Choosing the right phone for you really depends on what features top your checklist. Is this the biggest screen? Or perhaps you need the most powerful chipset with a CPU that can handle any intensive apps or workflows you throw at it? Are you a mobile gamer who needs a powerful GPU? Maybe you need more cameras or the best cameras with image quality that is as good as mirrorless cameras. Or, perhaps, you’re an early adopter and want the best AI features.
It can all be overwhelming, but it’s also really great—there are so many options. And importantly, phones are now priced at every level from budget to premium, which only means there really is a device for everyone.
Android or iPhone?
In an ideal world, there would be no monopoly for phone software. But that’s our reality, so before you narrow down your features checklist, you’ll have to choose between Android or iOS. The latter means you can only get one iPhone, and you have to stay within the constraints of Apple’s “walled garden.” Apple makes rules about what you can and can’t do with your iPhone, and even regulates the App Store to allow only “approved” apps. If you’re the type of person who wants to customize your software to your liking or install apps from sources outside the Google Play Store, going with Android gives you more flexibility.
You may also want to look into long-term software support. While Google and Samsung have committed to seven years of software and security updates, not all Android phone makers offer the same. Apple has committed to only five years of security updates for iPhones. For major software updates, this could be anywhere between five to eight years, depending on previous calculations.
Best Android Phone: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
There’s no denying that some Android phones have better cameras, bigger batteries or brighter screens, but it feels like overall Is everything in the package? Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is still king. The flagship Android phone has a large and high-resolution 6.9-inch screen with An anti-reflective coating that reduces glare. The 5,000mAh battery lasts a whole day with heavy use or about two days with a more normal load. And One UI 8 is smooth and responsive thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip; In particular, 3D games run like a champ.
And although the cameras may be better than phones from Oppo and Xiaomi which have larger sensors and better image processing, the 200-megapixel main camera can still take some pretty good pictures and 4K video (or 8K if you’re okay with 30 fps).
But what takes the Galaxy S25 Ultra over the top and actually earns it the “Ultra” nickname is the fact that it’s one of the last remaining phones with a built-in S Pen – flagship or not. Read more –raymond wong
Check out the Galaxy S25 Ultra on Samsung
Best iPhone: iPhone 17 Pro/17 Pro Max
Apple pulled out all the stops to make the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max truly pro-level iPhones. Instead of being thinner, the iPhone 17 Pros are slightly thicker and heavier than the iPhone 16 Pros they replace. That extra space allowed Apple to cram more of everything into the aluminum frames, which eventually come in vibrant colors like Cosmic Orange.
The iPhone 17 Pros have the longest battery life of any iPhone, a 4x telephoto lens that can also zoom up to 8x while maintaining “optical quality” and class-leading performance from its powerful A19 Pro chip. iOS 26 not only runs responsively, but apps for video editing and 3D gaming that can really push CPU and GPU cores to their limits maintain Their performance is due to a super-thin vapor chamber that protects iPhones from overheating and throttling. Read more –raymond wong
Check out the iPhone 17 series on Apple
Check out the iPhone 17 series at Best Buy
Best budget phone: Google Pixel 9a
Google’s A-series Pixel phones retain the title of our pick for the best budget phones of 2025. This time, that honor goes to the Pixel 9a. For the same $500, the Pixel 9a offers a slightly larger 6.3-inch 120Hz screen that’s even brighter than last year’s Pixel 8a, a faster Tensor G4 chip to handle Gemini and AI tasks, and a larger 5,100mAh battery.
Sure, the Pixel 8a has a 48-megapixel camera downgrade compared to the 64-megapixel camera shooter, but if you’re only posting to places like Instagram and TikTok you’ll be hard-pressed to really tell the difference in image quality. This is because although the camera sensor is technically smaller, it actually has a larger aperture, which helps it capture better in low light conditions.
You get a lot in Pixel 9a. Unless you’ll be using many of the Gemini features like Magic Q in the Pixel 10 series, there’s no reason to bring it to Google’s latest models. Read more –raymond wong
Check out the Pixel 9a on Amazon
Best big phone: Xiaomi 17 Pro Max
If you really think about it, every phone is big now. It’s just a matter of deciding How Big you can live with. We were ready to crown Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra the winner of the “Best Large Phone” category, but then Xiaomi came out of left field with the Xiaomi Mi 17 Pro Max.
Yes, Xiaomi is shameless in copying the naming convention of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but its 6.9-inch Android phone has a unique screen built into the camera bump. We’ve seen phone makers put second screens on the back of their phones, but the 2.9-inch screen on the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max looks the best while still offering a lot of utility. You can use it as a viewfinder to frame selfie photos, show notifications, display the clock, or access widgets.
On the inside, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is also a proper flagship phone. It has the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, up to 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a 7,500mAh battery that supports 100W wired charging (and 50W wireless charging and 22.5W reverse wireless charging). The cameras are also respectable, with 50 megapixels for the main, ultrawide and 5x telephoto. The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max also runs the latest Android 16 (with Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3).
Like many Chinese phones, the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max is only sold in China (at the time of this writing). Still, innovation is innovation, and Xiaomi deserves praise for working so hard and tempting the rest of the world with what we don’t have. ,raymond wong
Best small phone: iPhone 16e
There are few really small phones (read: smaller than six inches) being sold these days, so there’s little choice. Our pick for the best small phone of 2025 is the iPhone 16e. Its 6.1-inch OLED screen makes it worth a lot.
The iPhone 16e may not have the most up-to-date specs, but we’ve found that it can hold its own against many feature-packed midrange phones. At the heart of the iPhone 16e is Apple’s A18 chip, which isn’t a slouch and should be able to handle at least three years of iOS software updates before things start feeling sluggish. The 48-megapixel camera, while only single-lens, Is A 2-in-1 shooter. You also get 1x photos from the sensor and 2x zoom with “optical quality”.
The only major downside is that the phone doesn’t have MagSafe wireless charging, only Qi wireless charging. Still, if you want something that doesn’t feel like a brick in your pants, the iPhone 16e is the one for you. Read more –raymond wong
Best book-style foldable phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
If you can get over the fact that Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 costs $2,000, you’ll get a book-style foldable that’s polished to near-perfection. We can’t stop admiring the Z Fold 7 mainly because it feels almost unreal every time we fold and unfold it. Samsung removed the fat until the foldable is as thin and light as its flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra.
There are some tradeoffs – the battery could last longer and the triple-lens camera system on the rear isn’t quite flagship-level compared to the S25 Ultra – but that’s typical of almost every foldable of this kind. Most importantly, the form factor finally feels refined, and that’s the case here too. The Z Fold 7 looks and feels like a regular bar-style phone when folded and the internal folding screen is more spacious than the previous model with a larger and wider aspect ratio. Multitasking works really well and even the Samsung Galaxy AI and Gemini features aren’t overdone. Samsung took the Z Fold 7 out of the market this year. Read more –raymond wong
Check out the Galaxy Z Fold 7 on Amazon
Check out the Galaxy Z Fold 7 on Samsung.com
Best flip-style foldable: Motorola Razr Ultra
We have to hand it to the Motorola Razr Ultra: The flip-style foldable was way ahead of the curve. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a solid option, but for the most part, the Razer Ultra beats everyone out by throwing more hardware at the wall.
The 7-inch folding screen is larger than that of Z Flip 7, the battery is larger at 4,700mAh, both are the main And The ultrawide camera has 50 megapixels, and the chipset (Snapdragon 8 Elite) and RAM (16GB) lap Samsung’s flip-style foldable.
Even the software—Android with some Motorola customizations—is neat. Not everyone will find the “Moto AI” key useful for activating certain AI functions, but the AI integrated into the software is, at least, not obtrusive. Prices for flip-style foldables still need to come down significantly before they become mainstream, but if you’re looking for a phone that folds into a more compact form factor, the Razer Ultra is our top pick this year. Read more –raymond wong
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