PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

PCMag UK

Too Cold? These 5 Phones Work With Gloves

It's freezing out there. If you buy one of these five phones, you won't need to take your gloves off to use it.

Sascha Segan
 & Sascha Segan Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Our Expert
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS HOW WE TEST
65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

You Can Trust Our Reviews

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. Read our editorial mission & see how we test.

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

    Buying Guide: Too Cold? These 5 Phones Work With Gloves

    How to Choose the Right Mobile Phone

    Wow, it's cold outside. A "polar vortex" has been freezing much of the U.S. on and off for a few weeks now, so here at PCMag we've been bundling up in hats, coats, and our 10 favorite touch-screen gloves.

    Owners of a few superior phones don't have to buy special conductive touch-screen gloves, though. Several Nokia phones use the Synaptics ClearPad 3250 touch screen, which integrates the touch sensor into the display well enough to work with gloves or styli. The Samsung Galaxy S4 also has a "super-sensitive" touch mode that works with gloved hands. Synaptics has more glove-sensitive touch screens on the way, so we're likely to see more winter-compatible phones at Mobile World Congress in (brr) February.

    If you're sick of taking off your gloves, here are the models to choose.

    About Our Expert

    Sascha Segan

    Sascha Segan

    Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

    My Experience

    I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

    My Areas of Expertise

    • US and Canadian mobile networks
    • Mobile phones released in the US
    • iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
    • Mobile hotspots
    • Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

    The Technology I Use

    Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

    I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

    In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services. 

    My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

    My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

    Read the latest from Sascha Segan

    Read full bio