The Best Black Friday Phone Deals This Week*
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For most of us, mobile phones are at the center of our universe. The typical feature set of these palm-size marvels is astounding. It’s your phone, messaging device, web browser, camera, music player, GPS, and more. The phone you choose affects your life in a multitude of ways. That’s why we’re here to help you pick exactly the right one.
We’re a smartphone-dominated nation, with 4G LTE networks serving data faster than many home internet connections and 5G spreading across the country quickly. We’re down to three major, nationwide wireless carriers, but a new entrant, Dish, recently launched coverage for over 120 million people and is slowly building out a 5G network. Moreover, virtual carriers such as Google Fi, US Mobile, and Visible keep competition alive and push prices down. But some of our choices have constricted a bit: The smartphone OS marketplace is basically down to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a really good simple voice phone nowadays, too.
We’ve reviewed almost every smartphone available for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, as well as for many of their sub-brands such as Cricket, Metro, and Visible. But rather than simply choosing the phones with the highest ratings here, our aim is to deliver a list of phones that covers every budget. We generally focus on the hottest, newest devices, but you can also find great value in slightly older phones, so make sure to shop around.
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
Best iPhone Overall
Bottom Line:
The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is the best iPhone overall, with excellent performance, stellar battery life, sharp cameras, and a number of useful features you don’t get with the standard models.
PROS
- High-quality hardware
- Always-on display includes widgets
- Top-notch cameras
- Stellar wireless performance
CONS
- Pricey
- Dated design and Lightning connector
Samsung Galaxy S22+
Best Android Flagship
Bottom Line:
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ blends top-notch connectivity and performance with the best mix of features and size for the price, making it the flagship Android phone to beat.
PROS
- Top-of-the-line performance
- Excellent cellular reception
- True 3x zoom camera
CONS
- Photos can look a little washed out
- 45W charging doesn’t make a big difference in speed
Google Pixel 7
Best Midrange Phone
Bottom Line:
The Google Pixel 7 is the best $600 Android phone you can buy, particularly if you want flagship features and performance on a budget.
PROS
- Fantastic value
- Incredible cameras
- Excellent performance
- Great-looking display
- Smooth Android 13 experience
Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
Best Affordable 5G Phone
Bottom Line:
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G’s excellent battery life and impressive design are a winning combination for budget-phone shoppers, but AT&T customers will want to buy it directly from the carrier
PROS
- Handsome design
- Durable Gorilla Glass 5 display
- Capable cameras
- Long battery life
- Impressive performance for the price
- Excellent software upgrade policy
CONS
- Low-resolution display
- Mediocre speaker
- Back panel scratches easily
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Best for Artists and Photographers
Bottom Line:
The S22 Ultra is the true successor to the Galaxy Note line, delivering all the excellent Samsung phone features while making no concessions for size, weight, or price.
PROS
- S Pen integration
- Long battery life
- Bright screen
- Excellent reception in low-signal environments
CONS
- Very large
- Expensive
- Back scratches easily
- Few camera improvements over predecessor
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
Best Folding Phone
Bottom Line:
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4’s flexible screen and strong multitasking support make it the best productivity phone available today by far.
PROS
- Fast and powerful
- Useful multi-window mode
- Excellent signal strength
- Fully usable with one hand
CONS
- Very expensive
- Heavy
- Some applications are buggy
Apple iPhone 14
Best iPhone for Most People
Bottom Line:
While the iPhone 14 doesn’t offer all of the innovative new features available to the Pro line, Apple has made plenty of small tweaks under the hood to boost its performance and keep it competitive.
PROS
- Solid performance
- Capable cameras
- Helpful emergency features
CONS
- Not that different from the iPhone 13
- Dated design and Lightning connector
Moto G Power (2022)
Best Phone Under $200
Bottom Line:
The 2022 edition of the Moto G Power offers smooth performance and impressive battery life for $200.
PROS
- Long battery life
- Solid performance
- 90Hz refresh rate
CONS
- Ships with Android 11
- Noticeable pixelation on 720p display
- Underwhelming audio
Sunbeam F1
Best Simple Voice Phone
Bottom Line:
The Sunbeam F1 helps digital disconnectors target exactly the level of communication they want.
PROS
- Thoughtful design
- Solid construction
- Loud earpiece
- Three levels of feature restrictions
CONS
- Lacks band 71 for T-Mobile
- Long-term support not guaranteed
Unihertz Titan Pocket
Best QWERTY Keyboard Phone
Bottom Line:
The Unihertz Titan Pocket brings back the handheld QWERTY phone with modern software and 4G connectivity.
PROS
- Unique design
- Dual-SIM and compatible with all carriers
- Good performance for the price
CONS
- Small 1:1 screen isn’t great for all apps
- Lacks some speed and coverage bands
- Terrible cameras
Buying Guide: The Best Phones for 2022
Which Cell Phone Carrier Has the Best Coverage?
Despite all the recent hardware and mobile software innovation, choosing a wireless service provider remains the most important decision. No matter what device you buy, it’s a doorstop unless you have solid wireless coverage. You should choose a carrier that offers fair prices and provides the best coverage in your area.
If you’re interested in performance and you live in a metro area, pay most of your attention to where carriers have “mid-band” 5G and use phones that support that technology. T-Mobile won our Best Mobile Network award this year because it’s far ahead of the other carriers on both counts. It has speedy mid-band in more places than the other carriers and all of its current 5G phones support mid-band.
AT&T had the best performance in areas away from cities and off the interstates. Verizon’s C-band 5G is spreading fast, although it’s only available in about 50 metro areas and you need the right phone to take advantage of it.
UScellular is available only in about half the country. It has a reputation for good customer service, but we haven’t been able to test it because its service is not available near where our staffers live.
The newest national carrier is Dish. We headed out to test its network and found that it’s in a very early beta state—exciting for wireless geeks, but ordinary consumers probably should wait a while.
There are also plenty of virtual operators that use the big three networks for service but offer lower monthly rates, cheaper international calls, or other benefits. They’re typically better for lighter users and most don’t have family plans.
Mint Mobile (on T-Mobile’s network), Consumer Cellular (on AT&T’s), and Spectrum Mobile (on Verizon’s) all got higher ratings in our Readers’ Choice survey than the companies hosting their service did.
What Is 5G?
AT&T owns Cricket, T-Mobile owns Metro by T-Mobile, Verizon owns Visible, and Google owns Google Fi. Verizon now also owns Net10, Page Plus, Simple Mobile, Straight Talk, Total Wireless, and Tracfone, although it might sell off some of those brands. We spotlight some of our favorite virtual operators in our roundup of the best cheap phone plans.
Do You Need a 5G Phone?
5G arrived in 2019, and most new smartphones now support some form of it. Though 5G may change everything eventually, it’s not going to happen immediately.
As noted above, our Best Mobile Networks tests for 2022 showed that T-Mobile’s 5G mid-band network is making a considerable difference in performance. If you’re on T-Mobile, you should be using a mid-band 5G-compatible phone. That’s an easy choice—all T-Mobile 5G phones are mid-band-compatible now.
AT&T has a strong 4G network and not much mid-band 5G. It still plans to install a new form of mid-band called 3.45GHz(Opens in a new window) eventually, but you need an iPhone 14, Samsung Galaxy S22, or fourth-generation Samsung Galaxy foldable model to take advantage of it. Hopefully, more upcoming phones support this spectrum.
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
(Credit: Eric Zeman)
Verizon Wireless is famous for its top-notch network quality. It recently turned on C-band 5G in areas covering more than 100 million people and data shows that it’s making a difference. If you’re in one of the C-band areas, upgrading to a C-band compatible 5G phone with Verizon is a good move. Otherwise, Verizon’s “nationwide” 5G is only slightly faster than LTE and you don’t need to concern yourself with it too much. You can find more 5G recommendations on our list of the best 5G phones.
(One note: you may see a “5G E” icon on your existing AT&T phone. That isn’t 5G; it is a marketing ploy. Your phone is still running on LTE 4G.)
Should You Get a Locked or Unlocked Phone?
As carriers have moved to increasingly more confusing service and pricing plans, the value of unlocked phones has risen accordingly.
Unlocked phones are those you buy from a third-party store or directly from the manufacturer; they aren’t tied to a specific carrier. Usually, you can use them with AT&T or T-Mobile. But some popular unlocked phones work on all three major carriers, including Verizon. For the most flexibility, look for a recent Apple iPhone, Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S flagship, or Motorola phone. If you use a low-cost MVNO service, make sure your unlocked phone works on its network; we’ve received several emails stating that some MVNOs don’t support phones that should work on their networks.
In the past, unlocked 3G/4G phones typically worked on all the major carriers, but 5G phones are a different story. Apple, Google, and Samsung’s 5G phones work on every major US carrier, but many other brands either have limited band support or are only certified for specific carriers. AT&T customers should take extra caution before buying an unlocked 5G phone because the carrier has not yet certified many of the phones that its network theoretically supports.
What Is the Best Smartphone?
As more people become accustomed to instant email, web, music, and messaging access at all times of the day, regardless of where they are, smartphones have become almost indispensable. That said, there’s plenty of variety out there—not to mention devotees of specific OS platforms. Sometimes, a platform’s user interface or app selection just speaks to you, and that’s all there is to it. With that in mind, and at the risk of attracting flames, let’s break it down as well as we can for those who aren’t so fully vested.
There’s actually less diversity in smartphone platforms and designs than even a few years ago. Android and iOS are the two remaining major smartphone platforms, both in US sales and in the availability of third-party apps. The iPhone has the best app store and the best media features. But Apple’s tightly controlled ecosystem can feel stifling to some, and iOS isn’t easy to customize or modify. There’s far more variety among Android handsets, and Android’s open-source nature makes it a tweaker’s dream. But it also means fragmented third-party app compatibility, occasional bugs, carrier-installed bloatware you can’t remove, and less consistent OS updates.
Google Pixel 7
(Credit: Eric Zeman)
Phones from either ecosystem are available in a wide range of sizes and shapes, to fit various types of hands. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and Apple’s iPhone 13 mini are narrower than most other phones; they are easy to hold in one hand and still offer plenty of screen real estate. The iPhone 14 Pro Max, on the other hand, is gigantic, and best for people who want a big window into their online world or a large camera viewfinder.
Strictly interested in Android? Head over to our roundup of the best Android phones. Baffled by the variety of iPhones? Here’s how to decide which iPhone to buy. And if you want to document the world around you with your phone, we’ve rounded up the best camera phones, too.
What Is The Best Feature Phone?
Some people still use simpler phones, but there are surprisingly few current choices out there. There are still reasons to get a simple, less-expensive device: They’re easier to use, and the associated service plans are often much more affordable because mobile data isn’t a factor. There are some killer deals for voice-only usage on virtual carriers such as TracFone and Consumer Cellular.
Recommended by Our Editors
Our favorite voice phone right now is the Sunbeam F1, a simple phone that comes in three feature-restricted models. We also like the Kyocera DuraXE Epic for AT&T, the Kyocera DuraXV Extreme for Verizon, and the Sonim XP3plus for T-Mobile. If your budget is tight, the lowest-cost voice phone worth getting is the unlocked $49.99 Nokia 225 4G.
Unlike smartphones, feature phones are a matter of “what you see is what you get.” They don’t receive software upgrades or run thousands of additional apps. For voice quality, read our feature on how to make your cell phone calls sound better. Wireless network coverage is always the biggest factor, but individual phones can vary in reception, earpiece quality, transmission quality through the microphone, and sidetone (the echo of your voice that helps prevent you from yelling at the other person). A phone with middling to poor reception quality can be almost impossible to use in a marginal coverage area, while one with excellent reception can make the best of the little signal that’s available. Another point to consider: Some phones have much louder speakerphones than others.
For more, see our picks for the best phones for seniors. We also have a roundup of the best phones for kids.
What’s the Best Time to Buy a New Phone?
The best time to buy a new phone is when you need one. If your phone took a header into the pool or met its demise on the pavement, get whatever is available that best meets your needs. But if you’re watching your budget or riding the cutting edge, a little knowledge and planning can keep you from buying a phone that’s about to be discounted or replaced with something newer and cooler.
The pandemic and the global chipset shortage upended the usual phone release cycles for some time, but things seem to be returning to normal now. For instance, Apple released the iPhone 14 models in September as it has done in the past. Google’s new Pixels came out in October. And Samsung seems to be sticking with its usual schedule of Galaxy S devices in February or March and foldable phones in August.
How to Save Money on a New Phone
Very expensive phones tend to headline this story, but you can get a perfectly good smartphone for under $300.
The $279.99 Samsung Galaxy A32 5G remains our favorite budget phone right now, especially because the Galaxy A33 isn’t going to be available stateside. On T-Mobile, the $228 OnePlus Nord N300 is quite good for the price. For under $200, the Moto G Power is the current leader. And if you still want a physical keyboard, the Unihertz Titan Slim won’t break the bank either with its $329.99 price tag.
At $429, Apple’s iPhone SE is the least expensive new iPhone.
For more on getting phones for less, see our list of the best cheap phones.
Finally, we update this story every time we review a new phone worth a spot on the list, so it changes often. Be sure to check back soon for our latest recommendations.
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