"'whats the latest and or best?' is a bit meaningless"

Well, the 'latest' bit is easy enough & meaningful - though not necessarily useful!

Indeed, a good old-fashioned V.22 modem can be a far better choice than the latest V.92 depending upon the application
Specifically, if you have only a small amount of data to send at a time, a V.22 modem may well be able to transmit it all & close down the call before a V.90 modem has even finished its training sequence!