BUYING GUIDE The best smartphones 2014: what phone is best for you?
You
want the best smartphone, right? We've whittled our constantly updated
selection down to the 10 best handsets you can get your hands on right now -
but after you've checked out number one, we've still got plenty of other
options to feast your eyes on.
We've all got at least one mobile phone each,
right? We've probably got about three or four nowadays, and that counts giving
your old Nokia 3310 to your Mum a few years ago.
But while you used to be able to just bank on
the new Nokia or always get the next Sony Ericsson because it had a half-decent
camera, there are now so many great options out there from loads of
manufacturers.
The trouble is, how do you decide which is the
best one for you?
Well, this is where we make it easy: we've
played with nearly every device on the market and have found the ten best you
can spend your money on. It needs to be good, after all, given it will reside
in your pocket for the next two years.
Our ranking of the best mobile phones
available in the UK today celebrates the brilliance of the smartphone: we love
handsets that add in functionality to enrich our lives in so many different
ways.
We also partially take into account the price
of the phone too - meaning a low-price handset doesn't always need to have
high-spec functions to be in our top 10.
The HTC One was the star of last year, staying
at the top of the charts for nearly 10 months, seeing off the challenge from
the likes of Nokia, Sony, LG and Samsung (namely the Galaxy S4) -
showing the smartphone market still has a fair few players.
The iPhone 5S proved to still be a little too pricey with a
smaller screen, and the iPhone 5C was cheaper but with some ageing hardware.
And now Google is playing fast and loose with consumers' wallets, thanks to
offering the ultra-cheap Nexus 5 and the even ultra-cheaper Moto G - could those be the phones for you?
But now we're in 2014, and the game has
changed. Relentless design reimagination from HTC has led to the excellent HTC One M8 landing right at the top of the tree, but now
the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 are here - can either take the crown?
Not so good news if you can't wait for the iPhone 6: that's
not coming for a few months, so if you want something shiny and new from Apple now, you'll either need to go for the iPhone 5S
(which is still a decent phone) or one of the plethora of high end Android
handsets.
And when you've decided which new phone to buy
(and checked out thebest mobile phone deal),
why not cash in your old one with our phone recycling price
comparison service?
Here are our rankings for the best mobile
phones around, currently available in the UK.
10. Motorola Moto G
Motorola's
back, and it's kicking off its global smartphone revival with the keenly priced
Moto G handset. A mid-range handset with a low-end price tag - we're talking
around £100 in some stores.
On
paper the Moto G looks like an excellent handset for the price, and in practice
it lives up to the billing.
As
the Nexus 4 did with the mid-range market, the
Moto G has turned the budget end on its head with features found on handsets
double its cost.
It
exceeds its rivals in several key areas, from the well defined 4.5-inch display
to its 1.2GHz quad-core processor and the early Android 4.4 KitKatupdate.
There's a lot to love about the Moto G for its price.
And
now the Moto G has been given a 4G variant, and it comes with a microSD slot
now - all for the price of just £149. It might not have the power or precision
of its smartphone compatriots, but it's still a good phone indeed.
Quick verdict
Motorola
must have cut some corners to get the price of the Moto G so low, and the
camera is one area which has seen the compromise, but that's one of the only
gripes.
So
here's the upshot: Motorola is back folks, it's official. It may not be the
return we would have predicted - there's no flagship phone stuffed full of the
latest tech - but arguably what the now Google-owned firm has done is even
better.
The
Moto G is a top notch, low cost smartphone and we wholeheartedly recommend this
as the best budget mobile currently on the market.
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