrong. You know what I'm not wrong about? The sponsor of today's video: Vizio. We've actually already
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Now, you might look at
the table and think, "Isn't this just a poor imitation "of Marques' Best Smart
Phone of the Year Awards?" – Well, you are wrong. – You were actually kind of right, but this is not an awards show. We are not choosing any
kind of awards here. What we're doing is giving a better look at the different phones that
we've taken a look at this year because obviously it's easy to review something when it comes out, but there's always more stuff coming out. So this is a good recap. And honestly, a lot of
things have changed, especially since we've done
videos on some of these phones. Case in point, the iPhone 11. – [Ken] I mean,
this thing is proper cool. – [Austin] I still stand
by what I said in the video that the iPhone 11 is the
iPhone to buy right now; however, I think I was a
little bit harsh on the 11 Pro because while this phone, at $300 more, doesn't really make sense for most people, it is actually a better phone.
Last year, this was a much
harder comparison to make. We're in a very privileged scenario, where we have a wide variety of phones that we can choose from at any time. – Absolutely.
– And yet, what I really kept coming
back to with the XR was that battery life;
it was so much better. I actually do like the Pro more. The screen is better, although the iPhone 11's
screen is just fine. And having that third camera is nice. But I legitimately still
absolutely recommend, anyone who's considering an iPhone, to buy the iPhone 11.
– Coming from a XS Max last year, the battery life is insanely good. – The battery is the killer thing on this. Especially on the Max, I'm sure you've seen the
benefits on the 11 as well. 11 Pro.
– All of the iPhones of this generation have
great battery life, which is a really nice thing to say. However, that's not something we can say about some of the other phones that we'd like to talk about, including the Pixel 4. What did they do wrong?
(sighs) Why is this… Look, Like no. This is my biggest
disappointment of the year. Now, you may have noticed, we actually have not done a video on the Pixel 4, here on the channel. And that's for one very simple reason. I start working on the video, I got about three-quarters of
the way through writing it up, putting all of my notes together, then I was like, "You know what? "I just don't like this thing very much, "and everyone's going to
have the same opinion." – I mean, it certainly didn't help that the wind was taken out of the press event.
We already knew everything
about this phone before it was announced–
– Six months before. – Yeah, six months before. – There are major
problems with the Pixel 4, even that aside. – That aside. – Yeah yeah yeah.
– That aside. – [Austin] So the battery life, specifically on the smaller Pixel 4, is a complete and total
deal breaker in 2019. When you're charging $800 for a phone, you do not need to deal with compromise. You shouldn't have to
deal with compromise. Because of that kind of money, you can get a great all around phone, such as the iPhone 11 Pro, such as the iPhone 11, such as the Galaxy S10; there are a lot of phones
that don't drop the ball, and the battery life is
unacceptable on the Pixel 4. It's worse than the 3 and
has a 90 hertz display. And that's not even to
get into the other issues with the phone.
The 90 hertz display is great when it works. Which is like half the time it feels like? – I know they're working on it but like– – It works when it likes. – It's stupid. And then no ultra wide? I mean the Pixel has
always had the best phone, or at least for the last couple years it's had the best camera
on a phone period.
Now I would argue that I
do think that the standard wide angle is a bit better
than the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro, but beyond that? The ultra wide and especially
the video capabilities of the iPhone? Pushed it over the edge. This is the best camera on
a smartphone as far as the full package for me right now. – I mean, for me personally, I actually do like the
telephoto a lot on the Pixel. I mean again, same reason why I like
the telephoto on this, I feel like I use it a lot. I think they do telephoto a lot better than most of the other phones out there. – But the thing is, they so heavily pushed
this radar function. It's like "look how
cool it's going to be." And yet realistically, it's not really that useful. And in fact I remember we
were in Japan recently, and I got a notification
saying the radar was turned off like those
functions were turned off.
It's just like okay, Cool. Like obviously it's a
little bit of an edge case, but there's so many issues
with the Pixel 4 this year, that I can't recommend it Like I straight up I cannot easily recommend a Pixel 4, when there are other
phones that I think do a better job. – I mean especially… Yeah, especially this phone right here, which I mean, Austin will also talk about way more. But the OnePlus 7T is probably one of our favorite phones. If not our favorite phone of the year. – [Austin] So first of all, the 7 Pro was the first
time they stepped out of their sort of comfort zone, and made it a little bit more of an expensive flagship.
Has a killer display, 90 hertz which aw… It's so good. So unlike the Pixel, which runs at 90 hertz sometimes, the OnePlus 7 Pro as well as the 7T, ran at 90 hertz all the time. And it makes such a difference. That paired with the fact
that this is a killer looking OLED screen? This is like my favorite
overall screen of the year. With that faster display I find myself picking up
the OnePlus a lot more than I had ever picked up something like the Pixel 3, which is my previous Android daily driver. Purely because something
as simple as scrolling through Twitter is so much snappier, so much more responsive. And for me, that makes all the difference. I love how fast this phone is. – I mean on the topic of
this getting timely updates, I mean you're really
reaping all of the benefits of the Pixel 4 at this point. Arguably with a better build of Android, but on a phone that's just way better. – I mean it's got–
– It's cheaper.
– It's cheaper. It's cheaper by what? $200? – $200. Now the OnePlus I'll
actually usually pick up for most tasks, except anytime I need to take any kind of photo or video. iPhone's gotta beat hands down. Now at $600? I'm willing to make that sacrifice, especially considering how good the rest of the phone is. But it is a better camera
system away from being the greatest phone of 2019. – I don't think this camera, as you said goes head to
head with the Pixel or the iPhone. But I like that this is a
step in the right direction. What they did with this
camera was essentially make the ultra wide and the telephoto the two cameras that people
are probably not going to use, you know, primarily. They made those two cameras better. The telephoto is incredibly sharp. Sharper than something you get on this. It's probably head-to-head with
the Pixel I still have to, you know, actually compare these two to be – Safe for sure.
– It's good though.
– [Ken] But it's It's really good. They just need to get
that main camera set, that's all. And then this would probably be the perfect smartphone otherwise. – However, let's say you want to spend
a little bit less money. Don't we all? – I don't have that problem. – I'm talking to the wrong person. You shouldn't spend our money. Anyway so the Pixel 3A
was a little bit of a surprise this year. At $400 this is by far
the cheapest Pixel around. And the most important
selling point of this guy, is the fact that it has
the same camera from the excellent Pixel 3. Except that they made a few questionable decisions shall we say? – I mean, the plastic build's
probably the first one. Feels a little cheap. – It's a little cheap, but the performance for me. – Oh yeah. – Like the Pixel 3 was
not a super fast phone. The 3A sort of had not quite
that issue out of the box, but has significantly worse specs.
In an age where you can get
very very powerful phones, for two, three, $400? The fact that they had, pretty much seemingly, put all of their money in the
camera and sort of skimped in everything else? Makes this kind of a little
bit of a harder sell. But you know what also
has a better value than this in my opinion? Is this guy which is the Razer Phone 2. Now this is actually technically cheating, this came out last year. While it does have a lot going for it, I think a lot of people
are probably going to be put off by the size. It's kind of a little
bit too big I think for most people, but it has great 120 hertz display, it's got killer audio, but at $400 I actually
think the Razer Phone is a good pickup. – Yeah. – You know what else deserves
an honorable mention? Samsung. – Yeah
– No straight up, The Galaxy S10 it's probably it's easy to say, especially how early it
came out in the year, this is one of the best
phones of the year because it really didn't sort of they didn't cut any corners, right? So you have the notchless display, you've got the triple cameras, you got the wireless charging, the great display.
You've got the headphone jack. I mean yes, this phone came out early, but it really kind of
paved the way everything else this year. – [Ken] I mean, it also, because it's been out for quite a bit, you can actually catch it on sale at points. – [Austin] Yes! That's a really key point. – I think one of our favorite
phones of the year actually, on the note… On the note. – On note of the…
– No.
S10 is is the S10e. The S10e is a fantastic value
and at points in the year, we actually saw
that phone hit 350, $400. I mean, you know, you'd have to hunt
around for those prices, and you could even find those refurbished, you know, for that price. But, honestly like, you know, if you find
this lower than retail? Absolutely go for it.
I think it's genuinely
like one of the best phones that we've looked at this year. – [Austin] Absolutely. What is your favorite of this year? – Ooo. Okay, so I mean, aside from the one that I
know I'm gonna get every year, let's be real. No I think my favorite phone… I'm on your camp on this, I actually do think that
this is my favorite phone of the year. The OnePlus 7T. – [Austin] Awesome. – This hit all the right notes for me, way better than I thought it was going to. You know, before, you know, this phone actually came out and you know, when it was just
all rumor and speculation. This really surprised me. I love the screen, I love the other two cameras on it. The performance is great. There's just so much to
love about this phone. – What do you think? Which iPhone should I have recommended, and which Android phone
are you using right now? Because obviously that's what What– That's– No. I still stand by my original statement. You really shouldn't buy this phone.
It is pretty good though..
