My love for smartphones began, not with the 2007 iPhone, but actually with the 2011 Samsung Galaxy S2. When people were oohing and aahing over the iPhone 1, I just wasn’t able to see what was so great about it. A flat screened rectangular touch phone with rounded corners was nothing new. The first iPhone that I really liked was the iPhone 4. Now that was a good design. Even then, I didn’t fell in love with it. To me iPhones are like diamond jewellery; I can see the beauty in them, but of what use is a diamond necklace to a man? Can a man wear a diamond necklace just because it’s beautiful? I always loved Android and the fact that Android is Linux (GNU/Linux is my favourite operating system) made me love it even more. That being said, the only Apple made hardware that I like are the macbooks; too bad I don’t like its Mac OS X operating system. Without further ado, let me list my all-time favourite (design-wise) smartphones:
- Samsung Galaxy S2 (2011): My first love. I was crazy about this phone back then in 2011, and I visited many phone stores just to touch and play with this device. But I thought that 30,000 Rupees was just too much for a phone and I never bought it 😦 . Fast forward to 2014, my enthusiasm for this phone is not the same as before after seeing so many better designed phones. But I will always remember how I drooled at this phone!
- Samsung Galaxy R (2011): This was a limited edition Galaxy S2 clone that Samsung released in select markets just a few months after S2’s release. It’s specifications were tad lower than S2’s and was priced for about 23,000 Rupees. I thanked Samsung for producing a Galaxy S2 like device for those of us who couldn’t afford the original S2.
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus (2011): I still love this phone so much. Its front is completely covered with glass, and when it’s powered off, it’s hard to say where the display ends and where the bezel begins. I had this strange feeling of wanting to bite this phone when I first saw it. Till date, this is Samsung’s best designed Android phone.
- HTC One S (2012)
- HTC One X (2012): I still use this beauty.
A few better designed phones have been released after 2012, but I don’t love these phones as much as I loved the above mentioned ones. But the following ones are worth mentioning.
- HTC One M7 (2013)
- LG Nexus 5 (2013)
- HTC One M8 (2014)
- Moto X (2014)
Sadly, Samsung veered away from the Galaxy S2’s design and I stopped liking the Galaxy S series from the Galaxy S3. From what I’ve seen, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus seem to be the best designed iPhones till date, but I still haven’t played with those phones yet to add them to this list. I know that I have not mentioned a single Sony phone in this list; this is because I personally don’t like Sony’s smartphone design and it’s custom UI. There is something about Sony’s smartphone displays that I completely dislike and I don’t really know how to explain it. For comparison, I think, Samsung’s and HTC’s smartphone (high-end) displays look more bright and vivid. Also, I think that in Sony’s phones, the distance between the inner display and the outer glass is higher when compared to any other smartphones — I don’t really know if this statement is true, but I have been suspecting this for a long time (if you own an iPhone 5s or 6 I am sure you know how the icons seem to float very close to the screen. I am yet to handle the iPhone 6 personally and I can say this just by watching videos on Youtube!). Right now I like the Nexus 6 very much, but it’s just too big for my pocket.


The beautiful Galaxy Nexus! Can someone tell me where the display ends and where the bezel starts?!