When it comes to flagship smartphones, Indian are spoilt for choices. This year alone, we’ve already seen flagships from Samsung, iQOO, OnePlus, and Xiaomi. And now, the latest to join the fray are the Vivo X90 and Vivo X90 Pro.
And that isn’t even considering the top-tier smartphones from Apple and Google towards the back end of last year. So with all those options, which is the best flagship phones for you in 2023; let’s find out.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is arguably the best overall smartphone of 2023, so far. The Galaxy S23 Ultra offers an ultra-premium smartphone experience with its over-the-top spec sheet and super software support to match.
With the S23 Ultra, Samsung has delivered on its promise of class-leading visuals, battery life, performance, build quality, and overall smartphone experience. And if that weren’t enough, you also get stylus support. And while Samsung may not offer the best camera performance in the segment, but it is the most versatile and the undisputed king of zoom performance.
The iPhone 14 Pro isn’t just the best smartphone Apple has to offer but is arguably still one of the best phones in India in 2023. The iPhone 14 Pro models were some of the best-selling smartphones of 2022 and with good reason.
Despite its size, the iPhone 14 Pro delivers battery life comparable with all the big boys, so one can only imagine how well the Pro Max does. Add to that, the iPhone 14 Pro features a class-leading display, the best build quality, performance, and software support in the segment, and superb battery life. And then there are the cameras, which deliver arguably the best image quality and easily the best video quality of any smartphone so far.
If you are looking for the ultra-premium smartphone experience without the ultra-premium smartphone price, then the Pixel 7 Pro is the way to go. The Pixel 7 Pro’s got it all, the top-tier 120Hz QHD+ LTPO AMOLED display, the excellent battery, the tripe-camera setup, the solid build, and superb software experience.
The camera performance here easily rivals the iPhone 14 Pro and the Galaxy S23 Ultra, even surpassing them in certain instances, particularly on the photography front. The one drawback to the Pixel 7 Pro is the Tensor G2 chip, which excels at AI performance but tends to heat up pretty quick during gaming and pro-longed camera usage in extremely sunny environments.
The recently launched Vivo X90 Pro is another excellent option if you are looking for a flagship smartphone under a lakh. Additionally, the lack of a top-tier Snapdragon chip shouldn’t be a cause for concern as its MediaTek counterpart doesn’t lag far behind. The X90 Pro also has an elegant design, good battery life and extremely fast charging, and a solid build.
Moreover, the addition of the V2 imaging chip, ZIESS optics, and the 1-inch camera sensor, all contribute to a superb camera experience. The Vivo X90 Pro is arguably the best phone in the segment for portrait photography. However, the lack of an LTPO OLED screen and a cluttered operating system, don’t quite work in Vivo’s favour.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro brings the heat when it comes to flagship camera performance. The Xiaomi 13 Pro takes its ques from last year’s Xiaomi 12S Ultra, with the 1-inch primary camera sensor. Moreover, the camera system is co-developed with Leica and features a “Floating Telephoto Camera” to achieve a focal range of 10cm to infinity.
Apart from the camera system, the Xiaomi 13 Pro has all the makings of a flagship with one of the best displays in the segment, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and a large battery with both wired and wireless super-fast charging. The Xiaomi 13 Pro easily has some of the best hardware on a smartphone in the segment, although software leaves a little to be desired.
The Asus ROG Phone 7 series takes a step back from the traditional flagship formula to deliver a flagship mobile gaming experience. The two ROG phones feature similar specifications and offer the best battery life of any smartphone and gaming-oriented software in the segment.
The ROG Phone 7 series uses the same flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC as most phones on our list, but Asus incorporates some of best cooling in the segment to deliver the best sustained performance of any smartphone on this list. However, outside of gaming, the ROG Phone 7 feels more like a flagship killer than a premium smartphone.
If you are looking to go the safe route for a flagship phone in 2023, then the Galaxy S23 and S23+ should be your default pick. The two Galaxy S23 phones have all the making of flagship smartphones.
Samsung does make a few confessions here to allow the ‘Ultra’ to stand out, but that in no way takes away from just how good these two smartphones are. They offer just about everything you’d demand from a flagship smartphone in 2023 without the hefty price tag of the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
OnePlus recently flipped its smartphone strategy at the top-end of the segment, introducing the OnePlus 11 5G as a replacement to the OnePlus 10 Pro and doing away with a ‘Pro’ model for 2023. And the result is one of the best value flagships of 2023.
With the OnePlus 11 5G, the company has introduced an extremely capable smartphone that packs flagship hardware minus the flagship price tag. From the LTPO display and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip to the Hasselblad cameras and superb software support, there is very little to complain about here.
Vivo X90 | Starting at Rs 59,999
The vanilla Vivo X90 retains some of the best aspects of the Vivo X90 Pro at a reasonable price. The flagship MediaTek chipset, solid build quality, reliable software support, and vibrant display remain virtually unchanged.
The ZEISS cameras and T* lens coating is also retained from the ‘Pro’ model, which will provide all the advantages of ZEISS optics. However, the phone does lose out on the 1-inch primary camera and 50 MP telephoto shooter.
The two non-Pro iPhones offer everything you’d ever need in an iPhone with solid cameras, excellent battery life, vibrant displays, and reliable software. Moreover, the iPhone 14 Plus was crowned battery king in our recent Smartphone Awards.
Unlike the iPhone 14 Pro, which goes above and beyond, the vanilla iPhone 14 is just a good phone and a perfect introduction if you are looking tomake the switch. There’s no doubt that the iPhone 14 is quite similar to its predecessor on paper, there are a few noteworthy upgrades if you dig deep enough. And all of those come at a marginally higher price.
iQOO 11 5G | Starting at Rs 59,990
The iQOO 11 5G was the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 smartphone in India. And in our experience is the second-best smartphone for gaming on our list. Apart from the flagship Qualcomm chip, the iQOO 11 5G also has the dedicated V2 chip from the Vivo X90 series, which aids in frame rate interpolation, which boosts frame rates in games.
iQOO has also incorporated a top tier 144Hz QHD+ E6 AMOLED display to match the powerful hardware. However, the one area where the iQOO 11 5G struggles is in camera performance and software. Despite respectable camera hardware, the software here still has some catching up to do.
Google nailed all the fundamentals with the Pixel 7 series, including its pricing. And although there are a few noteworthy compromises here, the barebones Pixel experience remains unchanged from the 7 Pro.
The lack of the telephoto camera does feel like a letdown, but the Pixel 7 still retains the same main and ultrawide cameras from the ‘Pro’ model. Additionally, the phone also comes with a solid battery life for a compact phone and an IP rating along with Google’s renowned software. Flagship smartphones aren’t for you and you prefer foldables, then checkout this list.
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