DroidForums Phone of 2016

[pc747]

You guys decided on the phone that deserved the crown for 2016.

• (1) Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (19.2%)
• (2a) Motorola Moto Z/Droid Force (tied at 17.3%)
• (2b) LG V20 (tied at 17.3%)

Despite the phone flaming out (yeah let me just have that last pun) it was clearly the best phone of 2016. But I have to say Motorola yet again was the most innovative thinking outside the box. No they were not the first to bring modular to the market, but they did it right and in a year where the bulk of the talk was about the Note 7 recalls, the iPhone 7 lack of headphone jack, and the Pixel/XL needing a bit more, Motorola brought us a solid phone that can compete with the market while offering a little more.

Unfortunately this year will be remembered for the Note 7 as it will likely change the course of smartphones, especially for Samsung, going forward.

Thanks for all the votes and want to hear your thoughts.

 

[Mechanicat]

Absolutely lost your minds .. DroidForums votes a device that is an exploding fire hazard & has been recalled as "best phone of 2016" ??? wtf !!!
probably should familiar urself with defining terms such as "funtional" "operational" or "safe to use" ..
complete wild fantasy proclaiming that glorious flaming touch wiz pos is th best phone .. doesn't change reality :/ fact note7 was & is a recalled failure .. twisted fantasy claiming it th best device of 2016. Never mind th fact this community is call DroidForums for absolutely no apparent reason anymore unless it is trying to now pretend Droid is in reverence 2 operating system & not model branding. This place sure has decayed over th years & is really hardly recognisable anymore.
currently now this moment I'm streaming xiialive on my droid original, droid 4. moto X & moto Z in 4way surround sound
2 days of battery w/ 8.5 hrs sot on a single charge yes this Droid Z is AWESOME !!!
& it's not
ON FIRE !!
just sum of my words written on th
#NotAboutDroidDroidForums :/
peace rydsafe

 

[pc747]

Absolutely lost your minds .. DroidForums votes a device that is an exploding fire hazard & has been recalled as "best phone of 2016" ??? wtf !!!
probably should familiar urself with defining terms such as "funtional" "operational" or "safe to use" ..
complete wild fantasy proclaiming that glorious flaming touch wiz pos is th best phone .. doesn't change reality :/ fact note7 was & is a recalled failure .. twisted fantasy claiming it th best device of 2016. Never mind th fact this community is call DroidForums for absolutely no apparent reason anymore unless it is trying to now pretend Droid is in reverence 2 operating system & not model branding. This place sure has decayed over th years & is really hardly recognisable anymore.
currently now this moment I'm streaming xiialive on my droid original, droid 4. moto X & moto Z in 4way surround sound
2 days of battery w/ 8.5 hrs sot on a single charge yes this Droid Z is AWESOME !!!
& it's not
ON FIRE !!
just sum of my words written on th
#NotAboutDroidDroidForums :/
peace rydsafe

Being this was my thread and I was the one who was ok to crown the Note 7, I will address this.

Yes the phone was recalled but it was out long enough to make an impact as I wanted to consider everything. And despite the battery issues, overall the Note 7 did do something that the other phones did not do this year in that it combined style, functionality in the form of fluidity, and features. It was the complete package and a signal to manufacturers in the future that this is what we want in a phone if you are commanding high end dollars from me. All the other devices on the list had an "eh but you are missing this".

Now the Note 7 ended up being the device of the year for 2 reasons:
1) For the above reason
2) It was the most talked about device and the device that drew the most emotion. Just look at the past few weeks (really months). A note 7 thread drew the most crowds, inspired the most debates, and drew up the most emotions, and not only in our forum but other forums as well. The fact the phone did that much for the people in the community is again why I think it ok to leave it as the phone of 2016 because it dominated the fall as well as became a pop culture discussion as a result of the recall. Oh and I met regular people who were not android enthusiasts who also felt as emotional about the Note 7 in not wanting to turn the phone in.

So yes Motorola was the most innovative as far as thinking outside the box and I gave them credit for that. But the Note 7 is the phone I am sitting in front of Google and saying this is how a $900 phone looks. And the issues with the battery is a fluke that will get fixed for future phones. Plus at the rate smartphones were going we would have seen this issue pop up eventually as everyone is trying to go as thin as possible. This recall will send a jolt to phone manufacturers to take a second and third look at the device and making sure to focus heavily on quality control. Because this recall hurt Samsung big in the pocket. Had this been another manufacturer this could have crippled their operation. A company like HTC or Blackberry, to name a few, would not have survived this setback. So expect extra time and money to be focused on taking another look versus rushing the phones out the door to make sells. Because it is easier to correct an issue that happens in a factory versus once it hit the hands of customers around the world.

Yeah I understand your argument, which is valid, in why we would allow a phone that was recalled to be considered. But after days of going through the top 2016 news stories as well as looking at the next best devices, it is clearly a gap between the Note 7 and the next best device. The Pixel, despite it being Google's best phone with it's best camera, is missing a few features for a phone that is priced near what the Note 7 and iPhone 7+ were priced, and the free Google Photos storage do not make up the gap considering manufacturers went back to external memory.

Even if you went S7 edge it was still missing what made the Note 7 what it was, which was Samsung finally figuring out how to make a curved phone that fit comfortably in the hands as well as not taking away from the full function (ie accidental touches).

Motorola made a good device but had an "eh" in the camera department (in comparison to the top dogs).

LG had a chance with the V20, and despite the addition of the Quad HiFi-DAC audio, had a few bugs early on that may have scared some off.

So I also looked at this, when you took the Note 7 out of the question what did people want?

Clearly people wanted another phone like the note 7 minus the recall issues. There really was no other phone that people said they had to have. And that was made evidence in the fact when people had to turn their note 7s in it was not this mad dash to get in the Pixel line or the iPhone line, etc. People settled for other options (some like our staff members grew to love the second choice of the iPhone 7+) hoping for either another shot at the note 7 or waiting for next year's note 8.

But I am ok with your thoughts and am clearly interested in reading more.

Thanks for the post.