Abstract
- Over time, I’ve owned a various vary of smartphones.
- I’ve examined out many alternative makes and fashions, however some handsets have stood out to me greater than others.
- Listed here are 5 smartphones that I’ve beforehand day by day pushed, and that maintain a particular place in my coronary heart.
Over time, I’ve owned a large number of excellent smartphones. From a younger age, I bear in mind being fascinated by telephones as a product class, and I’ve remained so to this very day. For me, I perceive telephones to be a microcosm of human ingenuity, technological prowess, and progressive spirit.
In all honesty, referring to our handsets as ‘telephones’ is a little bit of a misnomer. For all intents and functions, our modern-day cellphones are pocket computers, the likes of which our ancestors would not have believed doable to engineer, not to mention mass produce at an industrial scale.
There are certain phone models which have left a long-lasting impression on me — each personally and professionally — extra so than any of their contemporaries. Listed here are 5 handsets specifically that I’ve personally used as my day by day driver, and that maintain a particular place in my coronary heart.
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1 HTC 10 (2016)
My favourite smartphone of all time
Pocket-lint / HTC

HTC 10
The ten is HTC’s flagship smartphone for 2016, competing instantly with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 throughout the Android house.
Bar none, my all-time private favourite smartphone is the HTC 10. I’ve at all times been keen on HTC as a telephone maker, with its eye for lovely industrial designs, slick software program packages, and an early embrace of the Android OS.
In my eyes, the HTC 10 was the last phone of an era for HTC — it was the ultimate flagship from the corporate to embrace an aluminum unibody chassis, the final to incorporate a robust 3.5mm headphone jack, and the (first) and final to supply up an optically stabilized front-facing selfie shooter.

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Let’s take a nostalgic journey again in time and unpack Apple’s 2011-released iPhone 4s.
2 Apple iPhone 4 (2010)
The very first telephone design I fell in love with
Pocket-lint / Apple

iPhone 4
The iPhone 4 was a milestone launch for Apple, with its high-resolution show, its front-facing digicam, and its now-iconic design language.
I used to be in center faculty across the time that the iPhone 4 launched, and I bear in mind it being a really massive deal. This was a time through which followers would camp outdoors Apple Stores to be first in line for product launches, and it was a time when year-over-year generational jumps have been important.
The iPhone 4 was a milestone launch for Apple in numerous methods. It was the primary iPhone with a pixel-perfect ‘Retina Show,’ and the primary with a front-facing digicam for FaceTime. Maybe most notably, it was additionally the primary iPhone to ship with a bodily design that seemed and felt like a finely-crafted luxurious good.

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The Honor Magic V3 shocked me with its thin, lightweight form factor
Honor has crafted the world’s thinnest book-style foldable, and it makes me excited for the way forward for the class.
3 Honor Magic V3 (2024)
My first foldable telephone was a magical expertise
Pocket-lint / Honor

Magic V3
Honor’s newest book-style foldable telephone is extremely skinny and light-weight — extra so than many slab-style units.
When I reviewed the Honor Magic V3 final 12 months, it was the primary time I had ever skilled utilizing a book-style foldable phone. On reflection, I contemplate myself fortunate to have gotten to interrupt the proverbial foldable ice by means of the V3.
Sadly, the Magic V3 by no means launched throughout the North American market. It is a disgrace because the telephone is just sensible. It is a remarkably gentle system, and it is as skinny as most common sweet bar-style slab telephones — a severely spectacular feat of engineering.

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4 Samsung Galaxy S9 (2018)
The magnum opus of Galaxy handsets
Pocket-lint / Samsung

Galaxy S9
The Galaxy S9 is Samsung’s base-level Android flagship for 2018, serving as a refined continuation of the earlier 12 months’s S8 mannequin.
Once I consider a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, I consider the Galaxy S9. In some ways, I view the S9 as the top of Samsung’s cell phone efforts, with no different S sequence mannequin even coming near dethroning it.
At its core, the Galaxy S9 is a refined model of Samsung’s S8 from the 12 months prior, and it nails nearly each side of smartphone excellence. The attractive waterfall or edge ‘Infinity’ show, the hidden pressure-sensitive dwelling button, and extra — it is all right here.

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Remember when Google’s Nexus 5 turned the Android world on its head?
Again in 2013, Google teamed up with LG to launch the Nexus 5 — the telephone would briefly go on to set the Android world ablaze.
5 LG / Google Nexus 5 (2013)
The telephone that gave rise to my love of Android
Pocket-lint / LG / Google

Nexus 5
The Nexus 5 was a 2013 collaborative effort between Android maker Google, and {hardware} maker LG. The telephone encompasses a 4.95-inch FHD show, the Snapdragon 800 processor, and a couple of GB of RAM.
I attribute the Nexus 5 for uplifting my love for the Android working system. This downright-iconic telephone was made in collaboration between LG and Google, and it was my first expertise with ‘inventory’ or the ‘vanilla’ taste of Android.
The Nexus 5 was an early instance of a ‘ flagship killer,’ providing unimaginable worth and {hardware} bang-for-your-buck at a time when smartphone costs have been starting to creep up on a yearly foundation. I am additionally keen on the Nexus 5’s bodily design — to at the present time, the telephone is what I’d describe to be the right dimension by way of show and footprint dimensions.

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