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Best Android phones of 2024, reviewed by a tech expert

Android offers a wide range of options when it comes to choosing your next phone

Steve Hogarty
Tech writer
Monday 09 September 2024 06:47 EDT
Our expert tech writer tested phones from Samsung, Google, OnePlus and more
Our expert tech writer tested phones from Samsung, Google, OnePlus and more (The Independent )
Our Top Picks

The best Android phones offer serious alternatives to buying the iPhone 16 when in 2024. Google recently launched the brilliant new Pixel 9 series, and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 continues to offer top-end performance and cameras, so you’ve more choices than ever when it comes to making the switch.

Built around the Google-developed mobile operating system, Android phones come in a much wider range of shapes, sizes, form factors, and prices than the current Apple market leader. You can find a superfast iPhone killer such as the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. You can choose a fully Google-integrated phone such as the Pixel 9 Pro. There are phones that fold in half, phones for less than £200, and weird, flashy phones, such as the Nothing phone (2).

Choice is the biggest benefit when opting for an Android phone, and the best Android phone for you is the one that has exactly the features you want.

Whether you’re after a phone with a built-in stylus, one with a cutting-edge camera, or one that won’t break the bank, you’re likely to find something that ticks every box.

How we tested

A selection of the phones we tested
A selection of the phones we tested (Steve Hogarty)

We test all of the most popular new phones here at IndyBest, primarily by swapping them out for our everyday devices and using them as we usually would, paying close attention to how they cope with basic tasks such as messaging, listening to music and podcasts, and scrolling through social media feeds.

We also put them through more rigorous testing processes, using the camera in challenging lighting conditions, running YouTube videos around the clock to track battery performance, and running high-performance apps and benchmarking tools to stress the CPU and test for slowdown and lagginess.

The best Android phones for 2024 are:

  • Best overall – Google Pixel 9 Pro: £999, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best budget buy – Samsung Galaxy A25: £209, Johnlewis.com
  • Best Samsung phone – Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: £1,149, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best folding Anroid phone – Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold: £1,749, Google.com

Pixel 9 Pro / Pixel 9 Pro XL

pixel 9 pro and pixel 9 pro xl with best buy badge
  • Best: Overall
  • Screen size: 6.3in (Pro) / 6.8in (Pro XL)
  • Screen type: 120Hz OLED
  • Weight: 199g (Pro) / 221g (Pro XL)
  • Dimensions: 152.8mm x 72mm x 8.5mm (Pro) / 162.8mm x 76.6mm x 8.5mm (Pro XL)
  • Processor: Tensor G4
  • Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Rear cameras: 50MP main, 48MP ultrawode, 48MP telephoto
  • Selfie camera: 42MP
  • Why we love it
    • Pixel camera is exceptional
    • Genuinely useful AI features
    • Fast Tensor G4 chip
    • Seven years of updates
    • Fun photo editing tools
  • Take note
    • More expensive than last year’s Pixel

The best phones that Google makes are the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL, they are identical in all but screen size and battery capacity, so we’ve rolled them into a single recommendation here. You can choose the 6.3in model or the 6.8in model without worrying that you’re missing out on any features.

Besides costing an extra £200, what’s the difference between the basic Pixel 9 and the two Pro versions? The more expensive Pixel has a sharper, brighter display, faster wireless charging and extra RAM, meaning better performance when loading apps, editing photos and running AI features. You also get a 5x telephoto lens for long-distance photography and a higher-quality selfie camera.

All Pixel 9 phones come with Gemini embedded throughout. Google’s much-hyped artificial intelligence enables things like advanced photo editing at a touch, generating images from text prompts, near-instant transcription and formatting of meeting notes and the ability to summarise phone calls and search for and recall important information from screenshots.

You can have natural back-and-forth conversations with Gemini about topics you’re interested in finding out more about, with a few of the usual LLM caveats – the chatbot will confidently give you incorrect and made-up answers from time to time, for example.

Gemini’s ability to pull information from places like your inbox, calendar and Google Docs is impressive too. That integration hints at the potential for Gemini to evolve into a truly useful and universal, hands-free virtual assistant, but it’s not quite at the stage where it’s accurate enough to rely on.

All this on top of the Pixel’s already excellent camera hardware, the best and slickest Android experience you can find, plus seven years of software updates, security and support. The Pixel 9 Pro phones are naturally the best Google’s ever made, and certainly the most interesting new phone in recent memory.

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Samsung Galaxy A25

Samsung Galaxy A25 5G
  • Best: Budget buy
  • Size: 161mm x 76.5mm x 8.3mm
  • Weight: 197g
  • Screen: 6.5in AMOLED, 120Hz
  • Cameras: 50MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, 2MP macro
  • Selfie camera: 13MP
  • Storage: 128GB
  • RAM: 6GB/8GB
  • Why we love it
    • 120Hz AMOLED display
    • Great cameras
    • Samsung’s OS is better than most at this price
    • Takes microSD cards for more storage

The very latest in Samsung’s A-series of budget-friendly phones, the Galaxy A25 launched in December 2023 and is easily one of the best cheap Android phones for less than £250.

A solid little performer, it packs in a 120Hz AMOLED display, 5G connectivity, a decent triple-lens camera, Samsung’s excellent One UI operating system and a long-lasting 5000mAh battery.

The 128GB capacity of the base model means on-device storage could be tight, particularly if you plan on shooting 4K video, but it’s a happy compromise to get the price this low. Plus, unlike even top-of-the-range phones, you can pop a microSD card into the Galaxy A25 for up to 1TB of extra storage.

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Samsung Galaxy S24

Samsung Galaxy S24 in sandstone orange
  • Best: Affordable flagship Samsung phone
  • Size: 147mm x 70.6mm x 7.6mm
  • Weight: 167g
  • Screen: 6.2in AMOLED
  • Cameras: 50MP wide, 10MP telephoto, 12MP ultrawide
  • Selfie: 12MP
  • Storage: 128GB to 512GB
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Why we love it
    • Great display
    • Long-lasting battery life
  • Take note
    • Low storage capacity in cheapest mode

If you want the latest Samsung Galaxy features but don’t want to shell out £1,249 for the all-singing S24 Ultra, we’d recommend the baseline S24 model. It features the same build quality and AI-powered tools in a device costing hundreds of pounds less.

Neither the S24 nor S24 plus is compatible with the S-Pen stylus but, make no mistake, this is still a premium Android phone on par with the iPhone 15 and Google Pixel 8. It features a bright and colourful AMOLED display and a dynamic refresh rate that reaches a butter-smooth 120Hz. The S24 has a camera that effectively matches the S24 Ultra when it comes to daytime and portrait photography too, albeit with a shorter-range telephoto lens with three times optical zoom.

  • Samsung Galaxy S24 with unlimited data: £32 per month, £95 up front, Mobiles.co.uk
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Google Pixel 8a

pixel 8a bay blue
  • Best: Cheap Pixel phone
  • Size: 152.1mm x 72.7mm x 8.9mm
  • Weight: 188g
  • Display: 6.1in OLED 120Hz
  • Cameras: 64MP wide, 13MP ultrawide
  • Selfie camera: 13MP
  • Storage: 128GB / 256GB
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Why we love it
    • Essentially a Pixel 8
    • New colourways look great
    • Full suite of Google’s AI features included
  • Take note
    • The original Pixel 8 is only slightly more expensive

The latest in the budget-friendly a-series of Pixel phones, the Pixel 8a is the best mid-range Android phone you can buy. It’s effectively a Pixel 8 with slightly thicker bezels and a lower-grade camera and features all of the clever AI photo-editing tools found in the more expensive flagship phones.

The upgrade to Google’s latest Tensor G3 chip means you enjoy all of the search giant’s software smarts in a phone costing less than £500, from photo-editing tools such as Magic Eraser to intelligent battery management and a more responsive Google Assistant. Because it runs on a clean and streamlined version of the Android operating system, you don’t have to fuss around with third-party apps and multiple logins – the Pixel phones offer the best software experience you’ll find on any Android.

In our full Google Pixel 8a review, we called it “one of the best budget phones you can buy in 2024”.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 IndyBest review
  • Best: Android flip phone
  • Main display: 6.7in AMOLED 120Hz
  • Cover display: 3.4in AMOLED 60Hz
  • Camera (rear): 50MP wide, 12MP ultrawide
  • Camera (front): 10MP
  • Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Storage: 256GB / 512GB
  • Why we love it
    • Great build quality
    • Stylish, smart design
    • Cover widgets are fun
    • Years and software support
    • Cameras are much improved this year
  • Take note
    • Not the largest cover display

Samsung has been making folding phones longer than just about anyone else, and it shows with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, the tech giant’s best flip phone yet.

The hinge mechanism has been refined even further this year, giving the Galaxy Z Flip 6 a sturdy and smooth unfolding action and an even better and more durable feel in the hand. The phone folds down to a neat square you can fit in your palm. Open it up and the 6.7in AMOLED display is bright and responsive, with a tall form factor that’s perfect for vertical scrolling. The crease across the middle of the display is still there, but it’s subtle enough that you soon stop noticing it.

This year’s Flip gets a big camera upgrade, bringing the lenses in line with the Galaxy S24 range, as well as a boost to battery life, which is still just-about-adequate. The outer display isn’t as useful as it could be, with only a handful of apps officially supporting the teeny 3.4in screen. Otherwise, the outer screen is wide enough that you can comfortably ping off quick replies without opening the phone – great when you’re using your phone on the go. The new widgets are fun too, giving you lots of ways to customise the outer screen to show you live weather information, reminders, calendar invites, schedules and more.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 gets a bunch of AI features – apparently a requirement for any phone launching in 2024 – which work well on the little device. These unlock lots of fun photo editing features, like adding objects to pictures you’ve taken, as well as more practical applications like live translation, dictation and meeting notes organisation.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is an all-round brilliant folding phone, and a tiny marvel of engineering.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 with unlimited data: £40 per month, Fonehouse.co.uk

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Pixel 9 Pro Fold

pixel 9 pro fold
  • Best: Folding phone
  • Main display: 8in OLED 120hz
  • Cover display: 6.3in OLED 120hz
  • Camera (rear): 48MP main, 10.8MP telephoto, 10.5MP ultrawide
  • Camera (front): 10MP
  • Processor: Tensor G4
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Storage: 256GB / 512GB
  • Why we love it
    • Superb software experience
    • Handles incompatible apps well
    • Exclusive Pixel 9 AI features
    • Incredibly thin
    • Inner display looks great
  • Take note
    • Expensive
    • Displays and cameras lag behind the Pixel 9 Pro

Google’s second-generation folding phone is a massive step up from last year’s Pixel Fold, with an entirely new design that’s thinner and more lightweight. The wider dimensions of the phone means it looks and performs like a regular 6.3in phone when closed, and behaves more like two phones side by side when opened to reveal its giant 8in inner display. That’s in contrast to the narrow form factor of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, where the outer display feels squished and cramped.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is also much thinner than last year’s phone, about as thin as a Pixel 9 Pro with a case, so while it’s naturally bulkier than a non-folding phone it’s not so hefty that it can’t fit comfortably into a pocket. The inclusion of the Tensor G4 chip means you get all of the fun Gemini features that headline the rest of the Pixel 9 series, like Pixel Studio and Pixel Screenshots, plus a few fun tricks like the “Made You Look” feature, which shows animated characters on the outer display to make your kids look towards the camera.

You miss out on the top-of-the-line cameras found in the non-folding Pixel 9 phones, but it feels a worthwhile compromise to get an expansive inner folding screen on a device this thin. The first folding phone we’d use as our regular daily device, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is one of the best foldables you can buy today.

  • Pixel 9 pro fold with unlimited data: £59.99 a month, £239 up front, Mobiles.co.uk
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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

samsung galaxy s24 ultra 3
  • Best: Samsung phone
  • Size: 79mm x 162mm x 8.6mm
  • Weight: 233g
  • Display: 6.8in QHD+, 120Hz
  • Cameras: 50MP + 10MP telephoto, 200MP main, 12MP ultrawide
  • Selfie camera: 12MP
  • Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Why we love it
    • New AI tools throughout
    • Flat display looks great
    • Fast, efficient processor
  • Take note
    • Too big for smaller hands

The Galaxy S24 ultra is the best phone Samsung has ever made. The blisteringly powerful Android phone features a faster processor, a brighter screen, and a newly redesigned flat display.

The only mainstream phone to come with its own stylus, the Galaxy S24 ultra is a genuinely unique device among a sea of iPhone-alikes and is designed to be a productivity powerhouse. The slim and lightweight S-Pen slips out of a neat little enclosure in the bottom of the device, letting you jot down notes, sketch, doodle, and trace circles around things you want to Google.

While the hardware specifications have received just the lightest of upgrades, this year’s flagship Galaxy phone is all about new software features. Like seemingly every other tech company, Samsung has been bitten by the artificial intelligence (AI) bug, incorporating machine-learning magic into its already powerful photography and text-editing tools.

Just like the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro before it, the Galaxy S24 ultra’s camera can now erase subjects and nuisances from pictures, move them around in the frame, change their size or replace them completely. You can also re-crop photos after taking them, letting the AI engine create new parts of the image from its imagination.

  • Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with 250GB data: £48 per month, £95 up front, Mobiles.co.uk
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Nothing Phone (2)

best phones review 2024 indybest Nothing phone (2)
  • Best: For style
  • Size: 161.1mm x 76.4mm x 8.6mm
  • Weight: 201.2g
  • Display: 6.7in OLED, 120Hz
  • Cameras: 50MP wide, 50MP ultra-wide
  • Selfie camera: 32MP
  • Storage: 128GB / 256GB / 512GB
  • RAM: 8GB / 12GB
  • Why we love it
    • Genuinely original design
    • Speedy and clean OS
    • Glyph interface looks great
  • Take note
    • A bit of an oddball in terms of style

The Nothing Phone (2) is the challenger tech brand’s second phone, and is now available SIM-free at Amazon and other major UK retailers.

Nothing has made all the right decisions with the follow-up to its debut smartphone, focusing on an improved display, cameras and performance without compromising on the oddness that makes it so distinctive. The showy glyph interface is back and, while as much of a gimmick as it’s always been, when combined with the improvements to Nothing OS, it feels like a cohesive part of a very thoughtfully designed phone.

The Nothing Phone (2) is defiantly, adorably weird. The steep price increase means you can find similarly priced phones with faster specs and better cameras, but not one so remarkably different to everything else out there. Grab one if you’re bored of the same shiny black rectangles, or just in the market for an excellent, stylish and capable mid-range Android.

Read the full Nothing Phone (2) review

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OnePlus 12

oneplus 12
  • Best: OnePlus phone
  • Size: 164.3mm x 75.8mm x 9.2mm
  • Weight: 220g
  • Display: 6.8in OLED, 120Hz
  • Cameras: 50MP main, 64MP telephoto, 48MP ultrawide
  • Selfie camera: 32MP
  • Storage: 256GB to 1TB
  • RAM: 12GB to 24GB
  • Why we love it
    • Splashproof touchscreen
    • Speedy and optimised software
    • Decent cameras at this price
  • Take note
    • Relatively short software support

The resurgent OnePlus brand was originally celebrated for its super-cheap but flagship-quality Android phones, and while in recent years the price of its phones have crept upwards, last year’s OnePlus 11 and lately the OnePlus 12 have reclaimed the Chinese manufacturer’s crown as one of the best challenger phones on the market.

The OnePlus 12 scores top marks for hardware, packing in 12GB of RAM (we tested the 16GB model) and the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. The highly optimised software keeps things feeling zippier than any other phone we’ve tested – apps snap open like traps, and navigating the operating system is faultlessly smooth. Charging is also incredible speedy and battery life is huge.

There’s a refreshing lack of focus on trendy AI features here. Instead the OnePlus 12 is all about ease of use and basic, practical features. One stand-out upgrade is the phone’s splash-proof touchscreen, which is still be useable even when wet. If you’ve ever tried to use your phone in the rain and found the touchscreen to behave weirdly, OnePlus has seemingly solved this issue. Great news for anyone who spends a lot of time outdoors.

Decent cameras and great all-round build quality round off this excellent Android phone.

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Zenfone 11 ultra

zenfone 11 ultra
  • Best: For gaming
  • Size: 163.8mm x 76.8mm x 8.9mm
  • Weight: 224g
  • Display: 6.78in, 144Hz
  • Cameras: 50MP wide, 32MP telephoto, 13MP ultrawide
  • Selfie camera: 32MP
  • Storage: 256GB
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Why we love it
    • Sharp design
    • Great performance
    • Big and beautiful screen
    • Improved battery life
  • Take note
    • No smaller variant available yet

Asus is known for producing some of the best small phones on the market, but the Zenfone 11 Ultra breaks from tradition with a much bigger 6.78in display, putting it in the same category as plus-sized flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S23, Xiaomi 14 and Pixel 8 Pro. That might be sad news for small-handed users, but great for anyone looking for a more expansive AMOLED screen, hugely improved battery life and better overall performance.

The Zenfone 11 Ultra boasts the premium features you’d expect at this price point: a dynamic 1Hz to 144Hz refresh rate, under-display fingerprint sensor, wireless charging, the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and a trio of cameras including a 3x optical zoom telephoto lens and a 13MP ultrawide lens.

Performance is snappy, the display is vibrant, and the clean, squared off design is accented by neatly etched, angled lines. It’s a great looking phone, with similarities inside and out to the Asus ROG phone, giving the Zenfone 11 Ultra unbeatable credentials for handheld gaming on the go.

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Xiaomi 14

xiaomi 14
  • Best: Xiaomi phone
  • Size: 152.8mm x 71.5mm x 8.2mm
  • Weight: 188g
  • Display: 6.36in, 120Hz OLED
  • Cameras: 50MP main, 50MP telephoto, 50MP ultrawide
  • Selfie camera: 32MP
  • Storage: 256GB, 512GB
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Why we love it
    • Brilliant display
    • Slick performance
    • Excellent cameras
  • Take note
    • Clunky operating system

The numbered Xiaomi phones sit at the top end of the outsider brand’s product range, boasting more premium features and better performance than the budget-focused Redmi and Poco phones.

The Xiaomi 14 is the latest in the flagship Android series, and it’s a solid performer with a bright and vibrant 6.36in screen, running on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor backed up with 12GB of RAM as standard.

The camera is the star of the show here. Xiaomi’s camera array is made up of three 50MP lenses, enabling fast shutter speeds, 3.2x optical zoom, 14mm ultrawide photography and a pro mode for shooting in RAW format. Pictures look great in all lighting conditions, though, you’ll miss out on some of the fancier post-processing capabilities found in Apple, Samsung and Google phones.

As with all Xiaomi devices, it’s the HyperOS operating system that drags the experience down. Xiaomi ships its phones with a full set of its own basic apps – which are way more fiddly, less integrated and less polished than competitors’ versions – as well as unwelcome third-party bloatware. With some customisation, you can easily tweak the default apps to suit your own preferences but the out-of-the-box experience is cludgy compared with the streamlined elegance of iOS or Pixel phones.

Still, this is an excellent, great-looking and compact Android phone running on seriously impressive hardware.

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Android phones FAQs

What are Android phones?

Android phones are smartphones that run on the Android operating system, a phone interface developed by Google. The iPhone exclusively runs on iOS, Apple’s own operating system, but pretty much every other phone on the market runs on Android software.

Phone makers customise Android to make their phones look and perform differently to other Android phones on the market. This means you get a much wider variety of choices in terms of features, price and style from brands like Samsung, LG and Xiaomi.

How do Android phones compare to iPhones?

Android and iPhone are the two major players in the smartphone world, and while they both offer broadly the same features and functionality, there are some differences. Android is more flexible, letting you customise the look and feel of your phone more readily, and because so many manufacturers use it you can more easily find a phone that suits your needs and your budget.

The iPhone is more user-friendly, more closely integrated with iOS, and connects seamlessly with MacBooks, AirPods, the Apple Watch and other Apple devices. Because it’s by far the most popular phone in western markets, apps will often appear on the iPhone’s app store first, before they show up on Google Play.

The verdict: Android phones

Our pick of the best Android phones in 2024 is the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL. Setting aside the flashy AI features, it’s an incredibly well-built and powerful device that stands shoulder to shoulder with the iPhone in terms of build quality, style and usability. With the cleanest OS experience you’ll find, Google’s newest phones are as good as Android phones get. Also consider the Galaxy S24 (and the scaled-up Galaxy S24 plus) – a smart, stylish, fast and great-looking device with exceptional all-round performance at a reasonable price.

Want more tech inspiration? Check out our list of the best laptops

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