Our list of the best phablets currently available to buy.
A phablet is a phone with a screen that’s almost large enough to consider it a small tablet, and it’s a term that was once widespread. Oddly, these days it isn’t, despite the size of phone screens being bigger than ever, but there are plenty of smartphones that would fit the phablet description.
Below then, we’ve listed the five best phablets you can buy at the time of writing. All of the phones below have massive screens, but they’re also excellent handsets in other ways.
For the purposes of this article, we’ve considered a 6.7-inch screen to be the lower cut-off for phablet sizing, as that’s now a fairly common smartphone size, but is very much at the upper end.
The OnePlus 10 Pro has a 6.7-inch 1440 x 3216 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, so it’s not only big, it’s also high resolution and packing a high refresh rate.
Away from the screen, the OnePlus 10 Pro has a high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, up to 12GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage. So it’s a very powerful phone too.
The cameras are also decent, with a capable 48MP main snapper joined by a 50MP ultra-wide one, an 8MP telephoto one (with 3.3x optical zoom), and a 32MP front-facing one.
There’s also a big 5,000mAh battery with 80W fast charging, so the phone will never be out of action for long.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro has a fairly standard display for a large-screen flagship, namely a 6.7-inch 1440 x 3120 AMOLED one with a 120Hz refresh rate. It ticks all the high-end boxes though, and it’s certainly large.
That qualifies it as a phablet, and one with a great display if not one that’s particularly notable over other big-screen expensive phones, but the Pixel 7 Pro excels in other ways.
For one thing, it has superb cameras. There’s a 50MP main one, a 12MP ultra-wide one, and a 48MP telephoto one with 5x optical zoom, plus a 10.8MP camera on the front. Beyond those specs though, Google’s photo processing and algorithms arguably have the competition beat, meaning snaps from this phone are among the very best you’ll get without manual editing.
The Pixel 7 Pro also has a 5,000mAh battery, a stylish, distinct design, and a bespoke chipset, which likely helps with the camera performance. That said, there’s not as much raw power here as in some high-end phones.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is Apple’s best phone at the time of writing, and one of the company’s biggest, thanks to its 6.7-inch screen.
Like most high-end phones this has a fantastic display – it’s a 1290 x 2796 AMOLED one with a 120Hz refresh rate and a blindingly high maximum brightness, so it doesn’t get washed out in the sun.
Elsewhere this has a massively upgraded camera, with a new 48MP primary sensor, joined by a 12MP ultra-wide one and a 12MP telephoto, offering 3x optical zoom.
There’s Face ID too of course, and a new design – gone is the notch and in its place there’s a clever ‘Dynamic Island’, that changes the way you interact with the phone. It also sports superb battery life, despite having a relatively small 4,323mAh juice pack.
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The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is one of the biggest mainstream phones around, as it has a 6.8-inch screen, edging ahead of all the 6.7 inchers.
It’s a 1440 x 3088 AMOLED one with a 120Hz refresh rate, so it’s top quality of course, if not necessarily any better than others on this list. But that extra 0.1-inch isn’t the only reason it ranks higher than some – the S22 Ultra also comes with an S Pen stylus, which gives you another way to interact with the screen.
You can sketch and hand write on it, helping you make the most of all that size, which is something few phones allow.
In just about all other areas the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra excels too, as it has a high-end chipset, a big battery, and superb cameras – including being one of very few phones with 10x optical zoom.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is our top phablet choice, because more than almost any other phone this is a handset that doubles as a tablet.
That’s because it’s a foldable phone, with a massive display that opens out to 7.6 inches – making it almost as big as a small tablet. But when you don’t need all that space you can fold it shut and use a 6.2-inch secondary screen – which is still a reasonable size for a smartphone.
Both screens are AMOLED and have a 120Hz refresh rate, so they look great, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 also supports Samsung’s S Pen stylus – though unlike with the Galaxy S22 Ultra the stylus isn’t included.
Elsewhere, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 has a top-tier Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, five cameras, 12GB of RAM, loads of storage, and a stylish design. Inevitably it’s very expensive, but still cheaper than buying both a high-end phone and a high-end tablet, and it arguably serves both roles.
If you’re after a phablet then one of the phones here should serve your needs – assuming you’re not on a tight budget, as the best phablets are also all quite expensive.
The absolute best one is especially so, as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 costs more than almost any other phone. But it’s also the only one on this list that genuinely doubles as a tablet.
The remaining phones are more conventional smartphones, just with expansive displays, so whether you want an Android powerhouse like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, the top Apple handset in the form of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, or something ever so slightly more affordable like the Google Pixel 7 Pro or OnePlus 10 Pro, there should be something for you.
If money is tight then consider the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus on Apple’s side or – for something genuinely affordable – the 6.67-inch Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G in the Android camp. But these phones aren’t as good as those listed above.
