The Best Phones of 2020
Which is the best phone to buy right now, in 2020?
From great Android phones to the latest iPhones, plus a few different options for those who don't want to settle, we walk you through the very best handsets available on the market with all of their pros and cons.
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With no further ado, here are the best phones you can buy right now.
Best phones of 2020 list:
- Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max - best iPhone
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra - best big Android phone
- Google Pixel 4 XL - clean Android, great camera
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus - productivity beast with a stylus
- iPhone 11 - best $700 phone
- OnePlus 8 - best value Android phone
- Galaxy S10 Plus - last year's best Android phone, discounted
- Apple iPhone SE (2020) - best budget iPhone
- Pixel 3a XL - best budget phone
iPhone 11 Pro Max
The big iPhone leads the industry in terms of performance, and now for the first time, it also comes with great battery life
Buy Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max from:
It features a beautiful screen that now gets brighter and features more impressive colors, it has the fastest chip beating the competition by a good margin, and now, finally, it has battery life ranking at the very top of all smartphones we have tested. The camera has also improved like every year and this time around the major new feature is Night Mode that allows you to take much better photos in low light. For all else this is your familiar iPhone: same iOS interface, same beautiful ecosystem with support for the Apple Watch, AirPods and so on. The big advantage of iOS is that it beats Android in terms of support: you typically get 5 years of software updates and the phone usually remains fast even after years of use.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
An all-around beast
Buy Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G from:
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is a phone that you just cannot ignore: the very best of Samsung in early 2020, it brings a brand new, ambitious camera system with a huge main sensor and a folder, periscope lens that allows you to get 10X hybrid optic zoom and up to a 100X digital zoom for an unprecedented zoom reach on a phone.
Equipped with a massive, 5,000mAh battery and 5G connectivity, the phone is ready for the networks of the present and the future.
Traditionally for Samsung, it also comes with the company's latest and most advanced AMOLED screen that features juicy colors and deep blacks, and this time it also supports 120-hertz refresh rate for an extra smooth experience. All of this comes at an expensive price, but the feature set is definitely impressive.
Pixel 4 XL
If you want the best camera in a phone and the most enjoyable Android experience
It also ships with the latest version of Android and it's guaranteed to be first in line for future updates, which is a big advantage over most other Android rivals. The 90-hertz display also makes a difference: the phone feels incredibly fast and smooth.
But this is definitely not the perfect phone: Face Unlock works even when your eyes are closed and it's not safe by any means, battery life is just average, and including just 64GB of on-board storage is not enough for a flagship phone.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10+
If you want a big and beautiful screen and care about the S Pen
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The Galaxy Note 10+ is the Samsung powerhouse that you should get if you want maximum screen space and if you care about the S Pen.
With a stunning finish that reflects light in a beautiful manner, a gorgeous large AMOLED screen, a whopping 256GB of fast storage, high quality loudspeakers, and options such as a microSD card slot, it is the phone for power users.
Samsung's new One UI is also an improvement from the company's previous UI attempts, battery life is very good (but not quite top-class), and the phone supports fast charging. Its camera quality is also among the very best, lacking a bit in low light capabilities when compared to the Google Pixel for example, but you do have more versatility with an ultra-wide and telephoto camera on board.
iPhone 11
the iPhone experience at a more reasonable price, but at the cost of screen quality
Buy Apple iPhone 11 from:
The iPhone 11 is the phone that most people will buy: at a starting price of the quite reasonable $700, it gives you a best-in-class performance and software support with a guaranteed 5 years of timely updates.
It also rocks an even longer battery life than the iPhone XR, which was a solid battery performer, and it runs iOS with all the pros and cons that come with this. We also have to point out that Face ID is still the best face recognition system out there and rivals cannot quite match it.
The biggest downside of owning an iPhone 11 is probably the screen: it has huge bezels, the phone feels too wide and not very comfortable to hold because of this, and the screen itself is an LCD one that is not as sharp or as vibrant as rival phones that feature the newer AMOLED technology.
OnePlus 8
The best value Android phone
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If you are looking for the best deal in mobile, the OnePlus 8 should be among your top picks.
It delivers all the flagship bells and whistles at a $700 price: the top-of-the line Snapdragon 865 chip, the super smooth performance with 90 Hertz AMOLED display that also happens to have some of the most amazing colors we have seen on a phone so far, the excellent battery life, the fast charging. With the 8 series, OnePlus also finally improves the camera in a significant way and images look a lot better and in many ways comparable to the Samsungs and iPhones in this world.
Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+
More affordable than the Note yet you get same camera and performance
Buy Samsung Galaxy S10+ from:
The Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ are two of the finest Android phones that money can buy. They feature a refined glass and metal design, one of the best screens ever put on a phone, as well as excellent cameras. Samsung is one of the few companies to keep all options on board, so these two phones have both a microSD card for memory expansion, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack for those who want it.
iPhone SE (2020)
The most affordable iPhone packs more power than flagship Androids, but battery life is below average
The iPhone SE (2020) might look just like the iPhone 8 and for that matter even the iPhone 6, but look under the hood, and it comes with an Apple A13 Bionic chip, more powerful than on Android flagships. It also comes with a single camera, but one that has been fine tuned to capture brilliant looking photos and 4K video recording quality is far above what you typically see in a $400 phone. Add to that the value of the iOS ecosystem, and you can understand while many users will be tempted by the new SE despite its lackluster battery life.
Pixel 3a XL
The best affordable Android phone
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The Pixel 3a XL is the best affordable Android phone: it features a clean and fast Android experience the way Google intended it to be and it has the best camera in its class, beating the competition by a big margin, especially in low light.
The XL also features good battery life, it is guaranteed to get software updates for years to come and get them days after they are released, while other budget phones never get updated or wait for months and often a year to get an update.
All of this makes, the Pixel 3a XL an easy pick if you are on a budget. The downside here is the plasticky build quality and the uninspiring looks.
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