Design

If you want to be the best you need to catch our eye

A blend of glass and metal makes the S8 look like it’s come from the future

There’s nothing to hide here: all three of our flagships phones are absolute lookers. We’ll kick off with the Huawei P10, the cheapest handset on test, but don’t think that means a sub-standard build. Far from it, with the P10 sporting a svelte metal unibody which is more than a little reminiscent of the iPhone - but that’s not a bad thing. It’s the slimmest phone here, making it the easiest to use one-handed, and its 5.1-inch Full HD display is pin-sharp. It may be the most bezel-heavy handset on test, but that’s partly to its advantage – it’s also the only one to feature a front-mounted fingerprint scanner. Many, ourselves included, prefer this position over rear-mounted scanners, which are often much trickier to hit.

Next, and ascending up the pricing chart, is the LG G6, which sports a rounded metal frame that oozes class. It feels solid, looks great and the curved corners of the screen are kinder on the eyes and give the handset a more balanced finish. The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s fast and responsive while also doubling as the power/lock key. The screen is pretty special too, with a QHD resolution pushing a huge number of pixels directly into your retinas, while the 18:9 aspect ratio makes movies look fantastic.

Rounding out our design and display showdown is the Samsung Galaxy S8, a phone which offers up an awful lot of screen - 5.8 inches in fact - in a body which is smaller than the Galaxy Note 7 (which, tellingly, had a slightly-smaller 5.7-inch display). What Samsung has done here is very clever indeed: it’s sacrificed its iconic physical home button, instead shifting the fingerprint scanner to the back to reduce the bezels up front and maximise the screen real estate. And boy, does it look fantastic. A blend of glass and metal, along with the curved QHD display, makes the S8 look like it’s from the future. T3