The best phone to buy right now

With Techtober behind us and a fresh crop of new devices on the table — including Pixels and iPhones — you may be wondering whether it’s time to upgrade. Whether you’re in the market for a new Apple or Android phone, there’s no shortage of great choices right now. Generally speaking, it’s been a year of modest mobile tech updates, but they’ve been important ones.

Foldable phones are getting more useful with bigger cover screens as on the Galaxy Z Flip 5, smartphone camera zoom has reached new heights on Samsung’s top-tier flagship, and the iPhone finally made the jump from Lightning to USB-C. And if you’re coming from a phone that’s three or four years old, you’ll find that the incremental advances over the past few years will add up for a significantly upgraded experience.

The phones listed here have powerful processors and enough RAM to keep up for years, so it’s fair to expect more than a handful saba sport bet of OS updates throughout the life of your phone. Four years of new OS versions and five years of security updates is a healthy benchmark for this class, and many of the phones here meet or exceed that standard.

A fantastic camera

Most phone cameras can handle good lighting conditions well, from the flagship class down to $300 budget phones. The devices listed here offer a little something extra, like a useful telephoto lens, a great portrait mode, or impressive low-light shooting — many include all three. Stabilization for the main camera unit to help in low light is a must in this category.

Best-in-class build quality

The very best devices come with robust IP68 ratings, durable glass on the front and back, and sturdy aluminum exterior frames.

Value

In addition to the very best devices at any price, I look for phones that offer the best mix of must-have features for good prices. That might lead to a recommendation of a lower-tier model if it’s particularly feature-rich for its price or last year’s model if it’s still sold new and this year’s device doesn’t offer many upgrades.

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, check out our guide to budget smartphones.

The best phones

Best iPhone for most people

The base model of Apple’s iPhone 15 features an A16 chip, a 6.1-inch screen, a USB-C port, and a 48-megapixel main camera, with storage configurations starting at 128GB.

Last year, we recommended buying a new iPhone 13 rather than the 14 — the minor updates on the standard 14 just weren’t worth it with the 13 available for $100 less. This year is a different story. The iPhone 15 levels up in several important ways, starting with the adoption of the new Dynamic Island. That’s the free-floating, pill-shaped notch at the top of the screen that expands to show important status and time-sensitive information. There’s still much more it could do, but it’s a useful addition and one that app developers will consider as they design future updates.

There’s also that new port: Lightning is out, and USB-C is in. That might be a bit of a pain at first since you’ll need to swap out old Lightning cables and accessories you were using with your last iPhone, but in the long run, it’s going to be a positive change. You’ll be able to use the same cable that you use to charge your laptop, iPad, and many of your other gadgets, which is awfully handy when you’re packing for a trip. Plus, you can finally share charging cables with the Android phone owners in your life — and that’s sweet, sweet charging harmony.

There are some useful camera upgrades, too, starting with a new high-resolution 48-megapixel main camera sensor. With more pixels available than the previous 12-megapixel chip, it can use the middle of the sensor to offer a lossless 2x crop. That’s especially handy on the standard iPhone 15, which lacks a dedicated telephoto lens.

And this generation of iPhones offers a handy new feature for fans of Portrait Mode — the ability to add the portrait effect after capture. When the phone detects a face in the scene, it will automatically save the depth information needed to create the soft-focus background effect when you’re editing your photo. It’s especially useful for those moments when taking a second to switch to portrait mode would mean missing a cute shot of your kid or pet.

Best Android phone for most people

The Pixel 8 comes with just a couple of key upgrades over the Pixel 7, and it misses out on several higher-end features on the 8 Pro, like a telephoto lens. But its combination of price, features, and the promise of seven years of OS updates makes it the best mainstream Android phone to buy right now.

This is going to sound backwards, but hear me out: the $699 Google Pixel 8 is pricier than the Pixel 7, but it’s a better value. There’s also a good argument for stepping up to the $999 Pixel 8 Pro, which comes with a few more bells and whistles, but for most people just interested in a reliable Android phone that will get them through their day with as little friction as possible, the Pixel 8 is the one to pick.

Its upgrades are important ones. The screen finally comes with a 120Hz maximum refresh rate with all the smooth-scrolling action we expect from a flagship Android phone (Apple really needs to take a cue here), and like the 8 Pro, the Pixel 8 is promised seven years of OS upgrades. That’s one of the best software support policies you’ll find anywhere, and it means you’ll get way more out of your investment than you could with the Pixel 7 — it only included three OS upgrades.