(Image credit: Apple)

After months of rigorous in-hand testing, Future Labs benchmarking, and countless head-to-head comparisons, a new champion has been crowned. The Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max has claimed the top spot as our new best phone overall, pushing the iconic device in bold new directions with its stellar performance and an outstanding new camera system that truly sets a new high-water mark for mobile photography.

Our list of the best phones you can buy is now fully updated with all of the year's top contenders. We've spent weeks living with the entire Google Pixel 10 lineup—including the impressive Pixel 10 Pro—and put Samsung's latest Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 through their paces to see exactly where each device lands in the new hierarchy.

This guide reflects all of our comprehensive testing and in-depth reviews, ranking the absolute best phone for every need and budget.

We don’t just run benchmarks and move on; we live with these phones, using them for real-world tasks, shooting hundreds of photos, and pushing their batteries to the limit. Only after this exhaustive process, comparing every major model against each other, do we update this guide.

The competition, of course, never rests. The first major challenger of 2026 is already on our test bench, as we're currently putting the new OnePlus 15 through its paces. Check back soon to see if it has what it takes to dethrone our new champion.

We've reviewed over 1,500 phones at TechRadar over the last 20 years, and I've personally been reviewing phones even longer. I've tested every phone on this list to make sure it lives up to its promise and is worth your money.