The best smartphone 2020 By TechRadar

Hey guys welcome back to tech radar, I'm jams peck ham, and you are watching our best phone list for June 2020. That's right, and I'm Matt, Phillips tech radio's video producer here to join jams and ask him all the questions we need to know about these phones, but a couple of caveats before we begin so. First up, this is our list here in the UK we do have lists for all the locations well, most of the locations all over the world. They only vary ever so slightly uh, but if you are elsewhere in the world, then head to the links in the description where I've linked all the location, specific articles- and the second thing is- we are trying out a new thing here on the YouTube channel uh we're using our hawk widget, which has previously just been on the website, and it's designed to find you the best current deal you can get on that device. So all the phones, we're going to talk about, have deals, links in the YouTube description which you can. Click on, and it'll send you to the best current deal for that phone.

It updates automatically. It's very clever um, but of course something to bear in mind is that we are supported by our audience uh. We do make commission through those links, stand there. So if you do use those links and those deals, you are supporting us directly, and we very much appreciate that, but without further ado jams, are you ready to crack on with our top five best phones? You can buy right now, unbelievable number, five. It surprised me to see this one in here, and I think it's potentially a phone that not a lot of people will know about it's.

The Oppo find x2 pro yeah, absolutely that's fun, yeah yeah! This is the first time motto's ranked this high on our list. They usually, I think the highest they've gone before has been in around 10th position or so the find x2 pro is basically just this. This Chinese manufacturer going from strength to strength our reviewer tom, absolutely loved it um they. They have upped the price slightly this year. You are now looking at a very flagship level price in the UK.

Specifically, that is a thousand one hundred pounds for the Oppo f5 x2 pro, but that is a lot of what other phones cost right now, um, absolutely beautiful, uh HD display on this phone and tom thinks it is a fantastic phone to hold in the hand and again, the price is the negative here and the battery life isn't incredible. That's why it isn't any higher than position five, but it's definitely the most accomplished phone that we've seen Oppo make um and that's why it's at number five yeah- and I think this is one of the phones as well- that is potentially different on other lists right. So what is the availability like internationally to this phone yeah? It's a little of a strange one in the UK, we're getting quite a lot of Oppo phones, um! Quite well. Now a lot of our major retailers even like half a warehouse, for example- is now actually stocking the um, the Oppo orange, but in the US, for example, you're not really going to find earphones that much uh. They are a Chinese brand, and they're starting to become a much bigger deal worldwide.

They're starting to make waves in India and a variety of other markets, but they're trying to do Europe first before they hit the America yeah interesting, stuff, interesting stuff, and you know we're seeing Huawei as well push a lot more of their products internationally. So it's not against the realm of possibility that the next few Oppo phones might come to more international markets right. It might be more readily available, definitely and um, and, as you mentioned, while we're there, Huawei have had a very difficult 12 months with the uh, with the android band, so yeah they are they're struggling to use. Google well they're not allowed to use Google mobile services on their most recent devices, so the Huawei p40 is really limited outside of markets like china, because you just can't get access to where you can't easily get access to services such as YouTube uh. A variety of other things like Gmail, like I think, opp, does offer that alternative.

Exactly so, that's why I was just about to ask so, so on Oppo you can get to the Google play, store and download all the apps you'd expect to see, whereas Huawei obviously trying to build their own ecosystem around that, so yeah there's a plus and a downside there. I suppose yeah, if you, if you're, not that fussed about those having access to the play, store and stuff, the Huawei devices still are there, but usually we're finding their not ranking as well in these lists anymore, because they're not as good for the average person in that way, yeah of course understandable. So I think then, let's move on to number four, the Samsung Galaxy note 10, plus a much older phone, a phone that I was kind of surprised to still see on here. So why does this still rank in at number four yeah? It feels like an older phone. Doesn't it, but it already came out in August last year.

It's not 12. ! Is that true, that's yeah, terrifying! Okay, it's not that old! The phone there but 2020 has just felt that long, so yeah uh August 2019 for the sounds of galaxy. Note, 10, plus we're seeing a lot of leaks already around the note 20, so you may want to hold off buying this one just so far, even from the um from the aspen that the Galaxy Note, 10 plus, will probably go down in price. When the note 20 comes out since the Galaxy Note, 10 plus, is by far the best Galaxy Note phone that we've seen from the company. This is the first time the company split into two different devices.

Uh. Usually we just have one mode device: that's the s, pen smartphone, which is usually designed for like business users and that kind of thing. But this year they decided to do a normal one and a plus variant, uh. The plus one has a slightly bigger screen. We say on this that has the best screen on the phone um.

This is yeah 6.8-inch screen, which sounds absolutely massive, but when it's in the hand, it doesn't feel that big, if, if you are used to using smaller phones, you probably are going to be yeah you're not going to like this, if you're an iPhone 8 user, you might struggle yes, yes, definitely um. The s pen is the main reason that you're going to be wanting to buy this. If you want a stylus, this is the best phone you can get with it. We've seen a few um competitors this year. Motorola, for example, now offers a phone with a stylus.

It just doesn't compare to the Galaxy Note range, though yeah, if you, if you're looking for a stylus in that way, this is the phone to go for. This is some top end spec from Samsung, but you're, probably going to see later on in this list, without giving too many spoilers that there is a slightly better Samsung device out there now yeah for sure I think you're absolutely right. The thing that sets this apart is the s pen and if that's something that's important to you, then, then great you know it's its interesting that we see this the kind of these styluses sort of dip and rise in popularity. You know, like I think, if you know five years ago, you'd said that. Well, actually you know, when did apple, bring out the Apple Pencil.

I was going to say it. Five years ago, you'd said that apple were gonna, bring out a stylus. That's going to cost you a hundred quid. Everybody would have laughed your head off right, but um, but here we are right with the Apple Pencil being hugely popular with iPad devices and obviously those bigger devices I think, lend themselves to uh to having stylus control. Definitely in a variety of android tablets now use styluses as well.

That's still a rarity on phones. If you are looking for one on a phone, this is the one to go for. I don't think it's useful for the average person really is usually for people who want to be taking notes. You want to be doodling on their phone. You want to be doing a variety of different business techniques, business, business, things in that way, business things, yeah business, things um.

So basically, if you're used to using a stylus, you think that is a groundbreaking thing. Look at the Galaxy Note, 10 plus. Otherwise, you may want to wait until the end of this video exactly, exactly teasing. I love it, but that brings us swiftly on to number three in our list. The OnePlus 8 pro again, another Chinese manufacturer worming its way into the top five list.

So why does the OnePlus 8 pro deserve to be number three? Definitely um. The OnePlus 8 pro is a massive step up for oneplus. I've been a challenging brand for ever since I've done this job really they've been a challenger brand for the last uh six, seven years really and um they've, just been going from straight to strength. The eight series is phenomenal, considering where they've come from before you go into buying an OnePlus 8 pro or even looking at OnePlus 8 pro. You need to realize that they are no longer the challenger brand in terms of price.

You are talking about top end prices here, but then again this is the cheapest device out of these top five phones that we're talking about the spec is probably slightly lower than the one we just spoke about the Samsung or even the Oppo um, but very, very minor, minor levels. Everything just came together with the OnePlus 8 pro they finally kicked the camera up a gear. The camera is absolutely brilliant. On this phone you've got 5g connectivity put in here. You've also got wireless charging.

This is the first time that OnePlus has ever offered that, even though it's been on the iPhone and a variety of other devices for the last few years, the display technology is absolutely brilliant and just everything comes together here, and we're still only still below a thousand pound when we're talking about the price which is uh, which, as I say, that makes it sound, it sounds a bit ridiculous, but that is the, but that's the point we're at with phones. At the moment, if you are looking for these top end devices, you're not going to be able to find anything below, I mean you're not going to find anything around the 500 pound mark. I think this is 800 pounds for the OnePlus 8 pro um for the smaller storage variant, but you still got 128 gigabytes of storage with that. Essentially, if you are looking for something a little cheaper or a little different to Samsung apple and the variety of the top end topic, manufacturers OnePlus is the one to go for yeah, and it's interesting. You know you basically talked about it there, but you know OnePlus we're always seen as the budget brand right.

You get a perfect smartphone for less money, but this, but that and this time there really are no buts right, like the cameras. Incredible and all these things, they've really stepped it up a gear, but obviously that's raised the price as well, but, like you say, still the cheapest phone on this top five list, so yeah definitely still worth considering if you're in the market definitely and it just. It just feels like a smooth experience as well. That's something that hasn't always felt uh the same with OnePlus devices, but this time around. It really does feel like that there are still the odd little the little butts with it.

Um you still don't get micros, for example, so, whichever storage variant you buy, you will get that for the life of its device. You won't be able to put a micros card into it, so there's 128 gigabyte versions. I think for most people, that's probably fine, but if you are looking for, if you're going to be recording a lot, 4k video and a variety of if you're, just going to be filling it full of Netflix movies, you're, probably going to want to go for a slightly higher storage variant, there yeah, if you're, looking for something a little cheaper a little different. This is the OnePlus device to go for absolutely, and you know you talk about this, this flagship device with this small butt that it doesn't have a SD card slot. But of course that brings us swiftly on to number two on our list.

Also, of course, doesn't have a SD card slot. It never has the Apple iPhone 11 Pro slash, 11 pro max we're going to couple them both in here at the number two spot. I think that's fair, um, sure yeah, but yeah like we say these. These features that we're kind of talking about wanting these flagship phones to have expandable storage apple's, never done that. So what warrants put in the iPhone? Above, I guess the OnePlus and in the number two slot um, the iPhone- is still a fantastic device, especially if you're used to using an iPhone um.

If you are already embedded into that users into that user system, you're used to the UI, you use the apps. You bought all of your apps through that service. You should stick with it. That's usually my advice. If you're, if you already own an iPhone you enjoy using it, you should look at the new iPhone we've put together the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro max in position 2, because they are largely the same device.

Um we're talking a slightly bigger screen, slight, very slight different specs, but most of the time you're talking a slightly bigger battery to be able to power that slightly bigger screen. I would recommend the max over the iPhone 11 Pro if you are just looking for pure power, but then again, the iPhone 11 Pro is a lot easier to use the hand if you're used to using small devices, that's the one to go for in that respect apple this year. Just again when went up a notch already and they did some slight improvements here, but it's not our best phone in the world, because it's still quite similar to the iPhone 10s range and the design. This is. The design is largely similar, slightly improved cameras.

You've got slightly improved internals as well. You've got some the uh appleway13 fusion chipset is the best that apple's ever come up with, of course, because it's in their latest phone, the camera is slightly improved as well, just if you're used to using an iPhone. This is the ones you want to be looking at. If you want something a little cheaper, and you're, looking for the eye, and you're looking for an iPhone, you've now got the choice of the iPhone SE, which features uh lower down in our normal the best phone list. If you, if you look on the site and again for the iPhone 11, which also features a bit lower as well yeah, that's an important thing to bring up.

You know this. This list is much, much longer on techradar. com, so please do head to the link in description. There are plenty of phones that are more budget-friendly and stuff like that in that longer list um, but something interesting you brought up there. You know actually brought up with the note 10 plus um sort of saying that maybe there's a note 20 plus on the horizon, and maybe you should hold fire if you're looking for an s pen, you know.

Obviously we expect the new iPhone every year, so with everything that's going on in the world. Who knows right, but usually September is iPhone day. So what are we expecting? Improvement wise from the iPhone 12 um big design change is essentially one of the main things to expect from the iPhone 12. It's going to look a little more like your iPhone, 5 and sort of design language of being a little more square. If you've seen the most recent iPad Pro models, that's the sort of design we're starting to look at for the iPhone 12 um 5g is going to be one of the big upgrades here.

It looks like all four and that's the other big upgrade. There's probably gonna, be four variants of the iPhone 12, rather than the three that we saw with the iPhone 11 series. Um yeah 5g looks like it's going to be across the entire range, but only two of the phones will feature um support for certain 5g networks, while the two higher end phones will have the best 5g connectivity in the world, yeah we're not entirely sure exactly what we'll see. We've got a full article on the site. If you want to um, if you want to go, see everything about the iPhone 12 at the moment, uh, we are expecting September again.

Personally again, we don't know for certain. This is very it's a very strange territory at the moment, considering the pandemic and everything that's going on the world right now, I believe apple will announce it in September, but we may see it launch a little later, and we spoke about this on our podcast last week, where we were talking about the iPhone 12 and um, a variety of different sources, saying that manufacturing has been delayed slightly, but so I think we're going to start seeing. I think we will still see the big event where the iPhone 12 is launched at the start of September. It may just be we wait until October November to actually be able to buy the phone. Usually they come out 10 days after the launch event.

I don't know if that's going to be possible this year. If it is possible, it may be that we only see certain variants, so it may just be the iPhone 12, the iPhone 12 Pro and then the max versions don't come out until later, but we'll just have to wait and see for that. Really, if you like, the look of the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro max, and you don't need to buy it right now, I would recommend waiting because um quite often well, every single time there is a new iPhone. The price of the old iPhone goes down so um. That's definitely worth your weight there as well, and we're in June right now.

If you can wait until September, you might as well yeah. Absolutely you know it's always a difficult thing with phones, especially there's always a new one on the horizon. When you jump ship, if you buy the latest ones, you know you're always going to be outdated soon enough. So, but that brings us swiftly on to our number one pick, the best phone that you can buy right now, according to tech radar, huge, the Samsung, galaxy s20 and s20 plus. So what is this a cut? Above the rest? Just slight little differences over the iPhone, essentially um you've got a higher refresh rate on the screen, which just makes it feel that a little smoother when you're running through different apps and there's a little more power in there's a variety of different things.

Just everything again comes together with the Samsung uh. The cameras are absolutely brilliant on this device, I'm using it at the moment, I've got the galaxy s20. Here again we put the galaxy s20 this 20 plus in one thing, because again, looking at battery and uh battery storage, size and screen size are the main things you're going to be looking at. Here, you want a slightly bigger screen or a little more battery a little more storage you're going to want to go for the galaxy s20, plus I'm using the galaxy s20 myself at the moment, and I reviewed that for the site. I still think it's a fantastic phone.

It was a 4.5-star review, and it's just the best of android, essentially in just one package. If you're, it is very expensive again, I think the galaxy s20 itself is around 900 pounds um. The reason it is more expensive than last year's model is because it has 5g connectivity and a lot of manufacturers are saying that it costs around 100 pounds to put this kind of different elements in the 5g, the 5g connectivity, coils and all that kind of stuff and putting that into the device. So I think you know we mentioned it when we talk about the iPhone. This idea that, if you're already in the iPhone ecosystem- and you enjoy it enough, then upgrading an iPhone is an easy decision right um.

But if you're in that iPhone ecosystem and looking to jump ship, maybe which of these five phones, would you recommend in that instance? Oh, that's, a good question um! Thank you. The galaxy s20 is def is genuinely a perfect choice in that it's um, it's not dissimilar in its uh UI and its sensibilities. In that way, I'd also say OnePlus is quite sort of like the iPhone of android in the way in terms of its look and the way it works, and the smoothness um there's already been the two devices. I would start to look at if you are looking to jump ship again, you need to. You should start looking at your friends, android phones and the variety of this kind of things just to make sure you do like it, because when you have been using an iPhone for the last, even perhaps 10 years you have been you've been used to you've been used to everything.

That's there, you've been used to using Apple Music. You've been used to using all those different things. Switching to android can be a little hard. It still will give you the same experience and perhaps even a slightly better experience in some ways, because it's a little more open than iOS, but that change will be a little difficult for you, um yeah, that's something you should probably bear in mind, but there's a variety of different apps. Now that allow you to transfer over to android in that way, or even vice versa as well um, it's definitely something you should consider doing, but try and do a bit of research around it before you do for sure, and maybe then it's just worth touching on why the s20 ultra isn't at the top of this list and why we've gone for the s20 and s20 plus sure um.

When we pull this list together, we bring in a variety of different details. We've got a huge matrix of loads of different elements, yeah um, that is the bane of my life, but um so uh. One of the big elements in there is price. We do try and consider price when it comes to the very best smartphone, and we have considered that for all of these. You will notice that every device on this list is very expensive, but that's because the spec just outweighs it slightly and if you are looking for a cheap phone, we have guides on that to the site as well, so just um, search for best, cheap phone on that greater, and you'll find that the s20 ultra is remarkably more expensive than galaxy.

S20 models is an absolutely huge phone as well. I've used it myself, and I've found it genuinely quite difficult to use because it's quite a weighty device in that way. Um the camera is also spec heavy and quite impressive in that way, but it does struggle a little more than the galaxy s20 in its uh in its automatic modes um. So if you're, just looking for the general best camera element in a Samsung phone, go for the galaxy s20 if you're looking for that telephoto camera, which is genuinely jaw-dropping but uh, you're, probably going to struggle to find a use case scenario for that um go for the galaxy s20 ultra, but again you're looking at 400 pounds more than the galaxy s20 and the galaxy s20 costs enough in itself. Anyway, doesn't it yeah exactly you know? You mentioned it then, but when we tried the s20 ultra's ultra ultra ultra zoom uh, it was like you say, jaw dropping at first and then you kind of go well.

When would I ever use this like it's ridiculous, that it is relatively low quality as soon as you get far enough in? So it's like what is the point? Really it's a bit of a gimmick, really a party trick yeah, it's really fun to play around with and like it's its blowing people's minds when I showed it to them before the pandemic happened, to show it to one person. A party but yeah um, just yeah playing around with this kind of features is really fun and if that's the sort of thing you want from your phone and so again the party trick you're right um, then maybe go for that. But in terms of day-to-day use you probably want a camera. That's going to just automatically take the best photo. The galaxy s20 ultra can do that um, but you can also get that from the galaxy s20 as well.

So why not go for the slide jeep event exactly, exactly, and we'll leave it there. I think jams. Thank you so much for joining me. Like we've mentioned all the way through. There is a much longer list of our favorite phones on techradar.

com. So please do head there read all the articles, read all the reviews, the full reviews for these phones as well. That's worth checking out and of course, as I mentioned at the top of the video, all the best deals you can find right now on. These phones are links in the description as well so check that out uh. Thank you so much for watching.

Please do head over to techradar. com. Please subscribe! Please, like the video and uh we'll see you next time. You.

Source : TechRadar