The best smartphones in 2018

Now that 2018 is nearly over, we can take a look at the tech that defines the year.

It’s been an interesting year for smartphones, with some incredible new camera-focused devices, and a new emphasis on machine learning. Phones are growing more expensive but they’re also getting incredibly powerful, with new features changing how we use our devices.

Included in our best smartphones of 2018 are a few smartphones from previous years: this is because these devices remain at the cutting edge of portable technology, despite being a little older than new phones. They’re also naturally a little cheaper, making them viable options for people looking for new devices.

These are our favourite smartphones of 2018.

READ NEXT: Best Android smartphones of 2018

Best smartphones of 2018

1. OnePlus 6

Price when reviewed: £469 inc. VAT

When compiling this list, we generally have to weigh up price against performance and make a judgement call. Fortunately, the OnePlus 6 makes things easier by being both incredibly powerful and surprisingly affordable.

You’re looking at a handset packing the fastest processor around – the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 – in a package around £200 cheaper than other phones that manage to include it. You might think there would be obvious corners cut to make this possible, but they’re certainly not obvious: the screen is good, the camera is top draw and the battery life is more than adequate. Okay, it doesn’t have expandable storage and it lacks true waterproofing, but those are a small price to pay for a fine handset. This is the one to beat.

Buy it now from Amazon

Buy it now from Mobiles.co.uk

2. Samsung Galaxy S9

Price when reviewed: £739 inc. VAT

Cards on the table: the Samsung Galaxy S9 is actually about the best smartphone you can buy right now – it’s just hugely expensive for what it is. So yes, it’s better than the OnePlus 6 – but it’s not £300 better, that’s for sure.

Objectively, however, it’s as good as it gets. The screen is fantastic; the camera is as fantastic; and it manages to pack in waterproofing, wireless charging, and expandable storage without ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack. Basically, if you’re looking for a feature, the S9 likely has it.

The trouble is, so does the Samsung Galaxy S8, which is still almost as good as the S9 a year later. When the S9 comes down in price, it’ll be a no-brainer – for now, it’s for those for whom money is no object.

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3. Apple iPhone X

Price when reviewed: £999 inc. VAT

Speaking of hugely expensive: hello iPhone X!

What do you get in the £999 iPhone X that you don’t get in the iPhone 8? Well, you get a larger 5.8in screen, for a start – not only that, but it’s OLED as well, and it’s a beauty, covering almost the entirety of the front with next to no bezel. This means there’s no home button, but Face ID is here instead, meaning you can unlock the phone with your face as well as have emoji gurn back at you when you pull faces.

Yes, this is by far the best iPhone ever made, but at £999 you’d have to really dislike Android to go for it. Still, as a sign of things to come, things look bright for Apple.

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Buy it now from Mobiles.co.uk

4. Google Pixel 2

Price when reviewed: £629 inc. VAT

While the Pixel 2 XL disappointed due to a flaky screen, the Pixel 2 quietly meets all our expectations of what a great Google-made phone should look like.

So yes, it’s as speedy as any handset released in 2017 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, but the real triumph of the Pixel is twofold. Firstly, the camera is as good as it gets, managing to take images packed with detail and colour even in tricky conditions.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, as this is a Google-made handset, you can be sure you’ll be at the front of the queue for new Android features. It’s also mercifully free of bloatware, for the purest Android experience around.

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5. Huawei P20 Pro

Price when reviewed: £799 inc. VAT

Huawei’s latest was about as pleasant a surprise as it’s possible to have. Yes, it’s expensive, but it has three lenses on the back, and the result is the best camera in the business (for static shots – video is a touch more patchy).

There are two reasons it’s not higher up. The first is that the Kirin processor that powers it isn’t quite as fast as this year’s Snapdragon 845 – it’s more of a match for last year’s 835. The second is that £799 is a lot of money with that in mind, but given Huawei handsets tend to drop in price quickly, it’s certainly one to keep an eye on.

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6. iPhone 8 Plus

Price when reviewed: £799 inc. VAT

The iPhone 8 Plus is a very fine phone indeed – and with its dual cameras and bigger screen, it’s a big improvement on the standard iPhone 8. The trouble is that while it’s very good, it’s also rather expensive for what it is: £799 for the 64GB version puts it well ahead of the equally good phones above, and given there’s no way to expand the storage with a microSD card, you may well need to drop £949 for the 256GB version.

The battery life is good, the cameras are excellent and wireless charging is a welcome addition – even if its years behind Android in adoption. But crucially, this doesn’t feel like a big step forward from the iPhone 7 Plus, which makes the asking price a tough old pill to swallow. You won’t be disappointed, but if you’re willing to look beyond the walls of iOS, you’ll find better for less money.

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7. Samsung Galaxy Note 8

Price when reviewed: £869 inc. VAT

The Note 8 is about as good as big phones – or phablets as they awkwardly used to be known – get. It inherits all the technology of the Samsung Galaxy S8, gets a second camera, more screen real estate and the fancy S-Pen stylus that lets you doodle and annotate all your sketches.

So why so far down the list? Well, stop me if you’ve heard this one before… Yep, it’s really expensive. At £869, it’s just too expensive to be a serious recommendation to most people. But as prices come down, this is definitely one that you should keep an eye on.

Buy it now from Amazon

Buy it now from Mobiles.co.uk

8. Google Pixel 3

Price when reviewed: £739

Google hasn’t become one of the biggest tech companies in the world by accident, and the Pixel 3 is proof of their continuing innovation.

With machine-learning powering its camera, performance that trumps many older phones, and AI performing many of the unwanted tasks that come with a phone (like, for example, actually answering the phone), the Pixel 3 is a dream to use. It’s just a shame that this fact wasn’t a surprise, since pre-launch the phone received more leaks than a sinking ship.

Buy now from Mobiles.co.uk

Buy now from Mobiles.co.uk

Smartphone buyer’s guide: Android or iOS?

The first question to tackle is which platform to buy into. Now that Microsoft has all but left the phone game, you’re left with a binary choice: iOS or Android.

iOS means iPhones, and you probably already know whether or not you want an iPhone. They’re great devices, with a wealth of apps and games on offer, but they’re not exactly cheap. That said, for anyone looking to buy a high-end handset, Apple’s iPhones deserve a place on the shortlist.

If you definitely don’t want an iPhone, then Android handsets are available in a number of shapes, sizes and prices. Most phones use it – and, nowadays, it offers a good balance of apps, games and general performance. Aside from the iPhone, pretty much everything else out there uses Android from the £739 Samsung Galaxy S9 all the way down to $10 (yes, around £6) phones.

Smartphone buyer’s guide: What size phone is best?

Once you’ve made your choice of platform, you need to pick a size. In part, this will be determined by how much you want to spend, but as long as you’re willing to fork out £250 or more, there’s quite a range available to you.

Most of the higher-end phones are quite large these days; if you’re not used to a bigger phone, we recommend trying one out in a high-street shop before buying. Most people can generally get accustomed to phones up to 5.2in in screen size, but anything larger than that becomes a bit of a struggle for people with smaller hands.

Have huge hands? Want a big screen? In the past couple of years, the phone-tablet hybrid market has exploded, and there are several phones that offer 6-6.8in screens – truly huge displays for a phone.

For any phones of 5in or larger, we recommend a 1080p screen, which will get you sharp images. Many manufacturers are squeezing Quad HD screens with 1,440 x 2,560 pixels into their larger-screened phones, and some are beginning to move into the realms of 4K – but despite the hype, you’ll likely struggle to tell the difference between 1080p and Quad HD at these sorts of screen sizes – unless you really want to use them for virtual reality, in which case the more pixels per inch the better.

Even around the £200 mark it’s possible to get hold of handsets with super-sharp screens, such as the Motorola Moto G6. Whatever you decide, we recommend opting for screen quality over whether it has wireless technology extras such as NFC or an IR transmitter.

Smartphone buyer’s guide: The camera

The one other bit of hardware that’s important to consider is the camera. If you’re looking at a phone costing £350 or more, you’re almost guaranteed a reasonably good camera, but if you’re a budget buyer then you’ll find there are compromises with most models.

Low-end phones sometimes leave out the flash. Some don’t even have autofocus. If a phone leaves out any such features, it cuts hugely into the photographic flexibility of a smartphone.

At the higher end of the scale, look out for optical image stabilisation as a minimum. This moves the lens and/or sensor to compensate for the effect of shaky hands. It allows the phone to use longer exposures, enabling more light onto the sensor, which leads to cleaner, less noisy photos when shooting in low light. More fancy phones – such as the Samsung iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – have dual cameras, adding better zoom with less detail loss, wide-angle shooting, or monochrome shots. The Huawei P20 Pro has three lenses – it’s an arms race that’s great for shutterbugs.

More fundamentally, be on the lookout for a larger aperture, which helps produce better photography in difficult conditions. This is the “F-number” you’ll see on the spec sheet; the lower the number, the better.

It’s also worth looking out for advanced, secondary-focus systems. Samsung, Apple and LG all use phase-detect systems that allow faster, more accurate focusing than most phones, which rely on contrast-detect autofocus.

Smartphone buyer’s guide: How much do you want to spend?

How much do you need to spend to get a good phone? Despite rapid inflation over the last few years, you can still get a perfectly good handset for under £100: the Vodafone N8, for example, can be had for just £85. It’s currently about as cheap a phone as you can get without having to give up too much in the way of looks or build quality.

From there, things get steeper, and fast. Mid-range smartphones phones start at around £300, with slightly older flagships providing most of what you get from a more expensive phone at a less scary price. E.g: rather than buying this year’s latest midrange Samsung phone, you may find that the S8 has had a price cut as shops try and sell the S9. Shop around, and you may be able to grab yourself a bargain.

If nothing but the best will do, the very latest flagship phones from companies such as Samsung, LG, Sony and Apple cost between £600-1,000. On a contract, that normally equates to at least £40+ per month, but check third party retailers like Mobiles.co.uk and Smartphone Company – both of which often undercut the networks by some distance, even on the latest models.