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The best budget, mid-range, and high-end Android phones.
The seemingly endless variety of Android phones can be overwhelming, so we’re here to help narrow your search. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is our top pick running on the mobile OS, but we’ve tested and researched alternatives from high-powered options to budget models.
2023: Best Android Phones You Should Buy At Any Shop
Jump to a detailed look at the best Android phones or check the list below:
Not all the best smartphones require you to spend a fortune, but if you’re willing to drop some dough, some of the features on these phones will blow you away. Many pricier flagship models offer stunning cameras or enough processing power and a high refresh rate to cruise through games. Alternatively, all our mid-range and cheaper options are still perfectly capable of completing everyday tasks—and taking decent pictures. Take a look at our six favorites.
The Best Android Phone
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
Fold this phone open to reveal a large 7.6-inch display that also has excellent cameras and a powerful processor to chew through all your tasks.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a slight twist on the traditional flip phone, so rather than flipping it up, you open it like a book to reveal a beautiful 7.6-inch display, meaning you get a little tablet that’ll fold neatly in your pocket. When closed, you still get a 6.2-inch screen to play around with, and sleek design changes from the Galaxy Z Fold 4 bring a thinner, lighter phone alongside a new hinge allowing it to fold flat with no gap to help with longevity.
If you’re worried about the quality of that large internal display, the stunning QHD+ AMOLED panel gets plenty bright, hitting up to 1,750 nits, and you’ll enjoy silky, smooth frames thanks to a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. But, there’s still a crease where the phone folds. Similar to other Samsung flagships, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 packs stunning cameras that capture insane detail and offer incredible zoom. Powering it all is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and 12GB of RAM, so this device shouldn’t have a problem chewing through all your tasks and games.
- Google Pixel 7a
A slightly cheaper and toned-down version of the Pixel 7, the Pixel 7a offers the same powerful processor, impressive AI features, and decent cameras.
Want a new phone with most of the bells and whistles of a flagship device but not the high price tag? The Google Pixel 7a is the budget smartphone for you. For $499, a $50 price hike from last year’s Pixel 6a at launch, you get a Google Tensor G2 processor. That’s the same chip found in the pricier Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7, and when you add in the 8GB RAM, there’s plenty of oomph to cruise through games and open multiple apps at once.
The Pixel 7a rocks a bright 6.1-inch OLED display with a solid 90Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling, streaming, and gaming. You also get a 64MP main camera, which has more pixels than the flagship models, though the sensor is smaller. It still takes photos and videos that won’t disappoint. However, the 4,385mAh battery isn’t the best but should last all day with light to moderate use. Topping the phone up is also simple, thanks to wireless charging support.
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
A big 6.8-inch AMOLED screen on a phone packing in a processor with enough brawn to run multiple apps, edit videos, game, and power the stunning cameras.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra shines as an everyday phone with great software, a long battery life, and bordering-on professional cameras. But it’s also packing everything needed to be a true gaming phone champion. Under the hood is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip designed for Samsung Galaxy devices, letting it hit a slightly higher clock speed than other phones with that processor. When you combine that with 8GB of RAM, the phone won’t break a sweat running even the most intensive games at top settings, ensuring zero performance drops.
Your gaming experience will be enhanced further by the stunning, bright, and big 6.8-inch Super AMOLED display. The screen hits a wild 1,750 nits with vivid, accurate colors for easy, enjoyable viewing from just about anywhere. A speedy 120Hz refresh rate keeps graphics smooth, but the display can drop to 1Hz for battery conservation. It even has a stylus slotted inside, making it easy to jot down notes or sketch.
- OnePlus 11
With a powerful processor, a large QHD+ AMOLED display, and a long battery life, this mid-range flagship is a true gem.
The Android phone market is saturated by Samsung and Google, so for something a little less mainstream, the OnePlus 11 is a niche option to go with. Similar to other flagship Android phones, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor is running the show. When you pair that with the 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, you’ll have snappy performance whether you’re playing games, searching the web, or recording video. Also under the hood is a capacious 5,000 mAh battery for all-day usage. But if you forget to charge overnight or run low on juice during the day, an 80W SuperVOOC charger charges from zero in about 27 minutes.
The OnePlus 11 offers a 6.7-inch, QHD+ AMOLED display that provides plenty of screen real estate for gaming streaming, doom scrolling, and video editing. An adaptive refresh rate from 1Hz up to 120Hz ensures the smoothest experience when you need it and battery savings when you don’t. Combining that stunning, vibrant display and performance prowess with a refined design, elegant software, and a superior camera system, the OnePlus11 is hard to beat mid-range phone option.
- Google Pixel 7 Pro
Enjoy a sharp, bright display with a 120Hz variable refresh rate and an impressive triple camera system on a phone ready to take on all your everyday tasks and gaming.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro might only be a yearly upgrade over the Pixel 6 Pro, but it adds plenty of polish to an already great phone. The phone runs on the newest Android 13, which allows you to customize your phone more than ever before. Its also powered by Google’s second-gen Tensor G2 chip, which runs the new software and AI-powered features more quicker and securely. This phone really stands out with its ability to quickly take Night Sight photos, perfectly transcribe almost anything you tell it, and live translation of foreign language in both speech and text
Of course this phone offers stunning camera capabilities. The telephoto camera is particularly special thanks to it’s 48MP sensor and 5x optical zoom lens. What’s more, Super Res Zoom gives you surprisingly clear photos up to 10x magnification and you can zoom up to 30x. It also has a 50MP wide-angle and 12MP ultrawide cameras so you can shoot to your heart’s content. If you notice any fuzzy frames after your done, deblur does a spectacular job of sharpening things. The camera, refined design, and reasonable price makes the Google Pixel 7 Pro our top choice. There only real flaw is the face-unlock only work in bright and well lit environments.
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
This modern twist on a flip phone delivers a very pocketable device with a 3.4-inch front touch display that you can flip open to reveal a larger 6.7-inch touchscreen.
See it on Best Buy
Looking to take it back to the aughts when flip phones reigned supreme? The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 brings back the familiar foldable, albeit with a much more modern take. When the device is folded, you can play around with a 3.4-inch touchscreen that’ll display notifications and widgets for easy access, but once you flip it open, you’ll be greeted by a good-sized 6.7-inch HD AMOLED touchscreen. Samsung has done away with the gap, so the phone folds flat, and at only 0.59 inches thick when closed, it’s perfectly pocketable.
Just because it’s compact doesn’t mean the phone is underpowered, as it’s running on the latest silicon from Qualcomm, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 paired with 8GB of RAM. That should be enough oomph to run almost any app and handle some mobile gaming, especially considering the screen’s silky 120Hz refresh rate. Add in a long-lasting 3,700mAh battery and decent cameras—though they’re not on the level of Galaxy Z Fold 5—and you’ve got a solid device that blows the flip phones of yesteryear out of the water.
What to look for in an Android phone
Making the final decision on a phone purchase is not easy, so we’ve helped narrow down what to look for.
Storage space on phones is crucial. If filming videos, playing games, or downloading loads of music is important, only a few (and increasingly fewer) come with a Micro SD slot to expand storage. That means you’ll have to spend more to get more, and that’s if a phone offers it. Some of our picks have up to 1TB of storage, which should suit most. Of course, you can always store files to different cloud services, opening more space on your phone.
RAM is crucial to a phone’s operating system. Having more RAM means you can run more applications at the same time. 4GB RAM is enough for standard operation, but additional RAM is necessary for heavy gaming and app use. All of our picks have at least 6GB of RAM, so you can get to gaming and scrolling with little worry.
Finally, the phone’s processor is essential for your device to run smoothly. The number of cores and clock speed generally determine how quickly a phone can run processes and functions. Snapdragon processors are often used in Android phones. All of our picks use them except for the Google Pixel devices, which use Google’s Tensor G2 Chip. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Tensor G2 are currently the best processors out there, and a good portion of our list sports one or the other.
