With our Bright Stuff buying guide, we’re happy to help you find the best product right now. In this overview: Today’s premium smartphones, including a foldable phone for the first time.

You like to buy the best product, logically. “Best” is of course an opinion, and in this case ours. Bright Stuff bases this opinion on a few things. When it comes to expensive phones, we look at a number of things, such as the display, cameras, the manufacturer’s update promise, and design. We think these are the best premium phones right now:

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

The most expensive non-foldable phone from the Samsung range is for those who wake up and go to sleep with a smartphone. No judgment from us: For many people, the smartphone is the center of attention, and that focus gets the goal done. It’s fast: it’s no longer Samsung’s own chip, but also the fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip from the Netherlands.

It’s a big screen: 6.8 inches, with an HD resolution of 1440 x 3088 pixels and a maximum brightness of 1750 nits. This means that HDR videos still look very rich even in bright light. The Ultra name partly refers to that screen, but perhaps more to the cameras. Samsung has really gone the distance again.

200 megapixel. No typo: 200, as many smartphones have 12 to 20. Maybe you can use all those 200 megapixels yourself to get a very large image that you can zoom in very far. But they’re actually there for something else: taking better photos under bad conditions. All those pixels “see” more, so images are often sharper, more colorful and more beautiful. However, images from the Samsung look pretty standard: a bit warmer and softer than the often sharp images from iPhones.

The S23 Ultra also has a more unique design than the regular S23 models. Flat screen, flat at the top and bottom but with rounded edges. And of course this pen – the Ultra line remains the spiritual successor to the Note line. You can draw with it and use it as a remote control – leave it alone and never think about it.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is available in black, white, purple and green and is now on sale starting at €1,079.

It seems self-evident: “The best iPhone is the most expensive.” We don’t find that every year, but this year we did. Both 15 Pro models received a titanium frame this year, instead of stainless steel. Regardless of whether you prefer this matte titanium, it’s lighter than the stainless steel Apple used previously. Less weight on the edge means a noticeably lighter phone.

On paper, the Pro models are about 20 grams lighter than their predecessor, but they feel like they’re larger. the Explains physics Reason: Weight has been removed from the edges so the balance of the device is different. This confirms what we are testing: the 15 Pro Max appears to be lighter than the 14 Pro, even though it is not. It makes the phone feel more manageable.

The main reason you’ll want the 15 Pro Max, besides the gorgeously large 6.7-inch display with thin bezels, is the camera. Only the Max model has a new lens this year: one with 5x zoom. This works well, and makes a whole new kind of photographs and photography possible. The lens is also great for photography, especially with stabilization mode. 24MP photos are now standard for the pros, which isn’t bad either. The regular Pro still has a 3x telephoto lens.

The action button on the new Pro models is also a welcome addition: you can set it versatile yourself. As a camera button, for example, but also as a multi-function button that takes into account your location and time, for example. Moreover, the professionals have the latest Apple A17 Pro chip, which can run games using ray tracing for the first time and is in any case future-proof.

The regular iPhone 15 models are also highly recommended this year. They have the fast A16 chip from last year’s Pros, and the main camera now also has a 48MP sensor. As a result, regular iPhones get an additional “lens”, a 2x digital zoom function that is often useful in practice.

All iPhones are also a little cheaper this year compared to last year, which is something we don’t see very often. iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are available in black and pastel shades of blue, green, yellow, and pink. The iPhone 15 with a capacity of 128 GB is available at a price starting from 969 euros, while the price of the 15 Plus starts at 1119 euros. iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are available in black, silver, blue and space gray. The iPhone 15 Pro with a capacity of 128 GB is available at a starting price of 1,229 euros, more than 100 euros less than last year’s iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at €1,479, which is €100 more than the 14 Pro Max, but with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB.

Google is communicating well with the Pixel line. New devices this year will receive 7 years of updates for the first time, which is much more than before. So you can rely on this device for a longer period. Additionally, it is powered by the new Tensor G3 chip, which should ensure that the phone is fast enough in the coming years.

Thanks to the chip, Pixel 8 phones can now also use Face Lock with the highest levels of security for the first time. It has long been possible to unlock Android phones using your face, but in the absence of a face scanner like on the iPhone, this option wasn’t as secure as scanning a fingerprint. The Pixel 8 devices promise to be completely secure, and therefore also offer the option to use your banking app with Face Lock, for example.

The Pixel 8 Pro has a 6.7-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1344 x 2992 pixels and a 1-120Hz refresh rate. For example, the phone can switch back to 1Hz when reading e-books, which is easier on your eyes. The Pixel 8 Pro has a 50-megapixel main camera and a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens. The telephoto camera features 5x optical zoom, just like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The new Tensor chipset promises improved digital zoom, just like last year’s 30x but now with better image quality. Video should be more stable and clear than before thanks to AI.

The Pixel’s new party trick is called “Best Shot,” but we prefer to call it face swapping. It works like this: If you have multiple photos of the same situation with multiple people in them, the function automatically chooses the best face for each person in the photo. You can also click on each person’s heads to switch between options. The result looks convincing, preventing anyone from closing their eyes or making a strange face appear in the photos.

Unfortunately, the Pixel 8 Pro is more expensive than its predecessor, unlike Apple. The 128GB Pixel 8 Pro starts at €1,099, while the 7 Pro starts at €899. The device is available in blue, black and cream.

Sony Xperia 5V

Sony delivers Stranger Things every year. A phone with a long screen, and the Xperia 5 V is no different. The screen has 1080p on the short side, but 2520p on the long side: 200p more than, say, the Galaxy S23. Therefore, the Xperia phone screen does not have the usual 16:9 ratio, but a 21:9 cinema ratio.

Of course, the 120Hz OLED screen looks great when watching videos, but it also makes the screen appear larger than the phone actually is. The Xperia 5 V has two lenses: a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens and a 48-megapixel main camera. A physical zoom lens is missing, but this problem has been solved just as with the iPhone 15: the phone then, as it were, crops the center of the 48-megapixel image from the main camera, so that a 12-megapixel image with a smaller frame remains.

The Xperia 5 V is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The battery is again 5,000 mAh, which is quite large for such a compact device. 30W wired charging is possible, as well as wireless charging and recharging the earbuds, for example.

The Xperia 5 V has a matte finish and is available in black, silver and blue. From launch, the device will receive updates for the next two Android versions and three years of security updates. Many competitors promise more: Samsung, for example, promises four new versions of Android and five years of updates, Google is now seven years, and Fairphone promises five new versions of Android and eight years of updates for its latest devices. The Sony Xperia 5 V is available at a price of 999 euros.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5

The fourth facet, the name suggests otherwise, but anyway: for first timers we think this is highly recommended. Samsung has been improving its foldable phones for a number of years. The foldable screen inside is constantly being improved, so it’s less vulnerable. You also feel less clearly a crease in the middle – although you can still feel it. The hinge has also been improved, and should now last for several years with multiple opening and closing times each day.

Inside is a large 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display with Full HD resolution. But in fact, it’s the external display that made us fall in love with the Flip 5. The joy of a foldable phone like this has been obvious for a long time, since the 1990s there have been phones that fold in half so that folding in half can fit more easily in your pocket or Your bag. This Flip also does that, but the screen on the outside was a fairly useless information bar.

The small status screen where you see incoming messages is no longer small. Previously the screen was 1.9 inches, now it is 3.4 inches. The so-called Flex Window on the outside of the Flip5 is now more versatile. In addition to incoming messages and phone calls, the screen also displays interactive widgets. Google Maps, for example, so you can see navigation without face unlock. Samsung is further experimenting with the capabilities through Labs, a kind of open beta for new Flex Windows features.

The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor with 8 GB of RAM and 256 or 512 GB of storage space. The selfie camera has 10 megapixels, and on the outside of the device there are two 12-megapixel cameras: a regular angle and an ultra-wide.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is available in mint, graphite, cream, lavender, and exclusively at Samsung in grey, blue, green and yellow. The Flip5 with 256GB costs €1,199, and with 512GB storage the device costs €1,319.

Read more buying tips at Bright Stuff.