Best Samsung phones in the UK 2023: Which Galaxy is for you?

The best Samsung phones are often the best phones already in their respective categories and price brackets. If you're certain you want a Samsung for your next phone, whether it's because you are an existing user or the company's strong advertising campaigns have won you over, these are the handsets you should pick from

All Samsung phones come with One UI, the company's version of Android, a lengthy guaranteed update schedule and great hardware, particularly for displays and cameras. However, beyond that the phones can differ greatly, from the basic but capable Galaxy A series to the high-tech Galaxy Z folding phones.

Be sure to check out our best Android phones page if you fancy perusing a wider selection of brands. However, if you're sticking with Samsung, read on for our favorite phones from the South Korean manufacturer.

The quick list

The best Samsung phones you can buy right now

The best Samsung phone overall

The Galaxy S23 Ultra doesn't look too different from its predecessor, but some big changes have happened under the hood. The S23 Ultra now offers a 200MP main sensor capable of some fantastic shots, plus the best display of any smartphone right now, a lengthy battery life and a much more powerful Qualcomm chipset. Plus it's still got an S Pen for your doodling needs.

Of course Samsung wants a fair bit of cash in return: £1,249 for the basic model. Also, while you get 45W charging capabilities with the S23 Ultra, it's still not that fast to fill up the battery. If you can forgive the pricetag, and are happy to forgo fast charging, there are only things to like or love about the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review.

The best Samsung phone for most people

The regular Galaxy S23 remains an effective way to get all you need in a flagship phone in one well-made package. It's also had some fixes implemented from the Galaxy S22, such as a new Snapdragon chipset and an enlarged battery to improve the performance and battery life issues of its predecessor.

However Samsung's new 12MP selfie camera has if anything hurt the Galaxy S23's selfie game. Plus the phone's become more expensive, meaning rival phones are looking ever more tempting. Still, the Galaxy S23 does everything else so well, you would still be right to consider upgrading to this model.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 review.

The best Samsung phone if you need a big display

The awkward middle child of the Galaxy S23 family, the Galaxy S23 Plus costs another £200 on top of the S23 and adds a larger and brighter display, a larger battery, 45W fast charging and larger default and optional storage capacity. That may not seem like a lot, given that other S23 Plus features match what you get with the Galaxy S23.

You may well be better off going for the Galaxy S23 if you want the majority of the available features, but since the Galaxy S23 Plus' display and battery life are really good, perhaps the price increase is worthwhile.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus review.

The best Samsung phone for value

Samsung's made a huge leap forward with the Galaxy A54, bringing it more in line with its flagship products without ramping up the price.

It now uses a 50MP main camera (the same one in the Galaxy S23 series) that provides more detailed photos, particularly noticeable when it's dark out. Combined with a more fun spin on the S23's design, a big, long-lasting battery plus a great screen just like the old Galaxy A53, it's almost tempting to turn the Galaxy S23 away completely in favour of its cheaper sibling.

That said, the other cameras are not quite as impressive, the display features some chunky bezels, and the Exynos chipset lacks power compared to flagship devices, or even other phones in this category. But as a $450 phone, that's a reasonable price to pay.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy A54 review.

The best foldable Samsung phone

The fifth book-style foldable from Samsung is its most refined yet, and still beats other foldables with more innovative features thanks to its well thought-out productivity features, such as being able to open up to four apps at once on the main display. A lighter design with a fully-closing hinge, more efficient battery use and flagship-grade photography also help justify the phone's price.

It's a very large price though, even compared to the already quite expensive Galaxy S23 series. Plus the front display remains too narrow to be comfortably used properly by itself for extended periods. Combine that with the usual damage risks of buying a foldable with moving and flexible parts, this is a phone you need to be extra sure you want before buying.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review.

The best Samsung phone for small handset fans

Samsung brought a huge upgrade to the Galaxy Z Flip 5 with a new outer Flex Window display. It's unfortunate that you can't run full apps, you can still control a variety of the Z Flip's functions without opening it.

The camera sensors haven't changed from last year, but we're still quite impressed with how well the Z Flip 5 takes photos. We also appreciate Samsung's new hinge design that lets the phone fold flush for the first time, making for a neater-looking phone that should hopefully grab less lint from inside your pocket over time.

Of course, you can get bigger specs for your money if you go for a non-foldable Samsung, but you're not going to find a more compact device in the Galaxy line-up than this one, and maybe that's all you need to know.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 review.

How to choose the best Samsung phones

The first thing to consider when looking at the best Samsung phones is how much you can afford to spend. Samsung gives you lots of options, but you will need to figure out whether you can consider the Ultra models and foldables or should restrict yourself to the cheaper FE or Galaxy A options instead.

Next, think about the sizes of these phones. The smallest of the phones on this list is either the Galaxy S23 or the Galaxy Z Flip 5, depending on how much you value a slim profile. Conversely, the largest models are the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 5, with the latter providing a tablet-sized inner display when unfolded. Take into account where you want to store your phone, how easily you can handle it and how much it will eight when picking between the devices on your shortlist.

The last thing to think about is how much storage you will need for your apps, photos and such. Samsung is quite generous with base storage, as most of the phones above come with 256GB of ROM by default. But if you need more on-device storage, you might need to opt for a Galaxy S23 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 5, which can go up to 1TB of storage depending on the model.

How we test Samsung phones

To find the best Samsung phones, we test the company's handsets the same way we test every smartphone we review. We run benchmarks on each phone, including synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench 5 and 6 and 3DMark Wild Life to measure graphics performance. That allows us to compare Samsung device to other phones, including Apple's iPhone. In addition, we use real-world testing that includes a video transcoding test using Adobe Premiere Rush. 

In our lab, we measure the brightness of the phone's display (in nits), as well as how colorful each screen is (using the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamut). In these cases, higher numbers are better. We also measure color accuracy of each panel with a Delta-E rating, where lower numbers are better and score of 0 is perfect.

To determine how long a Samsung phone's battery lasts, we have the phones continuously surf the web over LTE with their screens set to 150 nits of brightness. The average smartphone lasts for 10 hours, with the best phone battery life reaching 11 hours or more in our testing.

Our camera testing involves taking photos with each Samsung phone we review and comparing them to similar shots from comparable models.We take shots of landscapes, food, portraits and more, and also allow you to be the judge with side-by-side comparisons in our reviews.