Best Phones
Honor
Apple
Xiaomi
Honor
Honor
OnePlus
Nothing
Magic8 Pro
iPhone 17 Pro
17 Ultra
Magic7 Pro
Magic V5
15
Phone (4a) Pro
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Ranked #2 of 42
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Overall
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Choosing the best phone means weighing camera quality, display performance, battery life, processing power, and value against one another. That can be tricky — some phones have great performance, but a sub-par camera, while others don’t have a great battery life, but have an excellent screen.
We’ve put together this guide to show you our list of the best phones based on our criteria. This list will change over time as we test new phones.
The Honor Magic8 Pro currently takes the top spot overall, delivering good or excellent results across every major category without a clear weakness. For iPhone users, the Apple iPhone 17 Pro leads with its refined ecosystem integration and dependable performance. If camera capability matters most, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra stands out with one of the highest-scoring imaging systems available. And for those shopping on a tighter budget, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro offers impressive specs for under $500.
Whether you prioritize raw performance, photography, or affordability, the rankings here should help narrow down the right phone for you.
Best Overall
The Honor Magic8 Pro leads our overall rankings across all of the phones in our database, and the core reason is straightforward — it's the strongest all-around performer we've tested, with no single major category dragging it down. Its only sub-excellent score comes in the form of the camera.
Battery life is its standout result. At over 35 hours of continuous video playback, you're realistically looking at two full days of use before needing a charge. Performance is similarly strong, with benchmark results as good or better than anything else out right now, and the display peaks at 4,969 nits HDR brightness, which is very bright.
The camera is the weak point. Its overall camera score sits below the database average for the price, and it ranks behind the iPhone 17 Pro, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, and even the last-generation Honor Magic7 Pro. If photography is your main priority, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra or iPhone 17 Pro are the better choices.
For users who want strong, consistent performance across battery, display, speed, and day-to-day use, with camera as a secondary concern, the Magic8 Pro is the most complete option out there right now.
Best iPhone
The iPhone 17 Pro takes the win for the best iPhone — that’s right, even beating the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It has an excellent camera, sitting just behind the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. Beyond camera, it's a well-rounded device. Its display hits 3043 nits peak HDR brightness and 885 nits manual, both solid figures. Speaker output is clean, while battery life gets you through nearly 24 hours of continuous video playback, and standby drain is just 2% overnight. It actually scored better in battery testing than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, presumably because the iPhone 17 Pro Max has to power a larger display with its larger battery.
The A19 Pro chip posts 3,918 single-core and 10,158 multi-core in GeekBench 6, competitive with the other flagship chips here, though the Honor Magic8 Pro and OnePlus 15 score higher in multi-core. There are some issues though. Charging is middling — 72% in 30 minutes wired and 49% wirelessly, both slower than most Android flagships here.
It's the right pick if you're committed to the Apple ecosystem and want a strong all-around iPhone without compromise elsewhere.
Best Camera Phone
The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has the best-scoring camera system in our database, edging out the iPhone 17 Pro by around 5% on camera score.
The rear cameras all resolve fine detail very well — not just the main. The 50-megapixel main sits on a 1-inch sensor, and produces crisp, detailed images. The 200-megapixel telephoto actually has a variable zoom, making it more versatile. Zoomed-in shots stay clean and detailed rather than falling apart the way shorter telephotos do when pushed. The 50-megapixel ultrawide is also sharper than the ultrawide on most phones at this price, meaning landscape and group shots hold their detail into the corners. Dynamic range across the lenses is average rather than exceptional, and the front camera is a noticeable step down from the rear system.
Battery life is decent too, though not as good as the OnePlus 15. The 6000mAh cell managed about 31 hours of video playback, which sounds like a lot until you see the OnePlus 15 stretching past 46 hours. Web browsing drained 26% per session, more than double the Magic8 Pro's 11%. The display also scores below average.
This is a phone for people who want the best rear camera system available right now and can accept compromises on battery endurance and display quality.
Best Display
The Honor Magic7 Pro may have been replaced by the Magic8 Pro, but the previous-generation model still has the best display of any phone we’ve tested. It has a 4,773-nit peak HDR brightness, which is the kind of headroom that makes HDR content genuinely pop rather than just look slightly brighter. Manual brightness sits at 831 nits, slightly above the Magic8 Pro's 759 nits and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra's 621 nits.
Beyond display, it's a strong all-around performer. Wired charging gets you to 85% in 30 minutes, and wireless charging to 80% in the same window. Video playback lasts over 32 hours, and standby drain is just 2% overnight, so battery life in real use is solid even if it doesn't match the Magic8 Pro's class-leading endurance.
The microphone is a weakness. Recording quality showed more frequency variation than most other phones we've tested, so if voice recording or video audio matters to you, that's worth factoring in.
The Magic7 Pro is the right pick if display quality is your priority — for content consumption, HDR streaming, or outdoor use, nothing else here comes close.
Best Foldable
If you’re looking for a foldable that combines great performance with a good battery and stunning screens, the Honor Magic V5 is the way to go. Battery life is a particular standout. The inner display ran for nearly 31 hours of continuous video playback, and the outer display managed just over 31 hours and 45 minutes — both figures competitive with the non-folding phones here. Standby drain was just 2% overnight, matching the best performers in this list. Charging is fast enough, hitting 79% in 30 minutes via a wired connection.
Performance is mid-pack, at least of the phones on this list — likely because it has a slightly older chip compared to them. GPU performance also throttles pretty aggressively, perhaps because of the super thin build.
That said, performance is still good enough, and it’s certainly not low enough to take away from how great of a foldable phone the Honor Magic V5 is in general.
Best Under $1,000
The OnePlus 15 wins this slot by delivering the strongest combination of charging speed, battery life, and outright performance available under $1,000 — and in some of those areas it outperforms phones that cost significantly more.
Battery life is the big winner. The phone achieved a massive 46 hours of video playback, which is far ahead most other phones. Performance is also very strong, and the device charges very quickly.
The camera is the main weak point. It ranks below most of the other phones on this list, and even below its predecessor, the OnePlus 13. The display is also only fine, hitting 798 nits of manual brightness, and lacking great HDR performance that some of the other phones offer.
If you primarily care about charging speed, endurance, and performance and can accept a camera that doesn't compete at this price level, the OnePlus 15 is a strong choice, especially at this price point.
Best Under $500
The Nothing Phone (4a) Pro wins the under-$500 slot primarily on camera performance, which punches way above its class. It ranks #6 in our camera database — actually ahead of every other phone on this page except the iPhone 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Ultra, both of which cost two to three times as much.
Battery life is solid too. Over 26 hours of continuous video playback means you'll easily stretch through two full days of typical use, and standby drain is just 1% overnight, compared to 7% for the Honor Magic8 Pro.
The weaknesses are related to things like performance, where it’s far behind even the OnePlus 15 at $899. Charging is slower than others too. 63% in 30 minutes sounds reasonable until you see the OnePlus 15 hit 88% in the same window. Connectivity, microphone quality, and speaker output all sit near the bottom of our rankings.
If camera performance at a low price is the priority and you can accept those tradeoffs, it's a reasonable pick. For most other use cases, spending more buys meaningfully better all-round results.
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