The 2017 phone season is just starting to spin up. The lineup is almost unchanged right now, but there are a big couple of months right around the corner. We expect flagship phones from Samsung, HTC, and LG to show up, and that means you have to be more picky than ever when buying a phone. You could wait it out and see what these upcoming phones look like, but there are still good choices right now. Let's break it down.

Carrier phones

Despite being almost a year old, the Samsung Galaxy S7 is still the best overall choice for a carrier phone. Samsung is in the process of rolling Android 7.0 Nougat out to the GS7, which makes it a bit more appealing. It's not the only choice you have, though. Verizon customers have the Pixel, and there's the LG V20.

Let's start with the Galaxy S7, which is still worth considering. The hardware is still fantastic. I pick up the GS7 Edge sometimes and am still wowed by the curves. The front and back are both Gorilla Glass, but it feels so well put together. The phone is IP68 water resistant, so it can take a quick dip and be fine. It's a little heavier than you probably expect when you pick it up, but the back has a slight curve, making it comfortable to hold.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have Super AMOLED panels at 2560x1440 resolution. The GS7 is 5.1-inches, while the Edge variant has a larger 5.5-inch display. They are still the best panels you can get (now that the Note 7 is dead). They're bright, have perfect viewing angles, and the colors are very accurate. Then there's the Edge with a screen that curves down on both the left and right sides. It looks cool, but it's actually less comfortable to hold. The Pixel XL's display is almost as good, but it's not as bright and the colors are flatter. Samsung still wins on this front.

Samsung crammed a 3,000mAh battery in the Galaxy S7, which has been great in mys testing. The Edge bumps it up to 3,600mAh. You'll get through a day no problem on both, and there's the quick charge support. Just a couple minutes on the charger and your phone can be good for a few more hours. There's wireless charging too, and increasingly rare feature. The GS7 has held up well in terms of performance. It was never a blazing-fast phone, but it's fast enough. The Snapdragon 820 has shown up in a lot of phones, but Samsung lowered the clock speed a bit to make the device more power efficient. That's why the battery is so impressive. There are no issues with multitasking thanks to the 4GB of RAM, though.

This is also still one of the best phones for taking photos. The 16MP sensor has impressive white balance in low light, which is something that many phones fail at. It's still the fastest focusing phone I've used, thanks to some tech Samsung licensed from Canon. Photos from Samsung's camera are usually great the first time, but you can snap a hundred photos in a few seconds by holding the button down. The only real issue is how long the camera takes to start and actually be ready to take a photo. The Pixel is a lot faster.

Samsung's TouchWiz interface gets better every year, and that's especially true now. The Nougat update is rolling out, and it includes a few more standardized features for notifications and the quick settings. It all works more like stock Android now. There are still a number of extra Samsung services piled on top, though.

If the Galaxy S7 is not what you're looking for. The LG V20 is available on all carriers too. It's a big phone with two displays, two cameras, and a removable battery. As a consequence, it's not as elegant as the Galaxy S7 or Pixel. It has lots of stuff, though.

The V20 is a beast of a phone with a 5.7-inch LCD at 1440p and a secondary ticker display display above that. It shows shortcuts, notifications, and settings toggles. I wasn't sold on this in the V10, but LG has made it more useful this time. I'd now consider it one of the V20's best selling points. The LCD is good as LCDs go. It's very clear and the colors are alright. There's some backlight bleed from the secondary display, though. The secondary display is designed to stay on all the time, which does use a little power. You can turn it off in settings, though.

LG has improved the build quality of this phone compared to the G5, which is a very good thing. There's a button on the side of the phone that pops off the rear metal cover to provide access to the battery (along with SIM and microSD card slots). When it's closed up, the phone feels solid—almost unibody. There are no modular accessories as with the G5.

Even with a fairly large battery, the V20's battery life falls short of the Pixel and Galaxy S7. The real benefit is that it's removable. If you don't mind carrying a spare battery, you can use the V20 for longer than all other competing phones. The V20 is very fast, though. The Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM seem put to better use here than in the GS7. It's noticeably speedier when loading apps or multitasking.

The V20 launched with Nougat, but there haven't been any updates since then. 7.0 still gets you enhanced Doze mode, native split-screen apps, and more. The LG skin needs some work in my opinion. I think TouchWiz has surpassed LG's interface. The colors are drab, and there isn't even an app drawer by default. LG also has a tendency to make everything larger than it needs to be.

Verizon customers can get a Pixel instead, and they should. Since that's primarily an unlocked device, let's move on to that section.

Unlocked phones

The Pixel continues to be the best overall Android phone you can get, unlocked or not. There are two versions of the Pixel, a 5-inch 1080p model and a 5.5-inch 1440p one. For once, the smaller version of a device has not been hobbled with inferior hardware. The Pixel and Pixel XL are both top-of-the-line flagships including a Snapdragon 821, 4GB of RAM, and 32 or 128GB of storage. I've been using the Pixel frequently since it launched, and it's still fast. Many phones will start to slow down after a while, but not this one.

The XL has a 3420mAh battery and the regular Pixel is 2770mAh. The Pixel sounds a little light on battery, but Google has optimized the battery life so much more effectively than other device makers. These phones last well over a day, and the XL can make it through two days of moderate use. Doze mode is much better in Nougat, so they're vastly more efficient. I don't even bother charging the Pixel overnight because it loses almost no power, and in the morning I just drop it on the fast charger for a few minutes.

The Pixels have an aluminum unibody frame that's much thicker and more durable than the Nexus 6P was last year. That phone would bend if tweaked in the right way. The Pixel is further strengthened by a magnesium mid-frame. The Pixel is not IP68 certified like the GS7, which is one of the more disappointing things about it. At the top of the back panel is a glass panel that covers the antennas, and is the only visual flair the phone has. It's not a particularly attractive phone—I'd call it "understated." The fingerprint sensor is on the back of the phone, perfectly placed to tap with your index finger when you pick up the phone. It's as fast as the Nexus 6P was, which is to say it's fine. Some phones have since surpassed it in terms of speed.

The Pixel's 12MP camera is still my favorite on Android right now. Even with the consistently great Galaxy S7 and impressive newcomers like the Huawei Mate 9, this is the phone I grab when I'm going to be snapping lots of images. It's incredibly fast, and the color accuracy is great. Low light performance is also better than everything else, with the possible exception of the GS7 sometimes. The HDR+ shots look great, and they're similarly fast to capture.

The Pixel comes with Android 7.1, and there's already an update to 7.1.1 and a beta for 7.1.2. Google releases monthly security patches like clockwork, and you're guaranteed to get the latest updates for at least two years from release. Google has made a few tweaks to stock Android to come up with a "Pixel" build. That includes a new launcher and Google Assistant built-in. It's only going to get better over time.

I know that some people simply prefer to go through their carrier, and that's fine. If you can bring yourself to get the Pixel from Google, it'll work on any carrier. And of course, Verizon has the device in stores. The regular Pixel starts at $650 and the XL is $760. You can pay the Pixel off monthly.

If the Pixel is too expensive,the OnePlus 3 is a great unlocked phone. Well, the OnePlus 3T is too. You can't get the OnePlus 3 anymore, but the 3T is a little better. It's also a little more expensive.

OnePlus is keeping up with the updates this time. Android 7.0 Nougat has come to this device with all the various features Google saw fit to include. The OP3T also has a few tweaks to the spec sheet compared to the old OnePlus 3. The OnePlus 3T adds a Snapdragon 821 SoC (up from an 820) and a 3400mAh battery (previously 3000mAh). There's still 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but a 128GB version is also available. There's no microSD card slot, but I think most people can get by just fine with 64GB.

The OP3T has an aluminum unibody frame with a gunmetal finish. It's a little boring, but doesn't look bad. There is a hardware alert slider on the left side, allowing you to set the notification mode without waking up the device. At the bottom of the front panel is a fingerprint sensor that doubles as the home button, which is excellent. One of the fastest I've used. The capacitive buttons on either side aren't my favorite. They're just small glowing dots. You can change what they do, but I would prefer to have the actual icons.

The OnePlus 3T has a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display. This is a good panel, but not my favorite. The PenTile pattern is visible, and the colors are off unless you enable sRGB mode. The viewing angles are good at least. The 16MP camera on this phone is impressive for the price. It's much nicer than the OP2, and I'd put it on nearly equal footing with the Nexus 6P. The extra money for the Pixel gets you a much better camera, among other things.

The OnePlus 3T launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and as I mentioned above, Nougat is live for everyone now. This isn't a stock build of Android, but OP's OxygenOS ROM isn't bad. It includes features like customizable quick settings, a dark UI mode, and custom home screen. Nougat adds improved Doze Mode, split-screen apps, and customizable quick settings.

The OnePlus 3T is a good value at $440. You'd have to spend $200 more for the base model Pixel. I think that's a better phone, but it's fine to get the OP3T instead

Wrapping Up

The Galaxy S7 is still the best phone available on most carriers, but you should be wary of picking it up now. We're only a few months out from the launch of the Galaxy S8. If the rumors are any indication, that phone is going to be a big step for Samsung design-wise. If you're on Verizon, get a Pixel. Easy. You might also consider the V20 if you need a removable battery.

If you want an unlocked phone, the Pixel is clearly the winner. It's fast, has the best camera, and gets updates direct from Google. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, The OnePlus 3T is a great phone as well.