The Stuff Gadget Awards 2024: our phones of the year

The days of giant leaps forward in the top smartphone world may be long behind us (and far in front of us), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t exciting things happening among the highest handset echelons. Here are our picks for our phones of the year.

We’ve several categories for you, including our overall phone of the year as well as mid-range and affordable phone of the year, too. New this year is also a foldable phone category, too and we’ve also got our top camera phone of the year, too!

See all our Stuff Gadget Award winners

Flagship phone of the year: Apple iPhone 16

While Apple Intelligence is only just rolling out, there’s more than enough about the iPhone 16 to make it this year’s top phone. While it looks very similar to its last-gen equivalent, it’s improved in several key areas.

Battery life is better – enough that we noticed the extra hour or so of use it provides. The biggest glow-up, however, is the camera: it now has a 2x telephoto zoom mode, while the new Camera Control hardware button makes opening and using this iPhone’s snapping app a more slick and user-friendly process.

Last time around, we’d have recommended the Pro model as the go-to choice for anyone buying a new iPhone; with this generation, the baseline iPhone 16 proves itself to be more than enough smartphone for most of us.

Highly commended

Google Pixel 9 Pro

Manna from heaven for the small-handed, small-pocketed folk who think flagships have got Too Damn Big, the dinkier 6.3in Pixel 9 Pro still finds room for everything we love about Google’s smartphones: stunning AI-assisted camera capabilities, stonking battery life and a stellar screen. Seven years of software updates, too.

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

The price makes our eyes water, but Samsung has dosed the medicine with several spoonfuls of sweet, sweet sugar. The latest Galaxy flagship sets new standards for ruggedness with its Gorilla Armor glass and titanium frame and runs like a dream thanks to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. Also, its AI tweaks are genuinely helpful rather than marketing fluff.

Also shortlisted

OnePlus 12, Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Mid-range phone of the year: Google Pixel 8a

A mid-ranger that feels anything but mid, the Pixel 8a is far and away the best phone in this category. In fact, at this price it’s in with a shout for the best-value smartphone full-stop.

Let’s start with the camera – the bit of a phone most of us use the most often. The Pixel 8a’s 64MP main sensor gets an amazing helping hand from Google’s class-leading AI smarts. Photography purists may bristle at that idea, but the results speak for themselves.

AI looms large throughout the Pixel 8a, in fact, with a heap of new time-saving features. Add in the gorgeously vibrant screen and durable yet refined design, and you’ve got a fantastic phone at an accessible price.

Highly commended

OnePlus 12R, Motorola Edge 50 Pro

Also shortlisted

Honor 200 Pro

Affordable phone of the year: CMF by Nothing Phone 1

Despite its genuinely ‘budget’ asking price, we found this phone to be chock-full of character. That’s thanks to its stylishly utilitarian semi-modular design, with a twist-off accessory port that supports the bolting-on of kickstands, lanyards and more.

It’s no slouch in the performance stakes either, with a particularly impressive 2400×1080 OLED HDR screen, more than passable 50MP main camera and 8GB of RAM. Thanks, perhaps, to the modest power requirements of its Dimensity 7300 chipset, the CMF Phone 1’s battery life is also excellent.

Highly commended

Nothing Phone 2a

Despite scaling back the signature Nothing design touches somewhat in its drive for affordability, the Phone 2a remains something of a maverick when compared to the Samsungs, Sonys and Pixels of this world. You still get distinctive, idiosyncratic flourishes like Glyph lighting and transparent polycarbonate casing, they’re just a bit toned down, and the Phone 2a’s strong all-round performance and bulging feature set won’t leave buyers feeling short changed either.

Motorola Edge 50 Fusion

The blazing colour finishes and unique body materials made us sit up and take notice of the Edge 50 Fusion, but it was only when we delved deeper that we were truly sold on this keenly priced Motorola. With a solid main camera, vibrant OLED screen, up to 12GB of RAM and a huge-capacity battery that recharges rapidly, this is a lot of phone for the money.

Also shortlisted

Samsung Galaxy A55

Camera phone of the year: Xiaomi 14 Ultra

This category’s top dog really is a no-brainer. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra sits head and shoulders above every other 2024 smartphone when it comes to camera hardware. It can even be combined with an optional case and grip to give it the look and feel of a retro rangefinder and make use of 67mm lens filters.

Cynics will sniff that the Leica co-branding is just a marketing move; we say the proof of the pudding is in the eating – or the snapping. The legendary camera company developed the lenses for this phone, as well as a couple of colour-processing modes, and the results are astonishing. The 14 Ultra’s cameras deliver
in every key aspect: sharp clarity, low noise, accurate colours and wide dynamic range. The app also gives you tons of creative control.

Highly commended

Google Pixel 9 Pro

Google’s flagship comes with a terrific trio of rear cameras (50MP main, 48MP ultrawide and 48MP 5x optical zoom) but what sets the Pixel 9 Pro’s imaging skills apart from its competitors is its computational photography, which uses a range of powerful AI tools to make editing and enhancing your shots easier than ever. The video options are strong too (including 8K/30p recording), and even the front-facing camera gets a 48MP sensor.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro

The changes between iPhone generations may be getting less pronounced in general, but the camera leap from the 15 Pro to the 16 Pro feels significant. Now coming with the 12MP 5x telephoto camera that was exclusive to the Pro Max last time around, alongside 48MP main and ultrawide cameras, it also adds a physical Camera Control button that makes opening and using the camera a faster, more tactile experience.

Also shortlisted

Sony Xperia 1 VI, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Foldable phone of the year: Honor Magic V3

If 2024 goes down in the history books as the year that foldable phones finally went mainstream, the Honor Magic V3 will hold a big chunk of the responsibility for it. Yes, acquiring one will still put a hurtin’ on your bank balance compared to a non-folding flagship, but the Magic V3 is much easier to live with than the average bendable handset.

We love how thin and light it is – this is the first foldable that feels like a regular smartphone in your pocket. In fact, the hardware in general just feels reliable and pleasant to use, with none of the fragility we often find in foldables. It even has an IPX8 dunkability rating.

There’s room for improvement in the MagicOS UI, but elsewhere – screens, battery life and performance – it’s hard to find fault here.

Highly commended

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6

Galaxy Flips used to be compromise-heavy, especially when compared with the company’s Galaxy S flagships. The Flip6 nixes that trend with top-notch performance, day-long battery life and the same optically stabilised 50MP main camera as its non-bendy brother-in-arms, making it a true contender in its own right, not just a cutesy curiosity.

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra

The last time we were this impressed by a Razr phone, McFly were topping the charts and Mark Zuckerberg had just launched a little website called “Thefacebook”. The Razr 50 Ultra is in some ways as ground-breaking a flip phone as the 2004 O.G., thanks to its genuinely useful exterior screen and classy dual 50MP cameras.