Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Since we last updated our list of best smartphones, Google came out with two new phones, and we’re saying our final goodbye to the Nexus smartphones.
We’ve also seen a new entry from LG, and OnePlus made an unusual announcement earlier this month.
Here’s our ranking of the best phones you can buy.
Note: All prices below indicate how much the phones typically cost without a carrier contract. Prices may vary depending on the retailer.
20. BlackBerry Passport
BlackBerry
The BlackBerry Passport may look strange, but a lot of BlackBerry fans seem to love it. It has a really nice physical keyboard, but the key feature is its unique square design.
Price: $283
19. BlackBerry Classic
BlackBerry
If you were a BlackBerry fan in the company’s heyday, you’re going to love the BlackBerry Classic. It looks similar to older BlackBerry models, but features a sharp touch-screen and an excellent physical keyboard.
Price: $280
18. BlackBerry Priv
BlackBerry
The BlackBerry Priv is a huge departure for BlackBerry. Instead of running BlackBerry’s own operating system, the Priv runs Android. While it may look like a standard Android phone, the Priv has a slide-out keyboard.
This could be a great device for those who want a physical keyboard but still want access to Google’s apps and services that aren’t available on other BlackBerry devices.
Price: $370
Read the BlackBerry Priv review »
17. Moto G4
Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider
The Moto G4 is available in three different models, including the regular $200 G4, the $250 G4 Plus, and the yet-to-be-priced G4 Play that’s coming later this summer.
We reviewed the G4 Plus model, which has a 16-megapixel camera, compared with the 13-megapixel shooter on the regular G4, and found that it’s the best cheap smartphone you can buy. The G4 Plus also comes with a fingerprint sensor, while the other models don’t.
Price: $200 to $250
Check out the three new Moto G4 smartphones »
Check out the Moto G4 Plus review »
16. Samsung Galaxy Note 5
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
The Galaxy Note 5 is a killer big-screen phone. Like previous versions of the Note, it has a large, vibrant display and a stylus for taking notes. The new metal-and-glass design is great, too.
Price: $543
Read the Galaxy Note 5 review »
15. ZTE Axon 7
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
The Axon 7 is made by ZTE, a Chinese smartphone maker that’s relatively unknown in the US.
Why does it deserve a spot on this list? Because it offers the same — if not better — specs as the top Android players here, and it’ll cost you $250 less than the big name brands like Samsung, LG, or HTC.
That means if you don’t like the Nexus devices and you don’t want to pay top dollar for a Galaxy S7 or HTC 10, the ZTE Axon 7 might just be the phone for you.
Price: $400
Check out our hands-on with the ZTE Axon 7 for more details »
14. LG G5
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
LG’s G5 smartphone has a gorgeous all-metal design. It also has a removable bottom that lets you swap out a dead battery with a fresh one. The removable bottom can also be exchanged with “modules” that offer new functions, like a camera grip with a zoom dial and a shutter button for better control.
If that weren’t enough, it also has a dual-lens camera, which gives you unusual versatility when it comes to taking pictures.
Price: $560
Check out pictures of the LG G5 »
13. LG V20
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
The LG V20’s second screen at the top of the device is genuinely useful, as it gives you shortcuts to your favorite apps and music controls even when the screen is locked.
It also has great specs and a good camera, and it’s incredibly light for its size. It’ll also appeal to Android diehards holding on to legacy Android features like a removable battery and expandable microSD storage.
Unfortunately, those legacy Android features mean LG had to compromise on the overall build quality of the V20, which doesn’t match the premium flagship league it’s in.
Price: $617
12. HTC 10
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
The HTC 10 is a beautiful, extremely well-built smartphone. It runs a near-pure version of Android and can be bought unlocked, which means you won’t find annoying bloatware on the 10.
Price: $549
11. Moto Z
Tech Insider/Jeff Dunn
The regular Z model is one of the thinnest phones we’ve held, and it’s gorgeous. We also love the fact that it runs a near-pure version of Android.
The Moto Z also supports different modules that can attach to the back of the phone to give it new and better functionality. For example, you can attach a speaker module for better sound, or a projector module to project videos on a nearby wall.
The Moto Z will be released later this fall, and it should work with most carriers. The Moto Z Force model is a Verizon exclusive that’s currently available for a pricey $720.
Compared with the regular Z model, it has an extra strong screen that Motorola claims is shatterproof, as well as a larger battery.
Price: $624 to $720
Check out our review of the regular Moto Z »
10. OnePlus 3
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
The OnePlus 3 is easily one of the best Android smartphones you can own right now, and unlike previous OnePlus phones, you don’t need an invite to buy it.
The new metal back looks and feels fantastic, and it runs a near-pure version of Android, which is also a huge plus in our book. It also has some of the highest specs around for smooth and speedy performance, including an enormous 6 GB of RAM.
Some might dislike the fact that it doesn’t have expandable storage, but the OnePlus 3 comes with 64 GB of storage, which should be more than enough for most users. It also has a camera that rivals the Galaxy S7’s, which is considered the best smartphone camera made so far.
If you don’t care about water resistance, which the Galaxy S7 has, and you’d like to save $250 from the usual premium smartphone price tag, the $400 OnePlus 3 is absolutely the smartphone for you, and it’s worth every penny.
Alert: A new model is coming out on November 22.
Price: $400
Check out the OnePlus 3 review »
9. iPhone SE
The iPhone SE, with its 4-inch screen, is the best small-form smartphone you can buy at the moment. You get all the best apps, ecosystem, support, and the same performance as the iPhone 6S for a relatively low $400 price tag.
It also comes with Apple Pay, among other premium features like Live Photos and a fingerprint sensor — not to mention great battery life.
Price: $399
8. iPhone 6S
AP
The iPhone 6S is also a great deal, as you still get the premium Apple experience for $100 less than the new iPhone 7.
In addition to beautiful hardware, iPhone owners are guaranteed to always get the best apps first from third-party developers and reliable software updates with the latest and greatest features from Apple.
Price: $539
Click here for the iPhone 6S/6S Plus review »
7. iPhone 6S Plus
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
Now that the iPhone 7 Plus is out, the iPhone 6S Plus gets a $100 price cut, and that’s a great deal.
Fine, you don’t get all of the latest features that the iPhone 7 Plus has, like water resistance or that fancy dual-lens camera, but the iPhone 6S Plus is no slouch. It runs on the powerful A9 chip and has features like 3-D Touch, which can detect how hard you press on the screen and open up a new layer of controls for your apps.
It also has an incredibly fast fingerprint sensor, as well as Live Photos, which let you capture a three-second video with audio when you press the shutter button.
Price: $650
Read the iPhone 6S/6S Plus review »
6. Google Pixel XL
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
The new Pixels are Google’s first smartphones — the company took more control over the hardware than it did with its line of Nexus devices.
What you get is a sleek-looking aluminum phone with a stylish glass panel on the back, and a camera that holds its own against the iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7.
Google’s Pixel XL, the larger model with a 5.5-inch screen, shares exactly the same specs as its smaller sibling, the Pixel.
That’s including the powerful and power-efficient Snapdragon 821, 4 GB of RAM, and an excellent 12.3-megapixel camera that holds its own against the iPhone 7 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7.
The XL ranks behind the regular Pixel because it doesn’t offer much much apart from a larger screen and a higher price tag. At least the iPhone 7 Plus offers a dual-lens camera, and the S7 Edge’s curved edges look amazing compared with the regular S7’s flat front surface.
Price: $769
5. Google Pixel
Darren Weaver
The Pixel smartphones run Google’s Pixel launcher, which gives Android a cleaner look and bakes in Google’s helpful AI, Assistant. At the moment, the Pixel launcher is an exclusive for the Pixel phones.
Price: $649
4. Samsung Galaxy S7
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
The Galaxy S7 sports the best camera we’ve seen on a smartphone, even beating the iPhone 7 Plus. It’s also powerful, and it sports some great features like water resistance and a microSD card slot for expandable storage.
You also get Samsung Pay, which works with almost any payment terminal in any store — something the iPhone’s Apple Pay can’t do.
Price: $527
3. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Antonio Villas-Boas/Tech Insider
The Galaxy S7 Edge has a bigger 5.5-inch display and larger battery than the regular Galaxy S7, while retaining the same features: water resistance, a microSD card slot for expandable storage, and Samsung Pay.
Price: $615
Check out the Galaxy S7 review »
2. iPhone 7
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Without a doubt, the iPhone 7 brings the best apps and ecosystem to its users. And by ecosystem, we mean the support you get from Apple if something goes wrong, as well as getting the latest software updates straight from Apple.
It also works amazingly well with other Apple products, too, like the new AirPods wireless earphones.
The hardware also got a few improvements over the iPhone 6S, like water resistance, a camera that performs better in low light, a more powerful processor, and even redesigned antenna bands.
Price: $650
Check out the iPhone 7 review »
1. iPhone 7 Plus
Marques Brownlee/YouTube
The iPhone 7 Plus is the best smartphone you can buy for the apps, ecosystem, water resistance, and its dual-lens camera.
The dual-lens camera is the key feature that places the larger iPhone 7 Plus in the top spot over the iPhone 7. It lets you take pictures with a professional-looking bokeh effect, in which the background is blurry in contrast to the subject. That particular feature won’t go live until later this year, but you can still use the iPhone 7 Plus’ second telephoto lens to achieve 2x optical zoom, which means it zooms into subjects without sacrificing picture quality like digital zoom does on most smartphone cameras.
Price: $769
BONUS: OnePlus 3T
OnePlus
OnePlus pulled an unusual move by announcing the OnePlus 3T just five months after the OnePlus 3’s release.
The good news is that OnePlus 3 owners need not feel left out, as the OnePlus 3T isn’t much of an upgrade.
The changes include a slightly faster processor (Snapdragon 820 versus the 821), a slightly larger battery, a 16-megapixel front camera (versus 8-megapixel), better stabilization for video, and a darker color option.
It’ll sell on November 22 for $440 — a little more than the OnePlus 3’s $400 price tag.
Price: $440
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