Which? Don't Buy mobile phones

Take a gamble with your mobile phone purchase, and you could end up with a handset that's painfully slow and seems to relish in running out of charge. Our thorough and unique smartphone testing helps you avoid spending your money unwisely.

But we don't just point out the worst - we also highlight the best models that we think deserve your consideration. Best Buy mobile phones take fantastic photos and videos, easily last a full day before running out of charge, and speed through even the most demanding tests. Plus Great Value models tick the most important boxes, and won't break the bank. Take a look at our mobile phone reviews to see which handsets stand out, and which to avoid.

You might think sticking with a good brand or spending a lot of money is the best way to choose a great mobile phone, but our tests have revealed that it's far more difficult to predict which smartphones will be worthy of a Best Buy. We've found smartphones we'd recommend that cost less than £400 to buy outright, and others from brands you may not have heard of.

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Mobile phone reviews you can trust

Which? has reviewed the latest mobile phones, including models by big brands such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and OnePlus – to help you find the best smartphone for you. We ignore the hype when we're assessing mobile phones, which means we can recommend those models with the best battery life and cameras. We've found that even the most popular brands can drop the ball.

• Each mobile phone goes through the same assault of tests, including battery life, camera quality, processor speed and screen clarity - so you'll know what to expect for your money.
• We give every mobile phone a Which? test score so you can immediately see which are the best and worst.

Which? is independent – we work for you, the consumer, so you can be sure that our product recommendations are influenced only by our test results. We're not influenced by third parties and we don't accept freebies from product manufacturers or retailers. We buy all the products that we test ourselves, so our advice helps you to make the right choice first time and avoid costly mistakes.

The importance of security with mobile phones

Without security updates, your mobile phone might have vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Therefore, we only recommend phones we estimate have at least one year of security support left. All Which? mobile phone reviews will tell you when a handset is estimated to lose support. Or find out when your current phone might lose support using the Which? phone support calculator.

In addition, if we find any serious issues with mobile phones as part of our security tests, we won't hesitate to give them a Don't Buy, and clearly warn you about this on our reviews with our Security Notice.