Best Android Phones Of 2022

As the highest spec variant of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G is the manufacturer’s best handset.

Costing the same as its predecessor, the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, did at its launch, it’s not the cheapest smartphone out there but its spec put it far and above anything else the manufacturer offers and improves on the S21 Ultra 5G in a number of ways.

While the Galaxy S21 supported the Samsung S Pen stylus, the Galaxy S22 now integrates the accessory with a slot for stowing and charging it – much like Samsung’s Note range of smartphones.

The camera looks very similar to that of the S21 Ultra, but the lenses no longer protrude from the back of the device, which means it can be set down flat more easily than its predecessor could. The main camera again features a huge 108 Megapixel sensor, and Samsung has done some work on the software side of things to make night time photography sharper. Night mode can now also be applied to videos as well as stills.

Curiously, the 6.8″ AMOLED 2 display has a lower resolution than its predecessor, which in turn means it has fewer pixels per inch. It does, however, support HDR 10+ where the S21 Ultra only supported HDR 10.

The most expensive version of the phone has a maximum RAM of 12GB, which is less than its last-generation equivalent, which went up to 16GB.
In terms of storage, however, the new phone goes up to 1 Terabyte, which is almost double the S21’s maximum.

• Max RAM: 12GB
• Max storage capacity: 1TB
• Screen resolution: 1440 x 3088
• Screen PPI: 500
• Display refresh rate: 120Hz
• CPU speed: 2.9GHz
• Battery capacity: 5,000mAh
• Camera F-stop range: f1.8 – 4.9
• Max camera zoom: 100x

Google has come out swinging with its newest Pixel smartphone. The Pro version of the Pixel 6 is cheaper than any other Android flagship in our list and offers the purest and most cutting edge Android experience, with no manufacturer-added bloatware.

For £849 you’ll get 12GB of RAM and Google’s new proprietary Tensor chipset. Unlike every other Android device to date, including previous Pixels, the Pixel 6 doesn’t use a Qualcomm chip. For its latest flagship, Google developed its own chip – just as Apple does with its Bionic chips.

This brings the focus more onto optimisation than hardware, so while some specs might not look world-beating on paper, it’s how the Tensor chipset optimises things like power usage and photography processing that makes the difference.

Google is leaning heavily into AI and machine learning with the new chip. For example, it the chip enables translation technology that doesn’t require an internet connection. The Tensor also powers new camera technology that can unblur fuzzy shots and remove unwanted subjects from the background. The chip also enables greater personalisation and security.

The 6.7″ OLED display refreshes at 120Hz and features 24-bit depth capable of diplaying 16 million colours.
The phone’s battery life just eeks ahead of Samsung’s best efforts and, with Tensor optimisation, Google says you’ll get more than 24 hours’ use from a single charge and up to 48 hours with its extreme battery saving mode.

All in all, the Pixel 6 offers some of the latest tech at a very competitive price. While might not compete with Samsung or iPhone for the likes of photography, you’re getting an awful lot of smartphone for your money with Google’s latest flagship.

• Max RAM: 12GB
• Max storage capacity: 256GB
• Screen resolution: 1440 x 3120
• Screen PPI: 512
• Display refresh rate: 120Hz
• CPU speed: 2.8GHz
• Battery capacity: 5,003mAh
• Camera F-stop range: f1.85 – 3.5
• Max camera zoom: 20x

OnePlus has built itself a reputation for delivering high-end smartphones that are cheaper than the competition’s, and the OnePlus 9 Pro continues that tradition.

Despite being £170 cheaper than the next nearest, comparable phone in this list, it still gives you a 6.7″ AMOLED display outputting at 3216 x 1440 pixels (525 pixels per inch) and refreshing at 120Hz – so far, so flagship. It’s processor speed and battery capacity are also up there with the best of its peers at 2.82GHz and 4,500mAh.

For photography, the handset has 48MP main camera, 50MP wide-angle lens and an 8MP telephoto lens. There’s also, unusally, a 2MP monochrome lens. The front camera shoots selfies at 16MP. All lenses are Sony-made.

The handset uses a modified version of Android 11 called OxygenOS that allows for more customisation than the average, stock Android phone.

The OnePlus 9 Pro doesn’t have the biggest battery on the market but the manufacturer’s Warp Charging technology returns, which means you can charge the battery from flat to full in just 28 minutes using the included power plug and cable.

The phone is slightly thicker and slightly heavier than its closest competition, but its camera lenses – developed in partnership with Swedish camera manufacturer Hasselblad – don’t protrude as much from the back of the handset.

All told, the trade-offs you have to make to get its smaller price tag are minimal.

• Max RAM: 12GB
• Max storage capacity: 256GB
• Screen resolution: 3216 X 1440
• Screen PPI: 525
• Display refresh rate: 120Hz
• CPU speed: 2.82GHz
• Battery capacity: 4,500mAh
• Camera F-stop range:   f1.8-2.4
• Max camera zoom: 30x

Like Xiaomi, Oppo is a lesser-known brand here in the UK, but its confusingly named Find X3 Pro has cutting-edge features to rival anything else in the premium smartphone market.

For instance, its Sony-made main camera lens and wide-angle lenses both shoot at 50 Megapixels. It also has a microscopic lens with its own ring-light to illuminate impossibly close-up photography, plus a 13MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom.

All of that gets displayed on a 6.7″ screen with a 3216 x 1440 resolution and adaptive refresh rate that goes all the way from 10 to 120Hz. But a feature that Oppo is making a big selling point of is its claim that the display can output 1 billion colours where other smartphones are limited to around 16 million – although that feature is something you have to manually turn on in its settings menu.

This is another Android phone that uses a modified version of the Google OS, which allows for greater customisation of things like colour schemes, typefaces, widgets and so on.

All in all, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is a similar proposition to the Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro, but cheaper. The trade off its that you don’t get quite the battery capacity or zoom capability of the latter.

It’s slimmer and lighter than the Samsung Galaxy S21 and its camera array blends into the handset unlike Samsung’s flagship. Both camera arrays protrude, but Oppo’s doesn’t have edges jutting out.

• Max RAM: 12GB
• Max storage capacity: 256GB
• Screen resolution: 3216 x 1440
• Screen PPI: 525
• Display refresh rate: 120Hz
• CPU speed: 2.84GHz
• Battery capacity: 4,500mAh
• Camera F-stop range:  f1.8-3.0
• Max camera zoom: 60x

Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi’s flagship phone, the Mi 11 Ultra, has a high-spec camera array, a display to rival Samsung’s best, plus an innovative, rear-mounted mini-display.

It’s not cheap at £1,119, but its large, 6.8″ AMOLED screen is vibrant, packs in 515 pixels per inch (PPI) and refreshes at up to 120Hz with technology that lowers the refresh rate depending on how you use the phone in order to save battery.

There’s also a 1.1″ AMOLED display on the back of the device next to the camera lenses which displays notifications and can be used as a little guide to line up the perfect selfie.

Xiaomi’s flagship has three, high-resolution rear camera lenses. The 50MP and twin 48MP lenses enable zoom of up to 120x, while its selfie camera clocks in a 20MP.

The Mi 11 Ultra has a 5,000mAh power cell to keep that impressive screen going all day, and can be charged rapidly with either wireless or wired power supply.

While Xiaomi phones do use the Android operating system, it layers on its own MIUI interface which changes things like how you access quick settings, for example.The whole thing is built on top of Android 11 though, so it’s not too drastic a departure if you’ve used Google’s OS before. One drawback of MIUI is that it features integrated advertising that displays when you use Xiaomi’s own apps.

There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack on the device, which means you’ll have to pair some bluetooth headphones or use the included adapter for a wired connection.

• Max RAM: 12GB
• Max storage capacity: 512GB
• Screen resolution: 3200 x 1440
• Screen PPI: 515
• Display refresh rate: 120Hz
• CPU speed: 2.84GHz
• Battery capacity: 5,000mAh
• Camera F-stop range: f1.95-2.2
• Max camera zoom: 120x

Huawei has made a lot of headway in establishing itself as a brand in the UK, and its Mate 40 Pro offers features and technology to rival the best that Samsung and Apple has to offer, but there’s a huge drawback to the Chinese manufacturer’s handsets that might be too much for some people to overlook.

For £1,099 you’ll get a 6.7″” OLED display that wraps around the handset’s edges a la Samsung Galaxy and outputs a quad-HD resolution of 2772 x 1344 pixels, refreshing at up to 90Hz.

Its Kirin 9000 chipset is one of the fastest processors in the smartphone market, clocking 3.14GHz and making it more than capable of handling even the mosst demanding games and apps.

Its camera array uses premium Leica lenses. There’s a 50MP main camera, 20MP wide-angle lens and 12MP telephoto lens for up to 1-x zoom. On the front you have twin lenses, one of which enables bokeh-effect portraits using 3D depth-sensing tech.

One drawback of the Mate 40 Pro, especially at this price point, is that it has no access to Google services out of the box. This means you have to use Huawei’s own app store rather than Google’s Play Store. It’s well stocked and growing but if you can’t find an app you want, you’ll have to sideload it by downloading an APK file from the internet and installing it manually – which is easy enough to do but does expose you to risk of being tricked into downloading malicious code.

• Max RAM: 8GB
• Max storage capacity:  256GB
• Screen resolution: 2772 x 1344
• Screen PPI: 456
• Display refresh rate: 90Hz
• CPU speed: 3.14GHz
• Battery capacity: 4,400mAh
• Camera F-stop range: f1.8-3.4
• Max camera zoom: 50x