HTC One

HTC needed to deliver a stunning phone to reverse its ailing fortunes – and the One might just be, er, the one. From the gloriously rich full HD screen to the seamless, precision-engineered aluminium body, it’s a marvel of design.

The HTC One is a product designed to save a company in financial trouble – and it seems HTC’s design and engineering team work well with their backs against the wall.

This Android phone is the best product HTC has ever built, with a gorgeously thin, reassuringly rigid aluminium body bonded to the 4.7-inch screen by a technique that doesn’t leave a single gap. And speaking of the screen, it’s eyeball-piercingly sharp, with a 1080p full HD resolution and Retina display-spanking pixel density of 468ppi. It’s one of a handful of phones that can be mentioned in the same breath as the iPhone when it comes to looks and build quality.

Performance is no less impressive, with the quad-core processor blazing through tasks with nary a trace of lag and the 4MP Ultrapixel camera serving up some of the finest snaps we’ve ever seen from a smartphone.

Price: £519.99 | HTC | HTC One review

Google Nexus 5

So, it’s finally here, the successor to the bargain Nexus 4, the Nexus 5 ups the specs in almost every area, including a bigger screen, faster processor and, hopefully, a better camera. It’s also the first device running the latest version of Google’s Android OS, 4.4 Kit Kat.

Google has bumped the size up to 5-inches, increasing the ppi to 445 and the resolution to 1920x1080. This full HD, 1080p display puts it right up there with the big boys like the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z1 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Another area, another improvement for the Nexus 5, which now ships with a really quite powerful, top of the line 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, along with 2GB RAM and is available in both 16GB and 32GB flavours.

The same 8-megapixel snapper is on board, though it now features optical image stabilisation to try and ensure your shots are a tad less blurry.

Price: £299 (16GB) £339 (32GB) | Google Play