Editor's Pick {EFE}: Top 5 mobile phones of 2022

As the year is coming to an end, we take a look of some of the best mobile phones that the market had. This year, 2022, was pretty tough in the mobile phone market. Even though some of the top brands had decent sales, they had to handle several obstacles. The COVID-19 epidemic restricted the regular production schedules of several brands. There was also the severe shortage of parts which affected almost all mobile phone brands. Nevertheless, a lot of mobile phones made their way to the market and some of them are pretty decent. These devices comes with several upgrades, and innovations but some stands out. The top 5 mobile phones list takes a look at the devices that stood out.

Of the several possible options, I was able to narrow down my pick to the top 5 in this article. This pick is by no means an easy one because we had several great devices out there this year. In making the pick, I basically considered hardware, software and performance. Price was not considered because the "best" do not necessarily have to be cheap. Just a heads up, all the mobile phones in my personal top 5 mobile phone list for the year 2022 are flagships and they are quite pricey.

My Top 5 mobile phones for 2022

1. Google Pixel 7 Pro

This is about the cheapest mobile phone in this list costing $899 but it takes the No. 1 spot in m top 5 mobile phones list for some reasons. From the Google Pixel 6 series, the company introduced a design that the market appreciated. Google Pixel 7 Pro retained this design and this was not a mistake at all. In addition to the design which gets a pass mark, the Pixel 7 Pro comes with a great daily performance, decent battery life and as usual, an "A" grade camera.

The Google Pixel 7 pro comes with a huge 6.7 inch display which easily passes as one of the best screens in the market this year. Users have absolutely no problem using it even in a very bright environment. Under the hood, there is the Google Tensor G2 chip which makes this device smoother than ever. There are upgrades in AI speech detection and the performance is pretty sleek. Unlike the previous generation, the Google Pixel 7 series has much less complaints. This is a proof of the capacity of this device. The battery of this device is very impressive such that only heavy users will have a need to charge this device once a day. For light and average users, there will be no need to recharge.

The camera of the Google Pixel 7 Pro is one of the best the market had this year. This is really not a surprise, Google has one of the best mobile camera sensors in the industry. In terms of main camera capacity, this device retains the same sensor as the Pixel 6 Pro, a 50MP main shooter. However, the Pixel 7 Pro has a telephoto camera with better zoom. There are also some optimzations in the sensors that makes the zoom image quality great.

Apart from camera, another area that Google has always been good is in software optimization. Of course, this is not a surprise, Google owns Android. The Pixel mobile phones gets all Android innovations before any other Android device. In addition, Pixel devices has the priviledge of getting regular and quick updates. Thus, there is little or no opportunity for the device to lag. In addition to some new features like the excellent live transcription in the Recorder app, Pixel mobile phones will also get five ears of software updates.

2. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

Well, its expensive and big, but its worth it if the best is really what we are talking about. Thus, it has a spot in my top 5 mobile phones list. With the increase in size, Samsung had more room to stack the Galaxy S22 Ultra with the best of hardwares. This mobile phone comes with a huge 6.8 inch display that supports 120Hz high refresh rate not forgetting the in-built stylus. The stylus is a feature reserved for the Note series but the Ultra model is now the successor to the Note series so it comes with a stylus. If you need to own this device, you will have to part with $1200 but it is worth every cent.

Under the hood, this mobile phone comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. We all know that this is one of the best chips in the market and there is no surprise that that the performance is great. Samsung also did some design creativity by adding the stylus to the bottom of the phone. The latency of the stylus is also lower thus better than older models.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with five sensors on the rear, retaining the 108MP main camera. However, the company optimizes the telephoto sensors with excellent portrait mode. In all honesty, the 10x telephoto sensor in this device is about the best you will find in the mobile phone market. Samsung packed a decent 5000 mAh battery on this device knowing the power draining features that the mobile phone packs. The battery will barely last a day on average use and heavy users will certainly have to charge at least once within a day.

The square design of the Galaxy S22 Ultra is unique and premium. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S22 Ultra's major strengths are in niche features. If you use 10x zoom as well as the stylus regularly, then spending $1200 on this device shouldnt be an issue. On the software end, Samsung also did some optimizations in addition to the four years of software upgrade.

3. iPhone 14 Pro Max

The iPhone 14 Pro Max takes a spot on this list and it will be weird if it didnt. Whether it is the Pro or Pro Max model, I see them as basically the same. The Pro Max is only $100 more sexpensive, selling at $1099. One of the major upgrades is in the "Dynamic Island" feature which is not entriely new to the market but Apple packaged it pretty well. Just like other flagships, the iPhone 14 Pro Max comes with a large 6.7 inch screen that supports up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. Depending on the situation of use, the refresh rate can go as low as 1Hz which allows the device to save power. Of course, the new AOD is another feature of importance.

Just like other iPhones, the camera of this device is one of the best. It comes with a 48MP sensor which appears to just be enough with the right software optimization. This sensor can output 12MP images maximizing the light sensitivity. Even in low light environments, the images are pretty decent with little or no noise. Although Apple claims that this camera is a huge leap forward, in reality, it isnt. It is just a little better than its predecessor. We can call this bottle neck in the improvement of the camera in iPhones "natural" because Apple is almost at the peak.

This device also comes with the A16 Bionic chip which is just slightly above the previous A15 Bionic. However, this should not worry anyone considering that the A15 is well above most Android flagship processors in performance. Thus, the A16 is clearly the best there is.

4. OnePlus 10 Pro

Just like the Google Pixel 7 Pro, the OnePlus 10 Pro also starts at $899. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 coupled with a decent camera and massive battery, this device easily gets a spot in my top 5 mobile phones list. If you dont want to use the Pixel 7 Pro, then you should try the OnePlus 10 Pro. Starting from the design down to the software of this device, all are of premium quality.

This mobile phone comes with 6.7 inch LTPO2 Fluid AMOLED display that supports up to 120Hz refresh rate. With a brightness of 1300 nits, users have no issue using this device in bright light. If there is anything you need in a flagship display, the OnePlus 10 Pro has it. The camera of this device is pretty regular (48MP + 8MP + 50MP) but its collaboration with Hasselblad means that it has one of the best cameras in the market. The battery is a huge 5000 mAh battery that supports 80W wired, 50W wireless as well as reverse wireless charging.

5. Xiaomi 12S Ultra

Just like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra stacks up decent hardwares but the price is cheaper as it sells for approximately $970. This mobile phone seamlessly can take on all other devices on this list.

Starting from the display, this device uses a 6.73 inch high end E5 AMOLED screen that supports 2K resolution. This device is an LTPO screen and it conserves power. There are other flagship qualities like the Gorilla Glass Victus, high refresh rate and more. Unlike other flagships, this mobile phone comes with an on screen fingerprint sensor. With the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, this device performs better than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 models on this list.

In the camera department, this mobile phone uses a 50MP Sony IMX989 sensor which is large in size. It captures more lights and the output image is far better. Xiaomi also did some optimizations to the imaging software which significantly upgrades the camera. With the big hardware, Xiaomi also uses a big 4860 mAh battery that supports 67W wired fast charging, 50W wireless fast charging and 10W reverse wireless charging.

Conclusion

As I said earlier, this list basically considers hardware, software and performance. Of course, there are other mobile phones which may be on par with the devices on this list. Unfortunately, I can only include five devices on this list. Xiaomi is already starting 2023 well with the likes of Xiaomi 13 series and the Redmi K60 series making grand entry into the market with decent innovations and upgrades. What do you think about the mobile phones on this list? Let us know in the comment section below.