Your guide to the latest and best phones of 2018. Check out our latest reviews and buyer’s guide on the top smartphones you can buy.
What’s the best phone you can buy?
There are so many good phones to choose from including the Galaxy S9, iPhone X and Google Pixel 2 but which one is the king of the castle? They come in all shapes, sizes and prices so we review and rank all the best phones money can buy.
Your buying guide for the best phones in 2018
When choosing a phone you probably have a mixture of these factors on your list: build quality and design, ease of use, features, performance and value.
Generally speaking a flagship phone will cost between £600- and £800 but can be over £1,000 in some cases (the iPhone X). On contract you’re looking at between £30- and £50 per month on average but can spend a lot more.
We think buying a phone outright is the best value, but you’ll obviously need a SIM to go in it. If you don’t already have one, check out our best SIM-only deals.
If the latest phones are too expensive, consider and older-generation phone. They are flagship phones but available at a mid-range price despite only being one or two years old.
For this reason we move all older-generation smartphones to our best mid-range phones chart. Phones like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 are in that chart when they are £500 and under.
Should you buy a phone running Android, iOS or Windows?
There’s more than one mobile phone operating system, but really only two worth talking about: Android and iOS. Windows phones account for around one percent of all phones sold, so it makes more sense to go with Android or an iPhone.
The vast majority of phones today run Android; Oreo is the latest version. While Apple’s iOS platform has a much lower market share, developers almost always release their apps on iOS so it has one of the best app stores you’ll find.
If you have an Android phone or and iPhone and want to move to the other type of phone, it’s fairly easy move your contacts and other data from one to the other. What you can’t move is paid-for apps, so keep this in mind if you’re considering a change of platform.
Why you should buy an unlocked phone
An unlocked phone is one which is not tied to any particular mobile operator, such as Vodafone or EE. Buying unlocked usually means buying the phone outright without a SIM.
The most important point is that an unlocked phone is almost always a better deal than buying a phone on contract.
The only real exception to this are Apple’s iPhones – because of their traditional popularity, operators do often subsidise the cost of buying an iPhone in order to lock you into a lucrative long-term deal.
Generally speaking, however, if you can afford the upfront cost of the handset, you will pay less over the life of your phone by buying unlocked.
More importantly, you are not locked in. If you want a new handset at any time, you can buy one without having to up-purchase your way out of a contract, or commit to another two years.
SIM-free vs unlocked
One thing to be sure of when purchasing an unlocked or ‘SIM-free’ phone is that not all SIM-free handsets are unlocked.
The excellent Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is a classic example of this. It is SIM-free, but if you want to use it for any network other than Vodafone you have to first use it for a month with a Vodafone SIM, and then pay £20 to get it unlocked.
EE’s own branded phones are similar. In both cases it may well still be better to buy network branded phones and go through the pain of getting them unlocked, than to buy on contract.
The right SIM
One other thing to consider is the size and shape of the SIM required for your phone. Make sure you get a nano-SIM if a nano-SIM is what your phone requires.
If you get that wrong it is easily solvable – every network will gladly send over a different-sized SIM. SIM cards tend to come in all three sizes – you simply pop out the one you need.
But that’s assuming you are getting a new SIM, and if you’re looking for a SIM-free phone or unlocked phone you probably already have one.
You can buy adaptors that let you fit a Nano-SIM or Micro-SIM in a Micro-SIM or full-size SIM slot for a very small charge.
More important is to make sure that if you want 4G you get a 4G-enabled phone and SIM.
Looking for a larger phone specifically? We’ve got a separate chart especially for larger devices, aka phablets, so you can see them ranked here.
