Dual-SIM phones used to only commonly be found in other parts of the world, but now there are a number of them available in the UK, with ever more arriving, including many high-end and high-profile handsets.
Having a dual SIM card slot in your phone has a number of potential benefits. For example, you might have one work SIM and one personal one. Or one for use in the UK and one with better international rates for use abroad.
They won’t be useful to everyone, but if you carry two phones now or can think of situations where a different number or network would be helpful, then a dual-SIM phone is well worth considering. With that in mind we’ve created this guide to the best dual-SIM smartphones currently available in the UK.
Note: Some phones are sold in both dual and single-SIM versions, so before buying any double check that you’re getting the right model.
The Huawei P30 Pro is arguably Huawei’s best phone, just edging it over the Huawei P40 Pro and the Huawei Mate 30 Pro (which are held back by their lack of Google services). Of course, like so many Huawei handsets it’s dual-SIM, but that’s not why it sits so high in our ranking.
The Huawei P30 Pro also has a 6.47-inch 1080 x 2340 OLED screen with almost no bezel at all. There’s a beautiful glass back design – optionally with a gradient colour scheme, there’s water resistance, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a huge 4,200mAh battery, and perhaps most excitingly of all a quad-lens rear camera.
This includes a 40MP main lens, a 20MP ultra-wide lens, an 8MP telephoto lens and a Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth-sensor, combining for one of the best camera setups on a phone at the time of writing – especially as there’s also a 32MP camera on the front.
The Huawei P30 Pro is also very powerful – though not quite the most powerful – with its octa-core Kirin 980 chipset and 8GB of RAM. With a bit more power and a slightly sharper screen, this would be near the top of our list.
The OnePlus 7T Pro is not just one of the better dual-SIM flagships around, it’s also one of the best value, as this has 2019’s top-tier tech at a lower price than you might expect.
You get a 6.67-inch 1440 x 3120 curved AMOLED screen, a Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset, 8GB or 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 90Hz refresh rate, making interactions feel smoother than on many rival devices.
The OnePlus 7T Pro also has a triple-lens rear camera, consisting of a 48MP main lens paired with a 16MP ultra-wide one and an 8MP telephoto one. Plus it has a big 4,085mAh battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, and an all-screen design, made possible by a pop-up front-facing camera.
It’s worth noting that the standard OnePlus 7T is also a dual-SIM phone and it’s a little cheaper, but not quite as impressive.
The Google Pixel 4 XL is the biggest and best Google-branded phone you can get, and like many high-tech handsets, this one’s dual-SIM. But it’s even more high-tech than most, as the second SIM is an eSIM rather than a physical one, meaning you can change network without changing SIM card, though at the time of writing not all eSIMs are supported by all networks.
There’s plenty of other tech in this phone too, including a 6.3-inch 1440 x 3040 OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, a top-tier dual-lens camera, and plenty of power from its Snapdragon 855 chipset.
This also runs a pure, unadulterated take on Android, and is all the better for it. Plus, as a side effect of that it’s also first in line for new software updates.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus was arguably briefly the best phone on the planet and remains one of the best, as well as being one of the best dual-SIM phones.
It’s basically a bigger, better version of the Samsung Galaxy S10, with a top-quality 6.4-inch 1440 x 3040 Dynamic AMOLED screen, a top-end octa-core Exynos 9820 chipset, up to a mammoth 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, three rear cameras (a 12MP main one, a 12MP telephoto one, and a 16MP wide-angle one), and two front-facing ones (a 10MP main one and an 8MP depth sensor).
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus also has a big 4,100mAh battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner and basically the same great design as the standard S10. There are no major weak points here, making this a top choice – albeit one that’s now been superseded.
Like all recent Apple phones the iPhone 11 is a dual-SIM phone that uses a combination of a standard SIM and an eSIM, and while this isn’t quite as good as the iPhone 11 Pro models, it’s not far off, and a little more affordable.
It has a 6.1-inch 828 x 1782 screen, a capable dual-lens 12MP camera, water resistance, and – perhaps most significantly – a whole lot of power, thanks to Apple’s A13 Bionic chipset, which is also found in the 11 Pro models, and which matches 2020’s top-end Android chipsets for power.
So when it comes to pure performance, the iPhone 11 sits at the very top of what’s possible in a handset, despite being one of Apple’s more affordable recent phones.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus is a superb dual-SIM phone, but it is worth noting however that there are both single and dual-SIM models, so make sure you buy the right one.
Dual-SIM credentials aside there’s a whole lot to love here, starting with its massive 6.8-inch 1440 x 3040 Dynamic AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 498 pixels per inch, so it’s super sharp and it’s one of the very highest quality screens you’ll find on a phone. And this being a Note, you also get an S Pen stylus to make the most of all that screen space.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus also has a great camera array, with a 12MP variable aperture main lens, a 12MP telephoto one, a 16MP ultra-wide one, and a time-of-flight camera for depth sensing. Plus there’s a 10MP camera on the front.
You get tons of power too of course, thanks to an Exynos 9825 chipset – which is even more powerful than the chipset in the Galaxy S10 range, and which is paired here with 12GB of RAM.
With water resistance too, plus an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a premium design, a curved screen, loads of storage, stereo speakers and a massive 4,300mAh battery, this phone has it all.
The OnePlus 8 Pro is – at the time of writing – the best OnePlus phone you can buy, and not far off being the best from any company. It also undercuts most of the better handsets, so it really is impressive.
Beyond being a dual-SIM phone it has a 6.78-inch 1440 x 3168 fluid AMOLED screen with HDR10+ support and a 120Hz refresh rate, which is a long-winded way of saying it’s big, sharp, super smooth, and very high quality. It’s also curved.
Other highlights of the OnePlus 8 Pro include a quad-lens camera, a 4,510mAh battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, high-end power thanks to a Snapdragon 865 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM, water resistance, and a premium, stylish design.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is in many ways the best balanced of the S20 range – while it’s not quite a match for the Galaxy S20 Ultra (elsewhere in this list), it’s also a fair bit cheaper, and it’s still a true flagship, as well as being significantly better than the basic Samsung Galaxy S20.
You can get a dual-SIM version of course, but the real reasons to buy this phone include its great 6.7-inch 1440 x 3200 AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus also has a class-leading quad-lens camera, top-tier power, a big 4,500mAh battery, and basically all the other specs and features you could reasonably ask for from a phone.
The iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max are the best iPhones you can buy, and they both have dual-SIM support, though one of those two SIMs is an eSIM, as mentioned elsewhere on this list.
The two phones are very similar other than their screen sizes, with the iPhone 11 Pro coming in at 5.8 inches while the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 6.5 inches. That, coupled with the Max’s larger battery, gives it the edge, but you can’t go wrong with either of these handsets.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max additionally has three 12MP cameras on the back (one standard, one wide-angle and one telephoto), plus an A13 Bionic chipset which outshines just about every Android chip, and it has a stylish, iconic Apple design, and advanced facial recognition.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is a monster of a phone, with a 6.9-inch 1440 x 3200 AMOLED screen (complete with HDR10+ support and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz), and a quad-lens camera, including both a 108MP main sensor and a 48MP periscope one with 10x hybrid zoom and 100x digital.
It almost goes without saying that such a phone would have dual-SIM support, and it has pretty much everything else you might want from a handset too, including a dual-lens camera on the front, truly top-tier power, a massive 5,000mAh battery, up to 512GB of storage, water resistance, 5G, a stylish build, and plenty more besides.
This is arguably the best phone you can buy, just make sure you want a big handset – and can stomach the equally big price.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review
So there you have it. While these ten handsets aren’t the only dual-SIM phones they are arguably the best.
They’re all high-end but suited to different tastes and budgets. The OnePlus 7T Pro is surprisingly affordable, and now that it’s getting on a bit so is the Huawei P30 Pro, making them good options if you can’t justify a full flagship price tag. The Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus and Google Pixel 4 XL meanwhile are great Android flagships but not quite the best.
The iPhone 11 is arguably even better and certainly a better choice for iOS fans, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus, OnePlus 8 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus offering similar excellence for Android fans. Then there's the iPhone 11 Pro Max, proving the best option for iOS users – though also consider the iPhone 11 Pro if you want something smaller.
Then in first place there’s the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. This is a phone with more features packed in than you’ll know what to do with and importantly it does a great job of all the basics as well. Just be sure you want a big screen and can stomach the high price.
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