Smartphones, tablets, and consumer tech reviews — backed by 30+ days of testing each.
The iPhone 16 Pro is the most polished small flagship of this generation. After 6 months of daily use, we measured top-of-class CPU performance (A18 Pro), the most reliable point-and-shoot camera system in the category, and 7:42 of screen-on time under our heavy-use script. The 1TB pricing is hard to swallow, and Apple Intelligence is still rough around the edges, but nothing else under 6.5 inches comes close.
The Pixel 9a is the easiest phone recommendation we make in 2026. For $499 you get most of the Pixel 9 Pro's camera output, the same Tensor G4 chip, seven years of OS updates, and 8h 12m of screen-on time in our heavy script. The Tensor G4 still throttles hard under sustained load and the build feels plasticky next to the iPhone 16 Pro, but nothing else under $600 comes close.