In all the years we’ve been doing a Reader’s Choice Award at Android Authority, we’ve never had a race this exciting. There were multiple twists we didn’t expect and the final winner won by one of the slimmest margins we’ve ever seen. In the end, though, the champion is the Google Pixel 7 Pro, which you have selected as your Reader’s Choice best phone of 2022.

Congratulations to Google for winning this prestigious award. The last time a Google-branded device won our Reader’s Choice award was in 2015, when the Nexus 6P walked away with the crown. But since the first Pixel phone launched in 2016, we’ve never seen a Pixel reign supreme. So this is a momentous year for Google.

But how did this all play out? We’ve summarized the twists and turns of the race below! Also, be sure to check out our Editor’s Choice pick for the best phone of 2022 — did we choose the same phone as you?

In the first round of voting — which started on December 5, 2022 — we pitted 32 smartphones against one another. The match was pretty bloody. Roughly 28% of the phones didn’t get enough Votes to break above the 1% margin, leaving just 23 to the fight. Out of all of them, only four were able to escape unscathed and head into the semi-finals. We saw over 3,300 votes during this round.

Aside from the four winners, we saw notable support for some underdogs. Although they wouldn’t become the best smartphone of 2022, the Asus Zenfone 9, Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, Google Pixel 6a, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 walked away with 3% of the vote each. The Zenfone 9’s success, in particular, is notable when you consider Asus’ comparative stature in the mobile market.

The Nothing Phone 1 also garnered 2% of the vote, which is an impressive feat for a debut phone. The vanilla Galaxy S22 getting 2% of the vote is also notable, considering how much better the Galaxy S22 Ultra did.

You can see a tally of all the percentages below. Please note that the percentages do not all add up to 100% due to rounding.

With the elimination round complete, we started the semi-finals on December 6, 2022. This saw four heavyweights battling it out for the chance to be crowned the best smartphone of 2022. Those phones were the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, Google Pixel 7 Pro, Apple iPhone 14 Pro, and Google Pixel 7.

Many of our readers were no doubt surprised that the Apple iPhone 14 Pro made it to the semi-finals. Not only did it make it, but it exited the semi-finals in third place with a solid 15% of the vote. That put it well ahead of the fourth place contender, the Pixel 7, which landed with 12% of the vote. It’s clear that plenty of our readers like iPhones!

Of course, only two phones could walk away the winners of this round, and those two were the Galaxy S22 Ultra in first place and the Pixel 7 Pro in second. At this point, we thought the Galaxy S22 Ultra was a shoo-in, considering it had emerged on top of both the elimination round and this semi-final round. Samsung had also won six out of the last seven Reader’s Choice awards dating back to 2015 — surely another win was guaranteed, right?

There were still plenty of surprises, though!

By December 7, 2022, we had whittled down the competition to just two devices: the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Pixel 7 Pro. So far, the Galaxy S22 Ultra was two-for-two in wins with the Pixel 7 Pro relegated to second place each time. Naturally, we expected that trend to continue and for the Samsung device to emerge victorious.

Unbelievably, the Pixel 7 Pro skirted by the Galaxy S22 Ultra to become the new reigning champion. Although the Galaxy S22 Ultra won the vote on Instagram and Facebook, it lost at Android Authority by a significant margin — 11%, actually. When we combined all the votes, that lead helped it stay in first by a slim margin, with it getting 52% of the overall vote. That left the Galaxy S22 Ultra with just 48%, and gave the crown to Google.

Honestly, this is one of the closest races we’ve seen for any Reader’s Choice award. Both phones are clearly terrific and our readers are quite passionate about them. Only one can walk away the champion, though, so congratulations again to the Google Pixel 7 Pro, the best smartphone of 2022 according to Android Authority readers!