The 9 best smartphones to buy in 2026, tested by experts

What about the new iPhones? Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and first-ever foldable iPhone Duo at its "Surprise and Shine" hardware event on Sept.

9.

We just published our initial review of both Pro models and plan on adding at least one of them to this guide in the near future, once we've wrapped up a couple more performance and battery life tests.

Both phones are available for preorder ahead of their release on Sept.

18.

SEE ALSO: Apple iPhone Duo vs. iPhone 18 Pro Max: How to decide between them As for the iPhone Duo: It's not out until Oct.

23, but Mashable's Stan Schroeder got to spend a little time with it at Apple Park earlier this month. ( Read his hands-on first impressions. ) It should give our current favorite foldable phone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 , a run for its money.

Look for preorders starting Oct.

16.

Why are phones so expensive right now? The new Google Pixel 11 Pro has a $100 higher starting price than last year's Pixel 10 Pro.

Credit: René Ramos / Mashable If you're in the market for a new phone right now, you should know that it'll cost you more than usual.

Smartphone prices have surged in 2026 because we're in the middle of a global RAM shortage caused by the AI boom (commonly known as "RAMageddon").

New AI data centers are hogging supplies of memory and SSD storage chips, driving up their prices.

Consequently, consumer tech devices that use the same components are also getting more expensive.