Think James Bond, and once your mind’s eye has passed over the womanizing spy clad in tailored suits, Aston Martins, vodka martinis, the Walther PPK, (mostly) Rolex and Omega watches, and all manner of pseudo innuendos and wisecracks, you’ll be left thinking of the gadgets.
From credit cards with lockpicks and tiny cameras to machine guns in bagpipes and exploding pens, Bond, Q Branch, and enemies of all shapes and sizes have never been short of a gadget or two. But in recent years, Bond has eschewed some of the more ridiculous gadgets for more practical devices, including modified dumb and smartphones based on devices you could actually buy at the time; we even have a list of every phone James Bond has used.
However, the era of Daniel Craig’s Bond is over, with his polished Oxford shoes yet to be filled by another actor. But James Bond will return… and thanks to Amazon’s new 007: Road To A Million series, we have a slight taste of Bond-like action while we wait. And as Managing Editor of Mobile Computing at TechRadar, I’ve been pondering over what phones the next Bond could use right now.
As a Bond fan, I know that the movies mostly featured phones with licensing deals, notably Sony and Nokia models, rather than some of the best phones available at the time.
But I’m applying some creative license here, along with phones we’d recommend you get as well. So read on for (00)7 phones I think the next Bond could use today and one phone the suave spy would never use.
@techradar ♬ James Bond Theme - Monty Norman
Quantum of Sony-ace: Sony Xperia 1 V
Let’s start with an obvious one: Bond has used Sony and Sony-Ericsson phones for many of the Pierce Brosnan and Craig-era Bond movies, so it would be an obvious choice of phone brand for the next Bond. Right now the Sony Xperia 1 V tops the Sony phone range, and I reckon it would be the clear choice for a spy with high-end tastes.
In practical terms, the Sony Xperia 1 V has solid flagship specs and a rather slick design, making use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and a 120Hz OLED display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. A trio of slim yet capable rear cameras complete the package, and there's even a headphone jack – ready to be repurposed into some form of hidden listening device by Q or used to attach top-secret peripherals while not rousing attention at first glance. Clean and unfussy software on top of all this, makes for a phone that gets stuff done without getting in the way of an international spy.
No Time to Dial: Nokia X20
Following on from the licensing angle, Nokia would make for another good phone partner to Bond given its phones featured in No Time to Die. Right now the Nokia X20 tops the range. It’s far from a flagship phone but still has plenty to offer for its budget price. And given the austerity measures of the UK government, perhaps MI6 won’t have money to blow on high-end phones.
The Nokia X20 still offers four rear cameras, albeit two come in at 2-megapixels and are used for depth-sensing and macro photography. These cameras are largely shrug-worthy for the garden variety user. But for Q, perhaps they could be reworked into some form of hidden X-ray scanner or electromagnetic detectors helping Bond find hidden fuses to primed bombs. I’ve also long been an advocate of the stock Android Nokia uses for its phones, unfettering them with useless UI elements, and I’m sure a Q-Branch technician would relish this as a means to add custom MI6 features to the phone that wouldn't look out of place on the X20 when seen on the silver screen.
Tomorrow Never Dials: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
This would be my personal pick for a phone if I was Bond. It’s basically one of the very best Android phones you can buy and a joy to use. A huge display with an adaptive refresh rate and great colors would make it great for pouring over shots beamed from a spy satellite. While buckets of power and good battery life mean the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is up for most tasks.
Being able to slip out an S Pen already feels a bit Bond-esque, and I can imagine using the precision of the stylus to pilot a small drone into a Spectre meeting, with 360-degree audio support feeding back the plots of Blofeld and pals with clarity. The only problem here is the amount of stuff Samsung throws at One UI – I could imagine Bond trying to access MI6 archives for data on a hitman only to trigger Bixby or be forced to log into the Samsung Cloud. Put that all aside and the Galaxy S23 Ultra feels like a phone and gadget worthy of any secret agent.
Moonrazer: Motorola Razr Plus
Bond movies have been just as much about style as they’ve been about substance, so enter the Motorola Razr Plus. This stylish foldable phone not only plays upon retro flip phones but comes with an impressive flexible 6.9-inch OLED display when flipped open, and a genuinely usable 3.6-inch cover display when it's closed.
Not only does it look great, but I can fully see the Razer Plus being used by Bond to quickly hack into a digital lock discreetly using the cover screen to avoid detection. And then later flipping the phone out to take a call from Moneypenny and indulge in chat that would likely be an HR violation in a normal workplace. Equally, I could also see this phone being used by a glamorous enemy, who’d flip the Razer Plus out to inform a mysterious recipient that “Bond is alive and is here.”
From China with Love: OnePlus Open
As a phone maker that was once seen as a disruptor of the status quo, OnePlus isn't a brand one might associate with a secret agent that exists to protect the established order rather than break it. But the OnePlus Open is one of the best foldable phones you can buy today. And foldable phones do feel like spy gadgets, with the joy of being able to snap one shut and pop it back in your jacket pocket, as if it was a PPK.
A slick and surprisingly compact design holds a fantastic 6.3-inch cover display and a 7.82-inch inner display, both with a 120Hz refresh rate, complemented by the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and a trio of impressive rear cameras. I could see Bond using a customized version of the OnePlus Open to hack into cameras, remote control cars, and snap clear photos of suspected global crime syndicate members, all while looking good doing it.
On Her Majesty's Cell Phone Service: Nothing Phone (2)
A bit of an upstart in the phone world so not an obvious choice for Bond, who’s had a history with established brands. But then Craig-era Bond adopted modern tailoring from designer Tom Ford, so perhaps a future Bond would look more kindly on a newcomer like Nothing. While Nothing’s founder Carl Pei has his roots in OnePlus, Nothing is a British brand, and Bond has a history of liking brands from his home nation; Aston Martin and Gordon’s gin come to mind.
On top of that, the Nothing Phone (2)’s design has a bit of spy-gadget to it with its Glyph lights and monochrome interface. Yet, it’s not all for show – under the surface, there’s plenty of power – it’s just a pity that the cameras left a little to be desired in our Nothing Phone 2 review. But with Nothing being London-based, I could easily see it being approached by Q-Branch in a parallel/movie world and being used to create a modified phone with custom features for the discerning OO-agent.
License to Reuse: Fairphone 5
Bond got a dose of modernization with Daniel Craig, filing down the outdated womanizing and questionable jokes. So it wouldn’t be a stretch to see the next Bond further modernize, and to address environmental concerns and e-waste the Fairphone 5 would make for an ethical gadget to sit, somewhat ironically, by Bond’s sidearm.
Yet, there’s more to this than meets the (Golden)eye; the Fairphone 5 uses a modular design and therefore could conceivably be modified by Q to hold all manner of espionage-tinged tricks. I could envision Bond using a detachable battery as a compact explosive, or removing a camera module that also doubles up as a tracker. It’s a far-fetched idea, but then so was a watch with a metal-cutting laser.
And one phone Bond would never use…
Never Say Apple Again: iPhone
Despite using an iPhone myself and fully accepting that the iPhone 15 is one of the easiest phones to recommend to most people, I can’t see Bond ever using an iPhone. From a real-world standpoint, Apple is very protective of its brand and may push back against the use of its phones in a Bond movie especially if they are to be modified. From an in-universe perspective, iPhones are famously locked down and not that easy to customize when compared to Android phones, let alone side-load secret service software.
Apple also famously refused to break its encryption to let the NSA access the phone of a terrorist, citing reasons that it would set a bad precedent for personal privacy and security. So I simply cannot envision Apple and MI6 being in cahoots, in a real or fictional setting. Added to that, a lot of Bond, from clothing to devices and drinks has always been about being somewhat different – not necessarily exclusive, just unexpected – so having a phone used by millions upon millions would be very un-Bond-like.
The Spy who Rang me
All that being said, we’re likely a good way off from the next Bond movie, so who knows what phone the spy may tout next.
Or if indeed Bond even uses a phone – perhaps by the time the next reboot of the franchise comes around, we’ll all be using brain chips to chat… or have been destroyed by AI.
