The past 12 months have been an interesting time when it comes to smartphones. While we have lamented the lack of true innovation in the flagship segment, the mid-range continues to be an impressive space where great value for money is to be had.
That said, this year each quarterly report saw smartphone shipments decline as phone makers scrambled for ways to sell more units.
It remains to be seen if 2024 will yield better results as far as shipments are concerned, but there were still some notable devices that left a lasting impression during 2023.
Here look at four devices in particular, each impressing for different reasons.
Huawei P60 Pro
In the early part of the year, we reviewed the Huawei P60 Pro. At the time it was hands down the best photography experience we have had on a smartphone, and during the course of 2023, it has retained that title.
It is not a perfect device, with the software side of things still a sticking point for us, but when it comes to the camera capabilities, it is unmatched.
“The images we captured were rich and detailed in their nuance, and captured colour expertly. We also found the zoom capabilities solid too, but did not feel the need to north of 10x zoom as content becomes difficult to distinguish. As such, it shows that more megapixels does not lead to better photography, with the 48MP wide-angle, 48MP telephoto, and 13MP ultra wide-angle options combining expertly,” we wrote of the phone in our review.
Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
We have been big fans of the Samsung Galaxy A series for some time now, and the Galaxy A54 5G is no different. This is mainly as the series keeps to a few core tenants – namely a great screen, battery, and camera for an affordable price.
It is such a compelling combination on the Galaxy A54 5G, that it may even make you reconsider getting a flagship phone altogether.
“For R9 999, the Galaxy A54 5G is a great everyday phone. A fantastic camera array is bolstered by a wonderful display and solid performance. If you’re looking for a taste of the Galaxy, but don’t have the budget for a flagship, the A54 5G is easily recommended. One may even argue that the specifications of the likes of the S23 series are over the top and the A54 will give you everything you need for far less,” we highlighted in our review.
OPPO Reno10 Pro+ 5G
OPPO has slowly been building its presence in South Africa, starting with budget-friendly devices and bringing in more feature-rich and expensive phones, such as the Reno10 Pro+ 5G. It served as a great marker for the build quality and performance with which OPPO can make phones, with our only issue being the price tag, which was a little more than we were initially expecting.
“The OPPO Reno10 Pro+ is about R2k more expensive than its predecessor at R21 999 (depending on the retailer). Do you get more value or performance on the Reno10 Pro+? The short answer is yes, with better specs across the board, but that is to be expected of a new iteration,” our review mentioned.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro
Each year Apple calls its latest iPhone the greatest ever or most powerful. When it comes to the iPhone 15 Pro, that may actually be true, as the device is sporting some of the best-performing silicon we reviewed in a phone all year.
If there is one criticism of iPhone, and flagship phones in general, it is that there is a distinct lack of wow factor these days. Oh, the pricing is also getting quite absurd.
“Powering these models is Apple’s new A17 Pro chip, a 3nm silicon that outperformed everything we have had in for review to date. To that end, in our benchmarking, the iPhone 15 Pro mustered a single-core and multi-core score of 2 929 and 7 444 respectively. To put that into perspective, the Galaxy Z Fold5 is the only thing that comes close, registering 5 432 on multi-core. Now we are comparing a foldable to a non-foldable, but given the Fold5 is running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the numbers in testing are quite impressive,” our review borne out.
