In the year 2021, we can see a lot of interesting things happening this year. We’re seeing foldable devices getting mainstream, a bunch of phones spammed into the market to see what sticks, and some mid-range phones even having IP-rating.
So, to celebrate this year’s world of mobile phones, let’s take a look at our selection of the best phones of 2021.
I think what we’ll do is we’ll go through the list of phones we reviewed in descending order in terms of price. We reviewed a bunch of phones, honestly. 36 phones across 12 different brands – and I’m counting Xiaomi, POCO, and Redmi as 3 separate brands because I don’t know, the company is weird.
Out of all the 36 phones we reviewed, we’ll only talk about those phones worthy of highlighting and skip the other ones.
#1 – Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 @ RM6,699
Let’s start with the most expensive phone that we reviewed this year – the Galaxy Z Fold3. I absolutely love this phone. It’s the first generation of foldable device that I think is feasible to be used in a day-to-day basis as it now has IPX8 rating. Also, it is compatible with the S Pen too – though storing that S Pen is a pain in the butt. Oh – that Snapdragon 888 is also another pain in the butt.
And I’ve been daily driving it for about 3 months now and damn, I’ll never go back to a flat phone anymore. Foldables are the future.
#2 – Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra @ RM5,299
The absolute best Android slab phone I’ve used this year. Samsung started off the year really strong. I love everything that it has to offer – from the iconic design, that magnificent screen, the amazing cameras, the user experience and also its monthly software updates, and even the Exynos 2100 chipset.
Like what we mentioned in our previous video, I personally do prefer the Exynos 2100 much more than the Snapdragon 888. I think it’s the perfect flat phone of the year 2021.
#3 – Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 @ RM3,999
I mean, again – it’s the first modern flip phone that I’ll consider to be mature enough, and comes with a bunch of upgrades over the first generation – like the bigger cover display. Samsung made this compact form factor work – and I applaud them for the effort.
Thing is, the battery life is just insufficient. Even with that not-so-good battery, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a hot-selling phone and I actually saw a lot of people using this phone out in the open.
#4 – OPPO Reno 6 Pro @ RM2,999
I actually like this phone. I thought that it was a tad expensive for what it has to offer, but it’s actually quite a good phone overall.
The problem is with OPPO’s release cycle of Reno phones. We get a new Reno series of phones every 6 months and everything will be replaced. I just think it’s just too soon for a phone at this price.
#5 – ROG Phone 5 and ROG Phone 5s Pro (starts from RM2,999)
These two phones are very similar to each other as the only difference is Snapdragon 888 or Snapdragon 888+. Like what we found out in our comparison video, there’s really no tangible difference in gaming.
Either way, these two phones are still fantastic gaming phones. Combined with the accessories – and especially that AeroActive Cooler 5 with the two buttons at the back, this is still one of the best gaming phone of 2021.
#6 – ASUS Zenfone 8 @ RM2,699
Oh man, I really love this phone. I really do. The size of the Zenfone 8 makes this phone the only Android alternative to the iPhone Mini.
However, it does come with two caveats – the lack of a telephoto camera and also the relatively small 4,000mAh battery. Though I expected those caveats and I still love this phone.
#7 – Black Shark 4 @ RM1,999
I absolutely loved last year’s Black Shark 3 Pro. But then what surprised me with the Black Shark 4 was actually two things – the price of the phone at only RM1,999, and that the Black Shark 4 actually has triggers – just like the Black Shark 3 Pro.
I mean, where else can you get a phone at this price with triggers? With that Snapdragon 870 chipset, this phone is just unbeatable at its price point and all the gaming-specific features that it has to offer.
#8 – Samsung Galaxy A72, Galaxy A52 4G, and Galaxy A52s 5G (starts at RM1,499)
I’m lumping all of these 3 phones together since they’re awfully similar to each other. They all have an IP67 rating which is amazing, they all come with a massive 5,000mAh and come with a very colorful plastic body.
However, the similarities end there and each of them has its own strong point. The Galaxy A72 has a bigger display with a truly complete camera setup, consisting of a main camera, ultrawide camera, and also a telephoto camera. Both the Galaxy A52 and Galaxy A52s don’t have telephoto cameras.
But, the Galaxy A52 comes at a fantastic price. The Galaxy A52s however, comes with a much better chipset but also at a higher price point.
So, while all these 3 phones are great, I can’t recommend one over the other as it really depends which suits you the most.
#9 – Xiaomi 11T @ RM1,699
I know it’s weird – but I pick the Xiaomi 11T over Xiaomi 11T Pro. I think that the 11T with the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 is much better than the 11T Pro in terms of heat management and they both do come with the same cameras too.
The only difference is the post-processing and honestly, I don’t think the 11T Pro is worth the extra money. So, the 11T is my choice.
#10 – Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE @ RM1,199
So, this phone has a very long name and I still don’t know what the NE means. Some say it’s “new edition” but whatever.
This is a fantastic phone for its price and some people might like the thinness and weightlessness of a phone – and this phone is actually catered for that. It’s a nice, mid-range phone with an okay price tag.
#11 – Redmi Note 10 Pro @ RM999
This phone is also fantastic. I loved everything that it has to offer when it was first launched, but I think it got the short end of the stick. It didn’t get a chance to shine, so to speak. You see, Xiaomi was spamming the market with a lot of different phones at that time and the Redmi Note 10 Pro was one of those phones.
Because of that, this phone was forgotten. It drowned in the sea of phones that Xiaomi or Redmi or POCO released at that time. The spam of phones continued and I think the only worthy “alternative” to the Redmi Note 10 Pro is the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE that we spoke of earlier.
#12 – Redmi 10 @ RM649
I think this is a fairly decent phone for its price, actually. Yes, it’s an entry-level smartphone and I just think that for what it aims to be, it’s pretty good at this price point.
There isn’t much competition at this price range and yeah, if you want a budget phone then the Redmi 10 is actually quite okay.
#13 – Infinix HOT 10S @ RM499
It’s been a long time since I reviewed any phones from Infinix and the HOT 10S was a pleasant surprise.
I love everything that this phone has to offer – barring the bloatware and the micro USB port – and for the price of just RM499, it’s a fantastic phone.
What we learned this year
So, what did we learn this year? I think we learned a lot of things – both you the viewer and us, the reviewer.
It is the year whereby heat management on phones becomes more important as the infamous Snapdragon 888 heats up beyond belief. I don’t think this is going to get better, especially when 5G arrives. We have a separate video talking about why it heats up and what we can do to solve it, at the top right corner there. Because phones heating up is inevitable, it opens the flood gates for snake oil marketing.
We also realized that many things can’t really be explained in words – and that’s why we just straight-up show you guys how these things work – like gaming tests. That’s why we abandoned benchmarks since 500 points difference in Antutu doesn’t really translate to real-world usage at all.
What we’ll do next year
So here’s what we’re going to do in the next year – we got a new thermal camera and we’ll be using it to provide thermal data of where the phone gets the hottest and what’s the temperature. This is at the surface level and we’ll be touching it directly. You can technically make your own pot of water with the same temperature and put your hand inside to feel what we feel too.
Unfortunately though, for gaming, we can’t promise FPS meters on all tests that we do because Android itself doesn’t have any easy way to monitor the FPS. Even utilities like PerfDog now need a subscription.
And we’ll continue to emphasize on software next year. We have seen a lot of bad smartphone (and tablet) software this year, and we think it’s very important to call these companies out if their software is buggy or it sucks. Also, for companies that make promises about software updates but backtracked like Nokia – shame on you.
Also, we’ll continue to test out some other miscellaneous things like charging speeds and its proprietary standards, display output over USB-C, and perhaps 5G speeds when it’s available.
Whichever the case may be, we thank you for your support for the year 2021, and we’ll bring you even more brutally honest reviews in the year 2022.
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