I’ve owned numerous telephones over time, a few of which have been my very own private units, and a few have been long-term evaluations for How-To Geek and its sister shops. There are 5 that stand above the remaining, although. Some have been rock-solid dependable units, or a design I cherished, or only a substantial improve from no matter I used to be utilizing earlier than that.

I believed it may be enjoyable to revisit my 5 favourite telephones from over time, all of which I used as my major gadget for no less than a 12 months.

5

LG Nexus 5

Google’s flagship smartphone for 2013 was the Nexus 5, a part of the Nexus lineup that later developed into the Google Pixel sequence we all know and love at this time. This mannequin was in-built collaboration with LG, full with a Snapdragon 800 chipset, Android 4.4 KitKat, a 5-inch 1080p IPS show, and an 8MP rear digital camera.

The Nexus 5 was the primary telephone I purchased with my very own cash, and it was critically spectacular for the time, particularly since I used to be coming from the Wi-Fi-only Samsung Galaxy Player 5 with a partially-working customized ROM. It was quick, and the digital camera high quality was nice. Android 4.4 KitKat might be nonetheless my all-time favourite model of Android, and the telephone additionally shipped with Google Now, a fundamental voice assistant (earlier than Google Assistant) and residential display screen info web page. I miss that period of toned-town Holo interface design, and the Google Now web page is much more helpful than the Google Uncover web page on fashionable Android telephones.

Sadly, the Nexus 5 was liable to many various {hardware} points, and mine finally died and refused as well up. Why should the great die younger?

4

Motorola Moto G 4G

I additionally had the Moto G 4G, which was a 2014 4G-compatible model of the unique Moto G funds telephone. It was small, with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display screen, and underneath the hood it had a Snapdragon 400 chipset with 1GB RAM. It was quick, however I keep in mind the official Android 5.0 replace inflicting some reminiscence leaks—later 5.1 updates and customized ROMs helped repair that.

My favourite half in regards to the Moto G was the swappable plastic backplates. It shipped with a black cowl, however I additionally had vibrant orange and white ones. That customization wasn’t as superior because the Moto Maker that Motorola supplied for its flagship telephones, however it was nonetheless nice.

3

Apple iPhone 15

The iPhone 15 is my present telephone, and admittedly, it’s not an attention-grabbing or distinctive gadget. I wrote How-To Geek’s iPhone 15 review after pre-ordering it in 2023, and it has lasted me a 12 months and a half with no actual points. That’s actually probably the most I need from a smartphone nowadays—folding screens, customized Android ROMs, and Linux units have too many compromises for me to make use of them as my most important telephone.

The 6.1-inch OLED display screen on the iPhone 15 is unbelievable, although I do want the telephone was a bit smaller. The USB Sort-C port remains to be nice for utilizing the identical chargers and cables as all my different units, and the cameras are glorious. The 12MP 2x telephoto lens works surprisingly well as a macro camera, although I nonetheless must take out my Sony Alpha a5000 after I want most professional-quality photographs. The twin-eSIM performance can be great for travel, and I’ve used the satellite tv for pc connectivity to replace my Discover My location just a few occasions.

The iPhone 15 may be a boring telephone, however it does precisely what I want and hasn’t suffered from {hardware} points, which makes it among the finest telephones I’ve ever owned. I’ll most likely pay for a substitute battery later this 12 months and hold utilizing the telephone for the foreseeable future.

2

Samsung Galaxy S10e

Samsung launched the Galaxy S10e in 2019 as an inexpensive and compact flagship smartphone, very like the earlier 12 months’s iPhone XR. I purchased one for 2 causes. First, I wished a smaller telephone. Second, the dual-SIM mannequin that Samsung constructed for worldwide markets allowed me to make use of my major telephone quantity whereas utilizing one other line for cheaper information.

This was the little telephone that might do all of it. It had an ideal 5.8-inch AMOELD display screen, IP68 water and mud safety, a headphone jack, a number of cameras, a super-fast fingerprint scanner on the facet, and a microSD card slot. I nonetheless miss that fingerprint sensor each time I’ve to attend a second or two for Face ID on my iPhone, or my face masks causes it to fail fully—the S10e immediately unlocked as I took it out of my pocket.

My time with the Galaxy S10e wasn’t good, although. Battery life is worse on smaller telephones, because the legal guidelines of physics stop them from utilizing bigger battery cells. The cameras additionally weren’t nice, particularly with Samsung’s digital camera processing on the time—all the things was simply a bit too vivid, like turning grass in out of doors photographs to neon inexperienced.

1

Google Pixel (1st Gen)

The original Google Pixel remains to be my all-time favourite telephone, and it’s the one I used for the longest period of time. I purchased the smaller mannequin (not the Pixel XL) at launch in 2016, after my Nexus 5X had a {hardware} failure. Sure, each the Nexus 5 and 5X died on me—I don’t mourn the dying of LG’s smartphone division.

The unique Pixel had an ideal {hardware} design, with an aluminum and glass construct, a headphone jack, an honest fingerprint reader, and a USB Sort-C port—seven years earlier than Apple lastly made a USB-C iPhone. The true standout high quality was the digital camera, which was steadily cited as among the finest smartphone cameras on the time, and I used to be consistently impressed with the standard alone photographs and movies.

The Google Pixel served me properly for a very long time, particularly with a substitute battery across the second-year mark. It wasn’t good, however it was quick, dependable, had an ideal digital camera, and was bootloader-unlockable—what extra may you ask for in a smartphone?

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I’ll finish this record with some honorable mentions for telephones I appreciated, however not fairly sufficient to earn a spot in my prime 5. I nonetheless have my extraordinarily orange ZTE Open with Firefox OS, although I by no means used it as a major telephone for an prolonged interval. The OnePlus 5T and iPhone SE 2022 served me properly for some time, however the former had abysmal digital camera high quality (even for the period), and the latter gadget’s Lightning port and LCD display screen prompted me to improve to the iPhone 15 as quickly because it was accessible.