Every year, phone manufacturers introduce new models with faster processors, bigger and brighter screens, and ever-improving cameras. And those smartphones connect to mobile networks that are increasing in speed and capacity, especially as 5G networks roll out.
This means consumers have a lot of options—maybe too many; from pricey, bleeding-edge handsets to inexpensive phones that still have capabilities unimagined just a few years ago. There’s even some choice in the mobile carrier space, though your best option may not be the company you’d expect. Here are the mobile operating system, smartphone, and carrier brands PCMag readers recommend most.
Readers’ Choice Mobile Operating Systems 2021
If you’re thinking about buying a new phone, your first consideration is probably whether to stay with your existing operating system. For PCMag readers, the mobile OS of choice is Android, which wins our Readers’ Choice Award for the eighth year in a row. Android holds a slight edge over Apple’s iOS, its only real competitor, in overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend, the most important measures of satisfaction in our survey.
Android received an overall satisfaction rating of 8.8 and a likelihood to recommend rating of 8.9 on a scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied). Apple’s iOS was slightly behind with ratings of 8.7 on both measures.
If you’re leaning toward one platform or the other because you’ve heard that it was more reliable or had a better selection of apps, think again. Android and iOS tied on both satisfaction with reliability (8.9) and app selection (9.0), though Android scored slightly better in satisfaction with the selection of free apps available (8.9 to 8.7). iOS came out ahead in app quality (8.8 to 8.5), probably due to Apple’s tight control.
When it comes to managing your day, things are again close. The two platforms are tied for satisfaction with email (8.9), but iOS is ahead in satisfaction with messaging (9.2 to 8.8) and satisfaction with contact management (8.6 to 8.5), whereas Android leads in satisfaction with calendar management (8.6 to 8.5). If you need to use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, you’ll be equally satisfied, according to our readers. Both platforms were rated 8.6.
The lowest ratings in the survey were satisfaction with the voice assistant and vehicle integration. Android’s voice assistant rated a 7.9. Most Android phones stick with the Google Assistant; we did not ask respondents to specify which one they use. Apple’s Siri was slightly behind at 7.8.
More and more vehicles now support Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay. Although respondents weren’t as enthusiastic about these aspects of their mobile operating systems, both in-vehicle systems generally represent a huge step up from the proprietary infotainment systems that car manufacturers sometimes offer. Nearly two in five of our iOS respondents (38%) told us they use Apple’s CarPlay, and a quarter of the Android users surveyed said they use Android Auto. iOS and CarPlay hold the edge here, with a satisfaction rating of 8.1 compared to Android Auto’s 7.9.
For more, read Android vs. iOS: Which Mobile OS Is Best?Android vs. iOS: Which Mobile OS Is Best?
Readers’ Choice Smartphones 2021
When you make phones that your customers consider to be affordable, reliable, and easy to use, you’re probably going to win some accolades. It works for OnePlus. Once again, the company wins our Readers’ Choice award, as it has every year since 2018. OnePlus had the highest ratings in our survey on more than half of our satisfaction-related questions, including overall satisfaction (8.9) and likelihood to recommend (9.0).
OnePlus topped the ratings for satisfaction with cost (9.0), reliability (9.2) and ease of use (9.0, tied with Google). The company can’t get complacent, however. These ratings, while quite good, are all down from last year’s scores, and Apple, Google, and Samsung continue to nip at OnePlus’s heels. All three rival phone makers rated an impressive 8.7 for overall satisfaction and 8.9 for likelihood to recommend.
The competitors all showed strengths of their own. In addition to its aforementioned tie for ease of use satisfaction, Google also rated best for ease of setup (9.1), taking photos (9.2), and shooting video (9.0). Its digital assistant, Google Assistant, also came out on top (9.0).
Apple rated best for technical support at 8.3, which is a good score on this measure, though Google was right behind at 8.2. However, the respondents weren’t very satisfied with the cost of their iPhones. Apple received a 7.1 for price, which likely dragged down respondents’ overall impressions of the company and its devices.
Samsung similarly did not do especially well on satisfaction with cost (7.7). Interestingly, it received the same score for satisfaction with repairs, but on this measure, that was the best score in our survey. Samsung did not come out on top in any other satisfaction category, yet it was rarely far off the lead—except when it came to satisfaction with its digital assistant. Again, it received a 7.7, but this time, that was the lowest score among the brands our readers rated. Samsung phones still offer the proprietary Bixby “smart” assistant. Looking through our Samsung respondents’ comments, all of the references to Bixby were negative.
As it did last year, LG brought up the rear on overall satisfaction (8.0) and likelihood to recommend (7.8).
We also asked Apple, Samsung, and Google respondents to tell us about their specific phone model. Most of the top-rated smartphones were recent, high-end models, split fairly evenly between Apple and Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra phone topped the charts with the highest overall satisfaction (9.3) and likelihood to recommend (9.4). Google’s affordable Pixel 4a finished a little farther down the list in overall satisfaction (9.0) but tied the Note 20 Ultra’s likelihood to recommend score.
Companies are putting a lot of effort into improving the cameras on their phones and it shows. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra managed near-perfect satisfaction scores for shooting photos (9.6), with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and iPhone 12 Pro right behind (9.5). These same four models received similarly high ratings for shooting video.
For more, read The Best Phones of 2021The Best Phones of 2021.
Readers’ Choice Mobile Carriers 2021
We seem to say it every year, but it bears repeating: you don’t need to limit your choice of mobile providers to the big three (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless). Those of you who got the message sure seem a lot happier, especially the PCMag readers who chose Consumer Cellular, our Readers’ Choice Award winner for the eighth straight year.
That said, many people don’t want to stray far from the main network providers in the US. So we also picked a winner from the big three. They are, after all, still used by the vast majority of people, including the subset of PCMag readers taking our survey. The big network readers clearly recommend is T-Mobile.
Consumer Cellular was the only company to earn an overall satisfaction rating of 9.0 or better. In a remarkable show of consistency, its score was 9.2 out of 10—the same score it has received each year for overall satisfaction from our readers since 2018. The company topped the charts on nearly every measure of satisfaction, with its highest ratings coming for likelihood to be recommended, family plan options, and customer support.
Its rating of 9.2 for customer support is extremely impressive. Support-related ratings tend to run lower than other measures of satisfaction. For comparison, our lowest rated provider for satisfaction with customer support, AT&T, scored a 6.9.
Like many of the providers on this list, Consumer Cellular is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means that it doesn’t own its own network. Instead, it partners with AT&T and T-Mobile (you only use one, and it’s typically picked for you based on location). As in past years, MVNOs have higher satisfaction ratings than the major network providers themselves for performance on the same network. Consumer Cellular’s ratings for satisfaction with coverage, speed, and reliability were all much higher than ratings for AT&T or T-Mobile. Similarly, Xfinity Mobile, an MVNO that uses Verizon Wireless’s network, received a rating of 8.6 for satisfaction with the speed of the data network and 8.9 for reliability. Yet Verizon Wireless only rated 8.3 and 8.5, respectively, on these same measures.
Affordability is a big factor driving satisfaction, and satisfaction with fees likely influences other ratings. Mint Mobile (a T-Mobile MVNO) topped our ratings in satisfaction with fees with a score of 9.5, followed by Spectrum Mobile (9.3), Consumer Cellular (9.2), and Tracfone (9.2). Verizon Wireless and AT&T got dismal ratings of 6.1 and 6.2, respectively, for satisfaction with fees.
Of the big three, T-Mobile leads with the best scores against Verizon and AT&T for family plans, support, and fees, as well as likelihood to be recommended and the all-important overall satisfaction. However, that 8.2 satisfaction score that earned “the Un-carrier” a Readers’ Choice has some caveats. Slightly more than a quarter of T-Mobile respondents said they came to the provider because their prior provider was purchased by or merged with the company—hello, former Sprint customers. T-Mobile has its work cut out for it trying to make these people happy. Respondents who came to T-Mobile via merger or acquisition only rated the company 7.6 for overall satisfaction, compared to an 8.4 from those who use the company by choice.
Nearly a third of respondents told us that their phones support 5G connectivity, but as we saw in our Fastest Mobile Networks testing last year, 5G isn’t quite ready for prime time. Verizon won in our tests, but in this survey T-Mobile received the highest rating for satisfaction from readers with 5G speed and connectivity. However, its score was only a 7.9, which still isn’t much of an endorsement. Verizon Wireless followed with a 7.4 and AT&T a 7.0. We’ll see how C-band affects that next year.
Full Results
The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for Smartphones, Carriers, and Mobile Operating Systems was in the field from February 22, 2021 to March 15, 2021. For more information on how our surveys are conducted, read the survey methodology.
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