What’s the best Android phone to buy as of September 2013?

The summer is almost over, and one of the biggest seasons for new technology is dawning upon us. Our best android phones list didn’t change too much from one summer month to the next, but expect that to change as we move into fall and into the holiday shopping season. So who made the cut this month? Who dropped where, and which newcomers have stormed the scene to grab a quick spot within the top 5? Let’s find out!
5 – Moto X
We didn’t know if the Moto X by Motorola would have had enough “umph” to crack our top five, but here it is — ready and willing to accept its sash. The device is out and about on the likes of Verizon and AT&T, with the latter even offering customers the ability to customize the device’s colors, get a custom engraving, as well as other software-based changes that can be had.
The Moto X comes onto the block with a Motorola X8 cheap Android smartphones computing system, which is a fancy way of saying “Custom Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro.” This dual-core chipset has been optimized to bring unique features like the always listening “Touchless Controls” and Active Notifications without sacrificing a lick of battery life. Other specs include 2GB of RAM, a 10 megapixel RGBC ClearPixel camera, 16GB of internal storage (32GB available for those who order through Moto Maker), and more.
Our review has all the deets you need about this American-assembled piece of machinery, so be sure to give it a good read. And for some added fun, be sure to check out our post showing how the device looks when customized with the team colors of several NFL ball clubs.
4 – Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Even with the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the Note 2 remains on this list. It does move back a spot from last month, but being a top 5 device since October is nothing to sneeze at. The Note 2 — with its 5.5-inch 720p display, quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, S-Pen and more — probably won’t be here by the time the Note 3 launches, but until that happens it’s still one of the better buys in the Android world.
3 – Nexus 4
Google did something miraculous last week — they dropped the price of the Nexus 4 by another $100. This 4.7-inch HD smartphone was already quite affordable at $300 and $350 for the 8GB and 16GB options, and now —Online Shopping Smartphones with price tags of $200 and $250, respectively — it’s even better.
The Nexus 4 still passes as one very capable smartphone, and the fact that you can get it off-contract for the cost of a high-end phone’s typical on-contract post moved it forward quite a bit. Unfortunately this may be one of the cheap Android smartphones’s final appearances on the list, as we don’t expect Google to replenish stock once they’ve all been sold (the 8GB version is already gone).
2 – Samsung Galaxy S4
In case you were wondering if I’ve finally decided between the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, I guess you now have your answer. Samsung’s Galaxy S4 takes a backseat to the HTC One for a couple of different reasons.
For starters, I’ve grown a bit out of love with TouchWiz. It adds some useful features, but overall it feels a bit too bloated. The custom overlay certainly doesn’t do that Snapdragon 600 inside any favors. Having used one extensively for a few days this past weekend, it didn’t give me that same feeling of “lust” as it did when it first launched. Second place is still good, though!
1 – HTC One
HTC still has our attention in 2013, though don’t be surprised if this position is threatened real soon by some devices which have just been announced (as well as a possible, rumored large-sized version of this very phone). HTC debloated Sense and actually made it a joy to use with this latest version. That coupled with some pretty powerful hardware and premium build quality is still enough to keep this long streak going (though it does have some stiff competition coming to threaten the top spot pretty soon).