Best Android phones 2025

At Android Central, we pride ourselves on knowing the best Android phones inside and out. Whether you want something basic just to make calls, browse social media, and stay connected to friends and family, or you're looking at advanced features with powerful internals, we have something for everyone.

I test dozens of phones every year and can tell you exactly where they triumph and where they falter. At Android Central, these testing and review methods include making sure each phone lives up to the marketing claims of the company, offers good value for the money, can deliver a quality photo every time, and lasts long enough to make it through the day on a single charge.

Now that we've entered 2025, the Android phone space is about to get even more interesting. The OnePlus 13 received our first-ever five-star review for a smartphone, while the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra changes up Samsung's boxy design and doubles down on AI prowess. Whether you want the best AI features, an innovative foldable design, or a simple device with loads of storage, this guide has all of the best Android phones available now. Didn't find anything today? Check back later, we'll keep updating the list with new picks as they're unveiled.

Written by

Written by

Nick Sutrich

Nick grew up in a telecom-savvy household and has been reviewing phones since 2011. Whether it's waxing poetic about Nokia's glory days or flipping open the latest foldable phones, he knows what makes a good phone and can help you understand which one to pick.

At a glance

Best overall

It's almost hard to fathom the turnaround OnePlus has had. From near irrelevance just a few years ago to our favorite pick two years in a row, the OnePlus 13 cements the crown of best Android phone by getting the first 5-star review we've ever given to a smartphone.

Central to that score is the supreme build quality and industry-first IP69 rating which makes it more durable than ever. You can put it in a dishwasher, wash it with your clothes in your washing machine, take it in a jet-laden hot tub, or even bask with it in a steaming sauna without worrying about the phone getting damaged. Water Touch 2.0 and a new generation ultrasonic fingerprint sensor even mean you can use the screen with wet fingers.

The display is, once again, one of the most eye-friendly AMOLED displays on the market and this time around doesn't sacrifice quality for eye protection. It was awarded the first-ever Display Mate A++ rating for display quality and features DC dimming options along with 2160Hz PWM to ensure your eyes don't hurt even after looking at it for a long time.

OnePlus monumentally improved the camera, as I laid out in my OnePlus 13 camera review, finally matching the quality of a Pixel or Galaxy phone in every situation. Low light performance is superb and often less noisy than the competition, and capturing crisp photos of pets or kids is finally possible thanks to a new dual exposure algorithm that gets it right even when they won't hold still.

Oxygen OS 15 powers the phone's software experience and is my favorite Android skin. It's got the best animations on any Android phone, a set of AI features that you'll love to use and a customizable UI that you can make your own. Plus, with four major OS updates and six years of software updates promised, you'll be able to use the OnePlus 13 for years to come.

The massive battery inside keeps things powered for well over a day despite being the fastest phone currently on the market, and ultra-fast charging tops it up in less than 30 minutes. You'll never think about battery life again with this phone, and it even comes with an ultra-fast charging brick in the box in most countries. All in all, it's an incredible value and the best phone you can buy today.

Best cheap phone

The CMF Phone 1 by Nothing is a triumph in phone design and pricing. Our previous favorite budget pick was $300, but Nothing slashed that down to $200 with the release of the CMF Phone 1 and somehow made a better phone, to boot.

It all starts with an impressive modular design which offers the ability to easily swap out the back and several accessories thanks to an oversized thumbscrew and a set of four screws readily visible on the back. The company offers four different color backplates, plus a handful of accessories like a kickstand, wallet shell, and even a lanyard holder for under $30 apiece.

Plus, the 3D printing community has already gone crazy with clever new accessories you can print yourself — or have printed and ordered online if you don't have a 3D printer at home.

The AMOLED display is top-notch with 2000 nits of brightness and DC-like dimming at high brightness, plus 920Hz PWM dimming at lower brightness levels for an eye-friendly experience. Even the performance is surprising with a speedy MediaTek 7300 processor that outperforms most phones twice its price.

Somehow, even the cameras are superb, delivering crisp imagery in any light with its 50MP main rear camera and a 2x zoom portrait camera. You'll be blown away at how good the portrait shots are on this phone, especially with Nothing's AI-powered processing.

Nothing offers 3 years of software updates, which is completely unheard of in this price segment. The only real downsides are spotty 5G coverage in the U.S. and lack of NFC. T-Mobile is your best bet there.

Best premium pick

Samsung may have just released the Galaxy S25 Ultra but we don't want to just recommend the newest device simply because it's the latest thing Samsung released. Stay tuned for our Galaxy S25 Ultra review and we'll see if it can usurp Samsung's current leading flagship.

As for the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, this premium device boasts all of the efficiency and power found in the S23 Ultra with a few notable improvements.

This year, Samsung outfitted the frame with titanium and finally flattened the display. Couple that with the included S Pen and you have the best note-taking phone on the market. Plus, the display doubles the PWM rate and adds an anti-glare filter for better long-term eye protection.

The Ultra features the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy Devices chipset, an exclusive version of the Qualcomm processor. This internal hardware gives your phone enough power to handle graphics-intensive gaming without totally annihilating your battery life or dropping in performance. Plus, it's got great new Galaxy AI features that work flawlessly with the included S Pen.

In most cases, the Galaxy S24 Ultra's camera is better than the Pixel 8 Pro, an achievement that's taken Samsung years to earn. But, as my Galaxy S24 Ultra camera review shows, it still struggles to take clear pictures of moving subjects. That's particularly problematic for households with pets or kids.

Unfortunately, one of the S24 Ultra's biggest flaws is its price. Thankfully, the best Galaxy S24 Ultra deals will help take the sting out just a bit.

Best midrange phone

The OnePlus 12R was our mid-range pick of 2024, and now the OnePlus 13R usurps it as the current 2025 pick. It's not as cheap as it was last year in some regions but it's still the best value flagship phone you can find anywhere. OnePlus delivered a new design, upgraded battery size, and significantly improved triple camera system on the back.

Starting with performance, this phone is basically last year's top-end OnePlus 12 for half the price. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset is blazing fast and the upgraded UFS 4.0 storage inside is much faster than last year's OnePlus 12R. You also get double the storage and 50% more RAM than last year.

The hardware is well-built and very durable, even if it only sports an IP65 water and dust resistance rating. OnePlus's official cases offer great protection and include MagSafe compatibility, which is great since this year's phone is slightly thinner than the OnePlus 12R, making it more case-friendly. I'm not a fan of flat phones but a case helps that a lot.

OnePlus packed a denser battery inside with two-day battery life. The included charger will give it a full charge in about an hour, which is faster than most phones in the U.S. regardless of the price but slower than the OnePlus 13 since it uses a single-cell 6,000mAh battery.

The triple camera array on the back will generally impress you as it sports dual 50MP cameras as well as an 8MP telephoto camera for superb portrait photos. OnePlus also continues to impress with its display technology, packing an LTPO 4.1 120Hz AMOLED in with some great eye-friendly features. The Pixel 8a might have a slightly better camera but it has a much worse display since it uses slow 240Hz PWM dimming, while OnePlus offers proper DC dimming options plus 2160Hz PWM dimming at low brightness.

Best small phone

We're quite sure the recently announced Galaxy S25 will take this phone's place, but until we've had time to full put it through its paces, we don't want to just change our recommendation on age or status of a newer phone.

Like a few other flagships on this list, the Samsung Galaxy S24 isn’t a dramatic departure from its predecessor, but it’s a refinement of everything that made the latter phone great.

The Galaxy S24 boasts a compact 6.2-inch AMOLED 120Hz display and the lightweight-yet-premium device feel that we’ve come to expect from the S series. Not only does 2024's smaller Galaxy S phone feature the same powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy processor as its more expensive siblings, but it also comes packed with all those fantastic Galaxy AI features.

Samsung included the exact same 50MP primary camera, 12MP ultrawide camera, and 10MP 3x telephoto camera as the last two Galaxy S phones had, so don't expect any kind of upgrade in the camera department unless you're coming from something much older.

But, on the bright side, Samsung is now promising seven years of software updates for the Galaxy S24, so your phone will feel new even if you hold on to it for a long time.

Best for parents

Google makes some pretty good phones, but the best part of owning a Pixel is the camera. Taking pictures of your kids or pets is a joy with Google's excellent camera software, which uses AI smarts to understand what it's taking a picture of, giving you better results in the end. This was evident when we tested the Pixel 8 Pro's cameras last year, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL takes things to a whole new level.

Features like Best Take ensure that everyone in the shot looks their best by swapping out your face with the best version when you take a group of shots. Add Me ensures that the whole family can get in the photo even if one parent or sibling has to be the one to take the first image. Plus, few phones capture pets or kids in motion like a Pixel.

Beyond that, you're going to love other camera features like Audio Magic Eraser and Magic Editor, which help clean up audio and background objects, alike. Plus great new features like Night Sight Video and Zoom Enhance make taking photos and videos a breeze.

Google's Tensor G4 processor isn't the fastest in town, but it's good enough for most tasks. The phone also comes with a 7-year software update promise, meaning your Pixel 9 Pro XL will see major Android updates until 2031. That's a huge improvement over previous years and longer than most any Android phones.

The design of the Pixel 9 Pro XL is unlike any of Google's earlier efforts, and the phone looks a lot like an iPhone now. The build quality is better, and the camera island at the back is still distinctive, but it misses out on some of that unique Pixel charm.

Google also still has a lot of work to do on its displays. While the company boasts some of the best technical scores for display quality, they use some nasty tricks to achieve these metrics. Primarily, that includes using slow 240Hz PWM dimming which can lead to headaches, eye fatigue, and other problems. Meanwhile, phones like the OnePlus 13 only resort to PWM dimming at low brightness and, even then, use a much better 2160Hz frequency, instead.

Best foldable phone

As Android Central's managing editor, Derrek Lee, said in his Motorola Razr Plus 2024 review, "sorry Samsung, but this is the one." Samsung may have popularized the modern flip phone form factor but Motorola is the one who perfected it.

This year's release builds on the excellent 2023 Razr Plus by further improving the already best-in-class cover display, Swapping out the ultrawide camera for a 2x telephoto camera, upgrading the drop resistance with new glass, improving the battery life and performance, and even adding vegan leather to the back with sporty new colors.

While it might be a folding phone, the star of the show is the generous 4-inch cover display that can be used in any way you'd like. Unlike all other flip phones, Motorola lets you use all apps on the cover screen without any restrictions and it makes this already pocket-friendly phone the best small screen experience on the market.

When you're ready for a bigger display, just flip the phone open to reveal the incredible 6.9-inch pOLED display that features Motorola's trademark vision-friendly flicker-free technology, something that's substantially more eye-friendly than Samsung's use of slow 240Hz PWM dimming.

Of course, what good is a conversation about flip phones if you don't bring up the cameras? Flip phones are great for group photos and selfies because they can stand on their own, and new tricks like camcorder mode and the telephoto sensor ensure you get a great capture no matter what you're doing.

And I can't forget Motorola's recently refreshed Hello UX, which is based on Android 14 and has the very best features you'll find on any flip phone. From the classic Motorola chop gestures to cover screen widgets, and even the new Motorola Smart Connect suite, Hello UX is mostly wonderful. I say mostly because, at least at launch, there were a few annoying bugs that we came across.

Best premium foldable

Just like any piece of technology, smartphones evolve and change as time goes on. We've seen screens get bigger, cameras get a lot more capable, and processors rival those found in computers. The next big thing for phones is the folding form factor, and so far, the best yet in this niche is the OnePlus Open.

The best way to think about the device is as a phone and tablet in one. When the OnePlus Open is closed, you're treated to a 6.31-inch 120Hz AMOLED display that you can use for anything you'd like — checking email, scrolling through Twitter, watching YouTube videos, you name it. OnePlus made its outer display wider than Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold line and it makes everyday use so much nicer. Essentially, it feels like a "normal" phone when it's closed.

Then, when you need a tablet-sized screen, you just open up the OnePlus Open to reveal a gorgeous 7.82-inch AMOLED panel with 120Hz LTPO 3.0 tech. It's a lot like having an iPad Mini that you can fold up and take with you wherever you want, and if you ask us, that's pretty amazing. It's also a lot more eye-friendly than any of Samsung's foldable phones as it uses a higher PWM rate and several eye-friendly enhancements, despite being a Samsung-made display.

And, unlike Samsung's foldables, the display crease on the OnePlus Open is barely noticeable. Plus, OnePlus equips its phone with better battery life and faster charging. That means you can go for much longer on a single charge and take a lot less time to top it up when it needs some juice.

OnePlus' OxygenOS is super customized for the Open, as well. There's a taskbar on the bottom of the larger display, making it operate more like a tablet or laptop than a phone, and great multitasking features because of it. You can tap and drag any icon in the taskbar to perform split screen, or simply tapping an icon on the bar to open any app installed on your smartphone within one tap. Now that's multitasking at its best.

Plus, you can pick up the Oppo Pen if you'd prefer to use a stylus. It's a little on the expensive side and the Pen isn't available on Amazon, but it's not too hard to find if you look around the web. And let's not forget the cutting-edge camera system which uses a massive sensor to achieve photo quality unlike any other foldable. It's so good, OnePlus used it in the OnePlus 12, as well.

Best gaming phone

Nubia RedMagic phones were already our favorite gaming phones, and the RedMagic 9 Pro ups the game in substantial ways. First off, the actively-cooled Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor inside is an absolute beast, and the Red Core 2 co-processor only helps things further by ensuring the most responsive touch sampling rates on any phone in existence.

That bright and liquid-smooth 120Hz OLED display is also quite eye-friendly with a low flicker rate thanks to BOE's excellent technology. RedMagic bumped the battery size up by nearly 10% compared to the RedMagic 8, and fast charging speeds ensure that you'll be powered up in no time even if you forget to plug it in.

Plus, an actual headphone jack means you can use your favorite pair of lag-free wired headphones while gaming, and the pair of 50MP rear cameras do a good enough job of capturing all the Pokemon you'll be catching.

The under-display front-facing camera leaves a lot to be desired quality-wise, but since this is a gaming phone primarily, it makes sense for RedMagic to prioritize a way to completely hide that camera instead of leaving an ugly punch hole in your games.

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Other products we tested

The picks above may be the best Android phones that money can buy today, but the list isn't set in stone. There are plenty of other devices that could have easily made the list if conditions were slightly different, and some that may earn a spot in the coming months. As we all know, some tech may be impressive straight out of the box and begin to falter with long-term use.

There are other devices that we may not have had the opportunity to perform comprehensive testing on just yet, while other models may simply lack the broad appeal that typically earns products a spot on this list.

Below you'll find a list of phones that I feel comfortable recommending; even if they aren't necessarily the best Android phones released this year, they still deserve a look if the picks above don't cut it for you.

How to choose

What is the best Android phone?

There are many contenders for the best Android phones, but I think the OnePlus 13 is the best option for most people. OnePlus has rebuilt Oxygen OS into something special and includes six years of promised updates to match. Excellent Hasselblad cameras on the back pair nicely with epic battery life, charging speed, and performance. Plus, the eye-friendly display is a joy to look at day or night.

If you enjoy features on top of features, it's hard to beat a Samsung phone. The Galaxy S25 Ultra just came out and is the successor to our best premium pick, the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Both phones sport an integrated S Pen stylus that's the cream-of-the-crop in stylus tech, ensuring the pen takes notes and not your hand. Plus, the One UI 7 software behind both phones is filled to the brim with customization options and seven years of promised software updates.

Folks looking for a compact phone with few or no compromises have a surprising amount of choices, which is a breath of fresh air compared to previous years. The Galaxy S25 and Pixel 8a are two of the best smaller phones you can get in the U.S., and folks who live outside of the U.S. and want a small phone would be remiss if they ignored the Asus Zenfone series.

Plus, now with Nothing making great budget-minded phones, you can get away with spending as little as $200 on a new unlocked CMF Phone 1 and still feel like you got something modern with excellent cameras, performance, and a bright OLED display.

How do I pick the best Android phone?

Android phones have never been better than they are right now. So regardless of whether you can afford a flagship device or one of the best cheap Android phones, you can go out and buy a phone that you'll be thoroughly happy with. Out of every single phone on the market, however, I have to give our top recommendation for the best Android phone to the OnePlus 13.

OnePlus's latest flagship has all the essentials you want, including a brilliant 120Hz AMOLED screen, powerful cameras that take great photos in any lighting, fast charging, reliable internal hardware that powers through even the most intense gaming sessions, and clean software with six years of guaranteed Android OS updates.

What size screen should I get for my Android phone?

When buying a new Android phone, you should consider many different things, and it all starts with the display. This is the component you interact with more than anything else, so you must get one that you'll enjoy using. Things like the resolution and refresh rate of a screen are worth talking about, but more so is the size.

Smartphones come in different shapes and sizes, and the biggest determining factor for that is the display. A 6.8-inch screen results in a much larger phone than one with a 5.8-inch one, and because of that, you need to know how big or small you're willing to go.

Take the Galaxy S24 Ultra, for example. Of the "normal" phones on this list — that means a phone that doesn't fold in half — the S24 Ultra has the largest display and, therefore, is a phenomenal canvas for watching movies, playing games, and browsing the web.

Basically, any content consumption looks better on a larger display because the more room you have, the bigger and easier it is to see your media. The downside to this, however, is that phones like the S24 Ultra can be somewhat unwieldy. Especially if you're someone with smaller hands, managing a phone like that can be a pain — sometimes literally!

A phone like the OnePlus Open solves this problem a bit by giving you an even larger display that can fold in half. It's even got a world-class camera system that blew us away.

If you'd rather have a smaller-sized phone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Asus Zenfone 11 are phenomenal choices depending on what form factor you want. These are substantially easier to manage and can be used with one hand, but you have less room for your movies and games on the flip side. It also means you can fit less content on the screen at one time, and if you're someone who likes to increase your font size, things are easier to read, which could result in you having to do a lot of scrolling.

And, of course, there are plenty of phones that fall somewhere in the middle between these two extremes. If you're really concerned about whether or not a phone will be too big or small, your best bet is to honestly go hands-on with it yourself at your local carrier store or Best Buy before making your purchase.

Are software updates on my phone important?

It's easy to compare displays, processors, and cameras, but something that's just as important to talk about is software updates. Android is constantly evolving and getting better, and while it's nice to get updates that keep your phone feeling fresh and new, security updates are far more important than feature updates.

Samsung and Google offer seven years of software updates for their phones — the most of any smartphone company today. OnePlus, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Vivo come in second place with four Android OS updates and two extra years of security updates for their flagship phones, totaling six years of support.

But the number of years supported doesn't paint the whole picture. Companies like OnePlus and Motorola have historically delivered bi-monthly security updates — so you'll get six security updates per year — while Samsung and Google often update every month. This isn't normally a big deal but could make a difference if you regularly use public hotspots or hotel Wi-Fi.

Google also always updates its Pixel phones to the latest version of Android first, something that makes a lot of sense considering Google makes Android. The downside to this is that the Pixel can sometimes be a little too cutting-edge and has been known to introduce bugs into the experience from time to time.

Generally, the more you spend on a phone, the more often (and longer) it'll receive software updates. Most $200-300 Android phones will only receive one or two major software updates, while $1,000 phones will see five to seven years of updates.

So, how important is it that your phone gets software updates? That ultimately depends on how much you care about new Android features and how long you plan to use your phone. Google releases a new version of Android every year, and while these updates don't tend to be that drastic from year to year, they give your phone important features and security settings that help keep it running in tip-top shape for a long time.

If you keep your phone for years at a time — often five or more years — these updates will ensure that you can continue to use new apps. Over time, Google discontinues support for older versions of Android because it becomes too much of a problem for developers to test compatibility with older phones as well as newer ones.

How do I choose a smartphone camera?

Over the last couple of years, there's been a trend with certain phone companies to throw as many cameras onto their devices as possible. As it's become more common for phones to ship with two, three, or even four cameras, there's something of an expectation that phones have to have multiple camera sensors to be any good.

Spoiler alert — this isn't true.

Let's look at the Galaxy S24 Ultra. It has a 200MP primary camera, yet the Google Pixel 9 Pro with its 50MP main sensor tends to take better photos. The biggest difference lies in the software — Google's is best for capturing objects in motion like pets and kids — and the secondary lenses that add more abilities to a phone's camera.

And while having those extra camera sensors can be a lot of fun, it's only worthwhile if they're high-quality. Far too often, I see companies throw in a lot of extra cameras on their phones only to have these secondary lenses not be very good. But, of course, the primary camera sensor is always the most important, so that's the one you want to pay attention to the most.

There are so many other factors that come into play with phone cameras, so don't let the megapixel count be your only factor for judging them when you're out shopping. Read reviews, look at camera samples, and you'll have a much better understanding of what kind of camera you're dealing with.

What size should my phone's battery be?

Battery life isn't the most fun thing to talk about with smartphones, but ultimately, it's one of the most essential components. Your phone can have the best display and processor around, but if it's constantly dying throughout the day, what's the point?

There are many different battery capacities for all of the phones on this list, and if you don't regularly keep up with them, it can be challenging to know what a good size is and what isn't. So, here's a general rule of thumb. If you're buying an Android phone, the ideal capacity is 5,000mAh or larger. As phones move toward larger displays with faster refresh rates, more battery is needed to keep them powered throughout the day.

Of course, this can vary a bit depending on the type of phone you're buying. Phones with smaller screen sizes and lower display refresh rates can still get through a full day of use without a hitch because they generally draw less power than phones with more impressive specs. The best Android phones often have extremely fast charging speeds, and phones like the OnePlus 13 will get an entire day's worth of battery life with just a 20-minute charge.

These are factors you'll need to consider when shopping for your phone, but generally, more mAh means more battery life.

What other features should I look for in a smartphone?

Last but certainly not least, there are a few smaller features and specs that can be easy to overlook when doing your shopping — a prime example being NFC. NFC stands for Near Field Communication, and it's the chip in most phones that allows you to pay with your smartphone with Google Pay at grocery stores, restaurants, etc. All of the phones on this list support NFC, but many cheaper phones often lack the feature. You may not care about Google Pay, but if you do, it's worth double-checking that the phone you want to buy does have NFC.

Another spec to check for is an IP rating. This is a seal of protection many phones have, and it ensures they're protected from a certain amount of dust and water. So if you get caught outside in the rain or take your phone to the beach, a higher IP rating ensures that the phone should survive just fine. IP69 is the highest dust and water resistance rating — only the OnePlus 13 and Honor Magic 7 Pro sport this — while cheaper phones might have something like IP53 which means some water and dust but not full submersion.

Some phones lack this IP rating yet boast water resistance or have a coating that gives them some protection. Those devices are also probably fine to get splashed with water here and there, but you don't have that same guaranteed protection. The best-case scenario is to avoid getting your phone wet whenever possible, but if you happen to be around the water a lot, it's probably worth getting something with that IP68 protection.

I should also address a trend going through the smartphone space for a few years now — the death of the headphone jack. The vast majority of new phones coming out these days no longer have the port, but few holdouts continue to offer it. It's certainly nice to have if you're someone who primarily uses wired headphones or earbuds, but if you've moved on to the wireless bandwagon, it's not something you need to be all that concerned with.

I know that's a lot to take in, but once you understand the kind of phone you're looking for and the budget you have to work with, I hope this guide makes you feel better equipped to make the right decision. There are so many good phones out there, and I wouldn't recommend one on this list if I didn't think you'd be happy with it. Happy shopping, and enjoy your new phone!

How we test

Testing phones at Android Central involves much more than simply booting up a device to ensure it works. We can use phones with a consumer mindset because we are consumers, in addition to Android enthusiasts and product testers. Unlike some sites that rely solely on benchmark programs and lab tests to verify performance, we use smartphones in real-life scenarios to better understand how a device will perform during normal, day-to-day use.

This involves personally hitting the streets to see how a phone's camera holds up during the day and night, and comparing pictures from two devices side by side to see how they differ. Our testing involves running multiple performance-heavy apps simultaneously to see if a phone will overheat or swiftly lose battery life. It involves booting up graphics-intensive games at the highest settings to see if the images will lag or stutter, and it means draining the battery of a phone to zero to test the speed at which it will recharge.

This barely scratches the surface of every testing metric we apply to each new device, so check out our guide to how Android Central tests and reviews phones to learn more.

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