Ryan Haines / Android Authority
2024 was a year of mixed successes for the top smartphone industry players, but the devices we got were some of the best we’ve ever seen. There were notable comebacks, a continued and welcome trend of maturation in the foldable space, a distinctly less welcome trend of promises of future AI features that didn’t really live up to the hype, and a certain August launch that threw the Android Authority‘s usual content plans for a loop (thanks for that, Google!).
Through it all, we delivered more exclusive reports and deep dives than we’ve ever shared in any calendar year, and we’re not stopping any time soon. But now isn’t the time to look forward, it’s time to cast an eye back as we crown our Editor’s Choice smartphone of the year 2024. Read on for our top five!
How we chose our winner
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Before we get to our top five, here’s how we chose them. Our Editor’s Choice award for smartphone of the year isn’t a mantle we bestow lightly. The overall winner and the runners-up are all phones that go beyond success on a spec sheet.
Over the past year, we’ve reviewed over 40 phones. That process included extensive testing in performance, battery, and charging benchmarks, as well as subjective analysis of photography, hardware design, software smarts, update policies, and much much more. Our expert product testers spend countless hours digging into what makes these devices tick, and while everyone has their own favorites and preferences, when it comes to picking the year’s best, we bring all of our senior editors and product testers together and reflect on our highest-reviewed phones as a collective of experts.
In 2024, we reviewed over 40 phones. Our expert product testers spend countless hours digging into what makes these devices tick.
The class of 2024 was made up of 20 phones from 12 brands from all over the globe. From there, each member of the jury assigned votes to their top five picks, ranked from fifth to first. Fifth place earned a single point, fourth took two points, and so on, up to a maximum of five points for the top pick. The phone that received the most points took home the grand prize.
With all the votes tallied, our winner took our most prestigious annual award in an absolute landslide…
Android Authority‘s Editor’s Choice phone of the year 2024
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Four years at the top for a Pixel, but we’ve never seen such a dominant win as this. With just shy of double the amount of votes as our runner-up, the Google Pixel 9 Pro takes the crown.
With the Pro-tier Pixel winning in 2022 and 2023, this isn’t a huge surprise — we’re obviously big Pixel fans here. However, what really stands out this year is the fact the Pixel 9 Pro managed such a massive points gap despite the vote being split for the first time ever not between two Pixel flagships, but three.
Yet, as much as we still loved the larger Pixel 9 Pro XL (mild spoiler for later in this list), the newly shrunken Pixel 9 Pro was the one that left the biggest impression. While it wasn’t exactly a return to the Pixel 5-style small phone form factor, Google learned all the best lessons from the iPhone Pro range and delivered a reasonably-sized flagship (with a hint of iPhone inspiration to the overall design), while still managing to squeeze in all the best of the series — Gemini, Tensor, the photography chops, the most extensive software support guarantee in the business, and more.
So, congrats to Google and the Pixel 9 Pro, our Editor’s Choice smartphone of the year winner for 2024, and a phone that we told you was coming, but still managed to surprise us when it did.
Google Pixel 9 Pro
Impressive AI-powered features • Excellent build quality • Flexible, capable cameras • Reliable update commitment
All Pro, in a compact package.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro is the Pixel device many have been begging for for a long time: Google’s very best smartphone hardware and software features, in a more compact form factor. With identical dimensions to the regular Pixel 9, it retains the same great specs as the much larger XL model, plus 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of internal storage, and the Tensor G4 chipset.
Runner-up
If you can bet on one thing to deliver quality across the board every year, it’s Samsung’s Galaxy S Ultra series. Long gone are the days when we see anything particularly new from Android’s de facto ultra-flagship, but you can’t knock it for consistency.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra may have dropped half a star from its perfect-scoring predecessor in our review as a result of a $100 price hike that didn’t quite feel earned, and some persistent camera motion woes, but the sheer brilliance across the board was undeniable. Additions like the then-bleeding-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset and the brand-new titanium frame joined the usual hallmarks of excellence we expect from Samsung’s top dog. There was also the debut of Galaxy AI, which, while not quite as mature as Google’s AI offerings, has grown over time to add real value to the Galaxy experience.
It didn’t come close to snatching the top spot, but it did comfortably secure the runner-up position. With Samsung’s iron grip on the smartphone industry starting to slip a little, can the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra do one better in 2025? We’ll have to wait and see.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Powerful, flexible cameras • Excellent update commitment • Brilliant flat display
The best of the best in the S24 series
Samsung’s true flagship device, the Galaxy S24 Ultra offers the very best specs and features from any Galaxy phone to date. Ai and camera functions are the name of the game, with a 200MP primary camera, 50MP 5x telephoto, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 12MP ultrawide shooters. Smaller display bezels, 2,600 nit display, 5,000 mAh battery, an advanced cooling vapor chamber, up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage, and 12GB of RAM make for a powerful mobile computing system. The new ProVisual Engine offers AI-powered camera tools for photo and video capture.
Third place
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Well… here’s a first-ever in our yearly roundup.
Yes, we’re Android Authority, but you can’t talk with any actual authority about the devices and platform we dedicate ourselves to without testing out and intimately knowing what the competition is up to. And yep, it turns out that the iPhone 16 Pro is a pretty excellent phone.
While some of its shine was dampened by the delayed rollout of Apple Intelligence (and its fairly underwhelming current state), the iPhone 16 Pro nevertheless stood out, much like the Pixel 9 Pro, as another regular-sized flagship phone that refused to compromise. iOS 18 is better (and more Android-y!) than ever, the Action Button and overall design blueprint are being copied by Android brands for a reason, and the reduced real estate didn’t lead to a loss of power under the hood.
It didn’t do enough to convince many of us on the team that a permanent switch would be worth it (myself included — no thank you), but the iPhone 16 Pro’s bronze medal is a reminder of how capable Android’s biggest rival continues to be.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Excellent hardware • Flexible cameras • Solid software support
The best of the iPhone 16 series, in a compact form factor.
The iPhone 16 Pro offers a sleek 6.3-inch display with ultra-slim bezels for a refined, modern design. It features an upgraded 48MP ultrawide camera, 5x optical zoom on the telephoto lens, and a new touch-sensitive shutter button for a DSLR-like photography experience. Powered by a faster chip optimized for AI, the iPhone 16 Pro delivers top-tier performance in striking colors like gold titanium.
Fourth place
2024 was a banner year for the Google Pixel line, with significant gains in market share and increasing awareness among smartphone users starting to prove that the Big G can finally become a big player in the hardware sector, too. The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL was the pinnacle of that promise — the Pixel series’ best specs in the biggest possible package.
As a lover of super-sized phones, this was my personal top pick, and while the Pixel 9 Pro romped home with the overall victory, the XL-ent larger model can be proud of its fourth place finish.
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
The best specs in the Pixel 9 series • Gorgeous display • Seven years of software updates
Pure XL-ence.
Google reserves its best hardware for the largest device in the line. The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL offers a 6.8-inch display, the biggest battery we’ve ever seen in a Pixel phone, and 37W wired charging. Otherwise, the Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL share almost all other hardware and software features, giving users the option between display sizes with top hardware.
Fifth place
Okay, that’s not exactly fair. The OnePlus Open deservedly took the runner-up spot in 2023, but there was no OnePlus foldable challenger in 2024 (side note: our top-ranked foldable was the Motorola Razr (2024), which came in joint sixth alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE). But the OnePlus 12 becomes the first slab-style phone from the Android stalwart to crack the top five in our end-of-year Editor’s Choice list since the OnePlus 7T way back in 2019.
A Pro-grade phone without Pro in the name, the OnePlus 12 summoned some of that old-school flagship killer spirit, offering ridiculous power and rapid charging while undercutting many of its contemporaries on price.
OnePlus 12
Bright, sharp display • Blistering-fast charging • Approachable price
The flagship killer returns.
The OnePlus 12 is an important update for the brand that never settles. The phone offers the latest and best technology, including a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, 50W wireless and 80W wired charging, next-gen Hasselblad cameras, and more.
That’s a wrap on our Editor’s Choice phone of the year award here at Android Authority, but we’ve got plenty more coming your way during the holiday season, including some other end of year roundups, as well as features taking a peek at what’s coming up in the mobile world in 2025. We’re also already gearing up to bring you the best possible coverage from CES 2025 in January, while also continuing to think of new and exciting ways to bring you the best analysis, opinions, and reporting at Android Authority throughout 2025 and beyond.
Until then, from our families to yours, we hope you all have a happy holidays!
