Best Android phones
Find the best Android phone for photographers, smart shoppers, and more.
Choosing the best Android phone for you is a big decision. The Android universe is teeming with options, from expensive flagship handsets to more affordable models that make a few calculated compromises, to those expressly designed for, say, great photography.
Chances are that whichever phone you buy, you’ll keep it for at least two years. So we’ve made picks for the best Android phone in key categories.
What to look for in an Android phone
While most smartphones might look pretty much the same, buying one is a very personal experience. We all have unique needs, a unique budget, and personal preferences. You might need to access secure corporate email and documents with a phone that works on lots of networks around the world. Or you might spend all your time chronicling your life on Snapchat. That said, there are major features of all smartphones that you should compare before making a purchase decision.
Display: A good screen has a high-resolution, retina-style display (1,920x1,080 for smaller phones, 2,650x1,440 for larger models), so even fine text is crisp and legible. Nearly every premium handset has moved to a 18:9 aspect ratio, bringing more height to the display while making it easier to hold, and OLED for better colour accuracy and deeper blacks. A high contrast ratio and maximum brightness will make it easier to see in bright sunlight.
Camera: Smartphone vendors like to tout a camera’s megapixels or portrait abilities, but a second lens and wide aperture (low f-stop number such f/2.0 and as low as f/1.5 on high-end phones) get you only so far. The particulars of the sensor, image processing chip, and camera software have a huge impact on the photo- and video-taking experience.
You want a camera that launches quickly, focuses in an instant, and has no lag between hitting the shutter button and taking the photo. A great phone
camera is one with great processing, that can produce shots with accurate colours and little noise in lots of different environments. If you take selfies, pay particular attention to the quality of the front-facing camera. Finally, we love manual camera controls, and reward phones that offer lots of fine-tuning options.
Processor and memory: Nearly every modern phone is ‘fast enough’ for common tasks such as web browsing and social media, and nearly every premium phone uses the same processor: the newest Snapdragon 800 Series chip. But unless you plan to use your phone for more taxing activities like 3D gaming, VR
or video editing, you don’t always need a super-highend processor and tons of RAM. Still, don’t settle for less than 2GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-series processor or better.
Battery: Every time a new poll is taken about what users want out of their next smartphone, ‘better battery life’ is at the top of the list. A battery’s capacity is measured in milliamp-hours (mAh), and ranges from just under 3,000mAh to around 4,000mAh. As a rule of thumb, more mAh is better. But phones with bigger, brighter displays and more powerful processors drain the battery more quickly, so a smaller and less expensive handset with a 2,500mAh battery might actually last longer than a high-end model with a 3,300mAh one. AI and battery-saving modes are helping phones last longer and longer. You shouldn’t settle for one that doesn’t get you through a full day without needing to run for a outlet.
Size and weight: Some people love big phones. Some love smaller phones. Some want a lightweight phone that disappears in the pocket, while others need to feel some heft. It’s a matter of personal preference. With shrinking bezels and changing ratios, even 6in handset can be held comfortably in most hands. Before you decide, head to your local carrier or electronics store and try on a few different models for size.
Software and bloatware: If you want a phone that runs pure Android with no embellishments, you need to buy a Pixel model or an Android One handset. Anything
else you buy is going to have a custom build of Android – and that could be good or bad.
Phone makers change the Android interface and icons to varying degree, and add features and software of their own. Sometimes this stuff is useful, sometimes it isn’t. Pre-installed apps that can’t be removed (usually called ‘bloatware’) can slow down your phone or, at the very least, take up valuable storage space. And if you buy a phone from a carrier instead of an unlocked carrier-neutral model, you’ll probably find a bunch of carrier apps you may not want. Know what you’re getting into before you buy.
Updates are also a concern. Pixel phones get the latest version of Android and security patches on day
one, but most other models take weeks to deliver patches and months to push out updates, if they get them at all. That’s true of premium handsets such as the Galaxy S8 and budget phones alike. So consider that when committing to a new phone.
How we test
First and foremost, we spend at least several days with the phone under review, treating it as if it were our one and only. No number of lab tests or benchmarks will tell you as much about a phone as living with it for awhile. We’re concerned with real-world performance, stability, interface usability, camera quality and whether proprietary features are useful or cumbersome. We use social media, check email, play games, take photos and videos in a variety of conditions, navigate around town, and do all the things most people do with their phones.
Of course, we also run extensive benchmarks: 3DMark (both Ice Storm Unlimited and Sling Shot), PCMark, GFXBench, AnTuTu, Geekbench, and Vellamo. We run all our tests with the phone set up the way it would be out of the box, without disabling any pre-installed apps or services. We do, however, make efforts to ensure benchmarks are not interrupted by notifications, and that background downloads aren’t taking place. We may not report results from all of these tests (real-world everyday performance is far more important than benchmarks), but we do share the most interesting results.
Before running each benchmark, we make sure the phone is charged to 100 per cent, plugged in, and left
to cool off. Phones can sometimes run slower as their batteries get low, and charging the phone can make it hot and cause the SoC to slow down. So we do our best to make sure every test starts with the phone topped off and at room temperature.
When we run battery benchmarks (PCMark and Geekbench), we calibrate the display to 200 nits and disable all auto-brightness and screen-dimming features. Display brightness plays a major role in draining your battery, and we want to create a level playing field. Of course, we also keep a close eye on how long the battery lasts in our everyday use, including screen-on time, standby time and even how fast the battery charges with the included charger.
But most importantly, we use them. When we get in a new Android phone, it becomes the reviewer’s daily driver, so we load it with apps, streaming services and documents to get an accurate representation of how it will perform under light, medium and heavy loads. Benchmarks are nice, but they can be gamed, and there’s no better way to judge a new phone than to put it through the paces of a normal routine.
Best Android phone overall OnePlus 7T
Price: £469 from fave.co/2X4wPAF
In a world of big and bad pro, plus and premium smartphones, the OnePlus 7T is Baby Bear: just right. Coming alongside a refresh of OnePlus’s own surprising ‘pro’ phone, the 7T brings top-of-theline specs, high-end features, and flagship-calibre performance at a price point that undercuts pro and non-pro phones alike.
All of which begs the question: why do we even need ‘pro’ phones? Curved screens, better cameras, and faster charging have become the hallmarks of ‘pro’ phones, but the OnePlus 7T doesn’t feel any less complete or cutting-edge without the OnePlus 7T Pro’s edge-to-edge screen or pop-up selfie cam. If anything, the existence of the 7T Pro makes the OnePlus 7T seem like an even greater value than it is.
With a Snapdragon 855+ processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 6.5in 90Hz display for £469, I can’t think of a reason why someone would choose to spend an extra £100 on the 7T Pro. Or an extra £290 on the Pixel 4 XL for that matter.
The same old missing features
Before we get into what the OnePlus 7T has, let’s talk about what it doesn’t have: wireless charging and IP-rated water resistance. Still. (Neither does the OnePlus 7T Pro, so that’s not a reason to upgrade.)
It’s something of a punchline at this point, but for a phone that purports to be a flagship killer, it’s becoming more and more of a glaring omission – especially since the competition includes the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Apple iPhone 11, both of which include wireless charging and IP68 water resistance in their leastexpensive models.
As far as the latter goes, OnePlus claims that its phones do have some degree of water resistance but doesn’t want to its users to pay for the certification
through higher priced phones. However, it doesn’t actually offer any specifics as to how long and deep you can dunk your OnePlus 7T, so I wouldn’t recommend taking it swimming.
The lack of wireless charging continues to be a head-scratcher, especially since OnePlus currently leads the wired charging pack. The 7T introduces OnePlus’s new Warp Charge 30T, which will fill up roughly 70 per cent of the phone’s 3,800mAh battery in about a half hour. The proprietary tech puts the fast-charging wizardry in the charger rather than the phone to deliver a sustained 30-watt charge for longer without risk of overheating. And you won’t need to buy a separate plug to enjoy it – OnePlus supplies a 30-watt 30T charger and cable in the box, besting the bundled
powered adaptor in the Note 10+ (25 watts), iPhone 11 Pro (18 watts), and Pixel 4 (18 watts).
Of course, wireless charging is about convenience, not speed, and if you’re coming from a phone that has it, the inability to quickly pop it on a charging pad while you work or sleep will surely stand out. Add to that the fact that the Warp Charger and cable are among the biggest I’ve used – and you won’t get the same guaranteed speeds and protection without them – and you’ll definitely feel its omission in the 7T.
A faster display makes all the difference
If you can overlook those two missing features, however, the OnePlus 7T is inarguably one of the best Android phones you can buy. The front is very similar to the 6T, with a teardrop notch and slim but visible bezels all around. It’s not quite as striking as the curved displays on Galaxy Note 10+ or the OnePlus 7T Pro, nor as symmetrical as the iPhone 11, but it’s still one of the best-looking phones around.
Around the back, the OnePlus 7T eschews its traditional pill-shaped camera array for a eye-catching circle. It’s as distinctive as the iPhone 11 Pro’s bump – and just as extrusive – and like its premium peers, OnePlus has filled it with a trio of lenses. As phones inch closer to the day where the front will be all screen, the rear case is increasingly where a phone’s unique character can be found, and the OnePlus 7T certainly stands out.
The OnePlus 7T has a 6.55in Full HD (2,400x1,080) OLED display that’s bigger than basically every competitor, save the Note 10+ and OnePlus 7T Pro. If
you like big phones, the 7T is pretty much the perfect size. While it’s less than two-tenths of an inch smaller than those phones, the OnePlus 7T is much more comfortable to hold and use with one hand. The bezels also help in that regard, limiting the accidental touches that are all too common with ‘infinity’ screens.
Even without fancy curved edges, however, the OnePlus 7T has an excellent OLED display. It’s a bit brighter than the 6T (a max of 875 nits of brightness versus 800 on the 6T) and looks great when OnePlus’s ‘Nuanced dark’ theme is switched on. Like the 6T, an optical in-display fingerprint sensor is still the only secure biometric authentication method, and it’s greatly improved over its predecessor. I’d still prefer a physical
sensor or 3D facial recognition like the Pixel 4, but the in-display sensor here isn’t nearly as finicky as it is on the 6T.
Like previous OnePlus panels, it’s not quite on the level of the Galaxies and iPhones – and it still doesn’t have an always-on display option, opting to once again rely on a lift-to-wake ambient display – but it has one thing those displays don’t have: a 90Hz refresh rate. The OnePlus 7T isn’t the first phone to sport a 90Hz display, in fact it’s not even the first OnePlus phone to have it. But you won’t find another phone that offers it at this price, and when you try it out, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
We spend a lot of time talking about the processors in our phones – and the OnePlus 7T certainly has an excellent one – but when you’re dealing with
touchscreens, the response is as important as the completed action. The OnePlus 7T’s 90Hz display increases the refresh rate by 50 per cent to make taps, swipes and scrolls feel incredibly fast, which amps up the overall speed of the phone, especially when gesture navigation is turned on. It’s like Apple’s ProMotion display for the iPad Pro, but it’s even more dramatic at this size and price point. It’s the kind of feature you’d expect in a thousand-pound ‘pro’ phone, not a £469 one, and really gives the OnePlus 7T a leg up on its higher-priced competitors.
The best processor and a killer battery
The speed inside the OnePlus 7T is just as impressive. It’s one of the few phones packing a Snapdragon 855+ chip, and while it doesn’t represent a massive improvement over phones with a standard 855 processor, it’s the first phone I’ve tested to cross the psychological 10,000 barrier in the all-important PCMark Work 2.0 tests:
Geekbench 4 (Single-core/multi-core)
OnePlus 7T: 3,685/11,505
Galaxy S10+: 3,448/10,803
Geekbench 5 (Single-core/multi-core)
OnePlus 7T: 1,331/3,372
Galaxy S10+: 703/2,529
PCMark Work 2.0
OnePlus 7T: 10,863
Galaxy S10+: 9,549
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme
OnePlus 7T: 5,726
Galaxy S10+: 5,456
In reality, those numbers don’t amount to much of a difference over the Galaxy S10, Pixel 4 or any of the other top-level Android phones, but OnePlus 7T buyers can take comfort in knowing that they have the absolute fastest Android phone on the planet. The OnePlus 7 Pro’s ‘Fnatic mode’, which claims to optimize the CPU, GPU, RAM and network performance to supercharge your gaming, also makes an appearance. Does it work? Who knows, but it’s the kind of flexing that gamers will love.
That speed is buoyed by the continued excellence of OxygenOS. The first shipping phone to run Android 10 out of the box, the OnePlus 7T has a real Pixel-like level of hardware-software interrelation, and while it’s relatively light on new features (like Android 10 itself), there’s no denying that it’s still a front-runner for best Android skin. From the animations to the optimizations, everything about Oxygen OS is a downright pleasure to use and the closest thing to pure Android this side of the Pixel.
The light hand OnePlus takes with its skin no doubt helps the battery as well. A flurry of power efficiency features – adaptive battery, battery saver and dark mode – all help to push the OnePlus 7T’s battery life well into double-digit screen time. But even without any of that, I still topped 10 hours in my battery testing, and had nary an issue getting through a full day of use.
Finally, a camera that’s better than okay
Even with hardware specifications that challenge the highest-end Android handsets around, OnePlus phones have always had acceptable but less-than-excellent cameras. The OnePlus 7 Pro closed that gap somewhat, but it still left much to be desired, especially when shooting in challenging light. A lot has changed in six months, and OnePlus has been working hard to deliver consistent updates to its processing and the OnePlus 7T packs the best out-of-the-box camera OnePlus has delivered.
If you’re coming from the OnePlus 6 or earlier, the leap will be just as big as it was for the OnePlus 7 Pro. In fact, the OnePlus 7T has extremely similar camera hardware to the 7 Pro:
OnePlus 7T Pro
Camera 1: 48Mp, f/1.6, OIS
Camera 2: 8Mp 3X telephoto, f/2.4, OIS
Camera 3: 16Mp ultra-wide, f/2.2
OnePlus 7T
Camera 1: 48Mp, f/1.6, OIS
Camera 2: 12Mp 2X telephoto, f/2.2
Camera 3: 16Mp ultra-wide, f/2.2
But beyond the bump in specs, OnePlus has seriously upped its processing game from the days of the 6T. OnePlus phones have always been able to capture very good photos in the right light, but the 7T produced some of the best photos I’ve ever seen in a smartphone. The colour reproduction, exposure and white balance were particularly on point, as was the speedy focus and fast shutter. I think it’s safe to say the OnePlus camera is no longer a detriment.
The OnePlus 7T brings some new features to the OnePlus camera app as well, which are more than the usual party tricks. A new Macro Mode, which switches on automatically when you’re within close range of a subject, captures tiny details that other cameras will miss, like the texture on the wings and the fuzz on the bee’s body in the cropped photo below. Also, the ultra-wide lens gets to use the much-improved night mode, so you aren’t limited to 26mm shots in low light.
The 117-degree field of view on the ultra-wide lens is slightly smaller than the Galaxy S10 (123) and the iPhone 11 (120), but that won’t matter to anyone looking to get top-notch shooting options without spending a fortune, especially since the ultra-wide lens
gets full use of night mode. Most smartphones limit night-time shots to the main wide lens, but OnePlus can handle it on both, which is a nice addition. More importantly, it’s improved the behind-the-scene computational algorithm so night-time photos look very respectable on the 7T.
With the launch of the Pixel 3a, OnePlus seriously needed to up its camera game to stay relevant to the budget-conscious and experience-minded Android crowd, and the OnePlus 7T absolutely delivered.
Verdict
The reasons to not buy a OnePlus phone are rapidly shrinking. Where design, carrier support, and camera were all detriments on previous models, OnePlus has turned those from cons into pros over the past few
models, and the £469 OnePlus 7T is a phone any manufacturer would be proud to call a flagship. Yes, it’s missing wireless charging and bona fide water resistance, and Android diehards will miss the alwayson display, but it is able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Android greats in every other category. For 40 per cent less than the Galaxy S10+, Pixel 4 XL, and iPhone 11 Pro, OnePlus no longer should be the brand to consider if you don’t want to spend a lot. It should be the phone you get even if money is no object.
Specifications
• 6.55in (2,400x1,080; 402ppi) Fluid AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• Android 10, OxygenOS 10.0.7I
• Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855+ (7nm) processor
• Octa-core (1x 2.96GHz Kryo 485, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 485, 4x 1.78GHz Kryo 485) CPU
• Adreno 640 (700MHz) GPU
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB storage
• Three rear-facing cameras: 48Mp, f/1.6, 26mm (wide), 1/2.0in, 0.8μm, PDAF, OIS; 12Mp, f/2.2, 51mm (telephoto), 1.0μm, PDAF, 2x optical zoom; 16Mp, f/2.2, 17mm (ultra wide), AF
• Selfie camera: 16Mp, f/2.0, 25mm (wide), 1/3.0in, 1.0μm
• 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi dual-band
• Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
• GPS with dual-band A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, SBAS • NFC • USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
• Fingerprint scanner (under display, optical)
• Non-removable 3,800mAh lithium-polymer battery
• 160.9x74.4x8.1mm
• 190g