The Smartphone Awards Midseason 2023!

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right what's up y'all MKBHD here and welcome to the smartphone Awards so you already know we usually spend the whole year Gathering all the phones that come out during the course of the year and reviewing them evaluating them testing them picking our favorites and recommending the ones that are really good but it got me thinking we do that at

the end of the year is it really fair to have phones that are eight nine ten months old stacked up against the newest phones with the newest Hardware like Tech news fast we got to keep that all into account so for the first time ever in MKBHD history welcome to the mid-season smartphone Awards as you can see of course less phones have come out at this

point during the year but that's never stopped anybody so let's get into it alright so first up category is best design and now there are a couple of interesting phones that have come out this year some of them with interesting materials and different proportions we do have some folding options but I'm pretty confident with this one my favorite designs so far of a smartphone to come

out this year is the Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra so this is a subjective Award of course but I don't know I kind of can't help it the matte black the clean understated look I mean this phone is packing so much stuff and yet at the front it just looks like a big corner to corner display they also did flatten the sides this year which was huge

for feel in the hand I love it so that's the design award so next up best battery and now we already know this is like best battery life best battery experience best overall battery in a smartphone and we keep seeing the numbers go up and up which is really exciting and there have been some phones on this desk with great combinations of efficiency and Battery but

the award for this one I think it's actually pretty clear is the s23 ultra 5000 milliamp hour battery in this phone it doesn't come with the charger in the box but that's going to be a 45 watt Peak charging it also has wireless charging it also has reverse wireless charging and it's just a combination of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 plus like you can go 1080p you

can go 60 hertz like this is the phone that can get you the two days if you really need it I've used it a lot this year and actually achieved that which is rare to say so that's your battery award okay next up best big phone this is the phone the the award that just goes the one that makes the best use of a lot of

space now we know smartphones get bigger and bigger every year so it's kind of rare to not have a big phone but also like I think we kind of know where we're going here this has been a perennial top runner in this category and that is the Galaxy s23 Ultra man this phone got the huge incredible screen like I talked about big battery 5000 milliamp hours

and it also still has room for the S Pen this is something we kind of forget if we don't use it but it's the same gigantic battery as previous ones but also with the S Pen inside like these phones are consistently around the top of this category for their software too with the split screen stuff this is the best use of a lot of space in

your pocket best big phone so all right next up best small phone that's compact phone I sort of renamed it over the years um and it's more of a rare breed than ever like phones are getting bigger but also like what is small what is compact I mean think about it really you've got a map of the world in your pocket a GPS locator satellite connectivity

potentially but also a gigantic battery a world-class note-taking device 10 000 songs in your pocket 5G internet everywhere you go like there is a ton going on inside of a smartphone so when you think about it the best compact phone is just just a good phone right so the award for best compact compute phone goes to uh Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra I mean I know it

sounds crazy but think about everything that it does think about all the things the songs the GPS and everything and then shove it into this tiny package like this is this is compact this is small and it's got the it's got the pen we're we are living in great times I swear okay it sounds like you guys do need a little bit of a break to

maybe calm down I think we're gonna take a quick sponsor break I'll be right back hey are you in the middle of an award show and your favorite phone didn't just win a design award but the winner just looks like any other phone well thankfully you can make your phone look like something else matter of fact that's what it's called something this is the something skin

the heavy hitting categories and you already know the Heavy Hitters aren't out yet right no iPhone yet no pixel yet those are the things that come out at the end of the year the Apple find X6 Pro is pretty good but I'm gonna go ahead and give this award to the Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra see it's not just about the high megapixel count it's also great

software processing great Zoom range with a variety of focal lengths and some pretty jaw-dropping features like space Zoom like if you ever wanted to zoom all the way in and get incredible photos and high resolution of a totally real moon using patented far out optical lens technology this is clearly the phone you gotta get okay I'm gonna wrestle through the last couple of words real quick

so uh most improved award over the last year version is going to be s23 Ultra also you're going to have bust of the year the one you hate to give out but yeah what the heck s23 Ultra also the MVP of all the smartphones that's 23 Ultra you already know where it's coming but also best folding phone a new category foreign [Music] obviously as you could

probably already tell happy April Fool's Day I hope I get to upload this on April 1st and not get it spoiled by all the March 31st jokes but this is just pointing fun at the fact that a mid-season smartphone Awards is kind of hilarious because most of the best phones come out in the fall in the second half of the Year matter of fact if you

want to know what my actual picks would be at this point in the year for each category here they are it's not that many options yet but there's some good stuff in case you actually are wondering but take this video as your annual reminder not to take any headlines you see for the next 24 hours or so too seriously to double check any images you see

on Twitter for extra fingers because AI is usually bad at hands stuff like that just keep your making cap on anyway the real Awards will be in December as usual thanks for watching catch you in the next one peace thank you foreign [Music]