The best smartphone deal in 2026 isn't an Android phone

These are strange times in the smartphone world. For as long as I can remember, recommending a new smartphone was fairly simple. If you wanted a premium smartphone without spending over a thousand dollars, an Android phone was almost always the better bet. While the absolute top-end of the market remains up for debate, Samsung, Google, and a plethora of Chinese OEMs competed on price and value to make Android phones the obvious choice in that sweet $700–$800 segment.

That’s no longer true.

Right now, the standard iPhone 17 starts at $799, while both the Google Pixel 11 and Samsung Galaxy S26 start at $899. And if the rumors around Apple pushing the standard iPhone 18’s launch to next spring are true, that $100 price gap is likely to stick around for quite some time.

That makes the iPhone 17 a surprisingly easy recommendation. In fact, if you are simply looking for the best flagship phone for your money, the answer right now might be the one phone no Android enthusiast would expect.

Android flagships have become too expensive

I get it, Google, Samsung, and the wider smartphone industry have their reasons for raising prices. The ongoing RAMageddon means that chip prices have shot up, both for RAM and even storage. And as both companies are putting more money into on-device AI features, the return on those investments, too, has to come from the cost of the device.

Look, both the Pixel 11 and Galaxy S26 are excellent phones. The Pixel brings Google’s latest camera and computational photography improvements, while the Galaxy S26 packs an impressive amount of performance into a relatively small phone.

The problem is that the iPhone 17 makes those $899 price tags much harder to justify. 2025’s iPhone 17 upgrade was a bona fide leap forward that addressed practically every concern we had with the hardware.

For one, Apple finally brought a 120Hz display to the regular iPhone. It also doubled the base storage compared to the previous generation and gave the phone a design that feels just as premium as the Pro models. And it did all of that while keeping the starting price at $799.

Put the three phones next to each other and it is difficult to ignore the $100 difference. Samsung and Google are asking you to pay more for phones whose biggest improvements are often iterative hardware upgrades and software features that barely show up in everyday use. The biggest advances with either phone are AI features. That’s fine. But that brings up the question of just how many of these features are actually being used every day? Some might be useful, and others less so, but you’ve got to bear the R&D cost regardless.

It doesn’t help that, increasingly, many of the Google Pixel’s AI features require an internet connection, and some of those may, sooner or later, require a premium subscription.

I would much rather save that $100 today.

What about performance?

The processor argument doesn’t necessarily work out in Android’s favor either. While the Galaxy S26 and Pixel 11 have more than enough performance for practically everyone, the Apple A19 chipset in the iPhone 17 remains neck and neck with the best in the business even one year on. But more than that, Apple’s silicon has long delivered excellent real-world performance, efficiency, and longevity. That last point is noteworthy when you’re buying a $799 smartphone. You want the phone to last, and between Apple’s overspecced hardware and long-term software support, the iPhone 17 stands out. I’ve had mine since last year, and there’s been virtually no performance degradation despite heavy use. I can’t say the same for my Pixel 10.

Meanwhile, the Pixel 11’s Tensor G6 is performant at best and certainly isn’t going to best the iPhone. Things improve when you factor in the Galaxy S26’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. However, in that case, you’re still paying extra for performance that’s similar to the iPhone 17, not dramatically better.

Elsewhere, imaging is a big part of why you’d want to spend $800 on a smartphone to begin with, so I expect all devices in the category to truly excel. That makes camera comparisons much more interesting because each manufacturer has taken a very different approach. To start with, you get a bit more flexibility with the Android options. Both the Pixel 11 and the Galaxy S26 offer a trifecta of cameras covering the spectrum from ultrawide to telephoto. But that alone doesn’t make the decision straightforward.

While both Android options give you more flexibility, the secondary camera sensors are dated, to say the least, clocking in at between 10MP and 13MP, depending on the camera you’re looking at. Look, they’ll get you the shot, but they are not going to be flagship-grade shots. The choice comes down to picking between versatility and quality.

Apple’s approach is a little different, focusing on consistency across photos and videos. The iPhone 17 may not win every individual camera comparison, but it is a remarkably dependable camera phone.

More importantly, you are not making the usual trade-off that came with buying a cheaper iPhone. The iPhone 17 gives you flagship-level cameras and video capabilities without requiring you to step up to the Pro model. Meanwhile, spending $899 on the Pixel 11 or Galaxy S26 does not necessarily buy you a dramatically better camera experience. For most people, the difference is much smaller than the $100 price gap suggests.

Budget Android options are no longer as compelling

Apple’s regular iPhone used to be the model you bought when you wanted an iPhone but could not justify spending Pro money. The iPhone 17 feels much closer to a true flagship. It has the build quality, performance, and display experience I expect from a high-end phone without pushing me into the $1,000-plus category. And that makes it much easier to recommend.

The iPhone also makes more sense over time, which is another part of the equation that is easy to overlook. When you’re buying a premium smartphone, resale value matters too. There’s simply no denying the fact that iPhones have historically held their resale value much better than comparable Galaxy and Pixel phones. After two or three years, that can make a meaningful difference when you decide to upgrade your smartphone.

So, the $100 you save at checkout is only part of the story. If I pay $799 for an iPhone 17 and can later sell it for considerably more than I could get for a similarly priced Galaxy or Pixel, the real cost of ownership becomes much lower. More and more, that’s something I’ve started considering anytime I’m making a new purchase.

None of this means Android phones have suddenly become a bad choice. Android is still the better choice if you value customization. Sideloading is more flexible, notification management is better in many ways, and both Google and Samsung offer features that simply do not exist on iOS.

Or perhaps you’re already in an ecosystem and have a Galaxy Watch or Pixel Watch on hand. In that case, it is best to stay within those ecosystems. However, purely from a value point of view, it is rather astonishing to see that Apple has become the top value option in the flagship market. Color me surprised.

Apple just flipped the value equation

For years, Android manufacturers used price as one of their biggest advantages over Apple. You could get more hardware for less money, and that made the decision easy for anyone who cared about value.

That advantage, as it stands, no longer exists. The iPhone 17 starts $100 below the latest Galaxy and Pixel flagships while offering all the hardware you need, excellent cameras, and a premium build. It also has the advantage of historically strong resale value. There’s no getting around that.

All that said, I don’t think Android manufacturers need to copy Apple’s every move. The platforms are different enough, and there’s plenty to love on both sides of the fence. But Google and Samsung definitely need to rethink how they price their entry-level flagships.

At $799, the iPhone 17 is simply too good to ignore. But more than that, at $899, the Pixel 11 and Galaxy S26 have a much tougher job convincing me that their extra $100 is money well spent. And for the first time in a long time, the best smartphone deal might not be an Android phone at all.