What are your tech tops and flops of 2020?

What were the best and worst smartphones of 2020? Which of the few events or conferences that weren't cancelled were surprising or totally unsuccessful? Which stories has positively influenced the tech market and which news has made you depressed this year?

While the editorial staff is obviously already preparing its own retrospective, with each of the editors delivering their pearls and pots and pans of the year 2020 in tech, we'd like to start by asking you, dear readers, for your tops and flops.

Share your assessment of the tech year 2020

The more-than tumultuous year, although profitable for Huawei, the cancellation of the MWC 2020 or the IFA's "hybrid" format, the commercial success of Realme in Europe, the release of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the iPhone 12. The rise of video calling and SVOD services during the health crisis, the Internet panic that will break because of containment, the laborious implementation of teleworking or the debate around contact tracing.

We will be submitting a series of surveys to select from a sample of products, events, and tech news, your tops and flops of the year 2020. Since this sample is arbitrary and incomplete, we also invite you to share the best and worst of tech in 2020 as you see it in the comments.

The results of the survey, as well as the tops/flops expressed in the comments (selected according to their relevance and/or the number of likes received), will then be reported in a dedicated article in the coming weeks. Get started, this is your chance to be heard!

What are your best and worst smartphones of 2020?

As explained, I'm going to submit two lists, which are identical so as not to give too much direction to the answers, of around 50 smartphones released in 2020. My selection is essentially based on the models that NextPit has tested and that are in our comparisons. But I also took into account untested models.

Flagships are over-represented, certainly. However, I've also included entry-level and mid-range models. The bottom line is simply the "importance" of the smartphone. This first survey is dedicated to the best smartphones of 2020 according to you. Multiple responses are allowed and models are grouped by manufacturer but randomly sorted.

After the best, it's time to name the worst smartphones of 2020 in your opinion. The list below is identical to the first survey above. Feel free to justify your choice in the comments. I'm not against a troll or two or a humorous and exaggerated diatribe, you know me. But also try to give real arguments about why you hate or are disappointed by the smartphone(s) concerned. The article I will write on the results of these surveys will be all the more interesting if I can incorporate constructive and detailed comments from readers.

What are your best and worst tech events/conventions of 2020?

As you all know, 2020 was a black year for big gatherings and not only in tech. The only major event that survived the restrictions of the health crisis was the 2020 ESC. The IFA 2020 and its half-physical, half-digital hybrid format is an exception but has not been unanimously acclaimed.

For the rest, almost all trade shows and conventions have either been cancelled outright, like the MWC 2020, or transformed into digital keynotes that have been re-transmitted live. To be honest, this digitalisation of most technical events is a very newspaper-centric topic. As readers, you may not care since most of you did not attend press conferences and other trade shows anyway before the Covid-19 outbreak began.

However, this new professional reality for us journalists also influenced the quality and diversity of the media coverage of each event. It's difficult to report on the IFA 2020 when there are only a dozen or so booths competing against each other. Difficult to exchange with the brand managers on-site and give you an "exclusive" preview of a keynote when you watch it on YouTube like everyone else.

At the same time, Apple and Samsung provided very neat pre-recorded conferences that were even more cinematic than in the past. OnePlus also tried to spice up its next world keynotes by integrating augmented reality into its OnePlus Nord presentation, allowing the smartphone to "take control" virtually.

Sympa la prise en mains en RA du #OnePlusNord pic.twitter.com/Ouyr0X926s

— Antoine Engels (@EngelsAntoine) July 21, 2020

That's why, as with smartphones, you're being asked to name the best and worst tech shows/keynotes/conventions you've attended in 2020. Let's start with the 2020 tops, shall we?

Now let's move on to the worst events you've seen in 2020. I'm curious to know whether or not the overexploitation of the digital format has been a problem for you.

What are your best and worst tech stories of 2020?

If the year 2020 has obviously marked the advent of a new pace of life, slower, smaller, and more monotonous, for most of us, the tech industry has seen many ups and downs. The idea here is not really to point to the most positive and the most negative news.

Rather, the goal is to decide which news stories or major trends have generated the most debate and had the most impact on the tech, in your opinion. That's why there will only be one survey. We invite you to choose the most important stories from the world of tech for you. This is surely the topic where your detailed opinion in the comments will be most interesting.

Some manufacturers have begun serious breaks and/or transitions in their product strategies. For example, we can evoke the rise in range and price of Xiaomi and OnePlus. OnePlus is surely the manufacturer that has changed the most in 2020. More expensive flagship models, the launch of the Nord range to extend its catalogue followed by the departure of its co-founder Carl Pei.

Apple has also made big "moves" by releasing four iPhone 12 betting everything on the 5G and reconnecting with a compact format. Google has taken a sharp turn by revising its ambitions in the flagship market downwards, favouring a more balanced and affordable Pixel 5 rather than an ultra-premium model.

One can mention Realme, which has released more than twenty smartphones this year, while announcing a restructuring of its catalogue from the end of 2020 in order to consolidate its presence in Europe and achieve its ambitions in this key market.

2020 was also the decisive year for Huawei, which, despite numerous setbacks, began to chart a path of hope to maintain its activities in Europe signing the divorce with Google, without however convincing everyone.

In 2020, the Big Tech firms have never been so scrutinised by public opinion and authorities. From the right to redress to the fight against anti-competitive practices and misinformation and the respect of privacy, the dominance of the tech giants has never been so criticized.

I hope that I have succeeded in identifying as best as possible, according to my knowledge and my means, the strong points of this year 2020 for technology. I know I've been hammering it out throughout this article, but I'm really looking forward to reading your opinions and your own retrospectives on this strange year that is about to pass.

Unfortunately, the tools at my disposal to create surveys are not the most ergonomic. So I can see that this article is not the most digestible to read. However, I sincerely hope that most of you will play the game in order to create a real debate, a discussion that will then be transcribed in another article at the end of December.

It will also be interesting to compare your tops and flops with those of the editorial staff, which will also be the subject of a dedicated article. It's an opportunity for each of us to step back and take stock, while hoping for better times in 2021.