The first wave of 2017 flagship Android phones is finally upon us. It's been hard to make a solid recommendation for the last few months with so many phones just on the verge of release. Now, you've got your choice of the best from 2016 and the latest and greatest from Samsung and LG. Which phone is the best for you, though? Let's break it down.

Carrier Phones: LG G6 vs. Samsung Galaxy S8

The LG G6 is fully on sale and Samsung Galaxy S8 is up for pre-order. By my own self-imposed rules, that means both are eligible for consideration in this guide. Let's start with the LG G6, which is a huge improvement over last year's LG G5. LG really did what it had to do in order to come back from that disaster. It ditched the modular system, improved its build quality, and kept the price a bit under Samsung's.

The LG G6 has a 5.7-inch LCD display, but it's very different than past LG displays. The phone's bezels have been shrunken way down, and the screen has rounded corners. The display as an 18:9 ratio and a resolution of 1440 x 2880, so it's taller than most phones. That allows for more screen area without making the phone as wide. It makes a difference, too. The G6 is very comfortable to hold, and you can use it fairly well with one hand. That's not something you can usually say about phones with a 5.7-inch display.

Gone is LG's trademark removable battery—the G6 has an aluminum and glass frame with a sealed-in battery. It's a little larger than past LG phones with a capacity of 3300mAh. It makes it through the day with no trouble. One upshot of the design is that this phone is now IP68 water and dust resistant. It does feel like a very solid device.

On the back is a fingerprint sensor that doubles as the power button. It's fast enough, but I wish the volume buttons were still back there. I miss when LG phones did that. There are also two cameras on the rear, just like the V20. One is a standard 13MP shooter and the other is a 13MP wide-angle sensor. The G6's photos are good, but not as good as what I've seen from Samsung and Google lately. The processing has a tendency to lose detail. For most applications, it should be more than good enough.

On the software side, the G6 ships with Android 7.0 Nougat. It has LG's usual UI tweaks, which aren't as bad as they used to be. It lacks a certain elegance, though. The value-add features like Knock Code and Capture+ are still included. I can cope with LG's software, but it's not as slick as stock Android, or even what Samsung is doing these days.

The best thing about the G6's software is that it's fast. This phone isn't quite Pixel-fast, but it's close. This is definitely a place where LG has Samsung beat, despite still running on the Snapdragon 821. The GS8 will probably run a little longer on a charge with the more efficient Snapdragon 835 on-deck. It's a little weird that LG still only has 32GB of internal storage in the G6, though.

The bottom line is that the G6 is a good phone. It's a fine purchase right now, but the Galaxy S8 is shipping in a couple weeks, and you can buy that one now.

The G6 is available on all carriers for around $650 total. That's less than the Galaxy S8, but that might be a better purchase for most people.

The Galaxy S8 is a clear evolution of the design Samsung has been pushing over the last few years. There's no "flat" version of the phone this year. Both the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have curved AMOLED displays. They also have rounded corners and extremely slim bezels. The GS8 is 5.8-inches and the Plus is 6.2-inches. Both have a resolution of 1440 x 2960 pixels. So, like the G6 they have a ton of screen real estate without inflating the size of the phone too much, They're similar to last year's devices; just a bit larger. They are still IP68 rated, too.

Samsung's AMOLED displays are still a big selling point. DisplayMate confirms that Samsung's GS8 panel is the best anyone has ever produced. It has the best brightness, most accurate colors, and sharpest lines. This should come as no surprise. Although, Samsung needs to be careful with its palm detection features. This has always been a pain point on the Samsung edge phones.

Samsung's drive to minimize the bezels of the Galaxy S8 means the iconic navigation buttons are going away. Now they're all on-screen. Thankfully, that means you can change the order to the "correct" one. Additionally, the screen has a pressure-sensitive region where the home button pops up. Even if the button is hidden, you can hard-press that area to trigger the home button.

The Galaxy S8 will have the first Snapdragon 835 chips in any consumer device. Despite the added power, Samsung again has tuned them conservatively to save power—the GS8 and S8 Plus will ship with small-ish 3000 and 3500mAh batteries, respectively. Expect more battery life overall compared to the G6, but without the same zippy performance.

Samsung only has one cadmera sensor on the back of the Galaxy S8, but early impressions are that it'll be better than the camera on the LG G6. Samsung just has better image processing than LG, and the hardware will be more than capable. I'd say if photos are a primary concern for you, the Galaxy S8 should be your first stop.

Just like the G6, the Galaxy S8 will ship with Android 7.0 Nougat. The interface is very similar to the "Grace" version of TouchWiz that debuted with the Note 7. It's cleaner and more consistent with stock Android than it once was, but still not as good. In general, I think TouchWiz is better than the LG UI currently.

The Galaxy S8 is available on all carriers for around $750 and the S8 Plus is $100 more. Even though it's more expensive, I think the style and camera of the Galaxy S8 will make it a slightly better choice for most people. The LG G6 is a very good phone, though.

Unlocked phones

The unlocked phone lineup hasn't changed too much this month. The G6 and GS8 will have unlocked variants, but neither company has shown much interest in updating the unlocked variants reliably. That leaves us with the Pixel as far and away the best unlocked phone you can buy. Frankly, I still think this is the best phone overall.

There are two versions of the Pixel: a 5-inch 1080p model and a 5.5-inch 1440p one. The smaller of the two has the same specs, which is unusual. Many OEMs treat smaller phones as budget devices. They including a Snapdragon 821, 4GB of RAM, and 32 or 128GB of storage. This is last year's hardware, but it's used to great effect in the Pixel. These phones are as fast as any Android phone I've used, and they stay that way even after extended use.

On the battery front, the Pixel XL has a 3420mAh battery and the regular Pixel is 2770mAh. Making it through a day is no problem, and some people will even be able to get through a second with the XL. The improved Doze Mode in Android Nougat means these phones use almost no power while sitting at night. Google also has very speedy fast charging built-in. I don't even bother charging at night because a few minutes on the charger in the morning and they're all set.

The Pixels have an aluminum unibody with a glass inlay on the back around the camera. It seems like glass frames are the thing right now, so I appreciate that I can use the Pixel without leaving fingerprints all over it. It's not really attractive or unattractive—the Pixel just is. The Pixel is not IP68 certified, which is one of the more disappointing things about it. 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 is currently running Android 7.1 Nougat, and it'll continue to get timely updates for couple years. This is one of the main reason you buy a Pixel. Google updates it every single month, so you're always running the best pure Android software. It'll be among the first devices to get Android O later this year, and there's a developer preview now.

The Pixel is spendy with a starting price of $650 and the Pixel XL is $760. Both these phones only have 32GB of storage and no microSD expansion. That's a bummer. However, you can get the phones on a payment plan from Google, which is rare with unlocked phones. If you're on Verizon, the carrier sells the Pixel directly. That's definitely the way to go on that carrier.

If you want something a little less expensive in the realm of unlocked phones, there's the OnePlus 3T. That's still the best "budget flagship" phone on the market.

The OP3T has an aluminum unibody frame with a gunmetal finish. 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. It's one of the fastest and most accurate I've ever used. Seriously, bravo on this one OP. The capacitive buttons on either side of the home button aren't my favorite, though. They're just small glowing dots.

The OnePlus 3T has a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display. This is a good panel, as long as you make some tweaks. For example, enable sRGB mode. The viewing angles are good, but you'll see a little PenTile blurring around text. The 16MP camera on this phone is impressive for the price. It won't stand up to the Pixel, but it's better than other $400-ish phones.

The Snapdragon 821 and 6GB of RAM in the OP3T make it a very fast phone. I don't think it's quite as snappy as the Pixel, but it's close enough that you won't find yourself waiting on the OP3T. The 3300mAh battery is alright—it's certainly an improvement over the 3000mAh cell in the OP3. You'll make it through a day, but not much more.

The OnePlus 3T is one of the few non-google devices with Android 7.1. That's a significant improvement over OP's update performance last year. The OP2 hadn't even been updates to Marshmallow by this point. The phone has all the basic Nougat goodies, and there are a few cool additions from OP. I particularly like the dark system UI mode and the screen-off gestures.

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

It's difficult to make a firm pronouncement about which carrier device you should get right now. The Galaxy S8 is still a pre-order, and he early opinions of the device aren't very in-depth. That said, the GS8 looks great and has an amazing screen. The LG G6 is a very strong showing, though. You'll be happy with either, but I'd give a slight edge to the Galaxy S8.

The one exception to that is if you're on Verizon. You can get the Pixel direct from Big Red, and it's still a fantastic phone. If you're buying unlocked, the Pixel is definitely the best you can get.