As a long-time Android user, I’ve owned or reviewed a lot of phones over the last decade. I loved the original T-Mobile G1 and bought the Google Nexus One the day it came out—two great phones! On the other hand, I also owned the HTC Thunderbolt, Nexus 4, and Galaxy Note 7, which are different stories. I’ve loved or hated many phones, and here are five that sit at the bottom of my list.
It’s easy to remember and think about a favorite phone, restaurant, or game, but what about the worst ones? How often do you think about those? We recently listed out some of our favorite phones, and I thought it’d be fun to talk about some of the phones I didn’t enjoy, whether that was due to the design, features, performance, or some other reason.
5
Google Pixel 4
I’ll start with what might be my most controversial entry—Google’s Pixel 4. It certainly had its share of fans, but I’m not one of them. It wasn’t a bad phone by any means, and I didn’t necessarily hate it, but expectations vs. reality sealed its fate for me. Plus, it just didn’t compare to the rest of the competition. I didn’t like the in-hand feel, there wasn’t enough storage, the screen was smooth but too dim, and its battery life was subpar, to say the least.
On the flip side, I really enjoyed the unique color options, even if the rest of the consumer market didn’t. The burnt orange power button was a nice touch, too. Unfortunately, Google just didn’t do or offer enough to make it a compelling phone. My main gripes were the battery and poor facial recognition, which was so bad users started disabling it. I quickly sold it off and went back to my trusty Galaxy S10+.
4
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Galaxy Note 7, need I say more? In all seriousness, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is still one of my favorite phones of all time, and the Galaxy Note 7 should have been an excellent replacement I’d loved for years. Unfortunately, as we all know, things didn’t go according to plan.
Within a few weeks of its release, Samsung realized the Galaxy Note 7 had an unusually high chance of catching fire due to a faulty battery design. This remains one of the biggest mistakes in Samsung’s smartphone history. The Note 7 had a gorgeous display with curved edges and a rounded back. Unfortunately, those curves and design decisions proved fatal to the battery cells, and one too many started on fire.
Related
I Wish These Android Phones Were Sold in the U.S.
More choices is better.
I received a review unit of the Note 7 and loved it so much that I bought one for myself a week later. Then, the recalls started, delays happened, things caught on fire, and the rest is history. Samsung permanently removed it from the market. The Note 7 had so much potential. I returned to my Galaxy S7 Edge but then fell in love with the original Pixel XL.
3
HTC ThunderBolt
Oh man, who remembers the HTC ThunderBolt as the first Verizon 4G LTE phone? What a beautiful disaster. I had a hard time choosing some of my least favorite phones, and the Nexus 4 almost took this spot. It was bad, too. However, the HTC Thunderbolt 4G LTE was next-level bad for one simple reason—battery life.
Announced in January 2011 and seriously hyped up during CES, the HTG ThunderBolt had bold ambitions to be a big, fast, powerful smartphone. It packed a big (at the time) 4.3-inch display, HTC Sense built on Android 2.2, 768MB of RAM, and Verizon 4G LTE speeds. Honestly, the screen was solid, and 4G LTE was blazing fast as long as you found a 4G LTE connection, or the 1,400mAh battery wasn’t dead. It pushed boundaries, so that’s a plus. Interestingly enough, this was the last phone I used on Verizon Wireless. Guys, I miss the OG Moto DROID days.
2
Samsung Galaxy S5
The Samsung Galaxy S5 was a good phone spoiled by several very odd decisions. Released in 2014, it had an odd dimpled plastic housing that looked awful and a silly dual charging port with a cover that broke off too easily. It took everything that made the Galaxy S4 great and then made it worse. Fun fact: before this phone I had a Galaxy S4 GPe (Google Play Edition) with stock Android. It was a big deal back then, but that experiment didn’t last long. I miss that phone.
Sure, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 was by far one of the best phones of the year, at least on paper. It had a beautiful AMOLED display, blazing-fast performance, a solid camera, an IR blaster, and even a heart rate sensor under the rear camera. There was a lot to love but a lot to loathe.
However, everything terrible about the Galaxy S5 inspired Samsung to go back to the drawing board for the Galaxy S6. In my opinion, that’s when everything changed for the better regarding Samsung hardware. The Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and Galaxy S6 Edge+ were excellent. We received a similar great phone with the S7, Note 6, and beyond. So, as bad as the Galaxy S5’s design was, it brought us much of the design Samsung still employs today.
1
LG G5
Honestly, a few LG smartphones could easily make this list. I briefly had an LG Optimus 2X that I loaded up CyanogenMod on, but it didn’t last long in my pocket. It wasn’t great, but you know what was worse? The LG G5.
The LG G5 is essentially my least favorite phone for multiple reasons. While I absolutely still love the idea of a removable battery, LG’s implementation was rough. You could remove the bottom of the phone and replace it with additional modules. The company had a chunky camera module, an upgraded speaker module, and more. Of course, the primary draw is that you could quickly drop it out the bottom, add another battery, and slap it back in like you’re loading a magazine.
Related
These 10 Android Phones Were a Work of Art
*Chef’s kiss*
The big 5.3-inch QuadHD always-on display drained its small 2,800 mAh a bit too fast, so you had to have at least one spare if you wanted to last an entire day. The screen was bright but poor quality compared to Samsung devices. Plus, the modular design was wobbly and fragile and didn’t inspire confidence, nor did the plastic housing.
While it had a pretty solid camera, especially the ultrawide lens, LG’s customized version of Android left a lot to be desired, just like its battery life. Nothing about this phone was “great”, and its build quality couldn’t match the iPhone 6S and Galaxy S7 competition.
I guess it’s only fair to close out this list with some honorable mentions. As I said earlier, the Nexus 4 could have made this list, and its only positives were stock Android and the shiny back panel. The HTC Evo 3D is another phone that was so bad I forgot about it, just like the Moto DROID Bionic. The LG G4 was nice, as long as it wasn’t bootlooping.
I also had a love/hate relationship with the Galaxy Nexus. As long as you flashed a custom ROM and disabled a bunch of features, its battery could last almost half a day. But that was a different time. As for modern new devices, I didn’t love the Galaxy S25 Ultra and returned it for the Galaxy S25+ instead. If you want a great phone, check out the link below.
Get a Good Phone
The Best Android Phones of 2025
The best the Android world has to offer.
Source link
