HTC One

The HTC One might not have been as commercially successful as HTC would have hoped for, but it won the company a lot critical acclaim from reviewers and general users alike.

While the One packed in all the latest and greatest technology of 2013, it had two unique features that made it stand out from the crowd. This includes its front-facing Boomsound speakers, which provide unmatched audio quality from speakers on a mobile device and its 4MP “UltraPixel” camera.

Instead of joining the megapixel race, HTC went with a custom made 4MP sensor on the One that absorbs more light. Add the larger pixel size and OIS and the One manages to click some seriously impressive pictures in low-light scenario. The pictures in daylight, however, lack detail and dynamic range, which is a bummer.

The camera hardware, when combined with HTC’s excellent camera and gallery app — that automatically produces video highlights ala Google+ Auto Awesome for Videos – is another feature that has been appreciated by all One owners.

The One launched with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, but HTC has — since then — been quick to update the handset to the latest version of Android. In fact, the unlocked and developer edition of HTC One units in the United States have already started receiving the Android 4.4 update with Sense 5.5.

The One’s build quality also stands out from the rest of the Android crowd with its unibody aluminum finish. If you are looking for an Android handset that rivals the iPhone in build quality, the HTC One would be perfect you.

The above reasons help take the HTC One second place in our top 10 smartphones list roundup. It really would have been the number 1 handset of this year, but Motorola really changed the game with a super-quick KitKat update for the Moto X.

Moto X

The Moto X is the “first” handset to come out from the Google-owned Motorola stable. With the Moto X, Motorola took a completely different approach compared to other OEMs. While all other Android OEMs were busy fighting a spec war in which no consumer was interested in, Motorola released a phone that aims to change the way how consumers interact with their device.

The Moto X is not the absolute best when it comes to camera performance, battery life or benchmarks. However, it has Active Display, which subtly lets the user know of any new notifications everytime he picks the phone, and an Always-on voice recognition feature, which is immensely useful in day-to-day usage.

While Samsung was busy adding more features to TouchWIZ, Motorola went the opposite way and shipped the Moto X with a near stock build of Android with just the right amount of features. While stock Android may lack a lot of fancy features like multi-window, BlinkFeed etc., it looks beautiful and has top-notch usability.

Another reason that helps make the Moto X reach the number 1 position in our list is the super quick update time from Motorola. The company managed to update the Moto X to KitKat, even before Google started the rollout for the Nexus 4. This is something no other OEM has managed to achieve ever since Android started shipping in consumer devices.

The above reasons are more than enough to make the Moto X the number 1 handset released this year.

Don’t agree with our list? Think we missed something? Do drop in a comment and let us know!