Best smartphones of 2025: Our top picks

Picking a new smartphone is a big deal. It’s your camera, your wallet, and your lifeline to the world, all in your pocket. It’s an investment that goes everywhere with you. As phones keep getting smarter, they pack in more features that make our lives easier—but this also makes our choice more complicated. 

With so many phones on the market right now, we’ve rounded up our top picks. We'll highlight what makes each one stand out, so you can find the perfect fit. 

iPhone 17 Pro Max: Best battery and display

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is the top choice for users who prioritize long battery life and a premium display. It easily handles high-intensity streaming, gaming, and multitasking without a significant drop in battery life. This is partially due to the sleek redesign—the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s new look has created more space for a bigger battery.  

The 6.9-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display is large, bright and razor-sharp, making videos, games and browsing vivid. With its high resolution and smooth 120Hz refresh rate thanks to Apple’s ProMotion technology, it offers stunning clarity, fluid movement and excellent colour accuracy—even in direct sunlight. Thanks to the screen's anti-reflective coating, glare won’t impede your experience.  

The unibody aluminum design wraps around the phone, making it durable and long-lasting. Vapour chamber cooling also ensures your iPhone won’t overheat as you use it for high-intensity tasks, making it a powerful machine.  

This year’s model adds subtle but useful AI features. Live Translation makes cross-language communication on platforms like iMessage and FaceTime simple, perfect for travel or business. Using AI-powered Visual Intelligence, you can search and interact directly with content on your iPhone screen.   

Other iPhone 17 Models: 

• iPhone 17: A 6.3-inch display, dual-camera system, 30 hours of video playback and an A19 chip, offering excellent performance for most users at a lower price point. 

• iPhone Air: The thinnest and lightest iPhone with a 6.5-inch display. High-resolution 48-MP Fusion camera lens that is less versatile than the four-lens setup of the 17 Pro Max, but still powerful.   

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Best camera

Although most smartphones have decent cameras these days, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra sets a new standard. It boasts a 200MP four-camera system that delivers unparalleled detail and clarity. This includes lenses that shoot wide, ultrawide, 3X telephoto and 5X telephoto, offering a wide range of capabilities for personal or professional use.  

Whether you’re capturing stunning night shots, zooming in with its impressive 100x Space Zoom or using AI-powered features like ProScaler to get the sharpest images possible, the S25 Ultra ensures every photo and video is nothing short of spectacular.  

The Galaxy S25 Ultra also features a 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display that delivers an immersive viewing experience, ideal for streaming, gaming, and productivity. The integrated S Pen enables seamless notetaking, sketching and creative tasks. For those who consider style when choosing a phone, there are seven different colours to choose from, including Silverblue, Pinkgold and Titanium Gray. 

Powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, a robust battery and 12 GB of RAM, the S25 Ultra delivers smooth performance and long-lasting power for even the busiest days. 

Other Galaxy S25 Models: 

• Galaxy S25+: A slightly smaller 6.7-inch display, three lenses including a 50MP wide camera, and no S Pen, but it still offers excellent performance and ProScaler AI display technology. 

• Galaxy S25: The most compact option with a 6.2-inch display and a solid 50MP camera, perfect for users who want a smaller phone without compromising on quality. 

Google Pixel 10 Pro: Best for AI features

The Google Pixel 10 Pro is your personal pocket assistant, built with practical AI at its core. It features advanced tools like image generation, fully integrated use of Gemini and Pixel’s brand-new Magic Cue suite—all powered by the on-device Tensor G5 chip.  

What sets the Pixel 10 Pro apart is how seamlessly these AI enhancements integrate into your daily life. Magic Cue can analyze the details in your calendar, messages, Gmail and more to pull important information when you need it. A brand-new search feature also allows you to circle what’s on your screen—whether it’s an image, text or video—and find information about it right from the app you’re in.  

Looking for AI-assisted camera features? The Pixel 10 Pro has it all. Get up to 100x closer to your shot with Pro Res Zoom, which uses AI enhancements to produce sharper shots. For better pictures, use Gemini’s Camera Coach, which analyzes the scene to offer suggestions for a cleaner shot. Photo editing becomes a snap, too, with features like Ask Photos, where you can tell your phone how to adjust the pic to your taste, or even the option to combine multiple group photos to find the version where everyone looks their best.  

The Pixel 10 Pro offers 24 hours of battery life, up to 1TB of storage, and 16 GB of RAM, making it an excellent phone for everyday use. It comes in colours like Jade, Moonstone and Porcelain with magnets on the back to support accessories.  

Other Pixel 10 models: 

• Pixel 10 Pro XL: A larger—and pricier—option that offers double the storage at 256GB. Similar AI and processing power with a 6.8-inch screen. 

• Pixel 10: A 6.3-inch screen with an advanced triple rear camera up to 20x zoom and 12 GB of RAM.  

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