Best flagship killers 2026 - buyer’s guide

The Poco F9 Pro is a great all-rounder with some small drawbacks in the camera department. Sure, you can easily find better camera phones around the same price, but the Poco offers flagship-level performance, battery life, display quality and charging, the qualities we are looking in a proverbial flagship-killer.

Our main issue is with the dated 8MP ultrawide camera. Perhaps a longer zoom wouldn't have hurt either, considering how close the main 200MP camera's 2x crops get to the telephoto's quality.

The overall greatness of the F9 Pro is quite enticing, making the camera trade-off easily justifiable. The handset has dependable battery life, excellent screen, snappy charging, and there aren't many phones in this price range offering a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

Now priced at about €700, the Poco F9 Pro can easily be considered as a flagship killer if you are not that picky about camera quality.

The Xiaomi 17T Pro is a solid all-rounder that's easy to recommend. It impresses with great camera hardware, excellent display, high-performance chipset and speedy wired and wireless charging. This year, the handset also stands out in the battery life race with solid endurance..

The Leica cooperation is paying off, as all rear cameras (50MP main, 50MP 5x tele/macro, 12MP UW) deliver outstanding photo and video quality day and night. Admittedly, if selfies are of utmost importance, one of the niche areas becomes more of a pressing issue.

Long story short - the Xiaomi 17T Pro is a very competent offering with a compelling set of flagship-grade capabilities and it’s one of the, if not the best phone you can get for about €700. A flagship killer, if you will.

The Galaxy S26 FE is a very good, well-rounded device. It is well-built, fairly thin, IP68-rated and uses suitably premium materials. Its 6.7-inch AMOLED display is still very good, even if it is hardly cutting-edge by current standards. You get capable stereo speakers, wireless charging, a versatile triple-camera system with an actual 3x telephoto, excellent software and an industry-leading software support commitment.

And this year, there is even a meaningful performance upgrade. The Exynos 2500 is substantially faster than the Exynos 2400 in the S25 FE and brings the S26 FE surprisingly close to last-generation flagship performance. Thermal behavior is better as well, and Samsung has managed to squeeze noticeably better battery endurance out of the same 4,900 mAh capacity. Charging speed has improved slightly too.

There are some regressions too. The move to USB 2.0 is disappointing on its own, but losing DisplayPort video output along with it feels particularly unnecessary. Wireless DeX is still here, thankfully, but wired DeX was one of those distinctly flagship Samsung features that helped separate the FE from the company's cheaper A-series devices. The speakers have gotten quieter yet again as well.

Thankfully, One UI remains one of the strongest arguments in Samsung's favor. One UI 9 is packed with features, Samsung's Galaxy AI suite continues to expand, and the promise of up to seven major Android upgrades is excellent. There is something to be said for buying into Samsung's mature ecosystem and knowing that the phone should remain properly supported for many years.

Ultimately, the €550 Galaxy S26 FE still fulfills the basic FE brief. You get most of the Galaxy S experience without buying a full-blown flagship, and there are very few major weaknesses in the package. It is fast, refined, versatile and should remain relevant for years.

The Motorola Edge 70 Pro is another very solid addition to Motorola's Edge lineup. It builds intelligently on last year's model with a larger silicon-carbon battery, a brighter display, a welcome periscope telephoto upgrade and a more powerful chipset, all while becoming noticeably thinner and lighter. That's an impressive list of improvements for what is otherwise a fairly iterative generation..

The overall user experience is hard to fault. Battery life is among the best in the class; the AMOLED display is excellent; the software remains clean and pleasantly close to stock Android; and the camera system is consistently capable. The new 50MP periscope finally gives the Edge Pro series a telephoto camera worthy of the name and rounds out an already versatile imaging package.

The phone isn't without compromises, however. Motorola continues to lag behind many rivals when it comes to long-term software support, offering just three major Android upgrades. Charging, while still plenty fast, is no longer class-leading, and video recording - particularly in low light - isn't nearly as polished as the otherwise strong still photography.

The Edge 70 Pro price has fallen below €500, which has made the phone an incredible deal. Its combination of premium design, outstanding battery endurance, excellent display and versatile cameras makes it one of the more complete upper-midrange smartphones currently available.

The Honor 600 Pro is an interesting take on what a Pro midranger phone should be. Instead of chasing the latest flagship formula, Honor built a device that mixes top-tier silicon with a more restrained overall package - and that approach works pretty well.

Performance is undoubtedly one of the phone's strongest suits. The Snapdragon 8 Elite has plenty of power to handle every task you throw at it today and the 600 Pro feels consistently fast and responsive, with no real slowdowns. Sustained GPU load does bring a hit to performance, but that's a rather unlikely scenario.

The rest of the hardware package is equally compelling. The build quality is excellent, the design is clean and mature, and the IP68/IP69K rating alongside the drop-resistance certification add a layer of reassurance. The display is another highlight, offering great sharpness, excellent HDR performance and impressive peak brightness figures. However, the LTPS panel's refresh rate behavior could use some polish.

Battery life is solid, if not class-leading, and charging speeds, while still respectable, feel like a step back compared to previous-generation Honor devices.

The camera setup is versatile, though, offering excellent results and extra flexibility with the addition of a proper telephoto lens. That said, the lack of autofocus on the selfie camera is increasingly hard to forgive in this price bracket.

In the end, the Honor 600 Pro is easy to like. It nails the fundamentals - performance, build, and overall usability - while at times offering a more premium experience than its asking price suggests. It may not be the most refined or cutting-edge device in every aspect, but it's not one you'll regret having.