The verdict is human-readable. The rules underneath are not vibes.

The short version

We match possible deals to an exact phone or plan and calculate mandatory costs. Directly checked offers use the seller’s current page and terms; reported handset offers show clearly when independent verification is unavailable. A language model can help research and explain. Deterministic code handles money, schedules, matching rules and publication gates.

Affiliate commission is never an input to a verdict or ranking. A useful non-affiliate deal belongs beside a monetised one.

What counts as the phone price

The main price is the amount an ordinary eligible buyer must pay for the exact new UK handset, including unavoidable delivery or fees. We do not deduct a trade-in, claim-based cashback, a gift’s supposed resale value, membership-only saving or referral reward.

We identify storage, colour where material, region, condition, lock status, seller of record and promotion deadline. An imported, refurbished or marketplace phone does not silently share a comparison group with a new UK retail model.

What counts as the SIM price

We store the payment schedule rather than one monthly number. That includes introductory periods, fixed future rises, upfront charges and the point at which a promotion ends. Twelve 30-day renewals are labelled as 360 days; they are not quietly presented as a full year.

Plans are compared within useful data and feature groups. More data is not automatically more valuable if you do not need it. Coverage remains personal to location, building and handset, so a national score cannot promise your experience.

Evidence states

• Reported price: a dated handset price report that we have not independently verified with the retailer. Confirm the price, seller, condition and stock before buying.
• Checked: the exact product and required fields matched the latest source check.
• Missing information: a material fact could not be confirmed, and the gap is shown rather than guessed.
• Needs recheck: evidence changed, aged out or failed the latest check.
• Expired: the price, stock or terms are no longer available.

“Checked” describes evidence matching. It is not an accreditation badge and does not guarantee that a retailer will have stock when you arrive.

Current deals and deal history

We distinguish directly checked prices from reported handset prices. When it expires, it disappears from live rankings. We may retain the dated retailer check in that exact phone variant’s deal history, including checks at different retailers, so you can see real past examples.

Deal history is a set of discrete expired offer records, not a claim that we watched every retailer every day. Each entry shows who sold it, when we checked it, the exact configuration, its old deal price, the availability we recorded and any evidence limits. “Availability not confirmed” and “out of stock” stay visible rather than being rewritten later. The entry has no live retailer button. We do not turn these records into charts, averages, “usual” prices, lowest-ever claims or price alerts.

For an ended Amazon promotion, we remove the Amazon link and promotional details, including its old price. Any remaining page contains only independent product context and points readers towards current listings.

Software support and useful life

Support statements come from model-specific manufacturer or official regulatory sources wherever possible. Security updates, major operating-system upgrades and hardware-service availability are kept separate. If a manufacturer does not publish an end date, the field stays unknown.

Models, variants and benchmarks

A marketed phone model is stored once. Purchasable UK configurations sit underneath it as exact RAM, storage, market, radio and SIM variants, with manufacturer model numbers, MPNs and GTINs attached only when a source proves them. Retailer titles never fuzzy-match themselves into the catalogue: an exact identifier or an unambiguous brand, model, storage and market combination is required.

Processors are separate reusable records. Benchmark results, when we have permission to use them, remain dated observations tied to one suite and version, device or processor, test conditions, sample size and source. We do not average unlike benchmark suites into a made-up factual score. Until the data is reproducible and suitably licensed, we explain performance in plain language rather than publish false precision.

Automation and publication

Directly checked listings require current retailer evidence for the exact offer. Reported handset prices use a separate route when independent verification is unavailable, with the original reported time and a clear limitation beside the price. A later status review does not make that price newly verified. We remove ended or overdue reports; they do not enter deal history.

Combined handset contracts use the same no-manual-review rule, with extra gates for every scheduled payment, annual rise, minimum term and upfront fee. A one-penny mismatch or an unknown variant is enough to hold it back. Cashback, trade-ins, gifts and referral rewards remain separate and never reduce the guaranteed total.

Every published listing has a recheck deadline. Overdue records are removed from live results, including already-open pages. Source reviews run daily; changes can occur between reviews.

Commercial links

Commercial link formatting happens only after editorial scoring. Amazon UK product links are reduced to the direct ASIN destination and carry our one Associates tracking ID. They are marked Ad · Amazon affiliate link beside the action and use the sponsored-link attribute. The tracking ID is never added to another retailer’s URL, and commercial fields never affect rank or verdict.

A plain Amazon affiliate link is a link, not a live price feed. An Amazon handset card may show a reported price, clearly labelled as not independently verified. It is not a live Amazon feed or confirmation of availability. Use the Amazon link to confirm the current price and exact offer.

Corrections

Prices move and terms change. Every deal carries a checked or reported time and its evidence limits. If something is wrong, use the corrections route. We keep a correction trail and prioritise fixing a misleading live price over publishing something new.