We look at the best Android phones available to buy right now
Android is the most popular mobile operating system in the world. There are a vast array of Android smartphones on the market from a whole host of manufacturers and with more Android phones being released every week a consumer’s choice becomes ever more bewildering.
When buying an Android phone, there are a variety of manufacturers to choose from who each have their own range of devices with different size displays, price-points, features and specs. Choosing between a Sony Xperia, Samsung Galaxy, HTC, LG and all the other Android smartphones isn't an easy task.
To help you decide we've picked out the best Android phones available to buy right now. Every one of the smartphones on this list is great in its own right and they were picked after considering every aspect of the phone including design, performance and price.
The Samsung Galaxy S10e is a real attempt from Samsung at making an affordable flagship, and the attempt was somewhat successful, as the Galaxy S10e is substantially cheaper than the rest of the S10 range (though still hardly a ‘budget’ phone) while retaining many high-end specs and features.
It has a 5.8-inch 1080 x 2280 Dynamic AMOLED screen with support for HDR10+, a high-end Exynos 9820 chipset, upwards of 6GB of RAM, a dual-lens rear camera, and a premium design with an almost all-screen front and a punch-hole camera. There’s even water resistance.
Our verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S10e is a real Android rival to the likes of the iPhone 11 and iPhone XR, and only a small step down from the standard Galaxy S10.
You might be surprised to see the Honor 10 Lite on this list. After all, this is no flagship. But it’s a remarkably good value handset.
It has a big 6.21-inch 1080 x 2340 screen, an eye-catching design with hardly any bezel, an octa-core chipset clocked at up to 2.2GHz, 3GB of RAM, a dual-lens camera (made up of a 13MP main lens and a 2MP depth sensor), a 24MP front-facing camera, a 3,400mAh battery, and 64GB of storage.
So the Honor 10 Lite looks good and has solid specs in every area, yet you can buy it from under £200 SIM-free and at bargain prices on contract.
Our verdict
With its mix of strong specs and decent design, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better phone than the Honor 10 Lite for under £200.
The Honor 20 is the main 2019 flagship from Honor, and while it’s a step down from bigger name flagships, it’s also a couple of steps down in terms of price.
What you get, other than a bargain price tag, includes a whopping four camera lenses on the back, one of which clocks in at 48 megapixels. And these are more than just numbers – this is a very good camera phone for the money.
The Honor 20 also has a beautiful all-screen design with a reflective glass back, plus flagship power, thanks to an octa-core Kirin 980 chipset paired with 6GB of RAM. There’s also a 32MP front-facing camera, a sizeable 3750mAh battery, and a 6.26-inch 1080 x 2340 screen.
Our verdict
The Honor 20 is the flagship for those who can’t afford a flagship. It almost matches big name rivals at a far lower price.
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro was arguably the best phone of 2018 and it still stands up well in 2019. There are a lot of reasons for that but ultimately what it comes down to is that this is one of the most feature-packed phones around.
It has a phablet-sized 6.39-inch 1440 x 3120 screen, coming in at a super-sharp 538 pixels per inch, and it uses an OLED display, offering great contrast.
It also has a great design, with a curved screen, hardly any bezel, a glass back and a metal frame. And despite looking fragile it can survive getting wet, as it’s water-resistant.
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro also has an in-screen fingerprint scanner – it was one of the first phones to do so in fact. Plus there’s a brilliant triple-lens camera on the back, giving you wide-angle and telephoto options as well as a main lens.
The phone additionally has a big 4,200mAh battery, complete with fast charging, wireless charging and even reverse wireless charging, so you can charge other devices with it, and of course there’s plenty of power, thanks to a Kirin 980 chipset (the same as you’ll find in the newer Huawei P30 range) and 6GB of RAM.
Note that the Huawei Mate 30 Pro has now launched, but it doesn’t have access to Google apps and services, making it an inferior option.
Our verdict
The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a phone that does it all. It’s not the best for everything but it comes very close and it’s not as expensive as it once was.
The Google Pixel 4 XL is a phone that excels in some ways and falls behind in others, which is why despite being one of the newest phones on this list it’s not nearer the top, but it’s still very good overall.
One main highlight is the camera, which despite having just two lenses (a main 12.2MP one and a telephoto 16MP one) can take better photos than most other phones.
The Google Pixel 4 XL also has a 6.3-inch 1440 x 3040 OLED screen which stands out from most through its 90Hz refresh rate, making animations and interactions appear smoother than on standard 60Hz screens.
Plus, it has high-end core specs, with a Snapdragon 855 chipset and 6GB of RAM, and the phone is water-resistant.
And being a Google handset it also runs stock Android (specifically Android 10), and will be first in line for software updates.
Add in a few other interesting features, such as Motion Sense which allows it to respond to hand gestures above the display, and the Pixel 4 XL is a compelling handset for Android purists.
Our verdict
The Google Pixel 4 XL is the best ‘pure’ Android phone you can get as well as being a great choice for smartphone photographers. Some handsets have stronger core specs and more features, but the Pixel 4 XL keeps things slick, simple and stock.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 is an obvious inclusion on this list, as Samsung has long been making some of the best Android phones in any given year with its S range.
While it’s bettered by the S10 Plus elsewhere on this list, the Samsung Galaxy S10 is still a fantastic phone, with an all-screen design allowed by the use of a punch-hole camera on the front.
And what a screen. The Galaxy S10 has a 6.1-inch 1440 x 3040 display making for a pin-sharp 550 pixels per inch, and it’s a screen that impresses in more ways than just resolution. It’s curved, supports HDR10+ and is generally top-quality.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 also has a premium design, with a glass back, a metal frame and water resistance, plus there’s an impressive in-screen fingerprint scanner and a powerful triple-lens camera.
Speaking of power, this phone comes with a top-end Exynos 9820 chipset and 8GB of RAM, making it one of the most powerful phones of 2019.
Our verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S10 is a worthy follow-up to the Galaxy S9 and were it not for the even better S10 Plus it would be one of the most impressive phones we’ve ever come across.
As good as the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is, the Huawei P30 Pro is even better, though it has many of the same things going for it.
This newer handset has a 6.47-inch 1080 x 2340 OLED screen, so it’s even bigger than the Mate 20 Pro, but there’s less wasted space, with just the tiniest of notches and a tiny strip of bezel below the screen.
It’s a high-quality OLED display with support for HDR10, so it’s easily a rival for the best displays around.
But the camera is even more exciting, as this has a quad-lens one, with a 40MP f/1.6 main lens, a 20MP f/2.2 wide-angle one, an 8MP telephoto one allowing for 5x optical zoom, and a Time of Flight lens for depth-sensing. Combined they make for arguably the best camera setup we’ve seen on a phone.
Add to that an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a premium build, water resistance, plenty of power and a 4,200mAh battery and you’ve got a near perfect phone.
Our verdict
The Huawei P30 Pro is Huawei’s best phone yet and that’s saying something. The screen could be sharper but otherwise this is almost perfect.
The OnePlus 7T Pro manages to be both a great phone and a great value one. It’s so good that it would probably make this list even if it was priced in line with the most expensive flagships, but in fact it’s a substantial chunk cheaper.
It has a massive 6.67-inch 1440 x 3120 curved Fluid AMOLED screen with a pin-sharp pixel density of 516 pixels per inch and a 90Hz refresh rate, making interactions and animations look and feel smoother than on most phones, which just have a 60Hz refresh rate.
It’s beautifully designed too, with a truly all-screen front, made possible by packing the fingerprint scanner into the screen and making the 16MP selfie camera a pop-up one.
Speaking of cameras, there’s also a triple-lens one on the back, with a 48MP main lens, a 16MP wide lens and an 8MP telephoto one. This setup isn’t quite a match for the likes of the Huawei P30 Pro, but it comes very close.
The OnePlus 7T Pro also has a big 4,085mAh battery and loads of power, thanks to its top-end Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset and up to 12GB of RAM. All in all it’s not quite a match for the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, but it’s very close, and a lot cheaper.
Our verdict
The OnePlus 7T Pro is that rare combination of true flagship specs and a not quite flagship price. Screen aside it’s not quite the best phone you can buy, but it might just be the best value.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus was for a while the best Android phone available – and arguably the best phone full stop. It has now been topped (by another Samsung phone, as you’ll see below) but it’s still superbly good.
While its triple-lens rear camera perhaps isn’t quite a match for the quad-lens one on the Huawei P30 Pro, just about everything else about this phone is as good or better.
It has a 6.4-inch 1440 x 3040 screen, so it’s big and high resolution, and like the standard Galaxy S10 it uses Dynamic AMOLED, delivering vibrant visuals and superb contrast. It’s also one of very few phones that support HDR10+.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus additionally has a stunning design, with a curved screen, virtually no bezel, and a dual-lens front camera cut into the display. There’s a metal frame, a glass back, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and of course water resistance.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus also has top-tier power, thanks to an octa-core Exynos 9820 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM. You can also get up to a mammoth 1TB of storage, the battery is big at 4,100mAh, and the stereo speakers impress.
Our verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus is one of the best phones money can buy at the time of writing, with no major faults at all.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus just edges ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, because it takes just about everything good about that phone, but adds a stylus, giving you an extra way to interact with it and to make the most of its massive screen.
That’s the main upgrade, but it also has a larger 6.8-inch 1440 x 3040 Dynamic AMOLED display, which like the S10 Plus supports HDR10+.
You also get even more power, thanks to a cutting-edge Exynos 9825 chipset, coupled again with 12GB of RAM.
There’s also four rather than three rear cameras, with a 3D depth sensor added to the 12MP main lens, 12MP telephoto one, and 16MP ultra-wide one, plus there’s an even bigger 4,300mAh battery.
The Galaxy Note 10 Plus also has a similarly stunning build, with a curved screen, water resistance, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and just about everything else you’ll find on other Samsung flagships
Our verdict
Bigger and slightly better than the Galaxy S10 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus is the best Android phone around.
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