Best Android Phones 2018: Reviews And Buying Advice

Choosing a new Android phone isn’t easy. The Android universe is teeming with options, from super-expensive flagship phones, to affordable models that make a few calculated compromises, to models expressly designed for, say, great photography. Chances are that whichever phone you buy, you’ll keep it for at least two years. So choosing the best Android phone for you isn’t a decision you should take lightly. But we can make things easier: We’ve made picks for the best Android phone in several categories. Check out our summary list below, or keep reading for the details on each one. At the bottom of this article, we also list all our recent Android phone reviews—in case you have your eye on a model that doesn’t make our cut. Updated 1/18/18: We have new picks for the best phone for photographers, phablet lovers, and bargain hunters. No phone is perfect, and the Galaxy S8 is no exception. But it's better than the best Samsung has ever made in almost every way. Inside and out, this phone is a masterpiece.

The gorgeous design is built around a big, tall 18.5:9 aspect ratio AMOLED display that delivers the best brightness, contrast, and color we’ve ever seen. The new form factor isn’t just good looking, it’s more comfortable and usable, too. Inside you’ll find the first phone with a 10nm Snapdragon 835 chip, which gives it top-tier performance and excellent power efficiency. In fact, these phones performed just great in our battery benchmarks (roughly 9 hours), with real-world use easily taking us through a busy day. There are so many features it’s hard to list them all. Samsung’s software is better than ever, too. You still have to contend with far too much bloatware and from Samsung and carriers, and the fingerprint sensor is placed in a terrible location. But these sore spots are relatively minor distractions from a phone that does more, looks better, and is more delightful to use than anything else on the market.

The Pixel 2 XL is an incredible phone that grafts device experiences to life experience in simple, intuitive and smile-provoking ways. The original Google Pixel produces amazing images, but the Pixel 2 takes photography to a whole new level. Indeed. The camera in Google’s latest smartphone isn’t just the best in an Android phone this year. It has also raised the bar for the entire smartphone industry. The first thing you’ll notice about the Pixel 2’s camera is its specs. Like last year, Google hasn’t gone with a dual camera set-up, and in fact it, hasn’t really upgraded the hardware much at all. As always, however, specs don’t tell the whole story. For one, optical image stabilization makes a huge difference in both low-light situation and motion pics, but what’s most impressive is what Google is doing behind the scenes. In the Pixel 2, Google is using its AI and machine-learning engines to amplify its image processing prowess, and the results are simply stellar. But the best part might be that both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have the exact same camera.

The Galaxy Note 8 is nothing less than a triumphant return for Samsung's flagship phablet and the best phone it has ever rmade. Samsung has upgraded its productivity phablet in a number of meaningful ways. The most important change is in the camera. For the first time in a Galaxy flagship phone, Samsung has added a second camera to the rear setup, bringing 2x optical zoom and a true portrait mode. That’s on top of the already great camera that’s in the Galaxy S8. And there are other little upgrades as well. The bigger display makes it feel more substantial to hold, and with a higher maximum brightness, it’s much easier to read in direct sunlight. The battery in the Note 8 is actually smaller than the Galaxy S8’s (3,300mAh vs 3,500mAh), but Samsung’s OS optimizations make it last just as long. And even with the same processor, the phone feels faster, thanks to 6GB of RAM and a newer version of Android Nougat.