Introduction
As 2018 draws to a close, it's only fitting we take a look back and try to remember it for what it was - twelve months filled with hundreds of smartphones - some cool, others - not so much. Our reviewers always strive to remain as objective as possible but they do have their favorites and today they are sharing them with you.
These are the phones that impressed or inspired our editors the most in more ways than one.
So, without further ado, here are the devices our editors think they deserve to be called the best smartphones of 2018.
Kaloyan
The smartphone of the year - that's a tough one. I would have probably picked the Pocophone F1, because it's the smart purchase, probably the smartest, but I suspect how Xiaomi achieved its incredible price - through exclusive deals for retailers, MIUI forced ads and probably selling it at a loss for the glory of its startup. That's also smart, but not an achievement.
The phone that stood out the most this year, for me at least, was the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. It employs many bleeding-edge treats - introduced a blazing-fast new chipset, unbelievable fast charging, faster under-display fingerprint scanner, more advanced Face Unlock, but the triple-camera on the back is the most impressive feature of all - I was just blown away by it.
The versatility of the Mate - cameraphone, gaming phone, daily driver, and business organizer, along with the technology advances it introduced is what makes it an easy pick for the best smartphone this year. Huawei Mate 20 Pro - not the fastest, but definitely the most memorable and advanced smartphone of 2018!
But I want to add a runner-up - the Pixel 3. While it's just an incremental upgrade over the Pixel 2, the third Pixel is probably the one no-nonsense smartphone this year - compact design, no notch, vanilla bloat-free Android OS, and a single camera that produces nothing short of stunning pictures. The Pixel 3 is a perfect demonstration of how you can have speed, productivity, and camera prowess in a compact body without using any of the widespread tricks such as a multiple camera setup.
Ivan
My top pick of 2018 will likely be the most boring - it's the Google Pixel 3, the non-XL one.
It's the best compact phone you can have, it's a masterclass in photography and runs the latest and cleanest Android around. Sprinkled-in niceties like wireless charging, stereo speakers and an ultra-wide selfie camera complete the great package.
Ro
We had the chance to play with a lot of new tech over the past 12 months but only a few stuck with me. To be honest, it feels like the smartphone market has become even staler.
Luckily, there are a few manufacturers who spiced things up. We had sliders, we had dual-screen phones, we had incredibly fast charging speeds but in the end, I am mostly drawn to phones that focus on what's important.
I must say that I've been a stock Android fan for a couple of years now but in 2018, I had to rethink some of my firm beliefs and ask myself, does the clean Android experience offset other drawbacks? And I've come to the conclusion that you always have to settle for something, even though OnePlus says you don't.
So for me, the OnePlus 6T and the Samsung Galaxy Note9 are the best phones for 2018. The OnePlus 6T satisfies all my needs when it comes to reliability, usability, performance, and clean, clutter-free experience. The in-display fingerprint is more than "just usable" while the fast charging can change your habits of overnight-ing. And besides, OnePlus finally did a pretty good job of optimizing the camera software and can now go head to head with the best camera phone flagships. It might still lose, but it can put up a fight for sure. All fitting in a relatively affordable package.
The Note9, on the other hand, embodies a lot of things I strongly dislike - the bloated and over-the-top customized Samsung Experience UI, unnecessary curved screen that makes the phone costly, distorts the picture and gets in the way of some app's UI. Also, it doesn't have reasonable fast charging and software updates are slow. But if have to be objective on this one, it's hands-down the phone with the least compromises on the market. I call it the "zero compromises flagship of 2018".
Sure, it's a minor upgrade from the Note8 but that's what makes it an even better device. It checks all the boxes - stunning display, great 4,000 mAh battery, microSD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack, great camera experience with usable telephoto lens, wireless charging, doesn't have a notch and more importantly, offers a bucketload of features that other handsets don't - yes, I am talking about the S Pen and its functionalities. All the complaints I have for the phone can be overlooked by most users. After all, not everyone cares about software usability or fast charging as much as I do.
Vlad
In my opinion, the most memorable phone of 2018 isn't one with sliding bits and pieces, or the highest screen-to-body ratio, or a secondary display on the back, or umpteen cameras, or anything like that.
It's a device that pairs most of the things that people want from a flagship with a price that's been unheard of in the mobile world ever since OnePlus decided to constantly ask for more with every new phone release.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm talking about the Pocophone F1. This is definitely not the perfect smartphone, but seriously just look at that price. For the price, it's unbeatable. For a lot of people, it would probably be unbeatable even when compared to devices that cost $100-$150 more. It's a proper high-end handset, though obviously not devoid of compromises - it's much easier to get to grips with those in a $300 phone than it is in a $1,000+ phone.
So kudos to Xiaomi and its Poco division for really shaking up the mobile market this year.
Yordan
2018 was a fruitful year for technology and innovation and I can't be more surprised how it turned out. Back in July, when I was doing my recap of the first six months, I was utterly unimpressed with the market but held my head high. And thank goodness, because the second half of 2018 introduced us to the trends of 2019 - extremely tall screens, plenty of cameras on the back and getting rid of the bezel one way or another.
I successfully predicted the Google Pixel phones will stay with one camera, so feel free to call me Yordanstradamus, heh! I also guessed correctly that Huawei will keep pushing more and more devices, while the new iPhone will be indistinguishable from the old one.
What I couldn't predict, though, is the tremendous piece of technology that is the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. It has plenty of everything and compensates for some cons like the EMUI. It might be cool for some, but I honestly dislike it and prefer the stock Android, but you can't have all the eggs in one basket.
The next twelve months will be a new beginning in a two-year technology cycle, so we should see Samsung say goodbye to the Infinity Display and introduce a new design with a hole for the camera, while I honestly hope Apple will find a better solution than its weird-looking notch.
I'm pretty sure Google will keep its devices for a handful of markets because smartphones are not an integral part of their business. The company just wants to expand its ecosystem in countries where users have some worth to the company.
I'd love to see some creativity from Chinese companies in their product design in 2019, but we know this is unlikely to happen. Manufacturers will keep copying their Western competitors, mostly because of cultural reasons, and we will keep seeing Lenovo, Xiaomi, vivo, Oppo trying to imitate Apple in order to be more relevant at their domestic market.
George
I'd have to name the Galaxy Note9 as my pick for 2018 precisely for not being part of certain destructive trends. Call me backward, but I still find the war on expandable storage and headphone connectors stupid and don't even get me started on notched displays, be they full-on iPhone X style, or dew drops, or whatever - just no!
Now, I will admit Samsung has jumped on the bandwagon of AI-this-and-that, but Bixby can be easily sidelined (accidental double presses of that wasted button haven't happened to me). The Note9 is also up there with the most expensive handsets on the market, which is another area where things aren't going quite the way I'd like them to, but I will argue with anyone who says it's not the most phone you can get for your dollar.
Not all trends are bad, and the Note9 is missing out on new developments in the field of fast charging, I'll admit. Samsung's QuickCharge 2.0-level Adaptive Fast Charging is what, 5 years old now? I'm just hoping they'll go with Power Delivery instead of some new proprietary solution - I've had enough of those.
Also, I was sort of rooting for Samsung to lead the way in under display fingerprint sensors, which is clearly not the case. Meanwhile, I'm cautiously enthusiastic about the rumored ultra-wide camera on the S10 - I've been longing for one on a Samsung for some time now and the ones on the current A-series phones don't quite cut it.
So yeah, speaking of top picks, nothing tops the Note9 right now, the way I see it. On my Pixel 3 screen. Wait what?
Victor
Best phone of 2018, best phone of 2018... Now, that's a tough one. Not for lack of choice, mind you. Throughout the year quite a few devices managed to pique my interest. The Huawei Mate 20 Pro some of my colleagues already mentioned is an exquisite piece of hardware on almost every level. EMUI is a bit of a love-hate relationship for me, personally, but Huawei's camera software and night mode definitely took more than a few of us at the office by surprise.
Of course, that initial wave of excitement about the algorithmic low-light photo magic was followed by the Google Pixel 3 and its amazing leaps into computational photography. Mobile photography will never be quite the same in a very good way and I'm sure processing magic will be the way to go forward in the future.
But, enough beating about the bush, if you had to twist my hand into naming my personal top device for 2019 it will probably be the one currently in my pocket - the Samsung Galaxy Note9. The reasons for that choice are numerous. The fact that I have owned and used every single Galaxy Note since Note 2 played no small part in that particular decision. I am clearly a creature of habit, but I am more than ready to defend the Note9's title as the most versatile phone currently out there. My colleague George already expressed pretty much all of my sentiments about odd display cut-outs, the state of the mobile market and the Note 9's unique place in it, so I'm not going to regurgitate the same.
What I will do is take this opportunity to express quite a bit of excitement about the future of mobile and the way I foresee it - branching! It might be the recent ROG Phone review in my backlog talking, or maybe thy flexible display "hype train" that I have been patiently riding aboard for a few years now finally nearing its first station in 2019. Regardless, I am excited about something different. The way I see things going down involves at least a couple of new classes of mobile devices taking shape, be it dedicated gaming hardware or a whole new versatile form factor in-between phones and tablets, with magical unfolding abilities. But, I think I've started rambling, so I'll just leave it at excited and hoping for something new and different.
Angie
Straight up, my favorite phone of the year is the Galaxy S9. It's compact, it does everything I need it to do, and I didn't experience that moment of "huh, oh, I can't do that I guess". Also, the days of TouchWiz are far gone, so I actually enjoyed the UI. Perhaps that's why I let it go when I was recently asked to because it was needed in the test lab for some further testing.
Despite all these manufacturers chasing "better" features, I often feel like I have to sacrifice a bunch of effort to do basic things and honestly, I don't have the time for that. I want my phone to work for me, not the other way around.
However, if you're like me, but want a beast and a better camera, I'd have to name the Galaxy Note 9 as my top pick for 2018.
Chavdar
2018 felt like a breath of fresh air due to the introduction of several novel form factors of the all-screen phone. I really enjoyed the mechanics and the physical feedback of the smartphones with moving parts. Unfortunately, each of these devices had a set of their own drawbacks so none really made it high on my list.
In the end, I settled on a more conventional smartphone as my choice for the best phone of the year. The OnePlus 6T covered all the bases for me - a cool brand identity; an UD fingerprint reader for a splash of bleeding edge tech for the nerd in me; a reasonable price tag; clean and responsive software with just the right amount of custom features; a great AMOLED screen with a minimal notch; a camera with an awesome dynamic range; really fast charging; and solid battery life. Sure, there are phones which can best the OnePlus 6T in any of these aspects, but none is as good in all of them simultaneously.
With that said, on behalf of the senior editorial staff here at GSMArena, I'd like to conclude this article by thanking all of my fellow editors for the hard work throughout 2018. I enjoyed working with each and every member of this wonderful team and I hope you will carry over your endless curiosity, passion, creativity, and perseverance into 2019 as well.
I would also like to thank you - our readers - for the loyalty, support and the never-ending critical feedback that has always kept us on our toes and motivated us to do our best and beyond. Happy New Year, everyone!
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