Update: The Huawei Mate 8 is the latest phone to be reviewed - but does it make it into the top 10 best smartphones?
Forget about 2015 - we've got a bunch of new phones to get excited about. What about the Samsung Galaxy S7? The HTC One M10? Or the LG G5, that's been confirmed for MWC 2016?
If none of those take your fancy and you want the best phone right now, well, this is the place to be. Luckily for you, at TechRadar we check out every phone under the sun, putting the ones that matter through our rigorously vigorous testing process to create our indepth mobile phone reviews.
With so many to choose from, we've spent hours whittling them down to a top ten, taking into account the power, specs, design and most importantly: value for money, although we'll always point you in the direction of the latest handsets to help you find the best smartphone.
After all, nobody wants to be carting around a phone that won't be getting any updates in a year's time, right?
So whether it's one of the many slick Android handsets, the latest iPhone or one from a range of other cool operating systems, we've extensively tested the top smartphones so you don't have to.
Here are our rankings for the best smartphones around, currently available in the UK.
Acura always held an odd spot in the auto world – the Honda luxury sub brand was a step up from its mainstream cars, but not quite on the same level of refinement and performance as rivals Lexus or Infiniti. Aside from the legendary NSX sports car, every Acura in history starts out as a front-wheel drive (FWD) car based off a Honda platform.
Sure, some models offer all-wheel drive, but they're mostly FWD cars. That brings me to today's vehicle, the 2016 ILX that Acura sent techradar for review.
Acura released the ILX as a 2013 model year vehicle and, for the first time since the discontinuation of the Integra sedan in 2001, the brand finally had a compact vehicle in the US, again. Initial reactions to the Civic-based compact were disappointing. I spent some time in the 2013 ILX and was not impressed. The interior used low quality materials and it didn't offer much over a fully-loaded Honda Civic – all at a higher price.
However, Acura went back to the drawing board and substantially updated the 2016 ILX with more premium interior materials, driver assist features and LED lights. The ILX Acura sent to techradar for review is the top-of-the-line Technology Plus and A-SPEC package configuration that carries an MSRP of $35,830 (the car isn't available outside of North America).
The exterior updates for the 2016 refresh, while minor in the grand scheme of things, alter the looks for the better. The former projector beam headlights were replaced with Acura's Jewel Eye LEDs, which use three bright LEDs for the low-beam and two for the high beams. The tail lights are LEDs, too.
I'm impressed by the sculpted exterior, with its subtle creases and curves. The wheels are stylish, with black accents and a silver face – the look reminds me of fan blades. All combined, the exterior updates give the car a sophisticated look, but that's where the likable bits of the car end.
Interior
Step inside, and you're treated to a comfortable pair of sport seats with excellent side bolster support. The seats hug my 5-foot-7-inch and 195-pound frame, while the adjustable lumbar provides comfort for my lower back.
Acura splits up the dashboard with a thick strip of silver trim that brightens up the all-black interior. The surfaces above the silver trim are soft-touch and feel softer than the typical economy car. That's where the premium quality ends. Everything below the silver trim is hard plastic befitting of an economy car, unfortunately.
It's not surprising to see better quality materials on frequently-touched surfaces, given the premium pedigree of the Acura brand. However, the car still feels more like a dressed-up Honda than a genuine luxury vehicle, given the cost savings on the interior.
Grab the leather steering wheel, and you'll notice it's not heated, which seems ridiculous when the mainstream Kia Optima includes it as standard equipment on the mid-level EX trim for $10,000 less.
Look forward, and you see the analog gauge cluster with an LCD sandwiched between. The LCD provides trip information, access to vehicle settings, turn-by-turn navigation, music information and a visual representation of the available driver assists.
Overall, the Acura ILX interior is nicely laid out, using buttons and knobs for frequently accessed features, like the climate control and some infotainment functions. Sadly, the latter is exactly where things take a turn for the worse.
Infotainment system
The Acura ILX infotainment system is at the top of my list for one of the worse systems installed in a modern car. It's a dual display system with an 8-inch LCD mounted high and center as the primary display, and a 7-inch On-Demand Multi-use Display (ODMD) is located below for control functions.
The ODMD features capacitive multi-touch technology with haptic feedback, but it's still terrible. It has a frustratingly over-complicated user interface that involves a touchscreen with dynamic functionality, depending on what you're doing, and a physical control knob that controls the top screen.
Unlike the Honda Accord, which has a dual screen system with Android Autoand Apple CarPlay support, the refreshed Acura ILX did not get the superior infotainment system upgrade.
The system features HD Radio, SiriusXM, a single USB port, Aha radio and Pandora connectivity, Siri Eyes-Free and navigation with real-time traffic information, which is typical of all new cars. I'm not sure how the user interface made it past usability testing, or who approved it for production, but it's not an easy system to get accustomed to.
By the end of my time with the Acura ILX, I simply gave up on trying to use the system for anything other than music. My problem with the ILX infotainment system isn't limited to any particular function, it's just painfully annoying to use.
The top display can show navigation, music information and phone information, while the lower ODMD changes its function by music source, and occasionally displays an onscreen keyboard for navigation input. If I'm listening to SiriusXM, the ODMD shows six music presets and the ability to tune to any station. But, if I want to view the stations by category or scroll quickly through the stations, I have to press the physical audio button located below the ODMD and use the control knob and the top display.
Things get more complicated when you're trying to input navigation instructions, too. You have to press the NAV button below the ODMD to bring up the navigation functions on the top display, then navigate the menus using the control knob while the touch screen continues to show music controls.
If you want to search for an address or point of interest, you're presented with two methods of input: the control knob or an on-screen keyboard. Neither methods are available if the vehicle is moving, of course.
During my time with the ILX, I never had an enlightening moment wherein I thought the infotainment system made sense. Rather, I imagined it was a cruel joke played by sadistic Acura engineers. The entire infotainment system needs to be disposed of because of how clunky it is to use, unless you enjoy self-torture through technology.
I don't particularly enjoy torturing myself on a daily basis, especially not for 36 grand.
The sad thing is, the earlier ILX with a single screen and control knob was much easier to use, and this refreshed 2016 model takes the infotainment system a step backward. It's as if the Acura engineers took advice from Xzibit to make the ILX more appealing to which he said, "Yo, I heard dudes like screens, so…".
Today marks the official beginning of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona and although smartphones are in the limelight, there is a sizeable and ever increasing number of laptops announced there.
The three laptops we've chosen today all cost less than £200, great for budget buyers. There's also one of the best gaming laptops ever amongst our top laptop deals plus smashing promotions from Currys and HP.
Laptop deal of the week 3: Asus E402MA
This is a fantastic deal on a punchy that's pretty but not pricey
We love this deal because this laptop comes with a Pentium processor, the only one to do so at this price. It is also slightly bigger than the competition in this price bracket which allows for a bigger display, a less-crammed keyboard and, most importantly, more ports than on smaller models. Buy it if you're on a strict budget and want something with a decent keyboard.
Where to find the best laptop deals in the UK
We rotate our laptop deals to offer you a more diverse offering and you will find our laptop deals archives simply by browsing to the next pages. Just bear in mind that stocks vary and prices can go up or down after the deals were posted.
If we have missed out on a particularly attractive deal or if you have found a better one or there is a misprice, feel free to leave a note in the comments section and we'll include it in our deal with a "thank you" note to the contributor.
Currys and PC World have a trade-in deal currently on: take a qualifying laptop to trade in at a local store and you could get up to £100 to spend on a laptop costing £399 or more. Terms and conditions apply.
HP has a roll-in trade-in programme in place for the month of February that pays back a cash back reward depending on the value of your purchase and can account for more than half of your device's cost (e.g. £100 for a £199 qualifying HP product).
There are many apps on the iTunes App Store and Mac App Store that
rely on recurring in-app purchases in order for you to get the most from
them. In the case of Newsstand and other online services, these in-app
purchases take the form of subscriptions. So how do you know what
subscriptions you've subscribed to, and how do you manage, cancel, or
reactivate them? Apple makes it fairly easy if you know where to look.
In
this article, we'll walk you through this process of managing in-app
subscriptions so that you'll only pay for what you're using, and show
you how to cancel the rest easily. Continue reading to find out the
details.
Viewing Subscriptions on Mac
Both Mac App Store and iTunes
subscriptions can be viewed in the desktop version of iTunes on a Mac or
Windows computer. To access them, open iTunes, follow these steps:
1.Click your name beside the search bar.
2.Select Account Info, then sign in when prompted.
3.Locate the Settings section.
4.Click "Manage" next to "Subscriptions."
Viewing Subscriptions on iOS
You can manage your
subscriptions from an iOS device as well. The easiest way to do so is to
access the iTunes Store, scroll to the bottom of the main page and
click on the Apple ID button, then click View Apple ID. After entering
your password, scroll down to the Subscriptions section and hit Manage.
Canceling recurring Subscriptions
Once in this new "Edit Subscription" view, select "Off" for the Automatic Renewal option, then click Done to save the changes.
This
will cause the subscription to expire whenever it goes to renew.
Instead of renewing, it'll be placed in an inactive state. You can do
this for any subscriptions which you are not currently using in order to
save money each month.
Knock it for its USB Type-C
port. Bash it for its wimpy horsepower. But don't even try to deny that
Apple's new MacBook is one of the most attractive,
impressively-engineered laptops that the world has ever seen - there's
simply nothing quite as slick out there.
Even though it combines the portability of Apple's MacBook Air with the Retina MacBook Pro's
high pixel-density Retina display, the new MacBook doesn't resemble
either product line – or Apple's older, polycarbonate white MacBook of
the same name, for that matter.
Instead, it feels like an entirely new species of otherworldly laptop that has more in common with an iPad Air than a ThinkPad. Flip open the lid, and you're transported into the best-looking OS X Yosemite playground yet – one that goes wherever you go.
But it's far from perfect: the new MacBook's sole USB Type-C port and moderately-powered Intel Core M
processor mean that many of this playground's games are off-limits, and
while some will find its unique keyboard more fun than a revolving
roundabout, it will make others sick with frustration.
Divisive and sickly sweet, the new MacBook is the notebook equivalent of Marmite.
Personally, I love the stuff (and like the new MacBook a lot), but
whether it's for you depends on how much you're prepared to compromise.
Recent developments
Want one of these but aren't prepared to plunk down quite this much? Apple is now selling refurbished 12-inch MacBooks for a rather sizable discount (at least relatively) in the UK and US.
The
entry-level, refurbished 12-inch MacBook goes for a much lighter £889 –
15% off, to be exact. The model packing a 1.2GHz CPU, 8GB of memory and
a 512GB flash storage drive goes for £1,099 refurbished, a saving of
£200.
In the US, the low-end model carries a $1,099 price tag when
refurbished (a $200 discount), and the 1.2GHz model calls for $1,359
($240 cheaper than it normally sells for) after being prepped for
re-sale.
Of course, your chances of scoring a refurbished MacBook
depend entirely upon what Apple has in stock in either region, so your
milage may vary on this one.
But, if you're looking out for savings on a brand new MacBook, check out our page for the best cheap MacBook deals for February 2016. You'll find deals on just about every other MacBook model there, too.
Also, for those growing bored of OS X El Capitan,
Apple issued a new beta version of the operating system recently,
allowing you to play with new features before they make it into an
official update. So long as you're enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program, you can now enjoy toying with password-protected notes and throwing Live Photos directly into Messages.
On the catwalk
Two qualities stand out above all else when it
comes to the new MacBook: thin and lightweight. Apple has managed to
squeeze its components into an incredible aluminum body that measures
just 0.35cm at its thinnest point and 1.31cm at its thickest.
Its
thinness is in part due to Intel's fan-less Core M CPU, which is
passively cooled and runs whisper quiet. There's no fan inside, which
enabled Apple's engineers to make its chassis slimmer. The new MacBook
is an ideal option if you're frequently sharing a room with light
sleepers – particularly compared to noisier, fan-based notebooks
sporting Intel's Core-series chips.
Another factor that's helped Apple achieve the new MacBook's svelte
dimensions is its dramatically thinner keyboard, which uses an
Apple-designed butterfly mechanism instead of a traditional scissor type
underneath the keys.
And while we're on the topic of thin, the
new MacBook's bezel is slimmer than ones on previous MacBooks and is
complemented by a matte strip along the bottom that bears the MacBook
logo. It's available in three colors: Space Grey, Silver and Gold.
Every manufacturer is now lining up to offer you a 4K UHD TV. But
where it was once almost a content-less gimmick, limited to showfloor
showreels, more and more UHD movies and TV shows are becoming available
from the likes of Amazon Prime Instant Video and Netflix.
Ultra
HD Blu-rays will be on sale early this year, Samsung offers a UHD
content pack with its TVs, and Netflix and Amazon are now set up to
deliver 4K content online to their premium subscribers.
There are
also a host of broadcasters testing out live UHD content, with BT Sport
already sending 4K Premier League football down its pipes.
But Ultra HD isn't just about that 3840 x 2160 resolution.
With technologies such as Quantum Dot, OLED and HDR
able to deliver your 4K movies with frankly stunning levels of picture
quality, there's a whole lot more to UHD than just 8.3 million pixels.
Update: It may be time to wave goodbye to the camera bump and antenna lines, with the iPhone 7 sporting a sleek new look.
With the iPhone 6S
Apple delivered its best handset yet, but aside from sporting some
fancy new 3D Touch technology, it was also very similar to the iPhone 6.
That
was to be expected – after all, Apple typically only overhauls its
handsets once every two years, but that overhaul is due with the iPhone
7, so we're expecting and hoping for big changes: think a whole new
design, piles of power and a bunch of new features.
The leaks,
rumors and reports are already ramping up, although the iPhone 7
probably won't arrive until late 2016. We've collected all the latest
from around the web and beyond for you below, to give you the clearest
picture possible of what you can expect from the new iPhone.
Fancy Android? Here's everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S7
Cut to the chase
What is it? Apple's next all-new iPhone
When is it out? Likely September 2016
What will it cost? Probably the same as the iPhone 6S
iPhone 7 release date
If
we were betting people we'd say the iPhone 7 will probably arrive in
September 2016. Apple tends to stick to a schedule, and the last few
iPhones were launched in September.
But according to a 'reliable source'
Apple might actually bring it to market earlier. Sadly, how much
earlier is unclear, but it will take a while to even finish development
and manufacture of the phone, so we wouldn't expect to see it before the
summer.
There are numerous reports pointing towards an Apple event in March, although the iPhone 7 is highly unlikey to make an appearance then. We'll probably see the iPad Air 3, iPhone 5SE and Apple Watch 2 instead.
iPhone 7 design
The
iPhone 6S looked a lot like the iPhone 6, but it's likely to be
all-change with the iPhone 7. Exactly what form that change will take
remains to be seen, but there are some rumors. For one thing, it could be even slimmer than the 7.1mm-thick iPhone 6S; Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities
reckons it'll be dropping to between 6mm and 6.5mm thick. That sounds
unnecessarily slim to us, especially as it could cause the battery life
to take a hit, but the Samsung Galaxy S6 is only marginally thicker at 6.8mm, so it's possible.
If TSMC makes the chips, as has been rumored, then some space could be saved, which might help Apple slim it down without making sacrifices in other areas.
Another rumor suggests the iPhone 7
will have an all-metal design with a bezeless display. It would be a
big change for the iPhone design, but bringing in a new kind of screen
technology would be a sensible move for Apple.
The iPhone 7 could be built to last too, as according to Mac Otakara
there are a number of iPhone prototypes with "ruggedized" features,
which could mean a water- and dust-resistant phone is on the way.
Another
suggestion of a waterproof iPhone 7 comes from the Apple supplier Japan
Display. The supplier has come up with a new technology called "Pixel
Eyes", that is now in its second generation, but it makes it easier to
use the screen while you have wet fingers.
That's always an issue
with waterproof phones such as the Sony Xperia Z line, so the fact
Apple's main supplier is looking to stop the problem may be a big hint
at what the iPhone 7 will do.
We could also be in store for the thinnest iPhone ever, as rumors suggesting Apple will ditch the bulky 3.5mm headphone jack
begin to gather pace. That would see a great dependence on Bluetooth
headphones - could we also see a wireless set of buds included in the
box?
A new design tweak rumor which will likely please many suggests Apple will ditch the camera bump
which has been present since the iPhone 6/6Plus - with the firm going
for a sleeker finish on the iPhone 7. As well as a totally flat rear, it
could also be uninterrupted as the same report points towards the
removal of the antenna bands.
iPhone 7 screen
The iPhone 7 could be in for a big resolution jump
if a DigiTimes source is to be believed, as Apple is apparently likely
to move to glass-on-glass screens, which in turn opens up the
possibility of a QHD or even a 4K display.
A lot of Android phones already have QHD screens, and the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
is 4K, so it's possible that Apple will pump up the resolution of its
next flagship, but given that the iPhone 6S isn't even 1080p we're
sceptical that it'll get anywhere near 4K.
If the iPhone 7 does
get higher resolution it might get bigger too, especially as rival
phones are growing in size all the time. We're not convinced though –
we'd still bet on seeing 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models. Then there's the first image of the LCD backlight on the iPhone 7. It comes from trusted French blog NoWhereElse and shows the panel from the iPhone 7 up against the iPhone 6S.
All the connectors are in different locations around the phone suggesting there will be a few design changes on the next iPhone.
A jump in resolution might not be the only way the iPhone 7 imitates Android though, as there's also talk that it could switch from an LCD display to an OLED one, much like Samsung uses on most of its phones.
One new rumor
suggests the iPhone 7S will be the first Apple phone to feature an OLED
display. The rumour comes from Apple telling supply chain sources that
it will be switching from LCD panels to OLED panels in the next couple
of years.
Sadly it doesn't seem like the technology will be here
in time for next year's iPhone 7 and we'll have to wait for the iPhone
7S. That said, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has dismissed the rumor, arguing that Apple won't likely switch to AMOLED before 2019.
The iPhone 7 screen could be hard to smash, as an Apple patent has been unearthed
showing bumpers which burst out from the edges of the screen to ensure
it doesn't touch the floor when dropped. Patents often don't turn into
products, but you never know – and it would certainly be nice to see a
stronger screen.
3D Touch is bound to make a return, though it's
likely to be improved in some way, perhaps by enabling you to scroll
through the previews of content you 'peek' into, rather than just having
static previews.
iPhone 7 rivals
The iPhone 7 is likely a
way off yet, so it's main rivals won't have launched yet either. But as
usual Samsung is sure to be a big competitor, with the Samsung Galaxy S7 in particular likely to give it pause.
Rumors point to a big screen, a spectacularly powerful processor and all the style and features found in the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The HTC One M10
is likely to be a worthy alternative to Apple's handset too. Coming
from HTC it's sure to look good, but little is known about it so far.
There's also talk of a 4.0-inch iPhone 7C
in the works. We haven't seen a C edition of the iPhone since the
iPhone 5C so we expected one to launch alongside the iPhone 6S, but
sadly there was no news.
The latest rumours suggest we'll see one alongside the iPhone 7, but it's not quite clear whether it'll be called the iPhone 6C or iPhone 7C. Some sources have been whispering about the phone coming with a metal back, unlike the cheap feeling plastic iPhone 5C.
Apple
overhauled its camera tech for the iPhone 6S, replacing its old 8MP
snapper with a shiny new 12MP one and boosting the front-facing camera
up to 5MP. Given
that Apple tends to stick with camera components for a long time we
wouldn't expect to see a change in megapixels for the iPhone 7, but
there's a good chance it will have performance tweaks and additional
features to help set it apart. Optical image stabilization perhaps?
As for the iPhone 7 Plus,
trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI Securities in Korea believes the
larger phone may go for a dual-camera set up. It would allow for optical
zoom and give a wider field of view in shots - but it's not exactly
certain why this feature would only be on the phablet version of the
iPhone 7.
The analyst also said he believes there may be two
versions of the iPhone 7 Plus, one with this camera set up and another
without. It's all just speculation right now, but there may be something
in.
As for the battery, there's no news yet. It was one of the
greatest failings of the iPhone 6S, so we're really hoping for some
improvements here. Sadly, though, if the phone does slim down further as
is being rumored there's not much hope of a big juice pack.
iPhone 7 OS and power
The iPhone 7 could be in for a huge performance boost, with whispers on Weibo
that the phone will pack a hexa-core A10 chip, up from just a dual-core
processor in the iPhone 6S. We're sceptical that Apple would go for
that much of a jump, but it's an exciting thought.
We're not
likely to see any more RAM in the iPhone 7, as Apple only just pushed
the iPhone 6S up to 2GB, so it will likely stick with that for a while
yet.
As for the OS, we'd expect to see the iPhone 7 land with iOS 10, since we're up to iOS 9 on the iPhone 6S. But rumors of what we'll see in iOS 10 are thin on the ground.
iPhone 7 other features
A whole slew of possible features are apparently in testing
for the iPhone 7, with five different prototypes being used to test
multi-Force Touch tech, a dual camera, wireless charging, a fingerprint
scanner in the screen and a USB Type-C connector that's compatible with
headsets.
That all comes from a post on Weibo, but even if it's
true given that there are apparently five different prototypes much of
this may not make it into the final phone.
In other rumors the
iPhone 7 could have a smaller headphone jack than the iPhone 6S. We're
hesitant to call this a feature, as it's more a likely annoyance which
could be necessary in order to further slim the phone down.
There's an Apple patent
which points to a 2mm connector, down from the standard 3.5mm headphone
jack found on most phones. That would certainly help Apple slim the
device down, but would also mean you'd either need special headphones or
an adapter.
iPhone 7 cost
There aren't any price rumors
yet but in all likelihood the iPhone 7 will cost roughly what the iPhone
6S currently retails for, specifically £539/$649/AU$1,079 upwards.
Though if Apple finally ditches the 16GB model the starting price might
be even higher.
