The Best of the Best: Top Smartphones of 2024 from Every Category

The vivo X100 Pro was our pick for the for the Best Flagship Smartphone of 2024. It is the brand’s latest and most premium smartphone, focus on imaging and design. It’s known for its camera-centric phones, Vivo continues its streak with ZEISS-branded optics and a premium glass and metal build that ensures a solid, ergonomic feel in the hand. The 6.78-inch AMOLED panel offers a 120Hz refresh rate, 1.5K resolution, and excellent color accuracy.

Running on MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 chipset, the Vivo X200 Pro delivers performance comparable to Snapdragon 8 Elite devices. Vivo’s efficient thermal management ensures consistent performance even during extended gaming sessions.

Where the Vivo X200 Pro truly shines is its camera system. The 50MP 23mm wide sensor captures stunning details, while the ultrawide lens and a whopping 200MP periscope telephoto lens provide versatility for all shooting scenarios. Vivo’s V3+ imaging chip further improves portraits, and low-light photography, making it a go-to choice for photography enthusiasts. On the software side, the device ships with FunTouch OS 15, Vivo’s take on Android 15. Keeping all things powered is a 6000mAh cell with 90W wired and 30W wireless charging.

The ultra premium foldable smartphones are a popular category in the smartphone segment. The Huawei Mate X6 pushed the boundary in innovation with triple network satellite communication, an industry-first for global-mass-market smartphones. It features a basalt water drop hinge for improved durability and thermal performance.

It comes with a 7.93-inch foldable OLED display offering a peak brightness of 1,800 nits and a 6.45-inch cover screen with 2,500 nits brightness. Both displays support 1-120Hz LTPO refresh rates and 1440Hz PWM dimming.

The Mate X6 incorporates a basalt water drop hinge for improved durability and thermal performance. Its camera system is equally impressive, led by a 50MP main sensor with variable aperture, a 48MP periscope telephoto lens, and a 40MP ultra-wide camera. It also offers dual 8MP selfie cameras on its inner and outer screens. For 2024, we think that the Mate X6 has met few comparable rivals in the book-style foldable phones category.

Xiaomi finally entered the clamshell folding flip phones in 2024, and despite this, it managed to achieve the crown for the best flip phone. The Xiaomi MIX Flip (Review) packs a tall main display and a sizeable cover panel as well. It also offered cutting edge flagship level performance with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The flip phone also brings Lecia powered 50MP dual cameras on the rear. All of this is priced for less than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6.

The Xiaomi 15 is the best compact flagship phone of 2024. It packs a flagship level specs and features in a compact form factor. It has Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a big battery, a stunning AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a versatile triple camera system.

OnePlus’ latest flagship is the OnePlus 13 that arrived with improvements across the board. While it is more affordable than some premium models, this model is easily the best affordable flagship phone thanks to flagship-level performance, Snapdragon 8 Elite, stunning AMOLED display, triple 50MP cameras, and much more.

We chose Xiaomi’s Redmi K80 Pro as the best flagship killer smartphone in 2024. For just around $500, the K80 Pro offers great value thanks to standout features like the Snapdragon 8 Elite, 120W wired fast charging, massive 6,000mAh battery, and a 2K AMOLED display.

Vivo debuted the X100 Ultra in the middle of 2024 as its newest flagship phone. But what made it stand out was its impressive photography experience. The Vivo X100 Ultra brings Zeiss branded triple cameras with a one inch main sensor, which makes it the best camera smartphone of 2024.

Huawei with its front facing cameras offers the best selfie camera experience with the Nova 13 Pro. It features a dual camera setup on the front with a 60MP main sensor with autofocus and AI-powered features along with an 8MP ultra-wide angle lens for selfie enthusiasts.

Especially, the 60MP main selfie camera that offers autofocus and is powered by Huawei’s XD Portrait Engine. This helps refine facial features, smoothen out skin tones, and adjust lighting as well.

And another 8MP selfie portrait shooter amazingly offers a 2X optical zoom and up to 5x digital zoom for close-up portrait and macro shots. This is unique for smartphones. During our experience, the nova 13 Pro could truly offer better functionality as well. So it is our pick for the best selfie camera phone of 2024.

For those working in extreme and rough environments, tech companies have smartphones with tough durability. DOOGEE is known for making outdoor smart consumer electronics, and the DOOGEE V40 Pro is our pick for the best rugged smartphone of 2024. It arrives with a MIL-STD-810H miltary standard along with an IP68 and IP69K rating. This means that it has been tested in low pressure altitudes, drop shocks, humidity, high-temperature water jets, and even dust and 1 meter of water immersion.

The rugged V40 Pro is powered by Dimensity 7300, which already beats a lot of rugged options over smoothness and performance. And it adds a small windowed screen on the back. I believe it’s a real convenience for those who work or adventure outdoors. And all of this is packed in a refreshing new E-Sports inspired gaming design. This makes it look better than most rugged phones as well.

We’ve also made a comparison video between the V40 Pro and the standard one. You can also check the video on Gizmochina YouTube Channel.

For the best gaming smartphone of 2024, we went with the Red Magic 10 Pro+. Apart from the blazing fast Snapdragon 8 Elite, the flagship gaming phone features a smooth 144Hz OLED display with a 960Hz touch sampling rate and even a should triggers to simulate a console controller experience. You also get a massive 7,050mAh battery pack and up to a whopping 24GB of RAM.

The Oppo Find X8 Pro packs cutting edge technology like the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset and a sweet Hasselblad optimized camera system on the back. But what makes it extra special is the deep integration of AI. The OS brings various AI powered features from the AI Toolbox suite. This includes productivity features like AI Summary, AI Speak, and AI Writer. All of these help summarize, bring forth key information, and record the details you might need later on while also offering alternative suggestions. This also extends to the photography experience with AI letting you unblur pictures, bump the resolution, and more. Lastly, the OS also features Google’s Gemini.

While the more expensive options in the flagship or best camera segment are great for vlogging, Infinix released the Zero 40 5G as a dedicated vlogging phone on a budget, which is why we gave it the crown as the best affordable vlogging smartphone. The rear packs a 108MP main camera, while the front houses a 50MP selfie shooter. Users can capture 4K video recordings at 60fps that makes it perfect for content creators.

The front doesn’t disappoint either with a 50MP camera for selfies and video calls. But impressively, Infinix has brought support for 4K videos and 60fps as well. Content creators often have to invest quite a bit to get the best video quality. But Infinix has managed to bring a great package without breaking the bank. All of this is packaged in a sleek 7.9mm body. Other notable features include an AMOLED screen, Dimensity 8200 Ultimate, and a 5000mAh battery with 45W wired fast charging and 20W wireless fast charging.

At this budget, there aren’t plenty of options for vlogging isn’t, but the Zero 40 5G is a model dedicated to this and is easily our pick for the best affordable vlogging phone.

The mid-range segment is easily one of the toughest category considering the sheer number of options a buyer has. But Xiaomi has been a veteran in this price point, with the Redmi K80 being a clear winner. For under $400, the flagship grade Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 2K AMOLED display, huge 6550mAH battery with 90W fast charging, and IP68 rating helps it easily bag the best mid-range smartphone of 2024.

In the budget smartphone category, there are a few standouts that hit the right balance of price to performance or price to value ratio. And none do it better than the Nothing Phone (2a). We chose it as the best budget phone of 2024 thanks to its intuitive and unique Glyph LED interface, along with a package of solid specs like 120Hz AMOLED display and Dimensity 7200 SoC. There is also 4K recording from the 50MP dual cameras on the rear and a reliable 5000mAh battery pack.

Reaching the end of this list, we have the best entry level smartphone of 2024. The Tecno Pop 9 was our pick as the winner as it brings a lot to the table. You get an attractive design paired with an IPS LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The Dimensity 6300 is a capable processor, which is fueled by a large 5,000mAh cell. All of this for just over $100 makes it a great deal.

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