The finest phones we tried in 2023, counting foldables and budget picks 

We’re within the final stretch of 2023, which implies two things. 1) There’s no superior time to purchase a modern smartphone than amid the occasion shopping season, with bounty of alternatives that are really worth contributing in, and 2) ZDNET has the clearest picture of what’s great, what’s not so great, and what phone is best for which sort of client.

Below, I’ve compiled the authoritative list of beat phones you’ll be able buy right presently, based on a year’s worth of hands-on testing. My choose for the leading phone generally goes to Samsung System S23 Ultra for its immersive and dynamic show, dependable battery life, and riches of uncommon highlights. Perused on for all and the rest of the picks on this year’s Best of 2023 list. 

The best mobile phones 2023

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

• Most complete smartphone experience money can buy
• Reliable quad-camera setup
• 256GB base storage leads the competition
• Integrated S Pen stylus for enhanced functionality

cons

• Phone can be unwieldy for some, especially with a case
• Fast charging is still capped at 45W
• Pricier than most Android phones

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra specs: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy | Display size: 6.8 inches | Storage options: Up to 1TB | Rear cameras: 200MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto (2x), 10MP telephoto (5x) | Front camera: 12MP

Samsung’s World S23 Ultra is irrefutably the foremost total smartphone you’ll purchase right presently. It’s indeed more incredible once you realize the phone propelled back in February, beating the test of time.

The World S23 Ultra is built with a huge 6.8-inch AMOLED show that produces dynamic visuals both within the brightest and dimmest situations, a dependable 5,000mAh battery, four cameras at the raise to assist you capture a assortment of shots, and an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for World chipset.

That final bit is particularly vital given how much more capable however productive the Ultra lead is, indeed when compared to final year’s S22 arrangement. In my ZDNET audit, I specified that “the portable stage brings important enhancements to the Universe phone encounter, whereas Samsung’s done its portion to optimize the S23 Ultra with a bigger vapor cooling chamber and more productive back-end preparing. 

 Together, you get a phone that’s powerful enough for any type of user, including mobile gamers. For a smartphone that’s not made specifically for gaming, that’s as high praise as it gets, righ

The S23 Ultra proves just as much of its worth through unique specs and features, ones that truly matter to day-to-day usage. That includes the base storage of 256GB (versus the industry’s 128GB standard), the integrated S Pen that gives you enhanced precision and inputs, Samsung’s five-year commitment to security updates, and even Samsung DeX, its mobile-to-desktop service that turns your S23 Ultra into a full-on computer when connected to a monitor or TV.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

pros

• Action button brings new customizability
• Lighter, more comfortable form factor
• Brighter screen for better outdoor use
• 5X zoom camera for high-quality shots

cons

• Battery life could be longer
• Apple-branded cases, especially the FineWoven, need to be better

iPhone 15 Pro Max specs: Processor: A17 Pro | Display size: 6.7 inches | Storage options: Up to 1TB | Rear cameras: 48MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 12MP telephoto (2x), 12MP telephoto (5x) | Front camera: 12MP

The unused iPhone 15 Professional Max offers everything a premium lead smartphone ought to, counting a brilliant 6.7-inch AMOLED show for all the media utilization — and versatile efficiency, of course. 

This year’s demonstrate too looks and feels diverse than any earlier Master Max gadgets, as it’s made of titanium rather than stainless steel and, so, altogether lighter within the hand. This makes the iPhone 15 Professional Max recognizably more comfortable to utilize, as ZDNET Editor-in-Chief Jason Hiner famous in his survey.

Another major include of the iPhone 15 Professional Max is the USB-C connector; especially, one that bolsters speedier charging and information exchanges, the capacity to charge other gadgets counting the Apple Observe from your iPhone, and the capacity to associate to an outside 4K screen. These benefits are game-changing for proficient substance makers.

The iPhone 15 Master Max moreover highlights a modern 5x zoom camera focal point — the comparable of a 120mm central length on a mirrorless or DSLR camera. A unused Activity button lets you way better customize alternate routes and effectively open the apps you wish, counting terminating up the camera with a press-and-hold. And the A17 Professional chip rounds out the year’s overhauls, advertising moved forward graphical execution 

Apple is charging you more for this year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a starting price that’s now been bumped up to $1,199. In turn, the device comes with a base storage of 256GB.

Google Pixel 8 Pro

pros

• Quality cameras all across the board
• Plenty of useful AI features
• 5,050mAh battery with LTPO display
• Priced to undercut the larger iPhone and Samsung Galaxy

cons

• Stock Android can feel too minimal
• Capped at 30W fast charging
• Costs $100 more than last year’s model

Google Pixel 8 Pro features: Processor: Google Tensor G3 | Display size: 6.7 inches | Storage options: 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB | Rear cameras: 50MP main, 48MP ultrawide, 48MP telephoto | Front camera: 10.8MP

When it comes to camera execution, you truly can’t go off-base with any of the lead gadgets from the huge three (Apple, Samsung, and Google). Depending on your inclination for color temperature and highlight set, you’ll incline towards one producer over the other. But more regularly than not, it’s Google’s Pixel camera system that fulfills the foremost clients, and the most recent Pixel 8 Professional remains a winner both for moment capturing and post-processing.

This year’s demonstrate highlights a solid triple focal point setup, with a 50MP essential focal point, a 48MP ultrawide that’s outstandingly more able at capturing large scale and close-up photographs, and a 48MP fax focal point for far-distance shots. Ought to you need more granular control over the Pixel 8 Pro’s camera quality, there’s presently a arrangement of Pro controls that permit you to change settings just like the presentation and screen speed.

But real-time capturing is as it were half the fight with portable photography; there’s too post-processing and how adaptable gadgets are with altering and tweaking subjects around. To that respect, the Pixel 8 Master may fair have the foremost adaptable and imaginative photo tool kit on the showcase, with AI highlights like Enchantment Eraser, Photo Unblur, and Best Take that can turn any terrible photo into a great one.

OnePlus Open

pros

• Lightest and thinnest foldable design
• Intuitive multitasking and productivity features
• 65W fast charging will spoil you
• 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage is the base level

cons

• $1,699 is still pricey, even if it undercuts the competition
• No IP68 rating and wireless charging support

OnePlus Open features: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Display size: 6.3 inches and 7.8 inches | Storage options: 512GB | Rear cameras: 48MP main, 48MP ultrawide, 64MP telephoto| Front camera: 32MP (outer) and 20MP (inner)

The number of foldable phones on the showcase this year essentially quintupled compared the 2022, much appreciated to the collective exertion of close to each producer, counting Google with its Pixel Crease, Motorola with its Razr lineup, and OnePlus with the OnePlus Open. Whereas Samsung has held the reins of the most excellent foldable honor for a long time, I’m giving the best spot this year to the OnePlus Open. 

Not at all like its competitors, the OnePlus Open strikes the finest adjust of weight-to-size proportion. When collapsed, the phone is as light as an iPhone Professional Max, and when unfolded, it grows into a lean slate of visual goodness. OnePlus leverages the 7.8-inch display by advertising a few of the foremost instinctive multitasking highlights I’ve tried, featured by “Open Canvas”. With it, you’ll be able open up to three apps at once, and as you tap into each one, the other one or two will tuck itself to the side, prepared to return when required.

The triple camera setup, whereas displayed in a casing that sticks out more than I’d incline toward, captures marvelous photographs and recordings, with an accentuation on blue and orangish tints that cinematographers and photography buffs know and adore. By nature of the foldable shape figure, the Open is additionally able of taking hands-free selfies and group photos.

OnePlus got the basics down pat with the Open, as well, counting 65W quick charging capabilities (with a charger within the box) that blow past Samsung and Google’s foldable measures, a base configuration of 16GB Smash and 512GB capacity, and a crease-less internal show. The cherry on best for me is its $1,699 price tag, with OnePlus advertising $200 off after you exchange in any phone in any condition. 

Motorola Razr Plus

pros

• Large cover screen is a phone in and of itself
• Incredibly compact
• First dust-resistant foldable
• Form factor lends itself to creative camera features

cons

• Battery is just good enough for a day of use
• Repair solutions remain up in the air
• Undeniably more fragile than the typical slab phone

Motorola Razr Plus features: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 | Display size: 3.6 inches and 6.9 inches | Storage options: 256GB | Rear cameras: 12MP main, 13MP ultrawide | Front camera: 32MP

Flip phones have made a (somewhat) triumphant return, indeed on the off chance that young people and youthful grown-ups are selecting for the dumber option of the two sorts. The Motorola Razr Furthermore marks the return of the old-school handset, or as I put it in my full survey, “a return to create, modernizing a classic flip phone into one of today’s best foldables.”

With the modern Razr Additionally, Motorola has prepared the external cover of the phone with a 3.6-inch show. Other than multiplying as a rear-camera viewfinder, the outside show fundamentally serves as a auxiliary, littler phone. You’re able to run the same apps and administrations that you just would on the inward 6.9-inch board, counting making phone calls, content informing, observing TikToks, and playing recreations. The same can be accomplished with the Samsung World Z Flip 5, in spite of the fact that you’d need to bounce through a escape clause or two.

The foldable frame figure of the Razr Plus ultimately loans itself to an progressed camera involvement. Since you’re able to flex the show at an upright point, it’s simpler to urge everybody within the outline for bunch photographs, take selfies, and capture long-exposure shots that would regularly require a tripod or mounting adornment. 

Samsung Galaxy A54 5G

pros

• Competitively priced at under $450
• Large and bright 120Hz AMOLED display
• Long-lasting 5,000mAh battery
• Up to five years of software updates

cons

• Plastic body can feel cheaper than glass
• Front-facing camera is just passable
• Exynos processor still lags behind Qualcomm

Samsung Galaxy A54 5G features: Processor: Exynos 1380 | Display size: 6.3 inches | Storage options: 128GB | Rear cameras: 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 5MP macro| Front camera: 32MP

Accept it or not, Samsung’s best-selling smartphone final year was not one of its S-series or foldable gadgets, or maybe it was the humble Galaxy A53 5G, which conveyed an uncompromising phone involvement with a smooth-scrolling screen, solid battery, and up to five a long time of program bolster. The gadget was estimated at fair $449, undermining its more premium competitors and heavy-handedly beating Apple’s possess mid-range handset, the iPhone SE.

This year’s A54 5G ticks fair as numerous boxes as its forerunner but with a arrangement of unpretentious however valuable updates. For illustration, the show is still a huge 6.4-inch board that slopes up to 120Hz revive rate, but presently sparkles at 1,000 nits of brightness (from 800 nits), the battery measure is still a solid 5,000mAh capacity, and the unit is presently fueled by an Exynos 1380 chipset. That’s a minor bump from final year’s Exynos chip, but a bump in any case.

The World A54 too highlights an outside plan that’s more in line with Samsung’s S-series phones and a modern camera framework that’s featured by a 50-megapixel primary focal point. From our testing, the photo comes about — both in daytime and nighttime — were equally lit and honed fair sufficient for you to share with others with certainty. Video capturing is capped at 4K, in spite of the fact that the 128GB inside capacity that can be extended through MicroSD card ought to be adequate sufficient for utilize. 

OnePlus 11

pros

• Snappy and smooth performance
• 100W fast-charging (80W in the US) with charger in the box
• Premium build quality for the price
• Competitive main camera for photos

cons

• Storage and RAM configuration is limited to 128GB/256GB
• No wireless charging
• No IP68 rating for water and dust resistance

OnePlus 11 features: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Display size: 6.7 inches | Storage options: Up to 256GB | Rear cameras: 50MP main, 48MP ultrawide, 32MP telephoto| Front camera: 16MP

A slow-charging phone can be a genuine torment point, particularly in case you’re continuously on the go. That’s why the OnePlus 11 carves out its claim best category, beating Apple, Google, and indeed Samsung when it comes to charging speed. The most recent demonstrate comes with 100W SuperVooc quick charging or 80W within the US, which is still great. 

For reference, the highest-end iPhone 15 Master Max encompasses a charging speed constrain of 30W and Samsung’s System S23 Ultra caps out at 45W. From ZDNET’s testing and comparisons, both of those gadgets take a slightest an hour to go from 0% to 75ttery, falling discernibly brief of the OnePlus 11’s numbers.

In less than 27 minutes, the OnePlus can go from purge to full. That charging speed, and the reality that OnePlus incorporates its restrictive charger within the box, put it a step over the rest.

The most excellent portion is that the rest of the phone is no slump either; you’re getting a 6.7-inch AMOLED show with a 120Hz refresh rate, the most recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, a 5,000mAh dual-cell battery, and a competitive triple-camera cluster that gets the work tired. add up to, OnePlus is charging you a beginning rate of $699, which is fair as great of a esteem pickup as the finest budget smartphone on this list. 

Asus Zenfone 10

Asus Zenfone 10 specs: Screen size: 5.9 inches | Storage: Up to 512GB | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Panel type: AMOLED | Color: Black, Blue, Hazel, White, Red | Battery life: 4,300mAh | Water and dust resistant: IP68 

Asus Zenfone 10 features: Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Display size: 5.9 inches | Storage options: Up to 512GB | Rear cameras: 50MP main, 13MP ultrawide | Front camera: 32MP

There’s no denying that, over the past five a long time, smartphones have gotten to be increasingly clumsy. Apple presently offers Furthermore and Max-sized iPhones, Samsung has an “Ultra” mammoth, and indeed Google incorporates a foldable that opens up to 7.6 inches. On the other conclusion of the range sits the Asus Zenfone 10, a gadget that veers off from the standard in favor of ergonomics and in-hand consolation, and the choice pays off.

Like final year’s Asus Zenfone 9, which I called “the iPhone Smaller than expected elective for Android devotees,” the most up to date demonstrate highlights a compact 5.9-inch AMOLED show, all the control you’d require in a modern-day phone much appreciated to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and two able cameras on the raise.

The battery life on the Asus holds up shockingly well, as well, with my audit unit recording about two days of utilization some time recently hitting 0%. A few littler however noteworthy subtle elements to note incorporate the 3.5mm earphone jack on beat, a physical side-mounted unique mark sensor, and a texturized back cover that looks and feels extraordinary within the hand. 

What is the best phone?

Our pick for the best phone overall is the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. It features everything you could want from a smartphone including a large display, four cameras that can shoot 200MP photos and 8K video, up to 1TB of storage, a built-in S Pen for writing and drawing, and a 5,000mAh battery powering the system. Here’s how the S23 Ultra fares with the rest of our top picks.

Which phone is right for you?

Choosing a phone can be a daunting task. But having a list of your must-have features can go a long way toward narrowing down your options. If you’re a mobile professional or travel a lot for work, you’ll want to choose a phone that can provide you with at least a full day of use on a full battery as well as both LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity. 

If you’re looking for your teen’s first smartphone, a budget-friendly and less feature-heavy option may be better to prevent overspending as well as misuse. And if you’re a content creator or other creative professional, you’ll want a phone with an excellent front and rear camera to capture photos and videos for your social media feed.

How did we choose these phones?

The process to make our phone selections includes real-world testing and researching about the phones for weeks, consulting with colleagues, industry experts, and analysts who also have hands-on experience with the smartphones, and then selecting the best from all of the available choices. 

Ultimately, we weigh in the following aspects when curating this list:

• Design: There’s only so much you can do with a slab design, but size differences, material choices, color options, and even the ability to bend a screen in half give shoppers enough diversity to have a preference. That’s why we have a recommendation for every form factor.
• Performance: For many, smartphones are the center of our lives, which means the best ones are performant and can handle most, if not all, tasks you throw at them.
• Camera: Arguably the most valuable feature of a smartphone; the consistency and reliability of a camera system can make or break the overall mobile experience. We test every device in broad daylight and in the darkest of nights when finalizing this list.
• Battery: Every option in this guide should last you at least a day of moderate use. We also take into consideration what devices support fast charging and/or wireless charging.
• Value: Price points are noted, but the most important thing with buying a phone is getting your money’s worth. With these picks, you can rest assured that you’re getting the best bang for your buck. 

Which phone has the best camera?

It’s debatable between the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Google Pixel 8 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. For long-distance shots, Samsung’s 200MP rear camera with 100x Space Zoom can capture subjects as far out as the moon. For point-and-shoot pictures and a rather simplified (but effective) camera experience, Google’s Pixel phones have always been at the top. If you’re a videographer at heart, then the iPhone 15 Pro, with Cinematic mode and Action mode, makes for an excellent tool to get the shots you need.

How long should a phone battery last?

The average phone battery gives you about 22 hours of use on a full charge, which is great for staying connected on your commutes, work flights, and at home in the evenings. But that’s just the average, actual use time varies by phone model and by what you’re using your phone for. 

For example, the latest iPhone 15 Pro Max boasts a 29-hour battery life. But you’ll most certainly get less than that if you habitually scroll through social media or stream video and music. And the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 has just a nine-hour battery life, which is further reduced by streaming, social media, and making calls.

How much storage should my phone have?

Most smartphones have a base storage capacity of 128GB, which is plenty of space for average users to download apps and music, take photos, and shoot videos. However, if you’re a mobile or creative professional, you’ll need more space. Many smartphones have expanded storage options up to 512GB or even 1TB, and you can always sync your phone to your preferred cloud storage service to free up local storage space.

Which phones are also worth considering?

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, there are tons of options out there. Whether you’re looking to upgrade or get your first smartphone, Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus have great choices: