WhistleOut Awards 2026: Best Phone Design
Announcing the phone WhistleOut's reviewers judged the strongest design of the past 12 months.
Winner: OPPO Find N6
OPPO set a new benchmark for folding phones with the Find N6. Not only is the Find N6 a trailblazer in achieving a creaseless display, it significantly narrowed the gap between foldables and non foldables in core areas like battery life and camera performance.
Runner-up: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was Highly Commended for its refined, premium design language.
An award-winning journalist, Alex has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade.
Fergus Halliday is a journalist and digital content editor at WhistleOut Australia. He’s written about technology, telecommunications, gaming and more for over a decade.
How we judge this award
The best phone design award, evaluated by WhistleOut's editorial, considers aesthetics and innovations in the phones released in the past 12 months. Devices with meaningful new features or ones that solve consumer pain points are prioritised in this category.
The Judges
Alex Choros
Fergus Halliday
Digital Content Editor
Past winners
| Year | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (Highly commended: Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold) | - |
| 2024 | OPPO Find N3 (Highly commended: Motorola Razr 40 Ultra) | - |
| 2023 | OPPO Find N2 Flip (Highly commended: Nokia G22) | - |
| 2022 | OPPO Find N (Highly commended: Galaxy Z Flip 3) | - |
| 2021 | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 (Highly commended: iPhone 12 mini) | - |
| 2020 | Samsung Galaxy Fold | - |
| 2019 | OPPO Reno 5G | - |
FAQs
Who won Best Phone Design in 2026?
OPPO Find N6 was named the 2026 winner of the Best Phone Design award.
Has OPPO won this before?
OPPO has won this award four times previously, for the Reno 5G, Find N, Find N2 Flip, and Find N3.
Does WhistleOut get paid by award winners?
No. Award placements are editorially independent of any commercial relationship with providers. See our How We Work page for details on how WhistleOut earns money.
