The Top Smartphones of 2014, Part 1 - The Phablet Awards...

It’s that time of the year when we look back on the year gone by and think “Boy, has it been a whole year since I had this very same thought?” It’s also that time of the year where, with the holiday season approaching and tech releases far behind us, I can take a nice, long look at the new gadgets that 2014 blessed us with and pick my favourite smartphones. This essentially is the list of smartphones that I would go out and buy immediately (if I had that kind of cash, that is)

Before we get in to the top smartphones of the year, here’s my two cents on some of the trends that became very visible in the smartphone market in 2014.

The race to the bottom has officially ended 

If 2013 saw almost all major smartphone manufacturers (except Apple) bring to market cheaper and cheaper devices and wage a price war for market share, 2014 was when this race came skidding to a halt in the face of common sense. Prices on most smartphones have seen a rise, most markedly in the flagship device space.

Specs no longer really matter, performance does 

The importance of hardware specs as a selling point has also decreased, coinciding with the release of Android Kitkat and then Lollipop. Smartphone makers have realized that consumers are quickly getting lost in the long list of numbers in hardware specs and only really care about performance.

Phablets are well and truly in 

Once Apple, long at the vanguard of the “Small is Better” battle, took the plunge and released the enormous iPhone6+, you knew the phablets were officially, a thing. That its smaller brethren, the iPhone 6 outsells it 3 to 1 just shows that big phones may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Minimalism in software is quite welcome

When Samsung, the poster child of excess, decides to strip down the latest version of its Touchwiz interface, you know things have changed for the better. LG, HTC and Sony also quickly followed, Motorola, of course, was right there waiting for them all along. 

Overall, a lot of positives and everything I can get on board (except for maybe the phablet thing). So without further ado, here are my Smartphone Awards of 2014.

The "Phablet" of the Year

What actually can be called phablet is a matter of debate, but for the sake of being objective, I have decided to consider any device with a screen size of 5.5 inches or more as a phablet. As I mentioned earlier, this was the year the phablet went mainstream with Apple and Google joining Samsung in the race to cram your pocket and empty your wallet (which is why this is a separate category).

The Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (Rs. 57,000)

The device which spawned the phablet defeats its competition hands down armed with its great multi-tasking capability (notably how it allows multiple apps to be opened side by side), brilliant specs (the phone has almost every sensor you can conceivably think of, combined with a 16MP camera which can shoot 4K video as well), ever improving S-Pen support and an almost other-worldly 5.7inch display.

Honorable Mentions: iPhone 6Plus (Rs. 62,500) and LG G3 (Rs. 40,100)

The iPhone continues Apple's tradition of making boring, somewhat uninspired but well made phones boasting good displays and perhaps the best camera among all smartphones but loses out due to its lack of a stylus and lesser multi-tasking capability compared to the Note. 

The Biggest iPhone out there...

LG G3

The LG G3 is perhaps the surprise of the bunch continuing LG's impressive resurgence since the Nexus 4 showing good design chops (gotta love those thin bezels) and smart software and some neat features. An 13MP camera boasting optical image stabilization ain't too shabby either.

The Nexus 6 - When is Big just too Big?

The disappointment in this section has to be the Nexus 6 (Rs. 44,000). Sporting a ridiculous, palm aching, joint spraining, pocket bursting 5.96 (heck, 6 inch) screen, the sheer size of the device and the fact that vanilla Android makes almost no concession for usability in such a gigantic device (not to mention, hardly allows the user to make the most of a huge screen), makes it a definite no-no for me. The fact that it is almost continuously out of stock at the Play Store does not help either. The older, smaller Nexus 5 is still the best bet for your vanilla Android fix.

The "When Will It Ever Be Available" Award

Meet the OnePlus One,
the BigFoot of the Smartphone World

Has to go to the OnePlus One (Rs. 21,999). I was a sceptic myself till I finally found someone who had snared an invite and managed to get his hands on one (I felt like an anthropologist who finally gets to meet the BigFoot).

While future support for the device is uncertain (since Cyanogen will not be providing updates going forward) and customer support from the manufacturer has been less than stellar, the low price combined with top of the line specs makes it worth taking a punt on. Provided, of course, you jump through some hoops to get an invite. Good luck with that!!!

So that was the first part of my Smartphone Awards. I'll be back with the best budget smartphones and the best normal sized premium handsets. Do let me know your thoughts in the comments section.