Shootout: Flagship smartphones compared
We compare the best flagship smartphones of 2019 to see which one comes up tops.
Note: A version of this article first appeared in our HWM November 2019 edition and is now re-published on HardwareZone. All of the phones have been detailed in far greater detail in their respective online reviews and this article serves as a quick compilation.
Note: This article was first published on 4 January 2020.
Dial me a winner
Flagship smartphone makers have it tough. Having to always squeeze out more performance, eke out more display space, and still come up with exciting new features year-on-year is difficult, to say the least. And then there’s the competition. While there are several, flagship-tier phones in the market, the following five smartphones represent the best the mobile world has to offer in 2019.
We find out which one is best in this shootout, but first, here's a specs table to line-up how they all compare.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
The iPhone 11 Pro Max is one of two iPhones to be the first to be assigned a “Pro” moniker. The phone follows the same overall aesthetic as the iPhone XR, with a stainless steel body and a glass back. This has an IP68 water and dust resistant rating, and Apple says the phone can stay submerged in up to 4 metres of water for up to 30 minutes.
While the design language is the same, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is noticeably thicker and heavier than its predecessor. Thickness is up by 0.4mm from 7.7mm to 8.1mm, and weight is up 18g for the iPhone 11 Pro Max from 208g to 226g. Not a deal-breaker by any means but it’s something worth taking note of since the iPhone 11 Pro Max is noticeably heftier in the hands. The iPhone 11 Pro comes in four colours. Space grey, silver, and gold returns, with a new midnight green option.
In terms of display, The iPhone 11 Pro Max gains a 6.5-inch, 2,688 x 1,242 pixels, Super Retina XDR (458 PPI) display. This can now go up to 1,200 nits when viewing HDR10 movies or photos. Clarity, sharpness, and colour accuracy are all excellent with this phone.
The audio side has also improved because the iPhone 11 Pro Max comes with stereo speakers that support spatial audio. Compared to the iPhone XS Max, the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro sound just about as loud, but distortion is less pronounced and the sound is more controlled at extreme volumes. Also, the stereo separation and effects are more distinct and there's even the slightest palpable sense of bass.
Now on to the camera system. The iPhone 11 Pro Max has a triple camera system for the very first time:-
- Wide 12-megapixel f1.8 (26mm)
- Ultra-wide 12-megapixel f2.4 (13mm)
- Telephoto 12-megapixel f2.0 (52mm)
Apple’s made it easy to jump from stills capture to video – just hold down the shutter and flick to the right to change modes.
Stills and videos are sharp with good colours, and the iPhone finally gets Night Mode, which activates automatically when lighting is poor. A good thing about this is that you can adjust exposure time manually in case you have a tripod handy, to a maximum of three seconds. But it must be noted that Apple has tuned Night Mode so it doesn’t turn day into night, but rather just gives you as much detail and dynamic range as possible while preserving the intent of the image.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max easily bests the competition in terms of performance benchmark tests as can be seen on page six. The A13 bionic chip packs 23% more transistors than the previous A12 chip, and this goes a long way to aid it in speedier processing while using less power through a better silicon process technology.
For a more detailed assessment, features, and capabilities, check out our full review of the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
ASUS ROG Phone II
The ASUS ROG Phone II follows much of the same form and design aesthetic of last year’s original, where it stood out for its Air Triggers – touch-sensitive sensors that act as the shoulder trigger buttons on a game controller.
But there are noticeable changes that make the ROG Phone II more appealing this time around. The offset fingerprint sensor has been removed from the back and replaced by an in-display sensor, and the smaller vent is now functional. Under its hood, this year’s model also comes with increased battery capacity (6,000mAh), speedy UFS 3.0 storage, an incredible 12GB of RAM, and bragging rights for being the first smartphone to sport a 120Hz refresh rate 2,340 x 1,080 HDR10 AMOLED display, as well as the fastest Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset available.
Running on Android 9 Pie, the ROG Phone II looks fairly contemporary upfront. The display is framed by black edges less than a centimetre thick at the top and bottom, with its largest visual standout being the copper-grilled front speakers.
It’s on the back where things take on a decidedly flashier aesthetic. There’s a heatsink embedded in a glossy plastic section stamped with the words ‘ROG Aerodynamic System’; basically a vapour-cooled chamber system much like what its predecessor uses. Ringing the phone’s sides are the usual bevy of connectors: a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone/mic port, the power button, and a volume rocker.
Of interest is the mobile Armoury Crate app, which functions just like its desktop counterpart. You get a system monitor with usage and temperature readings, options to adjust fan speed on the included AeroActive Cooler accessory, and Aura Lighting controls. Yes, this phone does have RGB lighting, strobing away via the ROG logo on the back when X Mode is on.
Another bonus add-on is the programmable Air Triggers accessory, which simulates bumper triggers on a controller for greater control flexibility. However, these are sensors and not physical springs, so don’t give sensitivity along the lines of an actual gamepad.
The ROG Phone II is capable of a lot, but its cameras are its weakest point. It has a dual-lens camera system on its back, comprised of a 48MP main lens and a 13MP 125-degree wide-angle lens. It sports the same Sony IMX586 image sensor as the ASUS ZenFone 6. Image quality is acceptable but not quite what you would expect from an S$1,598 phone.
This is a phone built for gaming and for gamers, in terms of both hardware and design, and it looks and feels great to use in my experience with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground Mobile. The swathe of accessories paints some interesting possibilities too, though the entire suite costs nearly as much as the phone.
For a more detailed assessment, features, and capabilities, check out our full review of the ASUS ROG Phone II.
Google Pixel 4XL
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL contain some of the biggest upgrades that Google has made in a single year to its smartphones. And while the crowning glory of the Pixel series has always been its camera, the Pixel 4 serves up a platter of new features that don't have anything to do with taking pictures, including radar-based gesture sensing and Face ID-style Face Unlock.
This is perhaps the most exciting upgrade the Pixel line has gotten to date. When I say exciting, I mean this mostly from a technological standpoint. This isn't a phone that you're going to clamour after because of its looks. After all, bezels are back again, including a rather thick top bezel at that. But unlike last year's much-decried notch, there's a good reason for the bezel this time. It houses the cameras and sensors necessary for Face Unlock and gesture sensing.
The Face Unlock technology is similar to Apple's Face ID, relying on an IR flood emitter and dot projector, and it's secure enough to be used for payments and authentication purposes as well. In fact, it's the first Android smartphone to offer a Face Unlock feature this secure. And just like the iPhone, the Pixel 4 is also bidding goodbye to the fingerprint sensor.
Dubbed Motion Sense, the radar-based gesture sensing tech will also let you interact with the phone without ever touching it, so you can simply swipe to silence your alarm in the morning or navigate your playlist. There’s proximity detection capabilities built into it too, so it can sense when you're approaching the phone and get the Face Unlock sensors ready to scan your face. This makes unlocking your phone quicker, and unlike on the iPhone, it sends you straight to your home screen without having to swipe up again. If you walk away from the phone, Motion Sense will know and turn off the always-on display.
Other features include a 90Hz display with Ambient EQ, which changes the screen colour temperature to match your surroundings, and the next-gen Assistant, which runs locally on your phone and has a better understanding of context.
The camera gets a second 16-megapixel telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture. This joins the 12.2-megapixel camera from last year, and Google is leveraging the telephoto lens for improved Super Res Zoom and Portrait mode. The camera app gets dual-exposure sliders as well, which should help in scenes with challenging lighting by allowing you to separately manipulate the shadows and highlights.
Ultimately, the Pixel 4 represents one of the biggest strides Google has made in a single generation. The way I see it, the Pixel 4 exemplifies the potential the Pixel line holds, and I'm already looking forward to what Google does with the Pixel 5.
Even so, does it pack enough and check all the experiential boxes for the best flagship phone you can get now? We'll answer that in a few more pages. For a more detailed assessment, features, and capabilities, check out our full review of the Google Pixel 4XL.
Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Easily one of the most talked-about phones this year because of its status as the first Android phone without Google Mobile Services out of the box that's meant for international sales, Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro actually has lots of other talking points worth covering. It’s a 6.53-inch device that runs on Huawei’s latest Kirin 990 SoC chipset, with EMUI 10.0 interface based on Android 10. The phone is only available in one configuration – 8GB RAM matched with 256GB of storage. Additional storage can also be added by way of Huawei’s Nano proprietary memory card.
The Mate 30 Pro features an 88-degree curved OLED display that wraps around the sides of the phone. It has a resolution of 2,400 x 1,176 pixels and does double duty by providing virtual volume controls that can be assigned to either side. As such, there’s really only one button on the phone, so the screen-to-body ratio is truly maximized.
Its screen offers good brightness and contrast, with colours that actually seem a bit more accurate than our previous benchmark - the P30 Pro. We'd say you get a slight bit more saturation with the Mate 30 Pro, leading to richer colours. Unfortunately, the audio quality straight out of the phone doesn’t quite match, as the volume of the under-display speaker of the Mate 30 Pro is quite a bit softer than the rest of the phones in this shootout.
Power management is a strong point with this phone. In our testing, the Mate 30 Pro lasted a good 16 hours with at full volume and maximum brightness, easily beating the next best option by a good 500 minutes. Not only does it come with a large 4,500 mAh battery, it also supports 40W wired Supercharging and 27 Wireless Supercharging. Thanks to these advanced charging capabilities, it charges very quickly, hitting the 45% mark in just 30 minutes from and getting back to 100% in an hour and seven minutes. There's little to worry about running out of power with this phone.
The Mate 30 Pro also takes good advantage of the front-facing camera to add some interesting features. For example, when viewing photos on screen, the phone is able to detect the direction of your face and automatically rotate the picture to match.

There’s also a new privacy feature where the phone is able to sense if someone other than yourself is looking at the screen and automatically hide the content of your notifications.
Yet that’s not the best part. The camera system of the Mate 30 Pro is where it really takes the cake, pushing smartphone video capture to new levels. It’s able to go up to ISO 51,200 for extreme lowlight videos, and has incredible slow-motion capture capabilities, even giving you the ability to slow down a bee in flight with just your phone. Check out our dedicated imaging and video capabilities feature to see what the Mate 30 Pro is truly capable!
If you recall, we also mentioned the Mate 30 Pro isn't your standard Android phone as it doesn't support Google Mobile Services, but instead, comes with Huawei Mobile Services. To find out about our experience on that front, check out this article. And for a quick overview of how you can get apps on the Mate 30 Pro, we have a pretty good option here, as well as this quick video clip:-

Samsung Galaxy Note10+
Say Samsung Galaxy Note series and you’ll think bigger display, long battery life, high-end hardware and of course, the S Pen stylus. That’s hasn’t changed this year (though they do have a smaller Note10 option for the first time), with the 6.8-inch Galaxy Note10+ having a screen-to-body ratio of >94%, giving you all the screen real estate you would want.
The Note10+’s WQHD+ (3,040x1,440 pixels resolution) Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O display supports HDR+ and goes up to 1,200 nits brightness, with a Display contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1. We thought it provided good contrast and natural colours and didn’t have any issues viewing the screen even in bright noon sunlight.
The Note10+ has Samsung’s new 7nm 64-bit octa-core Exynos 9825 processor. Two configurations are available: 12GB RAM/256GB and 12GB RAM/512GB. It’s the first Samsung phone to adopt the speedier UFS 3.0 storage spec for internal storage and it also has a microSD slot that takes up to 1TB more of storage, so you can literally have as much storage space as some of today’s laptops.
The signature S-Pen also gets new tricks too. You can now use it to remotely zoom the camera in and out, as well as to switch camera modes with a literal flick of the wrist. Your handwriting can also be digitized to text with just a tap, so you don’t have to retype your notes to get them on your computer. The Galaxy Note10 also features what Samsung says is the world’s slimmest vapour cooling system, which delivers optimal performance during gameplay without adding additional bulk. Here's a good video overview that touches upon everything new and improved on Samsung's latest Note:-

Samsung has taken great pains to make the Note10+ more of a productivity tool than before, with the addition of in-camera video editing capabilities and better integration with computers via Samsung DeX and the Your Phone app for Windows10. These two apps let you project and control the Note10+’s screen onto your monitor, so you can easily drag and drop files or just take advantage of the computer’s larger display as well as the keyboard and mouse.
The Note10+ has an Ultra-Wide 16MP F2.2 camera, a Wide-angle 12MP 2PD AF F1.5/F2.4 main camera, a telephoto 12MP F2.1 camera, and a VGA DepthVision Camera for Augmented Reality and 3D applications, like the AR Doodle feature and the 3D Scanner app. Both the main and the telephoto camera have OIS, and the Note10+ even has a microphone zoom feature, which concentrates audio capture on your subject as you zoom in.

Video has definitely become a point of emphasis for the Note10+, as Samsung has added a native video editor app that lets you do simple edits like cuts and transitions. What’s nice is that you also get ready access to an online library of free soundtracks for your personal projects, so you can quickly complete your piece.
For a more detailed assessment, features, and capabilities, check out our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Note10+.
Benchmark Performance
Unsurprisingly, our flagship smartphones all run the latest and most powerful processors available to them. The iPhone 11 Pro Max runs on Apple's latest A13 Bionic Chip, the ASUS ROG Phone II uses Qualcomm's best with the Snapdragon 855 Plus while the Google Pixel 4XL uses the standard Snapdragon 855. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ and the Huawei Mate 30 Pro use their own top-end Samsung Exynos 9825 and Hisilicon Kirin 990 chips respectively. Here's how they compare once more, specs-wise before we round-up their raw performance capabilities.
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme
3DMark Sling Shot is an advanced 3D graphics benchmark that tests the full range of OpenGL ES 3.1 and ES 3.0 API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes impressive volumetric lighting and post-processing effects.
With this gaming benchmark, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max pulled clearly ahead of the Android competition, with the next closest competitor being the Asus ROG Phone II with a score of 8,188, some 2,000 points behind the iPhone 11 Pro Max's score of 10,969. Clearly, Apple's GPU is quite a bit ahead of even the newer Snapdragon chips, while the Mate 30 Pro's Kirin 990 obviously has quite a bit of catching up to do.
Antutu v.7.2.2
AnTuTu is an all-in-one benchmark that tests CPU, GPU, memory, and storage. The CPU benchmark evaluates both integer and floating-point performance, while the GPU tests assess 2D and 3D performance, the memory test measures available memory bandwidth and latency, and the storage tests gauge the read and write speeds of a device's flash memory.
With this, the iPhone 11 Pro Max surges ahead again with a score of 462,098 compared to the 430,002 from the Pixel 4XL. The next fastest is the Asus ROG Phone II, which also uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 processor (the 855 Plus to be precise). Evidently, Qualcomm has caught up and exceeded Samsung's Exynos and HiSilicon's Kirin chips.
JetStream 2
JetStream 2 measures the browsing performance of a device when processing JavaScript. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but rewards browsers that start quickly, execute code well, and run smoothly. It runs a total of 64 subtests for multiple iterations, with each benchmark weighed equally, taking the geometric mean to compute the overall score.
On this benchmark. the iPhone 11 Pro Max's score of 153.68 was more than twice that of the nearest competitor, the Asus ROG Phone II. This came in with a score of 67.38, speaking to the speed of iOS devices when processing JavaScript. Among the Android devices, the Snapdragon-driven ROG Phone II and Pixel 4XL again fared better than the Mate 30 Pro and Galaxy Note 10+, with scores of 67.38 and 53.513 respectively.
Geekbench CPU
Geekbench CPU is a cross-platform processor benchmark that tests both single-core and multi-core performance with workloads that simulate real-world usage. Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1,000 (which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100U CPU processor).
No surprise that the iPhone 11 Pro also comes in tops here, given how well it's performed so far. The curiosity would be the Mate 30 Pro, which scored second in terms of Multi-core performance, but only fourth for single-core performance. We'd put that down to software optimisation, with the Kirin 990 chip being better able to split the workload among its multiple cores.
All the raw benchmarking aside, one thing to note is that we're dealing with the best flagship phones in the market and despite what the graphs paint, none of them are slow at any particular task. All devices are very responsive and buttery smooth no matter what application, task or game you throw at it. The one distinction here is the ROG Phone II's 120Hz screen which makes it even more enjoyable and responsive - more so in gaming and if you choose to slap on its optional accessories for even better mobile gameplay experience.
Battery Life
Battery life is as much about physical capacity as it is optimisation. In this shootout, the iPhone 11 Pro Max's 3,500mAh battery marked the low end, while the largest battery belonged to the Asus ROG Phone II, with its whopping 6,000mAh battery. The Mate 30 Pro and the Galaxy Note 10+ were closer in capacity at 4,500mAh and 4,300mAh respectively, while the Pixel 4XL's battery slots somewhere in between the low-end at 3,700mAh.
Our standard battery test for mobile phones has the following parameters:
- Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
- Constant data streaming through email and Twitter
As you can see, the iPhone does quite poorly on this, lagging a good 200 minutes less than the worst Android competitor. Following up from what we were saying earlier, the phone with best battery life actually turned out to be the Mate 30 Pro as that clocked an impressive 1,260 minutes, which is about 21 hours!
This despite having a battery that has about 25% less capacity than the ROG Phone II! Of course, other factors are at play beyond just sheer battery capacity like the processor models used, OS optimization and the many other phone components it has to juggle. Factors like even screen brightness come into play here and contribute to higher battery drain.
On that note, while the Samsung Galaxy Note10+'s maximum achievable brightness is 1,308 nits, this is only possible under extremely bright settings outdoors and when left to the device to handle brightness automatically. Maximum manual brightness slider control only coughs out up to 560 nits according to Displaymate (as pointed out by a keen reader who wrote to us), but that too is based on a tiny level of bright pixels to display. Nominally speaking, the highest brightness the phone can achieve with the manual brightness slider set to maximum, is about 400+ nits. The Huawei Mate 30 Pro also generally achieves this same level of brightness as reported by Anandtech. The iPhone 11 Pro, however, according to Displaymate, can handle over 820 nits easily!
This could explain why the iPhone comparison in our shootout faired quite poorly in comparison along with its limited battery capacity. Having said that, we've chosen to keep to the maximum brightness testing parameter to showcase how each phone can handle high brightness situations (though not as much as the bright outdoors) as a form as stress testing the device, but within an indoor controlled environment all through our test period. As such, you can use our reported outcome as a worst-case-scenario of sorts.
Imaging systems
With the camera system being considered such an integral part of the smartphone these days, it's interesting to see how the various brands differed.
Apple went with a three-camera system and introduced its own dedicated computational photography mode - Deep Fusion, while Asus went with a 48-megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor on their main camera and kept to the basics.
Google on the other hand, added a second telephoto lens unit while Huawei focused on video capabilities, with a dedicated Ultra-wide Cine camera that allows for better low light performance and super slow-motion capture. Finally, Samsung eschewed high resolution for better productivity tools like a native video editor, audio zoom for video, and AR capture tools.
To more in detail about the respective camera systems, hit the links below:
And the Best Flagship Smartphone is….
The Samsung Galaxy Note10+
While the iPhone 11 Pro Max undoubtedly had the best benchmark performance scores, it's more about future-proofing the phone's ongoing OS capability updates along the pipeline than of any real-world day-to-day benefit. While imaging was a big leap on the iPhone, it was left undone in the stamina department. The iPhone 11 Pro Max was a really close contender for the best smartphone award, but it was not an all-rounder and is quite expensive even with a contract.
Over on the Huawei side of things, the Mate 30 Pro had crazy-good battery life and amazing imaging/video capture capabilities. Its undoing came from the new workarounds to get the ground up and running because it's still early days for Huawei Mobile Services, and is unfortunately put at a slight disadvantage from forces well beyond its control.
The Pixel 4XL is Google's best and largest update yet in the Pixel line-up and while it has a whole bunch of stuff like secure Face Unlock on an Android device, smooth 90Hz refresh rate display, great camera performance, and access to latest Android features and updates, it has its own set of oddball limitations that make you think twice to consider it as well. The phone design is uninspiring along with its thick bezels, battery life leaves much to be desired, it misses the spot of what could be a fantastic camera if only it had a wide-angle lens to accompany it, no free unlimited Google Cloud storage for your full-res snaps, limited to only 64GB or 128GB internal storage and no expandable storage! A whole bunch of these are frankly puzzling decisions that could have been easily overcome and truly make the Pixel 4 series the undisputed Android smartphone albeit at a higher cost. Speaking of its value, it's not any affordable either and it has a sticker price of S$1,469 for the 128GB edition. Did we also mention there's no 3.5mm to USB-C adaptor in the box? So while it's a great showcase phone for what's to come for Android devices and of course the most secure Android device in the market, if you really want a more all-rounded device, this isn't quite it.
Meanwhile, the ASUS ROG Phone II is undoubtedly a beast of a smartphone for its gaming capabilities and pretty apt accessories to kit out further. It's no slouch in the performance segment too as the current fastest Android smartphone in the market. However, at its heart, it's still a specialist phone geared for gamers at heart and as we've also found, a great device for entertainment in general. The design and marketing angle clearly shields the phone away from the masses, not to mention the high price tag and average camera performance.
That said, we're giving the best overall smartphone goes to the Samsung Galaxy Note10+. This phone easily the most well-rounded feature set. You’ve got future-looking Augmented Reality features, a capable in-built video editor, and better support for audio capture during video. The Note10+’s integration with computers is also more seamless than ever, so you can really take full advantage of the larger display of your laptop for both work and play. The Note10+’s Dynamic AMOLED Infinity-O display is also one of the few that will go up to WQHD+ (3,040 x 1,440 pixels) resolution. It also has a quality set of speakers that give good resolution and imaging.
Productivity features thanks to the S Pen, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage that can be further increased by way of a microSD and a fairly large 4,300mAh battery just add to that the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ offers the best value of all the smartphones in this shootout. With a retail price of S$1,598 it's more than S$400 cheaper than the S$2,039 of the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Not to forget, Samsung also has the even handier Galaxy Note10 that starts from just S$1,398 and retains almost all the key features of the Note10+. And we've not even considered discussing phone contract prices which make the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ much more 'affordable' than an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
The price differential more than covers the price of a 256GB microSD card and a full set of accessories! So, when you consider all aspects of a device from performance, features, price and value, the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ gets our vote as the best overall phone in this comparison.
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