Best Phones: My Honest Recommendations

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In this job, you get asked a lot for your recommendations. What headphones should I buy if I’ve only got $200 to spend? Is the iPad Air good enough for my needs? But the ultimate question, and the one that is hardest to answer, is: what is the best smartphone?

In truth, I don’t honestly believe there is one phone that’s better than all the rest. They all have their own flaws and reasons why you might pick one over the other. Personal preference plays a massive part in it, and that’s before you start comparing things like camera quality, battery life and, of course, price.

To make it easier to digest, I’ve split my choices into different categories, from the best value to the best cameras and I’ve also crowned my best overall choice if money were no object. All of the suggestions below have been fully reviewed and tested by the team and me over long periods, so these are hard-won recommendations. Let’s get into it!

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Best Overall: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

Yes, I’m as shocked as you are. A foldable phone has made it to my overall pick as the best smartphone you can currently buy. Up until 2025, I had very little interest in properly using a foldable because most of them weren’t up to scratch from a hardware perspective.

Don’t get me wrong, they were good phones, but still too thick, a bit cumbersome and the exterior displays had slightly odd aspect ratios. That was until I tried the Samsung Z Fold 7, which has totally redefined the foldable niche in my eyes. The sheer scope of changes made by Samsung from the Fold 6 to the Fold 7 is mind-blowing, but the thinness is most impressive and suddenly makes the idea of owning a foldable totally viable.

If you’ve never seen it in real life, I’d really recommend it. When closed, the Fold 7 is barely thicker than your average smartphone, and when unfolded, it’s so thin it feels like it should snap with the slightest pressure. But that’s the thing, it doesn’t. Samsung has made the entire device, hinge, body and display, incredibly durable.

Alongside that, it’s powerful and, once you get used to it, very useful to have that huge internal display when you want to watch content.

More help: Check out my list of the best smartwatches!

But there’s also a more philosophical reason it takes the Best Overall prize. The Z Fold 7 is the ultimate marker for Apple set out by Samsung. It’s a visual representation of how far they’ve come to overtake Apple in many aspects, in this case hardware innovation, and shows just how much pressure they are putting on them to keep coming up with new products. Apple is now, by all reputable accounts, going to release a foldable iPhone in 2026.

Would this have happened without the rapid development of foldables from the likes of Samsung? I’d say perhaps not.

Best iPhone: iPhone 17

Picking the ‘best’ iPhone changes every year, obviously, because new ones come out annually. And I say best in inverted commas because if you buy an iPhone, then you will be very happy with it, no matter what you pick. Choosing the best of the bunch comes down to personal preference and small spec differences.

The reason I’ve recommended the standard iPhone 17 here is a result of weighing up the price against the quality of hardware needed for the largest number of people. Sure, some people might really need or want the telephoto zoom of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but most people don’t.

Therefore, the basic iPhone 17 makes the most sense. It is relatively affordable in the world of iPhones, starting at $799/£799 for 256GB storage, and is so well-manufactured that it is worth every penny. The quality you get from Apple is always high and that’s true of the iPhone 17, but I’d argue it has never felt more premium to use than now.

Related: iPhone 17 review

That’s thanks largely to the fact that the base model now comes with a 120Hz refresh display, missing up until 2025, and the 48MP main sensor remains exceptional for point-and-shoot photography. You still won’t find a better video recorder than an iPhone and the new Center Stage selfie camera, which can take pictures in landscape without needing to tilt your phone, is a stroke of genius.

The 30-hour battery life claimed by Apple is still pretty low compared to Android competitors, but it does the job and the A19 chip will future-proof you for years. Oh, and the colour options are beautiful too.

Unless you have the extra money lying around, or simply want the extra Pro features, there is no reason to look beyond the standard iPhone 17.

Best Cameras: Oppo Find X9 Pro

Flagship smartphone cameras are all pretty much as good as each other these days, barring some minor differences that largely come down to personal preference. But then I tried the Oppo Find X9 Pro and wow, this phone takes exceptional photographs.

The specs speak for themselves. The X9 Pro has a 50MP main sensor, 50MP ultra-wide and a 200MP with 3x optical zoom and 13.2x lossless zoom. That lossless zoom does a lot of the heavy lifting towards making this such a great shooter because it frees you up to experiment without losing too much quality. The camera system is tuned by Hasselblad too, so the colour reproduction and portraits are on point.

Video is strong too, one of the best I’ve seen on Android, and then you slap the rather hilarious-looking teleconverter kit on it (a mini-telephoto lens made specifically for this phone), and the photos taken at a distance get even better.

Read my full Oppo Find X9 Pro review

It’s hard to describe how good a phone’s camera system is, so I recommend you try the Find X9 Pro in person to see what I’m getting at here.

Beyond the camera, the Find X9 Pro is also just an excellent phone. The battery life is frankly insane, offering up to four days with regular usage without power saving turned on, and the display is stunning. It looks mean Titanium Charcoal too.

Best Value: Xiaomi 15T Pro

The Xiaomi 15 was one of the best phones I’ve used this year, but the £899 starting price excludes it from being a pick for the best value. Largely because the Pixel 10 is just as good, if not better, and costs $100/£100 less. But in this category, I’m looking for real value, something that costs significantly less than flagship prices (so about the $800 mark) whilst still delivering near-flagship specs/performance.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to look too far to find the Xiaomi 15T Pro, the Xiaomi 15’s cheaper, but not cheapest, little brother.

Just to give you the picture as quickly as possible, this phone costs £649 and has a 6.8-inch AMOLED 144Hz display, a 5500mAh battery providing around two days of regular use and, the crowning glory, a 50MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom.

The camera system alone, made in collaboration with Leica, justifies buying this phone. The 50MP main lens is a brilliant point-and-shoot camera and the telephoto provides stunning images that beat any competitors at this price point. In fact, I’m not aware of another phone at this price that has 5x optical zoom. The 15T Pro can also record up to 8K video.

Xiaomi 15T Pro review

Besides this, the phone is also very well-built from an aluminium-alloy frame with IP68 water resistance and Gorilla Glass 7i while managing to look highly premium at the same time, especially in Mocha Gold.

For under $700/£700, you won’t find much better.

Best Budget: CMF Phone 2 Pro

If you don’t know by now, CMF is Nothing’s budget offshoot brand. They follow a similar design philosophy of slightly out-there aesthetics combined with distinctive software and, importantly, a very affordable price.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro absolutely nails this philosophy and is a triumph for the CMF brand. It starts at $279/£219 and is instantly the most premium-feeling phone anywhere near this price. The stainless steel screws and semi-modular structure also means it looks far more expensive than it actually is.

The display is where the value really starts to shine, with 3000 nits of peak brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate that puts Apple to shame for taking far too many years to bring the base-level iPhone to parity.

It doesn’t stop there when you move onto the cameras. The Phone 2 Pro has a triple system, which is novel for less than $300/£250, with a 50MP main sensor, 50MP telephoto and an 8MP ultra wide. They aren’t the best cameras you’ll ever use, but they are top-notch for this money, plus you get 2x optical zoom.

Check out the full CMF Phone 2 Pro review

Add to this the fact that you get Nothing’s brilliant Nothing OS, one of my favourite Android-based systems, and you have the best budget phone I’ve ever used.

Best Foldable: Samsung Z Fold 7

Well, this one was sort of obvious, wasn’t it?

I’ve said all I’ve needed to above about the Z Fold 7, but I will add that other foldables on the market are very close to being as good as the Z Fold 7. The Honor Magic V5, for example, is just as thin, has great cameras and some nice extras like stylus support. The only reason I’d pick the Samsung over it is because I prefer the operating system and the aspect ratio of the internal display.

Similarly, the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is also a very good foldable. It just feels a little bit behind the curve now that Samsung and Honor have managed to get their devices to be so thin. Still, it’s an excellent device with Google’s signature look and feel and the Pixel’s unmistakably good cameras.

More: Samsung Z Fold 7 review

In short, these days buying a foldable is much less of a risk because most of the top brands make very good ones. But the Z Fold 7 takes the biscuit.

Wrapping up

This list of my best smartphones is definitive as of the time of writing, but absolutely subject to change as new devices get released. So make sure to check back to see how my recommendations change. Who knows? Maybe one day an iPhone will make its way back to being my overall best smartphone one day.