The 10 best smartphones of 2016 so far

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is pretty much as perfect a smartphone as we’ve ever laid eyes (or indeed, hands) on. For starters, it’s bloomin’ gorgeous. The second you pick it up, you’ll be drawn in by the tantalising bends of its curved screen and lovely solid metal and glass build.

It’s not just a pretty face though – it’s packing some serious, serious power beneath the hood, with a Samsung-made Exynos processor and 4GB RAM providing a smartphone experience that’s slicker than a greased up cheetah on an ice slide. Throw in the best smartphone camera we’ve ever tested, and you’ve got yourself a pocket wonder.

LG looked around at all the other smartphones this year and stuck its middle finger up at them all by magically creating the G5: an all-metal phone with a removable battery and microSD card slot – the twin pillars of the holy grail of Android power users worldwide.

The secret lies in the G5’s crazy ability to dislocate its lower jaw, revealing a hidden battery compartment. This same trick also lets it play nice with various LG modules, including a camera grip – the LG Cam Plus – and a rather excellent DAC (the LG Hi-Fi Plus), which supercharges your music while you’re out and about.

Its photography game is on point too, with two excellent rear cameras – one of which is solely designed for super-wide shots, cramming more into each single photo. More innovation like this please, everyone.

The Vodafone Smart Prime 7 makes the Moto G look expensive: it costs just £75. Seriously, that’s it. We’ve had takeaways that set us back more than that, though admittedly we are a sucker for over-ordering. You can never have enough peshwari naan, in our opinion. But we digress.

Naturally, £75 won’t buy you the very best of the best when it comes to screens, performance and camera smarts, but that’s OK, because the Vodafone Smart Prime 7’s screen and battery life hold up very well, and its snaps are some of the best we’ve seen at this price point. Living proof that dirt cheap doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting actual dirt. Unless you’re at a garden centre, we suppose.

The HTC 10 is a beautiful looking thing. Fans of the company’s past flagships will recognise the design DNA of the stunning M7 and its M8 and M9 brothers, but the 10 surpasses them all with its simple, minimalist style and soft curves.

Apart from being a spectacular-looking slab of metallic goodness though, the HTC 10 throws everything you’d expect from a modern smartphone champion straight at you. An excellent camera, detailed screen and software smarts are all present and accounted for, making the stellar two-day battery life the delicious fluffy buttercream on an already moist and drool-worthy cake. Mmmm, cake.

In an ocean of black aluminium slabs and rounded corners, the oddly named Nextbit Robin is an absolute delight – an alpine-scented hurricane of fresh air, if you will.

Its attractive pastel-blue colour and refreshingly angular shape – not to mention circular drilled speakers – are a sight for sore eyes. Those speakers, by the way, are excellent, which is a big plus point for headphone-less YouTube addicts.

It’s not only its looks which are different but also its approach to storage: the Nextbit Robin focuses on automated cloud storage, backing up your photos and media, as well as app data for your less-used apps, without you needing to do anything.

Buggy software, a run-of-the-mill camera and a mediocre battery life let it down somewhat, but it should be applauded for breaking the smartphone mould.