The 4 Best Android Phones

Android phones can vary widely in both price and experience, from just a couple hundred dollars to well over a thousand—and from unbelievably frustrating to unbelievably impressive. We spend hundreds of hours each year testing the latest Android smartphones, and we think the Google Pixel 6 is the best one for most people. It offers outstanding software and camera performance, and it costs much less than other high-end models. It will also receive guaranteed software updates for longer than most Android phones.

Best Android smartphone

The Pixel 6 offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed updates through fall 2026—plus the best Android camera we’ve ever tested, a custom Google processor, and excellent build quality for half as much as Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, our previous upgrade pick.

Key specifications:

Google’s Pixel smartphones have always offered the best software experience on Android, but the Pixel 6 is the first one with hardware worthy of the software. It has the best camera available on an Android, save for the Pixel 6 Pro, and Google’s fast custom Tensor processor can hold its own against high-end chips in other phones. It also gets Google’s longest update guarantee yet: five years from release. At $600, it costs hundreds less than phones that won’t last as long or perform as well.

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A more powerful Android phone

The Pixel 6 Pro takes the amazing Pixel 6 and adds a bigger, better screen and a zoom camera—and it’s still cheaper than the competition.

Key specifications:

The Google Pixel 6 Pro is similar to the Pixel 6 but adds a larger OLED screen with higher resolution and refresh rate, a bigger battery, and a 4x optical zoom camera. These improvements bump the price up to $900, so the value isn’t quite as strong as the Pixel 6. But the 6 Pro is a more capable phone, you still get the same excellent software with five years of update support, and it’s still better than the best from Samsung, OnePlus, or Motorola.

A no-compromises Android phone

A fast processor, a huge screen, and among the most impressive cameras available on an Android phone are just part of what makes the Galaxy S21 Ultra the most full-featured Android phone available. But you should only buy it if it’s on sale.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $800.

Key specifications:

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G has all the bells and whistles you could ever want in an Android phone. Its stunning 6.8-inch screen is bigger than those of all our other picks, the processor is speedy, it supports 5G on all carriers, and it has the best build quality of any Android phone, with a beefy aluminum frame that wraps around the camera module. (The rest of the back consists of durable, fingerprint-resistant matte glass.) This Galaxy phone can almost match the Pixel 6 with its collection of four useful camera lenses, including a 10x “periscope” zoom lens. The primary drawback is the phone’s high price tag—for $300 less, the Pixel 6 Pro is better at most things. The S21 Ultra is ideal if you demand maximum versatility from your phone, but you should only buy it on sale—we recommend purchasing when it’s closer to $1,000, or if you have an older Samsung phone to trade in.

A less expensive Android phone

For even less than the Pixel 6, the Pixel 5a offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed updates through August 2024—but a slight step down in performance, camera, and screen.

Key specifications:

Google’s Pixel 5a 5G is priced $150 lower than the flagship Pixel 6, but it retains almost all of what you’d expect from a high-end phone. The Pixel 5a has Google’s clean, fast version of Android 12, with three years of guaranteed updates. It also offers camera performance that’s better than what you’d get with phones that often cost twice as much. However, the Pixel 5a with 5G isn’t quite as responsive as the Samsung Galaxy S21 or the Pixel 6. It also doesn’t support wireless charging or expandable storage, and it doesn’t include a smoother, high-refresh screen. It does, however, have a headphone jack.

Best Android smartphone

The Pixel 6 offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed updates through fall 2026—plus the best Android camera we’ve ever tested, a custom Google processor, and excellent build quality for half as much as Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, our previous upgrade pick.

A more powerful Android phone

The Pixel 6 Pro takes the amazing Pixel 6 and adds a bigger, better screen and a zoom camera—and it’s still cheaper than the competition.

A no-compromises Android phone

A fast processor, a huge screen, and among the most impressive cameras available on an Android phone are just part of what makes the Galaxy S21 Ultra the most full-featured Android phone available. But you should only buy it if it’s on sale.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $800.

A less expensive Android phone

For even less than the Pixel 6, the Pixel 5a offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed updates through August 2024—but a slight step down in performance, camera, and screen.

The research

Why you should trust us

I’ve been testing Android phones for Wirecutter since 2015. I’ve also written more than a million words about Android phones, tablets, and software on websites such as Android Police, ExtremeTech, and Tested over the past decade. I’ve lived with dozens of Android phones during that time; I’ve used and reviewed more phones in the past year than most people will own in their entire lives.

How we picked and tested

We’ve tested dozens of Android phones over the past few years, and most suffer from poor software, sluggish performance, terrible design choices, or some combination of all three. Here are the criteria we use to decide which phones are worth buying:

Should you upgrade?

If you’re happy with your current phone, don’t get a new one yet. On the other hand, if you use your phone constantly throughout the day and it isn’t serving you well anymore, get a new one.

Another reason to consider an upgrade is if your current phone no longer receives software updates. All software has bugs that lead to security vulnerabilities, and if your phone isn’t getting updates, it isn’t getting fixes either. Plus, without updates, the phone won’t be able to take advantage of apps that require features present only in the latest OS.

If your phone is more than a year or two old and your biggest complaint is that the battery life sucks, consider replacing the battery before replacing the phone. Most recent phones use sealed-in batteries, but you can usually pay the manufacturer or a third-party service to replace it. Although that’s a hassle, it costs a lot less.

When it’s time to buy a new phone, we recommend choosing the best-rated, most recently released phone you can afford. We don’t recommend saving money by settling for whatever cheap phone your carrier offers. Those inexpensive phones often have some combination of substandard specs, poor build quality, a bad interface, and an outdated, crufty version of Android that will never see updates again. Chances are, you’d feel the difference in quality and usability every day, and because these cheap phones are often already a year or two old when you buy them, yours would be three or four years old by the time you pay it off—long past the last software update it would get. You’re almost always better off paying a bit more for a newer and better phone that you’ll enjoy using for at least two years. Among the major US carriers, that usually means paying somewhere between $20 and $40 per month for two years on a finance plan.

Another popular option is to buy an unlocked phone outright.¹For many of the best Android phones, however, that means paying $700 or more all at once (the Pixel 5a aside). If that’s too much for your budget, you can buy a great Android phone unlocked—which means it’ll work on any compatible carrier—for $200 to $300, or even less if you’re willing to sacrifice a few features. We cover those phones in a separate guide to the best budget Android phones.

The best Android phone: Google Pixel 6

Best Android smartphone

The Pixel 6 offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed updates through fall 2026—plus the best Android camera we’ve ever tested, a custom Google processor, and excellent build quality for half as much as Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, our previous upgrade pick.

Key specifications:

Google’s Pixel phones have always had the best Android software, but the Pixel 6 is the first phone that has the hardware to match. It has Google’s custom Tensor ARM chip, an excellent OLED screen, and the second-best smartphone camera we’ve ever tested—that crown goes to the more expensive Pixel 6 Pro. Android 12 on the Pixel 6 reaches almost iOS levels of polish, and it’ll get security updates through late 2026, a year longer than even Samsung will promise. There are phones with longer battery life or more camera lenses, but they can’t approach the Pixel 6’s value. It costs $600 unlocked, and it has all the 5G bands you’ll need for years.

The Pixel 6 is unlocked with support for all major carriers across 4G and 5G, but you should only get the unlocked version of the phone. Don’t buy directly from AT&T and Verizon. Both sell the Pixel 6 directly, but it’s more expensive due to the inclusion of millimeter wave 5G, which no one needs and you should not pay extra for.

The Pixel 6 and its larger sibling are the first phones to launch with Google’s long-awaited Tensor processor. This custom chip is as fast as the best processor in any Android phone, but it adds improved support for on-device machine learning. That means features like Google Assistant and live translations are faster and more reliable. Since the phone can handle more complex AI tasks, less of your data needs to spend time transiting to—and living on—Google’s servers. It also has more than enough graphical power to play the most advanced mobile games like Genshin Impact and Civilization 6.

Google released Android 12 earlier this year, and the Pixel 6 is the first phone to ship with the new software. Android 12 is the biggest change for the OS in years, offering customizable interface themes in the new Material You system, more stringent security, and a raft of smaller improvements. The version of Android that Google uses for Pixel phones doesn’t have as many gimmicks as you can find on a Samsung or OnePlus phone, but they all work and are easy to use. The Pixel 6 also has some exclusive features like Magic Eraser, which can remove errant people (and other obstructions) from your otherwise perfect photos.

If you want a phone that can make phone calls, the Pixel 6 is the best at that thanks to features like Call Screen to check that unknown callers aren’t scammers, Hold for Me to wait through those interminable customer service holds, and the new Direct My Call feature, which turns those labyrinthian phone trees into a visible on-screen menu. This kind of thoughtfulness and refinement is rare on Android phones, and now that I’ve used it, I’m disappointed whenever I need to place a call on another phone. Even the little things all get attention from Google, resulting in a software experience that’s smoother and just plain better compared with non-Google Android phones. The touch targets around buttons are more forgiving of poorly aimed taps, menu layouts are organized intuitively, and there’s functionally zero delay between touching the screen and seeing the response.

Google promises better update support for the 2021 Pixels than any other phone can get. You have five years of monthly security patches, which will keep the Pixel secure through at least fall 2026. Unfortunately, Google still only promises three years of OS updates. That means the Pixel 6 will get Android 13, 14, and 15. This is still the best update schedule you’ll find, but we were hoping for more.

A few of Google’s past Pixel phones have had underwhelming displays, but the Pixel 6 nails it. The 6.4-inch display stretches nearly edge to edge, with minimal borders, and animations and app movements are especially smooth. Instead of an LCD like most inexpensive phones, the OLED panel has better contrast with deeper blacks, and its 90 Hz refresh rate is what makes the on-screen motion look so smooth compared with 60 Hz versions. (The Pixel 6 Pro and S21 Ultra are 120 Hz, and Motorola’s Edge is 144 Hz.) The Pixel gets bright enough for outdoor use, but Samsung’s latest phones are a bit easier to read in bright light. We do, however, love Google’s “extra dim” feature, which makes the display less painfully bright in a dark room.

Google equipped the Pixel 6 with an entirely new camera setup housed in a brow bump across the back of the phone. There’s a 50-megapixel primary camera along with a 12-megapixel ultrawide. The color accuracy, speed, crispness, and reliability of the Pixel camera are unmatched right now. Almost every photo we’ve taken on the Pixel 6 came out looking fantastic, and the camera app makes it easy for anyone to do the same. You won’t need tedious manual controls or post-capture editing here—the Pixel camera app lets you tweak exposure and color temperature live in the viewfinder, and no other phone can lock focus on your subject as well. Google has also improved its image processing on the Pixel to more accurately show darker skin tones, which is a problem on other phones. The only missing piece is optical zoom, which is limited to the Pixel 6 Pro. Even without a telephoto zoom lens, digital zoom on the Pixel 6’s 50-megapixel primary camera works surprisingly well.

Past Pixels also had issues with battery life, but Google didn’t skimp on the battery in the Pixel 6, and we expect it to last longer than the S21 Ultra—easily a day with plenty left over. The Pixel is a bit thicker than some similarly sized smartphones because of it, but it still looks stylish with the two-tone design and multiple color options—our review unit is a fun seafoam green color with lime accents. I’m not the biggest fan of the glossy, slippery finish on the glass back, but at least the matte aluminum frame adds some grip.

It’s hard to find negative things to say about the Pixel 6, especially given the extremely competitive price. Most of the “missing” features are things we would not expect to see in a $600 phone, but the Pixel 6 is already pushing boundaries. It would have been nice to see Google include an optical zoom camera on this phone, even if it can’t match the 4x zoom of the Pixel 6 Pro.

Google’s accelerated charging speeds are also suspect. Google’s new 30-watt charger is not available yet (the phone doesn’t come with one), but the Pixel 6 tops out at just 21 watts whether you get the official charger or use a high-wattage third-party plug. That’s still faster than the 18-watt speed of past Google devices, but it’s short of phones like the OnePlus 9, which can charge at 65 watts and the S21 Ultra at 25 W. Google says this approach will extend the battery’s life.

The Pixel 6 features Google’s first-ever in-display fingerprint sensor. It uses optical technology like OnePlus rather than the more expensive ultrasonic sensors used in Samsung phones. As a result, the Pixel’s sensor is a bit on the slow side compared with the S21. Google has been working to improve this in software updates, though.

Upgrade pick: Google Pixel 6 Pro

A more powerful Android phone

The Pixel 6 Pro takes the amazing Pixel 6 and adds a bigger, better screen and a zoom camera—and it’s still cheaper than the competition.

Key specifications:

Everything that makes the smaller Pixel 6 a great phone applies to the Pixel 6 Pro. It runs Google’s excellent version of Android 12, will get the same lengthy update support, and runs on Google’s new Tensor processor. The Pro’s higher price gets you several key enhancements, including a larger 6.7-inch OLED screen that’s both sharper and smoother, and the camera adds a 4x optical zoom lens looking through the black camera visor on the back. That makes it the best camera phone we’ve ever tested. It also has every 5G band you’ll need for the foreseeable future.

Like its smaller sibling, the Pixel 6 Pro skips the latest Qualcomm chip for Google’s custom Tensor processor. The bigger phone is also blazingly responsive, taking full advantage of the 120 Hz refresh rate of the 1440p OLED to smoothly animate the screen the instant you interact with it. The Tensor chip supports enhanced AI features, processing data locally so some tasks, like Google Assistant responses, will be much faster than on other phones. It even works well in Android Auto, which is not the case on phones from Samsung, OnePlus, and others.

The Pixel 6 Pro has three camera sensors on the back instead of two. It’s got the same 50-megapixel primary and 16-megapixel ultrawide as the Pixel 6. It adds a 48 MP 4x “periscope” zoom lens to capture more distant subjects. Samsung uses a similar camera module on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, though Samsung’s phone features a more impressive 10x zoom. Still, 4x optical zoom on a Pixel combines with Google’s excellent image processing. Even if you need to zoom a little past 4x, the Pixel 6 Pro retains detail in the processed image surprisingly well. You don’t have as many options in the camera app as Samsung phones—Google doesn’t even have a full-resolution mode on the 50-megapixel primary. It only outputs 12.5-megapixel binned photos, but most other phones have the option to switch to full resolution. Still, the Pixel 6 Pro takes the best photos of any phone we’ve tested.

The 6 Pro’s only hardware drawback compared with the Pixel 6 is arguably its size. Like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, it may be ungainly even if you have large hands. It’s made of the same slippery glass as the smaller Pixel, and the metal has a smooth finish that makes it even harder to grasp, so we think you’ll want a case on this one.

Then there’s the price, which is $300 higher than the Pixel 6. Part of the blame for that rests with support for millimeter wave 5G, which is included on the Pixel 6 Pro in the US. That’s a big price jump—you still get your money’s worth, but the base model Pixel 6 is a better deal if you don’t need the larger, upgraded display, the extra camera, and additional 5G support that the 6 Pro offers.

A budget alternative: Google Pixel 5a 5G

A less expensive Android phone

For even less than the Pixel 6, the Pixel 5a offers the best version of Android, with guaranteed updates through August 2024—but a slight step down in performance, camera, and screen.

Key specifications:

The Google Pixel 5a 5G comes with the same excellent Android software as the pricier Pixels, but it costs just $450. Google’s version of Android doesn’t have any clutter or sponsored apps, and the Pixel 5a will get guaranteed updates through summer 2024. The dual-camera setup takes better photos than non-Pixels, with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and its enormous quad-camera system. The Pixel 5a lacks wireless charging, however, and its wired charging is slower than that of Samsung’s S21 series or the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The plastic-coated body is also drab and uninteresting, though a case will fix that.

The 5a is available from the Google Store, but it’s unlocked and should work out of the box on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. The 5a also has good support for 5G frequencies currently in use. But it’s missing a few future-proofing 5G frequencies that you get on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. The 5a also doesn’t have the millimeter-wave 5G—but millimeter-wave technology’s availability and reliability is so poor, we don’t recommend seeking it out even if the phone did support it.

Whether it’s adding features and extra apps or adjusting the style and branding, most phone makers customize the Android OS to some extent, almost always to the detriment of a phone’s performance. But Google’s phones avoid these problems and even add some benefits. The Android 11 operating system on the Pixel 5a includes exclusive features such as the on-device Google Assistant, which speeds things up by doing more voice processing on the phone rather than waiting for Google’s servers to do it. You can also have Google Assistant screen your calls for spam or wait on hold for you, and both features work extremely well. The Pixel 5a can even create captions for phone calls with Google’s Live Caption feature.

In addition to having software that’s great to use, the Pixel 5a should remain secure and up to date longer than most other Android phones. Google promises three years of updates, and those updates arrive quickly at the beginning of each month. You’ll also get new versions of Android soon after release, whereas other phones often wait months, if they get the new version at all. Samsung offers one additional year of security updates (four total), but those updates take longer to arrive.

Google’s streamlined software and careful optimization keep the Pixel 5a feeling responsive, but the year-old Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor isn’t as powerful or efficient as those of the OnePlus 9 or the S21 family, and you may notice that when playing 3D games or loading clunky websites and apps. The Pixel’s display is also slower to refresh—it supports just 60 Hz, while the Galaxy S21 family and OnePlus 9 support 120 Hz. That makes animations noticeably smoother on those phones.

The Pixel 5a has a 6.34-inch 1080p OLED screen, and it’s much nicer than the screens you usually see on phones around this price. It’s bright enough for outdoor use, and it offers excellent color accuracy. The 5a is not a small phone, but it has almost no bezel around its display, which keeps it a manageable size.

The Pixel 6 Pro has the best overall photography experience on Android, but the Pixel 5a is only a little worse. It has only a 12-megapixel primary lens and a 16-megapixel ultrawide lens, but Google’s amazing photo processing makes up for the older, lower-resolution sensors. Its AI-assisted digital zoom is almost as good as phones with dedicated telephoto lenses, and night mode photography bests anything other than the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.

In our tests, the Pixel 5a easily lasted two days on a single charge, even with heavy use. With light use, it might be able to survive for three days on one charge, and power-saving mode can push it further. Google usually puts smaller batteries in its phones compared with other Android manufacturers, but the Pixel 5a has plenty of capacity at 4,680 mAh. That’s just shy of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but the 5a’s battery life has no trouble besting that of Samsung’s flagship (as well as that of most other Android phones we’ve tested). The USB Type-C port supports fast charging at 18 W. This is slower than charging the OnePlus 9 (65 W) or the Galaxy S21 (25 W), but this is mainly a problem when your battery is low and you have just a few minutes to plug it in, not for people who usually charge their phones overnight.

On the back, this budget Pixel model has a fingerprint sensor that most hands should be able to reach comfortably, but finding it by touch can be hard without a case to guide you. On the top of the phone, you’ll find a headphone jack, which is absent on the Pixel 6, the Samsung Galaxy S21, and many other flagship Android phones.

Although the Pixel 5a is comfortable to hold, the “bioresin” plastic coating comes in only a strange, greenish-black color (Google calls it “Mostly Black”). It shows oils from your skin, and it’s harder to clean than glass. Google says it’s a plant-based polymer, but it feels like a cross between leather and cardboard. The internal aluminum body adds stiffness, but it also makes the phone heavier than the similarly sized Galaxy S21. We also worry how it will hold up over time: 2020’s Pixel 5 had a similar coating, which could chip when dropped.

Also great: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G

A no-compromises Android phone

A fast processor, a huge screen, and among the most impressive cameras available on an Android phone are just part of what makes the Galaxy S21 Ultra the most full-featured Android phone available. But you should only buy it if it’s on sale.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $800.

Key specifications:

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G is the best Android smartphone in Samsung’s lineup, and it’s your best bet if you’re looking for an ultra-premium, no-compromises Android experience. It has an OLED display that looks flawless in any lighting conditions, it feels better made than any other phone, it offers support for the S Pen stylus (not included), and it provides four different camera lenses that together give you more shooting options than even the Pixel 6 Pro. However, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro do take better photos most of the time. Plus, the S21 Ultra is far too large for comfortable one-handed use, and it carries a $1,200 price tag. Samsung does promise to keep this phone updated for four years, and it’s been fast to release Android 12 (just a few weeks behind Google). We don’t think anyone should pay full price for the S21 Ultra, but it often goes on sale, and Samsung offers generous trade-in deals for older phones.

Even taxing mobile games such as Fortnite and Genshin Impact run beautifully on the S21 Ultra’s Snapdragon 888 processor, and this phone has 12 GB of RAM, ensuring that you can run and swap between all the apps and services you could ever want. The screen curves very slightly on the left and right edges, but the effect is not as extreme as on past phones. This design makes the S21 Ultra easier to hold, but it’s still a massive phone next to the entry-level S21 or the Pixel 6, and it’s even heavier than the similarly sized Pixel 6 Pro.

You’ll also have to put up with Samsung’s One UI version of Android 12, but the S21 Ultra has enough power to smooth over most of the rough edges that drag the software down on less-advanced phones. You’ll find many more preloaded features here than on Google’s Pixel phones, including the DeX desktop mode, Bixby settings automation, and enhanced Link to Windows functionality. If you want what the S21 line offers, great—you won’t have to install as many third-party apps. Otherwise, it can be annoying and time-consuming to disable all the Samsung extras.

The S21 Ultra has the best display we’ve ever seen on a phone (as it should, considering the price). An enormous 6.8-inch OLED screen with a 1440×3200 resolution, the display keeps text and images sharp and detailed even if you scrutinize it up close. It offers rich, even colors whether you’re in bed at night or outside in direct sunlight—the range is even greater than the Pixel 6 Pro. You can keep the lovely “vivid” screen calibration or switch to the lifelike “natural” mode (we prefer the latter). It also has a 120 Hz refresh rate for smoother animations. Even with that gigantic display, the S21 Ultra’s battery lasts more than a day with a mix of messaging, gaming, and video; two days per charge is possible with lighter use.

Although the S21 Ultra does not come with the S Pen, the phone does support Samsung’s stylus (it’s the only non-Note phone that does). You can buy a spendy S21 case/pen combo from Samsung or just use an S Pen from a Note phone. It doesn’t have the Bluetooth S Pen features, but those aren’t very useful, and the stylus will work instantly without any setup. With the S21 Ultra’s 120 Hz screen, the S Pen no longer feels like it’s lagging behind your strokes; it’s now as fast as a powered Bluetooth stylus such as the Apple Pencil.

The S21 Ultra offers the most advanced camera hardware of any Android phone—even better than what you can get from the Pixel phones. It has a 108-megapixel primary sensor, a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens, and two telephoto zoom lenses (3x and 10x). The folded “periscope” 10x sensor is especially impressive for a phone, allowing you to take photos that aren’t even possible on a Pixel. That said, Samsung’s photo processing still isn’t as pleasing as Google’s, which produces more accurate colors and less motion blur. If you’re just pulling out your phone to take a quick snapshot, the Pixel 6 will best the S21 Ultra nine times out of 10. But if you’re shooting 4K or 8K video, taking burst shots, changing zoom levels, or using portrait mode, Samsung’s S21 Ultra is more capable.

The competition

We cover less expensive models in our guide to the best budget Android phones.

In general, we don’t recommend getting an Android phone that is more than a year old or has already been replaced by newer models. An older phone might be cheaper, but the lower price usually isn’t enough to justify the shorter window of remaining software support. Most Android phones receive about two years’ worth of reliable software support; after that, you’re lucky to have even one or two security updates per year. However, Samsung and Google are pushing updates to three or four years, depending on the phone.

The Pixel 4a and 4a 5G have been discontinued, but they might still be available at some retailers. These phones have the same excellent camera performance as the Pixel 5a, with guaranteed updates through summer 2023. The 4a’s 5.8-inch OLED display is a good option if you want a Pixel experience without the larger footprint of the 5a and don’t care about 5G, but the 4a 5G is just a worse version of the 5a. It’s worth buying only if you can find it on sale for far below the $500 retail price. The Pixel 4a was already a steal at $350, but it could also see discounts, particularly if you’re willing to purchase a refurbished model.

The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro are fast phones, both running on the latest Snapdragon 888 with ample memory and storage. But the OnePlus 9 is no longer competitive with the Pixel 6 at $600, and the 9 Pro is even more out of step with the market at as much as $1,069.

The 2021 Motorola Edge has a big LCD with long battery life, but the build quality is lacking, the camera performance is not as good as we’d expect for something with a 108 MP sensor, and it costs more than the Pixel 6.

The Asus ROG Phone 5 is a very fast phone, with gaming-oriented features such as built-in shoulder buttons, a side-mounted power port, and an ecosystem of snap-on accessories. With this phone’s high-refresh OLED display and software tools, the gaming performance is perfect. The software suffers from some bugs, however, and the device itself has a strong “gamer” aesthetic. The camera experience is also worse than that of the Pixel phones or the OnePlus 9. It costs about $1,000—not worth paying for unless you play Fortnite or PUBG Mobile for hours a day.

ZTE is trying to claw its way back in the US market with the $750 Axon 30 Ultra and $500 Axon 30. The Ultra offers two optical zoom levels in its camera setup similar to the S21 Ultra, although the camera performance isn’t as good as Samsung’s. The software is also a bit of a mess with unaddressed bugs and no firm update guarantee. The cheaper Axon 30 has an under-display camera that looks more unobtrusive than Samsung’s first attempt on the Z Fold3. However, the camera setup takes a big step down with no zoom lenses and the addition of useless macro and depth sensors.

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is almost as good as the S21 Ultra, but its only real advantage is its built-in S Pen. The primary problem is that it’s too expensive; at $1,200, it’s $100 more than the S21 Ultra. The non-Ultra Galaxy Note20 still costs $1,000, and it loses many of the features that make the Note20 Ultra one of the best Android devices available.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3, with its 7.6-inch folding OLED panel (with Samsung’s first under-display selfie camera), is undoubtedly the most capable Android phone in the world. You can run multiple apps side by side and multitask more efficiently than you can with any regular phone. However, its $1,800 price tag is far too steep for most people. It’s also huge and heavy, weighing 25% more than the Pixel 6.

Samsung’s other 2021 foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip3, is only $1,000, and it’s compact, stylish, and as fast as the Galaxy S21. You can even customize the body color with Samsung’s online tools. However, the camera setup isn’t as capable as the S21 or Pixel 6, and foldables do have long-term reliability concerns.

LG recently announced it would stop making Android phones following years of slumping sales. You can still find models such as the LG Velvet and the LG Wing for sale, but you should not purchase one. LG has made vague promises about updating some of its phones, but it wasn’t very good at rolling out updates even before it decided to shut down its mobile division.

Footnotes

Sources

About your guide

Ryan Whitwam