Best Phone 2023: The 10 Best Smartphones You Can Buy

The Pixel 7 Professional was already a wonderful smartphone, however the Pixel 8 Professional takes issues to the subsequent degree.

Not solely does the Tensor G3 chip increase efficiency, it permits a spread of genuinely helpful software program options. Many of those enhance the images expertise, the place Google’s superior processing and succesful lenses ship constantly wonderful pictures.

Android 14 on the Pixel is the cleanest and most intuitive software program on any smartphone, and it’ll now be supported by Google for an unimaginable seven years. Add in an expensive, premium construct and value that also undercuts the top-tier flagships, and the Pixel 8 Professional is an outstanding smartphone.

Nevertheless, it’s not all excellent news. The battery life and charging might nonetheless do with enchancment, whereas the massive, heavy design gained’t swimsuit everybody.

If the latter is a matter for you, the regular Pixel 8 is a better bet. But there are a few other differences between them.

The 200Mp main camera is outstanding, particularly if you like slightly saturated colours that pop more than they do in real life. That’s not to say they look artificial though – the quality is superb with the versatility of an ultrawide and two separate 3x and 10 optical telephoto lenses that are all excellent. It;s a shame the selife camera is terrible in low light.

The Google Pixel 7a takes all the best parts of 2022’s Pixel 6a – great camera, solid performance, several years of software support – and improves it with a better 90Hz screen and more premium design.

It’s a little more expensive at $499/£449/€509, but this is still one of the best value phones you can buy considering you really don’t lose much for this price compared to the $899/£849/€899 Pixel 7 Pro. With a smaller 6.1in display, the Pixel 7a is also much easier to use and pocket than many of the larger phones on this list, plus it has the same Tensor G2 chipset as the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.

The 64Mp main camera is truly exceptional. There is no better phone camera for still images at this price, and barely any better at any price. You can also buy the phone in playful blue and coral colours, or stick to white or black if you prefer.

The charging is very slow, and the added wireless charging was unreliable in our testing. But if you want an Android phone with five years of software support that’s a good all-rounder with an incredible camera – here you go.

OnePlus has nailed the balance with the OnePlus 11, bringing a fully-featured premium smartphone for an outstanding price. At $699/£729/€849, the only things it noticeably misses out on are wireless charging and full waterproofing (we are more annoyed about the latter than the former).

If you can forgo those nice-to-haves then you’ll find yourself with a phone that has everything else you could want: amazingly fast performance, an excellent display, strong cameras including a very good main 50Mp lens, and four years of Android updates and five of security updates. That’s only matched in the Android world by Samsung and Fairphone (iPhones get the longest software support at more than five years).

The OnePlus 11 is also a slim and svelte phone despite its 6.7in screen, which isn’t the case with other huge phones. You can go for the green glossy model or the black version that has a matt, almost-silk like finish to the back glass. It means it gets zero fingerprints, but it’s one of the slipperiest phones out there.

So long as you don’t mind the slight laboured newer version of OxygenOS that often changes Android for change sake, then this is a great phone at a price that ensures you’ll get your money’s worth if you can make it last five years.

If you’re looking for a foldable, consider the OnePlus Open.

There are two upgrades that make the regular iPhone 15 instantly better than 2022’s iPhone 14. The introduction of USB-C makes the device more versatile, allowing you to easily connect a range of different accessories.

And then there’s the Dynamic Island, the pill-shaped cut-out used to display a variety of useful information – it was previously exclusive to Pro models.

The iPhone 15 is very similar in other areas, but that’s usually not a bad thing. The A16 Bionic chip delivers small boosts to performance and power efficiency, with the latter helping deliver solid batter life.

With slick iOS software and a premium build, it’s the best value iPhone 15 model you can buy. But if a higher refresh rate display or fast charging are important to you, you’ll be better off elsewhere.

Even though it has minimal upgrades to previous Z Flips, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the best folding phone you can buy thanks to its winning combination of price, design, features, and software support.

At $999/£1,049, it’s priced to compete with ‘regular’ phones, and its inner display is the same size as those rivals, except this one folds in half so it’s smaller in your pocket. The Z Flip 5 also now folds completely flat, and has a larger outer screen so you can check the time, notifications, and even whole apps without unfolding it.

This is slightly contradictory given you can just unfold the phone, and the attraction of that is you are less tempted to look at your phone the whole time. But on pure gadget terms, having two screens is irresistibly fun. You can just about have fun with all day battery life too, but if you’re always on your phone you’ll creep into the red before bed. Charging is annoyingly slow at 25W, with no charger in the box.

Samsung’s five years of software support, with four years of Android updates, is still very impressive. And the One UI software features for this folding design are excellent, such as turning it into a tripod for taking hands-free photos – but you can get better smartphone cameras for this price if you get a phone that doesn’t fold.

If you prefer a book-style Samsung foldable, go for the Galaxy Z Fold 5.

Samsung isn’t all about flagship phones and foldables – the company also makes some very good budget handsets. And the $179/£150 Galaxy A14 is the best evidence of this.

While not quite S23-level, the design is certainly inspired by Samsung’s flagships, and it looks almost as good. The 5000mAh battery also delivers excellent battery life, although that’s due in part to a basic 6.6in Full HD 60Hz panel.

Performance and cameras are the obvious downgrades compared to more expensive phones, but MediaTek’s Helio G80 chipset is still fine for everyday usage. And in good lighting, you’ll still be able to get good photos from the 50Mp main rear lens

Samsung’s One UI is also a big reason to buy the Galaxy A14 over rivals – it’s slick and intuitive. Slow charging and no 5G are the other main compromise, but this is still a great budget buy.

If you really want 5G, the Galaxy A14 5G is also available for $199.99/£219.99, but it’s not just the connectivity that’s different there.

The Galaxy S23 Plus is a great choice if you don’t want a truly enormous Samsung phone with a pen (S23 Ultra) but do want a decent size display, top battery life and an excellent five years of software support.

We found the phone performed excellently in testing and comes equipped with three capable rear camera lenses without the bulk of other triple-camera phones out there. The design is a little plain, sure, but once you’ve got it in a case then you won’t mind anyway. The software takes more tweaking to get it to your liking compared to Pixel phones, but Samsung’s OneUI is more customisable than Google’s version of Android.

The phone feels premium in aluminium and glass, the display is truly excellent with good outdoor visibility and if all this seems great apart from it being to big for you then fear not – there’s also a regular Galaxy S23 that has a smaller display.

We’ll say it up top – this phone would be higher in this chart if Xiaomi’s MIUI software was better and more pleasant to use than it currently is. It’s a shame, because the Xiaomi 13 Pro has some of the most accomplished hardware in the smartphone world.

It’s one of the first phones you can buy outside of China that has a 1in camera sensor, tech that is hotly tipped to level-up smartphone cameras in the next couple of years, but Xiaomi got there early doors. In our testing, the larger sensor area takes in more light, resulting in sensational low light photography and a level of detail not found on smaller sensors. Throw in a capable 50Mp telephoto sensor and a 50Mp ultrawide and you’ve got a great set up, despite the large camera bump.

The phone runs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, powering through every task with ease, and it has great battery life to boot. It’s also worth considering the more expensive Xiaomi 13 Ultra, but that’s overkill for most people/

Now, if it weren’t for that pesky software…