What is the best smartphone of year 2013?

A number of noteworthy smartphones have been released in 2013, and if you still haven't decided which device to upgrade to, we've rounded some of the best handsets of the year.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Dubbed the "beast," the Galaxy Note 3 is powerful in both performance and battery life. Released this fall, Samsung announced that it has surpassed 10 million sales in just two months of its launch.

The Note 3 has a 5.7-inch full HD Super AMOLED display, a 2.3GHz quad-core LTE processor, 32GB and 64GB storage options, and 3GB of RAM. It also packs a powerful 13 megapixels and 1.9-megapixel front camera with 1080p/60 video recording, including options for impressive 4K video.

The 3,200 mAh battery will significantly increase the life of your device. New feautures include the S-Pen Air command, which give users access to functions like the Action Memo and Scrapbook, and a more refined version of the S-Pen will allow them to quickly bring up applications by drawing a box on their screen.

iPhone 5S

Apple's flagship phone, the iPhone 5S, is the best-selling smartphone around the world and company's partnership with China Mobile will bump up sales even further. Pre-orders for the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C for China Mobile will start Thursday.

When launched initially in the U.S., the gold iPhones were so popular that they sold out almost everywhere. Now, all colors of the iPhone 5S are available to ship within the next 24 hours from Apple. Apple broke its own record by selling 9 million handsets in just three days of its launch.

The iPhone 5S features a 4-inch retina display with 1136x640 pixel resolution 326 ppi, A7 chip with 64-bit architecture, M7 motion co-processor, 8 megapixel camera with 1.5µ pixels, true tone flash / 1.2 megapixel Facetime camera with 720p HD video recording, built-in fingerprint sensor, and lithium-ion battery.

LG G2

The Korean company has joined the ranks of Apple and Samsung this year with the LG G2, which has been named "Smartphone of the Year" by Stuff magazine. Will Findlater, global online editor of Stuff magazine stated: "LG has previously struggled to make an impact on the smartphone market, but the LG G2 is as good as smartphones get in 2013, and shows the established names how it should be done."

The phone's body is smaller than the Note 3, but features a massive 5.2 inch HD screen with 1920x1080p display, slightly smaller than the Note's 5.7 inch display. It also packs a powerful 2.26 GHz processor and long battery life.

Nexus 5

Google's flagship phone is high on the list as one of the most popular smartphones of the year. After the wild success of its predecessor, the Nexus 4, Google finally launched the device quietly on its Play Store on October 31.

The price of the Nexus 5 is affordable, starting at just $349. The device packs powerful specs including 5inch HD display, 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 8megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, and a powerful 2,300 mAH battery offering up to 17 hours of talk time in just one charge.

The device also launched with the latest Android 4.4 KitKat software.

HTC One

The design of this smartphone is beautiful with its aluminum unibody casing and powerful speakers. Its unique BoomSound features dual frontal stero speakers powered by built-in amplifiers.

Because it was released earlier this year, the specs don't match up to the phones released in the latter part of the year, but it could be compromised for its beauty and design.

The HTC One features a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM, HTC UltraPixel Camera with full HD video recording and 2300 mAh battery.