The best phones deliver great cameras, the performance you need to multitask and the endurance to last the whole day. You don't have to wait for the iPhone 12 if you need a great smartphone right now, but the launch could be just a couple weeks away.
Some may prefer to have the biggest display possible along with the most advanced specs. And others want a solid mid-range phone that delivers all the basics without feeling cheap. To help you pick the best smartphone for you, we test dozens of handsets in the lab and in the real world to make our recommendations.
- The best Android phones
- Under $400: The best cheap phones
Our ranked smartphone list has something for everyone, including great bargains under $500 and under $300. Here are the best phones right now.
What are the best phones?
Based on our testing, the iPhone 11 is the best phone for most people, as it captures great photos, boasts a bright display and offers long battery life. It's a great choice for under $700. However, the iPhone 12 will add 5G and be here soon, so we would hold off unless you absolutely need a handset now.
At number two is Samsung's new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra — a truly premium smartphone in every sense of the word, from its powerful Snapdragon 865 Plus CPU to its adaptive 120Hz display and triple-lens rear camera. And if you're on a tighter budget, the OnePlus 8 Pro is a compelling alternative for Android users, offering excellent overall performance, long battery life and super-fast charging for several hundreds less than the new Note.
Especially price-conscious consumers are well advised to look at the new $399 iPhone SE. It delivers a very good camera and fast A13 Bionic performance in a compact design. However, the Google Pixel 4a is an even better bargain at $349, as it provides double the storage of the iPhone SE for $50 less, plus a Night mode for the camera, a bigger display and — last but certainly not least — a headphone jack.
A phone to watch is the new Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, which costs just $699 and offers great features for the money. This includes a 120Hz display, 5G, a big battery and a versatile triple camera system.
Here are the best phones on the market right now.
The best phones you can buy today
The best smartphone for people who don't want to spend a bundle, the iPhone 11 has killer dual cameras and a cheaper price than the iPhone 11 Pro. For a very reasonable $699, the iPhone 11 offers amazingly good low-light photos via its Night Mode, and there’s a new ultra-wide lens that lets you fit in more subjects or scene with its 120-degree field of view. Selfies get a serious upgrade, too, with a 12-MP camera that automatically switches to a wider view when you turn the phone to landscape mode.
The 6.1-inch LCD on the iPhone 11 isn’t OLED-great, but it’s colorful and bright. A blazing A13 Bionic processor, long battery life and your choice of six colors solidify the iPhone 11 as a winner. Should you wait for the iPhone 12? If you want 5G connectivity, it's not a bad idea. But the iPhone 11 is the best iPhone right now and the best phone overall.
Read our full iPhone 11 Review.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is pricey at $1,299 but no other big-screen phone can do as much as this phablet. You get a gorgeous 6.9-inch OLED display with a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate, as well as lots of new S Pen upgrades, ranging from new air gestures to a smoother 9 ms response time. Plus, the Note 20 Ultra packs one of the most versatile camera setups ever, including a 108MP main sensor, a whopping 50x Space Zoom and a dedicated laser autofocus sensor to reduce blur.
The Note 20 Ultra is also a mini desktop PC and game console in disguise. With the improved DeX mode, you can beam photos, apps and more to a nearby TV, and with Xbox Game Pass you can stream more than 100 Xbox titles over the cloud. The Note 20 Ultra works well with your PC, too, as Link to Windows enables you to run Android apps on your laptop as well as get notifications, make calls and more. Add it all up and you have one of the best phones yet.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra review.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is one of the best phones because it packs so many features into a phone that costs less than premium flagships. You get performance that can match any leading phone and a gorgeous display with a fast 120Hz refresh rate for ridiculously smooth scrolling.
Opting for the fastest refresh rate can reduce battery life, but set the screen refresh rate at 60Hz and you can expect more than 11 hours of battery life — well ahead of what the average smartphone can pull off on our battery test. The OnePlus 8 Pro becomes the first OnePlus phone to support wireless charging; even better, it's the fastest wireless charging we've ever seen.
Other phones sport more capable cameras, but the OnePlus 8 Pro four rear lenses performed capably in our tests, sometimes producing results that match what the best camera phones have to offer. If you want a great Android device, the OnePlus 8 Pro is proof you don’t need to spend more than $1,000 to get one of the best phones.
Read our full OnePlus 8 Pro review.
What makes the new Google Pixel 4a so special is that it offers almost everything you’d desire in a smartphone for just $349. And it’s remarkably compelling for that price.
Google’s latest midrange offering contains a gorgeous 5.8-inch OLED screen; solid power from a Snapdragon 730G chipset; clever software features like Call Screen and Google’s handy Recorder live transcription app; and, of course, that marvel of a 12-megapixel camera, which includes perks like Night Sight and Super Res Zoom.
The only area where the Pixel 4a lags behind the competition is with respect to battery life. Even with a power pack significantly bigger than the iPhone SE’s, it still doesn’t last quite as long on a charge. It also can’t match Apple’s $399 iPhone where performance is concerned. But in practically every other way, Google’s new baby Pixel is a fantastically well-rounded handset that everyone who is looking for a cheap phone should consider, with the best photography for the money.
Read our full Google Pixel 4a review
The iPhone SE 2020 finishes on the podium of our list of the best smartphones because it delivers exceptional power for under $400. The A13 Bionic chipset inside the new iPhone SE is the very same one you get in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. It's a rare feat to see a flagship processor inside a device that is so inexpensive, and it makes the iPhone SE far and away the finest value in the budget phone segment.
But it's not exclusively about that wicked-fast CPU. The latest baby iPhone also has a solid single-lens 12-megapixel camera, wireless charging, IP67 water resistance and premium build quality. The tradeoff to that is the SE's very dated design, owing to its iPhone 8 roots — though Touch ID loyalists and users who find themselves pining for a more compact handset may be able to overlook that in favor of everything else the iPhone SE offers.
Read our full iPhone SE 2020 review.
At $1,299, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is really expensive. Fortunately, the regular Note 20, which costs $999, offers the same general performance and productivity-minded software for a sizable discount. You do lose out on the Ultra model's 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and more sophisticated triple-lens rear camera system, but the Note 20 is still an extremely capable phone even without those luxuries.
That's especially true of the device's camera. Don't let the numbers fool you: the Note 20 takes excellent pictures, even though it lacks the Ultra's high-powered optical zoom and fancy primary sensor. And if you're really just concerned with getting things done, the Note 20 has the same note-taking features, like the ability to append audio recordings time-synced with text, as well as Windows' Your Phone projection and wireless DeX mode to help you get more out of the device on larger displays.
In fact, the Note 20's biggest shortcomings are its rather limited storage (there's just 128GB built in, with no microSD slot like there is on the Ultra) and its somewhat middling battery life, clocking an hour less than the Ultra did in our battery test. Those qualms aside, the Note 20 Ultra really is as well-rounded a phone as you'll find at this price.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Note 20 review.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max has vaulted past the Android competition to become one of the best camera phones, thanks to a new Night Mode for much better photos in low light and a versatile ultra-wide lens. Plus, improved Smart HDR gives you superior portraits. Apple has upped the ante on video quality, too, with extended dynamic range and smooth cinematic stabilization.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max also offers the fastest processor yet with its A13 Bionic chip, a more durable design and a 6.5-inch OLED display so bright that it makes other phones look dingy. We wish Apple offered more than 64GB of storage, but once you add in nearly 12 hours of battery life, fast charging and more immersive audio, you have the nearly perfect smartphone.
Read our full iPhone 11 Pro Max review.
If you want the best phone for lasting all day long, get the Moto G Power. This budget phone from Motorola makes the most of its massive 5,000 mAh battery, enduring for more than 16 hours on our battery test, in which we have a phone surf the web over LTE until it runs out of juice.
You don’t have to pay big bucks for that kind of battery life. The Moto G Power costs just $249, which is even cheaper than Apple’s iPhone SE. You will make some compromises though like an LCD screen instead of an OLED panel and a hefty 7 ounce weight.
Still, the Moto G Power’s performance and camera keep pace with other phones for its price range, and it even manages to include triple cameras (though not a telephoto lens). All told, it’s a pretty polished phone for less than $300, and you’ll never have to worry about finding a place to plug in.
Read our full Moto G Power review.
The OnePlus Nord may be OnePlus' attempt to build a budget phone, but you wouldn't know that from using the device. OnePlus has packed in premium features, from a screen with a 90Hz refresh rate to a total of six cameras on the front and back, that you typically don't find on a phone that costs less than $500.
It's that screen that blew us away when testing the OnePlus Nord. Not only do you get the fast refresh rate — a feature that's been restricted to handsets that cost hundreds of dollars more — the 6.44-inch AMOLED panel on the Nord is bright enough to use in even blinding sunlight and able to bring out the blacks and shadows when you watch videos and play games.
You'll make some compromises with the OnePlus Nord. The phone's Snapdragon 765G chipset can't match the performance of the A13 Bionic-powered iPhone SE, though that Qualcomm chipset does mean the Nord can connect with faster 5G networks. Despite all those cameras — a main lens, ultra wide sensor, macro lens and depth sensor on the back and a wide angle shooter joining a regular selfie cam on the front — OnePlus' photo processing software still renders colors coolly. But for this price, it's hard to argue with the features you do get.
We have only one major complaint about the OnePlus Nord — it's not easily available in the US. With sales restricted to Europe and India initially, we hope that the Nord proves so popular that OnePlus can't resist offering U.S. shoppers this great smartphone value.
Read our full OnePlus Nord review.
Samsung has three strong phones in its Galaxy S20 lineup, but the Galaxy S20 Plus is the one that places highest on our best phone list, because it offers the best overall mix of features for the money. You get a gorgeous 6.7-inch display with a silky smooth 120Hz refresh rate, 5G connectivity and fast Snapdragon 865 processor, plus relatively long battery life (at least in 60Hz mode). The only features missing compared to the higher-end Galaxy S20 Ultra are a 108MP camera and more powerful Space Zoom — trade-offs most people will be willing to make to save $200 by opting for the $1,199 Galaxy S20 Plus.
That's especially true since the Galaxy S20 Plus boasts some pretty impressive cameras in its own right. The new sensors capture bright and colorful photos, and the 3x lossless zoom is more powerful than what the iPhone 11 Pro Max delivers. The regular Galaxy S20 plus is a good choice at $999, too, if you prefer a smaller display. But if you want a big screen and future-proof 5G for years to come, you’re going to love the Galaxy S20 Plus.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus review.
How to choose the best smartphone for you
- Android or iPhone? Android phones give you more choice in terms of price, size and innovative designs. However, iPhones offer speedier software updates, better games and apps and better security and privacy. See our iPhone vs Android face-off.
- Unlocked or carrier? Most shoppers in the U.S. buy new phones through their wireless carrier. But an unlocked phone gives you the freedom to buy the device without any sort of contract and then bring it to the provider you want to use.
- Screen size: If you're looking for a big phone, 6 inches and up is a good place to start. The biggest phones are 6.5 to 6.8 inches. If you want something you can easily use with one hand, go with one of the best small phones with a screen under 6 inches.
- Cameras: Don't pay attention to the megapixel count. Instead, look at camera face-offs between phones to see the photo quality and look for special features like Night Mode to get better quality in low light. Also see our best camera phone roundup.
- Battery life: Generally, phones with larger batteries (measured in mAh) offer the longest battery life, but that's not always the case. That's why we run our own battery test.
How we test smartphones
In order for a smartphone to make our best phone list, it needs to excel on several tests that we run on every handset. We perform some of these tests in our labs and some in the real world.
When it comes to performance, we rely on such synthetic benchmarks as Geekbench 5 and GFXBench to measure graphics performance. These tests allow us to compare performance across iPhones and Android devices. We also run a real-world video transcoding test on each phone using the Adobe Premiere Rush app and time the result.
To measure the quality of a phone's display, we perform lab tests to determine the brightness of the panel (in nits), as well as how colorful each screen is (DCI-P3 color gamut). In these cases, higher numbers are better. We also measure color accuracy of each panel with a Delta-E rating, where lower numbers are better and score of 0 is perfect.
One of the most important tests we run is the Tom's Guide battery test. We run a web surfing test over 5G or 4G at 150 nits of screen brightness until the battery gives out. In general, a phone that lasts 10 hours or more is good, and anything above 11 hours makes our list of the best phone battery life.
Last but not least, we take the best phones out in the field to take photos outdoors, indoors and at night in low light to see how they perform versus their closest competitors. We take shots of landscapes, food, portraits and more, and also allow you to be the judge with side-by-side comparisons in our reviews.
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