Given the variety of gadgets available vying for your attention and money, choosing the top smartphone may seem like an overwhelming endeavor. The top handsets have, however, been thoroughly tested and compared by us in both the lab and in the real world. And we have some professional advice on the best models to buy.
The finest phones have excellent cameras, the kind of processing power required to multitask or play demanding games, and sufficient battery life to last all day. For every smartphone we examine, we put each of those elements to the test in addition to a few more areas that distinguish a great device from an average one.
You can choose from among the top flagships or go with a reliable midrange phone that has all the capabilities you require at a much lower cost because there are good options available at all price points. With rankings that take into account both our testing and actual use, our selection of the top phones has something to offer everyone.
Let’s get to the point quickly. For your convenience, we’ve provided a quick summary of each of the phones that make up our top picks below. You can also click on any of the links to read our full reviews of each device.
Given the overwhelmingly large amount of benefits the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers, we choose Samsung’s premium phone as the best phone overall. The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a lot to recommend, including excellent cameras and potent performance, and only a few significant drawbacks.
Cameras
The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP camera is by far the most important new feature. It allows you more choice when taking pictures because you can shoot at full resolution, crop in for more detail, or merge several pixels into one for brighter images. The S23 Ultra outperforms other phones in terms of zoom thanks to the robust telephoto lens arrangement that is back. Although competing phones still outperform the S23 Ultra in low-light photography, Samsung has upgraded its low-light photography features.
Performance
Although the iPhone continues to lead in overall performance, the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 dramatically closes the performance gap. On some visual tests, Samsung’s phone even outperformed the iPhone. This Android phone has the best performance of any we’ve tested.
Battery life
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 offers benefits beyond performance. The Galaxy S23 Ultra lasts a long time on a charge thanks to the chipset’s increased power efficiency – approximately 12.5 hours on our battery test. Although it’s not as long as the iPhone 14 Pro Max, that’s still a fantastic time that equates to an additional day’s worth of battery life.
Value for money
The pricing of the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the one aspect of the device that should cause you to hesitate. This smartphone is among the priciest ones available, costing $1,199. The luxury features that Samsung bundles onto the phone undoubtedly justify its hefty price, but there are other phones in the S23 family that cost less.
Storage / Expandable:Â 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB / No
Rear cameras:Â 48MP (f/1.8) main with 2x optical zoom, 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 12MP (f/2.8) telephoto with 3x optical zoom
Front camera:Â 12MP (f/1.9)
Weight:Â 8.5 ounces
Battery life (Hrs: Mins): 13:39
What you need to know
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has everything you could desire in a flagship, making it the greatest iPhone we’ve tested. With the new always-on feature, you can monitor the time, battery life, widgets, and alerts without turning the phone on. You also get a gorgeous 6.7-inch display. Additionally, the new Dynamic Island is a smart alternative for the notch that displays everything from the timeframe for your next Maps direction to the state of your audio playback.
Cameras
Apple switched to a 48MP camera after utilizing a 12MP sensor as its primary camera for years. When you use ProRAW mode, the pictures become more detailed and can compete with those taken by any camera phone. Additionally, the front camera has been upgraded, and the ultrawide camera now has a bigger sensor. Other phones, most notably Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series, continue to outperform the telephoto lens in terms of quality.
Performance
The A16 Bionic silicon found within the iPhone 14 Pro Max is the fastest mobile chip we’ve tested, despite the fact that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is assisting some Android phones in closing the performance gap with the iPhone. When navigating between apps and completing routine tasks, you’ll feel the added vigor.
Battery life
The iPhone 14 Pro Max lasts longer than any other iPhone. The longest battery life of any iPhone we’ve ever tested, it lasted more than 13.5 hours during our battery test. Even for its premium handsets, Apple continues to only offer 20W wired charging, thus it would be nice if the phone could charge more quickly.
Value for money
The price of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is higher than any other iPhone even though it is not as pricey as the Galaxy S23 Ultra. If you don’t require the larger screen, the iPhone 14 Pro offers the same functionality for $100 less. And if a large-screen iPhone is what you’re after, the iPhone 14 Plus is $200 less expensive but has fewer features.
The Google Pixel 7a carries on Google’s habit of making midrange smartphones that are quite powerful and excel at mobile photography. But this time, the Pixel 7a delivers high-end capabilities like a fast-refreshing display, which are often seen in more expensive mobile devices.
Cameras
With the Pixel 7a cameras, Google has gone big, using a 64MP sensor that is physically larger than the 12.2MP camera in the Pixel 6a. Though the colors in Pixel 7a shots continue to have dark, colder tones, this results in clearer images than previously. The Pixel 7a still outperforms other camera phones in low-light photography.
Performance
The Tensor G2 silicon in the Pixel 7a is equivalent to that in the Pixel 7. While Google’s Tensor chips don’t have a focus on raw power, the Tensor G2 in the Pixel 7a outperforms the Exynos 1380 in the Galaxy A54 in all benchmarks. This Tensor chip, on the other hand, is focused on AI-powered features, and you’ll find plenty of them, including support for Google’s Photo Unblur feature, call management tools, and on-the-fly dictation.
Battery life
In our battery test, the Pixel 7a’s battery life lasted 10 hours and 5 minutes, which is a significant improvement over its predecessors. That puts it slightly ahead of the typical smartphone. One qualification: We obtained that time by disabling the fast refresh rate of the display.
Value for money
Even though Google increased the price of the Pixel 7a by $50 over the Pixel 6a, it is still less than $500, and it has certain high-end functions that are not frequently supported by midrange phones. For example, the 6.1-inch Pixel 7a display can refresh at 90Hz for slicker scrolling. It also supports wireless charging. Few smartphones offer more value while maintaining a reasonably low price, but the Pixel 7a does.
Storage / Expandable:Â 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB / No
Rear cameras:Â 48MP (f/1.8) main with 2x optical zoom, 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide, 12MP (f/2.8) telephoto with 3x optical zoom
Front camera:Â 12MP (f/1.9)
Weight:Â 7.3 ounces
Battery life (Hrs: Mins): 10:13
What you need to know
The iPhone 14 Pro is the greatest phone you can get for under $1,000 if you don’t want to pay the price of an iPhone 14 Pro Max or a Galaxy S23 Ultra. With the helpful Dynamic Island in place of Apple’s contentious notch, the phone has a wonderful design. It also features a bright display that, at 6.1 inches, isn’t as big as the Pro Max. With this phone, Apple nearly got everything right.
Cameras
With all the upgrades Apple made to the camera hardware (a 48MP main sensor, a larger ultrawide sensor, and a better front camera, to mention just three), we are at a loss for words to describe the photographs the iPhone 14 Pro cameras generate. Apple also introduces a photo editing function called Photonic Engine that highlights particulars in images. The only thing we would change is the telephoto lens’s zoom.
Performance
Even while smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor are witnessing significant performance improvements, the A16 Bionic chipset found in the iPhone 14 Pro is the best you’ll find in any mobile device. The iPhone 14 Pro is capable of handling a wide range of tasks, including multitasking and graphically demanding games. The most recent iOS 16 software upgrade is also successful.
Battery life
Apple’s larger iPhones last longer on a charge because they have more space for larger batteries. The iPhone 14 Pro performed admirably during our battery test, lasting more than 10 hours, although you’d anticipate more from such an expensive gadget. With 20W wired speeds, charging is also relatively sluggish.
Value for money
The iPhone 14 Pro’s starting price of $999 isn’t cheap, especially since the regular iPhone 14 is available for $200 less. However, Apple made the iPhone 14 Pro stand out from the standard model by including many extra capabilities in the Pro variant. If you can afford the $999 price, this is a wise investment.
Battery life (Hrs: Mins): 13:10 (adaptive), 12:48 (60Hz)
What you need to know
With top-notch specifications, outstanding cameras, and a fantastic starting price, the OnePlus 11 makes a strong first impression. This is one of the top total packages available right now when all those elements are taken into account. It most definitely competes for the title of the greatest Android phone with Samsung’s newest flagship models.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset used by the OnePlus 11 and the Galaxy S23 series is not optimized to the same degree. Nevertheless, you can expect some of the finest performance ever seen from an Android device; in several graphical tests, the OnePlus 11 even outperformed the iPhone 14 Pro.
Battery life
Additionally, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is a very power-efficient chip, which enabled the OnePlus 11 to perform exceptionally well on our battery test. Even with its adaptive refresh rate function enabled, the phone’s battery life was more than 13 hours.
Value for money
Only the Pixel 7 is less expensive than the OnePlus 11 among Android flagships, and Google’s phone lacks a telephoto lens. The OnePlus 11 is our pick for the greatest value in the market because of the incredible features you receive for only $699.
The Galaxy S23 provides the best features of Samsung’s top series at a reduced cost. Without needing to pay more, you receive the same vivid display and optimized chipset as other S23 versions. However, as the S23’s base model only offers 128GB of storage as opposed to 256GB in higher-end models, you will lose out on more space.
The Galaxy S23 uses the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset as the other S23 flagships while being less priced. The best performance we’ve yet seen in an Android phone is therefore available for hundreds less than other premium gadgets. The Galaxy S23 will continue to be up to current for the foreseeable future thanks to four years of software updates
Battery life
Here, the Galaxy S23’s small size works against it because it is unable to accommodate the larger battery available in larger Galaxy S23 variants. The Galaxy S23 can’t lay claim to being the longest-lasting phone, unlike the Galaxy S23 Plus and S23 Ultra. But because of the power-saving capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it does outperform the performance of its predecessor. However, it can only be charged at wired speeds of 25W.
Value for money
The Galaxy S23 is the most cost-effective Galaxy flagship available, costing $200 less than the Galaxy S23 Plus and $400 less than the S23 Ultra. Its starting price is the same as that of the iPhone 14, and only Google and OnePlus flagships are cheaper.
The price of the Pixel 7 Pro, at $899, is very competitive. It costs $100 less than comparable Samsung and Apple models, and thanks to its photographic capabilities, it can compete with $1,000+ smartphones like the Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The only decision to make is if you want to forego the telephoto lens and purchase the $599 Pixel 7.
