Display
Without question, the best kind of display you can get is AMOLED, as it offers deep blacks and individually-lit pixels, allowing for always-on-displays that consume very little battery due to the majority of the screen turned off. They’re also incredibly vibrant, with vivid, organic colours that really bring videos and games to life.
Various types of OLED displays are featured in most top models, including the Samsung Galaxy S26, iPhone 17, Google Pixel 10 ranges and more. Some of the more affordable options, however, still opt for LCD displays, and while they aren’t quite as impressive when it comes to vibrancy and contrast, they do tend to offer excellent brightness.
Operating system (OS)
The first big thing you’ll need to decide is whether you’re after an Android handset, or would prefer to hitch your wagon to Apple’s iOS ecosystem.
There are a huge number of Android handsets on offer from several major manufacturers, which all generally have their own strengths (and occasional weaknesses). That means there’s a lot more choice for those who want to embrace the customisation and freedom that Google’s mobile OS is known for.
On the other hand, Apple’s iPhones, while more closed-off in nature, are excellent options for those who prioritise predictability and want to ensure they get the latest OS updates as soon as they’re available. They’re also ideal for those who already own Mac computers and subscribe to Apple’s various services.
Camera
When looking at a phone’s camera array, you should consider the types of photos that you want to take. If you want to photograph wildlife or other things you can’t easily get close to, then a telephoto lens is essential, with zoom a key factor to consider, while for landscapes a good ultra-wide is your friend.
But of course, still photography isn’t the be all, end all. If your needs are more centred around video recording, you will want to track assets like the resolution at which a camera phone shoots video, stabilisation features (for action video) and capture modes.
When you have at least a general idea of what you need from your phone’s camera, you can get a better picture of which phone camera setup is for you, with our best camera phones list helping you to easily find which options tick the right boxes for what you might need.
Chipset
Depending on how much you’re willing to spend, Android phones offer varying degrees of performance, with top handsets like Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra and Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max offering plenty of grunt under the hood thanks to their top-of-the-line specs.
When purchasing a new handset, it’s important to find out if its chipset is powerful enough to handle your daily tasks. At present, the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is what you’ll find in most top-of-the-line Android models, even in this year’s Samsung models. You’ll find that, among the Snapdragon, Exynos and MediaTek chip families, the more powerful the processor, the higher the model number.
Apple’s iPhones, on the other hand, often pack a similar amount of horsepower depending on which generation of device they belong to. Apple’s own A19 Pro chip powers its high-end iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models, with a slightly less juiced up base A19 silicon chip used in the lower-end iPhone 17 and 17e handsets. Both guarantee terrific performance and will continue to do so for a couple more years yet. After that, you may start to notice some slowdown, depending on how much power-hungry Apple makes its next iOS iterations.
Storage
Most manufacturers will offer their handsets with various amounts of onboard storage. Depending on what you want to do with your phone, you’ll want to settle on a storage size that’s right for you. Smartphone storage can range anywhere from 64GB to 2TB (realistically you’ll be seeing between 128GB and 1TB in most cases), though you can expect the price to rise significantly as that number gets larger. Some Android phones will offer expandable storage via a microSD card slot, meaning you can add more capacity should you ever need it.
