Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
We asked, you told us: It’s a two-horse race for the biggest fail of 2020
June 06, 2025
We don’t need to tell you 2020 was an unprecedented year. The coronavirus pandemic touched almost every aspect of life, down to the industry we all love to follow. With everything that has happened over the last 12 months, weasked youto tell us what you thought were the biggest missteps the industry made. Here are the results.
What were the biggest smartphone fails of 2020?
A total of 1,267 votes were cast as of the writing of this article, and two clear losers emerged. First, there was theNote 20, which captured 28.2% of the vote. The fact the Note 20 won the vote I think speaks to just how many people love the Note series. Any misstep by Samsung, no matter how minor, feels like a big deal. The fact the less expensiveGalaxy S20 FEwas a better phone in most respects likely made the sting worse for most people.
With 28.2% of the vote, Microsoft and theSurface Duocame in close second place. No surprise here: the Surface Duo was a buggy mess when it came out, and with limited third-party support since then, it still feels underwhelming today. It’s also one of the more expensive phones you may buy at the moment, which would be fine if it didn’t come with outdated hardware.
That said, the interesting thing, as you’ll see in the comments section, is that Surface Duo owners don’t think Microsoft’s foray into foldables was a fail; 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 it plans to start selling the device in the UK, Canada, and other markets early next year.
Coming in third place we haveOnePlusand all the things it did in 2020. Looking at sales metrics, it’s safe to say the company had one of its better years in recent memory, but if you were a fan of OnePlus going into 2020, you probably feel the brand jumped the shark this year. Between phones like theNord N10andN100, and a much weaker software policy than in years past, it felt like in 2020 OnePlus lost a lot of what had made it special.
Rounding out the top four was the Escobar Fold 2. If we hadn’t already seen Pablo Escobar’s brother try to pull off a similar scam in 2019, we would have probably seen this one collect more votes. The last three choices all garnered less than 6% of the vote separately.
Your comments
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, hit the comments below.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
