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Choosing the best Android phone depends on the features you prioritize and your target price range. There are many Android phone brands, each with distinct approaches to hardware and software, and price tags vary widely.
To help you sort through the Android landscape, we’ve tested more than a dozen current phones to land on a definitive list of the top Android phones you can buy now. For transparency, we don’t aim to point out which Android phones have the most features or the highest benchmark scores; you can look at a publicly available specs sheet for that. Rather, based on our testing, we favor those with the best balance of high-quality features, performance, and value.
Our top pick among the best Android phones is the Samsung Galaxy S24, a stellar overall phone that would suit the vast majority of Android users. If you’re looking for something with a more modest price tag, we recommend the Google Pixel 7a as our top budget option.
Our top picks for the best Android phones
Best overall: Samsung Galaxy S24 – See at Amazon
Best budget: Google Pixel 7a – See at Amazon
Best camera: Google Pixel 8 Pro – See at Amazon
Best battery life: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – See at Amazon
Best small phone: Samsung Galaxy S24 – See at Amazon
Best foldable phone: OnePlus Open – See at Amazon
Best overall
Samsung Galaxy S24
The Galaxy S24 runs on the most powerful processor for Android phones in 2024. It includes three excellent cameras, a super-smooth 120Hz display, Samsung’s effective AI features, and stellar battery life, especially for a smaller phone.
With its three cameras, unmatched performance, interesting AI features, and sleek minimalist design, the Samsung Galaxy S24 outclasses the Android competition in its price range. There is simply no finer Android phone you can buy in the current 2024 season. And if you prefer larger displays, the Galaxy S24 Plus is basically a larger version of the Galaxy S24 with a couple of extra benefits, like more RAM and faster charging.
Specifically, the Galaxy S24’s versatile triple-camera system and sheer performance set it apart from its main competitor, the Google Pixel 8. The Galaxy S24 runs on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor as the $1,300 Galaxy S24 Ultra, and it’s among the few phones in the $800 range with three cameras. The Galaxy S24’s MSRP is $100 more than the Pixel 8’s, but it’s worth the added cost if you’re looking for a premium Android phone and are willing to pay for one to begin with.
Samsung’s Galaxy S24 has the fewest compromises for the best value.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Indeed, we feel you wouldn’t regret paying a little more for the Galaxy S24’s performance today, and a few years from now — it imparts more confidence than other Android phones that it’ll stay snappy and smooth for a considerable amount of time.
The Galaxy S24 takes great photos, but it should be said its camera quality is the weakest in the premium phone market. Even though Samsung successfully addressed the near-neon oversaturated colors, the lighting in Galaxy S24 photos can be inconsistent. It results in occasionally bland, depthless photos or overexposure in brighter details, and it happens more often than we’d like.
Still, the Galaxy S24’s cameras are good enough, and the 3x zoom lens offers versatility that most other Android phones in this price range don’t match. If you often use your current phone’s zoom lens or wish you had one to take better photos of far-away subjects, the Galaxy S24 is an excellent choice in the $800 range.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 review, and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy S24 cases to protect the phone.
Best budget
Google Pixel 7a
Google’s Pixel 7a is like a premium phone at a major discount with its 90Hz display, flagship Tensor G2 processor from the previous Pixel 7 generation, and two cameras that take stunning photos with natural colors and beautiful lighting and depth.
Google’s Pixel 7a is essentially a premium device with high-end performance, features, and camera quality that’s dressed in more modest materials. In return for the slightly diminished aesthetic of thick display borders and plastic back, the Pixel 7a costs $499. That said, it can often be found with a discount, and its starting price could drop significantly with the expected imminent release of a new Pixel A-series phone around Google I/O this month.
The Pixel 7a’s MSRP is on the high side for a budget pick, but it comes with several worthwhile premium features, like a more recent flagship processor (Google’s Tensor G2), wireless charging, a smoother high refresh-rate display, and the option of fast mmWave 5G connectivity, all of which combine to make the Pixel 7a our top pick among the best budget Android phones.
The Pixel 7a is the top Android phone you can buy in the budget range.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
In our intensive battery test, the 6.1-inch Pixel 7a’s 60% result is astonishingly good for a phone of this size; it matches some premium phones with bigger screens, like the 6.7-inch Galaxy S24 Plus (60%).
The Pixel 7a’s 64MP main camera and 13MP ultrawide camera produce excellent photos and video. In fact, we found little difference in camera quality between the Pixel 7a and some high-end devices, many of which cost twice as much.
Read our full Google Pixel 7a review, and see our guide to the best Google Pixel 7a cases to protect the phone.
Best camera
Google Pixel 8 Pro
The Pixel 8 Pro offers the best Android camera system we’ve tested, strong battery life and performance, and Google’s Pixel-exclusive AI features.
The Android phone with the best camera system is Google’s Pixel 8 Pro because, quite simply, it takes the best photos out of all the Android phones we’ve tested so far. We also get the most confidence that photos will look good after every snap than with other Android phones.
The Pixel 8 Pro’s cameras capture memories in beautifully natural colors while maintaining the best balance of brightness and contrast. As the best Google Pixel phone for video and photography, it produces results less prone to overexposure than competitors and offers gorgeous depth thanks to superior dynamic range.
The Pixel 8 Pro might not have four cameras like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but its photo quality is consistently better.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
We also found that the Pixel 8 Pro isn’t as dependent on optimal lighting conditions as Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra to capture sharp photos of moving subjects, like kids and pets. Indeed, images taken in less ideal lighting conditions with the Galaxy S24 Ultra can appear somewhat blurry and grainy.
The Pixel 8 Pro’s three cameras include a 50MP main camera, a 48MP 5x zoom camera, and a 48MP ultrawide camera, and they offer plenty of versatility.
The Pixel 8 Pro uses a highly effective digital zoom between its main and 5x lenses. It combines the main and ultrawide cameras to produce a photo nearly as sharp as a dedicated optical lens at 3x zoom.
Still, Google’s solution for digital zoom isn’t quite as high quality as a dedicated zoom lens, like the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 3x zoom lens. And Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra takes slightly better photos at 10x zoom, too. With that said, we stand by our pick for the Pixel 8 Pro, as overall photo quality is still better and more balanced on the Pixel 8 Pro.
The Pixel 8 Pro also takes high-quality videos with equally excellent color, brightness, and contrast as its photos.
Read our full Google Pixel 8 Pro review, and see our guide to the best Google Pixel 8 Pro cases to protect the phone.
Best battery life
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung’s top-end phone in 2024. It’s in a league of its own among the competition, even against Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro phones, with its four cameras, giant 6.8-inch display, stunning battery life, and included S Pen stylus.
Phones with bigger displays almost always have the best battery life, and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with a 6.8-inch display and 5,000mAh battery obtained the best result in our battery stress test among flat Android phones, ending the test with a whopping 66% remaining.
That’s a phenomenal result. The traditional Android phone with the next best score is the Google Pixel 8 Pro with 62%. Indeed, most phones with large displays score between 60% and 62%.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra holds the highest score in our battery test for a traditional phone (non-foldable).
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
The battery stress test simulates a blend of lighter and heavier workloads. It includes five runs of the intensive Geekbench 6 app, two runs of the intensive 20-minute 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, two hours of video streaming, and one hour of music streaming while connected to a Bluetooth speaker.
While you’re unlikely to change your charging habits too much, the Galaxy S24 Ultra has the most potential out of any Android phone we’ve tested to last a couple of days of light use. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s battery life also offers more confidence that it’ll last through your typical day.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review, and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra cases to protect the phone.
Best small phone
Not only is the Samsung Galaxy S24 the best Android phone overall, it’s among the most compact and lightest Android phones available in the US. It has a 6.2-inch display, but the black borders are the display are so narrow that it keeps the phone incredibly compact. It’s also incredibly lightweight at only 5.9 ounces.
The Galaxy S24 is slightly more compact and lighter than the Pixel 8.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
The Galaxy S24 surprised us with its battery life. It ended our battery test with 59%, which is a good score for a small or large phone. The Galaxy S24 Plus, for example, scored 60% in the same test.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S24 review, and see our guide to the best Samsung Galaxy S24 cases to protect the phone.
Best foldable phone
OnePlus Open
The OnePlus Open is our favorite foldable phone thanks to its comfortably familiar cover display, large tablet display, performance, superior build quality, and excellent cameras.
When it comes to foldable phones, we prefer the book-style design over clamshell flip-style designs. Book-style foldables are significantly more expensive, but they offer vastly greater functionality with their tablet displays, and you don’t have to worry as much about battery life or performance as you do with clamshell foldables.
The first foldable phone we’d recommend to anyone who asks is the OnePlus Open, thanks to its premium, solid design and build quality, large-than-average cover and tablet displays, and excellent performance. The OnePlus Open’s cameras are stellar, too, even if they’re a little dependent on ideal lighting conditions, and battery life proved solid in our tests.
The OnePlus Open is the most impressive foldable phone we’ve tested thanks to its build quality that feels a step above, and its larger cover and tablet displays.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
We’ve tested and considered other book-style phones, including the Google Pixel Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. However, the OnePlus Open’s build quality and large 7.6-inch tablet display sets it apart from the others with 7.6-inch tablet displays. To be sure, the other foldables we mentioned have great build quality, but the OnePlus Open is simply a step above.
We also love the OnePlus Open’s large 6.3-inch cover display, as it’s wider than the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s awkwardly narrow cover display and larger than the Google Pixel Fold with its stout 5.8-inch cover display. The Open offers a comfortable experience familiar to a regular phone’s display, which is important, as you don’t want to feel like you constantly need to unfold the phone for basic tasks, like replying to a message or quickly searching the web.
Read our hands-on assessment of the OnePlus Open, and see our guide to the best foldable phones for other top options.
Which is the best Android phone?
The best Android phone we recommend to most people is the Samsung Galaxy S24. For its $800 starting price, it offers an ideal balance of performance, camera quality, camera options, and features.
How we test Android phones
We put every phone through the same tests and extended personal use.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
We test Android phones as if they were our daily drivers for at least several days, often much longer. That way, we can get the best anecdotal feel for their performance, battery life, cameras, and new features. Our extensive experience covering, reviewing, and comparing phone models from various companies at different price points means we know what to expect, and any failings become apparent quickly.
We also conduct standard tests on all the phones we review and include in our guides.
For performance, we put the phones through a gamut of benchmarking apps to check for performance discrepancies between phones, at least on paper. These benchmark tests also help us evaluate how many years a phone could maintain its performance compared to other phones. We’ve used Geekbench 6 for general performance and the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test to get a sense of extended heavy gaming performance.
For camera testing, we photograph a set gamut of scenes with every phone; you may have seen our barn photos repeatedly. We take photos and videos with each lens on each phone and compare them to their direct competitors. We even compare premium phone cameras to budget options to evaluate the difference.
For battery life, we run each phone through a stress test that simulates a mixture of typical daily workloads, like streaming a video and music, and high-intensity workloads, like playing demanding games. The battery stress test includes five runs of the Geekbench 6 app, two runs of the 3DMark Wildlife Stress Test, two hours of video streaming at a set average brightness, and one hour of music streaming with a Bluetooth speaker connected. At the end of the test, we note the remaining battery percentage on the phone.
Other Android phones we tested
Aside from the Android phones listed or mentioned above, we’ve tested all the latest flagship phones from Samsung and Google for our guides to the best Samsung phones and best Google Pixel phones, along with most of the current mid-range and budget phones from both companies.
From Motorola, we’ve tested the latest Motorola Razr foldable phones, and we’re now fully testing the 2024 Moto G and Moto G Power.
We’ve also tested the latest OnePlus 12 phones. We were convinced they’d feature in this guide, but we faced issues when using the Geekbench 6 benchmarking app, which we use to test battery life.
For some reason, both the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R obtained significantly lower scores in Geekbench 6 than we’d expect from their processors, which put our battery test results for the phones in doubt. The odd benchmark results also questioned whether we were experiencing the intended performance and full potential of both OnePlus devices.
We’ve been communicating with OnePlus to figure out the issue and retesting the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus 12R with every new Android update and Geekbench 6 app update. In the dozens of tests we’ve run with Geekbench 6 on both OnePlus 12 phones, we’ve only seen one instance that produced expected results.
FAQs
Who owns Android?
In simple terms, Google owns the Android operating system.
Google bought the company that developed the software, Android Inc., in 2005, and other companies like Samsung and OnePlus can run Android on their phones because Google makes it freely available as an open-source operating system for anyone to use on their phones. Even you, the reader, could build your own phone that legally runs the Android operating system.
The Android operating system looks and works differently on phones from different companies because phone makers modify it by adding their own software layers on top of Android for users to interact with.
For example, while Samsung phones run the core Android operating system that gives them access to the Google Play Store apps, they also run Samsung’s user interface (UI) layer called One UI, which adds a distinctive look and feel to the company’s phones.
Which Android phone gets the most updates?
The best support window for Android phones is the seven years of Android operating system and security updates offered by the Google Pixel 8 phones and Samsung Galaxy S24 series.
Relative to the Pixel 8 phones, Google offers a smaller support window for two of the earlier phones we’ve included above, the Pixel 7a and Pixel Fold, both of which will get three years of Android updates and five years of security updates from their respective release dates.
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