My top 5 phones of 2024 – Ivan | Infinium-tech

Hey, Ivan here – I’m one of the editors here at GSMArena, but mostly, I’m the guy behind the camera. This means that when choosing my favorite phones of the year, I usually pay more attention to their camera performance. But I also care about hand feel and the way they look – after all, I take all the photos of them for review.

I usually end the year with a Galaxy S Ultra in my pocket but 2024 sees for the first time that that’s not true. What a streak it was! From the Galaxy S20 Ultra that started it all, to the Galaxy S24 Ultra that I bought, used and sold for half a year. So let’s start from there.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

I’ve always touted the Galaxy S Ultra as one of the best cameraphones of the year. Samsung hasn’t made it easy. The Pros and Ultras from Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo are adding better and better hardware. But Samsung is happy just competing with Apple and Google. This is a reasonable strategy in markets where Chinese flagship cameraphones are not on sale, but here at GSMArena HQ, the Galaxy S24 Ultra fares terribly on the imaging hardware.

Still, the Galaxy S24 Ultra is an excellent phone. It has a larger display than the others, and is the only real option if you want a stylus. It is engineered to the highest standard, and is reliable to a fault. This is Samsung’s best phone and its most capable cameraphone. In fact, it takes amazing photos and has a solid combination of 3x and 5x zoom that I liked.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Honor Magic V3

Samsung’s closure is not a special case of the Galaxy S Ultra. The Galaxy Z Fold6 is that much ahead of its Chinese competitors. The Honor Magic V3 really deserves its middle name. The phone is incredibly light, yet built to last. It has excellent screens in both quality and size (and aspect).

The Magic V3 is not only the foldable I would take as my main phone for photography, but I would happily choose it regardless of its form factor. I love the 70mm to 85mm zoom camera on my phone – but I’ll give the Magic V3’s 90mm f/3.0 a pass. This phone also breaks the stereotype that foldable phones should have small batteries with slow charging. High marks all around!

Honor Magic V3

google pixel 9 pro

Since I’ve been using a larger phone for the past few years, whenever I hold a compact flagship, something inside starts yearning. I purchased the Google Pixel 9 Pro almost immediately, but Google had supply issues and the larger Pro XL was available at launch. What could have happened?

The Pixel 9 Pro has good specs, a good-sized battery, and good cameras. And there’s always something special about Pixel phones. Ultimately, however, the 48MP 113mm f/2.8 zoom camera wasn’t attractive enough for me due to its length and lack of close focusing.

google pixel 9 pro

Vivo X200 Pro Mini

At the same size as the Pixel, Vivo’s X200 Pro Mini is an even better phone. It has a 5,700mAh battery with great charging speed. I bet the Zeiss minded triple 50MP camera system will be solid.

Sadly, Vivo will only be releasing the X200 and X200 Pro in Western markets and is keeping the X200 Pro Mini locked in China. It’s a real shame – this Mini makes a fool of its rivals.

Vivo X100 Ultra

This is the phone that’s been in my pocket since our review ended! Since I’m usually the first one to set up the phone in the office, I got a kick out of the Vivo X100 Ultra. I was immediately attracted to its 85mm zoom camera and grabbed a few test samples for our ‘For Review’ article. I was amazed at the quality of Zoom photos. I am still there today. The zoom camera on the Vivo X100 Ultra is based on a dedicated camera.

The entire camera system is flawless. This is probably the fastest shooter I’ve tested. The Zeiss color tuning is beautiful too. This phone is the reason I haven’t taken my two big cameras with me on trips this year.

And the rest of the X100 Ultra is excellent. To me, Origin OS is miles prettier than Funtouch and feels smoother as well. I’ve sacrificed a bit because of the China-centric software, but everything I like works after some dedicated tinkering – my Galaxy Watch 6 Classic (it took a lot of tinkering), Google Wallet, etc.

So there you have it. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – Gone, Vivo X100 Ultra – Destroyer.

I’ve been a Samsung fan since the beginning (I have a Galaxy S, two Galaxy S3s, a Galaxy S6, a Galaxy S7, a Galaxy Note10+, all the way up to the Galaxy S24 Ultra) and I think this is what the company needs. Put some emphasis on innovation because at the moment, it is being outclassed by its Chinese rivals.

Let’s see what 2025 brings! Thanks for reading and have fun!