2024 was a strange year for phones. Software packages like Galaxy AI, Google Gemini, and Apple Intelligence dominated keynotes and marketing campaigns, while hardware innovations were, for the most part, relegated to the sidelines.
On the outside, the best phones of 2024 were largely indistinguishable from their predecessors, with the exception of the Google Pixel 9 Pro, which felt properly different from the Pixel 8 Pro before it. Google refreshed its tired Pixel lineup with a more grown-up, modern-looking phone, and the Pixel 9 Pro also boasted the cleanest implementation of AI we’d seen at the time (Samsung’s Galaxy AI has arguably caught up since then).
