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.

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


If money is no object and you want an iPhone, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is the best one you can get.

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.


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.


The Google Pixel 4 XL has its drawbacks, but ultimately, this is the best-performing Android phone out there and it also happens to be the best camera phone in the world.

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.


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.