2026 iPhone Buyers Guide

With no less than five current iPhones and a few from prior years also in the line-up, picking an iPhone can be difficult. Fortunately, we can help.

When you’re in the market for any new gadget, working out what you want can be a daunting task. There are prices, feature sets, sizes, and so on, and so picking anything is often a case of research and working out just what is right for you.

It’s a question only you can answer, while the research side is often up to publishers like Pickr to help out. After all, reviewers have been working for years to explain what makes the right product the right product for you.

Picking a phone is one of these dilemmas. It’s never all that easy unless you know exactly what you want, and there is often a lot to choose from.

Pickr’s editor has long suggested to head to a store and find three phones you like the look and feel of, and then to research them and read reviews. Feeling whether they match your hand and who you are is an important part of working out if a phone is right for you, and is very much like seeing a TV for yourself when you audition it before buying. However, the research is critically important, as well. After all, how do you know if it’s good if you don’t see a review?

Buying an iPhone is no different, thanks in part to just how many iPhone models there are these days. With four released at a minimum every year, plus older models still in the range, both found new and from refurbished places, how do you pick an iPhone?

Buying the best iPhone right now

One of the obvious approaches is to pick the best iPhone you can, of which there are always two best iPhone models every year.

Simply look for the model that has the latest number and the words “Pro” or “Pro Max” to find the best iPhone. What makes the Pro/Pro Max models “the best” comes from a combination of factors, including:

• The materials used in the design
• More capable processors
• Better cameras

From September 2025 to September 2026, those models will likely be the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, released on September 19, 2025.

While our iPhone 17 reviews are on the way, their predecessors are still very much in demand, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Apple typically keeps the feature set very similar between models, so in terms of technology, two of the best iPhones available right now are both of these, models that are practically the same except for screen size and battery life. Each were awarded Best Picks in 2024 due to the tech and feature set found on the phones.

As of the time this guide was updated, we had our iPhone 17 Pro review ready to go, and our iPhone 17 Pro Max review wasn’t far behind. We’re still working on reviews for the standard iPhone 17 and iPhone Air, both released alongside.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Read our review

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max

Read our review

Buying on size: which iPhone is right for me?

Alternatively, you may want to look at an iPhone based on size, which can give you a clue on which model to buy that fits your hand best.

Size is an important factor, because some people prefer a big phone while others prefer a smaller phone. If you don’t like carrying a lot of a phone with you, a smaller model can make a lot of sense. Meanwhile, if you prefer a phone with more battery life, bigger models can pack a larger battery in, which typically means greater battery life.

Apple’s current range includes 6.3 inch regular sized iPhones and larger 6.7 inch iPhone models, as well. These days, the use of Apple’s screen technology taking up most of the front meant 6.3 inches is considered a “normal” size of phones, even if it sounds larger, while 6.7 inches is the larger style of phone.

Apple no longer makes its smaller 5.5 inch iPhone Mini models, but a small iPhone can be found in the older 4.7 inch iPhone SE, which is about the same size as the iPhone Mini, but instead uses a smaller screen flanked by borders not unlike the older iPhone 8.

Knowing what size suits your hand and pockets best can tell you which phone models you want to end up with.

Technically, Apple doesn’t make the SE anymore, so the smallest phones as of 2025 onwards are the 6.3 inch iPhone 17 or the 6.1 inch iPhone 16. Interestingly. Apple’s use of 6.3 inch screens fits in roughly the same size as its previous 6.1 inch iPhones, largely thanks to improvements in technology.

Buying on price: which model has the best cost?

When you know which iPhone is right for your hands, consider the cost. Phones aren’t cheap, and an iPhone is typically the most premium of the bunch.

New iPhones start from $1399 in Australia, while the Pro models start from $1999, providing a solid difference in what you need to choose between. With the iPhone Plus seemingly removed from the range, Apple’s only current standard models include a 6.3 inch regular-sized model in two versions: the standard iPhone and the Pro iPhone. Meanwhile, the less expensive single-camera “e” model. As such, your choice of size can be matched to your desire to save money or get the best technology.

Ultimately, reading reviews will give you the best understanding of what makes those differences up, but as we learned year on year, the range of the iPhone is so solid, you’ll end up with a great phone regardless.

For iPhone buyers, the choice often comes down to what’s more important in the long term: saving money or having a better camera setup. That is largely the conundrum when picking an iPhone.

If the answer is saving money, go for the standard models. The feature set will often keep you happy for a few years, and you won’t need to spend as much. Meanwhile, if you want the best technology and don’t mind spending a little extra, the Pro and Pro Max models are the best you can go each year. They may change every year, but your feature set will likely keep you happier, and you may even find ways to gradually use everything Apple provides. Maybe.

Long term thinking: how much storage do I need?

Even after you’ve settled down and picked which size and price you want to spend, one question remains with iPhones: storage size.

Storage is one of the few choices Apple provides when you buy an iPhone, and it’s an important one, largely because everything we do depends on storage. When you take a photo, it stores that data on storage. When you download an app or game, it eats into the storage, as well.

The more things we do with an iPhone, the more our storage will be consumed, and while you can get it back if you delete files (hopefully after backing them up), you can’t upgrade storage on an iPhone at all. Storage is locked into a size when you buy an iPhone, and the most you can do to fix that is back things up and delete them. Apple’s operating system for an iPhone, iOS, also eats up storage on the iPhone.

The logic is therefore simple: buy the iPhone with the storage amount you think will keep you comfortable for the next however long you plan to use and keep your iPhone for.

While that can be difficult to work out, a simple logic is to start from the second storage tier for any iPhone. If you’re not sure how many apps you plan to download or photos and videos you plan to take, start from the second storage option and move up, as that will give you just that little bit extra flexibility.

On the current iPhone range, that’s essentially starting from 256GB throughout most of the range, which seems an appropriate minimum amount of storage for any phone in 2025 to have. For most, this is a totally reasonable amount, but if you’re looking at longevity, we’d suggest around 512GB, particularly if you plan on holding onto your phone for 3 to 5 years.

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