Best Smartphone 2025: The definitive ranking from our tech experts

Forget just being a great Android phone, there are enough bells and whistles in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to make even the best iPhones jealous. This is a beast of a smartphone, and while its starting price of £1249/£1299 does make it quite an investment compared to the competition, if you do want the best out there then this is it.

Admittedly, the overall amount of upgrades compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra are relatively small, so if you currently own that phone (or even the Galaxy S23 Ultra) then Samsung’s latest flagship might not warrant an immediate swap. However, one key change that is welcome is the bump to a 50MP ultrawide lens.

Sitting alongside the three other rear-facing lenses, this new and improved ultrawide offers up more detailed landscape shots, making them appear more eye-catching and less washed out than before. Of course, those other sensors are still firing on all cylinders as the S25 Ultra excels in everything from zoom photography to close-up portraits.

The bezels have also been shaved down to make the screen slightly larger at 6.9-inches. This makes Samsung’s Ultra phone better than ever for streaming films on the go or indulging in a spot of gaming, as the screen draws you in with greater effect.

The inclusion of the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip brings about a huge boost of power too, including new Galaxy AI features such as Now Brief which can analyse your day and give you key bits of contextual information when the AI feels you’ll benefit from it the most.

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If you’re looking for a true flagship phone and have settled on iOS as your operating system of choice, you’re going to be looking at the iPhone 16 Pro Max – the current best iPhone on the market.

Though it may not look all that different to its predecessor, the iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with a host of small, yet meaningful upgrades. The 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED screen has increased to a whopping 6.9 inches, though without much of an expansion of the overall footprint thanks to much slimmer bezels. Seriously, this thing has some of the slimmest screen bezels on the market.

Not content with the customisable Action Button, the iPhone 16 Pro Max also features a Camera Control button with a touch-sensitive surface that lets you swipe to zoom, change modes and more, as well as take the actual photo. However, the idea is better than the execution, with a less-than-ideal placement of the button that makes using it awkward.

It’s also impressively powerful with the A18 Pro chipset at its heart, delivering benchmarks that beat every single other smartphone in our chart, making it the most powerful smartphone around right now – and that’s reflected in everyday performance.

The A18 Pro also powers the new Apple Intelligence functionality, but none of the killer AI features are available just yet, and the functionality is also limited to US owners right now – so don’t be fooled by Apple’s worldwide AI marketing push.

Throw in solid camera performance with a new 48MP ultrawide alongside the returning 48MP main and 12MP 5x telephoto lenses and true all-day battery life and you’ve got the best iPhone to date.

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The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is a fantastic Android phone that, even with a price rise for a second year, still undercuts rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra when it comes to price while offering a comparable experience.

Google’s latest flagship, launched alongside the new compact Pixel 9 Pro and regular Pixel 9, ticks just about all the boxes our reviewers look for in a phone that ends up on this list. It has a great 6.7-inch Super Actua screen with a smooth adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and impressive max brightness that makes it easy to use in daylight, accompanied by a refreshed design with flat edges, rounded corners and even a redesigned camera housing that makes it look slick.

But the biggest reason to opt for the Pixel 9 Pro XL is the camera performance. Our reviewer was very impressed with the photography skills of this phone, praising its true-to-life skin tones, colours and crisp nature of images. It handles skin and pictures of faces better than the iPhone 16 Pro, or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and delivers a better-quality digital zoom too.

That’s thanks to Google’s usual suite of photo-focused AI tools and functions like Super Res Zoom and Magic Eraser, but it goes so much further than that.

Using the latest Tensor G4, the Pixel 9 Pro XL can run Google Gemini on-device for a faster, more responsive experience, and it boasts several key new features like the ability to search for content in screenshots, generate images, summarise calls (in the US, anyway) and much more. It really does permeate the entire OS, offering a more holistic approach to AI than much of the competition.

But while it powers the upgraded AI experience, the Tensor G4 isn’t quite as capable as the competing Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and that means the phone can get pretty toasty when gaming. Still, it’s power efficient enough to deliver solid all-day battery life without scrambling for a charger by the evening.

Oh, and did we mention that it’ll get seven years of OS upgrades too? Because it will.

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For a good while it was the Oppo Find X8 Pro that held this spot, and while that phone does still excel in the battery department, it’s the OnePlus 13 that truly floored us in testing. On the surface, the phone’s 6000mAh cell is already impressive, particularly at a time when battery sizes are decreasing amidst some flagship phones, but it’s the performance of that cell that really hits home.

In our testing period with the OnePlus 13, we genuinely struggled to deplete the battery completely over the course of an intensive day of use. Just for context, half an hour spent playing Mario Kart Tour resulted in a battery drop of only 4%.

What this means is that if you’re a heavy smartphone user who still wants some juice left in the tank by the end of the day, or you’re the type of person who wants to see their phone last into a second day under moderate use then the OnePlus 13 has you covered.

Luckily, this phone isn’t a one-trick pony either as beyond the outstanding battery life, there are tons of other features to appreciate including a versatile camera set-up that’ll have you prepared for almost any lighting scenario, as well as unbelievable performance that comes courtesy of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The 6.82-inch AMOLED display is also a joy to use, still featuring that same OnePlus look where the sides fall over the edges for a wonderful sense of immersion. It doesn’t necessarily outdo the OnePlus 12 by a wide margin, but the OnePlus 13 is still a great phone overall.

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If you want the best possible phone for playing games on the go, our top recommendation is the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition.

Performance is a top priority for gamers, which is why Asus has gone all-out with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and a whopping 24GB of RAM. Combined with Asus’ proprietary internal cooling tech and the optional cooler that straps to your phone, the ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition delivered consistently solid performance even in high-end demanding mobile games like Genshin Impact.

It’s the gaming-specific features that really stand out though, with the AirTriggers allowing you to use and hold the phone like a gamepad, while the Armoury Crate software allows you to display the frame rate and optimise performance settings. Honestly, there’s a bevvy of optional accessories for the phone to customise the experience to your liking.

Like its predecessor, the ROG Phone 9 Pro doesn’t really look like a gaming phone – though the telltale signs are there if you really look. The LED-powered AniMe Vision screen is back, though with a massive increase to the LEDs taking the total up to 648 LEDs, allowing it to display graphics, text and even battery levels via the back of the phone. Elsewhere, though, it’s very toned-down for a gaming phone, something that’ll likely appeal to more casual mobile gamers.

We also appreciate the slimline bezels on offer from the gaming phone, and the camera performance isn’t terrible for a gaming phone even if it pales in comparison to the likes of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, helping it justify that top-end price tag.

That said, costing well over £1000/$1000, this is a seriously expensive phone. Those who want a more versatile phone may want to look elsewhere, as the camera quality is still behind that of the competition. But if you fancy a gaming phone that doesn’t look like a gaming phone, there is no better choice than the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition.

If you want an ultra-slim, lightweight flagship with a fantastic 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, you’ll find no better than Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 Edge.

At 5.6mm thick and 163g, it’s incredibly thin and light compared to most of the flagship competition, especially big-screen alternatives like the S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max, which makes for a fantastic in-hand feel. It’s super light while being durable with a titanium frame and IP68 dust resistance, with no real design compromise to achieve its ultra-slim dimensions.

However, it is very much a design-first smartphone. There are only two cameras, for example, lacking the telephoto present on much of the competition, and it can struggle to keep the top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite cool, especially when gaming.

The biggest compromise is undoubtedly battery life, with the 6.7-inch QHD+ screen simply too much for a small 3900mAh cell, and it struggles to last all day as a result.

That said, if you’re willing to compromise and possibly carry around a power bank, the experience of using the S25 Edge is unlike anything else on this list.

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While the Z Flip from Samsung can be seen as the pioneer of the modern flip phone, the Z Flip 6 isn’t the very best phone we’ve tested with this design. In fact, the best clamshell foldable we’ve reviewed is the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra.

While this year’s foldable may not be dramatically different from last year’s Razr 50 Ultra, it offers improvements where they matter. That includes a more durable build, complete with a new titanium hinge, and upgraded IP48 dust and water resistance.

That said, the core experience is solid, though given that it’s the best around, it’s not much of a complaint. The 4-inch cover screen remains the star of the show, with the ability to run widgets and full Android apps, reducing how often you need to unfold the phone.

When you do unfold, a larger 7-inch pOLED screen will greet you. Sporting Pantone Validation for accurate colours, it’s a great panel for scrolling, browsing and anything else you can think of. The crease is still present, of course, but it’s much shallower and less noticeable than most alternatives.

There’s also a performance boost, up to the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it ships with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage as standard, making it all the more tempting.

Battery life is also exceptional, never struggling to last all day without needing a top-up, and 68W charging means you can recharge in around 45 minutes.

Sure, its promise of three OS upgrades and four years of security patches falls way behind Samsung’s seven-year guarantee, but we think the experience, on the whole, is among the best you’ll find on the foldable market.

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If you’re on the market for a book-style foldable that’s not thick and heavy, the impossibly thin Honor Magic V3 is the one to go for. It measures 9.2mm thick when folded, making it thinner than the 12.1mm Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and some regular candybar phones. And, weighing just 226g, it’s lighter than the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

But if you thought this was simply a thin foldable with no substance, you’d be wrong. Honor has thrown the kitchen sink at this thing, boasting a fully-specced out 6.34-inch OLED cover screen that sports flagship tech including a 120Hz LTPO refresh rate and 5000nits peak brightness, and that’s matched by the 7.92-inch inner display too. What’s more, Honor has made great strides in reducing the crease of the screen, down to just 78um. For context, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a depth of 217um.

There’s also a solid camera offering comprised of a 50MP main, 50MP 3.5x periscope lens and 40MP ultrawide that, while not truly in the leagues of the best cameras around, does pretty well for a foldable. It’s also powerful with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and with a 5150mAh battery, it has no trouble lasting all day on a single charge.

The only weakness is Honor’s MagicOS. While it’s good enough for day-to-day use, it lacks the finesse of other foldables like the OnePlus Open and its Magic Canvas multitasking software and the impressive AI of the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, with Honor’s intent-based Magic Portal really only handy for niche use-cases.

If your budget doesn’t quite extend as far as flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, the budget-focused Google Pixel 9a could be what you’re looking for. 

Sporting a clean, understated design with flat edges and no camera bar that separates itself from the flagship Pixel equivalent for the first time, the 9a is a compact 6.3-inch smartphone that looks and feels like a flagship.

That flagship look is backed up by flagship performance in the form of the Tensor G4, also found in the Pixel 9 collection. While Google’s SoC isn’t as performance-focused as alternatives from Qualcomm and co, it provides responsive, snappy, everyday performance while also powering some pretty impressive AI features.

It’s this focus on AI, combined with Google’s stock approach to Android 15, that gives the Pixel 9a its charm. It can do most things that the top-end Pixel flagship can, including the new Add Me functionality, with only a few niche features exclusive to the flagship equivalent. 

It also gets the Pixel flagship’s seven-year OS upgrade promise, almost unheard of in the mid-range market. 

Camera performance continues to be a highlight for Google’s mid-ranger, with a new 48MP main camera that can easily outshine similarly priced phones like the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G. The lack of a telephoto does threaten Google’s dominance, but the digital Super Res Zoom still does the trick up to the 10x mark. 

Battery life is also excellent, not just for the ‘a’ series but for Pixels in general, with a large 5100mAh cell easily getting our reviewer through the day without scrambling for a charger – and that’s not always a given with Pixels. 

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If your budget doesn’t quite extend to the heights of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max, the £299 Motorola Edge 60 Fusion should be one for serious consideration. Don’t let the budget nature fool you though; this is very much a capable phone that punches above its weight class in many respects.

Measuring 7.9mm thick and 178g, it’s a delight to hold and use, further complemented by either vegan leather rear or silky plastic finish, depending on the colour option you go for, of which there are four colourful options.

That’s further improved by premium features like MIL-STD-810H protection, full IP68 dust and water resistance and a 6.7-inch curved OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s not quite as snappy as last year’s 144Hz panel, but given that most games can’t hit those kinds of framerates, it seems like a smart downgrade.

The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 is a fairly standard affair at the price point, paired with a generous 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as standard. As a result, it’s in-line with some of the best cheap performers including the Nothing Phone 3a, never struggling in daily use – though gamers may want to look elsewhere.

Despite its svelte dimensions, Motorola has packed a 5200mAh battery into the phone that doesn’t struggle to last a full day, and with 68W charging, you’ll get a full charge in less than an hour That easily beats the likes of the Pixel 9 Pro XL, iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra in the charging department.

There’s also a 50MP main camera and a 13MP ultrawide camera that perform pretty well in both well-lit and low-light scenarios, and Android 15 with little bloat is another treat. Seriously, what’s not to like?