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Electronics›Smartphones

The Best Smartphones

By The Consumer's Guide Research Team·Updated August 31, 2026

A phone is the one gadget you touch all day. It's your camera, your wallet, your map, your alarm clock. So the things that matter most aren't the ones printed on the spec sheet. You want a battery that gets you home, a screen you can read at a sunny bus stop, and a camera that doesn't fumble your kid's birthday candles. You also want the thing to keep getting software updates a few years out, because most of us hang onto phones longer than we plan to.

Here's the honest part: no phone nails everything. The biggest cameras come in the biggest bodies, and those are awkward one-handed. The lighter phones give up zoom range. Long battery life usually means extra thickness and weight. And the AI features every brand advertises are genuinely useful maybe twice a week — they're not a reason to upgrade on their own. Owner feedback on every flagship in this guide includes somebody who wishes the battery lasted longer. That complaint never fully goes away.

Sorting this out is harder than it should be. Storage tiers muddy comparisons, model names blur together, and some of the strongest listings are renewed units where condition varies from box to box. We leaned on manufacturer specs, published lab measurements and the themes that repeat in owner feedback to work out which trade-offs actually bite in daily use. We think that the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is the best smartphone for most people, and that the Samsung Galaxy S26+ is the one to buy if you want nearly the same phone in a body you can use one-handed.

At a glance

Product	Storage	Weight	Price
Samsung Galaxy S26 UltraTop pick	512GB	0.47 Pounds	$1,499.99
Apple iPhone 17 Pro MaxAlso great	256GB	0.51375 pounds	$1,188.95
Google Pixel 10 Pro - Unlocked SmartphoneAlso consider	128GB	0.4629707502 pounds	$799On sale
Samsung Galaxy S26+Runner-up	256GB	0.42 pounds	$899.99
Apple iPhone 17Also in lineup	256GB	0.454375 pounds	$759
OnePlus 12 Unlocked Android PhoneAlso in lineup	512GB	0.4850169764 pounds	$899
Google Pixel 10a - 30+ Hours BatteryBudget pick	128GB	0.40344593946 pounds	$424On sale
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7Also consider	256GB	0.47619848592 Pounds	$1,099.95On sale

How we picked

Camera range. We looked for a main sensor backed by a genuine ultrawide and real optical zoom, using spec sheets and published camera scoring from DXOMARK. A phone that only shoots well at one focal length didn't make the picks.

Battery and charging. We compared manufacturer endurance claims against published battery runs, including Tom's Guide's continuous video streaming test, and against what owners report. Anything that couldn't reliably clear a full day was out.

Outdoor readability. Peak brightness matters more than resolution for everyday use. We treated roughly 1,000 nits as the floor for reading a screen in direct sun, using lab measurements from RTINGS.com and published panel specs.

Update lifespan. We weighted published update commitments heavily, since they decide how long a phone stays safe to use. Google's seven-year OS and security promise is the longest on Android, and we treated it as the benchmark every other phone had to answer to.

Durability. We favored IP68 sealing and current-generation cover glass, drawing on PCMag's lab drop testing and manufacturer durability figures. For the foldable, Samsung's published hinge-cycle rating carried the weight.

Top pick

The most capable Android phone, if you can handle its size

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung's biggest flagship covers every job you'd ask a phone to do: long-range zoom, night shots that hold up, on-device AI editing, and a privacy screen that hides your notifications from the seat next to you. It's heavy and it's a lot of phone, but nothing else here does as much.

$1,499.99fromAmazon

This is the Android phone that asks you to give up the least. The camera setup covers wide, ultrawide and long zoom, so you don't have to walk closer or crop later. Nightography keeps concert shots and city streets usable after dark. Photo Assist lets you type what you want changed — remove the trash can, restore a blown-out sky — instead of digging through editing menus. Most phones make you pick two of those strengths.

The privacy display is the feature we didn't expect to care about. You can set it to kick in when notifications land, when you type a password, or inside specific apps, and the screen dims for anyone sitting beside you. On a plane or a packed train, that's genuinely useful. Owners coming from older Galaxy phones keep calling it the surprise standout, right alongside the cameras.

Samsung's flagship screens have set the bar for outdoor readability. RTINGS.com measured the previous Ultra's peak HDR brightness at 2,600 nits, well past the roughly 1,000 nits you need to read a phone in direct sun. PCMag's lab drop tests found the Corning glass on that generation survived six-foot falls onto concrete in eight of ten attempts. Neither number makes a phone unbreakable. Both explain why these hold up in a back pocket.

A 512GB configuration quietly changes how you use a phone. You stop deleting clips to make room. You stop mailing files to yourself before a trip. If you shoot a lot of video or keep years of photos on the device, this is the storage tier worth having. The S Pen tucked into the body is the other half of the pitch — it's a real notepad if you sketch or mark up documents, not a novelty you'll forget about.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's big, and there's no getting around it. At roughly half a pound it's noticeably heavier than the S26+, and one-handed typing takes adjusting to. Owners upgrading from smaller Galaxy phones tend to describe the size as something they got used to rather than something they wanted.

Battery is the other recurring gripe. Most owners get through a full day, but more than a few expected a bigger cell in a phone called Ultra, and heavy camera use drains it fast. Unlocked units also arrive with preinstalled apps you'll want to disable, which is a chore on day one.

Runner-up

Nearly the same phone, in a body you can use one-handed

Samsung Galaxy S26+

You get the same processor, the same Galaxy AI editing tools and the same wide selfie camera as the Ultra, in a lighter body that actually fits your hand. Give up the longest zoom lens and the S Pen and you'll barely notice the difference day to day.

$899.99fromAmazon

Put the two Samsungs side by side and the gap is smaller than the names suggest. Same Galaxy AI toolkit, same Photo Assist editing, same wider front camera that fits your whole group into a selfie without someone leaning in from the edge. The display is the ultra-vivid panel Samsung has been refining for a long time, and it's the reason most people never notice what they gave up.

The size is the whole point. At about 0.42 pounds and just over six inches long, this is the flagship you can hold while gripping a subway pole or carrying a toddler. The Ultra is a two-handed phone. This one isn't. If you've ever fumbled a phone reaching up for the notification shade, that difference matters more than a zoom lens you'll use twice a month.

Performance isn't the compromise either. Samsung's newest Galaxy processor runs the AI features on-device, so photo edits and smart suggestions don't need a round trip to a server. Owners upgrading from phones several generations old describe stretching to a day and a half of normal use between charges. What you'll actually see depends on brightness and how much video you watch, but the headroom is there.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You lose the Ultra's longest zoom, its privacy display and its S Pen. None of those are essential. The zoom is the one you'll miss, though, and you'll miss it at a school play or from the cheap seats at a ball game.

Base storage here is 256GB, half what the Ultra offers, and there's no card slot to fix it later. That's plenty if you mostly take photos. It isn't if you record 4K video regularly.

Budget pickOn sale

Seven years of updates and all-day battery, for much less

Google Pixel 10a - 30+ Hours Battery

Google's small Pixel runs the same AI camera tricks as its expensive siblings, holds a charge for more than 30 hours, and comes with a long update promise. It's the phone we'd buy for a teenager, a parent, or anyone who just wants something that works.

$424fromAmazonList price ~~$499~~ · Save $75 (15%)

Seven years of updates is the headline, and it should be. Google guarantees seven years of Android OS updates and seven years of security patches on its recent Pixel phones — the longest commitment any major Android maker publishes. Buy this and it'll still be getting real software support long after phones bought at the same time have gone dark. That outlasts most people's patience with a phone.

Battery is the second reason to look. Google rates it for more than 30 hours on a charge, and owner feedback lines up: full days of normal use with charge to spare. If your current phone needs a top-up before dinner, this fixes that specific frustration, and it does it without the weight of a big flagship.

The camera is a Pixel camera, which means the software does the heavy lifting. Point it at a backlit face or a dim restaurant table and it usually sorts the exposure out on its own. Camera Coach nudges you toward better framing, which helps if photography isn't your thing. Google's editing tools — the ones that erase a stranger from a beach shot or fix a blinked group photo — are the AI features Android owners say they use most.

It's also built for normal life, not a display case. There's IP68 water and dust protection, scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 7i on the front, and a 3,000-nit Actua display you can read at a picnic table in July. Nothing here is exotic. It's just the stuff that keeps a phone alive for a few years of pockets, counters and car cupholders.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You get 128GB and no card slot. If you record video or keep an offline music library, you'll be managing storage sooner than you'd like.

The chip is a step behind the Pro Pixels, and it shows in demanding games and long camera sessions. Some owners also find the camera inconsistent under mixed indoor lighting — fine for snapshots, less dependable when the shot really matters.

Also great

The video and ecosystem pick, if you're already on iPhone

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max

This is the iPhone to buy if you shoot video or live inside Apple's ecosystem, with Apple's fastest mobile chip and tight integration with Macs, iPads and Watches. This particular listing is a renewed unit, so confirm activation the day it arrives.

$1,188.95fromAmazon

If your photos, messages, watch and laptop are all Apple's, this is the phone that makes the whole set behave. Handing a call to your Mac, unlocking it as you sit down, sending a file across the room — those things just happen. Consumer Reports' owner satisfaction survey has put Apple at the top of the smartphone field, ahead of Google and Samsung, and ecosystem fit is a big part of why.

Video is where the Pro Max still separates itself. Apple's Pro phones have led mobile video for several generations, and the A-series chips post the highest multi-core scores of any mobile silicon on Geekbench. If you shoot for a channel, a small business or a family archive, that combination of stabilization, consistent color and on-device editing is the reason to buy Apple instead of Android.

This listing is a renewed unit, and that changes the math. It's guaranteed to have at least 80 percent of its original battery capacity, and it ships with a certified third-party charger and cable rather than Apple's box contents. Owners who got good units describe them as indistinguishable from new, down to the battery health reading. That's the upside of buying renewed, and it's real.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's the heaviest phone in this guide and one of the largest. If you have small hands or wear slim pockets, hold one before you commit.

The bigger risk with renewed listings is provenance. A complaint that repeats on this listing is a phone arriving still tied to a previous owner's carrier payment plan or carrier block, which stops activation cold. Check the IMEI with your carrier the day it shows up, and start a return immediately if it won't activate.

The research

Who this is for

Buy now if your current phone can't get through a day, has stopped receiving security updates, or takes photos you're tired of apologizing for. Those three problems are exactly what a new flagship fixes, and they're the reason most people upgrade. If you're coming from a phone that's three or more generations old, almost anything in this guide will feel like a jump — the screen, the camera and the battery all improved at once. If your phone still lasts until bedtime and still gets patches, sit this round out.

This guide covers unlocked phones you can bring to any major carrier, across every price tier from budget to foldable. Some of the listings here are renewed or refurbished units rather than sealed retail boxes, and we flag that where it applies, because it changes both what's in the box and what can go wrong. We don't cover carrier-locked deals, rugged or industrial handsets, or feature phones. And we don't compare monthly plans — that's a separate decision and it's usually the bigger one.

How we picked

We built the shortlist around the things people actually notice. Camera range: a real ultrawide and real optical zoom, not just a high megapixel count on the main sensor. Battery: a full day of normal use as the floor, judged against published endurance runs and owner reports rather than manufacturer optimism. Screen: roughly 1,000 nits of peak brightness or better, so you can read it outside. Updates: a published, countable commitment to OS and security patches, because that decides when the phone stops being safe to carry. Durability: IP68 sealing and current cover glass, since most phones die from a drop or a spill, not from getting slow.

Other smartphones worth considering

If you want the best point-and-shoot camera: The Google Pixel 10 Pro - Unlocked Smartphone ($799) — The Pixel 10 Pro is the phone to hand someone who wants great photos without thinking about photography. Google's Tensor G5 drives the computational work, and the pro camera system pairs 50MP stills and 8K video with 100x Pro Res Zoom for the shots you can't walk closer to. The 6.3-inch Super Actua display hits 3,300 nits, and the aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 handles daily abuse. What you give up is endurance: the most common owner complaint by far is mediocre battery life, with some also finding the fingerprint reader fussy. It also starts at 128GB, which is tight for a phone this good at video.

If you want a phone that opens into a tablet: The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 ($1,099.95) — The Galaxy Z Fold7 is the foldable that finally stops feeling like an experiment. The 8-inch inner display turns email triage, spreadsheets and split-screen work into something you'd actually choose to do on a phone, and the 6.5-inch cover screen handles quick tasks without unfolding. It runs Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy with up to 16GB of RAM, carries a 200MP main camera, and weighs 215 grams. Samsung's hinge program targets 250,000 fold cycles, which works out to decades of ordinary use. The catches: the 4,400mAh battery is modest for the screen area, this listing is a renewed unit, and a few owners report receiving phones that still needed carrier cleanup or software updates on arrival.

The competition

This is what our research surfaced, not a census of every phone on sale. A few strong models simply weren't available as unlocked listings we could evaluate, and we've left them out rather than guess. Here's what else we looked at and why it didn't make the picks.

The Apple iPhone 17 ($759) — The iPhone 17 is the sensible upgrade for anyone stuck on an iPhone 13 or older — it brings the modern camera hardware and chip down from the Pro line and keeps everything you already know about how an iPhone works. It lost to the Pro Max because it gives up the longer zoom and the video capability that make the Pro version worth the jump, and it carries the same renewed-listing risks around carrier locks. If you don't shoot video seriously and you just want a current iPhone, this is a reasonable place to land.

The OnePlus 12 Unlocked Android Phone ($899) — The OnePlus 12 remains a genuinely fast phone with a spec list that reads better than most: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, up to 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, a 2K 120Hz ProXDR display, a 5,400mAh battery and 80W wired charging that refills it in about half an hour. Owners love it, and the Hasselblad camera tuning holds up. It lost because it's a generation behind on silicon and OnePlus doesn't match Google's or Apple's update commitments, which matters most on a phone you plan to keep. Spec hunters who want maximum storage and the fastest charging here should still look.

Setup and care

Do two things the day your phone arrives. Activate it before you recycle the box: if it's a renewed unit, give your carrier the IMEI and confirm the phone isn't carrier-locked or still attached to someone else's payment plan. That's the single most common problem people hit with refurbished listings, and returning a phone is far easier in week one than in month two. Then put a case and a screen protector on it. IP68 covers rain and a dropped-in-the-sink moment, not a swim, and glass-backed phones survive drops much better with a bumper. Finally, check your update settings and turn on automatic security patches. A seven-year support promise only helps if the phone actually installs them.

Questions we get

What's the best smartphone for most people?

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, if you're happy on Android and comfortable with a large phone. It has the widest camera range here, a bright screen you can read outside, a privacy display that's more useful than it sounds, and a 512GB storage tier that means you stop deleting things. If you want the same experience in a smaller body, get the S26+ instead.

Is the Galaxy S26 Ultra worth it over the S26+?

Only if you'll use the extras. The Ultra adds the longest zoom lens, the privacy display, the S Pen and double the base storage. Everything else — the processor, the Galaxy AI tools, the wide selfie camera — is shared. If you don't shoot distant subjects or write on your screen, the S26+ gives you the same phone in a lighter body.

Which takes better photos, the iPhone 17 Pro Max or the Galaxy S26 Ultra?

For stills, the Samsung has the edge on zoom reach and low-light flexibility, and Samsung's previous Ultra set the top DXOMARK camera score at its launch. For video, Apple still leads on stabilization, color consistency and editing on the phone itself. Pick based on what you shoot more of, and on which ecosystem your other devices are in.

What's the best smartphone if you're on a tight budget?

The Google Pixel 10a. It inherits Google's camera software, runs the AI editing tools people actually use, clears 30 hours on a charge, and carries the same seven-year update promise as Google's expensive phones. The trade-offs are 128GB of storage with no card slot and a chip that struggles with heavy games.

Which brand supports its phones the longest?

Google, at seven years of OS updates and seven years of security patches on recent Pixels. Apple doesn't publish a fixed number but has historically supported iPhones for six years or more. Samsung commits to less. If you plan to keep a phone until it dies, this should weigh heavily on your choice.

Is buying a renewed phone a bad idea?

Not inherently, but it's a different purchase. Renewed units come with a guaranteed minimum battery capacity and often arrive looking new, though you usually get a third-party charger instead of the original box contents. The real risk is a phone that's still carrier-locked or tied to a previous owner's balance. Verify activation the day it arrives and return it immediately if it fails.

Why you should trust us

For this guide:

We read manufacturer spec sheets alongside published lab measurements from RTINGS.com, PCMag and Tom's Guide to compare display brightness, drop durability and battery endurance across these phones.
We compared published camera scoring from DXOMARK, benchmark results from Geekbench and AnTuTu, and the update commitments Google, Apple and Samsung publish for their current devices.
We read through owner feedback on every listing here, looking for the complaints that repeat rather than the one-offs — battery drain, carrier locks on renewed units, and preinstalled software were the themes that kept surfacing.
We read owner reviews on every listing, weighted toward the critical ones, because that is where the recurring failures show up.
We have a systematic way of automatically fetching the latest prices, so the numbers on this page stay current.
This is a research-focused guide, so the team may not own every product listed — though we often do own the top winners, which gives us extra context for the recommendations.
We don't accept free products, and the retailer commission never changes which product we recommend.