Last year was quite the year in smartphones, with the drama around Huawei, some folding phone false starts and a serious comeback for the iPhone.

In February the smartphone year starts again with the new Samsung Galaxy S20 (AKA the Galaxy S11) and potentially a folding clamshell to boot. Then it's MWC and we're off.


If you're looking for a smartphone right now, though, you've got the pick of 2019's phones with multiple camera lenses stuffed on all the flagships and very strong specs and performance from Xiaomi and Oppo in the budget and mid-range. In design, there's notches, hole punches and pop-up cameras to consider.

With all that in mind, you can weigh up what you'll actually appreciate and use. Here are our eight smartphone picks, to suit all budgets.

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What's the best smartphone in 2020?

Apple is on top once more, after a few years of Samsung and Huawei duking it out. The iPhone 11 (£729) is our best smartphone overall, thanks to its combination of specs, style and value.

View the Apple iPhone 11 for £729 on Amazon


The best budget phone has also had a switchup. After years of recommending Motos, WIRED is now firmly behind the excellent Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T (£169) with its Full HD display and capable 48MP camera.

View the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T for £169 on Amazon

Power users who are looking to save some cash should check out the OnePlus 7T (£549). It offers almost everything the flagships from Apple, Samsung and Google do with clean Android and early updates. That's why it's our best Android phone for power users.

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View the OnePlus 7T for £549 on Amazon


WIRED Recommends is your definitive guide to the best technology. Head over to our guide to the best gadgets guide for our top picks in every category we've tested. When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn a small affiliate commission. This does not impact the products we recommend.

Apple iPhone 11

[newsletter type="recommends"]

WIRED Recommends: This is the iPhone you need in 2020

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Screen: 6.1in 1792 x 828 IPS LCD | Processor: Apple A13 Bionic | Battery: 3110 mAh | Camera: 12MP, 12MP wide | OS: iOS | Weight: 194g | Charging: 5W, supports 18W

You may be a little surprised to see the iPhone 11 (£699) here rather than the iPhone 11 Pro or 11 Pro Max. However, this lower-end version option is simply the better choice for a great many people. You still get a very high-quality camera, the same powerful processor, a fairly large screen and much longer battery life than most previous iPhones.

Oh, and did we mention it’s hundreds of pounds cheaper than the Pro twins too?

The iPhone 11 is the Apple phone that deserves to convert a whole swathe of dedicated Android fans tempted to give the “other side” a go. Its missing bits are significant, but not enough to stop this being our go-to recommendation of Apple’s 2019/2020 line-up.

You get useful and fun ultra-wide and wide rear cameras, but not a zoom. And the iPhone 11 screen is an LCD rather than a higher-resolution OLED.

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Also consider: Those who will barely notice spending an extra £350 on the iPhone 11 Pro may want to consider the upgrade. However, the iPhone 11’s 6.1-inch screen strikes a good balance between display size and phone size.

Pros: Affordable for an iPhone; powerful; great cameras

Cons: No zoom camera; lower-res LCD screen

Price: £729 | Check price on Amazon

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Samsung Galaxy S10+

Quality, polish, specs - still worth considering

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Screen: 6.4in 3040x1440 | Processor: Exynos 9820 | Battery: 4100 mAh | Camera: 12MP/16MP wide/12MP telephoto | OS: Android 9/ One UI 9.1 | Weight: 175g | Charging: 15W fast + wireless

Looking for both iPhone-like polish and Android specs? The Samsung Galaxy S10+ (£899) still hits a sweet spot.

First up, it looks the part with a bold 6.4-inch 3040 x 1440 AMOLED screen. The punch-hole for the upgraded front-facing camera allows for no notch and slim bezels, which if nothing else is fun when choosing homescreen backgrounds.

The in-screen fingerprint sensor is fast and Samsung's One UI software keeps things nice and simple. Day to day performance and gaming are top notch, despite the fact that the UK gets the eight-core Exynos 9820 processor, with 12-core Mali GPU, rather than the Snapdragon 855 as per the US and China.

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Image quality is reliably brilliant across all three of the S10+'s rear cameras, the main 12MP camera, the 2 x zoom 12MP camera and the 16MP ultra-wide camera, with the best software-based stabilisation we've seen on a phone yet. The only thing missing? The extreme low-light mode found on the Google Pixel 4.

The 4,100mAh battery lasts the day sometimes slightly more, no great innovation here, but you do get fast wireless charging. Should you not have moved over to wireless, there is also that rare, magical thing, a headphone jack.

Also consider: If you're looking for something more compact, there's the Samsung Galaxy S10e.

Pros: Terrific screen; camera; performance and design

Cons: Not the most future-proof phone

Price: £758 | Check price on Amazon

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T

The best cheap smartphone

Screen: 6.3in 2340 x 1080 IPS LCD | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 | Battery: 4000 mAh | Camera: 48MP, 8MP wide, 2MP depth, 2MP macro | OS: Android 9.0, MIUI | Weight: 200g | Charging: 18W Fast Charging

Xiaomi is trying very hard to make an impact in the west. It’s in a similar position Huawei took up years ago, and its current strategy of undercutting more-or-less every other big name works very nicely.

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It means we get phones like the Xiaomi Remi Note 8T (£169). This is a sub-£200 phone with a Full HD screen and a genuine glass back at a time former glass fans Motorola and Huawei have started to use plastic more in their cheaper phones.

Other manufacturers simply could not justify selling a phone this tech-packed at this price. The Note 8T even has a class-leading 48-megapixel camera and very good battery life. There are some distasteful parts to the software, like embedded adverts, but budget phones simply don’t get much better value than the Xiaomi Note 8T.

Gaming obsessives may want to consider paying a little more. While the Snapdragon 665 CPU is a quality chipset, we did notice the Mi 8T drops a few frames when playing Android’s most demanding games. But at this point we’re looking for issues. There’s very little to complain about here at the price.

Pros: Superb value; Full HD screen; good primary camera

Cons: Lots of cameras but no zoom; ads

Price: £169 | Check price on Amazon

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Google Pixel 4 XL

Superb photography, best for Google

Screen: 6.3in 3040 x 1440 P-OLED | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 | Battery: 3700 mAh | Camera: 12MP, 16MP 2x zoom | OS: Android 10 | Weight: 193g | Charging: 18W Fast Charging

Google didn’t make quite the biggest splash with its Pixel phones in 2019. The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL (£829) were criticised for relatively short battery life, compounded by Apple’s radical improvements in the same field.

The Pixel 4 XL’s stamina is the stronger of the two, and there are some real strengths elsewhere. Google even managed to improve camera performance since the Pixel 3, even though the two phones use the same Sony IMX363 sensor.

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Astrophotography is the headline-stealer. This is a development of Google’s superb Night Sight photography mode. It kicks in when the camera is still and conditions are very dark, and is so effective it can pick out stars in a clear sky.

There’s also, finally, more than one camera on the back. A 2x zoom is the new addition, and it’s excellent.

All the usual benefits of Pixel phones remain too. The Pixel 4 XL runs Android 10 with a completely bloat-free interface, and has a powerful Snapdragon 855 CPU. Its 6.3-inch OLED screen also supports a 90Hz refresh rate, which makes menus scroll by more smoothly. However, given the relatively small 3700mAh battery you may want to switch this off some of the time as a higher refresh rate makes the display consume more power.

Pros: Superb camera; pure Android; quick updates

Cons: Battery life isn’t great; no ultra-wide

Price: £829 | Check price on Amazon

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Oppo Reno 2 Z

A mid-range Android that makes sense

Screen: 6.53in 2340 x 1080 OLED | Processor: Mediatek Helio P90 | Battery: 4000 mAh | Camera: 48MP, 8MP wide, 2MP depth, 2MP macro | OS: Android 9.0, ColorOS | Weight: 195g | Charging: 20W VOOC Fast Charging

Look at the Oppo Reno 2 Z (£329) if you want a phone with design traits of the most expensive models at a much lower price. Its motorised camera is the most striking of these features. The front camera pops out on a little module that retracts into the Reno’s top, complete with an LED that lights up as it emerges.

This leaves the display free to be filled with games and Netflix, notch and punch hole free. The screen itself is impressive too. Not only is it large at 6.53 inches, its OLED panel offers deeper colour and better contrast than you’d expect at such a reasonable price. This phone is a better video streamer than some at twice the cost.

It looks good too. Oppo uses curved glass on the back, and while the sides are plastic rather than aluminium, it immediately feels higher-end than the more expensive Google Pixel 3a XL.

Camera quality doesn’t quite match the Pixel, and the quad camera array work better on paper than in reality. However, you still get the extra compositional versatility of an ultra-wide camera and the main 48MP camera is a solid performer with respectable low-light performance in its class.

Pros: Pop-up front camera; smooth glass back; great screen

Cons: Two of the four rear cameras are all-but for show

Price: £329 | View the best deals on Carphone Warehouse

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+

The stylus is still the star

Screen: 6.8in 3040 x 1440 OLED | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 | Battery: 4300 mAh | Camera: 12MP, 12MP wide, 12MP 2x zoom | OS: Android 9.0 | Weight: 196g | Charging: 45W Fast Charging

Samsung phones seem even more important now than they did last year, since Huawei royalty like the Mate 30 Pro suddenly became much less attractive as they don’t have Google apps. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ (£869) is possibly the most desirable of them all.

As ever, the stylus is the main reason to choose this model over one of the “vanilla” S10 phones. It has an integrated battery, so can act as a remote and supports “air gestures”. But doodling and handwriting are the real appeals. This is an angle you simply don’t get in other phones, and the stylus works perfectly with heavy-hitting art apps like Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.

The screen also pushes right to the edges of the Note 10+, giving the impression the front is filled with display. It’s a huge display too, only missing a motorised camera to let Netflix fill it completely. But Samsung has experimented with such pop-up mechanisms less than most.

Camera low-light image quality is not quite a match for the Pixel 4 XL’s, but with both a 2x and ultra-wide, there’s plenty of fun to be had here. This might be the most feature-packed phone in this round-up, although we were a little disappointed when Samsung left the headphone jack out, despite keeping it in the Galaxy S10 range.

Pros: Unique S-Pen stylus; packed with features

Cons: High price; no headphone jack

Price: £869 | Check price on Amazon

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OnePlus 7T

Supremely capable and still best for power users

Screen: 6.55in 2400 x 1080 OLED | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ | Battery: 3800 mAh | Camera: 48MP, 16MP wide, 12MP 2x zoom | OS: Android 10, OxygenOS | Weight: 190g | Charging: 30W Warp Fast Charging

OnePlus continues to offer the best value phones that look, feel, and are, true flagships. In 2019 the OnePlus 7T (£549) gave us some of the best parts of the more expensive OnePlus 7 Pro, for less money.

The camera array is a highlight. Its housing may not be pretty, but there’s a good 2x zoom, an ultra-wide lens and a capable 48-megapixel main camera. OnePlus has also worked on its low-light shooting in recent years, making the OnePlus 7T ready for just about any shooting conditions.

This is one of just a few phones with the “Plus” version of the Snapdragon 855, meaning it’s a little more powerful than some that cost hundreds more. There is no more sensible a buy among top-end mobiles, saving you hundreds you can pile into other tech obsessions. Or file away into your pension, if you must be sensible.

A motorised selfie camera is the most obvious extra you get in the upgrade to the OnePlus 7T Pro, along with a higher-resolution screen. Both have an excellent in-screen fingerprint scanner, though, one far quicker and more reliable than most.


Pros: Flagship experience; good screen; more cameras

Cons: Ugly camera module; storage; no headphone jack

Price: £549 | Check price on Amazon

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