Top Cell Phones 2023

The Huawei Nova 5T offers a smart design, decent cameras and effective performance along with access to Google apps.

The Moto G6 Play is a great little surprise of a phone. It holds its own next to the other two G6 phones and has better battery life (and a cooler fingerprint sensor). The 18:9 display and premium (but plastic) design means it feels just as well-made as phones double the price but doesn’t compromise on performance to do so.  With a headphone jack as a plus, a minus is micro-USB but we’ll forgive that on its strengths and can recommend the G6 Play as one of the best budget phones of 2018.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro+ 5G is a mid-range smartphone with fast recharging, reliable tracking and performance suitable for everyday use. The high-resolution camera offers good, but not exceptional image quality.

The Poco X5 Pro is a great 300-Euro smartphone for those who don't like updates. However, owners of a X3 Pro would surely have wished for a better SoC, since nothing much has changed in the last two generations of the X Pro series in terms of the performance.   

There's a lot to like with the Xiaomi 13, which looks great and is powered by a battery that you'll struggle to drain. U.K. users looking for top performance will want to turn to the Galaxy S23 and its optimized Snapdragon silicon, though.

The Poco M5s is a great budget phone for streaming, browsing and everyday use, though the quad camera can be hit and miss.

The V Max has a lot of power, RAM, a great camera, and a crazy amount of battery capacity, but it’s too big to fit in your pocket. If only Doogee could figure out how to do this without making the phone so heavy.

The OnePlus Nord 2T is a lot like the company’s last phone, but it’s still a great choice for a mid-range phone because it works well, charges quickly, and more.

The Poco X5 Pro is a good mid-range phone that works well, but you might want more from it.

The iPhone SE is an outstanding phone for less than $400, delivering fast performance and very good cameras in a compact design. The only thing missing is Night Mode.