what is the best phone ?

best phone is samsung

The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is Samsung's top tier non-folding phone in 2020, and it has excellent battery life.

The old Bakelite phones, like ones made by Western Electric, Pacific Bell or Bell Atlantic in the 1950's and 60's.

These phones were designed to last several lifetimes. They are very durable, never required an update or a charge, always sounded great, and gave people a sense of empowerment when slammed down hard to end a conversation. They had a beautiful sounding bell you could hear half a mile away if you turned it all the way up, and at times were even used as murder weapons. 

Most were in service with what was called an operator. The operator would connect calls for you, or place calls for you if you didn't know the phone number, or help you get help in an emergency. 

I really miss my old model 500 western electric telephone.

The best phone is the one that does all you need without you paying for features that you don't need and won't use. 

Go used and look for the features that you actually need. 

Don't buy a phone just because it's the latest thing 

SONY is and always be the best. The software behind the smartphones are far greater than competitors even with lower specs. (others are using consumer's  lack of knowledge, and other number games to draw attention to their products)

BEST BATTERY LIFE for mobile devices

flagship = SOUND, CAMERA, SCREEN.

BEST compact smartphones (most features, best software...) every other year is best. Because of half-step design changes. (They want to please everyone or nobody) compact smartphones are the pickiest users to deal with. 

____

XPERIA 5 II is best for 2020-21 year

____

Samsung flagship

____

NEVER anything Apple.

5g is just a marketing technique (5g isn't available yet) "5g compatible= no 5g" Sony XPERIA PRO is only Smartphone in USA that is fully working. 

Folding smartphones = NOT worth buying, TOO new. They need to work problems out. 

If you are interest in IOS, then i phone is best. Otherwise, in andriod section, SAMSUNG is best.

It all depends on your needs I guess. It is very individual what people prefer. Some people things that iPhones are the only real phones and other people thing it is way to expensive and that Apple are way to powerful in the smartphone marked.  

I have a OnePlus my self and I like that a lot. At work I have an iPhone.

Stay away from alcatel's

To be realistic, there is no "the best phone". Just find something that isn't cumbersome to maintain physically yourself (easy to disassemble to replace battery), even if it's "old".

As long as it meets the requirements of your current carrier for service (3G=4G/H+ and LTE is LTE, 5G is rather short-range LTE) and is compatible, supports all of the 3G and LTE bands, you will be good to go really.

Depending on where you are (country would be most important), there's either going to be three or four carriers (mains) and then MVNO's, or subsidiaries of the larger carriers.

An example in Canada is bell owns northwestel, virgin mobile Canada and lucky mobile. Rogers owns fido and chat-r. Telus owns koodo and public mobile.

Regional carriers exist, such as snowmobile, freedom mobile, videotron, fizz, sasktel, tbaytel, Eastlink, Xfinity and ice wireless.

MVNO's are pc mobile, petro Canada mobile, 7-11 speakout, sugarmobile, dotmobile and a few others I forgot to take note of.

If your sim/plan is 4G, try the Umidigi X.  If your sim/plan is 5G on Verizon, try the TCL 5G phone for Verizon.  If your sim/plan is 5G on any network other than Verizon, I can't answer that question as the best phone for that is no longer available.  2nd best is Samsung A716U....but it's outrageously expensive unless you can buy it at a steep discount.  3rd best is Google Pixel 5G.

Whatever fits your budget.  The fact is, few people actually use their phone to its full potential.  Unless you are doing some heavy gaming on it, or are taking some semi professional photographs, the best phone is one that fits your hand, fits your pocket, fits your budget, and stays charged all day.