Top 5 phone - Best mobile phones to buy in 2013

Samsung Galaxy S3

The best Android smartphone just got better

Our Expert Opinion The Samsung Galaxy S3 is still the best Android smartphone there is. It's slim, fast, has a beautiful AMOLED screen and runs the bang-up-to-date Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system.

The phone has just got better, too, thanks to an upgrade to support 4G. On Everything Everywhere's network we saw speeds up to 25Mbit/s, which is twice as quick as many home broadband connections.

Samsung has also loaded the phone with clever features. If you bring the phone to your ear while a contact is on screen it will call that person automatically, if you flip the phone over while it's ringing it will turn the ringer off, and the Smart Stay feature uses the front camera to keep the screen on while you're looking at it.

Throw in an excellent camera and you've got all the ingredients for the perfect smartphone.

SPECS

OPERATING SYSTEM Android 4.1

PROCESSOR SPEED 1.4GHz

NUMBER OF CORES 4

RAM 2GB

MOBILE DATA GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, 4G

DISPLAY 4.8in 720x1,280 LCD

CAMERA 8-megapixel

INTERNAL STORAGE 16GB

MEMORY CARD SLOT microSD

DIMENSIONS 137x71x9mm, 133g

Google Nexus 4

Google's cut-price Android 4.2 wonder

Our Expert Opinion The latest Google-branded smartphone is made by LG, and it's a stormer. The Nexus 4's quad-core 1.5GHz processor runs Android 4.2 incredibly quickly, and its 4.7in 1,280x768 display has a similar pixel density to the iPhone 5's Retina screen.

There's also a high-quality 8-megapixel camera and built-in NFC, so the phone will support Google Wallet's tap-and-pay service when it arrives in the UK.

The phone is also incredibly good value SIM-free at just £239 - it's a lot of phone for the money.

SPECS 

OPERATING SYSTEM Android 4.2

PROCESSOR SPEED 1.5GHz

NUMBER OF CORES 4

RAM 2GB

MOBILE DATA GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA

DISPLAY 4.7in 768x1,280 LCD

CAMERA 8-megapixel

INTERNAL STORAGE 8GB

MEMORY CARD SLOT none

CLAIMED BATTERY LIFE 15 hours talktime, 16 days standby

DIMENSIONS 134x69x9.1mm, 139g

Apple iPhone 5

A worthy update to the iPhone

Our Expert Opinion Five generations on, and the iPhone is still the model to beat. Android has taken great strides, but iOS is still the slickest, fastest and easiest to use operating system, and there's no arguing with the quality of the apps in the Apple App Store.

The iPhone 5 is an evolution of the 4, with a longer screen for more room for app icons and an aspect ratio better suited to widescreen films. It's also incredibly quick - more than twice as fast as the iPhone 4S in the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark.

The only thing stopping the iPhone 5 from getting an award is Apple's horrendous new Maps app, which replaces Google Maps, but this should improve with time.

SPECS

OPERATING SYSTEM iOS 6

PROCESSOR SPEED 1GHz

NUMBER OF CORES 2

RAM 1GB

MOBILE DATA 4G

DISPLAY 4in 1,136x640 LCD

CAMERA 8-megapixel

INTERNAL STORAGE 16GB

MEMORY CARD SLOT none

DIMENSIONS 124x59x8mm, 112g

Motorola RAZR i

A gorgeous slimline Intel phone 

Our Expert Opinion The RAZR i has an Intel rather than ARM processor, and it's seriously quick - around the same speed as the iPhone 5 in the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark. It runs Android 4.0 incredibly smoothly, and the operating system looks great on the phone's 960x540-pixel Super AMOLED screen.

The RAZR i has a 4.3in screen, which is big considering how compact the phone is. It's also incredibly slim, and the rubberised back looks great and makes the phone comfortable to hold.

It's a classy handset all round, and is also remarkably good value on contract.

SPECS

OPERATING SYSTEM Android 4.04

PROCESSOR SPEED 2GHz

NUMBER OF CORES 1

RAM 1GB

MOBILE DATA GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA

DISPLAY 4.3in 960x540 LCD

CAMERA 8-megapixel

INTERNAL STORAGE 8GB

MEMORY CARD SLOT microSD

DIMENSIONS 123x61x8mm, 126g

Nokia Lumia 920

The best Windows Phone 8 handset there is

Our Expert Opinion Nokia really went to town with its first Windows Phone 8 handset. It's a chunky phone which feels beautifully made, and has a 4.5in screen with a huge 1,280x768 resolution.

The screen is an IPS model, and has excellent contrast and viewing angles. The display's resolution is big enough for web browsing without having to zoom in and out, and particularly suits Microsoft's gorgeous Windows Phone 8 operating system.

Windows Phone 8 has had some useful tweaks, such as the ability to resize the home screen's Live Tiles depending on how much information you want each to show, and it runs beautifully on the phone's dual-core 1.5GHz processor. The phone also has a camera with optical image stabilisation, which excels in low light; the only disadvantage is the phone produces over-processed daylight shots.

SPECS

OPERATING SYSTEM Windows Mobile 8

PROCESSOR SPEED 1.5GHz

NUMBER OF CORES 2

RAM 1GB

MOBILE DATA GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA

DISPLAY 4.5in 1,280x768 LCD

CAMERA 8.7-megapixel

INTERNAL STORAGE 32GB

MEMORY CARD SLOT microSD

DIMENSIONS 130x71x11mm, 185g