5 best Smartphones you should Have This Season

Sony Xperia Z1

 

The Sony Xperia Z1 refreshes the excellent Sony Xperia Z, bringing you a powerful handset, with waterproofing, a slick design and a large 5-inch display.
On paper the Z1 sounds like it will be king of all classes, but the boosting of the battery and the accommodation of a 20-megapixel camera, swells the body to larger than its rivals, with a bigger footprint than many rivals, but not quite reaching into phablet territory. But if you can handle the size there are plenty of treats in store.
It's a veritable powerhouse, with great internal hardware, so everything is slick and fast. Waterproofing offers an advantage too. The Xperia Z1 will cost you £479.
Buy the Sony Xperia Z1 if you want big power in a big phone.

Nokia Lumia 1520

 

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is the best Lumia to date. It brings Windows Phone into the realm of the phablet, but it does it with aplomb, giving you a device that offers size, power and a great camera performance.
Nokia's commitment to the platform, dragging apps - kicking and screaming - over to Windows Phone really enhances what's on offer, but also pouring home-grown features in too.
We've been critical of some of the moves of Windows Phone, and of Nokia, in the recent past, but the Lumia 1520 feels like the hero device that Nokia needed. It's powerful, it's wonderful to use and it's the rival of Android peers that rule the big-screen phone world.
It's also fairly affordable for a device of this size, priced at £439.
Buy the Nokia Lumia 1520 if you want the biggest and best Windows Phone experience.

 

HTC One Mini 2

  

Before you get confused, no, that's not the HTC One M8, despite how it looks. It's a bit smaller. But no, it's not the HTC One M8 mini either, despite the way it looks.
This is the HTC One Mini 2 that, for all intents and purposes, is the HTC One M8 Mini. But as it doesn't have the Duo Camera, HTC has decided that it should be seen as the direct successor to the HTC One Mini instead. Caught up? Good.
The main wins here are design and price. It's obviously lower cost than its bigger brother, but the curved metal chassis of the One Mini 2 looks and feels wonderfully premium and the clever engineering of the plastic frame makes it easy to miss.
The inclusion of a microSD slot is another big plus point over last year's offering, making the One Mini 2 a far stronger media machine.

Samsung Galaxy S4 

 

The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings more innovation to a phone that's already at the top of its game. The design offers flexibility where others don't, with access to the battery and the option to expand the memory via microSD.
Some may say that there's a feature too many and the design isn't as inspiring as some other devices like the HTC One, but if you opt for the Samsung Galaxy S4, you won't be disappointed. Samsung crams a large 5-inch full HD display into a handset that isn't overly large, so despite going big, the size is still manageable.
Undoubtedly the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be the top smartphone choice for many and sell by the bucketload, but recent launches bring more raw power and a more refeshing user interface.
The SGS4 will cost you around £449.
Buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 to get flagship performance slightly cheaper, with the option to change battery and expand the storage.

Google Nexus 5 

 

The Nexus 5 plays out the pure Google dream, debuting Android 4.4 KitKat and bringing you plenty of power for your money. There's also a brilliant display, which gives you plenty of detail and performance to rival some of the top phones out there.
There are downsides, however. We don't think it's the best designed phone around, perhaps less interesting than the Nexus 4 which came before it and as is typical of Nexus devices, the camera isn't so good and neither is the battery, which is the biggest downside.
However, the Nexus 5 delivers plenty in it's aggressively priced package at £299, especially if power and display are top of your list and you have the reassurance of knowing you'll be at the front of the Android upgrade queue too.
For some, however, the refinement added by other manufacturers will bring attractive features out of the box that the Nexus 5 lacks and we suspect it's soon to be replaced by the next-gen Nexus.
Buy the Nexus 5 for the pure Android experience and plenty of power in an affordable package.