The Best iPhones in 2025: Which Model Should You Buy?

The iPhone 16 Pro gets major props for filling in the gap between the base iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Its more compact form factor will be more manageable for most users in one-handed use than the enormous Pro Max, but it doesn’t miss out any features or camera sensors – unlike previous iterations that had different cameras on the smaller Pro model. Of course, if you want the larger screen, you can simply upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro Max and count on getting an otherwise similar experience.

The iPhone 16 Pro gets all the latest from Apple, including the A18 Pro chip that’s exceedingly powerful for everyday operation and gaming. In the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the chip had the single fastest Geekbench 6 single-core score I’ve ever measured in a phone (and in a laptop for that matter). This also pairs with a GPU that rips. Playing the latest games, the chip is readily able to pump out high frame rates at max settings.

Apple’s build is great and feels luxurious, though it doesn't come in the most vibrant colors. The screen is brilliant, offering both the combination of high brightness and contrast with the more fluid motion of a higher refresh rate. While Apple hypes up the durability of the new phones Ceramic Shield glass, I found it’s still able to get scraped up easily, so it’s worth some protection.

The cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are strong. The main sensor is downright excellent, exhibiting its strength in low-light scenarios where smartphone cameras typically struggle. The ultra-wide successfully squeezes more into the shot, though struggled a bit with softness and noise in my testing, seemingly as a result with a focusing issue (which you could avoid with manual focus). There’s also a helpful 5x telephoto sensor that makes all the difference when you’re trying to capture portraits with natural bokeh or need to get closer to a subject you can’t physically get closer to. The new Camera Control also provides a way to navigate settings and shoot photos with a more shutter-button-like control, though I think Apple has some more work to do perfecting it in future updates and hardware iterations.

The iPhone 16 is a properly brilliant mid-range option in the iPhone lineup. The introduction of Apple Intelligence required more from the internals, which meant Apple couldn’t leave the base iPhone in the past on an outdated SoC like it has in previous years. As a result, the iPhone 16 ends up with the A18 chip, which puts up serious performance much like the A18 Pro chip in the phone’s Pro siblings. The A18 lagged behind the A18 Pro by a very small margin, but otherwise it readily blasted past the Geekbench 6 CPU performance I’d seen from every phone running a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset in Android devices. Single-core even remains enough to outdo what I’ve seen from the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite.

With all that performance, the iPhone 16 easily holds up in everyday use and can play demanding games like Wuthering Waves with ease. Even after long play sessions, the phone remains comfortable to hold.

This model has more colorful options for the hardware, should you like that, though you can also opt for a clean black or white design. The iPhone 16 also gets Ceramic Shield as protection, though I still recommend some extra protection for the phone. The size of the iPhone 16 is great in the pocket and in the hand, with its smaller width making it much more wieldy than the wide Pro Max models.

While you’ll miss out on the extra smoothness of the 120Hz refresh rate on the Pro models, the iPhone 16 still gets a great display. It’s plenty sharp for a 6.1-inch screen, and it offers a gorgeous OLED panel. That pairs with punchy speakers that make watching shows and movies on the phone all the more enjoyable.

The main camera on the iPhone 16 snaps lovely photos, capturing vibrant color and pulling in enough light to make do even in dim environments. The ultra-wide and selfie cameras aren’t bad, but they do struggle with some softness, seemingly a focus issue much like I encountered on the Pro. This is something Apple will hopefully remedy in an update.

If you’re looking for an iPhone on a budget, Apple isn’t making your selection process much easier. With the introduction of the iPhone 16e, Apple's offerings stepped even further away from affordable than before. The prior iPhone SE may not have been a very good phone, but it at least had a more palatable starting price at $429. The new iPhone 16e enters as Apple’s lowest-priced iPhone currently available, but it starts at $599. While it becomes the de facto budget iPhone, this recommendation comes with some caveats.

The iPhone 16e will give you a modern phone running on a potent chip in the A18 – the same chip you’ll find in the iPhone 16, albeit with one fewer GPU core. This means you’ll get a fast enough phone and access to Apple Intelligence features. The iPhone 16e thankfully updated away from the prior iPhone SE’s design, which was already incredibly dated when it launched in 2022. You’ll get a larger and sharper 6.1-inch OLED display. That updated design also brings with it an aluminum frame and tough Ceramic Shield glass on both sides. Apple has also raised the base storage to a more agreeable 128GB.

However, Apple took a lot away. Since the introduction of the iPhone 12, all of Apple’s non-SE models have had a few shared features. They all offered MagSafe for magnetically connected accessories and wireless charging. They all supported mmWave 5G. They all had UWB support, which allowed for precise location tracking on devices like the Apple AirTag and some other accessories. And they all included at least two cameras on the rear. The iPhone 16e omits all of these. That strips it of a lot of functionality and limits its camera capabilities. That may not be enough to make it a bad phone, but it’s all worth weighing.

Now, I won’t argue that you should just shell out for the $799 iPhone 16 instead. If you just need a simple phone and want it to be a new iPhone, you can go ahead with the iPhone 16e. But if you’re not loving the many things it omits and aren’t sold on Apple Intellgence’s AI features, it’s worth considering that there’s a world of refurbished and renewed devices out there offering serious discounts. Amazon has refurbished iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 units in excellent conditions for under $500, for instance. For my money, I’d take the refurbished iPhone 14 Pro deal over the iPhone 16e.

The iPhone is beloved for its easy-to-use software, solid cameras, and excellent performance. But if you’re not committed to the operating system or don’t want to pay the premiums to get some of the features locked away in the top tier of Apple’s phones, then the OnePlus 13 provides an exciting alternative. The OnePlus 13 comes in at $899, but rather than competing with the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus at this price, it’s more of a rival to the $1199 iPhone 16 Pro Max. Where Apple’s top-line phone brings a bigger display, smoother refresh rate, more cameras, and upgraded processing to the table, the OnePlus 13 also delivers similarly.

It boasts a triple-camera setup on the back complete with a 50MP telephoto sensor that helps punch in on far-off subjects, and that’s backed up by a 50MP main sensor and 50MP ultra-wide sensor. Combined, these shoot great photos and video, and the selfie camera on the front is a knockout.

The display is iPhone-worthy. It stretches 6.82-inches across corner to corner and has a 3168x1440 resolution, just a hair shy of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. It also boasts a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth visuals, plus it can drop all the way down to 1Hz to save power when displaying static content. On top of that, it’s a brilliant OLED panel with ultra-bright peaks and inky blacks.

Performance had long been the area that even the best Android phones couldn’t quite touch Apple, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 started to shake that up in Android flagships in 2024, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite in the OnePlus 13 only moves the needle further. The OnePlus 13 nearly caught the iPhone 16 Pro Max in single-core performance, beat it in multi-core performance, and swept up in 3DMarks’ graphics tests. It’s a champ when gaming, too. And with a 6,000mAh battery, it’s ready for heavy use all day. Never mind that when the battery gets low, you can juice back up with 80W wired charging or 50W wireless charging.

Did I mention that the phone is also elegant? It gets a stylish design with either a silver and white colorway, a silver frame and vegan leather backing in a bold blue, or a blacked-out color scheme with the back glass etched to show a wood grain pattern. The phone also includes an alert slider akin to the old iPhones’ Ring/Silent switch. And while the iPhone 16 lineup has respectable water ingress protection, the OnePlus 13 steps it up with IP68 protection against submersion and IP69 protection that keeps the internals safe even against hot, high-pressure water jets.

The OnePlus 13 has so much going for it, and if you’re not dead set on an iPhone, it’s definitely worth considering.