Best smartphones of 2026 - buyer’s guide
Last updated: October 21, 2026
Welcome to the always-up-to-date GSMArena Smartphone Buyer's Guide where we round up the best smartphones you can buy.
You will find the different categories of phones below with our top pick as a highlight. Click on the category to see the other suggested options.
Flagship phones
Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max
| 256GB 12GB RAM | $ 1,549.00 |
£ 1,299.00 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | £ 1,499.00 |
€ 1,849.00 |
The Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max is undeniably a top-tier flagship - combining a durable premium build, a sharp display with a smaller cutout, class-leading battery life, outstanding cameras, and fluid iOS performance. And while few people will feel the A20 Pro upgrade in everyday use right now, we do believe its extra performance and memory bandwidth will pay off in the years to come.
Continue readingFlagship killers
Xiaomi Poco F9 Pro
| 256GB 12GB RAM | £ 579.00 |
€ 689.90 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | £ 629.00 |
€ 739.90 |
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.
Continue readingCamera phones
Oppo Find X9 Ultra
| 1TB 16GB RAM | $ 2,276.00 |
£ 2,195.00 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | € 1,454.80 |
₹ 169,999 |
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is an excellent piece of tech, albeit pricier than other Ultras. It's not just a great cameraphone, it's a great all-rounder, too. It has an extra-long battery life, fast charging, a great display, although the full 144Hz is rarely utilized, and offers a nice, customizable software experience, which will get about five major upgrades in the future.
Continue readingGaming phones
ZTE nubia RedMagic 11S Pro
The RedMagic 11S Pro remains the only gaming-oriented, flagship-level Android phone. It has a handful of unique features under the Game Space suite and the only shoulder triggers on the market. The cooling system is gimmicky, adding weight to an already bulky phone, but at least it looks cool.
Continue readingBattery life champions
Xiaomi Poco F9 Ultra
| 256GB 12GB RAM | £ 630.77 |
€ 829.90 |
| 1TB 16GB RAM | £ 1,023.32 |
€ 1,099.00 |
The Poco F9 Ultra is a very easy phone to like. The 6.9-inch AMOLED is one of the brightest displays we have measured and is an excellent panel in practically every other respect too. It is sharp, fast, HDR-capable and backed by Poco's dedicated display processing hardware for gaming. The 185Hz headline figure relates to a rather niche use, but the actual high-refresh-rate handling is still excellent.
Continue readingCompact phones
Apple iPhone 18 Pro
| 256GB 12GB RAM | £ 1,199.00 |
€ 1,448.00 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | £ 1,399.00 |
€ 1,629.00 |
The regular iPhone Pro remains one of the few premium compact offerings on the market as a whole. While the 18 Pro Max swims in a sea of Android competitors, the 18 Pro has only a handful to contend with.
Continue readingPremium all-rounders
Xiaomi 17T Pro
| 256GB 12GB RAM | $ 579.50 |
£ 636.60 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | $ 775.00 |
£ 699.00 |
The €700 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.
Continue readingMidrange phones (around €400)
Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro Max
| 256GB 12GB RAM | $ 509.50 |
£ 506.00 |
| 512GB 12GB RAM | $ 559.50 |
£ 552.00 |
The Poco X8 Pro Max is exactly the kind of phone that helped build Poco's reputation in the first place. It offers a well-rounded package with very few compromises and a handful of standout features, all while keeping the price firmly in the "flagship killer" territory.
Continue readingMidrange phones (around €300)
Xiaomi Poco X8 Pro
| 256GB 8GB RAM | $ 389.50 |
£ 381.00 |
| 512GB 8GB RAM | $ 419.00 |
£ 422.00 |
The Poco X8 Pro is the epitome of a flagship killer with high-end specs at a bargain price. It has a likable and durable body, an excellent OLED screen with all sorts of perks and high brightness, capable cameras, amazing battery life, and, of course, impressive raw and sustained performance.
Continue readingMidrange phones (around €200)
Samsung Galaxy A37
| 128GB 6GB RAM | $ 296.44 |
£ 289.49 |
| 256GB 8GB RAM | $ 352.50 |
£ 277.58 |
The Samsung Galaxy A37 is a very easy phone to like - it checks most of the important boxes for a modern midranger - a bright and smooth AMOLED display, solid build with proper ingress protection, dependable battery life, and a mature, feature-rich software experience with class-leading long-term support.
Continue readingEntry-level phones
Samsung Galaxy A17
| 128GB 4GB RAM | $ 165.30 |
£ 158.65 |
| 256GB 8GB RAM | $ 259.99 |
£ 240.00 |
The Galaxy A17 5G is meant to be a low-priced phone with a decent design and long software support from Samsung, and it’s one of the best entry-level phones you can get.
Continue readingBest phones by category
Best smartphones of 2026 - buyer’s guide - Reader comments
- jiyen235
- j8G
the iphone is number 1? why not the find x9 ultra? heck why is the find x9 ultra so low? The 17 pro max was arguably a better phone in the year it released but i saw the s25 ultra on the list as the top pick i believe, though i could be wrong ...
- gsmarenalover
- wHU
finally!! thanks admin.. really appreciated.. much more appreciate if you continue with the rest of the mobile phone categories, Premium all-rounders and onwards..
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