Best smartphones 2020 – iPhone, Samsung, Huawei and all the best mobiles for your budget
LOOKING for the best smartphone 2020 has to offer? We’ve got you covered. We’ve tested top mobiles from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Huawei and more – and bring you our definitive list of 2020’s most tempting handsets. Motorola Moto G7 Play – £109.99 This cheap and cheerful Motorola phone has received widespread […]
LOOKING for the best smartphone 2020 has to offer? We’ve got you covered.
We’ve tested top mobiles from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Huawei and more – and bring you our definitive list of 2020’s most tempting handsets.
Motorola Moto G7 Play – £109.99
This cheap and cheerful Motorola phone has received widespread acclaim for offering great value for money.
The Motorola G-series handsets are known for having great hardware for their low prices.
And the Moto G7 Play is no different, boasting a large 5.7-inch screen with a respectable 720 x 1512-pixel resolution.
It’s powered by Qualcomm’s speedy Snapdragon 632 chip, and also features 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
There’s a 13-megapixel camera on the back, a built-in fingerprint scanner, and very modern USB-C charging.
- Motorola Moto G7 Play at Currys for £109.99 – buy here
Google Pixel 3a – £349
Announced in early May, the Pixel 3a is a brand new “cheap” smartphone made by Google.
It’s actually just a pared-down version of last year’s flagship Google Pixel 3, with a slightly slower processor and a marginally less impressive camera.
But it retains almost all of the Pixel 3’s features, including the see-in-the-dark Night Sight mode and the Google Lens camera that identifies real world objects using AI.
Better still, it starts at just £399, which is well below the £600-£700 price tag of the Google Pixel 3 proper.
- Google Pixel 3a at Currys for £349 – buy here
Samsung Galaxy S10e – £569.99
The Galaxy S10e was unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event on February 20.
It’s a cheaper, lower-spec version of the new Galaxy S10.
Probably the biggest loss is the lack of triple-lens camera, which may disappoint photography nerds.
You also have to settle for a Full HD+ display, instead of the higher-resolution Quad HD+ panel on the Galaxy S10 proper.
The base model of the Galaxy S10e only has 6GB RAM too, rather than the 8GB featured on the Galaxy S10.
And you miss out on the cool ultrasonic fingerprint scanner touted by the Galaxy S10 too.
However, the phone retains most of hardware heft of its siblings, and is still a formidable blower by any measure.
- Samsung Galaxy S10e at Currys for £569.99 – buy here
Samsung Galaxy Note 10 – £679
Samsung’s new iPhone rival was unveiled on August 7, and has been well-received since its launch.
The Note 10 comes fitted with a large 6.3-inch ‘Infinity O’ screen, an S-Pen stylus and a triple camera on the back.
It also boasts super-fast USB-C charging, and a generous 3,400mAh battery.
The price has come down significantly since it launched at £869, making it exceptionally good value for money.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10 at Amazon for £679 – buy here
iPhone 11 – £699
It’s impressive given how much better than iPhone 11 is compared to last year’s iPhone XR.
The camera is substantially better, offering loads more versatility and the mind-blowing Night Mode to boot.
The iPhone 11 looks better, is physically more durable, and comes in a tempting suite of pastel colours.
It’s not the best smartphone out there, obviously. The iPhone 11 Pro is vastly superior, but it also costs about £330 more. Minimum.
For its £729 price tag (discounted elsewhere), the iPhone 11 is arguably the best-value smartphone you can buy today.
Don’t forget: Apple keeps updating your iOS for a long time. So unlike Android phones, this iPhone is likely to get new features and security updates for years to come.
- iPhone 11 at Currys for £699 – buy here
OnePlus 7T Pro – £699
The OnePlus 7T Pro is a beast of a smartphone that offers top-of-the-range specs for far less than you’d pay for a new iPhone.
It’s an (admittedly minor) upgrade to the fantastic OnePlus 7 Pro, which launched in May.
It boasts a ginormous 6.67″ Fluid AMOLED display with almost no bezels.
What’s most striking is the screen’s whopping 90hz refresh rate, which basically means the screen refreshes 90 times every second.
In practice, that means you get an incredibly smooth experience when playing high-intensity games, scrolling through your social feeds or scanning your photo albums.
Backed by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip and up to 12GB of RAM, animations on the gizmo are super slick. There’s almost no drag or lag when flicking through your apps/
The screen is also near-edgeless, with no notches or hole-punch cutouts to house the selfie camera.
- OnePlus 7T Pro at Amazon for £699 – buy here
Huawei P30 Pro – £699.99
The Huawei P30 Pro is one of the best smartphones ever to come out of China.
It rocks a large 6.47-inch screen with a pin-sharp 1080 x 2430-pixel resolution.
Huawei has fitted the phone with its own speedy Kirin 980 chipset, along with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM.
There’s also a quad-camera system on the back, which is famed for its 50x SuperZoom feature.
Importantly, the Huawei P30 Pro comes loaded with all your favourite Google apps – as it launched before the US ruling hamstrung later Huawei models.
- Huawei P30 Pro at Amazon for £699.99 – buy here
Google Pixel 4 XL – £729
The Google Pixel 4 XL is hard to fault.
Aside from battery life and a few other minor niggles, Google’s latest blowers are the cream of the Android crop.
The pure Android software and support combined with a very impressive display and camera setup will disappoint few.
It’s a close match-up between the Pixel 4 XL and the iPhone 11 Pro, so it’ll come down to personal preference on design and the ecosystem.
If you’re already an Android user, it makes more sense to simply stick an Android blower.
- Google Pixel 4 XL at Currys for £729 – buy here
iPhone 11 Pro – £1,099
This is the best smartphone we’ve ever used, bar none.
It was hard to fault last year’s model. Now with a few tweaks, the iPhone 11 Pro is your old phone on steroids.
Every inch of this gadget is built for extreme performance.
The processor is class-leading, the camera is phenomenal every time you hit the shutter button, and the design feels both fresh and iconic.
It’s also a loaded spring, ready to pop with more Apple tricks. App makers are tapping it to increased processing power as we speak. And the camera will soon be improved with Deep Fusion technology, via an update.
It’s not without fault: £1,049 is a high price to ask people to pay for something you’ll keep for just a few years.
But this is a “Pro” model and isn’t aimed at your mum. Unless she’s a gadget nut.
This is the MacBook Pro or iPad Pro of the iPhone. It’s a tool to get proper smartphone work done, and it’s a bold statement for dedicated Apple fans who want to show off their kit.
- iPhone 11 Pro at Amazon for £1,009 – buy here
All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed. Always do your own research before making any purchase.
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And find out the full list of Britain’s top iPhone app and game downloads.
Which smartphone will you be buying next? Let us know in the comments!
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