The smartphone opens like a passport, with the outer display measuring 5.4 inches and the inner display coming in at 7.6 inches. With the outer display, you get 90 per cent of the screen area of the iPhone 18 Pro, which was also just announced at the Apple event this evening.

In both orientations, the screens sport an identical aspect ratio to help transitions between screens feel more seamless, whether it is open or closed.

John Ternus, Apple’s freshly appointed CEO, says: “iPhone Duo is the most transformational change to iPhone since the original.”

The speakers for the Duo are placed on the top and bottom of the phone to deliver spatial audio.

Under the hood, you will find the A20 Pro chip, which is also included in the new iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. According to Apple, this upgrade means that it can deliver up to 35 per cent “better sustained performance” than the iPhone 17 Pro. On top of that, the phone is powered by iOS 27. This means that the controls are moved to the side of the screen to free up some space.

There’s some pretty nifty technology in terms of the screen, too. The nano-texture finish supposedly “minimises glare for an unparalleled viewing experience.” The first layer of the screen is glass, and below that is the folding display panel featuring custom adhesives that allow the layers to glide past one another “like the pages of a book” to relieve tension from bending.

It also has a 48MP Fusion Main camera, a 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide, and an integrated optical-quality x2 Telephoto.

For brightness, Apple says you can get up to 3000 nits of peak outdoor brightness. That comfortably outdoes the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 2600 nits, but is on par with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra's offering of 3000 nits.

The hinge in the middle is made of titanium and engineered from more than 100 components to create a “smooth, satisfying feel”. Inside the body, there are also support ribs to add extra stiffness.

If you’re worried about scuffing your fresh screen, there is a Ceramic Shield on the back of the phone and a Ceramic Shield 2 on the front that Apple says has three times better scratch resistance than the previous generation.

In terms of battery, there’s a bit of variation depending on which screen you use more. You can get up to 31 hours of video playback with the inner display, up to 44 hours of video playback with the outer, and up to 24 hours of usage per charge when both are used equally.

It’s the most expensive of the phones announced at Apple’s event as, for US buyers, the Duo will set you back an eye-watering $1999 / £1999 (roughly AU$2770) for 256GB.

That puts it in the same ballpark as the Samsung Z Fold 8 Ultra, which launched at £1899 / $2099 / AU$2999. We haven't had any time with the Duo, but with a promising set of specifications it should make for strong competition. Hopefully we'll get one in for testing soon. Watch this space.

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The iPhone Duo is Apple's answer to Samsung's dominant Z Fold range, which includes the recently reviewed Z Fold 8 – a five-star phone that convinced me foldables have reached the point where I could happily switch from a slab phone to a bendy one.

Apple's effort, however, will convince any remaining holdouts that this is the case. Like it or not, Apple's influence is so huge that this new foldable will win over naysayers who would never have taken a second look at a Samsung foldable simply because it runs Android.

Thankfully, the iPhone Duo is an exciting announcement for AV enthusiasts, especially those who rely on their phone for entertainment on long flights and train rides, such as myself.

While Apple barely spoke about the AV capabilities of the handset during its presentation, we do know that it has a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display, 3000 nits peak brightness on both displays, and stereo speakers that support spatial audio.

It even has an under-screen front-facing camera for uninterrupted video, which is a concept that Samsung used on its Z Fold phones a few years ago.

For reference, the Z Fold 8 has a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display; now I won't point fingers at who is copying who here, but there have been years of leaks and rumours pointing towards the then-called iPhone Fold adopting this form factor. Samsung was the first out of the gate with this design though, so it's a tricky one to call.

Regardless, I think this is the correct move. While Apple hasn't confirmed the iPhone Duo's aspect ratio yet, it appears to follow the Z Fold 8's lead with a display that squashes letterboxing bars. This should make it pretty fantastic for watching movies and TV shows on the go, and it has an edge over the Samsung thanks to the inclusion of Dolby Vision HDR.

Interestingly, Apple has matched the aspect ratio on the outer and inner displays for a more "continuous" experience, which seems like a smart move, but I'll need to compare the iPhone directly to the Z Fold to see how this works in practice.

Apple also said that it has taken direct inspiration from the iPad lineup during its event, which also saw the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and AirPods 5 break cover, and that could hint towards the iPhone Duo being a follow-up to another Apple product we've previously championed.

The bendable Super Retina XDR OLED display with the Nano Texture anti-reflectivity coating sounds like a chip off the iPad Pro block; and while it looks like Apple has left Tandem OLED to the iPad Pro, the iPhone Duo could be our closest thing to an OLED iPad Mini.

Now, Samsung's latest foldable smartphone really did impress us; so much so that it earned a well-deserved five-star review. That's not to say it's completely perfect, though, and there is some room for improvement where audio is concerned.

Given Apple's stellar reputation for sound, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Duo outperform the Z Fold 8 in this category, as Apple's tuning leans more towards a warmer, more spacious hi-fi sound that's hard to beat.

That said, picture could be a closer race, and these smartphones might be heading towards a ferocious bendable battle, especially as we close in on our Awards testing process...

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Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review

As well as our Apple iPhone 17 Pro review

And our Apple iPhone 17 review

That's right, as expected, the standard iPhone 18 model is nowhere to be seen. Rumours say it will launch next year.

iPhone Duo

The iPhone Duo opens like a paperback book, and is about the size of a passport. When open, it's the slimmest iPhone ever, and it has an asymmetrical shape with two rounded corners that could split opinion.

Both screens have the same aspect ratio, which should help content look its best across both. As was rumoured, the exterior screen is a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR display, while the cover screen is 5.4 inches.

Perhaps mindful of how other foldables have broken in the past, Apple made a big deal about how durable it is. It features support rifts in the central support plank, for example. It's also rated IP68 water- and dust-resistant.

The control buttons move to the side vertically for easier reach, and the screen reacts depending on how you're using it. Partially close it, for example, and iOS moves the tappable buttons away from the seam, where they're harder to press.

The iPhone Duo comes in two colours: Star White and Night Sky. And it boasts an impressive battery life of 31 hours using the internal screen, and 44 hours using the cover screen.

As expected, Apple's first foldable is certainly pricey. It starts at £1999 / $1999 / AU3499 for the 256GB model, rising to £3199 / $3199 / AU$5899 for the flagship 2GB variant. It isn't available until 23rd October, with pre-orders starting on 16th October.

iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max

For the Pro models, Apple says it has upgraded four key areas: intelligence, performance, battery and camera. The screens are the same as those in the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, but don't dismay – there are usually some improvements to audio and video that Apple omits to mention during the launch, so stay tuned for our reviews.

These phones are powered by the new A20 chipset, which Apple claims is 20 per cent faster with 40 per cent faster graphics performance. The transistors in the new architecture are smaller and more densely packed, while Apple says its supercores are desktop-class. It also boasts better thermal management, which helps the battery life.

Speaking of which, both models last longer than their predecessors. The iPhone 18 Pro has the same battery life as the iPhone 17 Pro Max, while the 18 Pro Max has the largest increase in battery life of any iPhone. The Pro lasts 36 hours of video playback, and the Pro Max 45 hours. For general use, the Pro lasts 24 hours and the Pro Max 30 hours.

As rumoured, both models have a new variable aperture which adjusts automatically to let in more light as required. This will create a better depth of field and more stunning portraits. You can now record timelapse in 4K Dolby Vision HDR, and Pro Controls lets you manually adjust the aperture between four presets.

The Dynamic Island is now smaller, and can show three live activities at once.

Siri AI is more advanced, being more personal and capable, and works across apps. The new Siri app lets you dive back into old conversations, and Siri is built into the camera. You can also customise Siri's voice. But Siri AI isn't available in the EU for now.

The Pros have a subtle new design, and a new burgundy colour scheme.

The Pro starts at £1199 / $1199 and the Pro Max £1299 / $1299. There's a new 2TB model for power users.

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In fact, if Apple does as expected, the iPhone 17 Pro we have before us today will be replaced in just a couple of weeks.

So, why bother reviewing the iPhone 17 Pro at this late stage? There are two main reasons: it will likely be available to buy for a little while yet, and probably at a discount; and it gives us a good benchmark to judge the new model against.

As ever, we’re interested in the iPhone 17 Pro not for its rocket ship power or fancy camera array (though those are interesting), but for its picture and sound quality. We want to know if this is the best phone for taking movies and music with you on the move.

And it is – for the next couple of weeks, at least.

Price

The iPhone 17 Pro launched with a starting price of £1099 / $1099 / AU$1999, but it is now possible to get discounts of around £100 in the UK if you shop around.

That price gets you the entry-level 256GB version (Apple is no longer offering a 128GB Pro model), but 512GB and 1TB versions are also available, at a premium of £200 / $200 / AU$400 and £400 / $400 / AU$800 respectively.

If the 17 Pro’s 6.3-inch display isn’t large enough for you, an upgrade to the 6.9-inch Max will incur an additional premium of £100 / $100 / AU$200.

Design

The iPhone 17 Pro represents Apple's biggest design change to its Pro phones in several years, and it's one that took a little getting used to.

The most obvious change is the enormous new camera plateau, which now stretches almost the entire width of the phone. It looked rather shocking when we first saw it, but after spending time with the phone, we've come to think it gives the 17 Pro a more natural and balanced appearance than the asymmetrically placed square camera bump of its predecessor.

The move from titanium to aluminium also sounds like a step backwards for a phone at this level, but in practice it brings some advantages. The edges are smoother and more rounded than those of the 16 Pro, making the 17 Pro feel more comfortable in the hand, while Apple's new anodised finishes give it a character that's been missing from some of the more sober recent Pro models.

Our Deep Blue review sample is particularly lovely, with a rich, almost pearlescent finish that changes subtly as it catches the light. We're also rather taken with the Cosmic Orange option, although its unapologetically bold appearance inevitably divides opinion.

In fact, while the iPhone 17 Pro's design doesn't necessarily come across as dramatically different in photographs, this is an absolutely beautiful phone in the flesh, and one that feels every bit as premium as its price suggests. It's the most appealing-looking and nicest-feeling iPhone we've used in several years.

The physical controls remain unchanged from the 16 Pro, with volume controls and the Action button on one side, and the power/Siri and Camera Control buttons on the other.

The bottom edge has also been subtly revised, with both speaker grilles now appearing to be the same size rather than one being noticeably smaller than the other on the previous model.

The 17 Pro retains the same IP68 water and dust resistance as its predecessor, too; we even put that to a fairly vigorous test at Bude's Monster Slip And Slide, where it continued recording video while getting thoroughly soaked without any adverse effects.

Apple's new Tech Woven case is a particularly nice companion to the phone. Its woven finish feels more tactile and premium than many conventional cases, while the understated design complements rather than obscures the 17 Pro's new appearance.

The result is a Pro iPhone that feels both familiar and substantially refreshed. The camera plateau may take some getting used to, but the smoother shape, tactile finishes and excellent in-hand feel have made us rather fond of Apple's latest design.

Features

The iPhone 17 Pro's headline display specifications don’t look radically different to those of its predecessor. It's still a 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED with a 2622 x 1206 resolution, 460ppi pixel density, ProMotion up to 120Hz and an Always-On display. The big changes are to what's happening on top of that excellent OLED panel.

Apple has introduced a new anti-reflective coating that it claims reduces reflections by 33 per cent, while outdoor peak brightness has increased from 2000 nits on the iPhone 16 Pro to a huge-sounding 3000 nits.

Apple says these two changes combine to deliver up to twice the outdoor contrast of the previous model. We'll examine what that means in practice in the Picture Quality section, but the ability to maintain a convincing picture when you're watching in bright sunlight is particularly relevant to a phone intended to carry your movies everywhere.

For AV consumption, the format support is excellent, too. The iPhone 17 Pro can play HDR content in the HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats, and Dolby Atmos is supported on the audio side.

What’s perhaps most interesting from our point of view is that all of the above also applies to the standard iPhone 17, which boasts the same OLED display with the same specs and the same anti-reflection tech. It will be fascinating to see if this is borne out in our picture testing.

The other major upgrade for the iPhone 17 Pro over the 16 Pro is Apple's A19 Pro chip and new thermal management system. The new chip retains a six-core CPU and 16-core Neural Engine, but the new six-core GPU now has a Neural Accelerator in each core, improving its ability to handle demanding graphics and AI-based tasks.

Just as important, though, is the new thermal management system. The 17 Pro's aluminium unibody is more than 20 times more thermally conductive than the titanium used previously, according to Apple, and it incorporates a vapour chamber that moves heat away from the A19 Pro and into the aluminium chassis. Apple claims this allows up to 40 per cent better sustained performance than the previous generation.

For most content consumers, such as us, this level of power is essentially overkill – the 17 Pro operates with the sort of slickness you'd expect from a flagship phone and can handle graphically intensive games without breaking a sweat.

The more important benefit is the sheer amount of headroom it provides, and the ability to maintain high performance over longer periods without thermal throttling. In practical terms, that means higher frame rates during long gaming sessions and a better chance of the phone still feeling effortlessly quick several years from now. Of course, if you are going to use your phone for content creation as well as consumption, all of this extra power becomes considerably more useful.

Apple has also substantially upgraded the camera system. The 48MP Fusion Main camera remains, but the Ultra Wide and Telephoto cameras are now 48MP Fusion models, too.

The Fusion branding refers to Apple's image-processing architecture as much as the sensors themselves, with computational processing combining multiple sources of image data to produce a final shot.

The camera system is also more flexible when it comes to zoom. Alongside the 0.5x ultra-wide and 1x main views, you can now choose 2x, 4x or 8x optical zoom, giving you more options for getting close to a subject without resorting to the potentially softer digital zoom.

The new 4x Telephoto is particularly useful as a middle ground between the standard camera and the long-range 8x option, while its larger sensor helps it capture more light and detail.

If that’s all Dutch to you, the upshot for casual photographers is brilliantly detailed, dynamic and balanced shots at various levels of zoom. This is a supremely talented camera system that’s a doddle for amateurs to use and an absolute beast in the hands of a professional.

The front-facing camera is an even more obvious upgrade for everyday users. It moves from 12MP to 18MP and, more importantly, introduces a new square sensor that gives you much greater flexibility over framing. You can tap to expand the field of view, switch between portrait and landscape framing without rotating the phone, and automatically widen the shot when other people join a selfie.

Centre Stage can also keep you centred during video calls, while Dual Capture lets you record from the front and rear cameras simultaneously – useful for vloggers, but also for anyone who wants to capture their own reaction alongside whatever they're filming. There's also ultra-stabilised 4K HDR video for smoother handheld footage.

Battery life has improved, too. Apple rates the 17 Pro for up to 31 hours of video playback, compared with 27 hours for the 16 Pro. A sufficiently powerful charger can also take the phone to 50 per cent in just 20 minutes.

Bluetooth has been upgraded from version 5.3 to Bluetooth 6. That doesn't bring any meaningful benefit right now, but Bluetooth 6’s improved efficiency, reliability and potential for lower-latency connections could make it more useful as compatible headphones and other devices catch up.

Picture quality

The iPhone 17 Pro doesn't reinvent Apple's approach to picture quality, and nor does it need to. The iPhone 16 Pro already produces one of the finest pictures we've seen from a phone, combining excellent detail and contrast with Apple's typically impressive commitment to colour accuracy and consistency.

The 17 Pro takes that formula and makes some subtle but worthwhile refinements.

Put the two phones side by side and the colour balance is remarkably similar. There is, however, a smidge more richness to the 17 Pro's presentation, which is particularly evident in skin tones.

Subtle variations have a little more depth and life, but there's no sense that Apple has achieved this by simply turning up the saturation. The overall balance remains remarkably natural, and that combination of richness and restraint is one of the things that is so appealing about the picture.

There's a similarly subtle improvement to black depth. The 17 Pro's blacks are just a little deeper and denser than those of the 16 Pro, and while the difference is small, it lends the whole image a little more solidity and lustre. It's not simply a case of dark areas having been made darker, either: shadow detail remains excellent.

The dark scenes of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey provide a good demonstration. As Bilbo, Fili and Kili track their missing ponies through the darkness, the 17 Pro delivers an excellent combination of insight and solidity, with fine details remaining visible while the deepest parts of the image look impressively dense.

The 16 Pro is also excellent here, but its slightly lighter blacks give the picture a little less depth, while the 17 Pro's richer colours and deeper contrast combine to create a more three-dimensional image.

The same characteristics repeat across everything we watch. The dimly lit opening of Conclave benefits from the 17 Pro's extra depth and richness without sacrificing any shadow detail. The brighter scenes of The Creator, meanwhile, absolutely pop, with the vivid greens of the terraced rice paddies contrasting beautifully with the blue of the police ships and the red of “the weapon's” jumpsuit.

In fact, we find ourselves repeatedly drawn towards the 17 Pro's picture when switching back and forth between the two phones. The differences aren't dramatic, but the newer model has a little more of that lusciousness that makes an image particularly enjoyable to watch.

In normal indoor lighting, there's little to separate the two phones in terms of outright brightness. Both produce wonderfully dynamic pictures with plenty of pop, and neither is crying out for more light. Move into really bright ambient conditions, though, and the 17 Pro's new display technology makes a much more obvious difference.

The new anti-reflective coating significantly reduces glare bouncing back at you from the screen, while the display can automatically unlock its additional outdoor brightness in very bright conditions. The combination makes the picture noticeably easier to see and enjoy when the environment would otherwise be fighting against it.

It's worth stressing that this isn't a matte screen in the manner of Samsung's latest flagship OLED TVs. Those displays are exceptionally resistant to reflections, but their matte finishes can also sap some of the depth and richness from black areas. Apple's approach is closer to the treatment used by LG's G6: reflections are reduced significantly without turning the glossy OLED surface into something visibly matte, so you retain those deep, lush blacks while gaining a useful degree of protection from glare.

Motion, meanwhile, remains very good, as we'd expect from the 120Hz ProMotion OLED. There is, however, still some judder inherent in 24fps movie content, and the sheer responsiveness of an OLED display can make this more obvious than it might be on an LCD screen. It’s far from a major problem, and certainly not unique to iPhones, but it would be nice if in future phones Apple could offer an option for some very gentle motion processing to smooth this out without introducing the artificial, soap-opera-like quality of aggressive interpolation.

Finally, we have to mention the Dynamic Island. In the default letterboxed presentation, it's essentially a non-issue for movie watching because the picture doesn't extend far enough up the display for the Island to overlap it. Zoom the content to fill the entire screen, though, and it's obviously there.

But what's remarkable is how quickly you stop seeing it. Once you're engrossed in a film, your brain seems to erase it from your awareness. We'd still love a phone with a genuinely uninterrupted screen for movie watching, but in practice, the Dynamic Island proves far less distracting than you might expect.

Ultimately, the iPhone 17 Pro doesn't deliver a night-and-day improvement over the 16 Pro. Instead, it takes an already exceptional picture and gives it a little more richness, depth and lustre, while making it more usable in the brightest viewing conditions.

A comparison with the standard iPhone 17 is also revealing. Despite the two phones having the same headline display specifications, the 17 Pro has a little more pop and vibrancy.

In F1: The Movie, for example, the fluorescent tubes lighting the laundromat are a brighter, purer white, while Brad Pitt's race suit is a touch crisper and more detailed in texture. Skin tones are also very slightly more naturally saturated.

The differences are small, but they give the Pro a marginally more dynamic and three-dimensional presentation.

Sound quality

As with the picture, the iPhone 17 Pro doesn't represent a radical change to Apple's already excellent approach to sound.

That said, the built-in speakers are a little fuller and richer than those of the 16 Pro, with more weight and a smoother, more rounded presentation. The difference is subtle, but the older model sounds just a touch thin and hard by comparison.

The standard iPhone 17's speakers are broadly similar, but the Pro has the edge here, too. The 17 sounds a touch more aggressive and less fluidly rounded, and it seems to lean more heavily on its bottom speakers, resulting in a slightly left-sided balance when watching in landscape. The 17 Pro sounds a little richer, smoother and more spatially consistent.

It's with Spatial Audio movies that the iPhone 17 Pro’s tiny speakers really impress. The opening sequence of F1: The Movie is reproduced with a surprisingly wide soundstage, with cars sweeping from deep on the right to far over on the left, while the commentary and fireworks have a reasonable sense of height.

Effects, music and dialogue are also given enough space to breathe that the busy soundtrack remains surprisingly clear. You're certainly not surrounded by sound in the way you would be with a proper home cinema system, but the scale and spatial precision are remarkable for a tiny device such as a phone.

Stereo music is less impressive through the speakers. While they produce a decent amount of bass for their size, depth remains paltry by absolute standards, and tracks sound much thinner than they should. It’s a more congested delivery, too, with Sleep Token's The Summoning, for example, losing much of its spaciousness and scale.

That's hardly surprising given the physical limitations, though, and the 17 Pro is still very capable by the admittedly rather low standards of smartphone speaker audio.

Connect a good pair of headphones, meanwhile, and we no longer need caveats. Using a pair of AirPods Max 2 via USB-C, the 17 Pro delivers superb clarity, rhythmic drive and tonal balance, with enough composure to make complex recordings genuinely engaging.

Tool's Invincible is reproduced with absolute confidence, the steady dynamic build of the percussion gathering momentum without losing its precision, while Maynard James Keenan's vocals remain focused without sacrificing their deliberately airy, ethereal quality.

The differences between the 17 Pro and 16 Pro are smaller through headphones than they are through the built-in speakers, but as we switch between the two with Rosalia's Divinize, the new model sounds just a little tighter, particularly in the fluttering bass notes of the chorus, which have terrific punch and control. Rosalia's vocals are a touch cleaner and smoother, too, especially when listening at high volumes.

The standard iPhone 17 gets unsurprisingly close through headphones, but the Pro still has a small advantage. Playing Architects' Animals, the 17 Pro sounds just a little fuller and smoother without sacrificing any of the track's punch or dynamics. It's an overall meatier, more mature delivery, though the difference is subtle.

Verdict

The iPhone 17 Pro is an outstanding portable movie and music player, with a superb screen, excellent sound and small but meaningful improvements over its predecessor.

The picture is the real star. It retains the beautiful balance and authenticity we’ve come to expect from Apple’s phones, but gains a little extra richness, depth and lustre. At the same time, the improved anti-reflection performance makes it considerably more practical in bright conditions.

Sound is similarly refined, with a small but worthwhile improvement to the built-in speakers and outstanding performance through headphones.

The key thing is that none of these improvements is transformative. If you already own an iPhone 16 Pro, there isn't a compelling AV reason to upgrade, particularly if you mostly watch indoors and listen through headphones.

For someone buying a new phone, though, the equation is different. The standard iPhone 17 gets surprisingly close, but the Pro has a small but discernible advantage for both picture and sound, as well as its much more capable camera system and greater processing headroom.

Admittedly, those advantages are small enough that the standard iPhone 17 remains the most sensible performance-per-pound option if you only care about movie and music performance, but if you also feel like you might take advantage of the more advanced camera system and/or processing power, the extra money for the Pro model becomes easier to justify.

Ultimately, the iPhone 17 Pro is probably the best phone we've tested for taking movies and music on the move. The (presumably) impending iPhone 18 Pro might push things on even further, but that won't change the fact that the 17 Pro is an exceptional AV machine – and one that could become even more tempting with end-of-life discounts.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 5
• Features 5

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The new model sports a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate. That’s slightly bigger than the 6.3in screen used in its more expensive sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S26.

In terms of peak brightness, the S26 FE can go up to 1900 nits, and when we had a chance to get up close with pre-production models during Samsung’s launch event, its display seemed colourful yet balanced while watching test footage under bright lighting.

This is most likely helped by the Samsung Vision Booster, a technology that improves screen visibility and colour reproduction.

We'll have to see the phone under natural outdoor lighting to see how it truly performs, but we are hoping its well-sized screen and solid specs could make it a promising contender for movie lovers on the go.

Its camera setup includes a 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom on the back of the phone. At the front, you will spot a 12MP selfie camera at the top.

The S26 FE also offers 45W charging, which the brand claims can get your phone to 70 per cent in half an hour. You can get up to 28 hours of video playback from a single charge, which is only two hours less than the S26.

The processor has been given a boost, offering Exynos 2500. That’s still not on par with the more premium Exynos 2600 found in the standard S26, but it is an upgrade from the previous FE iteration. On top of that, the new model also runs on Android 17 and offers seven generations of updates.

The phone weighs in at 193g and, based on our first impression, it seems impressively lightweight and well-built.

The S26 FE will set you back £699 for the 128GB model, £799 for 256GB of storage and £949 for the top 512GB handset. This is slightly higher than the previous S25 FE, which started at £649 for the cheapest model, but that could be down to the RAM crisis, which has hiked up smartphone prices across the board.

There are three colours to choose from: Pistachio, Graphite and Blueberry.

When we reviewed the top-of-the-range Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, we were dazzled by its feature-packed software experience and contrast-rich picture. If the S26 FE can offer a chunk of that five-star performance for a fraction of the price, then it could be a great contender for film fans on the move.

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Sony’s latest budget smartphone claims to double the brightness of its predecessor

Sure enough, Apple has just announced an event for 9th September. I wonder what that could be about?

Actually, I’m doing Apple a disservice there, because this event, which has the tagline ‘Surprise And Shine’, is expected to be a little different to previous years.

That’s because rumours suggest that it won’t feature the ‘standard’ iPhone 18, which most in-the-know types currently think is set for a launch in spring next year.

Instead, the 9th September event is tipped to focus on the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and [drumroll] Apple’s first foldable phone.

As AV nerds, we are of course very excited to see the foldable iPhone, which rumours suggest could be called the iPhone Ultra.

If it can combine the awesomely cinematic picture tuning of Apple’s existing iPhones with a near-tablet-sized screen and a movie-friendly aspect ratio, it could well be the ultimate phone for movies on the move.

What about AirPods, HomePods and the Apple TV?

But what else might we see at the event? August has been chock-full of rumours about new Apple devices, including the AirPods 5 (one version with ANC, the other without), the controversial AirPods with camera, a new HomePod Mini and HomePod 3, and even the long-overdue Apple TV 4K replacement.

Will any of those appear on 9th September? Personally, I’m not convinced.

To me, it feels like the wrong time to launch the AirPods with a camera, given the current controversy around camera-enabled glasses. I can’t see Apple wading into those murky waters at this stage.

The AirPods 5 look very much ready to go, but they also look like a fairly iterative update to the AirPods 4, which would likely leave them a bit forgotten if they were announced at the same event as the fancy new Pro and Ultra iPhones.

The rumoured new HomePod and HomePod Mini, on the other hand, feel like announcements that are too big to risk being overshadowed by the foldable phone.

My guess is that the new AirPods and HomePods will be announced at a dedicated event in October, where we might also finally see the new Apple TV 4K, which could have some clever new synergy with the HomePods.

As ever with Apple, though, this is really just rumour-fuelled guesswork. Thankfully, we don't have long to wait to find out what's actually coming, as 9th September isn't far away.

Apple will be streaming the event live at Apple.com. Kick-off time is 6pm in the UK, 10am in the US (PT), and 3am on 10th September in Australia.

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It offers a handful of upgrades over its predecessor, the Xperia 10 VII, and follows on from the Award-winning Xperia 10 VI.

The new model boasts a claimed peak brightness that is double that of the previous smartphone to deliver “improved visibility even outdoors”, although Sony has not disclosed the exact figures.

The Japanese brand also claims that the stereo speaker system (made up of the earpiece and a bottom-firing speaker) features “revised tuning”, which will supposedly deliver “improved volume and sound quality”.

Sony says that volume is boosted by 15 per cent and these speakers can also output 30 per cent stronger bass than the previous model.

There are still a fair few similarities with its older sibling, though. Like the VII model, it runs on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 with 8GB of RAM, and is powered by a 5,000mAh battery that Sony claims can last for up to two days.

Resolution and size have also stayed the same, with a 6.1-inch screen with a 2340 x 1080 OLED display.

The camera set-up is familiar too, with the 10 VIII sporting a 50-megapixel main and 13-megapixel ultra-wide lens on the back, as well as an 8-megapixel selfie camera.

We are glad to see that the 3.5 mm aux jack has stuck around, and cements Sony as one of the best for audio features in the smartphone market.

You can choose from three colour finishes for the Xperia VIII: Frozen White, Frosted Grey and Misted Lilac.

The Xperia 10 VIII is launching at £549 in the UK, making it £150 more expensive than its predecessor.

That would feel more warranted if there were more hefty upgrades, but it’s a hard sell considering it has the same chipset and camera. That said, the ongoing RAM crisis is likely the cause, with smartphone prices rising across the board.

We're eager to find out if Sony has delivered another five-star budget portable AV machine, so stay tuned for our full review.

MORE:

Check out our review of the Sony Xperia 10 VI

These are the best smartphones on the market

And here are the best Sony soundbars

Well, that's exactly what you get with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, which we dubbed "as close to cinematic as a tablet can get".

Our review only came out last week, but we're already seeing discounts from the 'tested at' price of £1089 – the Wi-Fi-only, 256GB version is now £969 at Samsung.

If you want a device to watch your movies on the go in the very best quality possible, while also doubling as a laptop replacement, then this is the tablet for you.

At 14.6 inches, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is certainly big – and, given that it uses an AMOLED 2X display, it offers a highly cinematic experience, while remaining portable enough to pack away in a rucksack.

The 16:10 aspect ratio gives you much slimmer black bars than its main rival, the iPad Pro, making movies look considerably bigger and more immersive.

"There’s been a peak brightness boost to 1600 nits too, which matches that of the iPad Pro, and that really comes into its own in HDR scenes," our Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review reads. "We’re comparing it against the iPad Pro 13-inch M4, but HDR highlights certainly have a bit of extra punch on the S11 Ultra, and overall brightness levels are also slightly higher too.

"In the fight between K and Sapper in Blade Runner 2049, the bright windows pierce into the gloomy room with noticeably more intensity on the S11 Ultra, and there’s also a touch more subtlety in the light reflected onto their faces."

Despite the large screen size, the S11 Ultra is only 5.1mm thick. It is lighter than its predecessor at 692g, but it can be rather heavy to hold one-handed for extended periods. Thankfully, the pricey tablet feels premium, and it's also hardy with an IP68 water- and dust-proof rating.

If you're looking at the S11 Ultra purely for movies and music, then the Samsung isn't cheap and should probably be thought of as a potential laptop replacement too.

The flagship tablet has a beefy MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip, which means it has no problems running apps, streaming, multitasking or using Samsung’s window-based desktop system, DeX.

There are three cameras on board – one selfie and two on the rear – and an 11,600mAh battery, which we found could last well into a second day with medium to heavy use.

The S11 Ultra's four external speakers can go loud and big, with support for virtualised Dolby Atmos that widens the soundstage further. The audio is much more assured with headphones, though, with a punchy, clean, upfront sound.

The only other tablet around this price range is the iPad Pro, which does offer more natural images and fuller-bodied sound but is even more expensive. It may be a better choice if you are already invested in the Apple ecosystem, however.

If you've got the budget and the space, though, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has a bright, sharp screen that is more immersive than just about any other tablet we've tested. Now £120 off at Samsung.

MORE:

Also consider reading our iPad Pro 13-in M4 review

These are the best tablets for movies and music across a range of prices

Read our Samsung Z Fold 8 Ultra review

With a screen that measures in at 14.6 inches, it’s massive – bigger than a lot of laptops, and about as powerful as one too. If you’re looking for an Android tablet built for performance, on specs alone this has got to be a strong contender.

For movies on the go though, there’s a lot to love here too – and of course that large AMOLED 2X screen is a considerable part of that.

For people who don’t mind the extra heft in their backpack, and who can justify its equally hefty price, this could be one of the most cinematic ways to watch movies on the move.

Price

The Samsung Tab S11 Ultra is available in a number of configurations. There is a choice of either 256GB or 512GB of storage with 12GB RAM, or a 1TB storage option with 16GB RAM – plus you can also add up to 2TB of storage via microSD card.

In the UK, Europe and Australia, there’s also the choice of going for wi-fi only or opting for 5G cellular support across any of those configurations. However, the 5G version is not currently available in the US.

The wi-fi-only 256GB version costs £1089 / $1300 / AU$1799, with 512GB costing £1239 / $1500 / AU$1999 and the 1TB costing £1569 / $1900 / AU$2499.

For 5G, you will need to pay £1239 / AU$2049 for 256GB, £1389 / AU£2249 for 512GB, and £1719 / AU$2749 for 1TB.

There’s only one other tablet that’s sitting around these kinds of prices, and that’s the iPad Pro – though that is even more expensive still, in every configuration.

Considering the fact you’re likely Team Android if you’re considering the Tab S11 Ultra, how much the iPad Pro costs is probably of no concern to you – but it gives you an idea of where the Tab S11 Ultra sits in the overall tablet hierarchy.

To help turn this into the laptop replacement it wants to be, and to make its size feel less – well – sizeable, Samsung’s Slim Keyboard Cover is available as an add-on for £199 / $210 / AU$399, though it’s often offered for free on bundle promotions.

It’s a nice case with a decent keyboard for typing (but no trackpad), and it helps take the weight of the tablet out of your hands when watching movies. It thankfully doesn’t add too much extra bulk either, and also doubles up as protection for the tablet.

The new simplified S Pen stylus, also found with the S25 Ultra phone, is included with the Tab S11 Ultra for free.

Design

If you’re already familiar with Samsung’s Ultra line of tablets, you’ll notice that the S11 Ultra doesn’t break the mould of the last few years in terms of design. That’s no bad thing; it’s a smart-enough-looking tablet, with curved corners and flat, angled sides, available in a choice of grey or silver.

However, Samsung has managed to shave a few millimetres of depth compared with the Tab S10 Ultra, meaning it’s now slimmer than ever, measuring just 5.1mm thick – the same thickness as the iPad Pro, in fact. It’s lighter than its predecessor too, at 692g (wi-fi only), down from 723g.

Even with that weight off, it still feels quite heavy to hold one-handed for any extended amount of time, and its sheer size and 16:10 aspect ratio also make it a little unwieldy to use in portrait orientation – this is definitely a tablet that’s meant to be used primarily in landscape.

Considering what we look for in tablets, that certainly doesn’t bother us, but we can certainly feel the difference in our hands between this and the iPad Pro (579g).

For a pricey tablet, the S11 Ultra feels premium, but it’s reassuring to know that it’s pretty hardy too, using Samsung’s Enhanced Armor Aluminium (the same material used in the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus) for its back panel, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for its display. It’s also officially IP68 rated, which is more than the iPad Pro, meaning it’ll be safe if it gets wet.

Elsewhere, the S11 Ultra keeps things pretty simple, with just the power button and volume rocker on the top left edge (if held in landscape), a USB-C charging port to the right, along with an under-screen fingerprint scanner for unlocking on the right side too. This can be a bit tricky to find initially but works just fine once you have, though face recognition feels like the better, more consistent bet for unlocking on first try.

The included S Pen stylus snaps magnetically along the top edge, and comes with an updated hexagonal design to mimic real pencils. It’s also simpler this time round, requiring no charging whatsoever. That means it drops its Bluetooth capability, and Samsung’s Air Actions along with it (that offered shortcuts and remote functions based on gestures and button clicks with the S Pen), but the benefit of the pen not needing charging far outweighs that to our way of thinking.

Features

The Tab S11 Ultra is Samsung’s flagship tablet, and it has a spec list to match. First up, a suitably beefy chipset, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400+, ensures the Samsung moves seamlessly between apps, quickly loads and buffers streams, and has no problem with multitasking – even when using Samsung’s window-based desktop system, DeX.

We won’t dig too much into this, but if you’re buying a tablet for movies and hoping to also use it as something of a laptop replacement, Samsung’s Tab S11 Ultra is probably the experience to beat on Android.

It’s still a stretch to suggest it could match the productivity of a proper laptop – the experience is just not as slick and the app selection not as extensive – but the desktop view is easy to access, and you can quickly flip between that and a more standard tablet experience, with DeX launching automatically whenever you shrink down an app to multi-task.

There are three cameras on the Tab S11 Ultra, one selfie camera and two on the rear. If you’re using the main cameras – a 13MP main and 8MP ultrawide – to take anything other than the quick snapshot in a pinch, you may need to have a word with yourself. Your phone will be easier to use and will undoubtedly do a better job, but in good lighting conditions you’ll get a sharp, passable shot from the S11 Ultra, with decent colours and a good amount of detail.

The 12MP front-facing camera is arguably more important on a tablet, and the S11 Ultra’s does a pretty good job with that, offering an ultrawide lens for getting all of the family in on video calls and managing variable lighting pretty well too.

Video quality tops out at 4K 30fps no matter what camera you’re using. Once again, it’s fine, but it’s probably not going to launch any YouTube careers.

With an 11,600mAh battery, battery life is decent, and while Samsung’s stated 23 hours of playback is ambitious for real-world use (this is apparently based on playing a 720p video saved on the device, rather than being streamed), you can get well into a second day with medium to heavy use – as long as you keep an eye on your screen brightness.

The Tab S11 Ultra runs on Android 16, with Samsung’s One UI 8 running over the top. Samsung offers an impressive seven years of OS and security updates, meaning that your investment should be sound for at least that long.

Picture quality

The Tab S11 Ultra’s whopping 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display is really the biggest talking point of this tablet, and perhaps its biggest selling point too – particularly if you want big-screen movies on the go.

The resolution remains unchanged here from its predecessor, at 1848 x 2690 and 239ppi, and with its 16:10 aspect ratio, you get much slimmer black bars than you do on the iPad Pro when watching most movies. That means the size of this screen really does have an impact on your experience, making it all the more immersive. Movies look considerably bigger on this screen than on the iPad Pro.

There’s been a peak brightness boost to 1600 nits too, which matches that of the iPad Pro, and that really comes into its own in HDR scenes. We’re comparing it against the iPad Pro 13-inch M4, but HDR highlights certainly have a bit of extra punch on the S11 Ultra, and overall brightness levels are also slightly higher too.

In the fight between K and Sapper in Blade Runner 2049, the bright windows pierce into the gloomy room with noticeably more intensity on the S11 Ultra, and there’s also a touch more subtlety in the light reflected onto their faces.

However, at the other end of the scale, it’s a different story. Blacks are deeper on the S11 Ultra than those on the iPad Pro M4, but the iPad retains more shadow detail, meaning this dingy scene has more dimension to it on Apple’s slate.

Colours are generally well handled across the board and, once you’ve turned the default screen mode from Vivid to Natural, it skews a lot closer to the tone of the iPad Pro, which we have long praised for its colour balance. The S11 Ultra is still richer though, with punchier handling of colours and warmer skin tones, but not in a way that looks misplaced or unnatural – particularly when viewed in isolation. In fact, sometimes it works in its favour, creating a lively image that doesn’t look out of place.

However, it’s not just in the shadows where the iPad pips the S11 Ultra for fine detail; it does so in brighter scenes too. There’s a greater sense of depth in landscape shots, and more natural insight into the textures of skin, hair and fabrics. The S11 Ultra struggles to find quite the same nuance, and so we sometimes notice some oversharpening as it tries a bit too hard.

The S11 Ultra’s screen is anti-reflective, and while it doesn’t kill all reflections, it actually does a pretty good job of dulling them down – better than the iPad Pro M4 does, though we are yet to test the nano-texture glass on the M5.

While not perfect, there’s a lot to love about the way movies look on the S11 Ultra – and how immersive it feels remains a big part of that. The iPad Pro still takes it for the most natural and insightful images, but if you’re looking for the closest equivalent on Android, this has got to be it.

Sound quality

If you’re not using headphones, the S11 Ultra leans on four external speakers for its sound, one at each corner. Those on the bottom edges aren’t placed brilliantly though, as they sit very close to where your hands would generally hold the tablet, and it can muffle them.

Be careful with where you place your hands, though, and they go really loud, and because the screen is so wide, they sound big too, with audio that fills the screen and the space around it. There’s support for virtualised Dolby Atmos for content that contains it too, which only widens this further, though any expectations for a real sense of height should be managed appropriately.

Pull up the first ten minutes of 6 Underground, and there’s a soundtrack full of car chases, crashes and gunfire to contend with. The sense of immersion remains, and the S11 Ultra has more scale and presence than the iPad Pro. However, Apple’s slate has a richer and more solid tonal balance compared with the S11 Ultra, which can veer into sounding a touch fragile and sharp at volume.

Listening via USB-C audio to Go by The Chemical Brothers streamed on Apple Music, and the age-old story goes on. The S11 Ultra sounds just fine – it’s much more assured when listening via headphones, with a much better tonal balance than its speakers. It’s a punchy, clean and upfront sound that’s plenty entertaining.

However, the iPad just sounds warmer and fuller-bodied, with more fine detail retrieval that helps tie all the elements of a song together more cohesively.

Verdict

There’s no doubt that the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is one of the most capable Android tablets you can buy, with a bright, sharp screen that makes watching movies on the go more immersive than you can find on just about any other tablet.

It is enormous though, which means it takes up a fair bit of space in a backpack. It’s expensive too, so you’re going to want to make use of at least some of its broader performance features for that price to make sense. But if you’ve got the budget and the space, this is the Android tablet to beat for movies and music on the go.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Also consider the iPad Pro 13-in M4

These are the best tablets for movies and music

At first glance, that pitch continues with the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which offers a refined take on its Z Fold 7 predecessor – including a huge boost to both its screens' peak brightness levels and upscaling powers.

And were it not for one key issue, we would wholeheartedly be praising it as the best foldable for our discerning readers. But sadly, thanks to the appearance of a wildcard from Samsung, the Ultra is, ironically, not the ultimate option for Android AV enthusiasts; its cheaper sibling, the Samsung Z Fold 8, is.

Price

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is undeniably a premium product. The cheapest 256GB model we have in for review costs £1899 ( $2099 / AU$2999). The 512GB model will set you back £2069, while the top-of-the-line 1TB model sells for £2049. The extra increase for the 1TB model is also due to it having more RAM.

To put that in context, you could easily pick up enough entry-level Android phones and tablets to equip a family of three, or 2.4 Award-winning iPhone 17s, for the same price.

That also makes it over £100 / $100 more expensive than the older Z Fold 7 was at launch, £200 more expensive than the entertainment-focused Z Fold 8 and £620 more than Samsung’s flagship non-folding phone, the five-star Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Build

The price will be a hard pill to swallow for some, but there is no denying the Z Fold 8 Ultra feels premium and, dare we say, rugged (at least compared with past foldables we’ve tested).

The final point is a particular surprise for the team, one of whom had the joy of watching his first-generation Z Fold handset break in his hand when he first tested the folding mechanism many moons ago.

This is mainly thanks to Samsung’s Flex Titanium Technology display tech. The tech places a thin alloy mesh and flexible titanium plate under the AMOLED screens, which lets the firm reduce the phone’s size while improving its folding mechanism’s usability and durability.

Gone are the days when you would wince and pray to the tech gods whenever you opened it up. Now the Z Fold’s mechanism feels solid and suitably easy to use without requiring uncomfortable levels of force.

Uniformity is also improved, and unlike past Samsung Fold phones, the inner display’s crease is close to unnoticeable, resulting in a more immersive experience, especially when playing media.

The rigidity, smaller dimensions and generally polished design make the Ultra feel premium – though be warned, its IP45 rating means it's still not beach or pool-ready, and won’t survive most aquatic adventures.

The only other downside is that it retains the Fold’s atypical form factor, which, while having benefits for movie fans, is still firmly focused on 'power users' who want to have multiple apps open at the same time.

The 21:9 aspect ratio 6.5-inch outer display is thinner than most normal phones and has intuitively placed power and volume controls on its side, and also houses its fingerprint scanner.

But its 8-inch inner screen is still decidedly square-shaped, and the two side-facing speakers are pretty easy to block if you turn it on its side to make the most of the extra real estate. Doing so will also force the internal hole-punch-design selfie camera to block part of the screen, even when watching 21:9 content.

This makes the smaller Z Fold 8 feel fresher and more attuned to media consumption, thanks to its new passport-sized 10:16 aspect ratio outer screen and 7.6-inch 4:3 landscape interior display.

Features

Despite the power-user focus, the Fold 8 Ultra still houses several treats for movie and TV fans in particular.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset and 12GB of RAM ensure our review unit never stutters and is a speed demon with most processes – you’ll be able to game, edit spreadsheets and reels with zero issue. This is further aided by both screens’ variable refresh rate (VRR) 120Hz support.

For media, the phone doesn’t have the same Samsung ProScaler tech that wowed us on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Instead, it relies on Samsung’s mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe) hardware. Rather than upscaling content, as ProScaler does, mDNIe uses advanced image processing to help the Ultra deliver more subtle and lifelike colours. Samsung specifically claims it’s “four times more accurate” than the older Z Fold 7.

Outside of this, both the Fold 8 Ultra’s screens support Samsung’s HDR10+ standard. The internal screen also has a staggering 3000 nits peak brightness. That’s 400 nits more than the older Fold 7. Combined with the handset’s Vision Booster feature, which adjusts contrast and the screen’s settings based on ambient light conditions, we never struggle to see what is onscreen, even in direct outdoor sunlight.

Dolby Atmos support is also included, both for the inbuilt speakers and connected headphones – though you have to activate it in the Ultra’s settings.

Despite its 4.1mm slimness when unfolded, the phone’s battery is also reasonably sized. The 5000mAh cell is quoted as offering 27 hours of video playback from a single charge. That figure requires some sacrifices to the display’s brightness, but we still find ourselves only losing an average of four-to-seven per cent of the phone’s charge watching Netflix on our hour-long commute home each day, which is solid by mobile standards.

Samsung’s One UI software sits over its base Android 17 OS. The skin brings some useful features, but they’re mostly to do with AI and making the most of the second screen. These include the ability to have multiple apps open on the inner display, which can be a boon.

Whether it’s chatting on Slack with the spreadsheet you’re discussing open on the other side of the screen, or WhatsApping your friends with Google Maps open as you try to navigate your way to the pub you’re meeting at, there are plenty of moments it's useful – though we do occasionally find ourselves hankering for a stylus like the one seen on the S26 Ultra, especially when working with spreadsheets.

Outside of the split-screen functionality, Now Brief and Now Nudge are probably the most used features. The first feature pushes contextual information throughout your day, while Now Nudge, rather creepily, raids data from all the apps on your device and the cloud to offer contextual replies.

Finally, the Ultra comes with a competent camera set-up. On its back you’ll find a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide (up from 12 megapixels on the Fold 7) and a 10-megapixel telephoto. It also features the same ProVisual Engine with advanced AP processing for Nightography video.

The Fold 8 has a downgraded set-up, featuring a basic 50MP main and secondary 50MP ultrawide lens. Both feature 10MP selfie cameras with a hole-punch design embedded in each screen.

Given our AV focus, we won’t delve into too much detail here, but the cameras are good, though not the best you’ll find at this end of the market. The Ultra can take captivating shots and is more than good enough for shooting video for social media – as evidenced by a number of Reels we've posted on our channels using it.

Stabilisation is solid, and low-light photography looks good and is generally noise-free. But Samsung’s processing is still a smidgeon aggressive for those who value realism. Unless you go full manual, it still can oversharpen slightly, especially compared with a modern iPhone or Pixel, and colours occasionally look a tad overbaked.

Picture

The big question is, how does the Ultra perform as a home cinema in your hand? And here the answer is interesting. Our reviewers tested both of this year’s Fold phones and, despite the phones having the same nit count and upscaling powers, ended up using them fairly differently.

Side by side, playing Crime 101 in HDR10+ on Amazon Prime Video on the unfolded screens, it is immediately clear both are cut from the same cloth. Colours are nicely rich, despite the low-light scene’s tricky nature, and there’s a pleasing level of dark detail throughout the cityscape.

But interestingly, the basic Z Fold 8 goes a smidgeon brighter in certain parts, with the night-time sky initially offering a tad more contrast than the Ultra.

We make next to no adjustments to the screen settings, outside of turning off the ambient light and colour temperature controls, to ensure uniformity, as Samsung has refreshingly set the screen to its natural, not vivid mode, out of the box.

Moving to Ready Or Not 2 on Disney+, the phone’s AMOLED screen does a stellar job, delivering dark details that are lost on cheaper handsets, but it's the Fold 8 Ultra’s ability to retain colour volume, even in low light, that steals the show.

Avoiding spoilers, the viscera during a heated scene, mixing intense sections of light and dark elements, retains a pleasing level of realness, without ever being oversaturated. Skin tones as characters creep through the shadows retain a realistic warmth, never looking jaundiced or flat as they often can on phone screens.

Masters Of The Universe, on Prime Video, continues the strong performance, with the intentionally bright, almost cartoony, colours of Eternia popping, but never veering too far toward becoming oversaturated.

If anything, the screen feels like it could go harder, especially when pushing the numerous explosions billowing around He-Man. Here, interestingly, the base Fold 8 appears to be willing to push the brightest part of the picture a little harder than the Ultra. But, as always, we’ll take finesse over bombastic artificiality any day of the week.

The upscaling is also solid. Switching to Batman Begins, the phone admirably sharpens the Caped Crusader, giving the film a wonderfully three-dimensional but never artificial feel. Movements in particular retain their weight, as we feel every one of Batman’s precise but heavy blows. It’s only when he switches to the Batmobile and begins racing across Gotham that we detect a hint of oversmoothing.

With episodes of One Tree Hill on Netflix, the upscaling can’t completely remove the fuzzy grain from the ageing millennial melodrama, and some black crush does creep into certain scenes. But the show looks leagues sharper, more three-dimensional and ultimately immersive than that which we find on most rivals.

Were it not for one big elephant in the room, we would wholeheartedly say that, for the most part, it feels like we’re watching a shrunk-down Samsung OLED. That elephant in the room is the aspect ratio. The tablet screen only offers a smidgeon more real estate than its smaller sibling. And taking advantage of it means putting up with giant black bars on the upper and lower edges, with the hole-punch camera intruding on what you’re watching.

Before, this was easier to put up with. But with the standard Fold 8 being cheaper and having a more entertainment-focused aspect ratio, for people who just want to watch media, it makes the more expensive Ultra a harder sell.

In fact, the lack of extra real estate garnered from unfolding the handset means that at times, especially when commuting (unless, say, we are reading a comic or book on Kindle), we regularly just use the front screen, with its much more movie-friendly 21:9 aspect ratio.

Sound

Audio performance is an area where Samsung phones have proven to be good, but not best in class for a while – hence the four-star (and below) 'Sound' ratings on every handset we’ve reviewed since the Galaxy S23.

And this is largely because, outside Atmos and Spatial Audio, the firm doesn’t seem too bothered about improving its phones' musicality. This is a key reason Apple iPhones have dominated our Awards recently.

Does the Fold 8 Ultra reverse this trend?

Testing the audio with a pair of wired headphones using a USB-C to 3.5mm converter, the handset leaves a positive opening impression playing Philip Glass’s Floe on Apple Music.

There is a pleasing separation to every instrument as the demanding, rhythmically driven, harmonic progression strides forward. And the sound never feels out of control – an impressive feat considering how easy it is for the low-end, heavy bass synthesiser to overpower the more subtle string and flute sections.

As we move to 16 Horse Power’s Sinnerman, the phone’s focus on control continues. The handset accurately articulates the mid-heavy nature of the piece, retaining the track's intentionally swampy, raw, gritty Gothic Americana tone without pushing its own sonic signature on it.

But switching gears to the more energetic Good To Your Earhole (the all-analogue remaster, of course) by Funkadelic, the performance is a bit too tame. The attacking funk guitar doesn’t land with the intended scooped tone or have the rhythmic drive and precision we want. Our reviewers' feet remain firmly on the floor, rather than tapping along as they normally would, as a result.

Shifting to Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, the phone once again plays it a little too safe; the crash of John Bonham’s drums entering the composition doesn’t have the weight and impact it should, showing the phone’s middling handling of dynamics and, dare we say, a lack of fun in the sound.

There’s nothing disastrously wrong with the audio. We just wish the Fold 8 Ultra was a bit braver, a bit more confident and ultimately a bit more exciting to listen to.

Switching to the handset’s speakers, the Fold 8 Ultra offers a nicely wide soundstage by phone standards.

The cars in F1: The Movie feel like they’re zig-zagging left to right with a precision and speed lacking on many phones. But the speakers are underpowered, lacking the low-end heft required to do the rumbling engines justice.

Musically, the sound is also too thin for enjoyable listening. Nine Inch Nails’ The Day The World Went Away sounds hollow and lacks its intended lumbering menace – though this is the case on nearly all the phone speakers we review.

The combination of factors makes the Z Fold 8 Ultra a reliable, albeit unremarkable, phone for audio.

Verdict

The Galaxy Fold 8 Ultra is a competent phone that’s ideal for its target market: power users and ’80s-style business folk who need to edit spreadsheets on the go. It’s also a competent mobile entertainment device for people who like to watch films and TV while out and about.

But thanks to its productivity-focused form factor, the benefits to AV fans of the second, foldable screen aren’t as pronounced as they are on its cheaper sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Its safe but unremarkable audio also puts it behind modern iPhones for anyone on the hunt for a phone that can double as a portable music player. This all adds up to make it a good, but not perfect option for AV fans.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Z Fold 8

Also consider the iPhone 17

Read our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

These are the best smartphones for music and movies

Having an expanding, tablet-style display that can neatly fold away and slip into a pocket should be a sure-fire hit for us; the concept lends itself well to taking movies on the go, in theory. But there’s been one sticking point that stops us from going all-in on ditching our “slab” phones in favour of these foldables: the aspect ratio.

That all changes with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which has gone more movie-focused with its screen dimensions.

That’s not to say we haven’t enjoyed previous Samsung foldable phones – the Z Fold 6 and Z Fold 7 were both impressive handsets for movies – but this totally redesigned smartphone takes Samsung’s Galaxy Z series in a whole new AV-focused direction, and it’s all the better for it.

Price

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold smartphones have always been expensive, and the Fold 8 is no exception. At £1699 / $1899 / AU$2699 for the starting 256GB configuration, this phone is best avoided if you’re looking to stick to a strict budget.

Samsung also offers the handset in a 512GB storage option for £2069 / $2100 / AU$3299, and a 1TB option for £2239 / $2700 / AU$3599. It’s worth noting that the 1TB model is the only one to feature 16GB of RAM, while the others sport 12GB of RAM.

Interestingly, the Z Fold 8 launches at a slightly lower price than the Z Fold 7 (£1799 / $1700 / AU$2899); however, that is because the Z Fold 8 isn’t technically this year’s equivalent of the Z Fold 7. That honour goes to the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which starts at £1899 / $2099 / AU$2999.

Looking at the wider smartphone market, we reviewed the five-star Galaxy S26 Ultra at £1279 / $1300 / AU$1799, and the iPhone 17 Pro (review incoming) can be found for £1099 / $1099 / AU$1199. For a more like-for-like foldable comparison, Google’s new Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at £1799 / $1899 / AU$2799.

Design

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the biggest departure from Samsung’s foldable formula to date. The slender folded and square(ish) tablet-style unfolded form factor is traded for a stockier, more compact design this year.

When folded, the Z Fold 8 takes on a passport-like shape, which is surprisingly charming and satisfying to use. The 5.5-inch cover display is ideal for brief tasks – think quickly typing out a text or finding a track on your streaming service of choice – whereas the internal 7.6-inch screen is best suited for entertainment and web browsing.

We’ll dig further into the displays shortly, but for now we have to marvel at how thin the phone is. At 9.7mm when folded, the Z Fold 8 is only slightly thicker than the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and at just 4.7mm unfolded, the phone is barely thicker than the USB-C socket on the bottom of the device.

On the other edges you’ll find a combination power/lock button with an integrated fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker.

Samsung is also challenging the notion that foldable phones are fragile, as it's clad the Fold 8 in tough materials that should ward off dings and scratches. The cover display features a Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 3 coating, whereas the back glass is covered in Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

The metal frame is constructed from Samsung’s upgraded Armour Aluminium material, so the phone should resist the odd drop, but we won’t be throwing our review unit on the floor any time soon.

Samsung has drastically reduced the crease that runs down the centre of the display. This is thanks to the new Flex Titanium Technology display structure, which now incorporates a thin titanium mesh layer and flexible titanium plates below the AMOLED panel.

This has been implemented to improve display uniformity, enhance structural rigidity, and reduce air pockets beneath the display. While it’s difficult to say in the short term, this should ensure that the display isn’t compromised by a deep crease the more it's used.

Here is where we should also mention that the Z Fold 8’s new hinge feels much smoother and slicker to operate than the Z Fold 7’s. Less force is required to pry the two halves apart, and the folding mechanism feels buttery smooth.

The Z Fold 8 comes in four finishes; ours is the calming Lavender shade, though you’ll also find the Graphite and Cream finishes widely available. Samsung also sells a Pistachio version through its official channels.

Features

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but this is yet another feature-packed handset from Samsung.

We’ll begin with the AV-focused specs, starting with the displays. The Z Fold 8’s 5.5-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X cover screen sports a 1248 x 1972 resolution with a pixel density of 428ppi and a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate.

The more compelling of the two displays, however, is the interior one. It’s a 7.6-inch Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display, with a 1848 x 2448 resolution and a 404ppi pixel density. Samsung claims that it can reach an impressive peak brightness of 3000 nits, and its 1-120Hz variable refresh rate makes for smooth scrolling and gaming.

However, the new aspect ratio is what truly makes this a killer portable AV machine. Samsung has switched to a 4:3 aspect ratio on the Z Fold 8, which means that the letterboxing bars above and below most content have been significantly shrunken down compared with the previous generation of Z Fold devices.

While the size of the content on screen isn’t drastically different to the Z Fold 7, the smaller bars mean that content fills more of the screen, resulting in a more immersive experience, and it generally means that more of that big internal screen is put to use.

And while it may not be the most common use for this phone, older 4:3 content (think TV shows from the early 2000s and before) looks absolutely fantastic, as it fills the entire display with no black bars at all.

HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos – the latter supported via headphones and the stereo speakers – flesh out the AV features, and while we don’t have Dolby Vision support here, that’s to be expected given Samsung prefers to push its HDR10+ rival.

The Z Fold 8 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor, backed by either 12GB or 16GB of RAM depending on your storage configuration. This underpins the Android 17 software experience, which is delivered via Samsung’s One UI 9 software platform. It’s worth noting here that Samsung is promising up to seven years of software updates.

In practice, the Z Fold 8 is very responsive and slick to use. Apps load quickly, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling and app animations buttery smooth.

One area in which the Z Fold 8 lags slightly behind the other Samsung smartphones we’ve tested recently is in the number of cameras. It features just four cameras: two rear cameras and two selfie cameras.

The duo of rear cameras includes a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP ultrawide camera, while the main display’s selfie camera is a 10MP ultrawide camera. The cover display features a 10MP wide camera, although we found very little use for it when the main cameras are on hand for selfie duties.

Unfolding the phone and flipping it around allows us to use the cover screen as a viewfinder, which has been a godsend for selfies with friends, and even for shooting videos for our social channels.

As this is a modern Samsung smartphone, you can expect a raft of Galaxy AI features. This includes the expected suite of auto translation, writing prompts and photo editing tools, as well as Samsung’s Now Brief app, which can deliver contextual information based on your routines and information from throughout your calendars, texts, email inboxes and more.

There's an exhaustive list of features, and they can sound overwhelming, but Samsung has done a good job of integrating them into the operating system fairly naturally.

However, there’s one AI-backed feature that seems to have been removed this year, and unfortunately it was the best aspect of recent Samsung smartphones. ProScaler – the video upscaling feature we’ve raved about on other Samsung handsets – hasn’t been mentioned in the same breath as the Z Fold 8 by Samsung, and while we’ve quizzed the brand a couple of times to check if it’s been quietly included on the Fold 8, we’re yet to get an answer.

Finally, we should mention battery life and charging. Samsung has implemented a new 4800mAh silicon carbon battery, which is split across the two halves of the Fold 8, and it can be charged quickly with 45W wired USB-C charging or 20W wireless charging.

Battery life has been incredibly solid throughout our testing, with the phone lasting well over a day even under our video-heavy testing procedures.

Picture

This is a phone that’s been designed for content consumption, which has naturally inspired us to put it through its paces to ensure its picture performance is worthy of its considerable price tag.

The good news is that watching movies on that expansive foldable screen really is a joy; however, we need to make a few tweaks from the default settings to ensure that it performs at its best. We switch to the natural colour profile for our testing, and turn off auto brightness in favour of the extra brightness.

With these settings dialled in, the Z Fold 8 delivers a sharp, colourful and solid image that is impressively impactful considering it can easily fit into your pocket. Streaming Superman on HBO Max reveals a bright, punchy image that suits the exciting content well; the blues, reds and yellows of Superman’s suit are especially eye-catching.

These colours can sometimes be a touch too excitable, especially when it comes to the slightly rosy skin tones of some characters. That said, the Samsung’s natural colour preset is definitely more balanced than the vivid alternative.

As Superman zips around the air above Metropolis, we find that motion – a noted shortcoming of the Z Fold 7 – is handled very well. We don’t find judder noticeable throughout any of our testing, and we could even accuse the Fold 8 of being a little too slick at times, though that doesn’t break our immersion.

Switching to the dark and gritty Crime 101 on Amazon Prime Video in HDR10+, the Fold 8’s contrast capabilities become quickly apparent. The shimmering lights of Los Angeles offer punchy bursts of brightness against the night sky, and there is a tangible sense of depth and solidity to the city skyline that makes it all feel impressively immersive.

Much like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Z Fold 8 feels like a little Samsung OLED TV here, as it shares some characteristics with the brand’s five-star S99H TV.

Interestingly, the Z Fold 8 handles dark detail like a Samsung TV too. That’s to say that some detail is sacrificed to maintain the solidity of shadows and general black depths.

While a touch more dark detail would be nice, it does mean that the moody shadows present throughout the opening sequence of this film are conveyed with integrity.

Overall, the Z Fold 8 serves up a very enjoyable cinematic experience that almost makes us forget that we can snap the screen closed at any moment.

Sound

As is the case with many recent Samsung smartphones, the sound performance isn’t quite on par with the picture. That’s not to say that the Z Fold 8 gets things explicitly wrong, but it doesn’t go above and beyond in the same way that Apple and Sony smartphones do.

Plugging a pair of wired headphones into the Fold 8 via our trusty USB-C to 3.5mm adapter – unsurprisingly there’s no headphone jack built in here – and streaming from Apple Music, we find that this Samsung phone really doesn’t put a foot wrong.

Detail levels and the clarity of vocals and instruments alike are all very impressive, and the placement of sounds is also handled well. There’s generally a good sense of space and openness to the sound; however, switching on Dolby Atmos makes this even more evident. You do sacrifice some focus with this setting applied, but it’s not a detrimental tradeoff by any means.

Timing is solid, and dynamics are good too. Even so, the Samsung doesn’t feel like it's trying all that hard to impress.

Swapping to an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max or the Sony Xperia 1 VIII (review coming soon) reveals a warmer, richer and more textured sound, with a particular focus on dynamics that Samsung seems to neglect in its smartphones.

Swapping to the speakers, and the Z Fold 8 does have a smattering of positive attributes worth celebrating. The sheer size of the device means that the stereo speakers are separated to an extent that sound has a surprising sense of scale and punch, and the speakers can also go quite loud.

Switching Dolby Atmos on once again, we find that the Z Fold 8’s positioning of sounds is really quite impressive

At their maximum volume, a little bit of fuzz and distortion can creep in, but this is only really evident with the volume cranked all the way up.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the most compelling foldable phone we’ve tested to date. The fun and functional new form factor is a pleasure to use, and the enhanced screen uniformity and durability should soothe the nerves of those reluctant to embrace the folding format.

It also happens to be a stellar portable movie-watching device. That bright, colourful and contrast-rich OLED display makes up for a few audio-related shortcomings, although it’s hard to ignore that substantial price tag.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Also consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Read our Apple iPhone 17 review

Thes are the best smartphones for music and movies

The new Pixel 11 range includes four new handsets in total: the standard Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. All versions are powered by Google's new Tensor G6 processor, which will deliver 20 per cent better power efficiency, 25 per cent faster browsing and 15 per cent faster app loading, according to Google.

All four devices will launch with Google's latest Android 17 operating system, and it should come as no surprise that they come packed to the brim with Gemini AI functionality, including Circle to Search, auto-translation, improved voice-to-text capabilities, AI photo editing tools, and many, many more software-related features.

However, it's the new OLED displays featured across the range that have our attention, as their blisteringly high brightness claims could make them ideal for watching movies on the go. So without further ado, let's take a deep dive into the new Pixel 11 range...

Google Pixel 11

The Pixel 11 sports a 6.3-inch Actua OLED display with a resolution of 2424 x 1080, a pixel density of 442ppi, a variable refresh rate of 60-120Hz, and a 20:9 aspect ratio. HDR support is included, though Google hasn't confirmed if that extends to Dolby Vision or HDR10+.

While all of that remains mostly consistent with last year's Pixel 10, the 11 sports an upgraded peak brightness of 3000 nits; that's higher than the flagship Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. The display is also covered by Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which should ward off scratches, and the phone sports an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.

Google has also upgraded the Pixel 11's camera, with a new 48MP main sensor that is touted to improve light sensitivity by 56 per cent, which should improve low-light photography. A 13MP ultrawide sensor and a 10.8MP telephoto camera support this.

Battery life appears to be the same as the Pixel 10, with a very slightly larger 4985mAh cell that can reportedly deliver over 30 hours of usage. It supports 30W wired USB-C fast charging too, which can top the battery up to 55 per cent in just 30 minutes, and wireless Pixel Snap (which is Google's answer to Apple's MagSafe feature) fast charging up to 25W.

The Pixel 11 comes in two storage options – 256GB or 512GB – with 12GB of RAM. Four colour options are available: Frost, Hibiscus, Pistachio and Obsidian. Pricing is yet to be revealed, but we'll update this as soon as we find out.

Google Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL

Taking a step up in the range, Google is once again offering its Pro smartphones in two sizes. The Pixel 11 Pro sports a 6.3-inch Actua LTPO OLED display with 2856 x 1280 resolution and 495ppi. Above it, the 11 Pro XL has a 6.8-inch display with 2992 x 1344 resolution and a slightly lower pixel density of 486ppi.

Peak brightness jumps up to a whopping 3600 nits on both handsets, and the Pro models also get an anti-scratch shield on top of the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 display for even greater durability.

HDR support remains, and Google also references Spatial Audio, which is available on all Pixel 11 devices.

Battery life stays at 30+ hours, despite the 11 Pro having a slightly smaller 4850mAh battery, and the 11 Pro XL's larger 5115mAh cell sticks with the same battery life claims too. The Pixel 11 Pro XL specifically gets a major charging boost, as it can reportedly reach 75 per cent in around 30 minutes with a compatible 45W USB-C charger.

The 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL have identical camera setups, both coming with a 50MP main sensor, 48MP ultrawide camera, and a 48MP 5x telephoto lens with a Pro Zoom feature. This can reportedly reach 120x zoom at optical quality.

There's also an all-new feature related to the camera, which is exclusive to this duo of Pro devices. Google is introducing HiLight with the Pixel 11 Pro series, which involves an array of ambient LED lights on the rear of the devices designed to convey information without having to look at your phone's screen.

At launch, HiLight can be customised to show coloured lights assigned to favourite contacts or to indicate when Gemini is listening for hands-free interactions.

The Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL come in three storage configurations – 256GB, 512GB and 1TB – with 12GB or 16GB RAM. They're available in four finishes too: Canyon, Fog, Olive and Matte Obsidian.

Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold

Last, but by no means least, is the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. As the name suggests, this is Google's latest foldable phone, and it's launching hot on the heels of Samsung's new Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

The 11 Pro Fold sports two displays. There is an external 6.5-inch Super Actua OLED display with a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate, a 2342 x 1080 resolution and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. Unfolded, it features an 8-inch Super Actua Flex internal display with a 2151 x 2076 resolution and a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate.

Google claims that both displays can reach a peak brightness of 3600 nits. Both are also confirmed to feature HDR support.

Despite being the largest phone in the lineup by surface area, it sports the smallest battery at 4750mAh. That bigger display is, understandably, more power-hungry, which means you can expect a battery life of 24+ hours according to Google.

Thankfully, 30W USB-C fast charging ensures that you can juice the phone up to 50 per cent in roughly 30 minutes, according to Google. PixelSnap is also supported for magnetic wireless charging and accessory support.

HiLight also makes an appearance on the Pro Fold, and the camera cluster on the rear of the phone includes a 48MP main sensor, 10.5MP ultrawide camera, and a 10.8MP telephoto camera.

The Pixel 11 Pro Fold comes in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB configurations, all of which include 16GB of RAM, and there are two finishes to choose from: Obsidian and Olive.

MORE:

Read our Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

As well as our Apple iPhone 17 review

And check out our picks for the best smartphones for movies and music

Now entering its 15th year, Amazon’s Fire Tablet range remains not only one of the most affordable tablets you can buy, but often tips the scales into unbelievably cheap – particularly during one of Amazon’s regular sales events.

We’ve highlighted just what great value these tablets are for years, and so it’s high time we caught up with the most recent version of the tablet family’s middle child, the Amazon Fire HD 8.

While still officially a part of the tablet’s 12th generation, it received a mild spec bump on the 2022 version – absorbing the benefits of the Fire HD 8 Plus and re-released in 2024 as the baseline tablet. But as so often is the case, there are more unwritten improvements here than meets the eye.

Price

While there was a 32GB version of the HD 8 (2024) available at launch with 3GB RAM, at the time of writing you can currently also pick it up in its 64GB variety.

The extra storage is welcome – as is the bump to 4GB RAM – particularly when it currently costs about the same as the 32GB version when you find it in stock. That’s £100 / $130 with ads, or £110 / $145 without ads (it’s currently not available in Australia).

As we mentioned though, it’s well worth keeping your eye out for sales, such as Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, as well as flash sales that happen throughout the year, for even better prices. The 64GB HD 8 (2024) came down to around £85 / $90 during Amazon’s last Prime Day, and the 32GB was available for less than £60 / $55.

Those prices are just not what you see on any other branded tablet, and although the Fire Tablet HD 8 requires some managing of expectations, it’s really quite hard to grumble at this price.

Design

Nothing much has changed from a design perspective – there is as much plastic here as ever. That means the HD 8 is incredibly lightweight, which isn’t the best at giving an impression of quality.

Still, it somehow manages to avoid feeling fragile; you have the feeling you could chuck this in your bag without a lot of worry. Its new textured back panel also feels nice and grippy.

There’s a pretty sizeable black bezel – remember those? – around the screen, a single 5MP camera lens on the top right corner of the back panel, a centrally mounted 2MP selfie camera and buttons for power and volume on the right-hand side.

There’s also a 3.5mm jack – remember those? – on the bottom right, a microSD card for expanding the storage along the bottom edge, plus a USB-C for charging. You get a cable in the box, but as is the norm now, you’ll need your own plug.

Features

The power at the heart of the current HD 8 (2024) comes from the same 2.0 hexa-core processor as before. However, the biggest upgrade here this time around is the bump up from 2GB to 3GB of RAM for the 32GB version, and 4GB of RAM for the 64GB version.

Having tested Fire tablets for years, we know that the extra RAM is needed, and will help the HD 8 run smoother for longer. Getting 4GB RAM is a good reason to go for the 64GB version, though we’re actually testing the 32GB/3GB version here.

The performance differences between the HD 8 (2022) and HD 8 (2024) are arguably minimal initially – the load times are similar, and you can move around apps relatively smoothly on both. There’s the odd stutter on the older version that we don’t notice on the newer one when playing games through Amazon’s Luna gaming service, but it’s largely negligible.

However, it’ll be as you make this tablet your own, and add more apps that run in the background, that the extra RAM is really going to come into its own.

Cameras are about as good as they sound on paper, which isn’t particularly great considering the quality of camera you probably have on your phone. From the 5MP main camera, there’s not a lot of detail, and pictures look a bit smudgy when you zoom in on anything. Colours are a bit washed out too, and you’ll need good light to get anything passable.

Similarly, the 2MP selfie camera will do its job for video calls, but it’s very soft on detail. Ultimately, these cameras are very much built for function. They’ll do the job well enough to be usable if you need them, and for a tablet at this price, that feels fair.

If this is your first time considering a Fire tablet, it’s worth noting that it runs on Amazon’s own operating system – and it doesn’t support Google’s Play Store. That means the app selection is a little narrower than mainstream app stores, and though it has got much better over the years, there are still gaps. A big sticking point is it still pushes native Amazon productivity apps and doesn’t have access to Google apps such as Gmail or Google Docs, which you may find annoying.

The good news for anyone picking this up for movies and music is that most of the main streaming platforms are there, including Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, HBO Max and, of course, Amazon Prime Video. There’s sadly no Apple TV though.

Apple Music is missing from the audio side, too, as is Qobuz, but Tidal, Spotify, and Amazon Music are all on board.

Battery life is quoted at the same 13 hours of mixed use as the 2022 version, but at full brightness (which we tend to have this tablet on most of the time unless in a dark room), you’re going to shave a few hours off that.

Streaming from Netflix at full brightness for an hour, the HD 8 drops 11 per cent, which roughly suggests it’ll manage just under 10 hours of movies before it needs a charge.

Charging it back up is slow though – expect it to take as long as five hours to go from empty to full.

Picture

The Fire HD 8 wears its screen specs proudly in its name, serving up an 8-inch screen with a 1280 x 800 HD resolution. That gives the tablet a pixel density of 189ppi, which puts it significantly below the likes of the 8.3-inch iPad Mini at 326ppi. That tablet starts at £599, so it’s not really a fair comparison, but it gives you an idea of some of the compromises you’re making here.

The screen is also significantly less bright than something like the iPad Mini, and far more reflective too. This makes it hard to use in any kind of bright light – inside or outside. To get the best from it, you’ll want to be using it somewhere a little darker.

Considering there have been no claimed changes to the display, you might be surprised to hear that there are improvements to the way the HD 8 handles video. It’s subtle, but it is better.

For a start, the colour tone is different. Where the older tablet skews slightly green, the new one skews a little more blue. That doesn’t make it cooler though – if anything it’s the opposite. Skin tones have a touch more warmth and life to them, there’s a subtler handling of colour across the board, and there’s a squidge more fine detail in there too.

That added detail helps landscape scenes to have a more believable sense of depth and texture, and while the older tablet arguably packs a little extra punch in bright highlights, there’s more detail in those highlights in the new version.

Stepping away from the comparison and simply looking at it on its own, it’s really hard to grumble at what the Fire HD 8 does with video for the price. It’s a clean picture with minimal noise, decent colour handling and detail levels that are perfectly acceptable.

On a pricier tablet you might be hoping for colours with a bit more depth, deeper blacks and better contrast. The Fire HD 8 doesn’t have any HDR support either, which doesn’t help. But considering the fact you can save £500 on this versus the cheapest, most recent iPad Mini, there’s plenty to enjoy – just as long as you can handle the reflections.

Sound

The Fire HD 8 (2024) packs stereo speakers on the top edge (when you’re holding the tablet in landscape orientation). They sound almost identical to those on its predecessor, so they go pretty loud and are plenty clear enough, and since they’re at the top, they don’t get blocked by your hands when you’re watching movies and TV shows. Not all tablet manufacturers think that through.

Unsurprisingly, they’re not the bassiest speakers, so they can sound a bit thin when you push the volume in big action scenes. We would like a bit more forward projection too, though you can help create this yourself by positioning your hands behind the speakers when you’re supporting it. It makes a considerable difference.

Still, the likelihood is that you’re going to use headphones with the Fire HD 8, and there’s the option of the 3.5mm jack for wired headphones, or of course there’s Bluetooth for wireless headphones.

The audio performance with headphones remained pretty consistent from its predecessor, and we’re happy with that – it’s a decent listen. It’s not completely neutral in its presentation – there’s a solid handling of bass that makes the sound a little warmer than that – but it’s never bloated or overpowering. It helps give the sound some body to ensure sharp edges are kept at bay, too, along with a fairly chunky rolling off of the treble.

If you’re listening with a critical ear, then perhaps that can make it sound a bit flat – but this is preferable to a sharp sound that’s hard to listen to.

But since we’re getting into it, yes, dynamic handling could be a little more explicit here too, and yes we’d take more fine detail retrieval. But overall there’s a good degree of clarity, drive and musicality, and it gets enough of the basics right for us to be fairly satisfied.

With movies, that slightly weightier bass helps give the sound some presence during action scenes, with dialogue remaining clean, composed and well projected against the wider soundtrack.

Verdict

If you don’t have £500+ to spend on an iPad, your choice of other good, affordable tablets is getting smaller and smaller. We can’t help but wonder if that’s because other manufacturers simply can’t match what Amazon’s Fire HD tablet line-up can offer.

For £100 (and often much less), the Fire HD 8 absolutely nails the basics when it comes to movies and music – and regularly surpasses them. This is not just a passable performance, but genuinely impressive at times, and all wrapped up in a size that’s perfect for travel.

Sure, we’d love a screen that was a bit less reflective, but when it comes to delivering great value, on a performance-per-pound basis, this tablet is bit of a no brainer.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the iPad Mini 6

Also consider the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2022)

Read our Amazon Fire HD 10 (2023) review

These are the best tablets for movies and music

The Korean giant launched the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Flip 8 and the Z Fold 8 – the one I am most interested in – at Galaxy Unpacked. Here it set some pretty clear expectations of what these devices are capable of, and who they are aimed at.

The Z Flip 8 is all about fun, while the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a productivity powerhouse.

The Z Fold 8, however, is a device that is designed to deliver “a more immersive viewing experience”. And watching content on that expansive unfolded screen is one of this Samsung’s biggest selling points.

This all-new folding phone sports a new design with a 4:3 aspect ratio interior display – which makes it a more suitable device for watching content. The Z Fold 7, in comparison, had a unique 1.11:1 aspect ratio, which resulted in sizeable black letterboxing bars when watching 21:9 movies or 16:9 TV shows.

Ultimately, this defeated the point of having a large screen for watching content in the first place. While the big display is nice in theory, in reality the portion that is actually taken up by the content you are watching is roughly the size of your standard ‘slab’ phone.

The Z Fold 8 changes this. Samsung specifically said, during the presentation, that this screen is better for watching content from streaming services, because letterboxing bars are less noticeable and the content fills more of the display.

Further AV-centric upgrades include the new Flex Titanium display structure, which adds a thin layer of titanium alloy and flexible titanium plates beneath the AMOLED display for enhanced display uniformity and rigidity. This makes the display crease, which can catch the light and become distracting on the older models, less of an issue.

These display upgrades immediately caught my attention. As someone who spends far more time than I’d like to admit sitting on lengthy train, coach and plane journeys, a portable large-screen experience that can fit into my pocket is a dream come true.

Now, with my very own Z Fold 8 in my hands, I have been able to test drive this portable AV fantasy. And I’m going all in…

SIM swap…

I have swapped full-time to the Z Fold 8, which means leaving the comfort of Apple’s iOS behind. Everything from my streaming apps to my WhatsApp now resides on the Z Fold 8, and I have been using it as my full-time smartphone for the past week.

To get a true flavour of how this phone handles video, I have logged in to every app imaginable.

Those include dedicated movie and TV streaming apps such as Netflix, HBO Max and Disney+, as well as more casual social-focused video apps such as YouTube and Twitch. I’m even conducting my frequent bouts of TikTok and Instagram Reels doomscrolling on this phone.

I have changed a few crucial settings to get the best picture experience from the phone. I’ve switched off adaptive brightness, eye-comfort shield and adaptive colour tone (all useful features in their own right, but not ideal for video playback), and switched on extra brightness.

I have also changed the colour profile of the display from its vivid preset to natural.

And I couldn’t forget about sound, of course. Samsung allows users to toggle Dolby Atmos on and off with a simple press of a button, so I have switched it on for a more immersive audio experience.

I know that this won’t rival a Dolby Atmos soundbar or speaker package, of course, but it’s a nice smartphone feature to have, nonetheless.

On the subject of audio, I can already reveal that playing music on this phone is a treat. The boxy, passport-shaped cover screen takes on a portable music player (think iPod Touch) persona, which is a treat to use.

A cinematic screen in my pocket…

I’ll leave our upcoming full review of the Z Fold 8 to go into exactly how this phone performs, but I can certainly share how much I’ve enjoyed the process of watching videos on this device.

Watching Superman on HBO Max is a prime example of how this phone can really shine. You are genuinely getting a bigger picture experience here, while also having the convenience of having a phone that can slip neatly into your pocket.

The upgrade from my iPhone 16 Pro’s 6.3-inch display was immediately noticeable, and yet the super-thin form factor doesn’t make the phone feel unwieldy.

Switching to an old episode of The Simpsons (Radioactive Man from season seven) on Disney+ really blew my mind, as the 4:3 aspect ratio of the content matches the display perfectly. The super-thin bezels and display-filling content combine for a seamless and immersive experience.

Moving on to the social video apps that I use day to day, the Z Fold 8 offers a very different but equally impressive experience. Most of the fun here, as Samsung acknowledged in its presentation, is scanning the comments as you watch, and the Fold 8 accommodates this with ease.

Being able to keep the live chat open without significantly shrinking the live stream is a dream, and being able to scroll a full-size TikTok feed with the comments open sells the big-screen experience even more.

It's still a learning curve…

It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing, though.

I have found that I sometimes find myself mindlessly scrolling on the cover screen, forgetting that I have a bigger and better display lurking beneath. This is simply a case of ‘old habits die hard’, as I’m used to having just one screen on my phone, not two.

And while the letterboxing bars have been significantly slimmed down compared with the Folds that have come before, they are still more sizeable than the ones found on other phones.

That said, I’ve faced the same issue when watching movies on an iPad; it’s an inherent drawback of tablets. Unless any company is willing to make a 21:9 tablet, I can't see that being resolved any time soon.

The more I use the phone, the less these teething issues bother me, and the more I am finding myself enjoying the foldable format.

Having a pocket-sized device with a genuinely immersive OLED display is the dream for any AV enthusiast who often finds themselves on the go. As someone who fits that brief perfectly, it feels as though the Z Fold 8 was made for me.

MORE:

Read our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 hands on review

As well as our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

And check out the best smartphones for movies and music

The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is a new addition to the Z Fold family, and is joined by the Z Fold8, both of which have a peak brightness of 3000 nits. That comfortably outdoes the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 2600 nits.

The Z Fold8 Ultra really follows the Z Fold7, with the same size 8-inch internal screen. The Z Fold8, however, has a smaller 7.6-inch screen, and is shorter and wider when folded. The Z Fold8’s 5.5-inch cover screen has a 10:16 aspect ratio, while the internal screen is the more traditional 4:3.

Samsung says the Z Fold8 Ultra’s internal screen is the equivalent of having two 6.5-inch screens side by side, making it ideal for multitasking.

Both it and the Z Fold8's screens have an anti-reflective coating, making them easier to see in bright sunlight.

The Z Fold8 Ultra measures 4.1mm thick when unfolded, making it the thinnest Galaxy Fold ever. It has a new hinge with new magnets, making it easier to open and more durable over time.

It also has a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra wide (up from 12 megapixels on the Fold7) and a 10-megapixel telephoto. Also onboard are the same ProVisual Engine with advanced AP processing for Nightography video as the Galaxy S26, and the same Horizontal Lock features. That keeps your video recording steady even if your hand is anything but. A new mode lets you present your videos in cinematic presets (like romance or thriller) with no editing required.

Both it and the Z Fold8 are powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy as the Galaxy S26. The Ultra has a 5000mAh battery for 27 hours of video playback, and charging up to 67 per cent capacity in 30 minutes, while the Fold8’s 4800mAh unit offers 26 hours of video and juices up to 63 per cent in 30 minutes.

At 201g, the Z Fold8 is the lightest Galaxy Z Fold that Samsung has ever made.

Samsung also announced the Galaxy Z Flip8 clamshell phone, which flips open like the classic Motorola Razr from the early noughties. It follows the four-star Z Flip 7, and is the slimmest and lightest Z Flip phone yet.

All three phones are available to pre-order now, and will ship next month. The Z Flip8 starts at £1100, the Z Fold8 £1699 and the Z Fold8 Ultra £1899 (all 256GB storage). They all come in 512GB variants too, with the two Z Folds also available with 1TB of storage.

MORE:

Check out the best smartphones for movies and music

Read our Apple iPhone 17 review

How does the Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 review compare?

That handset introduced a truly groundbreaking picture upscaling feature, which directly addressed the shortcomings of streaming video on your smartphone; ultimately earning it a spot on our coveted annual What Hi-Fi? Awards list.

A year on, and Samsung is back with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which makes a few subtle tweaks to the Award-winning formula. While AI is still very much at the forefront of the S26 Ultra’s appeal in general, Samsung is also promising upgrades that should appease AV enthusiasts such as us.

However, with Apple and Sony nipping at its heels, can Samsung keep up the momentum and deliver another smartphone that you can dependably enjoy movies, TV shows and music on while you’re on the go?

Price

The Galaxy S26 Ultra starts at £1279 / $1300 / AU$1799 for the base 256GB configuration, although Samsung also offers 512GB (£1449 / $1500 / AU$2099) and 1TB (£1699 / $1800 / AU$2549) versions.

The first two options come with 12GB of RAM, whereas the 1TB is outfitted with 16GB.

Compared with the S25 Ultra, the base model is £50 more expensive here in the UK, the 512GB model is £100 more than the S25 Ultra, and the 1TB version is £150 more than last year’s model.

And looking at the wider smartphone market, the S26 Ultra has a few notable competitors. The Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (which we haven’t reviewed yet, but stay tuned) starts at £1199 / $1199 / AU$2149, making it significantly cheaper. We have reviewed the standard iPhone 17 (£799 / $799 / AU$1399), and we thoroughly approve of its AV credentials.

If you don’t want to compare Apples to Androids, then the Sony Xperia 1 VIII (review also coming soon) has just launched at £1399 here in the UK, but it’s not on sale in the States or Australia.

Design

Samsung’s flagship has gone through a gradual transformation over the past few generations. The S23 Ultra featured a curved screen and sharp corners, the S24 Ultra flattened that screen, and the S25 Ultra smoothed out the corners for a nicer feel in the hand.

The S26 Ultra feels like yet another evolution while also retaining the design DNA of its predecessors, except for the aforementioned smoother corners and the slightly awkward smattering of camera lenses on the rear being now mostly housed on a raised “island”.

This looks neater, but it also means that the phone now rocks dramatically if you interact with the display while it’s lying flat on a table.

Another design quirk that’s more of an irk is Samsung’s decision to drop the durable titanium frame of the S25 Ultra and move back to an aluminium shell, which makes it feel slightly less premium than its predecessor.

Apple made the same move for the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max, citing improved thermal efficiency as the primary driver behind the change.

Samsung has, at least, ensured that the S26 Ultra is sporting the latest and toughest version of its Armour Aluminium material, which can also be found on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. This is paired with Corning’s Gorilla Armour 2 display coating for better scratch and crack resistance, and Samsung’s excellent anti-reflectivity screen coating.

Samsung has also achieved its “thinnest Galaxy Ultra smartphone yet” with the S26 Ultra, as it has shaved the handset down to just 7.9mm from the S25 Ultra’s 8.3mm thickness.

Despite the thinner build and change in materials, the S26 Ultra is broadly the same weight as its predecessor, at 214g. That’s still pretty impressive for a device with a 6.9-inch display, and it doesn’t feel particularly unwieldy in the hand despite its size. That said, it's still a sizeable smartphone, and it likely won’t suit those with small hands.

Samsung is offering the S26 Ultra in a range of finishes, including Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, Black or White, as well as Silver Shadow and Pink Gold, which are both exclusive to its online store. Our review unit is the Cobalt Violet version, and we think it looks rather smart in this hue, which shifts from purple to a dark blue depending on how the light hits it.

Features

Strap in, this is going to be a long one.

Samsung is once again billing this smartphone as the ultimate feature-packed handset for power users, and that’s evident from the feature set. That being said, not a whole lot has changed since last year.

We’ll start with the glorious 6.9-inch Super AMOLED 2x Display, which is practically identical to that of the S25 Ultra. It features the same 3000 nits peak brightness, 3120 x 1440 resolution, 500ppi pixel density, HDR10+ support and a variable refresh rate of 1Hz-120Hz.

It does come with a few new tricks, including a privacy mode, which can block the display from off-axis viewing. This has been impressively achieved at a pixel level, and can be easily switched on or off for the whole screen, or even certain parts of the display, meaning you can look at sensitive information or input passwords without worrying about prying eyes.

More exciting for us is the upgraded ProScaler feature, which Samsung says uses a new algorithm for even sharper and richer upscaling of lower-resolution content. Once again, Samsung claims that its mobile division has worked closely with its TV arm to achieve this, and the results last year were excellent. Here’s hoping the new version is even better.

Furthermore, Samsung is touting an enhanced mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) system with 10-bit data processing for colours. Samsung claims that this will allow for four times the precision and subtlety when it comes to displaying colours. This is music to our ears, as Samsung’s smartphone displays have traditionally leaned towards the more enthusiastic end of the scale when it comes to colour reproduction.

The audio capabilities of the S26 Ultra seem to be mostly identical to those of its predecessor – at least on paper. Unsurprisingly, there is no headphone jack (wired audio peripherals can be connected to the USB-C socket), and Bluetooth audio is supported via the Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC) and LE codec.

Dolby Atmos is once again supported via headphones, and the stereo speaker arrangement consists of the bottom-firing speaker and earpiece speaker.

On to the less AV-crucial features of the S26 Ultra. This handset uses the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 for Samsung processor. The ‘for Samsung’ suffix differentiates this from the standard Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 chipset found on other smartphones, as Samsung has customised it for supposedly improved performance.

As mentioned earlier, this is backed up by either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, depending on the storage configuration you choose; our unit is the base 256GB/12GB configuration.

In practice, the Galaxy S26 Ultra flies through the Android 16 software system, which is running Samsung’s customised One UI 8 skin on top.

Disappointingly, Samsung hasn’t upped the battery capacity of the Ultra, choosing to stick with the 5000mAh cell of the S25 Ultra. It does, however, benefit from some charging upgrades, including faster wired and wireless charging.

Samsung claims that the S26 Ultra can go from zero to 75 per cent in 30 mins via 60W wired charging, whereas wireless charging is now boosted to 25W. You will, of course, need to supply a supported fast charger to access these charging speeds.

While Samsung is selling a range of magnet-equipped accessories, including cases and power banks, oddly, the company has opted not to include the magnet ring in the handset itself for native Qi2 charging support.

Apple’s MagSafe and Google’s Pixel Snap features have been hugely popular for seamless accessory compatibility, so it feels as though Samsung is missing out here.

Samsung is still managing to impress when it comes to the camera specifications. The S26 Ultra features a very similar camera set-up to its predecessor, which is no shame to us.

The S26 Ultra sports four lenses in total. The 200MP main sensor is reportedly 47 per cent brighter for better night photography, while Samsung claims the 50MP telephoto zoom lens features a 37 per cent improvement over last year.

The 10MP 3x optical zoom lens now apparently features less noise and better HDR support, while the 50MP ultra-wide lens (which was updated on last year’s handset) seems to be the same.

Last, but by no means least, is Samsung’s extensive AI feature set. Samsung is billing this phone as “the easiest, effortless AI phone”, so you can bet that artificial intelligence is baked into most of the software.

The usual suite of Galaxy AI features is here, including Circle to Search, writing suggestions, auto-translate, and the Now Brief feature, which provides contextual information such as calendar entries, weather forecasts and news depending on your interests and time of day.

These are being joined by a generative AI photo-assistant tool, which can transform photos into different styles simply by typing in a prompt, and Now Nudge, which will provide intelligent auto replies based on information from other apps (such as your calendar or messages).

Finally, Samsung’s Audio Eraser feature, which is supported for video recording to isolate and remove background noise, is now available on video streaming apps, including Netflix. This essentially works like a dialogue enhancement mode on a TV or soundbar, as users can choose to soften or remove background noises in order to make voices sound clearer and more present.

Picture

Samsung has proven that it can apply its OLED TV expertise to its smartphone displays, as we likened last year’s S25 Ultra to the S95D QD-OLED TV. Having just reviewed the S99H, we can once again see a resemblance between Samsung’s flagship smartphone and TV.

We load Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max onto the handset to put its picture performance credentials to the test, and we have the Galaxy S25 Ultra on hand for a head-to-head comparison.

We’ve also made a couple of crucial changes to the picture settings, namely changing the resolution to 3120x1440/QHD+ (from the default 2340x1080/FHD+ resolution) and switching the colours from the vivid preset to natural.

With these settings dialled in, the S26 Ultra delivers a superbly crisp, contrast-rich, and three-dimensional image that isn’t far removed from its predecessor, but some subtle upgrades help make it even more cinematic.

Starting with The Batman on HBO Max, the phone serves up a visual treat during an establishing shot of the grimy Gotham streets. Bright digital signage contrasts wonderfully with the dimly lit city streets, and the tangible sense of depth and solidity to the image really sells the film's gritty, oppressive atmosphere.

The level of detail is also very impressive, most likely thanks to Samsung’s excellent ProScaler upscaling feature. The subsequent shot of an illuminated corner shop looks spectacularly rendered, with a level of sharpness and three-dimensionality that makes the 6.9-inch display feel hugely cinematic.

Moving on to the hectic race sequence from Ready Player One, we find that the motion niggles that caught our eye on the S25 Ultra are no longer noticeable. This frantic sequence is presented with excellent fluidity, and while we could describe it as slightly over-smooth, it doesn’t distract us from the bombastic action on screen.

This sequence also demonstrates how capable this phone is when it comes to handling contrast. The vehicle headlights, the beaming sun, and the floodlights that illuminate the track are shown with intense pockets of dazzling brightness.

Rounding out our testing with Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix, we find that the Samsung can sensibly deliver more natural-looking content, too. Colours here, including skin tones, foliage and clothing, all look well-balanced, and there is a slight increase in warmth and richness to these colours that, for the most part, don’t verge into oversaturation.

This sequence also demonstrates how capable this phone is when it comes to handling contrast. The vehicle headlights, the beaming sun, and the floodlights that illuminate the track are shown with intense pockets of dazzling brightness.

Rounding out our testing with Wake Up Dead Man on Netflix, we find that the Samsung can sensibly deliver more natural-looking content, too. Colours here, including skin tones, foliage and clothing, all look well-balanced, and there is a slight increase in warmth and richness to these colours that, for the most part, don’t verge into oversaturation.

What strikes us most is how a handful of fairly subtle picture upgrades take this smartphone to the next level. The extra degree of sharpness, more adept handling of highlights, improved motion, and superior contrast handling all culminate in a phone that feels like having a pocket-sized OLED TV.

Sound

Samsung smartphones have, in previous years, lagged behind the likes of Apple and Sony when it comes to nailing sound, but the S26 Ultra feels like another step in the right direction for the Korean tech titan.

Plugging in a pair of wired headphones via our trusty USB-C to 3.5mm adapter, we stream a handful of tracks over Apple Music in Lossless quality to assess how the S26 Ultra handles music.

Overall, the new phone sounds slightly crisper, cleaner and more detailed than its predecessor, and Samsung seems to have learned from its competitors in a few key areas.

Voices are, once again, at the forefront of the listening experience, with the Samsung digging up a greater sense of tonality and vocal characteristics compared to its previous flagship handset. The harmonies of Bon Iver’s For Emma sound layered and wonderfully detailed, while there is a greater sense of texture to the guitar strums throughout Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You.

Controversially, we also think that Dolby Atmos is well implemented for music here. The sense of space and openness introduced into Harry Styles’ Carla’s Song is impressive, and we feel as though it ties all of the aspects of the track together nicely. Usually, we’d recommend leaving this off, but Samsung’s implementation is surprisingly effective and doesn’t feel overly processed or vague-sounding.

However, despite a decent helping of audio upgrades, we still prefer Apple’s approach to audio. Plugging the same adapter and headphones into an iPhone 16 Pro reveals a warmer, better-organised sound with even more texture. We also find that the iPhone’s sound feels more full-bodied and better integrated, which highlights Samsung’s occasional tendency to sound a touch too direct and overexcited.

While the Samsung doesn’t get anything outwardly wrong, it needs to nail those final sonic subtleties to match its incredibly talented competitors.

We do approve of the S26 Ultra’s speakers, though.

The physical distance between the downward-firing loudspeaker and the earpiece at the top of the display (which combine to make a stereo speaker arrangement) results in a good sense of stereo separation. With Dolby Atmos switched on, this handset can create an impressively large and spacious cinematic sound, which is well-suited to big blockbuster action sequences, such as the aforementioned Ready Player One race.

Verdict

Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone might not be a game-changing upgrade compared with its Award-winning predecessor, but it's hard to argue that it hasn’t made some meaningful improvements to make it an even better smartphone for portable AV usage.

Contrast, detail levels and motion have all been improved, making this once again feel like a feature-packed, pocket-sized OLED TV. While Samsung could learn a thing or two from its competitors when it comes to musicality, this is another top-notch Android smartphone for those who prefer to watch their films and TV shows on the go.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Also consider the Sony Xperia 1 VII

Read our Apple iPhone 17 review

The best smartphones for music and movies

Thankfully we've got some stellar options for you, so you won't miss a moment just because you've had enough of your family. Check out the best ways to watch the World Cup when you're away from the TV.

And if you are hiding in the toilet? Don't worry, we won't tell anyone.

• I found all the ways to watch the World Cup 2026 in 4K – but there's a catch

Best Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The S26 Ultra might be newer, but the picture improvements over the Award-winning S25 equivalent are minimal. And you can pick up the S25 Ultra at a discount now it has been replaced by a younger model.

Its 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen does a great job. In our review, we praised it as "one of the most impressive smartphone displays we’ve seen in a long while," which may explain why we gave it an Award.

It's fantastic at prioritising the action, with a solid-feeling three dimensional image. "Actors in the foreground of the shot are clearly separated from the background, and the sense of space is truly impressive," we noted. Which means the players will be clearly delineated from the crowd, advertising boards and whatever else is behind them.

The colours are great, too. Just avoid the vivid mode, as while it amps up the brightness, it also deprives the picture of any sense of realism.

Best Apple

Apple iPhone 17

Yes, there are bigger phones than the 6.3-inch iPhone 17. But if it's an all-round movie and sports machine you're looking for, this Award-winner is tough to beat.

The 3000 nits peak brightness will make the action legible even in a daylight (or in a brightly-lit room) and the refresh rate automatically adjusts from 1 to 120Hz as the need requires – not only will this keep up with the fastest-moving football action, it will also save precious battery when rendering slower or static content. So you shouldn't run out of juice just as it goes to penalties.

It helps that it's an all-round excellent phone, too, and you can currently pick it up cheaper than at launch.

Best mid-range

Apple iPhone 16e

If you don't want to miss the action, but at the same time don't want to spend too much, the iPhone 16e is perfect.

The 6.1-inch screen is the smallest featured here, but it still delivers. "Beautifully sharp" was our verdict, able to crisply define characters without sacrificing the lushness of the foliage behind them (imagine that but with footballers and a jeering crowd). The picture is nice and contrasty too, so the dark parts look suitably dark and you'll need sunglasses for the bright parts.

As an added bonus, the 16e is cheaper than the newer 17e, and much cheaper than the full-fat iPhone 17. Win-win.

Best budget

Sony Xperia 10 VI

For the Xperia 10 VI, Sony scrimped on the materials and the camera, but if neither are that important to you, this is a great – and very affordable – way to get a top-notch portable viewing experience.

The picture is striking yet balanced, which isn't an easy tightrope to walk. There's plenty of detail, which when added to the balanced colours make for an appealingly naturalistic image. Which should make those World Cup moments more vivid and lifelike than ever.

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The headphones World Cup: which audio brands are winning over football's elite?

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It’s good news for audio fans as, like the brand's previous offering, the Sony Xperia 1 VIII includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is quite a rarity in smartphones and claims to "support high-quality audio using wired headphones."

It has enlisted the help of the firm's Walkman division once again to boost audio quality on this new handset.

Sony has also improved the full-stage stereo speakers, which the brand says will produce deeper bass and extended high frequencies.

The new smartphone's 6.5-inch, Full HD+ (1080 x 2340) OLED display has been tuned by Bravia, and it features a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate too.

It can also automatically adjust the brightness and colour of the display according to the environment, with Sony claiming it delivers a “bright display even under sunlight”.

If you are looking at the VIII and VII editions side by side, then the immediate difference is in the camera design. Instead of having the camera lenses in a vertical line as with its predecessor, the new Xperia model features a raised camera square containing three lenses.

There are plenty of AI features packed into Sony’s latest release, including an AI camera assistant which “suggests creative expressions based on the scene recognised”. If you don’t want artificial intelligence poking around with your photography, however, there is the option to switch it off.

The brand is also implementing a new ORE-inspired design, which has a textured feel like rough stone. This comes in Graphite Black, Iolite Silver, Garnet Red and Native Gold colour finishes.

In terms of chipset, owners of the Xperia VIII will be looking at the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor (backed up by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage). If you choose the Gold edition, which is available in select countries in-store, then you have the option of upgrading to 16GB RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

Sony also claims you can get two days of battery life from the phone, thanks to the 5000mAh battery.

The new model is launching at the same price as its predecessor in the UK, setting you back £1399 for the 256GB version and £1849 for the 1TB Gold version. When we had the Sony Xperia 1 VII in our test room, we were impressed by its detailed audio and balanced picture. Its limited HDR format and frustrating operating system quirks held it back from true greatness, but it still received a four-star rating overall.

The previous Sony phone was outshone by the five-star Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, so it will be intriguing to see how the new model compares.

MORE:

Here is our review of the Sony Xperia 1 VII

Check out the best smartphones we have tested

I will keep playing music through my phone's speakers for this very simple reason

Most notably, the new model is being powered by the M4 chip, a jump up from the previous model’s M3. This is the same chip that powers the current MacBook Air.

Apple claims the iPad Air is up to 30 per cent faster than iPad Air with M3, and up to 2.3 times faster than iPad Air with M1.

It doesn’t appear to be getting an upgrade in terms of thickness or weight compared with its previous iteration, however. That should mean the new addition is still impressively thin, though, with the older model measuring just 6.1mm.

It also comes in four finishes: blue, purple, starlight, and space grey.

The tech giant says all of these upgrades give “users a big jump in performance at the same starting price.”

Speaking of price, the new iPad Air comes in at £599 / $599 for the 11-inch model and £799 / $799 for the 13-inch. If you are looking to increase your capacity, Apple’s storage sizes start at 128GB, with 256GB, 512GB and a whopping 1TB variant is also available.

You can pre-order the iPad Air from 4 March, with availability beginning 11 March.

Apple's previous 13-inch iPad Air scored very highly in terms of its AV performance when we had it in our test room, receiving a top five-star rating. We found that its screen delivers cinematic, subtle and balanced picture, and it offers good sound from headphones and speakers. That all meant it snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award as the best premium tablet on the market.

With its faster processing power and the price tag remaining the same, this bodes well for the iPad Air M4's abilities. We will have to wait until we get it in our test room to see how it performs, of course, so stay tuned.

MORE:

Here is our review of the Apple iPad Air

Apple unveils the iPhone 17e with an upgraded processor, tougher screen and MagSafe support

Check out our review of Apple TV 4K

It follows the five-star iPhone 16e, with an upgraded processor, feature set and build.

It's powered by the A19 processor, which also features in the aforementioned iPhone 17. The CPU is paired with the C1X wireless chipset, which reportedly doubles the wireless connectivity speeds of the iPhone 16e.

The new modem will also reportedly allow for better battery life, with Apple claiming 30 per cent less energy drain than the model found in the iPhone 16 Pro, resulting in "exceptional all-day battery life".

Furthermore, it touts a similar 6.1-inch OLED display, which uses Apple's Super Retina XDR technology for rich, vivid colours, as well as the same 1200 nits of claimed peak brightness.

However, this year's model comes with the super scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2 coating from the iPhone 17, although the notch remains instead of being replaced by the Dynamic Island, as some rumours predicted.

Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support also carry over from the 16e, as does support for Apple's Spatial Audio format and Dolby Atmos sound.

While we would've liked to see a few more AV-centric upgrades, we're not surprised by the lack of any meaningful changes to the display or speakers, as Apple has made it clear what its priorities are with this budget iPhone.

Instead, it's focusing on packing more day-to-day features into the 17e, including MagSafe. This gives users the option to charge wirelessly with MagSafe attachments, or even attach MagSafe wallets and cases with a simple and satisfying magnetic snap.

Apple has, however, stuck to its guns regarding the cameras, or should we say camera. It's the same 48MP Fusion sensor, which reportedly enables "optical quality 2x Telephoto". Users can pick between snapping full-resolution 48MP snaps for sharper details or 24MP pictures for more efficient file sizes.

The Apple iPhone 17e is available to pre-order now for £599 / $599 / AU$999, and it comes in Black, White and a new Soft Pink finish.

The base storage has also been upgraded to 256GB as standard; however, a higher-capacity 512GB version is also available for £799 / $799 / $1399. It replaces the iPhone 16e entirely, which is no longer available for purchase on the Apple website.

MORE:

Read our full iPhone 17 review

And our iPhone 16 review

And check out our picks for the best smartphones for movies and music

These high-end handsets will serve as the flagship models, replacing the Award-winning Galaxy S25 Ultra and the four-star Galaxy S25 Plus from last year.

Samsung is touting updated designs, more powerful chipsets, better cameras and, if you can believe it, even more AI smarts than ever before. All of these do, unfortunately, come at a cost, and we mean that in the literal sense.

Samsung's new flagship, the Galaxy S26 Ultra

Starting with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, this flagship handset boasts a 6.9-inch Super AMOLED 2X display with a variable refresh rate of 1Hz-120Hz, and a resolution of 3120x1440.

It sports the superb ProScaler feature of its predecessor, which upscales lower-resolution content to look its best on the high-resolution display, and Samsung claims it has worked with its TV division once again to improve the tech on the new S26 Ultra.

Furthermore, Samsung is touting an improved mDNIe system for more natural and subtle colours, as well as HDR10+ and HDR10 support for compatible streaming apps.

Dolby Atmos audio is also on board, and can be accessed via wireless or wired headphones, as well as the built-in stereo speaker system, which utilises the handset's bottom-firing speaker and earpiece.

Powering this beast of a smartphone is the latest Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset from Qualcomm, and it's backed by 12GB of RAM if you opt for the 256GB or 512GB model, or 16GB of RAM if you choose the spacious 1TB configuration.

This powerful processor enables a wide range of Galaxy AI smarts, including automatic translation, Circle to Search with Google, writing assists, generative photo editing, and the Now Bar system, which can show you relevant news, calendar entries, and weather information at the relevant time.

Now Nudge is another new feature, which uses AI to dig into your apps to search for relevant information to automatically reply to messages or enter details on websites. There's also a generative photo assistant tool which can totally change a photo you've taken into a new style or scenario with a simple text prompt.

Speaking of photos, the S26 Ultra sports a quad rear camera arrangement with a new 200MP main sensor that's reportedly 47 per cent brighter than its predecessor, and a pair of upgraded telephoto sensors that provide better noise reduction and HDR performance.

Samsung is touting higher charging speeds, with wired charging now reaching 60W, and wireless charging topping out at 25W. If you have a compatible 60W wired fast charger, Samsung says that you can expect the Galaxy S26 Ultra to reach 75 per cent in just 30 minutes.

Disappointingly, Samsung hasn't upgraded the battery itself, meaning we have the same 5000mAh cell that's been featured on the last few Galaxy S Ultra iterations.

All of these features come wrapped up in a redesigned chassis with smoother, more rounded corners, and an Aluminium Armour frame (so long titanium) that features enhanced durability to withstand knocks and dings.

This is also the slimmest Ultra smartphone to date, according to Samsung, as it's shaved the S26 Ultra down to just 7.9mm, down from the S25 Ultra's 8.3mm thickness.

Samsung is launching the S26 Ultra in four widely available finishes (Black, White, Cobalt Violet and Sky Blue) and two exclusive (Pink Gold and Shadow Silver) colours for its online store.

As we mentioned earlier, prices have gone up this year, with the S26 Ultra now starting at £1279 for the 256GB model, £1449 for the 512GB version, and a whopping £1699 for the 1TB edition. Those prices are £50, £100 and £150 more than last year's models, respectively, which is a tough pill to swallow.

International pricing is TBA as of now; however, we do know that the S26 Ultra will launch on 11th March 2026, with Samsung offering customers double the storage capacity at no extra cost if they choose to pre-order the handset before then.

Upgraded step down models launching too

Moving down to the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus, these handsets shave off a few features in a bid to keep costs down.

The S26 sports a 6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a resolution of 2340x1080, a variable 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ and HDR10 support. Unfortunately, it doesn't support ProScaler, though this year's model features a 0.1-inch screen size upgrade compared to last year's model.

The S26 Plus moves up to a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 3120x1440 resolution, support for the same variable refresh rate and HDR formats as the other models, and the ProScaler feature is supported here.

Both handsets utilise Samsung's latest Exynos 2600 chipset in the UK. However, that's switched for the same Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip in North America, China and Japan. That's backed up by 12GB of RAM across the board for both models, and the base storage configuration is now 256GB on the standard S26, with a 512GB version also available for both.

The S26 sports a 4300mAh battery with Samsung's Super Fast Charging and Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 standards supported, which translates to 25W wired charging or 15W wireless charging. The S26 Plus, on the other hand, steps up to Super Fast Charging 2.0 and Super Fast Wireless Charging, allowing for 40W wired or 20W wireless charging.

Both devices feature a triple rear camera setup, with a 12MP ultrawide, 10MP telephoto and a 50MP main sensor. Furthermore, the raft of Galaxy AI features listed on the S26 Ultra are also supported here.

The Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus will launch in the same range of colours as the Ultra – that's Black, White, Cobalt Violet and Sky Blue (widely available), and Pink Gold and Shadow Silver (Samsung exclusives) – on the 11th of March.

Prices have also gone up for the entry-level models, thanks to the removal of the 128GB base storage, meaning the Galaxy S26 now starts at £879 instead of £799 (or £1049 for the 512GB version).

The Galaxy S26 Plus starts at £1099 rather than the £999 starting price of the Galaxy S25 Plus, with the 512GB model costing an Ultra-like £1269. Samsung will also double your storage on S26 and S26 Plus if you choose to pre-order before the official launch date.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

As well as our Apple iPhone 17 review

And check out our picks for the best smartphones for music and movies

This event appears to differentiate itself from those previous Apple launches because the company is billing it as a “special Apple Experience” rather than its usual live events.

Taking place on the 4th of March in London, New York and Shanghai, the experience will probably feature numerous expected product launches.

The most widely anticipated product is the iPhone 17e. Its predecessor, the five-star iPhone 16e, officially turns a year old on the 19th of February, so a successor is due. There have also been rumblings of updates to the MacBook and iPad lines, with updated processors and potentially new displays in store.

That being said, we are hoping to see some upgrades in two overlooked areas in Apple's product portfolio.

We are sorely overdue for a new Apple TV 4K, with the last model launching back in 2022. That streamer remains at the top of our best streaming devices list, fending off rivals from Amazon and Google for nearly four years.

Mutterings of a new Apple TV 4K have been circulating for quite some time, and it looked as though a new model was about to launch towards the end of last year, only to be delayed.

The expected upgrades include a more up-to-date processor, which will support Apple Intelligence and slicker tvOS operation.

We are also anticipating an upgrade to the HomePod range, which has remained fairly stagnant since the HomePod 2 launched in 2023.

The HomePod Mini is our main contender for an upgrade. It has been left basically untouched since 2020 (not counting a minor colour refresh in 2024). There are also rumours surrounding Apple working on a HomePod with a screen, though these are yet to be substantiated by a full product launch.

A HomePod Mini 2 is high on our wishlist, but only time will tell if Apple will launch a successor to its pint-sized, Award-winning wi-fi speaker.

All will be revealed in just under two weeks, and you can check back here for live coverage of the latest announcements.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best streaming devices

As well as the best wireless speakers

And read our full Apple HomePod Mini review

I'm not completely mad, I don't play music through my phone in public. And nor should anyone (that's why we have a list of the best wireless headphones.) But at home, when the situation arises, I have been known to load Apple Music and blast songs straight from the phone.

And I think that’s okay. Here’s why.

A phoney speaker

Now in case you’re worried that this is the end of What Hi-Fi? as you know it, fear not. We – I included – still passionately believe you should enjoy the best sound quality you possibly can, whatever your budget. That’s why we cover the best cheap headphones and best budget speakers alongside the best audiophile headphones and best speakers for all budgets.

And in my defence, now that phones are much bigger than they were a few years ago, their speakers are becoming more capable. In our Sony Xperia 1 VI review, we comment that the phone’s speakers are “detailed and feature good stereo separation that makes a solid attempt to position sounds in relation to what is happening on screen.”

And in our iPhone 17 review, we say the device’s speakers deliver “a spacious sound, with focused vocals and enough detail given to sound effects (such as a bustling city street) to create a surprisingly immersive experience.”

Now neither of these is going to replace a dedicated speaker (of the iPhone 17's speakers, we even said “we’d refrain from using these to listen to music out loud”). And that's even more true of my ageing iPhone 12 mini. But they’ll do at a pinch. And that's exactly the kind of situation I’m talking about.

Coming clean with a dirty secret

So why, given that I work for the world’s foremost authority on sound quality and everything audiophile, am I advocating a set of speakers that would comfortably fit on your fingertip? One word: convenience.

I don’t often get the urge to clean the house, so when I do I have to act on it. If I wanted to listen to the admittedly much more rewarding sonic performance of my Ultimate Ears Wonderboom (the original model, eights years old and still going strong), I have to dig it out, power it up and pair it with my phone. At this point I usually find the battery has died and have to find the charging cable. In which time my kids have set fire to the curtains, or my desire to clean has evaporated.

But with my phone, there’s none of that. You just press play, and get on with it.

Another benefit: stick your phone in your back pocket and the music follows you wherever you go. There’s no carting the speaker around as you search for the bathroom spray, or move to vacuuming another room. I know, I should invest in one of the best multi-room systems… but cost of living. And I’ll bet even the most ardent of multi-room devotees stops short of the bathroom.

Of course, a pair of wireless headphones would do the job admirably, while also delivering a far superior sonic experience. But I need to be able to hear my kids. If my first inkling that something might be wrong is the smell of burning curtains… well, I might miss out on that dad of the year award for yet another 12 months.

There’s a saying: the best camera is the one you have on you. And sometimes – just sometimes, mind – the same can be said of speakers.

MORE:

Check out the best wireless speakers

The best Bluetooth speakers

What are open earbuds? For greater awareness

Therefore, expectations are high for the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is expected to launch later this month – though no date for the company's annual Unpacked event has been set quite yet.

Samsung is, however, already touting the upgraded AI abilities of the upcoming series of flagship handsets. While AI doesn't spark much joy for us, there is an interesting new display feature which could hint towards an upgrade coming to that glorious Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen.

Samsung is touting this feature as giving the forthcoming Galaxy S series a “new layer of privacy”, referring to some clever pixel-level technology that will stop snoopers from peeking over your shoulder at your phone screen.

The idea here is to give people peace of mind when they enter passwords or sharing personal details over messages, without worrying. It appears as though this feature will combat off-axis viewing, meaning that the display will be viewable only to the owner of the phone.

Better yet, users can allocate the privacy system to specific parts of the display, meaning passwords and pin codes stay hidden, and even certain apps and notifications can be assigned to this new private-screen mode.

This is a unique feature, and not one that we have seen before on any smartphone. Samsung itself states that it has been working on the feature for more than five years.

The inclusion of this feature could hint towards an overall display upgrade coming to the Galaxy S26 Ultra – cause for excitement indeed.

The excellent OLED display paired with the ProScaler upscaling feature made the Galaxy S25 Ultra one of the best smartphones of 2025, so expectations are high for this mysterious new model.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

As well as our Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review

And our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

His post shows a promotional image for Galaxy Unpacked, which is Samsung's annual showcase for the next Galaxy S variant. The date given is 25th February – that's three weeks on Wednesday.

Last year's event was held on 22nd January, so this year's would be slightly later than usual.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 will be Samsung's flagship phone for 2026, until its Z Flip and Z Fold foldables launch in the summer, that is. It's expected to have a screen privacy feature that means people around can't see what's on your screen, leaving you free to enter passwords in public without anyone snooping on you.

It's also said to be slimmer than the Galaxy S25, to offer the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor (in certain markets), with a 200MP telephoto sensor rumoured for the S26 Ultra. Price rises have also been rumoured for certain models and capacities, but by no means all.

The Galaxy Buds 4 models, however, are expected to keep the same price as their predecessors. According to Dealabs, the Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro will cost the same €179 and €249 respectively as their predecessors. Those are European prices – in the UK, the Buds 3 launched at £159 and the Buds 3 Pro £219 (though both have come down from these prices since their 2024 launch).

Leaked pictures have shown a flatter, more compact design for both pairs of buds, while the charging case has also been redesigned. The buds are also said to have Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) connectivity, which could bring hi-res audio functionality.

Head gestures à la the AirPods Pro 3 are also on the cards.

Samsung's phones have reviewed well in recent years, but its wireless earbuds less so. Here's hoping the latest models can give the best AirPods a run for their money.

MORE:

Check out the best smartphones for music and movies

The best AirPods alternatives you can buy

Read our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

Instead, we're expecting to see the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, alongside Apple's first ever foldable phone, the iPhone Ultra (or iPhone Fold, as it's also been referred to). The standard iPhone 18 is rumoured to launch next spring, alongside the iPhone 18e and next iteration of iPhone Air.

Spring is a long time away, of course, but we'll cover the Pro and folding models in this article too (we also have a dedicated in-depth look at the foldable iPhone 18 Ultra rumours). So sit back, relax, and read all about some of the most highly anticipated portable movie machines of the year.

iPhone 18: release date rumours

Possibly the biggest news concerning the iPhone 18 isn't to do with its design, specs or features, but its release date. Because while Apple is rumoured to launch some iPhones as usual this September, the standard iPhone 18 isn't said to be among them.

Instead, it's rumoured to launch in the spring of 2027.

Why? Apple is said to be eyeing a split release strategy. September should act as the launch of the premium line of iPhones, while Apple will hold back the more affordable models until the following spring. Last spring saw the launch of the iPhone 17e, and the iPhone 18 is thought to debut alongside the iPhone 18e in the spring of 2027.

With the new foldable iPhone said to launch this September, alongside the newest iterations of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, it's understandable that the bog-standard iPhone 18 would be somewhat overshadowed in such company.

A spring launch would also make the iPhone 18e announcement more of an event, creating two iPhone launch events a year and doubling the amount of buzz. With updates becoming ever more incremental and people holding onto their devices for longer between upgrades, Apple hasn't been able to create the same kind of hype around an iPhone launch that it used to (remember the huge queues that used to form outside Apple Stores?). But two events a year would mean you were never more than six months away from a new iPhone launch.

This dual release strategy was first rumoured in May 2025, and has since been corroborated by numerous reputable sources.

iPhone 18: price predictions

Despite the rates of inflation in recent years, iPhones haven't really got more expensive. But that could be about to change.

Inflation might have subsided, but that doesn't mean everything has stopped increasing in price, just that it's getting more expensive more slowly. Coupled with the RAM shortage affecting all consumer tech companies, it could point to the first significant price rise for an iPhone since the iPhone 12 in 2020.

Analyst Jeff Pu puts this expected price rise to be around $250-$300 for the iPhone 18 Pro. Given that the iPhone 17 Pro has price parity across the US and UK, that could mean a £300 rise for Brits, with a starting price possibly as high as £1399 / $1399. Ouch.

The standard iPhone 18 could also see a price rise, though there have been fewer rumours concerning this given that its launch date is likely further off.

Apple recently raised the prices of some of its devices, though iPhones were spared. Just not forever, it seems.

As a reminder, here's the pricing of the iPhone 17 line-up.

iPhone 18: screen speculation

If one rumour is correct, you might need sunglasses in order to operate the iPhone 18.

That's because the device will have a much brighter screen, leaker Instant Digital posted on Chinese social media site Weibo (via MacRumors). Apple's brightness requirements for the panel are said to be so high, that Chinese supplier BOE is struggling to manufacture screens for the device, according to Korean publication The Elec (though this is also partly to do with ongoing production issues that persist from the end of last year).

That means Samsung could end up manufacturing the bulk of the iPhone 18's screens.

The iPhone 17 hit a peak outdoor brightness of 3000 nits (though in more typical use it's around 1000-1600 nits). If Apple can increase this significantly, you might have to reach for the Ray-Bans.

The screen is expected to stay the same 6.27-inch size as the iPhone 17, according to Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station. They say it will have the same 120Hz refresh rate and LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) tech as the current model, too.

iPhone 18: design rumours

While rumours concerning the design of the iPhone 18 might be thin on the ground at present, we have heard about changes to the iPhone 18 Pro.

According to leaker Ice Universe, the Dynamic Island will shrink in the iPhone 18 Pro. In a post on X, they predict it will go from a width of 20.76mm to 13.49mm, a reduction of around 35 per cent.

The Dynamic Island is the pill-shaped cutout at the top of the screen. It debuted on the iPhone 14 – replacing the notch that had featured in the same place – and shows information from other apps, allowing you to multitask.

Ice Universe has a decent track record of accurate leaks, but this one is still far from set in stone. But where the Pro model innovates, the standard iPhone often follows, so we could see the base variant shrink its Dynamic Island in a similar way.

However, the leakers are split on this one. Some reckon Apple will replace the Dynamic Island with a circular cutout in the top corner of the screen, while others predict Apple will have found a way to keep the same functionality while doing away with any cutout altogether.

The iPhone 18 Pro is also said to lose the two-tone colour finish (according to leaker Instant Digital). And it could get some new finishes, with possible new colours including light blue, dark cherry and dark grey (an earlier coffee brown colour has reportedly been scrapped).

iPhone 18: specs and feature leaks

Apple is expected to unveil its C2 modem chip this year, so the odds of it featuring in the iPhone 18 are high. The C2 should be more powerful than the current C1 and C1X, with mmWave 5G connectivity.

The iPhone 18 could have a new processor, too. The A20 will follow the A19 and A19 Pro of the iPhone 17 generation, though it could be exclusive to the pricier models, with the iPhone 18 being upgraded to the A19 Pro. At this stage, it's simply too early to tell.

The A20 will be more powerful and efficient thanks to TSMC's 2nm process – it's estimated to be up to 15 per cent faster than the A19 chips and 30 per cent more efficient.

The A20 should offer TSMC's Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) technology, which integrates the RAM directly onto the same wafer as the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine rather than having it adjacent. This could mean faster performance and better thermal management, with a longer battery life. But again, it could just be for the iPhone 18 Pro models for now, especially as these chips are expected to cost Apple more.

But we could see Apple launch both A20 and A20 Pro chips, with the iPhone 18 getting the former and the latter reserved for the Pro models. That's the approach Apple currently takes, kitting out the iPhone 17 with the A19 and the 17 Pro with the A19 Pro.

The iPhone 18 might be upgraded to 12GB of RAM, according to analyst Jeff Pu, up from 8GB on the iPhone 17. Given the ubiquity of AI features, and their increasing RAM needs, we would say this one is a dead certainty. Pu also says the iPhone 18e will get a bump to 9GB of RAM.

These jumps would make both handsets quicker in use and more capable. But they would also make price rises look increasingly likely.

Battery life could improve, too. According to a post on social media site Weibo (spotted by 9to5Mac), the iPhone 18 Pro Max could have a battery in excess of 5000mAh, which would be an increase on the iPhone 17 Pro Max's. Apple currently has different battery capacities for different regions, as those with a physical SIM card slot have less space for a battery. This looks set to continue.

iPhone 18: camera conjecture

All handsets in the iPhone 18 range are rumoured to upgrade their front-facing cameras to 24 megapixels. The iPhone 17's is 18 megapixels.

The iPhone 18 Pro's main camera is said to have a variable aperture, letting you manually adjust how much light reaches the sensor, affecting the photo's lighting and depth of field. A new Samsung three-layer stacked image sensor is also rumoured, to make the camera more responsive, reduce picture noise and increase the dynamic range.

We could also be in for larger apertures on the iPhone 18 Pro's main and telephoto lenses to allow in more light during gloomy conditions. Which should make an already excellent camera even better.

iPhone 18: early verdict

These are all still rumours, so nothing is set in stone as yet. But given the sheer volume of rumours over recent months concerning the launch date, we think it's a safe bet that the standard model of iPhone 18 won't launch until 2027. But the Pro and foldable models should be here very soon indeed.

If the screen can go as bright as is rumoured, movie fans on the go will be in for a treat. And if the iPhone 18 range can make some gains in performance, battery life, sound quality and camera abilities, it will please fans all over the world.

The split launch would be a new strategy for Apple, and would be the first time a standard model iPhone hasn't launched in the autumn since the iPhone 4 in 2010. Would Apple mark such an occasion by making some major changes to the baseline model iPhone? Or will it wait until the 20th anniversary of the iPhone in 2027? We'll have to wait and see.

MORE:

Read our iPhone 17 review

These are the best smartphones for music and movies

The best iPhone headphones you can buy

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 represents the culmination of years of refinement, delivering a device that finally feels confident, robust, and genuinely desirable – rather than an expensive tech experiment you'd be nervous about carrying in your pocket.

The proposition is compelling – a standard 6.5-inch smartphone that unfolds to reveal an expansive 8-inch tablet display, effectively replacing two devices with one. For entertainment enthusiasts, this means carrying a phone for calls and messages that transforms into a tablet-sized canvas for movies, TV shows, and music control – all in a single pocketable device.

The core question for us AV enthusiasts, though, is whether this ingenious engineering translates into superior picture and sound performance – or whether the compromises make it nothing more than an expensive – albeit rather cool – novelty.

Can a phone that folds in half truly compete with traditional flagships for watching films and listening to music? Let’s find out.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 starts at £1799 / $1700 / AU$2899 for the 256GB model, with 512GB (£1899 / $1820 / AU$3099) and 1TB (£2149 / $2120 / AU$3549) variants also available. There’s no two ways about it – this is a seriously high asking price, and one that even seasoned tech fans will baulk at.

To put this in context, you could purchase a Galaxy S25 Ultra and still have a decent chunk of change left over.

The question for potential buyers, then, is whether the unique form factor and engineering achievement justify this substantial premium.

For those seeking a device purely for media consumption and audio performance, more affordable flagships may offer better value. However, if you're drawn to the hybrid phone-tablet form factor for productivity and multitasking, the Fold 7 makes more sense – though it remains an expensive proposition.

Build

The difference between the Fold 7 and the first few foldables we tried when they first emerged is, quite frankly, remarkable.

Gone are the bulky, creaky, fragile bits of kit that you felt like you had to baby. Instead, the Fold 7 feels like an alien artefact in the hands – impossibly thin even when folded, it's completely rigid, and brimming with confidence as a result.

If you're spending this much money on a bit of tech, you don't want to feel like you're carrying around a Fabergé egg in your pocket, and the Fold 7 feels like any other phone when folded. At 8.9mm thick when closed, it's only marginally thicker than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and even weighs less at 215g. This is a remarkable achievement, given there's an entire 8-inch screen hidden inside.

Things get even more impressive when it's opened up. The hinge is the best folding phone hinge we've ever used – confident, sturdy, and smooth, with absolutely no wiggling or looseness to be found. The phone feels razor-thin when unfolded, too, measuring just 4.2mm, with barely enough space for the slimness of a USB-C port on the bottom.

It looks great in the navy blue colour of our review unit as well, and the overall impression is one of a masterpiece of engineering. In short, it’s a very covetable bit of kit indeed. And so it should be, for the price Samsung is asking.

Features

The outer screen finally has sensible dimensions that put it on par with a regular smartphone, making it much easier to use and hold. At 6.5 inches, it's sharp, crisp, and bright, with a pinhole selfie camera at the top. This addresses one of the main frustrations with previous Fold models, where the narrow cover screen made typing and general use awkward.

The inner screen is a generous 8 inches when unfolded, and as with the outer screen, inky blacks and vibrant colours are all present and accounted for. The colour temperature leans slightly too warm for our taste out of the box, but it’s easy to adjust this to a cooler, more natural preset in the settings.

Those who do plan on watching movies on the main display will be treated to a sharp 1968 x 2184 resolution, with HDR10+ also supported. Samsung is claiming a peak brightness of 2600 nits here, and its Vision Booster technology is also on board to adapt the display’s settings for better visibility in different lighting conditions.

The company’s ProScaler feature is also supported. This proved to be a hit on the Award-winning Galaxy S25 Ultra thanks to its ability to upscale lower resolution content to suit the Quad HD display.

While movies and TV shows are our top priority, another big draw is the fact that you can multitask, having lots of apps open at once. You can watch a YouTube video while typing or browsing the web, for instance.

In practice, though, this multitasking seems best limited to fancy tech demos, and once the novelty wore off, we didn't find ourselves using this much. That's not to say there won't be power users who'll want to check their share prices while keeping an eye on breaking news, but it feels like a fairly niche use case scenario.

There are some more useful use cases, though. If the phone is folded at a 90-degree angle, you can use the lower half as a flat base while the video plays on the top half – essentially like a small laptop. This proves handy for hands-free video calls as well.

The large inner screen won't provide any benefit if you're watching 21:9 movie content, as it'll be the same size as the outer screen. But anything in 16:9, 4:3 or other aspect ratios will be larger on the bigger display. Watching something such as old Simpsons episodes in 4:3 is more impactful than a modern 16:9 show, which isn't that much bigger than the outer display.

Ultimately, buying a folding phone purely for enjoying occasionally slightly larger video content on the inner screen shouldn't be one of your main reasons for getting it. That remains multitasking, or having a larger screen for more comfortable e-book reading or browsing.

The other downside to using the inner folding screen for videos is the fact that the rather large pinhole selfie camera is very distracting. The previous iteration of the Fold had an under-display selfie camera, so this seems like a step backwards. Granted, the quality of selfies themselves is better, but the prominent hole in the screen is an unwelcome visual intrusion when watching content.

As for the rear camera system, it has a 200MP main sensor (f/1.7), 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2), and 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom (f/2.4). This represents a significant upgrade over previous Fold models, particularly the main sensor, which now matches the Galaxy S25 Ultra's camera.

Both the cover screen and inner screen feature 10MP selfie cameras, and the overall performance of all three lenses is solid, with the main camera producing the best shots. Photos taken in even more challenging low-light conditions provide plenty of detail, and the zoom levels are more than usable too, as long as you don’t push beyond 10x zoom.

Is it the absolute best smartphone camera system currently available? No. But it’s still very decent, and far from the early days of foldables, where the cameras were an afterthought.

Under the hood, the whole affair is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor, a customised version of Qualcomm's flagship chipset.

The 4400mAh battery delivers solid all-day performance with 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging – though we'd prefer to see faster charging speeds to match competitors. Samsung promises seven years of OS and security updates, which is excellent for long-term value.

Audio capabilities include stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. There's no headphone jack – users will need to rely on USB-C adapters or wireless connectivity. Bluetooth 5.4 with high-quality codecs, including LDAC, is supported for wireless audio.

Picture

Both inner and outer screens are sharp, with decent brightness that's usable in sunlight. We tested with the default settings that most people would use – adaptive refresh rate with a maximum of 120Hz, and Vivid picture mode; though, as previously mentioned, we tweaked the colour temperature to a more natural setting as the default looked too warm for our tastes.

Testing with Planet Earth II on both screens revealed vivid colours and solid contrast. In fact, side-by-side comparisons with our Galaxy S25 Plus review unit prove that the Fold 7's inner and outer screens are noticeably better than the single screen of its more traditional sibling.

There’s serious depth and contrast to images from the Fold 7’s screens, while the S25 Plus seems much flatter in comparison. Scenes with lots of trees, for instance, have a real sense of three-dimensionality from the Fold 7, creating a more engaging viewing experience that draws you into the scene.

Content pops impressively. This is one area where Samsung has clearly made improvements, and the enhanced contrast and depth make for an impressive cinematic viewing experience on the larger inner display.

However, this is where we encounter the Fold 7's most significant picture quality issue. There is some slight judder noticeable during scenes such as the fast-panning drone shots of Planet Earth II. In fact, across all of the content we watch, regardless of resolution and native frame rate, we encounter quite a bit of stuttering, and it’s often obvious and distracting.

On occasion, when we pause and rewind, the footage seems smoother on second viewing, but this isn’t consistent. It’s a disappointing flaw to find at this premium flagship price point, especially as it’s not an issue with the Galaxy S25 Plus.

Oh, and if you’re worried about the inner screen’s crease ruining your Netflix binge, don’t be. While it’s very apparent when purposefully viewing the inner display from the side (especially with a bright light above), it’s genuinely invisible during normal, face-on viewing. Another major improvement from first-gen foldables.

Sound

We test the Fold 7 against our Galaxy S25 Plus using a USB to 3.5mm adaptor with Dali IO-12 over-ear headphones, and the results reveal some notable differences in audio performance between our two Samsung phones.

Overall, the Fold 7 sounds pleasant in isolation, but it has an overly warm tonal balance that colours the sound somewhat. The low-end is also slightly exaggerated, resulting in some muddiness to the midrange, and there’s not enough separation between instruments.

This isn't a problem in less busy tracks with simpler compositions – classical guitar pieces such as Borislav Slavov's I Want To Live sound airy and spacious, with mostly string instruments and guitar creating a relatively clean presentation. The lack of heavy low-end content means it's not as muddled an experience as some of the other more complex tracks in our test list.

However, the issues become more apparent in complex pieces. Tool's The Pot reveals notable distortion and murkiness from the Fold 7 compared with the Galaxy S25 Plus. There's a hint of crackly, gravelly distortion in the lead guitar – a challenging, guttural riff – that the S25 Plus does a better job at keeping cleaner.

The S25 Plus is cleaner in general, with more separation between different components. In isolation, The Pot sounds good on the Fold 7 and has plenty of punch and attack, with effective spatial panning in the intro as the drum pads circle and envelop you. But the direct comparison reveals its limitations.

Super8 & Tab's Black Is The New Yellow is very noticeably subdued from the Fold 7, with less separation than you get from the Galaxy S25 Plus. The hi-hat and thumping beat roll into one, while there's a far clearer distinction and precision when listening to the same track on the S25 Plus.

Wolf People's Kingfisher demonstrates great separation in the intro – you can hear the fingers sliding over the guitar strings clearly. Again, in isolation, it sounds good, though the higher guitar twangs are a little harsh. Compared with the Galaxy S25 Plus, though, the mids are a bit jammed together, with less separation. The overall sound is a tad too warm as well.

The sound is typical Samsung fare – it's fine, gets most things right, but doesn't excel at anything. Rhythmically and dynamically, the Fold 7 doesn’t seem to try very hard, and music feels a bit two-dimensional compared with what we'd expect from a device at this price.

Turning on Dolby Atmos does open the listening experience up, giving songs more room to breathe. Unfortunately, it also sacrifices some of the focus of the delivery and adds a slightly synthetic edge. Overall, we prefer the listening experience with Atmos enabled, but it doesn’t raise the sound quality to the level of the best in class.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 represents the most accomplished foldable phone the company has produced, refining the formula to deliver a device that finally feels beautifully robust and desirable, rather than an expensive tech concept.

The engineering achievement is undeniable – this impossibly thin device somehow houses two high-quality displays and flagship internals while feeling like a normal smartphone in your pocket.

For those seeking a device that can replace both a phone and a tablet, the Fold 7 makes a compelling case. The outer screen now has sensible smartphone dimensions, making it far more practical for everyday use, while the expansive 8-inch inner display provides ample room for multitasking, reading, and media consumption – all while providing an enjoyable, immersive, 3D-like depth to proceedings. The build quality is excellent, too, and the improved hinge mechanism feels confident and premium.

However, when viewed purely through the lens of picture and sound performance, the Fold 7 reveals some disappointing compromises. The prevalent judder during demanding video content is particularly concerning at this premium price point, while the sound lacks the dynamism, separation and textural richness we'd expect from a flagship device.

Even so, the Fold 7 is a remarkable piece of engineering and one of the best foldable phones you can buy. And if that’s important to you, you won’t be disappointed.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Also consider the Apple iPhone 16 Pro

Read our Sony Xperia 1 VI review

These are the best smartphones for music and movies

That’s right, the Galaxy Z is a tri-foldable phone-cum-tablet, which Samsung claims is employing “its most advanced foldable technologies optimised for the unique demands of a multi-folding design.”

This design features a 10-inch screen that folds twice into a pocketable phone measuring 6.5 inches.

It’s made up of three sections held together by two titanium hinges, and is set into a frame made of an Advanced Armor Aluminum alloy. And, while it might seem like a lot of screen to carry around, the use of ceramic-glass and a fibre-reinforced polymer on the back panel of the phone appears to have kept the weight relatively low at 309g.

Samsung says there is an “auto-alarm” to alert the user of incorrect folding “through a series of on-screen alerts and vibrations.”

In its unfolded state, the Z Trifold is super thin, measuring just 3.9mm, making it the slimmest Samsung phone to date.

It boasts a brightness of up to 2600 nits on the cover display and 1600 nits on the main screen. Both of the displays use Samsung’s AMOLED panels, each with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Samsung claims that this results in "a perfect canvas for high-quality viewing of photo and video content."

On the left side of the phone, there's a tri-camera bump featuring a 200MP wide-angle, 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP 3X optical zoom. There's also a 10MP selfie camera on the cover screen and on the 10-inch display.

There's plenty of Galaxy AI smarts built into Samsung's latest release, too. That includes the use of Gemini, Google's AI assistant, so you can get information without switching between apps.

The company is also promising “the biggest battery Samsung has ever had in a foldable phone” at 5,600mAh. That's quite a jump from the Galaxy Z Fold 7's 4,272 mAh and the Galaxy Z Flip 7's 4300 mAh battery capability.

The Galaxy Z TriFold will first be available in Korea on 12 December, with prices starting from 3,594,000 Won (around £1855 / $2450 / AU$3730).

Samsung says it will be available in the US in early 2026, but has not yet announced whether it will be sold in the UK or Australia.

While this is certainly looks like an impressive piece of kit, Samsung is not the first brand to produce a tri-fold model; Huawei took the first plunge with its Mate XT Ultimate.

And, while we have not had the chance to get this model in for testing, we did manage to get up close and personal with the brand's latest foldable phone – the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

In our hands-on session, we were impressed by its contrast and detail levels. We noted that it "appears to deliver a crisp, rich image with impressively balanced yet eye-catching colours." That was all from one brief session with the phone; however, we can't give a comprehensive review just yet.

If the Galaxy Z TriFold offers picture quality similar to the Fold 7, then this bodes well for the performance of Samsung's latest offering. And with its nifty foldable design with plenty of AI smarts, this could be one to watch.

We'll be keeping our eyes peeled to see if it will be available to a global audience, so stay tuned.

MORE:

Check out our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

These are the best smartphones right now

And here are the best tablets

The battery now lasts about as long as a Liz Truss’ premiership and it loads apps slower than the time it takes for two pandas to conceive. OK, maybe it’s not that slow, but still, it really is time that I got a new phone.

As I’ve become accustomed to the convenience and security of iOS, naturally I’ve been looking at getting another iPhone. And with this brilliant Black Friday deal on the iPhone 16e with its stunning display and superb sound, I believe I’ve found my upgrade. It’s currently available for £449 at Lebara, a tasty £100 off its original price (or £499 at Amazon).

The iPhone 16e’s 6.1-inch OLED screen has a resolution of 2532 x 1170, and although it has a lower peak brightness compared to the iPhone 16, its 460ppi pixel density is the same as its more expensive sibling. When we tested it back in May, we found the picture “beautifully sharp, detailed and vibrant”.

Its 26-hour battery life when watching videos (90 hours for listening to audio) also exceeds the iPhone 16. In my case, this means I’ll no longer need to bring a charger with me or put my phone on airplane mode when venturing out the house for long periods. For you, it means lots of time spent watching your favourite YouTube videos or listening to music on your streaming service of choice.

If engaging in the latter, this Apple smartphone sounds great, provided you use a pair of quality headphones, which you can connect wirelessly or via the USB-C adapter. During testing, we found the sound “rich and warm but not coloured, brilliantly punchy and rhythmic, and terrifically detailed and dynamic”.

There’s also a 48MP camera on the back for snapping photos, while an IP68 rating means it’s waterproof down to 1m for up to 30 minutes.

The five-star iPhone 16 is also £100 off for Black Friday, with the 128gb version going for £599 on Lebara. That’s worth checking out if an extra 12MP ultrawide camera and a brighter screen are absolute must-haves for you.

But with so little to separate the iPhone 16 and 16e in terms of sound and picture quality, and the latter’s superior battery life, the iPhone 16e feels like a very shrewd purchase, especially with the current discount.

So, if you’re looking for a new smartphone and you’re thinking of upgrading to the latest generation iPhone, why not check out the 16e for £449 at Lebara. I know I will be...

MORE:

iPhone 16e vs iPhone 16: what's the difference, and which one should you buy?

Black Friday 2025: our pick of the best deals on headphones, TVs, speakers, soundbars and more

Check out our list of the best smartphones

Black Friday quick links

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• B&W speakers: save £200
• Bluetooth speaker: 48% off five-star JBL
• Bose QC Ultra Earbuds: save £100
• Bravia 8 TV: save 34% on 55in Sony TV
• Denon AV receiver: save £500
• Dolby Atmos soundbar: down to £299
• ELAC Debut 2: five-star speakers now £199
• Headphones: Sennheiser Momentum 4 now £169
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• Stereo amplifier: Cambridge Audio now £299
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

While a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones does the trick for music, as an AV enthusiast, I simply need a screen that does my favourite movies and TV shows justice; that's right, the screen on the back of the seat in front of me simply no longer cuts it.

That's why you'll seldom catch me on a flight without my iPad Air, often loaded up with the latest blockbusters from the likes of Apple TV and Netflix and deployed on my tray table for a spot of serious movie watching at 30,000 feet.

It's not the cheapest tablet on the market, but it balances picture and sound performance with portability in a way that makes it a vital part of my portable AV setup. However, thanks to Black Friday, it's also not as expensive as it usually is.

Now, I mostly carry an 11-inch iPad Air, but we've just bestowed the 13-inch iPad Air M3 with a coveted Product of the Year Award, so it seems only right to highlight this deal at Amazon that knocks £200 off the asking price.

Curiously, the 256GB model is the same price as the 128GB, so you'd be best off securing the extra storage for no additional cost. The higher-capacity configuration usually retails for £899, so scoring it at this price is a no brainer – especially if you plan on filling it up with movies, TV shows and music.

This iPad features the powerful M3 processor which is equally suited for AV and substantial productivity tasks alike, and at just 616g, you won't feel it weigh down your hand luggage. Despite its lightweight appeal, it boasts an expansive 13-inch display which is perfectly suited for binge watching a series on a long-haul flight.

In our full review, we determined that "this latest-generation iPad can deliver the goods when it comes to fulfilling its role as a portable movie machine", citing its "large screen with excellent all-round picture performance" as its biggest asset.

This display is bright yet balanced, and with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ on board, it makes light work of any streaming tasks you throw at it.

Furthermore, we found plenty to appreciate regarding its audio performance. The built-in speakers deliver crisp and clear dialogue (ideal for a spot of out-loud movie watching), and the sound performance via a pair of wired headphones is equally excellent, with a rich, detailed and textured audio.

Traditionally I'd be pointing you towards the best OLED TV deals, or savings on Dolby Atmos soundbars, but this portable AV machine deserves a shout out, as it's served me well in instances where a 65-inch OLED TV would be simply impractical.

Amazon's deal that knocks the price down to just £699 (from £899) is impressive indeed, making this a top-notch deal if you're going to be stuck on planes, trains or buses for extended periods of time soon and want to watch some movies or TV shows to pass the time.

Black Friday quick links

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• B&W speakers: save £200
• Bluetooth speaker: 48% off five-star JBL
• Bose QC Ultra Earbuds: save £100
• Bravia 8 TV: save 34% on 55in Sony TV
• Denon AV receiver: save £500
• Dolby Atmos soundbar: down to £299
• ELAC Debut 2: five-star speakers now £199
• Headphones: Sennheiser Momentum 4 now £169
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

Popularity isn’t everything, and there’s something to be said for Sony’s niche focus on delivering a top-notch portable AV experience. As you can imagine, that’s a stance that resonates with us massively.

Picture and sound performance remain at the forefront of Sony’s mission, and while the company’s resolve has softened somewhat in the pursuit of public approval, the Xperia 1 VII – which we have in for review today – seems to continue that spirit.

With that in mind, does Sony achieve its brief in delivering another smartphone that doubles up as a pocket-sized home cinema and a hi-fi quality portable music player?

Price

The Xperia 1 VII is officially available for £1399 here in the UK. Sony fans in the US and Australia will know that it doesn’t offer its smartphone range in either region, and the 1 VII is no exception.

Sony’s main competitor at this level is the Award-winning Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is tough competition indeed. It’s unquestionably the more mainstream option, and while it launched at £1249 / $1300 / AU$2199, it can frequently be found for less now that it’s been on the market for almost a year.

There is also the iPhone 17 Pro Max (£1199 / $1199 / AU$2199) to be aware of. We haven’t tested it yet, but the standard iPhone 17 has just scooped up an Award, and its predecessor, the iPhone 16 Pro, scored top marks in our full review, so we’re willing to bet it offers a competitive AV experience.

Build

Sony’s latest flagship mobile doesn’t look miles apart from its predecessor, but that doesn’t really concern us, as it still looks rather smart.

It features the same textured glass back and etched aluminium frame as its predecessor, albeit a bit more refined with smoother bevelled edges, and the rear glass sits flush with the frame.

This results in a much smoother and more comfortable phone to hold. In comparison, the Xperia 1 VI feels a bit sharp in the hand.

The ridged sides of the handset feature numerous interruptions in the form of a volume rocker, a combination power/lock button with an integrated fingerprint sensor, a dedicated camera shortcut and shutter button, a combination SIM and Micro SD card tray (which can be removed without the need for a SIM ejector pin tool), and – you guessed it – a 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the front of the 1 VII, you’ll find a 6.5-inch OLED display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. We still miss the 21:9 aspect ratio of the Xperias of old, but we can’t deny that the more mainstream aspect ratio (which can also be found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra) has its practical benefits when it comes to usability and app compatibility.

The display features fairly slender bezels on the sides, and slightly chunkier ones at the top and bottom, though there is a valid audio-related reason for that, which we’ll come to later.

We think the handset looks very sleek in the Slate Black finish we have, though it's also available in Moss Green and Orchid Purple for anyone who wants to add a (fairly subdued) pop of colour.

Features

If we’re being brutally honest, Sony’s smartphones have always excelled at things we’re most interested in when it comes to features, but they lag behind the cutting-edge mainstream handsets on the market when it comes to a lot of creature comforts.

We’ll start with the glorious 6.5-inch OLED display, which has reportedly been tuned by Sony’s Bravia television department. Sony is supposedly harnessing the power of AI picture processing to boost some of the key picture components, such as colour, contrast, texture and three dimensionality.

The one disappointment, however, is that the display’s resolution is 1080 x 2340 – otherwise known as Full HD+.

In a display this size, we find that this resolution is technically enough, as the pixel density is suitably high at 396ppi. However, considering the price (and the competition), we think that Sony should really be offering a Quad HD display – especially considering it wasn’t that long ago that it was shipping smartphones with full-blown 4K displays.

Nevertheless, this screen features a dynamic refresh rate up to 120Hz, and it’s 20 per cent brighter than its predecessor. In fact, Sony says that this is the brightest display in any Xperia smartphone to date, though it hasn’t shared any specific figures regarding nits.

This has been paired with a new sensor on the rear of the handset, which detects the ambient lighting conditions and adapts the phone’s display to suit.

There is also a considerable amount of customisation that you can apply to the phone’s display. There is the option to leave the phone in its ‘recommended’ setting, which will optimise the display for “smartphone use and displayed content”.

This sounds a tad vague to us, but it seems as though Sony is implying that the phone will use the best picture settings for what it’s displaying.

In its custom settings, we can switch between the Bravia-tuned standard mode, which emphasises “high-quality textures” and “vibrant colours” – or Sony’s creator mode, which is akin to the Filmmaker Mode on a TV.

This goes for a more accurate picture presentation, which will appeal more to purists who wish to see content in the way that the creator intended.

Interestingly, there is an option to only apply creator mode in specific apps, meaning you can enjoy the crisper standard mode for day-to-day use, and automatically switch to the creator mode for a more cinematically authentic movie experience.

To us, that seems to fulfil the same role as the previous recommended preset, albeit with a bit more granularity in which apps default to your preferred screen mode.

Sony has also included two video enhancement features in the form of real-time HDR, which adapts HDR video to your viewing environment, and video image enhancement, which appears to be an upscaling mode that adds additional sharpness.

While we’d usually steer clear, Sony’s implementation of the latter is fairly effective at adding a bit more pop and sharpness to the picture.

Disappointingly, while the display supports HDR, it doesn’t support either of the Dolby Vision or HDR10+ formats we see on the iPhone 17 or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, respectively.

On the audio side, Sony has called in more backup from one of its subsidiaries, as its Walkman brand – which is responsible for countless portable music players – has reportedly played a key role in upgrading the 3.5mm headphone jack.

It has been constructed with high-quality solder containing gold to "enhance the reproduction of subtle sounds" and "improve the soundstage and directional accuracy".

This has been paired with a new high-performance audio integrated circuit to greatly enhance the wired listening experience. We must, of course, give Sony kudos for continuing to offer a headphone jack on its smartphones while others have moved on.

Those who have invested in a pair of the best wireless headphones, meanwhile, will be pleased to hear that the Xperia 1 VII features Bluetooth 6.0, with support for the AAC, SBC, and LE codecs. AuraCast is featured too.

Hi-res wireless audio is also supported via LDAC, and as this phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor (backed up by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage), it also features the aptX Adaptive codec.

Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio are also on board for supported streaming services. And for those who like to play media out loud, the Xperia 1 VII sports a set of stereo front-firing full-stage speakers, which Sony says sound “even more realistic” this year.

With that exhaustive list of AV features out of the way, we can now review the remaining specifications of the smartphone.

It runs Android 16, which is the latest version of Google’s operating system, albeit with a fairly barebones Sony skin running over the top. Sony’s take on Android can feel frustratingly limited at times, as there are missing native features, such as a dedicated photos app (it uses Google Photos instead) or a weather widget.

That being said, it does feature support for the latest Google AI features, including the Gemini Assistant, generative photo editing, and circle to search. We also can’t fault the performance, as the handset flies throughout the operating system for day-to-day tasks.

Another of Sony’s divisions, Alpha, has been consulted for the camera.

It consists of a 52MP main lens (which uses Sony’s Exmor T sensor), a telephoto lens with a true optical zoom from 85 to 170mm, and a new 16mm focal length ultra wide camera, which utilises a 50MP sensor and pixel binning to capture detailed 12MP images. The sensor is 2.1 times larger than the previous model, which means it will perform better in low-light conditions, according to Sony.

Paired with Sony’s comprehensive camera app and dedicated shutter button (which can be half-pressed to establish focus), the Xperia 1 VII provides an excellent, if slightly overwhelming, photography experience. That being said, we find it relatively easy to grab some eye-catching snaps when we use the basic shooting mode.

Rounding things out with the 5000mAh battery, the Xperia makes light work of heavy usage over a day, and it can even soldier on through a couple of days, provided you’re not pushing the phone to its limits for extended periods.

Picture

Sony’s smartphones have enjoyed a remarkably consistent streak when it comes to picture quality in our reviews. In previous years, they’ve sported 4K displays with cinematically-appropriate aspect ratios, but that all changed last year.

We deemed the Xperia 1 VI to be a solid choice for on-the-move cinephiles, albeit not to quite the same extent as its predecessors. That statement rings true for this year’s model, too, but there is now the added pressure of some extremely talented competition.

We test the Xperia 1 VII in both of its picture modes, and we end up leaning towards the Bravia-tuned standard setting, as it adds a touch of punch while remaining very balanced. The creator mode will be the preferred choice for purists, but it feels a touch washed out in comparison.

We start with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Part One) on Netflix, and the results are immediately impressive. As we mentioned, colours feature a solid balance of punch and richness without looking overbearing or unnaturally vibrant. In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S25 appears to lack some finesse here, with slightly too much red in skin tones.

Sony’s usual proficiency for delivering a solid, contrast-rich picture is clearly evident with the 1 VII. There’s an impressively convincing three-dimensional effect to the display.

Switching to Blade Runner 2049 (also on Netflix), we find that the tower featured in the opening overhead shot stands out against the background nicely with a good sense of depth, and there is a general sense of solidity and three-dimensionality to the image that helps to enhance immersion, which is easier said than done on a smartphone display.

Moving over to Civil War on Amazon Prime Video, the Sony remains staunchly natural, and motion is solid as fighter jets and helicopters soar overhead during the build-up to the climactic final battle.

As the sequence progresses towards a besieged Washington, DC at night, we find that the Sony retains an impressive level of detail in shadowy scenes, too.

While we affirm that the Sony’s picture is generally impressive, though, it is outshone by the Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra in a few ways.

We appreciate the Samsung’s higher resolution screen when we place the two handsets side-by-side, as everything looks noticeably crisper and more detailed.

Sticking with Civil War, we find that the outline of a helicopter swooping over a lake, and the dense foliage featured throughout the sequence, both appear cleaner and sharper on the Samsung, and the enhanced brightness adds intensity to the flames as the photojournalists drive through a forest fire at night.

The Samsung even delivers most of what the Sony can muster when it comes to the solidity and three-dimensional depth of the image, which, combined with the rest of the improvements to detail and brightness, makes it the better handset of the two when it comes to picture performance.

Sound

While the Xperia 1 VII can be beaten when it comes to its picture, we find that sound is a whole different story. Put simply, the Sony delivers a headphone experience that will delight anyone who wants a smartphone that doubles as a talented portable music player.

Plugging a pair of wired cans directly into the phone via the 3.5mm headphone jack and loading up Tidal, we’re rewarded with a detailed, dynamic and engaging performance that highlights the Samsung’s relative shortcomings in the process.

The opening piano chords to Taylor Swift’s The One are presented with a solid, weighty presence, and they’re soon joined by a rich and rhythmic acoustic guitar. The Sony allows each instrument to shine by revealing plenty of detail and giving each aspect of the track plenty of space, all the while ensuring it remains cohesive and well organised.

And while the phone provides a clean and revealing sound, it manages to balance everything with a sense of warmth and dynamism, which means it doesn’t come across as too analytical. Swift’s vocals are conveyed with a richness and clarity that picks up oodles of emotion, and timing is kept pin-sharp throughout.

Switching to Kiss The Ring from Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two soundtrack, we find that the Sony is capable of delivering huge scale and weighty bass, all while retaining balance and composure.

We’re similarly impressed with the full-stage front-firing speakers, and while we generally don't recommend playing music out loud from your phone, they’re more than good enough in a pinch for watching a TV show or even some light movie viewing.

Returning to Mission: Impossible, we find that the speakers deliver a solid sense of spatial separation, decent vocal clarity and detail, and a good sense of rhythmic drive to the soundtrack.

And while we won’t claim that this speaker can rival any sort of Dolby Atmos soundbar or speaker package when it comes to immersion, it does a good job of placing effects to create a somewhat spatial feeling to the sound.

Verdict

Sony’s latest flagship smartphone remains a solid enthusiast option for those who value taking their music and movies on the go over all else.

Cinephiles will enjoy the balanced display – even if it can be beaten by its Samsung competitor – and audiophiles will find immense satisfaction in the inclusion of an upgraded headphone jack and superb audio quality.

It won’t suit everyone's taste, and there are some software quirks to contend with, but the Xperia 1 VII remains a good choice for those looking for a smartphone that puts AV on the same pedestal as AI.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 5
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

Also consider the Apple iPhone 17

Read our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7

Best smartphones: the best phones for music and movies

The 11-inch and 13-inch models retain last year's superb Ultra Retina XDR display – the tandem OLED screen that delivered such impressive contrast and cinematic picture quality in our testing – while cramming significantly more processing power under the hood.

The headline act is the M5 processor, which Apple claims delivers up to 3.5 times the AI performance of the M4 model we reviewed earlier this year, and 5.6 times the performance of the M1-equipped iPad Pro from a few years back.

That's a substantial leap, though whether most users will actually push these tablets hard enough to notice the difference is another matter entirely.

As we noted in our M4 review, the iPad Pro has long been overkill in terms of raw power for anyone primarily interested in watching films and listening to music.

The new chip features a 10-core GPU with what Apple calls a Neural Accelerator built into each core, which should benefit anyone using AI-powered creative applications.

Video editors working in DaVinci Resolve, for instance, can expect AI video upscaling that's 2.3 times faster than the M4 model, while 3D rendering in Octane X sees a 1.5x speed boost.

Apple could be positioning this as an upgrade for those still clinging to M1-equipped Pros rather than a must-have for recent adopters.

Though tech fans with deep pockets and a penchant for the Next Big Thing might still be tempted to upgrade their M4-toting iPad Pro.

Beyond the processor, Apple has also introduced its new N1 wireless chip, bringing Wi-Fi 7 support to the iPad Pro for the first time.

Cellular models also benefit from the C1X modem, which apparently delivers 50 per cent faster data performance than its predecessor – useful for those who regularly stream high-resolution content on the move.

Memory bandwidth has increased by nearly 30 per cent to over 150GB/s, while storage read and write speeds are now up to twice as fast.

The entry-level 256GB and 512GB models also start with 12GB of unified memory, a 50 per cent increase that should make multitasking smoother.

Fast charging support has finally arrived too, offering a 50 per cent charge in around 30 minutes with the right adapter.

The display itself remains unchanged from the M4 generation, which is actually good news. When we tested last year's model, we were suitably impressed by the move to tandem OLED technology.

The iPad Pro M4's screen combined the pixel-level contrast control and perfect blacks of OLED, with the brightness performance of the previous Mini LED panels.

It also hit 1600 nits for HDR highlights, while delivering richer colours and a more cinematic tonal balance than ever before.

We also found its motion handling to be superb, and blooming – that faint glow around bright objects against dark backgrounds – was completely eliminated.

If you're upgrading from an older LCD-equipped iPad, the visual improvement should be substantial.

What remains to be seen is whether the new processor brings any subtle refinements to the audio and video processing, as Apple sometimes slips in improvements that aren't headline features.

When we tested the M4 version with wired headphones, we noticed a touch more warmth, richness and weight compared to the previous generation, without sacrificing impact or dynamics. Whether the M5 pushes things further, will require hands-on testing.

The iPad Pro continues to feature four speakers positioned on the shorter edges, which produce a surprisingly open and spacious sound with excellent vocal clarity – provided you don't accidentally cover them with your hands.

For serious listening, though, you'll want to connect one of the best headphones to really elevate the tablet's cinematic and music listening credentials.

Elsewhere, the new iPad Pro arrives with iPadOS 26, which introduces a more capable windowing system that should make the tablet feel rather more laptop-like.

There's also a redesigned Files app and the Preview app making its debut on iPad. Apple Intelligence features continue to expand too, with Live Translation in Phone, FaceTime and Messages among the new additions.

Pre-orders open today, with devices arriving in stores from 22nd October. The 11-inch model starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1699, while the 13-inch version begins at $1299 / £1299 AU$2029. Add cellular connectivity and you're looking at an extra $200 / £200.

Whether this represents a worthwhile upgrade depends entirely on which iPad you're coming from.

If you bought the M4 version when we awarded it five stars last year, there's probably little reason to feel envious.

But for anyone still using an M1 or earlier model – particularly those with LCD screens – the combination of that stunning OLED display and significantly more power could be game game-changing upgrade.

We look forward to putting the new iPad Pro through its paces soon to see whether it maintains the benchmark-setting performance we praised in its predecessor. Watch this space.

MORE

Read our Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) review

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Our full, in-depth Apple iPhone 17 review

Apple iPad Air 13-inch (M3)

• We rank the best tablets for movie and music fans

Apple iPhone 17

• The best smartphones for film and music fans ranked

Brighter screens, slimmer bezels and smoother refresh rates have always been reserved for the most expensive models in the tech titan’s annual ranges – but that all changes this year.

The Apple iPhone 17 may not look like a radical departure from the five-star iPhone 16 as we take it out of its box, but the more we use it, the more it becomes apparent that this could very well be one of the most compelling iPhones that Apple has ever made.

That’s thanks to those Pro-level features that we mentioned trickling their way down the lineup and into the iPhone 17.

It may not have the daring design or beefed-up camera system of its Pro sibling, but when it comes to AV efficiency, the iPhone 17 gets the upgrades that we’ve been waiting for.

Price

The iPhone 17 starts at £799 / $799 / AU$1399, which is the same price that the iPhone 16 launched at last year.

Apple has actually doubled the starting storage capacity, though, to 256GB, and a 512GB model is also available – though it’s a surprisingly steep increase to £999 / $999 / AU$1799.

That’s the same price as the super-slender iPhone Air (starting at £999 / $999 / AU$1799), and only slightly cheaper than the iPhone 17 Pro (£1099 / $1099 / AU$1999) and iPhone 17 Pro Max (£1199 / $1199 / AU$2199).

Competition-wise, Apple is mostly contending with itself; the iPhone 16e offers an excellent AV experience wrapped in Apple’s usual top-notch design and feature set at a considerably cheaper price of £599 / $599 / AU$999. The iPhone 16 is also sticking around, though it's been reduced to £699 / $699 / $1249.

For those looking at an Android-powered alternative, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus is likely your best bet at £999 / $1000 / AU$1449.

Build

The iPhone 17 looks almost identical to the iPhone 16 it replaces, which is to be expected as last year’s model employed a newer design compared to its predecessor. That’s no great shame, as the iPhone 17 is a sturdy, stylish and well-built handset.

It features an aluminium frame sandwiched between a 6.3-inch OLED display (more on that in a moment) and a satin glass rear panel. The chassis remains mostly uninterrupted save for a set of volume buttons and a programmable Action Button on the left-hand side, and a lock/power button joined by the Camera Control on the right.

A USB-C port adorns the bottom edge. This can be used for charging, of course, but also data transfer and the output of audio to a pair of headphones – though you will need USB-C-equipped peripherals or an adapter for those.

Back to that display, which has grown by 0.2 inches since last year, thanks to the new slimmer bezel surrounding the screen.

It still includes the Dynamic Island, which houses the front camera and Face ID array (which is used for biometric authentication for unlocking the phone and validating payments via Apple Pay), and can display information from currently used apps, such as the music you’re playing or show the next direction from a navigation app.

Furthermore, Apple has introduced a new Ceramic Shield 2 coating for the display, which is reportedly three times more effective at resisting scratches and is bonded to the display at an atomic level, ensuring it will withstand the test of time.

We’ve taken the iPhone 17 through multiple airports and on various day trips, and the display remains free of any nicks or blemishes. Apple has also implemented a new seven-layer anti-reflectivity coating for improved outdoor visibility, too.

Durability gets another boost with the inclusion of IP68 water and dust resistance, allowing the iPhone to be submerged in water up to one metre for 30 minutes.

There are five colours to choose from: Black, White, Lavender, Sage and Mist Blue. Our handset is Lavender, which is a soothing shade of pastel purple. The Mist Blue and Sage hues are the other two that have caught our eye.

Features

We’ve already touched on that new 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, but it’s harbouring plenty more upgrades that make it even better for AV duties.

It features a 2622 x 1206 resolution and a pixel density of 460ppi, which is slightly higher than the iPhone 16.

A more noticeable difference for those coming from older non-Pro iPhones will be the inclusion of ProMotion. Apple’s variable refresh rate panel technology, which allows the display to adapt from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the content you’re viewing, finally makes its way to the standard iPhone, and it makes all the difference when it comes to swiping, scrolling and gaming.

The display can also reach a new peak brightness of 3000 nits and a minimum brightness of just 1 nit. The combination of 1 nit and 1Hz allows the iPhone 17 to access the Always On Display feature that has also previously been reserved for the Pro-level handsets.

We’re very pleased to see that the iPhone 17 includes these features, but we do have to recognise that much cheaper Android handsets have had these for many years. Better late than never, we suppose.

Regardless, the iPhone 17’s display also features HDR support in the Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG formats, which means that all streaming services should look their best regardless of their preferred format.

Audio is boosted by the inclusion of Dolby Atmos, which is supported over the built-in stereo speakers (comprising the earpiece and bottom-firing loudspeaker) and via headphones (wired and wireless). Apple’s Spatial Audio format is also included, though you’ll need a supported pair of AirPods or Beats headphones to access it.

The iPhone 17 is powered by Apple’s latest A19 chip, which flies through the iOS 26 operating system at ludicrous speeds without missing a beat.

Day-to-day performance is silky smooth, and thanks to the improved power efficiency of this new processor, we find that battery life is excellent. We’ve hammered the iPhone 17’s battery with long travel days with plenty of video watching and music streaming, and it comfortably makes it through a day of use under these conditions.

Apple’s newest iteration of the iPhone operating system features the Liquid Glass design language with semi-transparent elements and new icons throughout, as well as a handful of new AI-powered attributes.

Apple made some pretty big promises last year with the iPhone 16 series and its Apple Intelligence system, and yet we’re still left with a fairly weak set of AI features.

Image generation, auto translation, writing tools and a supposedly upgraded Siri voice assistant are joined by Visual Intelligence, which can be used to search for information based on items or surroundings captured via the iPhone’s cameras.

It’s a welcome new addition, but Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite has had all of these features for longer, and they feel better integrated into the One UI software.

The iPhone 16's actual camera system is also new. Apple has implemented a new 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide camera, which features four times the resolution of the iPhone 16’s ultrawide lens, and it's backed up by the same 48MP main lens as its predecessor, with a “2x optical-quality telephoto” mode for improved zoomed photography.

The front camera also gets an upgrade, with a new square sensor that allows for wider shots without having to awkwardly spin the handset to a landscape orientation. The iPhone will recognise when four or more people enter the viewfinder, and will adjust the aspect ratio of the shot to ensure that everyone is visible in the photograph – clever.

In our experience, the iPhone 17 delivers wonderfully sharp, natural and richly coloured pictures. We’ve used it to capture snaps during a morning of sightseeing in Copenhagen and an evening out at Wembley to watch England v Wales, and it continued to produce sharp and colourful shots in a range of lighting conditions.

Picture

Picture performance is paramount for us, and Apple has a perfect track record to uphold. Thankfully, Apple maintains that with the iPhone 17, which is an unquestionable slam dunk when it comes to watching movies and TV shows.

Starting with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part One on Netflix in Dolby Vision, the iPhone 17 delivers a picture that’s characteristically similar to its predecessor, though it has a handful of obvious improvements.

The enhanced brightness is felt here, with a touch more punch to the iPhone 17’s image, and contrast seems to get a boost in accordance with the brighter display.

This results in an image that’s even more solid and three-dimensional than with the iPhone 16, making the iPhone 17’s picture the more striking of the two.

As expected with the slight increase in resolution, the iPhone 17 also seems to be a little bit sharper. We’ll stress it’s not game-changing, but the newer of the two handsets packs in a touch more detail and outlines of subjects look a smidge cleaner too.

That boost in detail levels is felt with everything from the texture of the suits worn by Ethan Hunt and his associates to the skin textures of each character in the various close-up shots within this sequence.

Despite the boost in brightness and added sharpness, the iPhone 17 manages to look slightly more natural than its predecessor, thanks to how its display handles colours.

Switching to an episode from the fourth season of The Morning Show on Apple TV+, we find that the colours are rich and punchy when needed – the beaming yellow of a New York taxi cab on a dimly-lit street, for example – but they’re slightly more nuanced when it comes to capturing subtle variations in skin tones and hair colours.

This results in a deeply engaging and nicely balanced image. It’s natural where required, yet it’s not afraid to introduce some punch and pop, all without straying into looking overcooked.

We round out our picture testing with Civil War on Amazon Prime Video to assess how the phone handles dark details. The sequence in which the intrepid photographers drive through a forest fire at night looks spectacular on the iPhone 17, which provides deep blacks that contrast with the vibrant, intense flames effectively.

As the film progresses to the climactic battle in Washington, DC, we find that the new iPhone adds a bit more depth to shadows. However, it seems to dig up roughly the same amount of detail from the darkest parts of the scene as the iPhone 16.

This sequence as a whole provides a smorgasbord of shots that lean into the strengths of the iPhone 17’s screen. Tracer rounds arc through the night sky in an eye-catching display of contrast, while the soldiers sprinting through the battleground to duck behind cover prove that the iPhone can handle motion with ease.

We should stress that it’s not worlds apart from the outgoing iPhone 16, but the culmination of all of these subtle picture improvements makes for a sharper, richer and overall better image.

Sound

Apple tends to gloss over the audio performance of its iPhones, presumably because it hopes you’ll pick up a new pair of AirPods and be done with it. Even so, it makes some of the best-sounding smartphones on the market. The iPhone 17 continues this trend, so we’ll sing its praises even if Apple won’t.

Hooking up a pair of wired headphones via a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter and loading up Tidal, we’re met with a rich, spacious and well-organised arrangement. Sabrina Carpenter’s crooning vocals on Don’t Worry I’ll Make You Worry sound crisp and natural, with enough detail to pick up subtle inflections in her voice.

As the chorus builds into a harmony, we’re treated to a warm, rich and smooth sound. This is underpinned by an acoustic guitar riff that sounds wonderfully textured, and timing is pin-sharp, too.

Compared to the iPhone 16, the 17 sounds slightly punchier with a more definite start to each note, though it’s quite a subtle difference.

Moving on to Kiss The Ring from Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two soundtrack, the iPhone delivers a bold, punchy performance with thunderous bass and an impressive show of dynamics. The crescendo of the track bursts to life with immense scale, allowing each component of the track to shine without getting lost in the drama.

Switching to the built-in speakers, we’d refrain from using these to listen to music out loud, but they’re a solid option to catch up on a show or a light spot of movie watching.

Heading back to Apple TV+ to watch more of The Morning Show, we find that the iPhone creates a spacious sound, with focused vocals and enough detail given to sound effects (such as a bustling city street) to create a surprisingly immersive experience.

Cranking the volume up to its maximum can make the iPhone 17 sound slightly strained and a bit cluttered, but knocking it back a couple of notches results in a solid balance between volume and detail.

Verdict

The iPhone 17 is a prime example of not judging a book by its cover. It may look very similar to its predecessor, but firing up that glorious new display proves that it's more than just an iterative update over the excellent iPhone 16.

Long-awaited features such as 120Hz variable refresh rates and an always-on display mode are no longer the sole preserve of Pro-series devices, and they’re backed up with a picture and sound performance that seriously impresses.

We’ll echo what we said at the start of this review in saying that this is undeniably one of the most compelling iPhones that Apple has ever made, as it packs in a lot of the most valuable AV features and specs at a price that undercuts its Pro siblings.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Apple iPhone 16

Also consider the Apple iPhone 16e

Read our Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review

These are the best smartphones for music and movies

It introduced a 13-inch screen size option, meaning prospective tablet buyers didn’t have to pony up for the pricey iPad Pro if they wanted a big-screen iPad experience. That sentiment continues with the iPad Air 7th Generation, which we have before us today.

This expansive, yet portable, slab of glass and metal is begging to be taken on the go as your AV travel companion, but can it deliver the performance to appease those who value a cinematic experience that can best be enjoyed on a long-haul flight or cross-country train journey?

We certainly think so, even if it comes with an overwhelming sense of deja vu.

Price

The iPad Air 13-inch (2025) starts at £799 / $799 / AU$1349; the same price as the previous model in the US and UK, and an increase of AU$50 Down Under. The catch here is that this price only nets you the 128GB version.

You can, however, configure the iPad Air with up to 1TB of storage and 5G cellular connectivity, which raises the price to £1299 / $1299 / AU$2249.

If you don't need the 13-inch display (though we feel that's the greatest appeal here), the smaller, 11-inch version of the iPad Air starts at £599 / $599 / AU$999.

While this 7th Generation iPad Air is unquestionably premium, it is of course priced far lower than the flagship iPad Pro (£1299 / $1299 / AU$1699), which wowed us with its Tandem OLED display.

Build

Apple’s “Air” moniker denotes a streamlined, slender and lightweight design, and while the chassis of this latest-gen model isn’t anything new per se, it still manages to impress.

There’s no escaping that this is a sizeable handheld device, and yet the slender frame, which is just 6.1mm thick, ensures it doesn’t become unwieldy. And, at just 616g, it’s not a burden to carry around either.

Now, that’s unquestionably impressive, but the “Air” title has previously been reserved for the thinnest and lightest offerings from Apple’s respective lineups; most notably the MacBook Air and new iPhone Air.

However, the iPad Pro is actually the thinnest and lightest iPad in Apple’s current lineup, with a thickness of just 5.1mm and a weight of 582g.

Regardless, the new iPad Air carries the usual markings of a modern iPad. The body is entirely aluminium, save for the 13-inch display, which features an anti-reflective coating.

The Air has flat, squared-off sides, which are now synonymous with Apple’s design language and can also be seen on the current crop of iPhones. The edges are mostly unobstructed, save for two volume buttons on the right edge, a combination power/lock button and a fingerprint scanner on the top, and a USB-C socket on the bottom.

There is also a flush magnetic connection on the right edge of the iPad, which is used to store and charge the optional Apple Pencil accessory.

On the rear of the iPad Air, you’ll also find a trio of magnetic connectors. These are used to connect the Magic Keyboard accessory, which can allow you to use the iPad more like a conventional laptop.

Finally, Apple offers this tablet in a toned-down colour selection, including a pair of monochromatic finishes, Starlight and Space Grey, and a duo of Purple and Blue pastel shades.

Features

The 13-inch Liquid Retina display is a real highlight. The LED IPS display features a resolution of 2732 x 2048, a pixel density of 264ppi, and support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG – though we find that it defaults to Dolby Vision for the majority of streaming applications, including Disney+, Netflix, and Apple TV+.

Dolby Atmos is supported via the built-in stereo speakers, as well as over wired and wireless headphones. Apple’s Spatial Audio system is also accessible to those with AirPods and Beats headphones, and Bluetooth audio is delivered via the AAC codec.

The iPad Air sports a 12MP rear camera, for scanning documents and taking pictures, and a 12MP front camera for video calling. This is conveniently placed on the top edge of the iPad when positioned in a landscape orientation, which makes video calls feel a bit more natural, and Apple’s Centre Stage system can track users’ movements to ensure they remain in the frame at all times.

That front-facing camera, unfortunately, doesn’t include the same Face ID sensor array that’s found on the iPad Pro, though Apple has included Touch ID on the combination lock/power button for biometric authentication.

The iPad Air unfortunately doesn’t include the ProMotion adaptive refresh rate technology of its bigger iPad Pro sibling. That means the display is locked to 60Hz – which feels a bit restrictive at this price point.

Still, this iPad is plenty powerful enough for a range of entertainment and productivity tasks, and it packs in enough AV-centric features to keep us happy.

Not much, if anything at all, has changed on the outside of this iPad, and if we’re being honest, little has changed on the inside, either. Apple’s justification for this new generation Air is swapping the M2 processor out for the more powerful M3 chip, which is reportedly better for Apple Intelligence.

It also drives the new iOS 26 operating system, which sports Apple’s new Liquid Glass motif, improved multitasking capabilities and general productivity upgrades. The visual overhaul will depend on your personal taste, but we think it looks pretty sleek.

While we tend not to dig into computing power and instead stick to the AV credentials of tablets, it must be said that this internal upgrade doesn’t seem all that substantial. The M3 chip sports an 8-core CPU and a 9-core GPU, alongside a 16-core Neural Engine for AI-based tasks; those are identical numbers to the M2 iPad Air.

In fact, Apple has awkwardly skirted around comparing this new model to its predecessor, and is instead insisting that the M3 chip is twice as fast as the M1 iPad Air from 2022 (which we, conveniently, have on hand during our review for comparison purposes).

Strangely, that does sort of make sense, in that it feels as though this iPad isn’t designed to tempt those who bought last year’s version, but those with an M1 model or earlier.

Picture

Apple’s long-running tablet range is yet to put a foot wrong when it comes to picture performance, and the latest edition of the Air continues that trend. The main benefit of the 13-inch iPad Air is the option of a larger screen without having to cough up for a pricey Pro; and while that was a benefit of the last-generation model, it still rings true with the new one.

The bigger display is an ideal canvas for movie watching, which becomes evident as soon as we load up Netflix to watch Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in Dolby Vision.

The iPad presents a sharp and natural image with rich colours that strike a balance between being engaging but not overdone.

Motion also appears flawless as a Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey glides above Abu Dhabi airport in an establishing shot, and the iPad refuses to falter when Ethan Hunt ducks and weaves through the airport, dodging his adversaries.

It might not rival the OLED-equipped Pro when it comes to contrast, but it’s decidedly no slouch here, allowing for a solid image that boasts plenty of three-dimensional depth.

Firing up the tried and true Blade Runner 2049 (also on Netflix), we find the opening sequence – in which Officer K investigates Sapper Morton’s farmhouse – to deliver plenty of detail within the brightest and darkest portions of the image.

Switching to Babylon from our Apple TV library, we confirm that this latest-generation iPad can deliver the goods when it comes to fulfilling its role as a portable movie machine. Details, such as clothing and environmental textures, are sharp, despite the 13-inch display touting an identical pixel density to the 11-inch iPad Air we have on hand as a reference.

Notably, shading seems to be the biggest upgrade with the iPad Air M3, as it handles this with a touch more finesse. Going back to Blade Runner, K and Morton’s tense confrontation is mostly bathed in shadow, which looks more natural and effective on the new iPad’s display. Shadows seem a touch deeper with no loss of detail.

Now, the iPad we have is the 11-inch M1 version, which serves as a more realistic point of reference, as those looking at this newer, larger model could well be looking to upgrade from an 11-inch screen to a 13-inch one.

Being brutally honest, the picture performance is very close between these options (that’s to say that both are excellent), though the new Air has the slight edge when it comes to contrast and shading.

We round out our picture testing with some HD SDR content; an episode from the first series of Peep Show on Netflix. The iPad handles this lower-resolution content with ease, offering a fairly clean and bright presentation.

Sound

Apple has created a sonic signature that’s fairly consistent across its range of handheld devices, and it’s one we find to be very impressive. The iPad Air is no exception – although, much like its picture performance, it’s not a huge departure from its predecessor, which also happened to score full marks.

Plugging in a pair of wired headphones via a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter and loading up Tidal, we’re met with a familiar, yet wholly excellent sound. Playing a range of test tracks from Bon Iver, Tool, Sabrina Carpenter and Hans Zimmer, it's evident that the iPad Air delivers a rich, warm, layered and detailed sound that seems to hang together ever so slightly better than the previous generation model that we have on hand.

The difference is subtle, but instruments, such as the guitar strums in Bon Iver’s From, sound a touch more textured, while the vocal presentation of Tool’s Invincible sounds both forthright and well integrated with the rest of the track.

The rich and layered characteristics are underpinned by impactful bass and expertly controlled dynamics, allowing for maximum impact when we play Dream Of Arrakis from Hans Zimmer’s Dune soundtrack. At the other end of the scale, Sabrina Carpenter’s House Tour is presented with a zippy, energetic character that is bolstered by superb timing.

Unplugging the headphones and trying out the iPad’s built-in stereo speakers, the new tablet impresses yet again. The sheer size of the tablet ensures that spatial separation is handled well, and the speakers are even good enough for a spot of out-loud music listening (a Bluetooth speaker will, of course, be preferable).

The speakers are, however, better suited for watching movies and TV shows, as we find that dialogue is crisp and clear in a clip from Mission: Impossible, and it’s balanced surprisingly well with the action-packed score.

Verdict

The latest iPad Air might not be the most interesting tablet that Apple has ever released, but it’s still an excellent portable AV machine. It serves up a superb picture filled with detail and rich yet balanced colours, and its textured and inviting sound seals the deal.

Paired with a powerful new processor that makes it a viable laptop alternative, the iPad Air is a solid choice for anyone looking for a double-purpose tablet that excels for both entertainment and productivity.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Apple iPad Pro (M4)

Also consider the Amazon Fire HD 10

Read our Apple iPad Mini (6th Generation) review

These are the best tablets for movies and music

Right now, you can pick up this five-star tablet for just £70 at Amazon – the lowest price we've ever seen.

So, if you've been on the fence about buying Amazon's newest model, you can secure it for over half price and that is certainly worth seriously considering right now.

The Amazon Fire HD 10 is a What Hi-Fi? Award winner for a multitude of reasons. Not only is it capable of bright and punchy pictures, it's also packed with features and well put together. And it's seriously competitive when compared to the price of an iPad.

As we said in our full review: "The Fire HD 10 gets a lot right on the picture front, delivering movies and TV shows in a way that’s pretty faithful to creative intent and with a surprising amount of pop and definition."

It's 2.0Ghz octa-core processor is also more than adequate for smooth operation, streaming and casual gaming. And if you want to use the Fire HD 10 as more of a productivity device, there's plenty of compatible accessories from a keyboard case to stylus pen.

And when it comes to sound, the tablet's speakers are on either end of the top edge, meaning you won't be covering them with your hands when holding.

Plus, if you prefer to listen through headphones (and we think you should), it's one of the last remaining portable devices that'll still let you plug in via a 3.5mm headphone jack. You can also connect via Bluetooth, should you prefer.

You'll get 13 hours of battery out of this five-star tablet, which will work nicely for you when watching videos and listening to music. Amazon Prime Video (obviously), Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, Plex, Amazon Music, Spotify, BBC Sounds and TuneIn are all on board.

All told, expect to get a solid picture, ample audio performance and great app availability, all in a compact, portable and affordable tablet.

For a 10-inch tablet, it's incredibly good value, especially at this all-time low price of just £70 at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our full Amazon Fire HD 10 review

Check out the best deals for Amazon Prime Big Day Deals

And the best tablets: top tablets for movies and music

Naturally, I should be highly invested in this smartphone launch, as its predecessors have been amongst the best smartphones for watching movies and listening to music on the go. However, Sony has made a big change this year, and it's one that's sure to divide on-the-go cinephiles.

Much like its bigger and much more expensive counterpart from last year, the Xperia 1 VI, the 10 VII drops the 21:9 aspect ratio display that we've been raving about for the past three generations.

It now sports a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, which means that cinematic content will no longer naturally fill the display, and instead we'll be met with black letterboxing bars when watching supported movies.

That's a shame, because there is no budget phone that dedicates itself to AV in the same way that Sony's Xperia 10 series has in previous years.

Sony's approach, which is to cut back on cutting-edge specs and offer a relatively basic plastic chassis while focussing on providing a five-star picture and sound experience, has always resonated with our AV-first preference.

This year's model focuses more on a new camera system (complete with the physical shutter button shortcut) and AI software features, though there are some AV-focused upgrades to keep in mind.

Sony has upgraded the display to 120Hz, which should make scrolling and gaming on the OLED display feel a lot smoother. It also highlights that the new aspect ratio – which it shares this with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Apple iPhone 16 Pro – should suit 16:9 content better.

And we can't forget the 3.5mm headphone jack, which Sony is still supporting for high resolution wired audio, alongside a long list of wireless audio codecs including Qualcomm's aptX Adaptive and Sony's LDAC options.

Paired with redesigned front-firing stereo speakers that appear to directly address the issue we had regarding the predecessor's cabinet vibration, the latest Xperia 10 should still be a top-choice handset for audiophiles.

We'll need to test the Xperia 10 VII for ourselves to see if it lives up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessors, and we must remember that the Xperia 1 VI was still a five-star device even without the 21:9 display of its predecessor.

Regardless, its the end of an era for Sony, as an AV-first feature that it pioneered on its smartphones for quite some time has now been officially dropped from its lineup.

The Xperia 5 V remains on sale, which is now the only model in Sony's lineup to feature a 21:9 screen, though that handset is swiftly approaching its second year on sale with no sign of an update from Sony, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

If you do want a 2025 smartphone with a 21:9 display, then the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is likely your best bet; though we didn't think it was necessarily the best smartphone for music and movies.

MORE:

Read our full Sony Xperia 10 VI review

As well as our iPhone 16e review

And check out the best smartphones for movies and music

The iPhone Air is unquestionably a marvel of engineering, measuring in at just 5.6mm and weighing a mere 165g, making it the antithesis of the bulky Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra that currently occupies my pocket.

Its slender profile, sleek lines, and integrated camera bar make it the most un-iPhone looking iPhone in recent memory, but I'm warming up to the design. In reality, design is what it's all about with this phone, as its futuristic build is its unique selling point.

Despite that, Apple is touting Pro-level iPhone specs here, with the latest A19 Pro chipset, which can also be found in the new iPhone 17 Pro Max. The paper-thin chassis reportedly won't impact battery life either, with Apple claiming an impressive 27 hours of video playback on a single charge.

So, maybe this isn't the form-over-function device I have been bracing myself for since the rumours of a super-slim iPhone began circulating. Well, there is one catch, and it's one that I'm not willing to live with.

The iPhone Air only sports a mono speaker, which is located in the earpiece at the top of the handset and doesn't get any backup from a bottom-mounted loudspeaker like the one you'll find on the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.

Apple, understandably, didn't shout about this downgrade during its livestreamed event. This is likely because this drawback makes the iPhone Air the first iPhone to not feature a stereo speaker system since the iPhone 6S, which was released a decade ago.

Now, this might not be a dealbreaker to everyone, but as someone who uses their phone's speakers more than they perhaps should, it's not a compromise I'm willing to make.

While I never commit the cardinal sin of blasting music from my phone's speakers, I use them to watch the occasional TV episode, and more frequently to watch TikToks, Instagram Reels and YouTube videos.

While these aren't the cinephile-quality tasks that we usually judge phones on, they're the real-life day-to-day functions that I use my phone for, and I'm willing to bet that's the case with plenty of other people out there.

I'd rather avoid thin-sounding mono audio if possible, so my hopes aren't all that high for the iPhone Air's loudspeaker performance.

I'm also confused as to how Apple will achieve Dolby Atmos audio from a mono speaker, as the recent batch of iPhones have all supported the immersive audio format from their earpiece and loudspeaker combination system, and they've been fairly effective at doing so.

Now, I have to give Apple some credit here, as in the grand scheme of things, this is a fairly modest downgrade. The rest of this slender phone's specifications are pretty impressive, but I'll need to get the phone in hand to figure out how it deals with movies and music.

For now, I'm hesitant to get too excited about it, as this audio-related drawback is pushing me towards the cheaper iPhone 17.

MORE:

Read the full Apple iPhone Air reveal news here

Here's our full iPhone 16 review

As well as our picks for the best iPhones

In fact, it's the first phone in recent years that's tempting me to upgrade from my ageing iPhone 12 mini from 2020.

Here's why.

Biggie smalls

The iPhone mini variant is long since retired, of course. It only lasted two iterations before it was replaced by the iPhone 14 Plus in 2022. Apple had decided that people didn't want small phones, and replaced it with a 6.7-inch monster.

But I didn't want such a gargantuan phone. That's why I've stuck with the mini ever since. It does everything I need it to, at a size that fits easily in a pocket. It'll even get the latest iOS 26 operating system. So why upgrade to the iPhone 17?

I can see a few reasons. Firstly, the 120Hz refresh rate. Many would say it's about time Apple gave its base level iPhone a higher refresh rate, and they have a point. Even mid-range Samsung phones now have 120Hz – double the rate of the iPhone 16 – so Apple couldn't really not make the upgrade.

This should mean less blurring during fast-moving content like games, sports and movies. Which is ideal for anyone who enjoys watching or gaming on the go (that's me).

It's an always-on display, too, so you don't need to wake it in order to see certain information like the time. Given that my iPhone sits on a MagSafe charger acting like a bedside clock, this is a feature I would get a lot of use from.

And then there's the size. The 6.3-inch screen is marginally bigger than the iPhone 16's, and a big jump up from the 12 mini's 5.4 inches. But if you're going to go big, you may as well go that bit bigger, right?

The trickle down effect

None of this is new tech, by the way. It was all available in last year's iPhone 16 Pro. (Though interestingly, the iPhone 17 actually has a higher peak brightness outdoors – 3000 nits to 2000 nits – than the 16 Pro.) But it now comes in a more affordable package, one that's more within my means.

Bigger, brighter, with a higher refresh rate and a massive leap on from what I'm currently using, the iPhone 17's screen could finally convince me to put my hand in my pocket. And that's certainly not pr guff.

MORE:

AirPods Pro 3: everything you need to know

The iPhone 17 Pro looks great, but the standard iPhone 17's screen upgrades mean it’s probably all a cinephile needs

The Apple iPhone Air promises the firm's advanced screen and audio tech in a thinner body

I've owned every Pro model from the last few years, and I think the iPhone 17 Pro looks awesome. If I'm honest, I think Apple had me the moment I saw that new Cosmic Orange finish.

But for me, the really important aspects of a phone are the picture and sound quality. I primarily use my phone for watching movies and listening to music on the go, after all, and I suspect that if you're a regular What Hi-Fi? reader, it's the same for you, too.

That's why, this year, I think the standard iPhone 17 could be the best iPhone to buy, rather than the Pro model.

You see, the iPhone 17's screen is a massive upgrade on the iPhone 16's. It's bigger, for starters, up to 6.3 inches from the previous model's 6.1 inches.

It's finally got a 120Hz refresh rate, too, which might not have much of a bearing on movies, but does make a huge difference to the general fluidity and responsiveness of the display, and I don't think I could live with a phone without 120Hz after living with the Pros that have it.

That refresh rate is variable, too, thanks to Apple's ProMotion tech, which is essentially VRR for phones. Again, not something that matters to movies, but it makes a big difference to games that support it and extends battery life by reducing the refresh rate when all those extra frames aren't needed.

More importantly for movies on the move, though, is that peak brightness has been increased from 2000 nits on the iPhone 16 to 3000 nits.

That's specifically for when you're using the phone outdoors, and it's exactly what you need if you find yourself occasionally watching a TV show or, more regularly in my case, the football or F1 while on the bus or in a pub garden.

What's most interesting is that, on paper at least, the iPhone 17's display is identical to that of the iPhone 17 Pro. I can't remember the last time the standard iPhone and Pro model had the same display specs.

I'm starting to think, then, that the iPhone 17 could be the sweet spot in the new range if, like me, you're a content consumer rather than a content creator.

There's a big difference in price, after all – £300 between the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro in the UK.

On the other hand, there is an even bigger version of the Pro – the 6.9-inch iPhone 17 Pro Max – and you can't beat size when it comes to cinema, even if it is portable cinema.

And have I mentioned that I really like the Cosmic Orange finish?

MORE:

Here's the news on the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro, and their massive new batteries

One more thing: where are the new HomePods?

AirPods Pro 3 launch with "breakthrough audio performance", improved ANC and longer battery life

Measuring in at 5.6mm wide with a 6.5-inch OLED display, the Air is being marketed as Apple's thinnest to date. Despite this it has some very cutting edge specifications, including the same 3000 nits of brightness as the new iPhone 17 it was unveiled alongside.

That's a 1000 nit increase on the older iPhone 16's peak brightness that should make it much better for outdoor movie viewing and potentially boost HDR performance.

Apple claims the Air's "exceptionally light" design is achievable thanks to the addition of titanium frame, which has previously only been used in the Pro range. Apple also note that it is using 80 per cent recycled titanium which is the highest percentage for the brand so far.

New Ceramic Shield 2 is also in play which provides improved antireflection, scratch resistance, and significantly better crack resistance for the rear glass than the previous Ceramic Shield according to Apple.

Under the hood of the iPhone Air is the A19 Pro chip which Apple says is the "fastest CPU in any smartphone." The company says this provides three times the computing power of the previous A18 Pro chip, featuring a 6-core CPU for improved bandwidth.

AI is, of course, getting a bigger push with this thin model. Apple has built neural accelerators into each GPU core which the company says provides "MacBook Pro levels of compute in an iPhone."

On top of that, the N1 Apple-designed chip brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity to the phone. There's also a new modem design in the form of the C1X, which Apple says is up to two times faster than the previous iteration. So streaming hi-res music shouldn't be beyond it, even if Apple's not given any detail on specific audio improvements to the phone.

It comes in four colour options: Space Black, Cloud White, Light Gold and Sky Blue.

But what about the camera? Well, the iPhone Air features a 48MP fusion camera system including a 2x Telephoto system. Apple says this is to adds to the sensor's ability to capture ultra-sharp images and improve low-light performance.

It is capable of capturing 4K Dolby Vision video, complete with a 18MP front Centre Stage camera so you don't need to rotate your camera to snap a landscape selfie.

There's also a Dual Capture feature which uses the front and back cameras at once, creating an overall image that looks reminiscent of the social media app BeReal.

It's worth noting that this new iPhone model does not feature a SIM port, and is moving over completely to eSIM.

The battery life has an "all-day" battery life according to Apple, with up to 40 hours of video playback.

That all sounds exciting, but there is the all-important question of how much this new iPhone will set you back. Apple announced it will be available for $999, but has yet to confirm how much this would be in the UK or Australia. If we were to convert that directly, however, it would come to about £740 / AU$1518.

You can pre-order it from this Friday with availability from 19 September.

We're yet to get the iPhone Air in our test room to see how it performs, especially when it comes to video playback and listening to music, but stay tuned for our full review coming soon.

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These are the best smartphones

Check out our review of the iPhone 16

Samsung Galaxy S25 vs iPhone 16: which should you buy?

It has launched a quartet of new smartphones, with the standard model, Pro and Pro Max models being joined by a super-slender new device.

We're focusing on the standard iPhone 17, as well as the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max; however, you can find everything iPhone Air-related here.

These new devices take the baton from the five-star iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, with upgrades to the internal components, design and, most importantly, displays.

In true Apple fashion, the company hasn't shouted from the rooftops about the new AV capabilities of these phones, instead opting to focus on cameras, AI and the new A19 processors.

That being said, we're experts at reading between the lines to decipher what new upgrades are coming to these iPhones to make them even better portable devices for movies and music.

iPhone 17

Apple gave the base model iPhone a fairly substantial upgrade last year with the iPhone 16, so we're not surprised to find that the iPhone 17 is a fairly modest update in comparison. It looks almost identical to the model it's replacing on the outside, but Apple has thankfully made some under-the-hood improvements.

While the 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display remains the same size as the iPhone 16, it features thinner bezels. It finally gets Apple's ProMotion display tech too, which allows for an adaptive 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate; something that has been previously reserved for the Pro-series iPhones.

Furthermore, this display is considerably brighter at 3000 nits. The iPhone 16's peak of 2000 nits is considerably lower.

Audio-wise, Apple is keeping things simple with Dolby Atmos support over the phone's stereo speakers, as well as via Bluetooth headphones, including the newly announced AirPods Pro 3.

Inside the iPhone is the new A19 processor, which is developed in-house at Apple and is set to enhance day-to-day performance, improve battery life and support Apple's growing AI suite.

Apple Intelligence has been a bit of a bust until now, but the company promises that the iPhone 17 will usher in a new era of AI features.

Charging and battery life are also hugely upgraded on the iPhone 17, with a claimed eight hours more battery life compared to the 16 when it comes to video playback. Furthermore, just 20 minutes of wired charging will supposedly top the battery up by a staggering 50 per cent.

Software-wise, the iPhone 17 is running Apple's latest iOS 26 operating system, which redesigns the software with a new Liquid Glass look, complete with transparent elements and a new look for all icons and user interface elements.

The camera also gets a boost with a new 48MP main lens that promises crisp and detailed pictures, and it's paired with a 48MP ultra-wide lens, which widens the shots without scaling back picture quality, according to Apple.

Selfies also get a boost with a front-facing centre stage camera that utilises a new sensor that lets you hold onto the device in a portrait orientation to take landscape-style selfies.

Elsewhere, you'll find a tougher Ceramic Shield 2 coating for three times better scratch resistance, and Apple now bonds this coating to the display glass at an atomic level. There's also a new seven-layer anti-reflectivity coating on the display glass, which should reduce pesky glare.

Interestingly, Apple won't be offering a Plus variant of its standard iPhone this year, leaving the iPhone Air with its 6.5-inch display to fill in this role. However, it is bumping the base storage up to 256GB.

The iPhone 17 is available in five finishes – White, Black, Sage, Misty Blue and Lavender – and it launches on the 19th of September, starting at £799 / $799 / AU$1399.

iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max

Apple has also uncovered its expected duo of Pro-series iPhones.

We'll start with the smaller of the two devices, which appears to be quite different from its processor. The Award-winning iPhone 16 Pro served up a stellar picture experience with its 6.3-inch OLED display, and the iPhone 17 Pro appears to carry that forward with a similarly specced display.

This year, the size remains the same, and it continues to support Dolby Vision HDR. Apple's ProMotion adaptive refresh rate technology also returns, which allows the display to adapt from 1Hz to 120Hz.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max scales up to a 6.9-inch display; however, the rest of the display specifications remain the same as the standard-sized iPhone 17 Pro.

Both devices feature an all-new aluminium unibody design, which is a interesting walk back on the titanium frames that Apple has championed for the last two generations of Pro-level iPhones.

According to Apple, this is all due to heat dissipation, which should result in better battery life and performance. The rear glass has also been swapped out for the new Ceramic Shield 2 material, which makes it more durable. Apple claims that this strategy has worked, as it allows for 39 hours of video playback on a single charge.

However, in a confusing twist made by Apple, that figure only relates to the eSIM-only models, with the traditional SIM-tray style devices dropping two hours of battery life.

The new design also incorporates a new "extended plateau" design, which is a raised bar that houses the camera system, which is comprised of three 48MP lenses, including an improved telephoto lens for even better zoom performance. This camera array allows users to record video in Dolby Vision HDR up to 120fps.

Inside the Pro and Pro Max is the new A19 Pro processor, which is set to allow for slicker day-to-day operation, AI interactions, and gaming performance. Base storage has also been increased to 256GB, with a new 2TB model available for those wanting to store unwieldy amounts of photos, music and movies.

The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max launch on the 19th of September, and come in three new shades: Silver, Deep Blue and Cosmic Orange. Pricing starts at £1099 / $1099 / AU$1999 for the 17 Pro, and £1199 / $1199 / AU$2199.

MORE:

Read our full iPhone 16 review

As well as our iPhone 16e review

And check out our picks for the best iPhones

After launching no less than eight new smartphones this year – four of which are different versions of the flagship Galaxy S25 series – and three new iterations of the Galaxy Tab S10, Samsung is back with yet another phone and its latest generation of iPad adversaries.

Samsung Galaxy S25 FE

We'll start with the Galaxy S25 FE, as it's likely the least exciting of the trio of new handheld devices. It sports a Full HD+ Super AMOLED 2X display, with a variable 120Hz refresh rate and a claimed 1900 nits peak brightness.

The display also supports HDR in Samsung's usual HDR10 and HDR10+ combination, although the ProScaler feature that we highly endorsed in our Galaxy S25 Ultra review is sadly not included. That means that lower resolution content will not get the added sharpness and clarity, which is certainly a shame.

However, what you do get is Samsung's Adaptive Vision Booster engine, which adapts the brightness of the display in accordance with ambient lighting conditions and the content on the screen.

Furthermore, you get a plethora of Samsung's premium handset features, such as an Armour Aluminium and Gorilla Glass Victus chassis, a triple rear camera array with 12MP ultra-wide, 50MP wide-angle, and 8MP telephoto lenses, and Samsung's One UI software.

Interestingly, Samsung has chosen this mid-range device to launch its new One UI 8 update, meaning the software experience could be even slicker than the flagship S25 Ultra. Samsung has, however, confirmed that One UI 8 will launch on the rest of the S25 range later this month.

The Galaxy S25 FE starts at a very reasonable £649, and is available in four finishes: Icyblue, White, Navy and Jetblack. Could this be the Android-based answer to Apple's iPhone 16e?

Galaxy Tab S11 and Tab S11 Ultra

The more intriguing duo of devices from Samsung's latest lineup are the Tab S11 and Tab S11 Ultra. These are two high-end tablets that tout OLED displays and plenty of AV potential, which could spell trouble for Apple's iPad Pro.

The Galaxy Tab S11 features an 11-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, with a variable 1Hz to 120Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 1600 nits, and support for HDR10 and HDR10+.

The Tab S11 Ultra scales that screen up to a whopping 14.6 inches, outdoing Apple's 13-inch iPad Pro M4, though the rest of the specs remain the same as the standard Tab S11.

ProScaler and Adaptive Vision Boost are both supported, meaning lower resolution streamed content should look pin-sharp on these displays thanks to Samsung's clever image upscaling capabilities.

While Samsung is touting the largest display on a Galaxy Tab device to date, it's not compromising when it comes to the design, as these are two super-slender slabs of glass and metal. The Ultra weighs just 692g and measures in at a mere 5.1mm in width.

The S-Pen also gets an upgrade, with a new design that snaps onto the side of the tablet magnetically for charging and convenient storage.

While Samsung is yet to confirm, all of its recent smartphones and tablets have supported Dolby Atmos audio over headphones (wired and wireless) and over speakers, so we expect the Tab S11 series to follow suit.

The Tab S11 starts at £799 for the 128GB Wi-Fi-equipped model, but the price quickly increases to £1149 if you opt to upgrade to 512GB storage and add 5G compatibility.

The Tab S11 Ultra, on the other hand, starts at a cool £1199 for the 256GB Wi-Fi model, with a 1TB version with 5G enabled costing £1699.

Samsung's new handheld devices are available to order now.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

And check out our iPad Pro 13-inch M4 review

Here are the best smartphones for movies and music

From £999 / $1000 / AU$1449 for the 256GB model, the Galaxy S25 Plus sits directly alongside Apple's iPhone 16 Pro in terms of pricing, making the comparison between these two flagships almost inevitable.

For many people, the choice between Android and iOS ecosystems will have already been made, but for those sitting on the fence or considering a switch, the Galaxy S25 Plus presents a strong case for Samsung's vision of premium smartphone design.

The question, as always with incremental smartphone updates, is whether Samsung has done enough to justify the upgrade from previous generations – and more importantly, whether it can hold its own against increasingly competitive rivals in the premium smartphone space.

Price

The Galaxy S25 Plus starts at £999 / $1000 / AU$1449 for the 256GB model, with a 512GB variant available for £1099 / $1120 / AU$1649. In the UK, the prices have currently dropped to £899 and £999, respectively.

This pricing puts it in direct competition with Apple's iPhone 16 Plus and around the same ballpark as Google's Pixel 9 Pro – all while offering a significant saving over Samsung's own Galaxy S25 Ultra.

For context, this positions the Galaxy S25 Plus as a premium mid-flagship – more expensive than Samsung's base Galaxy S25, but considerably more affordable than the top-tier Ultra variant.

The pricing strategy makes sense, offering buyers most of the premium features without paying for the Ultra's additional camera capabilities and S Pen functionality that many users will never fully utilise.

Crucially, Samsung's base model also offers double the storage of its iPhone 16 Pro rival. Apple’s offering starts with a frustratingly stingy 128GB for the same price as the base 256GB Galaxy S25 Plus. This makes the Galaxy S25 Plus particularly compelling for users who prefer owning their media files and rely on local storage for high-quality playback.

Build

Samsung has crafted something rather covetable with the Galaxy S25 Plus's design and build quality – at least, in a world where smartphone design innovation has all but stagnated.

While there’s nothing unexpected or groundbreaking, the device feels beautifully well-made and premium in the hands, with a quality that rivals Apple's own iPhone construction. The rounded aluminium frame, combined with a gorgeous frosted glass back, creates a smartphone that's a joy to hold and use daily.

Purists will also particularly appreciate Samsung's attention to symmetry – the rear camera lenses are perfectly aligned, unlike some Android smartphones that seem to throw symmetry out the window when it comes to camera placement. This might seem like a minor detail, but it contributes to the phone's overall sense of refinement and considered design.

The frosted glass back deserves special mention as a particularly pleasant finish. Beyond its attractive appearance, it proves resistant to fingerprints and smudges, maintaining that fresh-from-the-box appearance long after the new gadget feeling wears off.

Our only real criticism of the design centres on the absence of a dedicated shortcut button – an increasingly popular feature on new smartphones. A programmable button could open frequently used apps such as Spotify or Netflix, or even serve as a camera shutter button for photography enthusiasts.

While this omission doesn't detract from the overall build quality, it does feel like a missed opportunity in an otherwise polished design.

Features

The Galaxy S25 Plus arrives with a comprehensive suite of AV-focused features that should appeal to entertainment enthusiasts.

At its heart sits a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED display with a variable refresh rate spanning 1Hz to 120Hz, supporting HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats. The screen delivers a crisp 1440 x 3120 resolution with 498 pixels per inch.

Audio capabilities include stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, though as expected, there's no headphone jack – users will need to rely on USB-C adapters or wireless connectivity. Bluetooth 5.4 with high-quality codecs is also on the cards.

Powering the device is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor – a slightly overclocked version of Qualcomm's flagship chipset.

This is a significant upgrade for UK and European buyers, who previously received Exynos variants that often lagged behind their Snapdragon counterparts in performance and efficiency. Thank you, Samsung.

A 4900mAh battery delivers excellent all-day battery life that will easily see you through a full day of heavy usage, with some users able to stretch into a second day with more conservative habits.

The 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging get the job done, though we wish the likes of Samsung, Google, and Apple would catch up with other smartphone manufacturers, such as Oppo, Nubia, and Xiaomi. Those less mainstream brands all offer much faster charging, from 65W to 120W.

Galaxy S25 Plus storage options include 256GB and 512GB variants, both paired with 12GB of RAM, though there's no microSD expansion available.

Camera duties are handled by a familiar triple-lens set-up – a 50MP main sensor, 12MP ultrawide, and 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom.

While Samsung hasn't upgraded the camera hardware from previous generations, improved processing delivers reliably excellent results across various shooting conditions. Daylight photography produces sharp, vibrant images with good dynamic range, while the main sensor handles low-light scenarios admirably – you'll be more than happy with selfies even in a dimly lit pub.

The 3x telephoto provides useful flexibility for portraits and distant subjects, though digital zoom beyond this point shows the limitations of the smaller sensor. The ultrawide lens, while perfectly serviceable for group shots and landscapes, represents the weakest link in the camera array, with slightly softer detail and reduced dynamic range compared with the main sensor.

Video capabilities extend to 8K recording with solid stabilisation, making it a capable choice for content creators. Samsung's AI-enhanced photo editing tools, including object removal and generative fill features, work impressively well for quick touch-ups without the need for dedicated editing software.

Samsung's One UI 7 software brings enhanced AI features, including improved photo editing tools, real-time translation capabilities, and Samsung's ProScaler technology borrowed from the company's TV division. This feature claims to upscale video content by up to 40 per cent, though real-world improvements can be subtle depending on source material quality.

Picture

We test the Galaxy S25 Plus extensively, using both the Vivid and Natural picture modes, with the adaptive refresh rate enabled for optimal performance. The display immediately impresses, with Samsung's signature vibrant, punchy colours and the deep, rich blacks that OLED technology delivers so effectively.

The default colour temperature sits slightly on the cool side but remains pleasingly close to pure white. While most users will find the defaults perfectly acceptable, it's a simple matter to adjust the warmth manually in the display settings to suit personal preference. The comprehensive colour customisation options ensure you can tailor the visual experience to your taste.

However, direct comparison with the iPhone 16 Plus reveals some subtle but noticeable differences. The Galaxy S25 Plus lacks some of the cinematic warmth that Apple's rival provides, and we detect a slight green tint when viewing the devices side by side. This green wash isn't problematic in isolation, but it becomes apparent when scrutinising both devices simultaneously.

Contrast performance, while strong, doesn't quite match the iPhone 16 Plus's capabilities either. The Apple device delivers a more solid, three-dimensional presentation that makes content appear to pop from the screen more convincingly. The Galaxy S25 Plus offers sharp, well-defined edges, but they lack the contrast reinforcement that gives the iPhone its more substantial visual presence.

Motion handling proves mostly excellent, though we notice some judder during demanding sequences – particularly evident in the tank scene from Oppenheimer. While not desperately unpleasant and unlikely to bother most viewers in isolation, it represents another area where the iPhone 16 Plus demonstrates superior performance.

Taken on its own merits, the Galaxy S25 Plus delivers an excellent picture quality experience. It's an engaging screen for movies, gaming and general app usage, with enough display customisation options to satisfy most preferences. The minor issues we've highlighted become apparent primarily when making direct comparisons to best-in-class rivals, rather than representing fundamental flaws in Samsung's implementation.

Sound

The Galaxy S25 Plus delivers a solid audio performance that's improved considerably compared with previous Samsung generations, though it still trails its Apple rival in terms of refinement and subtlety. Testing with various headphones via a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter reveals a generally pleasant listening experience with good spatial separation between instruments.

Complex tracks such as Tool's Pneuma showcase the device's ability to handle intricate arrangements, with Danny Carey's sophisticated drum sequences receiving enough separation and precision to appreciate the complex fills and hypnotising hi-hat work. The Galaxy S25 Plus demonstrates commendable control over these demanding passages.

Agnes Obel's Riverside highlights the phone's capacity for delivering spacious, airy vocals with genuine warmth, fullness and depth. The intimate acoustic arrangement benefits from Samsung's improved processing, creating an engaging listening environment that draws you into the performance.

However, bass-heavy material such as Wolfclub's Summer Lights exposes some limitations. While the low-end remains controlled and without distortion, and there's good separation between bass elements and crisp percussion, the chorus sections reveal a slight harshness in the treble frequencies. The vocals and bass can become somewhat muddied together during particularly dense arrangements.

This tendency becomes more apparent with Pendulum's Witchcraft, where the controlled bass reproduction is undermined by overly sharp highs. Cymbal crashes feel slightly harsh and somewhat unbalanced compared with other mix elements, creating a less cohesive overall presentation.

While these observations might sound overly critical, they reflect the high standards we apply to premium smartphones. Overall, the Galaxy S25 Plus serves up a very pleasant listening experience that will satisfy most users. However, compared with the iPhone 16 Plus, Samsung's device lacks the subtle detail retrieval and textural richness that make Apple's audio performance so compelling.

Verdict

The Galaxy S25 Plus represents Samsung at its most accomplished, delivering a refined flagship experience that successfully balances premium features with more sensible pricing. While it may not represent a revolutionary leap forward from previous generations, it offers the kind of iterative excellence that makes for an outstanding daily driver.

For Android users seeking a premium smartphone experience, the Galaxy S25 Plus makes a compelling case. The build quality rivals anything else in the market, the display delivers vibrant, engaging visuals for entertainment, and the performance capabilities ensure smooth operation across all tasks. Battery life comfortably handles full-day usage, too, while the comprehensive feature set covers all the essential smartphone bases.

The comparisons with Apple's iPhone 16 Plus are inevitable given their similar pricing, and while Samsung's device doesn't quite match its rival's picture contrast or audio subtlety, these differences become apparent primarily through direct side-by-side analysis. Most buyers will find the Galaxy S25 Plus's AV performance more than satisfactory for their entertainment needs.

Perhaps most importantly, the Galaxy S25 Plus offers most of the Ultra's premium features without the price premium, making it the logical choice for buyers who don't require the S Pen or the absolute best camera system Samsung offers.

The generous 256GB base storage – double that of the iPhone 16 Pro at the same price point – makes it particularly attractive for users who prefer owning their media files and rely on local storage for high-quality playback. In the Android ecosystem, it stands as a superb, premium choice that delivers excellent value.

For existing Galaxy S24 or S23 Plus owners, the improvements may not justify an immediate upgrade. However, for those with older devices or considering a switch to Samsung's ecosystem, the Galaxy S25 Plus provides a compelling entry point to flagship Android performance.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4