Smartphones

Ten days across Macau and Taipei with this as my only camera, and it kept up. The Leica Authentic mode gives photos actual character when everyone else's are turning samey, the 5x telephoto is the upgrade I care about, and on-device LUTs for LOG video are the most underrated feature on any phone right now. Thermals embarrassed flagships costing twice as much, and it ships with a 100W charger in the box. Long exposure still lags OPPO, and the speakers are ordinary.

Not perfect — the battery needs tuning and the privacy display trades away some clarity. But for the way I actually use a phone, it's a banger: that f/1.4 main camera, true unthrottled multitasking, and freedom from ecosystem lock-in.

Strip away the status of owning the top one and the iPhone 17 isn't just enough — for most people it's the better choice: lighter, cheaper, ProMotion at last, 256GB standard, and none of the Pro Max drama. Sweet, almost boring, in the best possible way.

Your Fold 8 has arrived. Here's exactly how to set it up properly, and the settings Samsung doesn't exactly advertise.

The 4:3 screen and a battery that finally lasts make this the most interesting Samsung in years — but the telephoto, Flex Mode and any stylus hope are gone. Buy it if your phone is mostly a screen you look at.

A Hasselblad in your pocket, and for once the PR line holds up. True 10x optical zoom achieved by folding light five times, LUTs you can import yourself, and a battery that shrugs off a full shoot day. It runs warm and the selfie camera struggles in low light, but this is the phone making everyone else look lazy in 2026.

Under £300 gets you a premium-feeling phone with a class-leading 3,500-nit display, all-day battery and genuinely useful AI — exceptional value.

Three months in, calling this a smartphone feels outdated. Honor solved the impossible triangle: extreme performance, two-day endurance and serious optics, without a brick. The 200MP telephoto with the industry's largest sensor is the star, and the eye comfort tech is the quiet win. Samsung and Apple, over to you.

A complete camera phone with a battery that finally suits photographers and travellers. The Hasselblad teleconverter is not a gimmick, it turns this into a mini professional camera, and the 7,500mAh silicon carbon cell is a today battery. This is the pre-iPhone era of genuine innovation all over again, in the best way.

The most impressed I've been by an iPhone since the 13: the telephoto is why you buy it, RAW made me fall back in love with iPhone photography, and the display finally doesn't feel like a downgrade next to an Ultra. If you want the absolute best and you're staying with Apple, this is the one.

Samsung nailed it this year. The best display I've used on any smartphone, colours finally natural out of the box, context-aware AI that actually saves time, and log video at last. It feels like the S21 Ultra and S23 Ultra did: one of the good years.