the best smartphones of 2016

We went to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to check out the latest and greatest phones. They’re coming to your pocket rather soon...

Samsung Galaxy S7

01 Samsung’s S6 replacement boasts a microSD slot for increased storage and full waterproofing. It’s IP68 rated, which means it can be dunked in up to 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes, so it’ll survive a drop into the toilet. There’s also a dual-pixel camera for better low-light pics and an alwayson display. There’s also some cool accessories, including the Gear 360 VR camera (inset) for creating spherical videos and photos.

£569, samsung.com

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

02 Our favourite phone from last year has just got a whole lot better; the Galaxy S7 Edge makes the standard S7 look very ordinary. Samsung’s flagship has all the features of the S7 (like the waterproofing and SD card slot), but the screen has also got bigger – increasing from 5.1 to 5.5 inches. That’s more like last year’s Galaxy S6 Edge+. The display doesn’t have more pixels, but it’s barely noticeable compared to last year’s effort.

£639, samsung.com

Sony Xperia X range

03 The Xperia X is out this summer and will be followed at a later date by the X Performance, which does match flagship handsets in terms of spec if not the Full HD five-inch display (it might be accompanied by a bigger version). Each X-series phone boasts an improved camera developed in association with Sony’s DSLR engineers, plus Adaptive Charging battery management tech from Qnovo that should see the phones last for two days.

£TBC, sony.co.uk

LG G5

04 Without doubt, this 5.3-incher is the most interesting phone we’ve seen for a while – the bottom of the phone unclips and the battery slides out. More interesting still are the accessories you can attach to the bottom. Our favourite is a Hi-Res Audio DAC with B&O Play, which supports 32-bit 384KHz. There’s also the Cam Plus, which offers a digital camera-style shutter button and added controls and a new VR camera and headset to complement the handset (inset).

£500, lg.com/uk

HP Elite X3

05 What’s that you say? A Windows Phone? Well yes, but this one has a natty feature hidden up its sleeve. Windows Phones now run full Windows 10, so they can plug into a monitor and connect to a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and work just like a PC. But the Elite X3 can come with a full laptop companion that plugs into the phone and uses its hardware. So it’s basically just a keyboard and bigger display that acts as a full laptop through your phone. That’s neat.

£TBC, hp.com/uk

Xiaomi Mi5

06 Never heard of Xiaomi? That’s understandable, but this is a Chinese firm to watch, just like Huawei. The Mi5 brings searing specs (including the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, a 16MP, fast-focusing camera and a whopping 3GB of memory), an S7-matching 3,000 mAh battery and a 5.5-inch 1080p Full HD display. It’ll be around half the price of most high-end handsets, so it makes a terrific alternative choice. It’s available in black, silver and gold (inset).

Around £285, mi.com/en