Best Jelly Bean Android phones

Best Jelly Bean Android phones
Get your hands on the best beans, made of the finest jelly, in your smartphone

Google has an odd historical habit of naming its major Android releases after types of American puddings, with the result being that the proudest users of Google's mobile OS are currently boasting about having "Jelly Bean" on their phones today.

In fact, Jelly Bean describes two versions of Android -- Android 4.1 and 4.2 -- plus the minor point version bug fixing releases between, so anything running Android 4.1 or higher is commonly described as running on Jelly Bean. And makes its users happy.

The most recently released Jelly Bean code is 4.2.2 which sits on the phones of Nexus users. It offers a few innovations over 4.1, like the ability to add widgets to the lock screen, gesture-based text input and a more active and visual Notifications panel, but it's hardly a huge leap.

As long as you've got at least Android 4.1 you're in the zone when it comes to having what Google considers to be its best work. These 10 phones deliver that right now, straight out of their lovely cardboard boxes.

Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini

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Galaxy S3 mini

Samsung Galaxy S3 mini review

Samsung's smaller take on the massively popular Galaxy S3 doesn't share too many features with its bigger, older brother, scaling down the processor slightly, reducing display size and dropping the camera resolution to 5MP.

Compromises for sure, but the changes make it smaller and cheaper, while being released more recently than the original S3 means you get Android 4.1.1 installed as the OS when it arrives - although you've always got the option of installing it on an older S3 now.

Samsung's added stacks of its own features on top of it, but you still get the enhanced browser, multitasking panel, individually dismissable notifications and much, much more to endlessly fiddle with instead of paying attention to what's on TV.

Sony Xperia SP

Sony Xperia SP

Sony Xperia SP review

Sony's most recent Xperia is a smaller, less powerful model than the gorgeous Sony Xperia Z, but it still manages to run Android 4.1.2 extremely smoothly.

The SP also includes a decent camera, NFC support and a 4G-ready radio, so it has everything smartphone users need, plus there's a microSD card slot inside the chassis for expanding its 8GB of onboard storage space.

All this, and a relatively recent version of Google's Jelly Bean code underneath Sony's interface tweaks, for much less of an outlay that the Xperia Z.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 review

The Note II arrived with Android 4.1 onboard, with Samsung upgrading it to the newer 4.1.2 code in early 2013.

Which means the immense 5.5-inch phone is one step nearer the leading edge of Android software, plus you get all of Samsung's bonkers, and perhaps slightly unnecessary, S Pen software innovations to plough your way through, as well and the split-screen tools that feature as part of the maker's TouchWiz interface tweaks.

Never before have so many features, apps and tools been rammed into a device. That's probably why Samsung had to make it so big.

Huawei Ascend G510

Huawei Ascend G510 review

Huawei Ascend G510 review

You don't have to take out a two-year contract or pay £500 to get yourself a decent Jelly Bean phone. The Huawei Ascend G510 is available on a PAYG SIM through Vodafone for just £130, and arrives with Android 4.1.1 as its OS.

Sadly there's only 512MB of RAM inside the thing so multitasking performance is a little restricted, and Huawei's user interface is a bit bizarre in the way it bins Google's usual app drawer system, but it's still a well-constructed phone that does everything you might need. Just don't expect lightning performance.

HTC One X+

HTC One X+ review

HTC One X+ review

Android 4.1.1 is the specific version of Jelly Bean found on the One X+, with HTC also slightly updating its Sense interface compared with that found on the original HTC One X.

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