The best phone to buy right now

As we head into the winter months, it’s safe to say that this year’s major phone launches are behind us. These recommendations should hold until Samsung refreshes its flagship line with the Galaxy S23 series in early February. Overall, 2022 has been all about incremental updates that make for more polished devices but don’t offer a lot of incentive to upgrade.

If you bought a flagship phone within the past couple of years and you’re happy with how it’s performing, then you’re probably safe to hold off for another year. But if it’s time for a new one, you’ll find that today’s crop of top-tier devices is just a little bit better: more mature, with some minor rough edges smoothed out. 

One thing that hasn’t changed about this year’s flagship class? The high prices. For the most part, they haven’t gotten higher, which is nice, but you’re still looking at spending anywhere from $800 to well over $1,000. That’s a whole lot of money, even if you spread it out over the two- or three-year payment plans carriers usually offer. 

The phones highlighted below deliver excellent daily performance, great cameras, and will keep on running for four, five, or maybe even six years into the future. You get what you pay for — however you’re paying — so we’ll help you pick the best phone for you and make sure it’s worth it.

If you’re looking to spend a little less and still get the best smartphone on a budget, you can find something really good for under $500. For those recommendations, you can check out our guide to budget smartphones.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>1. Apple iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max

For a lot of iPhone owners, this isn’t an upgrade year, especially if you’re coming from a 12 or a 13. But if you do need a new iPhone right now and you want the very best device, then Pro is the way to go. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max usher in some new ideas from Apple that the standard 14 doesn’t get, like the “Dynamic Island,” a playful mash-up of hardware and software that turns the notch into a shape-shifting status indicator. There’s also a new high-resolution camera and an always-on display.

The iPhone 14 Pro, which starts at $999, is the very best iPhone you can buy right now. But it’s a bit of an early adopter special. There’s plenty that’s good but a lot of room for Apple to fine-tune and improve these features over the coming years. If you’re not ready to spend a thousand dollars on the first iteration of a new design, then look at last year’s iPhone 13. The standard iPhone 14 is an incremental upgrade over the 13 and doesn’t get you that much more; the 13 is still available and starts at $699. That’s our choice for most people, but the 14 Pro does have a lot to offer.

The 14 Pro comes with a 6.1-inch screen and the Pro Max has a 6.7-inch screen. They’re both ProMotion displays like last year, with adaptive refresh rates that go up to 120Hz for smooth scrolling and animations. New this year is an always-on display: when you lock your phone, the screen dims and drops into a low-power mode, with frame rates as low as 1Hz, but the clock, widgets, and wallpaper all remain visible. This means you can check the time or see if you have notifications without having to wake the display.

The display’s other new trick is, of course, Dynamic Island. Apple took the notch — the area of the screen that houses the front-facing camera and Face ID sensors — and turned it into a pill-shaped cutout that appears to expand dynamically (get it?) to show system indicators and notifications. It’s a handy place to quickly see what your phone is doing, whether it’s playing back music, sending files via AirDrop, or using navigation. It’s nice but it’s something Apple and third-party developers will keep making more useful over the next few years — definitely not something to upgrade for right now.

The 14 Pro also has a new 48-megapixel main camera, which uses pixel binning to maximize light sensitivity and produce 12-megapixel images. The real-world improvements are subtle, with more fine detail in shadows and in low light, but the differences compared to a standard 12-megapixel sensor in the iPhone 14 are hard to see unless you’re looking really closely. The higher-resolution sensor also enables a 2x telephoto mode that’s essentially a 12-megapixel crop from the middle of the sensor. It’s the new default view for portrait mode, and it’s one that feels like a happy medium between the wide and 3x telephoto that have been the only options on iPhones past.

Outside of the new stuff, there’s a lot that’s familiar. The phone’s battery gets through a moderate day of use, though it seems to run down a little faster than the 13 Pro. The camera may not be the leap forward in photography that Apple claims it is, but it’s still one of the best in the game and records stunning video clips. And the new A16 Bionic chipset handles intensive tasks like gaming without a problem. 

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>2. Google Pixel 7 Pro

The Pixel 7 Pro feels like the phone its predecessor should have been. It’s better late than never: the 7 Pro (and the 7, in its own right) is a high-quality device with good battery life, a consistently excellent camera, and great daily performance. Best of all, at $899, it costs a little less than the thousand-dollar flagships.

There’s an updated version of Google’s custom chipset on board, called Tensor G2. It’s behind some minor improvements to the phone’s intelligence and speech recognition. But mostly, it just delivers seamless performance for everyday tasks. It’s battery-efficient, too. In our testing, it was hard to push the Pixel 7 Pro into single-digit percentages by the end of the day. Most users can easily call this all-day battery life, and only very heavy users will need to recharge to get to the end of the day.

The 6.7-inch screen is very big, and with a boost in peak brightness this year, it’s comfortable to use even in direct sunlight. One of the best updates on the Pixel 7 Pro is a faster under-screen fingerprint scanner. It’s a tad faster than last year’s (sluggish) system, and it’s now joined by face unlock. It all makes for a smoother experience unlocking the phone, whether you use one or both of these methods.

The Pixel camera system is still one of the best in the game. There’s a 50-megapixel main camera — no change from last year there — and a telephoto camera, slightly boosted from 4x to 5x zoom. Google’s using a new sensor crop method to offer 2x and 10x zoom settings that don’t rely on digital zoom. The result is surprisingly good image quality; the 10x can’t quite match the true optical 10x lens on the Samsung S23 Ultra, but it’s good in a pinch. 

Most of all, the Pixel offers a consistent photography experience. While the Galaxy S22 series offers a better portrait mode, it’s harder to predict when it will go overboard with saturation and color shifts. The Pixel 7 Pro delivers photos that are a little more contrasty and cool and can lack the punchiness of Samsung and Apple’s photo processing, but you can rely on it to get good-quality shots even in very challenging circumstances.

As always, the software experience on the Pixel is among the best in Android — unsurprising given that it comes from the same company. It remains a strength, with timely updates arriving every month, three years of new OS versions guaranteed, and a healthy five-year software support policy. There are some gems among the intelligence-based software features, too, like the creepily good live transcription in the Recorder app. Other features fall a bit short of Google’s lofty claims. Magic Eraser, which tries to automatically remove distractions from the background of your images, isn’t that magical. Photo Unblur, which is new to the Pixel 7 series, is only sort of good at sharpening blurry photos. But more importantly, the Pixel 7 Pro gets the basics right — and at the right price.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>3. Apple iPhone 13

The iPhone 14 seems like the obvious choice for anyone who needs a new iPhone but doesn’t want to step up to the 14 Pro. But hear me out: the iPhone 13 does almost everything that the 14 does, and it’s $100 cheaper. Sure, if your carrier is offering you a good trade-in offer or dirt-cheap financing for the 14, or you want the (slight) year-over-year upgrades, then go ahead and get that one. It’s great! But if trade-in deal season is over or you’re paying out of pocket, we think the standard iPhone 13 is the better buy; the $799 14’s improvements are so minor that they’re not worth the extra money.

By opting for the 13, you don’t miss out on anything as far as the screen or processor is concerned. The iPhone 13 features a 6.1-inch screen with a standard refresh rate — no smooth-scrolling ProMotion here — as does the 14. There’s an A15 Bionic chipset in both phones, and although the 14’s is a slight upgrade with an extra GPU core, they both deliver excellent performance. They’re both MagSafe compatible for wireless charging and IP68-rated for robust water and dust resistance.

Upgrading to the 14 does get you a slightly better camera system, but the improvements are subtle. The ultrawide and front-facing cameras do better in low light compared to the 13, and the main camera features a bigger sensor that’s able to hold on to detail in dim conditions a little better. But for the most part, you have to go looking for these differences in fine details — most people viewing their images at web- and social-media-friendly sizes won’t see what’s changed.

You’ll miss out on a couple of emergency features, too. The 14 includes a new Crash Detection feature that uses specialized sensors to recognize when a car crash has happened and automatically call emergency services. There’s a satellite-based emergency messaging service, too, for when you’re out of cell range. For a small group of people, these services might be worth upgrading for, but they’re likely things that most of us can do without. 

From the outside, the iPhone 14 and 13 look almost identical. There are some physical differences to note, though. The first is that you can’t just use an iPhone 13 case on the 14 because the camera bump is a bit bigger. And below the glass and aluminum surface of the iPhone 14, Apple made some changes that enable much easier repairs to the back panel. That means out-of-pocket repairs will likely cost less, and if you’re a DIYer, it’s a much less daunting task to take on yourself.

There are a handful of other interesting new iPhone features this year, but they’re reserved for the Pro models. If you consider yourself an early adopter or you just want the best iPhone you can buy right now, it’s worth stepping up to the Pro. But if you’re just looking for a reliable device to get you through your day, take great photos and video, and keep the blue-bubble chat a-flowin’, then the iPhone 13 will serve you just as well as the 14 — for a little less money.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>4. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

The “Ultra” moniker in Samsung’s Galaxy lineup no longer means you’re just getting the biggest phone; now, it means you’re getting the biggest phone and everything but the kitchen sink. The S22 Ultra offers no fewer than five cameras, a huge, bright 6.8-inch OLED with up to a 120Hz refresh rate, and, oh yeah, a built-in stylus. It’s the successor to the Note series, but more than that, it feels like the endgame of slab-style smartphone development. Related: it costs a steep $1,200.

At the heart of the S22 Ultra is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset paired with 8 or 12GB of RAM. Performance is, not surprisingly, excellent; you’ll rarely see the phone stutter or hesitate, even while running graphics-intensive games. Samsung is also promising up to four generations of OS version upgrades, so the Ultra should remain a very good phone for years to come.

The included S Pen stylus pops out of a dedicated silo on the bottom of the phone, and Samsung says it’s been improved with lower latency than the S Pens of previous years. It’s hard to judge a few milliseconds of improvement, but it’s certainly responsive and easy to use. You can go deep into the stylus features with handwriting-to-text recognition options and slightly gimmicky “Air Actions” that turn the stylus into a magic wand / remote control combo. Or you can just scribble notes to your heart’s content or ignore the stylus entirely. The choice is yours.

The cameras are largely the same as the S21 Ultra’s, including a 108-megapixel main camera accompanied by 3x and 10x telephoto lenses plus a couple of software-based improvements. The Ultra’s portrait mode photos are some of the best in the game, with excellent subject isolation, and you can use night mode with high-res mode or portrait mode now. But the bottom line is that the solid camera system the S21 Ultra offered is still just as good here, and 10x telephoto is about the best you’ll find on any smartphone, anywhere.

With so many power-hungry features, the S22 Ultra’s battery life is a bit lackluster. It will last a day of moderate use with a little in the tank, but power users may need to keep an eye on battery percentage and top off the 5,000mAh cell toward the end of the day. Fast 45W wired charging makes this a quick job, though. 

If you know the stylus life is for you and you’d use a 10x zoom regularly, rather than a handful of times out of curiosity, then look no further than the S22 Ultra. Its specialty features are somewhat niche — if powerful — which is why it’s not our overall pick for the best mainstream Android phone. But if you’re looking for a phone that can do just about anything, the S22 Ultra is in a league of its own.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>5. Apple iPhone 13 Mini

The iPhone 13 Mini is one of very few small phones on the market with top-tier features and specs; you don’t have to compromise on performance, build quality, or cameras. Apple didn’t announce a new Mini with the 14 series, instead opting for a big-and-bigger approach with the 6.1-inch 14 and 6.7-inch 14 Plus. The 13 Mini is likely your last shot at a small, highly functional iPhone, so get it while you can.

Though it’s much smaller in size than pretty much every other modern smartphone, the Mini’s 5.4-inch screen is still big enough for text messaging, email, web browsing, apps, video, and games, and if you’re coming from an iPhone 6, 7, or 8, it will feel quite spacious. But it’s also small enough that most adults, even those with small hands, will be able to comfortably reach all of the screen with their thumb. You won’t need a PopSocket on this one.

One important downside to a smaller phone: the iPhone 13 Mini has a smaller battery that probably won’t last a power user through a whole day without a charge. It’s really designed for someone who isn’t glued to their phone all day. Otherwise, the Mini is the same phone as the iPhone 13: it has the same design, processor, cameras, 5G support, and build quality as the larger model. It’s just smaller and has a smaller price tag — about $100 less. 

If you prefer Android, the Asus Zenfone 9 is a good alternative. It’s a little bigger than the 13 Mini, with a 5.9-inch screen, and it doesn’t work on Verizon, but it’s otherwise a very similar proposition: great build quality, top-notch processor, and high-end features like a 120Hz screen are all tucked into a pocket-friendly device.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>6. Google Pixel 6A

The Pixel 6A follows the same budget phone recipe Google has used for years: deliver core Google features in a stripped-down device with just the basics. In previous years, that meant getting the same camera system as the flagships. That recipe changed slightly with the 6A. Now, you get the same Tensor custom chipset as the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro but an older camera system. It’s a recipe that works: the Pixel 6A is a great all-around budget device, and even without the latest hardware, it still offers one of the best cameras in its class. And although its processor is one generation behind the very newest Pixel phones, you’re not missing out on much in terms of new features, and performance is still top-notch.

The 6A includes a 1080p 6.1-inch screen with a standard 60Hz refresh rate, and this is one area where Google made a sacrifice to hit a lower price point. The 6 and 6 Pro feature faster refresh rate screens, and you’ll even find other budget phones with faster refresh rates, like the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G. This is only something you’ll miss if you’re coming from a phone with a high refresh rate screen, so don’t worry about it if your current phone has a regular ol’ 60Hz display. There’s also no wireless charging, and it’s rated IP67, so water resistance isn’t quite as robust as on the Pixel 6.

The cameras are a step behind Google’s current flagships, but the stabilized main 12-megapixel camera and 12-megapixel ultrawide are still highly capable — especially compared to the rest of the midrange class. Google’s image processing is smart, and Tensor enables some interesting software features, like Face Unblur, which uses information from both rear cameras to keep human photo subjects looking sharp, even in dim lighting. 

Most of all, Tensor puts the Pixel 6A’s day-to-day performance on par with the 6 and 6 Pro. And it should keep up for a long time: the phone will get security updates through July 2027. Sure, the 6A misses out on a few nice things, but it’s got it where it counts.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>7. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

When the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is flipped open, you get a big 6.7-inch screen that handles just like the slab-style smartphone you’re used to. But fold it in half, like the flip phones of yore, and you can use its small outer screen to see basic widgets and read notifications. It’s unconventional, but it’s also fun and kinda stylish. It’s a great choice if you’re feeling a little bit adventurous — it’s still the early days for this form factor — and you’d appreciate a way to quickly check info on your phone without having to fully engage with it. 

The Flip 4 is the definition of an incremental upgrade, but when you’re talking about a phone that folds in half, that’s still a pretty impressive achievement. It’s the same basic size and shape as the Flip 3, with a slightly slimmer hinge and some squared-off corners. It’s still IPX8 water resistant (no dust resistance, so please don’t take it to the beach) and the cover screen is still a tiny 1.9 inches — big enough to read an email subject line or check the current weather but not big enough to do much more than that.

The inner screen is protected by stronger ultrathin glass than the Flip 3. There’s a non-user-replaceable screen protector in place, as there was on the previous model, but the adhesive that attaches it is stronger this time around. That will hopefully avoid the bubbling problem seen by some owners of previous-gen foldables. 

The Flip 4’s cameras are mostly the same as the Flip 3’s, and they’re still a bit behind what you’d expect from your garden-variety flagship phone. There’s a 12-megapixel main camera with slightly bigger pixels than the last one, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel selfie camera. Most other phones priced at $999 will throw in a telephoto lens of some kind, but not the Z Flip 4. Still, it’s a lot of fun taking pictures and recording videos in the phone’s L-shaped Flex mode. (Just try and name another phone that comes with its own built-in kickstand.)

If you’re a Flip 3 owner, there’s nothing about the Flip 4 worth upgrading for. In fact, many of the new software-based features introduced with the 4 are already making their way to the 3. And there are still plenty of ways Samsung could improve on its design: making it slimmer, more durable, and increasing the size of the cover screen, for a start. The Flip 4 offers some valuable refinements over the 3 that make it feel like a more mature product and less of a concept. There are likely significant improvements coming down the line for the Flip series, but right now, it’s undeniably fun and different.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>8. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

The Fold 4 is Samsung’s latest folding phone, and it is a pricey multitasking powerhouse — a phone and a tablet wrapped up in one device. Like the Fold 3 before it, it’s sized like a skinny smartphone that fits in your pocket, but it unfolds to reveal a tablet-sized 7.6-inch display on the inside.

That inside screen makes everything from reading books and browsing the web to watching videos and playing games more enjoyable and immersive. When you’re done using it, just fold it back up and stick it in your pocket just like any other phone. You can use the 6.2-inch outer screen for simpler tasks like you would on a slab-style smartphone, but the big screen is there when you need it. The Fold 4 is undeniably a gadget person’s gadget, best suited for someone who wants to get the absolute most out of their mobile device, cost be damned. 

The Fold 4’s outer screen looks and handles like any other slab-style smartphone screen; unfold the device and you’re looking at something quite different. For starters, there’s a non-user-replaceable screen protector glued to the inner display to protect against scratches — the ultrathin glass that allows it to fold is easily damaged without it. The whole device is IPX8-rated, meaning it offers robust water resistance but no dust resistance. Folding phones: not recommended for the beach.

On the software side, the Fold 4 provides a lot of ways to get the most out of that big screen. There are new multitasking interface options that make it easy to open apps in multiple windows or use it in an L-shape like a laptop. These features are already becoming available to the Fold 3, so nobody should run out and upgrade from last year’s folding phone just for the software improvements.

The Galaxy Fold 4 is just brimming with cameras, including a 3x telephoto zoom lens, upgraded from a 2x zoom on the outgoing model. There are also 12-megapixel standard wide and ultrawide cameras on the rear panel plus a 10-megapixel selfie camera on the outside and a 4-megapixel under-display camera on the inside. Image quality is on par with the S22 and S22 Plus, including a great portrait mode. You’d get a more powerful set of cameras on the significantly less expensive S22 Ultra, but the Ultra doesn’t fold in half.

The Fold 4 has evolved beyond the early hardware hiccups of the first Fold phones in the series, and it’s a device you could actually use as your daily driver — not just as a cool gadget that stays at home. The refinements over the Fold 3 are minor, like slightly wider aspect ratios on the screens and better adhesive on the non-user-replaceable inner screen protector, but they push the Fold a little closer to the mainstream. With apologies to the also-ran Microsoft Surface Duo 2, there’s just nothing else like it on the market — if you’re willing to pay the very high $1,800 premium.

a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin [&>a]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-highlight-franklin dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-white md:text-30″>9. OnePlus 10T

The 10T feels like OnePlus coming back to its premium-hardware-at-midrange-price roots. It’s a $649 phone with Qualcomm’s very latest mobile processor, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, with a side of extremely fast wired charging. That’s its whole deal: top-tier performance and unreal charging speeds, all for less than $700.

The 10T includes a nice screen, too: a big 6.7-inch display with a top 120Hz refresh rate. But you can’t have everything on a sub-$700 phone, and the 10T lacks a few things you’ll find on the slightly pricier flagships. That list includes wireless charging and a robust water resistance rating (it’s IP54 only). Camera quality isn’t quite up there with the best, either. It can be inconsistent, though photos in good lighting generally look fine.

Wired charging is exactly as advertised: fast as heck. In the US, it’s capable of 125W charging, and you need to use the included USB-C cable and brick. With them, you’ll see the phone charge from zero to 30 percent in under five minutes. In 10 minutes it will charge up to 60 percent, and a full charge takes about 20 minutes. It’s downright impressive.

The 10T isn’t for everyone, and that actually makes it a better phone. If you want a great all-arounder, then the 10T isn’t it. You can get a device with better water resistance, a better camera system, and maybe even wireless charging for around the same price. But if you want top-tier performance for a midtier price, then the OnePlus 10T is the way to go.