Google Pixel 8
The best Android smartphone
The Pixel 8 offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed security updates through fall 2030, and it has one of the best smartphone cameras we’ve ever tested. It also has excellent build quality and costs less than Apple’s latest iPhones
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has the biggest, brightest screen of any smartphone you can buy, and the included S Pen can help you take notes, mark up documents, and create art in ways you can’t do on any other phone. It offers the best build quality of any Android phone we’ve tested, with a custom aluminum-alloy frame that wraps around the edges and matte glass that repels fingerprints. The Galaxy S23 Ultra also has the best camera hardware in a phone, including a 200-megapixel primary lens and a 10x “periscope” zoom. Its primary drawback is its high price; for $200 less, the Google Pixel 8 Pro is better at most things. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is ideal if you demand maximum versatility from your phone, but you should buy it only on sale—we recommend purchasing when it’s closer to $1,000, or if you have an older Samsung phone to trade in.
Google’s Pixel smartphones : have always offered the best Android software experience, but the Google Pixel 8 proves that Google is doubling down on hardware. It has a crisp 6.2-inch OLED screen and a solid wrap-around aluminum frame. The Pixel 8 also offers the best camera performance of any Android phone save for its sibling, the Pixel 8 Pro, and Google’s custom Tensor G3 processor holds its own against the high-end chips in other phones. In addition, the Pixel 8 is more likely to remain secure for years longer than most Android phones thanks to its seven years of guaranteed monthly patches. And at $700, it costs hundreds less than other Android phones that won’t last as long or perform as well (though we don’t love Google’s decision to raise the prices of its latest Pixel models across the board).
Google Pixel 8 Pro
A more high-end Android phone
The Pixel 8 Pro takes the Pixel 8 and adds a bigger, better screen and more camera features, but it’s more expensive than previous Pro models
The Google Pixel 8 Pro has a larger OLED screen than the Pixel 8, with a higher resolution and refresh rate, as well as a 5x telephoto camera. The improvements bump this phone’s price up to $1,000, so the value isn’t quite as strong as with the Pixel 8. But the Pixel 8 Pro is a more capable phone with the same excellent software and seven years of update support.
Google Pixel 7a
A less expensive Android phone
The Pixel 7a has a higher price tag than Google’s budget phones usually do, but it offers more features for the cost. The 7a offers a better display, an improved camera, Face Unlock, and Google’s custom Tensor G2 processor in a plastic body. It’s not as premium as a flagship Pixel model, but you get plenty for your money
Though Google’s Pixel 7a is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Pixel 8, you don’t sacrifice many features in choosing this model. The Pixel 7a runs on Google’s Tensor G2 processor and has an improved 64-megapixel camera sensor, wireless charging, Face Unlock, and an upgraded 1080p display with a smooth 90 Hz refresh rate. The Pixel 7a has a plastic body, an aluminum frame, and a dual-camera setup on the rear, and it will receive many of the same Android 14 features that the higher-end Pixel models will. The one downside: The Pixel 7a will receive software updates for only five years, rather than the seven years of updates that Google has promised for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro
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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
A no-compromises Android phone
A fast processor, a huge screen, class-leading camera hardware, and a stylus make the Galaxy S23 Ultra the most full-featured Android phone available. But you should buy it only if it’s on sale.
Samsung Galaxy S23
A smaller Android phone
The Galaxy S23 has the same powerful processor as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but its compact frame and smaller display make it easier to use.
Most good Android phones are big and heavy, but the Samsung Galaxy S23 is petite enough for those with smaller hands. The 6.1-inch OLED display looks even better than the Google Pixel 8’s screen, and its build quality is every bit as good as that of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It’s built to last on the software side, too, with the same five-year update commitment as on Samsung’s other flagship phones. The Galaxy S23 lacks the advanced camera array of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but it still shoots better photos than anything else that isn’t a Pixel. However, the smaller size means a smaller battery—the Galaxy S23 lasts a day, but only just
How we picked and tested
We’ve tested dozens of Android phones over the past few years, and most suffer from poor software, sluggish performance, terrible design choices, or some combination of all three. Here are the criteria we use to decide which phones are worth buying:
Performance: A great Android phone should feel snappy whether you’re playing a game or just swiping through the interface. Most flagship Android phones use similar processors, so performance differences are largely due to software.
Software: A clunky version of Android can ruin your experience, and even the most powerful hardware doesn’t matter if the software runs poorly. We like phones that have fewer carrier modifications and apps preloaded by manufacturers, because phones without them tend to run better and are easier to use. Your smartphone will also end up containing a lot of personal data, so security is important—a phone that ships with outdated software, doesn’t receive security patches, or has a documented history of security flaws is not a good purchase, no matter the price.
Display: Most people spend several hours every day looking at their smartphone screen, so it should remain sharp and easy to read, even outdoors. Higher refresh rates can also make screens easier on the eyes by eliminating the jerkiness of fast scrolling.
Camera: When you have a good smartphone camera, you can take fantastic photos at a moment’s notice, and the difference between a top-tier phone camera and an average one can be huge. The best smartphones have advanced image-processing technology that can adjust for lighting contrasts, low light, faces, and even skin tones.
Battery life: If a phone can’t last through a full day of heavy use, it’s not worth buying. Some phones offer multi-day battery life, but that’s not a requirement for most people. If the phone lasts until bedtime, its battery life is good enough.
Build quality: Android smartphones can cost $1,000 or more. A phone that is poorly constructed or made with subpar materials could break before you even finish paying it off through a carrier. Phones should use high-quality components such as aluminum, ceramic, and Gorilla Glass, and the devices shouldn’t bend or creak under stress.
Why you should trust us
Roderick Scott, a staff writer at Wirecutter, has been reviewing tech, including Android phones, for more than a decade. He has used every Android phone—from the HTC G1 and the Google Nexus line to Samsung’s first Galaxy S model and Motorola’s Droid phones, and all the way to current models.
The competition
We cover less expensive models in our guide to the best budget Android phones.
In general, we don’t recommend choosing an Android phone that is more than a year old or has already been replaced by newer models. An older phone might be cheaper, but the lower price usually isn’t enough to justify the shorter window of remaining software support. Most Android phones receive about two years’ worth of reliable software support; after that, you’re lucky to have even one or two security updates per year. However, Samsung and Google are pushing updates to three or four years, depending on the phone.
They’re not quite as impressive as the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, but Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are still great phones, especially if you find them on sale from a retailer such as Amazon or Best Buy. New software features like Best Take, Magic Editor, and the updated At A Glance widget, as well as Read Aloud and Translate with Assistant, will eventually make their way to the Pixel 7 series.
The Nothing Phone 2 runs on the last-generation Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor with up to 12 GB of RAM. It has a premium build, with a transparent glass and metal housing and a bright and vibrant 6.7-inch 1080p display. It also has rear Glyph light strips, which are useful, if a little gimmicky. But its lack of a reliable camera, its tendency to overheat with heavy use, and the harsh vibration motor behind its haptics prevent us from making it a pick.
The OnePlus 11 is one of the fastest phones you can get, thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. Though it doesn’t offer the higher performance of the custom Samsung version of the chip, the OnePlus phone has better cooling, which contributes to higher sustained performance. The 5,000 mAh battery easily lasts a day, and the 80 W fast charging makes it easy to top up before you head out the door. It also has a huge, 6.7-inch 1440p OLED screen that’s almost as good as Samsung’s. But the OnePlus version of Android 13 is clunky: It borrows quite a bit from the ColorOS software used on this phone in China, which means fewer features and a more confusing interface than we enjoyed on past OnePlus phones. The OnePlus 11 is the same price as the Google Pixel 8, which has much better software and photo quality. However, we do hope that more phones follow OnePlus’s lead and support faster charging speeds.
Samsung’s Galaxy S22 phones are still available from Samsung and other retailers. The prices might look attractive, but many of these phones are refurbished or international models with no US warranty, and they lack 5G support. If you can find a new US model for a good price, you aren’t losing out on much by choosing a Galaxy S22 over a Galaxy S23. However, in early 2023 it came within $100 to $200 of the latest models—close enough that you should get the Galaxy S23 instead for its longer update support and myriad of small improvements.
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ stands in the middle of Samsung’s latest flagship-phone lineup. Its $1,000 price tag makes it about $200 more expensive than the Galaxy S23 and $200 less than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It has more in common with the Galaxy S23, with its triple-camera setup, 1080p screen, and omission of the S Pen. However, its 6.6-inch OLED screen is a good size if you want a large Samsung phone without the heft of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. That niche is small, though, and most people would be happier with the pocketable Galaxy S23 or the more powerful Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The 2022 Motorola Edge+ represents Motorola’s latest attempt to return to the flagship-phone category, and we like this model’s 6.8-inch OLED display, with its ultra-fast 144 Hz refresh rate. The Edge+ is also a fast phone thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. However, in its cameras and Motorola’s software-support commitment, this phone falls short of options from both Google and Samsung. In addition, Motorola is asking $1,000 for this phone, the same price as the Google Pixel 8 Pro.
The 2023 Samsung Galaxy S23 FE offers similar hardware as the Galaxy S23 and S23+ for slightly less. It has a large, 6.4-inch OLED screen, IP68-rated body, as well as the previous-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, the same kind that was in every flagship phone last year. The S23 FE adds a new 50-megapixel main camera that captures sharp, detailed images and videos. However, the $600 asking price makes it only $200 less than the Galaxy S23, and only $100 less than the Pixel 8 which runs faster, offers better build quality, and will receive updates more frequently.
What about foldable phones?
The latest trend in Android is foldables, but we don’t recommend them. Google’s Pixel Fold has a short and wide 5.8-inch exterior display, versus the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold’s tall and narrow 6.2-inch exterior display. Both foldable models open to reveal a 7.6-inch interior display, which essentially works like a tablet. While the Galaxy Z Fold 5 offers a brighter OLED screen and a smaller bezel, we prefer the Pixel Fold to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 if you’re shopping for a foldable. But we don’t recommend splurging on either device if you don’t need to: At $1,800 each, the Pixel Fold and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 are simply too expensive for most people.
The $1,700 OnePlus Open, which goes on sale October 26, is one of the best foldables we’ve tested so far. The 6.3-inch phone unfolds to become a 7.8-inch tablet, making it not as narrow as the Galaxy Z Fold 5 but not as wide as the Pixel Fold. It’s lighter, has a smoother folding mechanism, and has a less visible crease than its competitors. The OnePlus Open has bright and colorful OLED displays with up to 2,800 nits of maximum outdoor brightness. The 4,805 mAh battery lasts over a day and can charge from 1% to 100% in around 42 minutes with the included 67 W fast-charging brick. It runs Android 13 out of the box but adds a useful desktop-like taskbar for easier multitasking. The phone’s trio of rear camera lenses are placed inside a giant circular cutout, which is unusual, but the 48-megapixel main, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, and 64-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom produce sharp and colorful images that are comparable to other foldables. But, like most of the other foldables we’ve tested, the OnePlus Open is extremely expensive, and we’re not sure how durable it will be over time.
Motorola’s Razr is currently the most budget-friendly entry-point into foldables at $700. Motorola’s latest foldable has an aluminum frame and hinge cover that’s wrapped in a premium-feeling vegan leather. The Razr opens to a narrow 6.9-inch 1080p OLED display that supports a fast 144 Hz refresh rate for smoother animations and a more responsive interface. It closes flat to reveal a smaller 1.5-inch OLED external display which allows you to access your calendar, timer, weather, voice recorder, and capture photos and videos. It runs Android 13 and adds Motorola’s gesture control to open the camera by twisting your wrist twice. The Razr’s 64-megapixel main camera is adequate enough most of the time, as the 12-megapixel ultrawide and 32-megapixel selfie cameras aren’t as sharp or good. It packs a 4,200 mAh battery that’s larger than the 3,700 mAh cell inside of the Galaxy Z Flip5, and easily lasts over a day. The Motorola Razr is the first, reasonably-priced foldable, but not knowing how well its durability will last over time is a looming asterisk in deciding to buy one or not.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 foldable is more affordable at $1,000 and has an improved hinge that allows for a seamless closure, without any gaps as on previous models. It has a 3.4-inch exterior display that improves the overall experience by allowing you to access apps on the outside, as opposed to relying on the interior display for everything. Add its improved cameras for better low-light results, and the Galaxy Z Flip 5 would have been a great first foldable. However, less-than-ideal battery life and long-term concerns regarding durability prevent it from being a pick.
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