2022 looks like a turning point: leaflets are catching on, camera phones have reached a major milestone, brands are developing their own unique identities. Here are five of the phones that have impressed me the most this year, phones that will be used as benchmarks for what’s to come in 2023.
Google Pixel 7 Pro
I’m not sure which is more surprising: that Google is still making phones or that this time they actually made a good one. The Pixel 6 series was close, but some hardware issues left it in the “maybe not” pile. Most of the issues have been fixed in Generation 2022 and here we are.
The smaller Pixel 7 would be here instead of the Pro if Google had been kind enough to give it a telephoto lens and a 120Hz LTPO panel. This is an industry trend that bugs me — only big phones have cameras and good screens — but I’ll spare you the rant.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro is built with a vision, which can’t be said of many brands. The Pixel series has its own distinct hardware look, and timely feature releases regularly enable great new features that keep the phones fresh.
I’m not bothered by the fact that the Tensor G2 is slower than the chipsets of other 2022 flagships. To be honest, I’d forgotten at one point what chipset was in my personal phone – performance has long since ceased to matter. Energy efficiency hasn’t, however, and Google and Samsung still have work to do on that front.
AI is progressing at an incredible pace, I’ve been playing with ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion and it feels like I’m in a sci-fi movie. That only makes me more excited about Google’s approach to building phones: mind over matter, software over hardware.
Oppo Find N2
While pondering which phones should be in my Top 5, I thought of the Galaxy Z Flip4. I like small phones and have always liked the flip form factor, perfect right? But when I sat down to put my argument into words, I couldn’t. Has Samsung really upgraded the phone enough since the Z Flip3 (which I had only a passing interest in) or has my perspective changed? The latter, probably, I’m slowly approaching leaflets.
But among all the 2022 releases I think it is the Oppo Find N2 that deserves this place. The original Find N was also pretty cool, but at 275g and 15.9mm thick (folded) it was quite chunky. Oppo’s engineers have done an impressive job and have shaved off 42g in weight: the N2 weighs 233g, lighter than any horizontal foldable. They shaved some of the thickness too.
Seeing as most was my main complaint about the N, the Find N2 just nails everything else: an internal LTPO panel, wide angle + ultrawide + camera setup, big battery (for its size), and so on. Again, I’m not concerned that it ships with a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset instead of Gen 2. The removal of wireless charging annoys me a bit, but I guess that’s partly why the new model is thinner.
Oppo Find N on the left, Find N2 on the right
Now, for the best part, the cover display still has a pretty healthy aspect ratio (17.7:9) and with a diagonal of 5.54 inches and slim bezels making for a phone just 72.6mm wide and 132.2mm tall mm, perfectly usable with one hand. Even more now that it weighs less than an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Finally, a complaint about availability. Not the phone’s fault, of course, but if the Oppo Find N2 Flip can have a global launch, why can’t the Find N2?
Asus ZenFone 9
I’ve always liked smaller phones, more than the average Joe it seems, based on how badly they’re on the market. Sony gave up on Compacts a few years ago, Apple pulled the plug on the iPhone mini (a move it might regret, given how the Plus is doing).
The Asus Zenfone 9 is one of the very few suitably small Androids, and the only one from a major brand. I know there are some offerings from up and coming brands, although these seem to mostly be launched through Kickstarter (or similar services), but I prefer to go through a retailer or carrier instead.
Anyway, I’ll once again complain about the lack of a telephoto lens on a small phone, but I’ve lived without one for years and could live without one now… probably. The only big problem I have with the Zenfone is that Asus won’t commit to more than 2 OS updates – I spend a lot of time between switching phones and paying €800 for a phone is only justified if that phone is going to last several years. The Zenfone 9 is built well and the hardware will last, but the software will be dropped by the end of next year.
Realm GT2Pro
I’ve used my fair share of OnePlus phones and loved them – coincidentally, they were all T models. But the 8T was a bit of a disappointment, the 10T is also not what I’m looking for. These are starting to look like Xiaomi’s T-phones, which are a separate line instead of a mid-season update to the flagship. I still have hope that Nothing will continue where OnePlus left off after going mainstream, but the phone (1) is not.
This brings us to Realme, the last branch of the BBK tree. There’s a litter of number-series phones that make excellent budget choices, but they’re just not for me. The GT series, however, is reminiscent of the golden days of OnePlus.
The OnePlus GT2 Pro in particular stood out. It launched globally at €750 in February, but has since dropped significantly in price. It’s featured frequently when we write about smartphone deals, and with good reason: it offers great value for money.
There is a premium looking card-like option if you want. The 10-bit QHD LTPO display is flagship or even better considering that devices like the Galaxy S22+ and Xiaomi 13 have FHD+ displays while costing more than the GT2 Pro.
The cameras aren’t exactly on the level of OnePlus, but they’re close enough considering the price difference. The next round – Realme GT3 Pro vs. OnePlus 11 – is in a few weeks (probably, 2022 models launched in January), and that’s a sibling rivalry I’ll be following closely.
Xiaomi 12S Ultra
I remember my first camera phone, the Nokia 6230i, I still have photos (and even videos). It was fine for its time, but two decades of advances have improved phone cameras to a degree that’s sometimes hard to believe. And I think the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the best example of that since 2022. Sony’s variable focal length camera is also something to look out for, although the Xiaomi package is more impressive overall.
The era of 1” sensors in smartphones is officially upon us and with the help of Leica Xiaomi has managed to get great results from the IMX989 of the 12S Ultra. And while dedicated digital cameras, at least some of them, have larger sensors, the computational photography, on-device editing, and sharing options offered by smartphones are unmatched.
Realistically, it should be the Xiaomi 13 Pro here, which is basically the same phone except for the newer chipset and more boring look. Okay, “boring” is harsh, I actually like the clean design of the 13 Series. It looks pretty basic next to the 12S Ultra, however, which leaves no doubt about being a beastly cameraphone. I chose the 12S Ultra over the 13 Pro for its ambition, launching months ahead of its main competition.
I should also mention the concept device with Leica M lens mount. This breaks down the last wall between smartphones and mirrorless cameras and while such a device will probably never hit the market, it shows that Xiaomi can rock the camera world if it really wanted to.
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