Best flagship phones 2024 - buyer’s guide

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is not the perfect smartphone, this year we even have a cons section, but it is the ideal all-round flagship and for that it becomes our top pick in this category.

Indeed, the Galaxy S24 Ultra remains Samsung's ultimate smartphone, and it's the most complete package you can buy today. Samsung didn't just coast for another year, which we felt was the case with the S23 Ultra. We got more new stuff this time around than we could have predicted. The new materials in the build don't just feel nice; they also improve the visual experience. After years of enjoying the coolness of curved displays, we've now grown up to realize that flat screens have their benefits, and Samsung's now giving us flat screens across the range.

Without much fuss around that subject, the S24 Ultra is one of the longest-lasting Androids you can buy, and even if the big names from China charge three times as fast, the Pixel and the iPhone don't. An always-with-you stylus remains elusive outside of the Samsung flagship, and you may not know you want or need one until you've had one.

The camera system is also mostly a source of satisfaction. The rethinking of the telephoto setup is a forward step that adds another layer of versatility. The rest of the rear modules we'd almost call stale next to what we're seeing from Chinese brands and their impressive hardware, but Samsung has managed to squeeze out such performance out of these otherwise uninspired bits that it doesn't feel like we're getting less than what is right.

Yes, there were display issues. And, yes, the charging is far from great. But In the end, Samsung's ultimate smartphone comes easily recommended.

You do not get the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max for its Titanium frame. Or its 5x telephoto camera, or USB-C port, or even the console-level. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is worth getting for its well-rounded user experience, luxurious design, its premium services and warranty, for its clockwork iOS, and for its versatile camera experience with great photos and exceptional videos. And a thousand other little things we cannot fit in here.

One of the biggest improvements targets videographers and will go under the radar for the masses. We are talking about capturing 4K60 ProRes videos straight onto an external SSD drive or memory card, which might open use cases and workflows that have never been possible before.

The new model delivers on most of its promises, even the carefully worded ones like performance improvements. Apple has never targeted the tech-savvy smartphones users with the iPhone and instead won their large base with consistent quality, a high level of service and convenience and (some) pro features. And the formula is still working, better than ever if you ask us.

So, should you get the new iPhone? It is the best iPhone ever made, you know. It has a stunning design, an outstanding display, great performance, impressive speakers, pro-grade cameras with a consistently good photo and class-leading video quality, long battery life and likable if weird iOS.

And even if there is a potential issue with performance and some image processing imperfections, it remains among the best smartphones on the market right now.

The new Ultra is a global phone and the Xiaomi fans have certainly rejoiced! It is also a nearly perfect flagship, one that's so easy to love. Its unique design is beautiful and we do appreciate the ingress protection. Then there is one of the best displays in the industry - a 1440p LTPO OLED with 12-bit color depth, dynamic 120Hz refresh, and Dolby Vision support.

Then there is the most current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with class-leading performance. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra also has excellent thermal handling and offers great sustained performance, We certainly cannot praise the battery life (it’s an average one), but we can praise the the charging speed. Kudos for including the 120W charger in the box, too, as this has become a rare thing lately. We also liked the speakers' loudness and quality.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is one of the best cameraphones in 2024. A favorite cameraphone in the office, the 13 Ultra didn't leave a lot to ask for, yet Xiaomi did find a few areas to touch up for the 14. Close-focusing telephotos have become the latest trend, and the two ones here are possibly the finest at that, but also excel at a distance. The variable aperture on the main camera is also welcome if you'd like that much control over DoF, though we don't see that as quite the transformational development.

An unrivaled selling point of the 14 Ultra is the Photography kit. Realizing its appeal and its potential to drive Ultra sales, Xiaomi has continued to develop the contraption and add features to it. Indeed, it adds further cost to an already expensive phone, but the two combined will get you as close to a 'real' camera as a smartphone can in ergonomics and experience.

In the end, the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is quite probably the finest camera with a phone attached to it that you can buy today.

The Galaxy Fold5 offers the best foldable and best flagship experience on the market - while its hardware seems to trail certain competitors there's no matching its complete software package. The new S-Pen Slim Case is an excellent addition to the Fold accessory lineup, too, and it has become an instant must-have for the power user.

The Fold5 offers ingress protection, displays, performance, even cameras. Its battery life is solid even if charging is rather slow, and so are the speakers and the connectivity options.

We applaud Samsung for the multi-tasking implementation on the Fold5 and all neat software tricks available throughout One UI 5.1.1 Plus, Android 14 with One UI 6 are not that far away and the Fold5 should be among the first to get it.

There is no denying the Fold5 is a minor update over the Fold4, but the previous model was indeed that good and now a year later we can confirm it's plenty durable, easing off the worries caused by the early foldable phones. And it's still great, so if the Fold5 does not fit your budget, maybe the largely similar Fold4 would.

Samsung did hold back updating the Fold5 hardware. The charging speed could have been faster and the camera system would have benefited from an update of the ultrawide camera at least. And that body, while looking pretty cool on its own is nowhere near as striking as the Honor Magic V2 or the Huawei Mate X3.

But at the end of the day the Fold5 is an easy decision for any tech-addicted user, or any power user. In most countries it runs virtually unopposed as Chinese competitors are slow to bring their horizontal foldables to global markets. And when it does finally get properly tested it can always rely on the OneUI card to keep it ahead.

High-end Honor handsets can easily get overlooked in a crowd of more famed top-tier offerings. But just because their Magic lineup may not be the one you think of first, it doesn't mean you shouldn't seriously consider the Magic6 Pro.

It's not perfect, that's for sure. For its cameraphone aspirations, the Honor's video quality is a bit… unreliable. Certain specific circumstances can trip its camera in stills too, but those aren't that bothersome. Similarly, a few minor software peculiarities had us irked along the way. But that's really the magnitude of the 'problems' we had with the Magic6 Pro.

These are easily outweighed by the phone's strong points though. The Magic6 Pro's display is truly great, even for the class. The battery life is towards the top of the chart, charging is quicker than the latest Samsung. None of the Android competitors has 3D face unlock hardware either. Perhaps best of all, the impressive numbers in the camera specsheet do actually translate into nice photos.

With all that in mind, we think that the Magic6 Pro deserves a spot on your short list if you're after a high-end smartphone in 2024.

With the Pixel 8 Pro Google has made strides to address a host of the complaints we had about the previous generation. No longer is the selfie camera a hit-and-miss affair, and the new ultrawide is also miles better than before. The improvement in charging speed didn't go unnoticed either, but the Pixel had so much to catch up here that it couldn't all happen in one generation.

The in-house chipset isn't quite up to the standard of the day in absolute performance and doesn't handle sustained load with much grace. The limited regional availability of the exclusive software features also rubs us the wrong way, though a valid counterargument is that if Google doesn't sell it in your country, you can't expect it to work to its fullest in your country.

Moving to the good stuff, it's not just that the ultrawide camera is no longer a source of grievances, but the telephoto has been improved too. So, with both flanks of an already great main camera now covered, the normally excellent cameraphone is now somehow even better.

The new display is now up there with the leading efforts in the industry - not that the old one was bad, it's just that this Super Actua panel is more deserving of high praise, than a simple 'yeah, that's good enough'. Similarly, the already stellar software support gets promoted to best-in-business - we'll see how quickly Google will forget about that 7-year promise, but right now, it sounds really nice.

When first introduced, the visor on the back of the Pixel 6 Pro was quite polarizing, but two years later, it's evolved into a somewhat appealing trademark design element. This year Google has also fitted a thermometer in there - we're not quite sure just how useful it is yet, but if no one else has one, it has to be a plus for the Pixel 8 Pro. What we find to be another welcome development is the flat display - even one of the biggest.

In the end, we think the Pixel 8 Pro is the evolutionary upgrade you'd expect it to be and then some. Google could have done less this generation and still charged the extra $100/€200, but instead, they actually did bring some meaningful improvements that move the series forward. We approve.

The OnePlus Open is a great addition to the foldable segment, one that has everything to make the Galaxy Z Fold5 sweat. The Open has a classier and supposedly sturdier design; it's thinner and lighter. And it became evident it has better displays - both are of higher resolution, higher color bitrate, and support Dolby Vision. The cover one also offers a much more convenient aspect ratio.

The OnePlus Open runs on the latest available (at the time of writing) Snapdragon chip, and its cooling solution and software optimizations make for a nicely stable performance with no harsh throttling or frame heating.

The OnePlus Open runs on the latest available (at the time of writing) Snapdragon chip, and its cooling solution and software optimizations make for a nicely stable performance with no harsh throttling or frame heating.

The Hasselblad cameras are thoroughly impressive with natural rendition and overall impressive photo and video quality across the board, day and night. We are particularly fond of the selfies, portraits, and closeups shot with this setup.

The two dedicated selfie cameras are average at best, the cover selfie cam has some haziness, too. But we don't see these used for actual selfies, their main purpose should be video calls anyway.

Finally, the OxygenOS 13 is incredibly feature-rich and highly customizable, while the foldable-exclusive Open Canvas multi-tasking is super clever once you get the gist of it. OnePlus is promising 4 years of major Android updates and another one of security patches, too.

The OnePlus Open is not the perfect foldable, even if it came very close. It doesn't support HFR gaming, the cover camera captures hazy photos, but the most frustrating thing we experienced was the camera app avoided using the actual telephoto camera for zoom photos at night, which is a shame as it snaps superb photos.

The OnePlus Open is an excellent alternative to the Fold5 if a stylus is not a must and if you don't plan on taking it underwater. And it has presented itself as the more versatile and higher-spec smartphone. And, yes, we enjoyed this OnePlus, both Open and Closed. It is one of the best combinations of a smartphone, tablet, and cameraphone, and we highly recommend it.

OnePlus may have lost its distinct character as the brand grew into maturity, but that doesn't mean they're not making great phones still. Sure, OxygenOS is now just another name for Oppo's ColorOS, but why should ColorOS be a bad thing. Certain issues we had with the OnePlus 11 have been resolved on the 12 and it’s only the sub-standard water protection that remains - essentially all other high-end phones are rated for submersion, while the 12 isn't.

Excellence on the fundamentals should go without saying, after all we’ve out the phone on this list exactly for this. Even in this context, however, the OP12 is among the better ones in terms of battery life, charges faster than just about anything else mainstream, and has a display that does more HDR than a lot of competitors.

Sure, we're not quite fond of the 12's video output during the day, though we're almost convinced that the spectacular stabilization makes up for shortcomings elsewhere. Selfies are also unusually good, but more important, we feel, is the overall great stills performance from all rear cameras in all conditions.

In the end, the OnePlus 12 makes it quite easy for us. It's so great in many ways and only has small-ish missteps in just a couple of areas - that sounds like grounds for a recommendation.