MKBHD just revealed his smartphone of the year

Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee has just announced his selection for best smartphone of 2024, and no, it’s not an iPhone.

In a new video that dropped for his 19.7 million followers on Thursday, Brownlee began by giving a shoutout to some of his top selections in the smartphone space, saving his top choice until the very end.

“My philosophy here is, I’m rewarding overall greatness,” the YouTuber said while sitting at a table laden with smartphone releases from the last 12 months.

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Runners-up included the Vivo X200 Pro for being in the “got it all territory … it’s got the awesome super bright screen, it’s got the great chipset, it’s got these incredible cameras and that shooting experience, great battery life, super fast charging,” he said. “What it doesn’t have is maybe just the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip at this point, although it does have a pretty great MediaTek chip that’s no slouch.”

Brownlee also picked out Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold “for being such a big comeback story for the Pixel Fold series and being such a good phone, a foldable that I would actually daily to this day.”

It was the base iPhone 16 — not the Pro version — also caught the YouTuber’s attention for being “the most complete base iPhone ever made,” adding that “this was a really good year for not spending $1,500 on an iPhone.”

Before announcing his winner, he also gave a nod to his current daily driver, Google’s Pixel 9 Pro XL. “I use the XL over the smaller one just because of the extra battery life,” Brownlee said.

So, with those phones out of the way, can you guess which device he announced as the best smartphone of 2024?

Fanfare please! The winner is the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

“This phone is just so good at everything, literally everything,” Brownlee said. He loves it for its “great screen, a great chip a great, battery, great cameras, great software, great support, great durability, even the anti-reflective coding on the screen is way above average. Even the vibration motor is good, even the speakers are good.” Yes, he really likes the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

The YouTuber added that over the last seven or so years of reviewing smartphones, this is the phone that he’s returned to more than any other after reviewing a handset.

However, he added that the selection “might be the most boring choice here,” in part because the phone’s design hasn’t changed since the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

In its own review of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Digital Trends called it “the best Ultra ever,” noting that it’s not a refreshed design that makes a true upgrade, it’s new features, new technology, and lifestyle-enhancing alterations” — and, as Brownlee would agree, it clearly delivers on these points.