Business Choice Awards 2022: Smartphones

Yous remember smartphones are only for millennials with nothing just fourth dimension on their hands? Not true. Smartphones are permanent powerhouses of staying connected, at domicile or the office, and as such are well deserving of closer scrutiny every bit a tool for business.

These Business concern Option Awards get to the heart of the matter: we asked PCMag readers to rate their smartphones for work utilise in our last survey. The results below indicate just how far things have come up from the fourth dimension not so long ago when the BlackBerry ruled the workforce.

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Desire an expert opinion on the right phone for you or your workplace? Read The 10 All-time Smartphones, plus the Fastest Mobile Networks.

Smartphones for Work

There was a time when the BlackBerry was the simply telephone for the workplace set up. Things accept come a long way; equally of this year, when nosotros asked people to rate piece of work smartphones, BlackBerry didn't even garner enough response to make the results.

Instead, it's Android-based phones from Google that are the way to go at work. The Google Nexus-branded handsets are actually made by a number of other manufacturers including LG, Huawei, and HTC. When you get a Nexus from Google, they come with the pure, unadulterated Android Os—no crapware. Plainly that's something function workers in our audition care about. Google smartphones are the clear Business organisation Pick Award winner this yr. Business Choice 2022 - Smartphones for Work - Overall Scores

In addition to a loftier overall score of 9.ane (out of x, where 0 is the pits and 10 is the heights), Google is tops when it comes to setup (9.iii), reliability (9.0), and likelihood to be recommended to a colleague (a stellar 9.iv). That's not that far above the next closest phone maker, but it's well ahead of the nearest Android-based phone maker—Samsung. It struggled to get to fifth place with an 8.3 overall score (tied with LG's running Android, though Samsung typically did a little better in the breakdown scores).

Speaking of breakdowns, we enquire a lot of questions of smartphone users at the workplace and, again, Google Nexus phones tended to be on top, with loftier scores for aspects similar managing contacts, managing email, availability of apps (a whopping 9.6!), quality of apps, Spider web browsing, watching video, and serving as a Wi-Fi hotspot on the get. Even the Android operating organisation all by itself got the best likelihood to recommend score when coupled with the Nexus hardware, earning a 9.five.

And so who can compare to Google Nexus? Every bit stated, the other Android-makers fill out the bottom of the list; the only phone maker to come shut is Microsoft, with its self-branded phones running the Windows Phone OS (versions 7 to 8.1 for this survey; Windows ten Mobile launched subsequently the results were in). Microsoft likewise had some dominant numbers in the breakup: it was start in text messaging and taking photos. Perhaps best of all, only 4 pct of Microsoft smartphones needed any kind of repairs. Not even Google tin can claim that, with a seven percent repair rate. (Adjacent best after those two for repairs needed is Motorolas running Android, at 9 per centum.)

It'south worth noting that all work smartphones are apparently great at text messaging. Every vendor had an 8.6 or higher, with Microsoft on top at 9.3. Likewise pretty great: setup of the smartphone, where every company that qualified got an 8.6 or college (the average was 8.8), and overall reliability, with all players scoring viii.4 or higher (boilerplate of eight.7).

Microsoft owns Nokia, and phased that name out final year to get with "Microsoft Lumia," merely the Nokia-brand running Windows Telephone all the same managed to score many users in our results. Information technology did meliorate overall than the Android phones from Samsung, LG, Motorola, and HTC.

Where'south Apple in all this? In a solid tertiary identify. While its overall score for work was an eight.5, tied with Nokia, it's ahead of Nokia in the nigh important breakdowns, like likelihood to recommend, where it earned an 8.vii. iPhones among our readership needed repairs 13 percent of the fourth dimension, which isn't great (and ties with Samsung). The only vendor with a worse repairs number is HTC running Android, at 17 percent.

Related Story Come across all of our survey results for Smartphones for Work.

WINNERS: SMARTPHONES FOR WORK

Business Choice seal

Google Nexus Phones running Android
In that location's something about getting unadulterated Android on a handset that had office users going gaga for Google this year. It's pretty consistently the highest rated phone maker in almost all the category breakdowns, and certainly the 1 worker-bees detect the most satisfying to use. If you're investing in smartphones for employees, it behooves y'all to take a close look at the pool of handsets with the Google Nexus branding.

Methodology

We email survey invitations to PCMag.com community members, specifically subscribers to our Readers' Choice Survey mailing listing. This survey was hosted by Equation Enquiry, which also performs our data collection. This survey was in the field from Feb 15, 2022 through March seven, 2022. Each person who completed the survey was entered into a drawing to win a $350 Amazon gift card.

Respondents were asked to rate their smartphone for work using multiple questions about their overall satisfaction, also as experiences with technical back up or repairs within the past 12 months.

Because the goal of the survey is to understand how the email marketing solutions compare to i some other and non how one respondent's experience compares to some other's, nosotros use the average of the electronic mail marketing solutions' rating, not the average of every respondent'due south rating. In all cases, the overall ratings are not based on averages of other scores in the table; they are based on answers to the question, "Overall, how satisfied are you with your smartphone for work?"

Scores non represented equally a percent are on a scale of 0 to 10 where 10 is the all-time.

Net Promoter Scores are based on the concept introduced past Fred Reichheld in his 2006 all-time seller, The Ultimate Question, that no other question can better define the loyalty of a company's customers than "how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" This measure of make loyalty is calculated past taking the percent of respondents who answered 9 or x (promoters) and subtracting the percent who answered 0 through 6 (detractors). (For more, read PCMag'due south Top Consumer Recommended Companies for 2022.)

If yous would like to participate in PCMag's monthly Readers' Choice surveys and to be eligible for our monthly sweepstakes promotion, please sign up today.

Thanks to Ben Gottesman for his help with this story.

About Eric Griffith

Eric Griffith

Eric Griffith has been writing about computers, the cyberspace, and applied science professionally for thirty years, more than than one-half of that fourth dimension with PCMag. He was previously on the founding staff of publications like Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Net Magazine, all of which are now defunct, and information technology'due south not his fault. He spent 6 years writing exclusively about Wi-Fi, simply don't ask him to gear up your router. At PCMag he runs several special projects including the Readers' Selection and Business Choice surveys, and yearly coverage of the Fastest ISPs and Best Gaming ISPs, plus regularly writes features on all tech topics. He's the writer of 2 novels: BETA TEST ("an …