At least according to newly released customer satisfaction surveys

in the US, Samsung beats Apple and Xfinity beats other mobile carriers. Breaking down the numbers, we can see which networks and handset manufacturers are on top and which have fallen back a bit from last year.

As for the major cell phone brands, Samsung is number one with 81% satisfaction. Apple is just below at 80%, as are Google and Motorola. However, Apple is the only company that has seen a drop in satisfaction over the past year. It may have only dropped 2% compared to last year's ranking, but it still lost its top spot.

Looking at the breakdown of individual devices, the top five were all from Samsung: the Galaxy Note 10 Plus, Galaxy S10 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Plus at 85%, the Galaxy S20 at 84%, and the Galaxy A20 at 83%. Along with the Galaxy S10, the iPhone ranked sixth. These were the iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone X, and iPhone XS Max, which all recorded 82%.

The report does not mention more recent models such as Samsung's Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy S21, and iPhone 12 series. We will probably have to wait for next year's results to see how these devices fared. In our Best Smartphones Guide, all three of these models rank highly, but the iPhone 12 Pro Max is our top pick.

The report also shows how satisfied users are with different parts of the general smartphone experience: topping the list at 85% is ease of texting, and just below that at 84% is phone and phone weight and size. The least satisfied is battery life, albeit at 80%, and audio quality, at 82%, is significantly lower than the other factors.

Among the major U.S. cellular operators, AT&T took the top spot with a 74% satisfaction rating, up 1% from last year; second and third place went to Verizon and T-Mobile, with T-Mobile dropping 5% in satisfaction. This was the largest drop among network operators compared to last year, which the report attributed to T-Mobile's merger with Sprint in 2020; fourth place went to U.S. Cellular, with a 69% satisfaction rating.

In terms of network service quality, Verizon took the lead back from AT&T with a 79% satisfaction rating compared to 77%; T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular occupied third and fourth place, both with slightly lower scores compared to last year. In fact, AT&T was the only one of the four companies that did not deteriorate from the previous year.

Turning to MVNOs (virtual mobile network operators), the winner here is Xfinity Mobile, with a satisfaction rating of 78%, the highest of any mobile operator in the report, followed by Cricket, Spectrum, and Metro. All had higher satisfaction ratings than AT&T, except Boost Mobile, which only had a 71% customer satisfaction rating.

The report also puts other MVNOs in the "value" category. Here, Consumer Cellular tops the list at 77%, which is 7% lower than its 2020 score. At the bottom of the list is Assurance Wireless with 67%.

Breaking down the different parts of the cellular customer experience, the big four excel in different areas compared to the virtual networks: the MVNOs have a much easier time understanding their bills, while the big providers excel in mobile app quality and in-store reportedly excel in the quality of their mobile apps and their courteous and helpful staff. Not surprisingly, all network operators have the worst benchmark for call center satisfaction.