The year 2020 was another action packed one in terms of smartphone launches and new tech. Despite the pandemic, no smartphone launch event was cancelled but rather all move to online only in order to deliver the latest and greatest products to the consumers. Be it any range and price point, we got to see another set of great smartphones in 2020 from all the brands. But just like every year, there are smartphones which deserve much more limelight and hype around them and this year is no different. These smartphones of 2020 are the flagship phones from their respective brand.
The reasons why these phones do not make the cut and people often forget them is the result of company’s own actions and choices. The choices made by brands is a deciding factor whether their devices would be a hit or a flop. Many factors contribute to the same and surprisingly the smartphone brands are responsible for themselves.
Fun Fact: None of the mentioned smartphones in this list have launched in India!
Let’s take a look at the underrated smartphones of 2020 :-
LG V60 ThinQ: Battery Beast
LG V60 ThinQ is beast of a phone which was announced early in the year in February. This phone is the best of the best what LG could offer this year and remains the only LG phone with a flagship SoC i.e. Snapdragon 865. As usual, being a 5G phone LG boasts of it’s capabilities of ultra fast internet speeds but that’s not for what you should buy this phone. Also not to mention the Dual Screen which can be purchased separately with the V60 opens up new possibilities and ways of navigating throughout the phone. Personally I didn’t find the Dual Screen much useful to me but I know some people who extremely love having that functionality on their LG phones.
LG took the decision this year and killed off its ‘G’ series of devices and went with a completely new lineup called “Velvet”. The LG Velvet comes no where near the LG V60 in terms of probably everything. It doesn’t even have a flagship processor which the ‘G’ series have had for years since its inception. LG’s strategy has changed big time as they would target the high price point with the ‘V’ series and the ‘Velvet’ series at midrange prices.
If you look at the specs, it’s the best of how a smartphone can be sans high refresh rate, because that’s what other brands are offering but LG misses that out on both the signature devices of the year – V60 and Velvet. Apart from that, V60 is seemingly a great phone but the problem as always lies with LG of not reaching out to the potential customers about their smartphones and the result? People don’t even realise that such a great speced smartphone even exists. Their lack of promotion hits them every year and this year’s no different. This makes the LG V60 a underrated smartphone of 2020.
The V60 also didn’t even launch in many countries, including India so that’s also one reason this phone didn’t really take off. But to everyone’s surprise LG India offered the LG G8x at a spectacular price during the Diwali sales on online platforms such as Flipkart. LG probably generated revenue which they couldn’t have even if launched the LG V60 in India.
BRIEF SPECS of LG V60 ThinQ –
- Display – 6.8″ P-OLED 1080p
- Cameras – 64MP (standard) + 13Mp (ultra-wide) + 0.3MP (depth/TOF)
- Processor – Snapdragon 865
- Battery – 5000mAh
- Display – 6.7″ 2K AMOLED with 120Hz
- Cameras – 48MP (standard) + 48MP (ultra-wide) + 13MP (periscope)
- Processor – Snapdragon 865
- Battery – 4260mAh with 65W fast charging
- Display – 6.67″ 1080p AMOLED with 90Hz
- Cameras – 64MP (standard) + 12MP (ultra-wide) + 8MP (telephoto)
- Processor – Snapdragon 865
- Battery – 5000mAh with 30W fast charging
OPPO Find X2 Pro: Display Greatness
OPPO Find X2 Pro can be seriously considered as a contender for ‘Best Smartphone Display’ due to its excellent display capabilities. It can run on 120Hz on its maximum resolution unlike the extreme high end Samsung devices like Galaxy S20 series and Galaxy Note20 Ultra which lacks this despite being one of the most wanted feature from the users of the respective devices. The display of the OPPO Find X2 Pro has really been applauded by various reviewers and publications due it extremely great colour production, peak brightness which is easily visible in pure daylight and just the sheer experience of using a 2K display panel with 120Hz refresh rates.
Apart from the display experiences, Find X2 Pro also excels as a flagship with high end specs such as Snapdragon 865 and custom made Sony camera sensor but with some caveats like no water resistance despite of a high price.
Oppo decided not to launch the X2 Pro but instead launched the vanilla Find X2 in the Indian market.most probably because the X2 itself is so highly priced, there’s no reason to launch the Find X2 Pro. Also as Oppo being a sister company to OnePlus, the OnePlus 8 Pro is very similar to the X2 Pro even the design language is same with ridges on the edges of both the phones. There’s a strategy being played here with OnePlus ansd Oppo flagships that OnePlus being a more valuable and preferred brand by the people, they (BBK Electronics) emphasize more on the OnePlus flagship and bring it forward as the signature phone of the year.
Nonetheless, Find X2 Pro is a great phone in its own way but wasn’t able to take off outside Chine. After all, the OnePlus 8 Pro seemingly looks like a clone of the X2 Pro sans the ColorOS so why would people buy the Oppo phone considering it’s not looked upon as a flagship and valuable brand. So yeah the Find X2 Pro comes out as an underrated smartphone of 2020 due to the strategies which the company adopts.
BRIEF SPECS of OPPO Find X2 Pro –
Zenfone 7 & Zenfone 7 Pro: Smartphone of the Year
Asus ought to be in the list of “underrated smartphones of 20XX” right? This is the third time in a row, the Asus Zenfone flagships are extremely great but still don’t end up taking off. Reason? Once again same as previous years – Asus despite creating such a great device, doesn’t want to sell to and cater to the people. That’s because Asus just doesn’t promote these phones and this year’s even worst! The Zenfone 7 series didn’t even launch in India and the reason is still unkown.
Asus has seemingly becoming a gaming centric smartphone brand because that’s pretty evident by how much it focuses on the ROG Phones. The ROG Phone 2 was launched way back in September 2019 and the very next phone was literally the ROG Phone 3 in July 2020. Between those two launched literally no phone was launched forget flagship, not even a midrange smartphone.
Also read: Are Gaming Phones in Need and their Increase in Popularity
Speaking of midrange phones, Asus has not yet successfully delivered the Android 10 update as promised to its 2018 midrangers i.e. Zenfone Max Pro M1 and Zenfone Max Pro M2. On the other hand, those were the last midrange phones and the Zenfone Max Pro M3 never saw the daylight. With recently Indian sentiments roaring and people going against Chinese brands, Asus being Asus didn’t avail this opportunity and didn’t deliver anything when people were literally looking forward to non-chinese brands such as Samsung and Nokia. Asus being a Taiwan brand let go of this golden opportunity which clearly shows they are probably not interested in the smartphone business.
The Zenfone 7 could go on and be the best smartphone of the year because it’s just so great and bolsters of specs which every smartphone geek would go for. A huge 5000mAh battery, Snapdragon 865, best selfie camera in a smartphone thanks to the flip cameras and an AMOLED 90Hz display to top all that off. The display was a single most con of Zenfone flagships as other brands had been offering AMOLED displays in the price segment at which Asus flagships sell for. Apart from that the ZenUI on Asus phones has really come a long way with brands such as OnePlus’ OxygenOS moving away from stock like Android, Asus’ ZenUI continues to emnrace it and offer nifty features with zero junk and bloat and at the same time being a clean custom skin UI. But the sad part is that despite of rectifying the con Asus let alone market and promote the phone, didn’t even announced the phone in major markets such as India!
Nevertheless, the Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro are really great devices and a seriously deserved title for “underrated smartphone of 2020”
BRIEF SPECS of Zenfone 7 Pro –
This was my list of the underrated smartphones of 2020. These phones are on the list because they deserved more recognition which couldn’t happen due to various factors involved like lack of promotion, slight high price and unavailability in several markets.
