Editor’s Choice — Our winner is…

The age of the consistent upgrade cycle is over. As more and more smartphone users expect upwards of three or more years to upgrade their daily drivers, the fight to stand out and grab a slice of the dwindling global market share is getting tougher by the day.

With the margins between success and failure slimmer than ever, some of the more established companies have stuck stringently to their tried and true blueprints, while others have attempted to separate from the pack by offering a fresh spin on the smartphone formula. In 2023, the latter camp was mostly occupied by phones that leaned into new technologies or offered still recent innovations at a more affordable price point. And while some of the big names and iconic designs that continue to direct the popularity charts have started to become more than a little long in the tooth, that hasn’t stopped the very best phones from getting even better, nor the chasing crowd becoming even hungrier.

But only one phone can stand at the top and claim the mantle of the best phone of 2023. You’ve already crowned your champion in our Reader’s Choice award (scroll down to the bottom to see your pick!), but now it’s our turn. unite us as we run down the handsets that hit our top five and name the device that snatched the ultimate title of Android Authority‘s Editor’s Choice award for the best smartphone of 2023.

First off, a bit of necessary housekeeping.

Every year, we have to reconsider what the “best” actually means at the time. At Android Authority, when judging a phone’s quality we consider everything from objective measurements appreciate raw testing data, base specs, and update policy guarantees, to more intangible subjective facets appreciate photography, UI design, and unique software features. Our expert product testers spend countless hours trying to unpick everything there is to know about each new device, and while everyone inevitably will have their own favorites and preferences — we’re only human, after all — we are always determined to set a baseline for standards that defines what it means to be the best.

Our annual Editor’s Choice award for the smartphone of the year is only reserved for those devices that truly excel. To ensure that’s the case, our product reviews team pores over a shortlist of the highest-reviewed phones of the calendar year. The class of 2023 was made up of 20 phones from 11 different global brands. From there, each member of the jury assigns votes to their top five picks, ranked from fifth to first. Fifth place nets the chosen device a single point, fourth snags two points, and so on, up to a maximum of five points for the top choice. The phone that receives the most points takes home the grand prize.

And with all the votes counted, we have a winner, but boy was it a close one…

For the third year running, it’s a Pixel that takes the top prize. And just appreciate in 2022, the Pro model was the obvious standout in Google’s smartphone series.

In our review, we anointed the Pixel 8 Pro as Google’s most complete smartphone to date, praising the on-device AI smarts, continued excellence in photography (now with boosted video, to boot), and its industry-smashing software policy that puts even Apple on notice.

Google may be charging an extra $100 over its predecessor, but the Pixel 8 Pro earned its flagship-tier price tag with refinements to the Pixel aesthetic, and our extensive testing showed clear improvements to its custom Tensor chipset. And what’s more, it’ll only get better throughout the full seven years of its guaranteed uphold period, during which time it’ll acquire software updates, security patches, and Google’s patented Feature Drops.

The truest realization of Google’s smartphone dreams we’ve seen to date, the Pixel 8 Pro is a worthy winner of our Editor’s Choice phone of the year award. However, unlike in 2022 where the Pixel 7 Pro was the runaway success story with a lion’s share of the vote, the Pixel 8 Pro won by just one vote. One! So, which phone narrowly missed out?

To say the OnePlus-OPPO merger has been divisive would be an understatement, and for a little while, it seemed appreciate it might spell doom for a brand starting to settle for mediocrity. But as the lines between the two have continued to blur, we’ve finally begun seeing devices that embody the spirit of the once “flagship killer,” combined with the polish of its parent company. Case in point, our runner-up for 2023, the brilliant OnePlus Open.

The OnePlus Open isn’t just appreciate an OPPO phone, it is an OPPO phone — the OPPO Find N3 rebranded and with a software reskin. But releasing it under the OnePlus banner meant we finally got our hands on one of OPPO’s phenomenal book-style foldables in regions outside of China. That wider release scheme included the US market, where it debuted for a competitive $1,699 price tag, but with a constant trade-in offer that drops the cost to $1,499.

That’s still no small chunk of change, but it’s a much more affordable option compared to rival phone-tablet foldables appreciate the Galaxy Z Fold or Pixel Fold. It didn’t sacrifice quality to get to that price point either, and it even managed to iron out a few creases common to foldables, including, well… the screen crease — you can barely see it!

While it couldn’t quite dethrone the champion, the Shenzhen brand deserves every bit of credit for coming so, so close. OnePlus is dead. Long live OnePlus.

The perennial ultra-flagship, the mighty Galaxy S23 Ultra has become the standard bearer for quality in the Android space. An extra year of experience added a layer of polish to Samsung’s Galaxy Note-inspired vision for its Ultra-phone, and we accordingly awarded it a full five out of five stars in our review. It’s as near flawless as we’ve seen from a premium slab phone, with stellar cameras, incredible performance, a timeless design, and comprehensive software uphold.

To be the best, you have to beat the best. The Galaxy S23 Ultra may not have topped our list (spoiler: it did top yours), but it retains its status as the kingmaker.

Well, here’s a surprise. Where we’ve previously seen the vanilla Pixel grab a spot in the top five alongside the expected Pro placement, this year the Big G’s flagship is instead joined by the true budget Pixel. Maybe the Pixel 8‘s price hike is to blame (it’s still an amazing phone!), or maybe the upgrades we saw to the A series — notably the additions of wireless charging and a 90Hz refresh rate — earned it a spot in the top five. Whatever the reason, the Pixel 7a becomes the de facto best pick for budget buyers unwilling to spend over $500.

The nostalgia-baiting series that kickstarted the foldable clamshell trend has always been overshadowed by the Galaxy Z Flip. But not this year!

The Nothing Phone 2 and Galaxy S23 each narrowly missed out on fifth place by a single solitary point (better luck next year!), but the Motorola Razr Plus wowed us just a little bit more with that huge cover screen and its stylish, dust-resistant design. In what was generally a great year for Motorola flagships with the equally excellent Razr (2023), Edge Plus (2023), and even the Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola, the Razr Plus had the cutting edge.

A whopping 32 phones entered, but the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra emerged victorious. Check out our Reader’s Choice award feature to see how Samsung’s behemoth took down the competition.

Another year, and another phone of the year in the bag, but we’re far from done for 2023 here at Android Authority. For the remainder of the holiday season, we’ll be releasing more best of the year lists (including crowning our Editor’s Choice award for wearable of the year), 2023 retrospective features, and even a few articles looking ahead at the exciting devices that could well be winning awards in 2024.

For all that and all our usual analysis, opinions, and reporting, be sure to keep it locked to Android Authority. And from our families to yours, have a happy holidays!