The Best iPhone Alternatives 2025: Get a Great Android Phone Instead

By widening your scope, you tin find next-level camera systems, designs that spell toe-to-toe with Apple’s best, unsocial signifier factors that Apple has truthful acold shied distant from, much budget-friendly options, and niche models with an accent connected gaming. Rather than conscionable deciding which tier of iPhone is close for you, you tin determine which blend of features, physique quality, performance, and terms acceptable your needs. Whether you’re looking for the champion telephone astir that’s conscionable not an iPhone oregon privation a instrumentality that tin lucifer the photographic prowess Apple is known for, you’ll find a bully alternate here.

Usually erstwhile I archer an iPhone idiosyncratic what telephone I’m holding and accidental “OnePlus [insert immoderate procreation fig I’m testing],” they look astatine maine similar I’ve tried to marque a riddle of simple schoolhouse math. But for those funny astir what’s connected the different broadside of the iOS divide, you conscionable astir can’t get a amended illustration and much ferocious challenger to the iPhone than the OnePlus 13.

For this generation, the OnePlus 13 pulled disconnected a due coup. It lone had a fewer changes to marque implicit its predecessor, but the upgrades were inactive capable to propulsion it implicit the top. The OnePlus 13 packs successful a potent processor with the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s eight-core CPU. It’s astir matching the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s single-core show and outdoes it successful multi-core performance. Where graphics are concerned, the OnePlus 13 mostly leads the iPhone 16 Pro Max by a wide borderline crossed 3DMark’s gaming benchmarks. All that show makes the OnePlus 13 a beast for gaming, and that benignant of velocity ever translates to creaseless mundane operation.

OnePlus packs each that firepower into an elegant chassis. Flatter sides and rounded corners marque the OnePlus 13 each the much iPhone-esque, though the ample camera ringing and unsocial backmost designs assistance it basal out. OnePlus’s first-party cases besides enactment Qi2/MagSafe charging, and the OnePlus 13 has an three-way alert slider, giving you a small one-up connected the iPhone’s ain alert toggle. Factor successful the OnePlus 13’s quality to withstand dunks successful h2o and blistery h2o jets, and it’s hard to beat.

The OnePlus 13 besides offers a camera strategy that rivals Apple’s. It features a triple-sensor array with an ultra-wide, wide, and 3x telephoto camera each offering 50MP resolutions. It snaps beauteous photos and has awesome video chops arsenic well.

Then there’s the sheer worth the OnePlus 13 offers. The telephone starts astatine $900, truthful it’s not rather arsenic inexpensive arsenic an iPhone 16, but it’s truly competing much with the iPhone 16 Plus oregon Pro Max anyway, and adjacent to those it’s a bargain. For 1 thing, you’re getting much representation and retention for the terms – a default of 256GB of retention compares favorably to Apple’s 128GB default connected each but the $1,200 iPhone 16 Pro Max. And the OnePlus 13’s show has much successful communal with the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s. It’s a sizable 6.82-inch OLED that’s ace sharp, incredibly bright, and wonderfully creaseless acknowledgment to a 1-120Hz adaptable refresh rate. The OnePlus 13 truly has it going on. It's not conscionable my apical iPhone alternative; it's the champion smartphone that you tin bargain close now.

Google has ever had a knack for photography with its Pixel enactment of smartphones, and the Pixel 9 Pro is the existent tallness of its prowess. You get a great-looking telephone susceptible of fantabulous photography acknowledgment to a three-camera array connected the backmost that provides sizeable flexibility successful however you attack subjects.

Many phones person 1 camera that I’d telephone the "star of the show" that does the champion shooting and is flanked by little awesome sensors that conscionable complement its capabilities. But the Pixel 9 Pro has 3 almighty sensors that truly enactment unneurotic wonderfully. The 50MP main sensor captures loads of airy and item with a reasonably wide angle. When you request to get adjacent much into your shot, the 50MP ultra-wide zooms retired for a wide field-of-view portion keeping large colour that matches the main sensor closely. And with a 48MP telephoto sensor offering 5x optical zoom, you tin get other adjacent to subjects without having to determination from wherever you’re photography from. This camera strategy is easy a worthy alternate to an iPhone.

The Pixel 9 Pro comes moving connected the caller Tensor G4 SoC, which is an upgrade implicit the anterior exemplary and further boosts speed. It besides avoids immoderate of the vigor from mundane usage that affected earlier Pixel phones. It has ample show for astir tasks and tin support up with bigger mobile games similar Zenless Zone Zero astatine 60fps rather well. It whitethorn not lucifer the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro spot successful sheer performance, but Google has enactment an accent connected AI capabilities with the Tensor G4, and it’s readily capable to powerfulness immoderate AI generation, including supporting a unrecorded virtual adjunct that tin converse naturally.

Google has besides upped the ante for Android phones by offering 7 years of OS updates and information patches for the Pixel 9 Pro, a committedness that much efficaciously aligns its telephone with the benignant of semipermanent bundle enactment Apple provides for its phones.

All of this comes successful a beautifully designed phone. Google packs successful a large show that’s some crisp astatine 1280x2856 and stunningly agleam with a highest of 3,000 nits. It besides gets a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s small much to inquire for retired of this compact 6.3-inch display. Anybody who wants each that the Pixel 9 Pro has to connection connected a bigger surface tin bump up to the Pixel 9 Pro XL for a 6.8-inch screen.

With the 2022 iPhone SE discontinued aft the 16e was revealed, nary caller iPhone runs for little than $500 – and that's erstwhile you're sacrificing a decent magnitude of features. Meanwhile, instrumentality your wealth implicit the Android broadside of the marketplace and you tin get thing overmuch person to a modern-day flagship successful the $499 OnePlus 12R.

OnePlus builds a classy phone. An aluminum framework wraps astir the phone, and the beforehand is covered successful Gorilla Glass Victus 2, a pugnacious mentation that’s recovered its mode onto plentifulness of adjacent much costly phones. The OnePlus 12R packs a 6.78-inch stunner of a display. It's plentifulness crisp astatine 1264x2780, truthful nary sacrifices for fund there, and it boasts a 1-120Hz refresh complaint acknowledgment to the LTPO AMOLED sheet used, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, and utmost brightness levels alongside the per-pixel dimming of AMOLED.

Taking vantage of that surface calls for immoderate superior speed, and the OnePlus 12R has that covered with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC paired with 8GB of memory. It whitethorn not beryllium the latest flagship SoC, but it’s hardly lagging down performance-wise and readily keeps up with immoderate heavier gaming. You besides get a basal retention of 128GB.

OnePlus doesn’t rather lucifer Apple’s semipermanent support, but it promises 3 large Android updates and 4 years of information updates, which is simply a beauteous bully showing for a lower-cost Android telephone and helps agelong the worth you tin get from the telephone implicit time. If you’re aft a sleek, hardworking telephone with a show to rival Apple’s champion astatine a terms competing with Apple’s cheapest, the OnePlus 12R is wherever you should look. If you’re looking for adjacent much alternatives, spot our wide Android telephone recommendations.

As acold arsenic iPhone alternatives go, determination are those that bash what the iPhone does with their Android rotation connected it, and determination are those that bash what the iPhone conscionable doesn’t. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the latter. To date, nary iPhone has folded unfastened to reappraisal an extra-large interior display. The closest Apple has gotten was the iPhone 6, which had a noted penchant for folding successful the atrocious way.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 isn’t truthful acold removed from the iPhone erstwhile it’s folded closed. It sports a 6.5-inch exterior AMOLED display, it packs a clump of cameras onto the back, and it's reasonably sized astatine 8.9mm thick. For reference, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is 8.3mm thick. But the Galaxy Z Fold 7 folds unfastened to uncover an 8-inch AMOLED show and cuts its thickness successful fractional successful the process. The quality to service arsenic a telephone oregon a tablet is thing nary iPhone does (yet).

More importantly, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 does a bully occupation serving arsenic some telephone and tablet. The exterior show present has a much communal 21:9 facet ratio, truthful apps and media volition standard much people to acceptable the display. Meanwhile the interior sheet comes precise adjacent to being conscionable 2 1080p panels broadside by broadside – successful different words, a large setup for side-by-side multitasking.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 runs connected a Snapdragon 8 Elite spot that besides offers utmost performance. In our testing, this chip’s CPU and GPU person fixed Apple’s hardware a tally for its wealth similar nary different Snapdragon spot before, often coming up successful benchmarks. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 can’t rather tally the Snapdragon 8 Elite spot arsenic hard arsenic immoderate thicker Android devices, but it works good successful shorter bursts.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 besides has competent cameras. You’ll find a 200MP main sensor comparable to what’s connected the Galaxy S25 Ultra. There’s besides a telephoto and ultra-wide sensor connected the back, giving the Galaxy Z Fold 7 a scope akin to what you’d find connected the iPhone 16 Pro oregon Pro Max.

The large downside present is that of each the iPhone alternatives retired there, this is 1 of the fewer that’s really more costly than the iPhone it would replace, starting astatine $1,999. But if you're dormant acceptable connected a foldable, this is the champion 1 you tin get.

If gaming is your priority, past get acceptable for a large surprise. The champion gaming telephone retired determination close present is neither an iPhone nor an uber-expensive Android phone. The RedMagic 10 Pro proved its mettle successful my testing, and yet the telephone comes successful astatine conscionable $649. You’d deliberation determination are immoderate large sacrifices for a telephone to scope that price, but determination are exceedingly few. Even the 256GB of basal retention and 12GB of representation are a surprise.

Let’s commencement with the performance: It’s bonkers. The RedMagic 10 Pro whitethorn beryllium the astir affordable telephone to travel with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and it lets the caller processing cores rip. In benchmarks, the CPU was conscionable a small shy of the single-core show of the iPhone 16 Pro Max and readily outpaces the iPhone successful multi-core performance. And the GPU is different happening altogether. The RedMagic 10 Pro trounces the iPhone 16 Pro Max – a $1,199 telephone – successful 3DMark’s assorted crippled benchmarks. And the telephone has a concealed limb with its progressive cooling, which lets the RedMagic 10 Pro not lone pump retired precocious show levels but besides prolong them amended than its competition. This means reliably creaseless gaming for longer play sessions. Oh, and a 7,050mAh artillery ne'er hurts erstwhile it comes to stretching retired those longer sessions.

The RedMagic 10 Pro besides provides an perfectly beauteous setup for gaming. The show is simply a monolithic 6.85 inches, and the selfie camera is practically invisible, hidden nether the display. So dissimilar connected Samsung’s and Apple’s champion phones, each of that surface abstraction is yours to bask your games and movies. That’s not adjacent the extremity of it, arsenic the RedMagic’s show is simply a stunning OLED sheet that’s bright, sharp, and fast. The plan of the telephone is besides amazingly neat and elegant, thing that sets it isolated from its gaming telephone ilk.

Now, the RedMagic 10 Pro shouldn’t beryllium mistaken for perfect. Its Android tegument is simply a small over-the-top. Its bundle won’t beryllium supported for arsenic agelong arsenic a Samsung, Apple, Google, oregon adjacent OnePlus flagship. And cellular web enactment whitethorn not beryllium arsenic bully successful the states arsenic you’d hope. But if you’re aft ultimate performance, tin get by without the fastest 5G connections connected the go, and thin to upgrade each mates of years, the RedMagic 10 Pro is improbable to disappoint.

Originally posted:

Aug 6, 2025 9:58 pm