(hands clapping) (record screeches) - And now we're synced. (upbeat music) - What's up, guys? Saf here on SuperSaf TV, and we've got a very special video today with my friend Marques. Welcome to the show, man. - Thanks for having me. - It's always, always great to have you. - Yeah. - So today, we're going to do a video, which is the top five
smartphones of 2023 so far. Now, Marques, I know you
have your Smartphone Awards at the end of the year. - [Marques] Yep. - And it's so interesting because so many people are
now doing their own versions of the Smartphone Awards and you know. How do you feel about that, by the way? - Did you see my mid-season one? - Yeah, yeah, I did.
- Yeah. That's how I felt. That's how I felt. It's almost like it's become
its own genre of video, which is cool, but I kind of, obviously, there's like a
gradient to how phones come out during the year, where there's
a few in the beginning, and then a few in the middle, and then they all come
out in quarter three-- - [Saf] Yeah. - ... and then you kind of know
that's phone buying season. - Yeah. - So yeah. We're sort of just looking at
the first half of the year. - Yeah, so I think, 'cause I've been doing this
series for a few years now, where I kind of do a mid-year, what I normally find is
some of the smartphones that come out towards
the beginning of the year kind of get forgotten and
overshadowed, shall we say, towards the end of the year. So this way we can actually talk about and highlight some of the cool smartphones because there have been
a few cool smartphones so far, right? - There have. There definitely have.
There's been some moments. - Yes. There has been.
- For sure. - So the way we're going to
do this is, as always, 2023. So that is the condition
that I've given Marques. - Yeah.
- And at the end of the video, we will be sharing with
you our daily drivers, as they like to say. The term daily drivers, right? So stay tuned for that. But that's been the only condition. The list will be different to yours. That's fine, guys. We
can still be friends. Drop your list in the description below, 'cause people get very emotional if you don't include the
devices that they like. - Yeah, it's funny whenever... This comes up on like every top five list, but if ESPN ranks like the
top basketball players-- - Yeah. - ... and you put the wrong
person as number three, it's like an insult to
everyone else on the list. - Yeah. (laughs) - No, there's a lot of good phones. - Yeah. - This is just my top five. - And we've used a lot of smartphones, but we've not used every
single one this year. - [Marques] That's also true. My list is only from phones
that I've actually tested. - There you go. So now you know. So we're going to start off. So Marques, as you are
the guest on the channel, I'll let you go first. - Okay. So my number five? - Well, I mean it can be in any order. - Okay, so I wrote down my top five, and I'll go reverse order. - Okay. - I'll start with my number five. - Okay. Your number five. Okay. That's going to
be interesting. Okay. - I got my list down here.
- Yeah. - My number five is the Oppo Find X6 Pro. - [Saf] Oppo Find X6 Pro. Nice. - This is one that came out, and I saw the hardware spec sheet list, and I was just like, phones
are just like that now? - [Saf] Yeah. - Like you can just get
5,000 mAh batteries, a one-inch sensor, 1440P,
Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2. You just go down the
list. It's got it all. It's not a huge hit this
side of the Atlantic, But it's still an incredible
piece of hardware, so-- - It is.
- ... put it on my list. - It is indeed. Now, I actually have not tested-- - Okay.
- ... the device. It's just been crazy, so I
haven't actually tested it. Otherwise, it may have made my list. - I think you'd like it. - Yeah.
- Camera's good. - But. I'm going to give you my... Now, mine isn't in any particular order because I think it's really tough to kind of put them into the order. But I'm going to say
the Opal Find N2 Flip. - Yes. - Oh, the Flip?
- Yeah. - [Saf] The Flip. Now, with this, because we've had the Galaxy Flip series, which has been dominating. Clamshell-design flip phones, right? But I kind of feel like,
no shade on Samsung, but I feel like they've kind
of taken a bit of a backstep. They're like, hey, we've not
really got much competition, so we'll just do incremental
updates here and there, whereas I feel that the Find N2 Flip has actually a usable front display. - Right. - Yeah. - Samsung was first to it. - Yes. - And now, we're starting
to get the improvements on this foundation of
the Flip and the Fold. - Mm-hmm. - I think the second half of the year, we're going to see a lot
more interesting Flip stuff. - Yes. Yeah. - But for now, I agree with that as probably the best flipping
one that you can get, so I like that. - [Saf] Now, it's interesting
you mentioned about later on in the year, because
I think the Find N2 Flip will get forgotten later in the year-- - That makes sense. - ... when we have the other one. - 'Cause we're going to get this... I mean, you've seen the rumors. - Yeah.
- We're expecting huge screens on the front of these Flip things. - Yeah.
- Motorola, Samsung. So you're right, it probably will... I mean, that doesn't make it a bad phone-- - Exactly.
- ... when the new ones come out. It's just like, this is how
far we've gotten with this. - Yeah. And I think that's, that's important to kind of give them credit because it's a really nice phone. Now, it's not perfect because
with the front display, there's not a huge deal
that you can do with it. They have been doing updates, and when you're using the cover display, the cameras only shoot at 1080p, not 4K. I don't know why that is.
- Strange. - Yeah, I don't if that's
a hardware limitation, but it's kind of weird
why they do that but-- - Hmm. Yeah.
- Yeah. But the good thing is, I mean, it's got a much larger battery than the flip from Samsung. - The hardware, the whole list. - It's so good that there's not much... The crease is better,
and there's also no gap, which I really like as well compared to what we've got on the Flip. So I love seeing that competition, so that's going to be on my list. All right.
- Okay. - What do we have next? - So I got crazy by making mine in order, but I got to stick with it--
- Yeah. (laughs) - ... So I'm sticking in order. - That's fine. - All right. I got ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. So ASUS stuff does get forgotten a lot in the second half of the year, but obviously, there's the ROG Phone line. The Ultimate I picked, 'cause
this is the one I tested, and this is the highest-end version. And this is, again, one of those phones that's just a spec monster. - Yeah. - And if you like media in any way, including gaming, obviously, this phone is the complete package. An absurd 6,000 mAh battery. - [Saf] That's insane. - The only thing it doesn't
have is wireless charging. - Yeah. - But it makes up right
with these massive speakers. It's got the new chip, obviously. - [Saf] Mm-hmm. - [Marques] And I don't
if you saw the video I made about it-- - [Saf] I did. - [Marques] ... but the cooler that they've made for these things, it gets crazier every year. - [Saf] Yeah. The interactive cooler now
has like some subwoofers in there, and it's got
cooling at the front. - [Marques] Yeah. - [Saf] So it cools the
front portion of the display as well, which is insane. - And triggers and LED, lights
and all this crazy stuff. One of the wildest phones you can get. - Yep. - [Marques] Somehow it
will get overshadowed by the second half of this year, but I think that one's
going to be a great, I've used old ROG phones for years, and those phones held up well, so-- - Yes.
- Good. So that's also on my list as well. - Okay.
- So we'd snap on that one. Yeah, I just love how
overkill that smartphone is. You don't need a display at the back, - You've got a--
- You just don't. - It's on the back. - Yeah, it's on the back, but it's just... I just love that it's so overkill. And it's not for everybody,
but I think it really showcases how far a smartphone can go. You've got the split batteries. You've got the USB port. I think it was the first device with the USB port on the side. - On the side.
- As well as at the bottom, so if you're gaming and
you want to plug in, you can do bypass-charging where it's actually keeping
the phone powered while-- - Yeah. - [Saf] ... it's not coming in the way. It's not on the side. - [Marques] Yeah, ASUS has
maybe the most battery features of any phone I've used, from charge limiting, to
charge speed limiting, to bypass charging, to--
- Amazing. - ... all the other stuff. - Yeah.
- They're good. - So ROG Phone 7 Ultimate.
- Yeah. - What do we have next? - All right, next up, I'm
ranking up a little bit now. - Yeah. - Galaxy S23. - [Saf] Okay. - [Marques] Just the standard S23. - [Saf] Okay. Interesting. So this is kind of like the, and I talked about this with the S22, but the default--
- Yes. - ... solid, does everything
you need, not too flashy. And it's a boring phone, basically. And I called it the iPhone
of Android last year-- - Okay. - ... which is, of course,
a crazy thing to say. It's a title for a video,
but like the truth is, when you go in a store here in the US, you can't really go wrong with an S23. It's got the camera. It's got the battery. It's going to get software updates. It's got good signal, good screen. There's not really anything
wrong with the S23-- - [Marques] Yeah. - [Saf] ... which makes it
super safe and super boring, but it's still a really good phone. - It ticks all the boxes,
and I think a lot of people who maybe will see the
top-tier device will be like, that's cool, but it's not for me. The S23 is fine, and you're
right, it ticks all the boxes. It's a really, really good device, so-- - [Saf] And the top-tier
device is gigantic. - [Marques] Exactly. - [Saf] So the S23, not even the Plus, the S23 is what, a 6.2 inch
or something in that range? So it's not huge. It's flat. It's just, it's a nice phone. - It is definitely a nice phone. That is not on my list.
- Okay. - But I do have the Samsung
Galaxy S23 Ultra on my list. - [Marques] Okay. - Now, I am somebody who
loves the S Pen, right? I don't use it all the time,
I'll be honest with you, but when I do use it, I'm like, oh man, it's so good that it's here, right? - It's one of those things. - It is.
- If you don't use it, it feels like a gimmick--
- Yeah. - ... but the one time you need it, of course, it's a great feature. - But even, I think, this year for me, being from the UK as well, is that it's powered by
the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 across the board. We don't have XNS. - [Marques] Yeah. - So that's something that I've personally
been super happy about. And yeah, just battery life, performance. The cameras are reliable. I can just, I don't have
to think about them. Take pictures. Zoom in. We were at a wedding
yesterday and Boor's wedding shout out to Boored at Work, and just to kind of get
in those zoomed-in shots-- - Yeah.
- ... when you're at the back. But you can do that with the S23. - Really useful. It's really useful. - Yeah. - And you can take pictures of the moon. - You could take crazy
pictures of the moon. I don't know if you've
used the 200 megapixel mode or whatever. There's other crazy camera features, But this is on my list, too. - Okay. - This is the top of my list, actually. I mean, yeah, it's the huge phone that-- - Spoiler.
- ... does everything. Spoiler alert.
(Saf laughs) Yeah, I don't really disagree at all. That's a good phone. - All right, but we've
still got a couple more, so don't forget to subscribe if you are enjoying the video so far. And also, Marques has a channel. We'll talk about that a little bit later. It's a fun story again.
- Okay. - All right, so. All right, so you've revealed your-- - So you got my number one. - Oh yeah, you've got your number one. - And my three, four, five. - Okay, so you've got two. So we'll keep that for a second. - Okay. - Now, the next one on my
list is the Honor Magic 5 Pro. - [Marques] Okay. - Okay. So now, with this device, it kind of like, for me,
it's got the Huawei DNA, but you have Google Play Store, 'cause Honor has now
disconnected from Huawei. - That's huge. - Now, I tested out the P60 Pro recently, and it's got really sick cameras, right? Really good cameras. But you don't have Google Play Store, which is just a killer for me. - I didn't test this
phone, so this is really-- - Yeah, yeah.
- Okay. - So it's a really, really nice phone. And one of the cool
things that they've done is they've got the same
resolution for all three cameras. Ultra wide, primary, and
telephoto all have 50 megapixels, which is the first that I've seen. So what they've kind of
done is they're like, let's not sideline the ultra
wide and the telephoto. - [Marques] Are they the same sensor? - [Saf] They're not the same sensor. - [Marques] But they're the same size. - Same resolution.
- Okay. - Right? So you're doing the pixel
bidding on all of them, so you're kind of working
on them simultaneously. They've also got some cool features, like this AI motion-sensing capture, which automatically takes the
point of action of the shot, so if you're jumping, for
example, they'll snap that. And it's actually quite good.
- Yeah, yeah. - It's actually quite good.
- Okay. - I know it can sound
like a bit of a gimmick, but it actually works. Display, obviously, you've got 50 watts of wireless charging, which you normally don't
get on other devices. You've got a charger included out the box. It's like a 60-something watt charger. - [Marques] Wow. - So it is like an all-around
flagship from Honor, so that's one that I
have been using this year and I'm like, this might
be forgotten later on. - That's a good one.
- Yeah. I like that. So.
- Okay. - All right. So you've got your last one? - My last pick? Yeah. - Drum roll. - Filling in my top five--
- Yeah. - ... I'm putting the Pixel 7A in there. - [Saf] Okay. Interesting. - Pixel 7A. So, and I reviewed this phone, I tested this phone for the
weeks leading up to launch and it's like... I don't know the price of
all the phones up to date that we're talking about, but this was an interesting launch price, where it was a little
bit close to the Pixel 7, which made it kind of a curious buy. - [Saf] Yeah. - [Marques] But I just
think all the Pixel stuff that you like about every other Pixel you still like about this one. All the software, the hold
for me, the assistant, the cameras, the voice transcription, all that stuff is still there. - Yeah. - The software updates, and they threw some new
cameras in this year. - [Saf] Mm-hmm. - [Marques] And so my
really only question was, are they going to be good cameras? And it's a Pixel, so it turned out to be yeah, they're pretty good cameras. It is a step down from
the Pixel 7's cameras, so if you're willing to spend
a little more to get glass instead of plastic to get
20-watt wireless charging instead of whatever, it's like slower wireless on this one. - [Saf] Yeah. - Then you can get it. But wireless, 90 hertz, it's all there. - That's an interesting pick. I did... So the Pixel 7A was
going to be on my list. - Mm-hmm. - But I kind of feel
like, as you were saying, that would you rather
just go for the Pixel 7? And the Pixel 6A was a great
recommendation for me, right? It was so easy to recommend. And I actually know a few
people who have got it because it was such a good deal. - Yeah. - But I think the Pixel
7A will drop in price, as Google do. It has to. - [Marques] Yeah. I mean, we
saw what happened to Pixel 7, which, by the way, great phone. Very low price, very impressive phone. - Yeah. - The same thing's going to happen. - Yeah. So I actually did not think
you were going to pick that. - Okay. - I have to see your new video,
which is an interesting one. But my final one, mine is
not in no particular order. OnePlus 11. - [Marques] Interesting. - So I'll tell you why, all right? Because for $700, it's actually cheaper now
depending on where you get it, you are actually getting
a really good deal for what I believe is a
really good all-arounder. Now, it might not be
the best for everything. I know the term you use
like for the cameras, maybe a B+, right?
- Mm-hmm. - [Saf] But I think it's going back to the grassroots of OnePlus. - [Marques] That I agree with. Yeah. - Yeah.
- Definitely. - Which I really like, because I remember, there was one point where you'd always have a OnePlus device. That would be your daily. - There was a couple years--
- Yeah. - Probably from around
like the OnePlus 5 or 6-- - Yeah.
- ... to the 7 Pro-- - Yeah. - ... where I was recommending
them all over the place, those phones were fast,
smooth, and inexpensive-- - [Saf] Mm-hmm. - [Marques] And they would
always have the flagship chip and a high refresh rate
screen and beautiful software. - [Saf] Yes. - [Marques] And that was
really all you had to... The cameras weren't up to par, but it was like everything else
about the phone was so good. - Yeah.
- That I love those phones. - Yeah. - Then they kind of strayed a little bit. - Yes. - Now, they're kind of
starting to flip it back, so I like that. - Yeah. - They got the Hasselblad
stuff going on with the camera. - [Saf] Mm-hmm. - [Marques] They have fast charging, probably some of the fastest
charging phones in the US. - [Saf] Yes. - And Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, I think. - Yes. - So yeah.
- 8 Gen 2. - I think it's a good, it's a good, yeah. I like the trajectory
of OnePlus right now. - Yeah.
- I think that's really good for them. - So I wanted to give
them some credit as well because I think, later down the line, it might get a little bit
forgotten, but I think right now, it's a device that I really like, and I do like where OnePlus is going. With OPPO taking over, sure,
OPPO has some great devices, but I think OnePlus has its
core audience and its fan base, and going back to that at $700, I think that's a good deal
for what you're getting. - Yeah. Right around the same price as the S23. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - So that's an interesting area. If you want to go for
something that's more Samsung, I'd say better cameras, but then if you want everything
with the crazy fast charging and the display is
beautiful as well on there. - Here's the visual for me.
- Yeah. - Samsung at this price is even keel all the way across the board. OnePlus would be like way faster charging, but not as fast wireless charging. - Yeah. (laughs)
- But something like this. Great this, bad camera, but yeah, it's an interesting phone. - It is indeed. All right, so that is
our top five list, right? Drop your top fives in the comments below. Remember, we can still be friends. - Yeah.
- All right? We don't need to fight, all right? But as we promised at
the start of this video, what are the daily drivers? Now, I think you've already kind of given a bit of a preview. - Yeah. - But you've got a Dbrand skin
on there, so explain that. - If you couldn't already tell. Well, I'm a two-phone person,
so this is a 2X reveal for me. - Yeah. - I am daily driving the
Pixel 7 Pro right now. - [Saf] Okay. - [Marques] A little
older. Might be surprising. - [Saf] Yeah. - I don't always daily the newest phone, and I was doing a lot on the S23 Ultra up until about a month ago. - Okay. - And I just, the software
just got to me enough that I went back to the Pixel. - Okay, fair enough. - I think the S23 Ultra has
a better camera, though, than the Pixel.
- Okay. - So it's interesting. But I like a lot of
things about the Pixel, and I use that every day. And then the iPhone is in my other pocket. So this is the iPhone 14 Pro, not the Max. - [Saf] Mm-hmm. - [Marques] And that's my... - So I've asked you this before, 'cause last year, you were
using the 13 instead of the 13, sorry, 13 Pro instead of 13 Pro Max. - Yeah. - Is that just because you don't need, it has everything that the Max has? - Yeah, they've done the
same cameras as the Max. The only thing really I'm missing
out on is a bigger battery and a bigger screen. And again, this is a two-phone problem, but since I have two phones, I don't burn through battery
as much if I had one phone. - That makes sense. - So this is enough battery for me. If I was a one-phone person,
I would be on the Max. - Okay.
- Yeah. - That makes sense. So I actually do have the Max as my daily, so it's 14 Pro Max is my
daily, and the S23 Ultra. - Yeah.
- Which again, for me-- - Big phones. - Two big phones. Yeah. You know what? It helps me balance. (both laugh) If I've got 'em both in one my pocket, they're weigh about the same. - Sure. Yeah. - I think, yeah, the S23 Ultra for me, I just did my review, a
two-month-later review, and I was like, it does everything for me, and you know, it ticks all the boxes. I've got the S Pen if I need it. They've got the S Pen without making a compromise
on the battery life, which is good. I remember the Note series, they'd always have a
slightly smaller battery to fit in the S Pen. They've not done that this year. - Yep. - [Saf] Beautiful display, performance, everything is right there,
so I'm like S23 Ultra. - Could easily be anyone's
only phone, easily. - Yeah, easily. - Yeah. - But that might change
in the next few months, which is why we've done this video. - Yeah, there's a lot around the corner. Also, I want to shout out Color and Case, 'cause you've got a--
- Okay. - What color is this one? - So this is the Cream color. - The Cream color one. - But I just got a speaking case on there. - [Marques] So that's
that, and what's this? - So this is the purple, but I've again just got
a plain case on there, which has got a lot of fingerprints on it. - I'm going naked 14 Pro
and Dbranded black Pixel. These are both black phones. - Yeah. So the thing with me is
I'm really kind of paranoid about dropping my phones
'cause I've dropped them a lot. - Totally fair. - So I am, 'cause I remember I actually
dropped the Fold last year, and it survived, it survived, but it had this chip at the top. - Yeah.
- Yeah. - Where's the one? No, no, no. I dropped this one, didn't I? - Yeah. So now I'm like paranoid, and I have to have a case on my phone. There you go. I see it. - You can tell, right?
I've dropped my phone once. - Yeah. But you're brave. You're brave. I'm not so brave, so I always
have cases on my phone. - Totally good idea. - Yeah, Marques, I really appreciate you being
on the channel again, man. - Thanks for having me. - Make sure you subscribe to Marques. So this is funny because
every year, I have a look, whenever we're about to collab, I have a look at my Instagram, and it has this section where
it shows you other accounts that you share followers with. Right?
- Mm-hmm. - [Saf] And you are always
the only person on there. (Saf laughs) - There's only one account there? - There's only one account where I share the most followers with. Usually, you'd have
like a few, like a list, but for some reason, almost all my followers also follow you, like 50 something percent, right? - Okay. - So the other 40 whatever
percent, what are you doing? - Come on over.
- Yeah. - Come on over. - Make sure you check out Marques. And if you enjoyed this video
and want to see more like it, then don't forget to
subscribe here as well. (bell dings) I'll leave some related videos
for you guys to check out, some previous collaborations. Hope you enjoyed this
video, found it useful. If you did, as always, don't forget to smash that Like button. Thanks for watching. This is Saf and-- - MKBHD. - We'll see you next time. - Peace.
