The best Android phones in 2024
Find the best Android phones for all budgets
The best Android phones may soon be shaken up with the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra. But if you're buying right this minute, these are our top picks.
Android phones are great because there are so many different kinds. You have your all-round excellent flagship phones, but also many different levels of budget phone, gaming-focused phones, AI focused phones — you're spoilt for choice!
Below, we present to you our shortlist of the best Android phones you can buy right now. We hope that whatever your priorities: the best camera, the best display, the most powerful chipset or the longest battery life — or something else entirely — these are the phones you need to shortlist.
The quick list
Best overall
The best Android phone overall
Samsung has shown the Android world it still has what it takes to beat all-comers with the powerful and versatile Galaxy S23 Ultra, leading the pack with its amazing cameras, chipset and stylus.
Best value
Best Android phone value
Although it's a bit more expensive than before, the Pixel 7a gives you a flagship phone-like experience but with a very attractive price and some of the best software around.
Best value
Best flagship value
The OnePlus 11 can go spec-for-spec with the best phones on the market, but it's priced to compete with entry-level phones, perhaps swaying users away from premium Galaxy or Pixel phones.
Best cameras
Best Android phone for features
Google stuffed all sorts of clever AI into its most recent flagship, rounding out the already excellent hardware of the Pixel 8 Pro nicely.
For most people
Best Android phone for most people
A smaller flagship smartphone offering a great blend of features and potential long-term enjoyment, the Galaxy S23 is likely the best point for any Android phone buyer to start their search.
Best charging
Best charging speed
If you fancy filling your phone from empty in under half an hour, this Xiaomi's for you. It's also got amazing cameras and a beautiful display to try out when it's full too.
Load more products...
Best budget
Best budget Android phone
The Galaxy A54 offers a bundle of premium features, but doesn't cost too much to buy. The extra-long software support means you won't need to spend money on upgrading too quickly.
Best foldable
Best foldable phone
If you want a foldable that makes the most out of its unique abilities, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 does it the best while also covering key bases like photo quality or battery life.
The best Android phones in the U.K. you can buy today
Why you can trust Tom's Guide
The best overall Android phone
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Once again, the top Android phone in the U.K. is Samsung's latest Ultra flagship. The Galaxy S23 Ultra's upgrades to its cameras and chipset in particular make it a considerable upgrade to last year's model, and a deserving occupant of the top spot.
The 200MP main camera is fantastic, as are the returning ultrawide and dual telephoto snappers and the updated selfie camera. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip not only beats other Snapdragon phones but also the iPhone 14 Pro Max on certain benchmarks. Samsung's usual excellent display and battery life are here too.
You still have to pay a lot for the privilege of all of this hardware, and it's still unfortunate that Samsung hasn't introduced a faster charging standard. These are only minor quibbles though. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is well worth the money if you buy it and will last you a good long time thanks to a generous number of scheduled updates.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review.
Best overall Android phone value
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Google is on a roll with its budget Pixel a-series phones, and the Pixel 7a takes things to a new level by adding extra premium features like a 90Hz display, a new 64MP main camera and the Tensor G2 chipset from the flagship Pixel 7 models.
The screen is clad in some chunky bezels though, which is a shame given this phone's on the small side. It's also become more expensive compared to previous years, which is never something we like to see happen to a phone. Luckily for you, the Pixel 7a still offers plenty to make it the best offer for users wanting the most features for the least money possible.
Read our full Google Pixel 7a review.
Best Android flagship value
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The OnePlus 11 is one of the best deals in Android phones right now. After reviewing it, we were thoroughly impressed with its upgrades, even though it's no longer got a Pro title.
Now starting at an appealing £729, you get one of the best displays on any phone - a 6.7-inch QHD panel with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. Its 100W wired charging is also one of the fastest we've tried, and the cameras are worthy of the best camera phones on the market.
The 11 telephoto isn't quite up to the standard of the other cameras at only 2x magnification, plus OnePlus has removed the wireless charging ability found on previous flagship OnePlus phones, but those are two minor complaints overall. It's still very hard to argue against the value that this phone provides in hardware and software quality.
Read our full OnePlus 11 review.
Best Android phone for features
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Google keeps making its phones cleverer and cleverer with every year, making the Pixel 8 Pro its smartest offering so far. While it's a shame it's more expensive than last year, and still can't match other phones on this list for power efficiency or performance, it's still got a whole lot going for it.
Bright spots of the Pixel 8 Pro experience include its photography, both the more customizable elements added by the new Pro controls, or the automated abilities like Best Take and Magic Editor. There's also a new Super Actua display that's impressively bright, charging speeds that beat that of Apple and Samsung, and an incredible seven years of promised Android updates. So this is a phone that's only going to get smarter the longer you own it.
Read our full Google Pixel 8 Pro review.
Best Android phone for most people
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
We think nearly anyone looking for a new phone will find something they like in the Galaxy S23. We are particular fans of its powerful customized chipset, its small but stunning display and the larger battery that has accordingly boosted the phone's life on a single charge, but others may appreciate the 4 years of software support, or the impressive 3x telephoto camera.
Most of the S23's cameras work well, but Samsung swapped out the front sensor for a new one this year, and we didn't get on with it too well. It's also quite expensive compared to other phones with similar specs, if you're worried about bang for your buck. But when it comes down to it, you can't really go wrong with a Samsung, especially if you're looking for a quality experience.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 review.
Best Android phone for charging speed
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Xiaomi's done a great job with the 13 Pro, a phone that undercuts the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra while offering similar specs - and a few that beat it.
For example, you get 50MP sensors on all three of the rear main cameras for highly detailed shots of subjects near or far. There's also 120W charging that can power your phone from 0 - 100% in 26 minutes. Not that you'll need to use it too much since the enlarged battery (while smaller than the Galaxy S23 Ultra) lasts much longer than previous Xiaomi flagships.
The computing power of the Xiaomi's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip seems a bit behind equivalent phones, so it's probably not a phone for gamers to go for. Otherwise though, it's a high-quality handset that may attract users with alternative priorities to those served by Samsung.
Read our full Xiaomi 13 Pro review.
Best budget Android phone
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Galaxy A54 covers similar ground to the Pixel 7a above, but we think it's weaker as an overall package. Fortunately the Galaxy A54 still offers enough to be a budget phone champion.
Its 50MP main camera and 120Hz display remain flagship-grade components, and while the chipset is on the weak side, it's forgiveable if you're not a power user. The secret sauce though is the 4 years of software updates and 5 years of security updates that Samsung offers. It means your money goes even further as you'll still get new features and full Android compatibility for at least half a decade after you buy the Galaxy A54. How's that for value?
Read our full Samsung Galaxy A54 review
Best Android foldable phone
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Do you have £1,600 and want to spend all of it on a phone? The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is here as a surprisingly attractive option.
While it's bulkier than a typical phone, Samsung's made it lighter and more useful since last year, while keeping its photography up to par and helping both performance and battery life with its new chipset.
It's not a foldable you'll want to use closed often because the cover screen is unfortunately narrow. Plus are you really, really sure you want to spend this much on a single, rather fragile device? If that isn't putting you off, then you're going to love how much you can do with the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review.
How to choose the best Android phone for you
To start off on making your Android phone shortlist, have a budget in mind. The price of a mid-range phone is around £400, with cheaper phones costing less than that, and the most expensive phones clearing £1,000 or more. Figure out what you can afford and stick to it.
Next, decide which features you want to prioritise. Even on phones that in theory do it all, there are some big differences in how well they handle things like photography, charging speed or performance. Whichever phones do these better should be your first port of call when looking for more information or prices.
The final bit of advice we'll give is to keep in mind how large the phones are. If you don't mind using your phone with two hands, then this won’t matter so much. But if you like to be able to swipe around, type messages and browse through your apps with one hand, then you might be better off going for a more compact device, which we'd class as phones around 6 - 6.3 inches in size.
How we test smartphones
Every smartphone Tom’s Guide evaluates is tested for several days in real-world use cases and benchmarked with a gamut of performance-measuring apps. In terms of performance, we used Geekbench 5 to measure overall speed and 3DMark to measure graphics performance.
We also use our own video editing test in the Adobe Premiere Rush app to see how long it takes to transcode a clip, which we run on both Android phones and iPhone to compare performance.
We use a light meter to ascertain display quality data, like brightness and color accuracy, and our proprietary battery test determines longevity on a charge by continuously loading live web pages over a 4G or 5G network. We set each phone to 150 nits of screen brightness and try to use T-Mobile's network each time in order to achieve comparable results across phones.
Lastly, we explore the software, test gaming performance and conduct live camera comparisons with rival handsets — and each of these factors play a part in our comprehensive verdict.
Which is the best quality Android phone?
All the phones on this list are good quality, but if you're after the best of the best, then the premium stylings and powerful feature set of the Galaxy S23 Ultra is likely your no. 1 choice. Just be prepared to pay for the privilige.
Which is the best Android phone for cameras?
The Galaxy S23 Ultra, with its quartet of rear cameras, is an amazing phone for photography. But we reckon the software enhancements that the Pixel 7 series offers mean the average phone photographer could get more out of it, even with its smaller quantity of lower-res cameras.
Get the BEST of Tom’s Guide daily right in your inbox: Sign up now!
Upgrade your life with the Tom’s Guide newsletter. Subscribe now for a daily dose of the biggest tech news, lifestyle hacks and hottest deals. Elevate your everyday with our curated analysis and be the first to know about cutting-edge gadgets.
Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.