The Dead Smartphone Tier List

MKBHD and David Imel dive into the best and worst discontinued phones of the past 10 years.

~
Chapters:
00:00 Lots of good, but also lots of bad
00:37 Phone with (almost) no bezels!
01:47 The cloud storage phone
02:39 The next Nextbit
03:37 Duo? More like oof-o amiright??
05:13 What killed this gorgeous phone?
08:38 The camera was amazing
10:07 This phone banged in the boardroom
11:43 $1,300, all gimmicks
13:59 The first folding phone
15:09 MKBHD's most viewed phone

Shop the merch:

Join the Discord:

Music licensed from Epidemic Sound:

Follow The Studio:

Follow the staff:

Equipment used in this video and others:

Shot and produced by Miles Somerville
Audio by Ellis Rovin
Graphics by Tim McMahon and Michael Emerick

[Frozty]

I said it back on the original video and I stick by my original statement. The LG Wing could have been the worlds greatest gameboy emulator.

[elfketchup]

The LG Wing should have been S-tier, and it was proof that, even in LG's final moments as a phone company, they could still release genuinely interesting and hilariously wacky phones... I really miss that kind of thing now. 😔

[Tharrinne]

About the Nokia 1020. The Cortana assistant in mine was THE SINGLE best thing ever. I would tell it to remind me to get socks from Walmart, it would send me a notification anytime I was at a Walmart, any Walmart.

It was the single best contextual reminder assistant ever and I've never managed to replicate it.

[deltasigma]

Still an LG Wing owner. Coming up to year 4. Battery life is awesome, replaced the back glass once myself with ease, use gimbal mode on holidays, and constantly use T mode for emails. I love my wing!

[madfox]

Lumias at the time were S TIER, the issue wasn't even really Windows Phone itself, but rather all the devs that didn't want to bring their apps or support to the OS. Even to this day there are apps that refuse to work on Android because they're like "na', most people use iPhone so we're not making an Android version" and it sucks. I still miss my Lumia 930

[blodhthringa]

The best thing the LG Wing form factor was the comfort of holding it while watching videos in landscape, plus you could text on the bottom screen without interrupting your video.

[josephdechavez]

The Lumia 1020 started pixel binning, and the large camera island. Camera quality was better than the competition for years to come. You can crop after the shot and still go back to the full shot. S tier.

[animationcreations]

The Wing is absolutely an S tier phone.
RIP LG, the G6 is my absolute favourite form factor for a phone, it was the perfect size, had the perfect amount of bezel to be able to hold the phone horizontally, and the power button/finger print reader was on the back where it belongs!

[sherlockmaverick]

I had serious Android Authority flashbacks seeing David talk about phones again!

[vivianlevine]

The Nokia Lumia 1020 was the legendary Nokia 808 Pureview's successor (which was notorious for having a 41 megapixel camera - in 2012! It considered by many as being years ahead of the competition). It was released in 2013, I was 16 that year and social media was already big, albeit not as big as it is today. I think both of you forgot about Windows Phone OS as you did not mention it at all, just saying that the UI was good.

I actually like the LG Wing and I think it deserves a higher tier. I really like watching Youtube videos while simultaneously looking at the comments (multitasking).

[deathjunior]

I worked in phone sales from 2010-2022 got to enjoy all of these, such a throw back. Love this.

[riggi_]

C for the Lumia? That's poor judgement.

Lumia was way ahead of any Android or iPhone then. Windows phone OS is something I still miss using, the simplicity and style was amazing.

The clean and thoughtful UI for the camera, most informative yet well organised home screen, pure zen mode type animations 🔥 and that instant access to the camera shutter button are just a few. The bold colour options, build quality, heat management, amazing battery life and the list goes on. Cortana was years ahead of Google now and Siri.

The poor strategy of Steve Ballmer of not being able to bring in the developers onto the platform killed an amazing chance of a strong competition.

And ya the crisp and clear photos.

[auliamate]

I swear to you, if the Blackberry Priv got revived TODAY, with modern specs, running Android 14, with at least an "okay" camera, I WOULD THATTTT. I love MrMobile, dont get me wrong, but mama wants a BLACKBERRY LIKE THE GOOD OL' DAYS WITH MY Z10

[eculhane]

I absolutely loved my Lumia 1020. With the Lumia Pro Camera app, they were doing Google Best Take in 2013. The phone would take multiple pictures and let you choose which face was best for each user individually. Such an underrated feature I miss every time I take pictures.

[JorgeAlarconL]

This has to be a series of various videos!!!

I loved every single second of it remembering old phones.

[adilogan]

David is like the smartphone wikipedia. He just knows what phone it is along with the launch year and specs. That's sick.

[JoelKalich]

I'm watching this on my Wing in full screen while texting someone. I love it. I don't want a different form factor.

[Bitactile]

In this boring phone era with big company like apple, google, and Samsung just give you the exact same product every year, this video is really nostalgic

[DrGanja]

As a phone nerd this was a dope video checking out some of these old devices. That essential build quality is still one of the best I’ve had in hand.

[BWTECH]

its so sad LG had to pull out of the smartphone game. They were truly innovative. I guess it doesn't pay to be creative these days.