How We Rank Phones
Where our rankings come from, what our scores mean, and what this site does not do.
We don't test phones
This site is an independent archive of the Smartphone Awards published by Marques Brownlee (MKBHD). We do not buy, borrow, or test phones, we do not run benchmarks, and we do not employ reviewers. Everything here is organised from published sources. If you want hands-on testing, go to the people who do it — we link out to them throughout the site.
Where our information comes from
- Award results — MKBHD's published Smartphone Awards videos and accompanying posts, from 2014 onward. Winners and runners-up are transcribed as announced.
- Specifications and launch pricing — manufacturer press material and spec sheets as published at launch. Launch prices are historical and are not current retail prices.
- Our own writing — the summaries, groupings, and buying-guide selections are ours. They are editorial judgement applied to the sources above, not test results.
What our score means
The number shown on a phone is an awards score. It is a direct restatement of how that phone placed at MKBHD's awards — it is calculated, not judged, and it is not a review rating:
Because the score is derived rather than observed, we do not publish it as a review rating in our page markup, and it should not be read as one. A phone with no award placement scores 3.5 — that reflects the absence of an award, not a judgement that the phone is mediocre.
What we don't do
- We don't test, benchmark, or handle phones. No lab, no loaner units, no battery runs.
- We don't invent awards. Every award badge on this site corresponds to a real MKBHD award result, and links to it.
- We don't publish review or rating markup. Our scores are derived from award placement, so representing them to search engines as first-hand ratings would be false.
- We aren't affiliated with MKBHD. No endorsement, sponsorship, or relationship of any kind. See About.
Corrections and updates
Pages are updated when:
- A new edition of the Smartphone Awards is published and results are added to the archive.
- We get a result, specification, or launch price wrong. Corrections are made in place and the page's updated date changes.
- A newer phone changes which picks we'd recommend in a buying guide.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us via the contact route on our editorial standards page and we'll fix it.