The new phones of week 20

Ro, 19 May 2018

We were off to a great start this week with two excellent mid-rangers paving the way - Oppo's sub-brand Realme launched the Realme 1 and vivo's X21i debuted as the second spinoff of the original vivo X21 - focusing more on the selfie experience.

Boasting a 90% screen-to-body ratio - the screen being 6.28-inch Super AMOLED - 24MP selfie cam, MediaTek Helio P60 behind the wheel and a generous 3,425 mAh, the vivo X21i fits perfectly in the sub $500 category while offering something slightly different than its X21 and X21 UD siblings.

Even though the price of Oppo's Realme 1 doesn't imply a mid-ranger (just €110), its specs and appearance suggest a solid smartphone experience far above its standing. The Helio P60 is paired with 3GB or 6GB of RAM, and the phone has an ample 3,410 mAh battery.

The diamond-patterned glass back is also easy to spot in the crowd - a real rarity in the lower segments these days. Unfortunately, Oppo still had to cut some corners to make the budget and the most notable one is the fingerprint sensor - the Realme relies only on face unlock.

Next down the line is the Nokia X6 - a long-anticipated mid-range smartphone with vanilla Android experience, dual-camera setup and a notch on its screen.

Its Snapdragon 636 SoC with 4GB of RAM and a 3,060 mAh battery put it between the Nokia 6 (2018) and the 7 Plus . All of it comes in a beautiful glass enclosure covering 95% of the device. The phone was initially expected to be a China-exclusive, but HMD Global quickly changed its mind.

We then get two long-awaited affordable flagships - the Honor 10 and OnePlus 6.

The OnePlus 6 brought an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 5T - you can't expect much more when the old device is just 6 months old. It broughtSnapdragon 845 chipset, taller display with a notch, and brand new glass design.

And as for the Honor 10 - it's a Huawei P20 on a budget - it sports a premium build, the company's in-house top-end Kirin 970 SoC, AI-powered dual-camera setup with monochrome secondary sensor, 24MP front-facing shooter and 3,400 mAh battery to power it all.