Best Android phone: Top rated Android phones you can buy

The vast majority of best phones run on Google’s Android operating system. The reason why many opt for an Android over iPhone is that Android phones are more versatile than their iOS counterparts. They come in all ranges and sizes, have different concepts and designs, and you can even gain further access to what the manufacturer has specified for you by rooting your Android.

However, due to the vast choices to opt from shopping for an Android smartphone can turn into a difficult task. Futuristic designs, touted specs, and a convincing salesperson may sway you into making an ill-informed impulse purchase or wobble into a 24-month payment plan that you might later regret.

To help you find the right handset for you, we have rounded up the best new Android phones available out there. Ranking and rating Android handsets by their hardware performance, features, OS upgrade potentials for a longer lifespan, how well-designed they are with shiny finishes to look great on your palm, and without a doubt, how clear their video recordings and selfies are.

Here they are – the best phones running on Google’s OS money can buy.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

The latest Samsung Galaxy S9 and its larger sibling, Galaxy S9+, are the Android phones you can look for in 2018. New Samsung flagship smartphones maintain the luxurious design of their predecessors, sport a body made by two glass pieces sandwiched together by a minimalist Aluminum frame. Also, the S9 and S9+ are the best mobile phones featuring a curved screen on the edges and have the best hardware and software capable of outperforming their competition.

The larger of the two, the Galaxy S9 Plus, boasts a 6.2-inch QHD+ edge-to-edge Infinity display that’s built to resist shock and scratches due to the covering by the 5th generation of Corning Gorilla glass. The standard Galaxy S9 looks identical to its larger sibling. Its screen measures 5.8-inch and due to the smaller sizes, has a brighter screen with more pixels packed together.

For the best utter performance and fast operating both these Samsung handsets run the latest Snapdragon 845 processor by Qualcomm and Samsung’s equivalent to that, Exynos 9810. Regardless of which version you purchase, both chipsets are built for speed, enhancing graphics, and deal extremely well with AI. There are no better gaming phones than these two, with its 6gigs of RAM to keep things ready for the CPU to run and 256GB of onboard storage you can download as many games as you want. If memory is never sufficient for you, there’s support for an additional 512GB that you can add via a microSD card.

Two 12MP cameras on the back of Galaxy S9+ are built to capture clear photography with superior quality even when the light is low. Galaxy S9 has only one 12MP camera and it shoots pics and records vids almost as good as its larger sibling. An 8MP selfie snapper at the front enhances video chat and selfie shooting and have AI support.

Samsung still keeps the fingerprint sensor, although it now has moved to the back and the Home button no longer can be used to unlock the handset. The 3D touch feature placed underneath the screen still leaves place for an operational Home function. Both these Samsung phones still bear the headphone jack, have NFC for contactless payments via Samsung Pay, and can record super-slow-motion videos of up to 960 frames per second.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

If Samsung’s Galaxy S9+ and its 6.2-inch of a curved screen is not large enough for you, the tech giant offers a bigger alternative to it. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and its mammoth-sized display measuring 6.4-inches will certainly fill-up your palm. Although sporting an extensively large screen, Samsung has designed the phablet to fit comfortably on your hand, the overall size is also decreased due to curves on both edges and no framing on the sides that simultaneously add those tens of the inch to the size.

The camera setup is identical to the package coming in the Galaxy S9+, it shoots excellent photos at low light and turns selfies into 3D emoji models of yourself.

The latest Note phone has a larger battery than the newest members of the Galaxy S-series with 4,000 mAh capacity, it adds that more time of power you need when playing video games. It offers a large variety of easily locking and accessing your phone that includes a fingerprint reader, the iris scanner, patterns, and PIN. Furthermore, it still maintains the headphone jack.

Graphics handling and speed are equivalent to the performance found on the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.

Huawei P20 and P20 Pro

One of the top Android cell phones your money can buy is the Huawei P20 Pro and the smaller version of it, P20. The top China phone stylishly designed by Huawei and set to be the face of the company for almost an entire year packs the best hardware current technology has in offer for mobile telephony.

The Huawei P20 and P29 Pro handsets run on company’s Hisilicon Kirin 970 chipset, which, by many accounts, outperforms Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 regarding AI configurations. Having such a powerful chipset and running on Google’s latest OS makes this handheld cell phone an excellent choice for playing advanced and complex mobile games.

The outlook of this phone is quite mesmerizing. It comes in 5.8-inch and 6.1-inch versions. The P20 Pro version has triple camera setup on the rear and they are placed one over the other in a vertical manner to give to the phone a ravishing preview from the back. With the trio of Leica made cameras the phone gets enhanced photography snaps and clearer videos. Regarding selfies, this phone packs an enormous 24MP camera unit at the front.

Huawei did an excellent work when designing its next P-series of high-end phones. The company has somehow managed to put together an edge-to-edge screen and a physical Home button. The button is extensively small and tiny, but it still is there and serves as a fingerprint reader besides other functionalities. Both handsets have a decent battery life and they do not have the headphone jack that once Apple decided to remove from its phones happened to be wanted and missed by everybody. If the headphone jack socket is a must for you, consider reading out about other phones listed in here.

Sony Xperia XZ3

Sony’s flagship has everything you need on a premium Android smartphone. Sports a large all-touchscreen panel at the front which is even curved on the edges, runs the latest processor for mobile phones made by Qualcomm and offers superior photography snapping.

The 6-inch curved screen that features a resolution of 1440 x 2880 pixels makes this handset compact and lands to it an extremely clear screen to watch whatever you want. Snapdragon 845 with 6GB of RAM makes sure that regardless of how massive the games you play are, will be running smoothly and graphics will be handled perfectly well.

The eye-catching 19MP camera on the rear can single-handedly record 4K videos while the 13MP unit at the front captures magnificent selfies. The Sony flagship boasts a rear-mounted fingerprint, supports wireless and fast charging, but does not have a headphone jack socket.

LG G7 ThinQ

The LG G7 ThinQ is the phone with killer audio features. It looks very similar to other premium handsets, sports a large all-touchscreen display that has turned into a norm for every phone designer to implement, runs the fastest known mobile processor and the latest version of Android OS.

The display of the G7 ThinQ is at the top notch when it comes to resolution and brightness. It measures 6.1 inches in size and has a QHD+ resolution of 3120 x 1440 that drives pixel density as tight as 564 pixels per inch. It is as dense with pixels as the Galaxy S9 and outranks the Galaxy S9+ regarding screen resolution. If curves on the edges and 5.8-inch phones aren’t your thing, the LG flagship might just be what you are looking for.

A duo of two 16MP cameras on the rear shoot 4K videos and utilize LG’s audio technology to silence and filter out wind noise when filming videos outdoors. The wind sound when filming with a phone is a real disturbance, LG worked its way out to reducing such disturbances. There’s another 8MP camera on the front for you to take selfies and HD video chat.

The G7 ThinQ has Boombox speakers that the company claims to be up to 40 percent louder than speakers on other phones, supports microSD up to 2TB in case 128 gigs are insufficient for you, and does have support for wired headphones.

OnePlus 6

If iOS wasn’t your thing and Samsung flagships failed to blow you away, your next best thing to them has been a OnePlus phone. OnePlus managed to keep in one place high-end specs, popular concepts, and an affordable pricing. This has been going for years on end and OnePlus’ phones that “Never Settle” remain to be amongst the best in the world.

The OnePlus 6 sports a massive screen of 6.28 inches with 1080p resolution with a 16MP and 20MP two-camera setup on the rear and a 16MP selfie snapper at the front. It runs on Snapdragon 845 SoC and has versions with up to 8gigs of RAM and 256gigs of flash memory. It has no microSD card slot but 256GB might just be enough for taping clips, snappings pics for Instagram and Snapchat, and for playing multiple games.

This premium cell phone gets powered by a 3,300 mAh battery that will keep it going throughout the day, sports a back-mounted fingerprint reader for easy and secure access, has NFC for wireless payments and does sport the headphone jack socket.

LG V35 ThinQ

The LG V35 ThinQ is almost identical to the company’s other flagship phone, G7 ThinQ, and it ranks as one of the top cell phones running on Android money can buy in 2018. This LG phone boasts a 6-inch QHD screen with pixel density of 537 pixels per inch, there aren’t many other phones with better OLED display panels than this one.

This hi-end handset specializes in minimizing noises when recording videos with its dual 16MP cameras that besides canceling wind sounds are also backed by AI that analyzes objects on the frames and recommends you when to switch between standard and wide angle views. The 8MP snapper at the front shoots selfies as bright as selfies can be.

For the utmost performance, the handset runs on Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of flash memory edition that can host even more memory via a microSD. It also has a rear-mounted fingerprint that you don’t find on the latest iPhone X versions and a headphone jack socket.

Xiaomi Pocophone F1

Xiaomi broke the wheel with the Pocophone F1. The company did show to the world that a mobile phone sporting the latest hardware and software doesn’t necessarily have to cost thousands of dollars. The Pocophone F1 runs on the same processor as the Galaxy Note 9, boasts a screen as large as the iPhone XR but with more pixels and costs one third the price of the two. For the price of just $370, this phone is a steal.

This hi-end handset that costs less than the average midrange phones and even some units in the “budget” line of smartphones runs the Snapdragon 845 chipset and has 8 gigs of RAM with 256GB of memory version. It also has a dedicated slot for a microSD and runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI 9.1 with a custom Poco skin.

Poco F1 sports a massive 6.18-inch 1080p LCD screen, a rear-mounted fingerprint and a frontal infrared sensor for unlocking the phone with your face, gets powered by a large 4,000 mAh battery that will keep the handset powered for quite some time, and packs the 3.5mm headphone jack socket for you to listen to music via your favorite wired earbuds.

Best midrange Android: Huawei Honor 10

The Honor 10 leaves its competition in the line of mid range phones behind mainly because Huawei did not sacrifice in the processor when making up this phone. That’s right. The Honor 10 runs the same beast of a chipset found on the company’s P20 and P20 Pro flagship phones. The Kirin 970 is way faster than Snapdragon 660 and Exynos 7 commonly found on Samsung’s dedicated line of midrangers.

Honor 10 boasts a 5.84-inch 1080p screen with a notch at the top (if you hate the notch, the Honor 10 View does not have one, packs similar features, is slightly larger, and sells for a similar price).

This Huawei phone, unlike the flagship P20 and P20 Pro, does have the headphone jack socket. You’ll be saving some money on headphone adapters. There’s also a front-mounted fingerprint which is placed under the glass panel and is bounded by a dotted line.

The Kirin 970 chipset with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of flash memory makes this handset a decent suitable for playing heavy games. There’s facial recognition for flash unlocking the handset and Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 skin to top the overall info about Huawei Honor 10.

Best budget Android: Nokia 6.1

The 5.5-inch Nokia 6 2018 edition, also known as the Nokia 6.1, is the top Android phone you can buy for a budget. The new Nokia 6 brings a much better performance than its predecessor by replacing the Snapdragon 430 with the much-faster Snapdragon 630. It has 3GB and 4GB of RAM with 32GB and 64GB of respective flash memory versions, the phone uses the second SIM card slot as a microSD reader and it can host a card of up to 256gigs. With Android 8.1 Oreo on top and expandable memory this phone will do great job when dealing with complex game graphics.

Nokia made some design adjustments when upgrading the Nokia 6. The company removed the front-mounted fingerprint and sent it to the back, while the 16MP camera on the rear can now shoot 4K videos at 30 frames per second. The unit on the former series was limited to 1080p videos. The screen resolution remains to be at 1080.

An 8MP front-facing snapper shoots relatively well selfies and provides you with quality video chat. A 3,000 mAh battery powers this compact Android phone, an NFC function for contactless payments, and there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack socket placed on the top of the handset.