Best Smartphones (Archive)

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I'm glad you've started this guide section, but as you've said - it needs improving. A lot.

Here are my biggest complaints for start:
- not enough brands covered [cut]
- price ranges are simply wrong [cut]
- yes, we want more coverage of <200$ phones [cut]
Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback and adding some useful info to the discussion. We would like to review more devices and include additional brands, but we're a very small group right now. We'll need additional resources to expand our coverage.

Our pricing categories are bit broad, and they are not set in stone. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, this is just a start and we'll refine the categories as we move forward.

- Matt Humrick, Mobile Editor, Tom's Hardware
 
I know that many people will say many things, and I am glad that everyone has an opinion..
but to someone who uses and supports all " three" major ecosystems for customers and personally, I find that windows phones are right fit for many situations - sure, they are not the peak hardware, but perform just as well - and I never seem to have trouble with them.
I just can not wait for a flagship level device with 10. I have at least 50 customers waiting for it.. Hint, Verizon - get one!
 
The S6 Edge (T-Mobile):
1. Abysmal battery life. -If you enjoy letting your phone dictate your personal indoor/outdoor activities this is your phone. You'll love having to charge it to full twice a day for even moderate daily use and dutifully checking it each time you go somewhere.
2. To add insult to injury: memory leaks which overtime completely cripples it's praised performance. Sometimes I want to take this phone and throw it against the wall. Samsung has issued a couple of OTA updates to address this. If someone from T-Mobile blindly tells me "full system" reset again I'm going to do just that. I have to power cycle this phone daily or I'm in trouble. Sometimes more!
I'm done with phone. I'm selling it. How could I have sold my Xperia Z3 for this disaster.
 
The S6 Edge (T-Mobile):
1. Abysmal battery life. -If you enjoy letting your phone dictate your personal indoor/outdoor activities this is your phone. You'll love having to charge it to full twice a day for even moderate daily use and dutifully checking it each time you go somewhere.
2. To add insult to injury: memory leaks which overtime completely cripples it's praised performance. Sometimes I want to take this phone and throw it against the wall. Samsung has issued a couple of OTA updates to address this. If someone from T-Mobile blindly tells me "full system" reset again I'm going to do just that. I have to power cycle this phone daily or I'm in trouble. Sometimes more!
I'm done with phone. I'm selling it. How could I have sold my Xperia Z3 for this disaster.
Click to expand...

We had another reader report a severe battery drain issue with a Verizon Galaxy S6. For him, the cellular radio was the culprit when the phone was kept in an area with low signal strength (his basement). We asked Samsung about this issue, but they did not respond. The two T-Mobile units we have (S6 and S6 edge) do not have any issues with standby time, although they are in an area with excellent signal strength.

Memory leaks have plagued Android 5 since its release. The issue is more apparent on the Galaxy S6 because of TouchWizes large memory footprint, which leaves little working space for apps. We discussed this in the software section of our review. We have experienced frequent app reloads when multitasking (similar to our experience with the iPhone 6), which the LG G4 does not seem to have an issue with so far.

- Matt Humrick, Mobile Editor, Tom's Hardware
 
Categories recommended: Small- sub 4.5 inch, medium- 4.5 to 5.5, phablet 5.5 plus and sport/active.

Prices recommended: budget- sub 100$, value- 100-200$, midrange- 200-300$, flagship- 300-700$, premium- 700$ plus
 
Some general comments:

> Okay.... I see the {ahem} fanboyism in play. Hard to avoid it since we all have our favorites and dislike all others for real or imagined reasons.

> Sadly if you only have a few brands and models to choose from out of more than your comfortable counting, it can be very easy to miss something better.

> We can blame Google for what many of us would consider a step backwards with external SD Card storage: ever since Lollipop (v.4) they have restricted what you can and cannot do with one, right down to the software level.... unless you root your phone/tablet and remove the restriction yourself. (Plus GPL Android is kept weaker with less features than the proprietary version we get on our phones and tablets) I believe this is why some phone/tablet manufacturers have moved away from external storage: Google has no love of it (anymore) and would rather see it go away.

> Even Tom's admits that this particular "Best of" is a WiP in categories. Give them a break here.
 
Other possible categories: Best call quality, best camera-indoor and outdoor, best screen-indoor and outdoor, best sound -speaker and headphones, best web and app performance, most durable etc. etc. etc.
 
Other possible categories: Best call quality, best camera-indoor and outdoor, best screen-indoor and outdoor, best sound -speaker and headphones, best web and app performance, most durable etc. etc. etc.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, interesting idea. Picking a "best" product in any category is difficult, because everyone has a different idea of what's best for them. Adding additional categories as you suggest would help people focus in on the features they feel are most important. I'll bring this up in our next meeting. Thanks :)

- Matt Humrick, Mobile Editor, Tom's Hardware
 
Well, I for one, can heartily agree with the Zenfone 2 being in there and despite it's "mid range" price bracket it really does offer flagship performance in real-world use. Intel aren't a big player in the smartphone market but given the performance and battery life I get (heavy user & small-time gamer) I'd be amazed if a few more manufacturers aren't looking at adopting them for future smartphone releases.

It also has dual sim, micro-SD and a very reasonable build quality despite being an all-plastic design. Only real letdowns imo are the bloatware apps (though some are actually very good), middling-quality camera and screen brightness (struggle to see in bright daylight but I'm in the UK so it's not often an issue!)

Also, it's available in a few different versions. 1.8GHz & 2.3GHz CPUs (Z550ML & Z551ML respectively) and in 16Gb storage (Z550ML only) and 32Gb, 64Gb & 128Gb (Z551ML) though I think the 128 is not yet available internationally.

I have the Z551ML 32Gb model (with a 64Gb microSD card) and have been using it daily as my main (only) phone since April with no issues.
 
You totally missed the boat on the best Bargain phone. $200 is no bargain.

Without a doubt the best true bargain phone is the Nokia 531. The 531 is less than $80 and because it has a SIM card slot it can have a lot more storage than your bargain pick.
 
There is an old saying in life You get what you pay for.True indeed. Stay away from Nokia it is plain junk!

 
Is there anyway to find out which phones where considered for this article? I am wondering if any phones from Blu or Oppo where even considered? Was the limit for low end phones set at 150? If any of my friends or family asked me which is better for a low end phone the moto G or the $200 Asus ZenPhone Two. (With the 16gig Storage and 2gig ram) I would very much recommend the Asus.
 
Asus is a good $200 phone versatile and decent to use.

 
I personally would like more phone reviews and to include those not currently in the US market. Lots of cellphones out there besides Samsung and Apple. An example is a phone I just ordered, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 for $169 from Gearbest.com. Call me cheap or broke or whatever but no way in hell I'm paying $600+ on a friggin cellphone!
 
Personally I would like to see more cellphone reviews. Lots of good cellphones out there besides Samsung and Apple. I would also like to see reviews of phones outside of the US because a lot of these phones can currently be bought at places like Gearbest. I recently bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 for $169 that has specs and features like the big boys. There are good deals out there if one spends some time looking. Would be good if Tomshardware would bring some of these to see the light of day.
 
The post should be reviewed ! The Nexus 6 32 Gb is on sale with Amazon for 350 now. That's pretty hard to beat and you can try out Google Fi to boot.
 
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