The Expert Spotlight segment

Mascot

| October 30, 2012

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The arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Note II to the U.S. made a big enough impact this week to move the device to #1 on the expert's side of the Official Smartphone Rankings. By a win of two points over the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung devices take #1 on both charts. This week we will spotlight three of our experts who put the Note II number one and the reason why.

Taylor Martin - Senior Editor for PhoneDog.com. Follow him on twitter @PhoneDog_Taylor.

Again, the Samsung Galaxy Note II takes the cake. Being 5.5-inches across, having a great camera, battery life and nice display, the Note II is easily my #1 pick. Not to mention, Samsung has added a bevy of software features that add tons of value proposition. In second is the HTC One X with a superior build quality and design and one of the best mobile displays you can ask for. Next is the Samsung Galaxy S III, which has some of the best specifications in a phone but is lacking in design and that extra oomph that pushes it over the edge. The Apple iPhone 5 is in fourth this week as it still has one of the best mobile cameras around, alongside topnotch build quality, a crystal clear display and decent battery life. Last, and definitely not least, particularly in the battery life department, is the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX HD, which hosts a whopping 3,300mAh battery and some great specs to boot.

Stefan Etienne - CEO & Head Editor for Laptopmemo.com. Follow him on twitter @Stefanetienne.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II is a large, yet practical smartphone. With 4G LTE service on some of the best carriers, a quad-core processor, and HD screen -- all with amazing battery life, it's hard not for me to recommend it.

The iPhone 5. Apple Maps may be its lowest point, but it's still an iPhone, and therefore the industry standard. And it rightly places itself as a handset that anyone should be comfortable in buying.

Samsung's Galaxy S III, little brother of the Galaxy Note II. It's the go-to smartphone to go up against an iPhone 5. Why? Because it's just that good.

The Motorola DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD are both identical, except with different batteries which contributes to their thickness. This translates to some of the best hardware Moto has ever produced, but not great enough in my eyes to give it a higher ranking.

Enobong Etteh- Founder & Executive Editor for Booredatwork.com. Follow on twitter @booredatwork.com.

The list has gotten a shape up this week. The Galaxy Note II takes the stop spot, have the super fast Exynos Quad-core processor and 2GB of ram. Next is the Galaxy SIII dropping one spot down. Third is the HTC one X from HTC which is a solid device with its cool Polycarbonate finish. The Drodi Razr Maxx HD takes the spot on the list for its battery life. And things are rounded up with the HTC One S on T-Mobile.