When it comes to smartphones, your choice is between iPhone and Android, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it is between iPhone and Samsung. Samsung has such a grip on sales figures and sky-high marketing budgets that it dominates Android phones sales, with the latest figures showing it accounts for 29.6 percent of all phones sold in the UK in 2023.

Samsung phones can be excellent choices with handsets such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Z Flip 6, and recently the company decided to promise seven years of software support for its latest models. But there’s more to Android than Samsung, and in the UK you can choose from a wide range of different devices of all shapes and sizes from several competing manufacturers, especially if you’re not sold on the Google Pixel line up that we reviewed here.

I’ve been testing several new Android phones from the likes of Motorola, Sony, Oppo and Honor to see which of the latest crop of smartphones is best and which could convince you to branch out into the wonderful world of Android if you’re thinking of buying a new device soon.

If saving money is your number one concern then you should check out the CMF Phone 1. At just £209 it’s a superb deal with all-you-need performance from UK tech startup Nothing – CMF is its sub-brand of cut-price gadgets.

The remarkable thing about this phone is the design innovation at this price point. It has industrial looks with exposed screws on the back that you can unscrew to replace the backplate. The firm sells swappable colours for £29, harking back to the Nokia 3310 days. You can also get a card wallet, lanyard or stand to attach via a clever screw attachment point.

I found it annoying that the phone doesn’t have NFC for mobile payments but if you don’t care about that then this is the best cheap phone that doesn’t feel cheap that you can buy. It’s true bang for buck.

At the other end of the pricing sale, the £1,299 Sony Xperia 1 VI, the company’s latest flagship smartphone, is too expensive but just as excellent. Dodgy naming conventions aside (it’s the ‘one mark six’, by the way), it has a unique etched glass back that makes it very grippy and hides fingerprints, along with sturdy squared-off frame and a dedicated camera button that belies its photography chops.

Sony has taken tech from its Alpha camera line with the triple lenses here and melded it with Bravia TV smarts on the bright and punchy 6.5-inch screen to create a great mobile camera. New for this model is a macro mode that I’ve taken some of the best, most detailed close-up shots ever using a phone camera, and the camera app is much improved to bring full manual controls, if you want them.

There’s even a lesser-spotted headphone jack and Hi-Res audio playback here, making Sony standout for offering hardware perks its rivals have removed or never offered. The issue? This phone costs £1,299 and only promises three years of Android updates. That’s a real sting in the tail if you want your investment to last longer.

If you want to spend about half as much as the Sony but still value camera performance, the £699.99 Honor 200 Pro is a good shout. It has a lovely curved design with a white or green marbled finish, a great screen and good performance for less than the pricier Honor Magic 6 Pro.

The Chinese firm has partnered with famed Paris photography house Studio Harcourt, which is famed for its dramatically lit black and white portraits of celebrities. I was sceptical, but you can recreate the effect simply by selecting a mode in the camera, and it works very well – just on the right side of gimmicky.

It’s not a reason to buy the phone necessarily, but it’s an excellent device anyway with Android 14, good build quality, five years of software support and very fast charging – though annoyingly there’s no charger in the box.

If you want to spend £200 less than the Honor less but still get some premium features, the £499 Oppo Reno 12 Pro is worth a look. It has capable triple cameras, a large good quality screen, Android 14 and super-fast 80W charging – and compared to most of the other phones discussed in this article, it comes with the charger in the box, as well as a case.

The phone is nicely thin but it does feel a little too light and plasticky, plus the Space Brown colour option we checked out is just plain weird. You might dig it though. Oppo has also stuffed the phone with tons of half-baked AI features as it races to catch up with what Samsung has to offer which can summarise your texts, erase people or things from photos and other wonders. I preferred to ignore the AI stuff and enjoy the phone’s comfortable ergonomics and zippy performance.

I’ve also been checking out a duo of phones from Motorola, the company behind the first-ever mobile phone. Now owned by Lenovo, Moto has released a folding screen Motorola Razr 50 Ultra to mark 20 years since the original iconic flip phone hit shelves (we feel so old typing that).

The device is a cool £999 but it folds in half and fits into smaller pockets and bags with ease, plus it has a display on the outside so you can still use it when it’s closed. That screen can run full apps, so you can change your tunes, send a WhatsApp or use Google Maps without opening up the phone. When you do, there’s a good quality expansive screen inside.

It comes in fun colours such as green and a hot pink, a direct callback to when Paris Hilton used to sport her original Razr V3 for the paps back in the day. If you want a phone that’s truly different from everybody else’s, this is the one to get.

The camera is solid, but you do sacrifice photo quality when you get a folding phone as the manufacturers can’t fit in the best sensors – that’s why normal phones have such huge camera bumps, though the one on the Motorola Edge 50 Ultra is actually quite sleek. If you like Moto but don’t want your phone to fold, it’s a great option, and cheaper at £849.

It is remarkably thin, with cameras that meld into the body of the phone, and our Forest Grey Model has a soft-touch back that improves grip, feels great, and means no messy fingerprints. There’s even a version that’s coated in real wood.

The phone shares the same Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chip as the Razr so it can handle top level mobile gaming, and the software is close to stock plain Android, which might appeal to you over the more polished but cluttered One UI that Samsung phones have.

You also get a huge 1TB storage and incredibly fast 125W charging (charger included), plus if you like curved displays, which some Android firms are abandoning, the Edge 50 Ultra is one of the curviest out there. It still feels futuristic.

Like Sony, Motorola only promises three years of Android updates and four years of security patches – when Samsung and Google offer seven for their newest phones, that is no longer good enough, especially when you’re spending big. If you know you’ll replace your phone within four years, you might not care, but it could end up affecting the resale value.