Sony Xperia Z2 trumps the S5 in TechRadar's official phone ranking

Sony Xperia Z2 trumps the S5 in TechRadar's official phone ranking
The Sony Xperia Z2 would like to thank its mum, dad, the Z1...

There are loads of great phones on the market today - but how do you decide which is for you? Sony's the latest to enter the fray with the Xperia Z2 - and it's gone straight in at number two.

That means there are two Sony handsets in our definitive top ranking of the best phones in the world, with the Z1 Compact sitting pretty in sixth place too.

Samsung fans will want to look away though, as the Galaxy S5 is the phone that's lost out and slips to third place, hindered by a less-than-appealing design update and some slight performance issues in our tests.

Lofty heights

The Sony Xperia Z2 has taken second place in our ranking thanks to a combination of strong design, some of the highest spec internals going and a really great camera - taking all the crucial bits of a smartphone and putting them together in an appealing manner.

It didn't do enough to unseat the HTC One M8, which we still rate higher thanks to the combination of speedier camera, Boomsound speakers, enhanced design and overall speed of use... but if you're a fan of the waterproof phone, Sony's got you covered.

We are now living in a world where Samsung's flagship didn't make the top two and the iPhone isn't even in the top five phones on sale. Oof. Think we might need a lie down.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.