Methodology
If a number on this site doesn't have a citation, we want to hear about it. Here's how we get the data behind every guide, calculator, and tracker.
Price data
Retail prices are checked monthly against the manufacturer's own store (Apple, Samsung, Google) and the four largest US retailers we trust for fulfillment (Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile direct). The number you see is the lowest commonly-available unlocked price for a new-condition device — not a flash sale, not a Black Friday outlier, and not a refurbished discount unless we label it as such.
Carrier-deal comparisons use the standard 36-month installment + line-fee math. The True Cost Calculator at /tools/true-cost-calculator walks through the formula in plain English.
Support lifespan
OS-update and security-update commitments come straight from the manufacturer's official support page — never a YouTube-influencer estimate. We track Apple's "vintage / obsolete" policy for iPhones, Google's Pixel support page for security-patch end dates, and Samsung's mobile security policy for Galaxy phones.
Where a manufacturer is vague (e.g. "at least 3 years"), we report the floor, not the optimistic ceiling. See the live data at /trackers/support-lifespan.
Reliability
Our reliability ratings reference the Consumer Reports Smartphone Reliability Survey (most recent year available, currently 2025) and iFixit's repairability scores. We weigh real-world failure data more heavily than synthetic durability tests like "drop from 6 feet onto concrete" — most readers will scratch a screen long before they'll free-fall a phone.
Camera quality
We don't run lab-controlled megapixel tests. Real-world camera judgment cross-references DxOMark scores, Photons to Photos sensor analysis, and several hundred user-submitted comparison photos we've collected since 2024. The qualitative verdicts in /articles/best-camera-phone are what we'd tell our own family.
Conflicts of interest
Editorial team members do not own stock in Apple, Google, Samsung, OnePlus, or any other phone manufacturer. We do hold affiliate accounts with Amazon Associates, Best Buy, the three major US carriers, and several manufacturer direct-store programs. Full disclosure at /disclosure.