iPhone 5 on EE 4G From £529 or from £19.99 on contract (£56 per month)
Apple's iPhone 5 is by far the best iPhone the company has ever made and as a piece of design it is a perfect combination of form and function. Users of the iPhone tend to use significantly more data than others, thanks to downloading apps and surfing the web, so it makes sense to get the new device on Britain's fastest network, the new EE. That means the iPhone's fast processor is not being held back by creaking infrastructure and you can enjoy iOS6's latest features, including updates to voice control Siri and, unfortunately, some terrible maps.
HTC One X+ From £449 or from free on contract
It's arguable that the One X+ is the best of the Android phones on the market – it certainly gives the Nexus 4 and the S3 a good run for their money. HTC focuses on excellent camera functions and on superb audio. Both of these are features ripe for improvement on most handsets, and HTC's emphasis makes a real difference, all with an excellent screen to boot. The One X was hampered by problems with battery life and now that this has been largely sorted out, thanks to a software update, users should seek out bargains.
HTC 8X From £409 or from free on contract
Windows Phone 8 is a new operating system that puts Microsoft back in the smartphone game – but where the Windows maker has built its own tablet, the Surface, it has yet to do the same for mobile phones. Excellent devices from Samsung, Nokia and HTC all run software that is near identical. But although the Nokia Lumia 920 is an excellent object, it's heavier and thicker than the 8X. As with the One X, HTC augments where it can – it has improved audio and camera software, with a separate chip for sound and great hardware for the camera. The 8X is hard to resist if you're buying your first serious smartphone.
TABLETS
Amazon Kindle Fire HD From £159
This is a bargain – it's sold by the books giant at cost price to encourage users to download music, films and TV directly to it, as well as using the device to shop online at Amazon. The fact that you can check your email, surf the web and use it as a fully-fledged tablet is almost incidental. Most striking about the Kindle Fire HD is its excellent screen, finely tuned for showing content to its best appearance. If you shop at Amazon already – and who doesn't? – the experience is seamless.
Where it is easy to argue that Google has caught up with Apple in the mobile phone race, when it comes to tablets the iPad still rules the roost. It may no longer have hardware that's demonstrably better, but it has more users, more apps and more momentum. The latest model features a faster processor and the new Lightning connector, but it's the apps that make this device sing. Whether it's a James Bond film poster or an Ottolenghi recipe brought beautifully to life, no tablet can touch the iPad for content.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 From £549
Whether the Note 2 should be called a phone or a tablet is a moot point, but it can hold its own on lists of the best of both and, as yet, is essentially the only "phablet" on the market. At 5in the screen is not much larger than the Galaxy S3 but the Note 2 is a different beast because it adds a stylus and is able to recognise handwriting. Samsung is attempting to digitise the paper notebook and although its success is incomplete, this device is more capable than any other product yet in a long line of brave attempts. In the meantime, you're left with a vast screen for watching films and TV or reading books.
This tablet sells for the same price as Amazon's Kindle Fire HD, and offers similar specifications, but uses the Android operating system that's familiar to phone users. So whereas the Fire's range of apps is rather limited, the Nexus 7 can run thousands, including the Kindle app. That makes it a far more flexible device – as suited to reading books or watching a film as it is to playing games and running integrated Google services at high speed. Made by Asus, the design is pleasingly tactile, too.
Arguably the first product that Apple has openly brought out on the basis that its rivals have been doing well with similar devices. In fact, the Mini is probably best seen as being more different than many first thought. It's got an unusual screen shape, squarer than its widescreen rivals, and a resolution that isn't technically as good as many competitors. But again, the key to its appeal is the multitude of apps that are available, as well as the quality of the build, and the overall feel of a device that uses software that has been refined on the existing iPhones and iPads. Not cheap, but still offers value in terms of reward.
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