The year 2018 has been an exciting one when it comes to smartphones. Of the hundreds of phones launched this year, we set out to find the very best of the best for our Zero1 Awards
Zero1 Best Flagship smartphone
The year 2018 saw flagship smartphones differentiate themselves from those which offered the same top of the line Qualcomm processor at a much lower price. This was achieved by incorporating high-resolution HDR enabled displays, the incorporation of IP ratings and overall the use of design language that sets them apart from the rest. However, Zero1 Awards are where we award the one best performing smartphone and that will emerge not from the extra features, but from a perfect marriage of cutting edge hardware and beautifully optimised software. While everyone continued to use the 10nm process-based Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip, Apple and Huawei pushed beyond with new 7nm based processors. We tested every flagship smartphone that was released this year once again to see just how they stacked up, and to once and for all, settle the debate of who the best performer was.
2018 Zero1 Award Winner
Apple iPhone XS Max (Review)
Apple’s product line-up saw an unexpected change this year in terms of the pricing strategy, with the starting price of nearly a lac. While most Android flagships were getting more reasonably priced in India, Apple only went ahead and increased that gap, but they also did the same when it comes to performance. The new A12 Bionic process manufactured on the breakthrough 7nm process wasn’t just going to deliver theoretical speeds. In our benchmark tests, the iPhone XS Max with its 4GB RAM blazed past every android phone by a considerable margin. In some tests, the iPhone came out as 5 percent faster than the second fastest (non-iPhone) smartphone, and in some cases, almost twice as fast. For example, the iPhone XS Max scored 316685 on AnTuTu, the highest score we’ve seen yet. Geekbench Single and Multi-Core scores for the iPhone XS Max were seen to hit 4791 and 11026 respectively. On average, the iPhone XS Max is mostly 20-30 percent faster across the board, thanks to the harmonious optimisation of the hardware to Apple’s performance focussed mobile operating system, iOS 12. For the year 2018, the Apple iPhone XS Max is hands down the top performer of the year, and a flagship smartphone that leaves all else behind. The only downside to the Apple iPhone XS Max is its Rs 1,44,990 price tag for the 512GB storage variant, which is a very steep price to pay just for peak performance.
Runner-up
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (Review)
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is our choice of best buy for the Zero1 awards. The smartphone was beaten by the Pixel 3 XL by just a hair, but when considering the numbers from benchmarks for the performance of the CPU/GPU/RAM and the battery, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a difficult smartphone to not recommend. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has the best display in the market today, with a 2.5K resolution and HDR Premium certification which allows playback of HDR content with great accuracy. The dual camera setup on the back paired with the front facing AF capable camera delivers very impressive results and the 4000mAh battery means you can use the camera for as long as you want since we found the phone to last a day and a half without any problem. Combining all this and factoring in the price, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 emerges as the most value for money smartphone in 2018.
Best Buy
LG G7+ ThinQ (Review)
The LG G7+ ThinQ was the most surprising launch of the year for us. Up until last year, LG’s smartphones seemed to be the embodiment of one bad decision or the other. However, with the G7+ ThinQ, the company created a true flagship level smartphone. Top of the line SoC paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB UFS2.1 storage meant it quickly found its way to the top tier of our benchmarked devices and the HDR enabled LCD-IPS display was a truly wonderful panel to watch content on. The QUAD-DAC performed splendidly as well, making it an ideal choice for those who consume a lot of content. The only two points of criticism for the LG G7+ ThinQ happened to be its relatively small 3000mAh battery and less than stellar imaging performance of the rear cameras. But given the phone’s performance and the price, the LG G7+ThinQ is our choice for the best buy in the premium flagship smartphone category.
Follow Us
Swapnil Mathur
Swapnil was Digit's resident camera nerd, (un)official product photographer and the Reviews Editor. Swapnil has moved-on to newer challenges. For any communication related to his stories, please mail us using the email id given here. View Full Profile
