The Google Pixel 7 Pro is your reader’s choice for the best phone of 2022

Over all these years, we have given a Reader’s Choice Award to Android Authority, we have never had such an exciting race. There were several twists we didn’t expect and the eventual winner took home one of the slimmest margins we’ve ever seen. Ultimately, however, the champion is the Google Pixel 7 Pro, which you’ve selected as your best Reader’s Choice phone of 2022.

Congratulations to Google for winning this prestigious award. The last time a Google-branded device won our Reader’s Choice award was in 2015, when the Nexus 6P walked away with the crown. But since the launch of the first Pixel phone in 2016, we’ve never seen a Pixel reign supreme. It is therefore a crucial year for Google.

But how did it all turn out? We’ve rounded up the twists and turns of the race below!

In the first round of voting – which started on December 5, 2022 – we pitted 32 smartphones against each other. The match was quite bloody. About 28% of the phones did not get enough votes to exceed the 1% margin, leaving only 23 in the fight. Of them, only four were able to come out unscathed and make it to the semi-finals. We saw over 3,300 votes in this round.

Besides the four winners, we saw notable support for some underdogs. Although they wouldn’t become the best smartphone of 2022, the Asus Zenfone 9, Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, Google Pixel 6a and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 came away with 3% of the vote each. The success of the Zenfone 9, in particular, is remarkable considering Asus’ comparative stature in the mobile market.

The Nothing Phone 1 also garnered 2% of the vote, which is an impressive feat for a first phone. The vanilla Galaxy S22 getting 2% of the vote is also remarkable, considering the quality of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

You can see a tally of all the percentages below. Please note that not all percentages add up to 100% due to rounding.

Once the elimination round was over, we started the semi-finals on December 6, 2022. This saw four heavyweights battle it out for a chance to be crowned the best smartphone of 2022. These phones were the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Google Pixel 7 Pro, Apple iPhone 14 Pro and Google Pixel 7.

Many of our readers were no doubt surprised that the Apple iPhone 14 Pro made it to the semis. Not only did he make it, but he left the semi-finals in third place with a solid 15% of the vote. That puts it well ahead of fourth-place contender, the Pixel 7, which landed with 12% of the vote. It is clear that many of our readers love iPhones!

Of course, only two phones could win this round, and those two were the Galaxy S22 Ultra in first place and the Pixel 7 Pro in second. At this point, we thought the Galaxy S22 Ultra was a shoo-in, considering it emerged from both the knockout round and this semi-final. Samsung had also won six of the last seven Reader’s Choice awards dating back to 2015 – surely another win was guaranteed, right?

There were still plenty of surprises, however!

As of December 7, 2022, we’ve narrowed the competition down to just two devices: the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Pixel 7 Pro. The Galaxy S22 Ultra has had two out of two wins so far, with the Pixel 7 Pro dropping to second place each time. Naturally, we expected this trend to continue and the Samsung device to emerge victorious.

Incredibly, the Pixel 7 Pro rubbed shoulders with the Galaxy S22 Ultra to become the new reigning champ. Although the Galaxy S22 Ultra won the vote on Instagram and Facebook, it lost to Android Authority by a significant margin – 11%, in fact. When we combined all the votes, that lead helped him stay first by a narrow margin, with 52% of the overall vote. That left the Galaxy S22 Ultra with just 48% and handed the crown to Google.

Honestly, this is one of the closest races we’ve seen for a Reader’s Choice award. Both phones are clearly great and our readers are passionate about them. However, only one can leave the champion, so congratulations again to the Google Pixel 7 Pro, the best smartphone of 2022 according to Android Authority readers!

You had your say, now let’s have ours! Check back with us tomorrow to find out which phone won our Editor’s Choice award for Best Phone of 2022!