If Buying a Phone Today, Who Makes It?

About a year ago I shared an opinion I had about the state of Android smartphones and how so many of you seemed uninterested in any device not made by Samsung. The title was “You Dislike Every Phone Unless Samsung Makes It,” and it ran through all of the problems that other phone makers continue to deal with and how they are essentially to blame for putting us in this place where their phones are easily ignored or forgotten about while Samsung pushes out incredible phone after incredible phone.

The title might have looked like a negative Samsung piece, but it was in fact a list of reasons why OnePlus and Motorola and Google Pixel phones are either cast aside or quickly cancelled because of issues. The conclusion was that you dislike every phone because Samsung seems to do it right again and again, while the others keep stumbling.

As we cruise deeper into 2023, it is time to check back in on this topic. And the reason we are doing so is because Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 line, OnePlus just launched the OnePlus 11, and Google’s Pixel 7 line took home our phone of the year honors to finish out 2022. The other reason, I’d argue, is because Samsung’s launch seems snoozier than usual while the Pixel 7 was (and I think still is) mostly loved from the minute it launched and even the OnePlus 11 took home praise from most reviewers.

Are we seeing the start of a shift or am I drunk? If someone were to ask me which phone to buy today, I’d probably point first to the Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, then to Samsung’s Galaxy S23+, then the S23 Ultra, and then I’d tell them to read every thing they possibly could about the OnePlus 11 to learn its quirks. But that’s me.

So where are you today? If you were buying a phone, who makes it? Are we still going Samsung almost every time or has Google finally nailed it with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro? Did OnePlus creep back into your heart with the OnePlus 11? Are you looking toward the future and a Nothing Phone (2) powered by a real premium chipset?