Buying a new smartphone can be quite a stressful and time consuming experience. There's just so much out there, where do you decide to start looking first? Luckily, our guide is on hand to provide an overview of October's best deals which makes the process a whole lot easier. 

On a Contract

EE

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium 

On a 24-month contract and paying £45.99 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 5GB of internet.

Although £45.99 may sound like a steep price, it’s probably the best one that doesn’t require a high upfront cost. Sony’s Xperia Z5 is the world’s first 4K smartphone and so naturally has a beautifully vibrant display. The 5GB of data is a massive benefit here allowing you to stream video content for around 80 hours a month, wherever you happen to be.

Despite having unlimited minutes and texts, if consuming media on your phone really isn’t your thing you might want to look elsewhere.
 

O2

Nexus 6P

On a 24-month contract and paying £34.50 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, 3GB of internet and 32GB of storage.

Google’s Nexus 6P was extremely well received when it was released last September with reviewers praising the sleek design, fast performance and impressive camera, so it’s definitely worth the £34.50 a month price tag.

The unlimited calls and texts offer a nice level of freedom and the massive 32GB of memory allows for countless hours of entertainment (all of which looks great on the vivid AMOLED quad-HD display) and a huge amount of storage, every budding photographer for example is able to take full advantage of the Nexus P’s excellent camera.
 

TalkTalk

Microsoft Lumia 950 XL

On a 24-month contract and paying £25.00 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with 2000 minutes, 5000 texts and 4GB of internet.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive contract on a phablet sized device, then you could do a lot worse than the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL. The sharp display, processing power and 20-megapixel camera are all the kind of standard you’d expect from a high-end smartphone and there’s more than enough minutes and texts available to keep everyone but the most avid talkers satisfied.
 

Tesco Mobile

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

On a 24-month contract and paying £43.50 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with 5000 minutes, 5000 texts, 6GB of internet and 32GB of storage.
  
The Samsung Galaxy Edge S7 was another huge critical win for Samsung and it’s this, along with the fact that there’s no upfront cost included in this contract as well as a huge 6GB chunk of data, that justifies the high monthly price.

6GB is more than enough to full take advantage of the S7 Edge’s 5.5 inch super AMOLED screen by streaming SD films and TV shows along with many hours of online gaming boosted by the phone’s always smooth performance. Whilst 5000 minutes and 5000 texts is more than enough to keep everybody satisfied.
 

Three

iPhone SE

On a 24-month contract and paying £25.00 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, 4GB of internet and 16GB of storage.

The iPhone SE packs the mighty A9 CPU chip of the iPhone 6 into a body that’s 4 inches smaller and 16g lighter, great news for those not so keen on the recent phablet trend. Combine this with the SE’s better, faster performance (thanks to some impressive internal workings) and the unlimited minutes, texts and good amount of data you’ve got a great contract on your hands.
 

iPhone 6s 

On a 24-month contract and paying £33.00 a month, you can expect no upfront cost for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, 4GB of internet and 32GB of storage.

Despite the release of iPhone 6s Plus and the more recent iPhone 7, there’s still plenty to love about the original iPhone 6s. Performance is solid and the display is excellent, with all the colours appearing bright and lively without seeming too oversaturated, which can be put to good use with the 4GB of data when you’re out and about.

This contract also comes with a hefty amount of storage and is slightly cheaper than the 6s Plus, if that’s something you really look for in a smartphone then this could be a good choice.
 

iPhone 6s Plus

On a 24-month contract and paying £37 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, 4GB of internet and 16GB of storage.

Effectively the same contract in terms of minutes and texts as the one attached to the previous iPhone 6s, if both are in your price range it really comes down to just a few differences. The iPhone 6s Plus’s camera is 12 megapixels vs the original 6s’s 8 megapixels and also has the new ability to shoot video in a polished 4k format. Which can make a real difference to your content.
 
3D touch is also sharper than the previous iteration, a feature which allows you to create shortcuts options on apps and preview emails, links and photos by putting varying degrees of pressure on the screen. It’s nice, but it’s not really a total game changing feature.
 

iPhone 7

On a 24-month contract and paying £41.00 a month, you can expect no upfront cost with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, 4GB of internet and 32GB of storage.

Apple’s iPhone 7 is cheaper than rival Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge and comes with slightly more data and calling and texting time than the former.

The decision to remove the headphone jack although quite controversial can be easily remedied by the pair of wireless headphones included in the box or via plugging your wired headphones into the lightning adaptor which in turn plugs into the charging slot.

Other than that, it’s what you’d expect from any new Apple phone. A very sleek polished design, a vibrant screen, a stunning 12-megapixel camera and an amazing 4.7-inch display.

 

Sim Only

Giff Gaff

For £5.00, you’ll receive a one-month contract, 125 minutes, 500 texts and 100MB of internet.

This is essentially the most basic contract available but for a one-off payment of £5.00 it’s quite a fair deal. 125 minutes and 500 texts obviously isn’t a massive amount but as long as you’re not someone who’s constantly in contact with friends and family it should be able to last you the month. 100MBs will still afford you a little bit of web browsing time as long as you stick to checking social media and sending emails.


For £7.50, you’ll receive a one-month contract, 250 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of internet.

If you’re still on a tight budget but looking for something with just that little bit extra, then this is probably the ideal SIM only contract for you. Unlimited texts is a nice addition for those who can’t bear to be out of the loop and you’re afforded quite a bit longer on both phone calls and internet activity.
 

Three

On a 12-month contract and paying £9.00 a month, you can expect unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 4GB of internet.

For under £10, this is an excellent contract for those looking for something long term but inexpensive. The unlimited calls and texts allow you to talk for as long as you like and 4G is more than adequate to carry out any online activity, including streaming music and SD content, for a reasonable amount of time.
 

Vodafone

On a 12-month contract and paying £17.00 a month, you can expect unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 8GB of internet.

It’s the huge 8GB of internet that really sets this contract apart from those above. If you’re confident in your ability to consistently use that much data, it would comfortably be able to support streaming content in SD and a pretty high amount of music streaming and online gaming, then it’s a great choice. If not, you’re definitely better off going for something a bit smaller.


Virgin Mobile

For £15.00, you’ll receive a one-month contract, 5000 minutes, unlimited texts and 5GB of internet. 

For those wanting a SIM only contract but need considerably more talking time, this is the contract for you. 5000 minutes adds up to a staggering 83 hours of talk time which should be enough for even the chattiest person out there.