What Makes Your Phone Great?

What do you love about your phone?

We all own the phones that we own for certain reasons. We bought them for the camera. We bought them for the battery life or the high refresh rate display. We wanted frequent software updates or support for years. We wanted all the shiny, fragile glass surrounding it because it looks so damn pretty when new and is sans case for the first 30 seconds of ownership. We have needs and the phones we choose hopefully satisfy them.

But what makes your phone particularly great? If someone were to come up to you and ask, “Why’d you buy that phone?” What would you respond with? Is there a single feature or is it the combination of many? Is it because you trust the company making it to provide a level of service on top of the features? Is ownership partly based on ownership of the previous model of the phone you now own? Do you just love glass?

We get asked all of the time which phone we would recommend to people because that’s sort of our jobs. We get asked if someone should buy the Galaxy Note 10 or the regular S10? We get a lot of people right now asking if they should buy the OnePlus 7T over the Pixel 4, for good reason. It’s a never-ending conversation that we love to have.

I know what I’d say about most phones, if someone asked why they should buy this phone over that phone. This is what I think makes phones great:

• Galaxy Note 10+: It’s the everything phone. It has an incredible display, one of the best camera systems available, the software has gotten so good with the release of One UI, and there’s a freakin’ S Pen. You have super fast charging, wireless charging, accessory choices for days, upgrades in storage performance, and a support system from one of the biggest brands in the entire world. Samsung throws it all in there and that alone makes me happy.
• OnePlus 7T: This is the phone for people who love speed. I know that OnePlus probably exaggerates the speed of their phones, but there is something about OnePlus phones that do indeed feel quicker than everyone else’s. On top of that, you have the whole value conversation around the price you pay for all the goods you get when compared to others. But really, I just think fast and clean and smooth and sleek when I recommend OnePlus. The fastest charging. The smoothest displays. Buttery smooth software. Those clean lines and that metal sharpness. Mmmm, I love it.
• Pixel 4 XL: I won’t call anything about the regular Pixel 4 great, but with the Pixel 4 XL, I immediately think about an ecosystem. As boring and odd as that may sound, the reason people like me love the Pixel line is because it provides the best Google experience in a phone, from services to cameras to software. If you want the “Google” experience, you go Pixel, even if that means taking a hit on certain hardware features. OK, the camera is also pretty damn good.

I’m sure I could go on and find other phones, these are just the three I’d recommend to most people buying a phone today. Also, though, the basic principle for each applies to older Pixel phones, the Galaxy S10 or Note 9, and the OnePlus 7 Pro, etc. With every single one of the releases from Samsung, OnePlus, and Google, those are mostly my takeaway every time. I don’t see it changing any time soon.

What about you? You’ve likely owned a variety of phones now that we are in 2019. What makes your phone great? How would you describes its greatness to someone looking for a new phone?