My top 4 phones of 2023 - Ro

27 December 2023
It was a slow year for smartphones.

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Limerain, 27 Dec 2023Not a good excuse imo since you can import it through many ... moreHere where I live, Norway, that is not possible.
If you live in a country where import from abroad is completely tax free, then good for you but that is not common.

Most countries does require VAT for privately imported goods, especially over a small amount that can be tax free, as a minimum. The cheapest solution is typically where the seller pre-pays VAT if they are VOEC registered. Alternatively the importer has to pay an additional customs handling fee for that. Even worse if living in a country that applies toll for these types of products.

Another thing I loose when importing is warranty, which is five years here for smartphones by law. Import from abroad typically offers you 0-30 days and it will be costly to try and use it.

Hoping to see Oppo and Vivo make a comeback here, but we're not a large market and the apple/samsung duopoly is strong here. Marketing ftw, as always.

    MakeMotoBetterAgain, 27 Dec 2023My top 4 phones of 2023- Moto edge 40 pro moto edge 40 ne... moreOf course the Motorola fanboy puts basically Motorola on all their lists.

      galaxydefender, 27 Dec 2023While I do agree the list has some very good smartphones, I... moreTotally agree with you 👍

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        • Anonymous
        • niU
        • 29 Dec 2023

        Oh man! I really wanted the Xiaomi 13 Ultra to come in my country and was eager to buy it BUT nooo it never arrived so here i am pondering what to buy. No i didn't opted to 13 Pro...for reasons and now Xiaomi has harder market share in my country due to retailers boycot.

          Biased

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            • nerolex07
            • tew
            • 28 Dec 2023

            What about the S23?

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • U{j
              • 28 Dec 2023

              What about samaung

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • XMF
                • 28 Dec 2023

                this is the man who bashed poco f5

                  Well good choices among the mess of others which for much bigger price offer way less things.

                    • Jane
                    • 0Tk
                    • 27 Dec 2023

                    SaWrL , 27 Dec 2023what does that RO in the title means? romania? Ro is the author of the article and one of our phone reviewers.

                      • S
                      • SaWrL
                      • nD{
                      • 27 Dec 2023

                      what does that RO in the title means? romania?

                        galaxydefender, 27 Dec 2023While I do agree the list has some very good smartphones, I... moreI've watched reviews from China and it's 8g2 performance is lacking behind others, and the camera software isn't even good.

                          As usual no love for midtiers. Life with freebies must be awesome.

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                            • galaxydefender
                            • xd%
                            • 27 Dec 2023

                            While I do agree the list has some very good smartphones, I have to say I'm very disappointed in most of the reviewers for skipping Honor Magic 5 Pro. I can't understand why, but I guess it's political. I have at home the M5 Pro, the S23 Ultra and the Pixel 8 Pro. Out of the bunch the5 Pro is miles ahead in almost every department. It's just how it is. Best screen with a minimal cutout placed correctly in the corner (3D face unlock), 512 GB storage, best point and shoot as it has the quicker shutter and best sensor, a ton of photo/video options and versatility, hand gestures, screen gestures, magic cut - scrollshot, a beautiful Desktop mode, best Note app where you can add/edit photo/video/audio recordings, draw over notes, in built text extraction tool, magic folders (best in the game), IR blaster - remote control app, AI space (switching between devices with just one touch, best multitasking (way better and way ahead compared to that split screen dull stuff), 66W charging, reverse charging, perfect one handed mode, best screen collab and multitasking on a laptop (doesn't have to be huawei or honor), and the absolute best feature in any smartphone - the Search Scope. Compare that to app drawer (which it also has) and the Honor looks from future. I'm actually pretty shure I'm missing some features right now, but I would just like some sort of justification for that. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Seems like something very strange to me. Maybe because of the Huawei link...meh. Have a happy new year everyone !

                              I wanna see will's list so bad and know his daily driver,that guy is just one special robot on his own

                                rizki1, 27 Dec 2023also we get tons of good low end phones from Transsion.. Th... moreThey probably cover Xiaomi and Samsung more because they have wider global coverage than other global brands, particularly in English speaking regions (it's an English language website after all) and judging by their most popular reviews and popularity index the Samsung and Xiaomi phones are more popular with their audience. More clicks and views means more ad revenue for the business. It's a business after all and like nearly all private businesses the goal is to make money. I assume ad revenue would be the major source of revenue

                                  I'm still hugely impressed by the Xiaomi 13 Ultra because of the camera performance and the fact that Xiaomi finally put USB3 with wired video output on their premium flagship phones. While the Vivo looks fine, it remains a China-only phone, which is a shame.

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                                    • Vale
                                    • pMh
                                    • 27 Dec 2023

                                    JanCapek, 27 Dec 2023No reviewing phones, but I do think it is boring. Because I... moreThat seems like a very specific 1 thing for you to generalize that this year we had boring releases. Yes, a compact phone with a good zoom camera would be great, but we got a lot of other awesome stuff.

                                      ""Most of what I said about the 13 Ultra applies to the vanilla 13 as well. It has all the bells and whistles and doesn't skip on the telephoto as well, which is a rare find in compact phones. ""

                                      First of all Xiaomi 13 is not a compact. It's just smaller phone with 6.36inch screen that makes it the size of Pixel 6a that also is no compact. Only compacts are standard iphone and S22/23 To be honest even these are not compact but these are the smallest you can get as of now with new or max 1 year old.

                                      It's rare to find a compact size phone. To have telephoto on it cant be really said rare when it's already rare to have telephoto on the phones. Telephoto is basically only flagship phones thing

                                        I love my xiaomi phones I will probably upgrade to a 14 pro in the new year, but am not happy that my 12 pro as not had a security update since May

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