It is December and many tech content creators – YouTubers alike have been revealing what they believe to be the best smartphone of 2022 for different categories.

This wasn’t a thing until a few years ago but Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) has been consistent with this for a very long time (since 2013) and his award is one of the most anticipated and most engaged with.

At the beginning of the video, Marques said, “It is a bit of a tradition around here to revisit the smartphones that came out during the calendar year 2022, and then I like to recognize and reward some of the best and the worst that came out.”

Below are the winners, the biggest losers, and how Samsung phones did in this award. Remember they didn’t do very well at mrwhosetheboss best phone award and the blind camera test.

1.) Best Big Phone – Won By Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

“Phones have gotten bigger and bigger over time to a point where pretty much every phone is big but I still like to reward a phone that had a great use of that space. You still want a big screen but also a big battery, maybe big speakers, some nice cameras, and a whole thing just been a good use of all that extra space,” Marques said.

After announcing the winner of this category, he continues “Hardware-wise, I feel like this one just pretty much did it all here.”

He said the S22 Ultra didn’t just get a 6.8 inches display, but it also has stylus support and then a 5000 mAh.

“Multiple great cameras at the back, pairs of great telephotos, good speakers, good software, really no hardware flaws to speak of to the point where you maybe say it is kind of boring.”

The runner-up and honorable mention in this category are ASUS ROG Phone 6 and Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 respectively.

2.) Best Small Phone – Won By ASUS Zenfone 9

“Now, we are on the other end of the spectrum, right? There are not a lot of small smartphones and this is a rare category and I will be honest this one wasn’t close,” said Marques.

After announcing the winner of this category, he continues by saying. “This phone is so nice and they made a lot of great decisions across the board here.”

The Zenfone 9 won in this category because it has flagship specs, great software, a great camera, and even comes with an headphone jack. He was astonished by the compact phone’s battery life even with its high end processing power and top of the line display.

He gave the runner-up to Oppo Find N2 which came out right at the very end of the year.

3.) Best Camera Phone – iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max

He is not rewarding a single camera or just the rear camera here. He starts this category by saying “Best camera or should I just call it best camera system across the board.”

He continues, “Because there is a lot to a good camera from photo quality to video quality but also speed of capture and autofocus reliability and ease of use and file format and those other stuff.”

He made mention of the Pixel and Vivo phones that won the overall best camera at the recently just concluded Blind camera test and said he is not giving them this category award.

He instead gave the award to iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. He called the iPhone smartphones “The longest defending champion of a single category ever.” Because the Pro iPhones have won the award for the 4th time in a row.

“It is great across the board, image quality is solid, the time to open the camera to actually snap a photo is extremely quick, and the autofocus is fast,” MKBHD said.

He continues to say that you can give the Pro iPhones A- in the photo department but the video side is a whole new dimension and it is not even close.

4.) Best Battery Phone – Won By ASUS ROG Phone 6

“It is including a little more obviously than just the battery size, I want to include the battery experience, how long it takes to charge, how long it last on a charge, battery flexibility” according to Marques.

After announcing the winner of this category, he continues “This phone has not a 4000, not a 5000 but a 6000 mAh battery, got 65 watts fast charging so it can go from 0 to full in less than an hour.” And on top of that, there is a tonne of battery management features.

He gave the runner-up in this category to the iPhone 14 Plus. The ASUS Zenfone 9 got an honorable mention/shoutout.

5.) Best Design Phone – Won By Nothing Phone 1

He said the criteria for this category have changed a lot over the years from which phone has the best build quality in terms of material and industrial design to which phone can step out of the box and do things a little bit differently than the others design-wise.

Marques said the design is the second best thing about the Nothing Phone 1 because of the transparent look and all the light stuff going on at the back of the phone.

The Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 again got an honorable mention for this category because it is so thin that it has the same thickness as a normal phone even though it is a folding phone.

6.) Best Value Phone – Won By Google Pixel 7

This category used to be the best budget category but MKBHD said budget means something different to everyone so he just calls it the best bank for the buck now.

One of the major criteria for winning this category is the launch price. “This phone came out at $599 and it is one of the best $599 phones I have ever seen,” Marques said.

The ASUS Zenfone 9 again is a runner-up for being very close to the Pixel 7 in terms of value though was announced starting at $699.

Realme 10 Pro Plus got an honorable mention.

7.) Bust of the Year – Won By OnePlus 10T

He said a lot of manufacturers played it safe this year and he is not going to penalize them for that.

Talking about the OnePlus 10T, he said “It won this award for having a pretty big delta between expectations and possibilities versus actual result.”

8.) Best Improved Phone – Google Pixel 7

He said Google really find their groove with this phone. He also called it a great package overall phone.

9.) MVP (Most Valuable Phone) of the Year – Won By Google Pixel 7

The criteria for winning this category is to be “The best overall phone combined with the best overall experience, the best impact on the industry.” according to MKBHD.

He continues by saying there is a bunch of different things that can float you to the top.

He said the MVP this year was very close between Google Pixel 7 and ASUS Zenfone 9 and it is very tough to choose between them. But he has to make a decision and he decided to have two MVPs this year.

The MVP award went to Google Pixel 7. “Like you hear about in its previous win, great value, incredible cameras, great display, flagship software experience, really good battery life, and not a whole lot missing,” Marques said while talking about the Pixel 7 being the phone of the year.

As for the second MVP (which he called the close second to the MVP), He said the ASUS Zenfone 9 has a lot going on for it.

He called it one of his favorite phones of the year and it is also one of his biggest surprises of the year for its incredible performance, great battery life, headphone jack, side-mounted fingerprint reader, and surprisingly good cameras.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra got an honorable mention in this category.

Watch the full video.