When IBM created the first smartphone 25 years ago, there was everything to suggest that the future was going to be very promising. But the scale of how big and how soon that future would be was totally beyond imagination.
Smartphones have come a very long way since then. You can use them to shop, check into hotels, and even to book for services such as the Las Vegas trade show furniture rentals without any hassle. In a world that used to be ruled by Samsung and Apple products, we now have thousands of smartphone makers.
The competition has given rise to mid-range phones that pack powerful specs at low prices. The following are some of the best mid-range smartphones in the market.
Pros
OnePlus has established itself as a quality product in the market that has brought fierce competition to Samsung and Apple phones. Costing at about $549, OnePlus 7T comes equipped with a 6.55 inch HD screen that maintains its visibility even in direct sunlight. The phone also has a rapid charge system that attains 50% charge within 20 minutes.
It has a sleek design that is attractive and comfortable in the hands. It is the perfect phone for those that love playing games on their phones.
TCL has been known for its television sets that have taken the world by storm. They recently began to wade into the murky smartphone waters, and TCL 10 Pro is their best bet yet. Costing about $420, the phone has vibrant colors that are boosted by superb contrast and brightness levels.
Being new entrants into the scene, the TCL 10 Pro needs a lot of work before it can go head-to-head with the big boys. At the moment, however, it is reasonably priced in line with what it can do.
Xiaomi has slowly been building on its popularity over the last five years, establishing itself as the go-to brand for powerful cheap phones. The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 costs about $420 and comes with a super HD 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution screen.
With a 6GB RAM, you will not have any trouble playing some of the heaviest mobile games without any lags. There is more to be improved on, but at $420, there is very little to complain about here.
The Google Pixel 3a is a $420 phone that has a $1000 phone features. The phone has one of the best cameras in the market, thanks to the excellent Google AI software. Its body is made of plastic, which means it is much lighter and it comes packed with a Snapdragon 670 chipset.
The 3000mAh battery is a little underwhelming, but at that price, it is a bit better compared to other phones within the same price range.
The $400 smartphone is Samsung’s reply to the mid-range phones that have flooded the market in the last three years. Known mostly for expensive gadgets, Samsung Galaxy A51 is well within the affordable range of most people. It has a 6.5 inch OLED display, a 48MP camera, and comes in two variants, a 4GB and 6GB RAM option. The 4000mAh battery is disappointing and could have been better, but I guess that is what $400 gets you these days.
An offshoot of Oppo, the Realme phone was the answer to Xiaomi’s onslaught on the phone market. The Realme X2 costs about $320 for the 128GB/6GB RAM variant and $300 for the 64GB/6GB RAM one. It has a super HD AMOLED screen on top of having one of the fastest charging systems you can find at that price. The 64MP camera takes very sharp images and is decent in low-light.
Costing about $420, Huawei Nova 5T is a mixture of excellent and underwhelming features. On one side, it packs a large 8GB RAM and a powerful Kirin 980 chipset. On the other hand, it has a 3700mAh battery that can barely support the top of the range feature the phone possesses. It is like a double-edged sword.
There is no competition more fierce in the world than the one being witnessed in the phone industry. That is one of the reasons why phone companies keep launching new products every six months, barely giving people time to digest them.
With more players getting into the game with irresistible flagship phones, the prices will keep going down as the quality shoots through the roof. In the long run, it is the consumer who benefits the most.
