Julian Chokkattu/Digital TrendsTechnology often moves at terrific pace, but owning the latest and greatest products will cost you a hefty premium. Smartphone innovation is slowing. The best phones from a year or two ago are still great phones. They may lack the latest style trends, but they’re plenty powerful enough for most people. If you want to stretch your budget further, starting with last year’s flagships is a great idea because some of them are now heavily discounted. Here are five of our favorite phones from 2016 that are easy to recommend.
Note: One problem with buying older smartphones is that they will not get software updates as long as the latest releases. Two years is standard for flagships, which means this crop of 2016 phones should keep getting updated for at least another year, but schedules vary by manufacturer.
The perfect phone for the Android purist, the Pixel from Google offers the most slick, stylish, and elegant experience you can find on the Android platform. It’s fast and smooth in performance, it has a stylish design with a bright AMOLED display, and the camera is nothing short of superb. It also comes with free unlimited cloud storage for your snaps and videos through Google Photos. Add in the fact it already has Android 8.0 Oreo, the latest version of the operating system, and continues to get the latest security patches, and you can forgive the average battery life and lack of water resistance.
A stylish, solid metal slate with powerful front-facing speakers flanking a high-resolution AMOLED screen, the ZTE Axon 7 was one of the biggest bargains of 2016. It matched far more expensive Android smartphones on the spec sheet and managed to come in hundreds of dollars cheaper. The lack of water resistance and ZTE’s user interface are weak points for an otherwise strong all-rounder. It has also been relatively quick to receive Android updates, but there’s no word on whether it will get the latest Android 8.0 Oreo just yet.
We can’t blame you if the $1,000 price tag of the iPhone X has given you pause. Why spend that much when you can get a great iPhone for just over half that amount? The iPhone 7 offers lightning fast performance, an excellent camera, decent battery life, and water resistance in a well-designed package. There’s no headphone jack and it lacks the dual camera setup of the 7 Plus, but it’s still a solid smartphone that will serve you well. If you can scrape together an extra $120, the iPhone 7 Plus is also worth a look. Apple continues to update its devices for longer than its competitors, so you can expect to keep getting software updates for several years to come.
Shop around and you should be able to find some hefty discounts on perhaps the most desirable smartphone of 2016 in terms of style. Curved glass front and back blends into a metal frame to produce a phone that’s comfortable to hold and packs a sizeable, stunning, 5.5-inch Super AMOLED screen into a relatively svelte body. It’s fast, water resistant, and boasts a camera that performs admirably in low light conditions. Samsung’s bloatware and the fragility of the S7 Edge may put you off, but the user interface has been much improved with post-release software updates and this is a phone that’s hard to put down.
It failed to attract the audience it deserved, but the HTC 10 is a stylish smartphone with plenty of power under the hood. It feels nice in hand and offers almost everything you’d expect from a flagship phone. You’ll find a sharp, 5.2-inch screen in an aluminum body, powerful stereo speakers, and a very capable camera here. The lack of water resistance and average battery life are the only real disappointments. Shop around and you should be able to find some aggressive discounts on this handset, which make it even more enticing.
The best iPhone 14 Pro Max cases: top 15 you can buy
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is one of the best devices that Apple has ever produced, and it's been adopted by plenty of iPhone fans in the months following its launch.
While it's never fun to spend more money, especially after spending over $1,000 for the phone itself, picking up a case for the iPhone 14 Pro Max is a good idea since you don't want to risk scratching, chipping, or all-out smashing a brand new iPhone. Luckily, there are plenty of cases on the market — whether you're looking to fully protect your phone from the elements or if you simply want to turn the iPhone 14 Pro Max into a stylish accessory.
Will my iPhone get iOS 17? Here’s every supported model
Apple announced a slew of updates to iOS — the operating system for iPhones — at WWDC 2023. With iOS 17, the company is rolling out features to not only apps like Phone, Messages, Safari, and Maps, but it's also updating AirDrop to make it even better.
But with every new iOS update, it begs an important question: Will my iPhone be updated? Probably, but also maybe not. Here's every iPhone that will (and won't) be updated to iOS 17.
iOS 17 is compatible with iPhone Xs and newer
Apple iPhone 8 Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
iOS 17 is official, and it’s going to totally change your iPhone
Apple has just revealed iOS 17 at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote. This is the next major update for Apple’s iPhone hardware, which will publicly launch in the fall alongside the iPhone 15. However, those who are in Apple’s Developer Program can get ahold of the iOS 17 beta today, while those who are enrolled in Apple’s Beta Software Program can grab the beta in July.
In addition to the usual bug fixes and improvements, iOS 17 is bringing a lot of new features to the table as well. Here’s a rundown of all of iOS 17’s major changes.
Changes to Phone, FaceTime, and Messages
