Best phones, reviewed by a tech expert

The latest regular iPhone is the best of the crop when it comes to the current line-up. The iPhone 17 has had a big upgrade: a bigger display than before and one that, for the first time outside the Pro range, includes ProMotion, the display with dynamic refresh rate up to 120Hz, down to 1Hz. That means everything looks extra smooth and powers an always-on display when the phone is locked.

There are now two 48-megapixel rear cameras and a ground-breaking selfie camera with a square sensor. So, you can hold the phone upright even when taking landscape selfies – the phone’s easier to hold and the pictures look better.

Like the other iPhones just released, this one now has Apple’s proprietary Ceramic Shield material on the back to protect against drops, while Ceramic Shield 2, the newest version with better scratch resistance, is on the front of the phone.

Read our full iPhone 17 review

A mid-range phone means a lower price, but sometimes the corners cut don’t feel worth it. That’s not the case with the OnePlus Nord 5, which includes an OLED display with an exceptionally high refresh rate (up to 144Hz) so that everything looks buttery-smooth, whether you’re scrolling through menus and emails or watching video.

It also has neat extras such as an IR blaster so you can use the phone as a TV remote.

The performance is speedy and reliable: the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 isn’t the most recent but more than acceptable on a phone this price. The two rear cameras are the same as on last year’s Nord 4, and they work well, but the selfie camera has had its resolution boosted to 50 megapixels, giving highly detailed self-portraits.

Finally, the battery life is tremendous, easily running into a second day, which is reassuring if you forgot to charge the phone overnight.

Launched last August, the latest Pixel 10 Pro is the most impressive Android phone yet. The latest flagship is barely distinguishable from the Pixel 9, but the upgrade to Google’s new Tensor G5 processor enables a set of on-device AI features that are genuinely useful in day-to-day life. Features like Magic Cue, which pulls in data from across your apps to bring you the right information when you need it. A friend asks where you’re supposed to be meeting, for example, and Magic Cue grabs the information from your calendar or inbox and suggests the time as a reply.

When it works – the assistant is sporadic at launch and can’t help with messages outside of the official Google Messages app – it feels like the genuinely helpful vision of AI that Google's been promising for years: a proactive virtual assistant that quietly anticipates your needs and reduces the time spent switching around apps in search of reservation details.

Photography is still a strong point for the Pixel, capturing stunningly detailed and well-processed shots. You get the usual suite of AI editing tricks here, like the ability to add yourself into the group photo you just took, magically erase people and objects or reimagine entire parts of an image. New this time is an AI assistant for capturing better photos, plus a 100x zoom that uses AI image generation to effectively paint in missing detail that the sensor can't resolve.

This year’s Pixel also gets Pixelsnap – effectively MagSafe for Android – with Qi2 wireless charging and compatibility with the full range of MagSafe accessories already out there. While a welcome upgrade, there’s perhaps not quite enough new here to recommend trading up from the Pixel 9, as we noted in our full Pixel 10 review.

Read our full Google Pixel 10 review

Samsung’s newest and best Galaxy phone doesn’t rock the boat, taking everything that was great about S24 Ultra and building on it.

The most powerful phone Samsung makes, the S25 Ultra uses the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor with 12GB of RAM, giving it performance that’s more on par with a laptop than a regular phone. An all-new ultrawide 50MP camera joins the same 200MP main lens found on the S24 Ultra, enabling impressive macro photography.

Unique to the Ultra series, the S-Pen stylus has survived for another year too, letting you take notes, sketch and interact with the screen in a more natural way. And as you might expect, Samsung’s suite of AI features are all here, from generative AI photo editing to live translations.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

Apple’s most affordable iPhone offers great value, clocking in at £200 less than the iPhone 17. The 16e replaced the last iPhone SE, but this is a different prospect with an OLED display that covers the front of the phone instead of having the Touch ID button of the SE. It has the same processor as the iPhone 16, an Apple-developed custom modem and clean, simple design.

In other words, it’s much closer to a regular iPhone than the iPhone SE could be. There are limitations, notably a single rear camera.

But the fast chip means this is still a responsive and strong-performance phone, capable of Apple Intelligence features. Battery life is also very good, lasting a full day with ease.

Read our full iPhone 16e review

Samsung’s Z Flip series have regularly been useful. Unlike many folding phones, the Flips fold down from a regular-sized handset to one that’s much smaller and entirely pocketable (if a bit chunky when folded).

What sets the new Z Flip7 apart is the external screen which is completely edge-to-edge, wrapping around the two external cameras. It means that for much of what you do with the phone, you can use the external display and not open the phone at all.

It has a great design, even if it doesn’t match the water-and dust-resistance of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, for instance. Battery life is decent, if not exceptional, but larger than in last year’s model – in lots of ways the Flip7 has added to the Flip6’s specifications.

Samsung’s seventh-generation of full-size folding phones has taken a big leap forward in terms of design, especially in terms of the thickness, which is among the thinnest phones ever (it’s barely thick enough to accommodate the USB-C socket.

The cover screen is more usable than on the last-generation and is an attractive display in its own right, but most of the time you’ll want to open the phone for the full eight-inch screen that’s like a small tablet, though rather squarer than a regular tablet.

A regular issue with folding phones is the crease that sits between the two halves of the screen when it’s open. It’s still there but much less noticeable than on previous phones.

Though the cameras aren’t as powerful as on the flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra, they are a step up from previous version, thanks to a main camera with 200-megapixel resolution.

The Magic V5 challenges Samsung for the title of thinnest phone, though slight differences between the thicknesses of the two halves make it a close-run thing. That said, the camera bump on Honor’s phone is bigger and the difference in everyday use is nil.

Like the Samsung, the phone is pretty much as slim as a phone can go while still having a USB-C socket. There is decent water and dust resistance, though the Pixel 10 Pro Fold below beats this.

Folding phones, especially ones as slim as this, can suffer from shorter battery life but there’s a big battery in the Magic V5, using efficient silicon carbon – enough to last the day easily, or even towards two days depending on usage.

Google makes the Android software that runs in all smartphones apart from Apple’s. But it only makes the hardware for its Pixel series. Which means it has the purest form of Android and gets all updates faster than rivals.

The new Pixel 10 Pro Fold has better protection against dust (IP68) and water, which is especially important in a folder when you don’t want dust slipping under the display.

The design is outwardly similar to last year’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold but it actually has a display with slightly slimmer bezels on the outside, made possible by a hinge which is gearless. Google says that will make it perform better for longer.

It now has Pixelsnap, as the Pixel 10 Pro above does, which means a wireless charging pad will click satisfyingly into place. You can even use MagSafe pads designed for the iPhone. It’s a handsome, solid design, even if slimmer options are now available.

This is one of the best-looking smartphones I’ve ever seen. It’s also exceptionally thin (5.6mm) and light, which makes it a real joy to use.

Battery life – against all expectations for a device this slim – is enough to tide you through the day with ease, and tests have shown this to be a tough, durable device, despite being so thin.

The 6.5-inch display is likely to be the Goldilocks screen for many: big enough to be immersive but much smaller than the iPhone 17 Pro, for instance.

The camera panel runs across the width of the phone’s back, and this is the phone’s only disappointing feature: there’s only one camera. It’s a 48-megapixel snapper, which means you can get an optical-quality 2x zoom by tapping the 2x button onscreen, though this means it’s a 12-megapixel image.

Read our full iPhone Air review