2020 is almost over. Hooray! We know many of you will be thankful to wave goodbye to what has been a resoundingly dreadful year, but before we do, let’s take a moment to celebrate the best smartphones released over the past 12 months.
We’ve already crowned Android Authority’s smartphone of the year with the winner of the Editor’s Choice 2020 award — check out the link below for the winner. However, we’re just a small, dedicated group of smartphone fans. We know that there’s a much larger group of equally passionate and knowledgeable out there — you, our amazing readers.
Which incredible phone distracted you from the horror show that was 2020? You’ve been voting in your thousands and we’re here to announce the winner of Android Authority’s Reader’s Choice award for 2020!
Android Authority‘s Editor’s Choice award: The best Android smartphone of the year 2020 — the winner is…
Your Reader’s Choice winner is the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
After over a whopping 77,000 votes cast across our website, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, the worthy winner of our Reader’s Choice 2020 award is the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.
Samsung’s ultra-premium, stylus-toting phablet didn’t just win the overall award — it bested the competition in every stage of the voting across every platform. That’s mighty impressive stuff, especially with such tough competition. It also marks the fourth year running where the Galaxy Note series has topped the popular vote.
Let’s dive into the numbers to see how it all went down.
The voting kicked off on Friday, December 19 with a total of 16 candidates. These were then whittled down to four. We received over 12,000 votes at this stage, with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra emerging on top with a strong 17.7% of the total vote.
Our Reader’s Choice Mid-Year 2020 winner, the OnePlus 8 Pro, came in second with a strong showing of 11.7%. The top four was rounded out by the Google Pixel 5 (9.9%) and the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE (7.6%).
Spare a thought for the poor Huawei Mate 40 Pro, which missed out on the final four by just 20 votes, with 7.4% of the overall vote. The Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro trailed behind that (6.6%), followed by the Google Pixel 4a (6.1%), Asus ROG Phone 3 (5.9%), and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus (5.1%).
We then moved our vote to Twitter and YouTube to decide which of our semi-finalists would make it to the grand final. With over 32,000 votes, the winner was once again the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The Note 20 Ultra stormed the YouTube vote with 35% against the OnePlus 8 Pro’s 26%.
Things were much tighter on Twitter, though, with the Note 20 Ultra winning with 27.6% against a surprise second place finish for the Google Pixel 5 (26.6%). The OnePlus 8 Pro wasn’t far behind on Twitter with 26.2% and it did beat out the Big G’s affordable flagship on YouTube with 26% against the Pixel 5’s 24%. The Galaxy S20 FE sadly couldn’t keep up, coming in fourth place with 19.6% and 15% on Twitter and YouTube, respectively.
It was close, but the OnePlus 8 Pro progressed alongside the Note 20 Ultra to the grand final. Here, we put the vote across all of our platforms — our website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We knew it’d be close, but it wasn’t a shock to see Samsung’s flagship emerge victorious.
The Note 20 Ultra follows in the footsteps of the Note 8, Note 9, and Note 10 Plus to win our Reader’s Choice smartphone of the year award. If the rumors are true and this is the end of the Note line then it’s at least going out with a bang. Congrats should also go to the runner up OnePlus 8 Pro for pushing the Note 20 Ultra right to the wire.
With the Galaxy S20 FE taking our Editor’s Choice award, Samsung has swept the board in 2020. Bravo, Samsung! Thanks to everyone that voted, commented, shared, and took part in our Reader’s Choice voting.
Bigger, better, and pricier
That’s it for our smartphone of the year awards! Be sure to check out some of the rest of our in-depth 2020 retrospective content below and stay tuned for a whole bunch of 2021 predictions articles in the coming days and weeks.
In the new year, we’ll be bringing you all the coverage from CES 2021 and much more. Until then, stay safe, happy holidays, and a happy new year to all of you!
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