Phones

An easy, tidy phone with great photos and the best compact pick at just under $400.

A big step up from the standard 9 with better display, 50W wireless charging and extra camera hardware, and far cheaper than the Find X3 Pr…

A complicated phone with some great ideas, like the microscope camera and comfortable body, but outdone by the S21 Ultra and he is unsure w…

Grouped with the S21: a side-grade with nice quality of life improvements and a better design.

An extraordinary gaming phone with top speakers, battery and performance, held back by an average camera, and good value at the base price…

Second place with stupid levels of value: 108MP camera, 120Hz display and big battery for $279.

Best gaming phone: matches the ROG with more RAM and storage, built-in fans and a lower price, but software lags.

A very good phone with a great selfie camera, but only a slight spec bump on last year's model.

Top specs for around $800, but the cameras and software feel well behind the competition.

Mentioned as a cheaper alternative that is fantastic value.

Ranked last: admirable sustainability message but far less capable than cheaper Xiaomi phones.

Shown only as last year's model, which had a more interesting design than the Zenfone 8.

A phone he wanted badly back then, but it now feels like it belongs in a museum.

A quirky colour-changing phone he finds unique and fun, and a glimpse of where phone finishes could go.

Loves the matte, jazzy-but-not-excessive Phantom Red finish and the even bezels, though others he showed it to hated it.

Shown as part of the Xiaomi package; around 1,000 euros and not releasing globally.

The phone the Lamborghini Alpha One is spec-for-spec identical to.

Superb build and packaging, if he had to use a BlackBerry this would be it, but the software let it down.

The brown finish is unlike anything he has seen and feels surprisingly distinct, like a fan-made concept.

Lovely packaging and a fun green glitter theme, but too much text and not much elegance.

Impressive effort with a genuinely working fan visible through a transparent back, but the software is a bit tacky.

Mentioned as the latest Red Magic gaming phone with a 165Hz display and heavy cooling.

Marketed as the most secure phone on the planet, it came with a lavish unboxing but was a scam with a basic phone inside.

The thinnest smartphone ever at 4.75mm, still a beautiful engineering marvel even if impractical today.