The best phones offer you everything you could want from a mobile device. They deliver great cameras, the performance you need to multitask and enough battery life to last the whole day. And with strong options available at all price levels, you don't have to spend a lot to get something great. Whether you prefer iPhone or Android, there's an option for you.
When it comes to buying a new phone, some people 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 bring you in-depth reviews and make recommendations you can trust.
- The best Android phones
- Under $400: The best cheap phones
- How to transfer contacts and data from Android to iPhone
Our best phones list has something for everyone, including great bargains under $500 and under $300. We've ranked all the top phones based on our testing. Here are the top smartphones right now.
What are the best phones?
Based on our testing, the new iPhone 13 Pro Max is the best phone you can buy. It delivers a new 120Hz ProMotion display along with the best cameras in a phone. This includes a new macro mode, Cinematic mode for video and brighter images in low light. Plus, you get over 12 hours of battery life in our testing. The iPhone 13 Pro is great as well if you prefer a smaller 6.1-inch display, as it has all the same features.
The regular iPhone 13 is the best phone under $800, as you get a brighter display than the iPhone 12 and improved wide and ultra-wide cameras that are a step ahead of Android phones, plus blistering performance from the A15 Bionic processor and long battery life.
If you prefer Android, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the best Android phone you can buy, thanks to its powerful cameras, long battery life, gorgeous dynamic 120Hz display and S Pen support. But now that the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are available, we're excited to see if the new Tensor processor in those phones vaults them up the list.
Google already offers a top phone, especially for those on a budget. The Google Pixel 5a offers a great camera for less than $500. The Moto G Power is another good bargain, as it offers the best battery life on the market.
The best phones you can buy today
The iPhone 13 Pro Max earns the title of best phone thanks to a number of key upgrades. This includes a new 6.7-inch ProMotion display that scales up to 120Hz for silky smooth animations, awesome performance from the A15 Bionic chip and epic battery life of over 12 hours in our web surfing test.
The cameras on the iPhone 13 Pro Max are simply best in class, thanks to improved sensors that capture more light and a new Photographic styles feature that lets you tweak the look of your pics. But the coolest camera features are a new macro mode that helps you shoot awesome close-ups and a Cinematic mode for video that delivers a compelling bokeh effect along with automatic focusing between subjects.
The charging could be faster. But, overall, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is second to none among smartphones.
Read our full iPhone 13 Pro Max review.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is a superior big-screen phone, offering a dynamic 6.8-inch AMOLED display that scales from 10Hz to 120Hz for super smooth performance. But the killer feature is the dual telephoto cameras, with 3x and 10x optical zoom, and the ability to Space Zoom up to 100x with a new Zoom Lock feature. The overall camera quality is improved, too, with better-looking portraits and brighter shots with Night mode.
The S21 Ultra also excels at capturing video with a new Director’s View mode that lets you record using the front and back cameras at the same time. Other highlights include snappy performance from the Snapdragon 888 chip and extra-long battery life from the 5,000 mAh battery, as the S21 Ultra lasted nearly 11.5 hours on our web surfing test. The Galaxy S21 Ultra doesn’t include a charger in a box or a microSD card slot, but overall it’s the best Android phone you can buy.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra won a highly recommended award.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review.
The best phone for the money, the iPhone 13 delivers a fantastic camera experience in a compact design. The main camera gathers more light now and the ultra-wide camera captures more of the scene. And the Cinematic mode for video gives you Hollywood-like depth of focus in your footage, thanks to the powerful new A15 Bionic processor.
Other highlights include a brighter 6.1-inch display and a smaller notch up top so you get more screen real estate. The biggest improvement is battery life, as we saw about 10.5 hours of endurance, which is an improvement of over 1.5 hours from the iPhone 12. Add in a base 128GB of storage for your $799 and you can’t go wrong with this iPhone.
Read our full iPhone 13 review.
The Google Pixel 5a is the best sub-$500 phone you can buy right now, as it offers the best photography available on a mid-range phone. If you don't want to spring for a pricey flagship device, the Pixel 5a is your best alternative, particularly for fans of Android.
With the Pixel 5a, Google adds a second rear lens to its budget phone — a 16MP ultrawide shooter to augment the 12.2MP main camera. That expands the Pixel 5a's flexibility over previous models, while the phone continues to benefit from Google's prowess with computational photography. The Pixel 5a's display is big and bright, and this phone offers IP67 water resistance, something missing from past A series models.
You will pay $100 more for the Pixel 5a than the Pixel 4a's bargain basement price, but Google has added 5G connectivity and an improved processor to this model. (The Pixel 5a also costs $50 less than last year's Pixel 4a 5G.) Performance-hungry users may want to hold out for the more powerful Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro once those phones arrive Oct. 28. Until we finish testing those two devices, the Pixel 5a remains the best phone Google has to offer.
Read our full Google Pixel 5a review.
If you want the power of the iPhone 13 Pro Max in something more compact, the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro is the best phone for you. This flagship packs all of the same great features and performance as its bigger brother, including a new 3x telephoto zoom camera, 120Hz ProMotion display and support for ProRes video.
The iPhone 13 Pro also benefits from longer battery life, as this iPhone lasted over 11 hours on our web surfing battery test. We just wish the charging was faster. Add in a brighter display, a slick Cinematic mode for video and impressive new macro photography and you have a superb all-around phone.
Read our full iPhone 13 Pro review
The OnePlus 9 Pro features the best cameras ever included with a OnePlus phone. With help from camera specialist Hasselblad, the OnePlus 9 features an excellent array of lenses that capture color accurately and produce photos that rival what you get from leading camera phones, as you can see in our OnePlus 9 Pro camera face-off.
There are other features beyond the cameras that make the OnePlus 9 Pro a great challenger to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. You get a display with a dynamically adjusting refresh rate, scaling between 1 and 120Hz. That helps with battery life, as the OnePlus 9 Pro lasted more than 10.5 hours on our battery test. OnePlus’ WarpCharge 65T technology means your phone can be fully charged in a little more than 30 minutes. Throw in a Snapdragon 888 processor and lots of RAM, and you have one of the best performing Android phones around.
The OnePlus 9 Pro won a highly recommended award.
Read our full OnePlus 9 Pro review.
If you’re looking for a flagship at an affordable price, the Samsung Galaxy S21 is one of the best phone options around. The S21 makes a great first impression with its sleek contour cut camera design, which blends the camera into the back of the device. And the cameras themselves impress, too, with improved portraits and a new Zoom Lock feature that lets you get better results up to 30x zoom.
The Galaxy S21 makes some trade-offs for its $799 price tag. You won’t find a charger in the box or a microSD card slot, and the back is plastic instead of glass. But this Samsung phone makes up for those shortcomings with strong performance from its Snapdragon 888 chip, a larger fingerprint sensor for easier unlocking and fun features like Single Take 2.0 for capturing photos and videos at once.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S21 review.
You no longer have to pay $1,000 or more to get the best benefits of Samsung’s Galaxy S20 lineup. The $699 Samsung Galaxy S20 FE retains the best features of Samsung’s flagships, with only minor compromises, making this one of the best phones for the money. (That's especially true if you can get the S20 FE for a discount off its usual price now that the S21 models are available.)
The Galaxy S20 FE delivers a big 6.5-inch display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, 5G connectivity and a speedy Snapdragon 865 processor. We really like the triple camera system on this phone, which includes a powerful 3x optical zoom and impressive 30x space zoom.
You’ll have to settle for a plastic back instead of glass and a slower charger than the regular Galaxy S20, but these trade-offs are worth it. This is the Galaxy S20 model to get if you want high-end features but not the high price of most other flagship phones.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S20 FE review
Samsung continues trying to make foldable phones more appealing to mainstream shoppers, and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a big step forward in that regard. While the $1,799 price is still a lot to pay for a phone, it’s $200 lower than the Galaxy Z Fold 2’s debut cost. And the phone is more durable than ever with an IPX8 water-resistance rating, Armor Aluminum Frame and Gorilla Glass Victus display.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 also introduces new features such as displays with 120Hz refresh rates (both inside and out), an under-display camera on that interior screen and S Pen support. That latter feature is optional, though, meaning you’ll need to pay extra for the stylus.
More apps than ever before support the Galaxy Z Fold, so chances are, the apps you use on a daily basis will benefit from the phone’s support for multitasking. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 isn’t for everyone, but it’s the best foldable phone Samsung’s released yet.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 review.
For a shockingly low $499, 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, like what you get from the newer iPhone 12, 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. It's also an even better deal with the iPhone 13's arrival triggering yet another $100 price cut on this older phone.
Read our full iPhone 11 review
When you want a long lasting phone, get one of Motorola’s Moto G Power models. That continues with the 2021 version of this budget phone, which rides its 5,000 mAh battery to 14-hour-plus result on our battery test. That places the Moto G Power (2021) near the top of our list for best phone battery life, alongside last year’s edition.
There’s more to the Moto G Power than just a big battery. The cameras are decent for a budget phone, even the macro lens. And Motorola now offers a cheaper version if you don’t mind living with less RAM and storage: the 3GB/32GB model costs $199, while the 4GB/64GB model has that familiar $249 price tag.
Read our full Moto G Power (2021) review.
You don't have to spend big bucks to get your hands on an Apple phone. The iPhone SE brings just about everything you like about Apple's devices but at a lower $399 price. That's $300 less than the iPhone 12 mini, and $50 cheaper than Google's Pixel 5a.
You get an older, iPhone 8-inspired design with noticeable bezels around the LCD screen, but fans of compact phones will like the iPhone SE's small size and the fact that it's powered by an A13 Bionic processor — still capable of outperforming far more expensive Android devices. The single rear lens on the iPhone SE also delivers great photos, thanks in no small part to Apple's excellent computational photography.
Read our iPhone SE 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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