Best flagship killers 2019 - buyer’s guide

Significant savings are to be had if you opt for the Realme X2 Pro, though this one is only officially available in some of Europe for the time being. At a third of the price of the iPhone, you'd be getting a full set of cameras (ultra-wide one can autofocus too), a fluid 90Hz display, and a whopping fast 30-minute charging from 0 to 100%.

You may have to live with a heavily-skinned ColorOS, no IP-rating for piece of mind and no wireless charging, but 2 out of 3 of these you'd have to swallow with the twice as expensive OnePlus 7T Pro, which is hardly twice as good.

Mind you, you may want to step up from the base 64GB version (UFS2.1) to get the faster UFS3.0 storage plus 64 gigs is limiting anyway in the absence of a microSD slot - the 128GB trim makes more sense at €450.

The Mi 9T Pro from Xiaomi (or the Redmi K20 Pro depending on where you are) will save you a few extra bucks, while making some non-deal-breaking compromises. Its display is not 90Hz, so it loses to the Realme in this respect, but it is notchless thanks to a pop-up selfie cam. Storage is UFS 2.1 regardless of trim level, and the ultra wide cam is fixed focus, but it is higher-res, so there's that.

Overall, the Xiaomi does about 9 of 10 what a big-name flagship will do, minus some of the lower-priority stuff like water resistance, storage expansion or wireless charging.