Every phone on this list has been thoroughly tested by CNET's team of experts. We use the phone, test features, play games and take photos. We evaluate every marketing promise a company makes about its phones. If we find something we don't like, whether it's battery life or build quality, we'll tell you about it.
We look at every aspect of a phone during testing:
- Display
- Design and feel
- CPU performance
- Battery life
- Camera quality
- Features
We test all of a phone's cameras (front and rear) in a variety of conditions: from outdoors in sunlight to darker indoor environments and night scenes (for all available night modes). We also compare our results to similar pricing models. We run a series of real-world battery tests to see how long a phone lasts in daily use.
We take into account the phone's additional features like 5G, fingerprint and face readers, styluses, fast charging, foldable screens, and other useful extras. We weigh all of our experiences and tests against price, so you know whether a phone represents good value for money or not.
Read more: How we test phones