Whether you want a top-performing camera, a fast-refreshing screen or lots of built-in storage, an Android phone can meet your needs. Here are our picks for the best ones to buy this year.
The Pixel 7a has the same great camera and Google software as its more expensive siblings, but costs significantly less. It also comes with a bigger battery and 80W fast-wired charging.
1. Google Pixel 8
The Pixel 8 marks a leap forward in Google’s quest to balance aesthetics and functionality. Its clean, attractive design is complemented by a high-resolution OLED display that delivers rich color and deep contrast. It also improves on the Pixel 7’s high-dynamic range (HDR) performance and boasts a feature called Video Boost for enhancing video quality.
A custom Google Tensor G3 chip powers Pixel 8’s advanced AI features. This on-device magic enables the phone to quickly and intuitively understand your voice commands, offer smart replies for text messages and summarize web pages for fast reading. It can even unlock the phone with your face, an impressive feature that iPhone owners have enjoyed since the X’s introduction.
Out of the box, the Pixel 8 runs on Android 14, a contemporary mobile operating system that’s renowned for stability and security. It’s backed by Google’s promise of seven years of OS, security and feature updates — an unmatched commitment that could give the phone tremendous value over the long term for those who aren’t regular upgraders.
2. Samsung Galaxy S24
Samsung’s 2024 Galaxy S24 phones offer a mix of welcome upgrades and new AI smarts. The Galaxy S24 Plus adds a 5,000mAh battery for Ultra-level endurance and uses a specialized version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 designed for Galaxy phones to boost performance and enable on-device generative AI capabilities.
It also has an improved 50-megapixel camera with 2x optical zoom for a better picture and offers a more comfortable experience in the hand with a 10% stronger Armor aluminum frame. It’s also one of the first phones to support augmented reality with Samsung’s iris scanning feature and can automatically translate voice calls using Google Assistant.
Like last year’s S23 phones, the S24 and S24 Plus run the Android 14 operating system with Samsung’s One UI user experience. This year Samsung debuts ‘Galaxy AI,’ which includes features like Circle to Search, which lets you launch a Google search by simply circling an object on screen, and Tone Tweak, which analyzes your typing for your preferred tone. The S24 and S24 Plus both have 12GB of RAM, a bump up from the 8GB offered in last year’s models.
3. OnePlus Open
The OnePlus Open is one of the most impressive foldable phones to ever hit the market. It comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 system-on-a-chip, loads of RAM, and both an inner 7.82-inch and outer 6.31-inch display that can slow down to 1Hz or up to 120Hz.
Both screens are bright and crisp, and OnePlus managed to make the outer display’s crease almost completely unnoticeable. This is a significant accomplishment given that both the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5 have a noticeable crease when closed.
Other specs are also top-tier, including a 48MP main camera, a 64MP ultra-wide camera, and a telephoto camera that offers 3x optical zoom and 6x sensor-based zoom. The phone also has fast wired charging and a big battery that easily lasted me through a day of watching videos, listening to music, and WhatsApp-ing. The only downside is that the OnePlus Open doesn’t offer wireless charging or more advanced water and dust protection, but it’s still a solid pick.
4. Motorola Edge Plus
The Motorola Edge Plus is the company’s latest premium phone for 2023. It’s an upgrade on last year’s model and competes with other top-tier Android phones in almost every way.
For starters, it has a faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and more RAM than the vanilla model. This made it easy to breeze through everyday tasks, and it held up well during our benchmark tests.
It also has a gorgeous 6.7-inch OLED display that wraps around the sides of the phone. Motorola upgraded it to a 90Hz high refresh rate, which is better than the 60Hz screens you find on most other phones and should make scrolling and animations look sharper.
It’s a durable device, too, with an IP68 rating that guards against dust and water. And Motorola’s software support is solid, with three years of full OS upgrades and four years of bimonthly security updates.
5. Asus Zenfone 10
There’s a lot to love about the Zenfone 10. It’s small in size but packs some serious power, thanks to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU. Asus continues to slap top-grade silicon into these compact mobile devices, and the phone’s tiny frame means that it can stand toe-to-toe with bigger rivals without suffering from their hulking dimensions.
The phone’s 5.9-inch display isn’t quite a match for the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s vivomax AMOLED, but it does deliver excellent brightness, color accuracy and temperature. Moreover, the Zenfone 10 supports 144Hz refresh rates when playing games with its dedicated ‘Game Genie’ software.
Like its predecessor, the new Zenfone 10 runs on Android 13. Asus’s Zen UI offers a clean interface with just enough customization to make it easy to use for Android newcomers and veterans alike. The only real negative is that the company promises only two years of OS updates for the phone, which is far short of what Samsung, OnePlus and Google offer.
6. Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 FE offers much of the premium experience that defines its flagship devices, but in a more affordable package. It comes with the same One UI skin on Android 13 that you’ll find on other Samsung phones, and it adds features like Edge panels and Routines to help automate some tasks. It also has DeX mode to let you connect your S23 FE to a monitor and use Android apps in desktop-optimized windows.
The FE variant also drops the higher-resolution dual cameras from the regular S23, down to a 12MP ultrawide and 8MP 3x telephoto camera. And it uses a slightly older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which isn’t as powerful as the 8 Plus Gen 2 in most of the rest of the S23 line, according to benchmarks.
But it still has a great display, an impressively fast processor, and plenty of storage space in its 64GB model. And it’s less than half a pound heavier than the 6.1-inch S23 and weighs only a little more than the 5.7-inch Galaxy A54 5G, which is almost twice as expensive.
