TierMarks

Best Phones of 2020

Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.

  1. Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra2020The best Note Samsung ever built, priced and shaped like a phone that already knew it was the last one.Read the review
  2. iPhone 122020The flat-edged 5G reset that carried Apple's design through 2025, held back at launch by a 60 Hz panel and a battery that went backwards.
  3. OnePlus 8 ProOnePlus 8 Pro2020OnePlus's first complete flagship had the best screen of 2020 and a green tint on too many of them.
  4. iPhone SE (2020)2020An A13 in an iPhone 8 body for $399, the best deal Apple has ever offered, provided you could live with 2017's bezels and battery.
  5. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra2020Fourteen hundred dollars bought a 100x zoom that was a party trick and a 108 megapixel camera that could not focus on a face.
  6. LG Wing2020The strangest phone of 2020, a swivelling second screen on a mid-range phone, and the last big idea LG had before it left the business.
  7. Motorola Razr (2019)Motorola Razr (2019)2020Nostalgia at 1,499 dollars: a mid-range phone with a creaking hinge and a small battery, beaten eight days later by a Samsung that did everything better.