Consumer Reports is one of the few publications and organizations that does not accept advertising. Consumer Reports claims that this makes their ranking impartial. We reviewed Consumer Reports ratings for smartphones this year and found some surprises as well as similarities with technology media reviewers.
Update 12/18/2012 - We've rounded-up the 2012 results for best smartphone for T-Mobile, DT, HTC, LG, Droid , Motorola, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, trends, sales figures and the best for 2012.
Some things that Consumer Reports hold important are call quality, ability to play Flash, ability to create Microsoft Word and Excel documents, ability to use voice/data at the same time, ease of use, separate call buttons and removable batteries.
In previous years, Consumer Reports reviews were months behind online reviews. The company has improved its speed of testing. This year we see only a few omissions of newly released smartphones such as the Nokia Lumia 920, HTC 8X and Nexus 4.
Consumer Reports keeps ratings live as long as the smartphone is being sold. We had to disqualify some of its top 10 best smartphones because they were released last year. We also created a new all new algorithm that makes the Consumer Reports ratings closer to typical 4/5 ratings.
The Samsung Galaxy S III which was highly rated by other reviewers is only the top smartphone is number one on the T-Mobile network. The LG Optimus G was the top rated smartphone for both AT&T and Sprint. The Droid RAZR MAXX HD was the top rated smartphone on the Verizon Wireless Network.
Consumer Reports although they still like the iPhone 5 did not like that on the Sprint and Verizon networks you can't use voice and data at the same time. We're still catching up on reviews of all the devices for the entire year, our WiMo News' Reviews of Reviews rating are very similar and we link to them when available.
There were a few surprises the LG Escape, LG Spectrum 2, LG Optimus L9 and LG Gravity. 2012 could be called the year that LG came into the top rankings. Consumer Reports doesn't rank the iPhone 5 with the highest score, even though recent sales figures indicate that the iPhone 5 has a higher volume of sales.
We will be taking the prorated figures from this review, enter them into our are enormous database and will be reporting on the top best smartphones of 2012 for the rest of the month of December. To see the latest reports go to this page. The compiling of these figures is an arduous task and can only be completed by human hands with brains. Please sign up for our newsletter, show that you like us and give us that special Google + treatment to show your appreciation.
Verizon Wireless Top Rated Smartphones with Ratings Pro-rated to Match Other Types of Reviews:
- Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX HD (4.2) - The Droid RAZR HD is a larger Droid RAZR M with enhanced battery life, a very bright HD (1280x870) Super AMOLED screen. and super battery.
- Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx (4.15) - Killer Droid with killer battery.
- Motorola Droid RAZR HD (4.1) -The Droid RAZR HD increases the specs of the original Droid RAZR with a larger screen.
- Samsung Galaxy S III (4.05 ) - CR noted that the memory card is hard to access. The Samsung Galaxy S III offers a lot of firsts: first smartphone launched across multiple carriers simultaneously, first smartphone to beat iPhones in sales and first choice for the summer for power as well as features.
- Droid RAZR M (4.0) - The Droid RAZR M is a smaller version of the Droid RAZR HD and Droid RAZR Maxx HD. The 4.3" screen goes all the way to edge giving you more screen for a petite size
- iPhone 5 (4.0) - The iPhone 5 is the best iPhone so far, with many improvements including a bigger screen, LTE, double antennas, more Wi-Fi spectrum, slimmer and lighter design. Reviewers found most of the improvements worthwhile but noted a few minor problems
- Droid RAZR (4.0) disqualified came out last year.
- LG Spectrum 2 (3.95)
- Droid 4 ( 3.9) - one of the few Droids with a QWERTY keyboard, considered the best for those who need a keyboard.
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus -disqualified came out last year.
AT&T Top Rated Smartphones with Ratings Pro-rated to Match Other Types of Reviews:
- LG Optimus G (4.2) - The LG Optimus G is quad-core powerhouse for AT&T a with a solid feel, large screen and LG user interface with special memo and media showing apps.
- Samsung Galaxy S III (4.15) - The Samsung Galaxy S III offers a lot of firsts: first smartphone launched across multiple carriers simultaneously, first smartphone to beat iPhones in sales and first choice for the summer for power as well as features.
- Apple iPhone 5 (4.1) - The iPhone 5 is the best iPhone so far, with many improvements including a bigger screen, LTE, double antennas, more Wi-Fi spectrum, slimmer and lighter design. Reviewers found most of the improvements worthwhile but noted a few minor problems.
- Samsung Galaxy Note II (4.1) - review will be coming this week.
- HTC One X (4.05) - recently released with more powerful processor as the HTC One X +
- LG Escape (4.05)
- Motorola Atrix HD (4.0) similar to the Droid RAZR.
- iPhone 4S (3.95)
- Nokia Lumia 900 ( 3.8) - comes with free unlimited streaming music .
- Samsung Galaxy Note ( 3.8) - with excellent handwriting recognition, we wrote an entire article with the S Pen at the Beach.
Sprint Best Smartphone with Rankings Converted to Conventional Scoring
- LG Optimus G (4.1) - The LG Optimus G is quad-core powerhouse for AT&T a with a solid feel, large screen and LG user interface with special memo and media showing apps.
- Samsung Galaxy S III (4.05) - The Samsung Galaxy S III offers a lot of firsts: first smartphone launched across multiple carriers simultaneously, first smartphone to beat iPhones in sales and first choice for the summer for power as well as features.
- iPhone 5 (4.0) - The iPhone 5 is the best iPhone so far, with many improvements including a bigger screen, LTE, double antennas, more Wi-Fi spectrum, slimmer and lighter design. Reviewers found most of the improvements worthwhile but noted a few minor problems.
- Samsung Galaxy Note II (4.0) - compare to original Galaxy Note.
- HTC EVO 4G LTE ( 3.9) - ) lives up to its EVO name while LTE deployment is not in most areas.
- Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE (3.9)
- Samsung Galaxy Victory (3.8)
- LG Viper (3.7)
- iPhone 4S (3.7)
T-Mobile Best Smartphones with Rankings Converted to Conventional Scoring
- Samsung Galaxy S III (4.15) - The Samsung Galaxy S III offers a lot of firsts: first smartphone launched across multiple carriers simultaneously, first smartphone to beat iPhones in sales and first choice for the summer for power as well as features.
- HTC One S (4.1)
- Samsung Galaxy Note II (4.0) - review in the works.
- LG Optimus L9 (4.05)
- Samsung Galaxy S II (4.0) - officially was launched last year.
- Samsung Galaxy S Blaze (3.95)
- Samsung Galaxy S Relay ( 3.9)
Top 10 Best, Makers, Trends QWERTY & Prepaid ALERT.
- Latest sales figures from Canaccord Genuity.
- Consumer Reports Top Ten Best Smartphones by Carrier.
- Best T-Mobile smartphones.
- Best HTC smartphones.
- Best LG smartphones.
- Best Motorola smartphones.
- Best Droid of 2012.
- Best Sprint smartphones.
- Best AT&T smartphones.
- Best Verizon smartphones.
- Best overall smartphones.
See all articles in the best smartphones category.
CR doesn't like the voice quality of the iPhone 5. But it's a great computer.
LG makes great affordable products. They don't hype it up as much as Samsung does.
Consumer Reports is getting much better. However WiMo News averages it all together for the best Reviews of Reviews.
Iphone voice quality has always been bad. Glad to see Consumer reports ignoring all the marketing mumbo jumbo and reporting just the facts. Agree with the RAZR MAX HD as best Verizon phone.
Wow hardly any keyboard phones. Not a single BlackBerry and Samsung dominates again.
Everyone' picking on HTC and there are many HTC smartphones on the list!
America always avoids Nokia, they don't like the name. Nokia makes great phones.