A 2023 Buyers’ Guide to Smartphones

Nowadays even modest, inexpensive phones combine a communications centre with a powerful computer, a camera, music player and GPS. Buyers face a bewildering array of options and prices. Bill Bennett provides a guide to the best phones for 2023.

Now that all three mobile carriers in New Zealand have extensive 5G networks, it makes sense to choose a new phone that supports the technology. While you’ll get faster and more reliable downloads, in practice you probably won’t notice much difference. That said, 5G is the network of the future. A phone that supports it will last longer than one that doesn’t.

Samsung and Apple dominate phone sales in New Zealand. The two companies now account for three out of every four phones sold, with Vodafone low-cost own-brand phones making up about half the remainder.

Beyond the top three names, Oppo and Nokia both make serviceable Android alternatives. Some brands that are popular overseas, such as the Google Pixel range and OnePlus are only sold here by parallel importers which can be off-putting for some buyers.

The Apples

Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models are technically the best phones on the market in 2023. Thanks to Apple’s own processors, iPhones are way more powerful than anything from rival phone makers. They last a long time between charges, sport an always-on display and have first-rate high-resolution cameras.

There’s the new ‘dynamic island’ – a mixture of hardware and software that turns the camera notch on the screen into a status indicator. Apple has also added hardware that allows you to make emergency satellite calls when you are outside the reach of a mobile network (although this feature is not usable in New Zealand at the time of writing).

Prices for the base model iPhone 14 Pro start at NZ$2000 and, if you opt for the model with a terabyte of storage, climb to $3200 for the fully loaded 14 Pro Max.

If you like iPhones, but want to spend less, the iPhone 14 starts at $1600. A smarter purchase might be last year’s iPhone 13, which starts at $1200. The iPhone 13 does almost everything the 14 does for $400 less.

The two models look almost identical on the outside too. Paying more gets a slightly improved camera that works better in low-light conditions and the newer model is a tad easier if you need to upgrade or repair it, but otherwise you’d need to look hard to find where the extra money goes.

The Androids

The best mainstream Android phone is Samsung’s S22 Ultra, with prices starting at $2000. It’s not remarkably different from 2020’s S21 Ultra; both come with a stylus that fits inside the phone. You can use it to jot down reminders and mark up documents.

The S22 Ultra has a large 6.8-inch screen that adjusts itself depending on surroundings. The cameras include one with a 10x optical zoom. This gives it an edge if your work means you take photos from a distance.

A new Samsung S23 is expected to arrive early in 2023. The S22 went on sale in New Zealand last March so you can expect similar timing for the S23 which, like Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro, includes emergency satellite calling (although maybe not for New Zealand customers at first). Early reports from South Korea suggest the new phone will include a 200-megapixel camera.

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung’s latest folding phone. You can carry it in your pocket like any other mobile phone, but it unfolds to become a small tablet with a 7.6-inch display. This is great for tasks like reading documents, dealing with complex data or watching videos. You can use the external 6.2-inch screen like a standard smartphone. There are lots of cameras, including one with a 3x telephoto zoom lens and a 10-megapixel selfie camera.

The fold 4 is a niche device, folding phones represent only a few percent of the total phone market, yet it’s ideal for some users. The first folding phones were flimsy and didn’t last long – however, the Fold 4 is much more practical. Prices start at $2,850, which is expensive but worth the price if you need that bigger screen.

Also on the radar is Google’s Pixel Phone 7. It’s worth considering even if it isn’t stocked by any New Zealand carriers. You can buy the Pixel Phone 7 from a parallel importer for around NZ$1350. It has many of the features offered by Apple and Samsung’s top phones at a lower price – including a big 6.7-inch screen and a 50-megapixel camera with 5x optical zoom.

You’ll also get the best Android experience.

Do you (really) need to upgrade?

Until recently people changed phones, on average, every two years. The cycle generally coincided with phone contracts. But those days are over for most of us.

If you purchased a new phone in the past couple of years and looked after it, you may not have a pressing need to buy a new one. Modern phones last longer than they used to. The technology no longer changes at a rapid pace, which means an early upgrade provides fewer benefits.

Careful iPhone buyers can expect to get at least five years from a new phone. The latest version of Apple’s iOS iPhone operating system works fine with iPhone models originally released in 2017.

Android phone software tends not to last as long. You can expect to get three years of software upgrades and security from most Android phone makers. Some only offer two years of updates. Google now promises five years of updates for its Pixel phone models, which is the longest lifespan of any Android device.

In most cases phone hardware lasts longer than the official software support does.

Assuming you haven’t dropped your phone and broken the screen, the first thing to go is usually the battery. Over time batteries hold less charge.

Exactly how fast the charge capacity deteriorates depends on how you use your phone. As a rule, a full charge will last around half as long as when the battery was new after five years. This might drop as low as four years if you are a heavy user.

When you get to that point you can usually buy a replacement battery. If your phone isn’t sealed, upgrading isn’t hard or expensive, although it might take effort to track down a supplier. Otherwise, replacing a battery can be tricky on a sealed phone. It’s worth getting an expert to do the job. Expect to pay around $100 or so depending on the model at a local phone repair business.

Bill Bennett is an Auckland-based business IT writer and commentator.