It’s a two-horse race for the biggest fail of 2020

We don’t have to tell you that 2020 was an unprecedented year. The coronavirus pandemic has touched almost every aspect of life, right down to the industry we all love to follow. With everything that has happened in the last 12 months, we’ve asked you to share what you think were the biggest missteps in the industry. Here are the results.

What were the biggest smartphone failures in 2020?

Results

At the time of this writing, a total of 1,267 votes have been cast and two clear losers have emerged. First there was the grade 20, which received 28.2% of the vote. The fact that the Note 20 won the vote speaks to me about how many people love the Note series. Every little misstep by Samsung feels like a big deal. The fact that the cheaper Galaxy S20 FE was a better phone in many ways probably made the sting even worse for most people.

Microsoft and the Surface Duo took second place with 28.2% of the vote. No wonder here: The Surface Duo was a buggy mess when it came out, and with limited third party support since then, it still feels overwhelming today. It’s also one of the more expensive phones you can buy right now, which would be fine if it didn’t come with outdated hardware.

But the interesting thing, as you’ll see in the comments section, is that Surface Duo owners don’t believe Microsoft’s foray into leaflets was a failure. In fact, they love their phone. For what it’s worth, it looks like Microsoft plans to stick with the Duo. The company recently announced that it will sell the device in the UK, Canada and other markets early next year.

In third place we have OnePlus and all the things it did in 2020. If you look at the sales numbers, it’s safe to say that the company has had one of its better years in the last few years, but if you’ve been a fan of OnePlus heading into 2020 then you probably have the brand jumped the shark this year. Between phones like the Nord N10 and N100 and a much weaker software policy than in previous years, OnePlus seemed to have lost a lot in 2020 of what had made it special.

The top 4 was rounded off by the Escobar Fold 2. If we hadn’t already seen that Pablo Escobar’s brother tried to commit a similar scam in 2019, we would probably have seen that he garnered more votes. The last three decisions all received less than 6% of the vote.

You comment

• Gerald Martinez: I love my surface duo. I know it has its issues but at the end of the day it’s a unique device and I always have people looking at me weird lol.
• Richard Duirshin: Man! I am such a loser! I bought a Surface Duo to replace a Galaxy tablet so I have something in my pocket that supports a pen that I can use to take notes during meetings – AND I LOVE IT !!!!!!
• Wongwatt: The biggest flaw was the Samsung display. They’ve shipped multiple shady screens to multiple hardware partners and to Samsung Mobile itself. Worst of all, the Moto Edge range is still getting units of terrible quality in December.
• In Fla: The Pixel 5.
• Marshall: Nokia 8.3 delay may have cost HMD my business … although at the time of release the quality of my HMD experience deteriorated significantly as updates were inexplicably delayed for months where I am now.

That’s it for this poll. As always, thank you for taking the time to vote and share your thoughts. If you want to continue the conversation, click the comments below.