Tech companies spare no details when it comes to their flagship smartphones. They go all in on their apex devices – rocking them with high-grade hardware and software features.
Here is our definitive list of the best flagship smartphones in the country you can buy right now
Infinix Zero 30 5G – Ksh 54,000
Released last year, the Infnix Zero 30 5G ticked off a lot of the checkmarks of a flagship device at half the price. It was and still is a beast in comparison to its predecessors and close rivals.
Read our full review here and a separate camera performance review here.
The phone is premium with a slim and light profile with a glass front and glass back protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It sports IP53 water and dust resistance, stereo speakers, an in-display fingerprint reader and dual microphones.
Zero 30 5G has a 6.78-inch curved vibrant AMOLED display rocking a 144Hz refresh rate, peak brightness of 950 nits.
We have a Dimensity 8020 chipset, 21GB of RAM(12GB Onboard and 9GB Virtual) and 256GB of storage. It also comes with Android 13 and XOS 13.1.
Powering the phone is a 5000mAh battery that supports 68W ultra-fast charging. A quick toss in the charger will have you juice up to 80% in under 30 minutes.
Zero 30 5G comes with a 108MP primary camera with object image stabilization, a 13 MP ultrawide and a 2MP macro. It has a 50MP selfie camera. All the cameras including the front-facing support shooting 4K 60fps video.
TECNO Phantom X2 – Ksh 60,500
The Phantom X2 was the company’s second attempt at the premium flagship market.
Read our full review here.
The Phantom series is TECNO’s new sub-brand targeting the high-end market and the second-gen Phantom brings much-needed upgrades over its predecessor.
The Phantom X2 has a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen in a 20:9 aspect ratio sporting a 120Hz refresh rate, 710 nits and a P3 wide colour gamut. It is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and has an optical under-display fingerprint reader.
It has a Dimensity 9000 5G(4nm) chipset paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. You can expand either with up to 5GB of virtual RAM.
The Phantom X2 series has a 5160mAh battery with support for 45W fast charging and it takes 20 minutes to go from empty to 54% and an hour to full charge.
The Phantom X2 rocks a 32MP selfie camera located in the centre punch-hole cut-out. At the back it has a 64MP main camera, 13MP ultrawide and 2MP depth sensor. Video recording by the main cameras is capped at 4K 60fps for both too while selfie videos are limited to 1080p 60fps.
Google Pixel 8 Pro – Ksh 128,000
With the Pixel 8 series, Google switched things up in design to have an identity different from its past pixel smartphones.
Google picked a rounded design for the Pixel 8 Pro with polished metal rails that fuse with the iconic camera bar. The Pixel 8 has a glass back with a frosted matte finish with nice colours like Bay, Mint Obsidian and Porcelain.
It has IP68 rating, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection for the display and back and an aluminium frame.
For the screen, we get a slightly curved 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED QHD+ 1440p panel with 2400 nits brightness and 120Hz refresh rate. It has HDR10+ support and sadly no Dolby Vision.
Powering the phone is Google Tensor G3 processor, 12GB RAM and 128/256/512/1TB storage running on Android 14 with Google AI features such as AI wallpapers, Summarize, high-quality Gboard Smart Replies, Zoom Enhance, Contextual Replies, Assistant with Bard(now Gemini) and more.
Google is also promising to bring 7 years of software support to the Pixel 8 Pro. This was a first for Android smartphones – Samsung later announced that they too would offer seven years of Android upgrades and security updates to its S24 series. It’s worth noting that Apple offers 5 years of software support.
For photography, the Pixel 8 Pro has a 50MP main with OIS, a 48MP telephoto with OIS and 5X optical zoom and a 48MP ultrawide. It comes with a 10.5MP selfie camera. All the cameras can shoot 4K video with 10-bit HDR recording.
Pixel 8 Pro has a 5050mAh battery and support for 30W wired charging and 23W wireless charging. Charging from empty to full will take an hour and 23 minutes which is 30 minutes faster than the Pixel 7 Pro.
Google Pixel 7 Pro – Ksh 87,500
Released in 2022, the Pixel 7 Pro is a great value pick over the Pixel 8 regarding features.
Pixel 7 Pro has a glass design – both front and back protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and an aluminium frame plus an IP68 rating. It also has the iconic camera visor, part of the aluminium frame.
It comes in Obsidian, Snow and Hazy.
The front is a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1500 nits peak brightness.
Pixel 7 Pro ships with Google Tensor G2 chipset with 12GB RAM and 128/256GB storage. It launched with Android 13 and got upgraded to Android 14.
For cameras, it has a 50MP main with OIS, a 12MP ultrawide and a 48MP telephoto with 5X optical zoom and OIS. You get a 10.8MP selfie camera at the front. Both the rear and front cameras can shoot 4K video.
The Pixel 7 Pro has a 5000mAh battery that supports 23W wired charging and 23W wireless charging.
OnePlus 12 – Ksh 135,000
OnePlus 12 is the top dog in the company’s flagship lineup for this year and a stellar high-end smartphone. It was announced last year and went global early last month.
OnePlus 12 features a glass frontend back design protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, slim bezels and an aluminium frame.
It comes with IP65 ingress protection. The stereo speakers it comes with are really good even beating the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
At the front is a 6.82-inch AMOLED(LTPO) QHD+ screen with 120Hz refresh rate, 4500 nits brightness and 2K resolution(3,168 x 1,440 pixels). It supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.
It also comes with AquaTouch technology which lets you use the phone even when there’s moisture from rain or sweaty hands.
It comes powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 12/16GB and 256/512GB storage running Android 14 and OxygenOS 14. OnePlus has promised up to four major Android OS upgrades and five years of security patches.
For cameras, it has a 50MP main with OIS, a 64MP periscope telephoto with OIS and 3X optical zoom and a 48MP ultrawide. The cameras feature Hasselblad Color Calibration and can shoot up to 8K video.
It also has a 32MP selfie camera that can shoot 4K video.
OnePlus 11 – Ksh 106,599
While the OnePlus 12R is the newest addition in the OnePlus 12 series, I believe the OnePlus 11 is still a better buy and even more affordable with respect to the features it brings.
The OnePlus 12R is the smaller and less expensive sibling of the flagship OnePlus 12. It shares most features with it but there are some concessions made to make it more cheaper and that’s why I recommend getting the OnePlus 11.
OnePlus 11 was the phone that turned OnePlus’s misfortunes with its past devices.
It’s lighter at 205g compared to the OnePlus 12 at 220g and features a glass back and front design with Gorilla Glass Victus and aluminium frame. It also has IP64 rating.
For the screen, we have a slightly smaller 6.7-inch AMOLED(LTPO) QHD+ panel with 120Hz refresh rate and 1300 nits brightness.
It ships with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage running Android 13 and OxygenOS 13 upgradeable to Android 14 and OxygenOS 14.
OnePlus has promised up to four major Android OS upgrades and five years of security patches.
For photography, it has a 50MP main with OIS, a 64MP periscope telephoto with ois and 3X optical zoom and a 48MP ultrawide. The cameras feature Hasselblad Color Calibration and can shoot up to 8K video.
It also has a 16MP selfie camera that can shoot 1080p video.
Powering the phone is a 5000mAh battery with 100W wired charging. This means that a 22-minute charge will get you to 100% when you enable the Smart rapid charging feature in the battery settings.
It comes in Jupiter Rock, Titan Black and Eternal Green.
iPhone 15 Pro Max – Ksh 225,000
Besides the bigger 6.7-inch screen and a 5X telephoto, the Max shares the same design as the Pro model including the titanium body, action button, Type-C port and the A17 chipset.
wIt is still the same size as the 14 Pro Max but less heavy by 20 grams.
The Max model starts with 256GB storage and 8GB RAM.
You get the same cameras as the Pro and as mentioned above a 5X telephoto instead of a 3X telephoto – they both use what Apple calls a tetraprism periscope(folded optical design) that also has a 3D sensor‑shift OIS support and autofocus module to counteract camera shake.
iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 4441mAh battery which is slightly bigger than its predecessor’s 4323mAh battery that supports upto 20W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. With a 20W charger, you can get to 80% in an hour and a quick 15 minutes will get you to 30%. A full charge needs an hour and 50 minutes.
PhonePlace Kenya offers Lipa Pole Pole financing options within three months with deposits starting at Ksh 113,680 and weekly payments starting from Ksh 21,315.
iPhone 15 Pro – Ksh 190,000
The iPhone 15 Pro comes powered by the A17 Pro chipset(No Bionic name next to it) – the same as the one on the Pro Max version which means you can play console games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 Remake.
The processor also supports the ability to shoot 4K 60fps in ProRes RAW.
It also comes with iOS 17 upgradeable to iOS 23.
It comes with a titanium frame(the same as the Max) and matte glass back and front made by Corning. Apple also ditched the stainless steel for aluminium on the inside which is why it’s lighter than you’d think. It also comes with IP68 ingress protection.
The display is a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED screen with 2000 nits brightness protected by Ceramic Glass. It supports a 120Hz refresh rate and an Always-on display.
Apple added a new Action Key which replaces the mute switch that comes with predefined functions.
For optics, it has a triple main setup led by a 48MP primary camera with OIS, a 12MP ultrawide and 12MP telephoto with OIS and 3X optical zoom(The Pro Max supports 5X optical zoom but the 3X telephoto shots by the Pro are much better). It also has a LiDAR scanner.
The front sports a 12MP selfie camera with OIS. All cameras support cinematic video(4K 30fps) and can shoot up to 4K 60fps video – ProRes with an external storage drive. Action video is capped at 2.8K 60fps. You can shoot both 48MP RAW and 48MP HEIF/JPG photos.
Like the base 15, you get the Photonic Engine, Smart HDR, Deep Fusion, Photographic Styles and automatic Night Mode.
Unlike the Max’s 256GB, storage for the Pro starts at 128GB. And unlike the base, RAM starts at 8GB.
While the iPhone 15 has a Type-C 2.0 port, the Pro has a Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port which supports 10Gbps transfers. Like the base iPhone 15, the Pro has Emergency SOS via satellite and second-gen UWB.
The iPhone 15 Pro comes with a slightly larger 3274mAh battery compared to the 14 Pro but smaller than the base 15.
It supports 20W and higher wattage charging which means you can juice up the phone from empty to full in an hour and a half(30 minutes to 50%). It supports 15W MagSafe and Qi wireless charging. It also has 4.5W reverse wired.
Available colours include Natural Titanium, Black Titanium, White Titanium and Blue Titanium.
PhonePlace Kenya offers Lipa Pole Pole financing options within three months with deposits starting at Ksh 97,440 and weekly payments starting from Ksh 18,270.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus/ Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra- Ksh 140,000
With the announcement of the flagship S24 series late last month, the S24 Plus was the most feature-packed of the trio compared to the S23 Plus of last year. And it gives the S23 Ultra from last year a run for its money and in our list, they cost the same.
I included both since they share most features the S24 Plus has a brighter and higher resolution screen and a faster processor while the S23 Ultra has a 200Mp main camera compared to the S24 Plus’s 50MP primary. The Ultra has an additional periscope telephoto lens with 10X optical zoom.
The Ultra also has a stylus.
The S24 Plus has a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support and up to 2600 nits brightness and a resolution of 1440 x 3120 pixels while the Ultra has a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support and up to 1750 nits brightness and a resolution of 1440 x 3088 pixels.
While they both have ultrasonic under-display fingerprint readers, the Plus’s one is relatively faster.
They both have Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection for both the displays and glass backs. They have IP68 ingress protection. The Plus has Armor aluminium 2 frame while the Ultra has Armor aluminium frame.
Both phones have Android 14 and OneUI 6. While the Plus has the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the performance difference isn’t that much higher than the Ultra which has Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. RAM options start at 12GB with storage starting at 256GB.
The S24 Plus ships with Samsung’s Galaxy AI which will also trickle down to the S23 Ultra later this month.
The S23 Ultra will get four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates which means its last OS upgrade will be Android 17 and monthly security patches till 2028.
The S24 Plus will have seven years of major Android upgrades.
The Ultra has a bigger 5000mAh battery in comparison to the Plus’s 4900mAh battery. Both phones support 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.
The Plus has a 50MP primary camera with OIS, 10MP telephoto with OIS and 3X optical zoom and a 12MP ultrawide. The Ultra has a 200MP main with OIS, 10MP periscope telephoto with 10X optical zoom and OIS, a 10MP 10MP telephoto with OIS and 3X optical zoom and a 12MP ultrawide.
Both share a 12MP selfie camera. The main cameras can shoot up to 8K video while the front can shoot 4K video.
So both phones are excellent choices – so if you want a stylus and 10X optical zoom, then the Ultra is for you. The Plus is newer with relatively better features.
Samsung Galaxy S23 – Ksh 116,000
When it launched last year, the S23 was and still is a great compact Android flagship.
It has a 6.1-inch dynamic AMOLED screen with a 1080 by 2340 pixels resolution and 120Hz refresh rate slightly interrupted by the 12-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera. While it’s not as bright as the S24 at 2600 nits, the S23’s 1750 nits was sufficiently bright.
The S23 has a glass back and front protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and has a rating of IP68.
It has a floating triple camera setup which includes a 50-megapixel main with OIS, a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto camera with OIS, and 12-megapixel ultrawide. The primary camera can shoot up to 8K video while the front shoots 4K video.
It comes with a 3900mAh battery and support for 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging.
It takes an hour and 16 minutes to fully charge it and a 30-minute toss gets it to 57%.
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE – Ksh 99,000
The S23 FE borrows a lot of design and spec features from its flagship S23 lineup like the glass back and aluminium frames with the display and the rear protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 instead of Victus+. It retains the IP68 rating from the S23 series.
It has a 6.4″ AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support with brightness peaking at 1450 nits.
The S23 FE has Exynos 2200 chipset, 8GB RAM and storage starting at 128/256GB.
NOW READ: Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Review: Perfectly Balanced
It launched with Android 13 and OneUI 5.1. It got Android 14 late last year and will get Galaxy AI later this month.
Samsung has promised up to four Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates.
S23 FE has 50MP main with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), same primary camera as the main S23 and S23+, 8MP telephoto(3X optical zoom) and 12MP ultra-wide. The setup supports up to 8K 24fps video recording.
For selfies, we have a 10MP front-facing camera instead of the 12MP found in the main S23 series.
S23 FE ships with a 4500mAh battery. Charging speed is capped at 25W wired, 15W wireless and 4.5W reverse wireless. It’s not the fastest but you can easily top up to 50% in half an hour.
Here’s Why You Should Buy Flagship Smartphones From PhonePlace Kenya
If you’re in the market for a flagship smartphone, then PhonePlace Kenya is the online retailer to go to.
They have a seamless online and offline customer experience from buying to checkout. The e-commerce platform provides original smartphones and accessories. They also offer country-wide delivery, and the phones have up to 2 years’ warranty.
Phoneplace Kenya is located at Bazaar Plaza, Mezzanine 1, Moi Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya. You can reach out on their social platforms and call them as well here: 0726 526375.
Articles In This Stream
- Best OnePlus Smartphones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best iPhones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best Google Pixel Smartphones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best Samsung Smartphones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best OPPO Smartphones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best TECNO Smartphones in Kenya and Where to Buy Them
- Best Infinix Smartphones in Kenya and Where to Buy Them
- Best Vivo Smartphones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best Xiaomi Smartphones to Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best Foldable Smartphones To Buy in Kenya Right Now
- Best Flagship Smartphones To Buy in Kenya Right Now
