Fabulous Phablets: Best Large-Screen Smartphones
Consumer Reports' testers give the nod to devices from Apple, OnePlus, and Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
By Melanie Pinola
Bigger is better, right? That seems to be the thinking of many smartphone makers—and consumers—these days.
More people are using their phones to catch up on must-see TV, join video calls, show off photos of their children, play video games, and multitask by running music, social media, and map apps all at once.
That requires screen space, and smartphone companies are making displays bigger while minimizing the overall size of their phones by shrinking bezels and eliminating once-familiar features such as the Home button.
What was once considered big just isn’t anymore. Not when Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a 6.8-inch display. The iPhone 13 Pro Max? The screen on that model stretches 6.7 inches. (All phones are measured diagonally.)
Just a few years ago, phones with a screen size of 5.5 inches were considered phablets, a cross between a smartphone and a tablet. But that number no longer covers a lot of models from the field. So for this article, we’re focusing on phones with supersized screens of at least 6.5 inches.
That leaves out some large-screen phones you may know and love, most notably the iPhone 12 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S21.
As with all the smartphones in our ratings, Consumer Reports bought the phablets below at retail and ran them through an extensive range of tests to evaluate the displays, camera quality, battery life, and more.
CR members can find additional information in our buying guide and ratings for smartphones.
Note that we’re still evaluating the new iPhone 14 models and new phones from Samsung and Google. We’ll update this article once we receive the test results for those phones.
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Overall Score: 84
Typical price: $1,100
There’s a lot to like about the 13 Pro Max. Apple’s top-tier iPhone delivers the longest battery life in our ratings, clocking in at 52.5 hours. The crisp 6.7-inch display looks great indoors and out. And our testers rate the phone’s overall performance as Excellent.
The 13 Pro Max’s cameras are also top-notch, providing still-image and video quality that earn Very Good scores in our tests. A new macro photography mode enables sharper close-ups.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
Overall Score: 82
Typical price: $1,200
The 6.8-inch OLED display on this phone is Samsung’s best yet for streaming video or viewing photos. The model also boasts a speedy processor for accomplishing just about any task without delay.
The massive 5,000-mAh battery delivers 38 hours’ worth of power in our testing and earns an Excellent rating.
Unlike the other models in the S21 line, the S21 Ultra offers S Pen compatibility and an extra optical 10x lens, handy for getting close to subjects at a distance.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G (128G)
Overall Score: 81
Typical price: $1,200
Much like its predecessor, the latest Samsung Ultra phone has an Excellent 6.8-inch OLED display. Better yet, it now comes with Samsung’s popular S Pen stylus tucked inside its Galaxy Note-like body.
The S22 Ultra also earns high scores in our camera tests. In addition to a main 108-megapixel rear camera, there are two 10-megapixel telephoto cameras, a 10x optical zoom lens, and an impressive 40-megapixel front camera for taking selfies.
The battery lasts a solid 35 hours in our labs.
Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
Overall Score: 81
Typical price: $1,000
With its 6.7-inch display, the S21+ packs in most of the bells and whistles of the slightly larger S21 Ultra for a slightly lower price.
The OLED display is top-rated by CR’s testers, as is the model’s performance. The phone’s cameras, which include wide, ultrawide, and 3x zoom options, earn Very Good ratings for still photos, video quality, and selfies. And the battery lasts a respectable 37 hours in CR testing.
OnePlus 10 Pro 5G
Overall Score: 80
Typical price: $900
The OnePlus 10 Pro 5G is competitive on many levels with the best offerings from Apple and Samsung. In fact, it’s among the top 10 phones in CR’s overall rankings.
The 6.7-inch OLED display earns an Excellent rating from our testers and has a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling and animations.
The phone also boasts a triple rear camera system (48-megapixel main, plus zoom and ultrawide) and a 32-megapixel front camera that rate very well for still-image, selfie-image, and video quality.
While the 30.5-hour battery life lags behind that of other models on this list, the phone’s (wired) 65-watt fast-charging process can provide more than a full day’s power in 15 minutes, according to the company.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G (128G)
Overall Score: 80
Typical price: $1,000
The smallest of the large-screen smartphones on this list, the Galaxy S22+ boasts a 6.6-inch display that receives an Excellent score in our testing. But the model’s smaller size means a smaller battery, too (4500 mAh, to be specific), which is reflected in the 31-hour battery life. Still, that’s enough juice to get you more than a full day’s worth of work and play.
And similar to its S22 siblings, the S22+ earns high marks for its still-image, selfie-image, and video quality.
OnePlus 10T 5G
Overall Score: 79
Typical price: $750
This new model from OnePlus is designed for gamers and multitaskers: It has a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling and gameplay, the latest Qualcomm chipset, and a redesigned cooling system to keep your phone running even while you’re playing MMOs (massive multiplayer online games).
CR testers give the phone top marks for performance and ease of use. They also rate the image quality of the rear 50-megapixel camera among the best, although videos and selfie images are just so-so.
The 6.7-inch phone logged 33.5 hours in our labs, which is about average for smartphones these days.
OnePlus 9 Pro
Overall Score: 78
Typical price: $700
The most affordable of the smartphones on this list, the OnePlus 9 Pro has a 6.7-inch OLED display with an almost bezel-less design.
The trade-off for the smaller price is shorter battery life: just 25 hours in our testing.
On the plus side, the phone gets high marks for still-image quality from the cameras front and back. In addition to the front selfie camera and main rear camera, OnePlus has outfitted the 9 Pro with ultrawide and telephoto cameras.
If you’d like to save even more money without settling for a small-screen phone, the OnePlus 9 gets an honorable mention. It starts at $500 and has a 6.6-inch OLED display. The model performs better in our battery tests, logging 33 hours, but our testers give it lower scores for display quality.
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