The best smartphones for business 2020

From the latest iPhone to the top of the range Android devices, we take a look at some of the best smartphones this year and what makes them great for business use. 

iPhone SE (2020)

Although this may be the cheapest handset on our list at $399/£419, it’s certainly no slouch. The phone features the same A13 Bionic chip as the iPhone, which makes this model an absolute bargain. The small 4.7” display and form factor makes it a very ideal device to carry around in your pocket, particularly if it’s being used as a secondary mobile phone for business in addition to your personal handset. Like all of Apple’s smartphones, it comes with the latest version of iOS meaning there’s a large range of well-optimised apps, including a large range of business applications.

The star of the show: Samsung Galaxy Note 10

The Galaxy Note 10 is an absolute powerhouse. Although it was actually released during the second half of 2019, it still stands up very well in comparison to the latest smartphones, even the newer Galaxy S20 series. The main appeal of a Galaxy Note device over the standard models is the added pen functionality. Unlike a traditional stylus, the pen included with the Galaxy Note 10 is much more accurate and responsible and is great for taking notes during business meetings or when talking to clients and customers. Moreover, the device has a massive 6.8 inch Super AMOLED display and monster specifications which makes it the ideal choice for business productivity.

Google Pixel 4

Known as the official Google phone, the Google Pixel 4 features a sleek design, cutting-edge specs and a capable camera. It has been described by the verge as the “best Android experience” thanks to its stock Android experience. A strong battery life and great optimization for apps makes the Pixel 4 (and its larger variant, the Pixel 4 XL) a great phone for business use, it’s also a very manageable size compared to some of the other offerings on our list. The phone starts at under £500 too, meaning it’s a great value device and is very affordable for many businesses and individuals.

OnePlus 8

Described by Techradar as “a solid and reliable Android smartphone”, there’s a lot to love about OnePlus’s latest phone. It offers 5G at an affordable price whilst offering a big battery meaning it should power through an entire days work without the need of having a power source available to you. Furthermore, great processing power from its Snapdragon 865 chipset and 8–12GB of RAM means it can run even the most advanced business applications and is able to multi-task between things like spreadsheets, documents and emails with ease. This is also one of the cheapest phones on the market at the moment which offers 5G meaning you can surf the web quickly for an affordable cost if you are travelling for business

The verdict

We missed off a number of popular handsets from the list, but for very good reasons. It was hard to recommend Huawei’s P40 and P40 Pro series phones due to the software limitations that it comes with. The Google Play store is not available on these devices meaning the range of apps are limited, which could be a major hindrance for those using this phone for business purposes, particularly as you can’t use G Suite applications such as Gmail and Google Docs. We also struggled to recommend the previous generation of many Android handsets due to the time it takes for updates to become available, therefore you could miss out on the latest features that could render security issues which are certainly not ideal when using a mobile phone for business purposes.