Phones

Cheap phone that matched or beat the rugged phones in durability tests once given a cheap case.

Refreshingly free of gimmicks, with record-breaking battery life, and the first year he can recommend a smaller iPhone.

Won the drain test with 7 hours 30 minutes of screen-on time, which he called unheard of and incredible.

Joint best value phone of 2020, nearly as good as the Pro and cheaper than the OnePlus 8.

Solid but unremarkable on charging: Samsung kept the old 10W tech, so it finished fourth and slower than the Note 8.

Featured in a fake camera comparison posted before the phone existed.

A fake 30x zoom test used only 2x zoom, which he mocks.

The original Galaxy S is a nostalgia trip with colourful manuals and a removable battery, but it is painfully slow.

Notable for the first 64-bit chip, Touch ID, dual LED flash and the iOS 7 redesign.

The first Android phone ever, now the start of his Google phone shelf.

A Xiaomi Mix rip-off with an impressive near bezel-less design for about $170, before Doogee turned dodgy.

First flexible AMOLED phone, but just a Note 3 with a smaller battery, no S Pen and a higher price; 4/10 fail.

Great audio with a DAC and two headphone jacks, but weak chipset and cameras made it little more than an MP3 player; 4/10 fail.

Rebadged Oppo phone that gets away with it because it is still good value.

Decent phone but a product trying to be two products; Asus persisted for three years, making it a 5/10 fail.

Free-to-use phone that has taken orders since 2019 but never delivered, with no real footage; possibly a scam; 6/10 fail.

Announced products never materialised, and the only prototype had a paper cutout instead of a display; 7/10 fail and stay clear.

Had a great 12MP camera but little else, with resistive touch and Symbian; the Sony Ericsson era earns a 7/10 fail.

Samsung's advert used a DSLR photo and a fake background to show off its camera; 7/10 fail.

Advertised on camera quality without a single photo in the ad actually taken on the phone.

Clunky, cramped 2011 dual-screen phone that the media labelled a gimmick; 4/10 fail.

Lazy, confusingly named reskinned Oppo phone that loses too much versus the normal Nord to save £50; part of a 3/10 fail.

Overpriced $1,000 phone with weak specs that exists mainly to make the Note 20 Ultra look reasonable; rated 3/10 fail.

Sat nav phone with a terrible home screen, big bezels and no headphone jack, made redundant by Google Maps; 6/10 fail.