Phones

Slimmest and best-feeling foldable he has used, with fast charging and strong performance, but the format's compromises mean he does not re…

Launched cheaper than the 9 Pro with a beautiful finish, but OnePlus seems to be holding it back ahead of an Ultra.

A strong value sweet spot at about $350 with no corners cut and no glaring weak points.

Winner of best small phone, a tiny top-end flagship with a gimbal camera and headphone jack.

Realme crams in every spec it can, with bold designs he finds delightful though some might think they look like toys.

A tempting borderless gaming phone for the price, but with weak software support and a poor under-display camera.

A glowing example of how capable a Poco phone can be with more budget.

A very reliable all-rounder in Samsung's range.

Won the gaming award as a powerful, well-cooled multimedia powerhouse with the best speakers and battery of any mainstream device.

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.

A 250 euro budget phone whose camera comes surprisingly close to far pricier flagships, though stabilisation, low light and zoom lag behind.

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…

Surprisingly good even in 2022, and a smart start for Xiaomi thanks to its low price and software.

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

Strong specs and a better camera, but the design looked less desirable than Samsung's Galaxy S4.

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

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

Same low price, but it looked like an iPhone imitation and brought only small gains in power and photos.

The most premium Xiaomi so far, but the year's delay left it behind the Galaxy S7 Edge.

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.