Flagship

Used as the baseline to show how far phones have come, small and chunky and missing basics like a flash, selfie camera and app store.

The cheapest full-scale 2019 flagship, with a Snapdragon 855, great cameras and very fast charging for under $500.

Prefers the ceramic white model to the black one but thinks the Ultra phones play it too safe with colour.

A brilliant flagship with probably the best camera set on a phone and ridiculous charging speed, at a price far below rivals, but it is Chi…

More premium, but it copied the iPhone X look and introduced ads to MIUI, upsetting core fans.

A very good phone with a fast in-display fingerprint scanner and attractive transparent back, but a smaller battery, weak low-light camera…

The phone where Xiaomi raised the price and added dual cameras, and it proved people would pay for a premium feel.

Came last at 7 hours 6 minutes, but still decent enough that battery should not put most people off.

A fantastic phone he rotates with the Pixel 2 XL and iPhone 8 Plus, held back by fiddly portrait mode, a slow iris scanner and a weak speak…

He likes smaller phones like the S10 but is put off by its mediocre battery, which a slightly thicker body could fix.

He says the Galaxy S8 is an excellent buy right now and a better choice than the Galaxy S9.

Rated a 7 out of 10 fail: the exploding battery cost Samsung billions, and the phone now looks dated.

Samsung's smart cut-down S20 at $699, with more battery and less zoom, close to being a winner.

The most fragile phone tested; glass front and back cracked and the reverse hammer hit finished it.

The more practical S10 variant, keeping stereo speakers and a top display while making sensible compromises.

Feels like a small, slightly heavier iPhone 12 mini, with the extra bulk not a problem and a modest performance bump.

A rare 2015 Iron Man collaboration he long wanted, with great packaging and a charming retro feel.

Won the battery test with 8h41m, a very good score, but only level with last year's Snapdragon Note 20 Ultra.

The pinnacle of smartphone photography in many ways, but let down by poor availability.

The first Google-made phone with HDR+ was a leap in computational photography, though sales started slowly.

A solid refinement of the Mi 11 that lasted 7 hours 34 minutes despite having the smallest battery of the Androids.

Named the worst phone: dated camera and chipset and no Google Play Store at £1,100, so it makes no sense to buy.

Mentioned as the current model that the coming 12 Ultra should be a big step up from.

Wins his design award for its hardware, but its software, especially the camera, trails rivals.