The best phones in New Zealand are winners across the board, offering a great range of cameras, awesome performance, a gorgeous screen, great battery life and ultimately a reasonable price tag. You might want to compare phones based on the features offered, such as offering a stylus or compatibility with your smart home gadgets, and that’s why we’re here.
With so many handsets to choose from, knowing what models are actually worth picking up and what devices should be skipped can be a bit of a hurdle. TechRadar’s international team of experts has reviewed all the best phones in New Zealand, to make your buying decision easier and better informed.
Let’s dive in. These are the best smartphones in New Zealand. We’ve updated this list to add the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (replacing the S24 Ultra) as the best cameraphone.
The best phones in New Zealand at a glance
Offering substantial upgrades to the iPhone 15 of 2023, including an upgrade to RAM, the more impressive A18 chip, a slightly bigger battery and a new “fusion” main camera, the iPhone 16 is the best value phone that you can currently buy in New Zealand.
Interestingly, the iPhone 16 was released in New Zealand with a lower RRP than the iPhone 15 did in 2023 (dropping from NZ$1,649 to NZ$1,599). Apple is still holding the iPhone 16 back with a 60hz display, compared to most similarly priced competitors that have 90hz or 120hz displays, but the screen is perfectly fine for casual use. There’s also the Camera Control capacitive button on the iPhone 16, that allows you to adjust camera zoom without touching the screen, and the Action Button, which replaces the mute toggle to allow for deeper functionality.
If you’ve been waiting a while to upgrade a base model iPhone, this is one of the better ones to switch to, just for the sheer amount of changes year-on-year. It’s no wonder TechRadar gave the phone a Recommended seal of approval.
Read our full iPhone 16 review
Samsung has a refined formula when it comes to the Ultra, and while the Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t stray too far from the S24 Ultra the year prior, it does include some notable buffs.
Available at an AU$50 lower price than the S24 Ultra, the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s most noticeable difference to models prior is its rounded design. This brings it closer in line with its S25 and S25 Plus siblings while offering a slightly larger screen. It also features a stylus, though a slightly different one to the S Pen that came with the S24 Ultra, as it doesn’t include Bluetooth (meaning that you can no longer take photos with said pen, sadly).
On the camera front, the S25 Ultra packs a 200MP wide camera, 10MP telephoto lens, 50MP periscope telephoto lens, and an all-new 50MP ultrawide camera. It’s capable of 5x optical zoom and packs the same camera specs as the S24 Ultra (except for the new ultrawide).
Backing the camera array up is its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, allowing for fast processing across multiple apps, and a 1440 x 3120 AMOLED display, which pulls off some of the best visuals on any smartphone. It even has Qi2 wireless charging capability for the first time on a Samsung smartphone, though only enabled through a compatible case.
Keep in mind that the Galaxy S25 Ultra is a fairly huge phone, and won’t be a good fit for you if you’re not a fan of large handsets. It’s also quite expensive, despite being cheaper than last year’s model. If you’ve got your heart set on the best possible performance and the highest quality photos, then you can do no better than the Galaxy S25 Ultra – but if you’re looking to save, you should consider one of the other phones on this list. Alternatively, give our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review a read, as you might be fine with last year’s model now that you can find it cheaper.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review
The iPhone 16 Pro represents the best smartphone that Apple has ever built, with a smaller 6.3-inch size than its bigger sibling, the iPhone 16 Pro Max. That smaller size is the only difference between the two phones, apart from a much more attractive price for the iPhone 16 Pro that makes it a much better phone for most people.
Compared to the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 16 Pro isn’t an across-the-board refresh, but it does provide a bunch of welcome upgrades and new features, including the A18 Pro chip, a slightly larger display than last year, and the all-new Camera Control button, a capacitive button on the side that allows you to quickly adjust camera zoom.
The camera array didn’t receive a massive upgrade this time around, but the ultrawide sensor was bumped up to 42MP on the iPhone 16 Pro. The cameras in the Pro iPhones are still some of the best you can currently buy in a handset, but you’ll get slightly better shots with Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra.
But we weren’t impressed with everything. AI features were a letdown with the iPhone 16 range. As we wrote in our review, “It’s hard to argue for Apple Intelligence as an upgrade driver when Google and Samsung are selling smartphones with far more complete AI offerings.” Similarly priced Samsung phones also come fitted with slightly more impressive displays, not that the iPhone 16 Pro’s is bad at all.
Still, it’s no wonder why the iPhone 16 Pro received a ‘TechRadar Recommends’ seal of approval in our review.
Read our full iPhone 16 Pro review
The Samsung Galaxy A55 is the best pick for a budget handset at the moment, given that Google’s great Pixel 8a has seen a price bump (and isn’t officially available in New Zealand). At the NZ$799 price point for the 256GB storage option, Samsung’s budget handset feels premium without needing the ‘S’ suffix.
The Galaxy A55 takes style points from the S series, while retaining a gloss back that makes it unique, and obviously more related to the A range. Slightly upgraded internal specs and Samsung’s proprietary Knox Vault security system spearhead the big changes from last year’s model. Low-light photos have also seen a buff from improved signal processing.
The cameras you can expect on the Galaxy A55 include a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide, a 5MP macro and a 32MP selfie camera. It can record video at up to 4K/30fps.
The 6.6-inch AMOLED display runs at 120Hz, with a max brightness of 1,000 nits. It also has a brilliant battery life, and we had no trouble getting it to last all day during our testing.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy A55 review
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 doesn’t change much over its predecessor from the year before, but it does hit all the same notes perfectly, with a refreshed design and some more refined features.
The 7.6-inch, 1856 x 2160 resolution display doesn’t stray far from last year’s model, though aesthetically the device is a lot more square, packed with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and a 4,400mAh battery. The display is brighter, and Samsung’s packed the company’s Galaxy AI kit right into the phone from the get-go.
All of this said, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is one of the most expensive phones in New Zealand, and the largest storage capacity model is in fact the most pricey handset in the country.
Additionally, while it is a huge phone with a gorgeous screen, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has much more capable cameras that might impress you more if you want to take snaps. Despite being more expensive, being bigger, and having a pretty cool gimmick, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 isn’t entirely a better phone over the S25 Ultra.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review
What is the best phone in New Zealand in 2024?
While there’s no ‘best’ phone among the phones listed above, there might just be a brilliant pick for you to consider. When it comes to being a one of the best all-rounders, the iPhone 16 takes the top spot, but you’ll get better performance from the iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
In the interest of saving money, you may want to consider the iPhone 16, especially if you’re used to the Apple ecosystem. If you’re an Android user, the Samsung Galaxy A55 is an attractive budget option. Finally, if you’re keen on an interesting form factor, our favourite foldable is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.
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