Best premium all-rounders 2025 - buyer’s guide

The Xiaomi 14T Pro is among the best phones you can get for about €600. It delivers on every single promise and has plenty of flagship-grade, class-leading features. It's among the fastest charging phones in the industry and it's got a 144Hz display, and that's in addition to a high-end chipset and a camera system that only falls short in one or two niche areas.

The Leica cooperation is paying off, as all rear cameras (50MP main, 50MP 2.6x tele, 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. Similarly, if you're into closeups, you'll probably need to look elsewhere (or try to work with the main camera, because the ultrawide and the telephoto won't be of much use).

Long story short - the Xiaomi 14T Pro is a very competent offering with a compelling set of flagship-grade capabilities.

The Pixel 8, priced €550 or less, offers a great compact screen, excellent camera experience, faster charging, 7 years of software support, and timely major OS updates.

Let’s not forget the Pixel camera, which is a huge standout feature and the sole thing that easily sells this Pixel. And it delivers for another year, of course.

But the Pixel 8 isn't without its flaws. For instance, a 3x telephoto unit would have been greatly appreciated as well wider availability for its smart features. After all, many of Pixel’s clever software features can't be utilized to its fullest in many markets. Charging and battery life aren't particularly impressive either, although somewhat okay in Pixel terms. We also wonder why Google decided to skip the autofocus feature on the selfie camera and the support for Pro camera mode on the smaller Pixel.

Bottom line, the Pixel 8 is an easy recommendation because, despite its issues, it's a significant upgrade over the previous generation and manages to pack competent hardware into a compact body.

Apple's smartphone ecosystem is mostly an isolated island at this point, with few people jumping ship from or to Android. As such, it makes sense to mostly analyze the iPhone lineup in isolation, more or less. The vanilla iPhone definitely has its place in said lineup. It likely won't be the hottest seller among its siblings, but the regular iPhone has become something of a "commodity" product. It's the one you get when you simply want "an iPhone".

It is hard to give the iPhone 16 any sort of "innovation crown" this year. Not that Apple is one for major changes, but even so, last year's iPhone 15 arguably brought about much more noticeable changes with the new OLED with a Dynamic Island, the move to USB Type-C and the new 48MP main camera. All of these attributes have naturally been carried forward to the iPhone 16.

As for its own list of contributions, there is the new autofocusing ultrawide camera, the Camera Control button and a focus on Apple Intelligence in a big way. It is still mostly in the realm of promises and incoming features, but at least the hardware has been beefed up to presumably power all of the AI.

Just like every year, Apple's entry-level current phone is solid through and through, with a delicate mix of lots of familiarity and a sprinkle of innovation. As usual, the Android realm offers better hardware and overall value, though that almost seems irrelevant and beside the point. Ultimately, if you are on an older iPhone, the iPhone 16 is a perfectly viable and satisfactory update path for you.

The OnePlus 13R has expanded availability compared to the 12R and is an excellent offer priced around €700 as it can does most things €1200+ flagships can do. It is a capable all-rounder with excellent performance, long battery life, dependable camera hardware, fast enough charging and exceptionally loud speakers. The 13R easily covers all bases without necessarily breaking the bank.

Having said that, the ultrawide and selfie cameras keep us from giving the 13R an excellent score in this department and alternatives seem to be better at taking stills and videos. Also, even if the maximum brightness is sufficient, most other displays in this price bracket are brighter.

At the end of the day, if you are willing to make a small compromise in the camera department, you probably won't find a more powerful handset for the asking price while delivering excellent battery life and a solid display and camera experience. Some carriers might give it a deal on this one you just cannot refuse.

The Galaxy Z Flip6 is not a substantial upgrade over the previous generation - faced with limited opposition, Samsung is doing a bit of coasting with its foldables this year. That said, the Flip6 in particular does bring a few improvements that make it more competitive in a field where it doesn't necessarily need to compete harder. Alternatively, it could be argued that the Flip6 is only getting the bare minimum of updates to keep the flame goin.

We do appreciate the new camera - it's not the dramatic improvement we wished it would be (against our better judgment), but it does push the Flip's versatility up a bit. The increase in battery life is similarly not a gamechanger, but more is always welcome. But argubaly its key advantage remains One UI for all of its features and refinement. The close cooperation with Google on the AI stuff can be another selling point for the right buyer.

The Z Flip6's only glaring omission is a sensible charging solution - not only was it never fast, but it's not getting any faster either. The cover screen could be sexier and more useful like on some competitors, too. Overall, it is a great compact phone, one of the best, but maybe you should consider our top pick first, and the Z Flip 6 – second.

The Realme 14 Pro+ is a niche offering right now because of its limited availability. The maker was once a real challenger to the Redmi series, but now that only holds true for the Indian market.

The 14 Pro+ is a well-rounded device with a bright OLED screen, good performance, versatile and reliable camera experience day and night. Realme UI is familiar, and the user experience is always smooth.

The phone is not ideal, though. Its display does not support HDR, its speakers' sound quality is mediocre, and the camera video quality is average at best.

One usually gets this Realme 14 Pro+ for its premium design, imaging skills and battery life. Those are enough to put it in this shortlist, though users looking for maximum performance should shop elsewhere.

We were treated to an overall great experience with the vivo X200. We got very pleasing camera results, with great low-light performance and close-up capabilities. Battery life was solid, charging was quick, the display was plenty bright.

The vivo X200's shortcomings aren't all that many, and where we find some, they're not quite in dealbreaker territory. Now, you might feel otherwise, if you're in Austria in particular, or the EU in general, but we're sure that even there you'll find a way to charge your new phone and you'll be fine without pressure washing it too.

Not quite top-tier are the X200's selfies, but that's not really exclusive to this model specifically - it's more of a standout result when we do get truly nice images out of a front-facing camera. The display, admittedly, is a minor letdown - it's plenty bright, but we kind of expected an LTPO panel at this price point.

Very good, but not perfect. That's what we feel the vivo X200 is trying to be, and in our book it succeeds. It stops short of achieving true greatness, so that its fancier siblings have room to breathe, but it's also competent to such a degree that most people wouldn't even care that a Pro would give them anything on top of this. And that is why everyone should consider it.

The Honor 200 Pro is an impressive smartphone with a €600 price tag that matches its high aspirations. It has an attractive design with splash resistance, an excellent display, powerful hardware, good battery life, fast charging, loud speakers. The camera quality and its versatility are great, and its focus on Portrait mode is commendable.

There is a lot to like about the 200 Pro, including the highly customizable software and its iOS-like Magic Capsule. The fast wired, wireless and the option for reversed wireless charging are very much appreciated.

There were a couple of things that rubbed us the wrong way, though. Let's start with the pill-shaped notch, which is not that of an eyesore as the iPhones', but a big one if you are used to small punch holes. The lack of autofocus for the otherwise amazing selfie camera is another moment.

Most importantly, the highly advertised portrait mode, while producing great photos, is a mixed bag as it doesn't always produce accurate bokeh, or bokeh at all. And the camera is reluctant to remember our preference of having Night mode on by default.

Overall, the Honor 200 Pro steps in an over-saturated market and price segment, but it can score easy wins with its great cameras, screen and gaming performance.