Contents
- Mobile Operating Systems
- Smartphones
- Phones by Carrier
- Mobile Carriers
This month's PCMag Readers' Choice Award survey tackles what is, for most of us, the most important and most expensive personal technology product and service we use: our mobile smartphone and mobile service provider.
Consider that some of the most popular smartphones on the market—such as Apple's iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung's Galaxy S7 and Google's Pixel phones—typically cost at least $650. Your mobile phone must be connected to a mobile service provider such as Verizon Wireless or AT&T, where you're paying at least $40 per month for service. On average, people upgrade their phone at least every 24 months, which means you're probably spending $1,600 or more every two years for your phone.
That's not chump change, but money isn't the only reason making the right phone choices is so important. It's also because we spend an incredible amount of time on them. Mobile research firm Dscout created a utility to track mobile usage on Android phones and found that on average, people had 76 separate phone sessions each day. Assuming 17 hours of awake time per day, that's more than four sessions per hour. Your computer doesn't get that sort of workout. Neither does your TV.
To make the most of your phone money and time, you have a few decisions to make. First, you need to decide which mobile phone platform you're going to use. The choice is mostly between Apple's iOS and Google's Android, although a small number of individuals choose to go the Microsoft Windows Phone route. Once you've picked your platform, then pick your phone. If you choose to go with Android, you'll have dozens of phones from which to choose. With iOS and Windows Phone, there will only be a few options.
Finally, pick a mobile service provider, aka carrier. Based on the ads that bombard you, you might think there are only four: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, but 13 carriers received the minimum number of responses to be included in our survey analysis. You have many choices.
Your personal decision process may not follow the platform > phone > service provider flow above. Given that the carrier represents the largest ongoing cost, you might want to start there. Your provider selection will then limit the platforms and phones available to you. If you go with one of the big four providers, you can pick almost any phone you want. Smaller providers may not support the most cutting edge smartphones. If you choose Google's Project Fi as your carrier, you'll have one choice of phone platform (Android) and one choice of phone brand (surprise, it's Google!), but that may not be such a bad thing. Most of the other carriers offer enough choices to help you avoid compromise.
The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for smartphones and mobile carriers was in the field from February 21, 2017 through March 13, 2017. For more information on how the survey is conducted, read the survey methodology.
Each person who completed the survey was entered into a drawing to win an Amazon.com gift card valued at $350.
You can win! Sign up for the Readers' Choice Survey mailing list to receive invitations for future sweepstakes.
Looking for expert opinion? Read The Best Phones of 2017, The Best Android Phones of 2017, and our annual coverage of the Fastest Mobile Networks.
Mobile Operating Systems
When you ask people about which mobile phone platform they use—Android, iOS or even Windows—don't be surprised if you get a very impassioned answer defending their choice. Surprisingly, though, when you ask them how satisfied they are overall with their choice of mobile phone platform, the differences are minimal. On this question of overall satisfaction, Google's Android received the highest rating, 8.5 on our scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied), but Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows Phone were right behind with identical ratings of 8.4.
Where the difference between Android and the other platforms comes out is when we ask how likely respondents are to recommend their mobile platform. Here, Android rates an 8.9 compared to iOS's 8.5 and Windows Phone's 7.9. For this reason, Android wins our PCMag Readers' Choice Award for mobile platform for the fourth straight year.
Each mobile platform has its own strengths, which contribute to their overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend ratings. We asked respondents to rate their mobile devices on nearly 20 different aspects of phone usage, and we rolled up the responses by platform. Android only comes out on top on a few measures. Satisfaction with reliability rated an 8.6, tied with iOS and slightly ahead of Windows Phone's 8.5. Android also received praise for its selection of free apps, earning an 8.8 compared to iOS's 8.6 and Windows Phone's dismal 5.9.
On other measures related to apps, Android rated a little behind iOS. On overall availability of apps, iOS received a 9.0 compared to Android's 8.9, and on quality of apps, iOS rated 8.7 compared to Android's 8.4. Respondents did prefer Android's navigation tools, rating satisfaction with maps and directions an 8.7 compared to iOS's 8.4 and Windows Phone's 8.3.
In addition to Apple iOS's strengths in apps, it also received top marks on several other satisfaction measures including web browsing (8.3), listening to music (8.6), watching videos (8.3), gaming (7.7), shooting videos (8.3) and payments (8.1). In addition, iOS and Windows Phone tied for best satisfaction ratings in text messaging (8.9) and taking photos (8.6).
While Windows Phone users weren't enthusiastic about recommending the platform, they were very happy with some fundamental parts of smartphone usage. In addition to the items mentioned above, Windows Phone received the highest ratings for ease of setup (8.8), managing contacts (8.5), managing calendar (8.6), and managing email (8.8).
See all of our survey results for Mobile Operating System.
WINNERS: MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM
Google Android
Each platform has its own strengths but no platform gets recommended as enthusiastically by users as Google's Android. That enthusiasm earns Android its fourth straight Readers' Choice Award for mobile platform.
Smartphones
Last year, Google's new Nexus smartphones were met with great enthusiasm by PCMag readers, and the company won the PCMag Readers' Choice Award. The Nexus phones were designed and built jointly with LG and Huawei and represented to many the purest vision of Android phones.
A few months ago, Google introduced their successors, the Pixel and Pixel XL. The Pixels come under the "Made by Google" banner, meaning that although HTC manufactures the phones, the design comes from Google. Our survey respondents continue to be very enthusiastic about Google's phones, again earning the company the PCMag Readers' Choice Award.
There's little that Google respondents didn't love about their phones. The company was the only brand to receive ratings of 9.0 or better on our 0 to 10 scale in overall satisfaction (9.0), satisfaction with setup (9.1), satisfaction with reliability (9.0) and likelihood to recommend (9.2). In addition, the company had the highest rating for satisfaction with tech support (8.3). That's an excellent mark in a category that rarely gets high numbers.
The enthusiasm for Google's phones carries over to many of the ratings on which all Android phones should be fairly equal such as availability of apps (9.2), which beat Apple's rating of 9.0 even though Android phones overall did not do as well as Apple. Google had the highest rating in 12 of 17 drill-down categories.
In all, nine phone brands received enough responses to be included in our analysis, with Apple and Microsoft phones earning the second and third best overall satisfaction ratings at 8.6 and 8.5, respectively. No other brand—all of which use the Android operating system, by the way—received higher than an 8.3 rating.
Respondents were very enthusiastic about recommending Apple (8.7), but that was not the case with Microsoft. Despite its very good overall satisfaction rating, Microsoft received the lowest score for likelihood to recommend (7.8), tied with ZTE. This is probably due to the scant availability of apps for Windows Phone and the lack of clarity from the company about the future of the platform.
It doesn't appear that all the problems Samsung users ran into with the combustible Note 7 greatly affected the company. Overall satisfaction was down slightly from 8.4 to 8.3, but despite middle-of-the-road satisfaction ratings in most areas, users are still very likely to recommend the brand, giving it a rating of 8.6, behind only Google and Apple.
See all of our survey results for smartphones.
WINNERS: SMARTPHONES
Google
Google continues to show the world the purest version of an Android phone by making its own phones, and users like what they see, giving the company top satisfaction ratings in all major measures. That's more than enough to earn Google its second straight Readers' Choice Award for Smartphones.
Smartphones by Carrier
While most major mobile service providers offer a lot of the same phones, not all smartphones are exactly equal on all carriers. Readers register the differences in how they feel, and we quantify which smartphone might be the best pick with the major carriers below.
AT&T: Apple
Microsoft's phones had the highest overall satisfaction rating (8.8) on AT&T, but they're also the least likely to be recommended (7.8)—plus, it turns out AT&T is no longer selling any Windows phone models directly to its customers. The best all-around phone brand for AT&T is Apple, which had the next best overall satisfaction rating (8.5), and tied with Samsung for the highest likelihood to recommend rating (8.6). Apple also had the best ratings for satisfaction with support (7.5) and repairs (8.0) on AT&T.
Consumer Cellular: Apple
Consumer Cellular currently offers 16 different smartphones across seven brands, but most of our respondents chose either Apple or Motorola phones. The iPhone was clearly the smartphone of choice with an overall satisfaction rating of 8.4 compared to Motorola's 8.1 and a likelihood to recommend rating of 8.4 to Motorola's 8.0. While Apple also rated higher for satisfaction with reliability (8.7 to 8.5), only 2 percent of Motorola devices needed repairs within the last year compared to 7 percent of the respondents' iPhones.
Sprint: Apple
The primary choice of our readers on Sprint is between Apple and Samsung. Apple comes out slightly ahead of Samsung in overall satisfaction (8.4 to 8.3) and wins our Readers' Choice Award. However, Sprint customers like their Samsung phones and are slightly more likely to recommend them (8.6 to 8.5).
T-Mobile: Google
You can't buy Google's latest smartphones from T-Mobile (yet), but enough respondents had the older Nexus phones or brought unlocked Pixels onto the T-Mobile network and they're very happy with the results. Google received an overall satisfaction rating of 8.8 from T-Mobile users. That's identical to Apple's rating but Google users were much more likely to recommend their phones, rating Google a 9.2 compared to Apple's 8.8.
Verizon Wireless: Google
Aside from Google's own Project Fi, Verizon Wireless is the only mobile service provider that sells the new Pixel phones. On every key satisfaction measure, Verizon customers were more satisfied with their Google phones than with any other brand, including ratings of 9.0 for overall satisfaction and satisfaction with reliability, and 9.2 for likelihood to recommend.
See all of our survey results for smartphones by carrier.
Mobile Carriers
If you're looking for a better mobile carrier, it behooves you to do more than just compare the big four (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless). Nine other mobile carriers received enough responses this year to be included in our survey analysis, and most of them rated better in satisfaction than the big guys. These smaller carriers are what are known as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs): they use the big four's networks but improve upon their offerings in a variety of ways, such as offering the service at lower rates, using multiple carriers to improve coverage, and offering better customer service.
Two MVNOs, Google Project Fi and Consumer Cellular, represent the best of what a carrier can be and share our Readers' Choice Award. In many ways, though, these two companies represent opposite ends of the spectrum. Google Project Fi, which also won a Readers' Choice Award last year, is part of an all-Google vision: the service only works with Google phones that run on Google's Android platform, over the combined power of three carriers (Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular) as well as Wi-Fi to provide the best coverage possible.
Consumer Cellular which earns its fourth straight Readers' Choice Award, focuses on simplicity and value. If you're 50 or older, you get a discount on the service through AARP. Consumer Cellular offers over a dozen smartphones including both iPhones and Android and uses both AT&T and T-Mobile's networks. Unlike Project Fi, however, Consumer Cellular gives you a SIM for access to the network that they feel will work best for you. You only roam to the other network if the chosen network isn't available.
Despite the differences, both approaches resonate with our respondents. Project Fi earned a 9.2 for overall satisfaction and Consumer Cellular an 8.9. It's hard to ignore the measure on which each carrier won its highest rating: satisfaction with fees. Project Fi rated 9.4 and Consumer Cellular 9.2. In contrast, Verizon Wireless rated a dismal 5.4 for satisfaction with fees and AT&T (5.9) and Sprint (6.5) weren't much better. Only T-Mobile (7.9) did reasonably well on this measure. With the advent of a new price war for "unlimited" data plans happening now, maybe those scores will change next year.
Both Google and Consumer Cellular try to keep pricing simple. Project Fi costs $20 per month for unlimited domestic and international voice plus $10 per gigabyte of data, and it refunds you for data not used. Consumer Cellular works best if you're not a heavy data or voice user; for $40 per month, you can get 1,500 minutes of domestic talk and 1.5GB of data.
Price is a strong influencer in satisfaction, but it's not the only thing that differentiates our award winners. Project Fi, with its multi-network approach, received a rating of 9.2 for satisfaction with coverage in the home area and 9.1 for speed of the data network. Both were top marks in our survey. Consumer Cellular earned the best satisfaction rating for customer service (8.7), but it also tied Verizon Wireless and Straight Talk Wireless for the second-best ratings in satisfaction with speed of network (8.5) and reliability of network (8.6).
If you're looking for the best selection of phones, you still need to go with a big carrier. Verizon Wireless had the top mark in satisfaction with choice of phones (8.4); AT&T was second (8.2). Verizon also rated among the better carriers for satisfaction with network coverage within the home area (8.7) and outside of the area (8.8), but MVNO's such as Project Fi, Consumer Cellular, Boost, Cricket, and Straight Talk all posted similar ratings.
It's important to note that these are satisfaction ratings based on perceptions, not on comparative, objective coverage tests. Some of these MVNOs rated far better than the carrier on which they run. For instance, Sprint had the lowest home coverage rating (7.3) yet Boost Mobile, which Sprint own and runs on Sprint's network, got an 8.8. AT&T had the second lowest satisfaction ratings for home coverage (7.9) but its subsidiary Cricket runs on its network and scored better (8.7).
See all of our survey results for mobile phone carriers.
WINNERS: MOBILE CARRIERS
Google Project Fi
If you're happy in an all-Google world—and there's a lot to be said for such a unified approach—then Project Fi is the carrier for you. It only runs on a few smartphones, but they're Google's own, highly regarded Android devices. Users are extremely happy with the speed, cost, and reliability of the service, helping Project Fi win its second straight Readers' Choice Award.
Consumer Cellular
For the fourth year in a row, Consumer Cellular wins our Readers' Choice Award. The company offers an affordable, reliable service backed by top-notch customer support. Unlike Google's Project Fi, Consumer Cellular offers a wide variety of popular, modern smartphones including the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S7.